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 30
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March 8, 1757, Daniel Gardner, Daniel Purrington, Daniel Eppes, Jr., Nathaniel Felton, and Lieut. David Putnam were appointed a committee to investigate the grammar school. It appears that there was some eause for complaint, for on the 17th of the same month it was voted, "that the selectmen agree with and choose a suitable school master and determine where school shall be kept." March 12, 1759, Daniel Eppes, Jr., Esq., John Andrew, and Daniel Pur- rington, were chosen as a committee with full power to regulate the seltools and to " draw money and pay the school master."
March 14, 1763, the school committee was increased to five men. May 22, 1765, by advice of the school committee, it was voted to keep the grammar school half the year in the North Parish, and half the year in the South Parish. In 1765 a school-house was erected in the middle parishes. In 1793 the district school system first came in vogue. In 1809 there were ninc districts. In 1814 an order was adopted requiring a report of the condition of the schools to be made at each annual town meeting. In 1820 an order was adopted requir- ing an annual eensns of the children of the town between four and sixteen years of age, to be made by the prudential committees on the first of May, and recorded by the town clerk. This order was prior to the passage of the State law to the same effect. Danvers now has (1878) twenty schools, including the Holton High School and three grammar sehools.
The attention of the town was largely taken up at its meetings with its highways, schools, the poor-house project, and general matters of minor importance, for some years succeeding its incorporation. The organization as a township in 1757, giving it the right of representa- tion in the Great and General Court, Daniel Eppes was chosen in that year as the first representative. The town had probably been moving in this matter of securing its own representative for a year or two prior to this. And, as already stated, it sent its representative in 1755 to oppose the plans for a proposed union, but it is probable that this official was only sent to do the business in hand, and that when it was performed he returned home to his people, receiving his stipend for performing the mission.
From June to September, 1762, the town suffered severely from a terrible drouth. The wells dried up, and vegetation was scorched.
In 1755, November 18th, the town had been shaken by the great Lis- bon earthquake. Slavery was in existenee in Danvers at this time, though practically only in name. Most of the slaves were regarded in the light of valued, trusty servants. They could testify in the
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courts. serve in the militia, hold property, and be members of the churches. None were ever born to be slaves in the eyes of the law. Their condition was thus very different from the former bondmen at the Sonth. In 1755. there were nine male and sixteen female slaves in Danvers.
CHAPTER II.
ACTION OF TIIE TOWN IN THE ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY EXCITEMENT - TIIE WAR SPIRIT OF 1775 - NOTABLE OCCURRENCES.
The year 1765 brought the odions Stamp Act. and with it the first organized resistance to the tyrannical and unjust demands of the mother country. The Danvers farmers. as their history has shown. were possessed in a remarkable degree with a spirit of manly inde- pendence and of determined resistance to any acts encroaching in the slightest degree upon their rights as freemen. They were not so bound to the Crown as were many of the merchants of Salem, whose aristocratic tastes and business connections brought them into more intimate relations with the nobility of Great Britain, whose monarchi- cal views a portion of them to some extent adopted. With the passage of the Stamp Act the clear-sighted farmers of Danvers. in common with those of other towns, saw at once the dangers which threatened their rights and privileges. and they acted with equal promptitude.
At a meeting held on the 21st of October, 1765, Thomas Porter, then the town's representative in the Great and General Court. was instructed in reference to this infamous measure of Parliament, that "'ye freeholders of Danvers, while professing the greatest loyalty to their most gracious sovereign. and their sincere regard and reverence for the British Parliament as ye most powerful and respectable body of men on earth, yet being deeply sensible of the difficultys and dis- tresses to which that august assembly's late exertions of their power would necessarily expose them ; desired him to promote and readily joyn in such dutiful remonstrances and humble petitions to the King and Parliament and in such other decent measures as may have a tendency to obtain a repeal of ye Stamp Act or an alleviation of ye heavy burdens, thereby imposed on the British Colonies. Ye great tumult in ve Capital of ye Province was deprecated, " and their representative was further instructed to do all in his power to prevent riotous assemblies and unlawful acts of violence upon ve persons or substances of any of his Majesty's subjects ; and further that he should not give his assent to any internal tax or imply the willingness of his constituents to submit to its imposition, other than "by ye Great and General Court of ye Province according to ye constitution of ye Government." Again, " that he be careful not to give his con- sent to any extravagant grants out of ye publick treasury." At the same meeting, the town voted to dispose of its stock of powder. which seems to imply a desire for peace and harmony ; but at a sec- ond meeting, December 23, 1765, at which Daniel Eppes. Jr., was moderator. Representative Porter received instructions of a still more decided character. containing the ring of true metal. While express- ing love and respect for their sovereign and his ministry. still the inhabitants of the town of Danvers felt deeply affected and grieved by " ye great difficulties and distresses imposed on them by ye king and parliament," and their representative was again instructed " to promote and fall in with decent measures of remonstrance." Ile was not to give his vote for any acts that shall imply a willingness on ye part of his constituents to submit to any internal taxes not levied by ye Gen- eral Court as authorized under the provincial charter. And finally they would instruct him to favor ye raising of men and money to defend his majesty's loyal subjects' rights and privileges, thus showing their determination to maintain their rights and liberties at whatever eost.
May 21, 1766, Daniel Eppes was chosen representative. May 21, 1768, a fine of forty shillings was imposed upon strangers, who had remained in the town for more than a year previous ; an assessment equivalent in a measure to our modern poll-tax. At the same meet- ing a fine of £50 was imposed for failure to bring in lists of taxable property to the assessors. Samuel Holton. Jr .. then a rising young physician, in his thirtieth year, was chosen to represent the town in the Great and General Court, at this meeting; and on the 20th of September, 1768, was deputed "to join ye Boston committee in a convention at Faneuil Hall. to be held September 22d." This was the Provincial Convention. called without authority of the royal govern- ment by a Boston town-meeting, which Dr. Wadsworth of the First Parish records as in session upon the landing of the British troops in Boston on the 28th of the same month. The convention is believed to have adjourned on the 27th, however. For this service. on De- cember 19. 1768, Samuel Holton, Jr .. is allowed £2 158. 8d.
The next event of importance in the town's history was the " Tea " meeting of May 28, 1770. Dr. Amos Putnam was moderator of this meeting. Messrs. Samuel Holton, Jr .. Archelaus Dale, Capt. Wil- liam Shillaber. Dr. Amos Putnam, and Gideon Putnam were chosen " a committee upon ye public grievances as to ye duty on tea." After such dne deliberation as the gravity of the case required, the com- mittee submitted the following report :
"That this town highly approves of ye spirited conduct of ye Mer- chants of our Metropolis and ye other Maritime towns in ve province in an agreement of non-importation well calculated to restore our invaluable rights and liberties. Voted. that we will not ourselves (to our Knowledge ) or by any person for or under us as directly or indi- rectly purchase of such person or persons any goods whatever. and as far as we can effect it, will withdraw our connection from every per- son who shall import goods from Great Britain contrary to ye Agree- ment of ye merchants aforesaid."
It was also voted not to drink foreign tea. or to allow their families to indulge in the beverage until the Act of Parliament imposing a duty upon it was repealed, or general importation took place. cases of sick- ness excepted. A committee was chosen to carry a copy of these votes to every household. All persons who refused to sign these copies were to be looked upon as enemies to the liberties of the people. and their names were to be registered accordingly.
It is related that one Isaac Wilson. who kept the famous old Bell Tavern in the South Parish, then standing near the present monument. was caught selling the forbidden, fragrant Bohea. and in public assem- bly was obliged to recite, with bowed head, the following lines :
" I, Isaac Wilson, a Tory I be. I, Isaac Wilson. I sells tea."
Other indignities were also heaped upon him by his patriot neigh- bors. A short time thereafter there was a jolly coterie of tea-drink- ers round Isaac's groaning board, enjoying the forbidden beverage. Cup after cup was drank. until the tea-pot was drained, when. to the disgust of the assembly. Isaae informed them his chest was empty. One reveller, it is recorded, in his desire to get just one more cup. removed the cover from the pot to drain its very dregs. when to the horror and amazement of the company, forth from the leaves there sprang a mammoth toad, none the worse for his steeping. It is prob- able that Isaac found balm in this for his recently wounded pride. The old Bell Tavern was a favorite hostelry and rendezvous in days "lang syne." It stood for many years at the corner of Washington and Main streets, close beside the site of the present monument. Francis Symonds was the jolly host of the Bell in its early days ; his sign was the origin of the tavern's name. Over his doorway was the couplet, -
. Francis Symonds makes and sells The best of Chocolate also shells I'll toll you in, if you have need And feed you well and bid you speed."
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There was also here, during these early days, a printing-office, kept by Mr. Russell, who published Amos Pope's almanacs, a " Wenham Price Current," and other publications. IIe subsequently removed to Boston. Here, at the old Bell Tavern, Foster's minute-men halted on that memorable April morning in '75, when the infant republic was born. Here, too, were received the martyred dead from Cam- bridge. Here, again, Pickering's regiment halted on its way to Bunker Hill; and from the old tavern a hearty Godspeed was given to Arnold's men ere they plunged into the wilderness to perish at Quebec. A little later, the halo of romance was thrown about the old inn, when it received the beautiful woman and charming writer, Eliza Wharton, whose sad and sinful life was closed within its walls. She was buried in the old parish cemetery, now within the limits of Salem, where her grave has since become a favorite Mecea for the curious, who have left its sleeper scarce a remnant of a tombstone. Miss Wharton came to the tavern in 1788, under an assumed name, and died in a few weeks after her arrival. Her marvellous beauty, and her talents as a poetess. have been the theme of many a tradition, which has been handed down from generation to generation. She was born in 1751. and was therefore in the thirty-seventh year of her age at the time of her death.
June 14, 1770, Francis Symonds, upon his petition, was granted permission " to crect a convenient pair of skails or stilyards, that will answer to weigh cart or sled loads of hay, that are bought and sold in ye markets, on condition, that he keep them in good order and charge no more for his waying hay or anything else than ye common price."
From the organization of the district the town-meetings had been held alternately in the North and South parishes. This appears to have caused some feeling in the South Parish, which evidently felt that it should have all the meetings. December 2, 1771, it carried its point, and it was voted that all further meeting's should be held in the South meeting-house, and should not be shifted as heretofore. The vote was carried by fifty-eight in the affirmative, to thirty-eight in the negative. The following February, 1772, the town voted to resume the old way of holding its meetings, by a vote of ninety-three in the affirmative, to ninety-two in the negative. A proposition to build a town-house, and thus settle the difficulty, was voted down, although its friends were very persistent in their efforts to carry their project. In March, 1772, the town had considerable trouble with delinquent constables, who were behindhand in their accounts. One of them, Humphrey Marsh, who was forty pounds in the town's debt, was lodged in Salem jail. The age of defalcation was not entirely con- fined to the nineteenth century.
In 1773, the town again felt called upon to take some action in ref- erence to the encroachments of Great Britain upon the rights and privileges of the colonists.
Matters were gradually approaching a focus, and the colonists looked with alarm upon the rapidly gathering war-clouds, which threatened to enwrap them in the horrors of civil war. But above all, and beyond all, towered their glorious principles of liberty and independence. Their spirits never quailed, nor did their courage fal- ter ; and on the 25th of January, 1773, in town-meeting assembled, the farmers of Danvers chose a committee to take into consideration the state of its civil privileges, and to draw up something proper for the town to act upon, that its civil privileges may be restored, and transmitted inviolate to the latest posterity.
The following seven were chosen: Francis Symonds, Benjamin Proctor, Gideon Putnam, Capt. William Shillaber, Dr. Amos Put- nam, Tarrant Putnam, and William Pool. A series of six resolutions were adopted.
After declaring their adherence to the Provincial Constitution, and their loyalty, they declared the necessity of checking the tyrannical course of the government, by which the rights of the colonists in gen- eral had been greatly infringed upon. Allusion is made to the affair with the " Gaspee " at Providence, in which " the colonists for their loy-
alty had been getting the punishment due to rebellion." It was re- solved, "that we use all lawful ends for recovering, maintaining and preserving the invaluable rights and privileges of this people and that we stand ready if need be to risk our lives and our fortunes in defence of those liberties, which our forefathers purchased at so dear a rate."
A committee was appointed to correspond with the committee of the town of Boston upon this matter, and Dr. Samuel Holton, Jr., Capt. William Shillaber, and Tarrant Putnam were chosen as its mem- bers. Their expenses were granted by the town. In the fall of this year, the small-pox became epidemie in the town, and raged with such violence, that, on the 25th of October, the town met to take action upon the best means to abate the pestilence. The selectmen were authorized to take such action in the premises as they deemed fit.
In 1774, the atmosphere of Boston becoming too warm for Gen. Gage, then governor, on the 5th of June of that year he removed to Danvers, and took up his abode at the residence of Robert Hooper, the present mansion-house of the Francis Peabody estate. Hooper was a noted loyalist of the time, and a man of vast wealth, in conse- quence of which he was familiarly dubbed " King" Hooper. Gage was accompanied by two companies of the 64th regiment, who en- camped upon the wide field occupied by Tapley's brick-yards. It is stated, that the conduct of the soldiery towards the villagers was in every way courteous, and tales of numerous little aets of politeness on their part, have been handed down. It does not appear, however, that the farmers reciprocated their attentions. From the tenor of their recent town-meetings, it was hardly to be presumed that they would. The patriotic husbandmen, and the village youth made it so uncomfortable for the camp, that its occupants were under arms almost every night. The files of the "Essex Gazette," for Angust 23, 1774, state, that the troops at the camp were on guard all night on the Fri- day previous, in evident fear of a collision with the inhabitants.
After two months of constant worriment, the regulars gave it up, and on the 5th of September returned to Boston.
September 27, 1774, Dr. Samuel Holton was chosen as representa- tive to the Great and General Court, and was instructed by his towns- men to adhere firmly to the charter given by William and Mary, and to do no act that could possibly be construed into an acknowledgment of the act of the British Parliament for altering the government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. More especially, that he recognize the honorable board of councillors chosen by the General Court. In the event of an anticipated dissolution of the assembly, their repre- sentative was to join with the members to meet, at some future time, to be agreed upon, in a general Provincial Congress.
Ile was instructed to act in such a way as may be most conducive to the best interests of this town and Province, and most likely to preserve the liberties of all America."
These instructions were passed unanimously, receiving seventy- eight votes in the affirmative, out of a total of seventy-nine.
It will thus be seen, that the people of Danvers were ripe for the coming struggle. It needed but the application of the torch to kin- dle the fires of patriotism. Upon the organization of the Provincial Congress, Danvers was one of the foremost towns to recognize its allegianee to it. At a special town-meeting, held November 21, 1774, it was voted, " that ye resolves of ye Provincial Congress ought to be complied with," and it was also voted, "that ye constables pay ye province money to Henry Gardner of Stow ye Receiver-General ap- pointed by ye Congress." The constables were further instructed to collect such sums, in aid of the Provincial Congress and its work, as might be possible. These votes were all passed nem. con., in the lan- guage of the records. They were, of themselves, overt acts of rebel- lion, as the rights of the Provincial treasurer were ignored, and the demands of the government appointed by the Crown set at defianee.
On the 9th of January, 1775, Dr. Samuel Holton was chosen as the
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town's first representative in the Continental Congress, to be convened at Cambridge on the 19th of the same month.
It was voted, that the association entered into by the American Con- tinental Congress, ought to be strictly adhered to. Capt. William Shillaber, Capt. Jeremiah Page, Dr. Samuel Holton, Jr., Mr. Jonathan Proctor, Dr. Amos Putnam, Capt. William Putnam, Capt. Benjamin Proctor. Capt. Samuel Eppes, and Capt. Israel Hutchinson, were voted a committee of inspection for the town. to see that the association be strictly kept by every person within its appointment, and its resolves adhered to. It was decided that dancing and similar festivities were against the articles adopted by the American Conti- mental Congress, and the committee were instructed to see "that ye said eighth article." referring to these simple pleasures was strictly com- plied with by the towns-people. The time had come for stern measures, and with the awful pall of civil war hanging over them, the patriots of Danvers felt it incumbent upon them to check unseemly levity. Companies of minute-men had already been organized, for at this meeting it is voted to provide each minnte-man with an effective fire-arm, bayonet, pouch and knapsack, together with thirty rounds of cartridge and ball, and it was further stipulated, that they be disci- plined three times a week. A bounty of one shilling per head was voted to the train-band soldiery to encourage them to enlist, and for every half day's attendance at military duty. The selectmen were instructed to take effectual care that the town be provided with its full stock of arms and ammunition. These warlike measures on the part of the town caused it to be suspected by Gage and his officers as a depot of supplies for the patriots, and such it undoubtedly was, in a measure, although not to the extent supposed by the British governor. On the 26th of February, 1775, Col. Leslie, with three hundred British regulars, landed at Marblehead, and marched to Salem, on his way to Danvers to seize and destroy such supplies and ammunition as he should find. His bloodless repulse at the North Bridge is a matter of Salem history, and the claim is made by Salem antiquarians, that the Colonel's primary object was the seizure of some cannon owned by Capt. Richard Derby, a successful and wealthy mer- chaut of Salem, which were concealed in the north fields in the neigh- borhood of the present Devereux homestead on School Street. They were claimed to be old ship's howitzers, and subsequently proved of no value for service. It is also a matter of record, that one Capt. David Mason, by instructions of a committee appointed by the Conti- nental Congress, had committed to the care of one John Foster, who lived at the time on the north side of the bridge, seventeen cannon, which Foster mounted on carriages in his shop, at the present corner of Franklin and North streets. The carriages for these guns were made by Richard Skidmore, of Danvers, a veteran of the old French war, who saw service with Pepperell at Lonisburg, and was present at the death of Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham before Quebec. Skid- more subsequently served throughout the Revolution, and as a soldier in the last war with England, he beat the reveille on the same drum, which had rattled the charge before Louisburg. He was a noted wit and jester, and a great favorite with his townsmen. Danvers authori- ties claim that these cannon, the object of Leslie's expedition, were scattered about, some in the north fields, some at the new mills, Dan- versport, and others at " Blind Hole," or on the Gardner farm. As C'apt. Derby is not claimed to have been the owner of all of them, and it is probable that they were contributed by different persons in this section, the theory may be probably correct. Neither is it probable, that the patriots would have risked so many pieces of artillery, then a scarce arm of the service, in one spot.
The coming of Leslie was heralded throughout all the country round, and Danvers patriots were at the bridge to dispute his passage, notably Capt. Samuel Eppes's company of train-band soldiery. Others were posted at convenient points along the road over which he must pass. It is not to be supposed, that Gov. Gage and the British offi- cers in Boston had viewed the preparations of the Danvers towns-
people with their brethren of the surrounding towns for the coming storm, with feelings other than those of alarm and uneasiness. The governor knew the determined character of the people. He and his body-guard, of Leslie's own command, had had a taste of their temper and their hospitality towards the king's minions during his short tarry at "King " Hooper's residence, the previous summer. Although there is a letter extant from Gage to Dartmouth, in which he speaks of having received intelligence that foreign cannon had been landed at Salem, and that upon sending an expedition he found them to have been valneless, condemned ship's guns, still, it is not probable, had Leslie succeeded in crossing the bridge, without binding himself, that his march would have ended there. It was but a very short time previous to this, that Danvers had voted to instruet its selectmen to purchase powder and ball. Gage had his spies there as well as at Salem.
The theory is, that Gage sent Leslie out under the belief that these cannon were brass howitzers imported from Holland. They were, however, ordinary iron ship's guns, brought in from time to time by merchant vessels, which had accumulated on the wharves. Whatever they were, Skidmore, of Danvers, made the carriages for them, which would seem to imply a Danvers interest in them. There is, too, from the revengeful spirit evinced by the British soldiery in Boston and elsewhere, the strongest reasons to believe that Gage's ultimate object, besides the capture of the guns, was the aiming of a blow at Danvers, and the quelling of the rebellious spirit of its people. Had the result at the bridge been less pacific, the bloody scenes at Concord and at Lexington, with the awful carnage of the retreat, would have been forestalled here. As it was, it is stated, that within a few hours, forty thousand men would have been under arms. Capt. Samuel Eppes's company of minute-men marched to the bridge, and with them went the Rev. Mr. Wadsworth;, the beloved pastor of the First Parish Church.
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