The history of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, Volume I, Part 48

Author: Banks, Charles Edward, 1854-1931
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Boston, G.H. Dean
Number of Pages: 580


USA > Massachusetts > Dukes County > Marthas Vineyard > The history of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, Volume I > Part 48


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13 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., IV, 77.


2Ibid., VI, 39. John Winthrop, Jr., was a famous amateur physician in his day, and his advice was sought by his friends in all the New England Colonies.


3Records, Commissioners, etc., II, 205.


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History of Martha's Vineyard


which necessities required.1 Contemporaneously with them John Sanderson in Edgartown combined the practice of medi- cine and business of inn-keeper, and Solomon Bacon also in the same town at that period dispensed draughts, clysters, boluses, pills, and herbs, set fractures, and let blood. The practice of medicine was unrestricted to any class. Armed with Culpeper's Practice and somebody's Herbal, suffering humanity was at the mercy of neighborhood surgeons and self-commissioned physicians who could read the names of diseases, look up the symptoms, and then hunt out the nau- seous remedies detailed in the Herbal. Such an one is de- scribed in a list of remedies sent to John Winthrop: -


For the yellow Jaundise or Jaunders - Boyle a quart of sweet milke, dissolve therein as much bay-salt, or fine Sal-peter, as shall make it brack- ish in taste; and putting Saffron in a fine linen clout, rubb it in to the Milke, untill the Milke be very yellow; and give it to the patient to drinke." ;


Or for an external application, the following was advised :-


For paines in the Brest or Limmes: Weare a Wilde Catts skin on the place grieved.2


When Richard Arey of Edgartown was sick unto death in 1689, "with a violent pain in his small guts, attended with continual vomiting," he was treated with an "application of fried oats & the pain removed from his Body to his stomacke." This change of place but not the pain proved ineffectual, and the next line in the diary of Mr. Homes tells us when he was "burryed." Later on, in 1715, Thomas Mayhew of Chilmark, third of the name, "had been for several yeares troubled with the distemper called the King's evil (i. e. Scrofula) by which he was brought neere the gates of Death," says Mr. Homes. At this time it is believed that there was no physician on the island, and in this situation the patient reverted to the native talent, the pawwaws whom his father had so vehemently denounced. "By some applications made to him by an In- dian doctor," says the diarist, "he recovered so far as that he was able to ride about and look after his affairs." Thus were the discredited pawwaws accorded recognition at last at the hands of their great opponents. "After some time," the account continues, "there came a doctor to the island


1Pain Mayhew's "Commonplace Book" contains items for medical services, as "drawing tooth, I -. " Thomas Little was the son of a physician of Plymouth.


2 Packard, " History of Medicine," 20.


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Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times


that thought the swelling and pain in his legs might be removed by bathing and sweating, which preceded accordingly in some measures, but after some time the swelling proceeded upwardly and he was seised with an inwerd fever and shortness of breth which prevaild upon him till it carried him off."1 Who this "doctor" was that came to the island at that time is not known. He may have been only a peripatetic practitioner, as in a few years after we read of another Mayhew of Chilmark going to Rhode Island for the services of a physician.


NATIVE "MEDICINE MEN."


The employment of the natives for their knowledge of natural remedies was undoubtedly the common custom, but there is not much record of such practice, as a matter of fact. Experience Mayhew speaks of one Hannah Nohnosoo, the daughter of the sachem Cheshachaamog, of Homes Hole, "having very considerable Skill in some of the Distempers to which human Bodies are subject, and in the Nature of many of those Herbs and Plants which were proper Remedies against them, she often did good by her Medicines among her Neigh- bours, especially the poorer sort among them, whom she readily served without asking them any thing for what she did for them. Nor did she only serve the Indians this way, but was, to my knowledge, sometimes imploy'd by the Eng- lish also. . . . Among the cases wherein she, by her Medi- cines, did good to her Neighbours, I shall particularly men- tion one only; Several Women, some English and some In- dians, being Divers Years after Marriage without the Blessing of Children, having Barren Wombs and dry Breasts, which Persons in a Married State are scarce ever pleased with, some of these Women applying themselves to the good old Hannah of whom I am now speaking, for help in Case that thus afflicted them, have soon after become joyful Mothers of Children."2


EPIDEMIC DISEASES.


One reason for the absence of physicians as a part of the social life in the Vineyard in the early days was the general healthfulness of the island, a condition which it has main- tained even to this day. It is a natural sanitarium. In the


1Homes, Diary.


2Indian Converts, 165.


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History of Martha's Vineyard


course of time infectious and contagious diseases were intro- duced here and on the mainland, which required the skill of educated doctors to treat. Writing in 1662, a year of sickness throughout New England, Michael Wigglesworth, who had visited our island several years before, drops into verse to de- scribe the case: -


New England, where for many years, You scarcely heard a cough And where Physicians had no work Now finds them work enough. Now colds and coughs, Rheums and sorethroats Do more & more abound; Now Agues sore & Feavers strong In every place are found.1


The principal diseases to which our ancestors were sub- ject were smallpox, consumption, and the throat distemper, now known as diphtheria. The first named was the most disastrous, because at that time there was no proper way to check its ravages. Probably every other adult person was pock-marked, so prevalent did it become.


INOCULATION FOR SMALLPOX.


Inoculation for the prevention of it, as introduced by Lady Mary Wortley Montague into England in 1721, was not practised here for forty years, as far as known, though it was done in Boston soon after the first English experiments. It was nothing less than an actual inoculation of the virus from a case into the skin of a healthy person who desired to "take the pock," and after the practice had passed through the initial stages of popular disapproval, though advocated by such men as Cotton Mather and Benjamin Franklin, it grew to be the recognized method of having what they considered an inevitable disease. Doubtless many went from the Vineyard to the inoculation hospitals in Boston harbor to obtain the treatment. Among the earliest medical men to conduct such an establishment was Dr. Samuel Gelston, who had a hospital at the Gravelly Island near Nantucket. Tisbury was the first town on the Vineyard to try the experiment, and on Aug. 8, 1763, voted that he "Be Allowed to Cary on and Practice Inoculation of the Small Pox in Soume Sutable Place at


1God's Controversy with New England, a poem.


498


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Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times


Homeses hole until it Appears Evident to the Town of Tis- bury that it is Prejudicial to the Interest of said Town." Be- sides agreeing to treat all cases of the disease which might be landed there, Gelston was further obliged to pay into the town funds six shillings for every person inoculated who was not a resident of Tisbury.1 His contract was renewed the next year, while at the same time he was managing an establish- ment at Castle William in Boston harbor. There had been severe epidemics of this disease in Edgartown in 1737 and 1738, during which one Dr. Matthews had died, and again in 1764, and this Gelston made application to the town of Edgartown in 1771 to erect one of his establishments on Cape Poge.2 His proposal was declined at that time, but seven years later, in February, 1778, he again sought permission and it was granted. The location chosen was the one first suggested, and he proceeded to fulfil his designs, practised his art for several months, but failed to satisfy the people for some reason. In December of that year the town voted a disapproval of "annoculation as it is now carried on at Capeoage," and gave Gelston notice to quit on or before the first of the following May. It is probable that the disease was spread by his methods, as the selectmen were appointed a committee to take measures to prevent the further spread of the disease in the village.3


There was an epidemic disease, known then as the "throat distemper," probably diphtheria, which broke out at Kingston, N. H., in the spring of 1735, and gradually spread over New England during the next few years, and later extended over all the colonies. The disease was very fatal, and several thousand deaths of young people in New England are charge- able to its ravages. It lingered for several years, and the appearance of it on the Vineyard in 1740 may be traced to the general dissemination of the contagion over the New Eng- land colonies by that time.


'Tisbury Records, 183.


2Gelston applied to the selectmen of Dartmouth, in 1772, for permission to erect a smallpox hospital in that town on "anjalaca island." (Ricketson, History of New Bedford, 322.) He was a tory, and on Jan. 22, 1776, the General Court voted that he be put under bonds for his disloyal behavior, and he made his escape to Rhode Island. Being subsequently captured, he was brought back to Watertown. He was described as of Nantucket, in a hand-bill promising a reward for his capture, "a short well set man; had on when he went away a reddish sheepskin coat, dressed with the wool inside, and a scarlet waistcoat." (Groton Historical Tracts, III, 422.)


3Edgartown Records, I, 295, 314, 316-7. It was during this epidemic that Rev. Samuel Kingsbury died of smallpox Dec. 30, 1778.


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History of Martha's Vineyard


The diary of Rev. Mr. Homes gives us the names of the diseases which carried off his neighbors and friends during his time, before 1743, and we find the frequent mention of "malignant" fever, "putrid" fever, "pleurisy" fever, together with occasional notices of "iliac passion," "violent defluxion," and other symptomatic names which do not tell us very clearly the real cause of death. Consumption, the "white plague" of New England, likewise finds frequent mention.


BURIALS.


The disposal of the dead was attended with little ceremony or waste of time by our ancestors. Usually within twenty- four hours of the time when the last breath had fled from the body the clods were falling on the coffin. According to our modern customs and views this would be heartless haste in hurrying the remains of our loved ones out of sight and under the ground. And yet their rapid interments had no such significance, nor were they accomplished so quickly for any purposes of utility, as for their lack of those modern adjuncts of funerals - the undertaker and embalmer, with their ar- tificial methods of preserving the features of the dead for public view and the body from processes of decay. The sole idea of our emigrant ancestors and their descendants for several generations was to trim all of their religious duties and functions to such a point of thinness that they would have no possible semblance, as in this particular instance, to the rites and ceremonies of the English Church. So the loved in life got short shrift in death. No funeral services were held nor prayers said. It savored too much of "Popery." As soon as the sad event occurred, neighbors and friends were selected to act as under-bearers, while the village carpenter was hurriedly constructing a pine coffin without ornament or lining to contain the corpse. This was then placed on a wooden bier, with arms, and at the appointed hour four bearers supporting it on their shoulders walked to the place of sepul- ture, being relieved at intervals by a shifting of the number. The dead were then actually borne by the living, and not, as now, driven, still less trotted, to their resting-places. The well-to-do and those high in station indulged in pall bearers. A black velvet or broadcloth pall with dependent tassels at the four corners was draped over the coffin, and the tassels were held by honorary pall bearers in the march to the grave.


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Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times


The modern use of this term is applied to persons who bear the casket during any portion of a funeral ceremony, and is without the significance originally conveyed.1 Burials on the Vineyard usually occurred in the late afternoon or evening, and often at night by the aid of torches. It contributed much to the gruesomeness of the entire proceedings. Scarves, gloves, and rings were presented on the occasion, with the same refer- ence to social and personal considerations.


%


Hearses, as a means of conveying bodies to the cemetery, is of less than a hundred years duration.2 In 1824, "the blue bier" is mentioned at Edgartown as used first at the funeral of a person dying early in that year.


DIVISIONS OF ESTATES.


In their wills the early settlers gave away their real and personal belongings with great precision. Clothing, hats, shoes were disposed of by name to the beneficiaries. John Brown gave away his best feather bed to one, his next best to another; while Jane Jones, with similar detail, gave away her best petticoat, her next best petticoat to her daughters, or near relatives, according to age. And so most of the personal effects were passed on to surviving heirs or kin.


In similar fashion the Probate Court would divide real estate. The property of Christopher Beetle was divided in 1750 somewhat as follows, among his six children: To one was set off half the lower rooms in the house and a third of the cellar; to a second one-half the upper rooms and a third of the garret; to the others the remaining portion of the rooms, cellar and gar- ret were similarly divided. When the Court got to the well, it gave the eldest son two shares and the rest a half of a third. Each was allowed to use the walk from the front door to the road-way, according to the respective value of each interest! It would seem from this that it would require of the occupants of the rooms and the users of the well and walk some pretty close mathematical calculations to determine how much half of a third of a well might be, and how many steps each could take on the walk. The fence was equally divided. In the


1On the 7th of April, 1800, the Edgartown selectmen were instructed to obtain "at the expense of the town, as soon as conveniently may be provided, for the use of the town a decent pall for use of burials." (Edgartown Records, II., 83.)


2The first use of a hearse in Plymouth did not occur until 1820 (Davis, Ancient Landmarks, 132).


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History of Martha's Vineyard


division of the estate of Zaccheus Mayhew, in 1775, the ad- ministrators made the following minute provision for the widow: "the East front Room in the Dwelling house of the s'd Zaccheus, the Bed Room & Buttery adjoining, with the liberty of Baking and Washing in the Kitchen and Convenient room in the Cellar, and liberty of Water at the Well and of passing to and from the same, and liberty of carting and lay- ing her fire wood near s'd dwelling House."


There is occasionally found in some ancient and dignified testament a provision which is rather ambiguous in its terms or application. Such an example occurs in the solemn will of Samuel Bassett of Chilmark, who makes this bequest: "I also give unto my said wife all the wood that she shall have occasion for or improve during her natural life and no longer." What use for wood she might have hereafter her death may not be so clear unless Samuel thought fires would be provided by another agency.


MEMORIALS OF THE DEAD.


There are not half a dozen gravestones now on the Vine- yard which bear date prior to 1700. The oldest stone is that marking the grave of Rev. John Mayhew in the West Tisbury cemetery, and is dated 1688. The oldest in Edgartown com- memorates the death of John Coffin in 1711, though one bears a still earlier date.1 The oldest stone in the cemetery on Abel's Hill, Chilmark, is 1717, recording the death of Benjamin Mayhew, and the oldest in the Homes Hole cemetery is 1719, marking the grave of Elizabeth Chase. As far as can be judged, the earliest stones were imported from England, and perhaps cut there. They are probably of Welsh slate, and are of a finer quality of stone than the native variety, used here between 1700 and 1800. It is thought that the stones of Simon Athearn and John Mayhew are examples of the imported stone. It can hardly be said that these stones reached any high artistic standard, and such elaboration of design as they disclose exhibits that awful gruesomeness with which the colonists in- vested everything in life and death.


'This records the death and sepulture of Robert Stone, Senior, dated 1690, in the Tower Hill cemetery, but it is of a more recent and modern construction than the date indicated. The author has not identified this person as living here at that time.


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Life in Vineyard Towns During Colonial Times


OBITUARY POETRY.


The inscriptions on the stones were usually surmounted by a crude and conventional "Death's Head," set in the midst of scroll work equally ungraceful and angular in design, and beneath this some mortuary verse intended to enforce the lesson of the uncertainties of this mortal life. Examples of this form of literary and theological composition on the Vine- yard may be cited here to show that our standards were not below the best efforts of the obituary bards on the mainland: -


Here Francis lies, Departed but not lost; Like some Choice Flower Nipt by untimely Frost. When Jesus shall appear he'll shining Rise Like some Bright Star Beyond the AZURE skys.


Here Abigai Lyes That was so much Pris'd


And five of her Infant Race


Earths Favorites And Heavens Delights Made so by Saving Grace


Stop my friends and drop your tears My dust lies slumbring in Saint Pears


At Martinico interred I lie Weep for yourselves, all are to die


Here I must lie, till Christ appears


Depart my friends and dry your tears.


Here you may see how sudden was my call For to resign my breath A warning it may be to all To be prepared for Death.


On the gravestone of John Ferguson, in the West Tisbury cemetery, the following verse describes the cause of the death of this young person at the age of eleven years: -


The oil of Vitriol he did taste Which caused his vitals for to waste And forced him to return again Unto the earth from whence he came.


The attention to detail in this last verse leaves us in no doubt as to the nature of the illness which "carried him off," and in a measure compensates for the limping meter.


And having thus followed our worthy forbears from the cradle to the grave, and erected a suitable memorial stone, with an inscription thereon testifying his virtues, it is the natural and fitting place to bring our cursory review of his life to a close. Much of it is sad and severe, and yet more of


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History of Martha's Vineyard


it is simple and satisfying. The almost ideal pastoral life on the Vineyard two centuries ago, mingled with the romance of those that "go down to the sea in ships and have their business in great waters," makes a combination of breezes and bucolics almost unique. To us it may seem that they must have en- dured an existence painfully lacking in the comforts of life. It is safe to say that it only seems so to us. That they lived and loved in their day and generation, and extracted all the enjoyment out of life is reasonably certain. A hardy and splendid race of descendants testifies to this conclusion. If Squire Benjamin Skiff of Chilmark, a good representative of his time, who died in 1717, could come back to earth and see us in our present day environment, with our electric lights, trolley cars, automobiles, steamboats, daily papers, bicycles, Sunday excursions, telephones and telegraphs, and all the other accompaniments of our modern life, doubtless he would hurry back to the gloom of his tomb on Abel's Hill, and piously exclaim, "From the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, Good Lord deliver me!"


FEIRE LYES / BODY OFIM JOHN MATHEWTHAT WORTH LABORIOUS MINISTER ANTS


COFINSBURYSCHILMARKUS


SITO Y CHRISTIAN INDIANS


WHO DIED FEBRUARY 1688 ATATIS


GRAVESTONE OF REV. JOHN MAYHEW, WEST TISBURY CEMETERY. THE OLDEST STONE ON THE VINEYARD.


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APPENDIX


JUDICIAL OFFICERS


The following lists comprise the names of those persons who have been appointed or elected to offices connected with the courts of the County since its organization in 1683 to the present time. The dates indicate the year of assumption of office or the first appearance in the records.


REGISTERS OF DEEDS


I685. Matthew Mayhew


I710. Matthew Mayhew


1726. Enoch Coffin


1782. Samuel Smith


Josiah Smith


John Sprague Smith


Tristram Holley


L. C. Wimpenny


I733. Jabez Athearn


1761. James Athearn


I686.


Matthew Mayhew


1695.


Benjamin Smith


I702.


Matthew Mayhew, Jr.


1712.


Benjamin Hawes


Frederic P. Fellows


1713. 1714. I722.


Joseph Newcomb Thomas Harlock Enoch Coffin


SHERIFFS


I683. Matthew Mayhew


1691. Thomas Harlock


Thomas Trapp, Deputy


1699. Joseph Norton


Thomas Look, Deputy


178I. William Jernegan


1784. Jethro Athearn


I808. William Jernegan


18IO.


Thomas Jernegan


1817. William Jernegan


CORONERS


1761. John Norton


I714. John Butler


1716. Benjamin Hawes


I732. William Hunt


1762. Robert Allen 1800. William Case


CLERKS OF THE COURTS


1685. Matthew Mayhew


1690. Thomas Butler


1703. Matthew Mayhew


1722. Lemuel Little


TREASURERS


I775.


Stephen Luce


1801.


Cornelius Marchant


1807.


John Cook


1809.


Cornelius Marchant


Daniel Fellows


Richard L. Pease


Samuel Keniston


I723.


Ebenezer Allen


1740.


Zaccheus Mayhew


1760.


John Sumner


Gershom Cathcart


1762. I770. John Coffin


I77I. Beriah Norton


1701. Ebenezer Allen


1714. John Allen


I723. Samuel Bassett, Deputy


I733. Eleazer Allen


I735. Thomas Mayhew


1743. John Norton


I772. William Mayhew


1776. Peter Norton Benjamin Smith


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History of Martha's Vineyard


JUSTICES OF THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS AND GENERAL SESSIONS OF THE PEACE.


1742. Jabez Athearn Samuel Bassett


1757. Ebenezer Norton


1761. Josiah Tilton


I771. John Worth


0


Thomas Daggett


1673. Thomas West


Thomas Mayhew


169I. Benjamin Smith


1692. James Allen


1696. John Coffin


1699. Benjamin Skiffe


1702. Joseph Norton


COUNTY ATTORNEYS


1713. John Worth


1780. Benjamin Smith


1715.


Pain Mayhew Ebenezer Allen Enoch Coffin


KEEPERS OF H. M. GAOL


1718. Zaccheus Mayhew


I722. John Chipman


1731. Benajah Dunham


1733. John Allen


I747. John Norton


Samuel Norton


1812. James Banning


1748. John Sumner


1761. Ebenezer Smith


COURT OF PROBATE AND INSOLVENCY JUDGES


1762.


Matthew Mayhew


1764. Josiah Tilton


1771.


Joseph Mayhew


I773. Shubael Cottle


1776. Beriah Norton


1775.


James Athearn


1785.


Thomas Cook


1839. Theodore G. Mayhew


I790.


Nathan Bassett Benjamin Bassett


1897.


Chas. G. M. Dunham


1798. Matthew Mayhew


REGISTRARS


1802.


William Mayhew Zebulon Allen


1696.


Matthew Mayhew


1718. Jabez Athearn


1761. James Athearn


1807. John Davis


I775.


Benjamin Smith


Ichabod Norton


1782.


Thomas Cooke


SPECIAL JUSTICES


1820.


Cornelius Marchant


1730. John Worth


1852. Hebron Vincent


Benjamin Smith


1853. Richard L. Pease


1734. Ebenezer Norton


1854. Hebron Vincent


Benjamin Smith


1890.


Beriah T. Hillman


Nathaniel Hancock


1698. Matthew Mayhew


James Athearn


I710. Benjamin Skiffe


1718. Pain Mayhew


I733. Zaccheus Mayhew


1760. Matthew Mayhew


1816. George Athearn


1872. Joseph T. Pease


I799. William Butler


1806. Rufus Spaulding


1838. Barnard C. Marchant


508


I683. Matthew Mayhew, Chief Justice Richard Sarson


KING'S ATTORNEYS


I733. Thomas Little


1757.


Jonathan Allen


I799. Wendell Davis


1727. James Hamlin


John Newman


REPRESENTATIVES TO THE GENERAL COURT


Since the charter of William and Mary, when Martha's Vineyard was incorporated into the Province of the Massa- chusetts Bay, in 1691, the following named persons have represented this County in the General Court :-


[The letters in parentheses ( ) after each name refer to the towns represented.]


1692. Simon Athearn, (T).


1722.


Lemuel Little, (E). Ebenezer Allen, (c).


1693.


Not represented.


I723.


John Norton, (E).


1694. Matthew Mayhew, (E).


I724.


John Norton, (E).


1695. Matthew Mayhew, (E).


1725. John Norton, (E).


1696. Matthew Mayhew, (E).


1726. John Norton, (E).


1697. Simon Athearn, (T).


Benjamin Smith, (E).


1698.


Thomas Mayhew, (c).


Paine Mayhew, (c).


1699. Not represented.


1728.


Benjamin Smith, (E).


1700.


Not represented.


1729.


Not represented.


1701.


Not represented.


1730.


Not represented.


I702.


Not represented.


1731.


Not represented.


1703.


Benjamin Smith, (E).


1732.


Simeon Butler, (E).


I704.


Not represented.


I733.


Enoch Coffin, (E).


1705.


Not represented.


Zaccheus Mayhew, (c).


1706.


Not represented.


1734.


Not represented.


1707.


Benjamin Skiffe, (c).


1735.


Enoch Coffin, (E).


1708.


Benjamin Skiffe, (c).


1736.


Paine Mayhew, (c).


1709.


Benjamin Skiffe, (c).


1737.


John Norton, (E).


1710.


Benjamin Skiffe, (c).


1738.


Not represented.


III.


Benjamin Skiffe, (c).




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