Revolution on Wheels, Part Two

In the second half of the nineteenth century bicycle developments succeeded from stunt-man contraptions to popular transports. Their commercial evolution keyed progress in mass production techniques and added more constituents to the smooth road movement.


A high-wheel bicycle on display at The Old Castle, Rockport

Sandy Bay Historical Society photo

Forerunners of the bicycle called "boneshakers" during the 1860s had solid rubber tires and rotary cranks with pedals connected to the front hubs. Enlargement of the front wheel, wire spokes, and hollow tube frames generated the speedier "high-wheelers" of the 1870s, pictured above. The general public still hesitated. A pharmaceutical company selected velocipedes to dramatize its pain-killing remedy.


Analgesic advertisement

Gloucester Daily Times, June 18, 1891

The first "safety bicycle" seen in Gloucester was purchased by quarry owner Col. Jonas H. French for his son in 1883. Thirteen years later, perhaps after a trade-in, Gray's Bicycle shop displayed it to customers. "It is rather an odd pattern compared to modern wheels" mused the Gloucester Daily Times (GDT) on March 16, 1896.

Tinkerers, inventors, and industrialists all pursued their rewards in bringing people unprecedented mobility and comfort. Advances during the 1880s brought the steerable front wheel, chain-driven rear wheel, pneumatic tires, diamond-pattern frame, and pedals located ergonomically. The bicycle craze was on.

A safety-bicycle advertisement

Gloucester Daily Times, May 5, 1893

Adventurous riders could travel far and wide on machines that didn't require food, water, nor veterinary care. Four members of the Brooklyn Bicycle Club pedaled to Rockport in five days for a stay at the Linwood House in Pigeon Cove. GDT,  August 18, 1891.

It didn't take Rockport youngsters - not a narrow age group - long to apply wheels to entertainment.  " The amateur bicycle riders congregate almost every evening near the Beach Street school-house, which makes the starting point of a mile road course through the following streets: Beach to Granite, to King through Smith to the starting point. It is said that some of the riders have remarkable records over this course." GDT, August 21, 1894.
 

Local commerce kept pace. "The Cape Ann Tool Company is very busy these days making certain parts for bicycles." GDT, May 12, 1896.



Charles Cleaves riding on Granite Street, 1894

Sandy Bay Historical Society photo



Granite dealer Charles Cleaves took to wheels around Pigeon Cove. When the Rockport Cycle Club was organized in 1895 young men of the Cleaves family were original officer-holders. GDT May 28, 1895.

Beverage advertisement

Gloucester Daily Times, June 22, 1897

Now advertisers could use bicycles to promote pleasurable products, with gender equality. Women's suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony called bicycles " Freedom Machines"  that helped liberalize customs and costumes for fuller female participation.




 The Gloucester Daily Times initiated a "Chain and Sprocket" column to keep readers abreast of cycling news, particularly  regarding who was riding what. As winter subsided it reported on March 14, 1896 that "Gray's bicycle opening attracted a large number of ladies Friday afternoon, who were shown the large lines of wheels which Mr. Gray carries and beside received each and every one a handsome double jonquil. The store was prettily decorated for the occasion with palms and potted plants."
 

On June 24 it congratulated George Poland for riding from Boston to Rockport in a little less than 3 hours, "a pretty good time."

On September 24 it covered an 18-mile bicycle race through West Gloucester on a route originally laid out for carriages as "The Big Heater," starting and finishing on Western Avenue.

The Perkins & Corliss establishment, Buy Cycles

To these ripe market conditions the firm of Perkins & Corliss brought wit and energy. They installed the first air pump outside their store to inflate tires.  As the cycling season opened in 1896 they cultivated and sponsored its first celebrity, a Lanesville lad named Francis J. Reed.

On the previous Memorial Day,  Francis J. Reed had entered his first round-the-Cape road race. Partisans lined the streets of Lanesville to cheer him on as he led the pack through the village. A great shout went up when the announcement reached the Telephone Office that he had won the wheelmen's race. GDT,  June 1, 1895.

Three months later he pedaled to New Bedford to compete in the Hayland Smith contest touted as "the greatest road race of the year" that drew speedsters from across the country."While all admired Reed's pluck and courage in attempting this great race in his first racing year, very few thought he would get a prize. But he did just the same. He kept up his good work, worthily represented Cape Ann in the greatest road race of the year, and secured fifth place, his time for the 25 miles being 1 hour 11 minutes and 56 seconds." GDT, Sep 3, 1895.

The following March, Corliss & Perkins announced through the newspaper their challenge to the leading bicycle dealer: We, the undersigned, have a Cape Ann amateur rider mounted on one of the wheels for which we are agents, whom we will back or a $50 diamond, against any other amateur rider Mr. Gray can put into the field mounted on one of his wheels, this race to be run April 30, 1896 around the Cape.

The retail race was on.

Revolution on Wheels, Part One

When Henry David Thoreau set out to explore the North Shore in September 1858 he walked from Salem to Gloucester with his friend John Russell. They rose early the next morning, continued on past Loblolly Cove to Rockport, then to Folly Cove where Halibut Point framed his view to the sea. 

Imagine if Henry had taken this sojourn twenty years later on wheels. He who disdained the extravagance of carriage and horse would have had at his disposal the first gift of technology to individual mobility, appropriately self-powered and self-reliant, the bicycle. Meandering or mad-capping Henry could have extended his geography without distancing himself from the wayside landscape.

 

By 1885 when John S. Webber, Jr. published In and around Cape Ann: A Handbook for the Wheelman Tourist, bicycling excursions had become a popular recreation.

     "After turning the curve in the road, near the old Babson homestead, a long gradual descent gives the opportunity for a delightful coast, and the tourist then catches a pleasing view of Folly Cove and the adjacent bay....The way now leads through a quaint little fishing settlement, and soon the wheelman enters the thriving village of Lanesville, after passing through a section of the road arched completely over with the thickly entwined branches of mammoth willows. A dismount at this cosy looking place, and you have the opportunity of partaking of ice cream or soda at the little wayside store here, kept by Mrs. Marchant. Beyond the willows the road rises with a gradual sweep, continues along by the deeply cut quarries of the Lanesville Granite Company."



Velocipede rider, downtown Gloucester

 The first two-wheelers in town, velocipedes, appealed to daredevil spirits. They were introduced at indoor rinks with smooth flooring.

Cape Ann Advertiser, February 12, 1869

An 1869 advertisement touts "the graceful science of velocipede riding." Local journalists, representing a more sedentary set of citizens, frolicked with the novelty of riders on wheels:

     "The Californians look with contempt upon the new velocipede. 'They will do very well,' says an editor, 'for Paris, where many people cannot afford to keep horses, and could not ride them very will if they did. But they will never do in California, where boys of ten years of age ride full-grown horses at the top of their speed around the streets."' Cape Ann Advertiser (CAA), Jan 15.

     "Surgeons and tailors are much interested in the velocipede mania. It suits both." Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph (CALGT), Feb 27.

Velocipede club, internet photo

Before long a more generous view recognized that the public would be sharing its roadways with wheeled contraptions that captured the imagination of young men, with broader societal benefits. "One of the results of the velocipede excitement in this town is, that it draws the young men away from the drinking saloons, and gives them a pleasant and beneficial turn to their minds as well as a healthy exercise of body." CAA, Mar 5. Women too could get aboard. "It has been demonstrated out West, that women can ride the bicycle velocipedes by wearing bilegular garments." CALGT  Feb 13

Fourth of July Road Race

Gloucester Daily Times  June 27, 1899

As velocipedes evolved into bicycles they captivated enthusiasts both in the saddle and off. Anywhere young men can pit themselves against one another an arena develops, and young ladies appear. Children adhere to the crowd inexorably and seniors gather to the sporting set. What better centerpiece for the national anniversary than heroics on the open road?

Gold Fever, 1898

Under the headline "That Gold Plant" on April 16, 1898 the Gloucester Daily Times acknowledged that "as yet very little is known about the plant that is being set up at Halibut Point....Many think it is for the purpose of obtaining gold from the salt water."

Curiosity built. Two weeks later "a party of Lanesville bicyclists rode over to Halibut Point, Saturday morning, and one little girl asked the man in charge if he would please tell her the object of the building. 'Why, didn't you know it was for three cannons to fire on the Spaniards?' he asked. She apparently believed him, said 'Thank you,' and was leaving, when the man said, 'No, little girl, it isn't that at all, this is a contrivance to obtain gold from salt water.' She said 'thank you' and left."

On August  2  the newspaper printed an update. "The gold plant at Halibut Point is still running day and night. The people of the town have had a good opportunity to see the men who have been interested in the local plant and it must be admitted that the impression they have made here is very favorable."
 

Advertisement from the Gloucester Daily Times, October 28, 1897

Cape Ann was mightily stirred in 1898 by the allure of prosperity for the taking. Procter Brothers, the publishers of the Times offered a zestful account of the road to riches. 

 

On February 15 a letter had reached home from one of the crew of the Blackburn party that had rounded Cape Horn en route to the Klondike. "The seas [in the Straits of Magellan] rolled twice as high as our mast, and part of the time our craft stood on end....One of our men was washed overboard and by the same sea washed back." The drama gripped even (or especially) a hardened seafaring populace.
 

During the previous summer Gloucester's legendary Howard Blackburn had proposed and organized the first of the local expeditions to join the Alaskan gold rush. The Times boasted that "the announcement of Mr. Blackburn's scheme in the local papers was sufficient to have it heralded all over the country and in many metropolitan dailies appeared column articles and words of praise for Mr. Blackburn and his project."

Separated from the fishing schooner Grace L. Fears in an 1883 winter gale, Blackburn had rowed his dory for five days and nights with hands frozen around the oars to reach the Newfoundland shore. He returned to Gloucester having lost all his fingers, most of his toes, and the first joints of both thumbs. He founded a popular saloon in his home port.

 

Blackburn hand-picked members of his expedition to include diverse skills for the voyage, and to re-assemble the 50-foot flat-bottomed steam launch suitable for traversing the shallow Yukon River. The launch he had had built, taken apart and stowed on the schooner Hattie I. Phillips along with a cargo of coal to be sold in San Francisco. He expected to take on extra passengers on the West Coast and sell the schooner when no longer required.

      "Amid lusty cheers of the assembled thousands which thronged Perkins' big salt wharf Monday afternoon, the lines which held the good schooner Hattie I. Phillips were cast off and the party of enthusiastic and earnest Klondykers answered cheer for cheer as the tugboat Joe Call took her down the harbor--the first step on her long journey to the regions of gold....

      "The sightseers maintained a respectful silence while fathers and mothers parted from sons and wives and children said their good byes to husbands and fathers. All strove to be brave, but it was a trying moment and tears would come as the thoughts of parting filled the hearts of those little family groups."

Gloucester Daily Times, October 19, 1897
 

"The schooner Hattie I. Phillips, carrying the Blackburn Expedition,
clears Gloucester Harbor." Joe Garland, Lone Voyager.
Photo credit Sandy Bay Historical Society

All told eight Gloucester schooners were sold in 1897 to gold rush ambitions up and down our Northeastern coast. Other prospectors crossed the continent by train. They faced every manner of hardship and canny competition in the Klondike, but some said they preferred it to fishing. A Times reporter visited  28-year old Howard Wonson at his Mount Pleasant Street home during a brief return to Gloucester. "Mr. Wonson had been at Rampart City about two weeks when a report came that gold had been found in Munock, a few miles away. A great stampede followed, and Mr. Wonson says that the best way he can describe it is to imagine a large fire in a city and having five hundred people all running and crowding in that direction."

Albert Butler, shipwrecked on the coast of Labrador, returned to Gloucester to found the United Mining Company in January 1898 for pursuit of gold in another challenging northern land.

Six weeks later the discovery of gold on Cape Breton Island set off a mad rush into the Salt and Skye Mountains of Nova Scotia for  a lode reported to be "one of the richest ever made in North America."

Back on Halibut Point the enterprise to distill gold from seawater ended inauspiciously and apparently without a post mortem in the newspaper. In San Francisco Howard Blackburn resigned from the Gloucester Mining Company over administrative disagreements and returned home without reaching the Yukon.

 

The following summer Blackburn commissioned an eighteen-foot fishing sloop for a voyage more closely suited to his independent spirit. He sailed the Great Western single-handedly, with no fingers, across the Atlantic, reaching England in 62 days at sea. Two years later he sailed the twenty-five foot sloop Great Republic alone to Portugal in 39 days.

 

It was Howard Blackburn's destiny to make his mark with precious mettle rather than precious metal. 

 

"Tuning her up for Portugal, Howard takes Great Republic for a trial spin
out of Gloucester Harbor." Joe Garland, Lone Voyager.
Photo credit Sandy Bay Historical Society

Autumn Reflections

An unseasonably warm rain saturates, then clarifies the air at Halibut Point. It concocts an atmosphere that invigorates the sunlight and the scenery.

For better views I chase the angle, the interplay of weather and clouds and clock and calendar. Fall tapestries double below the quarry rim.

Warm rain awakens the seemingly bare rock. Subtle patinas on the granite swashbuckle their specific lives.

Mosses and lichens stretch, glow, and celebrate in procreative splendor.

A busy community jostles in an amphitheater between pebbles.

Microcosmic architecture invents forms to answer an essential call in the moment of the rain and sun.

Quarrymen's fractures complement geologic fissures in the granite. An inadvertent beauty surrounds the wound.

To preserve the peace I don't choose between Industry and Nature. The facts harmonize in reflections.

My son Patrick sends pictures from Hanoi after receiving my wartime portraits from Saigon.

Veterans Day Reflections

Recently a friend of mine put out a call to his fellow veterans to write about their reactions when people say to them, "Thank you for your service." He has included my response along with diverse others in a section of his website titled Five Simple Words.*  

Here's the way it struck me, along with a few photographs of my encounters with local people in Vietnam, 1971-72.

_____

Four years in the Army. If I'd truly given of myself the words 'Thank-you' would be welcome. Nothing beats hearing thank-you for a sincere and meaningful gift.

Why did I volunteer for Vietnam? There may have been a touch of nobility or sacrifice among my motives. But mainly an adventurous pulse beat within me then. I heard tribal voices calling in the haze. It was my life's chance to rub shoulders with war.

"Possibilities of a hat"

Mortality was never an issue in my youthful mind. Not my own nor toward anyone else. I wasn't capable of considering it. 

Airborne School was a hard-earned lark. At Ranger School I was resourceful enough to match up with tough training. I stuck bayonets into straw dummies screaming "Kill, kill, kill!!!" The classmates who really understood were combat veterans.

There were other things I didn't grasp. I had only a dim awareness of the currents of myth and entitlement that underlie national as well as personal destiny. I remember looking back toward America from an Asian shore wondering if this entire history had happened to teach me something.

"Scholar"

After an interesting couple of years as a construction officer in Thailand and Germany I reported in June 1971 to the assignment station at Cam Ranh Bay. I volunteered for combat engineering duty with the 101st Airborne Division. I wound up at a geographical intelligence desk in Saigon. Perhaps it was a miraculous intervention. I do say thank-you for that. 

It was my third time living in Southeast Asia. My Dad had been military attaché to Burma during my teen years. Then the posting to a young man's paradise, for seaport construction in rural Thailand. Now to the capital of French Indo-China, the Pearl of the Orient - in turmoil.
 

"Weighing Peppers"

I liked the local people. I spent many hours after work wandering the streets of Saigon photographing its citizens. I got around town by bus, spent nights printing portraits and city scenes in the darkroom.

"Two Buddies"

Who knows how close VC sympathizers were to me during these escapades. No one ever bothered me except motorcycle-mounted Saigon cowboys stealing cameras. Once a taxi driver pulled a gun over a disputed fare after curfew. I walked away, he didn't fire.

I figure I had protection, perhaps the protection of innocence. Sometimes you shouldn't look down. 

The first time I reported for night duty officer I tried to load bullets into the .45 cal pistol worn on security patrols. My hands shook with the sudden clarity of what that gun was for. I threw the ammo clip back into the drawer, strapped on the pistol and went out into the night. I never carried a loaded weapon that year.
 

Yes, it was a year of innocence in the sense of not provoking a bee hive into attack. In other ways, not innocent at all. I tried hard to support the war effort with good intelligence studies. I relished a pat on the back from senior officers. I regarded field grunts as tainted by blood on their hands.



"Funeral music"

I came home unscathed, untroubled except by those shadows of self-discovery and judgment.

I've added my voice and my photographs to the peace movement since 1972. I've pondered the sometimes gratuitous gesture "Thank you for your service." The wars keep on coming.
 

People want to connect. Many have profound ambivalence, sorrow, confusion about the wars. Maybe they feel guilt. Maybe they understand there's a terrible price for war and its damage to participants on all sides. Maybe they hope to separate the warrior from the war. They offer "Thank you for your service." Maybe they're lock-step patriots. 

I  don't presume to know the burdens of combat vets any more than the average person who says "Thank you for your service." But by surviving they may have gained enviable fraternity with their brothers. They deserve a special chance to share in all the fruits of life available to their fellow citizens.

With Veterans for Peace protesting the troop surge in Afghanistan

at The White House, December 2010

_____

* Five Simple Words can be found online at Marc Levy's website Medic in the Green Time.

War Fever, 1898

The tide of Manifest Destiny crested  as the Grand American Experiment passed its century mark. The country had quintupled its territory in less than one hundred years with more opportunity than resistance.

Gloucester Daily Times, May 13, 1898

News reached Cape Ann that Admiral Dewey had vanquished the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay on May 1, 1898. The annexation of Hawaii by the United States provided the naval link for the Pacific expansion.

 

Probing the remains of the Spanish empire in 1898, American forces triumphed in Cuba and Puerto Rico, stirred by jingoistic journalism, speeches and sermons. But coastal citizens weren't entirely sure there wouldn't be a counterattack by Spain's Atlantic fleet. Troops quartered in an old sail loft on Bearskin Neck "have established a cordon of sentinels along the Neck, and as a result every passer is subjected to being stopped and examined in true military style" reported the Times on May 11.

 

Within a week sentiment turned from concern to celebration as war news confirmed American naval victories. Headlines proclaimed "Town Manifests Patriotism in Unbounded Enthusiasm" after a parade, music and fireworks in Rockport on the night of May 18.

 

Representative Leander M. Haskins, principal speaker of the evening, reminded folks that "his ancestor John Pool settled there, when there was no other white man at Rockport, and his grandfather marched to the battle of Bunker Hill, and served eight months under Gen. Washington....It was a pleasure for him to be present and take part in the celebration and in throwing the flag to the breeze.

      "He contrasted the intelligence of America with the ignorance of Spain, and showed how the latter country, once the richest and most powerful on earth had lost her possessions and her power, while the United States had under the guidance of God won the esteem of the earth....

 

      "He then called for the unfurling of the flag, and as the banner appeared cheer upon cheer rent the air, it being several minutes before the applause ceased, while the band played the Star Spangled Banner and America, followed by other patriotic melodies.

      "A novel feature of the flag raising was witnessed just as the flag burst from its fastenings, when hundreds of miniature flags fell from its folds and were eagerly caught by the throng beneath.

      "A company of school boys in pretty uniforms with miniature guns and flags took part in the procession, presenting a most pleasing sight. They were greeted with cheers all along the line of march, which was made brilliant with bunting and colored fire by enthusiastic residents."

 

Advertisement for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show

Gloucester Daily Times, June 6, 1898

Spirits stayed high as Buffalo Bill encamped in Riverdale with his Wild West Show. Cowboys and Indians joined Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders in taking San Juan Hill, Puerto Rico on July 1st.

Local residents' elation peaked in September when the gunboat Gloucester visited her namesake port after playing a decisive role in the conquest of Hispaniola.

Front page of the Gloucester Daily Times, September 16, 1898

      "The reception accorded the auxiliary cruiser Gloucester showed more than words could tell the honor which Gloucester feels has been done her by the gallant little craft which bears her name. No more enthusiastic or cordial welcome could have been desired, for on the water and shore alike she and her valiant officers and crew were greeted with immense crowds, who gave vent to their appreciation of the visit to this port by a hearty welcome , in which the booming of guns and shrieks of steam whistles and the clanging of bells vied with the buzz of the multitude in proclaiming the pleasure of the citizens."

Lieutenant-Commander Wainwright

      "All the time Lieutenant-Commander Wainwright stood upon the bridge and raised his cap with each repeated salute. Some big yachts sailed past, and, as each one touched off its saluting piece, the crew and passengers would join in a hearty cheer to the gallant little fighter...

      "As the Gloucester came into the outer harbor, the first gun of the Stage Fort Battery spoke out and was the signal for the church bells about town to be rung. With the ringing of the bells came toots from the tugs in the harbor and factories and booms from the canons stationed at intervals along the shore."

What confluence of private and public achievements brought the Gloucester its glory? "She, as is well known, was J. Pierpont Morgan's yacht Corsair prior to the war, and was accounted one of the finest and fastest pleasure crafts ever constructed. She is 241 feet over all and 27 feet beam....The sloping funnel is indicative of speed, while on deck, the formidable array of guns bespeaks her real vocation." Times, Sep. 17, 1898.

While the United States consolidated order in the Western Hemisphere European powers were busy bringing Asia and Africa into modern equations. Their progress, competition, and collisions were avidly followed in the press. Under the headline HER LARGE FOOT DOWN on October 20 the Times quoted England's Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Chancellor of the Exchequer, "Our work in Egypt is not completed. Africa is big enough for us both--for France in the west and ourselves in the east. Surely we ought to be able to agree to respect one another's rights and claims. I hope, trust, and believe the question is capable of friendly solution, but this country has put her foot down. If, unhappily, another view should be taken by France, the queen's ministers know what their duty demands." 

The contest focused on recalcitrant Islam (Mahdism) in the Sudan: 

MELTED TO DRIBLETS

Savages' Attack Repulsed by Anglo-Egyptian Army

DIED BESIDE THEIR STANDARDS

Fired Shots For Mahdism Even In Their Death Agonies 

      "Omdurman, On the Nile, Sept. 6--General Kitchener, with the Khalifis' black standard, captured during a battle, entered Omdurman, the capital, Friday afternoon, at the head of the Anglo-Egyptian column, after completely routing the dervishes and dealing a death blow to Mahdism...

 

      "The flower of the Khalifa's army was caught in a depression and within a zone of withering cross-fire from three brigades, with the attendant artillery. The devoted Mahdists strove heroically to make headway, but every rush was stopped, while their main body was literally mown down by a sustained cross-fire. Defiantly the dervishes planted their standards and died beside them. Their dense masses gradually melted to companies, and companies to driblets beneath the leaden hail. Finally they broke and fled, leaving the field while with jibbah-clad corpses, like a snowdrift dotted meadow....

 

      "The bravery of the dervishes evoked universal admiration. Time after time their dispersed and broken forces reformed and hurled themselves upon the Anglo-Egyptians, their emirs conspicuously leading and spurning death. Even when wounded and in death agonies they raised themselves to fire a last shot."

With these images in mind Americans arrived on the world stage feeling ennobled and invincible. Cape Ann voters helped anoint Teddy Roosevelt as the next President of the United States. Within twenty years of 1898 Doughboys from Rockport and Gloucester shipped East for the 'War to End All Wars.' To the west  they encountered expansionist Japan. 

The global map writhed and re-wrote itself as vigorous energies coalesced in empire. Myths and martial music mobilized  people everywhere. Journalists kept the drum roll in the 'news.' 

Born in the War for Independence, emerging from childhood in the Civil War, the United States pulsed with adolescent ardor in the Spanish-American War. The mantle of civic maturity awaited fulfillment.

Precarious Progress, 1898

When classes resumed at the Lane School in September 1898 the Gloucester Daily Times reported that ten of the eleven new pupils had been born overseas. The children's nationalities reflected immigration currents bringing workers to Lanesville: 6 Finn, 3 Swede, 1 Italian.

At this time half the population of harbor-blessed Gloucester was foreign-born. Most of them were attracted to fishing-related opportunities. The cove-sprinkled north side of Cape Ann surrounding Halibut Point snoozed through the boom until entrepreneurs combined mining techniques with ocean transport and Boston capital  to make granite quarrying profitable for distant markets. To be competitive they needed abundant low-cost labor willing to accept back-breaking dangerous work. That meant recruiting abroad.

Clearing grout from the quarry floor

Photo courtesy of the Sandy Bay Historical Society

Most of the unskilled quarry workers came from Scandinavia. Among the push factors for emigration were insecurity and limited prospects at home. The young men of Finland, then a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire, faced military conscription for the continental aspirations of Czar Nicholas. Nineteenth-century Sweden experienced periodic famine and rebellion. 

In 1898 the villages around Halibut Point supported about 1,300 Finns and Swedes on its Rockport side and about 1,900 on its Gloucester side. Downtown they were hardly known. 

 

On March 1st the Times made mention on page 6 of a blast at the Pigeon Hill Granite Co. that killed quarry worker John Corscus, recently married. There were no subsequent references in the newspaper to his family or circumstances.

 

Granite paving blocks awaiting shipment from Lane's Cove,

piled behind the fish shacks

Pictures from the Past: Lanesville & Vicinity vol. 1, 2009

After ten-hour days in the quarries, as well as during winter or production layoffs, stone cutters developed supplemental operations to make paving blocks for the granite exporters.

On August 8 the Times reported the auction of 80,000 paving blocks on the wharf of the Lanes Cove Pier Company. The blocks belonged to the Lanesville Granite Company which had lost its shipping schooner Charlie Steadman, washed ashore at Pigeon Cove Harbor in the tremendous gale of February 1st. The company probably buckled under that loss.

Postcard from the Richard Lewis Collection

Courtesy of the Annisquam Historical Society

The industry had to respond to new concerns. On September 17 officers of the two largest firms, the  Cape Ann Granite Co. and Rockport Granite Co., escorted through their quarries  a Mr. Stanford, engineer in charge of building the Charlestown dry dock. The Times noted that "a determined effort is being made by the granite companies to have granite used instead of concrete, the whole matter depending on the expense. It is said an effort is being made to get a larger appropriation from Congress, as granite will be the most expensive and the best material for the work."

Louis Rogers inspecting operations for the Rockport Granite Company

Babson Farms Quarry, Halibut Point

Photo courtesy of the Sandy Bay Historical Society

Letter to the Editor

Gloucester Daily Times Sep 30, 1898  

 

Stone Workers Union of Cape Ann

 

Messrs Editors: Labor has no protection, all wealth and all power centre to the few, and, the many are their victims and their bondsmen. It would be hard to find any place in this country where the truth of this statement is brought home with such cruel rigour to the hearts and minds of any class who earn their bread by the sweat of their brow, than the stone workers of Cape Ann.

Year after year their wages have been reduced until an existence has almost become an impossibility, instead of earning a wage by their hard and dangerous occupation that ought to maintain them in a decent and respectable manner, they can only with the greatest difficulty keep the wolf form the door, and their existence is that of a drudge of the most degraded kind making life a burden and almost a curse.

 

These were the views expressed at a meeting of the stone workers held in Channey's Hall Bay View Wednesday evening, who, recognizing that in union there is strength, have united themselves in a bond of fellowship with a view of self protection which promises to become one of the most powerful and beneficial organizations for stone workers in this district which has ever been.

The object of this Union is to cultivate feelings of brotherly interest in each other, to earn adequate pay for their work and to endeavor to cultivate the moral, intellectual and social conditions of the members, but in a special manner does it consider it one of its foremost duties to care for its sick members. The regular meeting takes place every Wednesday evening at 7:30, and all who work on stone are earnestly requested to become members.

Laborer

Labor gang in a quarry

Pictures from the Past: Lanesville & Vicinity vol. 1, 2009

The forces of nature and man jostled against each other to shape the patterns of survival and prosperity. Immigrants then as now struggled mightily for a toehold in the new land. They were grist for its mills. They were its raw energy. In 1898 they depended on mutual aid and charity. There was no safety net.

People move in planetary energy adjustments similar to weather fronts moving from high toward low-pressure zones. The populating of America proceeded, clinically speaking, to equalize global energy imbalances. Indigenous cultures - and all entities at a lower dynamic state - become transmuted, invigorated or lost. Migrants are transformed as well, their native traditions scarcely recognizable within a few generations.

Movements driven by necessity and imagination encounter invitation and/or resistance, according to political dispositions at the time. Similar factors influence economic and class mobility within the society. 

 

Since before Exodus people have sought to overcome barriers to the Promised Land. Desire is human, happiness divine.