USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > Some annals of Nahant, Massachusetts > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35
Of course farming or gardening was always an important adjunct of life in old days. Many acres were under cultivation on Nahant, and there were fields of grain and considerable
Lynn - Old Boston & Maine Station from Central Square Burned in the great Lynn fire of 1889; Union Street on left
Ellingwood Chapel
137
INDUSTRIES
yields of vegetables. The big barn on the Johnson home- stead was the scene of many husking bees followed by the generous farm suppers which are so often told about as bright spots in the country life of those times. Those were the days of a simpler life, when a bumper crop did not bump the farmers so much, husbands had less competition with chow dogs, and yearnings less often outran earnings.
The making of shoes was a Nahant industry in the days when shoes were made in scattered small shops. Lynn was early prominent in this industry, but even far-away places had these little shoe shops. Even within thirty years materials for shoes were shipped out to the homes of New England to be put together, although machinery was rapidly replacing much hand work. These early shops were little square buildings ten to fourteen feet on a side, with a pitched roof affording a stow- away garret. They were low-ceiled and easily became stuffy. Benches for from two to six workers were provided, and their tools and materials made a crowded room. Heat was furnished by a small fireplace in early days, and later by stoves. The work was piece work, and a worker took materials for a day or sitting - what he wanted to do, or had time to do, inter- spersed with his farming and fishing, for not many of them devoted all their time to shoe making. This came to be called a "seat of work," and apparently inspired the phrase heard today, "to take out a seat of work " on a person, usually mean- ing to start a campaign of talk or action against him. To many . people this saying is very familiar, while others do not know it, showing a rather local habitat.
A good sample of one of these old shoe shops stands on the grounds of the Lynn Historical Society, where it has been restored, in appearance and furnishings, as nearly as possible to one hundred years ago - as if the workers could be ex- pected to return to it after a while. There were several of these little shops on Nahant, - one a room in a corner of a barn, another over the grocery store, while at least one was a little separate building such as has been described. This building still stands on Harmony Court, though descended
138
SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
from its high estate to later use as a henhouse. They had local names, says Johnson, such as "Invincible," "Band Box," and "House of Commons." On a bad day for fishing they might be crowded, - a few loafers would do it, -and then came attempts to consume tobacco and smoke out the whole outfit. Some of the sewing or binding was often done by the women in the houses. Thus hard work prevailed. It is said to have been the days when the Board of Education was the scrubbing board, and girls did not have to be careful to take exercise enough to enable them to wear ear rings without stooping. The people were a hardy lot, the sort from whom are springing so many of the great of the world.
The shoe industry conducted in this way died gradually. Around the 1850's machines began to do the work, and in a few years factories superseded shops, although some work was still sent out, perhaps with the stock all cut up ready for sewing. Lynn grew to be a shoe manufacturing city, prob- ably headed in that direction originally because skilled shoe- makers settled there and gave supremacy even in early days.
In discussing Nahant industries mention should be made of town employment. In 1926 around $30,000 was spent for labor by the several town departments using manual labor. This is employment for many men, in a small town, and this annual pay roll is exceeded only by the two industries before mentioned, which deal chiefly out of town. It grew to this size from small beginnings, but perhaps was always more or less in the same proportion to the total number of inhabitants.
It is evident that Nahant is today, as it has always been, practically a residential town, though accompanied in its progress throughout by a typical shore resort development in one or another part of it. The Maolis Gardens was an early example, and later years have seen most of the merely tran- sient visitors going to the Bass Point section, which was built up for the purpose. The natural attractions of the town and its proximity to cities made both developments, - for residents and for visitors; but as they do not fit together well it was fortunate that the two came finally to different
139
INDUSTRIES
parts of the town. Crowds and amusements for crowds are noisy and troublesome to people who seek their homes for rest and quiet. Even the Maolis Gardens, which had not the transportation facilities of today, were considered trouble- some, looked at askance, as it were, and Tudor was criticised by neighbors for setting up such an institution in the midst of the quieter home seekers.
CHAPTER X MOSTLY NAUTICAL
THE projection of Nahant into the waters of the approach to Boston, while giving Lynn a harbor, has always meant some danger to shipping. From the beginning the shores of Nahant could tell of wrecks. Lewis, in his "Annals of Lynn," says a vessel was wrecked on Nahant rocks on February 18, 1631. In a "great snowstorm" on December 17, 1740, a schooner was wrecked on Nahant rocks. On February 14, 1755, a schooner from Salem was cast away on Short Beach. On February 6, 1757, two merchant vessels from London, valued at a hundred thousand pounds, were wrecked on Lynn Beach. February 8, 1766, an English brig was cast away on Pond Beach, and in 1769, in a September storm, a sloop was "driven ashore at Nahant." The year 1772 saw a fishing schooner wrecked on Long Beach with loss of life, and in 1788 there was another wreck at the same place. Near the south- ern end of Lynn Beach, which was out toward Little Nahant, a Scotch brig, the "Peggy," met her fate in December, 1795, and many lives were lost. In May, 1827, a schooner from Maine was driven ashore on Long Beach, or Lynn Beach, as it was then often called. A coffee laden schooner was wrecked on Shag Rocks in March, 1829, with "all hands lost." These rocks are near Pea Island and Swallows Cave. A brig with a cargo of sugar and molasses was wrecked on Long Beach on December 17, 1836. On December 15, 1839, during a great storm, a schooner from Philadelphia for Boston was wrecked on the rocks near Bass Point, with loss of life. Another wreck on the southern end of Long Beach was the Belfast schooner "Thomas," loaded with wood, on March 17, 1843. Then came the Nova Scotia brig "Exile," wrecked on Long Beach
141
MOSTLY NAUTICAL
on November 21, 1851. Her deck load of wood was washed ashore, furnishing material for fires which assisted in the work of saving lives. It is said that a thousand people gathered on the beach that night to watch and help. Another vessel, a schooner from Bristol, Maine, for Boston, went ashore on Long Beach September 30, 1856.
In November, 1840, came a storm on a high run of tides with a great sea outside. Lewis says, "and the swell of waters was immense, passing for several days entirely over Long Beach, so that not only the harbor, but the marshes of Lynn, Saugus and Chelsea were a portion of the mighty sea. There was no safety in approaching the level shore; but it was a grand and terrible sight, to stand upon Sagamore Hill, or some other elevation, and view the fearful devastation of the waters. Nahant appeared to be severed forever from the main, and ocean to be passing the bounds of its ancient decree."
It was the great storm of April 16, 1851, that brought destruction to the stout steel frame structure of Minot's Ledge lighthouse, so plainly visible from Nahant and replaced with the present dovetailed stone tower. This ill-fated light- house was operated for the first time on January 1, 1850, and so was of very short life. There was a wreck on Nahant in that year, but not in that storm. The greatest storm of which there seems to be much record, if not indeed the greatest of all for Nahant, was on January 17, 18 and 19, 1857. On the 16th the thermometer dropped to fourteen below zero. Throughout the storm it showed similarly cold. Lewis says that in Lynn it was twenty-two below. Lynn Harbor and all the coves of Nahant were frozen over, while the water between Nahant and Swampscott was full of loose ice. On Sunday the 18th snow came, with winds increasing to a hurri- cane. All travel was suspended, and not until Tuesday the 20th did any railroad train get through Lynn. There were eleven engines in the Lynn station at one time. The great boom of the waves at Spouting Horn was heard all over Nahant. On the 19th, as the storm abated, wreckage was found strewn along the shores. Egg Rock seemed smothered
142
SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
by the surf, and spray dashed up at East Point higher than the hotel. On the noon high tide great waves mounted over Canoe Beach, dashed across the low land, and emptied over- board again in the cove west of what is now known as the James estate. Around the rocks by Swallows Cave the seas swept into the cove, Joe Beach, cleaning out the wharf and every other part of everything movable or not firmly set in place. The low lands were full of water from Whitney's Swamp across to Dorothy's Cove in front of what is now Hotel Tudor. Crashing over Pond Beach the seas filled the meadows. Both Long and Short Beaches were washed over. Thus, as E. J. Johnson says, Nahant appeared like a group of islands wrestling in the furious waters. Next day the sky was clear and visitors began to come to view the grandeur of the ocean. They brought the news of the wreck of the bark "Tedesco," laden with wine and salt from Cadiz. This is the wreck of which an old print is now among the much sought items of print collectors. One may be seen at the Nahant Club. She went ashore on the Swampscott side of the bay.
On June 8, 1858, the schooner "Prairie Flower" from Salem for Boston suddenly capsized off Nahant with loss of life. February 2, 1859, saw the British bark "Vernon" driven ashore on Long Beach. She was from Messina for Boston, with a cargo mostly of fruit. In 1860, on January 6, three men walked across the ice in Lynn Harbor from the foot of Commercial Street to Bass Point. This is farther out than most people can remember for this feat, remembering that Bass Point at that time was the point now owned or used by the Bass Point House. Bass Point as a name for that whole wing of Nahant is of recent origin, replacing the name Bass Neck. The new lighthouse at Minot's Ledge was finished in 1860 and lighted first on August 22, going into regular service on November 15. On February 7 and 8, 1861, there was a phenomenal drop in temperature of sixty-six degrees in eighteen hours, to a low of twenty-one below zero. On December 10, 1864, the schooner "Lion" from Maine was cast away on Long Beach with loss of life. Then there
143
MOSTLY NAUTICAL
were wrecks on Canoe Beach, - the "Major Ringold" and another. Coming down to the recollections of present-day Nahanters was the "Augustus Smith" from Nova Scotia for Boston laden with potatoes and turnips. This wreck was on Short Beach on December 21, 1883. The "Alsatian" came ashore near Spouting Horn in 1896. Then there was the three master "Charles S. Briggs" wrecked on Short Beach close to Little Nahant on January 31, 1899, and strewing her coal cargo all over the vicinity. Greenlawn Cemetery holds some of the victims of this disaster. There are others of more recent date which need not be named so specifically, one on the rocky beach by Marginal Road, for example, and an- other farther to the eastward. It seems a strange comparison of contrasts to cross the beaches of today on the well-made roads, finding so many people in automobiles seeking solace from hot weather, and recalling some of those other times when storm-beaten vessels heaved upon these same beaches, almost within touch, while the raging elements claimed a toll in lives and in almost unbearable discomfort. In 1898 Senator Lodge gave a list of wrecks which he had compiled, to be inserted in the town records as a method of preservation. It names them in twenty-five of the years back to 1740, with seventeen since 1800.
It is interesting to see what history tells about Long Beach, the slim connection with the mainland, important to Nahant because it bears the only road giving access to the town, and important to Lynn because it makes Lynn Harbor. From Thomas Dexter's early proposal to build a stone breakwater, which was discarded by the General Court, as the Legislature of the time was called, the importance of this protecting sand bar to Lynn seems to have been realized. It was only a ridge of sand, hammered hard by the waves, as tides ebbed and flowed, just as it is today; but above the usual high-water mark was only loose dry sand, so nearly impassable that passage to and from Nahant was only attempted as the tides allowed access to the hard-floored beach. Storms gullied through the ridge, but little if anything was done to fortify
144
SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
the work which nature had begun. Finally, by an accidental combination of storms, each doing a little more harm, action was necessary. In 1824, after a petition by the town of Lynn, the General Court appropriated $1,500, to which the town added a like amount, and a plank wall was constructed about half the length of the beach to prevent further encroachments. The importance of the beach aroused further action, and in 1837 Alonzo Lewis made a survey of it under the direction of Congress at Washington. A plan was submitted calling for the building of a sea wall the whole length of Long Beach at an expense of $37,000. The appropriation was not made by Congress, and the scheme fell with all efforts in its behalf unavailing. In 1841 the selectmen of Lynn voted to set three hundred cedar trees on Long Beach, and in 1842 one thousand more. These appear to have been cedar posts and not growing trees. There were frequent meetings of the selectmen at the beach to see what should be done and to inspect repairs. In several years more planks and posts were bought to aid the protection.
The first attempt at a road over the beach, except in con- junction with some proposed sea wall or breakwater, seems to have been in 1847, when about $1,300 was raised by sub- scription, chiefly by Nahanters. The first house at Little Nahant was one built to accommodate the workmen during this roadmaking. The town of Lynn afterwards appropriated $1,000 to complete the road. It was built under the direction of Alonzo Lewis. In 1847 the selectmen went two or three times to examine the beach with relation to the proposed road, and on September 5, 1848, accepted the "new road lately made over the Nahant Long Beach." During several of these years by-laws and regulations were in force to prevent the removal from the beach of sand, gravel or stones, to the injury of this strip as a dyke. The taking of seaweed was also regu- lated. This was sought as a fertilizer, and the people of Lynn wished to reserve it for their own use. In 1848 and 1852 acts of the Legislature went into effect carrying similar prohibitions or restraints.
Spouting Horn Cottage Built by Thomas H. Perkins
In Front of Hotel Tudor Willow Road, named for large willow trees formerly bordering it
145
MOSTLY NAUTICAL
On the 17th of March, 1851, there was a great storm, and on the 16th of April a greater one, often called the greatest in two centuries. During the former, tides were driven entirely over Long Beach at several points and Nahant was an island. Flooding the marshes across the harbor did dam- age to the railroad bed. The April storm was worse. This was the one that wrecked the lighthouse on Minot's Ledge. A continuous sheet of raging water lay between Lynn and Nahant. Seven successive tides inundated the beach, badly gullying the recently built road, covering it with sand, and making it impassable. The sea flooded the lower part of Beach Street, now Washington Street, over the Lynn line, and washed away everything weak or movable.
After these storms it became apparent that something must be done for the protection of this strip of land so impor- tant to Lynn as a harbor protection, as well as to Nahant as a land connection. Lynn appropriated $5,000 and a line of red cedar posts was set along the ridge with stone, sand and sea débris worked around them as compactly as possible, in the hope that the sea would itself make further accretions. A guard was thus formed which served a very good purpose. Many Nahanters of today can remember this line of posts, set three or four feet apart, standing out of the ground three feet or so, and holding up a ridge very much higher than any part is today. These posts and their installation were under the direction of Lewis, who seems to have studied the problem here and was intrusted with the execution of the plans adopted. This new dyke also replaced the old plank breakwater which had guarded a part of the distance. This was practically a plank trough filled with sand, and was destroyed in the storms of 1851, which did so much other damage. A part of this story of the beach is taken from Lewis' "Picture of Nahant." Alonzo Lewis, who had charge of so much of the work on this beach, was getting old and died in 1861. The story of the road and the beach has other interesting features, some of which are recollections difficult to verify or to date accurately.
It is said that Frederic Tudor interested himself in the
146
SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
problem, and through him the grass grown on the dykes in Holland was planted in the sand. This is commonly called Bermuda grass, but its technical name is Ammophila Aren- aria, and its proper common name is Marram grass. It is used as a sand binder in many places. Cape Cod and the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco know it well. Even its Greek name means sand lover. Certainly it has done wonders on Nahant Beach. When one realizes what storms have done to this neck of land, and how the ridge is gone, the guarding posts are gone, and the general level lower than at any time in a half century, it does seem foolish for those now in control of this strip to allow this great sand binding grass to be harmed by the newly developed tribes of auto maniacs, who, like the proverbial poor, seem destined to be with us always. Yet injury is done, and at this time the grass is so worn off in occasional places that any such storm as some that have been described, combined with the extreme high tides that happen on a new or full moon at a time when sun and moon are nearest the earth, seems sure to break through the beach defences. The combination of conditions favorable to this happening does not come often, but it has come before and can again. Apparently the lowered ridge may make things easier for the old storm king. There is such a thing as a false sense of security after the sea has lulled people for so many years without raging at its worst. Of all the various forms of pro- tection that have been provided, this dune grass is the sole survivor. Need it be emphasized that it is wise to protect this in its full strength and extent? There are other storms than those mentioned that washed over the ridge and the road. As late as the 70's, so tells a Boston man recently, there was more than one storm when a man could not get over the road without getting wet ankle deep in the splash of the waves, while not avoiding a more thorough drenching from the spray.
In March, 1875, the town in town meeting voted to lay out Long Beach Road seventy-five feet wide with thirty bound posts placed on harbor side. This was done under the
147
MOSTLY NAUTICAL
direction of Frederic Tudor, Jr. Along the straighter part of the beach, from the Lynn line toward Nahant for over a mile, and on the harbor side, was set a line of hubs, similar to boundary markers as commonly used. The line of them was slightly curved to exactly an arc of a great circle of the earth. When the grass did not conceal them one could look along the line of posts and see in a mile or more just what is the curvature of the earth. To visualize it in this way was clearer than to describe it, or try to see it in other ways. Some of these posts are said to be in their places yet, but some have been moved or taken away altogether.
It was in 1845 that first a group of Nahanters met at the Nahant Hotel to forward the building of a gravelled road across the beach. Some thought it was not practical to put gravel over the sand, and favored a plank road. A com- mittee was chosen, as a result of this meeting, consisting of Josiah Quincy, Frederic Tudor, John H. Gray, Phineas Drew and Caleb Johnson. They were to ascertain the cost of a road, receive subscriptions, and ask for assistance from the town of Lynn. Other schemes were afoot, for the Lynn "Whig" for September 13, 1845, quotes a correspondent of the "Transcript" as saying the committee will probably report in favor of building upon Nahant Beach a branch of the Eastern Railroad. The road was finally made by spread- ing gravel over the loose sand and was built about one rod wide. It was completed in the summer of 1848, and is the one suffering, as has been told, in the two storms of the spring of 1851. But it was repaired, and from year to year it was improved and widened. The successive steps are not interest- ing or important to trace. In 1864 an appropriation was made to build a wall out from Little Nahant, and in 1876 it was extended. In 1880 it was voted to regrade the road at Little Nahant and build the wall which appears to be the present stone retaining wall on the up-hill side. As late as 1870 a proposition was up to lay a plank road at the Lynn end of the beach.
In 1846 Nahanters had petitioned to the Legislature
148
SOME ANNALS OF NAHANT
to be incorporated as a separate town, but the move was strenuously opposed by Lynn and came to naught. In 1853 the agitation was renewed and the attempt was successful. Apparently Lynn did not oppose so strongly. Why not, is now conjectural or mere impression, but it is said that the recent troubles and expenses on the beach made Lynn willing to give over its control, and so the line between Lynn and Nahant was set, as it now stands, as close against what might be called the mainland as it is possible to get. Yet there followed a struggle with Lynn for the possession of certain rights on Long Beach until the courts decided that all rights had passed to Nahant by the act of incorporation and the establishment of boundary lines.
As an almost yearly matter, after Nahant became a separate town, there were appropriations of a few hundred dollars to repair the breakwater on Long Beach, until finally the tenacious grass was so well established that the protecting line of posts was disregarded and allowed to rot away and disappear. It will surprise many people to know that at the annual town meeting in 1891 it was voted to employ the noted landscape architect Frederic Law Olmstead to plan Long Beach, so there would be two roads to Lynn, and with suitable planting and other embellishment. Of course nothing came of the scheme, or results would be manifest today. The roadbed was improved, as years passed, until in 1912 the town remade the entire length at a cost of about $53,000. This expense was borne by the town except for the sum of $4,000 which was contributed by the State from its funds for highway construction.
Near the Lynn end of Long Beach on the harbor side a few acres of land were owned privately and had been devoted to various uses until for many years prior to 1900 nearly all of it was a boat-building and repairing establishment operated by Allan Hay. Here also was one of the familiar sheds of the Massachusetts Humane Society. This outfit was never very neat or desirable. Such establishments cannot be beauty spots, and in its later years it was in a run-down condition
149
MOSTLY NAUTICAL
which further detracted from its appearance. On the sea side were two amusement places, both through changing proprie- torships, reaching back many years. The land on this side was owned by the town of Nahant, and these proprietors were tenants. One place was operated by Soule & Son and was a hotel of some size. Restaurant, barroom and bathhouses made this an active hostelry during the summer season. Just below it and adjoining was an amusement park with restaurant and other appurtenances. This place seems origi- nally to have been known as Seaside Park. There is a large photograph in the Nahant Library which shows it, with its swings, merry-go-rounds and other appliances, and with a sign over the entrance bearing its name. The date of the photograph, perhaps, can be approximated by the figure of a man on one of the early bicycles of the old-fashioned pedal type, the first after the early ones, which were propelled with feet on the ground, walking or running. This latter kind of bicycle, known as dandy horse, or later as hobbyhorse, ante- dated the forms operated by pedals which seem to have been made practical around 1850 or a little earlier. Probably they were not common for some time after that. The annual town reports show that Samuel Soule of Lynn paid rent to the town of Nahant beginning in 1863 and perhaps earlier. It was about 1855 that Soule built a small hotel here, close to the Lynn line. It was burned a few years later and at once rebuilt, on a larger scale. For some years Soule kept it in partnership with George Taylor of Lynn. Then he bought out Taylor and ran it alone until 1882 or 1883, when it was enlarged and his son, Frank Soule, was taken into part- nership. After Samuel Soule's death, Fitzgerald, McDonald, Payrow and Trafton were successive managers, until in 1901 the place was cleared of buildings. The large building was sold to Carahar Brothers of Nahant and moved by them across the beach and up to the summit of Little Nahant, where it now stands.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.