Essex County, Massachusetts - Chapter 24: Town of Rockport, 1922

Chapter 24: Town of Rockport

The town of Rockport, with a present population of 3,700, came into existence, as an historic fact, by Sandy Bay, the fifth parish of the town of Gloucester, and Pigeon Cove, a part of the Third Parish, being set off from Gloucester and incorporated as the Town of Rockport, February 27, 1840. It is situated on the most easterly part of Cape Ann, and bounded northwesterly by Ipswich Bay, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Massachusetts Bay and on the west by the city of Gloucester. It has a water front of about six miles. The greater part of the coastline is rugged and rock-bound, though here one finds a few sandy beaches, including Long Beach, a mile in extent. Fine driveways are thus afforded, along with good bathing facilities. Pebble Stone, Cape Hedge, is composed of an immense pebble-stone reef. Schoolhouse Beach is found here. There are also a number of other pleasant beaches. The Cape, or Fresh Pond, a beautiful sheet of water, covers seventy or more acres. Pigeon Cove has for many years been a popular summer resort.

Early in 1839, after an agitation of the proposition for several years, the vote of the town was finally taken. It stood 319 "yea" against fiftyfour "no" on the question of incorporation as a separate place. A meeting was called, and five persons were chosen on the part of Sandy Bay to confer with a committee to be chosen by the present town, viz: George D. Hale, James Haskell, John W. Marshall, Nehemiah Knowlton, Reuben Dade. Very soon the new town of Rockport, including Sandy Bay and Pigeon Cove, was incorporated, the date being February 27, 1840. This act was approved by Governor Marcus Morton on the same day. The warrant for the first town meeting called upon voters to meet in the vestry of the Congregational Society, March, 1840. The first

The present (1921) town officers are: Selectmen and Overseers of the Poor: John H. Dennis, Eli L. Morgan, Frank C. Todd; Town Clerk, Byron G. Russell ; Treasurer, Mrs. Lois F. Sherburne ; Constables : John E. Sullivan, John V. Spates; Surveyor, Fred E. Smith; Auditors: W. Elmer Smith, Winfred A. Mason, A. Carl Butman; Town Attorney, J. M. Marshall; Harbor Master, C. W. Gott.

Richard Tarr was doubtless the first man to effect a permanent settlement in this town, in Sandy Bay. He here erected a log cabin about 1690. He was bom in the west of England about 1660, and died in 1732, leaving an estate of approximately £400, and a large family of children. The next to enter the town was John Pool, who according to family traditions and records was bom in Taunton, England, in 1670. He was by trade a carpenter, and worked at his trade in Beverly for several years, with Richard Woodbury. It was he who furnished the builders of Long Wharf in Boston with a greater part of the lumber required for that extensive work. In the early eighties, there were fortyfour persons bearing the name of Pool in the town of Rockport.

In 1688 it appears that prior to that date no general division of grant for any part of this territory of Gloucester had been made. On the 27th of February of that year, however, the town voted that every householder and young man upwards of twenty-one years of age who was bom in the town and was then living therein, should have six acres of land. Among the conditions annexed were these: that the inhabitants should be permitted to cut wood upon these lots for their own use ; and, second, that the people should have a free passage through them for certain purposes to the water-side. In accordance with this plan and town vote, eighty-two lots, all numbered, beginning at Flat-Stone Cove, and terminating at Black Beach, Sandy Bay, were laid out to persons living on the east side of the cut. In 1725 the town was provided with a schoolhouse, "to keep a good school in for godly instruction of children, and teaching of them to read and write good English." In 1734 the whole number of taxpayers in Sandy Bay was thirty-seven, more than one-half of whom made their livelihood by fishing.

Rockport has no natural harbor to receive large shipping interests.. But millions of dollars, from the first settlement down, have been expended for hai-bor improvements, until at present a safe, fairly good harbor exists. Thus what nature failed to accomplish, man in his wisdom and energy has brought about. In 1829 the federal government caused a survey to be made of this harbor, with a view to the construction of a breakwater. A few years later Congress made an appropria- tion of $50,000 for the improvement of a harbor. Work was begun in 1885 on plans by which the government was to enclose, by a breakwater of great strength, sufficient space to surround a harbor of 1,370 acres with water twenty-four feet deep at low tide stage.

One of the greatest drought seasons ever known in this county was that of 1779, as a result of which the settlers endured great hardships, in addition to the burdens laid upon them by reason of the war. Most of the agricultural resources were cut off for that year. Moreover, the winter of 1779-80 was one of unusual severity, one record declaring that "snow fell for twenty-seven days in succession."

Ever since 1807 Rockport has been protected by a fire company and such engines and other equipment as the times afforded. A company was organized during the year just mentioned, consisting of twenty members. Each man was to provide himself with two leather water buckets and a leather sack, or bag, on which was inscribed his Christian name. This equipment was to stand in the hall, or front room, of his place of residence. A fine of one dollar and fifty cents was imposed on all who failed to meet these requirements. Later, forty-seven members belonged to this company. The first engine purchased in 1827 cost $315 and was named "Enterprise." The next engine was purchased by Gloucester, and the company had twenty-five members. In 1848 the "Votary" was bought by Rockport, costing $1,000; this served until a steamer was purchased in 1885. The fourth engine was "Pigeon Cove" (suction), bought in 1860 for $1,100; this required a company of forty men to render the best sei-vice. In 1866 "Silver Grey" was bought for $898, and required fifty men. In 1876 the town bought a hose-carriage, "C. H. Parsons," at a cost of $710, and a hook and ladder truck costing $775. In 1885 the steamer "Sandy Bay," a third-size Silsby, which, including wagon, cost $3,970. This required only fifteen men to perform excellent work at fires. As the years have slipped by, and other improvements have been made in fire-fighting apparatus, the town has invested, so that today it is abreast of the other towns in Essex county, believing that in "all that is good, Rockport can afford the best." Yet with all the precautions, fire has caused the total destruction of quite a number of buildings in the town, including several struck by lightning. The Methodist church was burned in May, 1875. The Annisquam Mill took fire in December, 1883, when the main structure and contents were destroyed, throwing nearly three hundred persons out of employment.

Long before the days of organizing the Woman's Christian Temperance Union,, the forming of State and National Prohibition platforms in this country, or before the Women Crusaders, or Francis Murphy, with his blue-ribbon pledge lectures and campaign against the liquor traffic, Rockport was highly interested in the subject of doing away with liquors as a beverage. Back in 1856, sixty-six years ago, Rockport had her "Carrie Nations," as did Kansas in the later years. July 8,

1856, occuiTed a women's raid. The body corxsisted of about two hundred women. Armed with hatchets, and led by a man bearing an American flag, they marched through the main streets of the town for the purpose of making a demonstration against the grog shops of Rockport. They were hasty, in that they did not stop to consider the legal rights they had or did not possess. They visited thirteen saloons and seized bottles, jugs, casks, etc., destroying with their hatchets the vessels and their contents. The raiders had completed their work by three o'clock in the afteraoon, and then repaired to Dock Square, where a love-feast was held, with congratulations to one another on the work accomplished. They were subsequently arrested, and after a long legal battle were released. A number of legal questions were at issue in this quite celebrated case.

At Sandy Bay a postofRce was established in 1825, having a semiweekly mail service. The next year a tri-weekly sei^ice followed. In 1828 a daily stage coach sei-vice was established. The first postmaster was Winthrop Pool, who continued until 1838, when he died. His successors in office have been : Henry Clark, George Lane, Francis Tarr, Jr., Addison Gott, William W. Marshall, William Wingood, Walter G. Peckham, James S. Wallace, and William Parsons, sixteen years tenn. Eugene Meagher, the present postmaster, was commissioned under President Woodrow Wilson in July, 1914. This has long been a second-class postoffice, and now transacts a business of somewhat in excess of $10,000 annually. The town caniers are: John S. Higgins, Arthur Wilson, P^alph Wilson. There are two rural free deliveries, one about tv/elve miles, the other twenty-four miles in length. The carriers of these routes are respectively John Denn and Richard Dodge. This postoffice has occupied the L. E. Smith store-building for nearly a quarter of a century.

Meanwhile the change in matters of transportation and mail-service since those early years of the last century has indeed been marked. In the eighties, instead of the one-horse, two-wheeled chaise to Gloucester Harbor, as in 1825, there had come to be eight trains of well-appointed case running to and from Boston daily.

As its name would indicate, Rockport's natural resource is stone. The first stone known to have been shipped from Rockport or Cape Ann was quarried about 1800, near Lobster Cove. It was moved on simple skids to the shore, where it was loaded on a small fishing-boat and taken to Newburyport, to be used as a mill-stone.

The first derrick set up here was in 1838. The earliest steam engine employed in these quarries was in 1853-54. Prior to that period, water was pumped by hand, while hoisting was either by hand or by use of oxen. Nearly every section of the United States has at some time or other bought stone from these quarries. An account of these immense quarries given in 1885 states that at that date there were then engaged about five hundred men. Fifteen boats were constantly in use in trans- Esses - is porting the output from the quarry companies of the Rockport Granite Company, Pigeon Hill Granite Company, Charles Guidot, Edwin Canney, Ballou & Mason, Herbert A. Story, E. L. Waite, Charles Dormon & Son, and Bryant, Liirvey & Company. Stone from these quarries has gone into the foundations of San Francisco (California) buildings, back in the fifties ; into paving the streets of New Orleans, Boston, New York and scores of lesser cities. The rock is of excellent quality and seems inexhaustable in quantity.

It is indeed fortunate that factories and stone quarries have been successfully operated in a place with so little of the real soil culture. As the stone industry has already been touched on sufficiently for this work, a few paragraphs concerning the various factories of the past and industries of today are now in order:

In 1822 William Hall of Boston first made isinglass in Rockport from hake sounds. He paid from three to five cents per pound for the sounds in a raw state. Before he commenced to buy them, they went to waste, with all other fish offal. He cleaned and dried this part of the fish, running it through rollers turned by hand, paying fifty cents a day for the man power thus obtainable. He secured letters patent on his process, and after a few years sold out to Jabez Row, William Norwood and others, a change which finally resulted in the formation of the corporation known as the Rockport Isinglass Company. They put in iron inst'ead of wooden machinery and used horse power instead of man-turned mills. In the eighties, two concerns were producing isinglass from hake sounds - the Cape Ann employing forty-five men for five months a year, and Haskins Brothers, who employed almost as many men. At present the demand for the isinglass product is not so great as when lager beer was permitted to be made, hence the plant is running on short time.

In 1847 a cotton mill was incorporated here for the making of duck and fishing lines. For a number of years the enterprise prospered, but presently there sprung up in many other New England and New York towns similar mills, which finally caused an over-production. The Rockville plant thus declined in importance. After a lapse of about twenty years, the plant changed its machinery somewhat, and produced other cotton goods. The capacity was doubled, and new and larger buildings were erected. Some years later the company failed, and the machinery was sold for $140,000 to satisfy the creditors. As the original cost was $500,000, stockholders lost heavily. The name of the corporation was changed to the Annisquam Mill ; the machinery was renewed and a good business was being carried on there, when in December, 1883, the property was destroyed. It included a fine large stone building, and employed two hundred and forty men. Its destruction was a severe loss to Rockport.

W. Lane and N. S. York, who carried on a good business, and went from small to larger quarters on several occasions, as the business increased. In the eighties they were making, under United States patents dated 1883, rubber oil goods, coats, hats, horse covers, buggy-aprons, etc., in connection with standard oil clothing. Both the above concerns have gone out of business.

Of the present industries of Rockport it may be stated briefly that the isinglass factory, the cold storage plant and Waddell's boat-building plant are about all in the line of industries. The stone quarries have ceased to operate much on account of the introduction of cement and concrete work. The Inter-State Fishing Commission had a large cold storage plant.

In the month of May, 1884, the shore-end of the Bennett & Mackav submarine cable was landed at Rockport, the event being greeted with a great celebration. The Old and New World had again been united by an electric ocean cable. James Gordon Bennett, the famous New York journalist, President Chester A. Arthur and many other noted men were present, and all responded to toasts. This cable was the largest in diameter of any thus far laid beneath the ocean's waves.

The Fifth Parish of Sandy Bay was incorporated and approved by the governor, January 1, 1754. A meeting-house was erected about the same date. It stood near the head of Long Cove; it was thirty-six feet square and two stories high. It was taken down in May, 1805, just before the death of the venerable pastor, Ebenezer Cleaveland. John W. Marshall's history of Rockport's churches gives the following on the societies existing as late as 1886:

In the year 1753 the citizens of Sandy Bay commenced to build a meetins^-house near where the Mt. Pleasant House now stands. The timber was hauled to the spot and was framed and ready to raise, when, on account of dissatisfaction on the part of a considerable number of persons, the frame was removed in the night time (tradition says by women) to the southern part of what is now Baptist Square, and there it was erected. It was thirty-six feet square, two stories high; it had no tower or belfry. It fronted the south; on the front was a porch, through which was the entrance to the audience room and the galleries, which were upon three sides; the front gallery was used by the singers. Over the pulpit was a soundingboard; the pulpit was also furnished with an hour-glass, by which the minister timed the service. The lower floor was furnished with eighteen pews, and on each side of the middle aisle were three long seats for the aged men and women; there was a seat for the colored people (slaves) of whom there were several before the Revolutionary War; there was also a seat under or near the front of the pulpit for the deacons; here they deaconed off the hymn, one line at a time. Captain Young and Thomas Dresser led the singing; they had no music book or tuning-fork; they were guided wholly by the ear. The horse-block stood near the eastern comer of the meeting-house, by which they were accommodated in mounting their horses. Man and wife rode the same horse; there was at that time hardly a carriage in the village. Previous to the building of the meeting-house, in fact ,until January, 1754, when Sandy Bay was incorporated as the Fifth Parish of Gloucester, they were obliged to pay their tax to support preaching in the First Parish of Gloucester, of which it was a part; but for several years previous to 1754 the First Parish re- linquished one-third part of the yearly tax of Sandy Bay on condition that they support preaching by themselves four months of each year, which for several years they did. Rev. Moses Parsons officiated one winter; there is the name of no other clergyman handed down except that Mr. Ebenezer Cleaveland came to Sandy Bay in 1752 and preached in the log schoolhouse, which was set in the yard front of the present Congregational meeting-house, a part of the time.

Ebenezer Cleaveland was appointed a chaplain in the Revolutionary War, and upon his return, found his parish in a distressed condition; some had died in prisons and some were drowned at sea, while others had fallen in actual battle ; nearly all of the old able-bodied members had gone, and what was owing him on back salary could not well be paid, so they gave their obligations to him in ninety quintals of hake-fish per annum.

The successor of Rev. Cleaveland (though he did not come for over twenty years, the parish being without regular pastor) was Rev. David Jewett, a man thirty years of age at that time. He died at Waltham, in 1841. His parish erected a beautiful granite monument to his memory. It stands fifteen feet high, and has an elaborate tablet on one side of its base-stones.

The next pastor was Rev. Wakefield Gale, who was installed in 1836 and dismissed in 1864, after a successful ministry. Then came Revs. William H. Dunning, who died in 1869; James W. Cooper, resigned in 1870; Charles C. Mclntire, installed in 1871, dismissed in 1880; R. B. Howard, seventh pastor, installed in 1880 and who seived until 1884, when he was followed by Albert F. Norcross, 1885-91 ; Israel Ainsworth, 1891-1908 ; Walter W. Campbell, 1908 to the present time.

Of the Second Congregational Church it may be stated that it was organized in March, 1855 by sixteen members, who were dismissed from the First Congregational Church for that express purpose. The First Church was getting too small for the increasing membership. The pews were largely sold, and held for life, by certain members, who would not dispose of any part of them to new comers, hence the new organization was a necessity. Rev. David Bremer, who had been assistant pastor in the First Church, was chosen pastor of this newly-formed society. He resigned in 1863, after increasing a church with sixteen members to one of more than eighty. Next came Rev. L. H. Angier, his salary being fixed at $1,000. After the close of the Civil War, the society could no longer support itself and pastor. Letters were therefore granted to such as wanted to reunite with the First Church. Many did so, while others went into the Methodist Episcopal church. The church building or chapel, costing $4,000 in 1855, was sold to the Y. M. C. A., and that body in turn sold to the Odd Fellows.

Pigeon Grove Chapel (Congregationalist) originated in a Sunday school in May, 1857. There were nearly forty members in the Sunday school. A neat chapel was erected in 1868, costing, with furnishings, $3,696.

The First Church of Christ at Pigeon Cove was organized in March, 1874, with a membership of nineteen. Land was bought and a small chapel was built by the society. John W. Marshall was superintendent of this Sabbath school for twenty-four years. In 1886 three semces were held each Sabbath in this chapel - one by the EngHsh, one by the Flanders, and another by the Swedes, each congregation having a minister of its own.

The Methodist Episcopal church of Rockport had a class formed by Rev. Aaron Lummus, preacher at Gloucester Harbor church, in 1831. In 1838 it was set off as a circuit with town parish, under charge of Rev. L. B. Griffin. The same year a church edifice was built. It soon became a separate charge, with Rev. Washburn as pastor. He was succeeded by Revs. Brown, Bradley and Richards. Without attempting to give the names of all later pastors, it should be stated that the society has flourished with the passing years. A fine church was built and dedicated April 14, 1869, at a cost of $16,000, and burned May 2, 1875, from an unknown cause. Another church was erected, costing $9,000.

The Baptist church at Sandy Bay, Gloucester, was constituted in 1807. Rev. Elisha Scott Williams was the first minister. He belonged in Beverly, but supplied this pulpit for a time. The society was legally incorporated in 1811 by the name of the First Baptist Society of Gloucester; there was no settled pastor until 1819-20. The first person to be baptized here was James Woodbury, March, 1805, the same being baptized by immersion. The Rev. James A. Boswell was the first settled pastor here. A meeting-house was built in 1822. The cost of land and building was $2,200. In 1866-67, the church was rebuilt, the improvements costing $6,000.

Not until after 1850 were there many foreigners in this town, hence no field for a Roman Catholic church. Rev. Father John McCabe of Salem celebrated the first mass in the place in 1850. In 1855 a chapel was built and first used in 1856, Rev. Thomas Shehan being deeply interested in this work. The house of worship erected cost $3,000.

The first attempt at establishing a society of the Protestant Episcopal denomination was in 1872. That year services were held in the Y. M. C. A. rooms by Rev. D. Reid, rector of St. John's Church, Gloucester. Only occasional services were held until May, 1886, when St. Mary's Mission was formed. Its charter members were as follows : Otis E. Smith, Frank Wilson, Charles Trenson, Mrs. Rosa Ann Morse, Reginald R. Colley, T. T. H. Harwood, Mrs. Abbie Tibbets, Fanny U. C. Sanborn, Delia F. Smith, Eliza T. Lane, Mary L. Tibbets, Fanny C. Tupper, John Moore, Frank H. Perkins, Luther C. Tibbetts, James Moore, Jr., 0. S. S. O'Brien, M.D., Chas. F. Mills, Cora A. Pickering.

The Universalist Society in Sandy Bay was organized February 27, 1821, by the name of the Universalist Benevolent Society of Gloucester. For a time this society held services in the Congregational church building, but soon got into trouble with the Congregational society, which denied them the right to use the church. After a law-suit, it was decided in favor of the Congregational society. As it was no longer any use to claim a meeting-place there, the members used the schoolhouse. Among the ministers who preached for this Universalist society are recalled such men as Revs. J. H. Bugbee, J. Oilman, J. P. Atkinson, Hosea Ballou and Lafayette Mace. A meeting-house was built in 1829, costing $3,000. The society was incoi-porated in 1839 by the name of the Second Universalist Society of Oloucester, but in 1845 it was changed to the First Universalist Society of Rockport.

The Second Universalist Society was organized in the Engine Room, in August, 1861, with twenty persons present. This first society was only a Sunday school. March 31, 1869, a religious society was formed in connection with the Sunday school. In 1878 this was renamed Second Universalist Society of Rockport. In 1873 the society built a neat edifice costing $10,500. While many noted ministers have preached, but few regular pastors have ever been called here.

The First Baptist Church was organized March 29, 1808, and it appropriately observed its centenary in 1908. The society now has one hundred and seventy-three members; its Sunday school has an attendance of eighty-five. The superintendent is Herman S. Sherburne. The society was incorporated in 1811, by the name of the First Baptist Society of Oloucester; no settled pastor until 1819. The first person baptized by immersion in Sandy Bay was James Woodbury, March 10, 1805, by Rev. Elisha Scott Williams, of Beverly. A meeting-house was built in 1822 at a cost of about $2,400. The present church is valued at about $4,000. The subjoined is a list of pastors who have here served* Revs. James A. Boswell, Reuben Curtis, Bartlett Pease, Otis Wing, Levi B. Hathaway, B. N. Harris, S. C. Oilbert, Thomas Driver, Oeorga Lyle, Thomas Driver, A. E. Bartelle, J. M. Driver, Samuel Cheever, Benj. I. Lane, Lewis Holmes, A. J. Lyon, E. D. Bowers, Oeorge A. Cleveland, N. B. Wilson, Wm. B. Smith, Jesse Coker, Charlton B. Bolles, William Clements, Daniel C. Easton, Charles W. Allen, Walter R. Bartlett, John C. Stoddard.

Up to about 1830 there were few Catholic people living in Rockport, but before 1850 quite a goodly number had come in and made permanent homes, therefore the necessity of forming Catholic societies as soon as possible. The first mass was celebrated in Eureka Hall, in 1850, Rev. Father John McCabe, of Salem, officiating. A Catholic church was formed and a building erected in 1856. This building stood on Broadway, and was the result of untiring efforts on the part of Rev. Thomas Shehan, of Salem. The first ministering priest was Rev. Luigi Acquarone, and his parish encircled the Cape. The congregation grew rapidly.

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Rev. Thomas Barry was appointed to take charge of the parish and he remained till his death in 1883. Rev. D. S. Healey immediately suo ceeded him as priest of the parish. From that day until the present time the Catholic church has flourished and is today in a good condition, although the writer has been unable to secure data relative to the congregation at this time.

The First Methodist Episcopal Church has occupied the field about Rockport many years, though much less than other churches. The present church edifice was erected in 1876, costing $15,000. The total membership is now 110, and that in the Sunday school is about 225. James B. Silva is present superintendent. The pastors serving here succeeded one another in the following order: Revs. J. H. Mansfield, J. H. Humphfrey, E. E. Small, Joseph Chandlin, Wesley Wiggin, L. P. Causey E D Lane, E. E. Holmes, E. E. Abercrombie, W. T. Hale, H. P. Rankin,' Adam Bird, E. B. Frye, and the present pastor, Newton S. Sweezey.