USA > Massachusetts > Dukes County > Marthas Vineyard > The history of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 41
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There were no naval combats or operations of privateers in or about our harbors during the war that are of record. It was a time of stagnation in everything - business and de- velopment. The whaling industry was badly affected, as else- where shown, and it is probable that few ships were laid up at the wharves, owing to the risk of capture in the exposed position of the island. Occasionally, privateers and vessels of our navy would run in Homes Hole for a harbor. On Mar. 19, 1813, the sloop-of-war Hornet, commanded by Master-Commandant James Lawrence, came to anchor in this harbor, on her return from her victory over the Peacock, and it is probable that frequent visits of this sort were made during the three years of the war.2
1Tisbury Town Records, 367.
2 It is told that Captain Lawrence was a guest at the Ebenezer Smith house in Eastville, on November 25th, 1814, when a son was born to Ebenezer and his wife Mary (Hulsart) Smith. This son was named James Lawrence Smith in honor of the famous guest, who as an acknowledgment of the courtesy cut off some of the gold buttons of his uniform and presented them to the mother as a souvenir of the event.
42I
History of Martha's Vineyard
As the war dragged on, the Embargo laws operated with increasing severity upon the mercantile and manufacturing communities, and there was a cry for relief from many of them. The voters of Tisbury called a town meeting for Feb. 14, 1814, "for the purpose of petitioning to Congress to have (the) Imbargo Law molified so far as it respects this Island," and Peter West, Thomas Dunham, and Seth Dag- gett were appointed a committee to draw up the petition. This they did, and after directing that it be sent to the repre- sentative for the district, and appointing a committee "to Treat with the other Town in this County," they adjourned. The following is the text of the petition adopted: -
To the Honourable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States In Congress Assembled We the memorialists petitioners Inhabitants of the Town of Tisbury County of Dukes County and Com- monwealth of Massachusetts on the Island of Marthas Vinyard aforesaid are In Consequence of the Embargo Law Restricted to the Vineyard Sound Bays and Creeks their adjoining In consequence of which our Oil Salt wool and Other domestic Articles and Manufactures are cut off from their usual markit of New York & Connecticut their being no markit within our limmitts In Consequence of which wee your petitioners are Deprived of the Necessaries of life and Employment for our Fisherman and Small Craft wee the Inhabitants aforesaid do petition the legeslature of our Nation that the Embargo law may be so modified that wee can have a communication by water with the State of New York & Con- necticut so far as Relates to the Above Articles of Export and to bring back In return Bread Stuff and all the other Articles of Necessity for the use of our Families under such Restrictions and regulations As the Legislature and presadant of the United States may In their Wisdom direct and your petitioners In Duty bound will Ever pray.1
The town of Edgartown responded to the suggestions of Tisbury in this matter, and held a meeting on February 23 following.
For the purpose of knowing the opinions of the inhabitants of said town of the propriety or impropriety with respect to a petition being pre- sented by said inhabitants to the General Government of the United States in Congress assembled, that the Government would in some measure remove the inconveniencies the s'd inhabitants labor under in consequence of the restrictions imposed on s'd inhabitants by the present existing Embargo Laws of the United States.
Jethro Worth, Leonard Jernegan, and Ichabod Norton were chosen a committee to draft the petition, but after ad- journment and reassembling, the committee were not prepared to report, and the plan fell through.2
1Tisbury Records, 369.
2Edgartown Records, II, 205.
422
Military History, 1800-1900
In the spring and summer of 1814 a British blockading squadron hovered about our waters, making sallies against the small ports about Buzzards Bay, the Vineyard, and Nan- tucket. The brig-of-war Nimrod was one of the vessels of this squadron which operated against the island, and she was engaged in seizing small craft, foraging at unprotected places, and harassing the commerce of southern New England. The flagship was a "74," which lay about Tarpaulin Cove and furnished crews and boats for the expeditions above referred to.
During the War of 1812 the Vineyard was well repre- sented in the privateer force of the United States, and Dart- moor prison had a respectable number of occupants from this place, but how many there were and from what particular localities is not known. Capt. Joseph Dias was one who was captured and sent to Dartmoor. He was from Tisbury, and neighbors have frequently heard him tell with ill-concealed anger of the attempt of himself and companions to escape, and that he would vow death upon the parties who betrayed and frustrated the plot. He was the father of Capt. Joseph Dias of Oak Bluffs, and of the wife of the late Capt. Lorenzo Smith, and the wives of the late John F. Robinson and the late Calvin Tilton.
In this war William Jenkins Worth, of Edgartown par- entage, began his career in the army in 1813, and displayed those qualities which later made him a hero in our third for- eign conflict; but his connection with the War of 1812 was not through the Vineyard, as his enlistment was from New York. He fought at the battle of Niagara, in 1814, and was promoted to the rank of major. Another Edgartonian, who took a part in one phase of the conflict, was John, son of Seth Marchant, born in 1758. He was over fifty years of age when the war broke out, but the opportunities of privateering at- tracted him, and he went out on one of the numerous vessels fitted for that purpose in this region. She was captured by a British cruiser and taken into Sierra Leone, where on July 15, 1813, he died, whether of wounds or disease, the records do not state.1
The underlying temper of New England, and conse- quently of our people in this war, found expression through the famous "Hartford Convention," held in the capitol of
1Rev. Joseph Thaxter's Obituary Record, 1813. It is probable that he died of tropical disease, as it is stated that twenty-eight out of eighty-six, composing her crew, perished there.
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History of Martha's Vineyard
Connecticut in the month of December, 1814, under the presi- dency of George Cabot of this state. While the sessions were conducted in secret by the delegates from the several states, and it was charged with treasonable designs by the Demo- cratic partisans, yet it is now conceded that the members were actuated by honorable motives and inspired by patriotic in- terests. The convention denounced the further continuance of the war, protested against the treatment of Massachusetts by the general government, and recommended the restriction of the power of Congress in declaring wars and the laying of embargoes. While all this was going on, peace negotiations were progressing in Belgium, and on the day before the con- vention met at Hartford a treaty of peace had been signed by the plenipotentiaries. Thus closed our second war with the mother country, which, despite this condition of apathy, was brilliant with the exploits of our seamen, who in their myriad craft scoured the ocean, even to the chops of the English channel, hung on the flanks of British commerce with the determination to be revenged for the insults to their brother sailors, until that nation was whipped to a standstill. Although "sailors' rights" were not mentioned in the treaty, yet such was the lesson taught to English seamen in that war, that im- pressment has never since that day been attempted by her, in war or peace.
Only fragmentary allusions to men from the island who served in this war are to be found in scattering publications of the period. . In a list of deaths in Dartmoor prison are found the names of Peter Amos and John Jennings of Gay Head, both probably Indians.1 Henry Vincent of Homes Hole and Richard Norton and Prince Daggett, both of Edgartown, were captured and confined in this same prison during the war, and Vincent died there in 1814. James Dexter, James Blank- enship, Timothy Snow, James Simpson, and William B. Fisher also took part in this war. The "Yankee," a privateer in this war, was commanded by Lieutenant Milton, who lived on South Water street in Edgartown. Her log shows that Joseph Dias and Joseph Marchant were prize masters at various times during her employment in this service.
Matthew Daggett, son of Elijah (181) of Tisbury, was another victim in his war. He died at Lake Ontario in 1814, and possibly was connected with the naval service at the time.
1Andrews' Memoirs of Dartmoor Prison (1852), p. 140.
424
MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM J. WORTH, U. S. A. 1794-1849
Military History, 1800-1900
THE MEXICAN WAR.
This conflict with our neighbor on the south, like that of 1812, had little support in New England. No bodies of troops went from this region, and but little interest was manifested in the prosecution of the war.
The principal interest to the Vineyard respecting this war is the prominent part taken in it by General William Jenkins Worth, U. S. A., a distinguished descendant of two well- known families of Edgartown. Although not born in Edgar- town, young Worth spent a part of his boyhood in that village, and was baptized there when he was ten years old on April 8, 1804, at the Congregational Church by Parson Thaxter. General Worth died in Texas May 7, 1849, and the city of New York erected an equestrian statue of him in Madison Square, as its tribute to the honorable services rendered by him in behalf of his country.
Two half brothers of General Worth also participated in this war: Captain Joseph Swasey Worth, Eighth Regiment, U. S. A., who died in 1846, and Lieutenant Algernon Sidney Worth, U. S. N., who died in 1841, on board the sloop-of-war Concord.
CIVIL WAR, 1861-5.
The great struggle between the North and the South is within the memory of the present generation, and it will not be necessary to make extended comment on this great sec- tional conflict for the preservation of the Union. The older ones among us remember the wave of patriotism which swept over this Commonwealth, and the prompt response made by its citizens to the calls of the General Government for support in this crisis.' The Vineyard did its required share in supply- ing men and money for the prosecution of the war, and in common with other sections of the state suffered great losses in blood and treasure. The record of the three towns as respects their quotas of men furnished shows a total of two hundred and forty soldiers and sailors credited to the Vineyard, which the county furnished for the army and navy during the war. It filled its quota on every call made by the president, and at the end had a surplus of forty-seven men over and above
1Samuel Pent of Edgartown, at present living on Summer street, was the first person from Edgartown to volunteer in the Union army during the Civil war; mus- tered in August, 1862. He was later a lieutenant of cavalry.
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History of Martha's Vineyard
all demands. The expenses of the towns on account of the war, exclusive of state aid, were $51,222.92. The amount raised and paid for state aid to soldiers' families during the war, and afterwards refunded by the Commonwealth, was $7,561.97. Total amount, $58,784.89.1 Lists of participants, either native of or credited to the three towns, will be found in the appendix.
Adjutant-General Schouler, the historian of the services rendered by Massachusetts in this war, says of Edgartown: "We know that great activity prevailed in this town during the whole time in raising men and money." The selectmen report in 1866 that Edgartown had furnished one hundred and twenty-five men for the war, which was very far short of the men actually furnished and credited .? Probably the men who served in the navy and men who were enlisted in other places were not reported, as Edgartown filled its quota upon every call made by the President, and at the end of the war had a surplus of forty-six over and above all demands. The number, therefore, which it really furnished could not have been less than two hundred and thirty. Three were com- missioned officers. The whole amount of money appropriated and expended by the town on account of the war, exclusive of state aid, was twenty-three thousand three hundred and twenty- five dollars and thirteen cents ($23,325.13).
The amount of money raised and expended by Edgartown, during the four years of the war, for state aid to the families of enlisted men, and which was afterward repaid by the Com- monwealth, was as follows: in 1861, nothing; in 1862, $390.10; in 1863, $944.06; in 1864, $1,088.82; in 1865, $700.00. Total amount in four years, $3,122.98.
Tisbury's part in the war was as follows: The first legal town meeting was held the 7th of May, 1861, when it was voted that Henry Bradley, chairman of the selectmen, be directed to confer with the authorities of the Commonwealth "to furnish an armed guard coaster to be stationed in the Vineyard Sound, for the protection of commerce passing
1Shouler, "Massachusetts in the Civil War," II, 164.
2The selectmen in 1861 were Jeremiah Pease, John H. Pease, Nathaniel Jernegan; in 1862, David Davis, John H. Pease, Cornelius B. Marchant; in 1863, William Bradley, Cornelius B. Marchant, Tristram Cleveland; in 1864, Benjamin Davis, John Vinson, Joseph T. Pease; in 1865, David Davidson, Samuel Keniston, Jere- miah S. Weeks.
The town clerk during each of the years of the war was Barnard C. Marchant. The town treasurer in 1861 was David Fisher; in 1862-63-64, John A. Baylies; in 1865, Isaiah D. Coffin.
426
Military History, 1800-1900
through the sound, and to furnish the town of Tisbury with three or more rifled cannon and one hundred stand of small arms, and equipments for the same, to be used by the inhabi- tants of the town to repel invasion." The governor and coun- cil gave an order for one cannon and carriage and one hundred muskets. It was then voted that the selectmen act in concert with the Coast Guard Committee of New Bedford, and, if needed, to borrow money sufficient to sustain a steamer "to ply in Buzzard's Bay for coast defences.1 On the 5th of November following, the selectmen were authorized to pay state aid to the families of volunteers, as provided by law, and in the next year the selectmen were authorized to pay a bounty of one hundred and twenty-five dollars to each volun- ยท teer for three years' service, who should enlist and be credited to the quota of the town; "also, that he shall receive one dollar a month for each member of his family that is dependent on him for support during his term of service, in addition to what the state pays."
Several meetings were held in 1863, to devise ways and means to procure volunteers, and provide for the payment of state aid to their families; also to repay those citizens for money which they had advanced to assist in filling the quota of the town.
By the returns made by the selectmen in 1866, Tisbury furnished eighty-eight men for the war, which must have meant only the number belonging to the town in the military service, as it filled its quota upon every call of the President. Tisbury had no surplus, but it furnished the exact number required of it, which must have been about one hundred and seventy. None were commissioned officers in the military service. The whole amount of money appropriated and ex- pended by the town on account of the war, exclusive of state aid, was $22,621.00. The amount of money raised and ex- pended during the years of the war for state aid to soldiers' families, and which was repaid by the Commonwealth, was as follows: in 1861, $54.12; in 1862, $509.20; in 1863, $1312.78 in 1864, $1170.88; in 1865, $650.00. Total amount, $3696.98.2
1The selectmen in 1861 were Henry Bradley, David Smith, Bartlett Mayhew, 2d; in 1862-3, Matthew P. Butler, Joseph S. Adams, Bartlett Mayhew, 2d; in 1864-5, Henry Bradley, Charles D. Harding, Bartlett Mayhew, 2d.
The town clerk during each year of the war was Lot Luce. The town treasurer, during the same period, was Charles Bradley.
2Tisbury paid the largest bounty in the state, five hundred dollars, for three year enlistments.
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History of Martha's Vineyard
Chilmark's part in the war was as follows: The first legal town meeting, to act upon matters relating to the war, was held on the 16th of December, 1861, at which the town voted to authorize the selectmen "to act according to the law of the Commonwealth, in regard to the payment of state aid to the families of volunteers who have enlisted in the military service of the United States." This system of paying bounties to volunteers and state aid to their families continued until the end of the war.
The selectmen in 1866 reported that Chilmark had fur- nished twenty-six men for the war, which undoubtedly is only the number of residents of the town who were in the military service. The town clerk, under date of Jan. 16, 1871, wrote as follows: "As to the number of men furnished, we cannot tell. All we know, we filled our quotas and paid some $5000 in bounties for volunteers." The truth is, Chilmark furnished about sixty men for the war; for after having filled every demand made upon it by the President, the town had a surplus of one over and above all demands.1 One was a commissioned officer. The whole amount of money appropriated and ex- pended by the town on account of the war, exclusive of state aid, was $5,151.79. The amount of money raised and ex- pended by the town for state aid to soldiers' families during the four years' of the war, and which was afterwards repaid by the Commonwealth, was as follows: in 1861, $25.71; in 1862, $132.00; in 1863, $104.00; in 1864, $232.72; in 1865, $90.44. Total amount in four years, $586.87.
During the years 1861-63, and until the 17th of March, 1864, Gosnold was a part of the town of Chilmark, and its war history up to that date forms a part of the history of that town. Only one person enlisted from Gosnold, and he served until the close of the war. The town raised $155.14, after its incorporation, for support of the war.2
The maritime interests of the Vineyard suffered directly and indirectly by the war on account of the depredations of
1The selectmen in 1861 were Horatio W. Tilton, Tristram Mayhew, Stephen D. Skiff; in 1862, Tristram Mayhew, John W. Mayhew, Smith Mayhew; in 1863, Tris- tram Mayhew, Samuel T. Hancock, John Hammett; in 1864, Herman Vincent, Horatio W. Tilton, William Norton; in 1865, Herman Vincent, Tristram Mayhew, Moses Adams.
The Town clerk in 1861-62 was Josiah W. Tilton; in 1863-64-65, James U. Tilton. The town treasurer in 1861 was Allen Tilton; in 1862-63-64-65, Benjamin Manter.
2Shouler, II, 168. The selectmen for 1864-65 were Abraham C. Whitney, John W. Gifford, and Benjamin B. Church. The town clerk was Samuel E. Skiff.
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Military History, 1800-1900
the Confederate cruisers. The ship Ocmulgee, of Edgartown, four hundred and fifty-eight tons, valued with outfits and oil on board at $51,000, was the first vessel burned by the Con- federate privateer Alabama, Sept. 5, 1862. The Ocmulgee was commanded by Capt. Abraham Osborn, now living on South Water street.
A list of those who served in the Civil War, 1861-5, credited to the Vineyard in the military or naval establish- ments, will be found in the appendix to this work.
SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.
The recent brief conflict with Spain furnished very little opportunity for service except for the existing naval establish- ment and a limited number of troops in Cuba and Porto Rico. No troops went from the island, and the activities of the people were necessarily enlisted in moral rather than material support of the war. Organized committees of ladies prepared articles of utility and comfort for the soldiers in this campaign. Four young men from the Vineyard enlisted during this brief war, viz :- Herbert Rice, Morton Mills, Manuel Nunez and Stan- ley Fisher, the last named serving in the Philippines. One of the earliest casualties of the war, the death of Ensign Worth Bagley, U. S. N., is of local interest, as his ancestors were of an old Edgartown family.
CROSSED WEAPONS.
CUBAN MACHETE - FILIPINO BOLO.
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History of Martha's Vineyard
CHAPTER XXVIII.
WHALE FISHERIES.
The daring business of catching and killing whales is of very ancient origin, if we may judge from the occasional al- lusions to it, in the early literature and the pictorial history of the Anglo-Saxon race. It was a sport and occupation of the sea kings of the north, who sought this giant of the deep, not only for its oil, but used its flesh for the food, which they ob- tained from the tongue. That it furnishes the inhabitants of the Arctic circle with subsistence is well known. It is not probable that, at this early period, the bone was deemed of much importance, but in the fifteenth century it became an article of commerce, and was regarded of great value. The tail of every whale taken by her subjects was reserved for the special use of the Queen of England. Nor were the people of the northern latitudes alone in the development of this business. The Portuguese followed it in the equatorial region, and the Dutch, always famous for their maritime enterprises, prose- cuted whale fishing for a long period. To them is attributed the improvement, if not the invention of the harpoon, the use of the reel and line and the lance.
The Indians found here by the first settlers were really the pioneer American whalemen. In their frail birch-bark canoes they attacked these monsters of the ocean with an audacity that astonished the English planters. Their light craft were the models of the first whaleboats of the white men, and to this day the Yankee whaleboat, the most sea- worthy light craft afloat to-day, is a replica of the sharp, double-prowed canoe in all its essential characteristics. The first settlers on our coast were not fishermen by occupation, most of them having been drawn from the agricultural and mechanical classes among the yeomanry of England, but their new home proved but a barren soil, compared with the garden richness of the land they had left, and the unproductive nature of the earth on the new England shores forced them to turn to the sea for part of their sustenance. Their attention was early drawn to the greatest of all the denizens of the deep, the mighty whale, as they saw the dusky aborigine in hot chase of the prey. In those days whales were exceedingly plentiful
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Whale Fisheries
in our waters, and "drift" whales, so-called, were common spectacles upon the beaches of New England, carried up there lifeless, after some titanic struggle, to dry and decay in the sun and winds. They were also easy of approach, apparently tame, according to the testimony of the early voyagers. Cap- tain John Smith, in his exploration of our coast in 1614, found them so numerous and neighborly in their habits, that he employed some of his spare time in the task of catching them. Another observer, emigrating to New England, a few years later, observing these great schools playing round this vessel, wrote in his journal that he saw, at the end of his voyage, "mighty whales spewing up water like the smoke of a chimney, and making the sea about them white and hoary, as is said in Job, of such incredible signes that I will never wonder that the body of Jonas could be in the belly of a whale."
Whale fishing is indissolubly connected with the name of our neighboring island of Nantucket, but she was not the first in the field of this enterprise, which has lent such a picturesque coloring to the annals of our merchant marine.1 Long Island, Cape Cod, and Plymouth had been for years pursuing these leviathans of the deep, before Nantucket began her career in this field of human endeavor, until she gradually drew from the "seven seas" of the known earth the livelihood denied by her own sterile soil and contracted acres. Our own settle- ment was not more than ten years old before the subject of whales found mention in the records. At first it related to "drift" whales, set on shore by the tide and winds. The earliest reference to this is under date of April 13, 1653: -
Ordered by the town, that the whale is to be cut freely, four men at one time and four men at another; and so every whale, beginning at the east end of the town.2
From that time forward we may date the inception and progress of the present art of capturing this marine mammal. They could be seen close in shore, not entirely stranded, and boats could easily encircle and capture them. Then watchmen were posted along shore to give warning of their approach, and from these small beginnings grew the actual occupation of hunting for them in deeper waters. The value of these
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