History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 160

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I > Part 160

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3. Clerks .- To be clerk of a town was then, as now, a most important service. His records become his- tory as time advances ; they may be the basis of legal investigation, and so be arbiter between man and man ; they must approach absolute correctness, to be trustful. It has been the practice of this town to continue this officer for a series of years. Elder Robert Paine and William Bartholomew are said to have been the first elected to this office. Daniel Denison was chosen in 1635-36, and probably was continued till 1639, when Samuel Symonds was chosen. Mr. Symonds was successively chosen till 1645, when Robert Lord succeeded, and served till his death, Angust 21, 1683. John Appleton appears to have been his immediate successor till 1688. Thomas Wade was clerk, 1688 to 1696-97; Francis Wainwright, 1696-97 to 1699-1700; Daniel Rogers, 1699-1700; John Wainwright, 1719-20 to 1739; Samuel Rogers, 1739 to 1773; Major John Baker, 1773 to 1785; Nathaniel Wade, 1785 to 1814; Joseph Swazey, 1814 to 1816; Ebenezer Burnham, 1816 to 1843; Samuel Newman, one month ; Ebenezer Burn- ham, 1843 to 1846; Alfred Kimball, 1846 to 1855; John A. Newman, 1855; Alfred Kimball, 1856 to 1864; George R. Lord, 1864; Wesley K. Bell, 1865, his twenty-third year to the present time. He has been an obliging and efficient officer.

4. Constables .- The early duty of constables was principally the collection of taxes. Their badge of

office was a staff, some five or six feet long, and tipped with brass. A similar badge may now be seen in the hand of the court-crier, an officer who an- nounces the opening of a court. The officer, how- ever, with all its insignia and distinction, often sought the man, and not the man the office. In 1738 Robert Wallis was chosen, and paid a fine of five pounds rather than serve. The records show several such cases at earlier dates. This duty apper- tains to the officer now if a collector is not chosen.

5. Tithingmen .- The General Court as early as 1677 ordered tithingmen to be chosen in the several towns, and Ipswich, December 20, 1677, chose twenty- five. In 1681 thirteen were chosen for the north side of the river, and twelve for the south side. Their duty was to guard the public morals, to note infrac- tions of laws, and cite offenders to justice. But, in the presence of a vigilant police, they were not needed, and so they were not chosen after 1871.

6. Treasurer .- The duties of this office were the same then as now. Most, if not all, of them were at the same time county treasurers. The following are confidently named as long time in office: Robert Paine (1665-83), John Appleton, Nathaniel Apple- ton, Aaron Porter (-1766), Michael Farley (1766-), Nathaniel Wade, William Foster Wade, Jeremiah Lord, and the present genial officer, Mr. Jonathan Sargent, who has served since 1872-six- teen years.

7. Surveyors .- These were the guardians of the king's highways-sometimes builders, but commonly only repairers of roads and bridges. The town was divided into districts for the purpose by the select- men, pretty much as the business is conducted now.

8. Firemen .- In relation to fires, our ancestors showed a characteristic caution and precaution. Their houses had wooden chimneys, plastered with clay, and thatched roofs-a condition which rendered care particularly necessary. In 1642 it was voted that "as much hurt hath been done by fire, through neglect of having ladders in readiness at men's houses, and also by the insufficiency of chimneys and due cleaning of them, every householder shall have a ladder in constant readiness, twenty feet long, at his house." In 1649 the town adopted the following order : " Whereas complaint hath been made of the great dan- ger that may accrue to the inhabitants by reason of some men's setting stacks of hay near their dwelling houses, if fire should happen, ordered that whosoever hath any hay, or English corn, or straw by their houses, or hath set any hay-stacks within three rods of their houses, shall remove it within six days after notice, on fine of 20s." In 1681 it is ordered that every house must be provided with a ladder, and the tith- ingmen were instructed to note infractions of the order. In 1804 smoking in the streets was consid- ered dangerous to buildings, and the practice which had become prevalent was prohibited, on pen- alty of one dollar for each offence. In 1803 the

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town, by subscription, raised money to purchase a fire-engine, and January 3, 1804, the South Parish voted to join with the North Parish and build a house for it. In 1808 the town voted to have four fire-ladders and four hooks with chains, two of each to be kept in the body of the town, one of each to be kept at Chebacco, and one of each at Linebrook." In March 13, 1821, the selectmen were ordered to purchase a fire-engine and to build a house for it. The cost of the engine was four hundred and fifty dollars. The department now is in good, serviceable condition, aud is constituted of the Warren Engine Company, a hand-machine, with fifty-five men; the Barnicoat Engine Company, another hand-machine, with fifty-five men ; and the Hook-and-Ladder Com- pany, of twenty men. The fire apparatus is valued at $5000; the cost of running the department is nearly $800.

9. Commissioner of Taxes .-- Here is a long name for a short service. The duty was to assist the selectmen in assessing the tax. A commissioner was chosen in 1646, and continued to be for several years there- after.

10. Hog-reeves, Hog-Ringers, etc .- In the primitive days of the town swine rau at large. How naturally they would poke their noses in human affairs. As a badge of their mischievousness, they wore a ring in their snout. In 1640 they should be yoked; in 1661 they were liable to be arrested and impounded, and in 1794 should not go at large at all. Deer-reeves are mentioned in 1739. The woods between Chebacco and Gloucester abounded in those animals.

11. Hay-wards .- This word found little favor with us. Our forefathers brought it from England, but seldom used it. It is from an obsolete word "hay," which meant hedge, and it signified persons whose duty it was to guard the hedges, and hence to keep cattle from breaking through them, and then to impound cattle running at large. It seems to have combined the duties of our field-driver and fence- viewer.

12. Fence-viewer .- It was enjoined by the General Court, October 31, 1653, that all farms of less than one hundred acres be fenced " of pales well nayled or pined, or of fine rayles well fitted, or of a stone wall three foote and a halfe high at least, or with a good ditch between three and foure foot wyde, with a good banke of two rayles or a good hedge upon the banke, or such as is equivolante to these." As might be sup- posed, this order was not complied with in haste. In March, 1663, the town ordered that all "fences gen- eral and particular be made sufficient before April 4 next." Fence-viewers, or judges of legal fences, were chosen as early as 1668, and are now annually chosen.

13. Town-crier .- This service, by law of the Colony, began in 1642. The office was a walking advertise- ment to announce sales by vendue, the lost, strayed or stolen, or to give immediately any public notice. The pay was two pence per article cried.

14. Clerk of the Market .- In 1637, by Colonial order, the purchase of venison was forbidden unless legal- ized hy the town. Buns and cakes must not be sold except for funeral or marriage occasions. The In- dians used to steal the townspeople's swine and then return them by way of sale ; and so, in 1672, the Eng- lish were ordered to mark one ear of their swine. The Indian must not mark his at all, neither must he offer for sale a swine without ears. The medium of exchange in those days was largely the vital com- modities. Taxes were paid in them and the minister stipulated to receive a part of his salary in them. The town in its corporate capacity bought and sold them, and thus helped the poor and facilitated busi- ness. In the latter part of the eighteenth century there was also the Clerk of the Hay-Market. Other officers, whose duties are obvious, were early men- tioned in the records : Sealers of weights and meas- ures, in 1677 ; Packers of fish, in 1678 ; and cullers of fish, in 1715; cullers of boards and staves in 1686, and of bricks in 1801 ; corders of wood in 168 -; gaug- ers of casks, in 1691 ; surveyors of boards and timber, in 1760, and of leather in 1681; and measurers of grain and salt in 1801.

15. Inference .- These various offices indicate some- what the varied mechanical skill of our ancestors. The town then plied quite all the practical arts that now employ the county. The exchange, now by transportation, was then between townsmen and neighbors. They made their implements of hus- bandry, converted the raw hide into wearable leather, and the wool of the sheep and the flax of the field into garments. Conspicuous among the common trades were coopers, whitesmiths, cabinet-makers, cloth and leather tailors, millers, mill-sawyers, tan- ners, curriers, spinners, weavers, fullers.

WAYS AND MEANS.

1. Roads .- The early roads were generally laid out one and a half rods wide, but in practice were hardly more than pathways, since walking and horse- back riding were the common modes of travel- ing. The earliest carriage-roads led to the marshes and meadows, whence our ancestors derived hay for their cattle and peat for fuel ; and the earliest of these was the river road which led to the great meadow, and over which Governor Winthrop passed in 1634. In 1637, " all those who have planting-grounds by the river side, beyond Mr. Appleton's, are to take the lot- layers and lay out a highway most convenient for them." The General Court, March 5, 1639, ordered all roads to be laid out. This act gave all roads a legal status and assured proper care of them. It re- lieved travelers of trespass, and protected them in their public rights. The position of the town laid upon it a vigilant care of its own roads. The town is in the direct communication between Boston and Salem on the south and Newburyport, commercial New Hampshire and Maine on the North ; so Haver-

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hill and Andover on the west and Gloucester and Cape Ann on the east.

In 1635 a pathway to Newbury was opened; in 1641 the road to Salem was determined ; in 1652 the road to Andover. The present Andover road in town was a footpath in 1692. The highway to Essex was laid out about 1651 ; that from Newbury to Topsfield through Linebrook Parish, in 1717. The bridge in the Salem road, at Mile Brook, was "broken up by the flood " in 1665. In 1667 John, Nathaniel and Samuel Adams, Joseph Safford, Nicholas Wallis and Thomas Stacey had built a bridge over the river and were exempted from highway service "for seaven years." In 1730 John Lamson, John Lamson, Jr., Joseph Cummings and Israel Cummings, Jr., ask for an allowance, having built a bridge over the river, and a way having been laid out from the old Lamson house, on the south side, to Gravelly Brook. In 1832 the length of our roads was seventy-two miles. Our public ways are pronounced by bicyclists the best of country roads.

2. Turnpikes .- "The Ipswich Turnpike " was in- corporated March 1, 1803. The corporators' names were John Heard, Stephen Choate, Wm. Gray, Jr., Jacob Ashton, Asa Andrews, Joseph Swasey, Israel Thorndyke, Nathan Dane, Wm. Bartlett and James Prince. The road began at the blacksmith's shop of Nathaniel " Batchelder " in Beverly, ran by Nathan Brown's in Hamilton, over the "old road" to the stone bridge in Ipswich; thence through Rowley, over the Parker bridge to Newburyport,-four rods wide, with toll-gates. This road was built in the in- terest of the town, and it served its purpose well. How long it was a road with pikes, or if it paid well we know not. It certainly was the great thorough- fare for land transit between the east and south, and its width and quality to-day attest the excellence of its construction. The railroad robbed it of its pres- tige and left it only a county road.

3. " The Newburyport Turnpike Corporation " was incorporated March 8, 1803, and the corporators were Michael Sawyer, William Coombs, Nicholas Pike, Arnold Welles, Wm. Bartlett, John Pittingell, Wm. Smith, John Codman and James Prince. This route was to be the passenger express, the dispatch for freight, the swift mail,-in short, the rapid transit from Newburyport to Boston. Perhaps it was de- signed to favor Newburyport especially, by setting Ipswich one side, but Ipswich enterprise was equal to the emergency. The Ipswich road was incor- porated a week earlier. This route was thirty-two miles long, and so straight, that all the angles to- gether in the first twenty miles increased the distance only eighty-three feet. Many a strange story is told of the drivers' skill, of short-time passages, of eques- trian speed, of frightened passengers, and of the fearful, headlong drives down the precipitous hills. Tradition says, that the construction was done with wheelbarrows, and not with dump-carts, as is the

practice in road-building at present. It is further told that the road was ultimately to be straight and level, condition consonant with absolute dispatch. The task was herculean. It was the wonder of the people, the glad era of the laborer, the joy of the proprietors, the hesperian garden of the capitalist. One thousand less five shares were sold. The con- struction was begun August 23, 1803, completed in 1806, and cost nearly four hundred and twenty thou- sand dollars. Many of the heaviest capitalists were involved in it. As an enterprise it deserved a better fate, and a generous remuneration ; but taste and the exigencies of business led the traveling public over the Ipswich road, through the shires of Ipswich and Salem, and away from this, which is now only a costly monument of the enterprise and perseverance of its proprietors. That portion of the road lying in this connty was sold to the County Commissioners May 10, 1849, for two thousand two hundred dollars. Ipswich's share of it was two miles less seven rods, and the town was fortunate; for one mile of it has been very serviceable and none of it very expensive.

4. The Railroad .- This is a more satisfactory route than its air-line predecessor. It runs where the peo- ple want to go, where business and taste lead the way. It introduced comfort and speed. "The East- ern Railroad Company " was incorporated April 14, 1836. The iron-horse entered the town first in 1839. It was thought to be the beginning of a golden era ; general business would be nrged forward by steam, workshops enlarged, dwellings erected, wharves ex- tended, vessels multiplied, the streets more populous, manufactories more varied and extensive, farms more remunerative, merchants busier and less exacting, and the whole hive of industry more alive by per- petual endowment. But the corporation has not cultivated our soil, nor built our houses, nor much enlarged our factories, nor removed the river impedi- ments, nor retained our courts, nor fostered our com- merce, nor enlarged our fisheries. It has, however, removed "the center " of the county to the extremes, and clustered the various trades around other manu- facturing and commercial points. Yet we must not undervalue the road; it has uses peculiarly our own, which the crowded city and summer heat, and our taste and enterprise are developing year by year, and which will bring full compensation.

5. The Choate Bridge .- This bridge deserves a par- ticular notice, because it was the first of such con- struction in these parts, and hence was so wonderful during its construction and has been so serviceable since. The Town and County built it in equal shares of the expense. The width was to be not less than twenty feet, the length between the abutments sixty- eight feet, with one pier, twenty by eight feet, and a water passage beneath each arch thirty feet. The guards were to be three feet high, fifteen inches thick at the bottom, and nine at the top. The building committee were Hon. John Choate, Aaron Potter, Esq.,

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and Joseph Appleton, Esq. It was completed in 1764, at a cost of £996, 10s., 6d., 3f. It was widened, as it now is, in 1837.

6. The Canal .- In 1652, 22: 12, Thomas Clark and Reginal Foster were "to have ten pounds for cutting a passage from this river to Chehacco river of ten foot wide and soe deepe as a lighter laden may pass, and making a forde and foote bridge over." In 1669, the selectmen are "to take care that the bargain concerning the cutting of the creek at Castle- hill be forwarded." In 1681, February 7, any towns- man has liberty to " perfect the cutting the Cut that comes up to Mr. Eppes, his bridge." In 1694, who- ever will cut the Cut through the marsh at Mr. Eppes' shall have liberty,-who pays five shillings towards it "shall have liberty forever to pass as they have occasion ;" others must pay three pence a cord or a ton, in money. "The Proprietors of the Essex Canal " were incorporated June 15, 1820. The cor- porators' names were William Andrews, Jr., Adam Boyd, Tristram Brown, Robert Crowell, John Dexter, Moses Marshall, Parker, Jonathan, Benjamin, Samuel, Francis, Jacob, Jr., Ebenezer, Jr., and Nathan Burn- ham : Dudley, George and Joseph Choate; Enoch, Winthrop and Joshua Low; Jonathan 4th, Jacob, Jonathan, Abel, Daniel, Perkins and Epes Story. The canal was opened in 1821; was half a mile long and cost one thousand, one hundred dollars. The stock was twenty-seven shares at forty dollars each, and paid nearly six per centum. It connected the Merrimack River with Chebacco River and so let in ship-timber at reduced rates. Late years it has been of little use, and within a year its walls have fallen in decay.

7. Carriages .- These were at first the rudest sort of vehicles, a cumbersome hay-rack, or a pair of wheels. Conveyance for business or to church was on horse- back by saddle for a man, side-saddle for a female, or saddle and pillion for both. The first kind of vehicle for personal conveyance was introduced about 1725, and consisted of the body of a chaise upon a pair of wheels, and called a curricle. Richard Rogers, Esq., had one in 1730. About 1750, a top was put to the seat, which made it a full-grown chaise, one of which a year or two latter was owned by Rev. Samnel Wig- glesworth. Family conveyance to church or social party was npon clean straw in the bottom of the cum- bersome dray. In 1762 John Stavers began to run a two-horse curricle between Portsmouth and Boston, making the round trip in five days, and stopping two nights at Ipswich. The advent of the stage with four horses was as early as 1774. This welcome convey- ance made two trips weekly between Newburyport and Boston, passing through Ipswich both ways. About 1800, horse-wagons began to be used. Mer- chandise by horse had formerly been carried in sad- dle-bags, wallets and panniers. The wagon-body at first set firmly upon the axle-trees, next upon wooden- springs, upon the principle of a spring-hole; then

upon long leather straps, or thorough-braces; and, lastly, as now upon steel-springs. Rev. Felt re- marked, in 1834: "Should the improvements in journeying be as great for two centuries to come as they have been in the two already elapsed, posterity will as much wonder that we are contented with the present degree of such improvements, as we do, that our ancestors were satisfied with their mode of trav- elling." This remark was penned five years before the steam-cars entered the town.

S. The Mail Service .- The earliest method of for- warding letters was by such means as chance offered. Thus William Jeffrey, "the old planter," brought a letter to John Winthrop, Jr., from Merry Morton in 1634, Jeffrey doubtless having been over to Morton's on business. The earliest stated carrying of the mails was on horseback, and during the early Indian Wars the messengers were watched for with the greatest anxiety and hailed with the greatest earnestness and suspense. The Essex Gazette, established 1768, the first newspaper published in Salem, was delivered to the subscribers here and as far east as Newburyport, by a post-rider for that express purpose. One of the most active of the distributors of that paper was Thomas Dimon, donbtless a descendant of our Mr. Andrew Diamond, who died in 1708. Early in 1775, our town chose five delegates to a convention of dele- gates from the several towns concerned, to establish a regular post between Newburyport and Cambridge. The convention met May 4th in this town ; their action was to be binding upon all alike. Immediately fol- lowing this convention-before May 24th-a post-office was established here by the Provincial Congress, and Deacon James Foster was the post-master. The fol- lowing is a list of the post-masters that have served since Deacon Foster, with the dates of their respective appointments : Daniel Noyes, October 5, 1775; Jo- seph Lord, November 25, 1800; Isaac Smith, July 1, 1805; Nathan Jaques, September 14, 1807; Ammi Smith, October 5, 1818; James H. Kendall, August 10, 1829; Stephen Coburn, August 28, 1832; John H. Varrell, April 18, 1861; Joseph L. Ackerman, July 20, 1865; John H. Cogswell, January 3, 1868; Ed- ward P. Kimball, August 2, 1886.

9. Town-House .- About two years after the full completion of the church edifice, the people began to desire a town-house and a school-house. They pro- posed a two-story building, with school-room on the first floor and town-house above. Accordingly, May 11. 1704, the town voted to build "forthwith, if the county would pay half, as it did for the town-house in Salem." Thus their economy devised the triple ser- vice of school, town and court-house in one. The same year, December 28th, a committee was chosen to contract for a building "about 32 feet long, about 28 feet wide and about 18 or 19 feet stud, with a flat roof raised about 5 feet." Abraham Felton was the contractor. A steeple was constructed upon it at a cost of £29 78. 8d., which was voted August 2, 1767.

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Another town-house was built about 1794-95. This was also used for a court-house, and the county paid half the cost. Its use as a town-house was discon- tinued in 1811, when, October 12th, the town sold its interest to the county for twelve hundred and fifty dollars. From that time to 1843 they had no town- house. In that year, January 23d, the town instruct- ed a committee to purchase the unused Unitarian church edifice, if it could be bought at two thousand dollars or less. Early in that year the purchase was made. The building has undergone considerable al- teration and enlargement, and now is very serviceable for all the purposes of the town, for which such building is needed.

10. A List of Voters in town affairs, made by a committee for the purpose, to be corrected at the next town-mecting." Presented December 2, 1679: Maj. Gen. Denison, Mr. Thomas Corbet, Mr. William Hub- bard, Elder Paine, Mr. John Rogers, Capt. John Ap- pleton, Maj. Samnel Appleton, Corp1. Jo: Andrews, Corp1. Jo: Andrews, Nathaniel Adams, Nehemiah Abbott, Arthur Abbott, Naniel Bosworth, John Brew- er, Sen'., Tho: Borman, Edmund Bridges, Sergt. Bel- cher, Henry Bennett, Ens. Tho: Burnam, Thomas Burnam, Jr., Edward Bragg, Moses Bradstreet, John Burnam, Sen., John Caldwell, Sergt. Clarke, Corp. Tho: Clarke, Tho: Clarke, mill, Robert Cross, Sen., Mr. William Cogswell, John Choate, Mr. John Cogs- well, Edw. Colburne, Rob't Day, John Denison, Sen"., John Dane, Sen'., Mr. Daniel Eppes, Nathaniel Em- erson, Philip Fowler, Renold Foster, Sent., Renold Foster, Jr., Jacob Foster, Joseph Fellows, Eus. French, Tho: French, Abraham Fitts, Isaac Fellows, Ephraim Fellows, Isaac Foster, Abraham Foster, Dea. Goodhue, Wm. (?) Goodhne, Tho: Giddings, Joseph Goodhue, Mr. Richards, Daniel Hovey, Sen., Daniel Hovey, Jr., Sam: Hunt, George Hadley, Wm. (?) How- lett, James How, Sent., James How, Jr., Nehemiah Jewett, John Jewett, Samuel Ingalls, Nathaniel Ja- cobs, Tlo: Jacobs, John Knowlton, Sen., John Kim- ball, Dea. Knowlton, Rob't Kinsman, Daniel Killam, Sen., Tho: Lull, Robert Lord, Sen., Robert Lord, Jr., John Layton, Thomas Lovell, Edwd. Lumas, John Lampson, Thomas Metcalf, John Newmarch, Sen., Dea. Pengrey, Aaron Pengry, Quart .- Mr. Perkins, Sergt. Perkins, Jacob Perkins, Abraham Perkins, Anthony Potter, Samuel Podd, Samuel Perley, Mr. Samuel Rogers, Walter Roper, Mr. Smith, Richard Smith, Wm. Story, Sen., Wm. Story, Jr., Symon Stace, Win. Smith, Simon Tuttle, Nathaniel Tread- well, Thomas Varney, Mr. Jonathan Wade, Rob't Whittman, Obediah Wood, Mr. Wainwright, Sen., Mr. John Wainwright, Daniel Warnex, Sen., Na- thaniel Warner, Capt. John Whipple, Isaiah Wood, James White, Wm. White, Nicholas Wallis, Corp !. John Whipple, Twisford Westt, Nathaniel Wells, Rich: Walker, Joseph Whipple, Samuel Younglove, Sen., Samuel Younglove, Jr., Tho: Low, Mr. Jos:

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 160

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1 Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1538

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton), ed. n 85042884-1
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1538