USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Municipal history of Essex County in Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 18
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One of the evidences of civilized life has always been the trail, and later the wagon road. Here the first road is said to have wended its way along the sea-beach as a sort of natural highway. Later on, cart roads were made by removing the stones where not too large, and going around them when of too great proportions. The people usually thought it wise to travel over a high hill rather than go around it, though the distance was usually about the same between given points. Toil did not weary these people, for they had read Bunyan, who pictured the way to the City Celestial as very rough and dangerous, and these people believed what had been written by that noted Christian philosopher; as Whittier said
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"Heaven was so vast, and earth so small, And man was nothing, since God was all."
Not until about 1690 is there any mention of a "slay"; carriages appeared a little earlier. "Chairs," two wheeled vehicles without a top, and chaises, were among the first type of carriages next to the cart and farm wagon. Nearly all general travel was on horseback, by use of a pil- lion and saddle, until near the close of the seventeenth century; in fact the roads would not permit of any other rig, save in the limits of Boston.
John Knight erected a house about 1690 at the "Cove," and it stood until September, 1890, two hundred years, when it was taken down. This residence was eighteen by twenty-seven feet in size, and was of a solid frame hewed from the native oak so plentiful here then. The first century of settlement but little attention was paid to the heating of houses. The huge fireplaces consumed their forty to seventy cords of excellent wood annually, but for all that, ink and all liquids were hard to keep from freezing. It was no uncommon thing for a minister to have donated to him by his parish as much as "sixty cords of good wood" for the season round. In 1675 the number of population and size and number of residences were in no sense in proportion, for records show that the average family had a membership of nine and two-tenths to the household. In view of the present day theories concerning germs and the hundred and one diseases in which they are supposed to daily be engaged in fierce battle array, it seems hardly possible that such small houses could successfully rear to manhood and womanhood such large families, but such seems to have been the case. Game and salted meats, with rye and Indian bread, with drinks of cider and milk, made up the early diet of these people, who attained a great age as a rule ... From them came real empire builders, as history will confirm. The taxes imposed or voted upon themselves were frequently high. These were largely for land that had a certain "rate" assessed against it annually, then came the "support of the Gospill menestery," which was ever present and must be met. Fines were rigidly enforced for "Swyne found without the yoke"; provisions were made for the schoolmaster, for "seaviers of high wayes" and "fence vewers," as well as for seating the "meeting-house."
While no records are extant concerning the loss of men and wealth in the Indian wars in which this county and town took part, yet it is well known that blood left its stain, and that among the "flower of Essex" in Captain Lothrop's company the following Manchester men were slain: Samuel Pickworth, John Allen, Joshua Carter, John Ben- nett. In the French and Indian war the Essex regiment consisted of thirteen companies of footmen and one of cavalry. Soldiers then re- ceived six shillings per week, and were allowed five shillings for "dyet."
More than a half century had passed when the King of England an- nulled the charter of the colonies in 1685, and sent Sir Edmund Andros
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to govern both New England and New York, but he proved too arbitrary to suit the people and they rose in revolution in 1689 and deposed and sent to prison Andros, and reestablished the coloniel form of govern- ment. In this, Manchester took her ever loyal part and aided Boston in its uprising. After these changes and after the settlement of Indian affairs, this part of New England began to again grow and prosper.
The first store was opened in the town in the house of John Proc- tor, of recent years on Sea street. The first tavern was built "for the entertainment of man and beast," on North street. A new church was built in 1691 and the second school house was constructed about that time. A tide-mill was erected as early as 1644, "upon the river near the meeting-house." This was a rough log structure. In 1705 a small mill was built upon the site of the old "Baker Mill", on Brushie plain. About 1700 the "Cove" had come to be the largest precinct in the town.
LIST OF EARLY SETTLERS SHOWING DATE OF SETTLEMENT
1626.
1651.
Isaac Whitcher,
William Allen
Robert Isabell,
John Gardner,
Richard Norman,
Nathaniel Marsterson,
Robert Leach,
John Norman,
Richard Norman.
John Marston,
William Jeffrey.
1654.
Thomas Tewkesbury,
1629.
Thomas Millett.
Thomas Ross,
John Black. 1636.
1660.
Samuel Allen,
Robert Leach,
Samuel Allen,
Walter Parmiter,
Samuel Archer,
John Blackleeche. 1662.
James Rivers.
Sergeant Wolf,
John More,
Pitts.
Wiliam Hosham,
John Elithope.
John Foster,
1664.
Mark Tucker,
John Pickworth,
John Gally,
John West. 1666.
Elisha Reynolds,
William Bennet,
Pasco Foote,
Richard Glass,
Jo Woodberry, James Pittman, Robert Knight, Sr. Eph. Jones, John Allen,
Thomas Chubbs. 1640. John Friend,
Rev. John Winborn. 1667. Thomas Bishop,
Aaron Bennett,
James Standish,
Felix Monroe.
Benjamin Parmiter,
Jenkins Williams. 1668. Oneciphorus Allen. 1670. William Hooper,
1687. John Norton, William Allen,
Ralph Smith. 1650. Henry Lee, William Everton, Graves, Joseph Pickworth, Nich Vincent, John Kettle, Robert Knight.
Nich. Woodberry. 1674. Ambrose Gale, Commit Marston, Elodius Raynolds, John Mason, James Pittman. 1680. John Lee, Samuel Lee,
Richard Leatherer,
John Bishop, Samuel Crowell,
Rev. John Everleth,
Rev. John Emerson,
John Burt, Jonas Smith.
1684.
George Norton, John Sibley.
1637.
John Crowell. 1665.
John Knowlton,
Emanuel Day,
Robert Allen,
Edmond Grover,
Thomas Ayhairse,
Eliab Littlefield,
William Walton.
Moses Maverick,
Manassa Marston,
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It has been remarked that "to worship God and catch fish" was what brought many of the first settlers to these immediate shores. The catching and curing fish such as were found plentiful in the great At- lantic at this point, furnished the country with its greatest industry for many years. An excellent market was found for this product in both the West Indies and in the countries of Europe. The fisheries are still a wonderful source of wealth in Massachusetts even down to the present time. For a few decades this industry was not so great, but of recent times it has come to be very large and profitable. In the Fish Com- missioner's report of twenty-five years ago for the United States, the following was found, and a similar source would today add much to the magnitude of this industry: "There are nearly 200,000 directly engaged in the United States Fisheries, with a total tonnage of 176,783 tons and an investment of $58,000,000. The United States' annual harvest of the seas amounts to $45,000,000. We have 38,000 deep-sea fishermen, 17,000 of whom hail from Massachusetts. Gloucester alone has a fishing fleet of more than 400 vessels, of 30,000 tons burden, manned by in ex- cess of 6,000 men."
Again, this industry of the seas was always encouraged by the Gen- eral Court. In 1639 it was ordered that all vessels engaged in such busi- ness should not be taxed, and their men should be exempt from military duty. John Adams said: "Cod-fish are to us what wool was to England and tobacco to Virginia, the great staple with which the power of our wealth was based."
As early as 1670, England became quite jealous over our New England fisheries, as will be seen by this: "New England is the most prejudicial plantation to this Kingdom of all American plantations. His Majesty has none so apt for the building of shipping as New England, nor any so qualified for the breeding of seamen, not only by reason of the natural industry of that people, but principally by reason of their cod and mackerel fisheries, and in my poor opinion there is nothing more prejudicial and in prospect more dangerous, than the increase of ship- ping in colonies and plantations."
England's restrictive policy in the Act of Parliament in 1775, for- bidding Americans from taking fish in Canadian waters, along with a few others, hastened on the Revolutionary struggle. A high authority on the War of 1812-14 with England says: "I regard it as strictly true that without fishermen we could hardly have managed a frigate or cap- tured one. From the beginning of that war to its end, the fishermen were in almost every national or private armed ship that carried our flag. It is believed today by those best posted in early-day struggles with the Mother country that it is doubtful whether we would now be a nation had not Colonel Glover with his Essex county fishermen twice saved Washington's army."
The fishing industry was at its best in the early part of the nine-
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teenth century. In fact, let it be said that it never fully recovered from the effects of the War of 1812, which drove our shipping from the ocean and left it to decay and rot in creeks and coves. The assessors' books for 1808 show that Captain Ezekiel Leach owned the "Jane", fifty-four tons, and the "Active", ninety-nine tons; Tyler Parsons owned one-third of the "Enterprise", ninety-nine tons; Benjamin and Samuel Foster owned a schooner of sixty tons; Major Henry Story owned the "Three Brothers", seventy-four tons. Ebenezer Tappan owned the sloop "Prim- rose," twenty-nine tons, and the schooner "Nancy", sixty-eight tons; the last named was the ship run ashore at Mingos Beach and fired by the British in 1813. Captain Abiel Burgess owned and commanded the "Alonzo," of one hundred and thirty tons; he also owned a half-interest in the ship "Hannibal."
From 1825-30 the fishing business greatly declined, and few vessels were built for the trade. In 1835 the fishing and coasting business of the town of Manchester employed about 1,200 tons. In 1836 there were one hundred and fifty men employed in the fisheries, with seven fish yards, and ten houses for storage. In 1845 there were thirteen vessels in the cod and mackerel fisheries, and the value of the catch was placed at $21,000.
The next great industry in which the people of this town engaged was that of cabinet-making. Shipbuilding ceased, shipping rotted down, while the buzz of saws and whirl of rapidly turning wood lathes frigh- tened the sea-gulls from the shore line. The industry of more than two centuries has given way, and now but little of actual importance in the line of fisheries can be found on the shores of this part of Massachusetts.
Before passing from this subject it may be of interest to read the following paragraphs from Lamson's "History of Manchester" (1895) :
Among the interesting log books used in those days by fishermen may still be seen that of Captain Benjamin Hilton, with passages as here follows: The names of the vessels mentioned are "Breattany", "Lucy", "Salley", "Louisay", "Patty' "Corr" and "Darbey." The voyages seem to have been in general, remarkably un- eventful, "smoothe winds" and "Smal brezes" predominating. The log is methodical- ly kept, noting each hour the knots run, the course, the wind, laititude and longi- tude, the departure and meridian, with remarks, etc. The pages usually have a running head-line, as "A Log of our intended Passage, by God's assistance on the good schooner "Patty", or "A Journell of vige Continnered att sea." One of the books contains on the fly-leaf the inscriptions: "Benjamin Hilton His Book Bought in Salam In the Year of our Lord 1762, the Price 13 shillens old tenner." "Benjamin Hilton His Book the Lord gave him grace therein to Look and wen the bells Do for him towl the Lord have marcey one his soul. Benjamin Hilton his hand and pean and if the Peen had been better I Wood mended everey Latter."
The following will give an idea of the daily "remarks": "Sunday the 2d of June 1765 this twenty-four hours we have hed fresh brese of wind to the westward and southward att 3 p. m. Hour main touping lift gav way and att 6 a. m. Saw 3 toup- sail vessels bound for the eastward and att 10 a. m. Saw 2 more Bound to the East- word and we have Cloudey weather and Rain."
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Following the fishery industry, which held sway here for almost two centuries, came the cabinet-making business. During the period long after the settlement, the household furniture was largely brought from the Old World and little attempt was made to produce the needful articles of furniture needed in the homes of New England. It was about the year of our National Independence when furniture began to be made in this part of the country. It is believed that the first manufacturer was Moses Dodge, in 1775. This business was handed down from father to son, and at present is still in the family name. In 1895 the business was being carried on by his great-grandsons, John M. and Charles C. Dodge. While most of the early cabinet-makers have long since been forgotten, they made an interesting record while they existed. Among the very first to engage in the business was Ebenezer Tappan, in 1761, son of Rev. Benjamin Tappan, a soldier of the Revolution, who had learned his trade in Portland, then known as Falmouth.
The production of veneers for furniture and musical instruments later became a large industry at Manchester. Much mahogany was worked up for expensive furniture facings. John Perry Allen was fore- most in this line for many decades. He had the first veneering saw-mill, in 1825, and he managed to cut from a four-inch mahogany plank sixty fine strips of veneers. This mill produced the larger part of all veneer- ing used in the piano factories of the country. As the United States settled up more generally, factories were established for the manufac- ture of furniture, and the larger centers began to monopolize the trade. However, as late as 1870 a copy of the Boston "Cabinet Maker" con- tained the following item concerning the Manchester factories :
The class of work that is made in Manchester today, is without doubt as fine as any work turned out in the United States, and it is retailed in the warehouses of the most fashionable dealers in the country. The styles are good and the work thorough and reliable. Were it the custom to put the maker's name on furniture, as it is on watches, fire arms, silver-ware, and most other goods, these modest manufacturers doing business in the same small routine way for the past forty or fifty years, would have an enviable reputation, wherever, in this country, handsome and serviceable furniture is appreciated.
From statistics found among the records of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, in 1838 it is found that articles were manufactured in Manchester as follows:
Boots, 425 pairs; shoes, 2,750 pairs; value of boots and shoes, $4,473. Males employed, 11; females, 4.
Tannery, 1; hides tanned, 2,000; value of leather tanned and curried, $5,500; hands employed, 3; capital invested, $7,000.
Manufactories of chairs and cabinet ware, 12; value of chairs and cabinet ware, $84,500; hands employed, 120.
Palm-leaf hats manufactured, 3,000; value $300.
Vessels built in the five preceding years, 4; tonnage of same, 190; value $4,500; hands employed in shipbuilding, 4.
Vessels employed in the cod and mackerel fisheries, 14; tonnage of same, 500;
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TOWN OF MANCHESTER
codfish caught, 5,400 quintals; value, $11,200; mackerel caught, 200 barrels; value, $1,600; salt used in the cod and mackerel fishery, 4,000 bushels; hands employed, 65; capital invested, $12,300.
Ships' wheels manufactured, 25; value, $800; hands employed, 1.
In 1865 the cabinet business gave employment to 160 men, and the working capital was in excess of $60,000. The amount of manufactured goods was $92,625. There were also four sawing mills and planing mills, turning out $13,000 worth of work. The number of barrels and casks made was 32,600, valued at $10,600. The number of hides tanned was 5,000, of the value of $20,000. Boots and shoes were made to the value of $12,000. Strawberries were raised to the value of $3,300. There were forty horses in town, and thirty-four oxen.
It may be said that today the cabinet-making industry is but a faint memory to any present resident. It has long since gone to larger and western city centers. A list of the chief cabinet-makers of Manchester includes the following persons and firms, some of whom also operated and owned mills as well as furniture factories: Moses Dodge, Ebenezer Tappan, Larkin Woodberry, Eben Tappan, Long & Danforth, Kelham & Fitz, Henry F. Lee, Isaac Allen, Jerry Danforth, S. O. Boardman, John Perry Allen, Smith & Low, Cyrus Dodge, Luther and Henry Bing- ham, John C. Long & Co. (H. P. & S. P. Allen), Samuel Parsons, Allen & Ames, Albert E. Low, Isaac S. Day, William Hoyt, John C. Webb, Sev- erance & Jewett, William Johnson, C. B. Hoyt, Warren C. Vane, Felker & Cheever, Hanson, Morgan and Co., E. S. Vennard, William E. Whea- ton, Charles Lee, John C. Peabody, Isaac Ayers, Crombie & Morgan, Rufus Stanley, William Decker, Watson & Co., Taylor & Co., Rust & Marshall, John M. and Charles C. Dodge, Samuel L. Wheaton.
After first making a suitable shelter in which to live, to plan and execute for the immediate living of the family, then the duty of the pioneer here was to see that in case of death a suitable burying place was provided in the neighborhood, or at times on the land of the settler. Tra- ditions locates the first graveyard in Manchester near the present library building; this was possibly a private cemetery. The next Silent City was located on the road from the Cove to the Magnolia railway station. So aged is this burying place that no record book refers to it. Yet it is certain that many of the first settlers here fell into that dreamless sleep that we call death, and that there their mortal remains have long years ago mingled with the earth. The first recorded cemetery was that of 1668 (some authorities say 1653) and refers to the present cemetery at the corner of Washington and Summer streets; it was fenced in 1701.
Another cemetery, a small plot of ground, is the Union Cemetery at the east side of School street, established in 1845 as a stock association. In 1888 it was taken over by the town, and a monument is now to be seen there erected to the honor of Rev. Oliver A. Taylor, an early minister.
Rosedale Cemetery, the most attractive of any in Manchester today,
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was originally owned by a private corporation, dated 1854, but in 1888 was wisely transferred to the town and accepted with Union Cemetery as a sacred trust. In 1888-90 further extension had to be made in order to provide ample room for the departed dead. Here one finds Memorial Lot-a square plot set apart for the use of Grand Army of the Republic Post. The present generation is taking much better care of their bury- ing places than did their forefathers, but there may be a good reason for it-today we have more time and means with which to decorate the graves and otherwise show respect for our departed friends.
From the best obtainable evidence the first store of Manchester was kept in the house of Joseph Proctor, on Sea street. A woman of great energy and business ability seems to have been proprietor of this pioneer store. This person was later known as the wife of Colonel Eleazar Crafts, who was a Revolutionary soldier.
Ebenezer Tappan embarked in merchandising soon after the Revo- lutionary War, in the building now owned by the heirs of the Andrew Brown family. Mr. Tappan continued forty years, and was doubtless the first merchant to refuse to handle ardent spirits in his store as a beverage. Other early merchants were: Captain John Knight, on the north of Saw Mill brook; Mrs. Abby H. Trask, who dealt in her residence many years and finally died with her merchandise about her; a large number of young women were employed by her. About 1835, Captain John Hooper kept a store at the Cove, and this was a famous resort of the militia on their training days. Other merchants of the long-ago in- cluded Mrs. Hooper Allen in Summer street; Deacon D. L. Bingham, at his house; Israel F. Tappan, who also made clocks and "fixed" watches; Captain Tyler Parsons, Isaac S. West, F. B. Rust, John Little, G. W. Marble, S. S. Colby, Larkin W. Story, John Prince, A. W. Smith, John Evans and Henry Knight, Miss Mary A. Baker; these were all in busi- ness at Manchester previous to 1880.
Today the retail business is carried on by people possessing modern ideas and who keep fully abreast with the times in the selection and handling of first class merchandise. It is not the aim of this work to go into details or give a directory of present-day business factors.
A postoffice was established in Manchester in 1803, under Deacon Delucena L. Bingham, who served as postmaster until his death in 1837. Mail then came from Boston three times each week, by stage coach. Before then, mail came up occasionally by a sloop. The office receipts in 1803 were $7.00. In 1820 there were but two newspapers taken at Manchester. William Dodge was appointed postmaster in 1837, and served until 1845; he owned a tavern, and between the two occupations made a fair living, his wife assisting him in both. The next postmaster was Colonel Jefferd M. Decker, a military man, who in the early days of the Civil War took an active part in that struggle. The next in line to hold the postmastership was George F. Allen, 1849, under whose ad-
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TOWN OF MANCHESTER
ministration the postage rates on first class matter was forty cents on letters to the Pacific coast; five cents under one hundred miles, ten cents over. Postage to European countries, twenty-four cents. The next post- master at Manchester was John Prince, from 1853 to 1865, when Julius R. Rabardy, a native of France and an old Civil War veteran, was ap- pointed and kept the office until 1885, and was succeeded by William J. Johnson, who in 1890 was followed by Jeffrey T. Stanley. Charles H. Danforth succeeded Stanley in 1895, served until relieved by Samuel L. Wheaton, and he by the present postmaster, Frank A. Foster, commis- sioned by President Woodrow Wilson, March 2, 1915. A fire in 1906 de- stroyed the postoffice building and a small amount of government sup- plies.
For almost two hundred and fifty years Manchester was without any adequate system of water works or fire protection. Not until 1892 did this place do away with the street and private cistern and well sys- tem, depended upon so long. That year the water works were com- pleted, and since then the almost if not quite inexhaustible supply of excellent water has made life worth the living in Manchester. The original cost of this water-work system was about $160,000. In passing it is well to state that recent reports from the United States Census Bureau sent out especially for this work, show the population in the town of Manchester to be 2,466.
About the only manufacturing industry of Manchester today is the old and well known furniture factory of the Dodge family, who have been in such industry a century or more. There is a limited amount of yacht-building here also, but nothing of great note.
It should be remembered that in Massachusetts for a long period of time the parish and town were practically one. The church was the institution around which all else centered, and was supposed to develop through. Maintenance of the gospel was uppermost in the minds of those who first came to these shores, because of the right to worship God as directed by their own conscience. While it is not the province of this work to give a complete history of any certain church, much less all of those organized from time to time within Manchester, brief ac- counts will be given of the first organizations, the buildings and pastors at various times, to the present period.
According to tradition, the first public meeting for religious pur- poses was held under a tree on "Gale's Point," but as to whom the preacher was there now appears to be no record. Dr. E. W. Leach many years ago had a scrap of yellow paper giving in the handwriting of Rev. Ames Cheever the names of the early ministers of Manchester; this record is dated November 20, 1726. The list is as follows: Messrs. Ginners, Smith, Stow, Dunnum, Millett, Hathorne, Jones, Winborn, Hub- bard, Emerson, Goodhue, Eveleth and Webster. But little is known of these ministers-some it is certain served as supplies only for a short
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time. In those times, even as at the present, men and ministers in- cluded, were not all perfect, for it has been written of Ralph Smith, an early minister in the Manchester parish, "the colonists were warned against him, and were told to not suffer him to remain 'unless he be comfortable to the government.'"
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