Proceedings of the Nantucket Historical Association: Fiftieth and Fifty-first Annual Meetings

PROCEEDINGS

of the NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

Fiftieth and Fifty-First Annual Meetings

I944--I945 "Nantucket Folgers in Ohio"—Folger "Three Men and Three Centuries"—Crosby "The Dunkirk Colony of 1797"—Cadbury "The Nantucket Whalemen and Their South Sea Island Discoveries"—Stackpole.

PROCEEDINGS

of the NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

Fiftieth and Fifty-First Annual Meetings 1944—1945

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THE INQUIRER AND MIRROR PRESS NANTUCKET ISLAND, MASS.

TIMOTHY FOLGER OF NANTUCKET. Painted by Copley—in the Metropolitan Museum of New York.

OFFICERS 1944--1945--1946.

PRESIDENT

Edouard A. Stackpole.

VICE PRESIDENTS

Bassett Jones Charles P. Kimball Col. Louis J. Praeger

Everett U. Crosby William E. Gardner Mrs. Walton H. Adams SECRETARY

Mrs. Oscar B. Eger TREASURER

Mrs. Elizabeth B. Worth AUDITORS

Col. Louis J. Praeger

Miss Cora Stevens COUNCILLORS

Miss Grace Brown Gardner David Wood Mrs. William H. Barney William C. Brock Edward P. Tiee John J. Gardner, 2d Lawrence B. Cummings Mrs. Elkins Hutaff

Term Term Term Term Term Term Term Term

Expires Expires Expires Expires Expires Expires Expires Expires

1946.

1946.

1947.

1947.

1948.

1948.

1949.

1949.

LIFE COUNCILLORS

Miss Annie Alden Folger Harry B. Turner

Edward F. Sanderson

Membership If you are not already a member of the Nantucket Historical Association you are hereby cordially invited to become one.

Our membership classes are: Life Membership, $15.00; Sustain­ ing Membership, $5.00; Annual Membership, $1.00; Junior Member­ ship, 50 cents annually. An initiation fee of $1 is charged for each new active membership.

The Nantucket Historical Association is an organization devoted to the preservation of the Island's famed past. Because of Nantucket's importance in the American whaling industry, its history has become a vital chapter in the larger maritime history of the United States.

There is no place in America quite like Nantucket, the birthplace of American deep-sea whaling. Your support of our Association enables us to preserve the Whaling tradition. It allows us to carry on the work of maintaining our exhibits—the Whaling Museum, the Fair Street Museum and Friends Meeting House, The Old Mill, built in 1746, and the Oldest House, built in 1686.

Outstanding Events in the Half-Century May 9, 1894—The Association was organized in "the west parlor of the westernmost of the three brick (Starbuck) houses" on Main street, the home of Mrs. Elizabeth Starbuck.

The first officers were: Vice Presidents, Rev. Myron S. Dudley and Henry S. Wyer. Recording Secretary, Miss Mary E. Starbuck. Corresponding Secretary, Miss Susan A. Starbuck.

Treasurer, Alexander H. Seaverns. Councillors, Mrs. Maria T. Swain, Mrs. Elizabeth C. Bennett, Mrs. Judith J. Fish, Miss Susan E. Brock, Rev. Edward C. Gardner, Wendell Macy, and Arthur H. Gardner.

July 9, 1894—Incorporated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The same year the Association bought the Friends' Meeting House on Fair Street for $1,000. Here were assembled ex­ hibits and here were held the meetings of the Association and the Council.

August 4, 1897—At a public auction, with a record attendance, held on Main street, the Old Mill was sold to the Association for $885. As the Association did not have that amount, Miss Caroline L. French, by a gift of $135, made up the full amount.

July 21, 1904—The corner stone of a new "fire-proof building" was laid adjacent to the Friends' Meeting House.

October 31, 1923—The Oldest House was bought for $3500. Winthrop Coffin, of Boston, a descendant of Tristram Coffin, generously financed the restoration, which was done under the super­ vision of Alfred F. Shurrocks and William Sumner Appleton.

July 24, 1930—The Whaling Museum was formally opened in the "Old Candle House" on Broad street. This brick building had been purchased by Edward F. Sanderson, and with the adjacent land cost $35,000. With the purchase, Mr. Sanderson made generous gifts to the Association of his unexcelled collection of whaling implements, books, papers, etc., and also waived payment of taxes and interest.

The Association is indebted to the late William F. Macy, president (1924-1935) for his active work over a period of years in raising the money to make this purchase possible.

July 25, 1944—The Association observed its fiftieth anniversary with appropriate exercises held at the Friends Meeting House.

In fifty years, the Association has collected five buildings valued at over $50,000.00, and thousands of exhibits impossible to value but certainly worth upwards of another $50,000.

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ANNUAL MEETING—1944.

The Nantucket Historical Association, as an incorporated organ­ ization, became fifty years old this month—July, 1944. On Tuesday, July 25, at 3:00) o'clock in the afternoon, the Friends Meeting House on Fair street was the scene of the annual meeting, with a gathering of members and friends on hand that filled the building to capacity.

Due to the fact that this was a special occasion—the observance of the "golden anniversary,"—the customary reports of the officers were not given, to allow more time for the speakers. The reports, however, are printed in full in the regular issue of the "Proceedings."

For the nominating committee, Frederick P. Hill read the list of officers to be elected for the coming year—1944—1945. On vote of the meeting, the Secretary was instructed to cast one ballot and tne officers were elected as follows: President—Edouard A. Stackpole.

Vice Presidents—Everett U. Crosby, Bassett Jones, Charles P. Kimball, Col. Louis J. Praeger, Mrs. Walton H. Adams, Harry B. Turner.

Secretary—Mrs. Oscar B. Eger.

Treasurer—Mrs. Elizabeth B. Worth.

Auditors—Miss Cora Stevens, Col. Louis J. Praeger.

Councillors (for 4 years)—Edward P. Tice, John J. Gardner, 2d.

The meeting voted to accept the report of the committee on re­ vision of the by-laws. The new By-Laws of the Association, as printed in the 1943 Proceedings, were voted to be adopted. Two amendments were subsequently adopted—an initiation fee of $1.00 for all new active members, and the shortening of the period of grace in lieu of pay­ ment of dues from a year to four months, dues being payable on the 15th of July of each year. **

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The presiding officer, President Edouard A. Stackpole, gave a short account of the formation of the Association in 1893-94. He told of the interesting prologue when Mrs. Maria Tallant Owen, intrigued by the fact that the wall-paper in her grandfather's home on Union street—the William Coffin house—was even more interesting than that displayed at an exhibition at the Old South Meeting House in Boston, broached the idea of a Nantucket historical society to the Board of Trustees at the Nantucket Atheneum. The idea was not taken kindly, and so Mrs. Owen enlisted the aid of Rev. Myron S. Dudley, then pastor of the North Congregational Church. He became 8

so much interested that he literally carried on a campaign for the organization, which later developed at the home of Mrs. Elizabeth Starbuck, at the westernmost of the three brick Starbuck houses on Main street.

The names of those first organizers were read—Dr. Joseph Sid­ ney Mitchell, the first president; Rev. Myron S. Dudley, and Henry S. Wyer, Vice Presidents; Corresponding Secretary Miss Susan A. Starbuck; Recording Secretary Miss Mary E. Starbuck; Councillors Mrs. Maria T. Swain, Mrs. Elizabeth C. Bennett, Mrs. Judith J. Fish, Miss Susan E. Brock, Rev. Edward C. Gardner, Wendell Macy, and Arthur Gardner. Treasurer Alexander H. Seaverns.

The Association was organized May 9, 1894, and incorporated July 9, 1894. During the course of the next year it enrolled a total of 1179 mmbers. The first annual meeting was held on June 17, 1895, at the Friends Meeting House. Rev. Myron S. Dudley presided.

The heritage in inspiration and deed bequeathed us by these early organizers and supporters, and by the executives and historians who followed them, notably Alexander Starbuck, Henry B. Worth, Dr. Benjamin Sharp, and William F. Macy, are enduring factors in the purposes of this Association, present and future. **

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The two speakers for the occasion of this 50th anniversary were Austin Strong and Everett U. Crosby—both needing little introduction as their interest in Nantucket history has been manifest in many ways.

Austin Strong read his story "The Last Harponer," from the pages in the Atlantic Monthly. A story of the last Nantucket "boatsteerer" or harpooner, the late George A. Grant, it is not only an excellent study of its grand subject—the inimitable Cap'n Grant, first custodian of the Whaling Museum—but an outstanding exposition of the author's literary accomplishments.

Introduced as "an interpreter for a vanished nimrod," the play­ wright and author, Mr. Strong, was placed as the leading figure in three scenes; first, as a young boy, seated at the feet of his grand­ father, Robert Louis Stevenson, in a house on the island of Samoa, in the South Seas, while "R. L. S." read to him passages from "The History of Scottish Castles;" second, as a schoolboy, in Wellington, New Zealand, at serious play with a youth who, many years later, was to write to him from a tent before El Alemein in Egypt's deserts —General Sir Bernard Freyberg; and, third, at the Friends' Meeting House in Nantucket, reading the story of Nantucket's last harpooner.

Mr. Strong's story has already become a classic in island his­ torical writings. His audience followed every sentence with rapt •$9]^-

attention, and at the conclusion the applause was a remarkable tribute to Austin Strong and George A. Grant.

The second of the two speakers—Everett U. Crosby—is the author of several books on Nantucket subjects. His "95% Perfect," an important study of the architectural past, present and future of Nantucket town, has recently been issued in a second edition, and his monograph on Eastman Johnson was one of the factors leading to the establishment of the Nantucket Foundation's Kenneth Taylor Galleries.

Mr. Crosby's topic was "Three Men and Three Centuries." He spoke first of Eastman Johnson, a first-rank American painter of the late nineteenth century, who resided in Nantucket in the 1870's and 80's, and who painted a number of island scenes and men. Mr. Crosby described some of the work Johnson did on Nantucket, par­ ticularly his "The Old Stage Coach," a remarkable study of children at play around, in and upon an old abandoned stage coach; "The Nantucket School of Philosophy," a famous interior scene depicting Captain Haggerty's cobbler shop with a number of old sea captain cronies gathered; "A Glass With the Squire," and "Embers,'' with Captain Charles Myrick as the character painted from life, and many others.

The second of Mr. Crosby's subjects was Timothy Folger, of Nantucket's 18th century, who was a wealthy merchant trading with London, and whose portrait, painted by Copley, hangs in the Metro­ politan Museum in New York.

The third figure was Peter Folger, of the 17th century—the grandfather of Benjamin Franklin. In the possession of the Associ­ ation is a manuscript copy of a poem written by Peter Folger, en­ titled, "A Looking Glass For The Times." This copy, obviously very old, interested Mr. Crosby and he set about to determine its approx­ imate age. After enlisting the aid of Victor Paltsits, of New York, one of the authorities on old manuscripts and writing, Mr. Crosby was able to ascertain that this ancient document, although not one in Peter Folger's own hand-writing, is one which was written in the late seventeenth century and is of considerable historic value.

Mr. Crosby was accorded hearty applause upon the ending of his lemarks. The members and friends of the Association appreciate his continued interest in Nantucket's past and in the work of the Association in preserving this past. **

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Among those present at the meeting who were introduced to the gathering were Miss Anne Ring, beloved teacher of many Nantucket boys and girls who are now young men and women; and Mrs. Walter

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Blair (Elizabeth Hollister Frost), author of "This Side of Land," the Nantucket novel with its central theme laid in the Elihu Cole­ man house, now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Blair. She suggested to the meeting that the Association place markers at historic sites, both in the town and around the island. **

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During the year, Miss Grace Brown Gardner, one of our Coun­ cillors, carried on a class in Nantucket history at the Nantucket High School. Miss Gardner not only has done an excellent piece of work but the note-books placed on display, at the office of Congdon & Coleman, on Main street, provide factual evidence that her enthusiasm and knowledge found a welcome reception in the minds of her

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Secretary's Report—1944.

Mr. President, Members and Friend's of the Nantucket Historical Association: Each year, this day brings us together in this historic Friend's Meeting House, so full of memories and pleasant associations. This year we are gathered to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the organization of this Association. It is fitting that, at this time, we give much credit to the far-sighted efforts of the founders of our Association, also to the loyal officers and staunch friends of the past who have served and1 worked during the half century.

Your officers are glad to report to you, who come back each year, and to you who are just beginning to know us and our im­ portant work. The most important work which we are accomplishing is shown in the reports of our Treasurer and the various committee chairmen who have directed the progress of the year's work. Your Sec­ retary has been busy with the correspondence and reports, as well as with the list of members. Our membership at present stands thus at the close of the year June 30, 1944: Life Members Sustaining Members Annual Members Junior Members Total New members since June 30

m 74

672 31

888 21

In connection with the above, it would be a great convenience to your Secretary and Treasurer to be informed promptly of any change in the address of members.

During the past year the Council has held its regular meetings for the consideration of matters relative to our work, but that re­ quires no special mention here. Six Council meetings were held for necessary business on August 16, 1943, October 18, 1943, Dec. 20 1943, May 17, 1944, June 7, 1944 and July 2, 1944. With your per­ mission I will dispense with the summary of details concerning the business of the year.

Recently, notice was given that our Treasurer, Robert D. Congdon, owing to pressure of other duties, felt obliged to tender his resignation, which was accepted with sincere regret at a Council meeting held on June 7, 1944. The Association has lost a faithful and 12}»

efficient worker, and I shall personally miss working with "Bob'' as our duties were closely allied and required us to consult each other continually to keep our flies complete as well as correct.

It has been the custom of the Secretary to mention the names of those who have died during the year, but our membership is now so large and so scattered geographically that it is difficult, if not impossible, to keep a record of all the deaths and make the list complete. It would seem better, therefore, to omit this feature of the report altogether rather than to offer an incomplete list. Many of our members have been called from us this year and deep regret is felt as we realize how much their presence will be missed.

Thus, we reach our 50th birthday. There has been much accom­ plished, but there is much yet to be done. We have lived as an Associ­ ation through years of struggle with financial problems, when we had to ask for much, but we have gone far and must go further if we will keep step with the onward march of history.

Respectfully submitted, CATHERINE RAY EGER, Secretary.

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Treasurer's Report—1944.

RECEIPTS Cash Balance July 1, 1943 General Account—Dues, Sales and Gifts Museum Accounts: Whaling Museum—Admission and Sales Fair Street Museum—Adm. and Sales Oldest House—Adm. and Sales Old Mill—Adm. and Sales

$223.93 414.41 $2158.70 949.20 766.25 771.74 $4645.89

Investments: Life Memberships Income from Investments

$45.00 128.00 $173.00 $5457.23

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EXPENSES General Account: Salaries Printing, General Supplies, Adv., etc.

$300.00 775.24 $1075.24

Museum Accounts: Whaling Museum—Salaries and Maint.

Fair Street—Salaries and Maint.

Oldest House—Salaries and Maint.

Old Mill—Salaries and Maint.

$1574.6 1496.27 579.53 580.49

Investments—Life Membership Acct, N. I. S. Cash on Hand, June 30, 1944

$4230.89 45.00 106.10 $5457.23

ASSETS Land and All Buildings Collections in all Museums Trust Accounts—Nantucket Institution for Savings Bonds and Stocks

$25,000.00 $10,000.00 11,754.34 5,157.50 $51,911.86

Respectfully submitted, ROBERT D. CONGDON, Treasurer.

Audited by: Cora Stevens and Louis J. Praeger.

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Amendments to the New By-Laws.

The Revised Constitution and By-Laws of the Nantucket Histor­ ical Association, as printed in the Proceedings for the year 1943, were adopted at the Annual Meeting on July 25, 1944, with the fol­ lowing amendments unanimously adopted: Article 2, Section 3 to be changed to read as follows: Annual dues shall be payable on the 15th day of July in each year and the bill for such dues shall be sent to each member on or before that date.

Membership shall terminate if the dues are not paid by the first of October following.

A membership thus terminated may on payment of said dues be reinstated by vote of the council.

Article 2, Section 4 was adopted, reading as follows: An initiation fee of $1 shall be paid by active members, which however may be waived by vote of the council.

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Three Men and Three Centuries.

By EVERETT U. CROSBY. It is desired to present for record certain information regarding three men who, however, have no connection with one another and who were at Nantucket approximately one hundred years apart; namely Peter Folger in, let us say, 1675; Timothy Folger 1775, and Eastman Johnson 1875.

In respect to Peter Folger care has been exercised to explain our pen-written copy of the famous "Looking Glass For The Times."

As to Timothy Folger, it is stated who he was, and a reproduction of his portrait by Copley is shown.

Finally, brief mention is made of the forthcoming record of Eastman Johnson's Nantucket paintings.

PETER FOLGER "A Looking Glass for the Times, or The former Spirit of New-England revived in this Generation To which is added, The Reports from the Lords of the Committee of Councils, and the King's Order relating to the People called Quakers in New-England.

By Peter Folger.

Printed in the Year 1763.

This is the title on the only known intact printed copy of this tract, and is in the possession of the John Carter Brown Library, Providence, Rhode Island. There is a very imperfect copy of this 1763 edition with the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass­ achusetts. The Carter Brown copy was re-printed by Sidney S. Ryder, in 1883, as No. 16 of Rhode Island Historical tracts.

Peter Folger was one of the Island's earliest settlers, coming in 1663 from Martha's Vineyard to Nantucket, then called Sherburne, the name not being changed until 1795. He became a foremost citizen, being teacher, surveyor, Indian interpreter, Clerk of the General Court, land commissioner and Baptist preacher.

This tract of 15 pages in doggerel verse criticizes the authorities for their restriction of freedom of religion and speech. It might readily have subjected the author to arrest or persecution, which probably would have been the fate of a publisher, which may explain why it was not printed at the time and probably for many years afterwards, although it was copied in long hand many times con­ temporaneously and in subsequent years.

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Peter Folger was the grandfather of Benjamin Franklin and the latter in his memoirs, now referred to as his Autobiography, refers to Peter, saying "my mother, the second wife, was Abiah Folger, daughter of Peter Folger, one of the first settlers of New England, of whom honorable mention is made by Cotton Mather in his church history of that country as a 'godly, learned Englishman,' if I remember the words rightly. I have heard that he wrote sundry small occasional pieces but only one of them was printed, which I saw not many years since. It was written in 1675 in the homepsun verse of that time and people and addressed to those then concerned in the government there."

Franklin wrote his memoirs at four different times. The original printing of the first part was in French, at Paris, by Busson, in 1791.

On page 11 is stated "il l'ecrivit en 1675."

This was promptly translated into English and printed in London in 1793, 1794 and subsequently. It was badly translated in many particulars. The French word meaning "written'' was trans­ lated "printed" which fault seems to have started the erroneous understanding that there had been an edition printed in the year 1675. Naturally, it was much sought for and has never been dis­ covered, while the original manuscript has been found and is now the property of the Huntington Library, in California. It confirms the statement that the word was "written" and not "printed" or "published."

More recent printings of the autobiography have corrected this error, as see the John Bigelow Works of Franklin published in 1868.

Our Association possesses a handwritten ojopy of this tract, presented to us some fifty years ago with the statement that it was supposed to be the original holograph by Peter Folger, of which, however, the donor was by no means certain. If we possessed the original it was not only of great interest but also valuable.

Therefore, it occurred to me as feasible to establish the fact that it or was not in the hand of Peter Folger. This has been done. By good fortune Peter Folger wrote out and signed a long petition to Governor Andros of the Province of New York, dated March 17, 1676—7, which was also subscribed to by three Nantucket citizens, Richard Gardner, Edward Starbuek and Thomas Coleman.

This original document is in the archives of the State of New York, and there was obtained a photostat copy of it and such a copy was made of our pen-written Historical Association item, and both were submitted to that eminent authority Victor H. Palsits.

The essence of his report to us is quoted as follows: "1st, Peter Folger's education must be considered adequate to enable him to write. 2nd, all the considerations favor the

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petition to Andros to be a Folger holograph. 3rd, the Nantucket pen written verses are not in the handwriting of Peter Folger.

They have nothing in common with Folger's petition to Andros and the dates of both writings are less than a year apart.

However, the Nantucket manuscript is in writing of before the end of the 17th century. It is to be noted that the Nantucket item has printed writing, and that is too illiterate for Folger.

This finding indicates we do not have the original by Peter Folger but do have a contemporaneous copy made some two hundred and fifty years ago.

TIMOTHY FOLGER 1732

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1814

Timothy Folger, a prominent merchant and magistrate of Nan­ tucket before and during the Revolution, was a direct descendant of Peter Folger who moved to Nantucket in 1663. Timothy married Abial Coleman in, 1753. He left the Island in 1793 to settle at Dart­ mouth, Nova Scotia. Later he moved to Milford Haven, Wales, where he held the post of American consul, and he died there in 1814 with­ out having returned to the United States.

His oil portrait, size 49 x 39 1-4, signed on table leg "J. S. Copley, pinx 1764," is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. It was once owned by Charles Allen Munn. This brief description is from bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January, 1925, page 20, from "John Singleton Copley,'' by Parker and Wheeler, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 1938, and from the records of the New England Historical-Genealogical Society.

The Copley portrait was copied in a painting by George Fish—see "The Early Settlers of Nantucket," Lydia Hinchman, Henry Press, 1926, page 114.

EASTMAN JOHNSON AT NANTUCKET. Eastman Johnson is recognized as one of America's foremost portrait and genre painters.

He established a studio and summer cottage home at Nantucket in 1870, and his last Nantucket dated picture was 1887.

He painted many Nantucket people and scenes and it has been thought desirable to establish a record of such. This has been ac­ complished in a monograph which has been filed with this Association, listing about sixty Nantucket items with illustrations of over forty of them.

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Report of the President—1944.

Members and Friends of the Nantucket Historical Association: This is an eventful year in the history of our Association. Not only does it mark the "golden anniversary" of its organization, but it records a half-century of achievement for itself and for the community. It is a time for reflection and re-valuation. What has been accomplished by this society is in a large sense a tribute to the foresight and planning of the founders. What has been the continued success of the groups coming after is a record of devotion to first principles. Our task is as plain as Quaker fact—we must maintain the record established; we must see to it that there is no deviation in the course set on a chart which those early navigators so wisely determined.

A few years ago, the late Miss Mary Starbuck, author of "My House and I," and the first Recording Secretary of this Association, told me a number of interesting facts concerned with the formation of our society. In the year 1893, Mrs. Maria L. Owen, while visiting an historical exhibit in Boston, saw some old wall paper which was causing much comment. She immediately remembered some old wall paper in the home of her late father, William Coffin, on the corner of Union and Coffin streets, in Nantucket, promptly concluding that this was far more interesting than the Boston exhibit.

Mrs. Owen returned with an idea. There were so many unusual things in Nantucket—articles that should be preserved—why not es­ tablish an exhibit? With the help of Miss Gertrude King, she secured photos of the wall paper and presented them at the annual meeting of the Proprietors of the Nantucket Atheneum, using them as an opening argument for the creation of a Nantucket exhibit. But the Atheneum had for years maintained such an exhibit. The idea of a larger and more comprehensive one did not meet with the approval of that meeting.

Miss Starbuck smiled as she recounted the incident. "The pre­ siding officer always sat under a bust of Socrates in that meeting room," she remarked. "But there was a bust of Franklin there, also, and I would like to think he surveyed with disinterested urbanity the group of persons assembled, chiefly composed of his own relatives."

But Mrs. Owen was not discouraged. She had enlisted the aid of Rev. Myron S. Dudley, pastor of the North Congregational Church, and, although a "stranger," Mr. Dudley supplied the spark which led to an informal meeting at the home of Mrs. Elizabeth Starbuck, in the west parlor of the westernmost of the Starbuck brick mansions

on Main street. At this meeting on May 9, 1894, the Nantucket His­ torical Association was organized.

That first group of organizers is an interesting composite of island descent. The roll call, read at a second' meeting on May 16, found present: Mrs. Elizabeth Starbuck. Vice Presidents, Rev. Myron S. Dudley and Henry S. Wyer; Corresponding Secretary, Miss Susan A. Starbuck; Recording Secretary, Miss Mary E. Starbuck; Treasuer, Alexander H. Seaverns; Councillors: Mrs. Maria T. Swain, Mrs. Elizabeth C. Bennett. Mrs. Judith J. Fish, Miss Susan E. Brock, Rev. Edward C. Gardner, Wendell Macy, Arthur H. Gardner.

Mrs. Elizabeth Starbuck refused the presidency in favor of Dr. J. Sidney Mitchell, stating a man should preside at meetings so that "he could wear a white waistcoat." A meeting was held at the Friends Meeting House June 25, 1894, with Dr. Mitchell presiding, and at his suggestion it was voted that the Council be authorized to purchase the building which had been erected in 1838.

Miss Susan E. Brock, who was the Curator for thirty-four years, reported in 1895 that one of the first important acquisitions was the collection of historical notes and manuscript compiled by George Howland Folger. During the next year Henry Barnard Worth pre­ sented his valuable "Quakerism on Nantucket Since 1800," and the long list of historical writings for the Association was launched.

Many factors have contributed to the continued prosperity of the Association. Among these was the legacy from the Susan Wilson Folger estate which made possible the erection of the fire-proof museum building in 1904; the financial sponsorship in the purchase and restoration of the Oldest House, which was the contribution of the late Winthrop Coffin; the gift from Miss Caroline French, which enabled the young Association in acquiring the Old Mill; and the generosity of Edward F. Sanderson in making possible the acquisition of the old candle house for our splendid Whaling Museum.

Down through the years, one by one these founders drifted into the eternal sleep. But the inspiration and accomplishments they be­ queathed are as enduring as the life itself. Men and women like Alexander Starbuck, Henry B. Worth, Miss Susan E. Brock, Mrs. Elizabeth Crosby Bennett, Miss Mary E. Starbuck, William F. Barn­ ard, Arthur H. Gardner, William F. Macy, Rev. Myron S. Dudley, Dr. Joseph Sidney Mitchell, Henry S. Wyer, J. E. C. Farnham, Miss Annie B. Folger, Stanley E. Johnson, Miss Annie W. Bodfish, Miss Helen B. W. Worth, Dr. Benjamin Sharp, to name some of the pioneers, each represents certain contributions to the creation of this Association as it is today.

We can do nothing greater than to emulate them in this work.

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As during previous summers, this Meeting House has been the gathering place for a group of Friends residing on the island in July and August. An average of some thirty people have worshipped here each First Day during a ten-week period. The Association is gratified to be able to offer the use of this building for this purpose. ** ** ** ** As will be noted by a perusal of the Treasurer's Report, the total records at the Museums and buildings reflect the business trend of war-times. There has been no serious damage to the buildings. A number of necessary repairs have been made, however. The Chairmen of the various exhibits are: Everett U. Crosby, Fair Street Museum; William E. Gardner, Whaling Museum; Miss Grace Brown Gardner, Oldest House; Col. Louis J. Praeger, the Old Mill.

Our Custodians are "on the job," as in other years. Mrs. Alma Backus and Mrs. Bessie Winslow are presiding at Fair Street as in other years; Wallace Long, now a fixture at the Whaling Museum, is assisted by Mrs. Royal Appleton in the Library and Miss Van Pelt at the desk; Albert Bloomfield is at the Old Mill for another year; David Wood has taken charge of the Oldest House. We deeply ap­ preciate their interest and work in our behalf. **

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During the year a book was published by Harvard University entitled "The History of Macy's of New York, 1858-1919," written

by Prof. Ralph M. Hower, of the Graduate School of Business Ad­ ministration. The book is of more than ordinary interest to Nantucket because of the fact that Rowland Hussey Macy, the founder of the great store, was a Nantucket man, and his first partner was Margaret Getchell, a Nantucket woman.

The career of Rowland H. Macy is described with accuracy and understanding. Until Prof. Hower began his research, this Nantucket man was an obscure business genius, with a curious sea-captain myth surrounding him like a sheen. He becomes much more interesting as an ex-whaleman, "ex-forty-niner" and ex-business failure in Prof.

Hower's well documented book. Although he covers the story of "Macy's" from its beginnings until 1919, the author emphasizes the retailing side of the picture—and rightly so—for that was the foun­ dation of the store's success. While the personalities of Macy and Miss Getchell (later Mrs. LaForge) influenced the early developement of the store and carried it on, the policies of their successors did little more than maintain a dormant state until Isador and Nathan Straus became partners in the concern in 1888.

In this complete history of one of the world's great department stores, Prof. Hower has accomplished two objectives: to trace the sig­ nificant developments connected with the origin and growth of the ^ 22

store; arid to "show the relation of the firm to its economic and social environment."

There is much that will prove the opinion that R. H. Macy of Nantucket founded the first of the great, modern businesses known as the "department store." That Macy himself was a true islander, with a spirit for enterprise in various fields, is shown by the excellent study of his life which Prof. Hower presents the reader at the outset. ** ** ** ** The Nantucket Historical Association numbers among its ex­ tensive collection numerous historic relics and heirlooms which have been for many years "off-island." In recent years several of these valued relics have returned to Nantucket, through the interest of some descendant, into whose possession it had passed. Outstanding among these, for instance, was the log-book of the Topaz, the ship in which Captain Mayhew Folger discovered the lone survivor of the Bounty mutineers, and the descendants of the others, on Pitcairn Island in 1808, and the rosewood chronometer case presented by the King of Prussia to Captain David Patterson for his heroism in res­ cuing the crew of the bark Elwine Frederick, wrecked on Great Point Rip in April, 1863.

Inscribed gifts made to Captain Lot Phinney, of the steamer Massachusetts, a hundred years ago, have come from Miss Maude Backus, of Newton, Mass., a relative. One item, a beautiful piece of silver, has the following inscription: "Presented to Capt. Lot Phinney of steamer Massachusetts by a party of Ladies and Gentlemen who, on the Fourth of July, and the 2d and 5th of August, 1844, passed so many pleasant hours on board that noble steamer, confident in the skill and delighted with the courtesy and kindness of her Commander."

Captain Lot Phinney took over the command of the Massachusetts on that steamer's maiden voyage to Nantucket on July 4, 1842. The craft was 161 feet long and 24 feet in the beam, with a depth of 8 ft. 4 inches from water line to keel, and was considered the finest steamer on the New England coast at the time.

Captain Phinney was an intrepid commander. During a terrific gale from the northwest on Nov. 27, 1842, the whaleship Joseph Starbuck was wrecked on Nantucket bar, after being caught in a storm while bound across the sound to Edgartown. Some thirty-five persons were on board, including some ladies and gentlemen who were making the cruise to Old Town in farewell to the officers and crew of the whaleship. Realizing only his craft could get close enough to save the imperiled passengers and crew, Captain Phinney took the steamer around Brant Point and out to the scene of the wreck. By skillful 4 23fc

handling, the Massachusetts made her way through the gale and mountainous seas to get under the lee of the wreck, where a warp was made fast. Volunteers lowered a whaleboat and the thirty-five persons, who had given themselves up for lost, were transferred in safety to the steamer. Captain Phinney guided the Massachusetts back to the wharf to receive the praise he so richly deserved.

On another occasion, Capt. Phinney took his steamer out around the island to help pull to safety the ship Louis Philippe, stranded off Tom Nevers head in 1847. The Massachusetts continued to ply these waters until 1855, when she went to another route. During the Civil War she was used around Fortress Monroe under the name of the John W. Pentz. She ended her days under her original name in the waters of Chesapeake Bay. Another family heirloom to return to Nantucket is the gift of Andrew A. Butts, of South Dartmouth, Mass. It is a framed Quaker certificate, recording the marriage of Henry Burdick and Lydia Easton, which took place at a monthly meeting of the Society of Friends on July 7, 1816. The document is signed by forty-four Friends, including Isaac Austin, Tristram Folger, James Barker, Deborah Hussey, Dorcas Gardner, George Easton, Sarah M. Coffin, Smith Upton, Behiah Russell, Jonathan Swain, and other island family representatives, whose descendants are still living on the island as well as being scattered all over the world.

The Nantucket Historical Association is always pleased to accept such Nantucket family treasures. They are carefully placed in collections to be preserved for generations to come.

Respectfully submitted, EDOUARD A. STACKPOLE.

4

H 24 ]§»

The Nantucket Folgers in Ohio.

By HERBERT W. FOLGER. This history of the Folger family has been recorded of recent years in papers well presented before the Historical Society, and published in its "Annual Proceedings." The Nantucket branch of the Folgers came to the Nantucket Bay Colony in the year 1635, sailing from the port of Ipswich, in Suffolk County, England, on the ship Abigail. Their home was in England, in the County of Norfolk, where John Folger (or Foulger) was born in the little market town of Diss, on the Wareny river, about the year 1587. He was therefore a lad of 16 in 1603, the year of the death of "good Queen Bess."

The reason for leaving England for the hardships of pioneer life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony has not been recorded, although I have thought that, as coming events cast their shadows before, the expectation of the conflict between the people, represented by Oliver Cromwell, and the crowned head of the realm, Charles Stuart, and his Cavaliers, had something to do toward hastening their departure for the new world.

The presence of Hugh Peters and his family, coming to reside in the Colony, with his wife and two daughters, and his later return to England to become one the the Regicide Judges to sentence Charles to the block, and his close friendship with Cromwell, all seem to con­ firm this opinion.

Alexander Starbuck, in his "History of Nantucket," says that John Folger probably came a widower with a son of about 17 years of age, named Peter. Miss Levy, in her thesis on Peter Folger, (a copy of which is in the N an tucket library), establishes the fact that two daughters also accompanied John Folger on this voyage—and that their mother was living and with them, surviving her husband (who died on Martha's Vineyard in 1660) by two or three years, and was there buried, according to the Vineyard records. Evidence of these daughters of John Folger residing on the Vineyard is established by their signatures as witnesses to deeds recorded on that island. Miss Levy has given references to volume and page in such records in the Court at Dukes County.

In England, John Folger had married (as a young man) the daughter of a prosperous yeoman, owning land and also renting farms—a country gentleman, who lived in a "Hall, not a Cottage," and who died in Suffolk in the year 1609.

The history of the family is therefore through descent from John Folger and his wife Meriba, continued through the marriage of his son 4. 25)^

Peter to Mary Morrill, a young girl who accompanied them from England, indentured for her passage as a servant to Hugh Peters.

Peter Folger waited long for Mary, as Isaac waited for Rachel, feeling she was the one woman he desired to wife and well worth the nine long years of waiting. Nine children were born to this marriage—seven daughters and two sons—and all grew to matuiity and were married.

My own descent is through John—the seventh child. Mrs. Florence Bennett Anderson, in her delightful story, "A Grandfather For Benjamin Franklin," describes the child-life of John and his young sisters, Experience and Abiah, with their childhood friend, Mary Barnard. John, from earliest youth, must have thought of Mary as his sweetheart. Who does not look back to such years, the first tender thought of some one to love. It grows in the heart of every boy. It strengthened in John as the years passed, and blossomed into mar­ riage with Mary as they reached maturity.

My descent from John and Mary is through their eldest son, Jethro, and his wife, Mary Starbuck, daughter of Nathaniel Starbuck Jr., and Dinah Coffin. Nathaniel Starbuck, Sr., married Mary Coffin, daughter of Tristram, often referred to as "the great woman" of early Nantucket, whose influence was paramount in launching the Society of Friends on the island.

Three sons were born to Jethro and Mary (Barnard) Folger • John, Tristram 2d, and Jethro 2d, the latter being my great-great­ grandfather. Elihu Folger, the only son of Jethro 2d's marriage, my great-grandfather, with his wife, Elizabeth Howland, and four sons, Seth, John, Jethro and Alexander, left Nantucket at the outbreak of the war of 1812. I was never told just how the long trek began, but once on the "Continent" they were transported by covered wagon across the mountains of Pennsylvania to the head-waters of the Ohio.

Here trees were felled and a raft constructed, with a house thereon to shelter the family from the wind and rain, and to protect their scant household effects, carried all the way from Nantucket.

Down the great river went this island family, afloat on water, but on a clumsy raft with no sails or oars, instead of a trim ship. But the Folgers made a safe journey, following the river, with its great, virgin forests on either hand. They landed at last at a creek-mouth, where they purchased some land and made a home in the wilderness.

Soon other Nantucket families came to the Ohio country by the same route. Among them was Capt. George Macy and his family—a son and daughters; Solomon Swain and his wife, Eunice Gardner, and their family. , On the underside of an old piece of wallpaper, I have this entry •$26)3<-

in my grandfather's hand: "This day, Sept. 12, 1812, we landed at Cincinnati—Elihu, his wife, and sons Seth, John and Alexander.

Jethro was gone to sea."

Well, Jethro one day returned from the sea and came to Ohio, where he married the daughter of Capt. George Macy—my greataunt Margaret—just as Nantucketers have done for many years upon meeting one another "on the mainland." I can see Aunt Margaret as I write, with her typically English complexion, in her large canopied bed. This bed today is in the room of my daughter, Theresa—a fine, comfortable bed, but minus the canopy, because the ceiling is too low to admit it.

Captain George Macy was the master of a merchant vessel, ply­ ing between the port of Boston and England.. He had an office in Liverpool in "Horse and Wagon Lane." His portrait, in oils, hangs in the hall of my residence in Dayton, Ohio. It was painted by a French artist in Bordeaux, in or about the year 1805. At the outbreak of the War of 1812, his ship was seized on the high seas, and he was imprisoned, but shortly set at liberty and returned to Nantucket.

He then brought his family across the mountains to Cincinnati, the "Queen City of the West," where he died in 1815.

My father, Albert Gardner Folger, son of John and grandson of Elihu, was born in Cincinnati, August 3, 1820. He lived in that city until his 93rd year, and his sister, Susan Barnard, three years his junior, lived to the same age.

Solomon Swain and his wife, with a large family of boys and one daughter, had purchased a farm near Wyoming, now a part of Cincinnati. To this farm went John Folger, "courting the pretty daughter, Emma Swain, who had been born on Nantucket, and she consented to become his wife."

Frederick Swain, her brother, then took as his bride another Nantucket girl, (transplanted to the Ohio country), Sarah Macy, daughter of Capt. George Macy, sister of great-aunt Margaret.

Thus, for a generation, Nantucket men found Nantucket girls to wed, although both far from their island home.

My mother was Mary Macy, the daughter of Thomas, the son of Captain George Macy. The two met—Albert Folger and Mary Macy—and were married in the city of New Orleans. I am the eldest child of three, and I was born in the Crescent City. My father was the captain of a steamboat, with many years experience on the river.

Thus, through my mother, I am a descendant of another long line of Nantucket ancestors—Capt. George Macy, her grandfather, was a great-grandson of Thomas Macy, one of the original settlers.

27.

I write this genealogical data while in my 85th year. During my several visits to Nantucket, I enjoyed meeting the "Nantucket kin," although many generations are between and they, no doubt, have little knowledge of the Nantucket families who moved to the Ohio country a century and more ago.

•<§{28 $>•

ANNUAL MEETING—1945.

The fifty-first meeting of the Nantucket Historical Association was held on Tuesday afternoon, July 31, 1945, at 3:00 o'clock, at the Friends Meeting House. Every seat in the historic old building was taken, and the gathering listened with great interest and warm pleasure to the business program and to the two speakers for the occasion—Dr. William E. Gardner and Dr. Thomas E. Drake.

The meeting opened with the reading of the report of the Secre­ tary, Mrs. Oscar B. Eger. During her report she mentioned the loss to the community and the Association by the death of Dr. Charles E. Congdon, a former President and a man always deeply interested in the work of the Association.

Mrs. Eger's report showed that the total membership of the Association was 669. This includes 98 Life Members, 15 Sustaining Members; 514 Annual Members; 32 Junior Members. Since June 30, 10 new members had joined.

Mrs. Elizabeth Worth, the new Treasurer, read her report, which revealed the excellent condition of the Association's finances.

The year 1944 proved to be a record year as regards total attendance at the exhibits, and the season of 1945 bids fair to surpass records at several exhibits.

The presiding officer—Edouard A. Stackpole—made announce­ ment of the variety of gifts which have come to the Association the past year. On display were some wooden pattern forms for quilts, used from 1820 to 1838 by Eunice Hussey and Love Baxter, which were presented the Association by Mrs. William Sellers, of Wilming­ ton, Del. Also, a picture of the George C. Gardner house in the 1880's, presented by Harry B. Turner.

Other accessions mentioned were Indian pieces and South Sea island bow and arrows, presented by Peter M. Hussey, from his father's collection; a watch belonging to John C. Chinery, taken by him around Cape Horn on voyages, presented by his daughter, Mrs. Emma F. Hayward; an old Nantucket bonnet, 100 years old, pre­ sented by Mrs. Robert Benchley; books and pamphlets and clippings from the estate of the late Henry B. Worth, noted island historian, presented by Mrs. Worth, and numerous other gifts.

The chairman remarked that this year was the 150th anniversary of the changing of the name of the town from Sherburne to Nantucket —unfortunately, the town is not to hold any exercises in observance of the occasion. He mentioned the forthcoming exercises to be held at the site of the original location of the Old North Vestry, during which Dr. George Sylvester Sutton and members of the First Congregational •4 29 >

Church were to observe the 234th anniversary of the building of the Vestry. The original site is "on the rising ground" just north of No Bottom Pond, off West Chester Street, **

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**

The outstanding event of the year, stated the Chairman, was the acceptance by the Association of the custodianship of the Records of the Nantucket Monthly Meeting of Friends—the first volume dating back to 1708. These ancient and invaluable records were placed in the keeping of the Association by the Providence Monthly Meeting, with which group the present members of the Nantucket Monthly Meeting are associated. **

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The Nominating Committee—composed of Mrs. Alice Albertson Shurrocks, chairman, Mrs. Dorothy S. Richmond, and William L. Mather—submitted the following report: President—Edouard A. Stackpole.

Vice Presidents—Everett U. Crosby, Bassett Jones, Charles P. Kimball, Col. Louis J. Praeger, Mrs. Walton H. Adams, Rev. William E. Gardner.

Secretary—Mrs. Oscar B. Eger.

Treasurer—Mrs. Elizabeth B. Worth.

Auditors—Miss Cora Stevens, Col. Louis J. Praeger.

Councillors (for 4 years)—Mrs. Elkins Hutaff, Lawrence B. Cummings.

Upon vote of the meeting the Secretary was instructed to cast one ballot for the election of the above listed officers. **

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The Chairman then introduced the first of the two speakers— Dr. William E. Gardner. The subject of his talk was "Backgrounds for Three Bricks and Three Brothers." In his own inimitable way, Dr. Gardner recounted the various steps which carried him to the successful completion of this book. It has won wide favor, not only as a popular biography of Joseph Starbuck but as a carefully document­ ed study of the times in which that Nantucket whale-oil merchant lived.

Dr. Gardner displayed several of the Starbuck account books, one of which contained an itemized expense list for the building of the three brick houses on Main street. He also showed Benjamin Coffin's account book in which the schoolmaster had noted items con­ cerning the schooling of Joseph Starbuck. He described his reactions to the discovery of each new piece of source material during his writing of the book and conveyed to his listeners much of his great enthusiasm for his task. Dr. Gardner received sustained applause at the conclusion of his enjoyable talk. He had demonstrated' with «Sf 30 jiS"

obvious clarity and telling effect the means for a successful interpre­ tation of a subject which might apparently be as "dry as dust."

The second of the speakers was Dr. Thomas E. Drake, Curator of the Quaker collection at Haverford College. His subject was "Elihu Coleman, Anti-Slavery Pioneer of Nantucket." Dr. Drake's essay on this subject has appeared in a volume of historical writings, and has also been published in pamphlet form, available in the book stores of the town.

Elihu Coleman was born a century before Joseph Starbuck, at a time in which only scant gleanings of material were allowed to be preserved for posterity. Nonetheless, Dr. Drake has found all the available sources and written a valuable and highly readable account of a little-known anti-slavery pioneer.

The homestead which Elihu Coleman erected in 1722 for his bride is still standing on Hawthorn Lane, and is now the property of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Blair. In commenting on the meagre material extant regarding Coleman, Dr. Drake recounted some interesting material concerning contemporary life in the early 18th century.

He spoke feelingly on the tract which Coleman published in 1729— which became the first anti-slavery document by a Quaker in New England and the second in the colony of Massachusetts Bay. Certainly, as Dr. Drake pointed out, it was by far the best exposition of its subject up to that period in our history.

The speaker exhibited the original tract, in Coleman's own hand­ writing, now in the possession of the Association, and also showed the 1708 book of Friends Records which records Coleman's marriage.

As a member of the Society of Friends, Dr. Drake brought to the meeting not only his scholarly appreciation and appraisal of Elihu Coleman's pamphlet and life, but also the deep sincerity of his opinions and convictions. His talk was thoroughly enjoyed by the gathering and he was accorded vigorous applause.

Miss Grace Brown Gardner presented the Association with a complete file of the pictures from the famous Inquirer and Mirror calendar—dating from 1914 to the present time. Many of these came from the estate of the late Annie S. Ray, but the list was incomplete.

Miss Gardner, with great patience and effort, worked painstakingly until she had secured all the missing pictures—with the result that the Association now has a complete file of the pictures.

William H. Tripp, Curator of the New Bedford Museum—always a welcome visitor—presented several old photos taken by the late Henry S. Wyer. These were views taken during the Centennial Cele­ bration by the Town in 1895, and were accepted with pleasure.

The meeting adjourned at 5:00 p. m.

—E. A. S. 31 >

Secretary's Report—1945. **

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Another year with its encouragements and reverses has closed and we are again assembled in this historic Friends Meeting House to take note of time, not by its losses but by its achievements, and once more to compare the records of the past year with the hopes for the future, and to plan for that continued1 labor which has made our Association the success it is today.

The officers and members of the Association extend cordial greetings to old friends and new, who have gathered here today with the love for former years and perhaps with suggestions of new values and new estimates of historic interest.

Our treasurer has busied herself with our financial records, which is no small task, and' one which entails much detail work. Our cus­ todian committee chairmen have directed the progress of the year's work, on which they will report to us later. Your Secretary has been employed with the correspondence and reports as well as the list of members which demands much time in order to keep the list accurate and complete.

Our membership stands thus at the close of the fiscal year, June 30, 1945: Life Members 98 Sustaining Members 15 Annual Members 514 Junior Members 32 Total New Members since June 30

659 10

In connection with the above let me add as usual that it would be a great help to your Secretary and Treasurer to be informed promptly of any error or change in the address of members so that our mailing lists may be correct as well as complete.

The Council during the past year has held its regular meetings for routine business on October 17, 1944, Feb. 12, 1945, and May 23, 1945. Of course, scattered as our members are, they must leave the burden of the work to the discretion of the Council. However, every member should bear in mind that the Annual Meeting should be a time for free discussion, and that throughout the year, as occasion may arise, it is his privilege to communicate to the Council any idea which undertaken promptly might enlarge our opportunity for service. It is that thought of service which your Secretary would emphasize in looking back over the year just closing.

<i 32 }>

All of us, islanders and off-islanders, are one in our love for Nantucket, and all of us, perhaps those who live here more keenly than others, must be aware of the needs which voice themselves on every side in Nantucket. It is a privilege of the Association to be a force of education.. Naturally, we realize that our influence in that line must be indirect, but what means are not at our disposal? It is not an idle boast when we say that we have something more than a pretty collection of curios to amuse the transient visitor for a rainy hour.

This room in which we sit speaks of lofty things. There are faces in our museums—faces on canvas—in which any one of us with the blood of Nantucket in his veins or the love of Nantucket in his heart may well take pride. Our Historical Association may reasonably play an important part in making that past of deep meaning to our present day.

The routine business of the Council has been transacted in proper order. The meetings have all been well attended. With your per­ mission I will dispense with the summary of all the details con­ cerned in the business of the year.

Now we come to the inevitable last page of the record, dedicated to the memory of those of our members who have passed on, and the joy of our coming together is marred by the absence of those whose presence has long been an inspiration to us in our work. We will pause for a moment in loving tribute to the memory of all who have been taken from our ranks this year.

I wish to pay special tribute to our past President, Dr. Charles E. Congdon, who was called from our fellowship in October, 1944.

It is difficult to realize that he will no more lend his personal aid to those worthwhile enterprises which meant so much to him. His memory will long be cherished by those who knew him.

Some of our other members who have been keenly interested in the affairs of the Association have passed on during the year. Among them are: Regis H. Post, Floyd Waggaman, Mrs. William H. Tripp, Theodore Varney and others, whose presence will be sadly missed by us all.

Our correspondence steadily increases, and although we discon­ tinued our exchange list some years ago our mailing list slowly lengthens. Ancestry is still the leading subject of the many letters we receive, and the number of persons who can claim descent from the early settlers is equalled only by those who wish they could.

Nantucket still seems to retain an unexplainable drawing power to folks both near and far and we are grateful for their appreciation of our "Little Gray Lady," and for their help in preserving that which is of value as evidence of its early life, and its no small share in making American history.

It has been a year of continued effort and accomplishment, and so we press on, as each year opening out before us brings us something new to be accomplished and we hope that we are fulfilling our mis­ sion to the best of our ability.

Respectfully submitted, CATHERINE RAY EGER, Secretary.

< 34 )>•

Treasurer's Report—1945.

RECEIPTS Cash Balance, July 1, 1944 General Account—Dues, Sales and Gifts Museum Accounts: Fair Street—Admissions, Sales Whaling Museum—Admissions, Sales Old Mill—Admissions, Sales Oldest House—Admissions, Sales Tax on Admissions Reserve for Withheld Taxes Investments: Life Memberships Income from Investments Portrait Restoration Fund

$106.10 823.28 $974.50 2208.35 432.70 736.69

45.00 128.75 51.00

$4352.24 854.95 47.96

$224.75 6409.28

•<61 35^-

EXPENSES General Account—Salaries $300.00 Postage, printing, supplies 252.59 Museum Accounts: Fair Street, Attendants & Maintenance 636.31 Whaling Museum, Attendants & Maintenance 2030.49 Old Mill, Attendants & Maintenance 307.57 Oldest House, Attendants & Maintenance 303.35 Tax on Admissions Withheld Taxes Investments: Life Membership Acct.—Nan. Inst, for Savings 45.00 Portrait Restoration Fund—Pacific N. Bank 126.00

$3277.72 823.55 46.00

$171.00 $1538.42

Cash Balance, June 30, 1945

6409.28 ASSETS Land and all Buildings Collections in all Museums Trust Accounts—Nantucket Institution for Savings Portrait Restoration Fund—Pacific National Bank Stocks and Bonds

$25,000.00 $10,000 00 12,035.71 172.25 g JJQ jg

Respectfully submitted, ELIZABETH B. WORTH, Treasurer.

Audited by: Cora Stevens and Louis J. Praeger.

4 36 •

Report of the President—1945.

Members and Friends of the Nantucket Historical Association: The year 1944-45 has been an interesting one. Despite the con­ centration of individual effords towards the varied business of "taking up the slack'' in war-times, the Nantucket Historical Asssociation has been able to carry on, to the end that it continues to supply its important place in the community activity of the island's sum­ mer life. However it might appear to the casual observer, the Association's officers do not confine their efforts to the summer it is a year-around proposition, with many problems to be considered and decided upon.

Financially, the Association has prospered. The report of our Treasurer reveals the substantial increase in revenue, compared to the figures of ten or fifteen years ago.

Historically, it has also prospered, through the continued fine interest and planning of its officers and the continued support of its members. The Council has kept in touch with prevailing condi­ tions, and the various committees have functioned as in other years.

A number of important decisions have been made and several courses of action have been determined.

The buildings have received the customary careful attention.

Fair street museum's new roof and new skylights, although the sub­ ject for considerable worry, have proven satisfactory. The Meeting House looks excellent with its new roof and fresh coat of paint.

The Oldest House property has been improved by the installation of modern toilet facilities. The Whaling Museum has had its valuable slate roof checked and repaired. All these things have been accom­ plished because the chairmen of the various exhibits were "on the job" and able to anticipate trouble.

The Chairmen of the exhibits are: Fair Street—Everett U. Crosby; Whaling Museum;—William E. Gardner; Oldest House Miss Grace Brown Gardner; Old Mill—Col. Louis J. Praeger.

The Old Mill has again suffered from being in its exposed posi­ tion on the hill-top. The northeast gale which swept the island this spring tore off the main arm of one of the vanes, which must have been weakened by the hurricane of September, 1944. As this partic­ ular section must have considerable resiliency, it is customarily a piece of spruce—Alaskan spruce in this instance. This is wood very difficult to obtain. Simon Kaufman, of Nantucket, became acquainted with a contractor in wholesale lumber, who happened to be on the is­ land this summer, and through the former's suggestion this contractor is shipping to us a piece of spruce large enough for the vane. Con-

437^

trary to some reports, the Old Mill has not been abandoned to the elements. The problem of a suitable custodian has been discussed at Council meetings. It was decided to leave the matter in the hands of the Chairman, Col. Praeger. The summer of 1946 will mark the two hundredth anniversary of the erection of the Old Mill, and the Association intends to observe the same in a fitting manner.

Signal honor has come to the Association this year with the appearance of three books on Nantucket historical matters. Chrono­ logically, the books have been: "Eastman Johnson on Nantucket"

by Everett U. Crosby; "Three Bricks and Three Brothers" by William E. Gardner," and "Elihu Coleman, Quaker Anti-Slavery Pioneer," by Thomas E. Drake. You will hear more about these books during the program. **

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Dr. George S. Sutton and the members of the North Congrega­ tional Church plan to hold a fitting observance within a few weeks —the 234th anniversary of the building of the Old North Vestry.

Tradition has it that the Vestry was erected on a knoll just to the north of No Bottom Pond, off West Chester street, in 1711. It is on this spot that the observance will be held. Our Association has been invited to participate. **

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A valuable gift to the Association was presented by Mrs. Robert Appleton. It is an oil portrait of Captain Isaiah Folger, her grand­ father. Mrs. Appleton also presented a portrait of Christopher C. Folger, son of Capt. Folger (who died in infancy), a miniature by Sally Gardner of Ann Maria Folger, (who also died in infancy), two Liberty mugs, two silver lustre pitchers, two plates, two wine glasses, six N. Harding spoons, a compote glass dish, and a Bradbury tea­ spoon. The portraits of Captain Isaiah Folger and his son Christopher were both painted by William Swain, the Newburyport artist, who placed so many islanders of the 1820's and '30s on canvas.

Capt. Isaiah Folger was born in Nantucket May 11, 1795. In the year 1851, he was on board the schooner Exact, an island packet, as supercargo, when the little schooner went around Cape Horn to San Francisco. Subsequently, he went trading up to Oregon territory.

On a cold and rainy day in November, 1851, on a cruise in Puget Sound, Capt. Folger took on board the Exact at Portland, Oregon Territory, the little band of men, women and children who were to became the first settlers at a place called Alki Point. There they found­ ed a town which became the great city of Seattle.

For a number of years, Capt. Folger took the Exact up and down the Northwest coast. On one occasion he was reported lost, and •€{ 38 ]§•

the news came home to Nantucket. When he returned to this island he brought the news of his own safety. When he died in 1872, five brothers acted as pall-bearers. Had another brother been present, their total ages would have been 542 years.

The portrait of Captain Folger was much desired by the Wash­ ington and Seattle historical societies, but Mrs. Appleton, loyal to her island home, determined that it should be preserved at Nantucket.

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There have been a number of interesting accessions during the year. From Oregon came a petticoat made in 1810 for Margaret Paddack, and a rolling pin, fashioned from cocoanut tree wood and whale ivory by Captain David Paddack. These were the gifts from a de­ scendant, Mrs. Waite A. Underwood, of Portland, Oregon. In response to my request, Mrs. Underwood has prepared a list of the descend­ ants of George and Eliza Coffin Cushman, who removed from the is­ land and went, by way of New York State, Utah, and Oregon, to the Pacific coast.

Other accessions have been an old iron bread peel, presented for the Oldest House fireplace by Rev. and Mrs. L. B. Davis, of Exeter, N. H., who are spending July on the island. This is a fine old piece.

It demonstrates the way in which food was removed from the oven.

A gold watch was presented by Mrs. Emma F. Hayward. It belonged to her father, John Chinery, and was carried by him on whaling voyages around Cape Horn. Peter M. Hussey has given us pieces of Indian artifacts, and also some South Sea island bow and arrows.

Mrs. Robert Benchley presented an old Nantucket Quaker bonnet.

Mr. and Mrs. David Swain have given two wall-paper-covered hat boxes, containing: 1 bridal bonnet belonging to Sarah S. Swain, who was married March 17, 1850, and died Feb. 12, 1925; 1 bridal (goingout) bonnet belonging to Malinda S. Barney, married July 6, 1848— died April 5, 1913; 1 Quaker bonnet belonging to Susan G. Swain.

The first "Life of Abraham Lincoln" appearing after his death was written by Rev. Phebe A. Hanaford, a Nantucket woman. A German edition of this book was presented us by the estate of Henry B. Worth, together with some books and Nantucket newspapers, and an autograph album of the High School pupils, Class of 1879, and an autograph album of the Coffin School, Class of 1876-77. Also, from this estate, has come two photograph albums of the Barnard and Worth-Winslow families, as well as family records.

On display in the Meeting House are 15 large quilting patterns, 17 small quilting patterns and 1 large box for the same. These range from the years 1820 to 1838, mostly used by Eunice Hussey and Love -$39]^

Baxter. They were presented through the kindness of Mrs. William F. Sellers, of Wilmington, Delaware.

Miss Mary Hosier Borden has given us a marriage certificate of Aaron Paddock and Deborah Barnard. Theodore Bunker has pre­ sented two folders containing the histories of 25 Fair street and 2 Quince street. A "town section" of the 1858 map was presented

by Dr. William E. Gardner. **

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Chairman Crosby has completed the work of cross-indexing the exhibits at the Fair street rooms, which has been a task for two com­ petent workers under his direction during the past two summers. The balcony of the Meeting House has been utilized for this work. It will be remembered that in 1942, Mr. Crosby had a typist copy the cards indexing the various exhibits which had been compiled by Mrs. Adams during her service as Curator and which are an invaluable part of the entire project of ultimately indexing the entire exhibit) as to object, name of donor, nature of contents and alphabetical se­ quence. **

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The outstanding event for many years has been the acceptance this year of the custodianship by the Association of the Records of the Nantucket Meeting of the Society of Friends. For a period of several months your President has been in correspondence with the Fosters of Apponaug, Rhode Island, the Committee appointed by the Nantucket Monthly Meeting to have charge of the Records. In the spring of this year Mr. and Mrs. Henry Foster, Miss Anna Foster, Miss Louise White and Willis H. White, of Apponaug and Providence, R. I., came to the island bearing with them the Records. Dr. William E. Gardner and your President accepted them on behalf of the Association.

At the request of the Council, your President prepared the following letter of acceptance: The Nantucket Historical Association, Inc., hereby accepts custodianship of the Nantucket Honthly Meeting Records, in which the Narragansett Quarterly Meeting has title and of which the aforesaid Quarterly Meeting is the guardian.

"Mindful of the trust reposing in it with the reception of these priceless records, the Nantucket Historical Association agrees to keep them in a fire-proof vault, and to hold them available and accessible to members of the Meeting and persons of reputable standing in the research field without expense to them."

In April, 1945, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Foster and Miss Anna Foster, •#40 ),>

from Apponaug, and Miss Louis White and Willis H. White, of Providence, R. I., came to the island bearing with them the hooks of "Records." Mr. and Mrs. Foster had been the committee appointed by the Nantucket Monthly Meeting to deposit the valued Records into the custodianship of the Nantucket Historical Association.

Dr. William E. Gardner and your President served as a committee of acceptance in behalf of the Association. When Dr. Gardner and Mr. Foster carried the dozen and more volumes into our Fair Street building and placed them in our safe it marked an historic moment.

The "Nantucket Quaker Records'' were once more reposing on the island after a lapse of more than half a century.

The thoughtfulness and interest of the Fosters and their associ­ ates in Rhode Island made possible the return of the Records. It is a fitting climax to a period in the story of the New England Friends which began a little more than eighty years ago. During the series of controversies which arose in the ranks of the Friends during the 1860's, Peleg Mitchell of Nantucket withdrew from the New England Yearly Meeting, formed a separate meeting, and recog­ nized a group of Friends calling itself the Otis Meeting. The Nan­ tucket Friends as a whole favored this Otis division. No other New England Meeting went that way, and so the Nantucket Meeting stood alone. But a number of mainland Friends were in sympathy and joined the Nantucket group. These additions did much to perpetuate the island Society, for among the mainland members joining was the Foster family of Rhode Island. A half century later, the Fosters of Rhode Island were to be the careful guardians of the Nantucket Monthly Meeting Records.

The various changes occurring within the ranks of the Nantucket Friends has been amply covered in Henry Worths analysis, Quaker­ ism on Nantucket Since 1800." The aftermath of the Revolution, with migrations of Friends to Nova Scotia, North Carolina, New York, England and France; the 1812 War and its difficulties; the Hicksite cleavage in the 1830's, and the erection of a separate meeting house on Main street (now Red Men's Hall), while the orthodox Friends built the Fair Street Meeting House and the School, in which we now meet; the controversy between the Gurneyites and Wilburites, with the decision "that a separation must and would take place," and the erection of the Gurneyite Meeting House on Centre Street in 1851; and the gradually disappearance of the local members of the Nan­ tucket Monthly Meeting; form a tremendously important chapter in the history of Nantucket.

When the records of the island Friends left Nantucket more than a half century ago, they were placed in custody of James W. Oliver of Lynn, where the Nantucket Monthly Meeting had trans441 )3-

ferred. Subsequently they were transported to Sharon, Mass.; thence to the Foster homestead in Apponaug, Rhode Island. And now, in proper sequence, the records repose within a few feet of where the last members of the island group sat in worship.

The concluding minute in the last book of Records, dated March 26, 1944, contains the essence within the fact of transfer. It reads: "After a period of two hundred and thirty-two years of continuous organization, dating from 1708 on the Island of Nan­ tucket, we find ourselves a small group of Friends in the vicinity of Providence, R. I. "In 1865, a group of Friends living in Rhode Island and the Massachusetts mainland, feeling near sympathy with Friends of Nantucket Monthly Meeting, were received into membership.

"This group survived the active membership on the Island and our meeting has been held elsewhere for over fifty years.

"In 1911, it became a part of the New England yearly Meet­ ing of Friends.

"Throughout their long history, Nantucket Friends have lived close to their sense of Divine Guidance, holding before them high principles of thought and action. They have been willing to follow these principles closely in their living, no matter the cost to them personally.

"Our members now desire to join with Providence Monthly Meeting and Providence Fellowship Monthly Meeting to form a new Providence Monthly Meeting. "'It is with heartfelt regret that we suspend the activities of this Meeting, subject to final approval of Rhode Island and Sandwich Quarterly Meetings, until such time as it may again become active on the Island of Nantucket, concern in that matter being transferred to this Quarterly Meeting.

"We have placed our records in the care of a Committee and added our bank account to that of the new Providence Month­ ly Meeting. We have appointed Millicent Foster and Anna Foster to serve with a joint committee from the other two meetings in setting up the new meeting.

"It is with the hope, as our members join with these other Friends, to whom we are closely bound by proximity and friendly feeling, this second day of Fourth Month, 1944, that powers residing latent in us because of our long heritage, may spring forth into larger service.

"No further business, we now conclude.

Elizabeth Foster, Clerk." %*

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In a report to the Council last October, Everett U. Crosby, Chair­ man of the Fair Street Museum, noted that the total paid admissions at Fair street during the season of 1944 was 3,537, producing an in­ come of $881.75. The season of 1943 had a total of 2,148 paid ad­ missions, hence an increase of 65 per cent. The increase over a tenyear period, from 1935 to 44, was over 400 per cent. In 1935 only 832

442

admissions were recorded at Pair Street; in 1936, there were 978; in 1938 the total was 1365; in 1939 was 1625, and in 1941 was 2101.

At the Whaling Museum, Dr. William E. Gardner is continuing his excellent work as Chairman. Not only has he kept the new and invaluable "Archives" a going concern, but he has kept careful check on the interests of the average visitor, with an ear open for sugges­ tion and criticism. With the arrival on the island of certain workmen skilled in laying slate shingles, he immediately secured their services in repairing the slate roof of the Museum, which was laid ninety-eight years ago and was in grave need of proper care. One more serious problem is concerned with the northwest wall, near the roof, and Dr. Gardner is having that repaired at this writing.

Not content with the material well-being of the Museum, Dr. Gardner arranged for one of the happiest events in the history of the Association—exercises on August 4, 1944, commemorating the 125th anniversary of the birth of Herman Melville. A large group was in attendance, and Mrs. Eleanor Melville Metcalf, the grand­ daughter of Melville, was one of the speakers. She brought with her a number of family heirlooms, which were on display. Dr. Gardner gave a talk on Melville's contemporary world, and your President spoke on Melville's understanding of the literal as we as mystical elements of whaling, and the great writer's appreciation of the part Nantucket has played in American marine history. "Moby Dick,'' of course, was the focal point for most of the remarks.

Thus, at the Nantucket Whaling Museum occurred the only cele­ bration in America in observation of the birthday of an American genius—Herman Melville. **

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Through the active interest of our various chairmen, under the Custodian Committee, and the close attention to the business of the Association by the Council, the work of the Association has been carried forward as in past years. There have been many problems but all have been met and the factors within them overcome.

Respectfully submitted, EDOUARD A. STACKPOLE, President.

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43 ^

The Dunkirk Colony in 1797.

By HENRY J. CADBURY. At many times there have been migrations to parts of the United States by Nantucketers, who carried not only the names but the enriching sturdiness of the island families. Besides these, Nantucket established at one period of history colonies in three other countries, Canada, England, and France. Of these, the settle­ ment in France, about 1785, at the now famous village of Dunkirk, was one of the most romantic. William Rotch's own account of the beginnings of this settlement has been published and further details are to be found in the histories of Nantucket. William Rotch and others withdrew prior to the outbreak of the war between England and France, but some continued.

According to Starbuck's History of Nantucket, page 400: "data showing when the French fishery was finally abandoned by Nan­ tucketers is not available." The following account describes it in its later stages. In other respects this account differs from the data usually given. In indicates that Rotch was not the first Nan­ tucket whaleman to take up with the French offer. Its figure of sixty Friends as the Quaker total in the colony is larger than Jef­ ferson's statement that "only nine families, of 33 persons all told, removed to Dunkirk," but smaller than one would expect from the list of some seventy ships and captains whose names are given by Starbuck.

The names of the Friends who actually transferred their membership are to be found in the minutes of both Nantucket Monthly Meeting and of Ratcliff Monthly Meeting, but I have not a count of the total from either of these records, since neither is now readily accessible..

In 1797, three American Friends visited Dunkirk during a some­ what extensive tour undertaken with a religious purpose. All three kept journals of the journey. Those by William Savery of Philadel­ phia (1750-1804), and David Sands, Cornwall, New York (1745-1818) have been edited and published. The third member of the party was Benjamin Johnson. He was younger than the others, being only 30 at the time. He was not a minister or "public Friend." His account was for that reason less likely to be published, but more likely to be of general interest because of the large proportion of secular ob­ servations which it contains. It is also more extensive than either of the other journals apparently were before they were edited. I am .-«{44 >

indebted to the writer's descendant, George B. Johnson, of West Chester, Pennsylvania, for the opportunity to examine the journal and quote from it.

It has the additional romance that, while the party was eating a poor supper at the very sorry inn at St. Emiland, Benjamin Johnson's portmaneau, containing his journal as well as all his linen, stockings, letters, etc., was stolen. It was recovered only with great difficulty.

The party proceeding from England with some English Friends visited, first, the Quaker settlements of Pyrmont and Minden in Germany. Next they made contact with what was left of Quakerism in Holland. They then proceeded through Flanders to France.

Benjamin Johnson writes: "2 mo. 8, Dunkirk. Arrived at Dunkirk before dark and drove immediately to Benjamin Hussey's, who with his family received us kindly. It was no small gratification, after six months travelling thro different governments, entirely among strangers and people of various customs & languages all different from our own, thus to find ourselves in a family such as this. We told them of our appre­ hension of personal danger and especially on acct. of our not wearing the cocade and the various alarming reports we had heard. They said there might have been some difficulty in passing the frontiers and in conquered countries, but now we were in France we would find none. No such thing was ever required of them even in the severest times of the revolution; no people could be better treated than they had been during the whole time; that on occasions of public rejoicings and illuminations, instead of their windows being broken and their houses pillaged as had been the case in some other countries, the municipality of this place have ordered guards before their doors to protect them from insult. They were also exempted from military service and permitted to go before authorities with their hats on, which to others was not allowed. D. S. continued here and W. S. and myself went to a boarding house kept by a widow Gardner, also a member among Friends. We paid her a guinea a week, each, during our stay, exclusive of wine. Her boarders were generally Americans, captains of vessels; at this time she had Capt.

Bolton from New York and Lovett from Cape Cod. There were fifteen American vessels in this port and among the finest in the place.

Indeed in every port I have seen they make a conspicuous appear­ ance as strangers. They are mostly Yankees, who are at home wherever they can find freight for their vessels. These two have been employed for several months in bringing salt from the south of France to this place, which french ships could not do without risque of capture. In this manner, coasting round about this quarter of the world a great many Americans are employed."

"2 mo. 12. Attended the meeting of the little Society of Friends here, which is held in Benjamin Hussey's house. It was first-day.

The actual members are B. H., his wife, daughter and two younger sons, his son Basilla and wife, our landlady, the widow Gardner, Capt. Starbuck, his wife & two little daughters, an old palsied man

445)3-

of the name of BicTdle and his wife. They are under care of Ratcliff monthly meeting, London. It is about twelve years since Capt. Gard­ ner, a Friend from Nantucket, encouraged by a bounty which the friench government had offered to all ships engaged in the whale fishery, removed here with fiis family. He was followed soon after

by William Roche and family from the same place and in the same business of whale fishing: and after him came several others. So that previous to the present revolution in France there were up­ wards of sixty Friends, olcf and young, in this place; nearly all from Nantucket and in the same business. During the present war they found so many impediments & difficulties in the prosecution of their business that most of them, except those I have named, have returned to their native country. Some of whom, it is said here, con­ template coming again to Dunkirk at the close of the war.

"1797, 2 mo. 15. We called today on Coffin, the American consul who endorsed our passports and introduced us to the munici­ pality. They took our passports from us and gave us others, which they called travelling passports. These described our persons par­ ticularly and also mentioned our being of the religious Society of Friends, which they said would alone be sufficient to enable us to travel thro every part of the nation.''

After a stay of eight days at Dunkirk the party left on the diligence for Lisle and proceeded to the Quaker settlement at Congenies in the south of France. Beside the difficulties which attended them as aliens travelling fourteen hundred miles in a belligerent country, and the difficulty of language (none of the three knowing French), Johnson himself was sick most of the time. They arrived again at Dunkirk, April 24th, and stayed there until May 14th. This long delay was due in part to waiting for passports to come from Paris and for passage to be arranged to England.

Benjamin Johnson had a recurrence of his illness which kept him to his chamber for ten days. He and William Savery stayed again with "the widow Gardner." Savery calls her "Judith Gardner, a Friend from Nantucket, whose husband had died at sea since their settling here."

The record here treats mainly their anxieties and difficulties in getting permission to cross from one belligerent country to another —without resorting either to deception or military escort—all of which is familiar to modern Quakers. But Johnson makes also some reference to the American colony at Dunkirk.

"A few days after our arrival here there was a general illumin­ ation in consequence of the signing of preliminary articles of peace between France and Austria. The houses of Friends were the only exceptions. On such occasions they have never been molested or even requested to put candles in their windows. At the widow Gardner's where we lodged, I took notice in the evening of the illumination that the front door was open and the servant girl standing by it. I observed to her mistress it would be more prudent for the girl to come in '4 46 }£-

and shut the door, lest some of the mob which was numerous and making a great noise might insult her and perhaps injure the house. She expressed herself perfectly at ease on the occasion and said she felt less alarmed here than she should in her own country in similar circumstances "5 mo. 13. We had a parting meeting with the few Friends at Dunkirk, whose little number had lost near one third of its members in the last six weeks by the removal of one small family and part of another to England."

The following day the visitors safely made the hazardous journey to England, arriving after eighteen hours at Margate, where they were welcomed by the four families of local English Friends.

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The Whalemen of Nantucket and Their South Sea Island Discoveries.

By EDOUARD A. STACKPOLE. With the great war but recently ended, and the events of the Pacific struggle so fresh in the minds of all Americans, it is fitting that something of the background of Nantucket history in the South Seas be recalled. It is apparent that our nation intends to retain possession of the Pacific island bases which were won by the cour­ ageous action of American fighting men. Yet, one of the great ironies of our times is that much of the area in the South Seas which our armed forces re-took from Japan could have easily been under American control, because the voyages of the American whalemen of a century ago gave the United States ample rights in claiming it.

When the early history of America in the Pacific is recorded, the part played by the Nantucket whalemen will occupy many pages.

The whalemen from New England gave their country a heritage of ex­ ploration and discovery in the South Seas which this nation literally tossed away. Led by the sea-nimrods from Nantucket, these Yankee whalers made the Central and Southwest Pacific so well known that Johnson, the famous British cartographer, called a large portion of the Central Pacific "American Polynesia." After years of petitioning, the merchants of Nantucket and New Bedford finally prodded Con­ gress into action and an exploring expedition, under Lieut. Charles Wilkes, from 1838 and 1841, cruised among the Fijis, Ellice, Phoenix, Gilbert, Marshall and Hawaiian groups—substantiating claims of whaling captains and charting much of the area. But this nation never followed up this excellent voyage. Instead, we let drop our advantage and let other nations gain control of "American Polynesia," salvaging only the Hawaiian group. The British and French and later the Germans took over regions which, for years, had been the scene of American whaling. To climax, the Japanese were given rights to the Carolines and Marianas following the First World War. The public interest in our western lands, the Mexican War, the discovery of gold in California, and the development of the Oregon territory, "took the play'' away from our maritime investments in Pacific whaling, and Civil War troubles completely submerged the issue of South Sea island mandates.

During the agitation over the accession of the Hawaiian islands, and the Spanish War excitement, there was a brief revival of interest in the Pacfic claims, but it was 48 j&-

short-lived and died away with the Congressional rumblings over "imperialism."

During the controversy with Great Britain in 1938 over certain islands which made ideal bases for the trans-Pacific air route, world attention became focused on these little dots in Central Pacific. It was realized by Navy men that these isolated islands also comprised the outer fringe of our frontier of defense. Then came the Japanese attacks and the subsequent glorious record of American fighting men in the South Seas. With the peace came the welcome pronouncement that we intend to keep what has been won in the Pacific. **

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The saga of America in the Pacific began on the Atlantic sea­ board, when the trading ships of New York, Boston and Salem and the whalemen from Nantucket rounded the "Horn." But it was the whaleman who was the real explorer. Since 1720 the Nantucket whalemen had been the pioneers in deep-sea whaling, leading the vessels from other ports and discovering new whaling grounds. It was only natural to find them rounding grim Cape Horn in 1791 and discovering new regions in the great South Seas where the great sperm whale led the way. True, Captain Shields, of the Amelia from London, had first sailed into the Pacific, but it was Archealus Ham­ mond, his mate, who had "fastened" to the first sperm taken there— and he was a Nantucketer, And so was Captain David Starbuck, in the Harmony, out of Dunkirk, who rounded Cape Horn shortly after Capt. Paul Worth in the ship Beaver, of Nantucket, became the first American whaling master to take his ship into the Pacific.

The story of the whalemen in the South Seas which followed reads with the fascination of Actionized adventure. Capt. Bunker in the Washington, Capt. Paul West in the Cyrus, Capt. Elisha Folger in the Equator, and Capt. Joseph Allen in the Maro, brought back full car­ goes and valued knowledge. Soon the Nantucket ships were poking their bluff bows into unknown regions of the tremendous ocean, discovering new islands, re-locating as many more, and charting little known regions. Such adventures were not experienced without tragedy. The sinking of the Essex by a whale, the mutiny on the Globe, the massacre of the crew of the Oeno, wrecked on the Fijis, the disappearance of the Reaper and the Lady Adams—all form bits of the grotesque pattern in the picture; all make a story in themselves. ** ** ** ** ** Captain Joshua Coffin in the Ganges made a number of remark­ able cruises from 1821 to 1825, discovering several islands in the Phoenix Group—Gardners Island (named by him for the owner of the ship, Paul Gardner), in 4° 30' South Latitude and 174° 40' •Vest Longitude, being the principal discovery. He also discovered 4$ 49 )§•

Coffin's Island in the Kermadec Group, north of New Zealand. In Lat­ itude 10° 25' South and Longitude 160° 45 West, Captain Coffin came upon two islands, which he named Great and Little Ganges Islands.

Today they are known as Rierson's and Humphrey's islands. The Nantucket shipmaster found the islands "well-wooded but inhabited by war-like savages." Capt. Coffin reported his discoveries in August, 1825, upon returning home. In 1827, Capt. Alexander Macy, while cruising in the ship Peruvian south of "the Line,'' came upon Captain Coffin's Great Ganges Island, "the land bearing west-southwest, 12 miles distant. On following day saw two islands.... with valleys in­ tervening. The islands well-wooded. A canoe with five natives of large stature and ferocious countenance, well armed with spears and clubs, came under our stern. Many other canoes were seen to lee­ ward, paddling to intercept the ship.... Capt. Macy made all sail off-shore."

During the year 1822, Capt. George Barrett, in the ship Inde­ pendence, discovered an island in the Ellice Group (Lat. 9° 18' S., Long. 179 45' E.), which he named Mitchell's Island in honor of Aaron Mitchell, owner of the ship. Capt. Barrett later discovered Rocky Island, in Latitude 10° 45' South and Longitude 179° 28' East.

Capt. Elihu Coffin, in the ship Mary Mitchell, in the year 1835, repotted the discovery of an island in 11° 30' South Latitude and life11'35' West Longitude, which he named Mitchell's island—the second islahd bearing that name in the South Seas. <5apt. William Worth was one of Nantucket's finest shipmasters.

4;f a boy he served with Porter on the Essex. Between the years 1821 and 1841 he made six voyages whaling—three in the ship Rambler and three in, the Howa/rd. In 1823, while in the Rambler, he discovered WorW| Islands in Lat. 8° 43' North and Long. 151° 30' East; Tuck's Island, in Lat. 17° North, Long. 155° 9' East; also dangerous reefs in the northern Solomons, which he named Rambler Reefs and Sail bocks. Capt. Shubael Chase, in the ship Japan in 1827-28, discovered islands he named Bird's Dundas, Chase and Lincoln—the latter after Rjs mate, John Lincoln. These islands are in the Gilberts and are now calka Apemana, Aranuka, Tamana and Onvatoa islands. In 1828, Capt.

Mfipiam, Pjaskett, in the Independence, discovered Parker's island, now called; Nononti, in the Gilberts. Oeno island in the South Pacific, just north of Pitcairn, was discovered by Capt. George Worth in the ship Oeno in 1823. This was reported in the Nov. 25, 1826, issue of The 'Ihtjuirer. The Oeno was lost on her next voyage, being wrecked bh Tlirtle Island in the Fijis, and her crew massacred. There was one bUkViVoi- reported William S. Cary—who was rescued from native d> 'r ifell°W Nantucketer named David Whippey, then a resi•C50

dent of Ambow who had settled in the Fijis after having married the daughter of a native chief. Whippey never came back home, but be­ came an American consul at the main island. Cary returned nine years later. There is some evidence that a boy named Coffin also es­ caped the massacre and made his way to the Tonga Islands, but he was never located by Nantucket whaling masters in these islands. **

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Nantucket men, in command of vessels from other ports, had their share in discoveries, also. In 1808, Captain Mayhew Folger, of the Topaz out of Boston, discovered the sons and daughters of the mutineers of the Bounty on Pitcairn Island, and the lone surviving mutineer, Alexander Smith, was induced to change his name to John Adams by Capt. Folger. Captain Frederick Coffin in the British ship Syren, and Captain Joseph Allen in the Nantucket whaler Mwro, led the whalemen into the great sperm grounds known as the "Japan Grounds," and both Nantucket captains cruised among the Marianas and Carolines, as well. In 1824, Capt. James J. Coffin, of Nantucket, while in command of the British whaler Transit, discovered a group of islands north of the Marianas which he named Fisher, Kidd, South and Pigeon islands. Today they are known as the Bonin Islands.

Capt. Ebor Bunker, of Nantucket, was one of the pioneers of the whaling industry in Australia. In command of the British ships Albion and William and Ann, he made some great voyages, discover­ ing Bunker's Islands, in the course of one cruise, off the east coast of "New Holland," the early name for Australia. The first Americani whaler at Timor, was the Minerva, Capt. Moses Bunker, of Nantucket.

Probably the first woman to accompany her husband on a whaling voyage was Mary Hayden Russell who went with Capt. Russell on the British whaler Emily. Both principals were members of Nantucket: families who had gone to England shortly after the Revolution. The[ Emily sailed in January, 1823, and returned in 1825.

Perhaps the most famous of these ocean-going wives was MESkr Nancy Wyer Grant, who sailed with her husband, Capt. Charles.

Grant—one of the greatest of Nantucket's whaling masters. Three, children were born to Mrs. Grant during her more than twentyrfi,v<K years of sailing on her husband's ships. Her son Charles was horRj at Pitcairn, her daughter at Norfolk Island, and another son, George,; at Samoa. George Grant came aboard the Mohawk while only p, fes?i weeks old, spent over a quarter of a century on whaling and merchant ships, and retired to enter the life-saving service on Nantucket. He ended his days as the Custodian of the Whaling Museum. *sjc ** ** ** ** One of the sturdiest of that amazing group of Nantucket whaling < 51

masters was Captain Obed Starbuck. Born in 1797, he went to sea at an early age, rounding Cape Horn before the War of 1812 broke out.

When the new ship Hero sailed in 1819, Obed Starbuck was her first officer—his second voyage in her. While off the island of St. Mary's, the Hero was captured by some Chilean pirates and Capt. Russell and the ship's boy were killed. Obed Starbuck, in the dark of midnight, re­ took the ship and sailed her to Valparaiso. The owners rewarded him with the command of the Hero. He made a number of remarkable voyages in this ship.

On Sept. 5, 1823, the ship Hero approached an island not laid down on any chart. A whaleman on board wrote: "We made an at­ tempt to land on the west side, but at this place it was inaccessible on account of rocks. As it is indented with bays there are no doubt places where boats could land. We made but one attempt, through curiosity its situation is such that if soon made known may save the lives of thousands of seamen." The island was named "Starbuck's Island," after its discoverer. It is situated north of the Society group and west of the Marquesas. A Bishop Museum Bulletin, written

by Kenneth P. Emory in 1834, claimed the island was discovered

by Captain Starbuck in the British whaleship I'Aigle in December, 1823, and sighted by Captain Byron in 1825. However, the claim of Nantucket's Captain Obed Starbuck can be substantiated by records.

Oddly enough, the first ship wrecked on Starbuck's Island was a Nantucket craft, the old Independence, under Capt. Isaac Brayton, in 1835, and the crew was marooned for several months before being rescued by another whaler.

Capt. Starbuck took command of the new ship Loper for his next voyage. This was a record trip to the South Seas and return, the ship being absent but a year and eight months. He returned from his second voyage, having been absent but a year and six months, and on his third voyage he established a record never since equaled— the total voyage consuming but a year, 3 month, 22 days, bringing in a cargo of 2270 bbls. of sperm oil. It was during these three remark­ able voyages in the Loper that Capt. Starbuck made a number of other South Sea island discoveries. Besides Starbuck's island in 1822, he discovered "New Nantucket," in longitude 176° 20' west and latitude 1° 19' north, (now called Baker's island), in 1825; Starbuck's Group, now called Pitts, in the Gilbert Group, in 1825; Tracy and Loper islands in the Ellice Group in 1826; and Granger island in the Mar­ ianas in 1825. He reported his discoveries on November 25, 1826.

Possessed of a remarkable energy, Capt. Starbuck continued his whaling career until 1843, when he retired after a voyage in the ship Zone. He had erected in 1830 a large mansion on Fair street (now 4 52 )e-

known as the Ship's Inn) where he lived for half a century, passing in 1883 at the age of 86. As a public-spirited citizen of his native town he was admired and respected. An intimate friend wrote: "He has been a marked man among us for a long period, and lived in times that called out all the points and developed all that wonderful energy so much needed in trying times." Such a description of character amply fits all of those South Sea mariners out of Nantucket in the days when they were the pioneer whalemen in the distant Pacific. ** ** ** ** ** Captain Benjamin Worth had an extraordinary career. He spent forty-one years at sea, during which time he made 34 voyages —the time home between voyages totalling only 6 years. His voyages included eight to the Pacific Ocean, 1 to the Northwest Coast of North America, 4 to the Coast of Guinea, 5 to the Brazil Banks, 1 to the West Indies, 1 to the Grand Banks, 2 to Canton, China, 1 to the Grand Banks and 1 to London. He sailed 879,960 miles, passed Cape Horn sixteen times and Good Hope twice, visited all parts of the Pacific, and touched the coasts of all the continents. He brought home 19,000 bbls. of sperm oil—and never lost a man!

Perhaps the strangest career was that of Capt. Laban Coffin.

At the aged of 14 he was on board the Congress, out of the old home port. He was put on shore at St. Mary's, Chile, when he was pro­ nounced dying from lung fever. He recovered and eventually sailed on clipper ships, notably the Flying Cloud. Later, he became a ship chandler in Hong Kong, a business in which he prospered. He brought the first Chinese acrobatic troupe to America, and, while in this country again, became a U. S. Land official in Oregon. Restless, he moved to Independence, Kansas, then to Baker City, then to Dallas, Texas. In 1877 he went to Yokohama, Japan, as American Vice Consul, but soon resigned to enter the tea business, accumulating a fortune.

In the Hawaiian Islands, Capt. Joseph Allen in the Maro, in 1821 discovered Allen's or Maro Reef in Lat. 25° 31 North, Long. 170° 20' West. He also found Gardner's Reef in this same locality. In this same region of the South Seas is "Two Brother's Reef," a melancholy monument to the loss of the second ship commanded by the ill-fated Capt. George Pollard, who had previously lost the Essex.

A large and entertaining volume could be written on the whal­ ing masters of old Nantucket, from the days of Capt. Nat Hussey and his capture of the first sperm, to Paul Worth's rounding the Horn in 1791, from Capt. Sylvester Hodges voyage in a 60-ft. schooner to the South Shetlands in 1821, to Captain William Swain who com­ manded Japanese liners in 1921. It would include Capt. Reuben Clasby, who brought the first missionaries to the Hawaiian Islands < 53

in 1820; Capt. Frederick Swain, who made most of his voyages in London ships; Capt. Alexander Drew who killed his second officer on board the John Jay while in a fit of delirium tremens; Capt. Edward Barnard, who sought in vain to get Congress to dispatch a naval ves­ sel to the rescue of his crew, captured by Pellew Island natives after his ship, the Mentor, had been wrecked—and many others. What a grand volume such adventurous lives would create. **

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There were men who led quiet lives both afloat and ashore— like Capt. Charles B. Ray, who was one of six brothers to go to sea.

His first command was the ship Forester, of Dartmouth, then he took out the Wade, the Forester (second voyage in this ship), the Russell and the Swan, all of Dartmouth. While returning from his second voyage in the Forester in 1841, he lost his ship on Montauk Point—almost in sight of home. Retiring in 1850, he began making baskets, a trade he pursued until his death in 1884. His son, Mitchell Ray, is carrying on the trade his father launched 95 years ago—and in the same location on Starbuck's Court.

Capt. Albert Wood, of India street, Nantucket, was the only man known to have been caught in a sperm whale's jaw and survive to tell the story. While first officer of the ship Ploughboy, of New Bedford in 1844, he was in the bow of a boat lancing a sperm whale when the creature caught the boat in its great jaw and crushed it like an egg-shell. Capt. Wood, by some miracle, was thrown free, and, badly hurt, was picked up by another boat. He bore the scars of the whale's teeth across his abdomen and leg. The whale was soon after killed and Capt. Wood brought some of the teeth home as rather grisly mementoes of his narrow escape. After a varied exper­ ience at sea, Capt. Wood went to China, where he lived a number of years before returning to his home on India street to enjoy many years of retirement. **

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Among the dangers of whaling was that of being "drawn under" by a whale while the creature towed the boat at a furious pace. One Nantucket to meet this fate was Capt. John Pinkham, while in com­ mand of the Swift, of New Bedford in 1833. Capt. Seth Myrick and a boat's crew from the ship John Adams, of Nantucket, disappeared while in tow of a bull whale—none was ever found again.

While the ships Planter and Edward Cory, of Nantucket were cruising off French Rock in April, 1856, boats lowered and fastened to six whales in a school. Before the morning was done, two boats had been stove and 7 lines, and 20 harpoons and lances were lost.

Often boats would spend entire days in fruitless pursuit of whales 54

"going fast to windward,'' the crews going on board at nightfall, "weary and sore."

There would be Captain George Pollard, who lost two ships; Capt. Isaac Hussey, the victim of two mutinies, the last ending with his death; Capt. George Beebe, who charted channels in the Celebes Sea; Capt. Charles Morey, who instructed his wife how to take a fatal dose of laudanum in case his ship, trapped in the Arctic ice, should eventually be crushed; and Capt. Obed Fitch, who could bring a full-rigged ship about single-handed. It would tell of Capt. Frederick Arthur, at Pitcairn Island in 1822, writing of this almost unknown hide-away of the Bounty mutineers: "More than thirty years have elapsed since the Bounty was burned here....but I saw her copper boilers, her iron vice, a number of books ( some of which were pre­ sented to me.) I spoke with the son of Fletcher Christian."

On Sunday, Dec. 19, 1824, Capt. Thomas Gardner recorded in the log-book of the Nantucket whaleship Maria, the following: "At 4:40 p. m., saw low land to the Southeast, three leagues. Tacked ship to ENE, at midnight stood SSW. At 8 a. m. saw land again. It appeared a small island, 6 to 8 miles in length, 3 miles acroos. Very low. Lat. 21° 45' South, Longitude 155° 10' West. Called it Maria Island."

This island is northeast of the Cook Group. On some maps it is also called "Hull Island," a name given it some years after Capt. Gard­ ner first discovered it.

Capt. Richard Macy in the Maro, in August, 1824, wrote: "After spending a few weeks in this vicinity [|south of the Fijis] I think I will cruise north 'on Japan,' for a few months." Thus, in a few words, disposing of a journey of thousands of miles through uncharted reaches of the greatest of all oceans. Such men brought undying fame and glory to their native island and to their country.

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