1
100
20
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Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Woodbury Court
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
4 Woodbury Court, Salem, Massachusetts 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Israel Woodbury, housewright, 1830.
Documents provided are of research conduction on house; formal house history unavailable.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historic Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1830, 1974
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Kozlowski/Dee
Language
A language of the resource
English
1830
1974
4
Court
Dee
Israel
Kozlowski
Massachusetts
Salem
Woodbury
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Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Andover Street
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
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Title
A name given to the resource
4 Andover Street, Salem, Massachusetts 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built for John Dodge, Mason circa 1794
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
circa 1794, 1988
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Joyce King
Language
A language of the resource
English
1794
1988
4
4 Andover
Andover
Bolles
circa
Dike
Dodge
Federal
Hawthorne
John
John Dodge
Lucius
Nathaniel
Priscilla
wood
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Title
A name given to the resource
Beach Avenue
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
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Title
A name given to the resource
4 Beach Avenue, Salem, Massachusetts 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built for Eliza J. Low wife of Daniel Low, Jeweler in 1883
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1883, 1988
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Joyce King
Language
A language of the resource
English
1883
1988
4
4 Beach
Beach
Daniel
Daniel Low
Eliza
Eliza J. Low
jeweler
Low
Shingle
wood
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Title
A name given to the resource
Becket Street
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
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Title
A name given to the resource
4 Becket Street, Salem, Massachusetts 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Benjamin Phippen, fisherman, 1718
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1718, 1978
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Robert Booth
Language
A language of the resource
English
1718
1978
4
4 Becket
Balcam
Becket
Benjamin
Benjamin Phippen
First Period
Fisherman
Lisbrill
Murray
Phippen
Thomas
wood
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Title
A name given to the resource
Beckford Street
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
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Title
A name given to the resource
2-4 Beckford Street, Salem, Massachusetts 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built for Robert Cowan, fancy painter by 1795
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1795, 1988
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Joyce King
Language
A language of the resource
English
1795
1988
2
2-4 Beckford
4
Beckford
Cowan
fancy painter
Federal
painter
Robert
Robert Cowan
wood
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Title
A name given to the resource
Stodder Place
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
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Title
A name given to the resource
4 Stodder Place, Salem, Massachusetts 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built by the Giffords for Captain Ebenezer Berry, Shipmaster 1855
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1855, 2003
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Robert Booth
Language
A language of the resource
English
1855
4
4 Stodder
Berry
Captain
Ebenezer
Ebenezer Berry
Gifford
Greek Revival
shipmaster
Stodder
wood
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Title
A name given to the resource
Chestnut Street
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
4 Chestnut Street, Salem, Massachusetts 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built for
Deacon
John Stone
c. 1826
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house history
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1826, 2015
Language
A language of the resource
English
1826
2015
4
4 Chestnut
Brick
Chestnut
Deacon
Federal
John
John Stone
Lucy
Lucy Robinson
Robinson
Stone
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Title
A name given to the resource
River Street
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
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Title
A name given to the resource
4 River Street, Salem, Massachusetts 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built by Daniel Bancroft Jr. Housewright in 1806
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1806, 1985
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Joyce King
Language
A language of the resource
English
1806
1985
4
Bancroft
Daniel
History
House
Jr.
Massachusetts
River
Salem
Street
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PDF Text
Text
7 CAMBRIDGE STREET
SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS 01970 I PHONE (508) 745-0799
4 CURTIS STREET
PROPERTY OF THE CURTIS FAMILY
BUILT CIRCA 1780
Research by,
Joyce King . · ·
October, 1988
�NOTES:
The Salem Historic District Study Committee Investigation lists
this house as Pre Federal 1720-1790. The owner believes it to
be around 1750.
There is a problem in trying to determine the exact location of
the "old houses" mentioned in the deeds, when they disappear
and when the present houses first appear.
The documentation
is very confusing.
Other problems in this case are:
The house is not on the tax rolls in 1831
There are three John Battens in Ward 1, making tax records
difficult to follow.
A tenant could pay the taxes, but unless you know the tenants
name there is no way to follow the tax list.
There are 4 houses on Battons land in 1851.
was it moved?
No permit to move was found.
Which came first??
�1668 Feb. 23 Eastwick sold a lot of land to William Curtis
(book 3 page 61)
(A)
1704/5 William Curtis sol 1/4 acre of land to his son William
Curtis Jr. - wher houses stand - my tenement wher Willim now
dwells, house, barn and shop (book 19 page 116)
(B)
1718 controversy with neighbor, William Dove shows that Curtis'
house stood within Dove's land 6 feet on the south side and 2
feet towards the north (book 45 page 250)
(C)
1731 April 30 William Curtis Jr. sold a small parcel of land
to his son Daniel (book 52 page 256)
(D)
1741 William Curtis will, written Nov. 8, 1740 (Probate #6934)
to:
son John 1/2 land in south Fields
son Daniel 1/4 pt. land South Fields
grandchildren (being the daughters of dee. son William) 1/4
pt land south Fields
son Daniel 1/2 homestead lot
*daughter Lydia Stileman - my now dwelling house and 1/2 the
homestead lot - being the est 1/2 and a 20 foot
square at the southeast end for a barn
( E)
Lydia Stileman died before March 24, 1778, when her estate was
entered in probate. William Patterson was adm.
Inventory
Real Estate - an old house ith 18 1/2 poles of land
1782 Richard and Lydia Batten sold to William Patterson 1/3
part of the estate of Lydia Stileman containing 6 poles of land
with buildings
(F)
1788 July 3 - William Patterson mortgaged this and another
property - NO BUILDING MENTIONED ON THIS LOT (book 148 page
200)
(A dwelling house is mentioned--on-another lot in Hardy's
lane)
(G)
1793 June 26 - John Patterson; Joseph and Rebecca Smith;
Obidiah and Lydia Wilcock; John and Sarah Bolton sold to
William Patterson, for 5 pounds, 14 shillings, their 5th parts
of and undivided 1/3 of about 6 poles of land and ALL THE
BUILDINGS - their shares being as heirs and chldren of William
Patterson (Gl)
�William Patterson died Sept. 6, 1793 at the age of 47 (East
Parish Deaths)
William Patterson, by will written August 23, 1793, left all
his estate, both real and personal, to his wife Mehitable
(probate #20783)
Inventory 1802
Lot of land situate in Essex St. between the dwelling house
of Richard Manning (now 95 Essex St.) and house of Thomas
Ashby late Curtice's
(H)
1803 Jan. 1 - William Patterson Jr. sold to John Archer two
parcels the first being a dwelling house and land on Herbert
St. and the second his right and title in and to one undived
4th part of about 60 poles (?) of land NO BUILDING which his
father William Patterson deceased purchased of the heirs of his
father William Patterson who died seized of the whole of said
premises.
(book 171 page 141)
(I)
1805 Dec. 16 - Anna Phippen and Seth and Mehitable Ring sold
their 2/3 parts of their share of the lot of land of about 12
poles of Lydia stileman's estate to John Archer, Benjamin
Patterson, Eliphalet Patterson and Clifford Byrne (book 177
page 112)
1807 Jan. 6 John Archer sold 1/4 interest to the lot of land,
of about 16 poles, to Richard Battin and John Battin (book 213
page 134)
1809 Benjamin Patterson sold 4/12 shares to the lot of land to
John Batten NO BUILDINGS (book 188 page 66)
1828 November 3 - John Batten and Margaret Felt owners in
common of a lot of land on Essex St. made a division (book 250
page 79)
NO BUILDING MENTIONED
(J)
����������������������������������
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Curtis Street
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
4 Curtis Street, Salem, Massachusetts 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
4 Curtis Street
Property of the Curtis Family
Built circa 1780
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
House built circa 1780
Research created 1988
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Joyce King October 1988
Language
A language of the resource
English
1780
4
4 Curtis
Curtis
Georgian
wood
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/28828/archive/files/1020e0975a1a7e9b44f85863759ba355.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=eaFHaHCFpHh5ol7gJjb28fEhPu17V7AArVqaGEc0nstmybbo8XLb5U%7E6QAGICYx5AhTcXVMRFoLSy3ZcGJoGQSPnOfdJrIAStC0-bnldRnfgpsMERc45zl79chtPl9PNAn0yFXipnlPk%7E0flUwlISMocPPBX5uqyP3-6L56BJSbek-Kv9p6Uk2lv1-WCbnTQNNtrrp3cs6o9XT2QJUMLZJllLzE2kgFznHxL5zEbFKkp%7EzArNuPwDaKPe8kFB-ZkrvJvrH7OrctrjSpxxSGDAaFSjyJVCCx5iXlkUw1dxcYkjM%7Ei-SZhn6LAta3p7aMpBVN6MNuoqVXWt65D5XBQIg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
6fdfff7daca475e6f2ceb94fdf6c0c20
PDF Text
Text
s11istoiic
OFFICE AT OLD TOWN HALL
~~JMorporated
POST OFFICE BOX 865
SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS 01970 / PHONE (617) 745-0799
4 DANIELS STREET
Built for
ABIGAIL BERRY, singlewornan
in 1803
Research by,
Joyce King
Directory and tax research by,
Eugenia Fountain
June 1986
to preserve Historic Sites, Buildings and objects,
md to work for the education of the community
n the true 11alue of the same."
�4 DANIELS STREET
"Daniels street is a very old way.
It was called a lane or
highway by the water side, 1669; a street or lane, 1672: ye
highway or street, 1673; a lane or particular highway, 1679; ye
highway, 1699; Ingersoll's lane, 1715; Daniels lane, 1742; and
Daniels street in 1769.
In some deeds, in 1864 and 1870, it
was called Wharf street."
(Essex Antiquarian vol. 10)
The early history of this lot can be found in the Essex
Antiquarian:
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SAL.EM IN i?OO.
NO. 24.
�122
THE ESSEX ANTIQUARIAN.
and built a new one upon the lot before
his death, which occurred in 1729.
Samuel Ingersoll House. This lot was
a part of the land conveyed by Timothy
Laskin to Robert Gray of Salem before
29: 7: 1656, when Mr. Gray conveyed
it to John Ingersoll of Salem.* Mr. Ingersoll's son John built a house upon the
lot about 1670; and the father died in
1683, having, in his will, devised the lot
to his son John. John Ingersoll was a
mariner, and lived here. He died in
1694, possessed of the house and lot,
which were then valued at sixty pounds.
The estate was divided in l 695, this
house and lot becoming the property of
John Ingersoll's son Samuel. Samuel
Ingersoll owned the house in qo2; and
the house was apparently gone soon after.
Richard Ingersoll House. This lot was
a part of the land conveyed by Timothy
Laskin to Robert Gray of Salem before
29: 7: 1656, when Mr. Gray conveyed it
to John Ingersoll of Salem.* Mr. Ingersoll's son Richard built a house upon the
lot about 1675; and died, possessed of
the house, in 1683. The father died
later, in the same year, having, in his
will, devised the lot to the widow of his
son Richard, for her life, and then to the
latter's son Richard. Sarah, widow of
Richard Ingersoll, married, secondly,
Joseph Procter of Ipswich, yeoman, before Dec. 24, l 701 1 when she released
her interest in the estate to her son Richard Ingersoll. t The last- named Richar<:!
Ingersoll died prior to July 1, 1708, when
administration upon his estate was granted
to his widow, Ruth Ingersoll. The next
owners of this house and lot, of record,
are widow Elizabeth Hinchy and William
· Burrows, frame maker, both of Boston,
and John Burrows of Killinsgly, Conn.,
joiner, who, for thirty-four pounds, thirteen shillings and four pence, conveyed
the estate to Jonathan Very of Salem,
cordwainer, N:ov. 6, 175 r.t For forty
*Essex Registry of Deeds, book 2, leaf 24.
tEssex Registry of Deeds, book 14 1 leaf 218.
tEssex Registry of Deeds, book 96, leaf 273.
pounds, Mr. Very conveyed the house
and lot to widow Elizabeth Valpy of
Salem April 24, 17 53 ;* and, for ten
pounds, Mrs. Valpy conveyed the western
half of the house and land to her son
Abraham Valpy of Salem, fisherman,
March 31, 1767.t The house stood end
to the street, facing the south, the front
door being in the middle. Abigail Very
subsequently owned the eastern part of
the house and lot, and William Cabot of
Brooklyn, N. Y., merchant, Francis Cowell of Boston, and wife Hannah, and Susanna Lowell, spinster, for eighty pounds,
conveyed the same westerly half of the
" old dwelling house " ·to Abigail Very,
singlewoman, feb. 1, 1802.t The house
was probably gone soon afterward.
Estate of Richard Rose House. That
part of this lot lying easterly of the dashes was a part of the land conveyed by
Timothy Laskin to Robert Gray of Salem
before 29: 7: 1656, when Mr. Gray
conveyed it to John Ingersoll of Salem.§
Mr. Ingersoll gave this lot, by deed, to
his daughter Ruth and her husband Richard Rose Oct. 30, 167::1.11 Mr. Rose had
already built a house upon the lot.
That part of this lot lying westerly of
the dashes was owned by John Swasey
before 15: x: 1652, when he conveyed it
to widow Dorothy King of Salem., Mrs.
King conveyed it to Thomas Johnson and
Thomas Reignolds Oct. 2 1, 16 5 3 ;** and
Mr. Reigno!ds released his interest in it
to Mr. Johnson Feb. 20, 1653-4.tt Mr.
Johnson conveyed it to Adam Westgate
29: 6: 1654.tt Mr. Westgate was of
Salem, mariner, and conveyed the lot to
Walter Mountjoy of Salem, fisherman,
Jan. 26, 1675-6.U For twelve pounds,
Mr. Mountjoy conveyed it to Richard
Rose, who owned and lived on the other
*Essex· Registry of Deeds, book 98, leaf 141.
tEssex Registry of Deeds, book 121, leaf 76.
+Essex Registry of Deeds, book I 71, leaf 70.
§Essex Registry of Deeds, book 2, leaf 24.
II Essex Registry of Deeds, book 3, leaf 163.
'ITEssex Registry of Deeds, book 1, leaf 17.
**Essex Registry of Deeds, book I, leaf 20.
ttEssex Registry of Deeds, book 1, leaf 24.
+:::Essex Registry of Deeds, book 4, leaf I 29.
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As mentioned, this was the lot on which Richard Ingersoll
built a house circa 1675. By 1751 the Ingersoll house was
owned by widow Elizabeth Hinchy and William Burroughs, both of
Boston, and John Burroughs of Killinsgly, Conn.
This report
will show the chain of title from that point on.
BOOK 96 PAGE 273
DATE -
November 6, 1751
GRANTOR (seller) -
Elizabeth Hemsley widow, William
Burroughs and John Burroughs
GRANTEE (buyer)
Jonathan Very
DESCRIPTION
messuage dwelling house and 10 poles
of land:
North - Mary Silsbee and Ruth Fowles
East Ingersol Lane
South - Katherine Berry
West - Mary Cox
BOOK 98 PAGE 141
DATE -
April 24, 1753
GRANTOR (seller) -
Jonathan and Mary very
GRANTEE (buyer)
Elizabeth Valpy
DESCRIPTION
Dwelling house and 10 poles of land
(same description as above)
PREVIOUS REFERENCE -
Sarne conveyed by Hemsley et al in 1751
�BOOK 121 PAGE 76
DATE -
March 31, 1767 (recorded April 3,
1767)
GRANTOR (seller) -
Elizabeth Valpy
GRANTEE (buyer)
Her son Abraham Valpy, fisherman
DESCRIPTION
The west part of my homestead land
bound southerly or south a little easterly on lamd in the
possessiom of Catherine Berry, west or west south land hereto
fore Mary cox more lately of Joseph Brown now in the occupation
of Sarah Browne, widow of Joseph, north or north a little west
partly on land of Joseph Sarl and part of land of Edmond
Whittemore and east by my other land being the remainder of my
homestead land by a line running strait from the north side
line to the south side line of my homestead - line run through
the center of the chimney of said house so as that both parts
of said house shall be accomodated with the chimney as its now
used with liberty of a way four feet in width from front door
on the south side of said house next east end of said house and
in line with south side of said house to the way sometimes
called Ingersolls lane at other times called Daniels Lane Except that the front or south door and entrance and stairs on
the south side of said house to the garret shall forever be and
remain to and for the common use of the owners of both parts of
said house.
(A title check of the surrounding properties was done to be
sure the correct property was traced. This study indicates
that Catherine Berry owned the land now 6-8 Daniels Street,
Mary cox owned the land now 65 Essex st., Edmond Whittemore
owned the lot now #59 Essex Street, Joseph Searl or Sarl owned
what is now 63 Essex Street.)
On April 3, 1767 Abraham Valpy mortgaged his half, or west end,
of the homestead to Francis Cabot.
Elizabeth valpy died in 1771. By a will, written on December
28, 1770, Mrs. Valpy left her sons John, Abraham, Richard and
Benjamin each 5 shillings. The rest of her estate, both real
and personal was bequeathed to her granddaughter Elizabeth
Talbut.
An inventory, taken in 1771, shows her real estate
as:
part of a house and about 5 poles of land in Ingersolls lane
(This would be the east half of the house and land.)
�BOOK 161 PAGE 178
DATE -
April 3, 1797
CONSIDERATION
$8
GRANTOR (seller) -
Elizabeth Talbut, widow
GRANTEE
(buye~)
DESCRIPTION
Abigail Berry, single (Abigail and
her brother John owned the land at
6 Daniels st. where they built a
house circa 1784, since removed)
"A piece of land situate in said
Salem whereon the easterly end of an
Old house formerly stood which land
and end of a house Elizabeth Valpy,
late of Salem aforesaid widow died
seized of" As bound:
East - on Daniels Street
South - partly by land of the said
Abigail and partly by land of
John Berry
West - by land and the west part of a
dwelling house of Abraham
Valpy deceased, now in the
occupation of Lydia Valpy
widow of said Abraham
North - not mentioned
BOOK 171 PAGE 70
DATE -
September 15, 1802
CONSIDERATION
$80
GRANTOR (seller} -
The heirs of Francis Cabot
GRANTEE (buyer}
Abigail Berry
DESCRIPTION
The west part or end of an old
dwelling house and about 5 poles of
land bound:
North by Joseph Searl and Edwmond
Whittemore
East by Abigail Berry
South by John Berry now in the
occupation of John and
Abigail Berry
West by Joseph Brown
�Also recorded in book 171 page 70 is the explanation that the
surviving executors of Francis Cabot recovered judgement
against Lydia Valpy, widow of Abraham, in the court of common
pleas in July 1784. The conditions were that unless Lydia paid
unto Cabot 61 pounds, 3 shillings and 8 pence she would lose
possession.
This sum was never paid, so when Lydia Valpy died
on July 8, 1801, the Cabot heirs took possession.
With the last conveyance, Abigail Berry now owned the entire
lot at 4 Daniels Street and removed the remaining portion of
the old Richard Ingersoll house.
The tax records indicate that
Abigail had a new house built shortly after taking possession:
1803 Abigail Berry - Ward 1
part house $1,200 (6 Daniels St.)
"new house, unfinished" $300 (4 Daniels st.)
Abigail Berry died on December 23, 1823, at the age of 92.
After many bequests, Abigal Berry left the remainder of her
estate, both real and personal, to Abigail B. Woodward.
(Probate #2374)
BOOK 743 PAGE 137
DATE -
February 26, 1868
CONSIDERATION
$1,600
GRANTOR (seller) -
Benjamin Woodward of Charleston
Nancy W. Orcutt, of Boston, widow
the only heirs of Abigail B. Archer,
formerly Abigail Woodward, who died
January 25, 1868, who was made sole
exectrix of the estate of Abigail
Berry
GRANTEE (buyer)
Susan Munday, wife of John Munday
DESCRIPTION
Lot of land and two story dwelling
house
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Susan Munday died on November 20, 1890. In her will, written
January 20, 1887, Susan left her "house, contents thereof, and
all else that may be in my possession" to her half brother,
James Manning (probate #70105).
James Mannng died on July 6, 1900. Mr. Manning's will,
written April 15, 1892, left the bulk of his estate to neices,
Emma A. and Elisabeth R. Graves (probate 86655).
BOOK 2086 PAGE 512
DATE -
June 2, 1911
GRANTOR (seller) -
Elisabeth R. Graves and Emma A.
Graves
GRANTEE (buyer)
Hannah Cotter and Mary E. Cotter
PREVIOUS REFERENCE -
see will of James Manning
�BOOK 2267 PAGE 372
DATE -
July 9, 1914
GRANTOR (seller) -
Hannah cotter and Mary Cotter
GRANTEE (buyer)
David Frye
PREVIOUS REFERENCE -
The same premises conveyed to
Elizabeth Graves et al on June 2,
1911
BOOK 2267 PAGE 373
DATE -
July 9, 1914
GRANTOR (seller) -
David Frye
GRANTEE (buyer)
Deborah R. Arrington
DESCRIPTION
Land and building
PREVIOUS REFERENCE -
The same conveyed to David Frye
by deed of Hannah Cotter et al
BOOK 2373 PAGE 306
DATE -
July 26, 1917
GRANTOR (seller) -
Deborah R. Arrington, unmarried
GRANTEE (buyer)
Charles
DESCRIPTION
Land and building
PREVIOUS REFERENCE -
The same premises conveyed to David
Frye on July 9, 1914
s.
Johnston
�BOOK 2408 PAGE 403
DATE -
March 24, 1919
GRANTOR (seller) -
Charles
GRANTEE (buyer)
Joseph V. LeMay
DESCRIPTION
Land and building
PREVIOUS REFERENCE -
The same premises conveyed by Deborah
R. Arrington and recorded in book
2373 page 306
s.
Johnston
BOOK 2458 PAGE 558
DATE -
August 6, 1920
GRANTOR (seller) -
Joseph
GRANTEE (buyer)
John Laskowski
DESCRIPTION
Land and building
PREVIOUS REFERENCE -
The same premises conveyed by Charles
s. Johnston on March 24, 1919
w.
LeMay
BOOK 2636 PAGE 506
DATE -
May 7, 1925
GRANTOR (seller) -
John Laskowski
GRANTEE (buyer)
Franciszka Zuchowski
DESCRIPTION
Land and building, subject to a
mortgage of $2,100
PREVIOUS REFERENCE -
The same premises conveyed by deed
recorded in book 2458 page 558
�BOOK 3375 PAGE 516
DATE -
July 7, 1944
GRANTOR (seller) -
Franciszka Zuchowski
GRANTEE (buyer)
Salem Savings Bank
DESCRIPTION
Land and building
PREVIOUS REFERENCE -
The same conveyed by deed of John
Laskowski
BOOK 3403 PAGE 286
DATE -
April 30, 1945
GRANTOR (seller) -
Salem savings Bank
GRANTEE (buyer)
Thomas J. and Rose A. Carroll
DESCRIPTION -
Land and building
PREVIOUS REFERENCE -
same conveyed by Franciszka Zuchowski
BOOK 3989 PAGE 449
DATE -
July 1, 1953
GRANTOR (seller) -
Thomas J. Carroll
GRANTEE (buyer)
Sydney James vestey
DESCRIPTION
Land and building
PREVIOUS REFERENCE -
The same conveyed by the Salem
savings Bank
�BOOK 4813 PAGE 368
DATE -
September 7, 1961
GRANTOR (seller) -
Sydney J. vestey
GRANTEE (buyer)
Robert A. Saccone trustee of Downing
Proctor Realty Trust
DESCRIPTION
Land and building
BOOK 4821 PAGE 205
DATE -
September 27, 1961
GRANTOR (seller) -
Robert A. Saccone Trustee of Downing
Proctor Realty Trust
GRANTEE (buyer)
Masconomo Realty Trust of Peabody and
Topsfield
DESCRIPTION
Land and building
PREVIOUS REFERENCE -
The same premises conveyed by deed of
Sydney J. vestey.
See book 3989 page
449 for Carroll to vestey
BOOK 4997 PAGE 377
DATE -
October 11, 1962
GRANTOR (seller) -
Gordan R. Senecal and Adelaide A.
Saccone trustees of the Masconomo
Realty Trust
GRANTEE (buyer)
Fred E. and Adeline E. Winter
DESCRIPTION
Land and building
�BOOK 5919 PAGE 794
DATE -
October 31, 1972
GRANTOR (seller) -
Fred E. and Adeline E. Winter
GRANTEE (buyer)
Robert c. Bramble trustee of Allyn
Realty Trust
DESCRIPTION
Parcel #1 of three lots
PREVIOUS REFERENCE -
The same conveyed on October 11, 1962
BOOK 5984 PAGE 706
DATE -
June 18, 1973
CONSIDERATION
$32,000
GRANTOR (seller) -
Robert
Trust
GRANTEE (buyer)
Peter and Stephanie Shelley
DESCRIPTION
Land and building
PREVIOUS REFERENCE -
Being parcel #1 in deed from Fred E.
Winter et ux
c.
Bramble of Allyn Realty
BOOK 6297 PAGE 512
DATE -
November 10, 1976
CONSIDERATION
$38,000
GRANTOR (seller) -
Peter and Stephanie Shelley
of 8 Marlboro St., Boston
GRANTEE (buyer)
Jonathan G. Curtis
DESCRIPTION
Land and building
PREVIOUS REFERENCE -
Meaning to convey the premises
conveyed by deed of Robert Bramble
June 18, 1973
�BOOK 6557 PAGE 696
DATE -
January 8, 1979
CONSIDERATION
$48,000
GRANTOR (seller) -
Jonathan G. Curtis
GRANTEE (buyer)
William
DESCRIPTION
Land and building
PREVIOUS REFERENCE -
The same conveyed by deed of Peter
and Stephanie Shelley
s.
Kaull Jr.
Reference to book and page are deed books at the Registry of
Deeds.
Probate numbers are cases at Probate Court.
Both
offices are located in the same building on Federal St. All
maps in this report are not meant to be exact, just for illustration purposes.
�4 DANIELS STREET
NOTES:
1870 census
John Monday
Susan P. "
James Manning
Robert "
age
age
age
age
73
64
51
41
no occupation
keeps house
clerk P.O.
master mariner
born
born
born
born
Greece
Mass.
Mass.
Mass.
1880 census
John Munday
Susan "
James Manning
Robert II
age
age
age
age
80
75
63
52
ship keeper
house keeper
Post off ice
sea captain
born
born
born
born
Mass.
Mass.
Mass.
?
Obituary notice
1887 January 17
Mr. John Munday another aged citizen died quite suddenly
yesterday morning.
He was born in Smyrna, Italy, August 15,
1798, but came to this country when a young man.
He was for
several years a sailor, making voyages to distant parts of the
world.
Mr. Munday subsequently became well known as a faithful
and trustworthy shipkeeper, and was for a long time in the
employ of the late Joseph Peabody, Tucker Daland and several
other Salem merchants. His widow, to whom he had been married
more than 55 years, survives him.
1900 census
James Manning age 83 clerk P. O.
Catherine Scott age 40 servant
born Mass.
owns house
born-Canada
��������������
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Daniels Street
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
4 Daniels Street, Salem, Massachusetts 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built for Abigail Berry, singlewoman in 1803
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
House built in 1803
Research completed 1986
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Joyce King, June 1986
Directory and tax research by Eugenia Fountain
Language
A language of the resource
English
1803
4
4 Daniels
Abigail
Abigail Berry
Berry
Daniels
Federal
Singlewoman
wood
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/28828/archive/files/868efab49169036d561d4a5a8a2f3538.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=KzagVJCmuF40NO7E78N-Hz03ZRLulQyrInd6n2z8lGuoECBWqs2Nw1C10TCEHrHo4GAulmfmbpbb8N51tXYWgzAMyxpsmiKqiXlCqNdKmUBgeYvvMVVbyzB0E9DD1m5GhF4M0A%7Ei96Qc9%7EckfcQ19Kyyt6KXBmdAloBMgtX18HEfI9lK9%7EtiQb2PKxqIVbAY7VwsQMBeY8ii4Job%7EAI4FpluRX35x4Y%7EHtCB6STovdc0XTrKHr1%7EzH4rPLHb%7Ei2z-9ad-1Rakm3%7EspAkJVogyiaj6g2%7EXWDP-vM3If0AR3myhGLu9b9iBezac5ZYpB7dkVu18jhyRDeCk-bXroXpdQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
c70cae88487c3cb1c5794c1eb938ca56
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Forrester Street
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
2-4 Forrester Street, Salem, Massachusetts 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built for John H. and Joseph M. Parsons, masons and stucco workers
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1871, 1984
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Joan Nestor, Joyce King
Language
A language of the resource
English
1871
1984
2
2-4
4
Forrester
Joan
Joyce
King
Massachusetts
Nestor
Salem
-
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e0294b608088c897ec1b5931272e941c
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Federal Court
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
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Title
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4 Federal Court, Salem, Massachusetts 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built for Micah Wild, gentleman by 1807
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
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Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1807, 1985
Contributor
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Joyce King
Language
A language of the resource
English
1807
4
4 Federal
Federal
gentleman
Micah
Micah Wild
Wild
-
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74ed62f0685299dab87c469780eecf38
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Title
A name given to the resource
Phillips Street
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
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Title
A name given to the resource
4 Phillips Street, Salem, Massachusetts 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built for Henry P. Hood, trader in 1840, Shop of Henry Balcomb, carpenter 1860, Altered to a dwelling house in 1868
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1840, 1860, 1868, 1983
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Susan Ash & Joyce King
Language
A language of the resource
English
1840
1860
1868
1983
4
Balcomb
Henry
History
Hood
House
Massachusetts
P.
Phillips
Salem
Street
-
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4fdc31e670dfc9887383752ad585bd46
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Title
A name given to the resource
North Pine Street
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
4 North Pine Street, Salem, Massachusetts 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Moved to the lot by 1851 by Nathaniel Frothingham, Jr. and James C. Stimpson
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
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Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1851, 1979
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Joyce King
Language
A language of the resource
English
1851
1979
4
History
House
James C. Stimpson
Massachusetts
Nathaniel Frothingham Jr.
North Pine Street
Salem
-
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1ae4bce352c86c5edf01d106897cef76
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Title
A name given to the resource
Broad Street
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
4 Broad Street, Salem, Massachusetts 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
“The West Estate” Moved to this site from 5-7 Summer Street in 1834
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house history
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1834, 1983
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Joyce King
Language
A language of the resource
English
1834
4
4 Broad
Broad
Georgian
West
William
wood
-
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a9462a2900ce000d203f1490899024f2
PDF Text
Text
4-10 Central Street & 193-195 Essex Street, Salem
According to available evidence, this building was built in 1805 for the merchants
B. Herbert Hathorne and W. Shepard Gray, as a brick block that housed stores
and a residence.
Before 1805 ...
Sidney Perley, in the article "A Part of Salem in 1700" (pp.109-110, Essex
Antiquarian, vol. 11 ), writes that on the site of this building was the lot, with house,
that William Browne sold to Thomas Cromwell, tailor, in 1664. After Cromwell's
death (17 March 1686/7), in 1690 his widow, Ann, and two daughters, Mrs.
Jonathan (Jane) Pickering and Mrs. David (Ann) Phippen, sold the house and land to
Benjamin Browne, merchant (ED 8: 170), who had a stable and warehouse farther
down the street, and his shipping wharf at its foot. By 1693 he had sold the house
and its land to David Phippen, shipwright, son-in-law of the earlier owner Mr.
Cromwell. M~. Phippen died in 1703, leaving his widow Ann, son Thomas Phippen,
and daughters Abigail Fumeux, Anne Ropes, and Elizabeth Webb. In May, 1714,
John Brown, merchant, bought the house and land; and by the time of his death in
1719 the house was evidently gone.
This property was owned by Hon. Benjamin Browne at his death in 1750.
In the 1760s a Scotch sailor, Robert Rantoul, came to Salem and settled here. He
prospered as a shipmaster, and sailed against the British in the Revolution, and made
money as a privateer; and, toward the end of the Revolutionary War, Capt. Rantoul,
on 5 December 1782 for 850 Ii purchased from the heirs of Hon. Benjamin Browne
(John & Martha Browne and Timothy & Eunice Fitch) a lot and buildings at the
westerly corner of the "main street" (Essex) and "the lane leading to the water"
(Central), about 20 poles of land fronting 50' northerly on the street, and 120'
easterly on the lane. There was "a warehouse or small building standing on the
northeast comer thereof." Capt. Rantoul intended to build his residence thereon, and
on Dec. 20th contracted with Eleazer Lindsey to supply the rocks for a cellar 40'
square and 6.5' deep. Unfortunately, Capt. Rantoul was lost at sea on his next
voyage (see EIHC 5:147).
At that time, Central Street--"the lane leading to the water," also known as "the
street leading from the Sun tavern to the South River"-terminated in a public
�landing on the inner harbor (South River), at a point just south of its present
intersection with Charter and Front Streets. The "lane" became Market Street as of
1794, when, at the foot of the street, a new market building was erected for the sale
of fish, shellfish, meat, and produce from the countryside. Later it would be renamed Central Street, probably c.1816, when a new Market Building was built at
Derby Square.
The comer property remained in the ownership of the Rantoul family for many
years; and on the land stood at least one house and three shops, one of them being
the small warehouse mentioned in the 1782 deed to Capt. Rantoul. The Rantoul
family resided on Essex Street, opposite Union. Robert Rantoul (1778-1858), in a
memoir of his life and family, mentions his father's ownership of this property and
notes that it was sold in November, 1804, to W.S. Gray and B.H. Hathorne for
$8500, and that "Gray and Hathorne build a brick block of stores and houses upon
it" (EIHC 5:149). This statement is corroborated by Benjamin F. Browne, in his
Youthfitl Recollections of Salem, published in 1869 (EIHC 49:204), in which he
wrote that a house had been "removed (to Andrew Street) from Central Street to
make room for the Central building, erected by W.S. Gray and Benj. H. Hathorne, in
1805. This house belonged to "Joseph Young, hatter, and organist of St Peter's
Church, who died April 21, 1803, aged 46." In another piece, B.F. Browne wrote,
"Previous to the erection of the Central Building in 1805, there were several old
wooden buildings on this lot of land ... The western shop I principally remember as
being kept by a Mrs. Baldwin. Nathaniel Weston had a shoemaker's shop in one of
them. It (Mrs. Baldwin's) was much resorted to by the boys of that time for the
purchase of marbles and other knickknacks. The old lady came to an untimely end
(March, 1808) from eating bread in the meal of which some arsenic had been
incautiously used in the bread. Joseph Young had a hatter's shop and dwelling
house on Central Street. It was moved to Andrew Street ... " (EIHC 5: 197).
There are other records of the buildings that stood here before 1805. Samuel Webb,
silversmith, had a shop here on Central Street, pre-1805 (see B.F. Browne, 1869
Youthful Recollections of Salem, EIHC 49:204). And in his 1793 Account ofHouses
in Salem (EIHC 6:94), Benjamin Pickman mentions that, on land owned by the
widow "Rentall" (Rantoul), stood, on Essex Street, a shop owned by Mr. William
King. To the west of that shop had stood two small houses that had burned down in
1792. To the west of those houses, on Essex Street, stood the house of Dr. Edward
Augustus Holyoke (1728-1829). East of the King shop, also on land ofMrs.
Rantoul, stood a "hatter's shop, owned by Mr. Breck the hatter." Col. Pickman
identified the comer property as "formerly owned by the Brownes."
�In July, 1792, Edward Breck, Salem hatter, purchased for 15 Ii the east end of a
house that was "standing on the land ofRentall's heirs" (ED 154:265). The house
was the one that was owned by Joseph Young, hatter, who may have resided in its
westerly end, and who had mortgage the easterly end in 1787 and lost it on
foreclosure. Mr. Breck mortgaged his new homestead to Mrs. Mary Rantoul for 3 0
li, and paid off the loan by April, 1795 (ED 154:266).
Rev. William Bentley, in his diary, gives an account of the 1792 fire, on August 30th.
The fire broke out at 1 PM in Young's hatter's shop, which stood opposite the Sun
Tavern (on north side of Essex Street). Next to the shop were the small dwellings of
the widows Beckford and Manning. The season had been dry, and the firefighters
were disorganized: the fire spread westerly from the shop to the "small house" next
door, which could not be saved; and the firefighters quicldy demolished the house
next westerly, to keep the fire from spreading. Mrs. Manning in particular suffered
greatly from her losses in this fire. Mr. Bentley was one of the fire-fighters, and, in
order to get the water up to the fire, stood waist-deep in "the dock mud below the
Sun Tavern," meaning next to the wharf at the foot of Market Street.
From this, it would appear that, in the years before the present Hathorne-Gray block
was built, there was a hatter's shop at or near the comer of Essex and Market
(Central) in 1793, conducted by both Breck and Young, and that the Breck-Young
house on Market Street was removed to Andrew Street in 1805 to make way for the
building of this large new business block. Also on or near the comer was the shop
of the ill-fated Mrs. Baldwin. On Essex Street, west of the corner, also on the site of
this building, was the shop of William King; and to the south, on Market Street, was
Samuel Webb's silversmith shop, along with the shoemaker's shop ofNathaniel
Weston. Too, Samuel Rantoul, son of the deceased owner, kept an apothecary shop
here. Samuel died in June, 1802, while away from Salem. Bentley noted in his
diary, 13 June 1802, "The father of S. Rantoul sustained an excellent character and
died just before I came to Salem. His widow lived in the same house in which I first
dwelt. The father left a good interest and to his heirs belongs the western comer of
Market Street in Essex Street, at which Samuel kept an apothecary's shop. Robert
keeps an apothecary's shop in Beverly." Robert, after whom Rantoul Street in
Beverly is named, became a leading man of Essex County.
Before April, 1800, the store at the comer of the two streets was operated by john
Dabney, stationer, as a post office and a book store-one of the earliest attempts at a
private lending library, which was renowned for the excellence of its volumes. On 29
April 1800 for $400 Mr. Dabney sold his building, on the Rantouls' land, to Robe1i
Rantoul (ED 168 :69).
�1805 and Afterward ...
On 3 November 1804 the Rantoul heirs sold the premises here for $8,500 to William
Shepard Gray and Benjamin Herbe1i Hathorne, Salem merchants (ED 175: 108). The
property was described as a piece of land containing about 20 poles, bounded northerly
on Essex Street, easterly on market Street, and southerly and westerly on land of Dr.
Edward A. Holyoke; and it was stipulated that the Rantouls "and others who have
placed and have buildings standing on said piece of land," had "the right to move the
same buildings and each of them from the same place of land upon paying the ground
rent ... within four months from this day." Presumably the Rantouls and the others did
clear their buildings off the land by February, 1805; certainly the Young house was
moved to Andrew Street and perhaps the shops and other buildings also found new
sites.
The new owners, Messrs. Gray & Hathorne, on the day of the purchase, took out
mortgages from Miss Polly Rantoul of Salem for $2,833.33 and from her brother,
Robert Rantoul, Beverly apothecary, for $4,666.66 (ED 175:108,109). Thus the
merchants had but $1,000 in equity invested in the property at the time of purchase.
There is little doubt that Messrs. Gray & Hathorne had big plans for the site at the time
that they bought it. Perhaps they had gone to Samuel Mcintire, the noted Salem
architect, for a design for their intended brick business block, which also included at
least one residential unit. In his study of the works of Mcintire, Fiske Kimball was
unable to uncover proof ofMcintire's involvement in the project, but, due to the
carving of the eagle for one of the new tenants, the U.S. Custom House, and due to the
building's similarity to a known Mcintire composition (the Steams & Waldo block,
now gone, once at the n01iheast coiner of Essex & Washington), he felt that Samuel
Mcintire was likely the designer (see Kimball's Mr. Samuel Mcintire, Carver, The
Architect of Salem). Kimball also traces the whereabouts of some of the building's
interior fittings, which were dispersed to various houses over the years.
For Mr. Gray, the building was evidently an investment and an income-producer; for
Mr. Hathorne, it was also the new home of his import dry-goods business. Benjamin H.
Hathorne (1773-1824) dealt in British textiles-blankets and cloths-in the days when
there were virtually no textiles manufactured in America. On Oct. 2, 1805, he
submitted an adve1iisement to the Salem Register newspaper. The notice began, "Benj.
H. Hathorne Has Removed to the New Brick STORE, corner of Essex and Market
Street, near the Banks, and has ready for sale, a great variety of Fall and Winter
Goods," which are enumerated. The building was completed and occupied, then, by
�September of 1805. It was not at first called the Central Building, but was given that
name by 1808.
Another early tenant was the firm of Derby & Cross, tailors, whose store was here by
Nov. 28, 1805. Their advertisement (sample: Salem Register, 6 Jan. 1806) ran "Derby
& Cross, Tailors, respectfully inform their friends and the public, that they have
removed from their former stand to the chamber fronting Market and Essex Streets, of
the new brick building, where they will be happy to receive orders in their line, and
every favor gratefully acknowledged. Wanted: Two Journeymen at the above."
A major tenant of the new brick building was the U.S. Custom House, for which
Samuel Mcintire carved the eagle with the date 1805. At that time, Market Street was
the major thoroughfare to the waterside of the inner harbor (South River), which ran
past the market place; and the area was thick with the masts of vessels tied up alongside
wharves and warehouses. Froin the foot of Market Street, Front Street ran westerly
along the waterfront, while Fish Street and Water Streets ran past the buildings whose
yards backed against the wall of the Burying Point graveyard. These salty streets had
houses, wharves, stores, lofts, shops, and distilleries. Market Street made the transition
from the hurly-burly of the waterfront to the residences and stores of Essex Street. On
the lower part of Market Street, between the new Hathorne-Gray building and Front
Street, were houses; and across the street were fine houses (including some marching up
Charter Street), a tavern, and a bank building and insurance office. At the moment that
the new building was built, one of the houses across the street was the double residence
of Nathaniel Bowditch, the navigator and author (and new president of an insurance
company) and Col. William Raymond Lee, formerly of Marblehead, whom Jefferson
had in 1802 appointed Collector of the Port of Salem & Beverly, and at whose direction
the U.S. Custom House was moved to the new brick building of Hathorne & Gray.
Bowditch moved in the year 1805 to Summer Street, but Col. Lee remained a resident
of Market Street.
The colonial (royal) Custom House in Salem had been situated in a house on Gedney
Court, off High Street, and later on Essex Street in a building that was demolished to
prevent the spread of the great fire of October, 1774. In 1776 Warwick Palfrey was
appointed the first Collector of U.S. Customs in Salem; and his office was located at or
near the Curwen house (now called the "Witch House"), corner of Essex and North
Streets. lvir. Palfrey was succeeded in 1784 by Maj. Joseph Hiller. Major Hiller served
ably for 18 years, during the last 13 of which the Custom House offices were kept in a
building across the street from the site of this one. How many rooms here were devoted
to the federal Customs operations in 1805 is not known; certainly not the whole
building. In those days, Salem was one of the leading ports of the nation, and the value
�of Salem cargoes accounted for about one-twentieth of all federal revenues, which were
largely derived from tariffs on foreign imports. At that time, Salem's merchants owned
a total of 54 ships, 18 barks, and 72 brigs (there were 86 schooners as well, probably
engaged in fishing and coasting for wood).
In 1807, per D.M. Little's article, the Custom House offices were moved to the house of
Mr. Bentley's great friend Dr. Moses Little at 131 Essex Street, and in 1811 to the
Archer Building (site of Hawthorne Hotel); however, I believe this could not be
completely true, for in May, 1809, just after the Embargo was lifted, the Custom House
offices were evidently on the second or third floor of the Central (Hathorne-Gray)
Building (see 1809 Peter Lander advertisement below). In 1813, per the article, the
Custom House offices were moved back into the Central Building here; and evidently
Col. William R. Lee, the Collector, also had his residence here. The Central Building
here remained the home of the Custom House until the opening of the new building at
the head of Derby Wharf, the handsome brick U.S. Custom House, now part of the
federal maritime park. (For information about the Custom House and Collectors, see
R.S. Rantoul's article, The Port of Salem, EIHC 10:62; see also EIHC 67:11, David M.
Little's article, History of the Salem Custom House)).
Of the owners of the building, their careers were in full swing as of 1805.
Benjamin Herbert Hathorne (1773-1824) was born on 9 Sept 1773, the son of Col. John
Hathorne and his wife Susannah Herbert, the daughter of Capt. Benjamin Herbert, after
whom Herbert Street was named. His father was a prominent merchant in Salem, with
a large brick house built in 1774-1775 in Essex Street west of Washington Street, which
is where Benjamin grew up, the eldest of 14 children. In the house was Col. Hathome's
dry-goods store (EIHC 6:108). By early manhood, Benjamin H. was known as Herbert
Hathorne. His brothers John and William were merchants as well, and his eccentric
younger brother Ebenezer (1789-1858) would become a mariner and adventurer who
went west but finally settled down in Salem as a farmer and nurseryman. The Colonel,
a prominent local Jeffersonian politician, had his town house and a farmhouse on Salem
Neck, around where the power plant complex now is. In 1809 he moved permanently
to the farmhouse (where he would die in 1835), and sold the town house to his son
William, who rented it to Joshua Dodge in 1809. Like all Salem Hathornes of that time,
Benjamin's father was descended from Col. John Hathorne, one of the justices of the
witchcraft trials in 1692. The Hathorne family had been prominent in early Salem
history, but by 1800 they were of varying fortunes. Col. John's branch was foremost.
One of Benjamin Herbert Hathorne's first cousins was Capt. Nathaniel Hathorne (17751808), of Union Street, whose son, Nathaniel Jr., born in 1804, would grow up to
�become Hawthorne, the writer. Hawthorne changed the spelling of the name because
he did not like the way that "Hathorne" was pronounced, especially in Salem, where it
was invariably pronounced "Har-thorne."
On 31 July 1799, "Herbert Harthorne married Miss Hall", per the diary of Miss Susann
Holyoke (1779-1860) (see Holyoke Diaries, p.175). This is the only record of this
marriage. Miss Hall was Rebecca Hall, evidently from Boston. The couple would not
have children, but would adopt a daughter, Rebecca Hathorne Hall, born in 1813,
evidently a daughter of Mrs. Hall's brother James. As has been noted, B. Herbert
Hathorne went into business as a dry goods merchant, importing English textiles and
selling them here in his shop, which faced on Essex Street. In March, 1808, for $5,000
he mortgaged his half-interest in the land and the "large brick tenement thereon ...
known by the name of Central building" (ED 182:233).
Wm. Shepard Gray (1773-1824), the other owner of the building, was born in Salem on
30 July 1773, the son of a house-painter, William Gray, and his wife Susannah Shepard.
His father owned a house on the north side of Charter Street, not far from Central
Street. The son changed his name by an act of the legislature in 1798, from William to
William Shepard Gray, because there were five other William Grays in Salem at the
time, including William "Billy" Gray, the eminent merchant, to whom this Gray was
not related. Wm. Shepard Gray married Ann Knight Morland in Newburyport in 1798.
In August, 1800, he was described as "a scribe" when he purchased a piece of land and
a house on upper Federal Street. In 1805 it seems that he worked for the Essex Bank,
preparing loan documents and other instruments. He would later become a ship-owner
and merchant while maintaining his position with the Essex Bank.
In 1805 a bridge was built across the South River, extending Market Street across the
water and connecting it with a new roadway (now known as Lafayette Street) through
the South Fields. The new bridge, which was proposed by the Derby family as a
convenience and in order to help develop their South Salem holdings, was opposed by
the Crowninshields and by William Orne, Joshua Ward, and others who owned wharves
west of it on the South River. At the time of the building of the bridge, evidently, the
market house was moved away.
On 3 November 1807 William Bentley made his first visit to the Hathorne-Gray
building, which now housed the Essex Lodge of Masons. The Lodge, he noted, "has a
new hall in the new brick building, comer of Essex & Market Streets, on the west side
entering Market Street. It was handsomely decorated, the officers enthroned and the
floors spread with carpets and the officers supplied with badges and the apartment with
furniture far above the ancient style. I had never seen the place before. We had a full
�company, an initiation lecture, and a good supper, and parted apparently well pleased
with each other."
On 12 December 1808, Rev. William Bentley composed a letter to William Logan of
Charleston, in which he wrote, "Were you to visit Salem, you would discover great
changes in this town, since your last tarry with us. The encouragement given to brick
buildings has added much to the appearance of Salem. A large block of buildings forms
the comer of1'farket Street, and the market house is removed, and a bridge passes over
South River ... " (EIHC 82:381). This was the period of the Embargo, in which all
foreign commerce was prohibited by the federal government, in an effort to cut off
England from needed supplies, and force the English to stop preying on American
shipping. The Embargo, which was a policy failure and which was disastrous in
bringing all of Salem's commerce to a halt, and throwing all of the mariners out of
work, was removed early in 1809; and foreign commerce resumed.
In May, 1809, Peter Lander, a financial broker, moved into the building, which was
then known as the Central Building. On 10 May 1809 (in the Essex Register
newspaper), a notice ran as follows:
"Insurance, Stock & Exchange Office. Peter Lander informs his friends and the
public that he has taken an office in Central Building, under the Custom House,
and offers his services in the Insurance Stock & Exchange business, where
insurance may be made against all risks, a premium always named proportioned
to the nature of the risk, and the terms and conditions of insurance known upon
application. Likewise, (he) advances money on goods deposited for sale,
purchases and sells public stocks, bills of exchange, shares of any bank and
insurance companies, and negotiable notes, and transacts any other business in
the broker's line."
He also noted "8,000 or 10,000 weight heft green Martinique coffee in casks, for sale
by said Lander."
In the same issue William Hathorne, Jr., ran advertisements offering his father's former
brick house and two stores for sale, and hawking
"Cotton Yam, cheap as can be had at the Manufactory. American, water-spun,
cotton warp & filling, directly from the Smithfield Cotton Manufactory, for sale
at the sign of the subscriber, William Hathorne, Jr., also a small quantity of first
quality knitting yam."
From this, it is apparent that William dealt (sometimes, anyway) in the new Americanmade cotton yams manufactured in Rhode Island; and he had a store here. In 1810,
�another tenant was the Salem Athenaeum, whose library of books and reading rooms
were located here.
In June, 1810, Mr. W. Shepard Gray was owner of the 113-ton brig Mary, Capt.
William Scallon, engaged in foreign trade; and in October, 1810, .Nir. Gray and Robert
.Nforland (his brother-in-law perhaps) were owners of the same vessel, now commanded
by Capt. William Lander (EIHC 41 :144). In December, 1810, he and two others owned
the 133-ton schooner Eliza, registered for foreign trade under Capt. Nathaniel Archer
(EIHC 40:72). In February, 1811, Mr. Gray was one of five owners of the 128-ton
schooner Rising States, Capt. Samuel Lamson, engaged in foreign trade (EIHC 41 :329).
In March, 1812, he was sole owner of the Rising States, Capt. Peter Lander, registered
for overseas trade (EIHC 41 :329). And in September, 1812, he was owner of the brig
Mary, registered for trade under Capt. Benjamin Archer (EIHC 41: 144).
Messrs. Hathorne and Gray owned the building jointly until 16 January 1811, when
they made a division of the property, with Gray receiving the largest portion (ED
192:198). To Hathorne went $500 and the northern end of the lot, with the buildings on
and cellar under, fronting 33' on Market Street, the running 40' westerly through the
northerly partition wall, then running another 10' on a piece of land left in common,
then running northerly 29' by land of Edward A. Holyoke Esq., then running easterly
50' on Essex Street, together with a right of the eaves droppings at the south side of the
southwesterly comer of the buildings (probably for a supply of fresh water). The
partition wall separated the two parts of the building, but did not extend through the
roof; if it were to be so extended, the two parties agreed to bear equal expense. To Gray
went $10 and the southern part of the premises, on which stood the "dwelling house,
stores, and other buildings, and the cellars under the same," and the land fronting
easterly 87' on Market Street, southerly 50' and westerly 82' on land of Edward A.
Holyoke Esq., then running easterly 1O' on the land left in common, then running
northerly 9' to the northerly partition wall, then easterly through the wall to Market
Street. From this, it would seem that part of the southerly part of the building was used
as a residence. Mr. Gray evidently did not live there, but resided in a new house that he
had built on Federal Street. As the son of a house-painter, he had made an
extraordinary leap upward in socio-economic rank.
Salem had resumed its seafaring commerce for three years, but still the British
preyed on American shipping; and in June, 1812, war was declared against Britain.
Although Salem had opposed the war as being potentially ruinous and primarily
for the benefit of the southern and western war-hawk states, yet when it came,
Salem swiftly fitted out 40 privateers manned by Marblehead and Salem crews,
who also served on U.S. Navy vessels, including the Constitution. Many more
�could have been sent against the British, but some of the Federalist merchants held
their vessels back. In addition, Salem fielded companies of infantry and artillery.
Salem and Marblehead privateers were largely successful in making prizes of
British supply vessels. While many of the town's men were wounded in
engagements, and some were killed, the possible riches of privateering kept the
men returning to sea as often as possible. The first prizes were captured by a 30ton converted fishing schooner, the Fame, and by a 14-ton luxury yacht fitted with
one gun, the Jefferson. Of all Salem privateers, the Crowninshields' 350-ton ship
America was the most successful. She would capture 30-plus prizes worth more
than $1,100,000.
Salem erected forts and batteries on its Neck, to discourage the British warships
that cruised these waters. In June, 1813, off Marblehead Neck, the British frigate
Shannon defeated the U.S. Navy frigate Chesapeake. Salem's Federalists, some
of whom continued to oppose ..the war bitterly, would not allow their churches to be
used for the funeral of the Chesapeake's slain commander, James Lawrence
("Don't give up the ship!").
In the fall of 1813, Cushing & Appleton evidently had a bookstore in the comer
store in Mr. Hathome's part of the building. On 12 October 1813 in the Salem
Gazette, Cushing & Appleton advertised the sale of Spanish cigars and of Oliver
vVelch's new book, American Arithmetic, "adapted to the currency of the U.S.,
to which is added a concise treatise on the mensuration of planes and solids ... "
At the same store was a subscription list for those who wished to sign up for Mr.
Vincent Masi's new "school for dancing." John Fermo, broker, probably with
offices in the Central Building at the time, placed this ad (Gazette, 12 Oct. 1813):
"For Sale. Shares in Mercantile Bank. Shares in Salem Bank. Shares in
Beverly Bank. Apply to John W. Fermo, Broker, who buys and sells bills of
all incorporated banks in the Union. U.S. Treasury Notes negotiated. Also,
approved endorsed Notes, at Bank discount. Wanted: shares in Salem
Turnpike, and a Mass. State Note for $1000 or $1200. Exchange on
Baltimore for sale as above."
In April, 1814, the people gathered along the shores of Salem Neck as three sails
appeared on the horizon and came sailing on for Salem Bay. These vessels proved
to be the mighty Constitution in the lead, pursued by the smaller British frigates
Tenedos and Endymion. The breeze was light, and the British vessels gained, but
Old Ironsides made it safely into Marblehead Harbor, to the cheers of thousands.
�In June, 1814, at the meeting of the Essex Guards militia company, W. Shepard
Gray was elected lieutenant, but he declined to serve (EIHC 57:257). On 4 July
1814 the Essex Guards paraded through Salem, and Mr. Gray served as one of
the four Marshals of the Day, with an oration delivered by Leverett Saltonstall
(EIHC 57:268).
On land, the war went poorly for the United States, as the British captured
Washington, DC, and burned the Capitol and the White House. At sea, as time
wore on, Salem's vessels often were captured, and its men imprisoned or killed.
After almost three years, the war was bleeding the town dry, and the menfolk were
disappearing. Hundreds of Salem men and boys were in British prison-ships and at
Dartmoor Prison in England. At the Hartford Convention in 1814, New England
Federalist delegates met to consider what they could do to bring the war to a. close
and to restore the region's commerce. Sen. Timothy Pickering of Salem led the
extreme Federalists in proposing an ultimatum threatening New England's
seceding from the United States; but the Pickering faction was countered by
Harrison G. Otis of Boston and the moderate Federalists, who prevailed in sending
a more reasonable message to Congress.
At last, in February, 1815, peace was restored. Post-war, the Salem merchants
rebuilt their fleets and resumed their worldwide trade, slowly at first, and then to
great effect. A new U.S. Custom House would be built in 1819, on the site of the
George Crowninshield mansion, at the head of Derby Wharf.
In the spring of 1815, Jonathan P. Saunders, auctioneer, town clerk (later if not then),
and map-maker, had his office at the Central Building. On 19 April 1815 in the Essex
Register he advertised for sale "at J.P. Saunders' Store, Central Building, Market Street,
the sale of the library of the late Rev. Thomas Barnard (appended to this report). In
1820 he would publish his "Plan of the Town of Salem," an excellent chart of the city,
its streets, and landmarks.
In the fall of 1815, one of the major tenants of the building was R. F. Cloutman,
who dealt in glass, crockery, and hard-ware (see appended advertisement, 25 Oct.
1815, Essex Register). His stock consisted of everything from fish-hooks to
spectacles to shovels to elegant tea-trays, decanters, tumblers, dinner-ware. He
was still running his ads in November, 1816: "at his old stand, Central Building,"
he offered "a full assortment of crockery, china, glass, and hardware," including
tea sets, Canton and London dining sets, sickles, cutlery, pins, viol strings, Dutch
brushes, coffee mills, English shovels, etc. (appended to this report).
�The pre-war partisan politics of the town were not resumed post-war, as the
middle-class "mechanics" (artisans) became more powerful. and brought about
civic harmony, largely through the Salem Charitable Mechanic Association
(founded 1817). Salem men continued to hold high places in the federal
government: Benjamin W. Crowninshield was formerly Secretary of the Navy,
among other things. It was he who arranged for Rev. William Bentley to have his
portrait painted by James Frothingham, who was then residing in Salem. In his
diary, Bentley noted that on 20 Nov. 1818 Mr. Crowninshield escorted him to "the
apartments of a painter named Frothingham, from Charlestown," where they saw
several fine portraits and some paper profiles. Bentley, evidently impressed,
agreed to sit for Frothingham. On Nov. 23 he recorded that he went "to Mr.
Frothingham' s at the Central buildings ... and had my first sitting" that evening.
The result was a famous portrait (now displayed in East India Marine Hall at the
Peabody Essex Museum) of Mr. Bentley, one of the most extraordinary men of his
time. Later, James Frothingham had his studio on Essex Street; and in 1825 or so
he moved to Boston, and then to New York City.
In 1818 there was still good money to be made in Salem's maritime trade, but it
required a higher level of skill and perspicacity than it had in 1805. As Bentley
wrote in his diary in 1811, "While we (in Salem) went before the wind, credit was
boundless and success followed every adventurer. Since the wind has changed,
few have skill enough to navigate the troubled seas." Evidently Mr. Hathorne had
the right stuff; but Mr. Gray's skills were of a different sort.
W. Shepard Gray, as cashier of the Essex Bank for many years, was in a position
of high trust in Salem: he was, in effect, the manager of the Bank, and had access
to all of its assets, some of which were in the form of coins and specie put on
deposit by merchants and shipmasters. One depositor was Maj. Israel Foster of
Marblehead, a prominent merchant and relative of Col. W.R. Lee, the Collector of
Customs in Salem (and possibly the inhabitant of the residential part of the central
Building). Maj. Foster had deposited a large barrel of specie with the Essex Bank.
In the summer of 1818, W. Shepard Gray took an extended vacation away from
Salem. Eventually, the Bank directors became suspicious. Early in September,
1818, they concluded that the Bank had been robbed. At the time, Bentley wrote
in his diary (Sept. 5), "every inquiry detects the most fraudulent practices. A
deposit of doubloons by Foster of Marblehead has been violated, false contracts
made, and fraud practiced not only in its most artful but most shameful forms. Yet
not one word has appeared as yet, but Gust) a notice that the Cashier, who has long
�been away, has been removed. Suspicions rise in every form, and Salem lays
under the worst imputations."
In fact, Shepard Gray, the Bank's Cashier, and James King, the Bank's Clerk, had
embezzled a great deal of money from the Bank. Gray, who had left Salem, and
King, who had resigned but stayed in town, had offered the Bank's directors
$20,000, when the losses evidently amounted to about $200,000 (see Bentley,
Sept. 11 ). It would appear that Gray, King, and their partner Capt. Joseph
Moseley, a Virginian who had settled in Salem (see B.F. Browne, 1869 Youthful
Recollections of Salem, EIHC 49:200), had invested in highly speculative ventures,
and had lost much of their money, which they replaced with money deposited at
the bank. In Foster's barrel of specie, they had placed ballast stones, leaving an
inch or two of coins at the top. All the rest of the Foster money, $40,000 allegedly,
was gone (the matter would later go to court, in a famous case about the liability of
banks).
In November, 1818, the Grand Jury found against Gray and King "for a conspiracy
to defraud the Bank and for violation of trust and the depredations made on the
deposits and bank interest" (per Bentley, Nov. 6). The Essex Bank directors had
handled most of the matters in secrecy, including a negotiation with Gray and
King, in which terms were given and accepted. The whole matter caused much
alarm and discontent in Salem, many of whose people had money deposited there.
Some were distraught, and one died of the shock (Bentley, ibid): "the widow of
Edward Pulling, Esq., was buried this day, an undoubted victim to her feelings
upon the loss of her property in the Essex Bank. Most of the stock-holders are
widows and orphans."
In June, 1819, Mr. Bentley reflected on the dissension among the shareholders of
the Essex Bank, which was, in fact, about to fold. "The subscribers are disposed to
make their richer members pay the loss. The President declined his office
repeatedly and undertook not to be obliged to issue any money in his signature.
But the offenders had kindred and associates in the board. To whomsoever it may
extend, it was one of the most deliberate, persevering, and complete frauds that
ever was in any country accomplished--and among a people distinguished by their
close attention, we might almost say avarice, in money matters. The business,
when it becomes a public investigation, threatens great divisions and warm
contentions."
Mr. W.S. Gray evidently never returned to Salem, but would die in Cambridge, on 27
May 1824, aged about 51 years.
�At the time ( 1819) that Mr. Gray disappeared and the Custom House offices were
moved to their new quarters, B.H. Hathorne resided in the brick Hathorne house on
Essex Street (evidently 243-5, south side, just west of Washington), probably with a
tenant, Dr. Nathaniel Peabody, and family (1820 census, p. 71). Earlier, Dr. Peabody
had lived in the house ofB.H.H. 's brother William, on Essex Street at the south comer
of Cambridge (see EIHC 21 :219). Dr. Peabody was then the father of 7 children, of
whom one, Sophia, an artist, would grow up and become the wife of Nathaniel
Hawthorne (BHH's first cousin, once removed), while another, Elizabeth P. Peabody, a
teacher, became one of the most important education theorists and reformers in
America. In the household of Mr. B.H. Hathorne in 1820 were himself, a boy, his wife,
two girls, and one young woman.
Augustus J. Archer, a dry goods merchant, wrote a series of articles for the Salem
Gazette in the early months of 1890, on the subject of Essex Street in 1820. In this
series, he related the history of "the brick building built by Benjamin H. Hathorne and
vVilliam Gray, extending into Central Street, and there occupied by the custom house
until 1819, when the U.S. Custom House was built. On the comer of Essex Street,
Cushing & Appleton, succeeded by James R. Buffum, as a book store, were located.
vVm. Hathorne had the western one; he was an Importer of broadcloths and dry goods.
The Salem Register was then established in its present quarters, Warwick Palfrey, Jr.,
the sole editor. From this, it would seem that in 1820 the comer store ofHathome's
paii of the building was occupied by Cushing & Appleton, the store next westerly was
occupied as a dry goods store by William Hathorne, and the upstairs rooms were used
as the office of the Salem Register newspaper (as they would be for decades).
In 1820 the part of the building that fronted on Central Street, and had belonged to Mr.
Gray, was sold to Samuel Tucker, a Salem merchant, for $5825.75, by John Morland,
Roxbury merchant ($800 in May), who was probably W.S. Gray's brother-in-law and
may have held a mortgage on the property, and by Joseph S. Cabot, Salem gentleman
($5025.75 in September), who had foreclosed a mortgage on W.S. Gray on 2 July 1819
(ED 222:266, 225:114). In Mr. Cabot's deed, it is specified that the property consisted
of "the dwelling house in which Samuel Tucker now resides and of the other apartments
in Central Building, so-called;" and in Mr. Morland's deed it mentions the "dwelling
house, stores, other buildings, and cellar under". So there is little doubt but that Mr.
Gray's part of the building contained a portion that had been reserved (perhaps since
1805) as a residence. Samuel Tucker, the new owner, resided here in 1820.
Of this same time (c.1820) Mr. A.J. Archer reminisced as follows. "On Central Street,
Dana & Fenno had an office for the sale of lottery tickets and a general brokerage
�business, having a Boston connection. E H. Payson had charge of this office and tells
me he was the person who built the first coal fire in Salem. Mr. Dana had seen them ir
Boston and employed John Chamberlain, mason, to set a grate in his office; Mr. Pays(
built the fire, and says people used to come in by the dozens to see it. One evening he
went to bed leaving the blower up, having forgot to remove it; of course it became red
hot, and so alarmed the passers-by that they rushed in hot haste to tell him his office
was on fire. The Insurance offices next adopted the grate, and it spread rapidly into
general use. The first furnace in the city was put in by Mr. Chamberlain at his brother'2:.
B. Porter Chamberlain, who owned and occupied the old assembly house on Federal
street. The chambers and offices on Central Street were occupied by the Salem Saving
Bank, incorporated 1818; when first organized, Willard Peele was president, and Danie
Bray treasurer. Capt. Peter Lander and his son, Peter Jr., had a private insurance office
for underwriters. Henry Pickering Esq. had a law office. The Salem Courier, Charles
A. Andrew, was started here Sept. 7, 1828; it was short lived. In 1830 the Salem Light
Infantry had two rooms in the second story for their armory."
In The Salem Gazette of 1 Feb. 1820, Cushing & Appleton advertised "Gold Leaf' and
"Almanacks for 1820," and the Salem Brewery announced that "strong and table beer,
porter, ale, yeast, porter bottles, corks, hops, malt, bottled cider, and a complete
assortment of cordials" were available at the Salem Brewery, and at the store, comer of
Essex and Cambridge Streets, also from 11 to half past 1 at the Central Building."
In 1824, B. Herbert Hathorne died (as did W.S. Gray). Mr. Hathorne owned his part of
the building outright, and owned a very large stock of dry goods, which were
enumerated in the inventory of his estate (appended to this report). By his 1823 last
will, he devised to his wife Rebecca cash, personal effects, and lifetime use of some real
estate which was to devolve to his nephew B.H. Hathorne (Jr.) after the deaths of his
wife and adopted daughter. His "land at the comer of Central Street and Essex Street
with the buildings thereon, called the Central building," he devised in trust to his
brother William Hathorne for the benefit of his sons; and upon his death it was to go the
same nephew, B.H. Hathorne (Jr.). He devised $1000 in trust for his adopted daughter,
and left generous cash bequests to other relatives. The property here would remain in
the ownership of Hathomes throughout the rest of the 19th century.
The 1820s was a decade of challenges for Salem. It struggled successfully to
maintain its overseas commerce and to open new markets for its shipping, in
Madagascar (1820), which supplied tallow and ivory, and Zanzibar (1825), whence
came gum copal, used to make varnish. This opened a huge and lucrative trade in
which Salem dominated, and its vessels thus gained access to all of the east
African ports. From 1827 to 1870, there were 189 arrivals in Salem from
�Zanzibar, carrying ivory, gum copal, and coffee. But in the 1820s Salem's national
influence slipped, and it was unable to develop a manufacturing base. Salem's
general maritime foreign commerce fell off sharply in the late 1820s. Imports,
which were the cargoes in Salem ships, were supplanted by American goods, now
being produced in great quantities. The interior of the country was being opened
for settlement, and many Salemites moved away to these new lands of opportunity.
To the north, the falls of the Merrimack River powered large new textile mills
(Lowell was founded in 1823 ), which created great wealth for their investors; and
in general it seemed that the tide of opportunity was ebbing away from Salem.
In an ingenious attempt to stem the flow of talent from the town and to harness its
potential water power for manufacturing, Salem's merchants and capitalists
focused on damming the North River. The project, which began with much
promise, was suspended (before construction began) in 1827, which demoralized
the town even more, and caused several leading citizens to move to Boston, the
hub of investment in the new economy. In November, 1826, Joseph H. Prince,
counselor at law, advertised in the Salem Gazette his "removal" from "from his
late office, in Central Building, to the office formerly occupied by Hon. John
Pickering, in Court Street." This event, seemingly so obscure, points to a sad
fact: John Pickering VI, the ultimate Salem citizen, had decided to take his family
and his talents to Boston, where they were settled by the spring of 1827.
In 1830 occurred a horrifying crime that brought disgrace to Salem. Old Capt.
Joseph White, a wealthy merchant, owned and resided in the house now called the
Gardner-Pingree house, on Essex Street. One night, intruders broke into his
mansion and stabbed him to death. All of Salem buzzed with the news of
murderous thugs; but the killer was a Crowninshield (a local crime-boss who killed
himself at the Salem Jail), hired by his friends, Capt. White's own relatives, Capt.
Joseph Knapp and his brother Frank (they were executed by hanging). The results
of the investigation and trial uncovered much that was lurid about Salem, and more
of the respectable families quit the notorious town.
Salem's remaining merchants had to move quickly to take their equity out of
wharves and warehouses and ships and put it into manufacturing and
transportation, as the advent of railroads and canals in the 183 Os diverted both
capital and trade away from the coast. Some merchants did not make the
transition, and were ruined. Old-line areas of work, like rope-making, sail-making,
and ship chandleries, gradually declined and disappeared. Well into the 1830s,
Salem slumped badly.
�Despite all, Salem was chartered as a city in 1836. City Hall was built 1837-8 and
the city seal was adopted with an already-anachronistic Latin motto of "to the
farthest port of the rich East"-a far cry from "Go West, young man!" The Panic
of 183 7, a brief, sharp, nationwide economic depression, caused even more Salem
families to head west in search of fortune and a better future. Salem had not
prepared for the industrial age, and had few natural advantages. The North River
served not to power factories but mainly to flush the waste from the many
tanneries (23 by 1832) that had set up along its banks. Throughout the 1830s, the
leaders of Salem scrambled to re-invent an economy for their fellow citizens, many
of whom were mariners without much sea-faring to do. Ingenuity, ambition, and
hard work would have to carry the day.
One inspiration was the Salem Laboratory, Salem's first science-based
manufacturing enterprise, founded in 1813 to produce chemicals. At the plant built
in 1818 in North Salem on the North River, the production of alum and blue vitriol
was a specialty; and it proved a very successful business. Salem's whale-fishery,
active for many years in the early 1800s, led, in the 1830s, to the manufacturing of
high-quality candles at Stage Point, along with machine oils. The candles proved
very popular. Lead-manufacturing began in the 1820s, and grew large after 1830,
when Wyman's gristmills on the Forest River were retooled for making highquality white lead and sheet lead (the approach to Marblehead is still called Lead
Mills Hill, although the empty mill buildings burned down in 1960s).
These enterprises were a start toward taking Salem in a new direction. In 183 8
the Eastern Rail Road began operating between Boston and Salem, which gave
the people of Salem and environs a direct route to the region's largest market.
The new railroad tracks ran right over the middle of the Mill Pond; the tunnel
under Washington Street was built in 1839; and the line was extended to
Newburyport in 1840.
The occupants of this building in the 183 Os were the Salem Light Infantry
(armory here in 1830), newspapers, banks, etc.
Rev. Benjamin Herbert Hathorne (Jr.), a Lynn bachelor clergyman (nephew of the first
BHH), the owner of the Hathorne part of the property (worth $6,000 in 1837), died in
1837, having willed all of his property to his father, William, two sisters, and three
brothers, with the survivor to inherit the full ownership.
�In 1836 (per the Essex Memorial, published in that year), the "Central Building" tenants
included two newspaper offices: that of the Essex Register and that of the Commercial
Advertiser. The Register in 1836 was published by Palfray and Chapman twice a week
and was Whig in politics; the Advertiser, founded in 1832 and edited by Palfray &
Cook, was published weekly and was Democrat in politics. In those days, the Whigs
and the Democrats maintained their own reading rooms: the former was in Holyoke
Place, off Essex Street, while the latter was located here at the "Central Building."
Also here in 183 6 (per the 183 7 Salem Directory) were the offices of the Bank of
General Interest, 4 Central Street, $400,000 in capital, William H. Russell, cashier;
directors John Russell (President), Putnam I. Farnham, Caleb Foote, John W. Fenno,
Jonathan Holman. (p.118). Also headquartered here was the Institution for Savings in
the City of Salem and Its Vicinity, 4 Central, Joseph Peabody, President; Daniel Bray,
Treasurer; Francis H. Silsbee, Secretary (p.119). The bankers who actually came to
work here each day were Daniel Bray (Institution for Savings), of 104 Essex Street, and
John Russell (Bank of General Interest), of 22 Lafayette St., and his son Wm. H.
Russell (ditto) of 2 Lafayette Street. No doubt there were clerks and tellers too.
In the 1830s, James R. Buffum "kept a book and stationery store for himself on the
western comer of Essex and Central Street ... (and) then kept a tavern at Ome's Point,
North Salem. He married Susan Mansfield ... and died 14 Feb. 1863, aged 68 years."
(see EIHC 6:212, Benja. F. Browne, Memorials of the Washington Rangers).
In the 1840s, Mr. Buffum moved out of the comer store, and Stephen Osborne took it
over. He ran a retail business in hats, caps, and furs; and Henry Osborne worked there
as a hatter (hat-maker). Stephen resided in 1841-1845 at 17 Oliver Street, while Henry
resided on "Mechanic Street" (near the Laboratory in North Salem) in 1841 and in 1845
on Federal (Marlborough) Street, near Washington. In the Salem Directory for 1850
was an advertisement for "Osborne's Fashionable Hat, Cap & Fur Establishment, 183
Essex Street, comer of Central Street" (p. 221 ). This store would be operated
throughout the 1860s (see ad, p. 88, 1864 Salem Directory).
The Essex Register newspaper, which was founded by the Crowninshield-HathomeWhite families to represent the Jeffersonian point of view c.1800, and which had been
edited at one point by Rev. William Bentley (a major contributor for years), would be
published from this location throughout the rest of its history. In 1842, the co-editor,
Charles vV. Palfray, resided at 47 Federal Street, while co-editor John Chapman resided
at 33 Federal and served on the Board of Advisers of the Salem Children's Friend
Society. In addition, Edward Palfray, of 2 Hamilton Street, was a printer at 4 Central
Street in 1842. (info from 1842 Salem Directory).
�Samuel Dudley Tucker (1782-1857), the owner of the Central Street part of the Central
Building as of 1820, was a merchant. He was born in Salem on 25 January 1782, one c
the sons of John and Lydia Tucker. Among his older brothers were Andrew Tucker
(born 1773) and Gideon Tucker (b. 1778, married 1804 Martha Goodhue). l\llr. Andre\
Tucker ( 1773-1820), who married l\lfartha Mansfield, had several children, including
Jonathan, Samuel (2d) and Gideon (2d); he was subject to melancholy, and took his
own life in February, 1820, aged 47 years.
In 1830, Samuel D. Tucker added to his holdings hereabouts by purchasing for $1950
from the heirs of Dr. Holyoke some shops on Central Street, with land, just south of the
dwelling house part of the Central Building (ED 258:215). At the same time, the
Holyoke heirs sold him, for $4500, the land to the west of the Hathorne parcel, with a
printing office thereon (ED 258:215). By 1836 Mr. Tucker had moved to 293 Essex
Street, and later he resided at the Essex House hotel. He died in the 1857 (#55777),
having devised the premises by will to Gideon Tucker, who was the president of the
Exchange Bank. Gideon Tucker died in or before 1862, leaving many heirs. In July,
1862, some of the Tucker heirs, having purchased the interests of other of the heirs, sold
the premises for $4572.46 to one of their own, Edward Tucker, of Saco, Maine (ED
642:145, also 639:22,24, 638:126, etc.). In September, 1862, Edward Tucker sold half
of the property to Jonathan Tucker and half of it to Jonathan's son, James T. Tucker. In
September, 1865, Jonathan Tucker for $3,000 sold his half-interest to his son, James T.
Tucker, who granted his father a life estate in the property (ED 688:281,287).
Through the 1860s and 1870s, Salem continued to pursue a manufacturing course.
The managers and capitalists tended to build their new, grand houses along
Lafayette Street (these houses may still be seen, south of Roslyn Street). For the
workers, they built more and more tenements near the mills of Stage Point. A
second, larger, factory building for the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company would
be added in 1859, and a third in 1865; and by 1879 the mills would employ 1200
people and produce annually 14, 700,000 yards of cloth. Shoe-manufacturing also
continued to expand, and by 1880 Salem would have 40 shoe factories employing
600-plus operatives. More factories and more people required more space for
buildings, more roads, and more storage areas.
Maj. Jam es T. Tucker predeceased his father, whose life estate would come to an
end with his death in 1877. Jonathan Tucker ( 1799-1877) had been a merchant for
most of his career. He left business in 1849, became a City Assessor for awhile, and
by 1860 he was working as a Measurer at the Custom House. In 1872 he was still at
the Custom House, residing at 29 Andrew Street. He purchased 82 Washington
�Square East in 1874, and moved in. To the Salem Gazette in 1875-6 he contributed
an interesting series called "Our Old Houses," in which he jotted down his memories
of who had inhabited the buildings of Essex Street 1807-1810. By 1876 he was
again working as an assessor at City Hall. On the last day of July, 1877, Mr. Tucker
took his own life.
The obituary of Mr. Tucker ran in the Gazette on 3 August 1877. "The death of
Jonathan Tucker, which took place very suddenly on Tuesday morning last, takes
from amongst us one of our most respected citizens ... His character was as sturdy as
his frame. Upright, conscientious, clear-headed, and intelligent, his services on the
board of our City Assessors were never surpassed in value by any who have been
called to the office. His independence and plainness of speech undoubtedly made
him enemies; but, as an honest man, a good citizen, exemplary in purity of morals
and in every relation of life, he will be held in respectful remembrance by all who
knew him. Mr. Tucker retired-from active mercantile business in 1849, when he was
elected one of the Assessors of the City. This office he continued to hold until
March 28, 1853. He was again elected Assessor in 1869, and held the office until
January 11, 1875, when he retired to private life. During most of his term of service,
he was chairman of the board; and there never was a man who paid more strict,
scrupulous, and faithful attention to the duties of his office. A native of Salem, and
blessed with powers of keen observation and a retentive memory, his knowledge of
our local history of the present century-of persons, events, metes and bounds-was
unequalled, and nothing gave him greater pleasure than to impart from his
inexhaustible stores. He leaves a widow (a sister of Prof. Alpheus Packard of
Bowdoin College), three sons-Joseph F. and Horace, both holding responsible
positions in the Illinois Central Railroad Company, and Rev. William P., who has
recently accepted a call to a rectorship in Pawtucket, R.I.; and two daughters, Mrs. J.
M. Hagar of Salem, and Mrs. Hanson of Chicago. Two sons, Alpheus Packard and
Col. James T., died before their father."
Joseph F. Tucker, the railroad man, became the new owner of the property. As early as
1881, and perhaps before, much of his part of the Central Building was occupied by
John J. Perkins' notable furniture and upholstering store (some photographs show the
building at that time, with the Perkins signs out front). Mr. Perkins, a resident of Bridge
Street, ran the business for many years. The dwelling part of the building, numbered 10
central, was evidently occupied Mrs. Sarah B. Safford, who had a store at 16-18 central.
She died before 1900, in which year the premises at 4-6 Central Street were occupied
by the Salem Press Company, which had its presses and other machinery there, and by
A.N. Webb & Co., printers. At 8-10 were E.F. McClellan, hairdresser, and the offices
�of Cawley & Trow, plumbers. Alphonse Bouin and family resided in the end unit. (info
from Salem Directory, 1899/1900)
Regarding the Hathorne part of the building, by then known as The Hathorne Building:
in 1878 Henry G. Hathorne, of Lynn, sold his interest in the Central Building to
\iVilliam W. Hathorne, of Lynn, his brother (ED 1000:189). On 2 January 1886 William
W. Hathorne leased the first floor and cellar of his part of the building to Herebert D.
Rice of Boston, who opened The Shawmut Hat Store here. The lease was to run for ten
years at $1500 rent per annum. At the same time, Mr. Rice was to pay the cost of a
major remodeling of this part of the building, and agreed not to sell any liquor here.
The remodeling involved removing the stone front, removing brick piers and windows,
and putting in a new front on Essex Street and part of the building on Central Street.
Large new plate glass windows were to be installed, along with iron girders to support
the upper stories.
Mr. Wm. W. Hathorne died in 1893, whereupon the property was conveyed to his
brothers Henry G. and Charles F. Hathorne (ED1401:109). They continued to lease out
the property as commercial space to Herbert D. Rice, who was the proprietor of the
Shawmut Hat Store at 191-193 Essex Street (see adv. p.1194 Salem Directory 1897-8;
ED 1991:66, etc.).
In 1900, the occupants of "the Hathorne Building" were The Shawmut Hat Store (hats,
furs, etc.) at 191-193 Essex Street, and, at 195 Essex Street, J.M. O'Connell and Mrs.
Kate F. Dean, hairdressers, dentist John W. Patch, A.C. Mackintire, photographer, and
B.L. Pervier, jobber.
Salem kept building infrastructure; and new businesses arose, and established
businesses expanded. Retail stores prospered, and machinists, carpenters,
millwrights, and other specialists all thrived. In the 1870s, French-Canadian
families began coming to work in Salem's mills and factories, and more houses
and tenements filled were built in what had been open areas of the city. The
Canadians were followed in the early 20th century by large numbers of Polish and
Ukrainian families, who settled primarily in the Derby Street neighborhood. By
the eve of World War One, Salem was a bustling, polyglot city that supported large
department stores and large factories of every description. Its politics were lively,
and its economy was strong.
On June 25, 1914, in the morning, in Blubber Hollow (Boston Street opposite
Federal), a fire started in one of Salem's fire-prone wooden tanneries. This fire
soon consumed the building and raced out of control, for the west wind was high
�and the season had been dry. The next building caught fire, and the next, and out
of Blubber Hollow the fire roared easterly, a monstrous front of flame and smoke,
wiping out the houses of Boston Street, Essex Street, and upper Broad Street, and
then sweeping through Hathorne, Winthrop, Endicott, and other residential streets.
Men and machines could not stop it: the enormous fire crossed over into South
Salem and destroyed the neighborhoods west of Lafayette Street, then devoured
the mansions of Lafayette Street itself, and raged onward into the tenement district.
Despite the combined efforts of heroic fire crews from many towns and cities, the
fire overwhelmed everything in its path: it smashed into the large factory buildings
of the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company (Congress Street), which exploded in an
inferno; and it rolled down Lafayette Street and across the water to Derby Street.
There, just beyond Union Street, after a 13-hour rampage, the monster died, having
consumed 25 0 acres, 1600 houses, and 41 factories, and leaving three dead and
thousands homeless. Some people· had insurance, some did not; all received much
support and generous donations from all over the country and the world. It was
one of the greatest urban disasters in the history of the United States, and the
people of Salem would take years to recover from it. Eventually, they did, and
many of the former houses and businesses were rebuilt; and several urban-renewal
projects (including Hawthorne Boulevard, which involved removing old houses
and widening old streets) were put into effect.
Mr. Herbert D. Rice, owner of The Shawmut Hat Store here, and lessee since
1886, purchased the Hathorne Building from the Hathornes on 1 Nov. 1920 (ED
2469:90). The premises had been in Hathorne ownership for more than 115
years.
By the 1920s, Salem was once again a thriving city; and its tercentenary in 1926
was a time of great celebration. From that time forward, Salem boomed right
through to the 1960s, but the arrival of suburban shopping malls and the relocation
of manufacturing businesses took their toll, as they have with many other cities.
More than most, Salem has navigated its way forward into the present with
success, trading on its share of notoriety arising from the witch trials, but also from
its history as a great seaport and as the home of Bowditch, Mcintire, Bentley,
Story, and Hawthorne. Most of all, it remains a city where the homes of the oldtime merchants, mariners, and mill-operatives-and the commercial buildings that
Salem's prosperity produced and sustained--are all honored as a large part of what
makes Salem different from any other place.
--10 Feb. 2002, Robert Booth for Historic Salem Inc.
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BOOKSHOP OF ClTSHI:'.'\G AJ":D APPLETON..
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CFSHIXG AXD APPLETOX-BIBLE AXD REA.RT BOOK SHOP.
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177
Soon after Dabney established his book shop, Thomas C.
Cushing and \'Villiam Carlton, the latter a young man just
reaching his majority, were associated in the 'Bible and Heart'
book shop. Carlton's advertisement in 1791 reYeals the location of his business as 'opposite Rev. :Mr. Prince's meeting
house,' where he had for sale all the principal books and pamphlets, as v.-ell as mariner's compasses, log books, scales and
dividers, backgammon and Hadley's quadrants, and 'Harry
VIII and HighlancJs Playing Cards.' 67 In 1793 he added a
circulating library. J\1r. Streeter says: 'The Bible and Heart
book-store was in the lo·wer story of the building oecupied by ·
the printing office, the same ·which is now (1856) kept by
D. B. Brooks and Brother. There were formerly wooden figures of a Bible ancl a heart suspended over the door, which
during .the last war were torn down in the night by some
mischievous persons and thrown into the harbor. It was upon
the occasion of a list of privateers in our harbor being published in the Gazette by the foreman of the office.' In 1794
Carlton's 'new book store' was 'a few doors west of the Sun
Tavern, Essex st.Teet.' 08 In 1797 Carlton's connection with
Cushing ceased, and in 1801 John S. Appleton associated
himself with this book shop, the firm of Cushing and Appleton
being a well-known and successful Salem concern, at the 'Sign
of the Bible,' until the death of both in 1824.
In 1803 their shop was at the corner of Court and Essex
streets, 'lately occupied as an insurance office.'c 9 In 1808 they
removed to the store under the Gazette office, lately occupied
by John Russell, one door west of the Central Building, 70
having purchased Russell's stock of several thousand volumes,
which were sold at auction by Jacob Peabody. A side-light
oil the importance to trade of court business and attendance
at the sittings is manifest in an advertisement which appeared
at this time, after the sale had opened, to the effect that 'the
Salem
Salem
6 9 Salem
10 Salem
67
<1s
Gazette,
Gazette,
Gazette,
Gazette,
November 8, 1791, .January 3 and 12, 1793.
September, 1794.
December 3-0, 1803.
April 5, 1808.
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A.n Editor's . Wife Instantl;r
Brown, every fashionable Cf)lor and.
Killed at Nel'l'tonville.
at the Shawmut. Hamiiock and So'ft
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SHAWMUT "H AT STORE, H .. D.. RICE, -Prop.
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Mrs. Lury H. Estey, wife ofWillia.m H.
. Estey of the Boston Herald sta..IT; we.e
sfrn<'k by the 7 o'cloo::k inwa.rd pa.ese~r
t ra•n:on:thejBost-on'& Alba.nyrailroaa:a tbe
Walnut street crossing, Newtonville, ast
evrDing, and instantly .k:illed. The unfortunate lady, in .comps.Dy with her youngest
son, atttmpted to cro.ss the. track after
tl'e gates had been lowered. She crol!Sed
the Na. 1 track. just ahead of a.
fteight traiJ!, and passed oyer the No. 2
and No. 3 tracks, when she e"w th".'e Inward
·passenger train approaching. Hesitating
for a moment, she turnP.d as though to go
,. back, taking a.few steps, but again turned
nnd stepped in front of:the engine or the
r.assenger train, which was then running
into the station and moving slowly, and
was struck and thrown upon the platform.
The boy stood between the tracks and thus
escaped injury. Therliotheraudson were on
their way to the depot to take the train
to Newton, to attend a Bible convention
which is being held there. Yr. Estey was
just about to start forWaltham to attend
a camp fire, t.o. whicp the members of h~
poet had been invited. B:e was notified of
'the accident, and the body was· removed
to his home o'.n Brooks avenue, where it
wes -v:iewed by lfedieoal ]!lxaminer Meade.
Tbe derea8€d was 41 years of age; and,
beside her husband, five SOD,B survive her,
th_e youngest Of whulll is 12 years of age!!
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Central Street
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
4-10 Central Street, Salem, MA 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built in 1805 for the Merchants B. Herbert Hathorne and W. Shepard Gray
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1805, 2002
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Robert Booth
Language
A language of the resource
English
10
1805
2002
4
B.
Central
Gray
Hathorne
Herbert
History
House
Massachusetts
Salem
Shepard
Street
W.
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/28828/archive/files/cf5d0a14fb3f009fbdebe8071cc8ed7b.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=I%7E0AVRbT7qyZXpFNJ3njaJiQy0D7rxnbdWR0lwLMuIUMyQncpr8fR%7EmHmvtuRYnwTRLU2w4raiuZtRVnkYWQB8q1gciowrMB3IMhT0yXUfuL%7E9zx92wiXFLkrBvaF2KRcgqDInNB36MN7OMf6PJmTAd37-fJvFq68Jf%7ERnlJltdZcexPg35R5s-B6kuHbeMeh6f6f40F0lh3KjN55aQW7wGybZZbwBR9eV1uFZEZ5KuM9cNI59so4%7E91QZocZhh3N7HjAaMPx2waXeqDTz6lSqPv5P39Gt%7EaCvctHcb6mjh8jsJs4dTmkT7NWsKbhjV9sIVprFdUIirJJqMazSms3g__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
fb1060c7c78ddd1d971ae291562b6916
PDF Text
Text
4 Andrew Street
Built as a stable for
Isabella C. Miller
1877
Converted to dwelling
after Great Salem Fire
1914
Research Provided by
Michael Redfern
August 2018
Historic Salem, Inc.
9 North Street, Salem, MA 01970
978.745.0799 | HistoricSalem.org
© 2018
�Chain of Title, 4 Andrew Street, Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts
Date Recorded
Grantor(s)
Nathaniel Silsbee of Salem,
November 28, 1832 Merchant
April 6, 1859 Nathaniel Silsbee Jr.
Grantee(s)
Source
Document Book or Vol. Page
$1,000 "A lot of land situated in Salem aforesaid..."
Isabella C. Miller, wife of Charles
H. Miller of Salem, Merchant
"a certain parcel of land situate on the corner
of Pleasant and Andrew Streets in said
$1,000 Salem..."
Essex County Registry of Deeds Deed
Caroline L. Brown, wife of Frank
March 3, 1891 Isabella C. Miller of Salem, widow A. Brown of Salem
Frank A. Brown & Caroline L.
May 6, 1926 Brown, his wife
Consideration Conveyance of
Nathaniel Silsbee Jr. of Salem,
Merchant
"one dollar and
other valuable
considerations
paid"
Essex County Registry of Deeds Deed
268
43
585
"as her sole and separate
property free from all
interference or control by
90 her said husband..."
1303
63
"Being a portion of the
premises conveyed to
said Caroline L. Brown by
43 Isabella C Miller..."
"the land in said Salem, together with the
buildings thereon..."
Essex County Registry of Deeds Deed
2679
October 15, 1929 Francis Brown
Florence A. Woodbury, Annie E.
Woodbury, & Grace A. Woodbury, "consideration
all unmarried, of Salem
paid"
"the land in said SALEM, together with the
buildings thereon..."
Essex County Registry of Deeds Deed
2825
424
October 10, 1960 Annie Endicott Woodbury
William J. Toomey & Emma G.
Toomey, husband & wife, of
Salem
"consideration
paid"
"the land in said Salem, together with the
buildings thereon..."
Essex County Registry of Deeds Deed
4710
405
Lucille S. Almquist of Salem
"consideration
paid"
"the land in said Salem, Essex County,
Massachusetts together with the buildings
thereon..."
Essex County Registry of Deeds Deed
5194
62
Claud W. Ashcraft & Phyllis G.
Ashcraft, husband & wife, of
Salem
"consideration
paid"
"the land with the buildings thereon, situated
on Andrew Street in said Salem..."
Essex County Registry of Deeds Deed
5275
342
Robert L. Scagliotti & Nackey
Scagliotti, husband & wife
"the land with buildings thereon situated at 4
Andrew Street, Essex County, Salem,
$24,000 Massachusetts..."
Essex County Registry of Deeds Deed
5711
263
Jacqueline Nangle
"the land with buildings thereon situated at 4
Andrew Street, Essex County, Salem,
$45,300 Massachusetts..."
Essex County Registry of Deeds Deed
6228
667
Judith E. Whitney & Barbara E.
Harrison
"the land in Salem, Essex County,
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with the
buildings thereon situated at 4 Andrew
$56,000 Street..."
Essex County Registry of Deeds Deed
6549
370
"the land in Salem, Essex County,
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with the
buildings thereon situated at 4 Andrew
$21,955 Street..."
Essex County Registry of Deeds Deed
6829
428
Essex County Registry of Deeds Deed
9811
162
Essex County Registry of Deeds Deed
9842
14
Essex County Registry of Deeds Deed
10935
361
William J. Toomey & Emma G.
August 3, 1964 Toomey
June 10, 1965 Lucille S. Almquist
Claud W. Ashcraft & Phyllis G.
September 11, 1970 Ashcraft
Robert L. Scagliotti & Nackey
April 1, 1976 Scagliotti
December 15, 1978 Jacqueline Nangle
Francis Brown of Salem
Barbara E. Harrison, AKA Barbara
E. Whitney & Judith E. Hanson,
Wayne D. Hanson & Judith E.
formerly Judith E. Whitney, of
Hanson, husband & wife, of
June 12, 1981 Nahant
Nahant
"consideration
paid"
a "parcel of land, with all buildings thereon,
situated in said Salem..."
Essex County Registry of Deeds Deed
Notes
Wayne D. Hanson & Judith E.
December 8, 1988 Hanson
Mortgage Corporation of New
England
"the land in Salem, Essex County,
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with the
buildings thereon situated at 4 Andrew
$395,000 Street..."
Mortgage Corporation of New
December 30, 1988 England
Robert W. Dick, Trustee of the
Acquisition and Holding Trust
"4 Andrew Street, Salem, MA, bounded and
$250,000 described as follows..."
John J. Heaney, Trustee of the
September 6, 1991 Acquisition and Holding Trust
Fred Whitney & Carol Whitney,
husband & wife
"the following described premises known as
4 Andrew Street, Salem, Essex County,
$147,000 Massachusetts..."
�Inventory No:
SAL.2751
Historic Name:
Miller, Charles Stable
Common Name:
Brown, C. L. - Sweetser, Abbie and Mary House
Address:
4 Andrew St
City/Town:
Salem
Village/Neighborhood:
Salem Common
Local No:
35-534
Year Constructed:
1877
Architect(s):
Architectural Style(s):
Second Empire
Use(s):
Out Building; Single Family Dwelling House
Significance:
Agriculture; Architecture
Area(s):
SAL.HW: Salem Common Historic District
Designation(s):
Nat'l Register District (05/12/1976)
Building Materials(s):
Roof: Slate
Wall: Vinyl Siding; Wood
Foundation: Granite; Stone, Uncut
The Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC) has converted this paper record to digital format as part of ongoing
projects to scan records of the Inventory of Historic Assets of the Commonwealth and National Register of Historic
Places nominations for Massachusetts. Efforts are ongoing and not all inventory or National Register records related to
this resource may be available in digital format at this time.
The MACRIS database and scanned files are highly dynamic; new information is added daily and both database
records and related scanned files may be updated as new information is incorporated into MHC files. Users should
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appearance of related information in MACRIS. Users should also note that not all source materials for the MACRIS
database are made available as scanned images. Users may consult the records, files and maps available in MHC's
public research area at its offices at the State Archives Building, 220 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, open M-F, 9-5.
Users of this digital material acknowledge that they have read and understood the MACRIS Information and Disclaimer
(http://mhc-macris.net/macrisdisclaimer.htm)
Data available via the MACRIS web interface, and associated scanned files are for information purposes only. THE ACT OF CHECKING THIS
DATABASE AND ASSOCIATED SCANNED FILES DOES NOT SUBSTITUTE FOR COMPLIANCE WITH APPLICABLE LOCAL, STATE OR
FEDERAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS. IF YOU ARE REPRESENTING A DEVELOPER AND/OR A PROPOSED PROJECT THAT WILL
REQUIRE A PERMIT, LICENSE OR FUNDING FROM ANY STATE OR FEDERAL AGENCY YOU MUST SUBMIT A PROJECT NOTIFICATION
FORM TO MHC FOR MHC'S REVIEW AND COMMENT. You can obtain a copy of a PNF through the MHC web site (www.sec.state.ma.us/mhc)
under the subject heading "MHC Forms."
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Massachusetts Historical Commission
220 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, Massachusetts 02125
www.sec.state.ma.us/mhc
This file was accessed on: Tuesday, August 7, 2018 at 10:07 AM
�FORM B - BUILDING
N R D I S 5/12/76
Assessor's number
USGS Quad
35-534
Town
Form Number
Area(s)
Salem
2751
HW
Salem
Place (neighborhood or village) Salem Common
Address
4 Andrew Street
Historic Name
Misses Sweetser House
(Charles Miller Stable)
Uses: Present
Residential
Original
Stable
Date of Construction
Source
1877
Building permits
Style/Form
Second Empire
Architect/Builder
unknown
Exterior Material:
Foundation
Stone
Wall/Trim
V i n y l Siding
Roof
Slate
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures
none
M a j o r Alterations (with dates) 1914 - carriage house
converted to residential use; c. 1980 - vinyl siding
Condition
good
Moved
no
Acreage
Setting
R e c o r d e d by
Lisa Mausolf
Organization
Salem Planning Department
Date (month/year) M a r c h 1998
R E C E I V E D
Follow Massachusetts Histo,r^^lo^i^s^/t^irvey
O
yes
Date
3684 S F
densely built-up residential neighborhood of
19th -20th century buildings, east o f Washington
Common
Manual instructions for completing this form.
MASS. HIST. C M
OM
�B U I L D I N G F O R M (4 Andrew Street)
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION
Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of the building in terms of other buildings within the
community.
Functioning as a stable until the early 20th century, 4 Andrew Street is a single-story dwelling capped b y a mansard roof with
a bellcast profile, sheathed in slate fishscale shingles. The building rests on foundation o f uncut mortared stone and is
sheathed i n vinyl siding. The projecting eaves display a wide frieze and are adorned by paired scroll brackets. The main
entrance is located at the northeast corner o f the house and is sheltered by a recessed porch supported by a single Roman
Doric column resting on a wooden deck. The wooden door has 3 x 3 lights in the upper half and is fitted with a wooden
storm door. Adjacent to the entrance is a pair of 6/6 windows with a molded surround and shutters. The shed dormer on the
front roof slope has a set o f three windows consisting of two 6/6 sash with a narrow 4/4 window in the center. The remaining
windows on the building include individual 6/6 sash as well as sets o f three, a l l o f which are framed b y shutters. The dormers
similarly display a variety o f types and include two pedimented dormers with 6/6 and a central gable dormer with an 8/8
window on the west elevation. A n additional shed dormer is located on the east elevation.
The house is set directly on the sidewalk with a driveway extending to the west o f the house. A stockade fence encloses the
modest yard.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE
Describe the history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history. Include uses of the building and
the role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community.
Originally a stable for the adjacent property at what is now 96 Washington Square East, this building was constructed for
Charles M i l l e r i n 1877. According to building permits, M i l l e r was granted a permit for a 1 1/2-story building with a "French
r o o f , measuring 24 x 44 feet. M i l l e r was a merchant with a store at 170 1/2 Essex Street. B y 1897 the Washington Square
East property was owned by C . L . B r o w n and occupied by Frank A . Brown. It appears that the building was renovated for
residential use at the time o f the Salem 1914 fire. In 1914 the adjacent property at 96 Washington Square East, including this
building, was owned by Frank Brown, assistant manager of the National Lead Company. H e apparently renovated his barn
for Misses Abbie and M a r y Sweetser, who formerly lived at 185 Lafayette Street but were left homeless by the fire. The
1914 directory shows the sisters to be living at 30 Pleasant Street, apparently awaiting the completion o f 4 Andrew Street.
After M a r y Sweetser passed away in 1919, Abbie Sweetser continued to live here until her death i n 1922. Soon thereafter the
property was occupied by several people until 1930 when it was acquired by Florence Woodbury who continued to live here
into the 1950s. Annie Woodbury was in residence in the 1960s.
B I B L I O G R A P H Y and/or R E F E R E N C E S
City o f Salem, Building Permits, 1871-1889.
Hopkins, G . M . Atlas o f Salem. Massachusetts. Philadelphia: 1874.
Mclntyre, Henry C . E . M a p o f the C i t y o f Salem. Philadelphia: 1851.
Richards, L . J . Atlas o f the C i t y o f Salem. Massachusetts. 1897.
Salem C i t y Directories, 1836-1970.
Walker Lithograph and Publishing Company. Atlas o f the City o f Salem. Massachusetts. Boston: 1911.
Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you must attached a completed
National Register Criteria Statement form.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Andrew Street
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
4 Andrew Street, Salem, MA 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built as a stable for
Isabella C. Miller
1877
Converted to dwelling
after Great Salem Fire
1914
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1877, 1914, 2018
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Michael Redfern
Language
A language of the resource
English
1877
1914
2018
4
Andrew
Great Salem Fire
Isabella
Massachusetts
Miller
Salem
Street
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/28828/archive/files/3e6c87ae911665240aa27e2d4ad45d9f.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=uvCtybw6jUCYroz8n0uq8jpwq%7EmtcQKMv9YX61Y5YGGmV9TnW-PbUPhSHvjqybqAt%7EZ45eIyFK8pv7bMXhl1wth2VyHO9c952aucMrfsyrydIIHQQSNrMAiPQwFfCFdo21CW%7EpGGLrolepckpJBx61fN88UfvcM9Ac96GazdULco5vtmkvoFTOBG91GGkVkxqLC8A-lce7PMyGjIja%7Eos2STXGun9ek0JBD8WiZIzVz1FRzhxwS8Y7XyCwCgyFBIg5ltJC-8SjG5zfUZwwSXesPibdBY91IVOimo8guiv-u8Jqf%7ESyNFpGJmAjMqcg1KFQNFVN5XwgPbDK39Ng2GSg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
27f2426e6725c01f291bd185defb06c5
PDF Text
Text
4 Cousins Street
Built for
Mary and J. Frank Boynton
Clothier
1894
Rebuilt 1910
Researched and written by Jen Ratliff
September 2018
Historic Salem Inc,
The Bowditch House
9 North Street, Salem, MA 01970
(978) 745-0799 | HistoricSalem.org
©2018
�View of 4 Cousins Street, 2011 (Redfin)
Cousins Street
The land now known as Cousins Street was the last large plot in the Historic Derby
Street Neighborhood to be developed. The area previously housed the India Manufacturing
Company, which operated a jute mill. Jute is a fiber created from the inside bark of a plant,
native to India, that was commonly used to manufacture bags for bailing cotton.1 The jute mill,
Salem’s second, was built in 1867 on land known as the “Old English Estate,” a reference to
1
MACRIS, SAL.3347
�Phillip and Mary English, accused during the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692. 2 The land around
the India Manufacturing Company was sold off in plots by the estate of David Nevins in May
1892. By September 1893, the name Cousins Street appears listed in deeds for the area.3 The
name Cousins, is in homage to well-known Salemite, Frank Cousins, a local photographer and
owner of Frank Cousins Bee-Hive, a souvenir shop in Salem’s downtown.
Mary and Frank Boynton purchased the lot on Cousins Street in 1894 from George
Pitman and Charles Brown, who had acquired the land and assisted in the designation of
Cousins Street, following the plots separation from the adjacent jute mill. The Boynton’s never
lived in the home at 4 Cousins Street but resided on Lafayette Street. It is likely that the
Boynton’s purchased the property on Cousins Street as an investment. Between 1890 and 1910,
Salem’s population increased by 42%. This spike led many Salemites and local developers to
build multi-family tenement homes to accommodate the surge of immigrants settling in Salem.4
In the early 20th century, the Historic Derby Street Neighborhood was predominantly
Polish. Attracted to job opportunities in the city’s mills and factories, Polish immigrants began
arriving in Salem around 1890 and by 1911, Poles comprised about 8% of the city’s overall
population. Religion played a strong role in the Polish community and as the number of Polish
Catholics in Salem grew, the need for a permanent house of worship became apparent. Herbert
Street and Union Street became the heart of the Polish Catholic presence in the city, after the
opening of St. John the Baptist Church, a parochial school, convent, and rectory. St. John the
2
Phillip and Mary English avoided execution by escaping from jail and finding refuge in New York. They later
returned to Salem to find their estate had been pillaged by Sheriff Corwin. Phillip sought reparations but only
received £260 of the estimated £1,183 lost.
3
MACRIS, SAL.3360
4
MACRIS, SAL.3270
�Baptist’s Reverend John Czubek was a central figure in this community, marrying or baptizing
many of Salem’s Poles. The new church increased the settlement of Polish immigrants in the
neighborhood and multiple single-family homes were converted or replaced with multi-family
tenements to house the growing population. This is likely the story of 4 Cousins Street, which
appears to have been built by the Boynton’s in 1894 as a two-family home. In 1910, the home
was replaced with a three-family tenement structure, which still stands today.5 It is likely that
the 1894 foundation and materials were re-used to create the larger home. The home is a
common style of its time and has a striking similarity to a home built at 24-26 Becket Street,
which is dated to c. 1911.
The Boyntons (1894-1911)
Jacob Franklin “Frank” Boynton (1859-1929) was born in Buxton, Maine in May 1859 to
Sarah and Charles Boynton, a merchant. On September 18, 1883, he married the daughter of
Mary and Thomas Waters, Mary A. Waters (1861-unknown) of Salem, Massachusetts. In 1881,
Frank began working in Salem’s clothing industry as a manager for H.B. Wilmot’s. By 1888 he
and another former Wilmot’s manager, Emery E. Kent, owned Kent & Boynton at the previous
H.B. Wilmot’s location, 250-254 Essex Street. The partners opened a second location and
factory of Kent & Boynton in Gloucester, specializing in oil cloth. The business was later
5
This hypothesis is based on evidence exhibited in the included maps, as well as directory listings which begin
showing three families from 1910 onward. The owner of the home was consulted and did not find any evidence of
the third floor being added to the home.
�renamed Cape Ann Clothing Co. and was lost to a fire in 1899 and again in 1912. 6 It appears
that Frank and Mary briefly lived apart in 1900, as Frank is listed as married but living with his
family without Mary in Wakefield, Massachusetts. 7 This separation may have been due to
financial troubles following the Gloucester fire and the failure of a third store for Kent &
Boynton in Newburyport. In 1912, Frank filed for bankruptcy. The Salem location of Kent &
Boynton was sold and replaced with Palmer Clothing House. In 1916, Frank opened another
store in Salem, Boynton’s Clothing Store at 187 Essex Street.8 In 1911, shortly after rebuilding 4
Cousins Street, Mary and Frank sold the home to Mary Ann and John Tyburski for the
remainder of their mortgage, $1,600.9
The Tyburskis (1911-1913)
John Tyburski (1882 – Unknown) was born in Poland on December 27, 1882 to Mary
(Washlek) and Antoni Tyburski. At the age of 13, John immigrated to America, arriving in New
York City prior to Salem. In 1900, John petitioned for U.S. Citizenship citing his brother, Josef
(Joseph) Tyburski, of Herbert Street and Franciszek (Frank) Soboczinski of Webb Street as his
6
The Clothier and Furnisher, Volume 89, Pg. 98, 1916, The Boston Globe
(Boston, Massachusetts) 05 Jul 1899, Wed • Other Editions • Page 6, The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) 12
Feb 1909, Fri Page 5
7
Year: 1900; Census Place: Wakefield, Middlesex, Massachusetts; Page: 14; Enumeration District: 0972; FHL
microfilm: 1240667
8
According to Clothiers' and Haberdashers' Weekly, Volume 10, Pg. 14, 1897 - The Greenwood Street area of
Wakefield was commonly known as Boyntonville, named for Frank’s parents, considered to be pioneers of the
area.
9
Southern Essex County Registry of Deeds, Deed 2067:468
�witnesses.10 In 1908, John was married by Reverend John Czubek to Mary Jarocz, the daughter
of Josefa (née Lozdowska) and Mikolajah Jarocz, also from Poland.11 After living with John’s
family on Herbert Street, the couple purchased 4 Cousins Street in 1911, assuming the
remaining $1,600 mortgage of the Boyntons. When they sold the home only two years later,
they passed on a higher mortgage of $2,400.12 It is possible that this additional mortgage was
used to complete the renovation work begun by the Boyntons.
The Zbyszynskis (1913-1978)
Henryk “Henry” Zbyszynski (1882 – 1946) was born in Poland in 1882, to Petronela
(née Turowska) and Francis Zbyszynski. In 1905, he immigrated to the United States and
married Stefania Kozakiewicz (1885-1974), the daughter of Michalina (née Leczczynska) and
Michael Kozakiewicz. The couple was married at St. John the Baptist Church, in Salem, by Rev.
John Czubek on May 20, 1907.13 Together the couple had four children, Zenon (1909-1978),
Othelia “Tilly” (1911-Unknown), Theodosia (1913-1990), and Irene (1915-2009.) In 1913, Henry
and Stefania bought the home at 4 Cousins Street from the Tyburskis, assuming their $2,400
10
According to Salem Maritime National Historic Sites ethnography “In the Heart of Polish Salem,” both Josef
Tyburski and Franciszek Soboczinski were members of St. Joseph’s Polish Society.
National Archives at Boston; Waltham, Massachusetts; ARC Title: Copies of Petitions and Records of Naturalization
in New England Courts, 1939 - ca. 1942; NAI Number: 4752894; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration
and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: RG 85
11
Reference the House History for 14 Herbert Street and In the Heart of Polish Salem for more information on
Joseph Czubek.
New England Historic Genealogical Society; Boston, Massachusetts; Massachusetts Vital Records, 1911–1915
12
Southern Essex County Registry of Deeds, Deed 2202:57
13
New England Historic Genealogical Society; Boston, Massachusetts; Massachusetts Vital Records, 1911–1915
�mortgage. 14 While living in the home, Henry worked primarily in the leather industry and later
as salesman. Around 1936, Henry opened a grocery store at 5 ½ Becket Avenue. 15 Stefania
worked in the shop with her husband, while the children began working in local factories as
teenagers. Shortly after opening the grocery store, Stefania and Henry Zbyszynski moved into
the adjoining house at 5 Becket Avenue. They continued to own and rent units in 4 Cousins
Street, moving back into the home in 1948. Their son, Zenon continuously occupied one of the
units with his wife Ann and when Henry died in 1947, Stefania moved in with them. Overall the
Zbyszynskis owned 4 Cousins Street for sixty-five years, the longest occupants in the home’s
history. In 1978, the home was sold to William Little, following the death of Zenon Zbyszynski.
After 1978, the home went through a series of owners and foreclosures, falling into
disrepair. In 2015, 4 Cousins Street was purchased by Keith Crook (b. 1984) a marketing
specialist, and Oliver Kempf (b. 1990), an engineer. The couple spent the next few years
updating and restoring the three-family home, to include adding solar panels. During this
process, they discovered shoes hidden within a wall, a traditional practice meant to bring
protection and good luck to a home.16 The couple also unearthed items from the home’s privy
pit, including tea cups, pottery fragments, and medicine bottles. 17
14
Othelia also appears as Oliya in records.
Southern Essex County Registry of Deeds, Deed 2202:57
15
Also listed as 74 Derby Street
16
Shoes were left undisturbed in the first floor, interior wall, next to the bathroom.
17
The privy pit dates c. 1894-1905, when Salem adopted city-wide trash pick-up.
�Buyer
Years of
Ownership
1893-1894
Number
of Years
<1
1894-1911
17
Mary Ann Tyburski
John Tyburski
1911-1913
2
Henryk and Stefania
Zbyszynski
1913-1978
65
William D. Little
John P. Keane, Jr.
Andrew T. Hingson
Eric D. Jackson
Joanne Y. Jackson
John J. Suldenski
1978
1978-1981
1981-1982
1982-1893
<1
4
<1
9
1983-1992
9
Daniel T. Curtin
Four Cousins Realty
Trust
Robert J. O’Grady
Thomas E. Lawlor
(a.k.a. Lawler)
Yvonne Greene
Federal National
Mortgage Association
Anoniou Aristides
Keith Crook
Oliver Kempf
1992-1995
3
1995-2002
2002-2011
7
9
2011-2012
2012-2015
2015-Present
(As of 2018)
George W. Pitman
Etta M. Pitman
Charles W. Brown
Mary A. Boynton
Jacob Frank Boynton
Purchase Price
“One dollar
and other
considerations”
“One dollar
and other
considerations”
“One dollar
and other
considerations”
“One dollar
and other
considerations”
$4,500
$15,000
$57,000
$40,000
$5,000
$53,582
Document
Referenced
Deed 1395:525
Deed 1407:214
Notes
1345:63 (Plan)
Owned in conjunction with land between Webb and
English streets. References Cousins Street
$2,800 mortgage with Salem Savings Bank
Never listed as occupying the home
Deed 2067:468
$1,600 previous mortgage remainder
Deed 2202:57
$2,400 previous mortgage remainder
Henryk and Stefania a.k.a. Henry and Stephanie
Deed 6445:443
Deed 6452:739
Deed 6789:574
Deed 7017:366
Deed 8414:507
Mortgaged for $30,000
Foreclosed (Deed 6999:159)
Purchased after property was foreclosed
Deed 11655:170
Assumed responsibility of previous mortgage balance of
$53,582
Foreclosed (Deed 11186:583)
Purchased after property was foreclosed
$117,500
$315,000
Deed 13194:2
Deed 19000:422
Foreclosed (Deed 29980:370)
<1
$223,119
Deed 30336:496
Foreclosure
4
3+
$300,500
$510,000
Deed 31110:526
Deed 34270:508
Purchased after the property was foreclosed.
�Resident
Henry M. Strout
Daniel M. Hersey
William H. Foye
Meader A. Buck
William H. Foye
F.H. Haines
William H. Foye
F.H. Haines
David J. Hard
C.H. Gillis
C.H. Gillis
James Curran
C.H. Gillis
P.J. Curran
Mrs. C. Clark
J. Tyburski
J. Callahan
Mrs. C. Clark
E.A. Montgomery
J. Callahan
Mrs. C. Clark
Henry C. Zbyszynski
J. Callahan
Mrs. C. Clark
Henry C. Zbyszynski
A. Danda
Mrs. C. Clark
Henry C. Zbyszynski
Mrs. C. Balcomb
Mrs. C. Clark
Henry C. Zbyszynski
Mrs. C. Balcomb
Miss F. Clark
Directory
Year
1895
Notes
1897
1899-1901
1898 directory unavailable
1903-1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
Mrs. C. Clark resides in the house until 1924. (14
years)
1911
John and Mary Tyburski
1912
1913
1914-1915
1916-1924
1926
First listing for Zbyszynski
�John J. Clark
Ellery B. Hendricks
Benjamin LeVasseur
Henry C. Zbyszynski
Dennis F. Lawlor
Frank Tobin
Henry C. Zbyszynski
Joseph Bajkiewicz
Oliver F. Davidson
Henry Zbyszynski
Zenon R. Zbyszynski
Fred Harrison
Henry Zbyszynski
Zenon R. Zbyszynski
Henry Zbyszynski
Zenon R. Zbyszynski
John J. Stankiewicz
Chester Kobuczwiski
Zenon R. Zbyszynski
Raymond E. DesRosiers
Chester Kobuczwiski
Zenon R. Zbyszynski
Vacant
Chester Kobuczwiski
Zenon R. Zbyszynski
Frederick Kelliher
Ernest A. Dempsey
Zenon R. Zbyszynski
Frederick Kelliher
Zenon R. Zbyszynski
Frederick Kelliher
Everette E. Saunders
Zenon R. Zbyszynski
Frederick Kelliher
Anthony Lamonte
Stefania and Zenon Zbyszynski
Anthony Lamonte
Zenon and Stefania Zbyszynski
and Mrs. Victoria Kozeo
1929
1930-1932
1934
1935
Zenon’s first year appearing in the directory at
this address.
1936
1937
1939
1940
1942-1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1964
The Zbyzynskis resided in the home until 1978
�1874 Salem Atlas
�1897 Salem Atlas
�1911 Salem Atlas
�1890-1903 Salem Atlas (Plate 12)
�1906-1938 Salem Atlas
�Similar construction seen at 24 Becket Street, built c. 1911. (MACRIS: SAL 3270)
�Salem (Mass.). City Documents. 1893.
�Clothiers' and Haberdashers' Weekly, Volume 10, Pg. 14, 1897
�The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) 12 Feb 1909, Fri Page 5
�The Boston Globe
(Boston, Massachusetts)
04 Dec 1912, Wed • Main Edition • Page 8
The Clothier and Furnisher, Volume 89, Pg. 98, 1916
�Massachusetts Grand Lodge of Masons Membership Cards 1733–1990. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.
�Palmer Clothing House, 250 Essex Street. c. 1912. Previously the home of Kent & Boynton.
(Salem State University Archives and Special Collections)
�The Boston Globe
(Boston, Massachusetts)
19 Feb 1929, Tue • Main Edition • Page 13
�History of 5 Becket Avenue, which housed Zbyszynski’s grocery store. (MACRIS Sal.3301)
�Find A Grave, memorial page for Henry Zbyszynski (22 Oct 1882–1946), Find A Grave Memorial no. 82112501, citing Saint Mary's Cemetery, Salem, Essex County,
Massachusetts, USA; Maintained by Kathy Krysiak (contributor 46917874).
�The Boston Globe
(Boston, Massachusetts)
02 Feb 1992, Sun • Page 167
�Restoration: before (2015) and after (2018) by Keith Crook and Oliver Kempf.
��������������������������������������������������
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Cousins Street
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
4 Cousins Street, Salem, MA 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built for
Joseph “Frank” & Mary Boynton
Clothier: Kent & Boynton; Cape Ann Clothing Co.
1894; rebuilt 1910
Built on the former estate of
Philip & Mary English (née Hollingsworth)
Maritime Merchant & Salem Selectman
Accused of Witchcraft, 1692
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1894, 1910, 2018
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Jen Ratliff
Language
A language of the resource
English
1894
1910
2018
4
Boynton
Cousins
English
Frank
History
Hollingsworth
House
Joseph
Mary
Massachusetts
Philip
Salem
Street
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/28828/archive/files/048be57d29b70927b5068b728e59c3cb.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=EZFOIm9ldQjzEh%7EWDvI8UtMl10-moFHSw3AiYeGxWFEQL2ROj3Sn3b65lR4K2NN4Lt7ScPtklUI%7ExNpLEb8xNMFrsLT2bdFgy02BY0dCZtNH-BabYKyYM6HiD7eaWQ8rQPkuRBkN-EXT8U%7E1Vzi4EGLnbRN01slRV8dCr%7Ei1C%7E6vyjNNFZYZofAsQ8XekY3rCGjiJQMaTC3LBvb7B-ALMFpA6AJ4A8e64hVJ2%7EE646R79uGblUBWui3T-tqoGSP8MNT-9cSVQEgEnAh4pyA04aG3MpZKRfczAgnT3I3LCvyKDFoILUJrhtuFOqPx1lOwNPdIJEYQBTGm5yVNMiGPMA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
903fb40254c1cbfa318476e416729baa
PDF Text
Text
4 Carpenter Street
Built for
the Nichols family
c. 1905
Designed by
Ernest Machado
Architect
June 2019
Historic Salem, Inc.
9 North Street, Salem, MA 01970
978.745.0799 | HistoricSalem.org
© 2019
����Inventory No:
SAL.1604
Historic Name:
Nichols, Francis W. House
Common Name:
Address:
4 Carpenter St
City/Town:
Salem
Village/Neighborhood:
Central Salem
Local No:
26-589
Year Constructed:
c 1905
Architect(s):
Machado, Ernest M. A.
Architectural Style(s):
Colonial Revival
Use(s):
Multiple Family Dwelling House; Single Family Dwelling
House
Significance:
Architecture
Area(s):
SAL.HD: Federal Street
SAL.HJ: Chestnut Street Historic District
SAL.HU: McIntire Historic District
Designation(s):
Nat'l Register District (08/28/1973); Local Historic District
(03/03/1981)
Building Materials(s):
Roof: Asphalt Shingle
Wall: Aluminum Siding; Wood
Foundation: Stone, Uncut
The Massachusetts Historical Commission (MHC) has converted this paper record to digital format as part of ongoing
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DATABASE AND ASSOCIATED SCANNED FILES DOES NOT SUBSTITUTE FOR COMPLIANCE WITH APPLICABLE LOCAL, STATE OR
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Massachusetts Historical Commission
220 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, Massachusetts 02125
www.sec.state.ma.us/mhc
This file was accessed on: Wednesday, June 5, 2019 at 12:54 PM
�A1?
67u_.lw)4-
N R D I S 1973;LHD 3/3/81
FORM B - BUILDING
Assessor's number
U S G S Quad
26-589
Area(s)
Salem
Town
F o r m Number
HD,HR,HU,HJ
1604
Salem
Place (neighborhood or village)
Address
Central Salem
4 Carpenter Street
Historic Name
Francis W. Nichols House
Uses: Present
Residential
Original
Residential
Date of Construction
Source
c. 1905
Salem City Directories
Style/Form
Colonial Revival
Architect/Builder
Ernest Machado
Exterior Material:
Foundation
Stone
Wall/Trim
Aluminum Siding
Roof
Asphalt Shingle
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures
none
M a j o r Alterations (with dates)
Condition
Moved
t
Recorded by
Lisa Mausolf
Organization
Salem Planning Department
RECEIVED^
Setting
Cm
MASS. Hi ST. COMM.
good
__
no
_
yes
Date
less than one acre
set back slightly from sidewalk by area o f
hedges and plantings, residential area o f 18th-20th
century buildings
11997
AUG 0 5 f997^°" ' Massachusetts
Acreage
c. 1960 - aluminum siding
Historical
®'
Commission Survey Manual instructions for completing this form.
®
?
�C
BUILDING F O R M
^
vSfTV
llpO^
A R C H I T E C T U R A L DESCRIPTION
Describe architectural
community.
features.
Evaluate
the characteristics
of the building
in terms of other buildings
within the
4 Carpenter Street is a 2 1/2-story dwelling oriented with its narrow end to the street and its principal elevation facing north.
The building is sheathed in aluminum siding and capped by a flared gambrel roof which displays projecting eaves and cornice
returns and is covered with asphalt shingles. The foundation consists o f uncut stones. The north facade is two bays wide.
Projecting from the eastern bay on the facade is a single-story entrance porch supported by paired Roman Doric columns.
There is a wooden deck and stairs and the simple stick balustrade has an inset central diamond. The two-part door is flanked
by leaded sidelights. Windows primarily contain 6/6 sash with molded surrounds, exterior storm windows and shutters.
Centered in the gable is a tripartite window consisting of a 6/6 sash flanked by two narrow 2/2 sash. T w o pedimented
dormers rise from the north slope. Offset to the southeast is a two-story wing.
The house is set back slightly from the sidewalk with a narrow margin of hedges and plantings along the sidewalk.
HISTORICAL
NARRATIVE
Describe the history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history. Include uses of the building
the role(s) the owners/occupants played within the community.
and
According to the previous 1975 survey form for this property, this house was constructed about 1905 according to designs by
local architect, Ernest Machado. Based on interior evidence including the location o f the fireplace, the present owner of the
house believes that the house was built on the site of an earlier dwelling although this could not be verified. Sanborn maps
indicate that there was no building on this site in 1890 although a house is present by 1906. The 1905 City Valuation
indicates that the land was vacant and owned by Jennie Emmerton. The house was apparently constructed shortly thereafter
for Francis W . Nichols who had an antiques store at 67 North Street. The Nichols family continued to own the property until
the 1950s; the last family member to liver here was Millicent Nichols. The property has had numerous occupants since that
time and served as a multiple dwelling for some time. It has now reverted to single-family use.
*
B I B L I O G R A P H Y and/or
REFERENCES
Hopkins, G . M . Atlas of Salem. Massachusetts. Philadelphia: 1874.
Mclntyre, Henry C . E . M a p o f the City o f Salem. Philadelphia: 1851.
Reardon, Elizabeth K . Salem Historic District Study Committee Investigation, v. 3, p. 20.
Richards, L . J . Atlas o f the C i t y o f Salem. Massachusetts. 1897.
Salem City Directories, 1836-1970.
Sanborn Insurance M a p s , 1890, 1906, 1950, 1957, 1965, 1970. [Massachusetts State Library].
Tolles, Bryant F., Jr. Architecture in Salem: an Illustrated Guide. Salem: Essex Institute, 1983.
Walker Lithograph and Publishing Company. Atlas of the City of Salem. Massachusetts. Boston: 1911.
m
Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. If checked, you must attached a completed
National Register Criteria Statement form.
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Present use
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3. D e s c r i p t i o n :
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Source
Style
4. M a p . D r a w s k e t c h o f b u i l d i n g l o c a t i o n
in relation to nearest c r o s s streets and
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E x t e r i o r w a l l f a b r i c Q\vrtft\.ftlNtf\
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Outbuildings (describe)
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Altered
Date
Moved
Date
5. L o t s i z e :
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O v e r one a c r e
*l£
A p p r o x i m a t e frontage
A p p r o x i m a t e distance of building f r o m street
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USGS Quadrant
6. R e c o r d e d b y
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M H C Photo no.
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OCT
7 1975
HL'^lASo. Hi31.
20M-5-73-075074
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�7. O r i g i n a l o w n e r ( i f k n o w n )
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8. T h e m e s ( c h e c k a s m a n y a s a p p l i c a b l e )
Aboriginal
Agricultural
Architectural
The A r t s
Commerce
Communication
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Conservation
Education
Exploration/
settlement
Industry
Military
Political
Recreation
Religion
Science/
invention
Social/
humanitarian
Transportation
9 . H i s t o r i c a l s i g n i f i c a n c e ( i n c l u d e e x p l a n a t i o n of t h e m e s c h e c k e d a b o v e )
SEP
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67
10. B i b l i o g r a p h y and/or r e f e r e n c e s (such as l o c a l histo:
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�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Carpenter Street
Historic Salem, Inc. House History
A resource made available by Historic Salem, Inc. detailing the history of Salem's houses.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
4 Carpenter Street, Salem, MA 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built for
the Nichols family
c. 1905
Designed by
Ernest Machado
Architect
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
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Historic Salem, Inc. house histories
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Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
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c. 1905, 2019
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English
1905
2019
4
Carpenter
circa
ernest
History
House
Machado
Massachusetts
Nichols
Salem
Street
-
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PDF Text
Text
HISTORIC
SALEM INC
4 Blaney Street
Built for
Samuel Ropes 1782, Cooper
Researched by Robert Booth, 1976
Historic Salem Inc,
The Bowditch House
9 North Street, Salem, MA 01970
(978} 745-07991 HistoricSalem.org
©2020
�. SAMUEL ROPES
cooper
1782
.4
Blaney St
Salem, Mass.
�House & Land at
4 Blaney
Street, Salem,
~r
1•..
acs.
This house was built by Samuel nopes, Salem "cooper," in 1782
on the southern half of land that he & Nicholas Lane had bought
from Joseph Blaney in May of t hat year. The 1782 date seems
certain, for in 1781 Sqmuel Ropes (1757-1841) oimed a house &
warehouse in ward 3, and by 1783 he was living in ward one (see
Bentley's Diary, vol.· I, p 14). 'l 'he 1782 property assessment was
made ir.{spring, before Ropes had bought the land, and the 1783
.
as s essment reco1.. ds are incor!!plete , so the records of 1784/5, in
which Samuel Ropes owns a house&· shop worth 400 li in ward one,
are the first actual reference to this house. By the 1786/7
-assessment, Ropes h ad added a warGhouse to the shop & house on
, the land, so perhaps as early as this Samuel was involved as a
merchant in Salem• s ma:.ritime commerce. At any rate, business was
good, and on 30 Jan 1792 Bentley observes "Samuel Ropes forming
a kitchen back: of his house "--perhaps referring to the back lean-to
which gives the house its salt-box appearance (see Bentley's Diary,
vol. I, p 365).
Very early this land was part of the holdings of Henry Harwood,
who died in 1664; his widow & the selectmen of Salem sold Henry's
land in 1669 to Jeremiah Butman (deeds, 3:15), who sold the upper
end to John Becket before 1673, & t he rest to Philip Cromwell on
11 July 1673 (deeds, 4:18), who in 1680 sold it to Edmund Bridges
Sr, a blacksmith, who built a house, shop & wharf thereon, and,
for 160 li sold it in 1682 to widow Elizabeth Turner (deeds, 6:49).
On 28 Oct 1699, John Turner sold the estate to W iam i3eckett,
ill
.
who immedi ately conveyed it to Abraham Purchase, also a blacksmith,
who settled there, dying ca. 1724. {The :preceding information
was found in Sidney Perley 1 s Salem in 1700, part #22}. The old
house & shop were gone by 1767, when Joseph J
Yiascoll (who had
married Ruth Purchase, daughter of Abraham) sold part of the ·land
to Joseph Blaney & Benjamin Pickman Jr, who in 1769 sold his halr
to Blaney, who in 1782 sold a piece of' the l and to Nicholas Lane
& Samuel Rcpes, who soon after built this house t hereon.
Sarnuel Ropes, borp. 8 i".iar 1757, was the 6th .of the 12 children
of Benja.r.iin Ropes, a Salem cooper, & his wife Ruth Hardy. Like
his father, Samuel became a cooper, & on 27 r~ 1780 married Sarah
iay
Cheever (died 1842); their first son, Samuel Jr, was born in 1781,
& this house was built the next year. The coupl_ went on to raise
e
a family of 8 children here--5 boys & 3· r irls--although 3 of the
· boys died at age 20, two of t h em at sea ( see Bentley's Diary, volII,
p 381 ). For more information about the Ropes f amily, see the genealogy in Sidney Perley 1 s History of Salem, Nass., vol I, p 345.
B 1792, Sarnael Ropes seems to have secured a Custom House
y
position, for then Bentley calls him a 11 cooper, cutter, weigher &
gauger." (See Bentley's Diary, . vol I, p 336). Eventually, Ro:pes.
lost his position at the Custom House, but succeded in establishing
�hL~self as a trader & merchant--a man of standing , & probably
the Samuel Ropes who in Salem's election of 1806 was the sole
Federalist chosen Selectman (see Bentley, vol II, p 219).
So by 29 Nov 1814, when, after more than JO years• residence,
he sold his "lot of land with the house, barn, & al]father buildings
standing thereon," Samuel Ropes Esq. was a very successful manno longer the cooper of 1782, but a substantial political & commercial fi gure • .
Sar:iuel Derby Jr (1785-1828) now moved in with his wife
Abig8.il (Buffum), whom he had married 9 Nov 1808, and tlheir
children. Samuel's father, Sainuel (1769?-1826) was a Salem
shoemaker, and h is father, Richard (1736-77), was a brother to
the merchant prince Elias Hasket Derby (1739-99). A few months
after settling at Blaney Street, Derby bought the house & land
11with a store & other buildings thereon 11 that lay immediately
north of h is own land--meaning the Nicholas Lan~ lot . at the
corner of Derby & Blaney Sts (see deeds, 206:140 & 214:124);
thus unifying the 2 original lots of 1782, a situation that
would last until 1881.
Samuel Derby, "trader," dj,ed 16 Jan 1828 at the age of only
42, leaving to his widow Abigail and children Samuel, Charles,
Abigail & Hary "the homestead in Bl.aney St 11 ( this house & its land),
11 a house & land in Derby St, & a store & land at the corner of
Blaney & Derby Sts. 11 --the inventory of his estate reveals that
Hr Derby ran a sort of general store, cor:iplete with great
quantities of rum! (See his probate, #7595).
The property, occupied by widow Abigail & her unmarried
daughter M
ary, remained undivided among the heirs until 1863, when
by 2 deeds (637:40, 646:227) '.Hrs Derby & Mary acquired full rights.
Then, on 2 Sept 1877, al most 50 years after her husband, widow
Abigail (Buffum) Derby died, leaving her share of the property
(a "lot of land at the corner of Derby & Blaney Sts, occuoied
with 2 dwt;lling houses, a store & a b arn 11 ; probate 1¥37369) · to
her son Ch arles of Hawaii ( Samu el Jr had died in Hawaii), her
daughter Mary Derby of Salem, & to the 2 dau ghters of her de~eased
daught er Abigail (Derby) Gould. By three deeds, Hary Derby
acquired the property (deeds 1009:31, 1022 : 204 & 205).
Mary Derby did not hold it long , and on 11 Oct 1881--when
the h ouse was 99 years old--at last sold t he Samuel Ropes house
(and its original lot) out of the Derby family.
Robert Booth
3 June 1976
�Deeds relat ing to House
&
Land at 4 Blaney St., Salem, Hass.
1 Ap 1767: Joseph & Ruth ( Purchase) HASCOLL, he being a Salem
shipwright, for 11 3.6 . 8 li sell to Joseph BLA1-GY & 3enj runin PIC:U1AN Jr,
.
Salem gentlemen, as tenants in comr.1on (ea ch paying half the price)
a piece of Salem land bounded
nw 170 1 4" on a t own way bet·ween the Has colls I mansion house
& the pren ises;
neon l and of i"lilliam Becket & on l and belonging to the i1ascolls,
or to one of the Nascolls, & o thers,yet U..l'ldivided;
se on t h e channel of the South River or Harbour;
sw on Abraham ifat s on 1 s l~d.
(S o. .~ssex co. Deeds , 117:262)
. ,.
8 May 1769: Benja. in PICKH.AN Jr Esq., Salem, for 62.13.4 li sells
m
·,.;o Joseph BLANEY his half of the premises described a bove.
(Deeds, 1-31 :1.57)
20 May 1782: Joseph BLANZY', Esq, of Sal em, for 273 li in silver
sells to Nicholas LANE, Salem sail-maker, & Saiuuel ROPES., Salem coop_er,
a p iece of land 45.5 p oles square in the east parish of Salem, bounded
w. 176' 9 11 on George Dodge,
n. 75 1 6 11 on a town way,
e. 165 1 4" on sd Jo seph Blaney,
s. 73 1 7" on sd Jo seph Blaney;
with the liberty of passing & repassing with carts & other carriages
in the way on the eastward of the prer.1ises, leading from the town way
aforesaid to Blaney 1 s Wharf, said ·v:ay being 23. 5 ' wide (west to east)
& 165' 4" lomg {north to south) being the whole l ength of the premises.
(Deeds , 139:128)
June 1782: Nichol a s LANZ, Sal em sail-m2ker, and Samuel ROPES,
Salem c ooper, h ave a greed to make divinior. & p artition of the land
t hey lately purchase d of Joseph Blaney Bs q {see above, 139:128) in
t he following manner: that the sd parcel of land be divided exactly
into 2 equal parts for quantity of land, the di vision line to be
dravm east-to-west; & t hat the l and north of sd di vision line is set
off to Nich olas , & the land sou th of sd line is set off t o sd Samuel.
(Deeds, 141:185)
7 June 1791 : It i s m.utu a.lly agreed betwe en one pp_rty ( Capt Edward
ALLEN & Capt Samuel Ii:m:3:ZS0i.L, both o:f Sc.l em ) and ·the other party
{Samuel ROPES of Salem) that t he division f ence between t h e land of
s d All en & Ingersoll & t he l and of sd Ropes (being t h e southern bounds
of sd rtopes 1 land), which fence runs in a straight line with the
division fence running between All en & Ingersoll 1 s land & the land
of rtichard Pal1'rey, shall be alt ered in such a manne1• as to run at
ri ght angles, square ,..ri th t he l ane l eading to the .- h~f of sd Allen &
J
Ing ersoll. And it is altered a ccordingly.
~Deeds , 154:109)
�/
29 Nov 1814 : Sar:m el ( & w.
S£>.rah) RO?::IB 3sq, Sal e:n, for
$1300 sells
tc, .:.a111ui:,l DZ... l3Y Jr, Sal em t1•ader, a lot of l and with t he d1 elling
1
•
1
house, barn. & all other buildings standing thereon, conta ining
,
about 23 poles, on 3laney Street, bounded starting on sd Blaney St
ac these corner of Nicholas Lane 1 s l and, & then
runs sw 73' 6" by sd Nicholas Lane;
runs se 87 1 by. heirs of Joshu a Dodge dec 1 d; ·
runs n e 73 1 6 1 by land l at e of Sru~uel Ingersoll dec 1 d; as the
f ences now stand;
rLlils nw 87 1 on sd Blaney Street.
(Deeds, 205:36)
11 Oct 1881: Mary DERBY, Salem sinr;leworean, fo~ $1135 sells to
George WHEATLAND -a s trustee for Mary DURGIN, wife of John Durgin, a
Salem messuage, bounded
east 86 1 on Blaney St
south 73 ' on Rowell
west 86 1 on formerly Brookhouse
north 73' on sd Nary Derby & on Sullivan;
with the unders tanding tha t sd Wheatland shall pay over the property_'s
n e t rent &. income to sd Nary Durgin during her lifetime, & at her_
decease sd ¼'heatland shall convey & pay over the estate to whomever
·
l'iar y Durgin as signs in her will or, in default of a will, t o her heirs•
And t h en sd Wheatland mortgaged the prer,1is e s for ;p.535 to H.ary
Derby, who discharged the mortgage on 19 Nov 1883.
(Deeds, 1069:160)
6 Aug 1883 : John DURGIN of Salem, for $1 r ele ase s to Thomas DURGIN
of Salem all his right to the above r eal estate.
( Deeds , 1124:99)
1 Feb 1884: George WHEA'fJLAND, Salem, for $1, according to the will
of Ifar y Durgin deceased, gr ants to her s on Thomas DURGIN a Salem
me~s~age, bounded t h e sa..~e as above (11 Oct 1881 ); it being the
·
es"Ga-i:;e t hat Wheatl and, as trustee for I-I2.ry Durgin, bought froni Hary
Derby 11 Oct 1881, 1069 :1 60, above.
( Deeds , 1124:99)
14 Oct 1889: Thomas DURGIN, Salem, for $1600 grants to John H
CASH11AN., Salem, a Salem rr..essuage bounded
ne 86 1 on Blaney St,
se 73' on Rowell,
sw 86 1 on formerl y Brookhouse,
nw 73' on Sullivan & on now or l ate (n/1) lfary Derby;
b e i ng the sar.ie pr emises conveyed to sci Thomas D
UI1GI N by George Wheatland
in deed 1124:99, and devised to Th omas in ~he will of h is mother, I-iary
Durgin. See al so the deed f r om. John t o Thomas Durgin, 6 A 1883; t124:99;
ug
& the deed from Mar y Derby t o George .-{neatland 11 Oct 1881, 1069 :160 (incorrec t ly r e f erred t o a s 1124:99 in the deed book). (Deeds, 1 261:77)
�24 Oct 1 9 10: John J ~ i-lilJ i ain F CASIDIAn, h eir s of their decea s ed
moth er, Anastasia CASHM N of Salem, for $1 r elea se to t heir f a t her,
A
John H CASH
KAN, all their right to a Sal em me ssu age on Bl aney Street,
bounded as on 14 Oct 1889, 1261 :77.
(Deeds, 2047:148 )
24 Oct 1910: John H CASffi1AN, wi dm·.rer of Sal <::m, for $1 releases
to hi s sons J <?hn J _& Wm F CASiI:i:IA Sal em, the above r eal est ate,
.N,
subjec t t o a $1, 000 mor t gage to Sal em Co-oper a tive Bank; and sd granter
r eserve s t o h i mself al l i1i s r i.ghts t o the above r eal e s tat e a s
hu sband of t he l a te A astasi a Cashman.
n
(Deeds, 2047:149}
10 Jul y 1922 : John H CASHMAN, widower, and John J & vim F CASHMAN,
all of Sal em, gr ant to Henry L RUSSELL & Chester B SIM both of Salem,
,
a Salem n essu age on Blaney Street, bounded
ne 86 1 on Blaney St,
se · 73! on n/1 Rowell,
sw 86 • on n/1 Brookhouse,
nw 73 ' on· n/1 of Sulliv~ & n/1 of Mary Derby.
(Deeds, 2522 :89}
15 Mar 1941: In 2 de eds, Che s ter B SI H, lfar bl eh e ad, and Henry
L RUSSELL, Sal em, gr ant t o the RUSSEtLwSIM TANNING COM
PANY, t he above
r eal est a t e, r efe r r ing t o deed 2522:89.
(Deeds, 3250:465}
1 Nar 1944: RUSSELL- SIM TANNI NG CO PAJ.~, Sal em, gr ants to
M
1-In.ry A ARChlJHG of Sal em, trustee of . rlebb W ar f Associat e s, 5 p arcels
h
in Sal em wi th t he buildings t her eon , par cel #4 b ei ng t he · s ame r eferred
t o i n de ed 3250: 465.
( Deeds , 3393:482 }
15 Nov 1960: Hary
ARC
HUNG, t rus t ee of W
ebb \·n-1arf Associates,
grant s t o Jo s eph T , Her bert L., & J..fary R NACK3Y, t h e same .5 J?ai'cels
as de s cnibe d i n deed 3393:482.
( Deeds., 4722 :4)
A
18 Nov 1964 : Joseph T, Herber t L,
to THO
MAS HAC
KSY & SO
NS, U!C., the s ame
deed 4722: 4 above.
&
M
ary R M
ACKEY, Sal em, grant
5 p arcel s as des cribed i n
(Deeds, 5225 :335}
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Samuel Ropes EStf
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o
�History ofHouse and Occupants, Four Blaney Street, Salem
By Robert A. Booth, Jr., for Historic Salem Inc., May 25, 2006.
According to available evidence, this house was built in 1782 for
Samuel Ropes, cooper.
On May 20, 1782, Joseph Blaney Esq. for 273 1i sold to Samuel
Ropes, cooper, and Nicholas Lane, sailmaker, a parcel of land at the
comer of Derby Street and the road that ran down to Blaney' s Wharf.
The parcel was bounded northerly 75' 6" on a town way (now Derby
Street), easterly 165' 4" on land of Blaney (now Blaney Street),
southerly 73' 7" on Blaney land, and westerly 176' 9" on land of
Dodge (ED 139: 128). In June, 1782, the new owners subdivided the
property, and Mr. Ropes took the parcel closest to the water (ED
141: 185). On it, he built this house, in 1782, facing across the harbor
toward the west shore ofMarblehead. By 1791, the wharf was owned
by Edward Allen and Samuel Ingersoll; and in June Mr. Ropes made
an agreement with them as to fencing the boundary line between their
property and his. The main house was given a rear addition ("leanto")
in the fall of 1791, per Rev. William Bentley, who noted in October
that "Samuel Ropes is forming a kitchen back of his house." (per
Bentley's diary, volume 1). On his northerly parcel, Mr. Lane built a
store at the comer and a house to the west of the store, on Derby
Street. The land here had been purchased jointly in 1767 by Joseph
Blaney and Benjamin Pickman; and in 1769 Mr. Blaney had bought
out Mr. Pickman.
Samuel Ropes (1757-1841) was born in Salem, the son of Benjamin
Ropes ( 1722-1790), and Ruth (Hardy) Ropes ( c.1724-1795). He was
the sixth of twelve children- Benjamin, Joseph, Samuel (died young),
Sarah, Lydia, Samuel, Hardy, Ruth, Hardy, George, Joseph, and
Timothy. He grew up on upper Essex Street, near what is now Monroe
Street (site of public library). His father worked as a cooper, and was
part of a very large extended family. On both sides, his family roots
went back to the 1600s in Salem.
Samuel Ropes' boyhood was in the 1760s, a decade in which Salem's
foreign commerce-primarily with Spain and with British Caribbean
islands- began to falter, as the British enforced their new trade
regulations. Salem' s main export was salt cod, which was caught far
offshore by Salem and Marblehead fishermen and brought back to the
1
�local fishyards, where it was "cured" until it was hard and dry and
could be shipped long distances. This was a staple food in Catholic
Europe (Spain and Portugal especially) and also in the Caribbean,
where it fed the slaves. To Europe went the fish that was
"merchantable" (high-grade), and to the Caribbean went the "refuse"
(low quality). Either sort, put into a pot of boiling water, would tum
into nutritious food. Many of the barrels that Samuel Ropes' father
made were used as containers for salt cod. Lumber, horses, cattle, and
foodstuffs were also sent to the Caribbean, whence came molasses,
sugar, cotton, and mahogany. From Europe came back finished goods
(made in India and England), iron, wine, fruit, feathers, and leather.
There was also some trade between Salem and the Chesapeake Bay
area, which provided com, wheat, and tobacco, while South Carolina
provided rice. Most Salem merchant vessels were small, under 60
tons.
The tidal South River ran along Derby Street and all the way to the
present Post Office; and in this secure deep-water inner harbor were
most of the wharves and warehouses, although some wharves were
built along the North River too. The Browne family, whose houses
stood on Essex Street between Liberty and Washington, dominated
Salem's society, and the Brownes were leading merchants, followed
by Benjamin Pickman (1708-1773), Samuel Gardner, Timothy Orne,
and, by the 1750s, Richard Derby (1712-1783). Salem's colonial
commerce was active but the imperial authorities limited the Salem
merchants to trade with designated British possessions. By smuggling
and trading with un-approved partners, the Salem merchants made
good profits.
In 1760, after Canada and the Ohio Valley were taken from the
French, the English decided to pay for the costs of war and of
sustaining a bureaucracy in America by squeezing tax revenues out of
the colonials' trade. Although they had been under royal governors for
two generations, the New Englanders had been self-governing by town
meetings at the local level and, at the provincial level, through an
elected legislature. They regarded themselves as a free people, and not
as dependents of a far-away mother country. Merchants and mariners
had always traded with the Spanish and Dutch in Europe and the
various islands of the Caribbean, regardless of their national
affiliations; and they deeply resented the British crack-down on this
trade, accompanied by privateering against American vessels by both
the French and the British.
2
�In 1761, a group of Salem and Boston merchants sued to prevent the
use of search warrants ("writs of assistance") by the Customs officials
who were trying to inspect their vessels and warehouses. Later in the
decade, Salemites were roused against the Stamp Act, and applied tar
and feathers to a couple of men who disagreed. In Boston, mobs
attacked the royal officials' houses and beat up their flunkies. The
British authorities were surprised at this resistance to their policies,
and feared an insurrection. In 1768, they sent over a small army to
occupy Boston. Now the Americans were forced to see themselves as
misbehaving colonials, and to realize that they were not free. They did
not like this picture, and the result was bitter public opposition and
more street violence in Boston. The Boston Massacre took place in
March, 1770; in short order, all of Massachusetts turned openly
against the British, and the clouds of war gathered on the horizon.
Samuel Ropes was a boy of thirteen at this time, just entering into his
indenture as an apprentice cooper, probably working for his father,
Deacon Benjamin Ropes, a leader of Rev. Dudley Leavitt's "New
Light" Church. Before the Revolution, Samuel's older sisters were all
well-married: Sarah (1752-1796) to Jerathmeel Peirce, who would
become a privateer-owner and a great merchant; and Lydia (17541835) to 1774 Capt. Ichabod Nichols (1749-1839) a shipmaster and
later a merchant of Salem and Portsmouth. His older brother,
Benjamin Ropes Jr., married Margaret Symonds and would serve as a
lieutenant in the rebel army, in which he died as a young man.
Pre-revolutionary Salem had more than its share of Tories; but the
Sons of Liberty were in the majority. Wealthy scions of families like
the Curwens, Pickmans, and Brownes, stayed loyal to the King, as did
many others who had married into the merchant families. In 1774,
military rule was imposed from England as Gen. Thomas Gage
became governor of Massachusetts and the port of Boston was shut
down in punishment for the Tea Party of December, 1773. On June 2,
1774, Salem became the new capital of Massachusetts, as a reward for
its supposed loyalty. Governor Gage and his officials relocated to the
North Shore, and the Customs operation was conducted from
Marblehead, while Salem became the major seaport ofNew England,
handling virtually all of the commercial business that Boston had
done. Hundreds of new people moved to Salem, and the legislature
met in Salem's Court House. In short order that legislature, led by
John Hancock, voted its independence from the authority of
Parliament, and set itself up as the governing body of a free state.
Gage tried to shut it down, but it was too late: he had lost control of
Massachusetts to the rebel assembly gathered in Salem. The town still
3
�had a powerful and outspoken group of loyalists, led by Peter Frye, a
prominent merchant and magistrate whose wife was a Pickman. One
night in October, Judge Frye learned just how far the rebels were
willing to go: his fine house on Essex Street was burned down and his
family barely escaped with their lives as half a block of houses and
stores and a church all went up in smoke. Next day, the rebel assembly
met again and voted to move their proceedings to Concord. Gage and
his officials moved to Boston, and many of the loyalists followed.
Outside of Boston, all of Massachusetts was under the control of the
rebels.
By January, 1775, loyalists had been purged from the Salem militia
regiment, and Col. William Browne was replaced by Col. Timothy
Pickering, who was writing a book on military drill. Samuel Ropes
was then seventeen; Pickering was a first cousin of Ropes' mother,
Ruth Hardy Ropes. One Sunday in February, 1775, the Revolutionary
War almost began in Salem. When everyone was in church, Col.
Leslie's redcoats marched overland from Marblehead and arrived in
downtown Salem, hoping to seize cannon and munitions in North
Salem. They came to a sudden halt at the North Bridge-the Salem
men, alerted by a Marblehead rider, had pulled up the draw of the
bridge. Rev. Thomas Barnard Jr., of the North Church, engaged Col.
Leslie in discussion; and Capt. John Felt, warned Leslie that blood
would flow ifhe did not tum back. Negotiations followed, and
agreement was reached: the draw went down, Leslie's men advanced a
short distance into North Salem, faced about, and marched back
through Salem's South Fields and Marblehead, whose own regiment,
led by Col. Jeremiah Lee, could have slaughtered them. Instead, the
Marbleheaders fell in behind them, marching in mockery of Leslie's
Retreat as the British made their way back to the beach and boarded
their whaleboats to return to the transport vessel.
With the battle at Lexington & Concord, April 19th, 1775, the die was
cast. Of course no one knew how the war would end, and there was
little to indicate that the colonials could actually defeat the King's
army and navy, but virtually every able-bodied Salem man and boy
gave himself over to the cause. Salem's regiment participated in the
siege of Boston, as George Washington took command of the army in
Cambridge. The British left Boston in March, 1776, never to return.
Washington's army was pushed southward from Long Island in a
series of defeats, during which Salem's Col. Timothy Pickering
became one of the General's most trusted officers, and Quartermaster
General of the army. Washington's first victory was the Battle of
4
�Trenton, on Christmas Day, 1776, made possible by the Marblehead
regiment of Gen. John Glover. Eventually most of the Salem men
came home and sailed in privateers for the duration of the war. There
is no record of military service by Samuel Ropes, so it is likely that he
sailed as a privateer, and perhaps was successful. It should be noted
that there was another Samuel Ropes in town at that time, the son of a
Loyalist judge.
In 1780, Samuel Ropes (1757-1841) married Sarah Cheever, and in
1782 he built this house, facing down the wharf, then known as
Blaney' s Wharf. Eventually the wharf was extended well out into the
harbor, probably by Ingersoll & Allen, and was known by 1820 as
Ome's Wharf, one of the largest in Salem, running out about 900'. By
1850, somewhat reduced in size, it was known as Webb's Wharf.
Samuel Ropes (1757-1841), born 8 March 1757, s/o Benjamin
Ropes & Ruth Hardy, died 5 Dec. 1841. Hem. 27 May 1780 Sarah
Cheever (1758-1842), d/o Ezekiel Cheever, died 11 Oct. 1842.
Known issue, surname Ropes:
1. Samuel, 1781, died at sea 1800, supercargo of Henry.
2. Benjamin, 1783, died 1801 by accident on board Belisarius.
3. William, 1784, m. 1811 Martha Reed, of Boston and Russia,
merchant.
4. Sally,1786
5. Hardy, 1788, m. 1824 Mary Ladd; of Boston, merchant.
6. Ruth Hardy, 1791-1837, m. Henry Prince.
7. Louisa, 18793-1842, m. 1821 Rev. Samuel Green, Boston.
8. Joseph, 1796-1816.
In 1784, Samuel Ropes' house and shop in ward one were valued at
400 Ii, and his stock & faculty at 100 Ii (per valuations, 1784-5). His
future business partner, John Page, of ward four (Federal Street), had a
house worth 600 Ii and stock & faculty valued at 300 Ii. As may be
seen, many of those who had gained during the Revolution through
privateering did not have much money by the end of the war. Their
future fortunes would depend on the prosperity of Salem's overseas
commerce, their connections to men who did have money, and their
own entrepreneurial abilities. Samuel Ropes was well connected in
Salem, through his merchant brothers-in-law. His younger brothers
were not in a position to assist his coopering business, but all three
brothers-in-law were merchants with extensive shipping interests who
stood in need of barrels as containers for their cargos as well as barrel-
5
�making materials that they might export to the wine islands and
Europe.
In 1783 Samuel's sister Ruth (1761-1850) would marry John Leach
(1741-1805), a privateer commander, shipmaster, and later a
merchant. Samuel' s younger brothers were Hardy, who became a
New Hampshire farmer; Capt. George (1765-1807), a shipmaster who
would marry Seeth Millett (1769-1823) in 1789, and would be lost at
sea in 1807; Joseph (1770-1795) lost at sea schooner Active; and Capt.
Timothy ( 1773-1848) who married Sarah Holmes and would become
a cooper and shipmaster (EIHC 7:196-9).
Samuel's father, Deacon Benjamin Ropes, died in 1790, leaving house
& land worth $1683 and a modest personal estate. His widow Ruth
survived him until 1795 (EIHC 7:150-153).
Through the memoir of a nephew, Benjamin Ropes, we get a glimpse
of Samuel's life and work (see EIHC, "Benjamin Ropes'
Autobiography"), as follows. Samuel Ropes' brother, Lt. Benjamin
Ropes, an officer in the Revolutionary army who died of camp fever
in 1778, left three small children and his wife, Margaret (Symonds)
Ropes, who, in 1788, apprenticed her son Benjamin, sixteen, to his
uncle Samuel Ropes, of Blaney Street, "to learn the cooper' s trade"making barrels and casks and buckets. Ben would serve Samuel for
two years while she provided for Ben' s "board and clothing." After
learning the trade, Ben was to teach it to his younger brother James,
who stayed at home to help their mother. Benjamin served out his time
under uncle Samuel, who thereafter employed him as a journeyman
cooper. One day in January, 1790, Benjamin went to the wharf to pack
a hogshead of fish (a hogshead was a very large barrel); "being shorthanded, (Ben) exerted himself beyond (his) strength by which (he)
sprained his breast," which caused him to cough up blood every
morning into the month of June, with continual night-sweats and great
weakness. To save his health, young Benjamin shipped out on a
fishing voyage, and returned, much stronger, in September, to find that
his brother James had lost a hand due when a gun exploded. Again,
Ben "applied to my uncle Samuel Ropes for employment." Samuel
had no jobs open, and said he was barely able to make ends meet, but
referred Benjamin to another uncle, the rich merchant Jerathmeel
Peirce, who turned down Ben's request for a $30 loan to get started as
a cooper at the North Bridge. This surprised uncle Samuel, who then
advised Ben to seek a loan from the lumber merchant Miles Ward,
6
�who cheerfully complied, and launched Benjamin on a successful
career.
In some places, the post-war loss of the former colonial connections
and trade routes was devastating, for Americans were prohibited from
trading with most British possessions; but in Salem, the merchants and
mariners were ready to push their ships and cargos into all parts of the
known world. They did so with astonishing success. By virtue of
competing fiercely, pioneering new routes, and opening and
dominating new markets, Salem won a high place in the world. Hasket
Derby, William Gray, Eben Beckford, and Joseph Peabody were the
town's commercial leaders. In 1784, Derby began trade with Russia;
and in 1784 and 1785 he dispatched trading vessels to Africa and
China, respectively. Voyages to India soon followed, and to the Spice
Islands and Pepper Islands (Java, Sumatra, Malaya, etc.). All of this
commerce was a boon to the coopers, including Samuel Ropes, who
amassed a good deal of money.
By the 1790s, the new foreign-trade markets- and the coffee trade,
which would be opened in 1798 with Mocha, Arabia- brought great
riches to the Salem merchants, and raised the level of wealth
throughout the town: new ships were bought and built, more crews
were formed with more shipmasters, new shops and stores opened,
new partnerships were formed, and new people moved to town. In
1792 Salem's first bank, the Essex Bank, was founded, although it
"existed in experiment a long time before it was incorporated," per
Rev. William Bentley. From a population of 7921 in 1790, the town
would grow by 1500 persons in a decade. At the same time, thanks to
the economic policies of Alexander Hamilton, Salem vessels were
able to transport foreign cargoes tax-free and essentially to serve as
the neutral carrying fleet for both Britain and France, which were at
war with each other.
Samuel Ropes secured a position as a weigher & gauger in the Custom
House, evidently, for in 1792 William Bentley, minister of the East
Church, refers to him as "cooper, cutter, weigher & gauger"
(Bentley's diary, I:336). In 1793 Samuel Ropes went into business as
a ship-chandler, with a partner, Col. John Page (1751-1838) of 112114 Federal Street. As Page & Ropes, Ship Chandlers, they operated a
large brick store that supplied provisions and supplies to vessels
bound on long voyages (per EIHC I:55). They carried everything from
groceries to cordage, quadrants, charts, tar, brandy, gin, lime stone,
sugar, and rum. Their store was leased from Hasket Derby evidently,
7
�and was located at the head of Union Wharf, on Derby Street opposite
Union Street; and in 1800 for $4000 they purchased the store and land
from the Derby heirs (ED 167:176). At the same time, it is likely that
Mr. Ropes carried on his cooper's business, with supervisor hired to
oversee the journeymen and apprentices. Page & Ropes did an
excellent business along the booming waterfront;,and in 1798 the firm
contributed $100 toward construction of a privat9ly financed Salem
frigate, the Essex, for defense against marauding French ships (EIHC
75:6).
,
a
In the late 1790s, there was agitation in Congress to go to war with
France, which was at war with England. After President Adams'
negotiators were rebuffed by the French leaders in 1797, a quasi-war
with France began in summer, 1798, much to the horror of Salem's
George Crowninshield family (father and five shipmaster sons), which
had an extensive trade with the French, and whose ships and cargos in
French ports were susceptible to seizure. The quasi-war brought about
a political split within the Salem population. Those who favored war
with France (and detente with England) aligned themselves with the
national Federalist party, led by Hamilton and Salem's Timothy
Pickering (the U.S. Secretary of State). These included most of the
merchants, led locally by the Derby family. Those who favored peace
with France were the Anti-Federalists, led by Jefferson and his
Democratic-Republican party; they were led locally by the
Crowninshields. For the first few years of this rivalry, the Federalists
prevailed; but after the death of Hasket "King" Derby in 1799 his
family's power weakened. Samuel Ropes was a staunch and active
Federalist, and would serve as a selectman of the town.
In 1800, Adams negotiated peace with France and fired Pickering as
Secretary of State. Salem's Federalists merchants erupted in anger,
expressed through their newspaper, the Salem Gazette. At the same
time, British vessels began to harass American shipping. Salem
owners bought more cannon and shot, and kept pushing their trade to
the farthest ports of the rich East, while also maintaining trade with
the Caribbean and Europe. Salem cargos were exceedingly valuable,
and Salem was a major center for distribution of merchandise
throughout New England: "the streets about the wharves were alive
with teams loaded with goods for all parts of the country. It was a
busy scene with the coming and going of vehicles, some from long
distances, for railroads were then unknown and all transportation must
be carried on in wagons and drays. In the taverns could be seen
teamsters from all quarters sitting around the open fire in the chilly
8
�evenings, discussing the news of the day or making merry over
potations of New England rum, which Salem manufactured.in
abundance." (from Hurd's History ofEssex County, 1888, p. 65).
The Crowninshields, led by brother Jacob, were especially successful,
as their holdings rose from three vessels in 1800 to several in 1803.
Their bailiwick, this Derby Street district, seeme4 almost to be itself
imported from some foreign country: in the stores, parrots chattered
and monkeys cavorted, and from the warehouses wafted the exotic
aromas of Sumatran spices and Arabian coffee beans and Caribbean
molasses. From the wharves were carted all manner of strange fruits,
and crates of patterned china in red and blue, and piles of gorgeous
silks and figured cloths, English leather goods, and hundreds of barrels
of miscellaneous objects drawn from all of the ports and workshops of
the world. The greatest of the Salem merchants at this time was
William "Billy" Gray, who owned 36 large vessels-IS ships, 7 barks,
13 brigs, 1 schooner- by 1808. Salem was then still a town, and a
small one by our standards, with a total population of about 9,500 in
1800. Its politics were fierce, and polarized everything. The two
factions attended separate churches, held separate parades, and
supported separate schools, military companies, and newspapers.
Salem' s merchants resided mainly on two streets: Washington (which
ended in a wharf on the Inner Harbor, and, above Essex, had the Town
House in the middle) and Essex (particularly between what are now
Hawthorne Boulevard and North Street). The East Parish (Derby
Street area) was for the seafaring families, shipmasters, sailors, and
fishermen. In the 1790s, Federal Street, known as New Street, had
more empty lots than fine houses. Chestnut Street did not exist: its site
was a meadow. As the 19th century advanced, Salem's commercial
prosperity would sweep almost all of the great downtown houses away
(the brick Joshua Ward house, built 1784, is a notable exception).
The Ropes family prospered in these years, but suffered double
tragedy, when the two oldest boys, Benjamin and Samuel, died in
1800 and in 1801, one at Curacao on a voyage of the Henry which he
was supercargo, aged nineteen, and one at Union Wharf, second mate
of the Belisarius, crushed to death by a falling spar, aged eighteen.
The two Ropes brothers were young men of great ability and promise,
and their deaths fell as terrible blows on their family and friends. Two
of their three younger brothers would grow up to become prominent
merchants in Boston.
9
�The Common was covered with hillocks, small ponds and swamps,
utility buildings, and the alms-house. In 1802, Col. Elias Hasket
Derby (Jr.) began a subscription drive to landscape the common and
transform it into a beautiful promenade and paracte ground, to be
known as Washington Square. Samuel Ropes gave $5 to level the
Common (EIHC 4:139), along with many others; and the project was
soon completed.
5
The town's merchants were among the wealthiest in the country, and,
in Samuel McIntire, they had a local architect who could help them
realize their desires for large and beautiful homes in the latest style.
While a few of the many new houses went up in the old EssexWashington Street axis, most were erected on or near Washington
Square or in the Federalist "west end" (Chestnut, Federal, and upper
Essex Streets). The architectural style (called "Federal" today) had
been developed by the Adam brothers in England and featured fanlight
doorways, palladian windows, elongated pilasters and columns, and
large windows.
A new bank, the Salem Bank, was formed in 1803, and there were two
insurance companies and several societies and associations. The fierce
politics and commercial rivalries continued. The ferment of the times
is captured in the diary of Rev. William Bentley, bachelor minister of
Salem's East Church and editor of the Register newspaper. His diary
is full of references to the civic and commercial doings of the town,
and to the lives and behaviors of all classes of society. He had high
hopes for the future of a republican America, with well-educated
citizens. He observed and fostered the transition in Salem, and wrote
in his diary (2 Dec. 1806), "While Salem was under the greatest
aristocracy in New England, few men thought, and the few directed
the many. Now the aristocracy is gone and the many govern. It is plain
it must require considerable time to give common knowledge to the
people." On Union Street, not far from Bentley's church, on the fourth
of July, 1804, was born a boy who would grow up to eclipse all sons
of Salem in the eyes of the world: Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose father
would die of fever while on a voyage to the Caribbean in 1808. This
kind of untimely death was all too typical of Salem's young seafarers,
who fell prey to malaria and other diseases of the Caribbean and
Pacific tropics.
Salem was by no means the Federalist town that some have portrayed
it to be: the political balance was about even between the Federalists
and the Democratic-Republicans; and in 1806, Samuel Ropes was the
�)
sole Federalist chosen town selectman. In that year, the heirs ofE.H.
Derby extended their wharf far out into the harbor, tripling its previous
length. This they did to create more space for warehouses and shipberths in the deeper water, at just about the time that the
Crowninshields had built their great India Wharf at the foot of nowWebb Street. The other important wharves were Forrester's (now
Central, just west of Derby Wharf), White' s (offWhite Street), Orne's
(near White's), and Union Wharf, where Page & Ropes had its store.
Farther to the west, a number of smaller wharves extended into the
South River (filled in during the late 1800s), all the way to the foot of
Washington Street. Each had a warehouse or two, and shops for
artisans (coopers, blockmakers, joiners, etc.). The waterfront between
Union Street and Washington Street also had lumber yards and several
ship chandleries and distilleries, with a Market House at the foot of
Central Street, below the Custom House. The wharves and streets
were crowded with shoppers, gawkers, hawkers, sailors, artisans
("mechanics"), storekeepers, and teamsters; and just across the way,
on Stage Point along the south bank of the South River, wooden barks
and brigs and ships were being built in the shipyards.
Salem' s boom came to an end with a crash in January, 1808, when
Jefferson and the Congress imposed an embargo on all shipping in
hopes of forestalling war with Britain. The Embargo, which was
widely opposed in New England, proved futile and nearly ruinous in
Salem, where commerce ceased. In October, the Federalists of Essex
County held an anti-Embargo convention at Topsfield, at which
Samuel Ropes was one of the delegates (p.275, J.D. Phillips, Salem &
The Indies). As a hotbed of Democratic-Republicanism, Salem's East
Parish and its seafarers, led by the Crowninshields, loyally supported
the Embargo until it was lifted in spring, 1809. Shunned by the other
Salem merchants for his support of the Embargo, the eminent Billy
Gray took his large fleet of ships- fully one-third of Salem's
tonnage-and moved to Boston, whose commerce was thereby much
augmented. Gray's removal eliminated a huge amount of Salem
wealth, shipping, import-export cargos, and local employment. Gray
soon switched from the Federalist party, and was elected Lt. Governor
under Gov. Elbridge Gerry, a native of Marblehead.
At this time, Samuel Ropes and his wife decided to move out of the
east Parish, where they had resided since 1782. On 1 Aug. 1809 for
$2900 Samuel Ropes, merchant, bought from Jacob Lord, carpenter,
the westerly part of the large new house, with barn, at 134 bridge
Street, on the southerly corner ofNorthey Street (ED 187:228). Into
11
�this house Samuel Ropes and his family soon moved; and there he
would live for many years more, until his death in 1841.
After the lifting of the Embargo, Salem resumed its seafaring
commerce for three years, still subject to British predators; and in
June, 1812, war was declared against Britain. Although the merchants
had tried to prevent the war, when it came, Salem swiftly fitted out 40
privateers manned by Marblehead and Salem crews, who also served
on U.S. Navy vessels, including the frigate Constitution. Many more
local vessels could have been sent against the British, but some of the
Federalist merchants held them back. In addition, Salem fielded
companies of infantry and artillery. Salem and Marblehead privateers
were largely successful in making prizes of British supply vessels.
While many of the town's men were wounded in engagements, and
some were killed, the possible riches of privateering kept the men
returning to sea as often as possible. The first prizes were captured by
a 30-ton converted fishing schooner, the Fame, and by a 14-ton luxury
yacht fitted with one gun, the Jefferson. Of all Salem privateers, the
Crowninshields' 350-ton ship America was most successful: she
captured 30-plus prizes worth more than $1,100,000.
Salem erected forts and batteries on its Neck, to discourage the British
warships that cruised these waters. On land, the war went poorly for
the United States, as the British captured Washington, DC, and burned
the Capitol and the White House. Along the western frontier, U.S.
forces were successful against the weak English forces; and, as
predicted by many, the western expansionists had their day. At sea, as
time wore on, Salem vessels were captured, and its men imprisoned or
killed. After almost three years, the war was bleeding the town dry.
Hundreds of Salem men and boys were in British prison-ships and at
Dartmoor Prison in England. At the Hartford Convention in 1814,
New England Federalist delegates met to consider what they could do
to bring the war to a close and to restore the region' s commerce. Sen.
Timothy Pickering of Salem led the extreme Federalists in proposing a
series of demands which, if not met by the federal government, could
lead to New England' s seceding from the United States; but the
Pickering faction was countered by Harrison G. Otis of Boston and the
moderate Federalists, who prevailed in sending a moderate message to
Congress.
At last, in February, 1815, peace was restored.
12
�Toward the end of the war, in November, 1814, for $1300 Samuel
Ropes Esq. sold the house here on Blaney Street to Samuel Derby, Jr.
(ED 205 :36).
Samuel Derby Jr. ( 1785-1828) was a ship chandler, also known as a
trader or grocer. Born 2 Oct. 1785, he was the eldest often children of
Samuel Derby (1764-1826) & Bethiah Watts (17.67-1851) of Salem.
His father, who began his career as an artisan, became a ship chandler,
and prospered until the Embargo, which badly damaged his finances.
In the War of 1812, Samuel Derby Sr., although fifty years old, was
captain of marines on the privateer Montgomery, and fought well in
many battles at sea. Presumably Samuel Derby Jr. was raised up as a
clerk in his father's chandlery and also served during the War of 1812
on board privateers. Samuel Derby Sr. must have been friends with the
sail-maker Nicholas Lane (co-purchaser in 1782 with Samuel Ropes),
for he named his last child Nicholas Lane Derby.
Samuel Derby Jr., 23, married Abigail Buffum, sixteen, in November,
1808. She was the daughter of Joshua Buffum of Salem, and had been
born while the family resided in Connecticut, in 1792. A few years
after Samuel & Abigail's marriage, her mother, Mrs. Mary Buffum, a
widow, married, second, Nicholas Lane, the sail-maker who lived
nearby on Derby Street. Mr. Lane died in May, 1815, and Mary
survived as his widow.
Samuel and Abigail Derby had three children before purchasing this
house, Joshua (1809, died 1810), Lucy Ann (1811), and Mary (1814).
They would have five more surviving children after 1814: Eliza C.
(1817, died an infant), Eliza C. (1819, died 1828), Abigail (1821),
Samuel (1823), and Charles (1826). Soon after Mr. Lane' s death, Mr.
Derby, described as a grocer, had an opportunity to buy the adjoining
property formerly of Nicholas Lane, and did so, for $765.30 from the
Salem Bank, subject to a mortgage for $364 to John Osgood, which he
would pay off in 1817 (ED 206:140, 214:124). This gave him
ownership of the store at the comer and the house to the west of it on
derby Street, and the land belonging.
Post-war, the Salem merchants rebuilt their fleets and resumed their
worldwide trade, slowly at first, and then to great effect. Many new
partnerships were formed. The pre-war partisan politics of the town
were not resumed post-war, as the middle-class "mechanics" (artisans)
became more powerful and brought about civic harmony, largely
through the Salem Charitable Mechanic Association (founded 1817).
13
�In July, 1817, the Derbys had a terrible accident, as their new baby,
Eliza, then three months old, was accidentally given laudanum, a
poison, from which she died right away.
Rev. William Bentley, keen observer and active citizen during
Salem's time of greatest prosperity and fiercest political divisions,
died in 1819, the year in which a new U.S. Custom House was built on
the site of the George Crowninshield mansion, at the head of Derby
Wharf. Into the 1820s foreign trade continued prosperous; and new
markets were opened with Madagascar (1820), which supplied tallow
and ivory, and Zanzibar (1825), whence came coffee, ivory, and gum
copal, used to make varnish. This opened a huge and lucrative trade
in which Salem dominated, and its vessels thus gained access to all of
the east African ports.
In 1820 (per census), Samuel Derby Jr. and family resided here (p. 42)
and he prospered in his business. He evidently conducted his ship
chandlery from the store at the comer of Derby and Blaney Streets;
and he had another house, formerly Lane's, leased out to tenants on
Derby Street west of the store. His chandlery eventually became a
grocery store, as fewer vessels needed outfitting for long voyages to
the Orient.
Samuel Derby Jr (1785-1828), s/o Samuel Derby & Bethiah Watts,
died 18 Jan. 1828. Hem. 9 Nov. 1808 Abigail Buffum (1792-1877),
d/o Joshua & Mary Buffum, died 2 Sept. 1877. Known issue:
1. Joshua, 1809-1810.
2. Lucy Ann, 1811, d. 12 May 1830.
3. Mary, 17 June 1815, artist, d. 19 Jan. 1900.
4. Eliza C., 1817, d. 12 July 1817, by accident.
5. Eliza C., 1819, d. 13 Feb. 1828.
6. Abigail, 1821, m. 1847 Albert A. Gould.
7. Samuel, 1823, settled in Hawaii.
8. Charles, 1826, m. Emeline ___; settled in Hawaii.
Salem's general maritime foreign commerce fell off sharply in the late
1820s. Imports in Salem ships were supplanted by the goods that
were now being produced in great quantities in America. The interior
of the country was being opened for settlement, and some Salemites
moved away. To the north, the falls of the Merrimack River powered
large new textile mills (Lowell was founded in 1823), which created
great wealth for their investors; and in general it seemed that the tide
14
�of opportunity was ebbing away from Salem. To stem the flow of
talent from the town and to harness its potential water power for
manufacturing, Salem's merchants and capitalists tried to harness
Salem' s tidal power for manufacturing, but the effort failed, after
which several leading citizens moved to Boston, the hub of investment
in the new economy.
On Jan. 18, 1828, Samuel Derby died, aged just 42 years. He left his
wife Abigail, 35, and six young children, one of them still a toddler.
Less than a month later, his daughter Eliza died at the age of eight. It
was a double tragedy, and a disaster for the family. Fortunately,
Samuel left a solvent estate. The probate papers (appended) show the
stock in his store at the time (worth $796.32) as well as the household
furniture. He owned one share in the Essex marine Railway
Corporation (worth $75), which was a company that hauled vessels
out of the water for repairs; and he held many notes on loans that he
had made to friends and relatives. The administrator of his estate was
his wife's brother, Samuel Buffum. Before long, the probate court set
off to the widow, Mrs. Abigail Buffum Derby, one-third of the real
estate, for her lifetime use. The "widow' s dower" (copy of court
decree appended), awarded in August, 1829, consisted of most of the
homestead (valued at $1600) here, including all of the house-lot and
all of the rooms other than the three northern lower rooms, which were
reserved to the benefit of her children. Mrs. Derby continued to reside
here with her children.
In April, 1830, occurred a horrifying crime that brought disgrace to
Salem. Old Capt. Joseph White, a rich merchant, now retired, resided
in a mansion on Essex Street. His wealth was legendary in Salem, not
least among the denizens of the nearby Salem Jail, where plots had
long been hatched to break in and steal the Captain's putative treasure
chest. One night, intruders did break in; and they stabbed him to death
in his sleep. All of Salem buzzed with rumors; but within a few
months it was discovered that the murderer was a Crowninshield (he
killed himself) who had been hired by his friends, Capt. White' s own
relatives, Capt. Joe Knapp and his brother Frank (they would be
executed). The murder, and related lurid events, tarnished Salem
further, and more families quit the now-notorious town. One month
after the White murder, Lucy Ann Derby, nineteen, died here at her
mother's house.
In 1830 (per census), Abigail Derby lived here with two boys, a young
man, a girl, two young women, and an older woman, probably her
15
�mother, Mrs. Mary Lane, widow. The house may have had as tenant
Adam Nesmith, a distiller, or Eben Hooper. In 1831 (pr valuations,
p.8), Abigail Derby owned two houses and a store (worth $2500,
valued at $1500), and she lived here with her family, while two blind
men, Joseph Black and Joseph Millett, evidently resided in the tenant
house on Derby Street, as did William Measly.
Salem had not prepared for the industrial age, and had few natural
advantages. The North River served not to power factories but mainly
to flush the waste from the 25 tanneries that had set up along its banks.
As the decade wore on, and the new railroads and canals, all running
and flowing to Boston from points north, west, and south, diverted
both capital and trade away from the coast. Salem's remaining
merchants took their equity out of local wharves and warehouses and
ships and put it into the stock of manufacturing and transportation
companies. Some merchants did not make the transition, and were
ruined. Old-line areas of work, like rope-making, sail-making, and
ship chandleries, gradually declined and disappeared. Salem slumped
badly, but, despite all, the voters decided to charter their town as a city
in 1836-the third city to be formed in the state, behind Boston and
Lowell. City Hall was built 1837-8 and the city seal was adopted with
an already-anachronistic Latin motto of "to the farthest port of the rich
East"-a far cry from "Go West, young man!" The Panic of 1837, a
brief, sharp, nationwide economic depression, caused even more
Salem families to head west in search of fortune and a better future.
Throughout the 1830s, the leaders of Salem scrambled to re-invent an
economy for their fellow citizens, many of whom were mariners
without much sea-faring to do. Ingenuity, ambition, and hard work
would have to carry the day. One inspiration was the Salem
Laboratory, Salem's first science-based manufacturing enterprise,
founded in 1813 to produce chemicals. At the plant built in 1818 in
North Salem on the North River, the production of alum and blue
vitriol was a specialty; and it proved a very successful business.
Salem's whale-fishery led to the manufacturing of high-quality
candles at Stage Point, along with machine oils. The candles proved
very popular. Lead-manufacturing began in the 1820s, and grew large
after 1830, when Wyman' s gristmills on the Forest River, at the head
of Salem Harbor, were retooled for making high-quality white lead
and sheet lead. These enterprises were a start toward taking Salem in a
new direction. In 183 8 the Eastern Rail Road, headquartered in Salem,
began operating between Boston and Salem, which gave the local
people a direct route to the region's largest market. The new railroad
16
�tracks ran right over the middle of the Mill Pond; the tunnel under
Washington Street was built in 1839; and the line was extended to
Newburyport in 1840.
In Salem first directory, published in 183 7, Mrs. Abigail Derby is
listed at 4 Blaney Street, as is William Measly, laborer. Joseph M.
Black, laborer, is listed at 49 Derby Street.
In 1844, #4 Blaney Street was occupied by Mrs. Abigail Derby, her
son Samuel Derby, 20, who probably worked as a sailor, and by Peter
Carraway, a laborer. The tenant house on Derby Street was occupied
by Joseph Black, George Ramsdell, 30, and Thomas Loyd, 20 (per
1844 street book). In the 1846 Directory, Mrs. Abigail Derby is listed
here at 4 Blaney. In 1847 her daughter Abigail married Mr. Gould and
moved to South Danvers; she would have two daughters before her
early death. In 1848 (per street book), the house was occupied by
Charles Derby, 21, Henry Robinson, 39, an Englishman working as a
mariner, and (technically) by Samuel Derby, who, it was noted, had
been absent for three years. Mrs. Derby was not mentioned. In 1849,
she resided here with her son, Charles, and daughter, Mary, an artist,
and with mariner Henry Robinson, all at "the foot of Blaney Street."
In the face of major economic changes, some members of Salem's
waning merchant class pursued sea-borne businesses into the 1840s;
but it was an ebb tide, with unfavorable winds. Boston, transformed
into a modern mega-port with efficient railroad and highway
distribution to all markets, had subsumed virtually all foreign trade
other than Salem's commerce with Zanzibar. The sleepy waterfront at
Derby Wharf, with an occasional arrival from Africa and regular visits
from schooners carrying wood from Nova Scotia, is depicted in 1850
by Hawthorne in his cranky "introductory section" to The Scarlet
Letter, which he began while working in the Custom House.
Although Hawthorne had no interest in describing it, Salem's
transformation did occur in the 1840s, as more industrial methods and
machines were introduced, and many new companies in new lines of
business arose. The Gothic symbol of Salem's new industrial economy
was the large twin-towered granite train station- the "stone depot" smoking and growling with idling locomotives. It stood on filled-in
land at the foot of Washington Street, where the merchants' wharves
had been; and from it the trains carried many valuable products as well
as passengers. The tanning and curing of leather was very important in
Salem by the mid-1800s. On and near Boston Street, along the upper
17
�North River, there were 41 tanneries in 1844, and 85 in 1850,
employing 550 hands. The leather business would continue to grow in
importance throughout the 1800s. In 1846 the Naumkeag Steam
Cotton Company completed the construction at Stage Point of the
largest factory building in the United States, 60' wide by 400' long. It
was an immediate success, and hundreds of people found employment
there, many of them living in tenements built nearby. It too benefited
from the Zanzibar and Africa trade, as it produced light cotton cloth
for use in the tropics. Also in the 1840s, a new method was introduced
to make possible high-volume industrial shoe production. In Lynn, the
factory system was perfected, and that city became the nation's
leading shoe producer. Salem had shoe factories too, and attracted
shoe workers from outlying towns and the countryside. Even the
population began to transform, as hundreds of Irish families, fleeing
the Famine in Ireland, settled in Salem and gave the industrialists a big
pool of cheap labor. In 1849, the Gold Rush was on, and many men
from Salem took a chance at getting rich out west. Some found a little
gold and came home, others died on the way out or back, and some
never returned. Charles Derby was one who tried his luck and
eventually returned.
In 1851, Stephen C. Phillips succeeded in building a railroad line from
Salem to Lowell, which meant that the coal that was landed at Phillips
Wharf (formerly the Crowninshields' great India Wharf) could be run
cheaply out to Lowell to help fuel the boilers of the mills, whose
output of textiles could be freighted easily to Salem for shipment by
water. This innovation, although not long-lived, was a much-needed
boost to Salem's economy as a port and transportation center. Salem's
growth continued through the 1850s, as business and industries
expanded, the population swelled, new churches (e.g. Immaculate
Conception, 1857) were started, new working-class neighborhoods
were developed (especially in North Salem and South Salem, off
Boston Street, and along the Mill Pond behind the Broad Street
graveyard), and new schools, factories, and stores were built. A
second, larger, factory building for the Naurnkeag Steam Cotton
Company was added in 1859, at Stage Point, where a new Methodist
Church went up, and many neat homes, boarding-houses, and stores
were erected along the streets between Lafayette and Congress. The
tanning business continued to boom, as better and larger tanneries
were built along Boston Street and Mason Street; and subsidiary
industries sprang up as well, most notably the J.M. Anderson glueworks on the Turnpike (Highland Avenue).
18
�In 1854, Mrs. Derby and the artist Mary Derby lived here, while son
Charles was listed as having gone to California, no doubt for the Gold
Rush. Henry Robinson, mariner, was still residing here with the Derby
women (per 1855 directory), but shortly after he moved away. Charles
returned about 1852 and married Emeline; and they had a boy, Charles
A., in 1853, and another son in 1855, by which time they resided on or
near Allen Street, and Charles was working as a restorateur ( 185 5
census, house, 48, ward one). Here at #4 Blaney, Mrs. Abigail Derby,
63, and daughter Mary, 41, resided in one unit, while in the other
resided Henry Robinson, 46, a mariner, born in England, his wife
Eliza, 44, born in Maine, and their daughters Eliza G., five, and Mary
A, one year (house 106, ward one, 1855 census).
As it re-established itself as an economic powerhouse, Salem took a
strong interest in national politics. It was primarily Republican, and
strongly anti-slavery, with its share of outspoken abolitionists, led by
Charles Remand, a passionate speaker who came from one of the
city's notable black families. At its Lyceum (on Church Street) and in
other venues, plays and shows were put on, but cultural lectures and
political speeches were given too.
By 1860, with the election of Abraham Lincoln, it was clear that the
Southern states would secede from the union; and Salem, which had
done so much to win the independence of the nation, was ready to go
to war to force others to remain a part of it.
The Civil War began in April, 1861, and went on for four years,
during which hundreds of Salem men served in the army and navy,
and many were killed or died of disease or abusive treatment while
imprisoned. Hundreds more suffered wounds, or broken health. The
people of Salem contributed greatly to efforts to alleviate the suffering
of the soldiers, sailors, and their families; and there was great
celebration when the war finally ended in the spring of 1865,just as
President Lincoln was assassinated. The four years of bloodshed and
warfare were over; the slaves were free; a million men were dead; the
union was preserved and the South was under martial rule. Salem,
with many wounded soldiers and grieving families, welcomed the
coming of peace.
Through the 1860s, Salem pursued manufacturing, especially of
leather and shoes and textiles. The managers and capitalists tended to
build their new, grand houses along Lafayette Street (these houses
may still be seen, south of Roslyn Street; many are in the French
19
�Second Empire style, with mansard roofs). A third factory building for
the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company was built in 1865.
In 1862, Samuel Derby sold his 7/36 interest in the overall property
here to his mother Abigail Derby; and in 1863 Abigail Derby Gould
for $450 sold her interest to her sister Mary Derby (ED 637:40,
646:227). Charles Derby (he is listed here in the 1864 directory) and
family eventually joined his brother Samuel, who had settled in
paradise- the Sandwich Islands, which he had no doubt visited on a
cruise, which are now called Hawaii.
In 1870 Salem received its last cargo from Zanzibar, thus ending a
once-important trade. By then, a new Salem & New York freight
steamboat line was in operation. Seven years later, with the arrival of a
vessel from Cayenne, Salem's foreign trade came to an end. After that,
"the merchandise warehouses on the wharves no longer contained
silks from India, tea from China, pepper from Sumatra, coffee from
Arabia, spices from Batavia, gum-copal from Zanzibar, hides from
Africa, and the various other products of far-away countries. The boys
have ceased to watch on the Neck for the incoming vessels, hoping to
earn a reward by being the first to announce to the expectant merchant
the safe return of his looked-for vessel. The foreign commerce of
Salem, once her pride and glory, has spread its white wings and sailed
away forever" (George Batchelor in History ofEssex County, II: 65).
In 1870 (per census, house 127), this was the home of Mrs. Abigail
Derby, 78, with $2500 in real estate, and her daughter Mary, 55, who
had $1,000 in personal estate; and it was also the home of John Smith,
37, a cigar maker, wife Abba T., 36, and son James H. Smith, 3.
Salem was now so densely built-up that a general conflagration was
always a possibility, as in Boston, when, on Nov. 9, 1872, the
financial and manufacturing district of the city burned up. Salem
continued to prosper in the 1870s, carried forward by the leathermaking business. In 1874 the city was visited by a tornado and shaken
by a minor earthquake. In the following year, the large Pennsylvania
Pier (site of the present coal-fired harborside electrical generating
plant) was completed to begin receiving large shipments of coal.
Beyond it, at Juniper Point, a new owner began subdividing the old
Allen farmlands into a new development called Salem Willows and
Juniper Point. In the U.S. centennial year, 1876, A.G. Bell of Salem
announced that he had discovered a way to transmit voices over
telegraph wires.
20
�In this decade, French-Canadian families began coming to work in
Salem' s mills and factories, and more houses and tenements were
built. The better-off workers bought portions of older houses or built
small homes for their families in the outlying sections of the city; and
by 1879 the Naumkeag Steam Cotton mills would employ 1200
people and produce annually nearly 15 million yards of cloth. Shoemanufacturing businesses expanded in the 1870s, and 40 shoe
factories were employing 600-plus operatives. Tanning, in both Salem
and Peabody, remained a very important industry, and employed
hundreds of breadwinners. On Boston Street in 1879, the Arnold
tannery caught fire and burned down.
Mrs. Abigail Derby died on Sept. 2, 1877, at the age of 85, having
lived here for more than sixty years, and having survived her husband
by 49 years. Her survivors were her son Charles of Hawaii (son
Samuel had already died there), her daughter Mary of Salem, and the
two daughters of her deceased daughter Mrs. Abigail Gould. Her
daughter Mary served as administratrix of the Samuel Derby estate,
which had never been divided, and which included two houses, a
store, and barn, all worth $2300, of which Mrs. Derby' s own interest
was worth $1405, being 11/18 of the homestead (#37369). In 1878
and 1879 Miss Mary Derby bought out the interests of her brother
Charles Derby and heirs of her sister Mrs. Gould in their mother' s
property (ED 1022:204-5). This evidently left Mary Derby the sole
owner of the premises; and on 11 October 1881 she sold the
homestead for $1135 to Mary Durgin, wife of John Durgin, by Mrs.
Durgin' s trustee, George Wheatland, Esq. (ED 1069:160). The
premises fronted 86' on Blaney Street, and 73' each on its north and
its south boundaries.
Mrs. Durgin, the new owner, died by early 1884; and on 1 February
1884 the homestead was conveyed, according to her will, to Thomas
Durgin, her son (ED 1124:99). In October, 1889, for $1600, Thomas
Durgin sold the premises to John H. Cashman of Salem (ED 1261 :77).
Mr. Cashman evidently built a new house to the west of#4, and the
new house was numbered 4 rear. After his death, his widow, Anastasia
Cashman, owned the property (see 1897 atlas), which would remain in
Cashman ownership until 1922.
In the 1880s and 1890s, Salem kept building infrastructure; and new
businesses arose, and established businesses expanded. Retail stores
prospered; horse-drawn trolleys ran every which-way; and machinists,
21
�carpenters, millwrights, and other specialists all thrived. In 1880,
Salem's manufactured goods were valued at about $8.4 million, of
which leather accounted for nearly half. In the summer of 1886, the
Knights of Labor brought a strike against the manufacturers for a tenhour day and other concessions; but the manufacturers imported labor
from Maine and Canada, and kept going. The strikers held out, and
there was violence in the streets, and even rioting; but the owners
prevailed, and many of the defeated workers lost their jobs and
suffered, with their families, through a bitter winter.
In 1886, Miss Mary Derby for $850 sold off more of her property, to
John Nash (ED 1172:298), who thus acquired the comer lot and old
store, which had been leased by Albert P. Goodhue. She had moved to
103 Essex Street, where she lived out the rest of her life, and died in
her 84th year in January, 1900.
By the mid-1880s, Salem' s cotton-cloth mills at the Point employed
1400 people who produced about 19 million yards annually, worth
about $1.5 million. The city' s large shoe factories stood downtown
behind the stone depot and on Dodge and Lafayette Streets. A jute
bagging company prospered with plants on Skerry Street and English
Street; its products were sent south to be used in cotton-baling. Salem
factories also produced lead, paint, and oil. At the Eastern Railroad
yard on Bridge Street, cars were repaired and even built new. In 1887
the streets were first lit with electricity, replacing gas-light. The gas
works, which had stood on Northey Street since 1850, was moved to a
larger site on Bridge Street in 1888, opposite the Beverly Shore.
More factories and more people required more space for buildings,
more roads, and more storage areas. This space was created by filling
in rivers, harbors, and ponds. The once-broad North River was filled
from both shores, and became a canal along Bridge Street above the
North Bridge. The large and beautiful Mill Pond, which occupied the
whole area between the present Jefferson Avenue, Canal Street, and
Loring Avenue, finally vanished beneath streets, storage areas, junkyards, rail-yards, and parking lots. The South River, too, with its
epicenter at Central Street (that's why there was a Custom House built
there in 1805) disappeared under the pavement of Riley Plaza and
New Derby Street, and some of its old wharves were joined together
with much in-fill and turned into coal-yards and lumber-yards. Only a
canal was left, running in from Derby and Central Wharves to
Lafayette Street.
22
�In 1890 this house was occupied by the families of John Shallow and
of James Wade, a laborer and teamster who would soon move to
Derby Street. The Shallows, John and Mary, were born in Ireland and
had moved to Canada as a young couple. Six sons and five daughters
were born to them (not all names are known to me); and in the 1870s
they moved to the United States. They probably moved into this house
in the 1880s, and would reside here for at least three decades, as
tenants of the Cashmans. John Shallow would die here in 1899, aged
about seventy.
John Shallow (1830?-1899) born in Ireland, died 16 Feb. 1899. He
m. Mary _ _ _ (1832-1916), died 4 Dec. 1916. Known issue, all
born in Canada (three others, names unknown):
1. John, currier 1890
2. Patrick J., currrier 1890
3. Mary J., 1857, came U.S. 1876, weaver
4. William A., 1860, currier 1890
5. Bridget, 1864, m. William H. Veno.
6. Catherine F., 1865
7. Annie, 1868
8. Thomas E., 1871, currier 1890
In 1900 or shortly before, William H. Veno appears as head of a
second household residing here. He was born in Washington in 1864,
of parents born in France. He married Bridget Shallow. In 1898 he
went to work for the Salem Water Department, where he came to be
an expert in water supply. He belonged to various clubs and societies,
and was a volunteer fireman and a well-liked "conscientious and
faithful" man and citizen (info from his 1908 obituary). He and
Bridget had five children.
William H. Veno (1864-1908), born Washington; he died 13 April
1908. He m. c. 1888 Bridget (Shallow) (b. 1864, Canada, d/o John
& Mary Shallow; came U.S. 1875). Known issue (three others died
young), surname Veno:
1. Mary F., 1889
2. John, 1890
3. Florence, 1897
4. Anna, 1900
5. Henry, 1905
In 1901, among the many Shallows living here, Miss Mary J. worked
as a weaver, Patrick J. was listed as "U.S. Volunteer", and Thomas E.
23
�was a clerk at V. Dooley's grocery, 122 Derby Street, while William
A. was a currier in the leather trade.
In the early spring of 1908, after responding to a fire alarm, William
Veno, 44, took ill; and he died a month later in April, leaving his wife
Bridget and five children, the youngest, Henry, only three.
Salem kept growing. The Canadians were followed in the early 20th
century by large numbers of Polish and Ukrainian families, who
settled primarily in the Derby Street neighborhood. By the eve of
World War One, Salem was a bustling, polyglot city that supported
large department stores and large factories of every description.
People from the surrounding towns, and Marblehead in particular,
came to Salem to do their shopping; and its handsome government
buildings, as befit the county seat, were busy with conveyances of
land, lawsuits, and probate proceedings. The city's politics were
lively, and its economy was strong.
On June 25, 1914, in the morning, in Blubber Hollow (Boston Street
opposite Federal), a fire started in one of Salem' s fire-prone wooden
tanneries. This fire soon consumed the building and raced out of
control, for the west wind was high and the season had been dry. The
next building caught fire, and the next, and out of Blubber Hollow the
fire roared easterly, a monstrous front of flame and smoke, wiping out
the houses of Boston Street, Essex Street, and upper Broad Street, and
then sweeping through Hathorne, Winthrop, Endicott, and other
residential streets. Men and machines could not stop it: the enormous
fire crossed over into South Salem and destroyed the neighborhoods
west of Lafayette Street, then devoured the mansions of Lafayette
Street itself, and raged onward into the tenement district. Despite the
combined efforts of heroic fire crews from many towns and cities, the
fire overwhelmed everything in its path: it smashed into the large
factory buildings of the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company (Congress
Street), which exploded in an inferno-well viewed from Blaney
Street-and it rolled down Lafayette Street and across the water to
Derby Street. There, just beyond Union Street, after a 13-hour
rampage, the monster died, having consumed 250 acres, 1600 houses,
and 41 factories, and leaving three dead and thousands homeless.
Some people had insurance, some did not; all received much support
and generous donations from all over the country and the world. It
was one of the greatest urban disasters in the history of the United
States, and the people of Salem would take years to recover from it.
24
�Eventually, they did, and many of the former houses and businesses
were rebuilt; and several urban-renewal projects (including Hawthorne
Boulevard, which involved removing old houses and widening old
streets) were put into effect.
The Shallows and Venos continued to reside here. Mrs. Mary Shallow
died in 1916, in her eighties. In 1922 the Cashmans sold the premises
to Messrs. Sim and Russell, owners of the Russell-Sim Tanning
Company (ED 2522:89); and they would own it until 1944.
By the 1920s, Salem was once again a thriving city; and its
tercentenary in 1926 was a time of great celebration. The Depression
hit in 1929, and continued through the 1930s. Salem, the county seat
and regional retail center, gradually rebounded, and prospered after
World War II through the 1950s and into the 1960s. General Electric,
Sylvania, Parker Brothers, Pequot Mills (formerly Naumkeag Steam
Cotton Co.), Almy' s department store, various other large-scale
retailers, and Beverly' s United Shoe Machinery Company were all
major local employers. Then the arrival of suburban shopping malls
and the relocation of manufacturing businesses took their toll, as they
have with many other cities. More than most, Salem has navigated its
way forward into the present with success, trading on its share of
notoriety arising from the witch trials, but also from its history as a
great seaport and as the home of Bowditch, McIntire, Bentley, Story,
and Hawthorne. Most of all, it remains a city where the homes of the
old-time merchants, mariners, coopers, chandlers, and mill-operatives
are all honored as a large part of what makes Salem different from any
other place.
25
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Blaney Street
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
4 Blaney Street, Salem, Massachusetts, 01970
Subject
The topic of the resource
House history
Description
An account of the resource
Built in 1782 for Samuel Ropes, Cooper
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Historic Salem, Inc.
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Historic Salem, Inc. House Histories
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Historic Salem, Inc., Salem Historical Society
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1782, 1976
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Robert Booth
Language
A language of the resource
English
1782
1976
4
Blaney Street
Booth
Cooper
Salem Massachusetts
Samuel Ropes