History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 248

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1706

USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 248

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1183

HISTORY OF HULL.

erel fishery. . . . What a year for mackerel ! There are some fifty boats in Hull bay every day from Bos- ton, Hingham, Milton, Quiney, ete., the hands of which appear to have full business. . . . Lobsters are caught in great abundance on the shores of Hull. Thousands of them are sent up to Bostou annually. Lobsters are delivered at the Point at the rate of $3 @ $4.50 per hundred. They are taken to Boston and Charlestown by wholesale dealers two or three times a week. There they are boiled and de- livered to the men who retail them in those eities. . . . Hull is a great place for wreckers aud for wrecks. Mr. Tower. Mr. Mitchell, and some others, whose exertions have often been witnessed amid the tempest and the storm on Nantasket Beach and its vieinity, live in Hull. The former gentleman keeps the only hotel in the place. . . . Mr. Mitchell, a foreiguer by birth, from small beginnings has beeome quite a landholder here. and is said to be rich. . .. He owns the pieee of land on which the telegraphic establishment stands, and this embraces also the old fort built during the Revolutionary war. This is an object of much in- terest to all who visit Hull. Within this fort there is a well about ninety feet deep. and what is remark- able. the bottom of it is twenty-five feet above the level of the road.

. It may be interesting to geologists to know that in digging this well marine shells were found at the depth of seventy feet. I have this fact from old residents who lived in Hull during the Revolution. This well was dug for the purpose of supplying the troops stationed there with water as well as the crews of the vessels belonging to the squadron of the Count de Grasse, which was anchored in the roads near the fort for a long time. The crews of this squadron were. I am informed by a venerable lady, in the habit of bringing their clothes on shore at Hull for the . purpose of washing them. They often used to hang them on the tombstones in the burying-ground to dry. . On the beach, near Mr. Tower's hotel, lie the wrecked hulls of two or three vessels, and masts and spars innumerable. Some of the Hullonians are in the habit of buying wrecks and then breaking them up, saving the iron, copper. and such other parts as are valu- able. and using the wood for fuel. The wreck of the ill-fated ' Massasoit' and that of the brig ' Tremont,' cast away last winter at Point Alderton, have been entirely broken up, and the materials are piled moun- tain high before the house of Mr. Mitchell, who has enough of this kind of stuff to load a ship of three hundred tons. He is a wholesale dealer in wrecked vessels-in old masts, spars, rigging, iron, and brass. The wreck of the old brig ' Favorite' lies upon the ;

beach, as does that of the sehooner ' Emeline,' both of which vessels, heavily laden, were sunk some three or four years since off Nantasket Beach, and after- wards raised by Mitehell and others on shares and towed into Hull Bay. I think they must have lost money by these jobs. The hull of the ' Favorite' at low water was formerly used as a shelter for horses when the stable of Mr. Tower was full. It is now too deeply imbedded in the sand for that purpose. There are numerous relics of the old ship ' Mohawk,' which was wreeked off P.[oint] Alderton, with a valu- able eargo, from Liverpool. Her figure-head adorns one of Mitchell's buildings; her round-house he uses as a counting-room and for other purposes. I have been informed that, at one period, the inhabitants held their political and town-meetings in this acci- deutal fixture, but I have my doubts. At any rate, the school-house, a diminutive ten-footer, is used for this purpose. It is also used for religious purposes, it being the only 'public building' of any kind in Hull, except the poor-house, which is tenantless, the town preferring to board its paupers out, at Cohasset, rather than support them luxuriantly [luxuriously ?] on clams and fried eels at home.

". (Note, June, 1848.) . . . The frequency of ship- wrecks on Nantasket Beach and its vieinity, on Co- hasset rocks, at Scituate, Marshfield, and other places, is a subjeet which engrosses the attention and thoughts of the Hullonians, who are too often shocked at the aecounts which appear in the Boston papers, and who are so frequently called from their beds, at the dead hours of the night, to save the lives and property of others, that they have been compelled to get up an in- dignation meeting, and to express their feelings very freely upon this important subject. . .. The meeting we refer to in our introductory remarks took place on 'Change, in Hull, a short distance from Tower's hotel, and was organized by the choice of Capt. Mitchell as chairman, and Capt. Lawton as seeretary. The objects of the meeting having been fully and in- telligibly explained by the chairman, a committee of three was appointed to draft resolutions in relation to the alarming inerease of shipwrecks on the shores in the vicinity of Hull, Cohasset, Marshfield, &c. The committee retired, and after an absence of thirty minutes returned with the following preamble and resolutions, viz. :

"'Whereas, the quiet, industrious citizens of Hull have noticed, with regret and indignation, hut with the feelings of Inen and of Christians, as they humbly trust, the rapid increase of shipwrecks, and of accidents to our mercantile marine, on Nantasket Beach, the Hardings, Cohasset rocks, at Marshfield, Scituate, and other places in that vicinity ; and whereas, those which have occurred of late are believed to have been caused,

1184

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

for the most part, through the ignoranco, inexperience, care- lossness, or want of proper attention and skill on the part of those in command of the vessels which have been partially or wholly wrecked, in some instances involving the loss of valu- able human lives as well as property ; and whereas, of late years we have been shocked at tho frequent midnight calls made upon us to proceed to Long Beach [Nantasket Beach was sometimes formerly thus spoken of], and its neighborhood, to save the fragments of wrecks and the lives of mariners ; and whereas, there is reason to believe that many of the youthful captains sailing out of Boston arc unfitted for the business they are engaged in, either from a want of experience as sea- inen, sound judgment and skill as navigators, or the absence of a proper alacrity when approaching the coast, and who are too often put in command of vessels through the undue influence of wealthy relatives ; and whereas, these things are becoming highly offensive to the unpretending, hard-fisted citizens of Hull and of Hingham, some of whom have followed fishing twenty-five and thirty years without running ashore or withont meeting with a single accident ; therefore

"' Resolved, That there are four points to the'compass,-N., E., S., W .; and any captain of a vessel who cannot box a com- pass deserves to have his ears boxed.

"' Resolved, That an education received by rubbing against the walls of a college, or passing through its halls, is not so serviceable to a sea-captain as one received upon the ocean, amidst high winds, heavy seas, and hard knocks.

"'Resolved, That maps and charts arc useful to navigators at sea, and he who neglects to study them thoroughly is a block- head of the first class, and ought not to be intrusted with the command of a first-class ship.

"' Resolved, That the beach at Marshfield is not Boston light- house, "any way you can fix it."

"' Resolved, That no captain of a ship has a right to run his jibboou into the lantern of Boston Light, through mistake or carelessness, supposing himself to be fifty miles from the shore at the time.

"' Resolved, That the light on Eastern Point, at the entrance of Gloucester harbor, a steady light, cannot well be mistaken, except through sheer ignorance, for that at the entrance of Boston harbor, which is a revolving one.

"' Resolved, That Boston Light and Cape Ann are thirty miles apart, and cannot be made much shorter [ncarer to- gether ?], even by the aid of a straight railroad from point to point.

"' Resolved, That Cohasset rocks, on the South shore, although they resemble some others on tho North shore, are not ono and the same thing, and it is important that this fact should be generally understood.

"' Resolved, That any captain, while nearing the rocks spoken of, or any others, who fails to uso his deep-sca lino or hand-lead constantly until he finds out his right position, is unfit to have charge of a valuable ship and cargo, and the more valuable lives of her crew and passongers; his own is of but little consequence to the rising gonoration.

"' Resolved, As the deliberato opinion of this meeting, that when a sea-captain, if approaching our coast, his course due W., finds himself getting rapidly into shoal water, tho safost way is to wear ship and run to tho eastward, instead of running plump upon the beach or the rocks.

"' Resolved, That a sca-captain might as woll bo a hard drinker, at once, as to be extremely ignorant of his reckoning and bearings under a bright sky and a brighter sun.

"' Resolved, That our labors as wrockors are ofton severo and perilous, but woll intended, disintorested, and zealons ; and that we look to the undorwriters for a propor remuneration in all

cases where assistance is rendered to vessels in distress. It is not right for them to cavil at small charges when they are just. "' Resolved, That Father Bates be respectfully requested to preach a sermon upon the important points embraced in these resolutions.'

" At the suggestion of the chairman the following resolution was added to those reported by the com- mittee :

"' Resolved, That any captain who runs his vessel ashore, from inadvertence or other cause, and throws only half his cargo overboard, where it can be fished up with facility by wreckers, is entitled to more consideration and favor at the hands of un- derwriters than he who meets with a total loss, vessel and cargo.'

. The whole subject was then thrown open for diseussion. Several gentlemen addressed the meeting, and bore with unsparing severity upon the gross negligence and carelessness of the commanders of several vessels which had been either wrecked or damaged within the last few years. . .. The resolu- tions were then adopted. . . .

" It is a remarkable fact that there is [1845] no settled minister in Hull; but there is an excellent Sabbath-sehool. Occasionally, at this season of the year, some straggling preacher comes along, and is invited to supply the pulpit for a few Sundays. In the winter season preaching is more constant. . . . I repeat that it is surprising there is no settled minister in Hull at this enlightened era, inasmuch as it is re- corded in the books that, for a period of more than one hundred years, from 1660, when the population was much smaller than it now is, there were several settled Congregational ministers. But, at the time I refer to, there was but one kind of religion known amongst us, and one kind of religious teachers-the pure, unadulterated Congregational; and, on that ac- count, all could contribute eheerfully to the general fund for the support of some good, pious minister. Now, almost every citizen of Hull has a religion of his own. There is a slight sprinkling of Mormons and Latter-Day Saints among the inhabitants, as well as Universalists, Baptists, Calvinists, Methodists, Uni- tarians, Catholics, and Sculpinians (a sect who worship the head of a dried sculpin). To this simple cireum- stance, undoubtedly, may be attributed the fact that there is no settled minister in Hull at this time, and not to any parsimonious feeling the inhabitants, as a body, possess, so far as the salvation of their souls is concerned. Besides, the income from their parson- age lands amounts to almost enough to give a minister a deeent support. And yet I have heard that the last settled minister of Hull was fairly starved out, and that, though originally a corpulent mau, he left the town in a very lean condition.

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1185

HISTORY OF HULL.

"It is creditable to the inhabitants of Hull that they can get along without the services of a lawyer -in a small town always a great nuisance, but in a large. open, bustling. populous field of some impor- tance. when he is actuated by high-minded, honorable principles. Not only has the town no lawyer, but no physician lives within its borders. This is a · grievous fault,' especially when it is considered that that excellent injunction of the Scriptures, · increase and multiply,' is observed very generally by both sexes in Hull, who make a kind of religion of it. A capable young physician, who would be willing to spend a portion of his time in fishing for a livelihood, might find a pretty good opening at Hull, for the inhabitants are now entirely indebted to Hingham for medical aid when any of them are dangerously sick. .

" In 1734. the inhabitants erected a meeting-house in the ' middle of the village, near a piece of water' --- a small pond. This ' piece of water' is in its pristine beauty, and daily visited by dogs, horses, and cows, for the purpose of bathing and drinking; but the meeting-house was blown down in the great gale of September, 1815-a gale almost unprecedented for its violence in the annals of New England. . .. The meeting-house was not rebuilt at Hull, and the only place of worship in the village at present [1845] is a small, eighteen-foot building, standing on the margin of the aforesaid ' piece of water,' and nearly opposite the site of the old one.

". . . A public school is supported by the town six months of every year, the teacher generally being a female, of moderate intellectual capacity, and of modest pretensions, and she receives a small salary. She has forty scholars, embracing the flower of the youth of the town, the sons and daughters of hardy fish- ermen. . . In 1775 there were fifty houses in Hull; now [1845] there are about half that number. There are ten or twelve schooners owned here, besides sev- eral pink-stern1 boats, and they are employed in the lumbering, lightering, and fishing business. . . . I find that there is something of a military spirit in Hull. Some of its early settlers were among the original founders of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company [of Boston].

" The location of the village of Hull is a highly favorable one for the purposes of agriculture. The houses and gardens all lie between two prominent hills, of great length, running from south to west; they are, consequently, shielded from the searching north and northeast winds. These hills are composed

of rich pasture-lands, of well-cultivated and productive fields, fruit-trees, etc. The soil is said to be equal to any in New England. This is probably true, as cverything appears to have a rank and vigorous growth. There is a large number of winter pear-trees in full bearing, some of which are one hundred and fifty years old. The last year's crop of this fruit brought three hun- dred dollars. Next to fishing, the chief employment of the inhabitants is agriculture. The hills are covered with flocks of sheep, and the pastures give sustenance and comfort to numerous cows, horscs, and oxen. Hull will often remind one of a thriving agricultural town in the interior. I would herc remark that the residents sell their barn-manure to farmers in Dor- chester and Roxbury, and spread upon their own lands kelp and rockweed, which are found in abun- dance all along the shore. . . . The population of Hull in 1810 was 132; in 1820, 172; 1830, 198; 1840, 230 ; and at this time [1845] it is supposed to be about 270. These statistics show that there has been a gradual increase in the population since the commencement of the present century, but the num- ber of inhabitants now is probably not more than it was in 1775, when there were fifty houses in Hull, each house, doubtless, containing five or six souls. The town has the honor of having given birth-or, to speak more correctly, one of its women claimed that honor-to one graduate of Harvard University, the Rev. Israel Loring, who died in 1772, at Sud- bury (where he was settled sixty-six years), at the advanced age of ninety. .

" The temperance cause was early agitated in Hull, from which fact I infer that some of the first settlers, their children, or their grandchildren, were addicted to sipping ' bimbo'? and other strong drinks from tin cups. In 1721 . . . the town voted that no tavern or public-house should be kept within its limits. And from that day to this [1845 !] intoxicating drinks have rarely been sold in the town of Hull. At the other end of the beach, perhaps, a different story might have been told when you and I were young, ' long time ago.' When the fishermen of Hull, or any of its inhabitants or transient visitors, want a ' drop of comfort,' they have to go or send to Boston for it. New England rum is the favorite beverage of most of the consumers, who take it in the pure, nat- ural state, as many of our farmers in the interior do while making hay. . .. At the suggestion of Capt. Sturgis and Mr. Tower, the Humane Society have recently erected a new boat-house on the north side of Stony Beach, near Point Alderton, in which there

1 " A high, narrow stern, like that of a pink."-SIMMONDS. 75

2 The Indian name for strong drink.

1186

HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH COUNTY.

is an elegant, substantial, copper-fastened life-boat, of extensive dimensions. I should think it capable of holding thirty or forty persons, besides her 'gallant crew.' She is calculated for eight oars. This boat was much wanted. There are now two excellent boats there, one of which is on the northeast side, besides two 'humane houses' for the accommodation of wreeked seamen. . . . One of the boats at Hull has been the means of saving forty or fifty lives from seven different vessels. The society [Massachusetts Humane] has recently presented Moses B. Tower, of this place, with a gold medal for his exertions in saving the crew of the brig ' Tremont.'

" In Hull bay there are several islands on which are produced yearly many tons of excellent hay, be- sides large quantities of corn, oats, barley, and rye, and the hills on the main land are also productive. These prominent and beautiful eminences, when our Pilgrim fathers landed on these shores and the Indian trod the soil in the majesty of his nature and his strength, with no one to molest or make him afraid, were crowned with vigorous oaks. Now we see no sign of the Indian or the oak ; both have long since been swept away by the march of civilization and the hand of modern improvement, and in the places they once occupied we see the tall grass waving in luxuri- anee, and the eorn ripening in the sun. . . . The salt- works of Mr. Tudor, at the Point, are an object of some interest to visitors at Hull. Mr. Tudor may be considered an amateur salt manufacturer, for he cer- tainly cannot make much money by his works. There are about five thousand feet of vats, and the quantity of salt made is fifteen hundred bushels, which sells at three dollars per hogshead, or forty cents per bushel at retail. ... A few years since there were nine thousand feet of works in operation, and in one year three thousand bushels of salt were made. There is a large reservoir on the beach, which is filled at every high tide. The water from this is forced some distance through logs into the vats by a windmill. .

" The town of Hull, through her representative, Mr. Tower, made Marcus Morton Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is this fact which has given her inuch of the notoriety she pos- scsses. I understand, from a good source, that there are about fifty voters belonging to the town, in all, . . . some of them traveling a distance of six miles by land, and others two or three by water, to discharge this most important duty of a freeman. Add to this the fact that one-half the voters are engaged in light- ering and fishing, as long as it is safe to run their vessels, and the reader will readily perecive that it is

easy to account for the small number of votes east at our gubernatorial clections, a fact which has given rise to the expression, 'As goes Hull, so gocs the State !'1 When Mr. Tower was elected there was a great political excitement-it was 'diamond cut diamond'; but the Democrats outwitted their op- ponents, after a hard struggle (between the Atlas party2 and the office-holders), by getting down from Boston the crews of several vessels belonging to Hull. They reached home the evening previous to the election (the second trial), and, by their votes the next day, they established the political character of the Bay State for the following year. And let it be remembered, too, that "this was done by a single vote-by the representative of the smallest town in the commonwealth, chosen under the peculiar circum- stances I have mentioned.3 ...

1 This phrase has in recent years been several times belied by the town's vote proving contrary to that of the State at large.

2 This refers to the political party of which the Boston Atlas was a newspaper champion.

3 I have taken some pains to examine into the circumstances attending the two elections of Mr. Morton as Governor of Mas- sachusetts, since these events arc frequently alluded to (and not always correctly) as notable episodes in the political history of the commonwealth. In the journal of the House for June 16, 1840, I find a "report of the joint special committee to whom were referred the returns of votes for Governor and Lieuten- ant-Governor," cast in the previous November, in which the following tabular statement is given :

Whole number of votes legally returned for Governor .. 102,066 Necessary for a choice. 51,034

Marcus Morton has. 51,034

Edward Everett has .. 50,725

All others have .. 307

It will thus be soen that Mr. Morton carried the election by one vote,-that is to say : had he received one less vote than he did he would have failed of a majority, and the clection of a Gov- ernor would have gone to the Legislature, in accordance with the law at that time. Nowadays a simple plurality elects. This is precisely what did happen three years later. In tho State election held Nov. 14, 1842, it was finally decided that there were 59,118 votes necessary for a choico. Marcus Morton had 56,563, according to the revised returns, and John Davis, his nearest opponent, 55,039. The election was thus thrown into the Legislature. The House on Jan. 16, 1843, balloted for the " first candidate for Govornor." The first ballot resulted as follows :

Whole number. 34S

Necessary for choico ... 175

Marcus Morton had. 172

John Davis, 170

Samuel E. Sowall.

and thero was no ohoico.

At this point (according to the Boston Atlas of the following day) " Mr. Walloy said that one moro vote had boon thrown than there wore mombors presont ; 348 votes had been cast, and Mossrs. Hardy and Douglas of Lowoll, Hyde of Sturbridge, and Fowlo of Boston, wore absent, and it was well known that

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1187

HISTORY OF HULL.

" Note, June, 184S. We are glad to find that a change for the better has come over the people of Hull since 1845. They have waked up considerably within one year, and the town is now going ahead at a pretty smart rate. The politics of the voters have undergone a material change : the Whigs now outnumber the Democrats more than three to one. At the congressional election in April last Mr. Mann received 24 votes and Mr. Whittaker only 6. . .. At the previous gubernatorial election in the fall of 1847, Mr. Briggs received 19 votes and Mr. Cush- ing 9. The military men did not turn out in their full strength, owing to some supposed indignity cast at them by the Governor. At the last general train- ing, in May, there were twenty-four names on the

there were only 351 in the House." Another ballot resulted as follows :

Whole number .. 347

Necessary for choice .. 174

Marens Morton had .. 174

John Davis. 165

Samuel E. Sewall S

Thus, by a majority of one vote, Mr. Morton's name was sent to the Senate as " first candidate for Governor," according to the phrase of that day. The House on the same day elected John Davis as the "second candidate for Governor"; and on the day following the Senate elected Mr. Morton Governor, as follows :

Whole number. 38

Necessary for choice. 20

Marcus Morton had 27

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History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 248

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1706

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1706