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 123
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Incorporation as a Parish. - In 1725, the commoners of Glonces- ter granted those settlers land on which to ereet a school-house, " to keep a good school in for the godly instruction of children, and teaching of them to read and write good English." Many of the people, however, were deprived of the advantage and enjoyment of publie religious worship by their distance from the meeting-house of the First Parish in Gloucester, in the limits of which their settlement was included. They sometimes had preaching in the winter; and, in 1740, obtained from the parish remission of one-third of their parish rates, on condition of supporting religious worship in their own village four months in a year. The parish had once refused them this privilege, and were now apparently only induced to grant it by an Act of the General Court requiring them to do so. The settlement had, in 1754, attained such strength as would enable it to support a parish organi- zation ; and this was secured by an Aet, approved by the governor, January 1 of that year, which made it the Fifth Parish of Glouces- ter.
The whole number of the tax-payers in the new parish, at the time of its incorporation, was thirty-seven, comprising the following-named persons : -
Jabez Baker, Stephen Butler. Capt. Samuel Davis, Thomas Dress- er, Samuel Davis, 4th. Thomas Finson, Elder Edmond Grover, Nehe- miah Grover, Nehemiah Grover, Jr., Ebenezer Grover, Thomas Goss, Thomas Harris, Jr., Samuel Harris, John Hobson, Eliezer Lurvey, Job Lane, Joshua Norwood, Jr., Ebenezer Pool, Francis Pool, Stephen Pool, Jonathan Pool, Caleb Pool, John Pool, James Parsons, Jr., John Rowe, Ephraim Shelton, Israel Shelton, William Tarr, Joshua Tarr, Benjamin Tarr, Benjamin Tarr, Jr., James Tarr, Jacob Tarr, Joseph Thurston, Jr., Henry Witham, Samuel Wonson, and Daniel Williams.
Joshua Norwood, Sr., and Thomas Harris, Sr., paid no tax of any kind. Nineteen of the number paid only a poll-tax. The whole as- sessment for town-tax was £12 3s. 6d. The three largest taxes were those of three of the Pools, who, together, paid £3 0s. 3d.
An account of the Sandy Bay Parish, as one of the organized re- ligious bodies of Gloucester, is given in the history of that town, in this volume, to which the reader is referred. The population of the parish. in 1754, was about two hundred, of whom about one-half got their living from the sea, and the rest by cultivating the soil. Only two vessels of sufficient value to be taxed were then owned there, and the taxable property of the settlement was about one twenty-fourth part of the whole valuation of Gloucester.
Shore Fishing .- The proximity of these people to the ocean gave easy access to the ledges off the coast, and invited early attention to shore- fishing ; but there was one serious obstacle to success in that pursuit : they had no harbor or cove in which boats suitable for the business could be kept in safety during the prevalence of an easterly gale. They could fish, therefore. only from small boats that could be easily hanled ashore ; but with these they could not proceed to any fish- ing-ground far from the coast. With such boats they did commence
the business early, and the practice of wherry-fishing has been con- tinued to the present time. For the use of larger boats, in which they could safely proceed several miles from the shore, and remain out over night, a harbor was indispensable ; and as nature had de- nied them this convenience, they resolved to try what art could do to supply the defect ; but their means were too limited for the accom- plishment of much in this way. They did, however, make a begin- ning ; for which purpose Ebenezer Pool, John Pool, and Benjamin Tarr, with such others as should join with them, had, in 1743, liberty to build a wharf and warehouse at Bearskin Neck, - a short tongue of land projecting from Sandy Bay Cove into the sea ; but it was not till 1811 that the people felt themselves able to construct an artificial harbor. In that year they erected a breakwater on the westerly side of the neck ; and, in 1819, a wharf opposite ; the two structures form- ing a small but safe haven, and remaining to this day an honorable testimonial of their enterprise and industry.
They had, from the beginning of their shore-fishing. continued to pursue it with their wherries and small boats, going out even in the winter season, when they often disposed of their fish in a frozen con- dition to the traders who brought in country produce from Vermont and Canada. The only account preserved, showing the annual prod- nct of this fishery in its early years, is one that reports the number of boats engaged in it, at the commencement of the Revolutionary War, to have been seventy, which landed on an average one hundred and sixty quintals of fish each. The construction of an artificial har- bor gave the people better accommodations for business, and they pro- eured larger vessels for their fishery, and, in the course of a few years, engaged in the coastwise trade.
Breakwater at Long Cove. - Additional facilities for the transaction of their maritime business were afforded to the people of Sandy Bay by the building of a breakwater at Long Cove by the United States government. This was designed to be simply an extension, in an easterly direction, of Bearskin Neck. The work was commenced in 1836, and was in progress till 1840. when the appropriation for it was exhausted, leaving the structure still incomplete. The end pro- jecting into the seas was greatly damaged by the furions seas that beat against it during a heavy gale in October, 1841; but, though incom- plete and damaged, the work is useful in rendering the Cove a safe place of anchorage, and in protecting from the violence of an east- erly gale the vessels lying at the piers since erected within it. The erection of this breakwater was a benefit to the people of the Cape, not only in a maritime, but in an agricultural, point of view ; for the removal from their fields of the vast amount of stone used in its con- struction greatly increased the value of the land. Other eirenmstan- ees marking and contributing to the prosperity of Sandy Bay, were the establishment of a post-office, with a tri-weekly mail, in 1825 ; and the formation of a mutual marine insurance company in 1827. Up to 1840, this section had outstripped all the older localities of the town in a proportionate increase of population. It did, in fact, gain largely and steadily in numbers for a long period, while the rest of the town was either stationary or retrograding. Its population at the close of the Revolution is estimated to have been four hundred ; and, in 1792, seven hundred. In a little less than fifty years from the last-named date, it had nearly quadrupled, while that of the Har- bor Parish had not even donbled in the same time. This growth is attributed to the snecess of the shore-fishing for most of this period, to persevering industry in agriculture, and the quarrying of stone ; to all of which, the economy and other good habits of the people were important auxiliaries. Having attained a population of 2,650, there seemed to be no good reason why it should remain any longer a vil- lage of Gloucester.
Incorporation as a Town. - The interest and convenience of the people at the head of the Cape appeared to require that they should be set off as a town long before the final separation took place. They did, indeed, make an attempt to that end in 1818, when the subject was brought into town-meeting, and a committee was chosen to consider it, but, wanting nnanimity among themselves, no further action was taken till 1827. In that year, the matter was again agi- tated, and brought formally before the town, but ended as before. In neither case was the project opposed by the people of the other sections of Gloucester. When. therefore, the Cape people ceased to disagree among themselves, which, at last, they were wise enough to do, they found no obstacle to a peaceful and equitable separation, and the organization of one of those popular New England democracies,- an independent town government.
The act for the incorporation of Rockport passed the two legislative branches, and received the approval of the governor on the same
HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACIIUSETTS.
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day, Feb. 27, 1840. The first town-meeting was held on the 9th of March following, when David Babson, Jr., James Haskell, and Thomas O. Marshall were chosen selectmen, John Gott, Esq., town treasurer, and Col. William Pool, towir clerk. Having held the office by successive re-elections nearly twenty-nine years, the latter resigned in 1868, and died Nov. 3, 1871, aged seventy-five. He was succeeded by his son Calvin W. Pool, the present town clerk.
The portion of the old town set off as the new contained about two- sevenths of the property of the whole; and it was upon this basis that the settlement in relation to debts, liabilities, and property was made.
The territory of Rockport includes all of the Fifth Parish of Gloucester, and a portion of the Third adjoining it, situated on the north-east end of the Cape. The principal settlement of the latter section is at Pigeon Cove, now called the North Village of Rockport. A few settlers were scattered around this cove and in its vicinity be- fore the Revolutionary War ; and, in 1792, thirteen boats fished from it : but the place began to rise in importance in 1831, chiefly in con- sequence of the quarrying carried on there, and the erection of a breakwater and pier at the cove for the accommodation of that busi- ness, which have also afforded increased facilities for carrying on the fishery. The breakwater, though apparently a sufficient barrier against any sea, yielded in the great storm of 1841, when the break- ers knocked a portion of it down, and swept into the cove as of old, causing considerable destruction of property. The break, however, was soon repaired, the whole work was strengthened, and it now con- tributes materially to the prosperity of this thriving village.
Death of Old Physicians .- One of the first events to be noticed in the history of the new town is that of the death of an old physician of the place. On the 5th of November, 1841, died Dr. John Manning, aged eighty. His father was Dr. John Manning, of Ipswich, whose father was Dr. Joseph Manning, of the same town, both of whom lived to advanced age. At the age of seventeen, he joined the American army, in Rhode Island, as surgeon's mate. Afterwards he practised four years in Chester, N. H., and removed thenee to Gloucester Harbor about 1786. In 1798, he took up his abode in Sandy Bay, and made that his home for the rest of his life. He gave some atten- tion to pursuits outside of his profession, first to commerce and after- wards to agriculture ; but the ample estate he acquired came principally from bis medical practice, in which he was distinguished for skill and success. In early life he was an ardent politician of the Federal school, and was frequently elected a representative by his party. Three sons of Dr. Manning graduated at Harvard College, -Joseph B. in 1808, John in 1810, and Charles B. in 1819.
Joseph B. studied law, but never engaged in active practice. He employed his time chiefly in philological studies, the fruits of which he gave to the world in two small printed works, -" Epeography ; or, Notations of Orthoëpy," &c. ; and " The Voice of Letters." He died a bachelor at Ipswich, while on a visit, May 22, 1854, aged sixty- seven. John settled as a physician in Waldoborough, Me., and prac- tised there till 1842, when he removed to Rockport, and practised there till his death, Feb. 7, 1852, at the age of sixty-two. One of his four sons, William II., was collector of the customs in Gloucester five years ; and another, Joseph, is a physician and dentist in Rockport. Charles B. was a physician in his native place, and died there Dec. 16, 1843, aged forty-four.
Another aged physician of the town died Nov. 29, 1842. This was Dr. James Goss, at the age of seventy-nine. He was a native of Billerica, and settled in Sandy Bay about 1792. Besides attending to the duties of his medical practice, he was often employed in writing deeds and other instruments ; and by his various services secured the respect of society as a useful man. He was one of the representatives of Gloucester in 1832.
Centennial Celebration of the Incorporation of the Sandy Bay Parish. - An event of great interest to the people of Rockport took place on the 2d of January, 1834, when the people celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of their incorporation as a parish. The principal feature of this occasion was the delivery by Dr. Lemuel Gott, of Berlin, Mass., of an historical discourse, at the Congregational Church, in the afternoon and evening of that day. A recent snow-storm of unusual severity prevented the attendance of people from abroad, but the large church was entirely filled by the inhabitants of the town, who listened with great interest as the orator of the day recounted the most promi- nent events in the history of the bay, of which he was himself a native, and a descendant of one of the first settlers on the end of the Cape. Dr. Gott also delivered, at the dedication of a school-house in Rockport, an historical discourse on the schools of Sandy Bay ;
and it is a matter of surprise that some successful publie or private effort has not been made to induce the author to print these valuable memorials.
Raid of Women upon the Liquor Saloons. - A memorable event in the history of Rockport occurred on the 8th of July, 1856. At nine o'clock in the morning of that day a regularly organized band of women, led by a man bearing an American ensign, appeared in the principal street of the town, for the purpose of making a demonstra- tion against the liquor saloons of the place. As mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters, they were suffering under the terrible evils of which these sinks of vice are the cause, and they determined to make one desperate effort to get rid of them. Animated by this purpose, they proceeded successively to thirteen places where ardent spirits were unlawfully kept for sale ; and, seizing casks, demijohns, and decanters, containing the bane of their happiness, poured their contents into the street, occasionally breaking a vessel in order to hasten the flow of the hated liquid to the ground. Having finished their work at about three o'clock, P. M., they proceeded. to the " Square," and exchanged congratulations upon the performance of the good deed ; after which they separated and went to their respective homes. Of course the only justification that the women could plead, was that the sufferers by an intolerable publie evil may proceed in their own way to correct it when no legal remedy can be had.
Religious Societies, - At the time of the incorporation of Rockport the church of the Fifth Parish was the largest religious body in Gloucester, and it still maintains that rank among the Protestant sects of Rockport. The Rev. Wakefield Gale, who was then its pastor, remained in office abont twenty years, and was succeeded by the follow- ing-named ministers : the Revs. W. II. Dunning, J. W. Cooper, and C. C. McIntire, who is the present pastor. A second Congregational church was organized in Rockport in 1855, and continued in exist- ence a few years, under the pastoral care of the Rev. David Bremner, but it has ceased to support preaching.
The Baptists, Universalists, and Methodists also had organized societies in Rockport while it was still a part of Gloucester, and they all continue to exist and to maintain religious worship. The Baptist Society has no settled minister. The pastor of the Universalist Society is the Rev. Byron J. Russell.
A chapel for the use of the Roman Catholics of the town was opened in 1857. The influx of foreign population has been so large in recent years that this sect has now a large congregation in Rockport, of which the Rev. Thomas Barry is the priest.
Since the incorporation of the town the growth of the North Village has encouraged the organization of two religious societies in that locality, one by the Orthodox and one by the Universalists, both of which have preaching, though neither has a settled minister.
Business of Rockport .- In the first years of its existence as a town, the business of Rockport was in a depressed condition. It was but a temporary check however, and the town soon started upon a career of steady and increasing prosperity in all its business activities, which continued till the great collapse of 1873. During the period of depres- sion the enterprise of the people was turned to manufacturing. A small establishment for the manufacture of isinglass from hake-sounds had been in existence twenty years or more, but it was of very little account in the way of public benefit. An event of more promise in that way was the erection in 1848 of a mill for making cotton-duck, the cost of which, together with that of a large addition made after- wards, became a total loss to the stockholders, and the mill was sold to pay its debts. It now manufactures another kind of cotton fabrics ; and, as it employs many hands when in operation, it makes a con- siderable amount of business for the town.
About this time a bank was established, which went into operation in 1851, and has proved a useful and successful institution. A savings bank was also put into operation, and had gathered a large amount of deposits, when public distrust of its soundness recently compelled it to close its business.
The shore-fishing of Rockport has not increased materially, if at all, since the town was incorporated ; nor have the people engaged in the Georges and Grand Bank fisheries, which have been prosperously pursued in the parent town. The artificial harbors of the new town are of insufficent capacity for the accommodation of any con- siderable number of vessels suitable for those distant fisheries, and its people will probably ever be obliged to confine their maritime employments to the boat and wherry fishing, which was the chief busi- ness of the place a hundred years ago. This shore-fishery is mostly done in wherries, which, in little fleets of ten or a dozen each, are towed out to the fishing-grounds aud back by small schooners. In
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
some cases the fisherman rows his wherry ont and back, as of yore. At different seasons of the year cod, hake, and pollock resort to these fishing-grounds, and sometimes they are found so plenty that a few weeks' labor yields enough for as many months' support of the fisherman's family. In one day, in 1873, an old fisherman of eighty- five years rowed his wherry out to the fishing-ground, four miles dis- tant, fished all day, and then rowed her back with a load that brought him over twelve dollars. But it is not often that the young fisherman even, however expert at the hook and line, can do as well as that. At best, the business is precarious, and does not invite the attention of the young and enterprising, who seek constant employment. The whole number of fishermen in Rockport is about two hundred. and, besides wherries, there are ten boats, and between twenty and thirty schooners, employed in the fishing business of the town.
A more reliable means for the increase and prosperity of Rockport is found in the ledges of granite which abound in the northerly part of its territory. It is said that the first cutting of this material on Cape Ann was by Joshua Norwood, of Pigeon Cove, who, about 1710, began to supply the fishermen with mooring stoncs. These were slabs of granite about six feet square and ten to fifteen inches thick, with a hole in the centre fifteen inches in diameter, through which a part of the trunk of a white-oak tree, about twenty feet in length, with a portion of the roots attached, was put. Thus pre- pared, these stones were lowered into the sca in the coves of the Cape, at places where the fishing-boats. would float at low water. This was the humble beginning of a business, which, in the two towns of the Cape, has in recent years employed a thousand men at a time. It was not, however, till about a century after Norwood's first work in stone-cutting that the business of cutting blocks of stone out of the solid ledge, for purposes to which the article is now so com- monly applied, began to be carried on. The writer of these lines has heard it affirmed that the first two buildings erceted in Gloucester on a foundation of cut and hammered granite were the Universalist meet- ing-house, and the building now known as the Ocean House, both built about 1805.
In the autumn of 1823, Nehemiah Knowlton, of Sandy Bay, cut out a large quantity of stouc, suitable for cellars, underpinning, and door-steps ; and, in the spring of 1824, advertised it for sale in a Bos- ton newspaper. Seeing this advertisement, Maj. Bates, of Quincy, came to see Mr. Knowlton's stone and bought it. Not long after, Mr. Bates leased a ledge at Sandy Bay, and commenced operation with a gang of men, teams, and vessels for the transportation of his stone to market. Mr. Knowlton must, therefore, be regarded as the pioneer in the great stone business now carried on at the head of the Cape. He was a native of Hamilton, Mass, was for many years a citizen of Sandy Bay, and took an active part in town affairs. He was a dele- gate to the State Convention in 1820, representative in 1831, and died Nov. 25, 1847, aged seventy-two.
The principal successors of Mr. Bates in stone-cutting at the Cape has been Messrs. William Torrey, Beriah Colburn, Ezra Eames, John Stimson, and Preston, Fernald & Co. Mr. Eames died Ang. 17, 1874, aged seventy-three. Mr. Stimson is treasurer of the Rockport Granite Company, the largest establishment now carrying on the business in the town of Rockport, having a capital of $200,000. It owns seven vessels, and has sometimes as many as seventy-five tran- sient vessels in its employ, carrying stone to New York, Baltimore, and other places. Their quarries furnish a superior quality of granite for building and monumental work. It admits of a high polish, and is not excelled in any good quality required in this stone by any granite in the United States. In all departments of its business this
company employs 250 men. Two other companies employ about 150 men in all, and the whole number of men employed in the business, including those of two companies not now in operation, has, during a brisk demand for stone, been as high as seven hundred.
In addition to what is here given in relation to the business employ- ments of the people of Rockport, it may be added that its population includes fifty-four farmers.
Rockport in the Civil War. - This town bore an honorable part in the great struggle for the Union. The largest bodies of its men enlisted in a single regiment were thirty-five in the 17th twenty-five in the 30th, seventeen in the 32d, twenty-cight in the 35th, and forty-seven in the 50th, Massachusetts regiments. It also had twelve in the 5th Maine Regiment, which took part in the first battle of Bull Run. Besides these, the town was represented in more than twenty other military organizations. The whole number of men it furnished for the army was 352, of whom six were killed in battle, and about thirty others died in the service. The names of the former were : George L. Berry, killed at Salem Church, Va., May 5, 1863 ; George Clark, 3d, at Spottsylvania, Va .. May 18, 1864; Walter Johnson, at Shady Grove, Va., May 30, 1864; Sylvanus Babson, at Laurel Hill, Va., May 18, 1864 ; Samuel F. Lefflan, at Fredericksburg, Va., June 16, 1864 ; and Aaron Hodgkins, Jr., at the capture of Fort Fisher.
The town made ample provision for the families of its soldiers, and inct them on their return from the scenes of war with a hearty greet- .ing. Thirty-six, who came at one time, had a public reception, and were addressed by ex-President Franklin Piercc, who was then visiting the sea-side for the benefit of his health.
The Schools of the Town. - Rockport had, in 1716, 793 children of school age, to whom its public schools were open seven months in the year. In the table of the board of education, in which all the towns of the State are numerically arranged according to the percentage of their taxable property appropriated for public schools in that year, Rockport stands 294th in the State, and twenty-seventh in the county of Essex. This low rank does not indicate poorer quality of instruc- tion, but a less amount of it, occasioned by higher wages to teachers. The average monthly pay of its female teachers is very much in advance of that of the parent town.
Death of a Beloved Physician. - Ou the 21st of January, 1878. died Dr. Benjamin Haskell, at the age of sixty-eight. He was a native of the town, his father, Josiah Haskell, having removed from Gloucester Harbor to Sandy Bay about 1800. The son graduated at Amherst College in 1832, and spent the whole of his professional life in his native place. He was held in high esteem as a learned and skilful physician and a good man.
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