History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 175

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 175

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He fell from his chair, at home, and died October 16, 1852. His residence was on High Street ; his es- tate is now knowu as the "Lord Mansion." The house was built in 1728 by Rev. Nathaniel Rogers.

GEORGE ROBERT LORD, EsQ., was the eleventh registrar. He is a son of the last mentioned registrar, and was born as there stated. He was registrar from February 14, 1853, to February 27, 1855, soon after the advent of the American, or Know-Nothing, party to power. He is an excellent penman and exemplary recorder. He has spent most of his life in the service of the courts. He is employed now where he has for years been-in the office of the Clerk of Courts.

CHAPTER XLVII.

IPSWICH .- (Continued).

BUSINESS.

THE early and leading industries of the town were farming, grazing and fishing. The various trades met, with facility and skill, the demand of home consumption, furnishing the house, and the farm, equipping the mariner and manufacturing the cloth- ing.

FARMING .- This may be said to have been the lead- ing industry, the first requisite of which is the soil. The underlying rock of the town, and, of the coun- ty, is syenite, or hornblendie granite, an excellent building and flagging stone that has made Cape Ann famous, but is not quarried here. The soil above is light, consisting of gravel, sand, clay, and the pro- duct of organic decay, not mixed in a favorable pro- portion to make a strong, productive land. The soil requires as constant care and judicious handling and fertilizing as the crops need cultivation. The best soil is, of course, between the hills, and it rewards the hushandman as a garden. The hill-sides and plains, of which there are many, are not poor, but are much worn in the lapse of two hundred and fifty years. They were sought and valued by our ances- tors. Well might the Wonder-working Providence remark : "They have very good land for husbandry, where rocks hinder not the course of the plow." This land was adapted to the growth of the cereals, such as corn, oats, barley, rye, wheat and flax. "The potato was cultivated," says Felt, "in 1733, but was not much used. It was a delicacy, accompanying a roast-beef

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

dinner and unusual occasions ; the turnip, then raised in abundance, took its place on all common occasions." Corn and rye were the principal bread-stuff of our sires. Barley made a nutritive food, a palatahle eoffee, and a healthful beer; flax was easily converted into linen, which supplied various needs of the household; and hemp, which had been grown by the Indians, was cultivated and converted into clothing and other uses. Their pasturage, which consisted of more than seven thousand five hundred acres, was good. The soil was new and feed abundant, and the numerous large hills were peculiarly serviceable; the best beef could be produced simply at the expense of the herdsman's time. The Wonder- Working Providence tells us, "the Lord hath been pleased to increase them in Corne and Cattell of late [1650]; insomuch that they have many hundred quarters to spare yearly, and feed, at the lat- ter end of summer, the Town of Boston with good beefe."

THE MARSHES .- The salt marshes and fresh mead- ows were an important factor in the agricultural economy. There are more than 3300 acres of the former and some 500 acres of the latter. In the early years of the town these were the only sources of food for the cattle in winter. The grass of either is not very valuable; but when properly mixed and fed out with care it is fairly relished and served particularly well to winter young stock. The fresh meadows have served largely for fuel, furnishing an incipient coal called peat. This is an accumulation of half-de- composed vegetable substance formed under water, without pressure, and contains fifty or more per centum of carbon. It hegan to be used at a very early period ; so long since was it dug, that some of the ditches thus made had, fifty years ago, grown over and become sufficiently solid to allow the picking of cranberries growing thereon. A hundred and twenty- four years ago it was in great demand. The land sold from $75 to $100 per acre, or in family yearly supplies, at about two dollars per square rod. Coal began to be used about 1830, and has now supplanted peat except in a few instances, in the rural districts, where the families own peat meadow.

Where this formation of vegetable matter has prog- ressed subject to atmospheric action, muck has been formed, which has been much used as a fertilizer.

Some of these meadows are more or less valuable for the production of cranberries, yielding from a few bushels to forty or fifty per aere. The berry grows without cultivation, and with little attention.

WOOD AND TIMBER .- The woodlands have been very productive; oak and pine wood and timber be- ing the staples. Since the introduction of coal, wood- fuel has fallen in price nearly half; and the price of timber has been greatly diminished since the easy transportation of timber and lumber, by rail from the North and the East. Timber and wood merchants, with heavy teams of oxen or horses, used to do a profitable business, but such teams now are not seen.

THE CULTIVATION .- There are hesides the above, probably three thousand acres now under cultivation. The leading productions are fruit, vegetables, corn and milk. Much attention late years has been given to garden productions, especially early vegetables. Hay has been grown with much care, especially the so-called English hay, since its introduction at the first, by obtaining the seed from England. "Grayne seed,"-wheat, rye and barley,-was introduced from England in 1629, with which probably, or soon after, eame our fine, English grass-seed. In 1666 those who had taken ground of the town, and agreed to sow four bushels of good English grass-seed, were called to an account for their neglect to do so. In 1694, for the pay- ment of taxes, the town made the following prices : barley, barley-malt and rye, four shillings per bushel ; wheat, six shillings; Indian corn, three shillings ; and oats, two shillings.

HAY .- Hay merchants from fifty to a hundred years ago made their toil remunerative by purchasing hereabouts and selling in the Salem and Boston markets. They employed teams of from four to six horses, and carried from four to six tons to a load. Hay is now pressed in the East and elsewhere, put up in bales and transported by rail, so that the trade in hay is hardly more than local.

BERRIES .- The prolifie huckleberry and blueberry, the attatash of the Indians, demands a notice. It is a delicious little berry, and by its fine palatable quality has ingratiated itself into public favor, and the mar- ket demands it. In ripens in July and August, dur- ing the long school vacation, and many a family of children earns from twenty to thirty dollars in a sea- son,-an essential help to the poor, and a profitable recreation for the scholars. A hill in the Linebrook District, written "Hurttlebery Hill " two hundred years ago, is now visited from the towns about us, by huckleberry-parties yearly, so plentiful the berry still continues. One of the many market-men hereabouts sold last year nearly three hundred bushels of them.

FRUITS .- Apples and pears were introduced from the mother-country. The houses of the settlers were surrounded by " pleasant gardens and orchards," and to-day if you find, in the woods or a pasture, an old cellar that long since was abandoned, there you are likely to find the old wall that enclosed its orchards, and some of the old, old trees. So valuable were the orchards to our ancestors, so late even as a cen- tury ago, that the father divided his orchard, by will, among his children, devising or bequeathing certain trees to particular children, while one child only was to possess the land. During the last fifty years or- ehards have been eultivated with profit in producing the choicest varieties of apples and pears.

TOBACCO .- Our early ancestors derived much profit in the cultivation of tobacco. In the Virginia Colo- ny, it was a source of large revenue. Our Legislature frowned upon it as hurtful, and in 1634 attached a fine of 28. 6d. to every occasion of its public use, and

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IPSWICH.

in 1635 prohibited traffic in it after September. But in 1682 tobacco-yards were common, and its cultiva- tion was continued for a century, at least. Families had their gardens of "the weed," and their peculiar "mode of twisting it and curing it, with molasses and rum, to make it palatable."

Sumach and sassafras were exported, the former as a dye-stuff, the latter for medicine.

STATISTICS .- The United States Census of 1880 reported 153 farms, 357 persons engaged in farming pursuits, of whom 4 were females, a production of 129,692 gallons of milk, 4806 tons of hay, 43,482 pounds of butter, 375 pounds of cheese, 28,511 dozen of eggs, 17,940 bushels of potatoes on 211 acres of land and 11,355 bushels of corn on 266 acres of land, having a total value of $98,413.

From the latest official statistics of the State we make the following interesting comparison with the State statistics of 1875.

Farms and Appurtenances

1875.

1885.

No. of Farms.

450

216

Value of Land

$679,479

$569,646

Value of Buildings.

305,790

486,262

Value of Fruit trees.

52,296

51,65G

Value of Domestic Animals

90,449

105,738

Value of Agricultural Implements.

56,237

48,513

Total value.

$1,184,251

$1,261,815

Value of Products.

Butter.

$1º,179

$12,842

Milk

35,276

52,075

Corn, Indian

3,310

6,783

Potatoes.

14,213

10,815

Vegetables

2,908

9,833

Eggs

6,819

12,453

Apples

17,024

6,123

Hay

101,880

77,328

Other products

41,000

55,653

Total.

$243,609

8243,905

The selectmen for 1886 report 495 horses, 845 cows, 312 other neat cattle, 162 sheep, and 744 dwelling- houses.

This tabulated statement shows a decrease in the value of farm lands, fruit-trees, and implements, and of butter, potatoes, apples, and hay ; and an increase in the value of buildings and animals, and of corn, milk, eggs and vegetables, clearly setting up in fig- ures the wise departure from the olden time, heavy farming to the easy, more agreeable and profitable traffic in milk and vegetable products. The alluvial river-borders and the mountain districts, however distant, may furnish us with potatoes, and hay, and butter, and cheese; but the morning's milk, fresh eggs and green stuffs from the garden must be pro- duced nearer the place of sale.

Our Essex County Agricultural Society has done a great good in years past, in stimulating a healthful emulation among our farmers by premiums for best farms, fruits, grass and methods ; but a greater prac- tical good, in later years, has been done by our minia- ture or local societies, where the farmers of the town

met for practical discussion upon live topics of local interest. This makes a learned, intelligent, practical, diligent, progressive farmer, and gives us the best results with less labor and expense. So we compliment the Ipswich Farmers' Club and the "Ipswich Fruit-Growers' Protective Association."

Fisheries .- There is no doubt that a fishing-station had existed here for a number of years before March 1633. Gorges and his company had stations all along this coast. Jeffrey, or Burslim, or both managed here. The place was excellent in two respects: The Neck furnished the wharfage, and Ipswich and Plum-Island Rivers, with Plum-Island as a breakwater, the harbor ; the shallow water and the high bar forming no im- pediment to the small crafts or hoats then in use. Second, the supply of fish along the shore and in the rivers was abundant. Cod and sturgeon and bass then belonged to our shores and streams. The fishery increased and became lucrative. The town took measures to make the business inviting. In 1641 the fishermen could enclose their fishing-stages, and each crew could plant an acre of ground. In 1670 they could take wood from the common for needed build- ings and for fuel, and each crew could feed a cow upon the common. In 1696 Jeffrey's Neck was well covered with fish-flakes on the south side. A com- mittee was chosen to regulate the flakes, which were "to run up and down the hill," so that one party might not interfere with or hinder another. That year there seems to have been an impetus given the business from the fact, that "new flakes " were set np. These were apparently to invite and accommo- date new parties "to carry on the fishing design." At this time there was a community of some seven or eight hundred persons doing, in connection with other industries and trades, a large and prosperous business, and still, wise and generons, holding out inducements and inviting co-operation. The business grew, and with it grew its hazards, perils, sorrows, losses; and it was necessary to hedge it in with safeguards and positive law. Accordingly, in 1729, the town pro- vided that owners of vessels should register their names and the names of the crew with the clerk, or forfeit 20s. for each and every name omitted. But with all the liberality of accommodation and assist- ance, the industry waned ; better natural facilities led the fishermen away, and only six schooners re- mained to Ipswich in 1758. From that time Ipswich managed to retain the remnant, so that in " 1797 a few vessels were employed in the fishery."

STREAM FISHERIES .- The catches of sturgeon, blue- fi-h, shad and alewives were of considerable import- ance in the early days. They were a revenue to the town, of some commercial importance in trade with the West Indies, and "last though perhaps not least " they were of much value to the poorer families. Their importance has been considered so great, that the Legislature has, again and again, been petitioned for fishways by the dams of the manufactories. The

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

petition of May 25, 1768, says : The Ipswich River has been reported " from age to age one of the hest tish streams, particularly for shad, bass and alewives, in the county if not in the country." Within fifty years, several barrels of alewives have been taken, in a season, from a single brook. These fish are now little if at all known in our streams.

Clam-digging, also, has, from the first, heen of con- siderable importance. Measures were early taken to protect the flats. Fishermen and the poor, in early years, had special privileges to them. In 1789 a thousand barrels were dug. They sold for five or six dollars per barrel, and were much used for bait. It is a good paying industry now, the product finding a ready sale in the city markets, and furnishing a dainty relish for poor and rich alike. The Ipswich clams rank in celebrity with the Providence River or Norfolk oyster. Even the shells pulverized find a ready sale, in the country, among poulterers far and near. Shore and stream fishing is all that is left to us now. The dory, the seine and the fork are the chief implements of the industry. In 1875 the capital employed was nine thousand dollars, and the value of fish caught was twenty thousand nine hundred and forty-eight dollars; while in 1885 the capital was only two thousand two hundred dollars, yet the value of the fish was twenty-one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four dollars.

COMMERCE .- The Wonder- Working Providence says, that Ipswich, in 1650, "was a very good Haven Town, yet a little barr'd up at the mouth of the River. Some merchants are here." The maritime enterprise of the town long kept up her merchant service, though compared with Boston, it was small. There is no source of information on this topic; the cus- tom-house files are barred by law ; and inferences only are left. Ipswich was a port of entry as early as June 28, 1701-2. The port establishments of 1692-93 did not receive regal sanction. The building of wharves began 1641, when William Paine had one for a ware- house. A wharf was huilt in each of the following years, 1660, '62 and '68. Again in each of these years a wharf was built, 1682, '85, '86, '87 and '93. In 1730 two wharves were built. In 1732 Joseph Manning built one and the town agreed to have one, as a landing-place at six pence a load. In 1750 Daniel and Thomas Staniford were granted liberty for wharfage for a warehouse. In 1756 William Dodge had one, and in 1764 Nathaniel Farley an- other. The coasting business is said to have begun about 1768. Dr. Morse's Gazetteer says that Ipswich, in 1779, "employed few vessels in the fisheries, and a few traded in the West Indies." That year thirteen vessels were enrolled at the Ipswich Custom- House and registered at four hundred and fifty tons. In 1807 twenty-three vessels were enrolled with thir- teen hundred and sixty-two tons; in 1817 twelve vessels and seventeen hundred and forty tons; in 1827 twenty-five vessels and thirty-two hundred and

seventy-three tons; in 1832 twenty-three vessels and twenty-six hundred and nineteen tons. During the first quarter of this century, Robert Farley built a vessel of three hundred tons, which was about three times the average size. At present there are no ves- sels belonging to Ipswich enrolled at the custom- house, which compasses all of five tons or more in the district. There are two or three coalers, which supply the coal-wharves yearly with ten thousand tons of the "diamonds," and an occasional sloop, bringing stone for building purposes; but they are owned elsewhere. There is, however, Captain N. Burnham's fine excursion steamer "Carlotta," which, during the summer season, runs her regular trips to the Island, besides making occasional trips to points of interest along the coast. Capt. Moses Treadwell, I am told, owned the last vessel belonging here; and that she lay neglected, for many years in "The Cove," and went to pieces before 1824.

This was made a national customs collection dis- trict by act of Congress approved May 7, 1796. By this act a collector of customs was anthorized, and the surveyorship formerly existing and held by Jere- miah Staniford was aholished. The first collector of customs was Asa Andrews. The letter informing him of his appointment was dated June 9, 1796. His immediate successor, Timothy Souther, received no- tice of his appointment, by a letter dated July 22, 1829. Mr. Souther was succeeded by Asahel Wildes, August 2, 1840, who continued in office to and includ- ing July 20, 1844, when the office was merged in the Newburyport office, and Essex, which had been a part of the Ipswich District, was joined to Gloucester, ac- cording to an act of Congress approved June 15, 1844. At this time Daniel L. Wilcomb was inspector and Issachar Burnham occasional inspector, each at three dollars a day when employed. Daniel Lakeman was revenue boatman, at one dollar a day when employed. Other inspectors have been Reuben Daniels, Philip E. Clarke, James W. Bond. Mr. Andrews was born in June, 1762, and he died January 13, 1856, in his ninety-fourth year. He held the office of collector about thirty-three years. He was a very able mau and had honorable mention as candidate for Congress. He had a son who graduated at Harvard, at the age of eighteen years, and was rector at Binghamton, N. Y., for fifteen years.

MECHANICS AND MANUFACTURES.

TRADES .- Herein particularly old Mother Necessity exhibits her large family of inventions. The people of those early days did not live to eat so much as eat to live. Every day's labor, on the whole, must be a positive advance. We of to-day have abundance out of an abundance by means abundant; they lived fru- gally and healthfully, cheerfully and hopefully, by a poverty of means ; and however unpolished and rude may have been the results of their workmanship, it served their purpose, advanced thir State, and we

637

IPSWICH.

must accord their meed of praise. In 1638 Thomas Emerson was a baker. Thomas Bridan was granted six acres of land, on which to plant osiers, or wil- lows, for basket-making, in 1639. Mr. Samuel Apple- ton had a malt-house in 1642. The "mault-kills" may cut walnut trees for drying malt, in 1669; and James Burnam was granted land for a malt-house in 1696 ; "John Low's," then discontinued, having been beneficial to the neighborhood." John Paine was al- lowed a brewery and warehouse in 1663, but there has been none since 1800. Andrew Peters might cut trees for a cider-mill in 1668. A distillery for the manufacture of rum from molasses was set up about 1750 ; the manufacture ceased in 1830. There were two smiths in 1667. In 1682 Thomas Day had a place granted for a brickyard, and Andrew Burley burned bricks on Jeffrey's Neck in 1687. Thomas Howlett was carpenter in 1633; Samuel Boreman, cooper in 1639; William Bulkley, cordwainer in 1664; Nath- aniel Bishop, currier in 1638; and Henry Keerle was admitted to citizenship and allowed to set up the trade of currier in 1665. John Brown, Jr., was gla- zier in 1664; Nathaniel Rust, glover in 1690; Wil- liam Fuller, gunsmith in 1635 ; Samuel Wood, hatter in 1692 ; Simon Tomson, ropemaker in 1648; Moses Pingrey may set up salt-pans and works in 1651, and in 1669 the town voted £8 to James Hudson to set up salt-works. In 1642 each town was to have a house for the manufacture of saltpetre. Henry Russell, of Ipswich, and Richard Woodey, of Boston, were pre- paring for the manufacture of saltpetre and gunpow- der in 1666 ; and in 1667 the town ordered that each family should provide a hogshead of earth as a uriual, auxiliary to the manufacture of gunpowder. Nath- aniel Brown had a grant of land, whereon to make ashes and soap. In 1691 there was an old " sope- house." John Annable was a tailorin 1647 ; Nicholas Easton was a tanner in 1634; Thomas Clarke, in 1641; Ens. Thomas Hart, in 1700; and Thomas Brown's son, in 1734. In 1832 the tanneries employed ten men, at $1.20 per day, used ninety

cords of bark, converted

10,000 hides into leather, which was sold in the county for $25,250. James How was a weaver in 1642, and John Denison in 1647. Richard Kimball, Jr., was a wheelwright in I638; Thomas Fuller had land for a wheelwright- shop in 1685; in 1671 Freegrace Norton could cut timber for " cogs and rounds and starts for the mill ;" Deacon Pingrey built a small lighter; and, in 1691, "Jacob Foster could cut timber for pails, measures, &c." Thus the records record, but of course there may have been other names at earlier dates.

GRIST-MILL MACHINERY .- The first man to make use of machinery was Richard Saltonstall, and, we think, Sir Richard. Richard Saltonstall was a man of liberal, advanced and pronounced ideas. He openly and fearlessly denounced the African slave-trade. This man set up a grist-mill in 1635, on the site of Mr. Farley's stone mill. Jonathan Wade was allowed

to take timber for a wind-mill, which was built and gave name to the hill where it stood. This kind of motive power was not much resorted to in Ipswich, because of the abundant water-power. Thomas Bishop and Robert Lord might erect a grist-mill, in 1666. In 1671 the town declare one corn-mill insuf- ficient for their use, and as if there were but one in town, a complaint was made against Mr. Saltonstall, with a request that he erect another. In 1686-87 Sergt. Nicholas Wallis might dam the river, not ex- ceeding three feet, and erect mills for the town's use. In 1687 Nehemiah Jewett might erect a mill on Egypt River. In 1691-92 Thomas Boreman desired to erect a tide grist-mill, on Lahor-in-vain Creek. In 1695-96 Abraham Tilton, Jr., and Edmund and An- thony Potter asked that they might erect a mill on Mile Brook. In 1696-97 John Adams, Sr. and Jr., and Michael Farley might dam the river, agaiust Adams' land, and erect corn and fulling-mills.

SAW-MILLS .- There seems to have heen no early saw-mills on the territory of the present Ipswich, Several were at Chebacco. In 1656 sawyers might fell trees in the woods three and a half miles or more from the meeting-house, if they would allow the town one-fifteenth and charge the inhabitants no more than four per centum.

FULLING-MILLS .- The first fulling-mill seems to have been built about 1675; another was attempted in 1676, on Egypt river, but was not completed in the prescribed three years, and the dam was after- wards removed. Joseph Caleffe might erect one " where it will not prejudice others," if he will full for the town's people "for their pay sooner than for other 'towns' men for money," in 1692. Joseph Caleffe and Thomas and Anthony Potter, in 1692-93, might erect one on Mile Brook. These were mills that received the cloth woven at home and cleansed, scoured and pressed it,-that removed the dirt and grease, and made the material more compact, firmer and stronger, with a soft, glossy nap.

CLOTH .- In 1641 children and servants were to be taught the manufacture of cloth from wild hemp, with which the country abounded. In 1645, wool was scarce, and in 1654 no sheep might be trans- ported, and none killed under two years of age. In 1656 the town was divided into classes of five, six and ten, and taught the art of spinning. One per- son shall spin three pounds of linen, cotton, wool, monthly, for thirty weeks each year, or forfeit twelve pence per month, for each pound short. Half and quarter spinners were required to do the same propor- tionally. Samuel Stacy was clothier in 1727. Those were the days of the "independent farmer." All his needs were supplied by his skill or care. Even his clothes grew on his own field in the azure-hued flax or the silvery fleece of his sheep. His family converted these into fine, cool thread, or soft, warm yarn, and these latter they wove into cloth from which they made his and his family's garments. Our

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 175

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