Plymouth memories of an octogenarian

by William T. Davis

During my youth the house now occupied by Miss Perkins, the daughter of the late John Perkins, was owned and occupied by George Drew, who has already been noticed. He built the hotel which stood on the corner of Middle street, and besides conducting a stable on that street, was largely engaged in the management of the Boston line of stages. Among other children he had a son, John Glover Drew, who was one of my playmates and schoolmates. John Glover was afflicted at times with a singular infirmity which like paralysis of the vocal organs would for the space of fifteen minutes disable him from uttering a word. I remember once his receiving a flogging for not answering a question put to him by the teacher the first time an attack occurred in school. I had a classmate at Harvard who for a time was affected in the same way, but in both cases the infirmity finally disappeared.

George Drew had a brother, Thomas, known as Dr. Drew, though I never knew of his practicing medicine, who for many years rendered important service in the educational field in Plymouth. Besides teaching a private school, he was in conjunction with Benjamin Drew, a teacher in the school in town square, and, when what was called the town school was established in 1827, and a school house built in that year for its accommodation in School street, opposite the rear land of the Davis building lot, he was selected as its teacher. He was also town clerk from 1818 to 1840, succeeding Deacon Ephraim Spooner in that office. He had a son, Thomas, three years older than myself, one of the old boys in the High school when I entered it in 1832. Tom was a bright fellow, and for many years performed valuable service as a journalist in the offices of the Worcester Spy and the Boston Herald. While William H. Lord was the teacher of the High school, a gentleman, by the way, very popular with the boys, and one who always enjoyed a joke, it was the custom at the opening of the school in the morning for the scholars to rise in turn and repeat a verse of scripture. On the morning after it became known that the teacher was engaged to Miss Persis Kendall, the daughter of Rev. Dr. Kendall, Tom rose in his place and said, “Salute Persis, the beloved of the Lord.”

John Perkins, a later occupant of the house under consideration, son of John and Sarah (Adams) Perkins of Kingston, married in 1825 Adeline Tupper of Kingston, and established himself as a hatter in Plymouth, where he ever after made his home. He was many years a constable of the town, and Deputy Sheriff, and in the year 1856 he was Sheriff of Plymouth county. While constable and deputy, I have reason to know, as chairman of the Board of Selectmen during a long period, that he performed his duties with firmness, and at the same time with great discretion. For instance in arresting men for drunkenness, especially in cases where the offence was unusual or perhaps accidental, he was careful not to disgrace them by a public exhibition of their weakness, and often led them by circuitous routes to their homes, exacting the promise of a reform which rougher treatment would have tended to prevent. On one occasion, however, his usual discretion failed him. It was during the civil war when it was feared that confederate emissaries gathered in Canada might by secret invasion of our towns cause widespread damage by extensive conflagrations. While in Boston one afternoon I was informed by Alexander Holmes, President of the Old Colony Railroad, that he had been notified by the chief of police of Boston that an invasion of our coast towns was expected that night, and that extraordinary precautions had been ordered for the protection of public buildings and lumber yards, wharves and freight houses. As I had an appointment in Boston that evening and could not return home, I telegraphed to Mr. Perkins to place a dozen or fifteen watchmen in various places, stating my reason, but telling him to say nothing about it for fear of a popular alarm. When I came home the next day I was a little mortified to find that the story had been told, and that the whole town had been through the night in a fever of excitement, and consternation. I consoled myself, however, with the belief that I had done my duty and would have been unable to justify myself if I had failed to act on the information received, and any untoward act had occurred. The same precautions were taken in the cities on the coast, but with less notoriety. Mr. Perkins died August 20, 1877.

There was another alarm which occurred in 1871 or 1872, which it may be well to mention here of which nothing was known except by those immediately concerned. A letter was received from New York at the Plymouth Bank, of which I was president, in which the writer stated that he had overheard a plan to enter and rob the bank on or about a certain night, and advised that proper precautions be taken. Watchmen were placed in my house, and in that of the cashier, and extra watchmen in the bank. In those days it was frequently the plan for bank burglars to secure the officers having the keys, and carrying them to the bank to force them to open the safe. The bank watchmen were consequently instructed to admit no one to the bank on any pretense, even if accompanied by the officers themselves. After I think the second or third night of watching, the writer of the letter appeared at the bank, and said that the plan had been given up. The men in New York had either heard from their pal, who had been some time in Plymouth, that he had discovered indications of unusual precautions on the part of the bank, or for some other reason had decided to abandon the scheme. If the writer of the letter had demanded or asked for money, his story might have been thought a fake, but as he betrayed no wish for compensation, and was perfectly satisfied with the payment of twenty-five dollars for his expenses, I came to the conclusion that he was a stool pigeon, under pay from the New York police, and neither asked nor expected pay from the bank.

An actual entry of the bank occurred on the 13th of January, 1830. Pelham Winslow Warren, brother of the late Dr. Winslow Warren of Plymouth, about to leave town for a season to attend to his duties as clerk of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, deposited for safe keeping his silver and plate in the vault in the basement of the bank, whose place of business was at that time the southerly end of the building which stood where the Russell building now stands. The deposit consisted of nine silver table spoons, twelve silver teaspoons, two silver ladles, one pair of silver sugar tongs, one silver toast rack, one silver fish knife; and these plated articles, one coffee pot, one teapot, one sugar dish, one cream pot, one cake basket, and two pairs of candlesticks, all of which were marked J. T., the initials of Jeanette Taylor, the maiden name of Mr. Warren’s wife. All of the above articles were stolen, and the entry was made through a back window by means of a short ladder, evidently cut from a longer one, the other part of which was afterwards found in the back yard of a resident of the town. None of the property of the bank was missing, except a roll of twenty ten cent pieces, which happened to be in the basement vault. It was evident that the burglar knew of the deposit of the silver, and was probably a Plymouth man, as no attempt was made to enter the safe in the banking room. Strong suspicions were entertained of a man, whom I remember very well, but no arrest was ever made.

For many years the two houses next but two north of the Perkins house, were at different times owned and occupied by Johnson Davie, who was a son of Solomon and Jedidah (Sylvester) Davie. He was a mason by trade, and married in 1823, Phebe, daughter of Ephraim Finney. He was one of the water commissioners who made a contract with the Jersey City cement pipe company to lay the pipe for the Plymouth water works. In the performance of his duties as commissioner he rendered important service to both the town and the company by following with trowel in hand the laying of the pipe and assuring himself that every foot had a sufficient covering of cement properly mixed and laid. He was a man of brains, and used them so that he often found himself encountering public opinion, which was said by Carlyle to be the opinion of fools. He died December 25, 1882. Ezra Johnson Davee, his son, born in 1824, entered about 1840 the counting room of Langdon & Co., a Boston house in the Smyrna trade, and after a few years, on the death of the Smyrna bookkeeper he was sent out to take charge of the business until another man could be sent out to take his place. He has been there ever since either managing the affairs of Langdon & Co., or his own for more than forty years, visiting his family in Plymouth about once in five years. I made a passage with him in 1895 in the Cephalonia on his return from one of these visits, and now in 1905 he has just sailed August 1, in the Ivernia for Liverpool, at the age of eighty-one, with the vigor of middle life scarcely impaired. He married in Smyrna Betsey Ghout and Amelia Marion Ghout, the latter accompanying him on his late visit home.

The northerly house of the two owned by Mr. Davee was kept as a public house, under the name of the Old Colony House for some years prior to 1871, by N. M. Perry, who was a native of either Norfolk or Worcester county. He had previously kept the Mansion House on the corner of North and Court streets, and later after living in Whitman a short time, he returned to Plymouth and kept what is now the Plymouth Rock House, called by him the Old Colony House, where he died July 17, 1877.

Coomer Weston of whom I next speak, was the son of Coomer and Patty (Cole) Weston, and was born in 1784. He was the keeper of the jail some years, which position he resigned in 1829, and moved into the house now occupied by Mrs. Wm. S. Danforth, where he lived until 1839 or 1840, when he built a house on the corner of Court street and Faunce’s lane, now Allerton street, where he died July 7, 1870. He was the first captain of the Standish Guards. During the last thirty years of his life he was interested in raising fruit, especially apples and pears, and in horticulture. He married in 1804 Hannah, daughter of Jabez Doten, and had Coomer, 1805, who was also at one time captain of the Standish Guards; Francis Henri, 1807, an enterprising shipmaster; Hannah Doten, 1809; Ann Maria, 1813; Lydia, 1818; Thomas, 1821, a clergyman settled at various times in various towns, and our townsman, Myles Standish Weston.

In 1849 Lemuel Bradford opened a store called the North end grocery, where the Cold Spring Grocery store now stands, and up to that time there were only three stores where there are now twenty-seven between North street and the Kingston line. At the date above mentioned there were two hotels in the town, while now there are six open all the year, and four more open only during the summer. As an indication of the extension of the town towards the North, it may be stated that while in 1880 the center of population was in the center of Leyden, Market and Summer streets, it was in 1900, at the house of Capt. E. B. Atwood on Court street. It is probable that it will be found under the last census to be still further North.

In a modest house a little beyond the North end grocery on the east side of the street there lived for many years one of the uncles of the town. Every town has its uncles, and wherever you find them they are sterling, upright men, who have a kindly and affectionate word for and from everybody. Peter Holmes was the man known only as Uncle Peter, a shipmaster in his early days who sailed for my grandfather, and whose letters written from foreign ports, which I have read, show him to have been skilful and trusted in his profession. My young readers will be fortunate if they find as worthy a man as my old Uncle Peter. He died July 17, 1869. He married in 1801 Sally, daughter of Lazarus Harlow, and had five sons, one of whom was our late townsman, Peter Holmes, who lived in the house now occupied by Dr. Brown on North street, and six daughters, two of whom married our venerable townsman, William Rider Drew.