History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 107

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II > Part 107

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Leading from these two or three roads, foot-paths and cow-paths wound through the barberry bushes, across hill and marsh land, to the several small springs from which the cattle got their supply of wa- ter. A few cedar trees still survived on Little Na- hant, where a cart-way extended across the western end from Short Beach to Long Beach. A few trees of the primeval forest that once grew in the low lands below Whitney's Hotel, with here and there a stray willow or cedar, were all that remained to break the monotonous stretch of bare pasture land. A narrow foot-path wandered along the shore, leading hither and thither down to the waters' edge.

Of the three families at that time living in Nahant, two,-Hood and Breed,-were farmers, who owned nearly all the land in the first, second, third and fourth ranges, while the third, Johnson, who was a fisherman, owned only about ten acres of land. He had his fishing-boat anchored near Nipper Stage Point, and had also a small boat-house on the bank, with flakes for drying fish. In summer countless flocks of plover, curlew, peep and other birds fre- quented the shores ; while in winter at every point innumerable sea-fowl, coots, black duck, blue-winged teal, brant, wild geese, etc., fed in the coves and hays. Fish, of course, were abundant, and thus Nahant, primitive in society and unsurpassed in sporting at- traction, seemed, from the very first, destined to be a place of summer resort. Even at this early time it attracted some of the best families of Boston and Salem, first as boarders with the three families dwell- ing there, and later as owners of cottages.

On the southwest side of Nahant are two small coves, the only places where a safe landing can be made in severe storms. Nipper Stage, a point or rocky ledge running out in a westerly direction some twenty rods, breaks the undertow of the sea from the first cove. A smaller ledge separates the two coves ; beside which stretches a sandy beach about fifty yards in length. This little sandy beach, bordered by a grassy slope, was in the early period the common landing-place for the fishermen and farmers of Na- hant. Hence, no doubt, the wood cut by Armitage in 1658 was transported by water to Marblehead and Boston. Here, at the head of the little cove, were the flakes for drying fish, which were gathered into parcels or quintals to be brought to market by water, although the greater part was sold to country people, who visited Nahant for that purpose ; as we learn from the statement of Mrs. Abner Hood, who said that many country people came to purchase dry and fresh fish, lodging at the Breed Tavern.

As early as 1738 Samuel Breed, Jr., was designated in a deed as "Samuel Breed, Inn Keeper," and the land conveyed to him was described as near Nipper Stage.1

1 Concerning the origin of this queer name we have no certain knowl- edge. The word Nipper is the local name for perch, and in early times

1116

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

This ledge of rocks is now the site of the wharf and steamboat landing. In 1800 a spring near the cre furnished an abundance of good water. A foot- path led up from this cove, across the field and through the swamp, crossing by the way two ditches, a plank serving as a bridge, while on either side were bushes from three to ten feet high ; thence the path wound up the steep hill, through a grove of locust trees to the Johnson house and the road. Another road circled northward around the hill from the old boat-house to Dorothy's Cove. This connected with the cart-way that led up the hill to the main road, and was used for many years for the cartage of fish, wood, stores, cte., from the landing to the village.

Many a story has been told by the older people of adventures and incidents at this spot. Here was the first steamboat landing of 1817. Off this point were anchored the " Dolphin," "Lookout," "Sally Ann," " Lafayette " and others, besides the fishing-boats. Near by was a large boulder, where a fire-place of stone was made, upon which a kettle of tar and pitch was boiled for many years; the tar and pitch being used as a coating instead of paint on the outside planks that covered the bottom of the boats. Here, too, parties came in sun:mer to catch "nippers " and make fish chowders.

On the death of flood, Breed and Johnson, their land came into the possession of their children. The Richard llood land, which contained over one hun- dred acres, became the property of his son, Abner. The Breed land also descended to an only son, Nehe- miah ; and what he had purchased together with that which he inherited amounted to upwards of one hun- dred and twenty acres. The land left by Johnson was inherited by his three sons,-Caleb, Joseph and Benjamin. In 1800 there were still but three families living on Nahant,-Abner Hood, Nehemiah Breed and Caleb Johnson.

The public-house mentioned before at Bass Point, now familiarly known as the Castle, was built and used as a summer hotel by a Joseph Johnson, of Lynn, in the year 1802, as the following notice shows :

" NAHANT.

" homeph Johnson informs the public In general and the valetudinu" mais itA sportsmen In particular, that he has reopened a House of Luteintiment on the most delightful, pleasant, airy and healthy spot 1 Nule nt, where he will bo fonmal ready furnished with every 'good the to ewer the heart, to brace the frame, or to pumper the ap- Ir tite Hit hense Is e anterklious andt neat-in the vicinity of the best I ine and bowling en the peninsula ; and he keeps a beat sail-bont AAw adest f 1 the ac omin aluti 'n of lus friends. To the other in- du cente he adds his tul lavitation ; and while he will attend lls guests wch dei'ht, h mmm res them that every favour shall he D. 1 mil relwith pintitude

" Ervelt jistime, foe tu rare, l' ne rhoy mit ap ts and faro ]

thisvery fr nenty (Med by this name, Probably n wharf or " Not have been I mult for the landing and landing of fish, wood, ATT Patch Od lweight there in great numbers.

Come, and stay a week or so- But if uneasy, haste to go," " Nahant, July 26, 1802."

WAR OF 1812 .- Before 1812, however, three other dwelling-houses were built by Joseph Johnson, Eben- ezer and Abner Hood, for their own use and for sum- mer boarders, and this, with fishing and shoemaking, as in nearly all the sea-board towns, was the business of the few who dwelt there. In the year 1812 the schooner " Dolphin " was soll to John Phillips, of Swampscott, from fear of the English cruisers, which left the little settlement without a vessel. However, soon after, peace was declared, and Caleb Johnson purchased of Mr. Crowninshield the sloop "Jefferson," of Salem, which had been used as a privateer.

In Harper's Magazine of September, 1886, is the following description : "The schooner ' Fame' sailed in the afternoon and sent the first prize into Salem. The second prize was sent in by the 'Jefferson,' a boat of only fourteen tons, carrying one gun and twenty men." This little boat was used as an excur- sion boat in summer and for fishing in winter until 1816, when, having become unseaworthy, she was sold in Lynn and broken up for fire-wood; a new boat was then built called the " Dolphin," which took the place of the " Jefferson."

In the War of 1812 it is stated by the old people now living, that the English ships frequently sailed by Nahant opposite Bass Point, so near that the men could be seen on the deck of the frigates. Fishermen were very often captured by these frigates. One skipper, when captured and brought alongside of the vessel, refused to allow the captain to take his fish without paying for them, which so amused the officers that they paid him for the fish, remarking, "Let the exacting Yankee fisherman go; but if we catch you again we will keep your fish and you too."

Mrs. Polly Ilood remembered seeing " Unele Billy Breed " ride from his tavern to Lynn on horseback with a bag of money behind him, frightened at the appearance of the English ships. It is also said that English officers in citizens' dress, at times boarded at the llood llon-e. At the time of the celebrated naval engagement between the "Chesapeake " and "Shan- non " all the headlands were covered with people from Lynn and adjoining towns to witness the encounter. Old residents declare that there have never been so many people on Nahant at one time since.

In 1817 the Breed family moved to Lynn from Nahant, leasing their house and farm to Jesse Rice.

DESCRIPTIVE LETTER .- In the Patriot of Satur- day, August 14, 1819, the following letter describes the Nahant of that day better than any one now can :

" Nahant possesses advantages as a watering-place superior to any in New England. It isn peninania stretching two miles into the sun. You approach it by land, over a most excellent turapike road, surpassed by none in the United States ; and across a bench of surpassing smoothtiess, on whose hard level the wheel leaves no mark, and which may bo just- ly considered as one of the curiosities of the country.

1417

NAIIANT.

"From its bleak bluffs the ocean spreads itself before you in all its grandeur, now bearing on its broad and beautiful bosom the white sails of commerce, and now roaring in rage and breaking its wild wave on the shore. You have liere the sublimity of a sea voyage, with the secu- rity of a residence on land. The rocky shore of the peninsula presents another appearance of sublimity aud grandeur ; the rude magnificence and gigantic ontline of one part is relieved by the beauty and regularity of others; and in the cells and caverns which diversify tho seeuery, an admirer of nature may find abundant amusement in exploring the io- nouierable traces of her workmanship.

" Some of these have obtained appropriate names from the attention of visitors, and the Swallow's Cave, Spouting Horn, Five Sisters, Pea Island, The Point and the Grotto remind those who are familiar with this corions place of some of its romautic situations. Nor do you appear to be on an island. Shut out from the world, on the south you perceive the spires of the capital and the dwellings of its busy population ; on the west and north arise the green fields aud farms of rich husbandry and grateful cultivation.

"On the high grounds of Nahant the air is most pore, refreshing aud salubrious. The heat of a summer sun is moderated by luxuriant sea- breezes which never fail, from some quarter, to alleviate its intensity.

" Its waters afford abundant sport for fishermen ; small fish are caught in surprising quantities from the rocks: and at a short distance in the bay cod, haddock, mackerel and halibut reward the labor which pur- sues them.

" Nahant was formerly a fiue place for gunning, but the crowds which have of late years resorted to its shores have almost entirely scat- tered the birds, which were accustomed to frequent it. Ashort sail, however, will put the sportsman on an island where his best expectations may be gratified.

" It is surprising, that with all these natural advantages, art should almost wholly have omitted to add anything to the rest.

"The company who have visited Nabant have bitherto resided aulong the few Quakers of the place, and partook of such homely accommoda- tions as they could conveniently provide, but their ability has not equaled their good disposition.

" It is only necessary that a hotel and bathing-houses should be erected to make Nahant one of the most frequeuted places in New Eng- land. The advantage f attracting here the company which annually seek amusement or health abroad is prodigious, if calculated oply in a pecuniary point of view. A circulation of at least sixty or seventy thousand dollars in specie would be gunually derived from the people who frequent any well established watering-place, and with the superior natural accommodations of Nahant, the assistance of a small capital would place it on the most desirable establishment.

" Something has already been done by au enterprising and public- spirited individual, and a scheme for great improvements set on foot. which, if successful, will render it a most delightful retreat from the cares of business or the nuhealthy atmosphere of the capital."

Editor's Note .- " A recent establishment of Mr. Rice, though uot dig- nified with the appellation of a botel, may nevertheless be considered as approaching very nearly to a house of that description."

Editor's Note .- " We have received this beautiful description of Na- hant from a very intelligent correspondent."

THE HOTEL .- July 9, 1821, Thomas H. Perkins and William Paine, both of Boston, for the consideration of $1800, bought of Nehemiah Breed all the south- east part or first range of Nahant, which was then called the " Ram Pasture." This piece of land con- tained about eighteen acres, and on this land, in addi- tion to several acres more afterwards purchased, the Nahant Hotel was then built. We clip the following notice from the Columbian Sentinel of September 15, 1821 :

" NAHANT HOTEL.

" Those gentlemen who have already subscribed towards erecting # hotel at Nahant, with such as may be disposed to promote the object, are requested to meet the undersigned at 12 o'clock, on Monday next, at the American Insurance office, to consider what measures shall be taken to complete the subscription, or whether it shall be abumloued alto- gether. The necessity of erecting the wall the present eensun, if it is expected the house shall be occupied the next summer, makes it necessary that something decisive should be determined upon.

" T. H. PERKINS. " WM. PAINE."

The ensuing year, June 26, 1823, the hotel was com- pleted and opened. The following notice of the open- ing appeared in the Boston papers :

" NAHANT HOTEL.

"This magnificent establishment is now open for the reception of visitors, to the most delightful spot on the American coast for health or pleasure. It is impossible to select a residence which combines so many natural and artificial advantages.

" Located in the bosum of the ocean, the air is salubrious and invit- ing ; while the spacious bay continually presenting the fleets of com- merce, with the hills, verdant plains, islauds, villages and country seats, extending from the heights of Scituate to the peninsula of Cape Ann, form a panorama unrivaled in any country.

" The numerous projecting cliffs afford excellent sites for the angler, from whence even old Isaac Walton would have thrown his line with pleasure, and looked abroad upon the wilderness of waters 'in moral couteuiplation wrapped.'

" The hotel is capacious and fitted up with every convenience, where the Superintendent, Captain James Mague, so distinguished for his gen- tlemanly deportmeut aud kind disposition, is most assidoous to make every oue happy and comfortable. There are floating, hot, cold and shower salt-water baths, billiard-rooms, bowling alleys, a beautiful ma- rine hippodrome which twice in twenty-four bours is laved and rolled smooth by the waves of the ocean ; and numerous interesting walks for health, exercise and amusement. In truth, Nahaut is the chosen domain of the youthful Hygeia, tbe pleasant summer residence of the invalid and of all those who seek enjoyment or require relaxation from the cares and business of life ; whether they flee from the sultry clime of the South, or the 'stir of the great Babels' of commerce, there they can be at ease and KEEP COOL."-Thursday, June 26, 1823.

In the following year we find a further description in an advertisement of the hotel :

" The hotel itself is a large stone edifice, containing seventy cham - bers, in a number of which are recesses for beds.

" There is a dining room fifty feet in length, and of sufficient size to accommodate one hundred and twenty-four persons at table; besides these there are several private parlors and a capacious stable, a hand- some bathing-house for warm and cold baths, a machine of peculiar con- struction for bathing in the open sea, excellent boats for sailing and fisbing, etc.

" MILTON DURANT.

" HENRY JOHNSON."

The above proprietors kept the hotel until 1827.

In that year we quote the following extracts from the papers of that date, showing how popular Nahant then was as a watering-place:

"On Saturday last. six hundred persone left Nahant for Boston ; we arc glad to find that visitors at this pleasant retreat are again becom - ing frequent. On Monday nearly three hundred people dined at the Nahant Hotel and were excellently well accommodated.

"One company, composed principally of memla'rs of musical choirs of several eocieties of the city, to the number of nearly two hundred, dined at tables extending the entire length of the three piazzas. .

"Among the visitors at the Hotel this season are numbers of our Southern friends. and if we may be pardoned for introducing the name of a Indy, we should mention that Mrs. Randolph, the daughter of the venerable Thomas Jefferson, was one of them."

Another correspondent in a Salem paper the same year says :

" Nahant contains about a dozen dwellings, and has about three huu- dred and five acres of fertile land under high cultivation. . . . Nahant bas long been a place of resort iu the warm season for the fashionable and gay from the metropolis who are in pursuit of amusement and rec- rention, and for invalids from the vicmity and interior of the country, who are in pursuit of bealth, in the most oppressive hent and sultry wenther of summer. . . Immense quantities of sea-weed are cast hy the ocean on the beach and shore of the peninsuln. Not less than three thousand tons n year are couveyed to the main land by the farmers. . . . The number of visitors at Nahant this year has never been equaled. Strangers are enticed here from the more Southern cities. The point of

1418

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

attracties, is Nabant, sluch, like the orbit of a circle, enel wes all the Taste, elevane and fashion of the country. The balls are splendid and Ry the conversation lively and amusing."

The last proprietor of the Nahant Hotel, as first built, was Phineas Drew, who, in 1852, conveyed the hotel and grounds to parties in Lynn, who made ex- tensive improvements in the grounds and built a new hotel in the winter of 1853-54. The hotel thus en- Urged and rebuilt was a large wooden building, new wings three and four stories high having been added on each side of the stone work of the former hotel. The building was over four hundred feet long and had about three hundred rooms. Eleven bundred people could be accommodated at one time, and the spacious dining ball could seat over six hundred. It was one of the largest and most convenient hotels on the Atlantic coast. Every summer the house was filled, and it was not an uncommon thing for the pro- prietors to furnish mattresses in the hallways for guests when there were no rooms left for them. Everything was furnished for the comfort and pleas- ure of those who spent the summer there. Telegraph' wires connected with Boston, and there were bowling alleys, billiard-rooms, stables, and boating and fishing accommodations. A steamboat was built expressly for the accommodation of its patrons to and from Boston. The hotel and everything connected with it was a great success, until the war broke out, when, like many other enterprises, it failed to receive its accustomed patronage.

The following advertisement of the hotel is taken from the Boston Journal of June 10, 1854 :

" The Nahant House has for many years been one of the most popu- lar reste, during the summer season to be found on the whole sea- board. The hotel has just been rebuilt and entirely remodeled, fur- uished and equipped by the Napoleon of hotel proprietors, Paran Stevens, L'aq., under whose energetic and enterprising management we doubt hot tid Nahaut will speedily become the most popular resort to be fo ind in this section.

. The homee is to be opened on Monday, when the new steamer, ' Nelly Baker,' commences her trips."

On September 12, 1861, this large hotel, which cost over one hundred thousand dollars, was burnt to the ground. The fire caught about ten o'clock in the evening and the one small fire-engine in the town proved of little use. The people of the town gath- ered on the cliffs and watched the flames as they sprea lover the great building, which in a short time was burnt to the ground. The blaze was seen for Tuk- around. All that was left of this immense hotel property was a few outlying buildings-the -tibb and bowling alley and the billiard-house- wish stol stands on the cliff, in appearance the same a when built over fifty years ago. A few years later the er unds and rensyning buiblings were purchased a Mr Jobn E Lodge, and his two children have there Imilt their summer residences.

SIAMOAT LANTING .- At the opening of the A. I it Hotel, a few road, leacing to Swallow's Cave was cod by the Hotel Company and Mr. Coolidge. Proin this read a path was left leading by the ledge

in a westerly direction, where a short flight of steps lead over the ledge to a covered building. This was an open six sided building, with seats on the sides and ends; a passage-way ran through to a long flight of steps which led over the ledge to a narrow walk. Two ship spars had been laid from the foot of these steps to a square wooden frame made of logs pinned together. This frame-work was then filled with stones, making a barrier against the sea, and upon this the ends of the spars were fastened, and piles were driven, slanting in a westerly direction, to deep water. On these piles a long plank walk was made, at the end of which the steamboats made a landing at all times of the tides. Subsequently Mr. Coolidge built the sea wall, filling the space between the wall and ledge with stone and gravel, which gave plenty of room for the wharf and for the passage-way from tbe wharf.

At the northeasterly end of this new addition the " Nahant House," now the residence of Mr. George Peabody, of Salem, was built. A rivalry commenced between the proprietors of the Nahant House and the Nahant Hotel, which caused the Nahant Hotel Company to build a new wharf on their own prop- erty, near Great Ledge, in the little cove near the site of the residence of Mr. George Abbot James. This new wharf was used during the summer of 1828 as the landing-place for the steamer "Housatonic." The company afterwards purchased that part of the first wharf which was built by Mr. Coolidge, and made there a good landing for a steamboat, to the northwest of Swallow's Cave. Lines of steamboats were now running their regular trips between Boston and Nahant, the " Eagle " making one hundred and fifty trips that season.

This landing was used until 1875, when Central Wharf was built by Mrs. Fenno Tudor, at the old and first landing-place near Nipper Stage.

STEAMBOATS .- The first steamboat that arrived in Boston Harbor was the "Massachusetts," and the Columbian Sentinel of July 19, 1817, contains the following notice of her :

" The new and beautiful steamboat ' Massachu- setts' has, by perseverance, so far overcome the prej- udices ot the public, that on Thursday afternoon, in her excursion around the harbor, she was filled almost to overflowing with ladies and gentlemen. . . .

"The ' Massachusetts' is one hundred feet long on the deck, and measures one hundred and twenty tons."

This steamboat probably made excursions to Na- hant in 1817, but there is no evidence of her making regular trips until three years later, when we find her advertising regular trips to Nahant and Boston from Foster's wharf. In 1818 the steamboat ronte was fully established between Boston and Nahant, the steamboat " Eagle," July 18, 1818, being advertised to run as follows: "Steamboat ' Eagle' leaves this morning for Nahant at 9, and returns to Boston at

Finances Johnson

1419

NAHANT.

12 M. She will return to Nahant precisely at 3, and leave there at half-past six."

At the same date we also find the following notice of the "Eagle": "This new, safe and convenient boat arrived at this port a few days since from Nan- tucket, for the purpose of gratifying the inhabitants of this town and vicinity with the repetition of those pleasant excursions down the harbor, with which they were so much delighted the last summer, in the steamboat ' Massachusetts.' "'

August 26th, the same year, we also find the steam- boat " Eagle," Captain Clark, in addition to her trips to Nahant, advertised as "leaving to morrow for Hingham."

From this it seems quite certain that the first steam - boat route out of Boston was to Nahant. The follow- ing is a list of the steamboats from 1817 to the pres- ent date: 1817, "Massachusetts," Captain Walker; 1818-19, " Eagle." Captains Clark and Wood; 1820, " Eagle " and " Massachusetts," Captain Wood; 1821, " Massachusetts " and "Eagle," Captain Wood ; 1822- 25, "Eagle," Captain Wood; 1825-27, "Patent; " 1828-29, " Housatonic," Captain Francis Johnson ; 1830, "Housatonic," Captain Samuel Silsbee, and "Rushlight," Captain Burnham; 1831, "Fanny," Captain Henry; 1832, "Connecticut" in excursions only, Captain Porter; 1833-34, " Hancock," Captain 'Porter; 1835, "Fanny," Captain Marsh; 1836, "Mount Pleasant," Captain J. Gillespie; 1837, " Kingston ;" 1838, " John Jay ;" 1839, "Thorn," Cap- tain W. H. Byram; 1840, "Hope," Captain Van Pelt; 1841-47, "General Lincoln," Captain B. F. Betts; 1848, "Nahanteau," Captain Betts ; 1849, "King Philip," Captain Betts ; 1850, "Suffolk," Captain Betts ; 185I, "Norwalk," Captain Betts ; 1852, "Clifton," Captain Carr; 1853, "Queen of May," 1854-56, "Nelly Baker," Captain A. L. Rowell; 1857, "Nelly Baker," Captain F. Covell ; 1858, "Nelly Baker," Captain A. W. Calden ; 1862, "Nequasset," Captain T. J. Gerry; 1863, "General Berry," Captain T. J. Gerry ; 1864, " Clinton," Cap- tain C. Kilby ; 1865, "Orient," Captain C. Kilby ; 1866-72, " Ulysses," Captain A. W. Calden; 1873, " Meta," Captains Calden and Rowell; 1874-77, " Meta," Captain Calden ; 1878-83, " Nahant," Cap- tain Calden ; 1884, no boat; 1885, "General Bart- lett," Captain J. B. Ingersol ; 1886, " Julia," Captain J. P. Garet ; 1887, " Anita," Captain F. W. Lund.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 107

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1672

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1672