by Pa Rock
Reader and Traveler
If all had gone according to plan, my sister and our cousin and I would be returning from a long-planned outing to Nantucket just about now - but, of course, that plan had to be scuttled due to the coronavirus pandemic which is currently playing hell across much o the United States and the world. Abigail, Cousin Joyce, and I are all descendants of several of the original settlers of that small, but historically important, island thirty miles off of the Massachusetts mainland coast, and we had planned the trip there as a way of reuniting while exploring some of our remote family history.
Last week I had a birthday, and in acknowledgment of the missed trip to Nantucket, my daughter, Molly, and her family sent me a couple of interesting gifts. One was a large jigsaw puzzle (1,000 pieces) of a drawing of Nantucket which appears to contain quite a bit of information and history of the island - and I have yet to start of piecing it together - but will soon. The other was a used copy of an old work of fiction entitled "Nantucket Soap Opera," one of a series of mysteries penned by a college professor in the 1980's who used the pseudonym S.F.X. Dean. Molly knew that I enjoy mysteries, and I went right to work on it - finishing yesterday.
Tomorrow (or very soon) I will present a review of that book in this space along with a few notes on S.F.X. Dean, but for today I wanted to provide a bit of historical information on Nantucket from some other sources that will help set the scene for Mr. Dean's work. The three sources from which I have drawn this loose historical sketch are "Away off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602-1890" by Nathaniel Philbrick, "The Half-Share Man: Peter Folger of Nantucket, Grandfather of Benjamin Franklin," by Clarence King, and an article "Nantucket in a Nutshell," by Elizabeth Oldham, which appeared in the Winter 2000 edition of the journal "Historic Nantucket" which is put out by the Nantucket Historical Association.
Nantucket's landscape was formed by the last glacial period some 16,000 to 22,000 years at. At that time the land that eventually became an island was part of the North American mainland and sat approximately forty miles inland. As the glaciers retreated the land greened and wild game began appearing. About 8,000 years ago members of America's native population found their way into the land that was to become Nantucket.
The earth was warming (much as it is today), ocean levels were rising, and the larger game, such as caribou, were gradually killed off by the human invaders or driven north into colder climates. The inhabitants of the land increasingly turned to seeds, roots, and fruits for their survival, and they moved about the island in pursuit of these edibles. As some small farming developed, the natives cleared many of once abundant trees through burning to make way for crops.
Around 5,000 years ago, sea water rushed across a a rift of low-lying land and separated Nantucket from the mainland. The native population living on Nantucket at the time it became an island were stranded permanent residents. By 1602, the year the small island was "discovered" by English explorer and privateer Bartholomew Gosnold, the native population, known as the Wampanoag tribe, was estimated to be 3,000 relatively happy souls.
The arrival of the Europeans of course changed everything. The English, Dutch and French claimed much of the northeast as their sovereign territories and basically disregarded, co-opted, or eradicated the native population who had called these lands their home for countless generations - and Nantucket was certainly no exception to this grab-and-plunder obsession.
In 1641 the English authorities deeded control of Nantucket to Thomas Mayhew and his son, also named Thomas, who were merchants in Watertown, Massachusetts and Martha's Vineyard. The elder Mayhew lived on Martha's Vineyard (also an island) but started grazing sheep on Nantucket. At some point he apparently began referring to himself as "Governor Mayhew" and assumed political authority over the two islands.
At about that time trouble was brewing between the dominant Puritans (Congregationalists) of Massachusetts and some of the more open-minded settlers of the Merrimack Valley, and a small group of friends determined that it would be within their best interests to relocate beyond the grasp of the repressive Puritans. One of the group seeking to put some distance between his family and the Puritans was Thomas Macy, who also happened to be a cousin of Thomas Mayhew. Macy and his friends approached Mayhew about the possibility of purchasing Nantucket in 1659, and a deal was struck whereby Mayhew sold most of the island to a group of nine individuals for 30 pounds and two beaver hats - one for himself and the other for his wife.
(The original nine purchasers were Thomas Macy, Tristram Coffin, Peter Coffin, Christopher Hussey, Richard Swain, Thomas Barnard, Stephen Greenleaf, John Swain, and William Pike. These individuals became known as the "full-share" men. Later as other individuals with special skills and talents were needed on the island, they were enticed to move there for "half-shares" in the island. One of the more famous half-share men was Peter Folger who served as the town's bookkeeper and chief translator in dealing with the Native American population.)
Thomas Macy and his family and a few friends, twelve individuals in all, moved to the island in the fall of 1659, and history relates that they would have likely frozen to death that first winter if not for the kind assistance of the Wampanoag residents who helped them make shelters and survive. Soon after most of the other purchasers arrived and a non-native community began to develop.
Many of the early marriages on Nantucket were among children and grandchildren of the original settlers, though occasionally fresh blood drifted through. Peter and Mary Folger's youngest daughter, Abiah, for instance, managed to catch the eye of a wool buyer from Philadelphia named Mr. Franklin, and they married, moved back to Philadelphia, and produced a baby boy named Benjamin who went on to become one of our nation's Founding Fathers.
By 1700 it was estimated that 300 people of European lineage lived on the island, almost all descendants of the original settlers, and the Native American population had been reduced through disease and other maladies associated with the invasion of their land to a mere eight hundred. Also by 1700, Nantucket was just at the beginning stages of a pursuit that would enrich the island beyond its wildest imaginings and define it for several generations. That pursuit was whaling.
As whaling began to take hold of the island's economy, Nantucket became a seemingly happy and prosperous community, a place where everyone knew each other - and indeed most were related to each other, and locked doors were rare. Then on a Saturday night in June of 1795 something happened which shattered the peace and caused divisions among the island's residents - some of which lasted throughout the ensuing century.
Nantucket had a new bank on Main Street, something of a rarity in the nation at that time. Several prominent individuals from the island's first families held seats on the bank's board of directors, and the bank had deposits totaling $20,000 in gold coins. On that infamous Saturday night two men from the mainland entered the bank with keys that they had fashioned from pewter spoons and spent almost the evening hauling gold coins to a sloop at a nearby dock. They set sail before daylight and were long gone before the town awoke.
When the theft was finally reported to the public a couple of days later, an enraged citizenry began pointing fingers at each other. The bank's chief teller, an off-islander by the name of Randall Rice, was accused by some because he "looked guilty." Others were accused on the basis of old grudges between families and individuals. Bribes were reportedly offered for false testimony to implicate certain individuals, and there were also animosities suddenly flaring between Federalists and Democrats - and Quakers and Congregationalists.
The social fabric of the once peaceful island was being torn asunder.
And that event in the history of Nantucket is roughly the starting point for the mystery novel "Nantucket Soap Opera" by S.F.X. Dean - which I shall review in this space tomorrow or in the coming days.
Stay tuned!
Reader and Traveler
If all had gone according to plan, my sister and our cousin and I would be returning from a long-planned outing to Nantucket just about now - but, of course, that plan had to be scuttled due to the coronavirus pandemic which is currently playing hell across much o the United States and the world. Abigail, Cousin Joyce, and I are all descendants of several of the original settlers of that small, but historically important, island thirty miles off of the Massachusetts mainland coast, and we had planned the trip there as a way of reuniting while exploring some of our remote family history.
Last week I had a birthday, and in acknowledgment of the missed trip to Nantucket, my daughter, Molly, and her family sent me a couple of interesting gifts. One was a large jigsaw puzzle (1,000 pieces) of a drawing of Nantucket which appears to contain quite a bit of information and history of the island - and I have yet to start of piecing it together - but will soon. The other was a used copy of an old work of fiction entitled "Nantucket Soap Opera," one of a series of mysteries penned by a college professor in the 1980's who used the pseudonym S.F.X. Dean. Molly knew that I enjoy mysteries, and I went right to work on it - finishing yesterday.
Tomorrow (or very soon) I will present a review of that book in this space along with a few notes on S.F.X. Dean, but for today I wanted to provide a bit of historical information on Nantucket from some other sources that will help set the scene for Mr. Dean's work. The three sources from which I have drawn this loose historical sketch are "Away off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602-1890" by Nathaniel Philbrick, "The Half-Share Man: Peter Folger of Nantucket, Grandfather of Benjamin Franklin," by Clarence King, and an article "Nantucket in a Nutshell," by Elizabeth Oldham, which appeared in the Winter 2000 edition of the journal "Historic Nantucket" which is put out by the Nantucket Historical Association.
Nantucket's landscape was formed by the last glacial period some 16,000 to 22,000 years at. At that time the land that eventually became an island was part of the North American mainland and sat approximately forty miles inland. As the glaciers retreated the land greened and wild game began appearing. About 8,000 years ago members of America's native population found their way into the land that was to become Nantucket.
The earth was warming (much as it is today), ocean levels were rising, and the larger game, such as caribou, were gradually killed off by the human invaders or driven north into colder climates. The inhabitants of the land increasingly turned to seeds, roots, and fruits for their survival, and they moved about the island in pursuit of these edibles. As some small farming developed, the natives cleared many of once abundant trees through burning to make way for crops.
Around 5,000 years ago, sea water rushed across a a rift of low-lying land and separated Nantucket from the mainland. The native population living on Nantucket at the time it became an island were stranded permanent residents. By 1602, the year the small island was "discovered" by English explorer and privateer Bartholomew Gosnold, the native population, known as the Wampanoag tribe, was estimated to be 3,000 relatively happy souls.
The arrival of the Europeans of course changed everything. The English, Dutch and French claimed much of the northeast as their sovereign territories and basically disregarded, co-opted, or eradicated the native population who had called these lands their home for countless generations - and Nantucket was certainly no exception to this grab-and-plunder obsession.
In 1641 the English authorities deeded control of Nantucket to Thomas Mayhew and his son, also named Thomas, who were merchants in Watertown, Massachusetts and Martha's Vineyard. The elder Mayhew lived on Martha's Vineyard (also an island) but started grazing sheep on Nantucket. At some point he apparently began referring to himself as "Governor Mayhew" and assumed political authority over the two islands.
At about that time trouble was brewing between the dominant Puritans (Congregationalists) of Massachusetts and some of the more open-minded settlers of the Merrimack Valley, and a small group of friends determined that it would be within their best interests to relocate beyond the grasp of the repressive Puritans. One of the group seeking to put some distance between his family and the Puritans was Thomas Macy, who also happened to be a cousin of Thomas Mayhew. Macy and his friends approached Mayhew about the possibility of purchasing Nantucket in 1659, and a deal was struck whereby Mayhew sold most of the island to a group of nine individuals for 30 pounds and two beaver hats - one for himself and the other for his wife.
(The original nine purchasers were Thomas Macy, Tristram Coffin, Peter Coffin, Christopher Hussey, Richard Swain, Thomas Barnard, Stephen Greenleaf, John Swain, and William Pike. These individuals became known as the "full-share" men. Later as other individuals with special skills and talents were needed on the island, they were enticed to move there for "half-shares" in the island. One of the more famous half-share men was Peter Folger who served as the town's bookkeeper and chief translator in dealing with the Native American population.)
Thomas Macy and his family and a few friends, twelve individuals in all, moved to the island in the fall of 1659, and history relates that they would have likely frozen to death that first winter if not for the kind assistance of the Wampanoag residents who helped them make shelters and survive. Soon after most of the other purchasers arrived and a non-native community began to develop.
Many of the early marriages on Nantucket were among children and grandchildren of the original settlers, though occasionally fresh blood drifted through. Peter and Mary Folger's youngest daughter, Abiah, for instance, managed to catch the eye of a wool buyer from Philadelphia named Mr. Franklin, and they married, moved back to Philadelphia, and produced a baby boy named Benjamin who went on to become one of our nation's Founding Fathers.
By 1700 it was estimated that 300 people of European lineage lived on the island, almost all descendants of the original settlers, and the Native American population had been reduced through disease and other maladies associated with the invasion of their land to a mere eight hundred. Also by 1700, Nantucket was just at the beginning stages of a pursuit that would enrich the island beyond its wildest imaginings and define it for several generations. That pursuit was whaling.
As whaling began to take hold of the island's economy, Nantucket became a seemingly happy and prosperous community, a place where everyone knew each other - and indeed most were related to each other, and locked doors were rare. Then on a Saturday night in June of 1795 something happened which shattered the peace and caused divisions among the island's residents - some of which lasted throughout the ensuing century.
Nantucket had a new bank on Main Street, something of a rarity in the nation at that time. Several prominent individuals from the island's first families held seats on the bank's board of directors, and the bank had deposits totaling $20,000 in gold coins. On that infamous Saturday night two men from the mainland entered the bank with keys that they had fashioned from pewter spoons and spent almost the evening hauling gold coins to a sloop at a nearby dock. They set sail before daylight and were long gone before the town awoke.
When the theft was finally reported to the public a couple of days later, an enraged citizenry began pointing fingers at each other. The bank's chief teller, an off-islander by the name of Randall Rice, was accused by some because he "looked guilty." Others were accused on the basis of old grudges between families and individuals. Bribes were reportedly offered for false testimony to implicate certain individuals, and there were also animosities suddenly flaring between Federalists and Democrats - and Quakers and Congregationalists.
The social fabric of the once peaceful island was being torn asunder.
And that event in the history of Nantucket is roughly the starting point for the mystery novel "Nantucket Soap Opera" by S.F.X. Dean - which I shall review in this space tomorrow or in the coming days.
Stay tuned!
1 comment:
How times have changed. Now it is almost impossible to relocate beyond the grasp of repressive Impuritans; the Apostate Demongelicals who have stirred the applesauce of their faith into the chicken manure of their politics.
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