USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Municipal history of Essex County in Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 31
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It is hard for us in these days of easy, comfortable living to picture the lives of the rugged pioneers who had possessed courage and hardi- hood sufficient not only to leave their comfortable homes in Yorkshire for the wilderness beyond the sea, but had now left the comparative shelter and comfort of the settlement at Rowley for the unbroken forest to the west. They had reached the elemental facts of life. They were engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle with the untamed forces of nature. Their first house must have been of the rudest and most primitive de- scription-probably a log cabin made from the trees felled in the pro- cess of clearing the land. They were beset with dangers-cold, hunger, wild beasts, and, most dreaded of all, the Indians. Their nearest English neighbor was four or five miles distant, Moses Tyler of Boxford. What compensations did such an existence hold for the comfort and companion- ship they had renounced ? Doubtless it did hold compensations, for it was not long before other settlers came. The first of these after John Spofford was Capt. Samuel Brocklebank. Indeed, it is probable that before that first permanent settlement Capt. Brocklebank had a house at his farm on Pen brook, and spent the farm season there, returning to Rowley in the winter. The records are meagre with regard to the other early settlers, but among the names of those who were first to settle are Wheeler, Browne, Plumer, Poor, Harriman, Goodrich, Stickney, Mig- hill and Nelson.
By 1700 about twenty families were settled within the limits of the territory now known as Georgetown, at least four-fifths of this num- ber being in the Byfield section of the town. It was in this section that the massacre of the Goodrich family by the Indians occurred. Mr. Good- rich was at prayer with his family on a Sunday evening in October, 1692, when the house was attacked by a small band of Indians, and he, his wife, and several children were killed. It is said that one of the family, a little girl of seven, was carried off captive, but was redeemed the next spring. The house was sacked, and afterward set on fire; but whether it was wholly or only partially burned is not known. This house stood on the Newburyport road at the entrance of the street leading to Gor- ham D. Tenney's house. There is a tradition that this murder was the act of a roving band of Indians, who were returning from an unsuccessful raid in Newbury, the object of which was the death of a man against whom they had a grudge; and that coming unexpectedly upon the Good- rich home, they vented their anger and disappointment upon its unfor-
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tunate inmates. That the Indians were numerous in this vicinity is shown by the number of Indian relics that have been found here. Many have been turned up by the plough near the banks of Parker river, on the slopes of Baldpate, and on the shores of the ponds, which were prob- ably favorite fishing grounds of the Indians.
One of the largest private collections of Indian relics in New Eng- land is that made by Mr. Frank Bateman, who lived on the road between Georgetown and Newburyport. A description of it, published some years ago, is as follows :
This collection has the additional value of having been dug up on the owner's land or near it. In the collection there are about 900 good specimens, including axes, pestles, gouges, sinkers for fish lines, hammers, drills, arrow heads, and small effigies. Mr. Bateman has found five Indian graves in his garden. From one of them he took ninety specimens of stone work, including spear heads, knives, scrapers and drills. Nearly all were broken, but two of the drills were whole. In one grave he found bones. In another he found a stone ax, a drill, three arrow heads, and a tooth. The other three graves contained no relics. He has also exhumed on his property a number of Indian fireplaces with ash pits. The relics are scattered over an area of about an acre and a half, that must have been the site of an Indian village, including its graveyard.
Other valuable collections have been made, notably one by Mr. Alfred Spaulding and one by Mr. Hiram Harriman. The latter is now in the historical room of the Peabody Library. Mr. John Perley's monu- ment in Harmony cemetery occupies the site of an Indian watch-tower built by the early settlers as a protection from the savages. In those days there was constant fear of the lurking enemy. Men were often shot by an Indian bullet or arrow while at work haying in the meadows. The men of every household were ordered to have their muskets with them while in the meeting-house on the Sabbath, and there were colonial laws forbidding persons journeying alone and receiving Indians into their homes.
The Indians were not so numerous, however, at the time of the first settlement of Massachusetts as they had been before. In Gage's "History of Rowley" is the following quotation from Johnson's "Pathway to erect a Plantation": "It seems God hath provided this county for our nation, destroying the natives by the plague, it not touching one Englishman, though many traded and were conversant among them. They had three plagues in three years successively near two hundred miles along the seacoast that in some places there scarce remained five of a hundred."
As the settlers became more numerous and the land was cleared, roads began to be opened through the town. An article on the subject Old Roads was prepared by Mr. Leonard Dresser for the Historical Souvenir Book which was published by the Georgetown Improvement Association in 1909. The article is as follows:
In 1800 the roads were in a primitive state, narrow and unwrought, but, for- tunately, the art of roadmaking was very much improved about this time by the
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introduction of turnpike roads connecting the villages. The roads as first laid out had little regard for public travel. The lots of farms were laid out in ranges, and a "proprietor's way" was laid out at the head of each row of lots, which paid but little attention to hills or valleys, and often made acute angles by passing around the corner of lots. Such an angle was made at Eliot's Corner on Pentucket Square. The Swamp, or Library Road was not made until the Parish Church had been used for forty years, standing on the lot east of the Humphrey Nelson house in the Marlboro district. Another right angle was made in passing the road to the Byfield mills, just below the Baptist Church parsonage, which may still be traced and may be remembered by some still living. At the west end of the Hill road it kept its course by some line of lots, beyond the house once occupied by Parker Spofford, over a rocky ledge, and down Gregg Hill, and turning a right angle to the left by Half Moon Meadow, past the house of Joseph Spofford, then, by a right angle to the right, passed on by the house of Moses Spofford to Boxford and An- dover. The road over Spofford's Hill was early travelled to the old Spofford farm. It passed from Andover gate, which was near the present site of the soldier's monument, nearly as at present to the corner of the Little pasture, near the Bridges house, then by a circuit in the pasture to the farm gate or entrance to his premises. The road up the Great hills, as they were then called, was not made. It was a new and narrow cut between two high banks, and was a little over a carriage width. Elm Street is one of the oldest streets in the town, outside, of course, of the earlier roads through from Rowley to Bradford and Andover. Elm Street was opened to public travel somewhere about the year 1686. North Street came next, being opened in 1713, and one year later West Main, or Haverhill Street was opened for travel. Nelson Street was opened in 1770. Central Street was not opened until sometime in the early part of 1800, as in 1795 there was a fenced lane leading south from the corner, Pentucket Square, to the house of John Brocklebank. This lane was afterward opened through to the Chaplin's at South Georgetown, making the street now called Central Street. Many of the shorter streets, such as Nelson Avenue, Pond Street, Prospect, Middle, Union and School Streets are comparatively recent. The old road that connected the two ends of the Parish, Marlboro and Federal City, ran along the north side of Pentucket Pond, and is easily traced at the present time. Federal City was a little settlement in the western part of the town, and Marlboro was another settlement in the eastern section.
By 1795 there were sixty houses in the New Rowley parish scattered about on farms in various parts of the town. Most of them were un- painted, although a few were painted red. All that remains to mark the sites of many of them is a clump of lilac bushes, a group of gnarled apple trees, or a few "tiger" lilies. The first dwelling house to be erected within the limits of Georgetown was the log house built by John Spofford. It was raised in the western end of the Old Town Field, now owned by Samuel P. Batchelder. Later, Mr. Spofford built a frame house, which was burned. Another Spofford house was situated a little to the east, and still farther east was the house which has been generally known as the old Spofford homestead. It was probably built in 1741, and was occupied by descendants of the Spofford family until quite recently, when the house and farm were bought by Mr. Batchelder, who tore down the old building and erected a new residence on the site. The oldest house still standing in town is the one already referred to as the Melvin Spofford house, built on the Brocklebank land grant near the Old South
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green. Nine years after having received his grant, Samuel Brockle- bank, in 1670, erected a dwelling on the exact spot where the present house stands, and it is believed that the original structure forms a part of the present house, which was built over it. It passed into the hands of Dudley Tyler, who owned it in 1765, and later it came into the posses- sion of Solomon Nelson, who left it to his son, Paul Nelson. While owned by Tyler and the Nelsons, it was used as a tavern, and had a sign bearing the picture of an English officer on horseback, supposed to be that of General James Wolfe, who was killed in the battle of Quebec. This sign is still in existence. It has in it a bullet-hole, about which there are a number of traditions. One says it was made by some patriot marching past on his way to battle for independence in 1775, who took this way of showing his hatred toward England and everything English. From Mr. Nelson the house passed into the hands of Charles Beecher, (brother of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher) and was used as a parsonage, while he was pastor of the Old South Church, as the First Congregational Church was then called. The house is still in good condition, its heavy oak timbers showing no sign of decay.
Another Spofford house is the one now owned by Mr. Alfred Kim- ball. This house was built by Deacon Eleazer Spofford, grandfather of Ainsworth, who was for many years librarian of Congress at Washing- ton. Still another old house on Spofford hill is now owned by Mr. Allan Wilde. The date of its erection is unknown, but it was occupied as early as 1798. On the top of the hill is another very old dwelling, known as the Boynton house. It was occupied until quite recently. It may have been built by Richard Boynton in 1732, and remained in pos- session of the Boyntons until purchased by Mr. Samuel Noyes about 1882. It is now the property of Mr. John Seward of Boston.
The house now known as the Baldpate Inn is one of the oldest houses in town. It was raised July 4, 1733. It was built by Dea. Ste- phen Mighill and has been in the possession of the Spoffords or Mighills ever since. It was finally purchased by Mr. Paul Spofford of New York, who was in the direct line of descent from Deacon Stephen Mighill. It was improved and enlarged, and under the management of Mr. William Bray has become one of the best known hotels in Essex county; many famous people have been entertained there. Another interesting old house is the little brown cottage which one passes on the left hand side of the road in riding from Georgetown to Haverhill, just before reaching the electric car bridge over the railroad track. In this house was born the mother of George Peabody, the first of America's merchant princes to devote the bulk of his fortune to philanthropic purposes. Its original site was in Bailey lane, on the further shore of Rock pond, near a small stream, called Dodge's brook. After several years the Dodge house was moved across the pond on the ice to its present site.
The Pentucket house, still a conspicuous feature of the central
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portion of the town, was for more than half a century one of the most popular taverns between Salem and Newburyport. It was built more than a hundred years ago by the Little brothers-Uncle Ben and Uncle Joe, as they were called-and is today as staunch and firm as when built.
In the Marlboro district is the Humphrey Nelson house, now the property of Miss Eleanor Jones. It has recently been remodelled and fitted with antique furnishings. In Marlboro also is the Job Brocklebank house, owned by Ebenezer Boynton in 1726. It passed through many different hands until 1799, when it again came into the possession of the Brocklebanks ; a portion of it is still owned by Mr. Wendell Brockle- bank. In the southern part of the town is the Adams house, now owned and occupied by Mrs. Samuel K. Herrick. It was built by Abraham Adams, about 1754, and is said to have been the first house in George- town to have a carpet spread upon its floor. So choice was the mistress of the home of this possession that she removed her shoes upon entering the room.
One of the most interesting houses in town is the Hazen house in the Marlboro district, now the property of Mrs. William O. Kimball, who uses it as a summer home. The exact date of its erection is unknown, although the timbers show it to have been built sometime in the latter part of the 17th century. Its distinguishing characteristic is its Dutch lean-to roof. Another interesting feature is a secret room, entered though a closet in the front hall. One of the rooms facing on the street had a forge in it at the time of the Revolution, where muskets and bul- lets were made for use in the war. Other old houses are the Nathaniel Nelson house on Elm street, built in 1797 *; the Dow house, formerly known as the William Dole home, on West Main street, near the railroad crossing, built as early as 1793; the Clark house on West Main street, owned by Capt. Benjamin Adams, a captain of infantry in several cam- paigns in the Revolution; and the Colonial Tea House, on Elm street, formerly known as the Winter house. This house is full of valuable and interesting heirlooms of the Winter family, whose descendants still occupy it .*
The period between 1800 and 1830 was one of rapid growth for Georgetown, and many new houses were built. A map in Gage's History of Rowley shows the growth of that section of the town which lies be-
[*Note-In the cellar of this house may be seen a recess in one of the great chimneys where, tradition says, papers and gold belonging to the city of Newbury- port were stored for safe keeping during the War of 1812, when much fear of a British invasion was felt in the New England coast towns. Mr. Nelson brought the valuables from Newburyport in an ox team by night, and in telling the story years afterward to his daughter, Mrs. J. P. Jones, said at its conclusion: "And only think, daughter, they never asked me to give any security for all that gold." Such was the reputation for probity of one of the early fathers of our town.]
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tween Pentucket Square and Lovering's Corner, between 1810 and 1840. In 1810 there were ten buildings, in 1840 the number had increased to sixty. At the present time (1921) there are sixty-three.
In 1824 the town was granted a postoffice. It was a box 30 inches long, 12 inches wide, and 12 inches deep, inscribed on one side, "New Rowley and Georgetown post-office, established March 17, 1824. Ben- jamin Little, postmaster." This box is now in the Essex Institute at Salem.
The matter of separation from the town of Rowley now began to be discussed. The younger business men, who felt none of the senti- mental attachment to Rowley to which the older settlers were respon- sive, and whose business was disturbed by the distance between the two parishes, clamored for a separation. Letters intended for New Row- ley were often addressed to Rowley, and their delivery was delayed. In 1837 a meeting was called to arrange for a division. A succession of meetings followed, and after much-heated discussion about boundaries, the lines were established and the name Georgetown was decided upon. This was in 1838.
The Woman's Club was organized in the fall of 1895, with a mem- bership of 39. The first meeting was at the home of the president, Mrs. Edward M. Hoyt, Oct. 24, 1895, and the meetings for the first year were devoted to Italian studies, under the direction of Mrs. May Alden Ward. At the close of the course, a public lecture by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe was given. For many years the club held to its original plan and had a course of study for at least half of the season. Of late years the program has been miscellaneous in character, and more emphasis has been placed upon the social side of the work. The club has con- tributed to many worthy causes, both within town and outside, and was active in many ways during the World War, giving generously to the various war organizations, besides doing a large amount of work. In 1914 the club was admitted to the Massachusetts State Federation of Woman's Clubs. There were at the close of last year, (June, 1921) 108 members. Mrs. Louise T. Perkins is at present president of the club.
The Georgetown Improvement Association was organized March 5, 1910. The first president was Rev. Bartlett H. Weston. The associa- tion raises its money by dues and an annual carnival, and is interested in all civic work for the town. It has at present a membership of 162, and the president is Mrs. Elizabeth Mckay Daniels.
GEORGETOWN-INDUSTRIALLY, COMMERCIALLY, OFFICIALLY.
Beginning in 1638-9: The first vessel to reach our shores brought: not only the minister and the tillers of the soil, but also the millwright, sawyer and builder, the miller, cooper and maltster; the spinner, weaver
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and dyer; the tailor, the shoemaker, the blacksmith, the tanner and the surveyor. For two hundred years-from 1638 to 1838-the present area of Georgetown was a part of Rowley. We are told that the surnames of the earliest settlers were Rogers, Nelson, Spofford, Mighill, Brocklebank, Dummer, Jewett, Perley, Pearson, Lambert; and that within the first fifty years there came into the record the names of Chaplin, Noyes, Shute, Dole, Merrill, Boynton, Bridges, Searles, Burpee, Woodbury, Ten- ney, Harriman, Stickney, Plumer, Poor, Tyler, Weston, Perkins, Dodge; also, in very early times Hilliard, Little, Palmer, Hardy, Moulton, Lover- ing, Giles, Cheney, Hale, Tidds, Dresser, Winter, Coker, Pingree, Adams, Bateman, Savory, Killam, Jones, Baker; in comparatively early times there appear the names of Brewster, Carlton, Osgood, Bailey, Daniels, Carter, Dorman, Atwood and Wilson. The men bearing the foregoing names were at one time or another identified with the indus- trial, commercial or professional life of the old and the new town. It is only with these phases of our history that the present writer deals.
Briefly and Chronologically: The making and manufacturing and compounding of articles of trade and commerce within the area of our present town limits began with the opening days of the settlement. The first manufacturers were the itinerant shoemakers, tailors and dress- makers. Among the very first to set up a permanent business was the malster. At first cloth and leather were brought from the "old coun- try"; but in less than three years the millwrights had built a water- power sawmill, and sawyers were "getting out" lumber for the settlers' houses. Within the same period the millwrights had built for Thomas Nelson the first grist-mill in the settlement, wherein were ground corn, wheat, rye, oats and barley into meal and flour, both for home consump- tion and for shipment to Salem and other parts, in barrels made by the village cooper. From the "old country" the millwright brought his tools; the miller his "burr-stones"; the sawyer his saws; the spinners and weavers brought the heckle, the card, the small (flax) and the big (wool) spinning wheels, the harness and the several delicate parts used in the building of the great hand-looms, upon which homespun cloth- both linen and wool-were woven by the womenfolk. Before 1643 the millwrights had erected water-power fulling mills (small they were, no doubt), where the home woven cloth was fulled and made ready for use. Even during that early period the weavers of our settlement had "attained to a wide celebrity as the makers of fine cloth." As before stated, for the present purpose, we deal only with the doings of men with- in the boundary limits of what is now Georgetown.
The first business started here was done by Jonathan Harriman, when, in 1699-70, he located and built on Rock Brook the first mill, a sawmill and grist-mill combined. In this mill, lumber was sawn and grist was ground for exactly one hundred years. Later, but in the same year (1670), Jeremiah Nelson opened and "ran" the first grocery store;
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and also in the same year, Joachim Rayner established a tannery busi- ness, which was kept in constant operation by himself and successors for eighty years. In 1715-18 Joachim Plumer established and conducted for many years a large clothing manufacturing business. This kind of business, later, became an important industry in the town.
In 1722 iron-works were built by Samuel Barret at the upper end of Rock Pond, where an excellent quality of iron was made from ore found near the shores of the pond, in the peat bogs near by. These iron-works were successfully operated for nearly twenty years. In 1732 Deacon Abner Spofford built and "run for forty years" a very large sawmill "on the stream which finds its outlet at Parker River above Scragg Pond." Forty-five years later, in 1778, on the same site, Colonel Daniel Spofford operated the largest grist-mill in the town's history. In this mill, he and his sons "ground three thousand bushels of grain (grown by the farmers of the town) in a single year." In connection with this mill the Spofford's "ran" a very large sawmill. (It is worthy of note that as early as 1725 there were eighteen grist mills in operation in this territory at one time.) There is no doubt but that the itinerant shoe- maker came here with the first settlers, but the first one, whose name we know, was John Bridges. He went over his route with his "bag or kit" and made shoes for his patrons for forty years, from 1735 to 1775.
Daniel Pierce, in 1770, commenced the digging of the canal below Pentucket Pond. Later a dam was built just below Mill street, where a grist-mill was built (by parties now unknown) and "operated for seven months in the year." In 1770 Major Asa Nelson opened on Nelson street the second grocery store to be run in town. As early as 1782 Benjamin Wallingford, and his son "Ben," doing business "at the corner", had won an enviable reputation as "chaise makers." Their fame extending to wide fields, they did a large and profitable business.
The year 1775 was prolific in the development of new industries among the people of the parish: Eleazar Spofford established the busi- ness of "wire pulling," which proved very successful. Jonathan Chaplin built and operated a rope-walk; and Deacon Stephen Mighill, like his English ancestors, manufactured malt in ever-increasing quantities. As all of the early settlers were Englishmen, so they all drank home brewed ale, hence the importance of dealing with a maltster who was trained to the business as Deacon Stephen had been, for his ancestors for many generations had been "licensed maltsters under the Crown." The same year the Burpee family "dammed a swift running stream," built a mill and carried on the business of "breaking flax by water-power" for the people, which could be done much quicker and cheaper than by hand. The same year, too, Jeremiah Spofford built and operated a snuff-mill, and that year he commenced the manufacture of molasses from corn- stalks and watermelons. The business was carried on successfully dur- ing the period of the Revolutionary War, a period when it was impossible
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to bring molasses here from Jamaica and Cuba. After the war, molasses, made from sugar-cane, could be had that was better and cheaper. Be- sides the above-named new industries, Deacon Thomas Merrill and his two oldest sons manufactured nails "with forge, hammer and anvil" in "a smithy" located in the ell of his house.
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