History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 223

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 223

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Lake Kenoza is the largest of the four lakes of Haverhill, having an area of two hundred and thirty- four acres. South of this noble sheet of water was laid out the great ox-common before 1650.

From Mimekeni Towers we look down also upon Lake Pentucket, onee "Round Pond " or " Belknap's Pond." This is a remarkably beautiful body of water, j. singularly pure and limpid. It has an area of thirty- eight acres.

Saltonstall, Kenoza and Pentucket are within half a mile of each other. Kenoza is a mile and a half from Haverhill Bridge, in a northeasterly direction. Pentucket is about one mile northerly from the bridge. The water in these lakes is about one hundred and fifty feet above the bed of the Merrimac. The natural outlet of Round Pond lies towards the southwest, through which, by the way of the Merrimac and Little Rivers, salmon and other fish passed up, according to their season, to deposit spawn. The direction of this outlet of water was long ago artificially changed towards Plug Pond to secure the surplus water for the mills upon Mill Brook. Since the Aqueduct Company acquired the ancient mill privileges upon Mill Brook the later outlet has also been discontinued.

The only outlet from Lake Kenoza is Fishing River, which flows northerly from its northwestern extremity, and up which the alewives used to crowd in spawning time. It has latterly been utilized to increase the supply of water for manufacturing purposes upon the mills below by drawing off water from the lake in the dry season. This privilege was granted to Mr. Ezekiel Ilale, Jr., in 1835, who ereeted a flume at the outlet of the lake and deepened the bed of the stream.

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Once, and for many years, there was a corn-mill upon this stream, about half a mile from its month. The first mill was built by William Starlin, probably about 1684. He sold it to Thomas Duston in 1697, from whom it descended to his son Timothy.

Creek Pond is in the West Parish, about three miles northwesterly from the bridge, and has an area of one hundred and seventy-five acres. Some beautiful groves adorn its borders, and there are excellent farms in its vicinity. It was once well-stocked with fish,

There are no chains of hills in this town, the emi- and a favorite resort of sportsmen. Its outlet, Creek | nences being generally detached. Nobody ever

Brook, runs due sonth to the Merrimac, and was long noted for its alewives. It was originally known as Merrie's Creek, probably from Joseph Merrie, who was in the town as early as 1645. Creek Pond begins to be known as Crystal Lake in modern transforma- tion, a name of which it is not unworthy, as its waters are remarkably transparent, and the bottom even and sandy. On Creek Brook, or Merrie's Creek, there were long two mills, one at the outlet of the pond which was first a grist-mill, and later a hat-factory, the other a grist-mill near the Merrimac, and long known as "Bradley's Mill."

These four ponds, so long valuable for their supply of fish-food and water-power, are invaluable to the modern city as furnishing an almost unrivaled supply of pure and abundant water, which is, as yet, con- trolled by a private corporation.

Fishing River, flowing northerly into Plaistow, gradually bends to the southwest and empties itself into Little River, so-called by the Indians and early settlers to distinguish it from the Merrimae or "Great River." Little River rises in Plaistow and Kingston, N. H., enters Haverhill a little east of the Atkinson line, and flows southeasterly to thic Merrimac, enter- ing it at Washington Square, one-fourth of a mile west from Haverhill Bridge. Near the State line there has been, for a hundred and fifty years, a grist-mill on this stream, long known as "Clark's Mill." A fourth of a mile from its mouth, at Winter Street, there was for two hundred years a saw-mill, whence the stream was generally called "Sawmill River." Nearer its mouth was long a grist-mill. The saw and grist-mills ceased operations years since, but at the bridge, which at the extremity of Winter Street crosses the stream, Ezekiel Hale established a "cotton yarn manufactory " at the beginning of the present century. Later flannels were manufactured there, and the same manufacture is still carried on upon the locality by M. T. Stevens & Sons.

thony Chase built a saw-mill about half a mile from the month of the stream, and a few years after a grist-mill and fulling-mill. These were in operation for many years. John Chase, son of Anthony, built and carried on for a long time a fulling-mill, about one mile above his father's mills. About 1790, or a little later, Thomas Johnson built a grist-mill about one-fourth of a mile from the Merrimac, known as " Johnson's Mill."

thought of calling any of them mountains, though some are prominent and pretty steep. There are Johnson's Highlands, Golden Hill, Silver Hill, Turkey Hill, Joh's Hill, Brandy Brow Hill and the Great Hill. Golden Hill is said to have once been called Golding's Hill, from a person of that name who owned or lived near it. Its base is about twenty rods from the Merrimac and it rises three hundred and twenty-five feet above the river, about a mile east of Haverhill Bridge. The prospect of the island in the river, long called Clement's, of Groveland, Bradford and the city itself is certainly a picture of great beauty and animation.

Counterpart of Golden Ilill is Silver Hill, also called from a former owner, about three-fourths of a mile west of Haverhill Bridge, three hundred feet above the Merrimac, which flows by its southern base. The lower portion has become known as Mount Washington, over which residences are rapid- ly extending. For ten years the city has been steadily growing in that direction. From the sum- mit of Silver Hill are seen the valleys of Little River and the Great River, the picturesque town of Andover, Lawrence and Methuen,-prosperous chil- dren of Haverhill,-the North and West Parishes, scenes of the early Indian warfare, with the distant mountains. If precedent is needed for admiration of these views, it is historically asserted to have been set by the beloved father of his country, who gazed

" On the Hills of Gold and Silver, Running rouud the little town,"

with undisguised admiration.

Turkey Hill, north of the East Parish meeting-house, is an irregular group, rather, of hills, from which the river valley is seen to great advantage with the East Meadows, of which so much is read in the town records. Job's Hill is at the north, overlooking the birth-place of the venerable poet, Whittier. These hills, it is imagined, are little visited. They are rugged and solitary, within a short distance of a very busy and thriving community.

East Meadow River rises in Newton, N. H., euters Haverhill about three-fourths of a mile east of Brandy Brow Hill, and,passing through beautiful and sequestered woods and thicket4, makes it way nearly Various conjectures, all of them rather unsatisfac- tory, assume, in the books, to account for the some- what startling name of Brandy Brow Hill. It is the most northerly point of the town. Its vicinity was long famed for its excellent and abundant pine tim- south to the Merrimac, emptying into it at " Cottle's Creek." As early as 1693, Joseph Peasly built a mill on this stream, near the Amesbury line, and a saw and grist-mill have been maintained there almost constantly since by his descendants. In 1757, An- ber. At the top of Brandy Brow is a great rock,

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HAVERHILL.

marking the corners of four towns,-Plaistow, Ames- bury, Newton and Haverhill.

Perhaps the most ambitious passage in Chase's "History of Haverhill " is that in which he describes the view from Great Hill, one mile north of Lake Kenoza, the highest eminence in town and the second highest in Essex County. He says: "Portions of more than twenty towns in Massachusetts and nearly or quite as many in New Hampshire are easily dis- tinguished by the naked eye. To the east stretches the broad Atlantic, whose deep blue waters, dotted with the white wings of commerce, are plainly seen from the Great Boar's Head to Cape Ann. Near its edge and partially hidden from onr sight by Pipe- Stave Hill in Newbury, are seen the spires and many of the houses of the city of Newburyport. To the right the eye can distinctly trace the outline of Cape Ann, from Castle Neck to Halibut Point. With the aid of a glass several villages upon the Cape are made visible. As we sweep around from east to south, nearly all the most prominent hills in Essex North can be distinctly seen and easily identified. To the south and southwest, portions of the villages of Grove- land, Bradford, Haverhill, North Andover, Andover and Methuen and the city of Lawrence can be seen peeping above the intervening hills. To the south- west, the Wachusett; to the west, the Monadnock ; and to the north, the Deerfield Mountains are easily distinguished. To the northwest, the village of Atkinson, with its celebrated academy, is spread out in bold relief. To the northeast is seen the top of Powow Hill in Salisbury,-so named from its hav- ing been selected by the Indians for their great ' powows,' long before the white man gazed upon the waters of the Merrimack from its summit. Turning again to the south, we notice, almost at our feet, the beautiful Lake Kenoza, glistening in the sun like a diamond encompassed by emeralds. Once viewed, the memory of this lovely landscape will never be effaced.

"" The faithful sight Engraves the image with a beam of light.' "

CHAPTER CLI.

HAVERHILL-(Continued).

Settlement of Haverhill-Indian Deed-First Settlers.

IN three months, in 1638, no less than three thou- sand settlers arrived in Massachusetts. This great press of new-comers, who naturally repaired, in the first instance, to the places where their friends, pre- viously landed, had established themselves, caused considerable inconvenience. They could not well be accommodated. Besides, it no doubt seemed as if half England were coming over. The Anglo-Saxon greed

for good land was roused ; there was but little avail- able for immediate cultivation. Most of the good land was heavily timbered, and it would be the work of many years to clear it. Without land and without the successful cultivation of lands there could be no products to form the basis of trade and commerce. The years 1639, 1640 and those immediately succeed- ing, witnessed something like a land speculation in the new colony. After those years, the civil war in England and the brighter prospects it opened to the Puritans checked immigration to New England, and many even returned to their old homes, But it is esti- mated that in 1640 there were already in New England over twenty thousand persons, or four thousand fam- ilies. In Ipswich and Newbury, in 1639, there were large numbers of immigrants from Ipswich, Newbury, Lynn, Haverhill and the vicinity of those towns in the easterly part of England. All these people were eagerly looking out for good places to settle in.

We who revere the character of our ancestors, the settlers of New England, when we think, talk and write of them, are in danger always of passing into extremes. We are indignant with those who seize upon the instances of their bigotry, intolerance and cruelty, wilfully or ignorantly to accuse them of in- consistency and hypocrisy. On the other hand, we are apt to err when, in moments of exaltation, we ex- tol them as always and altogether saintly and heroic.

The enterprises which they undertook, and the courage and consistency with which they conducted them, were indeed wholly admirable. The story of the Pilgrims of Plymouth will never cease to be blazoned. The firmness and cool calcu- lation with which Winthrop and his associates covenanted together, with their persons, fami- lies and properties, " to pass the seas," marks the voyage of that company as a great event in history. Not in either case simply because it re- quired vigor and manliness and valor to leave home and dear old England, sail over stormy seas and ex- plore the wilderness. The old Greeks had done that ; the Vikings had done that; their own ancestors, the Dancs and Saxons, had done that. They perhaps did not know the story of Lief Erickson, the North- man, but they had read or heard all about the voyages of Columbus, and the Cabots and John Smith. They were not the first to sail or to explore in America or in New England. The peculiarity of their undertak- ing was, that they set out not as voyagers, adven- turers or traders, but, as Dudley, Winthrop and the rest expressed themselves in the famous agreement at Cambridge, England, August 26, 1629,-" to inhabit and continue in New England." They sold every- thing in the mother country, converted their property, tore up their domestic ties by the roots, and went to Massachusetts to stay. They did not seek to make fortunes and return to Europe to enjoy them, but they went with the determination to attack the wil- derness, to overcome it, to plant new settlements

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

where they hoped in time to obtain something of the comfort and the order of the old. What else did they go for? Many of the Massachusetts settlers were al- ready men of property and substance ; many of them had homes and families which were dear to them. They must abandon the first and put in peril and subject to hardship the last. What they hoped, then, finally to gain for themselves, their families and pos- terity by the great removal, was a shelter and a hid- ing-place for civil and religions liberty, both then in danger of being destroyed at home. As Winthrop wrote : "The Church hath noe place lefte to flie unto but the wildernesse." And the farewell letter from the "Arbella " of April 7, 1630, asks the prayers of the "Reverend Fathers and Brethren " left behind, and promises to return them from "our poor cottages in the wilderness, overshadowed with the spirit of sup- plication, through the manifold necessities and tribu- lations which may not altogether unexpectedly, nor, we hope, unprofitably, befall us." These expressions show the character of the enterprise. They were la- boring under no illusions; let us not fall into any. They were not idealists ; they did not sail away into Utopia ; they left the persecutors; they did not ask the persecutors to go with them. They sought to save themselves; they did not undertake to save the world. They meant to establish a government, if the King of England would leave them in peace, in which they and those who thought with them could enjoy the liberty of soul and body which they considered ought to be inherent to an Englishman. They and those who thought with them-not those who differed from them. And if the result of their labors has been the establishment of a happy asylum for people of all sorts of belief, it is a result unexpected and undesired by them, though the natural outcome of their own inde- pendence and self-sacrifice.

They took care to say in this farewell letter par- enthetically, "We are not of those that dream of perfection in this world," and, it may be sup- posed that if they had anticipated the criticisms of posterity, some of them might have warned us not to expect in their conduct the perfection of consistency. Others of them would plainly have denounced toleration as " Carrion." Just as the stern Gov. Thomas Dudley wrote Sir Richard Saltonstall, " God forbid our love for the truth should be grown so could that we could tolerate errours." In common fairness, we must take the Puritans according to their own expressed limitations. And when we once un- derstand that they came hither only to establish a home for themselves and such as were in accord with them, we are in a position to judge their doings in- telligently.

The next thing to appreciate about the early settlers of this region is that they were men of com- mon sense. They believed in prayer, morning and evening and at all times, but not as a substitute for intelligent human effort. They trusted in God and

kept their powder dry. They did not expect to find it in good condition when the Indians attacked them, if they did not preserve it from dampness by dne per- sonal care. They did the best they could themselves in the first place, and then asked God's blessing upon their labors. They meant to succeed in the great emprise which had brought them to America. The only way in which they dreamed of success was by every man doing the best he could for himself and so for all. They had no notions of a common stock, and no intention that the industrious should support the idle in idleness. Justice would be the wisest charity. To nourish infant communities and to sup- port a struggling common-weal, each person must put forth his abilities and be taxed, and also protected according to the result. The improvident must suffer the consequences ; hence, very few instances will be found in our early history of any community of labor, save in isolated cases, for a very short time or for ob- jects of public concern. The lands were divided in severalty and each man went to work to improve his own.

Land being the great object of desire and means of profit, the shrewd men made the most of their oppor- tunities of acquiring it. They prospected the wilderness, they sought out desirable tracts towards which they directed immigration. Simon Bradstreet, for instance, was (to use a modern English phrase) a great promotor. He lived at Ipswich, at Andover and at Salem. He helped lay out the town of Salisbury. And he received grants of land in the former places which became valuable. Doubtless his services were useful, too, from his intelligence, experience and influence.

The Puritan ministers were very influential and especially at the beginning. They were potential, not only in spiritual but in temporal matters. In re- turn, the people provided for their earthly needs, fairly if not generously, according to their ability. But there were sometimes unseemly squabbles on the subject of the minister's compensation. Tithes could not be thought of as a mode of providing it, for that was the method of the Church of England, from which they had come out. It is rather remarkable, indeed, that they should have reserved parson- age or glebe lands, after the English custom, as they did in most of the new settlements. They certainly did not leave the clergy to contributions, nominally voluntary, but morally compulsory. There was always a stated compensation, a formal contract. The pastor was a " settled " minister.

The clergyman from his stand-point recognized the necessity of looking out for himself. He was not a celibate ; he had a family usually and a home. He had children. The State did not provide for their education and he must do it himself. He meant there should be schools and a college, and that learning should not die out in New England. To secure these things, lie must be independent.

The Puritan clergyman in New England generally

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HAVERHILL.

became a farmer by compulsion, and cultivated his glebe land himself. Sometimes he was shrewd enough to prospect, also, and obtained valuable tracts of land by grant. Some of the early ministers of Essex County laid the foundation for considerable wealth in this way.

In 1634, Nathaniel Ward, the projector of Haver- hill, was at Ipswich, as pastor of the church there. In 1639 his son, John Ward, followed him across the sea, probably bringing his wife with him.

Giles Firmin, Jr., would appear to have come to Massachusetts in Winthrop's company, as his name appears in the list of the members of the First Church in Boston, appended to the covenantadopted Aug. 27, 1630. One writer, however, says he came in 1632. His father was "a godly man, an apothecary of Sudbury in England," wrote Winthrop. The younger Firmin had studied at the University of Cambridge, and was learned in medicine. He first taught medicine and surgery in New England. Afterwards he removed to Ipswich, where he was a successful physician, and married a daughter of Na- thaniel Ward.

December 22, 1639, Nathaniel Ward wrote to Governor Winthrop: "One more request, that you wd not pass yr. promise nor give any encouragement concerning any plantation att Quichichack or Pen- tuckett till myself and some others either speak or write to you about it, which shall be done so soon as our counsels and contrivalls are ripened."

Four days after, Dr. Firmin wrote Governor Win- throp, who was at this time in pecuniary embarrass- ment, resulting from the fraud of his bailiff, to which Firmin alludes in the beginning of his letter by way of introduction and then proceeds to the main busi- ness of it. He had doubtless known Governor Win- throp well during his residence in Boston.

" My father-in-law Ward, since his son came over, is very desirous that we might sett down together, and so that he might leave us togeth- er if God should remove him from hence. Because that cant be accom - plished in this town, is very desirous to get mee to remove with him to e new plantation. After much persuasion used, considering my want of eccomodation here (the ground the town having given mee lying 5 miles from mee or more), and that the gaius of physick will not find me in bread, but besides apprehending that it might bee a way to free him from some temptations, and make hum more cheerful and more service- able to the country or church, have yeelded to him. Herein as I de- sired your counsel, so do { humbly request your favor, that you would be pleased to give us the libertye of cho wsinge a plantation ; we think it will be at Pentuckett or Quichichchek by Shawshin ( Andover) : 80 soon as the season will give us leave to goe, wee shall inform your worship which we desire ; and if that by the court of election wee cannot gather a company to begin it, wee will let it fall. We desire you will not graunt any of them to any before wee have seene them. If your wor- ship hath heard any relation of the places, wee should remaine thankful to yon if yon would be pleased to counsel ns to any of them."

Firmin proceeds to ask the Governor's advice upon the following state of things :

" The towne (Ipewich) gave mee the ground (100 acres) upon this con- dition that I should stay in the towne 3 years or else I could not sell it. . .

"I would entreat your counsel whither or no I can sell it. Further I am strongly set upon to study divinite. My studies else mmust be lost : for physick is but a meane helpe. . . " GYLES FYAMIN. "Ipswich, 26, 10th, 1639.

" Wee humbly entreat your secrecy in our desires."

Winthrop probably advised Firmin that the town of Ipswich could revoke the grant if he did not com- ply with the condition on which it was made, which probably was the consideration that he should prac- tice his profession as a physician for three years there. Or the practice itself may have become more lucra- tive. At all events, the Doctor, who was then twen- ty-five years old, was made a freemen in that year, remained in Ipswich fifteen years and was an elder of the church there. In 1654, he returned to Eng- land. He fulfilled his intention of studying theolo- gy, was ordained in England and became rector of a church there, continning, nevertheless, to practice his early profession, and dying at the ripe age of eighty- three years, and thus Pentucket lost the opportunity of welcoming an able doctor to its forest glades. " Few Books " it is said " have been oftener printed or more read than Firmin's ' Real Christian.'" Fir- min also wrote to the Governor: "Some of us will view Pentucket in the spring, because every one that hath seen it give it such commendation for a small town; the way also thither being passable for a great pinnace; only my fear is that Passaton- naway living there sometimes, he will hardly be bought out for a little."

Firmin further writes that Ward hath been offered the płace at Marblehead : "Divers inducements he hath to return to England but his wife is wholly against it, and he is willing, if he might but have any em- ployment, to stay still." From a letter written by Nathaniel Ward to Governor Winthrop, it would appear that he, himself, had at the time some idea of joining the " plantation" himself (doubtless Pen- tucket), but was deterred by the season and the anti- cipation of hardship. This was probably in the season of 1640-41, after the first pioneers had taken possession.

Ward pressed very vigorously the object he had so much at heart. He had written again earnestly to the Governor,-" We are led to continue onr suite concerning the plantation I have lately mentioned to you ; (our company increases apace from divers towns of very desirable men) whereof we desire to be very choice. This next week, if God hinder us not, we propose to view the places, and forthwith to report to you ; in the mean time we crave your secrecy and rest. We have already more than twenty families of very good Christians proposed to goe with us." And why not? Why should not good Christians have good lands ? Did not God's chosen people enter into the Promised Land ?

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 223

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