History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 85

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 85

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DURING the first sixty years of the settlement of the Cape, whatever schools there were, or whatever instruction was given in the rudiments of learning, aside from home training, resulted from private en- terprises, which were probably not very numerous. Ezekiel Collins, born in 1644, taught writing, aud perhaps some other branches of learning, in private families. Other citizens probably rendered similar service. The first action taken by the town was in 1696, when the selectmen were ordered to " provide a schoolmaster in convenient time." At another town- meeting, in 1698, in action on an article in the war- rant "about a schoolmaster, whether they would choose one or no, the vote carried it to choose one," and Thomas Riggs, Sr., was chosen to that office, "to have one shilling and sixpence a day during the town's pleasure, and the said Riggs's likeing to carry it on." This arrangement must have been of brief duration, for in 1701, at a Quarterly-Session Court in Salem, the town was presented for neglect in estab- fishing and maintaining schools. A school was opened in the beginning of 1703, and continued, probably with wide gaps between the terms, till 1706. In 1707 the town's delinquency in this matter was again a subject of complaint at court. Proceedings were stayed, however, by the town's arranging for a school to be opened. In 1809 Mr. Joshua Moody was engaged to teach one quarter for eight pounds ; and, in addition to the common branches, he was "to teach lattine, if scholars appear." Since 1812 schools have been among the permanent institutions of Ulemeester.

Sandy Bay, in 1725, on which to erect a school-house, " to keep a good school in for the Godly instruction of children, and teaching of them to read and write good English ;" and in 1826 a similar grant was made to the inhabitants of the Head of the Harbor. It was rapidly becoming manifest, however, that the neigh- borhood in which the grammar school building was located was fast losing its importance. Population was increasing much more rapidly in other portions of the town. The first serious remonstrance against the existing state of things came from the inhabitants of Annisquam, who commenced an action against the town for not giving them their proportion of the school privileges. The result of their remonstrance was an arrangement which for many years satisfied all parts of the town. Mr. Babson thus states the scheme: "In a town-meeting, October, 1735, a plan was adopted by which the territory was divided into districts, conforming to the parish lines, afterwards established, with the exception that three school districts were formed from the section now known as the First Parish. The number of districts was seven ; and the school was apportioned to each according as its proportion of the town rate was to the whole tax. Each district was to provide a convenient school- house ; and, in case of neglect to do so, was to lose its turn for three years-the time employed in the circuit. To conform to the old Colony law, the school was, of course, wherever kept, to be free for all the inhabitants of the town. This arrangement continued many years, and gave the people no further trouble than to vote triennially that the school 'circulate' as here- tofore.

"Two of the triennial apportionments are preserved, and are interesting as showing the relative wealth of the districts at their respective dates :-

"'Dec. 3, 1751. The Town School was proporscioned For three years. Months.

Eastern Point and ye head of ye harbour. 416

The western side of ye cut.

The Cape .. 11.5

The Westerly Ward

The Town, or Ith Parish. .516

Squam Ward

516

Total. 30

" ' Dec. 29, 1857. The Selectmien proportioned the School to the sev- eral parishes according to the town rate in 1754, for two masters each three years, equal to one master 6 years.

The f'rst school-house was built in 1708, and was Months. The Harbor Parish Days. The Cape. 33 located " on the easterly side of the meeting-house." lis dimensions, as ordered by the town, were, " length, 19 10 3 21 feet ; width, 16 feet ; height of stud, 6 feet." The The Town Parish 16 rest of the completed building was 224 158. Prior Squam Parish .. 13 27 to this time the sessions of the school had been held The West Parish 11 4 in the meeting house. For about thirty years the Total 72 publie grammar school was kept in this school-house, The apportionment for 1757 was the last made in the attempt to include the whole town in the " circu- lating" system. In 1758 the grammar school was not without complaint, however, that, on account of its d Sunce from their home, a considerable portion of the children were deprived of its advantages. To | permanently located at the Harbor, and a circulating remed this, i part land was granted the people of school was maintained in the other parishes. Under

The Harbour Ward's proporsion

GOIST DE

"ROCK LAWN."-BAY VIEW. RESIDENCE OF JONAS H. FRENCH, GLOUCESTER, MASS.

1323

GLOUCESTER.

this arrangement, which continued until the breaking out of the War for Independence, each parish, except the Fifth, had several months' publie instruction every year. The latter could only have a three months' school in two years. A school-house, built by private subscription about this time, and located on the eor- Der of Middle and Washington Streets, is supposed to have been used by the grammar school. During the war the schools were broken up, but on the return of peace the selectmen were instructed to hire a suita- ble teacher and re-open the grammar school. The schools in the several parishes were also soon re-es- tablished on the system in use at the time of their in- terruption. Discrimination in favor of the boys seems to have been made in school iustruction, for in 1790 Rev. Eli Forbes presented to the town, in behalf of the school committee, a report concerning the condi- tion of the schools, in which several reforms were urged, and among them the ereetion of a building for the grammar school, and provision for the education of girls, whom he characterized as " a tender and in- teresting branch of the community that have been neglected in the public schools of this town."

In 1793 the town voted to raise £300 for the erection of a school-house. It was located on Granite Street; was a square building two stories high and was fur- nished with a belfry and bell. It answered for a time the double purpose of town offices and school, and was often used for elections and other town-meetings. On the 5th of March, 1795, the citizens assembled at the meeting-house, where they formed in procession, marehed to the school-house, where a prayer of dedi- cation was offered by Rev. Mr. Forbes, after which they returned to the meeting-house and listened to a sermou from him, based on the words: "Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thon mayest make princes in all the earth," Ps. xlv. 16. After standing on Granite Street about sixty years this school-house was moved to Beacon Street, and remod- eled for the accommodation of a primary school, to which use it is still put.

In 1804 the town availed itself of the privilege into school districts. The number at first established was eleven, among which, after deducting the salary of the grammar school teacher, it divided its school money according to the number of polls in each dis- triet. The whole amount raised for school purposes in 1805 was two thousand dollars. In 1826, such was the increasing complaint of other portions of the town in regard to inconvenience occasioned by the perma- nent location of the grammar school at the Harbor, it was again made a circulating school. But before long that school was practically abolished by the town's voting that the money appropriated for its support should be divided among the several districts. In 1839 it was again re-opened, but again discontinued in 1845, to be temporarily revived in 1849, but to be superseded, at the close of that year, by a better plan.

The teachers of the town grammar school, from its es- tablishment to its being superseded, were:

Thomas Riggs .1699

Thomas Pierce. 17.0

John Newman 1703

Samuel Pierce 1761

John Ring. 1705

Thomas Marrett 1762

Joshua Gardner. 1707

James Prentice. 1763

Joshua Moody 1709

Philemon Stacy 1767 to 1774

Samuel Tompson 1711

Joseph Parsons 1715

Edward Tompson 1721

William Osgood. 1722

Edmund March 1723

Isaac Abbott.

1724

Daniel Witham

1726

Joseph Manning

1727

Charles Glover

1727

Daniel Witham 1728

Nathaniel Walter 1730

Walter Hastings.

1732

Mather Withington. 1733

Ezra Leonard. 1818

Parker Morse 1734

Daniel W. Rogers 1820

Aaron Smith, 1735

Thomas Junes 1820

Benjamin White, 1734

Daniel W. Rogers 1821

Samuel White .1742

1746

James Boswell 1822

Thomas Jaques

1747

Ezra Leonard 1822

Jonathan Pierpont

1748

Daniel W. Rogers 1823

Samuel White. 1749

Charles Smith (3d) 1823

Thomas Rand

1752

Louson Nash 1824

Thomas Jaques

1753

William Whipple .1826

Samuel Whittemore. .1753

Richard Gardner. .1839

Jacob Bailey

1758

Thomas Baker

1849

The conveniences of the district system adopted in 1804 were accompanied by disadvantages growing from the temptation to multiply small districts in sparsely- settled portions of the town. The number of these dis- triets had increased from eleven, in 1804, to twenty- three, in 1840.

The incorporation of Sandy Bay, in 1840, into a separate town diminished the number of districts to sixteen ; but new divisions were soon made, and several were in coutemplation in 1849, when the School Committee earnestly called the attention of the citizens assembled in town-meeting to the in- equality of school advantages and other evils inci- dent to the system then in use. They then brought forward a plan for the reorganization of the school affairs of the town, which, although it involved in- that, after a full discussion, it was adopted "with scarcely a dissenting voice," says Mr. Babson, "at one of the most numerously attended town-meetings ever held." A High School was established, gram- mar and primary schools were located in different parts of the town, and a judiciously graded system, conferring equal opportunities for rudimentary in- struction to the children of all portions of the town, took the place of the unequal and often inefficient system previously in use. At the time of the aboli- tion of the district system there were sixteen hundred and seventy-two children of school age in the town, and the amount appropriated for the annual expenses of the school was $5562.25.

At the present time, 1887, there are twenty-two school buildings in the city ; one hundred and two

Thomas Sanders 1784

Obadiah Parsons 1794

John Ewins 1802

Ezra Leonard 1504

Eli Forbes 1804

Nathan Parks 1805

Joseph B. Felt 1812

John Manning, Jr. 1812

John Whipple. 1812

Nathan D. Appleton .1814

Isaac W. Mulliken 1810

Paul Ferson 1817

Thomas Cochran. 1821

Nebemiah Porter.

granted by a general statute and divided its territory · creased taxation, so commended itself to the people

1324

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

teachers ; four thousand three hundred and twenty- six scholars; and the amount appropriated in 1886, for school purposes, exclu-ive of repairs of buildings, etc., was fifty-two thousand dollars. The superin- tendents of schools, with the year of their commenc- ing service, have been :

Thomas Baker. 1850

George Garland ... ,1871

John J. Babamın. . .. 1:55

Horace M. Willard 1872

Henry Cuminogs. 18.,7

John W. Allard. 1874

George B. Brooks. .1861

Louis II. Marvel. 1878

Marquis L. Hawley. 1881 John J. Babson. .1862

A private school was established at the Harbor, as early as 1790, in a building erected for the purpose, and called the "Proprietor's School-House." Just how long it continued we have not been able to as- certain, but the building is still standing, on School Street, and is occupied as a dwelling.

Under the ministry of Rev. Daniel D. Smith, a building called the " Murray Institute" was erected on the grounds of the Independent Christian Church, Universalist. It was dedicated in October, 1839, when the "Liberal Institute," a private enterprise of an academic grade, was moved to Gloucester, and opened its school in this building, taking the name of the building, in November, 1840. The trustees were William Babson, J. S. Johnston, Frederick Norwood, John J. Babson, Rev. Daniel D. Smith. Mr. H. M. Nicholas was principal the first two terms. The three subsequent terms were kept by Mr. Thomas Baker, after which the enterprise was abandoned.

The Gloucester Lyceum was formed on the 2d of February, 1830, for the purpose of interesting and instructing the citizens by means of lectures on use- ful and entertaining subjects, the object being "the improvement of its members in useful knowledge, and the advancement of popular education." Sub- sequently debates were encouraged, and almost at the first a few books were donated as the nucleus of a library. In February, 1854, after a few ineffectual efforts had been made to interest the citizens in es- tablishing a library, a new movement in that direc- tion was inaugurated and about two thousand dol- lars were obtained; and in the following August a library, with about one thousand four hundred volumes, was opened for use. In ten years the num- ber of volumes had increased to three thousand, when a destructive fire in the town swept away all but about three hundred volumes. In 1872 the or- gumzation incorporated under the name of the Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library, "for the estabhshment and maintenance of a library for- cer fre to the inhabitants of the town, -for the de- livery of lectures,-for the collection and preserva- tion of objects of natural history and works of art, and for the promotion of intellectual culture in gen- eral." The incitement to this act of incorporation was a gift, in Apro, 1871, from Samuel E. Sawyer, Ex., of ten thousand dollars, with interest accruing from the beginning of the year. In view of this

gift, and of constant benefactions received from Mr. Sawyer, his reluctant consent was obtained to giving his name to the library. In 1884 Mr. Sawyer pur- chased, at a cost of twenty thousand dollars, a fine property and spacious house on the corner of Middle Street and Dale Avenue, for a permanent home for the library. In July of that year the building was dedicated with appropriate services and ceremonies. With the deed of the property Mr. Sawyer also pre- sented to the trustees an endowment note for twenty thousand dollars. The trustees are Hon. Allan Rogers, Hiram Rich, Joseph O. Procter, Joseph L. Stevens, Edward H. Haskell, Benjamin H. Corliss and Hon. Charles P. Thompson. The library now contains between seven thousand and eight thousand voluines.

"The Cape Ann Scientific and Literary Associa- tion " was organized in 1875. Its purpose is to culti- vate a knowledge of science in general, and particu- larly to develop the natural history of Cape Ann. It has already collected an interesting and valuable museum.

The first newspaper issued in Gloucester was the Gloucester Telegraph, on the 1st of January, 1827. It was issued weekly until 1834, then semi-weekly until 1873, when it again changed to weekly, and so continued until it ceased to be published, in October, 1876.

The Gloucester Democrat was a semi-weekly, first issued the 18th of August, 1834, and merged in the Salem Advertiser in February, 1838. Its leading political articles were from the pen of Hon. Robert Rantoul, Jr.

The Cape Ann Light was begun as a weekly edi- tion of the Gloucester Telegraph January, 1843, and discontinued in August, 1878.

The Gloucester News, also a semi-weekly, was first published the 11th of October, 1848; and in Decem- ber, 1851, was merged in the Gloucester Telegraph.

The Cape Ann Advertiser was first a monthly, as the Gloucester Advertiser from January, 1856, to July, 1857, then semi-monthly to the 5th of December the same year, when it took its present name, and was issued fortnightly until November, 1858, since which time it has been published weekly.

The Gloucester Bulletin was a weekly paper from November, 1877, to the 30th of April, 1887.

The Gloucester News, daily, issued its first number the 28th of June, 1884, and its last on the 4th of February, 1886.

The Cape Ann Breeze, daily, was first published on the 29th of August, 1884.

THE SAWYER FREE LIBRARY, GLOUCESTER, MASS.

1325

GLOUCESTER.

CHAPTER CVIII.

GLOUCESTER-( Continued).

The Fisheries. 1

FOR two hundred and fifty years the fisheries have been the principal business of Gloucester. Long be- fore the settlement of Plymouth the vessels of France and England had fished on the Grand Banks, and along the coasts of Massachusetts. The French were undoubtedly the pioneers in the cod-fisheries of the Western Atlantic, and in the early part of the six- teenth century the Basques, Normans, Spaniards and Portuguese had fifty ships on the Grand Banks. In 1577 the French had one hundred and fifty vessels employed in the American fisheries. The settlement of Gloucester, as already noted, was attempted at what is called Stage Fort-the name "Stage " de- noting that the locality was used for landing fish from the vessels of the Dorchester Company, of Eng- land. The cod-fishery constituted at that time, and for many subsequent years, the only branch of the business pursued; and while many other kinds of fish have been discovered, and their pursuit and cap- ture has necessitated the use of a variety of methods, making each peculiar fishery a distinct business, still the cod-fishery remains the one great source of the supply of fish food.

The fisheries of Gloucester principally pursued up- on the Ocean Banks, and employing vessels from twenty to one hundred and fifty tons burthen, are the fresh and salt cod, fresh and salt halibut, bake, haddock, and cusk. The mackerel are now largely a deep-water fish, as are the menhaden. The her- ring fishery employs ve-sels, although it is princi- pally a coast fishery. Most of these fish are taken on the banks lying between the great ocean-river (the Gulf Stream, which flows north from the Gulf of Mexico) and the shores of North America. The shore fisheries employ smaller vessels and boats, and also include the trap and net fisheries, and extend from the shores some twenty miles. The most im- portant and prolific fishing-ground for Gloucester vessels is St. George's Bank, lying one hundred and twenty miles southeast from the Cape, forming one of the inner banks of the Gulf Stream, in that long succession of fishing banks extending from Hatteras to Newfoundland. The fish taken upon this bank are of a superior quality, and bring a much larger price in the market than fish from other localities. The nearest land is Cape Cod, 95 miles. Brown's Bank, 45 miles from Cape Sable; La Have Bank, 60 miles from Nova Scotia ; Western Banks, 80 miles from Nova Scotia ; St. Peter's Bank, 75 miles fron Newfoundland; Green Bank, 70 miles from New- foundland ; Grand Bank, 90 miles from Newfound-

land; Flemish Cape, 300 miles from Newfoundland -- are all resorted to by vessels from Gloucester for cod- fish and halibut. Banks Braddele and Orphan, thirty miles from land, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and also the coasts of Greenland and Iceland, are sometimes visited by a few vessels. None of these fisheries are under the jurisdiction of any nation ; their area, ac- cording to the computation of the United States Fish Commission, is 73,123 geographical square miles. During the year 1886 there were employed in the cod and halibut fisheries on these banks and off the New England coast 283 vessels from Gloucester, averaging 60 tons each ; total tonnage, 15,659.55. Ag- gregate crew, 4117 men. They took and landed at Gloucester 54,048,484 pounds of codfish, 11,886,135 pounds of halibut, 3,983,978 pounds of other ground fish, 29.000 barrels of fish oil.

The methods of taking these fish have varied with the progress of the business. In former years the hand-line with hooks was the only method used. On St. George's Bank, owing to the strong tide, the hand-line with lead sinkers weighing from seven to fourteen pounds is used, but on the other banks the French trawl system is the usual practice. A trawl is a strong line from five hundred to one thousand feet in length, and about three-eighths of an inch in diameter, on which, at intervals of five to seven feet, hooks with short gangings are attached, and it is ex- tended on the bottom of the sea, and secured at either end by a small anchor, whose position is indi- cated by a buoy line and a floating buoy at the sur- face. The hooks are all baited, each trawl contain- ing from one hundred to five hundred hooks. The trawls are set by the use of dories, each vessel carrying from six to eight dories, and each dory one trawl. The trawls are under-run a dozen times a day, the fish taken off, hooks rebaited and the trawl reset. An- other system nsed in the in-shore fishery for codfish, is the Norwegian net, which is of strong twine with large meshes ; these nets when set form a perpendicular net wall, the lower part of the net being secured with weights to the bottom, the upper section being sus- tained by hollow glass balls. The nets are con- secutively set in a long line, and more fish are taken by them in the spawning season, when the fish appear more reckless than at other times.

The extent of the ocean mackerel-fishing grounds is over seventy thousand square miles. The mack- erel fishing-grounds of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, from which the American vessels are excluded, com- prises about seven hundred and seventy-five square miles, or about one per cent. of the entire mackerel fishery area.

The mackerel, being a migratory fish, is more un- certain than the cod. The catch of mackerel varies exceedingly in different years.

In 1809 the Massachusetts mackerel fleet took 8225 barrels. The catch varied in subsequent years, being 46,348 barrels in 1818, 100,111 barrels in 1819,

1 By Capt. Fitz J. Babson.

1326

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

and in 1830 and 1831, 308,463 and 383,548 barrels re- spectively. This was the largest catch under the hand-line process. In 1839 the catch dwindled to 7.1.265 barrels, and from that time until 1844 vary- ing from 50,000 to 86,000 barrels yearly. In 1851 the catch rose to 329,000 barrels, falling, in 1859, to 99,- 000 barrels; reaching 306,000 barrels in 1863. All these immense variations occurred under the hand- line system, before traps, seines or common nets were used to any great extent to take mackerel, showing that the fish by their own volition seek or shun our waters. In 1565 the purse seine was introduced, and has now become the method of taking mackerel by the American fleet. The catch has varied from 256,- 000 barrels, in 1865, to 105,000 in 1877, rising to 304,- 000 barrels in 1884, falling to 92,000 barrels in 1886, proving beyond question that the new methods of seines and traps have not taken as many mackerel or caused greater fluctuations in the cateh than the old hand-line methods. All the various kinds of fish that frequent the coast from ('ape Sableto Hatteras have | 879 pounds. shown the same peculiarities as the mackerel. The sea bass, scup, squeteague and menhaden are plenty for years, then disappear for a time; this also long before seines or traps were in operation. To-day Narragansett Bay is alive with fish never seen there before, a species of the herring family resembling sar- dines. A large number of codfish are around the shores of Massachusetts; and Ipswich Bay for this season is more valuable to the fishermen than the Grand Banks. We, as yet, hardly appreciate the im- mensity of the great life of the ocean ; that its means of propagation and increase are unlimited ; that the natural destruction of fish life by their own species und by predatory fowl are so great that mau's effort in this direction is but a drop in a bucket in compar- ison. The defined and accepted fact is that the amount of fish taken for human consumption has no appreciable effeet on the life of the ocean, and that all laws that attempt to legislate fish into or out of localities in the ocean are puerile and futile; that fish of different species appear and disappear for seasons on different coasts and localities by causes beyond our dictation and explanation. So that, in dealing with the ocean fisheries, the laws of man collapse and disappear at the moment of contact with the first wave that breaks along the shore.

The first attempt to take mackerel was by extend- ing poles from the sides of the vessel, to which a num- her ut lines with hooks were attached, and by sailing through the schools the mackerel would bite at the bait and thus be caught. This was called drailing. After mackerel became an important element in the general fisheries, bait was chopped fine and thrown overboard, and the fish were thus attracted to the surface and caught with hand lines. After the inven- tion of the bait-mill, by which a large quantity of balt could be ground fine in a short time, menhaden, In bio an only fish, were almost wholly used for mack-

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History of Essex County, Massachusetts : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Vol. II, Part 85

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