USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Nahant > Some annals of Nahant, Massachusetts > Part 9
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With regard to the motion, we may observe that it depends, not so much on the slope down which a glacier moves, as on the amount of moisture that penetrates its mass, and the difference of temperature to which its lower end is exposed. A glacier may move as rapidly on an inclination of three or four degrees as of twenty degrees. Now a sheet of ice extending from the pole to the temperate regions would be affected by different temperature, as are the currents in the sea that flow to the south. The motion of these currents is not made by a sloping surface, but by a difference of temperature. The same phenomena would be produced by the same agency, in ice. It would move from the north to the south. Moreover, had these phenomena been produced by water, we should find indications of animal life in all their deposits. Again, water would not grind the materials into unstratified mud, and it would produce an undulating irregularity of surface. At Castle Rock we have the two classes of facts and the two agencies brought face to face.
I have already said that I cannot explain the cause or origin of the cold necessary to this extension of the glacial agency. But one of its wonderful results, showing the finger of Providence, was to grind the surface of the rocky layers over which the icy masses passed into the materials for the tracts of fertile soil, destined to the support of the animal kingdom, with man standing at its head. It may have been a secular winter - a geological winter pre- paratory to the spring, that led in the summer in which we now live. When the autumn and winter of this year of creation is destined to come, still remains to be seen.
HYPNODES.
"Felton was peculiarly susceptible to the soporific influences of Nahant air, so he takes for his signature the Greek word which means a sleepy fellow." - NOTE BY WINTHROP.
CHAPTER VII PROCESSION OF EVENTS
IT is interesting to compare, or to group together, the events of the one locality under discussion with other happenings in the broader field of the world's activities. The year 1706, when Nahant was divided among the freeholders of Lynn, was the year of Benjamin Franklin's birth. In Boston, where he was born, the graves of his parents in the old Granary Burying Ground are visited today by those acquiring the historical flavor of the city. The following years saw bitter struggles for supremacy over the Indians; then the contests with the French, with the expedition to Louisburg under Sir William Pepperell, that man with the almost unique distinction of being an American knighted by the King of England; also the ill-fated Braddock expedition and Washington's experiences which aided him in his military work of later years. Then came the Stamp Act in 1765, the Boston Massacre in 1770, and the Boston Tea Party in 1773. In these latter years the three families of Breed, Johnson and Hood were living on Nahant, and descendants of the last two are still there. Feeling against the levy on tea ran high in Lynn, and at a town meeting in December, 1773, resolutions were adopted not allowing any tea to be landed or sold in Lynn, and pledging support to our "Brothers of Boston or elsewhere whenever our aid shall be required, in repelling all attempts to land or sell any teas poisoned with a duty." The closing of the Port of Boston after the "tea party" led to several meetings in Lynn; dele- gates were chosen to assemblies elsewhere, and a committee of safety was formed. Lynn men went to Lexington and four were killed there. In June, 1775, the Provincial Congress recommended the carrying of arms to meeting on Sundays,
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and other days when worship was held, by the men who lived within twenty miles of the seacoast. The Rev. John Treadwell, a member of the Committee of Safety, appeared on the Sabbath with his cartridge box under one arm and his sermon under the other, and went into the pulpit with his musket loaded. Three watches were stationed each night, one of which was on Sagamore Hill, overlooking Nahant Beach. Then came the Battle of Bunker Hill, where a Lynn regiment participated. Once, in 1776, there was an alarm at midnight, that some English troops had landed at Kings Beach, the next beach towards Swampscott from Long Beach, which latter is mostly in Nahant. In a short time the town was in an uproar. Many fled to the woods, but some soldiers were rallied and marched down to Woodend, where the alarm was found to be false. It was during this scare that a young officer, supposed to be on duty, could not be found. Lewis says that a little later he emerged from a large old-fashioned brick oven into which his fear had driven him. Perhaps he thought it better to be bad for something than good for nothing, but doubtless his mates saw not much difference.
Under date of 1777 Newhall makes entry, in Lewis and Newhall's "History of Lynn," of a curious custom relating to smallpox. This was a few years before Dr. Jenner introduced vaccination. Smallpox was a dreaded disease and pock- marked faces were common. Groups of people retired to con- venient places with nurses and all the needed things and were inoculated with the disease. Taken in this way it was thought to be milder, and at least was probably less likely to prove fatal because of the more favorable conditions. "Lynn, Mass., May 14, 1777. There was a company of us went to Marblehead to have small pox." They took two doctors and a nurse. There were nineteen patients in all and all came home well. The memorandum bears the certificate from Marblehead authori- ties: "By virtue of this certificate permit ye within mentioned person, after being smoked, to pass ye guards. John Gerry." This sort of thing seems incredible, although perhaps it is fairly comparable with some medical or surgical practices of today.
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The year 1783 saw the close of the wearisome war which, on the whole, was a gloomy period. Lewis says Lynn had one hundred and sixty-eight men in the Revolutionary War, of whom fifty-two were lost, besides the four killed at Lexington. The people of the time before the Revolution were a plain, plodding, matter-of-fact sort. Railroads and steamboats were not even imagined; the stage coach and omnibus were mostly unknown, and when a kind of coach appeared it was a crude vehicle, passing through Lynn twice a week on the way to and from Boston. A wealthy farmer kept a chaise, used mostly on Sundays or on an infrequent trip to a near-by town. People walked three miles and more to meeting on Sunday, or a man rode on horseback with his wife up behind him. Now they want the garage close to the front door. A family, perhaps, rode in chairs placed in a two-wheeled cart. A four-wheeled wagon was first seen in Lynn about 1770. The doctor went on horseback with saddle bags full of medicines, for apothecaries were rare. There were no lectures, libraries, theatres or con- certs. Even shopping, dear now to some hearts, was difficult, as the shops were few and carried mostly only a limited variety of very necessary articles.
The flight of time in old New England was marked by sun dials out of doors and by noon marks and hour glasses within doors, though rarely by water clocks. Clocks were known, however. In 1677 E. Needham of Lynn left a striking clock and a watch in his estate. Judge Sewall wrote in 1687: "Got home rather before twelve both by my clock and dial." Twenty years later clocks were more plentiful. Early forms of oil lamps were used, with tallow, grease or fish oil, and soon candles were run in moulds. By 1750 the whaling industry brought about spermaceti candles, described as far better than the tallow candles of the period. As for heat, the early houses were very cold. Great fireplaces could not suffice. Around 1700 stoves are mentioned, though not in common use until later. Philadelphia fire stoves, later called Franklin stoves, came into use early. But the life and comfort of early homes centered around the great fireplaces in the old New England
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kitchens, with all their appurtenances which have now become curiosities sought and prized by the antique collector. Even up to a very recent date cold bedrooms were the rule in average houses, and feather beds were commonly used, with very heavy quilts and coverings. Many people can remember the use of warming pans, those articles now chiefly curiosities that fall down with a clatter whenever they are touched.
Our ancestors seem to have eaten chiefly with knives, spoons and fingers. Forks began to appear a little before 1700. In 1633 some one sent a table fork to Governor Winthrop, "for the useful applycation of which I leave to your discretion." The Pilgrims had a few mugs and jugs, but had little other earthenware and no china. China ware was not much known until Revolutionary times. Wooden trenchers were the table ware, and as late as 1775 at least one advertisement shows them to have been an article of common sale. They were simply hollowed-out blocks of wood. Pewter ware, however, was coming in about as America was settled, and the trade of pewterer was an influential and respected one in both New England and old England. Much old pewter is now extant in antique collections, but the old wooden ware has mostly dis- appeared. There was a little glass and it was valued, but by Revolutionary times it was quite common.
As for food, fish was very important, with corn, and a far more limited list than was available to later people, even before modern transportation brought foods from all over the world. As for potatoes, those that were mentioned were sweet potatoes. The Irish potato - a native of South America, but called Irish because Ireland grew it in large quantities - was introduced to America by way of England about 1745. Much has been written about every phase of this old colonial life and times. Lynn was a part of it and Nahant was a part of Lynn, which then included Swampscott, Saugus, Reading, North Reading, Lynnfield and Nahant; a district much larger than Lynn of today, and settled in several villages which grew and one by one sheared away from Lynn, the old third plantation, as it was called. Perhaps just the whiff of this old life, given in these
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few paragraphs, may be a reminder how far living has travelled and varied from the times these hardy settlers knew.
In religion these generations were all fundamentalists, as the name goes today, seemingly understood by all. Nothing on earth could be older than Noah's flood, and to doubt this was blasphemy. A vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge discovered, in 1660, that man was created on October 23, 4004 B.C., at nine o'clock in the morning. The earth, in those times, was the center of the universe, around which all suns, stars and moons revolved. Even by 1800 the Coperni- can theory of the universe, with the old earth a speck among specks running at tremendous speed around the sun, was a dangerously materialistic doctrine to some professors in American colleges.
The year 1808 saw what was perhaps the only bull fight ever staged in New England, on the turnpike to Boston. Bulls and dogs were used. Raised seats for spectators made a proper arena, but the sport, crime or outrage (use any name) was not continued.
In the War of 1812 the schooner "Dolphin," owned at Nahant, was sold, from fear of the English cruisers, and the settlement was left without a vessel. Soon after peace was declared Caleb Johnson bought the "Jefferson," which had been used as a privateer, although she appears to have been of only fourteen tons burden, carrying one gun and twenty men. She was used as an excursion boat and for fishing until 1816, when she was sold and broken up. She was replaced on Nahant by a new boat named the "Dolphin." During this war it is said that the English ships frequently sailed by Nahant so near to Bass Point that the men on deck could be plainly seen, and fishermen were often captured or their catch requisitioned. E. J. Johnson says: "Mrs. Polly Hood remem- bered seeing Uncle Billy Breed ride from his tavern to Lynn on horseback, with a bag of money behind him, frightened at the appearance of the English ships."
In June, 1813, the English frigate "Shannon" approached Boston Harbor and challenged the United States ship "Chesa-
Tudor's High Fence around Peach Orchard Across Ocean Street from present Davis House
The Last "Lone Tree" on Long Beach About half way over, called the Half Way Trees
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peake," lying in the harbor, to battle. The hills and house tops were crowded with spectators, many coming to Nahant for a better view of the encounter, which was in plain sight a few miles away. Such an event seems to have been a polite thing in those days, and safe to watch. The English vessel was the victor and sailed away to Halifax with her prize. A round cast-iron ball dug up on Nahant some time since brought the query as to whether it could have come ashore from that battle, but the only reason to suppose so appears to be that this engagement first suggests itself as a possible cause.
Brook's "History of Medford" says that about 1815, "when only a few persons resided at Nahant, it was the custom for families in Medford to join in parties to that beautiful promon- tory. From ten to twenty chaises would start together, and, reaching their destination, the ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, would proceed to fishing from rocks and boats. Each one wore the commonest clothes and the day was passed in all sorts of sports. A fish dinner was an agreed part of the fare."
The year 1816 was the year without a summer, nicknamed eighteen hundred and freeze to death, with a frost in every month. A great horse trot took place on the turnpike, called one of the first of such in the country. The best time for three miles was a little over eight minutes. There is a record of an earlier race on Long Beach. The "Boston Gazette" for October 20, 1760, has an item as follows: "These are to notify all Gentlemen that there is a Horse Race to be run on the 23rd instant, at a place called Lynn Beach, for fifty pounds sterling. This money is given by private gentlemen as an encouragement, in order to procure a good breed of Horses. Any gentleman that pleases to put in a horse must deposit three pounds sterling as a reserve for stakes to be run for the next day. Any Horse that does not come within the distance by thirty rods is not to run again. Each heat stop a half an hour and rub." Evidently this hard sand beach was deemed the best place for such an event.
After the great business depression of 1829 and earlier the whole country had a period of expansion and ample business,
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and from 1830 to 1836 this was feverish. Western emigration had begun to what are now called the Central States, such as Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Missouri. Ohio was the queen of the West. Great fortunes were made and lost in this decade of the 30's. Cotton was coming to be a great crop, and Mobile, Alabama, jumped its real estate valuations from four million in 1833 to twenty-seven million in 1837, whence it fell to seven million in 1838. Land speculation was wildly indulged, and in the East as well as the West. Paper was wasted, as much as at any time since then, showing valuable corner lots in hypothetical cities, where was only a wilderness, and where today the wilderness continues. The Erie Canal was built and then enlarged; and then land around the Great Lakes took on fictitious values. A conservative has been defined as a person who never likes to see a thing done for the first time, but a proper percentage of his qualities is always needed to leaven and sober the wild, booming optimism of times and events that move with a rush.
Lynn shared in all this, profited by the business activity and wasted money in the speculative orgies. There were about sixty streets in the city in 1831, and about one hundred and three in 1840. But in 1836 came disaster. Crops of all great staples failed. There were frosts in every month and much drought in many parts of the country. In fact, the troubles were in Europe as well as America. Large banks and business houses in England failed, many of them with obligations across the water. Business explosions were common everywhere. "Who has failed now?" seemed to become a common form of greeting as people met together. The recoil on Lynn, with its extensive shoe business, was overwhelming. Workers were fortunate who had home-raised pork and potatoes to rely upon. There were clams and eels and dandelions, with haddock cheap at Swampscott and Nahant.
The spring of 1837 opened gloomily for Lynn, and people were surprised when the Eastern Railroad Company announced it would build a railroad between Boston and Salem. A rail- road was a new thing, and people supposed it would be im-
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possible to get off the track in season to avoid the engine if it was within sight. Gangs of Irish laborers were set to work. Large-scale immigration was new, fostered by the railroad and canal building. There were about twenty-five miles of rail- roads in the United States in 1830, and eleven hundred miles in 1835. The building of the railroad through Lynn furnished some spare material from cuts, which was used in part on the streets. Union Street, and a piece of low land adjacent, was raised so no part of it was under water in the spring rains, as it had been formerly. It was then called Estes Lane. This rail- road was opened in August, 1838, for public travel. From Salem onward the main line reached Portsmouth twelve or fifteen years later. The line from Salem to Lowell was opened in 1850, the Saugus Branch in 1853, and the Marblehead Branch in 1873. James R. Newhall writes that "in 1836 twenty-three stages left Lynn Hotel for Boston daily, and there were likewise numerous extras. They belonged to the great Eastern and Salem lines. Oftentimes they were well filled on their arrival at Lynn, and the cry 'stage full' fell upon the ear of the hurrying man of business in a way anything but pleasant. A great many, however, drove to Boston in their own vehicles. And there were numerous fast horses about town."
There was a rally in business in 1838, but it was of short duration. Troubles were renewed in 1839, when England suffered reverses again. Great banks went down, including the Bank of the United States. Politicians took up the sub- ject, with "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" as a war cry in the presidential election in 1840. Log cabins were emblems, and hard cider, both carried in political processions. Enthusiasm ran high, - higher than in most campaigns mere moderns know. Log cabin style houses were built, including one example on Nahant. Alonzo Lewis, the historian and sur- veyor, planned it for Joseph G. Joy in 1841. The house on its site was called the log cabin, even to within the memory of present-day Nahanters, though the original was long since replaced. The logs for this house were brought by vessel from Maine by Dexter Stetson, the contractor, mentioned elsewhere.
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The house, or its successor, is now owned and occupied by Arthur S. Johnson, who is a long-time summer resident of Nahant, well known in Boston as one of the makers and up- builders of the Young Men's Christian Association of that city. He is a son of the late Samuel Johnson, who was also a summer resident, living in the house on Nahant Road opposite the "Edgehill" owned by J. Bishop Johnson and his heirs until recently. Samuel Johnson with his brother Edward C. Johnson, another Nahanter in summer, who lived on the shore at the foot of Pleasant Street, were for a generation heads of the well-known Boston dry goods house of C. F. Hovey & Co., and the former was frequently called, in brief, one of the pillars of the Old South Church. In 1921 his portrait was presented to the Old South Society, and an editorial com- ment on it in the "Boston Herald" set forth his many good works and said that "his greatest monument is the stately Old South Church on Copley Square." These Johnsons are not closely related to the large Nahant Johnson family so fre- quently mentioned herein, but they always have been strongly interested in all things relating to the town. They are, how- ever, descended from Edward Johnson, a brother of Jonathan Johnson, the first Johnson on Nahant. Edward Johnson seems to have been one of those who went post haste to the Battle of Lexington, while his brother, "Trooper Johnson," living on Nahant and getting the news later, mounted his horse, so it is said, and galloped away for the fray, only to arrive too late to be of service.
In the same year, 1841, the first daguerreotype picture was taken in Lynn with a cumbersome outfit from France, where it had just before been invented. This was the first practical method for photography. It was later superseded by other ways which have been improved gradually to what is in common use today. The tintype, however, is a development from the daguerreotype, and has persisted in use even today because of the speed of the whole operation. This makes it available for amusement resorts, as there is no waiting for the finished picture, and it is in such uses that it is commonly found.
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The gold rush to California, which gave so many men the title "forty-niner," saw many enthusiasts start away from Lynn. A list published in December, 1849, contains one hundred and seventy-eight names, including two women. A good short account of this is in an article by Warren M. Breed of Lynn, published by the Lynn Historical Society in Sep- tember, 1926. Apparently an early starter was Edward Kirke Johnson of Nahant, a son of Joseph Johnson and grandson of the original Jonathan Johnson. His is the first name in the list above mentioned. His brothers Daniel Alfred and Franklin Everett Johnson, also went. Doubtless there were others from Nahant, but information is lacking. These three Johnsons all subsequently returned to Nahant. Alfred turned his given names around to avoid the inconvenience of using his middle name, and was Alfred D. Johnson. He was elected town clerk in 1857, and in thirty-four annual elections thereafter, and died in office in 1890 at the age of seventy. He also served on the school committee as noted in the lists of town officers. He was the founder of Johnson's Express, running from Nahant to Boston, of which more is told elsewhere. He built the house on Nahant Road opposite the Village Church, about 1845. It was subsequently owned and occupied by his brother, Franklin E. Johnson, until the latter's removal to the home of his daughter in Winchester, where he died. Alfred Johnson lived for many years on Prospect Street, owning a house occupied for a time by Henry T. Dunham and apparently built by Captain Henry Dunham, mentioned elsewhere. This house has been extensively remodelled since, and is now owned by Fred L. Timmins. Franklin Johnson owned the property ad- jacent, now used by the A. and P. store, and from there all the buildings down to Summer Street, which were at times divided into four stores, and which are very little changed today. The shop nearest Johnson's house will be remembered by many as "Gurneys." It was a small shop selling smokers' goods, a little candy, some fishing tackle and other oddments, and its proprietor, Captain William Gurney, was one of the charac- ters of the vicinity on account of his dry, cackling humor. He
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was a brother to Serena, wife of F. Henry Johnson mentioned elsewhere. He died in 1898 at the age of seventy-eight.
Kirke Johnson, as he was known, was another of the charac- ters of the town. He was an out-of-doors man, who knew much about nature and her ways, and who enjoyed telling nature stories to children. He was something of a faddist. Once he invited a boy to go to the Maolis Gardens and dine with him. The boy assumed a big fish dinner at the restaurant, but Uncle Kirke took him down to the rocks and shared a pocketful of nuts with him while he expatiated on the virtues of raw and natural food. Probably the boy did not care for the exposition or illustration.
Once, the story goes, illustrating his uniform politeness, a Nova Scotia lumber laden schooner ran down his dory when he was out fishing. He climbed aboard over the bow and appeared before the crew. It was about dusk and this was the first they knew of any man or dory. He took his hat in his hand, saying, "Good evening, gentlemen. You ran over my boat." They thought old Neptune was among them, for he had the long white hair and beard which graced his later years.
Kirke Johnson was a shrewd Yankee, with many ideas which almost came to fruition bringing fortune, but falling short in some particular and yielding only disappointment. As an example of this, it is said that in 1872 he was on the train to New York at the time of the great Boston fire, and knew that the wool district was gone, and Boston was a great wool center. At once he went around New York taking options on all the wool he could get, knowing that the price would rise. But with not enough money to cover his options, the dealers were glad to cancel them, for prices did rise. If he had carried his scheme far enough to take in a temporary partner with plenty of money, the execution of his plan would have been completed. With the options as held doubtless this would have been easy to do. At one time he sold cereals, proclaiming the virtues of the whole kernel long before the days of bran and whole wheat, which are now so common. On Nahant, at least, he made
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