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 23

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 23

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A Universalist Society was organized February 17th of this year, the following persons being chosen as the standing committee : - Daniel

Hildreth, Stephen Homans, Jeremiah Wallis, Benjamin D. Grant, and William A. Foster. Among the carly preachers employed were the Revs. John Prince, Heury Bacon, Sylvanus Cobb, and William Hooper. The Rev. C. H. Webster was settled as the first pastor in 1843, on a salary of $350 per annum. His successor was the Rev. W. G. Cambridge. A meeting-house was erected in 1846, and that year the Rev. John L. Stephens, afterwards editor of the "Kennebec Journal," now minister abroad, was installed pastor. He was suceceded by the Rev. Ira Washburn [1847-1851], the Rev. Stillman Barden, two ycars ; the Rev. E. W. Coffin [1853-1855], the Rev. John Nichols [1856-1866], the Rev. G. W. Whitney [1867-1872], and the pres- ent pastor, the Rev. J. N. Emery, installed in November, 1872. The meeting-house was enlarged and beautified in 1863, at a cost of $4,000, and subsequently an organ costing $1,500 was introduced. The number of families now connected with this church is about 135, and the church membership is about ninety. The superintendent of the Sabbath school, which contains about 225 pupils, is Samuel Porter, and the deacons are John T. Cushing, and Ephraim Hathaway, Sr. Miss Abhy H. Wallis is the clerk of the church.

A town hall and school-house, combined, was built in 1804, which in 1840 was made wholly a school-house, when the town bought the mansion of the late Israel Thorndike, formerly Andrew Cabot's, and made a town hall of that ; and this was enlarged to more than twice its original size in 1874, and well fitted for public nse.

Beverly had, in 1845, forty-six vessels employed in the cod and mackerel fisheries, and the value of fares for the year ending April 1, 1845, was $67,533. It had then eight forges, manufacturing anchors, cables, and other articles. It also manufactured cordage, hats, caps, cars, soap, tin-ware, leather, boots and shoes, bricks, pumps, blocks, and boats. It cut 2,364 tons of hay, and raised fruit to the value of $2,250.

The Bass River Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, now numbering 435 members, and dispensing annually about $2,000, was instituted by M. W. G. Master Usher, at Bell's Hall, Fch. 21, 1851, and during the first twenty-five years of its existence, the receipts were $35,986, benefits paid, $22,427.50, and charities, $18,000. It erected a hall for its meetings in 1857, which was destroyed by fire, Feb. 11, 1873. During the years 1874 and 1875, a large and commodious huild- ing. was erected at a cost of about $65,000, on Cabot Street, for the use of the Order. It is of brick, 80 feet by 80, with granite trimmings, and surmounted by a cupola. The first story is used for stores, the second for offices, and the principal hall, furnished at a cost of $5,000, is one of the finest of its kind in the State. The lodge, as such, owns $10,000 of the stock of the Building Association. Friendship Lodge of the Daughters of Rebecca, auxiliary to the Bass River Lodge, and containing about 160 members, was instituted Jan. 10, 1870 ; and the Summit Encampment, of about 135 members, was organized Sept. 20th of the same year.

The Beverly Insurance Company was incorporated, with a paid-up capital of $50,000, in 1853. Its business is confined to marine risks principally. F. W. Choate is presideut, and Samuel J. Foster, secretary.

The "Beverly Citizen," a weekly journal, devoted to general intel- ligence, was established in 1859, and is a well-conducted paper.

The Beverly National Bank was incorporated in March, 1865, with a capital of $200,000. John Pickett is the president, and Robert G. Bennett, cashier.

The Beverly Savings Bank, chartered 1867, has $500,000 deposits. William Endicott, president ; Robert G. Bennett, treasurer.

Methodist services was held in the town hall here at intervals in former years, but no church was organized until April, 1867, when the Rev. Allen J. Hall became its pastor, conducting public services in the town hall ; and he was succeeded by the Rev. J. M. Bailey, under whose ministry a church and parsonage were built on Railroad Avenue. The Rev. C. S. Rogers became pastor in 1870; the Rev.

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

S. C. Jackson, in 1872 ; the Rev. M. E. Wright, in 1874; the Rev. A. P. Adams, in 1877 ; and in 1878, differing with the church author- ities in some statement of doctrine, a separation was had, and the Rev. Daniel Waite became pastor of the Methodist Avenue Episcopal Church ; Mr. Adams, with a part of that church and congregation, retiring and organizing an Independent Methodist Church, and con- tinning worship in Odd Fellows' North Hall.

Episcopal church services were held in the town hall for one or more seasons, by the Rev. Dr. Packard, nearly thirty years ago, but it was not till July, 1863, that any permanent, regular services of that church were established, when a mission service was begun at Union Hall, under the care of the Rev. Wm. R. Pickman, the rector of St. Peter's Church, of Salem. In 1864 the Rev. S. H. Hilliard had charge of the mission, and continued till Whitsunday, 1865, when St. Peter's Church and Parish of Beverly, having been organ- ized, and its new and neat church, at the corner of Cabot and Bow streets, just completed, the Rev. Mr. Pickman became its rector, and continued about one year, when he removed to Michigan. The Rev. F. M. Cookson succeeded him till the fall of 1870, when he removed to Fort Edward, N. Y. The Rev. George Denham was then rector till Easter, 1872, and during the summer of that year services were continued mainly by Mr. Louis L. Osborne, acting as lay-reader. May 13, 1873, the Rev. William G. Wells became rector and con- tinued to 1878, when he removed to Lawrence, and the Rev. J. C. Welwood, the present rector, succeeded him here.

The Roman Catholic church was organized here in 1869. They bought the former Baptist church, fronting on Cabot and Essex streets, and enlarged and remodelled it ; and they also afterwards bought the old tavern estate adjoining, where Nathaniel Hawthorne's grandmother was born, and took down that and another small house thereby, and have there built a neat parsonage house. The Rev. Father Shahan was the first pastor, and after him Father Kiely, who was succeeded by the Rev. Father William J. J. Denvir, the present pastor. The Young Men's Catholic Temperance Society, mostly or all members of this congregation, is a valued instrumentality for good.

At Centreville, the old school-house is held by trustees for religious and educational purposes, and has been very neatly fitted up. Regu- lar religious services are held there, somewhat independent in their character, but principally of the Freewill or Free Baptist order.

The military history of the men of Beverly began with the early settlement of Naumkeag, and has had a continuous honorable and patriotic record. Of Capt: Lothrop and some early military service, we have already told. But, besides these, we have Capt. William Dixey, Lieut. Paul Thorndike, Ensign Samuel Corning, Cornet Lot Conant, Sergt. Thomas West, and Corp. Thomas Whittredge, all afterward farther advanced. And in 1744, Capt. Benjamin Ives, Jr., was captain of a Beverly company at Louisburg ; and in 1756, there were several Beverly men in Capt. Andrew Fuller's company at Crown Point, and many men in other expeditions before the Revolution. In the Revolutionary War, Capt. Moses Brown commanded a company of Beverly men, and there were several other companies organized here ; and besides these, Beverly furnished many soldiers for Col. Glover's regiment, and for other commands ; while her sailors liberally supplied the armed vessels of the country. In the war of 1812, the town was liberally represented both in the army and navy, and was also faith- fully represented therein in the Mexican war; while in the War of the Rebellion, 988 men were furnished for the Union service (a hand- some excess over the required quota), and of these, about 100 lost their lives in the service. In 1801, the old Beverly Light Infantry Company was formed, and continued till 1812; and in 1815, the present Beverly Light Infantry was organized.

Most of the carly settlers of Beverly had large posterity, and have been well represented both here and in the emigrant homes of many of them in various towns in Massachusetts, in the British Provinces, and in all the New England States, and later in New York, and in Ohio

and the far West ; while Boston and the other cities have numbered some of them among their honored citizens. Of these settlers, were Farmer William Dodge, commended as a skilful husbandman, fitted to have charge of a "team of horses," who was also a farrier of noted skill. He bought and lived on the early grant to Peter Palfrey, near where Lyman Mason, Sr., now resides. IIis son, Capt. William Dodge, according to Hubbard, saved the life of a friend from an Indian attack, and had otherwise a valiant record. He had a son Dea. William, and a son Capt. John Dodge. Richard Dodge, brother of Farmer William, had his settlement, probably, at Dodge's Row, where his-descendant, Richard Dodge, now resides, and he had several children, of whom Lieut. John was a leading citizen of Beverly, as was Richard in Wenham, and Samuel in Hamilton. William Dodge, a nephew of Richard and William, and supposed son of Michael, of England, married Elizabeth, daughter of Roger Haskell, and resided here. John Thorndike came here from Ipswich with his son Paul, who married Mary, the daughter of James Patch, and settled at the Cove, owning Paul's Head, now Hospital and Lighthouse Point. Anthony Wood came from Ipswich, and settled near the northerly junction of Cabot and Rantoul streets. John West also came from Ipswich with his son Thomas, and bought the large farm of Mr. Blackleach, extending from the Paine place into Manchester. Robert Woodbury, a long time town clerk, married a daughter of Thomas West, and thereby obtained a large farm, where is now the house of Dr. Hall J. Curtis ; and Joseph Woodbury, also marrying a daughter, obtaining a farm in Manchester. William Haskell likewise married a daughter, and had a farm at Beverly Farms, where is now the old Haskell house on Hale Street, the property of F. G. Dexter.

Jonathan Byles, George Stanley, Richard Brackenbury, Nicholas Patch, Robert Morgan, Richard Ober, and Jeffry Thissel (the latter two from Abbotsbury, Eng. ), all had estates between Bald Hill and Pride's Crossing, where the first Peter Pride had his house-lot, on condition that he direct all travellers in the right way. William Woodbury, Sr., probably settled at Woodbury's Point, and owned down far enough to include the Paine place ; he was succeeded by his son Nicholas, who was succeeded by his son Benjamin, whose only child Anna, inherited the Paine place, and married the Rev. John Barnard, of Marblehead. Humphrey Woodbury, son of John, set- tled between Snake IIill and the sea-shore, his son Thomas owning also in that vicinity, as did other Woodburys. Joshua Bison, who came from the Isle of Jersey about 1680, married the daughter of John Black, and grand-daughter of Peter Woolfe, and by purchase became the owner of much of their land, and of the land of John Sallows's estate, at the Cove, near Sallows Brook, and settled near there. Cornelius Baker, blacksmith, married Abigail Sallows, and also settled in that neighborhood. The Cove Fosters came from Joseph Foster, from North Salem, who married Rebecca, the widow of John Groves, and daughter of John Wallis, formerly of Falmouth, Me. His early set- tlement was toward Mingoe's Beach, and afterward near the Cove school-house. The Rev. John Hale owned from Watch Hill to the sea-shore, and the Bancroft heirs, his descendants, still own his home- stead. The Morgans owned next westerly of him, and sold to Sam- uel Lovett, afterward of Norwich, Conn., where is now the old Lov- ett house and Ocean Street. John Lovett, the father of Samuel, owned next to the Morgans, including the old cemetery, which he sold to the town. Ilis homestead was ou Cabot Street, near Wash- ington Street. His son John, Jr., married the daughter of Josiah and Susanna Rootes (of witchcraft memory), and by purchase and gift obtained a large tract of land of that family, lying north and west of Bartlett's Swamp. Another son, named Joseph, settled near where is now the farm of Larkin Foster. Samuel Corning was a large landholder in the village, near the meeting-house, extending to Bass River at Corning's Cove, and including what was formerly Corn- ing's Poud. He also owned near Bald Hill, where some of his de- scendants settled. He left a numerous family, descendants of which

HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

still reside in Beverly and elsewhere, including the Hon. Erastus Corn- ing, of Albany, N. Y., and others of the race in Connecticut and New York states and beyond. The Wallis lands by Wallis Street eame from him by his daughter Remember, wife of Nehemiah Stone, whose daughter married the first Caleb Wallis, son of Nathaniel Wallis, from Cornwall, Eng. John Stone, the first ferryman, also kept an ordi- nary or inn, near the southerly junction of Cabot and Front streets, where there was a tavern for many years ; and William Dixey owned a large traet of land, from near the corner of Bartlett and Lovett streets, extending to the sea-shore, and ineluding nearly all the pres- ent wharf frontage by Water Street. Thomas Tuek and his son John, owned estates at Tuek's Point, as did the Coxes, Elliots, &e., - and Ralph Ellingwood owned all the land by the harbor and Bass River, westerly of the railroad, and nearly to the depot, including ten acres formerly Robert Moulton's, and extending some easterly of the rail- road. Richard Stackhouse and Roger Haskins each owned easterly of Ellingwood, and Haskins owned by Stephens Hill and by the meeting-house.

Robert Briscoe, from the west of England, about 1680, was brother- in-law of Samuel Stone, and owned a wharf, and other property near it, and afterwards bought the estate at the corner of Cabot and Hale streets. He died at Exeter, N. H., and gave £20 to the poor of Bev- erly. This corner estate then, upon the payment of certain legacies, came to his friend, John Stephens, who came from England in 1700, and married Abigail Stone.

Roger Conant, John Woodberry, and John Balch, of the old planters, all settled on their respective grants near Balch Street, and Thomas Scruggs, by exchange, owned the grant of Capt. Trask, and his daughter Rachel, who married John Rayment, succeeded, with her husband, to that grant, upon a portion of which Col. John W. Ray- mond now lives. Capt. William Rayment, of the Canada expedition of 1690, a brother of John, settled farther to the east, some of his estate extending toward Brimble Hill. Que worthy name of this race is Capt. Josiah Raymond, who bequcathed $3,000 to the public schools, conditioned that no distinetiou be made therein in regard to color. Osman Trask and his nephew, John Trask, each settled here. Henry Herrick and his wife Edith, daughter of Hugh Laskin, had their home where is now the home of Mark B. Avery, and they wel- comed thereto "excommunicated persons," in spite of the threat- ened penaltics of church and state. Roger Haskell bought of Hugh Laskin a large tract of land extending from Bass River toward Hither Street. Andrew Eliot owned at or near where is now the home of Israel Eliot. He was the aneestor of the Rev. Dr. Andrew Eliot, of Boston ; of Hon. Samuel A. Eliot, ex-Mayor and M. C., of Bos- ton ; and of Charles W. Eliot, the present president of Harvard Uni- versity. Hasadiah Smith became a large landholder near Colon Street and elsewhere. Nicholas LeGrove was the ancestor of the Groves. The Stones, besides what they owned near the ferry, also owned from the common across to Bass River.

Of college graduates have been, the Rev. William Balch, 1724; pastor of Bradford Church ; preached election sermon, 1746. John Chipman, 1738; lawyer; Falmouth, Me. ; died suddenly in court. His brother, Ward Chipman, settled in Halifax, N. S., and was Justice of the Supreme Court, of which afterward his son, Ward Chipman, Jr., was chief justice; while another descendant of the Rev. John Chipman, Hon. Horace Gray, is now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. The Rev. John Hale had three sons, and many other descendants, graduated at Harvard; while Sampson Salter Blowers, a grandson of the Rev. Thomas Blowers, and the oldest surviving graduate, died at Halifax in October, 1842, aged 100 years. Hon. William Thorndike, President of the Senate, and afterward President of the National Insurance Company in Boston, was also a Harvard graduate ; as was also Hon. Robert Rantoul, Jr., whose father, Hon. Robert Rantoul, Sr., was for half a century or

more a public offiecr and leader here. Robert Rantoul, Jr., graduate in 1826; practised law at South Reading, Gloucester, and Boston ; was a leading representative in the General Court; collector of the port of Boston, and also United States district attorney. In 1851, he succeeded Daniel Webster as United States Senator ; was then elected to the House of Representatives at Washington, where in the midst of a career of brilliant promise he died suddenly, Aug. 7, 1852, aged 47 years. The Rev. William B. Tappan, author of that beautiful hymn, "There is an hour of peaceful rest," and of other favorites, was born in Beverly, and labored most of his life in Sabbath-school work. He died suddenly at West Needham in 1849, aged 54 years, and the Sabbath- school children erected a monument to his memory in Forest Hills Cemetery. The Rev. George Trask, also a native, was settled at Framingham, at Warren, Me., and at Fitchburg, but spent the last twenty-five years of his life in a vigorous crusade against tobacco, in preaching, publishing, and personal exhortation until he died, Jan. 25, 1875, aged 77 years. Thomas Poynton Ives, born here April 9, 1769, removed to Providence, R. I., and became one of the leading firm of Brown & Ives, and was otherwise prominent and influential. Israel Thorndike sccured the foundation of a large fortune in successful for- eign commerce here, and then removed his extensive business to Boston, and there largely increased it, and became one of the merchant princes of that city. William Burley, of Ipswich nativity, and of Revolu- tionary service, became a leading citizen here, and bequeathed fifty dollars a year to the public schools of Beverly. Moses Brown, from Watertown, was one of the Revolutionary leaders, and a prominent merchant. Town Clerk and Dea. Joseph Foster was of Ipswich stock.

The sea-shore of Beverly, with its surroundings, is its most at- tractive feature, and constantly attraets settlers from Boston and other places, who have already about eighty valuable houses built there, and they yearly increase, and quite a number make here their yearly homes. The harbor is commodious, and admits vessels of heavy burdens, and is well supplied with good wharf facilities for the fishing and coasting business done here, and includes two large lumber wharves, and coal wharves, with ample room and means for a large business. A modern lighthouse direets the way into the harbor. There are about thirty shoe maunfactories in town, and some of theni very large, and fully equipped for the extensive business which they do. There are also morocco manufactories, carriage factories, a box- mill, a planing and turning mill, a pottery, which turns out rare work of both antique and modern device, several briek-yards and other in- dustries ; farming and market gardening being extensively prosecuted. Its number of taxable polls for 1878 was 1,910 ; its valuation of per- sonal estate $2,372,300; of real estate $5,386,600; its rate of taxa- tion $14.80 per thousand; number of dwelling-houses 1,281; of horses 587; of cows 553 ; of sheep 4; number of acres taxed 7,870. It has nearly fifty miles of water-pipes, distributing the pure water of Wenham Lake all through the town, and has most excellent roads, beautiful shade-trees, and attractive drives ; it also has a well- equipped fire department, and other public works of great value. Besides the excellent steam-railroad facilities, there is a horse railroad running its cars constantly to Salem and Peabody, and there are excellent livery stables herc.

In looking over this fair town, and observing the marks of improve- ment in its streets and buildings, its water-supply, its advantages for education, its productive industries, its social, civic, and religious institutions, its railroad facilities, its pleasant prospects by the sea, together with the good order, intelligence, public spirit, and sobriety of its inhabitants, we are led to the conclusion that few towns in this Commonwealth present greater attractions as a place of residence, or stronger assurance of continued increase and prosperity. It has both sea and land at its command ; and happy are the people whose homes are fixed in such a beautiful, thriving, peaceable, and progressive town.

BOXFORD.

Comprising a wide extent of land in the centre of the county of old Essex, over which are scattered numerous farm-honses, and here and there a hamlet, where the trades-people abide together, away from the din and excitement of the eity, Boxford commends itself to every one that loves a calm retreat, where pure fresh air is plenty, where birds sweetly sing in their leafy bowers, and flowers of every hue fill the air with sweetest perfume, making the place a very par- adise. Secluded from the more busy haunts of the populace, Boxford is little known beyond the eircle of a few miles. Content to live on in the old way their fathers lived for more than two centuries, the inhabitants have seldom sought to make any outside show, or become acquainted with the great advance that so many of our towns have made during the last twenty-five years. Inheriting from their remotest ancestry the love of a pastoral eareer, it has proven to be the very idiopathy of their present retired condition.

Boxford was first included in that tract of land purchased by the "Rev. Ezekiel Rogers' Company" of the towns of Ipswich and New- bury, and which was granted an " act of incorporation," Sept. 4, 1639, bearing the name of Rowley .* The company of emigrants settled where the present village of Rowley is situated. No advances were made to settle that traet of land now included in Boxford, until about 1650. Robert Andrews, the emigrant aneestor of Gov. Andrew, was nearly, if not the first settler upon our soil. Of his lineal descendants, Samuel, Daniel, Isaac W., and Charles Andrews now reside in the town, -the two first mentioned on the old ancestral homestead, which has always remained in the possession of the family, generation after generation. Joseph Bixby, an emigrant, was also among the early settlers. From him have sprung the American Bixbys. Deacon Samuel, Daniel, and Stephen Bixby, inhabitants of this town, are descendants. Daniel Black, a Scotchman, originated a numerous posterity. George Blake (Black?) removed from Gloucester to Boxford about 1672. Edmund Bridges (an emigrant) and his son Josiah, Nathaniel Brown, Samuel Boswell, After Cary, John Chad- wick, and John Cummings are also among the early settlers. Zaecheus Curtis probably settled near by the present residence of his descend- ant (?), Mr. Francis Curtis. Timothy Dorman, ancestor of the Esquire Dormans, settled on the old Dorman place. Robert Amnes (anciently spelled Eames), lived on the road that leads from the East to the West parish. William Foster came to Boxford from Ipswich, in 1661. Richard K. and the late Jonathan Edwards Foster are lineal descendants. John Kimball was another early settler. Three brothers, John, Joseph, and William Peabody (sons of Lieut. Francis Peabody), have many descendants, resident in Boxford, some of them on the old homesteads. John and Thomas Perley (sons of Allan Perley) settled here very early. Thomas has descendants, Moody, Wil- liam E., George, Samuel, Charles, and Henry Perley, now living in the town. Matthew Perry, John Ramsdell, Abraham Redington (the American progenitor of the Redington family ), and Robert Smith were also among the early settlers. Robert Stiles originated an exten- sive posterity, one of whom, Elijah Stiles, now resides in the town. Samuel Symonds, Moses Tyler, John Vinton, and Robert Willis early settled on our soil. Daniel Wood was the aneestor of an extensive and distinguished posterity. Three of his descendants, Daniel (aged eighty-five), Capt. Enoch (aged eighty-one), and John Tyler Wood, are respected residents of the town. These are most of the early settlers before 1685.

Boxford now bore the name of Rowley Village, although it was a part, and subject to the authority of, Rowley. Most of the early set- tlers were extensive land-owners; but the largest traets were owned by Joseph Jewett, of Rowley, and Zaccheus Gould, of Topsfield, who together had more than six thousand acres. The "Village Lands," as the undivided land in the village was called, were laid out to the sev- eral families in the town and village, in 1666 or 1667. At this time the domains of Rowley Village were much more extensive than are those of Boxford at the present time, it then taking in about one-half of the present town of Georgetown, and a part of Groveland and Middleton.

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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 23

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