USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume I > Part 23
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
Obviously this chapter can make no claim to completeness. Limi- tations of space preclude the mention of many occupations in a region where nearly every necessity of life was produced by local effort and by native ingenuity. But enough has been told about our early indus- tries to show how Essex County got an early start which brought with it two advantages, the setting of the channels of trade in our direction and the accumulation of skilled workers in our towns; how the goods produced by our craftsmen were carried by our shipping to every quarter of the globe, and finally how these combined advantages started Essex County towards becoming one of the notable industrial regions in the United States.
BIBLIOGRAPHY-The following books are listed for those who may be interested in reading farther on the subject of the preceding chapter. It does not pretend to be exhaustive, and the various munici- pal histories, which contain much valuable information on early indus- tries, have not been included :
Belknap, H. W .: "Trades and Tradesmen of Essex County, Massachusetts," chiefly of the seventeenth century. Salem, Massa- chusetts, Essex Institute, 1929; 96 p.
270
THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
"Boot and Shoe Recorder," Centennial Number, August 10, 1892. Contains a history of the city of Lynn and of the development of the shoe industry from 1629 to 1892.
Bradlee, F. B. C .: "The Salem Iron Factory." Illus. (pp. 97-114) in Danvers Historical Society. Historical Coll., Vol. LXIII.
Chever, G. F .: "Some Remarks on the Commerce of Salem from 1626 to 1740." (Essex Institute. Historical Coll., May, 1859.)
Clark, Victor S .: "Technology and Organization of Colonial Manufactures." (In his "History of Manufactures in the U. S.," Chapter 8, pp. 159-93.)
Cole, A. H .: "The American Wool Manufacture." Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1926. 2 Vols. Bibliography, pp. 303-14, Vol. II.
Day, Clive: "The Early Development of the American Cotton Manufacture." "Quarterly Journal Economics," Vol. XXXIX, May, 1925, pp. 450-68.
Dow, George F .: "Domestic Life in New England in the Seven- teenth Century." Topsfield, Massachusetts, printed for the author, 1925; 48 p.
Dow, G. F .: "Two Centuries of Travel in Essex County, Mass." A collection of narratives and observations made by travelers, 1605- 1799. Topsfield, Massachusetts, Topsfield Historical Society, 1921.
Earle, Alice M .: "Home Life in Colonial Days." New York, Macmillan Co., 1899; 470 p .; illus. Chapters: Flax Culture and Spinning, pp. 166-86. Wool Culture and Spinning, pp. 187-21I. Hand-weaving, pp. 212-51. Jack-knife Industries, p. 300-24.
Gannon, F. A .: "A Short History of American Shoemaking." Salem, Massachusetts, Newcomb & Gauss, printers, 1912 ; 65 p. Gives account of first shoemaker in this county in Salem.
Hart, A. B .: "The Commonwealth History of Massachusetts." The States History Company, New York, 1927-30.
Hazard, B. E .: "Domestic Stage." Putting-out system, 1760- 1855 (of the boot and shoe industry). (The organization of the boot and shoe industry in Massachusetts before 1875, Chapters II-IV, pp. 24-96.)
Hazard, B. E .: "Home and Handicraft Stages" (of the boot and shoe industry). The organization of the boot and shoe industry in Massachusetts before 1875, Chapter I, pp. 3-23.
271
EARLY INDUSTRIES
"Indentures of Apprentices in Essex County." Essex Institute Historical Collection. Vol. LXVIII. (July, 1922) , pp. 263-64.
Jackson, Russell L .: "The Pearsons and Their Mills." Essex Institute Historical Collection. Vol. LXII. January, 1926, pp. 65-80. Also Vol. LXI. October, 1925, pp. 345-52.
Johnson, David N .: "Sketches of Lynn." The Making of Shoes pp. 12-70).
Lynn, 1629-1892. "An Historical Sketch of the Great Shoe Town." From the "Shoe and Leather Reporter," August 4, 1892 ; 20 p. Illus. Map. 1829.
Rantoul, R. S .: "The First Cotton Mill in America," an address delivered before the Beverly Historical Society. Salem, Massachu- setts, Salem Press, 1897; 43 P.
"Saugus Iron Works at Lynn." Lynn, Massachusetts, 1893 ; 16 p.
Seaver, J. E .: "A Review of the Attempts to Manufacture Iron at Lynn and Braintree, Mass., and the Successful Enterprise at Taun- ton." 1901 ; 15 p. At Old Colony Historical Society, Taunton.
Stone, Orra : "History of Massachusetts Industries." The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Boston-Chicago, 1930.
J. M. Swank: "The Manufacture of Iron in New England." (Chapter XXXII, in "The New England States," pp. 359-75.)
Ware, C. F .: "The Early New England Cotton Manufacture." Boston, Houghton, Mifflin, 1931; 349 p. Bibliography, pp. 323-41. Wood, William : "New England's Prospect." London, 1634.
Wooster, Harvey A .: "A Forgotten Factor in American Indus- trial History," "American Economic Review," Vol. XVI, March, 1926, pp. 14-24. Deals with the significance of the village general store in the development of New England manufactures.
The Fisheries of Essex County
Essex-18
CHAPTER VIII
The Fisheries of Essex County
By Scott H. Paradise.
Before the white man knew the forests and trails of New Eng- land or had begun to learn the woodsman's skill, the seas off our coast were familiar to him. The great plains and the mighty herds of buffalo were undreamed of at a time when thousands of Europeans were intimate with the shallow banks off our shores, and were making a living from the inexhaustible shoals of fish to be found there. Before the trapper, the gold miner, the cowboy, there was the fisher- man; while the former picturesque figures have all but passed away the fisherman still goes on, following the oldest American craft. Kipling, with his eye for the vivid and the vigorous, has given us the Gloucester fishermen in "Captains Courageous." Why has no native author who knows the Essex County seaports, the schooners, the trawlers, and above all the men, shown us the romance and hardihood of the oldest Essex County industry ? Why is there no "Moby Dick" of the Grand Bank and the Gulf of Maine ?
The shores of Essex County must have been known to Europeans for hundreds of years before the Dorchester Company, in 1623, landed fourteen men on Cape Ann.1 In 1497 John Cabot had visited the eastern coast of North America, and although he sailed no farther south than Newfoundland, or possibly Cape Breton Island, he reported on his return that "the sea is covered with fishes, which are caught not only with the net, but in baskets, a stone being tied to them in order that the baskets may sink in the water."? An astonishing fact
I. The following paragraphs are based on "A History of New England Fisheries," by R. McFarland, A. M .; University of Pennsylvania, 1911. Due and grateful acknowl- edgment is hereby made.
2. Winsor, Justin : "Narrative and Critical History of America," III, p. 54, quoted by McFarland.
276
THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
is that Cabot, even at that early date, found the natives calling the codfish baccalaos, a name used by Breton and Norman fishermen long before Columbus discovered America. Although there is no further evidence to prove that the adventurous French mariners crossed the Atlantic at such an early date, the possibility that our coasts were known to them before 1497 is a fascinating speculation. As Parkman says :3 "If in the original Basque, baccalaos is the word for codfish, and if Cabot found it in use among the inhabitants of Newfoundland, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the Basques had been there before him."
It is interesting to note how rapid was the increase of fishing in American waters following Cabot's discovery. As McFarland has vividly said :
"Nearly a score of years before De Soto first saw the Mis- sissippi River, houses for the accommodation of fishermen had been erected in Newfoundland. The year that Drake sailed from England on his memorable voyage around the world witnessed also the quiet departure from the harbors of Europe of over 300 ships to fish in American waters. Before the pioneer voyages of Gosnold (1602) and Pring (1603) and De Monts ( 1604) had been made and recorded, the hardy fishermen of western Europe had made thousands of voyages across the Atlantic with scarce a thought of the hardships of their trips, and scarce a word written to chronicle their deeds."
New laws caused a growing demand for fish to be eaten in Europe. In 1548 Parliament imposed heavy fines on all persons who should eat meat on fast days. In 1563 Parliament declared, under penalty of three pounds, except by special license purchased from the gov- ernment, that no one should eat meat on Wednesdays and Saturdays. By 1593 there were one hundred and forty-three days in the year when the subjects of the realm were required to abstain from eating flesh and to live on fish. Naturally, such a situation made the capture of fish a profitable business and inspired the adventurous sailors to investigate our fishing grounds and our coasts still more closely.
It is hard to overestimate the importance which a century and one-quarter of familiarity with the American coast had on the settle-
3. Parkman, Francis: "Pioneers of France in the New World," pp. 171-72.
277
THE FISHERIES OF ESSEX COUNTY
ment of Massachusetts. Because of the voyages of the fishermen it was no unknown land on which The Dorchester Company established its short lived settlement in 1623, and to which the "Arbella" brought John Endicott and sixty emigrants in 1628. Men had come there to fish and in the process had explored and mapped the coast, had passed winters on the mainland, had learned of the immense resources lying ready to hand, the great forests with their unlimited materials for shipbuilding, the boundless supply of furs, the suitability of the soil and climate for agriculture, the marvelous wealth of the seas. The people of England had heard of these many advantages possessed by the New World. When they set out for their new homes the colo- nists were already well acquainted, at least by hearsay, with the condi- tions they might expect to find and the lives they would have to lead.
It is no exaggeration to say that Essex County and hence Mas- sachusetts Bay Colony was founded upon the fishing industry. All the Essex County shoreline faces the "gently sloping ocean floor, a broad continental shelf of relatively shallow water (mostly of a depth of less than sixty fathoms) on which there are more than twenty off- shore fishing banks."4 And the broken coast line with its numerous rivers and harbors offers ideal shelter for the small fishing craft. Captain John Smith saw the value of the fisheries when he touched upon the New England coast in 1614, and later predicted in "A Description of New England" that the harvest from the sea would prove a greater treasure than the gold and silver mines of the King of Spain. The Reverend Francis Higginson, of Salem, has told us of the incredible luxuriance of sea life almost at his doorstep, which in more than one case enabled the infant settlements of that day to survive.
"The abundance of sea fish [he writes ] are almost beyond believing, and sure I should scarce have believed it, except as I had seen it with my own eyes. I saw great store of whales and grumpusses and such abundance of mackerels that it would astonish one to behold, likewise codfish in abundance on the coast, and in their season are plentifully taken. There is a fish called bass, a most sweet and wholesome fish as ever I did eat; Of this fish our fisheries take many hundreds
4. "The Fisheries of New England," by Lewis Radcliffe, p. 247, in "New England's Prospect," 1933, American Geographical Society, New York, 1933.
278
THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
together, which I have seen lying on the shore, to my admira- tion; yea, their nets ordinarily take more than they are able to haul to land, and for want of boats and men they are con- strained to let many go after they have taken them. And besides we take plenty of scate and thornbacks, and abundance of lobsters, and the least boy in the plantation may both catch and eat what he will of them. For my own part I was soon cloyed of them, they were so great and fat and luscious. I have seen some myself that weighed sixteen pounds ; but others have had, divers times, so great lobsters as have weighed twenty-five pounds, as they assure me. Also here is abundance of herring, turbot, sturgeon, cusks, haddocks, mullets, eels, crabs, muscles and oysters."5
As trade grew and commerce expanded, fishing continued to be the major industry of Essex County and was recognized as the "cor- nerstone of New England prosperity." That the importance of the fisheries was early appreciated is shown by the steps that were taken for its protection. On May 22, 1639, the General Court ordered "for the further encouragement of men to set upon fishing, that all vessels and other property employed in taking, curing, and transport- ing fish, according to the usual course of fishing voyages, should be exempt from all duties and public taxes for seven years; that neither cod nor bass should be used for manuring fish ; and that all fishermen, during the season for their business, as well as all ship-carpenters, should be exempted from military training."6 In 1641 the General Court further ordered that fishermen should be served first at the weirs and have their bait at the same rate at which others secured it. By another offer inducements were offered the people of Hingham and other places to remove to a new fishing station at Nantasket. Shore room for stages and flakes was to be furnished, while for every boat used in fishing, four acres of upland were allowed the owner, with a portion of meadow for the fishermen who owned cattle.7
This is not the place to describe the first settlement on Cape Ann in 1623, nor the establishment of the other Essex County coast towns. That will be fully covered in other chapters of this work. We should, however, examine the history of these towns in relation to the fishing
5. F. Higginson : "New England's Plantation." Quoted by McFarland, p. 54. 6. "Massachusetts Colonial Records," I, pp. 158, 230. Quoted by McFarland.
7. "Massachusetts Colonial Records," I, pp. 326-28. Quoted by McFarland.
279
THE FISHERIES OF ESSEX COUNTY
industry and the way in which their fortunes rose and fell as the fish- ing was affected by war and other vicissitudes. Fishing, together with the shipbuilding and seamanship which developed with it, lay at the root of the vigorous growth of the Essex County towns, and played a large part in the development of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. No doubt John Rowe, of Boston, had Essex County in mind when, on March 17, 1784, he arose from his seat in the Representatives' Hall of the Old State House, and offered a motion, "That leave might be given to hang up a representation of a Codfish in the room where the House sit, as a memorial of the importance of the Cod-Fishery to the welfare of this Commonwealth, as had been usual formerly."8 Permission was given, and the same wooden emblem, having followed the Great and General Court to Beacon Hill, still faces the Speaker's desk.9
GLOUCESTER-For three and a quarter centuries Gloucester has lived largely upon the products of the sea. But her progress towards her present-day position as the greatest fishing city of the New World was slow and interrupted. It was not until after the middle of the last century that Gloucester became prominent in her chosen calling. The first attempt to establish a fishing community there by the Dor- chester Company in 1623 was a failure, probably because the colonists depended too much upon agriculture for their support, and the rocky shores were unfavorable for growing crops. There is no evidence to show that before 1700 Gloucester had a single vessel engaged in the fisheries as far east as Cape Sable; although a Gloucester sloop is known to have fished there in 1711.10 In 1727 many of the settlers had emigrated to Salem to secure better and more plentiful farming land, and Gloucester turned to the cutting and shipping of wood in the vessels built in her own harbors. With the exhaustion of the wood the vessels lay idle, but the sea lay close at hand. It was easy to turn these boats into a fishing fleet, and Gloucester launched upon the career that was to make her famous, though her success still lay far in the future.11 The wars with England did much to prevent the development of the fisheries : they made the seas unsafe for American
8. "Maritime History of Massachusetts," by Samuel Eliot Morison, Boston and New York, 1921.
9. Recently the symbolic cod was stolen by some practical jokers, but was eventually returned. The identity of the thieves has never been made known.
10. "The Fisheries of Gloucester," pp. 9-22, passim. Quoted by McFarland.
II. "Gloucester, the Fishing City," by Lillian W. Betts, "Outlook," May 4, 1901.
THEY THAT CO . DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS
1923
1623
GLOUCESTER-THE FISHERMEN'S PERMANENT MEMORIAL Dedicated to the hundreds of men who have lost their lives at sea Courtesy of the Gloucester Chamber of Commerce
281
THE FISHERIES OF ESSEX COUNTY
vessels and hampered foreign trade, thus diminishing the profits on return cargoes of sugar, wine, and other imports in vessels which sold their fish abroad. From 1804 to 1819 the Gloucester cod fishery on the Grand Bank of Newfoundland was of little importance, and the attempt to revive it by the formation of a $50,000 company in 1819 was abandoned after a few unsuccessful years. In 1821, four Glouces- ter schooners made a successful trip to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and three others were fishing for cod on Georges Bank, but it was not until 1835 that the cod fishery began to revive.
In the meantime it had been discovered that mackerel, formerly used principally as bait, made a delicious food. The first trip for mackerel to salt was made by the schooner "President" in 1818. The rapid growth of the mackerel fishery is shown by the fact that pre- vious to 1821 only 1,272 barrels of that fish had been inspected in Gloucester, while in that year 2, 177 barrels were landed at the port. Gloucester surpassed Boston in the extent of its mackerel fishery in 1840, and has held first rank ever since. McFarland, quoting the "Fisherman's Own Book," tells of an immense school of mackerel which suddenly appeared on Middle Bank in 1825. For three days a fleet of about two hundred vessels fished as continuously and as fast as nature would allow; at the end of the third day the fish disap- peared as mysteriously and as rapidly as they had come. A single jigger in that year, with a crew of eight men, caught 1,300 barrels of mackerel.
The catch of the Gloucester mackerel fleet rapidly increased; in 1831 it was 69,756 barrels, and in 1864 it reached a record of 154,938 barrels which was valued in the millions.
Halibut were discovered on Middle Bank as early as 1819, and that fishery became of importance as a permanent business about 1835. A company was formed in 1848 for the purpose of making Gloucester a shipping port for fresh halibut. But having unwisely agreed to buy all the halibut caught, and the season's take proving exceptionally large, the company failed in its first year. In 1851 the value of the halibut catch was $120,000.
In the middle decades of the last century several factors con- tributed to the development of the fishing industry at Gloucester. In 1846 the railroad from Gloucester to Boston was completed and proved of immense value to all the Cape Ann fisheries, because pre- vious to this time Boston had been the market for fresh fish. In
282
THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
the 1840's vessels began to carry ice to chill the fish when caught. The first successful large distance shipment of fish packed in ice occurred in 1858, and patents for freezing fish in mixtures of salt and ice were granted in 1861 to Enoch Piper and in 1869 to William Davis.12 The fish could now be frozen on board as soon as caught or on the nearby shores, and the cumbersome methods of salting them at once or keeping them alive in a water-tight compartment of the vessel to which water was admitted through holes bored in the hull,13 were eliminated. In 1855 the extent and value of the fisheries of Gloucester surpassed the combined products of Boston and Province- town, the next towns of importance in the State.14 It is estimated that approximately $250,000,000 worth of fish have been caught dur- ing the past few years by Gloucester fishermen.15
It is interesting to note the extent of the Gloucester fisheries dur- ing the last three years when the depression has affected so many lines of industry.16 The catch of fish by Gloucester vessels in 1931 was from almost any angle very unsatisfactory. Fish were scarce and prices low. The total catch of fresh fish from the vessel fishery fell off approximately sixty-five per cent .- from 44,000,000 pounds in round numbers in 1930 to 15,000,000 pounds in 1931. The receipts of salted fish were very little better, falling off about forty-five per cent. from the previous year. Weather conditions were very poor throughout the season and considerable fog and unfavorable winds were encountered in almost every month. The total receipts at Gloucester of fresh and salted fish for the year 1931 was 18,672,698 pounds, valued at $842,022.
Considered from the standpoint of size of catch, the 1932 season was very satisfactory for Gloucester vessels. The total landed catch of fresh fish was 21,991, 153 pounds, or more than 6,000,000 pounds in excess of the previous twelve months. The large number of mackerel was mainly responsible for this increase, which exceeded the previous
12. "New England's Prospect," 1933. "The Fisheries of New England." "Economic Factors," by Gerald A. Fitzgerald, pp. 263-65, passim.
13. Vessels of this type were known as smacks.
14. 36th Cong., Ist Sess., Sen. Docs., Vol. I, No. 41, quoting "Industry of Massa- chusetts." Quoted by McFarland.
15. "History of Massachusetts Industries," by Orra Stone, 1930.
16. The information in these paragraphs is taken from "Report on the Marine Fish- eries" for the years ending 1931, 1932, and 1933. They were courteously supplied by William D. Desmond, Supervisor of Marine Fisheries of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
283
THE FISHERIES OF ESSEX COUNTY
season catch by more than 7,000,000 pounds and offset the decreases in the catch of other species. But what was gained in poundage was lost in price, as the total received for 25,641,023 pounds of fresh and salted fish was only $469,408.
The figures for fresh fish receipts at Gloucester in 1933 show a still further decline, 18, 133,266 pounds having been landed, which were valued at $358,207.
That those most interested in the fisheries are not discouraged by the unfavorable figures is shown by the statement of the State Super- visor of Marine Fisheries appearing in the "Report on the Marine Fisheries" for 1932 quoted above. He says :
"A general feeling of optimism prevails among the fisher- men who are closest in touch with the marine fisheries, despite the fact that in the principal branch of the fisheries-the ves- sel fishery-there was a decrease last year of more than five million pounds in the catch and more than three million dollars in the value of the output from the previous low record of 1931, and the further disheartening reports from all other fisheries, which brought the total estimated loss in value to more than four and one-half millions of dollars. Why this feeling persists is not so difficult to see. Accustomed to the fluctuations in the annual harvests of the sea the careful observer can easily discern the early currents of the returning tide of better times as reflected in the industry itself.
"The general depression has not been without its bene- ficial effects. Everywhere, in all branches of the fisheries, readjustments are being made or considered. Wasteful prac- tices in catching, preparing for market, and even in the details of marketing itself, which in more prosperous times went unchallenged or were looked upon as necessary losses, are now being scrutinized with great care, and the reaction from the very fact of discussion is bound to bring about important changes which will be of great benefit to the fisheries when normal times return.
"For the present there need be no pessimism as to the abundance of fish in the sea. To be sure, the catch of large haddock has shrunk to about half that of 1930, but this is off- set by the amount of scrod size, the number of which has more
284
THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
than trebled in the same period. The mackerel catch was increased by some six million pounds, and where a decrease of other fish has occurred, seasonal changes have been largely responsible."
MARBLEHEAD-When the Reverend John Barnard came as min- ister to Marblehead he faced a discouraging prospect. The town was in debt, and the inhabitants, distinguished neither for their manners nor their morals, seemed content to do menial labor and leave "the merchants of Boston, Salem, and Europe to carry away the gains." They were a hard material to work with, coming chiefly from Corn- wall and the Channel Islands, and retaining a suspicious independence of all outside influences. The retort of a Marblehead fisherman to an exhorting preacher is characteristic of their temper: "Our an- cestors came here not for religion. Their main end was to catch fish."17
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.