Essex County, Massachusetts - Chapter 21, 1888

Miscellaneous Topics

Indian Deed of Lynn - Lynn'' s Colonies - Slavery (ind iU Abolition - History of Free Masonry in Lynn - Drinking Customs and Temperance Movements - Free Public Forest.

Indian Deed op Lynn. - The Indian deed of Lynn, which may be found recorded in the registry at Salem, bears the date September 4, 1680. It is really a mere release of all the remaining interest, if any existed, of the grantors, as heirs of Sagamore Wenepawwekin or George No-Nose, so called, and no doubt a precautionary measure, designed to show that the Indian title had been fairly extinguished. It was executed in the troublous times of the Andros administration, a period when real estate titles were greatly confused. Yet, though Andros had declared that an Indian signature was of no more value than the scratch of a bear's claw, he, in 1689, asked Rev. Mr. Higginson whether New England was the King's territory, and received the reply that it belonged to the colonists, because they held it by just occupation and purchase from the Indians.

The grantors affirm in the deed that their ancestor, the Chief Wenepawwekin, was the true and sole owner of the territory of Lynn, notwithstanding the possession of the English. And they also affirm that there had been no legal dispossession. There were many real and many colorable purchases and sales before this deed ; for, to say nothing of the cupidity of the settlers, their red brethren, as a general thing, would sell anything for which they could find a purchaser, whether they had a title to it or not ; and they would sell the same thing over and over again as long as a purchaser appeared. Gross fi'aud was, no doubt, in individual instances practiced, but the summary exercise of authority by the General Court probably rectified many wrongs. On the 6th of September, 1638, the General Court " agreed that the Court of Assistants should take order for the Indians, that they may have satisfaction for their right at Linn." The " right '' is not specified, but seems to relate to land.

The Indians were not an agricultural nor a pastoral people, and had no conception of the value of land for the uses of civilized life. Poquanum, called Duke William by Mr. Wood, in his " New England's Prospect," and Black Will in certain depositions among the Salem court files, was Sachem of Nahant. And he could hardly have placed a speculative value on his beautiful dukedom, to have sold it to Mr. Dexter for a suit of clothes, though possibly he indulged in a vagrant chuckle over his bargain, as it was finally determined that he had no title to the peninsula, which fact he probably knew all along.

This Poquanura, or Black Will, by the way, was quite a character in his time, and somewhat of a rover. It is supposed that ho, was the same Indian who appeared in a full suit of English clothes, to welcome Gosnold, in 1602. But where he obtained his outfit does not seem to be known. His sale of Nahant and the persistent claims of his grantee occasioned the town much vexation and expense. The end of this wily Indian was tragical. Some vessels had sailed eastward in search of pirates who had been committing depredations and atrocities in various places along the coast. At Scarborough, Me., they fell in with Poquanum, and straightway hanged him, because some Indians had, more than a year before, murdered one Bagnall, a pestilent fellow, whom Winthrop says "had much wronged the Indians." This was retaliating in a summary rather than a just way, it being altogether improbable that Poquanum had any hand in the murder. Indeed, Winthrop says the killing was by " Squidraysett and his Indians."

The tragic death of Poquanum occurred in January, 1633. He seems to have been intelligent, generous in disposition and friendly to the settlers. He left a son who was also named Poquanum, who lived to old age, and was well known in the colony. Gookin, in 1686, says : " He is an Indian of good repute and professeth the Christian religion." He, too, was friendly to the whites, and rendered efficient service during the great King Philip War.

Nothing further need be said regarding the Indian deed of Lynn. But the general remark may be added that there was a great deal of looseness about Indian titles in this vicinity. It can almost be said that heirship was sometimes asserted on no better ground than that the claimant had slain a former owner. Mr. Higgiuson, the first minister of Salem, in a letter dated in 1629, says : " The Indians are not able to make use of the one-fourth part of the land ; neither have they any settled places as towns, to dwell in, nor any grounds as they challenge for their own possession, but change their habitation from place to place." But they soon began to learn from the settlers something of the utility of reforming their nomadic life; and then followed a conception of the value of land.

Lynn's Colonies. - Affairs in Lynn had hardly become established in good running order when some of the restless - or it might be more pleasing to say enterprising - spirits began to look for new fields of adventure. In less than a score of years from the commencement of the settlement many families departed and planted new towns, among which were Sandwich and Yarmouth, in Massachusetts; Southampton and Flushing, on Long Island ; and Stamford, in Connecticut. New Haven, too, was indebted to Lynn for one of her first and most efficient founders, - Captain Nathaniel Turner, who is spoken of in another connection in this sketch. He it was who purchased from the Indians the territory forming the now beautiful town of Stamford, on the New York and New Haven Railroad, which purchase was brought about in a rather curious way.

The captain's Lynn residence was on Nahant Street, near that of his friend and superior officer, John Humfrey. On the breaking out of the Pequot War, 1636, he took the field Avith the first expedition and became so pleased with the territory invaded as to determine at the clo^se of hostilities to make a peaceful invasion and form a settlement. He obtained the tract including Stamford by fair purchase from the Indian Sagamores, the recorded agreement being in these words : " I, the said Nathaniel Turner, amm to give and bring or send to the above said Sagamores, within the space of one month, twelve coats, twelve howes (hoes), twelve hatchets, twelve glasses, twelve knives, four kettles, four fathoms of white wampum."

The most important of the colonies sent out from Lynn at this period was that of Long Island. Thither went some forty families, and with them, as minister, the Rev. Abraham Pierson, a man of learning and ability. He took with him his little son, Abraham, who was born here. And that son, in 1701, became the first president of Yale College. They sailed in a vessel cornmanded by Captain Daniel Howe, of Lynn, who apjjears to have had considerable interest in the expedition. They proceeded as far west as Scout's Bay, landed and made lodgments at Flushing, Jamaica, Hempstead, Oyster Bay and thereabouts. But the Dutch soon as-serted their right to the territory and a-sumed a decidedly hostile attitude. Kieft was then the Dutch Governor, and Captain Howe being a man of determination, things presently began to wear a threatening aspect. The settlers took down the arms of the Prince of Orange which the Dutch had erected, and in their place an Indian drew an " unhandsome face," as Winthrop graphically says, which act the Dutch took " in high displeasure." They then began to rear habitations. Naturally enough, this provoked the Dutch Governor, and to such a degree did his ire attain that he had several arrested and imprisoned. But he does not appear to have been a really ill-natured or unreasonable man, though Washington Irving does characterize him as " William the Testy."

On their promise to remove, the prisoners were readily released. They did remove some eighty miles eastward and commenced the permanent settlement of Southampton, which name was given in commemoration of the port in England from which some of them originally came.

Southampton, thus begun, still numbers among her people many who descended from that good old Lynn stock. In this colonization quite a number of the leading residents of Lynn were concerned, though some whose names were on the roll did not emigrate. The colony grew apace, and from time to time sent off other colonies that made lodgments in various parts of the island, so that the Long Island of this day owes much to the Lynn of that day.

These colonists evidently carried with them the ideas of freedom and equality under which they had prospered here, and in their new home continued to be governed in a thoroughly democratic way, though at one time, 1644, they placed themselves professedly under the Hartford jurisdiction. ''The government of the town," says an intelligent native writer, "was vested in the people. They assembled at their townmeetings, had all power and all authority. They elected town officers, constituted courts, allotted lands, made laws, tried difficult and important cases, and from their decision there was no appeal. The Town- Meeting, or General Court, as it was sometimes called, met once a month. Every freeholder was required to be present at its meetings and take a part in the burdens of government. All delinquents were fined for non-attendance at each meeting.'

The Long Island enterprise thus inaugurated by the people of Lynn was really of a good deal of importance. It was with James Forrett, as agent of Lord Sterling, that the negotiations for the right to occupy the land were made. Winthrop says, " Divers of the inhabitants of Linne, finding themselves straitened, looked out for a new plantation, and going to Long Island, they agreed with the Lord Sterling's agent there, one Mr. Forrett, for a parcel of the isle near the west end, and agreed with the Indians for their right." The emigrants, however, to begin with, had a difficulty with Agent Forrett, the cause of which does not exactly appear, and he entered a strong protest against them at Boston as " intruders." Then the troubles with the Dutch came, but by persistence and fair dealing the settlers soon obtained favor and a permanent foothold.

It is not necessary to occupy space in speaking further of the colonies that early went out from Lynn. What has been said of the Long Island enterprise in a great degree characterized the others, their spirit and purposes being much the same.

Slavery and its Abolition. - The beginning of slavery in Massachusetts was in 1638, when some of the captive Pequot Indians were sent to the West Indies and sold for return cargoes of cotton, tobacco and negroes, but in 1641 the court, in a loose and uncertain way, set its face against such servitude, enacting that "There shall never be any bond slaverie, villianage or captivitie amongst us, unless it be lawfull captives taken in just warres, and such strangers as willingly selle themselves or are sold to us. This exempts none from servitude who shall be judged thereto by authoritie." What is there in this to prevent negro or Indian slavery? Under the clause "such strangers as willingly sell themselves or are sold to us," a door seems to be widely opened. Thomas Keyser, an early settler of Lynn, was a mariner, and appears unscrupulously to have engaged in the Guinea slave trade, conjointly with James Smith, of Boston, a church member. Slaves were most numerous in the province in 1745. In 1754 there were four hundred and thirty-nine slaves in Essex County, and in all Massachusetts forty -four hundred and eighty-nine. In 1774 the General Court passed a bill prohibiting the importation of slaves, but Governor Gage refused his assent.

At the commencement of the Revolution there were twenty-six slaves in Lynn, among them one belonging to Thomas Mansfield, named Pompey, a native prince born on the Gambia, and who continued to be duly honored by all the negroes hereabout, holding a holiday court once a year in a fragrant glade, surrounded by his gayly-clad subjects, who had been allowed their freedom for the day.

The State Constitution Avas established in 1780. The first article of the Declaration of Rights asserts that all men are born free and equal, and this was generally supposed to have reference to slavery, but it was a point on which there was by no means unanimity of opinion. In 1781, however, at a court in Worcester, an indictment was found against a white man for assaulting, beating and imprisoning a black. The case finally, in 1783, went to the Supreme Court, and there the defense was that the black was a slave, and the beating the necessary and lawful correction by the master; but the defense was declared invalid, and this decision was the death-blow to slavery in Massachusetts.

As to the later movements touching the abolition of slavery in the United States, it may be remarked that Lynn raised a strong and by no means uncertain voice in behalf of the slaves, - a cause so much derided and opposed in its incipient stages, but so much applauded when it had become popular.

The "Lynn Colored People's Friend Society" was formed in 1832, but it is thought that the members really did more for the cause by individual than combined action. Nevertheless, the organization was useful in arousing and centralizing attention. Speakers from abroad were occasionally here. The accomplished and piquant Grimkie ladies from the South gave one or two stirring addresses. In the early part of the summer of 1835 George Thompson, the prominent English abolitionist, visited Lynn, and lectured in several of the meeting-houses to large audiences. In the latter part of the summer he again came to Lynn to attend a meeting of the Essex County Anti- Slavery Society, held in the First Methodist meetinghouse. Some hostility was now manifested by the opponents of the movement. In the evening, while Mr. Thompson was lecturing, a great crowd collected about the house, and a stone was thrown through one of the windows, causing great disturbance within. A large number pressed into the entry and attempted to burst in the inner doors, whicli had been closed. During the tumult Mr. Thompson ended his discourse, and passed out, unobserved by the crowd. He was presently surrounded by a guard of ladies, and conducted to a neighboring house, whence he departed privately to his temporary residence at 8wampscott. Mr. Thompson was here again in 1850, and then met with a cordial welcome. He had a public reception by his Lynn friends at Lyceum Hall, which stood on Market Street, at the corner of Summer. Though the weather was stormy, the hall was well filled, and Mr. Thompson delivered a felicitous address.

It was in 1850 that Congress passed the famous, or as many regarded it, the infamous "Fugitive Slave Law." The law intended to facilitate the rendition of slaves escaping into the free States. Much hostility to the act was manifested in Lynn, and several largely-attended meetings were held, at which it was denounced in strong terms. On Saturday evening, October 5th, a full and enthusiastic meeting took place in Lyceum Hall, at which Mayor Hood presided, and at which resolutions were adopted reaching to the very verge of loyalty. And, though one or two of them savor strongly of the nullification doctrine, they may well be introduced here as indicative of the aroused spirit of our people :

" Resolved, That the Fugititive Slave Bill, recently enacted by Congress, violates the plain intent and the strict letter of the United States Constitution, wliich secures to every citizen, except in cases of martial law, the right of trial by jury on all important questions ; further, said bill outrages justice, since it does not secure to the fugitive, or to the free man mistaken for a fugitive, due notice beforehand of the charge made against him, and opportunity for cross-examining the witnesses against him on their oath, gives him no time to get counsel or gather testimony in his own behalf - rights which our fathere secured by the struggle of two hundred years, and which are too dear to be sacrificed to the convenience of slave-hunters, afraid or ashamed to linger amid a community whose institutions and moral sense they are outraging.

"Again, said bill tramples on the most sacred principles of the common law, and even if men could be property, no property, however sacred, can claim the right to be protected in such away as endangers the rights and safety of free men; therefore -

"Resolved, That we protest against it as grossly unconstitutional, as fraught with danger to the safety of a large portion of our fellow-citizens, and capable of being easily perverted to the ruin of any one, white or black ; we denounce it as Infamous, and we proclaim our determination that it shall not be executed.

" Resolved, That we rejoice to believe that there are not prisons enough at the North to hold the men and women who stand ready to succor and protect the panting fugitive slave, and baffle and resist the slave-hunter who shall dare to pollute our soil.

"Resolved, That every man who voted for this atrocious bill, every one who avows his readineas to execute it, and every one who justifies it on any ground, is a traitor to the rights of the free States, and a criminal of the deepest die, at the head of whom stands Millard Fillmore, who from party or even b;iser motives, has set his name to a law, the provisions of which, so far from being fitted for a Christian republic, remind one only of the court of Jeffries or the camp of Haynau.

"Resolved, That Samuel A. Eliot, of Boston, in giving his vote for this blood-hound bill, dishonored and betrayed Massachusetts ; and low as is often the moral sense of a great city, cankered by wealth, we rejoice to know that he misrepresented his immediate constituents; and we demand of them, in the name of our old commonwealth, to save us from the infamy of his presence in another Congress.

right to liberty is self-evident, we see no way of avoiding the conclusion of Senator Seward, that 'it is a violation of the divine law to surrender the fugitive slave who takes refuge at our firesides from his relentless pursuers ;' and in view of this, as well as of the notorious fact that the slave power has constantly trampled under foot the Constitution of the United States to secure its own extension or safety, and especially of the open, undisguised and acknowledged contempt of that instrument with which the slave States kidnap our colored citizens traveling South, and imprison our colored seamen, we, in obedience to God's law, and in selfdefense, declare that, constitution or no constitution, law or no law, with jury trial or without, the slave who has once breathed the air and touched the soil of Massachusetts, shall never be dragged back to bondage.

" Resolved, That Lewis Cass and Daniel Webster, Senator Foote and Senator Clay, and each and every one of the ' compromise committee of thirteen,' who reported and urged the passage of this bill, as well as every one who voted for its passage, are unworthy the votes of a free people for any office for which they may be hereafter named."

The execution of John Brown,"atCharlestown, Va., adjudged guilty of treason for attempting by armed force to free slaves, was signalized by the tolling of church bells in Lynn at sunrise, noon and sunset on Friday, December 2, 1859, the day of execution.

It would be pleasing to give the names of those who long and valiantly fought in the abolition ranks, those who, under reproach and sometimes personal danger, never flinched in their loyalty to the great principles of h'-iman liberty. But the list would be too long, and it might appear invidious to select a few. James N. Bufl'um, however, should not be forgotten ; nor Frederic Douglass, who was for some time a resident here, after his successful flight from the South. Some of the more zealous of the early ones lost much, of their influence by denouncing the church organizations for the alleged reason that their position was not sufficiently aggressive on that and some other reformatory questions. They were called Comeouters, and in many instances their turbulent course tended to retard rather than advance the cause they really had at heart

To one who knew the prominent actors in the reformatory movements of this community, say fortyfive years ago, particularly the movements touching slavery and intemperance, it is interesting, if not wonderful, to observe the change of public opinion regarding them. No better examples can be had of the zeal and perseverance necessary to be exercised, of the contumely and misconception to be endured, in such a warfare.

But the end of slavery came in a manner not anticipated in those earlier days, and many of the pioneers in the great cause lived to rejoice over the removal of the national disgrace. Little could that great apostle of freedom, William Lloyd Garrison, have dreamed of the career that awaited him, and of the lasting honors that would surround his name so long as American principles should endure, when, in his youthful days, he quietly pursued his humble labors upon the shoemakers bench, in the little seven by nine shop on Market Street.

History of Free Masonry in Lynn. - A brief history of the ancient institution of Free Masonry cannot be ina[)propriate in this sketch. It dates back to the commencement of the present century. Tradition informs us that a number of Masonic brethren frequently met for consultation, and concluded, in the early summer of 1805, to form a lodge. These brethren resided in the western part of the town and located the lodge in the upper room of a small wooden building on Boston Street, near the corner of North Federal. The founders of the lodge were among the foremost citizens, men of character and influence, whose names to this day are revered by the fraternity. The original records show that Amariah Childs, Ezra Collins, Thomas C. Thatcher, William Frothingham, Frederick Breed, William Ballard, Francis Moore, Jr., Aaron Breed, Aaron Learned, Samuel Brimblecom, Thomas Witt, Joseph Johnson, Jonas W. Gleason, Joshua Blanchard, David Crane and Richard Johnfcon, being all master masons, assembled some time about the 1st of June, 1805, and agreed to form themselves into a brotherhood by the name of Mount Carmel Lodge ; and after choosing Amariah Childs, Master ; William Ballard, Senior Warden ; and Francis Moore, Jr., Junior Warden, they signed a petition to the Grand Lodge for a charter, which was granted at the quarterly communication in June of the same year.

Tlie hall of Lynn Academy, then recently erected, on South Common Street, was obtained, fitted up, all necessary regalia procured and regular meetings commenced. The first candidate proposed for initiation was Ezra Mudge, father of Ezra Warren Mudge, the sixth mayor of Lynn. The first code of by-laws was adopted November 13th, and the membership limited to fifty. The lodge so prospered that in 1807 an invitation was extended to the Grand Lodge to publicly install the officers. The use of the old parish meetinghouse was procured for the purpose, and there the ceremonies took place, the Eev. Asa Eaton, D.D., rector of Christ Church, Boston, delivering the sermon. The membership was, in 1818, limited to seven ty-five, by the new code of by-laws then adopted.

In 1821 the lodge erected for its use the two-story frame building which long stood in Market Square, at the corner of Elm Street, and was known as Masonic Hall. The cost was $1,325.98. The corner-stone was laid June 25th, with Masonic ceremonies, Rev. Cheever Felch delivering the address, and the hall was dedicated November 12th.

The lodge attended, by invitation, the laying of the corner-stoneof Bunker Hill Monument, June 17,1825. On St. John's day, June 24, 1826, Brother Caleb Gushing, of Newburyport, delivered a learned and eloquent address before the fraternity, in the First Methodist meeting-house.

The last meeting of record, previous to surrendering the charter of Mount Carmel Lodge, appears to have been on the 16th of December, 1834. And from that time until June 11, 1845, there is no record to show that the lodge was called together.

The charter of the lodge was restored on the 11th of June, 1845. A meeting was called July 19th, and officers elected, who were installed July 23d, and from that date commenced a season of prosperity which has continued without interruption to the present time. The first person to receive the degrees after the revival of the charter was Bradford Williams, the ceremony taking place September 15, 1845.

On the 17th of February, 1851, a fire destroyed much of the property of the lodge, which was at Liberty Hall, at the corner of Essex and Market Streets, where the meetings were held. After this the regular meetings of the fraternity were held at the house of their Worthy Master, W. M. Phillips, until Dec. 16th, when they met in a hall in which one or two other organizations occasionally assembled. In the winter of 1854 the hall in the Sagamore Building was fitted up and used for the regular convocations of the lodge, and if those old walls could speak, a recital of the history of the meetings of Mount Carmel Lodge would greatly interest the jjresent members of the fraternity in our city.

On the 29th of December, 1855, the first book of records was formally closed, having served the lodge for half a century. And on September 7, 1857, a new code of by-laws was adopted, to which is appended the names of sixty-one members.

On the 14th of October, 1864, upon invitation of the Grand Body, Mount Carmel Lodge assisted in laying the corner-stone of the new Masonic Temple, corner of Boylston and Tremont Streets, Boston.

On February 21, 1865, Golden Fleece Lodge was duly organized, and had for its first three officers Timothy G. Senter, W. M.; Alonzo C. Blethen, S. W. ; John G. Dudley, J. W.

November 13, 1865, an invitation was received from Mayor Peter M. Neal to take part in the ceremonies of laying the corner-stone of the City Hall ; but on December 11th a communication was received from the R. W. Grand Master refusing to grant a dispensation for the lodges to appear in public to take part in the ceremonies.

June 28, 1872. - Died, in Lynn, Jonathan Richardson, a native of the town, aged eighty-seven years. He was one of the early members of Mount Carmel

Lynn

Lodge, and tiler for more than forty years. He remained a faithful adherent to the institution when so many of the brethren withdrew, in the troublous times of anti-Masonry. His burial took place from the First Methodist meeting-house, and was attended by a large number of the fraternity.

September 8, 1873. - Livitation received from the city government of Lynn to take part in the dedication of the Soldiers' Monument. As an organization, however, the iraternity did not join in the ceremonies.

May 12, 1879. - Invitation received from Mayor George P. Sanderson to participate in the celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the settlement of Lynn. But the invitation was not accepted.

October 8, 1881. - Grand Master S. E. Lawrence present for the purpose of addressing the lodges on the commutation of the Grand Lodge capitation tax.

February 22, 1882. - Members from lodges in the Fifth District hold a meeting at Masonic Hall in Lynn, for exemplification of work and the lectures connected therewith. Charles M. Avery, Grand Lecturer, present as instructor.

Mount Carmel Lodge, soon after the renewal of its charter, in 1845, began steadily to increase in numbers and strength, and, from time to time, found it necessary to seek more capacious accommodations. Some years ago the hall in Tolman's Building, Market Street, corner of Liberty, was leased and fitted up in becoming style, the dedicatory ceremonies taking place in July, 1872. But now, for a number of years, the several Masonic organizations have occupied the eligible quarters in the building of the Young Men's Christian Association, on Market Street.

The trustees of the Masonic fraternity in Lynn, at the present time, are: William D. Pool, president; George H. Allen, treasurer ; William B. Phillips, secretary ; Charles E. Parsons, Charles C. Fry.

Drinking Customs and Temperance Movements. - Whether our jiredecessors, as occupants of this soil, the Indians, were ever excessive drinkers is not positively known. They did not have distilled liquors, but may possibly have had some sort of herbaceous concoction that operated as a more or less inebriating stimulant. But they had nothing that in its effects would compare with the " fire water " brought by their pale-faced supplanters. Their boisterous orgies, which led our fathers to call them " devil worshippers," were of a character very different from " drunken sprees." But when they got a taste of the white man's fire water, having no restraining moral sentiment, their lust for it was unquenchable. The deplorable result need not be recounted. It has been said that the first instance of Indian intoxication in this part of North America took place in September, 1609, when the ship of the celebrated navigator, Henry Hudson, was cruising about the river that still bears his name. For the curious purpose of ascertaining the natural disposition of the natives whom they encountered, it is said the navigators resolved to make some of the principal ones intoxicated. To that end, ardent spirits, " as much as they would," were administered. Only one, however, became really drunk, though all reached the merry stage. The pranks of the drunken one greatly astonished and alarmed the others, who imagined that an evil spirit had entered into him. The next day, however, everything having calmed down, some became clamorous for a renewal of the experiment. This, as remarked, is claimed to have been the first instance of intoxication ever known among the Indians. Unhap; pily, it was by no means the last. Many a tract of valuable land has been bought of an Indian for a quart of rum, notwithstanding the efforts of the colonial authorities to prevent such nefarious traffic. During the colonial days there was much legislation in regard to strong liquors, both on the score of their proper use by individuals and their relation to the public by way of revenue. But we must treat of our own neighborhood.

It cannot be said that Lynn in her earlier flays was remarkable for abstinence from the use of intoxicating liquors. There were causes for the prevalence of the evil habit here that in some places did not exist. It was the custom of the times for all classes to use intoxicants in season and out of season. Excepting in rare instances, the ministers indulged ; and the doctors. The physical injury attending the use was not so well understood ; nor the moral effect. At ordinations, at weddings, at funerals, drink freely flowed ; and at trainings and huskings ; indeed, at all quasi social and public gatherings; to say nothing of sly indulgence at home. An illustrative anecdote is told of the eccentric Lois Hart, who lived on the north side of Boston Street, near Federal. During her last sickness the good Doctor Gardner one day remarked to her that, being so aged, she could not expect to long survive, and, in view of her approaching end, asked if he should not invite the minister to call. " Well, yes," she replied, in her rude way, " I should like well enough to see him; and when you go up town, call into some of the grog-shops, and when you see him ask him to call." The end of the story is that he actually was found in one of the drinking groceries, and blandly received the message.

But especially as regards the youth of Lynn : The crews, usually consisting of five or six, in the shoemaker's little shops thought it necessary to have their forenoon and afternoon drams - in winter to brace up against the cold, in summer to brace up against the heat. It was customary to put boys into the shops at the age of twelve, they having obtained their education by that time, excepting, perhaps, the little they might acquire by occasionally attending an evening school. They were of just the age when character for life was forming, and it was placing them in a most perilous situation. The youngest boy in the shop was usually the one sent out for liquor, and he was entitled, on his return, to the first drink, for the service, if his breath did not betray a sly imbibition by the way.

But it is not true that people were universally blind to the evils of strong drink. From the earliest times there were some wide awake on the subject. The Lynn emigrants to Long Island, soon after getting well established at Southampton, 1655, ordained that no one should sell strong liquors within the town bounds, excepting "our neighbor, John Cooper ; " and he was not to sell to any Indian, nor to any but those who would use them properly. There was Dr.. James Gardner, just mentioned, who, before the present century, pointed out the evils of so prevalent indulgence, and often fearlessly warned his patients against habits which were destroying their health, as well as ruining their souls. A memorandum of his, under date May 31, 1796, is in these words: "One person died of chronic illness, said to have been occasioned by gross intemperance, or a brutal indulgence of the destroyer, rum. . * . . He was able to walk to a considerable distance to procure the poison only six days before death closed the scene at one draught." Mr. Enoch Mudge, from whom many of the name now among us descended, was a rigid abstainer, never allowing spirits in his house or shop. He was grandfather of Hon. E. R. Mudge, the munificent donor of St. Stephen's Church.

When the general awakening on the subject of intemperance took place, more than half a century ago, the voice of Lynn was loudly raised against the evil. Sixty years ago, in 1826, a society was formed here for the promotion of "Industry and Temperance." It soon numbered more than four hundred members, and embraced, with few exceptions, the most conspicuous men of the town. The membership in 1836, fifty years since, was five hundred and fifty. Its president then was Thomas Bowler, for sixteen years town clerk. The society was at that time composed largely of middle-aged and elderly persons, as in the meantime two other societies, embracing more of the younger men, had been formed, namely, the Lynn Young Men's Temperance Society, organized in 1833, and the Lynn Union Temperance Society, formed in 1835. This latter was the first organization here that proscribed wine, cider or strong beer, which theretofore had not been popularly reckoned as intoxicants. Of this society Josiah Nevvhall was the first president, and George W. Keene the first secretary.

Lynn soon took rank among the most zealous temperance communities. Rev. Edwin Thompson, so well known for the last forty years as a lecturer on temperance and anti-slavery, was living here, and, though young, by his winning ways and strong arguments, did much to advance the cause. Liquors soon began to be banished from the workshops and the labeled casks from the stores. It Avas even facetiously said of one or two zealots that they cut down their apple trees, lest the fruit should be made into cider - contrariwise from the unsophisticated old Indian who is said to have told Mrs. Whiting, on smacking his lips after swallowing the mug of cider she had given him, that he thought Adam was rightly damned for eating the apples in Eden, as he should have made them into cider.

When the shoemakers' little shops were displaced by the large factories, more stringent rules were necessarily established, and, as a matter of course, the machinery was run without the oil of the still. One of the former traps for the young was thus removed. At the present time few, if any, places in sober New England can boast of a more temperate population than Lynn. It would be useless to attempt to give details respecting the many temperance organizations, male and female, adult and juvenile. Yet the cause here, as elsewhere, requires vigilant and unremitted watchfulness.

There are now some fifteen regular temperance organizations in Lynn, besides a number of other associations that make temperance a part of their object.

Free Public Forest. - A voluntary association was formed in 1881, the object being, in brief, the preservation of as large a portion as may be of the extensive range of forest land yet remaining upon our northern border, to be forever devoted to the free use of the public as a woodland park. Thus far about one hundred and ten acres have been secured, chiefly by the gift of those who owned the lands. Twice a year individuals most deeply interested, with invited guests, assemble in some romantic spot, on hill-top or in glen, which, with ceremonies reminding of the old mythological days, they proceed to consecrate. Sometimes it is in memory of a revered departed one, and sometimes of a marked event. An " altar," in the shape, perhaps, of a mossy boulder, is made to bear the ceremonial fire, replenished by woodland gatherings and the oil of incense. The participants, enwreathed in sylvan spoils, gather around with songs, readings and inspiring pageantry. The occa- sion usually calls out some poem or address well worthy of preservation. For instance, there were written for the meeting on the 30th of May, 1886, four little poems, which, though untoward circumstances prevented their being sung, were published in connection with the account of the proceedings. One of the interesting features on this particular day was the release of a "Messenger Dove." Let us quote a stanza or two from each of the little poems, as, besides their appropriateness to the occasion, they afford a taste of the qualities of some of our local versifiers : By RuTHiE Turner :

Whatever may be thought of the ceremonies of the " camp days " the object of the associates is assuredly praiseworthy. And though the work undertaken is of great and yet undefined proportions, and such as in no probability can be fully accomplished during the lifetime of the present participants, future generations will doubtless honor the effort. But setting aside all other considerations, these spring and autumn woodland gatherings are highly enjoyable, resolving themselves at suitable hours into picnic entertainments, inspiring social intercourse of a refining and educating character.