USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Saugus > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscott, and Nahant, Vol. II. 1864-1893 > Part 23
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Swampscott > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscott, and Nahant, Vol. II. 1864-1893 > Part 23
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynnfield > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscott, and Nahant, Vol. II. 1864-1893 > Part 23
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscott, and Nahant, Vol. II. 1864-1893 > Part 23
USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Lynn > History of Lynn, Essex county, Massachusetts: including Lynnfield, Saugus, Swampscott, and Nahant, Vol. II. 1864-1893 > Part 23
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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
WOODWARD'S AWLS. The elder members of the shoe-making craft hereabout will remember the famous Woodward awls. Before shoes were made by machinery, they had a great sale in Lynn,. as nothing could supply their place. They were manufactured in that part of Reading now known as Wakefield, by Thomas Woodward, who was a native of Lynn, or Lynnfield, as it now is, and was born in 1773. He was a very ingenious and dexter- ous mechanic, and has been credited with numbering among his other inventions that of the Emerson razor strap. Mr. Eaton, in his history of Reading, says of him : "He was an honest, industrious, and kind-hearted man, but possessed some peculiar- ities of character ; he had an inquiring and rather credulous mind ; any new idea, either in physic, physics or ethics, he was ever ready to adopt, and if he thought it valuable, he was dis- posed to pursue it with great sincerity and pertinacity of purpose ; hence we find him ever trying some new experiment in manufac- turing, using some newly invented pilis or cordial, making a " Tincture," that becomes and still continues a popular medicine, becoming an anti-mason and abolitionist of the most approved patterns, and an honest and sincere believer in Millerism. He was, however, a very useful citizen. He lived to be aged, and_ his body outlived his mind." He died in 1860, aged 87 years.
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RELIGIOUS DISCUSSIONS. In our Annals, under date 1702, an account is given of a characteristic discussion on religious topics, held in Lynn by Rev. George Keith, a Church of England mis- sionary, and John Richardson a prominent Quaker preacher. There was at that period a wide-spread interest in such contro- versies, on both sides of the water, and the contestants often manifested most intemperate zeal. Soon after Mr. Keith's return to England the following appeared as an advertisement in the London Postman : "Whereas, the world has been told in public papers and otherwise, of numerous conversions of Quakers to the Church of England, by means of Mr. Keith and others, and whereas the Quakers give out in their late books and otherwise, that since Mr. Keith came out of America, there are not ten persons owned by them that have left their Society, Mr. Keith and others will very much oblige the world in publishing a true list of their proselytes."
PRESCOTT'S WALK. William H. Prescott, the eminent histo- rian, was for some years a summer resident of Lynn, his estate being on Ocean street. There he composed a considerable portion of "Philip the Second," and did other writing. His physical infirmities were such that much air and exercise were absolutely necessary. The old cherry tree, alluded to in the following extract from the biography of the historian, by George Ticknor, stood in front of the mansion.
" One thing at his Lynn home, was, and still is, [1862] very touching. There was hardly a tree on the place except some young plantations, which were partly his own, but which he did not live to see grow up. But shade was important to him there as it was everywhere ; and none was to be found on his grounds except under the broad branches of an old cherry tree, which had come down from the days of Quaker shoemakers, who were so long the monarchs of the land there, and in all the neighborhood. Round the narrow circle of shade which this tree afforded him, he walked with his accustomed fidelity a certain length of time every day whenever the sun prevented him from going more freely abroad. There he soon wore a path in the green sward, and so deep did it at last become that now - four years since any foot has pressed it - the marks still remain as a sad memo-
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rial of his infirmity. I have not unfrequently watched him as he paced his wearisome rounds there, carrying a light umbrella, which, when he reached the sunny side of his circle, he raised for an instant to protect his eyes, and then shut it again, that the suffering organ might have the full benefit, not only of the exercise, but of the fresh air ; so exact and minute was he as to whatever could in the slightest degree affect its condition."
This same old cherry tree is referred to in the following im- pressive but slightly stilted sonnet, written after Mr. Prescott's death, by an esteemed poetess of New York :
No more, alas ! the soft returning spring Shall greet thee, walking near thy favorite tree, Marking with patient step the magic ring Where pageants grand and monarchs move with thee, Thou new Columbus ! bringing from old Spain
Her ancient wealth to this awaiting shore ; Returning stamped with impress of thy brain, Far richer treasures than her galleons bore.
Two worlds shall weep for thee- the Old, the New - Now that the marble and the canvas wait In vain to cheer the homes and hearts so true, Thy immortality made desolate, While angels on imperishable scroll Record the wondrous beauty of thy soul.
THE SEA-SERPENT. In our Annals, under date 1819, is given a pretty full account of this wonderful marine monster who is yet regarded by many as a mere creature of the imagination. And under date 1875 may be found a few additional particulars. Till within a comparatively recent period leading scientists ap- peared to disdain even the discussion of the question of his existence. But new interest has, of late, from some cause, been awakened, and opinions more or less valuable are freely expressed by those who claim to be most learned in nature's mysteries. The speculations of scientists, however, are not always more satisfactory than the observation and experience of some who make no high claims ; for there are, even among the learned, wise and unwise, credulous and incredulous ones. In the pres- ent state of the question, it may be interesting to give a few items of testimony which are not to be found elsewhere in our history.
Nathan D. Chase, an aged and respectable citizen residing in
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the eastern section of the city, in a newspaper article published in June, 1881, referring to the appearance in 1819, says :
I had the pleasure of seeing his snakeship off Long Beach and Red Rock. He passed along within one hundred feet from where I stood, giving me a very good sight of him. At that time he carried his head out of water about two feet, and his speed was like that of an ordinary ocean steamer. What I saw of his length was from fifty to sixty feet. It was very difficult to count the bunches, or bony fins upon his back, as by his undulating motion they did not all appear at once. This accounts, in part, for the varied descriptions given of him by different parties. His appearance at the surface of the water was occasional and but for a short time. This is the best description I can give of him from my own observation, and I saw the monster as truly, though not quite so clearly, as I ever saw any thing.
There are honest neighbors of Mr. Chase, who, though they entertain not the slightest doubt of his veracity, yet believe that his eyes did not serve him with entire faithfulness ; or rather that imagination was unwittingly allowed to add a little of its illuminating power. The writer has conversed with several who were on the Beach at the time of the alleged appearance and found them to disagree considerably as to details, and in posi- tiveness. One worthy man said, "Why, yes, I saw what they called the sea-serpent, but could not make out what some others present declared they saw." Yet none seemed to doubt that something wonderful was moving about there.
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 him on 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 two extremes. Twice I saw him with a glass, only for a short time, and at other times with the naked eye for nearly half an hour. His color appeared nearly black - his 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.
His velocity, when moving on the surface of the water, I judged was at the rate of a mile 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, and from this circumstance I conclude he did not swim deep. He 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 appeared rapidly moving in opposite directions, and when they came parallel they appeared not more than a yard 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 same distance, and could distinctly see forty-five feet. If he should be taken, I have no doubt that his length would be found seventy feet, at least, and I should not be surprised if he should be found one hundred feet long. When I saw him I was standing on an eminence on the sea-shore, elevated about thirty feet above the surface of 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 see his head. I believe they spoke truth, but not having been much accustomed to 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 time, and he appeared rough, though I suppose this appearance was pro- duced by his motion. When he disappeared he apparently sank directly down like a rock. Capt. Beach has been in Boston for a week past, and I am informed that he is still there. An engraving from his drawing of the serpent has been or is now making in Boston, but I have not been able to ascertain how far his drawing is thought 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 a 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 yielded a great variety of fish, and a store of rich dressing for the arable lands. To 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 fully 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 early 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.
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