Historic Nantucket, April 1964, Vol. 11 No. 4

Historic Nantucket

Hurricane Coming!

APRIL 1964

Published Quarterly by NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION NANTUCKET. MASSACHUSETTS

NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION OFFICERS President, George W. Jones.

Vice-Presidents, Miss Grace Brown Gardner, Henry B. Coleman, Alcon 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. Francis W. Pease, H. Errol Coffin, term expires 1964; Leroy H. True, Norman P. Giffin, term expires 1965; Mrs. Nancy S. Adams, A. Morris Crosby, term expires 1966; Miss Helen Powell, Albert G. Brock, term expires 1967.

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; Assistant Editors, Mrs. Mar­ garet Fawcett Barnes, Mrs. R. A. Orleans.

Exhibits' Publications Committee, H. Errol Coffin, Chairman.

Chairmen of Exhibits, Fair Street Museum, Mrs. Nancy S. Adams; Whaling Museum, W. Ripley Nelson; Old Mill, Henry Coleman; Old Jail. Norman Giffin; 1800 House, Miss Ethel Clark; Gardner Street Firehouse, H. Errol Coffin.

The Whaling Museum will open for the 1964 Season on Friday, May 29th; all the other Exhibits on Monday, June 15th. the WHALING MUSEUM also will hold its annual Open House, to which it cordially invites all and sundry, on Sunday afternoon, May 31st, from two to five o'clock.

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 11

April, 1964

No.4

CONTENTS

Nantucket Historical Association Officers

2

65 - 67 - 69 Main Street, By H. Errot Coffin

5

The Great Gale of February 13, 1913 Review of an article in "Yankee"

9

What Is This?

j]

Nantucket Quakers and the Founding of Kendal, Ohio,

by Katherine Seeler

13

The 1964 Gam

21

The Gray Seals of Muskeget

23

Recent Events

25

Diary of William C. Folger, Edited by Nancy S. Adams

27

Legacies and Bequests

31

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, 1964. Nantucket Historical Association.

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

5

65-67-69 Main Street

BY H. ERROL COFFIN

"T~HE property comprising 65, 67 and 69 Main Street was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Walter Beinecke, Jr. in order to restore and add to the Fred­ erick Mitchell Elouse at 69 Main Street and to demolish the unattractive Thain House at 65 and 67 Main Street. The demolition of the Thain House provided space for the addi­ tions and a formal garden, thereby enhancing the appearance of the site.

Now as to the two houses:

THAIN HOUSE-- 65-67 MAIN STREET The westerly section of the Masonic Lodge Building (built in 1805) was removed in 1875 so that the David Thain House could be erected.

The Thain House was of Mid-Victorian design and built at a time when the economy of Nantucket was at its lowest ebb. Whaling had about ceased and the Island had not developed to any extent as a resort. Houses were being taken apart and moved off-Island. It was predicted by Nantucketers that the Thain House would be the last house built on the Island.

FREDERICK MITCHELL HOUSE-69 MAIN STREET The following appeared in an early article, quote: "Frederick Mitchell who built the first brick house on the site above the Pacific Bank in 1834 was a whaling merchant and one time president of the bank". 1828-1837, 18431848.

The words "first brick house" when used out of context have given the idea that this building was the first house of brick to be built on Main Street.

"First" in the article referred to location, not time. The Charles Coffin House, 78 Main Street (1831) and the Henry Coffin House, 75 Main Street (1833) were both built prior to the Frederick Mitchell House (1834).

The dwelling built by Frederick Mitchell was long occupied by his daughter. It was later the home of W. S. French who, with Benjamin Coffin, constructed the brick warehouse on Washington Street, now known as "Amer­ ican Legion Hall". It was left to the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts by Mr Coffin, a member of the American Institute of Architects, and formerly senior member of the New York architectural firm of Coffin and Coffin, is now a resident of Nantucket. Interested and active in the restoration of Nantucket houses, his work, besides that at 69 Main Street, includes the Unitarian Church, The Jared Coffin House (see his article in HISTORIC NANTUCKET of April 1962), and others. Mr. Coffin is also the architect of the new White Elephant Hotel on Easton Street, first opened to the public last season^

6

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Miss Caroline French and was known as "Church Haven", and later acquired

by St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

In 1846, Mrs. Varney ran it as a boarding house advertised as "Genteel Boarding".

Mr. John O. Pancoast, owner of a summer antique shop on Federal Street, purchased the property in 1956. Soon afterwards Mr. Edward V. Walsh became joint owner with Mr. Pancoast. In 1959 they sold the property to Mary B. Wells of Oyster Bay, New York.

During the ownership by Mr. Pancoast and Mr. Walsh the house was advertised for sale as 13 rooms (9 bedrooms, 3 baths) divided into 3 apart­ ments and antique shop.

This advertisement stated that it was built of bricks imported from England. This I am unable to authenticate. The bricks are of size, color, and texture similar to the brick in the other Main Street houses and the Jared Coffin House, which are all of domestic origin.

The roof slate, however, was imported from Wales.

The residence plan is typical of other important Nantucket houses, i. e. central stair hall with two rooms on each side of the hall and Service rooms in rear additions.

A copper-clad bay window over the main entrance and the iron balconies on the East and West sides, added in the 1920's, have been removed and windows inserted as shown in old pictures of the house. The balustraded par­ apet also shown in old pictures has been reproduced.

Later-built brick additions to the rear of the house, which were out of type and unsound, have been demolished and wooden additions substituted.

It was decided to build the new additions of wooden construction, shing­ led, to conform to the 18th Century architecture of the other buildings on Liberty Street, on which these additions face.

The Mitchell House has been completely reconstructed and reconditioned inside and out to conform to the original conception so far as modern living conditions permit, and furnished suitably in the character of the restored house, including fine old Nantucket furniture.

As the residence is to be used in the winter, a modern circulating hotwater system has been installed, radiant-heated from copper tubing concealed in the plaster ceilings, thereby eliminating all radiators and exposed piping. In addition to the rooms indicated on the accompanying drawings, there are two bedrooms and bath on the third floor and a brick-floored, pine-walled base­ ment containing the original large open fireplace with bee-hive oven where auxiliary cooking was done.

The brick houses on Main Street are of English Georgian inspiration. The English houses had gardens with greenhouses sometimes called "orangeries", as in this period oranges were grown in them to make into marmalade.

7

First Foor Plan, 69 Main Street,

Second Floor Plan, 69 Main Street

8

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Not only was the Georgian architecture adopted for Nantucket residences but also in various cases the garden appurtenances.

There is no evidence indicating a greenhouse previously built at 69 Main Street. However, the Henry Coffin Carlisle House (1833), at 75 Main Street, had one.

The grounds of various other residences of this type and period had garden houses, belvederes, gazebos, and arbors. Examples of these are still ex­ tant in the beautiful gardens of Moor's End (the original Jared Coffin resi­ dence) .

The garden house in the grounds adjoining 69 Main Street, consisting of two tool-houses connected with bench and arbor, was designed not only to be utilitarian but located to serve as the terminal motif of the formal garden and to help screen out the blank end-wall of the Old Masonic Temple. This form of garden house is common in England and quite characteristic of the "Georgian" period.

NOTICE Reluctantly, but finally yielding to the ever-rising cost of goods and services, the Association at the Annual Meeting of last July increased the dues of Annual Members to three dollars, effective at the beginning of the next fiscal year, June 1, 1964. The dues of the other classes of membership remain unchanged, as does the per copy price of HISTORIC NANTUCKET.

9

The Great Gale of February 13, 1913 IN LAST FEBRUARY'S ISSUE of New England's own magazine, "Yankee," Captain William P. Coughlin, the skipper of the Siasconset, which brings summer tourists to Nantucket from Hyannis, relates his personal experience in the great gale of February 13, 1913. In that north-northwest blizzard, the splendid, multi-masted schooners Elizabeth Palmer, the Grace Martin, and Fuller and Prescott Palmers foundered.

The story is of timely interest to Nantucketers, for two such storms swept the Island in the middle of last winter about a month apart. Both were severe, with steady winds of whole gale force and gusts of plus hurricane strength. A peak of 107 miles an hour was reached at Provincetown during the first storm, with 90 m.p.h. winds on the middle Cape that did much damage.

Nantucket, sheltered somewhat by the mainland, clocked winds up to 62 m.p.h. and suffered relatively little. These north or northwest gales, fortunately not too common, developed suddenly from a combination of an extreme "low" south and east of Nantucket with a frigid "high" in the area of the Great Lakes or St. Lawrence River Valley.

It was this kind of situation which Capt. Coughlin, then mate of the sea-going tug Neponset, out of Boston, met on a routine run down to Nan­ tucket Sound to pick up a tow among the fleet of coastal schooners anchored there, awaiting a favorable wind for the run around Cape Cod into Boston Bay. The Neponset left Boston on the morning of February 13th, relates Capt.

Coughlin, with a light wind from the southwest and no threatening weather in sight and a steady "glass". But in the early afternoon temperature and glass fell rapidly and the wind, hauling into the north-northwest, quickly worked up into a full gale that lasted all that night.

The Sound had been packed with schooners, among them two six-mast­ ers, and, says Capt. Coughlin, it was every vessel for itself, including the Neponset which, considerably battered, finally got back to Boston. Of the five schooners lost, the Grace Martin foundered about thirty miles off Matinicus; Elizabeth Palmer sank to the eastward of Georges Bank, the Fuller Palmer remained afloat nearly a week and was abandoned off Bermuda.

Among all the five vessels that went down, only one life was lost—that of the 2nd Mate of the Prescott.

These vessels of the once numerous coastal fleet were well built and staunch. What caused them to founder? Capt. Coughlin explains that it was the straining of the towering masts between decks that loosened enough planks

10

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

to let in water faster than it could be pumped out. Unlike the square-riggers these schooners couldn't take it off-shore.

The great schooners have gone and the Cape Cod Canal has taken most of the traffic from Nantucket Sound. In winter it is a lonely expanse of water. The great north and northwest gales will come again, of course, and, though they will have nothing to feed on such as they found in Nantucket Sound February 13th, 1913, Capt. Coughlin's stirring account of that terrible night serves to remind us that the sea is not for the inexperienced or unwary.

The cut is of the Seven-Masted Schooner, Thomas W. Lawson at anchor in Nantucket Sound. She was one of the only two seven-masted schooners ever built. Named after Bos­ ton's famous financier, she was wrecked and lost in a storm on the Irish coast. The irony of her fate lies in the fact that Lawson had pub­ lished a book about "Frenzied Finance'', which he entitled "Friday, the Thirteenth"; and the Lawson was wrecked on a Friday, the thirteenth day of the month!

—A.M.C.

11

What Is This?

WHAT IS THIS, indeed!

Why, every child who has been in the Fair Street Museum will recognize it at once. What is it, children? . . . "THE CINNAMON BEAR CUB! Of course. The stuffed cinnamon bear cub. A fine example of the taxi­ dermist's art, he lies just inside the main room of the Fair Street Museum, shrewdly observing each visitor. Children dote on him, pat him, and make of him, as though happy at finding something in their small worlds more recog­ nizable than the strange objects that intrigue their elders. In fact, some little tots have been known who had literally to be dragged away from this new and fascinating friend. So dog-like is the Cinnamon Bear Cub that, reports Mrs. Mather, amusing incidents sometimes occur when the Receptionist po­ litely calls the attention of a visitor to the posted rule prohibiting dogs in the Museum. Invariably there follows a quizzical glance through the doorway,

12

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

an eyebrow lifted questioningly, and then a good laugh at the disclosure that things are not what they seem.

Where did the Cinnamon Bear Cub come from? There is no record and nobody seems to know. The cinnamon bear is a sub-species of the grizzly and, since the latter ranges from the Rocky Mountains to Alaska, it is possible that some Nantucket seafarer may have picked up the Cinnamon Bear Cub in a West Coast port and brought it home to his children. Then, the children having grown up, or circumstances having dictated its disposal, it was presented to the Historical Association. This is only a not-too-educated guess. Be that as it may, the Cinnamon Bear Cub is a prized possession. This season, as in the past, he will be removed from his winter covering, carefully groomed, and placed on the floor near the ceramics cabinet. There he will await the coming of his young friends, with a benign and expectant look that clearly belies his scientific cognomen of Ursus horribilis.

13

Nantucket Quakers and the Founding of Kendal, Ohio

BY KATHERINE SEELER WHEN I WAS A CHILD visiting my grandparents in Massillon, Ohio, we often drove by a large, empty, red-brick building called the Charity Rotch School. When my great-grandfather studied law under his uncle in Massillon, his fellow-student was Robert Folger, son of Captain Mayhew Folger of Nantucket. My grandmother's sister lived in "Spring Hill," the house built by Thomas and Charity Rotch of Nantucket. But not until I became a summer resident of Nantucket did I find out the story of the con­ nection between the island and the small Ohio town.

The story really begins with Joseph Rotch, cordwainer or shoemaker, father of William and grandfather of the Thomas Rotch we are talking about.

Joseph came to Nantucket in about 1725 and married Love Macy (daughter of Thomas and Deborah Coffin Macy) in 1734. He went into shipping after a while and in this way founded the empire of the Rotches.

Thomas was the youngest son of William Rotch, who was a famous whaleship owner and an important Quaker citizen of Nantucket, and Eliza­ beth Barney Rotch. They lived on Main Street about where the old First National Store used to be. Thomas was born July 13, 1767, and in 1790 married Charity Rodman of Newport. Marrying Rodmans was a habit of the Rotch family. After the sad death of their three-months-old baby, they left Nantucket and began the path that led eventually to Ohio.

Thomas's brother, Benjamin, and his father were by this time in France trying to make up for the losses of the Revolution by establishing a whaling industry abroad. The family fortune was at a low point and no doubt this was one of the reasons that urged Thomas to find new opportun­ ities.

For eight years in New Bedford and then in Hartford, Conn., Thomas engaged in wool manufacturing and candle making and other ventures.

In New Bedford there were many relatives as Grandfather Joseph Rotch had already left Nantucket and settled there, and Thomas's father upon his return from France and England settled there also.

In Hartford Thomas Rotch became very interested in the newly imported Merino sheep and he set out on horseback with his wife to explore the new lands opened in Ohio, looking for suitable grazing lands.

Charity went along on doctor's orders, which does seem like a rather rig­ orous cure for ill health, as riding horseback over rough roadless territory must have been extremely tiring.

Mrs. E. V. Seeler, in this account of the Rotches in Kendal, adds to the growing literature of the "Ohio Migrations", which appears to be attracting more attention as time goes by, and as successive generations come to appreciate the mark that their Nantuchet forebears left in the Western Reserve country that became their new home. Mrs. Seeler with her husband are long-time summer residents of Nantucket and much interested in its history, especially that relating to the Society of Friends, of which they are active members. Mrs. Seeler has asked us to express her great appreciation to Mrs. Horatio Wales, the present mistress of "Spring Hill"; to Mr. Albert Hise, the Curator of the Massillon Museum; and to the Staff of the Nantucket Atheneum ; for their help and kindness. Ed.

14

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

The trip was a great success and Thomas purchased 2,500 acres of land in Ohio about sixty miles south of Cleveland. This was an area af beautiful hard-wood forests, open meadows for the Merino sheep, and water power possibilities from Sippo Creek.

It has been said that this was a missionary venture on the part of the Rotches, but this is a wrong interpretation of the ideas of Friends.

There is no doubt that they wanted to establish a Friends Meeting, and quite naturally a community of Friends would grow up around it; but Thomas was moved by a desire to find a new area for his business in­ terests and his sheep. Also the health of his wife was given as a reason

by Thomas himself in a letter written in 1817, in which he says that repeated attacks of spotted fever had "so impaired the health of my dear wife that the Physician considered it necessary that she should try a change of climate where the winters were less severe. . . ." To anyone who has experienced the very hot summers and very cold winters of this section of Ohio this idea is rather humorous; but Ohio is certainly more dry than New Bedford or Nantucket. Anyway, it was probably the challenge and activity of making a new life that benefitted Charity.

In this tract of land in 1811 the Rotches laid out a town named Kendal, after the wool manufacturing town in the Quaker country of Northern Eng­ land. Unlike many of the early settlements in Ohio which were just made of rude huts, there were in Kendal rules which governed the materials so that only clapboards and bricks could be used.

In those days there was constant communication between all the early Quakers, and their close and intricate family relationships meant that news went out everywhere which drew settlers to the new projects. The losses of the Revolution had barely been made up when the War of 1812 so interfered with shipping and whaling that many seafaring people went west. So, in the next few years there gathered in the Ohio settlement of Kendal a group of people of whom many came from Nantucket.

Captain Mayhew Folger (born Nantucket 1772, died Kendal 1828) was an important member of the community. His wife Mary Joy (born Nantucket 1778, died Ravenna, Ohio, 1856) and their family came with him. He was famous for his trip in the ship Topaz when he discovered the survivors of the Bounty on Pitcairn Island. It is recounted that after three long voyages, his wife declared, "Thee must choose between the sea and me." So he gave up the sea, but on condition that he live far from the smell of salt water.

In Kendal he owned 1,000 acres and built his wife a house with a fan-light over the door. He was one of the founders of the Kendal Preparative Meet­ ing of the Society of Friends. The Pollard Papers, that invaluable record of early Nantucket families in the Nantucket Atheneum Library, says, "Mayhew Folger with his family moved to Philadelphia in 1810 — thence to Ohio in 1813."

Thomas Coffin (born Nantucket 1766) and his wife Anna Folger, who was the sister of Captain Mayhew, came for a short time. They had moved to Philadelphia from Nantucket and succumbed to the "Ohio Fever" as it was called among the Coffin and Folger families. They decided to return to Philadelphia and sold their land to Captain Mayhew Folger. They were the parents of Lucretia Mott, but she remained in Philadelphia and did not come with them.

Charles Coffin (born Nantucket 1758) was also one of the founders of the Friends Meeting in Kendal; his wife was Mary Macy of Nantucket and

15

Photo by E. V. Seeler

Dining-room chair belonging to the Roches. It is one of eleven in the Massillon Museum.

Photo by E. V. Seeler

The Rotch dining-room chairs displayed in a room in the Massillon Museum.

16

Photo by E. V. Seeler

Two heavy silver spoons marked CR for Charity Rotch. The maker's mark on the back is BB for Benjamin Bunker of Nantucket (17511842). In the collection of the Massillon Museum.

Photo by E. V. Seeler

Chinese Export China cup belonging to Thomas and Charity Rotch and a brown pottery sugar bowl made in the Kendal pottery and marked Chinese Export China cup belonging to Thomas and Charity Rotch and in the Massilon Museum.

THE FOUNDING OF KENDAL, OHIO

17

in the Pollard Papers it says of three of their children "all born in Ohio."

He was the first to build a boat, actually a flatboat, in that section. It was used to take goods down to Cincinnati during the hard times when banks closed and markets were bad. It seems appropriate that a native of Nantucket Island should be the first to build a boat in these early days in Ohio.

Benjamin Franklin Coleman (born Nantucket 1793, died Ohio 1860) was one of the settlers who came with Thomas Rotch. The Pollard Papers say of him, "Went to Ohio." Incidentally, when reading these terse records of the Pollard Papers one cannot but wish they would tell more. What valumes of farewells to family, apprehensions about going to a new land so recently inhabited by Indians, and days of tiring travel, lie behind those words, "Went to Ohio."

Rowland Coleman (born Nantucket 1787, died 1863) was probably a cousin of Benjamin Coleman mentioned above. He was one of the founders of the Friends Meeting and must have gone with Thomas Rotch, as the Pollard Papers say, "Rowland went west in 1811."

Richard Lake Coleman, brother of Benjamin, went also to Ohio accord­ ing to the Pollard Papers. His wife, Sally Hussey, died in 1807 leaving him with several children. Whether he went to Kendal we do not know, but since his brother was there it seems quite possible.

Mathew Macy (born Nantucket 1792, died 1856) also came from Nan­ tucket. Crippled by a fall on a whaleship, captured in the War of 1812, he gave up the sea and came as one of the founders of the Friends Meeting in Kendal. At first he was a schoolteacher, then a clerk in Thomas Rotch's store, and he must have been a trusted friend for he, with Arvine Wales, be­ came executor of Rotch's will. He married Patricia Austin in Kendal; she was the daughter of a Quaker from Montpelier, Vermont, who came to Ken­ dal in 1817. Mathew Macy was also postmaster of Kendal after the death of Thomas Rotch.

Captain Nathaniel Ray (born Nantucket 1771) was a retired shipmaster of coastal boats and, moving to Kendal, became the second lustice of the Peace there. Subsequently he returned to his native Nantucket, where he died in 1830.

Micajah Macy (born Nantucket 1764) was also a founder of the Friends Meeting. Undoubtedly there were many other people from Nantucket who were active in this settlement, but by some chance of Fate their names have not been recorded. Jonathan Mooers, for instance, whose name appears on the list of founders of the Owenite Community in 1 826, may have been the bro­ ther of the Captain Mooers of Nantucket who was the favorite ship captain of the Rotch fleet and who was the first to fly the American flag on the Thames River in England. It would be quite possible that some member of the Mooers family would come with Thomas Rotch to the new town, but even the Pollard Papers refuse to help us here.

In the History of Stark County by William Henry Perrin, written in 1881, it says, "Mr. Rotch's policy was not such as tended to advance the growth of his village, nor was the condition of the new country favorable. The immigra­ tion was entirely agricultural." This might refer, of course, partly to the

18

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

strict building restrictions which made the houses in Kendal much more ex­ pensive to build than the huts, shacks, and log cabins in other places, but it also indicates the clannishness and closed quality that occurred, quite uninten­ tionally, in Quaker communities where almost everyone was kin. Since Thomas Rotch's interests were to a great extent agricultural, no doubt he did not have an interest in seeing a big city grow up in Kendal.

However, in spite of bad times, the community flourished; the woolen factory, saw mill, flour mill, pottery, general store, and post-office all testified to the growth of Kendal. Thomas Rotch was a good business man, full of am­ bition and energy and in Perrin's History he is described as a "man of fine presence and great shrewdness in all business matters and, as all Quakers did and do, bore faithful testimony against slavery."

There are many stories of the Rotches' care of escaping slaves, how they would hide them from the bounty hunters and protect them with the help of their farmhands. In the new house they built a secret stair which led to a closet under the eaves.

Thomas Rotch also found time to be concerned in various Quaker proj­ ects. The new settlement at Zoar of German popl (which had been loand money by Philadelphia Quakers) was one of his many interests. He was active in Indian affairs and was present at the Treaty of St. Mary's. Quaker matters also occupied his attention especially and it was while he was attending Yearly Meeting at Mount Pleasant that he died Nov. 14, 1823, only twelve years after coming to Kendal. His wife was able to reach him before he died.

Photo by E. V. Seeler

"Spring Hill," the house built by Thomas and Charity Rotch about 1822 just outside the settlement of Kendal. There is a possibility thai Thomas did not live long enough to spend much time, if any, in this house.

Charity Rotch lived less than a year after the death of her husband in their newly built house, "Spring Hill." On Aug. 6, 1824, she died and is buried in the peaceful little graveyard in th Kendal section of Massillon, the name given to the town, founded in 1826, which soon engulfed the original settle-

THE FOUNDING OF KENDAL, OHIO

19

ment of Kendal. There is a simple stone marked CR. It is too bad that the boulder erected here by the D.A.R. incorrectly gives the birthplace of Thomas Rotch as New Bedford instead of Nantucket. There is also an inaccuracy in the dates inscribed on the rock. According to the Nantucket vital records taken from Friends Meeting records, Thomas Rotch was born July 13, 1767, and not 1765. Charity Rotch was born in 1766, not 1765, according to John M. Bullard in his fine book on the Rotch Family.

Thomas Rotch left in his will provision for a school for boys and girls which is now at Barnesville, Ohio. Charity left money to found a "benevolent institution for the education of destitute orphans and indigent children, partic­ ularly those whose parents are of depraved morals, that they may be trained up in the habits of industry and economy." Farming and "housewifery" were to be taught, and the group lived as one big family. There was roon, even­ tually for about forty children. For many years this school flourished. In 1910 it was closed and the fund, now about $300,000 is used for scholarships. It is interesting that this institution, probably the first school for orphans in Ohio, and surely the first private school with vocational ideals, should have been founded by the wife of a Nantucket Quaker. My mother can remember seeing these children, well-dressed and happy looking, attending church as one big family.

One wonders what the history of Kendal might have been if its two most important leaders had not been taken from the scene so early. After this the group lost much of its inspiration, and the more vigorous type of people com­ ing into the new town of Massillon meant that eventually very little of the old Quaker spirit was left. Captain Mayhew Folger also died early, in 1828, al­ though his family remained to take an interest in the affairs of Massillon.

In 1826 the Rotch land was purchased by a group of people interested in the socialistic ideas of Robert Owen, and they formed the Kendal Community based on these communal ideals. But within three years the plan failed to work and the land was bought up and divided into lots. Captain Mayhew Folger was one of the buyers and after his death his son, Robert Folger, became one of the first mayors of Massillon. It was Captain Folger's grandson who gave the logbook of the Topaz to the Nantucket Historical Association.

In the Owenite group are several Nantucket names; they may have recently arrived or perhaps they were already there as in the case of Jonathan Mooers which was mentioned before. Richard Hussey (born Nantucket 1797, died Cleveland, Ohio, 1860) and his cousin, Edward Hussey (born Nantucket 1795), Jethro Macy (born Nantucket 1791), and William Macy may all have been part of the original Kendal but certainly were on the scene in 1826.

On a recent visit to Massillon I went to the Massillon Museum. Here is a set of dining-room chairs which belonged to the Rotches and which have been sent back from Louisiana where they had gone after being purchased at the sale of the Rotch belongings following Charity's death. There is also a nice dark brown sugar bowl made in the Rotch pottery with G. B. on the bottom, which stands for George Brinkley the potter. A small cup of Chinese export china from Charity's tea set is on exhibition. Perhaps the most interesting of all are two heavy 18th century spoons shown to us by the curator. They have the initials CR but the maker's mark on the back is BB for Benjamin Bunker,

20

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Nantucket's earliest silversmith. As I held them I thought how far they had come in time and space. And the memory of their owners, Thomas and Charity Rotch, weighty Friends as they could be called, remains as an inspiration.

It was also a great privilege to be shown around the house built by the Rotches, "Spring Hill". My Mother remembers playing there when her aunt was mistress, and it has changed little since then, In its peaceful setting of fields and wooded hills it is a charming house and one feels sorry that the Rotches had so little time to enioy it. The steep secret stairway leads up without stopping at the main floor, to the third floor where there is a door that leads under the eaves. To hide this door was a big barrel of sugar and the wood on which it stood is still there with a huge circular mark from the barrel. Of especial interest to us was the scrimshaw cornhusker, a knife set in a whale's tooth, and a beautiful whalebone box brought from Nantucket.

As we came out of the beautiful old house into the late autumn afternoon it seemed sad that no Friends Meeting remains in Massillon, and that there is so little left to show of the energy and zeal of the Rotches. However, there are many people in Massillon who treasure the history of the old days of these early Nantucket pioneers, and as we drove by the children p]aying in the open square of old Kendal, called Charity Square, we thought that these old Friends would be pleased by the sound of the happy children's voices.

21

The Annual Gam

BY GEORGE W. JONES

THE earth had recently completed another revolution around the sun since the Nantucket Historical Association last held its annual Gam; and a group of approximately fifty friends and neighbors had gathered at the Maria Mit­ chell Association Library on the evening of March 5th to enjoy reminiscences.

The advertised subject for discussion and mutual conversation had been "Unforgettable Nantucket Incidents In My Life," and it had been hoped that the subject would bring forth accounts of personal experiences of many who had been intimately connected with the Island for a number of years.

The Gam having been formally opened by the President, this assumption proved correct and we had many such memorable occasions recalled by a large proportion of those present. Of the fifty or so in attendance fourteen or fifteen spoke and related many interesting Nantucket experiences which had occurred in the years past.

We missed a number of regular attendants, their absence being caused by conflicting engagements. Both Past President Edouard Stackpole and Past President Nancy Adams were unable to be with us; and Dr. William E. Gard­ ner, the initiator of these Gams fifteen years ago and a regular attendant and contributor, was confined to the Nantucket Cottage Hospital recovering from a broken leg. Mr. Herbert Terry, one of our very interested members and a past Council member who had very successfully operated the tape-recorder for the past two Annual Gams, was prevented from attending and Mr. Leroy True kindly consented to perform this important record-keeping job. His ef­ forts were most successful and gave us a clear word for word account of the whole meeting.

Miss Grace Brown Gardner, our senior Vice President, furnished recol­ lections of her childhood, touching upon a severe thunder storm which caused great damage to the interior of a house in her neighborhood, and upon her High School graduation exercises, at which she was valedictorian.

Several incidents pertaining to involuntary immersion in the harbor waters from wharves and boats were recounted by Mrs. Charlotte King, Mr. Norman Giffin, and the writer.

Mr. Allen Norcross spoke on kerosene lamps and Mrs. Alice Amey re­ membered gas lighting before electricity was used for this purpose.

Vice President Nelson told of a trip from 'Sconset to New York in the days when horses, side-wheel steamboats, and trains, in that order, were the fastest means of covering the route.

Vice President Coleman brought to our minds the experience of having cocoanut oil cover our beaches, pumped overboard to free a tanker from a shoal upon which she had struck, and the beautiful soap which was made from it by many of our parents.

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Mr. John Bartlett and his brother Victor related incidents connected with the grounding of the vessel Ruby, loaded with about 2000 barrels of lubricat­ ing oil. most of which were jettisoned to float her: and of a barrel of fine brandy which at another time was salvaged from the beach intact by Victor Bartlett. He proceeded to sell it sight unseen for $10.00 only to learn later that the purchaser, after learning of its contents, had realized $90.00 on a later sale.

Mr. Clinton Andrews told of the wreck of two fishing boats at Tom Never's Head and related several other amusing incidents occurring around the harbor front when sail was a far more common means of power than it is to-day.

Mrs. Lewis Edgarton brought two samples of dried skin from the blackfish which came ashore near the jetties in 1918, and described the scenes there which she witnessed.

Sums of money were found by Mr. Allen Norcross and Mrs. Rozelle C. Jones on separate occasions in their childhood, with rewards varying from 100% to 0% respectively.

The question of the North Church spire, its existence and removal, was referred to and discussed by Mrs. Amey, Mr. Errol Coffin, and Mr. Leroy True.

And so it went from one interesting subject to another until it was time to close the meeting, which was done reluctantly by the President at 9:40 p.m. It was a slightly smaller meeting than last year's but an equally interest­ ing one and enjoyed by all.

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The Gray Seals of Muskeget

Photo by Inquirer & Mirror

The Captured Baby Seal.

HISTORIC NANTUCKET does not normally enter the field of science. It considers its scope to be that of social or political history, leaving natural his­ tory to its distinguished neighbor, the Maria Mitchell Society. When, how­ ever, a scientific event of importance occurs which is at the same time a Nantucket "first" or "exclusive", HISTORIC NANTUCKET believes that the event may properly be recorded in its pages.

Some time last January a snow-white baby seal of the variety known as the Atlantic Gray Seal was picked up by a Nantucket fisherman on the beach at Muskeget and given to a resident of Madaket, in the hope that it could be raised and perhaps could be given to an aquarium.

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

The event was given local publicity in The Inquirer & Mirror, but it soon was picked up by the Boston Sunday Herald and given considerable coverage

by Wayne Hanley in his "The Nature of Things".

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Under the caption, "Nantucket 'Horsehead' Seal Disproves the Science Book", Mr. Hanley discusses the finding of the baby Gray Seal (sometimes known as the "Horsehead" because of the shape of its head, contrasting with the round head of the common Harbor Seal) and the effect of its discovery.

It seems that the Gray Seal is one of the rarest of marine mammals.

Fewer than 50,000 exist in all the world and not more than 5,000 on the North American side of the Atlantic. The small herd of fifteen which frequent the waters off Muskeget and Tuckernuck is the only one in the United States.

As a matter of fact, the Gray Seal was supposed to have been extinct in our territorial waters since Colonial times.

In truth, however, the Gray Seal had been known to Nantucket for fifty years or so; but nobody thought seriously about it until Clinton Andrews, Nantucket's well known authority on marine life, about a year ago sent a skull of a horsehead seal which he had found to Dr. William H. Drury, Jr., Re­ search Director for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Dr. Drury took the skull to Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, where experts identified it as that of a Gray Seal.

Since the experts found it hard to believe that the skull could have come from waters where all the science books said the Gray Seal was extinct—as if they were asked to believe that a dinosaur had been seen wallowing in one of the Poof Ponds—Mr. Andrews obliged them with further evidence in the shape of two skeletons which he had collected near Muskeget and Tuckernuck.

Both proved to be Gray Seals.

The Gray Seal, it appears, can be distinguished from the Harbor Seal, not only by its color and the shape of its head, but also by its greater size, the Gray being twice as large, measuring from ten to twelve feet long, and weigh­ ing from 275 to 800 pounds, as against the Harbor Seal's 150 to 250.

The baby seal which started the current discussion unfortunately did not survive, and plans are now in progress to protect the Muskeget herd, in the hope that this rare group may not follow the last Heath Hen of Martha's Vineyard into oblivion.

Recent Events DURING LAST WINTER the Hon. and Mrs. Desmond Guinness, a young couple devoted to the preservation of the great Georgian mansions of Southern Ireland, visited the United States to study the methods used in this country for the preservation of our historical heritage. While they were in Boston, the Nantucket Historical Trust invited them to Nantucket and a dinner in their honor at the Jared Coffin House. Following the dinner, attended by some fifty guests including the officers and councillors of the Nantucket Historical Association and their wives, Mr. Guinness showed colored slides of some of the Georgian mansions of Eire. These mansions, or "castles", are still in private ownership and so not open to the public, as are their counterparts in Northern Ireland, which are owned or controlled by semi-public trusts. It was the fear that these beautiful structures in Eire, built during the early 19th century in an era of cultured magnificence, might succumb to the march of "progress", that has stirred the Guinnesses to a crusade to preserve them, and in some way make their unbelievably beautiful interiors and appointments available to public viewing.

The visit of our Irish guests was literally a flying trip: they came by pri­ vate plane in the afternoon and went the same way the next morning to resume their tight and exacting schedule. It was their first visit to Nantucket. We hope they enjoyed it and will honor us again. *

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Cleveland Amory says that mere numbers do not make a resort. *

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Mainlanders had hardly recovered from the shock of Nantucket's unpredicted late December snowfall of 14 inches, when they were again staggered by the great storm of early January, which blanketed the Island under 19 inches of snow, more than in any other place in New England. This was a heroic and a near-record "blow". It set even Nantucket tongues a-wagging with the query, "Who says Nantucket doesn't have any snow?"—a wry com­ ment echoed in the off-island mail and newspapers. Well, of course, Nan­ tucket has snow—has had and will have, some years more, some years less (the winter of '62 to '63, for example, registered not more than two inches).

But it does not last; Nantucket's mainly sandy and porous soil absorbs it rapidly. Within seven or eight days after each storm, aided by warm rains, the snow had disappeared except in isolated and shady spots. It must not be overlooked, too, that Nantucket has an efficient highway department, which did a masterful job in plowing all the streets and removing most of the snow from the business area. At the end of February we had still another storm, with about six inches of snow which soon went the way of the others. All in all it was a pretty snowy winter; but we were compensated by the fact that we were spared the extremely low temperatures of the previous winter. When the last snow had gone, spring-flowering bulbs were found peeking up in the Island gardens—harbingers of the early spring which the weather-wise had predicted.

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

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The Nantucket Historical Association has perhaps the largest collection of scrimshaw in the world. To this has been added recently, through the bequest of the late Winthrop Williams, his own large and valuable collection, including two ship models of ivory. Arrangements are being made for the proper display of Mr. Williams' gift at the Whaling Museum. *

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A very interesting event has occurred in the hotel field in Nantucket: the Jared Coffin House, the White Elephant Hotel, and the Harbor House have been merged, through long-term leases, under the single management of the Treadway Inns Corporation. These three hotels, each different from the others, are nevertheless of the type identified with the Treadway people, who opened their first hotel at Williamstown, Massachusetts, over fifty years ago, and now operate thirty-two hotels or inns in the New England area and Mary­ land, Delaware, Virginia, Florida, and Texas. The corporation plans to employ Island personnel wherever possible and believes that through unit operation economies and better service can be realized than formerly under separate managements. In addition, improved promotion of Nantucket's resort potential can be effected, all of which, naturally, will help the Island's economy. *

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Nantucket not long ago escaped what might have been a calamity. A certain legislator—a member of the Great and General Court of The Com­ monwealth of Massachusetts—introduced a bill to abolish the County of Nantucket and merge the islands comprising it with Barnstable County, on Cape Cod. It needs little imagination to calculate the harm such a move would have done to Nantucket. The Island would have been deprived of the services of the Superior and Probate Courts, and of the Registry of Deeds, and its inha­ bitants forced to go to the mainland in all matters concerning these agencies.

Moreover, the bill would have stripped Nantucket of its representative in the legislature, leaving the islands with the status merely of a colony—and that, too, without representation. What possessed the legislator in question we do not know; but the opposition to his bill—ably headed by Nantucket's Repre­ sentative Arthur L. Desrocher—was so strong that the man hastily withdrew it. We hope that this has ended the matter for all time; but one never knows.

An ancient English jurist once observed that "the mind of man is not triable, for the Devil himself knoweth not the mind of man". He might conceivably have been thinking of politicians. At any rate, eternal vigilance here as every­ where must be the price of safety. *

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Following repairs to the tower of the LTnitarian Church (the 'South Tower"), lights have been installed illuminating the four faces of the Town Clock. These lights, operated automatically, not only increase the usefulness of the clock but add a striking detail to Nantucket's evening sky line.

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

Continued from the January issue of "Historic Nantucket."

1838 Oct. 30—I have been for some days copying a book belonging to Issac Coffin containing an account of the deaths from 1717 to the present time. I bot of Andrew M. Macy a book containing four quires of paper to copy the account of deaths. Paid him one dollar and eight cts. I got some Genealogical and Antiquarian knowledge of cousin Daniel Allen. I have read lately the History of Kentucky by H. Marshall.

Nov. 3—I received about ten days ago a letter from Capt. Robert B. Chase by mail postpaid from Cleveland, Ohio.

Nov. 5—Peter Folger paid me two dollars for the chart I made out for him & his wife's ancestry.

Nov. 7—I bot a polyglot bible of Baker, a book man, for 3 or 4 oldish books, two pamphlets and 37'/i cts. cash. I sold 6 picture sets at 6 cts. each to a book man for Macy's History of Kentucky. I sold the polyglot bible to Sarah Crowell for a Spanish dictionary and a reading book.

Nov. 8—I have been at Asa's office these several days and have had of Baker the London Magazines to read.

Nov. 10—At Asa's office all day and at a Whig meeting this evening.

Nov. 12—I sold Baker the auctioneer the watch I bot of John Custis in 1834 or 35 for fourteen dollars and took the following books in payment. Webster's octavo Dictionary. The Penny Magazine for 1835-36, Marshall's Life Of Washington, 2 vols, and an Atlas. Also Herschell's Astronomy, 1 vol. and Living Without Means, a Primer.

Nov. 18—I received by Capt. H. K. Handy a letter from father also 40 cts. cash being the money I paid Freeman K. Ford for him last Spring, the balance on cotton cloth. I put a cane on board of Capt. Handy, that I brought from Niagara Falls also a picture and a letter from father.

Dec. 8—Received a letter from father mailed the 4th. & postpaid, containing a note of Uncle Barney's for 10 dollars which he wished me to collect. I sent in to the school committee proposals for teaching Polpis school and was elected to teach at the rate of five hundred dollars per annum, for the Winter term.

Was called upon by the Polpis School Committee and agreed to begin on Monday the 10th.

Dec. 9—Susan G. Gardner let me have four dollars on account of the money lent Sarah Crowell some months ago. Lindley Hoeg was at our meeting to-day and spoke. I wrote a letter to Charles Folger of Ratcliff High Way, London, making inquiries about the Folgers.

Dec. 10—I went out to Polpis this morning, went to Capt. Benjamin Folger's where I spent the time between schools & took my meals. I began school this forenoon with twenty scholars.

I went in the evening to Capt. Barna Coffin's and have boarded with them since. Ruth Palmer has paid 3 dollars on my bill for a barrell of flour.

Dec. 15—Came to town afoot this forenoon, visited Bear St. school and African Primary school with Walter Folger. Bot a black hat for 4.50 and a

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pair of black gloves for 1.25. Paid 12 cents for cutting my hair to the barber.

Got several articles from the School Comm. for the Polpis School.

Dec. 16—Made out a Genealogical Chart at Uncle Waiter's for Capt. Barna Coffin and wife.

Dec. 17—I walked out this morning to Polpis and commenced my school and had 10 new scholars.

Dec. 22—I came to town this morning and got of H. Clapp for Polpis school, Colburn's Arithmetic, Algebra & Key Young Reader, Writing Book, pencil, quills by Committee's leave and a penknife at Kelley's. Also bought at H. Clapp's Emerson's Spelling Book. Bot of Dr. Winslow 5c worth of Asafeetida.

Mary R. Bunker has made me a pair of draws and charged 20c and has washed some clothes for me and shrunk some cloth all for 33c. I paid Nabby Bailey two dollars for 2 pair of stockings I got of her last week.

Dec. 20—Mary R. Bunker let me have another pair of draws and an under­ shirt she has made this past week. Two of the school committee were out at the school on three day forenoons last 25th inst. I boarded with Lydia G. Bunker when I was down Sunday last week & I came down Sat. night and stopped with her to-day. I gave James Mitchell some information about the early teachers of Nantucket. I went out of town this evening it being very pleasant.

1839 Jan. 5—I came to town this forenoon with Capt. Coffin. I paid Mary R. Bunker 25c on account.

Jan. 11—I came to town on foot this evening and attended a meeting of the Atheneum for election of officers.

Jan. 12—I went and visited Edward M. Gardner's school this afternoon.

Jan. 16—E. M. Gardner visited my school this afternoon.

Jan. 17—I came to town this evening with Capt. Barna Coffin but got in too late for the lecture, returned with him same evening.

Jan. 19—Came down afoot stopping at the Asylum to see the school there.

Lent Mary R. Bunker 10c. Borrowed from James Mitchell his lecture on schools. I have given Wm. H. Phinney for making fires mornings a spelling book cost 20c and Geography cost 33c.

Jan. 25—I let Joseph Amos preach in the afternoon in the schoolroom at his request. Also he preached in the evening. We had a full meeting.

Jan. 26—Came to town and bot. 8c w. of matches and 3c w. of paper.

Feb. 1—Came to town this afternoon as the stove-pipe gave out.

Feb. 9—Came to town this afternoon afoot.

Feb. 10—Went out this afternoon time enough for the meeting at school-house.

Feb. 12—I came to town with Capt. Coffin as the teachers in town had a holiday yesterday. Town meeting. Edward Hussey gave me two dollars and forgave me the debt of two dollars I got of hint some time ago. This was for some writing etc. for him.

I got the other day a writing book of Susan Gardner & charged it.

Feb. 16—I have given Wm. H. Phinney the writing book. I went to Great Point this afternoon on old white, one of Capt. Coffin's horses.

Feb. 17—Returned to Capt. Coffin's before dark. Jos. Amos meeting this evening.

Feb. 20—At Capt. Rule's party this evening.

Feb. 23—Came to town this afternoon or rather evening. I took tea at Capt.

Coffin's had to make out lists of scholars merits etc. against examination.

RECENT EVENTS

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Feb. 24—Took tea at Uncle Walter's and went out after tea. I let William H. Phinnby have a Parley's Geography that cost 25c for his sister.

Feb. 26—The School Comm. examined the school and gave us tomorrow for a vacation.

Feb. 27—With Capt. Coffin and Timothy Morse I visited B. Franklin Folger at Sconset and also Capt. Bunker's.

March 1—The last day of the first quarter.

March 2—I wrote off in forenoon constitution of the Polpis Sabbath School Society.

March 3—Came to town in afternoon. Bot box of Indian Purgative Pills.

Went out in afternoon. Snow storm.

March 9—Went to town with Capt. Coffin. Went out and took uncle Walter's telescope.

March 13—Singing school at school house.

March 16—Sold my Encyclopedia Americana that I bot in Cleveland to S. B. Tuck for the Atheneum at $22.00 (not paid yet).

March 17—Took tea at Uncle Walter's and went out after tea.

March 23—Bot sheet of Drawing paper. Visited the Atheneum in forenoon and in afternoon visited uncle Walter's with Timothy Morse of Bangor, Me. Fie took tea here. Spent the evening with T. H. M. & brother & sister etc.

March 24—Drew out a Genealogical Chart of John Myrick's family for Sarah Gardner.

April 6—Came to town in forenoon, rode with Capt. M. Harris.

April 7—Went out time enough for the singing school this evening.

April 13—Visited in forenoon George Swain & Silvanus Morey. Set out to come down afoot stopped at Capt. Macy's & found the Committee had elected Frederick H. Gardner to teach the school and my time was up. Rode down most of the way with Mrs. Lydia M. and daughter. Visiting in evening.

April 14—Went out in the rain storm and got out before dark.

April 15—I assisted Frederick H. and showed him some of my plans of teaching. Visited Capt. Folger's in evening.

April 16—Left Capt. Barna Coffin's about half past ten a.m. with Capt.

Benjamin Folger and got down about one p.m. Visited E. R. Folger's and took tea. Visiting in the evening.

April 17—Wrote and figured for Edward C. Hussey. Aunt Rebecca Bunker died about 3:45 p.m. She was born August 25th. 1758.

April 18—Wrote to father by mail informing him of Aunt Rebecca's death.

Postage 10c.

April 19—I attended Aunt Rebecca's funeral at 4 p.m.

April 21—Went to Baptist Meeting in forenoon and to Polpis in afternoon & evening and to singing school also. Took tea at Capt. Barna Coffin's, stopped all night and breakfasted with them, set out afoot but got a ride down with Jonathan Parker.

April 23—Started this morning to keep Asa's office for him at one dollar per diem.

April 24—Borrowed of James Bunker the first book of Births, Marriages & Deaths. Spent the evening with Eliza. Samuel B. Tuck paid me the 22 dollars he owed me for the Encyclopedia. I paid $5.50 for the brown hat I bot last summer of Whittemore.

April 25—Wm. R. Easton paid me for school teaching from Dec. 10 to Feb. 1st, being eight weeks and from Feb. 1st to April 12 being 10 weeks the sum

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of $83.33. I attended the marriage of cousin Eliza M. Folger & John C. Paine of Rehoboth.

April 26—I lent Lydia G. Bunker thirty-two dollars. I went out to Polpis this afternoon and after tea attended singing school. Paid Capt. Barna Coffin $45.00 for 18 weeks board at $2.50 a week.

April 27—Came down after breakfast. Bot sheet of drawing paper.

April 29—Got some signers to my petition for the office of Post-Master.

May 1—Rainy. At work as usual on Genealogy at Asa's office.

May 2—Did not attend the office in the forenoon but saw Joseph B. Swain married at Friend's Meeting to Lydia Folger, daughter of John.

May 6—Got more signers to my petition and went to Education Meeting.

May 8—Bot 27 cts. w. of buttons of J. Lawrence & Co. Visited tailors shop.

Sent Capt. B. Coffin's genealogy out by Capt. A. Macy.

May 10—I gave Sarah Gardner the chart of John Myrick's family and lent her portrait of Uncle Walter.

May 11—A. G. Bunker came from Boston to-day.

May 20—1 went over with the bearings survey of George Cobb's lot. 1 had surveyed there on the 16th & 17th but had made some error.

May 30—Measured with a chain Geo. Cobb's lot again. I went this forenoon to the examination of the African school. Collected some more names for my petition.

June 1—In the afternoon I attended the examination of the High School. In the evening at the 'demeure' of June 4—I calculated the survey of the lot and drawed off a plot of it for Cobb.

Examined Phrenologically the heads of several men and women at the house of H. B. June 5—I gave Cobb his plot which seemed to please him and he paid me $1.50 for surveying. I have returned to J. M. Bunker, Esq. the Circumferator according to the direction of E. M. Gardner from whom I borrowed it.

June 6—I walked to Sconset and dined with Capt. Bunker by invitation. Spent most of the afternoon with Benjamin Franklin Folger talking about genealogy.

Got three names added to my petition, walked to Polpis and stopped at Capt.

Coffin's, went to singing school.

June 9—Went to school house this morning & sung. Visited Go. Swain's, dined at Capt. Coffin's and went to meeting in afternoon. Rode down with Capt.

Burgess and took tea with him and after tea I walked to town. Went to the ordination of Deacons at Baptist meeting in evening. .Tune 10—I got Jos. G. Coleman's horse and wagon & went with Jonathan Paddack to Polpis to witness the examination of the school. I bot 25c w. shav­ ing soap & a brush also 25c w. of paper and presented them to Capt. Coffin.

Came down this evening.

June 11—I sent out by Capt. Coffin 'Felix Neff belonging to Polpis Sabbath school which I had borrowed & read.

June 13—At Friend's Meeting and heard Daniel Wheeler this afternoon. Ed­ ward C. H. presented me with two lead pencils — two papers of Matches. I heard Daniel Wheeler again this evening, a long sermon — he spoke of his voyages in the Pacific Ocean, (To Be Continued)

Legacies and Bequests Membership in our Association proves that you are interested in its program for the preservation of Nantucket's famed heritage and its illustrious past, which so profoundly affected the development 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 directed 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 Saws 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, paint­ ings, or any objects having historical value, in which event a brief descrip­ tion of the same should be inserted instead of a sum of money.

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

March Winds Along the Cliff.