Historic Nantucket, January 1967, Vol. 14 No. 3

Historic Nantucket

Easterly along Step Lane and Sea Street.

A change of wind stopped the northerly sweep of the Great Fire of 1846 at this intersection with North Water Street.

JANUARY 1967

Published Quarterly by NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION NANTUCKET, MASSACHUSETTS

NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION OFFICERS President, George W. Jones.

Vice Presidents. Miss Grace Brown Gardner. W. Ripley Nelson, Albert F. Egan Jr., Mrs. William L. Mather, Alcon Chadwick. Henry B. Coleman.

Treasurer, Norman P. Giffin.

Secretary, Mrs. Isabel W. Duffy.

Councillors, George W. Jones, Chairman; Miss Helen Powell, Albert G. Brock, term expires 1967; Mrs. Ernest H. Menges, Walter Beinecke, Jr., term expires 1968; Leroy H. True, Herbert I. Terry, term expires 1969; Mrs. James C. Andrews, Richard P. Swain, term expires 1970.

Advertising and Publications. W. Ripley Nelson and H. Errol Coffin.

Honorary Curator. Mrs. Nancy S. Adams.

Curator. Mrs. William L. Mather.

Executive Committee, George W. Jones, Chairman: Alcon Chadwick, Henry B. Coleman, Albert F. Egan, Jr., W. Ripley Nelson.

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

Chairmen of Exhibits, Historical Museum, Mrs. William L. Mather: Whaling Museum, W. Ripley Nelson: Hadwen House — Satler Memorial, Albert F. Egan, Jr.: Old Mili. Henry B. Coleman: Old Jail, Albert G. Brock: 1800 House. Miss Ethel Clark: Fire Hose Cart House, Irving T. Bartlett; Oldest House, Mrs. J. Clinton Andrews; Folger-Franklin Seat and Memorial Boulder, Herbert I. Terry.

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 14

January, 1967

No. 3

CONTENTS

Nantucket Historical Association Officers Nantucket's Own, by Margaret Fawcett Barnes

5

The Story of Eliab and Sarah Gardner, Quakers from Nantucket,

by Mildred Janney 12 Fragments from the Historical Museum

19

Maria Mitchell, Astronomer and Teacher, by Joanne Ganga ....

24

Recent Events

27

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

30

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 S.50 each.

Membership Dues are — Annual-Active $3.00; Sustaining S10.00 ; Life—one payment $50.00 Second-class postage paid at Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Copyright, 1966 Nantucket Historical Association.

Communications pertaining to the Publication should be addressed to the Editor, Historic Nantucket, Nantucket Historical Association, Nantucket, Massachusetts, 02554.

Brant Point: Watchman and Guardian

5

Nantucket's Own A Short History of the U.S. Coast Guard on Nantucket Island.

MARGARET FAWCETT BARNES

With this article about the Coast Guard, Mrs. Barnes completes her trilogy of the services on Nantucket. The first, LORAN C, ap­ peared in FIISTORIC NANTUCKET of October, 1962; the second, THE NAVY ON NANTUCKET in the issue of January 1964.

T

HE name "Coast Guard" and the Island of Nantucket are almost synony­ mous, as the Island can be considered entirely made up of coastal land which needs constant guarding. With a collar of continuous shoals round Nantucket Island, these shores have been dangerous for shipping and boats of all sizes from the days of four-masted schooners down to the present, and many an outstanding rescue has taken place from the various life-saving stations set-up from time to time.

The present day Coast Guard, a branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, which now, in the year 1966, is on active duty off the shores of Vietnam, first came into being, January 28, 1915, when the merger of the Revenue Cutter Service and the U.S. Life Saving Service took place.

The latter was augmented, in the state of Masachusetts only, by a vol­ unteer group called "The Massachusetts Humane Society", which had been active since 1785. The members of this Society had repeatedly shown great courage and seamanship in remarkable rescues along the coast of the State.

Among the most notable of the volunteer rescuers of this Humane Society, was Joshua James of Hull, Mass. He is credited with the saving of hun­ dreds of lives and his heroic actions were honored by the highest life-saving medals of the country. Though none of his rescues occurred on these Nan­ tucket shores, he was the outstanding member of this same Humane Society which did establish several of its "Humane Houses" here. One stood on the Siasconset shore, below the North Bluff, about a quarter of a mile from the village, another on the South Shore, not far from Hummock Pond. These buildings, and others on the island, the size of a small barn, painted barnred, were stocked with a surf-boat, a stove, clothing, and provisions, (and in some cases a breeches buoy), and were still standing in the early nineteen hundreds.

The Life-Saving Service itself had been established by the Federal Gov­ ernment within the Revenue Marine Division in 1871 for shore-based opera­ tions. It had proved to be effective by the courageous activities of its mem­ bers on behalf of persons and vessels in distress. The Revenue Cutter Service, direct antecedent of the Coast Guard, had been established by Andrew Jack­ son's Secretary of the Treasury in 1831 and had distinguished itself as a fight­ ing force as well as a law enforcement maritime safety agency. In 1836, cutters were charged, by the Government in Washington, "to preserve prop­ erty found aboard wrecks and to secure the property for the owners" and records are filled with daring and hazardous rescues. In approving the con­ solidation of the two principal maritime safety organizations, President Wil-

6

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

son designed to eliminate duplication and confusion in the functioning of maritime safety. Under the banner of the U.S. Coast Guard the whole realm of sea safety has continued to live up to the high standards set by the former organizations and, through the advent of aviation, to extend its scope from coastal to ocean rescue operations.

But to return to the activities of the earlier organization as relating to Nantucket Island. In the nineteenth century, lights and lighthouses in stra­ tegic spots were one of the earliest installations. Brant Point, still so im­ portant to the vessels in our harbor waters, was initiated in 1746, when a beacon was suspended between two poles in that area. Before long a light­ house was erected, which was destroyed by fire in 1759 and immediately re­ built. Blown down in 1774 it was again rebuilt. Fire also took its toll eight,

U.S. Coast Guard Station, Brant Point, the original high tower still standing and also nine nine years later. On being reactivated it was taken over by the State, which maintained it for the first time. And, after the fifth lighthouse on Brant Point had been wrecked by a heavy storm in 1791, the U.S. Gov­ ernment assumed control of that important light.

The first Great Point Lighthouse had already been erected in 1784 by the U.S. Government. This Great Point Lighthouse was destroyed by fire in No­ vember 1816 but was re-established in 1856. In 1820 a "Bug-Light" was set­ up on the South Side of Nantucket harbor and the same sort of beacon was established on Cliff Beach several years later. In 1828 the first floating beacon in this area, Cross Rip Lightship, was anchored approximately halfway be­ tween Woods Hole and Nantucket. Twenty years later, the "President," for­ merly a whaleship, was placed at "Sow and Pigs Shoal" in Buzzard s Bay,

NANTUCKET'S OWN

7

southwest of Cuttyhunk. Important to all 'Sccnseters was the year 1850, when Sankaty Head Lighthouse was erected, and first lighted on February first. Its rotating light has become as much a part of 'Sconset life as has the pounding surf on the shore below. Its rays come intermittently in and out of the windows of most houses on North Bluff and its arms of light spread protectingly over the whole village as they revolve. By June 1854 Nantucket Shoals Lightship was put into service for the first time with Samuel Bunker of Nantucket as its first Captain. But it was ill-fated and by December it had broken adrift and was wrecked on Montauk Point, L. I., to be re-established as the im­ portant South Shoals Lightship. Next, in 1858, Handkerchief Shoal Lightship was anchored in Nantucket Sound southwest of Monomoy Point, but it broke adrift in a heavy December storm and was carried out to sea. The ship's crew, however, were removed by a vessel bound for New Orleans only a few hours before the Lightship went to the bottom. With no radio, no radar, telegraph or telephone, a month passed before their families knew they had been saved.

In spite of all these precautionary measures, still many wrecks occurred on and about Nantucket's coast. And, according to the Inquirer & Mirror, "Wrecking," as it is known, became a regular job of several dedicated boat­ men, such as Capt. David Peterson, Capt. Alex Dunham, and others, with Capt. Joseph Winslow in charge. Finally the need was seen for manned Life Saving Stations on the island.

The first of these was built at Surfside in 1874 and in 1883 one at Coskata and one at Muskeget Island. A keeper was appointed with the annual salary of $200 and later surfmen were employed by the Secretary of the Treasury to man the stations. In a record of one of the first rescues at Surfside, the bark "W. F. Marshall" which had been stranded on the South Shore, was saved, presumably with all hands aboard. The first keeper at the Muskeget station was Capt. Thomas F. Sandsbury. In 1885 he and his crew rescued the schooner "Lyndon." She was one of six vessels wrecked on Mus­ keget Shoals in a three-day storm in February. Crews of the other vessels were taken off by the Cutter "Gallatin," out of a mainland port. The Muskeget Station was totally destroyed by fire in 1889, rebult in 1896, and discontinued in 1929. When the Coskata Station was first set up in 1882, Capt. Benjamin B. Pease was in charge. He was a veteran of four-year service in the Civil War and every man of his crew, along with Capt. Pease, was an experienced boatman. Their first rescue was that of the brig "Merriwa" wrecked in a February storm, in 1884. But their most outstanding rescue was on January 21, 1892, when Capt. Walter N. Chase was in command of the station. This heroic saga of the sea took place off the Siasconset shore. The Keeper of Sankaty Light discovered that a three-masted schooner had foundered on Rose and Crown Shoals and sent word to the Coskata Station. It turned out to be a British schooner, "H. P. Kirkham," on a run from Nova Scotia to New York with a crew of seven men. According to the newspaper report the heavy surf-boat from the Coskata station, having been propelled across the sands to the outer beach, was launched in high seas, also with seven aboard. One member of this crew was Jesse Eldridge of Siasconset. For more than twenty-four hours they battled the storm, in 10 above-zero weather, before they reached the schooner. After taking the seven men off the sinking ship one by one, by spare-line, and a bowline thrown aboard to them

8

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

in the rigging, where they had been clinging for fifteen hours, they got them safely into the surfboat. With fourteen men aboard, the boat was over-crowded and the mast and sail had to be cast overboard; but the sail had already proved useless due to the direction of the wind. Thus lightened, they headed for Sankaty Headland, their only visible guide. After taking six hours to go one mile, with fourteen more to go, when dark came they were obliged to anchor, as the wind and sea had become too heavy to navigate. The leader allowed the men to sleep only fifteen minutes at a time, to keep from freez­ ing. By three the next morning the wind had decreased and they were able to start rowing again. For seven hours they rowed toward the Siasconset shore and, at about ten o'clock, landed. Anyone who has stood on the Sankaty Bluff and watched the waves in a storm can realize what a feat it was just to get that twenty-three foot surfboat through the huge breakers.

For his part in the undertaking the U.S. Government awarded Jesse H. Eldridge, Sr., a Medal of Honor for saving life from the perils of the sea His three sons have homes in the village at the present time, and the fam­ ilies treasure the medal and the citation, which reads as follows: "For fidel­ ity to duty and unflinching courage in face of extraordinary danger." In a "History of the Coast Guard" an old timer is quoted as saying, "All I know is the regulations book says you have to go out. It doesn't say anything about coming back." But these men did come back, and many more have, and still do, owing to their training and the equipment that by now has been specially developed.

The Madaket Station was not inaugurated until 1891 with Capt. Thomas Sandsbury as its first keeper. Its original name was "The Great Neck Station," later changed to "Madaket." Surfboats on the stations at this time averaged between 23 and 28 feet in length, and were "clinker-built," of light draft, suitable for launching from Nantucket's sandy beaches. Among the important rescues on record is that of the crew and passengers of the cat-boat "Wild Rose" in 1903.

In 1944 the Government closed the Madaket Station. The "age of sail" had long since passed and it was no longer necessary for ships to stand in close to shore in order to make a long "reach" for Sandy Hook and New York. Wrecks were only history and the Madaket Station was considered an unnecessary expense. Yet, ironically, a few days after its closing, the Pan­ amanian freighter "Kotor" came ashore a few hundred yards below the Station, with no one on hand to be of aid. But cutters from Brant Point ar­ rived in time to save the ship and all hands.

In 1896 the well-known South Shoal Lightship was moved farther off shore and moored in 180 feet of water 43'A miles from Sankaty Light. It will be remembered by many as the last connecting link with this continent and first welcome to these shores on the transatlantic run. Also the South Shoal lightship was the one rammed and cut in two by a Cunard Liner, with all hands lost, about twenty years ago. At the present time instead of a light­ ship an automatic light-buoy has been placed at South Shoal.

Other lightships to be established during the early 1900's, when the Coast Guard was making improvements for the safety of small craft and large in this vicinity, was the one at Hedge-Fence Shoal in Nantucket Sound, southeast of Falmouth in 1906, and at Pollock Rip Slue, northeast of the Island, whose light can often be seen from Sankaty headland. In 1916 a light-

NANTUCKET'S Own

9

ship was anchored at Stone Horse Shoal, south of Monomoy Point. The light­ ship most familiar to voyagers to the Island had always been the one at Cross Rip, where the steamer steered close enough for passengers to throw newspapers and magazines to the crew, who for a long time had contact with the mainland only once a month. In the winter of 1918, during a terrifying northeast storm, this lightship was torn from her moorings and swept out to sea by the ice, and was lost with her crew of six. By 1921 the Life Saving Station at Surfside was closed in July. However, by 1925 a Coast Guard fleet of patrol boats was based at Nantucket Harbor. In this same year the Hedge Fence Lightship was rammed and sunk by the steamer "H. C. Holm," but later raised and repaired. In this year as well, the Lifeboat Station at Madaket had to be moved back from the shore's edge due to erosion by the surf.

With all these major recorded activities continually going on around Nan­ tucket's coast, it can easily be imagined how involved the U.S. Coast Guard had become with crucial matters all up and down the Atlantic Coast, as well as the Gulf Coast and the Pacific. We are apt to take for granted all this watchfulness and awareness for our safety.

Modern electrification was started here, when in 1926 the fog-bell on the eastern jetty was replaced by a nautophone, with a cable laid from Brant Point. This is sometimes referred to as "the Hooter," which sends forth a weird "hoot-hoot" on thick, foggy nights. Then, in 1933, Brant Point Light was electrified and changed to red and its range increased in candle-power from 160 to 1,300. Also Sankaty Head Lighthouse was electrified and intensity of light increased to 720,000 candlepower; and still later, in 1950, upped to 1,100,000 candle-power.

When the flooded Mississippi Valley needed help in 1937, Coast Guards­ men from the Madaket and Coskata Stations were ordered to the area for flood relief duty. Also in the '30's they were kept busy in these Nantucket waters chasing and apprehending rumrunners during the Prohibition era, and by 1939, the Lighthouse Service, all up and down the coasts, had been taken over by the Coast Guard.

During World War II the local Coast Guard was expanded to a great extent, with six larger patrol boats and roughly over 100 men at Stations and lighthouses. The Nesbitt Inn on Broad Street, was used as quarters for the men stationed in or near the Town. At Siasconset, in the Low Beach Farm area of the South Bluff, a Radar Station was installed by the Seabees, and put into operation by the Coast Guard. The outgrowth of this is the present day Loran Station, one of the most important Long-Range-Direction-Finding Sta­ tions on this coast for ships and airplanes. (See "Loran C" by Mrs. Barnes in HISTORIC NANTUCKET of October 1962.)

Some of the men were living in quarters at Sankaty Head Light as well as at Brant Point and Madaket, and men and dogs patrolled the beaches all night in every sort of weather in winter and summer. It was at this time that Mildred Jewett, a Madaket resident, fondly known as "Madaket Millie," gave such valuable assistance to the Coast Guard that she was made an honorary member of the corps. She not only trained some of the dogs used by the patrols, but helped by walking the beaches at Madaket and was on call night and day all during the War. She still can be relied on to go on duty whenever needed, and still renders valuable assistance by keeping a lookout for small craft in trouble in waters near her home, for which the Coast Guard niftn are most grateful.

10

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

By 1947 the Stations at the extreme ends of the Island, Coskata and Madaket, had been closed, there not being enough distress calls in those areas to warrant keeping them open, and it was decided to concentrate all activities in the center of the Island where most rescue work was needed, in or near the Town Harbor. In consequence the Brant Point Lifeboat Station was inaugurated, with Brant Point Light as a sub-unit. New lifeboats were acquired and in 1949 the equipment and large building from Coskata was floated by barge to the Point, to< serve as Headquarters for the unit. Formerly only a Keeper's house had stood at Brant Point, and for many years this house had been occupied by Keeper Gerald Reed and his family. Two of the Reeds who grew up there as boys still live on the Island.

It was in September of 1949 that the worst disaster connected with the Nantucket Coast Guard occurred. The pleasure boat "Constance," returning from Nantucket, was struck by a squall west of the Dionis shore. She lost steer­ age way, foundered, filled up quickly and her nine occupants had to aban­ don ship and floated all night in life-preservers. The extent of their plight was not realized at first when it was reported to Brant Point Headquarters.

Delays occurred which proved fatal, as all the occupants of the vessel, except one, either died in the water or soon after they were picked up the next morning.

This was a hard lesson, but conditions were corrected soon after, with an increase in personnel and equipment, and an 82-foot cutter based at Steamboat Wharf for instant use. The Communication System with District Headquarters was also stepped up, and in recent years the officer in charge at Brant Point can alert a helicopter on the mainland, which can be over the Island in 21 minutes. Besides, he is now in direct communication with Search and Rescue Center in Boston, which gives almost instantaneous response.

In 1961, for instance, the "Sharon-Louise" went aground on one of the jetties and a nearby sandbar in a 65 mile-an-hour gale with driving snow. The Nantucket Coast Guard's unsinkable motor lifeboat went to the rescue at once and all were saved. James Perry. BM1, in charge of the boat, was given a Life-Saving Medal for his part in the rescue.

The Coast Guard units based on Nantucket have always enjoyed fine cooperation with the Townspeople, and with the Fire Department and the Police, and they reciprocate. They are called upon, often in the middle of the night, to help track down children who have strayed off along the shores, and for lost animals, and to find boats that have broken loose from their moorings and drifted up harbor. Much of this cooperation has been due to the tactfulness and understanding of the man in Command at Brant Point.

Lt. A. B. Gibbs was the first Group Commander at Brant Point, and was most highly thought of, as was Chief Gordon B. Kenny who was later officerin-charge for many years. The present officer-in-charge is Frederick C. Coffin, Jr. The District Headquarters for this area is "The First Coast Guard District," John F. Kennedy Bldg., Government Center, Boston, with Rear Admiral W. W. Childress in Command.

In 1964 the 82-foot cutter which had been berthed at Steamboat Wharf for many years was removed from this port to be sent to Vietnam. This cut­ ter, the "Point Jefferson," with 16 others, is still patrolling South Vietnam's waterways to prevent infiltration of Viet Cong arms and ammunition. After protests from local citizens that a cutter was needed here, and after nego­ tiations by our Boston Representative, Arthur Desrocher, Washington author-

NANTUCKET'S OWN

11

ities promised another cutter for Nantucket. Accordingly a new 82-footer, the "Point Bonita," arrived at its home port of Nantucket in November.

1966, Chief R. Sargent in command.

This past year the U.S. Coast Guard has celebrated its 176th anniver­ sary throughout the United States, and local units held open-house on Au­ gust 4th. And not long ago the First District announced that an ambitious modernization program is under way at Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod.

C.G. Cutter "Point Bonita" poised at Steamboat Wharf for the seaward call Four Albatross amphibian planes and three amphibious helicopters will be housed at that station. Once they are operating it will cut the time required to act on an emergency in the Cape Cod area in half. Yet in spite of the rapid scientific and technological progress, the human element is still an im­ portant factor and the Coast Guard's efforts will continue to be, what they have always been, "a humane concern for those in peril on the sea." And this Island, inevitably an important outpost, will always be well protected, and its encircling waters patrolled, by the men stationed here who belong to this finely organized branch of the United State Armed Forces.

12

The Story of Eliab and Sarah Gardner, Quakers from Nantucket

BY MILDRED JANNEY Mrs. George Janney, with her husband, visiting for the first time last summer her ancestral Nantucket, adds the following to the growing literature of the Nantucket migrations of the early Nineteenth Century.

O

N a beautiful day in 1964, I looked down on the graves of Eliab and Sarah Gardner, my sixth generation removed ancestors. They are buried in the well kept cemetery of the Salem Friends Church near the town of Liberty, Union County, Indiana. Buried along side of them are Isaac and Eunice Gardner. Isaac and Eliab were first cousins; their wives were third cousins. All four had headmarkers made of cedar and the names and dates were burnt into the wood, still in excellent preservation.

Eliab Gardner, born June 1758, died 1843 son of Richard son of Solomon son of Richard

Sarah Gardner — wife of Eliab daughter of William and Phebe Stanton born 1762

died 1841

son of Richard Eliab was a fourth generation Gardner to be born on Nantucket Island.

He was related to the first settlers — the Gardners, Coffins, Macys, Worths.

In 1772 Eliab was thirteen when his parents left the Island with their five children, along with other relatives, for the Quaker settlement called New Garden, in Guilford County, North Carolina.

Around the year 1771 a group of Quakers on Nantucket Island wanted to find another place to live for economic reasons. Levi Coffin was the man chosen to look over the New Garden area as a suitable place to move to. He found it satisfactory and reported to his group.

During the years 1771-75 there were forty-one certificates received from the Quaker church in Nantucket to New Garden Quaker church. Among these eleven families there were Macys, Gardners, Worths, Coffins, Stantons, Barnards, Starbucks, Swains, Bunkers, Giffords and Colemans. It was not until I became interested in writing a story about the migration to Indiana, that I decided to follow out completely the genealogical lines of these people who left Nantucket for North Carolina, and to my amazement found out that they were really a related family; brother and brother, brother and sister, first and second cousins.

These Nantucket Quakers traveled by land to North Carolina. North Carolina was not settled by sea as was Virginia and South Carolina. The long line of sand bars, called the Outer Banks, which outlined the North Carolina coast, was broken only by a few inlets, none large enough to admit any but the smallest vessels. Most of the New England people

THE STORY OF ELIAB AND SARAH GARDNER

13

came by way of Pennsylvania, then Maryland and, crossing the Potomac into the Great Valley of Virginia, on into the watershed of the James and down into central North Carolina.' Most of the certificates of removal from Nantucket to North Carolina were dated during the winter months; probably travel was better on the partially frozen roads than during the spring and summer months.

On arriving at New Garden, most of them stayed there. Others moved on to Deep River and Center Meeting houses, all within a radius of several miles. They became small land owners, turning to farming as an occupation. Here were a people who had been going to sea for genera­ tions, or working at trades relative to by-products of the sea, who turned farmers. Their children for generations would also be farmers.

The New Garden Meeting House had been set up in the wilderness by Quakers from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia some twenty years

Photo hy the Author Wooden Markers at graves of Eliab and Sarah Gardner, Salem Friends Church, Liberty, Indiana previously. Ten years later some of the old Quaker stock from the Albemarle Sound area of North Carolina (Perquimins and Pasquotank) had started to move in; then in 1771 the Nantucket people. This southward migration stopped almost as suddenly as it began, due to the Revolutionary War which made travelling difficult.

On March 15, 1781 the battle of Guilford Courthouse took place, six miles to the east of New Garden. Both were on the great north-south road that ran thru the state. Nathaniel Greene was the commander of the American forces, and Cornwallis the British. After the battle the houses for miles around were filled with American and British wounded. Corn­ wallis reported that he had to send more than nine miles in every direction to find forage in the depleted country. On March 17th, Cornwallis sent

14

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

seventeen wagons loaded with wounded toward the New Garden Friends Meeting to the west, under heavy guard and with an insistent order "each wagon to carry as many of the wounded men as can possibly be put into it". The Quakers buried the dead of both sides in a large common grave under a huge oak, called "The Revolutionary Oak", in their graveyard next to the church. Today a marker shows the place of the oak and first church. They took care of the sick and dying.

The following year twenty-one year-old Eliab married seventeen yearold Sarah. She was the daughter of William and Phebe (Macy) Stanton and had also come with her parents as a child from Nantucket in 1772.

This couple were like the majority of other Nantucket people, marrying into Nantucket stock. They became the parents of six children.

The years from 1781 - to 1789 were extremely critical for the people of North Carolina. They were in poverty, society in disorder, a weak and inefficient state government, depression, soil exhaustion. Before the turn of the century there had been a few travelers to the west, who had come back with glowing tales. After the ordinance of 1787, opening up the Ohio and Indiana territory, the people on the eastern seaboard began to think of moving "West." By 1806 some of this group had already left for Ohio, and a few for Indiana territory.

Eliab and Sarah Gardner lived in New Garden for forty years when they decided to sell their farm and move west. Fifty-three year-old Eliab and his wife and three unmarried children left in 1811 for Indiana Territory.

Their destination was what is now Union County, fifteen miles south of the struggling village of Richmond on the Whitewater. It has been written that these Quakers were neither rich nor poor, but well fixed with wagons and furniture and food; with some money that they received from selling their farms to buy government land.

"The first emigrants to go West went on horseback with pack-horses.

They followed the buffalo trails, for where a buffalo could go a horse could go. All the women and boys above twelve carried guns, and sentries were stationed at certain points; but whether this was a custom of Quakers a little later we are not told. When two-horse wagons and two-wheeled carts came into use a little later, it was necessary to double or treble the teams in crossing the mountains. A man was put at each wheel to push; there were from two to four behind for the same purpose and two to check.

These vehicles were usually covered with muslin or linen. The movers took with them cooking utensils and provisions; traveled in the day; camped out at night, and went singly or in companies. The women rode in the wagons or on horseback, and these companies were frequently followed at a short distance in the rear by runaway negroes who took this opportunity to make their way to the land of freedom." (Levi Coffin's Reminiscences.)

There is, of course, no record to show what route the Gardner family took to Indiana Territory; but a son of one of these pioneers, writing in later years, named five routes that were taken at specific times. I was very interested in retracing the route that I thought the most likely for them to take, so my husband and I traveled this route as closely as possible in 1964, 143 years later.

From New Garden, Center or Deep River in Guilford County, North Carolina, they traveled west 30 miles to the Moravian village of Salem

THE STORY OF ELIAB AND SARAH GARDNER

15

(later city of Winston-Salem); from there pushed northwest through Forsyth, Yadkin, and Surry Counties in North Carolina to the Blue Ridge Mountains; crossed into Grayson County, then reached New River, Virginia. The travelers covered from 25 to 30 miles a day. Then on to Abington, Virginia, crossing the Holsten and Clinch Mountains and rivers, then to the VirginiaTennessee border, reaching Cumberland Pass. Passing through the famous gap from the northwest tip of Tennessee into Kentucky, they rode for five days by way of Richmond, Lexington, and Georgetown to Big Eagle Creek in northern Kentucky and on to Cincinnati across the Ohio. It had taken them about four or five weeks to reach Cincinnati, where the land office was located; a total of about 700 miles.

In the Newberry Library in Chicago (genealogical section) I came across a very interesting book, "Indiana Land Entrees - Cincinnati District," compiled by Mary R. Waters in 1948. It includes the earliest entrees on April 9, 1801 to the latest 1840. I quote from her book: "During the first two decades of government land sales in Indiana, purchasers had to buy

Photo by the Author Present Friends Meeting House at Salem on the site of the original.

The ancient cemetery is well kept up and still in use. at least 320 acres and pay a minimum of $2.00 per acre. Four years were allowed in which to complete payments. In 1820 a new land law was passed which placed the minimum price at $1.25 an acre and allowed purchasers to buy as little as 80 acres. The credit system was abolished in favor of cash payments." This book was very helpful to me for the Union County purchasers. I found an entry for Eliab Gardner on 10-21-1811 for 320 acres. William Starbuck had purchased land here on 1-11-1808.

After purchasing their land, the Gardners went on to West Elkton, Ohio, 50 miles north of Cincinnati, to visit their married daughter and family, who had moved there in 1807. They stayed here for several months,

16

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

then pushed on directly west for 21 miles to their new land, just across the Ohio border. The few roads were rough, through almost solid forests of oak, ash, maple, poplar, beech, and walnut, broken only occasionally by ponds and streams and swamps. Here they found rich fertile loam and started to cut the trees to make their first homes of logs.

Other North Carolina Quakers had been here before they arrived, and set up the Silver Creek Friends Church as early as 1809. The land records of Union County show that some settlers arrived in 1804-7-8-9.

Sarah's three married brothers and families (the Stantons) arrived the same time via Virginia and Ohio. By 1814 their daughter Miriam Talbert and family arrived from West Elkton, and their daughter Lydia Wickersham and family from North Carolina. Joseph Paddack and his large family came from Nantucket (1812) via Ohio. By 1815 George Beard, age 62, with his family of married sons and their families arrived from North Carolina (George was second cousin of both Eliab and Sarah). Phebe Huddlestone and family (daughter of Eliab and Sarah) also came from North Carolina.

By 1819 Paul Macy and his second wife arrived from North Carolina along with his married daughter Eunice Gardner and her husband Eliab and their family of eleven children. Nathaniel Macy and his wife Hepzibah (who was aunt to Sarah) came with their married children and their families.

(Nathaniel and Paul — both 79 at the time — were first cousins). There were also Colemans, Starbucks, Barnards, and Swains. Here again, was a settlement of relatives — all of Nantucket stock, some born on the Island and the younger generation in North Carolina.

By 1819 another meeting house had been established about two miles east of Silver Creek, which they called Salem. It was closer to the land of most of the Quakers and probably a little better situated, as it was near the main road that leads from Cincinnati to Richmond. By 1850 the Silver Creek Meeting ceased to exist, while the Salem church is still there. The first Salem church built of logs, was used as a church and school. The second church was built in 1830. In 1900 a new church (the present one) was built 60 feet north of the 1830 building. The cemetery is across the road from the church.

Indiana territory became a state in 1816, with a population of 63,000.

The first governor was William Henry Harrison, who was born in 1773 in Virginia, of the illustrious Harrison family. Union County was organized in 1821. The first county seat was at Brownsville and the next year changed to Liberty. The territory of the Whitewater filled up rapidly, mostly by pioneers from North Carolina.

In looking through a book on Union County (pub. 1884) I found this interesting story about Isaac and Eunice Gardner: "The family was active in founding the Salem and Silver Creek churches. He settled his children about him and passed the declining years of his life here. All the sons married and reared families. All were members of the Salem Church until the end of their days; all were farmers and lived on lands given them by their father. The daughters all lived to be old women."

When I write about Salem, it is not to be confused with the town of Salem in the southeastern part of the state. I refer to the Salem Friends Church near the town of Liberty — it is only a church surrounded by farms. Salem, the town, was only one of the places that the Nantucket-

THE STORY OF ELIAB AND SARAH GARDNER

17

North Carolina people settled in. Some went to Newport (now Fountain City); The most famous was Levi Coffin of The Underground Railroad. Richmond was the largest center of Friends. Some went to West Elkton, Ohio. The next generation would move on to start other Quaker churches and communi­ ties — Milford, Hopewell, Arba, Springfield, Spiceland, Westfield, Walnut Creek, Nantucket (now Economy), and many others. From an article in an Indiana Historical Society Publication this is written: "One of the great folk movements in American history was the migraton to Ohio and Indiana of southern Friends during the first forty years of the 19th century. By the time this movement ran its course, North Carolina, the center of Society of Friends in the south, was largely denuded of its Quaker inhabitants, and a town on the Whitewater had replaced Philadelphia as the center of the Orthodox Friends in the United States." The Friends kept very careful records of all of their members; births, deaths, and marriages, as well as transfers from one meeting to another. The records of one monthly meeting -—- the New Garden — have been preserved entire, and so we are able to tell accurately what the migration from that particular locality was. Up to 1815 nearly all go to Ohio, but after 1815 most go to Indiana."

Now to go back to my own personal story: Rhoda Wickersham, grand­ daughter of Eliab and Sarah, was born in Deep River, Guilford County, North Carolina. She was not quite sixteen when she married Richard Talbert in 1818 at the Silver Creek Quaker church. Richard had also been born in New Garden, North Carolina, and had come as a child with his parents to West Elkton, Ohio. On his mother's side he was related to the Nantucket people. When Richard was 26 years old he decided to visit his aunts and uncles and cousins at Salem, and possibly to look for a wife, as he was past the average age of most Quaker young men who married at 21. He renewed his acquaintance with Rhoda's family — fell in love with her and they were married shortly afterward. They became the parents of three children. Shortly after the birth of the last child, Rhoda died. The genealogy of these children shows that they were related to the original Nantucket people: to Richard and Sarah Gardner seven times; to Tristram and Dionis Coffin four times; to Edward and Catherine Starbuck three times; to Thomas and Sarah Macy four times. This ended the inter­ marriage of Nantucket blood lines in my descent. (The oldest of these three children, Solomon, was my great-grandfather.) Richard married again and had children; with his family moved back to West Elkton, Ohio, where some of his descendants still live and attend the Elk Friends Church.

Eliab and Sarah outlived three of their daughters. He died at the age of 76, and his is the oldest marker I found in the cemetery. Sarah lived seven years longer. They had been married fifty-four years. This spring I wrote a letter, addressed to the Salem Friends Church, hoping someone would answer some of the questions I asked. Mr. Roger Logue answered — he is a great-grandson of Isaac and Eunice Gardner, and still attends the Salem church. I asked if any of the old Nantucket names still appear on the church registry, and he said that the name of Beard was the only one.

This summer, my husband and I visited Nantucket Island. I was thrilled to walk the streets of Nantucket with my book, "Rambling through the Streets and Lanes of Nantucket by Edouard Stackpole," in my hand,

18

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

absorbing all the history of this land of my forefathers. Of especial interest to me was No. 107 Main Street, the Reuben Joy Homestead. The original house was built about 1748 by Zaccheus Macy, grandfather of Sarah of my story. Some day I hope to visit this charming, delightful Island again.

Bibliography Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy. Volume 1 •— North Carolina, by Wm. Wade Hinshaw.

Abstracts of the Records of the Society of Friends of Indiana.

Milford Monthly Meetings from 1823 - 1894, compiled by Willard Heiss of Indianapolis The North Carolina Guide.

Southern Friends and Slavery, S. B. Weeks (pub. 1896).

Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin Counties, Indiana.

Indiana Historical Society Publication, Vol. 15 — The Whitewater, pub. 1949.

Indiana Land Entrees — Cincinnati District, compiled by Mary R. Waters, 1948.

The Historical Association Museum in Fair Street invites the curious visitor to come in and browse among its hundreds of rare and interesting exhibits.

Dresser and Mirror made by a Nantucket Sea Captain in 1853 contains 1900 inlays of ebony and whale ivory.

21

Two of the large dolls in the Doll Collection pose realistically in their fine

brocades.

This beautifully made and minutely furnished is a recent gift to the Association.

Doll

House

23

The Doll House is in three sections — Roof, Second Floor, and First Floor This photograph shows the Roof removed.

24

Maria Mitchell Astronomer and Teacher

BY JOANNE GANGA

Nantucket High School, Class of 1968 Being a Paper Submitted in the Historical Essay Contest of 1966 MISS MARIA MITCHELL was born August 1, 1818, in Number 1 Vestal Street on Nantucket Island.

She first attended a public school and then a private school in which her father had been a master. After Mr. Mitchell gave up teaching, Miss Mitchell was under the instruction of Mr. Cyrus Peirce. He developed hsr taste for mathematics, for which she showed a remarkable talent. It w»s while under his teaching that Maria took to studying earnestly.

Before she was fourteen, Captain Bill Chadwick visited the Mitchell house in search of her father, William Mitchell, who was to correct Mr. Chadwick's Chronometer. Since Mr. Mitchell wasn't at home, little Maria said timidly, "I can do it, Mother, I'm sure I can, if thee'll only let me try. . . . thee knows I have often watched Father." Mr. Chadwick decided to let Maria try, simply because there was no one else to go to. He couldn't see what this child could do. When he came back, the next day, his chronometer was correctly modified, and he looked upon this little girl with respect.

Later in her life, when asked why she liked astronomy, Miss Mitchell replied, "It was, in the first place, a love of mathematics, seconded by my sympathy for my father's love for astronomical observation. But the spirit of the place had also much to do with the early bent of my mind in this direction. In Nantucket people quite generally are in the habit of observing the heavens, and a sextant will be found in almost every house. The land­ scape is flat and somewhat monotonous and the field of the heavens has greater attractions there than in places which offer more variety of view.

She had a happy childhood spending many hours of the day with her father gazing at the stars at night, and, in the day, watching the many ships.

In 1836, the Mitchell family moved to the Pacific Bank, when her father accepted the job of cashier.

At the age of eighteen, Maria was appointed to the position of librarian at the Atheneum. Since the library was opened to the public for only a few hours, she had many hours to herself for studying and reading. Here she read many interesting books.

On the evening of October 1,1847 there was a party at the Mitchell House. At approximately 10:30, Maria slipped out and went up to her telescope. Thinking that she saw a comet, she rushed to her father and told him of her assumption. Mr. Mitchell hurried to the telescope and, having looked where Maria had indicated, confirmed her belief of the strange body being a comet. Mr. Mitchell immediately wrote a letter to Professor Bond at Cambridge, telling him of the discovery. In his observer's book, Mr. Mitchell wrote, "10 mo. 1, 1847. This evening at half-past ten

MARIA MITCHELL

25

Maria discovered a telescopic comet five degrees above Polaris. Persuaded that no nebula could occupy that position unnoticed, it scarcely needed the evidence of motion to give it the character of a comet."

For this she received a gold medal from the son of King Frederick VI of Denmark, who was interested in astronomy.

In October 1848, Miss Mitchell was elected unanimously to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In the summer of 1848, Miss Mitchell accepted an offer from the Superintendent of the United States Coast Survey, Professor Bache, to be at Mount Independence, Maine, as a guest of his family at an astronomical party. She was appointed, in the same year, one of the computers of the Nautical Almanac. For nineteen years her particular assignment was the planet Venus.

In 1853 she travelled through the United States and Europe. In the United States, she travelled from Boston and New York to Chicago, Mississippi River cities, Charleston, and many other cities and towns, visiting observatories and people. She was accredited by distinguished men and women.

While in Europe, she acquired a special dispensation to make an inspection of the Roman Observatory which made her the first woman to be admitted.

"When we entered the church we saw, far in the distance, Father Secchi, standing just behind a pillar .... I passed along through the rows of kneeling worshippers, by the strolling students, and past the lounging tourists .... then the Italian woman put up a petition, not one word of which I could understand, but the gestures and the pointing sihowed that she begged to go on and enter the monastery and see the observatory. Father Secchi said, 'No, the Holy Father gave permission to only one,' and alone I entered the monastery walls."

She also visited the Liverpool Observatory in Liverpool, England.

"August 4, I have just returned from a visit to the Liverpool Observatory, under the direction of Mr. Hartnup. It is situated on Waterloo dock, and the pier of the observatory rests upon the sandstone of that region.

The telescope is an equatorial; like many good instruments in our country, it is almost unused."

Miss Mitchell also enjoyed the observatories at Cambridge University, London, Edinboro, Rome, Marseilles, and many other observatories, learn­ ing new things about astronomy.

Miss Mitchell received a bronze medal of merit from the Republic of San Marino along with the "Ribbon" and "Letters Patent."

The period of 1857 - 1860 was the saddest time of her life. In 1855, Maria's mother was taken ill. For six years Maria nursed her. When Miss Mitchell left for Europe, she left her mother under the care of her sister, only to return and find her mother in the same state as when she left. In 1861, Mrs. Mitchell died and Maria and her father moved to Lynn, Mass., where Maria erected her little observatory. They lived in Lynn until Maria was offered a position at Vassar College as a professor of astronomy and director of the observatory. She proved to be a very good lecturer

26

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

who made astronomy interesting for her students. As one student put it, "But, Miss Mitchell, I had always thought science dull. You have not made it so."

Years passed and Miss Mitchell and her father were happy at the Observatory. In October 1868, Mr. Mitchell's daughter began to worry.

"I have been a little lonesome about him; he has seemed to be so feeble, but in the last two days he has been much better. He goes out nearly as much as ever, but seems to have less elasticity. I'm afraid he's growing old."

In 1869 William Mitchell died, leaving poor Maria without her most dearly loved companion as well as father. She went back to Nantucket for the funeral. Her life was even made lonelier when in the next few years, many of her friends and relatives died.

In 1873, Miss Mitdhll spent the summer in Europe and had a chance to visit the observatory at Pulkova, in Russia. She returned to teach college again, where she and her girls spent many interesting times together. She wrote, February 1881, "I counted seconds for father, who observed the annular eclipse at Nantucket. I was twelve and a half years old. In Denver, in March, 1885, fifty-four years later, I counted seconds for a class of students at Vassar; it was the same eclipse, but the sun was only about half-covered. Both days were perfectly clear and cold."

In her later years, Miss Mitchell was strong for social improvement.

She was twice elected President of the American Association for the Advancement of Women. She received two degrees of L.L.D. from Hanover and Columbia.

Miss Mitchell read lectures to small groups of society girls, but her heart and soul were her work at Vassar.

Although she hoped to remain at Vassar until she was 70, her health soon failed. It was hoped that complete rest would lead to a few more years of happy life — but she died in Lynn, June 28, 1889.

Although handicapped by her sex, she achieved many outstanding things, some even greater than a man's. She has been justly recognized in the Hall of Fame, and Nantucket should feel very proud of her.

27

Recent Events AT THE END of the 1966 season, the Nantucket Historical Association announced a new and all-time high for a single season of 67,879 paid ad­ missions to its Museums. This compares with 61,990 for the 1965 summer season, representing an increase of 9 5/10 per cent or 5,889 paid admissions.

The announcement continued: An astounding comparison is found be­ tween this and the record of the 1961 season — just five years ago, when paid admissions amounted to only 38,426. The comparison shows a seasonal increase of 29,453 in paid admissions, or 76.65 per cent in five years. During that period only one paid admission exhibit, namely, Hadwen House-Satler Memorial, has been added to those open to the public; so the increase repre­ sents almost entirely real growth.

A comparative breakdown of paid admissions by Museums for 1966 and 1965 shows as follows: 1965 1966 7,684 8,543 Oldest House 3,914 4,674 Old Mill 3,030 2,795 Historical Museum 1,742 2,050 1 800 House 3,838 3,499 Old Jail 6,805 7,515 Hadwen House-Satler Memorial 34,977 38,803 Whaling Museum 67,879

TOTAL

61,990

The paid admissions of 8,543 for the Oldest House and 38,803 for the Whaling Museum established new all-time highs for these two exhibits.

It will be noted that no admissions are reported for the Old Fire Hose Cart House and the Folger-Franklin Seat and Memorial Boulder, for admis­ sions here are free and no receptionist is on duty, but there are many visitors to both exhibits. In addition many members of the Association are visitors to the various exhibits. They are not included in the paid admissions, for membership in the Association includes free admission to all exhibits. The total admissions for the season for all exhibits, therefore, may well have been above 70,000. The Whaling Museum and the Hadwen House-Satler Me­ morial were not closed for the season until October 12th, which permitted many fall visitors to enjoy these two exhibits. The other exhibits were of necessity closed in mid-September because of lack of heating facilities. Some of these exhibits were opened, however, on several occasions to accommodate special groups visiting the Island. ije

He

*

*

*

A natural corollary of the foregoing is the report of the Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Steamship Authority that 1966 was its

28 most successful year financially, showing a net operating profit of $220, 000.00, the fourth year in succession that the Steamship operation has been in the black. The Authority expects 1967 to be another profitable year.

And while on the subject of last season: The third important meeting on the Island occurred October 14 through 16 when one hundred and twenty-three members of the American Association of Variable Star Ob­ servers held its annual meeting in Nantucket. Most of the members arrived by plane and boat late in the afternoon on the 14th. That evening they met in the Great Hall of the Atheneum for a lecture by Professor Harlow Shapley, Director Emeritus of the Harvard University Observatory. The following morning, Saturday, the Association held its business meeting at the Maria Mitchell Library. In the evening members attended a banquet at the Jared Coffin House, at which Mr. Edouard Stackpole gave a talk on some phases of Nantucket's history. The rest of their stay until their departure on Sunday was spent sight-seeing and shopping. The Nantucket Historical Association opened the Whaling Museum and the Hadwen House-Satler Memorial especially for the visitors as guests. Lovely weather continued throughout the three-day meeting, as it had for the two other group meetings held earl­ ier. The business arrangements for the Variable Star Observers were handled

by Dr. Dorrit Hoffleit, Director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory. *

*

*

*

*

In the great storm of last November, which pretty well broke the back of New England's drought, the rainfall on Nantucket, measured at the Weather Bureau was 5.3 inches, topping that for the rest of the region.

If it be thought that the sandy soil of Nantucket must have been rather inhospitable to the sheep-raising which early flourished on the Island, con­ sider the fact that one of the largest sheep ranches in the world exists in unlikely Tierra Del Fuego, where daily some 4,000 sheep are separated from their wool during the shearing season. In this strange "Land of Fire, which is becoming a lure for those people who are always looking for something new, there are found also myriads of "Falkland Geese, which have a wing spread of from six to nine feet. If a few of these enormous birds could be imported to team up with our own swans, what a tourist attraction it would be! sfc

*

'

*

*

*

On the afternoon of last November 6th, contrary to all accepted signs and portents, the wind suddenly spun from the southwest into the northeast and brought with it a vicious fifty-mile-an-hour gale that lashed the Sound and Harbor into a wild fury of sea and foam. Fortunately, the day being Sunday, no scallopers were out; otherwise the fleet surely would have been in trouble. The gale wore itself out in a few hours; but it all points up

29

RECENT EVENTS

the fact that Nantucket Sound is one of the most unpredictable and danger­ ous of navigable waters, especially for small craft. The "old salts" fully realize this; the new ones should keep it well in mind. *

*

*

*

Free publicity of the right sort is always acceptable. In its issue of December 4, 1966, "This Week" published a two-page article by Clementine Paddleford titled "Nantucket Christmas." That well known and indefatigable searcher after choice recipes commenced her story (from Nantucket) thusly; "If you have twelve days to give to Christmas, visit Nantucket 30 miles off the Cape Cod coast. There may be a sprinkling of snow, the breakers will crash, but an old-fashioned Christmas is waiting. The welcome is warm."

Noting the lighted trees, the home made wreaths on the doors, inhaling the perfume of New England cookies, she proceeds to a description of the tradi­ tional "Twelve Days" as celebrated at the Jared Coffin House and concludes — as usual — with a collection of recipes gleaned from the J.C.H. kitchen.

It is a pleasant article, hearty and appetizing, and one to excite the palate of any true gourmet, Nantucket or otherwise.

There is a well-established shop in the Town which describes itself as, "Being a Store Catering to Ladies and Gentlemen Who Seek Quality Goods Especially Easy on a Small Purse or Those of Thrift." How charmingly reminiscent of an older and more leisured time! sfc

*

*

4

In his critical essay on Longfellow's poetry, Edgar Allen Poe writes, "An important condition of man's immortal nature is the sense of the Beau­ tiful." We wonder if today that sense is not being sacrificed to utilitarianism.

30

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

(Continued from the October, 1966 issue of "Historic Nantucket") 1841 June 6—Rec'd from James Sandsbury one dollar on acct. of his sons school­ ing. Edwin James paid me 3.17 being for his son's schooling last winter.

Reuben Folger paid me 3.00 on acct. of his son's school bill winter before last. I paid Lydia Paddack 8.20 being the balance I owed her for School House rent when I removed from her School House.

1 neglected to mention that I had been quite unwell lately and that a week ago to-night 1 had bot of George A. Lawrence a box of Indian Purga­ tive Pills for 25 cts. and also taken magnesia, that I had followed up the pills until I was obliged to quit, as I was pretty yellow with jaundice.

I let on the 4th of this month in my pew to Capt. Benjamin Coleman 3 seats for 6 mos. at the rate of $12.50 per year.

June 7—Nantucket Baptist Soc. Cr. by cash rec'd, of S. Easton, Collector, the following moneys for Pew Hire. Wm. B. Swain, 1.05, David Rogers, 1.68; E. H. Perry, 1.12; Benjamin Coffin, 1.05; Theophilus Backus, 3.16; F. Easton, .50; Eunice Coleman, 1.50; Barnaby Sears, 2.25; Also rec'd. 1.00 being Allen Ames fee as member of Nant. Bap. Soc. for this year.

June 8—Rec'd of Solomon Folger the sum of $6.62 being the balance of George R. & Eben R. school bill from Jan. 8th up to the time when they quitted school. Rec'd of George Higgins 1.33 being for one months school­ ing up to June 1841. Gave the scholars this afternoon for a holiday.

June 9—Carpenters raised to tower the central part of spire.

June 11—I bot 18 cts. worth biscuits of Daniel Westgate. Also a box of Phinney's Pills from Edward B. Macy for 371/2 cts. Settled with Capt. Thomas Coffin for the first quarters rent of school house and yard from Feb. 8th, 1841 at 32.00 per year. I wrote to father by mail yesterday.

June 12—I have read out Langsdorffs voyages & Travels (he was in the Rus­ sian Embassy to Japan) i vol.

June 13—I have had recently of Arnold Morse, 2 doz. eggs, having in some measure lived on eggs as a cure for jaundice. The Bap. Meeting House was crowded afternoon & evening on act. of their being no meeting at the Chapel — borrowed chairs for the occasion. Sarah S. Macy wife of Zaccheus has washed for me this week past.

June 14—paid 9 cts for bread from Bakers for Lydia G. Bunker.

June 16—I got 3Vi yards of olive broadcloth at Lawrence & Cobb's at 4.50 per yard also velvet for collar and trimmings for coat & pantaloons. Engaged Cromwell Barnard to cut them.

June 16—I rec'd the other day of Edward M. Gardner 2.00 for having taken his scholars into my evening class and handed it to Mr. Round for having assisted me in school.

(To Be Continued)

Legacies and Bequests Membership in our Association proves that you are interested in its program tor 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 bv 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, 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 Mrs. Isabel W. Duffy, Secretary, Box 1016, Nantucket Massachusetts 02554. Office, Fair Street Museum.