USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 22
USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 22
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 22
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It is not the "dirt farmer" alone who is a power for good in the coun- ty. Poultry raising and, more particularly duck farming, are important. This section is known elsewhere as the home of the duck sandwich, thousands of which are eaten at the roadside stands daily in the sum- mer. Roast duck is greatly in demand at the hotels and numerous motor inns.
Plym-54
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The Cape Cod Poultry Association was organized March 19, 1921, has more than one hundred members and most of the towns are rep- resented at the meetings. It has done much to educate and promote the best interests of those who are doing business in a natural poultry section, well-drained and capable of furnishing safe free range as well as producing home-grown feeds.
At the opening of this chapter there was a promise that it would dis- close the largest single farm each of the Mississippi River as a going concern of profitable acreage. This is Coonamessett Ranch. It has 14,000 acres of tillable land in the towns of Bourne, Sandwich, Mashpee and Falmouth, is owned by the Coonamessett Ranch Company with headquarters at Hatchville, in North Falmouth.
The summer residents look to a herd of an hundred cows to supply them with milk produced under the most modern and sanitary condi- tions. They also expect the best and freshest vegetables from its mar- ket-garden and get them. It is a gigantic object lesson in tuning in on nature's life-giving bounties, set down in the little county which faces four seas. It is an altruistic farm, interested in encouraging farmers to try farming on any scale in this section, where there is a general level of prosperity and where nature operates on an even keel, in a community of good neighbors.
"Good Art is Good Business"-The Cape Codder lives the prayer of Sam Walter Foss,
Let me live in a house by the side of the road And be a friend to man,
and he wants his house to express his good-neighborliness. This is what the typical Cape Cod house does to perfection. Cape Cod has an architecture all its own, as rugged, defiant, genuine and hospitable as its population.
There is among the summer population at Truro, an internationally famous artist, Gerrit A. Beneker, honorary vice-president of the Prov- incetown Art Association, Inc., and a lover of every genuine quality of the Cape and its people. Mr. Beneker gave "A Little Talk on Art" be- fore the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce at Hyannis, April 7, 1926, which referred lovingly to the Cape Cod architecture and the dangers which confronted it. Among other things he said :
Most people who come to Cape Cod, from all parts of the country, come here not alone because of the health-restoring qualities of our air and the restfulness of broad spaces of sea and land, but also, because they like to dwell for a time in the quaint atmosphere and spirit of our early settlers. There is a charm about Cape Cod which is to be found nowhere else save in New England and this charm lies in the quaintness of the little homes and churches built by the hands and simple spirit of our forefathers, many years ago.
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MASONIC BUILDING, HYANNIS
NORMAL SCHOOL, HYANNIS
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If you, as business men, are interested only in selling real estate, in turning over acreage to your best immediate advantage, regardless of who is going to buy these acres and build on them, if you are interested only in getting swarms of people to come here-which will in turn bring more business to the butcher, the baker, and the undertaker,-your project will fail for Cape Cod will cease to attract.
If, on the other hand, you, as business men, will foster the preservation of traditional atmosphere and spirit of Cape Cod and promote new development and building in keeping with this historic, quaint and charming spirit, you will find yourselves building on a foundation which will constantly tend to enhance and increase not only the desire of appreciative people to come here but you will also increase the value of your own property as well.
Seek to maintain and promote the spirit of the Cape, and that spirit is beauty, not only in its natural surroundings but in the craftsmanship of our forefathers .... Good art is also good business.
The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce listened and has lent its in- fluence to put art in business and safeguard the beauty of Cape Cod.
The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce was organized in 1921 and has taken an active part in every movement which has offered an oppor- tunity for the best interests of Barnstable County. Meetings are held in various towns in the county, addressed by speakers who bring a real message to the members. These meetings have aroused a gratifying interest in public affairs affecting the prosperity of the Cape. Among other projects sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce in recent times have been a steamship terminal on the canal, a public school survey, enhancing real estate through constructive methods, the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad's special train, the Cape Codder, leav- ing New York Friday evenings and leaving Hyannis, for return, Sun- day evening; planning boards, building regulations, restoring Hyannis Harbor safeguarding the shell fisheries, furnishing publications set- ting forth the natural advantages and beauties of the Cape, forest fire prevention, doing away with the billboard nuisance, and many other movements. No attempt is being made to give anything like a com- plete list, but merely mention of some of which are typical.
The Cape Cod Canal has had numerous allusions made to it already, as the idea dates back to the Pilgrims. The canal slices Barnstable County from the main land and connects Barnstable and Buzzards bays. Its length is thirteen miles from thirty-foot depth in both bays. Its length from shore to shore, within the towns of Sandwich and Bourne, is eight miles. Its depth is twenty-five feet at mean low water and the width at the bottom is from one hundred to three hundred feet.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts granted a charter to the Bos- ton, Cape Cod and New York Canal Company on June 1, 1899. The
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canal was opened for traffic July 29, 1914. There has been a steadily in- creasing number of vessels pass through the canal each year. In one year 8,140 vessels, with 5,172,714 gross tons, passed through the canal, carrying 120,000 passengers and 2,000,000 tons of cargo.
The Federal government took over the operations of the canal, as it did the railroads, during the World War, and about the same time in- stituted condemnation proceedings to acquire the ownership of the canal by right of eminent domain. The case was a long time pending but terminated in government ownership in 1927. The canal reduces the distance between Boston and New York City from three hundred and thirty-four to two hundred and sixty-four statute miles. It elimi- nates the dangers of the route across Nantucket Shoals and around the hook of the Cape, the graveyard of the sea. During the past half cen- tury the toll exacted by the sea between Gay Head and Provincetown was more than seven hundred lives and $25,000,000 worth of property.
The canal is capable of great commercial development, starting with an adequate dock to make possible steamship service to facilitate the movement of fish, fruits and vegetables to the New York market; and for passenger travel, to make Cape Cod easily available for the New York business man and his family.
There is much on Cape Cod to attract tourists from New York. Its eastern shore is caressed by the Gulf Stream which gives Cape Cod a continuous warm bath and an all-year moderate climate, having one hundred and ninety frostless days and nights. The bathing in the land- locked, picturesque harbors or open sea is without chills or dangers in either location. There are safe natural harbors for boats. Whether one is a fisherman, golfer, bather, horseback rider, motorist, farmer, artist, hunter, antique collector, tramper, hermit or student of human nature, or all of these and some distinct type of his own, Cape Cod furnishes the right stage setting, the opportunity, inspiration, safety and beauty to allow him to go as far as he likes and live as happily as he can desire.
There are at least five 18-hole golf links on Cape Cod and beauty sur- rounds them all. One can enjoy the scent of the pines, the freedom and purity of the Cape Cod breezes and the sight of the sea and the pleasant land as accompanying favors to whatever conservative form of vacation pleasure he takes up.
The more one tries to tell the story of Cape Cod, the more his wonder grows at all its undiscovered beauties and attractions. The fine art of the advertiser and promoter has hardly scratched the surface. With 1,100 miles of excellent highways, everyone leading to additional beauty and comfort; and two hundred miles of shore front, ocean and bays; with an inland lake on nearly every country road furnishing glorious
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settings for fishing or camping, it seems like a mistake, at least unneces- sary, to go anywhere else to drink of the wine of life.
Amid these surroundings, associating with the delightful people who just naturally get that way with such perpetual environment, one won- ders about the background of ancestry and dramatic action which brought about this heritage. In retrospect we view the early settle- ment of the towns and the geographic influences which affected them, agriculture and fishing, the first occupations, still pursued profitably ; the development of whaling since the days when watching for drift whales was a favorite outdoor sport, especially for the ministers, since "part of every whale cast ashore should be appropriated for the sup- port of the ministry." The important part played by Cape Cod men in the Revolutionary War passes before one's eyes as in a dream, and the recovery of the fishing industry which became nearly lost during the war. Fishing and marine commerce reached their supreme develop- ment about 1850, and declined after the Civil War. The salt works flourished beneath the windmills in 1850 until the last one, operated at Yarmouth, stopped in 1885. Cape Cod has had its share in whaling, coasting and oversea trade but the ancient docks are falling to decay.
The sails of Cape Cod have been borne over the surface of the seven seas. Wherever there has been adventure, commerce, work or duty the Cape Cod boy has performed a man's share. He has been typical of Massachusetts, of America.
There is no locality in which a description given by the late Dr. Ed- ward Everett Hale in his "Story of Massachusetts" rings more truly than in Barnstable County :
The real Massachusetts man likes to subdue the earth. He believes God bade him subdue it. If he cannot do it in one way he does it in another. Wholly beneath all changes of charter or dynasty, quite irrespective of government or of law is the passion to create something which did not exist before. The Massa- chusetts man does not do this simply because he is hungry or naked or cold. He does it because God sent him to do it. The motto of the State might be, "Do all to the glory of God." If he cannot raise wheat, he catches beaver. If he cannot catch beaver, he catches codfish and mackerel. If he cannot catch these, he builds ships and sells them; or he uses them himself, or he pursues whales over the world. If he may not go for fish and for whales, he goes for the enemy who forbids him. If the folly of his own government breaks up his commerce by sea, instead of that he begins a great system of manufacture by land. If the changes of commerce put an end to the voyages by which he made himself at home in the Pacific, he builds one and another system of railways to unite the two great oceans, and is recognized as the master of a commerce a hundred times larger than that in which he engaged before.
It is this passion to control nature, existing among all her children who are true to the maternal instinct, that has made Massachusetts what she is.
Previous to the Revolution small mills and factories had been erected
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on Cape Cod and house industries were universal. It was necessary to have a grist-mill to convert the corn into meal and the first mill of this kind, after the migration from Plymouth, was in Sandwich. There were always brooks and streams but the fall was so slight that water power was not as suitable as in the more hilly sections of Plymouth County, hence the Cape Cod windmills.
In earliest days drift whales were eagerly watched for. Later boats were used to go whaling off shore. An official letter sent to England in 1688 referred to the great profit derived from the taking of whales. The Plymouth Colony was the pioneer in this industry and it was not until 1700 that there were any followers, except at Nantucket. Province- town, in 1737, sent a dozen whalers to Davis Strait in the Far North. At the opening of the Revolution, Falmouth, Barnstable and Wellfleet had thirty-six whalers in northern waters. By the end of the Colonial period, the Plymouth Colony had more than a thousand ships and more than ten thousand men in pursuit of the monsters of the deep. About thirty of the whaling vessels at that time hailed from Chatham.
Cape Cod in Struggle for Independence-Nearly all the men of Plym- outh Colony were trained seamen, destined to play an important part in the first American Navy. When the Stamp Act was passed by the Brit- ish Parliament in 1765, in New York one of the sons of Cape Cod, Cap- tain Isaac Sears, was placed at the head of the Committee for General Safety. A former commander of a privateer, now at the head of those committed to the spirit of resistance to the act, stamps were seized and burned. A congress of deputies from each colony met in New York in October to "consult on the common interest." This was the first Continental Congress ever held. The president of the assembly was another son of Cape Cod, Timothy Ruggles, formerly of Sandwich.
Without attempting to rehearse the many grievances which added to the indignation on the part of the colonists, such as taxing the colonies, imposing duties on tea, paper, glass, etc., stipulating that offenders against the laws should be sent to England for trial, according to "the mutiny Act," it is well to recall that James Otis, Jr., said "Let Great Britain rescind; if she does not, the colonies are lost to her forever."
This was a prophecy made by a native of Barnstable who attained a world-wide reputation as a patriot. This is the man who said in Bos- ton, in 1761, at the trial of the question of a legality of writs of assis- tance which the officers of the customs had applied for to the judges of the Supreme Court : "I oppose the kind of power the exercise of which in former periods of English history cost one king of England his head and another his throne. Let the consequences be what they will, I am determined to proceed and to the call of my country am ready to sacrifice
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estate, ease, health, applause and even life. The patriot and hero will ever do this."
John Adams, in reference to that speech and that occasion said: "Otis was a flame of fire; with a promptitude' of classical allusions, a depth of research, a rapid summary of historical events and dates, a profusion of legal authorities, a prophetic glance of his eye into futurity, and a rapid torrent of impetuous eloquence, he carried all before him. Amer- ican independence was then and there born."
Col. Otis, in 1765, wrote his "Rights of the Colonies Vindicated," which was republished in London, for which he was threatened with arrest. For his protests against the conduct of the commissioner of customs and others of the ministerial party, he was assaulted by one of the commissioners, September 5, 1769, in a public room and left wounded and covered with blood. From this assault he never recov- ered his full mental powers. He was struck by lightning, May 23, 1783. President Adams said of him: "He left a character that will never die. I have been young and now I am old, and I solemnly say I have never known a man whose love of country was more ardent or sincere."
Events reached a condition which brought about a County Congress at Barnstable, November 16, 1774. Two months previous to that date there was an occurrence in Barnstable County, referred to by Hon. Abraham Holmes of Rochester, one of the participants, as "the first overt act, done in the face of day, without disguise, in the controversy with Great Britain, that, according to British jurisprudence, would be called treason."
According to Mr. Holmes :
The British Parliament, in its mad career, had assumed a right to mutilate the charter of Massachusetts, which was a solemn contract between the king on the one part and the Province on the other. Parliament was not a party to it, nor was it made under any authority from them, or with any reference to them, and with it they had no more right to interfere than had the Bonzes of Japan; but this authority Parliament assumed, and, by an Act, had taken from the House of Representatives the right to choose the Council-a right granted the Province by its charter; and had authorized the king to appoint the council by mandamus, and directed the sheriffs of the several counties to appoint the jurors instead of their being drawn, as was provided by law, from the jury box, by the selectmen.
After viewing the matter in all its aspects, it was agreed that nothing that might follow could be so bad as tame submission. As the Court of Common Pleas was to be holden in Barnstable on the first Tuesday in September, it was resolved to begin with that court, and prevent its sitting for the transaction of any business whatever.
Accordingly a considerable number of men from Middleboro, more from Rochester, and many from Wareham, repaired to Sandwich on the Monday pre-
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ceding the time for the opening of the court, and were there joined by a large part of the population of that town. Dr. Nathaniel Freeman of Sandwich was unanimously chosen the conductor-in-chief of the enterprise.
On Tuesday morning the body marched to Barnstable, and were there joined by a considerable portion of the population of that town; making about 1,500 in all. Commissioners were then appointed to ferret out the disaffected among the people, and bring them to a renouncement in writing of their Toryism. The result was all signed "recantations."
Colonel Otis, the chief justice, then addressed the people, inquiring, "Gentlemen, what is the purpose for which this vast assemblage is collected here?" and was answered by Dr. Freeman: "May it please your honor, oppressed by a view of the dangers with which we are surrounded, and terrified by the horribly black cloud which is suspended over our heads and ready to burst upon us -- our safety, all that is dear to us, and the welfare of unborn millions, have directed this movement to prevent the court from being opened or doing any business. We have taken all the consequences into consideration; we have weighed them well, and have formed this resolution, which we shall not rescind."
The chief justice, then, calmly but firmly replied, "This is a legal and a constitu- tional court; it has suffered no mutations; the juries have been drawn from the boxes as the law directs, and why should you interrupt its proceedings? Why do you make a leap before you get to the hedge?"
Dr. Freeman responded, "All this has been considered. We do not appear here out of any disrespect to this honorable court, nor do we apprehend that if you proceed to business, you will do anything that we could censure. But, sir, from all the decisions of this court, of more than forty shillings amount, an appeal lies; an appeal to what? To a court holding office during the king's pleasure; a court over which we have no control or influence; a court paid out of the revenue that is extorted from us by the illegal and unconstitutional edict of foreign despotism; and there the jury will be appointed by the sheriff. For this reason, we have adopted this method of stopping the avenue through which business may otherwise pass to that tribunal,-well knowing that if they have no business, they can do us no harm."
The chief justice then said, "As is my duty, I now, in his majesty's name, order you immediately to disperse, and give the court the opportunity to perform the business of the county."
Mr. Freeman replied, "We thank your honor for having done your duty; We shall continue to perform ours."
The court then turned and repaired to the house where they had put up.
The next day the assemblage from the towns above, returned to Sandwich, where they found that the disaffected had committed some outrages. The liberty pole in Sandwich had been cut down, and other offensive acts perpetrated. The perpetrators were soon arrested, who, after receiving a severe reprimand and paying the just value of the liberty pole, signing recantations, etc., were liberated. This was the first act of the kind, and, I believe, there was never a Court of Common Pleas held under the king's authority after this time, in the Province; except in the town of Boston, where Governor Gage, with his troops, had it in his power to control.
There may be some who took part in this adventure that still live, besides myself, but I know of none, and it is probable that a large majority of the population of the county of Barnstable never so much as heard of the transaction.
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While the people were proceeding in a body they caused some offend- ers to sign the following :
Whereas the subscribers did most wickedly, maliciously and injuriously, being instigated by the devil and our own evil hearts, destroy the liberty pole in Sandwich on the evening of September 26th, current, whereby we have justly offended all the friends of Liberty, Justice and Virtue, and have discovered cur enmity to the Rights and Liberties of the People: We do therefore, hereby confess the fact, and are heartily sorry for it; and do promise never to do so any more, nor again oppose the cause of Liberty. And we hereby ask forgiveness of the town of Sandwich and of all men-especially of those who erected the pole. As witness our hands this 28th day of September, 1774.
A writer, in communicating an account of the transaction to a Bos- ton journal, November 10, says the confession was signed by three, and was duly witnessed by Joseph Otis, Nathaniel Freeman and Sam- uel Freeman, September 28; that a new pole was erected, the culprits assisting. One of the signers was required to ask pardon of the whole company, on bended knees, for threatening to stab a man who arrested him, and all were fined five pounds lawful money. There is a record that another offender, October 15, 1774, was obliged to go to the liberty pole, "sign a confession, with his hat off, for selling tea, and to promise that he would do so no more."
A few days after the assemblage at Barnstable Dr. Freeman was murderously assaulted, after having been lured from his home late at night, and left senseless and bleeding. He was, however, rescued from the mob of Tories and taken to his home, where he recovered. Most of his assailants were arrested and about 1,000 men hastened to Sand- wich and demanded that the culprits be turned over to them for punish- ment, but Dr. Freeman was sufficiently recovered to plead with them not to take any proceedings which would reflect upon a cause so glor- ious as that in which they were engaged. A warrant had been issued for a special session of magistrates at Great Marshes and by the time the trial took place Dr. Freeman was accompanied to the session by a bodyguard of approximately 3,000. He counselled leniency and the would-be assassins were let off on paying one hundred pounds lawful money as costs and giving bonds for future good behavior. They were required, however, to subscribe, under the liberty pole, that they "did attack and cruelly beat Dr. Nathaniel Freeman, with such unparalleled cowardice and barbarity as would disgrace the character of a ruffian or a Hottentot, for no reason or provocation than that he, uninfluenced by hope or fear, has dared to stem the tide of tyranny and corruption, and has been the principal author of these political movements in this county which have been most universally applauded."
Following the battle of Lexington and the battle of Concord Bridge in April, 1775, the battle of Bunker Hill, the organizing of the Contin-
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ental Army with George Washington, at its head, stationed at Cam- bridge, with headquarters at Cambridge, there were certain resolves of the General Court concerning Barnstable County of interest.
It was resolved, "That the selectmen and others who have billeted the soldiers raised in the County of Barnstable and stationed in the counties of Barnstable and Plymouth be allowed the money due them ;" that one thousand pounds be paid to Colonel Joseph Otis, Colonel Na- thaniel Freeman, Major Enoch Hallett and Major Joseph Dimmick, or to either of them, for the purpose of purchasing four pieces of cannon, from four to nine pounders, and ammunition for the same;" "that the speaker of the House, James Warren, and Colonel Orne, with such as the honorable board shall join, be a committee to acquaint his excellency General Washington, with the importance of Cape Cod Harbor, and to consider with him on some method to deprive the enemy of the ad- vantage they now receive therefrom."
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