USA > Massachusetts > Nantucket County > The history of Nantucket County, island, and town : including genealogies of first settlers > Part 71
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+If Mr. Jenks began his campaign for public schools as early as 1817 it certainly bore fruit for as already shown free public schools started in 1818 and the School Committee seemed to be a responsive one. Mr. Jenks's father-in-law, William Coffin was on the Board the first year, as well as the two leading clergymen.
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ensuing. voted yt ye Town will give Eleazer folger three Score pounds currant money for to keep School one year & he consents to keep for ye above mentioned sum of money." It would seem as though the experiment was not a success for it does not appear to have been repeated.
The advertisements in the local papers afford abundant evi- dence that however slack our forefather may have seemed to be; for the Town Records make no further mention of the employment of teachers for a hundred years, there were many and excellent in- structors, native and alien, who made Nantucket their home and led the youthful minds through the paths of learning. Their num- ber would seem to indicate a desire for instruction .*
Cyrus Pierce, who was the first instructor and principal of the High School in Nantucket, was a man of far more than usual ability. He was called to establish, organize and develop the first Normal School in America, which began its work in Lexington, Mass. in July 1839, was removed to West Newton about 1844, and from there to Framingham in 1853, where it still is. Augustus Morse, his successor, taught from 1838 to 1855; Alden B. Whipple, 1855- 1858; Benjamin F. Morrison, 1858-1862; Henry Dame, 1862-1867; Galen Allen, 1867-1869; George R. Chase, 1869-1871; Charles A. Baker, 1871; C. M. Barrows, 1871-1876; Alden B. Whipple, (second term) 1876-1879; W. H. Spinney, 1879-1880; G. I. Hopkins, 1880; A.H. K. Blood, 1880-81; W. H. Russell, 1881-1882; A. J. Clough, 1882-1885; Lucius W. Craig, 1885-1888; William J. Long, 1888- 1891; Dwight Miner, 1891-1892; Fred P. Batchelder, 1892-1893; Stanley E. Johnson, 1893-1900; Herbert H. Rice, 1900-1901; Frank E. Briggs, 1901-1906; Benjamin M. Macy, 1906-1907; M. M. Harris, 1907-1909; J. Arthur Burton, 1909.
THE COFFIN SCHOOL
Prior to the American Revolution Nathaniel Coffin, son of William (4), Nathaniel (3), James (2), Tristram (1), was set- tled in Boston, where he married Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Barnes. Among their children was Isaac, born in Boston, May 16, 1759.1 Isaac entered the English Navy in 1773 and was con-
*In after years Nantucket sent out into the world an army of school teachers, who were dispersed all over the country. In January, 1867, the Inquirer & Mirror published a list of 169 Nantucket young men and women who were teaching school in various parts of the United States.
One of the peculiar features of Nantucket's educational structure of 75 or more years ago was what were known as "Cent" schools. They were on the principle of the English "dame" schools. To a considerable extent it was a nursery school. Children, too young for public instruction were sent by their parents with their luncheon and a cent to pay for tuition to the home of some near-by neighbor who took care of them and taught them the A. B. C. or whatever their tender minds could assimilate, for the modest fee of a cent for each pupil for each session. (See Proceedings Nant. Hist. Assocn. for 1908).
#Another son was John, who settled in New Brunswick and who attained the rank of General in the English army.
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missioned a Lieutenant in 1778; Captain in 1781; and Rear Ad- miral of the White in 1804; also created a Baronet and granted a coat of arms in the same year. He was made a Vice Admiral in 1808 and an Admiral in 1817. He died in 1839 at Cheltenham, England, at the age of 80 years, leaving no issue.
Of him Allen Coffin Esq. says : * "He was awarded an estate by the Government of England, known as the Magdalen Islands, at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, about the time he was created a Baronet. He was a personal friend of the Duke of Clar- ence, who, when he became William IV, continued to show him favor. When it became necessary in 1832, to swamp the House of Lords, by creating new Peers in order to pass the Reform Bill, the name of Sir Isaac was on the King's list. He desired to make him Earl of Magdalen, but the Ministers objected, on the ground of his strong attachment to his native country, and especially cited the fact of his fitting out a vessel with Yankee lads from his Lan- castrian School at Nantucket, to make master mariners of them, which could not be viewed by England with favor. So it may in truth be said that the Coffin School at Nantucket cost the Admiral an Earldom, and came near sacrificing his Baronetcy."
In 1826 Admiral Coffin visited Nantucket. In a communica- tion to the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror of August 27, 1881, William R. Easton, Esq. gives the following statement made in a letter to him by Hon. Samuel Haynes Jenks regarding Sir Isaac's visit which was made with the view of doing some thing to per- petuate his memory among his own people in Massachusetts .; Mr. Jenks, under date of February 5, 1859, wrote: "I took the gouty old hero to 'Sconset, as I had before done with the negro prince (Saunders). On the way he disclosed to me the object of his visit. It was, he said,-having no immediate heirs,-to do some- thing to cause his name to be remembered. Should he build a church, he asked, or raise a great monument, or purchase a ship for the Town's benefit? etc. Full of the enthusiasm and zeal with which I had so long been excited on the subject of Schools,¿ a thought at once struck me. "If you raise a monument, Sir Isaac," I said, "it will not be looked at by more than a hundred people once a year. If you build a church, as you are an Episcopalian, it will neither be supported, nor attended; for there is scarcely one, be- sides myself, of that order in this place. And as to the purchase of a vessel, if done at all, it should be for the purpose of nautical instruction. The best thing you can do, the deed that will make you forever remembered, is to establish and endow a free school. You will thus benefit your numerous kinsfolk and their grateful posterity, while you effectually perpetuate your name." He at once adopted the suggestion, entered upon the preliminary details, and I felt avenged in the matter of my struggles with the Town."
*Life of Tristram Coffyn, p. 60.
tMr. Jenks had married Martha W. Coffin, daughter of William Coffin.
¿Mr. Jenks claimed to have the Town indicted for failure to com- ply with the School Laws, Charles Bunker Esq. claimed that he forced action. At least Mr. Jenks appears to have been the motive power for whatever was done. The Attorney General nolle prossed the suit on July 1827 on the ground that the causes had been remedied.
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Application was made to the next General Court for a charter in the name of the "Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin's Lancasterian School," and after amending the title to strike out the Sir to suit some superfastidious representative the bill was adopted in Feb- ruary 1827. By the original by-laws there was a Board of six Trustees-all Coffins. It was decided to erect a building, two stories high 30 x 68 feet capable of caring for 250 pupils .* Wil- liam Coffin, Esq. was charged with making up the census of the eligible and by great effort he found that there were at that time between 500 and 600 children between the ages of 7 and 14 years of Tristram Coffin descent. The school was opened in 1827. The brick building on Winter street was erected in 1852-3 and occupied in 1854.
With the advance of time the Coffin element, like the other native strains became reduced in numbers and the profane and non-elect were admitted. In October, 1903, it was determined that it could best serve its purpose as a Manual training school and it is so used now as an adjunct to the public schools.i
*Seventy-five years ago this building stood on Fair street north of Lyon's St.
¡Through the tireless exertions of Mrs. Elizabeth R. Coffin quite a little endowment has been attained.
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CHAPTER XIV INDIAN AND OTHER TRADITIONS
It is sometimes difficult to be sure of one's ground in the nar- ration of Indian traditions-to tell the genuine from the spurious, the real legend from the product of the mind of some imaginative writer. There are some, however, which have the appearance of being genuine, either because of their plausibility, or because of the frequency with which they have been told and accepted.
The following, accounting in a legendary way for the dense fogs that sometimes prevail there abouts, is seemingly an authen- ticated aboriginal tradition :-
In former times, many moons ago, a bird, extraordinary for its size, used often to visit the south shore of Cape Cod, and carry from thence a vast number of small children. Maushope, who was an Indian giant, lived in these parts. Enraged at the havoc among the children, he, at one time waded into the sea in pursuit of the bird. He crossed the Sound and went as far as Nantucket. Before that time the island was not known to the red man. Maushope found the bones of the children in a heap under a large tree. Wish- ing to smoke his pipe, he ransacked the Island for tobacco, but finding none, he filled his pipe with poke-weed, which the Indians sometimes used for a substitute. It created a dense smoke. Since that time fogs have been frequent in that vicinity and the red men, on seeing a fog arising, would say, "There comes old Maushope's smoke .*
The following has to do with a war between two tribes, and is believed to be correct in its traditionary sense:
"A tribe of natives lived on the Island of Tuckanuck who were at war with a tribe that lived on the west end of the Island of Nan- tucket. The Islands at that time were from two to three miles apart.
It appeared that both parties had been waiting some time to satiate their revenge upon each other. To carry this into effect the Tuckanuck Indians watched every opportunity to compel their
*Mass. Hist. Socy. Coll. Vol. V First Series, p. 57.
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opponents to an unconditional surrender of all their rights and privileges. A favorable opportunity was presented to carry their plan into effect.
Both parties were fishing in Maddeket Harbor but kept at a reasonable distance from each other. At length an old man and his son separated from their friends so far that the Tuckanuck Indians surrounded them and took them prisoners. The old man they immediately killed. The young man being unusually intelli- gent and active had his life spared on the condition that he would join them in subduing their enemy. This he readily agreed to do, but often afterwards his thoughts were employed in devising some plan by which he could assist and relieve his friends and relatives. This he naturally kept secret, waiting for an opportunity to ac- complish his purpose. After he had been with his captors quite a long time, they were willing to place the utmost confidence in him. The time arriving when they were ready to execute their plan for the destruction of their enemies it became necessary to let the young man into the secret because they wanted him for a pilot. They planned to land at Maddeket in the night and surround the wigwams of their enemies and massacre them all. All details were arranged to execute their plans. The young man obtained infor- mation of every part of the conspiracy. He watched for a suitable opportunity and privately crossed to Nantucket and informed his friends of the scheme, and returned to Tuckanuck unsuspected.
The appointed night came and the assailants, mustering all their forces landed on the north side of a hill. Between the hill and the shore, they hauled up their canoes above high water mark, and then, in the stillness of the night, began their march around the hill not suspecting that their enemies were watching every move- ment.
As the Tuckanuck tribe advanced one way the Nantucket In- dians advanced the other, until they came to the shore where they took possession of and hid all the paddles of the canoes left there. The Nantucket tribe then went in pursuit of their opponents, who, when they found that their plot was discovered, fled to their canoes. They found their paddles gone. The Nantucket Indians, availing themselves of their confusion, fell upon them and cut them off to a man; not one escaped."*
Another romantic legend relates to the Sachem Wauwinet and his daughter Wonoma, young and fair, as all heroines are. Wonoma was skilled in the preparation and use of herbs and acquainted with their medicinal virtues. A fever broke out in the tribe in the southwest part of the Island, under Sachem Autopscot, and raged with such violence as to threaten the extinction of the tribe. In his extremity Autopscot bethought him of the fair Wonoma and her knowledge and skill, and he sent one of the maidens of his tribe to solicit her assistance. Wonoma readily assented and in a short time the plague was stayed and the stricken ones restored to health. In the meantime Autopscot had fallen in love with the beautiful and capable daughter of his rival sachem, and besought
*Unpublished M. S. of Obed Macy. Mr. Macy says of this tradi- tion-"The substance of the foregoing narrative was told by the pres- ent Wm. Worth. He said he had heard Matthew, his father, his Uncle Jonah and his Grandfather Wm. Worth tell it and they said there was no doubt of the correctness of it."
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her to remain with them. She promised to return and dwell with Autopscot among his people. Soon after trouble arose between the two tribes over boundaries and their friendship turned to hatred, and war was imminent. Wauwinet and his braves in council set- tled on a plan for overcoming their enemies. Wonoma overheard their plotting and resolved to save Autopscot and his people. So at night when her father and his men slept she stole from her wig- wam and made her way to Autopscot, following the shore that the waves might obliterate her footsteps. She warned Autopscot of what was intended and returned to her wigwam' without her ab- sence being discovered. The following day when Wauwinet and his men invaded the land of Autopscot he found that sachem and his men prepared to receive them, so they returned to their own land with their purpose unaccomplished.
The following evening Autopscot presented himself before the wigwam' of Wauwinet and represented how much better it would be to live in friendship. He made out so good a case that Wauwinet relented and gave him Wonoma for a wife, and peace reigned ever after among their people.
POOT PONDS
An Indian legend is associated with the Poot Ponds. It is to the effect that an Indian alleged that he saw a whale rise from the water in the Chord of the Bay and immediately sound again, and come up again in the northern of the two ponds. Sounding again, he came up again in the southern pond. Going down for the third time, he reappeared off the south shore of the Island, and then disappeared for good. Whether this is or is not a form of aborig- inal delirium tremens is not entirely clear, but there are the ponds and Poot is the Indian name for whale.
HOW NANTUCKET GOT ITS CRABS
The Indians of the Elizabeth Islands say that at one time when the Devil was making a stone bridge from the main land to Nanameset Island and was rolling the stones and placing them in proper position under water, a crab caught him by the fingers, whereupon he snatched up his hand and flung it towards Nantucket and crabs have been there since that day .*
Obed Macy, in 1842, made the following memoranda regard- ing the Indians of Nantucket, which can fairly be relied on as sub- stantially accurate. A material part of it he was personally con- versant with:
*Ricketson's Hist. of New Bedford, p. 353.' Ricketson credits it to Wait Winthrop.
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"The Indians lived promiscuously on various parts of the Island, where interest and inclination induced them to settle, which generally was on the north side of the Island, where the land was more productive than on the south side, and where it afforded springs of good fresh water, and fish of various kinds as well as being more convenient for fishing, as the harbors were principally on that side. They had no town and no place where they lived that would even bear the name of village. Their dwellings were mostly wigwams; some few English built houses toward the latter part of their being called a people, Their places of interment were as promiscuous as their places of dwelling. We find but one place that may be called a Cemetery or place of reposit of their dead. This is situated at Miacomet about one mile south of the Town, without enclosure or paling to denote what it really was, except some of the small hillocks among a spot of bushes of perhaps two or three acres.
"The greater number of those who were buried there died in the Indian sickness in the year 1763 .* The names of the principal places where the Indians resided were Squam, Podpis, Shawkemmo, Shimmo, Nobadeer, Miacommet and Maddeket. As their places of residence were constructed of frail materials they were easily removed from one place to another, which was frequently put in practice, sometimes from a prospect of bettering themselves, but more frequently from a restless disposition inherent in their na- ture.
"Some time before the fatal sickness that swept the most of them from' the face of the earth, some of the English were so in- discreet as to furnish them with spirituous liquor, which often brought distress and poverty among them, and, not infrequently, death. When they were furnished with strong drink they would leave town at night, and proceed toward their homes, until the ef- fect of the poison would cause them to drop by the way, exposed to the inclemency of the weather. It often happened in these cases that they were found dead, and not much care was taken to carry them to any particular burying ground, but they were interred where they were found, which sometimes did not happen until several days afterwards.
"Their principal, or last, Meeting house was situated within a short distance of the aforesaid burying place, and was standing until about the year 1782. In this they held their meetings for Divine worship and had ministers of their own nation. Some of them were devout and seemingly religious, and lived regular lives, but generally they were a loose, irreligious people, and given to in- temperance, but never very hostile or ferocious toward the English.
"The better sort among them were quiet, peaceable and in- dustrious, and occupied the land around their dwellings with gar- dens, wherein they raised corn and vegetables of various kinds, some of which they sold to the English. They frequently had fruit trees in their gardens and near their houses.
From everything that I could ever understand about them, they were, as a nation, naturally prone to vice and immorality and of weak intellect. Of those natural deficiencies some of the Eng- lish were so wicked as to take advantage and would trade with them for their baskets, fish, corn and vegetables, and pay them in spirituous liquors, and frequently get them in debt, and cause them to go whaling to pay "their Masters" as they called them. This kept them in a low, degraded state, and not infrequently as-
*A list of names of those who died at the time has been preserved but its accuracy is so uncertain that it does not seem worth while to publish it.
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sistance was called from the authorities of the Town, to prevent their suffering to death for want.
"Had it not been for those bad people who furnished them with rum, I believe they would have been a quiet, peaceable people and have lived comfortably, and would have been of service to the English and the English to them, for many of them were good whalemen and very industrious. All they lacked was encourage- ment and proper management to render them useful members of the community.
"One of their Meetinghouses was at Ockorwaw, a place situ- ated near the east end of the Island, not far from the east end of Gibbs' Swamp. Within the vicinity of this Meetinghouse a large body of them were settled. This Meetinghouse was built of wood, according to the common practice of the time, but at what time it was built, or by whom, is not known. After these Indians had left that part of the Island the Meetinghouse stood many years. About in the year 1770, Peleg Swain removed it to Town and placed it toward the southern part of the Town, and occupied it as a dwelling house, for which purpose it was used until the year 1838, when it was taken down."
THE VISIT OF KING PHILIP
An event occurred in 1665 which for a time bade fair to de- velop into something serious, and only a bolder front than condi- tions justified on the one side and the fear of resistance which was hardly possible on the other enabled the English settlers to escape unharmed. The affair is not alluded to in the Town Records and seems to be a matter of tradition, but there seem to be some corroboratory circumstances which make it entirely probable. The story as told by Obed Macy is as follows :- -*
"King Philip, Sachem of Mount Hope, in the year 1665, very soon after the settlement of the Island by the whites, came there with a number of canoes in pursuit of an Indian, to punish him for some heinous crime. There being but a small number of Eng- lish at that time, they had every thing to fear. Philip's hostile ap- pearance and preparations made them apprehensive that he would destroy them, if any measures were taken to arrest his progress in pursuit of the delinquent. On the other hand, if they assisted to search after him, they dreaded the revenge of the Island natives. They therefore declined their aid in any respect. Philip then went with his party in pursuit of the criminal, and at length found him on the south-east part of the Island. His name was John Gibbs; i his crime was the mentioning of the name of Philip's father. Re- hearsing the name of the dead, if it should be that of a distinguished person, was decried by the natives a very high crime, for which nothing but the life of the culprit could atone. Philip, having now the poor culprit in possession, made preparations to execute ven- geance upon him, when the English spectators. commisarated his condition, and made offers of money to ransom his life. Philip listened to these offers and mentioned a sum which would satisfy him; but so much could not be collected. He was informed of this but refused to lessen his demand. The whites, however, collected
*Hist. of Nantucket, p. 42.
+Tradition says that Gibbs
secreted himself in the swamp and near the pond which were later called by his name.
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all they could in the short time allowed them, in hopes that he would be satisfied, when assured that more could not be found; but, instead of this, he persisted in his demand with threatening language, pronounced with an emphasis which foreboded no good. This very much provoked the English, so that they concluded among themselves to make no further offers, but try to frighten him away without giving him any more money. The sum raised, which was all the inhabitants possessed, was eleven pounds; this had al- ready been paid to him, and could not be required back again. Philip had surrounded and taken possession of one or two houses, to the great terror of the inmates; in this dilemma they concluded to put all to risk ;- they told him, that, if he did not immediately leave the Island, they would rally the inhabitants, and fall upon him and cut him off to a man. Not knowing their defenceless condition, he happily took the alarm, and left the Island as soon as possible. The prisoner was then set at liberty."
It is not unlikely that the friendly act of Attaychat declaring allegiance of himself and his people to the English King as shown by the Town Records in October of that year was attributable to this intervention of the English against Philip.
In his little volume "Talks About Old Nantucket" Christopher C. Hussey relates the following legend concerning that singularly fatal illness among the Islands aborigines-"When the "Great Sickness" of 1764 * * * * * carried off the Indians, from some cause, perhaps from the action of some deep-lying law of the con- nection between all animal life, the blue fish, which had been plenty, suddenly disappeared from the waters around the Island. The Indian sage said-"When the houses of the red men are laid low, the blue fish will return." Whether from mere coincidence or nature's law it was so. Not far from the time of Abram's* death, the blue fish reappeared. I distinctly remember hearing two men say that there had been taken at Maddequet, that after- noon, two blue fish, the first, that with possibly an occasional ex- ception, had been taken for nearly three quarters of a century." (p. 46).
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