History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 185

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 185

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There is in Beverly, growing wild in the fields, a native grass, peculiarly fragrant ; and the odors from these fragrant fields, mingled with the balsamic breath of the pine woods, and borne to a sea-stranger by an off-shore breeze, must, indeed, have seemed to him like favored gales direct from paradise.

Having glanced at Beverly in its aspects topograph- ical, geological and botanical, it only remains now (in order to complete our picture of this region as it existed prior to the European visitation), to view it. in its aspect zoological. Its elementary features : rocks, soils, water-courses, vegetation,-these have been described ; from them-from their relative ar- rangements and combinations-it may be deduced that this section was eminently favored by nature, and well fitted to support a numerous population.

Nor was that population lacking, although com- posed principally of the humbler inhabitants of the woods and meads, in fur and feather. With a few exceptions, the animals found here by the early set- tlers may be assumed to have existed here from tinie immemorial. The knowledge acquired by the early planters was necessarily imperfect, but they soon be- came acquainted with the larger and more obtrusive members of the lower animals that ranged the wil- derness around them. Says the inquisitive Higgin- son, writing at that time, and of it :

"For beastes, there are some heares, and they say lyons ; for they have been seen at Cape Anne. Here are several sorts of deers, also wolves, foxes, beavers, otters, martins, great wild cats, and a great beast called a molke (moose) as bigge as an oxe."

Fifty years later, Josselyn writes :

" There are not many kinds of Beasts in New England; they may be divided into Beasts of the chase of the stinking foot, ns Roes, Foxes, Jaccals, Wolves, Wild-cats, Raccoons, Porcupines, Squneks, Musquashes, Squirrels, Subles, and Mattrisses ; and Beasts of the chace of the sweet foot : Buck, Red Deer, Rain Deer Elk, Marouse, Bear, Maccarib, Beaver, Otter, Martin, Hare."

The larger quadrupeds, such as the bear, deer, bea- ver, otter, martin, wolf and wild-cat, have long since been exterminated here (though the locality known as Cat Swamp derived its name from the abundance of wild-cats once found there), but several of the smaller yet remain. The fox yet haunts the hills of

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the northern part of the township, leading a preca- rious existence, even though the feeling towards him is friendly, rather than otherwise, as the survivor of a race uow nearly extinct.

The hunter instinct still remains in the breasts of our people, and many here would gladly reimburse the farmers the loss of an occasional fowl rather than that reynard should be exterminated, and the spark that lingers from the frontier existence of our ances- tors become extinguished. Scarce a clover-field on the forest border that has not still a resident beneath its surface, in the shape of the woodchuck-arctomys monar-that gray hermit, indigenous to the soil. This animal, likewise, would be sadly missed and even lamented, though occasionally destructive to clover and early vegetables.

There is another, however, whose presence would be gladly dispensed with ; a small animal of inoffen- sive habit, generally, but endowed by nature with most pungent possibilities when thoroughly aroused. "The Squnck," says Joselyn, referring to the skunk (mephitis mephitica), "is almost as big as a Raccoon, perfect black, white, or pye-bald, with a bush tail like a Fox-an offensive carion." And, of a truth, he is offensive when at his worst; yet, indirectly of great benefit to our agriculturists as he is insectivo- rous in his habit. "The Musquash," says the same writer just quoted, "is a small Beast that lives in shallow ponds." This is the Indian name for the musk-rat (ondrata zibethicus), which still inhabits our shallow ponds, and within a score of years was quite numerously represented.

That the beaver once dwelt in our ponds and built his dams in our waters there yet remain tradition and ocular evidence ; yet none is found here to-day.

Another fur-bearing animal, the mink, is occasion- ally seen, as also the weasel; the other has long been extinct. But Beverly, even to the present day, constitutes with several adjoining towns, a fine range for the unambitious for hunter to trap in during the winter months. In the larger swamps the hare is still found, while the rabbit is a denizen of every woodland, and moles, rats and field-mice are in the fields in modern abundance. The squirrels, red and gray, are quite numerous, especially the former ; occasionally the flying-squirrel is seen, and the striped squirrels, or "chipmonks," are everywhere in the woods and pasture lands.

BIRDS OF BEVERLY .- Although the number of fe- rous quadrupeds is not large, the territory embraced in this township contains nearly every representative genus of the avifauna, or bird-life, of the Eastern States. The first settlers, though not particularly ob- servant of animated nature, could not avoid noticing the numerous birds. Captain John Smith (1616), mentioned some of the many birds seen in coasting Cape Ann, as " Eagles, Gripes, divers sorts of Hawkes, Cranes, Geese, Brantz, Cormorants, Ducks, Shel- drakes, Teals, Meawes, Guls, Turkies, Dive-hoppers,

etc., and divers sorts of vermin whose names I know not."

Higginson, a decade later, speaks of wild ducks, pig- eons, geese, and turkeys, partridges, eagles and hawks. But their attention, though called to the coast species and water birds, and such as from their size or habits were conspicuous, was not drawn to the numerous species resident within the woods and secluded meadow- lands. The species resident in Beverly to-day, and those found here at some season of the year as migrants, number about two hundred, and these were (at least conjecturally) identified with this region three hundred years ago.

Our ancestors, those who first settled here and re- claimed the country from its original wildness, gladly welcomed the birds, especially those harbingers of spring, forerunners of the coming of milder air, and the relaxation of the rigors of winter. Our best lit- erature has celebrated the softening influence of the birds and flowers upon those stern settlers who were compelled to battle with nature for the mere elements of subsistence. Without these free gifts of a benefi- cient Providence there would be little to cheer them at their toil. That they appreciated the coming of the birds and looked forward anxiously to their pres- ence among them, and encouraged it in every way, is well-known. They drew from the ranks of their feath- ered friends only such as were necessary for food, and allowed the harmless and smaller members of the fraternity to flit and warble unmolested. But even the savage, the red Indian, equalled them in this, never slaying except for sustenance and the simple de- mands of ornamentation.

With a few >light additions, perhaps through the introduction of strangers-such as the English spar- row-the avifauna of Beverly is essentially the same as it was when the first settlers landed here. Assum- ing this, then, they would have found, had they in- vestigated and classified the results, nearly two hun- dred species. Of the hawks, nine or ten, besides oc- casional visitants in the bald-headed eagle and the fish-hawk. Of owls, there are eight or nine species, including the great Arctic owl (though rarely seen) and the great-horned."

The cuckoos give us two species, the woodpeckers six, while of the humming bird there is one species as a summer resident (the ruby-throat), whip-poor-will, one night-hawk, and one kingfi-her.

The fly-catchers are represented by seven species, which include the "king-bird," pewees, etc.

The thrushes, also, seven species, containing our most delightful songsters: the brown, hermit and wood-thrushes, and the cat-bird, as well as the robin. There is one blue-bird, one gold-crested and one ruby-crowned wren, one of the tit-mice, the chicka- dee, two nut-hatchers, one creeper, three wrens (in- cluding the house-wren), and one titlark. Of that large family termed the warblers, we have at least twenty species. They comprise a considerable num-

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ber of our migrants; for not very many birds are resident here throughout the year.

Every season a host of birds may be noted winging their way from woodland to woodland, copse to thicket. This aerial army of invasion comes to us, mainly, from the far South, making its long journey of thousands of miles by progressive stages, never fairly halting at any one place, except for food and short intervals of rest, until its ultimate destination is reached.

The advance pickets of this flying column arrive early in March, their posts continually being occu- pied by later visitants, and finally succeeded by the army of occupation.

The black-birds, robins, song-sparrows, blue-birds, are among the first arrivals, and these are followed by others of their kind so obscure of coloration (some of them-though others are of beautiful color), and of such secluded habits, that they escape the obser- vation of any but the trained eye of the ornithol- ogist.

These are the warblers,-quiet and unobtrusive tree inhabitants. They take their places amongst the ranks of the winter residents, such as the crows, jays, snow-birds and chickadees, while some of these latter retire yet further north to make room for them.

Thus it is that our fields and forests are occupied by the feathered flocks. The shores are swept by sand-pipers, plover, gulls and terns, while the so- called birds of prey, the hawks, owls and eagles, cir- cle in the ether of the upper air or lie in wait in the dim recesses of the wood.

The interesting oven-bird, or golden-crowned thrush, is included in the warbler group. In the oak woods the scarlet tanager is found. Of the swifts, swallows and martins, there are six species. Of chatterers, one, the cedar-bird, one shrike (the butcher-bird), five vireos and one skylark.

Four members of the finch family, two cross-bills and two red-polls and snow-huntings, sparrows and snow-birds give us twelve representatives; there is one grosbeak (the rose-breasted), one indigo-bird and one towhee-bunting, or "chewink." That most de- lightful melodist, the bobolink, resides in our mead- ows after the first week in May, and we are favored with the presence of four species of blackbirds.

The meadow-lark is found occasionally, and two orioles; one, the golden robin, builds its pensile nest in the elms of our principal streets. One species of crow resides here throughout the year; the blue jay, also; and a specimen of the raven may occasionally descend to this latitude.

The wild pigeon once visited our territory in im- mense flocks, though now rarely found, since the great wheat fields of the West offer it food nearer home. Within a score of years, however, it was very abundant in the month of September, passing over our woods in great flocks.

That it was equally numerous at the opening of the seventeenth century, we have testimony from Higginson, writing of Salem in 1631 :

"Upon the eighth of March, from after it wae faire daylight until about eight of the clock in the forenoon, there flew over all the towns in our plantacons soe many flocke of doues, each flock contayuing many thousands, aod soe many that they obscured the light, that passeth credit, if but the truth should be written."

One species of turtle-dove is a visitor here, " par- tridges " (ruffed grouse) are found in every wood, and quail in the pastures. Of herons and bitterns, five species visit our meadows and marshes ; plover, five species, on the shore; one species of woodcock and one of snipe. Ten species of curlew and sandpipers may be shot here, and three of rails and coots.

The Canada goose sometimes alights here, on its way to the far north, and, in olden times, doubtless bred here. Ducks and sheldrakes, to the number of sixteen, swim along shore and sometimes penetrate our creeks ; now and then a few remain to breed.

Six species of gulls aud terns visit the shore; two breed on the islands in the harbor. Two of the pe- trels (or " Mother Cary's chickens "), may be detected by the more observant, in the winter. Of loons and grebes five species, the most conspicuous being the great northern diver. To end the list, mention should be made of four sub-Arctic birds; the auks and puf- fins, which come down from hyperborean regions in mid-winter. That species now extinct, the great ank (alca impennis), doubtless existed here in the time of our forefathers; but the only representative of the family to-day is the little auk, or dovekie, which is sometimes blown upon our coast during severe storms.

In the preceding pages are enumerated nearly all the higher forms of animal life indigenous here at the time of which we write. Space will not permit of a description in detail of these, nor even mention of those still lower families, of the insect world, which are numerous ; yet, with few noxious, or even annoying, representatives.

Tradition has, perhaps, invested some reptiles with fateful attributes, but it is not known that there are many harmful here, unless they have been introduced from other parts. In a word, then, this territory was amply provided by the Creator with animals neces- sary to man's subsistence, and even to minister to his æsthetic tastes ; but with none noxious so numer- ous as to cause him excessive apprehension.

THE ABORIGINES .- Mention ought to be made, before this general subject is dismissed, of the origi- nal proprietors of this territory, at least, who were found in possession when it was discovered by white men.

There is abundant evidence that this region was looked upon as a favored abiding-place by the red men, the American aborigines. Not alone tradition points to it as the ancient home of the Indian, but the material evidence of his occupation, in the shape of

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remains of his feasts, his village sites and specimens of his domestic utensils and implements of war and the chase. Banks of shells, where the wigwam was once pitched, and the refuse of the kitchen deposited, are yet found here. The largest yet discovered was near the head of Galley's Brook, doubtless an ancient estuary, on the slope leading to the cemetery. These ancient encampments were always at or near the head or mouth of some stream contiguous to the sea ; for almost the entire subsistence of the Indians, during the summer months especially, was drawn from the sea. "They hunted in the winter," says an ancient writer, "the moose, bear, etc. ; for this pur- pose making long excursions into the interior, but their fishing followes in the spring, summer and fall of the leaf; first for Lobsters, Clammes, Flouke, Lumps or Poddlers, and Alewives, and afterwards for Bass, Cod, Rock, Bluefish, Salmon, etc."

" All these, and diverse other good things," says Captain John Smith, "do heere, for want of use, in- crease and decrease with little diminution ; whereby they growe to that abundance that you shall scarce find any Baye, or shallow Cove of sand, where you may not take many Clampes (clams) or Lobsters, or both, at your pleasure, and in many places lode your boat, if you please ; nor iles where you finde not fruites, birds, crabs, muskles, or all of them, for the taking, at low water. And in the harbors we fre- quented, a little boye might take of Cunners and Pinacks and such delicate fish, at the ship's sterne, more than sixe or tenne can eat in a daie."

They are not quite so plentiful to-day; but in the season our forefathers (like the Indians) only had to go forth with hook and line, or spade, or lobster spear, to be assured of abundant material for a dinner. The shell-heaps of Ipswich sand-hills have yielded many a specimen of Indian relics, and the fields of Beverly, likewise, though not so many as the former, where numbers of the Aborigines were gathered together, for many seasons, to feast upon the products of the sea. Skeletons have been found here, in different places, which were undoubtedly those of the red men, sometimes with various articles of stone in the graves, as arrow and spear heads, stone hammers, pestles and gouges. This was undoubtedly a favorite resort of theirs, but not held in so high estimation as the sand- hills of Ipswich. It was one of the outlying posses- sions of the Sagamore of Agawam, Masconomo, some- times known to the settlers as "Sagamore John." His possessions extended from the Merrimac River south to the Naumkeag, and from Cochicewick, or Andover, to the coast of Massachusetts Bay. Being well dis- posed toward the English who sought settlement here, he freely granted them all the territory they desired. But in the year 1700, when the descendants of the Sagamore were very few in number and withont pos- sessions, a claim was set up by his grand-children to the township territory. Although such a claim could not be enforced, and the inhabitants of Beverly were

well aware of this fact, yet they exhibited the fair- ness of their intentions towards the impoverished In- dians by settling with them, giving them £6 6s. 8d., and taking a formal deed of the property.

The fate of the Agawams, who were so closely con- nected with our earliest history, furnishes an illus- tration of that of all the Eastern tribes. They were at enmity with the Tarrantines, or wilder Indians of Maine, in conflicts with whom they lost heavily ; but appear to have wasted gradually away, even though kindly treated by the English. In 1638 Masconomo, who seems to have been high-minded and generous, sold his fee in the soil of Ipswich to John Winthrop, Jr., for £20. He died in 1658, and was buried on Sagamore Hill, in Hamilton, still known by its orig- inal name. His gun and valuables were buried with him ; but a certain vandal, a few years later, dug up his bones and paraded his skull through Ipswich streets. For this act he was punished, but the ancient home of the Agawams no longer afforded them more than a mere tarrying-place; the last record of the survivors is in 1726-30, when a few were living at Wigwam Hill, in the Hamlet, or Hamilton.

1626. EARLIEST WHITE INHABITANTS .- A shore so attractive as that subsequently called "Cape Ann Side," could not long remain unnoticed by the first arrivals, and it must have early drawn the attention of those fishermen of Cape Ann itself: Roger Conant and his associates in 1624.

When, in 1626, the fishing station there was aban- doned, and these people removed to Naumkeag, they coasted the Manchester and Beverly shore, which previously had seemed so beautiful to Capt. Smith, that he called it "the paradise of all these parts," and subsequently won the admiration of Endicott and Higginson. They passed by its numerons head- lands and embayed beaches, seeking a site nearer the head of navigation than these afforded, and landed on a rock on the southwest side of Beverly Harbor.

1 "Near the extremity of North Point, or at Cape Aon, or Ipswich Ferry, as it was variously called, now a little west of the jnoction of Beverly Bridge, may be seen the outcroppiog of a metamorphic rock, as it slopes its checkered surface to the sea, that, with its intersected dikes and veios, fills the mind of the geologist with wondering interest, as he couots the deeply-graven records of eleven of the old earth's eruptions."

To this description, by a son of Salem, a one-time resident of Beverly, adds :

2 " Well might we wish-and with no irreverence, surely-that the Alonighty Being, who, io His wonder-working caused them, had, as a twelfth signature of His divine power, affixed the very footprints of the worthy company that first stepped on that rock, to make here their per- manent ahode.

" Here on this spot, thus scored by the hand of Deity, we believe Conant and his followers, the pilgrim hand of Massachusetts, stayed their wandering feet, and commenced their permanent ahode ; and here, too, we believe, they welcomed Endicott and his company to their wil- derness home ; thereby tallying another epoch in the world's history ; for here it was that freedom, long confined in the mother country, burst the crust of oppression that bound her and began to overflow the land with its blessings, and spread ont the solid foundations on which our republic rests."

1 " Old Planters of Salem," G. D. Phippen, 1858.

2 Rev. C. T. Thayer's Bi-Centennial Address, 1868.

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Their first settlement, where they began their plantation, living in perfect amity with the resident Indians, was on the peninsula lying between Collins Cove and North River.

1 " Here they took up their station, upon a pleasant and fruitful neck of land, environed with an arm of the soa on each side, in either of which vessels and ships of good burthen might easily anchor."

Nearly two years, they remained here, courageously clinging to the soil they had won from the forest, and portions of which they cultivated in common with the Indians ; then arrived the " Abigail," with Gov- ernor Endicott and his colonists, who, at the same time, furnished them succor and superseded their leaders in authority.

The new arrivals were, in point of numerical strength, double those of the original settlers; but the latter were of seasoned stock, and not desirous of yielding up their hard-earned territory and freedom. A con- troversy followed which, but for the " prudent modera- tion of Mr. Conant, agent before for the Dorchester planters," might have proved a serious matter. These good people, however, "who came so far to provide a place where to live together in Christian amity and concord," 1 finally allowed reason to pre- vail, and, in commemoration of this, changed the name of the place from Nanmkeag to Salem, City of Peace.

With the "Old Planters," however, this was but a compromise, for sake of peace; they cast about for another location, where they could be permitted to exercise a portion at least of that freedom they had previously enjoyed.

That they were highly respected by the promoters of the new company, and that their assistance and counsel were desired, is shown by their retention in official capacity for many years, as also in a letter from Matthew Craddock, governor of the company's affairs in London, to Governor Endicott, in April, 1629:

"As to the old planters themselves, . . . wee are content they Blinll he partakers of such privileges as wee, from his Majesty's espetial grace, with great cost, favor of personages of note, and much labor, have obtained, and that they shall be incorporated into this society, and enjoy not only their lands, which formerly they bavo manured, but sucht a further proportion as, hy tho advice and judgment of yourself and the rest of the council, shall be thought fit for them or any of them," etc.

Certain privileges were also to be granted them, but their leaders concluded to change their residence.

" The legal title was now in the new company, who, strong in wealth and influence, were decidedly aggressive in spirit, and the only ulterna. tive for their leaders in the forlorn hopo was dispersion, and an aban- donment of the now ripening fruits of their labors. They submitted to the lesser evil ; but historie impartiality, upon a survey of the facts, will yield n verdict of oxact justice, unvitiated by superior interests and prejudices." 2

We need not to seek for any other cause than this feeling of insecurity and the desire to occupy the fertile meadow lands about the bays of the opposite coast.

1628. As early as 1628 the dwellers at Naumkeag

were attracted by the fields of natural grass on Bev- erly side. Says one of them, Richard Brackenbury, in a deposition :

" The same yeare we came over, it was, that wee tooke a farther pos- session on the north side of Salem Ferrye, commonly call'd 'Cape An Side,' by cutting thatch for our houses ; and soone after laid out lotts for tillage, land on the said Cape An Side, and quickly after sundry houses were built on the said Cape An Side."

"The marshes where thatch grew were reserved for roofing; in 1628, one in Beverly was especially mentioned for that purpose." 3

Most of the dwellings of that period were cottages, with thatched roofs and wooden or "catted " (mixed clay and stick) chimneys. The first house erected in Salem was, probably, that of Roger Conant; and one he liad occupied at Cape Ann was subsequently taken down and removed to Salem, for Endicott's use.

The leaders of the Cape Ann plantation, and the most prominent, men of the first Salem settlement were, doubtless, the founders of the first permanent colony of "Cape Ann Side," later incorporated as Bev- erly.

Tradition points to a small colony of fishermen at Tuck's Point as early as 1628-'30; but the first sub- stantial house was probably erected farther down the coast.

As nearly as can be determined, the first settlers who came here to stay were the Woodburys. In the spring of 1628, John Woodbury, who had come to Naumkeag with Conant in 1626, returned from Eng- land (whither he had been sent for assistance) with his son Humphrey and his brother William. Hum- phrey (probably with his father's aid), located at or near the Cove, between two rocky points directly op- posite the " Willows " of the Salem shore.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 185

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