History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 192

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 192

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1776 .- The following list of patriots in Captain Moses Brown's company, raised in August, 1776, is given by Historian Stone :

Richard Ober, Jona. Harris, Freeborn Thorndike, Jona. Foster, Sam- uel Stone, William Crowther, Cornelius, Luke and Andrew Woodberry, John Cressy, Antos Cressy, Robert Lovett, Thos. Parker, Barth. South, Mihill Woodberry, Thomas Cox, Nath. Batchelder, Nathaniel, Joseph and James Ober, Win. Cook, Abner Stone, Benj. Foster, James Patch, Henry Peirce, Asa Larcom (Salem ?), Robert Stone, Esop Hale, Herbert Standley, Joha Biles, Josiah Woodberry, Jacob Poland, Andrew Elliot, William Herrick, Eben'r Rogers, John Stone, William Cressy, Israel Greene, Benj. Porter, Thos, Morse, Joseph Hall, William Kimball, Dan- iel Carleton, William Gage, Jona. Gage, Caleb Wallis, Ebenezer Messer, Joseph Cross, Elisha Webber, William Harriman, John Berry, Joseph Foster, John Swain. Officers : First Lieutenant-Win. Grover. Second Lieutenant-John Wallis. Ensign-John Clark. Sergeants-William Bowles, Richard Ober and Samuel Cressy. Corporals-Wm. Dike, Joshua Ellingwood, Francis Ober and Ezra Ober.

Men enlisted November, 1776 :

Sergeants-Richard Butman, Isaac Thorodike. Corporals-Simeon Lovett, Bart. Wallis. Privates-Benj. Leach, Richard Ober (2d), John Porter, Josiah Foster, Nathan Cressy, Benj. Oher, Nath1. Woodbury, Jeffrey Thissell, John Woodbury, Andrew Eliot (2d), George Standley, Ebenezer Rea, Joshua Ellingwood, Nicholas Woodbury, Edward Smith, Obed Woodbury, Wm. Lovett, John Harmon, Ezra Lovett, Benj. Blash- field.

1779 .- In Captain Billy Porter's company, and in Colonel Tupper's regiment at West Point (Stone's History) :

Lientenants-Thos. Francis and William Burley. Ensign -Benj. Shaw. Sergeant-John Pickett. Corporal-Jer. Woodberry. Drunt- mer-B. B. Wood. Privates-Asa Batchelder, Jona, Conant, Benj. Corning, Mathias Claxton, Alex. Carrico, Samnel Dodge, Simeon Dodge, George Grose, Andrew Herrick, Claton Jones, Nathan Jones, John Kennedy, Abner Raymond, Benj. Woodberry, Benj. Woodberry, Jr., Israel, Nathaniel and William Woodberry.

In Captain Page's company (of Danvers) :

Lieutenant-Samuel Goodridge. Sergeant-Jos. Raymond. Privates -Robt. Edwards, Scipio Bartlett, Jantes Harley, Joseph Poland and Primas Green.

Jonathan Couant, Sr., was paymaster under Colonel Francis, and was in the battle of Monmouth ; Joshua Twist was in Gates' army at the surrender of Bur- goyne ; William and Samuel Cressy were in the bat- tle of Trenton ; Luke Roundy, a lieutenant in Cap- tain Low's company, was wounded at Saratoga, and died at Albany, and Nathaniel Cleaves was in the same engagement (says Mr. Stone), who adds further names of soldiers in the service, as :

William and Robert Goodridge, Israel Trask, Benj. Ellingwood, Thos. Lovett, Benj. Bickford, Benj. Bickford, Jr., Jahn Bickford, Nath'l Friend, Isaac Smith, Jona. Woodberry, Zachariah Morgan and Benj. Spriggs.

From the muster roll :

Captain - Billy Porter (of Wenham). Thos. Francis, Jr., Luke Roundy, Aaron Putnam, Jona. Bowles, Robert Twist, Joseph Foster, Jos. Searle, Abner Raymond, Benj. Sbaw, Jona. Conant, Edw. Shaw, Sam'I Dodge, Simeon Dodge, Benj. Corning, William Woodbury, Benj. Woodunry, Benj. Wood, Wm. Clark, John Kandy, Job Cressy, Richard Lee, Asa Batchelder, Dan'l Lampson, Philip Grush, Wm. Cook, Wm. Collins, Francis Thompson, Mattbias Claxton, John Paris, Peletial War-

706

IHISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

ren, Matthew Tobin. Jona. Standly, Jere. Woodbury, Israel Woodbury, Alex. Carico, Joseph Picket, Jacob Reed, George York, Joseph Frcethey (?), Andrew Herrick, John Carter, Win. Dodge, George Gross, Wmn. Cutler, Wm. Webber.

1780 .- Men who served for six months :

Wm. Clerk, Weeden Cole, Jona. Conant, Joseph Carr, Richard Craft, Asa Leach, Abner Raymond, Rob't Standley, John Track, - Trask, Joseph Wood, Benj. Woodhury.

Beverly's sufferers by sea were not few during the Revolution, and of those committed to Mill Prison are the following :

Benj. Chipman, of schooner "Warren," taken December 27, 1777. Michael Down, of brig "Rambler," taken October 21, 1779.

Joseph Leach, taken and committed to Pembroke Prison in 1779.

Joseph Perkins, Levi Woodbury, Robert Raymond, Matthew Chant- bers and Andrew Peabody, of ship 'Essex," taken June 10, 1781 ; also James Lovett and Benjamin Sprague.

William Haskell, Alexander Carrico and George Groce, of hrig "Eagle," taken June, 1780.

John Baker, of brig "Black Princess," taken October 11, 1781.

John Tuck, Thomas Hadden, Josiah Foster, Hezekiah Thissell, Na- thaniel Woodbury and Zebulon Ober, of snow " Diana," taken June 15, 1781, and committed January 23, 1782.

William Herrick was killed at sea, off Bermuda, in the snow "Diana," the year before ; Benj. Bickford was mate of the " Diana" when Her- rick was killed.

The " Diana" was a letter of marque, and a " snow " was a vessel half brig and half schooner.

1780. In the annals of this period the "dark day " (May 19th) held a conspicuous place. The sun, that morning, rose clear, but "soon assumed a brassy hue," and at two o'clock was totally obscured. Dur- ing three hours time it was extremely dark, the birds and fowls went to roost in silence, and every- thing portended an awful visitation. The alarm of the people was universal, many supposing that the judgment day was at hand, and one old gentleman, it is said, dressed himself with great care, took his sil- ver-headed cane with him into the field and calmly awaited the event. The darkness became dispelled during the afternoon, but the night succeeding was of such intense gloom, until midnight, that even the horses refused to go out into it from their stables. In explanation of this event, it is said that the smoke from great forest fires in the interior had settled over this region, thus obscuring the sun and necessitating a resort to candle-light by the frightened inhabitants.

From the journal of a resident of Beverly came this quaint record.

" BEVERLY, Friday, Muy 19, 1780.

" This day happened something very Remarkable. From 10 o'clock in the forenoon till hulf after two in the afternoon, there was totale Darkness. But about } o'clock the Darkest; the sky was as Red as though the Element had been a Fire. This was Wrote by me in my Bed-chamber in the house of coll. Thorndike, where Joseph Baker keeps Tavern."

The first town-meeting under the new constitution was held September 4th, this year, for the election of governor, lieutenant-governor and councillors, and the first representatives, Larkin Thorndike and Jon- athan Conant, were then chosen.

1781. The constables were instructed to receive, in the payment of taxes, one silver dollar instead of seventy-five dollars of the old continental paper, and

one dollar of the new emission instead of forty dol- lars of the old.

1781 .- The Rev. Joseph Willard, who had been for eight years pastor of the First Parish, was called to the presidency of Harvard College, a position he held until his death, in 1804, " after the longest term of service, but one, in the series of Harvard's presi- dents." His loss was deeply felt in Beverly, where he had the respect and love of every inhabitant. It was he, who, during the darkest hour of the dark day, acted the part of the true philosopher, and in- stead of giving way to fear, calmly made observations of the attendant phenomena. As he was thus engaged, he became surrounded by frightened citizens, whose alarm was soon allayed by his own indifference. When one of them rushed up, breathless, with the announcement that the tide had done flowing, he drew out his watch and quietly remarked : "So it . has, for it is just high-water."

It is not very generally known, perhaps, that Mr. Willard was at one time custodian of the literary treasures of a privateer. In 1781, the famous priva- teer, Captain Hugh Hill, brought a prize into port, containing, among other things, the celebrated Kir- wan library, consisting of more than one hundred scientific works, ancient and modern, which, when taken, was in transit from England to its proprietor in Ireland. At the suggestion of Mr. Willard, the owners of the prize generally relinquished their title to it, allowing it to be sold, in compliance with law, to an association of gentlemen resident here and in Salem, for a mere nominal price.

" To the honor of Richard Kirwan it should be mentioned that he declined an offer of compensation for his property in it, preferring to have it pass for an outright gift to the infant cause and scanty means of scientific progress, in a country not yet emerged from the clouds of des- perate strife with his own for separate national existence.

" The books, 60 fortunately secured, were first committed to Willard's keeping, but upon hie removal from Beverly they were transferred to Salem, where they were united with other collectione, first under the name of the Philosophical Library, then that of the Salem Athenanm, and finally of the Essex Institute, of which flourishing, richly-endowed. greatly-valued and useful institution it may be considered ae the possible germ. From that germ alone great advantage has, by not a few, been derived. Our famous mathematician, Nathaniel Bowditch, of world- wide fame, availed himself extensively of the aid of the Kirwan booke, especially in the earlier portions of bis remarkable career, when such works were rare, and difficult (at least in this country) to be procured ; and his sense of indebtedness wae frecly and gratefully acknowledged by him while living, and testified at hia decease by a liberal legacy to the institution in which they are deposited, and of which they form a part." 1

It will be seen from the above, that Beverly con- tributed (though perhaps unwittingly yet, not un- willingly), to swell the stream of knowledge that flowed from the early founts.

1783 .- French troops passed the night in the Sec- ond Parish, on their way to Portsmouth to embark for France.

Beverly received the news of assured peace, pro- mulgated this year, with the greatest satisfaction.

1 Thayer's Bi-Centennial Address.

707

BEVERLY.

Having performed her whole duty in the perilous times, throughout, having lost many of her noblest citizeus, and having freely expended of her substance to bring about this consummation, it was with joyful anticipations for the future that she entered upon the era of peace. It was some time, however, before the tangled web of debt and obligations, woven about her by the war, could be unraveled, and her paralyzed commerce regain its wonted activity.

In 1786, especially, the burden of debt and taxa- tion, together with the weight of a depreciated cur- rency, bore heavily upon Beverly, in common with every town in the State. It was in this year that Shay's rebellion occurred, to aid iu suppressing which soldiers from Beverly joined the Essex company, un- der Colonel Wade. of Ipswich, an officer known and trusted by General Washington.

1785 .- Rev. Joseph Mckean, who was born in Londonderry, N. H., 1757, and graduated at Dart- mouth College, was ordained over the First Parish May 11th, on which occasion a large number of churches were represented. His salary was fixed at two hundred pounds and his settlement at three hun- dred pound-, to which two hundred pounds was added in 1801. He was a man of great piety and learning, honored by all our citizens. In 1802 he received and accepted a call to the presidency of Bowdoin College. Among other papers published in the Rantoul Rem- iniscences is the following hill, for entertaining the council and delegates at Mr. MeKean's ordination :

± s. d.

" 30 Bowles of Punch before the people went to meeting 3 0 0

80 People Eating in the morning .. 6 0 0

10 bottles of Wine before they went to meeting 1 10 0

68 Dinners 19 4 0

44 Bowles of punch while at dinner and after 4

8 0 IS battles of Wine . 2 14

6 people drank tea . 0 9 0

40 Horses .

4 Horses two days and nigbts . 0 16 0

8 Bowles of Brandy 0 12 0

Cherry Rum 100

3 of the gentlemen's servants, 2 meals each and drink, the day

0 12 0

43 5 0"

1787 .- Beverly cast one hundred and twenty-five votes for Governor, of which seventy-seven were for John Hancock, and forty-eight for James Bowdoin ; George Cabot, Joseph Wood and Israel Thorndike were this year chosen delegates to the convention in Boston Jannary, 1788, for considering the framing of a constitution for the United States. For several years later, it was difficult to find people willing to serve the town in official capacity, and fines were imposed upon those who refused offices.

1788 .- The first fruits of peace were not long in showing themselves, and the most important step taken in the securing of independence of the mother country was the establishment of a cotton factory. This factory, the first in America, was erected in the Second Parish, near Baker's Corner, at the junction

of Cabot and Dodge streets. A company of proprie- tors was incorporated February 3, 1789 . but, the enter- prise proving unprofitable, it was afterwards aband- oned. The factory attracted much attention at the time, and was visited by General Washington when on his tour through the country in 1789.

A contemporary periodical said of it : " An experi- ment was made with a complete set of machines for carding and spinning cotton, which answered the warmest expectations of the proprietors. The spin- ning jenny spins sixty threads at a time, and with the carding machines forty pounds of cotton can be well carded per day. The warping machines and the other tools and machinery are complete, and promise much benefit to the public, and emolument to the patriotic adventurers."

The Salem Gazette, of 1790, says: "The wear of the Beverly corduroys is already become very common ; " yet the enterprise failed, and, after several other at- tempts, the proprietors suspended operations.

For nearly thirty years preceding 1800, the town was agitated over the spread of the small-pox, and in 1788, even threw fences across the roads, to prevent the passing of persons infected with the disease, erecting a hospital and smoke-houses for fumiga- tion.

1788 .- The Essex Bridge was built this year, one thousand four hundred and eighty-four feet long and thirty-two feet wide, at a cost of sixteen thousand dollars. It was to be a toll-bridge for seventy years, at the expiration of which period it reverted to the State. Robert Rantoul states, in his reminiscences, that (then a Salem school-boy of ten), he walked over the bridge the day it was opened, and again in his eightieth year, in 1858, on the day its charter ex- pired.

Towu fire-wards were first chosen in the preceding year : 1787, Moses Brown, Andrew Cabot, George Ca- bot, Joseph Lee and Joseph Wood.

In October, 1787, the Rev. Daniel Oliver was or- dained over the Second Church, continuing here for ten years, when he was succeeded by the Rev. Ste- phen Dorr, who was ordained in March, 1800.

Several of our inhabitants joined the famous expe- dition of Dr. Cutler (of Hamilton), that initial migra- tion to Ohio, which resulted in the settlement of our vast Western prairies.

1789 .- The event of this year was the visit of Washington, on his tour of the North, when he called on his friends, William Bartlett and George Cabot ; the latter then ocenpying the mansion now owned by Mrs. Seth Norwood. In the Book of Records of the Second Parish is a note by Mr. Stone of the following communication made to him by Isaac Babson March 13, 1835:

" When General Washington came to visit the cotton factory (near Baker's Tavern corner), he rode from Salem on horseback and was greeted by a great number. As he passed the residence of Col. Francis be bowed to Mrs. F., who was at the window. In the factory a number

708

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

of females were arranged, holding pieces of cloth in their laps for in- spection. The General stopped opposite Miss Francis (afterwards Mrs. Low) and examined the cloth in her lap. On leaving the factory he entered his carriage (his servant riding his horse) and went on to Ips- wich."

As recently as 1863 there died, one who was con- versant with these details : Mrs. Beisey Grant (widow of Joseph, and mother of Benjamin D. Grant), a lineal descendant of John Balch, one of the first set- tlers. She was born in the "Upper Parish," Febru- ary 10, 1772, and was seventeen years old at the time of Washington's visit, which she distinctly remem- bered in 1861. Washington paused at her side and asked her several questions about the work, " little realizing, perhaps, the reverent affection with which he was regarded by her, and which would embalm his sentences in her heart forever."

The last individual living in Beverly to whom Washington then spoke was Captain Peter Homan (it is said), who died in 1871, at the age of ninety-one. He was then a hoy of nine, at work in the factory. As a child, Mrs. Grant "assisted in laboring for the soldiers of freedom at that early day of our nation's history ; when a woman, wife and mother, she worked for the sons of America in 1812, and as an aged grandmother, she knit stockings for the soldiers of the Union in 1861."

Her eldest sister was a participant in the famous female riot of 1777, and the mother of Captain Ho- man was also one of the company.

1791 .- The town treasurer was directed to fund the paper money on hand, and in 1793 it was voted that all contracts should be paid in hard money, instead of town orders.

1793 .- The proclamation of neutrality, by the President, was warmly approved by the merchants of Beverly.

1795 .- A petition was presented to Congress, drawn up by the Rev. Mr. Mckean, William Burley, Israel Thorndike, Moses Brown and John Stephens, praying for the immediate fulfilment of the treaty between the United States and Great Britain.

1798 .- A health officer was appointed, for the first time, and in 1801 a small-pox hospital was built at Paul's Head. This promontory, where the light- house now stands, and where the breastworks, erected during the Indian wars and the Revolution, may yet be seen, was early the property of Paul Thorndike, one of the first selectmen of the town.

The hospital, built here in 1801, costing four hun- dred and fifty dollars, was destroyed by fire, and the land is now included within the boundaries of the light-house property. The residue of Paul's Point is now occupied by some of the finest houses on the coast.

and Tryphosa (Herrick) Leach, and was born here June 27, 1717. She measured nearly as much at the age of two years as at her death, being then twenty- two inches in height.

In the almanac for 1777, published by Nathaniel Ames, on the cover of which is a wood-cut of the " prodigy," is " A short description of the extraordi- nary person that lately made her appearance in this town (Boston), which may not be disagreeable to our readers, although it may not be so particular as the curious may desire, as she would not admit of an ac- curate examination." From this it is learned that "she was, at her birth, as well a shaped child as any of the ten which the same mother bore. Her friends early discovered her bones to be in a flexible state, and unable to resist the action of the muscles, which made it very difficult to support her in any other than a horizontal position. After two years the bones ac- quired some considerable degree of firmness ; but they had been so long inflected, by the action of the mus- cles, that they never recovered their proper figure or function."

"She measured in a right line from the crown of the head to the feet, twenty-two inches. The head was as large as is usual for persons of a common stature, and not at all deformed. The vertebræ of the back were somewhat elevated. Her feet were about the size of a child's of four or five years old, and notat all deformed. She could never walk, but was either carried by her friends, or moved herself about with the assistance of a small chair and stick. She enjoyed a tolerable share of health, free from most complaints except indigestion. In her conversation she discovers a vivacity which very much surprises all who hear her. She now enjoys herself very agree- ably at her native place."

The Leach homestead, where she resided, has de- seended to Benjamin Goldsbury, through the mar- riage of his grandfather, Nicholas Goldsbury, to Tryphosa Leach, daughter of Benjamin, brother to Emma Leach.

In this, the last year of the century, a schooner of Beverly, the " Alert," was set upon by three French privateers, as she was entering the harbor of Santan- der, and, after a desperate resistance, captured and sent into Bayonne; an outrage upon American neu- trality deeply resented.

1800 .- A review of the century past shows a con- tinued advance, since the close of the "primeval epocb," in every native industry and all the elements of prosperity.

The population of the town had doubled in the century : from 1680 in 1708, to 3300 in 1800.

A large area of land had been brought under culti- vation, remote districts connected by roads, six school districts were now established, and two flourishing churches ; the fleet of fishing-vessels, numbering thir- commerce was in a flourishing condition.

1799 .- This year, departed one of the least of Bev- erly's population, in point of size, yet who had a wide-spread provincial reputation,-Miss Emma Leach, sixty-one years of age and but twenty-two ; ty-two, employed three hundred men, and foreign inches in height. She was the danghter of William

709

BEVERLY.

For a short period of the nineteenth century, prox- imate, even while the inhabitants of Europe were distracted by wars, employing four millions of their fighting men, our people were to enjoy the blessings of peace.

SOME NOTABLE NAMES OF THE CENTURY .- Many of those who contributed to the prosperity of Beverly, either on land or sea, some who aided in shaping its destinies, and others who acted as the conservators of the morals of the community, have been mentioned in the pages preceding. Yet it is not claimed that many may not have escaped mention, through the in- complete chronicles of the times. A distinguished merchant of the war period, was Moses Brown, born in 1748, a graduate of Harvard in 1768, who began business here in 1772. He took an active part in military affairs, raised a company of soldiers in 1775, and in 1776 joined the army as a captain in Glover's regiment, serving in New York and New Jersey, and being present at the battle of Trenton.

Resuming business in 1777, he retired in 1800 with a fortune, and died in 1820, after a life of acknowl- edged nsefulness.

Associated with him in business at one time was another famous merchant, Israel Thorndike (born in Beverly in 1755), who owned several large ships, and through extensive trade with China and the East Indies, amassed a fortune (immense for those times), of nearly a million and a half of dollars. He re: moved to Boston in 1810, and expired in 1832. He subscribed five hundred dollars for the founding of a professorship of Natural History in Harvard, and the same sum for the library of the Theological School. In 1818 he purchased, in Hamburg, at a cost of six thousand five hundred dollars, and pre- sented to Harvard, a large library "thereby securing to his country one of the most complete and valuable collections of works extant in American history."

The Cabots, George, Andrew, and John, left an en- during fame as great merchants; the first, who was born in 1751, residing here nearly forty years. He was one of the most enlightened men of his time, a delegate to the provincial Congress in 1779, the con- fidential friend of Washington and adviser of Ham- ilton. He removed to Boston in 1793, where he died in 1823 ; but the foundation of his fortune was laid, and his most brilliant labors performed, while a citi- zen of Beverly.

Joseph Lee, a brother-in-law of the Cabots, was also associated with them in business. He was born in Salem in 1744, and died in Boston in 1831. During his residence in Beverly, and thronghout his life, he gave great attention to the designing of vessels, being of material aid to naval architecture. He gave twen- ty thousand dollars to the Massachusetts general hos- pital. His grandson, Henry Lee, who married a granddaughter of Andrew Cabot, resides on a fine estate at Beverly Farms.

In the year 1780, deceased in Beverly, Henry Her-

rick, one of the most active and influential members of the "Committee of Correspondence " in the Revo- Intion, a direct descendant of the first American an- cestor of the same name. He was an active agent, says the historian, in all the first Revolutionary move- ments, and for many years (twenty-four) represented the town in General Court.

From his relative, Joshua, have descended most of the name still residing in Beverly, and others in Maine, including Horatio G. Herrick, sheriff of Es- sex County for many years past; and Joshua and Benjamin Herrick, of Maine. The Herricks are inti- mately connected, through marriage, with several of the oldest families of Beverly.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 192

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