Part 1

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GUIDE _TO Historical Plymouth_

Localities and Objects of Interest

_ILLUSTRATED_

PLYMOUTH, MASS. Copyrighted, and Published By A. S. BURBANK

Copyright, 1920, by A. S. Burbank. Printed by the Memorial Press.

Contents. Beach Point 64 Burial Hill 49 Church of the First Parish 48 Church of the Pilgrimage 47 Clark’s Island 80 Cole’s Hill 39 Compact 82 Court House 25 Gov. Bradford’s House in 1621 46 Gurnet 37 Harbor 64 Industries 77 Landing of the Pilgrims 36 Leyden Street 41 Manomet Bluffs 60 Members of the Mayflower Company 83 Morton Park 67 National Monument Frontispiece and page 8 North Street 33 Old Fort and First Meeting House, 1621 59 Old Houses 70 Pilgrim Antiquities 16-25 Pilgrim Hall 13 Plymouth as a Summer Resort 79 Plymouth High School 73 Plymouth in 1627 45 Plymouth Rock 31 Post Office 44 Prison 30 Public Library 74 Registry Building 27 The Town 73 Town Brook 69 Town Square 46 Voyage of the Mayflower Shallop 65 Watch Tower 61 Watson’s Hill 61

Historic Plymouth

“The Pilgrim Fathers—where are they? The waves that brought them o’er Still roll in the bay, and throw their spray, As they break along the shore.”

The introduction of visitors to Plymouth as they come by rail, is at Seaside, a station in the extreme north part of the town, at the dividing line between Kingston and Plymouth. As the cars slow up passengers see the beautiful panorama of Plymouth Harbor spread out before their eyes. At the near left, across the bay appears Captain’s Hill, so called from its being the home of Capt. Myles Standish, and on its crest is a monument in honor of the Pilgrim warrior, surmounted by his statue fourteen feet in height. Farther along is seen Rouse’s Hummock, the American terminus of the French Atlantic cable. The next prominent object is Clark’s Island, where the Pilgrims spent their first Sabbath in Plymouth. Next to this is the headland of Saquish, and beyond is the Garnet with its twin lighthouses. Opposite these the bold bluff of Manomet thrusts itself out into the bay, while nearer inland the long, thin ribbon of Plymouth Beach runs across the harbor, like an artificial breakwater, to arrest the waves of the ocean.

Few scenes can surpass this in loveliness, if the visitor is fortunate enough to arrive when the tide is in. Although by the configuration of the land Plymouth Harbor seems to have been designed for a perfect haven against every wind that blows, unfortunately it is dependent upon a full sea for depth enough of water to float vessels of large draft to the wharves. With the assistance of the State of Massachusetts a channel 150 feet wide with eighteen feet depth at mean low water, was opened in 1913 from Beach Point to the fine new stone pier of the Plymouth Cordage Co., and by it that great industrial plant now brings its fibre, for manufacture, direct from Mexico to its mills in steamships of 3500 tons measurement. In 1876 the United States Government dug a small channel from Broad channel to the wharves, where none had existed. In 1914-15 the Government and State co-operated in improving the old “Mayflower channel,” from deep water at Beach Point along the inside of the Beach and up Broad channel to the town wharves, so that for the entire distance there is a width of 200 feet and depth of 18 feet at mean low water. This allows steamers and light draft vessels to land at any time of tide, while at high water barges and heavy freight carriers drawing 25 feet or more can have easy access to the piers. These harbor improvements accommodate any vessels that can pass through the Cape Cod Canal which opens into the bay 16 miles below Plymouth and are of great advantage to the Pilgrim port. Other important changes of the water front and harbor may develop previous to the tercentenary celebration of “the Landing,” to take place in 1920-21, plans and details for which are in charge of a special State Commission.

Immediately upon leaving the station of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, on arrival in Plymouth, and while traversing Old Colony park to Court street, the main street of the town, the Samoset House is in full view in the front. Looking towards the Samoset House on the way through the park the first street on its right leading from Court street is Cushman street; and the walk continued up Cushman street and little northward along Allerton street, will shortly bring the visitor to the National Monument to the Forefathers.

The National Monument to the Forefathers

The corner stone of the National Monument was laid Aug. 2, 1859, and the work entrusted to Hammatt Billings who drew the design for the Monument in all its details. The main pedestal was put in position in 1876, and in the following summer the statue of Faith was erected. The monument was completed in October, 1888, and dedicated with appropriate ceremonies August 1, 1889. It is built entirely of granite, the statues all coming from the quarries of the Hallowell Granite Company of Maine. (See frontispiece.)

The idea of building the monument to the memory of the Pilgrim Fathers was early entertained in the town, and was formed into a definite object by the incorporation of the Pilgrim Society in January, 1820; which object was kept steadily in view and prosecuted to successful conclusion.

The plan of the principal pedestal is octagonal, with four small and four large faces; from the small faces project four buttresses or wing pedestals. On the main pedestal stands the figure of Faith. One foot rests upon Forefathers’ Rock; in her left hand she holds a Bible; with the right uplifted she points to heaven. Looking downward, as to those she is addressing, she seems to call to them to trust in a higher power.

On each of the four buttresses or wing pedestals is a seated figure; they are emblematic of the principles upon which the Pilgrims proposed to found their commonwealth. The first is Morality, holding the Decalogue in her left, and the scroll of Revelation in her right hand; her look is upward toward the impersonation of the Spirit of Religion above; in a niche, on one side of her throne, is a prophet, and in the other, one of the Evangelists. The second of these figures is Law: on one side Justice; on the other Mercy. The third is Education: on one side Wisdom, ripe with years; on the other Youth, led by Experience. The fourth figure is Freedom: on one side Peace rests under its Protection; on the other Tyranny is overthrown by its powers. Below these seated figures are marble alto-reliefs, representing scenes from the history of the Pilgrims:—the Departure from Delft Haven; the first Treaty with the Indians; Signing of the Social Compact; and the Landing at Plymouth. On each of the four faces of the main pedestal is a large panel for records. That in front contains the general inscription of the monument, viz., “National Monument to the Forefathers. Erected by a grateful people in remembrance of their labors, sacrifices and sufferings for the cause of civil and religious liberty.” The right and left panel contain the names of those who came over in the “Mayflower.” The rear panel is plain, to have an inscription at some future day.

The total height of the Monument is eighty-one feet, from the ground to the top of the head of the statue of Faith. The following are some of the dimensions of this great piece of work, said, on good authority, to be the largest and finest piece of granite statuary in the world: the height of the base is forty-five feet; height of statue, thirty-six feet. The outstretched arm measures from shoulder to elbow, ten feet one and one-half inches; from elbow to the tip of finger, nine feet nine inches; total length of arm, nineteen feet ten and one-half inches. The head measures around the forehead thirteen feet seven inches. The points of the star, in the wreath around the head are just one foot across. The arm, just below the short sleeve, measures six feet ten inches around; below the elbow, six feet two inches. The wrist is four feet around. The length of the finger pointing upwards is two feet one inch, and is one foot eight and one-half inches around. The thumb measures one foot eight and one-half inches around. The circumference of the neck is nine feet two inches and the nose is one foot four inches long. From centre to centre of the eyes is one foot six inches. The figure is two hundred and sixteen times life size and its weight one hundred and eighty tons. A bolt of lightning ran down the arm and figure Aug. 23, 1912, splitting and displacing two blocks of the central section. They were restored to position, without taking down the monument, by Mr. George W. Bradford, a Plymouth contractor, a feat which reflected much credit upon his engineering skill.

The statue of Faith was the gift of the late Oliver Ames, a native of Plymouth, and its cost was $31,300. The total cost of the Monument was $150,000, contributed by more than 11,000 people of the United States and other countries.

Pilgrim Hall

Returning to Court street (the main street) from the Monument grounds, and passing the head of Old Colony park, we soon see on our left a building with a Doric portico, standing a little way from the street. This is Pilgrim Hall, erected in 1824 by the Pilgrim Society as a monumental hall to the memory of the Pilgrims. In 1880, without taking down the walls, it was re-roofed and refloored with steel beams and terra cotta blocks at a cost of over $15,000 by Joseph Henry Stickney, Esq., a wealthy Baltimore merchant of Boston nativity, who on a casual visit to Plymouth became so impressed of preserving with the greatest care the interesting relics of the Pilgrims there deposited, that he most liberally made this large expenditure to secure these precious memorials from loss by fire. At the same time he provided for better classification and exhibition of the articles, those immediately connected with the Pilgrims being deposited, mostly in glass cases, in the main hall, while an interesting museum of antique curiosities was arranged in the room below. Exteriorly, marked improvement was made by raising the Doric porch to the height of the main building, and repainting and sanding the whole front in imitation of stone. Quite a change was made at the same time in the front area by the removal back to the Landing-place of the portion of Plymouth Rock, which for forty-six years had here been a prominent object.

The hall is kept open daily (including Sundays in the summer season), at regular hours, for the accommodation of visitors, a fee of twenty-five cents being charged. These fees are the only income of the Pilgrim Society, the fund so accumulated being devoted to the care of the Pilgrim relics, the monuments, grounds, and historic points of the Pilgrim locality in Plymouth.

To the improvements made by Mr. Stickney, very important and extensive ones were carried out by the Society in the periods from February to May 1911, and from December 1911 to March 1912, the hall being closed to the public during the work. Everything of wood, from the basement to the roof was removed from the ante-rooms, and also from the main hall and the one beneath. With steel beams, terra cotta blocks, cement and marble, thorough work was done in fireproofing the whole structure, so that the Doric entrance portico, which is separated from the building by a thick brick wall, now remains as the only combustible part. The cost of these radical improvements, which seem to sufficiently insure the protection of the priceless collection of Pilgrim relics, was about $15,000, paid from the visitors fee fund. It is in contemplation, and plans have been prepared, for changing the Doric portico from wood to granite, with monolithic columns. About $20,000 will be needed for this much desired object, which will make Pilgrim Hall, in its entirety, a complete and harmonious memorial of the Forefathers; but this laudable project will have to await the slow accumulation of an annual income from visitors fees, or the possible generous gift of a descendant or admirer of our Pilgrim ancestors.

The interior, with marble floors and wainscots, and walls freshly colored in neutral tints which set off the pictures to much advantage, now presents a very neat and attractive appearance.

In the marble vestibule hangs a large picture of the “Landing,” done in distemper, which was presented to the Society by Robert G. Shaw of Boston. At the right is the curator’s room, on the walls of which hang a portrait of King James I., together with a number of maps and local views of Plymouth, illustrative of changes which have taken place. Over the entrance to the main hall is a large gilded copy of the seal of the Colony, reproduced from the “Book of Laws,” printed in 1685. The original seal was adopted probably in 1625. It was taken away during the administration of the infamous Governor Andros, and never recovered, as far as is known. This copy is supposed to have been the gift of Samuel Nicholson, of the Boston Common Council, a native of Plymouth. At the left of the entrance is the stairway to the lower hall, and the sanitary conveniences of the building.

The main hall is forty-six by thirty-nine feet, with walls twenty-two feet high, and is lighted entirely from the roof. At the east end is the large picture of the “Landing,” thirteen by sixteen feet, painted by Henry Sargent, of Boston, an amateur artist, and presented by him to the Society in 1834. Its estimated value was $3,000, and the massive frame cost about $400. At the left is a portrait of the venerable Dr. James Thacher, the first secretary of the Pilgrim Society. He was the author of Thacher’s Military Journal and a History of Plymouth, which has been considered one of the best ever published. The picture upon the right is a fine painting and most excellent likeness of the gentleman who in 1880 so disinterestedly and generously remodeled and beautified Pilgrim Hall,—Joseph Henry Stickney, Esq., of Baltimore. The portrait was painted by D. G. Pope, a Baltimore artist, and in subject and execution is worthy of its place in this Pilgrim temple. Beneath the picture the Society has placed a bronze memorial tablet in grateful remembrance of Mr. Stickney’s benefactions.

In the middle of the south wall is hung the large copy of Weir’s Embarkation from Delft Haven, from the large painting in the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington, done for the Society by Edgar Parker. It is flanked by several large portraits designated in the catalogue, including one of Hon. Daniel Webster.

In the centre of the west side hangs the noble gift of ex-Gov. Alexander H. Rice, of Massachusetts, Charles Lucy’s large painting of the Departure from Delft Haven. It is of great value, and at a prize exhibition in England won the first premium of a thousand guineas. It is altogether different in color and tone from either of the others, and will bear close sturdy. On its right and left are portraits of Washington and Edward Everett, with pictures of the house at Austerfield, England, where Governor Bradford was born, and the only copy extant of the earliest map of New England territory, made by William Hack about 1663.

On the north wall at the left of the entrance to the library the fine historical painting of the Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by W. F. Halsall occupies a prominent position, and grouped around it are the portraits of the Winslow family. These consist of Edward Winslow, of the Mayflower company who was Governor of Plymouth Colony in 1633-1636 and 1644. This portrait, and that of Josiah Winslow, who was born in Plymouth in 1628, son of Governor Edward, and who became the first native governor of the Colony 1673 to 1680, were probably painted in London by Robert Walker in 1651, the first is therefore regarded as undoubtedly a life-like portrait of a Mayflower Pilgrim. Others of the group are Penelope, (wife of Gov. Josiah Winslow) and Gen. John Winslow, great grandson of Gov. Edward Winslow. The general is depicted in the scarlet uniform of the British Army. He was second in command in the expedition which removed the Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1755. The house in which he lived, built in 1730, is still standing in Plymouth, on the corner of Main and North streets. It was also the home of James Warren, president of the Provincial Congress.

At the right of the library entrance hangs the original of Robert W. Weir’s Embarkation of the Pilgrims from Delft Haven, purchased by the Society in 1914. From this study, Weir produced the larger painting for the Capitol rotunda at Washington. Above it is an engraving of the Sailing of the Mayflower, from Cope’s original painting, which hangs in the House of Lords in London. There are also engravings of the Signing of the Compact, and the Landing by different artists, and a colored lithograph by Allebe of a picture representing the First Religious service held by the Pilgrims, painted in 1859 by Schwarz of Amsterdam. The vessel bringing the painting to the United States was burned at sea by a Confederate privateer during the Civil War. Over the library door is The Royal Arms, which before the Revolution hung over the judges bench in the Plymouth Colonial Court House, now our old Town House, and was carried to Shelburne, Nova Scotia, by Captain Gideon White, a royal refugee of those times.

Across the head of the hall, under the Sargent picture, are important historical articles, as the Patent of Plymouth Colony, the chairs of Elder Brewster and Gov. Carver, which were brought by them in the Mayflower, the Peregrine White cradle and the Fuller cradle, a chest which belonged to Myles Standish, a carved pew back from the ancient parish church at Scrooby, a chair once owned by Gov. Winslow, and the keystone from an arch in Scrooby Manor. Just inside the door from the curator’s office is a small steel safe containing Gov. William Bradford’s bible, printed at Geneva in 1592. During visiting hours the sacred volume may be seen.

Arranged about the hall on handsome steel tables are exhibition cases of the finest plate glass in America, and in these are displayed and numbered conveniently for recognition by catalogue, very many authentic relics and personal belongings of the Pilgrims and their households. The first at the right on entering contains articles of the White family, among them a cabinet brought in the Mayflower by William White, father of Peregrine, a cane and a candlestick, which he once owned, also a bond written and signed by Peregrine White, who was born on the Mayflower in Cape Cod harbor in 1620, and died in Marshfield, 1704. Next is the Alden case and in it is seen John Alden’s bible dated 1661, a halberd found in a house he once occupied in Duxbury, a deed signed by this fond lover of Priscilla, a christening bowl which belonged to Elder William Brewster, etc. The Standish case is next, and most interesting, for the reason that there is deposited the famous Damascus sword of the military Chieftain of the Pilgrims, together with a large pewter platter and iron pot which he brought in the Mayflower. There are fragments of a quilt which belonged to Rose, his wife, and a specimen of embroidery or “sampler” worked by Lorea, his daughter in 1653, with this verse:

Lorea Standish is my name, Lord, guide my hart that I may doe Thy will: Also fill my hands with such convenient skill As will conduce to virtu void of shame, And I will give the glory to thy name.

The baby cap and bib worked for her little daughter Lorea by Barbara Standish has lately been added to the collection. The sword of Myles Standish is one of the most valuable articles in Pilgrim Hall. General Grant on his visit to Plymouth, October 14, 1880, was much interested in this ancient weapon, and handled it with evident satisfaction. The Arabic inscriptions on the blade have always been a puzzle, and, notwithstanding many attempts, remained undeciphered until the visit to the town, June 7, 1881, of Prof. James Rosedale, of Jerusalem, with a troupe of Arabs from Palestine. Mr. Rosedale being an excellent linguist, was shown the sword, and pronounced the inscriptions to be of different dates; one of them in Cufic, very old, and the other in mediæval Arabic of a later period, but still very ancient. To the last he readily gave the following translation:—

“_With peace God ruled His slaves (creatures) and with the judgment of His arm He troubled the mighty of the wicked._”

He had no doubt that the weapon dated back two or three centuries before the Christian era, and might be much older. It was captured from the Persians at Jerusalem in 637 by the Saracens, and it is probable that this famous blade came down to Capt. Standish from the Crusaders, and possessed an interesting history in his day.