Westward of the Marblehead peninsula, there stretches into the
mainland another noted haven of the olden time, Salem harbor,
dividing it into two arms, the North and South Rivers, having between
them the town, chiefly built upon a peninsula about two miles long.
This was the Indian domain of Naumkeag, a name preserved in many
titles there, and meaning the "Eel-Land." It was the mother-colony on
Massachusetts Bay, the first house being built in 1626, and old John
Endicott having got a grant from Plymouth for the colony, he came out
and founded the town two years afterwards, calling it Salem, "from the
peace which they had and hoped in it." But despite this peacefulness,
the people soon developed warlike tendencies. They scourged Philip
Ratcliffe, and cut off his ears and banished him soon after the
founding, for "blasphemy against the First Church," and when the port
had got well under way, an annual trade statement showed imports of
$110,000 in arms and cannon, against $90,000 in everything else. The
"First Church," formed in 1629, was the earliest church organization
in New England, and it still exists. There were then ten houses in the
town, besides the Governor's house, which the early history describes
as "garnished with great ordnance;" adding, "thus we doubt not that
God will be with us, and if God be with us, who can be against us?"
John Winthrop was here as Governor, briefly, in 1630, soon migrating
to Shawmut, to found Boston for the capital of the colony. After the
Revolution, Salem was the leading seaport of New England; but its
glory has departed, and the trade has gone to Boston. In 1785 it sent
out the first American vessel that doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and
during a half century afterwards it held almost a monopoly of the East
India and China trade with the United States, having at one time
fifty-four large ships thus engaged. The Salem ships also went to the
Southern seas, Japan and Africa. This trade gave its people great
wealth and influence, and it was said, about 1810, that a Salem
merchant was then the largest shipowner in the world. But this has
retired into the dim past, and now it is a restful city of about forty
thousand people, its leading townsmen, the descendants of the
merchants and captains, living in comfortable mansions surrounding the
Common and along the quiet elm-shaded streets in the residential
section. The rest of the population have gone into shoemaking and
other manufactures.
George Peabody, the philanthropist, was the most noted citizen of
Salem, born in the suburb of Danvers (since changed to Peabody) in
1795, and, dying in 1869, his remains rest in Harmony Grove Cemetery.
In the Peabody Institute, which he founded in Danvers, is kept as a
sacred relic Queen Victoria's portrait, her gift to him in recognition
of his benefactions. General Putnam, Nathaniel Bowditch, William H.
Prescott, the historian, W. W. Story, the sculptor, and Nathaniel
Hawthorne, were natives of Salem. The East India Marine Hall is its
most noted institution, a fine building filled with a remarkable
Oriental collection, gathered in the many voyages made by Salem ships,
and also having a valuable Natural History Museum, designed to show
the development of animal life. In the Essex Institute are interesting
historical paintings and relics, including the charter given by King
Charles I. to the colony of Massachusetts Bay. Also, carefully kept
near by, is the original "First Church," built in 1634 for the
organization formed in 1629, and of which Roger Williams was the
pastor before the Puritans banished him from the colony. When the
enlarging congregation built a more spacious church, this quaint
little house, with its high-pointed roof, diamond-paned windows and
gallery, which is revered as the shrine of Salem, was removed to its
present location. In Essex Street is also the old "Roger Williams
House," a low-roofed structure with a little shop in front, his home
for a brief period in 1635-36. This house has acquired additional fame
as a relic of the witchcraft days, for in it was held the court trying
some of the witches in 1692, who were afterwards taken to the gallows
or Witch Hill, on the western verge of the town, to be put to death.
The witchcraft delusion began in the Danvers suburb and soon overran
most of New England, the prosecutions continuing more than a year.
Nineteen proven witches were executed, while one, under the ancient
English law, was pressed to death for standing mute when told to
plead. Old Cotton Mather, the historian and pastor, was a leader in
the movement against the witches.
The North Shore, beyond Salem Harbor, stretches far along the
rock-bound coast of Cape Ann. Here all the old fishing towns have
become modern villa-studded summer resorts, picturesque and attractive
in their newer development. Beverley, Manchester-by-the-Sea and
Magnolia all have grand headlands and fine beaches. Beverley also has
shoe-factories, and is proud of the memory of Nathan Dane, the eminent
jurist, who named Dane Hall, the Harvard Law School. Manchester has
the "Singing Beach," where the white sand, when stirred, emits a
musical sound. Magnolia, on a rocky bluff, is adjoined by the
attractive Crescent Beach, and has around it very fine woodland. To
the eastward is Rafe's Chasm, sixty feet deep and only a few feet
wide, and off shore, almost opposite, is the bleak reef of Norman's
Woe. Inland is Wenham Lake, near Beverley, noted for its ice supply,
upon which all these places depend, while beyond, the Ipswich River
comes down through the pleasant town of Ipswich, covering both banks
with houses, and flowing into Ipswich Bay north of the peninsula of
Cape Ann. To the westward is Andover, where the thrifty Puritan
Fathers, having bought the domain from the Indians "for twenty-six
dollars and sixty-four cents and a coat," established the noted
Andover Theological Seminary of the Congregational Church, where its
ablest divines have been taught in what has been called "the school
of the prophets." Here, on "Andover Hill," abstruse theology has been
the ruling influence and intense religious controversies have been
waged, over three thousand clergymen having been graduated. Mrs.
Harriet Beecher Stowe lived here after publishing _Uncle Tom's Cabin_,
and is buried here. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps was born here, and wrote
_Gates Ajar_ in the venerable "Phelps House." The Seminary buildings,
the local guidebook tells us, cause visitors to wonder "if orthodox
angels have not lifted up old Harvard and Massachusetts Halls and
carried them by night from Cambridge to Andover Hill." Ipswich, too,
has a famous Seminary, but it is for the opposite sex. We are told
that one reason for the popularity of Ipswich Female Seminary is that
its location tends to softening the rigors of study, as this is the
place "where Andover theological students are wont to take unto
themselves wives of the daughters of the Puritans." The indented shore
of Ipswich Bay was ancient Agawam, of which Captain John Smith,
coasting along in 1614, recorded in his narrative that he saw "the
many cornfields and delightful groves of Agawam." The fertile valley
of Ipswich River is a veritable oasis among the rocks, moors and
salt-marshes that environ it.