Early this year Laroy Sunderland gave a course of lectures on Pathetism, as he termed his subject, in Lyceum Hall. He claimed ability to explain divers mystical operations of the mind, and by experiments to exhibit some of its most remarkable effects on the body. The attendance on his lectures was very large. The supposed science, however, seemed but another phase of Mesmerism, or animal magnetism, which created a good deal of attention in France toward the close of century 1700, and which Franklin, as a member of an investigating committee, referred to the imagination. Yet, on a question of such depth in mental philosophy it might require one greater than Franklin to determine what is imaginary and what real. During the few years immediately antecedent to the year 1850, scores of lecturers, many of them ignorant mountebanks, travelled up and down the country, pretending to great discoveries in mental science, and adopting various learned names for the dignifying of their systems. But they all seemed to fade away in the light of Spiritualism, which began to prevail about that marked year, 1850. Great numbers among the learned and refined, as well as among the ignorant, believed that means were now discovered by which intelligible communication could be held with disembodied spirits. The means - to wit, the knocking against a wainscot or the tipping of a table - through which the communications of the invisible ones were vouchsafed, were, to be sure, to common apprehension a little extraordinary; but in matters which are altogether mysterious, and without the circle of common events, the rules of what we call common sense may not apply. But all such things are perhaps useful, from directing attention to studies which may do much to elevate mankind; even as the old astrology, which in itself was puerile, led to some of the loftiest discoveries in astronomy. The Essex County Whig, a weekly newspaper was commenced this year. In 1846, the name was changed to Lynn News. And in 1861 it was discontinued. The journeymen shoemakers formed a society for mutual benefit, early this year. They endeavored to establish better and more uniform prices. The old order system -the system under which the workman was compelled to take orders payable in goods, for his earnings - which often operated oppressively, was now very generally abandoned, and the wages were paid in money. No striking results, perhaps, immediately followed the formation of this society; yet, like all similar movements, it was useful in diffusing a knowledge of the real condition of things and affecting public sentiment. The thermometer stood at 100 degress, in the shade, 26 June. The Whig party held a mass meeting in Lynn, 4 September. Eminent speakers from abroad were present, and a procession, numbering about 3.000, moved through the principal streets. On the 6th of September, the Democratic party had a great clam-bake at Swampscot. A procession, numbering some two thousand, two hundred of whom were of the military, was formed at the Central Depot, in Lynn, and marched to the place of the unique entertainment. Addresses were made by eminent political orators. Tuesday, 22 October, was the day calculated by the Millerites, as the believers in the immediate destruction of the world were called, to be that on which the closing up of all earthly affairs would take place. But it passed off without any extraordinary occurrence, probably to the relief of some whose courage was not equal to their faith. There were quite a number in Lynn, who firmly believed in the predictions of Mr. Miller. They held meetings, and in some instances showed their sincerity by abandoning their business and giving away their property. And many still continue steadfast in the belief that the end of all things is close at hand. Mr. John Alley, 3d, had a swine, raised by himself, slaughtered this year, which weighed, before being dressed, 1.330 pounds. The fat produced 128 pounds of lard. He had the skin stuffed; and it became an object of curiosity at agricultural exhibitions.
About midnight, on the 4th of May, a dwelling house on the north side of Summer street, between Market and Pleasant, occupied by Albourne Oliver and David M. Hildreth, was burned. The two families had barely time to escape with their lives. Not even a change of clothing was saved by any of the inmates. Loss $3.000. Mount Carmel Lodge of Freemasons, instituted in 1805, and discontinued in 1834, under the anti-masonic pressure, was this year reorganized and regular meetings resumed. Joseph W. Millett, of Swampscot, met his death, 28 May, under painful circumstances. Some young men were in the pastures in pursuiit of geological specimens, and he accompanied them. They charged a rock with a pound of powder, and he volunteered to touch it off. They retired, not without apprehension, as he appeared so daring, leaving him to execute the dangerous task. They heard the report, returned, and found him dead, his body being much mutilated. He left a wife and six children. The Lynn Artillery joined the escort at the funeral solemnities held in Boston, 9 July, on the occasion of the death of General Jackson . The thermometer reached 101 degrees, in the shade, 12 July A young man from Bradford, named Noyes, was drowned, while bathing, at Needham's Landing, 10 September. He had come to Lynn in the hope of benefitting his health by sea bathing, arriving only the day before.
Between eleven and twelve o'clock on the night of 1 January, a fire broke out in the Rockaway House, at Swampscot, destroying the building and furniture, bowling-alleys, stable, and other out buildings. Loss about $20.000. The building was formerly the Topsfield Hotel, and was moved from that town to Swampscot, a distance of about fifteen miles. For several days, in the early part of January, the air was so clear that the planet Venus could be seen at noonday, about three hours behind the sun. Amariah Childs died, 21 January, aged 80. He owned the mills on Saugus river, Boston street, which so long bore his name, and there manufactured that excellent chocolate which became celebrated not only throughout the United States, but in Europe. He began. the manufacture in or about the year 1805, and sold out the business in 1840. He lived on Boston street, nearly opposite Bridge, and was an esteemed citizen. He married three wives, the first and last of whom were sisters, and the intermediate one the widow of a deceased brother of the other two. The last named was Mrs. Larkin, mother of Thomas O. Larkin, who, at one time during the excitement respecting the California gold discoveries, was reputed to be the wealthiest man in the Union, he having become proprietor of extensive tracts of land in that auriferous region. At the time of his death, however, which occurred a few years after, it appeared that though a rich man, his possessions had been greatly over-estimated. A house on Franklin street, belonging to John Alley, 3d, was struck by lightning, 18 May, and two persons knocked down. On the 21st of June, the lightning struck the house of Charles P. Curtis, then in process of erection, on Ocean street, doing considerable damage to the frame. On Sunday, 28 June, there appeared a remarkable solar halo. The outer edge was of a beautiful violet, and the inner red. The first Congregational meeting-house in Swampscot, was dedicated on the 15th of July, and the church organized. On the 1st of August, the anniversary of the abolishment of slavery in the British West Indies was celebrated in the woods, near Lover's Leap. The day was pleasant, and a large company of ladies and gentlemen assembled. Some prominent speakers from other places were present. Thomas Nourse killed a rattlesnake five feet long, and having nine rattles, on the Lynnfield road, in July. The ages of these reptiles may be determined by the number of their rattles. They have the first when three years old, and afterward one annually. On Sunday morning, 9 August, one of the most destructive fires that ever occurred in Lynn, took place. It commenced at about two o'clock, in the spice and coffee mill of Nehemiah Berry and Samuel C. Childs, on Water Hill. The mill and adjacent frame buildings were soon destroyed and the fire communicated to the large brick building used for silk printing and dyeing, then occupied by Daniel K. Chase; and that also was destroyed. Total loss about $75.000. Insurance $20.000. This brick factory was the one referred to under date 1836. On Friday afternoon, 14 August, during the recess at the grammar school on Franklin street, the upper wall fell - plastering, beams, flooring, and all - and precipitated into the room a cord and a half of wood which had been piled in the attic. It came down with such force that portions sank through the floor into the basement. Several pupils who happened to remain in during the recess, were injured; none, however, fatally. The average attendance of scholars was about a hundred and fifty, and had the accident occurred while the school was in session, many lives must have been lost. A smart shock of an earthquake was felt on Tuesday morning, 25 August, at fifteen minutes before five o'clock. It was sufficientlv violent to wake persons from sleep, and in some instances dishes were thrown from shelves. There was for a moment a dull, rumbling sound, like that produced by a train of cars passing over a bridge. The old Lynn Light Infantry, organized in 1812, was disbanded this year. For many years it was a famous company. The Agricultural Society of Essex County, held their annual cattle show and exhibition in Lynn, 1 October. The weather was pleasant and a very large number were present from abroad. The address was delivered by Moses Newell, of West Newbury, and the dinner was had in the basement of the First Congregational meeting-house. A levee and dance took place in the evening. The summer and autumn were unusually warm and dry; more so, it was stated, than at any previous time for a quarter of a century. There was a great failure of water in the wells about town; some dried up that never had before. November and December were very cold. At Thanksgiving time there was a great easterly storm that did much damage. A singular disease began to affect the potato crop, this year; and it has continued to exhibit itself with more or less virulence every season since, in some instances destroying whole crops; the potatoes being sometimes attacked while in the ground, and at other times after being digged. Four periods have been marked by the prevalence of the "potato rot," in this vicinity; the first in 1770. The remedy in former times seems to have been in the use of the seed, instead of the bulb, for propagation. The congress boot began to be manufactured at this time. Its peculiarity consisted mainly in the substitution of an elastic gore for the old lacing, thus rendering the boot easier about the ankle, and more tasty in appearance. The Mexican war commenced this year. Lynn furnished twenty volunteers, viz: Mark Anms, Henry Chester, Benjamin Coates, C. W. Foster, Nathan Green, Lucius Grover, Joseph Hepburn, Amos Kimball, Stephen Morton, Henry Newhall, William B. Patten, Hezekiah Shaw, Walter Sherman, Edward F. Skinner, John Spinney, William Swasey, Joseph Wendell, Joseph York, and two others of the name of Brown.
On the 15th of April, there were two inches of frost in the ground. And on the 22d of the same month the weather was so warm that the thermometer rose to eighty-six degrees in the shade. But the next day it snowed. President Polk made a short visit to Lynn on Monday afternoon, 5 July. He came from the east in a special train, left his car at the Central Depot and rode through the town in a carriage, taking his car again at the depot at the foot of Commercial street. There was great eagerness to greet him, but his stay was so short that few could be gratified. The Hutchinson cottage at High Rock was built this year. Also Exchange Building, on Market street. The Agricultural Society of Essex county, again held their annual cattle show and exhibition at Lynn, 29 September. The address was delivered by Thomas E. Payson of Rowley. The dinner and other festivities usual on the occasion passed off in a manner most satisfactory. Samuel Mulliken died 25 November, aged 86. He was long identified with the prosperity of Lynn, and was the third postmaster, serving from 1803 to 1807. Before coming to Lynn he for a short time pursued the business of a watchmaker, at Salem. In Lynn, he did a large business, for many years, as a tanner, and at one time kept a large store at the southern end of Market street. He was a man of strict integrity and great industry. He had a strong will, which, being usually set in the right direction stood him in good stead. But he once related to me an instance of its operation which seems more amusing than beneficial. During the active portion of his life, it was a custom, as public conveyances were few, for a couple of business men to visit Boston in company, one providing the horse and vehicle and the other paying the tolls and horse keeping. One chilly November day, he and Jeremiah Bulfinch, a neighbor, agreed to visit Boston in that partnership way. Mr. B. was to furnish the conveyance and Mr. M. to pay the expenses. When they arrived at Charlestown, which was early in the forenoon, they found that an additional toll, or some other charge, to the amount of six cents, on which neither had calculated, had been levied. Mr. Mulliken contended that the extra charge should be equally shared; but Mr. Bulfinch declared that none of it rightfully fell on him. They were equally matched for stubbornness, and there they sat, disputing and arguing, till the declining sun warned them that it was time for the horse's head to be turned homeward. And home they rode, each, undoubtedly, congratulating himself on his manly triumph. "And," added Mr. Mulliken, as he related the incident, his countenance radiating from the old fire within, though he was then more than eighty years of age, "I would have sat there till this time, before I would have paid it." Mr. Mulliken had two wives; his first was a daughter of Col. Ezra Newhall, of the Revolution; and his children were, Jonathan, William, John, Charles, Susan, George. The old Lynn Rifle Company was disbanded this year. It had been in existence about twenty-five years, and ranked high for discipline. The custom of pressing sea mosses and working them into parlor ornaments, began about this time. The rocks by the sea side and those upon the woodland hills furnish an inexhaustible amount of material for the most durable and beautiful ornaments; and by a tasty and patient hand it may be wrought into pictures that might easily be referred to the skill of goddesses. And the brilliant leaves of autumn, carefully pressed and varnished may be formed into exquisite pictures. The first telegraphic wires that passed through Lynn were put up in December. There was, however, no communication held by them between Lynn and other places. Morse's telegraph was invented in 1832, and the line between Washington and Baltimore completed in 1844.
On the night of Wednesday, 5 January, the harness shop of Edwin N. Pike, on Union street, near the Central Depot, was burned. Loss $1.200. Oliver Fuller, aged 60, while walking on the rail-road track, in the vicinity of the Central Depot, on Thursday, 24 February, was run over by a locomotive, and instantly killed. George Gray, the Lynn hermit, died 28 February, aged 78. He was by birth a Scotchman and came here near the close of the last century, locating in a lonely spot, which he made his home till the time of his death, though population largely increased around, much to his annoyance. Two or three rude little structures, erected chiefly by his own hand, answered for his dwelling, workshops, and store houses. They were on the south side of Boston street, a few rods east of the main entrance to Pine Grove Cemetery. It was a very wild place till within a few years. A high woody hill rose in the rear, a tangled swamp was on either hand, with a weedy brook winding through; while in front, beyond a little area of brambles and rank vegetation, wound the street just named. He persistently, and often with a good deal of asperity, refused to communicate to the curious inquirers who sometimes beset him, any knowledge of his personal history or the causes which induced the adoption of his comfortless and unnatural mode of life. And that very secrecy gave rise to innumerable romantic surmises. Some believed that an unfortunate affair of the heart estranged him from the world; others that some great crime rendered his flight from his native land a necessity. And he had the shrewdness to avoid entangling himself by contradicting any current opinion. At times he was by no means averse to discussing affairs with his neighbors, though very seldom could one receive a welcome to his premises, and never would an invitation to enter his dwelling be extended. His calls were generally made at night. I was occasionally favored with one and usually found him so forgetful of the passing time that it was necessary to remind him of the lateness of the hour by a delicate hint like that of extinguishing the lights, nothing short of some such rudeness appearing to be understood. On one of these visits, when he seemed in gracious mood, with venturesome curiosity I expressed a desire to know something of his early history; but the sudden and lively response - "That is what don't concern you!" checked all approach for that purpose. He was a reflecting man, and one of considerable literary and scientific attainment; but the current story of his carrying a Hebrew Bible about in his pocket was, no doubt, a fiction. He took great pleasure in attending lectures, and in studying works on the abstruse sciences. But his fondness for the mechanic arts was perhaps his most conspicuous trait, and he became very skillful in some branches connected with machinery. Strangers would sometimes vex him with untimely visits, and by unpalatable remarks induce sudden exhibitions of temper. But if one assumed to possess a knowledge of mechanics, he was pretty sure of a courteous hearing. He claimed to be the inventor of a most useful part of the ship's steering apparatus; but some one was before him in securing the patent, and he was subjected to much expense in unsuccessful efforts to establish his claims. Rufus Choate was his advocate and counsellor at one time. In religion he was probably a materialist, most of his life. Perhaps a dozen years before his death he remarked to me that it was "ridiculous for any one to contend that intelligence was not the result of physical organization." But it is understood that he subsequently abandoned his old views, and died in the Calvinistic faith. He was eccentric in his habits, and had little regard for personal appearance, oftentimes, especially during the last few years of his life, appearing in a grim and filthy condition. He was remarkable, even in old age, for power of physical endurance. Many a time has he walked to Boston, on a winter evening, attended a lecture, and walked home after it had closed, making a distance, in all, of full twenty miles, most likely with no thicker covering to his head than a dilapidated straw hat and upon his feet coarse shoes and no stockings. He suffered much from disease during his few last years. And there, in his forlorn habitation, without the sympathy of friends or the common endearments of home, in solitude and distress, his last days were passed. Mr. Gray, at the time of his decease, possessed property to the amount of about $4.000. He died intestate, and his debts were not large; a considerable portion, therefore, went into the treasury of the commonwealth. His savings do not appear, however, to have accumulated from a miserly disposition, but rather from habits of industry and a naturally frugal turn, for the administrator informed me that from the appearance of things he could hardly have taken sufficient interest in his pecuniary affairs to have known what he did possess. In some instances the evidences of his money deposits were found thrown among waste paper. The death of the hermit was noticed in the newspapers, throughout the country, and several persons appeared, claiming to be heirs; but they failed to substantiate their claims. On the 16th of January, 1861, George Gray and William Gray petitioned the legislature to grant to them the proceeds of the hermit's estate in the treasury. The petitioners represented that the hermit was a natural son of William Gray, of Oxgang, Dunbarton county, Scotland, of whom they were legitimate grandchildren. They did not assume any legal right to the money, but in consideration of the fact that they would have been entitled as heirs, had the hermit been legitimate, hoped the legislature would favorably regard their prayer. The petition was referred to the committee on claims, but the result was not favorable to the petitioners. During the month of May, some two hundred dwellings were in process of erection or enlargement in different parts of Lynn. On Saturday morning, 6 May, during a thunder shower, the safe in the ticket office of the Central Depot was blown open and robbed of about forty dollars. The thief was discovered and suffered imprisonment. On Sunday, 11 June, a party of young men went down Saugus river, for recreation, partaking of clams and other refreshments. On their way back, William Austin, one of the number, was suddenly taken ill, and died before a physician could be summoned. Independence was this year celebrated in Lynn by the friends of temperance. In the evening there was a display of fireworks, at High Rock, and a great crowd of spectators. The second post-office in Lynnfield was established, 1 August, in the centre village. At about four o'clock on Sunday morning, 6 August, the house and barn of Samuel Parrott, on North Bend, were entirely destroyed by fire. Loss, about $3.500. Two cows and a calf perished in the flames. An unusually fatal epidemic prevailed in September. There were seven funerals in town on the 17th. And on the next Sunday Rev. Dr. Cooke, of the First Church, preached a sermon appropriate to the occasion. The Agricultural Society of Essex County, for the third successive year held their annual exhibition in Lynn. The day was pleasant and great numbers attended. The address was delivered by Gen. Josiah Newhall, of Lynnfield. Hon. Daniel Webster was present. The evening levee was in Exchange Hall. A few rockets were let off on the Common, at night, which so frightened some of the cattle that they broke from their enclosures and fled. Three young cows, brought by David S. Caldwell, of Byfield, were found, about midnight, at the railroad depot, quietly reposing beside the same car in which they had been brought. In October, the house of Daniel Kidder, in Saugus, near the Newburyport Turnpike, was burned. Loss $2.000. The fire was occasioned by children playing with matches in the garret. On Friday afternoon, 29 December, the new grammar schoolhouse on the westerly side of Franklin street, was dedicated. Though of wood, it was at the time considered a fine building. The carriage road along the harbor side of Long Beach was built this year by Dennison W. Goldthwaite, under the superintendence of Alonzo Lewis. It cost $1.771.25. The town appropriated $l.000 and the people at Nahant, resident and non-resident, subscribed $1.225. A part of the town appropriation was not used. Lynn Common was fenced this year. The whole cost of the fencing fell a trifle short of $2.500. To the exertions of the ladies the town was in a great measure indebted for the improvement. On the 28th, 29th, and 30th days of September, they held a great fair at Exchange Hall, and were so successful as to realize $1.636, including $245 previously obtained by subscription. Other sums were subsequently subscribed, and the town made an appropriation, which enabled the committee promptly to complete the work. Down to this time the Common had remained an open area. Most of it was used as a public ground from the earliest times, military trainings and public parades and exhibitions being held there. In some portions the surface remained quite uneven as late as 1830; there were hollows and risings, muddy places and gravelly shelves. The travel flowed partly along the sides, where North and South Common streets now are, and partly along a road which ran, with divers interruptions, along the centre. Just east of where the pond now is, stood a dwelling-house, with out-buildings and a small orchard. And a little farther east stood the gun-house and town-house. At the eastern extremity was a little district school-house, and at the western another. Almost exactly opposite where Whiting street opens, was the famous Old Tunnel meeting-house; and so few were the buildings, for most of the distance, between the middle of the Common and the sea, even down to the time of the disappearance of that sacred edifice, that people in passing up and down had pleasant views of the water. Many a time, when a boy, on my way to and from meeting, have I watched the vessels. In 1827 the old meetinghouse was removed; and in the course of about half a dozen years thereafter the whole extent was freed from the architectural encumbrances. It was then ploughed up, the circular pond formed, the hollows filled, and North and South Common streets graded. Since the fence was built the city has made a number of small appropriations for improvements; the gravel walks have been formed, and numerous trees planted. At the time the Common was fenced there were three hundred and forty-seven trees upon it, including those within the railing and along the side-walks.
On Wednesday afternoon, 3 January, the new grammar schoolhouse, on the east side of Centre street was dedicated. This and the one built at the same time, on Franklin street, and dedicated 29 December, 1848, were the best ever built in Lynn, up to this time. They cost about $5.000, each. On Wednesday, 31 January, the body of a man about fifty years of age, who had been frozen to death, was found on Tower Hill, near the aims-house. It was supposed that he froze the night before, which was intensely cold, while in a condition of helpless intoxication. A small building near High Rock, used as a shoemakers' shop, was burned on Sunday evening, 25 March. The building was an interesting relic, having been the belfry of the Old Tunnel meeting-house. The spaces being boarded up, it furnished a comfortable though not very capacious shop. The Lynn Police Court was established this year. It became a court of record, in the legal sense, 1 January, 1862. The Laighton Bank commenced business, 2 August. A national fast was appointed for the 3d of August, on account of the threatened prevalence of the Asiatic cholera. The day was well observed at Lynn. About a dozen cases of the disease appeared in our alms-house, ten of which proved fatal. A few other cases occurred in different parts of the town. But the excitement was not to be compared with that of 1832, when the disease first reached America. Lynn, at that time, partook largely of the general alarm, though the pestilence did not then visit her. In September, James C. Lamphier, of Swampscot, discovered floating off Swampscot beach, a turtle, of the enormous weight of six hundred pounds. Its length, from the end of the nose to the end of the tail, was eight feet and six inches, and its shell was six feet long and three and a half wide. The animal was dead when discovered. After being towed ashore a bullet hole was found in the body. Rev. Theobold Matthew, of Ireland, a distinguished advocate of temperance, visited Lynn on the afternoon of Monday, 17 September. He held a levee at Lyceum Hall, and several hundreds, mostly his own countrymen, took the temperance pledge. On the 7th and 8th of October, he again visited Lynn and administered the pledge to others. A great storm occurred on the 6th and 7th of October. The sea was driven in with such fury that in several places it made breaches entirely over Long Beach. The Bay State, a weekly newspaper, advocating democratic principles, was commenced 11 October, by Lewis Josselyn. On the evening of 19 October a party of Ojibway Indians gave an entertainment at Lyceum Hall. They had traveled in Europe under the guidance of George Catlin, the accomplished Indian delineator. The new grammar school-house, at Swampscot, was dedicated on the 20th of December. A large number left Lynn, this year, to seek their fortunes in California, the excitement respecting the gold discoveries on the Pacific coast having set people almost beside themselves. Nearly two hundred went, some by water and some by land. And there was as much diversity in their success as in their characters and habits. Some returned in poverty and with broken health, others with well-filled purses and good health; others still remained, preferring to make new homes in that distant region. The grammar school-house at Tower Hill was built this year.
A curious discussion, which in some instances waxed quite warm, arose at the beginning of this year. It was on the question whether 1850 was the last year of the first half of the century, or the first year of the last half. Fifteen cases of small-pox occurred in January in one house on Spring street; only one, however, proved fatal. All the patients were colored persons. At the beginning of this year there were in Lynn thirty-four public schools, employing nine male and thirty-four female teachers. The whole number of pupils was 3.379. A two story building on Centre street, between North Common street and the Turnpike, occupied by Peter C. Downing, as a boarding-house, was destroyed by fire on Sunday night, March 31. Lynn adopted the city form of government this year. The legislature granted the charter on the 10th of April, and on the 19th the inhabitants voted to accept it. The organization of the first city government took place on Tuesday forenoon, the 14th of May, at Lyceum Hall. The day was pleasant, and a large number, some of whom were ladies, were present to witness the ceremonies. George Hood took the oath of office as mayor, Daniel C. Baker as president of the common council, and William Bassett as city clerk. In the evening the new city government, together with a large company of citizens, partook of a collation, in the old Town Hall. A great fire raged in the woods on Sunday, 21 April. Several hundred acres, chiefly in Dungeon Pasture, were burned over. Col. Samuel Brimblecom died 24 April, aged 81. He was for many years an enterprising shoe manufacturer, and did a great deal towards establishing the business on a firm basis. Before his time the whole trade was so loosely conducted that few realized any thing beyond a bare maintenance from unremitted toil and perplexity; but many of his suggestions tended greatly to systematize the business and render it profitable. In common with all the manufacturers of that period he met with reverses in early life, though before the infirmities of age had settled upon him he had secured a competency. He was a man of philosophical turn of mind, and estimable social qualities; fond of reading, and ready to aid in all efforts to improve the mind. He was a member of the Unitarian Society at its formation, and continued steadfast in the faith. He had seven children, namely, Mary, Samuel, Mary Ann, two Williams, Lucy, and Ellen. His first wife was Mary Mansfield, whom he married 4 June, 1794; and his second, Nelly Copp, whom he married 1 June, 1817. Ellen was the only child by the second marriage. His residence was on the south side of the Turnpike, a few rods west of Franklin street. He was a native of Marblehead. At about midnight, on Sunday, 26 May, two buildings on the wharf at the foot of Commercial street, were destroyed by fire, with a considerable quantity of lumber and lime. On the morning of the same day, a store-house in the rear of Caleb Wiley's store, corner of the Turnpike and Federal street, was burned. Down to the last day of May, the easterly wind had been the prevailing one for a hundred successive days, an occurrence quite uncommon even here where our springs are so marked by easterly winds. The physicians of Lynn, by mutual agreement, commenced charging seventy-five cents for each professional visit, June 15. The most common fee, previous to that, had been fifty cents. It was a time of great prosperity, and wages in almost every craft and profession took an upward course. On the afternoon of Thursday, 20 June, during a thunder shower, the lightning struck the clothing store of Roland G. Usher, on Market street. James W. Ingalls, who was standing in the door way, was knocked down. The lightning passed between his legs, tearing one of his boots, and burning his person somewhat. The " ten hour system," as it was called - that is, the reckoning of ten hours' labor as a day's work - was very generally adopted this year. The church bells were rung at six in the afternoon, and then labor, for the most part, ceased, in field and shop. Mayor Hood took a lively interest in the movement. On the night of the 18th of July, the morocco manufactory of James Tibbets, on Sutton street, was destroyed by fire. On the afternoon of Wednesday, 24 July, Pine Grove Cemetery was consecrated. The weather was pleasant, though very warm, and a great concourse attended. The address was delivered by Rev. Charles C. Shackford, of the Unitarian Society. A son of Joseph Ramsdell, of Lynnfield, aged 10, killed a rattlesnake, in July, which was five feet in length and had eleven rattles. In the summer of this year, the Salem and Lowell rail-road, running through the northerly part of Lynnfield, was opened. A tornado passed through the westerly part of Lynnfield, on the 1st of August, at about three in the afternoon, sweeping every thing before it. Its track was but a few rods in width, and fortunately no buildings were in it. On Thursday, August 15, a sad disaster occurred at Humfrey's pond, in Lynnfield.. A company, connected for the most part with the First Christian Society of Lynn, were holding a picnic on the border of the pond. In the course of the afternoon a party of twenty-five, chiefly ladies, rowed out in a large flat bottomed boat, about a hundred yards from the shore. As some of them shifted from side to side, the boat was made to careen; and several becoming alarmed threw their weight in a manner to completely capsize it. Before aid could reach them thirteen were drowned. The Salem and South Reading rail-road, passing through Lynnfield, was opened for travel, 31 Angust. The dry goods store of Charles B. Holmes, on Market street, was broken into on the night of 5 October, and robbed to the amount of some $500. Several other robberies were committed at about the same time, in different parts of the town. This year the potato rot was very destructive to the crops in and about Lynn. The first burial in Pine Grove Cemetery took place on Sunday, October 13. It was on Myrtle path and in lot number 212. The stone bears this inscription: "Harriet Newell, wife of George W. Stocker, died Oct. 11, 1850, aged 27 years. Faithful while below, she did her duty well. The first interment and the first stone erected in this Cemetery." The planet Venus was visible to the naked eye, on clear afternoons, for several days during the early part of November. On the evening of 28 November, George Thompson, the distinguished abolition lecturer and member of the British parliament, being again in the country, had a public reception by his friends in Lynn, and delivered an address. The meeting was at Lyceum Hall, which was well filled, though the weather was stormy. James N. Buffum presided. For notice of Mr. Thompson's earlier visits see under date 1835. The law passed by Congress, this year, intended to facilitate the rendition of slaves escaping into the free states, and known as the "Fugitive Slave Law," met with strong opposition in Lynn. Several largely attended meetings were held, at which it was warmly denounced. At Lyceum Hall, on Saturday evening, 5 October, a full and enthusiastic meeting convened, at which Mayor Hood presided, Jonathan Buffum, Daniel C. Baker, Charles Merritt, and William Bassett, being vice presidents, and George Foster and Benjamin F. Mudge secretaries. One or two prominent speakers from abroad made stirring addresses, and the following resolutions were unanimously adopted. They are certainly characteristic of the people of Lynn, in the animated spirit of freedom they breathe though the exceeding fervor of one or two seems to savor somewhat of nullification: RESOLVED, That the Fugitive Slave Bill, recently enacted by Congress, violates the plain intent and the strict letter of the United States constitution, which secures to every citizen, except in cases of martial law, the right of trial by jury on all important questions; further, said bill outrages justice, since it does not secure to the fugitive, or to the free man mistaken for a fugitive, due notice beforehand of the charge made against him, and opportunity for cross examining the witnesses against him on their oath, gives him no time to get counsel or gather testimony in his own behalf - rights which our fathers secured by the struggle of two hundred years, and which are too idea to be sacrificed to the convenience of slave hunters, afraid or ashamed to linger amid a community whose institutions and moral sense they are outraging. Again, said bill tramples on the most sacred principles of the common law; and even if men could be property, no property, however sacred, can claim the right to be protected in such a way as endangers the rights and safety of free men, therefore - RESOLVED, That we protest against it as grossly unconstitutional, as faught with danger to the safety of a large portion of our fellow citizens, and capable of being easily perverted to the ruin of any one, white or black; we denounce it as infamous, and we proclaim our determination that it shall not be executed. RESOLVED, That we rejoice to believe that there are not prisons enough at the North to hold the men and women who stand ready to succor and protect the panting fugitive slave, and baffle and resist the slave hunter, who shall dare to pollute our soil. RESOLVED, That every man who voted for this atrocious bill, every one who avows his readiness to execute it, and every one who justifies it on any ground, is a traitor to the rights of the free states, and a criminal of the deepest die; at the head of whom stands Millard Fillmore, who from party, or even baser motives, has set his name to a law, the provisions of which, so far from being fitted for a christian republic, remind one only of the court of Jeffiies, or the camp of Haynau. RESOLVED, That Samuel A. Eliot, of Boston, in giving his vote for this blood-hound bill, dishonored and betrayed Massachusetts; and low as is often the moral sense of a great city, cankered by wealth, we rejoice to know that he misrepresented his immediate constituents: and we demand of them, in the name of our old commonwealth, to save us from the infamy of his presence in another Congress. RESOLVED, That since God hath commanded us to "bewray not him that wandeleth," and since, our fathers being witnesses, every man's right to liberty is self-evident, we see no way of avoiding the conclusion of Senator Seward, that "it is a violation of the divine law to surrender the fugitive slave who takes refuge at our firesides from his relentless pursuers;" and in view of this, as Well as of the notorious fact that the slave power has constantly trampled under foot the Constitution of the United States to secure its own extension or safety, and especially of the open, undisguised, and acknowledged contempt of that instrument, with which the slave states kidnap our colored citizens traveling south, and imprison our colored seamen, we, in obedience to God's law, and in self-defense, declare that, constitution or no constitution, law or no law, with jury trial or without, the slave who has once breathed the air and touched the soil of Massachusetts, shall never be dragged back to bondage. RESOLVED, That Lewis Cass and Daniel Webster, Senator Foote and Senator Clay, and each and every one of the "compromise committee of thirteen," who reported and urged the passage of this bill, as well as every one who voted for its passage, are unworthy the votes of a free people for any office for which they may be hereafter named. In the course of a few months other large meetings were held, attended by prominent individuals of the several political parties, and similar resolutions adopted. Other places in the commonwealth were quite as much in a ferment as Lynn, and public opinion soon became so moulded that a legislature was elected which made such provisions that the operation of the law was seriously obstructed; and the southerners grew rampant under what they declared to be Massachusetts nullification. Some very bad seeds were sown at this time. George Thompson, member of the British parliament, delivered the introductory lecture before the Lynn Lyceum, on the 21st of November. There was a very large attendance. His subject was Reforms in England. The Central Congregational meeting-house, Silsbe street, was dedicated on the 11th of December. Rev. Elbridge G. Brooks was installed minister of the First Universalist Society, on Sunday evening, December 22. The valuation of the real estate in Lynn, for this year, was $3.160.515; of personal, $1.674.328 - total, 4.834.843. Rate of taxation, $9 on $1.000. Number of polls, 3.215. City debt, $56.960.55. By turning to date 1860, the reader will have an opportunity to determine what progress had been made in these particulars in ten years. The whole number of deaths in Lynn, this year, was 262; of consumption, 43. Aggregate population, 14.257. Many have an impression that Lynn is an especially unfavorable locality for such as are liable to pulmonary diseases. But it is thought that a careful study of the bills of mortality will show that a smaller number of deaths, from all diseases, occur in Lynn, in a given period, than in almost any place of equal population, in New England; and that though the consumptives here bear a greater proportion, they are yet less in the whole number than the consumptives in those other places.
On Wednesday, 8 January, the commodious structure, erected on High street, for the use of the High School, was dedicated. The school was commenced 28 May, 1849, in the wooden schoolhouse on Franklin street, under the charge of Jacob Batchelder, as principal. The carpenter shop of Thomas Taylor, on Sagamore street, was destroyed by fire, on the night of 4 February. And on Monday night, 17 February, the two story wooden building on Market street, corner of Essex, was nearly burned up. The lower story was occupied as a crockery ware, grocery, and provision store. The Freemasons and two temperance societies had their rooms above. On Sunday evening, March 11, a barn near the Dr. Cheever place, in Saugus, was burned, with about twelve tons of hay. On Tuesday, 18 March, a tremendous storm occurred. The tide was driven entirely over Long Beach, at several points, so that Nahant was literally an island. The new road, on the harbor side was much damaged, the marshes were submerged, and considerable injury was done to the rail-road bed. The second City Government was organized April 7 - George Hood, mayor, James R. Newhall, president of the common council, William Bassett, city clerk. On the 15th of April, another violent easterly storm commenced, continuing two days. The wind was terrific, and much rain fell. A higher tide was occasioned than any since that driven in by the great gale of 1815. The sea again swept over Long Beach, to such an extent that a continuous sheet of raging water lay between Lynn and Nahant. Two men, on horseback, attempted to cross the Beach, but the horses were thrown down by a wave, and they were in great danger of losing their lives. The lower part of Beach street was submerged, and much lumber, wood, and other property floated off. This storm was more severe than that of the 18th of March. Seven successive tides rushed over the Beach, badly gullying the road so lately built, and rendering it almost impassable. At Breed's mill, on Oak street, a part of the dam was carried away and much damage done, a more particular statement whereof may be found on page 411. But the most serious disaster on the coast was the destruction of the light-house on Minot's Ledge, and the loss of two faithful assistant keepers. The height of the building was seventy-five feet, and it was supposed to have been so strongly built as to survive any storm. It was seen to fall, a few minutes after midnight, by persons on board an inward bound vessel. After these two severe storms it became apparent that something must speedily be done for the protection of the Beach or it would entirely disappear leaving the town exposed to the unobstructed inroads of the ocean. As the cheapest plan, it was concluded to place a line of red cedars along the ridge, working stones, sand, and sea debris as compactly as possible among them. A guard was thus formed, answering a very good purpose. The city appropriated $5.000 to the object. There should, however, be a substantial wall of stone; and it is hoped that government will one day supply the need; though there is not much prospect that they will do so at present. On Friday afternoon, May 2, Miss Sarah Churchill, aged 19, a daughter of Ivory Churchill, of Vine street, while on a pleasure ride with a young man named Davis, visited the Fort, at Marblehead. They rode on an embankment, and Mr. Davis stepped from the chaise to turn the horse, when the animal suddenly backed the carriage over the embankment, at a perpendicular descent of some nine feet, and Miss Churchill was instantly killed, her neck being broken. She was buried from St. Stephen's church, on the following Sunday, and a great concourse attended the solemn service. On Sunday evening, 4 May, a barn on the Ballard estate, in Saugus, was destroyed by fire. An ox and a cow perished in the flames. At about noon, on Saturday, 28 June, Charles Furbush killed John J. Perdy, at the boarding house of Mr. Bailey, on Market street, near the rail-road crossing.. Furbush and Perdy were both journeymen shoemakers, boarding with Mr. Bailey. They had come home to dinner, and immediately after the meal was ended, Furbush went to his room, and Perdy went out, but soon returned, and went into the chamber where Furbush was. Presently two discharges of a pistol were heard, and some excited ejaculations. The people below rushed to the chamber and found that Perdy had been shot; and he immediately expired. Furbush was tried for murder, but acquitted on the ground of insanity. A petition was this year presented to the city council, by Hiram Marble, for leave to excavate Dungeon Rock. Leave was granted, in July, and then commenced those labors of Mr. Marble in that romantic locality, which will remain forever, evidence of his faith and perseverance. For a somewhat extended notice of the whole subject see under date 1658. An effort was made this year, by a considerable number of ladies, to bring into fashion the Turkish costume, or, as it was called, the Bloomer-dress, from a lady of the name of Bloomer, who strongly urged its adoption. They however had but small success in inducing the sex generally to lay aside their graceful flowing robes for those which, though more picturesque and perhaps more convenient, have always, among the more fastidious at least, been deemed less appropriate if not less modest. On a pleasant afternoon in July, a bevy of young ladies from Boston, richly and gaily habited in the new costume, left the cars at the Central Station, creating considerable observation if not admiration by their short tunics, full trowsers, bright sashes and jaunty hats. Quite a number of the young ladies of Lynn arrayed themselves in the new style, but such a strong prejudice against the innovation began to manifest itself, that they soon laid aside the unappreciated garments. On the afternoon of Wednesday, 13 August, during a thunder shower, the lightning struck the house of Mr. Conner, on River street; and in a description of the singular effects, given by one who soon after visited the premises it is stated that the lightning descended the chimney, bursting it all to pieces as far down as the attic floor. Then it passed down a stove funnel to the chamber floor, bursting the cook stove, passing along the floor into a room adjoining, where two persons were taking tea. In its course here it tore up a large piece of the floor, upsetting the table, bursting out two whole windows in the room, breaking the very chairs on which the persons sat, and throwing table, dishes, food, broken chairs, splinters of wood, and broken plastering, on all sides. Pieces of the broken iron and shivered wood were afterward to be seen sticking in the casings of the room, having been driven in, endwise, with much violence. From this room it could be traced to the basement, and off into the ground. And what is most wonderful of all, out of seven persons who were in the house at the time, none were seriously injured. The curious fact appeared, that pieces of the broken stove were so highly magnetized, that in one instance a piece about six inches square had strength enough to take board nails from the floor and hold them by the point. At about the same time that Mr. Conner's house was struck the lightning also struck the store of Mr. Vickary, in Gravesend village, somewhat injuring it, and knocking down one person. On Friday afternoon, 22 August, a fierce tornado visited this region. It was felt, however, to but a small extent in Lynn. At Woodend, a boat was thrown out of the pond, and an apple tree eight or ten inches in diameter torn up by the roots. In Gravesend, the lightning which accompanied the tornado, in one instance descended the chimney of a house and went out through the front door, taking the side-lights. But it was terrific in some of the adjacent places; tearing up lofty trees, demolishing out buildings and fences, wrenching off roofs, and more or less injuring many persons who were exposed to its fury. The new grammar school-house at Nahant, was dedicated on Tuesday afternoon, 16 September. On Sunday, 21 September, a great fire raged in the woods. Some streets were filled with smoke, and much damage was done. The Independent Methodist meeting-house, at Nahant, was dedicated on Thursday afternoon, 25 September. The Methodist meeting-house in Saugus, east village, was broken into on the night of Thursday, October 23, and the missionary box robbed of six dollars, and some thirty yards of carpet stolen from the floor. On Sunday night, October 26, the British schooner Brothers, Captain Clark, was wrecked by striking on the outer ledge, off Swampscot. The crew, seven in number, were landed in safety, about midnight, by the assistance of Edward C. Bates and his men, who heard their outcries and hastened to their succor. The wreck drifted over to the Nahant rocks, near Mr. Tudor's. The new grammar school-house in Woodend, was dedicated on Wednesday afternoon, 29 October. It was destroyed by fire, 21 January, 1859, being then valued at $6.000. A new religious society, called the Central Unitarian Society, was formed in Lynn this year. They commenced worship in a hall, on Sunday, 9 November. This society was afterward distinguished as the Free Church. Sagamore Building, near the Central Depot, was again nearly destroyed by fire, 14 November. The new grammar school-house in Gravesend was dedicated 19 November. On Friday evening, 21 November, the brig Exile, of Yarmouth, N. S., Captain Sharp, was wrecked on Long Beach. Large quantities of her deck load of wood were washed ashore, and by the means an immense fire was kindled on the Beach, by the light of which the multitude worked in saving the lives of the mariners, who were very much exhausted and in great peril. By half past one o'clock all were safe on shore, but the vessel was a total loss. It was estimated that there were a thousand people on the Beach that night, and the scene was one of terrific grandeur. The first power printing press ever used in Lynn was set up at the office of the Bay State on Christmas day. Before that all the printing here was done on hand presses. The second power press was set up in the Reporter office, in March, 1854. The first meetings of the Second Baptist Society of Lynn, were held this year. The legislature authorized the offering of a reward of $10.000 for the discovery of a remedy for the potato rot.
On Wednesday night, 7 January, Joseph Barrett, of Gravesend, aged 70, was frozen to death on his way home from Salem, whither he had been to testify in the Perdy murder case. At about sunrise, on a morning in January, a noble eagle was observed, perched upon a house in Green street. Finding that he was attracting a good deal of attention, he presently soared away. A light snow fell on Sunday evening, March 21, and the next morning mysterious footprints were discovered in the vicinity of Nahant street and Long Beach. They were of a shape that excited much curiosity, and no one was able to determine what sort of a creature had made them. But on Monday evening, Mr. John Barry shot a very large gray owl, on the marsh, near the foot of Pleasant street, and it was concluded that the wonderful tracks were made by him. He measured more than five feet from tip to tip of the wings. An act was passed, 26 March, to prevent the destruction of shad and alewives in Saugus river, and the tributary streams in the city of Lynn. Shad had long before disappeared, but alewives continued abundant. The Saugus Mutual Fire Insurance Company commenced business on the 1st of April. The organization of the third city government took place on the 5th of April. Edward S. Davis was elected president of the common council, and William Bassett, city clerk. Mr. Hood continued to act as mayor, no other having been elected. Daniel C. Baker and Benjamin F. Mudge were the principal candidates; but there were sufficient scattering votes to defeat an election. The old majority law was then in force; and it was not till the eighth trial that a choice was effected. Mr. Mudge was elected, June 12, by a small majority, and took the oath of office, on the 16th of June. A violent snow storm occurred on the 6th of April. A foot of snow fell. There was also a snow storm on the 13th of April, during which from six to eight inches fell. On Thursday, 6 May, Louis Kossuth, the distinguished Hungarian patriot visited Lynn, and was received with public honors. He arrived at about one o'clock in the afternoon, and a procession was formed which proceeded through the Common, between lines of public school children, and thence, by Market street, to Lyceum Hall, where an enthusiastic reception awaited him. He was quite ill, from exertion and exposure, but was able to speak for about three quarters of an hour. The procession was imposing, embracing some military, the fire companies, the city government, associations, and citizens generally - with stirring music. It was thought that ten thousand persons were on the Common at the time the procession passed. Kossuth left in the afternoon. The day was quite warm, the thermometer standing at eighty. An act was passed by the legislature, 13 May, designed more effectually to restrain people from carrying away sand, sea-weed, and stones from the beaches. Much damage had been done by inconsiderate and mercenary trespassers. The Lynn City Guards were chartered this year. They were formed as an independent company, and for a short time called the Kossuth Guards, their first duty having been to serve as escort on the reception of Gov. Kossuth, May 6. They were chartered as an artillery company. William T. Gale was the first captain, but he resigned in August, and was succeeded by Thomas Herbert. Capt. Herbert resigned 15 May, 1857, and James Hudson, jr., was chosen commander. This was one of the companies belonging to the renowned Eighth Regiment, which so promptly responded to the first call of President Lincoln, on the breaking out of the war of the great rebellion, in 1861. In five hours after the unexpected requisition arrived in Lynn, this company and the Light Infantry were ready for duty. And they both departed in the forenoon of the next day. A band of music was formed in Lynn, this year, under the name of Mechanic Brass Band. Swampscot was incorporated as a separate town, May 21. And on Saturday, the 29th, public festivities were held there in honor of the event. Bells were rung, cannon fired, and flags raised. In the afternoon there was a procession, with music by the Salem Brass Band, an address by Rev. J. B. Clark, and a collation. In the evening there was a torch-light procession and illuminations. On Thursday, June 3d, three men were in a boat, near Pig Rocks, when a severe squall struck them with such force as to lift the boat entirely out of the water. It was capsized, and two of the men, Mr. Small, of Swampscot, and Mr. Danforth, of East Boston, were drowned. The bells were tolled and flags raised at half-mast, on the 3d of July, by order of the city government, on account of the death of Henry Clay. The planet Venus was brighter in the month of July, than it had been for the ten preceding years. And for several nights the unusual occurrence of all the visible planets being above the horizon at the same time, was witnessed. In July, a rattlesnake, having ten rattles, and measuring nearly five feet in length, was killed on the Lynnfield road, by Joshua Soule. And on the 29th of July another was killed by Samuel J. Sargent, measuring five feet in length and eleven inches in girth, and having twelve rattles. Still another was killed in August, on the Turnpike, between Lynn and Boston, by a Mr. Grout, which was four and a half feet long and had seven rattles. On the 28th of August, Mrs. Jerusha Rhodes died, aged a little more than 97 years - being the oldest person then in Lynn. On Thursday, 2 September, the Sixth Regiment of Infantry went into camp at Lynn, occupying the field on the southeast corner of Washington and Laighton streets. Many military notables and others were present from abroad. Some gamblers and pickpockets also made their appearance, but the police interfered with their arrangements. Building was very active during the spring and summer of this year. Many houses of the better sort were erected. On Wednesday, 15 September, the new meeting-house of the Trinitarian Congregational Society, in Saugus, was dedicated. It cost $5.500. An omnibus commenced running between the east and west sections of Lynn, in October, and was continued till the horse rail-road was built. Funeral services were held in the First Congregational meeting-house, on Friday, 29 October, in memory of Daniel Webster, it being the day on which his funeral took place at Marshfield. The city council attended, each member wearing a badge of mourning on his left arm. The house was appropriately draped. Minute guns were fired on the Common from twelve to one o'clock, the bells were tolled, and flags raised at half-mast. Died, on Tuesday, 9 November, Isaac Gates, aged 74. He practiced law in Lynn, for many years, but closed his life at Harvard, his native place. He had been unwell, but recovered, as was supposed, and went to the polls to vote the day before his death. He retired apparently in good health and was found dead in his bed the next morning. He graduated at Cambridge, with the class of 1802, and possessed good natural abilities, but had such eccentricities and irregularities, as tended to impede his success; and he never prospered much at the bar. His style of address was dogmatical, and his expressions extravagant; but he possessed an abundance of grating wit and loved much to indulge his pokers of sarcasm, particularly in the political caucus. His talents were sufficient to have rendered him conspicuous and useful in any community; but in him was afforded another of those instances over which the philanthropist is so often called to lament. He took a good deal of interest in the management of town affairs, and often wrote timely articles for the newspapers; but his really judicious suggestions too frequently lost their force through some lurking prejudice or severity of expression. He also loved to write political articles for the newspapers, but his style even here was often so pungent as to destroy the effect. Nevertheless 'Squire Gates, as he was popularly called, secured many friends by his good nature and readiness to do a neighborly act. The following very well exhibits a common way he had of giving vent to his humor. He had in the court of common pleas defended a man of notoriously intemperate habits against the charge of being a common drunkard, and by some strange good luck succeeded in winning from the jury a verdict of not guilty. The man was so elated that he began to stammer out his thanks. Mr. Gates, perceiving his object, sprang to his feet, and throwing up his spectacles, exclaimed, in that earnest manner which every one who knew him will remember, "There, there! don't you try to say any thing; the jury on their oath declare that you are not a drunkard. Now go right home and see if you can't keep sober for a week, a thing that you know you haven't done for the last six months." Before coming to Lynn Mr. Gates practiced in Concord, N. H., and Brunswick, Me. He had one son and three daughters, and the family were refined and highly esteemed. On the 26th of November, an earthquake was felt at Lynn. A bell was raised on the meeting-house of the Trinitarian Congregational Society, in Lynnfield, November 26. And this was the first church bell in the town. At the great World's Fair held in London, this year, several lots of shoes, the product of Lynn industry, were exhibited, highly praised, and in one or two instances took prizes.
On Monday, January 3d, a prize fight took place between two pugilists from Boston, in a field bordering on the northeastern road to Lynnfield. The stakes were $300. The fight was arranged in Boston, continued about an hour, and was witnessed by a large number of persons, many of whom came in carriages from other places. The combatants were badly bruised. The city marshal succeeded in arresting one of the parties who was afterward convicted in the court of common pleas. The gas was lighted in Lynn, for the first time on Thursday night, 13 January. The price to consumers was fixed at $3.50 a thousand cubic feet. On the 16th of January, the harbor was frozen to Sand Point; on the 23d it was clear of ice; and on the next day it was again frozen to Chelsea. The new grammar school-house in the fourth ward was dedicated on the 25th of January. On Tuesday, February 1, the cars commenced running over the Saugus Branch Rail-road. On Monday afternoon, February 14, Richard Roach, a man about forty years of age, was at work near the Lynn Common rail-road depot, sawing wood with a steam circular saw. The balance wheel suddenly exploded, with a terrific report, and fragments flew in all directions, one of them striking the unfortunate man just above the chin, and knocking his head completely off, with the exception of a part of the jaw. Another part of the wheel was thrown with such force as to cut off a four-inch joist and shoot to a distance of a quarter of a mile; and two pieces landed on Boston street. Nahant was incorporated as a separate town, March 29. The organization of the fourth city government took place on Monday, April 4 - Daniel C. Baker, mayor, Edward S. Davis, president of the common council, Charles Merritt, city clerk. On Friday afternoon, May 20, the remains of Jesse Hutchinson were buried from the stone cottage at High Rock, which was built by him six years before. He was one of the band of vocalists known as the Hutchinson brothers, though his duties lay rather in making arrangements and writing songs than in singing. He was the poet of the family, had much skill in touching the popular vein, and would, could he have been persuaded to spend a little more time and thought in elaborating some of his pieces, have left what would have endured. He had a social disposition though his temper was impulsive; and he possessed many eccentricities that were attractive, coupled with some that were not. He had a good printing-office education, had traveled some, read a great deal, and his mind was well stored with information, much of which was unavailable in the practical concerns of life. He was a spiritualist, and, it is said, pledged himself to return, after entering the spirit land, and convince mankind of the truth of his views. But from some cause, he appears to have failed in fulfilling his pledge. He died at Cincinnati, where he had stopped at a water-cure establishment on his way home from California, in the hope of recovering his health. He was the father of several children, all of whom died young, and before his own decease. The Lynn Light Infantry was chartered this year. This was the second company of the name formed in Lynn. See under date 1846. Boston street Methodist Society was organized this year, and their meeting-house dedicated on Thursday, 9 June. During a thunder shower, on the 23d of July, electrical discharges were heard in several places near where telegraph wires ran, resembling the discharges of muskets. When one of the explosions took place near the Central Depot, two horses were thrown to their knees. At the mill on Saugus river, as one of the discharges took place the glass attachment on the ridge-pole was shivered and pieces sent to the distance of a hundred rods. A comet was visible in August. It was about as bright as a star of the third magnitude and had a tail two degrees in length, extending upward. The best view was when it was in the west, an hour or two after sunset. On Friday morning, 16th September, a fire broke out in a building on the north side of Federal square, owned by Joseph Moulton, jr. A store and dwelling-house were destroyed and several other buildings injured. Loss $3.000. Patrick McGuire, an Irishman, aged about 23, was fatally stabbed in Franklin street, at half past nine o'clock on Monday evening, September 26. The murdered man was thought to have been mistaken for another. The murderer escaped. On Monday night, 24 October, a severe gale took place. The eastern wing of Nahant Hotel, eighty feet in length and thirty in breadth, and containing sixty sleeping rooms and the large dining hall, fell, with a tremendous crash. It had been raised from the foundation for the purpose of being altered. Albert Gove, aged 51, while near the Central Depot, 25 October, was caught by the arm, by a locomotive, and dragged some two hundred feet. His injuries caused his death, two days after. His spectacles were found on the cow-catcher, at the Salem depot.
Pine Grove Cemetery was conveyed to the City, January 2, by the Corporation. During the first week in January, there were four snow storms. Between two and three feet fell. The rail-road trains were much impeded. On Thursday, five locomotives were joined to force a morning train from Lynn to Boston. Some damage was done to Nahant Hotel, by the wind. Early this year various fashions in wearing the beard began to be adopted. A great many laid aside the razor altogether, and allowed it full scope; others kept it within what was to them a convenient length, by the use of the scissors; others entertained only mustaches; and soon as great diversity prevailed as existed in the tastes and whims of those who cultivated the masculine appendage. The Legislature passed the plurality law in February. This was a great convenience and the means of saving much expense at elections. In a community where the number of voters is few, it may operate well to require a majority for an election. But where the number reaches to thousands, and there must necessarily be many opposing candidates, a plurality law seems a necessity. The majority requisition was a great burden to Lynn, where there were usually more than two parties. It was not till the eighth trial that the mayor was elected, in 1852. On Friday night, March 17, a violent gale commenced from the northeast, continuing through Saturday. For a few days previous the weather had been quite warm, with some thunder and lightning; but when the wind set in so violently the temperature changed with a suddenness seldom witnessed even here. In about five hours the thermometer sank from near summer heat to below freezing point. The wind was so powerful as to overthrow several chimneys, and the lofty flag-staff at East Saugus. Upon the Eastern Rail-road a train was brought to a full stop, while passing over the marshes, by the force of the wind. Mr. Stevens, of the Tremont House, Boston, while attempting to ride across Long Beach, on his way to Nahant, found himself and his horse in danger of being buried by the drifting sand, and was compelled to give up the attempt and return to Lynn. Old people at Nahant declared that so severe a gale had not before taken place, within their recollection. The Lynn Weekly Reporter was commenced on the 25th of March, by Peter L. Cox and Henry S. Cox. The organization of the fifth city government took place on Monday, April 3 - Thomas P. Richardson, mayor, Gustavus Attwill, president of the common council, Charles Merritt, city clerk. John Estes died, 30 May, aged 41, of lockjaw. About a fortnight before, he stepped on a rusty nail, wounding his foot; but the wound apparently healed and he thought nothing further of it for some days. But on the Saturday before his death he took cold, and on Monday took to his bed, complaining of an unpleasant feeling in his head. His jaws presently became fixed and no effort could relax the muscles. Mortification ensued and on Tuesday afternoon he died. A large and beautiful elm, on Washington square, died in May, as was supposed from the effects of gas that had leaked from the under-ground pipes. Several other fine trees, among them a stately elm on South Common street, which had cast its shade for sixty years, died about the same time, and as was thought, from the same cause; also one on Market street, corner of Liberty. On Friday, 16 June, a little son of C. W. Jewett, died from injuries received while attempting to turn summersets. On Saturday morning, 8 July, a car load of cotton belonging to a Saco company, on arriving at Lynn was found to have taken fire from a spark from the locomotive. Alarm was given and the fire engines appeared. After considerable exertion the fire was extinguished. Some fifteen bales were destroyed. There was a great drought this year. No rain fell for six weeks immediately preceding the first of September. On that day copious showers took place, much to the refreshment of parched nature. On the 3d of August, Henry Thomas shot a white-faced seal off Swampscot. The animal was four feet in length and weighed forty pounds. Mackerel were unusually plenty on the coast this year. Old fishermen declared them to be more so than at any other time within twenty-five years. Considerable quantities were taken from the wharves in Lynn. The City Bank went into operation in September. Capital, $100.000. John C. Abbott, president; B. V. French, jr., cashier. The Cemetery at Swampscot was consecrated in September. Sagamore Hotel was built this year. The stone dwelling on the point of Sadler's Rock, at the junction of Walnut and Holyoke streets, was also built this year. The stone was taken from the hill above, and affords a fair specimen of large deposits. Our rough and partially barren hills contain that which at some future day may be esteemed rich treasure. In elevated localities especially, stone is far preferable to wood as a building material, not only because it is more substantial and durable, but also because it is so much less liable to be affected by atmospheric changes. There were only three stone houses in Lynn when this was built. But a novel material for building began to be used to some extent at this time. It consisted of coarse gravel, with about one twelfth part of lime, worked into mortar. Many believed it would be sufficient to form walls firm enough for large dwellings. But the delusion was dispelled in a singular and effectual manner, on Monday afternoon, November 13. Joseph Hay had employed William H. Mills, a carpenter, to erect for him, on Breed street, near Lewis, a dwelling-house, the dimensions of which, on the ground, were thirty-four by twenty-eight feet, with an L twenty-three by eighteen feet. The walls, which were of this new material, had been carried up twenty-two feet from the underpinning, and the roof was put on early in October. The house was now - November 13 - lathed, and ready for the inside plastering. Ten persons were at work within, when, without any premonition, and with a tremendous crash, the whole fabric fell to the ground. A cloud of dust ascended and great alarm spread. Nothing remained but a heap of rubbish. Mr. Hay had three of his ribs broken; a young man had an arm broken; and several others were badly bruised; no one, however, was fatally injured. After this catastrophe, the "mud houses," as they were called, were looked upon with little favor. But it should be added that one or two smaller buildings, of similar material, erected about the same time, are still standing. The ingredients may, however, have been better proportioned, or the weather during the time of building may have been more favorable. It is quite certain that in a climate as variable as that of New England, something more substantial is required. The rail-road running from Danvers to South Reading, through Lynnfield, was opened for public travel, in connection with the Danvers and Georgetown rail-road, on the 23d of October. An unusually protracted and delightful period of Indian summer ended on the 28th of October. The natural cause of the beautiful autumn weather known in New England as Indian summer still remains unknown. Some naturalists think it proceeds from a chemical condition of the atmosphere produced by the ripening and falling of the foliage. Brick side walks began to be laid in Lynn this year, though a few trifling patches existed before. With a view to encourage the improvement, the city government passed an order that granite curb stones should be furnished and set at the public expense, in all cases where individuals would furnish and lay the bricks. On Sunday evening, December 3, a violent wind with rain and hail arose and did considerable damage, breaking trees and destroying fences. Two dwelling houses in process of erection at Bass Point, Nahant, were blown down. During the winter of this year there were thirty-five storms, and a more than usual aggregate of snow. The boundary line between Lynnfield and Reading was established this year. Two of those financial anomalies called loan and fund associations were formed this year; one called the "Lynn Mutual Loan and Fund Association," and the other the "West Lynn Loan and Fund Association." It is not singular, as may be remarked in general, and with no special reference to the Lynn associations, that many of that large class who in the hot pursuit of riches rely rather upon their supposed shrewdness than any settled business principle or mathematical rule, and have a childlike credulity in regard to any speculation that promises increase, should readily join such associations as these; but it is singular that so many reputable and experienced business men, should have so readily given countenance to what was so questionable. Some expected to derive from them large benefits as borrowers and others as lenders. But most were disappointed; for it turned out as a few careful computers declared, that miscalculations had entered into the plans of operation. The modes by which these associations operated were complicated and not easily understood; and perhaps that very thing was one cause of their acceptance; for many minds are charmed with what is mysterious, and disdainful of what is simple. A portion of those connected with these associations complained bitterly of their usurious and oppressive management. And the supreme court was appealed to for the righting of some of the alleged wrongs; but the appeal was barren of the expected results. They were relieved from the charge of usury; and the purgation was followed by such reasoning as to satisfy honest and reflecting men that the tribunal still remains a human institution. For several years a difference had existed among the Friends, occasioned by some of their distinguished writers having advocated and published sentiments which were deemed by a large portion of the society to be at variance with some of its wellknown and fundamental principles. This difference at length resulted in a division or separation in the Yearly Meeting of New England, one branch professing to adhere uncompromisingly to the original ground, while the other had so far abandoned that ground as to acknowledge religious fellowship and unity with those who had sought to introduce their modified views into the church. A large proportion of the Friends' Meeting in Lynn having declared themselves subordinate to this latter body, no alternative remained for those members who could not join in this course but to meet apart from them and thus sustain or continue the Meeting in connection with the Yearly Meeting which had resisted the innovations upon its discipline and doctrines. This year they erected a neat meeting-house on Cambridge street. Perhaps the reader will be enabled to form some just conception of the differences existing between the two parties by the statement that both contended that they were the true Quakers. Those who retained possession of the meeting-house, approved the teachings of Joseph John Gurney, an English Quaker, and considered that the reading of the scriptures forms an essential part of family and private devotion - that the scriptures alone reveal the true character of sin - that the observance of the sabbath is important - that the written gospel becomes the power of God unto salvation - that Christ will come again literally; The other party, in accordance with the ministration of John Wilbur and the early Quakers, held that the influence of the Holy Spirit, within the heart, was the true gospel, and alone sufficient for salvation - that the sabbath is a Jewish institution, the first day of the week not being the anti-type thereof nor the true christian sabbath, which, with Calvin, they believed to have a more spiritual sense - that the reading of the scriptures is profitable, but the knowledge of them not so essential to the understanding or practice of a holy life as to preclude the possibility of leading such a life without it - that Christ has come already spiritually.
By an amendment of the city charter, the municipal year was made to commence on the first Monday in January instead of the first Monday in April. The influx of the sea was so great during the violent storms in the early part of this year that considerable damage was done to the embankments along Ocean street. Many bathing houses were thrown down and King's Beach was at times completely overflowed. "Josselyn's Lynn Daily," a good sized, well printed and ably edited sheet was commenced in January, and continued for some months, by Lewis Josselyn. On the morning of January 10, Samuel Newhall shot, near Saugus river, two eagles - one gray and the other bald. There was an interval of severe cold early in February. On the morning of the 5th, the body of a well-dressed man was found in the road between Lynn and Danvers. He had evidently frozen to death. On the 7th, the thermometer stood at eighteen degrees below zero, in the morning, but at noon it was eight above; making a change of twenty-six degrees in four hours. The new Methodist meeting-house in East Saugus, was dedicated on Thursday forenoon, 22 February. Sermon by Bishop Janes. The cost of the edifice, including furnishings, was about $9.000. On Tuesday forenoon, 27 February, Mrs. Mary Parley, aged 28, died from the effects of ether. She went into the office of a respectable and skillful dentist, near the Central Depot, for the purpose of having a tooth extracted, and desired that ether might be administered. The operator advised against it, but after being urged complied. She died immediately, without returning to consciousness. A coroner's inquest was held, and the verdict was that she died from congestion of the lungs, caused by inhaling the ether. And the jury exonerated the operator from all blame in the unfortunate matter. During the week ending March 3, the Swampscot fishermen were unusually successful. The number of boats employed was fourteen, and the aggregate tonnage, six hundred. The total number of men employed was one hundred and twenty-six, and the fish which they caught sold for $5.272.00. None of the boats, excepting one, were out more than five days. Rev. Jotham B. Sewall was installed pastor of the Central Church, Silsbe street, on Wednesday, 7 March. The Lynn Library Association was incorporated in March. On Saturday evening, 31 March, some gentlemen at Little Beach captured a black-fish, eighteen feet in length. The blubber produced two barrels of oil. Seven thousand tons of ice were cut in the ponds of Lynn during the last winter. The Lynn Musical Association was incorporated this year. On Sunday, 6 May, a large tract of woodland, in Saugus, was burned over. A striking display was made by the fire, at night. Early on Friday morning, May 11, the shoe manufactory of Nelson Raddin, near East Saugus bridge, was burned, and with it a large amount of stock. Several young men made a trial of their powers in a pedestrian contest, in June. Albert Ramsdell ran three fourths of a mile in two minutes and fifty seconds; Jacob Ramsdell ran the same distance in two minutes and fifty-five seconds; and Charles Breed equalled the latter. E. F. Newhall ran one mile, on Long Beach, in five minutes and fifteen seconds. A. M. Colyer, a shoemaker, ran a mile in five minutes and twenty-seven seconds, barefoot, and on hard ground. On the 16th of June, a turtle, weighing thirty-five pounds, was caught in Floating Bridge pond. True Moody died on Sunday morning, 17 June. He was a colored man and had been out-door servant and hostler at Lynn Hotel for about forty years. He was a native of New Hampshire, an honest man and a faithful servant, and acquitted himself so willingly and skillfully in his humble calling that travelers regarded him with great favor. In person he was stout, and possessed in a well-developed form, all the physical peculiarities that distinguish the African race. His mouth was capacious and answered the novel purpose of a temporary savings bank; for in it he was accustomed to deposit the pecuniary gratuities that were bestowed by the numerous visitors at the house, till he could find time to remove them to a more suitable place, or till he required his mouth for some more legitimate use. And there is an account of a wager by some young men as to the amount of silver change in his mouth at a given time . To determine the bet he, consented, with his usual good nature, to discharge the deposits into a bowl, when they were found to amount to a little more than five dollars, the whole being in small pieces. By his gains in this humble way, he was enabled to secure a comfortable home and respectably support a family. By the failure of Nahant Bank, in 1836, he lost some five hundred dollars, which was a sad misfortune. And the Eastern Rail-road, which was built a few years afterward, by diverting travel from the Hotel, which for many years had ranked as one of the best in the vicinity; greatly reduced his income. It is said that at this period he was accustomed to retire to a corner of the deserted stable and weep. He long bore the name of Master True, and few persons were better known to travelers. And he knew all the noted characters who traveled the road, many of whom would rather have lost an hour on their journey than an opportunity to have a chat with him. It is said that Harrison Gray Otis was accustomed to speak of him as an acquaintance, and a man of great moral worth. Some newspapers stated that he was ninety-seven years old at the time of his death; but this was probably far from the truth; or he must have been endowed with extraordinary physical powers. His history affords another illustration of the fact that diligence and faithfulness, even in the most lowly occupation will attract attention and ensure reward. The electric telegraph to Nahant was put in operation this summer. The bakery of J. C. Eldred, on Commercial street, was destroyed by fire on Friday night, 10 August. Loss $3.500. On Monday, 20 August, a horse mackerel, weighing a thousand pounds, and measuring ten feet in length and six in girth, was captured between Egg Rock and the Swampscot shore, by three men from Swampscot. A severe drought prevailed during the last of summer and first of autumn. A sad accident occurred at Dungeon Rock, September 19. Edwin Marble, who was assisting his father in the work in progress there, and Benjamin Mann, were engaged in blasting, when a charge prematurely exploded, breaking Edwin's left arm and two of the fingers of his right hand; also badly cutting and bruising his face and neck. Mr. Mann was likewise bruised, though he escaped with comparatively little injury. David S. Proctor, of Swampscot, during three days hunting in Lynn woods, killed three foxes and forty gray squirrels. On Sunday, 25 November, the Catholic church, on Ash street, was consecrated, by Bishop Fitzpatrick. Nearly three hundred persons were confirmed on the same day. The main portion of the building was old. It was built by the Methodists; afterward occupied by the Baptists; and later still used for the sixth ward grammar school. The Catholics purchased, repaired, and enlarged it, rendering it capable of accommodating something over a thousand worshipers. This was the first Roman Catholic church in Lynn. See under date 1815. Michael Dolan, aged 22, was knocked down by a rail-road train from Boston, at the Market street crossing, 21 December, and so much injured as to cause his death. At the close of December there was a splendid display of frosted trees, continuing three days. Few people ever witnessed such a fairy-like exhibition. It appeared to me far superior to that noticed under date 1829. In the forest, when the sun was shining brightly, one could hardly realize that he had not been transported to some enchanted land. The Lynn Five Cents Savings Bank commenced receiving deposits, November 27 - George Hood, president. There were issued in Lynn, during this year, one hundred and sixty-three marriage certificates.
On Saturday, January 5, a violent snow storm commenced, and continued through Sunday. A great quantity of snow fell, and the wind blew a hurricane from the northeast. Rail-road traveling was greatly obstructed. The half past six o'clock train from Boston, on Saturday evening, was twenty-two hours in reaching Salem; it became fast bound, a short distance east of the Swampscot station, and had to remain through the night, the passengers, among whom were some twenty ladies, suffering much from the intense cold, and want of food. For several days after the storm the weather was very cold, the thermometer, on Wednesday, standing at twelve degrees below zero. Indeed the winter of 1855-6 was one of marked severity. From Christmas to near the middle of March, the same snow, in many instances, remained on the roofs. Sleighing commenced the day after Christmas and continued between eighty and ninety consecutive days. On the morning of the 10th of March, the thermometer, in various parts of Lynn, stood at ten degrees below zero. The ice in the harbor broke up on the 19th of March. Cutting winds from the northwest greatly prevailed for ten weeks preceding the middle of March, adding much to the piercing effects of the cold. On the 17th of January, George H. Jillson, aged 46, a carpenter, employed on Nahant Hotel, was so badly injured by the falling of a board from the fifth story, upon him, that he died on the following Sunday. A pair of bald eagles were seen upon the ice in Lynn harbor, 17 January. On Tuesday, 12 February, Ezra R. Tibbetts, a respectable citizen of Lynn, while passing along the side-walk in Bromfield street, Boston, was killed by the falling of a body of ice and snow from a three story building, upon his head. He was a mason by trade, and an industions, worthy man. He held varirious responsible offices under the old town government. Tibbetts's Building, so called, on Market street, was built by him. On the night of 27 February, a sudden and vivid flash lighted up the whole atmosphere. It resembled lightning, in some respects, though no thunder was heard. It was probably some brilliant meteor passing behind the clouds. On Tuesday evening, April 8, a farewell meeting was held at the First Methodist meeting-house, on the occasion of Rev. William Butler's departure for his field of duty as superintendent of the Methodist missions in India. Several dignitaries from the church at large were present and the exercises were instructive and impressive. Mr. Butler received his credentials and charges at this meeting. Soon after his arrival in India, the great Sepoy revolt took place, and he was subjected to much loss though he escaped personal harm. On the morning of April 10, the carpenter shop of William H. Mills, on Chesnut street, was destroyed by fire with all its contents. Loss, about $1.400. A severe northeast storm began on Saturday evening, 19 April, and continued to rage till Monday night. Numerous buildings were more or less injured. The steeple of the Methodist meeting-house at Swampscot, then in process erection, was blown down. The brick school-house on Howard street, was destroyed by fire on the morning of May 15. Loss $1.500. Stephen Palmer, a carpenter, aged 53, fell from a staging, while at work on the house of Holten Johnson, at the eastern end of the Common, on the 15th of May, and was so injured that he lay senseless till the morning of the 18th, when he died. The first Methodist meeting-house at Swampscot, was dedicated on Monday, June 30. Bishop Simpson preached the sermon. As an instance of the quick work of one of our Lynn shoemakers, it may be stated that Francis D. Rhodes, in fifty days, made, in a good, workmanlike manner, seven hundred and ninety-two pairs of ladies' shoes, at twenty-two cents a pair, thus earning, in less than two months, $174.24. They were, of course, made entirely by hand. On the evening of 26 June, a Mrs. Brazil, visiting at the house of John Regan, South Common street, attempted to fill a lamp with burning fluid, when an explosion took place, setting fire to her clothes. A child ran toward her, the fire was communicated to its garments, and it was so much burned that it died. Mrs. Brazil was not fatally injured. This was one of many accidents that took place about this time from the explosive burning fluid then in such common use. The new school house in the centre district of Lynnfield was dedicated on the 11th of July. On the 16th of July, Capt. William T. Gale, fell down a flight of stairs in the Bay State Building, Central Square, and so injured himself that he died the next day, remaining insensible during the mean time. He was for a number of years commander of the Lynn Artillery, and was buried with military honors. A horse-mackerel, nine feet in length, and weighing nearly a thousand pounds was captured off Nahant, 16 July. On the 26th of July the thermometer stood at from ninety-seven to a hundred degrees, in the shade, in different parts of Lynn; and for the preceding five consecutive days it had stood above ninety during some part of the day. A colored youth named Francis P. Haskell, aged 20, was drowned in the Flax pond, on the 3d of August. He rode a horse in to water, and not loosening the martingale the animal became restiff, threw his rider over his head, and with his fore feet thrust him under water. There was a severe drought this summer. It ended on the night of August 5, when a copious rain commenced, continuing in almost unbroken torrents till Wednesday noon. On the next Friday there was a violent thunder storm. The house of Dr. Asa T. Newhall, on Olive street, was struck and damaged to the amount of $250. A house on the opposite side of the same street was also struck; likewise a brick house on Sea street, the latter having every pane of glass, in one window, broken. Two gentlemen were riding over Long Beach, when the pole of their carriage was struck and shivered into innumerable splinters. The house of John Blaney, in Swampscot, was also struck. Indeed the lightning struck in some twenty places, within a circuit of ten miles. The storm was extraordinary for its duration, raging, with very brief intervals, for full fourteen hours. Between five and eight o'clock in the afternoon it was very severe; but from half past eleven to half past one in the night it was really appalling - the thunder jarring the most substantial fabrics, the lighting gleaming with blinding intensity, the rain pouring down in equatorial torrents, and the wind roaring furiously. Out-door services were held in Lynn, this year, by several of our clergymen. Dr. Cooke, of the First Church, preached his first field sermon on Sunday, 7 September, on the Common. But the experiment, on the whole, was not successful, the weather often interfering with the arrangements. The groves are indeed beautiful temples, but in a climate so variable as that of New England not so convenient for fashionable worshipers. Egg Rock light was shown, for the first time, on Monday, night, 15 September. The cost of the building was $3.700. It was built by Ira P. Brown. On the 8th of'July, a company of gentlemen from Lynn and the neighboring places visited the rock and held a jovial celebration. Patrick Buckley, the "Lynn Buck," ran five miles in twenty-eight minutes and thirty-eight seconds, at the Trotting Park, September 19, for a belt valued at $50. And on the 4th of December, William Hendley ran the same distance in twenty-eight minutes and thirty seconds. The schooner Shark, Captain Carlisle bound from Bristol, Me. for Boston, with wood, was wrecked on Long Beach, 30 September. The cargo was strewed along the shore and the vessel went to pieces; but no lives were lost. The disaster was occasioned by the Egg Rock light being mistaken for that on Long Island. Forest Hill Cemetery, Lynnfield, was consecrated October 14. Addresses were delivered by Rev. E. R. Hodgman and Rev. A. P. Chute. Some of the Swampscot fishermen were very successful about the close of the year. During the week ending December 13, the schooner Flight, Captain Stanley, with thirteen hands, caught 62.700 pounds of cod fish. And a short time before, the crew of the Jane caught in one day, among a large quantity of cod fish of the ordinary size, twelve which weighed on an average fifty-six pounds each. Captain Nathaniel Blanchard caught one cod fish which weighed ninety-four pounds, gross, and seventy-eight pounds dressed.
A very violent snow storm commenced on Sunday, January 18. It had been extremely cold. On Friday, the thermometer sank to twenty-two degrees below zero, and on the morning of the day on which the storm began, it was from twelve to twenty below. The wind was high, and the snow drifted furiously. So great a quantity fell that almost all travel was suspended for one or two days. Three powerful engines were required to force the formidable snow plough along the rail-road track . It was not till Tuesday afternoon that trains were able to reach Lynn from Salem and Boston; at which time one arrived from each place, drawn by four engines. The way being thus opened, other trains followed, and there were eleven engines at the Lynn station, at one time. Much damage was done on the coast and the beaches bore melancholy evidence of the perils of the sea. The bark Tedesco was totally wrecked in the terrible storm spoken of in the foregoing paragraph. She was commanded by Captain Peterson, of Portland, and was from Cadiz, with a cargo of wine and salt. She was driven ashore at Long Rock, Swampscot, below the Ocean House, and soon went to pieces. All on board, twelve in number, perished. Six of the dead bodies were buried from the Methodist meeting-house in Swampscot, at one time. The vessel was valued at $15.000, and the cargo at the same. The captain had been married, at Cadiz, immediately before sailing, but his wife was not on board. From the 7th day of January to the 20th, Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter were all visible in the western hemisphere, and Saturn in the eastern. Uranus was also visible by glasses. Such an occurrence, it is said, Copernicus longed to witness, but did not. Neptune was likewise, at the same time, visible by telescopic aid. James H. Luscomb, a youth of the age of fifteen, while driving a cow across Long Beach, 19 February, fastened one end of a rope around her neck and the other end around his own body. The cow suddenly turned and rushed back toward Little Nahant, dragging him three quarters of a mile and killing him. His skull was fractured and his back broken in two places. Goold Brown, aged 65, died at his residence on North Common street, March 31, after an illness of nine days. He early directed his attention to studies connected with the science of language and became widely known as a grammarian. Many years ago he published a grammar which was extensively introduced into the schools of the United States. And he taught a seminary in New York city, long and acceptably. His last and great work, which was completed but a short time before his death, was entitled the Grammar of English Grammars. He was a native of Providence, R. I., and a descendant of the founder of Brown University; was a member of the Society of Friends and a much respected citizen. He left a widow and two adopted daughters. Haddock appeared in great numbers, at times, during the early part of the year. On the thirteenth of March, about one hundred of the Swampscot fishermen, in twelve boats, caught, in some six hours, 160.000 pounds of fish, almost entirely haddock. Fisher Kingsbury, a respectable citizen of Saugus, aged 70, was instantly killed on the Saugus Branch Rail-road, at Malden, 17 March. Both his legs were cut off and he was otherwise injured, by a passing train. A number of respectable shoe manufacturers early this year joined in forming a board of trade. It was thought that benefits would accrue from the association, particularly through the adoption of rules regarding credit to customers and for the security of greater uniformity in the trade generally. But all the good that at first seemed promised was not realized, owing perhaps in a great measure to the diversity of interests and the unwillingness of some to yield to any regulation that might appear to restrain the largest freedom in trade. The association did not long continue in active operation. Trawl-fishing began to be practised by some of the Swampscot fishermen this year. A team load of goods, while passing over Long Beach, from Nahant, May 6, took fire, and was damaged to the amount of sixty dollars. On the evening of May 26, the shoe manufactory of Albert B. Ingalls, on Union street, was burned, with a considerable amount of stock. John E. Gowan, a native of Lynn, arrived at Sebastopol, Russia, June 3, to undertake the raising of the ships sunk in that harbor, during the Crimean war, under a contract with the Russian government. His enterprise was successful, and honors were bestowed upon him. The barn of Captain Fuller, in Humfrey street, Swampscot, was burned, June 13. The fire was set by two little boys who were playing with matches, in the barn. One of the boys, a son of J. A. Knowlton, aged four and a half years, was burned to death. The color of Egg Rock light was changed from white to red, June 15. On Sunday morning, 21 June a dwelling-house in process of completion for Mrs. Raddin, widow of George W. Raddin, near the Saugus line was burned. Loss, about $1.200. Widow Mary Wiggin, died June 20, aged 95 - the oldest person in Lynn, at the time. Independence was celebrated in Lynn, this year. A long procession marched through the streets, consisting of a cavalcade in fancy costumes, fire companies, bands of music, and numerous carriages, beautifully decorated, and filled with school children, bearing mottos, flags, and other insignia. An entertainment was provided, on the Common, for the children. In the evening there was a display of fireworks. It was called a juvenile temperance celebration. At Swampscot, July 4, Henry Scales and John Draper were seriously injured while firing a salute. Scales was badly wounded in the bowels, and had an arm broken; and he soon after died, at the Massachusetts Hospital. Draper had an arm broken, an eye destroyed, and was otherwise injured. He was also taken to the hospital, and in about two months died of lockjaw. On the 15th of July, a pleasure party from Nahant, while fishing, captured a shark twelve feet in length and weighing nearly twelve hundred pounds. Much excitement took place this summer, in many places, concerning the discovery of pearls in fresh water muscles and clams. Many small ones were found in shell fish taken from the Floating Bridge and Flax ponds, in Lynn, but not enough to render the search more profitable than regular labor. It was quite amusing occasionally to observe some venerable and demure citizen, who never in his life had been guilty of imagining that there was such a thing as amusement in the world, wending his way toward the ponds, and fancying his real object entirely concealed by the rod and line, and other sporting gear with which he had so cunningly encumbered himself. The African Methodist meeting-house, on Hacker street, was dedicated on the 1st of August. On the 14th of August, at about one o'clock, in the afternoon, while the thermometer was standing at ninety-eight degrees, in the shade, an interesting little child of five years, a daughter of Nicholas Mailey, living on Green street, who was playing in the garden, was sun-struck, and died the next day. On Tuesday, the 8th of September, the Fifth Regiment of Infantry, Col. Rogers, went into camp, at Nahant, remaining till Thursday. The weather was fine, and the attendance of spectators large. The Franklin Trotting Park, chiefly in Saugus, was laid out this year. A small comet was visible, to the naked eye, in September, in constellation Bootes. The different fire engine companies of Lynn had a grand trial of power, op the Common, on Saturday afternoon, September 26. A great multitude assembled, and much good-natured rivalry prevailed. Money prizes were contended for, the highest being twenty-five dollars. Blue fish were very plenty off our shores in the early part of autumn. They are great enemies to the menhaden; and for several days such a war raged that the beaches were strewn with dead fish, chiefly of the latter species. Mr. Lewis, the historian, said that in two tides, he picked up nine bushels, and buried them in his garden, for manure. The Congregational meeting-house in Lynnfield, south village, was dedicated November 11. Great financial embarrassment prevailed throughout the country this year and affected all classes. In Lynn there was a larger amount of suffering among the poor, than had been known for a long period. Numbers were out of employment, and many of the necessaries of life were dear. Public meetings were held, in the fall and winter, to devise means for the relief of the destitute. Many benevolent hearts were stirred, and individuals of means contributed liberally; and on the whole the cloud passed away with less distress and disaster than might reasonably have been anticipated. Very few business men failed, and not many of the poor suffered long. The boundary line between Lynnfield and North Reading was changed this year. The number of marriages in Lynn during this year was 209.
The first Congregational Methodist meeting-house, on Chesnut street, near Broad, was dedicated on the 1st of January. It afterward became the property of the Calvinistic Society known as the Chesnut street Congregational Society. The first vessel ever built at Nahant was a schooner of sixteen tons. She was built by J. and E. Johnson, and launched on the 11th of February. Joseph E. Watts, of Marblehead, froze to death on the Eastern Rail-road track, near Oak Island, on the night of the 16th of February. On the morning of February 19, the rosin oil factory, near the Lynn Common Depot was destroyed by fire. The building was of brick, and the loss of that, together with the stock, amounted to $6.000. On the evening of the same day a barn, belonging to Oliver Ramsdell, in Gravesend village, was burned. The "Lynn Buck," so called, walked a plank, at Lowell, in February, a hundred and five consecutive hours and forty-four minutes, without sleep, and with but twenty-nine minutes rest. A strict watch was kept on him. Joseph L. Hill, aged 20, while at Swampscot, gunning, on the afternoon of March 3, was instantly killed by the accidental discharge of a fowling piece. The sun-dial, on the Common, was set in April. The granite pillar was furnished by the city, and the instrument was procured by private subscription and adjusted by Cyrus M. Tracy. Telegraphic communication between Lynn and Boston was commenced on the 4th of May. On the 5th of June, two small boys, while fishing, fell into the basin above Scott's woolen factory; in Saugus, and were drowned. On the afternoon of June 8, the schooner Prairie Flower, Capt. Brown, left Salem for Boston, with a party on board. When off Nahant, she suddenly capsized and seven were drowned. Davis's barn, in Saugus, was struck by lighting, during a shower, June 20. The Eighth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Militia paraded in Lynn, on the 23d of June, in compliment to Col. Coffin. Eight fine companies of infantry were present, and many guests of dignity; among them Gov. Banks. Dinner was served in a spacious tent, and some five hundred partook. This was the celebrated "Eighth" that gained such plaudits in the early stages of the war of the Great Rebellion. The month of July was found, by observation, to be the coldest that had occurred for fourteen years. On the afternoon of the 6th of August, a barn in Swampscot, belonging to Jonathan F. Phillips, was struck by lightning and burned, with fifty tons of hay. The well-known trotting mare Lady Lawrence, valued at a thousand dollars, being in the barn, was killed by the lightning. On the evening of the 14th of August the barn of Jacob Jackson, on Essex street, was burned, with sixteen tons of hay. One cow perished, and another was so badly burned that it was necessary to kill her. There was an impromptu "cable celebration" in Lynn, on the 17th of August - a firing of guns, waving of flags, and divers similar demonstrations - on the occasion of the transmission of Queen Victoria's message to President Buchanan through the Atlantic cable, the instrument of high hopes that were to be disappointed. At Federal Square, in the evening, there was quite a display. During a heavy shower, on the afternoon of September 11, two schooners, lying at the west part of the town, were struck by lightning. The whole length of the foremast of one was splintered. The other was not much damaged. A splendid comet appeared in the autumn of this year. It was one of the most striking and beautiful celestial objects ever witnessed. For many evenings it descended in the northwest with its immense tail curving toward the north. The tail was determined to be, on Oct. 10, fifty-one millions of miles in length; and to the observer it appeared clearly delineated for a length equal to something more than half the distance from the horizon to the zenith. On the 13th of September it was a hundred and twenty-two millions of miles from the earth; and on its nearest approach it was fifty-two millions of miles distant. It is known as the comet of Donati. A faithful representation of this beautiful wanderer is here given. The meeting-house of the Second Baptist Society, on High street, was dedicated on the 7th of October. On Thursday, the 13th of October, the completion of the electric telegraph to Swampscot was celebrated. Flags were displayed and guns fired at morning, noon, and night. John B. Alley was elected, November 2d, Representative to the United States Congress, from this district. He was the first Lynn man, who received the honor of a seat in that august assemblage. The Catholic Cemetery, was consecrated on Thursday, the 4th of November, by Bishop Fitzpatrick, assisted by six other clergymen. On account of the violence of the storm the services were chiefly held at the church, where the rite of confirmation was administered to about two hundred persons. The cemetery contains eight acres. The tide rose to such a height on the 23d of November that the Lynn and Saugus marshes were so deeply submerged as to occasion detention of the rail-road trains. All the trains were for a time forced to run over the Saugus Branch. Benjamin Luscomb, aged 46, while examining his fowling piece, preparatory to going on a gunning excursion the next morning was instantly killed by the explosion of a charge, on Sunday evening, December 12. Not supposing the piece to be loaded he had taken the barrel from the stock and was blowing in it, near a lighted lamp. There were landed in Lynn, during the year, 5.950.000 feet of lumber; 16.034 tons of coal; 5.820 cords of wood; 5.877 casks of lime and cement; and 79.600 bushels of grain. The number of vessels bringing the same, was 337. What was landed on the Saugus side of the river is not included in the statement. And it should be borne in mind that Lynn has no back country to look to her for supplies. Cyrus M. Tracy this year published an octavo pamphlet of eighty-eight pages, entitled "Studies of the Essex Flora: a Complete Enumeration of all the Plants found growing naturally within the limits of Lynn, Mass., and the Towns adjoining, arranged according to the Natural System, with copious Notes as to Localities and habits." The title fully expresses the character of the work, and Mr. Tracy performed his task in a very creditable manner. As it will be interesting to those who occupy this soil in the far future, when population and art have driven nature from her present footholds, to know what forest trees grew and wild flowers bloomed where then will be busy streets, this modest work will be valued long after many more pretentious things are forgotten. There was very little cold or tempestuous weather, in the winter of 1858-9, before the middle of February. The evenings of January, as regarded temperature, were generally more like those of April, than any other season. The cumulous clouds, on several occasions, like immense fleeces of wool, rose to a great height, and in the moonlight made a very beautiful appearance. After the colder weather set in, one of the chief amusements, not only of the school boys but the school girls and not only of the young, but of the mature, of both sexes, was skating. On moonlight evenings, the ponds were vocal with the merry voices of those engaged in the exhilarating recreation.
Judson J. Hutchinson died, January 11, age 38. He was one of the favorite band of singers known as the Hutchinson brothers. He committed suicide, by hanging, at the wooden dwelling on the west of the stone cottage, at High Rock. The act was no doubt done while he was laboring under mental aberration. For several years he had at times been insane, and his mind occasionally seemed to incline to self-destruction. Many months before the melancholy event took place, he very pleasantly and as was supposed jocosely assured the writer that nothing but lack of courage had for a long time prevented his destroying his life. He was an enthusiast, and possessed many eccentricities in manners and.modes of thought; but he was genial in disposition, affable in manners, intelligent, and much beloved. He was a spiritualist, and could see no evil in taking the abrupt road that he did to join his friends in the spirit land. There was a "Calico Ball" at the Sagamore House, on Wednesday evening, January 19. All the ladies appeared in calico dresses, which at that time were the cheapest style of dress. A hundred couples were present. The prize of a gold bracelet was awarded to the lady who in the judgment of a committee was arrayed in the most neat and becoming manner, personal charms also being taken into account - and Miss Nellie Clapp was the fair winner of the prize. It was a very pleasant gathering; and the prevalence of silks and satins could not have added to its attractiveness. Early on the morning of the 21st of January, the commodious grammar school-house, in Woodend, with its contents, was totally destroyed by fire. The building was valued at $6.000, and was built in 1851. On Wednesday night, February 2, during a violent storm, the Vernon, a British bark of 265 tons, bound from Messina for Boston, with a cargo chiefly of fruit, was driven ashore on Long Beach. The wind was very high and the sea in terrific commotion; but by great courage and the skillful management of a life boat all the crew were saved. Most of the cargo was also saved. At low tide the vessel was left almost out of water; but on Sunday morning, 13 February, she was got off and towed to Boston, in a crippled condition. A spirited lithographic print, illustrating the scene at the wreck, was soon after published. There was a total eclipse of the moon early on the morning of February 17. The sky being very clear, an unusually striking effect was produced. On Friday morning, February 25, the tin ware and stove store of Brawn and Morrill, on Broad street, near Newhall, was burned. Loss $3.000. A large hump-back whale was several times seen near the Swampscot shore in the latter part of February. The New England Mechanic, a weekly newspaper, of good size, was commenced on the 19th of March, by Alonzo G. Draper as an advocate for the interests of the journeymen shoemakers. The New England Conference of the Methodist Church commenced its annual session in Lynn, on Wednesday, April 6, Bishop Ames presiding. On Saturday night, 28 May, the Catholic church, on Ash street, was burned, and one or two small buildings standing near, were considerably damaged. The value of the church property destroyed was $6.500. William F. Mills and Charles A. Forbes, while on a pleasure sail some two miles outside of Egg Rock, on Sunday, May 29, were overtaken by a squall which overset the boat. Mills was drowned and Forbes was taken up, in an insensible condition, by a passing schooner, and carried to Boston. A man ran round Lynn Common on the evening of June 3, on a wager, in two minutes and three quarters. On the nights of the 4th and 5th of June there were severe frosts. Independence was celebrated in Lynn, in a very pleasant manner. A long procession, consisting of military and fire companies, city officials and other dignitaries, with numerous decorated carriages containing the pupils of the public schools, moved through the principal streets, accompanied by bands of music. A collation was prepared on the Common, and short addresses were made by the Mayor and others. In the evening there was a display of fireworks. The day was also celebrated at Swampscot. On Tuesday, July 19, Mr. Fenno went out from Swampscot, in a boat, to fish; subsequently the boat was found drifting and Mr. Fenno was missing, though his hat remained in the boat. On the 28th, his body was found floating a short distance from the Ocean House. A grand regatta took place at Nahant, on the 22d of July. The prize contended for was an elegant silver pitcher. On Sunday evening, July 31, a fire occurred in Healey's Arcade, at the west end of the Common, damaging the same to the amount of some $2.000. The stocks in the stores were likewise considerably damaged. A horse mackerel was taken off Bass Point, Nahant, on the 3d of August, measuring between nine and ten feet in length and six feet in girth, and weighing six hundred and fourteen pounds. On the afternoon of August 12, as a train was passing on the Eastern Rail-road, a few rods east of the Swampscot depot, it ran into a herd of cows which were feeding on the track. The engine, tender, and a baggage car were thrown from the track, down an embankment, and several of the cows were killed. There was a brilliant display of the northern lights, on Sunday evening, August 28. The whole heavens were overspread. Charles Frost was run over by a fire engine, in Market street, on the evening of August 31, and instantly killed, one of the wheels passing over his head. In the early part of September, some twenty spots were observed on the surface of the sun, distributed in clusters. In September, a lady living in Lynn, feeling a prickling sensation in her heel, examined and found protruding a needle, which from certain circumstances she was convinced was one that she ran into her foot eleven years before. In all that time it had not proved troublesome; and when extracted was as bright as when new. On the morning of September 2, the heavens were tinged by an aurora of a deep red hue. In the southwest it appeared like the reflection of a conflagration. The engine house, corner of Ash and Elm streets, was burned, together with nine hundred feet of hose, the hose carriage, and other property, on the night of Sunday, October 2. Two barns on the Hood Farm, Water Hill, were destroyed by fire on the morning of November 10, together with fifty tons of hay, and a large quantity of vegetables. And on the night of the same day, the barn of Daniel Fairchild, on Boston street, was burned, three horses perishing in the flames. A large barn, belonging to John Mansfield, in the south village of Lynnfield, was burned on the 18th of November. Two yoke of oxen and two horses perished in the fire. On Sunday evening, November 20, the Union street Methodist meeting-house was totally destroyed by fire. A Sunday school concert was being held in the building at the time, and some five hundred persons, a large portion of whom were children, were in attendance; but all safely retired. The loss was about $8.000. The bell, organ, clock, and part of the Sunday school library were lost. The church bells were tolled in Lynn, at sunrise, noon, and sunset, on Friday, December 2, on account of the execution of John Brown, at Charlestown, Va., on the charge of treason, growing out of an armed attempt to free slaves. So many fires had, in recent years occurred in the woods, destroying such quantities of wood which had been prepared for fuel, as well as that standing, that a serious depreciation in the value of wood land seemed likely to ensue. Several large proprietors, awakening to the necessity of some action, made a move for the protection of their interests. Their direct efforts, perhaps, secured no conspicuous result; but by arousing attention and operating on public sentiment some good was effected. Rewards have been offered by the authorities, from time to time, for the detection of rogues setting such fires. In the spring, when the earth has become dry, and before the new verdure has put forth, the greatest danger exists; and many a boy, by carelessly throwing down a lighted match has been the instrument of great mischief; to say nothing of those who are so abandoned as to wantonly destroy the property of others. The fact that the fires most frequently occur on Sunday is significant.
On the afternoon of January 6, three young men walked across the harbor, on the ice, from near the south end of Commercial street, to Bass Point, Nahant. No one had before so crossed at a point so far out, for some twenty years. The brick school house, in Woodend, which was built to supply the place of the wooden structure destroyed by fire, on the 21st of January, 1859, was dedicated on the 8th of February. The Lynnfield Agricultural Library Association was founded on the 11th of February. A great Shoemakers' Strike commenced in Lynn, in February. No occurrence of the kind in this part of the country perhaps ever before created such a sensation. Processions of workmen paraded the streets, day after day, with music and banners. Large delegations of operatives from other places joined. And in several instances - on one occasion during a snow storm - large bodies of females appeared in the ranks; for the shoebinders were also on a strike. On the 16th of March, a really imposing spectacle was presented. Several military and fire companies belonging to Lynn and other places, numerous detachments of strikers from neighboring towns, and hundreds of women, formed in grand procession with the Lynn strikers and marched through the streets with bands of music, flags, and banners with devices. They moved in as close order as is common with such bodies, and the procession was something more than half a mile in length, and numbered, at different points, from three thousand to five thousand individuals. The day was very pleasant, and the demonstration passed off in an orderly manner. In the early part of the strike there was a good deal of excitement; and the city authorities, not deeming themselves sufficient for the emergency, sent to Boston for a detachment of police officers and took means promptly to secure other support from abroad should necessity require. After continuing about seven weeks, the great ferment quietly subsided. There was very little violence - a wonderfully small amount, considering the magnitude of the interests supposed to be at stake, and the energy with which the war of words was kept up. The object of the strikers was the same that is common in all such movements; namely, the obtaining of more adequate remuneration for labor; for it was alleged that at the current rates very few found it possible to obtain a decent livelihood. On the other hand, the manufacturers maintained that under existing circumstances, it was not in their power to pay higher prices. There was probably a misconception of facts on both sides. The whole trade had, in truth, through the instrumentality of some who had made heedless haste to be rich, and others, who had operated in ways positively dishonest, been brought into an unhealthy condition, a condition where it was necessary that some remedy should be applied. But whether a resort to such means as a general strike was the most expedient remains problematical. Yet the result did not seem to be mischievous. The energetic discussions that took place opened the way for a better understanding. Many facts were brought to light, useful to employers and employed. The suspension of labor prevented the accumulation of large stocks on the hands of the manufacturers, which stocks, no doubt, would in many cases have been disposed of, on credit, to southern dealers, who, judging from the experience of some Lynn people, about that time, touching southern integrity, would not have been over-anxious that the spirit of rebellion should be curbed till they had time to discharge their obligations. Though perhaps no definite and conspicuous result of this famous Strike could be shown; yet it is far from certain that it was not beneficial. Each party saw more clearly the strength and weakness, the wants and difficulties, of the other, and the friends of justice, on both sides, had the means furnished for a more intelligible view. The whole country seemed to have their eyes momentarily turned on Lynn, and through the daily journals and illustrated weeklies, her travail was magnified to an extent far beyond what was dreamed of in her own borders. On Sunday morning, February 19, Dr. Ezekiel P. Eastman died, aged 42. He had practised in Lynn for a number of years, was a skillful physician, and possessed attractive manners. The Mechanics' Steam Mill, on Broad street, near the foot of Market, was burned on the evening of March 12, together with one or two other frame buildings, occupied for mechanical purposes. Loss, about $8.000. John Whalley, a partially deaf man, was killed on the rail-road track, near Market street, being struck by a locomotive, on the 23d of March. The Third Baptist Society in Lynn, was formed this year; and their meeting-house, near Dye House village, was dedicated on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 16. There was an uncommon drought during the spring of this year. The first rain for forty-one days fell on the 19th of May. Vegetation, however, did not materially suffer, the dews being heavy and the sun not in its summer position. The Universalist meeting-house in the centre village of Saugus was dedicated on Thursday, the 24th of May. The Universalists had succeeded to the first Calvinistic church property, and having disposed of the old meeting-house, which stood in the Square, and which was built in 1738, erected their new edifice. The ancient house was steepleless, and certainly not a very elegant specimen of architecture; but its history is interesting. It was there that the celebrated Parson Roby preached, so many years. The spot where it stood was purchased by the town to be retained as a public ground. St. Andrew's Episcopal Chapel, in the ancient Gothic style, was built this year, on Ontario Court, and first opened for service on Sunday, June 10. Rev. Sumner Ellis was installed pastor of the First Universalist Society, in Lynn, on the afternoon of June 13. A comet was just visible to the naked eye, in June. Its tail was about four degrees in length, and pointed upward. On Friday, June 29, a severe thunder storm occurred. It commenced about six o'clock in the afternoon, and continued till nine, with scarcely an intermission. There was some hail; the wind blew with great fury, and torrents of rain fell. The house of Stephen Lewis, on Fayette street, was struck by the lightning, and slightly damaged. The meeting-house in the south village of Lynnfield was also struck. The Methodist meeting-house, in Saugus, east village, was entered on Sunday night, July 8, and robbed of a hundred yards of carpeting. This was the second time that the carpets of this house were stolen. There was a muster of the fire companies of Essex county, at Lynnfield, on the 18th of July. Many firemen from Lynn attended, though the authorities would not suffer the engines to be carried. An extraordinary meteor appeared in the heavens at about ten o'clock, on the evening of July 20. It moved slowly, in a southeasterly direction, leaving a luminous train which was visible for about a minute. The meteor resembled two bright balls as large as full moons. A turtle, weighing thirty-five pounds and measuring, on the shell, thirteen by seventeen inches, was taken from Stacey's brook, in Woodend, in July. The jewelry store of George H. Moore, on Market street, was robbed at noon, August 16, of some twenty watches and other articles, of the value of about $400. On the afternoon of August 8, the barn of Henry Clay, in Lynnfield, was struck by lightning, set on fire, and entirely consumed, together with a large quantity of hay and other farm property. John Denier, a tight rope performer, walked upon a single rope a distance of fourteen hundred feet, at Nahant, on the afternoon of August 16. The rope was stretched high above Canoe Beach, in the rear of Nahant House. A very large concourse witnessed the dangerous feat. And on the afternoon of the 27th, he walked up a rope one inch and three quarters in diameter, stretched from the top of a three story building on the southwest side of Exchange street, in Lynn, to a derrick erected near the entrance of Mount Vernon street, and performed sundry astonishing feats - among them hanging by one foot, head downward - while on the rope, many feet above the heads of the crowd of spectators. On the 22d of August a swing-tail shark was captured in a net, by Chandler Lewis, of Swampscot, a short distance from the beach. He measured ten feet in length. This species is very rare on our coast. The new light house on Minot's Ledge was lighted for the first time on the night of Wednesday, August 22. The light, however, was only shown toward the shore, it being merely an experimental lighting. It began to be regularly lighted on the night of Thursday, November 15. A sun-fish was caught near Egg Rock, in August, weighing about two hundred and fifty pounds. A small encampment of the Penobscot tribe of Indians erected their wigwams on Phillips's Point, Swampscot, in the latter part of the summer, and pursued their trade of basket making. On the night of the 7th of September, a fire occurred on Beach street, at the wood and coal wharf of Breed and Thing. A heap of about three thousand tons of coal took fire and continued to burn two days, notwithstanding the efforts of the fire department to extinguish it, aided by a steam fire engine from Salem. The coal and hay sheds, were destroyed, and a large portion of the coal and wood either burned or thrown overboard. Loss, about $9.000. Early on Sunday morning, September 16, the baking establishment of Nathaniel Holder, on Pine Hill, was burned. Four valuable horses perished in the flames. Loss, about $4.000. The carpenter shop of N. P. Boynton, on Broad street, was destroyed by fire, September 30. Loss, about $1.200. The planet Venus was distinctly visible to the naked eye, at about eleven o'clock on the forenoon of October 11. The sun was shining brightly. The Lynn post office was broken into on Sunday night, October 14, and robbed of a quantity of postage stamps, a small amount of money, and a large number of letters. Many of the letters were afterward found, broken open and rifled, some near the High School house, and some at Oak Island. A slight shock of an earthquake was felt on the morning of Oct. 17. There was a rumbling sound and the earth trembled. The Prince of Wales passed through Lynn at about ten o'clock in the forenoon of Saturday, October 20. The special train in which the august youth journeyed, made a slight pause at the Central Station, and he stepped upon the platform of his car, thus vouchsafing to some of the anxious crowd gathered in the Square a glimpse of his royal person. Some preparations had been made to receive him, and divers of the city officials were present, but he did not appear to appreciate the honor. The Republicans had a grand torch-light procession on the evening of the 30th of October. Music, illuminations, fireworks, and bonfires abounded. Brilliant lights were placed upon the stone posts that surround the Common, making a fine show. The procession numbered from twelve to fifteen hundred. The demonstration was in favor of Mr. Lincoln then a candidate for the presidency. The other parties also had their demonstrations. On Saturday night, November 3, the severest storm of the season occurred. There was a strong easterly wind and a high sea. The Gazelle, a small vessel belonging to Gloucester, broke from her moorings at Swampscot and was driven ashore at King's Beach, where she went to pieces. On the 6th of November, Micajah Burrill of Woodend, aged 96, was at the polls and voted for Mr. Lincoln for president. He voted for Washington at the time of his election. Captain Ammi Smith, of Lynn, was master of the ship Oliver Putnam, which foundered at sea, this year. After the ship went down the men remained eleven days in an open boat, subsubsisting on two biscuits and a pint of water a day. A Dutch bark, bound for Rotterdam, finally picked them up and carried them to St. Helena. Early on the morning of Saturday, November 24, a severe southeasterly gale set in, which was particularly disastrous to the shipping at Swampscot; more so than any other that had occurred for many years. In the latter part of November, Zachariah Phillips, of Lynn, during four days' fishing from his dory, in the bay, experienced in a singular manner the vicissitudes of a fisherman's luck. His first day's catch sold for 25 cents. That of one of the other days sold for $21.00. And taking the whole four days together he realized $46.50. The fish sold for three cents a pound, on the beach, and were chiefly cod. The cars began to run on the horse rail-road, through Lynn, on the 29th of November. Market street was lighted by gas, for the first time, on Friday evening, December 7. Cars commenced running over the Cliftondale horse rail-road, from East Saugus to Boston, December 26. The sessions of the Probate Court in Lynn were discontinued this year. There was a very large crop of fruit this year; particularly of apples and pears; and the quality was superior. The fire department was called out fifty-six times during the year, seventeen of which were from false alarms. The whole loss by fire was about $32.000. By the census taken this year, Lynn was found to contain 19.087 inhabitants; Lynnfield,.866; Nahant,.380; Saugus, 2.024; Swampscot, 1.530. The valuation of real estate in Lynn, this year, was $6.291.460; personal, $3.357.605 - total, $9.649.065. The rate of taxation, was $8.80 on $1.000. Number of ratable polls, 3.933. City debt, $107.600. By turning to date 1850, the increase of ten years may be determined. But it should be borne in mind that Nahant and Swampscot were set off during the period.
Friday, 4 January, was observed as a national fast, in view of the threatening aspect of public affairs. An extraordinary change in the weather took place during a few hours preceding sunrise, on Friday, the 8th of February. On Thursday the air was mild, the thermometer standing at forty-five degrees, at two o'clock in the afternoon. About that time a change commenced, the cold increasing rapidly, till Friday morning, when the thermometer stood at twenty-one degrees below zero. Thus, between two o'clock on Thursday afternoon and eight on Friday, morning, the thermometer fell sixty-six degrees. On the night of 18 February, a barn, on Howard street, belonging to James E. Barry, was burned. Two horses perished in the flames. A severe storm occurred on Saturday evening, 9 March. Considerable damage was done to the shipping at Swampscot. And again on the 22d of March there was a heavy blow, and while the sea was running high a vessel was discovered some two miles off the eastern point of Nahant, rolling heavily at anchor, with all her masts gone excepting a portion of the mizzen. She proved to be the bark Nonpareil, Capt. Flynn, from Palermo, for Boston. She was finally taken safely to Boston, by a steam tug. No lives were lost. A snow storm commenced 1 April, during which eighteen inches of snow fell. The brick Catholic Church, at the eastern end of South Common street, was built this year. It was the finest and most costly church edifice that had been built in the place. Fort Sumpter, in the harbor of Charleston, S. C., was attacked by the South Carolina forces on Friday, 12 April. And this was the commencement of the terrible civil war which will forever remain a marked point in American history. President Lincoln immediately issued a proclamation calling out a portion of the militia of the several states. Lynn was instantly aroused to a high pitch of patriotic fervor. In five hours after the requisition arrived, two full companies were armed and ready for duty. And in the eleven o'clock train of the next forenoon - Tuesday, 16 April - they departed for the south, amid the cheers and sobs of the immense concourse who had gathered in Central Square. These two companies - the Lynn Light Infantry and Lynn City Guards - formed a part of the Eighth Regiment of Massachusetts troops, which became so celebrated in the early part of the war, for discipline, promptness and heroism. These troops were called for three months' service. And just before their departure it was announced to them that six hundred dollars had been contributed for each of the companies. The names of those who so promptly responded to their country's call, in the day of her peril, are worthy of remembrance, and are here inserted. Others would have gone had there been time for equipment, as is shown by the terse despatch sent to head quarters - "We have more men than guns - what shall we do? "The names of such of the regimental officers as belonged to Lynn, are also given. TIMOTHY MUNROE, Colonel. EDWARD W. HINKS, Lieutenant Colonel. EPHRAIM A. INGALLS, Quartermaster. ROLAND G. USHER, Paymaster. BOWMAN B. BREED, Surgeon. WARREN TAPLEY, Assistant Surgeon. HORACE E. MUNROE, Quartermaster Sergeant. COMPANY D - Lynn Light Infantry. George T. Newhall, Captain - Thomas H. Berry, First Lieutenant - Elbridge Z. Saunderson, Second Lieutenant - Charles M. Merritt, Fourth Lieutenant - William A. Fraser, Henry C. Burrill, William H. Merritt, and George E. Palmer, Sergeants - Daniel Raymond, Henry C. Conner, Henry H. Goodridge, and Horatio E. Maconber, Corporals - James O. Clarrage, Musician.
PRIVATES.
COMPANY F - Lynn City Guards. James Hudson, jr., Captain - Edward A. Chandler, First Lieutenant - Henry Stone, Second Lieutenant - Matthias N. Snow, Third Lieutenant - Hanson H. Pike, George Watts, George E. Stone, and Timothy Newton, Sergeants - James R. Downer, George Harris, Joseph W. Johnson, and Jeremiah Towlin, Corporals - Edward D. Clarrage, Musician. PRIVATES.
And many of the foregoing were soon in higher positions than they at first occupied. But with their departure the zeal of the citizens by no means subsided. Meetings were held, funds were subscribed by individuals and appropriated by the city government, new companies were raised, and every thing was done that could be expected of a loyal and patriotic people. A mass meeting was held at Lyceum Hall, on the afternoon of Monday, 22 April, at which a considerable sum was subscribed for the benefit of volunteers, stirring speeches were made, and divers animating pieces played by a band of music. The following preamble and resolutions were passed by acclamation. WHEREAS, The country has been plunged into civil war, by the rash, tritorous, and unjustifiable action of the leaders in the so-called Confederate States; therefore, 1. RESOLVED, That we, in the hour of peril to the nation, to free institutions, to life, liberty, and social well-being, unite as one man to uphold our government, and to defend our country. 2. RESOLVED, That as our fathers pledged to each other their "lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor," to establish the institutions under which we have lived, so we now renew this pledge, to maintain those institutions, and to hand them down, intact, to our children. 3. RESOLVED, That the present crisis has been forced upon us, lovers of peace and of the Union; and that there is left for us nothing but to rally about the government, which has shown itself forbearing, and whose efforts for a peaceful settlement have been met with bravado, insolent contempt, and warlike opposition. 4. RESOLVED, That it is the duty of every citizen to stand ready for the performance of every work which the government requires at his hand, till the traitors shall desist from their unhallowed purpose, and peace be restored to our distracted land. 5. RESOLVED, That Governor Andrew, General Schouler, and the civil and military authorities of the state, have acted in an able, prompt, and patriotic manner, in this trying crisis; and that their efficient action is deserving of all praise. 6. RESOLVED, That the action of our City Government, in making an appropriation for the support of the families of our brave and devoted volunteers, meets the exigency of the hour, and receives our hearty approval. 7. RESOLVED, That the prompt response of the Eighth Massachusetts Regiment, to which so many of our citizen soldiers are attached, together with the dispatch "We have more men than guns - what shall we do?" proves the loyalty of our citizens, and inspires us with the belief that the glorious old flag shall not be trailed in the dust, nor be wrested, by traitor hands, from its rightful guardians, an acknowledged majority of American citizens. Enlistments now went rapidly on. The whole community seemed fully awake to the demands of the calamitous exigency. The ladies applied themselves diligently in the preparation of clothing and other things necessary and convenient for the departed and the constantly departing soldiers. Flags were kept flying in every direction, and drums were beating at all hours. And those other places, the offspring of good old Lynn, which are named in the title-page of this work, manifested the same zealous and patriotic spirit. It would be an exceedingly agreeable task to give in these pages a circumstantial history of events here, as connected with the war, and to record the name of every one who went out from among us to battle for the honor of his country. But it will be at once seen that such a thing would be impossible. The most that can be done will be to note the more prominent occurrences. God grant that all who survive may have a reward here commensurate with their labors and sacrifices, and that all who perish may receive a reward in the better land. On the morning of May 4th, the grocery store of Robert Collins, corner of Franklin street and the Turnpike, was consumed by fire, with all its contents. The adjacent out buildings were also consumed, and the dwelling of Mr. Collins was somewhat damaged. Loss, about $2.500. The ship Abselino, Capt. Ammi Smith, of Lynn, was captured by a rebel privateer, 20 May, while on her passage from Boston to New Orleans, with a cargo of ice. This was one of the first of such seizures in the war. The officers, crew, and vessel, were, however, soon released. On the first day of June, the Lynn horse cars began to run to Boston. On Sunday, 2 June, Julia, aged ten years, a daughter of John Fitzpatrick, an overseer in one of the Saugus woollen factories, died of the terrible disease of hydrophobia. She was slightly bitten by a small dog with which she was familiar; but little or nothing was thought of it at the time. Six weeks after, while at school, she was taken with spasms and soon died, in great agony. The brick school-house, on the west side of Franklin street, was dedicated on Monday afternoon, 24 June. A great comet suddenly appeared in July. It was first seen on Tuesday evening, the 2d, and was very bright. I was standing on the slope of the hill, near Sadler's Rock, at dusk, conversing with a friend. On looking up, as one or two of the brighter stars began to appear, he remarked, "Why, there is a strange looking star." As the darkness increased, the proportions of a magnificent comet became developed. On the following evening the celestial stranger made a still more imposing appearance. Its position was a very little west of north and it was finely delineated, from the tail which spread out into a silvery light at the zenith, to the bright nucleus at the horizon. Observation determined that it was moving with extraordinary rapidity; and it was soon beyond the vision of the unassisted eye. One remarkable fact about this comet is that its tail, which was upwards of ninety degrees in length, actually came in contact with the earth. In the report of the visiting committee of the Cambridge observatory to the overseers of the college - which report, by the way, was signed by our eminent townsman, William Mitchell, as chairman - it is stated that the comet was subjected to a rigorous examination and its path marked with great care, its position being determined at forty-nine periods. And the report adds that as soon as its real motion was ascertained, it became evident that its train had swept the earth; and subsequent observations, both in this country and Europe showed that only three days previous to its sudden apparition in our heavens a part of the train must have been in actual contact with the earth. It is an ancient superstition that comets portend dire calamities to mankind; particularly wars. And that of 1858 and this of 1861, coming so opportune for the terrible civil war, will be likely to confirm the apprehensions of some uncultivated minds. The Lynn soldiers who so promptly responded to the call of the President, and on the 16th of April hastened southward, returned on the first of August, their three months term of service having expired. And they had a very enthusiastic and gratifying public reception. The City appropriated $500, and individual liberality contributed a large additional sum, to make the occasion one of uncommon display. Not a man of the whole regiment had died during its absence. Col. Munroe had resigned, 12 May, and returned home, and Lieut. Col. Hinks had succeeded him. The reception was quite imposing. There was a large escort of military and fire companies, and public and private places were profusely decorated, business was suspended, and the large body of the population were in the streets. The procession was something more than an eighth of a mile in length, and moved through the principal neighborhoods, the bands playing, church bells ringing, and guns firing. At about seven o'clock a collation was had at Exchange Hall; and when the hungry stomachs had been supplied the patriotic tongues were loosed. And the whole furnished a notable instance of the liberal bestowment of well-earned honors. The Union street Methodist meeting-house (St. Paul's) was dedicated on Thursday afternoon, 1 August. On Thursday night, 12 September, the spacious building known as Nahant Hotel, was destroyed by fire. It was an immense structure of wood, with the exception of the small part built in 1819, which was of stone; was in some parts three and in others four stories in height; was something more than four hundred feet in length, and contained three hundred rooms. It was sufficient for the accommodation of a thousand visitors at a time; six hundred could be seated together in the dining hall; magnetic telegraph wires connected it with Boston; and it had every appliance of a first class public house. The conflagration made a striking display as seen from Lynn and the adjacent places. And it was observed from vessels a great distance at sea. In September the little green in Washington Square, at the junction of Nahant street and Broad, was enclosed by a neat iron railing, and otherwise improved. The ladies held a fair, on May-day, to raise funds to defray the expense. The cost was $550. An encampment was formed at Lynnfield, at which a number of regiments were drilled, preparatory to leaving for the seat of war. Thursday, 26 September, was observed as a national fast. In October, Miss Mitchell, whose astronomical observations and discoveries at Nantucket had made her name familiar to the scientific world, removed with her accomplished father, William Mitchell, to Lynn. Besides several smaller instruments, used at her former residence, she brought with her a beautiful equatorial telescope, which she has since constantly applied to various original researches, the principal and perhaps the most important of which are observations on the phenomena of the double stars or binary systems. The telescope was the gift of a few friends of both sexes, and no pains were spared in its construction. It was made by Alvan Clark and Sons, of Cambrigeport, and is unquestionably among their best productions. The telescope is furnished with all the appliances belonging to the largest class of instruments, measuring circles of right ascension, and declination, has clock-work, and micrometer. It has six eye-pieces of powers from fifty to three hundred. The telescope and equatorial apparatus are connected to a heavy iron tripod resting on a firm piece of solid masonry, whose base is sufficiently below the surface of the ground to be secure from the effects of frost and the tremor of passing carriages in the street at a distance of two hundred feet. The observatory is a circular building of great simplicity, with an ordinary roof revolving by means of iron balls running in grooved circular plates, thus enabling a narrow scuttle in the roof to be turned to any part of the heavens. On Tuesday afternoon, 26 November, Phipps Munroe, a master carpenter, and much respected citizen, aged fifty-one, was instantly killed by a revolving shaft, at the morocco factory of Souther and Blaney, on Market steet. The shaft was making a hundred and eighty revolutions a minute, and it was supposed his clothing was caught, and he dashed against the beams, which were but about fourteen inches above the shaft.
On Saturday morning, 22 March, the dry goods store of S. J. Weinburg, on Market street, was a good deal damaged by fire. On Monday morning, 7 April, Sagamore Cottage, which had been the home of Mr. Lewis, for nearly twenty of the last years of his life, was partially burned. It was at the time occupied by Mrs. Lewis and her little boy of four years. They were aroused in time to make their escape, by a dog kept on the remises. Most of the movable property was saved. The building, though much damaged, was soon repaired. At Pranker's factory, in Saugus, 8 April, a steam copper cylinder, weighing about two hundred pounds and being a foot and a half in diameter and four feet in length, used for drying, suddenly burst, while revolving with great rapidity. Mr. Tobin, the man in charge, was thrown some ten feet and considerably injured. The force of the explosion was so great that several large windows were broken, and the iron frame that supported the cylinder was snapped to pieces, and thrown about with great violence. Capt. Henry Bancroft's barn, in Lynnfield, was burned early on Sunday morning, 4 May, together with his carriage-house and other out buildings. A horse and several cows, were burned. Loss, about $4.000. On Monday evening, 14 July, a large and enthusiastic war meeting was held at Lyceum Hall. And on the evening of Tuesday, 22 July, another was held on the Common. And on Saturday, 26 July, still another was held on the Common. Similar meetings were likewise held in August. The places of business were closed at two o'clock in the afternoon of Tuesday, 26 August, and on each day for the remainder of the week, that the afternoons might be devoted to obtaining recruits. On the afternoon of 30 July, during a thunder storm, George L. Hanson of Portland street, was seated near a window, in his house, when he was suddenly thrown a distance of nearly ten feet, receiving such a shock as rendered him apparently lifeless. His wife immediately closed his nostrils and breathed into his mouth; other restorative means were applied, and he soon returned to consciousness. It was not known that the lightning struck any where in the vicinity. And Mr. Hanson neither saw lightning nor heard thunder. On Sunday afternoon, 31 August, an enthusiastic war meeting was held on the Common. Religious services were omitted at all the churches excepting the First Baptist, and the clergy very generally attended and took part in the meeting. The day was pleasant, and a very great crowd assembled, including a body of soldiery. Stirring speeches were made, and national pieces sung and played by the military band. There was likewise an interspersion of religious exercises. During the latter part of the evening, there was a large gathering in front of the City Hall. And the result of the movements of the day was the securing of a considerable number of enlistments. On Thursday, 4 September, a grand pic-nic party under the auspices of the Spiritualists, was held at Dungeon Rock. Some two thousand persons of both sexes and all ages were present. There was speaking, music, and dancing. Mediums were in attendance, and divers revelations made. The day was pleasant, and the proceedings went forward with spirit. No more delightful or romantic place could be found for such a gathering. This was the first of a number of similar assemblages in that attractive locality. The 8th of October was the warmest October day since 1807, the thermometer reaching ninety degrees, in the shade. On Sunday afternoon, 19 October, the funerals of two deceased soldiers John C. Dow and Solomon Martin - both victims of the battle of Antietam - took place; that of the first named from the Christian Chapel, on Silsbe street, and that of the last from the Second Universalist meeting-house. They were attended by a large concourse, including the principal city authorities. The house of William Cheever, in Saugus was burned on the night of 3 November. The Swampscot Library Association was formed this year. On the 5th of November, the bodies of two brothers - Charles J. Batchelder and George W. Batchelder. were buried from the First Methodist meeting-house. Both were in the service of their country. Charles, who was a lieutenant, died at New Orleans, of fever, and George, who was a captain, was killed at the battle of Antietam. There was a very large attendance, embracing the city authorities and a considerable body of military; and the services were peculiarly impressive and affecting. This, and the other military funerals mentioned under this date were the first of a large number, which would be separately noticed did space permit. There was an extraordinary yield of fruit this year, in this vicinity, and it was more than usually excellent. During the autumn of this year, a Soldiers' Burial Lot was laid out in Pine Grove Cemetery. The City appropriated five hundred dollars for the object. The lot is on the corner of Locust and Larch avenues, is square, contains three thousand and six hundred square feet, and is surrounded by a border of twelve feet, for trees, shrubs, and flowers. As evidence of the patriotism of some of our families, it may be mentioned that Otis Newhall, superintendent of Pine Grove Cemetery, and Edmund Waitt, of Strawberry avenue, each had five sons in the war, this year; and John Alley, 4th, had four. The most atrocious murder ever committed in Lynn was perpetrated early in the evening of 23 December. Nathan Breed, jr., an estimable citizen, aged thirty-eight, who kept a grocery store on Summer street, corner of Orchard Court, was killed by terrible blows from a small axe, inflicted chiefly on the head. The horrid deed was consummated in a most daring and merciless manner. He was in his store, and it was an hour when customers were especially liable to call. The murderer must have watched his opportunity, and done the deed with fearful expedition. The assault was made between six and seven o'clock, and Mr. Breed lingered till three in the morning. He had his senses, and declared that his murderer was a young man named Horace L. Davis, who lived in the neighborhood, and whose age was about seventeen. Davis was arrested and tried for the murder, but the jury could not agree on a verdict, being divided on the question of mental capacity; but he subsequently pleaded guilty to the charge of manslaughter, and was sentenced to the state prison for twenty years.
Rev. Charles W. Biddle was installed pastor of the First Universalist Society, on Thursday afternoon, 5 February. On the morning of 12 February, the Sash and Blind Factory, on Essex street, near the Swampscot line, was destroyed by fire. The little fishing schooner Flying Dart, of Swampscot, with a crew of twelve men, on the 25th of February brought in 14.000 pounds of fish, caught by them that day. The fish were readily sold at an average rate of two cents a pound. There was an interval of severe cold, near the middle of March. On the 14th, the thermometer reached twelve degrees below zero. The winter had been quite open, hereabout, but it was judged to have been very severe at the north, from the number of arctic birds that visited us. Four large arctic owls were shot during one week, at Nahant and on the beaches, and several eagles appeared on the marshes. The Kerosine Oil Factory of Berry and Hawkes, on Hawkes's Hill, in East Saugus, was burned, 20 March. Capt. John B. Hubbard, of Gen. Weitzel's staff, was killed in battle at Port Hudson, in May. He was principal of the Lynn High School at the time of his enlistment. He was a son of a former governor of Maine, a graduate of Bowdoin College, and highly esteemed, while here, as a teacher and a man. The large steam bakery of Thomas Austin and Company, on Water Hill, was burned on the morning of 29 May. The Boston and Lynn Horse Rail-road commenced running cars to Chelsea Beach, on the 1st of June. Extraordinary numbers of caterpillars appeared in the summer of this year. So numerous were they that in many instances trees had to be abandoned to their ravages. Canker worms were also very abundant and destructive. The barn of Nathan Breed, on Broad street, was burned, June 2, the fire being occasioned by attempts to destroy, by fire, the caterpillars on the fruit trees near by. Lieut. Col. Charles Redington Mudge was killed at the battle of Gettysburg, 3 July. He was the eldest son of E. R. Mudge, of Swampscot, and twenty-three years of age; was an officer of great promise, and at the time he was killed was in command of the regiment, gallantly leading on a charge. He graduated at Harvard, with the 1860 class. The church bells were rung, cannon fired, and bonfires lighted, on the 7th of July, in rejoicing over the fall of Vicksburg. Liberty Hose House, on Willow street, was burned 30 July. An enthusiastic reception of the Lynn soldiers belonging to the Eighth Regiment, took place on the 30th of July, on the return from their nine months' service. There was a very long procession of military, firemen and citizens; bells were rung, cannon fired, and welcoming speeches made; many dwellings and public places were decorated; and a collation was served on the Common. Thursday, August 6, was observed as a day of national thanksgiving, in view of the successes of our arms. The dwelling house of Frank Fiske, in Cliftondale, was burned, September 15.
A war meeting was held at Lyceum Hall, on Sunday evening, January 3, which was largely attended and enthusiastic. Frederic Tudor died at his residence, in Boston, on Saturday afternoon, February 6, aged 80. He was born in Boston, in a house which stood on the site of the present Tudor's Building, in Court street, on the 4th of September, 1783. His grandfather, John Tudor, emigrated from Devonshire, England, to Boston, and his father, William Tudor, was born in Boston, and served during the Revolution as Judge Advocate General of the army under Washington. Daniel Henchman, who planted the celebrated old elm on Boston Common, was his maternal ancestor, and perhaps from him he inherited that taste for the culture of trees which is evidenced by the groves now flourishing on Nahant. And this Daniel Henchman, by the way, was grandfather of Rev. Mr. Henchman who was settled over the Lynn church from 1720 to 1761. Mr. Tudor married, in 1834, Miss Euphemia Fenno, a native of New York city, and left six children, the eldest of whom was born in 1837, and the youngest in 1854. Their names are as follows: Euphemia, now a naturalized French lady, the Countess Kleezkowska; Frederick; Delia J.; William;.Eleonora; Henry. Mr. Tudor is justly entitled to be called the father of the great New England Ice Trade, which was commenced as early as 1805. In 1834, he sent his first cargo to the East Indies, and soon found himself in a highly lucrative business. He early became charmed by the beauties of Nahant, and in 1825 built his stone cottage and laid out his picturesque grounds there. And he continued, from year to year to reside there during the warm season, and expend large sums in beautifying the peninsula and adding to his possessions. There is unquestionable authority for stating that during the last thirty years of his life he expended not less than $30.000 dollars annually - making $900.000 for that period alone. Previously he had spent large sums in building, improving roads, and planting trees. He was a man of great decision of character, promptness in action, and impatience of interference with his plans. Towards strangers he manifested great courtesy and did much to render their visits to Nahant agreeable. The inhabitants, at their annual town meeting, 12 March, 1864, unanimously adopted resolutions expressive of their sense of loss and appreciation of his worth and generosity. On the evening of February 8, Henry Neill, aged 49, was killed at the Central Rail-road Station. He jumped from the platform of a car and fell in such a manner that the wheels passed over his neck, nearly severing his head. Rev. Parsons Cooke, D. D., minister of the First Church of Lynn, died on Friday afternoon, 12 February. He was born in Hadley, 18 February, 1800, was the son of Solomon Cooke, a respectable farmer, and a descendant from Capt. Haron Cooke, conspicuous among the early settlers of that vicinity. Mr. Cooke graduated at Williams College, in 1822, and studied theology under Dr. Griffin, president of that institution. In June, 1826, he was installed over the East Evangelical Church in Ware, which was his first settlement. There he remained till April, 1835, and then accepted a call from a society in Portsmouth, N. H. In the latter place he continued about six months, and in 1836 accepted the call of the church at Lynn, and remained its pastor to the end of his life. On the 5th of June, 1826, he married Hannah Starkweather, who died July 2, 1852, and by whom he had no children. His second wife, whom he married July 20, 1853, was,Mary Ann W. Hawley, of Bridgeport, Ct., and by her he had one son, born 27 October, 1855. Mr. Cooke early displayed a love of controversy, which it may be said grew with his growth and strengthened with his strength; so his life was not distinguished by that pacific course which many believe is most strongly inculcated in the gospel of peace. His mind was of such an order that he rapidly arrived at conclusions, tenaciously held to them, and was not remarkble for his gentle bearing toward those who differed from him. His perceptions were quick, and he had an abundance of natural wit, which, unfortunately, was liable to exhibit itself in the degenerate form of sarcasm. His reasoning powers were evidently good; but yet he possessed such an unaccountable vein of credulity, that their best fruits seemed sometimes never to ripen. A reference to his work entitled "A Century of Puritanism and a Century of its Opposites," will be sufficient to satisfy any one acquainted with our history, of the truth of these remarks. Some of the honest individuals who supplied him with information would, doubtless, have been more guarded in their expressions, had they observed this peculiarity of his mind. But it is difficult not to conclude that others deliberately imposed upon him. It cannot be supposed that he made any of the remarkable statements without a full belief of their truth; and it is surprising that he forbore the slight examination necessary for the detection of some of the more patent errors. He was often boldly charged, in the newspapers, with wilful misrepresentation; but I see no necessity for the charge of wilfulness, and apprehend that he was simply ensnared in the way indicated. His style of composition was not what rhetoricians call elegant, but was well adapted to controversial purposes. The sentences were short, direct, and without any waste of words. He evidently thought more of what he was saying than how he spoke. Dr. Cooke was a high Calvinist, and often cast a fond look backward, upon the "old paths," sighing that there had been such a general departure from them. He was an industrious and faithful minister, so far as pulpit preparations were concerned; but he visited little among the people of his charge. His power and delight lay rather in the use of the pen than in personal intercourse. His ministry here was successful; his parisioners were much attached to him, and regarded him as one of more than ordinary power. And had it not been for his unfortunate disposition to controversy, there is little doubt that his abilities would have commended him to the favorable regard and respect of the theological world in general. It may readily be admitted that he thought it a duty to always have his pungent pen ready dipped for the defence of the truth and the demolishing of error, as he deemed them; but the way in which things are attempted often has great influence on the result. The severity with which he speaks, in his "Centuries," of some of his predecessors in the pastorate of the First Church, and the little respect he seems to have entertained for their memories, lead to the conclusion that he did not consider that church one that had been conspicuously blessed in her ministry. With some of his estimates I cannot agree, and think that in other parts of this volume may be found such authenticated statements as will show that he labored under mistakes. And it is, further, a matter of regret that he should have taken occasion to give what is believed to be an undeservedly dark coloring to the morals, intelligence, and manners of the people of Lynn. The pulpit oratory of Mr. Cooke was not pleasing to those unaccustomed to it; the delivery was rapid, in a high tone, and with very little intonation; but his appearance was dignified. He was not an adept in music, and took no part in the choral portion of the service. In person he was commanding, being considerably above the ordinary stature, but symmetrical. His habits were sedentary, and in part, no doubt, the occasion of his last protracted and painful sickness. He suffered greatly for two years, but with the resignation that always characterizes the good man. Immediately before his death, in a still watchful anxiety for the souls of his charge, he dictated, and with a tremulous hand signed, the following - the ever-living testimony of a dying Christian. LYNN, FEB. 8TH, 1864. As I am about to close my ministry and my life, I have one thing to say to my people - That all the support that I find in a dying hour, are the doctrines of grace I have preached, which centre in Jesus Christ and him crucified, and are to my heart a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief; and that these I would commend to the acceptance of all, with my dying breath. PARSONS COOKE. The publications of Mr. Cooke were numerous. The titles of his books, in brief, may be given as follows. 1. Modern Universalism Exposed. 2. A History of German Anabaptism. 3. The Divine Law of Beneficence. 4. Recollections of Dr. Griffin. 5. A Century of Puritanism and a Century of its Opposites. The foregoing were all in book form, and besides them he published some twenty pamphlets - sermons, addresses, tracts, &c. And in speaking of his industry with the pen it should likewise be mentioned that for about twenty years he was one of the regular editors of the Puritan newspaper, which publication was commenced at Lynn and afterward removed to Boston. See under date 1840. Mr. Cooke was the first minister who died while settled over the First Church, for a little more than a century, Mr. Henchman, who died in 1761, having been the last one before him who died in the pastorate. And it may be noted as a coincidence that Mr. Henchman was born in the first year of century 1700, as Mr. Cooke was in the first year of century 1800; and they attained very near the same age. A great easterly storm commenced on the 29th of March, and continued till the 2d of April. The wind blew with great violence, and the sea came in furiously. The beacon on Dread Ledge, an obelisk of granite, twenty-five feet in height and three feet square at the base, was broken off near the centre. The fine summer residence of Benjamin T. Reed, at Red Rock, was destroyed by fire on the night of April 8. The school-house on Howard street was destroyed by fire on the morning of June 8. Saturday, June 25, was the warmest day in Lynn, of which there is any record. The thermometer reached a hundred and four degrees in the most shady places. At five o'clock in the afternoon it stood above a hundred. The next day, Sunday, was nearly as warm. The same remarkable degree of heat was experienced in other parts of New England. The extensive soap manufacturing establishment of George E. Emery, on Chesnut street, near Gravesend village was destroyed by fire on the night of June 26. A severe drought prevailed this summer, and destructive fires took place in the woods in the latter part of July. A threatening fire occurred on Federal Square, near Water Hill, on the afternoon of July 22. It commenced in the bakery of Isaac H. Tarbox, consumed four frame buildings and injured several others. The first steam fire engine owned by the city arrived in town on the 11th of August. It received the name " City of Lynn." Mackerel appeared on the coast, in great abundance, during the early part of the autumn. The crew of the little fishing schooner Minnehaha, of Swampscot, on the 18th of September, off Boon Island, caught three hundred and fifty barrels. And the crew of the Flying Dart, of the same place, at another point, took a hundred and thirty barrels in some four hours. At about five o'clock on the morning of Thursday, October 6, the City Hall, on South Common street, head of Blossom, was discovered to be on fire, and was soon destroyed. It was of wood, and not a very comely structure. A good representation of it may be found on page 591, accompanied by a brief historical sketch. In the northeast corner of the building, on the first floor, was the Lock-up, a place for the temporary confinement of offenders, and on the same floor were the City Clerk's office, the Mayor and Aldermen's room, and the offices of the Police Justice and City Marshal. On the upper floor were the Police Court room, the office of the Clerk of the Police Court, and the Common Council room. In the Lock-up an unfortunate man, named Joseph Bond, aged about forty years, was confined, and being unable to extricate himself and no help seasonably arriving, though his shrieks were heard, he was burned to death. It appeared that he was a man of generally correct habits, but on the occasion of his arrest had from some cause become turbulent. On Thursday evening, October 27, the Female Benevolent Society celebrated their fiftieth anniversary, by a gathering and an entertainment at Armory Hall. This society was formed in 1814, by benevolent ladies belonging to the different religious societies, and has ever continued to flourish, dispensing, in an unostentatious way, blessings to thousands. On the 2d of November the two Lynn companies of the Eighth Regiment returned from three months' service, and were welcomed by a public parade and an entertainment; in the former of which the fire department joined, and in the latter of which the good old Yankee dish of baked beans held a prominent position. There was no Indian summer this year; a thing hardly ever known within the memory of man. On the 10th of December the schooner Lion, from Rockland, Me., loaded with granite, was wrecked off Long Beach, and all on board-six in number-perished. A violent storm prevailed, and it was very cold. Though the cries of the hapless mariners were heard upon the Beach, they could not be rescued. The Franklin Trotting Park Hotel, in Saugus, (Cliftondale,) was, with its contents, destroyed by fire, on the night of Dec. 19. And here, with the year 1864, we close our Chapter of Annals, embracing the record of two hundred and thirty-five years.
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