USA > Massachusetts > Dukes County > Marthas Vineyard > The history of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 52
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SEPARATION FROM EDGARTOWN
EARLY SENTIMENT FOR INDEPENDENCE
The remoteness of Eastville from the village of Edgar- town contained the germ of the idea of an independent existence of this part of the town when it should become numerically
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strong enough to demand this privilege. About 1825, as told by older residents of Eastville, this sentiment took concrete form in an agitation for a separation from the parent town; but no definite details are obtainable, as the matter never proceeded to the point of specific action. The little hamlet did not then have sufficient population nor valuation to justify its establishment as an independent community; and it is probable that the movement was designed to influence some pending controversies between the two sections of the town. Doubtless the northern section suffered then from lack of its share of the town appropriations, as was the case in later years, when it grew to the proportions of a possible township.
The growth of the summer resort around the Squash Meadow region following the development of the camp- meetings, and the general increase of a resident population in that section, accentuated the idea of future autonomy. This took definite form about 1872, when the residents of Eastville and the newer settlement at Vineyard Grove joined together in a campaign for separation from Edgartown. The residents of Eastville, when they were almost the only perma- nent population of Farm Neck, had no natural affiliations binding them to the old town. They had no decent roads, nor school houses, and felt neglected by the voters of the older village in the distribution of annual favors at town meetings. They were a hopeless and helpless minority, com- prising not more than fifteen families, and they chafed under the yoke. It was seven miles by a sandy road to the post office, the town hall and a good school house. As a result of these conditions they traded and received their mail at Homes Hole, and all their interests were in this association with the people of that settlement. The men of Eastville were the original inspirers of every sentiment for a division of the town, and as the feeling for independence grew, its leaders were always found there. It is apparent that the majority of voters of Edgartown village paid but scant attention to these continued murmurs of discontent, and thus annually piled up arguments in favor of a separation by their treatment of this section of the town.
THE FIGHT FOR SEPARATION.
On the date above given (1872) a Representative to the General Court, understood to be favorable to division, was elected through the influence of the people of Eastville, and a
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petition for separation was circulated among the residents of the northern section of the town. The people of the old village countered this move with a remonstrance against separ- ation, and induced such a considerable number of the non- resident tax payers of Vineyard Grove to sign it, that the petitioners for the new town found it the better policy to defer action at that time. The agitation, however, was kept up continuously, and in the few following years the ranks of the divisionists were recruited from this same non-resident element which had been employed against them previously. No improvement in the relations of the two sections ensued even at this juncture; and such favors in the way of improve- ments as could be obtained from Edgartown were either grudgingly bestowed or forced by appeals to their sense of justice.
The men most active in the north part of the old town in the various movements for a division were Howes Norris, Ichabod Norton Luce, Joseph Dias, Otis Foss and Samuel Butler. These men finally enlisted the support of nearly all of the non-residents who were incorporated into a separate committee of thirty to carry on the battle. Oliver Ames of Easton, who then owned a fine summer residence at Oak Bluffs, was chairman of this committee of non-residents, and at that time he was yet only a private citizen of large wealth and influence in the business world. When the battle was found to be a strongly contested engagement, and after two successive defeats of the petitioners, Mr. Ames said he "guessed he would go to the Senate to help out," and he did. This divisional fight was undoubtedly the inspiration of his entry into political life, and this service as Senator was the prelude to his promotion to the offices of Lieutenant-Governor and Governor of this Commonwealth.
Among the many non-residents, who devoted much time and effort during the several years of leglisative battling before success was finally reached, were Hon. Nathaniel Wales of Stoughton, at first a Senator and later of the Governor's Council; Hon. Edward B. Gillette of Westfield, a prominent attorney and a director in the Boston and Albany Railroad; Hon. William N. Sage of Rochester, N. Y .; Captain John S. Damrell of Boston, and Mr. N. Sumner Myrick of the same city, then a correspondent of the Boston Herald and a young attorney at law. These and other non-residents proved to be a most efficient factor in the campaign, as their interest and
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influence ramified throughout all portions of the state, and they were able to appeal to the sources of public influence which affected the opinions of the legislators.
THE CAUSES OF THE TROUBLE
In the statements which follow, detailing the complaints of the petitioners for separation, the author is not expressing his views of the merits of the controversy, but paraphrasing the language of those who entertained these grievances against the dominant authorities of Edgartown. The advocates of division were first aroused to action by the continuous neglect of the interests of their section, both in respect to a share in the civil honors in town management, and in the refusal to provide the ordinary necessities of decent roads and good schools for a growing community. Edgartown village profited by the rapid and unusual increase of taxable improved property in the Camp- Meeting grounds when permanent residences began to dot the landscape, and nothing was given in return to the new com- munity. As an instance of this almost fatuitous disregard for the convenience of the citizens of the north end of the town, may be cited the refusal to build a bridge across the narrow channel emptying the Lagoon. The people residing in this section had no outlet to the westward towns on the Vineyard except by water, while a mile only separated them from the village of Vineyard Haven, where they could have convenient mail facilities and the other benefits that a large settlement affords. Requests for appropriations to build this connecting link were repeatedly voted down. At last the petitioners took the matter to the General Court in the form of a bill compelling the county commissioners to build the bridge, and the responsible leaders of the Edgartown interests fought the measure with great earnestness, but without success. Another instance of this nature was the refusal to build a road through the farms along the Eastville shore, until the residents of that section gave the town bonds that it should not cost the town anything. Temahigon avenue, which runs from the Eastville Inn to New York avenue, and New York avenue itself, two of the finest roads in the present town, were only obtained by the guarantee on the basis above mentioned, of the people of Eastville to the town of Edgartown.
Coincident with the refusal of Edgartown to build a bridge across the Lagoon channel on account of the expense involved,
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the old town interests projected the present Beach road which should connect them with the new settlement at Oak Bluffs. As usual a short-sighted policy was adopted in the construction of this highway. While competent contractors offered to build a macadam road for $40,000, the Edgartown leaders pushed through a vote to employ none but townspeople in this work and a common dirt road was finally completed at an expense of nearly $60,000. But the object of preventing the citizens of the northern section from going by road to an- other section of the island had been accomplished. Nor was this wasteful financiering the only ground of complaint with respect to money matters. The old town voted $15,000 more to build a railroad parallel to this Beach road, which could be of no possible benefit to any other section of the town, and it proved to be a total loss, as an investment.
THE STORY OF THE STRUGGLE
For three successive years, 1878, 1879 and 1880, these petitioners for division took their case to the General Court for relief. They were represented by Hon. Charles R. Train, while the old town entrusted its case to the Hon. Selwyn Z. Bowman. With such able counsel on both sides, and the prominent men interested throughout the state among the non-resident petitioners, the case became one of the most noted town division contests ever threshed out in the history of the Commonwealth. The struggle developed exceedingly bitter feelings between the people of the two sections, and before its close the petitioners had practically abandoned attendance at town meetings because of the personal ill-treat- ment which they claim to have received at the hands of their opponents. Charges and counter charges of dishonesty in the financial management of the town were freely made, and the motives of each side were impugned as selfish or dishonest. The case of the remonstrants was one of general and particular denial of every complaint set forth by the petitioners. Figures taken from the town reports were employed by both sides with equal facility to establish opposite contentions; and amid this arithmetical maze of percentages, the average person might well flounder in his efforts to deduce the real truth from their diametric arguments. The remonstrants claimed that the debt of the town was due to improvements made for the benefit of the new section, and that it would be unjust to the
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old town to be burdened with a moiety of it, as after the separ- ation an undue proportion of taxable property would be taken into the new town. It appeared from an analysis of the property interests of the petitioners, that, while numerically strong, they represented at first a minority of the taxable realty. This element of non-resident petitioners, while po- tentially valuable from a political standpoint, constituted a hazardous asset as an argument for division. It can readily be seen that the division of Edgartown was not their concern legally, as they were not voters, and the propriety of their appearance was seriously questioned as a matter of public policy, by the many not immediately interested in the matter. The counsel for the remonstrants dealt with this feature in vigorous terms, and practically demanded their entire exclusion from the case in the interests of justice. He used this circum- stance with great effect in an appeal to the sentiment of fair play, picturing the hundreds of wealthy and influential non- residents throughout the state engaged in a combination against the poor, defenceless island community, struggling against disruption and despoilment.
As was inevitable, this contest entered into the local politics of the Vineyard as a whole, and the elections of the representative to the General Court in the years 1878-80, inclusive, were fought out on the issue of division. In 1878 and 1879 Captain Benjamin Clough of Tisbury was chosen as an opponent of division through the votes of Edgartown and her friends in other sections of the island. This position of advantage accrued to the benefit of the old town in the legislative struggles of those two years, as Captain Clough succeeded in defeating all the active work carried on by the petitioners throughout the state. As representative of the local interests of his district the Vineyard member exercised a controlling influence on a subject which was purely a local affair, in accordance with the unwritten law and custom of the legislature. For the third and last time the contestants waged the usual preliminary skirmish in the election of a new representative to sit in the General Court of 1880, and, after a spirited campaign, Stephen Flanders of Chilmark, an avowed friend of the petitioners, was the successful candi- date. The strategic advantage was now with the divisionists, and the influence of the local representative would be against the old town. The tide had turned, but both sides returned to the arena undismayed by previous
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History of Martha's Vineyard
defeats and the recent election. The old arguments were repeated in favor and the old replies were flung back without much change. The General Court lent a favorable ear, and on February 17, 1880, the Bill incorporating the new town became a law.
At the first meeting of the voters of the new town of Cottage City, in March, 1880, the following named persons were chosen as its officials for the ensuing year :
William H. Davis, Frederick U. Ripley, Otis Foss, Select- men, Assessors and Overseers of the Poor; Oliver E. Linton, Town Clerk; Joseph Dias, Town Treasurer and Collector of Taxes; Oliver E. Linton, Henry C. Norton, Phœbe A. Norton, School Committee; Edward H. Hatfield, Shubael H. Norton, Albert A. Bosworth, Board of Health.
Its valuation was $1, 197,435, with 1,058 taxable buildings, including 15 hotels. It then stood as 142 among the 306 towns in the state, as regards valuation.
CHRISTENING THE NEW TOWN
The name of the new town became a bone of contention during the agitation. The summer residents in various portions of the proposed town desired to give it the name of the section in which each lived. The post office had been called Vine- yard Grove and Oak Bluffs at different periods, and the people residing at the Highlands and about the Camp Meeting Grounds favored the former name, while the residents of Oak Bluffs insisted on the retention of this title. Both sides were unyielding in this matter, and the dispute threatened to disorganize the divisionists. At this juncture the Hon. H. A. Blood, a former Mayor of Fitchburg, Mass., and a summer resident, suggested the compromise name which was finally adopted. As general manager of the Fitchburg Railroad he had designated this locality in his advertising matter for summer travelers as the "Cottage City of America," and the suggestion was made by him to the leaders that the new town be called Cottage City. He claimed that through his extensive exploitation of this name throughout the country it was already known as Cottage City to hundreds of summer visitors, and that it would be good policy to adopt it officially.
For a long time the bitterness engendered by the struggle remained, but at this date, a generation after the events above narrated, it can be said that both sections are happier, less
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Annals of Oak Bluffs
contentious, and better off financially and otherwise as a result of the division.1
NAME CHANGED TO OAK BLUFFS
The baptismal name of this town never gave entire satis- faction to many of the residents. In many respects it was a ridiculous pretence to call a very small town a city and it gave strangers an erroneous impression which became the source of humorous comment whenever mentioned seriously. To reverse the name it would sound equally senseless to speak of the City of Cottage Town. This sentiment grew in strength from year to year and when, in 1906, it was proposed to give the place a dignified name scarcely any opposition was mani- fested. The large consensus of opinion was in favor of the earlier title of the place, Oak Bluffs, and on Jan. 25, 1907, the General Court incorporated the town of Cottage City under the new name.
The officers elected at the first town meeting following this change were:
Frederick W. Smith, Ezekiel H. Matthews, Elmer E. Landers, Selectmen, Assessors and Overseers of the Poor; Francis P. Vincent, Town Clerk; Edwin R. Frasier, Treasurer; William C. Russell, Auditor; Ezekiel H. Matthews, Collector of Taxes; Samuel G. Rice, George F. Moulton, Osgood N. Mayhew, David J. Barney, School Committee; Manuel S, Bettencourt, Superintendent of Streets; Eli A. Leighton. LaRoy S. Lewis, Constables; Sherman T. Meara, Charles T. Besse, Job H. Gorham, Health Officers; John E. Sandiford, Samuel N. Kidder, Andrew Warren, David J. Barney and Everett Joy, Board of Engineers; John W. McGrath, George P. Briggs, Manuel A. Vincent, Park Commissioners; Job H. Gorham, Sidney H. Hicks, LaRoy S. Lewis, Cemetery Com- mittee; George H. Stratton, Sealer of Weights and Measures; Charles T. Besse, Pound Keeper; Frank W. Chase, Snow Welch, Manuel S. Bettencourt, Fence Viewers; Edwin R. Frasier, Tree Warden.
1It is related, as an instance of the animosities aroused, that on an early visit to Edgartown after the bill was passed, one of the principal leaders from Eastville was greeted with a chorus of groans and other uncomplimentary demonstrations from people who had hastily gathered on learning of his presence in the town. They aligned themselves on both sides of the street, the principal thoroughfare of the town, and continued this hostile serenade until his business was completed and he had departed for his home.
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History of Martha's Vineyard
U. S. GOVERNMENT SERVICES
LIGHTHOUSE ESTABLISHMENT
There is one lighthouse in the town, situated on the highlands of East Chop. It was built in 1869 by the late Capt. Silas Daggett of Vineyard Haven as a private enterprise. His project had the financial support of marine insurance companies, steamship lines and coastwise commercial interests making use of this great waterway of travel. Anticipating the final disposal of it to the general government he completed the tower, maintained it for a period until its transfer was ac- complished. This is probably one of the few instances of such an undertaking on our coast, but the energetic promoter thought that governments moved too deliberately and he went ahead with his project, trusting in subsequent reimbursement. It is a flashing red light.
The tower is circular in form, with a railed gallery around the lantern. The bluff on which it stands is about seventy- five feet above sea level, and in the period 1845-1871 it had receded about seventy-five feet as a result of erosion by wave action, a rate of nearly three feet per annum.
POST OFFICE
The growth of the annual summer population following the establishment of the camp meetings resulted in the necessity for mail facilities, and in 1870 a post office was established with the designation of Vineyard Grove. This was changed, March 25, 1878, to Oak Bluffs, and almost immediately after, June II, 1878, changed back to its original name. After the incorporation of the town as Cottage City the name was altered March 30, 1880, to that of the new town, and remained so until Feb. 28, 1907, when it was called Oak Bluffs post office.
The following named persons have served in the office of postmaster: Sirson P. Coffin, commissioned March 7, 1870; Charles M. Vincent, July 19, 1871; Frances P. Vincent, May 13, 1873; Henry C. Norton, May 10, 1888; Charles L. Scran- ton, Sept. 6, 1889 (present incumbent).
There is no public building for the accommodation of the post office in Oak Bluffs, and the postmaster has always established his quarters in rented buildings. For the greater part of the time since 1870 the office has been located on Circuit Avenue.
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MISCELLANEOUS ANNALS
NEWSPAPERS
The first newspaper established in the town was the Cottage City Star, which was started by Hon. Howes Norris, in 1879, as editor and publisher. It was printed in a four-page blanket-sheet form and printed local news from all the island towns, but made a specialty of Cottage City happenings. It was a weekly issue during the greater part of the year, but when the tourist season was on, a semi-weekly issue was published. The office was located at No. I Commonwealth square. This paper existed for six years, and was sold to Charles Strahan, a Southerner by birth and a Confederate soldier during the Civil War, formerly of Baltimore and New Orleans. He had been attracted to Oak Bluffs because he had found it of great beneficial value to his health, and made it his home for the next ten years, during which time he con- ducted this paper on lines similar to the Gazette of Edgartown, but the name was changed by him to Martha's Vineyard Herald. He continued as editor and publisher until Septem- ber, 1900, when he disposed of the plant to Elmer E. Landers of Cottage City and William E. Doane of Taunton. In April, 1902, Mr. Doane retired from the firm, and Mr. Lan- ders continues its publication as surviving partner. The office of publication has been from the beginning at the Herald building, on Circuit avenue. It is issued weekly, except in July and August, when a semi-weekly edition is issued.
TAVERNS
As this town grew up it came to have a conglomeration of boarding houses and hotels for the accommodation of the summer visitors, and it would be an unnecessary task to at- tempt an enumeration of all the houses utilized as public taverns. It will suffice to enumerate the larger and more pretentious hotels which have maintained a continued existence for many years. They comprise the following:
Oak Bluffs House (erected in 1868); Wesley House (A. G. Wesley), Searell House (W. A. Searell), Prospect House (N. E. Huggins), Norton House (C. L. Scranton), Highland House (J. C. Alden), Vineyard Grove House (Joseph Dias), Cottage City House (Mrs. S. A. Stearns), Island House (Hiram Hayden), Pawnee House (Russell Sturgis), Naumkeag House
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(E. H. Fennessy), Central House (Fuller and Field), and the Sea View House (Louis Frenkel). This last named hotel was by far the most famous of all, being the largest and best located. Built and furnished at a cost of over one hundred thousand dollars, with over an hundred guest rooms, spacious dining hall, broad verandah, and situated on the shore at the head of Steamboat wharf, overlooking the arrival and departure of the thousands who came annually, it was, during its existence, the social centre for the "Smart set" which gradually came to measure up in numbers with those who flocked hither for religious reasons. It was burned Sept. 24, 1892, just at the end of the tourist season and was never rebuilt. Efforts were made from time to time to interest capitalists in a plan to provide a successor to it, but the disaster came at a time when the abnormal "boom" of Cottage City had subsided, and the demand for such an elaborate hostelry had passed with the turn of the tide. The existing hotels have enlarged and im- proved their capacity, and are fully able to provide for the travelers who seek temporary lodgings and board.
PHYSICIANS
This town has not had, with one exception, a practitioner of medicine who devoted his entire time to the residents of Oak Bluffs. The summer season created a demand for the temporary services of physicians, and the practitioners of Tisbury and Edgartown, Doctors Butler and Lane of the former place, and Doctors Walker and Worth of the latter place, have maintained offices here during the tourist season. In latter years permanent offices the year round have been established by them.
William Leach, M. D., the exception above noted, was a well known and highly respected physician of the Vineyard for many years. He was born in the town of Kittery, Me., Sept. 23, 1825, received his elementary education in the district school, and fitted for college in the New Market, N. H., academy. He then turned his attention to the study of medi- cine, entering, in 1852, the medical department of Harvard University, from which he was graduated in 1856. After practising in Boston, till 1863, he came to Martha's Vineyard and resided here continuously, engaged in the successful practice of his profession, at first in Vineyard Haven, and in the later years of his life exclusively in Oak Bluffs. He died March 31, 1903, nearly four score years of age. He was a
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member of the Martha's Vineyard Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of the Vineyard Haven Lodge, No. 228, I. O. O. F., and of the Massachusetts Medical Society.
CEMETERIES
There are three burial grounds in the town, the "Cottage City", which contains the oldest grave stone, 1759; the "Farm Neck," whose earliest stone is 1764, and the small ground near Old House pond, where the earliest stone bears the date of 1816.
GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC
The veterans of the Civil War residing on the Vineyard formed a Post of this organization in 1890, with headquarters at Oak Bluffs. It was christened Henry Clay Wade Post, No. 201, of the Department of Massachusetts, in honor of that gallant naval officer who died at Pensacola. Henry W. Coye of Vineyard Haven was its first Commander, serving for five years in that office. The Post has enrolled about fifty veterans on its roster, and meets the first and third Thursdays of each month in G. A. R. hall on Circuit avenue. It is assisted in its work of fraternal care of the sick and needy of its members by the Woman's Relief Corps, an auxiliary organization.
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