USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Topsfield > History of Topsfield Massachusetts > Part 42
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The Topsfield Academy was in flourishing condition about 1840 and doubtless influenced the founding of the Topsfield Athenaeum Association which not only accumulated a library that circulated among its members but also encouraged de- bates and public lectures.
About 1850 another shareholder's library was organized, this time by those interested in the improvement of farming methods. It eventually numbered over a hundred volumes, all up to date, standard books that probably exercised a useful
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influence on this farming community. A book plate was pasted in each volume, the rules stating that a volume might be borrowed for two weeks after which there would be a fine of two cents a day. Three of the district schools were sup- plied with sets of the Common School Library that Horace Mann had been instrumental in distributing about the State.
About 1860 the Ladies Society connected with the Congre- gational Church voted to buy books that should circulate among the members and from surplus funds an excellent library of over 250 volumes was accumulated. It was a general library of recent publications having but little fiction and was particularly strong in history and travel. At a somewhat later date, a magazine Club subscribed regularly to eight or ten of the best magazines and quarterlies.
In the Jan. 6th, 1875 issue of the Salem Gazette appears the following :- " A meeting was held at Topsfield, Dec. 21, of persons interested in establishing a Free Town Library. Mr. Samuel Todd was chosen moderator and a committee ap- pointed, consisting of Messrs. S. A. Merriam, A. McLoud, J. Allen, H. Balch, J. H. Fitts, to collect parts of several small libraries now in town, and also to present plans for the form- ation and regulation of said library. The committee reported, Jan. 2, they had found the old book-case with about 90 books of the Topsfield Library Society established in 1794. Also several books belonging to the Athenaeum Association organ- ized in 1840. The Proprietors of the Agricultural Library contribute their 100 volumes to the town. The Ladies Society connected with the Congregational Church, generously de- posit their valuable library of 250 or more volumes for the purpose. The Magazine Club furnish nearly 100 useful vol- umes. Besides, there are parts of several District Libraries which are available.
"Subscriptions of money and books are to be solicited. Mrs. Blake one of our summer boarders from Salem, - generously heads the list with $100. Another individual gives $100.
"Members of the committee had visited libraries in adjoin- ing towns to consult their rules and regulations. They fur- ther recommend the town to appropriate and furnish a suit- able room with sufficient cases, to deposit the Selectmen's library in it, and to appoint committees to regulate and con- trol the library. There seems to be a commendable interest in this excellent work throughout the town."
To be more exact the Social Library and the Athenaeum supplied 128 volumes, the School Library, 39, the Ladies Soci- ety, 268, and the Agricultural Library, 85, or a total of 520
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volumes. Donations of money and the proceeds of entertain- ments made it possible to purchase 503 volumes and gifts of books from interested friends brought the total up to 1256 volumes, at the end of the first year, during which time 7700 books had circulated among 243 borrowers. The Library Committee for the first year was: Sidney A. Merriam, Rev. Anson McLoud, Rev. James H. Fitts, Justin Allen, M. D. and Humphrey Balch. To Sidney A. Merriam more than to any other person, was due the founding of the Town Library and his untimely death Aug. 14, 1876 was a severe blow. The re- maining members of the Library Committee, as the Trustees were styled at that time, have this to say about Mr. Merriam in their annual report to the town Mar. 7, 1877 :- "The Com- mittee, as a part of the history of the Library during the past year, must refer to the decease of one of their number, to whom, more than to any other individual, the Library owes its existence and its effective organization ; who gave a great deal of his time to its personal supervision, and who, among the last acts of his life, secured to it a thousand dollar bond, the annual income of which is to be devoted to its use. Honored and esteemed as he was by all who knew him, we trust his generous endowment will be so administered that coming generations will bless his memory."
At the beginning the library was shelved in the room at the left of the entrance in the recently erected Town Hall. It was supplied with shelving at the expense of the town. The shelves ran up to the ceiling and were supplied with glazed doors. The librarian for a number of years was the Rev. Anson McLoud, the retired minister of the Congregational Church, who served without salary, and when he died in 1883 volun- teer workers continued the service. These were Mrs. Esther W. Hutchings, Miss Sarah S. Edwards and Albert A. Conant. The first librarian who was paid a salary ($50. per annum) was Miss Victoria Reed, a person of middle age and cultivated mind, who for several years, had been boarding at Miss Ellen Perley's on High Street.
The selectmen and other town officers requiring the room occupied by the Library, a part of the room in the southwest corner of the Hall, originally intended for the use of a High School, was fitted up for the occupancy of the Library and with one enlargement the books were shelved there until the present library building was erected in 1934. The new library room was first used on June 25, 1881.
In 1912 the town purchased from George Francis Dow, for $2800, the lot of land on the corner of Main and High Streets
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where the Wildes-Hutchings house had lately stood. The deed provided that a portion of the lot should be reserved for the space of ten years as a site for a library building but it was twenty-two years before the site was so utilized.
David Pingree of Salem who had inherited the Pingree estate in Topsfield and maintained it as a farm and summer home, died in Salem, Oct. 2, 1932. His will revealed a be- quest of $15,000. to the Town of Topsfield to be used in the construction of a building for the Town Library. Meanwhile a bequest of George L. Gould of $1000. to be expended for the same purpose, had been accumulating income since 1923. In the fall of 1933, under the provisions of the National Indus- trial Recovery Act, it became possible for the town to obtain a grant eventually amounting to $10,549.50, and after the proposed expenditure had been discussed at several town meetings the town voted to proceed with the construction of a Town Library building, to be built of brick and located on the site at the corner of Main and High streets that had been reserved for that purpose in 1912. The building committee selected was George Francis Dow (chairman), Arthur H. Wellman and Franklin Balch, all of whom were trustees of the Town Library, William B. Poor, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, and Raymond S. Roberts, Town Treasurer.
In 1912 a young Boston architect, Harold Field Kellogg, a friend of Mr. Balch, in consultation with Mr. Dow, had pre- pared plans for a library building which it was then hoped might be built in the not distant future. These plans were now brought out and with some revision found to meet later needs, - another dream come true.
The new library building was opened for public inspection on the evening of Feb. 16, 1935. There were no formal ex- ercises but the Trustees were present and a string quartette furnished music. The completed building had cost $39,605.63 of which the United States Government had contributed $10,559.50; from bequests, including accumulated income and premium on the sale of bonds had come $21,232.39; and the town had provided $7823.74 from the tax levy. The book stack and shelving in the reading rooms provide space for over 34000 volumes, anticipating a vigorous growth for the library, having in 1935 about 17000 volumes. The walls of the central delivery room are decorated with eleven murals painted by Mr. Kellogg, depicting events in the history of the town :- A street in Toppesfield, England; the arrival of a ship of the Mayflower type; wandering Indians gathered on the shore; settlers felling trees; the Parson Capen house; settlers on
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their way to meeting; the first meeting house; ploughing the ground ; sowing the grain; Minutemen starting for Lexington ; and the Topsfield Academy building. Beneath the murals are the card catalog and shelving for the more recent books.
At one side of the delivery room is an adult reading room with shelving for reference books. At the other side is the children's reading room with shelving for juvenile books and a separate card catalog for them. These two rooms are fin- ished in beautifully grained walnut. The corresponding space on the floor above provides for an exhibition hall for the museum of the local Historical Society and a hall for the dis- play of paintings, engravings and objects of art and decora- tion. The basement is fitted up as a recreation room for young people and with the cooperation of interested friends provided with a pool table, ping pong tables, card tables, etc.
Sixty years had now passed since the founders of the library planned for a future growth which Time, in due course, brought to this happy culmination. In 1935, the number of volumes delivered to borrowers during the past year had in- creased to 8667 although the population of the town was less than in 1875. The annual income, also had grown from nothing to $800. and the endowment to $17,553.
In the vestibule of the new building have been placed two tablets which honor the founders and those who have sup- ported their work.
The Topsfield Town Library Was Founded In 1874 By Sidney Augustus Merriam Rev. Anson McLoud And Other Interested Friends
This Building Was Erected In 1934 From Bequests Of George L. Gould David Pingree And Appropriation Made By Town of Topsfield And The United States Government
Benefactors Of The Topsfield Town Library Sidney Augustus Merriam Moses Wildes Daniel Porter Galloupe Sarah Stickney Edwards Justin Allen M. D. William Stearns George Lambert Gould John Augustus Lamson M. D. Mrs. Ellen F. Morgan David Pingree
CHAPTER XXXI THE TOPSFIELD HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND THE PARSON CAPEN HOUSE
The organization and development of the Topsfield Histori- cal Society came about as the result of a meeting held at the house of George Francis Dow on Friday evening, Nov. 30th, 1894. He had mailed a notice of the meeting to all supposedly interested persons, stating that Sidney Perley, Esq. of Salem would speak on the needs of organized effort in this direction. Mr. Perley was the historian of Boxford, who also had written for the county history a short account of Topsfield1. A per- manent organization was effected at a meeting held Dec. 14, 1894 when a constitution was adopted in which it was stated that the purpose of the Society was the collection, preserva- tion and study of all historical materials relating to the town of Topsfield, and the encouragement of the study of natural history in its various branches.
Justin Allen, M. D. was elected President, Charles J. Pea- body, Vice President, and George Francis Dow, Secretary- Treasurer. At the end of the first year the membership was ninety-four. Ten meetings had been held at which papers had been read by members or speakers from out of town. A field meeting had taken place with visits to points of historical interest; a public meeting had been held at the Town Hall with an address by Mr. Ezra Hines, the assistant Register of Probate, at Salem, on the "Meaning and Value of Historical Societies;" donations had been made of objects illustrating the history of the town; and a printed volume of Topsfield Historical Collections, of a hundred pages containing papers read before the Society and baptismal records, was promised for delivery to members at the February 1896 meeting.
Much has been achieved by the Society since that small be- ginning forty-five years ago. Many meetings have been held at which papers have been read and addresses made on a great variety of topics relating to the town and its citizens. In the main, little has been offered outside its chosen field. Perhaps
1 Hurd. History of Essex County, Mass. Phila. 1888, pp. 972-988.
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the principal achievement, having a most lasting value, is the publication of thirty volumes of historical collections, two volumes of town records (1659-1778) and two volumes of births, marriages, and deaths to the end of the year 1899. Imperishable as is the printed page, these volumes will remain a lasting monument to the Society.
The initial enthusiasm of the members produced numerous valuable historical papers, but as time went on the easily tilled fields became exhausted and research in original records be- came necessary and accordingly limited to a few earnest workers. The later volumes of the historical collections, as a result, have contained a much larger proportion of records and reprinted material than at the outset, and such gleanings have naturally led up to the present enterprise,-a compre- hensive history of the town.
Notwithstanding the pressing need for historical investiga- tion on the social life of the town, past and present, outlined by Doctor Allen in his introductory remarks at the Jan. 4th, 1895 meeting of the society, there has been a failure to achieve anything really worthwhile in this important phase of local historical work. Seemingly an easy matter to commit to writing the lore that has been handed down from the past, in fact it is usually difficult to bring about. How regretfully does every person of increasing years speak of the fading memories of childhood days and of the tales of the olden time that father and grandfather told, now forgotten.
Here is what Doctor Allen wrote in 1894 and how much of interest now lies buried with those who were then alive and whose recollections of what had happened in the olden times never were committed to the written page and so preserved.
The Doctor said: "Whatever is learned of the social life of our ancestors is of especial importance as throwing light upon their various characteristics. It is here that historical records are deficient. If we could have detailed accounts of their every-day life, their conversations, their daily intercourse with their neighbors and friends, the routine of their Sabbath ob- servations, their social gatherings as far as they had any full records; of their church meetings, their town meetings, their domestic life, their habits upon their farms and in their houses, their meals, the religious observances, the government of their households, the education of their children, such minute accounts would be worth more than a whole volume of history as it is usually written."
From the outset the Historical Society looked forward to the time when it might have a house of its own, a place where
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its collection of objects relating to Topsfield might be dis- played and all the while it looked with acquisitive eyes at the Parson Capen house, the oldest and best preserved dwell- ing remaining in the town. From the first, Selectmen had set aside a small upper room in the Town Hall in which museum collections might be stored, but without a suitable place for public display, interest in a local museum became languid and in time practically disappeared.
In the spring of 1913 by means of a bequest of $2000, from David Cummings, and an interest in the residue of his estate, it became possible to negotiate for the purchase of the Parson Capen house. Mr. Thomas Emerson Proctor also contributed $1200, in order to acquire additional land and to cover part of the cost of restoration and on Jan. 14, 1914 the Historical Society had a housewarming in its new home. The rooms were lighted by candles and a supper of baked beans, salted meat, brown and rye bread, Indian pudding, pan dowdy, and pump- kin and apple pies was served in the seventeenth century manner on wooden plates and eaten with broad-bladed steel knives and pewter spoons. Pewter platters and plates were used sparingly. The table linen was all hand woven, and cider and milk were served in tall black-glaze mugs of the period. The beans and brown bread were hot from the brick oven. About 125 were present including officials of historical societies in Boston and neighboring towns and the unique affair was a great success.
The restoration of the house to its original seventeenth cen- tury appearance had been done under the careful oversight of the Secretary, George Francis Dow, and antiquarian architects have pronounced it one of the best seventeenth century New England houses that have been preserved. Its kitchen has been reproduced in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the exterior and interior of the building have been illustrated in numerous books and articles in periodicals. A recent English author2 characterizes the house as follows: - "The Capen House, appropriately furnished affords a perfect idea of the homes and surround- ings of the Pilgrims and their descendants in New England in the latter half of the seventeenth century, when the hard- ships of the early years were over. It is evident that, in spite of their dour and tenacious character, their simplicity of life and their preoccupation with religion, they were men of cul-
2 Briggs, Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers in England and America. London. 1932.
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ture and taste. And here, in the home of one of their honoured ministers we see not only the most attractive side of their life but also its essentially English origin. For if Parson Capen's house could be transported overseas and planted somewhere in the little Essex hamlet of Toppesfield, it would harmonize perfectly with the pleasant rolling country, the thatched cot- tages and the sturdy oak trees of the district of England which was the real cradle of the Pilgrim Fathers."
THE PARSON CAPEN HOUSE
At Topsfield, Massachusetts, not far from Salem, may be seen one of the best preserved houses of the earlier Colonial period in New England.3 It was built in 1683 by the Rev. Joseph Capen who had been called a short time before by the Topsfield church, and every child in the village calls it the "Parson Capen house," the name by which it has been known for generations. The tradition is still preserved that the young bride of the Parson did not look with favor on the parsonage owned by the town and as she came from the well- to-do Appleton family of Ipswich, the frame of a new house soon was erected on a small knoll beside the training field. The house now is owned by the local historical society and was carefully restored in 1913 by its Secretary, George Francis Dow. The Parson and his bride sleep, side by side, in a hill- side burying ground not far away.
The Parson's house undoubtedly was well built, even for his day, and it possesses architectural embellishments unknown on other existing dwellings. The second story widely over- hangs in front and the garret floors project at either end and all are supported by ornamental wooden brackets. The gable ends have wide verge boards and carved drops hang at the corners of the house. In fact, about the only architectural feature of the period that it may be said to lack is a peaked window on either side of the chimney, pushing outward from the steeply pitched roof.
The houses that were built by the earliest settlers along the New England coast usually were small, rude affairs that in a few years were replaced by more permanent structures. The larger number of those erected in Salem to accommodate the first immigration had disappeared before 1661. They must have been little better than huts or unsubstantial cottages. In fact, when the common lands in Salem were alloted, the "cot-
3 See A Seventeenth Century New England House, by Donald McDonald Millar, in The Architectural Record, September, 1915.
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tage rights" were an important factor in making the division. With more leisure and additional man power came the more substantial house, the well built dwelling of which numerous examples yet remain. At first, the structure generally was a one-room house, that is, a huge chimney with one room on the ground floor and a loft above. Frequently, however, it was of two stories. As the family grew in number or became more prosperous, a room was built on the other side of the chimney and often-times at a still later day, a one-story leanto was added along the back of the house.
The typical late seventeenth century New England house was built very nearly according to one well recognized plan. So much alike are these old wooden houses that remain that one would fancy for them a common inspiration. In the cen- ter was a great stack of chimneys, as the old records phrase it, on either side of which was a room, with a narrow entry in front of the chimney stack between the rooms. In this entry was the staircase. Four rooms and an upper and a lower entry was all the accommodation afforded. But the rooms were large and must have been more comfortable than people now imagine. All through the Massachusetts Bay and Ply- mouth colonies as well as in the Connecticut settlements, gen- erally speaking, this one plan persisted. In Rhode Island, the houses usually were of one room and an entry on each floor, - half the size of the Massachusetts type just described.
In nearly every case the house faced south, with the hall or living room, dining room and kitchen combined, usually on the eastern end while on the opposite side was the parlor, a room which served for retirement and for the entertainment of special guests. In practically every case, such being the cus- tom of the time, the parlor contained a bedstead with a rug for a covering. In those days rugs were not placed on floors. Carpets, also, were not floor coverings but found their place as table covers. In each room a great fireplace held a roaring fire of logs in its cavernous depths and on the second floor the two chambers had smaller fireplaces though these sometimes were lacking.
The framework of these houses was usually of oak, though sometimes of pine and made of heavy timbers mortised and tenoned together and held in place by wooden pins. Their joints were hewn with much skill by men who built according to the manner of their trade learned in England and who worked as their medieval forefathers had done. The founda- tion timbers rested on an underpinning of field stones, laid without mortar. These timbers were called the sills. At the four
THE PARSON CAPEN HOUSE
FRONT DOOR OF THE PARSON CAPEN HOUSE
FRONT ENTRY OF THE PARSON CAPEN HOUSE SHOWING ORIGINAL BALUSTER
KITCHEN OF THE PARSON CAPEN HOUSE
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corners were posts, two at each end of the house, two more in the rear wall beside the chimney, and two in the front wall at the entry. Across the house, at the level of the second story, were framed the girts - usually six in number - on sides and ends and also the two flanking the chimney. Spanning the rooms were other girts called summer beams.4 In the Massachusetts Bay Colony these usually ran north and south from the front to the rear girts, on the first floor, but in the Plymouth and Connecticut settlements they commonly ran from the end girts to the chimney girts. Into the upper part of the summers and the girts, the joists of the floor were mor- tised, and they supported the boards of the floor above. Early roofs were steep in pitch (in the Capen house the pitch is fif- teen inches to the foot) and very simply framed. The board- ing under the shingles ran up and down instead of across the rafters as at present.
One of the noticeable features of these old houses is the overhang of the second story on the front, and often on the ends also, and the third floor overhang of the gable ends. The overhang is a form of timber construction common in old Eng- lish work and seems to have been done solely for its architec- tural effect. Sometimes people will have it that this over- hanging construction was intended as a protection against marauding Indians, a device whereby hot water might be poured on their heads in true medieval fashion and therefore the house must have been used as a garrison house. But as the overhang never was built on the back side of a dwelling, the cunning savage easily could choose a rear approach and so avoid the scalding water intended for his scalp. Overhangs were constructed in two ways. The framed overhang was the olden form in the colonies and is the one illustrated here. The other form was the hewn overhang where the posts were very large and the lower part was hewn away so that the face of the first story wall receded several inches from the face of the second story wall. Gables or peaked windows on the front of the houses were found only in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
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