Tisbury Town (part 4 of 5)

Samuel Norris

The first known ancestor of this family, long distinguished in the annals of Eastville, was Samuel Norris, a carpenter of Freetown, 1715, Dighton, 1720, and Bristol, 1721, whose wife was Rebecca [Howes?]. She died in the latter place March 3, 1745, leaving a son Thomas (b. 1726) among others. This Thomas married Patience, daughter of Thomas Harlock, August II, 1 751, in Bristol, and soon after removed to the Vineyard, settling at Edgartown. He was in the French and Indian wars, 1759-60 and died April 10, 1775, aged 49 years. He left eight children of whom Samuel, born 1753, settled in Eastville, married Lucy, daughter of James and Rebecca (Butler) Shaw, and is the ancestor of one of the ablest men ever credited to this town in its recent public life, the Hon. Howes Norris, thrice senator from the Cape District.

Separation From Edgartown Early Sentiment For Independence

The remoteness of Eastville from the village of Edgartown contained the germ of the idea of an independent existence of this part of the town when it should become numerically strong enough to demand this privilege. About 1825, as told by older residents of Eastville, this sentiment took concrete form in an agitation for a separation from the parent town; but no definite details are obtainable, as the matter never proceeded to the point of specific action. The little hamlet did not then have sufficient population nor valuation to justify its establishment as an independent community; and it is probable that the movement was designed to influence some pending controversies between the two sections of the town. Doubtless the northern section suffered then from lack of its share of the town appropriations, as was the case in later years, when it grew to the proportions of a possible township. The growth of the summer resort around the Squash Meadow region following the development of the campmeetings, and the general increase of a resident population in that section, accentuated the idea of future autonomy. This took definite form about 1872, when the residents of Eastville and the newer settlement at Vineyard Grove joined together in a campaign for separation from Edgartown. The residents of Eastville, when they were almost the only permanent population of Farm Neck, had no natural affiliations binding them to the old town. They had no decent roads, nor school houses, and felt neglected by the voters of the older village in the distribution of annual favors at town meetings. They were a hopeless and helpless minority, comprising not more than fifteen families, and they chafed under the yoke. It was seven miles by a sandy road to the post office, the town hall and a good school house. As a result of these conditions they traded and received their mail at Homes Hole, and all their interests were in this association with the people of that settlement. The men of Eastville were the original inspirers of every sentiment for a division of the town, and as the feeling for independence grew, its leaders were always found there. It is apparent that the majority of voters of Edgartown village paid but scant attention to these continued murmurs of discontent, and thus annually piled up arguments in favor of a separation by their treatment of this section of the town.

The Fight For Separation

On the date above given (1872) a Representative to the General Court, understood to be favorable to division, was elected through the influence of the people of Eastville, and a petition for separation was circulated among the residents of the northern section of the town. The people of the old village countered this move with a remonstrance against separation, and induced such a considerable number of the nonresident tax payers of Vineyard Grove to sign it, that the petitioners for the new town found it the better policy to defer action at that time. The agitation, however, was kept up continuously, and in the few following years the ranks of the divisionists were recruited from this same non-resident element which had been employed against them previously. No improvement in the relations of the two sections ensued even at this juncture ; and such favors in the way of improvements as could be obtained from Edgartown were either grudgingly bestowed or forced by appeals to their sense of justice.

The men most active in the north part of the old town in the various movements for a division were Howes Norris, Ichabod Norton Luce, Joseph Dias, Otis Foss and Samuel Butler. These men finally enlisted the support of nearly all of the non-residents who were incorporated into a separate committee of thirty to carry on the battle. Oliver Ames of Easton, who then owned a fine summer residence at Oak Bluffs, was chairman of this committee of non-residents, and at that time he was yet only a private citizen of large wealth and influence in the business world. When the battle was found to be a strongly contested engagement, and after two successive defeats of the petitioners, Mr. Ames said he "guessed he would go to the Senate to help out," and he did. This divisional fight was undoubtedly the inspiration of his entry into political life, and this service as Senator was the prelude to his promotion to the offices of Lieutenant-Governor and Governor of this Commonwealth.

Among the many non-residents, who devoted much time and effort during the several years of leglisative battling before success was finally reached, were Hon. Nathaniel Wales of Stoughton, at first a Senator and later of the Governor's Council; Hon. Edward B. Gillette of Westfield, a prominent attorney and a director in the Boston and Albany Railroad; Hon. William N. Sage of Rochester, N. Y.; Captain John S. Damrell of Boston, and Mr. N. Sumner Myrick of the same city, then a correspondent of the Boston Herald and a young attorney at law. These and other non-residents proved to be a most efficient factor in the campaign, as their interest and influence ramified throughout all portions of the state, and they were able to appeal to the sources of public influence which affected the opinions of the legislators.

The Causes Of The Trouble

In the statements which follow, detailing the complaints of the petitioners for separation, the author is not expressing his views of the merits of the controversy, but paraphrasing the language of those who entertained these grievances against the dominant authorities of Edgartown. The advocates of division were first aroused to action by the continuous neglect of the interests of their section, both in respect to a share in the civil honors in town management, and m the refusal to provide the ordinary necessities of decent roads and good schools for a growing community. Edgartown village profited by the rapid and unusual increase of taxable improved property in the Camp- INIeeting grounds when permanent residences began to dot the landscape, and nothing was given in return to the new community. As an instance of this almost fatuitous disregard for the convenience of the citizens of the north end of the town, may be cited the refusal to build a bridge across the narrow channel emptying the Lagoon. The people residing in this section had no outlet to the westward towns on the Vineyard except by water, while a mile only separated them from the village of Vineyard Haven, where they could have convenient mail facilities and the other benefits that a large settlement affords. Requests for appropriations to build this connecting link w^ere repeatedly voted down. At last the petitioners took the matter to the General Court in the form of a bill compelling the county commissioners to build the bridge, and the responsible leaders of the Edgartown interests fought the measure with great earnestness, but without success. Another instance of this nature was the refusal to build a road through the farms along the Eastville shore, until the residents of that section gave the town bonds that it should not cost the town anything. Temahigon avenue, which runs from the Eastville Inn to New York avenue, and New York avenue itself, two of the finest roads in the present town, were only obtained by the guarantee on the basis above mentioned, of the people of Eastvifle to the town of Edgartown.

the old town interests projected the present Beach road which should connect them with the new settlement at Oak Bluffs. As usual a short-sighted policy was adopted in the construction of" this highway. While competent contractors offered to build a macadam road for $40,000, the Edgartown leaders pushed through a vote to employ none but townspeople in this work and a common dirt road was finally completed at an expense of nearly $60,000. But the object of preventing the citizens of the northern section from going by road to another section of the island had been accomplished. Nor was this wasteful financiering the only ground of complaint with respect to money matters. The old town voted $15,000 more to build a railroad parallel to this Beach road, which could be of no possible benefit to any other section of the town, and it proved to be a total loss, as an investment.

The Story Oe The Struggle

For three successive years, 1878, 1879 and 1880, these petitioners for division took their case to the General Court for relief. They were represented by Hon. Charles R. Train, while the old town entrusted its case to the Hon. Selwyn Z. Bowman. With such able counsel on both sides, and the prominent men interested throughout the state among the non-resident petitioners, the case became one of the most noted town division contests ever threshed out in the history of the Commonwealth. The struggle developed exceedingly bitter feelings betwTen the people of the two sections, and before its close the petitioners had practically abandoned attendance at town meetings because of the personal ill-treatment which they claim to have received at the hands of their opponents. Charges and counter charges of dishonesty in the financial management of the town were freely made, and the motives of each side were impugned as selfish or dishonest. The case of the remonstrants was one of general and particular denial of every complaint set forth by the petitioners. Figures taken from the town reports were employed by both sides with equal facility to establish opposite contentions; and amid this arithmetical maze of percentages, the average person might well flounder in his efforts to deduce the real truth from their diametric arguments. The remonstrants claimed that the debt of the town was due to improvements made for the benefit of the new section, and that it would be unjust to the old town to be burdened with a moiety of it, as after the separation an undue proportion of taxable property would be taken into the new town. It appeared from an analysis of the property interests of the petitioners, that, while numerically strong, they represented at first a minority of the taxable realty. This element of non-resident petitioners, while potentially valuable from a political standpoint, constituted a hazardous asset as an argument for division. It can readily be seen that the division of Edgartown was not their concern legally, as they were not voters, and the propriety of their appearance was seriously questioned as a matter of public policy, by the many not immediately interested in the matter. The counsel for the remonstrants dealt with this feature in vigorous terms, and practically demanded their entire exclusion from the case in the interests of justice. He used this circumstance with great effect in an appeal to the sentiment of fair play, picturing the hundreds of wealthy and influential nonresidents throughout the state engaged in a combination against the poor, defenceless island community, struggling against disruption and despoilment.

As was inevitable, this contest entered into the local politics of the Vineyard as a whole, and the elections of the representative to the General Court in the years 1878-80, inclusive, were fought out on the issue of division. In 1878 and 1879 Captain Benjamin Clough of Tisbury was chosen as an opponent of division through the votes of Edgartown and her friends in other sections of the island. This position of advantage accrued to the benefit of the old town in the legislative struggles of those two years, as Captain Clough succeeded in defeating all the active work carried on by the petitioners throughout the state. As representative of the local interests of his district the Vineyard member exercised a controlling influence on a subject which was purely a local affair, in accordance with the unwritten law and custom of the legislature. For the third and last time the contestants waged the usual preliminary skirmish in the election of a new representative to sit in the General Court of 1880, and, after a spirited campaign, Stephen Flanders of Chilmark, an avowed friend of the petitioners, was the successful candidate. The strategic advantage was now with the divisionists, and the influence of the local representative would be against the old town. The tide had turned, but both sides returned to the arena undismayed by previous defeats and the recent election. The old arguments were repeated in favor and the old replies were flung back without much change. The General Court lent a favorable ear, and on February 17, 1880, the Bill incorporating the new town became a law.

At the first meeting of the voters of the new town of Cottage City, in March, 1880, the following named persons were chosen as its officials for the ensuing year:

William H. Davis, Frederick U. Ripley, Otis Foss, Selectmen, Assessors and Overseers of the Poor; Oliver E. Linton, Town Clerk; Joseph Dias, Town Treasurer and Collector of Taxes; Oliver E. Linton, Henry C. Norton, Phoebe A. Norton, School Committee; Edward H. Hatfield, Shubael H. Norton, Albert A. Bosworth, Board of Health.

Its valuation was $1,197,435, with 1,058 taxable buildings, including 15 hotels. It then stood as 142 among the 306 towns in the state, as regards valuation.

The name of the new town became a bone of contention during the agitation. The summer residents in various portions of the proposed town desired to give it the name of the section in which each lived. The post office had been called Vineyard Grove and Oak Bluffs at different periods, and the people residing at the Highlands and about the Camp Meeting Grounds favored the former name, while the residents of Oak Bluffs insisted on the retention of this title. Both sides were unyielding in this matter, and the dispute threatened to disorganize the divisionists. At this juncture the Hon. H. A. Blood, a former Mayor of Fitchburg, Mass., and a summer resident, suggested the compromise name which was finally adopted. As general manager of the Fitchburg Railroad he had designated this locality in his advertising matter for summer travelers as the "Cottage City of America," and the suggestion was made by him to the leaders that the new town be called Cottage City. He claimed that through his extensive exploitation of this nam.e throughout the country it was already known as Cottage City to hundreds of summer visitors, and that it would be good policy to adopt it officially.

For a long time the bitterness engendered by the struggle remained, but at this date, a generation after the events above narrated, it can be said that both sections are happier, less

Name Changed To Oak Bluffs

The baptismal name of this town never gave entire satisfaction to many of the residents. In many respects it was a ridiculous pretence to call a very small town a city and it gave strangers an erroneous impression which became the source of humorous comment whenever mentioned seriously. To reverse the name it would sound equally senseless to speak of the City of Cottage Town. This sentiment grew in strength from year to year and when, in 1906, it was proposed to give the place a dignified name scarcely any opposition was manifested. The large consensus of opinion was in favor of the earlier title of the place, Oak Bluffs, and on Jan. 25, 1907, the General Court incorporated the town of Cottage City under the new name.

^It is related, as an instance of the animosities aroused, that on an early visit to Edgartown after the bill was passed, one of the principal leaders from Eastville was greeted with a chorus of groans and other uncomplimentary demonstrations from people who had hastily gathered on learning of his presence in the town. They aligned themselves on both sides of the street, the principal thoroughfare of the town, and continued this hostile serenade until his business was completed and he had departed for his home.

U. S. Government Services Lighthouse Establishment

There is one lighthouse in the town, situated on the highlands of East Chop. It was built in 1869 by the late Capt. Silas Daggett of Vineyard Haven as a private enterprise. His project had the financial support of marine insurance companies, steamship lines and coastwise commercial interests making use of this great waterway of travel. Anticipating the final disposal of it to the general government he completed the tower, maintained it for a period until its transfer was accomplished. This is probably one of the few instances of such an undertaking on our coast, but the energetic promoter thought that governments moved too deliberately and he went ahead with his project, trusting in subsequent reimbursement. It is a flashing red light.

The tower is circular in form, with a railed gallery around the lantern. The bluff on which it stands is about seventyfive feet above sea level, and in the period 1845-187 1 it had receded about seventy-five feet as a result of erosion by wave action, a rate of nearly three feet per annum.

Post Office

The growth of the annual summer population following the establishment of the camp meetings resulted in the necessity for mail facilities, and in 1870 a post office was established with the designation of Vineyard Grove. This was changed, March 25, 1878, to Oak Bluffs, and almost immediately after, June II, 1878, changed back to its original name. After the incorporation of the town as Cottage City the name was altered March 30, 1880, to that of the new town, and remained so until Feb. 28, 1907, when it was called Oak Bluffs post office.

The following named persons have served in the office of postmaster: Sirson P. Coffin, commissioned March 7, 1870; Charles M. Vincent, July 19, 1871; Frances P. Vincent, May 13, 1873; Henry C. Norton, May 10, 1888; Charles L. Scranton, Sept. 6, 1889 (present incumbent).

There is no public building for the accommodation of the post office in Oak Bluffs, and the postmaster has always established his quarters in rented buildings. For the greater part of the time since 1870 the ofiSce has been located on Circuit Avenue.

The first newspaper established in the town was the Cottage City Star, which was started by Hon. Howes Norris, in 1879, as editor and pubHsher. It was printed in a four-page blanket-sheet form and printed local news from all the island towns, but made a specialty of Cottage City happenings. It was a weekly issue during the greater part of the year, but when the tourist season was on, a semi-weekly issue was published. The office was located at No. i Commonwealth square. This paper existed for six years, and was sold to Charles Strahan, a Southerner by birth and a Confederate soldier during the Civil War, formerly of Baltimore and New Orleans. He had been attracted to Oak Bluffs because he had found it of great beneficial value to his health, and made it his home for the next ten years, during which time he conducted this paper on lines similar to the Gazette of Edgartown, but the name was changed by him to Martha's Vineyard Herald. He continued as editor and publisher until September, 1900, when he disposed of the plant to Elmer E. I^anders of Cottage City and William E. Doane of Taunton. In April, 1902, Mr. Doane retired from the firm, and Mr. Landers continues its publication as surviving partner. The office of publication has been from the beginning at the Herald building, on Circuit avenue. It is issued weekly, except in July and August, when a semi-weekly edition is issued.

As this town grew up it came to have a conglomeration of boarding houses and hotels for the accommodation of the summer visitors, and it would be an unnecessary task to attempt an enumeration of all the houses utilized as public taverns. It will suffice to enumerate the larger and more pretentious hotels which have maintained a continued existence for many years. They comprise the following:

(E. H. Fennessy), Central House (Fuller and Field), and the Sea View House (Louis Frenkel). This last named hotel was by far the most famous of all, being the largest and best located. Built and furnished at a cost of over one hundred thousand dollars, with over an hundred guest rooms, spacious dining hall, broad verandah, and situated on the shore at the head of Steamboat wharf, overlooking the arrival and departure of the thousands who came annually, it was, during its existence, the social centre for the "Smart set" which gradually came to measure up in numbers with those who flocked hither for religious reasons. It was burned Sept. 24, 1892, just at the end of the tourist season and was never rebuilt. Efforts were made from time to time to interest capitalists in a plan to provide a successor to it, but the disaster came at a time when the abnormal "boom" of Cottage City had subsided, and the demand for such an elaborate hostelry had passed with the turn of the tide. The existing hotels have enlarged and improved their capacity, and are fully able to provide for the travelers who seek temporary lodgings and board.

This town has not had, with one exception, a practitioner of medicine who devoted his entire time to the residents of Oak Bluffs. The summer season created a demand for the temporary services of physicians, and the practitioners of Tisbury and Edgartown, Doctors Butler and Lane of the former place, and Doctors Walker and Worth of the latter place, have maintained offices here during the tourist season. In latter years permanent offices the year round have been established by them.

William Leach, M. D., the exception above noted, was a well known and highly respected physician of the Vineyard for many years. He was born in the town of Kittery, Me., Sept. 23, 1825, received his elementary education in the district school, and fitted for college in the New Market, N. H., academy. He then turned his attention to the study of medicine, entering, in 1852, the medical department of Harvard University, from which he was graduated in 1856. After practising in Boston, till 1863, he came to Martha's Vineyard and resided here continuously, engaged in the successful practice of his profession, at first in Vineyard Haven, and in the later years of his life exclusively in Oak Bluffs. He died March 31, 1903, nearly four score years of age. He was a member of the Martha's Vineyard Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of the Vineyard Haven Lodge, No. 228, I. O. O. F., and of the Massachusetts Medical Society.

There are three burial grounds in the town, the "Cottage City", which contains the oldest grave stone, 1759; the "Farm Neck," whose earliest stone is 1764, and the small ground near Old House pond, where the earliest stone bears the date of 181 6.

Grand Army Of The Republic

The veterans of the Civil War residing on the Vineyard formed a Post of this organization in 1890, w'th headquarters at Oak Bluffs. It was christened Henry Clay Wade Post, No. 201, of the Department of Massachusetts, in honor of that gallant naval officer who died at Pensacola. Henry W. Coye of Vineyard Haven was its first Commander, serving for five years in that office. The Post has enrolled about fifty veterans on its roster, and meets the first and third Thursdays of each month in G. A. R. hall on Circuit avenue. It is assisted in its work of fraternal care of the sick and needy of its members by the Woman's Relief Corps, an auxiliary organization.

The Martha'S Vineyard Summer Institute

This institution was another unique feature of this unique town. Established in 1878 as a normal school for teachers, its object was to afford special instruction in advanced studies, scientific and literary, to teachers who desire to combine such work with their weeks of rest and recreation. The professors in the various departments were those who held high place in institutions of learning in all parts of the country, and, like the students, combine this work with their play. A large, fine building, known as Agassiz hall, built in 1882, was specially designed and built for the business of this summer school, and during July and August for about five weeks it was a busy place. Hundreds of teachers availed themselves of the opportunity, and nearly every state and territory has been represented among its pupils. It had a dormitory and dining halls for the accommodation of the students. The number of the latter had increased from 75 in 1878 to over seven hundred in 1896, and a corps of forty instructors comprised its faculty. Col. Homer

B. Sprague was its first President (1878-82), and he was succeeded by Prof. William J. Rolfe, the well-known Shakesperean critic (1882-7), and Col. William A. Mowry, Ph.D., LL.D. (i 887-1 905). The Institute v/as disbanded in 1905 and its charter surrendered.

Present Statistics Of The New Town

Since its incorporation as Cottage City this township has passed through thirty years of exaggerated and normal periods of growth. At the time of its change to Oak Bluffs (1908) the following statistics taken from the assessors' books show its material condition. Personal estate assessed, $143,375; real estate assessed, $1,806,075, of which two-thirds is held by non-residents; total tax assessed, $38,520, including tax on 293 polls. Acres of land, 3,423; dwelling houses, 1,126; horses, 108; cows, 100; tax payers, 1454, including no who pay poll tax only. It will be seen upon comparison with the statistics of the other towns that although the youngest community, it has the largest valuation and raises the greatest tax on the Vineyard.

Annals Of Gay Head

The discovery and christening of this peninsula has a definite date, in 1602, and an authentic sponsor in the person of Bartholomew Gosnold. "The four and twentieth of May," wrote the journalist of that voyager, after they had left Nomans Land, "we set sail and doubled the cape of another island next unto this, which we called Dover Cliff, and then came into a fair sound." The resemblance of this remarkable headland to the famous high chalky cliffs at Dover on the English channel, ' doubtless suggested to Gosnold and his companions the appropriation of the name for these new-found cliffs of like character. This name, however, did not survive the pages of Gosnold's journal, and it remained for later comers to apply a name to it of their own conception. Some time before 1662 it was "called . . . by the English Gayhead," and this name has lasted as its title ever since. ^ This name, of course, was given to it as descriptive of the gaily colored cliffs seen from the west when approaching the island from the sea.

Under a resolve of the General Court, approved March 9, 1855, three commissioners, appointed by the Governor to establish a boundary between the Indian lands on Gay Head and the lands of the white inhabitants of Chilmark, determined upon the following lines:

Beginning at a rock on Nicodemus' Neck, on Squibnocket pond, thence due south across marsh and beach to the sea. From the same rock S. 55 E, across Squibnocket pond to a rock on Hillman's Point, so called; thence N. 10^° E, crossing said pond to the southern end of a stone wall on Nashawaqueedsee, which parteth that neck from Gay Head; thence N. 25° E, three rods, by said wall; thence N. 47^° E. sixty-seven rods, by said wall; thence N. 26° E. three and three-quarter rods, by said wall to its northern end, by Menamsha pond. Thence N. 51^° E. crossing said Menamsha pond, in the direction of a rock upon Pease's Point, so called distant about four hundred and fifty rods, until it strikes the middle of the channel or outlet from said pond to the Sound; then by the middle of the said channel as the same now is, or hereafter may be, - the said channel being somewhat subject to change - unto the Vineyard Sound/

The stone wall referred to has been the dividing line between Nashaquitsa and Gay Head for nearly two centuries. It was first set up in 1714, shortly after "The Corporation" acquired control of the land.^ The other lines are modern.

There is very little accurate material at hand for a resume of the population of this town, except within recent years. The inhabitants being of Indian extraction and of a roving disposition, gave but little concern to the census takers before the 19th century. In 1698 there were 260 souls reported as attending church services at Gay Head.^ There were fiftyeight houses on Gay Head neck in 171 2 (Sewall). In 1747 the guardians of the Indians stated that they were "in number about one hundred & twelve, men women and children,"* a decrease which is not understood, as shortly before 1786 they numbered 203,^ and in 1790 there were reported to be 276 Indians living in the peninsula,^ In 1806 a traveler, visiting the island, states their number to have been 240 that year,^ In 1838 there were 235 residents in the town.^ In i860 an official report states there were 46 families actually resident, comprising 204 souls, of whom 106 were male and 98 female. In addition to these there were 49 persons of the Gay Head "tribe" living elsewhere, temporarily, but claiming tribal rights, making a total of 253 belonging to the town by birth

^House Document, No. 48, pp. 8-9. Report of the Commissioners, John Vinson, Asa R. Nye and J. Whelden Hohnes. A previous commission had run a division line about 1830 between Gay Head and Squibnocket, but no record of it remains.

*Mass. Arch., XXXI, 550. There may be an error of 100 in the count. The report states: "the number of houses at Gayhead is 28; we compute four persons to a house which is 112, and of these about 19 Labouring men."

Since the incorporation of the town four national censuses give the following figures: 1870, 160 persons; 1880, 161; 1890, 139; and 1900, 173. The state census of 1905 showed a population of 178.

Algonquian Place Names

Aquiniuh (1662). - This name as applied to Gay Head, is composed of the words, Ukque-adene-auke, or Acquiy adene-auke, meaning "land under the hill," perhaps referring to the shore under Gay Head itself.

Kugh-tuh-quich-e-wutt (1681). - This is the Indian name for the narrow neck of land joining Nashaquitsa and Gay Head. Kuh-kuh-equht-wutt, or Kuh-tuh-que-i-yeu-ut, means "at the going up," as of a hill, and probably refers to the topography of that region, the ascent to the Gay Head plateau. A variation used in 1687 was Catackutcho (Deeds, IV, 128).

Mash-atan-auke. - This aboriginal name has been curiously corrupted into "Shot and Arrow" and "Shot Nigher" hill! It is a compound word, meaning the "great hill land," descriptive of the hilly character of the neck.

Wanummusit. - This name occurs but once (1681) in the records, without any indication of its exact locality. It marked the terminal point of the sachemship of Metaark, starting from Nashaquitsa, and may refer to the Gay Head cliff.

The Early Sachemships

Ever since the settlement of the Vineyard, in 1642, Gay Head has remained an Indian reservation and town, and very little of its annals in two hundred and sixty-seven years of existence relates to the white man or the white man's customs and development. Every attempt of the Caucasian to introduce himself with a view to permanent attachment has resulted in his withdrawal from the field, and today this peninsular and insular town is unquestionably Indian in the warp and woof of its very fibre.

As usual the English made early efforts to obtain it from its owners. The first occasion was when "Womsuttan alias Alexander, chief sachem of Cossomsett & of the rest of the country thereunto adjacent," sold Gay Head to William Brenton, merchant of Newport, on May 5, 1661-2/ This sachem was the elder brother of King Philip and son of Massasoit of the Pokanoket tribe. In this sale he reserved onetwelfth to himself. Nothing ever developed from this grant, as Brenton never made any attempt to claim the rights deeded to him. It may have been that the Sachem of Gay Head, Nohtoaksaet, refused to recognize this transfer made by a chief on the mainland, but for some reason it had the distinction of being recorded in our local land records and in the registry at New York.'

After the death of Nohtoaksaet his younger son, Metaark, succeeded to the sachemship in the absence of an elder brother. In 1675 this elder brother returned to the Vineyard and claimed a portion of Gay Head as his birthright. The negotiations are thus recorded:

To me Mittark Sachim at Gayhead there came the person called Ompohhannut, and said I am older than thou art, and I ought to be the Sachim, for I am the first born of our father Nohtoaksaet; or otherwise I should have some part of the land of the Gayhead parted off to me, that so I may be still (or quiet) as may be found right by the Indian Sachims and Chiefmen.

Agreeable hereunto I Mettark, Sachim, and my Councel (or chief men) and also the Common Men of Gayhead did appoint a Great Court. We called the Sachims of this Island, and the people as far as the main land to find what might be right with respect to us and Ompohhannut, relating to his claim of land, or of the Sachimship; and we held a Court at that time in Sept. 1675; and we found or did thus in our Court: - we made or sent a jury to judge of the matter of Ompoh-hannuts rights in Gayhead and we gave them, the jury, such proves that what they should determine we would confirm. And these were their names: - Samuel Cashomon foreman, Hosea Manhut, John Hannet, Masquattukquit, Joshua Momatehogin, Stephen Togomasun, Japheth Hannet, Isac Ompany, Samuel James, Pattompan, Matthew Nohnahshesket, Joseph Pemmahchohoo.

And we the jury have found by persons knowing that Ompohhannut speaks true and in the whole, therefore, we now judge that in a division of four parts of the Gayhead, one belongeth to him, and all his heirs forever.^

^Dukes Deeds, III, 12. This sale was "certified" by Tahcomahhatack, Papamoo, Pessuccook, Poxine, Akeemo, Caleneanute, Teequannum, "natives and Inhabitants on the westermost end of Nope."

In accordance with the decision of the "Sachems and Chief Men" Metaark executed a deed conveying to his brother, Ompohhannut, one-quarter part of Gay Head, and requested the "Great Rulers among the Enghsh" to confirm the deed.*

Several years after this, on Sept. ii, 1681, Metaark issued a formal declaration, signed by himself and some of his chiefmen, that none of the lands in his sachemship should be alienated. In the quaint formulary of the Algonquian language this idea was expressed as follows:

Know yee all People that I Mettack and my principal men my children & people are owners of this: this our land forever. They are ours, and our offspring forever shall enjoy them: -

I Mettack and we principall men together with our children and all our people are agreed that no person shall sell any Land; but if any person will steahngly sell any Land: take yee your Land because it is yours forever: but if any one will not perform this Covenant he shall fail to have any of this Land at Kuhtuhquehtuut and Nashanaquetget forever:

Gay Head Sold To Governor Dongan

The authenticity of this document was disputed twenty years later, and it was alleged to be a forgery, as will be explained further on. Shortly after this the old sachem died, Jan. 20, 1683, and was succeeded by his son, called Joseph Metaark. Two years later (April 25, 1685) Matthew Mayhew received the grant of the "Manor and Lordship of Martin's Vineyard" from Governor Thomas Dongan of New York, and less than a month after (May 1 2th) the latter had purchased from the grantee the title and the property appertaining to it, as previously detailed.^ The property appertaining and remaining was the Gay Head peninsular principally, and in pursuance of the policy adopted by the Mayhews he quieted the Indian "rights" to it by a purchase from "Joseph Mittark Sachim of the Gay Head in Martin's Vineyard, Indian native,"

^Mass. Archives, XXXI, 10. This was signed by Metaark, John Keps, Puttuhquannon and Tasuapinu. The paper was used in 1700 at Barnstable beforeja committeeof which William Bassett was a member. At that time Metaark had been a "praying Indian" for nearly twenty years.

for £^o of all his interest therein. This transaction was dated May 6, 1687, and took place in New York, whither the Sachem had gone, evidently with Matthew Mayhew, who was one of the witnesses/

This sale was in direct violation of the covenant of the old Sachem and his "principal men," made six years previously, and may be taken as an evidence that the document was, as alleged, a forgery. With this transaction began the manorial system in this Indian settlement, and soon the Indians were gravely paying "ears of corn" as quit rents to the Lord of the Manor. ^ As the years passed by the natives found they had no rights in the soil which their ancestors had peopled and which they were now tilling and improving; and after the change of government from New York to Massachusetts had taken place, complaints were made to the new authorities of the injustice of their situation. These complaints were repeated until the General Court, in 1703, appointed a committee to investigate the conditions of the Indians on Gay Head.^ In their report, dated Aug. 18, 1703, the committee took up the question of this "covenant" of the Indian Sachem offered in evidence by the complainants:

In the contest about Gay Head it appears to us by deed that Colonel Dongan bought it of Joseph Mataack, sachem; but the Indians object and say that old Mataack by his will did settle it on his sons for the use of Gay Head Indians never to be sold or alienated from them; and to prove it produce an old writing; and upon inquiry into the truth of it, an Indian called Josiah Hosewit, which seemed to be a sober, honest man, came before the committee and owned that he wrote that writing long since Mataack's death; and by the testimony of sundry other Indians we have good reason to think that said writing was forged and not true.*

This conclusion was not satisfactory to the Indians, who seemed to have faith in the document as genuine, and two years later (1705) the General Court, upon petition of Moses Will and Samuel Assewit (Horswet), ordered a rehearing. Summonses were issued to Matthew Mayhew, as steward of Lord Limerick, and the Indians affected by the decision and

^" Josias Hosoe [Hoswet] saith that he took up with Gov's Dungans terms, brought a Red Ear of Corn to Mr. Thomas IMayhew to signify it. Terms were to pay a Peck of Wheat yearly for a while and then to pay a Bushel of Wheat per anmim." (Sewall, Diary, II, 432.)

Meanwhile the steward of Dongan, "by force and virtue of attorneyship," began to make grants or leases of land, "forever," to various natives, by metes and bounds, usually of forty acres each, the consideration being the payment of a quit rent yearly. Some of these unlimited leases were assigned to the English residents of Chilmark later for trifling payments, or in liquidation of debts incurred in business dealings with the whites. This became a source of friction between the natives and their neighbors who had become land owners, and complaints of these irregular transactions reached the agents of the Society from time to time.

The Earl Of Limerick Sells The Lordship To The Society For Propagating The Gospel

The Irish peer who held the Tordship of the soil in this town was an absentee landlord. It is not of record that he ever visited his domain, and his business interests here had been attended to from the first by his steward, Matthew Mayhew. The quit rents were collected, and leases prepared by the Major until his death in 1710, and this event probably hastened the change of ownership which followed shortly after. The Society for Propagating the Gospel had been for many years looking out for the moral and spiritual welfare of the natives, and its representatives in New England, comprising some of the most influential and wealthy men in the Province, saw that this state of affairs, with a landlord across the ocean, was not for the best interests of their wards. Accordingly they entered into negotiations with Lord Limerick to buy out his interests in the Manor of Martha's Vineyard. This was successfully accomplished. May 10, 1711, and the company, upon payment of ;^55o, "lawful monies of Great Britain," secured the title of Lord of the Manor and the fee of Gay Head. This purchase was made, as Judge Sewall states in his diary, "with the main design of benefitting the aboriginal natives." Livery and seizin was completed Oct. 6, 171 2, when Major Benjamin Skiffe and Samuel Sewall, Jr., as agents for Lord Limerick delivered to Penn Townsend, Esq., attorney for "the Corporation," as the society was generally designated here, the lands and hereditaments of the Manor. It was simply a

In 1 714 a "ditch of four feet wide and two feet deep" was dug across the neck and "set within with Thorns and Barberries," and the Corporation gate erected and closed to signify the exclusion of the public from the reservation. The Corporation, "with the main design of benefitting the aboriginal natives" and to put a stop to the abuses of the indeterminate leaseholds, decided (in 1727) to make a part of this reservation a source of income, and to invest the inhab- itants with the sole use and undivided occupancy of the remainder. Accordingly, on May 10, 1727, Abel Hosuit and nine other chief men, "in consideration of the great care, kindness and expense toward us, the inhabitants of Gay Head," executed a quitclaim deed of a tract of eight hundred acres in the northeast corner of the peninsular, bordering on Menemsha pond and the Sound. ^ In consideration of this resignation Pain Mayhew of Chilmark and Samuel Wells of Boston, "attorneys to the Honorable the Company for Propogating the Gospel &c," on the same day, "set off and settled upon the said natives and their posterity, that now inhabit or shall inhabit, said Gay Head, while they dwell on said Gay Head,, the westerly and southerly part of said Gay Head: that is to say, all the lands of Gay Head aforesaid except what is resigned by said natives to said company."^ For this residuary tract the tribe was to pay to the Corporation, "as an acknowledgment annually, on the first Monday of November, one ear of Indian corn for each family," with the understanding that the natives and their posterity were to be "always under the direction, government and stent of said Company." The tract of eight hundred acres was immediately leased, the same day, to Ebenezer Allen of Chilmark for a term of twenty-one years at a rental arranged on an increasing sliding scale, which yielded a total of £845 to the funds of the Corporation.^

State Control Over The Tribe

In addition to the authority of the Corporation in its capacity as landlord over the natives as tenants, and their agreement to be under the "direction government and stent" of this Company, the Province of Massachusetts exercised its sovereign power of supreme control of them as wards of the government. As in all like conditions the wards became restless under the condition of legal restraint over their property and freedom of action, and often, when excited by designing men, would prefer charges of favoritism, malfeasance and other breaches of trust against these guardians. It is difficult to estimate the true situation between charges and counter charges of the one and the other, but when the history of the cupidity of the whites is read in the light of the simplicity of the red men, we can believe that it was not all groundless complaint which the Indians made against the men who had the power over their persons and property. In 1747 this tribe entered two complaints relative to the leasing of their land for a new term, the undesirability of the persons who obtained the leases, the insufficiency of notice to the public, and the various other charges which were answered in detail by the guardians. This answer takes up each complaint and is given verbatim to show the character of the allegations and denial. After stating that they "sett Public notification . . . that on a Certain Day in them Prefixt," bids would be received, they continue:

We Leas'd s'd Land for Four hundred and sixty five Pounds, old Tenor p annum the One half to be paid at the end of every Six Months. As to their Indian built houses to be taken off s'd Land it is no more than what they commonly practice themselves. As for their Fire-wood there is enough for their own use on that part of s'd Neck which is sett off to them which is as good wood as is generally growing on any part of s'd Neck of Land; and the wood that is growing on the Leased Land is very small, Scarcely a stick large enough for a hedge Stake. As to the Article of Complaint: our turning off their Catle and not reserving Feed enough for them it is utterly false, for there is a great deal more Grass growing on the Land sett off to s'd Indians than their Catle can Eat before the Winter will ordinarily spoil the grass, as will appear by the evidence herewith submitted. And as to the Objection made against the Persons to whom the Lease was made we answer it being sett up at a Publick Vandue every Person present had a right to bid for it; and they themselves had but a little time before Let the privilege of Feeding the whole Neck to several of the same persons as appears by a writing in hands of their Com'tee herewith presented, and we doubt not but that the hon'ble Court will Dismiss s'd Petitions as groundless and Vexatious as we humbly apprehend they are, we having acted in the s'd affair with integrity, and with no other view than to serve their Interest and that we have used the likeliest methods, therefore we doubt not but that we could procure the Testimony of every unprejudiced Judicious person in the County.^

Evidence exists of the benevolent control exercised for years by the "Corporation" over the lands in this town, and elsewhere on the Vineyard, acquired by the purchase made of the Earl of Limerick. The political relations of the Province to the Crown, however, becoming more acute as we approach the period of the Revolution, necessarily had its reflex upon the activities of this English Society. The religious and political phases of this subject are considered in another volume of this history,^ and it will only be necessary to state the fact that it resulted in a gradual withdrawal of contributions and a final loss of interest in the tribe at Gay Head, in common with the other beneficiaries. It is a singular fact that no record has yet been found, if one ever were made, v/hich shows a conveyance of the rights of this corporation to the fee simple of Gay Head, and its other real property on the Vineyard occupied by the Indians. The exact legal status of the reservation during and after the Revolution is therefore a question of ethics and equity. Perhaps it may be held by those who are learned in the law, that as the corporation was the creature of the crown, all the rights to hold and manage property in this country ceased when the independence of the United States was recognized, and thus the lands escheated to the Commonwealth by arms and the right of eminent domain residing in sovereign power.* Whatever the theoretical condition may have been, the state practically assumed control, directly and indirectly, of the property, and in the confusion and antagonisms created by the war, no attempt was ever made afterwards to challenge this authority. The tribe at Gay Head became, in common with others elsewhere, the ''involuntary wards of the state." They had no control over their lands and homes. They could make no sale of them to anyone except other members of their tribe; neither could they make a contract binding in law, or sue or be sued except for trifling sums in the the courts of the county.

The Long Apprenticeship In Civilization

The evolution of the natives from dependents to citizens, after the war, was a slow and retarded process. As an observer truthfully said: "It is hardly to be wondered at that the Indians were 'thriftless and unprovident' for some of the most powerful incentives to elevate man were wanting." They were themselves lacking in initiative by inheritance. There was but one English built house in 1727, but fifty years later they had outgrown their wigwam state. While this was progress in one line there was inertia in others. A visitor in 1786 states that "they burned nothing but bushes, this part of the island affording no wood, and suffered much from cold weather, though peat was procurable in plenty."^ Twenty years later the condition of the native was discouraging to another visitor, who recorded the opinion that they were intemperate, immoral, and dishonest, though he added that they were more industrious and neater in their person and houses than their people elsewhere.^ Another traveler of this time said: "We sat by a peat fire, for this fuel is abundant on the

'No act of sequestration of this territory as the property of loyalists was passed by the General Court. See House Doc, No. 47, p. 12 (1856). The traveler Kendall, in 1807, says: "One third of the whole peninsula belongs to the Society for Propagating the Gospel etc [the one incorporated here in 1787] by which it is left to the use of the Indians" (Travels, II, 193). There seems to be no other authority for this statement.

peninsula, and wood is rare." This fuel still furnishes comfort to the present generation in seasons of inclement weather, unless a coal laden vessel unfortunately goes ashore here and jettisons or loses her cargo, when it is washed ashore in sufficient quantities to permit the adoption of metropolitan manners for a temporary period. In 1838 it was stated by an authority that "their dwelling houses, upward of 35, are mostly one story and are comfortably built. "^ Ten years later (1849) ^he commissioner said of them: ''The Gay Headers are, in the main, a frugal, industrious, temperate and moral people; but not without exceptions. In these respects they have greatly improved within the last thirty years and particularly within the last teii or twelve years. "^ In 1861 the commissioners report showed further progress in the refinements of civilization. "They are generally kind and considerate toward each other," he states, "and perform their social and relative duties as well as do other people in whose vicinity they reside."^ In 1869, at a hearing on Gay Head held by a legislative committee, there was testimony from three clergymen covering a period of seven years, that neither of them had seen a case of drunkeness nor heard profanity among them in that time.^

While this satisfactory development had been going on it was reached under conditions of material discouragement. Dependent on the state as wards, improving land they did not own, they were in the same class with aliens, paupers, idiots and the insane in their relations to the body politic. The reservation was still an undivided tract in 1800, and a visitor some years later stated that "each man cultivates as much as he pleases, and no one intrudes on the spot which another has appropriated by his labor."^ This anomalous condition existed in 1849 according to the commissioner. "While one proprietor has but half an acre and another has over a hundred acres, there is no heart-burning, no feeling that the latter has more than his share. 'I have all I want' says the former, and he is content. This state of things is as happy as it is peculiar; how long it will continue is a problem."^ He recom- mended strongly the early confirmation of titles in severalty upon an equitable basis. Nothing however was done for a dozen years, and the commissioner, in his report for 1861, makes the following interesting observation upon this peculiar system of occupancy of the soil:

This law is the unwritten Indian traditional law, which from its apparently favorable working, is probably as well adapted to their condition as any that can be devised. At any rate they adhere to it with great tenacity, and are fearful of any innovations upon it. This, probably, is a prominent reason of their jealousy of foreigners, and of the rigorous exclusion of them from any foothold on their domain, except when intermarried with one of the tribe. ^

The Final Steps To Citizenship

The General Court created this reservation into the "District of Gay Head" in 1862, and shortly after measures were instituted to ascertain and determine the existing boundary lines of such tracts as were held in severalty and the common lands. ^ The person appointed to do this work, the late Hon. Charles Marston, died before completing it, and the General Court of 1866 authorized the Governor to commission ''some suitable person" to perform this task. The late Richard L. Pease of Edgartown was appointed by Governor Bullock, and entered at once upon his duties.^ It was a peculiar and delicate mission. Some of the claimants had the most hazy notions of their holdings. One woman entered a claim for "four rows of corn" ! How well he performed it is certified by a legislative committee who visited the reservation during the progress of the work:

Pease is obliged, upon such examination and evidence as is accessible, to decide as to the ownership of property, and his decisions are generally acquiesced in with a good grace and with a better spirit of acquiescence, no doubt, than if he were dealing with the ordinary run of white people.

This work covered five years of investigation and research into the family histories of the inhabitants to make a proper apportionment of the shares of each resident or their kin elsewhere, and his report was submitted to the Governor and Council in the spring of 1871, and was ordered printed in full. It was a most valuable document, comprising a mass of valuable historical notes on the people and their lands from the earliest settlement, with a complete census of the inhabitants to illustrate the subject of his report.^

Incorporation As A Town

While the work of Commissioner Pease was in progress, Governor Claflin, in his annual message to the General Court, called attention to the anomalous political condition of the Indians of the Commonwealth. A joint committee on this subject recommended the enfranchisement of the Indians and the final distribution of the lands of the Gay Head tribe.* Both measures were adopted, and the adult male population of the place made the recipients of the glorious privilege of citizenship in this Commonwealth - with a slight drawback. Being neither a town by themselves, nor part of any other

^Title: "Report of the Commissioner," etc., 8vo, pp. 60. Boston, 1871. His duties -did not include a division of the "common" lands. *House Docs., Nos. 483 and 502 (1869).

town, this privilege could neither be exercised nor enjoyed! This political paradox received the attention of the General Court of 1870, which sent a committee here to report on the capacity of the natives for independent existence as a township. This committee made a strong unanimous report in favor of such a conclusion. They said, after reviewing the situation:

Because they are capable of self-government, as their history since 1862 abundantly shows; because they are worthy and well quahfied now as they probably ever will be unjder the dominion of any neighboring town; because they are far remote from the nearest adjoining town by from four to seven miles; because the people of that town have been and are still strongly opposed to the annexation of Gay Head to them; because the people of Gay Head are (with one exception) unanimous for a separate township; because other things being equal, the wishes of the parties most interested ought to be consulted; and finally, because having already governed themselves in reality for the past few years (since 1862) a continuation of this control, while it would work no injury to any other interests, would be of great benefit to the people of Gay Head - giving them renewed assurance of the confidence of the Commonwealth in them and inspiring them to further effort towards improvement - we unanimously recommend that Gay Head be incorporated as a township by itself.'

The recommendation of this committee was concurred in by both houses and the act of incorporation as drawn by them was approved by the Governor, April 15, 1870, by which, after two centuries of retarded development, the last of the Algonquian race on this island became American freemen. Nor were these newly-fledged citizens "without honor in their own country," for under the rotation plan of electing a Representative for the County of Dukes County, Mr. Edwin DeVries Vanderhoop, a native "Gay Header," had the distinction of going to the General Court (session of 1888) to legislate for the white people who had lately enfranchised him. The town is now in its fortieth year of existence, a self-respecting community of people, obedient to the laws, managing its affairs economically, fulfilling all the requirements of an incorporated part of the Commonwealth, and justifying fully the faith of the men who gave it this opportunity for independent development. But it is still an "Indian" town, for the white man has made no invasion here. The words of the Sachem Metaark, spoken in 1681, now seem prophetic:

Know yee all People that I Metaack and my principall men my children & people are owners of this, this our land forever. They are forever ours and our offspring forever shall enjoy them.

'Senate Doc, No. 14 (1870). This was signed by N. J. Holden and G. A. King of the Senate and E. Davis, J. J. Smith and A. G. Hart of the House.

Material Progress, 1870-19Io

The town began its independent career with nothing in the treasury and with only a sandy peninsula to work out its destiny. The first year its receipts were $342.75 and expenses $261.68; ten years later the receipts were $421 and expenses $360.77, but in another decade the showing was rather disappointing. The receipts in 1890 had fallen to $213.90, and the expenditures consumed it all. In the following ten years, however, a marked improvement had taken place, owing to the utilization of town lands, - the famous cliffs. These were leased to a corporation known as the Gay Head Clay Co. in 1893, at an annual rental of $500, and the clay was shipped elsewhere to kilns as material for bricks. The variegated hues of the clay do not resist the heat of burning and disappear in the oven, coming out a uniform color. This added income, doubling their ordinary receipts, enabled the town to increase its expenses for permanent improvement of public property. In 1900 the receipts were $1,025.97, and expenditures $921.67 for all purposes. In the following ten years these sums have also been doubled, the financial condition of the to^n steadily improving, with annual unexpended balances of generous amounts to its credit. In 1910 the receipts were $2,196.51 and expenses $1,313.06 leaving a balance of over eight hundred dollars.

In 1 9 10 the following record showed the general character of the town's condition: real estate assessed, $30,875.40; personal estate, $9,779.58; total valuation, $40,654.98, after forty years of independence. Number of horses, 8; cows, 22; neat cattle, 56; houses, 48; acres assessed, 1,446.

The natives of this end of the Vineyard were the last to accept the rehgious teachings of the white men. It was the *'last ditch" of the polytheism of the Powwows and the Indians here "had been many Years obstinately resolved" against receiving the Gospel of Christ, ''being animated by the neighboring Sachims on the Shores of the Continent." In the year 1663, however, with the assistance of his converts, the elder Mayhew succeeded in convincing the Sachem Metaark of the truth of the white man's religion and he accepted the new theology. The Sachem then became a missionary among his people. In this departure from their ancient belief he was not followed. The influence of the medicine men was still powerful, and he found himself practically ostracised, although a Sachem.^ He removed to Edgartown, where he lived for the next three years, continuing to preach there, and at the end of that time, when opposition had died out there he returned to his own people. It is recorded then that he "set up a Meeting at the said Gayhead, he himself dispensing The Word of God unto as many as would come to hear him, by which means it pleased God to bring over all that People to a Profession of Christianity."^ He continued to preach until his death (1683), and was followed by Japheth Hannit. This man was born about 1638, the son of Pamehannitt and his wife Wuttununohkomkooh, and had been brought up in the Christian religion by his parents, who had early embraced its teachings.^ The Anabaptist schism among the Indians of Gay Head occurred while he was the regular pastor of the missionary church.

First Meeting-House

How long he preached is not known, but he died in 171 2. Doubtless during his ministry he had assistance of other natives. Among them was Abel Wauwompuhque, a brother of Metaark, and Elisha Ohhumuh. In this period, in the year 1698, they were preaching "to at least 260 souls who have here at their

Wuttahhannompisin was one of his first and few converts at this time (Mayhew, "Indian Converts," 131). "This Prince's subjects being resolved to continue in their heathenism, notwithstanding his embracing the Gospel" (Rev. John Mayhew).

charge a meeting house already framed."* Abel died in 1713, and was succeeded by Joash Pannos or Panneu, who continued in service till his death (1720) seven years later. The following contemporary account of a native meeting in 1714 during his ministry is here given to show their mode of worship:

About one hundred Men and Women were gathered together besides Children. JNIr. Mayhew directed Joash Pannos, IVIinister of Gay Head to begin with Prayer; then, Mr. Mayhew preached from Ephes. I. II. - who worketh all things after the Counsel of his own will. Sung 4 verses of the I nth Psalm. Mr. Torrey set the Low-Dutch Tune. IVIr. Mayhew gave in the heads of his Sermon in English; a good Discourse. Isaac Ompane concluded with Prayer.^

This meeting was a special function at which many visitors were present, but it affords a clear picture of the ceremonies as conducted by them. __^^.,^

Subsequent Annals

In the absence of church records the ministerial succession, if there were any continuous native ministry of the original Congregational mission, remains an unknown quantity. It is doubtful if the natives furnished many preachers after this time as the Corporation encouraged the English pastors of Chilmark and Tisbury to acquire enough proficiency in the Algonquian language to preach to the various assemblies. It is known that Peter Ohquanhut was the ''minister of the Gay head" in 1725,^ and it is understood, of course, that Experience Mayhew was a general missionary on the Vineyard, and that he preached regularly at each of their meetings in town. Rev. Mr. Torrey of West Tisbury did the same, probably in his own town principally, but doubtless here on occasion, as did the settled pastors of other towns. This condition existed till Experience Mayhew's death (1758), when he was followed, in 1767, by his son Zachariah, and in 1810 by Frederic Baylies. The Baptists practically controlled the religious sentiment of the natives, however, and in 1786 it was stated that "they were seldom favoured with a congregational teacher."^ A traveler of 1807, while on a visit to the island, says in that year the Congregational church was then taught by a native preacher ''in orders."^ It is probable that the missionaries of the several societies were satisfied to have the natives become attached to any form of Christian worship, and did not attempt to discourage the existing Baptist congregation by maintaining opposition meetings in such a small community. The last baby to be sprinkled in baptism was Mary Cooper, b. 1784, later the wife of Johnson Peters.

Shortly after this the old meeting-house, out of repair and untenanted, was abandoned to the elements. It was gradually dismantled, and having failed of its purpose in religious affairs its remaining timbers went to help pay the support of secular teaching, and thus in its last days did quite as valuable service as in its days of pristine strength.

The Anabaptist Secession

It is not known when some of the members of the Congregational mission assembly became "converted" to the current Anabaptist doctrines and left their old church to form another. The statements in the existing parish records of this church, prepared by a modern writer, and therein set forth are manifestly misleading as to the origin and responsibility for this schism.^ That the secession met with the disapproval of the Mayhews there is ample evidence, and its existence was due to the influence of outside proselyting which they could not check. When this began is uncertain. The Commissioners who visited Gay Head in 1698 do not mention this seceding body. The modern church record states "about 1693," but the author has found nothing to fix such a specific date.^ It is probable that the new influences came from Rhode Island, then a strong Anabaptist colony, as the whites and natives of the west end of this island were in constant business communication with Newport, only a short distance for sailing craft to cover. The first known leader of this sect at Gay Head was Stephen Tackamason, and in 1702 the earliest mention of the existence of such a schism appears. A contemporary authority writes as follows of his visit to this town:

^The record states that "this church was gathered under the labors of Thomas Mayhew, Peter Folger and others, and constituted a Baptist church about A. D. 1693." It was, in fact, a secession from the church founded by Mayhew.

Errors: Mr. Experience Mayhew proposes to me as a thing very expedient that some short Treatise be drawn up and translated into Indian to prevent the spreading of the Anabaptisticall Notions.'

This cannot but strike the reader of the generation as an amusing spectacle - a learned Judge of the King's Bench endeavoring to convince an Indian of the theological "errors" of "Anabaptisticall Notions," which involved not only considerations of the mystical origin of the Christian theistic dogmas, but philological excursions into the Hebrew and Greek tongues! It may be doubted whether any Indian of that day had a clear conception of the white man's religion as an abstruse proposition, to say nothing of its various sectarian interpretations. At this time (1702) the same authority states that Josias [Hossuit] and Stephen "have a church of about 30, ten men." The number of souls at Gay Head was then about three hundred, and the extent and importance of the schism may be estimated from these figures.

Stephen died in Chilmark in 1708 and was succeeded by Isaac Decamy, who was described as "a man of sober life and conversation." He came from the mainland with his family.^ Decamy died about 1720. Following him was Josias Howwaswet (or Horsuit) the younger. He was preaching in 1727, and the congregation was called "a small society of Baptists." The next in succession was Ephraim Abraham and Samuel Kakenehew, the latter of whom, a resident of Chappaquiddick, preached at both places. He died in 1763, and Rev. Zachariah Mayhew, who was a contemporary, said "he was a man of sense and of a regular and Christian life and conversation." In 1763 Silas Paul was ordained as the pastor. He was born about 1738, was baptized in 1758, and at the age of twentyfive began a service as pastor which covered nearly a quarter of a century. He died in 1787, and his gravestone is one of the few remaining stones marking the burial places of Indians on Gay Head. He was the only Baptist minister on the Vineyard during his ministry. According to the church records his pastoral labors do not appear to have been successful. "The church at this time," it is written, "was very low

*Sewall, Diary, III, 397. With his well-known fondness for details, as amply illustrated in his voluminous diaries it is improbable that he would have neglected to state that this schism had existed for nine years (since 1693) if such had been the case. The absence of any reference to it in 1698, when commissioners of the Society visited Gay Head, and Sewall's failure to indicate any lengthy existence to it, confirm the view that it was of recent growth.

respecting vital piety and practical religion." In 1774 the society had but thirteen members. " He was succeeded in 1792 by Thomas Jeffers, a native of Plymouth, born 1742, and a resident of Middleboro in his adult life. He was fifty years of age when he took charge of this church, but it is said he was a man of considerable native ability and well received by his flock. He died Aug. 30, 181 8, aged 76 years, after a service of about twenty-five years. ^ He followed farming as a principal means of support as the society could not provide for a clergyman who relied on their contributions for a livelihood. At this date this denomination was worshipping in a meetinghouse of its own. It was a plain wooden structure and stood "on the brow of a steep hill," about a mile eastward of the lighthouse.^ How long the vacancy in the pulpit existed after

'A visitor to Gay Head, in 1807, makes the following comment: "The Anabaptist Clergyman is a large farmer and was when young of great promise, but he is now given up to drink" (Kendall, Travels, II, 197).

Mr. Jeffers death we do not learn, but it appears that in 1830 fifteen members of the society became affiliated with the Baptist church at Homes Hole/ Whether this occurrence was precipitated by the lack of a pastor is not known. Two year^ later they were dismissed to form an independent society, April 8, 1832, with Joseph Amos, a Marshpee Indian, as pastor. He was entirely blind, but is described as ''a preacher of considerable ingenuity."^ The first deacons were Simon Johnson and Johnson Peters, and Zacheus Howwaswee, parish clerk. In 1838 there were forty seven communicants; about sixty in 1861 and 40 in 1870. He supplied the pulpit until his death, after which the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society began (1855) its supervision over the church and gave it financial support. The following named clergymen have

1887; Allen, 1893; Charles Kent; Engstrom; Louis B. Purmort, 1900-01; William Carpenter, 1902-04; George W. Hawkins (died June, 1906); and Clarence L. Whitman, the present incumbent.

Schools And Education

It may be assumed that after the establishment of the Christian worship in this town some means were taken to provide schools for the education of the Indian children. Of the character, number, location or scope of such school or schools we have no record. Doubtless the preachers could read the scriptures in the Indian tongue, and there were probably others of the quicker-witted sort who could do the same. These preachers usually acted as school teachers with the meeting-house for a schoolroom, and they used the Indian bible, primers and catechisms as text books. A visitor, in 1702, wrote that there were here "two schoolmasters chiefly for winter, Josias Hassawit the Anabaptist preacher and Peter Chavin."^ It is not probable that English received much attention, if any, and doubtless what little the children learned was picked up by association with the whites. In 1714, in

At last only two young men were produced. I set him [ Josiah Hosuit Jr] to read in my Psalmbook with red Covers and then gave it him. Promised a testament to the 2d [Abel Sacahcassauet]."^ We may believe that theological books, catechisms and sermons, however excellent in design, were not calculated to encourage the spirit of learning in these youthful aborigines, and the lack of proper text books suited to their age and capacity prevented the spread of knowledge among them.

The first schoolhouse of which we have any definite knowledge existed in 1807 in the basement of the Baptist church and was described in the following terms: ''Beneath against the hill is an apartment of stone called by no better name than the cellar, in which, a school master keeps the Indian school. The winter season is the only part of the year in which it is kept .... Some of his scholars are remarkably apt and the rest are not below the ordinary level. "^ The person who then taught in this forbidding "apartment" was Ebenezer Skiff, the light keeper, who walked a mile daily over the sandhills to fulfill his task. Frederick Baylies, the missionary, succeeded him for a brief period about 1815,^ and he was followed by a native, Aaron, son of Cyrus Cooper. Of him a modern authority on local annals writes: "After many years spent in 'furrin parts,' where he learned to speak French and acquired much other information - where he had possessed himself of a set of navigation instruments and many books - Aaron returned home, and his learning soon secured him employment as a teacher."* Another returning son of Aquinniuh, fresh from traveling "abroad," Tristram Weeks (b. 1800), was the next teacher, and many of the books used by him are still preserved. He received in part payment for his services the timber that then remained in the abandoned Congregational meeting-house.

At this time, as in the past, and until 1870, the school system was under the control of the state, which paid the expenses, in part, for the Indians were wards of the Commonwealth with a commissioner to govern them. The reports

^A recent writer in referring to this teacher said: "This pedagogue occupied three chairs and spent much of his time in sleeping" (Vanderhoop, "Gay Head Indians, &c.," in New Bedford Evening Standard).

of these commissioners, regular and special, show an unpromising and generally wTetched state of affairs in the school. In 1849, for example, there was an inadequate supply of books for reading and writing according to the commissioner. ''But the contemptible and beggarly appropriations (from $50 to $100)," says one of their people who had investigated this subject, "continued to be doled out by the anxious authorities, who never allowed their love of enlightenment and their ' interest in the cause of education ' to run away with their parsimonious principles. Is it any wonder that little or no creditable work was ever performed by the natives? Those having the funds in charge always recommended the employment of home talent in order to keep the money at home. Here was a fine example of the blind leading the bhnd."^ About this time young ladies from other towns on the island came to teach, one of whom, Mary Jane Tilton (Mrs. Cottle), is most pleasantly remembered for her care and attention to the children under her charge.

The missionary preacher. Rev. Mr. Hatch (1861-5), gave a new impetus to the cause. Those students who had the desire, and those whom he could influence to learn more than was provided in the curriculum, were encouraged to come to his home, where he taught them the higher and more useful branches. His untimely death seemed a blow to the prospects of the scholars, but another, equally as zealous, was found to take up the work. Rev. George B. Fitts of Middleboro. This young man was just out of college (1866), and for nearly three years he was the "guide, philosopher and friend" of these wards of the State, and by the application of methods suitable to the molding of this crude material, the school made a great stride forward.^ Through his influence philanthropic people in Boston became interested in the work, funds were secured for the modern equipment of a schoolhouse, and visits of these influential patrons gave an added encouragement to the pupils. The school term then comprised eight months, and the expense, about $300, was borne, in part, by the state. A special committee of the General Court appointed in 1869, reported favorably on this appropriation as follows:

In view of the peculiar situation of this people and their circumstances we earnestly hope this aid will be continued. In no better way can the

'Vanderhoop, "Gay Head Indians, &c.," in New Bedford Evening Standard. ^Some of his pupils became teachers and secured employment in the southern states. One became his assistant after a course at the Normal school.

Commonwealth compensate the long years of degradation to which an unjust denial of the rights of citizenship doomed them, than by generous assistance towards the education of their children.^

The recommendations of this committee were adopted and, until 1889, when this state aid was withdrawn, the school had the benefit of twenty years of satisfactory maintenance. Since then the ability of the town to give proper financial support to the school has greatly increased, and a term of nine months is now provided with two teachers. Scholarships have been presented by public spirited friends, and one of the boys has taken a course at the Boston Latin school.

Paths, Highways And Bridges

One hundred years ago a visitor to this town stated: ''on the Indian lands there are no made roads, and for the most part only horse paths." This condition existed for about fifty *years more, when a continuation of the county road from the Chilmark line to the lighthouse was laid out. Its construction was without design and unscientific, and soon became a continuous sand rut for lack of repairs. In 1870, when the town was incorporated, the act provided that the county commissioners should forthwith "proceed to lay out and construct a road from Chilmark to the lighthouse on Gay Head, and may appropriate such sum from the funds of the county as may be necessary to defray the expense of the same." It was further provided that it should be maintained for five years by the state. This legislation resulted in the construction of the present and only public highway in the town, which since 1875 has been a town charge.

The Government Services Lighthouse Establishment

Only one lighthouse exists in the town, but it is of such an important character that it warrants extended consideration. It was the first one erected on the Vineyard by the general government, and was authorized by an act of Congress approved July 16, 1798, which provided for its construction "As soon as urisdiction of such land at Gay-head .... shall have been ceded to the United States." This formality was accomplished

Feb. 22, 1799, by the General Court of this state/ and a tract of two acres and four rods passed into the possession of the government. The tower first built was of wood, forty feet high, and the lantern, supported by eight large pine beams, was reached by ladders. The light, which was a white flash, was produced by fourteen lamps burning sperm oil, and it is a part of the tradition of the place that there was quite as much smoke as flame resulting from the combustion of this illuminant. The keeper was often obliged to wear a veil while in the tower, and the cleansing of the smudge on the glass lantern was no small part of his job. This wooden tower, which had been reduced ten feet in height, lasted sixty years, and the site of it, nearer the brow of the cliffs than the present one, can be seen yet in a circular elevation of the soil. The second and present tower was built in 1858-9, and is of brick construction sixty feet high/

This new lighthouse was placed in the class of the first order and equipped with one of the most powerful illuminators on the Atlantic coast. The compound lens, made by Fresnel, a French expert, consist of 1,003 prisms of the finest cut and polished crystal glass, scientifically arranged in three sections.'' This results in a refraction of the rays of light from the lamp above and below to the middle of "bull's eye" whence they are projected horizontally in concentrated power. The illuminator is a lamp with five concentric wicks, the largest being five inches in diameter, and it consumes two quarts of oil an hour, or about seven and a half gallons on the longest nights. The distinctive flash effect was retained, but a red one was added. Every ten seconds a white light flashes three times and the fourth is red. This magnificient light sweeps the sea for twenty miles with its great luminous radiants majestically revolving around the tower, affording a sublime spectacle to the beholder standing beneath. A famous writer of a half century ago describes the effect of this during his visit, in the following language: "Of all the heavenly phenomena that I have had the good fortune to witness - borealis lights, mock suns or meteoric showers - I have never seen anything that in mystic splendor equalled this trick of the magic lantern of Gay Head."'

'The work of construction at this remote point tested the capacity of the contractor. It required eight pair of oxen to transport the iron deck across the island and hoist it into position. In 1903 a new keeper's house, costing $10,000, was built to replace the old one shown in the illustration.

The first keeper was Ebenezer Skiff* (i 799-1834), followed by his son, Ellis Skiff. He was succeeded in turn by Henry Robinson, John Hayden, Samuel Flanders (a picture of whom appeared in Harper^ s Magazine in i860), Ichabod N. Luce, Calvin C. Adams, Horatio N. Pease, William Atchison, Edward Lowe and Crosby L. Crocker (1886), at present in service.

The Post Office

Until 1873 this town was served from the Chilmark office at Squibnocket, and on Feb. 14 of that year Isaac D. Rose was appointed the first postmaster of the newly-established office. He served eleven years, and was succeeded by William A. Vanderhoop, Dec. 11, 1884; Paulina A. Vanderhoop, Nov. 14, 1893, and Mary A. Cleggett Vanderhoop, Aug. 13, 1907, the present incumbent.

Life Saving Station

A fully equipped station of this service was established at Gay Head and placed in commission Dec. 20, 1895, with a crew composed of native surfmen, and the crews have generally been of Indian extraction. The record of the station is that of great efficiency and notably brave work.

This headland has been the scene of many marine disasters since its settlement by the English, a line of reefs making out far into the Sound, hidden from view, and strong currents setting unwary mariners onto the Devil's Bridge, to be dashed and broken in pieces by the pounding of the waves.

In the night of Jan. 14, 1782, occurred a disaster laden with sorrow for the people of the Vineyard, as the master and more than half of the crew were residents here. The vessel had started from Edgartown under favorable weather conditions, but a severe storm of wind and snow arose towards night and she was driven ashore on the reefs about two miles from the

^The Boston Marine Society recommended Capt. Silas Daggett of Homes Hole as keeper "should he find It for his interest to surrender other objects of business to this alone" (Records, Aug. 6, 1799).

It is a little difficult to follow the mathematics, to say nothing of the metre of this rhyme, but later verses seem to say that twelve lost their lives. ^ Matthew Butler, Samuel Wiswall, Bayes Norton, Samuel Fish, Jethro Norton, and Isaac Bunker were of Edgartown. Four were buried at Edgartown and the rest in Chilmark.

The wreck of the City oj Columbus, which occurred in the early hours of the morning of Jan. 18, 1884, was the most appalling in the annals of this headland. The vessel was proceeding from Boston to Savannah, and the night was unusually clear with the moon shining, though a heavy wind was blowing; the air was bitterly cold, and the seas were high. As she was passing the Devil's Bridge, about 3:45 a.m., the man at the wheel either misunderstood an order for a change of course or a wrong order was passed, and in a moment she was fast on the treacherous ledge of rocks and careened to port. The sea was soon making a clean sweep of the larger part of the deck. For some reason those on duty in the lighthouse did not discover the stranded vessel until 5 a.m., when the keeper of the light (Horatio N. Pease) called for assistance. Meantime, as the unfortunate passengers, aroused from their sleep, came upon deck they were washed off into the raging surf and either drowned or killed by their injuries. Four men succeeded in reaching the shore in a ship's boat about 7 o'clock, and one of these died from exposure almost immediately after landing. The volunteer crew of Gay Headers, consisting of

*This "poem" was evidently written by a survivor. The author of this book has a copy made in 1842 by Betsey Burdsall for "Jane Randal, one of these fatherless children." Parson Thaxter states that fourteen were lost.

Thomas C. Jeffers, in command, Henry H. Jeffers, Raymond Madison, Thomas E. Manning, Charles Stevens, Simeon Divine, and John O. Anthony, could make no headway in launching their whaleboat, as it was stove up in their efforts to clear the breakers, and they barely escaped drowning. At about nine o'clock a life-boat was successfully launched by a crew of Gay Head Indians, consisting of Joseph Peters captain, Samuel Haskins, Samuel Anthony, James Cooper, Moses Cooper, and John Vanderhoop. After battling an hour they were able to bring seven men ashore rescued from the rigging. A second crew manned it, all Indians, except the captain, James T. Mosher. They were Leonard L. Vanderhoop, Thomas C. Jeffers, Patrick Divine, Charles Grimes, and Peter Johnson. They had rescued thirteen men when the U. S. Revenue Cutter Dexter arrived to render assistance, having been called to the scene by telegraphic messages. There were passengers still in the rigging, but many had become numbed and frozen, and had dropped off exhausted, into certain death. Lieutenant John U. Rhodes commanded a rescuing party in one of the ship's boats and performed feats of heroism that made his name famous in the story of this terrible wreck. It was impossible to effect a landing on the vessel or get very near to it owing to the danger of being battered to pieces in the heavy seas. The only way men could be helped was to induce them to jump overboard and be picked up. But two men remained in the rigging, and both were fast losing strength. Rhodes, with a line about him, jumped into the chilling, surging waters and swam for the Mrreck. Some wreckage struck him and he sank, was pulled out, taken to the Dexter, revived, and his wound dressed. He insisted on making the second attempt and this time he succeeded. The last two living souls on the unfortunate ship were aided in their leap for life by him and brought to safety. "For heroic exertions at the imminent peril of his own life" the Massachusetts Humane Society presented a gold medal to him, and their silver medal was given to each member of the Gay Head crews. ^ The toll of the sea from this unnecessary wreck was one hundred and twenty-one souls, and is the greatest disaster in the history of the place.

'The Squibnocket lifeboat of the Massachusetts Humane Society was brought over before the end of the efforts at rescue. She was manned by Eddy C. Flanders, captain; Benjamin F. Mayhew, E. Elliott Mayhew, William Mayhew, Cyrus C. Look and Setii Walker. They did excellent relief work, and were awarded a bronze medal by the Humane Society.

There have been no "public houses" in this town worthy of record, as the transient visitor is infrequent except in summer, and private famiHes have always furnished temporary lodging and otherwise cared for the traveler who remains at Gay

The native population of Gay Head preserved the traditions of their race in the matter of burials, although the town has not proved to be rich in the funeral memorials of its dead. Few graves, which have accidentally been opened, have yielded up much archaeological treasure. Small articles, such as stone fishing implements, arrow points, corn, and tobacco, have been found buried with the Algonquians of Gay Head. Naturally they had no well-defined grounds set off for their burials, as this was not an Indian custom, but there is a considerable collection of graves on Abel's neck, and a tradition is that Hiacoomes, the first Indian preacher of the Vineyard, is here interred. This seems quite unreasonable, as he w^as a resident of Chappaquiddick. On the old Congregational meeting-house lot are many graves, and on Meletiah's hill, in the rear of the site of the Baptist meeting-house, may be seen still more. Most of them are marked with rough stones, and the inscriptions are nearly obliterated. In fact, scattering memorials of the dead are to be noticed all over the peninsula.

The modern burying ground contains the remains of the Indians of this day and generation, as well as some of the white race, and has no special historic interest.

Maritime Trafeic

As showing the extent to which this great marine highway guarded by Gay Head is used the following record, kept by an official of the lighthouse in the year 1870, will testify: number of craft seen passing, 36 ships, 160 barks, 1,541 brigs, 21,642 schooners, 1,989 sloops, and 1,102 steamers, making a total of 26,470 vessels of all classes and rigs.

collectively, for the town derives some income from licensing fish traps and pounds. In addition to this is the shipping of clay from the cliffs, which has continued for nearly twenty years in the hands of the Gay Head Clay Co. and the Gay Head Fire Brick Co., as lessees of the town rights, as previously noted.

Formation Of The Group

The chain of a dozen islands, large and small, running westward from the mainland of Cape Cod at Woods Hole, between Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound, constitute the Elizabeth Islands, known now as the town of Gosnold, an integral part of the County of Dukes County. These islands, varying in size from a few acres to several thousand, now bear the following names, beginning at Woods Hole and going westward in sequence: Nonamesset, Uncatena, Monohansett, Naushon, Weepecket, Pasque, Nashawena, Penekese, Gull, and Cuttyhunk. They have been, since the first purchase by Mayhew in 1641, a part of the poHtical life of Martha's Vineyard and this county, at first forming one of the outlying portions of the Manor of Tisbury, later of Chilmark and for the past quarter of a century as an independent township.

There are but few references at hand for computing the number of persons living on these islands before 1800, and none prior to the middle of the eighteenth century. In 1761 it was stated that there were "near twenty famihes" here, and we can estimate that this represents about ninety souls. In 1777 there were reported seventeen families and "about 100 souls" (Mass. Arch., CXVII, 758). The census of 1790 gives 13 on Cuttyhunk, 10 on Nashawena, 21 on Pasque, and 59 on Naushon, a total of 103.

No further records of the separate enumeration of people resident here until after its incorporation as a township exist. The decennial censuses of the United States show the population of Gosnold as follows: In 1870 it was 99; in 1880 it was 152; in 1890 it was 135; in 1900 it was 164. The state census of 1905 showed a population of 161 in the entire group.

The voyage of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold and his landfall at Nomans Land in the spring of 1602 has been narrated in this history (Vol. I, pp. 59-65), and it will only be necessary to refer to his landing and settlement on the westernmost of the group, now called Cuttyhunk. Leaving Nomans Land on May 24, 1602, the "Concord" sailed past Gay Head, which was ''doubled," in their course, "and then came into a fair sound where we rode all night." This was the Vineyard Sound. "The next morning," the journalist continues, "we sent off one boat to discover another cape that lay northwest of this, between us and the main, from which were a ledge of rocks a mile into the sea, but all above water and without danger."^ Sailing around this they anchored in "one of the stateliest sounds," which was named by them Gosnold's Hope.^ "This island," near which they dropped anchor, wrote the journalist, "Captain Gosnold called Elizabeths Isle," the one now known by its Indian name, Cuttyhunk.^ This little Elizabeth's Isle, has thus survived three centuries as one of the landmarks of the early voyagers, and spread itself in the plural form over the entire group. ^

^At the close of his narrative of the voyage the statement is repeated as to Captain Gosnold naming it, "which he called Elizabeths Island," is the language used. It may be assumed that it was bestowed in honor of the Queen of England.

These islands thus taken possession of and named became English soil by right of discovery and occupancy. They were included in the territorial grant of the King to the Council for New England in 1606, but when that corporation dissolved in 1635, and divided the New England coast among themselves they were not assigned by name to either Gorges or Stirling. In the then hazy knowledge of this region it can not be said which of the members of the Council had a definite legal claim to these islands.

Purchase By Mayhew, 1 64 1

Stirling's agent asserted his right of jurisdiction over them, however, as he had done in the Vineyard and Nantucket, and when he sold those two islands, in 1641, he gave Thomas Mayhew, under date of Oct. 23, that year, a supplementary authorization to ''plant" upon the Elizabeth Isles. The agent of Gorges made no pretensions of title to them.