History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 196

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 196

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Fuel at first came (after the home supply became diminished) from the forests of Maine; but even these are now exhausted, and wood is brought from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

1833 .- The Beverly Academy, projected as a pri- vate school by an association of gentlemen became,

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although its existence was relatively brief, an impor- tant factor in the intellectual development of the town.

In May of this year, the association purchased land on the northeasterly side of Washington Street, and erected a building in which, June 17th, a school was opened, with Abiel Abbott, of Wilton, N. H., as principal, and Miss Mary R. Peabody assistant.

Chas. A. Peabody, of Tamworth, N. H. (since a judge and a prominent citizen of New York City), succeed Mr. Abbott for one term, next year, when Ed- ward Bradstreet assumed the position, retaining it till June 30, 1836.

A year previous, January 30, 1835, an act of incor- poration had been obtained by Elliot Woodbury, Jo- sinh Lovett 2d, Michael Whitney and their associates and successors, as the Beverly Academy.

The officers of the Institution elected February 18, 1835, as trustees, were : Robert Rantonl, Josiah Lovett 2d, Elliott Woodbury, Albert Thorndike, William Endicott, with Wm. Endicott treasurer, and Stephens Baker clerk.

Between the years 1836-41, Thos. B. Webb was principal, followed by Edward Appleton, a Cam- bridge graduate of 1835. Valued assistants under Mr. West were: Miss Ann W. Abbott, Miss Mary Williams and Miss Mary T. Weld.

After Mr. Appleton came John F. Nourse, from January, 1844, to August, 1847, with exception of two terms, taught by James W. Boyden.

From September, 1847, to November, 1854, Issachar Lefavour was principal, with Miss Phœbe E. Abbott as assistant. Mr. Lefavour, a graduate of Amherst College, who began teaching in Beverly, in 1834, in the old school-house at the Cove, purchased the Academy building in 1848. The building was then situated on the corner of Brown and Washington Streets, but was removed thence, and is now occupied as a shoe factory, on Park Street. Mr. Letavour was the last to maintain the Academy here, and in 1855 accepted a situation as principal of the Ipswich Grani- mar School, where he taught without interruption nineteen years. He always remained a citizen of Beverly, however, and still maintains, after half a century of valuable service, an undiminished interest in the cause of education. A short-lived academical school was opened previous to the above mentioned, in a building on Washington Street, since removed to Beckford Street, where it was used as the Ryal-Side School-House, but now owned and occupied as a dwelling-house.

1834 .- February 21st, the Beverly Anti-Slavery Society was formed. There died in Camden, Maine, December 10, 1834, a native of Beverly, Mr. Robert Thorndike, at the age of one hundred years and five months.

1835,-On February 5th Nathan Dane departed this life, who was born in Ipswich December 27, 1752. Another lawyer of local eminence, who at one time

studied in the office of Mr. Dane, closely followed him at his departure,-William Thorndike, born in Beverly January, 1795, died July 12, 1835. He fitted for college at Phillips Academy in Exeter, and grad- uated with distinction from Harvard in 1813. He was admitted to the Essex bar in 1816, and com- menced the practice of law in Bath, Me., but in a few years returned to his native town to engage in mercantile pursuits. Here he was elected to fill posi- tions of trust and honor ; he pronounced the Fourth of July oration of 1816, was a representative at Gen- eral Court in 1826 and '27, and a senator in 1828 and four years succeeding, during the last of which he was president of the Senate. He was for several years superintendent of the First Parish Sunday- school, and at his death at the head of financial in- stitutions in Boston.

A noteworthy celebration of America's independ- ence was that of this year's anniversary, on the occa- sion of which Edward Everett delivered the oration, taking for his theme the early life of George Wash- ington.

An immense audience greeted him in the Dane Street Church meeting-house, where, for an hour and a half, they had the enviable pleasure of listening to this distinguished orator. After the intellectual feast had concluded, the citizens of the town, with invited guests, repaired to the Common, where a pavilion bad been erected, and there sat down to a substantial din- ner. Robert Rantoul, Sr., presided, and among the as- sembled participants were twelve Revolutionary sol- diers, probably the last survivors of those gallant sons of liberty our town had provided in such numbers. Although many toasts were drunk, it is related that the president of the occasion and many influential citizens set a commendable example of total absti- nence from intoxicants.

Among the toasts was one to the "orator of the day," responded to by Mr. Everett in his happiest vein :-

" The orator of the day : The union of genius, talents and industry, regulated by virtuous principle, will always command respect and es- teem from a free and enlightened community. Tho power of eloquence, when employed to promote harmony, union and peace among friends and neighbors, excites the most grateful feelings and merits the warm- est praise."

Josiah Lovett, 2d, was chairman of the committee of fourteen who so wisely conceived and ably elabor- ated the plan of the celebration, and the Beverly Light Infantry did escort duty on the occasion. There is a tradition current now, at this date fifty years re- moved from the event, that there was prospect of the festivities being interrupted, early in the day, by the appearance of a "suspicious-looking Southerner," armed with pistols. As this gentleman made earnest enquiry for Mr. Everett, some zealous officials promptly arrested him and took his pistols away from him. But when he was permitted to send a note to Mr. Everett, his identity was established as a reporter for the New York Herald, at all events not an enemy

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thirsting for his blood, and he was promptly discharg- ed and invited to the dinner.

At a town meeting held August 20, 1835, a com- mittee was appointed to secure the change of location of the Eastern Railroad, from the east side of Essex Bridge (as projected) to the west, and this was com- plied with in 1837.

The old ways of traveling were now to give way to the new method with propulsion by steam, and at the advent of the iron horse came the edict of ban- ishment for the antiquated coach and stage, with their numerous and interesting retinues of attendants. But various stage and transportation lines were kept up until very recent times, the last (or one of the last) being Trask's stage to Gloucester, terminated within the memory of many of the younger genera- tion.

Even this solitary representative of the past,-this lumbering stage with its four prancing horses and jolly driver, making its daily trips between Salem and Gloucester, awoke great interest all along the line, and gave us a hint of what the stage-coach must have been in the hey-day of its existence.

It is a tradition, firmly believed in by all who were favored with a glimpse of Trask and his "turn-out," that the stage of ancient times was a most glorious thing, bright with varnish, with gorgeous landscapes painted on its panels, numerous straps dangling temptingly just out of reach of the small boy, and mysterious recesses within its spacious interior. And the broad-visaged, rubicund driver, with his expansive smile and hearty ways, his long-lashed whip that could easily reach a "cut behind "-but rarely did- he was a king ou a throne, and, if he were conscious of the envy and admiration he excited, would cer- tainly have put on kingly airs.

The last stage coach has now been relegated to the most neglected corner of shed and barn, its only occupants the feathered bipeds of the farm-yard ; for, even in regions remote, that were wholly uukuown in the days of its glory, such as Texas, California and the highlands of Mexico, it has been steadily pursued and persistently demolished by the iron monster-that first entered our territory as a humble servitor, but now threatens to crush us beneath the steel-shod hoofs of monopoly. The last of the old stage-drivers of the Boston line was Woodbury Page, who was also the first station agent here of the rail- road company. His old stage, "The Rambler," was for a long time stored in a barn on the Bancroft estate, which was burned to the ground, with all its contents, about 1850. Woodbury Page, though a native of New Hampshire, was connected, through his mother, with the Woodburys, of Beverly.

1836 .- A body of its members retired from the Dane Street Church, and organized as a distinct so- ciety, February 8, 1837, by the name of the " Wash- ington Street Church."

A house of worship was erected, and dedicated

March 29, 1837, ou which occasion religious services were performed by Rev. David Oliphant, formerly pastor of the Third Congregational.

The first pastor was Rev. William Bushnell, in- stalled January 3, 1838, aud dismissed May 9, 1842. Rev. George T. Dole was ordained October 6, 1842, and dismissed July 1, 1851.

Rev. Alonzo B. Rich, installed December 8, 1852, was dismissed August 6, 1867. During his ministry the greatest number (one hundred and fourteen) were added to the church.

Rev. Charles Van Norden was installed March 18, 1868, and dismissed April 14, 1873.

Rev. Benson M. Frink was installed October 1, 1873, and dismissed September 30, 1876.

Rev. William H. Davis was ordained July 5, 1877, aud dismissed May 1, 1884.

Rev. William E. Strong was ordained July 15, 1885, aud is the present pastor.

1840 .- The first Universalist Society was organized February 17, 1840, with Daniel Hildreth, Stephen Homaus, Jeremiah Wallis, Benjamin D. Grant and William A. Foster as parish committee. Among its early preachers were Revs. John Prince, Henry Ba- con, William Hooper and Sylvanus Cobb, but the first settled pastor was Rev. E. H. Webster, in 1843.

In 1846 a church was erected, which was enlarged and beautified in 1863, and every demand anticipated of the increasing needs of its congregation. After Mr. Webster came Rev. W. G. Cambridge, for a year and a half, followed by Rev. John L. Stephens, who remained a year and then withdrew from the ministry and eutered political life. He was after- wards editor of the Kennebec Journal and subsequent- ly was appointed United States Minister to Uruguay and Paraguay, and later to Norway and Sweden.

Rev. Mr. Washburn came to the pastorate in 1847, and continued till May, 1851, when he resigned, on account of ill-health, and died the same year. Rev. Stillman Bardeu occupied the pulpit two years, re- signed in 1853, and died iu Rockport in 1865.

Rev. L. W. Coffin was pastor for two years, between 1853 and '55, then resigned; died in Barnardston in 1879.

September 19, 1856, Rev. John Nichols was settled over the church, and coutinued in service here for eleven years, impressing the entire community witlı the purity of his life and sincerity of purpose. The day of his valedictory sermon was also the day of his death, as he was stricken with paralysis of the brain that afternoon, and died the same evening.

Rev. G. W. Whitney was ordained July 24, 1867, and resigned in April, 1872. In November, 1872, the Rev. J. N. Emery was installed, remaining here until 1884, and is now at Bellows Falls, Vt. Like his predecessors, he acquired the confidence of his fellow- citizens and exerted an influence for good. From 1884-85 Rev. E. W. Prehble preached here, and Rev.

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Charles S. Nickerson in 1886; but at present (1887) there is no settled pastor.

The present congregation numbers about three hundred individuals. There is a well-attended Sun- day-school, of which one of our influential citizens, Samuel Porter, was (until 1886) superintendent for thirty years.

1840 .- In the great Whig campaign of this year Beverly partook of the general excitement. The population of the Farms and Cove marched to the Centre in procession, with banners flying, and on the day of the great convention at Charlestown the town seemed almost entirely deserted, so universal was the attendance.

1841 .- All town-meetings, previous to 1798, had been held in the First Parish meeting-house, but in this year a building was erected as a town and school- house combined. In town-meeting March 12, 1798, " the committee appointed to view and report the dis- position of the rooms in the new Grammar School- house find the large chamber in the upper story in said house (with another row of benches), will accom- modate one hundred and forty persons, and therefore recommend that this chamber in future be appropri- ated to and occupied for the purposes of town-meet- ings and town affairs, and that the western room be appropriated more immediately for the use of the selectmen and assessors.

"N. B .- In case of a very full meeting it may be adjourned to the meeting-house."

It was then voted that " All future town-meetings shall be warned and holden in the chamber in the new Grammar School-house, known by name of the Town Hall, instead of the place they are now held."

This old town hall stood on the hill back of the present Briscoe school-house, was of two stories in height, with a cupola and bell. In 1842 it was given over to the exclusive use of the Grammar School, and was thereafter known as Briscoe Hall, until 1874. In 1841, with a portion of the United States surplus assigned the town it purchased the Thorndike man- sion, which was built by Andrew Cabot some sixty years previously, and fitted it up for the uses of the town officials, with a large hall for public meetings. This edifice was a beautiful example of the best buildings of the period of its construction, and long stood an ornament to the business centre of the town.

It was opened to the public October 26, 1841, with religious exercises and an address by Robert Rantoul, Jr., who, though at first opposed to its purchase, gracefully admitted his mistake. The work of alter- ation was ably supervised by a committee of citizens, of whom the only survivor is Augustus N. Clark, who has, for nearly fifty years, been prominent in works for the welfare of the town. This hall, at various times enlarged and improved, answered the needs of the community for nearly thirty years. But the growing demands for hall and library space, for rooms

in which to transact town affairs, and greater security of property, necessitated its enlargement in 1874. The lines of the original structure were obliterated, but ample accomodations were secured for all the purposes of town business. The cost of the later alteration was about thirty thousand dollars.

The Thorndike property, which included a garden of great attractiveness, and extended from Cabot to Lovett Streets, was thrown open to occupation, at the time of its purchase by the town, and is now covered by some of our finest estates.

A grandson of Rev. Thomas Blowers (second minis- ter nf the First Parish) died at Halifax, N. S., in Oc- tober, 1842, at the age of one hundred years. He was the oldest surviving graduate of Harvard College, and had long occupied an eminent judicial position.

1845-46 .- The Mexican war was more unpopular in Beverly than the War of 1812, and there were few enlistments of our citizens. These, it is believed, joined the ranks of the regular army : Thos. J. Pous- land (who was among the missing in the last war ot the rebellion) ; Joseph Bradshaw aud Charles F. Dodge. Mr. Bradshaw (now seventy-two years old, and Mr. Dodge, who is about ten years his junior, re- ceive pensions from the general government, under the new law. Mr. Dodge, who is still hale and hearty, and who diligently pursues his vocation, as a builder, retains vivid recollections of the most event- ful scenes of the Mexican invasion. He enlisted in December, 1846, in the battery of mountain-howitzers which became so famous as "Reno's Battery " in the operations of the Valley of Mexico. As he was with the troops nnder General Scott, he was at the bom- bardment of Vera Cruz, where he first landed on Mexican soil, and marched thence up the mountain slopes to Cerro Gordo. In this famous pass of Cerro Gordo the Mexicans, under Santa Anna, were strong- ly posted, with a numerous force, and guns guarding every possible approach. Contrary to the expecta- tions of the enemy, General Scott did not march di- rectly into the yawning jaws of the gorge, where cer- tain destruction awaited him and his army, but spent several days in opening a road along one of the high and apparently inaccessible hills, in this manner flanking the strongest batteries and forcing the Mexi- cans to retreat in confusion.

This masterly move won the admiration of all the old soldiers, many of whom had been with the dash- ing Taylor at Monterey and Buena Vista, and were disposed to murmur at Scott's slow advances. But this was the secret, perhaps of his success, for the lives of his men were precious to him, not only for their own sakes, but on account of the small force with which he was making this invasion.

Mr. Dodge was detailed to go back to communicate with the lieutenant of his company, and in doing so saw the brave General Shields, who was lying on a hillside desperately wounded. He had the pleasure of meeting General Shields thirty years later, in 1878,

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on the occasion of a lecture delivered here by the lat- ter, when they spent several hours in recounting the scenes through which they had passed together, and Mr. Dodge occupied a place on the platform, while the General gave his lecture on the war. In the great march up the slopes of the plateau to the table-land, through Jalapa, Perote and Puebla, and in the strat- egic operations about the Valley of Mexico, Mr. Dodge was in constant service. Iu addition to Cerro Gordo, he was in the battles of Contreras, Churubusco, Chapultepec and the city of Mexico.

When the brave Reno was wounded the command of the battery devolved upon Beauregard, for whom, as well as Pillow and Scott, he had great admiration. For General Scott, indeed, he had that fervent admi- ration understood only by one who participated in the desperate conflicts on Mexican soil, when the great general so successfully led that little army of ten thousand against such overwhelming odds and into the heart of a country swarming with enemies. Our townsman was one of the first through the breach in the western wall of Chapultepec, but declares that General Scott was on the castle esplanade almost as soon, looking about solicitously for the wounded and complimenting the boys on their gallant and success- ful charge.

After Chapultepec had been carried, the city of Mexico was virtually in Scott's possession, for the guns of the castle on its rock-ribbed hill commanded every portion. But the enthusiastic soldiers dashed down the sides of the hill and along the great aque- duct away from Chapultepec to the city, charging in and out its hundred arches, to the very gates of the ancient Aztecstronghold. They carried the gates and overcame some of the barricades, when night fell about them and necessitated a halt; but they held what they had captured, and completed the conquest on the morrow. One of the guns of the battery to which Mr. Dodge was attached was taken by General (then Lieutenant) Grant into the tower of a church, and this mountain howitzer figures conspicuously in the account of the doings of Grant at that time. Dur- ing the American occupation of Mexico Mr. Dodge twice performed the journey between Vera Cruz and the city of Mexico and return; once in doing escort duty after the Mexican surrender. This is but one episode, briefly sketched, of a single soldier of Bever- ly ; could the history of each one's adventures be given, it would fill a volume.

1848-49 .- "THE CALIFORNIA FEVER."-Through the acquisition of Texas, New Mexico and California, a vast territory was thrown open to exploration, as the outcome of the Mexican War. The great excite- ment over the discovery of gold in California was felt in Beverly as in few other places, the majority of its male inhabitants being fishermen, or connected in some way with maritime affairs.

It was at least twenty years prior to this event that gold was brought from the Pacific coast by Capt. John Brad-

shaw, who got it of the Indians in trade. It was iu the form of gold-dust, of a coarser grain than the Af- rican gold, and of a different color. Capt. Bradshaw, who claimed to be the first to hoist the American flag on the Northwest coast, traded there for many years ; he used to refit in the Sandwich Islands, and is men- tioned in Dana's "Two Years before the Mast." Mr. Joseph D. Tuck was postmaster during this period, and says the great event of this time was the arrival of the first mail across the Isthmus from California. The rate for letter postage was forty cents per ounce, yet some gold-dust and even grains of the precious metal found its way through the mails to expectant friends of the far-distant miners. Although the gold country was on the other side of the continent and in a region almost inaccessible, yet neither distance nor prospec- tive danger deterred our hardy population from mak- ing the venture. They had faced the dangers of the seas for years, and a voyage around the Horn was to them a matter of small moment.

Of those who had determined to seek the golden country, many united in purchasing and fitting out vessels. One party started on the overland journey across Texas, but some of them died of cholera at Corpus Christi, and the others were obliged to return and seek a more practicable route.

There was then no railroad reaching out westwardly across the Mississippi, and only the trail was known across Texas and New Mexico opened by American soldiers a year or two previously. Even this was lit- tle known, the territory through which it led having then but recently been acquired from Mexico. The first vessel to fit for California, it is said, was the brig "Sterling," Capt. Edmund Gallop, whose residence was at the Cove.

The second party sailed from Salem in the " Eliza- beth ; " in 1850 the " Metropoli-," Capt. John C. Ben- nett. Various parties were fitted out, in fact, Bev- erly's population being greatly depleted. If a man could not go himself, he would, perhaps, invest in another's venture, and sometimes two or more would combine to fit out a man who had no capital other than his brain and muscle. A frequent question of those times was : " Don't you want half a man ?" meaning a half-interest in some miner's adventure.

The most important venture was made by forty men of the county, thirty-six of whom belonged to Beverly, who purchased and fitted for a long sea-voyage, the new and fine barque "San Francisco," of 320 tous, then just built in Portland.

They chose Capt. Thomas Remmonds as master, John G. Butman as chief mate, and Andrew Larcom second mate. They set sail from Beverly, these later Argonauts in search of the golden fleece, with as lit- tle concern for the vast voyage ahead of them as now we of the present generation would take palace-car for " Frisco." They were five months on the voyage, doubled the Horn, coasted the western shore of the two continents, and arrived at their destination without

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mishap, for they were sailors all, and nearly every man capable of taking charge of the vessel.

They landed first in San Francisco, and then went up to Sacramento, where they shared out their provi- sions, sold their vessel at a great sacrifice, and went into the mines. The story of their adventures has been practically repeated a thousand times; in fine, they did not find the golden treasure they had dreamed of, and few of them returned with much to show for their labors. They could have made more in California at labor in the woods and fields, for wood that any one might cut brought sixteen dollars a cord, and labor was from ten to fifteen dollars per day.

Many of them remained two years ; some even stayed from ten to twenty years; but the homeward migra- tion soon commenced. Most of them returned via the Isthmus, and suffered terribly. One of our citi- zens, Samuel O. Gallop, broke his leg on the Isthmus, and died of the accident in New York.

Mr. Larcom and a companion came across Nicara- gua, in an ox-cart, with two Indian guides, who couldn't speak a word of English. As they spoke no Spanish, their course was sometimes a difficult one and their adventures amusing, as well as sometimes dangerous. Mr. Larcom, who is now living at eighty years of age, and who is one of our keenest sportsmen vet, was on the coast of Sumatra, in 1831, when the ship " Friendship " was taken by native pirates who killed some of the crew and drove the rest overboard. The crew of his ship, the " James Monroe," retook the abandoned vessel after a lively fight with the pirates and brought her home. Mr. Larcom is prob- ably the only survivor who participated in this fight ; and there are but seven others, living in town, who went in the "San Francisco" around the Horn ; Albert, Charles and Edward Perry, Charles Pickett, Daniel Wallis, Thos. D. Davis and Josiah Bennett. Many of the original "Forty-niners " died on the voyage or at the mines, and but few are left of those who returned.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 196

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