Historic Nantucket, October 1962, Vol. 10 No. 2

Historic Nantucket

Photo Dy Bill Haddon

Straight Wharf in 1899. A water color by W. Channing Cabot. Re­ produced through the courtesy of Mrs. Hugh W. Sanford.

OCTOBER, 1962

Published Quarterly by

NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION NANTUCKET, MASSACHUSETTS

NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION OFFICERS President, George W. Jones.

Vice-Presidents, Miss Grace Brown Gardner, Burnham N. Dell, A Icon Chadwick, W. Ripley Nelson, Albert Egan, Jr., Mrs. William Mather.

Secretary-Treasurer, Miss Ethel Anderson.

Auditor, Ormonde F. Ingall.

Councillors, George W. Jones, Chairman; Mrs. Joseph King, Herbert I. Terry, term expires 1963; Mrs. Francis W. Pease, H. Errol Coffin, term expires 1964; Henry Coleman, Norman P. Giffin, term expires 1965; Mrs. Nancy S. Adams, A. Morris Crosby, term expires 1966.

Publicity Committee, W. Ripley Nelson, Chairman.

Honorary Curator, Mrs. Nancy S. Adams.

Curator, Mrs. William Mather.

Finance Committee, Albert Egan, Jr., and Alcon Chadwick.

Editor, Historic Nantucket, A. Morris Crosby; Mrs. Margaret Fawcett Barnes, Mrs. R. A. Orleans, Assistant Editors.

Exhibits' Publications Committee. Burnham N. Dell, Chairman; Mrs. John Bartlett.

Chairmen of Exhibits, Fair Street Museum, Mrs. William Mather; Whaling Museum, W. Ripley Nelson; Oldest House, Mrs. Francis W. Pease; Old Mill, Henry Coleman; Old Jail, Norman Giffin; 1800 House, Mrs. Joseph King; Gardner Street Firehouse, H. Errol Coffin.

HISTORIC NANTUCKET Published quarterly and devoted to the 'preservation of Nantucket's antiquity, its famed heritage and its illustrious past as a whaling port.

VOLUME 10

A IP7

No. 2

OCTOBER 1962

CONTENTS

fy&VTED

Nantucket Historical Association Officers The Annual Report of the President

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2

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5

The Report of the Secretary

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- 11

Loran C.: Account of the "Master" Station of the U.S. Coast Guard at Low Beach, Siasconset

By Margaret Fawcett Barnes

15

William M. Folger and the Prentiss House

By Edgar L. McCormick

18

Civil War Memoranda

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25

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-- 26

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Historical Essay Contest The Coffin Family Genealogy

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Recent Events

35

Diary of William C, Folger Form of Bequest

31

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38 —

43

Historic Nantucket is published quarterly at Nantucket, Massachusetts, by the Nantucket Historical Association. It is sent to Association Members. Extra copies $.50 each.

Membership dues are — Annual-Active $2.00; Sustaining $10.00; Life-one payment $50.00.

Entered as Second Class Matter, July, 1953, at the Post Office, Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Copyright, 1962. Nantucket Historical Association.

Communications pertaining to the Publication should be addressed to the Editor, Historic Nantucket, Nantucket Historical Association, Nantucket, Massachusetts.

The property at the corner of North Water Street and Whaler's Lane.

A gift to the Nantucket Historical Association from the Nantucket Historical Trust, it will eventually become the site of the new museum.

5

President's Report I concluded my report last year with the sentence, "I doubt not that next July will see us again holding an annual meeting after a successful year." This confidence has been j ustified and our position is as successful as it has ever been in the sixty-eight years of our corporate existence.

When I speak of our success I mean it not from a financial consideration, although we are sound in that respect as you have seen from the Treasurer's report. I refer to our success in serv­ ing the community in the manner for which we are incorporated.

I believe each year more people become interested in the history of this Island and come here to enjoy living for a time in a town which has not been spoiled by ultra modern building design and arrangement, which are so prevalent elsewhere.

The feeling of stepping backward about a hundred and fifty years is engendered and their interests are stimulated relative to conditions and inhabitants of that period.

It is in this respect that we are able to serve and satisfy to considerable extent their natural curiosity, furnishing the friendly visitors a satisfaction in acquiring additional knowledge of what living at that time was like.

FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE The Friends Meeting House and the attached museum, our oldest exhibits, continue to appeal to many and the genealogical library under the care of Miss Alice Crocker is used more and more for those seeking information on their forebears. A number of acquisitions have been received during the year and under the supervision of its chairman, Mrs. William Mather, and with the help of Past President Nancy Adams these and other articles have been displayed to better advantage. Mrs. Mather is filling the position of receptionist replacing Miss Alma Robbins who has moved away from the Island.

OLDEST HOUSE The Oldest House, always a point of interest to the visitors on the Island continues to hold its particular attraction for the present generation. Miss Ida Parker, who successfully carried out the duties of custodian last year, is again in charge under the able supervision of Mrs. Francis Pease, chairman of this exhibit.

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

OLD MILL Unlike last year no major repairs have been required at the Old Mill. After installing the vanes for the season the mill was tested and found to run satisfactorily and is in good condition to grind corn if it be desired to do so. Mr. John Greene, who has been our custodian at the mill for a number of years, holds the interest of (the visitors with his description of its operation and replies in answer to their numerous questions.

WHALING MUSEUM Several additions have been made to the exhibits at the Whaling Museum, among them being a very fine arrangement of old whaling voyage charts showing many voyages and the day by day positions of the ships as they progressed around the world.

Many voyages of the better known whalers are represented. This is a project which the Whaling Museum Chairman, Mr. W. Ripley Nelson, has been working on for two years, financially assisted by one of our members who has a strong interest in this museum.

Many new scrimshaw items have been added to our collection until it seems as though the room would scarcely hold them.

A heavy loss was sustained by the death of "Archie" Cartwright, who has been a most successful attendant and lecturer here for many years and who was the last Nantucketer to have gone on a whaling voyage. He was a tie with the past which we regret having been broken.

Mr. Everett Chapel, who has been our relief man for two years, consented to take Mr. Cartwright's position and is doing a fine job. Although not a whaleman he is one who knows the sea intimately both as a fisherman and as a Merchant Marine officer.

The other regular attendants here are Mrs. Herbert Foye, Mrs. Ellen Chace, and Mr. Bertram Morris, all tried and true workers who know their work and are performing in a manner creditable both to themselves and to the Association.

The relief personnel consists of Mrs. Reginald Hussey, who has worked here and at the Oldest House during previous seasons, and Mr. Edward Whelden, a new member of the staff taking the position formerly held by Mr. Chapel.

I think we are most fortunate in obtaining the services of a fine group who have the interest of this museum and the Associa­ tion in mind.

PRESIDENT'S REPORT

7

1800 HOUSE Most of the repair work done this year was at the 1800 House under the chairmanship of Mrs. Charlotte King. The chimney, formerly in poor condition above the roof, has been rebuilt. Paint Work inside and out has been done and the structure is now in better condition than it has been for some time. Mrs. Susan Cowden, who knows this exhibit familiarly from long experience as the attendant is again doing a very competent piece of work this season.

We are grateful to her and to the volunteers, who take relief shifts, for the friendly atmosphere which they create for the visitor.

OLD JAIL Again, I report the loss of a valued employee, Mr. Chester Faunce, who, for two years, has been the attendant at the Old Jail and whose work there had been outstanding, died earlier this year. He was a friendly person who met the public with a smile and created a congenial feeling toward the visitors. He will be very much missed.

GARDNER STREET FIRE HOUSE Although we have owned the Gardner Street fire-engine house for about two years, this will be the first season that it will have been open for public inspection. Mr. Errol Coffin, chair­ man of this exhibit has, with the cooperation of Vice-President Egan, prepared this building and arranged the items to be viewed to the best advantage. They have arranged the items in this building so that although unattended and open during the reg­ ular daytime hours, the items will be protected from loss and damage.

FOLGER-FRANKLIN MEMORIAL The Folger-Franklin Memorial continues to draw a number of interested persons. The shrubs and trees around these grounds look to be progressing nicely.

The grounds have been surveyed and bounded and a deed for the property will be passed this summer. These grounds had been under lease from Mr. Thomas Hallowell, Jr., who most gen­ erously is now making a gift of this land to the Association.

Our personnel loss this past year has been severe and in­ cluded important members of the organization. Among these

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

was the editor of our quarterly magazine, "Historic Nantucket."

Miss Alma Robbins has served in this capacity for four and onehalf years and had by her interest and energy maintained the high standard of this publication. For personal reasons it was neces­ sary that she leave the Island and return to Maine. I am sure that all who have enjoyed the magazine while i't was under her direction will regret learning of this loss. Fortunately, after some rather anxious searching, we have Ideated one who we believe will carry on the work entailed with the Editor's chair in a man­ ner commensurate with past performance. Mr. A. Morris Crosby has consented to take over these duties. I for one feel relieved to have a man of his ability at the helm. I believe "Historic Nan­ tucket" will prosper under his direction.

Vice-President W. Ripley Nelson does his utmost to keep the world informed as to what our organization is doing and throughout the year had items in the two local papers and the New Bedford Standard-Times. In addition ads are inserted in the weekly pamphlets, "Nantucket Holiday" and "This Week in Nantucket," which are available to all visitors.

Our own pamphlets and publications are kept up to date and in good supply by Vice-President Burnham Dell who has this matter well in hand. Considerable printing along these lines has been accomplished this year including the Oldest House booklet.

Miss Ethel Anderson, who holds three positions (Secretary, Treasurer, and Chairman of the Membership Committee), does them all well and it is through her efforts that our paid-up mem­ bership numbers considerably over 1,100.

The culmination of many years' work was reached by Mr. Louis Coffin, of Cincinnati, very recently, when publication was completed of "The Coffin Family," a genealogical work second to none, treating of the numerous generations of that family from Tristram and Dionis to date. Cost of publication was met by the author and compiler and a group connected to the Coffin name. This group has most generously placed the finished prod­ uct in our hands (some 1,000 copies) and relinquished all finan­ cial rights in favor of the Nantucket Historical Association. Ten thousand Coffins are listed in this volume and we believe many will wish to obtain a copy for their information and a valuable addition to their library.

The Gam in February had its usual success and interest in the event filled the Maria Mitchell Library building to capacity.

PRESIDENT'S REPORT

9

This organization annually loans us these facilities for our gam and their generosity (is very much appreciated. The topic this year, "Stores I Remember," was on merchants of former days, both on Main Street and other locations about the Town. Many who attended took part in the discussion and many amusing incidents were brought to mind and related.

This year lectures at the High School by Dr. William E. Gardner, Mr. Edouard Stackpole, Miss Alma Robbins, and your president were given during the winter months. The history award certificates were won this year by Eileen Sylvia from the High School and Robert Van Arsdale from the Manual Training School. Elizabeth Clements of the High School and Arthur Cham­ bers of the Manual Training School received honorable mention.

We have had a number of very substantial accessions from the Nantucket Historical Trust consisting of valuable journals, letters, manuscripts, books, and numerous additions to our scrim­ shaw collection. Climaxing the gifts from this organization was that of the property at the corner of North Water Street and Whaler's Lane. This piece adjoins the Whaling Museum land and had been desired by the Council for a number of years. It fur­ nishes us room for future expansion which, with the accelerated amount of accessions, will some day be necessary. I feel sure that all members of this Association appreciate the great amount of help which we have oibtained from this organization.

I could hardly finish my report without mention of three instances of improvement which have taken place in the historic structures of the town during the last twelve months. The Baptist Church steeple through the efforts of Dr. William E. Gardner and his many friends has been rebuilt to its former fine appear­ ance. Sixty-nine Main Street, one of our fine old houses, has been renovated and when the work is completed will return to its orig­ inal form and appearance. This work will be a real addition to the Main Street architecture. And, of course, last but by no means least the grand job being done by the Nantucket Historical Trust at the Jared Coffin House (formerly the Ocean House) where the structure will present its original appearance to all who enjoy visualizing the town as it was in the early 1800's.

The Whaling Print Exhibit which we sponsored last summer in the Coffin School building, displaying prints and pictures from the Allan Forbes, Sr., collection now owned by the Massachusetts

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Institute of Technology, was, we believe, well worth doing, al­ though completed at some financial loss. The interest displayed by the number of visitors and the enjoyment expressed by both adults and children made it well worth our efforts.

Each year sees the terms of two of our Council members expire and our by-laws prohibit successive reappointment. Miss Alma Robbins and Robert C. Caldwell are the two who have served their term of four years and of necessity must be replaced.

This year one of our vice-presidents, who has been most loyal and sincere in his work for the Association, Mr. Stokeley W. Mor­ gan, has, for personal reasons, felt compelled to submit his resig­ nation which has been accepted with much reluctance.

I express my appreciation of the work which these Council members and vice-presidents have performed, assure them that they will be missed, and wish them the satisfaction of work well performed.

Trusting that this resume of the activities and accomplish­ ments of the Council, the Chairmen of the Exhibits, Attendants, and all others who have helped in innumerable ways has been of interest, I thank you for your attention and hope that you may be attending our annual meeting a year hence.

11

Annual Report The sixty-eighth Annual Meeting of the Nantucket Historical Association was held Tuesday, July 24th, at 2:30 p.m. in the Friends Meeting House. Between eighty and ninety members attended.

President George W. Jones greeted the members and gave his report of the activities of the Association for the fiscal year June 1, 1961, to May 31, 1962.

The Annual Report of the Secretary was then read and ac­ cepted after certain corrections were made.

Before asking that the reports of the various committees be accepted as printed in the July issue of "Historic Nantucket," Mr. Jones explained several errors in the printing of the financial report. He then recommended that the reports other than the financial be accepted as printed. A motion was made, seconded and so voted — that the reports be accepted as printed in the July issue of "Historic Nantucket."

Mr. Herbert Terry gave the report of the Nominating Com­ mittee as follows: Report of the Nominating Committee of the Nantucket His­ torical Association, Annual Meeting Tuesday, July 24, 1962.

President — George W. Jones.

Vice-Presidents — Miss Grace Brown Gardner, Mrs. William Mather, W. Ripley Nelson, Burnham N. Dell, Albert F. Egan, Jr., Alcon Chadwick.

Secretary and Treasurer — Miss Ethel Anderson.

Councillors: For the term expiring 1966 — Mrs. Walton Adams, A. Morris Crosby; For the term expiring 1965 to fill the vacancy of Alcon Chadwick — Henry Coleman.

Respectfully submitted by the Nominating Committee Paul Hoadley Richard Porter Herbert Terry

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Mr. Terry then took the chair and the election of the Presi­ dent proceeded with a slight change. Mr. Terry stated that there were many ways of expressing a vote such as "ayes and nayes" — ballot or black ball, and other expressions of dissent and accept­ ance, but he asked that the nomination of Mr. George W. Jones as President be expressed by the clapping of hands. The response was most gratifying and expressed to Mr. Jones the appreciation of the members for his years of faithful service, giving freely of his time and energy to the Association as well as the Com­ munity.

The motion was made and seconded that the nominations be closed and the slate of officers be accepted as read by the Nominating Committee. Voted — unanimously.

Mr. Jones then asked the members' approval of the proposed sale of two pieces of land — one at the lower end of the York Street land to Mr. Franklin Bartlett, of 10,000 sq. ft. This would not interfere with the view from the Old Mill but would straighten out the property line to better advantage. The second was 1,000 sq. ft., or a plot 30x35 ft., next to the Old Jail on Vestal Street, a part of the land upon which the old House of Correction once stood. Voted — to authorize the Council to sell the land.

Mr. Jones then introduced Mr. Henry Coffin Carlisle who made a short introductory comment and then proceeded to play the tape recording of the "Sinking of the Andrea Doria" and how the men obtained the film used in Life Magazine, the first and only ones of the ship after the collision. The sound wa's very clear and those taking part gave interesting accounts of what happened. Mr. Clarence Gifford told of the actual sinking and his separation from his family, all of whom were passengers ton the Andrea Doria. John Fox, Editor of Random House, and Peter Gimbel, of the famed Gimbel store, were the divers who photo­ graphed the ship. The story of the trip out from Nantucket by Winthrop Ellis and return in the fog with gas giving out and the rescue by Mike Todd off Sankaty Head, as well as the desperate attempt to get to the mainland through the fog to meet thd dead-line of the magazine and the rushing of the film from plane to car were most thrilling.

Here again the applause and Questions after the recording showed Mr. Carlisle the appreciation for the work he had accom­ plished in editing the tape recording.

SECRETARY'S REPORT

13

The President then made an announcement of the coming lecture at the Unitarian Church, Friday, August 3rd, at 8 p.m.,

by Mr. Loran Graham, the subject to be "Colliers of the New England Coast." This is being sponsored by the Association and will be illustrated with slides.

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 3:45 p.m.

Ethel Anderson, Secretary

We regret that the name of Mr. Marcus Ramsdell was inad­ vertently omitted from the list, in the July number of "Historic Nantucket," of members !of the Association who had died during the preceding year. Mr. Ramsdell, a native Nantucketer, was born September 23, 1889, and died last March 8th. At one time con­ nected with the Pacific National Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank, he took a keen interest in affairs of the Town, holding po­ sitions of trust and influence at various times in numerous town activities. — Editor.

Photo by Bill Haddon

The Antenna Tower at Loran C.

15

Loran C Account of the "Master" Station of the U. S. Coast Guard at Low Beach, Sias&onset

BY MARGARET FAWCETT BARNES

Although a Loran Station only has been at Low Beach on the Siasconset shore of Nantucket Island, since 1942, with events traveling at the electronic speed of sound waves these days, it has already become a matter to record historically.

Ever since most of us can remember there has been a farm house at Low Beach, a wide expanse of beach, gradually becoming wider as the land makes out on that shore, and the path along the South Bluff continued on through the bayberry and sand to the pond and on up to the top of Tom Never's Head. But, in the cold wlinter of 1942, during World War II, Navy and Coast Guard men came to Siasconseit, erected buildings and a 65-foot-high antenna on this spot. Most Islanders at the time paid little attention to the proceedings, thinking it just another radio-compass station; there being one already at Surfside. They did not realize until after the War was over that this station housed a new, important electronic invention, named LORAN, which word they also learned, stood for the beginning of the words, LOng RAnge Nav­ igation.

This location was picked for what is believed to be the first Loran Station in the world, (certainly one of the first) because of its remoteness, and because of its nearness to the open ocean on an island as far out at sea as any on this coast. Termed a One Rate Station in those early days, it has been operated by the U. S. Coast Guard from the beginning, and was known as Unit 10, with Lt. Calvin Wooley in command. Many Canadian personnel were sent here to study and be trained to man the same sort of Stations on their own shores, since the Battle of the Atlantic was at its height, and every device was needed to thwart the enemy, and help keep Allied shipping as safe as possible.

This new device had been developed by the National Defense Research Scientists at M.I.T., and was one of the best kept secrets of the War. By now loran has grown to such importance, as an aid to navigation, that stations along both coasts of the American hemispheres and foreign coasts as well, sending out electronic lines of position, penetrate the atmosphere, and, by means of

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

these radio waves, cover most of the shipping lanes of the world.

To obtain a bearing, a ship equipped with a loran device needs to be in contact with two stations, one designated a "Mas­ ter" Station, the other a "Slave" Station; to obtain what is called a "fix," signals must come from three stations. The loran elec­ tronic device of the ship determines the exact location by the pulse-signals it receives from the two or three stations, as the case may be.

To quote from a U. S. Coast Guard pamphlet by Rear Ad­ miral Chalker, "Since radio signals travel at a constant speed, the direct relationship between time of travel and distance trav­ eled exists. Thus, measurement of intervals of time is, in essence, a measurement of distance itself." Also the measurement between the "Master" and "Slave" Stations is a determining factor. The advantages of the Loran System are the following: a ship or air­ plane can be at a farther distance from a loran tranmitting sta­ tion than from other range finders and still obtain its position; daytime range is approximately 750 nautical miles, and at night 1,400 nautical miles can be realized. And this so-called "fix" will be as accurate as good celestial observations. And, unlike celestial observations, Loran operation is very nearly independent of the weather. Added to these advantages, the time required to obtain a "loran fix" is short, sometimes taking only two or three minutes to be established.

The Loran Station at Siasconset is a "Master Station," and was enlarged in 1952, when two taller antennae were erected.

It was then a Loran A Station of three Rates, with "Slave Station" at Nova Scotia and North Carolina, and acting as slave to a station in New Jersey. Now, in 1961-62, the second enlargement has taken place, and the height of the tallest antenna is 650 feet above sea-level, just ten times taller than the original one.

What appear to be guy wires, stretching far out on all sides and secured to the surrounding ground, are in reality the top-loading radials. And the 18 black poles near by, looking like a surrealistic grove of bare tree-trunks, are directional receiving antennae.

Besides the new antenna, ten housing units have been built for the personnel and their families.

The Coast Guard authorities made a point of having the buildings planned to harmonize with the Island architecture, especially with that of nearby Siasconset, and they have suc­ ceeded admirably. The houses are low in line and nicely grouped on the slightly rolling moorland, and are an attractive addition

LORAN C

17

to the outskirts of the village. They are being equipped with all modern appliances and should make appealing homes for the many personnel who have had to rent houses, hither and yon, on the Island.

This Station is now in the Loran C. category and has become the most important on this Coast, bracketing, as it does, one of the ocean's most traveled lanes — from Nova Scotia to Hatteras.

It is operated by 28 men, with Lt. W. J. Frederick in command.

Lieutenant Frederick has been most cooperative and consider­ ate in explaining the operation of the Station in terms that could be understood by a layman, and if the writer has been equally successful lit is to his credit entirely.

Photo by Bill Haddon

The new houses at Loran C.

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William M. Folger and the Prentiss House

BY EDGAR L. MCCORMICK

Kent State University

In the 1840's when whale oil and tallow canidles lighted the village of Ravenna, William M. Folger established himself as "one of the most popular landlords in Northern Ohio."1 In 1844, just as the Nantucket migration to Portage County, Ohio, ap­ proached its height, Captain Mayhew Folger's son became the proprietor of the stage tavern in Ravenna known as the Prentiss House. For sixteen years, he and his wife, Julia M. Hey don, lived at the center of the village's life welcoming townsman and traveler to the hotel on Court House Square known for its "high and established reputation."2 William M. Folger was born in Nantucket, April 8, 1804, and spent his first six years on the Island while his father, Cap­ tain Mayhew Folger, followed the sea.3 On April 5, 1807, the Captain sailed from Boston as Master of the "Topaz" on an arduous sealing voyage that led him to Pitcairn Island and the answer to the riddle of the disappearance of H.M.S. "Bounty."4 This voyage, harrassed as it was during much of the second year by the Spanish in Chile, climaxed his career as captain. Accord­ ing to the "Pollard Papers," he moved with his family to Phila­ delphia in 1810. A son, Robert H., was born January 11, 1812, in Chester County, Pennsylvania,5 the year before the family moved to Ohio.

The Mayhew Folgers reached Stark County, Ohio, in 1813, about the time the County Commissioners were determining the boundaries of a new township to be called' Perry, after the hero of Put-in-Bay.6 Thomas Rotch, of the well-known Massachusetts family, and his wife Charity had migrated to Stark County from New Bedford in 1812, and had planned the village of Kendal, naming it after the English manufacturing town. (Massillon, an adjoining village founded in 1826 was soon to absorb Kendal as one of its wards.) The Rotches built a woolen mill and imported merino sheep from Spain. They established a store, a post office, and a Quaker meeting house. Thomas Rotch died on September 14, 1823, and his wife, Charity Rodman, on August 6, 1824. The short-lived Kendal Community purchased the Rotch lands in 1830.

In 1844, in accordance with the bequest in Charity Rotch's will,

WILLIAM M. FOLGER AND THE PRENTISS HOUSE

19

Matthew Macy and Arvine Wales, the executors, opened the Charity Rotch School for "destitute orphans and indigent chil­ dren . . . thait they may be trained in the habits of industry and economy.'"7 Captain Mayhew Folger was soon involved in the bustling activity of the new township. In 1814 he constructed a grist and saw mill on Sippo Creek; in 1824 he sold 1000 acres of "plain" land south of Kendal for $4250.00, taking payment ini cloth made in Steubenville. In 1828, after Massillon was platted, he built a hotel, "The Commercial Inn," on lot 45 on Erie Street. His son, William M., as its proprietor, thus acquired first-hand knowledge about hotel-keeping before he moved to Ravenna.8 On August 25, 1827, commerce began on the Ohio Canal, and Captain Folger was named Collector of Tolls for the Port of Massillon. In that same year he had also been appointed the new village's first post­ master. These were his last services to the community he had done so much to establish. According to the "Pollard Papers," he died on September 4, 1828. His son William succeeded him as i

This "View of Ravenna" from Henry Howe's "Historical Collections of Ohio" (Cin­ cinnati, 1849) depicts (1. to r.) the courthouse, the jail, and W. M. Folger's Pren­ tiss House. In the background are two churches, the Universalist at the left and the Congregational at the right.

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

postmaster and served through the remaining months of Presi­ dent Adams's administration.

Years later William M. Folger reminisced about these early years in Stark County. The Ashtabula, Ohio, "Sentinel," noting that he was in town late in 1879 visiting his daughter Emily1 (Mrs. C. E. Swift), reported that "He has many anecdotes of pioneer life. . . . For instance he told how fifty-three years ago he hauled flour from the present site of Massillon ttb Fairport [on Lake Erie], and exchanged it for salt, giving a barrel of flour and fifty cents for a barrel of salt."9 The opening of the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal in 1840 brought boom years to the village of Ravenna;10 perhaps the prospects in 1839 influenced Captain Isaac Brayton's choice of Portage County as a likely site for a Nantucket settlement i/n Ohio. William M. Folger was clearly aware of Ravenna's possibil­ ities, too. By 1843 the boom was mounting to its full vigor, and in 1844 he took charge of the inn owned by Cyrus Prentiss and William Coolman, succeeding Coolman as propietor.11 Cyrus Pren­ tiss had been in charge of building the section of the P & O Canal between Warren and Akron. Laiter he headed the effort to construct the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad, the first rail­ way to northern Ohio. Both Prentiss and Coolman were tem­ perance men (as was William M. Folger).12 The Prentiss-Coolman stage tavern stood on Main Street, on the corner adjoining Court House Square. Before William M. Folger came to Ravenna it had been called "The Globe";13 its of­ ficial title under his management was "The Prentiss House," although it was frequently called "The Folger House." When it was finally rebuilt in the late 1860's after its destruction by fire in 1859, it was re-named "The Etna House."

In a sketch published in the Ravenna "Republican," June 1, 1905, W. E. Booth recalled the canal, the stage, and the inn: There were no business places in my day south of the court­ house until reaching the canal where a large warehouse stood for receiving freight conducted by Isaac Brayton and [Frederick] Woodbridge, his son-in-law. . . . The incoming stage commenced to blow its horn about opposite Dr. Collins' residence and kept it up until reaching Folger's where tired and sleepy passengers crowled out to breakfast.

Here, too, Nantucketers, migrating to Portage County across New York to Buffalo by canal packet and along Lake Erie to Cleveland by steamer, found Folgers awaiting them with a genuine welcome.

In 1850, as the U. S. Census shows, William and Julia Heydon

WILLIAM M. FOLGER AND THE PRENTISS HOUSE

21

Folger and their four children resided at the inn. James M., a silversmith, was twenty-three; Emily A. was twenty-one; Mary Joy, fifteen; and Harriet E,, thirteen. Twenty others gave the hotel as their address when the census was taken; among them were William Jones, a sculptor from England, and his wife, Helen; William Caine, a physician, and his wife Mary; two surveyors; four clerks; a seamstress; two tailors (one from England) ; three laborers (two of whom, aged fifteen and nineteen, had recently arrived from Germany) ; and four "domestics," each eighteen years old, and also from Germany.

A guest who had known the Folger hospitality paid his com­ pliments in the August 22, 1855, "Portage County Democrat," signing himself, "A Wayfarer." He praised William Folger as "one of those peculiar Landlords that take pains and pride in mak­ ing his numerous customers cheerful and happy." On June 10, 1857, the "Democrat" reported with obvious pleasure that "This well-known hotel, of high and established reputation, is under­ going repairs and renovation, and is about to receive new furni­ ture. . . . The popular landlord, Mr. William M. Folger, under whose administration of thirteen years this fine hotel has ac­ quired such general and favorable repute, has taken a new lease of the House, and will be ready, as heretofore, to extend his genial greeting ito his patrons and friends."

But William M. Folger looked beyond the everyday problems of his hotel and the village. During these years he "entered largely into the reforms of the day, especially the anti-slavery reform."14 In this regard he agreed with his brother, Robert H., a Massillon attorney, who had embraced the anti-slavery views of William Lloyd Garrison.15 William Folger also took his sitand for tem­ perance, and was called "one of the beacon lights in the Grfeat Temperance reformation."16 No rum ever "stained the fair es­ cutcheon" of the Prentiss House, for William Folger gave up serv­ ing alcoholic beverages in 1832 after he had heard Theodore D. Weld deliver a series of lectures in Massillon.17 Twenty-three years later, he was praised in Ravenna as one who "carried out the noble principles of the Maine Law in fact and deed."18 On Friday evening, January 21, 1859, the "friends of Tem­ perance" in Ravenna expressed their high regard for the Folgers with a "Prentiss House Festival." The January 26 "Portage County Democrat" reported that 120 residents attended, buying 82.00 tickets in advance that admitted two guests to the festival supper. The occasion, the paper noted, was "a very high compli-

22

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

ment to Mr. and Mrs. Folger." Among the toasts was one to "Our Hostess": "A lady always greeting her friends kindly, and under her supervision we are treated to a feast worthy of the name." The toast was "responded to cordially by the whole com­ pany."

There had been sadness at the Prentiss House, too. Here, in 1851, on July 26, Mary Joy, the second daughter, had died in her sixteenth year. Here, too, on June 28, 1858, Mary Joy, Captain Mayhew Folger's widow, had died,19 survived by two sons and three daughters: William M.; Robert H., the Massillon lawyer; Sarah (Mrs. Friend Cook of Ravenna) ; Mary (Mrs. Levi Rawson of Cleveland) ; and Elizabeth (Mrs. James D. Ladd of Richmond, Ohio).

In 1859 the end came for the Prentiss House itself; destroyed by fire, it was not rebuilt for nearly a decade. The Fol'gers moved to nearby Summit County, where for five years William was the "popular landlord" of the Empire House in Akron.20 On May 3, 1865, the "Democrat" welcomed back "so good a citizen," regretting, however, that he chose to reside in Mantua Station (in the second township north of Ravenna) instead of returning to the county seat. But Mantua had the Mahoning branch of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway, and the prospects were good for the town's development. In fact, William's son, James M., had married a Mantua girl, Phebe M. Fish, on July 28, 1857, and the 1860 Census recorded that he was no longer a silversmith, but Mantua's railway agent instead. The Folgers invested in Mantua real estate, chiefly at the Station, where, ac­ cording to the 1859 tax duplicate, James M. owned a 99-foot lot on the street adjoining the railroad. By 1868, James and his mother, Julia M., owned five additional lots paralleling the rail­ road in the Mantua Station business district. William M. is not listed as a property owner in Mantua, nor is he mentioned by local historians as having any connection with the half dozen hotels and taverns that flourished at various times in the township.

Whatever his plans, William M. Folger hardly reached Man­ tua Station in 1865 before his love of hotel-keeping drew him to Western Pennsylvartia. There at Reno, a new oil city, he super­ vised the construction of a hotel which he quite naturally named "The Folger House." The "Democrat" reported on April 4, 1866, that it was fitted up and finished in elegant and modern style," and declared that "if any man on earth knows how to keep tavern that man is the host of the Folger House." But the boom at Reno

WILLIAM M. FOLGER AND THE PRENTISS HOUSE

23

was soon over, and the inn keeper returned to Ohio to spend his last two decades near his children in Mantua, Akron, and Ash­ tabula.

Julia Hay don Folger died on October 5, 1870, in her sixtythird year. Emily, the oldest daughter, had married C. E. Swift of Ashtabula, and Harriet, or Hattie, the youngest child (known in Ravenna for her oil paintings21), had married John E. MacGregor of Akron. William M. died at his son's home in Mantua on November 24, 1890, and was buried in Maple Grove Cemetery, Ravenna, beside his wife and theiir daughter, Mary Joy.22 His obituary in the Kent, Ohio, "Courier," November 28, 1890, noted that he had been a "well-known and highly esteemed citizen of Ravenna."

'The Kent, Ohio, "Courier," November 28. 1890.

2The Ravenna, Ohio, "Portage County Democrat," June 10, 1857.

3"The Pollard Papers," compiled by Mrs. Eliza Sanford Pollard, Vol. II, p. 211. ''For a detailed account of Captain Folger's discovery of the colony founded by the mutineers, see Edouard A. Stackpole, "The Sea Hunters" (Philadelphia [1953], pp. 237-253).

5Herbert T. O. Blue, "The History of Stark County, Ohio," (Chi­ cago, 1928), I, 880.

6These facts about the township and the Rotches' and Captain Fol.ger's roles in its development are from "The History of the Vil­ lages and Townships of Stark County," in L. H. Everts, "Com­ bination Atlas Map of Stark County, Ohio" (Philadelphia, 1875), p. 23%; Herbert T. O. Blue, "The History of Stark County, Ohio," I, 200-204; 281-282; 556-560; 879-880; and E. T. Heald, "The Stark County Story" (Canton, Ohio, 1949), IV, Part iii, 847-848.

7As quoted by Robert H. Folger in "The Charity Rotch School in 1881," in "The History of Stark County, Ohio," I, 556.

8"Portage County Democrat," January 12, 1859.

9As reprinted in the "Portage County Republican-Democrat," De­ cember 3, 1879.

10"Portage Heritage: A History of Portage County, Ohio" (Ravenna, O., 1957), p. 158. nThe Ravenna, Ohio, "Republican," August 26, 1909.

12Ibid.

13The "Republican," January 11, 1906.

14Ibid., December -3, 1890. i5"The History of Stark County, Ohio," I, 880.

16"Portage County Democrat," August 22, 1855.

17Ibid., January 12, 1859.

18Ibid., August 22, 1855. i9For the obituary see the "Portage County Democrat," June 30, 1858.

20The "Republican," December 3, 1890.

HISTORIC NANTUCKET 2iMiss Hattie E. Folger exhibited eight paintings at the 1858 Portage County Fair in Ravenna and was awarded a diploma for the best oil painting on canvas. See the "Portage County Democrat," Sep­ tember 29, 1858.

22Harriet Folger MacGregor (d. January 10, 1908) and her husband, John (d. August 31, 1918), are also buried in the Folger lot in Maple Grove Cemetery.

Dr. McCormick, whose article, "Melville's Third Captain," ap­ peared in the April Number of "Historic Nantucket," is Associate Professor of English at Kent State University. A native of the West­ ern Reserve and a visitor to Nantucket, he has become interested in the settlements in Ohio of migrating Nantucketers. He would appreciae hearing from anyone having information about the Nantucket migration (1839-1860) to Ravenna and Rootstown townships in Por­ tage County, Ohio. At present he is anxious for additional bio­ graphical data on William Gardner (1812-1892).

25

26

Historical Essay Contest Ninety-six High School and Vocational School students sub­ mitted essays this year in the annual 'contest sponsored by the Nantucket Historical Association. The reason for this literary avalanche (about eighteen or twenfty had been the previous rule) was that the essays for the first time were a required joint exercise of the English and History Departments. As might be sup­ posed with such a number, the papers pretty much ran the gamut of Nantucket's history, from Indians to summer visitors and from sheep shearing to whaling and its decline. Naturally, there was considerable diversity of quality; but on the whole the articles clearly showed care and thought in the preparation. Every paper was read and rated by each of the three judges separately; then again in joint session and the first and second choices finally se­ lected. First Prize went to Eileen Sylvia, a Senior in the High School, and to Robert Van Arsdale, a senior in the Vocational School. Elizabeth Clements, a High School Freshman, won hon­ orable mention for her article titled, "The Nantucket Railroad"; to Arthur Chambers, another Vocational School Senior, went a similar award for his article, "Typical Nantucket Houses." Miss Sylvia and Mr. Van Arsdale received framed certificates and Miss Clements and Mr. Chambers letters of commendation. In ad­ dition each of the four winners was awarded an Honorary Mem­ bership for one year in the Association. All in all, it was a most interesting contest and the judges wish to thank the students for their interest and efforts. With so many young people dili­ gently probing Nantucket's past, the history and lore of our Island is surely in safe hands.

Historic Nantucket" takes pleasure in presenting the two winning essays.

Women and Whales

BY EILEEN SYLVIA

Nantucket historians often noted that local conditions tended to develop 'the individuality of the men. During the whaling era this was especially true, for Nantucket men were proud of their ships and their way of life, and they became highly indeoendent and vigorous.

HISTORICAL ESSAY CONTEST

27

But what of the women of this period? In many ways they were influenced by the whaling industry far more than the men.

Because of the hazards of the cruises and their length (from two to five years), the women on the island at any given time out­ numbered the men four to one.

With the men away for such long intervals, heavy chores had to be done by the women or left undone. Home accounts had to be kept in balance with the results of the whaling voyage, and in this way much of the island business drifted into the hands of the women. It was soon traditional for women to run the family both domestically and financially.

Contrary to the beliefs of the male ego, Nanitucket women grew accustomed to the long absences of their men and accepted the situation stoically. An excellent, though perhaps a bit exag­ gerated, example of this is seen in one wife's greeting to her sea­ faring husband. Happening to look out her window one day, she spotted her husband walking down the street, just home from a four-year's cruise. Meeting him at the door, the wife handed him a water pail with the warm greeting, "Hello Si. Here, go get a bucket o' water. Dinner'll be ready by the time you get back."

Such apparent willingness to let the men depart was due to the women's recognition of their dependence upon the Pacific.

"Two lamps burning and no ship at sea," was a Nantucket house­ wife's expression for extravagance, showing how family wealth depended upon the success of the men at whaling. One housewife, watching the family larder diminish as her husband's earnings from his last voyage disappeared, felt it was her duty to prod Her lazy and reluctant husband into making another cruise. Plac­ ing a frugal meal before him, she calmly remarked, "Well, John, one or t'other of us has got to go 'round Cape Horn pretty soon, and I ain't a'goin'."

Because of their need to look after themselves and their families for long periods of time, Nantucket women were practical, intellectual, and possessed strength of character. Since there were no sturdy shoulders to cling to, the fashionable "clinging vine" idea of womanhood in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century never developed in Nantucket, and these island women won fame as mathematicians, abolitionists, philanthropists, suffragists, and preachers.

Because they were so intimately connected with the sea, the conversation of Nantucket men was flavored with the sea and ships. Because of the island's isolation, the women seldom heard

28

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

any other talk than that of their sailor husbands, fathers, or neighbors. As a result nautical terms became part of their every­ day speech so that most of them were never conscious of it.

One Quaker woman, however, denied that she ever used such manly terms. The following day she gave some eggs to one of her children to leave at a relative's home on the way to school.

"Take these into Cousin Phebe's," she instructed, "and tell her I think this squares the yards with us; and thee must scud, for it's almost school time."

When lit came to dealing with the children themselves, Nan­ tucket mothers often encountered this salty type of speech. Since the island boys thought, talked, and dreamed about whaling from their earliest years, this was completely natural, though sometimes trying on the parent. One small boy of nine tied one end of his mother's ball of cotton to the end of a steel fork and tried to harpoon the family cat. Mother, entering the room as the terrified animal tried to escape, picked up the ball of cotton.

The boy, intent only on his "whale," shouted, "Pay out, mother!

Pay out! There she 'sounds' through the window!"

Because of their isolation and hardy way of life, Nantucket men had a keen pride and love of community which the women shared. Realizing, however, that not everybody could have been born on their beloved island, they were not haughty, and kindly sympathized with those less fortunate than themselves. This native pride caused Alaska to be located in "the northwest cor­ ner of off-island, ' and Napoleon "was a great soldier and a great statesman, but he was an off-islander."

When Oliver Ames, one-time Governor of Massachusetts, came to the island to marry one of its daughters, he was addressed by a good, old Nantucket woman. Not knowing who he was, she asked if he had come to see the wedding. "Whose wedding?"

Ames inquired. "Why, Anna Ray's," came the reply. "She's a Coffin, you know; but he's nothing but an off-islander."

The piide of Nantucket women and their scorn for off-island­ ers can be justified in some ways. Naturally the women were impatient with those showing ignorance of whaling customs and radition, and what self-respecting wife would ever forgive the following blunder, related by Roland B. Hussey and William F. Macy in their "Nantucket Scrap Basket."

In some Nantucket churches it was customary when a c urch member sailed on a voyage to the Pacific for his wife to and in a notice to be read from the pulpit, somewhat to this

HISTORICAL ESSAY CONTEST

29

effect: 'Capt. Peter Coffin, having gone to sea, his wife desires the prayers of the congregation.' It so happened on one occasion that an off-island minister was substituting for the regular pastor.

Imagine the sensation produced when it was announced, with all due solemnity, that, 'Capt. Peter Coffin having gone to seie his wife, desires the prayers of the congregation'."

Actors on the Island During 'Sconset's Heyday

BY ROBERT VAN ARSDALE

In the eighteen-hundreds, a Mr. Underhill built a whole vil­ lage of his own along three or four lanes in the village1 of, Siasconset itself. It consisted of tiny houses built in the manner of the fishing huts in the old village and Codfish Park, without being literal copies of any of them.

At this time, some taxi driver may point these cottages out to his group of sightseers and say: "There's the actor colony."

Apparently it all began at the turn of the century when Mr. George Fawcett and his wife, Percy Haswell, a famous actress, first came here and started the ball rolling for a long list of big name Broadway and late silent film actors.

Mrs. G. H. Gilbert, more probably than Mr. Fawcett, was the real cause, although she was a guest in his home. She was a greatly beloved actress of the 1890's, whose playing of old ladies' parts was a delightful memory to the older set of the mid 30's.

Her manager for thirty years, Augustin Daly, died in Paris the first summer she visited here, and Mr. Fawcett wired a Mr, Froh­ man that Mrs. Gilbert was available for a new contract. Mr. Frohman wired that he would engage her on her own terms.

Mr. Frohman made considerable publicity out of this fact, and newspaper men and photographers flocked in droves to the Is­ land and 'Sconset for their publicity and feature articles.

All this was particularly interesting to the actor's guild, and, since Mr. Fawcett was the authority and answer-man to their question of "Where is this 'Sconset?", after he had described the place, they arrived bag and baggage to see for themselves.

There were such people as Joseph Jefferson, who began his stage career as an extra in his father's "Rip Van Winkle" com­ pany; Henry Woodruff, maltinee idol and perennial star of "Ben Hur"; De Wolfe Hopper, famed for his performance in "Casey At the Bat"; Robert Carter, Maude Adams, Margalo Gillmore,

30

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Robert Hilliard, Isabel Irving, Percy Haswell, Elsie Lombard, Henrietta Grossman, Madge Kennedy, Frank Gillmore, George Fawcett, Charles Cherry, Walter Hale, John Mason, George Nash, Joseph Kilgour, William Courtleigh, Aubrey Boucicault, play­ wright Bronson Howard, Mary Mannering, William Faversham, Conway Tearle, and Brandon Hurst, who later appeared in a suc­ cession of silent films; Agnes Everett, who played in "The Argyle Case," started a tea shop, now a restaurant, known as the Chan­ ticleer.

Not only these actors, but writers, artists, and musicians came to spend their summers here.

The actors came here to rest and enjoy themselves in their little "colony," but most of them participated in the annual bene­ fit performance given every summer at the Siasconset Casino.

This period soon came to an end, beginning in 1914, and con­ tinuing until the last actor had disappeared, and the colony just became some more 'Sconset cottages.

31

Photo by Bill Haddon

George W. Jones, President of the Nantucket Historical Association, sells the first copy of "The Coffin Family" to Jessie Schenk, while the author, Louis Coffin, autographs the book.

32

The Coffin Family Genealogy All of the copies of the Louis Coffin Genealogy of the Coffin Family have been received, nearly a thousand, and are now avail­ able for purchase through the Nantucket Historical Association to which all orders and remittances should be sent. The price is $5.00 per copy delivered in hand; $5.25 if mailed. As previously announced, the entire profit will go to the Nantucket Historical Association. Mr. Coffin and his cousin, Miss Jessie Schenk, paid a brief visit to Nantucket to complete arrangements.

The Publicity Committee of the Association, W. Ripley Nel­ son, Chairman, released to the two local papers and to the New Bedford Standard-Times an account and appraisal of Mr. Coffin's work, and we are giad to include it here.

In 1881 over 500 descendants of Tristram Coffin gathered on Nantucket Island to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of their common ancestor's death. Among them was Zebulon But­ ler Coffin of Cincinnati who, with William E. Coffin of Richmond, Indiana, were appointed an Executive Committee to produce a Coffin Genealogy. Forms were widely distributed after the re­ union and a vast amount of data was obtained from the forms returned. It was not published but was made into a large manu­ script volume.

Louis Coffin of Cincinnati, a grand nephew of Zebulon, by a kind of inheritance became the possessor of a mass of data about the Coffin families. This was a challenge to him and in f+!;riTelS t0 England and France he Hooked up the background o e offin name. It lis said that nearly twenty-five years ago he became the one man who knew the most about the Coffins and researchers wrote to him for help in establishing the vaiious Coffin lines. o mIn/95? Nantucket celebrated its 300th birthday and another vf , reunion was held in Nantucket which Louis Coffin en e . e great interest shown by those attending the re­ union caused Louis Coffin to become the Editor of a book "The Cofrm t amily. It is a genealogy described by an authority as "'one of ever"^ TT*611?'6 W°rks °f its kincL" Its significance, howa reverb"?8 TT genealog^ as such and it should command a revered place in New England History.

THE COFFIN FAMILY GENEALOGY

33

The Zebulon Coffin manuscript had to be completed re-ar­ ranged to include the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth gener­ ations. To this Louis Coffin made additions from his own research and other sources; from contacts with members of the family in its principal centers; and from reply forms sent to all Coffins in places where the telephone directories in the New York Public Library showed any Coffin groups.

To Miss Jessie Schenk, great-granddaughter of Zebulon Cof­ fin, credit is given for compiling and editing the Coffin Daughters Part. This deals with some 2500 married Coffin daughters; these are usually the great problem in genealogy, frequently evaded by following down only the male line.

Besides chronicling thousands of Coffins back through the years to the original ancestor in America, Tristram Coffin, the genealogy crosses the ocean to England, and picks up several family threads leading back to a Knight's Fee in 1173 A.D., to the Domesday Book of William the Conqueror, to the Devonshire Coffins who date back to 1254 A.D., and in one case to origins as early as 450 A.D. This book is more than a genealogy. There is a list of 111 Coffin sea captains, their ships, their voyages, and the 103 Coffins who were lost at sea, killed by whales, or lost in sea battles. The original text of a book distributed at the 1881 reunion that de­ scribes the Coffin family in England and America appears in the history portion of "The Coffin Family."

Will Gardner, author of the "Coffin Saga," writes in his in­ troduction to "The Coffin Family," "Some people think Genealogiies are tiresome books. They ought to remember that back of every name there are curious and interesting stories. Then they could appreciate the value of this book, for it will bring alive all these stories."

Louis Coffin, the Editor, gratefully acknowledges that ten sponsorships were generously contributed to raise the sum neces­ sary for publication. To the donors, all descendants of Tristram Coffin, the thanks for this publication are due, and to Ralston Coffin, Jr., grea/t-grandson of William E. Coffin, Zebulon's colleague in 1881, thanks are due for the work in completing the Sponsor­ ships required and for other advice and assistance.

In the summer of 1961 when the editing and publishing of "The Coffin Family," a book of over 570 pages, was nearing com­ pletion, Louis Coffin attended a meeting of the Council of the Nan­ tucket Historical Association. He described his work and made

34

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

a most unusual proposal which summarized briefly was (1) That the book be copyrighted and published in the name of the Nan­ tucket Historical Association; (2) That the Association should have sole distributing and sales rights, and (3) That all proceeds from the sale of the book go to the Association it being em­ phasized that all expenses of publication had or would be paid in full by the sponsors. Needless to say the council gratefully and promptly accepted this most unusual, valuable, and more than welcome offer.

On Tuesday afternoon, July 3rd, a small group met at the Jethro Coffin House, generally spoken of as "The Oldest House" in Nantucket, to commemorate the first public offering of "The Coffin Family." Among those present were George W. Jones, President of the Nantucket Historical Association, who offered the first book for sale; Mr. Louis Coffin, the editor, who auto­ graphed it; Miss Jessie Schenk, who claimed the privilege of buy­ ing the first book. For this occasion Miss Schenk and Mr. Louis Coffin; made a special trip to Nantucket. And so Louis Coffin's remarkable work was formally launched1.

35

Recent Events The United States Corps of Engineers completed one of two important projects this last summer — dredging the channel off Brant Point and commencing the raising of the East Jetty to its original level. During the years the latter had been gradually sinking and strong tide and wind currents, pouring through the low places, had made navigation into the harbor at times difficult and dangerous. The Authority skippers are particularly happy that this work has been started. *

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That the application of shipwreck material to Island con­ struction did not go out with wood and sail was evidenced when the Coast Guard salvaged the deck timbers of Baxter's Barge to build a bulkhead at Brant Point against further tidal erosion.

The barge, used to transport freight from Hyannis, had foundered off the end of Straight Wharf during a storm last winter. A menace to shipping, it was moved to another location in the harbor; thence in some fashion it went adrift and fetched up on Coatue opposite Brant Point. Being again a menace to naviga­ tion and abandoned by its owner, it was towed by the Coast Guard into the Sound and beached on the outer side of Coatue.

There, a derelict, stripped of its deck, it sadly rests in the sand awaiting the further decision, not of man, but of time. *

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History was made in Nantucket's portion of the art world, when the 33rd Annual Sidewalk Art Show was held in part on the new, small park behind the Sanford House. The change was necessitated by the removal of the fence between the Information Building and Sanford House, where formerly watercolors and graphics had been displayed. These were moved into the park and arranged on partitions and on the rear wall of Sanfford House; oils were hung as heretofore along the foundation wall of the House on Broad Street. This division seemed to please many of the viewers. To us it appeared that the dispersion of exhibits rather spoiled the compactness and unity of the show when it had been 100 per cent "sidewalk." This, of course, is a matter of opinion. *

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Without going initio detail, this season, much too dry for the home gardeners, saw the usual run of entertaining and instructive

36

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

events: Exhibitions at the Taylor Galleries, interspersed with musical programs; the very popular music series sponsored by the Musical Arts Society, Inc., at the Unitarian Church; the Sunday Evening band concerts in Main Street Square under the lively baton of Mrs. Walter O'Grady; the lectures at the Maria Mitchell Observatory; and, of course, the usual activities at the Yacht Club and in the Harbor, with pleasure craft of many sizes and types coming and going. All these made what might be called a normal Nantucket summer. And the fishing was almost the "best ever!"

Meanwhile, the Association's various exhibits were by no means behind the summer's activities, the Whaling Museum in particular having one of its best seasons. In addition, the Asso­ ciation sponsored a lecture at the Unitarian Church on "Colliers of the New England Coast," given by Mr. Loran Graham and il­ lustrated with colored slides. *

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Work on the restored Jared Cof­ fin House (form­ erly the New Ocean House) proceeds methodically a n d we are assured it will be ready for business next sea­ son. The ceremon­ ial opening should be an outstanding historical e v e n t .

The little park belonging to the House in the space at the corner of Centre a n d G a y Streets, where the "Annex" formerly stood, has been finished except for the fitting of the lamps on the I two waiting posts. With its flag pole and rose arbor, its neat brick walks and well planted shrubs and flow­ ers, all enclosed in a new white fence, it presents a very pretty sight. In addition, honey locust trees have been planted at the

37

RECENT EVENTS

curb in Broad and Centre Streets contiguous to the Jared Coffin House. When the hotel grounds are landscaped, this part of Nan­ tucket should take on a dignity and charm which it has not before known. *

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A large "Thank you" goes to Mr. James W. Hanner, son of one of Nantucket's former ministers and a numismatist, for set­ ting up the Association's collection of old United States and foreign coins. These coins, collected through the years by Island sailors have been displayed in their case loosely and without any particular order. Mr. Hanner has grouped them in categories and supplied cards of identification and comment, thus making the display much more interesting and understandable.

H* * • * * Other construction this summer involved the razing of part, and the relocation of other parts, of the White Elephant Hotel on Easton Street, overlooking the Harbor, and the commence­ ment of the complex of new hotel, cottages, and swimming pool which will arise from its ruins. The White Elephant was built, in part, from the older Nantucket Hotel that stood on Brant Point opposite the old Light House, and was itself formed in part of a building that once stood (im Main Street.

H* H: HS * H* H5 There were again six steamer trips a day through the past Season, four by the Authority boats and two by the excursion boats from Hyannis. Of the latter, "MS Siasconset" is somewhat of a veteran; but "MS Martha's Vineyard," although a veteran in the Island service, made her first run to Nantucket as an excur­ sion boat from Hyannis, June 18, 1962. Purchased from the Authority by Nantucket Express Lines, Inc., she was remodelled and operated under a license from the Authority, which guaran­ teed to the latter a minimum financial return. Painted white, with two bands, one yellow the other red, running the length of each side, and with banners strung fore and aft from her stack, she presented a gay and colorful appearance. This stout vessel has surely taken on a new lease of life; for, originally named "Islander," she was launched at Bath, Maine, July 19, 1923. Thus, on her maiden voyage from Hyannis as the rejuvenated "MS Martha's Vineyard," she was just 39 years old — or should we say young?

38

Diary of William C. Folger EDITED BY NANCY S. ADAMS

(Continued from the April issue of "Historic Nantucket")

William C. Folger was a direct descendant from Peter the 1st.

He was born in Nantucket June 8, 1806. After gaining his educa­ tion, he taught school here and later, on the Cape and in Ohio. He was also a land surveyor for -50 years. He commenced the work of Genealogical research about 1842 and pursued it until hite death on November 10, 1891.

He gathered his material first from his relative Benjamin Franklin Folger and from the public records, from family history and old family Bibles, and by correspondents everywhere. He was quite an aid to Mr. Savage in compiling his Genealogical Dic­ tionary. It was entirely a labor of love and he left a worthy monument which has been carefully preserved. His diary starts in the year 1835.

1837 March 30—Reuben Champion gave me a note for 45 dollars dated the 28th for money I paid into Commercial Bank of Lake Erie on that day for him. Snowed all day. Finished reading Jacob Faithful by Marryatt.

April 1—I bot of Jones & Wetmore, Winter in the West by Charles F. Hoffman, 2 vols, at $1.75. I gave toward it Goodriches History of United States at 50c and $1.25 cash. Paid washerwoman 50c for washing.

April 3—Wrote a letter to Rev. Zenas B. Newman of Upper Al­ ton, 111., requesting information about that place.

April 4—I attended a lecture at the Court house by Dr. Thomas Y. Howe on the resurrection of the body, not being unphilosophical.

I was at Charles Bradburn's this evening with Capt. Glover & lady. & George Bradburn and lady.

April 6—1 saw Francis G. Macy this morning and this evening I attended another lecture at the Court house by T. Y. Howe.

April 8—1 paid 50 cents for tapping boots. Francis G. Macy told me he would satisfy me within two months from date, yesterday and to-day I wrote by mail to Uncle Walter informing' him about what Macy says, paid postage 25c. Paid $1.00 for repairing my coat.

DIARY OF WILLIAM C. FOLGER

39

April 10 Reuben Champion let me have $5.00 on account of his note.

April 11—I paid $1.50 for repairing my old surtout.

April 14th Bot 8c w. of maple sugar. Dined aboard the schooner Helen, Capt. Robert B. Chase. I went out to Parma this after­ noon & took tea at J. K. Freeman's & lodged there, I paid Dr. John L. Latham of Strongville, Cuyahoga Co. three dollars for medicine & prescription for epilepsy.

April 15—I took leave of my Parma friends and returned to Cleve­ land. David Huntington paid me $17.15 to balance my bill for school teaching in Parma. Got 25c from B Fay, .Jr., for a Geog­ raphy I let his son have. Brought back two books I had lent in Parma. D. Huntington gave me a recommend from Parma School Directory.

April 18—Preparing trunks etc. Reuben Champion paid me up my forty-dollars note dated the 28th & interest of 53c. He had paid five dollars on it since the first. Reuben Champion took up his note of the twenty-fifth of Nov. for $200 at 2% — $219.06 and gave me a new note for $200 at 3% per month. Seth Hurd took up his note of the twenty-fifth of Nov. for $200 at 3% per month and gave me a new one for $228 at 4% per month dated the 18th.

Reuben Champion signed it as security.

April 20—I went out to Strongsville, 16 miles to see Dr. J. L. Latham as he had not sent me the medicine, stopped at Albion & got some pie, found the doctor was at his land in Columbia, went there & saw him stopped with him, took tea & lodging & breakfast for 50c & left for home, stopped & bought some maple sugar at Parma to take to Nantucket dined at J. K. Freemans.

April 22—Paid for a piece of rope, 62^4c. Paid for passage $5.75 to Beaver, la. took leave of my friends and left Cleveland at Va past one P.M. Arrived at Hudson just before dark having passed a very rough road & feeling a "'sea sickness." Bought some crackers.

April 23—Arrived at Ravenna ini the night. Breakfasted at Ells­ worth this morning, cold, foggy morning. Passed through Canfield & Poland into Pennsylvania. It snowed & was very cold for the season. Arrived at Beaver Town a little before dark, stopped the stage house, I took milk & lodged and had milk for breakfast, paid 50c for all, and had my trunk taken on board the steamboat, Beaver to Pittsburg and was soon afloat on the broad & beautiful Ohio River. Stopped a short time at Economy, Frederick Rapp's settlement and arrived at Pittsburg about 3 p.m. Paid $1.50 for passage and $1.25 for carrying my trunk to D. Leech & Co. office,

40

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

bought some gingerbread. Took tea and lodged at the U.S. Hotel near Leech's office. I paid 87V2c for supper and lodging, bot some gingerbread. Visited the ruins of the magazine of Fort DaQuesne & saw two houses near which were formerly in the Fort. Went into a nail factory. Crossed into Alleghany town and saw the Western Penitentionary, the College of Western Pennsylvania and went back to the nearest coal mine & went in and got some specimens to take to Nantucket. Paid 4c for crossing the bridges and bought some crackers and provisions to take along for food.

April 25—Paid Leech & Co. 11 dollars for passage to Philadelphia and left about 1 o'clock for canal boat for Johnstown.

April 26—Passed to-day through a wild, cold, and mountainous country abounding with coal and salt springs. Arrived at the tunnell near Blairsville about 10 a.m. and at Blairsville at 1 p.m. and at Johnstown in the night.

April 27—Got into the railroad cars about 6 a.m. to cross the Alleghany Ridge — was drawn miles by steam engine and then by stationary engines and horses to the summit level and de­ scended by the same process, five stationary engines going up and five down. I bought on the mountain 12V^c worth of maple sugar.

Ascended to 2200 feet above tide water and when we had de­ scended the five inclined planes on the east side we went 2 miles on a gentle inclination without horse or engine. In our ascent we passed in the cars through a tunnel of — ft. arrived at Hollydaysburg about 12 m. Bought 15c worth of gingerbread and 6c w. cheese. Left about 1 p.m. in the Canal boat, Dr. Lehman, Capt.

Passed along near the head of the Juniata.

April 28—I sent a letter ashore that I had of Mrs. S. T. Hurd for Miss Sarah McConnel at Huntington. Bought 121/2 cts. worth maple sugar.

April 29—Crossed the Susquehanna at a ferry and again at Clark's ferry, a smart place near which I bot 10c w. of bread, milk & gingerbread. Went through a fine country and had pleas­ ant weather, got to Harrisburg by 5 p.m. Bot 8c w. apples & I went up on the hill where the Capital stands and went into the building and saw engravings, paintings etc. and viewed the city from the dome.

Left Harrisburg about 6 p.m. for Columbia. Had a gentleman passenger on board named Bradford, a descendant of the Pilgrim Governor of Plymouth.

April 30—We arrived at Columbia during the night, bot 6c w. of gingerbread, took a walk and viewed the village. Left Columbia

DIARY OP WILLIAM C. FOLGER

41

at 11 o'clock for Philadelphia in R.R. cars, bot some gingerbread and paid 15c for dinner, at Lancaster city, passed a very fine & rich wheat country abounding with lime stone barns, very large and elegant, with houses and fences of the same material.

Descended an inclined plain near the Schuylkill & crossed the river and arrived at Philadelphia just before dark.

Stopped at the ralil road hotel on Broad street. It had been very warm amid pleasant to-day but rather windy. It now blew very strong & rained some at night. Bought some oysters.

May 1—Paid at hotel 50c for lodging and 7c for shaving, lOd for cakes, etc. Went to Fair Mount Water Works, saw the proces­ sion of a juvenile Temperance Society. Saw the State prison etc.

Went and viewed the Girard College & got specimens of the mar­ ble. Went to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, paid for entrance 50c & 12i/2c for a catalogue of contents. I went to Peale's Museum where I saw the Mammoth bones and also the duck billed Platypus or Ornothorinchus Paradoxicus of New Holland.

Paid 50c for admittance & was well gratified. Had gingerbread and pies for supper — 12'/2c. Paid for transporting trunk from Broad Street to foot of Chestnut Street. — 19c and oysters 6c.

May 2—Paid 25c for lodging and 8c for breakfast — 6c for licorice stick & 1214c for oranges. Went through the old State houssie where Independence was signed and into Independence Square.

Left Philadelphia about 7 a.m. in Steamboat Trenton for Bordentown. Met on board Capt. Isaac Brayton, Capt. Shubael Clark and Noah Sturtevant from Alton bound to Nantucket. Passed Joseph Bonaparte's seat at Bordentown & arrived at Amboy and took passage in Steamboat for New York, paid three dollars from Phil, to N.Y. May 3—Took trunk to a boarding house, paid 19c lodging, 6c for oysters, 6c for gingerbread, provisions 26c, carrying trunk 31c, and Geographical Charts 50c. Left New York this afternoon in the Corinthian, Capt. Shepherd for New Bedford where we ar­ rived in the night of the 4th.

May 5—Paid Capt. Shepherd for passage 3 dollars. Went to John M. Howland's & lodged and tead there, paid passage across bridge of 6c.

May 6—Paid 8c for dinner in New Bedford, lodged aboard of the Silas Parker & paid 13c for carrying trunk.

May 7—Paid Capt. Alexander Coffin of "Silas Parker" $1.50 for passage to Nantucket where we arrived about 1 p.m. Had trunk carted up to Lydia G. Bunker's. Attended the funeral of uncle

42

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Barnabas Folger who died on the 6th., aged 68 yrs. Took tea at uncle B. Bunker's.

May 8—Went to uncle Gideon's & uncle Walter's. Next day took tea at Uncle G's.

May 12—I left Nantucket in the Rail Road, Capt. Richard Handy this morning & was out all day.

May 13—We got 'to Cotuit this morning & I paid Capt. Handy 50c for passage & 16c for meals and started for father's where I arrived in the middle of the forenoon & found all well.

May 14—I went to meeting at the Baptist Church.

May 18—I went up to Cotuit with father to go to Nantucket, the packet had gone so I went to Braddock Colemans & took tea, and lodged and took breakfast.

May 19—This morning the wind still being ahead I paid Braddock & returned to father's. This afternoon I had the pleasure of see­ ing Samuel Waterman Holbrook the young gentleman with whom I boarded when at Wellfleet, winter before last. He had lost his wiife since I had left there. He came to father's to see me.

May 20—I went to Cotuit & back to-day, distance about 20 miles, the wind ahead. Father paid for me to-day, to Otis Loring the former postmaster, 23c being for balance of postage due him. He was absent when I left Hyannis.

May 21—I took an early breakfast & went up to Osterville & from thence with Capt. Hansed. Hallet to Cotuit & as the water was not deep enough to float him, I took passage in the RailRoad for Nantucket where we arrived about 4 p.m. Paid 50c for fare.

May 23—I left town about 3 p.m. for Great Point where I arrived about half past seven at Uncle Aarons.

May 24—Assisted uncle Ar. a little in his labors.

May 27—Two days past were black and easterly. I left uncle Aarons with uncle, who accompanied me as far as Polpis & then I walked to Shimmo & got a ride from there to town, cold windy day. Called at Edwin Coffin's on an errand from uncle Aaron. In the evening I called and paid a visit to cousin Charles M. Folger.

June 3—Went to Friend's Meeting yesterday. Gave Dr. Paul Swift some specimens of Pittsburg coal & marble and also pre­ sented several pieces to the Nantucket Atheneum. Went & viewed the Atheneum.

(To Be Continued)

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Legacies and Bequests Membership in our Association proves that you are interested in ilte program for the preservation of Nantucket's famed heritage and its illustrious past, which so profoundly affected the develop­ ment of our country. You can perpetuate that interest by giving to the Association a legacy under your will, which will help to insure the Association's carrying on. Counsel advises that legacies to the Nantucket Historical Association are allowable deductions under the Federal Estate Tax law.

Legacies will be used for general or specific purposes as di­ rected by the donor. A sample form may read as follows: "I give, devise, and bequeath to the Nantucket Historical Association, a corporation duly or­ ganized under the laws of The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and located in the Town of Nantucket, in said Commonwealth, the sum of dollars."

Legacies may be made also in real estate, bonds, stocks, books, paintings, or any objects having historical value, in which event a brief description of the same should be inserted instead of a sum of money.

Please send all communications to Miss Ethel Anderson, Secretary, P. 0. Box 1016, Nantucket, Massachusetts. Office, Fair Street Museum.

1

Northeast storm and record high tide push Harbor into lower Broad St.