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HISTORY OF WHALING

By

Haynes Mahoney

PREFACE

The Whaling Port Homeowners Association has wanted for some time to attempt to capture the history of our Whaling Port community. This is a very special place to all of us and yet most of us do not know the history of the place we call home. We decided to ask Haynes Mahoney to apply his talents towards a short document that would describe the history of the land, the site of our homes today. This monogram is the result of a considerable effort by Haynes to do that.

Haynes and his wife, Catherine, purchased one of the first homes built in Whaling Port in the year 1965. He also was the first president of the Whaling Port Homeowners Association. In addition, Haynes is a gifted writer. His articles on coastal ecology, maritime history, humpback whales, tidal system, and the life saving service and similar topics have appeared in the Cape Times, The Register, Cape Code Life and Sea Frontiers Magazine. The Association is indeed fortunate to have such a talented person it could call upon to prepare a history of our community. We thank Haynes for giving many hours of his busy life to do the necessary work to prepare this document.

The Association hopes that everyone in Whaling Port feels an extra sense of pride in our community and a feeling of sincere gratitude to Haynes for his efforts.

Lou Martinage President – Whaling Port Homeowners Association November 2002

2

REMEMBERING OLDE WHALING PORT

By

Haynes Mahoney

Under a leaden sky in early December 1965, we pulled off Old Kings Highway in Yarmouth Port to park in front of a barn that according to the sign had become a handicraft shop. It was getting on to the Christmas season and my wife and I were looking for some small gifts that might betoken our new hometown. As the friendly proprietress showed us her hand carvings and locally woven textiles, I could not suppress the impulse to tell her that we were new residents of the village. That we had just bought a house in a new development called "Whaling Port". Instantly her mood changed. A sad look came into her eyes. "I would never buy property in that area," she said dolefully. "That's sacred ground. There are Indian burial mounds in there, and as everybody knows, if you disturb gravesites, you will be haunted forever." While her dire prediction hardly dampened our buoyant mood at the time, it is now, some 37 years later, and, my beloved Kay already resting in peace these past three years, time to consider whether we were ever haunted, or not.

The Land and Legend

Whaling Port at that time was mostly a land of sandy hillocks, covered by pitch pine and shrub oak, with occasional cedars, extending eastward from Old Church and Center Streets to White's Brook. As we learned later, there certainly had been enough Indian activity and intrusion of Europeans from ancient times to spawn a few ghosts. In 1007, Thorwald, the brother of Leif Eriksson, and his band of might well have hiked up through the hickory trees and wild grapevines of that day, from his landing at Hockanom on Chase Garden Creek to the area we now call Whaling Port. They had sailed their longboat from their settlement on Noman's Land, the small island off Nantucket, around Provincetown. They were attacked by Indians, and hastily departed in their vessel except for Thorwald, who was killed in the skirmish and buried there on that headland, somewhere around the Chase Garden marshes. Yes, I know, modern researchers have found artifacts and traces of a Norse settlement in Newfoundland, but those hardy adventurers probably settled in various places on the North American . The locale was determined by the British scholar, Edward F. Gray, who was master of the languages of both the Greenland and Icelandic sagas of Norse explorations. After spending six years exploring the northeast

3 coast of North America, including a summer tramping the shores of Cape Cod , he determined that our area of Yarmouth best matched the ancient latitudes, and description of flora and fauna, leading to the Norse name, "Vinland", recounted in the sagas. There are not any wild grapevines in Newfoundland. As Gray explained his findings in his book "Leif Eriksson, Discoverer of America" published in 1930 by the Oxford University Press, which is not prone to bringing out trivia. So, we look forward to the day when a resident of Whaling Port, while spading his garden, will turn up an iron spearhead or Val Kyrie medal or other relic of Norse origin. Whatever the facts of Viking forays, Indians were continual hunters, fishers and residents of our area, until the English settlers pushed them out in the 18th century. When the first English families established their homesteads in Yarmouth early in 1639, the lands were already well defined by the local Whampanoag tribes. The area stretching eastward from Mill Creek, now the Barnstable line, to White's Brook, was known as Mattacheeset, or "Planting Lands". Beyond White's Brook to Dennis was called Hockanom, and eastward from Dennis to Brewster, the regions were Nobscussset, Quivet and Sesuit. Thus, the area of today's Whaling Port occupies the eastern margin of Mattacheeset, between Center Street and Old Church Street on the west, and White's Brook. The first settlers of Yarmouth lands, Anthony Thacher, John Crow and Thomas Howes, received land grants from the General Court at Plymouth in 1639, and were formed Photo 1. Whaling Port’s piney woods. into a committee to make fair division Looking eastward toward White’s Brook and of lands to the Hallets, Nickersons, the marsh from behind #20 Camelot Road. Simpkinses and other settlers who soon followed. According to Charles Francis Swift in his "History of Old Yarmouth", many complaints soon arose against the committee, that they were taking too much land, including the best "meadows and uplands" for themselves. In 1641, the General Court at Plymouth formed a new committee to oversee division of the lands, and sent that stalwart enforcer of the laws, Miles Standish, to Yarmouth to make final decisions. It was not until 1648 that Captain Standish completed the settlement of land claims; no more grants would be made except with his permission. Out of all this, it is difficult to determine who might have owned the lands that make up today's Whaling Port. Historian Swift mentions nearly 25 families occupying the present areas of Yarmouth and Dennis in the 1640s, including Reverend Marmaduke Matthews and Edward Sturges as owning the land eastward of the Meeting House at Fort Hill. This was a slight eminence in the old cemetery, which evidently was fortified by the first settlers to provide protection from attacking natives. It has long since been 4 worn away by the elements, according to Swift. A boulder in the Ancient Cemetery today marks the location of the first church, or "meeting house", which was near the fortification. Rev. Matthews and Sturges may have been original landowners in the area of today's Whaling Port. Reverend Matthews, the town's first minister, was known for long and rambling sermons that sometimes-aroused doctrinal controversy, to the point where his service in Yarmouth was rather stormy, until he removed himself to Hull in 1645 Edward Sturges was town constable in 1641, and "kept an ordinary in which large quantities of liquor were sold" throwing "much light on the drinking habits of our ancestors," wrote Swift. A map of Yarmouth, dated 1644, in the Historical Society's republication of Swift's history, shows the Sturges residence located on the east side of a road running north from the town road in the approximate location of today's Center Street. Thus, Sturges might have been the first resident in Whaling Port lands. Another early owner of Whaling Port lands would have been William Hedge, who was awarded a grant in 1643, running northward from today's corner of Union Street and Old Kings Highway along White's Brook. We will hear more about him later. Of course, it may have been that the town retained ownership of our lands, which would have been leased out for woodlots or cultivation. In those early days it was forbidden "for anyone dwelling here to purchase two house lots or more and lay them together and maintain but one house upon them. This was intended to make the settlements compact, as a matter of safety and precaution." Not everybody followed this dictum, however, since some settlers established homesteads as far away as Follins Pond and Bass River. An early reference to lands in our vicinity appears in the quaint spelling of the town meeting report of 12 May 1687: " At this Town Meeting... the Town Did hier out a piece of crick thach belonging to the Towne lying on the est sid of the bass hole or betwixt Nobcussett beach and the chanell of the Dock near the mouth of Chases garden Rivar on the North sid to John Hall and William Hall and Thomas Sturges ffor this yeare thay paying one shilling to the Towne and they to maintaine and deffend the same against any person that shall lay challing to it and the Town Do hearby ingage and Declare that they will stand by the sad men above mentioned and bare the charges that in the manegement of the premisses in by the law they may be put to." Another notable resident of Yarmouth in the early days, residing near our area, was Jonathan White, the son of Peregrine, who was born on the while it was anchored in Provincetown before proceeding to Plymouth. Jonathan was born in Marshfield in 1658, but later became a blacksmith in Yarmouth, whose house was located at the junction of White's Brook with the county road. The road followed roughly the present route of Old King's Highway, which would put the house a few hundred yards south of the Whaling Port area. The brook, now forming the eastern border of Whaling Port was named for Jonathan. During the dark days of the Revolution, some 20 families of the "East Parish" of Yarmouth followed that same road in westward migration. According to Swift: 5 "They packed up their effects upon ox-carts, and, amid the regrets and blessings of those who accompanied them to White's Brook, which was regarded as their Rubicon, they took their tearful and prayerful way to Ashfield" in Western . Swift doesn't say 'why', but perhaps they were Tories seeking a more hospitable political climate. They passed close by our lands on their doleful way. During this period and up through the 1830s, the waterways just north of our area, Bass Hole and Chase Garden River (as it was called then) were the locale of busy shipbuilding activities. We are indebted to Jack Braginton Smith and Duncan Oliver for details of this industry in their book, "Port on the Bay" published by the Historical Society (2001). The brothers, William and Isaiah Bray built many sloops and schooners up to 100 tons burden in their shipyard on Chase Garden River, especially when the industry boomed after the war of 1812. Also active in shipbuilding in the same area were the shipwright Edward Ryder, and Elisha Doane, whose shipyard was probably located in a crook of Chase Garden River known as the "Horseshoe". Typical of vessels being built on the banks of Bass Hole and Chase Garden River was the two-masted schooner, Susan & Phoebe, nearly 100 tons burden and 65 feet long, built by William Bray in 1826. Pine and oak from Whaling Port lands may well have stoked the fires for steaming the ribs and planking, and boiling pitch for these vessels, which were mostly used in fishing and coastal commerce. As mentioned earlier, much of the Whaling Port lands would have been included in William Hedge's land grant from 1643 and remained in the Hedge family until the 19th century. Two houses built by Hedge descendants in mid-1700 are still handsome residences on Old King's Highway facing the town common. Information and documents provided by Richard Weckler, maritime historian, and owner of the Georgian house on the SW corner of Union Street and Old Kings Highway, indicated that property belonging to his house probably included much of the Whaling Port area. Photo 2. Looking northward on Camelot Hannah Hedge, who had Road toward #9 and #10 on Belvedere inherited the house and land, married Terrace. John Henry Dunbar from Duxbury in 1807. He made his home in Hannah's house. After she died at age 45 in 1831, leaving John with eight children and her property, the succeeding Dunbar generations became large landowners in the area Another proprietor in this area was Elisha Doane, who owned the tavern on the corner of Old King's Highway and Playground Lane, and ship building enterprises in the Chase Garden Creek area. He also owned shares in many commercial vessels, and operated a rope walk, a factory for making rigging for sailing vessels, which extended 6 along the east side of Old Church Street. in the early 1800s. In 1716, the original Congregational Church was moved from the primitive meetinghouse at Fort Hill to a new building on the Yarmouth Common (where the playground is now located). In 1870 it was moved again to its present location with the soaring steeple on the hill in Yarmouth Port. The former church building on the Common had become a general store, post office and social club until it burned down in 1906. A neighbor to the north of Whaling Port lands was the dairy farm of Edmund Eldridge, who still delivered bottles of milk to Yarmouth Port residents as late as the 1930s By this time, according to Tom Baker, a native son of the numerous Baker clans of Yarmouth, a baseball field was maintained in the area of today's Demaris Road, now the locale of fine new houses. Long hit balls probably reached the woods, which would later become a part of Whaling Port.

The Creation of Whaling Port

By the 1950s, sandlot baseball diamonds were being replaced by shopping plazas, and "Olde Cape Cod" revered in Patti Page's dreamy vocal was becoming a hustling playground for younger vacationers and a favored retreat for retirees. In Yarmouth the broad white sands of the original Gray's Beach on the outer edge of the marshes had been washed away by storm and tide. While the boardwalk was maintained, a man-made Gray’s Beach, dug out of the marsh bank in Bass Hole, replaced the lost beach. There was even talk of creating a second Cape Cod Canal for the benefit of the boating world connecting Nantucket through Bass River, White's Brook and Chase Garden Creek with . Probably fortunately for future Whalingporters, the plan was never deemed feasible. Along about this time, a young, decorated veteran of the Korean War, Colonel Filmore W. McAbee, Photo 3. View from Center Street, looking established his real estate office in his towards Belvedere Terrace, House #9 is on residence on the southeast corner of right and house #10 is on left. (MacAbee Union Street and Old Kings Highway. Photo) And one sunny November morning in 1965, a slightly confused couple from Berlin, Germany, on home leave from their wanderings in the foreign service of the U.S. Information Agency, stopped by. We were intrigued with the salty seclusion of olde Cape Cod, though we did not really expect to buy a house... but maybe some day... Before we could say "just looking", the good Colonel was driving us down a 7 newly paved road through the piney woods of a new subdivision called -- you guessed it --"Whaling Port". And as they say in the documentaries, "the rest is history". Towards the north end of Camelot Road there was a house still under construction, which we found attractive with its colonial gray clapboard and white brick facade. On Belvedere Terrace there was a new house on the corner and another house under construction across from it, and westward on Center Street another house. But otherwise, to us, it was Cape Cod primeval woodland all the way to White's Brook and the marshes, Before leaving the area, he drove us down Center Street to admire the grand vistas of marsh and bay at Bass Hole, the rickety boardwalk and the swimming basin, noting that this was exactly nine-tenths of a mile from that house on Camelot. We saw other properties in Yarmouth Port, but it wasn't long before we were back in his office telephoning the Riggs Bank in Washington D.C. where we had a meager savings account. "I guarantee you, that house will gain a thousand dollars a year in value," he said, which I privately thought was a realtor's hyperbole. It was an understatement. As I tried now to put together a history of this area where I had lived longer than any other place in my life, I realized how little I actually knew about the origin of the place called Whaling Port. Fortunately, over the years, I had kept in touch with Col McAbee, who was still active in far more extensive real estate ventures in the mid-Cape area. In his new office in a refurbished barn in Yarmouth Port, he seemed garrously pleased to share his memories of the "creation." Most of the following facts come from my recent talks with him. Early in 1964, James W. Robertson, a vice president of the Hood Dairy Company contacted Mac about the opportunities for investing in land development in the north Yarmouth area. The only land immediately on sale that Mac knew about was along White's Brook, but he thought more might be available. It became something of a jigsaw puzzle because some owners lived off Cape, and title to at least one parcel was unclear, because the previous owner, a member of the Dunbar family, had died intestate. Photo 4. Entrance triangle. Looking eastward

on Belvedere Terrace toward Farrell house Through research and (#9 Belvedere) October 1965 (McAbee Photo) negotiation Mac and Robertson put together a considerable section of land with title validated through the State Land Court, including some 34 acres of those piney woods between Old Church Street and Center Street on the west and White's Brook on the east. Robertson and McAbee retained Thomas E. Kelley, a surveyor of South Yarmouth, who laid out the subdivision with its curving streets following the configuration of the main roads and the marsh, 8 with many of the quarter acre lots off setting abutting lots to avoid a monotonous grid. "From the beginning," Mac said, "we wanted to avoid rows of cracker boxes on small lots like so many subdivisions going up in the mid-Cape at that time. We wanted a more distinctive community in keeping with Cape Cod tradition. In fact, Whaling Port set a kind of trend for development in this area." A young builder from Dennis bought one of the first lots in the new subdivision, on which he planned to build a house for speculation. As they discussed the future of the area, the three of them -- McAbee, Robertson and the Dennis builder-- agreed the area should have a name. After kicking around various titles, the builder came up with "Whaling Port" which was enthusiastically accepted. This begged the question, which had bugged me for my 37 years of ownership in Whaling Port, whence came the names of the new streets. Did they emanate from the "Camelot" era of the Kennedy White House? Or Shakespeare's historical dramas? Or British history at the time of Cape Cod settlement? Given the name of the new subdivision, McAbee thought the source of the street names was obvious: They were all named after famous whaling vessels. Well, of course. The Essex was the ill-fated ship sunk by the great sperm whale, giving rise to Melville's classic novel. The Dauphine was the vessel that came upon a whaleboat with two near skeletons, the Captain, and a crewman from the Essex barely alive among the bones of their shipmates whom they had eaten. Belvedere required research in the Kittredge Maritime Collection at Sturgis Library before discovering it among whaling vessels plying the South Pacific in the early 19th century. But the vessel Camelot, if there was one, remains a mystery, despite all my researches. Even inquiries through the Internet to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, the Mystic Seaport Library, and the National Archives in Washington D.C. (which has enrollment documents of almost every commercial vessel launched in the since the founding of the Republic) produced no vessel of any kind named Camelot. Unfortunately, we have also lost touch with that romantic builder from Dennis, who was probably the source of these names. Any clues from readers of this modest chronicle would be most welcome. The closest I came was a book published in 1923 “The Cruise of the Cachalot”, a fascinating account of a whaler pursuing sperm whales around the world by the ship’s mate Frank T. Bullen. “Cachalot” was the colloquial name used for sperm whales at the time. Could there have been a memory lapse in naming our street. Well, it is too late now to change addresses and repaint street signs. Besides, “Camelot” sounds more prestigious, don’t you think? As I write, looking at the yellowed, slightly tattered subdivision plan drawn by Surveyor Kelley and 9

Photo 5. Entrance triangle at Essex Way. Looking toward White’s Brook, December 1965 dated Feb. 26, 1965, I note another confusing discrepancy, which requires explanation. The southwest boundary of Whaling Port, that street which merges with Center Street, is clearly labeled "Playground Lane", even though street signs and current maps proclaim it "Old Church Street". McAbee insisted that the subdivision plan was correct in 1965, and suggested checking with the Town Engineer's office. Town Surveyor Robert E. Garcia explained the anomaly. Originally Playground Lane extended all the way to Center Street, while Old Church Street ran but one block along the east border of the playground until it joined Playground Lane. But the new Whaling Port residents assuming linear logic figured their houses were on Old Church Street and used that address accordingly causing confusion in the post office. Finally, bowing to the will of the Whaling Port residents, Garcia said, the Town Engineer's office petitioned the Board of Selectmen to change the name. Thus, the town administrator issued the following statement: "At their meeting on February 23, 1993, the Board of Selectmen voted to change the name of Playground Lane, from the northern end of the Route 6A playground to Center Street, to Old Church Street as presented." "Playground Lane" thereafter consisted of one block on the west side of the town common. While we are on the subject of official town borders, it might be advisable to remind all Whaling Porters that they are not actually residents of Yarmouth Port. According to Garcia, the Town of Yarmouth is divided into four villages: Yarmouth, Yarmouth Port, South Yarmouth, and West Yarmouth. That section of town extending eastward from West Yarmouth Road, (today's) Playground Lane and Center Street to the Dennis line comprises the village of Yarmouth. Indeed, we had a separate post office, the small building at 490 Old Kings Highway, until it was closed in the 1950s. So there is no need to get your stationery reprinted -- The US Postal Service includes us in Yarmouth Port (zip 02675) which extends westward to the Barnstable line. Returning to the original development of Whaling Port, I recall with nostalgia two handsome features of the subdivision, which no longer exist. Entrances to the area at Essex Way and Belvedere Terrace were graced with central triangles, similar to today's intersection of Dauphine Drive and Camelot Road. Amid the plantings of juniper and chrysanthemums, in each triangle was a large post and beam structure from which hung a Photo 6. January 1966. Beyond ‘Timmy’ decorative wooden tablet. In the can be glimpsed some of the erroneously center in bright color was a bas-relief of suspected ‘Indian Mounds’ in the woods a whaling ship in full sail, inscribed with where the Williams’ house (21 Camelot) the words WHALING above and PORT will eventually be built. below. Alas these proud entablatures soon disappeared into the hands of vandals, or perhaps sign collectors. Replacements 10 also met the same fate, until -- according to McAbee -- the insurance company would no longer cover them. Eventually, new residents made less pretentious tablets inscribed with the outline of a sperm whale, and even these suffered damages, until the whole problem was resolved when the Yarmouth road department decided the entrance triangles were traffic hazards and removed them. No doubt, signs and plantings established by the Whaling Port Homeowners Association in the 1990s comprise equally attractive and safer entrances to our community. Indian lore, which we discovered on the day we decided to settle in Whaling Port, continued to play a role in the early days of the development. Dianne Houle of West Yarmouth, but an early resident on Center Street in Whaling Port, recalls from her childhood in Yarmouth Port, that "we had always heard the area was an Indian burial ground." An "Inventory of Historical and Archaeological Assets" at the Massachusetts Historical Commission lists a prehistoric site (#19-BN-48) along White's Brook, which might well be in our lands. Even today some residents of Camelot Road have been reluctant to cultivate the curious hillocks running between their lots and the properties on Center or Old Church Streets for fear of disturbing Indian graves. McAbee recalled that the long shadow of earlier Indian settlement delayed construction of at least one of the new houses in Whaling Port. When builders were excavating the foundation of the new house on Lot #41 (today's 23 Dauphine Drive) or Lot # 42 (17 Dauphine Drive) -- Mac could not remember which -- they came across Indian relics. Fearing this might be a burial site requiring special treatment, Mac arranged for an archaeological team to come from Harvard University to investigate. Of course, this required some time to complete which had the future homeowner fuming at the delay. Mac was also concerned about those rumored "Indian mounds" between Camelot Road and Center and Old Church Streets. He dispatched a backhoe to dig down eight feet at various places along the ridge. Ultimately the archaeologists determined there were no burial sites, but considerable evidence of Indian residence in the area -- middens of seashells, traces of camp fires, broken arrow heads and other stone Photo 7. Haynes Jr. ,the woodsman, implements. Somewhere in the March 1966. Looking Northeast towards archives of Harvard University, their Dauphine Drive. report is safely buried awaiting discovery by some future Whaling Port historian. In a Friday night snowstorm in December 1965, we moved into our new home, laden with bedding and pots and pans newly bought at Jordan Marsh in . Our initial residence in Whaling Port was brief. I had to return to my post in Berlin in early 11 January, and Kay stayed only until the following June, when Haynes Jr. finished his junior year in high school and returned with her to Berlin. I was somewhat uneasy at leaving Kay in the deep woods and empty streets of Whaling Port, the only inhabitant except for Molly and George Farrell on the corner at 9 Belvedere and the first settlers, Ruth and Douglas Donovan, over the hillocks and through the woods at 114 Center Street. It was so dark at night that I called the Cape and Vineyard Electric Company to ask if they could put a light on the pole across the street. "We can but it will cost you," said the customer representative, " one dollar added to your monthly bill!" The light still burns every night, but I do not see it on the bill anymore.

First Settlers and After

An early homeowner, returning to Whaling Port in August 1976 after 10 years absence, found quite a few surprises. Gone were the "piney woods" replaced by attractive homes, tastefully designed in old Cape Cod tradition, surrounded by grass and pine needle grounds, flowers and shrubs, and shaded by remnants of the earlier forest. In the streets daily gathered members of a remarkably homogenous society for consultation and conversation about life in a still rural, maritime environment. Most of them with their spouses were retired from an impressive array of businesses, professions, and arts. And most of them today, alas, have passed on to well earned rewards. Allen Crosby (14 Dauphine Drive) retired salesman from U.S. Steel, was active in town politics and a member of the Yarmouth Planning Board...Don Chase, (33 Camelot Road) retired sales engineer noted for his work in synthetic rubber, called us on rainy mornings to his basement for billiards and shuffleboard. Wentworth Clapham (17 Essex Way) patent lawyer from New York coaxed a cornucopia of beans, tomatoes, green peppers, and other produce out of his tiny back garden. Phil Jenkin (68 Old Church Street) educator and writer, who published articles in YANKEE magazine and maritime journals, never saw his last essay, (on how to enjoy your retirement) in print. He died peacefully in his study three days before it appeared in the Cape Cod Times. Ken Barnes, (26 Camelot) former stockbroker and vice president with Standard and Poor, used to fly out to Hollywood periodically to hold the hands of his movie star clients during market downturns. Helen Sibley, (40 Dauphine) a violinist with the Cape Cod Photo 8. The northeast storm of 1978 Symphony, formed a string quartet dismantled the boardwalk at Bass Hole. which spent summers on concert tours 12 in Europe. A few days after we settled at 20 Camelot, Hank Vietor, retired oil company executive, came striding through the shrubbery from his backyard at 17 Dauphine to tell me that Whaling Port folk had been using this route between Camelot and Dauphine for nearly 10 years thus establishing a "public way". I was quite agreeable and even regret that after Hank died, declining traffic and rampant shrubbery has shut down the neighborly transit. Usually he would be headed for 21 Camelot to visit Carl Williams, retired service manager of the Western Electric Boston office, and his wife, Dorothy, who was often seen on her bicycle, exchanging magazines within the community. Several Whaling Port men were founding members of the Mid Cape Men's Club, a social group which continues to this day with weekly luncheon meetings at the Riverway Restaurant to hear words of wisdom from civic leaders and their own members. Not to be ignored, the ladies of Camelot Road had their social group, which gathered, at each other’s house on the last Thursday of each month for a sumptuous tea. The men folk called them the "Camelot Cuties” but were eager to hear the intimate tidings of Whaling Port when the girls came home on those Thursday evenings. Undoubtedly one subject of discussion was the eccentricity of Mary Dolencie (58 Old Church) who managed posthumously to confer unwanted notoriety on Whaling Port. For reasons long since forgotten, she had developed such umbrage against John and Connie Jackson (66 Camelot Road) who lived behind her, that she had taken to annoying them by shining bright lights into their residence at night. Eventually in self-defense, the Jacksons installed a stockade fence. This likely outraged Mary even more, for residents of Whaling Port awoke one morning some days after her death to discover in the newspapers that she had involved them in a curious controversy. It concerned the inscription she had composed for her tombstone which aroused questions of “freedom of expression", the sanctity of contracts and good taste. According to the account in The Register (May 29, 1986), Mary had contracted with Dave Barnicoat, Yarmouth gravestone mason, to carve the inscription and erect the granite tombstone. But unexpectedly the executor of Mary's estate, who also represented the main beneficiary -- the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA)--instituted orders requiring him to remove the offending inscription. Barnicoat stood firmly behind his contract with the deceased, and evidently the executor never undertook legal action, because the gravestone now stands (a stone's throw west of the storage shed on Ancient Way) in the Ancient Cemetery bearing the following injunction: "May eternal Damnation be upon those in Whaling Port, who, without knowing me, have maliciously vilified me. May the curse of God be Photo 9. Mahoney house at #20 Camelot 13Road, December 1965, the first house to be built on Camelot Road. upon them and theirs." Evidently Whaling Port's doubtful fame was spread around the northeast, because over the next couple of years I was asked by tourists from as far away as Maine and New Jersey on Center Street and Gray's Beach how to find "that grave with the curse." Cocktail parties and other social gatherings were frequent, including an occasional group of Whalingporters sitting in their chairs with drinks on Gray's Beach, contemplating the sunset. Alcoholic beverages have since been forbidden at the beach by the Town Fathers, not because of bibulous excess by our late neighbors, but because of beery rites by raucous teenagers on Saturday nights. At high tide on summer mornings or afternoons, Eleanor Painter (23 Dauphine) seldom failed to meet a group of neighborhood ladies for a swim. They were often joined by your historian, and in later years, Irving Gardner (32 Camelot) and Jim Carlaw (6 Camelot). Walter Flynn, (14 Camelot) Marine Corps veteran, commuted daily to his executive job with New England Telephone company in Brockton before retiring, while Air Force veteran, Edmund Twomey (15 Camelot) commuted to Sandwich, where he was school principal. When the tide was in at Bass Hole, Dick Kenyon (72 Center Street), science teacher in Mattacheese Middle School, could often be seen sailing his graceful skiff which he had built himself from materials found in the town landfill. Floyd Ineson (27 Camelot), retired executive of Travelers' Insurance, exercised his musical talents annually by forming a choral group which went caroling through the neighborhood at Christmas time. Several years after Floyd was laid to rest in Ancient Cemetery, Kay Hall got out her guitar to lead the neighbors in "Twelve Days of Christmas" and other old favorites around the Wassail Bowl annually at 54 Camelot. Surely it would be a welcome addition to Whaling Port social life if strolling Christmas carolers, as organized by Corinne and Lou Martinage (9 Dauphine) in 2001, became an annual tradition. . Already established as a Whaling Port tradition when we returned were the annual gatherings celebrating Independence Day on the grounds of Phyllis and Lincoln Beale at 6 Camelot. Everybody brought food, drink, tables, chairs, and good spirits which lasted until dark. Teddy and Jim Carlaw graciously continued this custom when they became the new owners of the corner residence after the Beales moved to assisted living in Harwich. In my first attendance at these patriotic get-togethers, they became a handy occasion to take care of the annual business of Whaling Port's newest institution. Photo 10. The boardwalk at Bass Hole was wrecked again by the ‘Halloween

Northeaster’ in 1991

14 One wintry morning in March 1977, many of us retired residents got a call from John Jackson inviting us to coffee and cakes at his house (66 Camelot). Now John was a retired advertising executive from Boston and New York, a would-be artist, consummate organizer, and fertile politician. We should have realized that this invitation implied more than social chatter. He was soon handing out rough drafts of by-laws, and a list of proposed officers, of a new organization which he dubbed "Whaling Port Homeowners Association." As John explained, it would be a low-key organization to accommodate any problems of the community, but especially in the immediate future to petition the Selectmen of Yarmouth to take over Whaling Port streets, not already belonging to the town, as public ways. At that time, each homeowner owned the land in front of his lot up to the middle of the street. If we presented a united front, we would have a better chance to get the town to take over maintenance and repair, John averred. Otherwise we might soon find ourselves filling potholes and digging drainage ditches. The annual dues would be $1.00 per household. As Connie Jackson plied doughnuts and coffee, the discussion went swimmingly until we got to the proposed slate of officers. They were Allen Crosby, president; your humble historian, vice president; Nance Jenkin, secretary, and Phyllis Beale, treasurer. I had no objection because everybody knows vice presidents don't have to do anything. But Allen, having just finished several years heavily engaged in civic affairs, was not about to get entangled in more town business, and dug in his heels. No way, would he be president. We were at an impasse until Ed Hall said brightly, "to head this organization, we need young blood." And all eyes turned on me. With dismay, I realized that I was the youngest person there, Even though at home there was the kitchen to be wallpapered, and basement cabinets to be built, and untended flower beds to be cultivated come spring -- no protestation availed. I was president. The two ladies agreed to their offices, and Allen Crosby, also aware of VP's light duties, accepted the post. Actually, he was very helpful in steering me through the toils of petitioning the town. The process was not so simple as we first thought. It involved meetings with town engineer John Newton, the chairman of selectmen Ralph Cipolla, and an appeal to the Finance Committee, which automatically opposed any new burdens on the treasury. In summer of 1977 we submitted our petition to the Board of Selectmen, signed by most of the members then resident. In January, Ralph Cipola promised the appeal would go on the Town Meeting warrant. And Photo 11. Bass Hole marshes at Sunset in finally, at the town meeting on April 11, February 1978. Winters seemed colder 1978, with a goodly representation of then. 15 Whaling Port present, the voters approved taking Essex, Belvedere, Camelot and Dauphine streets into the care of the town. Like every other home owner on those streets, I received a form letter from the Board of Selectmen dated June 26, 1978, advising that the Yarmouth Board of Selectmen, on "behalf of said town, have taken an easement over 2400 square feet of your land for the purpose of a town way to be known as Camelot Road", and that I had "two years in which to petition the Superior Court in regard to any damages". So far as I know, nobody petitioned. And so potholes were repaired, the streets resurfaced and even the brush on town land along Dauphine trimmed. Much of this improvement resulted from the persistence and petition of subsequent presidents of the Homeowners Association, and their executive committees. In basement workshops they rebuilt street signs and entrance boards and were frequently seen replanting flowers and shrubbery at entrance intersections. Noteworthy especially was the work of Edmund Twomey, president, and Jean Gardner and her committee in 1993 in creating the fences and quarterboards at Essex Way and Belvedere Terrace, which now present such attractive approaches to Whaling Port. In the early years, Cliff Phoenix, retired commodities broker with General Foods, and a former printer, set up a print shop in his basement at 44 Camelot, and provided the Association with printed stationery and membership cards. One of the first persons to call on the WPHA for help was Went Clapham, who was having trouble with the old Cape Codder who ran a contracting business at 32 Old Church Street, behind Went's house. This involved the noisy operation of big trucks and earthmoving equipment which Went claimed was disturbing the peace of Essex Way. The old boy, Richard Howes, also ran a horse stabling business in his big barn, but nobody complained about that. (In fact, I used to admire that curvaceous redhead who would often be seen riding a big dray horse bareback from the barn down Center Street to Bass Hole. She added a quaint rural touch to our budding community.) I never knew if Went had initiated the legal proceedings, but the Barnstable court had issued several injunctions against these raucous operations as violating zone restrictions. When the judge called for a new hearing on the dispute, Went asked for Association members to attend in support of the injunction. Some members were not too sympathetic, because, after all, Went had known about the contracting business before he ever bought the property, but several of us attended. In any case, the judge sternly ordered Howes to cease and desist forthwith, or he would be facing jail, and the problem went away. We never had to take a stand. Exterior forces contrived by nature and man also marked the early history of Whaling Port. We were surprised at the severity of weather during our first two winters, l977 and l978, on Cape Cod. Snowdrifts piled up, ice floes broke and tumbled with the tides on the marshes, the seascape stretched to the horizon, a wrecked barge spilled oil off the southern coast, and an ice breaker worked vainly in the Cape Cod canal, trying to open passage. The famous northeast storm of early February 1978 ripped up the Gray's Beach boardwalk, which was not restored until two years later. 16 In January 1981, I was moved to write to relatives in Florida: "Ancient tradition holds that Cape Cod has a mild climate compared to the stern rigors of winter in the rest of New England. Laved by moderating temperatures of the surrounding seas, the Cape should offer cooler summers and gentler winters, an inch or two of snow now and then, and frequent balmy thaws to melt away the ice on the ponds. From earlier days, folks have been moving to the Cape for its climate. By 1637 even the Pilgrims were leaving Plimouth to settle in this more benevolent land. Well, that's what the ancient tourist brochures said. But of course, you do get freak seasons, when the Northeasters pile in the snow, and the Northwest arctic airs then freeze the world over. Well, since we settled here in 1976, we have had freak seasons every winter save the last one. During the past few days, we had eight inches more snow piled on top the six inches we got last week, and today the temperature started at 15 degrees. Not only is our world deep in Christmas-card whiteness, but my snow piles, where I have thrown the stuff from my many shovelings of the drive way, are nearly as high as I am, and are much higher than any of the snow piles of my neighbors up and down the street. Now, why is that? Why does the snow fall deeper on my one- quarter acre than theirs? Is it my imagination -- am I getting paranoid?"

The second most damaging storm to our area in my recollection was not Hurricane Bob (Aug.19, 1991) but the "Halloween Northeaster", Oct. 31,1991, which lasted three days and once again demolished the board walk, and knocked down trees in Whaling Port. On the first day, I went to Gray's Beach to haul my aluminum skiff from its mooring up to safer ground. I dreaded dragging the 100 lb. boat across the sand but was amazed when I untied the painter. It rose on the northeast wind as high as my head, and I towed it like a kite with ease to the parking lot. In those early days, seemed more plentiful. In addition to the usual squirrels, skunks and raccoons, occasional groups of three or four deer wandered through our yards headed toward White's Brook marsh, Bob White calls resounded in the spring, and coveys of a couple dozen quail would move through in the fall, gobbling our newly spread grass seed. Overhead, gaggles of migratory Canada Geese would honk loudly as they headed for those decoys on the edge of our marshes, where the hunters waited in blinds. Down there, marine life was more plentiful too. George Farrell (9 Belvedere) was in the habit of strolling down to Bass Hole at low tide to dig steamers for supper. Once when it was getting dark and George had not returned his alarmed spouse called Kay, who drove to Bass Hole. When she found George sauntering homeward with a bucket of , he became irate with Molly for having disturbed his neighbor. At low tide with a southwest wind, we used to walk a half-mile out on the Yarmouth flats, collecting huge sea clams which were exposed in the sand. When chopped up they made excellent chowder, and you could keep some in the freezer for bait on your next fishing trip. One summer afternoon, Carl Williams called across the street to Ken Barnes working in his yard, to get his tackle "and let’s go to Bass Hole to catch some for dinner." Ken scoffed at such an impulsive idea. Carl went any way, made one cast, 17 hauled in a 40 lb. striper, and came right home, displaying the big fish conspicuously so the envious Ken would see it. In 1980, a series of burglaries, both in daytime and at night disturbed the peace of Whaling Port, when rugs, silver and jewelry were taken. Don Chase, WPHA president, asked all homeowners to join a meeting with the police, which he had arranged, at the Congregational Church on Nov. 12, 1980. A goodly proportion of the residents showed up, who were urged to form a "Crime Watch Community". After being instructed in the wiles of burglars, we should watch our neighbors' houses and report any strange goings on (not incidents like Mr. Jones hitting on Mrs. Jones again, that's not suspicious) but strange men loading furniture, TV sets and rugs in a truck when our neighbor was away. "Crime Watch" signs were put up at entrances to Whaling Port, one on Old Church where it merges with Center Street and another on the right-hand side approaching Belvedere Terrace from the south. We also were issued "Crime Watch" decals to put on our doors in the hope of frightening off housebreakers and were mailed "Crime Watch Identification Cards" with numbers to use when calling the police. The decals are still showing on many of our front and back doors. I seem to have lost my ID card, but I never had to use it. In fact, the only burglary I remember since we installed "Crime Watch" was a break into Hank Vietor's basement and the removal of a goodly supply of spirits. Despite the warning of Indian haunting when first we became homeowners here, and the later condemnation from Mary Dolencie, our misanthropic neighbor, Kay, and I enjoyed a happy life in Whaling Port, often shared by family members. In fact, with few exceptions, all our early contemporaries seemed to lead congenial lives here, most of them departing for reasons of health or age or family needs, including a few who passed away peacefully in their Whaling Port homes. For the most part, their successors are equally upright and attractive folk, who continue the convivial environment of this venerable community. Because so many of them are good friends of your humble historian, he believes it meet to conclude his narrative here, lest through ignorance or forgetfulness he neglect the adventures and achievement of some of these later comers, thus incurring unwanted complaint in his waning years. Surely, future historians will arise among us to add even more lively and significant chapters to the chronicles of Olde Whaling Port

End October 2002

References

"Leif Eriksson, Discoverer of America" by Edward F.Gray, Oxford University Press, 1930; 18 available in Kittredge Maritime Collection, Sturgis Library, Barnstable, MA.

"History of Old Yarmouth" by Charles Francis Swift, edited by Charles A. Holbrook, Jr. Historical Society of Old Yarmouth, Yarmouth Port, MA. 1975

"Port on the Bay", by Jack Braginton Smith & Duncan Oliver, published by The Historical Society of Old Yarmouth, Yarmouth Port, MA 2001

“The Cruise of the Cachalot” by Frank T. Bullen, D.Appleton and Company

End Notes

1 The Massachusetts Archaeological Society, Marlboro, MA, also lists this site as No. M47NW15. Ron Dalton, of the Society, could not locate this specific site on his maps, but assured me that their records showed many prehistoric Indian sites along Bass River and elsewhere in Yarmouth.

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Map 1. Subdivision Plan submitted to Land Court on February 26, 1965. Notice that house lots on the eastward side of Dauphine, Camelot and Essex were not included on this plan. Also note that Playground Lane is where Old Church Street is today.

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Map 2. This is a topographical map showing the general area surrounding the Whaling Port community. Note White’s Brook, Matthew’s Pond and Bass Hole. The highlighted circle is the Whaling Port community.

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