USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts : a guide to its places and people > Part 57
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Left from Wellfleet on Holbrook Ave. is the Old Cemetery, 0.5 m., from which, across a narrow inlet, is seen Great Island. Here recent excavations have revealed the ruins of a building that was about 100 feet long, with a stockade of planking caulked with clay. A number of knives, forks, spoons, clay pipes, nails, pewter buttons, and an English coin dated 1723 have been found. The place may have been a trading-post of the Dutch East India Company.
Threading its course among the dunes, US 6 at 16.7 m. reaches the junction with a two-lane tar-surfaced road.
Left on this road is the village of SOUTH TRURO, 2 m., in which is the Old Methodist Church, 1851. It has not been used in recent years, and looks lonely and forlorn on its high barren dunes.
The dunes of South Truro are unusually fine specimens of drumlins, lenticular mounds of unstratified clay, sand, and pebbles deposited by receding masses of ice of the glacial period.
TRURO, 18.1 m. (town, alt. 12, pop. 541, sett. 1700, incorp. 1709) (golf, tennis, bathing, motor-boating, sailing, clam digging), 'the wrist of the bended arm of Massachusetts,' was settled by the Pamet Proprietors, organized about 1689.
As at Eastham, schools of blackfish stranded on the sandflats provided an early source of income. Soon Truro men took to boats, and, armed with harpoons, helped to initiate the whaling industry. Edicts in 17II and 1713 forbidding the exhaustion of the sparse timber in the process of extracting lime from shell beds left by Indians, restricting the grazing of cattle, and requiring the planting of beach grass, indicate early concern for the harbors, which began to silt up just at a time when the decline of shore fishing made larger boats necessary. Attempts to save the anchor- ages proved ineffectual. The year 1850 marked the peak of expansion with a population of 2051 and a fleet of III vessels. From then on, marine disasters, with attendant property loss and business failure, sealed Truro's industrial fate.
The close of the Civil War, to which Truro contributed the services of over 200 men, marked a further decline. Offshore weirs superseded the whalers and codfish boats, cheaper sources of supply abroad ruined a thriving salt business, and farming without extensive fertilization was un- profitable.
With its harbors obliterated and its population dwindled to 541 persons, half of them of Portuguese descent, Truro has attracted a colony of artists and writers who have found its quiet simplicity and freedom from crowds a congenial environment for creative work.
No other spot on the Cape is richer in folklore and piquant legend than Truro. Here was the famous Lyars' Bench, utilized for the sole purpose of telling tall stories. The local electrical inspector vouches for a yarn
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about a sea captain before whose stubborn ire the whole village cowered: all except his daughter, who, apparently a chip off the old block, was determined to have modern improvements in the home. The inspector swears he was called in the night the Captain died and found the house in darkness. And the explanation is given in a locally concocted limerick:
There was an old sea dog named Who stood six foot four in his shoes; He damned all things modern, Swore they weren't Cape-Coddern The new-fangled he'd roundly abuse.
He lived with his daughter, Miss Who yearned 'lectric lighting to use; She won the long fight But he died the same night, And his passing soul blew out the fuse!
In Truro, too, they have a refreshing point of view on the ‘summer people.' The 'natives' publish sporadically a small paper. One of the anecdotes printed in an issue of not too ancient date says that an affable lady visitor was being carried from the railway station to her destination by the local carter. She tried diligently but without success to make conversation by commenting on the weather, the landscape, and the road. Finally she remarked, 'What a lot of quaint people one sees around here!'
That drew a response. 'Yes, mam,' said the carter, 'but most of 'em go home after Labor Day.'
The Hill of the Churches is at 18.5 m. In 1826 the Methodists built a chapel on a high hill above the village 'to be nearer to God and as a land- mark for fishermen.' The dome of the cupola is in the fascinating shape of a mandarin hat. The next year the 'orthodox' chose the top of the same hill for the site of a large church, long to be known as the Bell Meet- ing House because of a legend which claims that the bell is still myste- riously rung in the deserted building.
NORTH TRURO, 21.9 m. (alt. Io).
At the beach end of Depot Rd. is the Bayberry Candle Place (open), look- ing like an old sail loft, sheathed with weather-beaten gray shingles. Here bayberry candles are dipped by hand for the summer trade.
On the beach is the Fish-Freezing Plant (open to visitors), formerly a co- operative enterprise, a large frame building surrounded by grass-green sheds used for storing traps. The freezer is able to freeze everything - except the smell of fish. In the storage rooms, tiers of horizontal frosted pipes hold trays of mackerel, whiting, and herring taken in the weirs a few hundred yards offshore. A temperature of five degrees below zero is maintained, and 30,000 pounds of fish have been shipped in one day.
Near-by offshore is a tall, skeletal landing stage for the trawlers, well buttressed with rocks and concrete. From this the fish are brought across the shallows by pulley and bucket.
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From Seabrook, N.H., to Worcester
Right from North Truro 1.5 m. to the circular white tower of Cape Cod, or Highland Light (open daily 10-12, 2-4), built in 1797 on a clay cliff just south of one of the most dangerous bars on the Atlantic coast. The top of the 66-foot tower is 140 feet above the sea, and contains a powerful revolving white light. Adjoining it are the high steel towers of the Radio Beacon, whose signal, 'Quack,' is known to all mariners in North Atlantic waters. In a low hut facing the tower is the U.S. Naval Compass Station, which supplies ships at sea with their bearings. On the edge of the cliff are two enormous megaphones - electrically operated Foghorns.
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South of the station is a large Stone Tower, on the estate of a railroad official. It is one of the towers of the old Fitchburg Station in Boston, and Cape Cod storms have not yet washed the soot of 80 years from the granite battlement.
At 24.4 m. is a junction with a sand road.
Right on this road is Pilgrim Heights, 0.7 m. Here is Pilgrim Spring, where the settlers drank their first New England water.
From the heights can be seen to the northwest Peaked Hill Bar, which vies with Hatteras as a ship graveyard.
At 28.4 m. is PROVINCETOWN (see PROVINCETOWN).
TOUR 7 : From NEW HAMPSHIRE LINE (Seabrook) to WORCESTER, 75.2 m., State 110 and State 70.
Via Amesbury, Merrimac, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Dracut, Chelmsford, Westford, Littleton, Harvard, Boxborough, Bolton, Stow, Lancaster, Clinton, Berlin, and Boylston.
B. & M. R.R. parallels the route.
Hard-surfaced roadbed throughout.
Sec. a. NEW HAMPSHIRE LINE to LOWELL, 33.1 m.
STATE 110 crosses the New Hampshire Line about 15 m. south of Portsmouth, N.H., and cuts inland along the winding banks of the Merrimack River, running through a farming area sprinkled with hamlets.
At 2.8 m. is the junction with Elm St. (unmarked).
I. Right on Elm St. at 0.4 m. is the square white Rocky Hill Meeting House, built in 1785. The exterior is notable for its doorway and numerous windows with small square panes. In the interior are a high pulpit, square pews, and a 'whisper- ing gallery,' an acoustic phenomenon.
At 0.8 m. is the junction with Monroe St .; right on this to a lane at 1.2 m., the entrance to the Amesbury Country Club (public; greens fee $1 weekdays, $1.50 Sun.). On a knoll in a pasture to the south is the white, domed Powder House used during the War of 1812.
2. Left from State 110 on Elm St. at 1 m. is Alliance Park, a small tree-shaded spot on the banks of the Merrimack River, the site of the building in 1777 of the 'Alliance,' a ship commanded by John Paul Jones.
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At 4.1 m. is the junction with Main St.
I. Left on Main St. at 0.1 m., the Macy-Colby House (1654) (apply 273 Main St.), 259 Main St., a 17th-century structure with central chimney and long sloping roof, put together with wooden pegs, was the home of Thomas Macy and Anthony Colby. Macy was exiled in 1655 for sheltering Quakers during a rainstorm, an incident described in Whittier's poem 'The Exile.'
The Squire Bagley Homestead (adm. 25g), 277 Main St., 0.2 m., was twice occupied by Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science. In 1868 she lived here with the squire's daughter, and in 1869 she here completed the manuscript of 'Com- ments on the Scriptures.'
2. Right on Main St. at 0.1 m. at the south corner of the high-school yard is a granite reproduction of the old wooden well described in Whittier's poem 'The Captain's Well.' A three-panel relief shows Captain Valentine Bagley, hero of the poem. On the school lawn is the Doughboy Statue, the work of Leonard Craske. It depicts with vigor and sensitivity an American soldier on the march.
AMESBURY, 0.5 m. (town, alt. 90, pop. 10,514, sett. 1654, incorp. 1668), at the foot of Lake Gardner in the shadow of rounded glacial hills, is a community of quiet streets of elm-shaded, neat white houses behind picket fences; and, in the northeast section, of abandoned factories.
Amesbury was an important shipbuilding center before steam supplanted the clipper ships of 1850. The manufacture of hats is today the town's single important industry.
The Powow River, a small stream, flows beneath the streets and buildings of Amesbury Square to its junction with the Merrimack.
The Whittier House (open . weekdays, 10-5; adm. 25g), corner of Pickard and Friend Sts., is a simple white frame dwelling behind a neat picket fence. John Greenleaf Whittier lived in Amesbury 56 years; most of his poems were written here, and the desk he worked at, as well as other interesting relics, are in this house.
The Friends Meeting House (1851), Greenleaf St., is a plain frame structure in which Whittier's pew is marked.
Straight ahead from Bartlett Sq. on Main St. to Market Square 0.7 m.
I. Right on Elm St. to Congress St., 0.6 m .; left on this to Osgood House (private), 15 Congress St., built in 1650 but much altered. From the tiny garret window under the lean-to roof the elderly owner is said to have dropped a prowling Indian with a charge from his long-barreled firearm.
2. Left from Market Square on High St., 0.1 m .; right on Powow St. is the summit of Powow Hill and Victoria Park, 1.1 m. with a cycloramic view.
At 4.2 m. right, is Union Cemetery, in which is the Grave of Whittier. At 5.1 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Left on this road is a shrub-concealed boulder marking the Site of the Home of Susanna Martin, better known as Goody Martin, a famous Amesbury witch, tried, convicted, and sentenced to hang at Salem in 1693. The story goes that on the scaffold she uttered incantations which caused the rope to wriggle and dance about so that the hangman could not tie the knot, till a crow, flying overhead, cawed down the advice to try a noose of willow withe. When this was done, the execution was successfully completed.
Amesbury was especially favored by the powers of darkness. Goody Whitcher was another town witch, whose loom kept banging day and night even after she was dead. In the early days people strolling late at night through the quiet streets of the town often met a headless man walking along and carrying his head under his arm. In the early years, too, Barrow Hill was the scene of witches' routs. Late at night the light of their fires could be plainly seen on its top, as shadowy forms danced and sailed around its summit in the eerie glare.
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From Seabrook, N.H., to Worcester .
At 6.1 m. is the Challis Hill Farmhouse (open by arrangement) (about 1660), a white frame structure with a red roof, and a secret trapdoor formerly used for refuge from Indians.
South of Amesbury the route gains altitude, allowing a widening view of the rolling country.
At 6.9 m. is the junction with a dirt road.
Right on this road a short distance to Lake Attitash (swimming), one of Whittier's favorite haunts.
MERRIMAC (Indian, 'Swift Waters'), 8.1 m. (town, alt. 105, pop. 2209, sett. 1638, incorp. 1876), lies in the midst of a region where the river of ice left many traces of its passage. With the exception of two level plains, the region is sharply rolling, a series of drumlins (lenticular glacial mounds), many of them too steep for cultivation.
The Sawyer Home (open by arrangement), 0.1 m. east from the Center on State 110, a two-and-a-half-story frame structure, built 1750, contains furniture and utensils used during the middle of the 19th century.
The Pilgrim Congregational Church, Church St., organized in 1726, has a Corinthian arched portico and, in the rear, old horse stalls.
Left from Merrimac on School St. is MERRIMACPORT, 2 m. (town of Merri- mac). Vessels for West Indian and coastwise trade were built here before 1700. Trade with Newburyport was carried on, 'gundalows' - long, square-ended barges - being poled up and down the winding Merrimack, carrying hogshead staves and local produce in exchange for molasses.
At 9.7 m. is the junction with Amesbury Line Rd.
Left on Amesbury Line Rd. at No. 29 is the Mary Ingalls Birthplace, 1.3 m. Mary, born 1786, was celebrated in Whittier's poem 'The Countess' as the first girl born in the United States to marry a title. The house is located in Rocks Village, which has a beautiful setting on the Merrimack River.
At 10.6 m. are the Whittier Birthplace (open 10-sunset; adm. 10g) and the Whittier Family Monument. The simple white house (1668) with steep pitched roof and massive central chimney, is shielded from the highway by a screen of trees, and has in the back an orchard; in the front is a lawn descending to Whittier Brook. The interior is furnished as it was in the days when the Quaker poet, in this peaceful and secluded house, immortalized the 'barefoot boy with cheek of tan.'
At 14.3 m. is HAVERHILL (see HAVERHILL). Here is the junction with State 125 (see Tour 7A).
Southwest of Haverhill, State 110 follows the broad river flowing between wooded banks. The trees show the effects of the 1936 flood, which cov- ered many of them halfway up with a black sticky tar.
At 22.7 m. is the Center of LAWRENCE (see LAWRENCE).
At 23.4 m. is the junction with State 28 (see Tour 5).
At 33.1 m. is LOWELL (see LOWELL).
Right from Lowell on Bridge St. is DRACUT, 1.7 m. (town, alt. 100, pop. 6500, sett. 1664, incorp. 1702), a pleasant farming and manufacturing town. This region was once the capital of the Pawtucket tribe of Indians, whose chief, Passaconaway,
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was friendly to the white men. Samuel Varnum was the earliest settler, and the town was named for his native town in England. Dracut suffered several attacks during King Philip's War, and a tale of female heroism centers in the Old Garrison House, over 200 years old and now in Lowell. An alarm had called the soldiers away, and this house, occupied only by a woman and several children, was left unguarded. A band of Indians crept toward it. Catching sight of them and realiz- ing the danger, the woman hurriedly dressed herself in a soldier's uniform and patrolled the house as though on guard. After a time she went in and reappeared, this time in a colonel's coat and hat. The Indians, deceived into thinking the house was thoroughly garrisoned, stole away in silence.
An early settler about whom a romantic aura gathered was a citizen of France, the son of a marquis, who called himself simply Louis Ansart. He was an engineer whose special work was the casting of cannon. When Lafayette visited this country in 1825 he visited Ansart, and the Frenchman's presence in Dracut is said to have drawn thither a large French population.
The Congregational Church, corner of Bridge and Arlington Sts., is an odd-looking clapboard structure, painted yellow, with an open belfry and unique steeple. Originally a conservative building, its present bizarre appearance is due to addi- tions made in 1895.
Sec. b. LOWELL to WORCESTER, 42.1 m.
Between Lowell and Clinton, State 110 passes through the Nashoba Valley, an important apple-growing region, especially attractive during the summer months, when colorful orchards vie with old houses in interest.
At 0.7 m. is the junction with US 3 (see Tour 3).
At 2.6 m. the road crosses the old Middlesex Canal (see Tour 1C).
CHELMSFORD, 4.3 m. (town, alt. 149, pop. 7595, sett. 1633, incorp. 1655), was settled by people from Concord and Woburn, and named for Chelmsford in Essex, England. It was represented at the Battle of Bunker Hill, and one of its citizens, Joseph Spalding, is said to have thus described firing the first shot. 'I fired the shot ahead of time and General Putnam rushed up and struck me for violating orders. I suppose I deserved it, but I was anxious to get another shot at Gage's men ever since our affair at Concord. The blow from Old Put hit me on the head, made a hole in my hat, and left me a scar.' The hat with the hole in it was preserved in the Emerson House, Spalding's home, until that building was destroyed by fire.
Local mills and factories in the early 19th century produced lumber, corn, powder, and cotton cloth; the textile factory later produced woolen cloth. An iron foundry was erected to manufacture the bog ore, mined as early as 1656. Ice harvesting and granite quarrying have also been important to the town's prosperity.
The Fiske House (private) at the corner of Littleton and Billerica Sts., is a white clapboarded structure, built 1790, with brick ends, now painted white, and four end chimneys. The doors have fanlights. Originally a tavern, its bar and early furnishings have been preserved.
Facing the Common is the Unitarian Church of the First Congregational Society, which was organized in Wenham, 1644. The edifice (1840), the
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From Seabrook, N.H., to Worcester
fourth on this site, has a red-brick base, white wood front, clapboarded sides, and a steeple with an open belfry and a four-faced clock. The first pastor of this church was the Rev. John Fiske, who came from Wenham in 1655, bringing with him most of his flock. He was the author of the 'Chelmsford Catechism,' the only known copy of which is in the Lenox collection of the New York Public Library. On the title-page of the 88- page pamphlet is: 'The Watering of the Olive Plant in Christ's Garden, Or a Short Catechism of our Chelmsford children Enlarged by the three- fold Appendix by John Fiske, Pastor of the Church of Christ at Chelms- ford in New England .... Printed by Samuel Green at Cambridge in New England, 1657.' The catechism occupies 9 pages; the remaining 72 being devoted to the 'threefold Appendix.
Adjacent to a school is the Deacon Otis Adams House (private), where in 1866 a school for the deaf, using the purely oral method, was established. One of the pupils, Mabel Hubbard, became the wife of Alexander Graham Bell; it is said that from his study of the vibrations of speech that enable deaf children to read lips came the inspiration for the telephone.
The Spaulding House (private), corner of North and Dalton Rds., was once the home of Colonel Simeon Spaulding, a member of the Provincial Congress in 1775. This two-and-a-half-story white frame house with its large central chimney has been subjected to mid-Victorian renova- tions; garish ornaments and oddly cut decorations in wood have been attached to its gables and slopes at every possible point.
Left from Chelmsford on Acton Rd., 2 m., is SOUTH CHELMSFORD (alt. 220). Here in 1835 Ezekial Byam manufactured lucifer matches that had to be scratched on sandpaper and were sold at 25g a hundred. Byam later purchased the patent rights for the Chapin-Phillips matches, and went into business near the junction of the roads leading to the Center, thus giving the spot its name of Brimstone Corner. The business was moved to Boston in 1848. Byam's Matches, which became nationally famous, were advertised by this verse:
For quickness and sureness the public will find, These matches will leave all others behind; Without further remarks we invite you to try 'em, Remember all good that are signed by E. Byam.
At 8.5 m. on State 110 is the junction with Boston Rd.
Right on Boston Rd. which leads through long stretches of apple orchards inter- spersed with fine birch groves, is WESTFORD, 1.3 m. (town, alt. 160, pop. 3789, sett. 1653, incorp. 1729), the scene of the Nashoba Apple Blossom Festival in which, in 1935, thirty-eight towns participated with an attendance of some 50,000 persons. The present town comprises about 20,000 acres of land, chiefly hills and valleys of glacial origin. The soil of its hills contains the slowly disinte- grating feldspar rocks brought from Canada by the glacial sea, which yield the vital plant element, potassium, in just the right proportion for the growth of trees and fruits.
The Old Fletcher Tavern (1713) (open April-Sept.) faces the Town Green on Fletcher Hamlin Circle. This fine structure is one of the most carefully preserved in Massachusetts. The clapboards are a creamy white and the blinds, which adorn the windows and door, are green. The roof is slate and the brick chimneys are painted white. The old oven in one of the fireplaces, where for over 200 years the Saturday rite of baking beans has been observed, is sure to delight even the most
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enthusiastic supporter of modern culinary methods. It was at this inn that Daniel Webster courted Grace Fletcher.
LITTLETON, 11.4 m. (see Tour 2). Here is the junction with State 119 (see Tour 2A) and State 2 (see Tour 2), which unites with State 110 to 17.1 m., where State 110 branches left.
HARVARD, 20.8 m. (town, alt. 390, pop. 952, sett. 1704, incorp. 1732), was named in honor of John Harvard, first patron of Harvard Univer- sity. It has always been an agricultural community, although at various times there have been industrial activities. In 1783 a group of towns- people opened a 'silver mine' near Oak Hill, but the silver was non- existent. Horticulture is now the chief occupation, apples and peaches being grown in large quantities.
The Library (open daily except Sun. and holidays 2-6), bordering the Common, is a one-and-a-half-story red-brick building with a brownstone foundation; in it is the private library started about 1793 by the Rev. William Emerson, father of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
I. Left from Harvard on the Old Littleton Rd. to Oak Hill Rd., 1.2 m .; left on this to the entrance of the Harvard Astronomical Observatory (open), 0.4 m. A 61-inch reflecting telescope, equipped for spectroscopic and solar work, several smaller reflector and refractor telescopes, and a number of special cameras are part of the equipment. The plates made here are filed at Harvard University (see CAMBRIDGE). A narrow footpath leads from the entrance through a tunnel of young evergreens to a seven-story tower, from which is revealed a magnificent vista of rolling hills.
2. Left from Harvard on State 111 to the junction with a side road at 3.2 m .; left on this road, which ascends by a crooked route, to BOXBOROUGH, 4 m. (town, alt. 235, pop. 404, sett. 1680, incorp. 1783), so named because of the original square form of the township. The community devotes itself mainly to the production of small fruits and dairy products for the Boston market.
At 21.7 m. is the junction with a road marked 'Fruitlands.'
Right on this road 1 m. to the entrance of the Wayside Museums, Inc. (guides; adm. 10 g, open summer daily exc. Mon. 12.30 to 6.30). Three buildings stand close together on the hillside. In the center is Fruitlands, the farmhouse of Bronson Al- cott's New Eden. This community lasted only a few months, though established in 1843 as the nucleus of a new social order in which neither man nor beast should be exploited. Following this principle, the Con-Sociate Family adopted vegetarian- ism, eschewed the use of wool (obtained by depriving sheep of their covering), cotton (the product of slave labor), and leather; to provide garments other than linen for the members mulberry trees were planted as a beginning of sericulture, before it was understood that silk was obtained by the exploitation of silkworms. The Con-Sociates even attempted to pull their plows, compromising on this point only when the planting season was far advanced with little ground ready for seed. Practical difficulties were so great that the experiment ended before there was an opportunity to demonstrate the high spiritual principles on which it was started.
Fruitlands is now a transcendentalist museum, containing not only articles used by the Con-Sociate Family but also many pictures and relics of leaders in this signifi- cant philosophical movement. The house, very old and dilapidated at the time of the experiment, has been carefully restored, and the Colonial kitchen, in ruins in 1843, has been rebuilt to hold some of the mementoes; in renovating and refurnishing the place, Miss Sears has been aided by 'Transcendental Wild Oats,' Louisa May Alcott's record of her father's venture, in which she took part as a child. The visitor may see the fireplaces where the Alcott 'little women' hung their stockings at Christmas time, and Louisa's attic bedroom where she used to lie awake and
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