



Produced by Greg Bergquist, Chuck Greif and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)








[Illustration: Copyright, 1891, by A. S. Burbank.

_Frontispiece._ PLYMOUTH IN 1622.]




                        American Historic Towns

                            HISTORIC TOWNS

                                  OF

                              NEW ENGLAND

                               Edited by

                            LYMAN P. POWELL

                              Illustrated

                          G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
                           NEW YORK & LONDON
                        The Knickerbocker Press
                                 1898


                            COPYRIGHT, 1898
                                  BY
                          G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
                  Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London

                   The Knickerbocker Press, New York

[Illustration]




PREFACE


In July, 1893, while the first Summer Meeting of the American Society
for the Extension of University Teaching was in session at the
University of Pennsylvania, I conducted the students, in trips taken
from week to week, to historic spots in Philadelphia, the battle-fields
of the Brandywine and of Germantown, and to the site of the winter camp
at Valley Forge. The experiment was brought to the attention of Dr.
Albert Shaw, and at his instance I made a plea through the pages of _The
American Monthly Review of Reviews_, October, 1893, for the revival of
the mediæval pilgrimage, and for its adaptation to educational and
patriotic uses. After pointing out some of the advantages of visits paid
under competent guidance and with reverent spirit to spots made sacred
by high thinking and self-forgetful living, I suggested a ten days’
pilgrimage in the footsteps of George Washington.

The suggestion took root in the public mind. Leading journals commended
the idea. New England people, already acquainted with the thought of
local historical excursions, hailed the proposed pilgrimage with
enthusiasm. Men and women from a score of States avowed their eagerness
to make the experiment; and at the close of the University Extension
Summer Meeting of July, 1894, in which I had lectured on American
history, I found myself conducting for the University Extension Society
a pilgrimage, starting from Philadelphia, to Hartford, Boston,
Cambridge, Lexington, Concord, Salem, Plymouth, Newburg, West Point,
Tarrytown, Tappan, New York, Princeton, and Trenton.

The press contributed with discrimination the publicity essential to
success. Every community visited rendered intelligent and generous
co-operation. And surely no pilgrims, mediæval or modern, ever had such
leadership; for among our cicerones and patriotic orators were: Col. T.
W. Higginson, Drs. Edward Everett Hale and Talcott Williams, Hon.
Hampton L. Carson, Messrs. Charles Dudley Warner, Richard Watson Gilder,
Charles Carlton Coffin, Frank B. Sanborn, Edwin D. Mead, Hezekiah
Butterworth, George P. Morris, Professors W. P. Trent, William M.
Sloane, W. W. Goodwin, E. S. Morse, Brig.-Gen. O. B. Ernst, Major
Marshall H. Bright, and Rev. William E. Barton.

I had planned in the months that followed to publish a souvenir volume
containing the more important addresses made by distinguished men on the
historic significance of the places visited; but as the happy experience
receded into the past a larger thought laid hold of me. Why not sometime
in the infrequent leisure of a busy minister’s life edit a series of
volumes on _American Historic Towns_? Kingsley’s novels were written
amid parish duties, and Dr. McCook has found time, amid exacting
ministerial duties, to make perhaps the most searching study ever made
by an American of the habits of spiders. Medical experts agree
concerning the value of a wholesome avocation to the man who takes his
vocation seriously; and congregations are quick to give ear to the
earnest preacher whose sermons betray a large outlook on life.

A series of illustrated volumes on _American Historic Towns_, edited
with intelligence, would prove a unique and important contribution to
historical literature. To the pious pilgrim to historic shrines the
series would, perhaps, give the perspective that every pilgrim needs,
and furnish information that no guide-book ever offers. To those who
have to stay at home the illustrated volumes would present some
compensation for the sacrifice, and would help to satisfy a recognized
need. The volumes would probably quicken public interest in our historic
past, and contribute to the making of another kind of patriotism than
that Dr. Johnson had in mind when he defined it as the “last refuge of a
scoundrel.”

I foresaw some at least of the serious difficulties that await the
editor of such a series. If all the towns for which antiquarians and
local enthusiasts would fain find room should be included, the series
would be too long. A staff of contributors must be secured, possessing
literary skill, historical insight, the antiquarian’s patience, and
enough confidence in the highest success of the series to be prepared to
waive any requirement of adequate pecuniary compensation. Space must be
apportioned with impartial but not unsympathetic hand, and the
illustrations selected with due discrimination. And, finally, publishers
were to be found willing to assume the expense required for the
production in suitable form of a series for which no one could with
accuracy forecast the sale.

The last and perhaps most serious difficulty was removed almost a year
ago when Messrs. G. P. Putnam’s Sons expressed a willingness to take the
commercial risk involved in publishing the present volume, which will,
it is hoped, be the first of a series. Contributors were then found
whose work has, I trust, secured for the undertaking an auspicious
beginning. Critics inclined at first glance to speak harshly of the
differences among the contributors in style and in literary method are
advised to withhold judgment till a closer reading has made clear, as it
will, the fundamental differences there are among the towns themselves
in history and in spirit. Adequate reasons which need not be stated here
have made it advisable to omit Lexington, Groton, Portsmouth, the Mystic
towns, and other towns which would naturally be included in a later
volume on New England Towns, in case the publication should be
continued.

So many have co-operated in the making of this book that I will not
undertake to name them all. But I cannot forbear to acknowledge the
valuable assistance I have received at every stage of the work from Mr.
G. H. Putnam, Mr. George P. Morris, associate editor of _The
Congregationalist_, and Miss Gertrude Wilson, instructor in history at
the historic Emma Willard School. The Century Company has, in the
preparation of the first chapter on Boston and the chapter on Newport,
kindly allowed the use of certain illustrations and portions of articles
on Boston and Newport, which have appeared in _St. Nicholas_ and old
_Scribner’s_ respectively. Some of the illustrations for the Portland
chapter have been furnished by Lamson, the Portland photographer.

The Essex Institute, with characteristic generosity, has loaned most of
the cuts for the Salem chapter. The Ohio State Archæological and
Historical Society has allowed the reproduction from _The Ohio
Quarterly_ of some of the designs in the Rutland chapter, while certain
of the illustrations in the Cape Cod Towns chapter appeared first in
_Falmouth Illustrated_.

Conscious of the editorial shortcomings of the volume, I still dare to
hope that it may have such a cordial reception as will justify the
publication at some time of a volume on Historic Towns of the Middle
States.

LYMAN P. POWELL

AMBLER, PENNSYLVANIA
September 21, 1898.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]




CONTENTS


                                                                    PAGE

INTRODUCTION      George Perry Morris                                  1

PORTLAND          Samuel T. Pickard                                   53

RUTLAND, MASS.    Edwin D. Mead                                       81

SALEM             George Dimmick Latimer                             121

BOSTON           {Thomas Wentworth Higginson                         167
                 {Edward Everett Hale                                187

CAMBRIDGE         Samuel A. Eliot                                    211

CONCORD           Frank B. Sanborn                                   243

PLYMOUTH          Ellen Watson                                       299

CAPE COD TOWNS    Katharine Lee Bates                                345

DEERFIELD         George Sheldon                                     403

NEWPORT           Susan Coolidge                                     443

PROVIDENCE        William B. Weeden                                  475

HARTFORD          Mary K. Talcott                                    507

NEW HAVEN         Frederick H. Cogswell                              553

[Illustration]




ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                                    PAGE

Plymouth in 1622[1]                                        _Frontispiece_


PORTLAND

WHITE HEAD, CUSHING ISLAND                                            55

DEERING’S WOODS                                                       59

Showing brook which the soldiers had to ford in the fight
with the Indians in 1689.

FIRST PARISH CHURCH                                                   63

Containing the Mowatt cannon-ball.

THE BIRTHPLACE OF LONGFELLOW                                          67

HENRY W. LONGFELLOW                                                   73

N. P. WILLIS                                                          77


RUTLAND

DR. CUTLER’S CHURCH AND PARSONAGE AT IPSWICH HAMLET,
1787[2]                                                               83

VIEW OF RUTLAND STREET[3]                                             85

MANASSEH CUTLER[4]                                                    91

NATHAN DANE[5]                                                        92

RUFUS PUTNAM[6]                                                       95

SITE OF MARIETTA AND HARMAR, 1788[7]                                 101

THE “CENTRAL TREE”[8]                                                103

THE OLD RUTLAND INN[9]                                               104

VIEW OF RUTLAND CENTRE FROM MUSCHOPAUGE HILL[10]                     107

BRITISH BARRACKS[11]                                                 112

THE RUFUS PUTNAM HOUSE[12]                                           114


SALEM

GOVERNOR ENDICOTT’S SUN-DIAL AND SWORD[13]                           122

THE FIRST MEETING-HOUSE, 1634-39[14]                                 123

GOVERNOR SIMON BRADSTREET[15]                                        125

GOVERNOR JOHN ENDICOTT[16]                                           126

THE PICKERING FIREBACK[17]                                           128

OLD CRADLE[18]                                                       131

THE ROGER WILLIAMS’ OR “WITCH HOUSE”[19]                             137

WITCH PINS[20]                                                       142

TIMOTHY PICKERING                                                    153

SOME OLD DOORWAYS[21]                                                155

BOWDITCH DESK AND QUADRANT[22]                                       158

WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT                                                  160

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE                                                  163
  From an engraving from a painting by C. G. Thompson.

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE--BIRTHPLACE OF HAWTHORNE--HOUSE
OF THE SEVEN GABLES--GRIMSHAWE HOUSE--THE
OLD TOWN PUMP[23]                                                    165

SEAL OF THE CITY OF SALEM[24]                                        166


BOSTON

SUCCORY OR “BOSTON WEED”                                             167

TRINITY CHURCH[25]                                                   169

BOSTON IN 1757                                                       172
  From a drawing by Governor Pownall.

“OLD CORNER BOOKSTORE”[26]                                           175

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES                                                177

PUBLIC LIBRARY                                                       179

MAP OF BOSTON IN 1722                                                180

CHARLES SUMNER                                                       182

PHILLIPS BROOKS                                                      184

FANEUIL HALL IN THE 18TH CENTURY                                     189

GOVERNOR THOMAS HUTCHINSON                                           190
  From a portrait in possession of the Massachusetts Historical
  Society, once the property of Jonathan Mayhew.

THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH IN ITS PRESENT CONDITION. BUILT
IN 1729                                                              193

OLD STATE HOUSE                                                      197

JAMES OTIS                                                           199

SAMUEL ADAMS                                                         201

BOSTON MASSACRE                                                      203
  From a painting by A. Chappel.

LANDING OF BRITISH TROOPS AT BOSTON, 1768                            205

MAP OF BOSTON IN 1775                                                206

THE FROG POND ON THE COMMON AS IT NOW APPEARS                        209

SEAL OF THE CITY OF BOSTON                                           210


CAMBRIDGE

HARVARD COLLEGE GATE                                                 213

HOME OF LONGFELLOW                                                   215

“THE MUSES’ FACTORIES.”--LOWELL                                      221

STATUE OF JOHN HARVARD AND MEMORIAL HALL, HARVARD
COLLEGE                                                              225

HOLWORTHY HALL, HARVARD COLLEGE                                      229

HOME OF LOWELL                                                       231

WASHINGTON ELM                                                       233

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL                                                 235

GYMNASIUM, HARVARD COLLEGE                                           237

WILLIAM E. RUSSELL                                                   240


CONCORD

CONCORD RIVER, BY THOREAU’S LANDING                                  245

RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1858)                                           252
  From a sketch by Rowse.

THE LIGHT AT THE BRIDGE[27]                                          255
  Redrawn from Ralph Earle’s sketch of 1775.

THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON, APRIL 19, 1775                              263
  From an old print.

MUSKETS OF CAPTAIN JOHN PARKER                                       266

THE MINUTE-MAN[28]                                                   269
  French’s first statue.

HAWTHORNE’S OLD MANSE                                                274

REVOLUTIONARY INN[29]                                                277

HENRY THOREAU (1857)[30]                                             280

GRAVES OF THE EMERSON FAMILY                                         283

HOME OF EMERSON                                                      287

A. BRONSON ALCOTT (1875)[31]                                         292

LOUISE M. ALCOTT                                                     295

SEAL OF THE CITY OF CONCORD                                          297


PLYMOUTH

FACSIMILE OF A PAGE FROM GOVERNOR BRADFORD’S MANUSCRIPT,
“PLIMOTH PLANTATION”                                                 301
  The original is now in the Boston State House.

PULPIT ROCK, CLARKE’S ISLAND[32]                                     302

THE EARLY NORMAN DOORWAY AT AUSTERFIELD CHURCH                       305

THE OLD FORT AND FIRST MEETING-HOUSE, ON BURIAL
HILL, 1621[33]                                                       307

GOVERNOR EDWARD WINSLOW[34]                                          313

THE HARBOR[35]                                                       321

PLYMOUTH IN 1622[36]                                                 323

THE “MAYFLOWER” IN PLYMOUTH HARBOR[37]                               333
  From the painting by W. F. Halsall, in Pilgrim Hall.

THE OLD COLONY SEAL                                                  334

THE LANDING OF THE FATHERS, PLYMOUTH, DECEMBER 22,
1620                                                                 335
  Copied from an old painting on glass.

THE FULLER CRADLE                                                    337

AN OLD ENGLISH SPINNING-WHEEL                                        338

THE DOTEN HOUSE, 1660[38]                                            339
  The oldest house in Plymouth.

THE GRAVE OF DR. FRANCIS LE BARRAN, THE NAMELESS
NOBLEMAN[39]                                                         342

SEAL OF THE CITY OF PLYMOUTH                                         343


CAPE COD TOWNS

THE BEACH, FALMOUTH[40]                                              347

MAP OF CAPE COD SECTION[41]                                          349

PROVINCETOWN                                                         355

WHARVES AT PROVINCETOWN                                              359

PROVINCETOWN IN 1839                                                 363
  From an old drawing.

HIGHLAND LIGHT                                                       371

OYSTER POINT, WELLFLEET                                              373

BISHOP AND CLERK LIGHT, HYANNIS                                      376

OLD WINDMILL, EASTHAM                                                378

RUINS OF THE CHATHAM LIGHT                                           383

LIFE-SAVING STATION AT WELLFLEET                                     386

BASS RIVER BRIDGE, SOUTH YARMOUTH                                    387

BARNSTABLE INN                                                       389

BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF FALMOUTH[42]                                      395

THE VILLAGE GREEN[43]                                                397

SHIRICK’S POND, FALMOUTH[44]                                         399

THE WHALE-SHIP “COMMODORE MORRIS” AND THE FALMOUTH
CAPTAINS WHO SAILED IN HER[45]                                       401


DEERFIELD

OLD DEERFIELD STREET, 1671-1898                                      405

FRARY HOUSE, 1698                                                    408
  Oldest in the county.

THIRD MEETING-HOUSE, 1695-1729                                       419
  (Old Indian house on the right.)

PARSON WILLIAMS’S HOUSE                                              421
  Built by the town, 1707--standing 1898.

DOOR OF “OLD INDIAN HOUSE” HACKED BY INDIANS                         423
  Now in Memorial Hall.

TOMBSTONES OF REV. JOHN WILLIAMS AND HIS WIFE                        425

STEPHEN WILLIAMS, 1693-1782                                          428
  A captive of February 29, 1703-4.

GEORGE FULLER, 1822-1884                                             437

BUFFET FROM “PARSON WILLIAMS’S” HOUSE                                439
    Now in Memorial Hall.


NEWPORT

THE OLD STONE MILL                                                   445

NEWPORT IN 1795[46]                                                  447

GEORGE BERKELEY, DEAN OF DERRY[47]                                   451

WHITEHALL, THE BERKELEY RESIDENCE, BUILT 1729                        453

“PURGATORY”[48]                                                      457

ROCHAM