History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 26

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 26

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The reaction from the intolerance and over-religi- ousness of the preceding century was largely brought about by the enforced practice of the toleration which they had feared and abhorred. Being obliged to live in peace with Anabaptists, Episcopalians and Qua- kers, they learned, if not to like them, at least to do business with them, and at last to respect them as valuable members of the community. Wearied with long strife which had proved to be so profitless, the peace which followed the establishment of public worship after the manner of the Friends and the " Churchmen" must have been a grateful surprise even to those who had predicted dire evils to follow the toleration of Episcopaey or heresy. The minds of men were now somewhat released from the contem- plation of insoluble theological problems, and the fears which had hung over the colony for a hundred years began to drift away or to dissolve before the splendor of the rising sun. Religion began to be re- garded as the beneficent guide of life to be privately followed and not publicly enjoined upon others.

Many now living remember Dr. Holyoke, whose one hundredth birth-day was celebrated by a dinner at the Essex Coffee-House, in 1828, which he attended and at which he spoke. He was graduated at Har- vard College in 1746, and therefore knew all of the men and women of the last half of the eighteenth century in Salem, and those older men and women also whose memories went back to the lifetime of the conditores themselves. To men now living he may have told the stories related to him by men who heard them from the lips of John Endicott. His own mem- ory must have held some wonderful reminiscences of the hundred years in which the feeble provinces were

growing to be a great nation, able twice within his knowledge successfully to meet the mother-country in arms, and on sea and land to prove herself invincible to any foreign foe. As a boy, in 1736, he may have ridden over from Marblehead on a pillion behind his father, or have sailed around Naugus Head in a fish- ing boat to see the funeral procession of Philip Eng- lish, and have listened that day to the tales of the grandams and goodies who remembered when he and his wife were arrested as witches. Perhaps he heard some of them slyly remind each other of having had a hand in the sport when the mob stripped and plun- dered his house. Some of them were in that proces- sion which marched out to the edge of the wilderness at Gallows Hill, or stood near enough to hear the dy- ing groans of Giles Corey. The older men that day would be sure to recall that other funeral when John Endicott was followed to his grave, in 1665, by his old companions, "the founders of the Colony." There would be several there who remembered seeing Robert Wilson's wife tied to the tail of a cart, and whipped from "Mr. Gedney's house to her own door in '61." As Dr. Holyoke in later years recalled these things, and contrasted the hardships and perils of his own century and theirs, he must have remarked the fact that the hard and perilous experiences of his time were memories to be proud of and to rejoice over as their anniversaries came, while the most ex- citing and perilous experiences of the preceding cen- tury left shameful memories and bitter regrets. Be- ing born in Marblehead in 1728, Dr. Holyoke could not remember that in that year Gov. Burnet, finding it impossible in Boston to obtain an appropriation from the General Court for his salary, called a session in Salem, where he found the members still intracta- ble and unwilling to provide supplies for a "royal Governor." He would quite naturally have been one of that crowd of six thousand people who assembled on Salem Common to hear George Whitefield preach, and he certainly heard much of the heated contro- versy which began at that time and continued until the Congregational Church of New England was di- vided, three-quarters of a century later. Those who sympathized with George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards at the time of the "great revival " then formed one party ; those who disapproved of their methods and doctrines formed another, and the lineal descendants or natural inheritors of the ideas and moral sympathies of these two parties are to-day in Salem, respectively called Orthodox and Unitarian Congregationalists. George Whitefield, loved, ad- mired and praised by one party, was by the other dis- trusted and condemned. But to all he was an object of exceeding interest and curiosity. Holyoke felt the earthquake shock in '55, the year that Lisbon went down. He saw Timothy Pickering as a boy in the streets and saw the children growing up who were to march with him to Winter Hill, when the British

SALEM.

were retreating from Lexington, and get for a hard day's march, with none of the fighting which they went for, only curses because they did not get there sooner and capture the whole force. He must have stood at the North Bridge when Colonel Leslie march- ed that way and was met by the "proprietors of the North Fields," who assured him that the way beyond the bridge was not the "King's Highway," which he claimed it to be, but a private way where passing was "dangerous " for those who were forbidden by the lawful owners. He was a man in middle life when the great events of the Revolution were coming to pass. He might have seen Lafayette in Salem in 1784, and Washington in 1789, and may have owned one of the numerous beds occupied on that memora- ble occasion by the "Father of his country." No doubt he stood on the wharf when the "Grand Turk" sailed on her famous voyage to India and China, and went down to see her when she came in, the first to bring a cargo direct from Canton to New Eng- land. Some writers describe those days as provincial, dull and uninteresting to any but traders and sailors. But the man must have been curiously made who could stand in the distinguished company certain to assemble at such a time and see the treasures of the oriental world begin to pour into that little old Puritan town and not have sensations which would stir his blood and cause his nerves to tingle as scarce- ly anything would but war. These men, whose ances- tors would not willingly associate with Anabaptists, Episcopalians or Quakers, were now ready to trade with Catholics, Buddhists, Mohammedans, Parsees, and idolaters of every hne and creed. Trading with them, they learned to respect them, and sometimes they even formed life-long friendships with men of the most diverse religious opinions. During his own life- time Dr. Holyoke had seen revolutionary changes of many kinds. He saw , the little provinces become a powerful nation. He saw religion cast off its gloom and severity, while in social life austerity gave place to animation and a joyous activity. He saw also in their cradles, or playing in the streets, the boys who were to bring literary renown to the old town when her commercial laurels faded. Perhaps the boys are now growing up who, by the fame of their scientific achievements, will take up the succes- sion and make Salem as illustrious in science as she is now for the fame of her children,-Prescott and Hawthorne.

Of the last century Timothy Pickering was perhaps the most distinguished man born or living in Salem after 1750. He was conspicuous for the force and dignity of his character, for his many attainments and for his notable public services. Born in 1745, and dying in 1828, a descendant of one of the "founders," graduated at Harvard College, in his later years an officer of the First Church, a Unitarian before Chan- ning had begun to preach, his life was almost an epit-

ome of Puritan history in all its phases. From the time, in 1774, when the Colonial Legislature assem- bled in Salem and took measures to call a General Provincial Congress in Philadelphia, Pickering was at the centre of events. A mere catalogue of the offices he held in that-half century will suggest the many services he rendered and his eminent fitness for public life. He was adjutant-general and quarter- master of Washington's army; delegate to the Con- stitutional Convention at Philadelphia; Postmaster- General, Secretary of War and Secretary of State un- der Washington and Adams; United States Senator; Representative in Congress; and president of the Essex Agricultural Society. But, eminent as he was, he was hut one in a group of professional and busi- ness men of rare ability and great attainments. Many of the educated people of that time, as in the next generation, were familiar, not only with public affairs in their own country, but also were at home in foreign lands, and had much of the culture which is gained by travel after the usnal course of education is finished. They were not provincial in any narrow sense. Those merchants who had no academic train- ing acquired a comprehensive knowledge of the world, which gave them great influence as advisers, and a large number of them were eminent outside of their counting-rooms. Such names as those of Benjamin Goodhue, Nathaniel Silsbee, the two brothers Jacob and Benjamin Crowninshield, Benjamin Pick- man and William Gray suggest to those who are fa- miliar with the history of the country the great ser- vices rendered by merchants in the early days of the republic. Goodhue and Silsbee were United States Senators. One of the Crowninshields was Secretary of the Navy, and one declined the same position some years before. Mr. Pickman was Representative in Congress after holding many posts of honor in Massa- chusetts, as did the other merchants named. Nathan Reed was well known, not only as member of Con- gress, but as jurist and iuventor. He made a steam- boat with paddle-wheels as early as 1789. B. Lynde Oliver was a learned and famous physician of that time, being well versed in such knowledge as was then current in scientific circles, and an authority in optics. Nathaniel Bowditch everybody has heard of who ever smelled salt-water. He was famous both on sea and shore. His fame was so extensive and stable that even his contemporaries who used his "Navigator" and worked out their problems by use of his tables, often thought of him as being as ancient and famous as; Sir Isaac Newton. After his marine experience was over he lived as a quiet business man in Salem, not especially conspicuous in a place and at a time when first-rate attainments and achieve- ments were expected of many men in many modes of action.

As merchants at that time, no men were more con- spicuous in Salem, or elsewhere, than Elias Haskett

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Derby, Joseph Peabody and William Gray. The story of the commercial fortunes of the town will be told elsewhere. They were at their brightest in the period between the two wars with England and were the direct result and continuation of one of the most interesting and exciting episodes in the varied histo- ry of Salem. America had no navy when the Revo- lutionary War began. Exposed along all her line of coast to a descent of the enemy, but one defense was possible. Instant submission must have followed had not the whole merchant service of every kind offered itself with ships and men trained to enterprise and eager for adventure. It was to Salem, Beverly and Marblehead that Washington looked at once for an armed fleet, without awaiting the slow action of a loosely organized Congress or taxing the inadequate resources of scattered and half-appointed ship-yards, and these old sea-ports did not fail him in his neces- sity. They furnished, ready-made, the first navy of the war. Ship-building of every kind was pushed with all speed. Vessels of all kinds, large and small, were commissioned to sweep the seas and make lawful prize of war whatever could be captured belonging to the enemy. Salem entered into this form of war with great enthusiasm. It suited the adventurous spirit of her boys. Jonathan Haraden was a sea-dog of the approved pattern. Bold, perse- vering and indomitable, he made himself a terror to the enemy, and, with others of like temper and spirit, soon made Salem a magazine of supplies of every kind, taken from the merchantmen of Great Britain. At one time a famine was averted by the timely arrival of a prize laden with flour and dry goods. More than one hundred and fifty privateers sailed from this port during the Revolution. The extraordinary activity of the marine forces of the town left few to take part in the war on land, although when Colonel Pickering marched after a drum through the aisles of the First Church, calling for volunteers, the full quota of the town fell in behind him and followed him into the street. Privateering had all the charm of piracy without its crime and outlawry. It furnished adventure to match the de- sires of the most inflamed youthful imagination. The town was full of well-educated young fellows who were eager for excitement. The people were of a homogeneous breed, mostly the descendants of the English yeomanry. Every one knew his neighbor, and each one had a reputation to make or to main- tain. Every sailor boy expected some day to be ad- miral of a fleet or master of a vessel at least. All were intelligent, and sailed with a purpose. The re- sult was the training of a merchant marine of unex- ampled intelligence, enterprise and experience. When the war was over it was easy to see that the little town of five or six thousand inhabitants was swarming with sailors and privateersmen, rough, boisterous, im- patient of the plodding ways of business, spoiled for

anything but a life of adventure. With the harbor crowded with swift-sailing vessels and the streets filled with idle sailors, with ship-owners not averse to the life of enterprise and adventure made familiar by war, all the conditions were prepared for the sudden enlargement of the mercantile resources of the town which followed. Many volumes would be required to hold the record of the times, the adventures in foreign lands, the hunt for new markets, the unex- pected discovery of obscure corners of the world, where salable products of the earth, rare in Europe and America, were common, and to the natives of lit- the value, the conflicts with natives often murderous in disposition and cannibals to boot, the rivalries of fellow merchants, and the dangers from foreign na- tions, both on sea and shore. These, often told in part, familiar to many, have as yet never been pre- sented to the public in the fullness which the great interest of the subject would justify.

In this place it is possible only to call attention to the features of society at that time which are often overlooked, the dash and excitement of the common life and the brilliant cosmopolitanism of the rich, en- terprising and educated men who conducted these en- terprises. The sudden quiet which fell upon the town when the foreign commerce departed, the grave demeanor of the elders, who, their business being doue, and their sons having gone to conduct other enterprises, quietly settled down to the enjoyment of wealth and leisure, have given the impression that it was always so in Salem. When those who are in mid- dle life now came upon the stage the play was over, the curtain was falling and the lights were going out. But when everything was fresh and all enterprises in full operation, when the store-houses were full, the wharves scenes of busy activity, and the young men of the town were coming and going on their travels and voyages, there was nothing dull or sluggish in the movements of society. Youth was predominant and hopefulness characteristic of the times. The un- exampled opportunities for young men drew them from all the neighborhood, and in those days the in- crease of population was largely of this class. An impression of gravity and severity is given by pic- tures of the men and women of that time, who, in dress and manner, seem ancient and stiff. At that time it was customary to mark distinction of age and standing by the fashion of the garments. Old men did not affect the sprightliness of youth either in gait or garment. In middle life one's coat was a little longer, his waistcoat a little more voluminous, his shoe buckles a little broader, and there was an air of repose and a suggestion of solidity which was regard- ed as not inappropriate to one who might be supposed to have done something and had passed the need of hurrying overmuch. It was a gravity not altogether without the compensations and quiet cheerfulness which come with well-filled pockets, and a heavy

SALEM.

balance at the bank. The young meu as they pros- pered were not averse to a little of the dignity which began to indicate that they were men of weight. All social distinctions were still marked by etiquette and dress in a way now quite unknown. Until just be- fore the Revolution names of students were printed in the catalogne of Harvard College in the order of the social rank of their parents. Something is to be said for customs which mark off society into classes according to age and merit, and make it easier to grow old and more desirable to succeed in lawful en -. terprises, because of the increased respect paid to the aged and the honorable. Old age in some ways begau earlier than now. It is difficult for us to realize what au extension of the workiug capacity of the race has followed the great improvement of optical instru- ments since the beginning of this century. Timothy Pickering was near-sighted and wore glasses. A sol- dier has left on record the emotions with which he saw him ride along a line of camp-fires in the even- ing, his eyes blazing at intervals like balls of fire. He had never seen such a sight before. Many near- sighted people, having no glasses, were accounted queer, because they could not join with others in sports or many occupations, and the middle-aged, who were not rich enough or enterprising enough to provide themselves with the costly and ngly specta- cles then made, were early victims of old age and were laid on the shelf prematurely because they could not see.

The intellectual excitements of the last part of the eighteenth century were many and strong. Inter- course with the whole world brought freight of many kinds besides that which paid duty at the custom- house. Puritanism had lost its hold upon the lead- ing classes and English Unitarianism was coming in to make Salem a " peculiar place." But this, though influential, was as yet a silent force, working persua- sively, but not noisily. French Democracy, working in some ways to the same end, was a disturbing force of which more account was taken. France had been the friend of America in her well-nigh hopeless strug- gle. Lafayette was loved there next to Washington, and it was natural that French ideas should be popu- lar. But in the admixture of French ideas with Pur- itanism it is easy to see there were difficulties not easily overcome. "Infidelity " was a word of ominous meaning, and the atrocities of the French Revolution made it hard to keep one's balance when attempting to take from the French philosophers the good there undoubtedly was in their theories, and to avoid the evil which was only too apparent. Dr. Bentley was a Democrat and a sturdy fighter. He did not hesi- tate to avow his liberal opinions as to church and state and to take the consequences, and the conse- quences were sometimes unpleasant. He stood almost alone because of his opinions, a Roger Williams of later date, not doomed to banishment because the

times had changed. Even so early as 1787 he was a leader in the ways which were by many accounted destructive. The story of the theological contests of the time belong in the ecclesiastical history of Salem, and will be told in its proper place. But the struggle was not wholly, perhaps not at this time mainly, the- ological. The questions in dispute were by all par- ties supposed to relate to the very foundations of social institutions and civil government. The new world of modern life was in process of discovery. New ideas were pouring into minds both trained and un- trained in a tumultuous profusion which was bewil- dering. Everybody knew that the old familiar forms into which society had heen shaped by Puritanism were shifting and changing. To some the changes were welcome; to some they were alarming. Few were iudifferent to them, and no one knew what would come next, nor exactly what was desirable. The de- scendants of the Puritans, then as now, were conser- vative in action and slow to change the outward habit of their lives. The intellectual tumult, however, was none the less because veiled by the decent garb and weighty manners of the " respectable citizen." The peculiarities of Salem life cannot be understood by those who do not take into account the stress and tension of the minds of the men and women of those days, and the great activity of intellectual faculties exercised on numerous questions which had no rela- tion to business and no concern with the traditional religious beliefs. It is not possible to account for the outburst of literary expression in the generation fol- lowing this on the supposition that the best society of the last days of the eighteenth century was a " purse- proud " aristocracy, of which the most conspicuous members were those who, by patient and unscrupulons dealings in New England rum, negroes, tobacco and salt codfish, had amassed wealth and were enjoying it in an atmosphere of dignified and exclusive dullness. The evil and the stupid elements of a commercial town were there, and no doubt in their full propor- tion. But there was that other something, the intel- lectual unrest and voiceless activity which came to expression a little later in sons and daughters trained to think, accustomed from childhood to familiar intercourse with the masters of thought and literature, and able themselves to contribute to the world's slowly accumulating treasure of immortal books. The liter- ature of a generation springs out of nothing but a previous generation prepared to nourish thoughtin] sons and daughters. In the generation to come upon the stage as the great merchants pass away we shall see how the brilliant literary history of Salem was prepared for in these busy and laborious days after the Revolution. There was, in general society, at that time great formality and exclusiveness, due in part to the perilous strength of thought, out of which may come new dispensations of peace, or, with unfaver- able conditions, contentions and disaster. Many of

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

the more " aristocratic " families had maintained their loyalty to the royal government, and were perhaps all the more attached to their King because at a distance from their "old home" they idealized him. They had found Salem too hot for "tories," and at the be- ginning of the war had gone to England or the Brit- ish provinces. Among the " patriots " who remained the lines were strictly drawn between Federalists on the one side and Republicans on the other. The principles which were approved on either side were illustrated in many ways, and social life took its tone largely from the color of the political party to which a family belonged. The one would give society some- thing of the stateliness of aristocratic society abroad, while the other would abandon all formal etiquette and return to the unconventional ways " of nature." To the Federalist, Thomas Jefferson riding unattended on horseback to take the oath of office as President of the United States was simply demeaning himself and degrading his office. To the Republicans he seemed to be setting an example of glorious republican sim- plicity. The two social ideals created social distinc- tions and produced rivalries which seem now incredi- ble and foolish. But we must remember that nothing is of small value when it illustrates a principle, and that by ontward signs a community is educated to loyalty or dislike for a theory of social order upon which the safety or prosperity of all may depend. The men of these times were at the head of the streams out of which were flowing the main currents of the national life. They knew it and they felt their responsibility.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century Salem was still a small town. The century was well on its way before fifteen thousand people gathered there. But it was the home of a vigorous race,-the product and flowering of the Puritan stock, enriched by cul- ture, made wise by many experiences of adversity and polished by travel and a wide experience with men of many creeds and customs. In a letter written at the time, Haskett Derby is described as "a fine, majestic-looking man." "He says little, yet does not appear absent ; has traveled much, and in his man- ners has an easy, unassuming politeness that is not the acquirement of a day." Such a description may be taken as almost typical of the society of that time in its best aspects. There was no doubt pride, pre- tension and folly, such as always come and go with rapid changes of fortune. There was no doubt a class whose arrogance was not justified by any service ren- dered to the public by themselves or their ancestors. Others were unworthy heirs of great names, and unfit custodians of family renown. There were the purse- proud who were ignorant, and the exclusive who, in order to be so, were obliged to forget their ancestry and exclude their kindred. But after making all the allowances which could be suggested by envy, by the ill-natured rivalry of other towns, or by jealous rivals

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. I, Part 26

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