"■■.*" 'is
* *,, «R. ,fc
te :ki t;^ ),«
fe ||i Irt IV?
,w l^i 'l>,
■i te* lie
1AUKliKnr''.iSi~'.l■■i■',i■^A'.7^
.^'
,f
0'
•A-
o V
-^^ ^•:;^% >
■v
,40^ . ^
.'I'
\
'^^
.'jv
\
&
' c3-'
o
m^s
,0
^"-^^^
.H o.
^
0^
<^. O K O X V
•*v
Z?^"
>
A V
•>^.
-^v:-^^
<r.
-^^0^
^-^^X.
r o
O f. ° "
0^ .LV '. ^^
V
'^_
v-^ ;t
^•^ ^'' '^
^ *.^,T* A
-. . . ' 0
• V
<^^ •^
'^>. -5
,-i>'
.0
-3
-^
'.V
'^
.0
,^^
-^^0^
V
\^
--/-
■f".
^ '...' G
■'..^'
^oV"
* » « o V,
> V
o
0* ,
^
->i€'',/ \'^^^:''/ %-'^*P'-,v^ ^^^^-?:V^-*,c/
ny.^_*
'X>i~
Wi
,0'
THE C
(3nt ^twhrtl
ESTABUSHMENl MASSAC
JUNE
ji^
3ll|r Mmt i
V.» • 'I r.;|
ftMUKVtmt
^^ :^! %?; 1^-
Mi 1!^;
i
V ^?^? m m ^■:^ '^ '*^^' ^^' -li i^#i
•p Ml
THE CELEBRATION
OF THE
OF THE
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TOWN OF DANVERS.
MASSACHUSETTS, AS A SEPARATE
MUNICIPALITY.
JUNE 15, 16. 17, 1902.
PRINTED BY VOTE OF THE TOWN, 1907.
SAMUEL USHER
176 TO 184 HIGH STREET
BOSTON, MASS.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Prefatory Note 5
Town Records relative to Celebration of Anniversary . . 7
Vote Authorizing Celebration 7
Appointment of Committee 8
Appropriation Authorized 11
Publication of Proceedings Authorized 12
Records of the Celebration Committee 13
Appointment of Sub-Committees 15
Letter of Town Counsel concerning Appropriations 22
Distribution of Appropriation 25
Bills Approved 32
Sub-Committee on Publication 35
Program of the Celebration 36
Sunday, June 15. Historical Discourses at the Several Churches.
First Church. Sermon by Rev. H. C. Adams, Pastor 37
Services at Baptist Church, Rev. C. S. Nightingale, Pastor ... 49
Services at UniversaHst Church, Rev. Edson J. Reifsnider, Pastor, 50
Maple Street Church. Sermon by Rev. Charles B. Rice .... 50
Catholic Church. Sermon by Rev. Henry A. SulUvan, Pastor . . 66
Episcopal Church. Sermon by Rev. Robert W. Hudgell, Rector 73
Unitarian Church. Sermon by Rev. Alfred P. Putnam 77
Methodist Church. Rev. George E. Sanderson, Pastor 103
MoND.'VY, June 16.
The Bonfire 103
Services at the Peabody Institute 105
Introductory Address, Rev. Charles B. Rice 106
Historical Address, Ezra D. Hines, Esq 110
Poem, Miss Josephine Roache 149
The Banquet 152
Letters from Invited Guests 154
Addresses :
Hon. Samuel L. Sawyer, Presiding Officer and Toastmaster . . 161
Lieut.-Governor John L. Bates 161
Hon. Samuel Cole, of Beverly 163
Charles H. Goulding, Esq., of Peabody 164
Mr. R. D. Bates 164
4 Table of Contents.
PAGE.
Dr. W. W. Eaton 165
Capt. C. H. Masury 166
Mrs. I. E. Kenney 167
Mr. A. P. Learoyd 171
Hon. J. Frank Porter 171
Mr. Charles H. Preston 172
Mr. William M. Currier 174
Mr. John E. Maguire 177
Mr. John W. Porter 179
Mr. William E. Putnam 181
William B. Sullivan, Esq 183
Daniel N. Crowley, Esq 192
Mr. A. H. Paton 198
Hon. Alden P. White 199
Children's Entertainment 202
Band Concerts 202
The Ball 203
Tuesday, June 17.
The Parade 205
The Decorations 210
Sports 212
Ball Games 213
Balloon 213
Band Concerts 214
The Fireworks 215
Newspaper Comments 217
Valuation of the Town 221
Population from Early Periods 222
PREFATORY NOTE.
The records of the action of the town in connection with this Anniversary are given in full. It has been the New Eng- land custom to deal at close range with all proposed public measures, leaving them to fare as they may in the face of objections and oppositions. From the earliest times in our town of Danvers this usage has been carried well toward its farthest limits. The disadvantages of the habit are largely in appearance only; its benefits in quickening the tone of public life are most real. If the movement in detail is not always smooth, its issues in their long continuance are most likely to be satisfactory.
The sub-committee having this publication in charge have bestowed much care upon it. Whatever delays have oc- curred have been due to various causes, but chiefly to the difficulties connected with the carrying on together of a work of free will by a number of busy men and with no measure of time set for its certain ending.
The valuable services of Major Frank C. Damon have been engaged for a short time in bringing together and arranging a portion of the materials of this publication.
One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
TOWN RECORDS. (Frank C. Damon, Moderator.)
Annual Meeting, March, 1901. Article 36. To see if the town will appoint a committee to take into consideration the matter of the observance of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town and report at some adjournment the expediency of such a cele- bration and what further action is necessary, agreeably to the petition of Ezra D. Hines and others.
March 4, 1901. Voted, that Article 36 be referred to a special committee of five to be appointed by the moderator; and Ezra D. Hines, C. H. Preston, C. B. Rice, Andrew Nichols, and Alfred Hutch- inson were appointed.
Adjournment, March 19, 1901.
The committee to whom was referred the matter of the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town made the following report:
" We recommend that said celebration take place on June 16, 1902, and would suggest the following program : A parade, exercises in the morning, including an historic address, to be followed by dinner with speeches, and with such other observances as shall be deemed fit and proper; and that the town appropriate $1,000, which sum, together with whatever
7
8 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
may be subscribed, shall be used for the expenses of said celebration.
" To carry out the above, we recommend the appointment of a committee of twenty persons, representing the different parts of the town, who shall have full authority to make all necessary arrangements for the observance of said day."
Voted, on motion of Charles H. Preston, that all of the report, except that part relating to the appropriation, be accepted and adopted. Seventeen voted yes and three, no.
Voted, on motion of Charles H. Preston, that the committee of twenty be appointed by the moderator and that the mod- erator shall be one of the committee.
The moderator then appointed Ezra D. Hines, William B. Sullivan, Thorndike P. Hawkes, Fred U. French, Charles B. Rice, M. H. Barry, J. F. Porter, Walter T. Creese, Charles H. Preston, Francis H. Caskin, Thomas E. Tinsley, Andrew Nichols, H. W. Mitchell, C. E. Dennett, H. H. Pillsbury, W. B. Gould, Alfred Hutchinson, J. M. Whittier, and D. N. Crowley. (Moderator, Frank C. Damon.)
Annual Meeting, 1902.
Article 32. To hear the report of the committee appointed at the last annual meeting of the town to make arrangements for the appropriate observance or celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the corporate or separate existence of the town and to take any action thereon.
Article 33. To see if the town will appropriate a sum not exceeding $3/)00 to meet the expenses of the proposed cele- bration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town, the same to be expended under the direction of the Committee of Arrangements.
Article 34. To see if the town will appropriate a sum not exceeding $1,000 for the publication in book form of the proceedings at the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth
Town Records. 9
anniversary, the book to be sold at cost, and the proceeds returned to the treasury of the town, and the said publication and sale to be under the direction of the Committee of Arrange- ments.
March 10, 1902.
Under Article 33, the Finance Committee recommended that $3,000 be appropriated to meet the expenses of the proposed celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniver- sary of the town, the same to be expended under the direc- tion of the Conmiittee of Arrangements. T, E. Dougherty moved as a second proposition that $1,500 be appropriated, and J. F. Putnam that $500 be appropriated. T. E. Dough- erty's receiving the largest number of votes went upon the ballot.
Under Article 34 they recommended that $1,000 be appro- priated for the publication in book form of the proceedings of the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniver- sary, the books to be sold at cost and the proceeds returned to the treasury of the town, and the said publication and sale to be under the direction of the Committee of Arrange- ments. D. P. Pope offered as a second proposition to go upon the ballot that the proceeds received from the sale of the book be appropriated to pay for the same.
March 26, 1902.
The question, " Shall the town appropriate $3,000 to meet the expenses of the proposed celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town? " not having the neces- sary two-thirds vote, was declared lost, 194 having voted yes.
The question, " Shall the town appropriate $1,500 for said celebration? " not having received the necessary two-thirds vote, was declared lost, 96 having voted yes.
10 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
The question, " Shall the town refuse to make any appro- priation for said celebration? " received 60 " yes " votes.
The question, " Shall the town appropriate $1,000 for the publication in book form of the proceedings of the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, the book to be sold at cost, and the proceeds returned to the treasury of the town? " not having received the necessary two-thirds vote was declared lost, 127 having voted yes.
The question, " Shall the town appropriate the proceeds received from the sale of said book to pay for the same? " not having received the necessary two-thirds vote, was declared lost, having received 121 " yes " votes.
April 17, 1902.
Article 2. To see if the town will appropriate $2,500 or any other sum to meet the expenses of the proposed celebra- tion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the cor- porate or separate existence of the town.
Voted, to take up Article 2, and under said article the Finance Committee recommended that the town appropriate $2,500 to meet the expenses of the proposed celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the corporate or separate existence of the town.
George Little moved as an alternative proposition to go upon the ballot that $1,500 be appropriated.
T, E. Tinsley moved as an alternative proposition that $1.00 be appropriated.
Mr. Little's proposition being put to vote received eight votes and Mr. Tinsley's received 130, and Mr. Tinsley's went upon the ballot.
Article 3 being next considered, the Finance Committee reconamended under this article that the town authorize the publication in book form of the proceedings at the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary at a cost not to exceed $1,000, and appropriate the proceeds of the sale of
Town Records. 11
said books to pay for the same. No other proposition was offered under this subject.
April 21, 1902.
The question, " Shall the town appropriate $2,500 to meet the expenses of the proposed celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the corporate or separate exist- ence of the town? " received 360 "yes" votes and was de- clared carried.
The proposition that $1.00 be appropriated received 38 " yes " votes, and 128 voted that no appropriation be made.
The question, " Shall the town authorize the publication in book form of the proceedings at the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, at a cost not to exceed $1,000, and appropriate the proceeds of the sale of said book to pay for the same? " was declared lost, 235 voting yes and 233, no.
October 3, 1902.
Article 2. To hear and act upon the report of the com- mittee having in charge the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town's separate existence, or take any action thereon.
Article 3. To see what disposition shall be made of the whole or any part of an unexpended balance of the money appropriated for the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town's existence, or take any action thereon.
Article 4. To see if the town will appropriate a sum of money to publish a book of the doings of said celebration or any other means of collecting and preserving the records of the doings of said celebration.
It was then voted, under Article 3, that the town instruct the General Committee on the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town to prepare a suitable
12 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
badge for the chief marshal of the parade [William Penn Hussey] and that a sum not to exceed $50 be taken from the unexpended balance of the celebration fund for this purpose, 27 voting yes and 1, no.
Annual Meeting, 1904. Article 48. To see if the town will authorize the One Hun- dred and Fiftieth Anniversary Committee or some other person to publish in boolc form the proceedings of the celebration of said anniversary at an expense not exceeding $500, said book to be sold at cost, and the proceeds to pay for the same, agreeably to the petition of A. P. Learoyd and others.
Adjournment, March 31, 1904.
Under Article 48, the Finance Committee recommended that the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary Committee be au- thorized to publish in book form the proceedings of the cele- bration of said anniversary at an expense not exceeding $500, said book to be sold at cost, and the proceeds to pay for the same.
A motion by W. B. Sullivan that the rules be suspended so that this matter could be settled at this meeting being put to vote was lost. The matter passed to ballot.
Adjournment, April 18, 1904. The question, " Shall the town adopt the report of the Finance Committee? " under Article 49, which recommends that the town authorize the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anni- versary Committee or some other persons to publish in book form the proceedings of the celebration of such anniversary, at an expense not exceeding $500, said book to be sold at cost, and the proceeds to pay for the same, received 122 votes and was declared carried. Sixty-one votes were cast for no appropriation.
RECORDS OF THE CELEBRATION COMMITTEE.
At the annual town meeting held in March, 1901, under an article in the warrant, the following gentlemen were appointed a committee on the one hundred and fiftieth anni- versary of the town, by Frank C. Damon, the moderator:
Ezra D, Hines, Willlvm B. Sullivan.
Thorndike p. Hawkes. Fred U. French.
Charles B. Rice. Michael H. Barry.
J. Frank Porter. Walter T. Creese.
Charles H. Preston. Francis H. Caskin.
Thomas E. Tinsley. Andrew Nichols.
Frank C. Damon. Daniel N. Crowley.
Harry W. Mitchell. Clarence E. Dennett.
Joseph M. Whittier. Harvey H. Pillsbury.
W. B. Gould. Alfred Hutchinson.
Danvers, September 24, 1901.
First meeting of Committee on One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration at selectmen's room. Town Hall.
Ezra D. Hines called the meeting to order.
Rev. Charles B. Rice was elected chairman. William B. Sullivan was elected secretary.
Voted to appoint Ezra D. Hines, Charles H. Preston, and Fred U. French a committee to consider a plan for the cele- bration and to report at the next meeting.
Voted that when we adjourn it be to meet October 8 at 7.30 P.M.
Voted to adjourn.
W. B. Sullivan, Secretary.
13
14 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Danvers, October 8, 1901.
Second meeting of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Celebra- tion Committee.
Rev. Charles B. Rice in the chair. Records read and approved.
The committee appointed to consider plans for the celebra- tion reported as follows, which report was considered:
Saturday, June 14, 1902, 8 p.m. Fires on the hills.
Sunday, June 15, 1902. Commemoration exercises in all the
churches. Monday, June 16, 1902, Bells at sunrise.
10 A.M. Literary exercises: address, poem, music.
1 P.M. Banquet, speeches.
2 P.M. Children's entertainment. 8 P.M. Band concert and ball.
Tuesday, June 17, 1902. Bells at sunrise.
10 A.M. Military, civic, and trades parade.
2 P.M. Sports.
4 P.M. Band concert.
8 P.M. Band concert and fireworks.
Voted to adopt report, leaving the order of exercises to be made hereafter.
Voted to appoint Charles H. Preston a committee to secure the Salem Cadet Band for the two days.
Voted that the chair appoint a committee to bring in a list of committees. D. N. Crowley, Fred U. French, T. P. Hawkes, Dr. H. W. Mitchell, and J. Frank Porter were appointed.
Voted that when we adjourn it be to meet October 24, at 7.30 P.M.
Voted to adjourn. W. B. Sullivan, Secretary.
Danvers, October 21, 1901. As a quorum was not present, no meeting was held and an adjournment was voted to November 4, 1901.
W. B. Sullivan, Secretary.
Records of the Celebration Committee. 15
Danvers, November 4, 1901.
Third meeting of One Hundred and Fiftieth Celebration Committee in selectmen's room.
In the absence of Rev. Charles B. Rice, Mr. T. P. Hawkes was chosen chairman jyro tern.
The committee appointed to report a list of committees reported as follows, which report was adopted :
Fireworks, Illumination, Ringing Bells. Thomas E. Tinsley. John T. Carroll.
Ernest Richardson. Alonzo G. Kimball.
John H. J. Colcord. Mansel C. Lord.
Elmer A. Bedell. James P. Barry.
William A. Berry. Clarence E. Dennett.
Frank W. Knight.
Literary Exercises. Rev. Charles B. Rice. Ezra D. Hines.
Daniel N. Crowley. William B. Sullivan.
Rev. Chauncey J. Hawkins. Charles H. Preston. Rev. Edson Reifsnider. Samuel L. Sawyer.
Rev. Kenneth E. Evans. Andrew H. Paton.
Banquet. Fred U. French. Nathan T. Walcott.
Granville W. Clapp.
Children's Entertainment. Harvey H. Pillsbury. Walter A. Tapley.
Daniel N. Crowley.
Music. Charles H. Preston. Rev. Harry C. Adams.
Frank W. Ross. Dr. Robert W. Hudgell.
Herbert E. Wentworth. Amos F. Killam.
Charles E. Perkins. John B. Mason.
Dr. Arthur W. Harrington, Joseph W. Woodman.
Dancing. Frank C. Damon. Wallace P. Hood.
Lester S. Couch. Fred B. Woodbury.
Walter P. Weston. Bertram P. Perley.
Loren H. Roberts. Thomas E. Tinsley.
A. Preston Chase. Benjamin E. Newhall.
16 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Parade.
Daniel N. Crowley. Harvey H. Pillsbury, Timothy D. Crowley. Ralph Wheelwright, John J. Macauley. Charles H. Masury.
William Penn Hussey. Charles N. Perley. Horace G. Putnam. Andrew Elwell. Walter C. Dunnells. Marcus C. Pettingell.
Dr. WiNSLOw W. Eaton.
Printing.
William B. Sullivan. Charles H. Shepherd. Oscar E. Jackson.
WiNSOR C. NiCKERSON.
Guy p. Pope. Andrew H. Paton.
Frank E. Moynahan. George L, Merrill. Herbert J. Chase. Jasper Marsh. Charles R. Tapley. Francis H. Caskin.
Sports. Thorndike p. Hawkes. Michael H. Barry.
Wallace P. Putnam. Oscar H. Perkins.
Dr. Harry W. Mitchell.
Reception Committee.
J. Frank Porter. Roswell D. Bates. Samuel L. Sawyer. Ezra D. Hines. Dr. Frederic W. Baldwin. Dr. Harry W. Mitchell. Fred U. French. Frank M. Spofford. Andrew Nichols. Ernest J. Powers. Francis Peabody. Godfrey Morse. George A. Peabody.
Rev. Thomas
Daniel P. Pope. Albert A. Bates. Addison P. Learoyd. Rev. Charles B. Rice. Daniel N. Crowley. Thorndike P. Hawes. Charles N. Perley. Alfred Hutchinson. A. Frank Welch. Gilbert A. Tapley.
William C. Francis H. Walter K. E. Power.
Endicott.
Caskin.
Bigelow.
Samuel L. Sawyer.
Transportation.
James N. George.
Treasurer. Addison P. Learoyd.
Records of the Celebration Committee. 17
Decorations. Joseph W. Whittier. Lester S. Couch.
Blaney L. Alley. Willis' S. Smart.
Samuel M. Moore. George B. Moulton.
Frank P. Hayes. Frank O. Staples.
John F. Kirby. Louis Brown.
Ralph Wheelwright. Davis S. Brown.
Harvey H. Pillsbury.
Voted that the chairman of each conimittee have power to fill vacancies. Voted to adjourn to the first Monday of December.
W. B. Sullivan, Secretary.
Danvers, December 2, 1901.
Fourth meeting of One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary Committee.
Rev. Charles B. Rice in the chair. Records all read and approved.
Voted that in the future five (5) members constitute a quormn.
Daniel N. Crowley reported for the Committee on Parade.
Voted to have the literary exercises on Monday, June 16, 1902, and the parade on Tuesday, June 17, 1902.
Mr. Charles B. Rice reported for the Literary Committee.
Voted to ballot for choice of a person to give the historical address. Mr. Ezra D. Hines had four; Rev. Charles B. Rice had five. Mr. Rice declined and another vote was taken, and Ezra D. Hines was chosen unanimously.
Voted that the literary exercises begin at 10 a.m. and the banquet at 1.30 p.m., June 16.
Frank C. Damon reported for the Committee on Dancing.
Voted to lay motion for fixing time of ball on the table.
Thomas E. Tinsley reported for Committee on Fireworks, Illumination, and Ringing Bells.
18 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Voted that the bonfire be Hghted at 12 a.m., Monday, June 16.
Thorndike P. Hawkes reported for the Committee on Sports.
Voted that each committee be asked to bring in an esthnate of its expenses.
Voted to adjourn to December 16, 1901.
W. B. Sullivan, Secretary.
Danvers, December 16, 1901.
Fifth meeting of the Committee on the Danvers One Hun- dred and Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration.
In the absence of Mr. Rice, Charles H. Preston was chosen chairman pro tem. Mr. Rice came in later.
Records read and approved.
The following estimates of expense were made by the differ- ent committees:
Fireworks, etc $1,000.00
Banquet
Printing 1,050.00
Children's entertainment 200.00
Music 580.00
Parade 500.00
Sports 350.00
Reception committee 100.00
Transportation
Ball
Decorations 500.00
The clerk was asked to notify the chairman of each com- mittee that did not report to report at the next meetmg.
Mr. Ezra D. Hines gave notice of the receipt of the invita- tion to give the historical address and his acceptance thereof.
Voted to adjourn to meet December 30, at 7.30 p.m.
W. B. Sullivan, Secretary.
Records of the Celebration Committee. 19
Danvers, December 30, 1901.
Sixth meeting of the Danvers One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration Committee.
Mr. Rice in the chair. Records read and approved.
Mr. Damon reported for the Ball Committee that it would need an appropriation of $200.
A letter was received from the Committee on Decorations that they would need $1,500 instead of $500 estimated.
The chairman of the Committee on Banquet reported they were negotiating with caterers and hoped to get along without an appropriation.
Moved that when we adjourn it be to meet m two weeks, and that each committee be requested to report its recom- mendation for its portion of the total appropriation in detail. Carried.
Voted to adjourn.
W. B. Sullivan, Secretary.
Danvers, January 12, 1902. There were only four members present, so the meeting adjourned to January 22, 1902.
Danvers, January 22, 1902.
Seventh meeting of the General Committee on One Hun- dred and Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration.
Mr. Rice in the chair. Records read and approved.
Mr. Nichols reported for the Reception Committee that it would ask for $25 for the use of the committee.
Moved that the Committee on Fireworks, Illumination, and Ringing Bells be restricted to $500 as its part of the appro- priation, which is to be asked for. Motion withdrawn.
Voted to ask the town for $2,500 for the celebration and $1,000 extra for a book which is to be printed and contain an account of the celebration, the book to be sold by the town at cost.
20 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Voted that the chairman be a committee to see that an article be put in the warrant for the next annual meeting for the appropriation above mentioned.
Voted to adjourn to February 5, 1902.
W. B. Sullivan, Secretary.
Danvers, February 5, 1902.
Eighth meeting of General Committee, Mr. Rice in the chair.
T. E. Tinsley was chosen secretary pro tern.
Moved to reconsider the vote whereby it was voted to ask the town for an appropriation of $2,500. The question, being put, was lost.
Voted to ask the town for an appropriation not to exceed $3,000.
Voted to adjourn to Wednesday, February 19.
T. E. Tinsley, Secretary pro tem.
Danvers, February 19, 1902. Ninth meeting of General Committee, Mr. Rice in the chair. Moved to reconsider the vote whereby it was voted to ask for an appropriation not exceeding $3,000. Not carried. Voted to adjourn subject to the call of the chair.
W. B. Sullivan, Secretary.
Danvers, March 31, 1902.
Tenth meeting of General Committee, Mr. Rice in the chair.
The chairman reported to the committee that the town at its annual meeting had failed to cast two-thirds vote for the article asking for $3,000, as petitioned for by the com- mittee. The town voted as follows :
For $3,000 . . . .194 For $1,500 .... 94 No 59
Records of the Celebration Committee. 21
Voted to ask the town counsel for his opinion whether the town appropriated $3,000 or $1,500 at its annual meeting, and whether under the previous vote appointing this com- mittee the committee is authorized- to incur any expense that will bind the town.
Voted to ask the town solicitor to give us his opinion on or before Friday evening at 7.30 p.m.
Voted to adjourn when we adjourn to next Friday night, at 7.30.
Voted to ask the town solicitor as to the appropriation on the book.
Voted to adjourn.
W. B. Sullivan, Secretary.
Letter to Town Solicitor.
Danvers, Mass., April 1, 1904.
To THE Town Solicitor, Danvers, Mass.:
Sir, — The Committee on the Danvers One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration voted to ask for your opinion on the follow- ing questions relating to the celebration:
1. Did the town appropriate $3,000 therefor at its last annual meeting?
2. Did the town appropriate $1,500 therefor at its last annual meeting?
3. Did the town make any appropriation for the publication of a book?
4. Can a special meeting be held at which the town can appropriate money for this celebration?
I will be obliged for an answer at your earliest convenience, so that I may have it at the next meeting of the committee, which is to be held Friday next, April 4, at 7.30 p.m.
Yours very truly,
W. B. Sullivan, Secretary, Celebration Committee.
22 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Ernest J. Powers, Counsellor at Law.
Salem, Mass., April 4, 1902.
William B. Sullivan, Esq., Secretary of Committee on Danvers 150th Anniversary Celebration, Danvers, Mass. :
Dear Sir, — Your letter of April 1, submitting four propositions for an opinion, was received.
As you well know, our unique method of voting on questions in- volving appropriation of money gives rise to many new and perplex- ing questions. I find nothing in the past decisions of our courts that will give me any assistance in answering the first three propositions, viz.:
1. Did the town appropriate $3,000 for the anniversary celebration at its last annual meeting?
2. Did the town appropriate $1,500 for the anniversary celebration at its last annual meeting?
3. Did the town make any appropriation for the publication of a book?
The question, " Shall the town appropriate $3,000 to meet the ex- penses of the proposed celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town? " as recommended by the Finance Committee, received 194 "yes " votes and was declared lost.
The question, " Shall the town appropriate $1,500 for said celebra- tion? " received 96, " yes " votes and was declared lost.
The town's authority for appropriating money for the above purpose is derived from the Revised Laws, Chapter 25, the last part of Section 18, which reads: "Any town may raise by taxation such amount of money as may be authorized by a two-thirds vote for the celebration of the anniversary of its settlement or of its incorporation at the end of a period of fifty or of any multiple of fifty years therefrom, and of publishing the proceedings thereof."
On the proposition of raising money for the above purpose there were 350 votes, 194 in favor of $3,000, 96 in favor of $1,500, and 60 for no appropriation. If the 96 votes for the $1,500 appropriation could be excluded in reckoning the whole number of votes cast, then the Finance Committee's report would have received the necessary two-thirds vote, but those who voted for the substitute proposition of $1,500 were evidently opposed to the $3,000 appropriation and voted against the $3,000 appropriation with as much certainty as any one of the sixty who recorded their vote against any appropriation. Those who voted for $3,000 were opposed to the appropriation of
Records of the Celebration Committee. 23
$1,500; therefore I thuik that the moderator properly declared that neither of the propositions received a two-thirds vote, and hence na appropriation was made.
In reference to the publication of a book, there were 127 who voted for the Finance Committee's report and 121 for the substitute proposi- tion. I think in this case the moderator properly declared that no appropriation was made for two reasons: First, neither proposition received a two-thirds vote; and second, there was no opportunity to vote " no " against either proposition.
In reference to the fourth question: " Can a special meeting be held at which the town can appropriate money for this celebration? " the Public Statutes, Chapter 27, Section 11, reads as follows: "A town may at its annual meeting raise by taxation a sum of money not ex- ceeding one tenth of one per cent of its assessed valuation for the year last preceding, for the purpose of celebrating any centennial anni- versary of its incorporation, and of publishing the proceedings of any such celebration."
This statute was amended in 1892, Chapter 166, which reads as follows: " Any city or town may raise, by taxation, such amount of money as may be authorized by a vote of two thirds of the voters present and voting at a town meeting, for the purpose of celebrating the anniversary of its settlement or of its incorporation as a town, at the end of a period of fifty or of any multiple of fifty years from such settlement or incorporation, and of publishing an account of the proceedings of any such celebration."
In the Revised Laws the commissioners united this statute passed in 1892 with a section which refers to appropriation of money for the celebration of the fourth day of July, which reads as follows: "A town may, at its annual meeting, appropriate money for the celebra- tion of the fourth day of July, and any town may raise by taxation such amount of money as may be authorized by a two-thirds vote for the celebration of the anniversary of its settlement or of its incorpo- ration at the end of a period of fifty or of any multiple of fifty years therefrom, and of publishing the proceedings thereof."
The commissioners in their report make no mention of any change in the statute of 1892.
I think money can be appropriated for the celebration of our one hundred and fiftieth anniversary at any special meeting. Respectfully yours,
Ernest J. Powers, Town Counsel.
24 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Danvers, April 4, 1902.
Eleventh meeting of General Committee, Mr. Rice in the chair.
The clerk read his letter to the town solicitor in accordance with the vote of the committee at its last meeting.
The town solicitor sent the clerk a letter saying it was his opinion that no money was appropriated for the celebration or for the publication of a book, but that a simi of money can be appropriated for the celebration at a special town meeting.
Voted to petition the selectmen to call a special town meeting.
Voted that the selectmen be asked to call the town meeting at the earliest possible date.
Moved that we ask for an appropriation of $2,000.
Amendment offered that we ask for $3,000.
Amendment offered that we ask for $2,500.
Three thousand dollars, lost. Two thousand five hundred dollars, lost. Two thousand dollars, lost.
Voted to ask for $2,500 for the celebration.
Voted to ask the town to appropriate the proceeds received from the sale of the book to pay for the same and the com- mittee be authorized to publish the proceedings of the cele- bration in book form.
Voted that the chairman and Mr. Preston be a committee to get up articles for the warrant for the special meeting.
Voted to adjourn to call of chairman.
W. B. Sullivan, Secretary.
Danvers, April 24, 1902.
Twelfth meeting of the General Committee, Mr. Rice in the chair.
The town, at a special meeting held on April 21, 1902, voted by ballot as follows:
Records of the Celebration Committee. 25
For $2,500 360
For no appropriation 128
ForSl 38
and as follows for the book:
Yes 234
No 226
By the above votes the town appropriated $2,500 for the celebration and nothing for the publication of a book.
Voted to proceed to arrange for the celebration.
Moved to apportion out to the different sub-committees the sum of $2,000.
Amended that it be $2,200.
Amended that it be $2,250.
The mover of the first amendment accepted without objection the second amendment offered.
Amendment offered that it be $2,125.
The amendment for $2,250 was lost.
The amendment for $2,125 was carried.
The following apportionment was made :
Fireworks, illumination, and bells $500.00
Banquet
Printing 100.00
Children's entertainment 100.00
Music 550.00
Parade 100.00
Sports 200.00
Reception Committee 100.00
Transportation
BaU 100.00 .
Decorations 375.00
$2,125.00
Voted that the chairman of each board of selectmen of Middleton, Topsfield, Wenham, and Peabody, and the mayors of Salem and Beverly be invited as guests of the town.
26 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Voted that the Governor and William H. Moody be invited.
Voted to invite the two United States senators.
Voted that this committee invite each organization or society to take part in the celebration and the pastors of each church to have appropriate services on Sunday, June 15, 1902.
Voted to adjourn to next Wednesday evening, April 30.
Voted that hereafter this committee will meet on each Wednesday evening,
W. B. Sullivan, Secretary.
Danvers, April 30, 1902.
Thirteenth meeting of General Committee, Mr. Rice in the chair.
Mr. Rice reported for the Reception Committee.
Voted that W. B. Sullivan be authorized to have the pro- gram printed.
Voted to have special badges for the General Committee and to leave the procuring of the badges to W. B. Sullivan.
Voted to adjourn to next Wednesday evening.
W. B. Sullivan, Secretary.
Danvers, May 7, 1902.
Fourteenth meeting of the General Committee, Mr. Rice in the chair.
Voted that the clerk of this committee invite the persons whom this committee voted to invite.
Voted that the selecting of persons to preside at the morn- ing meeting and at the banquet be left to the Committee on Literary Exercises.
Voted to take $200 from the reserve fund and add it to the appropriation for the Coromittee on Parade.
Voted to reconsider the motion whereby it was voted to appropriate $100 for the Ball Committee.
Records of the Celebration Committee. 27
Voted to appropriate $50 for the Ball Committee.
Voted to appropriate $50 additional for the Committee on Decorations.
Voted that sums of money will not be accepted from any persons or corporations to help defray the expenses of the celebration.
Voted to adjourn.
W. B. Sullivan, Secretary.
Danvers, May 14, 1902.
Fifteenth meeting of the General Committee, Mr. Rice in the chair.
The clerk reported that the persons that the committee voted to be the guests of the town had been invited and that declinations had been received from Hon. George F. Hoar, Hon. H. C. Lodge, and Hon. W. H. Moody. Accept- ances had been received from Hon, John F. Hurley, mayor of Salem, and Hon. Samuel Cole, mayor of Beverly.
Voted to invite the town of Peabody to take such part in the celebration as it desires.
The Parade Committee reported that the Salem Cadets had accepted the invitation of the committee to take part in the parade.
The Committee on Ball reported that the committee voted that the price of tickets would be $1, to admit a lady and gentleman, and fifty cents for an extra lady's ticket.
The Literary Committee made a report of progress.
Voted that Representative Charles H. Goulding be in- vited.
Voted that the matter of printing invitations be left to the Reception Committee, these invitations to be sent as a notice to former residents of the town.
Voted to adjourn to Thursday, May 22, 1902.
W, B. Svi^hiY AN, Secretary.
28 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Danvers, May 22, 1902.
Sixteenth meeting of the General Committee, Mr. Rice in the chair.
The clerk reported that the chairman of the selectmen of Topsfield and the chairman of the selectmen of Peabody had accepted our invitation.
The clerk also reported that the Hon. W. M. Crane, gov- ernor of the Commonwealth, had declined our invitation.
The clerk reported the acceptance by the board of select- men of Peabody for the town of Peabody to take part in the celebration.
Voted that Chief Justice Holmes be invited.
Voted that the board of selectmen of Peabody be invited.
Voted that the living ex-governors of the Commonwealth and the mayor of Boston be invited.
Voted to invite Gen. Granville M, Dodge.
Voted to invite the President.
Voted that $100 more be allotted to the Committee on Parade, and that $25 of it be taken from the Committee on Children's Entertainment. This leaves $100 as a reserve fund in the hands of the General Committee.
Voted that Mr. Porter and Mr. Preston be a committee to see the Governor and ask hun to be present at the celebration.
Voted to adjourn to Tuesday, May 27, 1902.
W. B. Sullivan, Secretary.
Danvers, May 27, 1902.
Seventeenth meeting of the General Committee, Mr. Rice in the chair.
Voted that the clerk notify the Committee on Banquet that it must clear away the tables so that the town hall can be used by the Ball Committee on the night of June 16.
The clerk reported the following declinations of our invi- tations to attend the celebration as the guests of the town:
Records of the Celebration Committee. 29
Hon. John D. Long, Gen. Granville M. Dodge, the President, and Chief Justice Holmes.
Voted that the Literary Committee be instructed to have programs printed for the exercises in the Institute, if they think it is necessary.
Voted that the clerk hire a stenographer for the banquet.
Voted to adjourn to meet next Monday, June 2, 1902.
W. B. Sullivan, Secretary.
Danveks, June 2, 1902.
Eighteenth meeting of the General Committee, Mr. Rice in the chair.
Mr. Rice reported the program for Monday, June 16.
The clerk reported that ex-Governor George S. Boutwell declined our invitation.
Voted that William D. Northend be invited.
The selectmen of Peabody accepted the town's invitation.
Voted that Speaker James J. Myers and President of the Senate Rufus A. Soule be invited.
Voted to invite Richard Olney, Herbert Parker, and David I. Robinson.
Voted that Mr. Nichols and Mr. Hutchinson be a committee to mark the historic places in Danvers.
Voted to instruct the Parade Committee to go through Tapleyville.
The chairman of the Parade Committee said the Parade Committee intended to have the parade go through Tapley- ville.
Voted to reconsider the vote whereby we voted to instruct the Parade Committee to have the parade go through Tap- leyrille.
Voted to invite William Penn Hussey and J. Fred Hussey, with their wives, to the banquet.
Voted to adjourn to Friday, June 6, 1902.
W. B. Sullivan, Clerk.
30 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Danvers, June 6, 1902.
Nineteenth meeting of the General Conunittee, Mr. Rice in the chair.
The clerk reported acceptance from the chairmen of the selectmen of Middleton and Wenham, and also from Herbert Parker, attorney-general.
The clerk also reported an acceptance from Representative C. H. Goulding.
Voted to leave the matter of the band concert for Sunday, June 15, to the Committee on Bonfire, etc.
Voted to ask the Transportation Committee to ask the Boston & Maine Railroad to have a train leave Newburyport on Tuesday, June 17, about 9 a.m.
Voted that the Reception Committee have authority to furnish tickets for any lady who comes to the celebration with an invited guest.
Voted that this committee sees no reason to change the terms of the invitation sent by this committee to all the organi- zations in Danvers to have their positions assigned in the parade in accordance with their date of organization, the oldest coming first; and Messrs. M. H. Barry and J. F. Porter be a committee to confer with the Committee on Parade about this subject.
Voted to reconsider the motion whereby this committee voted that the Danvers organizations be placed in the line of march in accordance with the date of their organization.
The original motion was amended: that the whole matter be left with the Parade Committee.
The amendment was carried.
Voted to adjourn to next Monday night.
W. B. Sullivan, Clerk.
Danvers, June 9, 1902. Twentieth meeting of the General Committee, Mr. Rice in the chair.
Records of the Celebration Committee. 31
The clerk reported declinations of our invitations from Hon. Richard Olney, Hon. J. Q. A. Brackett, Hon. David I. Robinson, and a letter of acceptance from Lieut. -Gov. John L. Bates.
A petition was received from Rev. H. C. Adams and others, protesting against the band concert on Sunday evening, June 15.
Voted to accept the communication.
Voted to send an invitation to the press of Boston and Salem and the Danvers Mirror.
Voted to appoint a committee of two to see that water closets be provided for the people during the celebration. Mr. Caskin and Mr. Learoyd were appointed.
Voted to appoint M. H. Barry a committee to see that drinking water is to be had during the celebration on the streets.
Voted to adjourn until Friday night next.
W. B. Sullivan, Clerk.
Danvers, June 13, 1902.
Twenty-first meeting of the General Committee, Mr. Rice in the chair.
Voted that the Parade Committee be instructed to have the parade go to Tapleyville as far as the corner of Pine and Holten streets, and that the clerk of this committee be in- structed to notify the Committee on Parade of this vote. This motion was carried by a vote of twelve in the affirmative and none in the negative.
Voted to approve for payment three bills for the Committee on Bonfire: Labor, $69.16; labor, $71.58; and barrels, $24.
The clerk reported that he had invited the newspapers to send representatives in accordance with the vote of the last meeting.
Voted that the selectmen's room be headquarters for all committees during the celebration.
32 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Voted to adjourn to the call of any two members of the
committee.
W. B. Sullivan, Clerk.
Danvers, June 25, 1902.
Twenty-second meeting of General Committee, Mr. Rice in the chair.
The clerk reported that he had reported to the Parade Committee the vote of the last meeting.
The chairman of the Committee on Printing presented the following bills for approval:
Frank E. Moynahan, June 20, 1902 $63.75
Frank E. Moynahan, June 24, 1902 8.00
$71.75 Voted to approve these bills.
The following bills were presented and approved:
On Signs.
J.W.Nichols $3.00
Woodman Bros. & Ross 3.75
B. Porter Pousland 4.00
On Music.
L. W. Lovelace $27.90
Eighth Regiment Band 105.52
Salem Cadet Band 286.00
Charles E. Perkins 11.00
Pettingell & Barry 2.50
William A. Berry 13.50
James O. Perry 1.26
National Guard Band 75.00
On Sports.
H.W.Mitchell $1.50
Calvin Putnam Lumber Company 2.52
Hose 1 of Danvers 15.00
Patrick Stanley .50
T. P. Hawkes 6.05
John T. Carroll 2.50
Records of the Celebration Committee. 33
M.H.Barry $0.50
Frank E. Moynahan 2.25
F. M. Peabody 59.50
Hose 2 of Beverly 15.00
Joseph W. Bruley 3.50
H. C. Worthly 6.38
Clerk William B. Sullivan 23.62
Parade Committee.
Teachers of each school $64.00
Second Corps of Cadets 134.75
H. H. Pillsbury 12.20
J. J. Macauley 1.00
Pettingell & Barry 2.00
H. H. Pillsbury 21.85
H. H. Pillsbury 9.50
Thed James 2.00
Loring Littlefield 4.00
J. T. James 110.00
Banquet.
Caskin & O'Connell $3.80
G. W. Clapp 4.80
H. C. Tanner 362.60
Pettingell & Barry S.OO
F. E. Moynahan 6.60
Fireworks Committee.
H. H. Tilton $300.00
William A. Berry 7.50
Salem Cadet Band 50.00
Pettingell & Barry 30.25
Danvers Electric Department 22.75
Labor 4.50
L. M. Littlefield 33.14
C. N. Perley 50
Children's Entertainment.
L. B. Philbrick $0.30
Fobes, Hayward & Co 31.92
Stone & Forsyth 5.60
Frank Prior 17.60
Bennett Springer 26.36
H. H. Pillsbury 1.50
34 Oiie Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Reception Committee.
H. H. Pillsbuiy $62.00
Andrew Nichols 1.31
John T, CarroU 90
The clerk was authorized to collect the account and speeches of the celebration and have them typewritten.
Voted to adjourn to meet July 2, 1902, when we adjourn.
The Banquet Committee reported the payment to the treasurer of $411.
Voted to adjourn.
W. B. Sullivan, Clerk.
Danvers, October 3, 1902.
Twenty-third meeting of the General Committee, Mr. Rice in the chair.
Records of last meeting read and approved.
The following bills were presented and approved for pay- ment :
J. M. Ward & Co $5.00
Frank E. Moynahan 3.00
D. E. Woodward 2.65
Winchester Smith 1.60
Voted to adjourn.
W. B. Sullivan, Clerk.
Danvers, February 3, 1903.
Twenty-fourth meeting of the General Committee at Town Hall, Chairman Rice in the chair.
Reading of the records waived.
Voted to instruct the chairman, Mr. Crowley, and the clerk to prepare a report of the committee to be made to the town, including its expenditures.
Voted to ask the town for $500 and the unexpended bal- ance of $133.58 for the publication of a book which will con- tain a report of the celebration.
Records of the Celebration Committee. 35
Voted that the Parade Committee be authorized to pur- chase a badge for WilUam Perm Hussey not to exceed $50 in cost in accordance with the vote of the town.
Voted to adjourn subject to the call of the chair.
W. B. Sullivan, Clerk.
Danvers, December 9, 1904.
Twenty-fifth meeting of the General Committee at Town Hall.
Present: Mr. Rice, Mr. Hines, Mr. French, Mr. Nichols, Mr. Tinsley, and Mr. Preston.
Voted that C. H. Preston be secretary pro tern.
Voted that the chairman of each sub-committee make a report of the doings of his committee to the Editing Com- mittee.
Voted that a committee of four be appointed to edit the publication of the report of the proceedings of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary under the directions of the full com- mittee.
Rev. Charles B. Rice, William B. Sullivan, Charles H. Preston, and Ezra D. Hines were appointed.
Voted to have illustrations of Town Hall and Peabody Institute, also Plains, Port, and Tapleyville, and Centre schoolhouses inserted in the book.
Voted that a picture of the Judge Holten house be inserted.
Voted that a picture of the General Committee be inserted in some form.
Voted that the publication be on good paper.
Voted that when the committee adjourn it be to the call of the sub-committee.
Voted to adjourn.
Charles H. Preston,
Secretary jyro tern.
THE CELEBRATION.
The program, as arranged and carried out, was as follows:
Sunday, June 15.
Appropriate sermons in the churches in the morning, and special pro- grams in some of the churches in the evening.
Midnight. Bonfire on Danvers Park, Conant Street. Concert by Salem Cadet Band, 10 to 12.
Monday, June 16.
Sunrise. Ringing of bells.
10 A.M. Commemorative Meeting in Peabody Institute, Sylvan Street. Opening Address. Historical Address by Ezra D. Hines, Esq. Reading of Poem. Special Music, etc.
1.30 P.M. Banquet in Town Hall, Sylvan and Holten streets. Ad- dresses by invited guests and citizens.
2 P.M. Children's Entertainment in Peabody Institute.
3 P.M. Concert on Danvers Square by Salem Cadet Band.
7 P.M. Concert on Danvers Square by Salem Cadet Band.
9 P.M. Ball in Town Hall, preceded by music on the lawn by the
Cadet Band.
Tuesday, June 17. Sunrise. Ringing of bells.
10 A.M. Parade of military, civic, schools, trades, and other organi-
zations and citizens generally. 2 P.M. Athletic sports, bicycle races, etc., on Danvers Square. Balloon ascension on Danvers Park.
4 P.M. Band Concert, Danvers Square, Salem Cadet Band. 7.30 to 9.30 P.M. Concert, Danvers Square, Salem Cadet Band.
8 P.M. Fireworks on Danvers Park.
A detailed description of the various events, together with the full text of the various sermons and addresses, in so far as it has been possible to collect them, will be found in the following pages.
se
The Celebration. 37
SUNDAY, JUNE 15.
June gave us of its choicest days for our observance. Showers once or twice on Sunday sprinkled lightly the streets, but brought no inconvenience to the large congrega- tions that assembled in the houses of worship. On Monday and Tuesday the skies were only at tunes lightly overcast with clouds, and the air was clear and fresh.
In accordance with the request of the committee, but following also the common impulse, special services appro- priate to the occasion were held in the several churches throughout the town. The sermons thus preached, so far as copies could be had, are here given. They are arranged in order of the dates of the organization of the churches, or of the times in some cases of the beginnings of regular gather- ings for public worship.
The First Church was organized November 19, 1689, the parish having been incorporated in October, 1672.
Program at First Church.
The musical program at the First Church, at which time Rev, H, C. Adams, the pastor, preached the sermon which appears elsewhere, was as follows:
Organ Voluntary. " Triumphal March " Pungrew
doxology. Invocation.
Anthem, " Jerusalem " Dr. Lowell Mason
Responsive Reading.
Gloria.
Scripture Lesson.
Hymn 1156. " O God, beneath Thy Guiding Hand."
Prayer.
Response, The Lord's Prayer,
Offering and Prayer of Consecration.
38 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Offertoire. " Some Day " C. H. Gabriel
Male Quartet. Sermon. " Twenty-five Years of Church Life." Hymn 1004. " The Church's One Foundation is Jesus Christ Our
Lord." Prayer. Benediction. PosTLUDE. " Festive March " Marshall
Organist, Miss Mabel A. Thurston, Director, Mr. Charles E. Perkins. Sopranos: Miss Flora L. Richmond, Miss Carolyn Kimball, Miss Jennette Roberts, Miss Emma Little, Miss Nettie Williams.
Altos: Miss Florence Rundlett, Miss Ethel Roberts, Miss Mary Little, Miss Alice Peabody.
Tenors: Mr. John Hanson, Mr. Morton Leslie, Mr. Thurman Leslie. Bassos: Mr. Alex Gardner, Mr. Elmer Bedell, Mr. Ernest Putnam.
By Rev. H. C. Adams, Pastor at the First Church.
Text : Walk about Zion, and go round about her : tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God for ever and ever : he will be our guide even unto death. — Psalm 48 : 12-14.
Two thoughts are suggested by these words of the psalmist. First, the fitness of recalUng the past, of keeping it in memory; and second, that the object of this recollection is that we may remember God whose hand is seen as the guiding and support- ing power in the universe.
We are living in a world of change. All life takes on new forms, and thought finds new expression from age to age. God alone is unchangeable, and that which joins the present to the past is God, who is over all and through all his works. So that, however different may be our conception of life from that of our fathers, we may well say with the psalmist.
Historical Sermons. 39
" This [our fathers'] God is our God for ever and ever." And of the institutions which God has ordered for the accomphshing of his purposes and the blessing of mankind, the church is the oldest and the most permanent. An individual church may be lost, as a branch severed from the vine, but the church universal, as an institution through which God has manifested himself, and still manifests him- self, to men is ever present. Its forms may change, but the spirit and purpose and life abides. It may be very faulty because of the weakness of men to whom it is intrusted, but in it God is ever working for its upbuilding in wisdom and love. We may well emulate the psalmist in his desire and purpose to keep alive the memory of the past and to tell it to generations following, that they may be encouraged to a more earnest and devoted service, and, above all, to a clearer faith in God, who works now as he has worked in the past, for the permanent abiding of righteousness in the earth.
How clearly we can see in this ancient church, which we all love, both the permanent and the changing! It is the same church that our fathers established here more than two and a quarter centuries ago, yet how different in its outward forms and in the conceptions of life and duty that prevail to- day. But God is the same to us to-day, though our concep- tion of him may be different from that held at the beginning. Worship and the fruits of worship have not changed, though the forms may have greatly changed. The weakness and self-will and self-seeking of men have not been altogether absent, but there is also very much evidence of the power and grace of God in transforming human lives and in guiding and molding the common life, so as to make the history of this church for more than two hundred years to be one of harmony, and of quiet but earnest effort for the common good. A record surely that should prove an incentive to us all and to future generations.
What this record has been during the long period of the
40 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
life of this ciiurch, and of the community of which its Ufe has been an important part, is preserved for all time in a complete and attractive form in the " History of the First Parish," prepared by Dr. Rice at the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the church.
In connection with the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town, when something of an his- torical character may be expected, it has seemed to me fitting to review briefly the years since 1874, when the " History of the First Parish " was published. This is modern histor}^, fresh in the minds of most of you gathered here this morning. To me it has been a somewhat difficult task, since I have been obliged to get the facts from the records or from word of mouth. I shall ask you, therefore, to bear with me in what- ever mistakes I may have made, or failure to give the different events their due proportion of space or consideration.
First of all may be noted the change that has come to the community as it has been affected by changed business condi- tions. Like many a village in New England, we look back to days of greater glory, if this be measured by numbers and general activity. We hear not infrequently mention of what used to be before thriving business interests were removed from us. During the first decade of the period we are con- sidering the shoe industry was flourishing, and a large factory added not a little to the numbers and life of the community. This factory, owned and operated by E. & A. Mudge & Co., was burned in 1884. The removal thus of from two hundred and fifty to three hundred workmen could not fail to have a depressing effect. Since that time the attempt to start another industry has failed, and we are to-day a quiet com- munity of farmers for the most part, aside from those who reside here and do business elsewhere.
In spite of this depression or loss of business, the parish has apparently fully held its own. The number of dwelling houses has increased. Buildings formerly used for other
Historical Sermons. 41
purposes have been remodeled and made into dwelling houses, and new ones have also been built. And it is the number of homes that indicates the permanency of the life of any community. The church, during these years of change and of seeming loss, has continued its even course, and while there has not been great gain, that is no indication of any backward step. Such changes as have been mentioned would naturally affect the financial support most plainly. It has doubtless done so to some extent, but less than might naturally be expected. While many strong supporters and much of material resources have been removed from us, the financial support has been remarkably well sustained.
One change which has been going on these twenty-five years or more has impressed me in going over the records. It is in some measure important, as it affects not only the financial support, but the representation in the parish. Such representation is based on the ownership of pews, and the yearly amounts paid are called taxes. Those who do not own pews pay rent for them, with no representation in the parish. During this period the taxes have almost constantly decreased and the rents have considerably increased. In 1875 the amount received from taxes was $1,445. In 1880 it was $1,105; in 1890 it was $1,088; in 1900 it was $742; while from rentals there was received in 1875 but $245; in 1880, $302; in 1890, $208; in 1900, $429, or, taking the whole period of twenty-five years, the taxes are practically halved and the rentals are nearly doubled.
In two respects the past twenty-five years have been very unusual in the history of the church. There have been three ministers and practically three church buildings. The build- ing erected in 1839 was remodeled in 1869, at a cost of about four thousand dollars, and so remained until 1889, when it was again remodeled and refurnished. The service of re- dedication was held on Thursday, June 6, 1889. The cost of this refurnishing: was between six and seven thousand dollars.
42 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
The change was so complete as to give the appearance of a new interior, while the exterior was kept unchanged. The organ was removed from the front gallery and placed back of the pulpit, an addition having been built to make a place for it. The walls were newly frescoed, and with new carpet and new pews in place of those which had been used for more than half a century, it was fittingly called " a new old church." Perhaps the most striking change in the appearance was the "memorial windows in the place of those with small panes. These were thirteen in number. Of the eight large windows in the main audience room four were dedicated to four former pastors of the church and four to four former deacons. There were also three in the gallery in the front of the church and two under the gallery, one to Mrs. Braman and one to Mrs. Rice.
The newly finished church seemed very satisfactory, as it was both beautiful and serviceable, and with the halo that always gathers about a lost treasure it stands in the thoughts of many as well-nigh perfect. However, the enjoyment and use of it was brief. In a little more than a month, on July 23, it was struck by lightning," causing a damage of $500 or more; and in a little more than seven months, on the morn- ing of January 28, 1890, it was burned to the ground. For a time after this the services were held on Sabbath afternoons in the Methodist Church, and in the summer the " Taber- nacle " was built in the lot just east of the parsonage, and served as a temporary church home.
The parish took action at once in regard to rebuilding. A committee was appointed consisting of George H. Peabody, Hon. Augustus Mudge, Edward Hutchinson, Otis F. Putnam, Alfred Hutchinson, J.' Peter Gardner, George W. French, Walter A. Tapley, and Charles H. Preston. The outcome of this effort to rebuild was the present beautiful and conven- ient church building in which we gather to-day. The dedi- cation exercises took place on September 2, 1891, it being
Historical Sermons. 43
the twenty-eighth anniversary of the settlement of Dr. Rice as pastor of the church. The cost of the present building with all its furnishings was about twenty-five thousand dol- lars. The memorial windows are seventeen in number; those of the old building were replaced by new ones in the new building, and two or three others were added to the number. To the attractive and serviceable building as it now is there can be but one serious objection, and that is the expense of keeping it in repair. In order to relieve the parish from any extra burden in this particular, it is hoped that a fund may be established. A generous beginning has already been made for such a fund and we ought, it would seem, to use all possible means to meet the conditions upon which this is offered. It may probably be said without mistake that no twenty-five years has witnessed larger gifts for the material interests of the church than those which we to-day recall. The spiritual interests cannot be so easily measured, yet there is surely much to give encouragement, much to give incentive for the present and for the future. The leadership of the church during the larger portion of the time fell to Dr. Charles B. Rice, whose pastorate covered thirty-one years, beginning September 2, 1863, and closing September 2, 1894. The membership of the church reached the highest point in 1877, the year previous being one of deep religious quicken- ing, when 58 members were added. This was the third larg- est number ever received in one year. In 1728 there were 59 additions and in 1832 there were 85. The whole number of members in 1877 was 223. At the beginning of this present year there were 194 members. The church has been blessed not only with long pastorates, but with a succession,?though few in number, of wise and consecrated Christian men for leaders; and surely Dr. Rice has an honored place in this truly apostolic succession. A happy event in the history of this pastorate was the observance of the twentieth anniver- sary. Dr. Rice had then been many years the longest settled
44 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
pastor in this conference. Many were the words of appre- ciation spoken by members of this chm-ch and parish and by neighboring ministers with whom he always had pleasant and helpful relations, and a generous sum of money was given as token of the esteem in which he was held. We like to think of Dr. Rice to-day as a scholar of deep insight, a faithful and able preacher of truth and, above all, as a man of ripe Chris- tian experience which has made, and still makes, his counsels and sympathies to be of special comfort and strength; and we pray that his life may be spared for many years to come, that we may have his wisdom to guide our counsels and his mature Christian faith to give us hope and inspiration for duty.
Rev. Curtis M. Geer, Ph.D., succeeded Dr. Rice, and was installed January 31, 1895, and dismissed April 8, 1897, leaving an active pastorate to make teaching his profession. This pastorate of a little more than two years was a decided anomaly in a church which had had but five ministers in nearly two hundred years. One possible advantage to be derived from thus breaking this unusual record of long pas- torates is that the church may be relieved from any obligation they might otherwise have felt of keeping their succeeding ministers beyond the period of their evident usefulness. The time of Mr. Geer's pastorate, though short, was long enough to reveal his sterling worth as a man and as a strong and effective preacher.
Your present pastor was installed September 22, 1897, and has nearly completed his fifth year. The time covered by this service is too recent to call for review or comment. Suffice it to say they have been pleasant years for the pastor, and by reason of your patience and cooperation we may hope they have been years not wholly unfruitful. As an indication of the changes that come, it may be worthy of mention that he is now in point of service the oldest regular pastor in town.
Historical Sermons. 45
Next in importance to the office of minister is that of deacon. While this church honors its ministers of the past, we may well give honor to the men who have served in the office of deacon. The two men who were in office at the beginning of the period we are considering were Mr. Elijah Hutchinson and Mr. William R. Putnam. Mr. Hutchinson was chosen to office in 1861 and continued the same until his death on December 20, 1885. It was said of him that he was " a good citizen and neighbor, a kind and affectionate hus- band, and a genial friend. At all times affable and pleasant, never meeting or passing a friend or acquaintance without a kindly greeting or a cheerful word, and he was of a peculiarly even temper of mind." Mr. William R. Putnam was also chosen to office in 1861. In 1873 or 1874 he removed to Red Wing, Minn,, but retained his membership and official relation with this church until his death in September, 1886. He is spoken of as "a man of vigorous character and very greatly interested in the prosperity of the church. His engagements in this connection were maintained through a long period of years most diligently and effectively. His thoughts were much occupied with the doctrines of the Chris- tian faith. He often spoke upon them and in a manner indi- cating carefulness of consideration and clearness of mental action. Out of such meditations largely his strength of character grew."
A worthy companion in office with such men was our beloved Deacon George Tapley, the characteristics of whose earnest and faithful life are still fresh in our memories. He was chosen deacon in August, 1874, and held the office until his death in August, 1901. He was a good man, possessed of high ideals of Christian living and consistent in all walks of life. As citizen, neighbor, and friend he was true and kind, and won others to him by his hearty, genial manner and his ever-hopeful spirit. Faithful in every office, as in his attendance upon all the services of the church, we were cheered
46 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
and encouraged by his presence and by his always hearty greet- ing, and we still miss him much in all our gatherings together.
The deacons now in office were appointed as follows: Mr. Edward A. H. Grover in October, 1876 ; Mr, Alfred Hutchin- son in January, 1886, and Mr. William Siner in January, 1901. Deacon Tapley served the church for many years as treasurer and also as treasurer of the parish. Mr. Augustus Mudge was clerk of the parish from 1866 to 1889, when he was suc- ceeded by Mr. William Siner, who still holds the office.
A very important part of the church work for more than eighty years has been that of the Sabbath school, and one of the most arduous, as it is also one of the most rewarding, of the offices is that of superintendent. Mr. Augustus Mudge held this office from 1874 to 1879, thus making twenty-five years of service, having previously held the office for twenty consecutive years, 1848 to 1868. This is but one of many ways by which Mr. Mudge has shown his love for and interest in the church and its work through a long period of years. His thoughts, we may be sure, are with us to-day, and our prayer surely for him is that God will comfort and sustain him in these days of weakness and waiting.
The other superintendents have been as follows :
1879 to 1884 Mr. George W. French.
1884 to 1886 Mr. Samuel A. Tucker.
1886 to 1891 Mr. William Siner.
1891 to 1897 Mr. Elbridge H. Gilford.
1897 to 1900 Mr. E. A. H. Grover.
1900 to 1901 Mr. Oscar R. Bodwell.
1901 to the present time . . . Mr. William Siner.
The numbers in the school have varied from time to time. Dr. Rice refers to a time when it numbered 400 or more. That was doubtless before the Methodist Church was started in Tapley ville. The average attendance at that time was about 300. I have not been able to get the largest enrollment during the period we are considering. Our present member-
Historical Sermons. 47
ship is 225 and the average attendance, 121, This is not as large as it should be. We miss especially the adult members of the congregation in the school. If the habit of attendance were formed we think this might become one of the most delightful and profitable hours of the whole week, — an hour spent in pleasant converse and reasoning together about the subjects of most vital interest to us all.
Two branches of our church work are altogether new, having come within the last twenty-five years. I refer to the annual Harvest Festival and the Christian Endeavor Society. The Harvest Festival has been held since 1877, and has become one of the pleasant features of the year's work. It is held usually early in October, and for two even- ings. It furnishes quite a sum towards the annual income. It is also a fitting expression of our thought of the. goodness of God who gives the harvest, and coming at this season of the year it is a happy beginning of the social life of the church after the summer of comparative rest and quiet. We can but hope that for many years to come this may be a feature of our church life and work.
The Christian Endeavor Society was organized February 7, 1888, with 16 active and 3 associate members. At the present time there are 37 active and 13 associate members. I think there have been times when the numbers were some- what larger than at present. The attendance at the meetings during the fu-st quarter averaged 49. Since that time it has usually been larger. In one quarter in 1891 the average was 78, and one in 1901 it was 70. The object of the society is to develop the Christian life of the young people through participation regularly in the social service or prayer meeting, and in work for others through various committees. That this has been a source of strength to the church there can be no doubt, and many of the young people, through its services, have been led into a clearer conception of the meaning of the Christian life, and have developed a stronger
48 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
purpose to follow Christ as the only way to the highest life here and hereafter.
Another branch of our church work is that of the Ladies' Benevolent Society. The different branches of the women's work in the church have been brought together in recent years under this head. The good work done in this depart- ment in the past is being contmued and with the endeavor to make it effective in all possible ways and in all lines of work.
For a few years past some of the young ladies have formed a Mission Study Class, and with unusual enthusiasm and devotion have studied our mission fields, the characteristics of the countries and the customs of the people where our mission work is carried on. This is just the kind of knowledge that we all need as members of the church if we are to have an intelligent understanding of our missionary work.
This sketch of our church life would be incomplete did I not make some reference to the musical part of the services. At the beginning of this period the choir was under the direc- tion of Mr. Elnathan P. Davis, who for many years continued to act as chorister, rendering faithful and efficient service. Other leaders who have served for a longer or shorter period are Mr. Irwin Tapley, Mr. William Richmond, and Mr. Edward Hutchinson. The singing for the most part has been by a volunteer chorus choir. For a few years a quartet was employed, but this again gave way to a chorus which, since 1898, has been under the direction of Mr. Charles E. Perkins. I need only say that in the work of this choir we have all had great satisfaction and have felt a just pride.
The church was incorporated in 1890 and already possesses several gifts of money to aid in its work. Mr, James Braman gave $300: $100 a gift to the Ladies' Benevolent Society, $100 to the Sabbath-school library fund, and $100 to the Ministerial Library. A gift of $500 was made by Mr. George H. Peabody, the interest to be used for the Sabbath-school library, and a gift of $1,000 by Mrs. Julia A. Philbrick, the
Historical Sermons. 49
interest to be equally divided between the Sabbath-school and the ministerial libraries.
I have tried to touch upon all the branches of our church and its work in these twenty-five years, but the chief part of the work cannot be measured nor told. This is the making of Christian character. In this the church has not failed. We think of the noble and strong men and women who have gone on to their reward and of the many who remain with us. Some of these we have mentioned because of their official connection with the church as its officers; many more equally worthy in their lives we would gladly have noted were there time, but we think of them to-day, — those who have lived and died in the faith and whose example is an inspiration to us. How many of them, could they speak to us, would tell us of their joy in laboring with others in this church and of the unmeasured blessing it had been to them in their strivings for the perfect life.
As we think of these men and women who have lived and labored here, and have gone on before us, shall not our effort and prayer be that in the teaching and work of the church we may be instrumental, under God, in making the same strong, fearless, consecrated Christian men and women! And why shall we not ? We worship and love and serve the same God and Father, and faith is the foundation of all true character. With this purpose ever before us may we not ex- press our faith with the psalmist, saying, " For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death."
The Baptist Church, Danversport, was organized November 12, 1781.
The First Baptist Church.
Rev. C. S. Nightingale, Pastor.
Text of sermon, Genesis 4 : 9a, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Subject: " Danvers, as a City which Hath Foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God."
50 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
The discourse was prophetic rather than historic, a foretaste of the stability, usefulness, and happiness of the community life one hundred and fifty years hence, should the principle of the text become the controlling principle in social, indus- trial, and political life.
Decorations, special music, and an address in the evening on " Reminiscences," by Dr. Warren Porter.
The Universalist Church was organized in 1829; partial organization with occasional services from 1815.
At the Universalist Church Rev. Edson J. Reifsnider reviewed the history of Universalism in Danvers. He gave an excellent resume of the work of the church, his text being : " And ye shall tell it to your children and they to their chil- dren and to their children's children."
He said in part:
" The Universalist church was organized in 1829, although there was a partial organization earlier. While all of the Protestant churches may be said to be offshoots from the First Church, this church claims a peculiar relationship to the parent church, inasmuch as one of the deacons, who had served long and faithfully for the term of twenty-three years, from 1762 to 1785, Deacon Edmund Putnam, was the pioneer in the movement which led ultimately to the formation of this church; for he, with the Porters, the Endecotts, the Putnams — all relatives — and all his friends and neighbors, espoused the new faith."
The Junior Young People's Christian Union held a special service in the vestry at 4 o'clock. The program included a solo, " My Native Land," by Nellie Cook; singing of the hymn written by Rev. J. W. Hanson for the one hundredth anni- versary; historical sketches b}'- different members. Catherine Beckford presided, and read a sketch of the town and some of its noted inhabitants.
The Maple Street Church, organized March 25, 1844. The
Historical Sermons. 51
church having at this time no settled pastor, the discourse upon this occasion, by request of the Committee of the Church, was preached by Rev. Charles B. Rice.
Text : That ye may tell it to the generation following. — Psalm 48 : 13, 1. c.
The one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the distinct, independent, or corporate existence of our town is to be cele- brated with public observances on the two next following days of the present week. It has been expected that our several churches would make some appropriate recognition of this event in their services of worship to-day. With this purpose in mind the committee of your church has very kindly asked me to lead your thoughts and speak in your behalf. It is a pleasant office. Since this invitation came to me my time has been occupied, not only by the ordinary full measure of work that falls to me, but by other unusual and special engagements. I regret that I have thus been unable to make a preparation for this service that might have corresponded more fully to the interest of the occasion and to the value of the work and life of your church. I suppose that the observances of to-morrow will bring before us the general features of the history of Danvers in its out- lines and to some extent in its details. It may save some repetition, therefore, and may perhaps be more appropriate in itself, if we confine now our reviews of the past, in the main, to the things somewhat closely connected with the history of your own church. Yet we shall not need to make the limitation narrow, and we shall wish to look back a little upon the earlier times.
The first settlement of Danvers went along with the great Puritan emigration from England, beginning in 1628 and 1629, and ending at about 1640. The Pilgrim occupancy at Plymouth had before that been slowly strengthening itself, through cold and sickness and famine and toil, but
52 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
with a faith and courage that illuminated the wintry skies and that have cast their radiance beyond the continent. The larger movement to the colony of the Massachusetts Bay, of kindred purpose, had its origin and greatest impulse when Charles I began his effort, with whatever force of mind he had, to govern his British subjects without a parlia- ment and in despite of the constitutional safeguards of liberty and justice. With the assembling of the Long Par- liament, and when the purpose of the king was in so far baffled that the splendid struggle for ancient rights and for enlarging guaranties for freedom could be again renewed with point and hope on British soil, the current of the great emigration ceased. Here and there the stream flowed a little backward, and patriotic and ardent men returned to fight and to lead in the armies of the parliament and of the commonwealth. We call the Puritan emigration great. It was great; but the mmibers to 1640 — less than twenty- five thousand — were hardly larger than the multitudes that landed upon our shores during a single week of this last month of May. But the movement was great; and for two centuries the sons of these — the first that came — spread themselves almost alone upon the New England soil.
The settlers of Danvers were of this stock. They were vigorous, industrious, frugal, devout, — the most of them tenacious of their rights as they saw them, — not always gracious in manner, not always broad in vision or purpose, but always bent on bringing to pass whatever they thought ought to be done.
The New England men of the first age were enlightened much beyond the general measure of their time in the coun- try from which they came, and they were enlightened very far beyond the general measure then of the other nations of Europe. Under the stress of the times, in their poverty and straitened condition, the men of the second and third gene- rations made no advance on the wisdom of their fathers,
Historical Sermons. 63
and they hardly kept aflame the Hght their fathers brought. Behef in the power of witches, and in the power of the devil by a compact with witches, was universal on all continents. Judicial executions on the false charge of witchcraft had taken place not long before in many countries of Europe, Catholic and Protestant, on a scale so vast that its repetition in range of numbers in America would have swept bare, almost, of its population every New England colony. Men see now this Salem and Danvers witchcraft because the light has shined here, while in the darkness to them of continental Europe they see nothing. In this particular locality there were then some neighborhood and family divisions, making seams and fissures in which the seeds of delusions and frenzies caught. There was here a minister not altogether wise or gracious or Christian. There were other ministers round, about not wiser in sufficient measure to set him right at once, or to set him back at once. The doctors and magistrates, strangely, were not wiser than the ministers. Together they let slip for a time the rules of justice and reason. They turned backward, too, and misread the teachings of the Scriptures. The ministers, at least, should have known that the only Biblical witch was the person who claimed to be a witch, the person who made pretense to the possession of secret powers and arts. The fathers put to death, after a mockery of a trial, only those who denied the possession or exercise of any such powers. The Biblical witch, conjurer, soothsayer, sorcerer, magician, astrologer, necromancer, seer of visions, teller of fortunes, and healer by weird prescrip- tions and fascinations of all diseases, still lives and advertises himself in the Sunday papers — papers which are very use- ful for the facilities they afford for the study of such bewitch- ments. The Biblical witch can always be put to death by ceasing to pay him money for his enchantments and by keeping to the regular doctors. I advise that you follow the Hebrew law and do not suffer this witch to live — in keep-
54 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
ing which law you will probably prolong your own lives. This particular Salem and Danvers frenzy was foolish and fierce and cruel. But it passed away. The people of Danvers have buried their animosities in the graves of the departed centuries, and the most of their foolishness.
Through all this period Danvers was a part of the town of Salem. In 1672, twenty years before the witchcraft outbreak, there had been formed, by order of the General Court, a parochial district or parish embracing this part of Salem which had before often been called the Farms, and which was also then, or especially long afterward, known as Salem Village. It was called a " village " because — that name was given to it. It was occupied by farmers, with houses mostly far apart, somewhat as now in the most north- erly and westerly portions of the town. The old village included the most of the territory of the present town of Danvers, excepting the district at " the New Mills," now Danversport, and it embraced also a considerable territory in West Peabody, and for a time a large section of Middleton. A barnlike meetinghouse was soon built on Hobart Street, east of the junction of Forest Street, and there was held the first stated public worship in our town.
The First Church, younger than the parish, was organized seventeen years later, in 1689, the year of the great Declara- tion of Right and of the accession of WiUiam and Mary, after the flight from England of James II, the last of the Stuarts — events greeted with rejoicing in the colonies scarcely less than in England itself. The parish had had its ministers before. The first pastor of the organized church, in whose family the witchcraft trouble began, was Samuel Parris, a man of a clear mind, but narrow, punctilious, and much taken up with the nursing of his own dignities.
Then with a grateful change came Joseph Green, gracious, sensible, practical, caring for the children, and busy with the schoolhouse. In his seventeen years he overcame with good
Historical Sermons. 55
the evils of the past, he builded up in unity and love the broken church of God, and he wrought upon his own name, though he thought it not, a wreath of everlasting thankful remembrance.
Next for half a century was Peter Clark, robust, studious, logical, decisive, indefatigable in length, whose wife has given us the name of Hobart Street, and whose descendants have been school teachers, ministers, merchants, and managers of railroads. After him for another fifty years, stretching down through a quarter of the nineteenth century, was Dr. Benjamin Wadsworth, dignified, decorous, stately, measured, devout, and wise. Within these long spaces were the Colonial and Revolutionary wars, whose names are still borne among us in honor or in awe by their " Dames " and " Daughters."
Midway of the eighteenth century was the setting off from Salem, first of the district, and then of the town of Danvers, which town embraced for a hundred years both the present towns of Danvers and of Peabody. In our northern portion of thne tow there was no other church but the First Church until the organization of the Baptist Church in 1781.
Of the First Church, Dr. Milton Palmer Braman became pastor in 1826. Until about that time it had not been neces- sary to be careful concerning middle names, since men had none.
Dr. Braman was peculiar, somewhat; he was forgetful at times and absent in thought from all the world about him. He was always clear and sharp, learned, witty, strong, and eloquent, holding easily his place among the foremost preach- ers of the county and the state.
During his ministry there came on the stormy period of the agitation respecting slavery. Christian men were moved rapidly or slowly in accordance somewhat with their training, somewhat with their temperament. Dr. Braman, not at all a friend of slavery, was conservative in his mental habits,
^•^w
56 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
with the instincts of a constitutional lawyer. Among the members of the church and congregation some, the more active and quickly moving, perhaps the more radical in taste and temper, became, in a measure, restless and drifted a little out of accord with the pastor and the more moderately going portion of the church that held with him.
Meanwhile there was beginning to grow this modern village at the Plain, and it was becoming the business center of the northern part of Danvers. It was naturally desired that there should be here a Congregational place of worship. A meeting was held at the district schoolhouse on School Street, March 25, 1844, in which there was organized what was called the '' Third Orthodox Congregational Society " in Danvers; the Second was in the south part, now Peabody. A meetinghouse was built the same year upon this present site. The first meeting was held in the " Granite Hall Base- ment," November 4. Your church itself was organized December 15, at the house of Mr. John S. Learoyd, its public services being afterward held in the hall. But the meeting- house was shortly finished, and was dedicated on the 22d of January, 1845. This meetinghouse was, fortunately, spared in the great fire of June 10 of the same year, a fire which brought great loss to this village. The name of the church, in correspondence with that of the society, was at first the Third Congregational Church in Danvers. In 1857, two years after the division of the town into the two portions, — Danvers and South Danvers, or Peabody, as at present, — the name was changed, the term " Third " having lost its meaning, and the title became as now, " The Maple Street Church."
The new church was thus established chiefly to meet the new conditions of locality, and its members were drawn to it chiefly by the greater convenience of attending here. There were some who came from the ancient body the more readily for reasons already indicated, since they had entered
Historical Sermons. 57
more zealously than others into the political movement for the abolition of slavery. This ground of distinction was not of very long continuance. We may not know even now on which part was the greater wisdom. A much less active opposition to the aggression of the slave power might have led to the fastening of its mischiefs longer upon us. A much more rapid movement of hostility to slavery might have brought the great war upon us while the South had not put itself so clearly in the wrong, and while the North was less fully united — with doubtful and perhaps disastrous issues. Guided of the Most High, the nation kept a middle path, and it lives, free and strong.
Your church had at first forty-two members. Frederick Howe and Samuel P. Fowler were its first deacons. Both had been members of the First Church, and Mr. Howe had been a deacon in it. The earnestness and purity of his Chris- tian life were long remembered in that body, and they are still remembered with you. In an historical sketch prepared by Deacon Fowler for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Maple Street Church, after saying that most of its early members were from the First Church, he adds: '^ Whatever of zeal and efficiency we may have shown in establishing and maintaining the ordinances of the gospel in this place may be traced to the thorough teachings we received from the able and faithful pastors of the mother church." It was a filial and gracious testimony. By the word " pastors " he made a reference to Dr. Wadsworth along with Dr. Braman.
This church from the first, partly because it was new and called forth enterprise, and partly from the personal assorting of its members, took on, as I think, a certain quality of versatility or alertness of individuality which it kept for many years. I do not know whether it has ever lost it. There have been those who have thought that in its early years, as may often be the case with new undertakings, the
58 One Hwidred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
church lacked a little in steadiness of action. If this were ever true, of which I am not sure, that quality has been long since supplied.
After the establishment of this church many families living within what would be regarded as its natural territory continued for many years to worship at the ancient place. With the growing up of the children, whose associations were most naturally here, and by the gradual pressure of conven- ience, they one after another, for the most part, transferred their relation to you. This process was going on long after my acquaintance with the town began, and indeed it can hardly now be said to have wholly ceased.
The laying out, not long after this church was planted, of the railroad lines that cross our town made it certain that its center of business and life must be here. The running, more recently, of the electric cars from every part of the town has also increased the ease of passage to this central district. These things have changed altogether the relative importance of that part of the town in which the ancient church was planted, and the relative strength of the churches has also changed. At the time of my becoming pastor of the First Church that was still the larger in numbers, and perhaps it was the stronger in financial resources. These conditions are now reversed. We of the mother church have seen you overtake and pass us and go on far before us. I suppose such a sight is not naturally most pleasant to those who thus fall behind, but I do not believe there is a member of that older church who does not rejoice in the prosperity which you have gained and which you have deserved. It is most just to say that your growth has not been due altogether to your favorable situation. There have been other churches with favoring outward conditions that have not made such progress. Your prosperity has sprung from your activity, your good fellowship, your loyalty to your church, and, as I surely trust, from the genuineness and force of your Christian
Historical Sermons. 59
purpose. If these things abide with you and abound, you will have continuing strength from God.
I have known all the pastors of your church except the first. Rev. Richard Tolman was ordamed September 17, 1845. He resigned November 8, 1848. He was afterward minister at Tewksbury from 1852 to 1870, and he had charge of a Congregational Church at Hampton, Va., from 1870 to 1879. Pleasant memories remain here concerning him.
Rev. James Fletcher succeeded to the pastorate June 20,
1849, and he held the post for nearly fifteen years to the 21st of May, 1864. He was a graduate of Dartmouth College and of Andover Seminary. He is remembered among us for his most admirable friendliness and for the grace and sweetness of his temper and of all his life. After the close of his pastorate he was for five years principal of our Holton High School. He left in 1871 to take charge for seven years of the Lawrence Academy in Groton. He taught afterward for five years at Manchester, Vt. The last ten years of his life were spent at Acton, his native place, where he died March 28, 1893, at the age of seventy-one.
During the pastorate of Mr. Fletcher, on the 10th of July,
1850, your first meetinghouse was destroyed by fire, mali- ciously set. With vigorous effort it was promptly rebuilt, and the present house was dedicated September 17, 1851, Mr. Fletcher preaching the sermon. The clock was put upon the tower in 1854. An indebtedness of the society, from which it had never before been wholly free, was lifted off at about this time by the commendable exertions of many members, with specially generous gifts from Mr. Moses Putnam.
In the matter of fires our older church is still much before you. Your house has been burned once, ours twice; and we have an additional lead by one stroke of lightning. One of our meetinghouses besides was tried by two earthquakes; one in 1727, which Peter Clark described as " a very great
60 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
earthquake, accompanied with a verj'- great noise and shaking, which was greatly surprising to the whole land . . . with rumbling noises in the bowels of the earth for divers weeks " ; the other, in 1755, which was thought to have been an adjunct, sequel, supplement, or response to the great Lisbon earth- quake, and one or other of which two earthquakes shook or frightened down the building that was set on Folly Hill. It cannot be pretended that any meetinghouse of yours has gone through such trials.
Rev. Wm. Carruthers was pastor of your church from April 18, 1866, to March 28, 1868. A revival was in progress at or before his coming, and eighty persons were added to the church during the first year of his ministry. He was earnest, warm-hearted, and faithful in his service. He has had several useful pastorates in the state since leaving Danvers, and is now in charge of the church in South Dart- mouth, though living at Fairhaven. The next in succession was Rev. James Brand, who was ordained and installed October 6, 1869. Mr. Brand was born in the Province of Quebec in 1834. He worked for six years as a carpenter in Saco, Me. He graduated at Yale College and at Andover Seminary. He came to Danvers in the strength and enthu- siasm of his youth, but the force of his youth went on and grew through all his life. His preaching was direct, clear, searching, and powerful. His rare mental gifts were matched and supported by the thoroughness of his Christian character and the worth of his personal life. He left Danvers in 1873 to become pastor of the First Congregational Church in Oberlin, Ohio, and this position he held until his death, April 11, 1899. Mr. Brand occupied many places of import- ance in our church organizations and our benevolent societies and he prepared material of many sorts for the public press. He was a soldier in the great war. He carried the colors of the Twenty-seventh Connecticut Regiment, and was wounded at Fredericksburg, at Chancellorsville, and at Gettysburg,
Historical Sermons. 61
names of mingling disaster and of glory. He received a gold medal for distinguished bravery at Gettysburg. I do not think he ever said much of these things at Danvers. But he was always courageous and always faithful to his sense of duty. We cannot doubt that he has received just and fitting distinction at the hand of the King of men.
Rev. Walter E. C. AVright came to your church October 12, 1875, and was here for about seven years, until September 4, 1882. He, too, had strength. He was alert distinctly in mind, and clear in purpose. He did with his whole heart whatever he did, both in the church and in the community. He took great interest in the cause of temperance. He imbibed in some way the idea that the illegal sale of intoxi- cating liquors in the town of Danvers ought to be stopped. He became positive upon this point. His eye kindled and flashed as he spoke of it. He thought that the covert and persistent seller of intoxicating drinks that could not be caught in other ways might well enough be caught by legal traps, as one would set traps for a wildcat that carried off lambs. I do not think he minded helping set the traps. The minister at that time at the First Church was always willing to allow him to proceed alone upon these trapping expeditions, but if a trip were to be taken to look up some balanced bowlder or a ledge of curious rock, he was quite apt to press himself into your pastor's company, and no com- panionship could be better than his. Mr. Wright is now a professor in Olivet College. The intervals after the pastorates of Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Carruthers, Mr. Brand, and Mr. Wright were twenty-four, eighteen, twenty-three, and fourteen months, respectively.
The pastorate of Rev. Edward C. Ewing began November 1, 1883, and closed November 1, 1899. You will not expect me to speak particularly of one whose life and work are so freshly in all your minds. I think it may be safely said that, letting alone the traps, the liquor dealers of Danvers did
62 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
not receive much more of direct aid and comfort from him than they did from his predecessor. Your ministers, indeed, seem never to have been much addicted to strong drink, or to friendhness to the business of them that sell it. The years of Mr. Ewing's ministry cover a period, on the whole, of continuing prosperity and growing strength for your church. And I am sure that you will wish me to testify to the strong impression made upon us all by his conscientious- ness, his fidelity, his fixed integrity and uprightness, his earnestness, his evangelical spirit, and his general capacity for all ministerial work. The interval after he left was but short. And now the succession has closed with a pastor active, laborious, faithful, and brilliant, in the very first years of his ministry.
Taken together from the first, it is a series of worthy and effective men, for whose work among you you may well be grateful. Of your pastor who is soon to come I will not now speak particularly. But the prosperity of your church has not been due alone to the leadership of its pastors. The lives of many faithful Christian men and women have gone to build up its strength. The names and forms of many must be coming before your thoughts. There can be given them now only this tribute of your silent remembrance. Of one or two only some brief mention may be made. Deacon Samuel P. Fowler has already been spoken of as an original member of the church, and an officer in it from the first. He was a deacon to the end of his life. He was for a long time chairman of the town board of overseers of the poor. He knew much of local and personal history, and had a wide and keen acquaintance among the people of the place. He was not the most smooth in speech or manner, but he was kind in heart and faithful in every trust. He had, in a con- siderable measure, what we like to think of as characteristic somewhat of our town, — strongly marked individuality combined with a sense of the worth of public life and a habit
Historical Sermons. 63
of acting not uncomfortably along with others. He was, in fact, throughout, a Dan vers man — and he loved the church of God.
I could not pass without a word on the name of Deacon John S. Learoyd. He was a deacon of this church for thirty- two years and six months, and superintendent of its Sabbath- school for a little more than thirty years. He was a man very positive in his convictions and very earnest and decisive in pushing his purposes. His interest in the church was so thorough, and his zeal for all good things so clear and genuine, that his vigorous and decisive manner did not awaken oppo- sition, but carried him on to leadership. He put his whole heart into the work of the Sunday-school and his enthusiasm there was catching. Few men among all the churches round about us have wrought on these lines so successfully as he. And there can be but few men, if there are any, to whom this church is more indebted for the strength and efficiency to which it has grown. We must pass by the names of others, men and women, that we should be pressed in our own thoughts to mention.
Two only of the original members of this church are now living, Mrs. Pamelia F. Putnam and Mrs. Emeline P. Putnam. Besides these, seven other persons have been members for fifty years or more. Mrs. Corneliaa H. Perry, Mrs. Eunice P. Putnam, Mrs. Elizabeth P. Putnam, Mr. Edwin A. Perry, Mrs. Ellen L. Perkins, Mrs. Clara A. DuBois, and Mrs. Abbie M. Berry — so swiftly these lists are changing.
I observe that your manual contains the names only of those who were living when it was prepared and printed, and does not give the full list of membership from the first, as is often done. But those names, though dropped from your printed record, are enrolled, we trust, in heaven. The dividing lines, indeed, are narrow, even as they are quickly shifting.
A little more than a year ago your church was incorporated;
64 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
a wise procedure, as I think, and one by which it may keep more securely in its own hands its hfe and the control of its affairs.
It is gratifying to notice that the benevolent gifts of the church are large in correspondence with its size and strength. The giving spirit with a church is both a sign and a safeguard of its prosperity. There is great need that our prosperous churches should give freely for the carrying on of Christian work both abroad and at home. In our New England towns are many churches once strong that are now weak. It is of vast importance that these should be upheld by aid wher- ever they need it, given through our Home Missionary Soci- eties, and drawn from the gifts of the churches that are stronger. It is pleasant to think that your church will not fail to take its share in this Christian and patriotic service.
A Christian church is planted for the building up in strength and grace of its own members and households, and for the making known as it may, by its services of public worship and by the lives of its members, the power and beauty of the Christian faith, and for the rendering in all these ways its grateful tribute to the Redeemer and Lord of men. Your place in this goodly fellowship of churches and in this exalted service has grown to be large and important. Its outward opportunities are not likely to diminish. We hope and expect that by your own fidelity, and by the favor of God abid- ing upon you, its accomplishments will equal the measure of its opportunities and its duties. The results of the life and growth of a Christian church are not limited to the present time. Its history cannot be told by the tracing only, as we have tried a little to trace to-day the course of outward events related to it, or the visible effects in the earthly lives of its members. Its influences reach beyond the range of outward things or of the present life of man. A church transfers its members, as yours has already begun to do, to a land of enduring continuance, to the immortal state of man.
Historical Sermons. 65
It is there only that its history can be written, as it is there alone that the final and enlarging issues of life appear.
It has been supposed by some that there might be an error through the fixing of the thoughts of men too far upon the coming stage of being, with a lessening of interest in the things that now surround us, and an impairing of the practical usefulness and the real prosperity of life. It is possible that such a result may sometimes have appeared. But it is certain that there can be no real opposition between the appropriate cares and cfhciencies and enjoyments of the present time and the great befitting preparations for the life to come. The laws of life on earth and in heaven are one. The graces and adornments, the finished shapings, and the strong equip- ments and energies of human character are the same in every world. To behold and consider the ideals of perfection in the presence of God and in the sacred assemblies of the just wOl set forward and ripen every present power and beauty of human life. It is most needful for man in his present days that there should be strengthened upon him the hold of duty and the lines of faith that lift him out of the state of the things poor and perishable and vain, and that bring him within the sweep of the things immortal and holy. The present powers of human life are all one with its endless hopes. All the earthly hopes of man are from his nearness to things eternal. All the light of man even on earth is from the great white throne of God. It is the lofty office of the Christian Church to be making known to every man, in its worship and in the lives of its members, this glory of the state of God, visible and accessible to man. Thus your lives are most useful to men as they are most religious. And your church will aid most effectively in every social and charitable purpose while it carries forward most vigorously its own most distinctive Christian offices.
With a Christian people the keeping of a memorial day like this must naturally strengthen within us these instincts
66 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
of immortality. In your own thoughts, much beyond what has here been spoken, you have called to mind the things of the past, and your friends of the former years are near at hand. You count the membership of your church on earth and in heaven. You observe the enlarging numbers of those who are gathering upon the land of life. With every Chris- tian church, and by the very nature of your calling, your associates and your possessions are with the things past and the things to come; and you are, yourselves, a part of the everlasting kingdom of God.
" One family we dwell in Him, One church above, beneath. Though now divided by the stream. The narrow stream of death.
One army of the living God,
To his comimand we bow ; Part of the host have crossed the flood
And part are crossing now."
Thus may you ever abide in faith and hope and love and endless life. Thus ever may this, your chosen place of assem- blmg and of worship, be to you the house of God and the gate of heaven.
The Catholic Church services were first held November 1, 1854.
Btrman
At Annunciation Church, Danvers, by Rev. Henry A. Sullivan, Pastor.
To-day, brethren, we are on the eve of celebrating a very important event in connection with the history of Danvers, viz., the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its incorpo- ration as a separate municipality. It is scarcely necessary, therefore, to say that in your civic capacity there is a certain
Historical Sermons. 67
fitness and propriety in joining with your fellow-citizens to make the celebration a memorable one in the annals of this township.
Looking back to that auspicious day, the 16th of June, 1752, when the people of Dan vers severed the ties which bound them to their venerable mother, Salem, and, full of hope and courage, tried for themselves the experiment of self-govern- ment, it is true to say that in the century and a half which have since elapsed substantial progress has been made in all that tends to promote the spiritual and temporal well- being of a community, a progress which compels the admission that these early settlers builded better than they knew and laid deep and broad the foundations of a municipality, enlightened, prosperous, contented, happy, and, above all. God-fearing, which we know the people of Danvers to be to-day, — a people loyal to their Creator and loyal also to their country.
Here there is no discord, no religious nor racial animosity, no hindrance to the pursuit of happiness. Moreover, the relations between the various creeds are as harmonious as conscience will permit. Prejudice is almost unknown. Peace and harmony are the rule rather than the exception. No misunderstanding exists between Roman Catholics and the members of other religious denominations, and none will there be if justice and charity prevail.
Such is the condition which confronts us on this memorable occasion, and when we reflect on the past and realize the advance made in all that concerns the weal of her citizens, there is good reason indeed to be proud of Danvers, to rejoice at the splendid record she has made during the time of her corporate existence.
Her growth, happily, is not of the mushroom variety. We may regard it rather as of the kind which is slow, constant, and enduring, which weathers successfully the storms of time and gives promise of a bright future. This characteristic.
68 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
it may be added, is entirely in keeping with the name, accord- ing to some, so appropriately chosen for this historic old town, and which explains why now, at the end of a hundred and fifty years, the people of Danvers are proud to be citizens of a community which has a record surpassed by few in the old Bay State.
There is, however, an additional reason why you should heartily endorse and take a prominent part in this celebration, viz., the fact that Holy Mother Church has made here such marvelous progress during the past half century and been the happy means of breaking down prejudice and promoting peace and good-will. Somewhat less than fifty years ago the venerable, saintl)^, and esteemed Father Shahan, then pastor of Salem, held services in this town. Little by little his flock increased, until finally, in 1859, it was deemed neces- sary to purchase the present place of worship, which, up to that time, was the property of the Universalist congregation. His successors to the pastorate, according as the needs of their charge warranted, enlarged and beautified the church, so that to-day it stands out as a fitting temple wherein to offer sacrifice to the Most High, and lead heavenward the hearts and minds of the faithful. The efforts of your former pastors have indeed borne fruit. To their credit be it said, their labors, like the grain of mustard seed sown in good ground, have been productive beyond expectation, so that now, as a result, we behold here a united flock of almost twenty-three hundred souls, a Christian living people, who practice what they profess to believe, and who, moreover, reflect honor on the church by their good example.
Here, too, as an evidence of their good-will and generosity, their cordial cooperation with their duly appointed spiritual guides, we find this splendid property entirely freed from debt, with ample means assured for any future improvements. This proof of the spiritual and material well-being of the church in this town is, indeed, a cause for rejoicing and, as
Historical Sermons. 69
your pastor, I deem it a pleasant duty to congratulate you all on these magnificent results and speak in praise of the truly Christ-like spirit which I feel animates you to-day, as of yore, to be doers, not simply hearers, of the divine word; to be lay apostles in the upbuilding of God's kingdom on earth.
But brethren, we must not forget on this occasion the early pioneers of Catholicity in this township, who made possible the establishment of the present parish. This celebration would indeed be incomplete, in so far as we Catholics are concerned, did we not make mention of those staunch adher- ents of the church who, by their living, practical faith, their upright lives, their pure, unselfish devotion to the cause of our holy religion, have left behind them a glorious example for all time, one worthy, in truth, for imitation and which must ever win for them the respect, esteem, and admiration of every sincere believer.
Forced by oppression and injustice of every kind to leave their native land, they sought here a refuge from the crying evils of tyranny and misgovernment, and the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness which under the constitution of these United States is guaranteed to all the citizens thereof, be the}^ native born or naturalized. True, they had their ups and downs even in this country, for vicissitude is the lot of mankind.
They suffered much in those days from narrow bigotry and unreasoning prejudice; nevertheless they did not falter in their loyalty to the faith, nor could trial and persecution, however severe, daunt the magnificent courage which ever animated the exiled children of Erin in asserting and exer- cising their rights of conscience. Verily there were giants in those days, men who knew not the meaning of compromise or surrender when there was question of professing the religion of Christ crucified, and who, though for the most part un- lettered and without even a rudimentary knowledge of the three R's, nevertheless excelled in heavenly wisdom and
70 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
proved themselves to bq wiser in their generation than are some of their descendants to-day.
They reahzed fully that for them, as for all born into this world, but one thing is necessary, viz., eternal salvation; that aught else is of secondary importance; that intellectual gifts, education, riches, honors, health, strength, and even pleasures, are simply means to this end; that we are only stewards of the good things of life which an all-wise and bounteous Providence has given us that we may use them as stepping stones in our journey onward to the heavenly Jerusalem.
This was the thought which dominated the early pioneers of the faith in these New England states and which inspired and actuated them to make such heroic sacrifices for the religion of their fathers. With churches few and far between, with scant opportunity to hear the word of God and approach the sacraments, they conserved the precious treasure com- mitted to their keeping at baptism; they enhanced its value by the practice of good works; and deemed it, as did St. Paul, all glory to suffer for Christ's sake. Well, therefore, may we honor them to-day ; well may we revere their memory, and as we bring to mind their unswerving loyalty to creed and the land of their adoption, their devotion to all that makes for righteousness, pay tribute to their Christian manliness, their fearless, outspoken advocacy of the cause of truth and justice, and, thank God, the Catholic community in particular is the gainer because of their existence.
We may not look on their like again because they were verily the salt of the earth, and hence, for all they were and all they did, we have good reason on this festal occasion to hold them in loving benediction and rejoice they have not lived in vain. Champions of the faith, heroes in the days which tried men's souls, they fought indeed the good fight and persevered to the end. Let us hope they have received the crown of glory; that the just Judge has granted them
Historical Sermons. 71
eternal rest, and that perpetual light now shines upon them in the abode of the elect.
I have dwelt, perhaps, somewhat at length on the religious aspect which this celebration takes on for the Catholics of Danvers, but in so doing my purpose is simply to emphasize the truth that we are to seek first the kingdom of God and his justice; that duty to our Maker and the obligation arising from our dependence on him as our Creator, Conserver, and final end must necessarily take precedence in importance over any and all merely civic considerations, and claim pref- erably our chief care and attention. Nevertheless, next after love of God, comes love of coimtry; the authority which exacts obedience to the one, dictates a similar attitude with respect to the other, since all authority is from on high.
Zeal for the welfare of fatherland, respect for its laws and readiness to aid in its defence, are inseparable from the true conception of citizenship and the duties which it imposes, and are the loyal homage which every worthy son pays to the country of his birth or adoption.
" Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." These words of the Saviour formulate in a practical way the relations of the individual with the civil government under which he lives, and dictate the attitude which the true Christian must ever assume toward the higher powers. There can be no question, breth- ren, as regards the love which Catholics, without exception, have for this our glorious country, nor may any one presume to charge them with disloyalty or a divided allegiance. The history of the republic would be incomplete indeed were the names of the children of the church who have given their fortunes and sacrificed even life itself in her behalf, since the great struggle for independence, blotted out from her annals. Roman Catholics were never found wanting when the integ- rity of the Union was endangered or when there was question of safeguarding and perpetuating her institutions. Faithful
72 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
to the teaching of the Master, their conduct from the very foundation of the repubUc has been always the same. They can point, indeed, with pride to the past, and ever rejoice in the thought that they have done their duty as citizens and deserved well of their country. We trust that as it has been so it will continue to be, that first and foremost in all that conserves the nation's weal, in all that tends to make her a shining example of popular government, of civil and religious liberty, none will be found more ardent in loyal, loving sup- port than the members of the one, true, holy, and apostolic church, which was from the beginning and will be to the end of time the safeguard and upholder of all constituted authority.
In conclusion permit me to say, I am pleased on this occa- sion to speak in praise of a town which has done itself proud in the past and whose traditions are so thoroughly in accord with what is highest and best as regard local self-government. Here liberty without license, and fraternity in all that Chris- tian charity demands, are well exemplified in the temper and conduct of the people, and are, so to speak, of the soil. Here, too, love of order and obedience to the law are visibly mani- fest and the spiritual and intellectual interests of the commu- nity properly provided for and secured.
Hence do I rejoice with you to-day, and tender my best wishes for the future welfare of this township, ever trusting that the Most High will preside propitiously over its destinies.
May Divine Providence watch over and protect this land of the free; may He save this grand old commonwealth; may He bless especially this town of Danvers and its inhabitants and aid them to reach securely that promised haven where joy and peace will be their portion forever and ever. Amen.
Historical Sermons. 73
The Episcopal Church, organized June 25, 1857.
At Calvary Episcopal Church, by Rev. Robert W. Hudgell, D.D.,
Rector.
Text: Remember the days of old, consider the years of many gene- rations: ask thy father, and he will shevi^ thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. — Deuteronomy 32: 7.
The celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Danvers as a distinct municipality, separated from the city of Salem, marks an important epoch in the history of this community. The town authorities have requested that the observance of this celebration begin in the several churches of the town with appropriate historical sermons and religious exercises. From now onward until the completion of this celebration one all- absorbing thought will arrest the attention and form the theme of public discussion, and that is, the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town of Danvers.
This fair and beautiful town, looking even more beautiful than ever during these spring-tide days, enriched with its virgin beauty of emerald foliage and variegated flowers, is now putting on its brightest garments of gayest hue. Joy fills our hearts, and praises tune our lips, as we anticipate the coming festival. In a few days the tokens of festivity will abound on every hand and " Old Glory " will be thrown to the breeze. Flags of every form and device, mottoes of every kind and expression, will speak welcome to our guests from afar, from Salem, Lynn, Beverly, Peabody, Wenham, Hamil- ton, Topsfield, and elsewhere. Bands of inspiring music and the glorious outburst of bonfires and the brilliant illumina- tion of firework displays will invite the citizens of Danvers and their friends to rejoice in the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its incorporation.
74 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
This beautiful and historic town has a territory that com- prises 7,394 acres, and extends nearly five miles from north to south, and also nearly five miles from east to west, being bounded by Topsfield on the north, Wenham and Beverly on the east, Peabody on the south, and the Ipswich River and Middleton on the west. It has a personal and real estate valuation of over $4,976,575, and its population is above 8,300 inhabitants. The citizens of this town are engaged in manufacturing, farming, and various other pursuits. Dan- vers is composed of five important villages, namely: the Danvers Plains, Danversport, Tapleyville, Putnamville, and Danvers Centre. Its chief public buildings are the Town House, on the second floor of which is the Holten High School, the First National Bank, and the Savings Bank, the Peabody Library and Institute, the large and commodious public schools at Danvers Plains, Danversport, Tapleyville, and Danvers Centre, and the nine churches of the town.
Danvers has a [history which antedates the seventeenth century, and in this respect the town excels many other towns of Massachusetts which have a larger population. There have been several books printed and published which furnish the data of historical information about our town, and to those books and pamphlets by men of learning and great ability, whom we all love, admire, and respect, you are referred at this time.
There is to be also an official program of this celebration printed, which, no doubt, will give a full account of the history of our town. It is my duty and privilege to point out to you the spirit in which we ought to keep this celebration, and the manner in which we ought to express our rejoicing. First of all, we ought to be grateful to God that he has given to us the ability to appreciate the loveliness of our surroundings and that we have so many social joys and domestic comforts. Danvers is an ideal spot in which to make a home and to rear a family. It seems like another world — a veritable Garden of
Historical Sermons. 75
Eden — when one reaches its shady avenues and streets upon a summer's evening after spending the day in the slums of Bos- ton, or in some closely confined office in Boston, Lynn, or Salem.
We ought to be grateful, too, for the educational advantages of this town, as well as for its social privileges. Danvers has an honorable past; the sons and daughters have gone out into every land, and in almost every instance they have been foremost in every intellectual, social, and religious pursuit. Its sons have a noble record of daring and bravery and self- sacrifice in defence of liberty and justice. But gratitude for the privileges and blessings of the past must show itself in gratitude to God, from whom all good things do come. We rejoice to-day in the fact that equality, liberty, justice, and fraternity have marked the civic progress of the past one hundred and fifty years in this town of Danvers. We are to be invited to listen to the loyal and patriotic speeches of those earnest and sincere men who have been appointed to tell us of our town's progress. The young and the aged alike will be invited to unite in celebrating this anniversary. For a short space of time, at least, all work must stop, and all business must be suspended, whilst the citizens of Danvers pause to rejoice in this celebration and to mark in a befitting and becoming manner the town's one hundred and fiftieth anniversary. Our rejoicing, however, should not be secular rejoicing only; our rejoicing should be intelligent and Chris- tian rejoicing in every particular, and our fullest, deepest gratitude should be offered to Almighty God. We ought to remember at all times, but especially at this celebration, that it is the Almighty Creator and Maker of all things who really gives us health of mind and body, and it is he who really gives us the ability to perform our daily duties, and who crowns our efforts with prosperity and wealth, — the inevi- table reward of labor.
This celebration is important because of its moral effect upon the children and young people of the town. The exer-
76 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
cises in the Institute, and the general festivity and rejoicing, are all calculated to inspire them with love of country and appreciation of the material benefits which are enjoyed by the residents of Massachusetts and by every American citizen. By answering to the call of the selectmen of Danvers to observe this one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, we are really acknowledging our allegiance to this great republic and the still greater principles for which it stands. We need to be patriotic, intensely patriotic, in these days of national great- ness and responsibility. We need to cultivate feelings of loyalty to our country and its great institutions, whether political, educational, or religious. In all our rejoicings throughout the coming celebration let us keep God before us, lest we are tempted to do that which might possibly sully the fair name and reputation of our town. Let us be merry and wise, not merry and foolish. Let us rejoice as men of sober- ness and Christian integrity in the many blessings that crown the years of our earthly pilgrimage. So shall the blessing of heaven continue to smile upon us and our children from gen- eration to generation. Oh, may righteousness, which ex- alteth a nation, reign in our midst, that in this town of Danvers peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be firmly established amongst us forever; that the moral beauty of our town may vie with its natural beauty, and that in every material and spiritual sense the town of Danvers may be as a well-watered garden, filled with the choicest flowers of moral and material beauty, and that its hills and valleys may be glad and rejoice, and blossom as the rose. " Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away ; They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.
" O God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Be thou our guide while life shall last, And our eternal home." Amen.
Historical Sermons. 77
The Unitarian Church held its first services on the first Sunday in August, 1865.
Dr. Putnam took for his subject: "The Patriotic and Heroic Element in Danvers History." His text was:
"The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers." — 1 Kings 8:57.
It is fitting that the churches of Danvers should meet to-day and by appropriate services in their respective houses of worship introduce the week's celebration of the town's one hundred and fiftieth anniversary; and it seems to me that there is, perhaps, no more suitable theme for the hour and place than the patriots and heroes of our local history and what, in a general way, they have done for their country, or for truth and righteousness, in the successive periods of our annals.
Hon. Charles W. Upham, in his masterly " History of Salem Village " (now Danvers) pays a just tribute to the high character of the early immigrant settlers who first preceded us here, and it is not too much to say that their descendants, whatever their faults or shortcomings, have proved worthy of their lineage. They have been intelligent and industrious, brave and enterprising, virtuous and useful. They have loved their native land, and in all just wars that have called them to arms for her defence or honor they have been ready for the fight, have been valiant in the action, and have counted not property, or comfort, or life itself, dear to them, if only thus they could protect or increase the common good and safety. They have battled courageously for the cause of temperance and for the rights of man; they have been stead- fast friends of education and the public schools; they have earnestly supported the church of Christ and reverenced its sanctities, and sires and sons, in continuous succession, have
78 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
gone forth to regions far and near to help clear the wilderness, till the soil, work the mills and mines, plant free institutions, build mighty states, carry civilization and the gospel to needy souls, and thus hasten the coming of the Lord. Danvers has been one of the typical New England towns. Baptized into the Puritan faith, she is yet progressive, however con- servative, clinging to what was best in the old, and welcoming more and more what is best in the new. She has had her share of illustrious and venerated names. Godly men and saintly women, and glorious martyrs, too, have added luster to her calendar. In many widely scattered graves they sleep in peace, but the influence of their devotion to freedom and justice, to the nation and to God, works increasingly on for- evermore.
" Brave men were living before Agamemnon," and there were righteous wars for Danvers, and dauntless heroes claimed her as their birthplace or home before she became, under her present name, a distinct and separate town or district, and before others of her sons were summoned to mightier conflicts and achievements.
Long before the Revolution our fathers had considered well their own rights and their advancing strength, while enduring the heavier and heavier oppressions laid upon them by the British government. For a long time they shrank from separation, however much the thought of dependence upon a foreign and distant power more and more rankled in their hearts. But English blood was in their veins and they demanded justice, freedom, and equality, and increas- ingly protested and rebelled against the despotism that ruled over them with all its selfish and cruel exactions and outrages. In the outset, and in all that followed, it is of the first import- ance to fix upon and not forget the one vital prmciple that lay at the root of the matter and animated them from the beginning to the end. They were subject to a government in which they had no representation and voice, yet onerous
Historical Sermons. 79
taxes were levied upon them by their master to support him, and it was required and expected of them to be submissive and obedient to it. Laws were made for them by others, and authorities, not of their own choosing, were appointed to execute them, and still they must be loyal and dutiful and worshipful, acknowledging the divine right of kings, whatever the wrong or tyranny. This was infamous. It was a profanation of the everlasting moral law as written by God in the heart of man. Hence the loud cry of the fathers, " No taxation without representation. No government without the consent of the governed. Equal rights for all." There they took their stand, and for that they began and fought the battle of the ages. They would live and die as free men. It was for a principle, pure and simple, that they were ready and glad to shed their blood and sacrifice all else on earth but their sacred honor.
Bless God that in all these eventful times Danvers was as true as steel to the cause of the patriots. No town wrote for itself a better record, and we cannot too often recall it or too faithfully heed its lessons. Ten years before the battle of Lexington her inhabitants instructed her representative, Thomas Porter, to use his influence to obtain a repeal of the Stamp Act and to assent to no taxes but such as should be imposed by the General Court. A little later they renewed their instructions and declared that taxation and represen- tation must go together. And this, too, they significantly and ominously said — and let us not forget it — that it was not in the power of Parliament " to make the easterly banks of America contiguous to the westerly bank of Great Britain, which banks have lain and still lie by one thousand leagues distant from each other, and till they can do this they cannot (as we humbly conceive) provide for the good govern- ment of his Majesty's subjects in these two distant regions without the establishment of a different power, both legis- lative and executive in each." What if Great Britain and
80 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
America had been, not a thousand leagues alone, but ten thousand miles or more apart?
In 1768 Dr. Samuel Holten, of whom we shall hear again, was the representative and was requested by the town to join a convention at Faneuil Hall, September 22 of that year, to consider the duties of the hour. The sessions lasted several days and were of great importance, our local celebrity taking a prominent part in the discussions, and manifesting that zeal and strength and wisdom that characterized him in all the many high state and national offices he subsequently filled. In provincial Congress and Continental Congress, or wherever else, he was an earnest and influential friend of liberty as well as an eminent and revered judge and states- man, and it is good proof of the patriotism of Danvers that she longer and more overwhelmingly showered her honor upon him than upon any other favorite she has ever voted for. He was her mind, her voice, her action, and her pride to the end of his grand career.
Danvers was as sound on the tea question as Boston her- self, and when Lord North took off, in 1770, the duties on the imports, taxed by the law of 1767, all but the one excep- tion, she declared she would purchase no such English goods in any event, and as for English tea, her citizens would have nothing to do with it, and pledged themselves to do all they could to compel their families and persuade their friends and neighbors from buying it or using it. The fine and interesting old colonial mansion, still standing almost in sight, which was the home of brave Colonel Jeremiah Page of the Revo- lution, who said that not a bit of the article should enter there, is an object lesson of the then prevailing spirit of the place and people. The ancient fire is not yet quite extinct in the American heart, as the beef trust has been learning to its cost.
In June, 1772, the town put its sentiments and purposes on record again in resolutions which it unanimously adopted
Historical Sermons. 81
and which earnestly inveighed against numerous arbitrary and despotic measures whereby the British government had infringed upon the constitutional rights of the colonists, and which looked to " the steady, firm, and united endeavors of all provinces on the continent for the preservation of their liberties." Two of the unjust and dangerous measures of which they particularly complained were, to quote from the original, " in assuming the power of legislation for the colo- nists," and '' in raising a revenue in the colonies without their consent." We are reading the solemn words of our fathers and of what they did at the time that tried men's souls and when a nation was about to be born. Nothing in the history of nations asks our serious attention more than this, and woe to us if we make light of it. Not alone elsewhere, but also right here in Danvers, and amongst our boasted sires, the mighty questions that concerned our own highest good were considered and debated; principles which are our very life blood were evolved and proclaimed, and the battle was begun. Here it was they highly resolved " that we will use all lawful endeavors for recovering, maintaining, and preserving the invaluable rights and privileges of this people, and stand ready (if need be) to risk our lives and fortunes in defence of those liberties which our forefathers purchased at so dear a rate."
Immediately afterward. Dr. Samuel Holten, Tarrant Put- nam, and Capt. William Shillaber were made a committee to correspond with the Committee of Correspondence for Boston and other towns, that Danvers might take counsel and act in concert with the patriots at the chief center of influence; and to these her resolutions were at once for- warded, that her action and attitude might there be known.
Doubtless it seemed a gay and festive outing to the royal governor of Massachusetts when, in the summer of 1774, he came down from Boston to the rebellious town and fixed his residence at the fine, stately mansion of " King Hooper "
82 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
(Collins House) and encamped his two companies of proud British soldiers in the field across the way. He hardly succeeded, however, in awing the discontented natives into quiet acquiescence, and their growing restlessness and insubor- dination made it the part of wisdom for his troops to place themselves under arms and for the detachment to return, after a sojourn of two or three months, to the city whence they sallied forth.
It was creditable to Danvers that its patriotic spirit so early made it a mark for the special disfavor of the royalists. At the beginning of the year 1775 the citizens began to supply themselves with firearms and knapsacks and other weapons and accouterments, to practice military discipline, and to form minute companies. Our old drummer, Richard Skid- more, of the New Mills, made several gun carriages, and concealed them at the Gardner farm in the North Fields of Salem. The story was soon bruited at Boston, and on Sunday, February 26, 1775, nearly two months before the battle of Lexington, Colonel Leslie and a detachment of British troops left Boston in a transport and, landing at Marblehead, marched thence through Salem on their way to Danvers, where they doubtless supposed the cannon were lodged. Arriving at the North Bridge they were intercepted by the gathering patriots of the old town, who raised the draw and made the progress of the invaders impossible. Major Pedrick, of Marblehead, a true Paul Revere for the occasion, flew horseback through the town to give the alarm, and the sturdy yeomanry came swarming from old Danvers and elsewhere and made haste to help beat back the redcoats. But you all know the story.
It was a like purpose that prompted the more memorable sortie from Boston for Concord on the 19th of April, 1775. Salem and Danvers heard the guns in the early morning. The news spread like wildfire. Eight companies of our own men, numbering about three hundred, and commanded
Historical Sermons. 83
respectively by John Putnam, Jeremiah Page, Edmund Putnam, Asa Prince, Samuel Flint, Samuel Epes, Israel Hutchinson, and Caleb Lowe, instantly met and from their several districts in North and South Dan vers rushed to the fray. Gideon Foster, who was officer in Captain Epes' company and who led some of its members, together with a number of minute men, on that day, and who afterward, as then, rendered distinguished service as a hero in the Revolution and rose to be colonel, brigadier-general, and major-general, said that some of the soldiers, in their eagerness for the fight, actually ran nmch of the way, and accomplished their sixteen miles' march across the country to their destination in the space of four hours. Encountering the British at West Cambridge, on their retreat from Concord and Lexington, and there shut in, as in a pen, by surrounding structures, they were at the mercy of their more fortunate assailants, and though they fought with desperate courage, it was there that Danvers poured out her blood most freely and met a greater loss in men than any other town sustained at whatever point, Lexington alone excepted. Historians, with one accord, have fittingly and specially praised the patriots who with such alacrity and energy sped so great a distance to share the peril and render such a holocaust at freedom's shrine. The names of our martyrs, as inscribed on their monument in Peabody, may well be given here: Samuel Cook, Benjamin Daland, George Southwick, Jonathan Webb, Henry Jacobs, Ebenezer Goldthwaite, and Perley Putnam. They died for principle's sake. They died for liberty. They died for us. And what saying of Greek or Roman soldier was finer or nobler than the words of Jonathan Webb, who, soon after his mar- riage, left his work, donned his wedding suit, and exclaimed to his expostulating bride: " If I die, I must die in my best clothes"; or than the utterance of Samuel Flint, who, on a time, was asked where at a certain juncture he might be found grandly replied, " Where the enemy is, there you will meet
84 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
me," only to face the foe afterwards at Stillwater and there lay down his precious life.
As at Salem or Danvers, so at Concord, the British had failed to capture the coveted stores of the provincials. But not the less was King George III determined on subjugating our refractory su'es. His military forces in Boston were strengthened and more firmly intrenched, and Massachusetts was made to feel increasingly the rod of oppression. In her sore privations and deepening distress she sent out piteous appeals to all her towns and to the other New England colonies to come to her aid and deliverance, that all might make common cause, with one united army, for the overthrow of royal usurpation and the establishment of right and justice. The cry was heard and heeded, and not alone from all parts of Massachusetts, but from New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut thousands of the hardy sons of liberty, in companies and regiments, officered by competent and resolute leaders, poured over hills and plains and through the woods and valleys to Cambridge, to report for action to Gen. Artemus Ward, commander-in-chief.
It was and is the great honor of Danvers that, in the then approaching conflict, hers was the supreme commander and hero of the American forces. Born in the old town, January 7, 1718, while yet it was Salem Village, Israel Putnam in his early manhood emigrated to Connecticut, which was henceforth his adopted state, where his remarkable energy and usefulness as a pioneer was long and abundantly tested in the clearing and tillage of his lands in Pomfret, and in his varied service as a citizen. Ten years of brilliant exploits and hard endurance as a soldier in the French and Indian wars gave him wonderful fame and popularity among his countrymen as an ardent and puissant patriot. Indignant at the wrongs which Great Britain was heaping upon her American colonies, he was among the first to resist her en- croachments and to bring to Boston and Massachusetts the
Historical Sermons. 85
effective sympathy and help of Connecticut. Hearing the news from Lexington, he left his plow in the furrow and began to organize and put in readiness for the march troops in the neighborhood about him, and mounted his horse and by day and night rode on before them, Sheridan-like, to the scene of danger, nearly a hundred miles away, arriving at Concord next morning, April 20, and there consulting with the Committee of Safety; then speedily to Cambridge and soon back to Pomfret whither he had sent letters of instruction and where he was needed to advise with the state authorities and to prepare and urge on its large quota of men; again at Cambridge where the storm was brewing and the hosts were gathering, and where the old veteran was hailed with enthu- siastic joy. Drake, the historian, has said that his presence then and there was worth ten thousand men to the cause. Boston, with its alien army, was invested, and Putnam with Connecticut and Massachusetts troops was assigned to Cam- bridgeport as the chief point of service and danger. On the evening of the 16th of June a detachment of about a thou- sand men, with Colonel Prescott at the head, but with General Putnam as general superintendent, was sent from Cambridge to Bunker Hill, to fortify and defend it. The man from Pomfret it was who, most of all, urged the enterprise and could brook no delay, because it was necessary, as he said, forthwith to call out the enemy and fight them. It was for this that he had strenuously contended in the council of war, where he carried the day and was clothed with authority. And his was the will, his the word, that pushed the expedition beyond Bunker Hill to Breed's, and that there built the redoubt still nearer the foe. The midnight work done, hostilities quickly ensued after the dawn of day. Prescott, with most of his men, was left to take care of his fort at the right. Putnam was in the open, at the eastern base of Bunker, and near the famous rail fence that stretched from Breed's to the Mystic at the left, disposing the Connecticut troops
86 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
and the re-inforcements as they arrived, and commanding the whole. Against that hastily improvised and grass-stuffed fence and the stern provincials behind it, came on in proud confidence the formidable British platoons that had just landed at Morton's Point, a little farther east; the terrible tug of war, with all its slaughter and havoc, began. Hurled back by the invincible yeomanry with fearful loss of life, and enraged by their discomfiture, the smitten grenadiers of his Majesty soon rallied and made a still fiercer onset, only, however, to fare yet worse and fly in confusion before their rustic superiors. Then in desperation they turned aside to the fort, whence, after a brave defence, Prescott and his garrison fled for safety. The victors of the fence, seeing that they were in peril of being flanked and captured, and that all might be lost, began hurriedly to retreat and save themselves at least. Putnam, with brandished sword and with furious voice and passion, bade them make one stand more and even entreated them to battle on to the last. But all in vain; and then taking charge of what army was left, wasted and worn and tired as it was, he led it off to Prospect Hill, where he intrenched in full sight of the enemy, prepared to fight another day. Time allows no account of his subsequent heroic service at Boston, at Long Island, in New York and Philadelphia, in New Jersey, at the Highlands, and in Connecticut and other places, where in many a scene he so long continued to war for his country and its freedom, until, scarred and en- feebled, he was stricken with paralysis and mourned that he could no longer do and dare for the right. It was enough for him and for Danvers that he was the Achilles of that immortal day. Washington, as well as the army and the people, knew it, and from that time forth the Father of his Country gave him the most important commands at his disposal, as at last his farewell benediction.
For there was the great " valley of decision." Nominally a defeat for the Americans, the battle was yet a victory for
Historical Sermons. 87
them. In view of it Franklin said: " England has lost her colonies forever." England herself and the world knew it. It was now seen and felt that the colonists could fight and would, nor feared the king or any earthly power. And it was Putnam more than any other human being that inspired the heroes of Charlestown Heights to the conquest. " With- out him," said a distinguished officer who was there, " nothing would have been done." With him the onward progress and final triumph of the cause were assured. Moses Porter was there as an artillerist of but nineteen years of age, last at the guns and specially praised for his gallantry in the earliest history of the battle, and destined to render a dis- tinguished military service to his country for nearly half a century in all the states and territories of the Union, and to win admiration and honors from all the early Presidents and congresses.
Asa Prince, who, as we have seen, commanded one of our companies on the 19th of April, was also at Bunker Hill, where he manifested conspicuous coolness and courage which verified anew the saying, " Blood will tell."
Gideon Foster also, being stationed at Brighton, was ordered by General Ward to " escort a load of ammunition to Charlestown," a timely supply for the soldiers; concerning which he himself said in his old age, " Taking the powder from the wagons or casks, we delivered it freely with our hands and our dippers to their horns, their pockets, their hats, and whatever else they had that would hold it."
Col. John Mansfield's regiment was sent to Charlestown, but marched to Cobble Hill to protect the artillery. Israel Hutchinson was its lieutenant-general, Ezra Putnam its major, Enoch Putnam, Asa Prince, and Gideon Foster were among its captains, and Job Whipple and Haffield White among its lieutenants — all brave Dan vers men ; and doubt- less others of its officers and many of its privates belonged to the town. I do not find that they were any of them
88 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
actually in the fight, but if not they were evidently on service near at hand, and from all that we know of them they would gladly have been with their brothers in the strife. But not a few of them, with large numbers more who survived that day of days, were reserved for marches and struggles yet to come.
And now the siege of Boston became more effective, antl on the 17th of March the city was evacuated by the royal forces, who soon sailed away, General Putnam, in command of several regiments, entering its gates and taking possession of all its posts amidst the acclamations of the people. Wash- ington is soon at New York; Putnam is in command at Long Island, fighting the British and the Hessians; Hutchinson greatly assists the marvelous retreat across the East River; Moses Porter, with General Knox's artillery, is still at his cannon, all sharing the fortunes of the burdened but mighty chief.
More and more independence is the watchword. The sages declare it, and the Old Bell rings it out at Philadelphia, proclaiming that the nation is born, and making jubilant the people throughout the land. The ages have struggled and longed to see that day, but had died without the sight. Now, at last, it was declared in the new and rising western world, " that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed " ; that " the history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states"; that "he has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people"; that " he has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and
Historical Sermons. 89
eat out of our substance." That he has assented to acts "for quartering large bodies of troops among us"; for imposing taxes upon us without our consent; " for depriving us, in many cases, of tlie benefit of trial by jury"; "for suspending our own legislatures and investing others with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever "; and that " he is still continuing his work of death, desolation, and tyranny, scarcely paralleled in the most barbaric ages and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation." ..." We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, ... do solemnly publish and declare that these colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states. . . . And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."
Danvers, by vote, unanimously and earnestly approved the Declaration, and ordered it to be entered, at length, in the records of the town. She had long been growing ripe for the hour and event, and now she was in complete accord with what had been done and what it was proposed to do; and again great Dr. Holten reflected her mind and heart as he wrote to a friend from the Council Chamber in Boston, July 15, 1776, saying, " The Congress have sent in their Declaration. . . . Independence is the best news I ever heard, and as I trust our cause is just, we ought to put our trust in the God of armies and not fear what man can do in an unjust cause."
It remained for Danvers and all the towns and cities of the colonies to make that Declaration a glorious reality. Would that we knew all the regiments or companies in Essex County in which the old town was represented, but from a partial study of the matter years ago and now, I get at this, at least, which seems to me important to our local history. One of the foremost soldiers of this region in the Revolution
90 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
was Colonel Ebenezer Francis, of Beverly, whither he removed from Medford, his native place, in 1764. From August to September, 1776, he commanded a regiment on Dorchester Heights, but in November of that year he was authorized to raise another, known as the Eleventh Massachusetts, which served through the war. It marched to Ticonderoga in 1777, but retreated from that point before the advance of the enemy's formidable force under Burgoyne. On reaching Hubbardton, near Whitehall, he found himself face to face with the enemy, and was killed in the fierce encounter that ensued. John Francis, his worthy brother, was an adjutant in his regiment and now became adjutant in the regiment of Benjamin Tupper and continued to be a rising officer for the first six years of the war. Colonel Tupper, afterward general, had already distinguished himself in the service from 1775 to this time, and now was under General Gates of the Northern Army. In 1778 he was with Washington in the battle of Monmouth. In 1780 he was at West Point, preparing and stretching the great chain across the Hudson. In 1781 General Stark, threatened by the Indians on the northern frontier, sent for reenforcements. Tupper's regiment and another from New York went to the rescue, but while they were waiting for the enemy's appearance, news came that Cornwallis had surrendered at Yorktown, and though the end of the war was thus brought in view, yet the Massachusetts men remained on guard. I think we have here, in outline, or in a general way, a picture of no small share of the service and experience of the soldiers who were first under Colonel Francis and who then, after his death, were under Colonel Tupper.
The expedition sent to Rhode Island to rid it of British troops in 1778 was commanded by Gen. John Sullivan. One of his regiments was that of Col. Nathaniel Wade, of Ipswich, three of whose captains were Simeon Brown, born in Danvers, but living in Beverly, and Jeremiah Putnam and Thomas Symonds, both of our town, while all had men who belonged
Historical Sermons. 91
to it also. The troops rendered faithful service and were highly praised in general orders, however unsuccessful the enterprise, owing chiefly to a destructive rainstorm and the desertion of the French allies at a critical juncture. After their year's service, Symonds and his company joined the famous brigade of General Glover, the great hero of Marble- head, and shared largely of his deeds at various scattered scenes — sometimes at winter the soldiers themselves being without shoes or stockings. Such was the price of liberty, and Danvers paid her part.
And yet again it was the very next winter, so little did the sons of Essex fear the cold and snows and hardships and perils by the way, that Haffield White, another familiar friend, started from Danvers with the first pioneer band for Marietta on the Ohio, crossed the dreary wastes, passed over the rugged heights of the Alleghanies, swept down the river to their destination, and with a later Hartford company that joined them, laid there the cornerstone of the vast northwest portion of the great republic. The leader of the division and some of his bold and enterprising men were from both parts of the old town, and many others afterward left our places here to share their fortunes there, braving the elements and the obstacles, fighting the Indians, and opening the wilderness, and undergoing unnumbered trials and troubles that they might plant the homes and schools and churches of a Christian civilization, where from immemorial time had roamed but beasts of prey and the wild, untutored children of the forest. They and their scattered descendants have been the builders of states that helped to make the nation free indeed, and that held the Union forever as one and indivisible when rebellion struck the flag. Rufus Putnam, foremost in the movement, and father of the state of Ohio, if not a son of Danvers, was certainly her grandson, and Senator Hoar, who knows all the history, as he seems to know every- thing else, has not exaggerated one whit the merit and
92 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
preeminence of this illustrious engineer, soldier, statesman, and patriot.
The wisdom and justice of the War of 1812 were doubted by a large portion of the American people, who were as patri- otic and intelligent as any who favored it. The general voice of the town, but especially of her leading citizens, was against it. Yet many of her brave sons gladly served in manning the forts and protecting the towns along our seacoast, as against any attacks that might be made by the English navy ; Capt. Jesse Putnam and his company at Salem, with Sergeant Warren Porter, afterward colonel of artillery at Beverly, and alarm lists at New Mills and South Danvers, headed by such old veterans as Samuel Page and Gideon Foster, and number- ing and packed with scores of their townsmen of old, familiar and honored names; and plenty more of the regular army or of fresh recruits who served in many a scene afar.
But if Danvers had nothing else to put an effectual stop to England's long-continued and arbitrary and ruthless seizure and impressment of our sailors into her own naval service, which good citizens thought could be done through wise and peaceful negotiations, what Gen. Moses Porter accomplished to make the war a success and remedy forever the wrong, was glory enough. He had won his spurs at Bunker Hill while yet a youth, as we have seen. He battled throughout the Revolution and was wounded at the Brandy- wine. Subsequently he fought the Indians like a lion under Anthony Wayne and other noted commanders at the West, until the great confederacy of savage tribes was broken up and the tide of immigration began to flow from the East and make the vast prau-ie bud and blossom as the rose. Next we find him taking possession of the forts on the great north- ern frontier, and then far down the Mississippi and up the Red River to keep at bay and rout the hostile Spaniard. Signs of the coming War of 1812 signalized his return to the North, where for several years he was repairing the old forts
Historical Sermons. 93
and planting batteries all along the Atlantic from Passama- quoddy Bay to New York. Soon after the declaration of war he was in command of Boston Harbor, southern Massachu- setts, Rhode Island, and parts of Connecticut, as colonel, and a little later was under Dearborn on the Niagara River, where he displayed undaunted courage in the capture of Fort George, for which he was made a brigadier. He accompanied Wilkinson's memorable but ill-fated expedition down the St. Lawrence, and still added new luster to his enviable reputation, and then from its dreary winter quarters in Lower Canada he was ordered to Norfolk, Va., where, during the long, long sununer of 1814 he still held the fort as the proud and powerful squadrons of the enemy hovered around and meant to pounce upon their prey. It was the one great drama of his life. Intense heat and dreadful ravages of disease daily decimated his ranks, two or three thousands of his soldiers sometimes lying sick and helpless in camp, while yet he was obliged ever and anon to draw from Virginia and North Carolina fresh quotas to make good his force of ten thousand men, training and disciplining the sound and healthy for effective service in any hour of need. He was master of the situation, and the British saw it and at length sailed away and left him victor. And at last it was seen and acknowledged that if General Porter had been placed in command of Washington and its department, as the Secretary of War and others wished, that city had never been captured and burned by the British, and the national disgrace could have been averted. The mighty hero of forts and frontiers sleeps in his humble grave yonder, but America never had a truer or more intrepid soldier. He served his country in that great capacity, in literally all its states and territories, with endless marches, watches, and exposures, and with patient endurance and consummate daring, and was honored of all the early Presidents and congresses and retained in every peace establishment; and after various subsequent commands
94 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
of large territorial departments into which the country was divided when the War of 1812 was ended, in 1815, he died in 1822, and Boston closed its shops and stores as her people thronged to his mournful, public funeral. To no one should Danvers build a noble and suitable monument more than to this loyal and patriotic hero of nearly half a century, devoted to " the land of the free and the home of the brave." He still remains one of those whom Kossuth, when he visited this country, called " the unrecognized heroes of America." But he should no longer be that in the town that gave him birth.
In Danvers, as in many other towns in Massachusetts, anti- slavery sentiment and principle took early root and steadily grew in strength and influence to the far-off end. It was a fine heroism that marked the old abolitionists in their uncom- promising and unyielding contention for the right, and in their willingness to accept poverty, reproach, ridicule, ostra- cism, and imprisonment itself in their efforts to set free the oppressed.
Danvers knew it all, and no town more. Even as far back as the time of the Mexican War, in 1846-7, waged avowedly for the extension and perpetuation of slavery, she set her seal of condemnation upon the abominable crusade, would give it no support, and would have nothing to do with it, except to execrate it. Listen to the resolutions which John W. Proctor, friend of temperance, education, and freedom, and no unworthy son of stalwart Capt. Johnson Proctor, of the Revolution, descendant of brave old John Proctor, martyr on Gallows Hill, offered to the citizens in town meeting as- sembled, December 16, 1847, and which were passed by a unanimous and emphatic vote:
" Resolved, as our opinion, that the wau now pending between the United States of America and the United States of Mexico was wrong in its origin, has been wrong in its progress, and will be altogether wrong in its continuance; and that no acquisition of glory to our
Historical Sermons. 95
country by our valiant and victorious armies will counterbalance in any measure a warfare so unjust and unnatural.
" Resolved, that we view with fearful apprehension the disposition to acquire territory by conquest for any purpose whatever, how- ever it may be in conformity with the usages of nations, and unless this disposition in our government shall be seasonably restrained, we fear it will be ominous of a dissolution of the Union.
" Resolved, that while wc acknowledge all men to be born free and equal, we cannot consistently with this principle do anything whatever that shall have a tendency to extend that most disgraceful feature of our mstitution, domestic slavery.
" Resolved, that justice demands the immediate withdrawal of our armies from the territory of the Republic of Mexico.
" Resolved, that our senators and representatives in the state legislature are hereby requested to use all lawful influence in theu* power to bring this unrighteous war to a speedy close."
The unanimous adoption of these resolutions by the citizens of Danvers, after a full and free discussion of the subject to which they relate, was one of the grandest and best things the old town has ever done. It was in hne with all her previous history, and so far as I can learn only about five of her sons, from North and South Danvers both, found their way to the war, not, it may well be believed, because they were friends of the slave system, but rather from a love of adventure, or from a misapprehension of the purposes or nature of the enter- prise, or from a false idea of what constitutes the real glory of a nation. But the town itself knew very well what it was about, knew what was intended by the party in power, knew what was becoming to a republic like ours, and accord- ingly meant to do what was just and right. It was not hers, thank God, to lift the heathenish cry, " Our country, right or wrong." A most immoral sentiment, if the shibboleth is meant to sanction, encourage, and support the country, undiscriminatingly, in wickedness as well as in the way of righteousness. Who would urge on a father or friend, because the highwayman or robber or traitor or murderer is his father or friend? Who would not stay his hand and incite and help
96 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
him to better courses all the more because he is his father or friend? One eternal law binds the nation as well as the indi- vidual, and true patriotism and heroism will seek only to inspire and aid one's own country to cease to do evil and to learn to do well. " Our country, right or wrong " — it is an appeal designed to blot out moral distinction and it has been the crime of tyranny and corruption in all the ages and the wide world over.
And what Danvers was at Lexington and Bunker Hill and all through the Revolution and in " old anti-slavery days," that she was, preeminently, when, in the interests and for the furtherance of what John Wesley justly called the " sum of all villanies," the slave power struck at the Union itself and its starry flag, and a million patriots sprang to arms to smite the monster, and leave to futurity the constellated inheritance from the fathers — the galaxy unbroken and its effulgence undimmed. The local record is too much in the fresh, per- sonal remembrance of multitudes still in the flesh, to need much detailed recapitulation here. Here, and all around us, are men, and women, too, who saw and were a very part of the scenes when, at the first meetings of the town which were called to take action, her citizens rallied with their old-time zeal for the country and put in train her contributions to the cause, and when, at the village square, the throngs again assembled to say good-bye to Captain Fuller's and Captain Putnam's companies, and crown them with their blessing as they left the dear mother of them all for fields of conflict and glory; and then as often as the painful and anxious years went by and called for warriors more, how from the homes and farms and shops and stores the " boys in blue " came pouring in to offer themselves and their all in sacrifice, to go forth and fight and even to die for the nation's weal and honor. Well nigh eight hundred of various nationalities from the old town alone enlisted for service on land or sea, reminding us of April 19, 1775, when men rushed from New Mills Village
Historical Sermons. 97
for the enemy in such numbers that not one was left behind. Call over the long list of the names of the immortal battlefields where our brothers fought and so many of them fell, and where was Danvers not? How vast the cemetery where her martyrs rest! They died that we might live and be blessed. They " died to make men free." They, too, rescued the Union, cut up slavery by the roots, and made the Declaration of Independence the law of the land as not before. They manfully and invincibly bore their part in the mightiest and holiest war that was ever waged. It broke the shackles of millions of downtrodden children of God and lifted them up to the level of common citizenship, and made resplendent the redeemed republic that shone at last for all.
Nor was it otherwise when, but a few years ago the cry for the deliverance of Cuba, and " Remember the Maine," rent the air, and all was stir, and tumult and cheers and strains of music, and red, white, and blue again, as Captain Chase and his boys marched through the streets and set forth for the war of humanity, as we all believed it to be. It was the same old spirit of liberty and justice once more, with never a thought of anything else but the vindication of the nation's self-respect and the emancipation of the long-oppressed Queen of the Antilles. If she is at last free and independent, with no cruel tax or burden laid upon her to repress her aspirations and energies and make her progress and success impossible, or if we refuse to keep hold of her relentlessly nor hope or seek to devour her at length by slow and deadening and fatal processes, as the snake devours the toad or rabbit, but are true to our solemn pledge and promise of self-govern- ment, then give the gallant volunteers the glory, nor with- hold it from those who, in the high places, gave their vote and word of honor for her liberation, and have been her generous and ungrudging and steadfast friends from first to last. Nor theirs the fault, who nobly went forth to battle for the right, if through other and more powerful agencies
98 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
and influences than their own, what was ostensibly meant for good is made to work for evil. The rank and file are not supposed to know all the secret intents and machinations of the ruling power.
" Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die."
From the reconstruction days down to the time of our war upon Spain and the Philippines, the great republic witnessed, it may be, the zenith of her greatness and glory. No nation in history, either in ancient or modern times, had ever been so favored of God, or was ever so splendidly situated and con- ditioned; none so free and fair and prosperous and hopeful. Not a slave clanked his chains. The Declaration of Inde- pendence, with all its eternal truths and principles, was a supreme and living fact and reality. The Constitution had been brought into conformity to it, and now indeed was what Gladstone called it, the greatest and best thing ever struck out of the brain of man. The counsels of the peerless sages and patriots of our remoter past were reverenced and followed still, and still were our strength and safety. Peace smiled upon the land. The hum of honest, intelligent, cheerful, rewarding industry was everywhere. The growth of our schools and colleges and churches and charities and civilization was the wonder of the world. Immeasurable and exhaustless wealth was locked up in our hills and mountains, and only asked the hand of enterprise to seek it and take it. What lordly rivers and magnificent lakes, what boundless forests and prairies, what interminable coast lines, kissed by the waves of what vast and joyous seas and oceans! What healthful climates and what a diversified and enrapturing scenery from north to south and east to west! And what advancing commerce and influence and friendship with all the countries of the globe! And what a peaceful mission of
Historical Sermons. 99
beneficence and religion was opening for us to all the world! Here, without boasting, was the beacon light for the nations. Here the one great refuge of the struggling, suffering tribes and races. Here was the fultilhnent of the dreams and visions and hopes and prayers of the centuries. Prophets and bards and reformers and toilers innumerable, in all the ages, had longed to behold the day, but had died without the sight.
What insanity was it, that seized " Time's noblest off- spring," what was the fatal draught that made it drunk, that all at once its population of seventy-five million strong, so signally prospered and blest, and so boastful of their exalted wisdom and virtue, and of their preeminent love of liberty and humanity, should disregard their most sacred traditions, usages, and principles, and send forth their buccaneering expeditions to the uttermost ends of the earth, to pounce upon poor and defenseless multitudes who had never injured them and scarcely knew them at all, and whose only fault was that for successive years they had courageously fought and suffered, like our own fathers, and not wholly in vain, to throw off the yoke of oppression and, like them, to be free? And then, having bought them of their ejected and tyrannous enemy (like chattels at two dollars a head) to proceed to demand, by proclamation of sovereignty, their abject sul)- mission and loyalty to our rule under penalty of forcibls compulsion, asking nor receiving nor caring for their consent ; then, because of their just contention for the " inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness " which we had claimed and conquered for ourselves, to rob them of their territory, to drive them in terror from their peaceful homes, to burn their houses and villages and lay waste their pleasant places, to chase them through the jungles and across the rivers and into the mountains, to mangle and torture and kill them with barbarities that rival the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition itself, to betray them and then brand them as " rebels " and ** traitors " and strangle their fair
100 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
and rising and most promising republic in the far-off Orient, and hold them as our own subjects, with all the limitations and disabilities and degradation which infernal ingenuity could devise, after having used them as helpful and trusting allies until we had gained the coveted vantage ground and needed their aid no longer, and finally to swarm their rich and fruitful islands with rapacious office holders and fortune seekers and parasites who might grab the franchises and riot in the rule and plunder, and devour the substance and life-blood of the people; and mockingly to call all this the blessings of good government and of civil and religious liberty and of Christian civilization, as George III called his cruelties and deviltries towards our fathers!
In the prosecution of this work we have riddled into tatters the Declaration of Independence and pronounced it an " absurdity " and a " lie "; we have broken and defamed the Constitution of the wise and good and made it an instru- ment and stronghold of a rampant imperialism; we have thrown the protection of the stars and stripes over slavery and polygamy, as at Sulu, and over vile resorts and dens of shame, as at Manila, and in ways unnumbered we have stained and dishonored forever the beautiful and holy flag of the free; we have ruined or sacrificed many thousands of our own brave men, and maimed or slaughtered ten times as many of the victims of our greed of land and empire and of gold and blood; we have squandered six hundred million dollars of the nation's money and involved ourselves in expenditures to come, and in difficulties and embarrassments and perils, which present a problem beyond the capacity of our wisest and greatest statesmen to solve; we have reversed and scorned the Golden Rule, and have done to others that which we would not have others do unto ourselves; we have made havoc of the Ten Commandments of God and trampled under foot the lessons and precepts of his holy, loving, and merciful Christ; we have talked of God as the heavenly Father of all.
Historical Sermons. 101
and of all men as brethren, and of love to God and of love to man as the fulfilling of the law, and yet have waged a ruthless war of conquest and extermination against millions of the universal brotherhood, and denounced and treated them as the offscouring of the earth, and shouted and gloried over their agonies and sorrows; when, had we been true to our professions and mission, we should have been, in the very spirit of Jesus, their angels of pity and comfort and love and deliverance, and won their everlasting gratitude and friendship, instead of now their fear, distrust, and undying hate and contempt.
It is the crime of the ages. In view of all that we were and professed to be among the nations of the earth, and all the high distinctions and endless favors with which God had crowned us from the beginning on to near the dawn of the twentieth century of his grace, you may ransack all history and you shall find nothing so bad as this. It is the latest and guiltiest crucifixion yet of the Lord of glory and the Saviour of mankind. There is no excuse or defense for it, no justi- fication or palliation ; no plea of ignorance, or thoughtlessness, or party, or popularity, or fashion, or respectability, or ways of the world ; no mumbled creed or outward sanctimonious form or ceremony, or worship in the sanctuaries or out of them, that will avail at the judgment hour to which we all hasten. " Then shall they also answer saying. Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee ? Then shall he answer them, saying. Verily I say unto you. Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punish- ment: but the righteous into life eternal." " Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished." " God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
The Bible declares it, from Genesis to Revelation, The
102 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
whole history and moral government of the ages attest it. The doom of proud and guilty and ruined and buried empires proclaims it. And God is just, and " God is true, though every man be a liar "; and Christ Jesus said, " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." "Believest thou this f "
No time now for mere denunciation and bitter taunts. These do but little good. Time rather for reason and con- science and self-examination; and time for repentance and works meet for repentance, and for the prayer of the text: " The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers." Hold to the fathers. Hold to God.
" The fathers had not all of Thee; New births are in Thy grace : All open to our souls shall be Thy glory's hiding-place."
But our patriot sires believed in God, and loved truth, justice, righteousness, and liberty. They had " the courage of their convictions," and established the freest and best government the world had ever seen. The principles which inspired and controlled them were of God and are as immu- table as his eternal laws. They are the seed and life, without which nations die. Hold them fast. Hold to the fathers to whom they were so dear and divine here in Danvers. Hold to their Declaration of Independence. Do not honor such ancestors with your lips, while yet you dishonor them in your actions. Strew not their graves with flowers while yet dis- own or repudiate the words, the deeds, the sentiments, and the example that made them what they were in life and death. Keep the old town true to her lineage and noble record and keep her ancient fires still brightly burning. A thousand voices from out the past two hundred and fifty years bid us to stand and be strong and earnest and conse- crated in her behalf, and to faithfully do our humble part in
The Bonfire. 103
recalling the country of our love from its sin and danger, and in making her, not the delight of kings and emperors and sultans and despots, but once more and increasingly the joy and benison of the whole earth. And to God be all the praise. Amen.
Rev. AV. S. Nichols and Rev. Eugene De Normandie also took part in this service.
The Methodist Church was organized in 1871.
The pastor, Rev. George E. Sanderson, preached a sermon at the morning service on " Our Debt to the Past; Our Duty to the Present."
At the evening service the following program was carried out:
Special music by the choir. Historical addresses: Rev. William M. Ayres; subject: " Witchcraft in Danvers. Herbert J. Chase, principal of Danvers High School; subject : " Present Day Problems." Hon. Howard K. Sanderson, postmaster of Lynn; subject: " Danvers at the Battle of Lexington."
A delegation from Ward Post 90, G. A. R., was present by special invitation.
MONDAY, JUNE 16. The Bonfire.
With the evening of Sunday multitudes of people began to gather at Berry Park from every quarter to see the kindling of the great bonfire that was to bring in the first secular day of the celebration. They were 10,000, and it may be 15,000, in number. The great crowd was both good humored and orderly. Fine music was furnished by the Salem Cadet Band. The band stand was brilliantly lighted with electric lights, a large design in the shape of a star being conspicuous. At the entrance to the park the word " Welcome " was shown
104 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
in electric lights, and the tiny glowing bulbs also lighted the grounds from the entrance to the band stand. The mate- rials of the great pile were railroad ties, together with multi- tudes of barrels of various sizes, and of previous uses and occupations, tending, with many of them, toward rapid con- flagration. They had been gathered and set up with labor and zeal and with skill by the committee having the matter in charge, under the leadership of its vigorous and enthusiastic chairman, Thomas E. Tinsley. The structure when it was done was of an aspect so unique and so impressive that it might almost have seemed befitting that it should itself have stood as a monument of the occasion.
But it had its immediate end and use. William A. Berry, carpenter and builder, who was perhaps the ranking architect in its construction, had prepared passageways and appliances for lighting it at its top, and he was ready with the fire and the red powders. When the hour of midnight struck, the flames flashed from the summit and in an instant the vivid light covered the sky and illuminated the fields and the horizon far off on every side. The cheers of the people went up with the roar of the fire. This opening signal and display of the celebration was recognized of all as most creditable to those that had arranged it, and as altogether becoming to the occasion itself.
The heat of the blaze was sharply felt a quarter of a mile away, while the heavens were illuminated to such an extent against the dull clouds that the famous yellow day of a num- ber of years ago was recalled to mind. One was able to read a newspaper a mile away from the park in directions in which the light was unobstructed. People who had followed the annual bonfires in Salem, on Gallows Hill, each Fourth of July, said the Danvers' fire far surpassed any they had seen.
It was not the purpose of the builders of the bonfire to supersede the daybreak, but the tall flame was slow to sink, and the multitude dispersed with satisfaction, but not with
Peahody Institute. 105
speed, and many of them saw, what some may seldom behold, the unapproachable wonder and glory of the kindling daylight.
Notwithstanding the wakeful night, with Monday morning the town was early astir. The bells from all the steeples greeted the sunrise. The streets were gay with decoration. The hearts of the people were lightened with grateful memories and with thankfulness.
At ten o'clock in the forenoon there was gathered in the hall of the Peabody Institute a large and representative assembly of citizens of Danvers, of former residents, and of friends from the surrounding towns. Mr. Rice, chairman of the General Committee, presided. The meeting at the Institute was concluded in time to allow of a slight inter- mission before the banquet, which was served at the Town Hall at 1.30. The other events of the afternoon were an entertainment for children and band concerts. The second day was brought to a close by a ball in the Town Hall, the hall being cleared of its tables in ample time by vigorous work under the direction of the chairman of the two committees.
The program at the commemorative meeting at Peabody Institute was as follows:
Chorus. " 'Tis Morn " Geibel
first church chorus.
Prayer. rev. harry c. adams.
Response. " Nearer, my God, to Thee."
MALE QUARTET.
Rev. Harry C. Adams. Alex. Gardner, Jr.
John E. Hanson. Elmer E. Bedell.
Introductory Address.
rev. charles b. rice, d.d.
Contralto Solo. " The Promise of Life " Cowen
mrs. florence bradstreet. Historical Address. ezra d. hines.
Chorus. " God of Our Fathers " Schnecker
first church chorus. Poem. miss Josephine e. roache.
Hymn. "Sons: of Praise."
106 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
The opening address of Mr. Rice here follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen, — It is my pleasant office, in behalf of my associates upon the committee of the town, and in behalf of the citizens of the town of Danvers, to announce this public opening to-day of our commemorative service for our one hundred and fiftieth anniversary. It is a whole- some human instinct which makes us mark these memorial days and years. In the reviewing of the times and the lives that are past, our own lives are strengthened, and our hopes and purposes for the years to come are made more clear and bright.
The history of our town will be set before us this morning in its outlines and in as much of detail as the time will allow by one well fitted in tastes and capacity for such a service. A glance only toward the things past and the things around us may show w^hat occasions we have for cheerfulness and congratulation.
Our town is well placed. It is easy of access from large centers of population and large seats of industry. It is healthful, according to the measure of New England towns. Its soil, for the most part, is strong, easily worked, and fruit- ful. Its natural features are pleasing to the eye. It has variety in surface and scenery. It has its trees, planted of nature and of man. From its higher lands we look eastward to the blue ocean and westward to the tops of Wachusett and Monadnock. We have here together the relics of age and the signs of progress. We have houses of the seventeenth and of the twentieth centuries. We have the smooth stone highway, and we have still the bridle path, almost, of the fathers. We cannot pass through any bordering town by roads that are better than ours, and we cannot come from any quarter into Danvers and find the driving the worse as we enter it. We make our own light to light our roads by night, and to sell. The water that flows under our streets is of the best that can be had, and it serves for drink to many.
Introductory Address. 107
Our schoolhouses are mostly new and they are partly paid for. They are oi)en to all the winds of modern style, and every boy within thoni may breathe his appointed thirty-five cubic feet of air in each minute or perish in the attempt. The schools are well taught and well filled. The proportion cf our children that receive the benefit of the high .school course is large, much beyond what is common throughout the state. Our taxes are as large as we wish to make them. Public concerns are kept close to the public mind, and to the minds of individuals. Caucuses are not wholly forgotten. Town meetings are fairly well attended, and the time for them is not altogether begrudged. Discussion in them is usually discriminating, enlightening, and fair. If ever it is not, the failure to make it so is talked of and condenmed. Our town meeting does us good both by the good that is brought out in it and by the condemnation that is put upon whatever evil in the meeting the meeting itself may bring to light. We are not ashamed of our numerous town meetings; we are proud of them. We are in no haste to grow so big that we must let go our hold on these ancient and illuminating liber- ties and fall away into the darkness and dullness of city life.
Our town has been well occupied by its inhabitants. It was planted with a strong stock of men. At first they were sometimes, upon provocation, ill-natured and quarrelsome, but they softened gradually into good temper and settled mostly into good sense. There grew up here a community full of personal purpose and individuality, but full also of public spirit. I think our town has continued to be marked distinctively in this way by clear strength of personality and by a comfortable fellowship in public life.
Our people at first were mostly of English origin, and for two centuries there were few besides. Since the beginning of the third century there has come to us a great immigration from a sister British isle. These two streams of life are not, in our town, running very far apart and to contrary ends.
108 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
To an extent much beyond what may be true in many places we are becoming one people. I have heard the Pilgrim and the Puritan virtues acknowledged, and the great Mayflower constitutional compact extolled by a Danvers lawyer to whose ancestors the Puritan or even the Pilgrim would not have been hospitable. If the best account were wanted of the life and public service of our most distinguished man of the former generations I suppose it might be given by another Danvers lawyer whose forefathers were in the Emerald Isle when Samuel Holten lived and died. From whatever quarter we have come we know and value the good of the past, and we shall go happily and hopefully together toward the better things, we trust, of the future.
There were troubles here in the early times which have left a lasting remembrance. They came by a strange mis- reading of Scripture and by an astonishing lapse of reason, and by a deplorable failure in Christian charity. But this misery of the witchcraft was worse in other lands than here.
In the times that have followed there have been wars and successions of public perils through which our people have passed in common with others in the province, the state, and the nation. They have borne their share in the general burdens with intelligence and courage and vigor.
Every age has had its clouds and storms, but to the present time the storms have been as the storms of summer and not as the storms of winter. The sunshine has broken through the clouds and they have rolled to the east with the rainbows on them. The earth has worn its robes of green and of gold with the spring-time and the harvest, and the cheerful labors and hopes of man have not failed. We rejoice in the measure of prosperity given us and in the common blessings which we have all enjoyed. We dwell together in our town with much good will in our hearts toward one another, and we bear together in patience and sympathy and hope the inevi- table burdens of human life. We recount gratefully the
Introductory Address. 109
mercies of God from the long generations past. We invoke his favor on all our neighborly and brotherly households through the generations long to come.
So we welcome to-day our friends who come to greet us. And thus we, who are always here at home, welcome each other in this anniversary assembly.
We have practical ends now in mind. It is the purpose of our gathering, and the object in reality of this entire observance, to improve and brighten the tone of human life among us. We review and consider whatever has given worth to the lives of the men of the times that are past, that these befitting traits of manhood may be the more appreciated and nourished. We trust that our town will always be a place of diffused intelligence, of personal independence, and of cherished and considerate public life. We hope that the man of Danvers will know his rights and will hold on upon them, and will be ready to give them up when he should. We wish to have him careful about taxation, and glad to pay his taxes. We want him to be ready to talk — as he certainly will be — and willing to listen to the talk of other men. We desire that he should be thrifty, and that he should care for manhood more than for thrift or money. And we expect that he will bear his part in all our common life, in a generous and manly way, with stoutness and certainty.
These things we think have been somewhat distinctive here in the past. They should abide and increase. We ring now our bells and light our fires and read our history; we sit down at one table together, and we march with music, that the good things in the lives of men and women of this town may continue and abound, that the place may be loved of its children, and that the children may be better than any of their fathers.
1 10 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
HISTORICAL ADDRESS OF EZRA D. HINES, ESQ. Early Inhabitants.
In the beginning of the seventeenth century, over the fields, up the hills, along the valleys, through the woods, adown the streams and rivers, of the territory which is now Danvers, wandered a peculiar race of men whom we have been taught to call Indians, or red men.
In the language of another, " They were of tall stature, comely proportion, strong, active, and, as it would seem, very healthful; in color swart, and of long hair."
The poet well describes them, as he sings:
" And thus o'er land and stream for ages long A race of red men, vagrant, plod along. With language taught from rustic nature's throne, And habits each peculiarly their own."
The life they led was rude and uncivilized. To hunt and fight, to kill and eat, to lie down and sleep, and in that sleep to dream of the happy hunting grounds which should be theirs in the by and by, — these things seemed to them the extent of their labor and care. Long since they passed, and the places which once knew them now know them no more, and yet we are often reminded of their presence by memorials preserved, and we are greatly indebted to one of our citizens for a fine collection of Indian relics, which now and in the years to come shall, better than the written word, instruct us concerning this strange people.
Coming of the White Men.
In England in the first quarter of the seventeenth century a desire is prevalent for the colonization of America, as shown by the following facts. The Council of New England, which had previously received from King James I a large tract of
Historical Address. Ill
land upon this continent, on the 19th of March, 1627-8, conveyed to Sir Henry Rosewell, Sir John Younge, Thomas Southcott, John Humphrey, John Endecott (this a famihar name), and Symon Whetcombe, their heirs and associates forever, the land lying between three miles north of the Merrimack, and three miles south of the Charles, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea, Under direction of these men John Endecott, with others, June 20, 1628, set sail for Naumkeag, which was reached September 6, 1628. On arrival they met Roger Conant and others, the old planters, so-called, who for a while had tarried at Gloucester, a fishing station, but two years previous had taken up their abode at Naumkeag, afterwards called Salem. March 4, 1629, Sir Henry Rosewell and others, feeling somewhat troubled concerning the many grants of the same territory to different parties made by the Council of New England, sought from King Charles I a confirmation of the grant previously made to them. He confirms the same to them and their associates, and makes them a body corporate and politic, to be called the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, their legislature to consist of a governor, deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants. In 1629 the Company in England elect John Endecott to be Governor of the Massachusetts plantation in New England, and later in the same year a large number emigrate to America, among them Rev. Samuel Skelton, Rev. Francis Higginson, Samuel Sharpe, and others.
October, 1629, John Winthrop is chosen Governor by the Company in England for one year. August 29, 1629, it is voted that the government and patent be settled in New England. June, 1630, Winthrop and followers arrive in Salem, and the government there was immediately surren- dered to him by Endecott. Shortly after his arrival Win- throp, thinking Salem was not the place for the capital of the Colony, journeyed to Charlestown, later crossed the river
112 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Charles, and called the land occupied Boston, and thus permanently established the seat of government.
The Court of Assistants made grants of land, also the General Court, and later (in 1636), power to grant lands was given to towns. The meetings of the Assistants were ordered to be held at the house of the Governor. Towns were early established. Salem, the earliest town in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, included what is to-day Salem, Wenham, Man- chester, Marblehead, Beverly, Peabody, and Danvers, and a part of Middleton. Two of the early grants made by the Court of Assistants were in our present town limits: July, 1632, to John Endecott and to Rev. Samuel Skelton; the former, bounded by our present Waters, Crane, and Porter's rivers, and the main land, containing about three hundred acres; and the other bounded by Crane and Porter's rivers and the main land, containing about two hundred acres. The bounds of these grants are distinctly visible to-day.
Salem Village.
December 31, 1638, at a general town meeting in Salem, it was
"Agreed and voted that there should be a village granted to Mr. Phillips and his company upon such conditions as the seven men appointed for the town's affairs should agree on."
This village was in the vicinity of the Ipswich River, that river which then and now,
" To the restless sea goes winding down, In whose channel the current is deep and strong, But on flats and marshes it loiters along."
To this region emigration then began. The land granted seems to have been between the river and towards the road, that first grand trunk road of early days connecting Medford with Ipswich. To this village came Bishop, Sharpe, Ha-
Historical Address. 113
thorne, Davenport, Hugh Peter, Rea, Weston, Freeman, and Waterman; the Putnams, Porters, Kenneys, Hutchinsons, Buxtons, and Ingersolls; the Prestons, Goodells, Nourses, Swinnertons, and Popes; the Wolcotts, Andrews, Haines, and many more. These names are called to our minds in their descendants, now citizens of our town.
Just before the arrival of tlie English there had been a serious epidemic raging among the Indians, and their number had been greatly reduced. Of the survivors many had moved along towards the westward, and while to the newcomers it may have seemed that the race were
" In the glory of the sunset, In the purple mists of evening,"
movmg
To the regions of the home-wind, To the islands of the blessed,"
it proved untrue, and so the white people stood constantly in fear of being surprised and attacked, and each family provided themselves with weapons and kept them within easy reach for defence. In this region our ancestors lived, busy daily in the felling of the forests, in the making of ways or roads, in opening the land for cultivation, careful ever to avail themselves of those open spaces made so by nature, and also those which the Indians had cleared. They were busy as farmers, tillers of the soil, living as others had lived before them, having in many ways hard experiences; yet there occurred many things of a pleasant nature, and, best of all, they were freer to do than in the home they had left across the ocean. These our forefathers and foremothers were of the best people of England; they were hardy and industrious, and, in the main, happy in this their new home. They had obstacles to contend with, particularly in their remoteness from the meetinghouse, schools, and last, but not least, the town meeting.
114 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
An Additional Grant.
In 1672 an additional grant was made to the Village by the town of Salem of the land on the northerly side of the Ipswich road running from the horse bridge on what is now Conant Street near the North Beverly meetinghouse to the hither end of Governor Endecott's farm, at the head of Waters River, near the corner of the present Endicott and Sylvan streets, and then in a western line. This it will be seen did not include the Endecott and Skelton grants, they still being a part of the Salem proper of those days.
First Meetinghouse.
In October, 1672, the village people were allowed to build a meetinghouse and to have a minister. The building was placed upon land near the corner of what is now Hobart and Forest streets. About this time a new meetinghouse was built for the town of Salem, and they presented to the " Farmers " the pulpit and deacons' seats which had served in the old meetinghouse. The people of the town were, of course, dissatisfied at this attempt to build a new meeting- house and form a new parish, and, strange as it may seem, some of the farmers wished to remain with the old church in the town. The majority of the farmers, however, were overjoyed at their success.
Uprising of the Indians.
In 1675 the people of the Village, in common with those about them, became alarmed at the uprising of the Indians. At this time the Indians, finding that the land over which in times past they had been monarchs was fast slipping away into the hands of the English, obeyed the call of King Philip, whose father, Massasoit, had been so kind to the white men, and who, on their arrival, literally acted the words of the poet.
Historical Address. 115
" Let us welcome, then, the strangers, Hail them as our friends and brothers, And the heart's right hand of friendship Give them when they come to see us,"
this man was now represented by his son, King Philip, who was angry with the newcomers, those who had taken his lands, and he, unlike his father, beheld
" A darker, drearier vision pass before him, Vague and cloud-like " ; in which he " Saw the remnants of his people Sweeping westward, wild and woful. Like the cloud-rack of a tempest, Like the withered leaves of autumn! "
Seeing this, Philip arose in his might, determined to make one desperate effort to drive the English away, and thus began that most disastrous strife known as " King Philip's War." During its progress great fear and consternation came upon the English. The people of Salem Village, brave and loyal, were willing to do their part towards conquering these warriors. And so a Davenport, a Hutchinson, a Put- nam, a Flint, a Howard, a Hathorne, a Houlton, and others departed for the scene of carnage and war. Who has not heard of the brave Capt. Thomas Lothrop, — he who took his bride from Salem Village (the Putnamville of to-day), Bethiah Ray, — and of his company, " the Flower of Essex," which included men from this vicinity, and of their sad fate near that stream in Deerfield, which has since been called "Bloody Brook"!
In 1676 this particular war was over, ending with the death of King Philip. From this time there was a long series of engagements with the Indians and their allies, the French, which continued until after the middle of the eighteenth century.
116 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Reign of Andros.
The charter of the colony having been taken away, in 1686 James II appointed a council, with Joseph Dudley as presi- dent, over all New England; shortly after Sir Edmund Andros succeeded him, having been appointed governor by the king. Andros ruled for a little more than two years. His reign was very distasteful to the people of the colony. In 1689 the people arose in their might and brought about his return to England. Among the arbitrary rulings of this period was one requiring all deeds of property to be recorded in Boston and all wills to be proved there. This will explam why the will of Lieut. Thomas Putnam, the father of Joseph, and the grandfather of Gen. Israel Putnam, was proved in Boston rather than in Salem. It was proved while Dudley was president of the council.
Indian Deed.
As has been stated. Sir Henry Rosewell and others, who first received their grant from the Council for New England, as a precaution to avoid trouble, had a new grant from King Charles I. In 1685 claims were laid to the lands belonging to the settlers. Upon the arrival of the English an agreement was concluded with the Indians whereby payments were made for the land taken. Claims now being made for the land, they deemed it wise to obtain a conveyance from the descendants of those Indians whom they had found on their arrival, and a deed was then given to the selectmen of Salem, one of whom was Israel Porter, who was a resident of Salem Village. This deed is now preserved in the City Hall, Salem.
A Time of Great Sorrow.
In 1692 there was seen slowly rising above the horizon of the lives of the people of Salem Village a dark cloud, small at first, but as it rose higher and still higher in the heaven of their
Historical Address. 117
lives it grew larger and larger, and finally reaching the zenith, the cloud burst and enveloped the people in great darkness and sorrow; later the storm spent its fury and there was seen, as the cloud separated and faded away, the bright sunlight again. It would be unwise to dwell upon the sorrows, trials, and afflictions of those days, which have been told and retold, but rather, in passing, attention should be called to this fact : As in the lives of individuals there come dark days, followed by the sunlight, so in the experience above referred to, dark- ness at last disappeared and the light streamed in; and as an outcome of these serious troubles there remains a bright and pleasing picture, which it will be well to dwell upon and remember. What happened, developed — no, not developed, it was already there — but brought forth into the glowing sunlight of midday that which was a great comfort and delight to find in those days, which had brought joy in former times, and the possession of which will now, and ever, cause admiration and praise, — character. In those dark days it shone forth resplendent. It is well that the relatives and friends of one whose life was sacrificed have erected a monu- ment to her memory in yonder resting place of the dead, and have placed beside it another monument upon which they have caused to be inscribed the names of her friends and neighbors who stood by her in that hour when true friendship cost something and was of untold worth to her. How fitting to have done this deed! And when these monuments shall have crumbled to dust, character, for which they stand, will be remembered in the hearts and minds of generation after generation, " to the last syllable of recorded time."
From Colony to Province.
About this time these ancestors of ours were passing from a miniature republic to a province of England. The change was unpleasant. Instead of electing their governor, now, the King of England appointed him, and all laws enacted were
118 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
to be sent to England for approval or rejection. A great change indeed! During the days of the colony Governor Endecott spent much time upon his Orchard Farm, which farm is in this town and, at the suggestion of his neighbors, he took several of their boys to rear them in the ways of farmers; among others, John Putnam, Jr., and Nathaniel Ingersoll; the former has left on record a deposition in which he testifies that he was a retainer to Governor Endecott on his Orchard Farm in 1655, and thus became intimately acquainted with the Governor and his son Zerubbabel.
The Middle Precinct of Salem.
In 1710 occurred an interesting event. Several of the people dwelling " to ye westward and northward of ye town bridge, yet without ye Village line," petitioned Salem to be set off as a parish. A town meeting was called, and it being shown that all of those desiring separation had not signed the petition, the meeting was dissolved. Later the town granted their request for one fourth of an acre of land for the site of their meeting-house. Still desirous to become a parish, they sought aid from the General Court. A day was set for a hearing and before that body they presented their case, June 16, 1710 (just forty-seven years before the act was passed making Danvers a town). Salem appeared in opposition by its committee, who contended that the petition- ers were over-hasty, that " their method is without example among us. When those of our vOlage came to crave their dismission, they being more moderate and regular, they first addressed the church for leave, and then the town for dis- mission, which these have neglected wholly to do, which is grievous to us, and we trust will not be contravened by your Excellency and the great and general court."
Some of the reasons given by the petitioners were, their long distance from meeting, and in certain seasons the difii- culty of attendance, while they are ever anxious to attend
Historical Address. 119
(a reason which sounds a Httle strange in these days). They declare that if they are permitted to come off, they will " invite some virtuous young man of good report suitably qualified to be our minister." The General Court appointed a committee to go to Salem, view the premises, and report. The committee report favoring separation, and the General Court approved, and so was established a new parish to be called the Middle Precinct, with bounds as follows : " Beginning at the Great Cove in the North Field and running directly to Trask's grist mills, taking in the mill to the new precinct; from thence on a straight line to the mile stone in the road from Salem Meeting House, and so along the road to Lyndseys and thence along the line between Salem and Lynn, north- ward, till it conies to Salem Milage line, and along by that line to Frost-Fish River, and then by salt water to the Great Cove first mentioned."
In the establishing of this Middle Precinct the Endecott and Skelton grants previously referred to became a part of the same. All the people living on the south side of what is now Conant, Elm, Ash, and Sylvan streets (from Ash on) were included in the new precinct. This seems strange to the people of to-day. Then the Porters, who kept the ordi- nary where now stands the Old Berry Tavern, had to attend meeting in what is now Peabody, and their children were baptized there. Some of these inhabitants were desirous of connecting themselves with the Village parish, having apparently more in common with them than with the Middle Precinct. In 1743 Capt. Samuel Endicott, John Porter, Benjamin Porter, John Endicott, and James Prince endeav- ored to encroach upon the rights of the Middle Precinct, by including within the Village bounds some of those who belonged in said precinct. They were not successful; there was a good deal of opposition, and the project failed. Later the Middle Precinct was desirous of joining with the Village in securing a township. Nothing came of it at this time.
120 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Separate Town.
In 1732 there was a strong desire among the inhabitants of the Village to become a separate town. In their petition to the town of Salem they asked that they might be set off as a new town and have included in their territory a part of the Middle Precinct (now Peabody) and also the Endecott and Skelton grants, the latter being now called Porter's Neck. Salem refused to grant the petition, and the Villagers agreed to drop the matter on condition that Salem would allow them and their neighbors " without ye bounds " "to draw equal proportion of money with the rest of the town for the use of a school amongst us of all the annual income of the town's rents." To this the town of Salem agreed.
School in Salem Village,
It is proper now to remark concerning Rev. Joseph Green's interest in starting a school in the Village. He says under date of March 11, 1708, just after he had attended the install- ment, as he calls it, of John Leverett as president of Harvard College (perhaps the event may have hastened his action) :
" At lecture I spake to several about building a school-house, and determined to do it. I rode to ye neighbors about a school-house and find them generally willing to help. I went into ye town meeting and said to this effect : ' Neighbors, I am about building a school- house for the good education of our children, and have spoken to several of the neighbors, who are willing to help it forward, so that I hope we shall quickly finish it, and I speak of it here that so every one that can have any benefit may have opportunity for so good a service.' Some replied that it was a new thing to them, and they desired to know where it should stand, and what the design of it was. To them I answered that Deacon IngersoU would give the land for it to stand on, at the upper end of the training field, and that I de- signed to have a good school-master to teach their children to read and write and cipher and everything that is good. Many commended the design and none objected against it."
Rev. Mr. Green desired good schools. Ever since the people
Q
Historical Address. 121
of this locality have always been interested in good schools. We can attest that in the last fifty years the people have always been " generally willing to help."
A District to be Called Danvers.
In 1751 a new effort to become a town was made, which was partly successful. January 28, 1752, an act was passed uniting the Village and Middle Precinct into a District, which made us a town except in one particular, we could not send a representative to the General Court. We then commenced an independent existence. Henceforth there was to be no Village or Middle Precinct, but a new town to be called Dan- vers, North and South parishes.
First Town Meeting.
February 18, 1752, a request was made to Daniel Epes, a justice of the peace, by Jonathan Kettle and others, that he would call, in his Majesty's name, a town meeting (notice the words " town meeting " ), to be held March 4, 1752, in the North Meetinghouse, at ten o'clock. This was our first town meeting. We have had several since.
An account of this meeting will be interesting. First, as to the building in which it was held. It was the second meetinghouse built by the farmers, and stood upon Watch House Hill. The house was set'so as to face the Meetinghouse Road (now Hobart Street). It had then been standing about fifty-one years; the pastor of the church was Rev. Peter Clark.
After the call was read, Daniel Epes was chosen moderator, and Daniel Epes, Jr., clerk (sort of a family affair) ; James Prince, treasurer. Archelaus Dale, John Andrew, and Henry Putnam were appointed to " tell ye votes."
Seven selectmen were elected (we find it hard to elect five) ; four from the first, and three from the second, parish. They were also to act as assessors and overseers of the poor. Four
122 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
constables (or policemen), two in the first, two in the second, parish (we haven't improved much on that) ; five tithingmen. There were chosen two clerks of the market, so they must have had a market in those days. Mr. Daniel Rea was to " take care that ye laws relating to ye preservation of deer be observed." Thus was the machinery of the town govern- ment set in motion. It has been running ever since.
New Mills.
Previous to 1754 the parts of our town which to-day are called Danvers Centre, Tapleyville, Hathorne, Putnamville (in early days. Blind Hole) were known. I desire now to speak concerning that part called in early days Skelton's Neck, afterwards Porter's Neck, later New Mills, and now Danversport. This neck of land was not much settled before 1754, although the land had owners from the earliest settle- ment. In this year, Archelaus Putnam establishes mills on Crane River, near what is now the Lummus Mill. He was among the first to build here a home, and in company with others he built two gristmills; afterwards, a wheat mill and sawmill were built.
It proved to be a good mill privilege, and the name of New Mills was given to the place, I have no doubt, to distinguish them from the mills then in existence situated near where Mr. Otis F. Putnam's mills now stand, on Sylvan Street, which mills had then been erected fifty years. Soon after the coming of said Archelaus, the owners of the Neck land desire a way from what is now Danvers Square through the Neck to the New Mills, over what is now our High and Water streets, and a private way is laid out, the owners to have leave to set up gates across the same. There had been a proprietors' way since 1732, or earlier, and this new road was undoubtedly a broadening out of the old way of the early owners. Soon this village begins to grow by the accession of new settlers and the building of new homes.
Historical Address. 123
Town of Dan vers.
For five years the people had Hvecl in a District, when in 1757 they became anxious to become a town, and thus secure representation in the General Court. June 9, 1757, the House of Representatives passed the bill making Danvers a town. The bill coming before the Council, Thomas Hutchin- son, a member, asks permission to enter his objections, pre- sumably in behalf of the king, knowing that it was his wish that no more towns should be created, for that would insure more representatives. Hutchinson offered his objections, but in spite of the same, a week later, June 16, 1757, these words were placed upon the bill: " By his Majesty's Council we consent to the enacting of this bill." Then followed the signatures of fifteen members of the Council. Thus were we made a town. At that time there was no governor or lieutenant-governor. According to the law this bill was later taken to England for rejection or approval, and in August, 1759, in Kensington Palace, it was disallowed, owing to the fact that the Board of Trade reported to the Lords of the Privy Council that this Act should receive his Majesty's disapproval, and so the King, George II, accepted the report and decided that he was unwilling Danvers should become a town and thus decreed. Hence the significance of the motto on our town seal, " The King Unwilling." As to the name Danvers, various suggestions have been made, but as Danvers is a name of an old English family, in all probability the name came from that source. Several Massachusetts towns have family names.
Highway from Ipswich Road to North Bridge, Salem. In 1760 Jeremiah Page, David Putnam, and others pre- sent a petition to the honorable justices of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace, held at Newbury, and they humbly shew that " a new highway leading from the highway in Danvers, the Old Ipswich Road " by ye widow Porter's
124 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
across Waters river, so called, to ye North Bridge in Salem will very much accommodate ye publick and is necessary to ye publick good," and prayed that the same might be laid out. On the petition the court ordered that Col. John Choate, of Ipswich, Col. Robert Hale, of Beverly, and Col. Joseph Blaney, of Marblehead, be a committee to inquire into the necessity and convenience of said way. They made report that such a road was needed, and the court approved and adopted the same. Between the time of the filing of said petition and before the committee had reported, the oppo- nents of the way were not idle, and the town by vote appointed Samuel Flint, Cornelius Tarbell, and Samuel Holten a com- mittee to present objections to the same to the Court of General Sessions, In their remonstrance they recite among other reasons " the expense of the way recently laid out to New Mills, which cost the town not much less than one thou- sand old tenor, which way is greatly detrimental to the town." " The petition, signed by thirteen persons, two of Danvers and eleven of other towns," " that the highway from said widow Porter's, leading by the country seat of ye Hon. Robert Hooper to the South Meeting House, and so to Salem, is very commodious for the public." " The great expense to the town of keeping the bridge over Waters River, and the mill dam at Crane River in repair"; also, " the building of the bridge prevents vessels going further up the river and renders two wharfs useless, one near the brick kilns." However, later the road was laid out and has continued as a main thoroughfare from that day to this.
Brick Making.
The business of making bricks was begun very early. In 1732 there were brick kilns on the Endecott grant. It is not known how much earlier bricks were made. Near the close of the first half of the eighteenth century Daniel Andrews, living in that part of the town now called Putnamville, was
Historical Address. 125
making bricks. One day he visited Medford and met a man there by the name of Page who was also engaged in the same business. Andrews told him he wished to hire a man to assist him in his yard. Mr. Page answered: " My son is just of age, perhaps you might hire him." Mr. Andrews intei- viewed the young man, who agreed to go with him to Danvers. He boarded with Mr. Andrews and in due course of time married his daughter Sarah. He bought land and built him a home. The man was Jeremiah Page; the home, the delightful old house on Danvers Square. Jeremiah Page also bought a tract of land opposite the car houses on High Street and went into business on his own account. Here he produced many bricks; John Page, his son, afterwards made bricks in this yard. The clay here was considered very fine, and the United States forts all the way from Maine to Florida were made of bricks from this yard. From that day to this there have been brick yards, and the bricks made therein have been used in the erection of buildings far and near. Our manufacturers have been the Pages, Grays, Days, Tapleys, Carr, Sullivans, Evans, and others.
Business of Tanning.
The tanning of hides began with the settlement of the Village. John Porter, in the seventeenth century, was our first tanner, and his sons continued the business. The inven- tory of the estate of Joseph Porter shows " new hides un- tanned," and in his will he gives to his children, " what leather I have," " all paying an equal part for ye dressing of what hides there be in the tan fatts to make up leather." This business continued until the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
Tax on Tea.
In 1767 duties were placed upon tea and other imports from England. The people were much displeased. In 1773 all duties were repealed except those on tea. All know what
126 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
happened, — the throwing overboard of the tea stored in the British ships anchored in Boston Harbor, called the Boston Tea Party. Danvers men were loyal and declared they would dispense with the use of tea, and Colonel Page, before referred to, was very particular that it should not be used in his house; and the colonel, his wife, and the old house, Miss Larcom, the poet, has well described in her poem, " The Gambrel Roof."
Highway District.
The people of the villages of Danvers other than the New Mills, since the building of the road from the Ipswich road to Salem, and of the bridges over Crane and Waters rivers, had continually harassed and annoyed the people of New Mills, so that in 1772, in sheer defence, after forbearance had ceased to be a virtue, they, the New Mills inhabitants, ap- pealed to the General Court, asking that they might be in- corporated into a District and thus pay for the expense of their roads and bridges without any help from the town. A most unique proceeding, surely of rare occurrence in the province or state. The General Court granted their request. It was called a " Highway District," and the tract included therein was that portion of land lying between the two rivers, Crane and Porter's, the northern end being the Ipswich road from Crane River bridge on Ash Street to the bridge over Frost Fish, or Porter's River, and a part of the Endecott grant was also included in said District. This District continued its existence for about seventy years, and when the act was repealed the proprietors voted that the money on hand be used for repairing the roads and sidewalks in the District. The people in this District were true to their word, and all those years took the whole charge of their roads and bridges without any help from the town. Such responsibility would not be assumed to-day by any of our villages. They were a brave, strong set of men, these pioneers of New Mills, and included in their number the Porters, Berrys, Doles,
Historical Address. 127
Endicotts, Putnams, Reeds, Hutchinsons, Fowlers, Kents, Pages, Clarks, Browns, Feltons, and others. The act was repealed in 1840.
Seat of Government of Province Transferred from Boston to Salem. — General Gage in Danvers.
In 1765, when the English Parliament passed the Stamp Act, and for several years following, there was not the best of feeling existing between the colonies and England. Troops were sent here to watch the movements of the king's sub- jects. Indignities were heaped upon the people. Finally, in 1774, came the Boston Port Bill, by which the town of Boston was closed and the seat of government removed to Salem. Then it was that Danvers became a center of interest, for Gov. Thomas Gage came to live within its borders, in a house still standing, and known as " The Lindens," occupied now and for many years past by our townsman, Mr. Francis Peabody, which house was built in 1754 by Hon. Robert Hooper, the rich merchant of Marblehead ; and he it was who offered the same to Governor Gage for his residence. Gover- nor Gage remained here from June to September, 1774. He also had an office in the Colonel Page house. Danvers, in common with other towns in the province, became aroused. Dr. Samuel Holten was present at the session of the General Court in Salem in June, 1774, when brave Samuel Adams, with closed doors, caused the election of delegates to the first Continental Congress, while Thomas Flucker, the provincial secretary, having come down from Danvers to adjourn the court, not being able to get inside, gave his orders for adjourn- ment standing upon the stairs.
Preparations for Resistance.
These chosen representatives, with others, later resolved themselves into a Provincial Congress, which Congress adopted plans for organization of the militia, maintaining it, and
128 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
calling it out as occasion might require. Companies of minute men were organized who should be ready at a moment's notice, as the name suggests; also alarm companies, these in addition to the regular militia companies. Collection of military stores was ordered. A storm was brewing, a conflict seemed inevitable, and the people were preparing for it. At length in February, 1775, occurred the first armed resistance at North Bridge, Salem, fortunately without bloodshed; and later, on the 19th of April, 1775, the first battle of the Revo- lution was fought, called the Battle of Lexington, which was a continuous fight from early morn till evening. Eight companies departed from Danvers on that day, and ere nightfall seven of the Danvers men had fallen martyrs in defence of their homes and liberty. The following shows the spirit of the men of Danvers of that day. Jotham Webb, from New Mills, in Capt. Israel Hutchinson's company, had been married but a short time. On that eventful morning he went to his work as usual in the brick yard, and when the alarm came, left for his home, where he put on his wedding suit, remarking to his wife, who expostulated with him: " If I die, I will die in my best clothes." At Menotomy (now Arlington) , on the retreat of the British, he received a fatal shot at the first fire of the enemy.
War had now commenced in earnest and for the next seven years it was to continue. All through that long and anxious time the men and women of Danvers were loyal and true. All through these years her sons went forth to do battle, and many, officers and men, distinguished themselves, notably, Samuel Holten, Israel Hutchinson, Jeremiah Page, Samuel Page, Moses Porter, Caleb Rea, Rev. Benjamin Balch, Gideon Foster, Asa Prince, Deacon Edmund Putnam, Captains Flint, Epes, and Low, and many others, and last but not least. Gen. Israel Putnam, of whom Danvers is ever proud, and concern- ing whom General Sherman once said: " He was a glorious old soldier, and his services and example are worth a dozen
Historical Address. 129
monuments like that on Bunker Hill, even if made of pure gold." In 1783 peace was declared, and at that time the soldiers returned to their homes and settled down to their old life. A new nation had come into existence, had taken its place among the nations of the earth. Independence had been declared, but it had been gained at a most fearful cost. With brave hearts the people took up the future struggle, feeling that the victory gained was well worth the cost.
Building of Liberty Bridge.
In 1787 came another struggle, this time a local one, and also in relation to the old subject of bridges. Now not a district alone, but the whole town were interested. Previous to this uprising nearly all of the travel to Boston from the eastward, especially with teams, was by the grand trunk road of which I have previously spoken, and by the New Mills road. The only other way was by the ferry between Beverly and Salem. The General Court were at this time petitioned for authority to erect a bridge which should supersede the ferry, and the proposition met with favor except from the town of Danvers and a portion of the inhabitants of Salem. Danvers was bitterly opposed, as it would take away much of the travel through the town and also lessen the trade of Danvers. The following was written concerning Danvers in connection with this affair:
" Against the overwhelming current gathering head as it moved along, stood, like a rock, the ancient historic town of Danvers. It was a unit against the bridge. Single-handed, or with whatever help might offer, it was resolved to fight to the last ; and the massed array of Essex County was confronted in that antique spirit in which the town had sent its sons but a dozen years before, the spirit which an earlier struggle over a bridge had been fought out by the Roman champions when they stayed the Volscian cohorts thundering at the gates
" For if they once may win the bridge, What hope to save the town? "
130 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
The bridge between Salem and Beverly was built in 1788, and Danvers the same year built a bridge over Porter's River and named it Liberty Bridge. Salem people and others called it Spite Bridge, claiming it was built out of spite.
Manufacture of Shoes.
Previous to the nineteenth century shoes were made in our town by journeymen, who traveled from house to house, carrying their leather and their tools with them, and tarrying in each family until all were supplied with shoes. In the early part of the last century shoe factories were established and the leather prepared and sent to the outlying districts to be made into shoes. Then came into existence those little shops which were built and placed near the homes of the people in this and adjoining towns. Here in these shops several men worked making the shoes, and as they labored, discussed affairs pertaining to the nation, state, and town, and these affairs were settled to their satisfaction regardless of what those in authority might decide. The neighborhood affairs were also gone over, and the opinions of all asked and freely given; and ofttimes in the evening, as work was resumed, many strolled in to loaf away the evening hour, and when the lights were put out, and the door locked for the night, the participants departed to their homes, carrying with them delicious morsels to be rehearsed for the edification of the wife and friends at home. Shoe manufactories increased and spread fast over the town. This business was very much affected by the panics of 1837 and 1857, but the great crash came in 1861, when the Civil War broke out. Much of the business had been carried on with the Southern people, and, they now repudiating their debts, many of the manufacturers had but one course left — to fail. Since the war a large amount of business has been transacted here, but latterly it has declined until few factories are left. The little shoe shops are dismantled, and those now standing are reminders of the scenes of former days.
Historical Address. 131
Carpet Making. At one time there was an extensive carpet business in Tapleyville, but it has not existed for several years.
Iron Works. Two iron factories, one called the Salem Iron Factory Com- pany on Waters River, and the other, the Dan vers and Beverly Iron Works Company on Porter's River, were established in 1800 and 1803, respectively. There have been nail factories, fulling mills, wheat mills, and shops for casting. To-day there is a grist mill at Danversport, and where once stood the Salem Iron Factory Company's works, only one building remains, the rolling mill, and where were the works of the Danvers and Beverly Iron Works Company there is now a rubber factory.
Ship Building. Ship building was extensively carried on at New Mills both before and after the Revolution, even down to recent times. We have also had, and have to-day, the wood and coal business and box factories.
Potteries. Pottery has been extensively carried on from early days, and especially in what was formerly the south part of the town; and recently in our own town a very fine clay has been found for potters' use.
Inns or Taverns on the Old Ipswich Road. From the fact that a portion of the " Old Ipswich Road," that early way from Medford to Ipswich, lay over the terri- tory which is now our town, is the reason that inns were here in early times, one of the earliest being situated on the farm of Emanuel Downing, which farm was then in Salem, after- wards Danvers, and now in that part of Peabody called
132 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Proctor's Crossing. On this farm lived and roamed George Downing, who was the son of said Emanuel, and who was in the first class that graduated from Harvard; later, returning to England, he became distinguished, and Downing Street, in London, the most noted street of the world, was named for him.
Not far from this inn, and also near the old Ipswich Road, close by the King Hooper place, was a house of entertainment kept by Samuel Endicott, a descendant of the governor, and afterwards by Timothy Leach, and known at different times by the name of Endicott and Leach Inn. It was in existence in Revolutionary days and later, and also, without doubt, previous to the Revolution.
Still further along upon this old road stood another inn on what is now the corner of our present Elm and High streets. The land was owned by John Porter, the early settler, and then by his descendants. From the Porters it passed to Colonel Jeremiah Page, who conveyed the same to his son-in- law. Dr. Andrew Putnam, and he erected buildings thereon, but whether Putnam kept an inn is not known; but while he owned it one John Piemont, who came from Boston, kept a public house. At this inn or tavern many distinguished people tarried, especially lawyers and others on their journeys to and from Ipswich to attend court, John Adams, who afterwards became the second president of the United States, remained here over night, Monday, June 20, 1774, and ere he retired wrote in his diary words expressive of his feelings concerning his election at a session of the General Court, held in Salem on the Friday previous, as a delegate to a convention of delegates from the colonies to be held in Philadelphia in September, 1774. Josiah Quincy, Jr., also tarried here later, in company with Adams.
In 1775, at the commencement of hostilities, many were suspected of sympathy with England, and among others Mr. Piemont, the innkeeper, but he was exonerated by the
Historical Address. 133
committee of inspection of the town. This is the statement they made public concerning him, pubhshing the same in the Salem Gazette:
" This may certify that about two years ago Mr. John Piemont came to dwell in the town of Danvers, and was well recommended by the selectment of the town of Boston ; and though some persons have called him a Tory to his great damage, yet we, as a committee of in- spection for the town of Danvers, have carefully examined into Mr. Piemont 's character, and are fully satisfied that he is a friend to us in the common cause of our country, and we hope all our friends will treat him as such and call upon him for entertainment, as he keeps a large public house in said Danvers.
S. HOLTEN,
Israel Hutchinson, Amos Putnam, Wm. Shillaber, Benjamin Procter, Jona. Procter, Wm. Putnam, Committee of Inspection for said Danvers."
This report is interesting as showing the vigilance used to discover the position taken by the men of that day, thus proving them to be either a patriot or a Tory,
Dr. Putnam conveyed the premises to Gideon Putnam, who also kept a house of entertainment here. Samuel Putnam, who was the son of Gideon Putnam and who became a lawyer and later an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Massa- chusetts, spent his vacations here while a student at Harvard College.
Across the way, on the corner of our present High and Co- nant streets, was another inn, believed to have been here since 1741, and undoubtedly earlier.
In 1727 Benjamin Porter, grandson of the first John, deceased, leaving large tracts of real estate, and in his will devised two hundred acres to his two sons, John and Benja- min, the said acres being part of the tract having for its
134 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
bounds the Old Ipswich Road from the present Conant Street bridge to a point in said road on the present Ash Street not far from the Crane River bridge, then across to the brook by the car barns following the brook to Porter's River, and bounding on said river to the Conant Street bridge. This tract of two hundred acres was given to John and Benjamin to be held by them as tenants-in-common, but with this proviso that when divided the division of the land should be so made as to leave the buildings on Benjamin's part, the same being the home place of the first John, and which were destroyed by fire about the middle of the last century. The division was made in 1741, John's part being the northerly half, bounding on the Ipswich Road, a portion situate on what is now Danvers Square. At this time there were buildings on this part which had been erected between the years 1727 and 1741.
Whether there was an inn here or not previous to 1741 is not known. Presumably there was, but John Porter was an innkeeper and we assume may have kept an inn from 1741 to his death in 1759. The building which John died seized of in 1759 stood on or near the site of the present " Old Berry Tavern." After the death of John it passed into the hands of John, his son, and widow Apphia, then through the Porters and others, until Jethro and Timothy Putnam became the owners, and in 1804 they sold the premises to Ebenezer Berry, of Andover. He kept an inn or tavern here until his death in 1843, and then the same came into possession of his son, Eben G. Berry, and from him it passed to his descendants, who now own the same. There was probably a tavern or house of entertainment here from the death of John in 1759 to the time when Ebenezer Berry became owner. The old tavern was removed in parts when the present house was erected, and the hall part, that portion of the same which had been a part of the beautiful mansion erected on Folly Hill by William Browne, of Salem, about 1750, was also re-
Historical Address. 135
moved a short distance away and in the great fire of 1845 was burned, that fire which destroyed most of the buildings on both sides of that portion of Maple Street lying between Conant and Cherry streets.
Many distinguished persons must have tarried here. The hall of the old house was the portion of the " Browne Hall " already referred to. This hall was used on all state occasions. The officers of the militia at the May trainings had their headquarters here. The selectmen of the town met here, as did also Jordan Lodge of Masons, and here also were held the meetings of the Danvers Lyceum. Dr. Braman once deliv- ered a very funny lecture in this hall, the subject of which was " Quackery." Many debates took place in the old hall. And it is said that here were held those dancing parties, at the mention of which old eyes kindle and limbs no longer sprightly beat time to the echoes of the darky Harry's fiddle, which still linger in their ears.
Anti-Slavery Agitation.
In the second quarter of the last century the anti-slavery agitation began in Danvers. It was an epoch in the history of the town. At first, and most of the time, only a small number became interested, but what they lacked in numbers, they certainly made up in enthusiasm. Not content with ex- pounding their doctrine in halls, and occasionally m churches, they seemed never so happy as when, having obtained entrance into a religious assembly, not only would they denounce the slave traffic, but in just as severe terms the church for its lukewarmness in the cause of the slave. At the New Mills, where the excitement seemed most intense, the services in the Baptist and Universalist churches were disturbed, so much so that the disturbers were arrested, and some of them lodged in jail. Like all reforms, the agitation drew to it many who were an injury to the cause. The impulses of these agitators were right, — this certainly, to-day, we do
136 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
not question, — but their methods were not always correct, especially when they sought to interfere with the rights of others. They drew to their side many who became strong believers in the freedom of the slave, and some of them lived to see the day when the words of their great apostle, Garrison, came true.
" Know this, O man! whate'er thy earthly fate,
God never made a tyrant or a slave ; Woe, then, to those who dare to desecrate
His glorious image ! for to all He gave Eternal rights, which none may violate,
And by a mighty hand the oppressed he yet shall save ! "
Slavery on our Territory.
In connection with the anti-slavery excitement it may be interestmg to relate that slaves were owned here in early days; indeed, until after the close of the Revolutionary War. John Porter, an early comer, and who probably was the largest real estate owner who ever dwelt within the borders of the town, was a slave owner, for in the inventory of his estate, in 1676, we read:
" Two negro servants valued at £40."
His grandson, Benjamin Porter, deceased in 1727; and his will recites that he gives and bequeathes to his wife, Hannah Porter, his negro maid servant, and in his inventory said negro woman is appraised at £70.
In the inventory taken in 1766 of estate of Capt. Samuel Endicott, of Danvers, who lived and died on the Endecott grant, the appraisers state, " Two old negros, in our opinion a charge on the estate, we do not appraise."
In March, 1774, the executor of the will of Peter Putnam, of Danvers, advertised in the Salem Gazette, as follows: " A negro woman, about twenty-nine years of age, belonging to said estate, to be sold for want of employ."
And in 1754 Daniel Epes, Jr., sold to Ebenezer Jacobs, for
Introductory Address. 137
the sum of £45 6s. 8d., lawful money, a negro boy named Primus.
It is also an interesting fact that some of the strongest agitators in the anti-slavery movement in Danvers were descendants of these men who owned slaves.
Communication with Other Towns.
Previous to the year 1848 the only way of reaching other towns was by walking, by private conveyance, or by stage. The stages passing through this town were as follows : From Portsmouth, N. H., through Haverhill, Topsfield, Danvers Plains and Port to Salem and Boston; from Haverhill direct to Salem; from Newbury port to Boston over the Newbury- port Turnpike, which road was built in the early part of the nineteenth century, and passed through the upper part of the town; and another between Salem and Merrimac (the river), going from Salem through Danvers New Mills, North Danvers, Middleton, and North Andover, returning to Salem through South Andover, Middleton, and Tapley's Village. Later, coaches ran direct from Danvers proper through Dan- versport to Salem, and from Danvers Centre to Salem. In March, 1846, a charter was obtained for a steam railroad from Salem to Lawrence to pass through this town. Work was commenced upon the same, September 8, 1846, and the road was opened to South Danvers January 19, 1848; to North or present Danvers, July 1, 1848; and to Lawrence in Sep- tember of the same year. This road in Salem connected with the road to Boston. The following account of the celebration at the opening of the road to Lawrence will be of interest :
" Monday, September 4, 1848, the completion of the road was celebrated. A train of eight cars left the depot of the Eastern Railroad in Salem at ten o'clock, and proceeding through Danvers (south and north), Middleton, and North Andover, carried about six hundred stockholders and invited guests to Lawrence. The road from North Danvers or Danvers Plains is quite straight and generall}' of easy
138 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
grade to its terminus. The land all along abounds with the best material, a coarse gravel, for building the road, and the road bed appears to be remarkably solid and even. The country which it passes is mostly an agricultural district, and much of it under high cultiva- tion."
Afterwards a railroad was built from Danvers to George- town, from Georgetown to Newburyport, and from Danvers to South Reading, bringing about another railway connection with Boston.
Later on came the horse-cars, and still later, electrics, with which we are all familiar.
Centennial of the Town.
September 22, 1851, a town meeting was held in Granite Hall, North Danvers, and a committee appointed to make arrangements for the celebration of the one hvmdredth anni- versary of the life of the town, and on Wednesday, June 16, 1852, the centennial was observed. It was a great success, though the day was oppressively hot, as is well remembered by some present here to-day. Hon. John W. Proctor was the orator on this occasion. After the procession a dinner took place imder a canvas, which was largely attended, and various toasts were responded to, but there was one sentiment sent from a native of the town then dwelling in a foreign country, and who was unable to be present, which occasioned great joy to the people of the town. " Education, a debt due from present to future generations." This was enclosed with a letter from Mr. George Peabody, of London, England, to the committee, and there was also another letter in which he announced a gift to the town of $20,000 for the pm-pose of erecting a building for a lyceum and library for the pro- motion of knowledge and morality. This gift was received with great applause. It was the first, but not the last, gift to the town from Mr, Peabody, by which we have become
Historical Address. 139
his debtors, and in these acts he endeared himself to us for all time.
Division of Danvers.
In 1855 Danvers was greatly stured by the petition to the legislature of Benjamin Goodridge and eighteen others, residents of the south part of the town, in which they recite that, owing to the large extent of territory in the town, increase of inhabitants, and distance between the principal villages, these things render it inconvenient for the transaction of the town business, and that an exigency has thereby arisen which calls for a division of the town. They, therefore, pray for a division of the same. This action created a storm of indignation, especially in the north part of the town, as was shown in the dispatch with which petitions against said divi- sion were presented to the General Court. From the Plains and the Port, from Putnamville, Tapleyville, and the Centre, from Beaver Brook and Swan's Crossing, came remonstrances long and loud, and it must also be recalled that some of the remonstrants were from the south part of the town. In the petitions of those favoring division various reasons were given, among others, that, which recited that the town had increased in population, was indeed true. We had at that time the rather unusual spectacle of two town houses, two high schools, and town meetings were held, first in one parish, then in the other. Petty jealousies had arisen, each parish seemed to try to get advantage of the other; one was accused of having all the orators, the other the money. Hearings were had, and finally. May 18, 1855, the General Court passed an act dividing the town, the part going off to be called South Danvers. This was accomplished, notwithstanding the efforts of the then Demosthenes of the north part of the town, the great war horse. When the result was known, great was the rejoicing in that part set off as South Danvers. Bells were rung, crackers fired, bonfires lighted, bands played, and a
140 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
general good time indulged in. But, in the midst of this happiness, there were not a few who were to become residents of the new town, who did not feel to rejoice. The words of one of their number voiced the deep sorrow of their hearts, when he observed:
" My chief objection to a division arises from a reluctance to break up the old associations. It is the misfortune of some of us that we cannot readily abandon old scenes, old names, and old friends. We like them because they are good and because they are old. This new measure plays the mischief with one's birthplace. I never was born in such a town as South Danvers, and if I claim to be a Danvers man I am impudently told I don't belong to Danvers. I am a for- eigner in my own birthplace and exposed to the ban of any political party which may arise, requiring a man to be born in the place of his nativity. Then the name South Danvers! It has a suburban odor and smacks of an appendage to a larger and better town. How degrading to part with that venerable name. We give it up with scarce a thought, and with it all the accumulated records and docu- ments of an hundred years. All the recorded evidence of births, marriages, and deaths, and we have to go out of town to hunt up our genealogies and birthrights. The tenement is empty and we must get new furniture to set up housekeeping. For a week or more we shall be without any town government, not even a constable to pre- serve the peace or a hog reeve to protect the swine. There will then be no fathers of the town, and — so sad — we shall all be in a state of orphanage. This town of South Danvers never sent heroes to the Concord fight. It is yet uncertain where the villages of Locustdale, Brookdale, and Rockville will find themselves. The Devil's Dishful! man don't yet know which town he is to live in, and he is yet to hear whether he is to fraternize with the Rocks or Blind Hole. At present he feels that he lives nowhere."
Can it be that thoughts like these preyed upon the minds and hearts of the people of South Danvers for thirteen years ! And then, realizing what they had done in tearing themselves so ruthlessly from their dear old mother Danvers, and feeling that they could no longer lay claim to the old name, sought to drown their troubles and sorrows by losing their former identity in the name of Peabody!
Historical Address. 141
Peabody Institute.
December 22, 1856, Mr. George Peabody, of London, writing from Boston to the trustees of the Peabody Institute, stated that
" The population of Danvers is mostly too remote therefrom, and cannot very conveniently share fully its privileges. It has occurerd to me that a Branch Library might be established in Danvers, in some central position (probably the Plains), which would remedy the existing difficulty and would secure to the inhabitants of Danvers a more equal participation in the benefits, which it was my design to confer upon all. I therefore propose to make a donation of $10,000 for the purpose of establishing a Branch Library, to be located as before mentioned, provided the suggestions and conditions hereinafter stated are satisfactory to all the parties in interest."
Mr. Peabody desired that the new library be called the Branch Library of the Peabody Institute, and to be under the control of the present trustees. Three thousand dollars was to be expended at once for the purchase of books, and the fitting up of a room or rooms for their reception, and $7,000 dollars to be safely invested by the trustees, and the income used by the library and lyceum committee of the Institute for the increase of the library, payment of rent, and other expenses, the inhabitants of Danvers still to be entitled to full enjoyment of parent library, and the inhabi- tants of South Danvers to have same privilege in Branch Library. Mr. Peabody selected a committee to meet the trustees and library committee in relation to a Branch Library, consisting of the following persons : Joshua Silvester, Samuel Preston, William L. Weston, Milton P. Braman, James D. Black, and Matthew Hooper. In February, 1857, rooms in the Town House were fitted for the reception of books. Soon after the gift of Mr. Peabody, action was taken by the town, looking to the purchase of a lot of land, where might be placed a library building. April 18, 1857, Joshua Silvester, Simeon Putnam, and John R. Langley, for $4,000, conveyed
142 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
to the town of Danvers a piece of land on Sylvan Street, containing four acres and seventy-five rods, and to it was given the name of " Peabody Park." This estate was con- veyed upon this condition that the premises, or any part thereof, shall never be occupied by any building except such as shall be used for the purpose of a public library, or lyceum, or both. The Branch Library was opened to the public Saturday, September 5, 1857, with 2,360 volumes. Later, Mr. Peabody added 2,000 volumes.
In a letter dated Oakland, Md., October 30, 1866, and addressed to Milton P. Braman, Joshua Silvester, Francis Peabody, Jr., Samuel P. Fowler, Daniel Richards, Israel W. Andrews, Jacob F. Perry, Charles P. Preston, and Israel H. Putnam, Mr. Peabody announced a gift of $40,000, which, with the previous gift of $10,000, made a total of $50,000, which sum was to be held byjthese gentlemen, in trust, for the inhabitants of the town of Danvers, thus establishing an Institute in Danvers separate and distinct from the one in South Danvers, each town to relinquish all rights and privileges in the institute of the other town. This institute was to stand " for the promotion of knowledge and morality in the town of Danvers." The trustees were to set apart $30,000, the income to be used for lyceum and library pur- poses, and $20,000 to be set apart for the erection of a library building, which building he desired should be erected within two years.
The town, at a legal meeting held March 18, 1867, voted that the selectmen of the town be, and they are, hereby author- ized to transfer to the trustees of the Peabody Institute the lot known as Peabody Park, for the purpose of erecting thereon, at such time as the trustees may deem expedient, a lyceum and library building; and May 1, 1867, the deed to the trustees was passed.
The trustees caused a building to be erected upon the Park, Mr. Peabody having given an additional sum of $5,000 towards
Historical Address. 143
erection of building, and the same having reached completion, was dedicated with interesting and appropriate ceremonies Wednesday, July 14, 1869, in the presence of a large audience. A pleasing feature on this occasion was the presence of Mr. Peabody, and the citizens of the town derived great pleasure therefrom, and delighted to honor him, their benefactor. Mr. Peabody made an address, and in the same announced another gift of $45,000, making, with $55,000 already given, a total of $100,000. This was received with great applause. He also said, referring to the library:
" And I trust it will show itself powerfully among all classes, old and young, and be a lasting benefit for many generations to come. I will do myself justice by saying, since some men doubt, that this springs from the natural sincerity of the heart. A very old writer has said that ' a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.' I do not exactly agree with that writer. I never have, and I never can, obliterate the feeling which has always existed within me that my birthplace is intimately associated with the town of Danvers. My friends, I can never expect to address you again collectively, but rest assured that wherever I may be, your town and its institutions will occupy a prominent place in my mind, and I hope that this institution will be through all time a source of pleasure and profit. I bid you all a most affectionate farewell."
The intimation that the South Danvers rose did not smell quite so sweet by the name of Peabody as by the old name was very pleasing to the people of Danvers, and was not un- pleasing to the residents of Peabody who were present on that occasion.
Mr. Peabody soon after returned to England, where, in London, November 4, 1869, he passed from the scenes of earth, after a life well spent in the service of and for the good of his fellow-men. Almost the last words he uttered were, *' Danvers, Danvers, don't forget." Great honors were paid to his life and memory. Funeral services were held in West- minster Abbey, after which his body was buried beneath the floor of its nave. Queen Victoria and her subjects would
144 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
have been glad had his body remamed there, but m accordance with an oft-expressed desire of Mr. Peabody to be buried in Danvers, his wish was comphed with, and later, tenderly were his remains taken from the great abbey and placed on board an English war ship, and, convoyed by an American and a French ship, were carried across the Atlantic, and finally laid to rest in his native town.
In respect for and admiration of the man who had done so much for London, the authorities caused to be inserted in the floor of the nave of the noble Minster, over the place of burial, a slab with an inscription thereon, reciting the fact of tem- porary burial there, and removal of body later to his native town in America,
Here
were deposited
FROM Nov. 12 TO Dec. 11,
1869
the remains of
GEORGE PEABODY
THEN REMOVED TO HIS NATIVE COUNTRY
AND BURIED AT DANVERS, NOW PEABODY,
IN MASSACHUSETTS.
" I HAVE PRAYED MT HeAVENLY FaTHER DAY BY DAY
" That I might be enabled before I died to shew my gratitude " For the blessings which he has bestowed upon me, " By doing some great good to my fellow-men."
" Let your light so shine before men,
That they may see your good works
And glorify your father
Which is in heaven."
Portion of Beverly Annexed to Danvers.
Two years after the departure of the South Parish, a knock is heard at the door of the town asking for admission. It was from the people dwelling upon our eastern border, across the Porter's River, and whose territory was formerly a part of
Historical Address. 145
Salem Village of old, but for many years a part of the town of Beverly. The town of Beverly opposed, but the legisla- ture granted the request of the petitioners, and April 27, 1857, the territory in question was annexed. The reason given by those who desired to become a part of Danvers was that they lived near to Danvers and all their associations were with its people. When it was decided that this part of Beverly should become a part of Danvers, a lad scarce in his teens, but who had grown up beneath the shadow, and who had wandered over the top and sides of that beautiful old hill which then became ours, could hardly control his feelings of indignation that his town should without more of a struggle part with that ancient and endearing landmark.
War between the States.
A few years go by, and Danvers, in common with the people of our land, awoke one morning to find our beloved country involved in a civil war — that most to be dreaded of all wars, brother fighting against brother. While the election of Abraham Lincoln as President was the tlirect cause, the struggle had been hastened by those people already referred to — the Abolitionists. When war was declared, and troops called for by the government, the men of Danvers, worthy of their revolutionary ancestors, hastened to the defence of their country, fathers and sons and brothers, all eager to do duty in this most holy and righteous cause. They went from their homes to defend and save that which the fathers with their life blood had purchased, and now that rents had been made in their country, they were willing, if needs be, to shed their own blood, if thereby the Union, which had been so suddenly torn asunder, might be cemented again, so strong that it never afterwards could be parted.
How well I remember, as a high-school boy, Friday after- noon, April 18, 1861, looking out of the hall window of the school building on the Holten Street side, and observing the
146 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Danvers men from Tapleyville and the Centre marching to the music of the drum and fife to the station, there to take the cars for Salem, to join the companies to which they belonged. I recall that three months later, on the return of the companies, how one of these men came not back, but lingered behind in a southern prison, having been captured at Bull Run, that first great battle of the war. The memory of these events lingers fresh in my mind as if it were only yesterday that they occurred. Afterwards two companies were formed in our own town, and many of our citizens allied themselves to other companies. For four long years the war went on. What years they were to the people of this land! How hope and despair alternated! Yet many never lost faith, never doubted that the end would bring victory to the North. During these years our brave boys fought, bled, and many died, that you and I might still have a country to love. We honor and esteem the men of revolutionary days and we do well. It is our duty, and he who does not is recreant to his sacred trust as an American citizen. Just as strong is our honor and esteem for the men of 1861, for what would the work of the fathers have profited us if the boys in blue had not gone forth to save their country when hands were raised to destroy it? God bless the boys who wore the blue — the Grand Army of the Republic — their ranks fast thinning on this side, but those who remain, still marching steadily on to one day join their comrades waiting to receive them on the eternal camping ground.
State Hospital for Insane. In 1874, upon one of the highest hills in our town, it being a portion of a grant made by the town of Salem in 1637 to William Hathorne, said hill bearing the name of Hathorne, was erected by the state of Massachusetts a long line of build- ings of brick and stone, to be used as a hospital for the state's insane; and for over a quarter of a century has it stood like
Historical Address. 147
a castle or beacon, seen from all about the surrounding country.
Hundreds of patients have been confined here during all these years and been cared for by a corps of skilled physicians and attendants. The situation of the hospital is most pleas- ant, a perfect panorama of scenery being visible for miles around, although in beholding and contemplating the same, the enjoyment is somewhat tinged with sadness as one remembers the unhappy lives confined within the walls of the asylum.
Coming to Danvers of John G. Whittier. In 1876, on invitation of his cousins, Mrs. Woodman and the Misses Johnson, who had recently purchased the pleasant home of William A. Lander, situate in the north part of our town, and on the grant made to John Putnam, an early settler, Mr. Whittier came to live with them, and from that time until his decease spent here a large portion of the years. To this delightful and pleasant home he gave the name " Oak Knoll," a name which will always remain and ever remind the citizens of Danvers of the beloved poet and friend. Here he received many distinguished visitors and friends, and while seldom appearing among the people, yet it was always a source of pleasure to them to know that he dwelt within our borders. Many of his later poems were written in Danvers.
From this time on events follow in rapid succession ; among others, the war with Spain in 1898, when the young men of Danvers responded to the call of their country, as did their fathers before them; and from the town departed a company, all of whom, but one who sickened and died from disease, returned when the war was over. Changes have taken place, some of them most wonderful. The old seems ever to be giving place to the new, but we think not always better ways than those of the past. We have grown in population; we
148 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
are to-day a large town; but the time is not sufficient to relate more. Recent events are fresh in all our minds.
Conclusion. We who dwell here have had our lines cast in pleasant places. What better time than now to be impressed with this fact! Wander over our town to-day, and you will find it a charming place, in which are fine drives, lined with beautiful trees, for which we are very much indebted to a former citizen, whom we hold in sincere affection for his perseverance in securing their planting, so many years ago, and which we to-day so highly prize, — Joshua Silvester, You will find, also, hills and valleys, and green meadows; also charming scenery, espe- cially as seen from the hilltops, both inland and marine, making such delightful pictures; old homes which still cling to the soil, the homes of Rebecca Nourse, of Lieut. Thomas Putnam, George Jacobs, Nathan Reed, and of Samuel Hoi ten ; homes where were born Generals Israel Putnam, Moses Porter, Col. Israel Hutchinson, and Gen. Grenville M. Dodge; the homes of Joseph and James Putnam, of Bishop, and of Daniel Rea, and many more; the Peabody Institute, set in the midst of the pleasant park, and which calls to mind the donor, George Peabody, a distinguished son of Danvers, who was beloved and respected in two hemispheres, and whom we are proud to call our benefactor. These, and many more which might be mentioned, speak of the past. You will find to-day a people, kind and true, good neighbors and friends, the home makers who, no less than those who have become distinguished in the past, have in the humble but also important walks of life, by their lives and conversation, done so much to make our town a good community ; a people peculiar in their dislike of shams, quick to detect any attempt to affect that which is not possessed, and who duly appreciate true wealth, the wealth of character, rating every person at his real value.
The Elm-Tree's Story. 149
We rejoice that it was the farmers, as distinguished from the merchants and traders of Salem, who gave us this goodly- home — this town of ours. In all the changes that have taken place the farmers have always been with us. Go where you will, and you will find no better farms, no finer land under cultivation; our farmers have ever wooed and won from the earth the fruits hidden in her soil.
May they who shall be dwellers here when the two hun- dredth anniversary shall occur, look, as we do to-day, on one of the fairest places, and be proud, as we are, to call the same by that dearest of all names, — " Home, Sweet Home."
The Elm-Tree's Story, by josephine roache. If we could understand the language old
That hides from us in voices of the pine, Could guess the secret of June's murmuring leaves,
What stories of the past could we divine! What revelation of a distant day
When this, our well-beloved town, was young, If we could learn the meaning of that speech
In which the trees have since creation sung.
As thus I mused beneath an aged tree,
An old inhabitant of Danvers town, The great elm swayed from trunk to topmost branch,
And thrice it bowed its verdant leafy crown; Then spake in slow and stately harmonies.
I listened while the tree its story told, And on my vision under that green shade
The changing pageant of the past unrolled.
A picturesque procession wound along ;
Quaint Puritanic ruff and doublet came In friendly march with Quakers' quiet garb ;
In coif and kerchief followed maid and dame ;
150 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
A sachem's feathers proudly waved beside The martial Continental buff and blue ;
Now farthingale swept by ; now towered calash ; Now girls in college gowns were full in view.
The elm-tree said: " My kinsfolk saw the barge
Of Endicott float on the river's tide ; T watched the Indian's forest camp-fire blaze
Where now his children's children bide. In my green branches brown Tituba saw
The gleam of witches' weird and baleful glance ; Once in their piteous delusion came
The children from the dreary haunted manse.
" One early April morn, a little group
Of Danvers townsmen gathered here ; The volunteers for Lexington marched by
To sound of drum and bell and ringing cheer. Here, too, one April night, were sadly borne
The Danvers minute-men who bravely died, Swept onward by that glorious impulse strong
When rose, full flood, the patriotic tide.
" When cannon sounded through the waiting air,
From far-off fighting on old Bunker Hill, The elm-tree listened with its townsfolk dear.
And felt with them the breath of freedom thrill. 'Twas mine to see how in that rising grand,
Which kept the Union sacred and secure, ^ The old town held to ancient lineage true. :":'
Ah, long that golden record shall endure !
" How many midnights closest shade I drew
Around the fugitive from slavery's shame! How often whispered courage to his soul,
How with him hailed that morn when freedom came ! Here sometimes strolled a poet, honored guest ;
He sang the slave and freeman's brotherhood, For Whittier was Mother Nature's child
And all her signs and voices understood.
" I saw long since the earliest schoolhouse built, And now I mark the happy morning throng
Of hurrying children, whom to greet I bend, And whom my orioles welcome with a song.
The Elm-Tree's Story. 151
What names the beadroU of my memory bears!
Holten and Bowditch sported 'neath my shade; How many Porters, Putnams, have I known!
'Twas yesterday that Moody round me played.
" How many times on each town meeting day
Have citizens returning here discussed, Under the stars, the ehns all listening round.
With trenchant jest and controversial thrust, The plans propounded for the common weal!
For liberty must keep her watch and ward. At last from seeming discords of debate
The people's voice is heard in wise accord.
" The town and I grew up together, strong
And sturdy growths, from youth to this, her prime ; And in our riper years we wait to hail
The coming of that better, gentler time When fame shall write the highest on her scroll,
As here in Danvers, so in all the world, The men who victories of Peace have won,
Who bear her stainless standard wide unfurled."
The services were closed with the singing, by the choir and the whole assembly, of the lines :
" Be thou, 0 God, exalted high, And as thy glory fills the sky, So let it be on earth displayed Till thou art here as there obeyed."
152 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
The Banquet.
The banquet, served at the Town Hall, on the afternoon of Monday, the 16th, by Caterer Tanner, of Haverhill, was a very enjoyable affair. Covers were laid for four hundred persons, and every seat was taken. Hon. Samuel L. Sawyer presided at the postprandial exercises.
Prayer was offered by Rev. Edson J. Reifsnider. William B. Sullivan read letters of regret, among them one from Ex- Gov. George S. Boutwell, who stated that he was present at the banquet fifty years ago, and would have liked to attend this one. Secretary of the Navy William H. Moody, who passed his boyhood days in Danvers, and was an attendant at the Holten High School, explained that an official engage- ment in Washington detained him. Sen. George Frisbee Hoar and Gov. Winthrop Murray Crane also sent regrets, and a telegram was received from John J. Myers, speaker of the House of Representatives, saying that he was unex- pectedly delayed by a roll-call, and could not arrive in time for the banquet.
The program was as follows :
Introductory Remarks by the Chairman, Samuel L. Sawyer
Reading of Letters from Invited Guests, by the Secretary,
W. B. Sullivan The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Hon. John L. Bates, Lt.-Gov. The City of Beverly, Mayor Samuel Cole
The Town of Peabody, Rep. Charles H. Goulding
The Town of Danvers, Selectman R. D. Bates
Improvement Society, Dr. W. W. Eaton, President
G. A. R. and Kindred Organizations, Capt. Charles H. Masury Danvers Women's Association, Mrs. I. E. Kenney, President
Danvers School Committee, A. P. Learoyd, Secretary
" Need of Higher Education," Hon. J. F. Porter
" Marking Historic Places," Rep. Charles H. Preston
" Impressions of Danvers, Past and Present," William M. Currier " Young Men, Natives of Danvers, Who Have Made
Homes Elsewhere," John E. Maguire, Haverhill
The Banquet. 153
" Energy of the Early Settlers of Danversport,"
John W. Porter, Esq. " Early Residents of Putnamville," William E. Putnam
" Spirit of Our Founders," D. N. Crowley, Esq.
" Judge Holten," W. B. Sullivan, Esq.
" Past, Present, and Future," Andrew H. Paton
" Our Message to the Bi-Centennial," Hon. A. P. White
Singing, " Auld Lang Syne," By the Audience
The Menu.
Young Roast Turkey, Cranberry Sauce
Mashed Potatoes
Cold Ham , Cold Tongue
Dressed Tomatoes Dressed Cucumbers
Lobster Salad Chicken Croquettes, French Peas
Banana Fritters, Wine Sauce
ICE CRE.IM
Frozen Pudding Orange Bombe
Watermelon Ice Cream Neapolitan Ice Cream
Orange and Raspberry Sherbet
CAKE
Pound Lady Fingers Fancy Cakes
Assorted Macaroons Almond Drops
Fruit Cake
Strawberries and Cream
Rolls Butter Tea
Coffee
In opening the after-dinner speaking, the toastmaster, Mr. Sawyer, said:
" Fellow-Citizens and Invited Guests: I realize that it is not the duty of a presiding officer to make a speech, but I shall not be loyal to my own convictions if I refrain from expressing at this time my appreciation of the high honor which has been conferred upon me by the Committee of Arrangements, to preside at this, the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the town of Danvers. We have a long list of speakers on many different subjects, and it will be my duty to see that the instructions of the committee in regard
154 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
to the limit of time allowed each speaker is strictly adhered to. After careful deliberation it has been found necessary to limit the time of each speaker to five or ten minutes if we are to conclude this service in a reasonable time, and I trust that all the speakers will cooperate with the toastmaster in reaching this very desirable conclusion. We have a number of letters from invited guests unable to be present, from whom you will be pleased to hear, and I will now ask your atten- tion while they are being read by the secretary, William B. Sullivan, Esq."
Mr. Sullivan here read the following letters:
White House.
Washington, D. C, May 24, 1902, William B. Sullivan, Clerk of Committee, Danvers, Mass. : My dear Sir, — The President has been much gratified by the invitation which you have been pleased to extend to him to attend the celebration that is being arranged for June 16 and 17, and he regrets that the pressure of his official duties and engagements will preclude him from sending an acceptance.
With assurances that your thoughtfulness is appreciated, believe me, Very truly yours,
George B. Cortelyou, Secretary to the President.
Navy Department.
Washington, May 12, 1902. William B. Sullivan, Esq., Danvers, Mass.:
Dear Sir, — I have to acknowledge and thank you for your kind invitation to attend the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the independent municipal existence of the town of Danvers. I very much regret that on June 16 I am compelled to be in Washington, where I have an official engagement. It would give me much personal satisfaction to be present on that occasion, but I must content myself with sending congratulations to the people of the town on its honorable past and my best wishes for its future. Yours very truly,
W. H. Moody, Secretary of the Navy.
The Banquet. 155
United States Senate.
Washington, D. C, May 12, 1902. W. B. Sullivan, Esq., Danvers, Mass.:
My dear Sir, — Your invitation to attend the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Danvers' independent munici- pal existence on June 16 and 17, 1902, is very attractive indeed.
My great grandfather, the Rev. Benjamin Prescott, was minister in the part of Salem which was afterward Danvers and which later became Peabody. His dwelling house is still standing there, and the tomb where he and many of his family were laid to rest is there. So I have some title to be counted as a Danvers man by descent. But I suppose the 16th and 17th of June will be among the busiest days of a very busy session of Congress. It does not seem likely that I can get away.
I am, with high regard,
Very truly yours,
Geo. F. Hoar.
United States Senate.
Washington, D. C, May 12, 1902. W. B. Sullivan, Esq., Danvers, Mass.:
My dear Sir, — I have received your letter of the 10th containing the very kind invitation of the town of Danvers to attend the cele- bration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its independent municipal existence on June 16 and 17. I regret to say that there is no prospect that Congress will be adjourned at that date, and therefore I shall be unable to leave Washington, as the press of public business is very great. With many thanks for the invitation. Very truly yours,
H. C. Lodge.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Executive Department.
Boston, May 15, 1902.
Mr. William B. Sullivan, Clerk of General Committee, Danvers, Mass. : My dear Sir, — I beg to acknowledge receipt of the courteous invitation of the town of Danvers to attend the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of its inde- pendent municipal existence on June 16 and 17, and for which I thank
156 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
you. I assure you that I should be glad to participate in this cele- bration were it not for the great pressure of my official duties at the State House. The legislative session will doubtless at that time be drawing to a close, and I do not feel able to take upon myself any additional responsibilities.
I take pleasure in sending you, however, my best, wishes for the continued prosperity of your town, and beg to remain, Yours very truly,
W, M. Crane.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Council Chamber.
Boston, June 6, 1902. William B. Sullivan, Esq., Clerk of Committee, Danvers, Mass. : My dear Sir, — I accept with pleasure the invitation of the town of Danvers to be present at the celebration of its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary on June 16. Thanking the committee, I remain, Very truly yours,
John L. Bates.
Supreme Court. Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
May 24, 1902. Chief Justice Holmes regrets exceedingly that his engagements do not permit his accepting the kind invitation of the town of Danvers for June 16-17.
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Office of the Attorney-General.
Boston, June 5, 1902. William B. Sullivan, Clerk,
Committee of the Town of Danvers : My dear Sir, — I have received with great pleasure your courteous invitation to attend the celebration of the anniversary of the estab- lishment of the town of Danvers.
I trust that it may be possible for me to accept your hospitality on one or the other of the days fixed.
Very truly yours,
Herbert Parker.
The Banquet. 157
Massachusetts Senate. President's Room.
Boston, June 10, 1902. William B. Sullivan, Esq., Danvers, Mass.:
Dear Sir, — I beg to acknowledge receipt through you of invitation to be present on the occasion of the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of your town. It would give me great pleasure to attend, but I have a previous engagement for the 17th and I do not dare to make engagements that will take me away from the Senate at this stage of the session. Thanking you for the invitation, I remain,
Yours truly,
RuFus A. Soule.
Law Office of Long & Hemenway.
Boston, May 23, 1902. My dear Sir, — I very much appreciate the courtesy paid me by the town of Danvers in inviting me to attend the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its incorporation, and much regret that my intended absence from the state on the 16th, and an engagement for the Seventeenth of June prevent my acceptance. Thanking you for your courtesy, I am,
Very truly yours,
John D. Long.
Brackett & Roberts, Counsellors-at-Law.
Boston, June 9, 1902. William B. Sullivan, Esq.:
Dear Sir, — I am in receipt of the kind invitation of the town of Danvers to the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its establish- ment, on the 16th and 17th inst. It would give me great pleasure to attend, but my engagements for the dates named are such as to prevent. Regretting this, and cordially thanking you for the invi- tation, I am.
Very truly yours,
J. Q. A. Brackett.
No. 1 Broadway, New York, May 26, 1902. William B. Sullivan, Esq., Danvers, Mass.:
Dear Sir, — I am in receipt of yours of May 23, extending to me an invitation to attend the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth
158 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
anniversary of the establishment of the independent municii^al exist- ence of Danvers on June 16 and 17, 1902.
It would be a great pleasure to me to be present on that occasion , it being my own birthplace, but my engagements are such that it will be impossible for me to attend.
Thanking you for the invitation, and extending my best wishes for the future prosperity of the old town, I am, Very truly yours,
Granville M. Dodge.
Boston, June 6, 1902. William B. Sullivan, Esq., Danvers, Mass.:
Dear Sir, — I thank you and the town of Danvers very much for the complimentary invitation to be present at the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of its munici- pal independence, and regret that my engagements are such that I
am unable to accept.
Very truly yours,
Richard Olney.
53 State Street, Boston, June 2, 1902. My dear Sir, — I fear that I have neglected your invitation to be present at the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Danvers.
As the time approaches I realize that I must decline. As I was present fifty years ago, I am anxious to be with you on the coming anniversary, but I must put the opportunity aside. Very truly yours,
George S. Boutwell.
County Treasurer's Office, Salem, Mass., June 7, 1902. Mr. William B. Sullivan, Clerk of Committee, Danvers, Mass. : My dear Sir, — Your very kind invitation to be present at the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town of Danvers, to be held on June 16 and 17, is duly received. I cannot at the present time decide whether or not I can be present. It would, however, give me very great pleasure, and I fully appreciate the
invitation.
Very respectfully yours,
David J. Robinson.
The Banquet. 159
City of Salem, Mass., Mayor's Office, May 13, 1902. William B. Sullivan, Esq., Danvers, Mass.:
Dear Sir, — I have your kind invitation to attend the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the municipal exist- ence of Danvers, and beg to accept the same with my sincere regards for your kindness.
I trust that the celebration will be an affair that will linger long in the minds of the Danvers citizens, and in the years to come, when Danvers perhaps may be an enterprising city, they will look back upon the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Danvers as an epoch in her history.
Thanking you once again for your kindness, I remain,
Yours respectfully,
John F. Hurley, Mayor.
City of Beverly, Mass.,
City Hall, May 12, 1902.
Mr. William B. Sullivan,
Clerk of the General Committee, Danvers, Mass. :
Dear Sir, — Your letter of the 10th inst., inviting me to attend the
one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the independent municipal
existence of the town of Danvers on June 16 and 17, received.
Please accept my thanks for the invitation, and I shall be most
pleased to attend.
Yours respectfully, Samuel Cole, Mayor.
Peabody, Mass., June 4, 1902. W. B. Sullivan, Esq.:
My dear Sir, — Replying to the kind invitation of May 15 to
attend the Danvers celebration, I thank you most sincerely and shall
hope to be present.
Very truly yours, C. H. Goulding.
Selectmen's Department, Topsfield, Mass., May 19, 1902. William B. Sullivan,
Clerk of Committee on Celebration : Sir, — It is with pleasure I accept your kind invitation to attend the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Danvers' independent municipal existence on June 16 and 17, 1902.
Yours very truly, W. Donaldson,
Chairman of Board of Selectmen.
160 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Office of the Town Clerk, Peabody, Mass., May 16, 1902. William B. Sullivan, Esq.,
Clerk of the General Committee : Dear Sir, — The Board of Selectmen wish me to express to the town of Danvers their thanks for the invitation extended to the town of Peabody to participate in the anniversary celebration, and at a meeting of the Board held Thursday, May 15, 1902, the following action was taken :
Voted: That the invitation of the town of Danvers to the town of Peabody to participate in the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of its independent municipal existence on June 15, 16, and 17, 1902, be accepted, and that the citizens of the town be requested through the press to do all they can to assist in making the celebration a success. Yours respectfully,
Elmer M. Poor, Tow7i Clerk,
Office of the Town Clerk, Peabody, Mass., May 31, 1902. William B. Sullivan, Esq., Clerk of Committee : Dear Sir, — The Board of Selectmen wish me to thank the commit- tee through you for the invitation to attend the celebration on June 16 and 17, 1902, and at a meeting of the Board held Thursday, May 29, 1902, the following action was taken:
Voted: That the invitation to the Board by the town of Danvers to attend the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of its independent municipal existence on June 16 and 17, 1902, be accepted.
Yours respectfully,
Elmer M. Poor, Town Clerk.
Office of Selectmen of the Town of Middleton, Mass.
June 3, 1902. William B. Sullivan,
Clerk of the General Committee : Dear Sir, — Please accept my thanks for the cordial invitation to attend the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town of Danvers on June 16 and 17. I will endeavor to be present.
Yours, Maurice E. Tyler.
The Banquet 161
The Board of Selectmen, Peabody, Mass., May 21, 1902. Mr. William B, Sullivan,
Clerk of the General Committee, Danvers, Mass. : Dear Sir, — I accept with pleasure your invitation to attend the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the inde- pendent municipal existence of the town of Danvers. Yours very truly,
Andrew N. Jacobs, Chairman.
The Toastmaster:
The history of Danvers during the last one hundred and fifty years has been honorable and patriotic. She has begun her civic life with high ideals, and has endeavored to live up to them. She has been an important part of the state, her people have ever been ready to respond to the calls of duty, and her sons have given up their lives in all the great conflicts in which this country has been engaged in defence of the right. We have with us to-day a gentleman of education and experience, who is well \'ersed in the early traditions which have made this country great, and who can tell us the things necessary for great- ness in town and state. I have the pleasure of introducing his honor, Lieut. -Gov. John L. Bates.
Lieutenant-Governor Bates responded as follows:
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: The chairman has no stop watch and has already informed me that the time limit did not apply to me, but I noticed that when he made his remarks he spoke as if it did. I assure you that it is impossible for a man, even though he possessed the eloquence of Demosthenes, or the wisdom of Solomon, to attempt to respond to thoughts of this kind in any one sixth of an hour.
As I look now mto the faces of this audience, with a feeling of grati- tude towards your fathers because they did not kill off all the witches in their time, I feel that it would be impossible for me to do justice to the witches of the present day. Your committee has very kindly taken us foreigners around your town and showed us some of its his- toric places. We were told you had the oldest houses, the oldest shoe factory, and the oldest people that lived in the community. I am not qualified to judge of either the houses or the factories, but I want Dr. Rice to know he is mistaken in regard to the people. I have seen no old people, but all I have seen have the spirit of youth and the elastic step of the young, as I have seen them on this day of the celebration.
162 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
I think that perhaps Danvers and the commonwealth are the same in their history ; that in which you take great pride, the old common- wealth takes greatest pride, and as I listened to the address of your historical orator this morning, I found that Danvers is typical of the commonwealth. Then, as I visited the place where Governor Gage at one time stopped, and saw the birthplace of Israel Putnam, the home of poet Whiittier, whose lips were touched with fire, I could not but think that as I read on the various tablets about your town the story of your history, so there also is told the history of our commonwealth.
I have read that in the days prior to the Revolution your fathers instructed their representative that he must in no wise submit to the claims of the British Parliament in regard to taxation and in- fringement of the liberties of your people, and it was only by unutter- able fatigues and vast expenditures of blood and money that their rights and liberties were obtained. There you have the history of Massachusetts, — unutterable fatigues, struggles, and sacrifices have been the character of the foundation upon which our state has been erected.
When we read in history of the commonwealth, we dwell particu- larly upon the days of the colonies, because they were days of priva- tions, days of sacrifices, and days of struggles. We go on to the days of the Revolution, and we are never tired of teUing that story, because there again is the story of struggles and sacrifices. We read of the time when Old Ironsides was manned by sons of Massachusetts, and find it tells the same story. We come to the time when the Sixth Regiment marched through Baltimore, when sons from the North fought sons from the South; to the battle of Gettysburg, when the sea of blue mingled with the sea of gray, and we find that the brightest pages, the pages which most attract our attention, are the pages of struggle and sacrifice.
You tell me, as you pride yourself on your old First Church, that Massachusetts stands for religion, and it is true. We rejoice because it does, but we know that the Pilgrims and Puritans came to these shores across stormy seas ; that it was sacrifice and struggle that gave us the right to become a community where men may worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences; that the early Puritans denied themselves even the necessities of life m order that they might endow that institution. Harvard College. I remember that all these men have struggled, and have struggled in order that Massa- chusetts and education may be synonymous.
The Banquet. 163
It was such men as Israel Putnam, General Warren at Bunker Hill, and Garrison, with his indomitable energy, that enabled the nation to stand for liberty.
To you, citizens of Danvers, I bring congratulations of the common- wealth on this day. I congratulate you on the history of your town, of which you may be rightly proud. Struggle and sacrifice are the founda- tion of most of that which we enjoy to-day. I believe the sons are not going to be second to the fathers in defence of those things which have been bought at such a price. They may not be called upon to draw the sword, but whether it be in the caucus, the town meeting, in church, or in the halls of the legislatiu-e, they will be found true to the ideals for which the fathers fought and which have made Dan- vers a name that has been regarded by all as one synonymous with struggle, sacrifice, and the loftiest aspirations.
Note. — Mayor John F. Hurley, of Salem, was expected to follow Lieutenant-Governor Bates, but he was not present, and Chairman Sawyer said: " Salem was provoked when Danvers set up in business for herself, and perhaps she is not yet over it and she does not wish to take part in these proceedings to-day."
The Toastmaster:
That our neighbors have been prospering as well as ourselves is a cause of great satisfaction. Some have outgrown the old-fashioned town government and have taken upon themselves the responsibilities of city life. I now present to you the mayor of one of the youngest cities in the state, the Hon. Samuel Cole, of Beverly.
Mayor Cole in response spoke of the friendly relations between Beverly and Danvers, and said that he accounted in part for Danvers' enterprise and prosperity by the fact that she took a slice of Beverly at one time. He said: " There is no line between us — our interests are identical."
The Toastmaster :
It sometimes happens, in the order of nature, that the family is broken up by the growth of the children who, becoming men and women, desire to have homes of their own. This sentiment is not always confined to the family ; towns even become possessed with the same desire. We have with us to-day a gentleman who represents a
164 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
town, formerly a part of Danvers, but which desired some years ago to do business alone. How successful she has been we shall soon hear. I now introduce Charles H. Goulding, representative of Peabody.
Representative Goulding responded. He spoke of the value of the work of " historical cranks," who make such celebrations as this interesting, profitable and useful, and alluded to the common associations of the two towns which were formerly one.
The Toastmaster :
We are interested in all things concerning Danvers to-day. We desire to listen to the statement of its material prosperity by one who knows. I will now call upon Mr. R. D. Bates, selectman of Danvers.
Mr. Bates responded as follows:
Of the present I care not to speak, but of the past I may talk with perfect freedom. For twenty-three years Mr. Pope has been one of the selectmen of our town. His long term of service testifies that the town has full confidence in his ability, integrity, and fidelity. Familiar with every phase of the office, ready at all times to give answer to the questions that are so frequently asked of the board in regard to its action and policy, in full touch with two generations of the in- habitants of Danvers, he responds freely in regard to their history, and the remote and immediate steps that have led to its present condition. And here, in commemorating the past, I know you will gladly respond to the declaration of " Well done, good and faithful servant," and hope that he may long continue to serve the town as a member of the board of selectmen.
Mr. Hines has spoken so fully of the past that it is needless for me to attempt its portrayal. It is a history of which we may be proud, and in this, our hundred and fiftieth anniversary, express our grati- tude for our inheritance. It is ours to guard with zealous care, to foster its moral, social, and pecuniary interests. So far as these are concerned, you have a right to ask of the officials that they constantly seek its truest interests. The long list of worthy men who have been chosen to guard these interests in the past have, in a good degree, con- tributed to the welfare of our town.
The past fifty years of our history has witnessed a fair degree of growth in population and material progress, and this has brought
The Banquet. 165
many calls upon the selectmen. In that period we have had two wars that called upon the inhabitants for service in the army of our country. In that hour, when the very existence of our nation was threatened, the selectmen's duties were arduous indeed; patriots, they made the honor of the town secure, and have had constant watch and care for the veteran, fully recognizing his service, and being the willing channel for every bounty a grateful people bestowed.
In the Spanish War they met the need of the hour, sending the sons of the town who volunteered forth to battle, and welcoming their return, proud of their patriotism and service.
They have been the warm friends of improvement, — the plants for gas and electric lights, the trolley and steam cars, the macadam road, the steam fire engine, telephone and manufactories, and last but not least, the shade trees and well-kept lawns.
I close, most earnestly wishing for the continued prosperity of the good old town of Danvers.
The Toastmaster:
The beauty of a town is dependant on the public enterprise of its citizens. The Danvers Improvement Society deserves well of this town for the good work it is now doing; how well. Dr. W. W. Eaton, president, will now tell us.
Dr. Eatox responded briefly, bringing to mind the success- ful and important work of that organization, as in perfect ac- cord and harmony with the general spirit of advancement of the nation's interests. He spoke particularly of the public park of some thirty acres which the society had purchased from the heirs of Eben G. Berry, and asked the cooperation of the citizens, first in raising the necessary money to complete the payments for the same and second, to beautify and adorn it. He paid a high compliment to the late Conrad Juul, who with him had started the movement which culminated in the park purchase.
The Toastmaster:
Danvers has always been noted for its patriotism. WTienever the state or nation has been in need of help its sons have promptly responded to the call. Capt. C. H. Masury will now speak on the G. A. R. and kindred organizations.
166 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Captain Masury responded as follows:
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I feel highly honored in being called upon to speak on this historic occasion; more especially do I feel honored that I am to respond to the " Grand Army of the Repub- lic," an organization while not as old as some of the organizations that we are honoring to-day, to me, and to most of you, I think, stands equal in honor to all, and one that has contributed largely to make possible this anniversary of our dear old town.
WhUe you are familiar with its inception, organization, and work, perhaps it will not be out of place to refresh your memory a little. Soon after the close of the War of the Rebellion, the old soldiers, — now respected citizens, — contrary to the predictions of some overwise and pessimistic politicians, seeing the need of affiUation with comrades who had stood shoulder to shoulder in the struggle, sought some means of coming together in an organized body that would give the true and perfect comradeship that had sustained them through the bloody conflict. Thus started the Grand Army of the Republic in the states of Illinois and Indiana in 1865. Massachusetts soon followed, and in October, 1866, Post 1, Department of Massachusetts, was formed at New Bedford. Two years later there were reported in this state seventy-five posts, with a membership of about six thousand two hundred.
Danvers' soldiers, conservative as have always been its citizens, when they found that the new organization was not of political sig- nificance, came together in June, 1869, and formed Ward Post 90. For over thirty years the post has held together, sustaining its mem- bers, dispensing charity, and mindful always of the town's interests. During this time they have, with the assistance of the good citizens, dispensed about $25,000, bringing comfort and aid to their suffering comrades whose health had been impaired by the bloody conflict, weary marches, and deprivations encountered.
Our Danvers Post we find, upon searching the records of individuals, to be composed of members of about one hundred different military organizations of the war, and about twenty ships of the navy, par- ticipating in nearly all of the prominent battles of the RebeUion. In this respect this post is a fair sample of every other post of the state.
One cannot mention the G. A. R. without speaking of that most excellent and helpful auxiliary organization, the Woman's Relief Corps, whose devotion to the cause of charity and work has gone hand in hand with the G. A. R.
The Banquet. 167
What wonder that the women of 1861-1865 should be found in this work when we revert to the mothers of the Revolution who, when the husbands and sons went forth to Lexington, remained behind to care for the home and rear the children to be good and patriotic citizens.
The soldiers who fought so bravely, and have been justly honored as heroes have, I fear, taken to themselves too much of the honor. While they were heroes, these women were heroines. From the days when our mothers, — God bless them, — our sweethearts, and wives met together to scrape lint, tear bandages, and make uniforms for the departing soldiers, to the present time, they have done their part heroically.
Til at little sergeant whose eyes I closed in death under a syringa bush at Petersburg was a hero. The wife and mother, left at home in Massachusetts to mourn his untimely death and unknown grave, was a heroine.
This is a day of memories. Some poet has described memories as the bridges by which we cross the rapid river of life to past experi- ences. Let us, then, on this day of memories, cross the rapid river of life, bearing in our minds the deeds of Danvers soldiers in the dark days of the Revolution, and of the soldiers of 1861-1865, whose memories we shall keep ever green.
" For what he was, and what he dared, remember him to-day! " " Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget, lest we forget."
The Toastmaster:
But little has been said in regard to the women of Danvers, but knowing as we do the value of their services on all great moral ques- tions, this celebration would be found lacking in its best quality were they not given a place on this program. It is true that an old author- ity, whose name is still a power throughout the world, has said, " Let the women learn in silence, with all subjection," but could he have heard the eloquence of Danvers women he might have revised his statement. Mrs. I. E. Kenney, president, will speak for the Danvers Women's Association.
Mrs. Kenney responded as follows:
Upon anniversaries which mark the completion of long periods of municipal and social life it is natural to inquire where, if at all, we
168 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
have made substantial progress ; into what new development human energy has forced its way.
Progress for the most part is gradual, seldom revolutionary. There has been nothing revolutionary about the development of the intel- lectual independence of women, yet it has been reserved for the last third of the last century to witness the culmination of ideas, looking to the emancipation of women, which have spread and multiplied so rapidly and effectively that the development of the so-called new woman is to be associated with this epoch as one of its most distinctive and prominent features.
At the centennial anniversary of Danvers it was an almost unheard of thing for a girl to aspire to anything more than a common school education, helped out among the wealthier classes by a few terms at a finishing school. There were a few girls' academies or young ladies' seminaries, but no institution which approached the level of colleges for young men. Since that time the idea of the woman's college has had the whole of its remarkable development. Wellesley and Smith, Vassar and Bryn Mawr, ask no odds in intellectual training of Harvard and Yale, Amherst or Dartmouth.
In 1852 a woman doctor was, to say the least, a curiosity; now she is familiar and welcome and successful, and in our cities women lawyers are not uncommon. In a thousand and one ways girls and women have opened up avenues of self-support and are honorably independ- ent, where a generation ago they would have been an additional burden to some overtaxed male bread-winner.
Necessarily some timeworn traditions as to formalities and pro- prieties have been shattered, and the shackles of senseless restriction have been forever broken, but with the broader freedom and the newer life there has been no depreciation of womanhood, but rather an elevation of her ideals.
Whether as a cause or an outgrowth of the broadening, uplifting movement of womanhood, the woman's club is at least one of its most obvious features. It has served as the basis of many a good- natured joke, but taken all in all the woman's club has had an honest work to do and has done it well.
So much, speaking broadly. As for this town, the work of the Danvers Women's Association has been an open book now for twenty years, and its members feel an honest pride in the positive good which it has accomplished in this community. Before its organization women saw little and knew little of each other except within their own limited and narrow circles, bounded for the most part by the limits
The Banquet. 169
of their respective church sewing circles. In the club, women found a broader field of acquaintance and friendship ; breaches were broken in old social division walls until long ago these walls have disappeared and been forgotten ; broader and more liberal views of home life and community life have come in, and this result, though not to be traced through distinct acts, or recorded votes, is not the less positive and substantial, and perhaps the best fruit of the club's existence; but the aim of the club from its beginning has been to make its mem- bers better women through the incitement of intellectual and social culture and higher ideals.
It has held fortnightly meetings each season, three hundred and twenty in all, at which a lecture or talk for discussion has been the principal feature.
Gifted and distinguished men and women have given to the mem- bers the benefits of their studies and experience in literature, art, and science, work and education, philanthropy, topics of the times, and music.
Outside of its routine career, the Association has educated a colored girl at Hampton, Va., and attempted to exert its influence for good in the elevation of the town schools, in the maintenance of a kinder- garten, in offering prizes to pupils of the Holten High School for the best English essays, in taking the initiative towards establishing a Home for the Aged, in instituting among children the beneficial plan of the so-called Stamp Savings Society, and in cooperating with other organizations for the physical improvement of the town.
Twenty years of life for an organization which has no secret binding tie is rather extraordinary, — but few similar clubs within the com- monwealth are older than ours, — but there is no apparent decrease of interest.
The limit of membership has been successively increased from 100 until it has reached 200, and 20 complimentary members, and upon the ever-present waiting list there are now the number of 143 appli- cants.
With even this measure of success as to past achievements apd present enthusiasm, it may not be rash to predict that the Danvers Women's Association will, fifty years from now, be a surviving element of the town's progress; but whether this be so or no, the Danvers Women's Association of to-day modestly bespeaks for itself this mead of praise from the men of Danvers:
That it is not unworthy at this celebration of a representative among the honored institutions of our beloved town.
170 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
As a matter of record the names of the charter members who are at present members here follow :
Charter Members, 1882.
Andrews, Mrs. Mary S. Nichols, Mrs. Elizabeth P.
BoMER, Miss Mary D, Nichols, Miss Mary Ward
Clapp, Mrs. Addie M. Putnam, Miss Fidelia A.
Couch, Mrs. H. Elizabeth Putnam, Mrs. Madeline L.
FiSKE, Mrs. Sarah E. Sawyer, Mrs. Ellen B.
Howe, Mrs. Josephine E. Spofford, Mrs. Ellen A.
Keith, Mrs. Hattie R. Trask, Mrs. Dora W.
Kelley, Mrs. Mary J. Trask, Mrs. Sarah S. J.
Kenney, Mrs. Isadora E. Tufts, Mrs. Lizzie
Locke, Mrs. Sarah J. Wentworth, Mrs. H. L.
Masury, Mrs. Evelyn Fellows Weston, Mrs. Louise P.
Newhall, Mrs. Annie G. White, Mrs. Ariadne J. Whipple, Mrs. Cornelia E.
The principal officers have been as follows : Presidents.
Wentworth, Mrs. H. L 1882-89
Spofford, Mrs. Ellen A 1889-91
Masury, Mrs. Evelyn F 1891-96
Hunt, Miss Sarah E 1896-99
Nichols, Miss Mary Ward 1899-1902
Kenney, Mrs. Isadora E 1902-
Secretaries. Putnam, Miss Eliza O. Nichols, Miss Mary Ward
HoRSWELi-, Miss Jennie Kenney, Mrs. Isadora E.
Putnam, Miss Ellen M. Hood, Mrs. Elizabeth G.
Everett, Mrs. Lucy A.
Corresponding Secretaries. Hood, Mrs. Lizzie F. Tapley, Miss Isabel B.
Stimpson, Mrs. Cora B. Hood, Mrs. Elizabeth G.
Treasurers. BuRRiNGTON, Mrs. V. A. Perry, Mrs. Martha Putnam
Tapley, Miss Isabel B. Porter, Mrs. Ella J.
Newhali/, Miss Alice H.
The Banquet. 171
The Toastmaster:
Education is a debt we owe to the coming generations. The life of our nation depends upon its application. Mr. A. P. Learoyd, secre- tary, will tell us how well the Danvers School Committee is trying to meet the situation.
Mr. Learoyd told of the part he took as a boy in the celebration of fifty years ago, and the reception to George Peabody, some years later.
The Toastmaster :
The need of a higher education is growing more apparent as the years go by. Some of the reasons will now be given by Hon. J. Frank Porter.
Mr. Porter responded as follows :
To look over this large audience into the faces of so many that were familiar to me in my boyhood days, many of whom were schoolmates ; to listen to the interesting historical address in Peabody Institute this morning by one whom I am proud to claim as classmate; and now to listen to the remarks this afternoon, is more than of common in- terest to one who was born in this old historic town, has lived for over fifty consecutive years within her borders, and for a greater part of that time has been identified with her interests.
I can look back over the last half century as years of slow but steady progress. It seems only a short time ago to me that we were riding in the only means of conveyance to our neighboring city, the old lumbering stage coach, lighting our houses with tallow candles and oil lamps, and drinking water from the old well, too often con- taminated with the seeds of disease. Now, all these things are changed, and the changes have been so gradual that we sometimes fail to appreciate their benefits.
Our convenient trolley car, our electric lights, our pure running water, our excellent schools, modern roads, free mail service, telegraph and telephones, with all the improvements of modern civilization, help to lighten life's burdens. The past is behind us, and the duty of the present is not to dwell upon what has gone before, but to look for- ward to the future with hopefulness, with courage, and with deter- mination.
172 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
The young of to-day will chronicle the events that are now trans- piring and which are to take place during the coming half century. What our town will be fifty years hence depends wholly upon the kind of young men and young women we are sending forth from our homes.
If I were asked what is the one important and chief thing that would tend to promote the future prosperity and welfare of Danvers in the years to come, either intellectually, morally, or socially, I should say it would be our loyal devotion to intelligence, to our schools, to edu- cation. Fifty years ago, even thirty years ago, the high schools were further from the reach of the average child than the colleges are to- day. This fact comes to us more forcibly during this commencement season, when so many students from all over the land are now beginning the actual duties of life, or climbing still higher in other schools of learning.
That was a step in the right direction when we added to our high school the college preparatory and the commercial course, which is already redounding to the honor of our town in the educated young men and young women now taking upon themselves the important duties of citizenship. " Education a debt due from present to future generations " means to us to-day the best education, which is the best legacy parents can bestow upon children.
We must remember that the public end of education is not alone to make accountants, or professional men, or specialists of any kind, but enlightened, patriotic, public-spirited fellow-citizens. Our in- telligence is the divine spark within us, and the more carefully we cherish it and fan it into flame, the more certainly will the community in which we live be enveloped in celestial light, and human life fulfill its divine purpose.
The Toastmaster :
Representative Charles H. Preston, of Danvers, will tell us of the importance of marking historical places in our town.
Mr. Preston responded as follows:
An occasion like this, the celebration of our one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, naturally leads us to consider historical events connected with our town, and the men who have been prominent in its affairs. Danvers has never been backward in any crisis, but has done her full share in time of necessity. When the alarm sounded on the 19th of
The Banquet. 173
April, 1775, companies of men hurried to Lexington and took part in the contest of that day, and seven men of Danvers were among the slain. The same patriotism was shown in the long contest of 1861- 1865, and in the war with Spain.
The town has also had men prominent in civil affairs in the early days and in more recent years. From time to time memorials have been erected to commemorate events in our history or to mark his- toric spots. There is the Lexington monument in Peabody; the monument in front of this building to the memory of the soldiers of the Civil War ; the bowlder with a suitable inscription on the old train- ing field at the Centre; the monument near the site of the home of Col. Israel Hutchinson, a brave officer of the Revolution, and to whose house the dead from Lexington were brought ; the tablet at the birth- place of Gen. Israel Putnam, and other similar memorials. These have, in some cases, been erected by the town; in others, partly or wholly by private subscription or by societies.
Much more of this nature remains to be done. The location of some historic sites is already lost, as that of the birthplace of Judge Samuel Holten, which I think is not exactly known. His later home, how- ever, is well preserved, and is one of the places that should be marked. Judge Samuel Putnam was one of the ablest men our town has pro- duced. He was living at the time of the celebration, fifty years ago, but few remain who remember him. His house is one that I think ought to have some suitable designation. The birthplace of Gen. Moses Porter is another place of interest that should not longer remain unmarked. Many other places doubtless occur to you. I mention these few only to show that many historic spots are not marked and are unknown to the average citizen.
It seems to me it is our duty as a town to do more by appropriation and otherwise to encourage this work. The state is spending large sums of money for similar purposes. The rolls of Revolutionary soldiers are being printed in a work of many volumes. This year $25,000 has been appropriated to erect a memorial at Provincetown in commemoration of the compact signed by the Pilgrims in Province- town Harbor, provided a like amount is raised by private subscription.
Perhaps the most important act passed by the legislature in recent years of an historical nature is one which has recently become a law, appropriating not more than $15,000 a year to purchase five hundred copies of the births, marriages, and deaths in any town where these may be published, these copies to be distributed one to each public library in the state. This will greatly aid the printing of these old records,
174 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
and will be a means of preserving them and bringing them within the reach of every one. It will be of great educational value and wUl quicken an interest in historical matters.
I wish on this anniversary day to bring this subject to the attention of the citizens. I think one or more places should be marked every year. It will educate the children and make them honor their town. I leave it for your serious consideration.
The Toastmaster:
I will now ask Mr. William M. Currier to tell us his impressions of Danvers, past and present.
Mr. Currier responded as follows:
No more interesting theme or pleasanter task could be assigned me on this memorable occasion than the recalling of my impressions of the business men whom I have known by reputation, and with whom I have been closely identified since I made Danvers the home of my adoption in the spring of 1869.
When I came here I was a fatherless boy, observing, impressionable, and ever the recipient of kindnesses which awakened the noblest impulses; the object of almost parental love and sympathy and en- couragement in my modest yet hazardous business undertaking. I may be excused because of the personal reference which I note and justify in my endeavor to show that I should be qualified to empha- size the sentiment which kindles my heart with gratitude, though I am conscious of enforced limitations which compel me to speak in a rambling and perhaps superficial manner.
Out of the deep, rich shades of the past, like an interesting pano- rama embellished with the most delicate touch of an artist whose characters stand and speak with the force of the living, passing before my vision are the good men and women who recounted to me their aspirations, successes, and defeats, and which in time must come to be historical traditions of the noble, philanthropic spirit that influenced their lives, and which I was to see most generously exem- plified in my social and business intercourse with them.
You who have enjoyed the stimulating forces which surroimded what has been termed " the cradle of public sentiment," the old- time country grocery, can realize the opportunity afforded the speaker to study men and measures and to become affiliated with men who have done much to endear themselves to our community. It was in
The Banquet. 175
this environment, around the fire of the old grocery store, that I first felt the glow and warnith of hospitality, when representatives from near and remote sections of the town, boiling with enthusiastic pride and honorable rivalry, endeavored to correct abuses or inaugurate reforms. Here flights of oratory, with the heat radiating force of 120 degrees in the shade, evidenced the most patriotic and loyal senti- ments which were to be educational for young manhood and helpful to good citizenship.
From this mental picture turn to one of even greater import, where, midst the busy hum of our factories, were employed the concentrated energies and the inventive genius of our commimity, cooperating with the bold, enterprising spirit which placed their products in far-off markets and won a name for Danvers' brogans that became synony- mous with " old honesty." These men won distinction and became examples of the truth that substantial growth is from within ; that char- acter is power ; that the accumulation of wealth at the cost of principle, and the substitution of shoddy for the real, or the jeopardizing of humanity for material gain was not true prosperity or progress. With such standards of integrity and ideals these business generals estab- lished business codes worthy of emulation. These men, " touched by the silver hand of time," left the impress of their sincerity and sterling virtues on those who enjoyed their confidence. With these men — the manufacturers, grocers, and prominent citizens — was born the first great temperance reform work in this community, developing a great tidal wave, threatening and involving our town in an intense and bitter warfare. Feuds were engendered, differences arose which can only be harmonized in eternity. The issue was made ; there was but one result, the grog shop was to be eliminated and the grocery to be elevated, and the old corner temperance store became an historical landmark, successfully competing with those who persisted in the " evil way," and controverting the adage of Shakespeare, " Born a man, but died a grocer."
Again the flashlight of analysis reveals a type of character of which you may well feel proud. The shot that electrified the world in 1861 was a momentous one for Danvers. Our manufacturers were heavily involved in the South; large commitments had been made, and re- mittances were depended on for their great financial obligations. With trembling hearts and ashen faces they sought a restless couch. A nightmare of reality, bankruptcy, and dishonor confronted them; through the path of wounded pride and dishonor it paved the road to glory and honor. If stripped of the accumulation of years they
176 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
could not be robbed of their unwavering integrity. Money gone, grit left, it was for us to learn the force of Franklin's maxim, " To be stripped of one's resources is in itself a fortune." These men, fearless and undaunted, with untiring industry and deprivation, in many instances laid the foundation again for success, rose from the ashes of adversity, paid in full their financial obligations, and won the admiration of the world.
The over-arching majestic elms bow silently and reverently where their feet once trod, and the echo of their voices will be heard no more.
At your firesides I have listened with pleasure to the recital of tra- ditions, and witnessed the beneficent influences of example and pre- cept of the young mothers holding up before our vision the highest ideals, and heard the heart-prayer that the son should equip himself with the essentials which should make for purity of character and satisfy a high ambition. From the home life have gone out the aspir- ing boys who have entered the business arena and become a som-ce of pride and with still greater possibilities of achievement. As an illus- tration of the beneficent influence of a mother's discipline and inherited power, one of our brilliant young men entered the office of one of our merchants and asked him if he recalled a promise made when the latter took grocery orders in his home, sixteen years before, remarking that he had kept his childhood pledge and earned his promised reward.
Wherever duty called, the business man has been an evident helpful force. If absorbed with his engrossing cares, he has been ready to counsel and materially assist and encourage worthy, ambitious men. His voice has ever been among the first to plead for a broad, practical education and the raising of the standard of our schools. Our religious organizations have felt his support and plea for humanity ; our fraternal organizations have recognized his efforts to promote the spirit of universal brotherhood. Our beautiful town, with all of its physical, picturesque charms, with the changing seasons brings its tribute of recognition for his inestimable and far-reaching policy of improvement. And while history may not individually record their works, nor marble tablet chronicle their deeds, there has gone out something sacrificial, perhaps, far greater and more potential in the inspiring force and influence of such lives upon the hearts of humanity. And it is no extravagant praise to borrow and apply the eulogistic sentiments expressed at the erection of a monument to one of national fame: " Build it to the skies, you cannot outreach the
The Banquet. 177
loftiness of his principles; found it upon the massive eternal rocks, you cannot make it more enduring than his fame ; construct it of the purest Parian marble, you cannot make it purer than his life."
The Toastmaster:
Young men, natives of Danvers, who have made homes elsewhere. There is no man who can speak more intelligently on this question than Mr. John E. Maguire, of Haverhill, whom we are always glad to hear.
Mr. Maguire responded as follows:
Mr. Chairman: The celebration of this anniversary with its attend- ant exercises appeals to every loyal son of old Danvers, and his heart is filled with a justifiable pride as her records for the past one hundred and fifty years pass rapidly before his mind. And to none of her people do they appeal with greater force than to those of her exiled sons who have been led by varying circumstances beyond the hmits of their native town.
As one of such it is my pleasure to return to-day and be once more, as of old, a Danvers boy; with you to rejoice at the completion of these one hundred and fifty years of our town's existence ; with you to point with pride to her record during that period ; to renew the ac- quaintances and friendships of former days; to recall the happy days of long ago, and live o'er again, if for but a brief period, the pleasures here enjoyed with friends whose hand I may grasp, and think of those whose forms I do not see, but whose memory I cherish as a priceless treasure.
The years are passing rapidly on, each separating us still further from those early events in our life among you. We go away, while others come to take our places; we are soon forgotten, but memory lingers, and we may well repeat those touching lines,
" Strange to me now are the forms I meet
When I visit the dear old town. But the native air is pure and sweet. And the trees that o'ershadow each well-known street
As they balance up and down Are singing the beautiful song, Are singing and whispering still, A boy's will is the wind's will. And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
178 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
The thoughts of youth are indeed " long, long thoughts "; but as one whose place of birth was within the limits of one of her beautiful villages, whose boyhood and early manhood days were spent among her people, and as one who has enjoyed the benefits of her educational and other beneficial institutions, it is my privilege to-day to publicly acknowledge my great obligation to the dear old town ; to speak of her, from personal knowledge, with a heart overflowing with gratitude, and with the fondest of memories for her institutions and her people.
One's removal from among his accustomed scenes enables him to better view them. Just as the artist, on the completion of his master- piece, retires at a distance to look upon the product of his genius in order that he may the better criticise it and pass upon its merit, so does it fall to the lot of him who has been removed from the place he once called home, to be better able to appreciate the worth of that former home.
And I, a son of old Danvers, as loyal to her to-day as when living within her borders, or as any of those who now remain with her, desire to offer my pledge of gratitude and express my regard for the dear old town. Criticise it if you will as being biased, say that it is influenced by personal ties, by tender associations, and fond memories, never- theless, this is my feeling concerning our good old town..
As the earth revolves daily upon its axis, that beautiful source of life, the sim, looks down upon the many races of man with greater or less opportunities for advancement and welfare ; upon those inhabiting the great deserts of the East, the fertile plains of our own country, the isolated districts and thickly peopled cities, the torrid sections of the equator, and the frigid regions of the Arctic, each with some special advantage, yet none without some disadvantage ; but no spot on which he sheds his rays of light is more pleasing to my eyes than this beautiful town of fertile plains, boi'dered by sightly hills, with pretty villages and homes of a happy and contented people.
A people famous for their industry, their loyalty to their God and country, devoted to education and advancement; the home of the philanthropist, the soldier, the statesman, the educator, the merchant, and thousands of industrious toilers, all of whom have been proud to call her by the loving name of home.
God bless our old town. May she continue in the pathway where she so long has trod, and be, as she was designed by the Father, the ideal New England town, as long as the sun shall rise on Folly Hill and set behind yon western hill-tops at fall of night.
The Banquet. 179
The Toastmaster:
The energy of the early settlers of Danversport has always been a source of interest to our citizens. John W. Porter has consented to tell us about them.
Mr. Porter responded as follows :
Danversport (formerly Skelton's Neck, Porter's Neck, the Neck, and the New Mills) can boast of the most enterprising men in the United States; among them figure prominently the Hutchinsons, Cheevers, Blacks, Fowlers, Putnams, Porters, Endicotts, Grays, Kineses, Webbs, Hunts, Andrews, Chaplins, Dennetts, Eveletts, Francises, Goulds, Hoods, Kenneys, Merrills, Oakes, Pages, Ushers, Whitings, Woodmans, Warrens, Rosses, and Reeds.
On May 12, 1755, the inhabitants of the northern part of Danvers, together with residents of Wenham, Beverly, Topsfield, Middleton, and Boxford, petitioned the Court of General Sessions for the County of Essex to lay out a highwaj^ from John Porter's Tavern (the present old Berry Tavern) to Crane River (where Lummus Mill now stands), for the purpose of making the grist mill at that point more accessible. July following the petition was granted.
No sooner had this new road been obtained than a petition from, the present Centre and Tapleyville districts, in March, 1756, that this new way be discontinued and that another road from their section of the town be laid out for their accommodation, as thej^ claimed that a greater number of the inhabitants of the town would be accom- modated. This was probably true, as the settlement was at that time principally in the western part of the town ; but the petition was not gi-anted.
In 1760 several individuals owning land between Crane River Bridge and Waters River petitioned the selectmen to lay out a private way between the two, which was granted upon the statement that said individuals owned land on the Salem side of Waters River and desired a way to it. These men went still further and erected a rude bridge over Waters River, which, when the inhabitants of other parts of Danvers were informed of it, created great indignation, and it was voted in town meeting to forbid the completion of the bridge and make complaint to the Great and General Court. This was in Sep- tember of 1760, and in the following month the Neck people threw off the mask, threw down the gauntlet, and came out with a petition to the Court of General Sessions for a county highway from Widow Porter's
180 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Tavern to the North Bridge, Salem. This petition was opposed by the town of Danvers without avail. The court granted the same, May, 1761, and a bridge was built across Waters River, which was destroyed by a great storm in 1765, when the town expended con- siderable money to rebuild it, which called forth, in 1766, a memorial from the town to the General Court for relief, which appeal was of no avail, as that body simply referred them to the Court of Sessions, where the case was dismissed.
In 1767, however, the original petition to the General Court was revived, and a committee appointed to come to Danvers to settle the trouble. They considered it fairly, recommended that the town pay one-fourth part, the remainder to be borne by the proprietors of the land and the towns of Topsfield, Wenham, and Marblehead. This was defeated in the House of Representatives and affairs did not assume an especially peaceful aspect.
After other petitions to the General Court for help, which were not successful, the courageous residents of the " Neck " took upon them- selves that which the province, the county, and the towns in turn refused to do, namely, the maintenance of the highway and bridges from Porter's Tavern to the North Bridge, Salem. The neck of land was duly incorporated as a separate district by an act of the General Court in 1772, the residents being exempt from taxation in the town of Danvers for any other highways, and the town being relieved of the new road.
For seventy years this district, later New Mills, and still later Danversport, continued to maintain the highways, hold meetings, elect officers, etc., until, with the growth of the town in other sections, the highway to Salem became of common necessity to all the uihabi- tants. In 1840 the act of incorporation was repealed, and the year following the business of the " Neck " was closed up.
The courage, pluck, and enterprise of Danversport people can be realized when their acts are placed beside the acts of the town of Marblehead and the cities of Beverly and Salem, as may be illustrated by the following:
At the time the above bridges were built they were as expensive as the bridge across Forest River, which joins Salem to Marblehead, and yet the rich town of Marblehead and the wealthy city of Salem received help from the county to build said bridge ; and also the city of Beverly and the city of Salem could not afford to build the draw on Beverly bridge, and petitioned the legislature for an act to author- ize the county to build it, which petition was granted.
The Banquet. 181
The Toastmaster :
Early residents of Putnamville and their characteristics, by a native, Mr. WiUiam E. Putnam, of Boston.
Mr. Putnam responded as follows:
It was my good fortune to have been born in this grand old town of Danvers, sixty-four years ago, and I count myself particularly fortunate that this to me very interesting event occurred in that patriotic precinct then called Blind Hole, now known as Putnam- ville, and made immortal by the Danvers Historical Society. At that time this locality was the most important business portion of the town. I distinctly remember there seven shoe factories, a tannery, and a box factory. These shoe and leather factories were conducted by men in excellent credit and very high standing in the commercial world. One in particular, who died about fifty years ago, left about one quarter of a million dollars, a sum equal, all things considered, to about $1,000,000 to-day, and yet the amount of his business for a year was less than the production of one week in many large factories to-day. Land there was then worth about five times to-day's prices.
As I remember the people of those daj^s, they were very progressive and, it seems to me, more interested in important affairs affecting their town and country than are we, their successors, to-day. They had more time to think, and read the few books they had to some purpose, and while they lacked many things we have come to consider as necessities, they had less nervous prostration and very little Anglo- mania. We are inclined to smile at the bitterness of our Irish fellow- citizens towards England, but I assure j'ou it is no more intense than that existing in this very town among the old American families fifty to sixty years ago. Men were then living who had suffered from English press gangs and the horrors of Dartmoor and other English prisons. One of my first ambitions as a child was to grow big enough to kill an Englishman, and even as late as the War of the Rebellion, when the Mason and Slidell affair seemed sure to involve us in war with Great Britain, an old great-uncle said to me: " William, the day I have looked forward to all my life has arrived. We are to have a war with England, and although I am seventy years old I mean to go to this war myself."
Although Danvers stood relatively ver}' high in those days in the manufacture of boots and shoes, producing honest goods, the state of the art was primitive, many of the manufacturers having graduated
182 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
from the farm. The lasts used were utterly unlike the human foot, in fact, more nearly resembled in form the foot of a horse elongated, and elderly people will remember that all new shoes had to be " broken in," which meant that the whole form had to be changed, to the in- tense agony of the wearer, before it approximated to the lines of the human foot. The hours of labor were very long. A little sketch of one day's work of a boy just commencing the business may give some idea. He rises at 5 o'clock a.m., curries, feeds, and waters two horses, takes breakfast, and is at work in the factory at 7. If it be haying time, and a thunder storm threatens, all the shop's crew turn out to save the newly-dried hay, and he takes a hand at the rake ; then, with an hour's nooning and about one half hour for supper, he works until sunset and in the winter until 8 o'clock p.m. Then, as bookkeeping is considered rather in the light of a luxury, he works on the books after hours until 9 or 10 ; then to bed, unless, fond of reading, he steals an hour to read Abbot's romance called " The History of Napoleon." No vacation to employees, and the schools hold all-day session on Christmas. This, no doubt, seems hard Hues and long hours to the modern Crispin, but it was not so hard as it appears. The gait was not so rapid, nor the tension so great as now. They were not obliged to keep pace with machinery, and it was no uncommon sight to see one cutter reading aloud in working hours from the morning paper the latest news to his fellows, this to be followed by a general discussion in which the boss might join. In district No. 3, now without a school, was a large and flourishing school, and at one time over half the pupils bore one surname. In fact, the ladies of the vicinity, as a matter of necessity, were designated by their husbands' Christian names, with usually an affectionate prefix, as Aunt Moses, Aunt Sam, Aunt Eben, Aunt Aaron, while the husbands were referred to by the Christian name in the same affectionate manner. There was no professional barber in town, no dentist. Those who could not indulge in the expense of a regular physician to extract the ailing tooth employed a substan- tial teamster at the Port, whose hands were somewhat larger than the average child's mouth, but whose terms were very reasonable. I remember well when there was not a single sewing machine in town, and when even the leather uppers to boots and shoes were sewn by hand and the work done largely by bright and intelligent women ; yet I have not yet accustomed myself to the idea that I am an old man. Our predecessors had limited opportunities, but made the highest use of them. Fellow-citizens, we have great privileges that our an- cestors never dreamed of. Can we better commemorate this one
The Banquet 183
hundred and fiftieth anniversary of our existence as a town than by seriously asking the question whether we are avaihng ourselves of these opportmiities with the same earnest, conscientious ardor that characterized their lives?
The Toastmaster:
One of the most distinguished citizens in the history of Danvers was Judge Holten. We have with us to-day a son of Danvers who has made a study of the life of Judge Holten, and one who, as sec- retary of the committee, has done much to make this celebration a success. I introduce to you William B. Sullivan, Esq.
Mr. Sullivan responded as follows :
Samuel Holten, son of Samuel and Hannah Holten, was born in Danvers, near Prince and Garden streets, in a house called Holten's Hotel, June 9, 1738. He studied medicine with Dr. Jonathan Prince, and soon after being qualified to practice moved to Gloucester, where he lived a short while, when he returned to Danvers. The first men- tion of him in our Danvers Records is in Volume I, page 320, May 16, 1764: "Voted, not to allow Dr. Samuel Holten seven pounds one shil- ling, and four pence for attendance to Sarah Gloyd. Then voted that the selectmen take the doctor's account into consideration and allow him what they think right, notwithstanding the above vote." In the same volume, under date of January 10, 1765, this subject is again referred to. " In observance of a vote of the inhabitants of the town of Danvers at the meeting May 16, 1764, where the town voted [above vote quoted], we have met and taken the doctor's amount into consideration, and are of the opinion that the doctor ought to have forty shillings more than what the overseers of the poor allowed him to balance his account in full for attendance and medicine to Sarah Gloyd."
In Volume II, page 147, September 20, 1768, it was " voted unani- mously that Samuel Holten, Jr., be desired to join a committee of the town of Boston and such others as the several towns in this prov- ince shall see fit to send to a convention to be held at Faneuil Hall in Boston, on the 22d of September, instant, at ten of the clock in the forenoon," etc.
He was a member of the legislature previous to the Revolution (see, Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Volume V, page 370, February 24, 1774). He was a member of the convention of Essex County held at Ipswich on September 6-7, 1774, composed
184 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
of delegates from every town in the county. This convention passed a resolution, the first paragraph of which contains the following lines: " That the act of parliament entitled 'An Act for the Better Regulat- ing the Government of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England, 'being a most dangerous infraction of our constitutional and charter rights, and tending to a total subversion of the government of the province and destruction of our liberties, and having been with uncommon zeal, with arbitrary exertion, and military violence at- tempted to be carried into execution, and this zeal, these exertions, and this violence still continuing; from the sacred and inviolable at- tachment which we owe to those rights which are essential to and distinguish us as Englishmen and free men, and from a tender con- cern for the peace of this country, we are bound to pursue all reason- able measures by which any attempts to enforce immediate obedience to that act may be defeated." (Journals of each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, page 615.) Jeremiah Lee, Dr. Samuel Holten, and Elbridge Gerry were appointed a committee to present these resolutions to William Brown, of Boston, who was then a counselor to his majesty's province of Massachusetts Bay.
In the Danvers Records, Volume II, page 426, the following is to be found: " At a town meeting held in the North meetinghouse, twenty- seventh day of September, a.d. 1774, at 3 p.m., the question was put to see if they would send two persons to represent them in the Great and General Court. Passed in the negative. Voted to choose one person to represent them in the Great and General Court. Voted that one quarter of an hour should be given for the electors to prepare and bring in their votes. The said electors brought in their votes to the number of 79. The selectmen counted and sorted the votes and it appeared that Samuel Holten was chosen by having 78 of the above votes "
The record of this meeting continues as follows: " Voted that the following instruction to our representative:
" To Dr. Samuel Holten:
" Sir, — As we have now chosen you to represent us in the Great and General Court to be holden in Salem on Wednesday, the 5th day of October next ensuing, we do hereby instruct you that in all your doings as a member of the House of Representatives you adhere firmly to the charter of this province granted by their majesties King William and Queen Mary, and that you do no act which can possibly be construed into an acknowledgment of the act of the British Parlia-
The Banquet. 185
ment for altering the government of Massachusetts Bay, more espe- cially that you acknowledge the honorable Board of Counsellors elected by the General Court at their session in May last as the only rightful and constitutional council of this province, and as we have reason to believe that a conscientious discharge of your duty will produce your dissolution as a House of Representatives, we do hereby empower and instruct you to join with the members who may be sent from this and the neighboring town in the province, and to meet with them, at a time to be agreed on, in a General Provincial Congress, to act upon such matters as may come before you in such manner as may appear to be most inducive to the true interests of the town and province and most likely to preserve the liberties of all America."
Then the meeting was dissolved.
Samuel Holten, Jr., Clerk.
On the 1st of September, 1774, his Excellency Thomas Gage, governor of Massachusetts Bay, sent out precepts to the several towns and districts of the province, commanding the inhabitants to return representatives to the Great and General Court ordered to be con- vened at Salem on the fifth day of October next. Alarmed by the preparations for resisting usurpation of charter rights, by the bold spirit of the county resolves, and the patriotic instruction of the people to their delegates, it was determined by the Royal Council to counter- mand the meeting of the Assembly and to postpone its session. On September 28, 1774, Governor Gage issued a proclamation announcing his views of the inexpediency of meeting at the time appointed, and discharged the members from attendance and declarmg his intention not to be present at Salem. Notwithstanding the executive pro- hibition, ninety of the representatives elected, in pursuance of the writs for calling the General Assembly, met at Salem on Wednesday, October 5, 1774, and they resolved that by the royal charter the governor was expressly obliged to conv-enc the Great and General Court, but he had no authority to adjourn or prorogue it until after said court has first met and convened. This was the first meeting of the First Provincial Congress. There were three sessions in all of this con- gress which took charge and had entire authority, so far as the province of Massachusetts was concerned, in the Revolution. It met at Con- cord, Cambridge, and in Water town at different periods from October 7, 1774, to July 19, 1775. Samuel Holten represented Danvers in each session of this congress. He held many important positions
186 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
in this body and was elected on the Committee of Safety, May 18, and July 13, 1775 (see pages 238 and 498, Journals of each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts). In the archives of the commonwealth, in the records of the Revolutionary soldiers, I find that Samuel Holten was a first major in the First Essex County Regiment, commanded by Lieut.-Col. John Mansfield; service two days, on alarm April 19, 1775.
In Volume III, page 19, of the Danvers Records, the following may be found: " August 7. At a legal meeting of the freeholders of the town of Danvers to vote for representatives to the General Assembly (at the North meetinghouse in said town), Capt. Samuel Epes had fourteen votes and was duly elected to represent the town. N. B. — The above choice was in consequence of Dr. Samuel Holten being chosen one of the honorable council for this colony."
In the Danvers Records, Volume III, page 119, July 5, 1779, the town of Danvers " voted to send four delegates to represent the town in the convention at Cambridge, for the sole purpose of forming a new constitution, on the first day of September next; voted to choose them by written votes, and the selectmen were appointed to count and sort the votes, and the number of voters were twenty-four, and it appeared that the Hon. Samuel Holten, Amos Putnam, Esq., Col. Israel Hutchinson, and Capt. William Shillaber were chosen for said delegates."
Holten was a delegate to the Congress which was called at York- town to frame the Confederation; and in the "Journals of Congress," Volume I, page 369, Tuesday, June 23, 1778, Mr. Holten appears to have cast his first vote on the Confederation with Hancock, Samuel Adams, Gerry, Dana, and Lovell, as his fellow-delegates from Massa- chusetts Bay, And in the Journals of Congress, Volume I, page 463, while Congress was sitting in Philadelphia, on the ninth day of July, 1778, the Articles of Confederation were signed by John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Elbridge Gerry, Francis Dana, James Lovell, and Samuel Holten on the part and behalf of the state of Massachusetts Bay. This document was second only in importance to the Declara- tion.
He was elected as a delegate to Congress in 1778, and the following are copies of receipts found in his papers :
May 15, 1778. Received of Samuel Holten, Esq., the sum of four pounds, in full, for a pair of pistols for his intended journey to the southward.
Joseph Putnam.
The Banquet. 187
Danvers, May 18, 1778. Received of Samuel Holten, Esq., the sum of six pounds two shil- lings, being for tailoring done for him for his intended journey to the southward.
Philip Noursb.
He served at different periods in Congress from 1778 to 1795. At this time the states sent as many delegates as they desired, as the delegates from each state voted as a unit. Holten's name is to be found running through the Journals of Congress for these years as voting for his state on nearly every measure.
In a letter dated Philadelphia, March 14, 1780, to George Wiat, of Danvers, he says: " The distressed state of our country demands all my attention, and so close has been my application to business that I have not been out of Congress one day since I took my seat except a few days by sickness. I consider myself as acting for a new race or new world, and millions yet unborn will be happy or miserable in this world in consequence of this proceeding of Congress. Had I not these great objects in view I could not be content to tarry here and leave the dearest friends in life at such a distance. But we have everything to get or lose as a people by this contest, and not only our- selves, but our posterity."
The following is a quotation from a letter from Mr. Holten to Hon. Mr. Fisher, dated Philadelphia, April 17, 1780:
" Your constant exertions in the great cause of our country can't but make you highly respected by all her true friends that have the pleasure of your acquaintance. Therefore in this light I hope to be considered in addition to personal respect. It is now five years since the commencement of this war, and great difficulties we have had to encounter, and the campaign is now opening upon us, and I am sorry to say we are poorly prepared for it. The depreciation of our cur- rency has greatly deranged and embarrassed our public affairs, and I might add almost put a total stop to the movements of our armies, and though I can't but suppose the Honorable Assembly are sensible of the state to which we are reduced, yet do they really consider their own danger and how much we have at stake, and not only ourselves, but posterity, for what value are our lives and estates to us if the common cause is not supported? But it may be said. What can be done more by this people? I answer that I think they can relieve them- selves, and I believe they would if they were fully sensible of their danger. Men, money, and provisions are the principal things wanted,
188 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
but the two latter I am most concerned about, for without them it will be impossible to keep the army together. I believe you will agree with me that the recommendations of Congress should be carried fully into effect if possible, for m this union of strength and exertion is our greatest security. But don't thmk (my worthy friend) I despair of the common cause. No; it is too good and just for me to admit a doubt of the final success ; yet we may be further reduced before the good people will see their danger and exert themselves accordingly. Congress are sensible of their situation and are exerting themselves to put a stop to all unnecessary expenses m the great departments of the army, and to that end have lately appointed a committee with very great powers. They are to endeavor to find out the abuses and rectify them and to carry their plans into effect even before they report to Congress.
" The necessary expenses in these departments (I make no doubt) have been great, but it is not so much to be wondered at when we consider how we were driven into this war."
The following is a letter from Samuel Holten to Col. Enoch Put- nam, of Danvers, dated Princeton, August 21, 1783:
" It has not been for want of personal respect that I have not done myself the pleasure of addressing you before, but from multiplicity of business I have been engaged in.
" Although it is some time since hostilities ceased, yet you will be pleased to accept my congratulations on such a happy and glorious event. However, we have great difficulties yet to encounter, and our late enemies and disappointed people seem to be more sensible of it than the good people of these states; and this being the case, I fear that it may be a considerable time before the definitive treaty of peace will be finished, or any commercial treaty agreed upon between these states and the British king. They still hope to divide us in our public councils, and in consequence thereof that each state will carry on their trade with them as we used to do when we were their prov- inces, which will be greatly to our disadvantage. They can't yet come down to law, as they think, to give us an equal chance with them in the commercial world, but this they must consent to finally unless they can break the union of the continent and get the several states to quarreling with each other and with Congress, and I expect no means will be left untried to accomplish it.
" You must be sensible that there have been a large number of per- sons in all parts of the United States that have been inimical to us from the beginning of the contest, and as we are not now at war with the
The Banquet. 189
common enemy, so we are apt to be off our guard respecting those people, who now dare to come forward in pubhc life and find fault with things that have been done by Congress in years past which has been a means under God of saving this people from ruin; and some have influence enough to procure seats in our general assemblies, and that gives them great opportunities to find fault with the doings of Congress and endeavor to counteract their proceedings ; and what gives these sort of people great advantage at this time is the good people being burthened with the charge of the war. They tell them it is owing to misconduct in our public affairs, and that they can set things right and relieve them of their taxes, and it is not to be wondered at that sundry of the good people believe them. But it is impossible to make those inimical people like our new republican governments. From their hearts they wish to destroy them, and yet hope we shall be obliged to fall under the British government, or at least some of the states, if they can divide us in our public councils. No doubt you have heard that the state of Massachusetts has pub- licly remonstrated against the proceedings of Congress in two in- stances. I have not time to enlarge on this subject, but beloved Hutchinson can inform you more of this matter.
" The remonstrance has been read in Congress, and I shall spare no pains in endeavoring to prevent any disputes between Congress and the state I have the honor to represent, as I foresee the consequences. God grant that this people may not again be involved in all the horrors of war.
" The date of this letter has informed you where I am, and I assure you, sir, my situation is much more agreeable than it was in Phila- delphia, even before Congress were surrounded with armed soldiers with fixed bayonets. Our situation there was disagreeable for some hours, as the soldiers seemed to be prepared for the worst purposes.
" The land in this town is an advantageous situation, being high, and the people are very agreeable, but what adds greatly to the appearance is the college, which is two hundred feet in length, built with stone and lime."
Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, was elected president of Congress Thursday, November 11, 1784 (Journals of Congress, Volume X, page 4). This was the highest office in the government at the time, and in same volume, page 268, the following may be found:
" Wednesday, August 17, 1785. " The President, from indisposition being prevented from attend-
190 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
ing to the House, Congress proceeded to the election of a chairman, and a ballot being taken, the Hon. Samuel Holten was elected."
I have found three letters which Holten wrote to his constituents in Danvers in which he mentions his election, the first to Dr. Wads- worth, dated August 29, 1785, in which he said: " Since mj'' last, I was unanimously elected president of Congress "; the second to Col. Israel Hutchinson, dated New York, September 2, 1785: " I am still in the chair "; and the third to John Kettell, dated September 12, 1785: " I stUl continue my lodging in Long Island and I am still in the chair."
Holten also wrote a letter to Gov. John Hancock, dated Princeton, October 3, 1783, in which he said: " On the 9th inst. I had the honor of informing your Excellency that Congress had determined that buildings should be erected for their use at or near the Falls of the Delaware, but the determination not being satisfactory to the southern states. Congress on Tuesday last resolved that buildings for their use should likewise be erected ' at or near the lower falls of Potomac or Georgetown,' and they have also determined that until said buildings are prepared for their reception, Congress shall sit in Annapolis and Trenton, alternately, not exceeding one year at a time in either place, and they have passed a resolution authorizing and directing the President to adjourn Congress on the 12th day of November next, to meet at Annapolis on the 26th of the same month for the despatch of public business. This seems to give more general satisfaction. I understand Mr. Van Berkell, the Dutch minister, is in the city of Philadelphia, but he has not yet made us a visit, and I do not expect he will be received in his public capacity until after Congress meets at Annapolis. Congress have, by proclamation, discharged all that part of the army that were furloughed and have left a discretionary power with the general regarding the remainder."
On March 5, 1783, he wrote a letter to John Hancock, saying: " Two days since we asked the attention of Congi-ess to making your Excellency a grant for your expenses while president of Congress "; and on April 1, 1783, he wrote another letter informing Governor Hancock that " Congress yesterday passed a resolution in your favor for S3,248."
On July 5, 1787, he wrote a letter to Governor Hancock in which he said: " Since my arrival yesterday was the first session of Congress. It is surprising how inattentive some of the gentlemen are who have accepted seats in Congress. Surely this is not the time for neglect of duty." And also a letter to Captain Samuel Page, of Danvers, dated Philadelphia, January 3, 1794: " Our affairs as a nation are
The Ba7iquet. 191
really delicate. The people have too much sense to believe the men elected to Congress immediately become rogues."
On June 9, 1787, Holten made a bill of sale to John Kettell for the sum of twenty-four pounds, thirteen shillings, sixpence, for one half of all his stock of cattle in Danvers, " to be improved jointly on my farm for the benefit of both."
While in Congress his salary in 1794 was $6 a day while in session, and the same pay while on the road. It took nineteen days to make the journey of three hundred and eighty miles.
In Volume III, page 361, Danvers Records:
" December 6, 1787. Warrant issued to see if the town will elect one or more persons to represent them in a convention to be holden in the State House in Boston on the second Wednesday of January next, agreeable to a resolve of the General Court of the 25th of October last, respecting the new proposed form of government for the United States. Also to see if it be their minds to give any instructions to the person or persons they may so elect, etc."
" At a legal meeting of the freeholders and other inhabitants of the town of Danvers lawfully qualified to vote in the election of repre- sentatives in the North meetinghouse in said Danvers, December 11, 1787, at one o'clock p.m., the question was put to see if they would send any delegates to the proposed convention, and it passed in the affirmative. The question was then put to see if they would send two delegates to said convention, and it passed in the affirmative. Voted that one quarter of an hour be allowed the electors to prepare and bring in their votes for delegates. The time being out, and the votes all laid on the table, the selectmen counted and sorted the votes. The whole number of votes was as follows: Samuel Holten, Esq., 63; Israel Hutchinson, 50; William Shillaber, 14; and the selectmen declared the Hon. Samuel Holten and Israel Hutchinson, Esq., duly elected. Voted not to give their delegates any instructions."
Holten was appointed judge of probate for the county of Essex in 1796 and resigned in 1815. He was also chief justice of the Court of Sessions for the county of Essex, and resigned January 15, 1813. His letter of resignation begins with the words, " I have thought it ad- visable for reasons not necessary to mention." His resignation was accepted on the 26th of January, 1813. He died January 2, 1816, and is buried in what is now known as Holten Cemetery, Danvers. His will, which is dated Danvers, June 21, 1814, and is witnessed by James Putnam, David Wilkins, and Frederick Howe, contains the following provision: " I give the use and improvement of one and
192 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
one-half acres of land for a burying yard in the burying pasture, so called, in the place we now bury, to be for the use of my family and the neighborhood, and to be called hereafter by the name of Holten's Burying Ground. ... I do hereby direct that no person or persons that appear indebted to me be sued or put to cost or trouble if they appear poor or unable to pay."
The inventory of his estate was made out by Amos Tapley, Caleb Oakes, and John Page as appraisers, and the first item thereof is the farm homestead, containing one hundred and nine acres, $5,000. This is the house at the corner of Holten and Centre streets. The total amount of real estate in the inventory is $9,860; the total amount of personal estate is $2,787.32.
There is an agreement in the probate papers, dated May 15, 1823, indicating that the only heirs-at law then living of Samuel Holten were Mary Putnam, Porter Kettell, Mary Ann Putnam, and George Osgood.
Samuel Holten earned his epitaph, which is, " He sustained various oflBces of trust under the state government and that of the Union with ability and integrity to the almost unanimous acceptance of his constituents."
The Toastmaster:
To understand the form of our government it is well for us to know the spirit of our founders and the basis on which the government was founded. I introduce Daniel N. Crowley, Esq.
Mr. Crowley responded :
Mr. Toastmaster: Conscious of my unworthiness to properly re- spond to this sentiment, I still arise readily, if not eagerly, to seek the opportunity to express my admiration for those men who planted on these shores those little colonies from which this great state has grown. I gladly acknowledge my great indebtedness to them for the great privileges and liberties which, in common with you all, I enjoy. We are all indebted to them for our good fortune in having our lives cast in a country where liberty and education are to be had at the same price by the poor and the rich, and where the poorest as well as the richest may not only hope for, but attain, the highest civil positions. The Pilgrims and the Pm-itans have been subjected to the severest censure; their memory has been hallowed by the greatest praise. They have been denounced as bigots, and they have
The Banquet. 193
been proclaimed saints. They were religious enthusiasts, and they were intolerant. They came here, fleeing from religious persecution, to establish a colony in which they would be free to exercise their religion according to their convictions.
It is not at all necessary that one should hold, even in the modified form of to-day, their religious tenets in order to find much to admire in the spirit that pervaded and controlled their lives; and to find palliation and excuse, if not justification, for all that cannot be admired. However zealous they were for freedom to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences and convictions, it is scarcely true that they were in favor of religious liberty; nor can it be claimed for them that they sought to establish a colony or a state in which the right to worship God, each man according to his own convictions and the dictates of his heart, was to be a fundamental law.
Their days throughout all western and southern Europe were, indeed, troublesome times. England had passed from Catholicism as a state church to the Anglican church; and under the Stuarts and Laud it was feared by a great mass of the people that the Anglican church was being subtly but designedly converted back to Rome. Religion became politics ; the type of government. The masses of the English people feared, not so much Catholic form of worship, as a form of government shaped and conforming to that which it had been the policy of the Roman hierarchy to establish and maintain in the differ- ent European countries. A government which, if it did not recognize the right of the Court of Rome to dictate its policies, did recognize the right of that court to put a veto upon all policies that it considered dangerous to its power and its pretensions.
France had been involved in this political-religious struggle; Germany had been rent by it. In the Netherlands it had grown into frenzy. They belonged, at that time, to Spain. Philip II sat on the Spanish throne, narrow, pessimistic, gloomy, and bigoted. He believed in the absolutism of the church and the divine authority of kings.
The people of Holland, Zealand, and Belgium were merchants, manufacturers, traders, and artisans. Each occupation had its own guild, where its members were wont to meet and discuss all matters of interest to their own calling. And when the great religious con- troversy broke forth they saw no reason why they should not consider it and decide upon it for themselves, as in all those other matters, the consideration of which had made them prosperous individually, and their little communities and their cities intelligent, rich, and free.
194 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
The Reformation took great root here ; their trade and commerce carried their opinions into France and spread them throughout England.
PoHtical jealousies among the reigning monarchs of Europe, and selfish interests, caused them to adopt the one side or the other in the great religious upheaval.
England, under Henry VIII, had cut loose from the Roman church and set up its own church, of which the monarch was made the head. When his stormy life had come to its end, he was followed, after a few years, by his Catholic daughter, who, incensed by the wrongs heaped upon her virtuous and beloved mother, with a heart filled with hatred against those who aided and counseled Henry in wronging her, seized the first opportunity to avenge her, and at the same time govern according to her convictions by overthrowing the Anglican church and setting up again in power and in favor the Catholic re- ligion. Her zeal was as immoderate as her vengeance was insatiate. Filled to overflowing with this just sense of wrong and desire for ven- geance, there was no room in her mind or heart for reason or prudence. She married the King of Spain; to please him she involved England in a war with France, its ally. She lost the love of her people without gaining either the love or companionship of her husband. She died of a broken heart. Her reign, though short, was such that it prociired for her a cognomen that will endure for all time, whether justly or un- justly will ever remain an open question. She was succeeded by her sister, Elizabeth, who, on the threshold of her reign, wavered as to which policy she should adopt. Like her contemporary, Henry IV of France, who deemed it best, for reasons of state, to become a Catholic, Elizabeth, deemed it expedient to adopt the Protestant cause, to which she gave the vigor of her long reign, during which it had become, firmly and generally, the religion of England and the religion of the government. She, in turn, was succeeded by her cousin James. A Protestant in profession and in external practice, he could not be the son of the unfortunate Queen of Scots without partakmg, in some degree at least, of a feeling of bitterness towards those who had led his mother to the block ; without some tender regard for that religion to which she was loyal throughout her life, the devotion to which was manifest in her last agony. He could not be her son without having naturally some feeling of tenderness and generosity to those of that religion who were loyal to his mother; who were faithful to her throughout her life; sons of fathers who had sacrificed their fortunes and their lives in their loyalty to her.
The Banquet. 195
The feeling which the first James entertained without conscious- ness, the first Charles, his son, but ill concealed. The question of religion, or the differences of religion, became a choice between abso- lutism and parliamentary government. Charles I paid the penalty of his life to his endeavor to establish the absolutism of the king.
Parliamentary government as embodied in Cromwell went to the other extreme and became a gloomy t>Tanny, a tyranny that ran riot to such an extent that, after Cromwell, the people of England flew to the Stuarts for refuge.
The sympathy with the old religion that the first James felt without consciousness, and the first Charles but ill concealed, the second Charles privately, and the second James publicly, acknowledged.
During all these reigns the people of England were kept in a state of disturbance, faction existed everywhere, and the struggle between absolutism and the people waxed strong. For a time the one side would appear triumphant, and again for a time, the other. Absolutism became identified either with the old religion or with the Anglican church ; parliamentary government with the new religion.
The merchant and trading class of the English people were of the new religion, but they tired of the eternal struggle and sought for an opportunity to pursue their trade and to exercise their religion without interference with the one, or loss to the other.
Reformed religion had become predominant in Holland, and many of the brethren in England sought refuge there from the disturbance to their occupations and from religious persecution. Some of them at home, of a speculative turn of mind, had obtained large grants of land in the wilderness of America, and charters for trade, and they held out the promise of gain and of freedom in a new world to those of the faithful who had sought refuge in Holland. Their eyes had already been turned to the new world. They came hither! They came not, as I have said, to establish a colony for the free exercise of religion, but a colony for the undisturbed exercise of their religion; where they would have an opportunity to build their temples and renew their fortunes free from forfeiture and molestation. " For righteousness' sake." It was this spirit that brought them here. Then- experience had taught them endurance. Their broken fortunes, their losses, their hopes, and their necessities filled them with determination and resolution.
In the old world there was nothing to which they could return but vexation of spirit, if not loss of life.
In the new world they soon learned there was nothing for them
196 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
to hope for except that which could be achieved by the hard and unremitting toil of their own strong arms. But they thought alike, and were, at least, at peace. Oppression in the rear and danger in the fore forced them to that hard and determined intolerance which became the ruling characteristic of their lives. They planted their meetinghouses, and about them they built their dwellings. They believed that the Bible was the rule of life, that every one should read it for himself, and schools were necessary in which their children could learn to read. In their churches they preached and practiced intol- erance, but their schools were free to all ; if not free from intolerance, at least free to all. The hard rigor of their church endured with all its strength for a while, but it began to decay and to decline until it passed away. As the rigor of their church relaxed, other sectaries sprang up; each built its church, each church on days of prayer sheltered its own votaries, but the poverty of all forced the children of all to a common school ; here there was necessarily some toleration, some freedom. The children who mingled together, too young to understand the distinction of creed, were old enough to appreciate the sameness and enjoy the generosity of youth ; they learned to love one another; this love endured, and toleration and freedom spread. The freedom of their schools grew apace, flourished, blossomed, and ripened in the intelligent communities that have made the great New England states, states which, sending out their little bands of emigrants here and there, have made the great nation in which we live, whose blessings we enjoy, and whose blessings after we have ceased to enjoy them have been so securely founded in that love that has sprung from youthful association that, with all assurance for their continuance we can transmit them to our descendants.
It would be idle to claim for these founders of a new nation the virtue of toleration. It would be unjust to charge them with vindic- tive persecution. Their characteristic evil was intolerance, but it was intolerance which in them was not a desire, but, as they viewed it, a necessity; an intolerance assumed not for aggression but, as they viewed it, in self-defence. It was a fortification behind which they intrenched themselves in the great struggle which had arisen in their fatherland and which they deemed necessary to prevent the renewal and continuance of their troubles in the land to which they had fled for refuge. Viewed in the light of the present day, and in the spirit of the present times, it was harsh, bitter, ungenerous, un- charitable, unchristian ; viewed from their standpoint, in the light of their day, in the spirit of the times in which they lived, it was a natural means of self-defence.
The Banquet. 197
Those of us who live, who enjoy the great benefits of the system which they founded, are hardly worthy of our good fortune if we cannot do them the justice to account for this, the greatest of their shortcomings, by an honest consideration of, and allowance for, what they thought necessary for their preservation.
I believe it to be but just to them to say that they considered the toleration of any other creed or sect to be but the renewal of that strife and conflict to avoid which they had left their homes, their kindred, and their opportunities for material progress, and cast their lot in the wilderness, separated from all that was dear to them by a trackless ocean three thousand miles wide, and that to renew the conflict would render their sacrifice in vain.
It is not palliating the rigor of their conduct too much, nor justifying it undeservedly, to attribute it to self-defence. The supporters and defenders of the old religion openly and constantly justified their con- duct and the cruel punishments they inflicted on the converts and professors of the new doctrine as necessary for the defence of their church and the form of government under which they lived.
Richelieu, the great cardinal of France, who might equally well be called its great military genius, defended his persecution of the Hugue- nots, his cruel maintenance of the siege of Rochelle, and his ceaseless labor and endless expense in its continuance, on the ground that it was necessary as a means of maintaining the government and the church against the inroads of the new sect. And that that was the view he took of it is evidenced by the clemencj^ shown by him to the inhabitants of Rochelle when the surrender of that city removed the danger which he considered so imminent. That at that time intol- erance was actually necessary as self-defence from the standpoint of the one religion or the other appears almost conclusively from the fate that befell the Maryland colony, which, founded by Roman Catholics, establishing a colony on the fundamental law of freedom of religion to all sects, was soon so overrun by Protestants that the founders of the colony not only soon lost control over it, but lost the freedom to exercise their own religion, which they had guaranteed to their religious opponents. But whatever view may be taken, and however much may be denied them as an excuse for it, there is still left something which redeems them at lea^t from total condemnation, and commends them to history and posterity. Their hardihood, their perseverance, their endurance, their constancy of purpose, the rigor in personal conduct which they inflicted upon their own lives in the midst of all their trial . and hardships, proves, if not the correctness of their convictions, absolutely the sincerity of them. Nor does the
198 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
occasional breach of these rules of life, revealed by the records of their churches and of the courts of their day, disprove this statement. That the ecclesiastical and the civil records reveal and prove that in this early period there were frequent infringements upon and breaches of the Puritan law is the very best proof that these harsh rules of life were not only laid down for the government of the colonies, but that they were rigorously enforced. What they deemed sinful was not only prohibited, but what they deeemd sin was, on detection, punished not only in the church, but in the state. Thoughtful reflection upon the austerity of their conduct and their laws compels us to look with pitying regi'et upon the belief that they almost entertained the con- clusion that it was necessary to shut mirth and sunshine out of their home that truth and righteousness might abide there. When cheer- fulness and pleasure could best support privation, want, and arduous labor, they endured all these in discharge of what they thought a religious duty.
The Toastmaster:
Mr. A. H. Paton has long been familiar with the affairs of Danvers, past and present, and should be able to forecast the future of this town. We will now look to him for instruction.
Mr. Paton responded as follows :
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, — No one with even a slight knowledge of the history of the past fifty years can fail to realize that it is the record of greatest progress the world has ever experienced. The citizens of Danvers may take just pride in the fact that during all these years the old town has always kept its place in this onward march of man's development. If we analyze the subject it will be found that as we have grown in material wealth, we have with hke pace advanced to higher planes of thought and life. We are abso- lutely the creatures of our environment, and as we surround ourselves with the ever-increasing number and scope of things that minister to the comfort and eliminate the privations of life; as we lessen the hours and lighten the burdens of toil ; and as we in any way make it easier and pleasanter to live, we thereby and in equal ratio broaden the minds and enlarge the hearts of men. We thus bring men gradu- ally nearer to that perfection of estate and to that millenium of time when the will of God shall be done on earth as it is in heaven. The hoped-for time comes slowly, because it has eternity for its day, but
The Banquet. 199
come it does ; and if we measure by the multiplications of inventive genius and the infiuences of their helpful skill in adding to the joys of life, then time has been marching with ever-quickening speed that indicates a close approach to the goal by the time another fifty-year cycle has rolled around. From what is to what shall be is no farther than from what was to what is. It may then be that when some of those now here and those that are to come shall celebrate the next half century of our history, the immense development of man's powers will have enabled him to compel fulfillment of all the hopes of the wildest optimist who helps to celebrate this one hundredth and fiftieth anniversary.
Man will then have harnessed the tides of the moon and the rays of the sun. Children wiU not be compelled to slave in mills nor learn crime in slums, but will riot in sunshine and happiness and in the cultivation of those qualities of mind and heart and body that will lead them to the perfection of womanhood and manhood. Women will be truly the queens of homes, clothed in raiment like the lily and the rainbow, directing the household machinery that will automatically do their bidding. Men will be free from irksome dangerous drudgery, performing the work of the world with perfect tools that obey their well-balanced, well-trained minds and their higher knowledge. The products of their skill will be in such profusion as are now the gifts of nature, and they will be so equitably divided that none shall be poor and all will be rich. We shall have discovered the fountain of youth, and have conquered death. Then wars will be no more, and men will love each other. Peace, plenty, prosperity, and happiness will reign, and, because men so will it, a millenium will have come.
The Toastmaster:
There is no one among us better qualified to send our message to the bi-centennial than the distinguished son of Danvers who will now speak to us, — the Hon. Alden P. White.
Salem, Mass., April 1,* 1907. To THE Committee on Publication:
I recall with distinctness that during the ten odd minutes in which a tired audience showed the comfort of knowing that I was the last speaker I addressed some of my talk, over their long-suffering heads, to Posterity. Verih^ I was somewhat possessed of an ambition to send a small consignment of my own words on that exhilarating career which orators describe as "rolling down the ages." But long since they
* This is an elastic date. — Committee.
200 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
have fallen by the wayside; and not havmg manuscript or notes I cannot now recover them, even to set them joyously on their way within the comfortable vehicle of your book.
No, the speech uttered almost five years ago will not recast itself with any satisfaction. I have tried and tried, and can show you pages wherein choice phrases have turned double somersaults to find a proper setting, and scratches-out and interlineations betray the forced and unresponsive effort of my brain. I suppose I had some steam on, then. Now, my wood is wet, and I've lost the cover to the kettle; the thing won't boil any more.
The raw material of my speech was the Peace Convocation at the Hague, which was then fairly contemporaneous with our celebration.
Conscious that this topic had no peculiar reference to the centennial of Danvers I side-stepped to it by complimentary allusions to the fullness and accuracy with which the previous speakers had covered all the ground of local interest, and by remarking that while we were assembled to celebrate the life of our little individual community, we were but a representative unit of that world-wide activity of intelligent, progressive humanity which we call civilization, and that it was not unbecoming to link with our proceedings some recognition of an event of universal significance. No one openly refuted this proposition and I was suffered to proceed.
You remember the letter of the Czar, dated August 24, 1898? It was an invitation to all nations represented at the Imperial Court of Prussia to arrange for a conference concerning the maintenance of a general peace and the reduction of armaments, as the ideal towards which the endeavors of all governments should be directed.
You at least remember how all the world sat up straight and paid attention, and wondered what it meant. The missive was received with all shades of emotion from enthusiasm to downright distrust. I tried to express my belief that the young ruler, autocrat that he was, spoke with the heart of a man and meant what his prime mmister said.
In response to such summons the nations of the earth, orient and Occident, old world and new, some twenty-five in all, represented by their choicest men, convened on the birthday of the Czar, May 18, 1899, within the summer palace of the maiden Queen of Holland.
I said something about the chosen place of meeting, and the in- spiration of its associations; something of the brave people who wrested their country from the sea and made it the abode of liberty. Then I recalled the personnel of our own representation, men to be proud of, with long and well-earned titles of distinction.
The Banquet. 201
The conference lasted about ten weeks. It discussed intricate problems and entered into conventions concerning the laws and the customs of war on land and sea. It established, toward the end of the avoidance of war, for the first time in the world's history, a Perma- nent International Court of Arbitration.
I tried to express something of the grandeur of this conception, something of the vast possibilities inherent in this the first great general movement towards the substitution of reason for slaughter, the reduction of peace ideals to a working basis of practical realism.
To be sure, our war with Spain just preceded the conference; England plunged into the Boer war almost as soon as the conference dissolved. And since our celebration the struggle between Russia and Japan for a time hid the House in the Woods in the thicker smoke of a yet more terrible war.
But at Portsmouth the Hague idea triumphed. Only recently architects of many nationalities have been m competition for designs for a permanent building worthy the new Tribunal, to be erected near the meeting-place of the conference. Certain international cases of importance have actually been settled by the Court's arbitrament. Another conference of nations is assured and imminent.
Despite these recent wars I cling to my faith in the Court of Arbitra- tion as a new and beneficent factor in the determination of the destinies of mankind. I see its jurisdiction more and more invoked, its influence ever broader and broader, its dignity and authority ever more firmly established. At no distant day its beautiful temple will arise and the quaint and quiet city of its abode will become one of the holy spots of earth.
This I believed, — and it was the one point of my little speech at our banquet, — that the establishment of this great and vmique tribunal is well nigh the crowning achievement of our generation.
I uttered this opinion not so much to my hearers as to you, Pos- terity, who from your far-off vantage point will judge of our day and our deeds unobscured by the temporary clouds which distort our own vision. I uttered it as a sort of prophetic challenge to the con- firmation of your retrospective experience.
And, ah. Posterity, as we say in our business notes, " I await your reply " with reference to this and many other matters of importance to us, with more keenness than I can tell you. I only wish that I could leave you my address. At present, it is. Yours very truly, and yours, too. Gentlemen of the Committee,
Alden p. White.
202 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
The services were concluded by singing " Auld Lang Syne " by the audience.
Childeen's Entertainment. Peabody Institute was packed on Monday afternoon by the Httle folks, for whom a special entertainment was provided. Prof. Bennett Springer, of Boston, gave a fine entertainment of magic, tricks, and sleight-of-hand, and a Punch and Judy show was presented by Prof. Arthur Pryor, of Boston. Boxes of candy were presented to the happy children as they left the hall.
Monday's Band Concerts.
Two enjoyable concerts were given on the Square, in front of the Old Berry Tavern, Monday afternoon and evening, by the Salem Cadet Band, Jean M. Missud, leader. The Square and intersecting streets were crowded with an incessantly moving throng, and the space about the band stand was completely taken.
The programs were as follows :
June 16. — Afternoon.
1. March, "With Flying Colors " Missud
2. Overture, " Light Cavalry " Suppe
3. Waltz, " Wedding of the Winds " Hall
4. Selection, National Melodies Bendix
5. March, " Blackville Society " Franklin
6. Selection, " Florodora " Stuart
7. Waltz, " The Little Duchess " deKoven
8. Selection, Popular Songs Mackie
9. Cocoanut Dance Herman
10. March, " King Dodo " Luders
Evening, 7 to 9.
1. March, " American Republic " Thiele
2. Overture, " Poet and Peasant " Suppe
3. Solo FOR Cornet, " II Baccio " Arr.byKeyes
Mr. B. B. Keyes.
The Ball. 203
4. Waltz, " Miss Simplicity " Arr.byKeyes
5. Selection, " King Dodo " Liiders
6. March, " Creole Belles " Lampe
7. Dance of the Skeletons Allen
8. Selection, " II Trovatore " Verdi
9. Gavotte, " A Lesson in Flirtation " Englander
10. March, " The Billboard " Klohr
The Ball.
The ball, which was a part of the program of entertainments provided by the general committee, was held in the Town Hall, Monday evening, June 16. It was largely attended and proved to be a very enjoyable affair. The grand march was led by floor director Wallace P. Hood and wife, and sixty couples participated. The music was by the Salem Cadet Orchestra of ten pieces. The order of dances contained twenty-one numbers, with two intermissions. The first fourteen numbers were designed for the older people who were not familiar with the modern dances; quadrilles, lan- ders, Portland fancy, etc., predominating, and were thor- oughly enjoyed by those that participated. The last seven numbers were alternately waltzes and two-steps, for the benefit of the younger generation. The decorations were the same as for the banquet in the afternoon. The hall was beautifully draped, and palms and ferns were grouped on the stage. Ices, cake, and fruit punch were served at intermission by F. W. Mangold.
The committee organized early in the season and divided into sub-committees, all of whom worked conscientiously for the success of the event.
The committee was made up as follows:
Frank C. Damon. William H. Milton.
Bertram P. Perley. A. Preston Chase.
Lester S. Couch. Arthur E. Perkins.
Thomas E. Tinsley. Wallace P. Hood.
Walter P. Weston. Harold M. Wilkins.
204 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
The officers of the ball were as follows :
General Manager. Frank C. Damon.
Floor Director. Wallace P. Hood.
Aids.
Lester S. Couch. Bertram P. Perley.
Frank W. Ross. William H. Milton.
Arthur E. Perkins. Harry H. Boutelle, M.D.
Harold M. Wilkins. Edward J. Magee, M.D.
Reception Committee. Walter P. Weston. Daniel N. Crowley.
Thomas E. Tinsley. Joshua W. Nichols.
A. Preston Chase. Thorndike P. Hawkes.
John T. Carroll. Walter H. Brown.
The order of dances was as follows :
March and Circle. Waltz.
1. Quadrille. 5. Quadrille.
2. Two-Step. 6. Waltz.
3. Portland Fancy. 7. Lanciers.
4. Schottische.
Intermission.
8. Two-Step. 12. Schottische.
9. Quadrille. 13. Quadrille.
10. Waltz. 14. Two-Step.
11. Portland Fancy.
Intermission.
15. Waltz. 19. Waltz.
16. Two-Step. 20. Two-Step.
17. Waltz. 21. Wahz.
18. Two-Step.
THE THIRD DAY.
It was Bunker Hill Day, June 17. The chief spectacular event of this day was the parade.
The Parade. 205
Athletic sports in the afternoon, band concerts, and a balloon that did not ascend, completed the day's program. The celebration was brought to a close by a display of fireworks at the Park.
The Parade.
It was six miles long and took two hours to pass a given point.
The sub-committee, under the leadership of Daniel N. Crowley, Esq., had labored vigorously and ably in its prepar- ation, but much of the success of the feature was due to the personal efforts and financial contributions of the chief marshal, Wm. Penn Hussey. The town showed its ap- preciation of his work by presenting him with a medal, commemorative of the event.
It is probable that the old town never before witnessed such a spectacle. And not alone is this true as to the parade itself, but it is likewise true of the vast concourse of people from far and near which thronged the streets all day long. Every street car and every railroad train brought its quota, until it seemed as though there could be standing room for no more. One train on the Boston & Maine even had passengers on the car roofs. But, beyond a little congestion in the most inter- esting places, there was no discomfort. Taking the figures of the railroads, and adding them to the town's population, it is estimated that seventy-five thousand people or more viewed the procession at some point, or took part in it. One of the rarest sights was the mounted escort to the chief marshal, and over one thousand horsemen are known to have taken part.
The procession was formed in close order, and marched fast, but it extended over six miles, and two hours were consumed in passing a given point.
The rain of the night before had greatly freshened the grass and foliage, and with the beautiful massing of colors on public and private buildings the scene was one of rare picturesque-
206 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
ness. Thousands of flags waved in the breeze, and, amid these surroundings, the thousand horsemen led off in the march. Next to the horsemen the school children were the most attractive feature. Over fifteen hundred of them were conveyed in forty-one floats, all handsomely decorated. A notable attraction was the Second Corps of Cadets of Salem, and a battalion of the Eighth Infantry. The staff of the Cadet Corps was mounted. Another feature was the splendid show made by the veterans of the Civil War, Post 90 of Dan- vers being supplemented by large delegations from the posts in Peabody, Beverly, Salem, and other places.
Capt. J. C. R. Peabody Camp, Legion of Spanish War Veterans, and Ward Camp, Sons of Veterans, also attracted much attention.
The most notable floats occupied by the children of the public schools were those representing " Penn's Treaty with the Indians " and " Liberty Bell." The Peabody Cadets, an organization of boys, was a noticeable feature. In addition to the regular organization there was a fully-equipped ambu- lance corps and a float containing several young girls repre- senting the Red Cross. At the conclusion of the parade the boys had a sham battle on the Hussey estate, '' Riverbank."
The firemen made a splendid show, the local apparatus being augmented by delegations from Peabody and Beverly. A notable feature of this division was a " one-horse shay," the occupants being Daniel Buxton, of Peabody, ninety-one years old, and Henry Very, of Danvers, aged eighty-one. The " shay " was ornamented with old-time fire buckets and hats, and the vehicle was drawn by an ancient horse, the property of Mr. Very.
In another carriage were Edmund Osborne, aged ninety years, and H. M. Osborne, aged seventy-three, both of Pea- body, who were members of the fire department, as were Messrs. Buxton and Very, fifty years ago, before the division of the town, and who took part in the parade held in the
The Parade. 207
town in 1852 in commemoration of the one hundredth anni- versary. The ancient hand engine owned by the Torrent Company of Peabody was also in line.
Another featm-e of the procession was a long array of drags, coaches, and other equipages of summer residents of the North Shore. There were floats representing " Washington Crossing the Delaware," " Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party," " Putnamville Sewing Circle," '* Danvers Hospital," and a boat propelled by a bicycle. The trades feature of the procession proved of much interest. Dean Perley, who had operated a blacksmith shop for forty-eight years, had a fully equipped shop in working order on a float which was drawn by a yoke of oxen, each ox weighing seventeen hundred and fifty pounds. A wagon owned by George W. Pickering, of Salem, drawn by five span of gray horses, each horse weighing nearly fifteen hundred pounds, attracted much favorable comment along the route.
Bringing up the rear of the procession was a large elm-tree on a drag, its roots carefully covered with burlap, and the trimk and limbs protected as best they could be. Notwith- standing the ultimate failure of this incident of the procession, it will not be amiss at this time to record the facts connected with the tree, for had it not died, as a result of its several hours of travel about the town, there would have been stand- ing on the public park on Conant Street to-day one of the finest specimens of the elm ever seen. The tree sprang from a little shoot on the Old Berry Tavern stable lot many years ago, and the then proprietor, Eben G. Berry, so constructed the wash stand of the stable as to protect it in its growth. When the old stable was demolished it was properly cared for by his heirs, but stood in an undesirable location on the lot. In response to a request from Dr. W. W. Eaton of the Improvement Society, the present owners of the property, Mrs. Frank C. Damon and her brother, Harry G. Johnson, grandchildren of Mr. Berry, presented the tree to the society.
208 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
upon the condition that it be carefully transplanted at the head of the wide entrance avenue to the public park. The work was intrusted by Lester S. Couch, of the committee, to Linehan & Son, of Prides Crossing, which firm had success- fully transplanted many larger trees along the North Shore for wealthy summer residents. But for once this reliable firm failed. Either because of the season of the year, or the rough usage it encountered in its trip about town, or possibly because it was not properly watered after it was transplanted , the beautiful tree withered and died, and thus an excellent and highly appropriate feature of the celebration came to naught.
The procession started from " Riverbank " promptly at ten o'clock, and proceeded over the following route:
Water Street, through High, Elm, Sylvan, Adams, Pine, Holten, Cherry, Maple, Poplar, Locust, and Maple streets to the Square, where it was reviewed by the chief marshal, and then on to Conant Street, where it disbanded about one o'clock.
The following was the general make-up of the parade :
Platoon of ten policemen from Salem, Capt. G. H. Blinn in command. American Band of Peabody, P. J. Ingraham, bandmaster, twenty-five
pieces. Chief Marshal William Penn Hussey, Assistant Marshal J. Fred Hussey,
Gen. Francis H. Appleton, chief of staff; Everett E. Austin,
chief aid ; Messrs. Greene, Laskey, and Washburn, line riders, and
mounted cavalcade of many hundred aids.
FIRST DIVISION.
Salem Cadet Band, twenty-six pieces, Jean Missud, leader.
Second Corps Cadets, M. V. M., Lieut.-Col. W. F. Peck commanding;
also chief of division Major Andrew Fitz. Company C, Capt. John E. Spencer commanding. Company D, Capt. Charles F. Ropes commanding. Company F, Capt. George E. Symonds commanding. Company B, Capt. Arthur N. Webb commanding. Provisional Battalion: Eighth Regiment, M. V. M., Capt. Edward J.
Horton commanding.
The Parade. 209
Company H, Salem, Capt. George N. Jewett commanding. Company G, Gloucester, First Lieut. G. M. Kincaid commanding. Company E, Beverly, Capt. A. P. Gardner commanding.
SECOND DIVISION.
Dr. W. W. Eaton, Danvers, chief of division, and fifty mounted aids.
Salem Brass Band, twenty-five pieces, J. H. Boyle, leader.
J. C. R. Peabody Camp, Legion Spanish War Veterans, as escort to Post 90 G. A. R. of Danvers, Commander J. Irving Fuller.
Post 90 G. A. R. of Danvers, T. D. Crowley commanding.
Post 50 G. A. R. of Peabody, E. H. Davis commanding.
Post 89 G. A. R. Beverly, John Crampsey commanding.
Wagon with veterans of Post 90.
Ward Relief Corps, of Danvers, on float handsomely decorated with white, and members of the corps surrounding " Liberty."
Ward Camp Sons of Veterans, Danvers, H. S. Monies commanding.
Barouches containing the selectmen and officials of surrounding towns.
Hamilton and Wenham Pioneers, Henry Carey commanding; George Tuck as Uncle Sam.
Float, Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Danvers, showing a fountain of water with mottoes, etc., and women in white.
Officers of the town and of the Danvers Savings Bank in barouches. Also barouche containing Dr. A. P. Putnam, of the Danvers Historical Society; Hon. Robert S. Rantoul, of Salem; Prof. Woodbury, of Columbia College, president of the Beverly Histori- cal Society; Thomas Carroll, of the Peabody Historical Society.
Hamilton town officials.
Barouche with Joseph M. Bassett, selectman of Swampscott; John A. Batchelder and J. Hardy Towne, of Salem.
City government of Beverly in water department wagon, with Mayor Cole.
THIRD DIVISION,
Daniel N. Crowley, chief of division, with mounted staff of forty
horsemen. Peabody Cadets, with ambulance corps of little children and pony
ambulance, Captain Spence commanding. Union Drum Corps of Gloucester. Forty school floats, Danvers Reform Club lifeboat, and other features.
FOURTH DIVISION.
Charles Hooper, chief of division; Joseph M. Whittier acting in his stead, with group of thirtj^-five mounted aids.
210 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
Danvers Fire Department.
Two carriages with old fire fighters : Henry Very, eighty-one years old ; Daniel Buxton, Peabody, ninety-one years of age, driving a horse forty years old. Also another carriage with H. M. Osborne, seventy-three, of Peabody, and Edmund Osborne, ninety, in flower-bedecked carriage.
Danvers Improvement Society float, with pictures of improved sections about town.
FIFTH DIVISION.
Eighth Regiment Band, Lynn, twenty-six pieces ; Harry StUes, leader. Nicholas M, Quint, chief of division, and twenty-five mounted aids. Floats of fraternal and social organizations, tallyhoes, etc.
SIXTH DIVISION.
Isaac D. Pope, chief of division, with twenty-five mounted aids. National Guard Band, twenty-five pieces, C. F. Maurais, leader. One hundred and fifty-six wagons and floats.
The Decorations. The citizens of the town vied with each other in the matter of decorating their homes and their places of business. The town was one blaze of color, in which " Old Glory" predomi- nated. The Danvers Mirror of the week following the cele- bration said:
" To enumerate in detail the decorations would be to practically print a directory of the places of business and houses all along the line of march and vicinity. The center of the town was one solid mass of colors, one of the handsomest sights ever seen in the state. Both decorators and public said that they never saw anything more universal."
Probably the most noticeable of the public buildings was the Town House. As was fitting, this structure was beauti- fully draped, the bunting, flags, and other decorations being relieved by excellent reproductions of town and state seals. Of the schoolhouses, the Maple Street, the Danversport, and the Tapley schools were tastefully dressed, each bearing some motto or mottoes suitable to the occasion. The Peabodv
The Decorations. 211
Institute made a handsome spectacle in the midst of its spacious grounds, the green of the trees and bright hues of the flower beds combining with the varied-colored streamers on the building to make a kaleidoscope, changing each moment as the gentle breezes stirred the foliage and the passing clouds lessened or intensified the sunlight. At the Hook and Ladder House on Maple Street, in addition to a dress of bunting, a picture of a fireman rescuing a woman from a burning build- ing was shown. At intervals along the main streets, from the Western Division station to the Danversport station on the Eastern Division of the Boston & Maine, flags were strung across the street on ropes. The same scheme was carried out from the Square to Tapleyville. The flag staff on the Square was used as a pivotal point for an elaborate display of banners, the other ends being fastened to the adjoining buildings on all sides. The main avenues to the town were thus transformed into blazing arches of color, each tiny flag or banner flaunting in the breeze its contribution to the welcome to visitors. The public square in front of the Old Berry Tavern and postoffice was one unbroken mass of color, and each business block contained some emblem, portrait, or motto. The arch at the head of Conant Street has already been mentioned. It consisted of three spans, the main one being forty feet across, and the smaller ones on each side twenty-five feet. This was finely decorated, and was illu- minated at night. Appropriate dates and symbols were displayed on a large banner suspended from the middle span. At Danversport, across Water Street, a large canvas was strung, bearing on each side a portrait of Chief Marshal Hussey, with the inscription, " To Our Marshal."
The private decorations were very elaborate, among the most noticeable being the house and grounds of Wm. Penn Hussey. At the main entrance were three arches, bearing the inscriptions, " Welcome," " Chief Marshal Wm. Penn Hussey," " 150th Anniversary, Town of Danvers." Another
212 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
large arch, with the name " Riverbank," was thrown across the entrance to the flight of stone steps leading to the front door. The house itself was profusely treated by the deco- rator and scores of electric lights were lighted at night.
The Sports.
Contests between athletes on the Square, and baseball games.
Athletic sports were had on the Square, Tuesday afternoon. For the various foot and bicycle races there were first and second prizes of silver cups and money. There were also silver cups and money prizes in the fire department contests.
The 100-yard dash was won by Roy Barnes, of Beverly, with Harry Carroll, of Peabody, second.
The bicycle road race twice around Maple, Vineyard, Pine, Holten, and Elm streets was won by George Boyce, of Salem, with Matthew McNeil, of Peabody, second.
The 880-yard run around Maple, Elm, Putnam, and Cherry streets was won by J. E. Gilroy, of Peabody; Roy Raymond, of Beverly, second.
Roy Barnes, of Beverly, won first, and Harry Carroll, of Peabody, second, in the 220-yard dash.
The 440-yard run was won by J. E. Gilroy, of Peabody; Roy Barnes, of Beverly, second.
James Kerans, of Danvers, took first in the 220-yard hurdles; Daniel Libby, of Peabody, second.
Roy Raymond, of Beverly, won first, and J. E. Gilroy, second, in the mile run, twice around Elm, Putnam, Cherry, and Maple streets.
The hose-reel races against time proved intensely inter- esting. Four companies contested, running 150 yards, laying 150 feet of hose, and getting water through. Hose 2 of Beverly and Hose 5 of Danvers Centre were practically tied at thirty-two and one-fourth seconds, but Beverly was given first place. Hose 4 of Danvers was thirty-four seconds
The Sports. 213
and Hose 2 of Tapleyville, thirty-five seconds. Hose 2 would have given the leaders a close rub were it not for the delay in turning on the water, for the men ran faster and apparently made quicker couplings than their opponents. Had not Hose 5 burst its hose this company would undoubtedly have beaten Beverly by two or three seconds.
The hose-wagon contest was also a thrilling one. The companies ran their horses an eighth of a mile, attached 200 feet of hose to hydrant, and let on water. Hose 1 of Danvers did the work in fifty-five seconds, and Hose 3 of Peabody in fifty-eight and one-half seconds.
Danvers gave an exhibition of one-eighth-mile run and attaching four lengths of hose.
Ball Games. Large crowds saw the ball games, Monday and Tuesday. The Monday game was the " rubber " between Salem and Newburyport high schools and was won by the former, by the score of 13 to 9. Tuesday's game, between a Danvers nine composed of hospital and Ferncroft players and the Lynns, was won by Danvers, 13 to 3.
The Balloon.
Strong wind made it impossible to inflate the bag.
When it was believed that the parade would not go to Tapleyville it was announced by the chairman of the Com- mittee on Athletic Sports that the balloon would go up at the corner of Pine and Adams streets. Had not all arrangements been made for the balloon at Tapleyville it would have been transferred to the Park when the parade went to the former place. As it happened, however, it made but little difference, for there was no ascension. Aeronaut Patenaude and his assistants made every effort to inflate the balloon, but were unable to do so on account of the strong wind. Fifty men and boys held the bag for an hour while hot air was being
214 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
created inside, but the canvas swayed and blew and finally broke away from the fire pit. Young Patenaude was all ready, and intended to try to go up seven thousand feet. He weighed but eighty pounds, it is said, and was one of the youngest and lightest men in the business.
Tuesday's Band Concerts.
The concerts by the Salem Cadet Band, Tuesday afternoon and evening on the public square, attracted a large number of people. The crowd was orderly and attentive, and fre- quently manifested its approval of the band's good work. The programs arranged by the leader, Jean M. Missud, were as follows :
June 17, 4 p.m.
1. March, " Fort Frayne " Farrar
2. Overture, " North and South " Bendix
3. Waltz, " Golden Wedding " St. Clair
4. Selection, " The Strollers " Englander
5. Old Dance (XVllI Century) Gabriel-Marie
6. March, '"Yale Boola'" Hirsh
7. Selection, " The Burgomaster " Luders
8. Intermezzo, " Salambo " Morse
9. "ValseBlue" Margis
10. March, " The Morning Light " Bagley
Evening, 7.30 to 9.30.
1. March, " Promenade Militaire " Missud
2. Overture, " William Tell " Rossini
3. Song for Cornet, " Soldiers of the King "... Arr. by Keyes
MR. B. B. keyes.
4. Waltz, " Obispah " Knight
5. Selection, " Faust " Gounod
6. March, " The Admiral " Friedemann
7. Selection, " Foxy Quiller " de Koven
8. " American Patrol " Meacham
9. Intermezzo, " Salome " Lorraine
10. March, " Invincible Eagle " Sousa
The Fireworks. 215
The Fireworks.
A successful exhibition fittingly closed the celebration.
That it takes more than a strenuous two days of celebrating to exhaust the energy and vitality of the citizens of Danvers was amply attested by the immense crowd of people that gathered at Danvers Park, Tuesday evening, June 17, to witness the closing event of the anniversary, — the exhibition of fireworks. It was one of the most elaborate displays ever given in this vicinity, and far exceeded anything of the kind ever attempted in the town itself. The committee was fortunate in securing a very favorable contract with H. H. Til ton & Co., of Boston, and the exhibition, which lasted for nearly two hours, was made up of sixty-five distinct features as follows : Salute of 5 aerial shells, 12 inches, fired from a mortar to the height of 500 feet, and exploding with a loud report; illumination of grounds with 30 pounds of crimson, white, and blue fires; display of 12 of Tilton's special rockets, forming a sheaf of wheat effect; flight of 6 rayonnant tourbillions, form- ing cascades of fire both ascent and descent; set piece, device, motto, "Welcome home, sons and daughters"; flight of saucissons with serpents twisting and gyrating through the air; salvo of four 15-inch bombs; 3 batteries of colored mines; 6 rayonnant tourbillions, with wonders of fire; display of ten 2-pound rockets of rarest hues, lavender and golden-rod, light blue and cerise, pink and green, opals and blood-red rubies; set piece, device, " The old log-house," a representa- tion of the first house built here; salvo of 6 mammoth meteors; four 15-inch shells of liquid fire; explosion of four jewel mines; 6 rockets; 2-pounder national streamers; 6 rockets, chromative stars; 6 rayonnant tourbillions with colored illuminations; salvo of three 24-inch Tilton's special bombs with startling effects, changing to golden hues; flight of six 15-inch shells; " Star of Danvers," a special device; golden cloud, studded with jewels, produced by simultaneous dis- charges of 9-inch shells; Tilton's aerial novelties, consisting
216 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
of hanging gardens, floating festoons of iridescent fires, aerial fireflies, national streamers, quadruple shells; all the 1900 novelties, consisting of thirty-six 2-, 4-, and 6-pound rockets and 10-inch shells of various colorings and effects; designs representing pearls, jewels, etc.; exhibition of 6 fountains throwing spray nearly 20 feet into the air; 4 large mines of stars and serpents; set piece, device, " The falls of Niagara," 30 feet in length, emitting liquid golden spray to represent the rush of water at Niagara Falls, the whole piece surmounted by batteries of jeweled stars playing upward; 4 large devils playing among the tailors; salvo of four 18- inch shells; 100 torpedoes, flying through the air with great velocity; salvo of six 15-inch shells; discharge of two 24-inch shells of 4 colors; salvo of 2 repeating shells, red, white, and blue; discharge of 20 monster wagglers; display of golden cascades; salvo of 100 large exhibition candles; whirlwinds; second grand illumination of the whole grounds with beautiful variegated fires; display of twelve 4-pound red, white, and blue rockets; set piece, device, " The old windmill that stood on the hill "; mother of thousand bombs; field of the cloth of gold, produced by the discharge of shells, exhibiting gold stars and glittering spangles; set piece, 6 by 9 American flag; display of red, white, and blue batteries; cascades of jeweled fountains; salvo of mammoth meteors; flight of 100 aerial saucissons; acres of variegated gems in mid-air; grand finale, town seal of Danvers, covering 800 or 900 square feet, the whole backed by heavy gerbe cans, ending in national salute.
Newspaper Comments. 217
NEWSPAPER COMMENTS.
(From the Danvers Mirror, June 21, 1902.) Chief Bacon engaged Captain BUnn, of Salem, to have charge of the streets on Monday. He had a squad of ten Salem officers; there were four officers from Lynn, two inspectors from Lynn, and two from Boston, and two members of the state force from Boston. These, in addition to the regular and special force of the town, ten or a dozen men, made good police service.
The various historic spots in town were plainly designated by con- spicuous signs.
" There are now living at Danvers Centre a number of persons who were children here at the time of the one hundredth anniversary of the town, in 1852, several of whom took part in the celebration: Messrs. Alfred and Warren Hutchinson, George F. Priest, George H. Peabody, John Swinerton, William H. Kimball, Albert Mudge, and Richard Fuller; Mrs. G. H. Peabody, Mrs. Harriet Preston, Mrs. Albert Mudge, Mrs. J. B. H. Fuller, Mrs. Elizabeth Peabody. Loring P. Demsey acted as one of the marshals. The day was hot and dusty. The children were entertained at lunch by the South Danvers Com- mittee. At that time hay wagons were used and were highly deco- rated; they would not be out of place in the celebration this year. The address was by John W. Proctor, of South Danvers."
Marcus C. Pettingell entertained Captain Horton and the other officers of the Eighth Regiment on his lawn on Franklin Street after the parade. It was a fine social occasion. The house was nicely decorated, and the following inscription was shown: " To the mem- ory of Richard Ingersoll, 1629, who helped build the foundations." Mr. Pettmgell is descended from the famous Richard Ingersoll who gave the Common at the Centre as " a training-place forever." The families of both Mr. and Mrs. Pettingell were present at the reunion.
A. L. Legro, who drove Oliver Roberts & Sons' team in the parade, used as one of the Centre school floats, drove a school float in the parade at the one hundredth anniversary celebration. The school which he drove fifty years ago was that in the little brick schoolhouse on the Danvers and Peabody line.
Chief Marshal Hussey entertained over one thousand persons in a royal manner at his fine residence, " Riverbank." A superb spread
218 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
was made by Caterer James in a large tent. Military officers were entertained in his mansion.
Mr. Hussey sent out two thousand invitations to personal friends to act as aids on his staff, and over six hundred responded, and supplied hundreds of saddles for aids who did not obtain them themselves.
He also assisted liberally in providing means of transportation for the children in the public schools. There were forty-two floats in all in the procession.
In the work of arranging the school exhibits the chief marshal was ably assisted by W. C. Dunnels, J. M. Whittier, Ralph Wheelwright, I. D. Pope, and M. C. Pettingell, and in giving out badges and other- wise straightening out the cavalcade, by Capt. C. H. Masury and Dr. W. W. Eaton.
Chairman D. N. Crowley of the Parade Committee wrote a letter of thanks to Chief Marshal Hussey, who received numerous other letters, gifts of books, and congratulations by letter and telegraph.
Two sisters, Mrs. Sarah C. Wilkins, seventy-seven years of age, Mrs. Emily H. Hutchinson, eighty-one years old, and two brothers, John Prentiss, seventy-five years of age, and Henry Prentiss, seventy-nine years old, making their ages all together amount to three hundred and twelve years, enjoyed a fine dinner Tuesday at the " old homestead " at the Centre.
The Penn treaty, portrayed by the seventh grade of the Maple Street School, was splendidly produced, the children as Indians and Quakers taking the part admirably.
Lieut.-Col. Francis Dodge, paymaster's department, U. S. Army, visited Danvers and took in the one hundred and fiftieth celebration. He also visited friends in Salem.
Peddlers and fakirs put in an appearance early. Lunch stands, re- freshment wagons, merry-go-rounds and other amusement enter- prises did an enormous business.
The D. A. Perley blacksmith shop, drawn by four oxen, with a live horse which was aboard being shod, was a unique feature that won much favorable comment.
A beautiful and historic display was made in the window of the Misses Fowler's store at the Port, including valuable pictures of great age.
Newspaper Comments. 219
The Morgan family gave religious addresses and songs to large crowds on the Square, Sunday afternoon and evening.
Chairman D. P. Pope, of the board of selectmen, and Mrs. Pope, attended the banquet fifty years ago and were present Monday after- noon.
The United Workmen, American Mechanics, Knights of Malta, and various other orders, societies, and organizations, kept open house.
Mr. and Mrs. Fox as George and Martha Washington were all right, and the Symonds outfit of one hundred years ago won well-merited applause.
Companies H, G, and E, Eighth Regiment, were entertained at Pillsbury's Hall.
Ward Post, G. A. R., entertained visiting posts at headquarters. The D. A. R. entertained on the roof of the Page house.
The Indian camp scene of Wenonah council, D. of P., was very realistic.
[Salem Evening News, June 16, 1902.]
Somebody has said that Danvers wakes up once in fifty years. This may not be a base slander, but there is no disputing the fact that when she sets out to wake up in dead earnest there is no doubt about the result. The celebration opened earlier than was desired or neces- sary, but there is no such thing as repressing the desire of the average American to be on time, or a little ahead of it in demonstrating his love of noise and excitement. Early Sunday crowds began to pour into town by every means of conveyance, and by the middle of the afternoon the streets were filled.
[Boston Herald, June 16, 1902.] Danvers was the mecca toward which all footsteps in Essex County seemed to be turned yesterday. It was the first day of the observance of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town. The fame of the most beautiful decorations ever seen in this vicinity had spread far and wide, and thousands flocked to see them. The street-cars went toward Danvers Square from all directions crowded all the fore- noon, while carriages lined the road, and wheels filled in the spaces. There were stretched across the streets at intervals lines of red, white, blue, and green banners, and these colors, mingled with the green of the trees, presented a striking picture. A magnificent arch was erected over Conant Street, formerly the old Ipswich-Boston road, Saturday,
220 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
by Blaney L. Alley, from a fund which he secured for that purpose. It is said to be the second largest decorative arch ever seen in New England.
It is estimated that fifteen thousand persons visited Danvers from Salem and other places last night, to hear the band concert by the Salem Cadet band and see the bonfire. It is stated that over one hun- dred electric cars made frequent trips between Danvers and Salem and Beverly, and that it would take all night to get the crowds home. For two hours preceding the bonfire a band concert was given on the
park.
[Boston Herald, June 16, 1902.]
This is the second day of the celebration of the beginning of the town of Danvers. The morning opened very quietly, because every- body was out late last night. The bells were rung at smirise for half an hoiu-. The work of decorating is still going on. One of the sights last night which greeted those who came up by way of Salem was the beautiful illumination of the house and grounds of William Penn Hussey, who is to be chief marshal of to-morrow's parade. He has the large grounds and the street in his vicinity, and even his great house, strung with Chinese lanterns in which are electric lights. These are lighted at night and produce a wonderfully striking effect. This effect is heightened by the trees about the place.
[Boston Journal, June 16, 1902.] The sensation of the opening day of Danvers' one hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebration yesterday was Dr. A. P. Putnam's vehement attack upon the policy of the government in the Philippines, in the course of an historic sermon at Unity Chapel. The church was almost oppressively still at times.
[Boston Herald, June 17, 1902.] It is estimated that some 75,000 people visited the town between sunrise this morning and midnight to-night to witness the parade, sports, fireworks, and then listen to the band concerts, on the occasion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the town. Of this number fully 7,500 came in private teams, 5,000 on bicycles, thousands on foot, and the remainder on steam and trolley cars. Splendid order prevailed throughout the day, but as a precaution the local police force was augmented by a posse from Salem under Captain George H. Blinn and a number of the state force.
Valuation. 221
VALUATION. The following table, prepared by Daniel P. Pope, chairman of the board of selectmen and assessors, shows the valuation, polls, and rate of taxation in five-year periods from 1855 to date. The valuation of the town in 1854, which was used as a basis of settlement after the division, was:
Danvers $1,444,900
South Danvers 2,732,600
Total $4,177,500
Real Estate.
1850* $1,777,400
1855* 2,524,000
1856 1,134,600
1860 1,466,550
1865 1,482,550
1870 1,747,400
1875 2,258,600
1880 2,410,900
1885 2,588,250
1890 3,006,900
1895 3,547,000
1900 3,882,575
1905 4,052,375 1,288,905 5,341,280 2,422 18.00
|
Danvers. |
Rate of |
||
|
Personal Estate. Total Valuation. |
Polls. |
Taxation . |
|
|
$1,299,700 |
$3,077,100 |
1,844 |
$7.00 |
|
1,642,800 |
4,166,800 |
2,012 |
10.00 |
|
675,100 |
1,809,700 |
1,063 |
7.80 |
|
839,550 |
2,306,100 |
1,240 |
8.00 |
|
786,075 |
2,268,625 |
1,143 |
14.60 |
|
1,002,500 |
2,749,900 |
1,306 |
14.40 |
|
1,082,500 |
3,341,100 |
1,455 |
15.40 |
|
1,097,225 |
3,508,125 |
1,501 |
13.60 |
|
980,930 |
3,569,180 |
1,670 |
15.00 |
|
893,675 |
3,900,575 |
1,931 |
15.40 |
|
968,395 |
4,515,395 |
2,090 |
17.00 |
|
1,296,980 |
5,179,555 |
2,183 |
14.40 |
* Before division.
222 One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Danvers.
POPULATION FROM EARLY PERIODS.
We add also this minute relative to population: The number of inhabitants within the limits of the present town of Danvers in 1672 was probably not much above 350, and this was not far from one-fourth of the population of the whole town of Salem, to which it belonged at that time. (See " History of the First Parish in Danvers," pages 29 and 159.) The first census of the state was taken in 1765, the second in 1776. There is given here the population of Dan- vers as returned in those years, and also in the United States census for 1790 and for each tenth succeeding year. There are added, also, as marking the population at the time of the division of the town, and as covering the war period, the enumerations by the state census of 1855 and of 1865.
1765 2,133
1776 2,284
1790 2,425
1800 2,643
1810 3,127
1820 3,646
1830 4,228
1840 5,020
1850 8,106
1855 ^'... 4,000
1860 5,110
1865 5,144
1870 5,600
1880 6,598
1890 7,454
1900 8,542
1905 9,063
It took, thus, about half a century to restore the figures to the point which they had reached before the division of the town.
TlIK COMMITTKK
H 46 78
fO \, •-* *«^
•^^^^
-^^0^
r ^^. » .
o V
^^
^ "^ \^ .. -^
o o
vO
0-
^
1^
,0
•^..^ ,
>
•4>. .<i.
C°" .'
€t %.v
.^0
,0-
\'W^.*^
,^\\^;.'
:'?'.>x. - "^
^^ .^:^^y^^
o
<>.
o « o ^U
>
■^^^'; ^ .^
'>'.
OV^
r .•<
-1
\^^m^'
A^
A.
to
. • ' ' o ^
^
N T8
N. MANCHESTER. INDIANA
Cj. ' . . t ,0
.!v:^^ .G^
1':-. \yj" ■» ,\ \' ■r-.
^- • » * A <^ - • • ' A'
'^0^
n^ ^^
,-^o*
H':i
ru\^-x:^.
" ■' 4%. ^a,-
AU>(.
'■1 'V #H~
-\m^
^^. «M ■%;
W„M^l/'3
»■'»¥
■ i^ ^^-^ P Vi'-^^
M W f-
|
f i |
i*3*: |
|
■. ■~^- iv- ^- |
|
|
,'■ |
1 1 |
|
r-- i |
'■ r ' |
>* |
|
■VI V !• « |
;f I |
S |
■1 >^^''
i ^i
ii--AA;\}(\,
.y^ ir
ny^- A
i.V
r^'l n
|
;. ■.•.!' ^ ' |
|
|
• ^'^ V»^ =^ |
>•' A-^ |