USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume I > Part 32
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Aside from Salem's last fling at foreign commerce, and the desul- tory coasting and West India trade of the smaller ports, the maritime history of Essex County after the War of 1812 is concerned mainly with fishing, yachting, and shipbuilding. Fishing and yachting are covered in other chapters in this volume. The development and changes of the shipbuilding industry since 1815 will be discussed here.
As in earlier times, the shipbuilding center of Essex County during the period extending from the War of 1812 to the passing of the sailing vessel as an important factor in seaborne commerce was the lower valley of the Merrimac. The industry, here, with its local market for ships almost gone, and without the natural advantages that originally made the Merrimac New England's shipbuilding cen- ter, was able to continue, especially in Newburyport, without any sub- stantial loss almost until the end of the era of the wooden ship. Even so, the Merrimac was not able to maintain its relative position in American or even New England shipbuilding. The oak forests of the upper Merrimac Valley, which once had seemed inexhaustible, were being depleted rapidly, and the Middlesex Canal had, even in Federalist times, given equal, if not easier, access to these resources to the builders of Greater Boston, and particularly to those of Med- ford. As time went on, the Medford builders, with a great market nearby, came to provide a lion's share of the ever-increasing num- ber of vessels demanded by the remarkable commercial growth of Boston. At the same time the shipwrights of the Maine coast, with the advantage of a convenient timber supply, built a large part of the
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shipping of Boston and New York. Only the strength of tradition, highly skilled labor, and a well-earned reputation for superior work- manship enabled the industry to survive on the Merrimac.
The technique of the Merrimac builders kept pace with and some- times even surpassed that of the industry as a whole. Until about the year 1835 vessels were customarily built entirely of oak, which had been floated down river or brought in from the country by ox-cart, and were decked with native white pine. With the almost complete exhaustion of convenient timber, however, the Merrimac shipwrights began to use for planking lighter and softer woods, brought in coasters from Maine, Nova Scotia, and the southern ports, although the timbers were still of the good, native oak. But the greatest changes in the years following the War of 1812 came in design and rig. By the year 1830 Merrimac and Medford builders had evolved a new type of ship that was a remarkable improvement over the vessel of Federalist days. They were as before, bluff-bowed, but were longer and deeper in comparison to beam, and of cleaner run, giving more speed and greater carrying capacity per ton burthen. Such a ship, of four hundred and fifty tons, could carry half as much as a contemporary British East Indiaman of one thousand five hundred tons, sail half again as fast, and employed but eighteen officers and men as against the one hundred and twenty-five needed to handle the Englishman. These vessels carried loftier rigs in proportion to their length than the clipper ships of a later generation; skysails and royal studding sails now appeared for the first time on New England mer- chantmen. The fancywork of the Federalist ships was no longer used, save for a figurehead, and the hulls gave a clean, trim appear- ance. Morison describes this type at length :
"The finest type of the period was the Medford- or Merrimac-built East Indiaman; seldom over five hundred tons burthen, and usually smaller; for the size of vessels was just beginning to increase. . . . They were not sharp ships, or clipper ships, or one-quarter the size of the most famous clippers ; but they were the fastest and most economical ocean carriers of their generation. With their burly bows, lofty rigs, flush decks, and bright waist or painted ports, these old Boston East Indiamen have a certain charm that the clip- pers lack. Happy they born in time to have seen such a ship
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rolling down from St. Helena, lee and weather studdingsails set alow and aloft, tanned and bearded sailors on her decks and Angier monkeys chattering in her rigging, wafting an aroma of the Far East into the chilly waters of Massachusetts Bay."13
After the development of the Merrimac-built East Indiaman, there were relatively few changes in the technique of shipbuilding, save for a gradual increase in size and narrowing of lines, until the sudden appearance of the great clipper ships of the 'fifties. To pause for a moment for the sake of clarity, a ship, when the word is cor- rectly used in denoting a sailing craft, means a three-masted vessel with square sails on each mast, while the term clipper ship means a ship of a particular form and rig, built only between 1846 and the Civil War. The clipper ship was sharp, long, and lean, and generally of larger size and more heavily sparred than its predecessors. It was built for speed at the sacrifice of carrying capacity, and survived only as long as the high freight and passenger rates brought about by the California gold rush could be maintained, and until the improvement of the ocean steamship brought an end to the transatlantic sailing packet.
The clipper ship, the fastest and most beautiful ocean-going sail- ing vessel ever devised, was originated in New York in the year 1845, and was brought to its highest perfection by Donald McKay in his East Boston yard in the 'fifties. McKay, a Nova Scotian by birth, learned the art of a master builder as an employee and later the part- ner of John Currier, Jr., of Newburyport, the premier shipbuilder on the Merrimac. Although Mckay left the Merrimac for Boston, Essex County can be justly proud of its part in training the most famous of all American builders of sailing vessels.
Several noted clippers were built on the Merrimac, including the "Whistler," 820 tons; the "Black Prince," 1,061 tons; the "Rey- nard," 1,05 I tons; the "Star King," 1, 171 tons; the "Brewster," 984 tons; the "East Indian"; the "Dreadnought," 1,400 tons; the "Guid- ing Star," 900 tons; and the "Star of Peace," 941 tons. Newbury- port builders who built clipper ships were George W. Jackman, Jr., John Currier, Jr., and the firm of Currier & Townsend. Marblehead
13. Samuel E. Morison: "The Maritime History of Essex County," Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston and New York, pp. 255, 256.
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also figured in the shipbuilding industry at this time, the yard of Ben- jamin Dutton turning out the clipper ships "Elisabeth Kimball," 998 tons; "Belle of the Sea," 1,255 tons; and "Mary," 1, 148 tons. In addition to clipper ships, Essex County yards continued to launch many full-bodied vessels of more conventional design during this period.
The most famous of all Essex County-built clippers was the ship "Dreadnought," built by Currier & Townsend as a packet-ship for the Red Cross line. The "Dreadnought" was a remarkably beautiful vessel of medium clipper design, and the most famous of the Liver- pool packets. Her master, Captain Samuel Samuels, of New York, a noted driver of ships and men, commanded her on nearly seventy passages across the Atlantic, including several to the eastward of less than fourteen days. She was the only clipper ship to have a sea- chanty composed in her honor. Many an old-time deep-sea sailor has bellowed the following stanza :
"Oh ! the 'Dreadnought's' a-howling down the Long Island shore Cap'n Samuels will drive her as he's oft done before.
With every stitch drawing aloft and alow
She's a Liverpool packet, Lord God see her go."
Although larger clipper ships were built elsewhere, no other ship- building center surpassed the Merrimac in fine workmanship. Mori- son states, on page 349, that "in finish, clipper ships surpassed any- thing previously attempted. Those built in Newburyport, in particu- lar, were noted for the evenness of their seams and the perfection of their joiner-work. The topsides, planed and sandpapered smooth as a mackerel, were painted a dull black that brought out their lines like a black velvet dress on a beautiful woman. The pine decks were holy- stoned cream-white. Stanchions, fiferails, and houses shone with mahogany, rosewood, and brass."
With the passing of the clipper ship, a more full-bodied, less heavily-rigged type evolved, which was better suited for economical cargo carrying. Many great vessels of this type were built on the Merrimac after the Civil War. Among them were the ship "John Currier," 1,847 tons, the largest sailing vessel ever constructed on the Merrimac, which was launched in 1882, and the 1, 574 ton "Mary L. Cushing," built in 1883, the last square-rigger to cross the harbor
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THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
bar. Both of these vessels were products of the yard of John Currier, Jr., in Newburyport.
With the launching of the "Mary L. Cushing," shipbuilding ceased to be an important industry of Essex County. With steam supplanting sail, and the wooden merchant vessel a thing of the past, the builders yielded to the inevitable. Small fishing and coasting vessels were still built from time to time on the Merrimac; within the last decade "Guinea boats" of fifty or sixty feet in length have been constructed at Salisbury Point, now a part of Amesbury, for Glouces- ter fishermen. Until very recently the yards of Essex, the birthplace of the old Chebacco boats, have launched trim fishing schooners, and probably will again when the depression of the Gloucester fishing is relieved. But by and large shipbuilding is a thing of the past in Essex County.
Little has been said, as yet, of the individual builders or of the volume of shipping constructed along the Merrimac since the War of 1812. As the nineteenth century progressed, Newburyport tended to absorb the shipbuilding of the rest of the valley. After the launch- ing of the three hundred and ninety-five ton ship "Transit" in 1837, and the four hundred and seventy-eight ton ship "Viola" in 1839, the industry came to a standstill in Haverhill, broken only by the construc- tion of two schooners in 1875. Amesbury and Salisbury Point, how- ever, held out longer, a few vessels being built each year, probably with some exceptions, until the 1870's. As late as 1850 a seven hun- dred ton vessel, the ship "Atlanta," was built in Amesbury. The leading Amesbury builder of the mid-nineteenth century was Simon McKay, brother of the celebrated Donald McKay. The most noted vessel built by Simon Mckay at his Amesbury yard was the three hun- dred and sixty ton barque "Wildfire," launched in 1851, which made a record run of fourteen days from Boston to Gibraltar. McKay later went to Boston, where he was superintendent of his brother's yard. Several builders were active at Salisbury Point between 1820 and the Civil War, notably the firm of Kenniston & Colby. Lowells were building fishing and coasting vessels in Salisbury early in the period and Cyrus Burnham built schooners in Kenniston's yard as late as the 'seventies. Many vessels, large for their day, were built at Salisbury Point for the East India trade; from. 1828 to 1832 the ships "Saracen," "Clarissa Andrews," and "Walter Scott," all of
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about four hundred tons burthen, were constructed here for Boston owners, while the ship "Xylon," four hundred and ninety-nine tons, the largest vessel launched on the Merrimac up to that time, left the ways in 1833. After this, however, large vessels were less frequently built at Salisbury Point and Amesbury, and small coasting schooners and West India traders were specialized in. A number of these were locally owned and commanded, their captains, as a rule, being at least part owners.
Newburyport was by far the most important shipbuilding place on the Merrimac during this period. The most famous builders had their yards here and built vessels which averaged twice the size of any attempted elsewhere on the river. Of approximately 400,000 tons of shipping known to have been built on the Merrimac, Newbury and Newburyport yards supplied about 270,000, leaving only 55,000 for Salisbury, 45,000 for Amesbury, 20,000 for Haverhill, and 4,000 for Bradford.
An idea of the type of work done by particular Newburyport builders of this period is given in the previous discussion of some of the more famous vessels of Merrimac origin. John Currier, Jr., built more tonnage than any other Essex County man; between 1831 and 1883 his yard turned out ninety-seven vessels, or nearly one hundred thousand tons. William Currier and James L. Townsend, builders of the "Dreadnought," launched fifty-one vessels between 1843 and 1857, and Currier alone built nine more between 1859 and 1865. Stephen Jackman's yard launched about thirty large vessels from 1830 to 1848, including thirteen brigs for Captain John N. Cushing, of Newburyport, and two steamers for the coastwise trade. George W. Jackman, Jr., built twenty-seven vessels, among them several famous clippers and the 3,000 ton steamships "Ontario" and "Erie," between 1850 and 1874. Other Newburyport builders active in the second half of the nineteenth century were Atkinson & Fillmore, Colby & Lunt, Eben Manson, Charles H. Currier & Co., George E. Currier, and William B. Coffin, among whom two hundred and thirty-two ves- sels were constructed.
Volumes could be written on the maritime history of Essex County. There is not a subject discussed in this short chapter which could not be elaborated upon to advantage. Limitations of space have caused several important and interesting topics to be neglected. No account of maritime Essex County could pretend to be complete with only a
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brief mention of Nathaniel Bowditch, of Salem, and his famous "Prac- tical Navigator," first published in Newburyport in 1801. The exper- iments in steam navigation made at Beverly years before Robert Fulton's strange craft first plied the Hudson deserve some attention. The international races between Gloucester fishing schooners and the famous Canadian "Bluenose," which received wide attention a few years ago, would in themselves make a highly interesting chapter.
In modern times, little has survived of the once great maritime activity of Essex County. The only really salty communities that remain are Gloucester, with her fisheries, and Marblehead, with her yachting. A mere remnant of the old coastwise trade exists, and that is carried on in a far different manner. Occasionally, a lumber schooner or a coal barge will slip unnoticed into Newburyport or Salem harbor. From time to time a sea-going tugboat, with an oil barge in tow, will put in at one of the coast towns, or steam up the Merrimac to Haverhill, to the groans of rusting drawbridge gears. The last of the excursion steamers which had plied the Merrimac from Haverhill to the sea for two generations disappeared from the river in the second decade of this century; the last of the Newbury- port tugboats which towed coal barges to the wharves of Amesbury, Merrimacport, and Haverhill was sold in the third decade. Even the granite of Rockport, which traditionally was distributed up and down the coast by schooner, now usually goes by rail. But in spite of the long slumber of her marine activity, Essex County has not for- gotten her proud maritime tradition. It is preserved for future gen- erations in the archives of the Essex Institute, in the Peabody Museum, and in the records of the marine societies of Salem and Newburyport.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: John James Currier : "An Historical Sketch of Ship Building on the Merrimac River," William Huse & Co., New- buryport, 1877.
Samuel Eliot Morison: "The Maritime History of Massachu- setts," Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston and New York, 1922.
Willis J. Abbot : "The Story of Our Merchant Marine," Dodd, Mead and Co., New York, 1919.
John James Currier : "The History of Newburyport, Massachu- setts," Newburyport, 1906, 1909, 2 vols.
John James Currier : "The History of Newbury," Newburyport, 1902.
Agriculture
Essex -- 25
CHAPTER X
Agriculture
By Edwin B. Mudge
The early agricultural history of New England differs from that of most of the other colonies of this country in that the landed aris- tocracy such as was found in the South was lacking, and that the plan- tation system of large farms under the rule of one owner was not at all in evidence in this territory. The reason for this is that the colonists were Puritans, who were not of the nobility; and the geographical fea- tures of the land prevented any possibility of the plantation type of farming. Massachusetts is the least fruitful of the six New England States, while Essex County is not the most fertile section of this State. Along the southeastern coast the country is extremely hilly; the ter- ritory extending from Cape Ann to the Merrimac River is a plain dotted with hills and glacial formations; the areas of marshland near the coast are not suitable for planting; and the northern and western parts are studded with isolated hills which rise two hundred and three hundred feet above sea level. The glacial deposits must have pre- sented a most discouraging sight to the first colonists, for the fields and hills were strewn with rocks and boulders left by the glaciers. The picturesque stone walls, which are so characteristic of New Eng- land, bear silent testimony to many years of labor required to clear the ground for planting.
"Hundreds of winters and snows since then
Have whitened the hills of the still old town; The builder has gone from the haunts of men, In the valley of death he has laid him down, But the fruit of his labor is staunch and strong,-
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'Twill be well when for us the Reaper shall call, If the work we leave shall endure so long As his who builded the old stone wall."
-JOHN T. ADAMS.
The flora of Essex County is typical of Eastern Massachusetts and lies in a zone between the spruce, white birch, and hard maple forests of the North and the oak, poplar, and chestnut regions of the South. White pine, oak, chestnut, poplar, hard and soft maples, white and gray birch, and a few hardwoods and conifers made up the original forest. Most of the land has been entirely cleared of woods, and those that remain are for the most part second growth.
The terraces and tidal flats brought forth the first agricultural attempts in the county, and consisted of general farming and stock raising for home consumption only. Cattle, sheep, and poultry were to be had, while milch cows furnished milk and butter. General farm- ing ceased to be profitable with the advent of later western competi- tion; but when this section became more industrialized, dairying, orcharding, market gardening, and poultry raising came to the fore. Hay has always been plentiful, especially the salt marsh type, which adds a picturesque touch to the coastal region after the hay has been cut and cocked up on the stakes that are driven deep into the marshes. Most of the hay in this region is used at home and not baled for sale. Hogs, sheep, and beef cattle are raised to some extent; but the profit- able type of farming is found in the large commercial orchards, mar- ket garden farms, and chicken ranches. Timothy and clover along with salt grasses occupy the greatest acreage while potatoes and corn come next on the list. Grain crops include oats, wheat, rye, barley, and buckwheat. Cabbage, lettuce, and onions are predominant in the market gardens; the following are the remainder of the general crops : squash, Brussels sprouts, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, beets, turnips, celery, asparagus, spinach, peas, carrots, cauliflower, kale, parsnips, pumpkins, rhubarb, and peppers. The Danvers half long carrot and the Danvers yellow globe onion were evolved in this county as was the Salem grape. Market gardening is most common in Danvers, Beverly, Andover, Methuen, and Haverhill. Silage and hay are the principal crops on the dairy farms, and only a small per- centage of the land is fit for any other purpose but pasturing. The
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grain and concentrated feeds used for fodder are usually purchased rather than raised on the farms themselves. With the exception of hay for the work animals, vegetables are the only products of the market gardens. The two-crop system is the favorite, although three are sometimes raised. Likewise with the case of poultry, most of the feed is purchased and little is grown at home. Field corn is shocked in the field, the sweet variety is cut after the harvesting to be used as stover, and the silage type is usually cut by machine. Timothy, clover, redtop, orchard grass, and Italian rye grass are sown for hay, while bluegrass and bent grass are used in pastures. Apples are packed in barrels in the larger commercial orchards, for they are sold mostly in bulk. A feature of many of the market gardens and orchard farms is the roadside stand, where all the crops are placed at the disposal of people traveling by, rather than being sent to city markets, thus eliminating the disastrous effect of the middleman, who has taken away a large part of the profits as well as a great deal of the incentive towards farming.
Dairy cattle, work animals, hogs, and chickens make up the list of commercial livestock, while some estates keep beef cattle, sheep, and goats. Dairying is carried on in conjunction with the greater part of the smaller farms, and the disposal of dairy products in the surrounding cities provides one of the main sources of the farmer's income. Although the cattle are mostly of the Holstein breed, many Jerseys, Guernseys, and Ayrshires are kept. The census of 1919 showed 821 beef cattle, 4,117 horses, 922 sheep, 9,012 swine, and 154,763 chickens. Duroc-Jersey, Chester White, Berkshire, and Poland China are the outstanding types of swine. The chickens are the Rhode Island Red, Barred Plymouth Rock, and White Leghorn breeds. The sheep, of wool and dual-purpose breeds, are kept mostly on estates.
Although the number of farms in the county has not materially decreased in the past fifty years, their size has become smaller in many instances. In 1920 2,966 farms occupied 46.7% of the total area of the county, 43.4% of this land being of the improved type. Of the unimproved land 45,227 acres were in woodland and the rest in brush pasture or abandoned fields. Much has been spent in clear- ing, draining, fencing, and otherwise improving the estates of the eastern section; and pure bred livestock and well kept gardens with
SALEM-JOHN WARD HOUSE, ESSEX INSTITUTE GARDEN, 1684
Courtesy of The Essex Institute
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rare and expensive flowers are features of these estates. The physi- ography and soils have exercised their influence on the types of crops grown in various localities. Much of the rough stony land has never been used for gardening but has served as pasturage. In the smooth hill land of the north mowing is the outstanding feature of farming, and market gardening is practiced on the smooth terraces of the southern section. One of the first developments along the North Shore was that of mowing. In fact, Captain John Smith made note especially of the fine marsh land near Ipswich when he sailed by early in the seventeenth century. Although orcharding is common over the entire county, recently the drumlins and hills of the northern section have been used more extensively for fruit growing, probably because of the lower price of land in this area.
Although the first settlers brought their own seeds from England, they were not the first to plant crops here; for the Indians were not unskilled in the art of farming. Wild berries, nuts, grapes, and fruits were to be had without cultivation of any sort; and Indian corn or maize was one of the most important parts of Indian fare. It was raised everywhere and was valuable to them because of its lasting quality and because it could be used in many forms. It could be readily parched while the hull prevented it from rotting. They ate it in the green stage as well as in the ripe, and used it boiled and roasted. After pulverizing the corn between stones they cooked it in various ways, so that we have inherited ash-cake, Johnny cake, suc- cotash, samp, hominy, parched corn, and hasty pudding from them. Also, Governor Winthrop mentioned in his writings that when this corn was parched, it was "white and floury within," this being our popped corn of today. The aborigines' only farm implement was a hoe made of a clam shell, and their fertilizer consisted for the most part of fish. The English substituted the wooden plow for the hoe and used the cornstalks as fodder for their cattle, but they followed the natives' method of planting the corn in hills and employed the original Indian methods of keeping the corn in corncribs to protect it from the inroads of animals. Gristmills of both the wind and water types took the place of the Indian samp mill, which consisted of a tree stump hollowed out in the form of a mortar and a wooden pestle attached to the top of a young tree which formed a lever to raise it. Later these mills were used to grind the wheat, rye, and other grains brought over from England. In later years the yearly corn husk-
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