Hayward’s New England Gazetteer (1839) page 42
Click on the image to view a larger, bitmap (.bmp) image suitable for printing.

HOME PAGE ... REFERENCE PAGE ... THIS GAZETTEER’S PAGE



Click on the image above for a larger, bitmap image suitable for printing.


NEW ENGLAND GAZETTEER.

First settled, about 1763. Many of
the inhabitants are of Scotch de-
scent. This town has a'great water
power on Passumpsic and Stevens’
rivers. On the latter, are falls of
100 feet, in the distance of 10 rods.
This water power is improved by
three flannel and other manufacto-
ries. There are a number of pleas-
ant and fertile islands in the river
between this place and Lyman, and
some beautiful, ponds in Barnet,
which afford fish of various kinds.
This is quite a romantic place, and
lies at the head of navigation on
the Connecticut river. In 1835,
the product of the farms, carried to
market, amounted to $26,381. One
farmer sold 3,000 lbs. of butter, and

3.000 lbs. of pork. There are about

4.000 sheep in the town.

Barnstable County Mass.

Barnstable is the chief town.—
This county was incorporated, 1885.
Population, 1820, 24 046—1830, 28-
525—and in 1837, 31,109; area,
about 330 square miles. This coun-
ty includes the whole of Cape Cod,
extending E'. and N. into the At-
lantic ocean, and . which Gosnold
discovered in 1802. It is bounded
N. W. by Plymouth county, and
W. by Buzzard’s bay. Cape Cod
lies in the form of an arm,half open ;
the elbow is at Chatham, 20 miles
E. of Barnstable; the hand, the
wrist inclining inward, is at Race
Point, S3 miles N. by W. of Chat-
ham. The whole length of the
Cape is 65 miles, and the average
breadth about 5. This county is
principally diluvium. Below the
town of Barnstable the county is
quite sandy, so much so that the
people are generally dependant on
Boston and other towns for a large
proportion of their meats and bread-
stuffs. This deficit is amply com-
pensated by the unrivalled privi-
leges enjoyed, and well improved
by them, in the cod, mackerel and
other fisheries. This county has
but little wood, but it is well stored
with peat. About two millions of
dollars are invested in the manufac-
ture of salt. There were manu-
factured in this county in the year
ending April 1,1837, 669,064 bush-
els of salt, valued at $219,870. The
manufactures of cotton and woollen
goods, boots, shoes, iron castings;
glass, cabinet and tin wares, Cord-
age, &c., amounted .to $496,602.
There are in this county 370 ves-
sels employed in the whale, cod
and mackerel fishery. The tonnage,
24,373 tons. The value of the fish-
ery, in cue year previous to April,
1837. was $557,737. Tonnage of
the District, 1838, 30,278 tons. The
annual amount of tonnage of vessels
built is about 1,000 tons; value,
$63,318. .Total annual value of
the fisheries and manufactures, $1,-
337,527. The number of sheep in
the county in 1837, was 7,332.

Barnstable county is noted for its
fine sailors and men of superior nau-
tical talents. The ladies are cele-
brated for their fair complexions
and good housewifery; but are pe-
culiarly subject to the vicissitudes
pertaining to a maritime situation.
By a /Statement recently made, it
appears that there were in this
county nearly a thousand widows
living, who had lost their husbands
by the dangers of the sea. In two
towns, (Harwich and Wellfleet,)
there were 223 widows who had
thus lost their companions. This
couniy.has 13 towns; and 91 inhabit-
ants to a square mile.

Barnstable, Mass.

This is the chief town of Barn-
stable county, and a port of entry.
It is 65 miles from Boston.
Sandy
JS'eck,
on the N. side, forms a good
harbor for vessels of 8 feet of water.
Hyannis, on the S. side, 6 miles S.
E. of Barnstable C. H., is now a
good harbor*; but by an expensive
Breakwater, constructing at that
place by the U. S. government, it
will soon become perfectly safe
from all winds, for all classes of






PREVIOUS PAGE ... NEXT PAGE

This page was written in HTML using a program written in Python 3.2 and image-to-HTML text generated by ABBYY FineReader 11, Professional Edition.