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 105
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Regarding the troubles with Great Britain, previous to the war of 1812, various votes were passed by the town. July 27, 1807, "voted to give those soldiers, that are called for by the government, seven dollars per month in addition to their continental pay, when they shall be called into actual service." May 25, 1812, it was "voted to make the soldiers' wages equal to fifteen dollars per month including their continental pay.
A "powder-house " was voted to be built in 1810 (Oct. 29), eight feet square, seven feet high ; the foundation of stone; the walls, brick ; with the roof and door of wood. This was situated away from the dwelling-houses, in a pasture then belonging to John Fuller. The powder- house was ultimately disposed of at publie auction, May 19, 1834.
In the Rebellion of 1861-65, Middleton acted a devoted and highly honorable part. July 22, 1862, a bounty of $125 to volunteer sol- diers was voted to be offered. The same amount was voted, on the 16th of the following month, to be given to nine months' men. On the 20th of the next month, the same amount was voted to be given. The same bounty was voted to be given June 23, 1864.
To meet the payment of these bounties. private persons advanced money, which amonuted to several thousands of dollars. Middleton furnished in the whole one hundred and twenty men for the service, which was a surplus of ten over all demands. Among these, there were no commissioned officers These men were engaged in most of the battles of that terrible struggle. Fifteen of them lost their lives by starvation in the rebel prisons, on the battle-field, and by dis- ease.
May 2, 1861, the town " Voted to raise the sum of $1,000 all or a part of which may be appropriated, at the discretion of the selectmen, for the assistance of those of our citizens, or their families, who may enter the military service of the United States, in obedience to the eall of the Governor of this Commonwealth." From this early date, the overseeing of the families of the volunteer soldiers, and the supplying them with the necessaries of life, if need be, was a prominent and worthy trait of the people of Middleton. The soldiers at the front also received contributions from the ladies of Middleton. Their eon- tributions, including various articles sent to the hospitals for the com- fort of the sick and wounded, averaged about $100 per month from the beginning to the end of the war. The ladies of Middleton also defrayed the expenses of one of the citizens who served two months as an agent of the Christian Commission. - Schouler. The whole amount of money appropriated and expended by the town on account of the war, exclusive of State aid, was $10,210. State aid paid to the soldiers' families during the war was: 1861, $660 62; 1862, $2,319.60; 1863, $2,408; 1864, 2,569.90; 1865, 1,950; total, $9,908 12.
Education. - At the first town-meetings after the incorporation of the town, Nathaniel Towne was chosen school-teacher. He continued to learn the young to "read, write, and cypher" many years. Ben- jamin Bragg commenced teaching here Aug. 1, 1756. In 1739, the town voted to raise £9 for the support of a school that year, said school to be kept where the seleetmen shall say. A school-house was erected shortly after, probably, as nineteen years later it is spoken of
as the "oald schoole hows." It was built by a company, who neglected to repair it. In 1762, the town voted to repair the school-house if the proprietors would give it to them, which conditions were probably agreed to and the repairs made. In 1777, the school-house having been converted into a dwelling-house, it was occupied by John Powers. In 1790, the town was divided into three school districts,- north, east, and south. The old school-house was fixed up, and two new ones built for their accommodation. In 1800, the town raised $134 for the support of schools that year. Their school committee chosen for that year were the following : Asa How, Theodore Ingalls, and Francis Peabody, for the northern and eastern districts, and John Flint, Daniel Fuller, and Zacchens Giddings, for the southern district. In 1814, the town voted to lay ont a part of their school money for the support of a summer school. About 1834, the town was newly divided, into four districts,-east. north, sonth, and centre ; and school-houses erected in each district. In the centre distriet a large and commodions building, costing some $3,000, was erected in 1870, in place of the one erected at this time. One thousand four hundred dollars was raised this year (1878) for the support of schools, an amount equivalent to nearly that raised for general town expenses.
The principal employment of the inhabitants of Middleton is agri- culture. Two or three saw and grist mills have existed here for upwards of a century. The Cummings Knife Manufactory, noted a few years since as the manufacturers of the best shoe-knives made, is situated here. The business is not carried on at the present time, however. The paper-mills, at the "Paper-Mills settlement " (Oak- dale), on the Ipswich River, were, in their infancy, the largest mann- factory of their kind in the country. Thomas's saw-mills are situated in the east part of the town. Box-boards are extensively manu- factured here. There are other kinds of business carried on, but not of sufficient extent for permanent record.
A town-hall was erected in 1848, forty-five feet long, thirty feet wide, and one story, of sixteen feet in height. It is a substantial edifice, and combines in itself all the requisite conveniences for a town of the size of Middleton.
The town is fast increasing in population and wealth. New honses are continually being erected, and real estate in the village is gradu- ally rising in valne. The Essex Railroad gives direct communication with Lawrence, Salem, Boston, and other places, and gives facilities equal to any country town in Essex County for the transaction of commercial or agricultural business. The Salem and Lowell Railroad have a station at Oakdale.
The Great Pond, containing ninety-eight acres, and having its outlet through Ipswich River, is the only pond of any size in the limits of the town. This pond supplies water for the Insane Asylum, on Dodge's Hill, in Danvers, and the towns of Danvers and Middleton. For forcing the water, one of H. R. Worthington's gigantic duplex pumping-engines is used. This is capable of pumping two million gallons of water every twenty-four hours.
The town has no fire department, but a new hose-carriage, with a complement of hose, has just been manufactured by Hunneman & Co., of Boston, for this town (Oet. 1, 1878). It is named "The Pro- tector." By attaching the hose to the hydrants, a stream of water can be thrown over the meeting-house. Damage by fire is almost unknown in the village. Not more than two or three buildings have been burned in the vicinity of the village for more than a hundred years.
The population of Middleton, according to the last census, is 1,092, - 562 males, 530 females. There are 260 voters, - 250 native and ten naturalized ; and 314 ratable polls. There are 233 families, and 190 dwelling-houses, - 188 occupied, and only two vacant. Of the inhabitants, 517 were born in Middleton; 166 in other towns in Massachusetts; 294 in other States; 108 foreign born, and seven unknown. Of the foreign born, seventeen were born in England ; nineteen in Ireland ; four in Scotland ; sixty-four in Dominion of Canada, and two in Germany. The population of Middletou in 1776 was 650; in 1790, 682; 1800, 598; 1810, 541; 1820, 596; 1830, 607; 1840, 657; 1850, 832; 1860, 940; 1870. 1,010.
It has a secular library, supported and controlled by the " Mid- dleton Library Association." It contains 877 volumes, which have an annual circulation of about 2,000. A reading-room is also com- bined.
Middleton has not been noted as the birth-place of many eminent personages. Solomon Adams, son of the Rev. Solomon Adams, born here April 30, 1797, was a minister in Maine. Charles L. Flint, the present Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, was born here, May 8, 1824. These, with two or three others, complete the list.
NAHANT.
This little island town, which is nsnally called a peninsula, though it is the smallest of the municipalities of Essex County, both in terri- tory and population, probably, has yet an interest about it that is of the finest, and possesses an importance in many respects that will not permit it to be forgotten or overlooked.
The rocky shore that environs the whole of Massachusetts Bay breaks out along the northern coast into numerous eraggy islauds, some quite bare and desolate, but others thinly spread with soil, and affording means of tolerable habitation. A few, while still maintain- ing their insular nature, present a connection more or less spurious with the mainland. Sometimes this connection consists of rocky reefs, passable at low tide, or with frequent interruptions ; sometimes it has the form of continuous beach, resting, perhaps, on concealed ledges, but apparently formed upon strips of salt-marsh, upon which the sand and shingle have been piled by the prolonged action of the sca. The harbors of Boston and Salem are full of such, and they ocenr at intervals all along the shore from Minot's Light to Cape Ann.
The town of Nahant occupies the largest and altogether the most remarkable group of these weather-beaten islands. It is commonly spoken of as a group of two, called Little and Great Nahant. Lewis often calls it " The Nahants," and asserts that the name is from an In- dian word meaning double or twin. But he gives no evidence on the point, and it may or may not be the case. Nahant should, however, be rather considered triple in its formation, there being just as plainly three separate elevations as two. These form a triangle, of which the two outer members lic nearly east and west from each other, and the third or inner one, almost equidistant from them, lies toward the shore, at the distance from it of about two miles. An irregularly shaped pieec of salt-marsh spreads between, connecting the three by ground en- tirely passable at all times, or, certainly, only made otherwise during the rare tide-floods of a few exceptional years.
The two outer elevations enjoy much the greatest part of this eon- neetion, and are therefore usually spoken of as one, and ealled Great Nahant. The third, which only attaches to the narrow, northerly end of the marshy ligament, is of an oval, hill-shaped pattern, very regu- lar in outline, and bearing the name of Little Nahant. It is a short half-mile in length, from north-east to south-west, with a maximum breadth of half as much, and an extreme height from the sea of, say seventy-five feet. Its connection with its fellows is only at the west- erly end, from which, also, passage is had to all the rest of the sur- face, which is green pasturage throughout, unbroken by rocks, and very attractive in a distant view. A half-dozen houses are seen upon it, the principal property being that of George W. Simmons, the noted manager of the " Oak Hall" enterprise, in Boston.
Of the other two islets, the inhabited part of the town is almost wholly on the castern, which is much the larger. It is very irregular in outline, yet is substantially a straight ridge of land, a mile and a half in extreme length, by half a mile in greatest breadth, with its long axis lying nearly north-west and south-east. Its elevation does not differ materially from that of Little Nahant; indeed, all three islets rise to about the same level. Like its mates, it is very craggy and repulsive round its shores, though these are indented with many pretty bays, adorned with smooth beaches ; yet all the upper surface is a good, productive, gravelly loam, yielding valued pasturage for all the centuries sinee men have known it. It is, through its whole extent, singularly free from out-eropping ledges, and with no special features of hill and valley, save in a very moderate way. The con- veetion of this, which is best-named Great Nahant, with the others, is entirely at the north-western end, yet is wide and ample, affording room for several roadways not too near each other; and these conduct along the northern edge of the marsh, by Short Beach, to Little Nahant and the mainland, or along the southern, by Pond Beach, to the remaining member of the group, which, never having had a name given it, may here be known by the appropriate title of West Nahant.
This islet is, in size, intermediate between the others, and quite unlike them in surfacq and aspeet. Its general elevation is rather less
than those ; but at its south-eastern corner it rises in a sudden emni- nenee, called Bailey's Hill, and attains a height of, say seventy-five feet at the summit. This affords a charming view of the rest of the little township, as well as of the mainland to the northward, two miles or more away, where the hills and thiekly-built shores of Lynn and Swampscott form a delightful background to the fine sea-picture furnished by the bay and harbor between. The rest of the islet is lib- erally strewn with erratie blocks and bowlders, and ledges not nnfre- quently interrupt the greenness of the pasture sward. Toward the south-west, it is prolonged into a low and narrow cape, which, never- theless, is very conspicuous, and bears the name of Bass Point. The extremity of this reaches the same parallel as the eastern point of Great Nahant; and the two stand. as the furthest projections of Essex County in a southerly direction.
The little tract of marsh that mutually attaches these divisions is interesting in many ways. Of an irregularly triangular form, its southerly and north-easterly margins are exposed to all the force of the sea during storms in those directions, and hence have become for- tified with heavy, ridged beaches, baeked with large pebbles and shingle, which is piled by the breakers many feet above ordinary high water. The slope in front, where the common flow of the tide finds its range, is bedded with fine, sharp sand, as smooth almost as a floor, and so hard as to resist, with very slight impressions, the feet of the innumerable horses that pass these beaches daily. The inclination of Pond Beach is rather sharp, and it is not much resorted to by any elass ; but Short Beach lies flat, the shelf running out an unknown distance without interruption or dangerous features, and thus emi- nently fitted for any of the enjoyments of such a locality. The north- western margin of the marsh fronts the harbor of Lynn, and thus, being never exposed to rough weather, has accumulated no beach, but has the simple shore of such positions, a fact very fortunate for things inland, as will presently appear. Immediately behind the pebbly ridge of Pond Beach, is that from which the name is derived, an open sheet of water, about sixty rods in diameter, known as Bear Pond. This has, of course, a limited watershed, and is, besides, supplied with a number of springs, so that it is so pure as to be quite an orna- ment to the position; yet, as the sea finds ready access from the north-west at high tide, the water is kept brackish, and all the lower levels about the shore are reduced to the dominion of strictly mari- time life. Some trees remain around it to memorize the dense pri- meval forest, and in part the productions of a fresh marsh are here exhibited ; but all on the northern margin, with all the tract beyond in that direction, is now below the level of high water and the daily tides flowing in through a short brook, and for the time reversing its current and making all the valley up to Bear Pond into a mere arm of the sea. Underneath, the constitution of this marsh, like that of the more extensive ones of Lynn and Saugus, gives irresistible evi- denee of slow and gradual subsidence. Only a slight excavation in the black and peaty soil answers to reveal an unlimited deposit of buried wood, with stumps of liberal size, still fast embedded in their original position. Since it is a well-established fact that forests do thrive for ages in the immediate neighborhood of the sea, even where it almost washes their very roots, we are not obliged to suppose any excessive change of level to account for all the destruction that has here plainly taken place. Three feet, five at most, of elevation, would be abundantly enough to place all the extinet cedars, maples, and birches of the Nahant marsh on a footing most favorable for all good growth ; and there can be no doubt that the mainland has sub- sided fully that distance, with no good reason why Nahant should not have accompanied it. The period occupied by this change is, of course, wholly out of reckoning, a statement at which no geologist will be at all surprised ; nor ean we with certainty determine whether, since the time of glacial action, an epoch of yet greater depression has onee occurred, suceceded by an elevation that carried out the shore-line beyond Egg Rock and the Brewsters. There are many things observable that favor such an idea; for not only along the mainland, but abundantly on Nahant, are beds of gravel and sand
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
lying high above sea level, which are not only plainly derived from the glacial forces, but as plainly seen to have been re-arranged since that origin. There has been au attempt to explain this by supposing an ancient barrier extending among the islands, which converted not only the harbor of Lynn, but her whole plain, back to the hills, into a broad fresh-water lagoon, like that of Venice, by the movement of whose waters the disturbance and re-arrangement of the original beds may have been produced. For satisfactory judgment of this, we must consider whether such a lagoon could contain a mass of waters whose motion should be adequate to the comminntion and new bedding of such bodies of detritus ; for it is not to be forgotten that these sub- . stances are only moved, to any great extent, by the " undertow" of the ocean surf, or the deeper currents of heavy streams. And even if the latter agency, derived from the valleys of Sangus River or the " Lakes," should be asserted of the mainland district, it is yet to be judged, whether there is a probability that such could have reached and operated on the gravel-covered islets of Nahant.
Since the visitor at Nahant finds his attention almost as largely taken up by its interesting geology as by all other features of the place, we continue further to speak of this, and in a sense more relating to the interior structure. And here we notice, at the start, a very singular circumstance, in the almost total absence of silicious rocks, or of quartz in any form. Almost the entire group is formed of a series of diorites, quite distinct, usually, from any observed on the mainland. The prevailing form is highly crystalline, making a very tough roek, with strong, decided cleavage, closely resembling a sicnite at the first glance, and with a uniformity of position that quite probably indicates it as a bedded rock. On the eastern side of Great Nahant it gradually loses its felspathic element, and remains as a strong development of massive hornblende, ncarly pure, and often simulating some of the iron ores. This is especially the case at " Black Mine," very near the late residence of the lamented Agassiz, where its likeness to hematite is so great as to have led to its unprofitable mining. In 1691, the town of Lynn voted " that Mr Hubbard of Braintree should give three shillings for every ton of Rock Mine that he has from Nahant"; but its barrenness was no doubt very soon ascertained. In other quarters, the hornblende disappears so thoroughly that the rock passes into a variety of felsites and cherts, often diversified with stripes of por- phyry and beds of conglomerate. Or again, under the influence of a more highly metamorphic agency, we find it becoming fine-grained and compact, and appearing as an intruding rock in abundant dikes and seams. If these are reckoned as basalt or dolerite, we may have to consider the prevailing rock as diabase instead, which may indecd be true.
At Bailey's Hill, on West Nahant, are plentiful veins of a very equivocal rock, almost asbestiform in style, yet very soft and brittle. It suggests picrolite, or some subfibrous chlorite, yet betrays little magnesia. At " Nipper Stage," on Great Nahant, the soft rock is full of grass-green epidote, often charmingly crystallized, and lining veins and pockets ; while the centre is often occupied by adventitious quartz, and chalcedony, the first usually in good crystals. A small beach here is called " Crystal Beach," from the occurrence of such a quartz vein, from which many fine specimens have been taken. The crystals are singularly contorted, or broken and re-cemented in many cases ; are rough on the surface, and greenish within, as if affected by the epidote, which also has made them brittle. It is a thing pleasantly remembered, that the first finder of this vein, the late Dr. William Prescott, of Concord, N. H., supposed the mineral to be corundum, and it went into many cabinets under that name ; while Lewis, to have the wonder as great as possible, adds that probably it is the only locality of corundum known in the United States !
The only other minerals of worthy note found here are calcite, which occurs sporadically in all the beds and dikes, and cinnamon garnet, which is located on the east side, near " Saunders' Ledge." It is mostly massive, with a few crystals ; and was at first thought to belong in the drift, thongh now suspected to exist in place in the neigh- boring crag. One more observation shall complete the geological survey.
On approaching " East Point," the formation is found to change quite suddenly, all hornblendic characters disappearing ; and instead is seen a large upheaval of indurated argillites, scarcely metamorphic, curiously banded with green, red, and purple, and dipping about 45° N. W. The induration is just enough to destroy all vestiges of lami- nation, yet the hardness is not greatly increased. In these slates, par- ticularly in the less compact green bands, are occasionally noticed appearances that were, it is said, suspected by Agassiz to be corallines of a very remote period. If this view be susceptible of verification,
this is the only occurrence of genuine fossils through a breadth of many miles.
The prominent position of Nahant, with its peculiarly green and delightful appearance, caused it to attract the attention of all the early voyagers. Lewis endeavors to show that it was visited by Thorwald the Northman in 1004; and finds further that Gosnold touched here in 1602, and that Capt. John Smith examined it in 1614. There is evidence of a much better class to show that it was granted to Capt. Robert Gorges in 1622, and some probability that Gorges granted it again to John Oldham and John Dorrel, about 1629, But the title of Gorges was not respected by the colonists, and Endicott defied it by taking formal possession of Nahant a little later. But the settlers had to decide the question, whether after all the native inhabitants had not the best title ; and one of them, Thomas Dexter, a most enterprising man, allowing the truth of the affirmative, purchased Nahant of its Indian proprietor, Poquanum, or Black William, for a suit of clothes, it is said, at a date somewhat earlier than 1657. But a private title, obtained in this way, with no grant from the "General Court," was not to be regarded by the rising power ; and though Dexter and his assigns made good fight, and cost the town expensive suits in 1657, 1678, and 1695, they had the voice of the people against them, because the people meant to divide it among themselves. The suit of 1695 was not, however, precisely derived from Dexter, being brought by Mary Daffern and Martha Padishall, heiresses of Richard Woody, of Boston, who was understood to have taken a mortgage upon Nahant from some of the Indians direct. The claimants were nonsuited and paid costs. But a more formidable claim was earlier made by Edward Randolph, who was secretary of Andros, the nsurping governor, in 1688. He attempted to grant the peninsula to Randolph, who was his favorite ; but the people of Lynn wrestled with him for a whole year, till, those of Boston joining, the governor was seized and im- prisoned, and his tyranny and titles all disappeared together.
The first inhabitation of Nahant is not well made out, but it surely was not occupied for fixed residence by any one for many years after the settlement of Lynn, For a long time it was supposed that no white man lived on Nahant prior to James Mills, who is found there in his own house in 1690. But Lewis modified this view by discovering Robert Coats dwelling there in 1673, whom he calls the second in- habitant. But whether by this reckoning he refers to the Indian chief, Poquanum, or Black William, who was called the original owner, or to some white man whom he fails to specify by name, is uncertain. More recent researches are said to show that Hugh Alley, who was a new settler of Lyun in 1640, established himself in some sense at Nahant about that time, and possessed a large farming tract there which he called " Hopewell." It is further said that disagreements between him and one Dr. Burchstead compelled him to give up his land; and that he left it, imprecating the curse upon it that every future proprietor should bear the plague of lawsuits as he had. The amusing tradition has been almost literally fulfilled.
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