History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 14

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 14

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"I will make one request of the committee which is, if they see Do objection, and my venerable friend Capt. Sylvester Proctor should he living, that he be selected to lay the corner-stone of the Lyceum building."

As was stated by Mr. Proctor at the dinner, Mr. Peabody had been a generous contributor to the building of the Lexington Monument and also to the rebuilding of the old South Church when destroyed by fire. The same letter which inclosed the gift also contained a liberal subscription toward the erection of an appropriate monument at the grave of General Gideon Foster. Mr. Peabody soon afterward added ten thousand dollars to his original donation, and before 1856 had increased the foundation to fifty thousand dollars. During his last visit to this country, in 1869, he increased the amount of his gift to this In- stitute to two hundred thousand dollars.

For some years the difficulties which had been telt even in the early years of the town by reason of the distance between the North and South Parishes, and which had led to remedial legislation as long ago as 1772, had been increasing ; and the time was soon to come when the division of the two districts became necessary. By an act of the Legislature, passed May 18, 1855, the new town of South Danvers was incor- porated, with boundaries nearly corresponding with those of the old middle precinct of Salem. The old northerly line of the South Parish was changed, add- ing a strip of territory to South Danvers; instead of the ancient line, running nearly east and west, the line now runs from the same easterly boundary north- west to the sharp bend of the Ipswich River, so that some of the historic localities of Salem Village are now within the limits of the newer town.

Shortly afterward, by an act of the Legislature, passed April 30, 1856, the ancient boundary between Salem and South Danvers was changed, and the boundaries of the new town have since been undis- turbed.

It has already been noted that when the original pet tioners for the setting off of the middle precinet prepared their draft of a boundary, they asked to have a line run from Trask's mills to Spring l'ond. The strong opposition shown in Salem to having so large a part of their common land thrown into the new precinct was no doubt the cause of the change made by the Legislative committee, who recon- mended that the line, after reaching what is known as Boston Street, should continue in the street along the Boston road to the Lynn line. This recommenda- tion was adopted; no change was made at the time of the incorporation of Danvers as a district and as a

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town; and from 1710 to 1856, the houses on the op- posite sides of a road more than three miles long were in different municipal jurisdictions. The inconven- iences of such a boundary line were not so marked in the lower portion of the street, as the inhabitants be- longing to Salem were there not far separated from the other inhabited parts of Salem ; but as the road, well occupied with substantial houses, continued on towards Lynn, the Salom inhabitants became more and more remote from the interests of the town to which they belonged, and in the settlement at South Peabody, known from the earliest times as "the Rocks," neighbors whose interests were otherwise identical were forced to carry on double schools on opposite sides of the same street, and voted in differ- ent municipalities at places miles apart. It was a deep grievance, too, for the ardent temperance re- formers of Danvers, who had succeeded in suppressing the open sale of liquor in the town, to be confronted by liquor-selling taverns, such as the Naumkeag House and others of those times, which could be reached by thirsty Danvers men by merely crossing the street into Salem.

The line from Trask's, or Frye's, mills reached Boston Street at the tree known as the "Big Tree." From this boundary tree, the line of division ran along the easterly side of the road to Lynn. At the time of its establishment, in 1710, the main road to Lynn from Salem did not follow any of the now ex- isting streets in its turn to the south after crossing Poole's bridge over Strong Water Brook, but diverged from what is now Main Street at a point near Pier- pont Street, and continued in a southwesterly direc- tion till it joined what is now Washington Street near Aborn Street. This diagonal course of the old road appears very plainly on the rough map, on file in the State archives in the State library, which accom- panied the petition for setting off the middle precinct in 1710; and also upon a map of the division of the common lands of Salem, made about 1720, in the pos- session of Andrew Nichols, Esq., of Danvers. As time went on, the road which left Main Street at the Bell Tavern, or Eagle corner, where the Lexington monument now stands, became most used, and the old road at that point fell into disuse and was event- ually abandoned, though traces of it may still be found. The boundary line, of course, remained un- changed; and in 1810 the line was changed by act of the Legislature, by adding a strip to Danvers, bringing the boundary line two feet north of Fitton's store in Poole's Hollow, and then following near the brook to Aborn Street, and so to the Boston road. It was

South Danvers on the northerly side of Boston Street, between the Big Tree and the old burial-ground, was annexed to Salem by the same act. The inhabitants of the territory belonging to Danvers at the time of Mr. Peabody's gift to the town are, however, still en- titled to the privileges of the bequest. The present boundary line crosses the street near the westerly end of the old burial-ground.

It is stated in an article in the Wizard, published in 1862, that previously to the last change of bound- ary, the line ran through a house on Main Street, through a bed-room and across a bed, so that the heads of the occupants were in the city and their feet in the country.

CHAPTER LXXIII.

PEABODY-Continued.

Review of the Period from 1757 to 1855.

THE period from 1757 to 1855, during which the pres- ent township of Peabody was the South Parish of the town of Danvers, was marked by great changes accom- panying the growth of a large town from the commu- nity of six or seven hundred people dependent on ag- riculture for their support. The aspect of the old time village is still remembered by the older citizens, as it was described by Mr. George G. Smith at the Centennial Celebration : " It was a pleasant place, then, this old town of ours, when there were green fields and shady walks where now are dusty streets and busy factories. I shall never forget the old baek way by the pond, with its locust-trees, loading the air in the season of blossoms with their honey-like fra- grance. And the pond, not as now shorn of its fair proportions, its green banks sloping gently down to the clear water, and bordered with bright rushes and flowery water-plants." The pastures came down toward the centre of the village, and a country quiet rested over all. In 1800 the population of the whole town of Danvers was 2643, and in 1820 it was 3646. The South Parish could claim about half of these numbers.

branch of productive industry. Dennison Wallis the Revolutionary patriot, had a tannery near the street which bears his name; and early in the present century Fitch Poole, Sen., and his brother, Ward Poole, had tanneries near Poole's hollow, on the stream running into the North River. In 1855 there

GROWTH OF MANUFACTURES .- The tannery begun in 1739 by Joseph Southwick, the Quaker, continued to be carried on by the same family during the whole of this period. About 1770 Joseph Poor began to tan near "the lane," now Central Street, and several not till 1856 that the line between South Danvers and , of his descendants are still prominent in the same Salem was finally established, coinciding very nearly, in that part between Boston Street and Spring Pond, with the line marked out by the wisdom of the farmers of Brooksby in their petition for the incor- poration of the middle precinct. In exchange for this concession of territory, part of the territory of

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were twenty-seven tanneries in South Danvers, with an annual product of 131,000 hides, valued at $660,- 000; 122 men were employed in this industry. There were also, in 1855, 24 currying establishments, fin- ishing leather of the value of $805,000, and employ- iog 153 hands.

The manufacture of morocco and living-skins grew up in the second quarter of the present cen- tury, and in 1855 there was a product of 80,000 skins, valued at about $25,000, employing 117 hands, with a capital of $50,000.

The boot and shoe trade, which also had its princi- pal growth as an industry since 1830, produced, in 1855, in the town, 747,600 pairs, valued at $597,259, and gave employment to 1043 hands, a considerable number of the employees being women.

The manufacture of chocolate was carried on by General Foster in the early years of the century at his mill-pond, off Fo-ter's lane (now Foster Street), where were also bark-mills for grinding tan for the tanneries, and grist-mills. General Foster developed the water-power at his command with much skill and ingenuity, building a system of dams and canals. llis mills were destroyed by fire in 1823. The manufacture of chocolate was also carried on by Francis Symonds, the host of the Bell Tavern; but the industry was long ago discontinued.

At one time there were upwards of thirty pot- teries in the South Parish, mostly on "the lane," called "Garp Lane," or "Gape Lane," and also on Southwick's lane, now Lowell Street. Daring the War of 1812 the pottery from this region attained a wide celebrity, and great quantities were sold. The de- inand for the ware, which was chiefly of the coarser variety of brown ware, from which the bean-pots, flower-pots and jugs of the present day are made, di- minished after the war, owing to the cheapness with which a higher grade of imported ware could be obtained; and in 1855 only two establishments remained on Central Street, where the la-t surviv- ing pottery is still carried on; their product was then valued at $2300.

The Danvers Bleachery, an enterprise begun in 1847 by Elijah Upton and the Messr -. Walker, in 1855 bleached or colored 100 tons of goods, employing 60 men, with a capital of $150,000.

Glue was first made in South Danvers by Elijah Upton in 1817. Mr. Upton was one of the pioneers in manufactures, and was very successful in various branches. He made many improvements in methods, and in the glue business anticipated modern ideas, among other things being the first to grind glue for convenience in packing and use. In 1855 three glue factories, with a capital of $40,000, produced glue of the value of $120,000, employing 21 men.

Besides these larger industries, and the ordinary ac- tivity of a growing town in building, cabinet-making and other domestic occupations, there were, in 1855, two bakeries, producing articles valued at $35,000

yearly; two soap-factories, with a product worth $18,000, a patent-leather factory, a last factory, whose product was valued at $16,000, a box-factory, and working quarries of valuable stone, from which $5,000 worth of building and mill-stones were cut. In the days when the extensive commerce of Salem make communication with foreign countries by vessel easy, the soap business was largely developed, and an ex- port trade was built up by Henry Cook, then the principal manufacturer.

During the last half century of this period, the pre- paration of wool for manufacture was carried on, the wool being in part supplied by the skins used in the manufacture of morocco. William Sutton carried on the business at the brick store, on Main Street, in Poole's hollow, and the figure of a sheep, which still stands over the door, was to be seen in the same place as early as 1815. At one time Ward Poole, Jr., car- ried on the same business in another brick building, near Pierpont Street. Another woodeu sheep was placed over the store in Poole's hollow, occupied by Warren M. Jacobs and Fitch Poole as a morocco-fac- tory, and this image was afterward placed on the larger factory erected by Jacobs, on Main Street. The business of " wool-pulling," as it was called, did not reach large dimensions, and was at times partially or wholly suspended.

EAST AND WEST INDIA TRADE .- At one period, during the commercial prosperity of Salem, there were a number of traders in the South Parish who did a large business in supplying dealers in the interior with imported goods, sometimes buying a whole cargo at a time for wholesale and retail trade.

Some of these merchants, who dealt principally in West India goods, had their stores on Boston Street, on the Danvers side of the road, near the big tree ; there were other stores near the square, and one at least, that was carried on by Mrs. King, on the Read- ing road. With the decay of the commerce of Salem, and the change in methods of transportation, this branch of business fell into disuse, and only those stores which supplied local needs remained. The re- sults of these comparatively extensive dealings, how- ever, enriched some of the families which carried on the business.

BANKS -The Danvers Bank (now the South Dan- vers National Bank) was incorporated in 1825 with a capital of $150,000. The first president was William Sutton.

The Warren Bank (now the Warren National Bank) was incorporated in 1832 with a capital of $250,000. The first president was Jonathan Shove.

The Warren Five Cents Savings Bank was incor- porated in April, 1854.

INSURANCE .- The Danvers Mutual Fire Insurance Company (now the South Danvers Mutual Fire Insu- ranse Company) was instituted in 1829. The first president was Ebenezer Shillaber. It is an extremely conservative and sound institution.

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FREEMASONRY -- Jordan Lodge, F. & A. M., was instituted in 1808.

AGRICULTURE .- The agricultural industries of the town still continued to be of importance, and in 1855 the dairy and farm products were estimated at about $128,000, of which the onion crop constituted the largest part in valne, being estimated at $77,080.

It was stated at the Centennial celebration of Dan- vers that the whole industrial product of the town at the beginning of the century was not more than $100,000, and this is probably a large estimate.

The valuation of the whole town of Danvers in 1827 was $1,870,800. In 1855 the valuation of South Danvers was $2,944,500.

SOCIAL CHANGES .- Such a growth in the indus- tries and resources of a community must necessarily be accompanied by great changes in the social condi- tions of the inhabitants. Even with the sender his- torical material available, we can trace some of these changes.

At the beginning of this period the people of the south parish of Danvers were almost entirely of pure American blood of English descent. They were one in race, in social customs, in political traditions and religious belief. There was but one church in the parish, to which all were not only expected but compelled to contribute and which every good citizen must attend. In worldly estate there were no wide extremes, for, though some had much larger holdings of land than others, the diversity of living was not great. The distinctions of rank were punctiliously observed on important occasions, yet age was reverenced even above rank and the Christian fellowship of the church and the pure democracy of the town meeting brought all to a common level. After the stirring events of the Rev- olution, the district settled back into its quiet ways, chiefly a farming community, and supplying from its own sons the labor necessary for carrying on the be- ginnings of its manufacturing career. For almost half a century after the Revolution the community preserved the same characteristics,-a simple and neighborly society where all were personally known, in which there were few very poor and fewer very rich ; where a foreigner was a curiosity and a vagrant liable to active inquisition. The parish system of support for the church was al andoned in 1793, and a system of new taxation substituted; but there was no other religious society till the Unitarias came off in 1825. In 1832 the Universalist Society was organiz- ed, and the Methodists, though they had meetings in the south parish as early as 1833, had no appointed minister till 1810. The Baptist Society completes the list of those existing in 1805, having been organized in 1843. The Quakers have never had a stated place ot worship in the parish, but the many worthy and estren el families which have held that faith have worshipped in other towns, chiefly with their brethren in Salem.

More than sixty years ago, when all the village went to the one meeting-house, and nearly all were natives of the soil, there was a familiarity of social intercourse which can exist only in such a communi- ty. Almost every individual of consequence, and some whose only distinction was their eccentricity, were commonly known by familiar names, sometimes by nicknames descriptive of some peculiarity of ap- pearance or character. Amusing hoaxes were perpe- trated on certain ones whose simplicity encouraged the attempt, and practical jokes, which sometimes verged upon rudeness, were often carried out by a se- lect band of choice spirits, among whom were some of the best known citizens, led by one or two of the keenest and most inventive of their number. Many rare stories are told by the older citizens of the jolli- ties of those times.

Then, too, there were some who cultivated a refined literary taste, and met to read and discuss original articles on literature or the topics of the times. Rufus Choate opened his first law office here, and resided in the south parish for several years, going as one of the town representatives to the General Court in 1826 and '27. He was married while living here, and left town to practice law in Salem in 1828.

He at one time delivered an address on the Waverly novels before the Literary Circle, a society including many of the active minds of the place ; and during his residence in town he twice delivered the Fourth of July oration.

With Dr. Andrew Nichols, and the Rev. Mr.> Walker, and John W. Proctor, and Fitch Poole, who was then just beginning his unique literary career, with Rufus Choate, and Joshua H. Ward, and Daniel P. King, and other gifted and cultured minds, there was surely a sufficiency of literary ability to impress the social life of the parish with high ideals of thought and expression ; and the effect of the impulse which these men gave to the intellectual life of the town may still be felt. Not only in matters of literary taste, but in dealing with the great problems of the times, with intemperance, and slavery, and educational needs, the town and the parish kept always in the foremost ranks of progress.

The rapid increase of manufacturing and the severe and comparatively unskilled labor required in some departments brought about the importation of immigrant laborers. Mr. Richard Crowninshield, who carried on a woolen-mill just below the pond which bears his name, is said to have been the first to bring Irish laborers to the town. The con- struction of the railroads also brought in a foreign element of population.

With the increase of manufactures came the amas- sing of larger fortunes by some, and the increased values of real estate and the rising tide of enterprise and improvement throughout the country following the introduction of the railroad systems, gave oppor- tunities of investment which still farther increased the

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means of the wealthy. The old simplicity and uni- formity of social life and customs passed away never to return, and in its place began to grow up the more complex relations of town life resulting from greater variety of employment and greater differences in for- tune, and in part from the mere increase of num- bers.

EDUCATION .- From the earliest years the Middle Precinct was careful and earnest in the cause of edu- cation. Soon after the separation of the precinct the parish gave its attention to the support of schools, and claimed and received from the town its proper part of the school money. We find the school fund a com- mon subject of discussion in the parish meeting, and the people themselves contributed liberally from their slender means toward the schools. In 1734 the parish raised £47 4s. 11d. for its schools. In 1737 there were four schools in the parish, and six male teachers and ten female teachers were employed dur- ing the summer; the men received two pounds a month, and the women sixpence each week. In 1739 a grammar school, where Latin should be taught, was projected. In 1748 a school house was built near Procter's corner, eighteen by twenty-two feet. In 1765 it was voted to build a school-house on the land belonging to the parish. A school was kept six months in each parish that year. In 1783, when Revolutionary troubles had subsided, the condition of the schools received renewed attention. Com- plaint was made against Danvers for neglecting to sustain a proper number of schools, and means were taken to remedy the neglect. In 1793 Dr. Archelaus Putnam made a report to the town on the reorgani- zation of the schools. In 1793 and 1794 an effort was made to divide the town into districts, and a di- vision was made pursuant to a plan proposed by Gideon Foster, Samuel Page and John Kettelle. In 1802 the districts were remodeled at the suggestion of Sylvester O-born.

According to the plan then in force, the general supervision over all the schools was retained by the town; but in 1809, the modern system of school dis- tricts was established, with nine districts in the whole town. This continued up to the time of the separa- tion of South Danvers, the number of districts having been increased.

· The development of the highly organized public schools of the present time from the old district school in which all were in the same room was grad- nal, and can only be traced by observing the increase of numbers and the systematization of methods and growth of text-books which accompanied the group- ing of several schools in graded association. The town kept well abreast of the improvements in other places. In 1814 an order was adopted requiring an annual report of the condition of the schools to be made to the town. This was in advance of the same regulation afterward made by the State, as was also the taking of the census of school children, in-

stituted in Danvers in 1820. These reports began to be printed in 1839.

Iligh schools were established in 1850, and in 1852 a system of superintendence was established, which did not long continue.

The character of the instruction given and the standard of work performed in the various schools have been maintained at a high degree of excellence, and the town always displayed a spirit of liberality and progress in educational affair, which accorded with the principles of its earliest settlers. Mr. Proc- tor, in his address at the centennial celebration, in 1852, called attention to the fact that Danvers expended forty per cent. of all its ontlay of public money on its schools, paying, in 1855, ten thousand dollars for support of public schools, on a valuation of three million dollars. Among the teachers of Dan- vers were some whose names have become widely known. Daniel Eppes, in the early times of the town, was a famous teacher. In 1836 Charles Northend, the well-known writer on educational mat- ters, began to teach school in the town, in a school- house close by the old burying-ground; hetaught about twenty years in the South Parish, and was the first superintendent of schools in the town.

NEWSPAPERS .- The Danvers Eigle was published for about a year, beginning in 1844. The Danvers Whig, a political sheet, was published during the Presi lential campaign in 1844.

The Danvers Courier, edited by George R. Carlton, was established in March, 1845. It continued to be published till September, 1849.

TEMPERANCE MOVEMENTS .- In 1812, when the first temperance society in America was formed, -" The Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance,"-Joseph Torrey, Samuel Holten and Benjamin Wadsworth, from Danvers, were members. Edward Southwick and Deacon Fitch Poole, from the South Parish, were among the pioneers in tem- perance reform. A strong impulse was given to the movement by the adhesion of many of the leading citizens of the place. The principle of total absti- nence was upheld by these earliest supporters of the movement. The Danvers Moral Society, for the sup- pression of intemperanee, was formed in February, 1814. The language of the Constitution was mod- erate, being directed against " the daily use of ardent spirits." Rev. Samuel Walker, Fitch Poole, Dr. An- drew Nichols, Sylvester Osborne, James Osborne, William Sutton and others, from the South Parish, were prominent in the formation of the society. In 1833 the word " daily " was stricken from the article of the Constitution above referred to. Some of the pledges formerly circulated were very moderate in form. It is said that one which was extensively cir- culated bound the signer to an agreement " to use in- toxicating liquor with cautious prudence." In 1818 the thanks of the town were voted to the selectmen for their zeal in eudeavoring to prevent a portion of

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 14

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