The next building has had its front altered into a store, but in other respects it remains as it was in my youth, when owned and occupied as a dwelling house by John Macomber. In 1874 it came into the possession of Josiah A. Robbins, and the store now standing on its south side was moved from the present site of the store of Christopher T. Harris.
The next house built in 1832 by Capt. Isaac Bartlett, came into the possession of John B. Atwood in 1855, who fitted up a store on its northerly side, and occupied the remainder as a dwelling. Capt. Isaac Bartlett was a shipmaster for many years, and made many voyages in the Havana trade between that port and Plymouth, in the brig Hannah, owned by Barnabas Hedge. I have distinct and agreeable memories of his arrivals with loads of molasses, some of which I licked from sticks introduced into hospitable bung holes, without money and without price. Captain Bartlett died, May 3, 1845. By his second wife, Rebecca, daughter of Caleb Bartlett, he had a son, Robert, born in 1817, and a daughter, Rebecca, born in 1819, both remarkable for minds capable of unlimited development and cultivation. Robert Bartlett, of whom I wish particularly to speak, was fitted for college in Plymouth by George Washington Hosmer and Addison Brown, both graduates of Harvard in the class of 1826; and graduated in 1836. He was tutor in Latin at Harvard from 1839 to 1843, when his early death destroyed the promise of a brilliant career. Aside from being a fellow townsman, I had an opportunity afforded by being a fellow boarder with him two years in Cambridge, of estimating his character and learning. I do not feel that I am violating any rules of propriety in speaking of a passage in his career, which gave me as a young man my first insight into the romances of life. He became engaged to my cousin, Elizabeth Crowell White, a daughter of Capt. Gideon Consider White, a lady of about his own age, and as remarkable as he in literary culture. After the death of her father and mother she was a member of my mother’s family until her death. In 1842, on a visit to relatives in Nova Scotia, she broke off her engagement with Mr. Bartlett, and soon after contracted a new engagement with an English gentleman. The blow to Mr. Bartlett was a severe one, and I remember well the visit which he made to our house on the afternoon of the day he received his letter of dismissal. After her return from Nova Scotia I was not long in discovering that her heart was still in the possession of her former lover, though she endeavored to conceal the fact. At this time an inherited tendency to a disease of the lungs began to show itself, both in her and in Mr. Bartlett, and in both cases, consumption rapidly performed its fatal work. She was soon confined permanently to the house, and he was obliged to abandon his college work, and return home to become like her a prisoner in his chamber and bed. He was brought from Boston in the steamboat, then running, and she, knowing that he was coming, sat by the chamber window on the north side of our house on Cole’s Hill, evidently anxious to catch a glimpse of one whom she had mistakenly cast off, but whom she still loved with all her heart. I remember well the tears she shed as he was carried up the street, and she saw him for the last time. Both failed rapidly. He died at his home, September 15, 1843, and she on the 7th of the next month, and both are buried in Vine Hills cemetery, united at least in spirit, where “they neither marry nor are given in marriage.”
It is not worth while to consider the occupancy of the remaining estates between the Isaac Bartlett house and the brook. It will be sufficient to say that the first building next to the Bartlett House was at one time occupied by Oliver Keyes, and again by Martin Myers, who kept a harness store on the corner of Leyden street. Two stores have been erected in front of the building which are occupied by C. T. Harris & Son, and by the Co-operative store. In 1828 a man named Joseph D. Jones, kept a tinman’s shop on Market street, but its precise location I cannot define. He advertised bulbous roots for sale, and we boys, always ready to adopt nicknames, called him bulbous Jones. He deserved a better name, for he was one of the best of men, conscientious in all his dealings, and a valuable citizen. At a later date he moved to a one story building on Main street, where Leyden Hall building now stands, after Dr. Isaac LeBaron, apothecary, had moved from it to the corner of North street. Rev. Adiel Harvey, pastor of the Baptist Society from 1845 to 1855, and superintendent of public schools from 1853 to 1859, married his daughter. About forty years after he left Plymouth I met him one day in Boston, and instantly recognizing him, called him by name, and had a pleasant conversation with him. Of course he failed to recognize me, but he expressed great pleasure at meeting some one from Plymouth, who could tell him about the doings in the old town. Twelve or fifteen years ago I was advertised to deliver an address before the Young Men’s Christian Union, and the old man considerably over ninety years of age, seeing the advertisement, came escorted by his daughter to hear me. He died not many years ago at the Old Men’s Home, on Springfield street, where he had been for some time an inmate, nearly if not quite, a centenarian.
CHAPTER XVI.
On the opposite side of Spring Hill there was until 1890 a building with a front on Summer street, but there was a tenement on its easterly end which must be considered in connection with Market street. This tenement in my youth was occupied by Clement Bates, a native of Hanover, who came to Plymouth and married Irene Sanger, daughter of Thomas Burgess, the keeper of the Plymouth lighthouse, who, because he always wore a red thrum cap, was called Red Cap Burgess. He married in 1824 Betsey Burgess, a sister of his first wife. He was a caulker, and graver by trade, and in 1831 was chosen sexton by the town, whose duty it was to conduct funerals, take care of the town house, and ring the town bell at such hours, morning, noon and night, as were specified by the town. After his relinquishment of the management of funerals, which had been taken up by private undertakers, he told me that he had buried thirty-two hundred and fifty persons. He performed the other duties of his office until his death, July 13, 1885. It is an interesting fact that after so long a period of business dealings with the material bodies of the dead he became a confirmed believer in the doctrines of Spiritualism.
In my early youth a wooden building standing on the north corner of Market and Summer streets, was occupied as a store by Bridgham Russell, until he was appointed postmaster in 1832. Mr. Russell was the son of Jonathan and Rebecca (Turner) Russell of Barnstable, and was born in 1793. He married in 1822 Betsey, daughter of Jeremiah Farris of Barnstable, and died March 29, 1840. He was the second Captain of the Standish Guards, succeeding Captain Coomer Weston. The store which Mr. Russell had occupied, was taken down in 1832, and replaced by the present brick building, which was occupied by Alexander G. Nye, and for many years by Samuel and Thomas Branch Sherman. Samuel Sherman was Town Treasurer from 1835 to 1856, serving one year after I entered, for the first time, the office of selectman, and died October 20, 1857.
The next building was occupied as long ago as I can remember by Osmore Jenkins, who kept a jeweller’s store as early as 1830, and after leaving Plymouth became distinguished in his profession. He was born in Mt. Vernon, N. H., September 4, 1815, and died in Melrose, Mass., December 19, 1904. Mr. Jenkins was succeeded by Wm. Morey, who occupied the store many years in making and selling boots and shoes. In those days, especially in winter, it was the universal custom to wear boots, the common close legged boots, in contra distinction to the top boots worn with small clothes. In 1831, when I was nine years old, Mr. Morey made my first pair, and if school hours had not interfered I think I should have watched every stitch and peg in their construction. These boots, now little worn, were first introduced into the peninsular army by the Duke of Wellington, and are to this day in England called Wellingtons. Why Congress boots, which have largely taken their place, should be so called, is somewhat strange, as similar laced boots have been for many generations worn in Ireland under the name of high-lows and brogans.
Wm. Morey had seven sons, William, born in 1813, John Edwards, 1815, Thos., 1817, Cornelius, 1820, Charles, 1825, Edwin, 1827, and Henry, 1833. Of these Edwin lives in Boston, a successful and well known merchant; Thomas was in 1899 the head of a thriving printing house in Greenfield, and of John Edwards I know nothing, while William, Charles and Henry have been dead some years, and Cornelius died in infancy.
The building extending from the Morey building to High street, was in my youth divided into two tenements. The southerly part was owned and occupied by Samuel Talbot, who bought it in 1826. Mr. Talbot, son of George Talbot of Milton, was born in that town in 1791, and came to Plymouth about 1820. In 1825 he formed a partnership with John Calderwood Holmes in the bakery business in the building in Summer street now occupied by the Misses Rich. Mr. Holmes died May 17, 1826, and Mr. Talbot became associated with George Churchill in the business. I have often seen the room, now a parlor, full of sea biscuit, waiting to be packed in casks and placed on board the whalemen. I remember, too, the two wheeled green baker’s cart with America Rogers driving, and the round, warm biscuit which he left at our house nearly every morning, the size and color of which varied with the price and quality of flour. Mr. Churchill was a man of humor, and in speaking one day of the readiness of Plymouth people to catch at new ideas he said, “Yes, Plymouth people will swallow anything. I know that by experience, for I have stuffed them with poor bread a good many years.” Nevertheless, those warm biscuits were good, but America Rogers’ buns and election cakes were better. Mr. Talbot died September 28, 1883. The northerly part of the building was owned and occupied in my boyhood by John Kempton, a caulker and graver by trade, as a dwelling house and store.
The building on the northerly corner of High street, recently owned by Chas. T. Holmes, was in 1832 the property and home of Samuel Robbins, and later of his son-in-law Robert Cowen. Until June 25, 1870, its southerly end extended about eight feet south of the general line of High street, but on that date the projection was taken by the town and the street line straightened. This projection was occupied in 1831, and later by Albert Leach as a shoemaker’s shop, and still later by Eleazer H. Barnes as a candy shop. Outside of the northerly end of the building, was a covered stairway and passage leading to a store in the rear of the main building in which Mr. Robbins kept a store until his death, which occurred July 27, 1838, at the age of eighty-six. It must have been about 1830 that he dislocated his thigh. At that time the means of reducing dislocations were crude, and I remember hearing in the street the terrible groans of the old gentleman while under the hands of the Boston surgeon, who had been sent for to manage the case.