Joseph C. Lincoln (1870-1944)
Call me a relic,
Call me what you will,
Say I'm old fashioned,
Say I'm over the hill.
— Bob Seger
early Cape Cod
I've been collecting 17th-20th century stories and articles with Cape Cod characters, and descriptions of the Cape, Massachusetts, New England and their denizens. Authors have been writing stories about quaint Cape Cod customs and speech for a long time. Some of these are in a Natural History set, and others in a Whaling and Fishing set.
Massachusetts Gazetteers & Histories
I think the changes in the landscape and physical descriptions of the towns are particularly interesting, and those are a big part of the MHS and Dwight sections.
The Massachusetts Historical Society published many relevant articles in its early Collections. In 1794 there were articles featuring Barnstable, Mashpee, Nantucket, Truro, Wellfleet, Middleborough, and Raynham, Massachusetts; Machias, Sebago Lakes, Topsham, Wells, and York, Maine; and Roger Williams's notes on the Naragansetts. In 1798 : Massachusetts and New York Indians and missionaries in the 1790s, Indian-Plymouth treaties circa 1670, settlement of the Narragansett country, Yarmouth and Newton histories, ancient Mass. Bay laws. In 1802 : descriptions of the Outer Beach with its Humane Society huts, Sandwich, Dennis, Chatham, Orleans, Eastham and Provincetown. In 1809 : Brewster and Harvard, 17th and 18th Century Indians in eastern Massachusetts.
Edward Augustus Kendall published Travels through the northern parts of the United States in the years 1807 and 1808. The Cape and Islands section is done, with parts of Maine to come.
Rev. Timothy Dwight traveled New England and New York from 1795 to 1815, and his notes were published in 4 volumes in 1821and 1822. He made a horseback Journey to Provincetown in 1800. I couldn't find it anywhere else, so I posted the table of contents for the 4 volumes, also.
There is John Hayward's 1839 New England Gazetteer, with the Cape and Islands and a few parts of Connecticut, Maine, more of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Rev. Enoch Pratt published A Comprehensive History, Ecclesiastical and Civil, of Eastham, Wellfleet and Orleans, from 1644 to 1844.
There is Fowle and Fitz's 1845 Elementary Geography for Massachusetts Children, from which you can read just the entries for the Cape and Islands or the full text.
Rev. Elias Nason wrote The Massachusetts Gazetteer, published in 1874. I've posted Barnstable county and its towns so far.
Elias Nason and George Varney wrote a revised Massachusetts Gazetteer, published in 1890, and I've scanned and posted the whole thing, except for the pictures ("a picture is worth a thousand words; unfortunately, it consumes the bandwidth of ten thousand words.") This is a county by county and town by town description of people, industries and geography, with a long overview of the whole commonwealth. Click the links to the separate indices to go straight to the lists of counties, towns and villages and geographic features. (Cape Cod is Barnstable county, Martha's Vineyard is Dukes.) Here are the entries for Cape Cod: Bourne, Falmouth, Sandwich, Mashpee, Barnstable (town), Barnstable county, Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich, Chatham, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, Provincetown.
Simeon L. Deyo edited the History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, over 1000 pages, also published in 1890. Here are the intro, industrial resources, lawyers, physicians, authors and publications, Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth, Barnstable, Mashpee, Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich, Chatham, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown histories and biographies. Wellfleet is indexed.
Captain J. Henry Sears compiled Brewster Ship Masters, published in 1906. Henry C. Kittredge wrote an article on the Cape-Boston packets.
"History" for fun.
David L. Belding's 1920 A Report upon the Alewife Fisheries of Massachusetts. The herring runs even then, or especially then, had been nearly ruined by incompetence, greed and pollution.
Maps
I've posted a set of topographic and political maps, featuring Cape Cod, coastal Maine and central Vermont.
This is an extensive site dedicated to Cape Cod author Joseph Crosby Lincoln, with a bibliography, published overviews of his life and work, poems, reviews of some of his books, and links to free on-line editions.
Joe's first book was Cape Cod Ballads, 1904.
Wellfleet
I'm focusing on Wellfleet because I was born there, and I like it. The page has links to my files on town history and genealogy, and other links to local history, government and nature. Wellfleet postcard and vital records pages.
Genealogy is an occasional obsession. I have a good start on tracing my ancestors back to their boats, along with many other Cape Codders. There are over 70,000 people, so far, with better references than most collections.
The more of my own genealogy I looked at, the more I realized that I'm at least vaguely connected to nearly everyone who lived in Orleans/ Eastham/ Wellfleet Massachusetts before say 1900 or even 1950. So my long-range goal is to include everyone who lived in 17th-19th century Eastham and 18th-19th century Wellfleet and Orleans, and this will include many people from the other Lower Cape towns as well. This would be much easier if they hadn't kept using the same limited set of names, generation after generation!
There's also a strong Maine connection, and so another project is
Cape Cod Genealogical Society
Falmouth (Mass.) Genealogical Society
Book reviews and collection
Everyone is invited, but so far only Dave is verbose enough to write book reviews. Our library of Cape Cod fiction, poetry and non-fiction, and New England colonial history is coming along. If only we had time to read more of them!
Science, history and culture links, books online
evolution
quotes - top
quotes - politics
quotes - rights
my politics & stuff
superstition and reason
I spent a long time gathering and organizing quotes — quotes that amuse or horrify me, and quotes to support my opinionated opinions. They have nothing whatever to do with Cape Cod. In general, I think they are a defense of freedom of expression, civil rights, and rationality, and they tend to fit my politics, so they don't support the Republicans and Tea Crackers, nor their associated criminals, windbags, ayatollahs, media whores and incompetents.
people: Ambrose Bierce, Albert Einstein, Ben Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, H.L. Mencken, Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde,
topics: quotes on quotes, history, advice on life and death, kids, men vs. women, politics, civil and human rights, superstition and reason, nut cases and jingoism, separation of church and state, science, education & computers, stupidity, bumper stickers & one-liners
webmaster's resume
--If you have polite and useful comments or suggestions, email us at webmaster[at]capecodhistory.us --
