Hamilton

By Annette V. Janes

Two hundred years ago, the people of Hamilton harnessed the power of the Ipswich River to operate their mills and relied on Chebacco Lake for food and trade. Originally part of the town of Ipswich, Hamilton became a town in 1793. Many years later, it was a fashionable summer retreat for wealthy Bostonians. Hamilton takes the reader on a journey through time to see how life was in a small rural town, located between Salem and Ipswich. Within these pages, see the summer home of Gen. George S. Patton, a World War II hero of mythic proportion; the resting place of a sagamore with a macabre history; and the home of Manassah Cutler, a Congregational minister and an agent of the Ohio company that helped to open up the Northwest Territory. In Hamilton, take a tour of a unique religious camping ground; learn about the Myopia Hunt Club, which occasionally still rides to hounds; and see an ancient Native American trail turned highway.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Jul 9, 2002
• ISBN: 9781439611425

Annette V. Janes

Annette V. Janes is a member of the board of directors of the Hamilton Historical Society and author of History of the Hamilton Public Library 1891 to 1991. She was director of the Hamilton Public Library for twenty-five years and a reviewer for Library Journal. A resident of Hamilton since 1955, she is indebted to Edna A. Barney and Mary Anne Burridge, co-curators of the Hamilton Historical Society, for their assistance.

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INTRODUCTION

The town of Hamilton is known for its New England charm and the beauty of its fields, woodland, lakes, and ponds. Originally a part of the town of Ipswich in 1632, it was a settlement called Agawam. It has a rich history that has been well documented since its earliest days. In 1638, the land was purchased by John Winthrop, Esq., from the Native American sagamore of the Agawams, Masconomet, for 20 English pounds. John Winthrop’s History of New England from 1630 to 1649 is one of the oldest records of these times, but there are many other books that give interesting social and historical information. Joseph Felt’s History of Ipswich, Essex, and Hamilton, Safford’s Hamilton, Janice Pulsifer’s Changing Town, and Hamilton, Massachusetts: Chronicle of a Country Town. This book on Hamilton is meant to be the first pictorial history, using the best photographs available from as far back as could be obtained. The sources include the Hamilton Historical Society files, the Essex Historical Society and Shipbuilding Museum, the Wenham Museum, the Essex Institute, and many private sources.

In January 24, 1788, the citizens voted to choose a committee to fix a line betwixt ye Parish and ye Town of Ipswich. In 1793, the town of Hamilton separated from Ipswich, due mainly to the efforts of its minister, Manasseh Cutler. In the earliest days of the Hamlet (as it was then known), small mills were established along the Ipswich River, but agriculture provided the main industry. Rye, oats, and barley were common crops. Corn was an important crop, and some molasses was made from cornstalks. Although the molasses was inferior to what could be imported, people made do. Molasses could also be made into other products. In 1778, according to Felt, a load of it was brought from the Hamlet to Salem, where it yields nearly as much spirit as the same quantity of foreign molasses. English and upland hay crops were vital to the populace as well as the produce from apple and fruit orchards, such as cider and vinegar.

In springtime, the rivers and streams held abundant alewives and shad that furnished both food and fertilizer. Chebacco Lake and several ponds, including Beck’s, provided fish and, later, commercial ice. Some boatbuilding was practiced, mostly in the eastern part of the town. Small cottage industries were started, including fairly lucrative shoemaking businesses. By 1836, the town had gristmills, sawmills, 2 veneering mills, 118 dwellings, and 51 shops.

In 1839, kindled by a revival in religious interest, the town began to see the arrival of many visitors who came to attend services at Asbury Grove, a Methodist meeting site, which is now purported to be the oldest continuous religious camp meeting ground in the country.

In the late 1800s, Hamilton’s pleasing climate, beauty, and rich pasture and woodlands attracted wealthy Bostonians and the area became a fashionable summer retreat. As agriculture declined, the newcomers purchased farms and fields, and soon large homes and estates were established. Moving here from Winchester in 1882, the Myopia Hunt Club provided a social and recreational retreat for the newcomers, and it became an important presence in Hamilton, especially during the warmer months.

In these pages, the reader will take a nostalgic photographic tour of Hamilton, see some of the changes that have occurred throughout the years, and meet interesting people, some of whom have played an important part in world history and in the history of this wonderful town.

One

A SALE IS MADE

The Agawam Indians were a part of the Algonquin Nation, which occupied the area along the coasts of New England from the Merrimac River in the north to Cape Ann in the south. They were ruled in this area by a strong sagamore, Masconomet (Musconominet). He was friendly to the new English arrivals and surprised John Winthrop Jr. and the others on the ship Arabella by paddling out to meet them and speaking a few words of English.

Although these arrivals in 1630 were the first to record their settlement in the region, there were other contacts between the natives and traveling seafarers in previous years. Some unknown disease had killed many of the Agawam Indians; it is believed that it was perhaps contracted from these previous meetings. Only eight years later, after the tribes had been even more reduced by illness, the remnant Agawams were dwelling mostly in the Ipswich area. In June 1638, Masconomet sold his land to John Winthrop Jr. for 20 pounds. The territory at the time extended roughly from the sea to Will’s Hill in what is now Middleton, and then all the land north of the Danvers River, the whole of Cape Ann, ending at the Merrimac River. According to Felt, in 1644, along with four other sagamores, Masconomet put himself, his subjects and possessions under the protections of the government of Massachusetts and agrees to be instructed in the Christian religion. He was given six acres to plant in 1655 and about 1658 he died. He was buried on Sagamore Hill in Hamilton with his gun and other valuables.

According to Dow, "Only nine years later two young men from Ipswich opened the grave of the Sagamore and afterwards carried his skull about on a pole for which inhumanity once was made to sit in the