Three Bricks and Three Brothers: The Story of the Nantucket Whale-Oil Merchant Joseph Starbuck

By William Edward Gardner

Nantucket, stands now as one of the wealthiest counties in the United States, its early wealth fuelled by the whaling trade and the riches of the open sea lanes offshore. The Starbuck stone mansions that dominate Main Street, have become “architectural icons that would gradually become visual symbols of the prosperity of Nantucket's whaling era”. This fascinating book recounts the life of their builder, Joseph Starbuck “quite possibly the island's most successful businessman”, who was wildly successful in whaling, real estate and manufacturing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barakaldo Books
• Release date: May 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9781839744020

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© Barakaldo Books 2020, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

THREE BRICKS

and

THREE BROTHERS

The Story of the Nantucket Whale-Oil Merchant

JOSEPH STARBUCK

By

WILL GARDNER

Foreword by AUSTIN STRONG

Cover image by Daniel Penfield

MAP MADE IN 1858

This is a section of a large map of the counties of Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket Massachusetts. It was surveyed under Henry F. Walling, Superintendent of State Maps. This map is preserved the Nantucket Historical Association.

Table of Contents

Contents

Table of Contents 5

DEDICATION 6

FOREWORD 7

I. BIRTHS 8

I 8

II 8

III 8

IV 8

II. UNIONS 13

I 13

II 15

III 15

IV 16

V 18

VI 19

VII 19

III. THE WHALE-OIL MERCHANT 21

I 21

II 22

III 22

IV 25

V 25

VI 25

VII 28

VIII 31

IV. THE BUILDER OF BRICK MANSIONS AND STATELY SHIPS 32

I 32

II 33

III 34

IV 35

V 37

VI 37

VII 37

VIII 39

IX 40

X 42

XI 44

XII 45

XIII 47

XIV 48

XV 49

XVI 51

I 52

II 54

III 54

IV 56

V 57

VI 58

VII 59

VI. HOME PORT AND A RAINBOW 61

VII. WHAT THE ISLAND NEWSPAPERS SAID 63

VIII. FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION 65

CHAPTER IX — THE STORY OF JOSEPH STARBUCK BY CAMERA AFTER ONE HUNDRED YEARS 69

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 95

DEDICATION

TO

ALL ISLANDERS EVERYWHERE

WHO PRIZE THEIR

ISLAND INHERITANCE

FOREWORD

BY AUSTIN STRONG

NANTUCKET has kept her secrets well, to the despair of the historian. The ancient town presents outward and visible signs of a distinguished and heroic past; her beautiful houses bear witness of gracious living, courage, and high adventure, yet we can only stand and stare, completely baffled by their proud anonymity. We see beauty and integrity before us, but we know next to nothing of the stalwarts who dreamed and built and lived in these mansions.

Those who tried honestly to conjure up the Island’s history have had a hard time hunting through the lean pasturelands of old files, weather-stained logs, and dusty account books. When they turn from the musty shelves to question the oldest inhabitants, they find it at best a chancy business, like playing hide-and-seek with wisps of memory.

That is why we Americans should be grateful to the author of this engaging book. Only Will Gardner could have written it, for he has an advantage over all the writers on Nantucket; he has merely to dip his pen into his own family blood. He was reared on Nantucket, having a great-grandfather whose history is the very stuff of romance. He was a privateer on the Saucy Hound, was captured by the British and made a gunner, serving the seventh gun on the second deck of the great frigate Marlborough under England’s Rodney when that brilliant admiral defeated the Comte de Grasse. The author’s grandfather was a whaling captain, a sea-hunter in many oceans through many years.

No wonder, then, that Will Gardner, his veins filled with gunpowder, whale oil, and salt water, tempered by his own life as a scholar and a gentleman of God, can bring to life the valiant men and women in these authentic pages.

THREE BRICKS and THREE BROTHERS

I. BIRTHS

Wednesday.

February 27th 1774.

Fourth Day.

The birthday of Joseph Starbuck.

A MITE of humanity on this day, but some day he would be the richest whale merchant on Nantucket and a builder of many ships and three brick mansions for his three sons.

I

Dinah, his mother, felt the first birth-pains late in the afternoon. She left the kitchen by the little door at the side of the huge fireplace. She entered a passageway by the warm chimney. In the middle of the passage she stopped and pulled from the blanket-closet, built into the chimney, a soft warm blanket new from the loom. She snuggled it close to her neck and ear and entered the small bedroom in which all her children had been born.

Dinah was thirty-one years old. She had been married twelve years and given birth to four boys and one girl. She knew well the routine. Reuben, eleven years old, would stand by with Simeon, who was nine; they were both big boys and a constant help in the home. Rachel, who was seven, would carry Levi, five, and Judah, three, across the road to Uncle William Starbuck’s house. There the three would spend the night; no unpleasant experience to them.

Thomas Starbuck, Dinah’s husband, now thirty-two years old, landowner, cooper, cordwainer, butcher, and trader, had his routine.

He would hurry over to the home of Zaccheus Macy, the surgeon and doctor for most all the Friends, and bring him back to Dinah’s bedside. Then he would restlessly move about the house looking for any task that seemed to be related to the event and ready at hand for whatever might arise.

Most important of all he would greet the women of the neighborhood who would gather in the kitchen ready to be at hand to give Dinah any help that might be needed. Later, when things were quiet, he would go to the cooper-shop in the rear of the house where his special friends would come to mark the event.

II

The big grey, unpainted lean-to house seemed to rise higher and higher as twilight came on. Its kitchen became the focal point of the neighborhood.

Dinah’s time has come! was the word passed from neighbor to neighbor. From each house came a woman bearing bread or a blanket; a pie or a bowl of stew or chowder. Some brought pieces of hand-woven linen or a tiny blanket that could tell of many birthdays. They brought almost anything that would be of use to a family who for a few days would be without Dinah’s producing and guiding hands. The low kitchen with its big fireplace began to take on the atmosphere and appearance of a neighborhood party.

As the sun set and Zaccheus, with Priscilla, Dinah’s sister, remained in the bedroom, the women drew their chairs closer to the fire and its large kettles of water. Their low conversation was emotionally charged with expectancy. Each woman had her story to tell, her own experience, or the strange and unexpected in the experience of another. Each had a firm confidence in some medicine or some method that meant safety and comfort for mother and child.

Reuben and Simeon, tensely excited, came in and out. Once there was a general consultation of the women about Simeon’s bedtime, but there would be no bed for him until his elder brother Reuben led the way to the long chamber under the roof where the children slept.

III

It was dark when the chamber door opened and Zaccheus came out. This was the signal for the lifting of the kettles and the laying-out of the washtub and the clothes.

Thomas, thee has another son!

He had hoped and prayed that it would be a girl. Little Rachel, now seven, the only girl among four boys, would be better off if she had a sister. Then, too, Dinah needed girls to help her. She had passed thirty, and her family cares should be shared with daughters.

But the wisdom of God must not be questioned! Five boys meant strength in the family, sailors for the