USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > Some annals of Nahant, Massachusetts > Part 19
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In 1906 the town purchased Marjoram Hill, near Tudor Wharf, for a park, and in 1905 the low land behind Short Beach for a public playground. Both of these purchases were urged during several years by George Abbot James, who served as town forester from 1881 to 1908, and gave much attention to keeping the town in good condition while adding to its beauty by further planting of trees and shrubs. James
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lived at East Point, on the property bought by John E. Lodge, which was divided between his two children, Senator Lodge and Mrs. James. An only child, Ellerton James, served the town on many committees, and was giving his energy to one at the time of his death, in 1926. George A. James died in 1917. Both of these men were long-time summer residents and legal citizens of Nahant, whose interest in town affairs of all sorts was unceasing. They loved the town and were always ready to be of service to it.
This playground land was not originally allotted in the 1706 division of Lynn's common land. It was given to Alonzo Lewis in 1847 for his services to Lynn, and later sold to Frederic Tudor, whose successors were the Nahant Land Com- pany. The title through Lewis did not seem to be clear enough, and in 1882 the town of Nahant quitclaimed to the land com- pany. It was a formality to perfect the title, as the town had no claim. Tudor built ditches through the marshes he owned, both this playground and the marsh north of Bear Pond. Drainage was chiefly out across Castle Road through a culvert long called "Little Bridge." The land company deeds for sales near these ditches have stipulated that the drainage is not to be hindered. The ditches still function, but need clearing occasionally. They accomplished their purpose, and both pieces of low ground are dry enough most of the time, though often holding a very wet condition late into the springtime.
This description of the natural part of Nahant is mechanical, and intentionally so. Its beauties have been sung by others. Of course, when man steps upon a place he hurts it. It seems inevitable. Much that man does is not beautiful. It was an old hymn writer, Reginald Heber, who wrote the lines -
Though every prospect pleases And only man is vile.
And Heber died over a hundred years ago and wrote of no particular place and not even of America. In a residential town much may be done to make community beauty .. It only needs the right spirit whole-heartedly supporting proper
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regulations against the few who care nothing for the town and only for themselves and their imagined welfare. Proper building regulations conserve health and safety, but do less for beauty. The year 1927 sees a zoning committee at work preparing regulations which will help the town in good looks more than may any other measure. The recently adopted planning board by-laws provide another medium which may make Nahant attractive or keep it so. Neither of these agencies are operative through other town offices or boards, but both, and all together, and the whole people with them, are needed for the full development of any place toward what it should be and can be without undue pressure or hardship upon any one. The selfish and self-seeking will find the contrary, have already found the contrary, but the whole people only need to understand measures for conserving community beauty and welfare in order to back them enthusiastically.
There is still the problem of the bad looking house or grounds, but much may be done by example and pattern to enlist the pride of all. It is as easy to get the good in design as the bad, and as cheap, but care is necessary. Black and white or any colors tend to be too busily combined in this jazz time of living; brick can pollute a countryside; and wood and paint can yield a horror in form and color. There is the newly organized Nahant Garden Club, also in the field to help Nahant. The agencies which would make Nahant better are astir and only need public support. Doubtless they will get it, for the heart of the public is sound. A few recalcitrants can be noisy and troublesome, but this means all the more need for the many to stand solidly behind what seem to be measures for better surroundings, better living, and a better community.
Botanically and geologically Nahant is also interesting. Mrs. Joseph T. Wilson, an enthusiastic student of Nahant wild flowers, collected over two hundred varieties into an herbarium which she later gave to the Public Library. Un- fortunately, herbariums need expert care and attention, and
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public library conditions are not conducive to their long life. Among the rarer things found here are the beach pea, the pimpernels, saltwort, sea rochette, seaside crowfoot and curled crowfoot. The two latter are very rare. Hudsonia tomentosa blooms along the way to Lynn in June. Then there is mossy stonecrop, only occasionally found in this country. Scotch lovage is scattered along the shores. Of several artemesias, one, the candita, is rare. There are rhodora, and cerastium arvense, the field chickweed. Pearl- wort, of the same family, is on Nahant, and is rare. The seaside spurge is always a curiosity.
The town is a storehouse to the student of geology. Space does not permit telling about it. The lecture by Professor Agassiz is a part of the story. Some of the rocks are old, belonging to the earliest formations, and some have come from far away, moved here by glacial action.
Then there are sea gardens in all the nooks of the shores, with weeds, mosses and curious sea creatures. These things are commonly overlooked, but are present to delight the soul and reward the efforts of the seeker after knowledge and beauty.
CHAPTER XV
CHURCHES
THE early people of Lynn were a religious and church- going group. This is not redundancy, for today one may be either religious or church-going, and not the other. Escaping more or less religious oppression by their removal to America, settlers everywhere seem to have been rather strict themselves.
The first minister in Lynn seems to have been Stephen Batchellor, who came in 1632 and was driven out in 1636 for serious irregularities in conduct. Before 1632 doubtless there were laymen's services with prayers, readings, singing and amateur preaching. The year 1636 saw the coming of Samuel Whiting, who settled in Lynn and was minister here until his death in 1679, at the age of eighty-two. He was a very much loved and respected pastor. In 1637 this settlement took the name of Lynn, or "Linn" as the records have it, and this is said to have been a compliment to Whiting, who came from the town of the same name in Norfolk County, England. He was called "Father of Lynn" and the "Angel of Lynn" by enthusiastic admirers, and he certainly led his flock well and deserved the admiration he received. His second wife, who came with him to America, was a cousin of Oliver Cromwell. A simple shaft marks his grave in the "Old Burying Grounds" in West Lynn.
These present writings will not trace out the churches in Lynn, although they were for Nahant as well. Nahant as a community set up its own churches, though in far later years, because there was no village until after 1800. One old item of Turner's journal for 1646 is, however, interesting to quote:
Allan Bridges hath bin chose to wake ye sleepers in meeting. And being much proude of his place, must needs have a fox taile fixed to ye end of a long staff wherewith he may brush ye faces of
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them yt will have napps in time of discourse: likewise a sharpe thorne wherewith he may prick such as be most sounde. On ye laste Lord his day, as hee strutted about ye meeting house, hee did spy Mr. Tomlins sleeping with much comforte, his head kept steadie by being in ye corner, and his hand grasping ye rail. And soe spy- ing, Allen did quicklie thrust his staff behind Dame Bullard and give him a grevious prick upon ye hand. Whereuppon Mr. Tomlins did spring upp mch above ye floore and with terrible force strike with his hand against ye wall, and also, to ye great wonder of all, prophainlie exclaim, in a loude voice, cuss ye woodchuck; he dream- ing, as it seemed, yt a woodchuck had seized and bit his hand. But on comeing to know where hee was and ye great scandal hee had com- mitted, he seemed mch abashed but did not speake. And I thinke hee will not soone againe go to sleepe in meeting. Ye women may sometimes sleepe and none know it, by reason of their enormous bonnets. Mr. Whiting doth pleasantlie say yt from ye pulpitt hee doth seem to be preaching to stacks of straw with men sitting here and there among them.
As early as 1820 services were regularly conducted in the "Old Stone Schoolhouse" by the Rev. Samuel J. May, whose life was published in 1873. He came to Nahant at the invita- tion of several summer residents to act as tutor to their children, and he "conducted the services of public worship each Sunday morning." His Sunday audiences were thirty or forty in number. His teaching was also in this building, which was school, library, church and meeting place for any village affairs.
The first church at Nahant is properly called the Nahant Church, but through custom it is more commonly mentioned as the Boston Church and sometimes as the Union Church. The former name came to it because it serves only in summer and was started and is maintained by the efforts of the summer residents, who were always called the "Boston People," as most of them came from Boston. The other name is because its services are of various denominations.
"The increase of visitors to Nahant, attracted by the Nahant Hotel, opened in 1823, and by the construction of many cottages for private families on adjoining lands, sug- gested to Mr. William Havard Eliot - who lived, in the
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summer of 1831, in the stone house next to the present church, now occupied by Mr. Charles R. Greene - a plan for building a chapel where different religious sects might assemble, and, as our tablet expresses it, 'Unite in the worship of God.'" A subscription paper dated July 24, 1831, was circulated and at a meeting in September, in Boston, at the office of William Appleton, it was decided to proceed with the erection of a building. Colonel Perkins, Hon. William Prescott and Hon. David Sears were a committee, while Judge Prescott was chairman of the group and Eliot, secretary. The latter, the prime mover in the enterprise, died before the building was completed, and his brother, Samuel A. Eliot, took his place in this activity. The first service was on July 8, 1832, and was conducted by the Rev. John Gorham Palfrey of Harvard University. The wardens for that year were Samuel A. Eliot and Frederic Tudor. In 1834 the bell was presented by the ladies among the summer residents, and is the same bell now in use in the present building. In 1846, under the direc- tion of the committee for that year, Charles Amory and John E. Lodge, the chapel was enlarged by the addition of two wings, making small transepts and adding sixteen pews. In 1862 this building was severely injured by a winter gale, and as a larger one was needed it was proposed to build a new chapel. F. C. Loring, John A. Blanchard and Samuel H. Russell were a committee to procure plans and estimates. It was not until 1868, however, that the old building was removed and the present structure built. This early building has been called a Tuscan type of chapel, and was of wood. Good photographs of it are extant, one of which is in the Nahant Public Library. The later building is the one still in use.
In the summer of 1868 this church was accommodated in the Village Church. "Under the direction of William Appleton, Esq., acting as committee for the year, services were conducted on the same plan as in their own chapel, both congregations sharing the sittings between them. The present chapel was opened in 1869 with dedicatory services on June 27 by the Rev. Andrew P. Peabody of Harvard University."
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The land for the original chapel was given by Cornelius Coolidge, and a later additional tract was bought through the efforts of James W. Paige. A glance over the lists of wardens, treasurers and trustees reveals a group of names familiar to old Nahanters and containing many that are great in the history of Boston, Massachusetts or America. The list of preachers also contains the names of some of the greatest of their times. There never was a settled minister, as the church was only of service during the summer season; and each season has seen various denominations represented. The quotations and much of this information about the "Nahant Church" are from the Appendix to a pamphlet entitled "A Sermon Preached in Commemoration of the Founders of the Nahant Church at the Dedication of a Tablet Erected to their Memory June 22nd, 1877: by Andrew P. Peabody, D.D." A copy of this is in the Nahant Public Library and contains lists of preachers, wardens, treasurers and trustees up to 1877. Per- haps the notable name is of Samuel H. Russell, because of his long service as treasurer, beginning in 1863 and ending with his death in 1894, at the age of seventy-one. A successor in this office was Frank Merriam, who died in 1923 at the age of seventy-three. He was a Nahant summer resident from his youth. He married a daughter of J. S. Lovering, another well- known summer-time man, whose son, Charles T. Lovering, married a daughter of Frederick R. Sears. It is also notable that in 1862 Charles F. Johnson, grandson of Caleb and son of C. Hervey, began to serve as sexton in this church, and is in his sixty-sixth year in this position in this year (1928).
The Village Church, standing in its present location, was built in 1851. A copy from the old records reads: "In the year of our Lord Eighteen Hundred and Fifty, early in the month of September, a meeting of the inhabitants of Nahant was called to learn the opinion of the people in regard to a subscription paper that had been put in circulation by Welcome W. Johnson and others for the purpose of erecting an Episcopal Meeting House." This meeting was in the old stone school- house, and William R. Johnson was chairman with William F.
The "Alice" in Mid Ocean
Nahant to Cowes, 1866. Painting by J. E. C. Peterson
Tudor's "Brick House;" Stone Fruit Storage Barn on Right Note old type lamp post
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Johnson secretary. The project for an Episcopal church was reconsidered, and with several denominations represented, no one of which could hope to build, or maintain worship, ballots were taken to determine which should have preference. The result favored the Methodists, and the name Independent Methodist Society was adopted. A committee was chosen to raise money to erect a house of worship, and another to procure a preacher for the following winter to hold services in the schoolhouse. As a result the Rev. Harry M. Bridge officiated until April, 1851. It is told that people attended evening services, bringing their lamps with them, as the schoolhouse was not provided with facilities for lighting. Services in the old Johnson homestead are also noted, but it is suggested that these may have been in 1851, in the interim between the tearing down of the old schoolhouse and the opening of the new church building.
In the meantime the building committee were at work. They were Dexter Stetson, Joseph Johnson, John Q. Hammond, Francis Johnson, Jesse Rice and Walter Johnson. The present main part of the building, setting lower than now, and without the tower and later rear addition, was dedicated on Sep- tember 25, 1851. The land was given by Caleb Johnson, who once owned most of the land along Nahant Road westerly as far as Pond Street. An addition to it was later given by James W. Paige. The eight hundred pound bell, still in use, was given by Dr. William R. Lawrence, who was a summer resident at Little Nahant, where he lived with his father, Amos Lawrence. The communion service was presented by a group of summer residents.
In 1872 came an unusual action. The town meeting warrant for March 7 contained this article. "To see if the town will appropriate money to raise the village church and belfry and put a town clock therein." Apparently no special provision was made for any ownership, and doubtless people knew it was proposed to build on land not owned by the town, so that ownership of what was done would actually vest in the owners of the land. There seems to have been some argument about
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it, for the vote finally passed appropriated money for a tower and clock, but contained the provision that "No part of the sum be expended to repair or beautify any church or building used for purely religious purposes." Probably a first thought would have been to put this clock tower on the town hall, but the more conspicuous position, visible over a greater area, made the church the best place for it. For years the town maintained the tower and clock and made annual appropria- tions for the care of clock and bell. Yet the bell was never bought by the town. Latterly, the question of the town's rights has arisen, and in recent repairs the town assumed liability only to the extent of protecting its clock, to which it might claim ownership as portable property. When this tower was built the church building was raised to its present level, providing the well-lighted basement used as a vestry and for Sunday school purposes. Formerly the bell hung in a little belfry on the front of the structure. The pulpit was high up in the air, as was the old custom. It was made and presented by Dexter Stetson, who was the builder of the church. The choir gallery was across the rear, also well elevated above the general floor level. Here was a little organ played by succeeding amateur performers; and here it was most difficult to be always quite stately and properly dignified, with the minister looking straight across the room over the heads of the congregation. In later years this was changed. The old choir gallery was removed, giving the space in the rear as now. The pulpit was lowered to a more comfortable location, and the choir was moved up to the corner at the right of the minister, taking out several pews that faced crosswise and were not very much used. Then in 1907 a pipe organ was installed, and in 1914 an addition was made in the rear, giving parlors above and kitchen below, and opening into the main church through a new doorway which necessitated the removal of the crosswise pews in the other corner. Thus the church came to its present appearance and facilities. It has always had a loyal band of workers, who have, in many instances, made it their church, regardless of the denomination with which they
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may have been affiliated in other places. The ministers do much to point the way toward liberality or restriction, but in the main it has been an open policy institution with a long list of preachers who have striven hard and capably and have done good in the town. A list of them here follows:
W. R. Clarke 1853-54
Oliver Huckel 1890
Henry W. Webber
1855-56
William A. Mansell . 1890
H. V. Degen
1856
John Willetts 1890-91
Allen Gammett
1857
D. A. Denton . 1891-92
C. N. Smith
1858-59
Will L. Holmes
1892-94
Stephen Cushing
1860-66
Frank E. Dodds
1894-96
Timothy Atkinson 1866-67
Clement E. Holmes
1896-97
George G. Jones
1868
H. Mckinney
1899-1900
Joseph B. Hamblin
1869
F. M. Swinehart
1900-02
David H. Jemison
1902-05
William E. Huntington
1871-72
Arthur S. Burrill
1905-08
Fales H. Newhall
1874
W. B. Ronald
1909-12
J. W. Dearborn
1874-78
Elmer Jones
. 1913-14
M. E. Wright . 1878-80
Denver C. Pickens
1914-17
Jonathan Neal
1881-85
Frank S. Hickman
1917-19
A. W. Seavey .
1886
Dwight M. Beck
· 1919-24
A. Lee Holmes
1887-89
E. E. Tillotson
· 1924-27
.
Charles A. Bowen
1898
Wilbur F. Crafts
1870
Davis W. Clarke
1873
.
In 1876 a Young Men's Christian Association was formed, chiefly through efforts of Rev. J. W. Dearborn, then pastor. A piece of land on Summer Street was given by Mrs. Tudor, and a small building was erected. The association flourished for a while and then gradually faded to nothing. After some years of disuse the property was sold to Thomas Roland, who remodelled it into a house which he now owns.
The first Roman Catholic Church services were held in the Nahant Church on Cliff Street in 1866, or about then. The pamphlet published with the dedication of a tablet in this church in 1877 states that "the Reverend Patrick Strain of Lynn, and others of his church, preached and said mass for members of the Roman Catholic Church in the old chapel, till they built a chapel for themselves at Nahant." There is a discrepancy here, for the "old chapel" was torn down in 1868 and the Roman Catholic Church was built in 1872, with the tower added in 1874. People remember services in the Town
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Hall, then the new Town Hall, on Pleasant Street, now occupied by the American Legion Post. Probably this was during this interim. Until 1902 this church was a mission from Lynn. The Rev. Patrick Strain, rector of St. Mary's Parish in Lynn, was in charge of it until 1893, when he was succeeded by the Rev. A. J. Teeling, then pastor of St. Mary's Parish.
In 1901 this church building was raised, providing a liberal basement used for church activities and bringing the structure to its present appearance. In 1902 the Nahant Catholic community was set apart as a separate parish, and the Rev. Francis P. Hannawin was pastor until 1913. The parish bought the Worthen A. Gove house as a rectory. This was the original Gove on Nahant, and the father of a family of sons and daughters, most of whom lived on Nahant for several years, while one, Charles E. Gove, spent his life here. He died in 1920, well within the recollection of even newcomers to town. This house was used as a rectory until 1916, when the property now so occupied was purchased. The Gove house was moved back to a location opening on Highland Road and remodelled. This allowed the more spacious grounds now enjoyed by the church and rectory. The 1916 purchase was known as the F. Henry Johnson house. Johnson was of the old Nahant Johnsons, as will be found elsewhere. A son of the same name, but known as Harry Johnson, has for years lived in summer in his house on Highland Road, until his death in 1927. He is of the firm of White & Johnson, with a summer shop on Summer Street. This house was renovated and somewhat remodelled, but without much changing its already dignified appearance, during the incumbency of Father O'Connor, who was succeeded by the Rev. J. F. Kelley in 1919, while the present pastor, the Rev. William J. Reardon, came in 1922. Before the church was built, a Sunday school was held in the schoolhouse, and in 1872 Mrs. Dwight estab- lished the school in the new building, where it was later carried on by Miss Veronica Dwight, a daughter and the sister of Dr. Thomas Dwight. Father Strain and Father Teeling, in later years, were both given the title Monsignor.
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The Roman Catholics of these earlier days were mostly the Irish. Just when the first Irishman settled on Nahant is hard to establish, but probably the first comer was John Farrell. He is said to have been here before 1840, but the Welcome W. Johnson list of inhabitants of 1847 does not mention him. His first home was in a stone shack near the ledge back of the street car station on the present Relay House grounds. This building was built by William Luscomb, grandfather of William Luscomb, later well known on Nahant. Then he built and occupied the house on Spring Road, northerly from Mitchell's Corner, now owned by P. J. O'Connor. John Farrell will be well remembered by old Nahanters. He died in 1885, aged seventy-seven. Perhaps the second Irishman to come to Nahant was Patrick O'Shaughnessy, father of James C. Shaughnessy, the latter well known in town today, where he has served as selectman and is now serving as assessor. The father first lived in a little house, now gone, near the Morris Higgins house. The latter was the first house in Short Beach Village, or Irishtown, as it used to be called. It was built by Samuel, or Nelson, Tarbox, who bought the land from Alonzo Lewis.
The 1847 list of inhabitants contains the name of Mrs. Donham, who is said to have been the widow of Michael Donham named as an early Nahant Irishman who went to California in the gold rush around 1849 and did not return. Another named Follen went from Nahant to California earlier than 1849. He is not related to Edward Follen who came later. Then there was Patrick Riley who enlisted from Nahant for the Civil War and whose name is on the Civil War Soldiers Monument in Greenlawn Cemetery. The five who apparently may be reckoned the earliest to come to Nahant and stay, with descendants also here, are John Farrell, Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Michael Carroll, Morris Higgins, and John Flynn, though Edward J. Hyde was born on Nahant in 1857, a son of William Hyde, who therefore dates back among the early ones. Coming down to fifty years or so ago there are many more, - Lane, Larkin, Killilae, Mitchell, Linehan,
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