A Sourdough In New England
By CARRIE McLAIN
*' Oakland, Calif.
It took less 'than two hours to
reach Providence, R. I. from old
Sayhrook, Conn, and it was ever
a bit of wonderment to me how
close the towns are on the At
lantic Seaboard, compared to ours
in Alaska. The whole New Eng
land states could fit in a corner
of our territory. It took two
hours by bus to get to Hyannis,
Mass, and a matter of a half hour
by car to South Dennis. Neat
cottages and homes dotted all
this portion of Cape Cod, flat as
the terrain appears. It was good to
see Mrs. Ella Chapman at the bus
station eager to get me to her
Cape Cod home.
Colonial Homes Built
In 17th entury
South Dennis is strictly a resi
dential town and one of the five
that comprise the precinct of
East—West—'North Dennis and
Dennisport. Mrs. Chapman’s
home lies in this atmosphere of old
colonial homes, many of them
built in the 17th century. Her
home contains much of the an
tiques brought up from the old
homesite in Maryland, and re
mains a delightful vacation spot
for Mary-hood and Sarah, daugh
ters of Mrs. Chapman.
The next day we drove along
the south side of Cape Cod, and
later the north side where one
can see Provincetown in the dis
tance where the Pilgrims first
landed and not appreciating the
sand dunes, remained there about
three weeks before sailing to
Plymouth less than eighty miles
up the coast. Cape Cod is re- j
garded as an arm and hand with j
South Dennis located in the
crook of the arm.
The Congregational church here
though the original building of
colonial days has been altered
inside and contains one of the
two oldest pipe organs, a Snitz
ler, in the U. S. and has Blash
fi,eld’s original mural, “The Ado
ration” on one wall, so strikingly
beautiful you can’t keep your
eyes off of it. The large chan
delier consists of “hanging lamps”
with shades or globes of Nor
wich glass (electric). On the
rear wall of the church are two
plaques in memory of the sea
captains who lived in South
Dennis. There are well over a
hundred names forty of which
are Nickerson, the first one com
ing to South Dennis in 1639.
Again we sit in the pews
painted white, so straight and
hard, that one couldn’t fall asleep
during a lengthy sermon if he
wanted to. A near-by cemetery
contains head-stones dated since
1700.
Driving through East Dennis
we saw the new Methodist
Church. The old one had to
come down and some woman left
$100,000 for a new one but it
had to be built of stone. In
order to fulfill the terms of her
will and comply with the colon
ial aspect of the old church, con
crete blocks were constructed on
the inside and lumber on the
outside, which was painted the
conventional white.
I had the pleasure of meeting
a Mrs. Rice and her spinster sis
ter, Anna Nickerson, the last of
a branch o'! the Nickerson sea
captains, who told me the last
of forty captains, passed away
last January. Anna Nickerson
has one of the old homes which
is a delight for any antique
dealer. The old petit-point
chairs and lovely settees, alabas
ter vases, and a Chinese work
basket (exquisite) and a three
hundred fifty piece dinner set of
blue wedge-wood china (enough
for 20 at dinner), and old sil
ver and china tea sets are a re
minder of what these sea-cap
tains could pick up on their sea
voyages.
We drove through Chathaf, a
pretty town on Nantucket Sound,
with cute little inlets or bays
just as one sees in pictures.
There are a number of colonial
homes and Inns in this area and
any number of places selling
antiques. Many of the homes
have colorful shutters—red, blue,
yellow, black and conventional
green. Many motels are making ,
their advent here, which are
preferred by vacationists to the
old homes that made a business
of renting a room or two and
thereby helping to pay the taxes.
We saw the large, old shingled
home of Joseph C. Lincoln, writ
er of stories only about Cape
Cod, and who died about ten
years ago.
Visits Home Of Poet
John Greenleaf Whittier
It was with regret that I left
South Dennis for Boston and, on
to Haverhill. It was a satis
faction to continue to see the
the quaint winding streets and
colonial type of homes. Mr. Mc
Cormick, his wife and two little
boys were at the railroad sta
tion to meet me, at Haverhill,
a town known for its shoe fac
tories. St. James Cathedral is
one of its imposing structures
of red brick. Haverhill is pret
tily located with winding streets
and a good deal of up-hill. We
had one nice day to drive to
drive to Salisbury and Hamp
ton Beach and follow the New
England coastline. We also passed
the poet, John Greenleaf Whit
tier’s home, where the country
like surroundings must have
been a great help to his poetic in
spirations.
The following day, I expec
ted a visit from Dagny Brevig
Nimmo, from Kennebunkport,
Maine, where Dagny and her hus
band had a resort for tourists and
vacationists. Dagny’s father
Rev. Brevig founded the Teller
Mission in 1894 across Port
Clarence Bay from Teller. It
had started to snow when Dag
ny arrived; just a proper setting
for two old-timers. After not
seeing each other for 37 years, we
had much to talk about, especial
ly about Teller.
The most pleasant surprise oc
curred the next evening when
Mr. McCormack brought us to
the home of his daughter-in-law,
the Edward Parkers in Grove
land, close to Haverhill. This is
an old colonial home built in’
1638 that had been carefully
preserved by each succeeding
generation for posterity. This
home is very large with only
half of it wired for electricity
and heated, the rest remains as
in the colonial days. A large
wooden beam extends through
the center of the house which
makes one wonder how it could
be handled in those early days.
Off from a sitting room, with the
old fire-place' a grand-father’s
clock and many old rockers, sits
a room that was used at the
birth of each child. Then, came
a small dining room with a dear
little brick fire-place with and
irons fashioned like Hessian
soldiers, that the colonists (chew
ing tobacco) would spat on. The
iron tongs, shovel and candel
abra were wrought in clever
shapes.
Cup-boards on each side
contained Norwich glassware and
rare china. The small windows
had Indian shutters that slide in
to the walls and used at night so
Indians could not see when the
room was lit. The Coat of Arms
is framed on the wall just above
a small Washington table, and
the buffet holds a set of china,
the wedding ring pattern, white
with gold rim and a gold circle
in the middle.
The hinges on the door
were in the shape of H and
L, meaning Holy Lord, compris
ing a Christian door. The old
Nome-Kougarok
Road Bids Asked
Invitation to bid on grading
and drainage of 6.2 miles of the
Nome-Kougarok road near Nome
has been made by the Bureau of
Public Roads, district engineer
M. C. Zimmerman announced.
•Construction consists mainly of
100,652 cubic yards of borrow
excavation and 206,556 cubic
yards of borrow overhaul.
Plans may be examined at bu-4
reau offices in Anchorage, Ju
neau, Fairbanks, Nome and Val
dez, and at the offices of the
Associated General Contractors
of America at Anchorage, Seattle,
Portland and Spokane.
Bids will be opened in room
319 Federal Bldg., Juneau at 11
a.m. May 23.
parlor we had to view by candle
light. There were the beautiful
velvet and satin settees and a
huge high-boy of tiger maple, one
drawer holding foreign dolls,
mostly Italian made and repre
senting such walks of life as a
lawyer and teachers. Sheraton
card tables held relics from for
eign lands. A round table and
chairs were of applewood and tlje
lamp with a shade of Norwich
glass seemed to have me be
witched.
Lovely porcelain sat on the
mantle-piece above the fire-place,
that I gave only, a cursory
glance. The kitchen still has the
original cup-boards in use. The
pantry' is one mass of old time
dishes and pewter-wear. The old
firepire-place with brick oven
still stands, with candle molds on
the mantle-piece, and shovel
tongs and kettle, standing un
touched.
We went up the stairway with
the vestibule having one of those
beautiful front doors with the
fan-like glass at the top. A
large picture of some ancestor
hangs on each side. There are
eight bedrooms, six of which
had fire-places. Here were the
heavy mahogany bureaus and
“sleigh” beds of ashe. Chairs for
the children were low with wick
er seats and china-ware water
pitchers, basins and slop-jars of
lovely pattern stood about. On
the wall, hung the bed-warmers,
with their long handles.
There was a secret room with
in this house that had its air
shaft leading into one of the vast
brick chimneys. This room was
resorted to in case of an Indian
attack and opened into an under
ground tunnel. There was also
a court-room inaccessible to the
rest of the home that was used
by the circuit judge when he
came here by horse-back.
All I lacked was enough time
to make a more thorough visit
of this most interesting of colon
ial homes, and with this I said,
“good-bye” to New England and
its old colonial back-ground.
>"'■ •' ■ i i Im'-i'i'™'
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