History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 109

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 109

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As the essence of a sport is the surmounting of obstacles, so without this stimulus, perhaps, his efforts as a gardener would have failed to interest him. His success should be measured not only by re- sults, which were considerable, but by the difficulties successfully overcome and the permanent character of his improvements. During his life his garden was kept in the most advanced state of cultivation, the products frequently taking the highest prizes ; the re- sults were due to his own knowledge and care, as- sisted by such native Yankee talent as he could find about him. He never employed a trained and edu- cated gardener. It was his pleasure that the com- munity should enjoy free what had cost him so much ; admission to the gardens was always readily granted, and when the fruit was ripe, all the children of the town were invited to come with baskets and to fill them during the day. Afterwards they were enter- tained by a sumptuous collation.

He made many attempts to discover valuable seed- lings, but met with no substantial success, although he spent years in costly experimenting ; nor did he need this glory. He won credit enough in his hard- earned success in covering his loved Nahant with trees, now, nearly thirty years after his death, in their prime, and by his generous expenditures in public improvements for her benefit. His method in plant- ing and transplanting was principally to provide arti- ficial shelters. He used to set out hardy and quick- growing trees as wind barriers to protect those of slower growth and greater shade-giving qualities, which, when they had grown to sufficient size, would support each other in resisting the wind, after the protecting trees were removed. No one who should visit Nahant at the present time can understand the utter incredulity with which his attempts at tree-plant- ing were regarded by his contemporaries, so magnif- icent is the outcome of his perseverance.

The first growth of Balm of Gileads has now nearly all disappeared, and the protected trees now stand secure, and handsome elms and maples, some of them two feet in diameter.

A word about the man himself. To accomplish such results he required confidence in their ultimate valne, enthusiasm, self-reliance and perseverance ; also belief in himself and the rightness of his course, that is to say, honesty and truthfulness. Ile possessed these qualities in an eminent degree, and, in addition such an originality of thought and language and con-

His mother and sisters were women of marked character and accomplishments ; perhaps from them he derived a high ideal of women, such as springs from sincere admiration and a contact with none but the noblest and best.

He lived to see all his concerns in a flourishing con- dition, and died peacefully in the midst of his family on the 6th of December, 1864, in the eighty-first year of his age.

CHAPTER CXVII.

NAHANT-(Continued).

Incorporation of Town-Roads-The New Town-Summer Residents-Fish- ing Interest-Other Industries-Shipwrecks and Storms-Schools- Churches.

INCORPORATION OF TOWN .- In 1846 the residents and non-residents petitioned the Legislature to he in- corporated as a town, but their petition was so stren- uously opposed by the Lynn people that the prayer of the petitioners was refused by the Legislature. The petitioners then asked of the Lynn people in their town-meeting to grant sufficient sums of money to protect the beach, and to make improvements in the roads at Nahant, but they failed in these requests,

A movement was then made by the Nahant people to commence the several improvements from their own contributions. Mr. Frederic Tudor was one of the largest contributors, and built nearly all the street now known as Willow Road.

The road from Nahant to Lynn was then simply a long beach, and at high tide nothing more than a ridge of soft sand, through which it was very difficult and wearisome to travel, but at low or half-tide the hard, firm sand made a much easier road. All jour- neys, therefore, across the beach were made at low tide, unless necessity demanded otherwise. The time-table for the first stage line to Nahant was changed weekly to correspond with the tides. It was probably this dependence on the tides which encour- aged the steamboats to run so early to Nahant from Boston. A plank breakwater had been built across the low places on the beach, and at the beginning and end of Long Beach a tall, white pole was placed as a guide. In 1845 a meeting of the citizens of Nahant was held at the Nahant Hotel to forward the building of a graveled road across the beach. Some

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of those present thought it would not be practicable, as by putting gravel over the loose sand the wheels of vehicles would cut through, and in this way the gravel would become mixed with the sand, making the road no better than before. With this view they proposed a plank road, which did not meet with ap- proval. After a full discussion, a committee was ap- pointed, consisting of Josiah Quincy, Frederic Tudor, John H. Gray, Phineas Drew and Caleb Johnson, who were instructed to ascertain the expense of a road, to receive subscriptions for the same, and to consult with the selectmen of Lynn in order to pro- cure the co-operation of the town. That this was not the only scheme at that time appears from the follow- ing quotation from the Lynn Whig of September 13, 1×45: "A correspondent of the Transcript states that the committee will probably report in favor of build- ing upon this beach (Long Beach, Nahant) a branch for the Eastern Railroad."

In 1847 a town-meeting held at Lynn voted an ap- propriation of one thousand dollars to defray a part of the expense of constructing a road over Long Beach, provided that said road be built and finished to the satisfaction of the selectmen. The road was then built by spreading gravel over the sand, and was about one rod wide. It was completed in the summer of 1848. Again, in April, 1849, the town of Lynn voted one hundred and fifty dollars for the new road over Long Beach, provided that an equal sum be subscribed by the Nahant people. In this way a narrow, graveled road was completed from Lynn to Nabant.

In March, 1851, a severe storm entirely submerged the beach, damaging the breakwater, washing gullies through the new road, and covering a large part of it with sand. The newspapers of that day reported the road as washed away, but it proved otherwise, as the sand had only covered the gravel, and, when removed, the road-bed was found to be but slightly d'unaged, as the gravel was washed away only in a few places. From year to year large sums were expended upon the widening and perfecting of this beach road. A breakwater was built, and at great cost has been maintained down to the present time; so that to-day we have one of the best roads in the State-well watered in the summer, and lighted at night through- out the year.

In 1×48 an act was passed by the Massachusetts Legislature for the protection of Long Beach, " for- bidoing all persons to carry away or remove by land or by water nny stones, gravel or sand from the Long Beach, in the town of Lynn," and in 1852 an addi- Ional not was passed by the Legislature, forbidding the removal of sea weed from Long or Short Beach.

In 1853 the inhal itants of Nabant again petitioned the Legislature to be incorporated as a town, to be called Nahant. This petition proved successful, and the n making Nahant a separate town, was approved by the Governor March 29, 1853. The new town had

within its boundaries all of Long Beach. The city of Lynn consented to this division, as it would be thereby freed from further expense in maintaining the break- water and keeping the new road in repair. The set- tlement with Lynn regarding the public property was left to referees, who agreed that the town of Nahant should pay to the city of Lynn $2033.45. The Boston Bee, referring to the new little town of Nahant, says,-"It is said to contain about thirty voters. Hull must cave in. In the future it will be 'as goes Nahant, so goes the State.' We wish Mas- sachusetts were as sure to be right as Nahant is.

" We know of no other town of which so large a per cent. are Whigs. It is to be expected from such that they are a model people in other respects.

" Long live the small town of Nahant !"

THE NEW TOWN .- The new town had a popula- tion of three hundred people, sixty-nine dwellings aud thirty voters.

There was a long road or street from Lynn to the Nahant Ilotel; a cart-way to North Spring; a street, one rod wide, to the school-house and Cary's gate, called School-house Lane. Below Whitney's Hotel the streets had been laid out by Coolidge. Very few were laid out in straight lines, and all the roads and curved paths were as irregular as the lines along the shore that mark the tides.

Nahant had at the time of its incorporation two churches, one school-house with forty-eight scholars, four public-houses, ten boarding-houses, two firms of carpenters and builders, one paint-shop, a grocery store and post-office. A small building at Bass Point waskept in summer by Mr. Nathan Moore as a restau- rant, which was a popular resort for picnic-parties. Above the residence of Mr. Tudor all the land was a wide, open pasture, with foot-paths running in every direction, to and from the main road to the several beaches. But few walls or fenees obstructed the right of way over these broad aeres ; stranger or native might roam at will. The pebbly beaches were as free to all as the ocean itself. Fishing was free on the rocky points and by the still waters in the coves. There were no sigrs then of " Private Grounds," " No Trespassing Here," and the eattle roamed at will over the fields.

Longfellow says, in his journal of 1850: "One of the prettiest sights of Nahant is the eows going over the beach at sunset, from the cow-rights of Nahant to the cow-yards of Lynn. Their red hides and the reflection in the wet sand light up the gray picture of the sky and surge." In the bay were the fishing ves- sels, and among them was the only yacht of that day, the " Raven," owned by one of the summer residents. This trim little craft, decked iu the flags of different nationalities and the private signals of the owner, made a striking contrast with the homely fishing ves- sels. The first sound that disturbed the unbroken silence of early morning was the ring of the heavy fisherman's boots, as they passed through the streets

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on their way to their boats ; then the sounds of hoist- ing sails, the sharp click of the windlass, as the heavy mooring chains were lifted from the bows of the fishing fleet,-then one by one with spreading sails they silently left their moorings, to appear again in the distant horizon with their white sails dancing like fairies in the morning sun. In the evening the vessels returned again with bountiful fares.

The town had hardly launched out in its self-gov- ernment when the contested question of land rights and ownership in surplus lands and of the beaches arose. As early as 1800 a society was formed and known as the " Proprietors of the Nahant Pastures." This society held annual meetings and designated the number of acres of land that should comprise a cow- right ; but nevertheless, the lands soon began to be sold in small parcels, on which houses were built. When Nahant was incorporated as a town, it claimed the ownership of the land, and the proprietors of the Nahant pastures were ignored. In 1856 a committee was appointed in town-meeting to make investiga- tions relative to the rights of the town in the undi- vided and unimproved lands within its corporate limits. This committee surveyed the town and found in nearly every range sufficient land to give each lot, as laid out in 1706, its full acreage and poles.

In their report, they returned two surplus parcels of land at the end of the ninth and tenth ranges, with a list of, lots as laid out to several original proprietors, these lots appearing to have no recorded title from the original grantors of Lynn.

The town could have no claim to these lots, as the original owners received their title from the vote of town-meeting in 1706, and the town of Lynn was the original grantor. This barred Nahant from any ownership, excepting by purchase from the grantors or their heirs. Subsequent conveyancers have found titles from the registry of deeds for all the several lots claimed by the town, and there is hardly a lot that is not traceable and has not a recorded title, which should dispel the erroneous idea that Nahant lands are lacking in good titles. Surplus land and the title to the beaches, however, offered questions which have been discussed more than any other. It was claimed by one party that the citizens of Nahant owned the beaches in common, for gathering drift- wood, kelp and sea-weed. This right had been re- served for the citizens of Lynn by the division made in 1706, as by that division all the land was divided into lots and parcels for each inhabitant, but the beaches were reserved for the use of the townspeople in common. In accordance with this right, the citi- zens of Nahant, when it became a separate town, claimed all the beaches within the corporate limits of the town. On the other hand, those owning land bordering on the sea claimed the right to the shore to low-water mark, by statute law. This latter opinion prevailed, as at this date, and there is now but little, if any, question on this point.

After a continuons struggle with the city of Lynn for the title of Long Beach, the courts decided that the right to the beach had passed from the city of Lynn, by the act of incorporation that made Nahant a town, and thus the right of Long Beach went to the new town, as the beach was held to be a part of its territory.

SUMMER RESIDENTS .- The cottages of the sum- mer residents were at first small and primitive, usually of one and a half stories, a few hav- ing two stories. There were generally piazzas on each side, and rose-bushes usually were planted by the side of the pronged posts that supported the piazza roof, and this was about all the pretension there was to floral display, save the lilac and a few other hardy plants. The foot-paths leading from cot- tage to cottage gave the appearance of an informal and social summer life among the cottagers. Long- fellow says in his journal : " Life at Nahant partakes of the monotony of the sea. The walk along the shore, the surf, the rocks, the sails that embellish the water, books and friendly chat,-these make up the agreeable rounds."

Among the many distinguished people who made their summer homes at Nahant was WM. H. PRES- COTT, the historian. It was his custom every morn- ing to spend several hours walking back and forth under a row of willow trees, now a part of the estate of Mr. Sears. The boys of the village would often meet him there, as they carried their supplies of bread, groceries or milk, in their baskets or pails, to the summer residents. He would usually see them coming, and wait at the end of the path until they reached him ; then he would take basket or pail and carry it up the hill to the other end of the path. We all loved the kindly man who so many times helped us with our little burdens up the hill.

LONGFELLOW we saw every morning sitting by the window writing, and we used to wonder what he could be writing so much about. Years later we read the "Song of Hiawatha," which was partly written in the Johnson house.

DANIEL WEBSTER visited Nahant in 1851, and an account of his visit here is given in a Lynn paper at that date :

"The Hon. Daniel Webster is now at Nahant, at the residence of Mr. James W. Paige. The people of Nahant called upon him at about nine o'clock on Wednesday evening and were very cordially received by him.

" He shook them warmly by the hand, and greeted them with the familiarity of old friends. After a half- hour's social conversation and earnest greeting they gave three hearty cheers for ' Webster and the Union,' which were responded to by Mr. Webster in a few remarks, urging the importance of inculcating and cherishing union principles. After expressing his gratification and thanks for the honor of the visit, he bade them an affectionate good-night.

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" The company left highly gratified with the visit, and feeling that they had been favored by an inter- view with the greatest man the world now knows.

" We understand that Mr. Webster hastaken rooms at Colonel Drew's, where we doubt not he will be re- invigorated by the sea breezes at that delightful place of resort. He appears in much better health than we have seen him for some time."

PROFESSOR AGASSIZ made his home at Nahant for many summers, and nowhere could he have been more respected and beloved than he was by the townspeople. He endeared himself to all by his perfect simplicity and by his kind and cordial man- ner. One day a strange fish was caught by the fish- ermen : no one "could find a name for it, and finally they decided to go themselves and consult Professor Agassiz. When they reached his house they found him at dinner; but on this occasion, as on many another of the same nature, he at once left the table and appeared on the piazza to welcome his callers. I am sure no one that was present will ever forget that pleasant countenance as he took the fish, and holding it up in both hands, he looked at it a mo- ment, and then turning to the fishermen said, " Why, is not this a bonito?" This occasion was made so pleasant by the further description of the fish that all were filled with admiration for him, and ever after to be lucky enough to catch a rare fish to carry to Professor Agassiz was a treat all strove for.

Among other interesting occasions at Nahant was the visit of Father Matthew, the celebrated temperance reformer. A platform was built for him under the trees in front of the old Johnson homestead, from which he addressed the citizens present, and many at the close of his address signed the pledge.

Mr. N. P. Willis was also one of the carly summer residents at Nahant. The first summer he spent here he occupied rooms at the Nahant Hotel, but after- wards had a cottage. Ile was an enthusiastic ad- mirer of Nahaut, as the following quotation will show.

In describing the beach before the road was built he writes :

"Renal to Nahunt there is none. The or modlos go there by stram ; Init when the tide is down you niny drive there with n thousand chari- uta over the bottom of the sea. As I suppose there is not such another plac In the known we ld, my tale will wait while I describe it more fully- Nohant it Is still calle 1 by its Indian name Nahanti is so far out into the m van thet what is called the ' ground-swell the majestic leave of It's great bogota going on forever like respiration, through its faro may is like a man for hegrath the sub, and a wind may not have crisped its wurfi " for days nil weeks, iwas bread and powerful within a rood of the change as it is a thousand miles at en.

" The promontey Itsel is never wholly left by the ebb; but from its west in extreunty there rus a natrow ridge, scarce brond enough for a homme path, ings for the rocks and Hen-weer of which it is mut. to 1, ar l extend , at the hi i water mark, from Nahant to the main- Ind. Seward from this role Een an expense of sand, left bare at komme but if tweese by the retreating sam, as smooth and hard as mark Hun be nl and apparently as level as the plain of the Her- ing & three miles it stretches away without she'll or stone, a sur- fo dw b, fine-Framed rol, beater so hall by the eternal hammer of the wurf that the hood of a horse a tree marks it, and the heaviest

wheel leaves it is as printless as a floor of granite. This will be easily understood when you remember the terrible rise and fall of the ocran swell, from the very bosom of which, in all its breadth and strength, rull in the waves of the flowing tide, breaking down on the beach, every one with the thunder of a host precipitated from the battlements of a castle."

JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY loved and admired Nahant, and spent many summers there, passing his last summer in this country at the " Villa " with his friend, Mrs. J. E. Lodge. From the life of the Rev. Samuel May we quote the following :

'. During the summer of 1820, at the invitation of several gentlemen of Boston, I accompanied them to Nahant, which lad then become a favorite resort in the hot season, and spent three months I instructed their children during the week, and conducted the service of public worship each Sunday morning I remember that I enjoyed my little school, and that among my pupils were some boys who have since be- come distinguished men, especially the Rev. Robert (. Waterson, and the historian, Jolin Lothrop Motley."

From this statement we infer that Mr. Motley learned his first lesson in the old stone school-house. In later years he spent a number of summers in the Hood house, where a part of one of his histories was written.

JOHN ELLERTON LODGE? was born in Boston No- vember 26, 1807, and was the third son and sixth child of Giles Lodge and his wife, Abigail Langdon. Giles Lodge was a young Englishman, who came to the West Indies on business about 1790, and fled from St. Domingo in 1792, at the time of the great massa- cre, narrowly escaping with his life. On reaching Boston he established himself there as the corre- spondent of his brother's firm in Liverpool, and soon afterward married, and became an American citizen. Mrs. Lodge was descended from the well-known Langdon family, and through her mother from Lieu- tenant-General John Walley, who at one time com- manded the colonial forces in Queen Anne's wars.

Mr. Lodge received his early education at the Bos- ton public schools. He was an active, energetie boy, but fond of books ; and his one great desire was to go to Harvard College. IJis father, however, although a successful and prosperous merchant, had a large and growing family and many expenses. After the New England fashion, therefore, he sent his oldest son, Dr. {}. 11. Lodge, the translator of " Winckelmann," as a matter of course, to Cambridge, but felt that he could not afford to do more for the younger boys. Accord- ingly John, when he finished school, went at once into his father's counting-room. A boy's place in the Boston counting-rooms of that day was no sineenre, and Mr. Lodge chafed under the restraint and also under the parental discipline, which was extremely strict. He finally made up his mind to shift for himself, and at the age of sixteen, with two hundred dollars which he had saved, he left his father, and, being of an adventurous turn, went to New Orleans, a far cry from Boston, in 1823. There he engaged in the

) The engraving which accompanies this sketch is by Wilcox, from the portrait by Eaines, painted in 1842, and now in the possession of Mra. John E. Lodge.

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cotton business, and being both bold and sagacious, he prospered and made money. He remained in New Orleans for more than fifteen years, com- ing North only for the summers, which he spent at Nahant, or in making an oceasional journey to England. About 1840, having accumulated a moderate fortune, he retired from business and re- turned to Boston to live, and in 1842 married Anna, the only surviving daughter of Henry Cabot, of Bos- ton. After his marriage Mr. Lodge again engaged in business as a China merchant, in which he became very successful, owning many ships and carrying on an extensive trade with the East.

Mr. Lodge had always been fond of Nahant, and as his wife's family had lived there for many years, he had made it his summer home. Despite his many and large business cares, he always interested him- self cordially and actively in everything which came into his life, and very soon, therefore, extended his interest to the little town where he passed his summers. For many years he was the treasurer of the Union Church at Nahant, and gave to its pros- perity much time and thought. He also did every- thing in his power which could tend to advance the welfare of the town. He never entered public life in any way, but leaving the Whig party after Web- ster's 7th of March speech, became an ardent Free Soiler and Republican. This, with him, was not a difficult step, for during his long residence in the South he had imbibed an intense hatred of slavery, and he now threw himself into the oppo- sition to its extension with all the ardor of a strong nature. He took a profound interest in the Fremont campaign, making then the only political speeches, of which he was ever guilty, to the assembled long- shoremen on Commercial wharf in Boston, where his office was and where his ships were unloaded. He was a devoted friend and admirer of Charles Sumner, who passed many weeks of every summer as his guest at Nahant; and he aided the Republican cause with his purse and influence in unstinted measure.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 109

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