Plymouth
()
About this ebook
James W. Baker
James W. Baker is a Plymouth native who lives with his wife, Peggy, in his great-great-grandfather's house at Jabez Corner. Formerly research director at Plimoth Plantation, his interest in Plymouth transcends the Pilgrims to embrace the entire history of the old colony town.
Related to Plymouth
Related ebooks
Cape Cod's Oldest Shipwreck: The Desperate Crossing of the Sparrow-Hawk Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLost Lake Pontchartrain Resorts & Attractions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ghostly Tales of Flint Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGallia County, Ohio (Bicentennial): History Vol. 2; Bicentennial Edition-2003 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gold Rush Ghosts of Placerville, Coloma & Georgetown Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhosts of Martha's Vineyard Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTravels Into Our Past: America's Living History Museums & Historical Sites Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRemembering Haverhill: Stories from the Merrimack Valley Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Haunted Bowdoin College Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMethuen Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hamilton Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMount Savage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHistoric Powder Houses of New England: Arsenals of American Independence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHaunted Potomac River Valley Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHistoric Haunts of the Long Beach Peninsula Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSouth of Boston: Tales from the Coastal Communities of Massachusetts Bay Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Railroading around Cumberland Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStrange Sights in the White House and Other Hauntings in Washington, D.C. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNew Jersey Butterfly Boys in the Civil War: The Hussars of the Union Army Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLouisiana Pastimes: Ancient Fishing Methods, the Hippo Bill, a Squirrel Stampede and Other Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHagerstown: Railroading Around the Hub City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHaunted Crown Point, Indiana Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLegends & Lore of Somerset County: Knitting Betty, the Great Swamp Devil and More Tales from Central New Jersey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhosts of Berkshires Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHidden History of Litchfield County Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWicked Western Slope: Mayhem, Michief & Murder in Colorado Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEcorse: Along the Detroit River Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLegends and Lore of Lake Ontario Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Conrad Weiser Area Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHaunted Watauga County, North Carolina Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5
Photography For You
The Photography Bible: A Complete Guide for the 21st Century Photographer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Digital Photography For Dummies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Conscious Creativity: Look, Connect, Create Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Book Of Legs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bloodbath Nation Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lingerie Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhotography 101: The Digital Photography Guide for Beginners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Through the Lens of Whiteness: Challenging Racialized Imagery in Pop Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHumans of New York Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fifty Places to Hike Before You Die: Outdoor Experts Share the World's Greatest Destinations Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Jada Pinkett Smith A Short Unauthorized Biography Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Humans of New York: Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hicksville Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRocks and Minerals of The World: Geology for Kids - Minerology and Sedimentology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Let Us Now Praise Famous Men Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Eerie South Carolina: True Chilling Stories from the Palmetto Past Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5And Still I Rise: Black America Since MLK Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5South Carolina's Lowcountry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHallowed Halls of Greater New Orleans: Historic Churches, Cathedrals and Sanctuaries Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStreet Photography Assignments: 75 Reasons to Hit the Streets and Learn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Photograph Everything: Simple Techniques for Shooting Spectacular Images Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Patterns in Nature: Why the Natural World Looks the Way It Does Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Advancing Your Photography: Secrets to Making Photographs that You and Others Will Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Photography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cinematography: Third Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secrets to Creating Amazing Photos: 83 Composition Tools from the Masters (Photography Book) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Practicing Presence: A Mother's Guide to Savoring Life through the Photos You're Already Taking Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDune Part One: The Photography Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLegendary Locals of Savannah Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for Plymouth
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Plymouth - James W. Baker
much.
INTRODUCTION
Plymouth is best known as the Pilgrim Town,
where the famous events of 1620 marked the beginning of New England and, by extension, all of British North America. The Pilgrims of Plymouth have long been considered, in the words of Samuel Eliot Morison, the spiritual ancestors of all Americans.
This is, of course, patently unfair to Virginia, which was there first in 1607. However, it was Plymouth, not Jamestown, that captured the imagination of the world and is now universally regarded as America’s birthplace.
Yet, the Pilgrims were only the first among the innumerable immigrants who arrived on these shores. Plymouth was never frozen in the image of its first settlers. When the English American colonies were primarily British in origin, Plymouth was a typical coastal community of the time—homogeneous in population and culture. Nevertheless, the town had ties to the outside world through fishing and shipping and its role as a port of entry. In addition, there had long been a small but vital number of Native American and African American families among the old Yankee clans.
Plymouth found a pioneering role in the new industrial economy that attracted a new pattern of European immigration. Emigrants from Ireland, Canada, and Germany, seeking work in the new mills along Plymouth’s brooks and shores, transformed the town by the 1850s. At the end of the century, the town benefited again from the second wave of immigration, which brought families from Italy, Portugal, Finland, England, Russia, and even China. The Old Colony town’s demographics, far from being limited to Pilgrim stock, reflected those of the nation at large.
The 20th century saw no abatement in this cycle of growth and change. By midcentury, the new highway system superceded the railroad and streetcars. It brought an explosion in population, introducing the ex-urban pattern of housing developments and commercial sprawl that became characteristic of the American communities everywhere. Shorn of its mills and with many of its early neighborhoods and woodlands lost through progress and urban renewal, Plymouth was transformed once again. Far from being an isolated tourist attraction with a pure Anglo-American past, Plymouth is uniquely representative of the entire American experience, from its Colonial roots to today’s postindustrial society.
As with most New England towns, the earliest scenes are now beyond recall. We have no pictures of our Pilgrim beginnings or any image at all before the start of the 19th century, when English traveler John Lambert first depicted the town from the harbor entrance. It was the invention of photography that made it feasible to fully record the passing of the old and the advent of the new. Plymouth made good use of this medium to rescue the past from oblivion. We are beneficiaries of enterprising photographers, such as W.S. Robbins, J.C. Barnes, and E.P. McLaughlin, as well as many anonymous camera carriers. We are in debt, too, to the town’s premier publicist and souvenir purveyor, Alfred S. Burbank, whose enthusiasm for Plymouth was not limited to the Pilgrims but also included the contemporary town as well.
This book is a family album of America’s Home Town,
a pictorial retrospective of the people and places from Plymouth’s past two centuries of existence. These images are largely those that no longer exist—except in memory. They show how the town evolved from a rural fishing village to the post–World War II community in which many contemporary Plymoutheans grew up. The pictures date primarily from the 1890s to the 1950s and depict a Plymouth that was still an independent, self-contained community with a population of one third or less of what it is today.
The first chapter focuses on Plymouth’s historic houses as they looked before they were restored
or destroyed. These dwellings, presented in roughly chronological order, hearkened back to Pilgrim times and, like Plymouth Rock or Pilgrim Hall’s artifacts, acted as tangible touchstones to an authentic Plymouth past.
The second chapter encompasses Plymouth’s vanished industrial landscape when the town was dominated by its mills and factories during the 19th century. Manufacturers used the waterpower of Town Brook, Eel River, and even Hobs Hole Brook to produce ironware, tacks, rope, cotton, and woolen cloth. They ranged in size from Ichabod Morton’s quaint gristmill to the massive Plymouth Cordage Company, which single-handedly created the North Plymouth community.
The third chapter presents the local stores and businesses that supported the people who worked and lived in Plymouth. It evokes the closeness of a community where everything from hardware to clothing could be found in downtown stores, and there were corner