1 100 2 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/28828/archive/files/018f5e27d948170344f3488e10cc59cb.pdf?Expires=1781740800&Signature=P0sYo4Z1FC5Dm7O1pN9s%7EmwzhHvtCrvqKDklyBejN8cnNDMWTMJ7z5obu5aNCcmsa8blLGXPDYfqc79y7KmjCnU1Ze9e1iG4sqxYvmKGBjq6gmK8dSPboZRN1YBMxBTXkZ-iD7s4vwvKaa3xYXeq-SotpPNdvIfR5L3wbKRhkjAx4%7E5zohWJmzJh2VtzZTFBZoc64CD9X7Fd9HGYARH62fBl%7EfePPFwE4Kpz9mMkEgkN9N7nMUIGztAZUsZlYUoKF99BOUrBJBiqtWM5YBfNCyiWwj6l1x3RGqEvT7K5gyskrI3ZP18Pr0LQKKPAHMxjOeYHTN2pJdcIFK8k5e5n5Q__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 743388800b2b45ce3d5394a5103d7215 PDF Text Text 9 North Street Nathaniel Bowditch House Built by Samuel Curwen Gentleman His Wife Abigail Russell 1760 Moved from 312 Essex Street in 1945 Home of Nathaniel Bowditch 1811-1823 Researched and written by Carlos Cueva Caro June 2025 Historic Salem Inc. The Bowditch House 9 North Street, Salem, MA 01970 (978) 745-0799 | HistoricSalem.org ©2025 �Figure 1: Contemporary view of the Nathaniel Bowditch House, 9 North Street. Historic Salem Inc. The Bowditch House, 9 North Street The Bowditch House, named after its most famous resident, Nathaniel Bowditch, was originally located at 312 Essex Street. By serving as Nathaniel Bowditch’s dwelling between 1811 and 1823, the building has been linked to Salem’s Golden Age of Navigation. Yet the house’s history goes beyond that, being linked to Salem’s old Puritan elite, the Revolution, the Civil War, late nineteenth-century immigration, the urban renewal projects of the 1950s and even Salem’s witch-related tourism. In the 1940s, plans to widen both North and Essex Streets placed the Corwin house in danger of demolition. To save the house, a group of neighbors created Historic Salem Inc., which worked with the City of Salem to purchase both the Jonathan Corwin House and the Bowditch House. The Corwin house was moved onto 312 Essex Street, while the Bowditch was moved back into its backyard, turned to face the now widened North Street. Despite being an example of Federal architecture, recent evidence suggests that contrary to popular belief, the Bowditch house wasn’t built in 1805, rather that the original structure is far older, dating from 1760. 1 �Curwen Family The Corwin (or Curwen) family were descendants of a line of English magistrates who traced their ancestry to Sir Gilbert Culwen II, a knight in the court of King Edward I. Captain George Corwin and his wife, Elizabeth Herbert, set sail from England and settled in Salem in 1638, becoming one of the first families in the new town. The Corwins quickly climbed the social ladder. George became a magistrate, merchant, and shipbuilder. Though still a new town, Salem was developing a thriving shipping industry centered on the cod trade. Fishermen would gather cod, salt and dry it on large wooden stages across the South River, in a peninsula known as Stage Point (The Point today), and trade it to feed the European Catholic countries and enslaved people in the Caribbean. George Corwin’s second son, Jonathan Corwin, attended Harvard, intending to become a minister, yet that wasn’t to become his vocation. Upon graduating from college, he followed in his father’s footsteps as a merchant and magistrate. Figure 2: Contemporary view of the Jonathan Corwin House, aka The “Witch House.” Source: Rachel Christ, Salem Witch Museum. 2 �In February 1674, Jonathan Corwin purchased a tract of land on the outskirts of Salem from Captain Richard Davenport, which included an unfinished house, the Jonathan Corwin House (also known today as the Witch House). According to historian Sidney Perley, the original parcel extended from Essex Street, at that time known as Main Street, to the North River. This position gave Jonathan Corwin access to both downtown Salem and the waterfront. Jonathan married a wealthy widow, Elizabeth Sheaffe Gibbs, and the couple had eight children, of which only three, Elizabeth, Sarah, and George, survived into adulthood. As a member of the Puritan ruling class, Jonathan Corwin had a leading role in the Massachusetts colony at a time of political, social, and religious uncertainty. External threats from Native Americans and the French, religious dissent within the colony, and royal encroachment on their liberties put a strain upon Massachusetts's social order. For Jonathan Corwin, personal tragedies including the loss of business in the Maine frontier and the death of his children might have raised questions about God being displeased with his actions. When news came from Salem Village (now Danvers) that a group of girls had been afflicted with witchcraft, the crisis became visible.1 The new governor, William Phips, selected nine notable members of the colony as judges of the Court of Oyer and Terminer to deal with the growing number of witchcraft accusations. Jonathan Corwin was among the judges. The Corwins became important figures during the witch trials. Jonathan conducted examinations in his parlor, his son was also afflicted by witchcraft, and his nephew, George Corwin, served as the town’s sheriff, in charge of conducting the arrests, and was the main accuser against Phillip English. Furthermore, in Boston, his mother-in-law was accused of being a witch by her servant, Mercy Short, though she was never formally charged, possibly due to Jonathan Corwin’s influence. Today, his house and the nearby Gedney House are the only structures still standing in Salem directly connected to the Witch Trials. The Court operated between June and October of 1692. During this time, based mostly on spectral evidence, nineteen people were executed for witchcraft, one was crushed to death, five died in prison, and many more were condemned for witchcraft. By October, Governor Phips put an end to the trials by dissolving the court and barring the use of spectral evidence. Unlike his fellow judge, Samuel Sewall, Jonathan never publicly apologized for the innocent victims of the trials. He died in 1718 and was buried in the family plot, behind George Corwin’s estate (today 150 Washington Street). In the nineteenth century, the Corwins’ remains were moved to Broad Street Cemetery, where they rest today. Only one of Jonathan Corwin’s sons reached adulthood, the Reverend George Corwin, minister of Salem’s First Church. He married Mehitable Parkman, daughter of Deliverance and Susannah Parkman. The Parkmans lived across the street, on the northeast corner of North and Essex Streets. The Parkman family had a considerable estate, including pastures around the common and interests in The Ship Tavern, a profitable business in downtown Salem. The Reverend Corwin predeceased his father by one year, leaving two small children, Jonathan and Samuel, and a posthumous child, George. As Samuel would later reflect, “Before 2d year of my life was completed, it pleased God to take away a kind and tender father by death, an 1 Brooks, Rebecca, “Jonathan Corwin: Salem Witch Judge” History of Massachusetts Blog. January 26, 2016. https://historyofmassachusetts.org/jonathan-corwin-salem-witch-judge/ 3 �insupportable loss, a loss I’ve severely felt in the course of my life, a loss I momently and mournfully reject.”2 The losses didn’t stop there; by the end of the next year, Judge Corwin, his wife Elizabeth, Mehitable, and Jonathan Curwen (Jr.) were also dead, possibly of the same contagious disease that took the Reverend’s life. Only Samuel Corwin (also spelled Curwen) and his younger brother George survived, left along with their cousins, Elizabeth and Mary Lindall, as the heirs of the Corwin estate. Figure 3: Map of Salem in 1700, by Sidney Perley. The Corwin estate, along with the properties of Deliverance Parkman and Sheriff George Corwin. Samuel and George Curwen were raised by their grandmother, Susannah Parkman. Following her death in 1729, the teenage boys were placed under joint guardianship of Thomas Barton, an apothecary, and Benjamin Lynde, Jr. Esq.3 In 1740, the Curwen estate was split between the four heirs of Jonathan Corwin. The Lindall sisters obtained the riverfront while Samuel and George obtained the corner of Essex and North Street. In that agreement, George Curwen gained ownership of the old dwelling house, the Jonathan Corwin House, while Samuel gained ownership of the middle division of the land. Samuel also inherited lands in Northfields (today North Salem), along the North River, and from the Parkmans, he inherited interests in The Ship’s Tavern. This accumulated wealth placed the young Curwen in a comfortable position within Salem’s society. 2 Andrew Oliver, ed. The Journal of Samuel Curwen, Loyalist. Volume I (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972), 498-499. 3 Probate Records, Book 317; 85; Book 319, 458. 4 �Samuel Curwen was involved with the cod trade, although his title as “gentleman” instead of “merchant” indicates that trading wasn’t his primary profession. In 1744, he left Salem to command a ship during the siege of the French fortress of Louisbourg, at Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. It’s possible that he lived with George at their old family home during this time. Upon his return to Salem in 1750, he was appointed as County impost officer, later becoming judge of the Admiralty of New England Provinces. That same year, he married Abigail Russell, from Charlestown, a marriage that by all accounts was an extremely unhappy one which produced no children. The couple initially lived with Samuel’s cousin, Mary Lindall, at 314 Essex Street. Having no children, the Curwens did not need a large dwelling place. It’s only by 1759, once Curwen was well-established as a merchant and office holder, that he finally began making plans to build a house for himself. His involvement with the trading business led Curwen to open a store within his property in the 1740s, most likely fronting Essex Street since it was Salem’s main thoroughfare. An examination of the house at 1½ Cambridge Street, which was previously the “ell” extension of the Bowditch House, shows Georgian features from around the 1740s, which suggest that this house was Curwen’s original store. Furthermore, Samuel Curwen’s papers, stored at the Phillips Library, include a 1759-1760 House “Memo Book” which documents Curwen’s efforts to build a proper residence at 312 Essex Street. Curwen pushed the store building into the back of the lot and ultimately built a new 2½ story, hip-roofed building, measuring 36 x 22 feet in plan, the same dimensions as the current Bowditch House. Although it’s possible that this first house was demolished to make way for a later Federal-style house, a more likely development is that the old Georgian house was “modernized” by later owners who raised it to three stories and changed the Georgian features for Federal ones. The new Curwen Georgian mansion was meant to rival those of Salem’s other leading families, the Derbys and the Crowninshields. Samuel even commissioned their woodcarver Joseph McIntire (father of Samuel McIntire), to make his house’s balustrades as magnificent as those of the other families. The Curwens moved there in 1760 and became prominent members of Salem’s social life. Samuel Curwen went on to fill his house with family portraits, rare books, and a collection of antique coins.4 Yet Curwen’s life in Salem drastically changed with the outbreak of the Revolution. Although critical of British policies, Curwen rejected armed rebellion. Salem had its fair share of Loyalists, mainly among the old merchant families, yet the Sons of Liberty outnumbered them. It’s possible that Curwen saw the writing on the wall in 1774, when the rebels burned the mansion of another prominent loyalist, Judge Peter Frye. By 1775, following the battles of Lexington and Concord, Samuel Curwen decided to leave Salem. The fact that Abigail chose to stay behind probably influenced his decision. He first settled in Philadelphia, thinking the war would be a short conflict, but after realizing how radicalized Philadelphia had become, he finally decided to move to Great Britain, leaving his wife, Abigail, and his niece’s husband, Capt. Richard Ward, in charge of his properties. 4 William Bentley, The diary of William Bentley, D.D., pastor of the East church, Salem, Massachusetts. (Salem, MA: The Essex Institute, 1905), vol 2, 260. 5 �Figure 4: Samuel Curwen, pastel by Benjamin Blyth, 1772. Figure 5: Abigail Russell Curwen, by Joseph Blackburn, 1755. 6 �Upon departing, he instructed Abigail to shut down the house and retreat to live with some relatives at Dunstable. Abigail ignored her husband’s orders and remained living in her house with her nephew and Curwen’s former apprentice, Russell Wyer. According to the Reverend William Bentley, during his absence, his wife ran his business to the ground while Russell sold most of Curwen’s collection of books and coins.5 During this time, the couple constantly argued about the inheritance of the Curwen estate. Samuel favoured the Wards, while Abigail seems to have held them in contempt, instead favoring Russell Wyer as heir. After the Revolution, Samuel Curwen briefly returned to Salem to transfer ownership of his estate to his niece and George Curwen’s sole heir, Mehitable Ward and her husband, Richard, probably trying to settle the matter of inheritance. According to tradition, Abigail’s argumentative nature prompted Curwen to hurry back to England. Perhaps that transfer of property to the Wards was the final nail on the Curwens’ marriage. It’s only after the death of Abigail in 1793 that Curwen finally returned to Salem permanently. Richard and Mehitable owned this building along with the Jonathan Corwin House, where they resided with their adult son, Samuel Curwen Ward (named after his granduncle). Samuel Curwen, by now 80 years old, continued living in his old home with the Wards. He became far more sociable and amiable in his later years. By the early 1800s, according to Bentley, Samuel Curwen had become some sort of a local feature in town, walking down the streets in a red flowing robe, an old powdered wig, and a gold-headed cane. Curwen became friends with the Reverend William Bentley, who greatly admired Curwen’s collection of art and antiquities. Bentley would eventually manage to convince Curwen to donate his art collection to what is today the Peabody Essex Museum.6 In 1797, the Wards transferred their property on Essex Street to their son, Samuel Curwen Ward. Samuel Curwen briefly lived with his grandnephew, but he ultimately moved in with the Pope family to convalesce from an illness. According to Bentley, Mrs. Pope used to live with the Curwens. Samuel Curwen died in 1802, at 87 years old, being Salem's oldest resident at the time.7 With his death, the Curwen family should have become extinct. Yet in his will, Samuel Curwen had his great-grandnephew and primary heir, Samuel Curwen Ward, Jr. adopt the Curwen surname, ensuring the survival of the Curwen family. Ward Family Richard Ward was a merchant and patriot. In 1764, he married George Curwen’s daughter, Mehitable. The couple had five children: George Curwen, Samuel Curwen, Sarah, Mehitable Curwen, and Elizabeth. Samuel, Sarah, and Elizabeth would outlive their parents. During the Revolution, Richard led the Salem militia to Concord and Bunker Hill, though in both cases the troops were too late to participate in any fighting. He was later commissioned captain of the Third Company of the First Essex Regiment, which fought in New York and New Jersey. 5 Bentley, The diary of William Bentley, D.D., pastor of the East church, Salem, Massachusetts. Vol 2, 423-424. 6 Ibid, 300. 7 Ibid, 423 7 �After the war, Richard was elected state legislator, acting judge, and a selectman. His son, Samuel Curwen Ward, ventured into Salem’s growing trading business. In 1790, Samuel C. Ward married Jane Ropes, daughter of Nathaniel Ropes, owner of the Ropes Mansion two houses down the street. The couple had three children who reached adulthood: George Atkinson, Samuel Curwen (who later changed his name to Samuel Ward Curwen per his great-granduncle’s wishes), and Jane Sparhawk. The marriage gave Samuel entry into the circle of increasingly wealthy merchants in Salem. Samuel C. Ward was never a merchant, instead he was a trader, he owned a ship chandlery and dealt with supplies to outfit the trading vessels at the port. Among his clientele was the influential Elias Hasket Derby, America’s first millionaire. Following Samuel C. Ward’s marriage to Jane, Richard and Mehitable transferred their property to him, ensuring an orderly inheritance according to the will of the elderly Samuel Curwen. Samuel Curwen’s plans for the estate to continue in Curwen hands for generations weren’t meant to be. The Ward family papers point out that Richard and Samuel C. Ward’s finances were intertwined. The shipping business was an extremely volatile one. While merchants like Derby could default on their payments after too many “acts of God” at sea, smaller businessmen like the Wards would have been heavily impacted by these financial misfortunes. Perhaps that’s why the Wards mortgaged their property in 1789 to Thomas Russell, one of Abigail Curwen's Boston relatives. This mortgage would hang over the Curwens for the next decade, preluding the family’s future financial difficulties. Samuel Curwen Ward’s ownership of the house at 312 Essex Street was short-lived. According to the Reverend Bentley, Samuel C. Ward got into heavy debt due to his drinking and gambling habits. To maintain his lifestyle, Samuel C. Ward mortgaged his house for a second time to his brother-in-law, Nathaniel Ropes, less than a year after he had acquired it from his parents. To further complicate matters, Thomas Russell’s death led the administrators of his estate to foreclose on the Curwen mortgage. Samuel C. Ward’s issues with his creditors, especially Willian “Billy” Gray, finally caught up to him and they proceeded to seize his properties in a public spectacle.8 Curwen was then forced to sell the house to Ebenezer Putnam, Nathaniel Ropes’ brother-in-law through his wife, Sarah Putnam. Ebenezer Putnam likely purchased the house with the understanding that Samuel C. Ward would repurchase it upon gaining solvency, and he let the Wards live there. Yet by 1800, when Ward’s mortgaged properties were foreclosed, Putnam must have realized that Samuel C. Ward would never be able to recover. Putnam sold the house to Captain William Ward from Marblehead, Samuel C. Ward’s distant cousin. Ebenezer Putnam might have been related to William Ward through William’s mother, Ruth Putnam. The Wards from Salem moved out, and Samuel C. Ward finally declared bankruptcy in 1802. Another tragedy struck him the following year when his wife, Jane, died, severing his connection with the Ropes. In 1807, Samuel C. Ward took as a second wife Malvina Glover, with whom he had three more children, Elizabeth “Eliza,” William, and Henry. There is one more chapter of Samuel C. Ward’s life worth mentioning. After his marriage to Malvina, Samuel struck a friendship with George Crowninshield, Jr. Although their friendship 8 Ibid, 247; 289. 8 �was strained by Ward’s constant request for loans, George hired him as clerk for the first voyage of his new yacht, Cleopatra’s Barge.9 Built in 1816 by the celebrated Salem shipmaker Retire Beckett, Cleopatra’s Barge has gone down in history as America’s first pleasure ocean cruiser. Crowninshield and his men, including Samuel, traveled to Rome on board the ship in 1817, where they introduced themselves to several members of the Bonaparte family. Following their return to Salem, George Crowninshield started preparing the ship for a second voyage, only to die on November 26, 1817. In an incredible coincidence, Samuel C. Ward also died at the same time, almost to the minute.10 Following Samuel’s death, Malvina and Eliza resided at 34 Chestnut Street (today known as the Phillips House) for the rest of their lives. Here, mother and daughter ran a successful boarding house and a school for young ladies, respectively. While the Curwens were a product of Salem’s old Puritan elite, William Ward was the result of Salem’s Golden Age of Navigation. William Ward belonged to a new generation of merchants across New England that made their fortune after the Revolution through trade with China and the East Indies. He grew up in Salem during the Revolution, probably witnessing Leslie’s Retreat in Salem, in February 1775, and hearing the news of the battles of Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill, and the siege of Boston. After the Revolution, William Ward married Martha Proctor in 1785, but she died in 1786, not long after the birth of their only son, Thomas Wren Ward. In 1789, Ward was registered as a captain for the schooner Friendship, launching his career as a sea captain, initially working under Miles Ward.11 In 1790, William married again, this time to Joanna Chipman. Joanna not only belonged to a wealthy family from Marblehead, but her eldest sister, Elizabeth, was married to Billy Gray. Following the marriage, William worked for his brother-in-law; by all accounts, the sisters remained close through their lives, drawing their respective husbands together. William “Billy” Gray was a wealthy ship-owner from Salem and Boston who, at his peak, owned interests in 181 ships. Captain Ward would command several of Gray’s ships, earning a sizable fraction of the profits.12 Although his career is overshadowed by that of his brother-in-law, William Ward soon became part of Salem’s merchant elite, as his new house on Essex Street would attest. 9 Francis B. Crowninshield, The Story of George Crowninshield's Yacht Cleopatra's Barge on a Voyage of Pleasure to the Western Islands and the Mediterranean 1816 - 1817. (Boston: Merrymount Press, 1913), 43 10 Ibid, 234. 11 Historic Preservation and Design, The Nathaniel Bowditch House, Salem, MA: Historic Structure Report & Adaptive Re-Use Study. (Salem, MA, 2000), Site Evolution, 23. 12 Edward Gray, William Gray of Salem, Merchant: A Biographical Sketch.(Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1914), 20-22. 9 �Figure 6: Cleopatra’s Barge, by George Ropes, 1818. Peabody Essex Museum. When William Ward purchased the old Curwen property, he paid $4,000, making it one of Salem’s most valued real estate holdings. Around 1805, William Ward remodeled his Georgian house into a Federal building. Although there is no definitive evidence dating the construction or reconstruction of the house, a few clues point to the years 1804 or 1805. First, Billy Gray hired Salem’s master woodcarver and architect, Samuel McIntire, to build his estate on Essex Street between 1801 and 1804. Given the closeness of both families, it’s likely that the Wards soon followed lead, perhaps even hiring McIntire too. The second clue is that in 1805, Joanna Ward donated two silver mugs to the North Church next door (today the First Church of Salem). That gift was probably an effort by Joanna to introduce herself to the neighborhood soon after her new house was open. Ward’s renovations gave the house its current Federal appearance: Three stories high with a hipped roof, a recessed entry with two fluted columns and sidelights flanking the door, and Federal-style decorations that can be appreciated in the wooden details in the windows and cornices and the main staircase. To top his new house, a Chinese balustrade crowned the roof, referencing Ward’s wealth from the China trade. Although not definitive, McIntire likely had a hand in remodeling the house since he had already worked for the Grays, was active during this time, and his other houses in the neighborhood share similar details. During their time in this house, the Wards likely socialized with the Grays and other members of Salem’s elite. Although no documentation remains of this period, based on other Federal houses and William’s profession, it’s possible that the Wards decorated their home with objects collected by William during his trips to Canton. The walls would have been covered with 10 �Chinese wallpaper, while their furniture would have been either japanned or decorated with more “modern” Greek elements. The Wards lived here along with their servants (who probably stayed in the rear of the house, Samuel Curwen’s old store), Thomas Wren Ward, and William and Joanna’s children: William III, Nancy, Lucy, and Miles. The Embargo of 1807 was devastating for Salem’s shipping industry, ushering in a depression in Salem. At a period of great political polarization, Billy Gray’s support for the embargo, despite his business being negatively impacted by it, earned him the scorn of the other merchants of Salem, leading to his moving permanently to Boston in 1809, taking with him “almost a fourth of Salem’s overseas commerce.”13 Different factors could have influenced Ward's decision to follow the Grays. The Wards’ position in Salem’s elite, who were the least affected by the embargo, made them already suspicious among the smaller merchants, while their closeness to the Grays also may have ruined their social standing in Salem. Finally, Elizabeth and Joanna might have wished to stay close to each other. Regardless of the definitive reason, in 1811, the Wards sold their house to Nathaniel Bowditch and his wife, Mary. The Wards relocated first to Boston, and then to Medford, where William Ward worked as a manager for the State Bank until he died in 1827. Nathaniel Bowditch Nathaniel Bowditch was born in Salem in 1773, at Brown Street (his birthplace was later moved to 2 Kimball Court), into a family of sea captains. He was the fourth of the seven children of Captain Habakkuk Bowditch and Mary Ingersoll. In 1671, William Bowditch came from England on board the ship John and settled in Salem, where he acquired some land, a warehouse, and was made collector for the port. His son, William, Jr. was a sea captain, working for Phillip English, Salem’s wealthiest merchant, and William Pickering. William’s only surviving son, Ebenezer Bowditch, was also a captain. In 1728, he married Mary Turner, daughter of John Turner II. Following Ebenezer’s death in 1768, his widow moved in with her son Habakkuk and his wife, Mary. Habakkuk was trained in his youth as a barrel maker and later became a shipmaster, commanding ships into the Caribbean. He married Mary Ingersoll, sister of Jonathan Ingersoll, commander of Elias Hasket Derby’s Grand Turk. When describing Habakkuk, his pastor recognized him as a brilliant man by all accounts, yet with a high level of rum consumption.14 The outbreak of the Revolution coincided with a series of shipping losses for Habakkuk that made the family fall into hard times. Before Nathaniel was two years old, the family moved to a farmhouse in Danvers. About five years later, as the family finances dwindled, the family returned to Salem, staying at Turner Street. Given Nathaniel’s grandmother’s connection with the Turner family, their stay at Turner Street might not have been a coincidence. Mary Turner’s grandfather had built a mansion at the end of the street, later known as the House of the Seven 13 Ibid, 48. National Park Service. Salem: Maritime Salem in the Age of Sail, (Washington D.C.: US Department of the Interior, 1987), page 56.. 14 Robert Elton Berry, Yankee Stargazer: The life of Nathaniel Bowditch. (New York, NY: Whittlesey House, 1941), 3-6. 11 �Gables, and Mary herself owned part of the property. Although there are no records that the Bowditchs occupied the old mansion, it’s possible that they lived in an outbuilding on the property. After settling in Salem, Nathaniel attended Master Watson’s school. Reportedly, the boy showed talent in arithmetic from an early age; his advanced knowledge of the subject prompted Master Watson to accuse the boy of cheating, before finally recognizing the boy’s talent after lobbying from Nathaniel’s older siblings. Unbeknown to Nathaniel at that time, the Revolution brought another important change to his life. At the height of the war, New England privateers raided the Atlantic Ocean looking for British ships, reaching as far as the British Islands. Off the coast of Ireland, a Beverly privateer seized a ship whose cargo included the vast library of a Dr. Richard Kirwan. Brought to Beverly, the library was auctioned off and acquired by various notable Salem neighbors, who formed the Philosophical Society to guarantee public access to the books. Bowditch would find himself as a beneficiary of this library. The end of the Revolution saw the Turner family lose their wealth and ownership of their mansion to Captain Samuel Ingersoll, Mary Ingersoll Bowditch’s second cousin. The Turners weren’t the only ones going through financial difficulties. Nathaniel’s father lost his position as shipmaster and had to become a cooper (a wooden barrel maker) to support his family. In 1783, Habakkuk pulled ten-year-old Nathaniel out of school, requiring the boy to help out in his business. That same year, Nathaniel’s mother, Mary Bowditch, died. By the age of twelve, Habakkuk entered his son into an apprenticeship in bookkeeping for the store of Ropes & Hodges. At that time, apprenticeships were usually unpaid, but the employer would cover the apprentice’s room and board. Nathaniel stayed with Jonathan Hodges’ family at the Ropes Mansion while working behind the counter at the store. It’s during this period that Nathaniel might have become acquainted with the Ward family due to their connection to Nathaniel Ropes. When Ropes & Hodges went out of business in 1790, seventeen-year-old Nathaniel went to work as a bookkeeper for none other than Samuel Curwen Ward. It’s possible that during this time, as an apprentice, Nathaniel lived for the first time at the house at 312 Essex Street that would later carry his name.15 He might even have been acquainted with the elderly Samuel Curwen, by that time a living landmark of Salem. Despite his proximity to the shipping industry, Nathaniel’s interest was in mathematics and astronomy rather than in business. While apprenticing for Ropes & Hodges and Samuel C. Ward, Nathaniel Bowditch used his spare time to continue his studies. He taught himself Latin to understand Isaac Newton’s Principia, and self-learned arithmetics and algebra. At that time, Salem lacked a public library, so Nathaniel had to rely on private libraries to educate himself. Initially, he used the Ropes family library, but as the young Nathaniel began making a name for himself, he was able to rely on like-minded friends. Nathan Reed, an apothecary and amateur inventor, gave Nathaniel access to his library and let him study in his pharmacy. Meanwhile, the Reverends William Bentley and John Prince regularly dropped books for Nathaniel at the counter of Ropes & Hodges. Bentley and Prince later became founding members of the Philosophical Society, granting Nathaniel free access to the society’s library, which later would become the foundation of the Salem Athenaeum.16 15 16 Ibid, 23. Ibid, 26. 12 �Despite his youth and humble origins, Nathaniel developed a network of friends and supporters that allowed him to ingratiate himself with the highest levels of Salem’s society. Aside from the connection with the Ropes, Hodges, and Curwens, Nathaniel’s association with the Reverend Bentley allowed him to work for Bentley’s friend, Captain John Gibault, where Nathaniel acquired experience in land surveying, conducting a chart of Salem Harbor in 1794. It’s through Capt. Gibault that Nathaniel got work from Elias Hasket Derby, the wealthiest man in the country, as a clerk aboard his ship, Henry. Throughout the following years, Nathaniel Bowditch continued progressing his career, finally attaining the rank of captain. At that time, sailing was a dangerous job. Mariners were exposed to the weather, threats by British and French ships, and most navigation tools were too expensive to procure, so sailors had to rely on their instincts and empiric knowledge to find their way. Bowditch began applying his mathematical knowledge in navigation and transmitting that knowledge to other sailors, teaching them about mathematics and astronomy. These journeys also allowed him to accumulate a considerable amount of money. After his third voyage in 1796, Nathaniel had enough money saved to consider permanently settling down in Salem. In 1798, he married Elizabeth Boardman in a ceremony officiated by the Rev. Bentley. That same year, Habakkuk Bowditch died from a stroke. That wouldn’t be the only tragedy that fateful year. Nathaniel’s young wife also died after five months of marriage while Nathaniel was away on a trading voyage to Spain. In 1800, before what would become his fifth and last voyage, Nathaniel married a second time to his first cousin, Mary “Polly” Ingersoll, Elizabeth Boardman’s childhood friend. During this period, Nathaniel began working on his magnum opus, The New American Practical Navigator. What started as an American edition of Moore’s Practical Navigation soon took on a life of its own as Nathaniel corrected Moore’s formulas and added his own ideas for navigation. The “Bowditch,” as it also became known, went beyond Moore’s original work, offering information not only on practical navigation, but also covering other topics that ranged from surveying to statistics on marine insurance, all presented in a didactic way that required minimal prior knowledge to understand. After its publication in 1802, it promptly became the “Seaman’s Bible.” In a time when the trading industry was booming across the Atlantic Coast and many young men were leaving their family farms to try their luck at sea, the Practical Navigator became a staple for every young sailor and launched Nathaniel into a mythical status as the book’s author. Shipmaster Robert Bennet Forbes of Boston wrote in his memories: “Beginning in 1817, with a capital consisting in Testament, “Bowditch,” a quadrant, chest of sea clothes and a mother’s blessing, I left the paternal home full of hope and good resolution.” The impact of the “Bowditch” in American navigation can’t be overstated; proof of its influence is that the book is still used today. By the end of Nathaniel’s life in 1838, the Practical Navigator had sold over 30 000 copies and been printed in ten editions, earning Nathaniel a lot of money in royalties.Respect for his work led to Bowditch earning other scientific accolades. In 1799, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1806, he was offered the chair of the mathematics and physics department at Harvard, which he turned down, reasoning that as someone without a formal education, he wouldn’t fit among the university’s peers. 13 �Following their wedding, Nathaniel and Mary lived by the Salem Common, in the Boardman’s mansion, with his first wife’s mother. Mary’s closeness to the Boardman family and the late Elizabeth might have made this situation less awkward. After his last voyage as a captain in 1802, Nathaniel decided to finally settle down in Salem. That same year, he took the job as president of the Essex Fire and Maritime Insurance Company, which he held until 1823.17 In 1804, the couple moved to the new fashionable neighborhood of Chestnut Street, renting the east half of a new brick mansion built by Nathaniel's former employer, Jonathan Hodges. The move created a permanent rupture with Nathaniel’s old friend, the Reverend Bentley, sparked by Nathaniel selling his pew in Bentley’s East Church. Although Nathaniel claimed it was for practical purposes since he wished to worship in a church closer to his new home, Bentley cast Nathaniel’s actions under political motivations, shedding light for the first time to Nathaniel’s political leanings as a Federalist in a time where the town was grappling with an increase in partisanship between the Federalist Party and Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans.18 That year, Nathaniel was nominated on the Federal ticket for the state representative elections, yet he lost to the Jeffersonians. As the leading scientist in Salem, Bowditch joined the East India Marine Society, becoming president in 1820. As president, he pushed for moving the organization’s focus from archival material to collections, spearheading what would eventually become the Peabody Essex Museum. By 1810, Nathaniel Bowditch was elected an overseer of Harvard University. By that time, he and Mary already had four sons, Nathaniel, Jonathan, Henry, and Charles. To make room for their growing family, the Bowditchs purchased a larger home. In 1811, they acquired 312 Essex Street and the family moved to the new house that today bears their name. Nathaniel might have felt a sentimental attachment to this house, given his past associations with Samuel Curwen and Samuel C. Ward. His time in this house coincided with the War of 1812, which saw not only Salem privateers attacking British ships, but renewed talks by some radical Federalists to secede from the Union. Following the initial shock from the declaration of war that, according to his son, left him “completely overcome by the news,” Nathaniel focused on other ventures to keep his mind out of the war. With trade all but stopped during this period, Nathaniel turned to his family and his scientific pursuits. Seeking to improve Mary’s fragile health, the family constantly traveled to New Hampshire and Maine. During their time in this house, the Bowditchs had four more children: A stillborn child, Mary, William, and Elizabeth Boardman, named in honor of Nathaniel’s first wife and Mary’s close friend. Along with his growing family, it’s known that Nathaniel employed a maid or assistant named Elizabeth. Nathaniel also continued publishing scientific articles and worked on his next big project, the English translation of Pierre-Simon Laplace’s Mechanique Celeste. This work attempted to analyze mathematically the mechanics of the universe. Nathaniel’s work on Mechanique was not only a straightforward translation, but he also provided annotations to explain Laplace’s formulas and give credit to other scientists' work that Laplace relied on for his conclusions. 17 James Grant Wilson and John Fiske, edts., Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biographies. Vol. 1 (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1888), 333-334. 18 Bentley, The diary of William Bentley, D.D., pastor of the East church, Salem, Massachusetts. Vol 3, 81. 14 �Figure 7: Nathaniel Bowditch, by James Frothingham, 1821. 15 �Figure 8: Mary Ingersoll Bowditch, by James Frothingham, 1821. 16 �Although little information is available of the Bowditchs use of this house, based on the partial letters from members of the family, Nathaniel had a small library and study where he would greet guests as an informal parlor, this was probably the same room where every Sunday morning he would lock himself in, enforcing silence across the house so he wouldn’t be disturbed from his work.19 Tradition places this room as the current “Bowditch Room,” south of the front door in the house’s current location. He also held a separate office where he would meet with clients and friends, conducting his job in the insurance business and later as president of the East India Marine Society. It’s possible that the two-story “ell,” the former Samuel Curwin store, was used as separate apartments for long-term family guests, most famously Salem's philanthropist Caroline Plummer. Miss Caroline Plummer was the daughter of Salem physician Joshua Plummer. She most likely lived with the Bowditchs during their first years at 312 Essex Street. At some point, her brother and heir of the Plummer fortune, Erasmus, expressed his wishes for her to live with him. Despite Nathaniel and Mary’s insistence, Caroline eventually moved out of 312 Essex Street into her brother’s household. That wasn’t the end of the Bowditchs' relation with Miss Plummer; based on letters from Nathaniel, Caroline remained close enough to be informed of Mary giving birth to a healthy son while Caroline was away. Following her brother’s death in 1823, Caroline inherited the family fortune, which she used to open the Plummer Farm School of Reform for Boys on Winter Island, and most famously donated Plummer Hall, her family home, for the use of the Salem Athenaeum and the Phillips Library. By the 1820s, Salem was in decline. The War of 1812 had wrecked its shipping industry, and although the port remained competitive until the 1830s, many merchants saw the writing on the wall. Billy Gray had started the exodus of Salem merchants to Boston, a city that was rapidly overshadowing Salem in size and importance. In 1823, Nathaniel took up the position of actuary for the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company in Boston. They sold their house for $3,900.00 (approximately $118,000.00 today), less than the $ 5,833.00 (approximately $176,500.00 today) they originally paid for it, pointing to both the decline of Salem as a desirable city to live, and the Bowditchs urgency to move, accepting a financial loss so they could secure funds for their new house in Boston. Before leaving, in August, a dinner was held in Nathaniel’s honor, which he only accepted to attend on the condition that he be spared having to give a speech.20 In October of that same year, the family packed their belongings in a wagon and moved out of 312 Essex Street to 8 Otis Place in Boston. After living in the house for twelve years and in Salem for fifty, Nathaniel left Salem, although the city would always remain his town. Nathaniel continued his illustrious career in Boston, succeeding John Quincy Adams as president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1829. In 1826, Mary was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis, requiring the Bowditchs to travel constantly to the countryside. Eventually, the disease caught up to her, and in 1834, Mary Ingersoll Bowditch drew her last 19 20 Robert Elton Berry, Yankee Stargazer: The life of Nathaniel Bowditch. 187. Ibid, 195. 17 �breath. Nathaniel lived a further four years, passing away in 1838. Both are buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. Dr. Treadwell and the MGH The Bowditches sold their house to Dr. John Dexter Treadwell, their family physician, who had been treating Mary’s illness throughout the 1810s. Before departing for Boston, Mary exhausted “one pharmacy’s supply of a prescription that Dr. Treadwell had given her.”21 Dr. Treadwell could also have been involved in delivering Nathaniel and Mary’s children and addressing Nathaniel’s health. Dr. Treadwell was not only close to the family as their physician but also as their neighbor. He owned two more properties around the corner, on North Street, and his backyard was adjacent to the Bowditchs’ backyard. Given this proximity to the family, Dr. Treadwell might have shown interest in purchasing their house. Considering that Treadwell only owned that property for less than a month, it’s also possible he acquired it as a favor for the Bowditchs, since they required money for their Boston property. Regardless, Dr. Treadwell sold the house in August, while the Bowditchs were still packing their belongings, to a merchant named John Proctor. Proctor owned this house for a few years before selling it to David Cummins (Cumming). Dr. Treadwell was well-positioned in Salem’s society, and the Bowditchs weren’t his only notable patients; he also treated the Rev. Bentley during his last years. David Cummins graduated from Dartmouth College and established a private law practice in Salem. In 1825, he took as a third wife Maria Franklin Kittedge. In 1829, the Cummins family moved to 312 Essex Street, including their daughter Maria Susannah Cummings, then 2 years old. Maria S. Cummings later became a novelist, authoring The Lamplighter (1854). Caroline King, in her memoirs, recalls Mr. Cummings as “cordial and genial, bowing and smiling to everyone he met- a cheerful homely figure.”22 In 1839, David Cummins accepted an appointment as Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. This led him to move to Springfield, and later to Dorchester. That year, he sold his house in Salem to John D. Treadwell’s son, Dr. John Goodhue Treadwell, returning the property to the Treadwell family. It should be noted that for some reason, the parties felt the need to keep this transaction secret, using Gilbert G. Newhall as a strawman. John Goodhue Treadwell graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1828. First, he traveled to New York and Baltimore. Later, in 1829, he spent nine months in London, then went to Dublin and Paris, where he witnessed the July Revolution of 1830. By November, Treadwell was back in Salem, this time to settle permanently and open his private practice. Upon his father’s death in 1831, Dr. Treadwell inherited the family’s fortune. He never married and lived in his father’s house, at 9 North Street (not the current address of the Bowditch House, but rather a previous building where today Eaton Place is laid out), with his mother, Dorothy Goodhue, and a maid, until the end of his life. He had his medical office nearby at 21 North Street. His Harvard 21 22 Ibid, 198. Caroline Howard King When I Lived in Salem (Brattleboro, VT: Stephen Daye Press, 1937), 17. 18 �classmate, John Langdon Sibley, described him as “eccentric, unmarried, rough.”23 The Necrology of Harvard College, a list of alumni obituaries, described him as “somewhat eccentric, but was enthusiastically fond of his profession, ignored almost everything but that, and read scarcely any work that did not pertain to it.” In 1839, he contracted scarlet fever from a patient, which greatly impacted his constitution. By 1841, he was only seeing a few patients. Perhaps this brush with death was what motivated him to purchase 312 Essex Street as a source of extra income for himself and his mother. Dr. Treadwell rented out 312 Essex Street to various tenants. The longest-term renter was Elizabeth Derby. Elizabeth Derby was born into the Peirce family. In 1842, she became the second wife of Tarrant Putnam Derby, a tailor. The couple had a daughter, Elizabeth Putnam, Jr., in 1847. Unfortunately, Tarrant died in 1850. After her husband’s death, Elizabeth became Treadwell’s tenant, living at 312 Essex Street with her daughter. Given Elizabeth’s connection to the Peirce and Derby families it’s likely that she was well-provided for by her relatives. She lived there until her death from cancer in 1856. Following her death, her young daughter went to live with her relatives, the Rea family. The next resident of 312 Essex Street was Sophia Pickman. Born Sophia Palmer, she married Dr. Thomas Pickman in 1815, however, the marriage was short-lived, and she became a widow in 1817. Due to her husband’s medical profession, it’s possible she was acquainted with the Treadwell family. By 1850, she was living with her only daughter, Mary Toppan, and her son-in-law George B. Loring, a postmaster. The family moved to 312 Essex Street in 1856, and resided there until Dorothy Treadwell died in 1858, when the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) acquired the property. Throughout his life, Dr. Treadwell had built a large medical library, which he bequeathed in his will to the MGH, along with an endowment of $5,000 (approximately $185,500 today) and all his properties in Salem. John G. Treadwell died in Salem in 1856, being outlived by his mother for two years. Dorothy inherited his estate, provided that after her death, everything would go to the MGH.24 The Treadwell collection became the backbone of the MGH medical library, first administered, coincidentally, by Dr. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, Nathaniel Bowditch’s son. Today, although still owned by the MGH, the Treadwell Library is housed at Harvard’s Medical School. Joseph B.F. Osgood Upon acquiring 312 Essex Street, MGH immediately sold it to Joseph Barlow Felt Osgood. Coincidentally, Nathaniel Ingersoll Bowditch, Nathaniel Bowditch’s eldest son, served as witness to the purchase of his old childhood home. Joseph B.F. Osgood was born in 1824, the third of the seven children of William Osgood and Elizabeth Curtis Felt. He grew up next door to the Bowditch House, at 314 Essex Street. In 1846, he graduated from Harvard Law 23 John Langdon Sibley, Diary (Known as Sibley’s Private Journal), 1846-1882 (HUG 1791.72.10), transcribed by Brian A. Sullivan. (accessed July 31, 2007). 24 “The World of John Goodhue Treadwell: A Brief Overview in Celebration of the 160th Anniversary of Treadwell Library, Massachusetts General Hospital,” The Watermark: Newsletter of the Archivists and Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences 30, no. 4 (Fall 2007), 85-87. 19 �School, and in 1853, he married Mary Jane Creamer. At the time he purchased 312 Essex Street, Joseph was serving as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. The next year, 1859, he was elected to the State Senate. In 1864, during the Civil War, he was elected mayor of Salem, a position he held until 1865. In that position, he had to oversee drafting of troops to fight for the Union. Following the establishment of the First District Court of Essex County in 1874, Joseph Osgood was appointed as justice, a position he held until 1889. Figure 9: Joseph B.F. Osgood 20 �The Osgoods had two daughters, Alice and Elizabeth “Bessie.” The family also had two Irish servants while living at 312 Essex. Following his wife’s death from consumption in 1865, Joseph's four unmarried sisters, Abigail, Ellen, Mary, and Susan, moved in with the family to help raise Joseph’s daughters and run the household. According to the 1870 census, the Osgoods were employing only one servant, and Ellen Osgood served as housekeeper, effectively becoming head of the household. During this period, the house underwent several modifications following the Victorian fashion; the Federal doors and windows were replaced, and a new two-story addition was built in the right rear corner, including a bay window that transformed the L-shaped plan into a square. Following the latest technology of the time, a doorbell and signalling system were installed. The neighborhood was also dramatically changing around the house. A drug store operated in the old Witch House next door. By the 1850s, Salem streets were illuminated by gaslight. By 1870, horse-drawn streetcars were running down North and Essex Streets, and by 1890, these cars became electrified, and cable lines drastically altered the look of the streetscape. Figure 10: Historic photograph of 312 Essex Street, notice the bay window at west side. Frank Cousins, c. 1865-1914. 21 �By 1880, Joseph was living with his adult daughters. Around this time, Elizabeth married Henry Augustus Cook, a civil engineer from San Francisco, and the couple stayed living with the Osgoods. In 1896, Alice married Amos Bailey, owner of a shoe factory in Lynn, and moved to her husband’s house in Lynn. By 1900, Joseph Osgood, Henry and Elizabeth Cook, their son, Osgood Cook, and two Irish servants lived at 312 Essex Street. By the turn of the century, Joseph Osgood had retired from the court but continued practicing law privately. Henry Cook worked as superintendent for the Salem Water Works. Henry Cook died of heart disease in 1905. Joseph B.F. Osgood, by this point recognized as Salem’s oldest ex-mayor, continued enjoying good health until he passed away in 1913, at the age of 90 years. Following his death, Elizabeth inherited the house, but the family decided to move to Marblehead. In 1929, following the death of her cousin Susan Osgood, Elizabeth also inherited 314 Essex Street, her father’s childhood home. Elizabeth lived with her son Osgood and his wife, Martha Howard, for the rest of her life, passing away into her eighties shortly after 1940, when Osgood Cook inherited her whole estate.25 Cook Family’s Tenants During this time, Elizabeth and Osgood rented out 312 Essex Street to various tenants, many of whom were connected to the healthcare field, perhaps due to the presence of the pharmacy next door, operating in today’s Witch House. Their first tenants were two sisters, Florence and Katherine Mudge. They were the daughters of Ezra Mudge, a bank teller, and Eliza Bray, from Lynn. Kate had the distinction of graduating as an M.D. from the Boston University School of Medicine, the first medical school for women in New England. She opened a private practice in Salem in the 1890s and lived with Flora for the rest of their lives. While living at 312 Essex Street, Dr. Mudge also operated her private practice within the house. It’s possible that during this time, the house was split into two duplexes, Dr. Mudge occupied the main building, and her sister occupied the Samuel Curwen “ell.” Although little is known about Dr. Mudge’s personal life, she seems to have been proud of her accomplishments, always referring to herself as a doctor instead of the feminine doctress. Kate Mudge was a woman of science who had earned her M.D. and wished to differentiate herself as a real doctor from folk healers who freely used the term doctress. After Dr. Mudge died in 1926, the Cooks divided the house into smaller apartments to accommodate more tenants. A spinster, Grace Dalton moved in next. She was born in 1869, the daughter of John and Eliza Dalton. She never married and seems to have taken care of her elderly parents in their last years. Following the death of her father, Grace spent some time in Europe.26 Upon her return to Salem, she moved into 312 Essex Street, where the 1930 census identifies her as the head of the household and the other tenants as her lodgers. It’s unclear 25 Sally Dee, 314 Essex Street, Historic Salem Inc, 1969. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; NARA Series: Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 - March 31, 1925; Roll #: 2105; Volume #: Roll 2105 - Certificates: 220726-221099, 23 Sep 1922-25 Sep 1922 26 22 �whether she was subletting the house or whether she worked as some sort of property manager for the Cooks. Along with her lived Eva Greely and George Ball, both widowed. Later in the 1930s, Grace and Eva shared the house with the Rosen family: Harry Rosen, a garage worker who owned a well-known garage in Lynn, his wife Sadie Solomon, and their son, Leonard, another physician. Harry was a Jewish immigrant from Russia, and although Sadie was American, her parents were also Russian immigrants. According to census information, the family moved constantly around the Greater Boston area. While Leonard attended medical school in Boston, the family lived there. Upon graduating as an MD, Leonard started a private practice in Salem, and his family followed him. They lived at 312 Essex until Leonard married Florence Fienberg in 1936,when the family finally parted ways and everyone moved out of 312 Essex. Figure 11: Matchbox advertising Mabel Sturgeon's Harper Method Shop. 23 �During the forties, Glenn Sturgeon, a barber, lived at 312 Essex Street with his wife, Mabel, who ran a Harper Method Shop, a beauty salon, within the house until the building was moved in 1945. Other notable residents at that time include Sally McHugh, a waitress, and Robert H. Lee, an assembler. Other residents continued the long tradition of medical professionals living in this house. Dr. Boleslous John Filip, a Polish immigrant, his wife Rose, and daughter Dolors. Gertrude O’Hara, a dietitian, Jane Burke, and Anna Buckley, both nurses. Other tenants to live here before the house was moved were Ella F. Reid, a hairdresser; Mrs. Marie H. Curran, a widow who worked in a tearoom; and Frank McNeil, who worked in a shoe factory, and his wife, Susan. Finally, one of the most interesting tenants during this time was a widow, Mary L. Kennedy, who identified herself as a “spiritual practitioner,” an occupation that might be considered unusual in any other part of the country except for the “Witch City.” Historic Salem Inc. and the City of Salem North Street has always been the main thoroughfare to cross the North River into North Salem and Peabody. The increased automobile traffic in the 1940s made the character of North Street as a narrow lane increasingly unsustainable. By 1944, the City of Salem approved a plan to double the width of North Street between Essex Street and the North River. The plan involved the demolition of several houses in the area, including the old Jonathan Corwin House. As a reaction, a group of concerned Salem citizens joined together and created Historic Salem Inc. to acquire the historic Corwin House, remove it from the path of the bulldozer, restore it to its original seventeenth-century appearance, and open it as a museum. Since most of 310 Essex Street would be lost to the widening of North Street, it became necessary to move the Corwin House back onto 312 Essex Street. Significant private funds were raised, and the City of Salem agreed to co-sponsor the preservation project. In April 1944, Historic Salem Inc. purchased the Bowditch House from Osgood Cook. The building was moved from 312 Essex Street into its backyard, which now became the corner of North Street and Eaton Place, 9 North Street. Part of the move also involved the restoration of Bowditch House to its Federal-style appearance. The stone steps of the house were recycled as landscape on the nearby North Church. Most of the rear ell, including the old Samuel Curwen store and kitchens, was moved to 1½ Cambridge Street, being adapted into World War II Veterans’ housing, and the Osgood addition, including the bay window, was entirely removed. Also lost were the chimneys and the ​ Chinese balustrade on the roof. The original basement of the house presumably still survives beneath the Jonathan Corwin House’s front lawn. The original plan was for Bowditch and the Witch House to become an educational campus: The Witch House would tell the narrative of the 1692 witch hysteria while Bowditch would focus on Salem’s maritime history. Unfortunately, due to a lack of resources and will, that plan was never formalized. After successfully restoring the Witch House and turning it into a museum, Historic Salem Inc. largely withdrew from the partnership with the City. The City of 24 �Salem took possession of Bowditch House in 1948, and transformed it into World War II Veterans’ housing, although it kept some office space for Historic Salem Inc. and other organizations. This period, between 1948 and 1962, was the last time Bowditch House was used as a residential space. One of the first residents was Anna Buckley and her family, who after having been forced to move out when Historic Salem, Inc. acquired the property, might have been eager to return to their former dwelling. Anna Catherine Timiny was born in 1894, the daughter of Patrick Timiny, an Irish immigrant, and his wife Winnifred. In 1914, Anna married William Buckley; the couple had ten children. Sometime in the 1930s, the marriage broke down and the couple divorced. Although there isn’t a record of that divorce, it likely happened since Anna and William both took second spouses later in their lives. Single and with several underage children under her care, Anna took a job as an attendant at the Salem Hospital, another word for practical nurse, a career she held until her retirement. In 1940, Anna and her family moved to 312 Essex Street. The Buckleys might have felt an attachment to this building, or they weren’t able to find other accommodations for their large family. Regardless of the case, they were the only former tenants to move back to the house once it became 9 North Street. The family was able to go back to Bowditch House thanks to Anna’s oldest son, Joseph. He fought in World War II, giving him the chance to apply for housing at Bowditch. Anna’s other now-adult children, John, Richard, Eileen, and Phylis also lived here during this time. Eileen followed her mother’s footsteps as a nurse, while the sons worked as truck drivers. Although the other children eventually moved out, Joseph remained living with Anna for the rest of their stay at Bowditch. Figure 12: Leonce Leger’s naturalization photo, 1920. 25 �Leonce Leger was born in New Brunswick, Canada, in 1895, the son of Wilfred and Susan Leger. In 1916, he married Sarah Leblanc. They had two daughters, Violette “Viola” and Francoise, before Sarah’s untimely death in 1918. In 1920, Leonce, his parents, siblings, and daughters, emigrated to Boston and settled in Salem, where Leonce found a job as a barber. The Legers lived in The Point neighborhood of Salem, at the time the center of the city’s French-Canadian community. From its beginnings, The Point had been an immigrant neighborhood, first occupied by Irish immigrants who sought to work in the nearby Pequot Mills, and later by French-Canadians. The Point, also known as Le Pointe, was one of the densest areas in Salem, filled with narrow streets and tightly packed wooden tenements. In 1914 the whole neighborhood was razed to the ground (along with a third of the city) during the Great Fire of Salem. The Legers arrived in an interesting time when the neighborhood was being rebuilt. The old wooden tenements were replaced by four and five-story brick building apartments that today give The Point its characteristic appearance. At some point, Leonce started losing his sight, since in his 1936 naturalization papers, he declared himself as blind. When Leonce married Anna in 1951, he was working as a salesman for barber supplies. He eventually retired in 1956. Figure 13: Anna Timminy Buckley Leger and her son, Richard, circa 1951. Buckley Family Collection. 26 �The Buckleys shared the building with other families. One of them was the Cornacchios. Joseph “Pep” A. Cornacchio was born in Salem in 1920, the son of Antonio Cornacchio and Serafina Dalesio. He grew up in Salem, attending Salem High School where he participated in the school’s football, basketball, and track teams. After graduation, he continued his education at Villanova University and Boston College. With the entry of the US into World War II, Joseph joined the army, serving as a member of the 112th Air Base Unit in Alaska. Following the war, in 1948, he married Katherine McKay. By 1951, the couple had four children, Patricia, Mary, Joseph, Jr., and James. Joseph found work in the United Shoe Machinery Co. while Kate worked as a phone operator. As a US veteran, Joe was entitled to veteran housing which allowed the family to move to 9 North Street in 1951. They lived here for just a few years, moving out by 1955 due to their growing family. Joe and Kate had three more children after departing 9 North Street, Kevin, Thomas, and Neil. Pep went on to be an important member of the community. He was a football coach for Saltonstall School and the former St. Joseph’s Academy, a member of the Salem Kiwanis Club, the Salvation Army Board of Directors, the City of Salem Parks and Recreation committee, the Salem YMCA board of directors, the Pioneer Village Restoration Commission, the Salem Rotary Club, the Salem Lions Club, and multiple other organizations. In his own words: "I never, never said no to any organization, I grew up loving people and I wanted to give back what I received from the many people who guided me."27 Figure 14: Joseph Cornacchio’s yearbook picture. Salem High School yearbook, 1940 27 “Joseph A. Cornacchio” The Salem News: Obituaries, July 7, 2010. 27 �Figure 15: Joseph Cornacchio’s obituary. 28 �Figure 16: Lawrence Melanson’s yearbook picture. Salem High School yearbook, 1937 Another family to live here were the Melansons. Lawrence Melanson was born in 1919, the son of Ellsworth and Elizabeth Melanson. Upon graduating from Salem High School. He got a job as a busboy at the Hawthorne Hotel, launching a career in the hospitality industry that led him to become a hotel manager. Following his service in World War II, he married Mary Gudette, with whom he had one daughter, Deidre. The family moved to 9 North Street in 1950, and remained residents until the city turned the building into office space. Other residents of 9 North Street were Donald Twiss, a supervisor at a plaster factory, and his wife Leonora, Frank Lucca, a barber, and his son, Joseph, a leather worker, and William Thomas Long, an inspector for General Electric, and his wife, Eileen. In 1962, the last residents, the Melansons, moved out and the city decided to turn the building into office space. The City’s Park, Shade Tree, and Health Departments functioned in Bowditch House, while Historic Salem, Inc. (HSI) also had an office space in the building. Following the successful campaign to save the Witch House, HSI continued its mission to advocate for historic preservation in the city of Salem. In 1965, Bowditch House was declared a National Historic Landmark and in 1974 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. By the 1990s, Historic Salem Inc. was in a more robust financial position, while the City of Salem was in the process of consolidating its offices within the new municipal annex on Washington Street. Recognizing its inability to take optimal care of Bowditch House, the City agreed to transfer the property back to Historic Salem Inc., which engaged in a full restoration program between 2000 and 2001, restoring many of the house’s Federal features, including the Chinese balustrade. Today, Historic Salem Incorporated serves as steward of Bowditch House, celebrating Nathaniel Bowditch’ life and accomplishments. HSI uses the house primarily as office space. Its headquarters are located here and it rents out other spaces in the house as offices for professionals. 29 �Figure 17: 312 Essex Street, owned by J.B.F. Osgood. Sanborn Atlas of Salem, 1874, plate H. 30 �Figure 18: 312 Essex Street, owned by J.B.F. Osgood. Sanborn Atlas of Salem, 1987, plate 2. 31 �Figure 19: 312 Essex Street, owned by J.B.F. Osgood. Sanborn Atlas of Salem, 1911, plate 15. 32 �Chain of Deeds 33 �Chain of Title, 9 North Street, Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts Date Conveyed by Conveyed to Property Amount Doc Book Page 27 Oct 1740 George Curwen Samuel Curwen “Lot or parcel of land situated in Salem (...) the middle division of my grandfather’s [Jonathan Corwin] homestead” “In consideration of other land” Deed 81 122 30 May 1785 Samuel Curwen Richard and Mehitable Ward “My messuage dwelling house, outhouses, and land in Salem” £ 1,200.00 Deed 143 163 25 Feb 1797 Richard and Mehitable Ward Samuel Curwen Ward “Our messuage, dwelling house, outhouses, and land in Salem” $ 1,000.00 Deed 162 101 6 Dec 1797 Samuel Curwen Ward Ebenezer Putnam “That messuage dwelling house, outhouses, and land in Salem” $ 954.63 Deed 162 276 7 Nov 1800 Ebenezer Putnam William Ward “My messuage, consisting of a dwelling house, outhouses, and land situated in Salem” $ 4,000.00 Deed 168 77 34 �6 May 1811 William Ward Nathaniel Bowditch “My messuage in Salem aforesaid, consisting of a dwelling house, outhouses, and the land under and adjoining” $ 5,833.00 Deed 194 91 30 Jul 1823 Nathaniel Bowditch John D. Treadwell “My messuage in Salem aforesaid, consisting of a dwelling house, outhouses, and the land under and adjoining” $ 3,900.00 Deed 233 183 5 Aug 1823 John D. Treadwell William Proctor “Part and parcel of a certain real estate” $ 3,500.00 Deed 233 196 23 Jul 1829 William Proctor David “A certain Cumming messuage situated in Salem” $ 4,500.00 Deed 253 233 31 Aug 1839 David Cumming Gilbert G. Newhall “A certain messuage situated in Salem” $ 4,940.00 Deed 314 277 31 Aug 1839 Gilbert G. Newhall John G. Treadwell “A certain messuage situated in Salem” $ 4,940.00 Deed 314 278 8 Apr 1858 Massachusetts General Hospital Joseph B.F. Osgood “A certain parcel of land situated in Salem and known as the Bowditch Estate” $ 5,725.00 Deed 570 1 35 �25 Jul 1911 Joseph B.F. Osgood Elizabeth C. Cook “All real estate belonging to me, situated in Salem, and in Marblehead” … “A parcel of land with buildings thereon” “One dollar Deed and other valuable considerations” 2096 87 9 Apr 1945 Osgood Cook, heir of Elizabeth C. Cook Historic Salem Inc. “The land in said Salem “For consideration paid” Deed 3400 437 28 Jan 1948 Historic Salem Inc. City of Salem “The land in said Salem with the buildings thereon” Deed 3585 340 23 Jun 2000 City of Salem Historic Salem Inc. “The land with building, and improvements thereon” Deed 16412 578 “$ 1.00 and other nominal considerations paid” 36 �Sources 37 �THEME: N A T I ~ .L HISTORIC Form 10-300 (Rev. 6-72) LPJ~IMARK U N I T E D STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR N A T I O N A L PARK SERVICE S c i e n t i f i c Discovery and 'nvent i o n -ATE. Massachusetts COUNTY- NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC P L A C E S ,(NATIOIIAI, u - ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ d N V E N T - ONOMINATION RY FORM Essex FOR N P S USE ONLY LANDI&kiL~S ) ENTRY DATE (Type all entries complete applicable sections) Nathaniel Bowditch House AND/OR HISTORIC: Nathaniel Bowditch House STREET AND NUMBER: 9 North S t r e e t I CONGRESSIONAL C I T Y O R TOWN: Sixth Salem STATE DISTRICT: CODE Massachusetts 025 COUNTY: CODE Essex 0 0 9 3. CLASS$FICAflQN CATEGORY (Check One) C] OWNERSHIP - District Building Site Structure @ Public Object PRESENT USE (Check One or More Agricultural C] Commercial 0 Educotionol 0 Entertainment &,OWNER OF PROPERTY OWNER'S STATUS 0 Public Acquisition: IX) Occupied Private I n Process Both Being Considered as unoccupied Preservation work i n progress ACC ESSl B L E TO T H E P U B L I C a Yes: Restricted Unrestricted Appropriate) Government Park Industrial Private Residence Transportation Military Religious Museum Scientific Comments Other (specify) NAME: C i t y of Salem, O f f i c e of t h e Mayor STREET AND NUMBER: P, C i t y H a l l , 93 Washington S t r e e t C I T Y O R TOWN: STATE: Salem ,, ,. Cool? o =t:r 8 cn -,,Massachusetts i i5. ~~C*~I~NOF~;EOAL DESCRIljT ?ON COURTHOUSE, REGISTRY O F DEEDS. ETC: n 0 Essex R e g i s t r y of Deeds, Southern D i s t r i c t E : S T F E E T A N D NUMBER: 32 F e d e r a l S t r e e t C I T Y O R TOWN: 1 Salem I STATE CODE Massachusetts 1 I .. P . T I T L E O F SURVEY: I I If1 None DATE OF SURVEY: b E P O S I T O R Y F O R S U R V E Y RECORDS: Federal State C] County Local "" Z c I m STREET AND NUMBER: 71 0 z 0 vl ." 5 m 0 z I- C l T Y O R TOWN: < 0 D -I m J �(Check One) Good -- CONDITION Fair 0 Ruins Deteriorated Altered D E S C R I B E T H E P R E S E N T AND O R I G I N A L Unaltered (if U Unexposed (Check One) (Check One) hZI, Moved 0 Original Site ~ ~ O W ~ ) P H Y S ~ C AALP P E A R A N C E The N a t h a n i e l Bowditch House was c o n s t r u c t e d e a r l y i n t h e 1 9 t h c e n t u r y o n ' Essex S t r e e t i n Salem, Massachusetts; it was moved t o i t s p r e s e n t l o c a t i o n a t 9 North S t r e e t , Salem, c . 1945 t o p r e v e n t i t s d e m o l i t i o n i n a s t r e e t widening p r o j e c t . A frame and clapboard s t r u c t u r e i n t h e F e d e r a l s t y l e , t h e house c o n s i s t s of a 3 - s t o r y main block w i t h a low hipped roof and a 2%-story r e a r e l l w i t h a half-gambrel r o o f , both on a low s t o n e foundation. The o u t s t a n d i n g e x t e r i o r f e a t u r e of t h e Bowditch House i s t h e " f r o n t i s piece" e n t r a n c e i n t h e c e n t e r of i t s five-bay f r o n t ( e a s t ) facade. T h i s e n t r a n c e i s f l a n k e d by engaged C o r i n t h i a n columns which s u p p o r t a f u l l e n t a b l a t u r e . The doorway i t s e l f , reached by 3 r i s e r s and r e c e s s e d behind paneled r e v e a l s , is f l a n k e d by v e r t i c a l l i g h t s above paneled i n s e t s and topped by a f o u r - l i g h t transom. Windows throughout t h e house a r e 616 s a s h w i t h louvered b l i n d s . Brackets s e t beneath t h e f i r s t - f l o o r - f r o n t windows s u p p o r t flower boxes d u r i n g t h e s p r i n g and summer months. The i n t e r i o r of t h e Bowditch House follows a s t a n d a r d four-room, c e n t e r h a l l p l a n . O r i g i n a l f a b r i c i n c l u d e s simple moldings around windows and doors, c o r n i c e moldings, s h u t t e r s i n t h e p a r l o r and d i n i n g room, and some fireplaces. When moved, t h e Bowditch House was badly d e t e r i o r a t e d and r e q u i r e d major r e p a i r of w a l l s and f l o o r s , removal of post-Bowditch p a r t i t i o n s , and r e placement of window l i g h t s , doors, and t h e r o o f . Despite t h e e x t e n s i v e work done, t h e e x t e r i o r appearance of t h e house remains e s s e n t i a l l y a s i t was when c o n s t r u c t e d (with t h e e x c e p t i o n of t h e o r i g i n a l roof b a l u s t r a d e , removed a t a n unknaxn d a t e and n o t r e p l a c e d ) . The P n t e r i o r has been a l t e r e d somewhat--primarily through t h e removal of some f i r e p l a c e s and d e c o r a t i v e d e t a i l - - a n d i t s o r i g i n a l c h a r a c t e r i s f u r t h e r obscured by i t s office furnishings. J u s t s o u t h of t h e Bowditch House a c r o s s a narrow lawn i s t h e "Witch House", a 1 7 t h c e n t u r y s t r u c t u r e , a l s o owned by t h e C i t y of Salem and operated a s a museum. Immediately n o r t h of t h e Bowditch House i s a s i d e - s t r e e t , Eaton P l a c e . That p o r t i o n of t h e Bowditch p r o p e r t y behind t h e main house between Eaton P l a c e and t h e n o r t h s i d e of t h e e l l has been hard-topped t o provide a parking area. Boundary The Landmark d e s i g n a t i o n f o r t h e Bowditch House i n c l u d e s t h e b u i l d i n g i t s e l f and approximately one-tenth a c r e of l a n d ; boundaries a r e o u t l i n e d i n r e d on t h e a t t a c h e d p l a t map, recorded i n t h e Essex R e g i s t r y of Deeds, Southern D i s t r i c t (Book 3585, Page 3 4 0 ) , d e s c r i b i n g p r o p e r t y conveyed by H i s t o r i c Salem, I n c . t o t h e C i t y of Salem on January 38, 1948. �PERIOD ( C h e c k O n e o r More a s Appropriate) 0 Pre-Columbian C] SPECIFICDATE(S) AREAS 0 15th Century 16th Century 18th Century 17th Century 19th Century 1811-1823 (ZfApplicable andKnown) OF S I G N I F I C A N C E 20th Century ( C h e c k O n e or More a s Appropriate) Aboriginal 0 Prehistoric Historic Agriculture Architecture Art Commerce Communications Conservation Education Political Urban Planning Engineering Religion/Phi- Other ( S p e c i f y ) Industry losophy @ Invention Landscape Architecture 0 Literature 0 Military 0 Music 621 Science Sculpture Soc~al/Humanitarian Theater Transportation STATEMENT O F SIGNIFICANCE T h i s 3 - s t o r y frame house was, from 1811 u n t i l 1823, t h e home of Nathaniel Bowditch, one of t h e most i n t e r e s t i n g s c i e n t i f i c f i g u r e s i n American h i s t o r y . The e x t r a o r d i n a r i l y keen and a n a l y t i c a l mind o f t h i s Salem man produced g r e a t advances i n n a v i g a t i o n and brought c o n t i n e n t a l mathematics t o America. Bowditch probably s e t a record f o r d i s c o v e r i n g e r r o r s i n a published work when he uncovered 8,000 i n The P r a c t i c a l Navigator, a manual of n a v i g a t i o n w r i t t e n by Englishman John Hamilton Moore. Among t h e most g r i e v o u s e r r o r s Moore made i n compiling h i s work was t h e c i t a t i o n of t h e y e a r 1800 a s a l e a p y e a r u - a mistake which r e s u l t e d i n s e v e r a l s e a d i s a s t e r s . Thus, i t i s obvious why ow ditch's The New American P r a c t i c a l Navigator, which appeared i n 1802, r a p i d l y supplanted t h e e a r l i e r B r i t i s h work a s t h e s t a n d a r d manual f o r seamen t h e world over. This house, which Bowditch occupied l o n g e r t h a n any o t h e r of h i s Salem r e s i d e n c e s , was c o n s t r u c t e d on Essex S t r e e t e a r l y i n t h e 1 9 t h c e n t u r y and moved t o i t s p r e s e n t l o c a t i o n , 9 North S t r e e t , c . 1945. Now owned by t h e C i t y of Salem and used a s o f f i c e s by t h e Park, P o l i c e , and S t r e e t Departments, t h e house i s open t o v i s i t o r s by appointment. Except f o r t h e absence of t h e r o o f t o p b a l u s t r a d e , t h e e x t e r i o r of t h e house r e t a i n s i t s o r i g i n a l appearance. H i s t o r i c - a 1 Background Bowditch developed h i s i n h e r e n t l y keen, a n a l y t i c a l mind l a r g e l y through h i s own e f f o r t s . Born on March 26, 1773, of a family who had followed t h e s e a f o r g e n e r a t i o n s , t h e young Bowditch r e c e i v e d some schooling i n Salem, Massachusetts, b u t when twelve he became a n a p p r e n t i c e t o a s h i p ' s c h a n d l e r . Although he could study only a f t e r work, t h e youth d i d n o t f o r s a k e h i s i n t e r e s t i n mathematics. Within a y e a r , he had compiled a notebook on n a v i g a t i o n . With borrowed books and amazingdedication, ~ 0 w d i t i . h continued t o study a s e n e r g e t i c a l l y a s most boys of h i s age played. So impressed were two of h i s o l d e r f r i e n d s w i t h h i s z e a l and a b i l i t y , t h a t i n 1791 they secured permission f o r him t o u s e t h e volumes i n Salem's Philosop h i c a l L i b r a r y Company. Bowditch devoured t h e t r e a s u r e s he found t h e r e . I n d i c a t i v e of h i s i n t e l l e c t u a l d i s c i p l i n e i s t h e f a c t t h a t when o n l y e i g h t e e n he copied a l l of t h e mathematical papers he found i n t h e Transa c t i o n s of t h e Royal S o c i e t y of London. By t h e age of twenty-one, he had (Continued) �Form 10-3000 UNIT (July 1969) L. STATES DEPARTMENT O F T H E INTERIOR N A T I O N A L P A R K SERVICE NATIONAL R E G I S T E R O F H I S T O R I C P L A C E S INVENTORY ( ( N A T ~ I ~ AFI,PI-"~:C L 1,fi1$91d.&~ii[~ j - (Number ell entriee) 8. - NOMINATION FORM (Continuation Sheet) Statement of S i g n i f i c a n c e : (1) TATE .Massachusetts =OUNTY Essex FOR NPS USE ONLY DATE ENTRYNUMBER Nathaniel Bowditch House r e a d , a f t e r t e a c h i n g himself L a t i n , S i r I s a a c Newton's P r i n c i p i a , even d i s c o v e r i n g a n e r r o r i n i t . Moreover, w i t h a French d i c t i o n a r y i n one hand and a B i b l e i n a n o t h e r , he had l e a r n e d French. I n 1795, t h e youth, s l i g h t and a l r e a d y gray-haired, turned t o t h e s e a . For t h e n e x t n i n e y e a r s , Bowditch s a i l e d over t h e globe, f i r s t a s s h i p ' s c l e r k , then a s supercargo, and on h i s l a s t voyage (November 1802-December 1803) a s c a p t a i n of t h e Putnam, which he and t h r e e o t h e r s owned. On a l l of h i s voyages, Bowditch continued h i s s t u d i e s , e s p e c i a l l y t h o s e concerned w i t h n a v i g a t i o n . It was d u r i n g t h e p e r i o d from 1795 t o 1802 t h a t Bowditch produced one of t h e most remarkable s c i e n t i f i c books e v e r p u b l i s h e d i n America. By J u l y 1799, he had a l r e a d y p u b l i s h e d two r e v i s i o n s of John Hamilton Moore's e r r o r - l a d e n The P r a c t i c a l Navigator and t h e n decided t o p r e p a r e a new book. Three y e a r s l a t e r , i n 1802, h i s New American P r a c t i c a l Navigator appeared. Some 274 pages i n l e n g t h , t h e manual contained n a v i g a t i o n a l a i d s , t i d e t a b l e s , a s t r o n o m i c a l t a b l e s , t h e d u t i e s of o f f i c e r s and a textbook on n a v i g a t i o n . The m a t e r i a l f o r t e a c h i n g n a v i g a t i o n c o n s t i t u t e d a remarkable i n n o v a t i o n , and it probably stemmed from owd ditch's a t t e m p t s t o t e a c h geometry t o s a i l o r s w h i l e on h i s v a r i o u s voyages. I n a s h o r t time, t h e book achieved o u t s t a n d i n g p o p u l a r i t y . And a s a s e a c a p t a i n l a t e r wrote, one a f t e r 1802 went t o s e a w i t h a "Testament, a Bowditch, a quadrant, a c h e s t of s e a c l o t h e s , and a mother's b l e s s i n g . " Bowditch prepared r e v i s i o n s f o r subsequent e d i t i o n s of t h e Navigator d u r i n g h i s l i f e and, a l t h o u g h somewhat a l t e r e d , t h e book remains i n g e n e r a l u s e today. Although t h e P r a c t i c a l Navigator was Bowditch's g r e a t work, he accomplished a d d i t i o n a l noteworthy achievements i n s c i e n c e . H i s study of t h e Weston, Conn e c t i c u t , meteor of 1867 r e c e i v e d applause h e r e and i n Europe. Aside £ram t h a t i n v e s t i g a t i o n and numerous o t h e r s c i e n t i f i c papers, ow ditch's t r a n s l a t i o n of L a P l a c e ' s Mecanique C e l e s t e i s of e s p e c i a l i n t e r e s t . From a t l e a s t t h e time of h i s l a s t voyage i n 1802-1803 u n t i l h i s d e a t h , t h e s c i e n t i s t l a b o r e d o v e r t r a n s l a t i n g t h e Frenchman's g r e a t work on mathematics and t h e o r e t i c a l astronomy. The job was a stupendous one, and when t h e f i r s t f o u r volumes of t h e t r a n s l a t i o n appeared, each contained over a thousand pages. Death c u t s h o r t ow ditch's work on L a P l a c e ' s l a s t volume, which remains u n t r a n s l a t e d . Bowditch enjoyed more t h a n j u s t - s u c c e s s i n s c i e n c e . Although h i s f i r s t w i f e , E l i z a b e t h Boardman, d i e d i n t h e same y e a r they were married, 179&, he and h i s second w i f e , Mary I n g e r s o l l , whom he married i n October, 1800, had a happy marriage. Bowditch w a s t h e f i r s t i n s u r a n c e a c t u a r y i n t h i s country. He was appointed p r e s i d e n t of t h e Essex F i r e and Marine Insurance Company i n 1804 and remained i n t h a t p o s i t i o n u n t i l 1823, when he moved t o Boston t o become p r e s i d e n t and a c t u a r y f o r a n o t h e r firm. Bowditch d i e d on t h e a f t e r n o o n of March 16, 1838. (Continued) 3 G P O 921-724 �. :;orm 10-3000 (July 1969) UNITED STA i . .., D EPARTMENT OF T HE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES . (NATIONAL HIS TORIC LANDMABKS) INVENTORY. NOMINATION FORM (Continuation Sheet) - 5TAT~_ Ma s s a chus e tts CalJN .Tv --1~ss ex 1 (Number 1/11 entries) 8. Statement of Significance: (2) Nathaniel Bowditch House The Bowditch House remained in use as a residence until about 1945, when it was moved to its present location to prevent its demolition in a street>widening project. The house .was subsequently acquired by the City of Salem. Major structural repairs were necessary because of the deteriorated condition of the building. Now restored, the house is maintained in good condition and provides office space for the City's Park, Police, and Street Departments. Visitors are admitted to the house by appointment with the Park Department. GPO 921.724 I' " �Bowditch, Nathaniel. The New American Practical Navigator (1802). Bowditch, Nathaniel Ingersoll. Memoir of Nathaniel ~owdit'ch(2nd ed., Boston, 1840). Berry, Robert E. Yankee Stargazer, The Life of Nathaniel Bowditch (New York, 1941). u (New York, 1963). Struck, Dirk J. Y I * I I tl@. CEoGRAPHiCAL D A T A - L A T I T U D E A N D LONCGITUDE C O O R D I N A T E S 0 R. DEFINING A RECTANGLE LOCATING THE PRODFRTY CORNER LATITUDE LONGITUDE Degrees Minutes Seconds , , , _ I I Y L L ~ T I T U P E 4 N C LONG1T ' J D E C O O R D I N A T E S DEFINING L t J - T f R P O l N I OF A ~ ' ~ O P E R T Y O F LESS T H A N TFN A C R E S -- LATITUDE Degrees Minutes Seconds NW 0 s w 0 t w NE 0 # m 0 s D SE 0 t w 0 s I) SW Q t m 0 s w Degrees Minutes 0 LONGITUDE Seconds Degrees s Minutes Seconds n e 0 UTM 19.343970.470!)240 1- - APPROXIMATE ACREAGE O F NOMINATED PROPERTY: -- V, I L l S T A L L S T A T E S A N D C O U N T I E S F O R P R O P E R T I E S O V E R L A P P I N G S T A T E O R COUNTY ~OUNDARIES m ----pq STATE: /_ , STATE: COUNTY: CODE CODE Z V, STATE: -1. , ,. I , I . FORM PREPARED BY N -I - I ;O 1 Polly M. Rettig, Historian, Landmark Review Project; original form prepared by S Sydney Bradford, Historian, 12/18/63 * ~ . ~ ORGAN1 Z A T I O N r) 4 DATE 1 Historic Sites Survey, National Park Service 12/23/74 0 STREET AND NUMBER: 1100 L Street NW. . C I T Y O R TOWN: STATE Washington - 20240 T A T E LIA~SOMQ E F I C E ~ C ~ R T I F ~ C A T I Q P ~ - . . As the designated State Liaison Officer for the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 89-665),I hereby nominate t h i s property for inclusion i n the National Register and certify that i t h a s been evaluated accordine; to the c-iteria and procedures s e t forth by the National Park Servlce. The recommended level of significance of this nomination is: National ) I I 1 C] State National Historic Landmark Title Date L(NAT1OBAL ETSTCDIC LANDlI:,SKK S j - Z u, NE KTN I I hereby certify that this property is included in the I National Register. - LAND p - f, 1 1-2 / ~ k ? date Director, o f f i c e of A r c h e o ~ & % ~ & 8 1 $ ~ ~ r ~ ~ r e a e > ' ~ *a < ~ ~ ~ Local N/A CODE D.C. Crte Name c - ATTEST: �����-- 1- - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - --- STATE ONITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Massachusetts COUNTY NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES PROP ERTY PHOTOGRAPH FORM (Type all entries - attach to or enclose with photograph) % o 9 North Street Salem z w w View from southeast showing front . (east) facade and south sides of main block and ell; does not show louvered blinds later replaced on house. - ----- -- -- --- - - - - -- --- - UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERJOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE - -- - ------- STATE Massachusetts COUNTY NATI ON AL REGISTER ,OF HISTORIC PLACES Essex PROPERTY PHOTOGRAPH FORM .% o IW ~"ME " - (Type all entries - attach to or enclose with photograph) -. - - . ~ ~ 1;~;!<I,..9CA.TION U ..; . $TFl£ET AND ': - ; ': CI TV OR TOWN: a: Salem t- 5TATE : I Massachusetts . pF-PHOTO. REFERENCE DATE OF' P H OTO : w .- ) CODE 1025 ICO UNTY : I I Essex 1009 CODE t Polly M. Rettig, Landmark Review Proiect November 1974 IPHOTO CRED I T : w . - NUM8E~ : 9 North Street ::> z D AT E I . ; I Nathaniel Bowditch House Nathaniel Bowditch House COMMON : ANO I OR H ISTO R IC : t- FOR NPS USE ONLY ENTRY NUMIl E Fl ~EGA TIVE FILED AT : 14. Historic Sites Survev IOENTIF ICAT-' QNo D E5C' R I SE V iE .... , D I RECT I ON , ETC . 1100 L St NW - Washineton D.C View from northwest showing rear of main block, north side of ell, and parking area. , �Fo~ Ncr. ... £·301 Rev. 7·7~ UNITED STATES DEPAR' NT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL P • . f( SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES STATE Massachu~-:!tts COUNTY Essex PROPERTY MAP FORM (Type alI entries - attach to or enclose with map) z o CITY OR TOWN: Salem STATE: z w UJ TO BE INCLUDED ON ALL MAPS 1. Property broundaries where required. 2. North orrow. 3. Latitude and longitude reference. INT : 155-72 Form No. 10·301 Rev. 7·72 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES STATE Massachusetts COUNTY Essex PROP ERTY MAP FORM (Type all entries - attach to or enclose with map) z o IU => 9 North Street CITY OR TOWN: Salem ~ I- STATE: TO BE INCLUDED ON ALL MAPS 1. Property broundaries where required. 2. North arrow. 3. Latitude and longitude referenco. INT: 155-72 ������������������������������������������� 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 North 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 9 North Street, Salem, MA, 01970 Subject The topic of the resource House History Description An account of the resource Nathaniel Bowditch House Built by Samuel Curwen Gentleman His wife Abigail Russell 1760 Moved from 312 Essex Street in 1945 Home of Nathaniel Bowditch 1811-1823 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. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Built in 1760 Moved in 1945 House history completed in 2025 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Carlos Cueva Caro Language A language of the resource English 1760 1811 1945 2025 312 Essex Street 9 North Street Abigail Russell Bowditch Curwen gentleman Ingersoll Mary Ingersoll Massachusetts Nathaniel Bowditch Nathaniel Bowditch House Russell Salem Samuel Curwen https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/28828/archive/files/c76b3462e598045f853edc6cc1f9743e.pdf?Expires=1781740800&Signature=MMvHpjb61XDrYOJ8sCBeV9pIGd25hRHzv4xzzf%7EaJ6m8BMgRPXGK1yJ6Xeg76BF5hnww9TEw5e7yb2iM14mKywgQT1UmGV2rTtxEcLKtjgKikFz38y6FTQSXdJkHMMESuGQ04BzmMKUBsEDF1IAYFGze5RB94M7MKcRiesgulXZd4gTFVLCfAPMZrHTQbH5Wk3w4rBf0m%7Epy8u1bIZ3-fmlnOiX0ATld8k%7E-XLO-EGEvEXtshqJIkALbH4%7ELOXS2OXxrkHj%7E159dayL3EWYPo25iPheC4qjvTqQP9hWbZeO4jPAvccKjklfaS3jGPzbhJP0xxITbeVx5DrZez39BQA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 0db32bde1324744a82835c557198b6c7 PDF Text Text 1 ½ Cambridge Street, Salem According to available evidence, the earliest part of this house was built c.1740 for Samuel Curwen, merchant, as his shop. In 1760 the shop was moved back from its street-front site (312 Essex Street) and became the storehouse (rear ell) attached to Mr. Curwen's new house. Over the years, Mr. Curwen's house was much-modified, if not entirely rebuilt; and this early (c.1740) section became part of a larger rear ell, which served the owners of the main house, one of whom was Nathaniel Bowditch in the years 1811-1823. The early and later ell, or most of it, was detached from the house and moved here in 1946. Samuel Curwen (1715-1802) was born in Salem on 17 December 1715, the second son ofRev. George Curwen (1683-1717), Harvard 1701, minister ofSalem's First Church. The baby's paternal grandfather, Jonathan Curwen (1640-1718), was living at the time ofSamuel's birth. Jonathan was. a prominent merchant and magistrate of Salem who had been a judge at the infamous witchcraft hearings in 1692. Ofhis nine siblings, the Rev. George Curwen had only one who survived childhood: an older sister, Elizabeth, Mrs. James Lindall; and he had half-brothers, Henry and Robert Gibbs, sons ofthe first marriage ofGeorge's mother, Elizabeth (Sheafe) Curwen (1650?-1718). The infant Samuel Curwen's mother was Mehitable (Parkman) Curwen (16881718), the only surviving child ofa merchant, Deliverance Parkman (d. 1715) and his wife, Susannah (Clarke) Parkman, who would die on 19 Feb. 1727/8. The Parkman house stood on the east comer ofEssex and North Streets. At the age of34, Rev. George Curwen died on 23 Nov. 1717, leaving his very pregnant wife Mehitable, 29, and two little sons, Jonathan and Samuel. Less than two weeks later, on 4 Dec. 1717, Mehitable gave birth to a baby son whom she named George-this is a "posthumous" child, so called because born after the death of the father. In July and August, 1718, the senior Curwens, Mr. & Mrs. Jonathan & Elizabeth Curwen, died at the ages of78 and about 68, respectively. The season of death was not over for the family-, as little Jonathan Curwen died on 6 Nov. 1718, aged five; and his mother, Mehitable (Parkman) Curwen, 30, died one week later, making orphans ofSamuel, almost three, and the infant George. All ofthe Parkman wealth, and much ofthe Curwen wealth, suddenly descended to these two small children. Oftheir immediately families, only their maternal grandmother, Susat1nah (Clarke) Parkman, survived to look after them. She would live on for more than nme years. I �In the matter of the estate of Hon. Jonathan Curwen (#6948), the inventory of28 Feb. 1718/19 valued the "homestead house barn & land and cottage rights at 600 li, pasture land where tomb is at 200 li, and two ten-acre lots in North Field, 200 li." · His wife Elizabeth had devised her property to her son Rev. Henry Gibbs, to the children of her deceased son Robert Gibbs, and to the children of her son Rev. George "Corwin." In the matter of the double estate-of Rev. George & Mehitable Curwen, Samuel Browne was administrator; and in the inventory of 16 July 1719 the extremely valuable real estate, described only as "housing & lands," was appraised at 1576 li, and the personal estate at 937 li (#6945). The two little orphaned Curwen boys were raised under an informal arrangement in some prominent Salem family, with their grandmother Parkman supervising, and administrator Samuel Browne evidently managing the property. Old Mrs. Parkman died on 19 Feb. 1729. In January, 1731/2, the teen-aged Curwen brothers, Samuel and George, petitioned the Court to appoint Benjamin Lynde Jr., Esq., their guardian (see probate book 319:66). The Court decided to place them under the joint guardianship of Thomas Barton, an apothecary, and Benjamin Lynde Jr., Esq., on 6 . Dec. 1732 (see probate books 317--:85, 319:458). The guardians managed the Curwen property well, and saw to the education of the Curwen boys. Samuel was sent to Harvard in the fall of 1731, aged 14; and he graduated in 1735. He began studies for the ministry, but poor health distracted him, and an unhappy love-affair led him to spend time abroad. By 1736 Samuel, 21, and George, 19, were deemed old enough to take possession of their property. In 1736, Samuel & George Curwen, "Salem gentlemen," for 95 li sold to William Browne and others the wharf and buildings on the South River that had belonged to their grandfather Park.man (ED 76:8). In 1737 Samuel Curwen, Salem gentleman, for 90 Ii sold to William Browne, merchant, five rights in Salem's common lands (ED 74:142). And in 1738 Samuel Curwen, gentleman, for 50 shillings sold to his cousins, Mary & Elizabeth Lindall, his right in land to the rear of the homestead of their mutual grandfather Judge Jonathan Curwen (ED 77:63). Judge Curwen had left only two surviving heirs: daughter Elizabeth (Curwen) Lindall (mother of Elizabeth & Mary Lindall), and son Rev. George Curwen (father · of Samuel & George). By 1740 tlie four heirs agreed to a division of the Jonathan Curwen homestead, which consisted of land fronting on the main street (modem Essex Street), and running all the way back to the North River, bounding easterly on North Street, with warehouses and barns thereon, as well as the mansion house at the �comer of North Street. To the Lindalls went the western-most part of the homestead land. The easterly part, with the house thereon, was divided between Samuel and George on 27 October 1740 (ED_:122). To Samuel Curwen, Salem gentleman, went the "middle division of my grandfather's homestead," bounded 48' on the main street, westerly 24.5 poles (404') on the Lindalls' land, northerly on land of the Lindalls 110' 8", easterly on the lane 14 poles 7' (228'), southerly on land of George Curwen 65' 4", easterly on George Curwen land about 192' (11 poles, 10' 4"). George also released to Samuel his rights in three other parcels, some of them nearby. For his part, Samuel ceded to George all of his rights in the Jonathan Curwen house and its land, at the comer of the two streets-the house known today as "the Witch House." Samuel Curwen, 25 in 17 40, was not married and had evidently not settled into the business of a merchant. Merchants owned ships and sent them and their cargoes overseas to trade for goods more valuable than those they began with, and then sold those goods at other ports or back in Salem. Salem's only reliable export was salt cod, which was caught far offshore and then "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 was fed to slaves. To Europe went the "merchantable" cod (high-grade), and to the Caribbean went the "refuse" cod (low quality). Either sort, put into a pot of boiling water, w0uld turn into nutritious food. Lumber, horses, and foodstuffs were also sent to the Caribbean, whence came sugar, molasses, cotton, and mahogany. From Europe came back finished goods, wine, fruit, feathers, and leather. There was also some trade between Salem and the Chesapeake Bay area, which provided corm, wheat, and tobacco, while South Carolina provided rice. Most merchant vessels were small, under 60 tons. Timothy Orne was the leading merchant of the 1730s and 1740s, followed by his protege, Richard Derby (17121783). Up until the time of the Revolution (1775), Salem's trade was prosperous but modest. The salt water (South River) came in along modem Derby and New Derby Streets all the way to the present post office; and in this secure inner harbor were most of the wharves and warehouses. The fact that Samuel was tenned a "gentleman" and not a "merchant" tends to indicate that he had not engaged in trade in a big way. Nonetheless, he may have had a store at this time, where he sold imported goods acquired on "adventures"the exchange of a partial cargo for ce1iain other goods that made up part of the return ·cargo. It could be that by 1740 he-had a store here on this land, or even that it was �here in the 1730s (the inventorie~ of his grandparents and parents are not specific about what buildings stood on the Corwin/Curwen homestead by 1718). We do know that there was a store here by 1759; and the architectural evidence indicates that the store's frame was made up of wood that was dressed for construction before 1730, since it is chamfered. The chamfers, however, do not have "stops" at the intersections of beams and posts, as they would if the framing elements had been assembled new for the shop; and so it would appear that the store's frame was recycled from pieces of an earlier, larger building that had been taken down. As others would note later, Samuel Curwen was a very thin, very irritable person . who was not very sociable. After-a while he left Salem again: in 1744, aged 29, he secured a commission as a Captain and joined the British-led expedition against Louisburg, the French fortress at the tip of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. His brother George, who was married and had children, also participated as an officer. It is possible that Samuel resided with brother George while living in Salem. After his military service, Capt. Samuel Curwen returned to Salem. He won . appointment as a County impost officer, and would later become an admiralty court judge. Well past the age of thirty he was a bachelor, if not a hardened bachelor; but then he courted Abigail Russell, of Charlestown, who was likely a descendant of Samuel's great-aunt Abigail Corwin, who had married James Russell of Boston. Unhappily, Samuel's courtship of the young lady proved successful and they married in 1750, when he was 34. It was a disastrous match. Where the couple resided in the 1750s is not known. They evidently had no children, and had no "need" to build a new house. By the end of the 1750s, Samuel had established himself in trade, a~ well as in office-holding, and was ready to build ·a residence. At that time, 1759, he and his wife resided in a suite in the house of his cousin, Mary Lindall, at 314 Essex Street. In June, 1759, he began planning the construction of his house. From the account book that he kept, it is clear that he served as the general contractor; and he may have been the architect as well. In December, 1759, he agreed with Miles Ward 3d to be the supplier of window frames and sashes. On 11 Jan. 1760 he agreed with ·Abraham Redington, Boxford housewright, to make the frame for the house, which was to be 36' wide and 22' deep, with 10' stud (height of one story) and a hipped roof sloping 9.5' in from each end toward the ridge, with deep joists, and summer beams 9.5" deep, "as per draught." There was, then, a draft, or plan of the house, or at least of its framing. Redington was to deliver the frame by May 1, 1760, "on the spot whereon my shop now stands." Curwen hired Gideon Foster as the cellar �mason, and Joseph Mcintire and Samuel "Liscomb" to make six window shutters of four leaves each, and to supply doors with raised panels on both sides but not with quarter rounds on both sides. Mr. Boyce was to supply the cellar rocks. On March 12, anticipating that he would be moving his shop off the new site of the housecellar, Samuel Curwen asked Mr. Gerrish to rent him a shop for 3-4 months. The Gerrish shop probably stood on Norman Street, near the South River; Mr. Gerrish did not answer him right away, but did finally agree to the lease. Mr. Curwen acquired "stair banisters" (from Edmund Whittemore) and timber (from Jonathan Mansfield). On 7-8 April 1760 he moved his "goods out of my shop;" and on 9 April 17 60 he had the workmen "remove my shop back in order to make a store of." By this, he probably meant that the shop, repositioned at the back of the housesite, would become a store-house for the shop, which would probably be conducted from one of the front rooms oft~e new house. John Cox, mason, did the underpinning for the new site of the shop building ("my store house"), and Nathaniel Reeves and his "servant" John Deadman did the carpentry involved in finishing off the small building once it was in place-all this in April, 1760. On April 19, Curwen noted that S. Daland had "carted 43 barrels of flour, barrels of sugar, etc., from Mr. Sparhawk, to my own store." From this, it would appear that he was something of a grocer. The cellar-work forthe house was going forward in April under Gideon Foster, with bricks from Mr. Page, mason-work by Mr. Foster and "Stimson" (perhaps John Stimpson of Marblehead, a noted mason who later moved to Salem). James Andrews worked as a carpenter. The frame was delivered late, much to Mr. Curwen's annoyance. On May 14th "part of the frame (was) this day brought down, four loads, nine tons." Two weeks late, on May 16, the frame was raised, accompanied by the traditional feast: Mr. Curwen gave a dinner for 40 men. Subsequently, he paid "house carpenters and house joiners" Nathaniel Reeves, John Deadman, James Andrews, Samuel Shillaber, Amos Trask, Littlefield Sibley, George Daland, Edmund Whittemore and son Joseph, Mansfield Burrill, John Ward, Nehemiah Clough, William Lefavour, and John Warden. On May 22, fed up with Gideon Foster, Curwen went to Ipswich and hired a new mason, Eben Lovett. By July 4th the house was so near completion that he could note, "began yesterday to remove the goods into the shop from Mr. Gerrish's." He noted the purchase of white lead and oil for painting, and then of the arrival of "Luscomb, painter." On July 28, 1760, he wrote, "We completed it and are to lodge for the first time in new house, designing to give up the key of old house tomorrow (Aug. 1, sent the key to Mary Lindall), after which my rent ceases to her ... " �The house was finished, the store-house repositioned, and the shop open for business. The Curwens, Samuel and his wife Abigail, moved in here and participated prominently in the life of the town. In March, 1760, Samuel Cmwen, Esq., gave to his cousin Mary Lindall a small piece of land next to her house (ED 108:258). In the 1760s, after the taking of Canada by the British and Americans, relations between the colonials and the British authorities cooled. The Americans deeply resented English efforts to squeeze tax revenues out of the colonists' trade. Although they had been under rgyal governors for two generations, they had been allowed them to govern themselves completely at the town level by town meetings, , and, at the provincial level, through a legislature and Governor's council. Over time, the Americans had come to see themselves as free people, and not as dependents of a far-away mother country. The British authorities were surprised at the Americans' resistance to their policies, and feared an incipient insurrection. In 1768, they sent over a small army of occupation and installed it in Boston. This was a big mistake, for now the Ameri~ans 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 greater tension and frequent street violence. The Boston Massacre took place in March, 1770; in short order, much of Massachusetts turned openly against the British, and the clouds of war gathered on the horizon. Admiralty Court Judge Curwen was unhappy with British trade policy of the 1760s and 1770s as it affected America, but did not favor an armed rebellion and believed that his townsmen should try to work out their differences through negotiation. He struggled to remain a member of the society he was born into, but ultimately realized that he was a Tory, and was no longer welcome in most circles of Salem or Massachusetts. Pre-revolutionary Salem had more than its share of Tories; but the Sons of Liberty were in the majority. Wealthy scions of old Salem families like the Curwens, Pickmans, and Brownes, chose to remain loyal to the King, as did many others who had married into the merchant families. In 1774 one of the most outspoken Salem Tories was Peter Frye, a prominent merchant and magistrate whose wife was a Pickman. He resided in the most fashionable part of Salem, on Essex Street just west of modern Washington Street. One night in October, Judge Frye learned just how obnoxious he had made himself to the rebel faction: his fine house on Essex Street was set afire, and he and his family barely escaped into the street. Their house, and several others, going westward toward North Street, burned down. Like other local Loyalists, Judge Curwen made arrangements to move away, if �necessary; and that prospect was made more alluring by the likelihood that his wife, with whom he could not get along, would stay behind. By early 1775, there was little doubt that the war faction was in control, and that Curwen and other neutrals and loyalists would soon have a day of reckoning: the . Salem militia regiment had been purged of Tory officers, and Timothy Pickering, 29, who had published a book on military drill, was leading the men in their training on the Common. One Sunday i11 February, 1775, the Revolutionary War almost began in Salem. When everyone was in church, Col. Leslie's redcoats came ashore in Marblehead and marched briskly on to Salem, where they hoped to seize munitions. They came to the North Bridge, and found that its draw was up; and soon they were surrounded by the Salem militia regiment. By agreement, the draw was lowered, Leslie's men advanced over the bridge a short distance into North Salem, faced about, and marched back through the 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 Fort Beach and boarded the boats to their transport vessel. Two months later, the battle of Lexington & Concord was fought on April l 91h, 1775, and war began. 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 . . Not Judge Curwen, now 59. He left for Philadelphia, hoping to find a pleasant place to ride out what he thought would be a short-lived conflict; but Philadelphia was too far-gone in rebel politics for his taste; and on May 12, 1775, he sailed for England on a merchant ship. He went straight to London, and began keeping a journal, which has been published and which has earned him a place in the Dictionary of American Biography. During his ten-year absence, Samuel's wife Abigail resided here, for at least part of the time, along with her relative Russell Wyer, whom Samuel Curwen detested (but had let live with them), and whom he had forbade her to allow to reside here in his absence. For her part, Mrs. Abigail Curwen, abandoned for nine years by her husband, made what arrangements she pleased; and, unfortunately, she feuded with her next-door neighbors, the George Curwens and Richard Wards. 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 went to New York, and was pushed southward from 7 �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 Trenton, on Christmas Day, 1776. Eventually most of the Salem men came home and sailed in privateers for the rest of the war, which continued-at sea until 1783. The husband of Samuel Curwen's favorite niece, Mehitable Curwen, was Capt. Richard Ward, an officer of the regiment, and a leading rebel official in Salem. Judge Samuel Curwen returned tQ Salem in 1784, squabbled with his wife, and went · back to London. During his brief stay in Salem, he conveyed his mansion house estate on 30 May 1785 for 1200 li (pounds sterling) to his niece, Mehitable (Curwen) Ward, and her husband, Richard Ward, 44, the veteran officer of the Revolution, and the father of several children (ED 143:163). Samuel's brother George had no surviving sons by this time. Judge Curwen eventually returned and would continue to reside in Salem, sometimes with the Richard Wards and sometimes with their son Samuel Curwen Ward, who agreed to change the name of one of his sons to Samuel Curwen, in order to keep the surname alive. Judge Curwen's mmTiage to the estranged Abigail Russell officially ended with her death in 1793. Now, at 78, Samuel enjoyed his freedom, and became quite a sociable old man, gadding about in the streets of the town dressed in his old-fashioned nabob's togs. He made a fast friend in Rev. William Bentley, another well-known figure on the streets of Salem, who also kept a diary . . Samuel Curwen died on 9 April 1802, in his 8ih year. As of 1785, the owner of the house was Richard Ward, born in Salem in 1741, the son of Joshua Ward. In 1762 he had married Mehitable Curwen, the daughter of Samuel's brother George Curwen, owner of the old Curwen house at the comer of Essex and North Streets (the "Witch House"), which, by then, had been enlarged under a deep gambrel roof. George Curwen had married Sarah Pickman in 1738, and they had a son George Jr. in 1739, Mehitable in 1741, and Sarah in 1743. George Curwen Jr., a mariner, was lost at sea in January, 1761, aged 21 years; and Sarah Curwen would die unmarried in 1774, aged thirty. Therefore, Mrs. Mehitable (Curwen) Ward was the only me~ber of her generation to survive, marry, and have · children. �Richard Ward (1741-1824), son of Joshua Ward & Sarah Trevett, died 1824. Hem. 8 Nov. 1764 Mehitable Curwen-(l 741-1813), d/o George Curwen & Sarah Pickman, died 1813. Known issue, surname Ward: 1. George Curwen, 1765, m. 1786 Abigail Elkins; res. NH; issue. 2. Samuel Curwen, 1767, m. 1790 Jane Ropes, m/2 1807 Malvina Glover. 3. Sarah, 1769, m. 1793 James Cushing 4. Mehitable, 1771, died 1807. 5. Elizabeth, 1774, died 1834. Before 1785, the Richard Ward family evidently resided in the old Curwen house, with Mehitable's sister Sarah and mother Mrs. Sarah (Pickman) Curwen, who would live until 1813. Richard Ward, evidently a merchant, was an ardent patriot before the Revolution, served on the Salem Committee of Safety & Protection throughout the war, and superintended construction of the fort at Salem Neck, named Fort Lee, for Gen. Charles Lee, under whom he had served. Ward had marched with the Salem regiment to the battles of Lexington & Concord and Bunker Hill; but in both cases they were just too late to participate. · On 6 June 1776, Richard Ward, 35, had been commissioned Captain of the Third Company of the First Essex Regiment, under Col. Timothy Pickering Jr. (17451829). He fought with the regiment in New York and New Jersey, and at the end of 1776 returned to Salem to help his wife, then in poor health, to care for their children. After the war, he was active in local politics, and was elected a state legislator as well as an acting judge and a selectman. He was an anti-Federalist (Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican) in politics, and "possessed great firmness and equanimity of temper, (with a) suavity of manners and obliging disposition (that) endeared him to all." (Much of the Richard Ward information comes from the sketch, pp. 669-670, in G.A. Ward's 1864 edition of Journal & Letters of Samuel Curwen) Evidently the post-war period was not a boom time for Richard Ward; for on 13 Oct. 1789 Richard & Mehitable Ward for 500 Ii mortgaged their homestead here to Thomas Russell Esq. of Boston (EP 150:200). Thomas Russell was the very wealthy brother of their aunt, Mrs. Samuel (Abigail Russell) Curwen, and was, evidently, a descendant of Mehitable's great-grandfather Curwen. The 500 Ii was probably used to give Richard Ward and his sons, George, Samuel, and Richard, a stake in Salem's new foreign commerce. �Richard Ward (1741-1824), born 5 April 1741, son of Joshua Ward & Sarah Trevett, died 4 Nov. 1824. He m;-1764 Mehitable Curwen (1741-1813), d/o George Curwen & Sarah Pickman, died 4 April 1813. Known issue: 1. George Curwen, 1765, m. 1786 Abigail Elkins; res. NH. 2. Samuel Curwen, 1767, mil Jane Ropes, m/2 1807 Malvina Glover. 3. Sarah, 1769, m. Jam es Cushing 4. Mehitable, 1771, d. 1807. 5. Elizabeth, 1774, died 1834. 6. Richard, 1776, m. 1805 Lydia Robinson 7. Martha, 1779, m. Charles Adams. 8. Daniel, 1782, d. 1813. In some places, the post-war loss of the former colonial connections and trade routes was devastating; but in Salem, the merchants were ready to push their ships and cargoes into all parts of the known world. Shut out of all British and British colonial ports, Hasket Derby, William Gray, Eben Beckford, and Joseph Peabody led the effort to open new markets. In 1784, Derby began trade with Saint Petersburg, Russia; and in 1784 and 1785 he dispatched trading vessels to Africa and China, respectively. Voyages to India soon followed, and (sent by Beckford, of 14 Lynde Street) to the Spice and Pepper Islands (Sumatra, Java, Malaya, etc.). In 1798 trade opened with Mocha, Arabia, which supplied coffee. The size and number of vessels was increased, and by 1800 Salem was the greatest worldwide trading port in America, with some of the wealthiest merchants. It was at this time (1792) that Salem's first bank was founded: the Essex Bank would be followed by the Salem Bank (1803). Throughout the 1790s the Richard Wards resided here. The Wards' second son, Samuel Curwen Ward, born in 17 67, certainly had his share of ambition. In 1790 he married the girl almost-next-door, Jane Ropes, also 23, the daughter of the late Judge Nathaniel Ropes (owner of the present "Ropes Memorial") and of Priscilla ·(Sparhawk) Ropes, who would die in 1798. In 1790, per the census (p.93, col. 1), this house was occupied by the family headed by Richard Ward (himself and three males over 16, two males under 16, six females, and two free blacks) and perhaps by . the family headed by Henry Gardner (himself, five females, and one free black). In marrying Jane Ropes, S. Curwen Ward became kinsman to a very prominent group of young merchants: Nathaniel Ropes (Jr.) (1759-1806) was married to Sarah Putnam (and lived in the "Ropes Memorial" in 1790, per census, p. 93, col. 1), John Ropes ( 17 63-1828) was married to Hannah Harraden (and lived in the Harraden house on Charter Street), Abigail Ropes was married to William Orne, and Elizabeth IO �Ropes (b. 1764) was married to Jonathan Hodges. All of these men were merchants, and many of their in-law connections were merchants or shipmasters. Samuel Curwen Ward and his bride Jane Ropes evidently set up housekeeping on the westerly side of lower Liberty Street, near the Burying Point, which was then the town's waterfront. Their house, which came with its own wharf, was owned by Richard Ward, and had been the-home of his father, Joshua Ward, a successful tanner and merchant who had married into a prominent Marblehead family, the Trevetts. On 27 March 1795 Richard Ward Esq. sold this Liberty Street homestead for 1550 li to Samuel Curwen Ward, Salem trader (ED _:74), who was residing there at the time. The S.C. Wards had already had three sons, one of whom died in 1795. They would have two more children before Jane's untimely death early in 1803. Samuel Curwen Ward (1767-1817), son ofRichard Ward & Mehitable Curwen, died 26 Nov. 1817. He m/1 31 Oct. 1790 Jane Ropes (1767-1803), b. 22 Jan. 1767, d/o Nathaniel Ropes Esq. & Priscilla Sparhawk, d. 18 Jan. 1803. He m/2 1807 Malvina T. Glover (d. 1817+), d/o Benjamin Stacey Glover of Marblehead. Known issue: 1. Samuel C, 1791, d. 1795. 2. George A., 1793, m. 1816 Mehitable Cushing. 3. Samuel C., 1795, name changed 1802 to Samuel Curwen, m. Priscilla Barr. 4. Charles, 1797, merchant, v.-1855. 5. Jane S., 1802 6. Malvina G., 1809, d. 1809. 7. William R. Lee, 1811, m. twice, resided NY & Salem. 8. Henry Orne, 1816, m. 1847 Janet Buchanan; resided in Illinois. Samuel Curwen Ward was not a merchant; he was a trader. He did not own ships and import/export goods. He had a ship chandlery, and dealt in hardware and other supplies for outfitting a ship and making a long voyage. As his counter-clerk and bookkeeper, he employed a young man, Nathaniel Bowditch (born 1773), who had worked for his brother-in-laws at Ropes & Hodges; and Bowditch worked for Curwen Ward until 1794, when he was freed from his indenture and went to sea. There were many such businesses in Salem in the 1790s, and most of them prospered in those boom-times (William Bentley so observed in his diary). By the end of 1796 the S.C. Wards wished to move up from the waterfront; and his parents, Richard and Mehitable Ward, agreed to sell him the Samuel Curwen house. J{ �They probably moved back into the old Curwen homestead at the comer of North Street; and on 25 Feb. 1797 Ri_chard Ward & wife Mehitable sold the homestead (312 Essex) to Samuel Curwen Ward, Salem trader, for $1,000 and agreement to pay the mortgage held by Thomas Russell (ED 162:101). Unfortunately, as time had gone on (and with Nathaniel Bowditch no longer in his employ), Curwen Ward had proved to be a poor businessman. He ran his operation deeply into the red, due to inatt~ntion and a fondness for the life of the taverns, which was shared, to some degree, by all members of his class in Salem, a very bibulous and convivial place in those days. On 27 Nov. 1797, Bentley noted that "last Friday, a Sam. Curwin Ward was distrained upon by his creditors and was obliged to shut his doors. Such events so seldom happen in Salem that they are attended with great alarm and form the whole conversation (of the town). This Ward has been much abroad from his family, often at the public taverns, and very negligent of his affairs. (He) is young, but in a very embarrassed situation: the weight of his debts falls upon his young companions, and the manner in which they were contracted does not appear." Since there was no immediate cure for his bankruptcy, S. Curwen Ward sold his property. Fortunately, the buyer was his brother-in-law, Nathaniel Ropes, Salem merchant, who bought the homestead on 16 Nov. 1797 for $1000 and Ropes' agreement to pay the T. Russell mortgage (ED 163:8). The property was described as being situated near the Town pump, fronting 40' on the main street, westerly on land in the occupation of Mercy Gibbs 190', northerly on land of Nathaniel Weston . 43', easterly 188' on land of widow Sarah Curwen and of Richard Ward and wife Mehitable. 'Mr. Ropes was doing Mr. Ward a favor, and allowed him and his family to continue to reside there until Mr. Ward could recover his fortune. Mr. Ward's wife Jane, sister of the new owner, did not sign off on this deed, and so retained her dower right in the premises. Also in November, 1797, for another $2150, Curwen Ward sold to Nathaniel Ropes all of his other property that had not already been sold: the wharf on Water Street that he had bought in 1795 from his father, a parcel on Federal Street, and his pew in the Old Meeting House (ED 163:9,9,9). Nathaniel Ropes did not long own the property, which was more entangled than he thought. William Gray Jr., Esq., the great Salem merchant "Billy" Gray, had won a court-claim against S.C. Ward, and the Court had levied a new lien on the S.C. Ward property. On 6 Dec. 1797 Mr. Ropes for $2948.72 sold to Ebenezer Putnam, gentleman, the homestead (312 Essex Street) and the wharf that he had bought from 11- �S.C. Ward (ED 162:276). Mr. Putnam was the brother of Mr. Ropes' wife Sarah. The house was still subject to the T. Russell mortgage and to Billy Gray's lien, but not to Jane Ropes Ward's dower right, which she sold that same day, for $954.63, to Mr. Putnam (ED 162:277). The S.C. Wards continued to reside here with their children, probably with the understanding that Mr. Ebenezer Putnam would let Mr. Ward buy the place back once he was able. Salem was the scene of great mercantile enterprise and great national influence in the 1790s. In the late 1790s, there was agitation in Congress to go to war with France, which was at war with England. Pres. John Adams in 1797 sent negotiators to France, but they were insulted. In summer, 1798, a quasi-war with France began, much to the horror of Salem's Crowninshield family, which had an extensive trade with the French, and whose ships and cargoes in French p01is were susceptible to seizure. The quasi-war brought about a political split within the Salem population. Those who favored 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, who were eager to go to war with France, and opposed Adams' efforts to negotiate. They were led locally by the Derby family . . Those who, like Richard Ward, favored peace with France (and who admired the French for overthrowing their monarchy, even while deploring the excesses of the revolutionaries) were the Anti-Fe~eralists, who aligned with Jefferson and his . Democratic-Republican party; they were led locally by the Crowninshield family. For the first few years of this rivalry, Derby and the Federalists prevailed. Hasket "King" Derby died in 1799 and his own family's power rapidly waned, but his nephews and rivals, the five Crowninshield brothers, all shipmasters-turnedmerchants in a firm with their father, began a rapid ascent. In 1798, Ebenezer Putnam owned this house, which was occupied by the Samuel Curwen Ward family (see 1798 Direct Tax, listing under Ebenezer Putnam). The non-occupant owner, Ebenezer Putnam (1769-1826), Harvard Class of 1785, was a merchant, the son of Dr. Ebenezer Putnam & Margaret Scollay. He had married Sarah Fisk in 1791, and she died four years later in 1795; and in 1796 he married her sister Elizabeth Fisk, who would die in 1808. Mr. Putnam had six surviving children. His only sister-Sarah (b. 1765) had mmried Nathaniel Ropes (Jr.); and Mr. Putnam was evidently a partner in the firm of Ropes & Hodges, ship chandlers, for he had joined them in purchasing their wharf and warehouse on Neptune Street (on the salt water near the foot of modern Hawthorne Boulevard). Like many others in Salem, Mr. Putnam would eventually lose his fortune due to the combined effects of the Embargo, the War of 1812, and bad luck; but at this time he �was a wealthy man. On 28 May 1800 for $2512. 78 Ebenezer Putnam, gentleman, purchased the balance of the mortgage that had been held by the late Thomas Russell. Before long, it was apparent to Mr. Putnam that S.C. Ward would not be able to repurchase the homestead. With increasing need for his own liquidity, Mr. Putnam found a buyer for the S.C. Ward homestead, and on 7 Nov. 1800 he sold it for $4000 to William Ward, merchant. Thereupon the Samuel Curwen Ward family moved out, and the William Wards moved in. S. Curwen Ward's wife Jane Ropes died in 1803. He continued to struggle in life after that, but with small children to raise he married again, in 1807, to Malvina Glover, of the prominent Marblehead family. With her he had more children, and mended his ways somewhat, attaining solvency and a place in Salem's economy. His son Samuel Curwen, whose surname had been changed, founded a new family of Curwens that persisted into the 20th century. S. Curwen Ward died in 1817, aged 50 years. In 1800, Pres. Adams was successful in negotiating peace with France, and thereupon fired Pickering, his oppositional Secretary of State. Salem's Federalist merchants erupted in anger, expressed through their newspaper, the Salem Gazette. At the same time, Britain began to harass American shipping. As with the French earlier, Salem's seafarers added guns to their trading vessels, and the Salem owners and masters aggressively expanded their trade to the farthest ports of the rich East, while also maintaining their trade with the Caribbean and Europe. Salem cargoes were exceedingly valuable, and wealth was piling up in Salem's counting houses. The Crowninshields, led by brother Jacob, were especially successful, as their holdings rose from three vessels iv 1800 to twelve in 1803. The greatest of the · Salem merchants at this time was William "Billy" Gray, brother-in-law of William Ward (their wives were sisters), the new owner of the house, who sailed as shipmaster for Mr. Gray. In 1800, Salem was still a town, and a small one by our standards, with a total population of about 9,500. Its politics were fierce, as the Federalists squared off against the Democrats. The two factions attended separate churches, held separate parades, and supported separate s~hools, military companies, and newspapers (the · Crowninshield-backed Impartial Register started in 1800). Salem's merchants resided mainly on two streets: Washington and Essex (particularly between what are now Hawthorne Boulevard and North Streets). 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, backlands for the Pickerings on �Broad Street and the old estates of Essex Street. The Common was not yet Washington Square, and was covered with hillocks, small ponds and swamps, and utility buildings and the town alms-house. In the later 19th century, 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 town's merchants were among the wealthiest in the country, and, in Samuel Mcintire, carver and housewright, 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 built in the next ten years 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 years before in the Adam brothers in England and featured fanlight doorways, palladian windows, elongated pilasters and columns,_ and large windows. It was introduced to New England by Charles Bulfinch upon his return from England in 1790. The State House in Boston was his first institutional composition; and soon Beacon Hill was being built up with handsome residences in the Bulfinch manner. Samuel Mcintire was quick to pick up on the style and adapt it to Salem's larger lots. His first local composition, the Jerathmeel Peirce house (on Federal Street), contrasts greatly with his later Adamesque compositions. The interiors of this Adam style differed from the "Georgian" and Post-Colonial: in place of walls of wood paneling, there now appeared plastered expanses painted in bright colors or covered in bold wallpapers. The Adam style put a premium on handsome casings and carvings of central interior features such door-caps and chimney-pieces (Mclntire's specialty). On the exterior, the Adam style included elegant fences; and the houses were often built of brick, with attenuated porticoes and, in the high style, string . courses, swagged panels, and even two-story pilasters. The best example of the new style was the Elias Hasket Derby house, co-designed by Bulfinch and Mcintire, and built on Essex Street in 1797 (demolished in 1815), on the site of today's Town . House Square. As ofNovember, 1800, the owner of the homestead was William Ward, who occupied the house with his wife Joanna and children Thomas, Lucy, and William, with at least two more, Miles and Nancy, born here after 1800. William Ward was not closely related to the Curwen-Wards; and his mother, a Putnam, was not closely related to Ebenezer Putnam, from whom he purchased the property. Formerly a shipmaster, and commander of the ship Pallas, Mr. Ward had recently he had set up as a merchant (see EIHC 3: 175). �William Ward (1761-1827), s/o Wm. Ward & Ruth Putnam, mil 1785 Martha Proctor (d. 1788), m/2 1790 Joanna (Nancy) Chipman. To Medford by 1816. Known issue (per Sidney Perley), surname Ward: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Thomas Wren, 1786, m. 1810 Lydia Gray Nancy Lucy Ann, bp 1797, m. 1833 Charles Lawrence William, bp 1799 Miles, 1801, d. unm'd. Salem's commerce created great wealth, which in tum attracted many newcomers from outlying towns and even other states. A new bank, the Salem Bank, was formed in 1803, and 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 (it stood on Essex Street, near Washington Square), and editor of the Register newspaper. Bentley's 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. On Union Street, not far from Mr. 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's boom came to an end with a crash in January, 1808, when Jefferson and the Congress imposed an embargo on all American 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. As a hotbed of Democratic-Republicanism, the East Parish and its seafarers, led by the Crowninshields, loyally supported the Embargo until it was lifted in spring, 1809. Shunned by most of the other Salem merchants for his support of the Embargo, the eminent Billy Gray took his large fleet of ships-fully one-fourth of Salem's tonnage--and moved to Boston. This was a blow from which Salem never fully recovered. Gray soon switched from the Federalist party, and was elected Lt. Governor under Gov. Elbridge Gerry, a native of Marblehead. Diminished by many vessels and much wealth by Gray's removal, Salem resumed its seafaring commerce for three years, but still the British preyed on American shipping. William Ward, \0 �merchant, was no doubt affected by all of these events, but whether for good or ill is now unknown. It would seem that William Ward, merchant, perhaps enlarged the Samuel Curwen house in the first decade of the 1800s, adding a third story, a new staircase and trim, doors, etc. Possibly he took down the Curwen house and built a new on its site. He did not alter the old "store" out back, but probably expanded the rear ell with a new section added to the old store seQtion. Further investigation of the present building should indicate whether Ward remodeled the Samuel Curwen house, or rebuilt on its site. Mr. Ward had decided to move to Boston, where he would work as the Cashier (manager) of the State Bank; and he would die in Medford in 1827. On 6 May 1811 William Ward, Salem merchant, for $5833.34 sold to Nathaniel Bowditch, Salem merchant, the homestead here (ED 194:91). The land was bounded southerly 40' on Essex Street, easterly 188' on land of Sarah Curwen and Richard Ward Esq. and wife Mehitable (as established in a deed to William Ward of 9 Nov. 1803, 173 :86), northerly on land of Dr. John W. Treadwell, and westerly 190' on Mercy Gibbs' land, with the right to use Gibbs' land to work on the house and the right to use a passage-way in from North Street in the rear of the land. Nathaniel Bowditch, the famous navigator and brilliant mathematician who in 1811 headed up an insurance company, moved in here with his wife and children. Nathaniel Bowditch (1773-1838), son of Habbakuk Bowditch and Mary Ingersoll, . died 16 March 1838, Boston. He-mil 25 Marth 1798 Elizabeth Boardman (d. 1798), d/o Francis Boardman & Mary Hodges. He m/2 28 Oct. 1800 Mary Ingersoll (died 1834). Known issue: 1. Nathaniel I., 1805 2. Jonathan I., bp 1806 3. Henry I., 1808 4. Mary I., 1816 5. Charles I., 1810, d. 1820. 6. William I., 1819 7. Elizabeth Boardman, bp 1823 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 war 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 aiiillery. 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 the 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. In June, 1813, off Marblehead Neck, the British frigate Shannon defeated the U.S. Navy frigate Chesapeake. The Federalists 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!"). Almost a year later, 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 brQeze was light, and the British vessels gained, but Old Ironsides made it safely into Marblehead Harbor, to the cheers of thousands. 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'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 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. �The new owner as of 1811, Nathaniel Bowditch (1773-1838), was born in Salem on 26 March 1773 in a house near the Common on Brown Street. He was the fourth of the seven children of Capt. Habakkuk Bowditch, a shipmaster, and his wife Mary (Ingersoll) Bowditch. Capt. Bowditch's mother was a Turner, descended from John Turner, builder of the so-called House of The Seven Gables and leading merchant of 17th century Salem. When Nathaniel was only 2 or 3, the family moved to what is now Peabody, where little Nathaniel received his first schooling. They returned to Salem when he was 5 or 6. At age seven he was enrolled in Master Watson's school, the best in town, comer of Essex and Union Streets, which he attended for three years, evincing such great abilities in mathematics that Master Watson accused the boy of receiving adult help in his homework. At the age of ten he was withdrawn from school, due to his father's straitened circumstances at the end of eight years of war: Capt. Bowditch had lost his position as a shipmaster and had become a cooper; and Nathaniel became his helper. Then Nathaniel's beloved mother Mary Ingersoll Bowditch died, leaving the family bereft. Capt. Bowditch evidently placed his sons in apprenticeships, rented a house from Benjamin Pickman, and descended into despondent obscurity. Daniel A. White, in "An Eulogy on the Life and Character of Nathaniel Bowditch, LL.D., F.R.S." (Salem, 1838, Salem Gazette printing office), who knew Bowditch, relates what happened next. "After quitting Watson's school, as we have mentioned, and passing some time with his father, in his cooper's shop, he (Nathaniel) attended a. number of months at Michael Welch's school, to learn book-keeping, and then, at the age of twelve or thirteen, he entered the ship-chandlery store of Ropes & Hodges, with whom he passed several years. Upon their relinquishing the business, he removed to the similar and extensive store of Mr. S. C. Ward, in which he remained till he became of age, when he took his first voyage at sea. For the business, to which he was now introduced, he had fully prepared himself, by his diligence and activity in improving all the advantages which had fallen within his reach. He had acquired an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and his ardent attachment to books and study was already known. This soon became predominant and almost exclusive. The moments of leisure, which lie found through the day, while in these stores, were eagerly devoted to reading or study. Sometimes he exercised his philosophical ingenuity in the way of experiments. One of his juvenile companions remembers, in . particular, a curious sort of barometer, of his construction, while at the store of Ropes & Hodges. His diffusive kindness, too, was manifested at this early period in imparting instruction to other poor boys. There are those, now living among us in humble life, who speak with deep emotion of his generous efforts to teach them useful knowledge. But, fired as his whole soul was with the love of science and learning, such was the strength of his re solution and principles, that it was never 19 �suffered to interfere with the punctual performance of his duties. He is represented as having made himself, by his prompt attention and pleasing manners, a general favorite with the great variety of sea-faring people with whom he transacted business. It is needless to add, hat he received the unbounded confidence of his · employers. His fidelity and skill in business became so conspicuous, indeed, and such was his reputation for sound judgment and integrity, before he left this employment, that merchants are said to have resorted to him for the settlement of controverted questions among them, and a better tribunal they could hardly have found. "He had attended no schools but those already mentioned, and, it is believed, that after quitting them, he received no direct instruction in literature or science, · except a few lessons, many years afterwards, in French pronunciation, having otherwise studied the language by himself. Yet, with his inexhaustible native resources, he had perhaps the best of all schools for him, that of nature and necessity. He certainly had the best of teachers in himself, and the best means of improvement in his own incomparable powers. By the admirable order and discipline which he kept up in this, his great school, he secured to himself the highest objects .of education, purity of life, energy of mind and character, invincible power of application to business or study, facility and quickness in the use of his faculties, mental vigor, practical skill, and methodical habits, together with a rich fund of various knowledge and profound science. Yes, young Bowditch, at this period of his greatest destitution, created for himself advantages above all, which all the schools of the country would have given him. This he did, not merely by the strength of his resolution and industry, his intellectual and practical talents, > extraordinary as these were, but also by the virtues of his heart, which made every body and every thing around him tributary to his resources, uniting them to him with all the power of attraction and the force of cohesion. The friends, whom he drew to . himself, never forsook him; the means of improvement, which they afforded him, became his own, if not by possession, yet by his thorough use of them, which is better than possession; and the various treasures of learning, which he gathered, were never lost. "The seven or eight years, which he passed in these ship-chandlery stores, was undoubtedly the most important period of his life, as it comprised the course of his education, and laid the foundation of all his future eminence and usefulness. It therefore deserves our more particular consideration. During most of the time that he continued with Ropes & Hodges, he was a boarder in the family of the latter, at the house of the late Judge Ropes, where he had access to the valuable miscellaneous library, left by that gentleman, containing many of the choicest works of English literature. These, with books occasionally obtained from other souryes, became the constant companions of his leisure hours, and he perused them with delight, �whenever he was not engaged by his more fascinating science of numbers. An apartment, in the upper story of the house, was the scene of his summer's labors, while a large kitchen fire-place afforded him a commodious place of study for his long winter evenings. Here, too, he was often to be seen in the morning, with an infant of the family in one hand, and a book in the other, uniting the spirit of kindness with his industry and love of knowledge. "This early familiarity with the best English authors, accounts for his pure English style, so remarkable in a self educated man of science, for its perspicuity and beautiful simplicity. His love of literature and poetry, too, may be traced to the same source. The works of Shakespeare could not fail to delight his imagination, and enrich his mind with noble sentilnents and useful views of life; and many of this poet's most beautiful and impressive passages were treasured up in his memory. "But mathematics and natural philosophy were the objects of his most ardent pursuit; and whatever books, relating to these, fell in his way, were devoured by him with avidity. He read through the-whole of Chambers's Cyclopedia, in two large folio volumes, without the omission of a single article. This would seem to us a formidable undertaking; but to him it was entirely interesting, and, with his ready comprehension and activity of mind, was accomplished by him with ease. He always read with close attention, though rapidly, passing over nothing without understanding it, and as his memory was remarkably retentive, he \vas, doubtless, not a little indebted to this mass of miscellaneous reading and study, for that extensive and various information, which sometimes surprised his learned friends, who, being accustomed to regard him as the great mathematician, were not prepared to find in him such a fund of general knowledge. Many of the articles in this Cyclopaedia must have come in aid of his favorite pursuits, and increased his desire for more extended researches. "Soon after removing to Mr. Ward's store, he was favored with the friendship of the Hon. Nathan Reed, who then kept an apothecary's shop in Salem, with one of Mr. Bowditch's schoolmates as an assistant; and at this shop he used to pass his Sunday evenings, studying with his young friend the scientific books which he there found. Mr. Reed, himself a lover _of science, perceiving his insatiable thirst for knowledge, offered him the free use of his books, among which were a number of valuable works in mathematics, astronomy, and natural philosophy. This was a most welcome privilege, and he improved it to the fullest extent. He felt the absence of scientific books, as a great impediment in the way of prosecuting his beloved studies to his own satisfaction. Every thing which persevering industry and labor could do, to remove this impediment, was done by him. He copied, in whole or in part, many of the volumes which he was able to borrow or consult, perhaps with the double view of possessing the works, and fixing their contents more deeply in his mind. There are now in his library twelve folio, and fourteen quarto volumes of �manuscripts, from his own pen, i~duding several volumes of original matter, written · at a later period. No one, without actual inspection of these volumes, can form a just estimate of his prodigious labor and diligence in producing them. They appear to me among the most astonishing monuments of human industry, which I ever beheld ... " D.A. White's eulogy ofNathaniel Bowditch, written immediately after his death in 183 8 by one who knew him, gives us an excellent picture of this extraordinary man in his youth. Among other things, it shows that he resided with the family of his coemployer, Jonathan Hodges, in the Hodges' family home, now known as the Ropes Memorial (Mrs. Hodges was born Elizabeth Ropes at the Ropes Memorial), which was also the boyhood home of Mr. Hodges' business partner and brother-in-law, John Ropes. Judge Nathaniel Ropes (died 1774) had assembled an excellent library in his short life, and it remained in the house, where Nathaniel Bowditch used it to feed his mind. Bowditch was open to knowledge wherever he could find it: for example, it was from Edward Dorr, employed in Retire Becket's shipyard, that he learned the use of the Gunter's scale (EIHC 3:90). Capt. Jonathan Hodges Jr. (1764-1837), the son of Gamaliel Hodges and Priscilla Webb, was a trader at first, and became a merchant, and owned a distillery near his chandlery. He was commander of the Salem Cadets, and for many years was Treasurer of Salem. He had three sons with his wife, Elizabeth Ropes, who died in 1840 (BF Browne, EIHC 4136-7). After he went to work for S. Curwen Ward (husband of Jane Ropes, another sister of John Ropes), Bowditch evidently-shifted his lodgings, perhaps to the S.C. Ward house. Mr. Ward, in 1790, may have resided here (at 312 Essex) with his father; and he may have resided here through 1794, when Nathaniel Bowditch's apprenticeship expired. As has been mentioned, S.C. Ward purchased his grandfather's house on Liberty Street in 1795; and in 1797 he purchased the homestead at 312 Essex Street. The Ropes & Hodges chandlery evidently stood at the head of a wharf not far from the foot of modem Hawthorne Boulevard; evidently it had been built on land purchased in 1789 by Messrs. Ropes, Hodges, and Putnam, but probably leased by them as early as 1786. In 1790 John Ropes resided on Charter Street, near the chandlery (see 1790 census, p. 96, col. 3); and Jonathan Hodges resided nearby on Union Street ( 1790 census, p. 97, col. 1). In those days the South River extended in from the sea all the way to the site of today's Post Office building, and formed an extensive inner harbor. �While it is not within the scope of this report to trace the details of Nathaniel Bowditch's life, it is worth noting that, per the 1800 census, he was residing on Central Street (then called Market Street), in an apartment in a house owned by a prosperous cabinet-maker, William Appleton (1765-1822), whose first wife was Anna Bowditch ( 1772-1795), daughter of Eben Bowditch, and so evidently a first cousin of Nathaniel Bowditch (BF Browne, EIHC 4:83). This house, long gone, occupied a spot north of the Salem Bank building (Boys & Girls Club), and was near the insurance office in which Bowditch would later work. It would seem (see below) that Bowditch resided here for at least five years (note: Harold Bowditch's The Buildings Associated With Nathaniel Bowditch, published in EIHC 79, makes for interesting reading. In some instances, my conclusions differ from his). On 28 October 1800, Nathaniel Bowditch married his first cousin Mary Ingersoll. At that time, he was a mariner, and frequently was away from Salem at sea. B.F. Browne "thought" that Bowditch may have resided in the Francis Boardman house at 82 Washington Square East, but it s~ems more likely that Browne was recalling Bowditch's having resided there with his first wife, Elizabeth Boardman, who died in 1798. In 1802, Bowditch's New American Practical Navigator was published, and in short order he became famous. Harvard bestowed upon him an honorary master's degree, and he was launched on a remarkable career in which he balanced business and scientific pursuits. -.Jn May, 1803, the Essex Fire & Marine Insurance Co. took a lease on the north end of the Essex Bank house at $70 per annum, and in October, 1803, took the two lower rooms of the north end of the Bank building, on Market (now Central) Street (EIHC 68:298). In 1804, Nathaniel Bowditch, returned from his fifth and last voyage, became president of the above insurance company. In the summer of 1804, the Essex Bank purchased from William Appleton his Central Street house (where Bowditch resided at the time of the 1800 census), near the comer of Essex on the east side. Beginning on 1 Aug. 1804 Nathaniel Bowditch was a tenant of the Bank in the north end of that house at $190 per annum, while Col. William Raymond Lee was tenant of the south end of that house at $230 per annum. Col. Lee, formerly of Marblehead (185 Washington Street), was a Custom House official (the custom House was then on Central Street). The two men were to share the yard, pump, aqueduct hook-up, necessary, and garden. There was a two-story outbuilding, the lower part to be used by Col. Lee, the upper part by Mr. Bowditch, who ended his tenancy on 14 June 1805 (EIHC 68:240). It would appear that the Bowditches-next moved into the northern half of a house owned by Jonathan Hodges, Nathaniel's former employer, located not far from the �comer of Essex Street, on the westerly side of Summer Street. Jonathan Hodges had purchased that property in December, 1796, from Sally Blyth, widow of Samuel Blyth (ED 161:94); and the Hodges family had evidently moved into the northern part of the house while Mrs. Blyth occupied the southern half: per the 1800 census, Jonathan Hodges (1764-1837) was listed between Ebenezer Pope and Sally Blyth, on Summer Street. The Hodges family evidently resided in that house until 1805, when Mr. Hodges built a new house on Chestnut Street, but kept half of the Blythe house on Summer Street. Bowditch evidently moved into the Hodges part of the . Blyth house, on Summer Street, possibly beginning in June, 1805 (when Bowditch's lease on the Central Street half-house expired). Bowditch himself, in his notes regarding observation of an 1805 solar eclipse, wrote that, "the place where this latitude was observed was in the garden adjoining Essex Bank in Market Street, Salem" (EIHC 79:215). Market Street was the former name of Central Street. By \ 1806, he was residing in the Summer Street half-house owned by Jonathan Hodges, for, regarding the June, 1806, observation ofa solar eclipse, he wrote, "the observations were made in the garden adjoining the house of Mr. Hodges in which I then lived" and in which he was still living in 1808 (EIHC 79:217). Perhaps the Bowditches continued to reside in the Summer Street house until they moved in at 312 Essex Street in 1811. In 1804 Mr. Bowditch had left the East Church (Unitarian) of William Bentley and had joined the North Church (Unitarian) of Mr. Prince-a move that reflected Bowditch's strong associations with the town's Federalists, among them his old mentor Nathan Read, who had been put up by the Derbys as the successful Federalist candidate for Congress._ Having shifted his religious affiliation, it was ·perhaps easier for Bowditch to move into the western end of town, which was the Federalist bastion. Certainly Bentley, who had played an important role in the education of the young Nat Bowditch, and had been his minister since 1791, was deeply hurt by Bowditch's defection (see his diary), but evidently said nothing in public. Shortly before his death, Bentley, in April, 1818, ran in the Register newspaper an appreciative notice of the achievements of Nathaniel Bowditch. The War of 1812 has already been discussed. After the war, Salem tried to reestablish its foreign trade, with the intention of building it to pre-war levels. The · task proved impossible, for international conditions had changed dramatically, and domestic manufacturing was on the rise, with severe consequences on imports. Salem was able to open new markets in Africa and other places, and encouraged the town's fishery in order to provide a staple export commodity. Into the 1820s the foreign trade continued prosperous; and new markets were opened with 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. The pre-war partisan politics of the town were not resumed post-war, as the middleclass "mechanics" (artisans) became more powerful and brought about civic harmony, largely through the Salem Charitable Mechanic Association (founded 1817). 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 Men-imack 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. Most of Salem's merchants committed themselves completely to continuing their merchant shipping, while merchants in Boston and other places invested in canals and textile factories. Nathaniel Bowditch, who had become a very astute investor, could see that his future.lay in Boston, with its huge mixed economy, and not in Salem, with its insistence on foreign trade. In 1823, he decided to move away to Boston. In July, 1823, for $3900, the Bowditch homestead was sold at auction to Dr. John Treadwell (ED 233:183). Dr. Treadwell, who resided on North Street nearby, took some of the back land of the homestead that he had bought; and on Aug. 1st Dr Treadwell sold the house and land for $3500 to William Procter, Salem merchant (ED 233:196). Mr. Procter, wife Sarah, and family, who had resided at Buffum's Comer (Essex Street at Boston Street), soon moved into this house (312 Essex). He . was a merchant, and in 1825 he was a partner of Robert Brookhouse in the ownership of the brig Siren (see EIHC 64:116,118). Evidently Mr. Procter took out a mortgage on his new homestead with William F. Gardner. Mr. Procter acquired or inherited a small interest in the homestead to the east of his new home. He sued to have his interest set off from the rest of that adjoining property (the "Witch House" and its land); and on 24 June 1826 the Court awarded him a long strip of land fronting about 10' on Essex Street and running back about 130' (ED 253:231). Part of the old Curwen house stood on this strip, but Procter was not entitled to ownership of any of that house. By July, 1829, Mr. Procter was ready to sell his homestead; and on 23 July 1829 for $3997.76 he paid off the mortgage to Mr. Gardner and: for $4500 sold the homestead to David Cummins Esq. �of Salem (ED 253:232,233). For the next ten years, Mr. Cummins and his family would reside here. In 1830 occurred a horrifying crime that brought disgrace to Salem. Old Capt. Joseph White, a wealthy merchant, resided in the house now called the GardnerPingree 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 killers, as it happened, were members of Salem's elite class and relatives of the victim. A Crowninshield committed suicide, and two Knapps were hanged. The results of the investigation and trial were very damaging, and more of the respectable families quit the infamous town of Salem. 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 can~ls in the 1830s 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. Through the late 1820s and well into the 1830s, Salem slumped badly. David Cummins (1785-1855), the owner of the house as of 1829, was a judge as of 1828 and appears not to have been affected unduly by Salem's downturn. He was born in Topsfield and proved to be a very bright boy. He was sent to Dartmouth College, and, after graduating in 1806, settled in Salem, where he read the law under Samuel Putnam of Federal Street, the town's pre-eminent lawyer and instructor in law. He was something of a poet, and (evidently) published his poern, The Hermit, in 1806. Mr. Cummins was admitted to the Essex Bar in 1809, and soon made a · name for himself in law and politics. His party affiliation was with the antiFederalists, or Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans, and he allied himself with another young transplanted Salem lawyer, Joseph Story of Marblehead, also notable for his poetry. The Democratic-Republicans' Fourth of July oration in 1811 "was delivered by Mr. David Cummings, a young gentleman of the law," according to William Bentley's diary. In the next year, Mr. Cummins married Sally Porter of Topsfield. She soon died. In 1813, David Cummins was nominated as the Republican candidate for Town Clerk. Running as part of a slate, he and the Republicans were defeated, 834 to 886, �by the Federalists (see Bentley, 13 March 1813). In July, 1815, he married Catherine Kittredge, the daughter of Dr. Thomas Kittredge of Andover; and they had children before her untimely death, from apoplexy, in 1824. In October, 1825, Mr. Cummins married his second wife's sister, Miss Maria F. Kittredge. They would have several children, of whom the eldest was Maria Susannah Cummins, born 9 April 1827. Mr. Cummins was recalled as "a man of strong powers, and prominent at the bar, and is well remembered for his ardent natural eloquence at public meetings and in addresses to juries. His pure and noble spirit, and transparent character, secured the respect and confidence of all, while his genial ingenuousness, freshness of thought and expression, acuteness of perception, keen but playful and benignant satire, and an enthusiasm all his own, delighted every circle in which he moved" (per C. W. Upham, p. 28, Memoir of Francis Peabody). In 1826, David Cummins spoke in opposition to continuing the work of the Salem fy!ill Dam Corporation, which had planned to dam the North River in order to create water power for industrial production in Salem. His opposition was countered by a speech by his old colleague Joseph Story, the Salem-based U.S. Supreme Court justice, whose arguments won the day and caused Cummins to retract his opposition. The project, led by John Pickering and backed by most leading Salemites, failed anyway. Mr. Cummins "was a very successful practitioner in Salem until he was called to the bench of the Court of Common Pleas, in 1828" (p. 251, Essex Bar Memorials, 1900). In 1829, the Cummins family moved into this house. Judge Cummins was then 44, and his daughter Maria was just two. Miss Kiddy King, in her memoirs, recalled seeing some on Salem's notables passing her house in Essex Street on their way to the Salem Atheneum (then located downtown), which was open only between noon and one. In those days, gentlemen wore dressing gowns in the street in hot weather. First she watched the stately and fearsome minister, John Brazer, pass by. "After the last whisk of Dr. Brazer's gown had disappeared in the distance, Judge Cummins would come prancing along, in a gay flowered long gown, cordial and genial, bowing and smiling to everyone he met-a cheerful homely figure, everything just the opposite of the dignified pastor." She also recalled that "above North Street, Essex Street was absolutely like a village highway, with grassy roadsides starred with dandelions, and it was a pretty sight at sunset of an evening in May, to see the cows come slowly meandering down from the great pasture, their way along the street marked by columbines and in �houstonias, dropped from the great bunches carried by the boys who drove them." (pp. 17-19, Catherine King's memoir of childhood, When I Lived In Salem). In 1839, Judge Cummins decided to move to Springfield, Mass. On 31 August 1839, for $4940 he sold the homestead to John G. Treadwell, Salem physician, using . Gilbert G. Newhall as a straw (Eb 314:277-278). The Cumrriinses did move away to Springfield. Maria S. Cummins, then twelve, had already showed an interest in literature; in Springfield, encouraged by her poet-manque father, she attended Mrs. Sedgwick's school in Lenox and blossomed as a writer. At twenty she began to write stories that were published in the Atlantic Monthly, and in 1854, when Ms. Cummins was 27, her first novel, The Lamplighter, about a foundling who was adopted and finally re-united with her father, was published and sold 40,000 copies in just a few weeks. It was one of the biggest best-sellers of its day, and inspired the envy and jeers of Hawthorne and others whose audiences were not so l~rge. Her father, Judge David Cummins, lived to see his daughter's success, in which he no doubt took great pride; and he died in the following year, 1855, in Dorchester, Mass., where his daughter lived too. She continued to write and publish popular novels: Mabel Vaughan (1857), El Fureidis (1860), and Haunted Hearts (1864). After the publication of the latter, she fell ill and never recovered, lingering for two years before her death on 1 October 1866, aged 39 years (see Dictonary of American Biography listing). : Despite setbacks and uncertainties, Salem was chaiiered 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 1837, 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 -f800s, 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 th~ Forest River were retooled for making high-quality 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 18-39; and the line was extended to Newburyport in 1840. In the 1840s, new companies in new lines of business arose in Salem. The tanning and curing of leather was a very important industry by the mid- l 800s. It was conducted on and near Boston Street, along the upper 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 industrial tenements built nearby. 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 country areas. Even the population changed, as hundreds of Irish families, fleeing the Famine, settled in Salem; and the men went to work in the factories and as · laborers. The new owner, Dr. J.G. Treadwell, did not reside here, but rented out the house for income. In 1840, the house was evidently inhabited by Ephraim Russell and his family (per 1840 census). Mr. Russell (1789-1870), a native of Princeton, Mass., worked as a baker. He, "of Boston" was in Salem by 27 Nov. 1813, when he married the widow Sarah Shepard. He settled in Salem. Mrs. Shepard had Shepard children, evidently, including Samuel and Elizabeth. Ephraim and Sarah had at least one child, Sarah Ann Russell, born in 1821. In 183 7, baker Ephraim Russell and . family resided on the "turnpike" {Highland Avenue); by 1842 his home was at 14 St. Peter St., which, by 1846, he used as boarding house (see Salem Directories). The Russells' daughter Sarah in 1845 married Daniel H. Jewett, 25, one of Salem's foremost contractors, who built, among others, the fine house at 78 Washington Square East in 1846, to the plans of the architect Gridley Bryant, for Gilbert G. �Newhall, who had once served as Judge Cummins' straw in the conveyance of the house at 312 Essex Street. The D.H. Jewetts resided at 3 Briggs St.; and Mr. Jewett had his carpenter shop at 25 Vine Street (now Charter) (1846 Salem Directory). By 1850, Ephraim & Sarah Russell, 66, had moved in with the Jewetts (and their daughter Sarah E., three) at 3 Briggs Street, along with a currier, Samuel Shepard, Elizabeth Shepard, and Hannah Page, 31,- and another Page (1850 census, ward two, house 185). Beginning in 185 5 Mr. Russell resided with the D .H. Jewett family at 61 Charter Street, a fine house at the comer of Central Street. He would reside there for 15 years and die on 21April1870, of a lung disease, in his 82d year. In the face of change, some members of Salem's waning merchant class continued to pursue their sea-borne businesses;_but even the conditions of shipping changed, and · Salem was left on the ebb tide. In the late 1840s, giant clipper ships replaced the smaller vessels that Salem men had sailed around the world; and the clippers, with their deep drafts and large holds,-were usually too large for Salem and its harbor. The town's shipping soon consisted of little more than Zanzibar-trade vessels and visits from Down East coasters with cargoes of fuel wood and building timber. By . 1850 Salem was about finished as a working port. A picture of Salem's sleepy waterfront is given by Hawthorne in his "introductory section" (really a sketch of Salem) to The Scarlet Letter, which he began while working in the Custom House. Between 1842 and 1846 Mrs. Elizabeth Derby, widow ofE. Hersey Derby, had moved to 312 Essex Street, and she was still there in 1851, and perhaps later. She was born Elizabeth Derby Pickman, in Salem in 1799, the daughter of Benjamin T. Pickman and Anstiss (Derby) Pickman, and was a granddaughter of both Col. Benjamin Pickman (Jr.) (1740-1817) and E. Hasket Derby (1739-1799), the greatest merchant of his day. She remained single until 1837, when she married her cousin, E. Hersey Derby of Boston, a lawyer and a graduate of Harvard, Class of 1818. He died two years later, on 14 Nov. 18-3 9, leaving no children. She did not re-marry. °The Salem Directory for 1846, 1850, and 1851 list her as residing at 312 Essex Street, but in the 1850 census shejs residing on Lynn Street in a household of ·herself, 50, Martha Maxfield, 50, and Mary Walcott, 20 (see census, ward four, house 594). The 1850 census does not list any residents in the house at 312 Essex Street (or the house that should be it in the census-taker's sequence), so it may have been temporarily empty while Mrs. Derby shifted her residence, perhaps seasonally, from Lynn Street. In the 1851 Mcintyre Atlas of Salem, this house (#312) is identified as belonging to Mrs. E.H. Derby. She died on 8 May 1870, aged 71 years. '}0 �The, symbol of Salem's new industrial economy was the large twin-towered granite train station, built in 1848-9 on filled-in land at the foot of Washington Street, where before had been the merchants' wharves. The 1850s brought continued growth: new churches, schools, streets, stores, etc. Catholic churches were built, and new housing was constructed in North Salem and the Gallows Hill areas to accommodate the workers. In March, 1853, several streets were re-named and re-numbered, including the consolidation of County, Marlboro, and Federal Streets as Federal Street. The owner of the house, Dr. John G. Treadwell, died in 1856. Evidently he devised the premises to the Massachusetts General Hospital, which in tum conveyed the property in 1858 to Joseph B.F . .Osgood, a Salem lawyer. Mr. Osgood, the son of Capt. William Osgood, had grown up in the house at 314 Essex Street. He was a nephew of Salem's first historian, Joseph B. Felt, for whom he was named. He was a leading Salem lawyer of his time. In 1858; just before moving to this house, he resided at 17 Norman Street and had offices at 235 Essex Street. Mr. Osgood ran for · Mayor of Salem several times from the late 1850s on, but was defeated until 1864, when he won. The Civil War had begun in April, 1861, and had gone 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. Joseph Osgood took office as Mayor in January, 1865, and helped guide the city through the last months of the conflict; and there was great celebration when the war finally ended in the spring of 1865. 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. After withstanding the pressures of the new industrial city for about 50 years, Salem's rivers began to disappear. The once-broad North River was filled from both shores, and became a canal along Bridge Street above the North Bridge. The large 31 �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, junk-yards, rail-ya~ds, 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 its old wharves (even the mighty Union Wharf, formerly Long Wharf, at the foot of Union Street) were joined together with much in-fill and turned into coal-yards and lumberyards. Only a canal was left, running in from Derby and Central Wharves to Lafayette Street. Judge Joseph B.F. Osgood continued to practice law, with his office at One Central Street. As late as 1908 he resided here at 312 Essex, along with a widow, Mrs. Henry A. (Elizabeth C.) Cook. After the Osgood ownership ended in 1911, the house would be used for apartments and shops (see John Goffs report on this house and its occupants). Salem kept building infrast1ucture; 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 stor~s 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 wes! 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 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. 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. By the 1920s, Salem was once again a thriving city; and its tercentenary in 1926 was a time of great celebration. In 1946, due to the widening of North Street and the consequent need to re-locate the Jonathan Curwen house (Witch House), the house at 312 Essex Street was scheduled to be moved from its original site. Before the move, parts of the house were torn down (an Osgood addition in the rear) or pulled away, including the old Samuel Curwen "store" in the rear ell, along with another section of the rear ell, perhaps built for William Ward c.1805. This rear ell was trundled off to Cambridge Street in 1946 (see May 11 Salem Evening News), and became the largest part of the house built in that year at 1Yi Cambridge Street. The main part of the house at 312 Essex was moved around to its new site on North Street, where it stands today. At 1Yi Cambridge Street, the new house was evidently used as a two-family, since it had separate staircases until the Kearneys bought it. In 1948, the Naumkeag Directory lists just one occupant, John J. Perkins, a mechanical engineer, who resided here with wife Elizabeth W., and any children they might have had. The Perkinses resided here in 1949; and in 1950 and 1951 the house is listed as the residence ofF. Anthony Butler (wife Nancy P.), who worked in Danvers. The arrival of suburban shopping malls and the relocation of manufacturing businesses took their toll on Salem, 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, and mill-operatives are all honored as a large part of what makes Salem different from any other place. --6 Nov. 2001, Robert Booth for Historic Salem Inc. (note: this report was built on the foundation of John Goffs research in connection with his report on the house, its architecture, occupants, and associations). ���������� 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 Cambridge 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 1.5 Cambridge Street, Salem, Massachusetts 01970 Subject The topic of the resource House history Description An account of the resource Built c. 1740 for Samuel Curwen, Merchant 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 1740, 2000 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Robert Booth Language A language of the resource English 1 1/2 Cambridge 1.5 1740 Bowditch Cambridge Curwen Federal Georgian merchant Samuel Samuel Curwen wood