Danvers Town (part 1 of 2)

Danvers Town

turers, and lived where his grandson, Elias Eudicott Porter now lives ; Israel, who was a mason, lived in the brick house at the Port, which descended to his son, William ; Mary was the wife of Zerubbabel Porter, whose son Alfred was the father of Elias Endicott Porter; and Margaret ("Aunt Peggy") died unmarried.

The first and most distinguished name in our early annals has become, in the male line, utterly extinct. In the Danvers directory the name of Endicott appears but once, - " Lydia W., widow of William." The late William Endicott was one of the early antislavery men, was one of the last of the Danversport sea-captains, often served as moderator of townmeetings, and was otherwise prominent in local affairs ; his daughter, Mrs. H. G. Hyde, resides in Danvers, and two sons in Haverhill.

Ante-dating the Bishops' grant by a month was one of three hundred acres to Robert Cole. This covers the region back of Hog Hill, including Proctor's corner and extending a mile or more towards West Peabody. After a short time Cole sold to Emanuel Downing, a brother-in-law of Governor Winthrop, a lawyer, a man of such high repute and so desirable an acquisition to the colonists that before he arrived a grant of five hundred acres was given him by the town. This he sold to John Porter; it included the Bradstreet farm near the Topsfield line.

Downing's son George, who was one of the first graduates of Harvard, became Sir George Downing, a prominent figure in the history of the Old Country in Cromwell's time. The old Ipswich, road, the first higliway connecting Lynn and Boston with the northern settlements, was laid out through this land, and in 1648 one of his tenants was allowed to keep an " ordinary " to accommodate travelers. For a time the Downings let the farm, and in 1666 it was occupied by John Proctor, who subsequently bought a part of it. Proctor, who came from Ipswich, was a strong man in every sense, and he was one of tlie conspicuous victims of the witchcraft delusion. Many of his descendants have been prominent citizens of South Danvers, where the family is still well represented.

The land next east of Downing's, in the midst of which is the beautiful Rogers estate, was granted, three hundred acres, to Thomas Read, who, with others, went back to England to bear a hand in the coming revolution. In 1701 it was sold to Daniel Epps, the famous school-master, concerning whom it was in 1671 "Voated that the selectmen shall take care to provide a house for Mr. Epps to keep skoole in." The honor of his name was preserved through several generations by men distinguished in our local annals.

The long, high hill south of the Governor's plain was from the first the home of the Feltons. The old homestead at the end of the road which runs from the Ipswich road along the top of the hill was built more than two hundred years ago, and the Nathaniel Felton who now owns and occupies it comes near to being the seventh Nathaniel in direct line. A Jonathan in the third generation is the only break. Besides the inclosed burying-ground, where the Ipswich road makes its steep climb, in which old stones and new contain the names of Proctor and Felton, there are here and thei'e on the hillside traces of more ancient and unmarked graves.

The tract adjoining the Bishop-Nourse farm on the north, covering the village of Tapleyville and extending from Ash Street to a little beyond the meeting-house, at the Centre, was granted to Elias Stileman. The latter sold in 1648 to Richard Hutchinson, who came over in 1634, with his infant son, Joseph. Hutchinson was also one of the grantees of the large tract which included Whipple's Hill, named for the husband of his granddaughter, and in 1637 he was granted twenty acres on the meadow back of the meeting-house, on condition that he should " set up plowing." He died in 1681 at the full age of four score, " a vigorous and intelligent agriculturist and a man of character." It will be seen presently how the lower portion of his estate descended through his son-in-law in an unbroken line of Putnams - the Judge Putnam farm. The upper portion fell to Joseph Hutchinson, who was, like his father, a prominent and influential man, of sound sense and plain words. He it was who out of his homestead lands gave one acre for the first meeting-house and later contributed several more towards a home for the first preacher. The family name is still well represented in the neighborhood. The most distinguished name in the family history is that of Colonel Israel Hutchinson, ef Revolutionary fame, of whom a notice appears elsewhere. He was the son of Elisha, who died before 1730. Elisha was the son of Joseph, who outlived the son some twenty years ; Joseph was the son of that Joseph who was brought over from England in his infancy. A brother to Colonel Israel's father was Ebenezer ; Ebenezer's son was Jeremy, who married a daughter of Asa Putnam, and lived from 1738 to 1805 ; one of Jeremy's sous was Joseph, who was born in 1770, married Phebe Upton, of North Reading, and died in 1832, leaving two sons to become heads of families - Deacon Elijah Hutchinson and Benjamin Hutchinson, both now deceased. The home of Deacon Elijah was the house just west of Nathaniel IngersoU's training-field, formerly " the home of the widow Eunice Upton, inholder." Three fine residences just beyond are those of Deacon Elijah's sons, Warren, Alfred and Edward.

Next west of the Stileman-Hutchinson land was the grant of Francis Weston, which covered the land extending westerly from the church towards the turnpike. Weston was such a man as to be chosen one of the three Representatives of Salem in the first House of Deputies, but like Bishop he was too tolerant for the age, and was invited to leave, in 1638, and his wife was treated to an experience in the stocks.

Six years later it was sold by one John Pease to Richard Ingersoll and his son-in-law, Wm. Haynes. Ingersoll had come over in 1629, and was granted eighty acres at Rial Side. January 12, 1636-37, "Richard Inkersoll is to have Id. for every person he may carry over the North Ferry, during the town's pleasure." He was for a time lessee of the Bishop- Nourse farm, and shortly after this purchase of the Weston grant he died. He was another of the right sort of men, and his son, Nathaniel, was one of the brightest characters of our early history.

Nathaniel was but eleven years old when his father died. His mother married again, and soon the lad found a home Avith Governor Endicott, not that he was driven to this step, but probably only as other boys and young men were glad to be educated in the practical agricultural college at the Orchard Farm. "I went to live with Governor Endicott as his servant four years." He was nineteen when he went back to the land which his father had left him, and near by the present parsonage of the First Church, he built a house of more generous proportions than were common. Here, to the end of his three-score and ten, he was mine host of an open house, the resling-place of weary travelers, the meeting-place on all sorts of occasions of the villagers. Its ample public-room was at once town-house, church and military headquarters, and the whole-souled landlord was looked upon as the natural arbiter of neighborhood quarrels. He was a just man, whose guide of life was the golden rule, and the love and respect universally accorded him were but the natural tribute to his worth. There is nothing out of harmony with such a character in the following permit granted in 1673, though at present men of his stamp are not found keeping bar: "Nathaniel Ingersoll is allowed to sell bear and syder by the quart for the tyme whyle the farmers are a building of their meeting-house and on Lord's days afterwards." When his only child, a little girl, died, he and his wife took and brought up Benjamin, one of the sons of his neighbor Joseph Hutchinson, who was "an obedient son until he came of one and twenty years of age." Ingersoll was not rich, but he gave the young man a liberal marriage gift out of his comparatively small farm. This was but one of a series of gifts of land. When the church was organized, as will hereafter appear, Nathaniel Ingersoll and Edward Putnam were colleagues as first deacons. It will be seen that Deacon Putnam's farm was on the Middleton line two or three miles from the church, and in 1714 he had reached a time when a man sees old age approaching. Ingersoll desired his dear friend to pass his declining years in the comfortable proximity to the church which he had himself ever enjoyed. Therefore, " for the good affection " which he bore to him, he freely gave Deacon Putnam " a piece of land bounded northerly upon the land of Joseph Green (the minister) next to his orchard gate, westerly on the highway, and southerly and easterly on my land," and thither, it is thought. Deacon Putnam came to dwell. When pipes were laid for the water-works, an old well was dug into, thought to have been his. Long before this he had given four acres and a half to Rev. Samuel Parris. By his will he gave the church fifty shillings " for the more adorning the Lord's Table, to be laid out in some silver cup." He gave a life estate in the lands of which he died possessed to his wife, with remainder to his adopted son, except one piece, " a small parcel of land of about two acres, that lyeth between Mrs. Walcots and George Wyotts by the highway, which I give to the inhabitants of Salem Village, for a training place forever." Forever ! What better monument can a man leave to his memory than a reservation of land for the use of the public, forever. The pleasant common at Danvers Centre, bounded on one side by a street which bears the giver's name, is the old training-field of Nathaniel Ingersoll. These words are Mr. Upham's : " Within its enclosure the elements of the military art have been imparted to a greater number of persons distinguished in their day, and who have left an imperishable glory behind them as the defenders of their country, a brave yeomanry in arms, than on any other spot. From the slaughter of Bloody Brook, the storming of the Narragansett Fort and all the early Indian wars; from the Heights of Abraham, Lake George, Lexington, Bunker Hill, Braudywine, Pea Ridge, and a hundred other battle-fields, a lustre is reflected back upon this village parade-ground. It is associated with all the military traditions of the country, down to the late Rebellion."

About a mile northwest of the training-field is the high hill, upon which is situated the Danvers Lunatic Hospital, ten great buildings in one, whose roofs and pinnacles and central tower are seen for miles around, and form a landmark for fishermen far out in the harbor. This hill was in the midst of a grant to Captain William Hathorne, soldier, lawyer, judge, legislator, whose " many imployments for towne and countrie " were publicly recognized. A well-preserved old house in which Francis Dodge lived, when he sold the form to the State, stood just south of the main building. Two hundred years ago it was the home of Joshua Rea. The hill retains the name of Hathorne.

Thusthelineof original grantssweptinward from the Orchard Farm. Still to the westward three hundred acres near the crossing of the two turnpikes were owned as early as 1650, by Job Swinerton, whose brother was a physician in Salem town. Job Swinerton had formerly lived on the place now owned by Andrew Nichols, Jr.; he sold this to John Martin, and Martin to Dale. From the latter, who was the ancestor of Surgeon General Dale and of those of the name in Danvers, came the name "Dale's Hill." Swinerton died in 1689, nearly ninety years old. One of the old Swinerton homesteads stood where Daniel

P. Pope lives, and some parts of the original estate are still owned and occupied by Swinertons. The tract between the Swinerton grant and the Ipswich River, on both sides of the Andover turnpike, was granted in 1648 to Captain George Corwin, a rich merchant of Salem. William Cantlebury purchased three-quarters of this land. "Buxton's Lane" perpetuates the name of John Buxton, a son-in-law of Cantlebury, and a man whose name appears with Nathaniel Ingersoll's and a few othei's, on a bond which saved the Rev. George Burroughs from unjust imprisonment. Some live hundred acres south of Corwin's grant, and covering much of AVest Peabody, came, by numerous conveyances, to be owned by Robert Goodell, some of which is still owned by descendants of the same name.

The present residence of Rev. Willard Spaulding, in West Peabody, stands on the site of the first Pope homestead. The land about it was first granted in 1640, to another man of the cloth, the Rev. Edward Norris, pastor of the First Church of Salem. It was bought by Joseph Pope in 1664, and his homestead, which remained in the family until 1793, when it was sold to Nathaniel Ropes, of Salem, was standing thirty years ago.

Joseph Pope came over in the " Mai"y and John," in 1634. He and his wife Gertrude were both in sympathy with the Quakers, and were excommunicated. He died about 1667, leaving nine children. Three sons founded families, - Joseph, Benjamin and Samuel. Samuel married Exercise Smith, whose parents were persecuted Quakers in Governor Endicott's time. It is through Joseph that most of the Popes in this vicinity trace their ancestry. Joseph's wife, Abiah Folger, of Nantucket, was an aunt of Benjamin Franklin. They had four sons to grow up. Three of them, - Enos, "clothier;" Eleazer, "cordwainer ; " and Nathaniel, " blacksmith," went to Salem. In 1813 the third Enos, who followed the business which the first began, died at the age of ninetytwo, the oldest man in Salem. Joseph, oldest of the four sons of the second Joseph, was born in 1687, married Mehitable Putnam, and died in 1755. While he was in occupation of the homestead young Israel Putnam, afterwards major general, came and married his daughter Hannah. Israel Putnam went to Pomfret, Conn., and so did his wife's oldest brother, Joseph. The sons of another brother, Ebenezer, were of Salem, while Eleazer's descendants are found principally in Vermont. Another brother, Nathaniel, kept alive the family name at the village. He lived from about 1724 to 1800, married first, a daughter of Jasper Swinerton ; second, a daughter of Peter Clark, the minister. Among his children were Mehitable, wife of Caleb Oakes, and mother of the distinguished botanist, William Oakes ; Amos Pope, the father of Zephaniah ; and Elijah. Elijah died in 1846, eighty years old ; the last of his sons, Jasper, died while yet these notes are unfinished, June, 1887, having reached an age some five years greater than his father's. Jasper leaves no children living. The Popes now living here are the children and grandchildren of the late Nathaniel and of the late Elijah.

Going back to Skelton's Neck, the territory just north thereof, aptly called the Plain, or, more commonly, the Plains, was originally granted to Samuel Sharp, "the godly Mr. Sharp who was ruling elder of the church of Salem." It will later appear what became of this and other lands reaching toward the Topsfield line. East of the Topsfield road, one hundred and sixty acres, of which Augustus Fowler's farm is a part, was granted to Daniel Rea, who first came to Plymouth and then to Salem. He died in 1662, and his only son, Joshua, founded an influential and widely connected family, though the name has passed out of the voting lists. Daniel Rea, son of Joshua, was living in Mr. Fowler's house two hundred years ago. To the eastward of the Reas, the Birch Plain region, the Rev. Hugh Peters had a grant of two hundred acres, which, after his execution, was sold by Captain John Corwin's widow to "Henry Brown, Jr., of Salisbury, yeoman." Browns are still living on a part of the estate. Far to the east, in what is now North Beverly, the land including Cherry Hill was one of the first grants. It was given to William Alford in 1636, and the hill was long called after his name. He sold to Henry Herrick, a younger son of Sir William Herrick, of Beau Manor Park, and the good blood of the ancestors showed itself in the sterling character of many of the descendants. The land between Cherry Hill and the Burley Farm, originally granted to John Holgrave, was later occupied by two Reas, two Bishojis, a Watts and Captain Thomas Raymond. The latter was of a family of military renown; Colonel J. W. Raymond, now one of the County Commissioners, is a descendant. Three Raymonds were in the Narragansett fight, and one, John, was the first to enter the narrow pa.>-s to King Phillip's redoubt, which proved fatal to so many who went out from this vicinity, among others to Captain Joseph Gardner, son-in-law of Emanuel Downing, and to Charles Knight, Thomas Flint and Joseph Houlton, Jr., members of his company.

Covering the Burley Farm, east of Frostfish Brook, were some two hundred and fifty acres originally belonging to Charles Gott, Jeffrey Massey and others, a neighborhood for some time called " Gott's Corner." To the southward of the Ipswich road were the farms of the Barneys and Leaches, through which runs the road to Beverly town. Folly Hill was then Leach's Hill, and its length was bisected by the division line between the farms of the two families. Both names have passed away from the locality ; in the little burying-ground by the highway in which doubtless are nameless graves, one is marked with the name of Martha, wife of Richard Leach, who died in 1756,

F'rom the head of canoe navigation at Frostfish Brook, by the way, there began a well-defined Indian trail, leading, Mr. Nichols says, as far north as Canada. A glance at the county map shows that the location was well-chosen as a terminus of such a trail.

All of this region from Beverly to Reading was known in very early times as " Salem Farms," and the early settlers and their descendants were commonly called " the Farmers." The settlement which grew up along the brooks, which come together near Peabody Square, was at first called Brooksby, later as the Middle Precinct, and became the South Parish of Danvers. Since 1855 it has been a separate town, and an account of its early settlers and growth belongs to the history of Peabody, and will there be found.

Hints of the character of some of the Farmers have been given. As a whole they were a sturdy, intelligent set of men, with the energy and vigor requisite to convert the wilderness into pleasant homes, jealous of their right-5, too prone to lawsuits, fair types of New England yeomanry.

Presently, children who had been born upon the lands, intermarried, established themselves on farms, carved out of the ancestral acres, and took the places of the aged fathers. A feeling grew that they were separated, alike by distance and by manner of life, from the dwellers in the town. It was far to go to church over rough roads and in all weathers, and the church was the centre of all things. They wanted to be a parish by themselves and provide their own minister. In 1670 this desire was expressed in a petition to the town, and some two years later the town's consent was ratified by an act of the General Court. October 8, 1672, the parish known as Salem Village was established ; October 8, 1872, the first church of Danvers observed the two hundredth anniversary of that event.

"All farmers," so ran the vote of the town, "that now are or hereafter shall be willing to join together for providing a minister among themselves whose habitations are above Ipswich Highway, from the horse bridge to the wooden bridge at the hither end of Mr. Endicott's Plain, and from thence on a west line shall have liberty to have a minister by themselves and when they shall provide and pay him in a maintainance, that then they shall be discharged from their part of Salem minister's maintainance." The bounds of Salem Village, though a source of grievous dispute, especially between the farmers and " the Topsfield men," sub-tantially included all of the present town except the two necks of Danversport, a part of North Beverly, considerable of West Peabody and much of the town of Middleton.

This Middleton land was an original grant of seven hundred acres to Governor Richard Bellingham, made by the General Court in 1639. It was bought for two hundred and fifty pounds by two poor men, Bray

Wilkins and John Gingle, who paid down a ton of iron and one pound in money, in all twenty-five pounds, and gave a mortgage back for the balance. They paid off the debt, Wilkins and his sons bought up the Gingle interest, and, in 1702, Wilkins died at great age, a patriarchal land-owner, in the midst of the farms and homes of his descendants. Though beyond the six mile limit, these lands were by special act of the General Court, in 1661, made a part of Salem.

There were \vithin the village, twenty years after its establishment, some hundred and fifty houses. Among the farmers not already mentioned were Daniel Andrew, himself sometimes a school-master, and founder of a family in which a number have followed that calling ; the Flints, some of whom remain on the lands of their ancestors in West Peabody ; Joseph Houlton, the honored head of a fine family, most conspicuous among whom is Samuel Holten, whose name will often appear in these annals ; the Kettels, a name now extinct here ; the Needhams, whose farms were divided by the village line, are still represented in West Peabody by descendants of the family name ; Robert Prince, of whom the late Moses Prince was a descendant in the fifth generation, the latter a man who was eminently distinguished for the extent and accuracy of his knowledge of local history. The Prince farm contained about one hundred and fifty acres and the house which Robert occupied and probably built, is still standing on the estate of J. E. Spring. The widow of Robert married Alexander Osborne, and under that name she was one of the first three arrested for witchcraft, and was taken from this very house to Boston jail, where she died May 10, 1692.

Lying partly within the Village limits and partly in Topsfield, was the land of William Nichols, a large farm which he had bought about 1650, of Henry Bartholemew. "Nichols Brook " which flows through these lands perpetuates his name. He lived to be very old and from his only son, John, came an extensive family. One of the most prominent figures in our local history during the first half of this century was Dr. Andrew Nichols, a son of Andrew of the sixth generation, and were it not for the fact that a notice of his life from the pen of his son Andrew will be found accompanying the engraving at the close of this sketch, it would be fitting at this point to pay a tribute to his worth. Andrew Nichols, civil engineer, son of the doctor, whose home is not far south of the old Nichols farm and whose land includes a part of the Prince land, of which latter family he is a descendant through the marriage of John Nichols and Elizabeth Prince, has written a genealogy of the Nichols family and has collected a rich store of material for local history. Abel Nichols, a brother of the doctor, wa.s the father of the late Abel Nichols, artist, father of Mrs. William E. Putnam and Lewis A. Nichols, and brother of the late Mrs. E. G. Berry.

In the extreme southeastern corner of the town, pleasantly situated on the southern bank of the river below the confluence of its three branches, is a very old and interesting house. It has always remained in the Jacobs family, whose ancestor, George Jacobs, was another of the victims of the witchcraft delusion, and, according to tradition, was hung on an oak tree on his own land and there also buried. It was his great-granddaughter, Elizabeth Jacobs, who married John Endicott and spoke out loud to Colonel Pickering as before related. She lived to be over ninety and died in 1809. Her ancestor had received from Salem a grant of a few acres and six " cow leases," on Rial Side, and it is recorded that the old lady used to tell how, before her marriage, she used to paddle a canoe across the river to milk the cows on this very land, and when the tide was out she would go across the flats on stepping-stones and wade the channel. It must be explained that the channel was much less deep then than now, and, although years ago it was written that " the stones are to be seen to this day," they are out of sight now beneath the mud.

One of the sons-in-law of Francis Nourse was Thomas Preston, the ancestor of a family which has always had representatives prominent in local affairs. Much more space deserves to be here given them than can be afforded. The present Massey estate was long in the Preston family. There, a hundred years ago, lived Levi Preston, who married Mehitable Nichols, and was the father of eleven children. One of these, Levi, built the present meeting-house of the First Church ; Mehitable married Ebenezer Berry, inn-keeper ; Polly married Nathaniel Felton ; Sukey and Eliza, the brothers Asa and Nathan Tapley ; Daniel was the father of Major D. J. Preston, deputy sheriff' and tax collector, recently deceased ; Abel, Hiram, William, John and Samuel - not in the order of their birth - all of these went out from the house on the hill. John went not far. He married Clarissa, the only daughter of Joseph Putnam, the next neighbor, and building an addition to her father's place, they lived there. John Preston died May 28, 1876, in his eighty-sixth year. He was the oldest Free-Mason in town ; was many years a selectman; representative to the General Court; for many years chorister at the First Church in the days of 'cello and double-bass ; Avas one of the early shoe manufacturers, and, after he gave up that business, a good farmer. His widow still survives, and her great age is mentioned in connection with the Putnams. His son, Charles P. Preston, resides on the site of the old house in which his father and grandfather, it might be carried farther, lived. According to the Directory of 1887, but three men in Danvers to-day bear this family name, two of whom are C. P. Preston, just mentioned, and his son.

Deacon Samuel Preston, brother of John, was one of the most distinctive figures, especially in the history of the First Church, of the past half-ceutury. In his later years, as he came regularly to the ancient place of worship, there was coupled with a venerable form and appearance a youthful, elastic step. " There was no good service which he was not prompt, eager and faithful to render. He was of robust mind, of pure tastes, and he had a firm grasp of spiritual and eternal things." He read much and the best books, and it is not strange that in his family there is to be found a highly developed taste for literature. Miss Harriet W. Preston, the well-known authoress and magazine contributor, is his daughter. Something more of him in connection with the shoe businsss.

Present space permits only this brief and incomplete mention of the first settlers. Until 1752, when the district of Danvers was incorporated, the history of the parish of Salem Village is practically the history of that part of the town which still retains the name of Danvers, and its outline will be found in the chapter of church history. In the mean time some families thus far purposely omitted in the mention of the early settlers will here be somewhat more fully noticed.

The Putkams. - One of the most beautiful estates in Danvers is that known as Oak Knoll, which owes much of its attractiveneifs to the taste of its former owner, William A. Lander, Esq., of Salem. It is in the midst of pleasant surroundings, a mile's drive from the Plains, and passers-by peer through the trees to the unostentatious but comfortable mansion which will ever be memorable as the home of one who now for a number of years has been a member of the family of its present owners - the poet Whittier. But this very estate is, in itself, of deeper historical interest. It is the home of the first Putnam, the ancestor of that family which not only is to-day the largest and most distinctive of Danvers, but has its representatives far and wide, and has illuminated our national history with the names of many of its illustrious individuals.

John Putnam, this progenitor, came from Buckinghamshire, England, when well along in years. The land upon which he settled lay just north of Elder Sharpe's grant. Thisi after, resting on Skel ton's Neck, and covering the v.diole of the present central village of the Plains, ran northwesterly to a point at the little pond at Beaver Dam. Putnam's land, including his own grant of a hundred acres, made in 1641, and previous grants to Ralph Fogg, Thomas Lathrop and Ann Scarlett spread out easterly from this point, so as to cover nearly the whole territory west of the Topsfield road from Lindall Hill to beyond the Putnamville school-house.

John Putnam had three sons, all born in the old country. Thomas, the oldest, was a young man of twenty-six at the time of his father's grant in Salem farms; he seems to have first struck out for himself in Lynn, where his character and good education qualified him to act as magistrate, and where he married Ann Holyoke, sister to the grandfather of President Holyoke of Harvard College. Nathaniel who was just then arriving at his majority, and John, a lad of fifteen, probably came with their father to the new home at Beaver Dam. The father was one of the most energetic and successful of the pioneers, and became a very large land-owner. A few months before he died he bought, in company with John Hathorne, Richard Hutchinson and Daniel Rea, two very large tracts, the one including Hathorne's Hill and the surrounding territory ; the other Davenport's, afterwards Putnam's Hill, and the surrounding territory. It Avould seem as though the lion's share of these lands fell to the Putnams.

Thomas, who had moved from Lynn to Salem town and married, some four years after his father's death, for his second wife, the rich widow of Nathaniel Veren, receiving as his double inheritance a portion of the original grant to Captain William Hathorne, built at tne foot of the easterly slope of the hill which perpetuates the grantees' name, a house which, with subsequent additions, still remains, not only in perfect preservation, but in the hands and occupation of Putnams, who are lineal descendants of the builder, and who cherish, with fond interest, the history and traditions of their family. This house is about a mile due west from Oak Knoll, and, according to the location of modern roads, is at the intersection of the highway to Middleton and the Newburyport turnpike, and is directly opposite a fine avenue, which at this point begins its winding climb of Hathorne's Hill to the newjunatic hospital.

Nathaniel, the other son of the pioneer, married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Hutchinson, the man who bought the original grant covering the whole region of Tapleyville, from Walnut Grove Cemetery to the site of the first village church. It was ou a part of this tract which came to him by this marriage that Nathaniel built his home. Though not itself standing, another house of respectable age stands on or near its site. Mr. Nichols thinks the original house stood near the town gravel-pit, on Hobart Street. Notwithstanding the laying out of streets and house-lots in the most thickly settled portion of the town, including the grounds of the town-house, the Peabody Institute and the cemetery, some of the original farm remains about the house which, long the home of Judge Samuel Putnam, a lineal descendant of Nathaniel, has of late years been owned by other Putnams collateral to the Judge, but running back to the same ancestor. This Putnam estate, also very familiar, is on the main thoroughfare from the Plains to Tapleyville, something over a mile in a straight line, nearly south of Oak Knoll. It is on the banks of the stream which drains the meadows of Beaver Dam, and a short distance below the house the stream is met by another which drains the- meadows far to the west and south. This confluence takes place in a natural basin easily and effectively dammed for waterpower, and from very ancient times these Putnams have utilized this power for milling, just where Otis F. Putnam is to-day sawing, grinding and storing ice at the old stand.

From these three homes, then, - of Thomas, near Hathorne's hill ; of Nathaniel, near the mill-pond ; of John, at Oak Knoll, - came the three great families of Putnams.

a. The family of Thomas. - Thomas had three sons who became heads of families, - Sergeant Thomas, Deacon Edward and Joseph. The two former pushed up a mile toward Middleton, and established themselves close together on what is now Dayton Street, near the railroad station at Howe's crossing. Joseph remained on the home place.

No male descendants of Sergeant Thomas are left here. A short time ago William Putnam, an old man, died in his ninetieth year, in the old farm-house on the lower hill, directly in front of the hospital. He was the son of Deacon Eben Putnam, and grandson with three " greats " of Deacon Edward ; and of the two living sons of this old man, one, James Warren, keeps the place, and, rare in these days, has a fine family of eight children, six of whom are boys, to keep the good deacon's name alive at home. The brother of William, Deacon Ebenezer, was the father of Rev. Hiram B. Putnam, now at Derby, N. H., and of Harriet Putnam. One of Deacon Edward's sons, Elisha, moved away to Sutton, Mass., and thus Danvers claims some of the honor which belongs to the name of General Rufus Putnam, son of Elisha, and a native of that town.

No history of this town will be complete without a full account of the part which Danvers took in the settlement of the Northwest Territory. The earliest wagon-train, under command of Captain Hatfield White, a Danvers man, started on its long journey from here. Invitations have just been received by descendants of these pioneers to join in the great centennial celebration, to take place at Marietta in 1888.

General Rufus Putnam, Washington's friend, a famous engineer of the Revolution, presided at the convention in Boston, March 1, 178G, at which the Ohio Company was formed, and April 7, 1788, belaid out at Marietta the first permanent settlement in Ohio. Major Ezra Putnam, his cousin, also a grandson of Deacon Edward, was another of the Ohio pioneers. Nearer home, another descendant of Deacon Edward, Oliver Putnam, honored the familyname by establishing at Newburyport the Putnam Free School. Another descendant was the late lamented Professor John N. Putnam, of Dartmouth College.

Both the second and third generations, and, indeed, at least one of the fourth generation of Putnams, played prominent parts, and some of them very unfortunate ones, in the terrible witchcraft tragedy which spread over this neighborhood. Nearly all of them were deluded. Howotherwise, whenoneof the worst afflicted of the "afflicted children" was the daughter of Sergeant Thomas Putnam, recorder of the parish, and oldest son of the richest man in the village? It struck the proud and powerful family to the centre, and they were not so superior to the unreason of the age as to see that spanking was much more needed than hanging. The sad, dark days of 1692 ! None who have grasped from the wonderful monograph of Mr. Upham anything of their reality will speak in jest of Salem witches. They were taken, most of them, from Danvers homes, homes still standing in our midst, and, condemned by blind terror in the name of Law, after mockeries of trial their necks were broken on the gibbet. The Putnams had a hand in this business, save one. Against the black background there stands one grand stirring picture. It is of a young man twenty-two years of age standing at his farm-house door, with loaded firelock and saddled horse, ready to resist arrest or flee from overpowering force. It is Joseph Putnam, youngest of the sous of the first Thomas, who, in the face of brothers and uncles, from the first denounced the proceedings through and through. Such a course was almost sure death, and for six months gun and horse had been ready day and night. He had been married but a year to a young bride of less than seventeen, a granddaughter both of old John Porter and Major William Hathorne, and she was a worthy wife of a noble husband. It was this son who remained on his father's place, the one opposite the entrance to the hospital.

They had three sons, this young couple, Joseph and Elizabeth, whose names were William, David and Israel. There is a little chamber in the oldest pai't of the old house, which, through the kindness of the occupants, is often visite 1 with great interest. Perhaps here all three of these boys were born, but, alas for the heroes of peace, it is the heroes of war whom men most idolize, and as one enters beneath the oaken beams of the low ceiling, and sees in the quiet room the ancient furniture, the fire-place and other relics of long gone years, the mind strives only to grasp the strange reality that in this very spot that favorite hero of the Revolution, to whom tales of bravery and courage seem as commonly attributed as to the demi-gods of old, " Old Put," Major General Israel Putnam, Washington's "uncut diamond," actually kicked and cried just like any other baby. The wolf's den, the rapid ride from the plow to the Lexington alarm, the tender of the first commission at Boston from the hands of Washington, the dashing plunge at Horseneck, the long service of one of the most trusted commanders, these and all other events of his distinguished life, had a sort of potential existence in this same little room.

He was a little more than twenty-one years old when the event happened to which this item found in an old memorandum book refers: "July ye 19

1739 Israel Putnam and Hannah Pope were married together." Immediately the young couple struck out, took a farm at Pomfret, Conn., and returned thither no more. The descendants of the general are numerous in the State of his adoption, in New York, and especially so, through his son, Colonel Israel, an officer with his father in the Revolution, about Marietta, O. ; and some also in Kentucky and other Southern States.

William, the oldest brother of the general, had no sons. David, the next son, remained on the home place. It was a mistake to insinuate that Israel monopolized the military spirit of the family. David, so Mr. Upham says, was a celebrated cavalry officer, but, being much older than Israel, flourished in the period anterior to the Revolution. Colonel Timothy Pickering used to mention as one of the recollections of his boyhood, that David Putnam " rode the best horse in the province."

To follow briefly down the old house which may now understandingly be identified by the name it commonly bears, the " Old Put " house, David had these sons, - William, Joseph, Israel and Jesse. Joseph was "Deacon Joseph" of the Village Church, for whom David built that other Putnam house a short distance from his own, known as the " Colonel Jesse house." Of Colonel Jesse and his children, a few words farther on.

William, eldest son of David, moved to Sterling, Mass. A daughter of his became the wife of Captain Samuel Endicott, of Salem, and their son, William P. Endicott, who married Miss Crowningshield, is the father of Hon. William Crowningshield Endicott, President Cleveland's Secretary of War. Another descendant of William Putnam, of Sterling, was the Rev. George Putnam, D.D., long and well known as pastor of the First Church of Roxbury.

Jesse, the youngest son of David, was a graduate of Harvard, and a well known merchant of Boston, whose earlier residence was on Summer Street, near Trinity Church. His daughter Catherine was that lady of fine culture and patriotic spirit who, in her eighty-fifth year, presented a silk banner to the Putnam Guards of Danvers as they went out to war.

Israel, the third son of David, the fourth in line of ownership, remained on the old place, and from him it descended to the only one of his three sons who married, - Daniel. Daniel married the daughter of another Putnam, Stephen, whom we shall meet in the family branch of Nathaniel, and of his twelve children, two. Miss Susan and her brother Ansel W., are the present occupants of the historic house. The youngest daughter Julia, widow of Hon. John D. Philbrick, of whom something is written in connection with our schools, resides nearly opposite. Allen, the oldest, and Benjamin Wadsworth, the youngest son, reside in Boston. Daniel and Ahira manufactured shoes in a shop still standing within the yard of the old house; the widow and a granddaughter of

Daniel, who reside here, are his only living representatives; Aliira's son, Granville B., is a well known teacher in Boston, and the name of his other s^n. Major Wallace A. Putnam, stands first on the monument erected to the Danvers men, who lost their lives in the late war. Deacon William R. Putnam tilled his ancestral acres some thirty years, removed, to reside with his children at Redwing, Minn., in 1874, and there died in 1886. The male lineage of the old General Putnam house runs back then thus, - Ansel, Daniel, Israel, David, Joseph, Thomas. There are now living but five grandsons of Daniel in the male line, and none of them live in Danvers.

A few words concerning the family of Jesse, "Col. Jesse" before alluded to. He was himself one of the prominent and widely known citizens of his day, one of the foremost advocates of the early temperance reform and one of the strongest opponents of slavery. In his manner he was somewhat brusque, and, like his grandfather, he was fond of a good horse.

He died in 1860, but his widow, Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Silas Merriara, of Middleton, whom he married in her twentieth year, still living, celebrated November 14, 1884, her one hundredtli birthday. Rare event; fitly celebrated. The "tribe of Jesse " were six sons and six daughters, a family in all respects to be proud of. Four of the surviving five were present with their mother on the occasion just mentioned. These twelve children were, in order, Catherine, Andrew, Elizabeth, Francis P., Henry F., Calvin, Mary J., Martha A., Sarah W., Charles, Emily A. and John M. The latter lives on his father's place, and in his family is another Jesse. The other survivors are Calvin; Sarah, widow of George W. Fuller ; and Emily, widow of Rev. Richard T. Searle. Francis died at his home near by his father's a few years ago, much respected. Henry and Charles died in the West, the latter having been superintendent of schools in St. Louis. (Mrs. Putnam died September 20, 1887, at the age of 102 years, 10 months, 6 days.)

b. Tlie family of Nathaniel. - N?thaniel, " Lieutenant," - military titles were common in the family - had two sons, Benjamin and John, The latter went beyond the westerly slope of Hatliorne's hill and established himself near the Log Bridge over the Ipswich River, on the farm now owned by George H. Peabody. He was known as " Carolina John," and this name occurs on a rough diagram of a division of land drawn in ink on the parchment binding of one of the old volumes of records in the registry of deeds at Salem. The site of his home is marked by a very old but well preserved house, situated beneath ancient elms, where the high land begins to slope to the river meadows. It was in the immediate neighborhood of the other river farms upon which the brothers Deacon Edward and Sergeant Thomas Putnam, cousins of this John, were settled. John had these sons, - Josiah, John, Amos, Samuel and Daniel. A grandson, Daniel, was a deacon of the village church ' and lived close by his grandfather's place on one of the Peabody farms, and died in 1801, aged sixty-three years. Neither of the brothers, except John, leave descendants of the male line in Danvers. A descendant of Josiah, Hon. Harvey Putnam, born at Brattleboro, Vt., in 1793, was a prominent lawyer in Schenectady, N. Y., a member of Congress, and his son, Hon. James O. Putnam, of Buffalo, has long been one of the most distinguished men of western New York, John, brother of Josiah, had three sons, - John Amos, Edmund. An eccentric old man well-known some years ago, published a rambling autobiographical sketch called "The Life and times of Peter Putnam." Peter's grandfather was the brother of Amos and Edmund, just mentioned, and their estate was on the turnpike, south of Hathorne's hill.

Amos Putnam was a physician, and one ot the active patriotic spirits of Revolutionary times. His name often occurs in honorable connection on the records of the town. His residence was the brick house near Felton's corner, where afterwards the late Daniel Tapley lived. A son of Dr. Amos, James, also a physician, is to be remembered with his estimable wife who long survived him, as the parents of those two teachers " Hannah and Betsey," names always spoken together because they always taught together, and fondly cherished by many of our older people. Recently a number of the survivors of their old scholars met with Mrs. Harriet P. Fowler to consider the erection of a memorial over their hitherto unmarked graves. Something further of them will be found in the chapter on schools.

Edmund Putnam, brother or rather half-brother of Dr. Amos, was "Deacon Edmund," whose name is revered by Universalists as the pioneer of the departure of that denomination from the old faith. He served as deacon in the village church from 1762 to 1785, and died in 1810, aged eighty-six years. He lived in the old house standing between the Topsfield road and the railroad, a well preserved relic of witchcraft times, now owned by Augustus Fowler. Deacon Edmund's sons were Andrew, Israel and Edmund. Israel was the father of Elias Putnam, " Squire Lias," a name at which the pen halts to find words of fitting tribute and then passes altogether, on the announcement that a distinguished son, Rev. Dr. Alfred P. Putnam, is to contribute a sketch of his father's life, to appear in subsequent pages of this book. In the number and character of descendants the line of Edmund, Israel and Elias is well represented at home and abroad.

Poplar and Locust Streets cross each other a third of a mile above the Square at the Plains. Both are ancient roads; the former, the old "Dyson Road" from Beverly to Andover ; the other, the " Topsfield Road." At this corner was the old homestead of Judge Timothy Lindall. Speaking roughly, the roads cross at right angles, the Topsfield road running north, the Andover road running west. Another road, going to South Danvers." The son, Milton Palmer Braman, second in a family of five children, went from Phillips Academy to Harvard, graduated from there in 1819, and after a year's teaching entered the Andover Seminary. He preached his first sermon at Danvers, in December, 1825. He married Mary Parker, of Georgetown, in November, 1826, seven months after his settlement here. He moved to Brookline shortly after his resignation, then to Auburndale, where he died April 10, 1882, in his eightythird year. He was buried in the town of his birth after a brief service at the home of his aged mother.

Dr. Braman was a strong man. Some have placed him at the head of eminent divines reared in Essex County. He was greatly assisted by his wife, one of the wisest and best of women, who relieved him of family cares, so that he could devote his time to parish duties, and in these she was ever a thoughtful assistant. The son, grandson and great-grandson of ministers, all of whom were exemplars in their generiition in the discharge of the pastoral ofiice, he likewise, by his earnest and faithful preaching, made a deep impression upon his hearers, many being led to a saving knowledge of the truth and a devoted Christian life, of whom shining examples yet remain.

The present pastor of the church, Dr. Braman's successor. Rev. Charles B. Rice, was installed September 2, 1863, and is api^ruaching the twenty-fifth anniversary of his settlement. Mr. Rice is a nativeof Conway, Mass. His father. Colonel Austin Rice, who died July 15, 1880, at eighty-six years of age, was for fifty years one of the leading men of western Massachusetts in religious and educational movements, but a few years before his death was sent to the Legislature, was one of the founders of Mt. Holyoke Seminary and a trustee of that institution at the time of his death. Rev. Mr. Rice has always taken an active interest in town affairs, has served on the school committee almost continuously since 1865, has represented his fellow-citizens in both houses of the Legislature, and has served on the State Board of Education. A permiineut monument to the memory of Mr. Rice is the published " History of the First Parish in Danvers,'' which is an amplification of the address delivered by him at the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the parish. This book has been chiefly followed in the preparation of this short sketch of one of the oldest, most historic, and in all respects most interesting churches to be found in thiscountry. Many interesting details have been altogether omitted for the reason that they are there easily accessible. Doctor Braman was living at ihe time of the anniversary. Something more must here be said of him, and from a sermon delivered by Mr. Rice, April 28, 1882, these extracts are taken :

"His strength was in the pulpit. Preaching stood foremost with him, and it was preaching fit to stand in that place of forwardness. His mind was logical, and thus he went clear of all mist and vagueness, j and his thoughts ran steadily toward some point he meant to reach. But he was not dull and dry in reasoning. Along with his logical movement there went a certain enlivening measure of imaginative and almost poetical fancy. Then he had a clear, shrewd sense concerning common life and common things, so that his style was terse and direct and struck sharply on actual practice. And then, hiding hehind this shrewd practical sense, or in it, was a line of humor, ready to come into play where it might, and not coming into sight where it ought not. And then he had a gift of sarcasm at hand for use when it might be called for. By all these means he held attention to what he said, and his hearers were interested and entertained, and sometimes in a manner fascinated, even while they might be severely smitten upon.

" He was forcible, direct, clear and pungent. He laid hold on the intellect and sensibilities of his hearers both together. To an unusual degree his sermons ran close to life. I think this was their most distinguished characteristic. They were apt to concern, in some manner, those that heard them ; and thus they entered into their thoughts and clung upon their memory. They were not unifoim in strength, a thing not to be expected ; but they were apt, all of them, to be in some part thoughtful, and of a quality to move one to some thoughtfulnees for himself.

" He preached upon all Christian doctrines, and with frequency upon some. The doctrine of justification by faith was dear to him. He was skilled in depicting the lives of men, and he called often into use the great Scriptural biographies. The dead of those former ages rose up here, with bones and flesh and breath, and lived again under his hand. He dealt in this way with the good and the bad, with Moses and David and Pilate and Judas, and he may seem sometimes to have had a certain grimness of satisfaction in the work he might thus make with the bad.

"Dr. Braman drew great attention upon what are termed 'occasional sermons,' discourses preached upon the occurrence of the Fourth of July on a Sabbath day, or in connection with the death of prominent men, as General Harrison or Daniel Webster, or upon the annual days of Fasting or Thanksgiving. On these days this house was filled. People came sometimes in barges from the neighboring towns, and strangers were here often from a greater distance.

" His sermons were always written. He never spoke in the pulpit without notes. Upon one occasion, as he went to preach at South Danvers, now Peabody, his manuscript was forgotten, and he was greatly disturbed when he made the discovery, and unwilling to attempt to preach ; but when the time, in the midst of the service, was come, and while yet he scarcely knew upon what he should speak, he went down to the platform before the pulpit, that he might not seem to preach, and there he did preach and in a manner which seemed to those that heard him to surpass his usual powers. He preached also, though he did not call it preaching, in the prayer-meetings he held in the chapel. It is remembered thus that at the chapel prayer-meeting, held on the evening of the day of Daniel Webster's burial, he spoke for a full hour, dwelling upon the burial scenes of great men, and making emphatic as he drew to a close, the insignificance of all earthly honors to one who had just entered into the presence ©f the holy angels and the Saviour and Judge of men.

" He spoke usually with little of gesture and nothing of oratorical art. His ordinary manner could not be called graceful. He had a wellknown habit of rolling a strip of paper upon the fingers of his right hand, and after a certain established order of procedure, and he might be troubled if this resource failed. But when he was once under way in the pulpit upon a theme that stirred him, and was kindled with his topic, his ungraceful manner was either forgotten or it was changed, he gesticulated often with force and freedom, and the spirit of an orator was upon him.

"Dr. Braman was faithful and utterly fearless in rebuking wherever it seemed to him rebukes were needful. He was a conservative man. He was not changeable. He was not like the Apostle Peter. He was apt to stand for the cool side of things. But he stood for the cool side of things sometimes, it must be admitted, in a hot way, that would not have been unbefitting even to Peter.

"He was a strong opponent of slavery. They have misjudged him who from anything that occurred in his later years have thought of him differently. But in this matter his natural conservatism, and his legal habit of mind, had much force in shaping the course he took. As events moved rapidly forward, he himself advanced less rapidly, and in his dislike of all that seemed revolutionary in its origin or nature, he was led, we may think, too far in distrust or opposition toward those great popular movements which were designed under the shining providence of God, to bring the gigantic evil he himself deplored - though by ways that did not please him - fearfully and gloriously to an utter end.

" Dr. Bramau was a member of the School Committee of the town for twenty-five years, and Chairman of the Board for a considerable portion of that period.

"He was also a member from this town of the Convention held in 1853 for revising the Constitution of the State, and he bore an active and influential part in its proceedings.

Mr. Rice reached the twentieth anniversary of his settlement, September 2, 1883. Even then his pastorate was longer than any other in the Essex South Conference. In the twenty years, one hundred and ninety-one had been added to the membership ; the number of members was then two iiundred and seven ; largest number in the history of the church, two hundred and twenty-three, in 1877. In 1882 the ratio of church membership to the population of the parish, was larger than ever before. Nearly one-quarter part of all who had ever been members were then still living. Mr. Rice had married one hundred and twenty-six couples, one hundred being of the parish, had attended three hundred and fifty funerals,preached five hundred and thirty-four written sermons and three hundred and ninety-eight unwritten, of which he says with characteristic humor "all ought to have been better, and some ought not to have been at all." Mr. Rice observed the anniversary by a discourse from the pulpit from which the foregoing statistics have been taken, and the following evening the event was made the occasion of a gathering of his own parishioners, friends from other parts of the town, ministers from neighboring churches, and others, for congratulations and social enjoyment. Augustus Mudge presided, and after remarks reviewing the period, he presented Mr. Rice an envelope containing a very substantial token of the esteem of his people. Among the letters read during the evening was this :

" Dear Friend: - I very much regret that I am not able to be with you at the gathering this evening. I am, it is true, better acquainted with the gentleman whom you so deservedly honor on this occasion, as a kind friend and neighbor, as a public-spirited citizen, than as a minister ; but the fact that he has held his pulpit for twenty years is proof that he has done good service in it. During this long period I have never heard that his parish have been troubled by the bodily presence of that evil and disreputable Personage with whom his predecessor, Parson Parris, fought such a losing battle. As a consequence of this he has had no occasion to spend his time in searching for witches among the elderly ladies of Uis congregation ; and the sound theology of his people under his ministrations has made heresy-hunting so unnecessary that the solitary Quaker who has sojourned within the parish limits still remains unchanged I

The Sabbath-school was organized in 1818, in Dr. Wadsworth's pastorate. The names of an even hundred of the first scholars are given by Mr, Rice, fiftysix females, forty-four males. The largest number at any time connected with the school was in 1867, four hundred and four, with an average attendance of nearly three hundred. The school had its origin at a meeting held at Dr. Wadsworth's house, July 30th of the year mentioned. Those present were the first teachers, - Samuel Preston, Eiwin Joselyn, Edith Swinerton, Betsey Pope, Eliza Preston, and Betsey, Hannah, Harriet, Nancy, Eliza and Clarissa Putnam, The latter, Mrs, Preston, now living, has been mentioned in another connection. The idea of having a Sabbath-school seems first to have been entertained by Miss Betsey F. Putnam, who had seen the working of such a school in Beverly, started some years previously. The fiftieth anniversary of the Sabbath-school was observed August 9, 1868. Mrs. Emma Putnam Kettelle, who died the year before, had been a teacher from the first year. The first superintendent was Samuel Preston. His successors have been Porter Kettelle, Nathan Tapley, Samuel B. Willis, John Peabody, Ebenezer Putnam, George W. Endicott, Ahira Putnam, Wm. R. Putnam, Moses W. Putnanj, Augustus Mudge, Edward Hutchinson, George W. French, Samuel A. Tucker, William Siner.

A number of the above served several different times. The longest consecutive term was that of Mr. Mudge, from 1848 to 1868. There were in 1886, connected with the school three hundred and four members, with an average attendance of one hundred and sixty-seven.

A List Of Deacons Standino Commit'

Baptist. - ^On the authority of a letter written in 1817 by Israel Hutchinson, clerk, the Baptist Society was formed November 12, 1781. The first recorded meeting was November 26, 1781. Captain Gideon Foster was chosen Moderator ; Dr. Nathaniel Gott, clerk ; and Jere. Hutchinson, Israel Porter and Nathaniel Pope, a committee to supply preaching. On the 10th of December, Nathaniel Pope, Samuel Fairfield and Captain Foster were chosen to procure a spot of land to set a meeting-house upon ; later they were directed to "go on the spot or spots and see which is most comodose for the society and what it can be purchased for." Ebenezer Moulton and Benjamin Jacobs were added to the committee and the dimensions of the building fixed, " sixty feet in length and forty-five in wedth." January 9, 1782, it was voted "to Build the Meeting-House on Hooper's Plane, so called." In April this vote was reconsidered, and at a meeting held in Mr. Aaron Cheever's house it was voted to " chuse a committe to purchis the Land for the Meting-House." Captain Foster was retained on the new committee, and Aaron Cheever and Ebenezer Dale were the others. They were directed " to purchis a Land to Sett the meting- House on, and agree for a fraim and Git the underpinning." Charles Hall, Brickmaker, conveyed to this committee the land on which the building was erected, twenty-nine poles, by deed dated September 20, 1783, the consideration being twenty-six pounds.

Early in November, 1783, "Voted to Except of Mr. Henry putnams plan for the pews. Voted, that the pews be Sold at Vandue. Voted to choose a Committee to attend the Vandue and make sale of the pews, and to Notify to attend the Sale in ways and manner the Committee shall think proper. Voted that this committee consist of Seven persons." Colonel Israel Hutchinson, Nathaniel Webb, Jona. Sawyer, Nath. Pope, Ebenezer Moulton, Joseph Osborne and Samuel Fairfield were this committee.

A meeting was called jus*, before the following Christmas at the house of the Rev. Benjamin Boltch, to consider the method of settling the outstanding accounts for work on the new meeting-house ; the matter was entrusted to Colonel Hutchiusbu, Nathaniel Webb and John Felt. Jonathan Sawyer was here appointed the first treasurer of the society ; he was already "dark," Dr. Gott having early resigned.

" Jona. Sawyer, bid of No. 8 at 82 dollai-s. " And sold to Colonel Israel Hutchinson. "James Richardson, Bid of No. 35 at 81 dollars. "Joseph Smith, Bid of No. 32 at 77 dollars."

The first pastor really settled over the new society was Eev. Benjamin Foster, and the society was remarkably fortunate at having such a man at hand. He knew his people and they knew him, for he had grown up among them. His father was Gideon Foster, a native of Boxford; his mother, Lydia Goldthwait, of Danvers. He was born in the house which formerly stood on Lowell and Foster Streets. South Danvers, June 12, 1750. His brother Gideon, about a year and a half older, the hero of Lexington, was one of the founders of the church. Benjamin attended the town schools, and when about twenty years old entered Yale College, from which he graduated in 1774. In college he became a decided convert to the belief that immersion is the only valid mode of administering the ordinance of baptism. After graduating he joined the First Baptist Church in Boston, under Rev. Dr. Stillman, who directed his theological studies. He was ordained pastor of a Baptist Church in Leicester, Mass., October 23, 1776. He evidently had preached somewhat at New Mills as a supply during the latter part of 1783.

January 27, 1784, the society met " at the house where they commonly met on the Sabbath days " to see if they would agree with the Rev. Benjamin Foster to preach any longer. They voted to request him to fill the pulpit for the nextSabbath, adjourned over, and then sent Joseph Osborne, Nathaniel Upton and Thomas Stevens " to waight upon him " with a result thus reported, - "the Rev'd. Mr. Foster will Stay with the Society six months unless something extraordinary prevents." When the six months were out, December 8, 1784, it voted to agree with Rev. Mr. Foster to preach till May next, and he, cautious as before, agreed " if sickness don't prevent."

cepted a call to Newport. Another two years and he was pastor of the First Baptist Church of New York. In 1792 the College of Rhode Island (Brown University) conferred upon him the degree of "D.D./' probably because of the talent and learning displayed in his work, " A Dissertation on the Seventy Weeks of Daniel, the particular and exact fulfillment of which Prophecy is considered and proved."

Dr. Foster was a fighter with arguments, and he stood manfully by the guns of Pedo-baptism. He had a controversy with Rev. John Cleveland, of Ipswich, on the baptism question, and his pamphlet, "Primitive Baptism Defended," published September 3, 1784, was widely noticed and a second edition called for and published in 1788. The introduction to this pamphlet, which is really a letter to Mr. Cleveland, contains a passage revealing the character of the man, which it would be well for every minister in the land to adopt:

" May God grant that my pen be directed by truth, and governed by candor and moderation, while I attempt to correct the mistakes of one whom I trust I shall ever have reason to respect ! And the more we imbibe of the happy temper of our divine Master, the greater caution we shall use to suppress language which is bitter and censorious towards Christians who differ from us in those points of religion which are of lesser importance."

In the year 1798, in his forty-ninth year, he died in New York, the death of a hero. Not in that glory of military renown, clothed with which his brother Gideon lived to a very old age, but in a scourge of yellow fever. When panic was everywhere and people fled from the city, he remained at his post and fearlessly visiting the sick and dying, he took his life in his hands and lost it. True heroism ! When the general roll is called how these instances of unselfish devotion, untrumpeted from the house-tops, will far outshine and outnumber the brave deeds of war.

Dr. Foster was buried in the Baptist Cemetery, N. Y., and on the marble over his grave are these words written by an eminent Presbyterian clergyman of that city :

" He excelled as a preacher ; as a Christian he shone conspicuously ; in his piety he wag fervent ; the church was comforted by his life, and now laments his death."

At a meeting, early in 1786, Nathaniel Putnam, Benjamin Kent and Simon Pindar were chosen to provide preaching for that year. A similar committee the next year were Jonathan Sawyer, Aaron Cheever, Nathaniel Webb; 1788, Nathaniel Upton, INathaniel Webb, Israel Hutchinson; 1789, Messrs. Upton, Hutchinson and Ebenezer Dale ; 1790, Israel Porter, Eleazer Wallis, Colonel Hutchinson; 1791, the same ; 1792, the latter two and Newall Wilson. Bnt little other business was transacted in these years. A vote, of 1789, that the committee provide preaching once a month and as much oftener as they can, is significant. In 1792 the clerk, Israel Hutchinson, Jr., was directed to draft three subscription papers for the committee to see " how much money they can

In the fall of 1792, we have a hint of a law-suit in which the Society was involved with the Second Parish in Beverly. Richard Waitt had been representing the society and Joseph Batchelder, Israel Porter and the clerk were chosen to help him fight. March 26, 1793, the society met to see what measures they would take "respecting the Rev. Thomas Green preaching for the present year." Ebenezer Wallis, Israel Porter, Josiah Swett, I. Hutchinson, Jr., and Nathaniel Upton considered the matter, and their report was accepted "Respecting giving the Revd. Thos. Green all the monies that may be Subscribed on the subscription papers, and that he shall Have all the Light Contributions and all other advantages witch may arise by sd society."

Subscription Paper

A proprietors' meeting was held in April, 1793, to further consider the settlement of "accounts and disposal of unsold pews. The committee were directed to hang the pew doors and make the end doors to the house ; James Richardson was given a certain time in which " to cap his lot of pews." The next year a subscription paper was again passed around, " to see how much they can get sined for Rev. Thomas Green ; " and he was also given the light contribution. It may have been from excessive lightness that Mr. Green resigned, November 26, 179(5. The next March it was voted " to procure sum person who possesseth a good Carrictor to preach for the Society this year, and the committee is to promise the minister all the contribusian that arises by the Society or otherwise all the money that the committee shall see proper." Nothing like having these little financial matters between pastor and people plainly understood. It is not shown in the society records who first succeeded Mr. Green. There was no settled minister for six years. Elder Joshua Young was supplying in the fall of 1800. In December. 1802, the standing committee made a report on Lord's Day evening, after the service that they have agreed with Mr. Jeremiah Chaplin " to preach to the Society one year Exclusive of Two Days the committee agreed to give him ; we are to pay 312 dollars, equal to 6 dollars pr. day, wich the Society appeared to be very well satisfied with, and also voted to pay the same."

$132.43 '- By a box of Glass 100 f 8 by 10 Inches. "Given by Deacon Waitt, of D. Stilnion's "Church cost $13.75 cents. "1804, Sept. 13, I Reed Eight Dollars of -' Deacon wild, it being a Remnont Not " paid to Collector when Mr. Chaplin reed "The above money." 8.

Dr. Stillman was the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Boston, with whom Benjamin Foster studied. The society sent grateful acknowledgment of the prompt and liberal assistance thus aftbrded in repairing the meeting-house.

In 1805 Mr. Chaplin's salary was raised to four hundred dollars, but the ordinary formula of the annual meetings was a vote for a subscription paper, " to see how much could be raised for the continuance of the gospel, as the Revd. Jeremiah Chaplin's time is nearly expired." Contributions were taken, one year every Sabbath ; again, by passing the box around twice in every three months to collect the money of the subscribers. To be impartial in this business, in 1816 Samuel Whipple, collector, was directed "to carry Round the Book in the gallery at the time they pass Round below to colect the Subscription."

There were at this time fourteen churches within the association, namely, the First Haverhill, the pioneer of Baptist Churches in this vicinity, founded in 1765 ; [Chelmsford, 1771; Rowley, 1786; Danvers,

That the meeting was quite an event may be judged from the preparations. A month before, there was a special meeting of church and society, at which there were appointed to act with the standing committee, a special committee of ten, - -Dea. Isaac Porter, Benjamin Kent, Captain Thomas Putnam, William Trask, Captain Thomas Cheever, Captain Edward Richardson, Major Joseph Stearns, James Carr, William Johnson, Israel Hutchinson. They met at Mr. Hutchinson's house, to perfect arrangements. Major Black was made chairman. Messrs. Kent, Porter and Hutchinson were detailed to see that provision was made for the care of horses; Captain Putnam, Major Black and D. Hardy - the latter not of the ten - were directed "to visit the Nabours to see what entertainments they will make both as to provisions and Lodging for the ministers and messengers who may attend the association ; " " to Seete the Ladies " - there the ten passed around sly jokes, of course, at the expense of each other, but they settled down with commendable fitness on the three men with handles to their names most suggestive of chivalry, - Captain Putnam, Captain Cheever, Captain Richardson ; " to kc^'p the Dores of the meetinghouse," Dea. Porter, Messrs. Kent and Hutchinson ; " to attend in the galleries and place the people at the best advantage to prevent Disorder," Major Stearns, Mr. Allen Gould ; " to examine the meetinghouse and report what it will be necessary to do," Captain Putnam, Messrs. Trask and Kent. The general committee met again and " maid a report what they had Dun for the association, as it Respects vitling & Lodging, & Likewise to the Keeping of horses. Rev. Mr. Chaplin, Messrs. Kent and Hutchinson, were appointed to make a division of the guests among the people ; it was voted " that Mr. John Dock have the Sole Care of the Singing, & that he may invite what assistance he may think necessary, to assist him." One more meeting the committee had ; William Trask and Major Black were appointed "to keep good order round the meetinghouse in Divine Sarvis." The only record which Mr. Hutchinson made of the occasion, which presumably was carried out with [pleasure and profit, was in regard to the singing ; he himself was called upon to manage this part of the service, owing to John Dock's previous engagement. He employed, he writes, Mr. Kinne, of Salem, Mr. Carey, of Salem, Mr. Timothy Berry, of Beverly and many others attended with them. " Kinne's bill, $14 - Berry's bill, 4$50 - Mr. Carey came with others gratis."

The Salem Association met with the New Mills Church again in 1836 and again in 1854; in the latter year it was comprised of twenty-four churches.

hundred dollars, to be raised by tax assessed on the polls and estates of those persons who are or who may be petitioners for an incorporation act, and as if to give comfort and encouragement to the minister, a copy of the record of this action was sent to him. But a month later he accepted a call to another position. For sixteen years he had lived and labored among this people, how devotedly and with what mutual affection can be judged from the extracts of letters which follow. The meagreness of his salary forced his domestic economy into narrow straits ; it is said that he often was seen fishing from Spite Bridge, and whether or not he had a weakness for angling, doubtless the catch was welcome to the frying-pan. It is a pleasant thing to record that his reputation for sterling manhood, conscientious work and scholarly attainments brought to him an invitation to accept the presidency of the institution since known as Bates' College.

May 18, 1818, his release was reluctantly granted, and the unfeigned thanks of the society were tendered him for his long and faithful services. Further, three persons were chosen " to form an address to be presented to him." Their names appear below :

" Bev. Jeremiah Chaplin : " Rev. & Dear Sir, - We are authorizid by tlie unanimous vote of tlie Baptist Society in Danvers, in belialf of the same, to present yo\i our unfeigned thanks for your long and faithful labors with us as a minister of the Gospel and preacher of morality ; and to express our sincere wishes that wherever you may in providence be called the smiles of Heaven may accompany you. You would deem it superfluous were we to enlarge upon the high estimation which we have ever placed on your ministerial performances or the love which we have ever borne toward you as a citizen. The reluctance with which we have lately assented to your dismission sufficiently bespeaks these sentiments. Nothing but a sense of duty in consideration of your present feelings has drawn this assertion from us. Although your removal is to us not joyous, but grievous, yet the occasion of this removal and the circumstances under which you leave us, afford us a very pleasing reflection. We have the satisfaction to believe that no want of attachment to us, love of honor, pecuniary Tiews nor sinister motives, of whatever nature, had any part in Inducing you to request a dismission. And much as we regret the loss which we must sustain by this separation, we are not disposed to complain of any injustice on your part. No, Sir ! We are rather disposed to feel grateful for the privileges which we have already enjoyed, and to hope that the usefulness of your labours will bo more extensive than it could be with us. We sliould be criminally contracted and selfish in our views were we to wish the general good to be sacrificed to our particular interest. That yourremoval will be for the general good we have not undertaken to decide fi'oni our own knowledge, but have acted with deference to your superior judgment, and so far as self denial would admit have acted with cheerfulness.

" We request and trust we shall ever have an interest in your supplications at the throne of Him who gave and whotaketh away. Be assured dear sir, we possess the most affectionate feelings for yourself and family. Wishing you may receive a hundred-fold in this time, and in the world

Many years after Mr. Chaplin's departure, one of his successors wrote : " The parting scenes as they still linger in the memories of the aged, and as rehearsed by them with tearful eye, show how deep a hold he had upon his people."

It was at the beginning of Mr. Chaplin's ministry that the Beverly people withdrew to form a church of their own, and by reason of their dismissal and from other causes, the parent church was left in a low condition, with but thirty-eight members. At the close of Mr. Chaplin's ministry the membership was seventy-four.

On the 21st of June, 1818, the next Sabbath after Mr. Chaplin left. Rev. James A. Bos well preached. Three or four weeks later a meeting was held to see if the society were so "satisfied with the gifts and tallants " of this preacher as to wish to have him supply longer. The meeting left it to the committee and the committee engaged him for three-quarters of a year. A well-known lady who was then a young Miss attending Miss Martin's " Dame's School " at New Mills, remembers being present at his installation, and that the new minister looked very young and small when the old divines were talking to him. Very likely any man would have felt somewhat diminutive on such an occasion.

The first meeting under the new act was held at School-house, No. 2, on Monday, March 29, 1819, at six o'clock, P.M., to choose officers and levy a tax for support of the Gospel and other expenses for the ensuing year. Sixteen votes were cast for moderator, all for Thomas Putnam ; twenty for clerk, all for Israel Hutchinson. Thomas Putnam, Moses Black and Benjamin Kent were elected assessors ; Joseph Stearns, treasurer; Hercules H. Joslyn, collector. The first votes of money under the new order were in this wise : " Voted to Raise $400 for the Benefit of

Samuel Tucker and Samuel Preston. Four years later and another committee, another in 1849, several in the fifties, and one, the last, as late as 1871, upon the earlier of which appear as leading temperance men of the day these additional names : Allen Knight, Israel Adams, Deacon Frederick Howe, William Walcott, Gilbert Tapley, Nathan Tapley, Wra. J. C. Kenney, Eben Putnam, Israel W. Andrews, Edward T. Waldron and Moses Black, Jr. In 1819 these rather unique votes were passed :

" That each minister, each Lawyer and each Doctor be requested to 'leliver to the citizens of the Ttiwn, one Lecture at least, each, during the year, on the subject of Teniperance and Gambling

" That the Town Clerk send a certified copy of the above vote to each of the gentlemen referred to and to publish it in the Dfinvers Courier.

About 1849, too, the subject of lotteries received the attention of condemnation, and committees were especially instructed to prosecute violations of the law.

Agreeable to the law of 1855, the selectmen appointed as the first liquor agent of the town, Needham C. Millett. He was required to keep pure and unadulterated liquors, for medicinal, chemical and mechanical purposes only, at his place of business on Maple Street; to sell for cash only at twenty-five per cent, net profit ; to make quarterly returns to the town treasurer; and his compensation was one hundred dollars. His successors as liquor agents were : 1856- 57, Olive Emery, High Street; 1858-61, Hiram Preston, Maple Street; 1862-65, Levi Merrill, Maple Street; 1866, Daniel Richards, corner High and Elm Streets; 1867, A. Sumner Howard, Cherry Street; 1869-72, Abram Patch, Jr., Maple Street.

From the stand taken so early, when the resolutions of 1833 were adopted, neither the old nor the present town of Danvers has ever receded. Once only, in 1883, the vote went in favor of license, four hundred and twenty-one to two hundred and eighty-three; but by a singular coincidence, the proceedings of this meeting were technically illegal, through the omission to use check lists in balloting for moderator, and on a subsequent trial the result was reversed by a close vote, four hundred in favor of license, four hundred and thirty-eight against. The first vote under the local option law of 1868 was a negative answer, one hundred and forty-nine to five, to the question "Shall licenses be granted for the sale, to be drunk on the premises, of either distilled or fermented liquors?" Late votes on the license question have been : 1884, 476 no, 275 yes; 1885, 391 no, 233 yes; 1886, 384 no^ 183 yes.

Not always, however, has the real state of the temperance question been in harmony with this showing. A dozen years ago the saloon element, for a time, successfully defied the law, and endeavored, by terrorizing prosecutors, to avoid prosecution. At least one exteiis've fire has been traced to such a source. Rut the people at length aroused to meet the emergency, and, under a police who deserve great credit for so well performing their duty, have brought back the town to a place essentially of law and order, where liquor-selling timidly skulks and drunkenness is not common.

Within recent years a number of temperance societies have been organized. Apparently the oldest is the Catholic Total Abstinence Society, whose good work cannot easily be over-estimated. It was organized November 19, 1871, and bought and fitted up its present building some four years later. Its hall was dedicated February 17, 1879. The Danvers Reform Club was organized, January 21, 1876; the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Danversport, January 17, 1876 ; a similar Union at the Plains, February 6, 1876.

Fire Department. -The first action of the town regarding fire-engines was in the first year of this century. On the 25th of August, 1800, Robert Shillaber, Israel Putnam and Edward Southwick were chosen "to i)iirchase two fire engines for the use of the town, whenever a sum of money shall be raised by subscription equal to one-half the cost of said engines, and deposited in the hands of the committee aforesaid for that purpose."

" Voted : Said engines shall be kept in repair at the expense of the town and one of them shall be placed near the house formerly called the Bell Tavern and the other on the neck of land near the new mills so called provided the inhabitants who may be likely to receive the most benefit therefrom will at their own expense erect suitable buildings to receive them."

By a law of the Commonwealth, the selectmen of towns owning fire-engines were empowered to nominate " engine-men." At the beginning of 1801, the selectmen made these appointments:

The names of Edward Southwick, William and Daniel Reed, Jr., Caleb Osborne, George Stone, John Pierce and Samuel Mclntire were subsequently, for some reason, erased.

Officers known as " fire-wards " were first chosen at the annual meeting of 1801. The persons then chosen were Eben(!zer Sprague, Samuel Page, Edward Southwick, Ebenezer Shillaber, Simon Pindar and Israel Hutchinson, Jr. Ten years later Page and Southwick were both on the board, and with them

Some records of the meetings of No. 2, about this time, have been preserved. At Nathaniel Putnam's store certain preparations were made one day in February, 1808, which show that charity went hand in hand with festivity.

Voted, The committee be authorized to invite the minister and schoolmaster to sup with US in free cost, and that tliey invite the fire ward in said district to sup with us in club.

Voted, That the remaining part of the fines that may be had after paying for said supper, &c., be given to the most needy persons in said district.

At the adjournment the report was accepted and the committee duly thanked. They received from the clerk thirty dollars for distribution, and fourteen persons received from one to four dollars each.

In 1810 the " Columbian Fire Club " is first mentioned in the town records. The club petitioned for an additional number of buckets to be placed under it s care. Three good men and true considered the subject, - Jona. Ingersoll, Jas. Foster and Samuel Page ; but whether the club secured the buckets or not is a question of distressing uncertainty. A survivor of this club relates that each member was required to keep a fire-bucket, a bed-key and a canvas bag, hanging ready for use in the front entry.

In 1815 there were ten fire-wards, - Sylvester Osborne, Benj. Crowninshiekl, Caleb Oakes, Thomas Putnam, Joseph Ct. Sprague, James Brown, Moses Black, John Upton, Jr., Samuel Fowler and Ward Pool. In that year the New Mills engine was thus manned :

Appropriations, by direct vote, for the fire department were few and far between in the early years of its existence. In 1837 the selectmen were authorized " to furnish the new mill engine company with fire Buckets, as they think proper, provided they do not find those they lost at the late fire" and the only other recorded appropriation for the first twenty years was on a vote in 1819, authorizing the repair of the hook-and-ladders belonging to the town, and the purchase of as many new hooks, ladders, pikes, not to exceed fifteen, as the fire- wards should think proper.

a new engine. The first thing was to inquire into the status and condition of the old engines. It was evidently an important matter. Notice the number and character of the committee of inspection : Ebenezer Shillaber, Andrew Nichols, Nathl. Putnam, John Upton, Jr., John Page, Sylvester Osborne, Caleb Oakes, John W. Proctor, Danl Putnam, Warren Porter and Samuel Fowler. But the committee was considered still lacking somewhat in weight and five more were added, - Briggs R. Reed, Oliver Saunders, Eben Putnam, Jr., Joseph Spaulding and Allen Gould. All these were appointed by the moderator, yet " the inhabitants " were not quite satisfied. They voted " to add two more to the above Committee, the Town to have the liberty of nominating them, and Edward Southwick and Nathaniel Watson were added." Verily, if the old engines were not thoroughly overhauled, it was not the fault of the townmeeting. Subsequently it was voted to procure two new engines and repair the old ones, provided half the cost of the new ones be raised by subscription. Squires Shove, Caleb Oakes, Nathaniel Putnam, Ebenezer Shillaber and Wm. Sutton, were delegated to pass around the hat.

In 1826 two sets of sail cloths were provided at an expense of one hundred and fifty dollars, one set to be located near the south meeting-house, the other at New Mills. The men who ran with the machine this latter year at New Mills were

In 1830 another engine was purchased for the south parish ; the same year an act of the Legislature was passed " to establish a Fire Department in Danvers." The act provided for the choice of twelve fire-wards ; changed the power of appointment of engine-men from the selectmen to the fire-wards; limited the number of engine-men to forty " for each hydraulioD or suction-engine, twenty-five to each common engine, four to each hose-carriage, twenty to each sail-carriage and twenty for a hook-and-ladder company ;" authorized the engine-men to organize themselves into distinct companies under the direction of the fire-wards ; and made the fire-wards custodians of all fire-apparatus. The first board chosen under this act consisted of R. H. French, Lewis Allen, Caleb Low, Richard Osborne, S. P. Fowler, Moses Black, Caleb L. Frost, Benjamin Wheeler, Henry Cook, Edward Upton, Enoch Poor and Jacob F. Perry.

engiue-house, and secured it. The same year -" Johnny " Perley, the storekeeper at the little village which was springing up at Porter's Plains, petitioned for a fire-engine, to be located near Berry's tavern, and the next year Philip Osborn and others wanted a new engine-house at the "Pine Tree Corner " (Wilson's Corner), and secured an appropriation of three hundred dollars for that purpose.

Mr. Perley's petition not having met with success, another store-keeper, Daniel Richards, headed a petition in April, 1836, " for a good and sufficient fireengine to be located at the Plains, and to provide a convenient building for the same." The fire-wards at this meeting presented a report which, doubtless, influenced favorable action, - "The engine Niagara, No. 1, is not suitable or fit to work with the Salem engines, they being suction . . . ; the Forrest, No. 3, is in good order and well manned . . . ; the Erie, No. 2, is in a bad condition and not man'd, wants repairing and altering . . . ; the ,

No. 4, a good, new engine, is wanted at the Plains, with hose and a house for the same." A vote was passed to raise two thousand three hundred dollars for the purpose of purchasing two new engines, one to replace the old " Niagara," the other for the Plains, -and for hose, etc., and the repairing of the ''Erie." Richard Hood's bill "for finishing the engine-house at the neck " in 1836 was $102.85.

But the new engine for the Plains was not immediately forthcoming. At the March meeting of 1837 one of the articles was " To inquire of the Fire Department what they have done towards obtaining a Fire-Engine to be located at the Plains, agreeable to the request of Eben Putnam." At an adjournment a committee which had been appointed to consider the report of the fire-wards reported "that it is expedient to procure a middling-sized engine of good construction to be located at the Plains, provided an efficient company of thirty men can be found in that vicinity ready to take charge of the same ; that, in case an engine is procured, a suitable house should be built for the accommodation of the same." These recommendations were adopted, and eight hundred dollars appropriated. But the committee added in their report, - " It is worse than useless to expend a thousand dollars for an engine and to have it, when the alarm of fire is given on a cold night, frozen up and unfit to be used." Two hundred dollars was soon after added to the appropriation of eight hundred dollars.

In 1842 Otis Mudge and one hundred and twentyeight others petitioned for an engine and house, "to be located near the North Parish Meeting-House (Rev. Mr. Braman's) ; " the matter was referred to Mr. Mudge, Miles Osborne and W. J. C. Kenney, but when a vote was taken - this was a meeting held in the South Parish - only 51 voted for the measure, and 59 voted against it. It was " tried again." Mr. Mudge and John W. Proctor were appointed tellers. They reported 65 in the affirmative and 65 in the negative. Then the house was polled, and the tellers having reported " 68 for locating an engine, and 78 against it," it was then voted that the subject be dismissed. In 1843 the engine at New Mills was replaced by a new machine, called the "Ocean," at a cost not exceeding a thousand dollars ; and what became of the old Niagara appears in this item of the fire-wards* report for 1844 :

"No. 2. - This engine, with its apparatus, is in good order, it having been removed from the Neck to the Tapley Village, and is now under the charge of Perley Tapley, who has engaged to furnish a house for it at his own expense."

In this report the story is told at length of the great fire which swept through what is now Peabody Square, burning the South Meeting-House, the old Essex Coftee-House and many other principal buildings in the vicinity. "The sun, this morning, rose upon a scene of desolation never before witnessed in our town, disclosing more fully to view crumbling walls and smouldering ruins in the place of those buildings which the devouring element had .swept from our view. The destruction of property was very large." Further details will doubtless appear under the sketch of the history of Peabody.