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 122

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 122

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On the first floor is the large library hall, which contains the free pub- lic library, endowed by Mr. Peabody. It was first thrown open to the public on the 18th of October, 1854, and then contained 1,500 volumes. There are now 18,500 books on its shelves, and the names of 3,745 persons on its index of borrowers. Mr. Fitch Poole was the first librarian, and was succeeded by Mr. Eugene B. Ilinkley. He was succeeded again by Fitch Poole, and he in turn by Mr. Theodore M. Osborne, who now holds the office.

The library is elegantly fitted up and adorned in fine taste. There are here the busts of Peabody, Robert C. Winthrop, Rufus Choate, and others, and the vault containing the queen's portrait, the gold boxes from the city of London, and the Fishmongers' Association, and the medal of Congress presented to Mr. Pcabody. The queen's letter to the generous banker, and other testimonials from the Merchant Tailors' Fraternity, are also deposited here. In addition to the library, there are on this floor the committee room, and the room for the trustees, which contains the original portrait in oil of President Harrison, from which many eopies have been taken, and a portrait of Gen. Gideon Foster, the hero of Lexington.

In the second story is the large lecture hall, capable of seating 800 persons, in which the free lecture courses are held each winter. The first lecture delivered in this hall was by the Hon. George S. Hillard, of Boston, and was especially prepared for the occasion.

In the rear of this hall is the Sutton Reference Library, probably one of the most magnificent and costly libraries, for its size, in the Commonwealth. The spacious room is fitted with rare taste and elc- gance, and contains, among many valuable works, a superb edition of Audubon, valued at $1,500. There is also licre a fac-simile of the famous Milton shield. The library is intended only for books of ref- erence. and was donated to the town by Mrs. Eben Sutton, as a memo- rial of her son, Eben Dale Sutton, in 1866. She endowed it with a fund of $20,000, besides fitting and furnishing it at her own expense. A fine portrait, in oil, of the youth for whom it was named, adorns the room. The library was first opened to the public, June 14, 1869. It contains about a.thousand volumes of rare and choice works in the various languages. Miss Mary J. Floyd is librarian. The present general fund of the institute is $117,750, and the amount of the invested funds and real estate, $169,679.77. The first president of the institute was Robert S. Daniels ; the first secretary, Francis Baker ; and the first treasurer, Eben Sutton. The present officers arc : Alfred A. Abbot, president; Charles D. Howard, secretary ; George A. Osborne, treasurer.

Of the religious societics, the Second Parish, or " Old South Church," is the oldest, its members having withdrawn from the parent church in Salem, April 24, 1713. They were granted dismission on the 25th of June of that year, and, September 23d following, the Rev. Benja- min Prescott was ordained as their first minister. It was called the Third Church in Salem till 1759, and then the Second Parish Church in Danvers, and, subsequently, the South Church in Sonth Danvers. The church has had four meeting-houses, all of which have stood upon the present site. The first was erected just prior to the withdrawal of the church from the Salem congregation, in 1712-13. It was torn down, when decrepit by age, and substituted by another, which was burned. The third was sold to the Methodists, and moved to Wash- ington Street, in 1840-41, and was replaced by the present commo- dions edifice. The Rev. Mr. Prescott oceupied the pulpit for many ycars. Nathan Holt succeeded him at the outbreak of the Revolution. The remaining pastors have been the Rev. Samuel Walker, the cler- gyman in Peabody's boyhood ; the Rev. Mr. Park, the Rev. Dr. Field, Prof. Butler, the Rev. Dr. Murray, Prof. Barbour, the Rev. George T. Anthony, and the Rev. Willard Sperry. The present membership of the church is about 300.

The Unitarian Society eomes next, in point of age. It was organ- ized Jan. 1, 1825, with thirty-three members. The first meeting- house, the present edifice, was dedicated July 26, 1826. The Rev. Mr. Brazer, of the North Church, Salem, preached the dedicatory sermon. The pulpit was supplied for some mouths by a Mr. Alonzo Hill. The first-settled pastor was the Rev. Charles C. Sewall, who was ordained April 11, 1827. Ifis suceessors have been the Rev. An- drew Bigelow, installed Feb. 15, 1843 ; the Rev. Frank P. Appleton. installed Jan. 14, 1846; the Rev. C. II. Wheeler, installed Oct. 4, 1854; the Rev. David H. Montgomery, installed in 1862; the Rev. E. I. Galvin, installed May 13, 1868. The Rev. Mr. Whitney at present ocenpies the pulpit.

The Universalist Church was gathered March 26, 1832, with forty- seven members. The present church was dedicated Jan. 10, 1832, and has been sinee twice remodelled. Its pastors have been the Rev.

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John Moore, 1833; the Rev. J. M. Austin. 1835; the Rev. John Prince. 1845. The latter closed his pastorate in 1848. and. for nearly six years. the society was without a pastor. and no services were held. In 1853, the Rev. J. W. Talbot became pastor. He was followed by the Rev. W. R. G. Mellen. in 1855; the Rev. Orville Brayton, 1856; the Rev. C. C. Gordon. in 1859; the Rev. O. F. Safford, 1862; the Rev. A. B. Hervey, 1866 ; and the Rev. E. B. Smith. in 1873.

The Methodist Church was organized. in 1840. as a separate charge, being the result of mission meetings. conducted in Harmony Village (now Rockville) as far back as 1833. by the Rev. Amos Walton. assisted by brethren from the South Street Church in Lynn. The third edifice, erected by the South Congregational Church of Peabody. was purchased, in 1843. by the Methodist brethren. and removed to the present site on Washington Street, where it has since been used as a house of worship. It was remodelled and raised in May. 1859. The first pastor was the Rev. Amos Walton, the founder of the society, and the present minister is the Rev. V. M. Simons. The pulpit is in charge of the conference.

The Baptist Society was organized. Feb. 16. 1843, with sixteen members. and was recognized Feb. 22d of the same year, when its membership was twenty-seven. The sermon was preached by the Rev. Joseph Banvard. No regular minister was installed until the settlement of the Rev. Phineas Stowe. Dec. 5. 1843. His successors have been the Rev. J. G. Richardson. 1846 ; the Rev. I. E. Forbush. 1848 ; the Rev. B. C. Thomas, 1849 ; the Rev. F. A. Willard. Nov. 11. 1849; the Rev. N. Medbury. 1855 : the Rev. T. E. Keely. 1857 ; the Rev. C. E. Barrows. 1861 : the Rev. N. M. Williams. 1865. and the Rev. C. V. Hanson in 1868. The present meeting-house was dedicated Nov. 19. 1857. the Rev. T. D. Anderson preaching the ser- mon. It was remodelled in 1865. Prior to its erection, the society worshipped in the Unitarian church.

The St. John's Catholic Church was erected in 1871. The corner- stone was laid Aug. 20, 1871, and the basement was opened for wor- ship, Dec. 25th of the same year. Regular services were not held, however, until September, 1872. The congregation averages twelve hundred. It is estimated that there are four thousand Catholics in Peabody. The church building is of brick, 72 feet by 146 feet, with a tower. The cost of the edifice will reach more than fifty thousand dollars.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, a Gothic chapel on Lowell Street, was erected in 1875. The pastor is the Rev. George Walker.

Peabody possesses seven schools : one high ; and six grammar, inter- mediate, and primary, combined. In 1856, the number of pupils at- tending school in the town was 956; and in 1872, it was fifteen hun- dred. In the same term of years, the amount appropriated for schools more than trebled, being $7,500 in 1856, and $23.000 in 1872.

The Peabody High School was opened June 3, 1850, with forty pupils. It was named in honor of George Peabody, who donated the sum of two hundred dollars per year to the town, for the purpose of procuring medals for the graduates of the Peabody and Holten High schools. He also presented the Peabody High School with a piano, and a portrait of himself. The school is one of the most flourishing in the State, and maintains a very high standard of scholarship. The other schools are the Wallis, Centre, Bowditch, Rockville, West, and Felton. The school-houses are models of convenience and taste.

Of the various societies, Jordan Lodge of Free and Accepted Ma- sons takes precedence as the oldest, being chartered Nov. 30, 1808. The first lodge of Masons was erected in Danvers, May 1, 1778, under the name of the United States Lodge, the charter being obtained from St. Andrew's Grand Lodge. This lodge flourished for a time. but the war drew off its members. and it finally lapsed. The charter, furni- ture, &c., were preserved in the house of Mr. Skidmore, until they shared in the destruction of the dwelling by fire, iu the year 1808. In September of that year, the founders of the present lodge met at E. Berry's tavern and formed the Jordan Association. The meetings were continued until the lodge was chartered, as stated. The first meetings were held at the Plain; but, in the year 1810, they were transferred to the South Parish, where the lodge has since re- mained.

The Ladies' Benevolent Society was organized in 1814, for the pur- pose of furnishing the poor with clothing. The Charitable Tenement Association was incorporated April 27, 1869. Its object is to obtain homes for elderly women at a moderate rental. The society owns a tenement-house at the corner of Washington and Oak streets.

William H. Shove Post 132, G. A. R., was organized July 7, 1870. Peabody contributed its full share iu men aud money for the support

of the government in the late Rebellion, being represented in nearly every Massachusetts regiment. Its sons did gallant service, and one of them. Granville M. Dodge, by his prowess and bravery, rose to the rank of major-general. This Post is large and flourishing. The Soldiers' and Sailors' Veteran Association. a society with a kindred object, was organized Nov. 14, 1872. The American Hibernian Be- nevoleut Association was formed Jan. 21. 1871, by members of the old Young Men's Literary Association, which was organized Sept. 15. 1858, and was the first Irish society in Peabody. The St. John's Catholic Total Abstinence Society was organized March 3, 1872. General Howard Division Sons of Temperance was instituted Dec. 15, 1866.

The Young Men's Christian Association was re-organized Dec. 18, 1871. It had been originally founded Nov. 17, 1858 ; but the advent of the war, and other causes, led to its dissolution. The society since its re-organization has done a large and noble work.

The staple industry of Peabody is the manufacture of leather and morocco. Its natural facilities for this business are unsurpassed. From the time of Joseph Southwick, and his primitive method of tan- ning in tubs. in 1750, the business has grown rapidly, and to vast proportions, as compared with those early days. In twenty years, there were " 573" tan-houses, slaughter-houses, pot and pearl ash works. in Danvers, according to Judge Holten. In 1848, there were sixty-one tanneries in Danvers; and in 1856. after the incorporation of the South Parish, there were but two or three remaining in Danvers proper.

During the war, it was stated that Peabody produced thirty-five per cent. of all the morocco manufactured in the United States. The leather manufactories of Franklin Oshorn & Co., and Thomas H. Proc- tor, and the morocco manufactory of W. M. Jacobs & Son, are the largest of their kind in New England, and among the largest in the country. There are now (1878) forty-nine leather-manufacturing firms, and nineteen engaged in the manufacture of morocco, both fur- nishing employment to a thousand men. The estimated capital in- vested is more than one million of dollars. In addition to this indus- try, the manufacture of glue is extensively carried on, there being three manufactories in town ; and the old Danvers Bleachery and Dye- Works, located on Washington Street, at the head of Foster, pro- duces a large amount of superior-finished bleached cottons, sateens, and cambrics.

Peabody has also two national banks, - the South Danvers, with a capital of $150,000 ; and the Warren, with a capital of $250,000. The Warren Five Cents Savings Bank is also a flourishing iustitution. The South Danvers Mutual Fire Insurance Company was incorporated iu 1829.

The "Peabody Press," a lively. pungent. and enterprising weekly paper. was founded in 1859, as the "South Danvers Wizard," by Charles D. Howard. its present publisher and proprietor. The title was changed to the present heading in 1868. upon the adoption of the new name for the town. It was originally a four-page paper, but is now an eight-page sheet, and oue of the most prosperous and brightest members of the county press.

The "Peabody Reporter " is the name of a paper recently started, and an outgrowth of the monetary mania which has recently swept over the country. Its editor is S. C. Bancroft.

The town is supplied with pure water from Brown and Spring ponds by the mains of the old Salem and South Danvers Aqueduct Company, whose property it acquired by purchase.

The valuation of the town, when set off as South Danvers, was $2,- 944.900. In 1862, the valuation was $3,394,150 : in 1872, $5,938,- 950 : and in 1878 the valuation is, in real estate, $4.075,600 ; in per- sonal. $2,345.450 : total, $6,421,050. The number of polls is 1,671, and the population is about 9,000.

Peabody is charmingly located naturally, and its walks and drives are full of interest. It posesses one natural curiosity of great rarity, a gigantic bowlder, popularly known as " Ship Rock." which rests upon the crest of a hill near Newhall's Crossing. in Rock Village. It is be- lieved to be the largest bowlder in this country, east of the Mississippi, with the exception of one in North Carolina. It measures forty feet in length, thirty feet iu height, and twenty feet in thickness. It is supposed to have come from the north-east in the glacial drift, the scratches on its base proving this fact to the satisfaction of geologists, and to have lodged here on the verge of a declivity, where it has maintained its wonderful equipoise through the ages. The origin of its name is iu doubt. The rock is now the property of the Essex Institute. Such is a brief sketch of modern Peabody, than which no town has a brighter prospect for a brilliant future.

ROCKPORT.

The town of Rockport occupies the whole of the easterly extremity of Cape Ann, and, except on its westerly border, where it joins Gloucester, is surrounded by the ocean. From its northerly bound- ary, on Ipswich Bay, to its southern on Massachusetts Bay, the dis- tance is a little more than four miles. The indentation of the coast between Andrews's Point, the extreme north-easterly part of the Cape, and Straitsmouth Point, at what may be ealled the head of the Cape, makes the width of the town, in its northerly and southerly scetions, to differ considerably. In the former, it is about one, and in the latter about two and one-half miles wide. Like the rest of Cape Anu, a large portion of the surface is very rocky ; but there are large tracts of clear land in the southerly half of the town, on which there are good farms. The highest elevation of land in the town is Pigeon Hill, presenting to view a grassy top, in striking contrast with the ledge-and-bowlder-covered hills of all the rest of the Cape. This hill is the first land that meets the eye on approaching the coast, and from its summit the view round almost the whole circle of the horizon takes in nothing but the vast sea and the vessels that may be sailing on it. There is no natural harbor in the town, but there are a few coves at which artificial harbors have been made by the construction, at great expense, of massive stone piers and breakwaters. At one of these coves, there is a short sand-beach, which probably gave the name by which this section of the Cape began, about the end of the seventeenth century, to be called-Sandy Bay.

Early Settlers .- The first separate grant of land, on the territory just deseribed, was made to John Babson in 1695, at Straitsmouth, " to sett up fishing upon." There is nothing to show that he ever had a home there, and it is not known that a single family had settled on this territory before 1697. In 1688, Gloucester made its first gen- eral division of land, which was laid out into eighty-two lots, extend- ing from Flat-Stone Cove, on the northerly side of the Cape, to the beach at Sandy Bay. The territory then granted was covered with wood, which the grantees wished to sell. The most convenient place for loading the vessels required for its transportation to market was at Sandy Bay; and tradition reports that it was by desire of the wood-coasters, and to help them in their work, that the first perma- nent settler at that place located himself there. Be it as it may, it is certain that Richard Tarr had a house at Sandy Bay, on land granted to him by Gloucester, as carly as 1697. He seems to have been in Gloucester in 1693, and had, perhaps, already settled on this very spot, and must therefore be regarded as the first permanent settler on the territory now composing the town of Rockport. He acquired more land, became a prosperous farmer, and died about 1732, leaving seven sons and two daughters, and an estate of £399. His descend- ants are numerous ; one hundred of whom are men bearing his name, now living on Cape Ann. His great-grandson Jabez, who died Nov. 25, 1844, aged eighty-five, was the last of the Cape Ann soldiers who fought on Bunker Hill. The town of Rockport has erected a granite monument, with an appropriate inscription, to the memory of its first settler.

Tarr had a pleasant location, with much good land around him, and no long time elapsed before he had a neighbor. In 1700, came John Pool, from Beverly, and bought of John Emerson, Jr., for £160, an extensive traet, situated at the southerly end of the lots laid out in 1688, to which he added greatly by purchase in subsequent years. He was a man of great enterprise and industry, as is apparent from the fact that he relieved his first purchase of the mortgage which he gave when he bought it; and, besides £540 personal property divided among his widow and nine children, left real estate valued at £2,209. He died May 19, 1727, aged fifty-seven. Besides two daughters, he had seven sons, who survived him, by whom the name has been extensively diffused ; and it is still borne in Rockport by a large number of his descendants. Caleb, one of his grandsons, became a religious enthusiast, having his mind " blasted with excess of light." There is still extant in print an account of the "signs, wonders, and visions," by which God spoke to him for many years. A descendant of John Pool, - Ebenezer, - the antiquary of his native place, made

a large collection of facts relating to its families and local events, and died April 10, 1877, in his ninety-first year. Two others are living, graduates of Brown University,-Nathaniel, in 1853, a farmer of Rockport, and Reuben B., in 1857, librarian of the Young Men's Christian Association in New York.

It is not known who was the first to join Tarr and Pool at Sandy Bay; but it is certain that, in 1702, Samuel Gott had taken up his abode at Halibut Point, about ten miles distant from them. He came from Wenham, and was, without doubt, a grandson of Charles, who came to Salem in 1628. He, also, must have got his living from the forest and the soil. Mr. Gott dicd Nov. 3, 1748, abont seventy- one years of age. His will mentions six sons and two daughters ; but the name is not now extensively borne in Rockport, though it still survives where it was first planted in the town. Joshua, a grandson of Samuel Gott, died there March 22, 1846, in his ninety- second year. One of his descendants was Jobn, a trader of Sandy Bay, and representative, who died Nov. 24, 1845, aged sixty ; and another was Jabez R., many years deacon of the Orthodox Church, and cashier of the bank there, who died March 15, 1877, aged eighty-two.

The first, and for many years the only, neighbors of Samuel Gott, on the Sandy Bay side, were William Andrews, who owned land near his in 1707, and who was a brother of his wife; Joshua Norwood, who was also connected with him by marriage ; and Jethro Wheeler, who, in 1712, bought of Norwood, for £150, about one hundred acres of land near Pigeon Cove. Wheeler had lived in Newbury before 1695, and subsequently in Rowley, where he sold land, in 1704. About the time of Wheeler's settlement, or not long after it, Thomas Harris was permanently located at Pigeon Hill. He removed to the sontherly end of the Cape, and died in 1764. In May, 1716, Edward Bragg had come from Ipswich, and was living in a house somewhere on the back side of the Cape. Passing along by Pool's and Tarr's to the extreme southerly end of Rockport, we find there, about 1708, a house in which Peter Emons then lived ; and another occupied by Peter Bennet, who, at that time, owned a tract of four hundred acres opposite Milk Island, and who probably made his home there for the purpose of cutting down his wood, and hauling it to the land- ings on the sea-shore. At the end of the first quarter of the eighteenth century, nearly all of the land on the shore line of Rockport had passed into the possession of individual proprietors, and there can be no doubt that, during all this time, an active business was carried on in exporting the wood with which it was covered.

The settlement at Sandy Bay progressed slowly. In 1715, Ebenezer Davis was there, and then married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Tarr. Probably he was a son of the "old Mr. John Davis," who is subse- quently mentioned, and who was living there in 1749, then eighty- nine years old. Samnel Davis, who appears there in 1723, was cer- tainly his son. He was a captain, an elder of the church, and died Aug. 25, 1770, aged sixty-seven. He had several children, four of whom (sons) were, at different times, lost at sea.

In 1719, Jabez Baker, of Beverly, removed to Sandy Bay, and settled near Richard Tarr. He became an elder of the church after- wards organized there, and died Aug. 24, 1758. In the next year, John Wonson married Honour, daughter of Richard Tarr, and settled there. Two years later, in 1722, came Edmund Grover, with three sons, from Beverly, and located themselves at Loblolly Cove, about a mile from Sandy Bay. He also became ruling elder of the church. His wife Mary died May 16, 1757, aged seventy-eight ; and he took the next year a bride of fourscore, who survived the marriage but a few months. He died Feb. 5, 1761. Two of his sons, Nehemiah and Ebenezer, settled near him, the former of whom died Jan. 13, 1761, and the latter, Oct. 25, in the same year. Henry Witham, son of Thomas, of Gloucester, settled near the Grovers about 1733. He had a large family of children ; became an elder of the Sandy Bay Church, and died March 18, 1777, aged eighty-two. John Rowe, son of Stephen, of Gloucester, married a daughter of Jabez Baker, and settled near his father-in-law at Sandy Bay. He was a lieutenant in

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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

the French war, in 1755. His son Jabez served in the expedition against Canada, in 1759 ; and his son John commanded one of the Gloncester companies at the battle of Bunker Hill, in which his grandson John also took part. One of his descendants, David S. Rowe, graduated at Bowdoin College, and was for several years principal of the State Normal School, at Westfield. Joshua Norwood, already mentioned, finally settled at Straitsmonth. He had previously lived in a honse, still standing, erected, according to tradition, by two Salem men, to conceal their mother, who was acccused in the witch- craft fury of 1692. Joshua Norwood died in 1762, aged abont eighty. The Rev. Francis Norwood, who graduated at Dartmouth College in 1818, was one of his descendants ; and William Norwood, who died in Rockport, Oct. 7, 1867, aged ninety-three, was his grandson. James Parsons, grandson of Jeffrey, of the Farms, in Gloucester, fixed his residence at Sandy Bay in 1744, and died in January, 1789, aged sixty-seven, leaving many descendants. Besides the foregoing, there were among the early settlers on the territory now comprised in the town of Rockport :- Samuel Clark, Joshua Kendall, Thomas Dresser, Elias Cook, Stephen Butler, Thomas Goss. John Hobson, Jr., Elie- zer Lurvey, Job Lane, Thomas Finson, Joseph Thurston, Ephraim Shelton, Israel Shelton, Daniel Williams, and Thomas Oakes.

These are all the settlers that are known to have resided on this territory before 1754. The most important event that occurred, during the progress of the settlement, was a distressing sickness, which, in 1738, took away from the twenty-seven families then composing it, as they say in a memorial to the General Court, "thirty-one of their pleasant children by death."

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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 122

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