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 13

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 13

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From data furnished by the Peabody Academy of Science, the num- ber of species of plants in the county appears as follows : Flowering plants, including the Sedges and Grasses, 1.200 ; Ferns and Lycopods, 50; Mosses and Liverworts, 230 ; Lichens, 200; Algæ (the seaweeds only), 150. Total, 1,830. If the 1,100 Fungi, which may probably

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

be found, arc added, this list will be increased to 2,930 species. Of the 1,830 species of plants usually collected, the academy has 1,300 already in the herbarium, and it is intended to publish, before long, a full list of county plants, with many valuable notes upon the intro- duced species and rarer forms. Along the cold northern and eastern shores of Cape Ann may be found the Pearlwort ( Sagina nodosa), the White Mountain Potentilla ( P. tridentata), so abundant near the summit of Mount Washington and the higher peaks of New England, besides other northern plants. In the belt of land extending from the Essex and Manchester woods to Georgetown and Andover, are many localities very similar to the region at the base of the White Mountains, near the Glen House, or Crawford Notch.

On the southern side of Cape Ann is the famous locality of the Magnolia Glauca, which is not found elsewhere north of New York City. Among the lower forms of plants, the Red-snow (Protococcus nivalis), so frequently mentioned by Arctic travellers, has been detected at Nahant.

The early settlement and rapid growth of the county have led to the introduction of many plants, which have become so thoroughly estab- lished that they appear to the eye of the casual observer as native species. The Word-waxen ( Genista tinctoria), at first thought a valuable plant for the dyer, has now sole possession of hundreds of acres of land in the region of Danvers, Lynn, and Salem. The White-weed ( Leucanthemum vulgare) has become in its adopted soil vastly more prolific than in its native European habitat ; and the Barberry (B. vulgaris), is so very much at home along the roadsides and in rocky pastures, that few persons realize it to be a plant intro- duced from Europe. These serve as illustrations only of the two hundred, or perhaps more, adventitious plants, which have made their appearance since the first settlement. Whence they came, and for what purposes many of them were intentionally introduced, would furnish material for some years study and research, the publication of which would form a volume of no little interest.

In 1629, Higginson, noticing certain plants in the vicinity of Salem, mentions the Flowering Raspberry and Cherril. The localities referred to were carefully investigated some fifty years since by Dr. Charles Pickering, and the plants still found to exist, and in 1877 the Raspberry still flourished in the same place. Thus we are enabled to identify the locality of a certain species for about 250 years, quite as long a period as such plants are traced back in Europe.

In 1795, the Rev. Manasseh Cutler, of Hamilton, published in the Proceedings of the American Academy some account of the plants of New England, which may be considered as the first Essex County botanical work.

About the year 1823, Charles Pickering and William Oakes, then young and enthusiastic botanists, were searching the county for rare plants. The memoranda then made by the former serve to perpetu-

ate the flora of localities in many cases now covered by buildings, or under cultivation, while the beautifully prepared specimens collected by the latter formed the nucleus of the present Essex County Herba- rium.

Mr. William Oakes was born in Danvers, 1799, afterwards living in Ipswich. He died in 1848, and deserves to be remembered as Essex County's most eminent botanist.

Dr. Charles Pickering was born in Pennsylvania in 1805, and died in Boston, Mareh, 1878. Being educated at Harvard, he passed much time at the residence of his grandfather, Col. Timothy Picker- ing, in Wenham. He was naturalist of the Wilkes' U. S. Exploring Expedition, and has written many works of great value, prominent among which are "The Races of Man," and "The Distribution of Animals and Plants." Although not a native of the county, yet much of his early work was accomplished here, and attachments formed which lasted throughout his life, and it is but fair to claim a share of the honor due this distinguished botanist.

The only attempt at an enumeration of the county plants was made by Mr. Cyrus M. Tracy, of Lynn, in his " Essex Flora." The small number of species there given (546) is accounted for, as no attempt was made to include the lower orders of plants, or to perfect the list much beyond the towns in the neighborhood of Lynn.

So closely do the paths of the botanist and horticulturist follow each other, it is not surprising that a region so well known to botan- ists should be famous for its horticultural products.

It is impossible to estimate the effect of the introduction of even the " Endicott Pear-Tree," yet it must have called attention to horticult- ure almost as soon as the county was settled ; and judging by the accounts of early writers, the native fruits of the land were among the first things to which attention was given.

Particularly in the older towns, the gardens have been noted for their flowers and fruit, and although now no longer able to compete with the gardens around Boston, where new land has been placed under cultivation, and where the large establishments of the profes- sional gardeners centre, as being nearer to a market, yet it can be pointed out with pride, that in the pomological garden of the late Robert Manning, were once growing two thousand varieties of fruit- trees, and that an Essex County man -the late J. Fiske Allen - cultivated successfully the great Water-Lily of the Oronoco ( Victoria regia ), producing the first specimens seen in New England.

Even if the county can no longer elaim pre-eminence in hortieult- ure, the many local exhibitions, now so common in almost every town, prove that there is no falling off in the quality of the fruits dis- played, and is suggestive of a healthy change, as indicated by the fact that a large number of cultivators are each raising small quanti- ties of fruit and flowers, instead of large amounts being produced by a few persons.

AMESBURY.

This town is one of those resulting from the limitations of the patent granted by Plymouth Council to Rosewell, March 19, 1628, which originated the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The northern line of that patent was located three miles north of Merrimac River, and this has always been, constructively, adhered to, though the gen- eral trend of the river, ascending from the beaches, is nearer south west than otherwise, and the effort to follow the stream with some fidelity has broken the line into innumerable zigzags. In anywise, the line could thus be carried only as far west as Tyngsborough, where the change of the river to an almost meridian course put an end to that arrangement. The strip of Massachusetts territory thus indicated, was later divided between the counties of Essex and Middlesex, and the portion assigned to the former has been distributed into five towns, of which the second from the coast forms the present subjeet.

The original boundaries of Amesbury are very simple indeed. Easterly the line is that of Powow River, which, crossing the whole width from New Hampshire, separates it from Salisbury ; northerly it follows the old patent line, now the boundary of the State, till it reaches the summit of Brandy-brow Hill; thence, by a straight line, running south-easterly, and dividing it from Haverhill, to a point established on the Merrimac River; thenee, by that river, to the mouth of Powow River at Salisbury Point. This gives a territory differing little from fifteen square miles in area, with an extreme length east and west, from Brandy-brow Hill to Salisbury Point, of about six and a half miles. From this extent the new town of Merri- mac takes very nearly one-half, leaving the old name hercafter to be borne by only the eastern section.

The formation of this territory, geologically speaking (at least, of the eastern part, with which this sketch is more especially concerned), is similar to that usually met with in the neighborhood of large rivers. An underlying basis of rock, indeed, exists, of that group in the mica- slate known as the Merrimac schists, but it quite seldom reaches the surface. Its form is often highly contorted, with fine, separable laminæe, strongly suggesting some of the chloritic series. But from the east- ern boundary to the middle of the township, embracing the large area known, formerly at least, as the "Pond Plain," outcrops of any kind are rare ; and the ground, though largely diversified with strong ele- vations, is yet almost wholly diluvial, ranging from firm, bedded clay's to coarse gravel, nearly always re-arranged, and hills of finer sand, abundantly marked with traces of alluvial action. The evidences of a lower continental level at some ancient age are here everywhere around, as in most such districts in New England, pointing in this case to the movements of a broad estuary, reaching far inland, of which the Merrimac of to-day is probably only the diminished repre- sentative. This heavy overlay of gravel makes it impossible to inves- tigate the sub-formation to any extent, or to say much as to the minerals that may accompany it; but it seems that few species, indeed, have ever been detected in the town.

The water-system of the township is distinguishable into three divisions. First, the Merrimac River. This noble stream makes the entire southerly boundary, along which it flows for about five miles for the old town, or two and three-fourths for the present one. Its width slightly varies, of course, yet is, on the whole, pretty uni- form at about one-fourth of a mile. It is freely navigable to this point for light-draught vessels, schooners and the like, and steamboats ply regularly from its mouth to stations considerably higher. Accept- able wharfage is had at the several villages along the shore, aud the

commeree thus encouraged has always been a prominent form of industry. Secondly, the Powow River. This stream, as has been stated, enters from the north, first crossing the line of New Hamp- shire from the town of Southampton. After making a considerable detour by south-east and north-east, it again enters the other State, from which it re-emerges a half-mile further east, still in Southamp- ton, and takes a tolerably straight line to the Merrimac on a mean course of say south 35° east, which it follows for about three miles, having Salisbury on its east bank, and finally enters the Merrimac at Salisbury Point, very nearly six miles from the ocean. The flow of this stream is, of course, different at successive points ; but at the Mills Village, which is about midway, it may be fairly estimated at 180,000,000 gallons per day. Here, also, are found its principal falls, consisting of a series of irregular descents, by which, in a dis- tance of some fifty rods, a change of level of about seventy feet is obtained. Much of the stream at this spot, however, is covered and concealed by bridges and otherwise, and one may pass through with- out suspecting it ; yet it affords very important water-power to several large factories. Most of these are on the Salisbury side. In other parts of its course the river traverses a series of romantic valleys, flanked by bold and picturesque hills, which, from the loose and unstable formation of the rock, are greeu to the tops, and beautifully covered with foliage. Thirdly, we reckon Kimball's Pond. This sheet of water lies almost in the centre of the original township, and both the old line of parish division, and that now separating the town of Merrimac, pass across a part of its surface, leaving, however, at least three-fourths of the arena in Amesbury. It gathers from quite an extensive water-shed on all sides, and on the north-west is sup- plied by Baek River, which is large enough to afford good mill- power, and which arrives from Newton, N. H., by a south-easterly course of about two miles. Kimball's Pond must stand for the second body of water in Essex County in point of magnitude, only inferior to the Great Pond in North Andover. That has an area stated at 450 acres, while the Amesbury lake reckons 408 acres, or more than five- eighths of a square mile. Its outlet is northerly, by a long arm or channel, at the end of which it pours its waters into Powow River, which at that place approaches within a singularly short distance. The proximity of the two has suggested the opening of an artificial communication, especially since the establishing of a dam at Tuxbury's Mills, by which the flow of the upper part of the river was restrained. By the new channel a larger draught is made on the pond to equalize the supply below. This pond, like many others inlaud, has a consid- erable altitude, which is stated at ninety feet above the sea level. A variety of highways pass near it, and farms and homesteads are visible all around.

The management of the stream at the Mills Village is somewhat peculiar, there being neither pond, dam, nor eanal at any of the eleven factories so closely set together. The fall of the river being so rapid, just adunits of the introduction of a series of locks, that distribute the water right and left to the wheels it is to move, and the excess passes over in manner of an ordinary canal. Within a few years, indecd, there has been a large and massive dam thrown across the stream one or two miles above the village, by which the waters are detained and stored in great quantity, flowing back nearly to the State line, and covering, by estimation, more than three hundred acres. This has overflowed at least one ancient manufacturing site, familiarly known as " Joppa," and perhaps oue or two of lesser importance.

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

In one part of the outlet of Kimball's Pond was formerly an artifi- cial work, consisting of an arched tunnel, built with common bowlders, through which the water found its way outward. It was a very sin- gular work, and no tradition has ever been found running back to its origin, or pretending to explain its existence. Some have ascribed it to the Indians, but this is very improbable. A better conjecture would assign a still older raee as its builders.

The civil and political history of Amesbury has but little of compli- cation about it. It is a town of the second rank as to antiquity ; that is, one derived from an original settlement by the first immigrants. In 1638, Dennison, Bradstreet, and others, procured a grant from the Massachusetts Court of all the territory north of the Merrimac, from the sea to the present limit of Haverhill. On this they established their plantation, which, called " Colchester" at first, was incorporated October 7, 1640, as "Salisbury." Very soon it became evident that further colonization must be had, to properly improve the territory whose settlement had been undertaken. Finally, November 11, 1642, a meeting held in Salisbury voted that thirty families should remove to the west side of Powow River before March 1, 1645. They were to have all the common lands on that side laid out to them, and after a decided settlement were to remain barred of all further rights upon the other, or in the original town. Removals undoubtedly commenced at once; yet we find no further notice taken of the matter in a public way till January 14, 1654, when a formal agreement, com- prising articles of separation and adjudication, was drawn up and executed. It was signed, on the part of the new colony, by Thomas Bradbury, Thomas Macy, and others, to the number of twenty-nine in all.

The ageney of old Salisbury was not wholly set aside at once, how- ever, for she had to take concern in the question of boundary for some time. It would hardly seem to have been difficult or troublesome ; yet not before another year did they fairly get at it. December 2, 1657, George Brown and Theophilus Shatwell were deputed from Haverhill to join with Salisbury in defining the line between the two ; and however well their work was done, it seems not to have reduced the matter to entire quiet, for almost ten years later, May 15, 1667, the General Court heard and determined the case, and gave it final settlement.

" Salisbury New Town" was not yet, however, a town by itself, or anything more than a colony. Yet they managed their internal affairs as if their constitution were perfect, and we find that they chose their first selectmen January 15, 1666, being Thomas Barnard, Lient. Challis, Jolin Weed, Robert Jones, and John Hoyt. This anticipation was not excessive, nor, probably, imprudent ; for May 23, 1666, the General Court advanced them to an incorporation, so far at least as granting them "the liberty of a township," which might be supposed to have seated their freemen in the Court with others, but does not seem to have done so. Next, we pass two years, when, April 29, 1668, another grant was made, by which they received the name of Amesbury. It has been said that this name was adopted from a town near the English one of Salisbury, This is probable enough, not only because the practice certainly prevailed of naming towns in this man- ner, but yet more, because the name of Ames is not prominent among the early families here, and, indeed, can hardly be found at all, so that the title can hardly have been derived from any such. A curious eir- cunstance in this connection is, that for many years the name was in an uncertain form, and may be found on the record as Amesbury, Amisbury, Almisbury, and especially, Almsbury, which prevails over all others for a considerable period.

Representatives had been sent to the General Court ever since 1634 ; but there seems to have been none chosen by Amesbury till June 3, 1689. Then Samuel Colby was chosen, being the first on the record. It is not impossible that up to this time they had acted on the plan occasionally adopted elsewhere, and "voted not to send," but such votes, even, are certainly unrecorded. This is not strange, for the

records are not by any means complete, and many things are con- stantly omitted that cannot be supposed to have been undone. Thus, it is not till March 12, 1704-5, that a record appears that " Thomas Currier was chosen Town Clerk," notwithstanding the existence of records for years before ; yet the election of Joseph Pregett as clerk of the market on the nineteenth of the same month, may point to a newly-ereated office.

Very little more appears to have been done of a public nature till some time in 1725, when the feeling, so common in the other settle- ments, fully appeared in this, that this township was too large for all the inhabitants to attend either one church or one school. The divi- sion into districts was of course inevitable ; and as two appeared to answer all need, a line was run from the Merrimac River to the south side of Kimball's Pond, and thence obliquely to the State line, thus making a western and an eastern district. It will be noticed that this line is almost or exactly identical with that by which the new town of Merrimac was at length set off.

The town was thus in a condition of general prosperity. Many inter- nal improvements had been successfully undertaken, an almshouse had been in operation since May 18, 1763, and the town was spending not far from £150 per annum for public purposes. Then the dark cloud of the Revolution spread over and shut down on the whole country ; and these quiet farmers of Amesbury found themselves involved in one common trouble with their brethren, north, south, and west. The first action of the town was July 21, 1774, when they voted £2 88. 7d. to be paid to the Committee of Correspondenec. We have no doubt that the patriotic feeling rose as high and sincerely here as in other towns, but the farmers were more men of deeds than words, and took but little time for writing on the record books beyond what was necessary, whence the literature of the period is indeed pretty scanty. Nothing more is heard till January 24, 1775, when Isane Merrill, Esq., was chosen a representative to a Continental Congress to be held at Cambridge.

There are some reasons, in fact, for suspecting that the Tories were here as well as in towns further north. Very soon came the call for minute-men, and the town met, March 13, 1775, to consider it. But those whose way it is to " vote carly " at least, appear to have rallied, and on the first presentation of the question, met it with the squarest of negatives, refusing to raise any minute-men at all. Unquestionably, if we could go back to those old days of stormy partisan feeling, we might hear again the angry discussion that prevailed everywhere through the following week ; but it had its result, for another meeting was called, March 20, 1775, when the vote of the weck before was triumphantly reconsidered, and the town voted to raise fifty men. Nor were they satisfied with being in the field only, but bravely kept their place in the forum also. When the Provincial Congress was ealled at Watertown, Capt. Caleb Pillsbury was sent, May 25, 1775, to take his place as a representative among them. And the patriotic current did not stop here, either ; but as the men of Newburyport had undertaken to put obstructions in the mouth of the Merrimac, the Amesbury farmers were prompt to respond to their eall for assistance, and voted them £20 in logs and timber, to help to stop the way against the possible incursions of British cruisers. The same spirit held the reins through the year apparently ; for Ang. 15, 1775, the town voted to buy sixty-nine coats, and other proper equipments, to furnish the soldiers. But in the next spring the Royalists may have gained a little ascendancy ; since April 30, 1776, when the Newburyport people un- dertook to fortify Plum Island, they again applied to the upper towns for assistance ; but Amesbury distinctly refused to lend any hand to the enterprise. But this is about the last time we find any manifesta- tion of unpatriotic feeling, save in the votes subsequently had, where the strong minorities still reveal the existence of much Tory sentiment. But when, July 1, 1776, instructions were voted to their representa- tives in the Continental Congress, they assured them "that the town would " abide by and defend the members of the Continental Con-

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

gress with their lives and fortunes, if they think it expedient to declare the Colonics independent of Great Britain."

The next year the town followed up these brave words with steady and appropriate action. Their quota was fixed at fifteen battalions, and they voted to fill it up promptly. Doubtless, it was done, for after this, which was May 19, 1777, we notice many and frequent votes for procuring men and paying bounties, such as indicate an active state of feeling existing in the little, quiet community. By the next year the success of the Colonies beeame somewhat well assured, and early in the spring a convention was ordered for the forming of a State Constitution. To this body the town elected Caleb Pillsbury, Esq., Feb. 3, 1778, and gave him some instruetious as to their views in the premises. A somewhat similar vote appears next year, May 17, 1779, as if some interruption or delay might have occurred in the matter ; and again still, the next year, when a vote was taken, partly divisionary, upon the Bill of Rights and the form of government, May 29, 1780. Here, again, we catch a glimpse of the minority sen- timent that must have watched and waited in the town, for though the rest of the Bill of Rights had eight votes for, to two against it, the third article ealled out thirteen yeas, to which fourteen nays responded. The form of government did not fare much better, being barely accepted by twenty-one yeas to nineteen nays, and they distinctly voted besides to send no more delegates to the convention. About this time (Dee. 14, 1778), the town was raising £3,000 for current annual expenses. The first State election took place, Sept. 4, 1780; but the vote was very slender. By the preceding figures there seem to have been about forty voters in town; but Hancock only could call out fifteen, to five for Bowdoin and one for Cushing. But in some things they took a far deeper interest ; for the temper of the Amesbury farmers appears to have been quick and sharp enough when the practical mat- ters of life came within range. When they gave instructions to their representative, Jan. 17, 1782, they bade him, positively, to use all influence to have the right of the United States to the fisheries made an indispensable article of the treaty with England. Beyond doubt, they thought that question might be settled in a much shorter period than the whole of the matters comprehended under the negotiations, and would have been disgusted if assured that it would be one of the very last things to become quiet, not ceasing to trouble the people for more than a hundred years. And it surely did not cease to trouble the men of Amesbury, even for a time ; for, in 1796, they sent a memo- rial to Congress, praying for the strict performance of all the treaty provisions in regard to this absorbing subjeet.

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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 13

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