USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Hingham > History of the town of Hingham, Massachusetts, vol 1 > Part 16
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I invite you to spend a few of these bright October days in seeking out the ancient landmarks of this old Puritan town of
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Hingham (ineluding Cohasset, which until 1770 formed a part of it) ; and to do this most thoroughly and enjoyably a tramp will be necessary, although at times it will be agreeable to take to the saddle ; and a boat will twice or thrice be indispensable, especially at the outset. For we will start, if you please, at the extreme easterly point, and take some of the ledges which lie off shore. Many of these are nearer to Scituate Beach, but the rest, including the most noted of all, Minot's, are opposite Cohas- set harbor and beaches.
MINOT'S LEDGE is the outermost of those awful roeks, upon which many a ship has met her doom; and unnumbered men, ay, and women and children too, have vanished in the foam of those breakers which lash the ledges unceasingly when the east wind vexes the sea.
But on this hazy morning the ocean is calm enough. Only a ground swell, smooth as glass, rolls languidly in, and we can lie off the grim Minot's Ledge and examine the proportions of the great granite tower at our ease. This tower was built by the government to take the place of the wooden lighthouse, elevated on iron posts, that was washed away, together with its keepers, in the terrible storm of April, 1851.
Leaving Minot's outer and inner ledges, we come to an arehi- pelago of rocks, many of which are submerged at high water. The principal ones between Minot's and the Cohasset shore are, the EAST and WEST HOGSHEAD ROCKS, the EAST and WEST SHAG, the GRAMPUSES, ENOS LEDGE, BRUSH LEDGE, BARREL ROCK, SHEP- PARD'S LEDGE, GULL LEDGE, SUTTON ROCKS and QUAMINO ROCK.
At the westerly entrance to Cohasset harbor is a high, wooded, rocky promontory called WHITEHEAD. During the last war with England earthworks were erected there and garrisoned. In June, 1814, a British man-of-war came to destroy the shipping at Co- hasset, but the commander, upon reconnoitring these fortifica- tions, deemed them too strong to be attacked, and withdrew. On the west side of the harbor is GULF ISLAND, and south of it SUPPER, or SUPER, ISLAND. We leave " the Glades " (in Seituate) on our left in entering Cohasset harbor. On the south side of the harbor, and elose on the main land, is DOANE'S ISLAND, now GOVERNMENT ISLAND. Here for several years the work of cutting and shaping the rock sections to be used in building Minot's Lighthouse was carried on.
BARSON'S BEACH, northeast of Doane's Island, extends to Seitu- ate Beach. In the palmy days of the fisheries on this shore there were several acres of flakes there, and fishing-vessels were fitted out at this spot. Several Cohasset vessels, loaded with fish here, were captured in the Mediterranean during the Bonapartist wars, and many Cohasset people are to this day among those interested in the French spoliation claims.
Let us land at the head of the harbor, and take the road, skirt- ing the shore, Border Street. A little stream called JAMES'S
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RIVER, which flows through the town, crossing South Main Street not far from the depot, empties into the cove.
The OLD SHIPYARD was on Border Street. This road passes between the water and high elevations on the inner side, called DEACON KENT'S ROCKS, from which is an extremely fine prospect. The body of water between Doane's Island and the main land is THE GULF or THE GULF STREAM. The entrance from the har- bor is narrow and jagged, and the rushing tide, foaming and seething in resistless volume in its ebb and flow, is a picturesque and beautiful sight. A bridge crosses the stream, and just below, where there was formerly a rocky dam, stood the old GULF MILL, which is now a thing of the past. A new mill, however, stands near the site of the old one.
CONOHASSET RIVER, or BOUND BROOK (CONOHASSET RIVULET of Hutchinson's History), flows into the harbor on the south side, emptying through the Gulf. Anciently it formed the boundary line between Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies.
Retracing our way, we will take Elm Street (the SHIP-COVE LANE of early days), pass around the head of COHASSET HARBOR, which narrows into a pretty little landlocked bit of water at this point, and take the road which follows the shore as nearly as possible over the isthmus between the harbor and Little Harbor, the narrowest portion of which is known as GREAT NECK. After going a few score rods in a direction generally northeasterly, the road turns sharply to the north. At this point, extending down the harbor, and in fact forming its northerly shore for some dis- tance, is DEACON BOURNE'S ISLAND, now the site of a fine private estate, the property of a distinguished actor. These " islands," in the nomenclature of our ancestors, were frequently pieces of land divided from the mainland only by a narrow creek or water- way but a foot or two in width, or even high lands in swamps or on beaches.
Beyond the little inlet and marshes north of this island, is HOMINY POINT, a beautifully wooded locality extending out along the water. There were formerly wharves at Hominy Point. The road strikes across through thick woods and a very picturesque country, coming near the water again at SANDY COVE, a slight indentation north of the promontory previously mentioned, and finally turning west, pursues its winding way through thickets gorgeous with the red and yellow of sumaes and the scarlet of maples and woodbine, by rocky precipices dark with lichens, coming upon delightful vistas of wood-bordered meadows and lovely bits of water-views which break in here and there unexpectedly, until it suddenly enters Cohasset village at THE PLAIN.
THE PUNCH BOWL, a singular depression about one hundred feet in diameter and twenty-five feet in depth, with apple trees now growing in it, is on the north side of Tower's Lane, a short dis- tance from the corner. THE DEVIL'S ARMCHAIR, composed of slight depressions in the granite, probably of glacial origin, is a
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few rods east of the highest point of the rocks on the south side of this lane near the Plain.
Scattered here and there, in the thick natural shrubbery on the water side, are the pretty, quaint cottages of those who spend their summers by the sea. All along this shore formerly, from Whitehead to Pleasant Beach, were SALTWORKS, - among them PARSON FLINT'S SALTWORKS.
Beach Street, which we have been following, is the old TOWER's LANE. We will retrace our course over it, to the private way which leads to CUBA DAM, where now is the bridge flung across the waterway which divides the territory over which we have been passing from BEACH ISLAND. Here one might well linger for hours to watch the rushing waters which foam and swirl through this narrow, rocky inlet, which lets the sea into the otherwise completely landlocked, most picturesque, and exquisitely beautiful sheet of water called in early days LITTEL HARBOUR (Lit- tle Harbor) or OLD HARBOUR.
WHALE'S VALLEY is near Cuba Dam, in Old Harbor. A whale is said to have once gone up the inlet into this harbor.
This inland bay, with its greatly diversified shores, " The Ridge Road " along the precipitous bank at the west, wooded hills on points making out into it here and there, low sandy beaches and Beach Island dividing it from the sea ; and containing COOPER'S ISLAND, RICE'S ISLAND, and LITTLE ROCK within its waters, is a fascinating locality for the admirers of fine scenery.
On Cooper's Island are THE INDIAN POT and THE INDIAN WELL. The former is a curious excavation, round, smooth, and regular, having a capacity of about a dozen pails. The Indian Well is another excavation near the first one described. From the bot- tom it is elliptical to the height of about four feet. The re- mainder is semicircular, opening to the east.
These excavations are glacial pot-holes, but may have been used by the Indians for various purposes ; and from the fact of hatchets and other aboriginal implements having been found in the ground near by, the early settlers supposed them to have been the work of the Indians.
CUBA DAM derived its name from there having been a dam built by a company of Hingham and Cohasset people about the beginning of the century, across the inlet, to shut out the sea, and enable them to reclaim the LITTLE HARBOR, which it was thought would eventually become very profitable as hay fields. This was all very well until the great storm of April, 1851, which left nothing intact upon the shores which the sea could possibly destroy, tore this dam to pieces ; and it has never, hap- pily for the scenery, been rebuilt. In the old days vessels were built at Little Harbor.
The bridge across the inlet at Cuba Dam leads to BEACH ISLAND, a partly wooded eminence rising from the beach sur- rounding it, and as romantic a spot for the fine seaside resi- dences situated on the easterly slope as could be desired.
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Next beyond this is SANDY BEACH, aptly so called, while off shore are BLACK LEDGE, - ominous name, - and BRUSH ISLAND. At the end of this beach arc higher lands, very rocky, and with great ledges extending out into the sea. Here is KIMBALL's, a pleasantly situated tavern, celebrated for its fish and game fare, somewhat as Taft's upon the north shore has been, for many years. From here extend the stony beaches, picturesquely varied with sea-worn ledges, known collectively as PLEASANT BEACH, which terminates at WALNUT ANGLE, as the northwest corner of the Second Division was denominated, at the east end of Cohasset Rocks.
Now let us turn about, and taking the road by which we have just come in reverse, return to Cohasset Harbor again. Thence going west over the old SHIP-COVE LANE (now Elm Street) we before long reach South Main Street.
South Main Street leads southeast to the Scituate line, at BOUND BROOK, which was the CONOHASSET RIVULET of Hutchin- son's History. Here, over the brook, was the old dam, a wide roadway now, whereon stood the OLD MILL. About half-way over the dam, and presumably at the middle of the stream as it was at the time, the PATENT LINE was established. BOUND ROCK was at this point. It is now represented by a hewn granite stone, set up to mark the spot, by Captain Martin Lincoln, of Cohasset, more than half a century ago.
When the Indian chiefs, Wompatuck and his brothers, gave a deed of the territory of Hingham to the English in 1665, there was also embraced in this instrument a tract of " threescore acres of salt marsh" which lay on the further side of the Conohasset Rivulet, in Scituate, in the Plymouth Colony. These lowlands were known as THE CONOHASSET MEADOWS.
The Patent Line at Bound Rock was the base line north of which the First, Second, Third, and Second Part of the Third Divisions were directly or remotely laid out.
It will be necessary to explain the significance of the term " division," which often recurs in any description of the topog- raphy of Hingham and Cohasset.
When the Rev. Peter Hobart first came with his little band of colonists to " Bare Cove," in 1635, he found several of his friends who had settled there as early as 1633. "Bare Cove " was as- sessed in 1634. The " plantation " was erected in July, 1635, and on September 2nd, following, the name of the town was changed to Hingham by authority of the General Court. There are but eleven towns in the State, and only one in the county of Ply- mouth, which are older than Hingham.
On the 18th of September, 1635, Mr. Hobart and twenty-nine others drew for houselots, and received grants of pasture and tillage lands. This year specific grants of land were made to upwards of fifty persons, and this method was followed for many years ; but as the colony increased in size, and the people spread
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along the shore, it was deemed advisable by the proprietors to survey and lay out the unappropriated portions of the township, to be divided among the settlers in proportion to the number of acres which they had in their houselots.
This led to the establishment of numerous landmarks, many of which are recognized up to the present time, and their names, often very quaint, will be handed down to posterity long after their significance is forgotten.
It may be of interest to state here that the houselots drawn for on the 18th of September, 1635, were upon Town, now North street. This year, also, the settlements extended to Broad Cove, now Lincoln Street. In 1636 houselots were granted upon the other part of Town Street, since re-named South Street, and on the northerly part of " Bachelor's Rowe," now Main Street.
The first grants of land in Cohasset (variously called " Cono- hasset," "Conihast," " Comessett,") were mentioned in the Hing- ham town records in 1647. The first settlements are said to have been at Rocky Nook and on the Jerusalem Road.
All these specific grants of land were for many years from ter- ritory yet belonging properly to the Indians; but on the 4th of July, 1665, a deed of all the tract of land now comprising the towns of Hingham and Cohasset, together with "three score acres of salt marsh" on the Scituate side of the river, which divides Hingham from Scituate, was obtained from the chiefs Wompatuck, Squmuck, and Ahahden, sons of the great sachem Chickatabut, who lived on the banks of Neponset river, and who probably permitted the first settlers to locate at Hingham, which was in his realm. He ruled over the principal portion of the ter- ritory now comprised in Plymouth and Norfolk counties.
The system of surveying and allotting certain districts led to their being designated by the general name of "divisions;" as " First Division," "Second Division," etc. There were six of these divisions made. The first, second, and third were in 1670.
The FIRST DIVISION, entirely in Cohasset, starts at the " Patent Line," which runs from BOUND ROCK, on the milldam, across BOUND BROOK in a straight line southwest by west, five miles eighty rods. The coast line of the First Division follows the course of Bound Brook northward to the harbor, then strikes into MEETING-HOUSE ROAD (now South Main Street), crosses Great Neck, extends along this road to Deer Hill Lane opposite the southwest side of Little Harbor, then runs along this lane south- westerly to King Street, thence follows a line through the centre of Scituate Pond southeasterly to the patent line.
The base line of the easterly part of the SECOND DIVISION is the northwest boundary of the First Division (Deer Hill Lane). On the southeast, the line starts at the corner of the First Division on Little Harbor, and follows the westerly side of the Ridge Road, skirts Peck's Meadow on the west, returns to the Ridge Road and runs to Walnut Angle (westerly end of Pleasant Beach) on the
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shore, which it follows to Strait's Pond, thence in a general south- westerly direction to " Breadencheese Tree," and from there south- easterly over Lambert's Lane and King Street to the northwest corner of the First Division on King Street.
Supper Island and Gulf Island in the harbor, the promontory east of Great Neck, and Beach Island, and the other so-called "islands " and high lands along the beaches east and north of Little Harbor, are also in this portion of the Second Division.
The westerly part of the Second Division lies on the west side of Lambert's Lane and King Street. The easterly boundary stretches from " Breadencheese Tree" to Scituate Pond, along the west side of the east part of the Second Division, and of the First on King Street. The northwesterly boundary line runs from " Breadencheese Tree " irregularly southwest, passing around and excluding Smith's Island to a cart path running southeast- erly, which it follows to a point where it turns and runs easterly to the First Division line, north of Scituate Pond.
The Second Division is entirely in Cohasset.
The THIRD DIVISION is partly in Cohasset, but mostly in Hing- ham, the northwesterly boundary starting at the northwest angle of the Second Division and running rather irregularly southwest till it strikes the patent line not far from Prospect Hill. The south westerly boundary starts at the southwest corner of the Second Division and runs to the patent line in a direction gener- ally parallel to the northwesterly boundary line.
The SECOND PART OF THE THIRD DIVISION is partly in Hing- ham, mostly in Cohasset, and lies south of the Third Division and the westerly portion of the Second, between them and the patent line, and west of the First. It includes about half of Scituate Pond.
The FOURTH DIVISION was made of the tract lying along the extreme southwest boundary of Hingham on the Weymouth border.
The FIFTH and SIXTH DIVISIONS were of detached portions of lands remaining from the former divisions (excluding specific grants). Nutty Hill was included in the Fifth, and certain of the westerly and northerly meadow lands in both the Fifth and Sixth.
The Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Divisions of lands were made a few years previous to the middle of the eighteenth century.
We will return over South Main Street, passing, just before we reach the road leading to the depot, the long old house, once CHRISTOPHER JAMES'S TAVERN. A short distance further north, on THE PLAIN, stands the OLD CHURCH, erected in 1747, - the first MEETING-HOUSE having been built here in 1713,
About an eighth of a mile further on, Winter Street runs south- west over DEER HILL. This street was the old DEER HILL LANE. Just beyond the corner of the lane with North Main Street, there begins, on the right, the renowned JERUSALEM ROAD, also called
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1
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the RIDGE ROAD, or THE RIDGES. It runs north for some dis- tance along a high bank, or ridge, beneath which lies Little Har- bor, on the east side. The scenery in this direction is beautiful. The little inland bay exhibits all its variety of outline from this point, with its picturesque rocks, wooded headlands, and islands.
In a field west of the road, and quite a distance from it, is a huge bowlder balanced, apparently, so delicately upon a point that it seems as if it could be easily dislodged from its position upon a ledge where it lies. This has long been known as TITTLING ROCK.
CORTHELL fe
TITTLING ROCK.
The road soon slopes downward on to a lower level and enters woods, but still skirts Little Harbor. Winding along the edge of a rocky descent, it crosses a salt marsh by a dike. On the left is a jagged precipice, clothed partly with trees. This is STEEP ROCKS. Around the marsh's edge and skirting the foot of the rocks is an old road, Bow Street, which was once the principal highway, and was used again after the great storm of April, 1851, which washed away the dike, until this latter was rebuilt.
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Beyond the marsh the road rises rapidly, and winds along over abrupt rocky hills, well wooded, and having fine private estates on each hand. A pretty meadow on the west side, at the foot of a steep descent, has been known from earliest times as PECK'S MEADOW ; "THE STEPPEN STONES " used to be, in old days, the only thoroughfare across the water here. The road still winds on, reaching, before long, Pleasant Beach, and the east end of COHASSET ROCKS ; and here it bends abruptly westward and rises, turning on to the crest of the cliff above these celebrated rocks, along which it runs for their entire length, from Pleasant Beach to Greenhill Beach.
As wild a stretch of iron-bound shore as could be wished for are these cliffs. Woe to the ship that, escaping the awful ledges to the eastward, drives on here before a northeast gale. The Jerusalem Road along their upper edge, but a few years since was a rough, picturesque way, bordered by stunted cedars " blown into " a peculiar shape of growth away from the storm winds, so to speak, that prevail from the north and northeast. Within the past twenty years wealth and fashion have taken possession of the lands on these hills, and the elegant villas of summer resi- dents are to be seen on every hand, while the roadway has been smoothed and "improved," fancy fences or elaborate stone-walls built, and the storm-shapen cedars cut down or trimmed into artificial forms, thus in a measure destroying the picturesque character of the surroundings.
The town of Cohasset should never have permitted the sea side of this road to be owned by private individuals, but should have kept it as a public ocean park, accessible to the people.
Near the point where the road takes up its course to the west, there is, not far above the level of the breakers, and down among the rocks, a little basin of clear, cool water which bubbles out from the precipitous, weather-beaten ledges, known as COLD SPRING.
Following the road along, a superb view presents itself. To the east are Minot's Light and The Ledges. Beyond them, and losing itself at the horizon, is the broad Atlantic. Here, in front, to the northward, is the blue expanse of Massachusetts Bay, the north shore in the dim distance hanging upon the verge of vision like a cloud ; to the northwest, the great stretch of sands known as Nantasket Long Beach, Point Allerton at its extreme end, and Boston Light beyond on the Outer Brewster.
After descending a hill we come to the BLACK-ROCK HOUSE, on a slight rise, close beside the sea, whose waves drench it with spray in great gales.
The picture spread out before one along this road in wintry storms is magnificent, presenting as it does the wild grandeur of the conflict between the seas, driven before the gale, and the stub- born granite lines of these mighty ledges.
Just off GREENHILL BEACH, which is at the end of Cohasset
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Rocks, lies BLACK ROCK, a long, jagged, wave-worn mass, a few hundred feet off shore. At the west end of this beach (a pebbly ' isthmus, joining Cohasset to Greenhill in the precincts of Hull) begins STRAIT'S POND, a beautiful sheet of salt water lying along the westerly part of Jerusalem Road, and between it and the beaches of Hull north of it. After passing through a rocky gorge bordered by misshapen savins, we come upon a low, long, an- cient, one-story house on the left of the road, which is one of the oldest buildings in Cohasset. It belonged to a branch of the Lin- coln family, and was built in 1709, having been originally con- structed on Greenhill, in Hull, and moved across the ice of Strait's Pond in winter. The roadway formerly lay on the south side of it.
As the neighborhood is being rapidly overrun by fashion, which cares nothing for old landmarks, this house will probably disap- pear very soon, to make way for modern " improvements."
In the next hollow RATTLESNAKE RUN, on its way from Great Swamp, crosses under the road to empty into Strait's Pond. In the pretty canal, flowing among trees and shrubs in the private grounds on the south side of the road, one would fail to recognize the old run as it was before its metamorphosis.
Beyond this point the road bends round a steep, rocky ledge on the south side. This is JOY's Rocks, and the bend was the old JOY'S CORNER, - an angle of the Second Division.
FOLSOM'S ISLAND (originally JONES ISLAND) is in Strait's Pond, near Nantasket Neck.
The Jerusalem Road continues along the border of Strait's Pond until it ends at Hull Street, on the Hingham line.
Turning to the left, Hull Street (which here divides Hingham from Cohasset ; the east side being Cohasset, the west Hingham) leads in a generally southerly direction, crossing Turkey-Hill Run at the foot of the first slight rise. Nearly half a mile fur- ther on, after going up a hill and winding somewhat to the left, LAMBERT'S LANE, or BREADENCHEESE TREE LANE, is found oppo- site Canterbury Street, in Hingham, and leading in an easterly direction into Cohasset woodlands. It soon crosses Turkey-Hill Run, and at the spot where it intersects the western boundary line of the Second Division, stood, in 1670, the celebrated BREAD- ENCHEESE TREE. The surveyors, who laid out the First, Second, and Third Divisions at that time, were evidently of a waggish turn of mind, and chose to name certain points or angles from which they "took their bearings " according to the composition of the lunch which they had for the day. Thus the northeasterly angle of the First Division they named PIE CORNER.
When they arrived under a certain large tree, they sat down and ate their bread and cheese ; and BREAD-AND-CHEESE TREE, Or BREADENCHEESE TREE, became a landmark from that hour on, through these last two centuries and more.
The MAYPOLE was a tree at an angle a short distance southwest
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of Breadencheese Tree, on the line of the Second Division. SMITH'S ISLAND was on this line further to the southwest.
A half-mile or so from Turkey-Hill Run, the lane crosses RAT- TLESNAKE RUN, which, starting in Purgatory Swamp, we encoun- tered upon Jerusalem Road, where it empties into Strait's Pond. Lambert's Lane, running through thick woods almost all the way, passes over BREADENCHEESE TREE PLAIN; and here was HUM- PHREY's, or, as commonly called in the old days, AT HUMPHREY'S.
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