PELEG BURGESS
Peleg Burgess, 1840-1931, by purchase from his brother, Phineas
Franklin Burgess, became the sole owner of the homestead and kept the
property until October 17, 1918, when at the age of 78 he sold it to
his children. In 1923, Book 1445, Page 428, it is recorded that it was
granted back to him for his lifetime use when he had sold it to his
four daughters, Annie, Charlotte, Susan and Mary and his son Harrison
for $300.00 each. Peleg’s home on Union Street was sold in 1930 to
these children and his son Walter, then of California, in addition.
As a young man, Peleg had wanted to be a sea captain and started
training early in life. He spent some time in Bangkok, then Siam,
during the Civil War, at the age of 22, because of ship movement
problems brought on by the war. He brought back a large dictionary and
many small art treasures from the Far East. He did not live regularly
at the homestead, but his father Phineas did so.
At the age of 27 Peleg married Ann Jane Nicol, 1843-1891, on July 22,
1867.
They had eight children: Annie Sprague, 1868-1956; Harrison Nicol,
1870-1954; Frances Allison, 1872-1896; Charlotte Jane, 1875-1934; Susan
Howland, 1878-1968; and Mary Alma, born 1885.
Six years after the death of Ann Nicol in 1891, he married Henrietta
Lavender of Provincetown in 1897.
During his career, Peleg lived for a time in Boston, where he was
engaged in construction. In Plymouth he participated in construction
of Plymouth Cordage Company buildings and the original part of Jordan
Hospital. He also built houses on Union Street where the family home is
located. He played the violin well and served for a time as organist at
the Baptist Church. He was proficient in carpentry, cabinet making and
surveying.
During the latter part of his period of ownership at the Pond, after
1874, he sold small pond frontage lots from time to time, up to 15
or so in number for summer cottages or camps, as they are generally
called. The small peninsula jutting into Boot Pond was sold to the
Douglas family who built there a large summer home. Mary Burgess told
me her father considered Mr. Douglas a pious man and would be sure to
observe a quiet Sabbath. These sales provided perhaps needed revenue.
Five hundred feet of Boot Pond shoreline was reserved for the use of
the homestead.
Peleg’s daughter Susan was born in Boston and was a graduate of the
Boston Museum School of Fine Arts in modeling. She became a talented
artist in several fields and taught art courses for many decades in
the public schools of Hollywood, California, in its early days of
prominence. Earlier she had won an award to be a student for four
years of the sculptor Rodin in Paris. Her opportunity was not realized
because of World War I. She excelled in many fields, in sketches,
painting, sculpture, wood carving, ceramics and children’s book
illustration. Many of her works are in existence. A memorial exhibit
of her many works was held by the Plymouth Black and White Club, an
art society, in 1970. She was always energetic at the Pond where she
summered with her sisters and converted the barn into a sort of studio
for art classes. She was somewhat upset by seeing the family homestead
in other hands after 200 years, but did come out for a visit in her
early eighties.
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Mary Burgess became a registered nurse as a 1910 graduate of Boston’s
Children’s Hospital and served with distinction in Boston hospitals
and St. Luke’s in New York City. In 1913 she lived for a year in
England on an estate on the Thames near Hartley as a special nurse for
a Boston family. She was an army nurse in France during the first world
war for a year and a half and underwent hospital bombardment at times.
For many years she and her sister Susan travelled to California by car
to spend winters in the Santa Barbara and other regions. Since retiring
and living in Plymouth she has been until recently active as a hostess
at the Spooner House.
She is a warm, kind and friendly person. She has been most helpful to
me in providing information about what she remembers of the family
and the Pond from her long lifetime and delights to visit her family
homestead.
One of Peleg’s sons, Leonard, lived in Plymouth and was a builder.
He had a son, Eldon, who has two sons, Eldon and Richard, living in
California. Leonard also has a daughter, Frances Burgess O’Keeffe, who
resides in Santa Barbara, California.
The children of Richard Burgess, who with his family takes a summer
cottage at South Pond, are in the tenth generation of Burgesses since
the first Thomas came in 1630.
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