USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Truro > Truro-Cape Cod; or, Land marks and sea marks > Part 2
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CHAPTER XXIV.
THE TIDE TURNED. .. 438
I'rosperous Days. Cause of Decline. The Piling Failure. Truro Academy. Joshua H. Davis. Horace Mann. New Departure. His Preparation. His Work. Popular Education. Tom Brown at Rugby. Result. A Traveller. Cape Cod Branch. Wharf Building. Ship Building. Prospects. Universa- list Church. New Lighthouse. Modern Tyre. Steamer " Cambria." County Commissioners. Staging over Sahara. Stage Acquaintances. Staging English- man. An old Stager. Venice of New England. Government Recommenda- tions. Mails. Attended their own Funerals. Cape Cod Telegraph Company. Final Blow. The Packet. Captain Zoheth Rich The " Post-boy." Going to Boston. Canterbury Tales. Passengers. Comparing Notes. Thoreau. Captain Richard Stevens.
CHAPTER XXV.
LANDMARKS AND SEAMARKS ..... 449
Old Acquaintances. Hie Jacet. Emigration. Roof Tree. Citizenship. Changes. Population. Summer Resorts. 1830 Massachusetts Gazateer. Banner Town. Prospect. Possibilities. Prophetic Lens. Old Pictures. Salt Mills Salt Works. Salt Fish. Salt Water. Salt. Well-preserved. Pictur- esque Town. Flemish Picture. Profane Visitor. One Horse with one Eye. Stone vs. Fish. No Road. Doctor Davy and Penzance Carts and Carpets. Paths and Pilots. A Road that needed no sprinkling. United States Surplus under Feet. Lost Feet. Railroad. Mackerel Fleet Salt Industry. Con- sumption and Supply. Mills and Castles. Sancho Panza. Dramatis Personæ. The Grist Mill. The Old Miller. Golden Meal. Mills of the Gods. Chatham. A Whig Platform. Corn Laws. In Memoriam.
CHAPTER XXVI.
WAR OF THE REBELLION. 473
Fort Sumter. Liberty Poles. War Meetings. Tall Flag Spars. Hloisting the Flag. Devotion to the Cause. Enrollment. Mutual Support Club. The Arnis. Volunteers Mass. 43d. Nine Months' Men. Volunteers of 1862. Mass. 330. Fighting Family. A Prison and a Monument. Prison Rules. Prison Fare. Active Service. Haps and Mishaps. Hard Marching. Good Fighting. The Work done. Marching Home. Turning over the Flags. Served and saved the Country. The Navy, Accomplished Officer. Swallowed up. Father and Sons. Final Discharge. Gallant Commander. The Boy Sailor. Prize Master. Blockade Runner. Never heard from. The End.
CHAPTER XXVII.
SHIPWRECK 483
Dedicatory. God knows, Unrest. The missing Ship. Toil. Missing Link. Heroines. Deaeon Moses Paine. A Diary. The first mentioned. Four Mas- ters. Ship " America." Salem "Gazette." Captain John Simpson. John S. Emery. Three Salem Ships. The Brutus. The Man in a Sand Mask. Elegy.
11
CONTENTS.
An intuitive Navigator. A gentle Sailor. 1825, a fatal Year. Visitor to a Townsman's Grave after forty-five Years, Clutching for Life. The black Flag. Dnty and the Grave. A noble Woman. The young Merchant. A sad Sunday. The Poet. Towed under, October Gale of 1841. The lost Flect. Account of .Joshua Knowles. Account of Matthias Rich. Other Notes. A Sea Feat. Love's Phantom. Mysterious Calamity. The Fishermen's Grave A Family Record. The venerable Skipper lost near his own Doorstone. The October Gale of 1851 Honor to his Craft. Heroes. The fearless Captain. A true Sailor. Buried at Sea. Not divided in Death.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
GENEALOGY
.518
The last Chapter. Passing Generations. True Honor. Promises. Ancestry. System. Atkins. Atwood. Long Measure. Avery. Bangs. First Comers. Baker "Honest Nicholas." Chapman. Collins. Cobb. Post Admiral. Cole. Cook. The first Bark. Davis. Dyer. The Doctor's Knack. Freeman. Race Characteristics. Gross. Judge Hinekes. Hinckley. The Governor and Poet. The good Deacon and Judge. Harding. Higgins. Hopkins. Knowles. Lombard. An ancient Race. Mayo, Multord. Newcomb. Paine. Dooms- day Book. Pike. Purington. Rich. Rider. Ridley. Savage. Small. Smith. snow. Stevens. Treat. Vickery. Young. Coan. Lewis.
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS 568
INDEX . 570
8
CONTENTS.
Church Singing. Sternhold and Hopkins. Majesty of God. Rous' Version. Marquis of Lorne. Paraphrasing. Bay Psalm Book. Lampooning. Church enlarged. Sale of T'ews. Deacon Anthony Snow. Christian Forbearance. A Briton. Deacon Ephraim Harding. Mr. Upham's Death. A Patriot. The Graveyard. The Names. Schoolmaster Hincks. His Marriage. Gen. E. W. Hincks. Rev. Samuel Osborn. Church Consistory.
CHAPTER XIV.
1750-GENERAL OUTLINES - 1800 .246
Fish Laws. The French War. Grammar School. Three R's. Cole's Rate. The Fishing and General Court. God's Providence vs. Man's Folly. Revenue. Free Seining restricted. First Free School. Cape Cod Fictions. New Eng- land and Virginia. Town Meeting 1761. John Bacon's Will. First Protest against Slavery. Pomp's Lot. Capt. Matthias Rich. Forbidding the Banns. The dark Day. Lighthouses. Sailing and Sailors. Forbisher's great Fleet. Northwest Passage. Death Rate. Training Field. Long Noonings. Old liutta Dyer. Bassing. Yarns. Direct Tax of 1798 Rev. James Freeman, D. D Description of Truro. Washing away. Mild Mythology. Margate and Ramsgate. Dr. Jason Ayers. Harbor at the Pond.
CHAPTER XV.
THE FISHERIES AND THE WARS 263
Exposed Condition. A Precarious Town. Dark Prospects. Beginning of the Fishing. Rivals for the Prize. Henry the IV. Sir Walter Raleigh. Stock Companies and the Nobility. Dutch Fishermen. Newfoundland. Catholic Europe. English Statutes. The Problem of Kings. Royal Kitchen and Royal Economy. Pinc-Tree Shillings. Charles and Codfish. The People. 1485 - English Commerce - 1880. Education. Supply and Demand. From Newfoundland to New England. St. Saviour. Acadia. Fighting Men. Louis XIV. Louisburg. A modern Crusade. Victory. One Vote. Fisher- men Knighted. Peace. Codfish and Molasses. Free Rum. Merchant Voy- ages. The Cape threatened. The Armada. Lawful Money. Crown Point. Petition for Protection. Watch and Ward. The Scheme. Privateering. Second Seige of Louishurg. Change of Rule. Dissatisfaction. An impending Crisis.
CHAPTER XVI.
WAR OF THE REVOLUTION 275
Emigration. Compensation. Peace. The Exhibit. Criticism and Agitation. Stamp Aet. Memorial. Port Bill. The English Merchants. Buckle on George IlI. East India Co.'s baneful Tea. Report of the Committee. Patriotic Letter to Boston. A good Test. Military School. April. 1775. Preparations. Prov- incetown a Rendezvous. Hummock Krigade. Independence. Voted to fall in. No Wavering. Board of War Convention at Concord. Active Efforts. Hard Times and hard Dollars The Somerset wrecked. General Otis. The fished Pipe. English Officers Dr. William Thayer. Pressing Requisi- tions. The Continental Soldier Condition of 1782. Positive Suffering. Un- flinching Devotion. Privateering. Gobbling Prizes. Marblehead and Captain John Manly. Salem. Declaration. Battle of Yorktown. Dr. Sam Adams. Rev. Levi Whitman. A high Compliment. Number of Men. Brigs Resolution and Intrepid. David Snow and Son.
CHAPTER XVII.
1786 - REV. JUDE DAMON - 1828. .... 289
The third settled Minister of the Church of Christ in Truro. Ordination. Sketch of Mr. Damon. Church Wheels. Dr. Hersey's Will. Deacon's Con- gress. Utopian. Election of Deacons. First and last Baptisms. A Peace- maker. A side Wind. Polite Boys. The "old Shay." Four Kings. Mr. Damon and Mr. Job. Orthodoxy. Rev. Joseph Cook. A good Man. A good Minister. The great Sickness of 1816. The Triumvirate. The old North. Moral Excellence. Christian Forbearance. Old Blood. Huldah Rich. The Squire and the Priest. Peggy Rider. Accepting the Terms: Bible Society. Jolin, Stately Gravestones. Mr. Damon's Register. His best Monument. The Truro Astronomer. The Conclusion.
9
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVIII.
1792 -THE PEOPLE CALLED METHODISTS- 1882 304
The first Minister. Local Preachers. Circuit Riders. The first Meeting-house. The Cradle of Methodism. General Minutes. Historians. Grand Dedication. 1795. Jesse Lee. Persecution. Inquisitionists. Bigotry and Humanity. Josepli Snelling. A Constellation of Worthies. They marry. Spiritual De- velopments. Enthusiasm. Criticism. Converted to the Core. Qualifications. Men of one Book. Preaching without Liberty. Barnard of Batcombe. The College at Seven Ponds. Cob and Corn. The Queen of Sheba. An elect Lady. New House of 1831. List of Appointments. Rev. Benjamin Keith Rev. Thomas Dodge. ' Rev. Joel Steele. The M. E. Church in Truro. First Trustees. New Meeting-house. Remodeled 1745. List of Appointments. Great Revival. Millennial Day. Ephraim Doane Richi. His Psalter and Arithmetic. The Doncastor Doctor. Stephen Collins. Give Lenox a pull. The old Bethel. Father Taylor. The Wellfleet Singer. Clam Bait. Leafy Temples. The first Camp Meetings. Preaching up to the Times. John Smith. Rev. Daniel Atkins. Rev. Doane R. Atkins.
CHAPTER XIX.
HOW THEY LIVED
332
Modern Improvements. Middlemarch. Scientific Activity. Victor Hugo. An honest Purpose. Pilgrim Habits. Kathrina. Charles 1. Mr. Winslow and the Royal Charter. Blackstone. English Homes. Truro, Eng. Fashion- able Gentlemen. Fashionable Ladies. Kitty Trevylyn. Old Grinies. Home- spun. Labrador Tea. Lora Standish. Neculework Live Geese. High Beds. Old Houses. The Sundial The Kitchen. Geraldine. Gervase Mark- ham. Tusser, the English Botanist. Fireplace Equipments. Jack-of-all-trades. Pewter Ware. Bean Porridge. The Punch-Bowl. Temperance Reform.
Trenchers. Mortar and Pestle Spider Cakes philosophically considered. Faculty. Well-fed. Sunday Dining. Resources. Herbert Spencer. Pump- kin Pie. Old Orchards. High-top Sweetings. Atlantic Apples. Old Pear- tree Tradition. The Old Colony Club. Daniel Webster. Home. The highest Honor. Contentment. Brother Joe.
CHAPTER XX.
WAR OF THE EMBARGO. .. 353
Prosperity. Turn of the Tide. Rotting Vessels. Petitions. An obstinate President. New Intercourse Act. Home Manufactures. Right of Search. Declaration of War. Letters of Marque. Privateering. Captain Reuben Rich. Yankee Navy. Songs of Victory. The " Majestic." The Target. Mill Hill. Pranks. British Officers Society. Dazzling Guineas. Provincetown Fortunes. Trading to New York. In their own Coin. The Boy Pilot. The Newcastle. Peace. How it reached Provincetown. Old Dartmoor Prison. Truro Prisoners. Damp Weather. The Scape-Gallows. A polite Yankee.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE MODERN CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 362
Dividing Line. Act of 1777. New Departure. The Bell Meeting-house. Honest Work. Rev. Stephen Bailey. Law Suit. John Harding. David Snow. Rev. Charles Boyter. Maximum of Prosperity. Government Bounty. Sailing for the Banks. Stewart and Bismarck. Love of the Marvellous. Spiritual Visitants. Public Sentiment. An Oracle. Lucky Fishermen. Smart Men. Captain Godfrey Rider. Uncle Wiff. "Jonas." Sermon on Luck. Rev. C. B. Elliott. A dual Life. Rev. E. W. Noble. Installation. 1849-Quarter Centennial-1874. Hon. Thomas N. Stone, M. D. Interesting Services. Poem. Sunday Fishing. Jeremy Taylor. Noble Christian Men. Cooging. Sunday-school. James Collins. The old Arithmetic. Character. Rev. Osborn Myrick. Union Church.
CHAPTER XXII.
SEAFARING AND LANDFARING .384
Seafaring. Daniel Webster's Letter. A cardinal Point. Dr. Dwight. Capt. Obadiah Rich. Cant. Benj. Rich. The good Samaritan. Dr. Young. The Humane Society. Letters of Sympathy. The Hill-top Groves. Rev. Charles Rich. Capt. ,John Collins. A model Sailor. E. K. Collins. The Dramatic
10
CONTENTS.
Line. The Collins' Steam Line. From the Pinkey to the Ship. Capt. Richard Baker. Richard Baker, Jr. Capt. Elisha Baker. The Atkins Family. Lom- bard. Isaac Snow Gross. Capt. Levi Stevens. Isaac Rich. Matthias Rich. Capt. Edmund Burke.
CHAPTER XXIII.
FISHERMEN.
... . . . 417
Yachting. A new Life. A. Raee. Nobody Beat. Changes. Tom Hood. The Coast Guard's Song Long Ned. Judy Callagham. Codfishing. Hygiene and the Banks. Shut Up. Saturday Night. The Song of Welcome. Uncle Sam. Ship " Mediator." Pleasant Memories. Henry Pearce. Sinking of the " James Beard." Mackerel. How they were caught High Line. Kings. Commodore. Daniel Clark. Tide Harbor. A Break water. River and Ilar- bor Improvements. Union Wharf. Beginning of Business. Elisha Newcomb. Beach Speculations. Sea Vandals. Improvements. John N. Devereaux. Captain Hinckley. Marine Insurance Company. Surplus Revenue. Benevo- lent Society. Picturesque Speech. A dull Sailor. Mr. Ambrose Snow. Mr. William White. Two Pine-trees.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE TIDE TURNED. 438
Prosperous Days. Cause of Deeline. The Piling Failure. Truro Academy. Joshua H. Davis. Horace Mann. New Departure. His Preparation. His Work. Popular Education. Tom Brown at Rugby. Result. A Traveller. Cape Cod Branch. Wharf Building. Ship Building. Prospects. Universa- list Church. New Lighthouse. Modern Tyre. Steamer " Cambria." County Commissioners. Staging over Sahara. Stage Acquaintances. Staging English- man. An old Stager. Venice of New England. Government Recommenda- tions. Mails. Attended their own Funerals. Cape Cod Telegraph Company. Final Blow. The Packet. Captain Zoheth Rich. The " Post-boy." Going to Boston. Canterbury Tales. Passengers. Comparing Notes. Thoreau. Captain Richard Stevens.
CHAPTER XXV.
LANDMARKS AND SEAMARKS.
· 449
Old Acquaintances. Hic Jacet. Emigration. Roof Tree. Citizenship. Changes. Population. Summer Resorts. 1830 Massachusetts Gazateer. Banner Town. Prospect. Possibilities. Prophetic Lens. Old Pictures. Salt Mills Salt Works. Salt Fish. Salt Water. Salt. Well-preserved. Pictur- esque Town. Flemish Picture. Profane Visitor. One Horse with one Eye. Stone vs. Fish. No Road. Doctor Davy and Penzance Carts and Carpets. Paths and Pilots. A Road that needed no sprinkling. United States Surplus under Feet. Lost Feet. Railroad. Mackerel Fleet Salt Industry. Con- sumption and Supply. Mills and Castles. Sancho Panza. Dramatis Persona. The Grist Mill. The Old Miller. Golden Meal. Mills of the Gods. Chatham. A Whig Platform. Corn Laws. In Memoriam.
CHAPTER XXVI.
WAR OF THE REBELLION. . 473 .
Fort Sumter. Liberty Poles. War Meetings. Tall Flag Spars. Hoisting the Flag. Devotion to the Cause. Enrollment. Mutual Support Club. The Arms. Volunteers Mass. 43d. Nine Months' Men. Volunteers of 1862. Mass. 330. Fighting Family. A Prison and a Monument. Prison Rules. Prison Fare. Active Service. Haps aud Mishaps. Hard Marching Good Fighting. The Work done. Marching Home. Turning over the Flags. Served and saved the Country. The Navy. Accomplished Officer. Swallowed np. Father and Sons. Final Discharge. Gallant Commander. The Boy Sailor. Prize Master. Blockade Runner. Never heard from. The End.
CHAPTER XXVII.
SHIPWRECK
. . . 483
Dedieatory. God knows. Unrest. The missing Ship. Toil. Missing Link. Heroines. Deaeon Moses Paine. A Diary. The first mentioned. Four Mas- ters. Ship " America." Salem " Gazette." Captain John Simpson. John S. Emery. Three Salem Ships. The Brutus. The Man in a Sand Mask. Elegy.
1]
CONTENTS.
An intuitive Navigator. A gentle Sailor. 1825, a fatal Year. Visitor to a Townsman's Grave after forty-five Years. Clutching for Life. The black Flag. Duty and the Grave. A noble Woman. The young Merchant. A sad Sunday. The Poet. Towed under, October Gale of 1841. The lost Fleet. Account of .loshua Knowles. Account of Matthias Rich. Other Notes. A Sea Feat. Love's Phantom. Mysterious Calamity. The Fishermen's Grave A Family Record. The venerable skipper lost near his own Doorstone. The October Gale of 1851 ffonor to his Craft. lleroes. The fearless Captain. A true Sailor. Buried at Sea. Not divided in Death.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
GENEALOGY 518
The last Chapter. Passing Generations. True Honor. Promises. Ancestry. System. Atkins. Atwood. Long Measure. Avery. Baugs. First Comers. Baker " Honest Nicholas." Chapman. Collins. Cobb. Post Admiral. Cole. Cook. The first Bark. Davis. Dyer. The Doctor's Knack. Freeman. Race Characteristics. Gross. Judge flinckes. Hinckley. The Governor and Poet. The good Deacon and Judge. Harding. Higgins. Hopkins. Knowles. Lombard. An ancient Race. Mayo. Mulford. Newcomb. "Paine. Dooms- day Book. Pike. Purington. Rich. Rider. Ridley. Savage. Small. Smith. snow. Stevens. Treat. Vickery. Young. Coan. Lewis.
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS 568
INDEX .57º
-
ENGRAVINGS.
Frontispiece - PAGE.
Returning the Snake Skin -
27
The Last Meeting at Plymouth
-
45
The Mayflower entering Cape Cod Harbor - 47
Race Point, 1878
48
The first Washing-day 56
Miles Standish in his Boots of Cordovan Leather - 59
Monument to Miles Standish, etc. 63
The old Oaken Bucket - 74
The Drift Whale -
110
The 1405 School of Blackfish
113
Truro in England -
- I2I
A Baronial Castle
129
Dosmery Pool
- 131
The Sands of Dark Tintegal by the Cornish Sea - 132
Land's End - Longship's Light-
house I33
The typical jolly Landlord
-
1 38
Ship ashore 'fore Day - - 140
The Meeting-house on the Hill of Storms - 143
John Avery, Portrait 155
Rev. John Avery's Seal - 166
The first Thanksgiving 177
Spinning and Knitting in the Sun 186 Points Care and Gilbert, 1602 199 Clay Pounds, Highland Lighthouse 203 Highland Lighthouse - - - 205
Example of Diluvial Depressions and Elevations - 206
Dismantled Grist Mill at High- lands - 208
Supposed to be Belamy of the Whidah 223
Ploughing 234
Vacation Pastime -
- 245
And so off Shore let the good Ship fly - 256
Nantucket Lighthouse - 262
Pond Village -
- 304
Second Methodist Church built
in New England - 308
PAGE.
M. E. Church, So. Truro - 317
1826 - Meeting-house of the M. E. Church, Truro- 1882 - . 318
John Smith, Portrait
- 323
Rev. Daniel Atkins
-
- 329
-
They touched the Spinning-wheel and Distaff - 338 Old-fashioned double House - - 340
The old Fireplace
342
The Hincks-Gross Pear-tree, 1882 349 Every House was a little Factory 354 1827, The new Bell Meeting-house 1883 - 363
Rev. Edward W. Noble, D.D. - 373 Cong. Parsonage, Residence, etc. 375 Union Church, Pond Village - 380 The Rev. Osborn Myrick - - 38 1 Climbing towards the Great Bear 384 Passing the Golden Gate to 'Frisco 385 Comfortable Homes - 387
David Lombard -
- 393
Isaac Snow Gross - 399 Capt. Levi Stevens - 403
Isaac Rich - 407
Matthias Rich
- 415
She chides her throbbing Heart - 425
Her broad welcome Beams dashed
away, etc. - - 437
In the IIarbor
- 448
Map of Cape Cod and O.C.RR. - 451 High Pole Hill, Provincetown, 1870 454 Provincetown fifty Years ago - 456
Washing out Fish on Province- town Shore - - 458 -
Mackerel Fleet getting under Way 460 Summer Residence of the Author at Longnook - 465
Old Windmill-a Landmark - - 469
Town Hall
470
Launching the Life Boat
- 485
Swimming ashore -
- 499
Monument in Memory of the Oct. Gale in 1841 - - 504
Hauling in the Life-saving Car
- 514
Wreck of the bark Francis -
- 517
TRURO --- CAPE COD.
0
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Dry Bones. Piles of Stone and Piles of Wood. The Procession. Relevancy. Our An- cestors. The essential Aggregate. Human Society. The true Question. A broken Arch. New and Old. Town Histories. Deserving Merit. Governor Win- throp. Historians. Our Purpose. Lost History. Individuality. De Toqueville. Modern Ideas. The common People. What they did. Average Citizenship. Mis- fortunes .. Education. Alcibiades. Sir Walter Scott. The Schoolhouse. The College. Fitnesses. Practical Traits. Lord Bacon. Physical Geography. Criti. cism. The Verdict.
W HEN first I began to gather material for this book, it seemed stubborn work, and the little heaps were piled here and there with slow, wearisome steps. And when at last I sat hesitatingly down among the piles of stone, and piles of wood, to sort, and shape, and build, there seemed lit- tle beauty or comeliness, with no sign of life. Looking sadly over them, I said: Can these dry bones live ? Shall they ever stand stone to stone, and beam to beam, and joint to joint ? Shall there ever come to these lifeless clods propor- tion and harmony, and shall the capstone thereof ever be brought forth with rejoicing ?- Night after night, and week after week, still the piles of stone and piles of wood remained dark and shapeless.
By and by there came light and spirit. The mute, blind clods spoke with a thousand tongues, and looked out from kindred eyes. Henceforth they became my friends. I sat down no more silent and alone. As one by one these pages have been slowly gathered, one by one, and in little groups, these friends have also been gathered. I have found them
13
14
TRURO-CAPE COD.
delightful companions. Always the same: they have no new or changed faces. Our acquaintance has ripened into tender relationship and unchanging friendship that has repaid many-fold all my toil.
To these well-tried friends, true as steel in sunshine and shadow, whose confidence I have shared, and whose experience I have treasured, with whom I have walked familiarly to and fro and up and down the earth, I would introduce my readers. Coming from the four quarters, with strange garb and stranger speech, you will find them a motley group. But the painted war-chiefs of the wilderness, the scholarly Tyndale and the reformers, the bigoted Mary, the martyr saints, the grim sol- diers and lord-bishops of Elizabeth, the stern Puritan, the iron-faced, ancient mariner, the Pilgrim band, and the settlers at Eastham and Truro, will quietly sit side by side, and tell the moral of their lives.
I anticipate your inquiry of the relevancy of all this connect- ing history, and of the persons and places named, to this Old Colony town on the Cape. It is broadly open to criticism, we must confess, but friends whom we esteem wiser than our- selves have advised it could not well be spared. To know all that can be known of our ancestors is surely not a vain thing.
Hammerton says : " All intellectual and educated people inust always take a great interest in tradition, and have a sen- timent of respect for it." In the light of both tradition and history, I have faithfully sought for a better understanding of our ancestors.
That history gathers her most useful lessons and great moral forces from distinguished names and events is perhaps a conceit of our education. They belong to the world, as the great promontories and mountains around which the clouds gather and lightnings play ; but the essential aggregate of wisdom and goodness is unconscious history ; that, like the quiet flow of the rivers through the valleys, gives seed-time and harvest.
Says a writer in a late review : " A minute history of a town or a county for showing the progress of human society
15
INTRODUCTION.
would be quite as important as the history of an empire." The editor remarks: "We not only agree with our corre- spondent, but we go much farther. It is to the beginning of things we must look, or we can arrive at no satisfactory end."
It was among old Governor Winthrop's sayings, that a family is a little commonwealth, and a commonwealth is a great family. We may not find public transactions of start- ling importance, or brilliant historical events to repeat ; but the history of every community, however narrow, or however described, is of interest ; and the men and women who shaped and launched the new creation, deserve notice.
It is important, then, not only to know who our ancestors were, from whence they came, what they did among these hills and shores, but to know of their birth and home life ; under what social and political fostering they had their growth ; why they came to this land ; how they came; and with what advantages. To know how they estimated the importance of civil and religious liberty, the necessity of education and morals, we must know how they were related to the age in which they lived. The question is by no means whether they were broad or narrow, tolerant or intol- erant, perfect or faulty ; but whether they rose above the narrow, intolerant, faulty age in which they lived, and left the world better for their noble virtues, heroic courage, and democratic experiment.
Still the burden of his song Is love of right, disdain of wrong ; Its master-chords Are Manhood, Freedom, Brotherhood ; Its discords but an interlude Between the words.
I claim no ability to exhaust these suggestions. At the most, I hope to encourage thought and inquiry.
Joubet observes, " The ancients said our ancestors ; we say, our posterity." With our moral and intellectual progress we may build monuments to perpetuate the virtues of our ances- try, handing down their memory to posterity ; thereby uniting the past and present, where stood the broken arch of the
16
TRURO - CAPE COD.
ancients. This is Christian ; the other was heathen. With the faults of our ancestors we make no issue, but cherish the hope that the progress of letters and sciences has given more liberal construction to truth, under whatever name.
Old and new mean nothing as arbitrary terms, and are subject to neither veneration or respect only as they represent principles or progress to make the world better.
Undoubtedly there is a growing taste in the popular mind to know more of the history and traditions of our fathers. The rapid increase of genealogical, antiquarian, historical, and archælogical societies, and the popular favor of town and family histories, is abundant proof of this fact. Men and women of ability and learning are devoting themselves to this work ; and large amounts of money from public and private sources are freely applied in its behalf. This growth is not ephemeral or capricious ; it is not a fashion, but the healthy, legitimate outgrowth of liberal education, and a catholic spirit creditable to our country and age.
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