Legendary Locals of Newburyport

By Kathleen M. Downey

Yeat! The colloquial greeting is distinctly Newburyport, uttered by this seaport s citizens to acknowledge one another in passing or to seek out fellow locals in far-flung places. Individuals featured in Legendary Locals of Newburyport extend to readers a congenial Yeat! William Lloyd Garrison, native son and leading abolitionist; Lord Timothy Dexter, who staged his own mock funeral; Harry O Connor, founder of the World s Shortest St. Patrick s Day Parade; James Stehlin, celebrated Newburyport High School football coach; Rhina Espaillat, award-winning poet and founder of Powwow River Poets; Richard Simkins, owner of the legendary Grog restaurant-tavern; Sue Little, owner of Jabberwocky Bookshop; Tom Maginnis, drummer for the post-punk band Buffalo Tom; Mickey, feral cat mascot for the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society, and 1st Lt. Derek Hines, who gave his life while serving his country in Afghanistan, are among the legendary locals native born and transplants who have left their imprint, or paw print, upon the Port.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Legendary Locals
• Release date: Jul 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781439646311

Kathleen M. Downey

Kathleen M. Downey, the former features editor for Newburyport Today, moved to Newburyport in 1992. She was drawn to the city�s charming downtown, the quietude of Plum Island�s Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, the stately woods of Maudslay State Park, and the city�s colorful citizens�many of whom she had the pleasure of interviewing for inclusion in this volume.

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INTRODUCTION

Situated on the banks of the Merrimack River, the historic seaport of Newburyport, Massachusetts, has been—and continues to be—home to a colorful citizenry, which includes shipbuilders, sea captains, patriots, activists, artists, writers, musicians, actors, brewers, and eccentrics.

The year 2014 marks the 250th anniversary of Newburyport becoming its own town; prior to 1764, Newburyport had been part of neighboring Newbury. In 1851, Newburyport became a city.

Celebrated as the birthplace of the United States Coast Guard and rich in maritime history, Newburyport earned the nickname Clipper City for the fast-sailing vessels crafted by its prominent shipbuilders and sailed across the seas by its legendary sea captains. Today’s residents call their city simply the Port.

Some townies might call out to one another with the friendly greeting, Yeat! As the story goes, the nonsensical Newburyport-centric term was once used by Newburyport enlisted military personnel deployed overseas to identify fellow Newburyporters. Calling out Yeat! and receiving a like response would unite the fellow townies. The versatile idiom has also served as a benign curse word. Today, Yeat! is an emblem of a local brewer, etched upon the lid of each beer can.

Before breweries and beer, there were distilleries and rum. In the late 1700s, an affluent merchant whose wealth grew with his investments in sugar and molasses erected a rum distillery on Newburyport’s waterfront. He also established a small city park where he built a private residence that later served as a boardinghouse before becoming a hotel. Today, the stately brick building is named after one of the country’s most prominent abolitionists and a Newburyport native son. Exercising his right to the freedom of speech, this fiery abolitionist, who died in 1879, spoke out against slavery and used the press to spread his message of equal rights for all.

More than 80 years after Garrison’s death, an unassuming Newburyport minister of steadfast integrity and fierce dedication to humanity invited an expert on extremism to speak to his congregation. The event became a touchstone of passion for locals when the founder of the American Nazi Party almost crashed it. Now retired, the minister’s legacy of open dialog, understanding, respect, and love carries on through the speaker series that his church continues.

Newburyport’s wellspring of activism includes everyday citizens and military heroes trying to make a difference in their community and the world. A former Newburyport resident who wanted to pay tribute to those who perished in the country’s 9/11 attack and to the enlisted men and women who protect our nation, including those who lost their lives in service, founded the Field of Honor. The patriotic display of American flags is erected each year on the Bartlett Mall.

One Newburyport son who lost his life while serving his country in Afghanistan is lovingly remembered with the annual Flag Day 5K race through Newburyport. The race benefits a soldiers’ assistance fund in honor of the fallen hero.

A history of activism is matched by Newburyport’s civic pride. Devotion to their city is what led visionary leaders of the 1960s and 1970s—importantly two of the city’s mayors—to implement a plan to restore and preserve Newburyport’s historic downtown, which had fallen to neglect and disrepair.

Today’s merchants proudly maintain pretty storefronts that adorn downtown Newburyport, as do owners of the stores in the nearby Tannery Marketplace. An independent bookstore owner, a purveyor of vinyl records, and an importer of wares from around the world that include jewelry and Indonesian textiles are some of Newburyport’s long-established business owners.

Newburyport’s business community of yesteryear included a self-titled lord and seafaring trade merchants. The present business community includes a multigenerational pizza shop and a chief executive officer of a worldwide manufacturing company.

A fountainhead for the arts, Newburyport was home to a successful female artist who painted miniature portraits and to a gentleman landscape painter who founded the Newburyport Art Association. Today’s artists find inspiration in city landscapes, Plum Island marshes, and even in old trucks. Historic literary bards include a Gothic short-story writer and a Pulitzer Prize recipient. The city’s contemporary literati include a Dominican-born, award-winning poet and an award-winning writer from the Emerald Isle. A vibrant theater community has produced acclaimed playwrights, thespians, and even a wire walker. The music community includes funk, blues, soul singers, harmonica-wielding entertainers, a flutist, soft rock and post-punk rockers, jazz drummers, and classical guitarists.

The city’s athletes include a marathon runner who completed the historic Athens Classic Marathon in Greece; a married couple who runs to raise funds for a debilitating brain disease; three siblings, one a running phenomenon whose life was too brief and his two sisters who continue to run in his honor; and a nuclear physicist who swam the English Channel.

These individuals and others highlighted in Legendary Locals of Newburyport are a sampling of the many interesting individuals who have left their imprint upon this historic seaport.

Firehouse Center for the Arts

The Firehouse Center for the Arts was built as a market house and lyceum in 1823 and served as the Central Fire Station from the mid-1800s until 1980. It then opened as a cultural center in 1991.

CHAPTER ONE

Public Servants

Newburyporters have helped make their city, and the world, a better place to live. Caleb Cushing, who was elected Newburyport’s first mayor in 1851, later served as legal advisor to Pres. Abraham Lincoln.

More than a century later, two mayoral visionaries would be credited with helping to save the city’s downtown from becoming a strip mall. When a federal document authorizing the demolition of the downtown was placed before Mayor George H. Lawler Jr. in the late 1960s, he refused to sign it. Instead, he reached out to local preservationists to develop a plan that would safeguard Newburyport’s history. Mayor Byron J. Matthews, who served the city following Lawler’s term, demonstrated strong leadership in guiding the historic preservation plan to realization.

In 1968, a young Newburyport boy, who would one day become the sheriff of Essex County, accompanied his mother to a speaking event outside the city’s post office. The speaker was Alabama governor George Wallace, then a presidential candidate known for his segregationist views. Sheriff Frank G. Cousins Jr. recalls learning that day the importance of listening to polar views and the accompanying responsibility of dismantling hatred.

The city of Newburyport wept when hometown boy and 1st Lt. Derek Hines was killed in a firefight in Afghanistan in 2005. The city’s annual Flag Day 5K race honors the fallen hero.

Firefighters, teachers, doctors, librarians, and even the feral cat mascot for the Merrimack River Feline Rescue Society are included in this chapter as those whose service has improved the lives of others.

Derek Hines (1980–2005)

The legacy of 1st Lt. Derek Hines is one of selflessness, bravery, and patriotism when he was killed in a firefight in Afghanistan in 2005. The American hero and former star hockey player for West Point is lovingly remembered by his father as the little boy who once fell to the floor while climbing stacks of dog food in the front of Shaw’s supermarket. Derek always seemed to find different ways to cut his head well enough for stitches, Steven Hines said of his oldest child in a touching and emotional eulogy.

Sue Hines, Derek’s mother, shares that one of her son’s elementary school teachers once described him as spirited, an understatement, according to his father.

As a big brother, Derek was a role model to his younger brothers, Michael and Trevor, and to his sister, Ashley.

Hines was also an example to his hockey teammates, to his fellow soldiers, to his country, to his Newburyport community, and to humanity.

Considered small for a hockey player, his coach at West Point says that Hines’s stature was outsized in his passion for the game. Hines would bring this outsized passion with him in combat. He once ran through enemy fire to retrieve his squad’s mortar. When his Humvee was attacked, Hines climbed atop the vehicle and fired his machine gun at enemy troops. After a bomb exploded near the Humvee, killing his entire squad, Hines pulled each body from the burning vehicle.

Hines was defending his squad when he gave the ultimate sacrifice. He managed to take down a Taliban commander who had disguised himself in traditional garb as an Afghanistan woman and open-fired before Hines lost his own life.

His former commanding officer said in a personal tribute, Derek lived so that he could touch our lives, however briefly, and make us better people. A bridge over the Merrimack River connecting Newburyport and Amesbury was renamed the Hines Bridge in honor of the local hero.

The annual Flag Day 5K race through Newburyport benefits the 1st Lieutenant Derek Hines Soldiers Assistance Fund. Supporting Massachusetts’s soldiers who have suffered serious or life-altering injuries while on active duty, the fund honors the memory of Hines.

He truly believed in his mission that he was making the world a better place, Steven Hines said in his eulogy to his son. (Courtesy of the Hines family.)

Alex Hasapis (1932–)

I dreamed of flying since I was a kid, says Alex Hasapis. Although he