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History Timeline |
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History Timeline |
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-- traditional beginning of almost any yarn about the Good Old Town. |
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| 1615 | In a war with the Tarrantines, the Naumkeags and their Chief, Nanepashemet, are defeated. |
| 1619 | Nanepashemet is killed at Mystic and his widow, Squaw Sachem of Saugus, succeeds him. |
| 1620 | December 21st: First settlers land at Plymouth Rock, actually at Clark's Island across the harbor. |
| 1621 | A party from Plymouth found the Great Forts of Nanepashemet, one of which was in Marblehead, near Forest River (Leggs Hill Road), and perhaps the home of Nanepashement |
| 1622 | Thomas Graye begins fishing and trading operations in the region. |
| 1625 | Doliber is living in a "hogshead" on a beach on Peach's Point, according to legend, becoming Marblehead's traditionally honored "first" settler, however... |
| 1628 | Other than the Doliber legend, probably the most likely first resident of the Town was Thomas Graye whose house by 1631 was scheduled to be "pud downe and that noe Englishe man shall hereafter giue howseroome to him or intertaine him, under such penalty as the Court thinke meete to inflicte." Graye was engaged in fishing and trading throughout the Cape Ann region since 1622 with what became known as Marblehead as his base of operations. |
| 1629 | Town is settled, records established. Isaac Allerton sets up the first fishing plantation. |
| 1630 | -- Englishman John Peach settles
on Peach's Point, which for almost 250 years afterward was used for farming. -- John Withrop becomes Governor of the Colony |
| 1631 | -- September: Isaac Allerton, one of the most prominent men of the Plymouth Colony, having had some diffiulty with his associates, set sail in the White Angel for Marble-Harbor. His son-in-law, Moses Maverick accompanied him. |
| 1632 | Marblehead first produces an entire shipload of cured fish for export to Europe |
| 1633 | --Moses Maverick officiates at
a Christian burial to John and James, the first and second sons of Nanepashemet --July 2nd: The first mention of the name "Marblehead" in the Colonial records "July 2, 1633, James White is ffine xxxs for drunkeness by him comitted att Marblehead, on the Sabbath day. John Bennet is ffined xs for being drunke at Marblehead. Their true residency, however, was not established by the records. |
| 1634 | Oath of the Freeman in Massachusetts is approved as a precise and noble declaration of a colonial citizen's duties and rights. Marblehead did not subscribe to its clauses which excluded Quakers, Catholics, dissentors and irreligious. |
| 1635 | Marblehead is declared a separate
plantation, then this was reversed the next year, returning the Town to
Salem. August: Reverend John Avery set sail to Marblehead from Newbury, to become the Town's first pastor, after declining Marblehead's first invitation. The vessel, owned by Isaac Allerton, was destroyed by a storm on the way. |
| 1636 | -- The building
of a college was proposed for Marblehead in the vicinity of Mr. Humphrey's
farm, between
the "Clifte and Forest River. Instead, Harvard was built in Cambridge. -- The first Colonial slave ship is constructed in Marblehead, The Desire. It was 120 tons and the third ship built in the Colonies. Captained by William Pierce. The ship and its Marblehead crew set a new record to London of 23 days. -- Land was established from Darby Fort to Hogsties (20 pole into the land) for a Town Commons. -- The Pequot War. The Puritans and their indian friends attempted to destroy the fierce Pequots (who were alligned with the well-armed English) in a savage and destructive war. Marblehead and its friendly Naumkeags were not involved, or very little. |
| 1637 | -- The Fort Darby Ferry begins
service to Salem. -- January: Salem assesses a "tax" on Marblehead residents of 8 pounds each. At this time there 24 residents identified in the records. |
| 1638 | Old Burial
Hill established. 600 casualties of the Revolutionary War were later buried
there. -- September 6th: Moses Maverick is permitted to sell a "tun of wine at Marblehead, and not to excede this yeare." -- Mr. William Walton began is ministries, without ordination. -- A Meeting House was erected on "Old Hill" and services began and a burial ground around it was established. |
| 1640 | -- Arthur Sanden
was allowed to establish an "ordinary" in Marblehead, and then in 1641 to keep
a "victualling house," probably the First Public House. -- Marblehead inhabitants were granted "all such lands near adjoining them as have not been formerly granted to other men." |
| 1641 | Marblehead is given permission by Salem to layout its own acreage with the approval of a Salem appointee |
| 1644 | -- David Curwithin elected first
constable of Marblehead -- General Court allows Marblehead to fortify and directs that "two guns to be delivered unto them with convenient ammunition thereto. Gale's Head becomes the site of Fort Sewall |
| 1645 | The "Plain Farm" is purchased for grazing by the leaders of Marblehead, persuading William Walton to stay, createing a financial resource for the Town, and reinforcing the power of the group under the leadership of Moses Maverick and John Peach, Sr. |
| 1648 | -- First Town Meeting held -- Tuesday, December 22nd: the first Marbehead Board of Selectmen meeting |
| 1649 | -- May
2nd: Incorporation Day. Salem's Town Meeting concedes full independence
to Marblehead, pending approval of the General Court. -- King Charles I is beheaded. |
| 1658 | Town taxes are collected by Mr. William Walton |
| 1660 | -- The King's
agents declare Marblehead to be "...the greatest towne for fishinge
in New England." -- There are 16 houses in the "entire township" -- Hugh Peters, living in the Devereux area, leaves for England to join the Cromwell forces, advocating the overthrow of the King and beheading him. Captured, sentenced to death, "drowned after a hurdle" -- John Codner urges the formation of a Town Wharf at the (now) State Street Landing -- April: Marblehead Salem road is first laid out |
| 1662 | Town Wharf (State Street Landing) is set aside as a "Common Landing place." |
| 1680 | The Three Cod is constructed near the corner of Glover Square and Front Street. |
| 1684 | -- July 14th:
At a meeting of the commoners and proprietors of Marblehead James Quannapowit
laid claim
to all lands in Marblehead and argued that the town was giving out land
that rightfully belonged to him. A committee composed of Moses Maverick,
John Devereux, Captain Samuel Ward, Theodore Riddan, William Beale,
Thomas
Pitman, Richard Reed, and Nathaniel Walton plus the Selectmen found in
favor of James Quannapowit's title claim. The committee empowered Ward
and Devereux to negotiate "reasonable terms" and to obtain
a lawful deed of sale. Developing political problems with the English
government
over the colony's charter, claims of royal land ownership, Quannapowit's
seemingly clear legal claim, and memories of the all-too-recent war
with
King Philip were excellent reasons to enter into a rapid settlement. -- July 18th: Inhabitants of Marblehead "procured" (for a pittance) a deed of their township from the heirs of Winnepoykin, who married Ahawayet, daughter of Poquamum of Nahant. Winepoykin was the third son of Nanepashemet, and was also known as "No Nose" George. This "procurement" was a hurry-up situation to avoid land issues caused by the British rescinding of the famous Massachusetts Bay Charter. (Doliber) -- September 16th: A deed of sale was marked and signed by the rightful heirs of Nanepashemet: James Quannapowit (his grandson); Ahawayet (his daughter-in-law); Sarah and Susannah Wenepoykin (his granddaughters); Israel and Joan Quannapowit, David Nonoponowgo, and Jonathan Tonotuoughoqione (his great-grandchildren). The township of three thousand seven hundred acres was sold for sixteen pounds, current money of New England, and the deed was duly registered in Essex County. (Doliber) The Town ownership is "signed, sealed, and delivered" under Govenor Simor Bradstreet (Charles II reign) -- The First Church of Christ (Congregational) was formally organized with Reverend Samuel Cheever as pastor, first meeting house was on Burial Hill. The second meeting house was on Franklin Street (1695) and then the Old North Church on Washington Street, its present location, in 1824. |
| 1688 | Marblehead's fishing season produced 8,400,000 of fish worth £37,000 sterling.ß |
| 1690 | "Black Joe's" Tavern built, named for a freed black slave. His wife, Aunt Crese, developed the lily-pad- shaped molasses and giner cookies knowns as "Joe Froggers" that everybody loved, and loves still. |
| 1692 | -- Wilmott "Mammy" Redd hanged on Gallows Hill in Salem on September 22nd as a unconfessed witch during Salem's sad period of hysteria. Many townspeople witnessed the execution. Margaret Scot was the only other Marblehead resident killed as a witch. It wasn't until the year 2002 that this horendous act was finally renounced by the Commonwealth. |
| 1693 | Colonial Depression begins and continues until roughly 1700 |
| 1699 | -- May 2nd: Marblehead celebrates its 50th Anniversary of Incorporation. |
| 1701 | The "Golden Age of Trade" begins (1701-1775) |
| 1714 | -- St. Michael's Episcopal Church,
26 Summer Street, built. After the reading of the Declaration Of Independence,
local patriots stormed into the closed church, ripped the royal coat of
arms from its place of honor, and rang the bell until it cracked. Paul
Revere eventually recast the bell. -- Teachers salaries paid for the first time from taxes |
| 1715 | "Old Spite House" built for Robert Wood at the interesection of Orne and Gas House Lane. Three fishermen Graves brothers, were famous for ignoring and spiting each other. |
| 1727 | -- Old Town House built -- Children paid for classes in the Town's first official building -- "King" Hooper Mansion built (competed in 1745) -- October: A severe storm washed away and greatly damaged River Head Beach. The damage was so great that the town could not afford the expense of repairing it, and at a town meeting held shortly afterwards it was voted to petition the General Court for help, "praying the care of the Province therein." -- October: Earthquake hits the North Shore |
| 1728 | -- Sunday, March 17th: First Town Meeting held in the "new" Town House. |
| 1730 | One of the darkest years in Marblehead's history. Small-pox devastates the Town for the next year, and while the numbers of those killed by the virulent disease are not recorded, every family in Town was affected, and all but two members of the Board of Selectmen were killed, resulting for the first time in a history a special election being called by a Justice of the Peace to replace the fallen members. |
| 1731 | -- March 31st: Marblehead petitions and wins the right from the General Court to establish a separate jail of its own, to solve the problem of "many strangers and Seafaring men from other parts of the world coming and residing there who often prove ill-minded, disorderly person and disturbers of the peace." |
| 1732 | -- February 22nd: George Washington
is born into a Virginia planter family -- November 5th: John Glover is born to Jonathan and Yabitha (Bacon) |
| 1742 | -- The fortification built on Gale's Head by the federal government, under the direction of Sir Harry Franklin, collector of the Port of Boston, is completed. |
| 1744 | July 17: Elbridge Gerry born, third Vice President of the United States under James Madison, 1812-1814, signer of the Declaration of Independence. |
| 1745 | Marblehead vessels and mariners participate in the Louisburg Expedition where American colonial forces took the French fortress there. |
| 1749 | -- May 2nd: Marblehead celebrates its 100th Anniversary of Incorporation. |
| 1751 | March 19th: The fire department of Marblehead is first organized, by a vote accepting the gift of Robert Hooper's fire engine, the "Friend," and the establishment of a "Board of Firewards." |
| 1752 | March: The town passes an ordinance against "pitching pennies" and for children under fourteen, the vote holds the parents responsible for the fines. |
| 1753 | Robert "King" Hooper gives the Town its first fire equipment, a hand-pumper, named "Friend." |
| 1754 | -- John and Hannah (Gale) Glover are married. Over the next 17 years they have 11 children. |
| 1755 | Powder House built at 35 Green
Street, as a storage facility for ammunition and arms during the French
and Indian War (1754-1763). Only one of three pre-Revolutionary buildings
of its type in existence in America. The design was intended to allow
an explosion to send the rounded flying without destroying the curved,
double walls. -- November 18th: An earthquake hits the seacoast from Nova Scotia to Chesapeake Bay, causing extensive damage. Dr. Edward Augustus Holyoke, of Salem, describes it as follows: At 4h. 15m. we were awakened by a greater earthquake than has ever been known in this country. Tops of chimneys and stone walls were thrown down, and clocks stopped by the shake. I thought of nothing less than being buried instantly in the ruins of the house." Interesting to historians of Marblehead might be the coincidence of this earthquake hitting Marblehead and Lisbon, for one person almost killed in the Lisbon side of the quake was none other than our famous Sir Harry Franklin. And also interestingly, Agnes Surriage, saved his life by phyiscally digging him out of the crushed carriage in which he and a dead female companion were trapped. It was this event in the life of Sir Harry Franklin that caused deep introspection about the life of self-immersion he had been living and ultimately resulted in his marriage proposal to Agnes, finally granting the humble Marblehead girl the status and respect she so richly deserved. (see Road's History, Chapter V) |
| 1758 | Benjamin Franklin, then Colonial Deputy Postmaster, appoints Woodward Abraham Postmaster of Marblehead. |
| 1762 | -- Robert Hooper gives the Town
its first fire engine Marblehead streets are first officially identified by the Board of Selectmen, many names associated with England. |
| 1763 | -- May: the Town pump sunk at the
northeast end of the Town House. -- August 2nd: Market of Market Square opened in the lower level of the Town House. -- King George III ascends to the English throne |
| 1765 | -- November 1: Parliament enacts the Stamp Act, despite widespread opposition in the colonies, to raise revenues for British military operations in America. The measure was passed without debate. -- William H. Shepard's apothecary shop built at 98 Washington Street. The store remained in business as an apothecary into the 1950's. |
| 1768 | -- The Jeremiah Lee Mansion built
at 161 Washington Street. Visitors to the mansion included George Washington,
James Munroe, Andrew Jackson, and the Marquis de Lafayette. The three-storied
mansion measures about 10,000 square feet, and the sixteen rooms of various
dimensions contain twelve working fireplaces and eleven closets. There
is a full attic and a large cellar of brick and granite. -- Nine Marblehead vessels, with their crews, were lost at sea. |
| 1769 | -- Fourteen Marblehead vessels,
with their crews, were lost at sea. In two years 122 men and boys were
lost -- April 17th: The brig Pitt Packet of Marblehead, Captain Thomas Powers, is boarded near Cape Ann by a British gun boat, in an attempt to impress the crew. A "desperate encounter" ensued over the next three hours. The British sustained one fatality and were forced to withdraw. |
| 1771 | Twin lighthouses at Thatcher Island are lighted. |
| 1773 | December 16th: three companies of 50 men each, masquerading as "Mohawks," passed between the protecting lines of a tremendous crowd of spectators, went aboard three ships of the East India Tea Company, broke open the 342 tea chests, and the contents into the harbor. As the electrifying news of the Boston "Tea Party" spread, other seaports followed the example and held tea parties of their own. |
| 1774 | Janaury: a band of fearful and angry Marbleheaders burn the smallpox hospital on Cat Island to the ground. |
| 1775 | -- February 26th:
a regiment of British soldiers, under the command of Colonel Leslie,
commander of the
British 64th Regiment of Foot, were ordered to capture the eight cannons
stored on Salem's North Fields. 250 men disembarked at Holman's Cove
in
Marblehead at around 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Marbleheaders, led by
Major John Pedrick (who knew Leslie personally), rang the alarm in
Salem
and together with those citizens ultimately confronted the British on
the North Bridge in Salem. Colonel Leslie demanded that the bridge,
which
was up on the far side, be lowered. But the locals refused, knowing that
Pedrick's forces were on the way. Colonel Leslie ordered his men to
fire.
But Captain John Felt of the Salem militia informed the Colonel that
the British troops had no right to fire and if they did, they would
all be
killed. Incidentally, Frank Benson and Joseph Whicher during all of this
sank two barges nearby so the British couldn't use them to cross. When
British soldiers poked their bayonets at them, the two men flippantly
bared their chests in the frigidly cold New England air. Whicher actually
received a superficial wound, drawing the first blood of the American
Revolution. The situation drew out over the afternoon, all the while
word
was that thousands of patriots were on the way. And agreement was ultimately
reached where the draw was lowered and the British allowed to march
about
165 yards into the North Salem before turning around and returning to
Marblehead, on the way constant disparaged by residents with catcalls
and insults. The British returned to Marblehead, led by their fifers
playing "The World's Turned Upside Down," (the same tune palyed at Lord
Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown in 1781. Unable to seize the cannons
in Danvers that were the object of their invasion, Colonel's Leslie's
reputation was protected by his friends in high places as reflected in
Lord Dartmouth's report to Governor Gage: "The places [the cannons]
were said to be concealed in were strictly searched, but no artillery
could be found; and we have since discovered that there had only been
some old ship guns, which had been carried away from Salem some time
ago." -- April 17th: The famous, "Leslie's Retreat" occurred. Lt. Colonel Alexander Leslie, -- April 19th: Growing rebellion against the British repression and harassment explodes into war in Lexington and Concord. -- Jeremiah Lee, a staunch patriot, served as a colonel in the local regiment and a member of important provincial political committees. He contracted a fatal fever while evading British troops in a field near Lexington on April 19, 1775. -- Allegedly shots fired from the British frigate Lively struck the side of the Three Cod Tavern on Front Street. -- June 16th: Captain Samuel Russell Trevett, leads the Marblehead Company at the Battle of Bunker Hill. -- September 2: The Hannah was commissioned, -- September 5: The Hannah sails as the first American Naval vessel under the ownership of John Glover and with Nicholson Broughton as Captain, crewed by Marbleheaders. -- October: Marbleheader John Manley (Russell) in command of the schooner Lee capatures the British ship Nancy and brings her into Boston laden with 31 tons of muskets and ammunition, including cannons and cannon balls. -- October 10, the Hannah encounters HMS Nautilis in Beverly Harbor. She was run aground while fleeing from HMS Nautilus, a 16-gun sloop. Saved from destruction by spirited resistance from local patriots, she was soon decommissioned by Washington, who had meanwhile hired vessels more appropriate to the Army's needs. -- December 13th: HMS Lively, HMS Nautilus, and HMS Hinchinbrook appeared off the coast of Marblehead terrifying residents who expected the ships to level the Town as they had in Falmouth, Maine. Women and children were evacuated and the men manned Fort Sewall, even though there war no powder. Pretending their guns were armed and ready the Marbleheaders bluffed the British into retreat. (This entry is based on an article in the Salem Evening News, 12/20/04 by Jim McAllister. -- December 22nd: a Continental naval fleet was organized, in Marblehead of course, for the first time. |
| 1776 |
-- Marblehead's population of 4,386 was one of the largest in the Colonies. |
| 1782 | General John Glover retires and moves to estate of William Browne at the border of Marblehead and Swampscott. |
| 1783 | September 3: Colonies victorious, Revolutionary War ends. |
| 1784 | Lafayette visits Marblehead for the first time. |
| 1787 | September 17th: The Constitution is completed and signed by a majority of the delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Elbridge Gerry eloborates his eleven reasons for not signing, despite being one of the few delegates present to have signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. His participation and hesitation, along with others, to cede to a federal government individual and states "basic rights" led to the inclusion of the Bill of Rights and the ultimate ratification. |
| 1788 | June 21st: The Constitution of the United States goes into effect |
| 1789 | -- January 7th: First National
election held -- April 30th: George Washington is sworn in as the first President Of The United States on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City. -- October 29th: President George Washington and Marquis de Lafayette visit Marblehead to thank the Town for its Revolutionary War sacrificies. "May your prosperity, in the preservation of that liberty so gloriously purchased, ever venerate the memory of their ancestors." -- Lafayette. Washington especially wanted to visit his retired General John Glover, now a Selectman, who led the crowds of people welcoming the President. In his message of thanks to Marblehead he wrote, "Your attachment to the Constitution of the United States is worthy of men, who fought and bled for freedom, and know its value." -- Marblehead Academy built at 44 Pleasant Street, the first school building. The original structure was razed in 1879, and a new brick building built on the site. |
| 1790 | -- Robert "King" Hooper
dies. The nickname applied to him, not so much, apparently, for his
stately
style of living as for his fairness and integrity in dealing with the
sailors who manned his ships. His served on the Board of Selectmen
in
1760 and as Town Moderator. He married four times and had eleven children
(all with his first wife, the sister of Mrs. Jeremiah Lee). He was
a loyalist
forced to leave during revolution and lost all of his holdings and businesses.
Died bankrupt. -- The Town is beginning to think about improvements of Great Harbor Beach, which by this time is commonly called the Causeway. Sometime around 1727 had received some funding for a seawall. But access to the "Great Necke" was still subject to disruption. The state granted $4000 for the repair of the Causeway, to be repaid through a local lottery. |
| 1791 | December 15th: Bill Of Rights ratified. |
| 1793 | First Marblehead U. S. Post Office established, Thomas Lewis, Postmaster. |
| 1794 | August 25th: Town Meeting cedes the fort to the United States of America, Justice of the Peace Samuel Sewall was present at the release. |
| 1795 | September 7th: Benjamin Abbot born in Marblehead to his father Bejamin Abbot, a master mariner, and his mother, Marcia Martin. With the sad death of his mother, Benjamin steered his life away from his father's plans for him on the high seas towards a trade: barrel-making. Neither discouraged nor deterred by the fires the destroyed his shop he continued on his path towards success. He ultimately married, Olive Welch of New Hampshire, and as she died after 40 years of marriage, is quoted as saying that, "There was never an unkind word between us." When he died a wealthy man on Sepetember 29, 1872 at the age of 77, he left $14,800 to missionary and educational institutes, $70,000 to 62 relatives and friends, and, most significantly, nearly $100,000 to the Town of Marblehead, for the erection of a building, named after him, for the use of the Town's residents. He simply said of the reason for his generosity to Marblehead, "It was my birthplace." |
| 1796 | June 6th: Azor Orne dies and is entombed in
the Green Street cemetery. September 19th: Washington refuses a third term as President and gives his farewell address. |
| 1797 | -- John Marchant gave the Town
$937 to help the poor of Marblehead and the Town ultimately built two
schoolhouses, one named after him. -- January 30th: General John Glover dies, age 65, living his final years as a cordwainer. A statue by the Irish-born sculptor Martin Milmore adorns Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston since 1875. |
| 1798 | Baker's Island light erected. |
| 1799 | -- May 2nd: Marblehead celebrates
its 150th Anniversary of Incorporation. |
Joseph Dixon born. He went on to found the Dixon Ticondaroga Pencil Company, 1827, in Salem and invented the mass production of lead pencils, hundreds, then thousands daily. His company sold their pencils door |
|
1799 |
-- May 2nd: Marblehead celebrates
its 150th Anniversary of Incorporation. |
| 1802 | Captain Thomas Peach dies as a well-beloved centenarian. |
| 1804 | The Marblehead Bank purchased the Lee Mansion and owned it for almost a full century. |
| 1807 | USS Chesapeake is attacked by British ship Leopard near the capes of Virginia. In a town meeting on July 11,th the residents of Marblehead declared their support and resolved to assist the cause. |
| I808 | -- Because of his
failure to aid another vessel in distress during a Gale, Skipper Floyd "Flud"
Ireson, Captain of the Betty, was tarred and feathered by the Townspeople.
John Greenleaf Whittier commemorated this event in his 1857 poem, "Skipper
Ireson's Ride." Also, this event is depicted in Will H. Low's 1881
painting, "Here's Floyd Ireson." -- The Gun Artillery House, a federal period arsenal, was built at 45 Elm Street |
| 1809 | The Marblehead Light Infantry was formed. |
| 1814 | -- Fort at Gale's Head was named
Fort Sewall in honor of local official Samuel Sewall, who became the Chief
Justice of Massachusetts -- Elbridge Gerry dies. A patrician patriot, Gerry was the Town's representative to the first Continental Congress, a signer of the Declaration of Indendence, and a govenor of Massachusetts. He died in office while Vice President under James Madison. He said, "It is the duty of every man though he may have but one day to live to devote that day to the good of his country." -- Sunday, April 3rd: HMS Tenedos and HMS Junon, powerful British warships, chase USS Constitution to Marblehead, and then turn away before the guns of Fort Sewall could bear down upon them. Constitution was saved from certain destruction. Samuel Green, one of the Marbleheaders on board, was actually at the helm and piloted Constitution safely into Marblehead Harbor. Green Street is named in his honor. -- June 23rd: the vessel Arnold Sears, belonging to Marbleheader Captain Thomas Martin, is shipwrecked off Baker's island. |
| 1824 | -- The names of Marblehead's main
streets were changed by vote of Town Meeting. For example, Ye Queen' Highway
became Washington Street, and King Street became State Street. -- Lafayette visits Marblehead for the last time as an old man. |
| 1825 | Old North Congregational Church, 41 Washington Street, built. |
| 1830 | March 13th: The Marblehead Register,
Marblehead's first local paper publishes its first edition. Publisher
was Mr. Henry Blaney. Oliver Wendell Holmes writes, "Old Ironsides," which is credited with saving USS Constitution from being scuttled. |
| 1831 | -- Grand Bank founded, named for
the fishing territory off Newfoundland where so many Marblehead fisherman
made their living. -- August 30th: Town votes to build a 20 foot lighthouse on the rocky point of Marblehead Neck. The light was a burning flame fuel by whale oil. The keeper had to carry the oil to the lighthouse, polish the reflectors (lenses came into being in the 1860's), and pull the shades during the day. |
| 1832 | -- Old Town House raised high on
a granite foundation. -- Second Congregational Church built at 28 Mugford Street -- President Andrew Jackson visits Marblehead in the wake of his successful campaign and Marblehead's role. |
| 1833 | St. Stevens Methodist, 26 Summer Street built. |
| 1835 | First lighthouse erected on Point o' Neck after a four year struggle with the government about the location. The first keeper was Ezekiel Darling, a former quarter gunner on Constitution. Miss Jane C. Martin, the only woman keeper on the coast followed Darling, then John Goodwin and Captain James Bailey. In 1895 this structure was torn down and replaced by the higher, steel tower that stands today. |
| 1838 | The white marble obelisk was erected at Old Burial Hill by the Charitable Seamen's Society in memory of the deceased members on shore and at sea |
| 1839 | First railroad station built in Marblehead on Pleasant Street. The Eastern Railroad initiated service. This was the first of four Marblehead train stations. |
| 1844 | The Greek Revival Lyceum Theatre built near Market Square on Washington Street. In 1916 the Lyceum showed the locally-filmed silent movie, The Pride Of The Clan, starring "America's Sweetheart," Mary Pickford. The theater was razed in 1951. |
| 1845 | -- Joseph Story dies |
| 1845 | "Gerry" fire engine is purchased |
| 1846 | A tremendous gale on George's Bank sinks the Marblehead fleet of ten ships killing 65 Marblehead fishermen. A white obelisk monument commemorates their sacrifice at Old Burial Hill. |
| 1847 | First U.S. Postal stamps come to Marblehead |
| 1849 | -- May 2nd: Marblehead celebrates its 200th Anniversary of Incorporation. |
| 1850 | -- Marblehead population listed
as 6,167. -- Town begins to play a vital role in the anti-slavery "underground railroad," help slaves escape to Canada -- Current Town newspaper is the Marblehead Advocate and Mercury |
| 1851 | June 2nd: Colonel Josiah P. Cressy and Eleanor Prentiss Cressy begin the race from New York around Cape Horn to San Francisco in a record 89 days, 21 hours, sailing with great skill the extreme clipper, Flying Cloud, |
| 1853 | -- April 15: Police Department
officially begins -- A. Pickett left his house and property to the Town vauled at $13,500, establishing the Pickett Fund |
| 1854 | Streets in Marblehead were first illuminated with gas lights. |
| 1856 | The Squash House is moved to 59 Elm Street from Gerry Island, where it was built in the early 1700s. It served as a playhouse in the 1890s, home to the Squash Players, who performed there for a number of years. |
| 1861 | -- April 12th: Civil War breaks
out -- April 16th Company C Eighth Regiment Infantry, USV, assembled at Faneuil Hall in Boston amid sleet and snow to earn the distinction of being one of the first, if not the first, companies from the state to respond to President Abraham Lincoln's call to protect the Union. The company also rescued USS Constitution from the secessionists, opened railroad communications for troops between Annapolis and Washington, and guarded the nation's capital. Other commanders of this fabled company were: Captain Samuel C. Graves and Colonel Benjamin F. Peach, Jr. Of the 1,048 Marblehead men who saw service in the Civil War, 827 were in the Army and 221 in the Navy. 110 died, 87 were seriously wounded, and many others taken prisoner and were listed as missing in action. -- The Okommakamesit hand engine, manned by the "Oko's," as they were called, was built in Pennsylvania. The engine was still mustering in Town at the beginning of the year 2000. |
| 1863 | -- Free mail delivery begins in
Marblehead -- January 1st: President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation. |
| 1866 | M.A. Pickett No. 1, the fire company on Franklin Street was formed in May. |
| 1868 | First Baptist Church and Odd Fellow's Hall built at 17 Pleasant Street. |
| 1869 | -- Odd Fellow's Hall, built at
11 Pleasant Street. -- After a series of arguments and "agitations" with the state government, they finally authorized Marblehead to construct a seawall over Riverhead Beach to the Neck. The Neck changed and blossumed over the next half century, from its humble beginnings on its way to the most prestigeous address in Town. |
| 1870 | The Eastern Yacht Club is formed |
| 1871 | -- Population 7,703 (25% increase
since 1850) -- Seeing the potential for the unspoiled land, Boston businessman, Francis B. Crowninshield, purchased a large portion of Peach's Point. And the next year he built an estate to the right of the highest elevation. -- August: After several unsuccessful attempts the Town votes to issue $75,000 in bonds to aid the construction and equipping of a railroad spur in Marblehead. -- October 19th: Eastern Railroad branch from Lynn opens in Marblehead, with small depots at Devereux, Clifton, Beach Bluff and Phillips Beach (Swampscott). -- December: Marblehead Messenger begins publication. |
| 1872 | September 29: Benjamin Abbot dies at the age of 72. |
| 1873 | The second railroad station built on Pleasant Street. This one was bigger and much fancier with Gingerbread decorations enhancing the overhanging roof of the elevated woodframed depot, with a Victorian clock tower. Less than five years later it was destroyed in the first great fire (1877). |
| 1874 | Devereux Train Station built. It stayed in service for 85 years until 1959, when it was razed. |
| 1875 | -- Our Lady, Star of the Sea built
on prospect hill. -- Marblehead becomes the first town in Massachusetts to supply pupils with free textbooks |
| 1876 | -- The Spirit Of '76 is painted
by Archibald M. Willard for the 1876 centennial celebration in Philadelphia.
An 8 x 10 feet painting which depicts American Revolutionary fervor as
an intergenerational trio marches through a battlefield with fife and
drums as a flag waves in the background, the Spirit Of '76 became one
of the most widely recognized images in the world. Originally, entitled
Yankee Doodle, Willard used his father as the central figure
of the older man leading the way, the fifer was Willard's friend Hugh
Mosher,
and the drummer boy was the son of General John H. Devereux of Cleveland,
Ohio. General Devereux, four years later, donated the painting to the
Town of Marblehead in hopes that it would "be erected in Abbot
Hall to the memory of the brave men of Marblehead who have died in
battle on
sea and land for their country. -- The Mugford Monument dedicated at the junction of Pleasant and Essex Streets. In what was the largest celebration in the history of Marblehead to that point, the 18 1/2 foot monunent was erect to honor the memory of Captain James Mugford, on the centennial of his death in the Revolutionary War. Made of Hallowell Granite from Maine, it escape destruction in the next year's fire and was moved to the summit of Old Burial Hill in 1912. -- July 4th, the tallest of the three commemorative granite obelisks in Town is erected at the junction of Elm, Green and Mugford Streets in memory of Marblehead soldiers and sailors who gave their lives in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War -- July 25th: the cornerstone of Abbot Hall is laid |
| 1877 | -- December 14th:
Formal dedication of Abbot Hall. Designed by Lord & Fuller and built on Training Field
Hill. Donated to the Town by Benjamin Abbot, a cooper, the structure was
the tallest in Town, 164 feet to the top of the weathervane. During the
1930's the interior walls were adorned with local-history murals. The
bell of Abbot Hall was donated by James J.H. Gregory. And, "Marblehead
Forever" was heard for the first time in public at a Town event. -- May 7th: $10,000 was appropriated to enlarge the water source of Redd's Pond and build a reservoir. The pond had long served as the Town's freshwater supply. Adoniram Orne had called for this safety measure for years, but the Town wouldn't listen, and only now, one month before the fire that burned most of the Town to ground, did the Town heed his warnings and wisdow. Alas, it was too late; before the system could be built and put in service the First Great Fire struck six weeks later. -- June 25, 1877 the First Great Fire of Marblehead wiped out the manufacturing center of the Town (consuming 72 buildings, including the Central Fire Station) and the income of most of the inhabitants. It started in a stable at the rear of a hotel near the Lynn Shoe Factory, and burned to the ground 72 buildings. |
| 1878 | The third train station is built on Pleasant Street. This station like its ornate predecessor was destroyed in fires to come in 1888. |
| 1880 | -- January 27th: Edison patents
incandescent lamp The History And Traditions of Marblehead by Samuel Roads, Jr. first published. -- Spirit Of '76 is donated to the Town Of Marblehead to be hung in Abbot Hall |
| 1882 | A spontaneous reception for the 21st President of the United States, Chester A. Arthur. With no formal plans to visit the Town, the President was moored in Marblehead Harbor, aboard the yacht Despatch, he landed at Dixey's Wharf, with the intention of going to Salem. A Marbleheader approached him and asked him to speak to the people of the Town, but because of a "busy schedule" the request was denied. returning to Marblehead the President was again approach by the same Marbleheader, again the request was denied. The Marbleheader jumped into the driver's seat and brought the carriage to Abbot Hall. Amid much fanfare the president was brought into the auditorium and interrupted by cheers and much applause he delivered a speech. He later stated, "...I can never forget the fact that I was once kidnapped in Marblehead!" The "kidnapper" was never fully identified, although it is suspected by historians that it was Samuel Roads, Jr. "the perpetual patriach of that mystic organization... the Sea Serpent Club." (Gamage, 198) |
| 1883 | Lydia Pinkham, born in 1819, originator of Mrs. Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, which achieved phenomenal success as one of the most popular patent medicines in America, a lifelong friend of Frederick Douglas, died at the age of 64. |
| 1884 | An effort to have "Clifton Village" become a separate town, including the area of the old Horace 0Ware estate and Marblehead Neck, fails after several weeks of hearings before the Committee on Towns in the Legislature. |
| 1885 | -- Corinthian Yacht Club is formed. -- Nathaniel G. Herreshoff and Edward Burgess began building defenders of the America's Cup and won (1885, 1886, and 1887) -- Town's population reaches 7,467, with 1.930 registered voters. |
| 1886 | -- Uriel Crocker gives most of
the land on Bartoll's Head to the Town, making it the first public park
in Marblehead. -- Frankin Street Engine House built for the M.A. Pickett Engine Company. |
| 1887 | -- Pleon Yacht Club is formed -- Marblehead yacht Volunteer wins the America's Cup and is welcomed home with a townwide celebration and fireworks |
| 1888 | -- YMCA purchases Hooper Mansion -- December 25; The second great fire strikes the Town. The fire started with an explosion around 10 P.M. on Christmas Eve, destroyed fifty important buildings, leaving almost 2000 people out of work. |
| 1889 | -- Marblehead first surveyed, the
year after the second great Fire -- The Brick Steamer House built on School Street as a fire house. -- Rechabite Building built. |
| 1890 | -- The fourth (and final) railroad
station on Pleasant Street is built out of brick with a slate roof in
compliance with the Board of Selectmen's order that all construction in
the downtown area be of masonry. -- Hutchinson's Potato Chips opens -- Population is recorded at 8,202. |
| 1891 | -- Tower School is founded. |
| 1892 | August 11th: The United States steam cruiser Marblehead is launched at South Boston. |
| 1894 | Small scale racing regattas begin
at Redd's Pond -- May 1st: The Burgess Yacht Club is formed. |
| 1895 | -- January 23rd,
Marblehead was illuminated by electricity for the first time, "...the
light being furnished by 165 arc lamps of two thousand candle power,
and 40 incandescents
of twenty five candle power each." (Roads) -- April: The original white lighthouse is replaced by a high iron skelton type tower in the same location (134 steps in the tower); the only lighthouse of its type east of Coney Island. This structure will continue to shine one of the few fixed green lights on the Atlantic Coast into the 21st century. |
| 1896 | -- December 27th: Selectmen Benjamin
F. Martin, 2d and Henry C. Sparhawk present the commander of USS Marblehead
a set of flags for use on the cruiser in appreciation for the honor of
having the ship named after the Town. -- Visiting Nurse Association founded in Marblehead |
| 1897 | -- The United States cruiser Marblehead
visits the Town for six days. -- Free mail delivery begins in Marblehead, with the assignment of four letter carriers. |
| 1898 | -- The last time Fort Sewall is
used by the military as soldiers from Company C in Chelsea bivouac at
the harbor embankment awaiting orders during the four-month-long Spanish-American
War. They returned from the Cuban campaign and paraded in Marblehead on
April 17, 1899. -- Fred Bingham Litchman established his first photography shop on State Street. In 1914 he moved his shop to 157 Washington Street. One of the most prolific photographers in Marblehead's history. -- Cruiser USS Marblehead bombards Guantanamo and sends marines ashore to take the fort. Forever after Guantanamo becomes a U.S. Naval Fort -- November 26th: The "Great Portlant Gale" occurs sinking the side-wheeler steamer , "Portland" drowning 157 people. The storm struck Marblehead and many local vessels were sunk or damaged. A famous picture of this storm exists with the fishing schooner "Eddie Minot" aground on Riverhead Beach near the Causeway. |
| 1899 | -- May 2nd: Marblehead's 250th
Anniversary of Incorporation -- Marblehead Historical Society founded -- The Fliegel-Fladger Family, Marblehead's first Jewish settlers moved into 10 Central Street in the Shipyard area. The family moved to Beverly in 1930. -- The organization of the hose companies: M.A. Pickett, Oko's, The Phoenix, the Liberty Hose, and the Washington Hook and Ladder, put an end to the volunteer fire departments. -- Mary Devereux Watson publishes, From Kingdon to Glory, a sentimental love story of the Revolutionary War period. The book was popular in Marblehead at this time. -- The "Horribles Parade" is added to the Town's Fourth of July Celebration |
| 1900 | -- Marblehead population listed
as 7,582. -- W. Starling Burgess begins experimenting in Redstone Cove and later in Little Harbor with seaplanes and in 1910 succeeded in a short flight of the Flying Fish. During World War I, his plant grew to 800 employees turning out 8 planes a day. -- Census records Town as having 7,583 inhabitants |
| 1901 | -- The Rockmere on Skinner's head
built off Gregory Street, at Pier No. 1, Allerton Place. -- Telephones first appear in Marblehead |
| 1902 | The Boston Yacht Club moves to Marblehead and joins with the Burgess Yacht Club and began a racing series known as "Race Week," establishing Marblehead's reputation as the "Yachting Capital of America" |
| 1903 | Tedesco Country Club founded. |
| 1904 | -- The Honorable Samuel Roads,
Jr. dies. A drummer in the Civil War, Roads grew up listening to stories
about his hometown and incorporated them, along with vast original research,
into his outstanding work, The History And Traditions of Marblehead. -- The Roads School 26 Rowland Street, built, named in honor of Marblehead's most noteworthy historian. -- Tedesco Country Club built on Tedesco Street. The surname of a female Cuban opera singer of the mid-nineteenth century who preformed in Boston was chosen for this golf club. Sixty-nine members joined the first year, then a six-hole course. Three disastrous fires leveled the successive clubhouses, the present structure was built in 1953. |
| 1905 | -- The "new" Post
Office is built on Pleasant Street. -- New Fountain Inn, adjacent to Crocker Park, built. The name was later changed to the Harbor Inn -- Second Post Office and Custom House, 61 Pleasant Street, built. Postmaser B.F. Martin was head at that time. |
| 1906 | -- Gerry School,
50 Elm Street, is built. The first principal, Mary Looney, "a sweet, kindly woman," was
also a full-time teacher. The school originally included grades 1 through
8 -- August 25th: Excelsior Junior Drum Corps organized for the first time -- September 3rd: First Grand International Yachting Festival at Marblehead |
| 1908 | -- The Adams House built by John
T. Adams, a former fire chief, at the time a one-story structure next
to the smaller Rock Haven Sea Grill. -- Marblehead Pottery is first made. Between that year and 1936, when Marblehead Pottery closed it doors, mainly because of the Great Depression, approximately 200,000 pieces of art pottery were produced. Dr. Herbert Hall, prescribed various handicraft activities as a way to treat emotionally disturbed patients. |
| 1909 | -- The Marblehead Historical Society
acquired the Lee Mansion, with the Abbot Public Library Board of Trustees,
for its headquarters. -- Saturday, October 16th: The Town's first football team plays against Ipswich and wins (12-6) with Raymond O. Brackett, owner of the Rockmere Hotel, as the head coach, amid some controversy by parents not wanting their sons to play in such a dangerous contact sport. Brackett argued that the team represented Marblehead's fighting spirit that created American freedom. George P. Campbell, the High School's principal, was in charge of training the team. -- W. Starling Burgess suceeds in launching a plane from the harbor for the first time. |
| 1910 | -- October 1, 1910 the Second Congregational
Church, Unitarian, built in 1832, is destroyed in a fire on Mugford Street. -- James J.H. Gregory, seedsman and Town philanthroper, dies. -- YMCA Building, 104 Pleasant Street, built. The organization moved from its former headquarters in the King Hooper Mansion to this site on the former Allerton Block, which was destroyed in the 1877 fire. -- Male-only Heliotrope Club has a clubhouse on Brown's Island. |
| 1912 | -- August 1st: Alfred Cunningham takes off
from the middle of Marblehead Harbor in Burgess seaplane and inaugurates
the first American entry into Marine Aviation -- The Marblehead Power Squardon was formed. |
| 1913 | The Soldiers and Sailors Monument
is moved (it took eight days) to its new location at the corner of Pleasant
and Essex Streets in Memorial Park. -- The new High School built on Workhouse Rocks off Pleasant Street opens. |
| 1914 | -- Litchman's Printing moves to
157 Washington Street. -- A serious flood occurs in the Shipyard area on March 1st, caused by an underground drain backup after a heavy rain. -- July 28th: World War I begins in Europe. |
| 1915 | Marblehead Laundry moves to 7 Lincoln Avenue |
| 1916 | -- Marbleheaders fight with General
Pershing in Mexico against Pancho Villa -- January 16th: The 10th Deck Division was organized and mustered into service. consisting of three commissioned officers and 56 men. Headquarters were established at the old High School building on Pleasant Street. The company was federalized on March 29, 1917 and assigned to duty aboard USS Nebraska. -- November: Mary Pickford arrives in Marblehead for filming of "The Pride Of The Clan." -- The Glover School built on Maple Street |
| 1917 | -- April 16th:
War breaks out with Germany in Europe. Government asks for 100 recruits
from Marblehead,
461 join up. Most Marbleheaders served in the renowned "Yankee Division" (101st
Artillery 104th Infantry). -- Rector Lyman Rollins was decorated as the "Fighting Chaplain of St. Michaels" -- Eastern and Corthian YachtClubs organize coastal U-Boat patrols, purchasing 8 60-foot patrol boats, with CYC's Roger Upton serving as the local commander. -- Alexander E. Little buys almost 10% of the Town and establishes the Sorosis Farm to grow farm products for his workers at his Lynn shoe factories. The farm went bankrupt in 1934 |
| 1918 | -- February 5th: Edwin Thomas
Martin, a Marbleheader, loaded the first American shell fired against
the Germans at 3:45 P.M. The empty shell casing is on display in the statehouse
in Boston. -- July 20th Second Lieutenant Charles Herbert Evans, born in 1887, was the first Marblehead man to be killed in World War I. He died at the battle of Chateau Thierry in France. By September, the registration list showed that a total of 1,346 Marblehead men from the ages of 18 to 45 were in uniform and one Marblehead woman, Edna Jane "Dolly Dal" Dalrymple. -- November 7th: The Burgess-Dunne plant at Little Harbor catches fire and is completely destroyed, on the night of the "False Armistace" |
| 1919 | Marblehead Pottery publishes its first mail order catalog with fifty illustrations and listing the colors of green gray, orange, rose, tobacco brown, wisteria, and the most popular, Marblehead blue. |
| 1920 | -- Mary Alley Hospital opens on
Franklin Street -- January 17th: Prohibition begins in the United States -- February 5th: A winter snow storm hits the Town described as the "biggest in history." Macia Selman wrote a poem about the storm in which indicates that there was six to eight feet of snow after the storm. Another storm hit on March 6th. -- August 26th: 19th Amendment giving women the vote is passed -- September 8th: Marblehead Neck Inprovement Association is formed with Henry A. Morss as its first president. |
| 1922 | May 12th: Fort Sewall deeded to the Town of Marblehead by the federal government for use as a park in perpetuity |
| 1923 | -- October 8: U.S.S. Marblehead (CL-12) commissioned by the smashing of a champagne bottle on its bow by Hannah Martin Evans, a World War I "Gold Star" mother, Marblehead's first. The first U.S.S. Marblehead was a Spanish-American War-era ship (C-11). The most recent ship was launched into the Deleware River in Philadelphis. |
| 1925 | -- July 4th: President Coolidge visits Marblehead Harbor aboard the presidential yacht "Mayflower" |
| 1926 | -- State passes a low mandating
the Town to build a municipal sewer system. -- Castle Brattahlid, 2 Crocker Park Lane is built, modeled after the ancient castle of Eric the Red in Greenland. Constructed from the blasted out surrounding rocky ledge, Mr. And Mrs. Waldo Ballard, the castle features a dungeon and a scret stairway and room for 200 seated guests at one time. L. Francis Herreshoff aqcuired the Castle in 1945. -- During this summer President and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge and their entourage visited the Rockmere Hotel. -- A fire on Misery Island burns almost everything. Once a reunion place for Harvard University, the island over the years held a casino, a hotel, an air strip, and tennis courts. One a half of a house was float to Flint Street on the Neck. |
| 1928 | -- November 3: John Orne Johnson "JOJ" Frost dies. Born in 1852, he became a local artist, creating unsalable primitive paintings, that were not popular in his own lifetime. After his death his paintings have become eagerly sought by American folk art connoisseurs. He was born at 47 Front Street, was married to Annie Lillibridge Frost. He is best remembered for selling sweet-pea flowers and small, oil-based land and seascapes from his wheelbarrow. -- Glover School opens at Humprey and Maple Streets |
| 1929 | -- Marblehead held a week-long
tercentenary of the founding of the Town with a three-month Town-wide
celebration. -- Star of the Sea Catholic church enlarged and rebuilt on Atlantic Ave across from Seaside Park -- October 29th: Crash on Wall Street, The Great Depression begins |
| 1930 | Graves Yacht Yards acquired their "upper yard" on Front Street from Stearns & McKay. |
| 1931 | -- July 29 and 30: USS Constitution visits Marblehead on an unscheduled stop in a national tour. Gloucester agreed to "relinguish" Consitution for two days in honor of the Town's 1814 protection of the ship from British marauders, Tenedos and Endymion. |
| 1934 | -- Clifton Improvement Association is founded. |
| 1935 | -- The Lynn & Boston
Railroad Company's Marblehead Trolley makes it last run. -- The Marblehead Yacht Club is formed. -- Carcassonne Castle is built on the Neck by Lydia Pinkham Gove, the grandaughter of Lydia Pickham, at a cost of $500,000. She named the structure, "Sky High." After her death in 1948, the castle sold for $50,000. The Town briefly considered the structure for a hospital, but the idea was discarded at Town Meeting. -- The first Halifax Race is held. |
| 1937 | John Ingalls Tucker, perhaps the next-to-last of the Civil War veterans, dies at the age of 94. -- The last business closes on Marblehead Neck. The post office and store at 103 Harbor Avenue had been serving the Neck for 50 years. |
| 1938 | Hooper Mansion acquired by the Marblehead Arts Association |
| 1939 | September1: World War II begins in Europe Charles Phelan starts WESX on Naugus head. |
| 1940 | --In the fall Towers were built on Marblehead Neck as coastal watch stations |
| 1941 | December 7: Pearl Harbor spawned harbor patrols, watch tower use on the Neck intensified, yachts were commandeered. Marbleheaders rushed to volunteer, 1250 to 1300 served, 31 were killed in action and a total of 46 Marbleheaders died in service to the country in World War II, and many more were wounded or captured. For more information see: http://www.marblehead-in-ww2.org |
| 1942 | January 9: Samuel Snow II, the last of Marblehead's Civil War veterans dies at his home in Marblehead after a brief illness at the age 93. Born in Marblehead 22 January 1848, son of James Hooper Snow and his wife Hannah A. Breed. Mr. Snow died 9 January 1942, as reported in The Marblehead Messenger and The New York Times. He left a widow Agnes Josephine Murphy. Samuel Snow joined the Northern Army in 1863 at the age of 15 and served with Company G of the First Massachusetts Artillery. Mr. Snow saw Abraham Lincoln inaugurated for the second time and then served as a member of the guard of honor at the President's bier. Mr. Snow is buried at Waterside Cemetery. (With thanks to Ernie Christensen for his assistance on this entry,) |
| 1946 | The Marblehead Frostbite Sailing Club is founded by George O'Day and Ray Hunt. February 14: Maddies' Sail Loft is founded by Ken Duncan and his brother-in-law, Maddie. |
| 1948 | -- Anya Seton's romantic novel,
The Hearth and the Eagle (set in Marblehead) is published and still
popular. -- Chandler Hovey donates Point o' Neck land to the Town, which named it Chandler Hovey Park in his honor. -- America's foremost playwright, Eugene O'Neill is living on Point o' Rocks Lane, in seclusion and in the grips of Parkinson's disease. After a fall in a snow storm in 1951, he and he wife, Carlotta, never returned to their "little house by the sea." -- Dill's Restaurant opens its doors |
| 1949 | -- Veterans Housing is built on Broughton Road. -- May 2nd: Marblehead celebrates its 300th Anniversary of Incorporation. -- June 14th: National Flag "Stars and Stripes" adopted for the first time. |
| 1950 | -- Ted Hood opens Hood Sailmakers,
Inc. -- Dolphin Yacht Club formed. |
| 1951 | Harry Kemmelman moves to Marblehead and begins writing more than a dozen murder mysteries featuring the amateur detective Rabbi David Small. Kemmelman died in 1966. |
| 1953 | -- Construction begins on the new Mary A. Alley Hospital on Widger Road. |
| 1954 | -- Clifton Lutheran Church is built
on Humphrey Street -- Temple Emanu-El is built on Atlantic Avenue. -- Massachusetts Audubon Society opens a sanctuary on Marblehead Neck. -- A new Mary A. Alley Hospital is built on Widger Road |
| 1955 | -- The new Marblehead Junior High School opens on Village Street |
| 1956 | -- February 28: The Swampscott Train crash that killed 13 people shook up the town's commuters. At that time the train was very popular as a way to get to Boston. |
| 1957 | October 4th: Sputnik I is launched |
| 1958 | -- The convivial postman, Wallace
Dana Weed, depicted in the painting, "Poet Postman,"
by Orlando Rouland, died. He was a veteran of the Spanish-American War,
and a popular figure around Town. -- Ray Hunt builds Easterner the 1958 America's Cup's trials for Chandler Hovey -- New Fire Station opens at Ocean and Pleasant Streets. -- The new Malcolm Bell school opens off of Baldwin Road. |
|
1959
|
Marblehead finally accepts the "new" rotary dial telephone system |
| 1960 | Lighthouse at Chandler Hovey is automated. |
| 1961 | Town Meeting established the Marblehead Conservation Commission |
| 1962 | -- Nefertiti built for America's Cup
at Graves Boatyard in 96 days -- May 13th: Temple Sinai is built at One Community Road. -- The Cabin Colony land along Goldthwait Beach is taken by imminent domain and joined with Joel E. Goldthwait's donation of the Goldthwait Reservation, preserving the shoreline of the old Devereux property. |
| 1964 | October 8th: The Marblehead Reporter
publishes its first edition. -- Historical Commission is established "to preserve, promote, and develop the historical aspects of the Town." |
| 1965 | -- The Rockmere is torn down to
make way for the Glover Landing's complex. -- Monday, May 5th: Ted Hood's proposal to develop Riverhead Beach into a world-class marina and yachting center is defeated at Town Meeting. Within a few years Hood Enterprises relocates to Newport, Rhode Island ending the era of Marblehead as the "Yachting Capital of America." |
| 1966 | December 25: Metco comes to Marblehead |
| 1967 | The Old And Historic Districts Commission is established to oversee the exterior and architectural changes in the historic district. |
| 1968 | -- February 22nd: the last of
the Lead Mill buildings burns down at Lead Mills Hill in a spectacular
fire -- Marblehead's Historic District was accepted. In addition, Marblehead has 7 buildings and Fort Sewall on the National Register of Historic Places: St. Michael's Chruch, Old Town House, Hooper Mansion, Glover's Home, Lee Mansion, Elbridge Gerry's Home, Abbot Hall. -- Janaury: The harbor freezes over and people walk the harbor ice. -- February 22nd: The Historic Chadwick Lead Mills building burns to the ground. The factory gained its fame during the Civil War producing bullets for the Grand Army of the Republic. Located on a coastline of Salem Harbor originally known as "Throgmorton Cove," where prior to 1649 fire holes and outlines of wigwmas could be seen from Nanepashmet's fortress and emcampment area. In the 20th century Associated Grocers used the building as a distribution warehouse. The fire remains of "suspicious origins" in the fire department records. |
| 1969 | Fire destroys the Whiting Dairy on Lafayette Street at the top of Lead Mill Hill. |
| 1971 | -- Town's population is listed
as 21,183, making Marblehead the sixth most populated town in the Comonwealth
of Massachusetts. -- Joyce Maffei, is elected as the first woman on the Board of Selectmen. |
| 1974 | Ted Hood wins America's Cup in Courageous against Southern Cross |
| 1976 | August 8th: The "New" Post Office at 27 Smith Street opens to better deal with 13 million pieces of mail for 21,574 residents. Donald M. Stacey, current Postmaster was originally appointed in 1954. There are 63 employees (3 women), 24 daily mail routes, five incoming mails and four outgoiing mails. The event was commemorated with an Open House and a special Marblehead "cancellation" featuring the signing of the Declaration of Independence by Elbridge Gerry. |
| 1978 | -- Courageous and Independence practice off
Marblehead for almost a year. -- Ted Turner in Independence win the America's Cup -- February 6th & 7th: The Great Storm of '78 hits the Town hard. |
| 1980 | -- May 1st: Marblehead Magazine publishes its first edition. |
| 1982 | January: the harbor freezes and people walk from the Boston Yacht Club to the Corinthian Yacht Club. |
| 1983 | Roads School is converted into 41 elderly housing units. |
| 1986 | The Mary Alley hospital closes on Widger Road forclosing on future Marbleheaders actually being born in Town for the first time in history. |
| 1994 | September 5th: In the early morning hours, Penni's Supermarket catches fire and burns to the ground in the biggest Marblehead fire in years. Before it was over, seven alarms had been struck and sixteen communities had rushed their firefighting equipment to help. |
| 1996 | Town Meeting votes to have utility lines buried underground in a portion of the historic district covering the area from the ocean-side foot of Abbot Hall hill, Darling Street, Front Street, State Street, to the top of Migford Street Hill and the portion of Washington to Franklin Street. |
| 1997 | -- Sunday, July 20th: USS Constitution
visits Marblehead as the world watches. -- Monday, July 21st: USS Constitution sails off Marblehead under her own power for the first time in 116 years. The event is featured on all major networks and on the front pages of all major newspapers in the world. |
| 1999 | -- The E. Howard clock in Abbot
Hall tower underwent extensive repair and recalibration during the year. -- April 26th: The "Big Dig" project to bury downtown overhead wires begins -- May 2nd: Marblehead celebrates its 350th Anniversary of Incorporation. -- May 10th: Jeffrey N. Shribman is elected to the Board of Selectmen, replacing F. Reed Cutting -- June 14th: Marblehead votes overwhelming in a townwide election to build a new High School at Tents Corner on the Sevinor Land taken for that purpose by imminent domain in the 1970's. Planning and design begins, opening scheduled for 2002. -- August 25th: Board of Selectmen proclaim "Tyler Hamilton Day" in honor of Marbleheader who assisted Lance Armstrong in winning the Tour de France. -- August 30th: Harry Wilkinson dies at 91. -- October 20th: Virginia Clegg Gamage is appointed the first official Marblehead Town Historian by the Board of Selectmen. Thomas A. McNulty announces the closing the Warwick Theater to the Board of Selectmen. -- November 1st: Norris Harris, former 18-term Selectman and three-term State Representative dies at the age of 84. -- November 10th: Selectmen, with Town Meeting's authorization, sell the Old School Street Fire house to The Marblehead Little Theater for $25,000 -- December 1st: Board of Selectmen vote to make the Old Townhouse handicap accessible by installing a limited-use, limited-availability elevator from the ground floor to the first floor voting area. |
|
2000
|
See our 2000 News digest (click here) |
|
2001
|
See our 2001 News digest (click here) |
|
2002
|
See our 2002 News digest (click here) |
|
2003
|
See our 2003 News digest (click here) |
|
2004
|
See our 2004 News digest (click here) |
|
2005
|
See our 2005 News digest (click here) |
|
2006
|
See our 2006 News digest (click here) |
|
2049
|
Marblehead celebrates its 400th Anniversary of Incorporation and opens the first of two time capsules sealed in 1999. The contents are well-preserved. |
|
2349
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Marblehead celebrates its 700th Anniversary of Incorporation and opens the second of two time capsules sealed in 1999. The contents have dissolved. |
| Sources: Samuel Roads, Jr., The History And Traditions Of Marblehead (1897, 3rd Edition), Press of N. Allen Lindsey & Co. Thomas E. Gray, The Founding Of Marblehead, Gateway Press, Inc. Baltimore, 1984. Priscilla Sawyer Lord and Virginia Clegg Gamage, Marblehead. The Spirit of '76 Lives Here, Chilton Book Company, 1972 Russell W. Knight, 'Headers in Life and Legend, (1989) Legend, Inc. Historic Records in Town Clerk's Office and in Abbot Public Library. Selectmen's Minutes, Abbot Hall Sidney Perley, Marblehead in the Year 1700, Essex Institute Historical Collections John Hardy Wright, Images of America, Marblehead - Volume 1(1996) by , Arcadia Publishing, 1996 Hollyhocks To Hot Top, Wilkscraft Creative Printing, 1976, 1977 Lorrane Allison, Marblehead Stories, Marblehead Reporter, various issues. Marblehe4ad Matters: A Guide to Local Government published by the League Of Women Voters, 1984 Hartkey Alley, A Gentleman From Indiana Looks At Marblehead, Bond Wheelwright Company, 1963, 1972 Virginia C. Gamage, Historic Marblehead Coloring Book, Illustrations by Ethan Berry, Marblehead Publications, 1993 Thomas Amory Lee, The Ornes Of Marblehead, Essex Institute, Historical Collections, Vol. LX, Salem, 1924. George Athan Billias, General John Glover and his Marblehead Mariners, Holt, Rinehard, & Winston, New York, 1960. Files of the Marblehead Historical Society, Marblehead. Marblehead Messenger, many issues. Marblehead Magazine, Volumes I to XII, all 35 issues, 1980 to 1994. Daily Evening Item, many issues. The Salem Evening News, many issues. Marblehead Reporter, many issues. Benjamin J. Lindsey, Old Marblehead Sea Captains And The Ships In Which They Sailed, Marblehead Historical Society, Marblehead, 1915. Day Merritt Gotshcall (editor), Marblehead Celebrates 350 Years of Democracy, 1649 - 1999, Marblehead 350th Anniversary Committee, 1999 Christine Leigh Heyman, Commerce And Culture, The Maritime Communities of Colonial Massachusetts, 1600-1750, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 1984. Samuel Roads, Jr., A Guide To Marblehead, Merrill H. Graves, Publishers, 1895. marblehead-in-ww2.org Plus, the innumerable and ongoing conversations with Thomas Gray, Virginia Gamage, Donald Doliber, Dan Dixey, Paul Lausier, the late Russell W. Knight, and many, many others, have been enormously helpful over the years. |
