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 111

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 111

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The town at this time was almost at direct issue with the governor ; and when, on the 24th of August, 1689, they were called upon for a "loan of money, provisions, and goods for carrying on the Indian war," they replied that they would maintain "ye soldiers of our own towne as to provisions and wages"; but the danger was deemed so great that the military was constantly upon duty, and they were ordered to bring their arms and ammunition to the meeting-house on the Sab- bath, and to all public meetings, and into the fields where they worked. This seemed not to be without cause, when Indian raids were being made upon the towns, and one Isaae Morrill, from New Jersey, was arrested in Newbury for attempting to induce the negroes and Indians to insurrection for the murder of the English and the emancipation of the slaves. It was during this war, also, that the Indian attack on John Brown's house at Turkey Hill was made.

While the people were so uneasy at home that a nightly watch of fifty-one men was kept, Sir William Phipps, a native of Maine, wealthy and patriotic, with a fleet of English vessels, captured Annapolis, Nova Scotia, which so encouraged the people that the General Court attempted the conquest and acquisition of Canada. Capt. John March was ordered to enlist a company, and William Phipps was in command of the expedition ; but it proved a costly failure, and the expenses were met by an issue of paper money, the first ever seen in New England, and that soon became worthless to the great loss of its holders, and especially to the soldiers who were paid in it. It was in October of this year that Capt. Stephen Greenleaf, Lieut. James Smith. Ensign William Longfellow, Serg. Increase Pillsbury, William Mitchell, and Jabez Musgrave, of Newbury, with four other soldiers, were cast away and drowned at Cape Breton. This James Musgrave was a veteran of King Philip's War, in which he was shot through the head, the bullet entering at the ear and coming out at the eye on the other side ; but he survived to be one of the sixteen volunteers from Newbury on this disastrous expedition. This war continued through several years. Indeed it was only one of the series of outbreaks that continued till finally the French were defeated on the St. Lawrence and their hopes of dominion in America died.

In 1721 the war broke out with the Norridgewock Indians, and, continuing to 1724, was suddenly brought to a close by the death of Sebastian Rallè, a French priest, who was killed by Lieut. Richard Jaques, of Newbury. Capt. Jeremiah Moulton, with eighty men, had made an attack on the village, in which were sixty warriors and more than a hundred squaws and children, when Jaques, perceiving that somebody was firing from a wigwam, broke in the door and discov- ered Ralle loading his gun. He refused to surrender, and Jaques shot him through the head, though it was against the express orders of Capt. Moulton that the priest should be killed.

In 1744, war existing between France and England, Capt. Donahue fitted out a small privateer, with which he captured a French sloop, with live-stock, and a ship with 3,000 quintals of fish.

The next year, 1745, the announcement of the expedition against Louisburg, Cape Breton, filled the town with enthusiasm. That was more strongly fortified than any other place in America, the French having labored through thirty years, and at a cost of $5,000,000, to make it impregnable. William Pepperell, a wealthy citizen of Kit- tery, commanded the Provincial forces of 4,000 men ou one hundred vessels, supported by a British squadron. The attack commenced April 30, and the siege and surrender closed in forty-nine days. The attack was planned by Col. Gridley, who afterwards laid out the en- trenchments on Bunker Hill, and the same old drums that beat the triumphal entrance of the New Englanders into Louisburg, June 17, 1745, beat at Bunker Ilill, June 17, 1775; and many of the same men followed them, sneeringly declaring that Gen. Gage's mudworks were nothing to the stone walls of old Louisburg. So brilliant was this achievement that William Pepperell was made a baronet, and in London and other English cities the news was received with rejoic- ings, bonfires, and illuminations. A large number of Newbury sol- diers were in this expedition, the most noted being Major Moses Titcomb, as brave a man as ever lived, whose patriotism knew no limits. He was third in descent from Williamn Titcomb, one of the original settlers with Parker. . Physically he was magnificent; of great strength and large size, who, when the men were off duty and amused themselves in wrestling, running, and other sports, found no equal. He not only commanded one of the batteries that Gridley posted against the walls, but it bore his name. The five forty-two pounders were his property, and the best of all the guns. When he returned, he brought from the field of battle the bombshell that, to this day, graces the head of a stone post on Middle Street, and is now the only memorial of his heroism.

Maj. Titcomb was colonel of a regiment in the expedition against Crown Point, in 1754, and was killed in the battle at Lake George, Sept. 8, 1755. For protection of his men, close up to the breast-works of the enemy, he ordered them to lie flat on the ground, while, the better to command them, and to use his own musket, he stood behind a large pine-tree. A party of Indians, observing this, crept around to his rear and shot him. He was buried on the field of battle, but his grave, like that of the ancient Moses, is not known to this day. He was a member of the First Church of Newburyport, and the Rev. John Lowell preached a funeral sermon from the text, " Moses, my servant, is dead," in which he pronounced the following eulogistic words, which only the greatness of the man and the deep love the people bore him would justify : -

"I question whether there has been for a great while any death in this land so justly and universally regretted ; people of all ranks have been ready to drop a tear or a sigh. In the language of David's elegy, 'How are the mighty fallen !' Seldom was any man more generally beloved, and the whole country shows that his death is a great public loss ; especially in such a day as this, such a hero will be very much missed."

The war continued, with varying success, down to 1759, with great cost of men and means, and Newbury did not fail to contribute her proportion.

In 1757, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts fur- mished 15,000 soldiers, and they were equally well represented to 1759, when Gens. Wolfe and Montcalm, on the plains of Quebec, with their lives ended the long struggle of races, religions, and nations, for the supremacy on this continent. In that last battle was Capt. William Davenport, with a company of men from Newbury. Returuing, he established the famous Wolfe Tavern, naming it for his fallen commander, and on the sign-board was a portrait of the Gen- eral, lettered beneath, " Gen. James Wolfe, Esq., 1763," the date of the tavern. The original sign is now in the possession of Major Ben : Perley Poore, of Indian Hill.

On the surrender of Quebec, the greatest joy was manifested throughout the Provinces and Great Britain. Newbury had a gala- day, and roasted a whole ox in Market Square. The carcass was split in two and broiled on a large gridiron made for that purpose ; speeches were made, songs sung, and, to that date, the town had never such rejoicing.

But the French war was only the precursor of the greater struggle for independence. It was the school for training men who fought in the battles from Lexington to Yorktown. They were proud of their strength, and from that hour would submit to no oppression ; but our town history so mingles with Newburyport that it is not easy to

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draw the dividing line in action where there was only a street or the bounds between the houses of the nearest neighbors to divide the territory.

When the Stamp Act of 1765 passed, it met no firmer resistance than in Newbury, where Joseph Gerrish, representative in General Court, was instructed to protest against the right of one people to tax another without their eonsent, and to unite with his associates in legal resistance, for the support of the constitutional rights of Britons ; and when that law was repealed in 1766, demonstrations of joy were had at the public expense. This spirit was kept up in Acts relating to trade, and opposition to the use of tea, and in all the patriotie demnon- strations of that day, down to the conflict in arms at Lexington and Bunker Hill, when they rose as one man to the assertion of their rights. The town had voted that they would discontinue all trade with Great Britain ; that they would send £200 to relieve suffering Boston ; they had instructed their representative not to be qualified for his seat by any of the royal councillors, and at once made prepara- tion for all the suffering they might be called upon to endure.

As soon as the news of the Lexington fight reached them, two com- panies from Newbury marched at once, starting in the night, and .were ready to participate in the battle at Bunker Hill, where two colonels from Newbury, Samuel Gerrish and Moses Little, were engaged in the battle. Col. Gerrish was field-officer of the day June 17, 1775, and Col. Little behaved with great gallantry, and had the fullest regiment on the field. Col. Little will long be remembered for the part he acted in the Revolutionary struggle. He was born in Newbury, in 1724, and was consequently more than fifty years old when the war broke out. He had been a royal land-surveyor, and himself became the greatest land-owner who ever lived in the town, at one time owning in his personal right nearly seventy thousand acres in New England. He was one of the captains who marched a company for Lexington ; was promoted to command a regiment at Bunker Hill, to which, on the memorable 17th of June, he led his men over the neck in Indian file, when the fire was so hot that his clothes were sprinkled with the blood of the wounded and dying. He was in the army to 1777, being the senior colonel in Gen. Greene's brigade, under Washington, at New York and Long Isl- and, and following Washington through New York to Trenton and Princeton. From 1775 to 1777, when ill-health compelled his resignation, he was at home but two days, and then to bury two chil- dren.

In 1779, he was appointed to command the naval expedition against the enemy on the Penobscot, but declined on account of infirm health. He lost his speech by paralysis in 1781; but lived to 1790, retaining to the last that sagacity, self-possession, and patriotism which marked his early career. He was descended from George Little, who canie to Newbury, 1644 ; and Hon. Josiah, who founded the Public Library, was his grandson.

From our inability to narrate the Revolutionary history of Newbury, withont repeating under Newburyport, we prefer to give the story in what we may say of the latter town ; but we do not forget that many of the men entitled to praise for their conduct both on the land and sea, as the Lunts, O'Briens, and others, lived in Newbury. The same holds good in relation to the war of 1812, and the embargo and non- intercourse measures preceding, all of which were violently opposed by both towns, which were so strongly Federal in their politics that, in 1807, the date of the first embargo, Newbury east 355 votes for Caleb Strong, to 171 for Sullivan, Democrat. In 1808 it unanimously voted to remonstrate with President Jefferson against that measure. In 1809 it passed resolutions against the embargo, which were sent to the General Court. This grew out of the fact that the administration measures suspended all the industries of the town, and reduced many persons to pauperism. In 1812, without a dissenting voice, the town voted opposition to the war with Great Britain; and, in 1815, the announcement of the treaty of Ghent was received with almost as mueh joy as that which hailed independence. At the same time there were many Newbury men in the army, the first person volun-

tecring being Paul Pillsbury, of Byfield, the celebrated mechanie who invented the mills to grind bark in tanneries, and also invented the machines for cutting pegs, which are now essential in the manufacture of shoes. There was a full company enlisted at Newburyport for the expedition to Canada, which found many volunteers in that part of Newbury now the first ward of Newburyport, one of whom, Joseph Stanwood, a drummer, was also a drummer in the War of the Rebellion, fifty years later, aud by special Act of Congress was made a pensioner, - the first person of the war of 1812 so rewarded. Men also served in the coast defence at Plum Island and on Cape Ann, some of them surviving to receive the benefits of the pension laws of to-day, which include all soldiers of that war. Also many seamen of the town were on naval vessels and privateers, contesting for the. freedom of the seas, for which the war was deelared.

Nor did the military spirit which had animated their fathers for nearly two centuries die out after the peace of 1815 ; but, in 1820, we find an independent company formed, the Byfield Rifles, the first independent rifle eorps of the United States, and one of the best. It was commanded by Major Ira Stiekney, and instructed and drilled by Major Dudley, from West Point, who spared no pains or expense to bring it to the highest state of efficiency. It did escort duty, with the Newburyport Artillery, at the second centennial celebration of the town, in 1835, and was then a model company in appcaranee, drill, and deportment. It continued till about 1845, when it disbanded, Capt. Green Wildes being its last commander. But its men did not lose their skill in and taste for arms; and when, a few years later, Major Ben : Perley Poore formed his battalion, which was so prompt to answer the first call to arms in suppressing the Rebellion, Byfield furnished one company, and through its influence the " Mills Village " sent more men to the war of 1861 than any equal population in the county of Essex, and mien as brave and daring as the American army ever contained.

April 3, 1861, the town called a meeting to consider the state of the country, - the first meeting of the kind, says Gen. Schouler, in his " Massachusetts in the Rebellion," held in the United States, - at which resolutions were unanimously passed, pledging the good faith of the town to the comfortable maintenance of the families of all citi- zens of Newbury who should enter the military service during the war; that " though we are on the verge of civil war, that is to dreneh the soil of our nation for years with the best blood of her sons, our confidence in the righteousness of our eanse, and our faith in the maintenance and perpetuity of our glorious heritage of a free consti- tutional government, are all unimpaired "; " that our watchword shall be 'Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable,' in support of which 'we pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our saered honor.'" The meeting authorized the treasurer to borrow $3,000 to arm and equip soldiers and aid families ; and $300 was appropriated for the rifle company, to put it in condition for immediate service. Then, following Revolutionary precedent, they raised a committee of vigilance, correspondence, and safety, "to take such action as might be deemed expedient in reference to such persons within the town as might be inimical to the United States." Their entire action was in accordance with the spirit of '76.

In July, 1862, they voted $150 bounty to each three years' volun- teer. In August, they voted to pay nine months' men a bounty of $250 each. During the remainder of the war the town paid the State bounty of $125, and $3,275, by private subscription, for recruiting and bounties, which was afterward repaid the subscribers by vote of the town. From a population of 1,400, Newbury furnished 189.men for the war, a surplus of twenty-five over all demands. Five were commissioned officers. The amount of money paid, exclusive of State aid, was $28,862, while the whole valuation of the town was $800,000. In addition, the Soldiers' Aid Society made contribution to the value of $2,000 ; and the town paid $9,000 to aid the families of volunteers, which was afterwards reimbursed.

· The military record of Newbury, from 1638 to 1865, is one of which her sons may justly be proud.

NEWBURYPORT.

CHAPTER I.

ITS TOPOGRAPHY - LOCATION - SCENERY - APPEARANCE OF ITS HOUSES AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS, PAST AND PRESENT.

Newburyport is unique. It grew not as most other towns of its time : it was made, not born. Otherwise it would not, at first, have bceu the smallest town in the Commonwealth, - of less than 650 acres, carved out of one side of the largest towns in the county of Essex ; and, but for external causes, it might not now be the smallest city of Massachusetts in population. But what it might have been is not our story; while what it has been is so perfectly satisfactory to its people, who are as proud of it as were ever Romans of the seven- hilled city on the yellow Tiber, that not a word of its history would we change. It was in 1763 that William Atkins, Daniel Farnham, and others, in all 206 of the chief inen, foremost in culture, social position, wealth, business, and influence, living by the " water side," tired of the petty jealousies and rivalries which existed between the people of the "part" and the "old town," asked to be set off and ineor- porated under the name of Newburyport ; and in January, 1764, their petition was granted. The name selected was natural. This portion of Newbury for a hundred years had been called the "Port," uot only by the Newbury people, but by those of Salisbury, Amesbury, and other river towns; for to the Merrimac Valley it was the natural port, the entrepôt, and the depot for the whole line of the river. That it became ; that eventually it will be again. A few years later there was a vote to call it Portland,-Portland, Me., then being called Fal- mouth ; but the good sense of the inhabitants was better than the vote of the town-meeting. The elerk recorded it " Portland," and so the record stands ; but the world kuew it as Newburyport, a name that applies to it alone.

The town started with 2,282 inhabitants, and included the central part of the present city ; stopping on the east at Cottle's Lane, now Bromfield Street, leaving out most of High Street, and the greater part of what is now ward six. In all respects the bonndarics were bad. Half as many people as lived within the town dwelt near by, on every side save the river ; having the same interests and pursuits, and equally distinct from the rural portion of Newbury. Hence im- mediately commenced an agitation for augmentation ; and that ques- tion was never allowed to sleep, till, in 1851, an act passed the Legislature to annex so much of the town of Newbury as was be- tween Newburyport and the Artichoke River, making it border on West Newbury ; and, from the south-west point of West Newbury, the line was run to the westerly part of Newburyport,-which town on the west had form like a flat-iron; and thence, in a pretty direct line, to the southerly bend of the Plun Island turnpike ; and by that across Plum Island to the ocean. This gave all of the " Ridge," all of " Belleville," all of "Jappa," and placed the face of the city on the sea, towards the rising sun. Thus the territory was extended from little more than 600 to over 6,000 acres of land; and the in- habitants were 12,866.

At the first town-mecting, in April, 1852, Hon. Henry W. Kins- man, moderator, welcomed the new citizens ; and Moses Pettingell, Esq., who had been seleetman of Newbury several times, representa- tive in General Court, and bad through many years led the annexa- tion party, responded in fitting words. The town voted to petitiou for a city charter ; and that was granted May 24th eusuing. The char- ter was adopted in June, and, an election of officers being had, Hon. Caleb Cushing was made the first mayor. The arms of the city are "quarterly ": first, two lighthouses ; in the distance, a ship under full sail ; second, a steam-mill; third, a ship on the stocks; fourth (the seal of Newbury in England) ou a mount three domed towers, on each a pennon, crest, a mural coronet, surmounted by two hands joined ; supporters, two female figures,-that on the dexter side representing America, that on the sinister, Massachusetts. Scroll, Terra Marique. Iu the seal is, "City of Newburyport, A. D. MDCCCLI."

It will be seen that the arms designate the pursnits of the peo- ple, commerce, manufactures, and mechanic arts, - especially ship- building, for which the banks of the Merritnac have been famous from the first settlement of the country; and thereto is added the scal of Newbury in England, from which came our ancestors and name,-a town on the river Kenuet, fifty-six miles from London, incorporated by Queen Elizabeth in 1586. It dates back to the Norman invasiou, and was called Newbury from a castle there built.

It is scarcely possible to couceive of a more beautiful location,- one more favorable to health or business. The population is chiefly. on a territory three miles long aud less than a mile wide, sloping gently to the river, washed by every rain, remarkable for the purity of its air and water. It has a natural drainage also con- ducive to health. The Ridge, which is High Street,-an elegant avenne running six miles, from the Deer Island Chain Bridge to that which spans the Parker, the Indian Quascacunquen, -is shaded by full two thousand trees of many varieties. It overlooks the town ; the river, with its bridges, islands, and shipping; and the sea from Boar's Head, on the oue side, to Rocky Cape Ann, on the other. The light-houses along the shore flicker here and there during the uight ; and the smoke of the steamer and the white sail of coul- merce are in full view during the day. This portion of the city is most delightful. The street is broad and overarehed by ancient elus, bordered on cither side by cleanly shorn lawns, beautiful gardens, and elegant mansions, - the abodes of wealthy and culti- vated people, who, from their rear lands, have a view of the farms, pastures, woods, hills, aud villages, stretching away to Andover, Boxford, and Topsfield.

The north section, Belleville, is also elevated for the most part, and from the laurel-crowned river-bank and Moulton Hill unveils to the eye views of quiet beauty seldom equalled in any part of the world. The south end declines to the river; and,, beyond the populous part, to field-lands and marshes ; to sandy Plum Island and the beachcs seaward. It is here where lived the "ancient mariners," the shipwrights and fishermen of early times; where the Pettiugells and Roltes had their farms ; and John Spencer, who could not be captain of a military company because he was not orthodox in religion, and so, in disgust at the hard features of Puritanism, went back to England. And succeeding him, where the stone house is, -the first stone building in the town,-came Daniel Pierce, who was deemed so valuable an acquisition that they granted lands if he would promise to remain with them so long as he lived, unless he returned to England. His descendants have been as highly esteemed as himself, reaching the highest places of trust and honor : one of them. Benjamin Pierce, a hero of the Revolution, governor of New Hampshire ; and his son. Franklin, the fourteenth president of the United States. What is written on a headstone in the Byfield church-yard of Benjamin Pierce, Esq., who died in 1711, only forty- two years old, though deemed worthy of this eulogy so quaintly expressed, is true of others of the family :-

" Pillar 'i th' State he was, Bid fair still At greater things. To all yt knew him well, Pattern of Virtue Kind to all was he Loued by friends. Feard by his enemie, Embalmed in tears. Enney itselfe stood dumb, Si atched from ye world. In times most troublesome."

The main streets of the city run parallel with the river, and are crossed by transverse ways, near enough at right angles to give unity and symmetry in variety, are generally of good width, and well shaded with trees. In looking through the streets running to the river, they seem like arbor walks,-shaded ways in a grand park,- =

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so much are the houses hidden, and so level and clean are the road- beds. Along them are found handsome churches, school-houses, and other buildings public and private, for residences or for business and trade. The dwellings are generally surrounded by well-cultivated grounds and fruit-trees and flowers ; so that in looking down upon the city from any high position, in the summer, it appears like a suc- cession of gardens. Its peculiar and beautiful appearance, with the scenery about it, has attracted the attention of the most distinguished foreign travellers ; as of Brissot de Warville of France, who describes it in a volume published after his return to Europe. Other French- inen, as Louis Philippe, Talleyrand, and Lafayette; as also, among our own countrymen, Washington, Franklin, John Quincy Adams, and Webster,-were charmed with, and lavished their praises of, the town.

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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 111

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