USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Essex > History of the town of Essex : from 1634 to 1868 > Part 20
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June 4th. The vote respecting the proposed Constitu- tion stood, one for, and one hundred and ninety-one against. The whole sum voted by the town this year for the families of soldiers is £800 in Continental bills, equal to $533.33 cents.
January 30th. The King of France enters into a treaty with our government, recognizing the independence of these United States. In this treaty it was stipulated, that France and the United States should make common cause, that neither should make peace with England, without the consent of the other, and neither should lay down arms till
220
HISTORY OF ESSEX.
[CHAP. 4. .
the independence of the United States was secured. This treaty when received, May 6th, spread joy through all the towns in the country. The hereditary hatred of France, which had pervaded the country, was suddenly changed into gratitude, respect and love. Thanks were returned in all our churches for the special interposition of Provi- dence, and prayers offered for blessings upon our allies, the French. This was rarely omitted on the Sabbath, the aged tell us, by the patriotic Cleaveland. When the news of the French treaty arrived, Washington was still en- camped at Valley Forge, with a force insufficient to meet the British in the open field. But the news of expected aid from abroad, inspired all with courage, and tended to depress and discourage the enemy. As the Delaware was liable to be blocked up by a French fleet, the British were obliged to evacuate Philadelphia, and to return to the Highlands of Navesink, where, by entrenchments, they secured themselves from further attack. In the Summer, an attempt was made by our forces under Gen. Sullivan to drive the British from Newport. Count D' Estaing with a French fleet was to co-operate with him, and ap- peared off Newport on the 29th of July, but was soon after defeated in an engagement with Admiral House, and left Sullivan to contend alone. A battle was fought at Quaker Hill, and Sullivan narrowly escaped falling with his whole army into the hands of the British. By good generalship he effected a retreat. The operations of the enemy for more than a year, in Rhode Island, were the occasion of the frequent call upon our men to march to that quarter. Our town records more than once speak of our men having marched to Providence to strengthen our forces there. August 2d, Captain David Low makes return to Col. Cogswell of "ten men in my company that have engaged to go to Providence, in the service of these States." All the militia from Massachusetts Bay, while in Sullivan's army, were enrolled in Col. Wade's regiment. Frequent requisitions were also made for men " to join the
221
COL. COGSWELL'S REGIMENT.
. 1774-1800.]
guards at Cambridge under Maj. Gen. Heath." On the 26th of September, Col. Cogswell was ordered by Briga- dier Titcomb " to repair to Boston and take command of the men ordered to be raised the 7th inst., out of my Brigade." Among Col. Cogswell's papers is an autograph order of Gen. Gates received while he was holding this connand. It is as follows :
" BOSTON, December 3, 1778.
" To Col. Cogswell, Third Regiment, Essex Militia-Sir : You will please immediately to supply the bearer with Two Officers, two Sergeants and thirty Rank and File, to assist in removing some cables of the Somersett man-of- war, now on board a vessel at Gray's wharf. I am y' hble serv',
" HORATIO GATES."
Toward the close of the year, the enemy seemed dis- posed to remove the seat of war to the Southern States. From our church records we learn, that this year the fol- lowing soldiers died abroad : James Rust, a prisoner at Halifax, aged 20; Stephen Kent, aged 50; Jonathan An- drews, aged 40 or more, at Albany ; Abraham and Isaac Jones, Israel Andrews, Nathaniel Emerson, and Abijah Story (negro), in the army; Nehemiah son of Nehemiah Choate, soldier at sea, of the small pox, at Bilboa.
1779. Some definite idea of the militia organizations of this time may be obtained from the following extracts from a "Return of the Third Regiment of Militia in the county of Essex, commanded by Jonathan Cogswell, Esq., made on the 12th of January." Nine companies belonged to the regiment at this time. The first company belonged in Ipswich Centre; the second at the Hamlet; the third at Chebacco ; three others also in Ipswich, two in Topsfield, and one in Wenham. The list of officers is as follows :
"Jonathan Cogswell, Colonel, commissioned February 14, 1776; Isaac Dodge, Ipswich, Lieutenant Colonel, commissioned February 14, 1776; Charles Smith, Ipswich, First Major, commissioned February 14, 1776; Joseph Gould, Topsfield, Second Major, connnissioned February 14, 1776; John Heard, Ipswich, Adjutant, commissioned May 7, 1776. Whole Num- ber of the Training Band present, including officers, 514. Ditto Aların List, 257. Whole Number of Training Band absent, viz., in the Continental army, 119; in the State's service, 37. Absent, of the Alarm List, G."
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HISTORY OF ESSEX.
[CHAP. 4.
The return of the Chebacco company of the same date is as follows :
" A return of the Third Company of the Third Regiment of Militia in the County of Essex : David Low, Captain, commissioned May 16, 1776; John Choate, First Lieutenant ; Ephraim Davis, Second Lieutenant. Train- ing Band, present, viz : Clerk, 1, Sergeants, 4, Drummer, 1, Rank and File, 71. Ditto absent, viz., in Continental Service, 1 Subaltern, 22 Privates ; in State Service, 1 Colonel, 6 Privates ; 9 in private armed vessels, 4 in cap- tivity, 4 seamen at sea. Alarm List present, viz., under 50 years of age, 14 ; between 50 and 60, 23; between 60 and 65, 7 ; total, 44. Alarm List ab- sent in State service, 3 Privates ; in private vessels, 2; seamen at sea, 2. Whole number of males above 16 years of age, not included either in the Training Band or Alarm List, viz., Whites, 5, Blacks, 4."
The "alarm list" was composed of those who were more than forty-eight years of age. The persons exempted at this time by law were, all under sixteen years of age, the officers and students of Harvard College, ministers of the gospel, grammar-schoolmasters, Indians, negroes and mu- lattoes. The equipments required were as follows :
" Fire-arm ; steel or iron ramrod ; Spring to retain ; Worm; Priming wire; Brush ; Bayonet; Cutting sword or Hathor; Pouch ; 100 buckshot ; Jack or sack knife ; Tow ; 5 flints ; one pound of powder ; 40 balls ; Knap- sack ; Blanket ; Canteen or wood bottle."
One of Col. Cogswell's "orders" of this year is also pre- served, and is of considerable interest for the information it furnishes respecting the military customs of the Revolution :
"IPSWICH, June 13, 1779.
" To Capt. David Low-Sir : You are hereby directed to detach from your Company, two men to serve in the State of Rhode Island until the first day of January next, unless sooner discharged, said detachment to be made in- discriminately from the Training Band and the Alarm List. Said men are to be mustered before the County muster-master, and to be armed and equipped according to law. Their pay is to be sixteen pounds per month, in addition to the Continental pay. One hundred dollars for a further en- couragement is to be advanced to each man by the selectmen of the Town where said men are detached, as a Bounty. Also two shillings a mile as mileage money from the Town where they are detached to the place of their destination. Any person detached for the service aforesaid, and shall not within twenty-four hours after he is detached pay a fine of thirty pounds, or procure some able-bodied man in his room, properly armed and equipped, he
223
THE SOUTH SCHOOL-HOUSE.
1774-1800.]
shall be held as a soldier in said detachment, and treated as such. The fines you are to procure other men with, until your quota is completed. Hereof you will not fail, and make return of the men without loss of time.
" JONA COGSWELL, Col."
June 28th. The town votes £12,000, O. T., equal to $1,000 or $1,500, to hire recruits now called out. The currency in old tenor, was at this time, not only very much depreciated, but very fluctuating. The English ministry were so lost to all principles of honor and hon- esty, as to counterfeit our bills, and send over whole chests of them, which they continued to distribute among us, and which were so well executed, as to be with diffi- culty distinguished from the genuine bills.
This year the first school-house on the south side of our river was built. It stood near a well, now belonging to the dwelling-house owned by Daniel Poland and William H. Burnham. There were at this time, only thirty-two houses on the south side of the river, ten of which were on the Gloucester and Manchester roads, and twenty-two on Thompson's Island. Now* there are on that side of the river, one hundred and twenty-five dwelling-houses, a church, and three school-houses. The frame of the first school-house was removed in 1814 to the site of the pres- ent school-house, in the South District, and improved for a school-house there for a number of years. It is now the frame of a dwelling-house in Manchester. Among the natives of Chebacco, who taught in this "good frame," may be mentioned Elias Andrews, William Cogswell, Jr., David Choate, his three sons, David, Rufus and Washing- ton, and Samuel Gorton, Jr.
August 9th. The town elect five delegates to the con- vention to be held at Cambridge, for framing a new State Constitution. Among these are Stephen Choate, Esq., and Col. Jonathan Cogswell.
August 16th. Two are chosen to meet in convention at Concord, to regulate the prices of goods. The town
* 1855.
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HISTORY OF ESSEX.
[CHAP. 4.
sanction the doings of this convention fixing the prices of various articles of merchandise.
But little was done this year in the field either by our people or the British. The campaign at the South was a failure. Washington from his camp in New Jersey, was more successful against the British on the Hudson. The fortress of Stony Point, which had been taken by the British, was retaken by a detachment of troops mostly from New England, under Gen. Wayne, who stormed the fort, on the night of the 15th of July. This was con- sidered one of the most gallant exploits of the war.
1780. Unusually severe and stormy weather prevailed at the close of the last year and the opening of this. The snow fell in frequent storms from the middle of Decem- ber, to almost the middle of January, when it lay upon the ground more than three feet in thickness on a level. Loaded teams passed over the walls, in every direction. The cold was intense and without interruption, for many days. It was long remembered as the hard winter. The spring also was cold and remarkably backward.
Friday the 19th of May was long remembered by the inhabitants of the Commonwealth and of some portions of the neighboring States, but especially by the residents of this county as " The Dark Day." Mrs. Marshall, whose maiden name was Hannah Choate, gave the author the following account of this strange phenomenon, as it was witnessed on Hog Island. She was then 17 years of age.
" The sun rose clear, but it soon began to be lowery, with some showers. Toward nine o'clock, it seemed to be breaking away ; but everything had a yellow appearance. Soon after nine, a dark, heavy cloud was seen rising from the north-west, which gradually spread itself till it covered the whole heavens, except a narrow space near the horizon. About ten, this was also covered, and the darkness increased so that we had to light a candle. All the folks out of doors left their work, and came in. Fear and anxiety were mani- fest on every countenance. It was quite dark when we set our dinner-table. Early in the afternoon, the darkness began to abate, and before sundown it was light, but cloudy, with a yellow, brassy appearance. After sundown, it grew dark very fast, and the evening was more remarkable than the day.
225
THE DARK DAY.
1774-1800.]
It seemed like darkness that might be felt. Some of our family who tried to go to the neighbors, had to come back. We sat up quite late, knowing that the moon rose at nine, and expecting it would make some difference as to the darkness, but it did not till after eleven o'clock, when some glimmer of light began to appear from it."
Other accounts tell us, that those who were traveling in the evening had to dismount from their horses, as they wholly refused to go on, and that horses could not be com- pelled to leave their stables, when wanted for service. It is remarkable that, according to the testimony of our fishermen, some of whom were then at sea, there was no unusual darkness upon the water. The general opinion of scientific men of that time was, that this phenomenon was caused by the unusual thickness of the clouds, and the vast quantity of smoke arising from burning woods. It is said that there were at that time about thirty miles square of woods on fire in the vicinity of Ticonderoga and nearer.
March 30th, Ebenezer Cleaveland, son of our pastor,, died of jail fever, on board of the Continental ship-of-war Eustis, aged 26. He had sailed from Salem in October, 1779, for the West Indies for his health, had been taken by the British, and retaken by the French; had been in jail, as a prisoner, at Gaudaloupe, and was now, by some means, in a ship-of-war of his own country.
The town furnishes this year, as its required proportion, 106 shirts, 106 pairs of stockings and shoes, and 33 blankets; raises 60 men for six months, and 12 horses for the public service ; votes £1,200, to hire soldiers for the continental army ; furnishes as its proportion 31,800 pounds of beef; accepts a report to pay its soldiers in hard money, as resolved by the General Court; votes £1,850 of new emission, or £74,200 of old emission, to pay for its army beef; votes not to accept the new constitution for the State, unless the proposed amendments are allowed. The same was voted by Danvers and some other towns. The constitution, however, was adopted by the people.
29
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HISTORY OF ESSEX.
[CHAP. 4.
The quota of Ipswich for the continental service, this year, was fifty-two, equal to that of Salem, and larger than that of any other town in the county. Besides fur- nishing its proportion of these, Chebacco was called upon in June, for eleven six months' men, and the same num- ber of three months' men, who were accordingly drafted from Capt. David Low's company.
Our men were in various parts of the army, some at the South and some at the North. Whether any of them were in the force under the immediate command of Washington, when the treason of Arnold was detected, is not known. But one of the line officers in that part of the army, at that time, was Maj. Caleb Low of Danvers, who was a native of Chebacco, and was brought up here. He was present at the execution of Andre. The following letter addressed to him by Washington, the original of which is in the hands of Maj. Low's grandson, Col. Caleb Low of Danvers, is taken from Hanson's History of Danvers :
" Sir : You will be pleased to march early to-morrow morning, with all the militia under your command, and proceed to the landing at West Point. You will send an officer to this place, by whom you will receive further orders. Col. Gouvior, the bearer of this, will apply to you for an officer and a small party of men. These you will furnish. I am, sir, with esteem, yr. mo. obe't ser't, GEO. WASHINGTON."
" Head-quarters Robinson's House, 25th September, 1780, } after 7 o'clock P. M.
" MAJOR Low, at Fishkill."
Maj. Low was the son of Caleb and Abigail Low, and was baptized by Mr. Pickering, July 8, 1739. He had been a soldier in the French and Indian war, had served as captain at Ticonderoga, and was promoted to the rank of major at the beginning of the Revolutionary struggle. He had two brothers, who were also in the army and stood firmly in defence of their country. Their birthplace was in the ancient mansion which stood where the dwelling of Josiah Low now stands.
1781. In the meetings of the town it is voted :
" March 20th, that £500 be raised for soldiers and remainder of beef ; June 22d, that we supply the army with 25,204 pounds of beef, 106 pairs
227
CLOSE OF THE WAR.
1774-1800.]
of stockings and shoes, 106 shirts and 42 men ; August 13th, that £400 be raised to pay men hired for three months, and £200 for army clothing ; Au- gust 20th, that £220 be given for soldiers at Rhode Island who have been there five months."
Besides bearing its part of these burdens, Chebacco of its penury also contributes £5. 13s. for inhabitants of South Carolina and Georgia who are left in extreme destitution by the ravages of the enemy, the seat of war this year being chiefly at the South.
The British had overrun Georgia and the Carolinas and were attempting to subdue Virginia. But the success of our arms was such that most of the lost ground was re- covered, and Cornwallis was compelled to entrench himself at Yorktown. Washington marched from New York, and arrived at the head of the Elk about the time that Count de Grasse with twenty-five sail of the line entered the Chesapeake. By the help of the French fleet, he removed his army from the head of the Elk to the vicinity of Yorktown; and on the 6th of October, the allied forces began the siege, which they pressed so vigorously that on the 19th Cornwallis was obliged to surrender. This was the last contest in our struggle for liberty, and under the good Providence of God, the long protracted war ter- minated at length wholly in our favor. The success of the siege of. Yorktown excited universal joy throughout the country. The day after the capitulation, Washington ordered, that those who were under arrest should be par- doned, and announced-
" That Divine service shall be performed to-morrow, in the different brig- ades and divisions. The commander-in-chief recommends that all the troops that are not upon duty, do assist at it, with a serious deportment, and that sensibility of heart, which the recollection of the surprising and particular interposition of Providence in our favor, claims."
Congress also resolved to go in procession to the Dutch Lutheran Church, and return thanks to Almighty God, for the signal success of the American arms : and they issued a proclamation, recommending to the citizens of the
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HISTORY OF ESSEX.
[CHAP. 4.
United States, to observe the 13th of December as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.
1782. There is a suspension of hostilities this year. England is disposed to make peace with us, if it can be done without inflicting too deep a wrong upon the na- tion's pride. Much time, however, is required to adjust the whole matter, and until the treaty is made and ratified, our army must be kept in the field and sustained. Our fathers in town-meeting, vote £440 to pay men lately engaged to serve in the army, and other soldiers ; and to raise nineteen men for the continental army.
Notwithstanding all their privations, hardships and suf- ferings during this long and bloody contest, which had almost drained Chebacco of men, especially young men, our citizens here still sustain the cause of education, even with increased zeal. Three schools are now in active operation. One at the Falls, one on the south side of the river, and the ancient North, now removed from the com- mon to the gravel-pit, a little north of where the hay- scales now are. We will visit the school and learn some- thing of its prosperity. Its teacher is Northern Cogswell, son of Dr. Cogswell of Rowley, who was a native of Che- bacco. The school-house is considered one of good size ; and yet forty scholars fill nearly all the seats. From the register on the master's desk, we see that the whole num- ber belonging to the school is forty-five, thirty-one boys and fourteen girls. Twenty-one boys and eight girls are marked as perfect in their attendance. This register now in our possession, is written in the teacher's large and fair hand, and contains the names of all the scholars and the punctuality of their attendance. The number of girls in the school is comparatively small, for it is not the custom of the day for girls in general to attend. Only those most ambitious to be something, are seen at school, or as a man of years now expresses it, " only those who thought a good deal of themselves." The government of the school is mild and paternal, with but little use of the rod.
229
THE NORTH SCHOOL.
1774-1800.]
Yet the order is excellent, and the industry commendable. The master has the reputation of being one of the best of teachers, though yet a young man. The exercises of the school are confined to reading, writing, spelling and ciphering. We hear them read in the psalter, and spell from Dilworth's spelling-book. The " cipherers" have their sums, as they are called, written by the master, in their manuscripts, to be wrought out by them on the slate. The more indolent occasionally, copy the process by stealth from their more studious neighbors. The penmanship of the master is very fine, and the proficiency of the pupils consequently remarkably good. The amount of knowl- edge acquired in such a school, though very limited, is yet of incalculable importance; and besides this, the mental discipline, the habits of punctuality, of order, of subjection and attention thus early gained, and the imbib- ing of moral and religious truth, are of inestimable value. If we were strangers, we should say with the poet, as we look around upon this group of bright-eyed children :
" Boys are at best but pretty buds unblown,
Whose scent and hues are rather guessed than known."
But as we know their future career, it is pleasant to look upon them in childhood, and to see in their habits of punctuality and attendance, as marked by their teacher, their future industry, intelligence and usefulness. Two of them are still living with us, at the age of more than eighty. 'Two of the children of Dr. Davis, then the physi- cian of the place, are living in Gloucester. The remain- der, for the most part, we ourselves have followed to the grave, as parishioners, neighbors, and friends. One studi- ous boy we see there, eleven years old, whose literary career is remarkably brilliant, as he passes from the dis- trict school to the academy, and to the university, and to the study and practice of law in a neighboring city. But his career is as short as it is brilliant. At the age of thirty, death lays him in the grave. Two brothers are sitting together, John and Francis Choate. John, as he advances
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HISTORY OF ESSEX.
[CHAP. 4.
upon the stage of life, becomes master of a vessel, and perishes at sea, being wrecked on the coast of France. Francis dies in early life, of a fever, at the age of seventeen.
1783. This was a memorable year in the annals of the town as well as of the country. A treaty of peace was made with England, in which the Independence of the United States was acknowledged, a right to the fisheries granted, and as much territory yielded as was expected or asked for. On the 19th of April, just eight years from the day when at Lexington the first blood was spilled, peace was proclaimed in the American army by Gen. Washington. In the Autumn, the army was disbanded, and our fellow- citizens returned to their homes. Forty years ago, as the author visited from house to house, he heard from the lips of these Revolutionary soldiers, descriptions of many scenes, which they had witnessed in the camp and on the battle-field, of the most thrilling interest. The impres- sion made by the accounts they gave of their experiences of army life, of their battles, and of their sufferings from fatigue, hunger, cold and sickness, is still deep and vivid. Some of them had crossed the Jerseys with bare feet, on frozen ground, tracking the way with blood. Others at times had had nothing to keep them from starvation but melted suet. And after their service was ended, they lost most of their pay, because their exhausted country was almost literally bankrupt. Of the value of their services, of their hardships and their condition at the close of the war, we may form some adequate conception from a part of a speech of Hon. Rufus Choate, in Congress, in 1832, on the Pension Bill. It is as follows :
" From my own observation, from the testimony of other gentlemen given in this discussion, from the uniform concurrence of opinion expressed by all, who, at any time heretofore, have advocated in Congress the adoption or ex- tension of the pension system, I am satisfied that, as a general fact, the sur- vivors of the War of the Revolution, are in reduced pecuniary circumstances, although often considerably above want; the precise condition of life which this charity pre-eminently blesses. Sir, we know why they are in such circum- stances. They left the army at the average age of thirty-two or thirty-three.
231
CONDITION OF THE SOLDIERS.
1774-1800.]
The prime of life was already nearly past. Before that age, the foundations of most men's fortunes are laid, and their destinies fixed. Many of them had families immediately dependent and expensive. The business which they followed before they went to the war, it was not perfectly easy at once to re- sume Their health, and let us admit, sometimes their habits, were a little shaken by the life they had been leading. War never leaves the individual who actively mingles in it, any more than it leaves the nation, exactly where it finds him. The idleness of eamp, and the excitements of camp, are alike unfavorable to morality and to industry. The chances were that when they went back to their places in society, and the land rested from the agitation with which it had so long been heaving, they would all, if the expression may be pardoned, have sunk at onee to the bottom. The chances were, that they would become the 'eankers of a calm world and a long peace.' Many of them did so. Others struggled and rose to something like competence and comfort, but not above the necessity of partaking of this relief. I can- not refrain from reminding you, in this connection, that the ten years which immediately followed the war of independence, that period in which these men were called to put off the garments of the camp, and, breaking their swords into ploughshares, to resume as well as they could, the habits and pursuits of civil life, were a time the most unfavorable to morality, to indus- try, to the acquisition of property, and the formation of stable and elevated character, which this country ever saw. There was no opening to enterprise for anybody, and, least of all, for the penniless, disheartened and war-worn soldier. Manufactures we had none, and under such a government as the old Confederation, admitting the unrestrained importation of the foreign article, we should have never had any. Commerce and the fisheries were annihi- lated ; agriculture was languishing to death. A great pressure of debt was bearing upon the confederacy, the States and the citizen. There was no eireulating medium in existence, except a depreciated, worthless paper, wholly unfit to develop and vivify the industry of a community, but very fit, and very likely to make us a nation of gamesters and joekeys Undoubtedly this was as severe a erisis as the sharpest agony of the war. Such was the world which the disbanded soldiers began life in ; and stronger and more affecting proof of the truth of this description, and of the disastrous influences which that hard season shed on all their after fortunes, you need not seek, than is afforded by the fact, that far the larger number of those, who received their settlement certificates from the government at the elose of the war, were obliged to sell them in the course of the ten years following, at an average of two shillings and six pence in the pound."
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