USA > Massachusetts > Dukes County > Marthas Vineyard > The history of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, Volume II > Part 54
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59
1Mass. Archives, XXXI, 350. Signed by Pain Mayhew, John Sumner and William Hunt.
2Vo !. I, p. 255.
I3
History of Martha's Vineyard
are learned in the law, that as the corporation was the creature of the crown, all the rights to hold and manage property in this country ceased when the independence of the United States was recognized, and thus the lands escheated to the Commonwealth by arms and the right of eminent domain residing in sovereign power.1 Whatever the theoretical con- dition may have been, the state practically assumed control, directly and indirectly, of the property, and in the confusion and antagonisms created by the war, no attempt was ever made afterwards to challenge this authority. The tribe at Gay Head became, in common with others elsewhere, the "involuntary wards of the state." They had no control over their lands and homes. They could make no sale of them to anyone except other members of their tribe; neither could they make a contract binding in law, or sue or be sued except for trifling sums in the the courts of the county.
THE LONG APPRENTICESHIP IN CIVILIZATION
The evolution of the natives from dependents to citizens, after the war, was a slow and retarded process. As an observer truthfully said: "It is hardly to be wondered at that the Indians were 'thriftless and unprovident' for some of the most powerful incentives to elevate man were wanting." They were themselves lacking in initiative by inheritance. There was but one English built house in 1727, but fifty years later they had outgrown their wigwam state. While this was progress in one line there was inertia in others. A visitor in 1786 states that "they burned nothing but bushes, this part of the island affording no wood, and suffered much from cold weather, though peat was procurable in plenty."2 Twenty years later the condition of the native was discouraging to another visitor, who recorded the opinion that they were intem- perate, immoral, and dishonest, though he added that they were more industrious and neater in their person and houses than their people elsewhere.3 Another traveler of this time said: "We sat by a peat fire, for this fuel is abundant on the
1No act of sequestration of this territory as the property of loyalists was passed by the General Court. See House Doc., No. 47, p. 12 (1856). The traveler Kendall, in 1807, says: "One third of the whole peninsula belongs to the Society for Propa- gating the Gospel etc [the one incorporated here in 1787] by which it is left to the use of the Indians" (Travels, II, 193). There seems to be no other authority for this statement.
2Memoirs of the American Academy, II, 153. Letter of Dr. William Bavlies. 3Rev. James Freeman, in Ist Mass. Hist. Coll., III.
I4
Annals of Gay Head
peninsula, and wood is rare." This fuel still furnishes com- fort to the present generation in seasons of inclement weather, unless a coal laden vessel unfortunately goes ashore here and jettisons or loses her cargo, when it is washed ashore in suf- ficient quantities to permit the adoption of metropolitan manners for a temporary period. In 1838 it was stated by an authority that "their dwelling houses, upward of 35, are mostly one story and are comfortably built."' Ten years later (1849) the commissioner said of them: "The Gay Headers are, in the main, a frugal, industrious, temperate and moral people; but not without exceptions. In these respects they have greatly improved within the last thirty years and par- ticularly within the last ten or twelve years."2 In 1861 the commissioners report showed further progress in the refine- ments of civilization. "They are generally kind and con- siderate toward each other," he states, "and perform their social and relative duties as well as do other people in whose vicinity they reside." 3 In 1869, at a hearing on Gay Head held by a legislative committee, there was testimony from three clergymen covering a period of seven years, that neither of them had seen a case of drunkeness nor heard profanity among them in that time.4
While this satisfactory development had been going on it was reached under conditions of material discouragement. Dependent on the state as wards, improving land they did not own, they were in the same class with aliens, paupers, idiots and the insane in their relations to the body politic. The reservation was still an undivided tract in 1800, and a visitor some years later stated that "each man cultivates as much as he pleases, and no one intrudes on the spot which another has appropriated by his labor."5 This anomalous condition existed in 1849 according to the commissioner. "While one proprietor has but half an acre and another has over a hundred acres, there is no heart-burning, no feeling that the latter has more than his share. 'I have all I want' says the former, and he is content. This state of things is as happy as it is peculiar; how long it will continue is a problem."6 He recom-
1Barber, Historical Collections (Mass.), 148.
2F. W. Bird (House Doc., No. 46, 1849).
3J. M. Earle (Senate Doc., No. 96, 1861).
4Senate Document, No. 14, 1870.
5North American Review, V, 319 (1817).
6House Doc., No. 46 (1849), F. W. Bird's Report.
15
History of Martha's Vineyard
mended strongly the early confirmation of titles in severalty upon an equitable basis. Nothing however was done for a dozen years, and the commissioner, in his report for 1861, makes the following interesting observation upon this peculiar system of occupancy of the soil:
This law is the unwritten Indian traditional law, which from its apparently favorable working, is probably as well adapted to their con- dition as any that can be devised. At any rate they adhere to it with great
af 1
₡
STONE WEIR.
tenacity, and are fearful of any innovations upon it. This, probably, is a prominent reason of their jealousy of foreigners, and of the rigorous exclusion of them from any foothold on their domain, except when inter- married with one of the tribe.1
THE FINAL STEPS TO CITIZENSHIP
The General Court created this reservation into the "District of Gay Head" in 1862, and shortly after measures were instituted to ascertain and determine the existing boundary lines of such tracts as were held in severalty and the
1House Doc., No. 215 (1862), J. M. Earle's Report. About 450 acres were held in severalty, fenced and occupied at this date.
I6
Annals of Gay Head
common lands.1 The person appointed to do this work, the late Hon. Charles Marston, died before completing it, and the General Court of 1866 authorized the Governor to commission "some suitable person" to perform this task. The late Richard L. Pease of Edgartown was appointed by Governor Bullock, and entered at once upon his duties.2 It was a peculiar and delicate mission. Some of the claimants had the most hazy notions of their holdings. One woman entered a claim for "four rows of corn"! How well he performed it is certified by a legislative committee who visited the reservation during the progress of the work:
Under his active and judicious supervision, order is being rapidly brought out of chaos, and the limits of each person's lot marked out by stakes and bounds. - . . In the performance of his duties, Mr. Pease is obliged, upon such examination and evidence as is accessible, to decide as to the ownership of property, and his decisions are generally acquiesced in with a good grace and with a better spirit of acquiescence, no doubt, than if he were dealing with the ordinary run of white people.
This work covered five years of investigation and research into the family histories of the inhabitants to make a proper apportionment of the shares of each resident or their kin elsewhere, and his report was submitted to the Governor and Council in the spring of 1871, and was ordered printed in full. It was a most valuable document, comprising a mass of valuable historical notes on the people and their lands from the earliest settlement, with a complete census of the inhabitants to il- lustrate the subject of his report.3
INCORPORATION AS A TOWN
While the work of Commissioner Pease was in progress, Governor Claflin, in his annual message to the General Court, called attention to the anomalous political condition of the Indians of the Commonwealth. A joint committee on this subject recommended the enfranchisement of the Indians and the final distribution of the lands of the Gay Head tribe.4 Both measures were adopted, and the adult male population of the place made the recipients of the glorious privilege of citizenship in this Commonwealth - with a slight drawback. Being neither a town by themselves, nor part of any other
1Chapter 184, Statutes, 1862; comp., Resolves ch. 42, 1863.
2Resolves, ch. 67 (1866).
3Title: "Report of the Commissioner," etc., 8vo, pp. 60. Boston, 1871. His duties did not include a division of the "common" lands.
4House Docs., Nos. 483 and 502 (1869).
I7
History of Martha's Vineyard
town, this privilege could neither be exercised nor enjoyed! This political paradox received the attention of the General Court of 1870, which sent a committee here to report on the capacity of the natives for independent existence as a township. This committee made a strong unanimous report in favor of such a conclusion. They said, after reviewing the situation :
Because they are capable of self-government, as their history since 1862 abundantly shows; because they are worthy and well qualified now as they probably ever will be under the dominion of any neighboring town; because they are far remote from the nearest adjoining town by from four to seven miles; because the people of that town have been and are still strongly opposed to the annexation of Gay Head to them; because the people of Gay Head are (with one exception) unanimous for a separate township; because other things being equal, the wishes of the parties most interested ought to be consulted; and finally, because having already governed themselves in reality for the past few years (since 1862) a con- tinuation of this control, while it would work no injury to any other interests, would be of great benefit to the people of Gay Head - giving them re- newed assurance of the confidence of the Commonwealth in them and inspiring them to further effort towards improvement - we unanimously recommend that Gay Head be incorporated as a township by itself.1
The recommendation of this committee was concurred in by both houses and the act of incorporation as drawn by them was approved by the Governor, April 15, 1870, by which, after two centuries of retarded development, the last of the Algonquian race on this island became American freemen. Nor were these newly-fledged citizens "without honor in their own country," for under the rotation plan of electing a Repre- sentative for the County of Dukes County, Mr. Edwin DeVries Vanderhoop, a native "Gay Header," had the distinction of going to the General Court (session of 1888) to legislate for the white people who had lately enfranchised him. The town is now in its fortieth year of existence, a self-respecting community of people, obedient to the laws, managing its affairs economically, fulfilling all the requirements of an incorporated part of the Commonwealth, and justifying fully the faith of the men who gave it this opportunity for inde- pendent development. But it is still an "Indian" town, for the white man has made no invasion here. The words of the Sachem Metaark, spoken in 1681, now seem prophetic:
Know yee all People that I Metaack and my principall men my children & people are owners of this, this our land forever. They are forever ours and our offspring forever shall enjoy them.
1Senate Doc., No. 14 (1870). This was signed by N. J. Holden and G. A. King of the Senate and E. Davis, J. J. Smith and A. G. Hart of the House.
I8
Annals of Gay Head
MATERIAL PROGRESS, 1870-1910
The town began its independent career with nothing in the treasury and with only a sandy peninsula to work out its destiny. The first year its receipts were $342.75 and expenses $261.68; ten years later the receipts were $421 and expenses $360.77, but in another decade the showing was rather dis- appointing. The receipts in 1890 had fallen to $213.90, and the expenditures consumed it all. In the following ten years, however, a marked improvement had taken place, owing to the utilization of town lands, -the famous cliffs. These were leased to a corporation known as the Gay Head Clay Co. in 1893, at an annual rental of $500, and the clay was shipped elsewhere to kilns as material for bricks. The variegated hues of the clay do not resist the heat of burning and disappear in the oven, coming out a uniform color. This added income, doubling their ordinary receipts, enabled the town to increase its expenses for permanent improvement of public property. In 1900 the receipts were $1,025.97, and expenditures $921.67 for all purposes. In the following ten years these sums have also been doubled, the financial condition of the town steadily improving, with annual unexpended balances of gen- erous amounts to its credit. In 1910 the receipts were $2, 196.51 and expenses $1,313.06 leaving a balance of over eight hundred dollars.
In 1910 the following record showed the general character of the town's condition: real estate assessed, $30,875.40; personal estate, $9,779.58; total valuation, $40,654.98, after forty years of independence. Number of horses, 8; cows, 22; neat cattle, 56; houses, 48; acres assessed, 1,446.
The principal town officers this year (1910) are: W. H. Morton, Francis Manning, Linus S. Jeffers, Selectmen; Francis L. James, Clerk; Thomas C. Jeffers, Treasurer; Charles S. Hatch, Auditor; Harrison L. Vanderhoop, Tax Collector; Thomas Manning, James F. Cooper, Road Com- missioners.
19
History of Martha's Vineyard
ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS
The natives of this end of the Vineyard were the last to accept the religious teachings of the white men. It was the "last ditch" of the polytheism of the Powwows and the Indians here "had been many Years obstinately resolved" against receiving the Gospel of Christ, "being animated by the neighboring Sachims on the Shores of the Continent." In the year 1663, however, with the assistance of his converts, the elder Mayhew succeeded in convincing the Sachem Metaark of the truth of the white man's religion and he accepted the new theology. The Sachem then became a missionary among his people. In this departure from their ancient belief he was not followed. The influence of the medicine men was still powerful, and he found himself practically ostracised, although a Sachem.1 He removed to Edgartown, where he lived for the next three years, continuing to preach there, and at the end of that time, when opposition had died out there he returned to his own people. It is recorded then that he "set up a Meeting at the said Gayhead, he himself dispensing The Word of God unto as many as would come to hear him, by which means it pleased God to bring over all that People to a Profession of Christianity."2 He continued to preach until his death (1683), and was followed by Japheth Hannit. This man was born about 1638, the son of Pamehannitt and his wife Wuttununohkomkooh, and had been brought up in the Christian religion by his parents, who had early embraced its teachings.3 The Anabaptist schism among the Indians of Gay Head occurred while he was the regular pastor of the missionary church.
FIRST MEETING-HOUSE
How long he preached is not known, but he died in 1712. Doubtless during his ministry he had assistance of other natives. Among them was Abel Wauwompuhque, a brother of Metaark, and Elisha Ohhumuh. In this period, in the year 1698, they were preaching "to at least 260 souls who have here at their
1Wuttahhannompisin was one of his first and few converts at this time (Mayhew, "Indian Converts," 131). "This Prince's subjects being resolved to continue in their heathenism, notwithstanding his embracing the Gospel" (Rev. John Mayhew).
2 " Indian Converts," 22, 299.
3His surname was the last half of his father's Algonquian name, and was borne by all his decendants in that contracted form.
20
Annals of Gay Head
charge a meeting house already framed."1 Abel died in 1713, and was succeeded by Joash Pannos or Panneu, who continued in service till his death (1720) seven years later. The following contemporary account of a native meeting in 1714 during his ministry is here given to show their mode of worship:
About one hundred Men and Women were gathered together besides Children. Mr. Mayhew directed Joash Pannos, Minister of Gay Head to begin with Prayer; then, Mr. Mayhew preached from Ephes. I. II. - who worketh all things after the Counsel of his own will. Sung 4 verses of the IIIth Psalm. Mr. Torrey set the Low-Dutch Tune. Mr. Mayhew gave in the heads of his Sermon in English; a good Discourse. Isaac Ompane concluded with Prayer.2
This meeting was a special function at which many visitors were present, but it affords a clear picture of the ceremonies as conducted by them. ai
SUBSEQUENT ANNALS
In the absence of church records the ministerial succession, if there were any continuous native ministry of the original Congregational mission, remains an unknown quantity. It is doubtful if the natives furnished many preachers after this time as the Corporation encouraged the English pastors of Chilmark and Tisbury to acquire enough proficiency in the Algonquian language to preach to the various assemblies. It is known that Peter Ohquanhut was the "minister of the Gayhead" in 1725,3 and it is understood, of course, that Experience Mayhew was a general missionary on the Vine- yard, and that he preached regularly at each of their meetings in town. Rev. Mr. Torrey of West Tisbury did the same, probably in his own town principally, but doubtless here on occasion, as did the settled pastors of other towns. This condition existed till Experience Mayhew's death (1758), when he was followed, in 1767, by his son Zachariah, and in 1810 by Frederic Baylies. The Baptists practically controlled the religious sentiment of the natives, however, and in 1786 it was stated that "they were seldom favoured with a congregational teacher."4 A traveler of 1807, while on a visit to the island, says in that year the Congregational church was then taught
1Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., X, 131; comp., Sewall, Diary, III, 397.
2Sewall, Diary, II, 432.
3 " Indian Converts," 100. He was captured by French pirates in 1714 and taken into captivity (ibid., IIO).
"Memoirs, American Academy, II, 153.
2I
History of Martha's Vineyard
by a native preacher "in orders."1 It is probable that the missionaries of the several societies were satisfied to have the natives become attached to any form of Christian worship, and did not attempt to discourage the existing Baptist congre- gation by maintaining opposition meetings in such a small community. The last baby to be sprinkled in baptism was Mary Cooper, b. 1784, later the wife of Johnson Peters.
Shortly after this the old meeting-house, out of repair and untenanted, was abandoned to the elements. It was gradually dismantled, and having failed of its purpose in religious affairs its remaining timbers went to help pay the support of secular teaching, and thus in its last days did quite as valuable service as in its days of pristine strength.
THE ANABAPTIST SECESSION
It is not known when some of the members of the Congre- gational mission assembly became "converted" to the current Anabaptist doctrines and left their old church to form another. The statements in the existing parish records of this church, prepared by a modern writer, and therein set forth are mani- festly misleading as to the origin and responsibility for this schism.2 That the secession met with the disapproval of the Mayhews there is ample evidence, and its existence was due to the influence of outside proselyting which they could not check. When this began is uncertain. The Commissioners who visited Gay Head in 1698 do not mention this seceding body. The modern church record states "about 1693," but the author has found nothing to fix such a specific date.3 It is probable that the new influences came from Rhode Island, then a strong Anabaptist colony, as the whites and natives of the west end of this island were in constant business com- munication with Newport, only a short distance for sailing craft to cover. The first known leader of this sect at Gay Head was Stephen Tackamason, and in 1702 the earliest mention of the existence of such a schism appears. A con- temporary authority writes as follows of his visit to this town:
Japhet [Hannet] Jonathan and Stephen [Tackamason] came to me. I have discourse with them: try to convince Stephen of his Anabaptistical
1Kendall Travels, II, 197.
2The record states that "this church was gathered under the labors of Thomas Mayhew, Peter Folger and others, and constituted a Baptist church about A. D. 1693." It was, in fact, a secession from the church founded by Mayhew.
3Backus (Church History, I, 437) says "In 1694 there was a Baptist Church on the Vineyard among the Christian Indians."
22
Annals of Gay Head
Errors: Mr. Experience Mayhew proposes to me as a thing very expedient that some short Treatise be drawn up and translated into Indian to prevent the spreading of the Anabaptisticall Notions.1
This cannot but strike the reader of the generation as an amusing spectacle - a learned Judge of the King's Bench endeavoring to convince an Indian of the theological "errors" of "Anabaptisticall Notions," which involved not only con- siderations of the mystical origin of the Christian theistic dogmas, but philological excursions into the Hebrew and Greek tongues! It may be doubted whether any Indian of that day had a clear conception of the white man's religion as an abstruse proposition, to say nothing of its various sectarian interpretations. At this time (1702) the same authority states that Josias [Hossuit] and Stephen "have a church of about 30, ten men." The number of souls at Gay Head was then about three hundred, and the extent and importance of the schism may be estimated from these figures.
Stephen died in Chilmark in 1708 and was succeeded by Isaac Decamy, who was described as "a man of sober life and conversation." He came from the mainland with his family.2 Decamy died about 1720. Following him was Josias How- waswet (or Horsuit) the younger. He was preaching in 1727, and the congregation was called "a small society of Baptists." The next in succession was Ephraim Abraham and Samuel Kakenehew, the latter of whom, a resident of Chappaquiddick, preached at both places. He died in 1763, and Rev. Zachariah Mayhew, who was a contemporary, said "he was a man of sense and of a regular and Christian life and conversation." In 1763 Silas Paul was ordained as the pastor. He was born about 1738, was baptized in 1758, and at the age of twenty- five began a service as pastor which covered nearly a quarter of a century. He died in 1787, and his gravestone is one of the few remaining stones marking the burial places of Indians on Gay Head. He was the only Baptist minister on the Vineyard during his ministry. According to the church records his pastoral labors do not appear to have been success- ful. "The church at this time," it is written, "was very low
1Sewall, Diary, III, 397. With his well-known fondness for details, as amply illustrated in his voluminous diaries it is improbable that he would have neglected to state that this schism had existed for nine years (since 1693) if such had been the case. The absence of any reference to it in 1698, when commissioners of the Society visited Gay Head, and Sewall's failure to indicate any lengthy existence to it, confirm the view that it was of recent growth.
2Backus, Church History, I, 438.
23
History of Martha's Vineyard
respecting vital piety and practical religion." In 1774 the society had but thirteen members. * He was succeeded in 1792 by Thomas Jeffers, a native of Plymouth, born 1742, and a resident of Middleboro in his adult life. He was fifty years of age when he took charge of this church, but it is said he was a man of considerable native ability and well received by his flock. He died Aug. 30, 1818, aged 76 years, after a service of about twenty-five years.1 He followed farming as a principal
YEJUH WOLD OK SIPSINYSILLPA
49YE
NOHTOBEYONTOK/AGET
IPPOPOTAMIAUGUSTY
GRAVESTONE OF SILAS PAUL IN GAY HEAD.
means of support as the society could not provide for a clergy- man who relied on their contributions for a livelihood. At this date this denomination was worshipping in a meeting- house of its own. It was a plain wooden structure and stood "on the brow of a steep hill," about a mile eastward of the lighthouse.2 How long the vacancy in the pulpit existed after
1A visitor to Gay Head, in 1807, makes the following comment: "The Anabaptist Clergyman is a large farmer and was when young of great promise, but he is now given up to drink" (Kendall, Travels, II, 197).
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.