USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 24
USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 24
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 24
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Dr. Reginald A. Fessenden, internationally known inventor, whose device, the oscillator, made possible communication between the trapped men in the sunken submarine and its sister ship, was asked if the sub- marine tragedy was avoidable.
"Yes, it was more than avoidable. It was criminal," was his answer, according to the Boston "Transcript." Professor Fessenden declared that had there been an oscillator on the "Paulding," the accident would probably have been avoided, even if no one was operating the micro- phone. As long ago as 1914 the oscillator was far enough perfected to be considered a safeguard against just the type of collision that sent the S-4 to the bottom. "Tests made on the U. S. S. 'Miami' in 1914 and re- ported in the United States Hydrographical Journal of May, 1914, show sounds were plainly heard in engine room and ward room and prac- tically all over the ship when the 'Miami,' with Captain J. H. Quinan in command, was running at full speed up to a distance of five miles. This was without the use of the microphone," said Professor Fessenden.
These quotations show the convictions of responsible, thinking men at the time of the catastrophe and give some indication of the indigna- tion felt by the populace, inured as it was to the fateful and frightful toll of the sea.
Congressman Griffen of New York stated that the "history of the submarine has revealed repeated resistance by naval authorities to the installation of safety methods." German submarines, he said, are
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equipped with telephone buoys, which can be released to give easy communication with the surface. They also are supplied with hooks, built into the structure of the submarine, by which sunken underseas craft has been raised.
According to Congressman Griffen, three hundred and sixty-two lives have been lost in ten submarine disasters throughout the world since the Armistice. It would seem that the necessity would set genius at work to supply the invention required for life-saving, of keeping imprisoned men alive and getting them out of their steel dungeons, and that apparent unwillingness on the part of the naval authorities to have such safety measures installed would be dissipated.
When the Provincetown disaster occurred, Lieutenant-Commander Ellsberg, retired, reenlisted and rushed to the scene, volunteering the experience he gained from raising the S-51 two years before. The dead men in the S-51 were found with their hands on the levers and valves and not one was trying to escape. Of the forty officers and men on the S-4 only six had a possible chance and these were the six in the tor- pedo room. Fighting for air, they were on the inside of a coffin of steel and on the outside of that thin shell divers, working in ooze and darkness, numbed with the cold and their own lives in danger, talked with them by means of code signals. The dying log of the S-4 was written in taps from a hammer on steel, "Six, please hurry, is there any hope?" were the last words of heroes of similar type to those lost in the S-51 referred to. The words "We are doing everything possible" was the last message which they received from without, with one excep- tion. That exception was when a diver made an attempt to win re- sponse, after most people had given up hope that life still existed on the doomed submarine. He tapped the fact that prayers were being offered for them continuously, and back came the letter "R," very faintly-the signal in code that the message had been received.
An inch separated the two hammers, tapping signal and answer. The diver, a few feet from the victims, was being supplied with fresh air through a hose a trifle more than one hundred feet long. Fifty miles away was the Boston Navy Yard and, supposedly all the equipment, authority and resources required to meet any naval emergency which could arise, at least in times of peace. Surrounding the "Falcon," from the deck of which the diver dropped to the ocean floor, were whatever the Navy Department had seen fit to supply in the line of naval ves- sels. There was no lack of divers and no lack of willingness to dive. From the moment the "Paulding" rammed the S-4 and caused the wreck, the position of the submarine had been known. Evidently, from the moment the S-4 struck bottom "everything possible had been done."
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But the death of forty men of the United States Navy, added to the deaths of three hundred and sixty-two others, trapped in submarines, since the Armistice, in times of peace, in friendly waters, aroused a national conscience. The cry in 1898 was "Remember the 'Maine'," and it was remembered till Cuba was free. The people of the United States will remember the S-4 and will clamor for every protection for men in its service, who not only go "down to the sea in ships" but sink to the bottom of the sea or rise to the heights above the clouds, and consider it "reasonable service" in the interest of a nation no longer indifferent.
The first white child, at least since the days of the Norsemen, born in the jurisdiction of what is now the United States, was born on a vessel riding the waves close to Provincetown. Ever since that time boys born in this vicinity have entered into the defense of the govern- ment which started with the Compact signed in Provincetown Harbor in 1620. Since the United States Navy came into existence, Cape Cod has contributed to it more than its proportion of officers and men. It is fitting that a movement should start, as many other invincible move- ments have started, from this vicinity, for better protection of such men as perished in the Christmas season of 1927 because "somebody blun- dered."
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PILGRIM MEMORIAL MONUMENT, PROVINCETOWN
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FISHING SCHOONERS, PROVINCETOWN
CHAPTER XLIV CAPE COD AS IT IS TODAY
State Normal School and Cape Cod Hospital at Hyannis-Largest
Manufacturing Industry is at Bourne-Exclusive School for Girls at Brewster-Famous Golf Links at Chatham-United States Bu- reau of Fisheries' Station at Wood's Hole-One Town Where White Men Still Have to Ask Permission of Indians Before They Can Buy Land-French Atlantic Cable Station at Orleans-Last Town Crier in New England was Walter Smith of Provincetown-Sandwich, Where Puritans had "Liberty to View a Place to Sit Down On" and Where Glass was Made-A Playground-Conscious County.
There is a present-day Cape Cod as glorious in its way as the Cape Cod of the days of stirring adventure. The fisheries, however much they have declined from the time when they were supreme among Cape Cod industries, are by no means unimportant today. It is estimated that fully as many persons are engaged in the sea and shore fisheries as there were when the census of 1915 was taken, and the number at that time was 2,476.
In 1920 agriculture in Barnstable County was carried on by 631 farmers, the native whites numbered 548, the foreign-born whites 115, and the negro and other non-whites 12. There were two farms having 1,000 acres or more. More than eighteen per cent of the land areas of the Cape was in farms, with a total farming acreage of 47,679. The approximate land area of Barnstable County is 261,760 acres. The value of farm property was $5,545,538 and the average value per farm $8,216. The value of all crops was $950,437 and of this amount fruits contributed $600,516.
There were thirty-nine manufacturing establishments, having a total of $4,423,099 invested and employing 428 wage earners who produced products valued at $1,599,393.
Barnstable County has a total population of about 35,000. The valu- ation of assessed estate is about $60,000. There are approximately one hundred hotels for the accommodation of tourists. In 1921 about 22,- 000 persons visited the Pilgrim Monument at Provincetown, or, in other words, traveled the entire length of the Cape and registered after arriving at one of many historic points. Undoubtedly there were as many others who spent considerable time part way down the Cape or failed to register at the monument. Usually only those who walk up
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the slope to the top of the monument place their names in the register.
Barnstable County was incorporated June 2, 1685. The first official census was taken in 1765 and gave the population as 12,127. The great- est population recorded was in 1860, just before the Civil War, when there were 35,990 persons reached. There are, however, in the summer months on Cape Cod double the number of winter residents and these summer residents, in a large proportion, own dwellings and land in the county.
In 1920 there were 17,429 persons resident in the county who were twenty-one years of age or older and 15,031 of them were citizens of the United States, 13,564 of them native-born and 1,467 foreign-born but naturalized. These figures did not include 406 negroes and 125 persons in a group described as "Indians, Chinese, Japanese and others," some of whom were native-born or naturalized.
Some interesting information peculiar to the fifteen towns which make up Barnstable County is given under the name of the respective towns as follows :
BARNSTABLE
The town of Barnstable is the county seat of Barnstable County and was incorporated in 1639. Hyannis is the principal village of the town and the most flourishing business centre on Cape Cod. Other villages in the town, with beautiful views, providing various forms of recrea- tion and generally attractive to summer visitors, the entertainment of whom is an important industry, are Centreville, Cotuit, Craigville, Cum- maquid, Hyannisport, Marston's Mills, Osterville, Santuit, South Hyannis, West Barnstable, West Hyannisport and Wianno. The State Normal School at Hyannis has an unusually 'large summer school. The Cape Cod Hospital was established at Hyannis in 1920.
Barnstable has twenty-one churches, two 18-hole golf courses and one 9-hole course, and sixteen good hotels.
BOURNE
This is the Bourne from which no traveler returns without giving it a good name. It is in this town that a trading post was established by the Pilgrims in 1627, not far from the present Bourne Town Hall or Bourne bridge over the Cape Cod Canal. The town was incorporated in 1884. It had previously been a part of Sandwich.
The largest manufacturing industry on the Cape is located at Bourne and carried on by the Keith Car and Manufacturing Company. The Barnstable County Infirmary is located in this town. There are seven churches and five hotels, two of them open throughout the year.
POST OFFICE, BARNSTABLE
BARNSTABLE COURT HOUSE, BARNSTABLE
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CAPE COD AS IT IS TODAY
BREWSTER
The town of Brewster was incorporated in 1803. John Wing was the first resident, aside from the Indians. The Sea Pines School, a pri- vate seminary for girls, is located in this town, also three churches, and two large hotels. The town was named in honor of Elder Brewster of the "Mayflower." It is half way between the beginning and the tip of Cape Cod, contains some hilly acreage and, on this account, has mills moving by water power, something unusual on Cape Cod.
A park has been laid out in a splendid location.
CHATHAM
In the days of salt mills there were eighty such establishments in Chatham. The town was incorporated June 11, 1712. The principal industry is taking oysters, quahaugs, scallops and clams from the flats and general fishing. The winter population is about 1,800 and the summer population approximately 5,000. The summer population pay about half the taxes collected in the town and own valuable residen- tial property. There are three churches, four hotels, the Chatham Bar Links, a nine-hole public golf course operated in connection with the Chatham Bars Inn; and "Eastward Ho," an eighteen-hole champion- ship golf links designed by Herbert Fowler of Walton Heath, Eng- land, and completed in 1921 for the Chatham Country Club.
DENNIS
This town was once the eastern part of Yarmouth but June 19, 1793, was incorporated under its present name. It was named in honor of Rev. Josiah Dennis, ordained as pastor of the first church in the new town in 1727. The highest land in the county is at Scargo Hill, in the north part of the town. The present population is about 1,600 which is not much more than half the population one hundred years ago, when about 60,000 bushels of salt and 500 barrels of Epsom salts were made annually in the town. The first salt produced by solar evaporation in this country was in Dennis in 1776, by Captain John Sears.
Dennis has six churches and three hotels.
EASTHAM
Eastham is one of the Cape Cod towns devoted to agriculture. Its annual asparagus crop totals 3,500 boxes. Cape turnips, carrots and cranberries are produced in large quantities. Eastham's agricultural fame dates back to earliest days, when a pear tree, brought from Eng- land by Thomas Prence, for many years governor of the Plymouth Col-
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ony, was planted by him. It yielded fruit more than two hundred years.
Thomas Prence moved to Nauset, as Eastham was first called, in 1640 or 1640 historians differ-and returned to Plymouth in 1665. He and others, said to be "among the most respectable inhabitants of Plym- outh" were the original settlers.
Nauset was incorporated as a town June 2, 1646. The name was changed to Eastham, June 7, 1651. It originally included what is now Wellfleet, Truro, a part of Provincetown and part of Orleans. It was in this town that the "first encounter" with the Nauset Indians took place before the Pilgrims moved on to Plymouth. The present popula- tion is about 500.
FALMOUTH
Something of the early age at which Cape Cod boys performed a man's part on the sea is disclosed by an inscription on a monument in the graveyard in Falmouth village telling of the death of Captain Da- vid Wood in 1802 "of the yellow fever with 4 of his men." The ages of the men are given : Edward Butler, aged 15 years; Prince Fish, aged 19 years; Henry Green, aged 20 years; Willard Hatch, aged 12 years.
This is one of the beautiful towns on Cape Cod, having Buzzards Bay for its western boundary, Vineyard Sound on the south, Wood's Hole at the southwest, a chain of hills on the west and an extensive pine forest between the village of Falmouth and Sandwich.
There are sixteen pleasant villages in Falmouth very popular with summer residents.
Falmouth was incorporated in 1686. It was once engaged extensively in whaling. The raising of oysters and shipping them throughout the country has been developed in recent years. The United States Bu- reau of Fisheries' Station is located at Wood's Hole. About six hun- dred students and instructors study biology at the Marine Biological Laboratory, one of the foremost institutions in the world of its kind. Fish and lobsters are hatched and liberated to increase the food supply. Over half a million lobsters are shipped from Wood's Hole each year.
The largest shipping point for strawberries is another distinction of Falmouth and 750,000 boxes represents the shipments of the surplus after thousands of boxes have been sold on the Cape. Large shipments of cranberries are made and the surplus is preserved at the factory of the Cape Cod Preserving Company.
Coonamessett Range and Attamansit Farm, the latter famous for pure-bred cattle, are at Hatchville, one of the villages of the town.
The town has a National Bank more than a century old, a Board of Trade, improvement society, three public libraries, two motion picture
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JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL, FALMOUTH
FARY
MAIN STREET, FALMOUTH
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theatres and fourteen churches, representing five denominations. The municipal water supply stands the second highest test in Massachu- setts. There is a well-organized fire department.
There are four good harbors, excellent boating and bathing, a beauti- ful view at Falmouth Heights on Vineyard Sound, inland lakes with good fresh-water fishing and a dozen good hotels.
HARWICH
Harwich was incorporated as a town in 1694. The original town extended across the peninsula of Cape Cod, but the north side of the original town was set apart as Brewster in 1803. There was a time when over forty vessels hailed from Harwich, owned, officered and manned by Harwich men and some of the vessels were built in the town. There were five well-equipped wharves for the accommodation of shipping.
One of the distinctions for which Harwich should be given credit is the development of the cranberry as a marketable crop. Cranberry raising is still an important industry. Numerous handsome summer homes have been erected in the town in recent years and the popularity of Harwich as a place of vacationing is ever on the increase. There are four principal hotels, five churches, three public libraries and two halls for public entertainments.
MASHPEE
This town has been the home of the Mashpee Indians from earliest times. The Indian Meeting House and Hotel Attaquin, formerly known as the "Old Indian Hotel," are historic landmarks still performing a useful purpose. The town was incorporated in 1871.
As early as 1660, Richard Bourne of Sandwich obtained a deed of the tract now known as Mashpee from Quachatisset and others for the benefit of what was then called the South Sea Indians. He had the instrument drawn "so that no part or parcel of them (the lands) could be bought by or sold to any white person or persons, without the con- sent of all the said Indians, not even with the consent of the general court." This deed, with the provision, was ratified by the Plymouth court. Mr. Bourne was ordained pastor of the Indian church in 1670 and, upon his death in 1685, was succeeded by Simon Popmonet, an In- dian preacher.
The town is indented by two bays and is watered by several streams and ponds. Many of the Indian residents have profitable farms. The town has a public library, town hall and two churches.
This is the town which a few years ago had the distinction of enjoy- ing the lowest tax rate of any town in Massachusetts, possibly of any
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town in the country. This was because of the large amount of per- sonal property possessed by persons who made the town their legal residence. A considerable part of the property is owned by summer residents. The town, formerly the south part of Eastham, was incor- porated into a township under the name of Orleans in 1797.
The first Cape Cod Canal was dug in this town during the War of 1812, connecting Boat Meadow River with Town Cove, thereby fur- nishing a passageway from Cape Cod Bay to the Atlantic Ocean.
The town is very irregular in form, being deeply indented with coves and creeks, making a very long water front, in proportion to its area. There are seven villages, all becoming increasingly popular with sum- mer residents. They are Namequoit, Namskaket, Pochet, Portnome- quot, Tonset, Barley Neck and Rock Harbor.
The station of the French Atlantic Cable provides employment for a number of operatives in the town. Clams, quahaugs and lobster fish- eries are important. An account of Orleans in the "Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society," September, 1802, begins: "Clams are found on many parts of the shores of New England, but no where in greater abundance than at Orleans."
There are numerous extensive duck farms on Cape Cod and one of these, at Orleans, raises 40,000 ducks annually.
The town has a town hall, public library, three churches and two hotels. The present population is a few over 1,000.
PROVINCETOWN
An old record states: "Cape Cod, now Provincetown, was originally a part of Truro. In 1714 it was made a district or precinct, and put under the constablerick of that town."
The town of Provincetown was incorporated under that name in 1727, and invested with peculiar privileges. The inhabitants were ex- empted from taxation. For the first decade the town flourished. By the end of the second decade the town was reduced to two or three families. Its population at the outbreak of the Revolution was 205. The town is famous for its magnificent harbor, in which the "May- flower" rode at anchor during the first month after the landing of the Pilgrims on Cape Cod, November 11, 1620, Old Style. A beautiful monu- ment of granite, 252 feet high, erected on a hill near the centre of the town, commemorates the drawing up and signing of the memorable Compact.
A large part of the original territory belonged to the State, or Prov- ince and, being known as Province Land, gave name to the town. There is still a large reservation known as Province Land, now a State reser- vation, stocked with game birds.
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THE CASINO AND BEACH, FALMOUTH HEIGHTS
BRIDGE, CAPE COD CANAL, SAGAMORE
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CAPE COD AS IT IS TODAY
From the days of the Pilgrims, Provincetown has been prominently identified with all branches of the fishing party. There are at present seven large fish-freezing plants, and several fish-canning and curing firms. There are three whaling vessels at present. In former years there were many engaged in that industry.
Provincetown has a notable artists' colony and an art museum was built a few years ago, where members of the colony exhibit their paint- ings and sketches. There are many features of the town attractive to visitors and a steamer makes daily trips in summer between Boston and Provincetown. The distance from Boston is fifty miles by water and 116 miles by railroad. The town is plentifully supplied with hotels and boarding houses. There are seven churches, public library, museum containing many interesting things, including some sent home by Mac- Millan, the Arctic explorer, whose legal residence is maintained in this town of his birth. The town has an efficient police and fire depart- ment, pure water supply, good banking facilities, a well-conducted weekly newspaper, public schools of high rank, theatres, Board of Trade and fraternal organizations-everything required to make it a desirable place of summer or permanent residence.
Provincetown had the last town crier in New England, Walter Smith, who retired in 1927, at the age of seventy-seven. He bequeathed his three-pound bell to the Provincetown Museum where it will be ex- hibited with the MacMillan trophies.
SANDWICH
"The handsomest town out of England," is the description of Sand- wich given by the veteran actor, Joseph Jefferson, a revered summer resident on Cape Cod. This lovable actor, who named "The Little Church Around the Corner" in New York, expressed a wish that his last resting place should be in Sandwich and today his grave in Bay View Cemetery is marked by a boulder taken from the woods nearby, in accordance with his expressed wish.
Sandwich was incorporated as a town in 1639. According to the language of the Plymouth Colony records: "It is ordered that these ten men of Saugus, namely, Edmund Freeman, Henry Feake, Thomas Dexter, Edward Dillingham, William Wood, John Carman, Richard Chadwell, William Almy, Thomas Tupper and George Knott, shall have liberty to view a place to sit down on, and have sufficient land for threescore families, upon the conditions propounded to them by the governor and Mr. Winslow." It was therefore a group of men from north of Boston, in the Puritan territory of the Massachusetts Bay Col- ony, who were given permission by the Pilgrim Colony of Plymouth "to view a place to sit down on" and become a part of the community
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of Cape Cod. Among the early settlers was Richard Bourne who pur- chased the town of Mashpee for the Indians and had the unique docu- ment drawn and ratified by the Plymouth Court which has preserved that town for Indians, without interference from white men, ever since.
There are numerous beautiful lakes in Sandwich, among them Shaw- me Lake, near Sandwich Village. Others include Peters, 176 acres; Spectacle, 151 acres ; Triangle, 84 acres; Snake, 76 acres ; and Lawrence, 70 acres.
The Boston & Sandwich Glass Company manufactured its famous product in this town from 1825 to 1888 and at one time employed 500 persons. There are two fish-freezing plants and a pulp mill in Sand- wich. In 1837, when the town was 200 years old, its population num- bered 3,579. In 1927, within a decade of its 300th anniversary, the population was 1,479. These figures illustrate a point concerning Cape Cod. The summer population is so much larger than the winter popu- lation that it clearly indicates the principal industry of most of the towns is catering to the needs and whims of tourists and vacation folk.
Sandwich has five churches. For several years the Unitarian, Con- gregational and Methodist denominations have maintained a Federated church, with one pastor in charge, setting an example to small towns in which maintaining numerous small churches is a real burden.
The Weston Memorial Public Library is an imposing structure in the town. In addition to the town hall, the Casino and Hunt's Hall furnish accommodations for public entertainment and social gatherings.
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