TIMELINE 1606 to 1879
At a benefit for our local “Heritage Center” I came upon a table, run by a former neighbor on the Neck, the assortment of book’s before me sent me back many years, for she had worked for Peggy Sibley at her “English Bookstore”, but upon opening the soft covered book pictured ….
I realized that it contained the translated logs and accounts of Samuel de Champlain. Growing up in Gloucester, I must have passed that metal memorial standing at the head of the Neck a thousand times. I now had his charts and his words of Gloucester from four hundred years earlier – a good start and a good push to begin this project.
The sign at the entrance to Rocky Neck,
erected by the Massachusetts Bay Colony Tercentenary Commission in 1930.
- Samuel De Champlain
In September, 1606, Samuel De Champlain landed at Rocky Neck in what is now Gloucester Harbor, to caulk his Challop, and made an accurate chart of the harbor which he called LE BEAUPORT
From the “Fisherman’s Own Book”
…”In 1606, we have seen, our harbor was named Le Beau Port, and sincerely. Harbors differ as men do. Harbors are human and something like women ; they have their own times for dainty and delicate attire. To know them, you must study them, under daylight, under twilight ; at sunrise and sunset ; under the full harvest moon ; at low tide and high tide ; in a storm
and after it is over ; then will you find some mood to admire, new beauty come to sight. Our harbor, like every other, sulks sometimes, one must allow. A dog-day’s fog has hung over it, or wrung itself dry into it, to-day.” (15)
Samuel de Champlain on his
Second Voyage 1605 p.9
“……On the July 15th they passed Little Boar’s Head and the Isles of Shoals, named by them “Isles Jettees”, and then Portsmouth Harbour, which was unnoticed by them, spending the night near the eastern end of cape Ann, named by Champlain “Cap aux Isles”.
After the Indians had performed their customary dance on the beach, Champlain went ashore and presented to each a knife and some biscuit, which, as the journal says,
“caused them to dance better than ever… I made them understand, as well as I could, that I desired them to show me the course of the shore. After I had drawn with crayon the bay, and the Island Cape, where we were, with the same crayon they drew the outline of another bay, which they represented as very large; here they placed six pebbles at equal distances apart, giving me to understand by this that these signs represented as many chiefs and tribes.”
“It is a well-known fact that Massachusetts Bay was occupied by six tribes as the savages had so clearly pointed out, their names being Weechagaaskas, Neponsitt, Punkapoag, Nonantum, Nashaway and Nipmuck. The Indians near Cape Ann lived by agriculture rather than by hunting. From there the explorers sailed past Thatcher’s Island and Gloucester.”
1606
THIRD VOYAGE
P.14
ON SEPTEMBER 5, 1606, CHAMPLAIN AND POUTRINCOURT LEFT THEIR PORT ROYAL SETTLEMENT ON THE THIRD AND LONGEST EXPLORATION VOYAGE ALONG THE NEW ENGLAND COAST. IN THEIR SHALLOP THEY FIRST VISITED SAINT CROIX ON THE 18th, THEN RETURNED TO THEIR BARQUE, IN WHICH THEY VOYAGED TO SACO, ON THE 21st, AND THEN CONTINUED THEIR COURSE AGAIN TO THE ISLAND OF BACCHUS, WHERE THEY FOUND THE GRAPES TO BE AS FINE AS THOSE OF FRANCE.
SAILING PAST CAPE ANN THEIR LITTLE VESSEL ENTERED GLOUCESTER, WITH WHICH HARBOUR THEY WERE SO PLEASED THAT THEY GAVE IT THE APPROPRIATE NAME OF “BEUPORT”. THE VOYAGERS HAD NOT ENTERED THERE ON THE LAST EXPLORING TRIP, AS THE WIND AT THE TIME HAPPENED TO BE SO FAVORABLE.
Champlain’s Chart of Gloucester harbor, showing his ship anchored off Ten Pound Island, southeast of Rocky Neck.
THE LITTLE FRENCH VESSEL LAY AT ANCHOR A SHORT DISTANCE NORTHEAST OF TEN POUND ISLAND, WHILE HER SMALL BOAT WAS BEING REPAIRED ON A PENINSULA NEARBY, DOUBTLESS ROCKY NECK. SAILORS IN THE MEANWHILE WERE WASHING THEIR LINEN AT THE POINT WHERE THE PENINSULA JOINS THE MAINLAND. WHILE CHAMPLAIN WAS WALKING ALONG THE SHORE HE DETECTED SOME REDSKINS HIDING BEHIND THE BUSHES. POUTRINCOURT, HOWEVER, WITH SOME OF HIS MEN SURPRISED THEM, AND THE INDIANS DISPERSED. LATER THEY BECAME FRIENDLY AND ASSURED THE VISITORS THAT IF THEY REMAINED THERE A SHORT TIME TWO THOUSAND OF THEIR FRIENDS WOULD VISIT THEM. THIS OFFER DID NOT APPEAL ESPECIALLY TO THE FRENCH, AS ONE CAN READILY IMAGINE.”
CHAMPLAIN THUS DESCRIBES HIS IMPRESSIONS OF
HIS VISIT HERE:
” WE SAW TWO HUNDRED SAVAGES IN THIS VERY PLEASANT PLACE; AND THERE ARE HERE A LARGE NUMBER OF VERY FINE WALNUT-TREES, CYPRESSES, SASSAFRAS, OAKS, ASHES, AND BEECHES.
THE CHIEF OF THIS PLACE IS NAMED QUIOUHAMENEC, WHO CAME TO SEE US WITH A NEIGHBOR OF HIS, NAMED COHOUEPECH, WHOM WE ENTERTAINED SUMPTUOUSLY.
ONEMECHIN, CHIEF OF SACO, CAME ALSO TO SEE US, TO WHOM WE GAVE A COAT WHICH HE, HOWEVER, DID NOT KEEP A LONG TIME, BUT MADE A PRESENT OF IT TO ANOTHER, SINCE HE WAS UNEASY IN IT, AND COULD NOT ADAPT HIMSELF TO IT. …..
… SOME OF THE LAND WAS ALREADY CLEARED UP, AND THEY WERE CONSTANTLY MAKING CLEARINGS. THEIR MODE OF DOING IT IS AS FOLLOWS: AFTER CUTTING DOWN THE TREES AT THE DISTANCE OF THREE FEET FROM THE GROUND, THEY BURN THE BRANCHES UPON THE TRUNK AND THEN PLANT THEIR CORN BETWEEN THE STUMPS, IN COURSE OF TIME TEARING UP ALSO THE ROOTS. THERE ARE LIKEWISE THE MEADOWS HERE, CAPABLE OF SUPPORTING A LARGE NUMBER OF CATTLE. THIS HARBOUR IS VERY FINE, CONTAINING WATER ENOUGH FOR VESSELS, AND AFFORDING A SHELTER FROM THE WEATHER BEHIND THE ISLAND.”
THE LITTLE FRENCH VESSEL LAY AT ANCHOR A SHORT DISTANCE NORTHEAST OF TEN POUND ISLAND, WHILE HER SMALL BOAT WAS BEING REPAIRED ON A PENINSULA NEARBY, DOUBTLESS ROCKY NECK. SAILORS IN THE MEANWHILE WERE WASHING THEIR LINEN AT THE POINT WHERE THE PENINSULA JOINS THE MAINLAND. WHILE CHAMPLAIN WAS WALKING ALONG THE SHORE HE DETECTED SOME REDSKINS HIDING BEHIND THE BUSHES. POUTRINCOURT, HOWEVER, WITH SOME OF HIS MEN SURPRISED THEM, AND THE INDIANS DISPERSED. LATER THEY BECAME FRIENDLY AND ASSURED THE VISITORS THAT IF THEY REMAINED THERE A SHORT TIME TWO THOUSAND OF THEIR FRIENDS WOULD VISIT THEM. THIS OFFER DID NOT APPEAL ESPECIALLY TO THE FRENCH, AS ONE CAN READILY IMAGINE.”
CHAMPLAIN THUS DESCRIBES HIS IMPRESSIONS OF
HIS VISIT HERE:
” WE SAW TWO HUNDRED SAVAGES IN THIS VERY PLEASANT PLACE; AND THERE ARE HERE A LARGE NUMBER OF VERY FINE WALNUT-TREES, CYPRESSES, SASSAFRAS, OAKS, ASHES, AND BEECHES.
THE CHIEF OF THIS PLACE IS NAMED QUIOUHAMENEC, WHO CAME TO SEE US WITH A NEIGHBOR OF HIS, NAMED COHOUEPECH, WHOM WE ENTERTAINED SUMPTUOUSLY.
ONEMECHIN, CHIEF OF SACO, CAME ALSO TO SEE US, TO WHOM WE GAVE A COAT WHICH HE, HOWEVER, DID NOT KEEP A LONG TIME, BUT MADE A PRESENT OF IT TO ANOTHER, SINCE HE WAS UNEASY IN IT, AND COULD NOT ADAPT HIMSELF TO IT. …..
… SOME OF THE LAND WAS ALREADY CLEARED UP, AND THEY WERE CONSTANTLY MAKING CLEARINGS. THEIR MODE OF DOING IT IS AS FOLLOWS: AFTER CUTTING DOWN THE TREES AT THE DISTANCE OF THREE FEET FROM THE GROUND, THEY BURN THE BRANCHES UPON THE TRUNK AND THEN PLANT THEIR CORN BETWEEN THE STUMPS, IN COURSE OF TIME TEARING UP ALSO THE ROOTS. THERE ARE LIKEWISE THE MEADOWS HERE, CAPABLE OF SUPPORTING A LARGE NUMBER OF CATTLE. THIS HARBOUR IS VERY FINE, CONTAINING WATER ENOUGH FOR VESSELS, AND AFFORDING A SHELTER FROM THE WEATHER BEHIND THE ISLAND.”
P.13
“CHAMPLAIN THEN DESCRIBES VERY CAREFULLY THE APPEARANCE AND CUSTOMS OF THE NATIVES HE FOUND BETWEEN “ISLAND CAPE,” AS THE FRENCH CALLED CAPE ANN, AND CAPE COD:
” ALL THESE SAVAGES WEAR NEITHER ROBES NOR FURS, EXCEPT VERY RARELY; MOREOVER, THEIR ROBES ARE MADE OF GRASSES AND HEMP, SCARCELY COVERING THE BODY, AND COMING DOWN ONLY TO THEIR THIGHS … THE MEN CUT OFF THE HAIR ON THE TOP OF THE HEAD LIKE THOSE AT THE SACO RIVER. I SAW, AMONG OTHER THINGS, A GIRL WITH HER HAIR VERY NEATLY DRESSED, WITH SKIN COLORED RED, AND BORDERED ON THE UPPER PART WITH LITTLE SHELL-BEADS. A PART OF HER HAIR HUNG DOWN BEHIND, THE REST BEING BRAIDED IN VARIOUS WAYS. THESE PEOPLE PAINT THEIR FACES RED, BLACK AND YELLOW. THEY HAVE SCARCELY ANY BEARD, AND TEAR IT OUT AS FAST AS IT GROWS. THEIR BODIES ARE WELL- PROPORTIONED. I CANNOT TELL WHAT GOVERNMENT THEY HAVE, BUT I THINK THAT IN THIS RESPECT THEY RESEMBLE THEIR NEIGHBORS , WHO HAVE NONE AT ALL. THEY KNOW NOT HOW TO WORSHIP OR PRAY; YET, LIKE THE OTHER SAVAGES, THEY HAVE SOME SUPERSTITIONS, WHICH I DESCRIBE IN THEIR PLACE. AS FOR WEAPONS,THEY HAVE ONLY PIKES, CLUBS, BOWS AND ARROWS. IT WOULD SEEM FROM THEIR APPEARANCE THAT THEY HAVE A GOOD DISPOSITION, BETTER THAN THOSE OF THE NORTH.”
….” CHAMPLAIN IN HIS DIARY, IN DESCRIBING THEM SAYS:
:….THEY ALSO DYE THEIR HAIR, WHICH SOME WEAR LONG, OTHERS SHORT, OTHERS ON ONE SIDE ONLY. THE WOMEN AND GIRLS ALWAYS WEAR THEIR HAIR IN ONE UNIFORM STYLE … THEY ARE LOADED WITH QUANTITIES OF PORCELAIN, IN THE SHAPE OF NECKLACES … THEY ALSO WEAR BRACELETS AND EARRINGS. THEY HAVE THEIR HAIR CAREFULLY COMBED, DYED, AND OILED. THUS THEY GO TO THE DANCE, WITH A KNOT OF THEIR HAIR BEHIND BOUND UP WITH EEL-SKIN …THUS GAILY DRESSED AND HABITED, THEY DELIGHT TO APPEAR IN THE DANCE, TO WHICH THEIR FATHERS AND MOTHERS SEND THEM, FORGETTING NOTHING THAT THEY CAN DEVISE TO EMBELLISH AND SET OFF THEIR DAUGHTERS. … THERE IS A MODERATE NUMBER OF PLEASING AND PRETTY GIRLS, IN RESPECT TO FIGURE, COLOR, AND EXPRESSION, ALL BEING IN HARMONY. … THESE HAVE ALMOST THE ENTIRE CARE OF THE HOUSE AND WORK; NAMELY, THEY TILL THE LAND, PLANT THE INDIAN CORN, LAY UP A STORE OF WOOD FOR THE WINTER, BEAT THE HEMP AND SPIN IT, MAKING FROM THE THREAD FISHING NETS AND OTHER USEFULL THINGS. THE WOMEN HARVEST THE CORN , HOUSE IT, PREPARE IT FOR EATING, AND ATTEND TO HOUSEHOLD MATTERS. MOREOVER, THEY ARE EXPECTED TO ATTEND THEIR HUSBANDS FROMPLACE TO PLACE IN THE FIELDS, FILLING THE OFFICE OF PACK-MULE IN CARRYING THE BAGGAGE, AND TO DO A THOUSAND OTHER THINGS. ALL THE MEN DO IS TO HUNT FOR DEER AND OTHER ANIMALS, FISH, MAKE THEIR CABINS, AND GO TO WAR. …”
Third Voyage
P10
…”they catch with hooks made of a piece of wood, to which they attach a bone in the shape of a spear, and fasten it very securely. The whole has a fang-shape, and the line attached to it is made out of the bark of a tree. They gave me one of their hooks, which I took as a curiosity. In it the bone was fastened on by hemp, like that in France, as it seemed to me, and they told me that they gathered this plant without being obliged to cultivate it, and indicated that it grew to the height of four or five feet.”
.
1607
P19
…”On their voyage home in 1607 the French colonists met a Basque fisherman from Saint-Jean de Luz named Savalette, who, according to Lescarbot, had made forty-two voyages to Acadia, and who reported that he usually caught fifty crowns’ worth of codfish a day and that this voyage would yield him probably ten thousand francs.
1617
p.xi
“…Had he known there were numbers of them on the Cape as late as 1606, he (Babson) no doubt, would have attributed the lack of resistance to white settlers to the epidemic of 1616-17 which decimated the tribes inhabiting the Massachusetts coast.” (9)
1623
…”English settlers from Dorchester returned in 1623 to establish the first permanent fishing station in Massachusetts Bay Colony. Before the English settlement, a community of Agawams – tribe of Algonquin – lived in a village along the Gloucester shoreline. The Agawam village contained cleared land for cultivating corn, and fish and shellfish harvest was important. Plagues eliminated the native population by the 1620’s. Small colonial villages were well established on Gloucester Harbor, the Annisquam River, and the north side of Cape Ann on Ipswich Bay by the 1640’s. (8)
The Early Fisheries of Cape Ann
In 1623 a fishing vessel from England, having completed her cargo in “Mattahusetts Bay,” sailed for Spain, leaving fourteen men ” in the country at Cape Anne,” to await her return. Early in the next year the same ship, with a consort, came to Cape Ann, and after an unsuccessful fishing season set sail for England, leaving thirty-two men here. The following year three vessels
came from England, and an effort was made to establish a colony here under the governorship of Roger Conant, but the attempt was abandoned in the course of the year, Mr. Conant and some of his companions removing to Salem, and founding the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. Fishing was also carried on at Cape Ann in 1624 and 1625 by the Plymouth people, who had two vessels fishing on our coast in the latter year. The permanent settle-
ment of the territory was commenced prior to 1633, and something was again done in the way of fishing as early as 1639, although it does not appear that the early settlers of the Cape were fishermen.” (15)
1625
Mayflower (16) p.162
….” Oldham and a salter named Roger Conant, found refuge amid the isolated fishing and trading outposts that had sprouted up along the New England coast at places like Nantasket and Cape Ann.”
p. 164
….” In 1625, the former Plymouth resident Roger Conant was forced to intercede in an altercation between Standish and some fishermen on Cape Ann. Conant was so appalled by the violence of the Plymouth captain’s manner that he later described the incident in great detail to the Puritan historian William Hubbard. Echoing Robinson’s earlier concerns, Hubbard wrote, “Capt. Standish … Never entered the school of our Saviour Christ… or, if he was ever there, had forgot his first lessons, to offer violence to no man.” As Morton and Pecksuot had observed, it was almost comical to see this sort of fury in a soldier who had been forced to shorten his rapier by 6 inches – otherwise the tip of his sword’s scabbard would have dragged along the ground when he slung it from his waist. “A little chimney is soon fired,” Hubbard wrote;” so was the Plymouth captain, a man of very little stature, yet of a very hot and angry temper.” (16)
1630
About 1630 a party of men, led by a son of Rev. John Robinson of Puritan fame, seeking a place suitable for a fishing station, landed at Annisquam, and were so well pleased with its harbor and other conveniences that they concluded to set up a fishing stage there, and send for their families. This was the first permanent settlement of Cape Ann. (15)
1633
“Ship-building was also carried on very early. Among the accessions to the town William Stevens who came to Boston in 1632, and in 1642 appears in Gloucester as one of the town commissioners. He was the most competent shipbuilder in New England at the time, and held many offices of trust in the community. ….. As early as 1633 he built a ship here for a Mr. Griffin, which was followed by the building of several others.” (19)
Governors John Winthrop of Massachusetts Bay Colony and William Bradford of Plymouth Colony recorded accounts of the GCH. Both describe high winds, 14 to 20 foot storm surges along the south-facing coasts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and great destruction.peo [1]
….The small barque Watch and Wait, owned by a Mr. Isaac Allerton, foundered in the storm off Cape Ann with 23 ple aboard. The only survivors were Antony Thacher and his wife, who reached Thacher Island. Thacher later wrote an account of the shipwreck.
1642
Fishing vessels and other craft needed a protected and shorter route between the harbor and Ipswich Bay. Reverend Blynman, a religious and political leader of the time, received permission in 1642 to dig a canal between the harbor and Annisquam River. Referred to as “the cut” and latter called the Blynman Canal, the passage was periodically filled in over the years due to storms and was intentionally filled after periods of disuse.” (9)
1644
“Hard by a half acre of the field in that vicinity in 1644, was reserved for a burial ground, and here all that was mortal of the early settlers was laid to rest. This spot is, without doubt, the site of what is the Bridge street burial ground.” (19)
1645
The manufacture of boards, clapboards, hoops, staves, as well as the cutting of cord-wood for outside consumption, was well underway by 1645. (19)
1650
1662
“PETER DUNCAN, who carried on a small trading establishment, bought a house and land in 1662 near the inner harbor, a portion of which, long known as Duncan’s Point, now one of the most valuable tracts in the city. His wife was Mary, daughter of Deputy Governor Sirnond Sr. by whom he had several children, but the name is not perpetuated by descendants in the town. Duncan street derives its name from this settler.” (19)
1693
“Six sloops, one boat and one shallop composed the Cape Ann fleet in 1693.” (15)
1700
“By 1700, Gloucester’s population was approximately 650. Fishing and farming were equally important for supplying local needs. Fishermen gradually fished offshore waters as coastal resources were depleted, and fishing vessels were fishing as far east as Cape Sable in 1711. “(11)
1717
“Tradition marks the Arts Association wharf as the one from which Capt. Andrew Robinson one day in 1713 launched a two -masted vessel he had built along lines of his own, a hull which slid so slickly into the sovereign see as to inspire an onlooker to exclaim “See how she scoons!” – Upon which her owner declared “A schooner let her be!” From that day forward, schooners they have been, although the slow genesis of the winged craft which brought fish and fame to Gloucester is entwined in the convoluted folklore of boat design. ” (14)
….This would become the Arts
Association Wharf
1719
“The first poor house was erected by the town in 1719, but was never very popular. It had only one occupant, Ruth Miller, for a number of years, and was called her house.” (19)
1720
The fisheries of Cape Ann, as a considerable and permanent industry, seem to have become firmly established about 1722, when the business was conducted on a somewhat extensive scale at Annisquam, and also, in a lesser degree, in the harbor parish. Heretofore the business had been carried on in small sloops, built in the town, but in 1720 a few schooners were added,
and this class of vessels soon became popular. Many of these schooners were of a burthen of fifty tons or more, and were therefore suitable for the prosecution of the fisheries on the Grand Bank and other distant fishing grounds. They were of a nearly uniform model, with square bows and high stern, and presented the strongest possible contrast to the swift clipper fleet of our own day.
1743
“In 1743, what is known as the old fort on Commercial Street, now encroached upon and surrounded by buildings, was completed.” (19)
1745
”The locally famous Peg Wesson story comes in here. Notwithstanding the severe lesson of the witchcraft delusion, belief in the existence of witches had by no means died out. The woman Wesson lived in what was then called the Garrison house, standing on the spot now occupied by the Catholic parochial residence, removed a few years since to Maplewood avenue, where it serves as a tenement house. Wesson was accounted a witch. Shortly before departing, several of Capt. Byles’ company visited Peg and so exasperated her by their conduct that she threatened them with a visitation of her wrath at Louisburg. While encamped before the latter place, the attention of the Gloucester men was attracted by the peculiar actions of a crow which circled just above them. Fruitless endeavors were made to shoot the bird of ill omen. Finally a soldier suggested that the crow must be Peg Wesson transformed, according to the belief concerning the supernatural powers of witches. In this event, no bullet except one cast from silver or gold would possess the properties sufficiently potent to puncture her skin. A silver sleeve button was hastily rammed into a gun, and discharged at the bird, which fell wounded in the leg. Upon their return to Gloucester, the soldiers learned that at the precise time when the crow was wounded, Peg Wesson fell near her house receiving a fracture of the leg, and furthermore, that the doctor, on dressing the limb extracted a foreign substance from the bone which proved to be the same sleeve button fired at the crow before Louisburg. The truth of this happening as recounted was generally accepted at the time.” (19)
1750
Population growth and coastal development was concentrated around the harbor by 1750,with the population expanding to 2,700. Large boats fished, primarily for cod, as far out as the Grand Banks. (13)
p.565
“Nature has denied to Cape Ann a fertile soil; but she has given it a harbor of such excellence as will make it the seat of an active population, so long as men shall pursue that “great sea-business of fishing” which first attracted people of the English race to its shores.
This business must, in the future as in the past, constitute the chief employment of those who dwell upon its rocky territory; for, though its safe and commodious harbor can well accommodate a large foreign and coastwise trade, its proximity to a great commercial metropolis will ever discourage the growth of any other than a local business. This assertion is warranted by the fact, that its registered tonnage was less in 1855 than in 1790.” (Contested?)
p.571
“The shore-fishery of Gloucester had risen to some importance before the Revolution….
In 1792, 0ne hundred and thirty-three Chebacco boats, measuring in the aggregate fifteen hundred and forty-nine tons, were engaged in it. These boats resorted to the ledges and shoal grounds near the coast, where they found, at different seasons, cod, hake, and pollack; and pursued their fishery with such success, that, in twelve years from the last-named date, the number of boats engaged in it had increased to about two hundred, while the tonnage had nearly doubled. At this time, the boat-fishing was chiefly carried on at Sandy Bay and the other coves on the outside of the Cape; but the advantage of a good harbor for their larger boats drew a few of the people away from these localities, to settle on Eastern Point, soon after 1800. (9)
The Pinkey “FAME” built by Harold Burnham in Essex, Ma. on the left,
the Lewis H. Story, a Chebacco boat, on the right.
“The growth of the town from 1700 to 1750 had been vigorous. At the first mentioned date, the harbor front and what is now the heart of the city was covered with an almost unbroken stretch of wood. Fore, now Main Street, was a mere path through the forest with a few settlers’ houses abutting near its course.” (19)
1757
“Notwithstanding the parcelling out of the land in 1688, an extensive area remained unassigned. Before 1661, the proprietor of every dwelling-house was a commoner, or entitled to a right in the common land. In 1757 there were 145 claims to these privileges acknowledged as valid.” (19)
1770
“Although the necessities of the town had not as yet required the erection of a jail, yet, about this time, a public whipping post and stocks were erected. They were maintained until about 1770, and the location of these implements was in a field, between Middle and Main streets on the one side, and Hancock and Centre streets on the other.” (19)
1775
The Revolution, of course, put an embargo on Bank fishing, as well as an end to the exportation of fish, and the business soon dwindled to insignificant figures. After peace had been declared the business was resumed, and some sixty vessels were sent to the Grand Bank, but in consequence of unsatisfactory returns the business soon languished.
“Notwithstanding the parcelling out of the land in 1688, an extensive area remained unassigned. Before 1661, the proprietor of every dwelling-house was a commoner, or entitled to a right in the common land. In 1757 there were 145 claims to these privileges acknowledged as valid.” (19)
1770
“Although the necessities of the town had not as yet required the erection of a jail, yet, about this time, a public whipping post and stocks were erected. They were maintained until about 1770, and the location of these implements was in a field, between Middle and Main streets on the one side, and Hancock and Centre streets on the other.” (19)
1775
The Revolution, of course, put an embargo on Bank fishing, as well as an end to the exportation of fish, and the business soon dwindled to insignificant figures. After peace had been declared the business was resumed, and some sixty vessels were sent to the Grand Bank, but in consequence of unsatisfactory returns the business soon languished.
1776
…“and on the 24th of June, at a largely attended town meeting voted unanimously to support the Declaration of Independence with their lives and their fortunes if the resolve should be passed, and on the receipt of the news of the passage of the document it was read from the pulpits and copied into the town records.” (19)
1780
“The year 1780 opened gloomily. Over 400 of the town’s best men had fallen on land, perished at sea or in prison. The people were in a truly woeful condition, nearly one-fifth of the population being dependent almost wholly on charity.” (19)
1783
was received with great rejoicing. An enormous oak some 23 feet in circumference, was standing on the hill at Duncan’s Point where a seven-gabled stone residence has been built. To this the people repaired and illuminated the tree in honor of the great occasion.” (19)
“This West Indian traffic was by far more profitable than any other branch of business pursued. Just after the Revolution there was great poverty, the country being heavily in debt with an almost worthless Continental paper money. As before the Revolution there was a great demand for our goods in the British West Indies because we could supply them more cheaply and with better quality than any other nation.” (19)
1816
The jig hook was invented by Mr. Abraham Lurvey of Pigeon Cove, in 1816. (15)
Looking into Gloucester’s outer harbor from the East Gloucester shore beyond Rocky Neck.
1817
from GMG: “This illustration appears in “History of the town and city of Gloucester,Massachusetts”, 1892, by James R. Pringle, who wrote, “A sketch of the town in 1817 was drawn by Capt. John Beach, from a point in the harbor opposite Ten Pound Island, off Pavilion Beach. Standing out prominently in the foreground was a eight-sided wooden windmill erected on the site now occupied by the Pavilion Hotel. This had been built in 1814 by Ignatius Webber, and its long arms, fitted with sails, made it a conspicuous object, and gave the town quite a foreign aspect. It was subsequently removed to a position on Fort Square, where it became a familiar landmark, being destroyed by fire, a few years ago.”
If you look closely at the drawing above you can see
Gloucester’s sea serpent
This is an early photograph showing Cressy ‘s Beach and the old Fort battlements.
The dragon below is painted on the rocks at the end of the beach.
18′ “Oarfish” retrieved off Catalina Island, Ca.,
thought to grow to 50′ long in the deep ocean.
Painted Sea Serpent on the rocks at the end of Cressy Beach
blown up from the chart of Capt. John Smith, dated 1614
from Champlain’s chart drawn in1606.
In the month of August 1817, it was currently reported on various authorities, that an animal of very singular appearance had then recently and repeatedly seen in the harbour o Gloucester, Cape Ann, about 30 miles distant from Boston. It was said to resemble a serpent in its general form and motions, to be of immense size, and to move with wonderful rapidity; to appear on the surface of the water only in calm and bright weather; and to seem jointed or like a number of buoys or casks following each other in a line.
In consequence of these reports, at a meeting of the Linnaean Society of New England, holden at Boston on the 18th day of August, the Hon. John Davis, Jacob Bigelow, M. D. and Francis C. Gray, Esq. were appointed a Committee to collect evidence with regard to the existence and appearance of any such animal. The following report made by that Committee is now published by order of the Society.
from the report:
I, Amos Story of Gloucester, in the County of Essex, mariner, depose and say, that on the tenth day of August A.D. 1817, I saw a strange marine animal, that I believe to be a serpent, at the southward and eastward of Ten Pound Island, in the harbour in said Gloucester. It was between the hours of twelve and one o’clock when I first saw him, and he continued in sight for an hour and half. I was setting on the shore, and was about twenty rods from him when he was nearest to me. His head appeared shaped much like the head of the sea turtle, and he carried his head from 10 to 12 inches above the surface of the water. His head at that distance appeared larger than the head of any dog that I ever saw. From the back part of his head to the next part of him that was visible, I should judge to be three or 4 feet. He moved very rapidly through the water, I should say a mile in two, or at most, in three minutes. I saw no bunches on his back. On this day, I did not see more than 10 or 12 feet of his body. By likewise saw, what I believe to be the same animal this day, viz. 23 August, A.D. 1817. This was in the morning, about 7 o’clock. He then lay perfectly still, extended on the water, and I should judge that I saw 50 feet of him at least.
1819
1819 MAP OF GLOUCESTER HARBOR
1821
The light on Ten Pound Island was lit in 1
1827
“Not until the first newspaper was published in 1827…” (9)
p.571
“At the end of this period (in 1828), the whole number of vessels upwards of twenty tons, engaged in the Gloucester fisheries, was one hundred and fifty-four, measuring five thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine tons; to which are to be added about forty boats, of an average burthen of fifteen tons. The total annual product of the cod-fishery of the town at this time is said to have been about sixty thousand quintals. But another fishery had now begun to attract the attention of the fishermen; and the shore-fishing for cod, except that carried on in winter, declined from this time, till it came to be, as at the present day, (1855), of insignificant account in the business of the town.”
“The inshore mackerel fishery became important in the 1830’s, salt cod was a lucrative commodity for trade with Europe, the West Indies, and Surinam.” (12)
“International trade and supporting industries (e.g., fishing, shipbuilding, and brokering) was the foundation of Gloucester’s economy after the Revolutionary War, until the 1840’s. Trade laws and taxation policies, during the 1840’s, forced Gloucester merchants to funnel exports through Boston to import foreign goods. These changes stimulated a shift from foreign trade to the already-successful fisheries as the center of the Gloucester economy.” (12)
p.107
“In a well-intentioned if moralistic stab at sizing up the Gloucestermen of the day, the Goode Commission report of a hundred years ago (Captain Collins the probable author) had this to say:
“In large ports, like Gloucester, wither flock the discontented, the disgraced, and the ne’er-do-wells, as well as the most enterprising and ambitious of the young men from the whole coast, there is, of course, less attention paid to the question of morals than in rural communities, and the general moral tone of the fishing classes is below the average for the whole coast… There are, of course, depraved men among the fishermen whose vicious instincts are increased by the irregular character of their occupation, but a large majority of the fishermen, even of Gloucester, are pure in their morals.” (6)
The Baptist Church on Pleasant St., as seen from Main St. Now a parking lot, as seen in photograph above.
“Not until the first newspaper was published in 1827…” (9)
p.571
“At the end of this period (in 1828), the whole number of vessels upwards of twenty tons, engaged in the Gloucester fisheries, was one hundred and fifty-four, measuring five thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine tons; to which are to be added about forty boats, of an average burthen of fifteen tons. The total annual product of the cod-fishery of the town at this time is said to have been about sixty thousand quintals. But another fishery had now begun to attract the attention of the fishermen; and the shore-fishing for cod, except that carried on in winter, declined from this time, till it came to be, as at the present day, (1855), of insignificant account in the business of the town.”
“The inshore mackerel fishery became important in the 1830’s, salt cod was a lucrative commodity for trade with Europe, the West Indies, and Surinam.” (12)
“International trade and supporting industries (e.g., fishing, shipbuilding, and brokering) was the foundation of Gloucester’s economy after the Revolutionary War, until the 1840’s. Trade laws and taxation policies, during the 1840’s, forced Gloucester merchants to funnel exports through Boston to import foreign goods. These changes stimulated a shift from foreign trade to the already-successful fisheries as the center of the Gloucester economy.” (12)
p.107
“In a well-intentioned if moralistic stab at sizing up the Gloucestermen of the day, the Goode Commission report of a hundred years ago (Captain Collins the probable author) had this to say:
“In large ports, like Gloucester, wither flock the discontented, the disgraced, and the ne’er-do-wells, as well as the most enterprising and ambitious of the young men from the whole coast, there is, of course, less attention paid to the question of morals than in rural communities, and the general moral tone of the fishing classes is below the average for the whole coast… There are, of course, depraved men among the fishermen whose vicious instincts are increased by the irregular character of their occupation, but a large majority of the fishermen, even of Gloucester, are pure in their morals.” (6)
1837
From the Fishermen’s Own Book
“The above engraving gives a capital view of the old Fort and Gloucester Harbor in 1837. The Grand Banker and pinkey lying at anchor look as natural as can be. There is a vast difference in the appearance of the old Fort property of today from that of forty-five years agone. Then it had but one building besides the ruins of the Fort – now it is covered with dwellings and storehouses, and its entire waterfront converted into fine wharves, forming one of the most valuable pieces of property in the city.”
1843
Pinky “Maine”, 24 tons, built at Essex, Mass. in 1843
Pinky schooners were a common type of New England fishing vessel that sailed out of local Cape Ann harbors from the early eighteenth century through the early twentieth century. In 1839, there were 64 registered pinky schooners out of the Cape Ann and its district. Pinkies were generally smaller vessels from which men fished over the side but they were also known for their seaworthiness. These vessels were so distinctive in their look and common that a careful study of many marine paintings from the era will have a pinky or two in the background. Many of the paintings of the internationally renowned artist Fitz Henry Lane, including those in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. usually have pinkies in the background of the painting. “Pinky” means that the stern is “pinked” or pinched together which indicates a pointed stern and may originally be a Dutch word.
It is believed that the pinkies developed from Chebacco boats. A good many of them were built at Essex. These vessels were built to a very high standard and some lasted a very long time. The original MAINE was built in 1845 and sailed until 1926.
from Harold Burnham
1844
The first town hall is built.
1847
Looking at Rocky Neck from across Smith Cove.
1849
Arrow shows the John Pew & Son’s building
The Burnham Brothers Railway, whose first rail was built in 1849 by brothers Parker, Joseph and Elias Burnham, after recognizing the need for a facility that could haul boats out of the water for repairs.
1850
“Two technological changes in the 1840’s and 1850’s revolutionized the fishing industry. The railroad was extended north from Boston to Gloucester in 1846, providing direct and efficient access for fish landed In Gloucester to New England. Refrigeration was introduced in the 1850’s, and vessels began targeting new species, such as halibut and haddock, that were suitable for freezing rather than salting.” (12)
“The expansion of the fresh fish market supplemented the prosperous salt cod industry.” (8)
“Rail transportation also brought visitors to Gloucester for summer retreat and recreation, leading to hotel development on the outer harbor and summer estates at Eastern Point. The natural beauty of Cape Ann attracted artists and writers to Gloucester’s waterfront to establish the first art colony in America on Rocky Neck.” (13)
Gloucester’s Train Station
The Gate Lodge, East Gloucester, entrance to Eastern Point Estates.
The Gate Lodge of friendly but firm design erected at the bend by the syndicate which in 1887 bought the Niles Farm marks the beginning of this private domain, initially of summer estates, and of Eastern Point Boulevard. (14)
Rocky Neck, East Gloucester
1851
Page 83
The stranger likes this picturesqueness, but not so the old fisherman. He clings to the olden days. These radical changes almost make him weep. He is oftentimes seen lost in contemplation of the ‘curse’ that has overtaken Rocky Neck. (14)
Rocky Neck in 1851 with just eleven structures on it.
“It may be well to state right here that in 1849 undivided half of
this entire property was purchased by Mr. Cyrus Story for $500. It was then used as a sheep pasture.” (20)
“Fitz Hugh Lane built the striking granite house of seven gables that dominates the knoll for his studio more than a year before Hawthorne’s work of the same name was published in 1851.”
(14)
1851 Town Map
Canvas #49 Short St. Boarding House
Then and now. Back when Main St. was Front St. and the roads were dirt.
1854.
“…The following 50 years (1850-1900)) of harbor development was characterized by substantial harbor growth with extensive filling and shoreline development that permanently reshaped the waterfront of Gloucester Harbor.” (12)
“Natural features and geographical location of Gloucester were key to the city’s initial growth as a center for maritime trade and its dominance as a fishing port in the mid-to-late 1800’s. In addition to a deep water and sheltered harbor, Gloucester had an important geographical advantage over Boston in the days of sail. Cape Ann was closer to the principle fishing grounds, and vessels could avoid sailing against the typical westerly winds encountered on route to Boston.” (14)
Canvas #43
Boston Irish Hooker Tacking Into Gloucester’s Inner Harbor,
late 1800’s
Canvas #10 Boston Irish Hooker tacking into Gloucester’s inner harbor
Post Office and Customs House built, corner of Main and Pleasant Sts. (18)
1855
“At the end of this period (in 1828), the whole number of vessels upwards of twenty tons, engaged in the Gloucester fisheries, was one hundred and fifty-four, measuring five thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine tons; to which are to be added about forty boats, of an average burthen of fifteen tons. The total annual product of the cod-fishery of the town at this time is said to have been about sixty thousand quintals. But another fishery had now begun to attract the attention of the fishermen; and the shore-fishing for cod, except that carried on in winter, declined from this time, till it came to be, as at the present day, (1855), of insignificant account in the business of the town.”
p.564
“The Catholic population of the Cape at the present time, according to an estimate of Dr. Acquarone, is twenty-five hundred. This estimate is not probably much too large, considering that the number of infants of this population baptized in two years and seven months, ending in September, 1859, was three hundred. Some of these infants are born to an inheritance of vice and ignorance; and, to be faithful, the historian must not fail to warn those who are beholding this with indifference, that it will require all the good influenced of churches and schools, and the best exertions of wise and philanthropic citizens, to make them men and women whom the town will be happy to own as her sons and daughters.” (9)
Canvas #103
View from the church tower
“Previous to 1840 there were few of foreign birth or parentage in this town. Some half-dozen Irish families, at the most, constituted the local representatives of the Emerald Isle. After 1850 quite a number came to town, and the total foreign population of the Cape in 1855 was about 1500, including several Portuguese families from the Western Islands.” (19)
1856
1856 Gloucester Harbor Village
1860
Productive fisheries encouraged substantial emigration of skilled labor from the Canadian Maritimes, Portugal, and Ireland, and Gloucester’s population grew to 10,000 by 1860.
1861
p.xxxxii
“The twin Cape Ann lighthouses on Thacher’s Island were torn down and replaced, and the new lights were beamed for the first time on October 1, 1861.
“The urbanization of Gloucester occurred between the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, characterized by rapid population growth, economic prosperity, and diversification of maritime businesses related to the fishing industry. Technological advances encouraged large-scale change to the harbor for industrial needs. Harbor development was supported by public policy and public works projects. Fisheries and maritime trade remained important, but Gloucester’s geographical advantage over Boston was diminished with the invention of steam – and diesel-powered vessels. Nevertheless, the well-developed harbor economy weathered several recessions and continued to prosper as a productive New England port.” (8)
Roger’s Street – along the inner harbor – was constructed on fill between 1854 and 1865, creating a new coastal road with wharves and piers immediately abutting. Harbor Cove was shallow and larger ships could not access docks, making the practice of building out to reach deep water less practical. (12)
1863
Tarr and Wonson Paint Factory was established on Rocky Neck in 1863. The paint factory was the first copper paint factory in the country and supplied anti-fouling bottom paints for vessels throughout the northeastern United States.”
“Immediate action was taken toward the erection of fortifications. Land at Eastern Point, belonging to Thomas Niles was acquired by the government, an earthwork fort erected and manned. Defences were thrown up at a commanding position on Stage Fort and named Fort Conant in memory of the early settler, Roger, who was a prominent actor in an occurrence, before related, which took place on the same spot where a barricade had been erected.” (19)
Stage Fort
Built during the Revolutionary War to protect Gloucester Harbor, it was used through the war of 1812.
1864
.xix
“…on the night of February 18, 1864, fire started in a store at the west end of Front Street. Swept on by a winter gale and fought with inadequate apparatus frustrated by near zero temperatures, it engulfed both sides of the street, burned for seven hours out of control and destroyed 103 buildings and left 15 acres in ashes before it was stopped at Fishermen’s Corner across from the old Customs House. In the case of rebuilding after this worst fire in Cape Ann history, Front Street was extended and renamed Main Street, and Rogers Street was created, parallel to the waterfront.” (9)
The Cape Ann National Bank was established in 1856 as the Bank of Cape Ann. The The Cape Ann National Bank succeeded the old Bank of Cape Ann in 1856, and it became a national bank in 1865. In 1864 the original bank building was burned in the great fire and rebuilt.
“First National Banks came into existence.” (18)
1865
The federal government realized that investment to harbor infrastructures was required to maintain safe and navigable harbors and dredging became economically viable after the Civil War (1865)
Key dredging technologies, such as steam engines, hydraulic pumps, and underwater explosives, were developed which initiated a history of federal investment for navigation improvements.
Canvas #109 Fitz Henry Lane and the Paint Factory
p.xx
Fitz Hugh Lane – died at the age of 61 on August 13, 1865. (9)
1865 – “…The same year Blynman Canal was reopened to water traffic and a drawbridge was built by the Aberdeen Granite Company for access to what proved later to be its unsuccessful Wolf Hill quarrying enterprise.” (9)
1866
“Somes Field purchased for new Town House on condition that no road be built through it and Warren St. not to be widened,” (18)
“Cornerstone laid for Town House, beneath it a galvanized iron box was deposited with Town Meeting accounts, record of organizations, matters about War of Rebellion and condition of Country and Town.” (18)
1867
“During the typical year of 1868, sixty-five of Gloucester Georgesmen pursued the winter hand line codfishery, and this fleet replaced its losses year after year though Georges Bank was the hardest, most dangerous, most exacting of all; but the demand for quality persisted and it paid top money.” (9)
1869
The first Gloucester Town Hall was built on Dale Ave. in 1867, only to completely burn down in 1869.
1869… Stage Fort Park… 100th Conference of the Universalist Church
“Baptist Church on corner of Pleasant and Middle Sts. utterly destroyed by fire.” (18)
1870
“Gloucester by 1870 was the largest town in the state; in but five years since the war the population had increased by 3,603 to 15,397 under the spur of prosperity, great growth in the fisheries, and the accompanying wave of immigration.” (9)
1871
- “Vincent Cove filled to width of 125 feet parallel with Main St.” (18)
“New Baptist Church built at corner of Pleasant and Middle Sts.” (18)
1872
1872 Map of Rocky Neck and Smith Cove
1872 Map of Gloucester
“Middle St. was notorious for night walkers.” (18)
Cape Ann Weekly Advertiser, May 3, 1872
1873
“First City election held.” (18)
1874
Canvas #151 End of Rocky Neck and Town
from the Gloucester Marine Railways Website
“In 1855, Dodd & Tarr Fisheries was started on the tip of Rocky Neck in Gloucester Harbor. As the fisheries business grew to encompass a wharf, a grocery store, warehouses and 15 schooners, the need arose for a way to repair and maintain the fishing vessels. In 1859, the company constructed the first of two marine railways on the northern-most tip of their property on Rocky Neck. From then until about 1970, the Railways used a steam engine to haul up the vessels. One note of interest is that the gears used in the steam engine were produced at the same factory that built the engine for the Civil War battleship, the Monitor.
In 1874, the Tarr bothers of Gloucester took over the firm of Dodd & Tarr and by 1879 the company was listed as “Rocky Neck Marine Railways Association”. The name “Dodd & Tarr & Co.” was reserved for the fishing business only. By 1892, the railways was maintaining 20 first class vessels. In 1907 Capt. Frederick Albert Cook reportedly brought his schooner to the Railways to be sheathed for ice and outfitted for an Arctic expedition. In the 1920s and 30s, schooners participating in the International Fishermen’s Races were hauled out at the Railways for painting and last minute repairs. In the late 1980s the Mayflower II came for repair. Recently the privately owned 128 foot Nantucket Lightship was hauled up in dry dock as she received fresh paint and maintenance.
Since 1859 the Rocky Neck Marine Railways, now known as the Gloucester Marine Railways Corp., has maintained and repaired thousands of fishing, commercial and pleasure boats from the wooden schooners of the last century to the present day steel and fiberglass vessels. A modern Travelift has recently augmented the original railways as GMRC keeps moving ahead, from one century to the next, distinguished as the oldest continuously operating marine railways in the country and a well respected member of the marine industry in the Northeast.”
Tin can manufactory at Rocky Neck. (18)
“Incorporation of City of Gloucester.” (18)
1875
“Tarr and Wonson Paint (factory) Company built five-building complex” (18)
Canvas #9 Gloucester’s Paint Factory
“Three main roads still dirt, Front St. (Main St., Middle St., and Back St.
(Prospect St.)” (18)
1876
The display above showing scale models of Gloucester fishing vessels was part of
the 1876 Exposition.
Wikipedia:
“The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World’s Fair in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. It was officially the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures and Products of the Soil and Mine. It was held in Fairmount Park, along the Schuylkill River. The fairgrounds were designed by Herman J. Schwarzmann. About 10 million visitors attended, equivalent to about 20% of the population of the United States at the time.”
“THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBIT. The leading fishing port of the Western Hemisphere was fittingly represented at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. During the early part of the year meetings of prominent business men were held and measures taken to adequately show the rise and development of the city’s industry. Space was secured in Agricultural Hall and a tank 23 by 12 feet constructed. This was filled with water and models of fishing craft from the earliest times were floated, full rigged, including shallops, pinkies, bankers, mackerel seiners, with a design showing the idea of setting a seine, etc. In one section a cob wharf in use a hundred years ago, was constructed and opposite was the modern and substantial pile pier built to-day. On the wharves miniature fishermen were represented curing cod and packing mackerel. Among the designs of old craft shown was the pinkey “Manchester,” a clipper fisherman in the early part of the century, and at the date of the exhibition still in commission “down east.” There was also a fine collection of antique articles and curiosities pertaining to the fisheries including a quadrant made in 1761 and used by Capt. Isaac Day together with an hour glass much older. Specimens of coral and other substances drawn from the bottom on fishermen’s trawls were shown. The whole exhibition was most unique and happily conceived and attracted an unusual share of attention.” (19)
In 1876 The LePage Company was founded. Products were manufactured by the Russia Cement Company in West Gloucester.
Between January 1880 and 1887, world-wide, over 47 million bottles of LePages Original Glue were sold.
from Bruce Robert’s Photo – Olde Gloucester 4
Original Gray’s Store at 61 Spring Street (later Main) in 1876. A variety of
services! Later the site of the North Shore Theater.
Looking down into Harbor Cove, with the “Fort” on the other side, Ten Pound Island beyond and Eastern Point at the top of the photograph.
St.Ann’s Catholic Church built with Pigeon Cove granite. (18)
Alfred Johnsen, a Gloucester fisherman of Danish birth, was the first man to cross the ocean unaccompanied even by a dog. His dory, the Centennial, was built in this city by Messrs. Higgins & Gifford, and was 16 ft. keel, 20 ft. over all, 5 ft. wide and 2 ft. deep, decked over with the exception of a standing room and hatchway, sloop-rigged, with two jibs, mainsail and square-sail. The Centennial sailed from Gloucester June 15, 1876, touched at Barrington, N. S., sailed again June 25, and arrived safely at Liverpool, England, Aug. 21, sixty-seven days from Gloucester. Johnsen was a close calculator, and his log gave evidence that he followed the general route of steamship travel. Aug. 2 his boat was capsized by a heavy sea, but he managed to right her. Soon after, a huge shark appeared alongside, which he frightened away with a knife fastened to a pole. (15)
“…. the young fisherman Alfred Johnson sailed to England in 1876, the first singlehanded crossing of the Atlantic in recorded history. Centennial Johnson returned to Gloucester a hero, though years later, after he had retired from the sea as one of Gorton-Pew’s skippers, he allowed as how he’d been a “damn fool” to try it.” (14)
Gloucester National Bank on the corner of Main Street and Duncan.
Looking down, into Duncan St., with the harbor at the end.
Pavillion Beach, running along Western Ave.
the Pavillion Hotel at the end of Western Ave. today the site of the Tavern, but then, “nearly the first seaside resort hotel on the North Shore.” (14)
Widows’ Home
This house was built for fishermen’s widows in Gloucester around 1870. It had ten apartments of three rooms each. Rent for each apartment was $3 per month.
Gloucester’s new City Hall:
“It was built in 1870 and dedicated the following year, and has served as the main location for the city’s offices since then.” Wikipedia
“CITY HALL BUILT. Immediate action was taken by the citizens to rebuild. At a town meeting called to consider the subject a short time afterwards, James Davis, Esq., moved that $90,000, which included the insurance on the old building, be appropriated for the erection of a new town house. The motion was carried by a large majority. Plans of Bryant & Rogers of Boston, were afterwards decided upon for the structure and the contract for the mason work was awarded to Albert Currier of Newburyport, and D. Somes Watson and H. Clough were awarded the carpenter’s work. Its cost was $100,000; with furnishings, $110,000.” (19)
Land bordered by Prospect, Railroad ave.Smith St and St.Ann’s lot of land … Prospect St. at bottom…
- 1877
CANVAS #9 Gloucester’s Paint Factory
The Tar & Wonson Paint Factory was built on the southwest
corner of Rocky Neck in 1877 (10)
THE MERCHANT BOX COMPANY
IN 1877, WHAT EVENTUALLY
BECAME KNOWN AS THE
MERCHANT BOX COMPANY WAS
BEGUN, WHEN LEWIS H. MERCHANT
(THE YOUNGEST BROTHER OF WM. T. MERCHANT) OPENED A BOX AND COOPERAGE BUSINESS ON THE SHUTE & MERCHANT WHARVES. AT THAT TIME IT WAS KNOWN AS LEWIS H. MERCHANT BOX MANUFACTURER, AND MOST LIKELY THE COMPANY MADE ALL THE BOXES AND BUTTS USED BY SHUTE & MERCHANT WHILE IT WAS IN BUSINESS. THE BUSINESS GREW SO LARGE IT HAD TO RELOCATE TO A LARGER SITE. SOME TIME AFTER HIS DEATH IN 1891 THE BUSINESS BECAME KNOWN AS THE MERCHANT BOX AND COOPERAGE AND OPERATED AS PART OF SHUTE & MERCHANT. [ACCORDING TO RECORDS MADE BY GEORGE E. MERCHANT, A FAMILY HISTORIAN, IT WAS JAMES L. SHUTE WHO HAD THE IDEA TO START A BOX COMPANY RIGHT AT THE WHARF WHERE THE FISH WERE BEING PACKED.
“Giles Chapel on Rocky Neck built” (18) GDT Feb.11, 1991
1878
“The Summer of 1878 was memorable for the selection of this city as the Summer headquarters of the U. S. Fish Commission. The scientific corps comprising the Commission arrived here July 9, Prof. Baird and his clerical force taking up their residence at the Kirby cottages on Western avenue, and a large building on Fort Wharf was leased for an office, laboratory, etc.
The laboratory work was under the the special charge of Prof. Goode of the Commission and Prof. Verrill of Yale College, with Dr. Bean and Messrs. Richard Rathburn and Warren Upham as assistants.”
….”One of the most valuable results at the Gloucester station was the demonstration of the fact that codfish, haddock, herring, and other deep sea fish could be artificially propagated as readily as shad, whitefish, and other denizens of our rivers and lakes. Assistant Commissioner Milner, Capt. Ches-
ter and Messrs. Frank N. Clark and Robert E. Hall had charge of the cod-hatching experiments, which were entered upon after the departure of their associates. Various devices were tried, until the proper conditions were realized, and several millions of codfish were hatched out and turned into the harbor, where they could be readily observed around the wharves the following Summer, having made a good growth. It was also found that
herring, haddock, and pollock could be artificially multiplied at will. The results of the experiments were all that could have been expected, and much valuable information was secured that will be of great advantage if the work is ever attempted on a large scale.
The fish-hatching establishment was broken up in the early part of January, 1879, but the Commission retained its laboratory for the reception and preparation of specimens brought in by Gloucester fishing vessels until the Summer of 1881.
(15)
From The Fisheren’s Own Book
Importance of Fish Culture
Day after day this wonderful enterprise is meeting with greater and greater encouragement. The fact of reproducing fish artificially is based upon the practical experiences of a Frenchman nearly a century ago, and although its success proved largely beyond his expectations, the world remained, as many people do to-day, skeptical as to the feasibility of the experiments As in all other important events discovered by accident, science was essen. tial to the thorough illustration in the matter of fish culture. The advances made within the last half century are simply bewildering. The brook trout was first propagated by artificial means ; now even salt-water fishes, including lobsters and oysters, are destined to yield to the manipulation of man, and have their number increased beyond the limits of calculation. Necessity, the admitted mother of invention, should have prompted the European scientists to make the greatest efforts, yet the facts are, it is to those of our young republic to whom the honors have been awarded for the great work, though surrounded by an abundance. Under the. skilful direction of Prof. S. F. Baird, the world renowned Seth Green, and others, the propagation of fish and inventions pertaining thereto, have won for these gentlemen notoriety unequalled by any pisciculturists of the world. Hatcheries, transporting implements, acclimatizing of fish, fishways, and the like, have been perfected in the United States to such a degree that the European Fish Congress held a year ago in Germany awarded their most valuable prizes to gentlemen of our country. The State Fish Commissioners have seconded their national official brethren by untiring energy and skill, which brings them under honorable notice by their colabarateurs abroad. The McDonald fishway is a monument which will perpetuate the name of its inventor. Eugene Blackford of New York has his name engraved upon the historical records of fish, with the Lutjamis blackfordii; so might be enumerated every one of these gentlemen who, without other consideration than the true manly sense of duty, have labored to protect and increase the fish supply of our country. Prof. Geek of Wurzburg, Germany, a noted scientist, is now compiling a book upon this interesting subject, and has wisely placed himself in correspondence with our National and State Fish Commissioners with a view of getting reliable data and information which has been derived from their relative experiences. This is one of many instances complimentary to American fish culturists, but when their present efforts will have been matured by material results, more of them will come pouring in. Much has yet to be done to develop the plans of increased fish culture. The legislatures of the several States must make liberal appropriations, the people are to be educated to the importance of the enterprise, and then the whole world will marvel at what has and can be done. Oysters, which form so large a part of our food supply, must be artificially propagated. Scientists are already occupying themselves about it, and one or two have even devised apparatus for testing the subject. When this is made practicable, with what is being done towards the increase in the supply of fish, a fund of wealth will have been opened far greater than the gold fields of Australia or California. Only a few years ago German carp were introduced into the United States, yet at present their produce would represent edible fish to the extent of many tons. In less than ten years the whole country will be stocked with them. This will materially lessen the existing vandalism practiced in our lakes and streams, consequently assisting nature in the increase of fish in them.
“ Life expectancy at birth was 42 years for males, 44 years for females.” (18)
“Demonstration that deep-sea fish could be artificially propagated as readily as ”denizens” of rivers and lakes.” (18)
“Front St., along with Spring, Union Hill and Jackson Sts., became one and were renamed Main St..” (18)
1879
Canvas #31 Halibut on Deck
“The acknowledged lions of the fleet – men and boats – were the fresh halibuters, forty of them in the peak halibut year of 1879 (the catch declined steadily after that and never recovered from fifty years of overfishing), when they landed 8,300,000 pounds of this giant of the flounders. Every month of the year the strongest and fastest of the Gloucestermen dory-trawled the world’s deepest fishery – Grand Bank, Banquereau, Green, St. Peter’s, Western (Sable Island) and La Havre chiefly, anchoring down to 375 fathoms, fishing on occasion almost twice as deep. Furthermore, the enormous catch of the halibuters that year of 1879 was augmented by another three million pounds landed incidentally durig the winter by the Georges Bank codfishermen.” (6)
Navigation Light on Ten Pound Island
“Stone Cottage House on Ivy Hill built by Fitz Hugh Lane for Sale.” (18)
“Since the close of the war, and even before, the municipal and state constabulary, had been waging a constant warfare on illegal sellers of liquor, the prohibitory laws being in force the greater part of the time. During the previous 15 years and notably the preceding five, the great success of the fisheries, the marked increase of population and the plenteousness of money among all classes, especially seafaring men, attracted the attention of numerous harpies from the outside,’and houses of ill repute, free and easies, etc. sprang up like mushrooms on all sides. The effects of these combined social evils were severely felt in all circles of the community. Press, pulpit and public, cried aloud for the stamping out of these places.” (19)
