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 134
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The Salem Lyceum dates back to Jan. 18, 1830, when the organi- zation was started. The earlier lectures were given in various churches ; but the present Lyceum Hall was built soon, and the snecess of the institution increased from that time. Judge Daniel A. White, the president of the Lyceum, delivered the first lecture, Feb. 24, 1830, and an effort was made to have home talent largely represented in the list of lecturers. Among the Salem scholars who appeared in Lyceum courses in the earlier days of the institution, were Francis Peabody, Jonathan Webb, Henry K. Oliver, Dr. Abel L. Pierson, Charles W. Upham, and Rufus Choate. Some of the most noted men of the time have, year after year, lent their talents to the success of the Salem Lyceum : among them, Daniel Webster, Edward Everett, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Franeis Adams, A. P. Peabody, Horace Mann, Robert C. Winthrop, Jared Sparks, George Baneroft, and Caleb Cushing. The Lyceum has always maintained a high standard in the selection of its lecturers, and few similar organi- zations ean show such a fine record. The fiftieth annual course of entertainments has just been opened (Nov. 13, 1878) by a lecture by the Hon. Henry K. Oliver, mayor of Salem ; his lecture being an historieal sketch of the society.
The Young Men's Union was organized in 1855. It maintains a reading-room in Peek's Block, Washington Street; and each season presents a fine course of lectures, concerts, and other entertainments. As a rule these have been largely patronized. They have always been of a high order.
Musical Societies. - Salem has always been noted for its musical talent, and its devotion to misieal study and practice. Early in this present century, an attempt succeeded in the publishing, by Mr. John Appleton, of a work intended to supplant the imperfect and unique church music then in general vogue, by a more sober, solemn, and de- votional style, and, at the same time, pleasing in melody, accurate and rich in harmony. No organized musie society, however, appears till 1818, when the Handel Society was formed, continuing about three years, and studying the highest order of music. In 1821, but existing 'a very short time, the Haydn Society started. The first more permanent association was the Mozart Association organized by the efforts of Gen. Henry K. Oliver, in May, 1825. It had a very successful career of about ten years, giving conecrts, with music from the elassic authors, and exciting a marked influenee upon the taste and skill of the several church choirs in the eity, the leading members of which were enrolled among its numbers. Hon. John Pickering was its president, Henry K. Oliver vice-president, con- dnetor, and organist, and the Hon. Leverett Saltonstall first director. The first organ ever built by the celebrated brothers Hook, of Bos- ton, was used by this society. Their concerts were always well patronized, and the prospect of a permanent existence was so very fa- yorable that an application was made in 1834 to the Legislature for an Act of incorporation to enable the society to purchase and hold real estate whereon to ereet a music hall. The Act passed both branches, but was vetoed by Gov. Lincoln, on the ground that he considered it " inexpedient to encourage the incorporating of institutions of so limited a .publie benefit !" This discouragement seems to have oper- ated unfavorably on the continuance of the society. The next as- sociation for musical purposes was the well-known and most success- ful Salem Glee Club, organized in 1832, of which the leading spirits
were Gen. Henry K. Oliver, John Chadwick, Warwick Palfray, William Kimball, Charles Lawrence, Charles G. Putnam, William Brown, Leverett Saltonstall, and W. H. Prince. The club was under the presidency and instruction of Gen. Oliver, who selected its library, comprising all the best works of Horsley, Callcott, Spof- forth, Lord Mornington ( father of the Duke of Wellington), Danby, Bishop, and others. The elub continued about twenty-two years. On its breaking up, its library was presented to the library of the Harvard Musical Association, of Boston.
No other formal association seems to have existed in Salem till about the year 1868, when the Salem Oratorio Society was formed, with a membership of about three hundred persons. It was gathered mainly by the personal efforts of Mr. Francis H. Lee, an amateur. Its success has been very great ; mastering, under the instruction and load of Mr. Carl Zerrahn, the principal works of Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, and rendering them to the public in a manner to excite the praise of the severest musical critics, -one of whom, in a leading musical journal, declared that there never had been heard in this country such marvellous ehorns singing. The fame of the society spread far and wide, and it was selected, at the Peace of the World Jubilee at Boston, in 1872, as one of the societies to sing the double choruses of Handel's "Israel in Egypt," over against the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston.
The Salem Marine Society, the most ancient organization in the eity, originated in March, 1766, when eighteen shipmasters consti- tuted the society. The Aet' of incorporation was received in 1772. The early meetings were held at the honses of members, and later at the publie houses. The society now has rooms in Franklin Build- ing, corner of Essex and Newbury streets, which it owns. The late Thomas Perkins bequeathed to the society his buildings known as Franklin Place, and the first meeting was held there Nov. 28, 1833. The building was badly damaged by fire Jan. 29, 1845, again Jan. 4, 1859, and totally destroyed Oct. 31, 1860. The last time the insurance had expired a few hours before the fire but ; the generosity of the insurance company, and liberal contributions of citizens, aided substantially in creeting the present fine structure. The subscrip- tions amounted to over $14,000. The objeets of the institution, from its formation, have been charity, and progress in navigation. These principles have been closely adhered to.
The East India Marine Society is one of the oldest associations in the country, having been organized Oet. 14, 1799. Capt. Benjamin Hodges, was the first president ; Jacob Crowninshield, treasurer ; and Capt. Jonathan Hodges, secretary. Its chief objects were "to assist the widows and children of deceased members, who may need it, out of the funds of the society "; "to collect such facts and obser- vations as tend to the improvement and security of navigation "; " to form a museum of natural and artificial curiosities, particularly such as are to be found beyond the Cape of Good Hope, or Cape Horn." The by-laws provided that " any person shall be eligible as a member of this society, who shall actually have navigated the seas near the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn, either as master or commander, or as factor or supercargo of any vessel belonging to Salem, or, if resident in Salem, of any vessel belonging to any port in the United States." These conditions were always observed, and under them 348 joined the society up to the time that its museum was, with that of the Essex Institute, placed in charge of the Peabody Academy of Seienee (1867). Of these, 278 had died, leaving seventy surviving members. The charity bestowed was frequently outside of the chan- nels prescribed in the by-laws. Much attention was paid to im- provement in navigation. The earliest journal written in the records of the society was by Nathaniel Bowditch, who was for some years master or supercargo on voyages from Salem to the East Indies. The museum of curiosities collected was a very remarkable and extremely valuable one, and makes a prominent part of the collections now dis- played by the Peabody Academy. The society first occupied a room in a building on the corner of Essex and Washington streets ; next a building in the rear of the present Downing Block, and in 1825 moved into the East India Marine Hall, on Essex, nearly opposite St. Peter Street. The opening of this new hall was celebrated by a procession and dinner, at which President Adams, Mayor Quincy, of Boston, Judge Story, of the United States Supreme Court, and President Kirkland, of Harvard College, were present. The organization of the society is still maintained, aud its charity fund is continued.
The Salem Fraternity is an exceedingly worthy institution. It was organized in April, 1869, and maintains, free to all, a reading- room, amusement room, and library, in the Downing Block, Essex Street. The library contains upwards of 2,000 volumes, and free
* See account of the Essex Institute in County History.
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
instruction is given in various branches by competent teachers. Its labors are mainly among such young people of both sexes as are em- ployed in the city, but who have no home associations. Its objects are appreciated by the charitably disposed, and its influence is con- siderable.
The Young Men's Christian Association was organized in 1858. It has rooms at No. 194 Essex Street, which are open to all, day and evening, and where religious services are frequently conducted on week days and on each Sunday.
Temperance Societies. - Salem has had, first and last, a host of tem- perance organizations. Washington Total Abstinence Union, from 1841 to 1847 ; the Martha Washington Society, in connection with the first named ; Young Men's Temperance Society, 1843 ; Henfield Di- vision, Sons of Temperance, 1844, and still in existence ; Salem Divi- sion, 1846; Young Men's Division, 1859 to 1865 ; Phillips Division, 1859, and Abraham Lincoln Division, 1866, both still maintained ; Independent Division, Daughters of Temperance, and Zephyr Union Daughters ; Social Council, 1859; Essex Temple of Honor, 1856 : Meteoric Temple of Honor, 1866, and still existing ; Cadets of Tem- perance, 1848 ; Naumkeag Tent, Independent Order of Rechabites, 1844; Ocean Tent of Rechabites; Daughters of Rechab ; Father Mathew Temperance Society, 1848, and still maintained ; Temper- ance Watchmen, 1851 ; Young Men's Catholic Temperance Society, 1857, and still existing ; Bands of Hope ; Minnehaha Lodge, Order of Good Templars (1862), and Siloam Lodge, 1866, both in existence now ; Young Men's Temperance Volunteers, 1867 ; the present Re- form Clubs ; Ladies' Christian Temperance Union, and others. Each one has done what was within its power to check the evil of intem- perance, and with greater or less degree of success.
The Plummer Farm School is a reformatory institution for boys, founded by bequests of Miss Caroline Plummer,-one of $10,000; one of $8,000 ; and, besides, the residue of her property after paying other legacies. The legacies were accepted, according to the terms of Miss Plummer's will, by the city council, and the mayor and aldermen chose ten trustees to have charge of the institution. An Act of in- corporation was granted by the Legislature, May 21, 1855. The amount of the fund July 1, 1856, was $25,462.23. To this the city added $8,000, and interest on the whole was allowed to accumulate till 1870, when the school building was erected on Winter Island, on lands owned by the national government, which granted their use for the school. The building is a handsome French-roof structure. Mr. C. A. Johnson is principal of the school. The school fund now amounts to $50,000.
The City Relief Committee is composed of the pastors and one delegate from each church, and delegates from charitable societies, who act with the assistance of an agent in dispensing charity amoug the worthy poor of the city. Funds are furnished by the churches and by general contribution.
The Salem Hospital was organized April 7, 1873, a fund having been contributed for its formation by Capt. John Bertram and other citizens. The hospital building is located on Charter Street. This institution supplies a want long felt in the community.
The Salem Dispensary, organized in February. 1820, and incorpo- rated in 1831, had for its object the relief of poor people, by afford- ing medicine and medical advice gratuitously. Its labors ended ou the formation of the Salem Hospital, which assumed its mission.
The Old Ladies' Home, located on Derby Street, was founded by the late Robert Brookhouse, in 1861 ; and the Old Men's Home, on the same street, by Capt. John Bertram, in 1877. Both are excellent institutions.
The Masons. - There are in Salem six branches of the Masonic fraternity. Essex Lodge, F. A. M., was erected March 9, 1779, under authority from the Massachusetts Grand Lodge, descending from the Grand Master of Scotland. This charter was returned to the Grand Lodge, March 6, 1789, it being found impossible to con- tinue the lodge, as so many of its members were mariners and absent at sea. Another charter was granted, and the lodge formally consti- tuted June 8, 1792. The lodge was suspended on account of the anti-Masonic excitement from 1833 to 1845. Starr King Lodge was chartered March 9, 1865, twenty-two members having demitted from Essex Lodge for the purpose of forming it. Washington Royal Arch Chapter was constituted in September, 1811 ; suspended from March 17, 1835, to September, 1852; since which time companions have demitted to constitute Sutton Chapter, Lynn; William Ferson Chap- ter, Gloucester ; Amity Chapter, Beverly ; Holton Chapter, Danvers. Salem Conncil of R. S. M. was constituted June 3, 1818. Winslow Lewis Commandery of Knights Templars, under the jurisdiction of
the Grand Commandery of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, was insti- tuted June 27, 1865. Sutton Grand Lodge of Perfection. under the authority of the Supreme Council of Inspectors-General of the thirty- third degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, for the Northern jurisdiction of the United States of America, was con- stituted and established April 8, 1864.
The Odd Fellows. - During the latter part of the summer of 1843, Adrian Low and Thomas Harvey, both residents of Salem, and mem- bers of the order of Odd Fellows, the former of Siloam Lodge, and the latter of Oriental Lodge, conceived the idea of organizing a lodge in their own city, and the necessary steps were at once taken. A special meeting of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts was held at Salem, Nov. 6. 1843, and Essex Lodge was formed. fifteen members being admitted. In January succeeding, this lodge had a membership of thirty, and in June, 1876, its members numbered 335. A charter for a new lodge in Salem was granted in 1846, and on the 18th of November, Fraternity Lodge was organized, with twenty-nine mem- bers, that number withdrawing by card from Essex Lodge. Its mem- bership in June, 1876, was 205. Both of these lodges have excellent records of work done within the order, and of charity bestowed on sick members. Both are in flourishing condition to-day, and have the promise of brilliant futures. Naumkeag Encampment was insti- tuted June 26. 1845. Union Degree Daughters of Rebecca is the title of the female branch of Odd Fellowship in Salem.
The Salem Charitable Mechanic Association was organized Oct. 1, 1817, and the Mechanic Hall Corporation in 1839. The former has a library and reading-room in the Mechanic Hall Building.
The Salem Mutual Benefit Association is a mutual life insurance company, as is also a lodge of the Royal Arcanum recently organized in the city. The headquarters of the Essex County Odd Fellows' Mut- mal Benefit Association is also in Salem.
The Harmony Grove Cemetery Corporation was organized in 1839, and incorporated in 1840; cemetery consecrated June 14, 1840. The cemetery contains about seventy acres, and is beautifully laid out, and finely kept. The remains of George Peabody, the philanthro- pist, are here interred.
Miscellaneous Societies. - The American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science has its headquarters in Salem, occupying a room on the second floor of the Bank building, on Central Street. Prof. F. W. Putnam is the permanent secretary. The library of this association is a very large and valuable one, and its volumes are sent all through the country among the leading scientists. The business of the association is done almost wholly by mail and express, and few people comprehend its wide scope. The Salem Female Charitable Society was organized in 1801, and incorporated in 1804; the Sa- maritan Society was organized Dec. 10, 1832; the Salem Female Ein- ployment Society was incorporated May 1, 1867 ; the Seamen's Widow and Orphan Association was formed in 1833, and incorporated in 1844; the Seamen's Orphan and Children's Friend Society organized Feb. 25, 1839, and received an Act of incorporation in 1841. A new " home " has just been completed and opened on Carpenter Street. The City Orphan Asylum of Salem Sisters of Charity is the successor of the Looby Asylum, fonnded by the late Thomas Looby in 1866. It is situated on Lafayette Street, the building being a new one of brick, and perfectly adapted for the uses to which it is put. St. Peter's Guild, organized in 1872, is devoted to charitable work, under direction of the rector of St. Peter's Church. There are also in the city at the present time lodges of the United Order of American Me- chanics, Knights of Pythias, Knights of Honor, Americau Protestant Association, United Order of Red Men, and others of lesser note.
CHAPTER V.
SKETCH OF THE COMMERCIAL HISTORY OF SALEM, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THE PROMINENT MERCHANTS.
The commercial record of Salem, the most brilliant chapter in her history, is yet to be written. The old shipmasters, whose record is a part of that history, are many of them still living among us ; but their numbers are gradually diminishing, and before many years nothing will be left for the historian to glean from but the written and printed page. This history is so full of important events, and so crowded with interesting details, that it is not possible in the limits of a single chapter to do more than touch, in the briefest manner possible, upon
HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.
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some of the salient points. Perhaps the facts here stated may show what a wealth of material lies ready to be moulded into shape, and induce some chronieler worthy of the theme to undertake the inter- esting task of gathering it together for preservation. So, ere it be too late, the record may he preserved and handed down as a precious legacy from Salem of the past to Salem of the future.
Salem was undoubtedly chosen as a good place for settlement by Roger Conant, who describes it as "a fruitful necke of land," because of its harbors and rivers. Situated on a peninsula, with North River on one side, and South River on the other, all parts of the town were readily accessible by water. Salem was from the first, and of necessity, a maritime place. The Massachusetts Company that sent John Endi- cott to Salem was a trading company, and the Home governor, Mat- thew Cradock, writes to Endicott, in 1629, to send as return cargoes " staves, sarsaparilla, sumach, two or three hundred firkins of sturgeon, and other fish and beaver." In the same year, the Home Company sent to Salem six ship-hnilders, of whom Robert Moulton was chief. The neck was used for ship-building from the earliest period. In 1636, Richard Hollingworth, a ship-builder, gets a grant of land on the neck from the town, and builds a ship of three hundred tons there in 1641.
The early, long-continued, and staple trade of Salem was in the product of the fisheries. The harbor and rivers swarmed with fish, and so plenty were they that they were used for manure. From 1629 to 1740, Winter Island seems to have been the headquarters of the Salem fishing trade, and that trade was the staple business of Salem down to a much later period. From 1629 to 1640, Salem had not much ship- ping of her own ; but during the latter year the Rev. Hugh Peters, of the First Church, a man of great energy and sagacity, interested the people in ship-building, and in a few years an abundant supply of vessels was built. In 1643, the merchants of Salem were trading with the West Indies, with Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands.
Between 1640 and 1650, the commercial career of Salem received an impetus, and her vessels made voyages not only to the mother country, but to the West Indies, Bermudas, Virginia, and Antigua. Her wealth was great in proportion to her population, and Josselyn, writing in 1664, says, " In this town are some very rich merchants." From 1659 to 1677, there appear to be four noted ship-builders in Salem, one of whom, Jonathan Pickering, gets a grant of land about Hardy's Cove, from the town, to himself and heirs forever, to build vessels upon. In 1676, Salem is said to be one of the principal places for building vessels at £4 per ton.
From 1670 to 1740, the trade was to the West Indies and most parts of Europe, including Spain, France, and Holland, From 1686 to 1689, inelusive, Salem is trading to Barbadoes, London, Fayal, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Antigua. The great majority of her ves- sels are ketches from twenty to forty tons, and carrying from four to six men. Only one ship appears among them, and her tonnage is but one hundred and thirty tons. In 1698-99, registers are taken out for two ships of eighty and two hundred tons, a barque, three sloops, and twenty ketches. John. Johnson, of Salem, in 1693, "having for nigh three years followed the trade of boating goods," to and from Bos- ton, " sometimes twice a weeke," complains to Gov. William Phipps, of the cost of entering and clearing.
In 1700, the foreign trade of Salem is thus described by Higginson : " Dry Merehantable Codtish for the markets of Spain, Portugal and the Straits. Refuse fish, lumber, horses and provisions for the West Indies. Returns made directly to England are sugar, molasses, cot- ton-wool, logwood and Brasiletto wood, for which we depend on the West Indies. Our own produce a considerable quantity of whale and fish oil, whalebone, furs, deer, elk and bear skins are annually sent to England. We have much shipping here and freights are low."
Philip English was a good type of the Salem merchant of this period, and the commercial history of Salem is best written in the lives of her representative merchants. Mr. English came to Salem before 1670, and in 1675 married the daughter of another Salem mer- chant, Mr. William Hollingworth. In 1676, he is at the Isle of Jersey, commanding the ketch "Speedwell." He had so flourisbed in 1671 that he put up a stylish mansion on the eastern corner of Essex and English streets. It was one of those ancient mansion-houses for which Salem was once noted - a venerable, many-gabled, solid struct- ure, with projecting stories and porches. Down to 1753 it was known as English's great house. It stood until 1833, long tenantless and deserted, and when torn down a secret room was found in the garret, supposed to have been built afterthe witchcraft furor as a place of tem- porary security in ease of a second outery.
In 1692, Philip English was at the height of his prosperity. He was trading with Bilboa, Barbadoes, St. Christopher's, and Jersey, as
well as with several French ports. He owned twenty-one vessels, besides a wharf and warehouse on the neck, and fourteen buildings in the town. It is probable that his wife was over-elated by their pros- perity, and forgot her humble friends of former days; for she is now ealled " aristocratic," and the prejudice thus engendered against her doubtless led to her being " cried out" against for witchcraft. Both Mr. English and his wife were so acensed. From 1694 to 1720, Mr. English sends ketches to Newfoundland, Cape Sable or Arcadia, to catch fish, and sends these fish to Barbadoes or other English West Indies, Surinam, and Spain. He also had a number of vessels running between Salem and Virginia and Maryland. The ketch of those days was two-masted, with square sails on the foremast, and a mainsail on the mainmast, which was shorter than the foremast. The schooner gradually supplanted the ketch. It first appears in our Salem marine about 1720.
Mr. English was put into Salem jail, so says Felt, in 1725, for refusing, as an Episcopalian, to pay taxes for the support of the East Church. About 1734 he retired from trade, and in 1735, he was put under guardianship as being clouded in mind. He died in 1736, aged about eighty-six years, and was buried in the Episcopal church-yard.
Richard Derby was born in Salem in 1712, and about the time that Philip English retired from trade we find him master of the sloop " Ranger," about to sail for Cadiz and Malaga. "Salem, in 1732, has about thirty fishing vessels, much less than formerly, and the same number which go on foreign voyages to Barbadoes, Jamaica, and other West India Islands ; some to the Wine Islands ; others carry fish to Spain and Portugal." In 1739, Mr. Derby sails in the same vessel to St. Martins, and in 1742 he is master and part owner of the " Volant," bound for Barbadoes and the French Islands, In 1757, he retired from the sea and beeame a merchant of Salem, relinquishing his vessels to his sons, John and Richard.
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