USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 44
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 44
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynnfield > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 44
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 44
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 44
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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
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1842
[Robert W. Trevett died, 13 January, aged 53. He was a graduate of Harvard College, and for many years in respectable practice as a, lawyer, at Lynn, having come in 1813. He was a conspicuous man in our community, and something of a poli- tician, though he never occupied a very high official position. With general literature of the better sort, he was more than ordinarily familiar, and few stood before him in knowledge of the history of American commerce and manufactures. In person he was of something more than medium size, and in tempera- ment exceedingly nervous, so much so, that in his latter years T2
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his whole system, mental and physical, was unfavorably affected. The closing years of his life he passed in obscurity and indi- gence, shunned by most of those who in his prosperous days had received benefits at his hand. His wife was a lady eminent for her virtues. They had four children; Sarah, Robert W., Susan W., and Warren G.
[The Essex County Washingtonian, a large and well printed paper, designed to advocate the cause of temperance, was commenced on the 16th of March - Christopher Robinson pro- prietor.]
The Lynn Natural History Society was formed on the 3d of August. It was quite successful in the collection of interest- ing natural curiosities, and continued in operation a number of years.
[The house of Warren Newhall, at Lynnfield Centre, was destroyed by fire, on the 23d of September.]
Another great storm happened on Friday, the 3d of Decem- ber, during which a singular phenomenon occurred. It was high tide about ten o'clock in the forenoon, and the tide rose nearly three feet higher than common spring tides. Soon after eleven, when the water had ebbed more than a foot, the wind changed, and brought the tide in again above two feet; so that vessels and timbers, landed by the first tide, were set afloat by the second. This is the only instance on record of a double tide, since the remarkable one in 1635.
1843.
Dr. Charles O. Barker died on the 8th of January. He was born at Andover, March 8, 1802, graduated at Cambridge in 1822, and married Augusta, daughter of Rembrandt Peale, in 1828. His practice was extensive and successful, and he was beloved by all who formed his acquaintance.
Rev. William Gray Swett, pastor of the Unitarian Society, died on the 15th of February. He was born in Salem, July 15, 1808, and graduated at Cambridge in 1828. He went to Cuba in 1830, for the benefit of his health, where he spent upwards of two years. In July, 1836, he was ordained at Lexington ; and on the first of January, 1840, was installed at Lynn. He was a practical preacher, and was greatly beloved by his people. His death was a great loss to his society and to the town; for he was a man of talent, of active benevolence, and of sterling worth. He united high classical attainments with a manly piety, and knew enough of human nature to mingle with all its sympa- thies and partake of all its innocent and social enjoyments.
In a sudden storm of snow and rain, on the morning of March 17, before daybreak, the schooner Thomas, Captain William Sprowl, of Belfast, loaded with wood, was wrecked on the
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southern end of the Long Beach. There were seven men on board, five of whom were drowned, by the swamping of the ' long-boat, as they were attempting to gain the shore.
A splendid comet made its appearance this year. It was observed on the 1st of February, in the day time, passed the sun on the 26th of that month, and was in its most favorable position for observation on the night of the 18th of March. Its train then extended from Zeta in Eridanus, to Eta in Lepus - thirty-eight degrees in length. It was brilliant and beautiful.
The winter was very cold. I crossed the harbor on the 17th of March, and the ice was then strong enough to bear a horse. . On the 4th of April the snow in many places was three feet deep, and on the 8th, a man drove an ox-sled, loaded with wood, across Spring Pond. On the 20th of April, the ice was still thick on the ponds. There were heavy frosts on the 1st and 2d of June.
President Tyler attended the celebration of the battle of Bunker Hill, on the 17th of June; and in that week, 20,600 people passed over the Eastern Rail-road.
Lewis A. Lauriat made an ascent, in a balloon, from Chelsea, on the 4th of July, and descended amid thousands of spectators, near the Lynn Bard's cottage, at Sagamore Hill.
This year, Theophilus N. Breed built his factory for making cutlery and shoemaker's tools on Oak street. [An excellent water power was obtained by running a dam across the valley, a few rods from Oak street, on the north. A fine pond, of fifty- three acres, was thus formed, which, besides answering the useful purpose of carrying machinery, constituted a most pictur- esque feature of the landscape. Surrounded by woodland hills, excepting at the narrow outlet on the west, where, at the dam, the busy little colony of iron workers was located, and with waters as clear as an alpine lake, it never failed to attract the eye that could appreciate the romantic and beautiful. On the 15th of April, 1851, during the memorable storm by which the light house on Minot's Ledge was destroyed, a serious disaster happened here. Some forty feet of the dam were carried away, and out rushed the waters, in a current ten feet in depth, with such impetuosity as to carry large rocks across Oak street, down into the meadow, where they still remain. Some of the buildings were considerably injured by the storm and rushing waters, and other damage was done. The dam was repaired, and Mr. Breed continued his business, which was casting and machine work, five or six years longer, and then the works · were closed. In 1860 the dam was broken and the water suf- fered to escape. And then the acres which formed the bed of that beautiful pond were reduced to a noxious bog, where · rank vegetation flourished and noisy reptiles congregated. The
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clink of the iron worker's hammer no longer rang among the hills, the red fires of the forges went out, and the buildings began to decay. In 1863, however, the dam was again repaired, the pond restored, and the business of preparing hair com- menced.]
In August, about twenty of the Penobscot Indians came to Lynn, and encamped, some at High Rock, and others at Nahant.
Rev. John Pierpont, Jr. was ordained minister of the Unita- rian Society, on the 11th of October.
For about four years past, it has been noticed that the syca- more trees [buttonwoods] have been leafless, decayed, and dy- ing. It is supposed that their decay has been owing to heavy frosts blighting them, after they had budded early. [But their diseased condition was noticed in various distant parts of the country and in Europe. They seem now, [1864] however, in a great measure to have recovered; though there are but few left of what was once a very fashionable tree.]
Sagamore Hall, near the Central Square Depot, was partially burnt in the night of the 25th of November. Loss, about $3000. The town has been remarkably exempt from losses of this kind- this being the only great fire for ten years.
With the year 1843 the labors of Mr. Lewis, as the historian of Lynn, close. He inserted a concluding chapter, bearing date 1844, which was probably written in the early part of that year. A few passages of it appeared to be superseded by other matter in this edition, and the remainder is given in other con- nections. In 1857, he made known his intention to prepare a new edition, but causes operated to prevent his fulfilling his design; and he died in the early part of 1861. I have not thought it right, in the preceding pages, to make any essential alteration in the text of Mr. Lewis, nor to introduce additions of my own in a way that would render him responsible. And hence, as elsewhere remarked, I have indicated by brackets what I have supplied. It would have been a little more fash- ionable, perhaps, to have resorted to foot notes than to have introduced the new matter in the way chosen. But the most fashionable things are not always the most convenient. And foot notes, though often pets with writers are dire afflictions to readers. In the remainder of our volume, however, the unor- namental bracket will of course be dispensed with, as Mr. Lewis's matter extends no farther than this page. J. R. N.
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1844.
Early this year Laroy Sunderland gave a course of lectures on Pathetism, as he termed his subject, in Lyceum Hall. He claimed ability to explain divers mystical operations of the mind, and by experiments to exhibit some of its most remarkable effects on the body. The attendance on his lecture's was very large. The supposed science, however, seemed but another phase of Mes- merism, or animal magnetism, which created a good deal of attention in France toward the close of century 1700, and which Franklin, as a member of an investigating committee, referred to the imagination. Yet, on a question of such depth in mental philosophy it might require one greater than Franklin to deter- mine what is imaginary and what real. During the few years immediately antecedent to the year 1850, scores of lecturers, many of them ignorant mountebanks, travelled up and down the country, pretending to great discoveries in mental science, and adopting various learned names for the dignifying of their sys- tems. But they all seemed to fade away in the light of Spiritualism, which began to prevail about that marked year, 1850. Great numbers among the learned and refined, as well as among the ignorant, believed that means were now discov- ered by which intelligible communication could be held with disembodied spirits. The means -to wit, the knocking against a wainscot or the tipping of a table -through which the com- munications of the invisible ones were vouchsafed, were, to be sure, to common apprehension a little extraordinary ; but in matters which are altogether mysterious, and without the circle of common events, the rules of what we call common sense may not apply. But all such things are perhaps useful, from directing attention to studies which may do much to elevate mankind; even as the old astrology, which in itself was puerile, led to some of the loftiest discoveries in astronomy.
The Essex County Whig, a weekly newspaper was com- menced this year. In 1846, the name was changed to Lynn News. And in 1861 it was discontinued.
The journeymen shoemakers formed a society for mutual benefit, early this year. They endeavored to establish better and more uniform prices. The old order system - the system under which the workman was compelled to take orders payable in goods, for his earnings - which often operated oppressively, was now very generally abandoned, and the wages were paid in money. No striking results, perhaps, immediately followed the formation of this society ; yet, like all similar movements, it was useful in diffusing a knowledge of the real condition of things. and affecting public sentiment.
The thermometer stood at 100 degress, in the shade, 26 June. T2*
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The Whig party held a mass meeting in Lynn, 4 September. Eminent speakers from abroad were present, and a procession, numbering about 3.000, moved through the principal streets.
On the 6th of September, the Democratic party had a great clam-bake at Swampscot. A procession, numbering some two thousand, two hundred of whom were of the military, was formed at the Central Depot, in Lynn, and marched to the place of the unique entertainment. Addresses were made by eminent polit- ical orators.
Tuesday, 22 October, was the day calculated by the Millerites, as the believers in the immediate destruction of the world were called, to be that on which the closing up of all earthly affairs would take place. But it passed off without any extraordinary occurrence, probably to the relief of some whose courage was not equal to their faith. There were quite a number in Lynn, who firmly believed in the predictions of Mr. Miller. They held meetings, and in some instances showed their sincerity by abandoning their business and giving away their property. And many still continue steadfast in the belief that the end of all things is close at hand.
Mr. John Alley, 3d, had a swine, raised by himself, slaughtered this year, which weighed, before being dressed, 1.330 pounds. The fat produced 128 pounds of lard. He had the skin stuffed ; and it became an object of curiosity at agricultural exhibitions.
1845 ..
About midnight, on the 4th of May, a dwelling house on the north side of Summer street, between Market and Pleasant, occupied by Albourne Oliver and David M. Hildreth, was burned. The two families had barely time to escape with their lives. Not even a change of clothing was saved by any of the inmates. Loss $3.000.
Mount Carmel Lodge of Freemasons, instituted in 1805, and discontinued in 1834, under the anti-masonic pressure, was this year reorganized and regular meetings resumed.
Joseph W. Millett, of Swampscot, met his death, 28 May, under painful circumstances. Some young men were in the pastures in pursuit of geological specimens, and he accompanied them. They charged a rock with a pound of powder, and he volunteered to touch it off. They retired, not without appre- hension, as he appeared so daring, leaving him to execute the dangerous task. They heard the report, returned, and found him dead, his body being much mutilated. He left a wife and six children.
The Lynn Artillery joined the escort at the funeral solemnities held in Boston, 9 July, on the occasion of the death of General Jackson.
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The thermometer reached 101 degrees, in the shade, 12 July
A young man from Bradford, named Noyes, was drowned, while bathing, at Needham's Landing, 10 September. He had come to Lynn in the hope of benefitting his health by sea bath- ing, arriving only the day before.
1846.
Between eleven and twelve o'clock on the night of 1 January, a fire broke out in the Rockaway House, at Swampscot, destroy- ing the building and furniture, bowling-alleys, stable, and other out buildings. Loss about $20.000. The building was formerly the Topsfield Hotel, and was moved from that town to Swamps- cot, a distance of about fifteen miles.
For several days, in the early part of January, the air was so clear that the planet Venus could be seen at noonday, about three hours behind the sun.
Amariah Childs died, 21 January, aged 80. He owned the mills on Saugus river, Boston street, which so long bore his name, and there manufactured that excellent chocolate which became celebrated not only throughout the United States, but in Europe. He began the manufacture in or about the year 1805, and sold out the business in 1840. He lived on Boston street, nearly opposite Bridge, and was an esteemed citizen. He married three wives, the first and last of whom were sisters, and the intermediate one the widow of a deceased brother of the other two. The last named was Mrs. Larkin, mother of Thomas O. Larkin, who, at one time during the excitement respecting the California gold discoveries, was reputed to be the wealthiest man in the Union, he having become proprietor of extensive tracts of land in that auriferous region. At the time of his death, however, which occurred a few years after, it appeared that though a rich man, his possessions had been greatly over-estimated.
A house on Franklin street, belonging to John Alley, 3d, was struck by lightning, 18 May, and two persons knocked down.
On the 21st of June, the lightning struck the house of Charles P. Curtis, then in process of erection, on Ocean street, doing considerable damage to the frame.
On Sunday, 28 June, there appeared a remarkable solar halo. The outer edge was of a beautiful violet, and the inner red.
The first Congregational meeting-house in Swampscot, was dedicated on the 15th of July, and the church organized.
On the 1st of August, the anniversary of the abolishment of slavery in the British West Indies was celebrated in the woods, near Lover's Leap. The day was pleasant, and a large company of ladies and gentlemen assembled. Some prominent speakers from other places were present.
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Thomas Nourse killed a rattlesnake five feet long, and having nine rattles, on the Lynnfield road, in July. The ages of these reptiles may be determined by the number of their rattles. They have the first when three years old, and afterward one annually.
On Sunday morning, 9 August, one of the most destructive fires that ever occurred in Lynn, took place. It commenced at about two o'clock, in the spice and coffee mill of Nehemiah X Berry and Samuel C. Childs, on Water Hill. The mill and adja- cent frame buildings were soon destroyed and the fire commu- nicated to the large brick building used for silk printing and dyeing, then occupied by Daniel K. Chase; and that also was destroyed. Total loss about $75.000. Insurance $20.000. This brick factory was the one referred to under date 1836.
On Friday afternoon, 14 August, during the recess at the grammar school on Franklin street, the upper wall fell-plaster- ing, beams, flooring, and all - and precipitated into the room a cord and a half of wood which had been piled in the attic. It came down with such force that portions sank through the floor into the basement. Several pupils who happened to remain in during the recess, were injured; none, however, fatally. The average attendance of scholars was about a hundred and fifty, and had the accident occurred while the school was in session, many lives must have been lost.
A smart shock of an earthquake was felt on Tuesday morning, 25 August, at fifteen minutes before five o'clock. It was suffi- ciently violent to wake persons from sleep, and in some instances dishes were thrown from shelves. There was for a moment a dull, rumbling sound, like that produced by a train of cars pass- ing over a bridge.
The old Lynn Light Infantry, organized in 1812, was disbanded this year. For many years it was a famous company.
The Agricultural Society of Essex County, held their annual cattle show and exhibition in Lynn, 1 October. The weather was pleasant and a very large number were present from abroad. The address was delivered by Moses Newell, of West Newbury, and the dinner was had in the basement of the First Congrega- tional meeting-house. A levee and dance took place in the evening.
The summer and autumn were unusually warm and dry; more so, it was stated, than at any previous time for a quarter of a century. There was a great failure of water in the wells about town; some dried up that never had before. November and December were very cold. At Thanksgiving time there was a great easterly storm that did much damage.
A singular disease began to affect the potato crop, this year ; and it has continued to exhibit itself with more or less virulence
.
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every season since, in some instances destroying whole crops ; the potatoes being sometimes attacked while in the ground, and at other times after being digged. Four periods have been marked by the prevalence of the " potato rot," in this vicinity ; the first in 1770. The remedy in former times seems to have been in the use of the seed, instead of the bulb, for propagation.
The congress boot began to be manufactured at this time. Its peculiarity consisted mainly in the substitution of an elastic gore for the old lacing, thus rendering the boot easier about the ankle, and more tasty in appearance.
The Mexican war commenced this year. Lynn furnished twenty volunteers, viz: Mark Annis, Henry Chester, Benjamin Coates, C. W. Foster, Nathan Green, Lucius Grover, Joseph Hepburn, Amos Kimball, Stephen Morton, Henry Newhall, William B. Patten, Hezekiah Shaw, Walter Sherman, Edward F. Skinner, John Spinney, William Swasey, Joseph Wendell, Joseph York, and two others of the name of Brown.
1847.
On the 15th of April, there were two inches of frost in the ground. And on the 22d of the same month the weather was so warm that the thermometer rose to eighty-six degrees in the shade. But the next day it snowed.
President Polk made a short visit to Lynn on Monday after- noon, 5 July. He came from the east in a special train, left his car at the Central Depot and rode through the town in a car- riage, taking his car again at the depot at the foot of Commer- cial street. There was great eagerness to greet him, but his stay was so short that few could be gratified.
The Hutchinson cottage at High Rock was built this year. Also Exchange Building, on Market street.
The Agricultural Society of Essex county, again held their annual cattle show and exhibition at Lynn, 29 September. The address was delivered by Thomas E. Payson of Rowley. The dinner and other festivities usual on the occasion passed off in a manner most satisfactory.
Samuel Mulliken died 25 November, aged 86. He was long identified with the prosperity of Lynn, and was the third post- master, serving from 1803 to 1807. Before coming to Lynn he for a short time pursued the business of a watchmaker, at Salem. In Lynn, he did a large business, for many years, as a tanner, and at one time kept a large store at the southern end of Market street. He was a man of strict integrity and great industry. He had a strong will, which, being usually set in the right direction stood him in good stead. But he once related to me an instance of its operation which seems more amusing than beneficial. During the active portion of his life, it was a
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custom, as public conveyances were few, for a couple of busi- ness men to visit Boston in company, one providing the horse and vehicle and the other paying the tolls and horse keeping. One chilly November day, he and Jeremiah Bulfinch, a neighbor, agreed to visit Boston in that partnership way. Mr. B. was to · furnish the conveyance and Mr. M. to pay the expenses. When they arrived at. Charlestown, which was early in the forenoon, they found that an additional toll, or some other charge, to the amount of six cents, on which neither had calculated, had been levied. Mr. Mulliken contended that the extra charge should be equally shared; but Mr. Bulfinch declared that none of it rightfully fell on him. They were equally matched for stub- bornness, and there they sat, disputing and arguing, till the declining sun warned them that it was time for the horse's head to be turned homeward. And home they rode, each, undoubt- edly, congratulating himself on his manly triumph. "And," added Mr. Mulliken, as he related the incident, his counte- nance radiating from the old fire within, though he was then more than eighty years of age, "I would have sat there till this time, before I would have paid it !" Mr. Mulliken had two wives ; his first was a daughter of Col. Ezra Newhall, of the Revolution; and his children were, Jonathan, William, John, Charles, Susan, George.
The old Lynn Rifle Company was disbanded this year. It had been in existence about twenty-five years, and ranked high for discipline.
The custom of pressing sea mosses and working them into parlor ornaments, began about this time. The rocks by the sea side and those upon the woodland hills furnish an inexhaust- ible amount of material for the most durable and beautiful orna- ments ; and by a tasty and patient hand it may be wrought into pictures that might easily be referred to the skill of goddesses. And the brilliant leaves of autumn, carefully pressed and var- nished may be formed into exquisite pictures.
The first telegraphic wires that passed through Lynn were put up in December. There was, however, no communication held by them between Lynn and other places. Morse's tele- graph was invented in 1832, and the line between Washington and Baltimore completed in 1844.
1848.
On the night of Wednesday, 5 January, the harness shop of Edwin N. Pike, on Union street, near the Central Depot, was burned. Loss $1.200.
Oliver Fuller, aged 60, while walking on the railroad track, in the vicinity of the Central Depot, on Thursday, 24 February, was run over by a locomotive, and instantly killed.
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George Gray, tne Lynn hermit, died 28 February, aged 78. He was by birth a Scotchman and came here near the close of the last century, locating in a lonely spot, which he made his home till the time of his death, though population largely in- creased around, much to his annoyance. Two or three rude little structures, erected chiefly by his own hand, answered for his dwelling, workshops, and store houses. They were on the south side of Boston street, a few rods east of the main en- trance to Pine Grove Cemetery. It was a very wild place till within a few years. A high woody hill rose in the rear, a tan- gled swamp was on either hand, with a weedy brook winding through; while in front, beyond a little area of brambles and rank vegetation, wound the street just named. He persistently, and often with a good deal of asperity, refused to communicate to the curious inquirers who sometimes beset him, any know- ledge of his personal history or the causes which induced the adoption of his comfortless and unnatural mode of life. And that very secrecy gave rise to innumerable romantic surmises. Some believed that an unfortunate affair of the heart estranged him from the world; others that some great crime rendered his flight from his native land a necessity. And he had the shrewd- ness to avoid entangling himself by contradicting any current opinion.
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