USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 8
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 8
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynnfield > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 8
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 8
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscot, and Nahant > Part 8
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Trees both in hills and plaines, in plenty be, The long liv'd Oake, and mournful Cypris tree,
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Skie-towering Pines, and Chesnuts coated rough,
The lasting Cedar, with the Walnut tough;
The rosin-dropping Firr for masts in use ;
The boatmen seeke for oares, light, neat grown Sprewse,
The brittle Ash, the ever-trembling Aspes,
The broad-spread Elme, whose concave harbors waspes;
The water-spongie Alder, good for nought, Small Elderne by th' Indian Fletchers sought, The knottie Maple, pallid Birtch, Hawthornes,
The Hornbound tree that to be cloven scornes,
Which, from the tender Vine oft takes its spouse, Who twinds imbracing armes about his boughes.
Within this Indian Orchard fruits be some, The ruddie Cherrie and the jettie Plumbe, Snake murthering Hazell, with sweet Saxaphrage,
Whose spurnes in beere allays hot fevers rage,
The diars [dyer's] Shumach, with more trees there be, That re both good to use and rare to see.]
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HISTORY OF LYNN.
Great numbers of wild birds, of almost every kind, frequent the woods and waters of Lynn. Numerous sea-fowl afford amusement to the sportsman ; and there is scarcely a bird com- mon to North America, which does not, at some season of the year, gratify our ears with its song, or delight our eyes by its plumage. A great variety of fishes, also, are found in the waters. Haddock, halibut, cod, bass, and mackerel, are taken in abundance in boats ; and nippers and tautog are caught by dozens, with hook and line, from the cliffs of Nahant. Hun- dreds, and sometimes thousands of lobsters are daily taken, in the proper season, by traps which are set around the shores ; and alewives in abundance are caught in the streams in the month of May. To give a particular description of all the animal and vegetable productions, would be to write a volume. In the coves around Nahant, that very singular vegetable animal, called the sea-anemone, or rose-fish, is found. They grow on the rocks in the deep pools, and when extended, are from six to eight inches in length, furnished with antenna, or feelers, which they put out to seek for their food; but if touched, they . shrink close to the rock, and remain folded like a rose. . On summer evenings, the meadows exhibit a beautiful appearance, being illuminated by thousands of fire-flies, which appear to take ineffable delight in enlivening the gloom by their phospho- ric radiance. One of them in a dark room, will emit sufficient light to read the finest print.
Some portions of the soil are very fertile, but generally it is rather hard and acidulous. The pastures produce barberries, the woodlands grapes ; the meadows are filled with cranberries, the marshes with samphire ; and the fields, when neglected, run into sorrel. Much dependence is placed upon sea weeds for the enrichment of the lands; but the soil would be much more -
permanently improved „by the rich mud from the bed of the harbor.
The climate of Lynn is generally healthy, but the prevalence of east winds is a subject of complaint for invalids, especially those afflicted with pulmonary disorders. That these winds are not generally detrimental to health is evident from the fact, that the people of Nahant, surrounded by the sea, and subject to all its breezes, are unusually healthy. From some cause, however,
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TOPOGRAPHY AND PHENOMENA.
there are a great number of deaths by consumption. Formerly, a death by this disease was a rare occurrence, and then the in- dividual was ill for many years, and the subjects were usually aged persons. In 1727, when a young man died of consumption at the age of nineteen, it was noticed as a remarkable circum- stance ; but now, young people frequently die of that disease after an illness of a few months. Of three hundred and sixteen persons, whose deaths were noticed in the First Parish for about twenty years previous to 1824, a hundred and twelve were the subjects of consumption; and in some years since, more than half the deaths have been occasioned by that insidious malady. There is something improper and unnatural in this. It is doubt- less owing to the habits of the people, to their confinement in close rooms, over hot stoves, and to their want of exercise, free air, and ablution. It is owing to their violation of some of the great laws of nature. To one accustomed, as I have always been, to ramble by the sea shore, and on the hill top, to breathe the ocean wind and the mountain air, this close confinement of the shops would be a living death. Were it not for the social intercourse, I would as soon be confined in a prison cell as in a room twelve feet square, with a hot stove, and six or eight per- sons breathing the heated air over and over again, long after it is rendered unfit to sustain life. If mechanics find it convenient to work together in shops, they should build them longer and higher, and have them well ventilated. The subject of bathing, too, requires more attention. There are many people in Lynn, as there are in all other places, who never washed themselves all over in their lives, and who would as soon think of taking a journey through the air in a balloon, as of going under water. How they contrive to exist I cannot imagine; they certainly do not exist in the highest degree, of happiness, if happiness con- sists in the enjoyment of that free and buoyant mind which is nourished by pure air and clean water. Some of these water haters, a few years since made a law, that boys should not bathe in sight of any house; yet they have furnished no bathing houses ; and there are no secluded places, excepting where the lives of children would be endangered. Thus they not only refuse to bathe themselves, but prevent the young, by a heavy penalty, from enjoying one of the purest blessings and highest
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HISTORY OF LYNN.
luxuries of existence. Perhaps nothing is more conducive to health than sea bathing. I do not wish for a return of the " olden time," with all its errors and absurdities, but I do desire a return to that simplicity which is born of purity.
·
The climate here is subject to sudden changes, and great extremes of heat and cold, being strangely mixed up with beau- tiful sunlight and horrid storms, moonshiny evenings and long days of cold rain, bright blue sky and impenetrable fogs. Eu- ropean poets tell us of the charms of May, and the song of the nightingale; our pleasant month is June, and the whip-poor- will is our bird of love. The months of June, July, and August are usually delightful; 'and in October and November we have the Indian summer. The temperature is then soft and agreea- ble, and a pleasing haze fills the atmosphere. Sometimes the sky is " darkly, deeply, beautifully blue ;" and sunset is often so gorgeously glorious, that the art of the painter cannot por- tray it. The months of May and September usually abound with chilly rain storms, and dismal, drizzly days. After these succeed the two pleasantest portions of the year. The cold season continues from December to April, and we have snow in each of these months, from three inches to three feet in depth. As winter approaches, the forests are arrayed in the most splendid and beautiful colors; exhibiting almost every variety of shade, from pale green, and dark brown, to bright yellow and deep scarlet. Not only are single leaves thus col- ored, but whole trees and masses of foliage are vividly tinctured with the most pleasing and variegated hues. [Many still sup- pose that these beautiful changes are produced by frost. But observation shows that they are caused by the ripening of the foliage. In some species of vegetation the change commences much earlier than in other. The white maple usually appears in its gorgeous apparel weeks before the frosts come; and the same may be said of the white birch and the woodbine.] In winter, the weather is often, for many days together, exceed- ingly cold, and the moonlight most intensely brilliant.
The unequal refraction of the atmosphere frequently occasions peculiar and curious appearances on the water. Sometimes the sun, when it rises through a dense atmosphere, appears greatly elongated in its vertical diameter. Presently it appears double,
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TOPOGRAPHY AND PHENOMENA.
the two parts being connected together by a neck. At length two suns are distinctly seen ; the refracted sun appearing wholly above the water, before the true sun has risen. I have repeat- edly seen and admired this surprising and exceedingly beautiful phenomenon. Some critics, because Pentheus saw two suns rising over Thebes, have drawn the inference that he could not have been a member of the temperance society ; but his vision might have been merely assisted by refraction :
He saw two suns, and double Thebes appear. - DRYDEN's VIRGIL. This mirage, or loom, frequently causes Nahant, Egg Rock, and vessels on the coast, to appear nearly twice their natural height, and sometimes to seem actually elevated in the air, so as to leave a space beneath them. Portions of the south shore, also, which are commonly invisible, appear plainly in sight. It was undoubtedly this effect of the mirage which occasioned the story of the Phantom Ship at New Haven, and the Flying Dutchman.
The temperature of Nahant, being moderated by sea-breezes, so as to be cooler in summer and milder in winter, than the main land, is regarded as being highly conducive to health. It is delightful in summer to ramble round this romantic peninsula, and to examine at leisure its interesting curiosities -to hear the waves rippling the colored pebbles of the beaches, and see them gliding over the projecting ledges in fanciful cascades - to behold the plovers and sand-pipers running along the beaches, the seal slumbering upon the outer rocks, the white gulls soaring overhead, the porpoises pursuing their rude gambols along the shore, and the curlew, the loon, the black duck and the coot - the brant with his dappled neck, and the oldwife with her strange, wild, vocal melody, swimming gracefully in the coves, and rising and sinking with the swell of the tide. The moon- light evenings here are exceedingly lovely ; and the phosphoric radiance of the billows, in dark nights, making the waters look like a sea of fire - exhibits a scene of wonderful beauty.
[In its more distinguishing features, our sea-shore region suffers little change in the progress of time. In most places, as years roll on, population increases, and the devastating hand of man is constantly changing the aspect of things, so that the admired scenes of one decade of years are known only as pleasant
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HISTORY OF LYNN.
memories in the next. Even here, however, are some evidences of the success of the general conspiracy against nature. The birds, to which Mr. Lewis so often and so fondly alludes, have almost entirely disappeared; and he who would come hither for sea-fowling will be likely to find his only reward in that moral discipline which is the effect of disappointed expectation. A sol- itary note is now and then heard, it is true; but it is more like the wail of a vexed spirit than the joyous outpouring of happy life. But the rugged battlements of rock, and the glistening beaches, remain as they were in the days of the early visitors. And above all, old ocean sustains his integrity - whether calmly sleeping in the summer sunshine, raving in the winter storm, or rolling dreamily beneath the ruling moon.]
MOONLIGHT VIEW AT NAHANT.
But, however delightful Nahant may appear in summer, it is surpassed by the grandeur and sublimity of a winter storm. When the strong east wind has been sweeping over the Atlantic for several days, and the billows, wrought up to fury, are foam- ing along like living mountains - breaking upon the precipitous cliffs - dashing into the rough gorges - thundering in the sub- terranean caverns of rock, and throwing the white foam and
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TOPOGRAPHY AND PHENOMENA.
spray, like vast columns of smoke, hundreds of feet into the air, above the tallest cliffs - an appearance is presented which the wildest imagination cannot surpass. Then the ocean - checked in its headlong career by a simple bar of sand - as if mad with * its detention, roars like protracted thunder; and the wild sea birds, borne along by the furious waters are dashed to death against the cliffs ! Standing at such an hour upon the rocks, I have seen the waves bend bars of iron, an inch in diameter, double - float rocks of granite, sixteen feet in length, as if they were timbers of wood -and the wind, seizing the white gull in its irresistible embrace, bear her, struggling and shrieking, many miles into Lynn woods ! In summer, a day at Nahant is delight ful - but a storm in winter is glorious !
[The grand and picturesque scenery in and about Lynn was early brought to notice, and hither have long been attracted the learned, and the most refined of Nature's devotees. The historian and poet have delighted to wander amid the woods that wave and whisper on our sunny hills, and clamber among the ocean-worn battlements that guard our shores. Within these pleasant borders have they loved to pursue their favorite studies ; and, we may fondly believe, some of the most sterling works that adorn the literature of the age have here received the inspiration that the magnificent and beautiful in nature always impart to the cultivated mind. At Nahant, in his pic- turesque home, just above the resounding arches of Swallow's Cave, Prescott labored on the glowing pages of his Ferdinand and Isabella, and his Conquest of Mexico ; and at his residence on Ocean street, in Lynn, he wrote the thrilling chapters of Philip the Second. At Nahant, also, in the modest mansion of Mrs. Hood, in the evening shade of the decrepit willows that yet stand in front of Whitney's tavern, Mottey spent many and many a quiet hour in the preparatory studies of his great His- tory of the Dutch Republic. And the learned Agassiz still delights, year by year, to come hither and in quietude explore the mysterious and contemplate the beautiful in nature. At the unostentatious homestead of Jonathan Johnson, Longfellow produced many of the charming strains of his world-renowned Hiawatha; and there, also, he wrote his Ladder of Saint Augus- tine. And Willis says, " Some of my earliest and raciest enjoy-
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H
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HISTORY OF LYNN.
ments, both of driving and writing, were spent at Nahant." Nor should it be forgotten that the learned Felton loved to retire from the halls of Harvard, and here breathe the invigorating air and bathe in the renovating waters. And as he, in declining life, found here a delightful field of recreation, so in youth he found among the rough hills of Saugus, a field of homely toil. In 1815, when a boy, he came, with his father's family, to the corner of Chelsea which belonged, as a parish, to Saugus, the father filling the humble office of toll-gatherer on Newburyport turnpike. In winters, young Felton went to the town schools of Saugus, with one or two exceptions. One winter he attended the school of Miss Cheever, and another, that of Rev. Joseph Emerson. At other times he worked at farming. One season he part of the time rode plough horses at twenty-five cents a day. Subsequently, he went to school, one quarter, to Mr. Thatcher, formerly minister of the first parish of Lynn, who then taught a private school at Malden. There he studied. Latin and read novels till the excitement threw him into a fever that nearly proved fatal. He afterward went one quarter to Bradford Academy. Early in the summer of 1822, he went to Mr. Putnam's, at North Andover, intending to remain only one quarter. But Mr. Putnam, finding him a lad of great prom- ise, urged him, though very poor, to persevere for the attainment of a college education. He struggled on. And we finally be- hold him the revered head of the first university in the land.]
SHOES AND SHOEMAKING.
LADIES' SHOES began to be made in Lynn at a very early period; and that business has long been the principal occupa- tion of the inhabitants. Shoemaking is a very ancient and respectable employment, for we read in Homer, of princes man- ufacturing their own shoes. They have been made of various materials - hides, flax, silk, cloth, wood, iron, silver, and gold - and in great variety of shape, plain and ornamental. Among the Jews they were made of leather, linen, and wood. Soldiers wore them of brass and iron, tied with thongs. To put off the shoes was an act of veneration. The Asiatics and Egyptians wore shoes made of the bark of the papyrus. Among the Greeks, the shoe generally reached to the mid-leg, like what
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SHOES AND SHOEMAKING.
we now call bootees. Ladies, as a mark of distinction, wore sandals - a sort of loose shoe, something like a modern slipper. Xenophon relates that the ten thousand Greeks, who followed young Cyrus, wanting shoes in their retreat, covered their feet with raw hides, which occasioned them great injury. The Ro- man shoes were of two kinds - the calceus, which covered the whole foot; and the solea, which covered only the sole, and was fastened with thongs. Ladies of rank wore white, and some- times red shoes ; other women wore black. The shoes of some of the Roman emperors were enriched with precious stones. It was generally regarded as a mark of effeminacy for men to wear shoes. Phocion, Cato, and other noble Romans, had no. covering for their feet when they appeared in public. In the ninth and tenth centuries, the greatest princes of Europe wore wooden shoes, or wooden soles fastened with leather thongs. In the eleventh century, the upper part of the shoe was made of leather, and the sole of wood.
The Saxons wore shoes, or scoh, with thongs. Bede's account of Cuthbert is curious. He says: " When the saint had washed the feet of those who came to him, they compelled him to take off his own shoes, that his feet might also be made clean ; for so little did he attend to his bodily appearance, that he often kept his shoes, which were of leather, on his feet for several months together." (Bede, Vit. Cuthbert, p. 243.) [In an old 'Saxon Dialogue a shoemaker says he makes " swyfflers, sceos, and leather hose."]
In the Dialogues of Elfric, composed to instruct the Anglo Saxon youth in Latin, we find that the shoemaker had a very comprehensive trade. "My craft is very useful and necessary to you. I buy hides and skins, and prepare them by my art, and make of them shoes of various kinds, and none of you can winter without my craft." Among the articles which he fabri- cates, he mentions -ancle leathers, shoes, leather hose, bridle thongs, trappings leather bottles, flasks, halters, pouches and wallets. (Turner's Hist. Anglo Saxons, 3, 111.)
In the year 1090, in the reign of William Rufus, the great dandy Robert was called the horned, because he wore shoes with long points, stuffed, turned up, and twisted like horns. These kind of shoes became fashionable, and the toes continued
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HISTORY OF LYNN.
to increase in extent, until, in the time of Richard II., in 1390, they had attained such an enormous extent as to be fastened to the garter by a chain of silver or gold. The clergy declaimed vehemently against this extravagance; but the fashion contin- ued, even for several centuries. In the year 1463, the Parlia- ment of England passed an act prohibiting shoes with pikes more than two inches in length, under penalties to maker and wearer; and those who would not comply were declared excom- municate. Even at a late period shoes were twice the length of the foot, or so long as "to prevent kneeling in devotion at God's house." In the year 1555, a company of Cordwainers was incorporated in old Boston, England. By their charter, it was ordered, "That no person shall set up, within the said borough, as Cordwainers, until such time as they can sufficiently cut and make a boot or shoe, to be adjudged by the wardens . . . that if any foreigner, or person who did not serve his apprenticeship in the said borough, shall be admitted to his freedom, he shall then pay to the wardens £3 2s. 8d. ... and that no fellow of this corporation, his journeyman or servant, shall work on the Sabbath day, either in town or country." (Thompson's Hist. Boston, Eng., p. 82.)
Shoes in their present form came into use in the year 1633, a short time after the first settlement of this country. The first shoemakers known at Lynn, were Philip Kertland and Edmund Bridges, both of whom came over in 1635. [For facts concern- ing them see under that date.] The business gradually increas- ed with the increase of inhabitants; and many of the farmers, who worked in the fields in the summer, made shoes in their shops in the winter. The papers relating to the Corporation of Shoemakers, mentioned by Johnson, in 1651, are unfortu- nately lost ; having probably been destroyed by the mob in 1765. As the first settlers introduced many of their customs from England, the privileges were probably similar to those conferred, in 1555, on the Cordwainers of old Boston.
The term Cordwainer, as a designation of this craft, has long usurped the place of Ladies' Shoemaker. This word had its origin from Cordova, a city in the south of Spain, where a pecu- liar kind of leather was manufactured for ladies' shoes. The word in the Spanish is Cordoban; in the Portuguese, Cordovan ;
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SHOES AND SHOEMAKING.
and in the French, Cordouan; whence the term Cordouaniers, or Cordwainers. [Cordwinder, by the way, is the shape in which the term appears in the first Colony Charter. The Cor- dovan leather was tanned and dressed goat skin. Members of the craft are sometimes called Sons of Crispin. And this arose from the honor done the calling by that worthy. Several of the societies of shoemakers, in France and England, early adopt- ed good Crispin as their patron.] In the eighth century, the descendants of Alaric, in revenge at being passed by in the choice of a king, called the Arabians to their aid. They came, and Roderic, the last of the Goths, fell in the seven days' battle, at Tarik, in 711. In 756, Abderrhaman made himself master of Spain, and established his caliphate at Cordova. During the Arabian power, agriculture, commerce, the arts and sciences, flourished in Spain; and in that period, the celebrated Cordova leather was introduced. It was similar to what is now known as morocco, and was altogether superior to any thing which had been previously used for the manufacture of ladies' shoes. It was at first colored black, and afterward red, by the use of cochineal.
[The names of the first two shoemakers in the Massachusetts colony appear in the following extract from the Second General Letter of the Governor and Deputy of the New England Com- pany, dated London, 28 May, 1629, which may be found in the Col. Recs. vol. I, pp. 404, 405. And the extract may prove addi- tionally interesting, as explaining, to some extent, the condition and position of that class of craftsmen. But would not one of our extensive manufacturers now think that the time when " divers hydes, both for soles and vpp leathers," with two men to work them " vpp in bootes and shoes," were sufficient for the country, was a day of rather small things ?
Thomas Beard, a shoomaker, and Isack Rickman, being both recomended to vs by Mr Symon Whetcombe to receive their dyett & houseroome at the charge of the Companie, wee haue agreed they shalbe wth yow, the Gounor, or placed elsewhere, as yow shall thinke good, and receive from yow, or by yor appointmt, their dyett & lodging, for wch they are to pay, each of them, after the rate of 10£ p ann. And wee desire to receive a certificate, vnder the hand of whomsoever they shalbe soe dyetted & lodged wth, how long tyme they haue remained wth them, in case they shall otherwise dispose of themselues before the yeare bee expired, or at least wise at the end of each yeare, to the H*
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HISTORY OF LYNN.
end wee may heere receive paymt according to the sd agreemt. The said Tho : Beard hath in the shipp the May Flower divers hydes, both for soles and vpp leathers, wch hee intends to make vpp in bootes and shoes there in the coun- try. Wee pray yow let Mr Peirce, the mr of the said shipp, viewe the said leather, & estimate what tonnage the same may import, that soe the said Beard may ether pay vnto yoW there after the rate of 4£ p tonn for fraight of the same, the like for his dyett if there bee occasion to vse any of his comodi- ties, or otherwise, vpon yor advice, wee may receive it of Mr Whetcombe, who hath promised to see the same discharged. Wee desire also the said Tho : Beard may haue 50 acres of land allotted to him as one that transports him- selfe at his owne charge. But as well for him as all others that shall haue land allotted to them in that kinde, and are noe adventurers in the comon stock, wch is to support the charge of ffortyficacons, as also for the ministrie & divers other affaires, wee holde it fitt that these kinde of men, as also such as shall come to inheritt lands by their service, should, by way of acknowl- edgmt to such from whom they receive these lands, become lyable to the pformance of some service certaine dayes in the yeare, and by that service they and their posteritie after them to hold and inherite these lands, wch wilbe a good meanes to enjoy their lands from being held in capite, and to support the plantacon in genall and peticuler.
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