USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 40
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 40
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynnfield > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 40
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 40
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 40
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
1810.
Independence was celebrated by both political parties, who very patriotically and cordially united for that purpose. . They formed a procession at the Lynn Hotel, which was then kept by Mr. Ebenezer Lewis, and proceeded to the First Congregational meeting-house, where an oration was delivered by Dr. Peter G. Robbins.
This year the Lynn Mineral Spring Hotel was built.
On Friday evening, November 9, there was an earthquake.
[It appeared, by careful estimation, that there were made in Lynn, this year, 1.000.000 pairs of shoes, valued at about $800.000. The females earned some $50.000 by binding.]
1811.
On the 8th of January, Ayer Williams Marsh, aged five years, was killed by the falling of an anvil, from a cheese-press.
A great snow storm commenced on the 2d of February, and continued three days. It was piled up in reefs, in some places, more than fifteen feet. In Market street, arches were dug be- neath it, high enough for carriages to pass through.
On the 4th of July, the officers of Lynn, Marblehead, and Danvers, had a military celebration at Lynn. The young fed- eralists also partook of a dinner in the hall of Lewis's hotel, which was tastefully decorated for the occasion, by the young ladies.
The 7th of July was excessively hot. The thermometer rose
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ANNALS OF LYNN- 1812.
to a hundred and one degrees in the shade. Mr. John Jacobs, aged 70, while laboring on the salt marsh fell dead in conse- quence of the heat.
A splendid comet was visible on the 11th of October, between Arcturus and Lyra. . Its train was estimated to be forty mil- lions of miles in length. It remained visible for a number of months.
[The "Lynn Wire and Screw Manufacturing Company," was incorporated this year. They built a dam and factory on Sau- gus river. There was a fair prospect of success ; but the peace of 1815, by restoring the means for cheap importations, ruined their prospects, and the business was abandoned. A number of substantial individuals were engaged in the promising enter- prise.
[The first meeting for the preaching of Universalism, in Lynn, was held in the Academy, on the Common, this year. Rev. Joshua Flagg, of Salem, preached. He also lectured at Graves- end.]
The Second Methodist Society was formed in the eastern part of the town, by separation from the First Society. A meeting- house was built, which was dedicated on the 27th of November. Their first minister was Rev. Epaphras Kibbey.
1812.
On the 4th of May there was a snow storm, all day and night. The snow was about eight inches deep.
War was declared by Congress against England, on the 18th of June. This was called the War of Impressments, because England claimed the right to search American vessels for her sailors. The conflict was chiefly conducted by battle ships on the water, but people were much affected by it in the depression of commerce. The Federalists disapproved of the war -the Democrats exulted in it.
A new meeting-house was built by the First Methodist Soci- ety, at the east end of the Common.
The burial ground in Union street was opened.
[A pottery was commenced in what is now Cliftondale, Saugus, by William Jackson. A fine kind of earthen ware was made from clay found in the vicinity. It was continued about four years. Mr. Jackson was an Englishman and occupied a respect- able position. He twice represented the town in the General Court.
[The old Lynn Light Infantry was organized this year.
[Reuben P. Washburn, a native of Leicester, Mass., commenced the practice of law, at Lynn. His office was in the building so long occupied by Caleb Wiley for a West India goods store, at the corner of Federal street and the Turnpike. He graduated
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1813.
at Dartmouth College, with the class of 1808, and studied law under Judge Jackson, at Boston. He procured his education and made his way in the world by his own exertions. While at Lynn he married a daughter of Rev. Mr. Thacher. He was a per- sonal friend of Judge Story and other eminent men both in law and letters. . Considering the business of the place, his practice could not have been large, here, and he removed to Vermont, in 1817. There he became a judge, and to the end of his life maintained a high position, and preserved an unsullied reputa- tion. He died in 1860, at the age of 79.]
1813.
Rev. Thomas Cushing Thacher discontinued his connection with the First Parish. The people gave him a recommendation and made him a present of eight hundred dollars. He was a son of Rev. Peter Thacher, minister of Brattle Street Church, in Boston. He graduated in 1790, was ordained in 1794, preached nineteen years, and removed to Cambridge. He wrote many good sermons, six of which, on interesting occa- sions, he published.
1. A Sermon on the Annual Thanksgiving, 1794.
2. A Sermon on the Interment of Eight Seamen, 1795.
3. A Eulogy on the Death of Washington, 1800.
4. A Sermon on the Death of Mrs. Ann Carnes, 1800.
5. A Masonic Address, delivered at Cambridge.
6. A Sermon on the Death of Mr. Shorey and Wife, 1803.
[Mr. Thacher died at Cambridge, 24 September, 1849. He was born at Malden, 11 October, 1771. His wife was Elizabeth Blaney ; and she survived him, living till September, 1858, when she died at South Reading, aged 88.]
At a town meeting in March, thirty-nine tithing-men were chosen. This was for the purpose of enforcing the Sunday law, that no person should journey on the Sabbath.
The schooner Industry was fitted out as a privateer, under the command of Capt. Joseph Mudge, and sent in three prizes - two brigs and one ship.
On the first of June, the people of Lynn were called forth by an occasion of unusual interest. The English frigate Shannon, Capt. Brock, being expressly fitted for the purpose, approached the harbor of Boston, and challenged the American frigate Chesapeake, to battle. The hills and the house tops were crowded with spectators, who looked on with intense solicitude. The Chesapeake, commanded by Capt. James Lawrence, sailed out beyond Nahant, and engaged with her adversary. After a short and spirited conflict, Capt. Lawrence fell, the colors of the Chesapeake were lowered, and the Shannon, with her prize, departed for Halifax.
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ANNALS OF LYNN- 1813.
The new Methodist meeting-house was dedicated on the 3d of June.
Rev. Isaac Hurd was ordained pastor of the First Parish, on the 15th of September.
This year, many racoons, driven by the war from the north, were shot at Swampscot; and a wild cat, after a deperate resist- ance, was killed at Red Rock. [It can easily be imagined that wild animals have no partiality for gunpowder. But it seems hardly reasonable to suppose that the war could have had much influence in driving the racoons hither, inasmuch as there were military movements here as well as at the north. Such animals abounded a short distance back, and some necessities touching their food may have induced their descent. They had always been found hereabout; occasionally in considerable numbers. As late as November, 1829, four were killed in the barn on the Carnes place, Boston street, two of them weighing fifteen pounds each.]
The celebrated Mary Pitcher, a professed fortune-teller, died April 9, 1813, aged 75 years. Her grandfather, John Dimond, lived at Marblehead, and for many years exercised the same pretensions. Her father, Capt. John Dimond, was master of a vessel from that place, and was living in 1770. Mary Dimond was born in the year 1738. She was connected with some of the best families in Essex county, and, with the exception of her extraordinary pretensions, there was nothing disreputable in her life or character. She was of the medium height and size for a woman, with a good form and agreeable manners. Her head, phrenologically considered, was somewhat capacious ; her forehead broad and full, her hair dark brown, her nose inclining to long, and her face pale and thin. There was nothing gross or sensual in her appearance-her countenance was rather intellectual; and she had that contour of face and expression which, without being positively beautiful, is, nevertheless, deci- dedly interesting - a thoughtful, pensive, and sometimes down- cast look, almost approaching to melancholy - an eye, when it looked at you, of calm and keen penetration - and an expres- sion of intelligent discernment, half mingled with a glance of shrewdness. She took a poor man for a husband, and then adopted what she doubtless thought the harmless employment of fortune-telling, in order to support her children. In this she was probably more successful than she herself had anticipated ; and she became celebrated, not only throughout America, but throughout the world, for her skill. There was no port on either continent, where floated the flag of an American ship, that had not heard the fame of Moll Pitcher. ' To her came the rich and the poor-the wise and the ignorant -the accom- plished and the vulgar - the timid and the brave. The ignorant
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ANNALS OF LYNN- 1813.
sailor, who believed in the omens and dreams of superstition, and the intelligent merchant, whose ships were freighted for distant lands, alike sought her dwelling; and many a vessel has been deserted by its crew, and waited idly at the wharves, for weeks, in consequence of her unlucky predictions. Many persons came from places far remote, to consult her on affairs of love, or loss of property ; or to obtain her surmises respecting the vicissi- tudes of their future fortune. Every youth, who was not assured of the reciprocal affection of his fair one, and every maid who was desirous of anticipating the hour of her highest felicity, repaired at evening to her humble dwelling, which stood on what was then a lonely road, near the foot of High Rock, with the single dwelling of Dr. Henry Burchsted nearly oppo- site ; over whose gateway were the two bones of a great whale, disposed in the form of a gothic arch. There, in her unpretend- ing mansion, for more than fifty years, did she answer the inquiries of the simple rustic from the wilds of New Hampshire, and the wealthy noble from Europe ; and, doubtless, her predic- tions have had an influence in shaping the fortunes of thou- sands.
Mrs. Pitcher was, indeed, one of the most wonderful women of any age; and had she lived in the days of alleged witchcraft, would doubtless have been the first to suffer. That she ac- quired her intelligence by intercourse with evil spirits, it would now be preposterous to assert- and it requires a very great stretch of credulity to believe that she arrived at so many correct conclusions, merely by guess-work. That she made no pretension to any thing supernatural, is evident from her own admission, when some one offered her a large sum, if she would tell him what ticket in the lottery would draw the highest prize. " Do you think," said she, "if I knew, I would not buy it my- self ?" Several of the best authenticated anecdotes which are related of her, seem to imply that she possessed, in some degree, the faculty which is now termed clairvoyance. Indeed, there seems to be no other conclusion, unless we suppose that per- sons of general veracity have told us absolute falsehoods. The possession of this faculty, with her keen perception and shrewd judgment, in connection with the ordinary art which she admit- ted to have used, to detect the character and business of her visitors, will perhaps account for all that is extraordinary in her intelligence. In so many thousand instances also, of the exer- cise of her faculty, there is certainly no need of calling in super- natural aid to account for her sometimes judging right; and these favorable instances were certain to be related to her advantage, and insured her abundance of credibility. She mar- ried Robert Pitcher, a shoemaker, on the 2d of October, 1760. Had she married differently, as she might have done, she would
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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-SG
S
MOLL PITCHER'S HOUSE.
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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.
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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.
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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.]
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