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 86

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 86

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What may be distinctly mentioned as liberal education commenced, perhaps, in 1805, when the "Lynn Academy," then just built on the south side of the common, was opened for attendance. It was on the first day of May, according to some, though Lewis says 5th April, there being snow enough in the morning for sleighing, but all gone by noon. The bell was a gift from James Robinson, Esq., and the first master, Mr. William Ballard. It continued a school of some consequence, though gradually declining, under a variety of masters. till 1849. None of its keepers were persons otherwise celebrated. except Alonzo Lewis, the first historian of Lynn. It closed with Jacob Batchelder, a man of much culture, and largely known in local circles.

The style of popular feeling and social temper was again exhibited in 1808. Benjamin Merrill, Esq., a lawyer of unimpeachable charac- ter and eminent talent, anything and everything but a pettifogger. thinking an opening for business appeared in Lynn, took rooms in the house of Elijah Downing, North Common, corner of Park Street, and invited clients. He did not obtain many, but soon eaume to him a committee of citizens much troubled. " We fear that evil and strife will be encouraged among us by the presence of a lawyer. We wish

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you would leave the town." He was sagacions, and understood the greater by the less. There was no good for him in Lynn. He went to Salem, had high success, earned money, and died with the love and honor of all. But another effort was made, in 1812, by Reuben P. Washburn, Esq., who opened an office in "Wiley's Store," corner Western Avenne and Federal Street. Yet he could have no eneour- agement. He managed to stay till 1817, and then retreated. IIe went to Vermont, and had excellent success.

By this time the inhabitants of Nahant had much increased, and in 1818, by the influence of Boston parties, a school-house was built there, with a library connceted. The Boston people donated books freely, and it became a good local institution. The element of library influence, as concerned in the educational advance of a people, must not be overlooked ; and we notice here the formation, or rather incor- poration, this same year, of the " Lynn Social Library." There had been one or more social libraries in town at earlier dates ; but they had all disappeared, and this was the first that obtained a name upon record. It was located in a small building or office owned by the company, ou the east side of Market Street, exactly at the southern end of Exchange Hall. The Franklin Building, or Cadet Hall, now covers the spot. Circulating libraries began here considerably later. Lewis says he himself opened the first in 1822, but it is thought to have been a very small collection. There was another kept by Charles F. Lummus, from 1827 to 1832, into which that of Lewis probably passed. Akin to this form of culture is that of the lyceum, the first of which was organized Dec. 23, 1828. It lasted in operation twelve or fourteen years.

When we reach the period beginning with 1830, we meet the time when the intellectual forces of Lynn were more active, perhaps, than ever before or since. Lewis had just before, in 1829, published the first numbers of his history of the town, with his quaint little map, twelve or fifteen inches square, on which he approximately located the old roads and early settlers. Jan. 23, 1830, he began publishing a newspaper. The first one has been already mentioned as the " Lynn Mirror," started by Charles F. Lummus in 1825. Mr. Lewis's was the second, and was called the " Lynn Record." He did not continue in it more than six weeks, when it passed into the hands of Jonathan Buffum, and became the organ of the Anti-Masonic party. By 1833, at furthest, it was in the editorial charge of Daniel Henshaw, under whom it continued an able, clear-sighted, and readable sheet, till it ceased in 1841. In national politics, it was steadily Democratic.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Mudge established the third paper, called the " Essex Democrat." It was wholly a political sheet, full of the sharp discussion of that partisan period. One or two years after, the material was carried to Salem, and the concern merged in the "Commercial Advertiser." The fourth paper was the " Weekly Messenger," com- meneed April 14, 1832, by Judge James R. Newhall. This was a large and good-looking paper, literary in style, but was not long continued. But some time after, Nov. 10, 1838, the Whig party feeling need of a vehicle for their special sentiments, the " Lynn Free- man " was founded by David Taylor and Charles Coolidge, and edited and printed by Judge Newhall. This paper, destined to a longer existence than any before it, passed, in 1840, into the editorial hands of Eugene F. W. Gray, who was succeeded in about a year by Rich- ard I. Attwill. With 1844 came another change, Messrs. Taylor and Coolidge selling out to a new firm, Messrs. Josiah F. Kimball and Horace J. Butterfield. The first partner became editor, and the paper took the added title of " Essex County Whig." Some two years later, the firm dissolved, and Mr. Kimball, continuing the jour- nal, changed its name to the "Lynn News." In this form it endured till 1861, when it definitely passed out of being. It was always of mild Whig principles, and a very influential, creditable paper.

The year 1840 saw the birth of another paper in Lyon, a religious print in the interest of strict orthodoxy. It was edited by the Rev. Parsons Cooke, assisted by Judge Newhall, but did not long remain in Lynn. It was transferred to Boston, and merged in the " Boston Recorder." This was a very vigorous, but controversial paper. Again, in 1842, the press of the old "Lynn Record," since run as a job-office by John B. Tolman, was re-opened for a new paper de- voted to temperanee. This was the " Essex County Washingtonian." It first issued March 16, 1842, with Christopher Robinson, publisher, and David H. Barlow, editor. But, a change becoming advisable be- fore long, Mr. Barlow retired, and was succeeded by Henry Clapp, Jr., since so widely known, in and out of New York, as " king of the Bohemians." At the same time the name of the paper was changed to the " Pioneer." Mr. Clapp left in 1848, to be followed in the edit- orship by George Bradburn, formerly of Nantucket. This arrange-

ment lasted only a year or so ; and the office and good-will were sold and transferred to Lewis Josselyn. This gentleman laid aside all the radical ideas that had been cherished in the office for years, reduced the issue to a plain Democratie basis, and substituted the title of the " Bay State" for all the foregoing. This paper first appeared Oct. 11, 1849, and continued for a time, when it stopped, and the old " Record " office found its limit of existence.

Returning, after this digression, to the more strictly educational portion of this history, we remark that in 1830 the system of schools in separate wards, or districts, was already in operation. The division had really been made, when eight wards were thus formed, with one or more schools in each. Single small schools were kept in the four lesser wards, at Dye House Village (now Wyoma), at Gravesend, at Tower Hill, and Nahant ; while grammar schools, with one or more primaries, existed in Swampscott, in Woodend, near the Central Railroad Station, and at each end of the common. The little old structure used at Tower Hill (formerly Willis's Hill) is yet standing, a diminutive affair enough. That at Market Square stood rather on South Common Street, and was in fact the old meeting-house of Jesse Lee, slightly altered. A primary was on the second floor, and another primary house stood in Federal Street, not always occupied. The grammar school in Franklin Street was where it has been described ; but a new house had been built, and the old one stood near for the primary classes. The "Blackmarsh" school was, formerly, in Ex- change, then called Pine Street, but later took position near Silsbee Street, at the head of Mount Vernon Street ; the " Woodend " one stood for a period on Chestnut Street, near the head of Union ; but a brick-house was built on Howard Street, where it stayed for many years.

But the size of the schools, the spread of the inhabitants, and the advance of style, made new accommodations necessary before long. Two very large wooden houses (for the time) were built from plans drawn by the Rev. George Bowler (son of Thomas Bowler, the town clerk), one in Centre Street, the other in Franklin Street, just oppo- site the old location. The latter was dedicated Dee. 29, 1848, and the former Jan. 3, 1849. They were thought even extravagant for the time, costing some $5,000 each. The central wards being thus provided, the extremes elamored for a share ; and two more, of lesser expense, were erected, one in Swampseott, situated on Redington Street, a little east of King's Beach, and dedicated Dec. 20, 1849, and the other on Boston Street, just west of the Almshouse, and dedicated about the same time.

And here we take leave of those movements and enterprises of the town that belong strictly to its instruction and intelligence. Yet a single paragraph may be given here, as no better place presents, for a subject not distantly related, for the charities of a place are part and parcel of its highest sociality. Neither Lewis nor Judge Newhall make any reference to the first almshouse in Lynn. The omission is singular, as it was an establishment of considerable size and was kept for many years. Prior to its erection, the paupers had been boarded out after the usual eustom of New England ; but an arrangement was made by which a house was either built or bought, standing in the rear of the house now on the corner of Essex and Chestnut streets in " Woodend," and almost on the site of John Wood's first dwelling. Herc the poor were almost all kept up to 1819. Then the town bought the fifty-aere farm on Willis's Hill, Boston Street, and built thereon the first portions of the present large almshouse coneern. At a later period, a stone building was added as a wing of the main building, for the reception of convieted offenders. Out of this use of the premises, it is suspected, grew the change of name from "Willis's" to "Tower" Hill, a not unnatural reflection sug- gesting the famous place of old English confinement and execution. A hospital-building has since been added, another for contagious dis- eases, a large barn, and many other improvements. But the greater portion of assistance to the poor here has always been in a partial form, by "Out-Door Relief," for the independent spirit of the people will prefer much acute suffering to an abode in any almshouse, or a visible reliance on public charity of any deseription.

LYNN AS A CITY, -1850 TO 1876.

Our sketch, thus far, has only been one of events. No attempt has been made to depiet the natural situation, surface, or scenery of the place, or in any particular to identify it with the present time. This remains as the second part of our duty.

In the year 1876, the eity of Lynn possessed a territory somewhat pentagonal in form, having a coast line, accurately followed, of some four or four and a half miles, but which, considered as rectilinear, would

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be about three miles and a quarter. A line at right angles to this, from the boundary of Nahant, or Long Beach, to the most northern point on that of Lynnfield, gave very closely five miles as the inland extent. The cross width at this northern boundary was something more than a mile and two-fifths, and the total area differed little from eleven and one-third square miles. It stood, as regards the northerly shore of Massachusetts Bay, as the fourth township east of Boston, the second in Essex County, and the first of any large size. It had on the south, Nahant ; on the cast and north-east, Swampscott, Salem, and Peabody ; on the north-west, Lynnfield ; and Sangus on the west. The southernmost third of the last-named boundary was made by the Sangus River, which, for all that distance and something more, was a mere estuary, broad and crooked, flowing through extensive, level marshes covered with salt grass, and regularly drenched by every tide. Such marshes also extended eastward in front of the city along the whole western half of the shore line, limiting all convenient access to the sea to a small middle section, as the eastern portion was formed of low bluffs or banks, with no protection from the ocean. The marshes found their natural extension in broad and impassable flats, bare at low tides, that filled the whole space between Pines Point on the west and Nahant on the cast, where the harbor of Lynn, good or bad, must needs be found. In these flats ran numerous channels, in which the low-water depth varied from five to ten feet, though a few deep holes were known, measuring from fifteen to seventeen feet. As the tide-range here is about ten feet, there was accommodation in the harbor, on a full sea, for a great variety of coastwise and other light craft, such often discharging at the wharf even without lightering ; but for large vessels, no access whatever existed, unless the very doubtful sort found in Saugus River, the lower channel of which was narrow, and obstructed by bridges at three points. From a point nearly in the middle of the shore line ran out the singular beach that only furnished land-passage to Nahant. This was now only a ridge of sand and pebbles, two miles in length, and about a thousand feet wide ; but, by somewhat dim tradition, had once had attached on the west or harbor side a considerable strip of marsh, similar to that beyond the harbor. No adequate cause appeared for its origin or continuance ; but the heavy surf always running on the outer side made the people of Lynn always believe it a natural barrier against imindation, and great pains had therefore been taken to preserve it, especially as some storms had succeeded in washing over it in a few places. A simple but effective earthwork, devised by Lewis (the historian), had been built along it in 1851, composed of red-cedar trees bedded in a sloping position, so as to catch and hold the drifting sand. By 1876, the trees had all disappeared ; but the sand wall had become firm, fully as high as they were, and densely covered with strong beach-grass. Little more fear was felt for the safety of the beach, or the excellent road that ran along the west side of the earth- work. Such was the character of Lyun, as contemplated from the sea. The harbor, from the deep water of Broad Sound to the wharves, measured not less than three and a half to four miles ; and viewed at this distance the appearance of the city was not imposing, as it pre- sented in all but its eastern division only a very flat and monotonous extension.

Passing inland from the shore, at a distance of two or two and a half miles, one reached the solid base of a range of rocky hills, cross- ing the township from east to west, and rising in a few cases to about two hundred feet elevation. North of these, as a rule, there was no settlement ; but the rear country, through which the hilly figure still continued, was left to solitary and poorly-known woodlands and pas- tures, threaded with numberless eartways and paths, and termed, in a word, " Lynn Woods." In front of these hills, that stood for a back- ground, lay the whole inhabited district. Westward, it showed an almost flat plain, from Sangus River nearly half across ; but here a ridge of the hills, leaving the general parallelism to the shore, ran down almost southerly to the coast, undulating in the successive eminences of White's Hill, the Highlands, and Sagamore Hill. The most noted point in this ridge was High Rock, just in the centre of habitation, and 185 feet in height. On the east of this ridge ran, north and south, a long valley, reaching inward the whole depth of the town- ship, and occupied, northerly, by a chain of ponds, sometimes called the " Lakes of Lynn," and southerly, by the stream of Stacy's Brook, which drained one of them. Little of the domain of Lynn remained beyond this ; but the hilly character continued till long after reaching the boundary of Swampscott.

The inhabited district of Lynn is crossed from west to east by three great lines of travel and communication, to which two subordinate ones may be added. The first and most northerly is known as Boston

Street, which is also the most ancient of all. It was not, very proba- bly, the original road from Boston to Salem ; for there are scraps and vestiges of an older way, now otherwise obliterated, which evidently ran by a very crooked route much further to the northward. But Boston Street is certainly ancient ; for the " Great Bridge," as it was formerly called, at East Sangus, was built in 1639, and was connected with a travelled way leading to Lynn, certainly in 1648, when Edmund Ingalls was drowned there. The house of Andrew Mans- field, the first town clerk, was built on Boston Street in 1666; that of John Carnes had a probable date in 1646; the Burchstead house, anciently, perhaps, that of Robert Potter, was apparently erected in 1650 ; and there were others pointing to an equal antiquity. Boston Street, then, was long the only line of travel from the capital. Leav- ing the Great Bridge, it runs, with many deviations, and a little in front of the hills, by a general course almost due north-east to the line of Peabody. On its way it crosses the "Highland " ridge by the northern and most casy pass, at the morocco factories of Pevear & Co., where Strawberry Brook also finds room, though the notch is only some three hundred feet wide. A small rock-cutting had here to be made, but no other on the route ; and the grade secured was without perceptible inclination, though the hills on either side rise a hundred feet and more.

The second of these lines was the product of that new enterprise that sprang up after the Revolution, and is that known for many years as the Salem Turnpike. It was opened in 1803, having been char- tered and built in defiance of a very strong opposition. The Ballards, of Saugus, and others whose interests lay along Boston Street, con- tested it in every way; and it was declared that no road could be built across the marshes that would not wholly sink out of sight in a short time. All the sections that were thus situated were provided with a foundation after the Dutch method ; no excavation being made, but a thick layer of brushwood faggots being laid in the marsh, and then spread with the sods from the side cuttings, after which the gravel was laid on to the depth required. No sinkage of any conse- quence took place, or, if any, it lasted only a little while. A little gravel hillock by the bank of Saugus River bore the name of " Fox Hill." A bridge was here made, and the hillock levelled for material. Hence, it has always been called "Fox Hill Bridge." From this it runs almost exactly north-east, and as straight as a road could well be made, almost a mile, to " Breed's End," where it passed, until re- cently, under the two great elms planted by Ezra Breed, which remained as notable landmarks, cach a hundred feet high, till one blew down in the gale of Sept. 8, 1869, and the other was given to needless destruction in 1876, Going on a short half mile, the turnpike passes the important point where the common joins its west- ern end with Federal Street, formerly " Goose Lane."

At somewhat less than a mile further, the turnpike crosses the old " Laighton's Lane," now long called Franklin Street ; and almost immediately begins an up-grade, by which it surmounts the "High- land " ridge through the second pass, between Farrington's Hill and the " Highlands " proper, or what was long known as " Rocks Pasture." This pass gives a long level at the summit, at about ninety feet alti- tnde, from which the road descends rapidly, still perfectly straight, and crosses the old " Fresh-marsh Lane," now Chestnut Street, in a half mile further. Then passing ou, it reaches, in about three-fourths of another mile, the southernmost of the "Lakes," the same from which Stacy's Brook takes origin. This lake, or pound, though small, was found so remarkably deep as to render an ordinary bridge impracticable. There was therefore devised what cannot, probably, be found else- where in New England, a bridge without piers, lying afloat on the water. The breadth of the pond is 456 feet, but the distance was successfully spanned in this way, and a solid bridge built that has borne all the heavy travel of the route for three-quarters of a century, with need of no repairs but surface planking, the low timbers being ascertained to be still perfectly sound. Lewis aptly compares it to the Persian bridge of boats over the Hellespont. Of course, any pontoon bridge furnishes the type of this ; but occurrences in actual practice must be rare. The water has since been always known as " Floating-bridge Pond ;" whatever carlier name it had is not now known. By this time the road has entered the irregular granitic country, and presents nothing peculiar till it crosses the line of Salem, as it soon does, at a point about thirty rods north of the corner bound of Swampscott.

In 1868, this rather remarkable way became free of toll by the limitation of its charter. The maintenance of the track was divided between the several including towns, and allowances were made, pro and con, for final settlement. The portion thus falling to Lynn received

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the name of Western Avenue, was soon greatly improved, and became one of the finest drives in the city.

The third of the great lines of travel across the township is the Easteru Railroad. This was chartered in 1837, opened in 1838, and has been steadily increasing in business and magnitude since that time. It enters the territory over Saugus River by a bridge 1,550 feet long, and, after passing the creek and doek at Commercial Street, runs on with a gentle up-grade, and at length strikes the "Highland " ridge at Central Square. Here is the principal station, beyond which, the ridge being found to consist of gravel, with a very little rock-cutting the road was carried through the ridge, instead of over it, the cut averaging eighteen feet in depth. This required the maintenance of four bridges, in Silsbee, Green, Chestnut, and Fayette streets. After coming to grade again, the valley of Stacy's Brook had to be crossed by a filling quite as high, though not as long, as the cut had been before it.

Parties at West Lynn and in Saugus, who did not feel satisfied with the movements of the Eastern Railroad, formed a new company and obtained a charter, under which the Saugus Branch Railroad was opened for travel Feb. 1, 1853. It ran for a time independently ; and then, by certain obscure proccedings among the stockholders, the Eastern Railroad Company were found in possession of a controlling share. As a result, the road was soon transferred to them ; and they, having built about a mile of connection, have continued to run numer- ous daily trains to Boston over it with success, though the circuitous- ness of the route has carned it the name of "round the Horn." Thus the business of the railroad in Lynn has been augmented, till now, some hundred and twenty-five trains arrive and depart daily, each of them two or three times larger than the first made use of.

The two secondary lines are yet to be mentioned. One, and the most northerly, diverges from the turnpike, or Western Avenue, at the Lynn Hotel, on Market Square, and running almost due east over the eommon and park, continues eastward with less directness by the way of Essex Street, once famous as " Marblehead Lane." In this way it gets a tolerably easy, though not natural, pass over the ridge at the very base of High Rock, making there a summit at seventy-five feet; and keeping on ground little less elevated almost two miles further, and passing the ancient homestead of John Wood, it at last enters Swamp- scott over the rear of "Proctor's Mountain," and continues to Salem and Marblehead. It is usually termed the "Forest River Road." The second subordinate route, which hardly exists separately in West Lynn, passes the ridge at the most southern comfortable point, on the rear of Sagamore Hill. It gathered, as one may say, from Broad, Market, and Exchange streets, and runs eastward by the old site of the Quaker meeting-house on " Wolf Hill," afterward " Pudding Hill," and now Washington Square. Its summit is at the corner of Broad and Chestnut streets, at about sixty-one feet altitude. This, follow- ing eastward close to the shore, forms the usual passage to the princi- pal parts of Swampscott, and thence to Marblehead ; and up to about 1840 it also, by diversion from Broad Street, gave the only access to Nahant, by the street of that name. At present this peninsula is approached by other and more commodious routes.

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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 86

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