Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts, embracing a history of the county from its first settlement to the present time, with a history and description of its towns and cities. The Most historic county of America., Part 10

Author: Tracy, Cyrus M. (Cyrus Mason), 1824-1891, et al. Edited by H. Wheatland
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Boston, C. F. Jewett
Number of Pages: 450

USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts, embracing a history of the county from its first settlement to the present time, with a history and description of its towns and cities. The Most historic county of America. > Part 10

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).

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

ran the coaches on the old plan of alternate days, leaving Portsmouth for Boston at nine, A. M., reaching Topsfield by dinner-time, and Bos- ton by night. Next day they returned by the same route, which ran in part over the famous Newburyport Turnpike, and otherwise through Danversport and Salem. Again, we hear of driving through Rowley and Ipswich, and probably both lines were used, according to some plan not now recollected. Topsfield thus became a place of import- ance, either that or Wenham being the "halfway " from Newburyport to Boston. Large meetings were often held in this heart of the county, and John Adams writes of a great Topsfield caucus, in 1808, that opposed the embargo.

The Eastern Stage Company were an acknowledged power for a long time. Once they said to the Newburyport Turnpike that they might accept $700 per annum for tolls, or they would send their coaches by the Old Town Bridge. With them, we may almost say, originated the notorious phrase and doctrine, " All baggage at the risk of the owners," for they announced it by vote in April, 1819, and again in 1826 and 1829. But, after a while, they found that law eould not sustain them without something like personal service in every case, and as the best thing they could think of, they posted their notice in every tavern, and actually served it on every bank president in the region.

The company met with all success. They had no accidents, and committed few blunders. Their property, both real and movable, largely and rapidly increased, and the year 1833 saw them free from debt, and with a business that needed and employed five hundred horses. In October, 1834, the stock was worth $202.13 ; par value, $100. The next year they were paying eight to nine thousand dollars yearly tolls, adding constantly to their landed property, and feeling secure against all competition. At that time, the present centres of travel and intelligence were, perhaps, not heard of, or were lying, like latent buds, waiting for the eouiing influence to awaken them ; while another class, the eminent positions of that day, were swelling in their conseious importance, and not staying to think or fear that anything could ever arise to change or set aside their title to the best of local greatness.

And yet it was even then coming. While the stage company, with its confederated brethren from other sections, were rejoicing in full prosperity ; while they were junketing at their business meetings, and looking over the grand roads they occupied, and grand hotels they patronized, "Gilman's and the Wolfe at Newburyport, the Sun Tav- ern and the Lafayette Coffee House at Salem, the Ann Street Stage House, and the City Tavern in Boston," and Breed's well-noted hos- telry in Lynn, where twenty-three stages stopped per day, going to Boston, and, perhaps, as many returning, and where faithful old True Moody, the sable hostler, gathered a competency and purchased a home with the ninepences stored in his mouth while changing horses ; while all this was going on, the air was beginning to tremble, in the shadowy and unknown distance, with the roar and screech of the rail- road train and its nnearthly whistle, - sounds of doom, indeed, for all that pertained to the glory of that ancient regime ; sounds of judg- ment that, when uttered, should reverse the currents of public transit, should create new cities in the forest, and feed them with the life- blood of every old metropolis. The iron-horse soon came riding into Essex, as those old-fashioned stage-worthies must have thought, like a very fiend in armor, and all their glory began to wane, and their prosperity to melt away before their eyes. The Eastern Stage Com- pany faced the invasion bravely, and tried every expedient to prevent being thrown from their feet ; tried to sell horses, to sell real estate, to reduce wages, - everything, but without effect ; and finally, in Feb- ruary, 1838, broke up the corporation, and sold their remaining assets for the most they could get for them. The official existence ended June 26, 1838. Yet they had not done so very ill. "During twenty years," reports the president, Col. Henry Whipple, "the holders of stock received eight and one-third per cent. in dividends annually, and after

paying all debts, between $66 and $67 on each share. It does not appear that a passenger was ever killed or injured." The number of coaches despatched was often prodigions. June 1, 1813, when the unfortu- nate action of the "Chesapeake " and " Shannon " occurred, one hun- dred and twenty stages, crowded full, went up from Salem to Boston.

But we have at length traced this investigation down to the point where the impatient spirit of a growing people refused longer to be satisfied with any arrangement that could be made for their transpor- tation by animal muscle. The demand was for speedier movement, especially for the longer routes ; and hardly less for a broader accom- modation, by which a greater number could find carriage at a given honr. Had the question been only one of short distances, the chance for the new mode would have been much less flattering ; but so it was, that the short distances were worth little more to the stages than to the railroads. It would have been easy for the stages to scatter their routes among rural towns, where their antagonist would never pursue them, and thus keep themselves in modified activity ; but this would never support the enterprise. Only the " through lines " were of much use to anybody; and on these the quickest time and the largest accommodation were sure to command and control the track, and so the event proved.

Yet, curiously enough, the railroad did not, at first, invade any stage route of importance. The Eastern Stage Company, in its latter despairs, had offered to make joint effort with others, and sell five miles of the Newburyport Turnpike for a railroad bed ; but all without success. Indeed, it seemed not so easy for the new system to make immediate entry over the track of the coaches in the more important lines ; but the Boston and Lowell Railroad, that had at last found a foothold in Middlesex County, first pierced the flank of Essex by a branch track, that ran up through Wilmington and entered Andover. This was March 15, 1833 ; by April 7, 1835, it had crept on toward its inevitable destiny as far as Haverhill ; April 5, 1837, it had crossed the town to the New Hampshire line, and obtained the name of the Andover and Haverhill Railroad Corporation. Meanwhile, the stroke of fate was even more plainly felt in New Hampshire, whose Legisla- ture, June 27, 1835, had incorporated the " Boston and Maine Rail- road," and given it such a location as enabled a ready junction with the advancing line in Massachusetts. And this was really effected, February 22, 1841, when the latter, which had been re-christened as the " Boston and Portland Railroad Corporation," April 3, 1839, was definitely united with its eastern co-workers, and thus fully accom- plished the fact of an active and influential existence.

But the advocates of railroad improvement in southern Essex were not going to be left behind by their fellows at the north. At length, April 14, 1836, they obtained a charter for the "Eastern Railroad," from Boston to Salem. The choice of routes was not easy. They could go by the line, nearly, of old Boston Street ; passing Lynn by the Strawberry Brook valley, and entering Salem from the west. They could easily secure the Boston end of the Salem Turnpike, and either diverge at Lynn, or go through Great Pasture by a series of elevated grades. Either of these would have entered Boston withont water-carriage ; but they were not so firm in the saddle as not to prize a valuable ally, and the good-will of the East Boston Land Company was very much of this kind. It was thus decided to occupy a ronte still nearer the shore ; and after deep-cutting the troublesome hills of Chelsea, to risk the long and tedious exposure of an embankment across the marshes of Saugus and Lynn to a solid, though uninviting, position at Breed's Wharf, near Axey's Point in the latter town. From this, eastward, the advantages of this route were no doubt real enough, both as to the passage of the "Great Pasture," and the entrance of the city of Salem itself; but the marsh section was long. much in danger, and wholly incapable of productiveness, while the terminus at East Boston compelled an entrance into the metropolis by a ferry-boat, which, even at that day, had not become the safe and well-managed

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

thing afforded by the present day. And, indeed, the doubt may well arise whether the eligibility of the approach to Salem on the south was not more than neutralized, when the road came to be extended, by the peculiar difficulty of leaving it on the north. It finally, as is well- known, had to be effected by a long and costly tunnel, laid through one of the most busy streets and under another, and inevitably interfering with and narrowing the comfortable use of the thoroughfare through which it passed. Nor indeed, were the hopes well realized, that by the near-shore line the amount of land-damage would be peculiarly small ; for it happened that the route selected cast them upon lands owned or controlled by parties in the interest of the turnpike and the stage com- pany, and these were not in haste to forget that it gave them an opportunity against their destroyer they never might have again.

But it was carried through, and opened for travel Angust 27, 1838. A new era of travel dawned at once on the wondering eyes of the shore-people of Essex. A stage could only carry twelve, or possibly fifteen ; but here were half a dozen such stages, or cars, holding as many, conpled together, with a single machine, scarcely bigger than a good-sized horse, taking them along at a pace that Peter Ray, with his annual load of Harvard graduates, had never thought of attaining. The hundred and twenty coaches of the sad Chesapeake day had carried, probably, not far from eighteen hundred persons, and the day's work was monstrous. But the cars took eleven hundred the first day, with no fatigue to anybody, kept it up day after day, and in about a month ran it up to sixteen hundred, while crowds of curious spectators gathered near the depot at each arrival and departure. The daily average for the first three months was three hundred and forty-eight persons. And these were taken into Boston, even across the ferry, in not more than forty minutes, with the confident hope of bringing the time down to thirty-two minutes ; which, however, has hardly been realized.

So began the Eastern Railroad, "that giant," as Henry F. Durant once expressed it, " that has stretched forth its arm, and laid, literally, a hand of iron upon the bosom of Essex County." The cars were at first short and small, for the present long car was not yet invented. But when, as it soon happened, twelve or fifteen cars had to be put into one train, it quickly appeared that room could be economized, and with it wheel-gcar saved and comfort ampli- fied. So the cars were made longer, with platforms and steps, and doors in the ends ; and by another year the trains looked singularly unlike what, at first, they had been. And then began the day of ex- tension. Marblehead was a place of importance ; she had wealth to put in the scale ; she must be secured. A branch road to Marblehead, by way of the Forest River Mills, put in operation December 10, 1839, made the trip to the home of stout old Mugford and Gerry, almost as quick and short as it had ever been over the ferry at Naugns Head. Previously a communication had been held by a stage running from a small station in Swampscott, near the Stetson farm. Eight days after, December 18, 1839, the cars ran through the Salem Tunnel and to Ipswich. There they halted awhile; for the strongest powers of Essex South were all propitiated. But the road was growing, like the gourd of the prophet. By the next sum- mer, June 19, 1840, it had its cars running to Newburyport ; and the same season, November 9, 1840, it had overleapcd the Merrimac, bridging the stream on the piers of the old structure, over the heads of the few, slow-rolling stages that yet crept in, dispiritedly, from the north, had run across the plains of Salisbury, and made its entry into New Hampshire in triumph, fifty-four miles from the Massachusetts capital.

For something like six years no particular developments in railroad matters were made in the county. While the Eastern was pushing its way with rapidity, over the marshes and sands, to gain an entrance to the yet distant communities of Maine, the antecedent line, derived from the Boston and Lowell, and now provided with the more signifi- cant title of the Boston and Maine, had been definitely united with the

other sections of the same road in New Hampshire and Maine, by Act of the three Legislatures, March 24, 1843. They had graded from Andover to Haverhill; and since August, 1836, had been steadily running as far as Wilmington. But a new idea seemed to arise, simultaneously with the perfecting of the old. They had intended, of course, to reach Boston for themselves ; and, in 1844, they succeeded in getting a charter so enabling them. The next year, 1845, they had this section finished, and ran into Haymarket Square. Then it was seen that a feasible route lay from Andover Bridge northward; and having obtained an Act for the purpose, September 8, 1847, they changed the position of the tracks, and ran up from Andover directly to the bridge. No good arrangements seem to have been practicable with the proprietors for crossing on this structure, and a new bridge was therefore built, just below. Over this the road was vigorously carried, and thus triumphantly entered the new town of Lawrence, July 3, 1848, about fifteen months after the incorporation of the busy colony. The Act enabling the road to cross the Merrimac had also authorized its extension to the State line, by passing through Mcthuen ; and this project was immediately realized in connection with similar movements in the adjoining State. This, therefore, began what was soon completed and brought into full activity, the Man- chester and Lawrence Railroad.

But not even by this time were the limitations and conditions of railroad travel fully comprehended. It had not come into full view, that short routes and small communities could not as well contribute to the support of a line, as would larger populations at greater dis- tance. And therefore, as the margins of the county were all now reached, the interior towns were not inclined to bear neglect. They wished for accommodation as well. Then it occurred to the mind of the Hon. Stephen C. Phillips, of Salem, that a line from the old seaport to Lawrence, with the coal trade of the two, and the way travel between, could be made to pay its way, and something better. His plans were put into execution, resulting in the incorporation of the " Essex Railroad," March 7, 1846. By January, 1847, the road was opened from Salem (where it connected at the station of the Eastern) to Peabody Square .* It did not develop very powerfully ; it was more than a year, or till July 1, 1848, before it had progressed to Danvers, though it only needed till September 5, 1848, to carry it the rest of the way to Lawrence, connecting various points in Middleton and North Andover; and to make a freight branch, to connect and ter- minate at Phillips's Wharf in Salem, only required till July 2, 1849. But the last section showed considerable difficulty ; the track of the Eastern had to be crossed at grade, a long distance of pile-bridge built, and the Bridge Street embankment ent through and also bridged, the difference of grades being nearly twenty feet. This road was therefore ready to test the problem of interior transit, but unfor- tunately, the pleasant hopes that had nourished the scheme were not sustained. The road continued to live in a doubtful state for some years, and finally passed into the possession of the Eastern Railroad, where it has since been operated under the name of the Lawrence Branch.

Another interior road was projected, and incorporated in 1848, called the Salem and Lowell Railroad. It was arranged to start from the old terminus of the Wilmington Branch, or near it, through Reading, Middleton, and Peabody, to Salem. It was fast becoming apparent, that the old home of Endicott aspired to become a railroad centre of the modern day. The new road was not open for travel till August 1, 1850, when it established its terminal station on the North River side in Salem, and went into operation under a lease to the Boston and Lowell corporation. By them it is continued ; yet, like the other interior linc, it has never had the reputation of being a very successful or well-paying enterprise.

The multiplication of railroads had now become a passion of the

+ Then South Danvers.

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

people. The capitalists of Newburyport were not so well engrossed by the growing consequence of the Eastern, but that they were willing to consult with the people of Georgetown, to whom, as yet, no such favors had fallen, and devise a short road to reach their part of the country. A charter was therefore obtained in the course of the year 1848, and ground was broken January 15, 1849. It hardly seems that very rapid progress was made; for it was not until May 23, 1850, that passenger trains began to run over it, from Newburyport to Georgetown. Not far from the same time, a branch road was located through the denser parts of Bradford and Groveland, which connecting at the west end with the Boston and Maine, at their bridge in Haver- hill, ran south-easterly about six miles, and joined the Newburyport Railroad at its terminus in Georgetown.

But the old and important town of Danvers had not yet its intere-ts well satisfied. The Essex Railroad gave it only a communication with Salem ; every other line passed it at a distance. Again, the heart of the county, stage-famous Topsfield, had as yet only leave to hear afar, but not to see, the trains that were bringing help to all her shoreland sisters. Something must be done for Topsfield and Dan- vers, and Boxford stood opportunely to turn the scale as to what and how. The Danvers and Georgetown Railroad came into existence May 7, 1851, and as the branches to Newburyport and Bradford had naturally fallen into the hands of the Boston and Maine, so this as naturally followed the same lead, and fell in as part of the same system ; especially when, not long after, March 15, 1852, by the inducement of the company themselves, it may be, the concluding section of the road was authorized and built through Lynnfield and Peabody, tapping the Boston and Maine at Wakefield, and giving the people of the old stage- towns almost as easy access to the capital as eould be furnished by the Eastern.

The interior wants of the county were now fully satisfied : perhaps further than was profitable. But a single form of industry appears to have compelled the adding of one more road to the list. The large ice-harvests from Pentucket Pond and its fellows in Georgetown had found a profitable outlet by the new road in the three directions of Newburyport, Lawrence, and Boston. So, also, the equal or greater cutting on Suntaug Lake in South Lynnfield had already demanded as much opportunity to reach a market. The first effort was toward Boston ; but so good a chance for a "through line " eould seareely be neglected, and the result, finally, was the incorporation of the South Reading Branch Railroad, April 26, 1848, with one end in Peabody, and the other in Wakefield. And a very eurious road it proved to be. Perhaps in no other instance in New England have there ever been such singular features of railroad policy exhibited ; for. not very long after, arose a long and bitter controversy between the two great lines, and competition and rivalry for a great while were the animating principles of both Eastern and Maine railroads. For some unexplained reason, the South Reading Branch became a bone to be picked between them; and so sharp was their practice upon it, that before long each owned nearly one-half the stock. Thus each was, in respect of any plans to be realized, completely check- mated by the other. This continued for a period not now definable ; and the bystanders observed, with no little amusement, that while, under such an armed neutrality, the two were willing to run the road together, yet neither would allow an employee to ride free over it, and both the presidents, in such eases, had to pay fare like common mortals.

In fact, neither road could afford to quarrel over this little accom- modation line, which probably never did much more than pay its bonds, and sometimes, very likely, not that. The Eastern soon after- wards purchased the majority of the stock, and thereby obtained control of the management of the road, which is now operated as the South Reading Branch. A very important branch had been brought up, first from Gloucester, but afterwards, by extension, from Rockport, and running through Manchester, had obtained connection with the main

line at Beverly. Another, by no means inconsiderable, demanded attention in Salisbury, branching off westward to bring the local trade of Amesbury Mills. And more, and perhaps more troublesome than all, was the famous branch that, with vigorous movement, set out to divide the patronage of Lynn, and enter Boston from thence inde- pendently, or with slight privilege from the Boston and Maine.

This was the remarkable Saugus Braneh Railroad. It originated in the feeling of the people of Saugus, Everett, and Malden, that their local accommodations by rail were disproportionately small. A line was therefore devised, to start from a point near the famous old stage- house, Breed's Hotel, in Lynn, to run to East Saugus, the Centre Village, Sweetser's Corners (then first named Cliftondale), and the Franklin Park Trotting Ground ; then entering and passing through Malden, and tapping the Boston and Maine road at the Edgeworth Fac- tories, and running into Boston over their track. The best efforts of such men as Benjamin F. Newhall, of Saugus, Joshua Webster, of Mel- rose, and Charles Porter, of Malden, were given to it, and it was finally built. The cars began to run to Boston, February 1, 1853, Andrews Breed, of Lynn, being superintendent. After a short period of activity, the company found themselves involved in several expen- sive suits for land damage, while a serious accident at the Cottage- Street crossing, by which Dr. Abram Gonld was nearly killed, plunged them yet more in costly litigation. This gave opportunity to the Eastern to absorb the declining shares, and after a time, through the alleged defection of Edward Crane, to obtain such a quantity of the stoek as gave them control of the road. It was, not long after, for- mally turned over to the Eastern, which built two short sections from its termini to their own track, adding a station at Everett. Since then, a portion of the trains of the Eastern road have been regularly run over the Saugus Branch, which has thus acquired all the conse- quence and nsefulness it could have procured for itself otherwise. Its long and crooked route has gained it the popular name of " Round the Horn," and its fifteen way stations between Lynn and Boston give great accommodation to the country, but marked annoyance to every "through " passenger who happens to get this trip incorporated into his journey.

Two other branches of considerable importance have been welded to the main line of the Eastern at periods later than the above. One of these is known as the Swampscott Branch. The strong influence of the summer residents on the Swampscott and Marblehead shore was secured, and the road was built, and opened for publie use Oct. 21, 1873. The other, diverging from the main line at the Wenham Station, passes eastward, and earries its blessings to the before un- visited town of Essex. It was not generally welcomed there ; as one of the citizens remarked to a stranger, "Yes, the road has got here ; we've fought it off for thirty years, butit has come after all, and I suppose it will stay."

Some years after the absorption of the Saugus Branch, the Boston Land Company undertook the marketing of extensive and vacant tracts in East Boston, Winthrop, and Revere. For their full facility of work- ing, a ferry was necessary to reach the Boston side; and this onee settled, a communication with towns to the east was seen to be a most obvious and natural auxiliary. After much deliberation. there- fore, and much probing of Lynn to find what assistance could be there secured, a "narrow-gauge road " was determined on, and was rapidly built along a line nearer the shore than it had been supposed possible to construet one. A tunnel was necessary at East Boston, and a trestle-bridge over Saugus River; but these were built with the greatest energy, and the cars of the "little wiggler," as some sneeringly called it, began to run between Lynn and Boston July 29, 1875. Great enthusiasm was felt in Lynn. When the building of the road commenced, a large body of old and venerable men assembled, led by Perry Newhall aud Darius Barry, and under com- mand of Col. John Nichols, and marched with musie to the marshes, where they worked half an hour on the road-bed. The route ran from

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.

Standard history of Essex county, Massachusetts, embracing a history of the county from its first settlement to the present time, with a history and description of its towns and cities. The Most historic county of America., Part 10

Author: Tracy, Cyrus M. (Cyrus Mason), 1824-1891, et al. Edited by H. Wheatland Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Boston, C. F. Jewett Number of Pages: 450

Author: Tracy, Cyrus M. (Cyrus Mason), 1824-1891, et al. Edited by H. Wheatland
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Boston, C. F. Jewett
Number of Pages: 450