The history of Nantucket County, island, and town : including genealogies of first settlers, Part 43

Author: Starbuck, Alexander, 1841-1925
Publication date: 1924
Publisher: Boston [Mass.] : C.E. Goodspeed & Co.
Number of Pages: 900

USA > Massachusetts > Nantucket County > The history of Nantucket County, island, and town : including genealogies of first settlers > Part 43

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silk has been put in operation upon a piece of Pongee Handkerchiefs three quarters wide. This loom has put at rest all doubt that might have been entertained in relation to the practicability of weaving silk in this manner. We have several times made the observtion by mark- ing the pieces with a pencil and the loom has woven an inch and a half of this fabric in one minute; * * * * * The speed is regulated at one hundred and forty strokes per minute and the fabric which it turns off is in no manner inferior to the imported article."

On March 12, the Inquirer had an editorial warmly endorsing the cultivation of the mulberry tree and the silk worm. It said-"It is now time for those among us, who have promised themselves much profit from the culture of the mulberry-and that too with unques- tionable prospect of success, to prepare for the enterprise."

*The Inquirer of December 4, 1835, announced the crystalizing plans to erect a building 60x30 on Coffin's Court and to instal machinery, the invention of Gamaliel Gay, similar to that in use by the Rhode Island Silk Company at Providence. A Babcock 16 horse power engine was to be the motive power. The first issue of stock was to the amount of $30,000 or $40,000 and Aaron Mitchell was a subscriber to a consider- able amount. The building still stands on the south side of the street which was named after Mr. Gay. It is said that George Easton had at one time an orchard of 1,000 mulberry trees back of his homestead on North Water street, and Aaron Mitchell had a grove of 4,000. Others had smaller numbers. See Proceedings Nant. Hist. Assocn. 1898 p. 7. The more extensive manufacturing industries and those com- pelled by the vicissitudes of war are treated under other heads. The manufacture of candles came naturally with whaling, and the Island- ers became expert at it. A prominent merchant abroad sent an order for candles "such as old Walter Folger used to make." In 1812, a woolen mill was established on the New North wharf by Obed Mitchell which employed in its prime 200 persons. Rope walks abounded. In Nov. 1792, a duck factory was in operation which "employs more hands than five rope walks and two sperm candle works, which number there is here." (New Bedford Mercury). Godfrey says (p. 285) that "small vessels of 30 or 40 tons were built here in the latter part of the 17th or early in the 18th century," but that does not seem to be assured. According to records in the Massachusetts State Archives (Maritime Vol. 10) the sloop Mary, owned by Richard Gardner and. others, 25 tons was built in Boston, 1694; the sloop Dolphin 25 tons, same owners, was built in Boston 1679; the sloop Society, same owners, 15 tons was built in Salem, 1695; sloop Hope 40 tons, Peter Coffin and (See next page)

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HISTORY OF NANTUCKET

July 28, 1836, Gov. Edward Everett visited Nantucket, the second Governor of Massachusetts to honor the Island with his official presence. Naturally he was shown those things seemingly of the most importance to the insular life and one of the the lions to be exhibited was the factory of the newly incorporated Atlantic Silk Company then in partial operation. At the inevitable dinner he gave as a Sentiment-"The people of Nantucket and their in- dustry- whether in seizing the fibres of the silk worm, or in wag- ing war with the monsters of the deep-may they be equally pros- perous."

Editor Jenks, on December 14, published a commendatory and congratulatory editorial on the young industry, and quoted the following from the Boston Traveler of December 2: "The Atlantic Company was formed but a short time since, and is now in full tide, of successful operation. Vestings and handkerchiefs from their establishment are the admiration of the best judges, and received the high award of a silver medal at the late Fair of the Mechanics Institute, New York. We have ourselves been presented with a handkerchief of the richest kind which we shall be happy to exhibit to any of our friends who feel an interest in the success of this new branch of manufacture. It is from the very first piece made by the Company; and was woven at the rate of 212 inches a minute in the second power silk loom ever put in operation in the world. The thread is uncommonly even and well twisted; the texture is firm and must be durable; and for the beauty of the figure we are indebted to the good taste of the Boston and Lynn Silk printing Company, who give the finishing stamp to the goods from the Nan- tucket looms."

A report of the Annual Fair of the American Institute held in New York City in the Fall of 1836, contains the following: "740" (evidently the identification number) "Silk Vesting and Handker- chiefs by the Atlantic Manufacturing Company, Nantucket-articles of superior fabric and manufacture, which, if they could be made to a sufficient extent, would soon supplant all silk goods from France or India. Those who have doubts of the practicability of this branch of industry in our country, need dispel their fears, and convince them that it is not only practible, but that it will ere long become one of our staple products. if the good people of Nantucket are as persevering in the silk business as they have been

others, built in Boston 1709; sloop Eagle, 30 tons, Silvanus Hussey and others, built at Scituate, 1711; sloop Bristol, 14 tons, Matthew Jenkins and others, built at Tiverton, 1711; sloop Thomas, 12 tons, Abigail Howse and others, built at Newport, R. I., 1713; sloop Nonesuch, 25 tons, Ebenezer Coffin, built at Boston 1714; sloop Speedwell, 25 tons, George Coffin and others, built at Charlestown. In later years the islanders built, several ships on their marine railway at Brant Point. was the Rose, built in -; then the Charles Carroll, in 1832; the Nan- tucket and the Lexington in 1836; and the Joseph Starbuck in 1838.

The first The ship Planter was rebuilt there, but after lying there several years without a purchaser, was destroyed by fire in 1859. Godfrey says (p. 285)""A large Schooner was built, but when, or whether her name was the' "Nantucket" or the "Philadelphia," the compiler is unable to tell." A fine fishing Schooner of 60 feet length and 17 feet beam is the only vessel built on the Island since those days. She was built by the Nan- tucket Boat Works for H. Marshall Gardner and Howard U Chase and was launched February 2, 1924 and is named "Native." During the Worlds' War a ship-building plant was established on the Island for the repair of submarine chasers.

333

HISTORY OF NANTUCKET

in whaling, their Island will become as celebrated in the annals of silk Manufacture as Lowell is in those of cotton and wool."*

It would seem as though an industry starting out so promis- ingly and with little if any competition-for Nantucket seems to have been a pioneer in the business-might have made more of an impression on the insular life and to have acquired quite a degree of permanency, but it did not. The building erected for a factory still stands, the street it is on still bears the name of Mr. Gay, who

THE PACIFIC BANK Incorporated In 1800

invented the machinery used and was especially interested in this factory, but the business is merely but little more than a memory with a few specimens of the work still existing as proof that it once was an entity.

In spite of the early promise the trees did not thrive, dissen- sions arose among those who formed the Company and the insidi- ous voice of detraction was used to break it down. About 1844 the factory was closed and a portion of the machinery was removed to

*Correspondence Providence Journal.

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HISTORY OF NANTUCKET

the warehouse of Aaron Mitchell, which was in the rear of his house on North Water street .* Samuel B. Tuck the leading spirit in the project has given the following facts concerning the ven- ture: My father in law, Aaron Mitchell had nothing to do with it until its expiring days; he was opposed to it at the commencement and continued so til we got well under way making goods and had no money invested in it. The year when cocoons, silk worms, eggs, morus multticanlus (Chinese mulberry) and the like was all the rage, our brother Samuel H. Jenks (Editor of the Inquirer) in an unfortunate moment (to me at least) made a visit to the broth- Jenks er editor in Providence, R. I., who had silk on the brain.

went with him to examine some new works started making silk goods under a man by the name of Gay, and were very much taken with the whole thing as set forth by Gay, and come home entirely full of it. A Company was gotten up, Gay sent for, and the mem- bers, though few, were very sanguine after hearing the glowing ac- counts from. brother Jenks. S. H. Jenks, William Coffin Jr., Wm. H. Gardner and myself, afterwards George W. Ewer, postmaster at that time was added. We went immediately to work; I pur- chased all that vacant land on Academy Hill and commenced put- ting up the factory although it was winter and the ground was frozen so that we could not dig for the foundation. So great was our hurry that the sills of that great building rested upon oil hogs- heads and the building was completed, the cellar walls and un- derpinning laid after the frost was out of the ground in the spring. We then got in our steam engine, and bearers and pulleys etc., by Engineer Coffee, who was afterwards engineer of our Steam Boat.

Gay came on with the machinery (which was fine) and we soon got to work. I sent to New York and purchased a bale of raw silk about the size of a thirty pound candle box for which I paid $860, and as no more was to be had in New York, the concern sent out and imported for us from Smyrna and I paid for two bales more $1600. Gay was, after starting our Company, getting up and starting the Poughkeepsie Silk Co. They could not find or pur- chase any raw silk to begin with. Gay told them of our importa- tion. The management sent to us to borrow one of the bales and it was delivered to them while I was absent in Boston, upon their solemn promise to return or pay for it, but they never did either and we were swindled of it at last.

We finally got to work and made some splendid goods, and re- ceived the large Gold Medal at the Mechanics Charitable Associa- tion Fair at Quincy Hall, Boston. In fact but for the hard times that came on we should have been successful.t

At. last I called on the public, held open doors with all the works in full operation and invited all, for the purpose of getting

*See Proceedings Nant. Hist. Assocn. 1898, p. 8.

tThere is,a specimen of the goods made by the Company in the Collection of the Historical Association.

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HISTORY OF NANTUCKET

it into a stock company. All expressed themselves satisfied and pleased with the work. We had six looms, four large 12 feet spin- ners, 500 bobbins each, with reels and winders running, and about 20 employees, mostly girls, all at their posts and all familiar with their particular line of duty. Everything looked bright and as though we might organize a strong company, but there was a party who while outwardly favoring the undertaking secretly worked against us and his ability to wreck overcame ours to build up and our enterprise, began so promisingly, failed. The same spirit that later prevented the success of other manufactories was the down- fall of this. My own individual loss was over $13,000. One party gave about $75, and another turned in a bill for $175-those pay- ments were all that were made by anyone, excepting what I paid myself. I gave the Town that part of the land that fronts the building for a street and named it Gay. I built the houses on the opposite side of the street to the factory and one of the two on the other side of the land on Academy Sreet. By the sale of the lots and houses I saved a little, amounting to $1,000 to $1,500, which was all I had to offset my investment of $13,000.

After we discontinued business, my father-in-law, Aaron Mitchell, began the manufacture of sewing silk. The large frames and much of the machinery could not be used in that work, so I shipped it to Providence to be sold. It was sold but the consignee failed and the $1,000 or $1,200 he got for it went to join the sum already lost." So much for the tragedy of the silk manufactory at Nantucket.

October 3, 1841, occurred what was doubtless the severest gale recorded in the history of the Island. According to the re- port in the Inquirer the gale commenced on the evening of Sun- day, October 3, and blew for several hours with a continually in- creasing severity, developing into a tremendous hurricane. The wind came from the east, accompanied by a drenching rain, and continued until Tuesday without material abatement. The water backed up into the harbor, overflowed the wharves to a depth of nearly three feet and flooded the Lower Square. Immense damage was done to shipping, to the wharves and to adjacent property.

The ship Rose, which had just been fitted out for a sperm whaling voyage in the Pacific Ocean broke from her moorings at the Commercial wharf and struck on the rocky foundation of what even in that day was an "old wharf" on the South Beach, and was bilged. The ship Planter broke from the same wharf and was driven high ashore on another part of the same beach. A schooner and a sloop kept her company there. A new and extensive rope walk owned by Barker & Ahearn and operated by Joseph James was swept from its foundations and demolished, only the tar-house and part of the hemp house being left standing. A large portion of a ropewalk at the west part of the Town, owned by Isaac Myrick fared similarly, showing that the gale did not travel in a narrow

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HISTORY OF NANTUCKET

path. Other small buildings were either blown to fragments, or, if near the water, were washed away.

The schooner Leo, of Thomaston, Maine, from New York, for Boston with a cargo of flour went ashore on Coatue, a fishing vessel keeping her company. A sloop was dismasted and drove ashore on Brant Point. The larger number of vessels at the wharves were damaged-some of them stoven. Chimneys were thrown down, and the "walks" on top of between thirty and forty houses were blown off. Trees, flagstaffs and fences were overturned.

At Siasconset the high bank was undermined and cut away for quite a distance, carrying away when it went down a dwelling house owned by Marshall Crosby, and two barns. A man suffered a fractured thigh by his fall down the bank, but was rescued other- wise unharmed. An observatory, barns, a chaise house, several chimneys and walks were wrecked. Fortunately no lives were lost.

The Inquirer says "During the night of Sunday especially, when every building trembled under the pressure of the furious elements, there were but few families free from alarm and conster- nation. On that night literally not many slept without rocking." The Inquirer published a list of nearly a dozen vessels, large and small, ashore on or near Nantucket .*

The year 1842, was the banner year for the whale fishery in Nantucket. There were then engaged in the business and owned by the Islanders 86 ships and barks, 2 brigs and 2 schooners having a combined capacity of 36,000 tons. The "camels" were built in that year and the steamboat Massachusetts, an excellent boat for that day and generation, was new and made her first trip to the Island July 4. From that year may be said to date the decline. New Bedford supplanted the older town, for the cost of outfitting and infitting was less and the markets for selling and buying were nearer at hand, and less expensive to transact business with. The Great Fire of 1846 with the tremendous financial loss it entailed, the exodus to the Pacific Coast in quest of gold in which a large number from Nantucket took part; ships being deserted by their crews or left with an unworkable minority, and other causes al- ready enumerated., all combined against Nantucket and eventually drove her out of business. But there is no doubt that 1842 was when the fishery reached its zenith and from that year the decay of the business began, its progress accelerated as the yaars rolled on until, a few years later, the last ship flying the flag of Nantucket owners and hailing from the little Island which had achieved an immortal fame for the boundless energy and success with which her sons had pursued this fishery, passed out over the bar never to return.

*The Town Clerk in 1786, unconsciously apparently, wrote a bit of history in interpolating the following in his records of a similar ca- tastrophe in that year-"A Dreadful high Tide and Storm Dec'r. 5th 1786 swept the wharfs washed away Shops, Vessels, Tryhouses, Wood, &c &c &c." On Dec. 7 a Town meeting was convened and a committee appointed to salvage the wreck and return property to the owners.

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HISTORY OF NANTUCKET

On Wednesday, February 21, 1842, occurred a fire, more ca- lamitous so far as its effect on human life is concerned, than any other in the history of the Island. At 2 o'clock in the morning of that day a fire broke out in the Poor Asylum, then located about three miles out of the Town. At the time there were 59 occupants of the house, in addition to the family of the keeper, Capt. Timothy Baker. Thirteen of the inmates were bed-ridden, one of whom had not walked for 20 years. So rapidly did the fire spread that ten of them, five men and five women were burned to death. There were many narrow escapes. One lad leaped from a third story win- dow without receiving injury. Another jumped from the second story with equal good fortune. One of the female inmates rescued

Athenæum at Nantucket.

Before 1846 .*

several of her associates. The neighbors rallied at once and were of very great service in the rescue of the beleaguered inmates. In one instance a neighbor, who was instrumental in saving sev- eral lives, found in the third story an aged man and his wife in bed. He warned them of the imminent danger and the man got out safely, but the woman resolutely refused to move. The neigh- bor, ; however, took her out of bed, conveyed her to the window and down a ladder to safety, she struggling violently all the time to prevent the rescue.

THE GREAT FIRE

There occurs in the lifetime of many municipalities an event of such special severity that it becomes known as "The Great

*The Athenaeum was incorporated in 1834, the organization being formed by the union of the Mechanics Association, formed in 1820, and the Columbian Library Association founded in 1823. They united in 1827 under the name of The United Library Association. In 1833, two members, Charles G. Coffin and David Joy "offered to purchase a de- sirable site on condition of there being a substantial building erected for the Society. Money was at once subscribed and the land and build- ing owned by the Universalist Society was purchased.

pictured above was destroyed in the Great Fire."

The building ¡Charles A. Burgess.

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HISTORY OF NANTUCKET

Fire," and from the date of its occurence, for several generations, it becomes a point from which all events are reckoned. Not until the last individual whose memory spans the frightful event has passed away, does the disaster lose its significance as a date line. Nantucket's Great Fire occurred in July, 1846.

It broke out about 11 o'clock on the night of July 13, in the hat store of William H. Geary which stood, one of a block on the site of the building now owned by the Masonic Fraternity on Main Street. What started the fire must be a matter for speculation, in

THE PRESENT NANTUCKET ATHENEUM

which one judge's opinion is as good as another's and possibly none mentioned is accurate. A witness, who was among the earliest to arrive after the alarm was given, says that at that time "a good smart stream of water at this juncture, would have quenched the flames, which were in a few moments bursting from the roof."* But the stream was not at hand, and in an incredibly brief time the fire had crossed Main street and was beyond control. It spread east, west and north. Again the aid of gunpowder was invoked to conquer the fire, but it seemed to burn until its immediate supply

*Hist. Nantucket, Macy 2d edition p. 288.

CATO LANE

BACK ST.

WILLIAM L.

CHERRY ST.

NORTH

5 ТОНЗИТИК

338

HISTORY OF NANTUCKET

THE PRESENT NANTUCKET ATHENEUM

*Hist. Nantucket, Macy 2d edition p. 288.

NORTH LIBERTY ST.

CLIFF ROAD

WEST CENTER ST.

NORTH BEACH ST.

CHESTER ST.

EASTON SU.

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SEA ST.

LILY ST.

ADEMY AV

ASH LANE

GAY STI

HUSSEY ST.

PEARL ST.

LIBERTY ST.

MAIN ST.

HOWARD ST.

GARDNER ST.

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CANDLE ST.

WHALE ST.

OLD SOUTH WHARF

RAY'S CT

MAIN

TRADERSY

FAIR ST.

WASHINGTON

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MILK ST.

CHARTER ST.

MARTIN'S

MILLER'S L.

HIGH ST.

DARLING ST.

MILL ST

ST.

ANGORA ST

FARMER ST.

TWIN ST.

LYONS ST.

FLORA ST.

JEFFERSON U

MULBERRY STA

EAGLE L.

FRANCIS ST.

SILVER ST

WEYMOUTH ST.

DOVER ST.

YORK ST.

COON ST.

BEAVER ST.

SPRING ST.

BACK ST.

WILLIAM L.

CHERRY ST.

NORTH

STREETS OF NANTUCKET

THE SHADED PORTION

SHOWS THE AREA BURNED

BY THE GREAT FIRE OF 1846

ROSE LANE

SARATOGA ST.

VESTAL ST.

MT. VERNON ST.

PROSPECT

NEW MILL ST

RISDALE ST.

ORANGE ST.

UNION ST.

COFFIN ST.

PLUMB L.

JOY ST.

PINE ST.

PLEASANT ST.

CATO LANE

NEW ST.

SOUTH BEACH ST .

STEP LANE ASH ST.

NEW LANE

WESTMINSTERST.

QUINCE ST.

LIBERTY ST.

BLOOM ST.

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HISTORY OF NANTUCKET

339

of material was exhausted. Indeed it is not entirely certain that the debris of the blown-up buildings did not tend to spread the flames. Says Mr. William C. Macy, an eye-witness :* "Standing on the steps of the Pacific Bank and looking east and north on Centre street, east side as far as the Ocean House, every building was at one time on fire save the old insurance office building on the lower square."+ Mr. Macy records as an incident of which he was a per- sonal witness in which a blazing brand from a burning building near the corner of Main and Federal Streets was carried by the wind the fire created and landed on the roof of a house on North

MAIN STREET BEFORE THE GREAT FIRE

Water Street, and while the tenants stood in their doorway watch- ing the advancing flames their own house was all afire and in a short time was a heap of ruins.

The Warder of July 15, gave a list of buildings destroyed which included two newspaper offices, the Inquirer and the Mirror, the Athenaeum with its valuable library and its priceless museum of curiosities and relics, banks, insurance offices, County offices, hotels, the Episcopal church, seven oil factories and other buildings of a

*Hist. Nantucket, 2d edition, p. 288.

tThe William Rotch building.

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HISTORY OF NANTUCKET

semi-public nature. For many years the impression was current that the Town Records were destroyed, although the County Records were known to be safe, but the Town Records were found years afterwards, to be intact .* In all between 300 and 400 build- ings were destroyed including almost the entire business section of the Town.

Mr. Macy records that standing on the steps of the Pacific Bank one could see vessels lying back of the Bar, the only inter- vening obstacles being isolated chimneys. A fairly conservative estimate fixed the loss in property at nearly $1,000,000. In the im- mediate present the property loss was supplanted by the fear of suffering for the necessities of life, a danger imminent to the rich as to the poor, since the concentration of almost the entire busi- ness of the Town within the compass of the burned area had utterly wiped out all stocks of provisions and clothing for the healthy as well as drugs and medicines for the ill.t

*An interesting incident connected with the fire is the following: Mr. Jenks, the publisher of the Warder, the only newspaper office to escape the flames, was in New York at the time. His more than or- dinarily capable wife going down to the office found there only one of the employees, Eben P. Raymond, who subsequently was owner and editor of the New Bedford Shipping List. Realizing that people abroad should be notified as soon as possible she wrote on slips of paper a brief report, which Raymond put into type. Slips were run off to send away and supply the merchants. More being wanted afterwards and Raymond having gone, Edward Starbuck, brother of William C. was impressed into the service to run the press. Mrs. Jenks inked the rol- lers and between them they supplied the immediate demand.

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The history of Nantucket County, island, and town : including genealogies of first settlers, Part 43

Author: Starbuck, Alexander, 1841-1925 Publication date: 1924 Publisher: Boston [Mass.] : C.E. Goodspeed & Co. Number of Pages: 900

Author: Starbuck, Alexander, 1841-1925
Publication date: 1924
Publisher: Boston [Mass.] : C.E. Goodspeed & Co.
Number of Pages: 900