When Brewster town history is recounted there is always talk of the
colorful seafaring oldsters and their great sailing craft. Outstanding
is the Pitcairn Island story. Captain William Freeman of Brewster
landed at the bleak hiding place of the Bounty mutineers in 1883,
and brought his daughter Clara along with him. Clara cultivated the
friendship with Rosa Young, daughter of Edward Young, who survived the
hardships and bloody conflict among the mutineers after they found
refuge on the island in 1790. Later, they corresponded. Today, in the
Brewster Public Library, there is the original manuscript of Rosa
Young’s letters, extending over a period of six months.
In one of these letters, Rosa tells of her meeting with the chaplain
of the man-of-war Constance, who landed at Pitcairn. All descendents
of the mutineers, including Rosa, were intensely religious. Thus, she
described the visiting chaplain to her Brewster friend: “Whether he
experienced the same feeling that I did I cannot tell, but I certainly
thought that a more un-chaplain-looking man was hard to find, and if
words and manner are an index to a man’s character, he certainly did
not seem rightly fitted for a sacred office.” And then, as though to
show how shocked she was, Rosa Young concluded, “as we were about to
leave ship he said, ‘Now, we will have to sing, _The Girl I Left
Behind Me._’”
The house in Brewster where Joseph C. Lincoln, writer of Cape Cod
character stories, was born still bears a For Sale sign. Conrad Aiken,
noted American poet, has a Summer place in a tranquil spot in the hill
country. Chester Slack, an artist of reputation, lives there year-round
and takes a sympathetic interest in local affairs. In recent times
a Brewster craftsman, with a resourceful spirit reminiscent of the
Factory Village pioneers, has been weaving fine tweeds to fill
individual orders.
Brewster today reflects mostly upon her memory-book, for there is
no longer any of the teeming industry of the Winslow founders. The
exciting spring herring run annually draws attention to the town.
Brewster has one vestige of the hallowed past that is distinctive:
It is the site of the only water-power grist mill on Cape Cod where
countless modern summer visitors have watched the ancient process of
grinding corn--and captured a bit of stirring reality of the vigorous
Founding Days of our nation.