humble house of imported brick on the spot where the boulder now
stands. Frequently one of the bricks is uncovered on the site; those
who examine it marvel at the thought of the building material brought
across the sea.
Later Thomas Duston uncovered deposits of clay near his home which led
him to make experiments in brick making. He was so successful that his
product was in demand; villagers said that the Haverhill bricks were
fully as good as those brought from England.
Strong building material was needed, for hostile Indians were all
about. In order to afford protection against them, Mr. Duston
determined to build a new house, which should serve as a garrison in
time of danger. By the village authorities he was appointed keeper of
the garrison, as this commission shows:
"To Thomas Duston, upon the settlement of garrisons. You
being appointed master of the garrison at your house, you are
hereby in his Maj's name, required to see that a good watch
is kept at your garrison both by night and by day by those
persons hereafter named who are to be under your command and
inspection in building or repairing your garrison, and if any
person refuse or neglect their duty, you are accordingly
required to make return of the same, under your hand to the
Committee of militia in Haverhill."
The new house was well under way when this command was given. As it is
still standing, it is possible to tell of its construction. A
Haverhill writer says that "white oak, which is to-day well preserved,
was used in its massive framework, and the floor and roof timbers are
put together with great wooden pins. In early days the windows swung
outward, and the glass was very thick, and set into the frames with
lead."
On March 15, 1697, the watching Indians decided that their opportunity
had come to attack the village. They knew that if they waited for the
completion of the new garrison, there would be little chance of
success. So they struck at once.
The story of what followed was told by Cotton Mather, in his "Magnalia
Christi Americana," published in London in 1702:
"On March 15, 1697, the Salvages made a Descent upon the
Skirts of Haverhil, Murdering and Captiving about Thirty-nine
Persons, and Burning about half a Dozen Houses. In the Broil,
one Hannah Dustan having lain-in about a Week, attended with
her Nurse, Mary Neffe a Widow, a Body of terrible Indians
drew near unto the House where she lay, with Design to carry
on their Bloody Devastations. Her Husband hastened from his
Employment abroad unto the relief of his Distressed Family;
and first bidding Seven of his Eight Children (which were
from Two to Seventeen Years of Age) to get away as fast as
they could into some Garrison in the Town, he went in to
inform his Wife of the horrible Distress come upon them. E'er
he could get up, the fierce Indians were got so near, that
utterly despairing to do her any Service, he ran out after
his Children.... He overtook his children about Forty Rod
from his Door, ... a party of Indians came up with him; and
now though they Fired at him, and he Fired at them, yet he
Manfully kept at the Reer of his Little Army of Unarmed
Children, while they Marched off with the Pace of a Child of
Five Years Old; until, by the Singular Providence of God, he
arrived safe with them all unto a Place of Safety about a
Mile or two from his House....
"The Nurse, trying to escape with the New-born Infant, fell
into the Hands of the Formidable Salvages; and those furious
Tawnies coming into the House, bid poor Dustan to rise
immediately....
"Dustan (with her Nurse) ... travelled that Night about a
Dozen Miles, and then kept up with their New Masters in a
long Travel of an Hundred and Fifty Miles....
"The poor Women had nothing but Fervent Prayers to make their
Lives Comfortable or Tolerable, and by being daily sent out
upon Business, they had Opportunities together and asunder to
do like another Hannah, in pouring out their Souls before the
Lord."
The Indians were "now Travelling with these Two Captive
Women, (and an English Youth taken from Worcester a Year and
half before,) unto a Rendezvous of Salvages which they call a
Town somewhere beyond Penacook; and they still told, these
poor Women, that when they came to this Town they must be
Stript, and Scourg'd, and Run the Gantlet through the whole
Army of Indians. They said this was the Fashion when the
Captives first came to a Town;...
"But on April 30, while they were yet, it may be, about an
Hundred and Fifty Miles from the Indian Town, a little before
break of Day, when the whole Crew was in a Dead Sleep ... one
of these Women took up a Resolution to imitate the Action of
Jael upon Sisera; and being where she had not her own Life
secured by any Law unto her, she thought she was not
forbidden by any Law to take away the Life of the
Murderers.... She heartened the Nurse and the Youth to assist
her in this Enterprize; and all furnishing themselves with
Hatchets for the purpose, they struck such home Blows upon
the Heads of their Sleeping Oppressors, that e'er they could
any of them struggle into any effectual resistance, at the
Feet of those poor Prisoners, they bow'd, they fell, they lay
down; at their Feet they bowed, they fell; where they bowed,
there they fell down Dead."
One old squaw and a boy of eleven escaped to the forest. The scalps
were not taken at first, but soon Hannah Duston returned to the camp
and gathered the trophies, in order that she might claim the bounty
offered by the colony for the scalps of hostile Indians. Then all the
Indians' canoes were scuttled, their arms were taken, and the party of
three embarked.
Day after day they paddled down the Merrimac, the three taking turns
in the unaccustomed labour. At night they paused to rest. Cautiously a
fire was kindled, and food was cooked. Always they feared discovery by
the bands of Indians. Two slept, while a third stood guard. But no
Indians appeared.
At last the home village was in sight. The wondering villagers came
out to see who the visitors could be. Their astonishment and delight
can be imagined.
The General Assembly of Massachusetts voted Mrs. Duston twenty-five
pounds' reward, while a similar amount was divided between Mrs. Neff
and the boy Samuel Lennardson. Later the governor of Maryland sent
Mrs. Duston a silver tankard.
The Duston descendants, who hold a reunion every year, prize these
souvenirs. But most of all they prize a letter (the original of which
is in the possession of the Haverhill Historical Society) written by
Mrs. Duston in 1723, in which she gave a wonderful testimony to God's
goodness to her and hers. This is the message she gave to children and
grandchildren:
"I Desire to be thankful that I was born in a Land of Light &
Baptized when I was young and had a good education by my
Father, tho' I took but little notice of it in the time of
it--I am Thankful for my Captivity, 'twas the Comfortablest
time that ever I had. In my Affliction God made his Word
Comfortable to me. I remember ye 43 ps. ult. [probably
meaning last part] and those words came to my mind--ps.
118:17--I have had a great Desire to Come to the Ordinance of
the Lord's Supper a Great while, but fearing I should give
offense and fearing my own Unworthiness has kept me back.
Reading a Book concerning X's Sufferings Did much awaken me.
In the 55th of Isa. beg [beginning] We are invited to come:
Hearing Mr. Moody preach out of ye 3rd of Mal. 3 last verses
it put me upon Consideration. Ye 11th of Matt., ending, has
been encouraging to me--I have been resolving to offer my
Self from time to time ever since the Settlement of the
present Ministry. I was awakened by the first Sacraml Sermon
[Luke 14:17]. But Delays and fears prevailed upon me: But I
desire to Delay no longer, being Sensible it is my Duty--I
desire the Church to receive me tho' it be the Eleventh hour;
and pray for me that I may honer God and receive the
Salvation of My Soul.
"Hannah Duston, wife of Thomas. Aetat 67."
Mrs. Duston lived in the old house at Haverhill for many years after
her remarkable escape.
XI
THE OLD MANSE AND THE WAYSIDE, CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS
TWO HOUSES MADE FAMOUS BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
Nathaniel Hawthorne was thirty-eight years old before he was able to
begin the ideal life of Adam with his Eve, to which he had looked
forward for many years.
"I want a little piece of land that I can call my own, big enough to
stand upon, big enough to be buried in," he said to a friend when he
was thirty-four years old. Lack of money delayed the realization, but
it is a curious fact that the marriage to Sophia Peabody took place
just after he had made up his mind that the thousand dollars he had
invested in the Emerson Brook Farm experiment was gone forever.
The marriage took place July 9, 1842, and housekeeping was at once
begun in the Old Manse at Concord, which was built in 1765 by
Emerson's grandfather. But he was merely a renter; his dream of
ownership was to be delayed ten years longer. The great rooms of the
curious gambrel-roofed house were rather bare, and there was a
scarcity of everything except love, yet the author and his bride found
nothing but joy in the retired garden and the dormer-windowed house.
Hawthorne's own charming description of the house and grounds is so
attractive that the reader wishes to visit them:
"Between two tall gateposts of rough-hewn stone (the gate
itself having fallen from its hinges at some unknown epoch),
we beheld the grey front of the old parsonage terminating the
vista of an avenue of black ash trees. It was now a
twelvemonth since the funeral procession of the venerable
clergyman, the last inhabitant, had turned from that gateway
toward the village burying ground....
"Nor, in truth, had the old manse ever been profaned by a lay
occupant until that memorable summer afternoon when I entered
it as my home. A priest had built it; a priest had succeeded
to it; other priestly owners from time to time had dwelt in
it; and children born in the chambers had grown up to assume
the priestly character. It was awful to recollect how many
sermons must have been written there. The latest inhabitant
there--he by whose translation to paradise the dwelling was
left vacant--had penned nearly three thousand discourses....
How often, no doubt, had he paced along the avenue, attuning
his meditations to sighs and gentle murmurs, and deep and
solemn peals of the wind among the leafy tops of the
trees!... I took shame to myself for having been so long a
writer of idle stories, and ventured to hope that wisdom
would descend upon me with the falling leaves of the autumn,
and that I should light upon an intellectual treasure in the
Old Manse well worth those hoards of long-hidden gold which
people seek for in moss-grown houses."
Two years after their marriage, Mrs. Hawthorne wrote to her mother:
"I have no time, as you may imagine. I am baby's tire-woman,
hand-maiden, and tender, as well as nursing mother. My
husband relieves me with her constantly, and gets her to
sleep beautifully.... The other day, when my husband saw me
contemplating an appalling vacuum in his dressing-gown, he
said he was a man of the largest rents in the country, and it
was strange he had not more ready money.... But, somehow or
other, I do not care much, because we are so happy."
Hawthorne did much of his work in the rear room where Emerson wrote.
In the introduction to "Mosses from an Old Manse" he said of this
apartment:
"When I first saw the room, the walls were blackened with the
smoke of unnumbered years, and made still blacker by the grim
prints of Puritan ministers, that hung around.... The rain
pattered upon the roof and the sky gloomed through the dirty
garret windows while I burrowed among the venerable books in
search of any living thought."
From his writing Hawthorne turned easily to wandering in the garden or
rowing on the river or helping his wife about the house. "We had a
most enchanting time during Mary the cook's holiday sojourn in
Boston," Mrs. Hawthorne wrote at one time. "We remained in our bower
undisturbed by mortal creature. Mr. Hawthorne took the new phases of
housekeeper, and, with that marvellous power of adaptation to
circumstances that he possesses, made everything go easily and well.
He rose betimes in the mornings and kindled fires in the kitchen and
breakfast room, and by the time I came down the tea-kettle boiled and
potatoes were baked and rice cooked, and my lord sat with a book
superintending."
Poverty put an untimely end to life at the Old Manse. The years from
1846 to 1852 were spent in Boston and Salem. In 1852 Hawthorne was
able to buy a dilapidated old house at Concord, which he called The
Wayside. Here he remained until his appointment in 1853 as American
Consul at Liverpool, and to it he returned after long wandering.
The Wayside had been the home of Bronson Alcott. Here Mr. and Mrs.
Hawthorne made their second real home. They rejoiced as, a little at a
time, they were able to improve the property, and they showed always
that they knew the secret of finding happiness in the midst of
privations.
Hawthorne described his new abode for his friend, George William
Curtis:
"As for my old house, you will understand it better after
spending a day or two in it. Before Mr. Alcott took it in
hand, it was a mean-looking affair, with two peaked gables;
no suggestion about it and no venerableness, although from
the style of its architecture it seems to have survived
beyond its first century. He added a porch in front, and a
central peak, and a piazza at each end, and painted it a
rusty olive hue, and invested the whole with a modest
picturesqueness; all which improvements, together with the
situation at the foot of a wooded hill, make it a place that
one notices and remembers for a few minutes after passing
it....
"The house stands within ten or fifteen feet of the old
Boston road (along which the British marched and retreated),
divided from it by a fence, and some trees and shrubbery of
Mr. Alcott's setting out. Wherefore I have called it 'The
Wayside,' which I think a better name and more morally
suggestive than that which, as Mr. Alcott has since told me,
he bestowed on it, 'The Hillside.' In front of the house, on
the opposite side of the road, I have eight acres of
land,--the only valuable portion of the place in a farmer's
eye, and which are capable of being made very fertile. On the
hither side, my territory extends some little distance over
the brow of the hill, and is absolutely good for nothing, in
a productive point of view, though very good for many other
purposes.
"I know nothing of the history of the house, except Thoreau's
telling me that it was inhabited a generation or two ago by a
man who believed he should never die. I believe, however, he
is dead; at least, I hope so; else he may probably appear and
dispute my title to his residence."
In furnishing the house Mrs. Hawthorne took keen pleasure in putting
the best of everything in her husband's study. She called it "the best
room, the temple of the Muses and the Delphic shrine."
In these surroundings, supported by a wife who worshipped him,
Hawthorne wrote until the call came to go to England. It was 1860
before he returned to The Wayside. There he hoped to end his life,
but death overtook him at Plymouth, New Hampshire, while he was making
a tour of New England with Franklin Pierce. Mrs. Hawthorne survived
him seven years.
[Illustration: ROYALL HOUSE, MEDFORD, MASS.
_Photo by Ph. B. Wallace_
See page 66]
XII
THE ROYALL HOUSE, MEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS
FROM WHOSE ROOF MOLLY STARK SIGNALLED TO HER HUSBAND
One who is familiar with the old plantation houses of Virginia is
tempted to rub his eyes when he first sees the Royall House at
Medford, Massachusetts, for this relic of Colonial days has the
outbuildings, the slave-quarters, and other characteristics of so many
Virginia houses. True, it has not the low wings and the stately
columns at the entrance, but the doorway is so chaste and dignified
that this is not felt to be a lack. Those who enter the doorway and
walk reverently through the rooms of what has been called the finest
specimen of colonial architecture in the vicinity of Boston, are
filled anew with admiration for the builders of another day who chose
the finest white pine for their work, and would not dream of scamping
anywhere. Evidently there was little need in those days of the
services of an inspector to see that the terms of a contract were
carried out.
The history of the property goes back to 1631, when Governor John
Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who
served for nineteen years, secured a grant to the farm on which,
within six or seven years, the original dormer-windowed Royall House
was built. This was smaller than the present house, but it was later
incorporated in the present stately mansion; one story was added, and
the outer wall was moved a few feet. Thus it is really a house within
a house.
At the time of Governor Winthrop's ownership it was called the
Ten-Hill Farmhouse, because ten hills could be seen from its windows.
John Winthrop, Jr., sold the place to Mrs. Elizabeth Lidgett.
Lieutenant Governor Usher married a Lidgett, and owned the estate
until he lost it through business reverses. The name was not changed
until 1732, when the house was bought by Isaac Royall, a planter from
Antigua, in the Leeward Islands, a descendant of William Royall of
Salem. He paid L10,350 for the estate, which then consisted of five
hundred and four acres. It was he who enlarged the house. For five
years the neighbors watched the transformation of the comfortable
Ten-Hill Farmhouse to the great Royall House, with its enclosing wall,
elm-bordered driveway, pleasing garden, summerhouse, great barn, and
rambling slave-quarters.
Two generations of Royalls entertained lavishly here. Among the guests
were the most celebrated men of the time, as well as many who were not
so well known, for all were welcome there. Many of these guests drove
up the driveway to the paved courtyard in their own grand equipages.
Some were brought in the four-horse Royall chariot. But those who came
on foot were welcomed as heartily.
Isaac Royall, II, was a Tory, and in 1775 he was compelled to abandon
the property. Thereupon Colonel, later General, John Stark made it
his headquarters. The regiment which he had himself raised, and whose
wages he paid for a time from his own pocket, was encamped near by.
From the Royall house these men and their intrepid leader went out to
the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Under the direction of Molly Stark the house maintained its reputation
for hospitality, and she did her best to make the place the abode of
patriotism. On the day when the British evacuated Boston she promised
her husband to signal to him from the roof the movements of the enemy.
Passing on with his soldiers to Dorchester Heights, he anxiously
awaited the news sent to him by his faithful Molly.
The Royall family regained possession of the property in 1805. To-day
it is owned by the Royall House Association, which keeps it open to
the visitors. These come in large numbers to see relics of former
days, including what is said to be the only chest that survived the
Boston Tea Party, the sign of the Royall Oak Tavern in Medford, which
bears the marks of the bullets of the soldiers who were on their way
to the Battle of Bunker Hill, the old furniture, the first fork used
in the Colony, and the furnishings of the quaint kitchen fireplace,
which dates from 1732.
[Illustration: BROADHEARTH, SAUGUS, MASS.
_Photo by Wallace Nutting, Inc., Framingham Center, Mass_
See page 69]
XIII
BROADHEARTH AND THE BENNET-BOARDMAN HOUSE, SAUGUS, MASSACHUSETTS
TWO REMARKABLE SPECIMENS OF THE OVERHANG HOUSE
"Thomas Dexter of Lyn, yeoman," was the first owner of much of the
land on which Lynn, Massachusetts, is built. Evidently he was land
poor, for on October 22, 1639, he "mortgaged his fearme in Lyn ... for
two oxen & 2 bulls upon condition of payment to Simon Broadstreet of
Ipswich L90 the first day of August, the next following with a
reservation upon the sale of the said fearme to give the said Dexter
the overflow above the debt and damages of the said L90."
Six years later the Registry of Deeds at Salem told of the sale, to
Richard Leader, Gent, of England, of a bit of the farm on which
Governor Broadstreet held a mortgage. Mr. Leader was the agent of "ye
Company of undertakers of ye Iron Works," and he thought that Dexter
had the best location for the purposes of the company that proposed to
start what proved to be the first successful iron works in the
Colonies. The quaint story of the transaction was entered thus:
"Thomas Dexter of Lyn in the County of Essex ye[oman] for the
sum of 40 L st[erling] hath sowld unto Richard Leder for ye
use of ye Iron works all that land, wch by reason of [a]
damme now agreed to be made, shall overflow and all
sufficient ground for a water course from the damme, to the
works to be erected, and alsoe all [the] land betwene the
an[cient] water course and the new extended flume or water
course togeather with five acres and an halfe of land lying
in the corn field most convenient for the Iron Works and also
tooe convenient cartwayes that is to one on each side of the
premises as by a deed indented bearing date the twentie
seaventh of January, 1645, more at lardge apth."
On the ground thus bought a sturdy house, Broadhearth, was built in
1646. The second story overhung the first story, after the manner of
many English houses of the period. The overhang is still in evidence,
though a veranda has hidden it except to the careful observer.
The first product of the iron works, a kettle, was made in 1642. This
is still in existence. During more than one hundred years neighboring
colonists looked to the foundry for their supplies of house hardware,
furnishings, and implements of iron. The site of the foundry was
opposite the house, while traces of the pits from which the bog ore
was dug are easily found in the field at the rear. Remains of scoria
and slag are also pointed out to the visitor by employees of the
Wallace Nutting Corporation, which has restored the house as nearly as
possible to its original condition and has placed in it furniture of
the period. A caretaker has been placed in charge who will copy for
applicants iron work in the house, or other old examples. Thus, in a
modest way, the Saugus Iron Works has been reestablished.
[Illustration: BENNET-BOARDMAN HOUSE, SAUGUS, MASS.
_Photo by Halliday Historic Photograph Company_
See page 69]
Another specimen of the overhang house is not far away. This is the
house built some time between 1649 and 1656 by Samuel Bennet,
carpenter. It is famous as the house that has been in two counties,
Suffolk and Essex, and in four towns, Boston, Lynn, Chelsea, and
Saugus.
That it was once in Boston was due to the narrow strip of the
territory of the city that stretched far out in the country, somewhat
after the manner of a portion of a modern gerrymandered legislative
district. When the district was set off as Chelsea and Lynn, in
response to a petition of citizens who were inconvenienced by their
distance from town meetings, the boundaries between Chelsea and Lynn
were carelessly marked; one line ran directly through the front door
and the chimney of the Bennet house. This mistake, which caused
annoyance and expense to those who occupied the house, was not
corrected for more than one hundred years. Finally Abijah Boardman
asked that he be relieved of his double liability to Lynn and Chelsea,
and in 1803, by Act of the General Court, the petition was granted.
Bennet, the builder of the house, figured more than once in the
courts. In 1644 the Grand Jury indicted him as "a Common sleeper in
time of exercise," and he was fined 2s. 6d. In 1671 he brought suit
against the Iron Works Company for L400 for labor. In connection with
this suit John Paule, whose "constant employment was to repair carts,
coale carts, mine carts, and other working materials" for the "tiemes"
at the iron works, testified that "my master Bennet did yearly yearme
a vast sum from said Iron Works, for he commonly yearmed forty or
fifty shillings a daye, for he had five or six teemes goeing generally
every faire day."