Beverly Historical Society 117 Cabot Street Beverly, MA 01915

Beverly Historical Society
117 Cabot Street
Beverly, MA 01915-5107
978-922-1186
www.beverlyhistory.org
NON-PROFIT
ORG.
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PERMIT NO. 9
BEVERLY MA
01915
1891
Above: Ice card from Ernest Wright, ca. 1912, which customers placed in their windows to notify the company of the size of their order of ice.
Front cover: Wenham Lake, 2015, water source for Beverly, Wenham, and Salem, and at one time, supplier of ice to markets around the world.
Front cover photo by Frank Marcos.
Beverly Historical Society
Chronicle
Beverly’s Ice Business
Inside: Bicycles Made Like a Watch; Holiday House Tour; Thanks to Summer Staff
Fall 2015
From the Director
Dear Members,
Susan Goganian, Chronicle Editor
sgoganian@beverlyhistory.org
978.922.1186
Newsletter published twice a year for the
members, friends, and benefactors of the
Beverly Historical Society.
117 Cabot Street, Beverly, MA 01915
978.922.1186
www.beverlyhistory.org
info@beverlyhistory.org
Officers of the Board
Dan Lohnes, President
Don MacQuarrie, Treasurer
Richard Southgate, Secretary
Trustees
Stefano Basso
Katie McNiff Bull
Martha Gavin
John E. Glovsky
Patricia Grimes
Jan Jefgood
Karen MacInnis
James Morrocco
John Mullady
Maureen Troubetaris
Allan P. Vaughan
Staff
Susan Goganian, Director
Darren Brown, Curator of Collections
Terri McFadden, Research and Education
Joan Hopper, Accountant/admin
Lucy Keller, Museum assistant
Susan Milstein, Archivist
Gillian Bingham and Alana Gabriel,
Summer Staff
In This Issue
A Chilly Business . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .1
For a small organization, we manage to accomplish quite a lot! That sometimes means
that we overextend ourselves, but it can be exciting to move at this pace. The most obvious activity, of course, has been at Hale Farm. As many of you know, the Society received
support from Community Preservation Act funds to complete the first phase of improvements to Hale. Thanks to Richard Irons Restoration Masons, CPC Landscape Contractors,
and Florentine Renaissance Masonry for their hard work. Thanks also to Joe Silveira, who
came to our rescue with emergency electrical work after an underground power line was
severed and thanks also to our neighbors, who were gracious about losing power that day.
The Community Preservation Committee has recommended that the Society receive
$180,000 in the next round of funding, which will allow us to restore and repair the entire
exterior of Hale House, including the restoration of the original front door. This is very
exciting! Look for work to begin next spring. Over the winter, we will move forward with
the landscaping plan for the property, and seek funding for that third phase, which will
restore the grounds and create a welcoming space for residents and visitors to learn about
the history of the property.
I was delighted to be asked to serve on the board of the Essex National Heritage Area.
After serving as a commissioner for the last few years and participating in the annual
Trails and Sails, I know that this organization plays a vital role to ensure that the historic,
cultural, and natural assets of this area are protected and appreciated for the unique and
valuable treasures that they are. The Beverly Historical Society is fortunate to have such
a strong and committed partner.
Beverly’s Business Roundtable is about to distribute the first round of Welcome Bags to
new residents of the city. Filled with useful city information, gifts, and offers from many
local retailers (including a free membership from the Society), the Welcome Bags will be
a great way to introduce people to our wonderful community, help them to navigate city
services, and connect them with local organizations (like us!). This is just one of the ways
we encourage local residents to join. You can help us with that! Please consider giving a
membership to a family member or friend. We’d be happy to enclose it in a festive package for you. As you know, it’s vitally important that we have a broad base of support to
continue to preserve our buildings and collections, and to offer a wide variety of programming and research services.
I hope to see you at our third Holiday House Tour on December 12. We have some amazing houses, thanks to very generous homeowners.
Thanks for all you do to support the Society.
Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 2
Old Planters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 3
Collections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. . . .4, 6-7
Cabot Shop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 5
Research and Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Volunteer and Staff Spotlight . .. . . . . . . . . .10
Bicycles Made Like a Watch . . . . .. . . . . . . 11
House News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 12
Ice storage racks on
Wenham Lake, ca.
1910. See “A Chilly
Business,” (opposite)
our story on local
companies that harvested and shipped
ice from Massachusetts lakes and ponds
to ports around the
world.
Give the gift of membership!
New Members!
A Society membership is a perfect gift for
students, history lovers, and everyone
connected to Beverly by descent, residence,
or affinity!
We will send the recipient a gift-wrapped
acknowledgement of your generosity.
These members have recently joined our
Society or have renewed their membership
at a higher level. Please consider raising
your membership category to increase your
support for the Society.
Benefactor
Individual and dual members also receive free access to the library and
collections, free or discounted program and research fees, and the
Society’s print newletter, The Chronicle.
Family members also receive free access to children’s programming.
Patrons also receive invitations to special events and membership in
North American Reciprocal Museums, which provides admission privileges at more than 400 arts and history institutions throughout the United
States, Canada, and Mexico.
Sponsors receive two hours of professional research.
Benefactors receive a framed print of their choice from our collection.
 $120 Patron
 $50 Dual
 $250 Sponsor
Sponsor
Patron
Free admission to the Balch House, Hale Farm, and the Cabot House, a
20% discount in the shop, and our monthly e-newsletter
 $40 Individual
Mr. & Mrs. Mark Dellafera
Mr. Al DiPaolo
Mr. & Mrs. Frank Marcos
Mr. Paul Ryan
All members receive:
 $30 Electronic
Thank you!
 $65 Family
 $500 Benefactor
New member name _______________________________________________
Address _________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip ___________________________________________________
Email __________________________________________________________
This is a gift from ___________________________________________
Message ________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
Mail to: Beverly Historical Society, 117 Cabot Street, Beverly, MA 01915.
Contact 978-922-1186 to pay by credit card or join online at
www.beverlyhistory.org.
Mr. & Mrs. David Balentine
Mr. & Mrs. Samuel Cabot
Mr. & Mrs. John Cuffe
Mr. Peter Dorsey
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Hood
Mr. Barry Hynes
Family
Mr. & Mrs. James G. Balch
Mr. William Bruce
Mr. Frank Edmondson
Mr. & Mrs. Preston Fuller
Blyth Hazen & Jen Hall
The Lage Family
R. J. & S. L. Sweeney
Dual
Ms. Patricia Adams & Mr. Todd Balf
Mr. Paul Duffany
Ms. Colleene Fesko
Mr. & Mrs. Mark Haller
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Marlor
Dr. and Mrs. Appleton Mason
Mr. & Mrs. Bill Melanson
Ms. Kristina Ann Ngai
Joan Packard & Christine Osborne
Dane & Ann Poeske
Mr. Warren Riess
Mr. Thomas Risoldi & Ms. Lisa Jaquith
Ms. Nancy Roney & Ms. Beverly Strauss
Chris Theriault & Alex Cerrutti
Individual
Mr. Paul Boudreau
Mr. Ed Brown
Jan Chruniak
Ms. Maureen Driscoll
Ms. Pam Eckmann
Mr. Mike Evers
Ms. Sue Gabriel
Ms. Virginia Garland
Mr. Paul Graveline
Ms. Kathleen Ingalls
Ms. Deborah Mahoney
Ms. Sandra Maurice
Ms. Cindy Modugno
Mr. David O’Gorman
Mr. Leonard Richardson
Mr. Marshall Stanton
Mr. James Stone
Mr. Gary Thomas
Electronic
Mr. Anthony Andreas
Mr. Ronald Gerdes
Ms. Janet Hammond
Ms. Patricia Karakashian
Ms. Meggin Lane
Mr. Kevin O’Reilly
Ms. Mary Selig
13
House News
Cabot House
117 Cabot Street
Balch House
448 Cabot Street
Hale House
39 Hale Street
The 1781 home of merchant John Cabot
has two floors of exhibits from the Society’s extraordinary collections, including:
The Global Highway: How the Sea
Connected Beverly to the World
Friend’s Mill: Two Centuries of Tidal
Power (opens November 7)
Beverly and the American Revolution
Museum Hours: Tuesday, Thursday–Saturday
9:30–4, Wednesday 1–9. Research/Collections hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday.
Step back in time and experience early colonial living. John Balch was one of Beverly’s first European settlers; his family lived
on this site for nearly 300 years. The large
fireplaces and loft bedroom evoke a vivid
sense of a vanished lifestyle.
Museum Hours: Open June–October. Members may contact the Society to schedule an
off-hours tour.
Built for John Hale, the first minister of
Beverly, and a key figure in the witchcraft
era. The 1694 house has eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century additions which reflect
the evolution of Beverly over three centuries from farming community to vacation
area.
Museum Hours: Open June–October. Members may contact the Society to schedule an
off-hours tour.
The John Cabot House is now an official visitor center of the Essex National Heritage Area
and the city of Beverly! We are happy to promote all of the great cultural attractions in the
region, direct people to Beverly’s wonderful
beaches and parks, and provide directions and
brochures to visitors.
Above: New sign outside the Society indicating
that the John Cabot House is now an official visitor center of the Essex National Heritage Area and
the city of Beverly.
As noted on the Volunteers and Staff page,
veteran caretaker Nancy Hood has retired
after more than 40 years of service to the
Balch House and the Society. Many thanks
to everyone who has helped with Balch tours
this year, particularly our longtime volunteer
Ginny Currier, who has donated a significant amount of time to the house. Thanks to
generous donors, we will soon do additional repair work on the exterior of the house.
Please consider a gift for this work, or become a supporter of the Balch 4th Century
Fund, which will fund ongoing maintenance
of the house.
The first phase of our restoration of Hale
Farm is complete! Thanks to CPC Landscape
Contractors for their installation of a French
drain to alleviate longstanding and damaging drainage problems, and to Richard Irons
Restoration Masons for restoration of the four
chimneys, plus repair to one section of the
foundation. The chimneys have been limewashed, which is more appropriate than painting for this historic house. This project was
primarily funded by proceeds from the Community Preservation Act—thank you Beverly
residents! We hope that the next phase, which
will restore and repair the exterior and reinstate the original front door, will be funded for
next year. We are also working toward revitalization of the landscape, which will follow the
structural restoration.
The first phase of the restoration of Hale Farm
included restoring the original four chimneys
(above) and installing dry well (right) to alleviate drainage problems.
When was the last time you visited one of our historic houses? Members get free admission during regular tour hours, and children under 16 are always
free. Active-duty military and members of NEMA, AASLH, and AAM receive free admission. Mass. Teachers Association (MTA) members receive
1/2 off admission.
12
by Darren Brown
At 13 years of age, Boston-born Frederick
Tudor (1783–1864) was so interested in
pursuing a business career that he decided against going to Harvard, as his older
brothers had. At 21, Tudor saw how he
was going to make his fortune: providing
wealthy Bostonians with ice. From Tudor’s
point of view, ice had two things going for
it: It was inexpensive and there were plentiful sources throughout the winter from frozen Massachusetts ponds and lakes.
It wasn’t long before Frederick Tudor expanded his markets to warm places in the
world, where ice was viewed almost as a
miracle in the days before refrigeration.
The first few decades brought about both
financial success and failure as Tudor experimented with ways to store and ship
ice. Many of his cargos melted before they
reached their destinations, leaving him deep
in debt. Tudor persevered, finding methods
to keep the ice frozen. He also learned how
to construct icehouses in warmer climates,
including Charleston and New Orleans,
and abroad in exotic locales such as Calcutta, Bombay, and Havana. Nine bodies of
water in the Boston area contributed to the
region’s ice industry, including Fresh Pond
in Cambridge and Lake Quannapowitt in
Wakefield. “Ice King” Tudor held a monopoly on the industry for years, as his few
competitors were crushed along the way.
In 1806, 130 tons of ice was exported;
within 20 years the number jumped to
4000 tons annually. The trend continued
with the annual exported tonnage reaching
its zenith of 146,000 in 1856. Worldwide
demand made it increasingly difficult for
even the mighty Tudor Ice Company to accommodate all demands, and competitors
were finally able to force themselves into
the market.
A Chilly Business
The Wenham Lake
Ice Company was
created when Salem’s
Charles Lander began purchasing land
in Wenham along the
northeastern corner
of Wenham Lake (off
of Route 1A, beyond
Dawson’s Hardware)
and began constructing icehouses along
the water’s edge.
A railway spur was
constructed from the
Great Eastern Line to connect the new structures to the main line. Following Tudor’s
design, the icehouses had exterior walls and
an insulation barrier containing hay, sawdust,
and wood shavings.
Harvesting ice on Wenham Lake was
much more complex than simply sawing
chunks from the frozen pond. Following a snowfall, employees would “sink
the pond” by systematically cutting small
holes every few feet through the ice. This
enabled water to spread evenly through the
holes, transforming the snow into ice. After a few weeks of extremely low temperatures, the ice reached an optimum thickness of 15 inches and would be ready for
harvesting. The top layer was scraped by
a horse-drawn scraper, removing all snow
and excess sludge. Then a plow was used
to create grooves in the ice. Blocks were
hand-sawed along the furrows and crow-
Above: Ice house and slide on Wenham Lake,
ca. 1910.
bars used to loosen them from the rest of
the ice. Finally, men with poles pushed the
blocks up to large slides, originally powered by horses. Later, steam was used to
transport ice blocks from the lake to storage in the icehouse. Employees would then
load ice blocks onto insulated railroad cars,
each of which held about five tons of ice
(or 250 blocks) for shipment to Charlestown, Massachusetts. There the ice would
be loaded onto vessels bound for England.
The first vessel carrying Wenham Lake ice
to a foreign port was the bark Ellen, which
set sail for Liverpool on June 10, 1844. Thirty days later the ice was unloaded onto the
docks and sent on its way to the English consumer. About 33% (continued on next page)
Below: Ice harvesting on Wenham Lake, ca.
Formed in 1842, Gage, Hittinger & Company of Boston became the first company
to export American ice to a nontropical
destination: England. They harvested from
Fresh Pond, one of the same locations used
by Tudor. This experiment, which attempted to replace the native English ice cut from
shallow reservoirs with the better quality
Yankee variety, was an initial failure but
laid the groundwork for future success.
1
(continued from page 1)
of the ice melted on the transatlantic journey. The purity of the water is the common
theory for why the melting percentage was
much lower than the percentage from comparable bodies of water (which was as much
as 75%). The Wenham Lake Ice Company
had two downtown London offices, with an
authentic block of ice displayed in the window that served as a great marketing attraction. The company delivered throughout the
city and suburbs; official iceboxes were sold
by the company for the proper storage of
this frozen delicacy. Wenham Lake ice became a necessity at all society events and is
said to be the only type of ice used by Queen
Victoria. Despite the success of the Wenham
Lake Ice Company, it was sold several times
before being purchased by Gage, Hittinger
& Company in 1850. This coincided with
the decline of shipping ice from Wenham
to London; it had become cost prohibitive
for the English to buy the amount of ice
they needed and they began to import from
Scandinavia. A lake in Norway was actually renamed “Lake Wenham” to continue the
branding for the English market. Wenham
Lake ice continued to be shipped to other
foreign ports for the next several decades
until a massive fire destroyed most of the
icehouses.
The Beverly Ice Company was founded in
1912 by John C. Kelleher, a native of Haverhill who had moved to Beverly as a child.
He saw the need for local ice delivery, and
formed his company, located at the corner of
West Dane and Park Streets. For a time, he
too harvested ice from Wenham Lake, but in
the mid-1920s he purchased land on Essex
Street to construct his own pond. The earth
removed from Kelleher’s Pond was transported by employees to fill the pond located in Central Cemetery off of Hale Street,
providing space for additional plots. Horsedrawn wagons delivered ice throughout the
community. Customers placed cards in their
windows notifying the driver of the size of
their order. Other local ice dealers, including
F. B. Davis, Ernest Wright, W. A. Caldwell,
and B. N. Dodge, also made a living from
harvesting ice. Following World War II, the
harvested ice business came to an end as
most residents had switched to electric refrigerators. The days of the ice-cutting business are long in the past, and today Wenham
Lake is the water source for thousands of
Beverly, Salem, and Wenham residents.
2
Events
Unless otherwise noted, events take place at the Cabot House, and are $5 (free for members).
For information on any event, please contact 978-922-1186 ext. 0 or info@beverlyhistory.org.
Please note that the Society will be closed on Thursday, November 5, and
December 24–January 1.
Saturday, December
12, 11:00 am–3:00 pm
Holiday House Tour
Take a holiday stroll to see
wonderful Beverly homes in
their seasonal finery. This is
always a great event. This year,
award-winning designer Adrian Bryce Diorio, of the Boston Globe’s “Ask the Expert”
column, will be designing and
staging an oceanfront home
featured on the house tour.
General tickets: $35/$25
Society members.
Patron tickets, includes 2 tickets and patron membership to the Society: $250.
Wednesday, February 17, 7:00 pm
Schools and Scholars: The Early
Years of Education in Beverly.
Terri McFadden, Research and Education Associate for the Society, will talk about her recent research on Beverly schools from the colonial period through the nineteenth century.
Thursday, February 18, 10:00–2:00 pm
Children’s Day
Purchase tickets for the holiday house
tour at http://housetour2015.bpt.me or
contact the Society at 978-922-1186 x 0.
Wednesday, March 23, 7:00 pm
Movie Night:
Beverly Times Past: Baseball in Beverly: The Early Years with Ed Josephs
Jack Bresnahan, Harry Tozier, Robert Robinson, and Richard Vitale join Ed Josephs
and Richard Symmes to discuss the early
years of baseball in Beverly.
Looking for some fun activities for your
kids? Drop in for some great stories and
games. Best for children ages 5–10. $5/child
or free for Society members at the family
level and above.
Wednesday, March 9, 7:00 pm
Movie Night:
Beverly Times Past: Diners with Ed
Josephs
Gary Thomas joins Ed Josephs and Richard Symmes to discuss the history of diners
along the north shore.
North Beverly Sunday School’s pennant-winning
baseball team, 1908.
Save the Date!
Wednesday, March 16, 7:00 pm
Annual Meeting of Members
Join members and friends to learn
about all of the Society’s accomplishments and activities.
Free and open to all.
Bicycles “Made Like a Watch”
Left: Full-page advertisement in the Naumkeag
Directory for Marshall’s “Raven Bicycles.” The
ad boasted that “the wheels are made of the
best material that can be got, and made like a
watch.”
by Ed Brown
Chances are you’ve never heard of the
“Raven” bicycle (the adult version, not the
children’s model of that name later sold by
Huffy), or its originator, William W. or W.
W. Marshall (as he preferred to be known).
But had you lived in Beverly during the
1890s, you might have owned such a bicycle.
Mr. Marshall was a man of many talents
who had a decidedly up-and-down career.
He first appears in the Beverly town directory for 1884 working as a shoemaker, a very
popular trade here at that time. But he certainly had a broader vision and ambition. By
1893 he had a business of his own at 24 1/2
Cabot Street, advertising himself as “a dealer in bicycles, tricycles, sundries, sporting
goods and all the latest wheels.” In the Gay
Nineties, as the decade was remembered,
“wheels” was a term for any type of bicycle.
By the next year, W. W. Marshall had begun
to manufacture by hand the two-wheeler he
proudly named the “Raven.”
By 1897, he was prosperous enough to take
out a full-page ad in the Naumkeag Directory, which listed the inhabitants and business
firms of Salem, Beverly, Danvers, and several other surrounding communities. The ad
featured his photo, showing a dapper, mustachioed young man, and the words “Raven
Bicycles” in large print, with the notation
that it was built personally by him. Here
is how he described it: “A word in regard
to the Raven Bicycle, which is three years
old and not a broken frame or fork yet. This
shows and speaks for itself, that the wheels
are made of the best material that can be got,
and made like a watch. If you want a wheel
that will stand by you on road or track, buy
a Raven and be happy.”
But visions of entrepreneurship and being
his own boss still burned brightly in the
mind of W. W. Marshall. The growing popularity of the automobile led him on, and in
1908 he opened the North Shore Automobile
Station at 146 Hale Street, in the heart of the
Cove neighborhood. He advertised that he
made repairs to both “foreign and American cars.” For tough repairs, the business
was “machine shop connected.” In addition,
residents in the market for showing off in
a really fancy ride could find “touring cars
to rent by hour, day or week.” Auto owners
who wanted to take their vehicle off the road
for the winter season could store it at the station’s Cove premises.
Unfortunately, there is a six-year gap in
our collection of municipal directories, and
during that period it is quite apparent that
Mr. Marshall must have experienced severe
financial reverses. When the record picks
up again in 1903, not only had he stopped
selling Raven bicycles, he was no longer in
business. Instead, that year he was employed
as a clerk on the premises of a former competitor, the Whitcomb Carter hardware store
at 186 Cabot Street. A year or two later he
had found a new position in Beverly as an
inspector for the recently arrived United
Shoe Machinery Corporation.
Sadly for W. W., that operation was shortlived as well. By 1912 the North Shore Automobile Station was out of business and the
146 Hale Street premises belonged to Pliny
Hussey. As it turned out, Hussey’s Garage
would be a Cove landmark for decades to
come. The Marshalls moved to Danvers,
where for a short time W. W. operated a
garage on Elm Street in the center of town.
Later evidence indicates that he made his
living as a carpenter. But for a short while in
the 1890s, W. W. Marshall was a big man in
Beverly with his Raven bicycle.
Below: A year after establishing his bicycle business, W. W. Marshall had begun to manufacture
by hand the two-wheeler he proudly named the
“Raven.”
Mr. Marshall hardly contented himself with
just building bicycles. In his ad he touts
himself as a “Dealer in hardware, seeds, garden tools, wood ware, loaded shells, cutlery,
paints, oils, fishing tackle, sporting goods,
hammocks, dog collars, and headquarters
for ship chandlery goods.” Just about anything one wanted could be had by visiting
Mr. Marshall’s premises, located at the lower intersection of Cabot and Rantoul Streets,
near the present Cox Court.
11
Volunteer and Staff Spotlight
“Be Kind to Fill the Bottles and You
Will Be Much Oblige.”
by Mel Scalzi
You can learn a lot about a person from what they
leave behind. What would people learn about you
from your bills or your receipts? When I was in
high school I decided it would be funny to save
every receipt for the items I bought with my allowance in my freshman year. Maybe I thought
that years later I or someone else might find it
interesting to see what a 14-year-old bought with
her money. Needless to say, 14 years later when
I cleaned out my old bedroom, seeing receipts for
CDs by The White Stripes, bags of Fritos corn
chips, and chewing gum didn’t really give the insight I desired about my former self.
We are fortunate here at the Beverly Historical Society to have such a large collection of
items from Robert Rantoul Sr. Unlike my high
school receipts, his bills and invoices from
the time his apothecary shop opened in 1797
to 1801 painted a picture not just of the man
himself, but of those he served in the community. Going through 620 receipts over the past
two months, I began to see patterns. I could
identify handwriting and I started to become
familiar with the different merchants Rantoul
ordered his supplies from. But what jumped
out at me and stayed with me were the orders
placed by one woman in 1799: Mrs. Anna Oliver. We don’t know much about Anna Oliver.
We know that she was born in 1762 to Andrew
and Anna Thorndike and died at the age of 47
in 1809. The circumstances of her death are
unknown, but through the orders she placed
at Mr. Rantoul’s apothecary, we know that she
was not well. From mid-July through Decem-
ber 27, 1799, Mrs. Oliver placed 37 orders for
laudanum. Laudanum is a tincture made from
10% opium and 90% alcohol and was used
as a cough suppressant, child quieter, anti-diarrhea medication, and most popularly (and
in Mrs. Oliver’s case) a painkiller. It is safe to
say that Mrs. Oliver was addicted to laudanum.
The majority of her correspondence to Robert
Rantoul was brief. Orders contained one line of
text: “Be kind enough to fill the bottles and you
will be much oblige.” These orders didn’t say
much, but their frequency painted a larger picture of her addiction. In October of 1799, she
placed 11 orders for laudanum. Three of those
orders came only a day after the one before
it. And none of the orders placed in these six
months were ever more than a week apart.
The more orders I found, the sadder her story
seemed. In a receipt from July of 1799, she had
this to say: “You may perhaps think it singular
that I should send so soon again but it is not
in my power to help it.” Another from September 5, 1799, asked Rantoul, “I need thank you
not to mention my sending so often but it is not
in my power to prevent taking it as I am very
subject to the cramp in my stomach.” Was she
aware of the severity of her dependency? We
may never find out. But what we do know is
that opium abuse in its many forms was a widespread problem in the eighteenth century and
Beverly, Massachusetts was not immune.
Mell Scalzi is an independent registrar and collections manager based in Connecticut. During her
time at the Beverly Historical Society, Mell worked
on the Rantoul Collection, entering data from hundreds of documents from Robert Rantoul’s days as a
nineteenth-century druggist.
Alana Gabriel (above) and Gillian Bingham (above right), students at Beverly High School, were summer staff. They helped out wherever needed, giving tours, assisting visitors, and adding data to our computer systems. Alana worked primarily on our photograph collection, checking to make sure photographs
from the Bucci Collection and the United Shoe Machinery and other collections were in the system and
adding data to make the entries more useful for research. Gillian entered probate records to our computer
system and went through all our street and personal photographs, putting them in order and placing them
in plastic sleeves for protection. We are very grateful for all of their hard work over the summer.
10
Thank You, Nancy Hood
Nancy Hood, longtime caretaker at the
Balch House, retired after more than 40
years of service to the Balch House and
the Society. I met Nancy while I was
being interviewed for this position, and
liked her immediately. I thought that if
everyone here was as interesting and
dynamic as she was, it would be a great
place to work! Her devotion to the Balch
House and the many descendants of
John Balch who visit the house was remarkable. Long past the age when many
people retire to a less active life, Nancy
was conducting tours five days a week
in season. She insisted on checking out
the basement almost daily, which frankly
scared me, but we could not have asked
for a more responsible caretaker for the
site. The contributions both financial and
in-kind made by Nancy and her children
made it possible for us to care for the
house on a very small budget.
Generations of Balch descendants remember their visits with her, and she
remembers them. We are deeply grateful
for everything she has done to protect
the Balch House and to provide a wonderful visitor experience. Nancy is truly
irreplaceable. She has earned the chance
to relax, however, so we salute her and
wish her all the best in her retirement. If
you’d like to wish her well in her retirement, send cards and notes to the Society at Cabot House, and we will forward
them to her.
Old Planters
Regulating the “Superfluous and Unnecessary”
by Terri McFadden
Many people today are wary of government
intervention in their lives; some long for the
old days when, as they believe, citizens had
more freedom. For our seventeenth-century
ancestors, such freedom was certainly not a
part of their lives. Rather, the Puritans who
settled here in the 1600s hoped to regulate
the sin out of the community in their efforts
to establish a perfect society. John Winthrop
called Boston the “City on the Hill,” a place
that the whole world would look at and marvel, but the description was just as apt for the
hopes of the whole colony.
Sumptuary laws were passed at various
times by the Massachusetts General Court
regulating extravagance in food and dress–
with clothing being the main focus of the
laws. These laws harken back to the medieval period when many countries attempted
to enforce the status and behavior of their
people with such rules.
In seventeenth-century New England, there
was real concern that people were wasting
money on unnecessary fancy clothing. In
1634 the legislature decreed that due to the
expense of “new and immodest fashions”
people should refrain from wearing lace or
decorating their clothing with gold or silver
threads. Slashed sleeves and “cutwork” were
forbidden, as were beaver hats and double
ruffs. “Greate sleeves” of “ . . . more than
half an ell” (22 inches wide) were also forbidden. Garments with short sleeves were
not to be worn lest “the nakedness of the
arme” be exposed. The court promised that
such scandalous garments would be confiscated and any tailor who added lace or any
forbidden item would be fined.
The issue again was brought before the legislature a few years later when the lawmakers
acknowledged the trouble they were having
restraining the excesses in apparel in both
men and women. This time they chose to
address only those in “mean condition”--the
poor. The lawmakers expressed the opinion
that since those who were well-off had obviously been blessed by God, if they wanted
to wear fancy clothing it wasn’t the court’s
place to restrain them. However, the “blind
and stubborn” poor people of the Commonwealth needed a firm hand to keep them
from wasting their money on finery. Anyone
with a net worth of less than 200 pounds was
not to wear any of the items on the forbidden
list, which was expanded to include great
boots for men and silk hoods and scarfs for
women. Fines of ten shillings were imposed
for such infractions.
Abruptly, in 1644, the court issued the following statement: “It is ordered, that all those
former orders made about apparrell [sic] and
lace are hereby repealed.” With this statement,
it appears that the lawmakers were conceding
that there are some things that can’t be legislated. However, the problem of the poor wasting
money on unsuitable clothing persisted. Over
the years, more laws were enacted to try, at the
very least, to keep children and servants in garb
deemed correct “for their station.” In 1662 fines
were increased both for those without sufficient
means to afford the clothes they wore and for
tailors who made them. The desire to regulate
society remains with us, though not of course
in our clothing. It is interesting, however, to
contemplate the similarities of today’s laws
restricting choices with those enacted by our
Puritan forebears.
Farmer William Dodge
Born between 1604 and 1609 in Somersetshire, England, William Dodge sailed on the
Lyon’s Whelp in 1629 to Salem, where he
settled. His talent as a husbandman (farmer) was noted early. The London governor of
the Massachusetts Bay Company suggested
Dodge be appointed the charge of a team of
horses because he was “a skillful and painful husbandman.” This was an honor for the
young man; horses were valuable animals
and very important to the work of the colonists.
Dodge quickly became a prominent member
of the community, serving in many capacities, including overseer of highways, surveyor, soldier, juryman, and representative to
the General Court of Massachusetts. Dodge
was also chosen selectman at Beverly’s first
town meeting in November 1668. He and
his wife, Elizabeth, had three children. All
three married into well-known local families
including the Woodbury, Conant, and Hale
families. Farmer Dodge died sometime after
1685; a long life, well lived.
Below: This lovely old New England house was
built in 1680 by John Green. It stood in the Ryal
Side section of Beverly for 214 years. The photo, taken by Walter A. Porter in 1890, shows the
house shortly before it was torn down.
3
Collections
One of the greatest aspects of being a curator for an actively collecting organization
is that any day can be significant; one never knows what artifact may be donated or
what question may be asked that leads to
a fascinating discovery. People often think
that historians and historical societies are
only interested in history from the arrival
of the English in the New World through
the American Revolution. Objects and
documents illustrating this period are, of
course, very important in telling that story, but that is only a small (yet important)
chapter of our history. Events that occurred
during our lifetime or that of our parents or
grandparents are often lost over the years.
If you remember it happening or heard stories about it from a loved one, then it is not
really historical and is not of much value to
pass along to future generations; this sentiment could not be further from the truth. As
I tell my kids every day, the book we read
the night before and the game we played
that afternoon is now history. It is our responsibility to document it by telling and
recording stories; photographing events;
and collecting ephemera and objects that
we amass in day-to-day life.
Recent donations include a Balch family tall case clock that was made ca. 1795.
Old clocks are beautiful objects because of
their craftsmanship; the sheer size of the
tall case variety makes them the focal point
wherever they are. The most intriguing feature of this clock is the face, with a painting
of the original one-over-one Balch House.
The clock originally belonged to William
G. Balch of Newburyport and was passed
through the next five generations before
its recent donation to the Society. It is currently on display at the Cabot House across
from the oil portrait of Nathaniel Balch,
also ca. 1795. Another Old Planter-related item recently donated is My Maternal
Ancestry, 400–2014: A Personal History
written by longtime member and supporter Walter W. John, which contains years of
research detailing Walter’s genealogy and
connection to Beverly. If you have attended
any of our Old Planters Reunions, you met
Walter, who is a Woodbury and descends
from basically every seventeenth-century
Beverly family except Balch. This genealogy is now available for future generations
of researchers and is a valued addition to
our collection. More contemporary donations include bumper stickers, signs, and
a drink koozie dating from the last thirty
years of Beverly Farms and Prides Crossing 4th of July celebrations. These are materials that seem mundane but are of great
value to historians. If objects like these are
stored in your attic, crawlspace, or hidden
beneath a bed, please contact me.
This summer we created a photographic
exhibit at City Hall that illustrated Beverly’s 1902 Old Home Week, the event that
served as inspiration for Homecoming, in
connection with the 50th anniversary of
the annual event. Photos of Cabot Street
buildings draped with bunting, banners,
and flags were mounted beside contemporary images, documenting how the buildings had changed over time. I also had the
privilege of speaking this past July at the
Central Cemetery commemoration of Nathan Dane week in Massachusetts. Congratulations to Lance Daly, founder of the
Beverly Heritage Project, who made this
week a reality. Daly led the movement to
properly honor Nathan Dane, the author of
the Northwest Ordinance and the Father of
American Jurisprudence.
Left: This ca. 1795 Balch family tall case clock
once belonged to William G. Balch of Newburyport and is a recent donation to the Society. A
painting of the original one-over-one Balch
House in Beverly can be seen on its face.
4
Darren Brown
Curator of Collections
Recent Acquisitions
Album, Photograph: Beverly Hospital’s Parkhurst
Building
Bag, Tote: Beverly Times
Bag, Tote: Caboose Travel Agency
Bible: belonged to Mollie T. Lovett
Blueprints, framed and unframed: Howard L. Lee
house at 23 Corning Street, 1922
Book: My Maternal Ancestry, 400–2014: A Per
sonal History
Booklet: Briscoe Briefs, June 1935
Booklet: Opening Argument of Fred H. Williams,
In Favor of the Incorporation of the Town of
Beverly Farms
Booklet: Wellsprings
Booklet, souvenir: City of Beverly, Past and Pres
ent: Progress and Prosperity
Books: Beverly city and town documents, local
history, Salem Marine Society
Brochure: YMCA camp
Buttons (16): from Beverly’s First Night (19961999, 2001, 2003)
Card, Christmas and Photographs (2): From Bill
Hamor and family
Certificate, Commemorative: Beverly High School
Football Team, 1948
Coin, commemorative: Veterans Memorial Bridge
Collection of Connolly family papers and ephemera
Commemorative Mason Jar from the Farms-Pride
4th of July celebration fundraiser
Drawings (50): Railroad steam locomotives
Koozie, Drink: Beverly Farms-Prides 4th of July
2013
Ledger: Schoolwork of Cadet Pinkham
Ledgers: Boston & Maine Railroad Operator’s
Records, Fitchburg Division
List: Karl Robert’s paper route, 1913
Notepads and miscellaneous ephemera from the
Beverly National Bank
Opener, Letter: Beverly Times souvenir
Painting: Oil on board of Robert Rantoul, Jr.
Patch: Fight Infantile Paralysis (Beverly Hospital)
Photographs: Beverly families, organizations and
objects from the Society’s collection, 1980
Photograph: panorama of Woodbury Shoe outing
Photographs: Charlie Bucci civic and political
Plaques (2): Awarded to Charlie Bucci
Postcards (29): Assorted Beverly views
Poster: Beverly High School, Peer Education
Anti-Drinking and Driving Campaign, 1989
Poster: Citizen Kane at the Ware Theater
Posters and bumper sticker: Beverly Farms-Prides
4th of July celebrations
Program: Beverly High School Sports Hall of
Fame, 2015
Program and card: from Kathleen “Kay” Curran’s
memorial service
Program, graduation and dance card: BHS Class
of 1957
Scrapbook: Beverly Police newspaper clippings
and notes
Shirts, Tee (2): Beverly Business Association
and Up All Night in ‘92
Toy: Begg live steamer parts (accompany a
2008 donation)
Uniform: U.S. Army dress from the early 1960s
Research and Education News
by Terri McFadden
Our researchers (staff, volunteers, and interns) have been busy this past spring and
summer with a variety of projects aimed at
streamlining the research process. Projects
include compiling data on frequently asked
questions, such as questions about our seventeenth-century families and important
Beverly buildings. We are in the process of
gathering information on all the buildings
photographed for the 1992 Massachusetts
Historic Commission collection and adding
this to our database. All of this data will be
easily accessible, and will help avoid repetition for researchers now and in the future.
Research queries come in from near and
far. Many of the questions continue to be
about genealogy and house history, but the
range is far-reaching indeed. A descendant
of Charles William Galloupe recently telephoned from New Zealand to discuss his
ancestor and learn what holdings we have
on him. The gentleman is writing a book
on his family history and was most interested in learning about the Gallop/Galloupe
family in Beverly. A Massachusetts author
who is writing a statewide black history
guidebook contacted us to find out where
Beverly’s black families lived in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Another
woman wanted to discover what was the
“mystery building” that she remembered
from her childhood in Centerville. She was
pleased to learn that it is the tennis club on
Route 22! Our regular research volunteers
are Gail Balentine, Ed Brown, Jeff Douzat, Matthew Nugent, Law Hamilton, John
Dario, Al Cook, and Tina Torsey, without
whom we truly couldn’t manage.
Our “Time Machine Bus Tours” were a
highlight for many students of Beverly’s
third-grade public school classes. The students learned about nearly 200 years of
local history. Topics covered included life
on a seventeenth-century farm, witchcraft
in Beverly, privateers and the Revolutionary War, and nineteenth-century fishing
and maritime trade. This year, Andrea
Stackpole, a teacher for many years in our
local schools, joined us on the bus tours.
Also stepping in to assist were long-time
volunteers Ginny Currier at Balch House
and Ed Brown at Hale Farm. At the Cabot
House, Gail Balentine and Lucy Keller
spoke about the Revolutionary War and the
early nineteenth century. It was a huge help
to have these dedicated and well-informed
individuals contribute to the school programs. I can’t thank them enough.
Several times in the past year we have had
visits from high school classes who have
studied or were performing in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. This spring, 75 students
traveled with their teachers from Shawsheen Technical High School to Hale Farm
to see where Reverend John Hale wrote his
book, A Modest Inquiry into the Nature of
Witchcraft. I hope they left with a deeper
understanding of seventeenth-century life
and of some the issues that led to the witchcraft crises of 1692.
With the help of the Society’s Education
Committee, we are continuing to look at
ways that we can further our mission to
educate students and adults about the history of our community. Joan Johnson, a
new member of our Education Committee,
came up with a delightful hand-drawn map
to go with one of our programs. For the
2015–2016 school year, we hope to launch
new programs that incorporate science and
nature with local history. We are just beginning the process of looking at our buildings, especially Balch House, to think of
new and dynamic ways that we can teach
hands-on history.
Education Committee Members:
Joan Johnson
Linda Geary
Martha Wetherill
Julia Brotherton
Georgia Bills
Janet Tannebring
For more information about either research
or education at the Society, contact Terri
McFadden at research@beverlyhistory.org
or phone 978-922-1186 extension 202.
Below: Students from Shawsheen Technical High School traveled with their teachers to
Hale Farm to see where Reverend John Hale wrote his book, A Modest Inquiry into the
Nature of Witchcraft.
Education Programs at the
Beverly Historical Society
It has been a busy year for education programs at the Society. During April vacation,
we hosted a story time for small children.
Even the youngest visitors, just two years
old, listened intently to the amusing story
President Taft Is Stuck in the Bath (a book
that is available in the Cabot Shop). School
groups from kindergarteners through high
school students visited the Society’s houses this spring. We were pleased that in the
months of May and June alone, 325 students learned about Beverly’s fascinating
history.
9
Beverly Heritage Circle
T
o ensure the continuation of our mission of preserving these irreplaceable
national assets for future generations, the trustees, staff and friends of the Society have established the Beverly Heritage Circle. The members of the Beverly
Heritage Circle are committed to preserving and interpreting Beverly’s historic
treasures into the future. To further that goal, they have made a planned gift, or
included the Beverly Historical Society in their estate plans.
Please consider joining our charter members and furthering your support of Beverly’s history by including the Beverly Historical Society in your estate planning
through a bequest or trust, or by naming the Beverly Historical Society as a beneficiary of insurance or retirement assets. As a token of our appreciation, Beverly
Heritage Circle members will be acknowledged in the Society’s Annual Reports
and will be invited to special events.
Perhaps you have already included the Beverly Historical Society, or one of its
houses or collections, in your estate planning. If so, please let us know so that we
may acknowledge your generosity. For more information on planned gifts, please
contact the director at 978-922-1186 x 204 or sgoganian@beverlyhistory.org.
Balch 4th Century Fund
Goal: By 2019, raise $300,000 to properly preserve the house.
Like many small institutions, the Beverly Historical Society does not have a sufficient operating budget to care properly for its houses and collections, and deferred
maintenance is an ongoing problem. We’d like to change that, so this month we
will launch the Balch 4th Century Fund, the income from which will cover both
cyclical and regular maintenance costs so the Balch house won’t be dependent
on the vagaries of the Society’s operating budget, which will continue to pay for
staffing and programming.
We are asking that those who care about the Balch House consider a generous
gift to the Balch 4th Century Fund, either through a direct donation, or a planned
gift, such as a bequest or annuity. Our goal for the fund is $300,000. All gifts at
the $10,000 level or above will be acknowledged on a plaque at the Balch House.
We are all grateful that our predecessors helped to preserve the Balch House for
us. Now it’s our turn to do the same for future generations. If you have questions
about the current project, or the fund, please contact the director, Sue Goganian,
at 978-922-1186 ext. 204.
Should your name be on this list? The
individuals listed below have informed
us that the Society has been included
in their estate planning.
Paulianne Balch-Rancourt
Edward R. Brown
Bill Buttimer
John G. L. Cabot
William G. Elliott
Susan J. Goganian
Walter W. John
Daniel M. Lohnes
Caleb Loring III
Babette Loring
Thank you to
our wonderful
donors.
Your thoughtfulness
and generosity enables
us to:
collect, preserve,
interpret and disseminate
Beverly’s regional
history.
Your gifts help us to
restore our historic
properties, acquire and
care for our collections,
and offer programs
throughout the year.
We are very grateful for
your support!
8
Books by Ed Brown
All books are illustrated. Please indicate if
you would like them autographed.
Fascinating historyabout this beloved
beach and the neighborhood that cares
for it.
Softcover, 59 pages,
$9.95
Enough witch stories
to compete with Salem, including tales
about David Balch
and the troublemaker
Dorcas Hoar!
Softcover, 34 pages.
$8.95
The updated Balch genealogy, Descendants
of John Balch by Robin Balch Hodgkins is
includes more than 12,000 descendant of
Old Planter John Balch.
Hardcover (883 p.) $100 (Shipping $10)
Flashdrive with pdf copy and additional
stories $40 (free shipping)
Both versions include a free download of a
single ancestral line.
Reflections
Updated with new text and images. Softcover $23.00
Also available:
Balch genealogy chart $ 8
Oversized Balch mug $10
Balch or Hale magnet (lucite) $ 3
And many other great gifts of history!
Support the Society
WHILE You Shop
Register at shopformuseums.com (it’s
easy) and choose the Society as your
museum partner. Hundreds of major
retailers participate, and often offer
additional discounts.
OR
Are you an Amazon shopper? Please
take advantage of Amazon Smile
Begin at smile.amazon.com, choose us
(just once) as the charitable organization, and Amazon will donate 0.5% of
the price of your eligible AmazonSmile
purchases
To order
Hale Farm ornament
Double-sided ceramic ornament on a ribbon. Boxed. $15.95
Visit the shop page on our website, or call
978-922-1186 x0. Members, contact us to
receive 20% off shop merchandise. Interested in a vintage photo of your neighborhood? Reproductions of images in our collection are also available for purchase.
The story of
Gloucester native
Jack “Stuffy” McInnis, who played on
a semi-pro team in
Beverly before joining the major leagues
in 1909.
Softcover, 118 pages,
$15.95
Colossal military
blunders, home
invasion and kidnapping, theft by trusted
servants? Fascinating true tales of the
trials and tribulations
endured by the early
settlers of Beverly. Softcover, 107
pages. $15.95
History of early
stagecoach travel
and the transition to rail in and
around Beverly.
Softcover, 60 pages. $8.95
5
WRITE-OF-WAY
by Ed Brown
For more than 45 years, it stood sentinel, a
landmark on River Street just beyond the
Beverly depot platform and not far from
the Beverly Gas & Electric Company’s
huge gas tank. Erected in 1907 by the Boston & Maine Railroad, the 50,000-gallon
water tank catered to the needs of a long
line of steam locomotives that worked in or
passed through Beverly. These included the
0-6-0 switchers shuttling cars in what was
once an extensive Beverly freight yard.
Timetables also showed a few Mogul- or
Pacific-drawn local passenger trains that
came out from North Station, turned on the
Beverly turntable, and returned to Boston
after filling their water cisterns. Every now
and then a through train stopping at Beverly might need a quick drink. The water tank
was filled automatically via a two-inch city
line from River Street, and a spout could
be lowered by the train crew to reach the
cistern on the locomotive tender.
In 1953, former city of Beverly Public
Works Commissioner James Blackmer recalled for the local press that the erection
of the tank in 1907 came as a result of city
complaints to the B&M. Before then, railroad firemen wishing to water their steamy
steeds used a spigot directly attached to the
municipal water line. When the spigot was
activated, the sudden change in water pressure produced a “hammer” in the cement
6
Goodbye, Water Tank
A 50,000-gallon Boston & Maine Railroad water tank stands on the far left in this early
twentieth-century photograph of the Beverly Depot. The tank supplied water for steam
locomotives that worked in or passed through Beverly from 1907 until 1953, when
diesel-powered locomotives had replaced most steam locomotives.
pipe then in use, sometimes resulting in a
break.
By 1953, the tank was obsolete, diesel
power had taken over the freight work and
all but a couple of the passenger trains. On
March 26, 1953, a B&M maintenance crew
headed by foreman Harold Eldridge arrived
in town with specific orders. The last of the
water had been drained from the tank. Police shut down River Street for safety reasons and the demolition crew proceeded
with their carefully worked-out plan. Men
first cut about three-quarters of the way
through the eight steel supports that held
up the tank. Cables were then attached to
the supports and after a crane took hold of
those cables the tank was gracefully toppled onto River Street, landing within two
feet of the calculated spot. With the tank
now in pieces on the ground, workers with
torches cut up the debris. It was hauled out
of town, not on railroad cars, but on flatbed
trucks, leaving nothing to mark where a
relic of the days of steam locomotives had
stood.
by Susan Milstein, Archivist
The Loring family was among the earliest
summer residents in Beverly. Katharine
Loring’s grandfather, Charles Greeley Loring (1794–1867), built a summer home in
Beverly in 1846. Six years later, in 1852,
Katharine’s father, attorney Caleb William
Loring (1819–1897) also built his family a
summer home in Pride’s Crossing, Beverly, on land owned by his father. He named
the home “Burn Side.” In 1872 the family settled in the home as year-round residents following the death of Katharine’s
mother, Elizabeth Putnam Loring, in 1869.
Both Katharine (1849–1943) and her sister
Louisa (1854–1924) resided in the Beverly
home for much of their lives.
Katharine Peabody Loring (1849–1943)
lived through an amazing period in American history. She was only twelve when the
Civil War began. She experienced it second-hand through letters from her uncle,
Charles Greeley Loring (1828–1907), who
was an officer in the Union Army and was
discharged with the rank of General. She
also lived through World War I, the Great
Depression, and much of World War II. In
recent years, some attention has been focused on Katharine’s relationship with Alice James (1848–1892), the younger sister
of writer Henry James (1843–1916), and
psychologist William James (1842–1910).
No matter what the nature of their relationship may or may not have been, Katharine
lived a busy and productive life for another 51 years after Alice’s untimely death at
From the Archives
The Loring Family, October 1888:
Katharine, William, Louisa, and
Augustus Loring, the four children
of Caleb William Loring and Elizabeth Putnam Loring.
age 43. Loring was a tireless volunteer for
many organizations in Beverly. One major
focus of her energy was the Beverly Historical Society, where she served as President
for 23 years, from 1918–1941. Looking
at it another way, she served as President
from the end of World War I until the United States’ involvement in World War II in
late 1941. It was during her tenure as President that the Society acquired its two additional properties, Balch House and Hale
Farm. Katharine helped furnish Hale Farm
with the gift of a lovely set of bedroom furniture (c. 1820) that is still on display in the
large “master” bedroom today.
the First Parish Church in Beverly, which
date between 1773 and 1870. From the
Civil War period, she donated Memoirs
of the War of ‘61: Colonel Charles Russell Lowell, friends and cousins, which
was compiled by Elizabeth Cabot Putnam (1920); two used rifle shells—one
Union and one Confederate—which
were found at Antietam, Maryland; and an
insignia from the uniform of Lieutenant
Francis W. Loring. She also gave the Society several family genealogies, such as
those of the Putnam and Loring families of
Beverly (the latter of which she co-wrote
with Charles Henry Pope, 1922), and the
Bowditch and Prescott families of Salem.
During her presidency she contributed
both the Ebenezer Francis papers, and the
Loring papers, which include her own autograph collection of letters and signatures
by many prominent people of the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century.
During her lifetime, Loring donated many
books and pamphlets related to the history
of Beverly, Salem, and other parts of Essex
County, as well as books about the history
of Boston and Massachusetts. She contributed a group of early printed sermons from
There is no doubt that without the more
than 300 items contributed by Katharine
Loring and her family, the collections of
the Beverly Historical Society wouldn’t
be as varied, or as interesting as they are
today.
Below: Andrew Rogers Estate, ca. 1910. Rogers was a president of the Beverly National Bank, Beverly Gas & Electric Company, and Naumkeag Buffing
Machine Association. His estate was located at 36 Hale Street. All that remains are the chauffeur’s home and the massive granite wall.
7