USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscott, and Nahant, 1864-1890 > Part 23
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscott, and Nahant, 1864-1890 > Part 23
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynnfield > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscott, and Nahant, 1864-1890 > Part 23
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscott, and Nahant, 1864-1890 > Part 23
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscott, and Nahant, 1864-1890 > Part 23
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To this day, with here and there an exception, the Swampscott fishermen, the yachtsmen, and residents near the shore ridicule. the idea of the existence of such a monster. Probably not three in ten of the old fishermen believe that any thing more like a serpent than a horse-mackerel ever sported in these waters. But all this is negative ; and the positive testimony of even three or four credible persons may reasonably be expected to outweigh. it in most minds. Three persons might see a thing that forty others, did not see, though in a situation where they could hardly have avoided the sight ; but their not seeing it could not strike. it out of existence.
A year or two before the alleged first appearance of the won- derful creature in these waters he was said to have been seen in the harbor of Gloucester, or about the waters of Cape Ann ;. and the following description of him by Hon. Lonson Nash, a prominent and highly esteemed resident of that section, ap- pears in a letter addressed to Hon. John Davis, and published in a pamphlet entitled "Report of a Committee of the Linnæan
16
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Society of New England, relative to a large Marine Animal, sup- posed to be a Serpent, seen near Cape Ann, Massachusetts, August, 1817."
You request a detailed account of my observations relative to the serpent. I saw hifu iin the fourteenth ultimo, [August 14, 1817] and when nearest I judged him to be about two hundred and fifty yards from me. At that distance I judged him in the larger part about the size of a half barrel, gradually tapering towards the twoextremes, Twice I saw him with a glass, only for a short time, and at other I'mes with the naked eye for nearly half an hour. His color appeared nearly black - hus motion nearly vertical. When he moved on the surface of the water, the track in his rear was visible for at least half a mile.
Ilis velvety, when moving on the surface of the water, I judged was at the rate of a m = In about four minutes. When immersed in the water, his speed was greater, moving, I should say, at the rate of a mile in two, or at most in three minutes. When moving under water, you could often trace him by the motion of the water on the surface, anl from this circumstance I conclude he did not swim deep. Hle apparently went as straight through the water as you could draw a line. When he changed his course, it diminished his velocity but little -the two extremes that were visible ap cured rapidly moving in opposite directions, and when they came parallel they appeared not more than a vard apart. With a glass I could not take in at one view the two extremes of the animal that were visible. I have looked at a vessel at about the sa n dota e, and could distinctly see forty-five feet. If he should be taken, I hav. no data that his length would be found seventy feet, at least, and I should not be sur ri el it he should be found one hundred feet long. When I saw him I was s and ng en an eminence on the sea-shore, elevated about thirty feet above the surface ol the water, and the sea was smooth. If I saw his head I could not distinguish it from his body, though there were sea-faring men near me who said they could distinctly ve his head. I believe they spoke truth, but not having been much accustomel ta look through a glass, I was not so fortunate.
I never saw more than seven or eight distinct portions of him above the water at any one tüne, and he appeared rough, though I suppose this appearance was pro- duced liv his mit on. When he disappeared he apparently sank directly down like a rock. C'azt. Beach has been in Boston for a week past, and I am informed that he is still there AAn engraving from his drawing of the serpent has been or is now makh : 10 lueton, but I have not been able to ascertain how far his drawing is theught a correct representation.
It will be observed that Mr. Nash speaks as if there were no doubt as to the existence of the mysterious stranger. And a contemporaneous account, like his, is generally by far the most satisfactory ; because when one undertakes to describe what he saw many years before, the distance of time and the unconscious mingling of circumstances may, unless great care is exercised and the mind remains perfectly clear, however honest, give a false coloring. Very aged people, in looking back upon events of their childhood, are proverbially prone to take up the magni- fying glass ; and being less liable than contemporaneous narrators
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to be confronted by living witnesses, if they err, are free from some of the restraints that lie outside of conscience.
It is not improbable that this supposed representative of a tribe that existed in ages long past, if he has the temerity to continue his visits to our coast, may yet be captured, and the agitating questions concerning him settled.
MAJOR GENERAL WHITING. Rev. Mr. Whiting, the second minister of the first church of Lynn, and his descendants have been under notice several times in our pages. And it is perhaps well to add that Major General Whiting, of the Confederate army, in the great civil war, who was considered, next to Beau- regard, the ablest officer in their engineer department, was a son of Col. John Whiting, and a lineal descendant from our venerated minister. In 1839 he graduated from the Public Latin School at Boston, and at West Point took the foremost rank in the engineer corps. He was in charge of the fortifications near Savannah, about the time the war broke out, was taken prisoner while in command of the Confederate forces at the mouth of Cape Fear river, and died while a prisoner in New York harbor. He is represented to have been a man of rare accomplishments.
It is not to be doubted that many of those who espoused the Confederate cause, sincerely believed they were acting the part of true patriots, though it is difficult to understand how some of the intelligent and humane leaders could have brought their minds to approve of a part at least of the principles contended for - especially those relating to slavery. They must have been laboring under a sort of self-delusion, as it cannot be supposed they acted without any systematic view of duty or right. Such à man as General Whiting is represented to have been, so un- disturbed by ambition or selfish aspiration, appears entirely out of place among those companions in the finally "lost cause," who, destitute of the higher principles that should regulate human conduct, were governed by insatiable thirst for political advance- ment or self-aggrandizement.
If it were desirable to present a character in set-off to the individual who is the subject of this notice, we should refer to his no less prominent kinsman, the Hon. William Whiting, late of Boston, by whom the Whiting shaft in our Old Burying Ground
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was erected. He was as ardent a supporter of the Union cause as the other was of the Confederate ; was Solicitor of the War Department, at Washington, from 1862 to 1865, performing the arduous duties with a zeal and fidelity that elicited the highest commendation, and by his writings - particularly those on the " War Powers under the Constitution of the United States," - materially strengthening the hands of the government. He was a descendant, of the seventh generation, from our beloved old minister, was born in 1813, graduated at Harvard, in 1833, was admitted to the bar of Massachusetts and the United States Courts in 1838, was a Presidential Elector in 1868, and Repre- sentative of the Boston District in the Forty-third Congress. He took great interest in historical studies, was President of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society, and author of the highly-appreciated " Memoir of Rev. Samuel Whiting, D. D., and of his wife Elizabeth St. John," a beautiful volume of 334 pages, a copy of which the writer procured for our Public Library. He died a few years since.
POINT OF PINES-or Pines Point, or simply The Pines, as the former and familiar names were - is the easterly section, without any definitely marked boundaries, of old Chelsea (now Revere) Beach. Though in the adjoining county of Suffolk, it seems rather to be a mere territorial outpost of ancient Lynn. This beach was always beautiful, but in former years not much visited excepting by those who went with rickety cart and stum- bling dobbin to gather of the abundant up-castings of the sea, to enrich their farm lands ; and excepting, also, that in the warm season a rough sort of pic-nic party sometimes went over in boats or down in wagons to have a jolly time over their fish chowder, fried clams, and boiled lobster, washed down by the exhilarating drinks of the day.
The land hereabout was of little value, for it could be turned to few profitable uses. A friend of the writer once refused to purchase a tract of several acres when the whole was offered for a hundred and fifty dollars. There was, however, many years ago a sort of public house, where scant accommodations could be had ; a house not sustaining the most unblemished reputation, but perhaps quite as good as is usually found in retired places near
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large cities ; but even that induced the visits of some who could appreciate the beauties of the place and perhaps see that in the future it would become of note. In later years one or two houses of greater pretension and better reputation appeared ; but the patronage was limited and the appointments not of the most genteel order. The road that led to the Point was round-about and in some places rough and exposed. There was little to attract the sportsman, or the shore fisherman ; neither was there much to be found among the sands and pebbles to interest the naturalist or curiosity seeker. Yet there seemed a tendency by degrees to recognise the Beach as a place for summer resort.
But when the "Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Rail-road" was built, in 1875, the whole region was opened up at once, as it were, to the light of day - the day of speculation, most certainly-and to the notice of people of refinement, as well as to fashionable pleasure seekers. Very rapid was the increase in the price of lands ; for which there can be little wonder, as the whole vicinity - the Revere and Chelsea hills, and the lawn-like levels - furnish some of the most charming views and salubrious airs that are to be found on the New England coast. And it can hardly be doubted that this well-favored region, with its wholesome breezes, bathing facilities, ease of access and befitting accommodations for all classes of visitors, will soon take rank as a most popular water- ing place.
The Point of Pines, with its groves and its spacious and tasty architectural erections, now presents a remarkably pictur- esque appearance as viewed from the heights of Lynn. And when at evening the grounds are aglow with the brilliant electric lights, sharply defining the swaying branches and lightly gilding the ocean swells, and the capacious houses are illuminated, story above story, the scene is very striking - almost fairy like when is added the softened music of the band floating over the inter- vening waters.
And in this we see what wonderful changes may suddenly, and as it were incidentally, take place by the accomplishment of some shrewdly conceived "public improvement," like the building of a small piece of road. And there are other places in our favored neighborhood fully as capable as that in question, of being brought into similar notice and made equally remunerative.
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HISTORIC TEA. In our Annals, under date 1773, the destruc- tion of the tea, in Boston harbor, is spoken of. And in connec- tion it may be stated that at the National Sailors' Fair, held in Boston, in November, 1864, Mrs. E. N. Cheever contributed some of the tea from one of the fated chests. It was taken from the shoe of Ezekiel Cheever, of Saugus, one of the persons engaged in the destruction of the cargoes. He had stopped on his way home, at the house of Col. Abijah Cheever, in Saugus, where it was emptied from his shoe, and preserved.
RESOURCES AND SUPPLIES. The ocean has always proved a hospitable friend to the people of Lynn, and they may well praise the sagacity of the shrewd forefathers who cast their destinies here upon its pleasant borders. It has yieldel a great variety of fish, and a store of rich dressing for the arable lands. l'o the indigent settler it was a never failing source of supply in the days of greatest need ; and to this day there has never been a time when the destitute could not resort to the lobster-rocks, the eel-beds, or the clam-banks, for a wholesome repast ; to say nothing of the cod, haddock, mackerel, and other finny varieties that abound upon our coast, nor of the shoals of alewives that occasionally appear in the streams that flow by some of our very doors. When we read of the destitution that season after season prevailed in some of the more inland settlements, of their some- times reaching the very verge of starvation, we are led most tully to realize the benefits of our position.
At no period, during her whole history, has Lynn been com- pelled to call on her neighbors for assistance, though she has many times extended a helping hand to calls from others. It has often been a matter of wonder, that the carly settlers in various parts of the old colony, should ever have found themselves in such straits for food as we read of their occasionally having been, for none of them were very far from the sea. It seems as if there must have been some sort of improvidence or lack of skillful management somewhere. But we are not to judge them, and probably do not fully understand the difficulties by which they were encompassed.
The extraordinary fecundity of some of the smaller kinds of fish is well attested. That the milt of a single cod " contains
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more animals than there are men on the earth," we are not prepared to dispute - certainly not from any actual enumeration ; nor would we undertake to deny that were it not for the gor- mandising propensities of the larger corsairs of the deep the smaller would so increase that ships would be obstructed in their movements ; yet we are prepared to say that some kinds, once abundant hereabout have almost entirely disappeared - salmon, shad, and bass, for instance. As to shell-fish : the clam is yet measurably abundant, though the population is so rapidly increasing that his admirers are already beginning to fear great scarcity ; sixty years ago ten or twelve cents was a fair price for half a bushel. And as to lobsters, though large numbers are yet every year taken, about the rocks of Nahant and Swampscott, and out in deeper water, their haunts are so unceasingly invaded that even their graceful forms and sunny tempers, without the intervention of the strong arm of the law could not save them from apprehended extinction. Our present laws, with their rather severe penalties may succeed in affording future generations a taste of the delicate meat.
Eels do not seem to elicit the tender sympathies of people, as do some of their companions of the shoals ; perhaps because they have the misfortune to so resemble snakes. They yet bed, in large numbers, in Saugus river and other places where soft, muddy bottoms are found, and in winter especially furnish to their captors many a savory meal. Tons of them were formerly taken, every winter, in the river alone. And the grim old iron workers had there a well-improved harvest field.
The sportive little "nippers," are much less abundant about the rocks of Nahant, than formerly, if the testimony of the pretty amateur fishers who so unskillfully cast their lines is to be taken as conclusive.
But we thankfully reiterate that the yielding sea has always proved a liberal friend to Lynn. Lynn, however, has likewise proved a friend to herself. Our people have never been given to moroseness, or complaining. In the outset there was no aspira- ration for things too high ; and we have ever remained an industri- ous, working people - a people not unduly prone to speculative and haphazard enterprises. These habits, early established, have stood us in good stead, through the mutations of all our
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country's history, often saving from the disasters which ever attend fast living, whether in the individual or the community.
Not having devoted her energies to employments such as sometimes result in the accumulation of great individual wealth, thereby creating withering social distinctions, Lynn has been remarkably free from the mischiefs, annoyances, and discomforts which always, in small communities, arise from class distinctions. What care we, if in former years some of our amiable neighbors affected to look down upon us as a community of humble plod- ders - what care we, now that we have, by our small gains, our industry and frugal habits, left them in the rear? We would not, however, assume a boastful tone, though it somehow does seem as if good example should not always be veiled.
Our esteemed neighbors, Salem and Marblehead, for instance, have hitherto directed their attention to pursuits widely differing from our own, and the results have differed accordingly. The commerce of the one and the fisheries of the other, with the attendant West India trade, have decayed, and they have already resorted to other employments more likely to ensure the perma- nence of the thrift they so well deserve ; some of which employ- ments are akin to the once disdained business of Lynn - shoe manufacturing. But the good they have done the nation is not to be counterbalanced by any local hindrances. They long since opened sources of traffic which have added immensely to the prosperity of the country, and raised her name abroad. In this, it must be admitted, they are entitled to rank above ourselves.
The New England fisheries, especially, were carly looked upon by the British government with favor, though the later Naviga- tion Laws of the kingdom greatly interfered with their success. They were really important training schools for the supply of the commercial and naval marine of the father land. And finally, when the exigencies of the Revolution demanded the most hardy, skillful, and brave, for the manning of her little navy, the eye of the nation was confidently turned, and turned with eminent success, to those robust wayfarers of the sea.
Such differences in the early economy of neighboring settle- ments should be kept in mind, if one is curious to trace the causes of social distinctions, and the cause of the high or low name a given place may receive. And they furnish, too, abun-
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dant reason for the repression of any feeling of sectional pride. Yet we must maintain that old Lynn has been a favored place, favored in the high scriptural sense of being oppressed neither by poverty nor riches.
ANCIENT DOCUMENTS. Two or three years ago, Mr. James W. Webber, of Lowell street, in repairing a piece of old furniture, found, pressed in back of a drawer from which they had evidently fallen, two or three old, time-stained papers. Instead of burning them, as many would have done, he kindly handed them to the writer, to whom one at least proved of much interest, as it was a receipt written by an ancestor, a specimen of whose handwriting he had long desired to possess.
Another, was the quaint public document that follows in which many who are interested in our local history, will recognize some old, familiar names :
ESSEX, ss. To Joseph Newhall, Constable, In Lynn, March 3d, 1755, GREETING :
In his majesties name you are Required to warn the Several Persons here after named, to attend att the house of Benjamin Bowdens on friday next, at two of the Clock in the afternoon, in order to take the oath to there office thay wair Chose to Serve in, this Day, and make Return of this your Doings. fail not.
By order of the Select men.
JOSEPH FULLER, town Clerk.
Nathaniel Bancroft,
Survar of high ways, Tithen man also.
Amos & Joseph newhalls, fence viuer.
David Gowan, Jur. & } Abraham welman
hog reeves.
The document is labelled, " 1755. A warrant to warn Town officers." And on the back, besides the imperfect return, ap- pears this record : " At a meeting of the Select men, April 7, 1755, apinted Locker newhall, hog Reeve and Joseph Skinner, hog Reeve." This "Locker newhall," was the father of the noted Landlord Jacob Newhall, who, during the Revolution, kept the famous old Anchor Tavern -at that time under another · name - on the Boston road, in what is now East Saugus. The Joseph Fuller, who was Town Clerk, was chosen to the office that year, 1755, succeeding his kinsman John Fuller. The Fullers were farmers, and the family seat was at the westerly end of Waterhill, the present Cottage street running through
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a part of what was their noble orchard. It was here, too, that an ancient Indian encampment is supposed to have existed, as arrow-heads and implements used by the red men have been found. Hon. Joseph Fuller, the first State Senator from Lynn, [1812] and a Representative for six years, likewise [1814] first President of the Mechanics - now the First National - Bank, was of the old Fuller line, and born on that salubrious spot. Maria Augusta Fuller, the poetess, was a daughter of his.
Speaking of the old document here copied, which is not of value excepting as a mere curiosity, leads to the remark that such chance-findings sometimes prove of exceeding importance. And if those who come across them, and to whom they are of no interest, would take the trouble to hand them to some one who is in the way to understand their worth, a good end might often be subserved.
FIRST SIRMON. It has been stated in various publications that Rev. Mr. Phillips, of Lynn, preached the first sermon ever delivered in Waldo county, Maine. The Phillips family was early known in Lynn ; but there was no settled minister of the name. They appear to have at first located in Swampscott, where descendants yet remain, though they were soon found in various parts of the town. They were generally a thrifty, enterprising people. The reverend gentleman referred to may have been a resident minister though not parochially settled.
The sermon alluded to was a funeral discourse on the death of General Samuel Waldo, who died on the 23d of May, 1759, at the age of 63. He was a distinguished officer, and a native of Boston, though a resident of Maine ; was a Brigadier General at the capture of Louisburg, in 1745, owned extensive tracts on the l'enobscot, and had made several voyages to the old country. In Drake's Biographical Dictionary, it is said : "There were remarkable coincidences between his life and that of his friend Sir William Pepperell. They lived in Maine, and were rich bachelors ; they were councillors together ; they commanded' regiments, and were together at Louisburg ; they passed a year together in England ; were born the same year ; and died nearly at the same time." Mr. Phillips certainly had a good subject for an eloquent and pathetic discourse.
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THE HILLS OF LYNN. Whoever has had an opportunity to range about the woody, rock-bound hills that skirt along our northern border, cannot have failed to perceive that we are sur- rounded by some of nature's most charming scenery. And the hills themselves, when viewed from the town, present features of romantic interest. Some slight idea of their appearance may be obtained from the little picture on page 224, of the present volume. Yet they appear, when seen from the water or from the shore-ward levels, of greater height than actual measurement determines. In the picture, the highest point, Reservoir Hill, is shown. And the following table gives the height of that and several other points within the old town limits, in feet :
Reservoir Hill,
224 Lover's Leap, 133
Dungeon Hills,
200
Egg Rock, 86
High Rock,
170 Sagamore Hill,
66
Sadler's Rock, 166 Bailey's Hill, (Nahant) 63
HISTORY OF LYNN. The first edition of the History of Lynn appeared in four numbers, in 1829. The next edition was issued in 1844, in the form of an octavo of 278 pages. These were by Mr. Lewis, who died on the twenty-first of January, 1861. In 1865 appeared the edition bearing the imprint of that year. This was a volume of 620 octavo pages, and is the one so many times referred to in the present work as the " 1865 edition of the History of Lynn," and which contains the " Annals," from the time the settlement commenced, in 1629 down to the close of 1864. It embraced the whole of Mr. Lewis's work, with addi- tions and a continuation down to the time of its publication, by James R. Newhall. The volume now in the reader's hands, and which is by the individual last named, takes up the " Annals" where the 1865 edition left them, and continues on to 1882, with the addition of many pages of historical matter relating to de- tached topics.
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