USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > Some annals of Nahant, Massachusetts > Part 12
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CHAPTER IX
INDUSTRIES
NAHANT never was well suited to become an industrial town. Its isolation gave it a disadvantage over places nearer supplies and railroads. A manufacturing establishment using coal brought by water, and able to use water transport for its goods, is conceivable but has impractical factors. Doubtless people have pictured some manufacturing on Nahant, and at least one political circular of within thirty years has pleaded the desirability and possibility of factories on the low lands between Pond Beach and Lynn Harbor, near the Coast Guard Station. It seems unlikely that such development can come, but times change and conditions alter, and it is bold to prophesy from the assumptions that things will remain as they are. This, however, is a popular pastime with people, little and big, in their consideration of future affairs, even of inter- national importance. The impossible is often achieved, and uncommon events happen quite commonly.
At the present time only two industries on Nahant do much more than supply the needs of the town. One of these is the commercial florist's business, built up and carried on by Thomas Roland. Roland came to Nahant in 1884, a young man, working as a private gardener until 1890, when he bought out the comparatively small greenhouse plant of Charles F. Johnson, son of C. Hervey Johnson and grandson of Caleb Johnson. Roland proved a man of exceptional skill and ability, who steadily added to his business and his reputa- tion, adding more and more to his greenhouse plant on Nahant, and establishing a second one at Revere. He is today one of the best known, most successful and most highly respected men in his industry, past president of the Society of American
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SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
Florists, and long-time influential trustee of the Massachu- setts Horticultural Society. He was born in England some- thing over sixty years ago, but long since became a thorough citizen of his adopted country. He married Abby May Hood, a descendant of the Hood who came to Nahant among the early settlers. There are several children, including sons who now assist him in his business.
The other Nahant industry, which does most of its business outside of Nahant, is the building business of J. T. Wilson & Son, Inc., which was founded in Nahant by Joseph T. Wilson in 1868. It is now owned in his family and is conducted by an organization, including a son Fred A. Wilson, which was mostly built up around him before his death in 1914. It comes to its sixtieth year of business life in 1928, as Nahant meets the three-quarter century mark as a separate township. A list of the houses built by this firm in Nahant up to 1900 here follows. It is given in no attempt to show activity or accomplishment, but only because dates of construction are interesting as houses get older.
1868-69 C. J. Whittemore Geo. W. Simmons . Greenhouse
. House and stable remodelled
1869-70
B. Schlesinger
. House and stable
1870-71 F. R. Sears
House and stable ·
E. F. Parker
· Stable
M. Carroll .
· House
John S. Wright
Stable
1872
Maolis Garden . Dance hall
Catholic Church .
-
Chas. E. Gove
· House
George H. Gove . . House
1871-72
Dr. R. M. Hodges . House and stable
Geo. P. Upham
Greenhouse .
Town of Nahant .
. Church tower
A. D. Johnson Stable
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INDUSTRIES
1873-74 A. A. Lawrence
.
Small house
H. C. Lodge
. Stable
Jere Abbott
F. Henry Johnson house, alterations and stable
John Mitchell
House .
John Coakley
. House .
E. B. Johnson
. House
H. S. Johnson
.
Stable
Miss S. H. Hunt .
House .
Mrs. J. P. Putnam
. House remodelled
1874-75 Samuel Johnson .
J. Bishop Johnson house, alterations and stable
K. W. Sears
House and stable
E. E. Spooner
House moved and remodelled and stable
A. A. Lawrence
House and stable
Thos. Motley, Jr.
House (Whitney)
Mrs. Wm. Amory
House
J. C. Phillips
·
Stable
Mrs. A. L. Moering C. F. Johnson
Greenhouse ·
1875-76 Geo. Peabody Morris Higgins
House and stable ·
House
H. C. Lodge
Greenhouse
1876-77 W. A. Gove
House
Independent Methodist Society . Parsonage
E. J. Johnson
House .
Admiral Thatcher
House remodelled
B. Schlesinger
. Greenhouse
1877-78
Samuel Johnson . . House (Kemp)
George P. Upham
Godsoe House (Ingersoll)
Mrs. B. L. White
. House
P. Linehan .
House
J. B. Johnson Fish market .
Nahant Land Company
Dunham House
1878-79 A. Murdock
, House (nearest church)
Capt. S. R. Knox
House (Stacy)
Lodge Estate
"Wharf Cottage" ·
1879-80 J. F. Anderson
House remodelled
1880-81 Gen. C. J. Paine . House remodelled
Thomas Howe
House and stable .
Martin Kenny . House
.
·
Stable
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SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
1881-82
E. C. Johnson
, House and stable ·
Thos. Motley, Jr.
House
Mrs. S. E. Guild .
House and stable
Patrick Grant
House .
H. C. Haven
.
House
G. A. James
Greenhouse
Edward Fallon
. House
J. T. Wilson
. House
1883-84
E. W. Johnson
House remodelled
1884-85
A. G. Wilson
House
F. H. Wilson
.
House
F. H. Johnson
. House and stable
John Rooney
. House
1885-86
J. Colby Wilson . . House (now Davis)
F. G. Phillips
· House
F. W. Bradlee
. House remodelled
1886-87
Mrs. J. M. Warren
. House remodelled
John Flynn
. House
Geo. P. Upham
. Greenhouse
1887-88
W. P. Dudley
House
S. E. Smith
. House and cottage
1888-89
Frank Merriam . House and stable
I. T. Burr, Jr.
House and stable
L. Curtis
. House remodelled
F. H. Johnson
Double house
W. P. Dudley
Cottage
S. E. Smith
Cottage
1889-90
Mrs. A. E. Robinson
House
A. S. Dabney
· House
Mrs. C. C. Boyden
House remodelled
B. F. Taylor . House
J. T. Wilson
. Stable
1890 E. W. Bourne
· House (Bass Point)
A. A. Barnes
· House
R. L. Cochran
House
1890-91
P. V. R. Ely
· House
Walter Dabney House ·
C. E. Parsons
· House
E. C. Johnson
. Cole's house and stable
.
. House Mrs. Bridget Kennedy .
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INDUSTRIES
1891-92 W. K. Richardson Charles Merriam
. House
House remodelled
H. G. Curtis
House remodelled
Geo. P. Upham
Stable rebuilt
P. V. R. Ely
.
Stable
Michael Deveney
.
House
George St. George
. House
Chas. D. Vary
House
1892-93
Dudley B. Fay
.
House remodelled
Mrs. A. E. Robinson . House
Geo. F. Shepley .
.
. House moved and remodelled
Stable
House and stable
1893
Bass Point House Hotel Tudor
Additions .
. Remodelled
1894 Geo. A. Gove
House
Frank A. Gove
House
E. J. Johnson
. House remodelled and moved
Thos. Motley, Jr.
.
Stable
Bass Point House
. Rebuilt after fire
Roger Killilae
·
Michael McCormack . House remodelled
J. Colby Wilson .
House
1894-95 Chas. Davis, Jr. .
, House remodelled
1895
F. H. Johnson
Three houses on Pond Beach
Hotel Tudor
· Stable
Sylvester Brown
. Billiard room
Sarah E. Smith
House
F. M. White
.
House remodelled
Whitney Hotel
· Remodelled
Nahant Club
. Remodelled
Geo. W. Kibbey
Stable
Chas. W. Stacy
Cottage
1895-96
E. F. Chapin
House remodelled
1896
E. F. Chapin
. Two houses
C. T. Lovering
.
House remodelled
1897
H. Sigourney
Stable
1897-98 H. Sigourney
House
J. T. Kelley
· House
1898
C. D. Adams
Stable
House
Chas. A. Sampson A. S. Dabney S. E. Guild
·
·
House
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SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
1898-99 Fred A. Wilson
House
1899
Wm. R. Wilson
House
P. Linskey .
House
1899-1900 John Mitchell
. House and store
S. H. Hunt estate . House remodelled
Closely associated with Joseph T. Wilson was his brother, J. Colby Wilson, who conducted the painting branch of the building business and also did much work out of Nahant. He was known and liked all over town, and was a shrewd Yankee of the old-fashioned type, - honest and steadfast, helpful and friendly. These two men were a closely knit pair, friends as well as brothers.
Albert G. Wilson, a brother-in-law of Joseph T. Wilson, . was another long-time associate. He was superintendent for many years, up to the time of his death in 1927, and on April 1, 1926, he completed fifty years in one employ. He was dean of town officers, having served on the Board of Public Library Trustees since 1889, a thirty-eight-year period.
Except for these two business enterprises, a look back over the years recalls the usual stores and shops a town may be expected to support. Special mention should be made, how- ever, of the grocery store on Nahant Road at the corner of Pleasant Street, where now stands the Town Hall. This business was started in a house farther down the street, built by George Johnson, a brother of Welcome W. Johnson, on the present site of the Leavitt House, across the street and a little westward from the Whitney homestead. Caleb Johnson, at the time the old Johnson homestead was rented to Rouillard, as related elsewhere, built and occupied a house across the street and just above this old grocery store. This house was also removed when the present Town Hall was built. Welcome W. Johnson married in 1827 and lived here, carrying on the business in the adjoining building, which had been started by his brother elsewhere. This was the grocery store and village post office familiar to old Nahanters now living. As Nahant grew as a summer resort this store prospered. John-
Old Village Store, Johnson House beyond Both replaced by new Town Hall
.
Pleasant Street Schoolhouse
Built 1851
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INDUSTRIES
son's son, Edwin W. Johnson, succeeded to its management, followed by T. Dexter Johnson and George E. Poland. Dexter Johnson was a son of William F. Johnson and a cousin of Edwin. In 1902 Poland moved the business into the block now called the post office block, where it languished and finally went out of existence. This old store Nahanters living, as well as those long dead, patronized, even as children doing detested errands for their parents and spending spare cents for Black Jacks or Gibralters. Those were the popular forms of candy long before the days of the regrettable all-day suckers and gaudy colored swabs on a stick, with which today's children aim to be so uninviting, and succeed. Johnson sold Black Jacks before the Civil War. It was a hard stick of molasses candy, cleanly wrapped, and respectable to eat.
Welcome W. Johnson was town treasurer for several years, as is shown in the list of town officers. Edwin W. Johnson, known by his schoolmates as "Bumble," was long on the Board of Selectmen, but finally sold out his business interests on Nahant, devoting himself to other schemes, sometimes taking long chances for a high stake. He was in mining enterprises with his brother Caleb, who developed into a mining engineer or manager, spending most of his time in the West. Caleb built and owned the house on Nahant Road now owned by Wallace D. Williams, west of the post office block on the opposite side of the street. Edwin made many trips West, beginning at a time when the Indians were a menace, and at least once narrowly escaping capture by them. The story is told of an Indian raid, where Edwin stumbled over a box bearing his father's name, Welcome W. Johnson. It developed that the latter had sent a latest type of rifle to one of his sons by the express, which was raided, and the rifle stolen. It was afterwards recovered through previous friend- ship with the Indian chief. Later Edwin travelled through the West for a prominent New York fruit commission house, trying to get improved packing and so save the large losses then suffered between farm and orchard and market. Later he developed, for himself and his brother Caleb, a large orange
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SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
grove in Florida. It was brought nearly to the time of heavy yield when two frosts, a few days apart, in the early 90's wrecked the enterprise. Struggling not too successfully in following years, Edwin Johnson died in 1912 at the age of sixty-nine. His father, Welcome W. Johnson, died in 1880 at the age of seventy-seven. Both father and son were fine looking men, as indeed were many of this Johnson family.
The Nahant Post Office was established in the "Nahant Hotel" in July, 1847, during Phineas Drew's progressive management of this hostelry. Later in the same year it was moved into the village, and for many years was in one corner of the old Johnson grocery store which has been described. The successive proprietors were postmasters. There was no delivery system during this period, people going to the office for mail, with mail boxes for all, as is common in small offices and small towns. Welcome W. Johnson was postmaster until his death, succeeded by Edwin W. Johnson and T. Dexter Johnson. In January, 1899, Thomas J. Cusick was appointed postmaster, the fifth in the life of the town, while George E. Poland owned and managed the store. Cusick was a veteran of the Civil War, joining in the Tenth Massachusetts Battery, almost a boy. He enlisted from Brookline but moved to Nahant in 1870, and after working for a while for John D. Reed in a store on Summer Street in a building now owned by D. G. Finnerty, he bought the house, nearly across the street, from Mrs. Tudor, and put a store under it. He bought out Reed in 1874. For a long time he conducted a grocery busi- ness in Boston, giving it up in 1900. He ran his Nahant store until 1920, when it was closed. Cusick died in 1927. A son, Dr. Laurence F. Cusick, well known on Nahant and perhaps the second year-round physician the town has had, has built up a large practice outside of Nahant as well as within the town.
The post office stayed in the old Johnson grocery store until 1901, when it was moved to the Johnson block on Nahant Road, where it has remained. In this same year, 1901, the post office was made a branch of the Lynn Post Office, which
131
INDUSTRIES
gave Nahant the mail carrier system usual in larger places. Cusick, formerly postmaster, was made superintendent of the Nahant Branch Office, and held this place until 1921, when he was succeeded by his daughter, Mary T. Cusick, who now serves so capably in this important position.
The Johnson grocery store, the old Johnson house next to it, and the Spooner house on Pleasant Street, formerly the house of E. Augustus Johnson, son of Caleb Johnson, were bought by the town of Nahant following authorization by the town in 1911. The buildings were torn down, together with several smaller buildings, excepting one small house on Pleasant Street just around the corner from Nahant Road. This house was moved there from Swallows Cave Road and once occupied the place of the K. W. Sears house, and was owned and occu- pied by Benjamin Crowninshield. This house, small enough to be moved through the streets, was rolled to the westerly side of Spring Road, near Nahant Road, and is now owned by Mrs. Harry R. Cummings. The new Town Hall was occupied in the fall of 1912, giving accommodations which were badly needed and which were intended to serve town needs for a long time. But all at once, with the advent of woman suffrage was an increase almost doubling the number of voters, and the limit of capacity for the Town Hall may be reached far sooner than was expected. This is a trouble many towns are meeting, and which is leading to a modified form of town meetings which perhaps Nahant will not face in the future. The town is of too small an area to grow to the large size which ' is making old-fashioned town meetings unwieldy in other places.
Fishing was considered a Nahant industry, naturally so, as with most other favorably located coast towns, before later methods and large enterprises met the increasing demands. There are early records that men were given the right to live here, on this commonly owned place where homes were pro- hibited, if they would pursue the industry of fishing. It was a sort of license to occupy for a specific purpose. Lewis says in "The Picture of Nahant," 1845, that in 1635 nine men, who
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SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
were named, but who do not appear later among Nahanters, were given liberty to plant and build at Nahant and proceed in the trade of fishing. If they did not further the trade of fishing their lots were to be forfeited again to the town. The three families living on Nahant in 1800 were Hood, Breed and Johnson. The first two were farmers, who owned nearly all the land in the first four ranges, or about up to Wharf Street. The Johnson family were fishermen principally, including Caleb Johnson, although he also was a large landowner. A little later Caleb's brother Joseph moved back to Nahant, and fishing was likewise his chief occupation. It should be re- membered that all these families catered more or less to the increasing tide of pleasure travel to Nahant. The honest dollar looked attractive in whatever place it might be found, in those days when money was scarce.
But little is known of early boats and crews and doings. In 1824 the schooner "Lafayette," which was built at Essex, was at Nahant. She was a thirty-ton boat of the old-fashioned sharp stern, full bows type. Her two skippers were the brothers Caleb and Joseph Johnson. It is said they were remarkable seamen, knowing their way around on the water as well as most people do amid familiar landmarks. E. J. Johnson says they had a compass aboard, but cared so little for it that it was often out of order. Caleb Johnson followed this trade for fifty years, or until an accident not of the sea made him less fit for this hard service. Joseph Johnson con- tinued to go out in the "Lafayette" until he was an old man. The growth of trawl fishing, which was becoming conspicuous in the 60's, injured the older "bay fishing" methods. Com- petition with the new methods was hard, and soon the near-by fishing grounds were less productive to the fisherman. The industry, operated as a trade conveniently handled from the shore, has disappeared from the vicinity. While fishing as a pleasure still affords results, the "grounds" once so teeming are comparatively exhausted.
In 1844 the schooner "Foam" was built at Salisbury and was one of the first sharp boats built for fishing. She was
133
INDUSTRIES
much used in summer for excursion trips, and for bay fishing at all other times. She was a fast boat and brought home good fares, and was known as a lucky boat. She was wrecked at Phillips Beach in Swampscott, after parting her cable during the gale of September 8, 1869.
In 1858 winter lobstering began at Nahant and soon this used forty men and four vessels. It was a profitable business, but soon lobsters were exhausted from places within reach. A thousand lobsters, and more, have been taken from a hundred pots, while half that number was a common fare. Laws were enacted to protect the diminishing supply. This decreased the legally available quantity. Prices advanced, encouraging catches of illegal sizes or ages, and today the once common lobster of waters around Boston is both rare and expensive. The price is so high that a few still go for them locally, but it is not a lucrative occupation. Boston markets, fed by sup- plies from far afield, or rather a-sea, now supply fish of all sorts to even the most salty of seacoast towns - unless it be a place like Gloucester, which has reached out for the new methods of the industry and made them her own.
On February 11, 1858, while fishing was still an industry in the town, a sixteen-ton schooner, the "Charles Amory," was launched from Nahant, the first vessel ever built here. Walter Johnson was chairman of the exercises at this event, and Alfred D. Johnson was the orator of the day. These three names will all be found mentioned elsewhere or in the list of children of Joseph and Caleb Johnson. Charles Amory, for whom the boat was named, lived in what is now the Dr. Thomas Dwight estate house on Cliff Street. He was inter- ested in the Massachusetts Humane Society, which for a long time "caused our whole coast to be supplied with life boats and apparatus to relieve the shipwrecked from a dreadful death." This citation is from Johnson's address of that launching day. Many will remember the little sheds fre- quently seen, located at points nearest good launching places in storms, and containing boats and life-saving equipment. One of these was on Longfellow Beach, the little cove next
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SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
easterly from the steamboat wharf and "Fremont" place. Johnson concluded his address in the following words: "Go, then, little craft, from this spot, whence you have sprung into existence, to the waters, towards which you are steadily pointing, and upon whose bosom you are to find your future home; and may this gilded hand which adorns your prow ever successfully point out to your gallant crew a haven of safety from the stormy dangers through which you will successfully bear them. May you combat the stormy waves for years, remaining, as now, the favorite of all, the pride of your own- ers and crew; and may no one ever have cause to regret that you bear the honored name of Charles Amory." This event of the times was followed by music, tea and dancing at the home of Jonathan Johnson. This house has been described, on Nahant Road, where the post office block now stands. This boat was finally sold to owners in Scituate. Some of the vessels engaged in fishing industry at Nahant were the "Dolphin," "Jefferson," "Sally Ann," "Caroline," "Lafay- ette," "Josephine," "Foam," "Fairy Queen," "Spray," "Susan," "Greyhound," "Faustina," "Fashion," "Charles Amory," "Lizzie Phillips," "Frederic Tudor," "Signet," "Fox," "John Randolph," "Raven," "Evergreen," "Unity," "James and Isaac," and "General Marion." The list is probably not complete, but is large enough to show a consid- erable industry for so small a community as Nahant. Most of this material on fishing is from Johnson's "History of Nahant." This fishing industry from Nahant centered around Nipper Stage, where Tudor Wharf now stands. Fish flakes and all the varied equipment of the business were on both the adjacent beaches. The little Crystal Beach just inside the wharf and Curlew Beach beyond were scenes of activity. In those old days the catch was sometimes a thousand pounds a man, all carried to Boston market the same day.
Worthen Gove came to Nahant to sail a yacht for the proprietors of the Nahant Hotel, taking out fishing parties. He was the drummer for the Civil War "Home Guard " troop. He was one of the owners and crew of the "Spray," and this
135
INDUSTRIES
group had a boat built for them and named the "Frederic Tudor," but she proved too small and was replaced by the "Lizzie Phillips," which some people can remember. J. Bishop Johnson and his crew sailed in the "Zeppie."
One of the men early engaged in winter lobstering was Francis Johnson, a son of Joseph Johnson and a member of the old firm of Johnson & Young of Boston, established in 1842. He went fishing at an early age, making his first voy- ages in the "Lafayette" of the Nahant fleet. Later he com- manded, at various times, several of the vessels. Then he was captain of the steamer "Housatonic," which ran from Boston to Nahant in 1828 and 1829. Francis Johnson, commonly known as Captain Frank, owned and lived in the house built about 1827, on the corner of Nahant Road and Summer Street. It was later owned and occupied by his daughter, Mrs. Sarah J. Melvin, who died in 1914 at the age of eighty-six. A son of Francis Johnson, Francis H. Johnson, was also well known in the fish industry, but as a Boston marketman and not a fisherman. For many years he spent his summers on Nahant, building a house on Willow Road in 1885, for his own occu- pancy. Later he developed other property, including the Johnson block on Nahant Road, also called the post office block. At the time of his death in 1918 he owned ten or a dozen houses, and had proven himself a believer in real estate in the town. He turned what was a pebble ridge, on the shore between Bear Pond and Ocean Street, into house lots. Here were three houses built in 1895, westerly from his own house, and a fourth built there at a later date.
Fishing as an industry seems to have been important from the beginning of the town and as long as there were fish in near-by waters. Mention has been made of early grants of permission to live on Nahant "commons" given to certain men so long as they engaged in fishing. Nothing is known of the extent of this work in the early days except that it was considered a very valuable food supply. Perhaps the first mention of this business in the old records is in 1635, when Joseph Rednap was voted a grant of land and permission to
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SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
live on Nahant "for the purpose of pursuing the trade of fishing." In 1669 is an interesting entry, though not per- taining to fishing, that Robert Page of Boston was "presented for setting sail from Nahant, in his boat, being laden with wood, thereby profaning the Lord's Day." Lewis says the second inhabitant of Nahant of whom there is any record was Robert Coats, who was probably a shepherd or a fisherman living in town a short time.
Perhaps the only fishing vessel ever built at Nahant was the "Charles Amory," which was designed by Edward J. Johnson, a son of Jonathan Johnson, and grandson of Joseph Johnson. Edward J. Johnson was one of the Nahant con- tingent of Civil War veterans, and his spare, erect figure, with eyes always afire with spirit, will be remembered by many people, perhaps as a marcher with his comrades in Decoration Day events. He was a student of Nahant history, and after his death in 1901, at the age of sixty-nine, many old deeds and other Nahant papers from his collection were given to the Nahant Public Library. He served on the Board of Selectmen for several years ending with 1878, and was on numerous committees, including the public library committee. In 1886, in connection with a general history of Essex County towns, a "History of Nahant," written by Johnson, was published. It has been drawn upon liberally in the prepara- tion of these present writings, which, however, are using much material far outside the scope of that work. Johnson's son, Jonathan Edward Johnson, was an Episcopal clergyman, meeting death too young, in 1908, at the age of forty. A daughter, Florence A. Johnson, is a genuine Nahanter through her lifelong residence here, and is well known as an efficient teacher of long service in the public schools of the town. Another daughter, married and away from Nahant, has a son, Frederic Manning, whose wife is the daughter of Ex-President Taft.
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