USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynnfield > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 40
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 40
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 40
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 40
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant, 1629-1864 > Part 40
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ANNALS OF LYNN- 1813.
have adorned a brighter and a happier station in life, and the world would never have heard of her fame. [The period in which she lived was one in which the education of females was very little regarded; yet it is evident that she was by no means destitute of education. A fac- simile of her signature is here given. It was engraved, with Margpitcher Signature of Moll Pitcher. great care, from her signature on a deed dated in 1770, con- veying a piece of land near her habitation.] She had one son, John, and three daughters, Re- becca, Ruth, and Lydia, who married respectably ; and some of her descendants are among the prettiest young ladies of Lynn. Nor is there any reason why they should blush at the mention of their ancestress. While it is hoped that no one, in this enlightened age, will follow her profession, it must be admitted that she had virtues which many might practice with advantage. She supported her family by her skill, and she was benevolent in her disposition. She has been known to rise before sunrise, walk two miles to a mill, purchase a quantity of meal, and carry it to a poor widow, who would otherwise have had no breakfast for her children.
[The cottage in which this remarkable woman so long dwelt, may still be seen. It stands on the north side of Essex street, nearly opposite Pearl. But population has so increased in the vicinity that it is now very far from being in a lonely place. The hum of business is heard around, and numerous pretentious edifices look down upon its modest roof. Within a short time it has undergone repairs, and, together with its surroundings has been made to assume more of a modern appearance. Its essential features, however, remain unchanged ; and the follow- ing is a faithful representation of it as it was.]
BRICHER RUSSELL'SC
MOLL PITCHER'S HOUSE.
377
ANNALS OF LYNN- 1814.
1814.
[Samuel W. Coggshall was drowned in Saugus river, 1 May. He was a son of Capt. Timothy Coggshall, of Newport, R. I., and 29 years of age.]
The district of Lynnfield, which was separated from Lynn on the 3d of July, 1782, was this year incorporated as a town, on the 28th of February.
On the 28th of February, also, the Lynn Mechanics Bank was incorporated, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars.
The erection of the Town House, on the Common, was begun in February.
A company of militia, consisting of seventy-eight men from Essex county, was detached, in July, for the defense of the sea coast. Of this number, Lynn furnished fifteen, and the whole were placed under the command of Capt. Samuel Mudge, of Lynn. On the first of August, they mustered at Danvers, and on the next day marched to Salem, and encamped on Win- ter Island. On the 27th, a violent storm blew down most of the tents, and on the next day the detachment removed to Fort Lee. On the night of the 28th of September, a great alarm was occasioned by some men who were drawing a seine at Beverly. Alarm guns were fired about midnight, and in less than thirty minutes the Salem regiment was drawn up for orders. Nearly sixty old men of that town also took their arms, went directly to the fort, and patriotically offered ther services to Captain Mudge. The alarm spread to the neighboring towns, and within an hour the Lynn regiment was in arms, and on its march toward Salem. The promptitude with which these two regiments were formed, the self-possession manifested by the officers and soldiers, and the readiness with which they marched toward what was then confidently believed to be a scene of action and danger, is worthy of commendation. The company was discharged on the first of November. During a considera- ble part of this season, guards were stationed in Lynn, on Long Wharf and Saugus Bridge. The town, with its accustomed liberality, allowed to each of its soldiers, who went into service, thirty dollars in addition to the pay of the government, which was only eight dollars a month. The town received a hundred muskets from the State, and a hundred old men volunteered to use them.
In a great sleet and rain storm, on the night of November 19th, Mr. Ward Hartwell, of Charlemont, perished in attempting to pass Lynn Beach, to Nahant. He lost his way and drove into the water.
An earthquake happened on the 28th of November, at twenty minutes past seven in the evening.
F2*
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1815.
[The manufacture of linen goods was this year commenced by the " Lynn Linen Spinning Factory Company." They built a factory of wood, three stories high, on the east side of Saugus river, and commenced with the manufacture of sail duck. But the termination of the war with England afforded facilities for procuring linen goods from abroad at such reduced prices that the business was soon abandoned. Some linen, however, was made in Lynn long before this; but it was probably more like the ordinary tow cloth. See under date 1726.]
1815.
The Saugus parish was incorporated as a separate town, on the 17th of February.
A treaty of peace with England, which was signed at Ghent, on the 24th of December, 1814, was ratified by Congress, on the 17th of February.
This year the First Baptist Church in Lynn was organized, on the 17th of March. In May, the meeting-house which the Methodist society had vacated, was purchased for their use. It is worthy of remark, that this building was placed upon land purchased of the First Congregational Church - that very church which had persecuted the Baptists, and delivered them up to the executioner, a hundred and sixty-four years before. [No Baptists were executed. Some were banished, and others fined. It is worthy of remark, also, that this building was, last of all, occupied by the Roman Catholics, that Church which Baptists, Congregationalists, and Methodists, as well as all other protestant bodies delight to traduce. It was burned on Satur- day night, 28 May, 1859. And so closed its eventful history.
[In Brooks's history of Medford it is stated that at this time, when only a few persons resided at Nahant, it was the custom for families in Medford to join in parties to that beautiful prom- ontory. From ten to twenty chaises would start together, and, reaching their destination, the ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, would proceed to fishing from the rocks and boats. Each one wore the commonest clothes; and the day was passed in all sorts of sports. A fish dinner was an agreed part of the fare ; and a supper at Lynn Hotel closed the eating for the day. The party rode home by moonlight; and by ten o'clock were sufficiently fatigued to accept the bed as a most agreeable finale. And such parties often came from Malden, Reading, Stoneham, and places more remote. The dinners were generally cooked by the parties themselves, over fires built among the rocks, a sufficient supply of drift wood being gleaned from the shores. They were right jolly times, and involved little expense.]
A very great storm, on the 23d of September, occasioned much damage. The wind blew violently from the southeast,
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ANNALS OF LYNN- 1816.
and buildings, fences, and trees, fell before it. A part of the roof of the Academy was taken off, and carried by the wind more than half way across the Common. The spray of the ocean was borne far upon the land, and the fruit on trees several miles from the shore was impregnated with salt.
1816.
[The first Methodist Society in Lynnfield, was organized on the 2d of April.]
The Baptist society was incorporated on the 15th of April; and on the 15th of September, Rev. George Phippen was settled as their first minister.
Rev. Isaac Hurd relinquished his pastoral care over the First Congregational Society, on the 22d of May. He was born at Charlestown, [in December, 1785, and graduated at Cambridge, in 1806. From Lynn he removed to Exeter, N. H., where he was installed over the Second Church of that place, September 11, 1817. There he remained till his death, which took place a few years since.
[The summer of this year was very cool, and little corn ripened. There was a frost in every month; and snow fell on the 8th of June. The 23d of June, however, was excessively hot, the thermometer rising to 101 degrees, in the shade.
[The Quaker meeting-house was built on Broad street, this year; and it stood on its original site till 1852, when it was moved back some rods and made to face on Silsbe street. For facts relating to the earlier Quaker meeting-houses see under dates 1678 and 1723.
[A great horse trot took place on Friday, September 6. The course was on the Turnpike, and extended three miles toward Boston, from Saugus river bridge. This is said to have been the first regular trot in the country ; and it was attended by a great multitude of spectators, from far and near. A horse called Old Blue, owned by Major Stackpole, trotted three miles in eight minutes and forty-two seconds. The same horse, four days after, trotted the same distance in eight minutes and fifty- six seconds, and again, two days after that, the same distance in eight minutes and eighteen and three quarter seconds.
[This year another attempt was made to establish the manu- facture of linen in this vicinity. Nathaniel Perry built a dam over the brook in North Saugus, and erected a large wooden building in which he designed to spin and weave a finer kind of linen. He did not, however, succeed in his enterprise.
[Isaac Burrill, who lived near Saugus river bridge, on Boston street, while returning from Boston, on a cold, moonlight night, was robbed, on the Turnpike, by three highwaymen. He was a shoe manufacturer, on a small scale, and was walking home
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1817, 1818.
from Boston with a bag of articles which he had received in exchange for shoes disposed of during the day. He had also a small sum of money in his pocket. When near a small shanty, which stood on the south of the Turnpike, perhaps a mile west of the Half-way House, and which had been erected for the convenience of laborers on the marshes, three men rushed out and forced him into the building. There they robbed him of all he had of value, and bound him, hand and foot, with raw hemp. They then left him, with the threat of instant death if he should make any outcry before the mail stage had passed, adding that they intended to rob that. He kept silence for the time speci- fied, but they did not return. By straining and kicking he finally succeeded in releasing his feet, and soon reached the Half-way House. The robbers were never caught. He said they assured him that nothing but shear necessity impelled them to the act. There was no attempt to rob the mail, the pretense about that probably being for the purpose of keeping him quiet while they made good their escape. His pocketbook was found, weeks after, in Cambridgeport, in a ditch.]
In November, new bells were placed on the First Congrega- tional and First Methodist meeting-houses.
1817.
Friday, the 14th of February, was an exceedingly cold day. The thermometer was eighteen degrees below zero.
There was an earthquake on Sunday, 7 September, and an- other on 5 October.
This year, Hon. Thomas H. Perkins built the first stone cot- tage on Nahant.
President Munroe passed through Lynn.
[The prices of provisions were very high, in Lynn, at this time. From the old book of a respectable shoe manufacturer it appears that flour was $16 a barrel, Indian meal $2 a bushel, molasses 70 cents a gallon, young hyson tea $1.60 a pound, and brown sugar 18 cents a pound.]
1818.
[Herbert Richardson, jr., aged 24, and Charlotte Palmer, aged 20, were drowned in the Shawsheen river, on their way to Lynn- field, where they were to be married, the same evening, March 3.
[There was a very long storm in April. A memorandum made by Major Ezra Hitchings, who kept a store on Boston street, says it "began to snow the second of April, at eleven o'clock, and continued to snow and rain alternately till the tenth, at six o'clock in the evening."]
Rev. Otis Rockwood was ordained pastor of the First Congre- gational Church, on the 1st of July.
381
ANNALS OF LYNN -- 1819.
A stone building, for a school-house and library, was built at Nahant, and several hundred volumes were presented by gentle- men from Boston.
The First Social Library at Lynn was incorporated. [But it would be a mistake to suppose that the first library was formed this year. There was a good social library here before the commencement of the present century, and Mr. Thacher acted as librarian during a part of his ministry. The library incor- porated this year became a useful institution, and was continued, much according to its original organization, till it was merged in the Lynn Library Association, incorporated in March, 1855. And finally, in 1862, the collection went to form the basis of the adjective-afflicted " Lynn Free Public Library." At the last mentioned date the number of volumes was about 4.100. No doubt care will be exercised to increase the value of this insti- tution. A free library, especially, should be composed of only such books as will exert a healthful influence; it should be a corrector, not a follower, of public taste. The books of such a library, whatever they are, will be extensively read; and if it contains none but good ones, the influence must be highly bene- ficial. The circulating library, as it is called, stands on a very different footing, and is in some sense beyond the control of those who may stand in the attitude of conservators of the public weal.]
1819.
The winter was unusually mild, with little snow, and the harbor scarcely frozen. Farmers ploughed in every month ; January was like April, and the spring was forward and warm. [The principal snow storm was on the 8th of March.]
The first attempt to form an Episcopal Church in Lynn, was made this year. A few persons were organized as a Church on the 27th of January, and continued to worship in the Academy about four years.
On the 31st of January, Jonathan Mansfield was drowned in the Flax pond. On the 6th of April, William Phillips was drown- ed in the Pines river. On the 4th of September, Asa Gowdey was drowned near the mouth of Saugus river.
[The first Missionary Society of the great Methodist Church was formed in Lynn, on the 21st of February. The General Missionary Society was not organized till the 4th of April.]
Tuesday, July 6, was an exceeding warm day. The thermom- eter rose to 120 degrees in the sun.
A farm of about fifty acres was purchased by the town, and a new poor-house built on Willis's hill. [I do not understand why Mr. Lewis, here and in one or two other places, calls this Willis's hill. No one else appears to have done so. True, one
382
ANNALS OF LYNN - 1819.
of the early settlers, named Willis, owned lands hereabout, but the hill does not appear to have been called by his name.
[Isaiah Newhall, a shoemaker, who lived on Federal street, made in three consecutive days, fifty one pairs of ladies' spring heel shoes. The price of making, was thirty-three cents per pair.]
This year the Nahant Hotel was built, by Hon. Thomas H. Perkins and Hon. Edward H. Robbins, at an expense of about sixty thousand dollars.
That singular marine animal, called the Sea-serpent, first made his appearance in the waters of Lynn this year. It was alleged that it had been seen in August, 1817 and 1818, in Gloucester harbor. On the 13th and 14th days of August, this year, many hundred persons were collected on Lynn Beach, by a report that it was to be seen. Many depositions have been taken of its subsequent appearance. It was represented to have been from 50 to 70 feet in length, as large as a barrel, moving swiftly, sometimes with its head several feet above the tide. I have not seen such an animal, but perhaps it exists ; and it may be one of the mighty existing relics of a buried world. In 1638, Dr. John Josselyn tells us of " A Sea Serpent or Snake, that lay quoiled up, like a cable, upon a Rock at Cape Ann. A boat passing by, with English aboard and two Indians, they would have shot the serpent, but the Indians disswaded them, saying that if he were not killed outright, they would be in danger of their lives."
[It may be thought that so celebrated a wanderer of the sea is deserving of a little more extended notice than Mr. Lewis has afforded. The learned Agassiz says, in a lecture delivered at Philadelphia, 20 March, 1849, " I have asked myself in connec- tion with this subject, whether there is not such an animal as the Sea-serpent. There are many who will doubt the existence of such a creature until it can be brought under the dissecting knife; but it has been seen by so many on whom we may rely, that it is wrong to doubt any longer. The truth is, however, that if a naturalist had to sketch the outlines of an Ichthyosau- rus or Plesiosaurus from the remains we have of them, he would make a drawing very similar to the Sea-serpent as it has been described. There is reason to think that the parts are soft and perishable, but I still consider it probable that it will be the good fortune of some person on the coast of Norway or North America to find a living representative of this type of reptile, which is thought to have died out."
[The late prominent Boston merchant and worthy gentleman, Amos Lawrence, under date 26 April 1849, writes, " I have never had any doubt of the existence of the Sea-serpent since the morning he was seen off Nahant by old Marshal Prince,
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1819.
through his famous mast-head spy-glass. For, within the next two hours, I conversed with Mr. Samuel Cabot, and Mr. Daniel P. Parker, I think, and one or more persons besides, who had spent a part of that morning in witnessing its movements. In addition, Col. Harris, the commander at Fort Independence, told me that the creature had been seen by a number of his soldiers while standing sentry in the early dawn, some time before this show at Nahant; and Col. Harris believed it as firmly as though the creature were drawn up before us in State street, where we then were. I again say, I have never, from that day to this, had a doubt of the Sea-serpent's existence."
[The Mr. Cabot to whom Mr. Lawrence refers gave a descrip- tion of the animal in a letter to Col. T. H. Perkins, dated 19 August, 1819, from which the following is extracted :
I got into my chaise [at Nahant] about seven o'clock in the morning, to come to Boston, and on reaching the Long Beach, observed a number of people collected there, and several boats pushing off and in the offing. I was speculating on what should have occasioned so great an assemblage there without any apparent object, and finally had concluded that they were some Lynn people who were embarking in those boats on a party of pleasure to Egg Rock or some other point. I had not heard of the Sea-serpent as being in that neighborhood, and I had not lately paid much attention to the evidences which had been given of its existence; the idea of this animal did not enter my mind at the moment. As my curiosity was directed toward the boats, to ascertain the course they were taking, my attention was suddenly arrested by an object emerging from the water at the distance of about one hundred or one hundred and fifty yards, which gave to my mind, at the first glance, the idea of a horse's head. As my eye ranged along, I perceived, at a short distance, eight or ten regular bunches or protuberances, and, at a short interval, three or four more. I was now satisfied that the Sea-serpent was before me, and, after the first moment of excitement produced by the unexpected sight of so strange a monster. taxed myself to investigate his appearance as accurately as I could. My first object was the head, which I satisfied myself was serpent shaped. It was elevated about two feet from the water, and he depressed it gradually, to within six or eight inches as he moved along. I could always see under his chin, which appeared to hollow underneath, or to curve down- ward. His motion was at that time very slow along the beach, inclining toward the shore. He at first moved his head from side to side, as if to look about him. I did not see his eyes, though I have no doubt I could have seen them if I had thought to attend to this. His bunches appeared to me not alto- gether uniform in size ; and as he moved along, some appeared to be depressed, and others brought above the surface, though I could not perceive any motion in them. My next object was to ascertain his length. For this purpose, I directed my eye to several whale-boats at about the same distance, one of which was beyond him, and, by comparing the relative length, I calculated that the distance from the animal's head to the last protuberance I had noticed would be equal to about five of those boats. I felt persuaded by this examina- tion that he could not be less than eighty feet long. As he approached the shore and came between me and a point of land which projects from the end of the beach, I had another means of satisfying myself on this point. After I had viewed him thus attentively for about four or five minutes, he sank gradu- ally into the water and disappeared. He afterward again made his appear- ance for a moment at a short distance. . . . After remaining some two or three hours on the beach, without again seeing him, I returned toward Nahant,
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1819.
and, in crossing the Small Beach, had another good view of him for a longer time, but at a greater distance. At this time he moved more rapidly, causing a white foam under the chin, and a long wake, and his protuberances had a more uniform appearati At this time he must have been seen by two or three hundred persons on ; beach and on heights each side, some of whom were very favorably situated to observe him.
[James Prince, Esq., Marshal of the District, to whom Mr. Lawrence also refers, writes as follows to Hon. Judge Davis, under date 16 August :
MY DEAR SIR :- I presume I may have seen what is generally thought to be the Sea-serpent. I have also seen my name inserted in the evening news- paper printed at Boston on Saturday, in a communication on this subject. For your gratification, and from a desire that my name may not sanction any thing beyond what was actually presented and passed in review before me, I will now state that which, in the presence of more than two hundred other witnesses, took place near the Long Beach of Nahant, on Saturday morning last.
Intending to pass two or three days with my family at Nahant, we left Bos- ton early on Saturday morning. On passing the Half-way House on the Salem turnpike, Mr. Smith informed us the Sea-serpent had been seen the evening before at Nahant beach, and that a vast number of people from Lynn had gone to the beach that morning in hopes of being gratified with a sight of him ; this was confirmed at the Hotel. I was glad to find I had brought my famous inast-head spy-glass with me, as it would enable me, from its form and size, to view him to advantage, if I might be so fortunate as to see him. On our arrival on the beach, we associated with a considerable collection of persons on foot and in chaises ; and very soon an animal of the fish kind made his appearance . . .
His head appeared about three feet out of water ; I counted thirteen bunches on his back ; my family thought there were fifteen. He passed three times at a moderate rate across the bay, but so fleet as to occasion a foam in the water ; and my family and self, who were in a carriage, judged that he was from fifty to not more than sixty feet in length. Whether, however, the wake might not add to the appearance of his length, or whether the undulations of the water or his peculiar manner of propelling himself might not cause the appearances of protuberances, I leave for your better judgment. The first view of the animal occasioned some agitation, and the novelty perhaps prevented that precise discrimination which afterward took place. As he swam up the bay, we and the other spectators moved on and kept nearly abreast of him. He occasionally withdrew himself under water, and the idea occurred to me that his occasionally raising his head above the level of the water was to take breath, as the time he kept under was, on an average, about eight) minutes. . . Mrs. Prince and the coachman having better eyes than myself, were of . great assistance to me in marking the progress of the animal ; they would say, He is now turning," and by the aid of my glass I saw him distinctly in this movement. He did not turn without occupying some space, and, taking into view the time and the space which he found necessary for his ease and accom- modation, I adopted it as a criterion to form some judgment of his length. I had seven distinct views of him from the Long Beach, so called, and at some of them the animal was not more than a hundred yards distant. After being on the Long Beach with other spectators about an hour, the animal dis- appeared, and I proceeded on towards Nahant; but on passing the second beach, I met Mr. James Magee, of Boston. with several ladies, in a carriage, prompted by curiosity to endeavor to see the animal; and we were again gratified beyond even what we saw in the other bay, which I concluded he had left in consequence of the number of boats in the offing in pursuit of him,
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