USA > Massachusetts > Dukes County > Marthas Vineyard > The history of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 18
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Mob Street. - The road or way bearing this curious name received its baptism about 1762, and retained it for many years. It ran from the "Mill Path" to the "Meeting House Way," in an easterly direction towards Tower Hill, south of Cleveland Town, and probably crossed the land once owned by David Gray. Traces of Mob Street may now be observed in this land, but in the land nearer Tower Hill frequent cul- tivation has obliterated all traces so that it is not possible
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now to find just where it ended. All that can be learned about the origin of the name is as follows: Many years ago there was a sailors' boarding-house near "Mill Hill," and near the point where "Mob Street" meets "Mill Path" there was a dwelling-house occupied by people of somewhat questionable reputation. At both houses intoxicants were sold in large quantities. The street connecting the two places was so often the scene of drunkenness and rioting that it received the name "Mob Street." This may be the correct story of its origin, unless it refers to some particular outbreak or riotous gathering of drunken sailors which occurred to give it a local significance.
South and North Water Streets. - These streets are a part of the same continuous highway, the divisional line being at Main Street. It represents practically the harbor frontage line of the home lots, and was a path or "alley" for many years, before it was formally laid out. South Water Street was called an "alley" in 1703, but this way or path had been in existence long before that date. The appearance of this locality at the time of the Revolution is thus described by Capt. Valentine Pease (born 1764): -
"When I can first remember and for years afterwards there was a swamp near the shore below the bank extending from below the house of Mat- thew Mayhew, now Joseph Mayhew's, to Uriah Morse's or where the Mar- ine Railway now is. There were then but two ways through it to the shore; one, now the termination of Main street; the other leading from the old Tavern kept by Kelley and others to the wharf now Mayhew's wharf."1
This street was laid out by order of the Court of General Sessions, by metes and bounds, in March, 1786, from the house of William Mayhew to the house of Enoch Coffin at its extreme north end. The width was "twenty five feet in each and every part," and this survey as approved by the Court represents this street as it now exists.2
Meeting House Way. - In 1768, when the new meeting house was completed on the grounds of the cemetery on Pease Point Way, the need of a public way thither from the water front was apparent, and on February 9th of that year, Matthew Mayhew made a gift to the town of a way one rod wide, extend- ing from the harbor to the meeting-house. It is the present Commercial Street (so-called).
1From a statement made to the late Richard L. Pease, in 1851, when the Captain was in his 87th year.
2Dukes County Court Records.
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Pilgrim's Alley. - The path or way leading from South Water Street, northwest to Pease Point Way, and frequently used as a. "short cut" by the people who attended service at Parson Thaxter's meeting-house, was called by this quaint name. After another denomination established a place of worship in Edgartown, the people of that belief called Parson Thaxter's adherents "Puritans" and "Pilgrims," and the straight and narrow path which they trod when going to and coming from the meeting-house, "Pilgrim's Alley."
The Beach Road to Oak Bluffs was built in 1872, and rebuilt in 1902 on the Macadam plan, as a part of the state highway system.
Penny Wise Path. - There was a locality bearing this title in Edgartown as early as 1734. "Penny Wise" (a place) is mentioned in a deed from Joseph Norton to his grandson John, in that year. "Penny Wise Path" is referred to in 1735, as near the "middle line."" "Penny Wise Way" was described as near the road from Edgartown to Homes Hole; also near the Claypit.2
The "Pennywise Path" is the first road byond the home- stead of the late William Jernegan, on the left side of the old Homes Hole road. It leads by the north side of the Dark woods to and by the south side of the West woods, on the West Tisbury road. A continuation of it meets Pease's Point Way at Great Pond. It was called "Pennywise Path" because it was laid out as a shorter way to Homes Hole than Pease's Point Way. But it proved to be as long if not longer than the old way, so was called Pennywise.
Tarkill (Tarkiln) Path. - There were kilns for extracting tar from wood in the Penny Wise region, and this path ran to that locality as early as 1738.3
Bridges. - There were no bridges in town of any im- portance, in construction, span or elevation. While there are a number, yet they are scarcely more than culverts over the small streams which run to the sea. A bridge at Mashacket is mentioned in 1653, again in 1676 and 1678. A couple of small bridges span Mile Brook and Menoda Creek, while a considerable pile bridge joins this town to Oak Bluffs, over the Sanchacantacket inlet.
1Deeds, VI, 20.
2 "Penny Wise Swamp" is mentioned in 1743.
3Deeds, VI, 364.
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U. S. GOVERNMENT SERVICES.
CUSTOMS SERVICE.
This branch of the national government was established in this island in 1789, shortly after the formation of the Union, and Edgartown was made the port of entry, with Homes Hole as the sub-port. There has never been a government building for the accommodation of this department, and from the begin- ning until about 1850 the Collector of Customs had his office in his own house. It is known that in 1799 the office was located in the'Squire Thomas Cooke house, corner of Com- mercial and School streets, when the office was held by that gentleman, and his successor in 1830 transferred it to the Capt. Edwin Coffin house, North Water street. It is therefore probable that the first collector, John Pease, kept the office and records in his own residence. According to the best information now obtainable the building on the northeast corner of Water and Main streets was rented for the customs service during the tenure of Leavitt Thaxter as collector (1849-1853), and it has been occupied ever since that time by this service.
Since 1818, and probably some years before that, there has been a Deputy Collector of Customs at this port. The following is a list of these officials from the establishment of the service to the present time, with the date and term of service of each :-
COLLECTORS.
John Pease from 17891 to April 10, 1809.
Thomas Cooke, March 24, 1799 to April 10, 1809.
Thomas Cooke, Jr., April 10, 1809 to Feb. 20, 1830. John P. Norton, Feb. 20, 1830 to April 8, 1842. Leavitt Thaxter, April 8, 1842 to Sept. 16, 1845. Joseph T. Pease, Sept. 16, 1845 to Sept. 1, 1849. Leavitt Thaxter, Sept. 1, 1849 to May 10, 1853. Joseph T. Pease, May 10, 1853 to May, 1855. Constant Norton, May, 1855 to June, 1860. Ira Darrow, June, 1860 to June 3, 1861. John Vinson, June 3, 1861 to March 1, 1870. Cornelius B. Marchant, March 1, 1870 to June 7, 1886. Sirson P. Coffin, June 7, 1886 to July 12, 1890. Charles H. Marchant, July 12, 1890 to March 7, 1895. Abraham Osborn, March 7, 1895 to April 4, 1899. Charles H. Marchant, April 4, 1899 to present time.
1He was commissioned as Collector March 21, 1791.
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DEPUTY COLLECTORS
John Cooke, (indefinite), probably to 1818.
William Cooke, Nov. 18, 1818 to 1821.
Jeremiah Pease, Sr., 1821 to 1855. Sirson P. Coffin, 1855 to 1861.
Jeremiah Pease, Jr., 1861 to 1890.
John W. Pease, May 16, 1890 to present time
THE POST OFFICE.
The mail service was established officially in 1795, when Col. Beriah Norton was appointed the first postmaster. It is probable that there was a post route to the island long before this, though the first postmaster at Homes Hole received his appointment on the same date as Colonel Norton. After the island was united with the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1691) a postal service was inaugurated under patents from the crown,1 but the isolated position of the Vineyard prevented its participation in any of the post routes established at that early date. We may conclude that mails were brought from Boston overland to Plymouth, thence by Sandwich to Woods Hole, and delivered by ferry to the Vineyard.
In 1830 the Post office was on the corner of Water and Main streets, on the lot now occupied by the Vineyard Gazette, but it is not known how long it had been located there prior to this, nor when it was transferred to its present quarters. It is probable that it began the occupancy of the building opposite, where it now is, when the Custom House was installed there. The following is a list of the postmasters:
Beriah Norton, January 1, 1795; Timothy Coffin, Jr., May 20, 1819; Silvanus L. Pease, May 29, 1838; William Vinson, Sept. 28, 1846; John Pierce, Nov. 26, 1847; Jared W. Coffin, Feb. 26, 1849; Silvanus L. Pease, May 26, 1853; Jared W. Coffin, 1861; William Bradley, 1865; Jared W. Coffin, 1869; Richard L. Pease, 1877; Henry A. Pease, 1885 (present incumbent).
LIGHTHOUSE ESTABLISHMENT.
The government maintains in addition to the usual beacons, buoys and bells, two lighthouses in Edgartown for general and local maritime benefit. The first lighthouse was
'The conveyance of a letter from Boston to Salem, at that date, cost three pence; to Ipswich, four pence; to Portsmouth, six pence. In 1710 the postage between Boston and New York was one shilling; between Boston and any town within sixty miles, four pence. (Mass. Prov. Laws, 117, 123, 263, 420; Comp. 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., VII, 72-79.)
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JARED WASS COFFIN 1823-1885
POSTMASTER OF EDGARTOWN FOR EIGHTEEN YEARS.
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established at the point of Cape Poge by act of Congress approved Jan. 30, 1801, and the sum of $2,000 was allotted therefor. Jurisdiction of the tract had been ceded by the State the previous year, and the title passed Aug. 10 , 1801, to the United States.1 The tower was completed in 1802 and lasted for forty years, when the inroads of wave action on the sandy soil forced the erection of a new light-tower in 1843. This second structure survived a half century of storms and further encroachments of the sea, when in 1893 the third and present light-tower was built still further back from the tip of the cape. The first keeper was Matthew Mayhew (360), who continued in office until his death in 1834, when he was succeeded by Lot Norton (1019) who held the post about eight years.2 Succeeding keepers have been Aaron Norton, Edward Worth, 1850-53; Daniel Smith, 1853-59;3 George R. Marchant, 1859-65; Edward Worth, 1865; Jethro Worth, George Fisher and George Dolby.
The light was originally a fixed one, but was changed about 1885 to a revolving light.
The Harbor light was authorized by an act approved May 23, 1828, and the sum of $5,500 was appropriated for its erection about a quarter of a mile from the shore at the harbor entrance.4 Communication with the town was main- tained by boats for over a year after its completion, when the sum of $2,500 was allowed "for extending the pier on which the lighthouse is built to the shore." This bridge was built of wood and eventually cost $7,000 before it was completed;5 and by reason of its box construction it was frequently broken by storms and ice. In 1847 the sum of $4,000 was allowed for a breakwater of rock construction, and the existing stone causeway was built on the lines as it runs to the shore today.
INDUSTRIES.
This town has never been a manufacturing centre, and but few records are to be found relating to the production of finished articles of merchandise from the raw material. The
1U. S. Statutes, II, 88; III, 405; comp. Mass. Laws, 1800, p. 70. The consider- ation was $36 for four acres. It was the twelfth light erected by the government on the Massachusetts coast.
2An interim appointment of Benjamin C. Smith of Chappaquiddick followed after Mayhew's death.
3During Mr. Smith's term the lighting power was changed from the reflector system to prisms.
‘U. S. Statutes, IV, 282; VIII, 64.
"Devens, "Sketches of Martha's Vineyard," p. 18.
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sea and its wealth gave a distinctive feature to such industries as grew into being here from time to time. The whale and other fisheries have constituted the chief occupation of the people from the earliest times to the last quarter of the past century. The whaling industry has already been described.1 Second in importance were the general fisheries and the by- products of marine sea foods. In 1850 the largest single industry of this character was the oil and candle works of Daniel Fisher & Co., with a capital of $40,000 invested in the business, and the annual product for that year was 118,000 pounds of candles, 13,200 barrels of strained and refined oils. With other minor products the annual value of this business was reported to be $284,370, an industry far exceeding in direct cash income to the town the whale fishery interests. The general government was supplied with oil and candles for the lighthouses by this firm, and this business grew in im- portance in later years till the time of the Civil War. Whole cargoes of oil were contracted for at one time, involving values of over $100,000 at a purchase, and the industry gave em- ployment to many men.
The general fisheries in 1850 yielded a value in product of $15,325, of which $4,500 is credited to the Mattakeeset herring fishery, the latter representing a catch of 1,250 barrels. At the present time the shell fisheries are an equally important industry, and rival in value the other sea foods collected in these waters for the metropolitan markets. It is impossible to give an accurate account of the yield, financially considered, of these several industries, but the value may be estimated by a "catch" made in the first week of January, 1908, when about 10,000 of fish were taken by five boats, having a market value of $2,000.
In the years preceding the Revolution the manufacture of salt by the process of evaporation of sea water in large wooden vats or pans was an important industry, and it was followed up as late as 1840. This business, at one time so valuable in the state, has entirely disappeared as an occupa- tion hereabouts since the development of salt mining in other sections of the country.
Other industries allied to the above sea products, cooper- age, blocks and tackling, and boat building have been in
1Vol. I, pp. 430-451. The annual value of the whaling business to Edgartown in 1850 was $83,267, but this was only the product of one vessel owned in the town at that time, the ship Vineyard. (U. S. Census Report, 1850.)
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existence in the town for brief periods in the past, but were of ephemeral importance and are only worthy of incidental mention.1 The only mills operated in town have been pro- pelled by wind power and were local grist mills only. Before the days of the great manufactories of cloth the limited pro- duction of hand looms from wool was an occupation of the women in their spare hours, but of no great importance.
SCHOOLS.
The earliest mention of the subject of education in the town records occurs under date of 1652, when the "school house" is referred to, showing the establishment of schools prior to that year. Peter Folger was the first school-master, and the building where he taught was on the Old Mill path near the Sarson lot on Slough hill. He probably kept school until his departure from town in 1662, but it is not known who was his successor, nor what arrangements were in existence prior to the beginning of the next century. In 1687 Thomas Peat was "skoollemaster of Edgartown," and the school was then held in the house of Richard Arey .? Not until 1710 is there further reference to the subject, when a committee was chosen to procure a schoolmaster, to be paid at the rate of £30 per annum "for learning of children for to read, right and learn arithmetick," with the privilege of "taking of six scolers for the learning of Latten" outside of his school hours.3 In 1712 Josiah Bridge, "now resident in Edgartown," was chosen schoolmaster at the rate of £25 per annum, and two years later the town voted "to hire him as reasonably as they can." In 1723 Thomas Cathcart was called "schoolmaster of Edgartown." From this time forward the records contain almost yearly reference to the subject of schools, and the manner of maintenance. Committees were chosen yearly to hire masters, and an annual appropriation was made, varying from £45 in 1738 to £60 in 1747, for the support of education. After this the amount dropped to £13 in 1750 and £8 in 1760, but this decrease may be explained by the fluctuations of the provincial currency, in old and new tenor.
1A spool house, erected about 1777, is mentioned in the records, but its significance is not known (Deeds, XI, 463).
2Dukes Court Records. The identity of this person is not established. It is possible the name should be read Peac (Pease), as the writing in the records at this date by the clerk of courts is execrable and often undecipherable.
3Town Records, I, 53.
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The growth of the town northward, and the development of the Farm Neck settlement, necessitated, as early as 1750, the division of the school funds and separate schools for these widely separated districts. The expedient of "moving" schools was first adopted, meaning the holding of sessions alternating in time and place between the districts. In 1760 the old school-house was sold, and in May, 1765, the town voted that "there should be but one school house built in the town and no more." This was located by a vote of 14 to 8 on the "road that leadeth to the meeting house," about fifteen or twenty rods to the southward of Silas Marchant's, "a spot near the center of the inhabitants," now Cleveland town.1 In the following month, however, two school-houses were authorized, one of which was for the northern district in Farm Neck, and froo was voted for this combined object. Before the Revolution the town was divided into four dis- tricts.2
The names of the school-masters do not appear in the records, and only occasional collateral documents reveal them to us. Ichabod Wiswall, a cousin of the pastor, was one in 1746 and doubtless was such before and after this date.3
The growth of population in the next century necessitated new district divisions, and schools at Pohoganut, the Plains, and on Chappaquiddick were maintained in addition to those in the village. The "old red school house" of song and story, on Pease Point way near the meeting house, was a landmark and a childhood reminiscence for the older gen- eration now living, but it gave up its primacy before 1850, and new buildings took its place in other sections. The North school was situated on Planting Field way and ac- commodated two grades, grammar and primary, for scholars on that side of Main Street. The South School followed in point of time, being dedicated in 1850, and was located on the corner of School and High streets. It contained what corresponds to the modern high-school grade, besides the grammar and primary. At the present time the North school
1Town Records, I, 245-246.
2The north-west section was to draw its "proportionable" share, and a committee of residents there appointed to locate the building. This arrangement was observed ever after. In 1771 Chappaquiddick was granted a separate school with "their pro- portion of money they pay" (Ibid, I, 295).
3Probate Records, III, 206. He was born in Newton, Mass., 1709, and was graduated at Harvard. He married Jerusha Norton (404) of Edgartown and died here in 1782 aged 78 years. He came of a family of teachers and ministers.
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HON. LEAVITT THAXTER FOUNDER OF THAXTER'S ACADEMY 1788-1863
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has the intermediate and primary grades, and the high and grammar grades are taught in the South School.
Sometime before 1850 an additional school was built on the corner of Summer and Thomas streets, and was in operation for a number of years. The following named persons have taught in Edgartown schools, and will be remembered by the older residents: Frances E. Mayhew, Harriet R. Fisher, Caroline Arey, Emeline Marchant, Eliza A. Worth, Maria L. Norton, Eliza F. Pease, Hannah Davis, Eunice Lambert, and Emily Worth. The masters have been George A. Walton, Constant Norton, Joseph B. Gow, Richard L. Pease, John J. Leland, Smith B. Goodenow, and Henry Baylies.
THAXTER ACADEMY.
A complete survey of the subject of education in this town could not be made without devoting adequate space to the life and work of Hon. Leavitt Thaxter, a noble scion . of a worthy sire. Born here, March 13, 1788, the second son of Parson Thaxter, he was trained for the duties of life by his distinguished father. Although he had prepared for Harvard College, which he entered at an early age, he did not complete the course, but was led like so many of his youthful companions by the lure of the sea, and apparently began the life of a sailor. He made a number of voyages to the East Indies, and during our second war with Great Britain, although not a belligerent, he was made a prisoner at Calcutta, and experienced the discomforts of a British prison in that climate. After several years of the seafaring life, for which he was not fitted, he turned to the work better suited to his temperament and training. Gifted with a superior mind, his father had encouraged him to use it for the benefit of others and urged the occupation of a teacher as one best fitted for his talents. A letter addressed to him by his father, bearing date New Year's day, 1819, says: "I early devoted you to God. I have spared no pains or expense to qualify you to act your part gracefully as a man and a Christian. By my advice you have devoted yourself to the instruction of youth. The office is the most important and useful in which man can be employed. That ought to be esteemed the most honorable which is the most useful; it is so in the sight of God."
He taught in several towns in the western part of this state, Leicester, Northampton, and Williamsburg, and in the
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History of Martha's Vineyard
latter place found a wife in the person of Martha White May- hew (741), whose grandfather, Paine Mayhew (201), had emigrated in 1786 from Chilmark to that town. Thence Thaxter went, in 1819, to Sparta, Georgia, where he remained three or four years in charge of a large and successful academy. Returning to Edgartown in 1823, he decided to make this his permanent home, and at once engaged in teaching. With the aid and influence of his father he erected a school building for his work on the northwest corner of Davis and Maple streets, in 1825, and it was dedicated as Thaxter's Academy, November 29th, by public exercises, in which an oration was delivered by the principal.1 Here for the best part of a long and useful life he followed the occupation of guide, philosopher, and friend of the youth of his native town. One of his pupils in an appreciative review of his career wrote as follows con- cerning this school and its head: -
The school room where he presided was to those pupils who had caught his spirit and imbibed his principles, a place of delight and not an irksome prison house. Strict in his discipline, that was the place for vigorous application and toilsome study; a paradise for those thirsting for knowl- edge, but a hard and thorny way to the idle and obdurate. And then the recess! Indoors and out what teacher ever more sought the comfort and happiness of his pupils, or more bountifully provided for them the means of amusement.
His life however was not all devoted to this special work. He was eminently a leader of thought in all the things that make for the development of the moral and material welfare of a community, and his fellow citizens honored him with their places of public trust, until the close of his life. He was representative to the General Court (1830), senator from this district (1836,-1847), and Governor's councillor (1839). Under the National government he held numerous commis- sions, including judge of the Court of Insolvency, and collector of customs at this port. He was the first president of the Dukes County Educational Association (1848), and the first president of the Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Association (1858), and in this latter capacity his abilities as a practical horticulturist made him something more than a parliamentary head of this body. Not a few of the ornamental flora of
1This was published under the title "An Oration Delivered At The Dedication of Thaxter's Academy in Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, November 29th, 1825. Also, A Hymn Composed For The Occasion, By Leavitt Thaxter, New Bedford, 1825." A copy is in the author's collection of the printed literature of the Island. The hymn was probably composed by Parson Thaxter.
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this town now adorning the private gardens were introduced and cultivated by him, and generously given to others. .
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