CHAPTER IV.
Living as I did on Cole’s Hill through my youth, I have a distinct recollection of Water street and its business as far back as 1832. During the summer I spent much of my time out of school hours sculling a boat, or climbing vessels’ rigging. At those times my special playmate was Winslow Whiting, who during the last years of his seafaring life commanded the bark Volant, and when the brig Hannah was in her berth on the north side of Hedge’s wharf we laughed at the boys crawling through the lubber hole, while we proudly mounted the futtock shrouds.
At that time there were on Water street fourteen stores, three counting rooms, two blacksmith shops, two pump and blockmakers’ shops, two painters’ shops, one sail loft, one rigging loft, perhaps six cooper shops, one carpenter’s shop, a wood carver’s loft, and on the eight wharves leading from the street, sixteen storehouses. The stores were occupied by James Spooner, I. L. and T. Hedge, Richard Holmes, George Cooper, Elkanah Bartlett, William Nye, Josiah Robbins, Atwood L. Drew, Charles Bramhall, Phineas Wells, Levi Barnes, Scudder and Churchill, Leander Lovell and Henry Tillson.
James Spooner was the son of Deacon Ephraim Spooner, and lived all his life in the house on North street, now occupied by the widow of his grandson, James Walter Spooner. He occupied a store in the building still standing at the head of what is called Long Wharf. He owned several schooners engaged in the Grand Bank fishery, among which were the Swallow, Seneca and Leo. In the last named I was, though a boy, permitted to launch, and she was commanded for a time by the late Peter W. Smith. The Swallow had been a fisherman ever since 1803, but, nevertheless, continued in active business until 1873, when she was lost. Mr. Spooner died, March 5, 1838. He was succeeded in the store by William Churchill, a native of Duxbury, and the son of Peleg Churchill, whose daughter, Eliza, married Joseph Chandler, the father of the late Peleg Churchill Chandler of Plymouth, who was named after his grandfather. Mr. Churchill built and occupied for several years the house on Middle street, now occupied by Charles H. Frink. While in Plymouth he carried on the mackerel fishery, employing as packers and coopers, his brother, Otis Churchill, and Winslow Cole. He removed in 1838 to Boston, where on Long Wharf he continued the same business.
The store of I. L. and T. Hedge, occupied the easterly half of the building which stood on the northerly corner of Hedge’s wharf. With James Bartlett they were largely engaged in the whale fishery, having their counting room upstairs, and their store room below. Mr. Isaac L. Hedge moved in that year, 1832, into the house built by him, now owned and occupied by Father Buckley, where he died, April 19, 1867; Mr. Thomas Hedge was living in the house now owned by his daughter, Mrs. Lothrop, which he had bought off Thomas Jackson in 1830, and where he died, July 11, 1865.
John Thomas, who as a lawyer, occupied an office connected with the Hayward house on Main street, where the engine house now stands, was admitted to the firm in 1832, but in 1837 he removed to New York, where he engaged successfully in the wholesale iron business, and accumulated a handsome property. When retiring from business he bought an estate at Irvington on the North river, and built a house which he occupied until his death. He was killed by lightning in the hay field in July, 1855. He was the father of the late Wm. A. Thomas of Kingston.
Richard Holmes occupied a store standing immediately north of the present market of Anthony Atwood. He was a member of one of the oldest Plymouth families, and lived until 1835 in the house on Cole’s Hill, now occupied by Anthony Atwood. In that year he bought a lot of land immediately north of the house of Mrs. Lothrop, extending from Court street to the shore, and built a house with fish houses and fish flakes in its rear, where he lived until his death. In 1833, his son-in-law, Alonzo D. Scudder, became his partner in business, and, after his death, July 4, 1841, continued with his son, Richard W. Holmes. After the death of Mr. Scudder, April 5, 1853, Isaac Brewster became the partner of Richard W. Holmes, after whose death, February 15, 1862, the store was occupied by John Churchill. Holmes & Scudder and Holmes & Brewster were many years engaged in the Grand Bank fishery, and general navigation, and their skippers, among whom were Oliver C. Vaughn, Benjamin Jenkins and William Atwood, regardless of equinoctial storms remained on the Banks until they had wet their salt. They owned at various times the schooners Volant, Flash, Abeona, Medium, Seadrift, Swallow, Challenge, Flora, Anna Hincks and Palestine, all of which, except the last two, were engaged in the Grand Bank fishery.
The next building at the head of Davis wharf contained for many years prior to 1826 the counting room of my grandfather, William Davis, who died, January 5, in that year. After a short occupation by William Spooner, it was in 1832 occupied as a store by George Cooper. For several years before that date, and many years after 1833, Mr. Cooper was employed as a clerk, and as far as I know, was never concerned in navigation. His occupation of the store was short, and he was succeeded by Elisha Whiting and Bartlett Holmes, Jr., and William Davis Simmons and others, until it came into the possession of Jesse R. Atwood, whose son, Anthony Atwood, now occupies it for a fish market. Mr. Cooper died April 29, 1864.
Elkanah Bartlett kept a store at the northerly corner of Carver’s, now Craig’s wharf, until his death. John Darling Churchill was connected as clerk, and in other ways with Mr. Bartlett, for many years, and succeeded him in business. Mr. Churchill, like Mr. Bartlett, was engaged in the Grand Bank fishery, and with Nathaniel E. Harlow, owned the schooners Conanchet, Engineer, Oronoco and Wampatuck.
William Nye had a store a little back from the street between Carver’s wharf and Barnes’ wharf, where he bought and sold old iron and junk. My associations with his store are among the pleasantest of my youth, for there by the sale of old iron, which I most assiduously picked up for two or three weeks before that holiday which was so delightful to all boys, the old election day, I found the wherewithal for the holiday feast, which was held in the barn or carriage house of some one of our families, and consisted of election cake and lobster and lemonade in the morning, followed by a stomach ache in the afternoon. The town baker always made up a good batch of election cake or buns, for the occasion, and these articles formed as important a part in the diet of the day as succotash on Forefathers’ day. Mr. Nye would gather for his business at election time, a bag of bright new cents, and would tempt the æsthetic taste of the boys by asking them if they would take one bright cent or two dull ones. No day, not even Thanksgiving day, has such a firm seat in my memory as the old election day. It was the day of the meeting of the General Court, which until 1832, occurred on the third Wednesday in May. Mr. Nye lived in a house at the southerly end of Water street, which stood on the site of the house built and occupied by the late Rufus Churchill, who married one of his daughters. Mr. Nye came to Plymouth from Sandwich, and died February 25, 1849, and after his death, his house was moved across the street, where it now stands.
Alonzo D. Scudder, who came to Plymouth from Barnstable, began business in Water street with Lemuel B. Churchill for the sale of grain and flour, but precisely where their store was I cannot say. The partnership continued only a short time, and in 1833 Mr. Scudder became a partner with his father-in-law, Richard Holmes. He died as already stated, April 5, 1853, and Mr. Churchill died December 30, 1833.
Atwood L. Drew, I think, occupied a store, in 1832, in the basement of his father’s house, near the corner of Leyden street, and was quite extensively engaged at various times in the whale and Grand Bank fisheries, and in general navigation. In 1839 he was associated as a partner with Leander Lovell, and built the store now standing at the northerly corner of Barnes’ wharf. In later life he was associated in some capacity with his brother, William Rider Drew, an enterprising and prosperous manufacturer, who is still living, and whose extensive establishment for the manufacture of tacks and rivets is situated on Smelt Brook at Rocky Nook. Mr. Drew died November 25, 1877.
The store kept by Levi Barnes as early as 1830 was one of two in the building which stood on the southerly corner of the way leading to Middle street. In the latter part of his life he occupied the store which had been occupied by Phineas Wells. He died May 14, 1853, in the house on North street which he had owned and occupied since 1835.
Chas. Bramhall, who occupied the northerly store in the building above mentioned, was the son of Benjamin Bramhall, and one of a family of enterprising sons, five of whom I knew. His brother William was a prosperous merchant in Boston, and for many years President of the Shawmut Bank, a position now occupied by our summer townsman, Jas. P. Stearns, his son-in-law. Mr. Bramhall was actively engaged in the Grand Bank fishery, and died May 29, 1859, in the house where he had lived many years, recently occupied by B. O. Strong.
Henry Tillson was a son of Hamblin Tillson, and kept a shoe store on Water street, as early as 1828, and in 1832 removed to Market street, and died December 27, 1834.
Leander Lovell’s store on Water street I cannot locate, but he was there as early as 1827, and on the tenth of November in that year his store was entered by burglars. In 1839 he was associated in business with Atwood L. Drew, and in the later years of his life was a partner with J. H. Harlow in the dry goods business in the store on Main street, now occupied by H. H. Cole. He was Town Clerk from 1852 to 1878, and as chairman of the Board of Selectmen and Moderator for many years, I am glad to put on record my appreciation of his courtesy and fidelity in the performance of his municipal duties. He came to Plymouth from Barnstable and married a daughter of Capt. James Bartlett, and died October 1, 1879.
Phineas Wells came to Plymouth from Maine, and married in 1828 Mercy, daughter of George Ellis. He opened in 1827 a grocery store which occupied the whole front of the building opposite the head of Hedge’s wharf. He was a master of his business, prudent, methodical and industrious, and so far as salesroom and storeroom were concerned, his store has never been surpassed in Plymouth. In or about 1850 he moved across the street and fitted up a store on the northerly corner of Hedge’s wharf, where he remained until 1859, when he again moved to the store at the junction of Water and Leyden streets, where he remained until his death, December 8, 1869.
Josiah Robbins occupied a store at the head of Robbins’ wharf. In looking over the files of the Old Colony Memorial to verify my recollection of Water street, I find that he was there as early as 1827, and in that year advertised the sale of old currant wine. The temperance movement began in the above year, and I think in the sale of wines the lines must have been drawn at the product of currants, as the following officers of the Temperance Society organized in 1827 were chosen: Nathaniel Russell, President; Zabdiel Sampson, Vice-President; Wm. Thomas, Secretary; and Ichabod Morton, Nathan Hayward, Jacob Covington, Josiah Robbins, Thomas Atwood, John Russell, Thomas Russell and Isaac L. Hedge, Executive Committee. It is probable that up to that time every grocery store contained ardent spirits in its stock, and on the 8th of September, 1827, I. & E. Morton, whose senior partner was one of the above executive committee, advertised concerning their store at Wellingsley that “that prolific mother of miseries, that giant foe to human happiness, shall no longer have a dwelling place under our roof.” The movement was followed up by temperance lectures delivered in the church at Training Green by Mr. Daniel Frost, and total abstinence pledges were signed by nearly one quarter of the entire population of the town. Though the grocers as a body abandoned the sale of spirits, obedience to popular sentiment was by no means universal. Family use and individual consumption were largely diminished, and with the erection in 1835 of the frame of the double house on the corner of Howland street, the practice of using liquor at “raisings” ceased. In the ship yards, however, for some years after that date, work was regularly knocked off every day at eleven and four o’clock for the distribution among the men of New England rum. Public opinion, however, without its re-inforcement by law, finally prevailed, and I should say that from 1835 to 1840 it would have been impossible to buy either ardent spirits or wines, except at the hotels, and that there were less than a dozen houses in which they could be found. I am inclined to think that even under the operation of stringent laws there has been a reaction, and that they are now more generally, though not excessively used than they were sixty-five years ago. It cannot, however, be denied, that if total abstinence less widely prevails, intemperance is less common, and more severely condemned. May it not be true that public opinion is more potent than law?
I have said that in 1832 there were three counting houses on Water street, meaning such as were engaged in the business of foreign navigation. These were D. & A. Jackson, Nelson & Harlow, and Nathaniel Carver. The oldest and most important was that of D. & A. Jackson, which derived both its business and character from the old firm of Daniel and Charles Jackson, father and uncle of the members of the house. It did not immediately follow in chronological order the old house of Daniel and Charles Jackson, as for a time after the death of Charles Jackson in 1818 Daniel, the surviving partner, formed a partnership with his son Jacob, under the firm name of Daniel Jackson and son, which was dissolved in 1828. In this last year the firm of D. & A. Jackson had its origin. Though as far as the public knew only Daniel and Abraham were members of the firm, that at a later date their younger brother, Isaac Carver Jackson, became associated with them, there can be no doubt. It is within my recollection that the ship Iconium, the last ship built by the firm, was built in 1848 or thereabouts on the Sheepscott river, under Mr. Isaac C. Jackson’s exclusive supervision.
The Jackson brothers were a remarkable set of men, six in number, all about six feet in height, gentlemen in bearing and dress, and with their blue coats and brass buttons, and in summer, white beaver hats, white trousers, low shoes and white stockings, their appearance in our streets gave character and expression to the town. They were all confident, self-centered men, who knew what they wanted and how to accomplish it, meddling in no man’s business and permitting no man to meddle in theirs; neither asking for nor offering advice. They had means sufficient to carry out their enterprises and never sought outside of their family and their commanders, the contribution of a timber head to their ships.
The first vessels built by D. & A. Jackson were the Echo and Arno fishing vessels, which were sold. The Arno was probably the vessel of that name, which was many years one of the Plymouth fishing fleet. They next built a topsail schooner named the Janus, which made one voyage under command of Capt. Daniel Jackson to Russia, and was sold. In 1829 they built the brig Janus, commanded by Capt. William Holmes, who died in Valparaiso, May 10, 1831, while in command. They next built the brig Rhine of which Capt. Frederick Robbins was master a number of years, and which was finally lost on Fire Island. The brigs Maze and Autumn followed, engaged in general freighting business, and the brig Ganges commanded by Capt. Phineas Leach, and also the brig Cyclops. All of these vessels, including others up to perhaps 1835, were built in what was afterwards known as Battles’ lumber yard. The brig Eurotas, one of the Jackson fleet, was bought in Duxbury and placed in command of Capt. Eleazer Stevens Turner, which he commanded until he took command of the ship Thracian, when he was succeeded in the Eurotas by Capt. Ira Potter.
How well I remember those bright waisted brigs, graceful and weatherly, and especially the Cyclops with her figurehead representing the mythological giant with a single eye in the middle of his forehead.
This head was doubtless the work of Samuel W. Gleason, who came to Plymouth from Middleboro and exhibited much talent as a wood carver. Two of his sons continued in business in Plymouth as long as ship building was active in Plymouth and Duxbury and Kingston, when they removed to Boston, and achieved some very commendable work on the clipper ships of the California and Australian period.
The Jackson firm were not long content with the building of brigs. While such vessels were well enough adapted to the iron trade, they were unsuited to the carrying of sugar from the West Indies to the North of Europe, and still more unsuited to the transportation of cotton. It was not an uncommon thing for vessels in the sugar trade bound from Havana to Cronstadt, to put into Plymouth to take out a clean bill of health. I remember well the ship Harvest, Capt. Lawton with George Warren supercargo, belonging to Barnabas Hedge, anchoring in Saquish cove, and proceeding with a new bill of health. The complete abandonment of the brig was effected when, at a later period, coal transportation became extensive on the Delaware and other rivers. The last full rigged brig in Plymouth was the old brig Hannah, which was owned by Barnabas Hedge, and commanded many years by Capt. Isaac Bartlett in the West India trade. Her last service was on a fishing trip to the straits, commanded by Capt. Ignatius Pierce, the father of the late Capts. Ignatius and Ebenezer Pierce. The last American brig ever seen by me was in Salem harbor about thirty years ago, engaged in the African trade.
The ships Thracian and Persian were built in a yard about where the foot of Brewster street now is, by James Collins, master carpenter, who had already built the ships Brenda and Dromo for Arthur French of Boston, a brother-in-law of Abraham Jackson. The Jackson fleet of ships was completed by the purchase in Maine of the Tyrian and the building of the Iconium. Of each of these ships I have something to say. Many a trenail turned out by me in a trenail machine on a Saturday afternoon was put into the bottoms of the Thracian and Persian, and many a cracker and slice of cheese have I eaten in the ship house at their launchings. Capt. Frederick Robbins was transferred from the brig Rhine to the Persian, Capt. Eleazer Stevens Turner from the brig Eurotas to the Thracian, and Capt. Daniel Lothrop Jackson, son of the senior partner of the house, was given the command of the Tyrian.
Capt. Turner was eventually transferred to the Iconium, on which ship he was finally succeeded by Capt. William Davie. These ships were first class ships in every particular, and for one or each of them the schooner Capitol was bought in Maine and placed in command of Capt. Richard Rogers, who was sent to Virginia with wood choppers, teams and provisions and a gang of carpenters under Benjamin Bagnall, to get out frames on a tract of timber land, which the Jacksons had bought or leased for the purpose.
In December, 1846, I was in Marseilles waiting for a steamer to take me to Genoa and Naples. Having been in Paris away from the sea six months or more, I have never before or since experienced the pleasure which a sight of the Mediterranean gave me. My first excursion from the hotel, after my arrival, was as it would have been at home—down among the shipping. The new harbor had not then been opened, and the ships were made fast with their sterns to the mole. Seeing an American flag at one mast head, I soon read on the stern of the ship, “Persian of Plymouth.” Inquiring of the ship keeper if Capt. Robbins, whom I knew was the captain, was on board, and learning that he was not, I walked along the mole, looking into the various stores, and soon saw him astride a chair, club house fashion, with his arms folded on the back, looking at me as I entered. During the three days I was obliged to wait for my steamer, I spent a half hour each day with him on board his ship. He was soon to sail for New Orleans, and as I afterwards learned he died while on the passage, or soon after his arrival. He was succeeded by Capt. Thomas Appling, who had commanded the Cyclops, who died at sea of yellow fever, and was succeeded by Capt. Lewis Robbins. After leaving Capt. Robbins I walked farther down the mole and read on the stern of a bark flying the stars and stripes, the familiar name, “Griffin of Boston.” I knew Capt. Charles Blake, her owner and commander, who lived directly opposite my grandmother’s house in Winthrop place. His vessel was half yacht, half trader, and sometimes with guests, and sometimes without. He was a skimmer of the seas, taking comfort and pleasure, for which his freight list might pay in whole or in part. While I was at Naples he came over and anchored his bark directly in front of the hotel where I was stopping.
But my story of Yankee vessels is not all told. On my way down the coast of the Mediterranean a fellow passenger on the steamer, an Englishman named James Buchanan, was constantly boasting of the superiority of English vessels over all others. Of course I defended my own, nor was it difficult, in those days at least, to find fault with the squat sails, short top gallant masts, clumsy blocks, poorly set up spars, and if at anchor with sails furled, the untidy bunts which often looked like bundles of rags on the yards of the Englishmen. As we came to an anchor one morning in the harbor of Genoa, I pointed out to Mr. Buchanan a very trig looking bark, anchored near by, which had a familiar look. “She’s a tidy craft,” said he, “and she’ll be English, of course.” I knew better, and calling a boatman, directed him to row to the vessel. As we rowed round her stern I was not very much surprised to read, “Truman of Kingston,” in hospitable letters. I had often seen the Truman, Capt. Doane, as well as her sister ship, the Cecilian, Capt. Dawes, belonging to Joseph Holmes, and I spent a pleasant hour with the captain in his cabin before going ashore for a day’s stroll before leaving for Naples in the evening. It was singular that the only three American vessels visited by me in nearly a year’s absence from home, should have hailed from Plymouth, Kingston and Boston, and that all should have been commanded by men whom I knew. Another American vessel not actually visited by me during my trip to Europe in 1846, but seen under interesting circumstances, emphasized the environment enveloping me associated with home. On the second of May in the above year, Capt. John Eldridge of Yarmouth, Mass., master of the New York and Liverpool packet ship Liverpool, on which I was a passenger, sighted a dismasted vessel. She lay ahead of us directly on our course, and in answer to our hail as we rounded her stern, we found her to be the bark Espindola of and for New York from Liverpool, with four hundred steerage passengers, and commanded by Capt. Barstow of Hanover, Mass., fourteen miles distant from my house. Capt. Barstow reported that while he was in his cabin at eight o’clock on the morning before, the ship under full sail with a light northerly wind, without warning, was struck by a whirlwind, and completely dismasted. She wanted spars and provisions. The subsequent scenes were full of interest.
Luffing up into the wind and running close hauled about three miles, while spare spars were got out and lashed outside, and provisions were got in readiness, we ran back and layed to to the windward of the wreck. With a picked crew, under the command of the mate, the life boat was sent off in a rough sea, the mate holding in his hand a coil of lanyard attached to a Manila line that would float, fastened to the spars. When all was ready the lashings of the spars were cut, and when the boat was near enough the coil was thrown on board the wreck, and the spars pulled alongside. The mate backing up to the bark jumped into the chains, when she rolled to windward, and soon had the supply of meats and other provisions put on board. Capt. Barstow learning that a Plymouth man was on board the Liverpool, sent his compliments to me, and after about three hours’ detention, we were again on our course. I afterwards saw that the Espindola obtained more spars from the packet ships, Ashburton and Hottinger, and reached New York after a passage of forty days.
The Tyrian, commanded by Capt. Daniel Lothrop Jackson, met an untimely fate. During the Irish famine she loaded with corn for Glasgow, and after her departure from New York no tidings of her were ever received. Of the Iconium I have a story to tell, as I received it from Capt. Turner’s own lips on his way from Boston to Plymouth, the day after his marvelous escape from shipwreck in Boston Bay. It must have been in the month of March in the early 1850s that he came round the Cape with a load of cotton for Boston, and with a strong northeast wind, without rain or snow, he expected to find his way without trouble into lighthouse channel. But as the day wore on the wind increased to a gale, while the weather became so thick that to haul off shore, if possible, was the only safe course to pursue. With a light cotton ship, the sagging to leeward made it necessary, as night approached, to come to an anchor. With both anchors down and a long scope of cable, Capt. Turner hoped to ride out the gale. As near as he could judge he lay a mile and a half northeast and by north of the outer Minot’s Rocks. The wind veered a little to the southeast, but as it veered it increased in intensity until about midnight one chain parted. He then cut away his spars, hoping that with an eased ship the other cable would stand by. But at daybreak the gale still increasing, the last cable parted, and the ship drifted, stern foremost, toward Strawberry Hill. The wind had veered at this time still more to the south, so that if the bow could be twisted to the northward and westward, and steerage way be got on the ship, it might be still possible to enter the harbor. Capt. Turner managed to set a piece of canvas on the foremast stump, but it did no good, and the ship continued to drift stern foremost. At this time the air had cleared, but the gale had not abated, and as a last resort he carried his kedge anchor aft, and dropped it over the stern, thinking it barely possible that it might catch long enough to turn the ship on her heel and give her steerage way. It worked as he hoped, and with the wind still veering, and hundreds on the shore awaiting a final disaster, he crawled along between Hardings and the breakers and rounded Point Allerton without a fathom to spare. A station pilot boat lying at anchor in the roads put a pilot on board, and Capt. Turner, as he told me, went into his cabin and crying like a child, thanked God for his deliverance. Not long after this he retired temporarily from the sea to recruit his enfeebled health, and was succeeded in the Iconium by Capt. William Davie, but in 1861 was commissioned Sailing Master in the Navy, and while in command of the storeship Relief, bound to the East Indies, he died at Rio Janeiro, August 5, 1864. In just appreciation of his seamanship and skill, the Boston Underwriters made him a present of five hundred dollars.
Daniel Jackson, the senior member of the Jackson house, died July 1, 1852, Abraham Jackson died February 6, 1859, and Isaac Carver Jackson May 23, 1875.