Class„ . .. CHARLES NEWHALL THE HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF THE DANVERS HISTORICAL SOCIETY VOLUME 7 Edited by the Committee on Publication DANVERS. MASS. PUBUSHED BY THE SOCIETY 1919 Nkwoomb & Gauss, Printers SALEM, MASS. y'/r^ 7 CONTENTS. The Danvers Post Office, by Charles Newhall (Illustrated), ...... 1 Newspaper Items Relating to Danvers, . 22 The Old Ipswich Eoad, by Ezra D. Hines, . 29 Center of Salem Village in 1700, by Sidney Perley (Illustrated), ...... 33 Henry Putnam's Journey, .... 54 Physicians of Danvers, by Harriet S. Tapley, 56 Journal of Doctor Samuel Holten, . 59 Wife of One of the "Signers," .... 67 Buildings Erected in Danvers in 1918, 67 Danvers People and Their Homes, by Rev. A. P Putnam, D. D., (Continued), . 68 "The Elm-Tree Story," a poem, by Miss E. Josephine Roache, ....... 75 An Old Tree, 77 Bill for Teaching at Danversport, 77 Governor Endecott an Horticnlturalist, by Samuel P Fowler, .... ... 78 Some Account of the Reverend Benjamin Balch, . 86 From Rev. Dr. William Bentley's Diary, . 94 The Plains: Part of Salem in 1700, by Sidney Perley (Illustrated), ...... 97 Recollections, by Samuel Preston, 125 Necrology, ...... 131 OFFICERS FOE 1918-19. President, Charles H. Preston, Vice-Presidents, George B, Sears, Lester S. Couch, Secretary, Miss Harriet S. Tapley, Treasurer, Wallace P, Perry, Curator, Capt, Henry N, Comey. Librarian, Miss Bessie P, Popes. Historian, Ezra D. Hines, Executive Committee, Walter A. Tapley, Loring B. Good- ale, George W. Emerson, Miss Annie G. Perley and Miss Annie W. Hammond, Committee on Publication, Ezra D. Hines, Andrew Nich- ols AND Miss Harriet S. Tapley, On March 26, 1919, the Society received, at the Page House, the bequest of furniture, china, glass, shawls and pic- tures from the estate of Mrs. Carrie W., widow of Fred H. Woodbury, In this large and interesting collection, particular mention might be made of a silver lustre tea set, a liqueur set, with gilt ornamentation, a Jackfield teapot, a variety of Staf- fordshire printed ware, glass cup-plates, a swell-front ma- hogany bureau, mahogany sofa, nine mahogany chairs, secre- tary, tip table, light stand, game table, very old slat-back rush bottom chair, Windsor chairs, wing chair, old samplers, two large ottomans, with worked seats, and four large framed pic- tures worked in colors, in cross-stitch ])attern, on canvas. The largest picture is a hunting scene, and measures 3x4^ feet; the others are "The Lord's Supper," "Knight on Horseback,^' and a Biblical scene. It is said that Miss Frances A. Wood- bury spent fifteen years in producing these remarkable ex- amples of needlework. The colors are brilliant, and the shad- ings in the figures of men and aninuils, as well as in the land- scapes, produce a very realistic effect. The Woodbury col- lection will be a material help in furnishing the rooms of the Page House. ; HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF THE DANVERS HISTORICAL SOCIETY Vol, 7. Danvers, Mass. 1919 THE UANVEES POST OFFICE: ITS ESTABLISH- MENT AND HISTORY. By Charles Newhall. Read at a Meeting of this Society, Mar. 18, 1918. On the United States Post Office at Washin^on is the fol- lowing inscription: "Messenger of Sympathy and Love; Servant of Parted Friends; Consoler of the Lonely; Bond of Scattered Family; Enlarger of the Common Life; Carrier of News and Knowledge; Instrument of Trade and Industry; Promoter of Mutual Acquaintance of Peace and Goodwill among Men and Nations." I am indebted very much to Daniel C. Roper's new book entitled "The United States Post Office" for many of the facts and statements which I shall give you. When your Secretary wrote, asking me to make a sketch of the Post Offices of Danvers, and Postmasters, I thought it would be impossible to do justice to it, but later on decided to try. So, while I can give you many facts and statistics, it will be in no sense a literary production. It occurred to me, that with a history of our Post Office, a sketch of the first known Posts or Post Offices might not be amiss. The communication between nations and individuals is older by centuries than the Christian Era. It ante-dates even the alphabet ; for the first messages were rude hieroglyphics and up to today the postal service is indicative of the civiliza- tion of the nation. The Post Office gets its name from the earliest known means of carrying messages. In every civiliza- tion there has been some organized way of communication by (1) 2 THE DANVERS POST OFFICE runners or mounted carriers, and people as remote as the Persians and Peruvians seems to have been the earliest who used relays for securing greater speed. The Persians under King Cyrus had a postal service in the sixth century before Christ. The Postmaster was an appointee of the Imperial Government. He maintained a place for horses and employed grooms to care for them. He supervised the work of the couriers and received packages of letters from other couriers, and forwarded them to the next post towards their destination. The manner of recording and accounting for the packets was highly developed. It may be said that parcel post was not unknown, even to the Persians, for to a limited extent they received and forwarded merchandise. Darius, the last Persian King, was Postmaster General before he ascended the throne. Eeference to this early postal system is found in the Bible, in the book of Esther, Chapter 8, Verse 10, "And he wrote in the King's name, and sealed it with the King's ring, and sent letters by posts on horse- back, and riders on mules, camels and young dromedaries." The Eomans called the place where relays were effected, "Posts." These Posts were the first Post Offices, as they marked the spot where different roads converged, and where the exchanges were made. The ancient highways were the first Post roads. The English Postal service is the forerun- ner of our own, and is an interesting study of the various forms and methods adopted to promote and maintain deliver- ies. In 1753, Benjamin Franklin was one of the two Post- master Generals appointed for the Colonies, by the British Post Office Department. He was removed in 1774 by the British Government. In 1775 the Congress established the Constitutional Post Office, with Benjamin Franklin as Postmaster General. In 1789 there were only seventy-five postmasters in the thirteen states, and the annual cost of carrying the mails was less than $25,000. In 1900 there were 76,688 Post Offices in the United States. These were reduced to 55,000 by 1917, with an income of $330,000,000. This reduction in the number of the Post Offices was caused by establishing Rural Free Deliv- ery, and making branch offices and stations of offices near any large First Class office. Branches were established in the larger towns and stations in the smaller. These are governed by a superintendent instead of a Postmaster and receive all their supplies and employees from, and are accountable to the First Class office, and not to the Post Office Department THE DANVERS POST OFFICE 3 in Washington. This reduces the work in Washington and distributes it among the larger offices. For instance, there are 86 Branches and Stations connected with tlie Boston Post Office, consisting of all the cities and towns within a few miles, in what is called Greater Boston. Business is just the same in them as in all Post Offices except their headquarters are in Boston or the larger office they are attached to, and not Washington. As the Post Office Department has to keep a book account with every office this makes a very considerable reduction in their Avork. The first Foreign ]\Iail Treaty of the United States was made in 1847, with the Hanseatic Republic, or League of Bremen, which dated back of the 14th century, and comprised eighty-five of tlie great trading cities of Europe, and main- tained a i)ostal system for commercial purposes. Two years later a formal treaty was entered into with Great Britain. The First Post Office. In 1828 at a Town Meeting a committee was appointed to "Devise or digest any scheme relative to the establishment of Post Offices in this town." The Committee was Dr. ISTichols, Jonathan Shove, N"athaniel Putnam and Samuel and John Preston. When the committee reported, it was voted "To have one Post Oiffice in this town," then to add one more Post Office, and then voted to reconsider all the votes, and after all to accept the report of the committee, in which it was recommended to petition for two Post Offices; one to be between "The Old Meeting House and Poole's Bridge, to be called Danvers, and one to be at New Mills, to be called, the North Danvers Post Office," and the action was recommended to the Postmaster General. After considerable delay, an order was received, Nov. 30, 1831, establishing an office in the South Parish, to be called Danvers, and Joseph Osgood was appointed postmaster. Some trouble must ensued, for the office was discon- tinued in only two weeks, on Dec. 13, 1831. But the difficulty was soon settled, for on Jan. 18, 1832, Joseph Osgood was appointed to the newly established office, and performed the duties apparently satisfactoril}^, as he continued in office until Sept. 23, 1845, when Sylvanus Dodge was placed in charge. Mr. Dodge handled the mails until Nov. 13, 1852, when Caleb Lowe was appointed. This was evidently a political appoint- ment, as Mr. Lowe only held the office until May 23, 1853, 4 THE DANVERS POST OFFICE whou Sylvanus Dodge was reappointed just after a change in the Administration.