USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 21
USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 21
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 21
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It has become almost a lost art elsewhere to replace the rush-seated chairs with the original sort of seats but it can still be done satisfac- torily on Cape Cod. Even caning chair seats requires a skill which few people possess. The signs along the smooth highways of Cape Cod, over which motor cars from every State in the Union and from Canada pass with great frequency in the summer months, announce that rush- bottoming and caning chairs is a specialty with the people living within.
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The early days of Cape Cod were days of straight-backed chairs and straight-backed men and women. There were no "easy chairs" and no easy lives. "The good old days" were days of toil and daily con- quering that part of the world in which the people of those days dwelt. They would not be "good old days" for us, but there were rewards as well as sacrifices in them which compensated for the requirements and the Cape Codder who is not proud of his ancestors is unworthy of them.
There are still to be found in Barnstable County many old colonial pieces of furniture, in spite of the pleadings and offerings of large sums of money on the part of people who wish to possess them as so many things to show as trophies but to whom they can never "belong" as they do to those. "to the manor born." Some of these pieces of furniture were brought from Philadelphia or other ports by sea. The new owners of these "antiques" tell their fashionable friends how typical they are of old Cape Cod but a large percentage of them were brought by grand- father as a present to grandmother, when grandfather sailed back home from a voyage which took him to Philadelphia. A large percentage of the early furniture was made in Pennsylvania, until the genius for mak- ing things in Connecticut became developed.
Those jugs and pitchers, plates and bowls in gray and brown, found in some of the cupboards, have been snapped up by the visitors, and. they wonder just how they were made by the early residents of Cape Cod. Sometimes imagination brings forth the story of the manufac- ture of them with Sandwich glass or even connecting them with the manufacture of salt. But these explanations do not explain, they merely confuse. Those jugs and bowls and all the rest of the things were New Jersey pottery, brought home by the Cape Cod captains and sailors. Then came the Bennington ware, manufactured by the same people in some instances who had made the New Jersey pottery. This Bennington ware became common on Cape Cod, as it was purchased from the so-called tin peddlers. It came overland, rather than by sea, and that, in itself, does not seem like Cape Cod. The Bennington pot- tery was exchanged for Cape Cod products with the peddlers to a con- siderable extent about twenty years before the Civil War.
Glassmaking an Important Industry-One of the treasures of Cape Cod which has been much in demand for several years is authentic Sandwich glassware. Such pieces have been sought with an eagerness seldom seen except in the instances of antiquarians in search of their prey. Sandwich glass, whenever and wherever found, cannot be con- sidered an antique, as it dates back to the nineteenth century period merely. There is a letter in existence under date of July 10, 1841, signed by Daniel Webster, in which he wrote to Deming Jarvis of the Boston & Sandwich Glass Company :
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Washington, July 10, 1841.
My Dear Sir:
I have to thank you for your very handsome present of glass which arrived yesterday. All the pieces came safe and are exceedingly elegant.
They have substance as well as beauty and I shall have much pleasure in exhibiting them as specimens of the skill and industry of Massachusetts.
I please myself with the hope that I may find leisure before autumn to visit Sandwich once more, a spot in which I have spent so much agreeable time in years past.
With renewed thanks for your kind remembrance, I am, dear sir,
Yours truly DANIEL WEBSTER.
Deming Jarvis, Esq.
The making of glass in Sandwich flourished several years and we have the testimony of Daniel Webster that Sandwich glass had "sub- stance as well as beauty."
It is said that the first moulds for Sandwich glass were made by a carpenter at Sandwich. The name of Deming Jarvis is associated with Sandwich glass and Jarvis says in his book on American glass, as early as 1815 he imported pressed glass from England and Holland. From these patterns it is surmised the dolphin used freely in Sandwich glass candlesticks, compotes and other pieces appeared. A fine collection of glass made in Sandwich, possessed by Mrs. George W. Milton of Ja- maica Plain, shows the dolphin. It is true, however, that the dolphin was a favorite decoration with glassmakers as far back as the Middle Ages and copied generally.
Deming Jarvis came to Sandwich in 1825 and interested the citizens in his plan for building a factory and making glass. The factory and dwellings for workmen were ready and the glass was first blown July 4. There were eight furnaces holding 800 pounds each and wood was used for fuel. The Boston & Sandwich Glass Company was incorpor- ated February 22, 1826, by Deming Jarvis, Henry Rice, Andrew T. Hall and Edward Monroe. Sixty or more men were employed and 3,000 cords of wood were used yearly. By 1854 the capitalization reached $400,000 and five hundred were employed in making a product worth $600,000 yearly. Stores were built and the town prospered.
The company owned the sloop "Polly" which came almost to the door of the factory at high tide and took the product to Boston. In .1858 a railroad was built to carry the product to the wharf at any tide and the company bought the sloop "Acorn" to compete with the Old Col- ony Railroad in keeping freight rates down.
The company made a good quality glass. About 1860 an acid- etching machine was brought from Europe and glass shades were etched with forty or more patterns. Shipments were sent to the West Indies and lamps all over the world. The business was prosperous
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until December, 1887, when the employees formed the Flint Glass Workers Union, refused to sign an agreement with the company, and the fires went out and were never rekindled. Ten of the employees formed a cooperative company in 1888 but the venture failed.
Among other things made at the Sandwich Glass Works were cup- plates, in the days when people not only cooled their tea and coffee in the saucer but drank it from that convenient receptacle. Cup-plates were made of porcelain and glass and many of them were found on the Cape a few years ago and they are still owned here, but in decreasing numbers, as the summer visitors have a way of taking them away with them in exchange for sums of money many times the amount they were ever expected to sell for when made at Sandwich.
Most of them commemorate historic events, bearing pictures of Bunker Hill Monument, the presidents, log cabins or other views which seemed appropriate. The earliest ones were manufactured about 1831 and in 1924 came a change of mould, so that the 1831 pattern is much sought after not because it was any more beautiful, quite the contrary, but it is more distinction to have one which is hard to duplicate. Some were of opalescent material but most of them were of clear glass.
The Sandwich glass makers were skillful workmen and it is a won- der how they were able to produce the sand-blasted lamps, with such a sheen and so smooth. There were many styles of lamps, the sand- blasted female figure supporting the bowl being one of them. Then there were bowls of red flashed with clear facets; others of blue or amber. There were amber candlesticks, some with the figure of a dolphin, which have a golden hue and lustre truly beautiful. It is small wonder that the craze for Sandwich glass came back a few years ago.
In 1850, a glass bowl made in the works of the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company, was presented to Hon. Daniel Webster, of which Mr. Deming Jarvis, in an accompanying letter, says "It claims the merit of being much the largest piece of flint-glass made by machinery in any part of the world. Two machinists were employed six months in form- ing the mould. This bowl is the first made in it, and is called 'the Union Bowl.' The name will not render it less valuable."
Daniel Webster, like Thoreau, and many other noted men, was very fond of Cape Cod, and in connection with the history at Sandwich, there is a letter in existence written by Daniel Webster to his son, the opening paragraph of which reads as follows :
"Marshfield, June 12, 1847.
"My Dear Son: I received yours last night with the gear. .... . I have fixed my old John Trout rod, and it does very well :- 'Venerable man, you have come down to us from a former generation,' &c. &c. &c."
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PLYMOUTH, NORFOLK AND BARNSTABLE
Concerning this illusion, the son of Daniel Webster afterward ex- plained :- "The Mashpee River flows from a very large lake called Wakeby Pond, in Barnstable County, into the ocean, on the S. E. coast of Massachusetts. It is a short and rapid stream running into a deep valley, or rather, ravine, with high precipitous sides covered with a thick growth of small pines and various kinds of brushwood and shrubs. The only method of fishing it, is by wading along the middle and throw- ing under the banks on either side, it being unapproachable otherwise owing to the trees and underbrush. It was, as he states in his auto- biography, whilst middle-deep in this stream, that Mr. Webster com- posed a great portion of his first Bunker Hill address. He had taken along with him that well-known angler, John Denson, usually called 'John Trout,' and myself. I followed him along the stream, fishing the holes and bends which he left for me; but, after a while, began to notice that he was not so attentive to his sport, nor so earnest as usual. He would let his line run carelessly down the stream, or hold his rod while his hook was not even touching the water; omitted trying the best places under the projecting roots of the pines, and seemed indeed quite abstracted and uninterested in his amusement. This, of course, caused me a good deal of wonder, and, after calling his attention once or twice to his hook hanging on a twig, or caught in the long grass of the river, and finding that after a moment he relapsed again into the same indifference, I quietly walked up near him and watched. He seemed to be gazing at the overhanging trees and presently advancing one foot and extending his right hand, he commenced to speak, 'Vener- able men,' &c. &c. We afterward frequently referred to the circum- stance as he does in the above letter."
It should not be inferred that the Cape Cod windmills were used ex- clusively to grind corn or in the manufacture of salt from sea water.
A few years ago Alfred Crocker, clerk of courts of Barnstable Coun- ty, became the possessor of a curious document, issuing a patent for a windmill to cut or polish stone. It was on parchment, dated more than a hundred years ago, signed by James Monroe as president, John Quin- cy Adams as secretary of State, and William Wirt as attorney-general. The signatures appeared in good state of preservation and the docu- ment showed that Cape Cod windmills were inventions of Cape Cod- ders, at least that particular one, but whether there were a sufficient number of stone to cut or polish to keep the mill busy is another matter.
One of the charms of the Cape is the prevalence of shade trees in several of the peaceful, pleasant towns. Among them are many elm trees which bid defiance, like Cape Cod itself, to the east winds. These elm trees lean perceptibly toward the east, firmly planted to withstand the mightiest blast.
.
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The story was told in the "Cape Cod Magazine," of October, 1917, that :
Years and years ago a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, from the elbow of Cape Cod, crossed Beacon Street, Boston, into the Common. He noticed that the great elm trees were dropping their seeds, and he gathered up a handful. When he went back to his old home on the south road out of Orleans, he made a bed of good soil and planted these little memorials of Boston and its Common. Two or three years later he set out the saplings on both sides of the road and in his yard and along his driveway. Today even the scurrying automobilist, as he sweeps down the hill into that elm-arched hollow and sees the ancient house guarded by the noble trees, is struck with admiration at the beauty of the spot. In the fact thus told there lies a bigger truth-for those who like to think that the sentiments and uses that have given the Common its perpetual place in Boston's affection have been carried far and wide, like those living seeds, to strike root, and rise in beauty, the whole country over.
Fathers and Mothers to Be Proud Of-Cape Cod still is an "unspoiled land." It is ludicrous to speak of any part of the United States in terms of "antiquity" in a European sense. But if the word can be ap- plied to any part of the East it is more appropriate in the stretch of sand and romance from Wareham to Provincetown than anywhere else, even though one can remember stories which were told by his grand- parents about people whom they knew which carries the chain of recol- lection almost back to the beginnings of Massachusetts, and therefore of the United States, leaving out the mound builders, the Indians and the Norsemen. All this section is "hopelessly young" in one sense but delightfully antique in another, and surely the same warrant which justifies calling the old spinning wheels, kettles, platters and what not of Colonial days "antiques" holds good for references in words on paper.
The houses of Cape Cod are a delight in themselves, plain, unpreten- tious homes constructed in the days of simple living, added to as the family increased or another stage in prosperity made it possible. It is well to remember that the old houses of Cape Cod were not builded on mortgages. Most of them never had a mortgage upon them and the few which had shook the mortgage off as rapidly as treasures derived from the sea could be used for that purpose.
In these delightful old Cape Cod houses are delightful Cape Cod people, many of whom having ancestors dating back to the earliest coming of the people from Europe, more especially the British Isles, since it was a long time before the immigrants came from anywhere else. The staunch old families made and held their place in local and national history and gave a good account of themselves whatever the issue and whatever the necessary sacrifice. The old Pilgrim stock of the Barnstable Plantations and their descendants assay satisfactorily in the crucible of tests which have tried men's souls.
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PLYMOUTH, NORFOLK AND BARNSTABLE
In 1854, the Cape Cod Association, of Boston, celebrated their third anniversary in Yarmouth, August 2, at which Chief Justice Shaw pre- sided. A large concourse was in attendance, and many distinguished guests who were not of Cape Cod origin. In recognition of these last, the Judge felicitously remarked, "We welcome them to our meeting and to our hearts; and though they may discover in our speech and manner a little family pride, a little self-gratulation in hinting at the nobleness of our birth and the dignity of our descent from Cape Cod ancestors, yet we feel assured that they will rightly appreciate this harmless vanity, and attribute it to a momentary feeling of local exulta- tion, designed wholly for house use; and we trust they cannot fail to perceive, underlying this sparkling ripple on the surface, there is a deep and abiding love and devotion in our hearts, to all the great interests of personal improvement and social elevation, which we have in common with all the wise and good."
There was manifest by the way, no great unwillingness on the part of some whose claims were thought to be doubtful, to prove the legitimacy of their descent from this quarter. One of these, Hon. Josiah Quincy, Jr., alluding to the fact that some had confessed that they were not de- scended from the fathers of Cape Cod, remarked "Neither am I; but I am proud to say that I am-what is a great deal better --- descended from the Mothers of Cape Cod. His honor, the chief justice, has raised a point of law. I have a decision of the Supreme Court,-not of Mas- sachusetts, but of the Province of Massachusetts Bay-given a hun- dred and thirty years ago, which proves my right to be here. It so happened that the gentleman who held the office of Chief Justice was my great-great-grandfather. Whether he was judge of law, I know not; but he was a judge of ladies. Being Chief Justice, he came down to this part of the world, and, I suppose, like His Excellency the Gov- ernor, having no criminal or civil business to do he looked after the young ladies. The result was that after he got home to Braintree- Quincy that now is-he called his son Josiah to him and advised him to go straightway down to Yarmouth, and to inquire for the house of one John Sturgis, and to make himself as agreeable as he could to Miss Hannah Sturgis, who was there. Well, my ancestor was, like his de- scendants, a very dutiful son, particularly when his father told him to go and see the girls. So down he came to Yarmouth. Whether he succeeded in the object of his mission or not I will not say; but I have the honor of addressing you at this time. There were no revolters at decisions in those times, and consequently the reports are not extant; and I believe this is the only case of adjudication by my ancestor, the report of which has been preserved."
1
CHAPTER XLII AGRICULTURE AND PATRIOTIC SACRIFICES
Largest Single Farm East of the Mississippi River is in Barnstable County and is a Success-Cranberries, Strawberries, Poultry, Es- pecially Ducks, Furnish Profitable Industries-Community Efforts Through Organizations-Advantages of the Canal-Pioneers in Chas- ing the Whales-Col. Otis and Other Notable Patriots in the Rev- olution-First Overt Act Constituting "Treason"-Adventures of David Snow and "Davie"-Wreck of the "Somerset"-Recovery From Devastations of the Wars.
There are multitudes of people who have been regaled with the idea that the people of Cape Cod were web-footed and that the Cape itself was composed of sand dunes which drifted with every passing breeze, so that it was impossible to raise any vegetation. Somehow the im- pression seemed to get abroad that transportation should be by camels and that, if a human being attempted to walk a mile for a camel he would flounder in the shifting sand. Such is fame, when it is left to joke-smiths and ignoramuses. As a matter of fact the largest single farm east of the Mississippi is on Cape Cod and it is a farm which gives a good account of itself, a responsive farm which is giving demonstra- tions of what it was intended to teach, that farming on a large or small scale on Cape Cod will bring liberal rewards.
There is no trouble about the market, as two million consumers live within a radius of sixty miles from the westerly end of Cape Cod and a small proportion of them are engaged in farming. Soon a port on the Cape Cod Canal will bring a speedy water connection with the New York market, if one is needed. The demand for Cape grown vegetables, berries, poultry and other things to eat at the roadside stands in front of the farms on which they are produced requires supplies sufficient to load many freight trains. In the season when things are growing in the gardens and the poultry are waxing fat and tender, the wonderfully smooth black highways of Cape Cod are covered with steady proces- sions of motorists eager to exchange good dollars for good food.
Back from the highways, even in some of the sandy hills near the tip end of Cape Cod, in the vicinity where it is literally true that real estate migrates as the winds blow, there are peach orchards and other trees yielding fruit in their season as luscious as ever grew anywhere under the sun.
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The blueberry crop, harvested on Cape Cod, is by no means insignifi- cant. It is a wild but profitable crop and whole families of the Por- tuguese population seem to know just where to find them and how to pick them in quantities almost unbelievable. These same latter-day Pilgrims own prosperous farms and comfortable homes and are good citizens. It was they who discovered the great possibilities of raising strawberries on the farms which they hewed out of the Cape Cod woods and they have been prominently identified in that industry and in farm- ing in general since they began to take up land in large numbers about 1895.
Of course, everyone knows that Cape Cod is the home of the cran- berry and here it is sought on its native heath, where cranberries have grown wild on the borders of the ponds and in the extensive meadows. The Indians had a word for cranberries and used them for medicine as well as food, even as you or I.
About 1850 when the windmills were exchanged for the wheelbarrow as a popular wheel on the Cape Cod farms, the cranberry was given a ride to a college education. Bogs were constructed by cutting down the trees and bushes in the lowlands, clearing out the roots and stumps, draining the land and frosting it with a plentiful supply of Cape Cod sand which was lying around for the taking. The fresh water swamps on the Cape are no longer mosquito-breeding problems. They are cran- berry bogs, yielding good incomes. The total area under cultivation in Barnstable County is approximately 5,000 acres, bearing twenty barrels to the acre.
There are various methods of picking cranberries from the vines but the long-toothed scoops are still employed in the process by pickers who get down on their knees in the process, and detach them from the vines with surprising swiftness. The berries are then carried to the packing houses where they are stored in boxes until they are ready to be prepared for shipping. The chaff and decayed berries have to be separated from those which are sound and this is done by a machine called a "separator." The berries are poured into a hopper, a blower takes out the chaff and the sound fruit proceeds along to lower levels, like rolling down stairs, leaving the unsound berries behind. Hand- screening has to be resorted to to make a clean job of removing all the unsound berries but the hopper and stairway reduces the work to a minimum.
Nearly half a million barrels of cranberries constitute a normal Cape Cod crop.
Until about 1880 the crop was picked by hand and furnished labor for a large number of women and children. A skillful man, handling a scoop, can pick fifty bushels in a day. A power picker, now in exist-
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AGRICULTURE AND PATRIOTIC SACRIFICES
ence, seems destined to make the picking season brief, which is an ad- ditional point in its favor as some of the picking is done in the season when a frost is likely to nip the berries. It has sometimes been neces- sary to flow the bogs to prevent the berries from freezing and wait until warm weather before draining and drying for a resumption of the harvesting.
Most of the cranberry crop is marketed by a cooperative sales cor- poration called the New England Cranberry Sales Company. The com- pany has packing houses in various locations and headquarters in Mid- dleboro.
The important strawberry industry of the Cape dates back to about 1910 but the first few years marketing conditions were poor. The Cape Cod Strawberry Growers' Association came into existence in 1915 and has developed into an organization which has assisted materially in paying off many farm mortgages. No section of the United States is more favorably located for the production of high-class strawberries and more than half a million quarts are shipped elsewhere and car loads are sold to local consumers every day during the season.
The Cape Cod soil is light enough to be easily worked and heavy enough to withstand drought. As a matter of fact severe droughts are seldom known on the Cape. Rainfall is frequent and normal. Fruits and berries thrive. Huge tracts of wild brush land of the long ago left leaf mold which comes to the aid of the farmer and the additional encouragement of a moderate amount of fertilizer make the rewards of agriculture satisfactory and in great variety. The winters are mild, in- suring the strawberries and small fruits from excessive cold. Some of the strawberry growers harvest as many as three hundred bushels to the acre, with a return of $1,200 per acre.
Agriculture on Cape Cod receives considerable assistance from the Cape Cod Farm Bureau. This was organized January 20, 1916. The bureau cooperates with the Federal government and field agents are employed to give instruction and practical demonstrations in agricul- ture and home economics. The Boys and Girls' Club movement also flourishes in Barnstable County and too much cannot be said of the good which this organization is doing in interesting the rising genera- tion to become enthusiastic and useful citizens in the pleasant paths of wholesome country life and home making.
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