History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 56

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 56

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Mrs. Anna Andrews, who died in 1823, Jesse Story, who died in 1824, and Major John Burnham, the distinguished officer in the Revolutionary War, who many years after its close removed to Derry, N. H., where he died in 1843, all attained the age of ninety- four.

A recent instance is that of Mrs. Lucy Boyd, widow of John Boyd, who died in 1887, at the age of ninety- six. Her brother, Aaron Burnham, survives in his ninety-first year.

The list of nonogenarians might be considerably enlarged from among those deceased at different dates from fifteen to fifty- five years ago-a few notable instances being those of James Andrews, not far from ninety-seven ; the three brothers, David Burnham, at 94 (whose wife survived him two years, and also reached ninety-four), Benjamin Burnham, at ninety- two, and Parker Burnham, Ist, at ninety-one years and eight months ; and their nephew, Captain Parker Burnham, at ninety years and two months.

SUMMER RESORTS .- " Conomo Point," so named, it is said, at the suggestion of Daniel W. Bartlett, Esq., in honor of Masconomo, the Indian-Chief, who owned the land in all the region round about, has for some time been an attractive place for persons of wealth and leisure, as well as active business men who have there built for themselves summer homes. Its nearness to the alms-house farm, from which can be obtained plenty of fresh eggs, genuine butter, and rich milk and cream, with other products of a fertile and well conducted farm, makes it exceptionally

desirable in this respect. Cross Island, another refuge from the heat and dust of city and town, is exactly opposite to Conomo Point, across Chebacco River, and, of course, shares with it the advantage of having the poor-farm as its base of supplies. There were, at first, merely cabins of one room here, but

there are now quite comfortable houses, each contain- ing several rooms.

On the line of the Essex branch of the Boston and Maine Railroad, which has a station near its entrance, in the western part of the town is located Centennial Grove. It is the most popular summer resort in the county. Religious Sorieties and Sabbath Schools of every denomination visit annually these beautiful grounds, as do also military organizations, benevolent associations and pleasure parties of every description. Picnic parties, including thousands of people, have frequently found abundant accommodation here. Upon the lake are boats of various descriptions, among others one called a Catamaran, built of two narrow, air-tight gondolas planked over and fitted with sails. There also has been a small steamer running there at times.

Mr. J. Leverett Story, one of the proprietors, was for some years business manager, as was also Mr. Charles W. Procter.

"Cross Island" derived its name from Robert Cross, an early settler, who is reputed to have been the owner of it, but of whom little is known, either from record or tradition, except that he was a soldier in the Pequot expedition in 1637, and in 1639 was awarded a grant of land for his services. Ilis name, " Robert Cross, Senior," was signed to a petition of the inhabitants of Chebacco, in 1679, to the General Court, for permission to build a meeting-house here. Whether he died here or removed to some other settlement is not known. The family name has long been extinct in this place. In 1710, two married daughters, Mrs. Mary (Cross) Herrick and Mrs. Anna (Cross) Fellows, were living in Connecticut.

HISTORIC HOUSES AND LOCALITIES .- 1. The house now owned and occupied by Mr. Edwin Hobbs was built and owned by Rev. Theophilus Pickering, and was his residence until his death. It was afterward the home of Rev. John Cleaveland for two years; and was then purchased and occupied by Rev. Nehemiah Porter, who sold it to Dr. Davis, the first resident physician of the place ; from whom it passed into the possession of Col. Jonathan Cogswell, and was in- herited by his daughter Mary, afterward Mrs. Choate, who occupied it during her life.

In this house, on the night of July 18, 1817, occurred the first burglary in this parish of which there is any tradition, which was long spoken of because of the novel manner in which it was effected. The sum of one hundred dollars was taken from a desk in a room on the lower floor. Col. Cogswell, then the owner and occupant, slept in a room over it, and awaking in the night heard what he supposed to be the gnawing of wood by rats or mice. In the morning he found that his desk had been opened by sawing around the lock, so that the cover or top could be lifted, lock and all, without the necessity of using a key.

2. The farm at the North End, fronting on Northern

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

Avenue, upon which C'apt. Lamont G. Burnham resides during the summer season, was formerly owned by Francis Choate, Esq., and afterward by his "1, Hon. John C'hoate; and the dwelling-house on the premises is substantially the same in which they lived. It was here that Capt. Burnham entertained Gov Robinson and his wife, during their visit to Essex, in 18Kt.

In this house, in 1747, assembled the ecclesiastical council at the ordination of Rev. John Cleaveland ; Kul the public ordaining services took place out-of- loors in front of the house. Francis Choate, the occupant at that time, great-grandfather of Rufus, was a Ruling Elder in Mr. Cleaveland's church. The council which ordained Rev. Robert Crowell, in 1814, also met in this house, which was then occupied by George Choate, Esq., grandson of Francis and father of Dr. George, Senior, and Francis, so long residents ot Salen.

3. On Ilog Island, in an ancient house, on the farm now owned and occupied by his nephew and namesake, was born the distinguished lawyer and statesman, Rufus Choate. From time to time, the walls of the room in which he was born, resembling in this respect the cupola of Washington's Mansion at Mount Vernon, and the birthplace of Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon, have been inscribed with the names of numerons visitors from abroad. Names are now recorded in a book kept for that purpose. Gov- ernor Robinson visited this house while the guest of Capt. L. G. Burnham.

Rachel Choate, the great-great-grandmother of the writer of this historical sketch, was born in this house in 1703.

4. The house owned and occupied by the late William Il. Mears, Esq., was built in 1695, by Nathaniel Rust, Jr., who taught the first school known to have been established in Chebacco. A room of this house was presumably used for the purpose, there having been previously no school- house built.

5. The house of the late Colonel David Story, on the road to Hamilton, is a place of public interest, from its having been occupied for some days, in the summer of 1775, by Rev. John Murray, who took refuge in Che meco, with several families from Gilou- rester, who brought their silverware and other port- able articles of value during a panic caused by the appearance of a British sloop-of-war, which had (based an American vessel into their harbor, and sent several brat loads of men to seize and carry her away. They were repulsed by the quickly-mustered local militia, who made a gallant resistance, and captured several prisoners who were attempting to land. The sloop-of-war opened fire on the town, but, fuhing of the chief object, finally withdrew.

6. A place of great historic interest is the spot on whilestand- the house latdy occupied by Rev. Dr. Or Land Hon David Choate, and which is still in

the possession of their families. It was the site of the honse built for the Rev. Julm Cleaveland and owned by him, in which he lived for half a century, and in which he died.

7. The ancient house near the margin of Chebacco Lake, occupied by the late Abner Burnham, Sr., was the residence of David Burnham (Ist), who was the maternal grandfather of Hon. Nathan Dane, LL. D., the eminent jurist, author of the Digest of American Law, and author of the famons Ordinance of 1787, which secured to freedom the great Northwestern Territory, and to whom Daniel Webster paid such a magnificent tribute in his great speech in the United States Senate, in reply to Hayne, of South Carolina. It was in reference to the Ordinance mentioned, as well as to his high character and abilities, that Dane County, in Wisconsin, was named in his honor. Ile was the founder of the Dane Professorship of Law in Harvard University, and was frequently consulted as of high authority in the legal profession. His residence in Beverly, where he lived to the age of eighty-two, was on the Southwestern corner of Cabot and Federal Streets, opposite the Unitarian church, the latter street being said to have been named in honor of him, as virtually among the fathers of the Federal Constitution.

He was not what would be termed an orator, but, like Franklin, was an embodiment of sterling, practi- cal sense. Whenever he spoke in public, it was with brevity and exactly to the point. On one occasion, in a Beverly town-meeting, when a local measure occa- sioned an animated debate, he said a few words, when an excited townsman on the other side of the ques- tion sought to counteract the manifest influence of his remarks by reminding him that he had, at some previous time, expressed a different opinion on the same subject. The hush of the listening voters was turned to merriment when Mr. Dane simply said, " Any man has the right to change his opinion every five minutes, if he can gire a good reason for it." He carried his point.

Hle was a man of method and punctuality in every thing. Frequently, in my boyhood, in the street in Beverly, have I, with my mates, paused in the midst of our play, and, with a feeling somewhat like awe, looked up at "lawyer Dane," as he passed in his daily walk for exercise, at about the same honr in each day, with his deliberate step and dignified manner, in his wide-brimmed hat and black suit, with small clothes buckled at the knee, and his high Suwarrow boots with black silken tassels.

To the now time-worn house in Essex, where his mother, Abigail Burnham, was born, Nathan Dane often came, in his childhood, on a visit to the old homestead, and played about the premises. His father was Daniel Dane, of the Hamlet, now Hamil- ton, where Nathan was born in 1752.

Nathan Dane was a lineal descendant of John Per- kins, the first of that name to settle permanently in

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Ipswich. His grandmother Burnham's maiden name was Elizabeth Perkins.

8. In this same old house lived Abner Burnham, a quaint, eccentric man, who was a zealous exhorter in the Christian Baptist meetings in Essex, and who had a large family, including several sons who be- came preachers, Elam, Wesley, Hezekiah, Edwin and George W., the last two residing several years in Newburyport.

9. The site of the first meeting-house in this place, which was raised furtively, as so often told, was the spot on which stands the dwelling-house of the late Capt. Joseph Choate, on Northern Avenue.

10. About opposite, on the northern corner, stood the parsonage, the first home of Rev. John Wise, the first minister, which he occupied for twenty years.

11. Afterwards he had built for himself a house on the spot where now stands the dwelling of the late John Mears, senior. In this second house, Mr. Wise resided during the remainder of his life.

The Congregational Meeting-House-a Marblehead man's idea. 12. This edifice, as well as its site, may properly be termed historic. Rev. John Cleaveland preached in it during the last seven years of his life, as he had previously done for forty years in a former structure which stood on the same spot. He and Dr. Crowell preached upon this spot for ninety years.

Everybody who knew the present house prior to its being re-modeled in 1842, will remember that the audience room was then on the ground-floor of the building, and the pulpit, instead of being, as now, at the end, was in the middle of one side, as was origi- nally the case with New England meeting-houses generally.

An amusing illustration of the fact that people frequently derive their figures of speech from their business occupation, is afforded by the following inci- dent, which I guarantee to be authentic, as I had it from the person to whom the droll comparison was addressed.

One day a sea-faring man from Marblehead came to Essex, with a friend, on business concerning a vessel. The front door of the meeting house being open, he looked in, and glancing at the pulpit at the side, said to his companion, "Here's a craft that carries her rudder midships."

13. The ancient house built in 1732, now occupied by Jonathan Cogswell and the family of the late Albert Cogswell may be considered historic, having sheltered five generations of the descendants of John Cogswell, first settler, and standing upon land belong- ing to the farm originally owned by him.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INDIAN NAME, "CHEBAC- co."-In the summer of 1878, while attending a pic- nic at Centennial Grove, on the margin of Chebacco Pond or Lake, in Essex, I was asked by Rev. Elias Nason, what was the meaning of the original Indian name of the place Chebacco. I replied that the only definition I knew of was that which I received

from Maungwudans, the Ojibway Chief, who, about 1849-50, visited most of the towns and cities of New England, and lectured upon the habits, customs, man- ners, beliefs, language and other peculiarities of his people, presenting some novel and interesting illus- trations of their speech, music, costumes, etc. Ile told me, in conversation, that from his acquaintance with Indian words, he thought it meant place of spir- its. He was not only the most intelligent, generally speaking, but the most able intellectually, and the hest educated Indian I had ever heard address a pub- lic audience; and I had heard many.

Mr. Nason, to whom, at his request, I furnished several data concerning the town, in his subsequent contribution to a county history, applied the term, as thus defined, to that particular location only where we had met; whereas the Indians designated by it a much larger part of the territory of this region.

Rev. Dr. Henry M. Dexter, of Boston, in his ad- dress, in 1883, at the bi-centennial celebration of the founding of the First Church in E-sex, gives the fol- lowing, as the interpretation of "Chebacco," fur- nished him by Hon. J. Hammond Trumbull, distin - guished as a scholar, and specially as a student of Indian dialects : "The greatest pond, or principal source of some stream." This Dr. Dexter poetically and appropriately applied to Rev. John Wise, the first minister of this place, whose early and ultimate- ły triumphant resistance to the despotic assumptions of the Colonial Governor, Andros, became, as he aptly states it, "the principal source of the great river of that democratic polity which now gladdens so largely our land."

The two somewhat varying definitions can both be favorably considered,-for one of them is applicable to the pond or lake, as the source of the river; and the other will fitly characterize the entire settlement, which, for more than two centuries, has been a " place of spirits,"-peopled by choice spirits of de- votion, heroic patriotism, industry, integrity and per- sonal worth, and the social virtues, of whose memor- ies the place will long be redolent.

GRAND ARMY .- O. H. P. Sargent Post, of the Grand Army of the Republic, named in honor of a member of the Twenty-second regiment of Massachu- setts Volunteers, who died of wounds received at Mcclellan's first advance on the peninsula, in May, 1862, and WV. A. Andrews Camp of the Sons of Vet- erans, named in honor of a member of the Nine- teenth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, who died of wounds at the battle of White Oak Swamp, in June, 1862, are flourishing organizations which keep alive the patriotie memories and associations of the war.

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

CHAPTER XCVIL.

ESSEN Contrad.

s& P. b. Prest Ane ated with Exces wood Exe. l Dem. lits y John Cogucell, E rly Settle 's uf Laet P. et auf I'd. Sommer-Orthography and Signifi- Rf Sur ms The Paysus Emily Ancestral Arres-Rufus . . H D of the te Tagit. Parker Baham - The Andrews P I -T. B nha The Whole Family The Goodhues-The Str Fail -M lie ne-Retrospective.

PROMINENT PERSONAGES AND PUBLIC EVENTS ASSOCIATED WITH ESSEX AND ESSEX PEOPLE .- James Fennimore Cooper, in his sea-romance of " The Pilot," gives an account of a colloquy between Captain Barnstable, commander of the privateer- cruiser Ariel, and Master Coffin, the boatswain of the vessel. in relation to the pilot they were expecting from shore, in which the boatswain says: "Give me a plenty of sea-room and good canvas, where there is no vecasion for pilots at all, sir. For my part, I was born on board a l'hebacco-man, and never could see the use of more land than now and then a small island to raise a few vegatables and dry your fish. I'm sure the sight of it always makes me feel uncomfortable, unless we have the wind dead off shore."1

The use of the werd Chebacco in Cooper's story was erroneously stated by a correspondent of the Bos- ton Traveller, of June 20, 1867, cited in the continua- tion of Crowell's History of Essex, on page 448, and repeated by Rev. Elias Nason in a note to his article on Essex, in a work upon the County. It will be seen, by reading the Pilot, that Captain Barn- stable does not hail from Chebaceo ; neither does his boatswain Collin : but the latter claims merely to be nt native of a Chebacco boat, and says: "I was born while the boat was crossing Nantucket shoals." ?

Thomas O. Il. P. Burnham, of Boston, the proprie- tor of the well-known Antiquarian book establish- ment in that city, probably the most extensive of the kind in the country, is a native of thebacco. The people of his native town have always felt a laudable gratification at his successful and honorable business creer. Perhaps few of the general public know of the essential aid he has rendered to men of letters, and others, muong them some of the most eminent persons of the times, by his wide range of acquaintance with whatever Is valuable in the world of literature.

Hon. Daniel t lark, formerly United States Sena- 'or from New Hampshire, and since United States District Judge, taught school for some time in the Sonth district in this town, when a young man.

The mother of the distinguished jurist, Nathan Pane, was a native of this place, as more fully notic- ed under the head of historic houses.

somurt Dudley owned for some time a farm in theo, He wa son of Thomas Dudley, for sev- ral vore Deputy Governor and Governor of the

. 1 1., compter xvi p 10%

Colony, and was a brother of the noted Joseph Dud- ley, who was the chief justice of the court before which John Wise and others were tried for resisting Governor Andros. His sister Ann was the gifted writer who married Simon Bradstreet, Governor of the colony. He married Mary Winthrop, daughter of Governor John Winthrop. He finally moved to Exeter, New Hampshire, where he became the minis- ter of the town, and where he died.

Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the renowned Arctic ex- plorer, sailed upon his famous voyage on the Grinnell Expedition in search of Sir John Franklin and an open polar sea, in a vessel launched from the ship- yard of Messrs. James & Mckenzie, in Essex. She was originally called the "Spring IIill"; but when first fitted out for the Arctic region, she was named the " Advance." In his published narrative of the voyage, Dr. Kane wrote in praise of her sailing quali- ties.

She was selected on account of the peculiarity of her construction, which enabled her to sail near the shore with less liability of running aground, than a vessel of a different model.

Captain John Low, commander of the ship Am- brose, and rear admiral of a fleet of twelve ships which sailed from England, for Salem, in April, 1630, was the father of Thomas Low, the first settler of that name in Chebacco, and ancestor of the late Captain Winthrop Low, Enoch Low (so long the postmaster), Oliver Low, and others.

Sir Jacob Perkins, inventor of the steam-gun, and other ingenious forms of mechanism, who spent the later years of his life in England, where he received the honors of knighthood, although a native of New- buryport, was the grandson of Matthew and Phebe (Burnham) l'erkins, of Chebacco, and a lineal de- scendant of John Perkins and Thomas Burnham, first settlers.

Rev. Samuel Phillips, who taught school in Che- bacco, for a year after his graduation from Harvard College, became distinguished as a pastor in Andover for sixty years, and preached the annual election sermon in Boston in 1750. Ile was the father of John Phillips, who founded Phillips' Academy in Exeter, N. II., and of Samuel Phillips, who, with the aid of his brother lohn, founded Phillips' Academy in Andover, Mass.

The father, Rev. Samuel, was a brother of Deacon John Phillips, of Boston, who was the great-grand- father of Wendell Phillips, the orator and philan- thropist. Ile was a benevolent man, giving to the poor annually one-tenth of his income, of which he kept an exact account, and yet at the same time so economical as to blow out the candle when he com- menced his evening prayer.

Sarah Foster, daughter of Reginald Foster, Ist, of Ipswich, and sister of Reginald, Jr., of Chebacco, married William Story, who owned and occupied a farm here, and who was the ancestor of the eminent

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ESSEX.

Joseph Story, long associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, professor of law in Harvard University, and distinguished in both hemispheres, by his legal commentaries and other works, which are standard authorities in jurisprudence; and whose son, William W. Story, is the sculptor who designed and modeled the statues of Chief Justice Marshall, at the west front of the United States Capitol, and that of Professor Henry in the Smithsonian grounds, at Washington.

Major Andrew Story journeyed with his family in an ox-wagon from Chebacco to Marietta, Ohio, in 1778, with a party of emigrants from this and neigh- boring towns, who became permanent settlers of Dr. Manasseh Cutler's infant colony. One of his chil- dren was instantly killed by falling from the wagon under one of the wheels ; and while on the way a child was born.

Rev. Daniel Story, uncle of Judge Story, was also one of the settlers.

Colonel Joseph D. Webster, son of Rev. Josiah Webster, who was for several years pastor of the Congregational Church in Chebaeco, was chief of General Grant's staff at the battle of Pittsburg Land- ing, April 6, 1862.

Dr. John Dennison Russ, a native of Chebacco, and grandson of Colonel Jonathan Cogswell, of Revolutionary distinction, was a graduate of Yale College in 1823. Ile was as distinguished for his philanthropy as for his skill as a physician. After his graduation in medicine, two years later, and spending a year in the hospitals of Paris, London and Edinburgh, he settled in New York city. Soon after, having his sympathies enlisted for the suffering Greeks, then at war with the Turks, he carried to them and distributed a vessel load of provisions, vis- iting for that purpose, it is said, nearly every town in Greece, and establishing a hospital there. He took seven blind children to educate at his own cost, that being the first attempt to enducate this unfortunate class in this country, and invented maps in geogra- phy and arithmetic for them, which are still in use wherever the blind are taught. His services for the Greeks and his efforts for the blind, place him on the same lustrous roll with the distinguished Dr. Samuel G. Howe. He devised a plan for the abolition of slavery in the country, which he submitted, in 1837, to Henry Clay, by which he thought slavery could be abolished and slaves educated for freemen at the expense of three hundred million dollars in twenty- five years.

George P. Burnham, of Melrose, though born in Boston, is of Essex descent, being a son of Andrew, the centenarian, noticed more fully under the head of longevity. He received his education in the pub- lic schools of his native city, and at the age of fourteen years, at the Mayhew School, was awarded the Franklin medal. Though now living in quiet retire- ment, he led for many years an active and busy life.

For several years a commercial book-keeper in New York city, he was afterwards, for some years, assistant cashier and clerk in the Boston Custom-House. He was for some time one of the most extensive dealers in fancy poultry in this country; and in everything relative to the rearing, management and comparative values of the different varieties of this class of live stock, he was considered a connoisseur and an author- ity. He published no less than nine different hand- books, and descriptive and practical treatises upon these topics, some of them pictorially illustrated, and several of them being very extensively sold through- out the United States. He also published a volume upon song-birds, and other domestic pets. His other and more voluminous printed works consist of a book showing how to detect and avoid counterfeits; a "History of the United States Secret Service," and a volume of miscellaneous selections from a portfolio of his own writings upon various subjects. These books are all numerously illustrated by plates and engrav- ings. He has had much experience as an editor, having for some time conducted a daily newspaper, and contributed at different times to various other journals and periodicals.

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 56

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