Historic Nantucket, Winter 2008, Vol. 57, No. 1

Historic Nantucket A Publication of the Nantucket Historical Association

Freedom on Nantucket: The Reverend James Crawford & William Benjamin Gould Arthur Hayden and the Madaket Free Press Reuben Macy: A Nantucket Doctor

Winter 2008 Volume 57, No. 1

NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

Board of Trustees

Historic Nantucket A Publication of the Nantucket Historical Association

|

Winter 2008

Vol. 57, No. 1

E. Geoffrey Verney, President Bruce A. Percelay, Vice President Janet L. Sherlund, Vice President

4

John W. Atherton Jr., Treasurer

Freedom on Nantucket

BY HELEN HANNON

Melissa C. Philbrick, Clerk

Two former slaves are married in the African Meeting House.

Thomas J. Anathan Rebecca M. Bartlett C. Marshall Beale Kenneth L. Beaugrand Heidi L. Berry, Friends of the NHA Robert H. Brust Nancy A. Chase

10 Arthur Hayden and the Madaket Free Press

William R. Congdon Richard L. Duncan Mary F. Espy

BY JIM POWERS

Nancy A. Geschke, Friends of the NHA

Tales of a true curmudgeon.

Georgia P. Gosnell, Trustee Emerita Nina S. Hellman Sarah B. Newton Anne S. Obrecht Elizabeth T. Peek

15 Reuben Macy: A Nantucket Doctor

Christopher C. Quick Melanie R. Sabelhaus Nancy M. Soderberg Bette M. Spriggs

BY HELEN P. SEAGER

Isabel C. Stewart

Letters from New Hampshire to his “Honoured Parents.”

Jay M. Wilson William J. Tramposch executive director

editorial committee

From the Executive Director WILLIAM J. TRAMPOSCH

Mary H. Beman Thomas B. Congdon Jr. Richard L. Duncan

Flying Santa | JOSEPH P.

Peter J. Greenhalgh

THEROUX

3 18

Edward Rowe Snow and the Romance of History

Amy Jenness Cecil Barron Jensen

By the Way | PAT

Robert F. Mooney

Academy Hill

BUTLER

19

Elizabeth Oldham Nathaniel Philbrick Bette M. Spriggs James Sulzer

COVER: Bertha Hayden on South Water

David H. Wood

Street in front of the famous “Boat to America” sign, ca. 1950s.“A.O.” signifies “Atlantic Ocean.” Photo courtesy of Jim Powers.

Ben Simons

NHA Calendar

20

NHA News

22

Editor Elizabeth Oldham

Historic Nantucket welcomes articles on any aspect of Nantucket history. Original research; firsthand accounts; reminiscences of island experiences; historic logs, letters, and photographs are examples of materials of interest to our readers.

Copy Editor

©2007 by the Nantucket Historical Association

Eileen Powers/Javatime Design Design & Art Direction

Historic Nantucket (ISSN 0439-2248) is published by the Nantucket Historical Association, 15 Broad Street, Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Periodical postage paid at Nantucket, MA, and additional entry offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Historic Nantucket, P.O. Box 1016, Nantucket, MA 02554 –1016 (508) 228–1894; fax: (508) 228–5618, info@nha.org For information log on to www.nha.org

FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

An Island of Characters BILL TRAMPOSCH

T

his issue of Historic Nantucket is devoted to island personalities. One needn’t be on island long before realizing that its past and present are defined by memorable individuals. Thanks to the generosity of some supporters, we have purchased a video camera that is now enabling us to capture the words and faces of more and more notable Nantucketers. We call this program Legends, and it will be an evergrowing compendium of informal interviews with islanders. We are focusing especially on individuals whose advanced years compel us to record what they have to say now. There is urgency to this effort. In fact, lately, we called one interviewee to ask if we could come by to videotape him during the next week. He agreed to be filmed but urged us to call on the day “to make sure I am still alive!”

If you have anyone whom you would like to nominate for our Legends initiative, please let us know. Although we have the equipment and the intense will to proceed, we lack the resources to undertake the sheer number of interviews we hope to conduct. For more information, please contact Ben Simons at (508) 228-1894 x303 or bsimons@nha.org.

Speaking of legends, let me salute here two personalities who have inspired us greatly at the NHA: Nantucket native David Wood and young summer resident Arthur Nichols. David has been associated with the NHA for many years and has lately donated significant items from his collection to the NHA. He began collecting as a boy, and on the day he graduated from

Middlebury he bought an what he was up to, his antique mirror that still mother explained that this hangs in his home. The site was “Arthur’s secret donation contains scores spot.” He comes to it every of lightship baskets, Sunday morning throughNantucket silver, numerout the summer in order to ous eighteenth-century “pick up after the big kids” documents (one of which who tend to congregate calls for the formation of a there on Saturday nights. board of selectmen on With his bag filled with Nantucket, signed by King paper, cans, and glass, William I!), and a wonderArthur and his mother then DAVID WOOD ful portrait by Austin left for the dump, the last Strong of James H. Wood, stop in their Sunday ritual David’s great-grandfather, to protect the secret spot. one of Nantucket’s most I wanted to learn more famous Civil War veterans. about this four-year-old The collection not only who was demonstrating helps to tell the story of what it meant to be a citiNantucket, it also reveals a zen in Franklin’s America. great deal about David With his parents’ permisWood, the collector. The sion, we made Arthur an gift will be known as the Honorary Member of the David Wood Collection, NHA, and asked if he would and we are eager to show it provide us with a phototo the public as soon as it is graph of himself that we accessioned. can place on a sign at the Colleagues and I have Folger site. What better way visited David on numerto ensure the upkeep of this ous occasions. My favorite important site than through discussion with him a direct appeal from our occurred at the Sea Grille. I had asked him youngest member. what he recollected about the Monaghan My last experience with Arthur was this sisters of nearby Greater Light, having past August. He left a message on my known that he was only four years old phone: “Mr. Tramposch, this is Arthur. I will when they moved into town. Nearly a be coming back to Nantucket next summer minute passed between my question and and my father and I want to take you to the David’s answer, so much time in fact that I Juice Bar for an ice cream and to talk about had become convinced that he hadn’t history.” heard me. Then, looking up from his soup Now that was a historic day! spoon, he said, simply, “They were the epitome of oddness.”

I met Arthur Nichols last year on a hot Sunday morning in August. He was walking with his mother at one of our sites, the homestead of Abiah Folger, mother of Ben Franklin, off Madaket Road. Arthur, age William J. Tramposch four, had a bag in his hand. When I asked Executive Director Winter 2008

|



BY HELEN HANNON

 | Historic Nantucket

Images courtesy of Bill Gould V

Figurehead of the USS Niagara, the vessel Gould served on after his escape aboard the USS Chesapeake.

Historic Nantucket is committed to exploring Nantucket’s diverse history.The support of an anonymous grant ensures the publication of at least one article on an annual basis devoted to topics of diversity. We are pleased to present this article as the first in the series.

In 1857, just before the Civil War, two slave women were about to be sold.

however, several Nantucket residents stepped in and

negotiated their manumission.

Nantucket people have often played roles in the larger history of the United States. Those events may have been on a small scale, but they demonstrate the courage and resourcefulness of ordinary individuals in combination with larger philosophical issues.

In 1857, just before the Civil War, two slave women were about to be sold. They were Diana S. Williams Read (1815–1860), in Charleston, South Carolina, and her daughter, Cornelia Williams Read (1837–1906), in Wilmington, North Carolina. Their owner was John Newland Maffitt, who in 1852 had married Caroline Laurens (Read) of Charleston, the widow of an old navy friend, James Withers Read.

It isn’t clear whether Diana and Cornelia were owned by the Laurens or Read family, but Maffitt acquired them through his marriage, and it was he who made the arrangements to sell them. Ironically, before the war, Maffitt, who later became a prominent commander in the Confederate Navy, was widely known for his efforts to stop the African slave trade.

The people on Nantucket were alerted to the situation by Diana Read’s sister, Julia Ward Williams Garnet, and her husband, Henry Highland Garnet, both free blacks doing missionary work who had arrived in Jamaica from England at the time and had learned about the pending sale. Henry Garnet was a political figure in the fight for emancipation, although his influence would later wane when he advocated black emigration from the United States. Mrs. Garnet’s older sister, Ann Williams Crawford, was living on Nantucket, married to the Reverend James E. Crawford.

Winter 2008

|



The term “contraband” originated in the Civil War.

At the beginning of the war, Union forces were legally obligated to return escaped slaves to their owners.

Crawford was minister of the African Baptist Church, which was situated at the heart of the black community, called New Guinea. In his article “Black–White Relations on Nantucket,” (Historic Nantucket, Spring 2002), Robert Johnson Jr. writes that Crawford was born to a slave mother and her white master in Virginia. He had escaped to New England via the Underground Railroad and subsequently was in the maritime trades, living for a time in Providence, Rhode Island, where he met and married Ann Williams. Crawford had educated himself and was licensed as a Methodist preacher, from time to time traveling to Nantucket. In 1848, James and Ann Crawford moved to Nantucket where he was held in high personal esteem, one resident describing him as having “wonderful brown hair, and the merriest blue eyes and dimples, and that large, humorous, lovely mouth that spoke evil of no man.”

In 1924, Alexander Starbuck, in his History of Nantucket: County, Island, and Town, wrote of Crawford “being so light complexioned as easily to pass for a white man. He was one of those genial but sincere and upright men who commanded respect and esteem. The receipts from his parishioners were meager for his parish was small and its members poor, and Mr. Crawford supported himself by following the occupation of a barber.”

Joseph E. C. Farnham, in his Brief Historical Data and Memories of My Boyhood Days in Nantucket, also praised Rev. Crawford, writing “Under his ministerial leading, and by his messages presented, his Baptist chapel on York Street proved indeed a bethel to many seeking Christian consolation and ethical uplift. He not infrequently preached for the white people in the Summer Street Baptist Church. ‘Brother Crawford,’ as he was so reverently known, was a man of the mulatto type, with a broad, open, smiling face, a little under average height, thick-set and rotund. He was as faithful, sincere and helpful in his ministerial labors as he was neat, finished and expert in his tonsorial art.

His was always a popular barber-shop. The Rev. James E. Crawford was a man honored and honorable in Nantucket, where he so long lived, and was loved and respected by both white and colored citizens. He would have graced and dignified any people among whom his life might have been spent.”

According to Farnham’s memoir, the African community lived “in the lower section of Nantucket, south from Silver Street, crossing Orange and Pleasant Streets. . . . From Orange Street, south from Silver Street, and east of Pleasant Street, the section was called ‘Guinea’ while to the northwest from the westerly end of York Street and west from Pleasant Street, on the little hill there, it was called ‘New Guinea.’”

Having received news of the impending sale of his sister-in-law and her daughter, Reverend Crawford went about raising funds on the island and elsewhere in New England, assisted in the effort by the congregations of various Nantucket churches and several residents, including Christopher Coffin Hussey (subsequently an ordained Unitarian minister); Hussey wrote to Maffitt, who replied by writing that “nothing would give him greater pleasure than to confer upon them [the Read women] the blessings of liberty, provided the Rev. Gentleman [Mr. Crawford] would pay $1900 at sight.” Late in 1857,  | Historic Nantucket

Crawford succeeded in accumulating the $700 eventually paid for Diana; it is not known how she was transported to Nantucket.

Still needed was $1,000 to secure Cornelia’s freedom, and almost half the money was raised in England by the subscription efforts of Henry and Anna Richardson, members of the Society of Friends in Newcastleon-Tyne, acquaintances of Henry and Julia Garnet, and other subscribers both in England and in New England, many of them also Quakers.

Early in 1858, Crawford, at great personal risk, traveled to Wilmington to rescue Cornelia. Although it appeared that he could pass for white, if his racial background had been discovered he could easily have been taken back into slavery himself. The mood of the country just before the Civil War was volatile; anything could have happened, and Crawford’s courage in undertaking the journey cannot be understated.

The Read women were living on Nantucket by February 1858. In an 1860 anti-slavery pamphlet, Anna Richardson described Cornelia as “a bright young niece of our friend, Henry H. Garnet’s, whom many of our friends kindly assisted to redeem from slavery in North Carolina about three years since. We rejoice to say this dear girl is going on very satisfactorily. She has been diligently pursuing her studies in a school at Nantucket, and appears to be much esteemed by all who know her.

She kindly sends us a little letter now and then, again returning her glowing thanks to all who assisted in procuring her freedom. Her mother, Diana Williams (also a slave a few years since, and redeemed in part by the surplus of the “Wiems Ransom Fund”) has married an estimable Baptist minister [Ann Crawford had passed away and Diana married Rev. Crawford.] within the last year, and Cornelia resides under their roof.”

Cornelia and William B. Gould, ca. 1890s.

William B. Gould with his six sons in service.

All were veterans of World War I except William B. Gould Jr., a Spanish-American War veteran.

Cornelia Williams Read Gould, circa 1890.

William Benjamin Gould, ca. 1880.

Log of the USS Cambridge. On September 22, 1865, William B. Gould and seven other contrabands are picked up by the USS Cambridge, then on blockade off the North Carolina coast near the Cape Fear River.The log reports spotting “the strange sail” at 9:50 A.M. and states that the eight contrabands are picked up at 10:20.The ship’s log lists the “names of contrabands and their masters” including “Wm. B. Gold [sic] owned by Nicholas Nixon.”

WBG’s sketch of CSS Stonewall, an ironclad vessel of the Confederate Navy.

Winter 2008

|



The Reverend James Crawford, minister in Nantucket’s African Baptist Church. GPN3441

*** The story of the Read women and their purchased freedom was common knowledge on Nantucket, but it was unknown to their descendant, William Benjamin Gould IV, now professor emeritus at Stanford Law School, until he began intensive research on a remarkable diary kept by his great-grandfather, the first William B. Gould. (In 2002, Stanford University Press published the diary, brilliantly edited and annotated by Professor Gould, as Diary of a Contraband: The Civil War Passage of a Black Sailor.) The diarist, an escaped slave, had become a “contraband” sailor in the U. S. Navy—and subsequently married Cornelia Read.

At the beginning of the war, Union forces were legally obligated to return escaped slaves to their owners. General Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts concluded that such slaves were “Contraband of War,” which set the legal precedent that slaves turning up behind Union lines did not have to be returned. They became known as “contrabands” and took up a variety of occupations, many becoming sailors in the U. S. Navy.

The first William B. Gould had been enslaved on a plantation in Wilmington, North Carolina, where the Maffitt family had connections and visited on numerous occasions after 1852, presumably attended, as was the custom, by several of their slaves, Cornelia Read among them, for it was there that Cornelia and William met.

On September 22, 1862, Gould and seven other black men fled in a boat down the Cape Fear River along with two other boatloads of escaping slaves. It is possible that there was a coordinated plan, but they may have just happened to take advantage of the right conditions to escape. They were picked up that same night by the Union vessel USS Cambridge, Gould signing on as a contraband sailor on that ship, later transferring to the USS Niagara.

Professor Gould points out that “unlike in the army, the sailors were not segregated, they did not receive differing rates of pay; they all lived in the same quarters. Though promotion to higher rank was limited, all sailors had the same titles, no matter what their origins, beginning with the lowest rank of boy, to landsman and petty officer. My great-grandfather achieved the rank of petty officer. Keep in mind that sailors had continued to serve in the Navy since the Revolution and African-Americans had been forbidden to join the Army from 1792 through 1863.”

WILLIAM BENJAMIN GOULD IV

William B. Gould III and William B. Gould IV, ca. 1940s.

 | Historic Nantucket

William B. Gould IV is the Charles A. Beardsley Professor of Law Emeritus at Stanford University. Professor Gould was particularly moved when the city of Wilmington, North Carolina, placed a historical marker in Riverfront Park honoring his great-grandfather.The marker includes a photograph of William Benjamin Gould I and an account of his escape, pointing out that the Cape Fear River was a route of the Underground Railroad in Wilmington.

Gould relates:“The marker is at the foot of Orange Street—the precise place where my great-grandfather escaped. On October 21, 2003, 141 years and one month later—at the dedication presided over by the mayor—I spoke at the ceremony.This was a very special event for my family.”

Professor Gould has written extensively on labor law and served as chairman of the National Labor Relations Board during the Clinton administration.The fourth edition of his book, A Primer on American Labor Law, has recently been published. His current book project is about baseball—how the game has changed since the 1940s, on and off the field, bringing in his childhood memories, people who were heroes for him then—and are still heroes to him today. A lifelong Red Sox fan, Professor Gould threw the opening pitch on Jackie Robinson Day at Fenway Park, June 13, 2006.

above: A reception for William B. Gould Jr.’s Company L on the Boston Common, 1898, upon their return from Puerto Rico. above right: William B. Gould and Cornelia Williams Read Gould with their children in the late 1880s. right: The USS Niagara at the Boston Navy Yard, ca. 1863.

On September 29, 1865, the first William Gould was mustered out at the Boston Naval Yard in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

He went immediately to Nantucket to marry Cornelia.

During that time, Gould kept his diary of daily life in the navy—not only as a Civil War sailor but as an African-American contraband.

What is remarkable is that he was literate, as it was illegal in the South to teach slaves to read and write, so it was even more remarkable that Cornelia Williams Read was also literate, whether before she was freed or after she was brought to Nantucket. Cornelia and her future husband exchanged letters while he served in the U. S. Navy. How they achieved literacy remains a mystery.

William B. Gould’s escape and his service in the Civil War make for high adventure—yet it is not only his story told in The Diary of a Contraband. The lives of Cornelia and Diana Read and the the people who rescued them also demonstrate the compassion and fortitude required in a desperate time.

On September 29, 1865, the first William Gould was mustered out at the Boston Naval Yard in Charlestown, Massachusetts. He went immediately to Nantucket to marry Cornelia. Although they were Episcopalians, they were married in the African Baptist Church by the Reverend James Crawford on November 22, 1865. In 1871, the couple moved to Dedham, Massachusetts, where they became high-

ly regarded in the community. William Gould earned his living as a plasterer, a trade he had practiced in Wilmington, and was a member of the Charles W. Carroll Grand Army of the Republic Post No. 144, in Dedham. The family was active in the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in that town, where they raised eight children, two girls and six boys.

The Gould family continues to pursue family research, hoping to learn more about Julia Garnet and Ann Crawford and how they obtained their freedom. helen hannon is an independent researcher whose primary interests are Massachusetts in the Civil War and historical preservation; her articles have appeared in many publications, including The Harvard University Gazette, The Civil War News, and The Journal of AfricanAmerican History.

Special thanks to John Coski, the Gould family, David and Mary Louise Mittell, and Helen Seager.

Winter 2008

|



Arthur Hayden & the Madaket Free Press

BY JIM POWERS

All images courtesy of Jim Powers.

 | Historic Nantucket

On May 8, 1957, Arthur C. Hayden, of 19 South Water Street, was convicted of criminal libel in Nantucket Superior Court and sentenced to eighteen months in prison. Hayden, then 75, was an inventor, local restaurateur, publisher, and, to some islanders, a real pain in the neck, well known for never keeping his opinions to himself. above: Arthur Hayden, ca. 1950s. opposite: Arthur Hayden, ca. 1900; Bertha Hayden next to the family car at Jackson’s Point in Madaket, ca. 1940s.

“He never approached a problem diplomatically. He waded right into it,” said Francis Pease of Hummock Pond Road, who knew Hayden for many years.

For Arthur Hayden, those problems were of the greatest concern to Nantucket, and are familiar to islanders today: public ownership and use of the waterfront, the high cost of utilities and fuel, and the conduct of public officials.

The mainstream forum for his views was his newspaper, the Madaket Free Press, published for several years in the 1930s and ’40s, in which the lead story of almost every issue would be a lengthy examination of one of the problems and his plan to solve it.

Less formally, he was known for initiating spirited conversations with those he ran into around the center of town, where he lived, and for posting his views on the bulletin board he maintained at his South Water Street property just north of the Dreamland Theatre. It was the bulletin board that landed him in court twice, in 1949 and again in 1957, when he used it to accuse the police chief of corruption over a long-standing parking issue.

He wrote of himself on the back of a business card: “I was born in Brockton, Mass. and brought to Nantucket by my Grandmother when two weeks old and spent the first thirteen years of my life with my wid-

owed Grandmother, the wife of Captain William Cash. I attended the Old South and Coffin Schools here. I am proud of both my Nantucket and Brockton ancestry which in itself means nothing, other than to tell you why I love Nantucket.”

Arthur Clarence Hayden was born in Brockton on December 21, 1881, the son of George Wallace Hayden and Fidelia Coan Cash, the fourth of five children. (Arthur’s sister, Gertrude Libby, would also reside on Nantucket, spending the latter years of her long life living on the first floor of what was then the Emmons’ Corners apartment house, now the popular restaurant 21 Federal Street. She died in 1974, at the age of 96.)

Arthur’s father, George, also born in Brockton, in 1849, was an entrepreneur from a young age, and by 1869 was in the shoe business in Brockton with Nantucket native William S. Mitchell, a third cousin of astronomer Maria Mitchell. In November 1871, the pair paid the Town of Nantucket $800 for the abandoned West Grammar School, on Quarter Mile Hill off upper Main Street, and set up a shoe factory there.

Reflecting what many locals must have felt in the depressed Nantucket economy of the day, the Inquirer and Mirror commented, “We rejoice, as every one of our readers must, at this sign of activity, and Winter 2008

|



above left: Family home at 19 South Water Street, showing popcorn stand with bulletin board, and the Chowder Bowl Restaurant, ca. 1950s, photo courtesy of Bill Haddon. above right: Madaket Free Press, October 17, 1955, photo courtesy of Bill Haddon.

Exactly why Arthur was brought to Nantucket to be raised by his grandmother is not known, but later events suggest the possibility of an unstable home life. all will unite in the most sincere wishes for the success of the enterprise, and the hope that Messrs. Mitchell & Hayden may meet with such prosperity as may encourage them to still further extend their operations, and also induce others to come and do likewise. We have many good workmen here, whose attachment to home is very strong; and any opening whereby they can earn a living and remain here with their families will be heartily welcomed.” Unfortunately, a spectacular nighttime fire destroyed the shoe factory in August 1873. Hayden and Mitchell returned to Brockton.

George Hayden’s other Nantucket endeavor proved more viable. In October 1872, he married Fidelia Coan Cash, the daughter of whaling captain William S. Cash and his wife, Azubah Bearse Handy.

The Cash family home at 48 Orange Street still stands. A small lane along the north side of the house is called Cash’s Court and an old tree overhanging the street in front of the house is said to have been planted by Fidelia in 1862 with a cutting from the Handy homestead in Cotuit. Captain Cash, a founding member of the Pacific Club and later selectman and bank trustee, is best known today for bringing to Nantucket the eighteen-foot sperm-whale jaw that is displayed in the restored Hadwen & Barney Candle Factory—the original Whaling Museum.

Exactly why Arthur was brought to Nantucket to be raised by his grandmother is not known, but later events suggest the possibility of an unstable home life. He once wrote, “It was only by Grandmother Cash’s wish and my own desire that I spent my boyhood days here.”

In 1895, after he returned to the family home in Brockton upon Azubah Cash’s death, his father, George, then 45, committed suicide in a garret room by taking an overdose of morphine, an event the Brockton newspapers covered enthusiastically for days.  | Historic Nantucket

The Brockton Times reported, “It is rumored in town today that Mr. Hayden had been unfortunate in certain recent stock speculations and that he had been much more despondent than usual during the last few days. It is stated that Mr. Hayden was in quite comfortable circumstances some years ago, but that none of his recent business ventures have been successful.”

Only six years later, Fidelia died of natural causes in Hyannis at the home of her brother, Alexander Cash, who was prominent in business and politics there. (His Hyannis commercial development, the Cash Block, at the corner of Main and Pleasant streets, is still regularly passed by drivers heading to the Steamship Authority, and houses the hardware store started by him and his business partner, Myron Bradford.)

Arthur was in business for himself in Brockton at least as early as 1908, when an advertisement for his Hayden Photographic Mfg. Co., makers of dry-plate developing machines, plate holders, and film-printing frames, appears in the Brockton city directory. Over the next couple of decades, his business listings show a variety of locations and, occasionally, business partners as he moves into leather mats—an offshoot of Brockton’s main industry, shoes—radio accessories, and the pursuit that would become his staple: accessories for motion-picture cameras.

Over the years, Hayden would receive about sixty patents on various items, mostly related to movie cameras, but also including storm windows of his own design and his final patent, in 1950, an inserter and remover of thumbtacks.

He was apparently successful in business, at one point having a second office on 42nd Street in New York. In 1930, Arthur, his wife, Bertha, and their three daughters were living in Randolph, near Brockton, where their home was worth more than that of most of the neighbors and featured a live-in maid, census records show.

Arthur was in business for himself in Brockton at least as early as 1908, when an advertisement appears for his Hayden Photographic Mfg. Co., makers of dry-plate developing machines, plate holders, and film-printing frames.

By the early 1930s, however, the Haydens were spending more time in Nantucket, where they had summered for years, and, in 1936, bought the house and land at 19 South Water Street for $3,000. According to family tradition, Arthur was hit hard by the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing economic troubles; this may have been a factor in the move to Nantucket.

Around the beginning of World War II, Arthur built a small, simple restaurant, the Chowder Bowl, adjacent to his house, which occupied the lot on the north side of Oak Street, the Dreamland Theatre on one side and Vincent’s Restaurant on the other. On the corner closest to the theatre, he put up a small building styled like a tiny Nantucket house, complete with miniature roofwalk and a flagpole, from which he sold popcorn, which the Dreamland did not provide at the time. Arthur and Bertha ran the restaurant together, catering to the summer visitors going to and from Steamboat Wharf, Nantucket High School students and, during the war, many servicemen. “Everyone used to call them Ma and Pa,” their granddaughter, Marjorie Colley, said.

The popcorn stand was operated by Arthur until his death in 1963 and outlasted everything else on the property, and was still there until the property was fully developed in the 1980s. Catherine Flanagan Stover, whose family was involved with the Dreamland Theatre and who is now Nantucket’s town clerk, recalls buying popcorn there as a child.

“He was very attentive to his business and happy to see people enjoying themselves,” she said. “I remember Mr. Hayden there in a nice white shirt and a tie.”

The notorious bulletin board was attached to the popcorn stand.

During the 1940s and ’50s, Arthur Hayden was also an avid letter writer. He wrote to a host of public figures and officials on a variety of topics of local and national interest. He would keep copies of his letters in a looseleaf binder next to the responses he received. Some of the people from whom he received letters, or at least acknowledgments, included Adlai Stevenson, Roy Cohn, J. Edgar Hoover, Leverett

Arthur and Bertha Hayden, early 1930s.

Saltonstall, John F. and Robert Kennedy, Arthur Godfrey, and Estes Kefauver. A note from Douglas MacArthur thanks him for the birthday greeting.

The first issue of the Madaket Free Press, named for the site of the Haydens’ longtime summer cottage, appeared on August 26, 1936. It would continue in one form or another into the mid-1940s. Some excerpts: • I also heard that a large piece of land was offered the Town for an airport, with no strings attached to it. (Not the one mentioned at Town Meeting.) It was said it was turned down.Why was it not put in writing and published with particulars, if any? After all, isn’t it up to the voters to pass judgement on a gift? Or was it just a gesture in hopes of stopping something?

• Boston 96. Nantucket 76 and lower.We of Nantucket take our baths in the ocean, not in our clothes!

• “I can see why the natives don’t organize for their own protection.

There seems to be too much petty jealousy and being afraid the other fellow may get a little more than him.”

• “AIR NOTES-The Nobadeer Airport has been busy, with about 19 planes coming in during the week.” (August 12, 1937.)

• “CISCO-Not a peep.”

• “We must have a boat service from New York. No matter how nice the conditions are on the train, you do not have the comfort of roaming around.We know of no better way to harm Nantucket, if there is such an intention, than to ride in a stuffy train.”

• “Am I a radical because I believe our Selectmen should fight to get us a Municipal Wharf that we can control in the interests of all? Am Winter 2008

|



a rt h u r h a y d e n a n d t h e MADAKET FREE PRESS

I a radical because I believe WPA projects should have been put in by the Selectmen last summer to give work to all the needy during the winter? . . . Am I radical because I believe the harbor should be opened up to bring back our fisheries? . . .” [three pages later]: “ Yes, I am radical, radical enough to believe the electric light rates on Nantucket are outrageous and we should go to the extreme in proving them so. . . . Yes, I am radical, radical enough to go to the extreme—to have a municipal wharf so that I will not be asked many times at America, who is the big boss that keeps these fine islanders in virtual slavery?”

Arthur Hayden ran for a variety of town offices, sometimes doing well, but never well enough to get elected.

“He was so radical, he didn’t make out too well, but that didn’t stop him,” said Francis Pease. “He came on too strong against people. He wasn’t always gentle about it. He’d tear right into them.”

Tony Mello, of Union Street, has a slightly different take on him. “He wasn’t a radical, but he questioned everything everybody did.”

A perennial prime target was John J. Gardner II, who was assessor and register of probate for decades.

“He used to attack my father terribly,” said Gardner’s daughter, Marcia Tooker. “Hayden resented that he held two town jobs, both of which he was elected to.”

A small wallet calendar distributed by Hayden printed Gardner’s town salary along its edge.

“My father was going to beat him up; [Hayden] said some terrible things to him in the post office,” Tooker said of one public confrontation.

Nonetheless, Nantucket in those days was a very small community.

As a high school student, Marcia Tooker was friends with Hayden’s daughters and occasionally went to the Chowder Bowl.

“They served really good chowder,” she said. “ We all knew each other and liked each other.”

Arthur Hayden’s libel troubles began in October of 1948, when he was indicted in Nantucket Superior Court on three counts of criminal libel against George M. Lake and Grace M. Klingelfuss, for statements posted on his bulletin board. One count against Lake and one against Klingelfuss were successfully quashed by the defense, but one against Klingelfuss, the Nantucket District Court Clerk, eventually went to trial in October 1949.

One of the statements on Hayden’s board sums up the case brought against him: “Five judges from the Administrative Committee were here today to inspect the District Police Court. Wonder how they liked the dirty, third floor garret fire trap? You take a look at it. Did they note the hours of Mrs. Grace F. Klingelfuss, alias Miss Grace Henry, in the Police Court Clerk’s office? Would one of the judges write and ask her what hours, if any, are kept? Are these office hours only to give the public the runaround?” he wrote.

Hayden’s attorney, Barnet Smola of New Bedford, argued vigorously that those statements were not libelous, that they constituted fair criticism of a public facility and official, and in making them, Hayden, who believed that the court should be moved to the town-owned Sanford House, with regular public hours, had the best interests of Nantucket at heart.

“These are not the statements of a man with rancour and hate,” said Smola, quoted in the Inquirer and Mirror. “Hasn’t he the right to criticize by making a fair statement? Is this libelous?”

Presiding judge Daniel O’Connell appeared to have some sympathy for this position, inquiring at one point of assistant district attorney  | Historic Nantucket

Jack London, “Would you consider his advocacy of a new courthouse a libel?”

Nonetheless, London maintained that Hayden’s comments were libelous as they disparaged the clerk’s work, continuing, “. . . and it is the manner in which he has written them in reference to local surroundings which makes them libelous.”

Smola responded, “Am I given to understand from my brother’s argument that there is a particular set of rules for the community of Nantucket, and another for the mainland?”

The next day, Hayden agreed to plea nolo contendere to the charge, promised to refrain from making further comments regarding the parties involved, and was placed on probation for one year, after Grace Klingelfuss told the judge she had no objection and did not feel her reputation had been damaged after all.

Arthur’s second trial for libel was the only case heard in Nantucket Superior Court in the spring of 1957. This time, he was charged with criminal libel against police chief Wendell Howes and Sgt. F. Stuart Chadwick, and the bulletin board was again the cause.

“Chadwick and Howes the Great Protector of Hit and Run Drivers and Harry Gordon the Habitual Traffic Law Violator Public Street Garage Repair Shop and Service Station Garage. Either One of Them Hasn’t Got the Guts Enough to Bring Gordon to Court,” said the roughly composed accusation. Unlike in 1949, the case made it before the jury.

After a two-day trial in which Hayden stood by his contention that the police were refusing to charge garage owner Harry Gordon with illegally parking cars he was repairing in the alley behind Hayden’s house, and the police insisted Gordon was breaking no laws, the jury found Arthur guilty in one hour and thirteen minutes. This was despite the fact that Hayden’s attorney was retired longtime probate judge George Poland, and sitting district court judge Caroline Leveen, a friend of Bertha Hayden, testified for the defense (but ended up mostly affirming the police position). He was given a suspended sentence of eighteen months and five years’ probation. The Town Crier noted that, the following day, the bulletin board “was erased completely of any writing.”

Today, Arthur Hayden would likely never have been brought up on these charges, as the concept of criminal libel has all but disappeared from the law, widely recognized as primarily a means for government officials to stifle dissent by bringing charges against those that disagree with them (though some are attempting to restore criminal libel to deal with issues raised by Internet publishing). Criminality aside, particularly on point is the U. S. Supreme Court decision in the The New York Times Co. v. Sullivan case in 1964, which ruled that public officials cannot recover damages in a libel case unless it is proved that the publisher of the statements at issue either knew them to be false or acted with reckless disregard for whether they were true or false.

Arthur Hayden died at his home on December 3, 1963, at the age of 81. Like his father, he took his own life. He was buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery in the Cash family plot with the grandparents he had always revered.

“A lot of those people who have strong convictions and who will stand up for them are very principled people, and they don’t always care what other people think. They’re to be cherished,” said town clerk Stover of Hayden. jim powers, the grandson of Arthur C. Hayden, is a Nantucket native and avid genealogist. He works as a staff photographer for the Inquirer and Mirror.

A Nantucket Doctor—

Letters from New Hampshire to his “Honoured Parents.”

On July 28, 1846, according to the diary of his visit, Charles C. Dyer, arriving in Nantucket probably from New Bedford, “Went to Reuben Macy’s and looked over a record of deaths said to be the best and most perfect on the island.” This curious account piqued my curiosity, and triggered further inquiry to find out more about the person named Reuben Macy.

Even more curious, the old brass knocker still on the front door of our house at 15 Pleasant Street, the one-time home of Nantucket’s renowned first historian Obed Macy, is engraved with the letters: D. R. Macy

W

p

hat story lay behind those letters?

The Barney genealogy lists two Reuben Macys who were on the island at the time of Dyer’s visit. One Reuben Macy (1801–54), was the son of Simeon and Phebe Macy. The other was Reuben Macy (1789–1870), the son of Obed Macy, who is widely known by Nantucketers today as the island’s first historian. Obed had died a year and a half before Dyer’s visit; Obed’s son Reuben was living at 15 Pleasant Street, having inherited his father’s house. Letters from Reuben to his father, which were among Obed’s papers, indicate that Reuben also had a keen interest in medicine and thus perhaps in mortality records.

The letters from son to father are interesting in themselves. In March 1814, Reuben, age twenty-five, and two years before he married Hannah Mitchell, visited a doctor in Rindge, New Hampshire. Between

March and May, three vivid letters to his father describe his journey and his visit with a Dr. Jewett in that town, as well as his interest in medicine (NHARL MS. 119, Folder 5).

Letter #1: March 25, 1814 The first letter, written to his “Honoured Parents” on March 25 after he arrived in Rindge, refers to “my last (i.e., previous) letter,” which is not in the collection, but written presumably as Reuben was about to proceed from Boston; he may have sailed to Boston from Nantucket. The letter we have describes his trip from Boston to Rindge—first, by stage to Groton, Massachusetts (forty-five miles NNW of Boston); then by “stage slay [sic]” to Jaffrey, New Hampshire, about twenty-seven miles. “I then hired a horse and slay for 18 cents to carry me to the doctors, distance 3 miles.” Rindge is south of Jaffrey; Reuben’s mail was handled through the Jaffrey post office.

BY HELEN P. SEAGER

Door knocker image: Jim Powers

Winter 2008

|



p

W

ith regard to my complaint ... the doctor assures me that it is not bad and I need not worry myself any more about it[;] he is preparing something for me so that I am in hopes by assistance of divine providence I may be made better.”

The weather, as can be imagined in March in New Hampshire, was dreadful. “During my whole trip it was so cold that we were obliged to keep the stage entirely shut up so that I had not an opportunity of viewing the country.” He arrived at about dark, and the doctor was not at home: “I made myself known and met with a favourable reception by the family who appear to be very clever people.” Neither the doctor’s name nor any names of his family are mentioned. He continues, “I live very comfortable and enjoy myself as well as can be expected[;] here are a great variety of books to read and pen[,] ink and paper to write my thoughts.” Even with these amenities, he writes, “yet after all, it is not home,” adding, “the snow is 2 feet thick and the ice in the [pond] is about 18 inches”; and later, “The country round is so full of snow that it is impossible to give a description of it.”

The letter contains a clue for one purpose of his visit: “With regard to my complaint . . .the doctor assures me that it is not bad and I need not worry myself any more about it[;] he is preparing something for me so that I am in hopes by assistance of divine providence I may be made better.” The only other remark about the purpose of the visit is, “I don’t know what I can write more about my business here.”

Letter #2: May 19, 1814

p

The second letter in the collection was addressed to “Obed Macy, Merchant, Nantucket, Massachusetts,” with the salutation, “Dear Parents.” Although it was postmarked May 19, it was written over a period during which he received letters from his brothers, Thomas and Peter. He mentions “my business here” in conjunction with a letter from Thomas dated April 29; he may have begun writing this letter after receiving it. Thomas had enclosed the “result of the election of town officers[.] I think it must be very mortifying to the [illegible].” Then, “As it regards my business here, I have so far accomplished it that[,] were it not for my arm[,] I should be nearly ready to go home. How long that will keep me here I do not know but not more than 2 or 3 weeks at the most.” Evidently, his arm was the source of the undescribed “complaint” to which he referred in the first letter.

Beyond the affliction with his arm and “my business here,” he is very busy. In social situations, people meeting the man from Nantucket express interest in “the manner of taking whales”: A man from New Ipswich (NH) made an observation to me which I think I never shall remember without a smile. He said he thought the manner of taking whales was to go along side and jump on their backs and drive the iron in with a mallet. I think I can see Peter with his mouth open. Such is their ignorance; but it is not strange when it is so seldom that any person visits these parts who is acquainted with the business.

The weather must have improved: “I expect in a few days to visit the lofty Monadnock mountain on discovery with the doctor[;] perhaps we may discover a silver mine although not very probable.”  | Historic Nantucket

above: Macy’s letter of March 25, 1814, to his “Honoured Parents.” NHARL MS 119, Folder 5 right: Macy’s Book of Receipts, containing “recipes” for medicines. NHARL MS 170 Folder 4

He also is concerned with the health of people back home: I wrote requesting Peter to send particular description of his complaint[;] if he wishes me to bring any medicine for him, the Doctor says he can send something that will help him very much. . . .They feel very anxious to hear from Captain Glover’s wife in my next[;] thou will please to send word how she is.

I have been trying to persuade the doctor to go to Nantucket in company with me but he says he has so much business here it would be difficult to leave home for so long; but if he was sent for he would go. I wish thee to mention this to Capt. Glover and others who have been long afflicted. I feel very anxious for him to go as I am confident he would be very beneficial to many for if I had followed the advice of Doct Gelston I should have been ruined before this time.

Captain Glover, whose first name is not mentioned in these letters, appears in the NHA databases only in this letter. Dr. Roland G. Gelston (1761–1829) was a physician in practice on the island at the time; his father, Dr. Samuel Gelston (1727–82) had also been a physician; it was he who introduced the practice of inoculation against smallpox to Nantucket. Reuben is evidently not satisfied with the younger Dr. Gelston’s care.

He continued the letter after he heard from Thomas and Peter, with a note enclosed from Obed, and from William Mitchell, to whom he referred simply as “W. M.” Mitchell’s letter had told of, as Reuben put it, “the disgraceful proceedings of the Representative Town Meeting. I think by the account (by W.M.) it was a serious time.”

After receiving the letters, Reuben is relieved about the health of his younger brother. “I am glad to find that Peter’s health is pretty good and he has sent no instructions to get any medicine. I think I shall not bring any unless directed to the contrary.”

His third concern in this letter may be an explanation of what he

previously called “my business here”: I read thy note attached to Thos & Peters letter relating to staying with the doctor I have thought of it considerable since I have been here but it would take 2 or 3 years before I should be able to practice[;] besides I should want (that is, still lack) a smattering of Latin so that I do not think it will be worth while to begin.

Was Reuben considering the study of medicine with Dr. Jewett?

Finally, he suggests his interest in medicinal recipes: “I wish thee to procure some red pepper seeds and plant in the garden.” “Receipts” exist dated the very year of his New Hampshire visit to Dr. Jewett, some of which call for red pepper.

The letter closes with some tender language touching on the affection between him and his family: The concern for my welfare expressed in the various letters which I have received although not in the least doubted is nevertheless very grateful to my feelings and I am in hope that it will not be long before I shall be able to represent myself (in person).

He closes with “I am affectionately your dutiful Son.” A postscript indicates his continuing hope that Nantucket will summon Dr. Jewett: “The doctor generally charges one shilling per mile for traveling and if any of you want him enough to send for him I should be well pleased.”

Letter # 3: May 30, 1814

p

I have had several interviews with the Doctor with regard to my studying with him[;] he seems much pleased with it but I think it would take considerable time and expense to accomplish it but if I were as good a doctor as he is, I think [I’d] not want a better fortune[;] he clears from 4 to 10 dollars per day and does not charge 1/10 part so much as other doctors. I shall be able to talk more particularly (on this matter) on my return.

He closes: “The main object of my visit here is nearly accomplished

p

The third letter, postmarked eleven days after the second, begins with a review of the topics of the second: “It being some time since I heard from home, and your last letter presented such a dismal picture of affairs with regard to town meetings that I feel anxious to hear and as the mail comes up this day I intend going to Jaffrey tomorrow to see if I have any letters. As it regards my business here, it has so far exceeded my most sanguine expectations; my arm is in a very fair way. I think it is well that I attended to it as it would have proved in time a very bad thing. Although the day is not fixed for my departure from here yet I do not think it will be best [for you] to direct any more letters to Jaffrey as I expect to leave before they could arrive . . .yet if there is any of my letters that thou wishes to answer (particularly about the doctors going to Nantucket) of which I mentioned in my last it will be best to write as perhaps I may not leave under 2 weeks.”

He then describes his strenuous hike on Mt. Monadnock with Dr. Jewett—the vistas, terrain, and “the most stupendous precipices immaginable [sic] all which conspired to form the most romantick [sic] and pituresque [sic] appearance.” They did not discover a silver mine, but “we discovered some lead ore of which I shall bring a sample.”

He suggests that he is not the first family member to have made the ascent: “I discovered Peter’s name on the top and have also added my own.” This letter is the only one in which Dr. Jewett is named. The vivid account of the day’s adventure attests to Reuben’s interest in nature and to his observational skills. Did those skills motivate him later to keep the “records of death” that Charles C. Dyer examined on his 1846 visit?

During the nineteenth century, most of Nantucket’s doctors and other healers were self-taught; Reuben is still undecided about studying medicine with Dr. Jewett:

to satisfaction and therefore needs no other comment on paper.” Does that mean that his arm has healed? Had Reuben chosen to teach himself rather than study with Dr. Jewett?

On March 7, 1816, Reuben Macy married Harriet Mitchell, daughter of Peleg and Lydia Mitchell and sister of Maria Mitchell’s father.

Reuben’s parents died in 1842 and 1844. Among Obed’s papers in the Macy Collection in the NHA Research Library is his 1817 notebook of medicinal recipes he had collected “for the cure of many diseases, etc. . . .” Notes on this collection say that “Some receipts are the same as those found in Reuben Macy’s Book of Receipts, 1814,” which is found in Collection 170, Folder 4. Note that Reuben’s notebook precedes that of Obed. On the title page, Reuben wrote, “Medicine is God’s second cause of health,” which he attributes to Daniel Weatherley of North Carolina.

One undated source lists Reuben’s businesses as “Real Estate, Candle wicking, Patent Medicines, and Tooth Powder” (NHARL MS. 375, Folder 12). According to Asa Bunker’s letterbooks, Reuben was “connected some way with Barzillai and Frederick Macy,” whose candlemaking business failed in 1839. The Nantucket Gazette of July 8, 1816, published a notice that Reuben Macy “has just received, and offers for sale, a general assortment of drugs and Medicines . . . and many other articles in the Apothecary line, which will be sold on reasonable terms.” Listed were many substances that are now in modern kitchens in the form of herbs, oils, and flavorings. Similar notices appeared in local papers throughout the 1830s.

According to town records for 1848–52 and 1845–53, a Reuben Macy served several years as elected town treasurer during the early 1850s; whether it was Obed’s son Reuben or the other Reuben alive at the time is unclear. However, the other Reuben died in 1855. A Reuben Macy was elected to a board of three assessors in 1856, and, since only one Reuben was alive on island in 1856, we can be certain that the new assessor was Obed’s son; he thus was following in the footsteps of his father Obed, who was an assessor in the early 1820s, and housed the assessor’s office at 15 Pleasant Street.

Reuben and Hannah had four children, all of whom outlived him.

Harriet died in 1859. Reuben lived another twenty-two years at 15 Pleasant Street with his two unmarried daughters until his death in 1881. His death notice in the Town Clerk’s record and in the Whalemen’s Shipping List (March 1, 1870—Feb. 21 1871) listed his profession as “physician.” His children inherited the house, and his heirs kept it until 1899. For decades afterward, deeds referred to the house as the “Reuben Macy Homestead.”

What did the letters engraved on the old brass knocker, still on the front door at 15 Pleasant Street, mean?

D. R. Macy There was no “D.R. Macy” among Obed’s heirs. Reuben had a brother, Daniel, who died in 1739, while Obed still owned the house. It is unlikely that “D. R.” stood for Daniel, or even Daniel and Reuben, since Obed was still the head of the household when Daniel died.

There were no Macy heirs with the initials D. R. between Reuben’s death and the sale of the house in 1899. There are marks on the knocker near the D that could mean that D. R. stands for “Dr. Reuben” or Dt. Reuben. One might expect that the historian’s habit of keeping records, combined with the apparent interest on the part of both father and son in things medicinal, might have resulted in a good “record of deaths” in the house at the time of Dyer’s visit, even though Reuben had other ways of making a living. Reuben Macy’s practice of medicine supports the assertion that, in 1846, Charles C. Dyer visited the home of a self-taught physician, Reuben Macy, son of Obed Macy and Abigail Pinkham. helen p. seager, a founder of the Friends of the African Meeting House on Nantucket, is a lifelong advocate of historic preservation.

Winter 2008

|



PROFILE

J o s e p h P. T h e r o u x

Flying Santa: Edward Rowe Snow and the Romance of History

T

he old Great Point Lighthouse on Nantucket stood white against the night sky. It was Christmas Eve in the late 1930s. Frank Grieder, the keeper, was checking a mechanism in the tower. His young son, Bill, heard a noise outside and went to see about it. He looked up into the sky and saw a biplane swooping low.

The cockpit door opened, someone aboard tossed out some packages and waved. He thought he heard a voice call out “Merry Christmas!”

He ran to his father and reported that maybe someone was bombing them, and described what he had seen. The keeper of the light laughed and said, “That’s not a bomber, that’s Flying Santa!”

Indeed, the packages were wrapped gifts, and the Flying Santa was the historian Edward Rowe Snow. He began delivering gifts to New England lighthouse keepers and their families in 1936, having taken over the tradition from the pilot Bill Wincapaw (who had done it for ten years) and flew every Christmas for over forty years. Lighthouse keepers’ children knew Snow as the Flying Santa, even though he would sometimes visit in a more traditional ferry when he came to do research for his books. But Snow was many things: like Walt Whitman, he “contained multitudes.”

He was a scholar, athlete, historian, teacher, actor, treasure hunter, writer, newspaperman, and merchant seaman. Following his graduation from Winthrop High School in1919— where he won more than 170 medals in track and swimming—he was expected to attend college. But coming from a long line of sea captains who traced their lineage back to the Mayflower, instead he spent the next ten years seeing the world in oil tankers and crewing on sailing ships. He was a Hollywood extra for a time. Only then was he ready to attend Harvard, where he studied under the historian Samuel Eliot Morrison. He took up canoeing  | Historic Nantucket

in Boston Harbor, visiting the many islands there. Following graduation he taught at his old high school for several years, combining his love of history and the ocean by taking his students on field trips throughout the harbor. At six feet, and with the voice of an actor, he was a commanding presence at the head of a class or the bow of a ship. World War II saw him in the Air Corps; he was wounded in North Africa.

He began writing historical articles and columns for the Rockland (Maine) CourierGazette, the Brockton (Mass.) Enterprise, and the Quincy Patriot Ledger. His first book, The Islands of Boston Harbor, was published in 1935. By 1958 he had written some thirty books and traveled 100,000 miles—half of them flying and half by canoe—to pursue his research.

They were stories of ships and shipwrecks, lighthouses and storms, pirates and treasure, mysteries and tales. He liked alliterative titles— Mutiny and Murder, Sea and Shore, True Tales, Great Gales, Dire Disasters, Fantastic Folklore and Fact—and often used the romantic terms tales, legends, and mystery in them.

He married Anna-Myrtle Haegg in 1932, and their daughter Dorothy, called Dolly, was born in 1951.

In the 1960s he began leading history tours of the Harbor islands.

My father was a Snow fan. He read to us from Piracy,Mutiny,and Murder when it came out in 1959, and when he heard of a Snow tour to Georges Island in 1964, he signed us up. I believe we boarded near Rowe’s Wharf (appropriately enough) and soon we were on the water. I remember Mr. Snow, a big man with a shock of white hair and a booming voice, pointing out landmarks from where he stood near the bowsprit. We approached Georges Island, where he had canoed as a boy, and he told us the stories of Fort Warren.

Mr. Snow led us into the depths of the fort and into the dark dungeons. When we reached the cell of the Lady in Black, he instructed us to

enter the room and turn our faces to the wall.

When we had all lined up, he completed the tale, saying, “and it is said that she still haunts the depths of Fort Warren. . . . Now please turn around!”

As we turned to face the center of the room, we saw a pine box burst open and a flash of black clothing, and heard a woman shriek. The Lady in Black reached out to us, and some children fled as the adults chuckled nervously. Mr. Snow seemed to enjoy it as much as anyone.

Dolly Snow sometimes played the Lady in Black. She also flew with him every Christmas Eve, she said, “from birth to marriage,” over the islands and along the New England coast.

When Logan Airport authorities wanted to extend a runway and demolish Georges Island, Snow led the fight to preserve it. He succeeded, and it is now part of the state’s park system.

Snow did much of his research at the Boston Public Library, and he was a great reader, but his efforts also extended to the field. He personally excavated actual buried treasure, at Strong’s Island near Chatham and at Isle Haute, Maine. And he was a serious collector.

In addition to muskets, pistols, and old maps, he owned skulls that were reputed to be those of Captains Kidd and Blackbeard.

He loved islands, Nantucket chief among them, and often wrote about it and its history and characters. He devoted a chapter to “Nantucket Women” in Women of the Sea (1962). In Secrets of the North Atlantic Islands, he defined island as “a body of land surrounded by adventure.”

Edward Rowe Snow died April 10, 1982. His papers went to Boston University’s Mugar Library, his curios to the Peabody Essex Museum In a recent interview, Dolly, now a tennis pro and teacher, recalled: He was a great father. He was always saying, ‘Let’s go! Lets have an adventure!’ He was such a pied piper,” she recalled. “I’m struck by the impression he had on people. How he shared his love of history, of shipwrecks, love of the islands. I remember once when a freighter ran aground near Scituate, how interested he was, how he spent so much time there, talking to the crew, asking questions. . . .”

Mr. Snow had two main goals in his life, according to Dolly, “He wanted to live to eighty and write a hundred books. He almost made it.

He died four months and four books short of his goal. He loved what he did.” joseph p. theroux, is the the principal of Keaukaha Elementary School in Hilo, Hawaii, but also calls Apia, Samoa, and West Dennis, Massachusetts, home. He has previously contributed articles on William Kerry and Austin Strong to Historic Nantucket.

B Y T H E WAY

Pa t B u t l e r

Academy Hill A historical tour of Nantucket’s hilltop neighborhood

T

he Academy Hill neighborhood has always been defined by its grand site overlooking Nantucket Harbor. Originally named Beacon Hill because a signal station was positioned there to guide ships in Nantucket Sound, the area includes Gay, Quince, and Westminster Streets, Church and Academy Lanes, and the north side of Centre Street to Lily Street. The 360-degree view gained from climbing the ninety steps in the tower of the First Congregational Church, also known as North Church, or North Tower, provides a stunning bird’s-eye perspective of the neighborhood’s houses, gardens, and ways—and beyond to the Lily Pond and harbor.

With the exception of the short-lived and relatively inoffensive Nantucket Silk Factory, built in 1835 at the corner of Gay and Westminster Streets, this elevated part of town did not suffer from the fumes and noise associated with the tryworks and candle factories that sullied most residential town areas in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Shipshape mid-eighteenth- and early-nineteenthcentury structures edging the narrow ways reflect the growth of Nantucket’s fortunes and the seafaring families that settled on and near Academy Hill. The unassuming house at Two Quince Street is considered the earliest in the neighborhood, built ca. 1740 by carpenter Theophilus Pinkham for his family. Next to the massive center chimney in the 1756 Joshua Coffin house at 52 Centre Street, a hidden stairway was constructed to conceal valuables from thieves. Most of the residences on Academy Hill were built after 1750, and many were homes of shipmasters. The 1760 Gideon Worth house, set back from the corner of Church and Academy Lanes, with massive chimney, roofwalk, and enclosed entry, represents the solid timber-framed structure that is known as the typical Nantucket Quaker house. Across the narrow lane, charming, smaller-scaled early-nineteenth- century

houses set directly on Academy Avenue are distinguished by handsome Greek Revival and Federal door and window details.

In 1800, the Academy, a private school, was built on the southwest corner of Westminster and Quince Streets.

Island historian Obed Macy noted in his diary at the time that in addition to a new schoolhouse on Academy Hill, a thousandpound bell was put up in the ninety-foot-tall tower of the nearby Presbyterian Meeting House. Now known as Old North Vestry, the timber-framed building is the island’s oldest religious structure, having been built around 1725 farther west near No-Bottom Pond. It was moved to the high point of Beacon Hill in 1765, and remained there until 1834 when the picturesque Carpenter Gothic First Congregational Church was constructed. The unadorned historic meeting house was placed behind the new church and has been used for winter services from that time. Across the street is the Captain Reuben Bunker House, built soon after the American Revolution, with finely proportioned and

above left: The old Academy Hill School, ca.

1890. SC326 above: View of Academy Hill across the Lily Pond from North Liberty Street, ca. 1900. A54-31

detailed portico. Nantucket’s first high school, built in 1856, replaced the Academy until 1929, when the three-storey brick Academy Hill School was constructed on Westminster Street. The building is now the Academy Hill Apartments for senior citizens.

Originally called Breakneck Alley because it was steep and stony, the improved Sunset Pass, one of several historic footpaths remaining in town, is an extension of the sidewalk south of the Academy Hill Apartments building and provides a shortcut to Lily Street and the lovely walking paths in the Lily Pond area, a public park protected by the Nantucket Land Bank. pat butler is an architectural historian and a freelance writer and researcher on Nantucket.

Winter 2008

|



News Notes & Highlights Ric Burns speaks at Thursday Lecture Series Award-winning filmmaker talks about his latest work On Thursday, August 30, Gosnell Hall was filled to capacity as Ric Burns, a nationally acclaimed filmmaker, introduced his latest work-in-progress, a documentary on nineteenth-century whaling in America. Well known for his 1990 collaboration with his brother Ken on the PBS series, The Civil War, Burns has been writing, directing, and producing historical documentaries for nearly twenty years, and is the winner of many prestigious national awards.

Inspired by his two-hour documentary on the history of the American whaling industry, the NHA has engaged Burns to produce a twenty-minute orientation film to be shown in the Whaling Museum. The film will be a “must-see” for visitors and residents alike. In the distinctive Burns style, it will capture the historical significance of this “elbow of sand,” as Herman Melville called it, and tell the tale of the island’s place in national and world history. If you would like to help us make this happen, please send contributions to the Nantucket Historical Association, P.O. Box 1016, Nantucket, Massachusetts 02554, or call (508) 228–1894 for additional information.

Hearthside History Candles flickering in the windows and fireplace, silent figures occupying straightback chairs, the 1800 House at dusk—the first Hearthside History. This evening of storytelling and first-person interpretive performances featured NHA senior interpreter Erik Ingmundson and longtime NHA interpreter Doug Burch. Ingmundson portrayed Nantucket Civil War veteran James Henry Barrett, an island native who fought at the Battle of Fredericksburg and was stationed in Washington at the time of President Lincoln’s assassination. Burch’s witty and engaging tales of old-time Nantucket whalers were very well received by the guests gathered to enjoy this new NHA program.

Cary Hazlegrove and Friends: Seasons on Nantucket Glorious sunsets, peaceful moors, a silent snowfall, musical interludes by well-known island musicians, photos on the big screen—that was the scene on Friday, September 21, in the Whaling Museum. Seasons on Nantucket, by well-known island photographer and author Cary Hazlegrove, featured her images accompanied by the sounds of island musicians Andy Bullington, Mollie Glazer, Mary Keller, Michael Kopko, Dave Provost, and Chris Westerlund. It was a delightful and magical evening, enjoyed by the standing-room-only audience.

Cary Hazlegrove

 | Historic Nantucket

NHA Explorations!

Visits Block Island and the Azores Two ever-popular destination trips hosted by the NHA met with resounding success this autumn. In early October, sixteen travelers—organized by long-time NHA supporters Bob and Nina Hellman—toured the volcanic islands, numerous whaling sites, museums and whale-oil factories that make up the Azores. Led by Sheila Egan O’Brien, all agreed it was an enjoyable and educational trip.

On October 16, an overnight trip to Block Island sold out within days, and participants enjoyed a private tour of island landmarks, a visit to the local museum, and “Block Island Year-Round,” a presentation by the director of the Ocean View Foundation, followed by a dinner at the Hotel Manisses. On December 28, NHA Explorations heads to Portugal to spend New Year’s Eve in Madeira.Call (508) 228–1894 x 0,for more information!

Seventh Annual Harvest Fair Unseasonably warm weather brought a large number of people to the Old Mill to enjoy the NHA’s Annual Harvest Fair on Saturday, October 13. NHA members, families, and friends were invited to take part in the fun of a traditional autumn fair with a focus on old-time fall activities, traditional crafts, and lively Native American and colonial games.

The mill was open for tours, and visitors had the opportunity to decorate pumpkins, bob for apples, and make beeswax candles, traditional cornhusk dolls, and butter.

What’s in Your Attic?

Nantucket’s treasures lie in her attics, and the contents of the island’s attics and basements have formed the basis of the Nantucket Historical Association collections from the beginning. The NHA’s first curator, Susan E. Brock, reported in 1894: “We had about one hundred and fifty articles in our possession; now over four hundred, or to be more exact, we have received two hundred and ninety–five donations.” If you have interesting Nantucketrelated material lurking in the corners of your attic or basement, and are preserving these articles for posterity, please contact NHA curator Ben Simons at bsimons@nha.org or (508) 2281894 x303.

Eric Jay Dolin Lecture Author speaks about his recent book At the end of September, the NHA hosted author Eric Jay Dolin, who presented his recent book Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America to a packed audience.

Dolin was the NHA’s 2005 E. Geoffrey and Elizabeth Verney Fellowship recipient. Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America was awarded the 23rd annual L. Byrne Waterman Award by the New Bedford Whaling Museum for outstanding contributions to whaling research and history.

Dolin recalled his time at the NHA: “During my three weeks as an NHA Verney Fellow, I found some fascinating resources that added a great deal to the chapters involving Nantucket.” Island author Nat Philbrick believes Dolin’s book is “the best history of American whaling to come along in a generation.” The book was chosen by the Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times as one of the most important nonfiction books of the year.

Winter 2008

|



nha Calendar Whaling Museum Hours Open January 4 to April 20, Fri. – Sun., 11 A.M.– 4 P.M.

New for 2008: The Museum will be open on two Monday holidays: Martin Luther King Day, January 21, 10 A.M.– 4 P.M. Presidents Day, February 18, 10 A.M. – 4 P.M.

Exhibitions Moby Dick: Intaglio Prints by Janet Ball McGlinn Whitney Gallery at the Research Library January 18–June 20, 2008 Experience the greatest whaling tale ever told in a series of remarkable intaglio prints by Nantucket artist Janet Ball McGlinn at the Whitney Gallery.

In Search of Giant Squid!

A Traveling Exhibition of the Smithsonian Institution Peter Foulger Gallery in the Whaling Museum February 1– April 20, 2008 In February 2008, the NHA will host its first traveling exhibition: In Search of Giant Squid. The giant squid, known as Architeuthis, is one of the ocean’s most elusive, mysterious, and mythologized creatures. It grew to fame as the sperm whale’s greatest rival—and its favorite meal. The exhibition will feature giant squid specimens, including Architeutis’ notorious beak (mandible), tentacles with suction cups, a Squid-oMeter, and other interactives. The NHA will present a Giant Squid Festival on Saturday March 8, 2008, featuring the world’s most renowned squid expert, Dr. Clyde Roper, as well as multiple family and children’s activities. The exhibition is supported in part by the Egan Maritime Foundation and Novation Media. Opening reception and Giant Squid Festival free for NHA and Egan Maritime Foundation members.

Programs January Hearthside History Saturday, January 19 7:00–8:00 P.M. 1800 House, 4 Mill Street Experience the drama of Nantucket’s past while gathered around the hearth at the 1800 House. Meet Essex cabin boy Thomas Nickerson, portrayed by senior interpreter Erik Ingmundson, and enjoy a round of history charades. Limited seating available. Advance reservations recommended. Call (508) 228-1894 x 0. Free for NHA members

 | Historic Nantucket

One Book One Island 2008 One Book One Island (OBOI), a collaborative project of Nantucket community partners and sponsors (including the Nantucket Historical Association), encourages the entire island to read, discuss, and reflect on the same book via an array of educational programs at various venues. The selections for 2008 include The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway, and the children’s book, Island Boy, by Maine author and illustrator Barbara Cooney. The program’s major offerings will occur in January/February 2008. Please check the website in early January to learn more about this special program series. www.nantucketatheneum.org/oboihome.html

Women of Nantucket Festival Saturday, March 29 Noon–4:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street Celebrate the contribution of women past and present to Nantucket’s culture. Learn about the many “Marys,” listen to the stories of other notable Nantucketers—such as Eliza Ann Chase McCleave, Susan Veeder, and Keziah Folger Coffin—and meet contemporary women of Nantucket.

Festive flairs include art, music, history, and island culture.

Free for NHA members

February

April

Smithsonian: In Search of Giant Squid!

Friday, February 1 Opening reception for traveling exhibition of the Smithsonian Institution, with support from the Egan Maritime Foundation and Novation Media, in the Peter Foulger Gallery, with screening of the 1954 classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Opening reception free for NHA and Egan Maritime Foundation members.

Poetic Nantucket Narratives Saturday, April 12 1:00–3:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street In honor of National Poetry and National Jazz Month, Nantucket poets and musicians present an assortment of verse and music in Gosnell Hall. Free for NHA members

Acquisitions Night Wednesday, February 6 7:00–8:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street Join Robyn and John Davis Curator of Collections Ben Simons, Librarian and Archivist Georgen Charnes, and Collections Manager Tony Dumitru as they present highlights of recent additions to the NHA collections. Free for NHA members.

Acquisitions Night Wednesday, April 16 7:00–8:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street Join Robyn and John Davis Curator of Collections Ben Simons, Librarian and Archivist Georgen Charnes, and Collections Manager Tony Dumitru, as they present highlights of recent additions to the NHA collections. Free for NHA members

Valentine Dance Friday, February 8 7:00–10:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street Enjoy classic big-band tunes and dance the night away at the Whaling Museum! Live entertainment by the Nantucket Community School of Music Jazz Band. Cost TBA Explorations: One-Day Journey Tuesday, February 19 NHA Explorations travels to Boston. Please call Julie Kever at (508) 228-1894 x 0 for details and cost.

March Giant Squid Festival Saturday, March 8 Noon–4:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street The NHA, with support from the Egan Maritime Foundation and Novation Medis, invites visitors of all ages to join in the search for Architeuthis, known as the giant squid. Dive into the depths In Search of Giant Squid, meet squid expert Dr. Clyde Roper, learn about the creatures who eat squid, enjoy squid stories, and create your own mysteries of the deep.

Free for NHA and Egan Maritime Foundation members.

For the Family Passport to History: Vacation Destination Days NES vacation: February 25–February 29 1:00–4:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street Experience the excitement of adventure, exploration, and discovery without leaving the island! Hands-on activities, demonstrations, and festive flairs will celebrate whaling, world cultures, and Nantucket. Program is free for Nantucket elementary-age children (K–5) and their families. Groups of children also welcome, but must be accompanied by adult companions.

Monday: Souvenirs of the World Tuesday: Islands of the World Wednesday: South Pacific Explorers Thursday: Far East Traders Friday: Under the Sea Passport to History: Vacation Destination Days NES vacation: April 21–April 25 1:00–4:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street Be a tourist in your own town! Come to the Whaling Museum for a special week created for Nantucket island families to delve into the rich history and resources on the

January–April 2008 island. Program is free for free to Nantucket elementary-age children (K–5) and their families. Groups of children also welcome, but must be accompanied by adult companions.

Monday: Peopling the Island Tuesday: Living in the Light: Island Ideologies Wednesday: Whaling Thursday: Making a Living Friday: Art Colony/Resort

Food for Thought Series Free, bring your lunch.

January The Unitarian Church at 200 Years Food for Thought Lecture Series Thursday, January 10 Noon–1:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street Join minister emeritus Ted Anderson as he speaks about the history of the Unitarian Church on Nantucket as it prepares to celebrate its 200th anniversary.

The Mill Hill Cemetery Thursday, January 17 Noon–1:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street Come hear Nantucketers Fran Karttunen and Barbara White tell the history of the Mill Hill cemetery and draw from the work White did in 2003 with Cyrus Peirce Middle School students to map the cemetery and decipher the inscriptions on the stones. ’Sconset Spirit Thursday, January 24 Noon–1:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street In anticipation of the upcoming exhibition ’Sconset: 02564, catch the “’Sconset spirit” by hearing Joan Craig and other ’Sconset residents reflect on the special places, people, memorable moments, and life in the village named for the “place of whale bones.”

Walking Nantucket Thursday, January 31 Noon–1:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street Island resident Allen Reinhard shares the fruits of one of his passions—walking. Few people have walked more of the island’s trails than Allen. He will discuss some of his favorite walks, what he has found along the way, and promote his fascinating concept of developing an islandwide network of walking trails.

February Melville’s Benito Cereno:

The Unspeakable Story of Slavery

Thursday, February 7 Noon–1:00 P.M. In the explosive atmosphere of the year 1855, as America was drifting ever closer to civil war, Herman Melville wrote and published his most unsparing critique of slavery in the guise of a fictional short story. Retired professor of American literature Chris Lohmann discusses how Melville’s use of subtle and surprising strategies of narration forces his unsuspecting and complacent readers to confront their own complicity in the racism and injustice of slavery.

The African Meetinghouse on Nantucket Thursday, February 14 Noon–1:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street Watch the video Rock of Changes featuring Nantucket’s African Meetinghouse and then join a group discussion highlighting this significant historical structure and its meaning to the community.

Quakerism on Nantucket Thursday, February 21 Noon–1:00 P.M. Renowned Nantucket author Nathaniel Philbrick examines the ideology of the religion that was the driving force of Nantucket community and culture in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The History and Development of the Whaling Harpoon Thursday, February 28 Noon–1:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street Interpreter and whalecraft expert Robert Hellman will present an illustrated lecture detailing the history and development of the whaling harpoon in the “Western” world—with emphasis, wherever possible, on Nantucket and its whalecraft artisans.

March Incidents of a Whaling Voyage: Highlights of Logs in the NHA Collection Thursday, March 6 Noon–1:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street Ben Simons, Robyn and John Davis Curator of Collections, highlights some of the outstanding whaling logs and journals in the Nantucket Historical Association’s collections. A true treasure trove of life at sea, whaling logs and journals range from the mundane to the whimsical, revealing much about the travels and trials of the Nantucket whalemen at sea.

The Art of Scrimshaw Thursday, March 13 Noon–1:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street Island artist and ivory carver Nancy Chase will share her experience and knowledge of the amazing creativity, detail, and artistry found in scrimshaw. In addition, Tony Dumitru, Collections Manager of the Nantucket Historical Association, will showcase examples from the NHA’s collection while providing historical perspective.

New Zealand and Nantucket Thursday, March 20 Noon–1:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street The relationship between Nantucket and New Zealand has been strong due largely to Nantucket whalers. NHA Executive Director Bill Tramposch will explore some of those connections, focusing on the special places in the New Zealand landscape that so clearly illustrate the historical relationships.

Sea Captains’ Houses and Rose-Covered Cottages: The Architectural Heritage of Nantucket Island Thursday, March 27 Noon–1:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street Four friends—writers Margaret Moore Booker, Rose Gonnella, and Pat Butler, along with photographer Jordi Cabré—first met in 1998 to plan an educational book that would celebrate Nantucket’s historic architecture. In 2003 Rizzoli International Publications published Sea Captains’ Houses and RoseCovered Cottages: The Architectural Heritage of Nantucket Island, which was named a New York Times notable book of the year in architecture. The illustrated lecture

by Pat Butler will provide an overview of Nantucket’s architectural heritage, from the 17th century through the 21st century.

April Inch by Inch, Row by Row: Historic Gardens and Landscape Preservation Thursday, April 3 Noon–1:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street NHA Maintenance and Grounds Assistant Kathrina Pearl will provide an overview of landscape preservation and discuss the landscapes and gardens at NHA sites. Special emphasis will be given to the recently completed kitchen garden and orchard at the Oldest House and a discussion of further landscape preservation work at Greater Light.

Tuckernuck Gam Thursday, April 10 (Last in the series until the fall.)

Noon-1:00 P.M. Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street Hear Ruthie Grieder, Susie Robinson, and other Tuckernuckers share their stories and experiences of life on Tuckernuck Island.

Winter 2008

|



THE HERITAGE SOCIETY Planning today for the NHA’s Tomorrow

T

he Nantucket Historical Association invites you to join forward-looking donors who have included the Association in their wills. Your gift will help build financial stability to continue the NHA’s mission for future generations.

For further information, consult your financial professional or contact Judith Wodynski.

508 228 1894, ext. 111 email: jwodynski@nha.org

Historic Nantucket P.O. Box 1016, Nantucket, MA 02554-1016

www.nha.org

Periodical POSTAGE PAID at Nantucket, MA and Additional Entry Offices