USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 45
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 45
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynnfield > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 45
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 45
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 45
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At times he was by no means averse to discussing affairs with his neighbors, though very seldom could one receive a welcome to his premises, and never would an invitation to enter his dwelling be extended. His calls were generally made at night. I was occasionally favored with one and usually found him so forgetful of the passing time that it was necessary to remind him of the lateness of the hour by a delicate hint like that of extinguishing the lights, nothing short of some such rude- ness appearing to be understood. On one of these visits, when he seemed in gracious mood, with venturesome curiosity I expressed a desire to know something of his early history ; but the sudden and lively response -" That is what don't concern you!" checked all approach for that purpose. He was a reflecting man, and one of considerable literary and scientific attainment; but the current story of his carrying a Hebrew Bible about in his pocket was, no doubt, a fiction. He took great pleasure in attending lectures, and in studying works on the abstruse sciences. But his fondness for the mechanic arts was perhaps his most conspicuous trait, and he became very skillful in some branches connected with machinery. Strangers would some- times vex him with untimely visits, and by unpalatable remarks induce sudden exhibitions of temper. But if one assumed to possess a knowledge of mechanics, he was pretty sure of a cour- teous hearing. He claimed to be the inventor of a most useful
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part of the ship's steering apparatus; but some one was before him in securing the patent, and he was subjected to much ex- pense in unsuccessful efforts to establish his claims. Rufus Choate was his advocate and counsellor at one time.
In religion he was probably a materialist, most of his life. Perhaps a dozen years before his death he remarked to me that it was "ridiculous for any one to contend that intelligence was not the result of physical organization." But it is understood that he subsequently abandoned his old views, and died in the Calvinistic faith. He was eccentric in his habits, and had little regard for personal appearance, oftentimes, especially during the last few years of his life, appearing in a grim and filthy con- dition. He was remarkable, even in old age, for power of phy- sical endurance. Many a time has he walked to Boston, on a winter evening, attended a lecture, and walked home after it had closed, making a distance, in all, of full twenty miles, most likely with no thicker covering to his head than a dilapidated straw hat and upon his feet coarse shoes and no stockings. He suffered much from disease during his few last years. And there, in his forlorn habitation, without the sympathy of friends or the common endearments of home, in solitude and distress, his last days were passed.
Mr. Gray, at the time of his decease, possessed property to the amount of about $4.000. He died intestate, and his debts were not large; a considerable portion, therefore, went into the treasury of the commonwealth. His savings do not appear, however, to have accumulated from a, miserly disposition, but rather from habits of industry and a naturally frugal turn, for the administrator informed me that from the appearance of things he could hardly have taken sufficient interest in his pe- cuniary affairs to have known what he did possess. In some instances the evidences of his money deposits were found thrown among waste paper.
The death of the hermit was noticed in the newspapers, throughout the country, and several persons appeared, claiming to be heirs; but they failed to substantiate their claims. On the 16th of January, 1861, George Gray and William Gray peti- tioned the legislature to grant to them the proceeds of the hermit's estate in the treasury. The petitioners represented that the hermit was a natural son of William Gray, of Oxgang, Dunbarton county, Scotland, of whom they were legitimate grandchildren. They did not assume any legal right to the money, but in consideration of the fact that they would have been entitled as heirs, had the hermit been legitimate, hoped the legislature would favorably regard their prayer. The peti- tion was referred to the committee on claims, but the result was not favorable to the petitioners.
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1848.
During the month of May, some two hundred dwellings were in process of erection or enlargement in different parts of Lynn.
On Saturday morning, 6 May, during a thunder shower, the safe in the ticket office of the Central Depot was blown open and robbed of about forty dollars. The thief was discovered and suffered imprisonment.
On Sunday, 11 June, a party of young men went down Sau- gus river, for recreation, partaking of clams and other refresh- ments. On their way back, William Austin, one of the number, was suddenly taken ill, and died before a physician could be summoned.
Independence was this year celebrated in Lynn by the friends of temperance. In the evening there was a display of fireworks, at High Rock, and a great crowd of spectators.
The second post-office in Lynnfield was established, 1 August, in the centre village.
At about four o'clock on Sunday morning, 6 August, the house and barn of Samuel Parrott, on North Bend, were entirely destroyed by fire. Loss, about $3.500. Two cows and a calf perished in the flames.
An unusually fatal epidemic prevailed in September. There were seven funerals in town on the 17th. And on the next Sunday Rev. Dr. Cooke, of the First Church, preached a sermon appropriate to the occasion.
The Agricultural Society of Essex County, for the third suc- cessive year held their annual exhibition in Lynn. The day was pleasant and great numbers attended. The address was delivered by Gen. Josiah Newhall, of Lynnfield. Hon. Daniel Webster was present. The evening levee was in Exchange Hall. A few rockets were let off on the Common, at night, which so frightened some of the cattle that they broke from their enclosures and fled. Three young cows, brought by David S. Caldwell, of Byfield, were found, about midnight, at the rail- road depot, quietly reposing beside the same car in which they had been brought.
In October, the house of Daniel Kidder, in Saugus, near the Newburyport Turnpike, was burned. Loss $2.000. The fire was occasioned by children playing with matches in the garret.
On Friday afternoon, 29 December, the new grammar school- house on the westerly side of Franklin street, was dedicated. Though of wood, it was at the time considered a fine building.
The carriage road along the harbor side of Long Beach was built this year by Dennison W. Goldthwaite, under the super- intendence of Alonzo Lewis. It cost $1.771.25. The town appropriated .$1.000 and the people at Nahant, resident and non-resident, subscribed $1.225. A part of the town appropri- ation was not used.
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ANNALS OF LYNN - 1849.
Lynn Common was fenced this year. The whole cost of the fencing fell a trifle short of $2.500. To the exertions of the ladies the town was in a great measure indebted for the im- provement. On the 28th, 29th, and 30th days of September, they held a great fair at Exchange Hall, and were so successful as to realize $1.636, including $245 previously obtained by subscrip- tion. Other sums were subsequently subscribed, and the town made an appropriation, which enabled the committee promptly to complete the work. Down to this time the Common had remained an open area. Most of it was used as a public ground from the earliest times, military trainings and public parades and exhibitions being held there. In some portions the surface remained quite uneven as late as 1830; there were hollows and risings, muddy places and gravelly shelves. The travel flowed partly along the sides, where North and South Common streets now are, and partly along a road which ran, with divers interruptions, along the centre. Just east of where the pond now is, stood a dwelling-house, with out-buildings and a small orchard. And a little farther east stood the gun-house and town-house. At the eastern extremity was a little district school-house, and at the western another. Almost exactly op- posite where Whiting street opens, was the famous Old Tunnel meeting-house ; and so few were the buildings, for most of the distance, between the middle of the Common and the sea, even down to the time of the disappearance of that sacred edifice, that people in passing up and down had pleasant views of the water. Many a time, when a boy, on my way to and from meeting, have I watched the vessels. In 1827 the old meeting- house was removed; and in the course of about half a dozen years thereafter the whole extent was freed from the architec- tural encumbrances. It was then ploughed up, the circular pond formed, the hollows filled, and North and South Com- mon streets graded. Since the fence was built the city has made a number of small appropriations for improvements ; the gravel walks have been formed, and numerous trees planted. At the time the Common was fenced there were three hundred and forty-seven trees upon it, including those within the rail- ing and along the side-walks.
1849.
On Wednesday afternoon, 3 January, the new grammar school- house, on the east side of Centre street was dedicated .. This and the one built at the same time, on Franklin street, and ded- icated 29 December, 1848, were the best ever built in Lynn, up to this time. They cost about $5.000, each.
On Wednesday, 31 January, the body of a man about fifty years of age, who had been frozen to death, was found on Tower
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ANNALS OF LYNN- 1849.
Hill, near the aims-house. It was supposed that he froze the night before, which was intensely cold, while in a condition of helpless intoxication.
A small building near High Rock, used as a shoemakers' shop, was burned on Sunday evening, 25 March. The building was an interesting relic, having been the belfry of the Old Tunnel meeting-house. The spaces being boarded up, it furnished a comfortable though not very capacious shop.
The Lynn Police Court was established this year. It became a court of record, in the legal sense, 1 January, 1862.
The Laighton Bank commenced business, 2 August.
A national fast was appointed for the 3d of August, on account of the threatened prevalence of the Asiatic cholera. The day was well observed at Lynn. About a dozen cases of the disease appeared in our alms-house, ten of which proved fatal. A few other cases occurred in different parts of the town. But the excitement was not to be compared with that of 1832, when the disease first reached America. Lynn, at that time, partook largely of the general alarm, though the pestilence did not then visit her.
In September, James C. Lamphier, of Swampscot, discovered floating off Swampscot beach, a turtle, of the enormous weight of six hundred pounds. Its length, from the end of the nose to the end of the tail, was eight feet and six inches, and its shell was six feet long and three and a half wide. The animal was dead when discovered. After being towed ashore a bullet hole was found in the body.
Rev. Theobold Matthew, of Ireland, a distinguished advocate of temperance, visited Lynn on the afternoon of Monday, 17 September. He held a levee at Lyceum Hall, and several hun- dreds, mostly his own countrymen, took the temperance pledge. On the 7th and 8th of October, he again visited Lynn and administered the pledge to others.
A great storm occurred on the 6th and 7th of October. The sea was driven in with such fury that in several places it made breaches entirely over Long Beach.
The Bay State, a weekly newspaper, advocating democratic principles, was commenced 11 October, by Lewis Josselyn.
On the evening of 19 October a party of Ojibway Indians gave an entertainment at Lyceum Hall. They had traveled in Europe under the guidance of George Catlin, the accom- plished Indian delineator.
The new grammar school-house, at Swampscot, was dedicated on the 20th of December.
A large number left Lynn, this year, to seek their fortunes in California, the excitement respecting the gold discoveries on the Pacific coast having set people almost beside themselves.
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ANNALS OF LYNN-1850.
Nearly two hundred went, some by water and some by land. And there was as much diversity in their success as in their characters and habits. Some returned in poverty and with broken health, others with well-filled purses and good health; others still remained, preferring to make new homes in that distant region.
The grammar school-house at Tower Hill was built this year.
1850.
A curious discussion, which in some instances waxed quite warm, arose at the beginning of this year. It was on the ques- tion whether 1850 was the last year of the first half of the cen- tury, or the first year of the last half.
Fifteen cases of small-pox occurred in January in one house on Spring street; only one, however, proved fatal. All the patients were colored persons.
At the beginning of this year there were in Lynn thirty-four public schools, employing nine male and thirty-four female teachers. The whole number of pupils was 3.379.
A two story building on Centre street, between North Com- mon street and the Turnpike, occupied by Peter C. Downing, as a boarding-house, was destroyed by fire on Sunday night, March 31.
Lynn adopted the city form of government this year. The legislature granted the charter on the 10th of April, and on the 19th the inhabitants voted to accept it. The organization of the first city government took place on Tuesday forenoon, the 14th of May, at Lyceum Hall. The day was pleasant, and a large number, some of whom were ladies, were present to wit- ness the ceremonies. George Hood took the oath of office as mayor, Daniel C. Baker as president of the common council, and William Bassett as city clerk. In the evening the new city government, together with a large company of citizens, partook of a collation, in the old Town Hall.
A great fire raged in the woods on Sunday, 21 April. Sev- eral hundred acres, chiefly in Dungeon Pasture, were burned over.
Col. Samuel Brimblecom died 24 April, aged 81. He was for many years an enterprising shoe manufacturer, and did a great deal towards establishing the business on a firm basis. Before his time the whole trade was so loosely conducted that few realized any thing beyond a bare maintenance from unre- mitted toil and perplexity ; but many of his suggestions tended greatly to systematize the business and render it profitable. In common with all the manufacturers of that period he met with reverses in early life, though before the infirmities of age had settled upon him he had secured a competency. He was a man
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of philosophical turn of mind, and estimable social qualities ; fond of reading, and ready to aid in all efforts to improve the mind. He was a member of the Unitarian Society at its forma- tion, and continued steadfast in the faith. He had seven chil- dren, namely, Mary, Samuel, Mary Ann, two Williams, Lucy, and Ellen. His first wife was Mary Mansfield, whom he married 4 June, 1794; and his second, Nelly Copp, whom he married 1 June, 1817. Ellen was the only child by the second marriage. His residence was on the south side of the Turnpike, a few rods west of Franklin street. He was a native of Marblehead.
At about midnight, on Sunday, 26 May, two buildings on the wharf at the foot of Commercial street, were destroyed by fire, with a considerable quantity of lumber and lime. On the morning of the same day, a store-house in the rear of Caleb Wiley's store, corner of the Turnpike and Federal street, was burned.
Down to the last day of May, the easterly wind had been the prevailing one for a hundred successive days, an occurrence quite uncommon even here where our springs are so marked by easterly winds.
The physicians of Lynn, by mutual agreement, commenced charging seventy-five cents for each professional visit, June 15. The most common fee, previous to that, had been fifty cents. It was a time of great prosperity, and wages in almost every craft and profession took an upward course.
On the afternoon of Thursday, 20 June, during a thunder shower, the lightning struck the clothing store of Roland G. Usher, on Market street. James W. Ingalls, who was standing in the door way, was knocked down. The lightning passed between his legs, tearing one of his boots, and burning his person somewhat.
The " ten hour system," as it was called - that is, the reckon- ing of ten hours' labor as a day's work - was very generally adopted this year. The church bells were rung at six in the afternoon, and then labor, for the most part, ceased, in field and shop. Mayor Hood took a lively interest in the movement.
On the night of the 18th of July, the morocco manufactory of James Tibbets, on Sutton street, was destroyed by fire.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, 24 July, Pine Grove Ceme- tery was consecrated. The weather was pleasant, though very warm, and a great concourse attended. The address was deliv- ered by Rev. Charles C. Shackford, of the Unitarian 'Society.
A son of Joseph Ramsdell, of Lynnfield, aged 10, killed a rattlesnake, in July, which was five feet in length and had eleven rattles.
In the summer of this year, the Salem and Lowell rail-road, running through the northerly part of Lynnfield, was opened. J2*
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A tornado passed through the westerly part of Lynnfield, on the 1st of August, at about three in the afternoon, sweeping every thing before it. Its track was but a few rods in width, and fortunately no buildings were in it.
On Thursday, August 15, a sad disaster occurred at Humfrey's pond, in Lynnfield. A company, connected for the most part with the First Christian Society of Lynn, were holding a pic-nic on the border of the pond. In the course of the afternoon a party of twenty-five, chiefly ladies, rowed out in a large flat bottomed boat, about a hundred yards from the shore. As some of them shifted from side to side, the boat was made to careen ; and several becoming alarmed threw their weight in a manner to completely capsize it. Before aid could reach them thirteen were drowned.
The Salem and South Reading rail-road, passing through Lynnfield, was opened for travel, 31 Angust.
The dry goods store of Charles B. Holmes, on Market street, was broken into on the night of 5 October, and robbed to the amount of some $500. Several other robberies were committed at about the same time, in different parts of the town.
This year the potato rot was very destructive to the crops in and about Lynn.
The first burial in Pine Grove Cemetery took place on Sun- day, October 13. It was on Myrtle path and in lot number 212. The stone bears this inscription: "Harriet Newell, wife of George W. Stocker, died Oct. 11, 1850, aged 27 years. Faith- ful while below, she did her duty well. The first interment and the first stone erected in this Cemetery."
The planet Venus was visible to the naked eye, on clear after- noons, for several days during the early part of November.
On the evening of 28 November, George Thompson, the dis- tinguished abolition lecturer and member of the British parlia- ment, being again in the country, had a public reception by his friends in Lynn, and delivered an address. The meeting was at Lyceum Hall, which was well filled, though the weather was stormy. James N. Buffum presided. For notice of Mr. Thomp- son's earlier visits see under date 1835.
The law passed by Congress, this year, intended to facilitate the rendition of slaves escaping into the free states, and known as the "Fugitive Slave Law," met with strong opposition in Lynn. Several largely attended meetings were held, at which it was warmly denounced. At Lyceum Hall, on Saturday evening, 5 October, a full and enthusiastic meeting convened, at which Mayor Hood presided, Jonathan Buffum, Daniel C. Baker, Charles Merritt, and William Bassett, being vice presidents, and George Foster and Benjamin F. Mudge secretaries. One or two prominent speakers from abroad made stirring addresses,
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and the following resolutions were unanimously adopted. They are certainly characteristic of the people of Lynn, in the ani- mated spirit of freedom they breathe though the exceeding fervor of one or two seems to savor somewhat of nullification :
RESOLVED, That the Fugitive Slave Bill, recently enacted by Congress, violates the plain intent and the strict letter of the United States constitution, which secures to every citizen, except in cases of martial law, the right of trial by jury on all important questions; further, said bill outrages justice, since it does not secure to the fugitive, or to the free man mistaken for a fugitive, due notice beforehand of the charge made against him, and opportunity for cross- examining the witnesses against him on their oath, gives him no time to get counsel or gather testimony in his own behalf-rights which our fathers secured by the struggle of two hundred years, and which are too dear to be sacrificed to the convenience of slave hunters, afraid or ashamed to linger amid a community whose institutions and moral sense they are outraging.
Again, said bill tramples on the most sacred principles of the common law ; and even if men could be property, no property, however sacred, can claim the right to be protected in such a way as endangers the rights and safety of free men, therefore -
RESOLVED, That we protest against it as grossly unconstitutional, as fraught , with danger to the safety of a large portion of our fellow citizens, and capable of being easily perverted to the ruin of any one, white or black; we denounce it as infamous, and we proclaim our determination that it shall not be executed.
RESOLVED, That we rejoice to believe that there are not prisons enough at the North to hold the men and women who stand ready to succor and protect the panting fugitive slave, and baffle and resist the slave hunter, who shall dare to pollute our soil.
RESOLVED, That every man who voted for this atrocious bill, every one who avows his readiness to execute it, and every one who justifies it on any ground, is a traitor to the rights of the free states, and a criminal of the deepest die ; at the head of whom stands Millard Fillmore, who from party, or even baser motives, has set his name to a law, the provisions of which, so far from being fitted for a christian republic, remind one only of the court of Jeffries, or the camp of Haynau.
RESOLVED, That Samuel A. Eliot, of Boston, in giving his vote for this blood-hound bill, dishonored and betrayed Massachusetts; and low as is often the moral sense of a great city, cankered by wealth, we rejoice to know that he misrepresented his immediate constituents : and we demand of them, in the name of our old commonwealth, to save us from the infamy of his presence in another Congress.
RESOLVED, That since God hath commanded us to "bewray not him that wandereth," and since, our fathers being witnesses, every man's right to lib- erty is self-evident, we see no way of avoiding the conclusion of Senator Seward, that "it is a violation of the divine law to surrender the fugitive slave who takes refuge at our firesides from his relentless pursuers ;" and in view of this, as well as of the notorious fact that the slave power has constantly trampled under foot the Constitution of the United States to secure its own extension or safety, and especially of the open, undisguised, and acknowledged contempt of that instrument, with which the slave states kidnap our colored citizens traveling south, and imprison our colored seamen, we, in obedience to God's law, and in self-defense, declare that, constitution or no constitution, law or no law, with jury trial or without, the slave who has once breathed the air and touched the soil of Massachusetts, shall never be dragged back to bondage.
RESOLVED, That Lewis Cass and Daniel Webster, Senator Foote and Sen- ator Clay, and each and every one of the "compromise committee of thirteen,"
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who reported and urged the passage of this bill, as well as every one who voted for its passage, are unworthy the votes of a free people for any office for which they may be hereafter named.
In the course of a few months other large meetings were held, attended by prominent individuals of the several political parties, and similar resolutions adopted. Other places in the common- wealth were quite as much in a ferment as Lynn, and public opinion soon became so moulded that a legislature was elected which made such provisions that the operation of the law was seriously obstructed; and the southerners grew rampant under what they declared to be Massachusetts nullification. Some very bad seeds were sown at this time.
George Thompson, member of the British parliament, deliv- ered the introductory lecture before the Lynn Lyceum, on the 21st of November. There was a very large attendance. His subject was Reforms in England.
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