THE HARBINGER

Newsletter of the Westport Historical Society, Inc. P. O. Box N 188 Westport, MA 02790-1203 www.westporthistory.com Email: westporthistory@westporthistory.net

VOLUME 43 Summer/Fall 2010 NUMBER 1

Inside This Issue

Westport’s first weekly newspaper? Nobody seemed to know. P4.

Donor and membership acknowledgements P2.

Recent Acquisitions P3.

Westport’s oldest newspaper revealed in WHS find P4.

Upcoming WHS Event Calendar P5.

Westport Historical Society on Facebook! P5.

Ship’s Passport . . . . To the Shores of Tripoli P6.

“Head to Toe: A Century of Westport Fashion 1800-1900” explored the transformation of fashion during the 1800’s. Insert

Lips That Touch Liquor Shall Not Touch Ours! Back page.

More on this Standard Times cartoon and its impact on Westport! P7.

Letter from the Director -

I hope that many of you took the opportunity to view our summer exhibition “Head to Toe: A Century of Westport Fashion 1800 -1900.” Over the last few months I have watched Blair Walker, our guest curator, bring our clothing collection back to life, so to speak. She has carefully dressed 14 mannequins in impossibly small-sized dresses from the 19th century, selected a

wonderful array of comical, dramatic and practical bonnets and hats and some unbelievably narrow and tiny shoes and all manner of accessories. These are not the clothes of wealthy city dwellers. In fact all the clothes in our summer exhibition were worn by Westporters, or near enough, by residents of Dartmouth and Little Compton. Clothing, more than any other historical object, seems to provoke a personal reaction. I find myself pondering how I would function in such clothing, envying the exquisite cut of the some of the dresses and marveling at the condition of the material.

This summer we invite you to enter the world of the 19th century Westport woman, and to make up your own minds about her wardrobe!

If you missed the exhibition, please check our website and Facebook page for photographs and information. Jenny O’Neill

We are grateful to the Grimshaw-Gudewicz Foundation for a grant that makes it possible for us to publish The Harbinger.

Thanks to our Contributing Members – Summer 2010!

Jean Akerson Jon and Suzanne Alden Joel and Lisa Alvord Russell and Patricia Beede John and Gertraude Bergland Leo and Barbara Brooks Edward Brown Norman and Irene Buck Elsie Buess Anne Burkholder Susan Bush Terrance Connolly Stanley and Catherine Cornwall Nancy Crosby John and Paula Cummings, Jr. Laura Dearborn Dana Denault James and Wendy Dorsey Jane Finleon Peter and Edith Forrester Chip and Gay Gillespie William and Linda Glaser Antonio Gracia Jan and Toby Hall Margaret Huie Rosalind Hunnewell Edward and Carole Jackson Norma Judson Peter and Kate Kastner Joseph and Sara Keith III Thomas and Suzanne Kendig Barbara Koenitzer Robert and Naoko Kugler Elliott and Frances LaMontagne Cornelius and Jane Lynch III Peter MacDougall John McDonough Jim Mevay Dora and Tripp Millikin Wally and Helga Nichols Courtland Palmer James Panos Elsworth Randall Bill and Heather Reed Leo Roderick Sally Sapienza Robert Sears Paul and Elizabeth Sittenfeld Barbara Smith Gregory and Brenda Stone Garrett Stuck Michael Sullivan Jerry Sundheimer Paul Tamburello Jr. Carlton and Nancy Thompson Dewey and Katherine Thompson Peter and Joan Thompson Russell Tripp Henry and Janet Vaillant Douglas & Madeleine Vrona Sumner & Elizabeth Waring, Jr. Benjamin and Elizabeth White Catherine Williams

Partners Village Store

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Much appreciation and thanks to our Annual appeal donors!

Helen S. Gage Mr. and Mrs. Richard Earle Mr. and Mrs. Ronald A. Knapp Mr. and Mrs. John B. Cummings Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Alan T. Manchester Richard S. Anderson Mrs. Tobias Flemming Elizabeth J. Brinkerhoff John H. Harwood Mr. and Mrs. William T. Reed, Jr. James Panos Mr. and Mrs. Carlton Macomber Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Trippe Mr and Mrs. Gregory O. Stone Tony and Sharon Connors Charlotte S. Metcalf Barbara Koenitzer Elvira J. Smith

William and Sally Wyatt

The Westport Historical Society

Board Members

President: Tony Connors Vice-President: Jon W. Alden Secretary: Betty Slade Treasurer: Roger P. Griswold

Director: Jenny O’Neill

Members At Large

Carol Coutinho Dr. William F. Wyatt Yvonne Barr Elisabeth Mundel

Committee Chairs

Collections: Barbara Moss Oral History: Betty Slade Harbinger: Jon W. Alden

The Harbinger is published by the Westport Historical Society, a non-

profit organization working to protect and preserve Westport’s history and heritage.

Email us at: westporthistory@westporthistory.net

Westport Historical Society

at the Bell School 25 Drift Road P.O. Box N188

Westport, MA 02790

(508) 636-6011

www.westporthistory.com

Thanks to our Sustaining Members – Summer 2010!

Peter Aresty Yvonne Barr Gioia Browne Carolyn Cody David Cole and Betty Slade Tony and Sharon Connors Robert Coughlin Jonathan Goodman Benjamin and Martha Guy Martin and Judith Kelly Mary Ellen Kennedy Robert Lawrence Christopher Mckeon Charlotte Metcalf Hugh and Diana Morton Christopher and Kerri Panos John and Celeste Penney Kenneth Simon Tom Slaight Henry and Judy Swan Neil and Sylvia Van Sloun Bill and Sally Wyatt

We gratefully acknowledge the special donations from:

Paula M. Robitaille Howard Bayne Fund The Nichols Foundation Grimshaw-Gudewicz Foundation

Mr. and Mrs. Neil Van Sloun for Sylvan Endowment

Recent Acquisitions, Summer 2010.

Since the publication of our last issue of the Harbinger, the Historical Society has received the following donations. We are very grateful to all who have entrusted us with these gifts. Thank you to:

2009.081 Barbara and David Schultz - Gifford Store collection 875 Horseneck Road.

2009.082 Lois DiLibero - Medal: Westport Harbor Humane Society awarded to Sarah Turner for distinguished bravery in rescuing the crew of the shipwrecked yacht “Bobaway”, August 25 1888.

2009.083 David and Barbara Schultz - 14 poems by Herbert Sanford.

2009.084 James and Barbara Faria - Document describing sale of properties by Thomas Bouche to Steven Howland 1837.

2010.002 David Cole and Betty Slade - Genealogy of Stephen Allen; copy of the Osprey.

2010.003 Ruth and Hope Atkinson - Fireplace crane from Waite Potter House.

2010.004 Viola Gay - Clothing, bonnets, photographs belonging to Keziah Gifford.

2010.005 David Cole and Betty Slade - Photograph of house associated with Paul Cuffe.

2010.006 George and Patricia Dean - Two scrapbooks.

2010.007 Barbara Lawrence Richmond – Clothing belonging to Hannah Caswell (1850-1927). 2010.009 Anna Duphiney - Washboard.

2010.011 Blair Walker - Issues of the Scientific American Journal 1869 -1870.

2010.012 George and Patricia Dean - Harper's School Geography textbook.

2010.016 John Cummings - Three CDs on Hurricane Carol - a retrospective.

2010.017 David Cole and Betty Slade - The Seasider volume 1 no. 6, Aug. 1, 1947

2010.022 Mattapoisett Historical Society - Ship's passport for the Brig “Almy” signed by President John Quincy Adams in 1825.

2010.023 Anna Duphiney - Wooden boot jack.

2010.024 Douglass Boshkoff - Postcards of Westport.

2010.025 Cecile De Nadal - Collection of World War II materials.

2010.027 Norma Judson - Gifford family photographs.

2010.028 Al Dyson - "Sharing, The Ancient Art of Story Telling in Writing, my stories and memories" by Alford Dyson.

2010.029 Robert and Naoko Kugler - Three school slates.

2010.030 Sanford Moss - Trolleygram newsletter of the Union Street Railway Employees Association.

2010.031 Arthur Guilmette - 2 maps of Westport and 8 postcards of Lincoln Park in the 1950s and Westport Factory in the 1930s.

2010.032 George and Patricia Dean - Collection of photographs of Sanford and Brownell, Macomber, Davis, Packard, Braley, Cook, Reed families.

Thanks to everyone for bringing Lees Market receipts to the Bell School. Keep them coming!

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Westport’s oldest weekly newspaper revealed in Historical Society find.

The 1896 weekly newspaper shown in the photos below may be an ancient ancestor to today’s Westport weeklies - Westport Shorelines and Dartmouth/Westport Chronicle. The only known copy of the Westport News is in the archives of the Westport Historical Society. “Westport News was an auxiliary of the Fall River Advertiser, established in 1885, which printed special editions for neighboring towns,” said WHS Director Jenny O’Neill. “If anyone out there has additional copies or more information about the company behind the paper, please let us know.”

“The weekly paper appears to have been first published in the fall of 1895, and there is no knowledge of when it ceased operation.” O’Neill said. The format of the weekly suggests that many versions of the same paper were published with the names of different towns printed in the front page blank header space. A form of this concept is still used today in a slightly more sophisticated way by the East Bay Newspaper group which includes Westport Shorelines and Sakonnet Times with other Rhode Island weeklies (Barrington, Bristol, Warren, Portsmouth, Little Compton, Tiverton, and Westport) which share stories and advertisements, with a smattering of local interest stories and news in each variant. A consolidation of resources (reporters, photographers, print facilities, and advertisers) made this concept financially viable while still reaching out to smaller markets. The editors also wrote articles about local businesses, probably hoping for their advertising dollars much the same as they do today, Continued next page . . .

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. . . continued from previous page. As with today’s weekly newspapers, the internet poses a formidable threat with the immediacy of on-line local news, and the reduction of advertising revenue that accompanies it.

Other area newspapers of the time. The Standard-Times was formed from the 1934 merger of The New Bedford Standard and The New Bedford Times. The Standard had been in operation since being founded as an evening newspaper in 1850. Three Fall River newspapers combined in 1892 to form The Herald News: the Fall River News, which dated from 1845; the Fall River Daily Herald, 1872, and the Fall River Daily Globe, 1885.

“The Historical Society discovered an old weekly newspaper from 1896 called Westport News. We now know it was published by the Fall River Advertiser,

established in 1885, which printed special editions for neighboring towns. I’ve never heard of it until we just happened upon it,” said Jenny O’Neill, the Historical Society

director.

Use the link below to read a related article from the Fall River Herald News:

http://www.heraldnews.com/highlight/x41629578/Westport-Historical-Society-finds-old-newspaper-seeks-information-on-its-origin

Upcoming WHS Event Calendar

Saturday, September 25 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. - Workshop on hooked rugs with Jessie Turbayne (Sponsored by Westport Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency). Attendees are invited to bring their hooked rugs — old, new, or works in progress.

Thursday, October 21 - Annual meeting for Westport Historical Society. More information to come. Watch your mail.

Miss an event? Did you miss an event or do you want to interact with other members of the Historical Society. Check our website for

updates on programs, many of which are posted on our website. You can also find us on Facebook!

Some of the new features on our website include:

• Find out more about how to do a house history.

• View the presentation by Tony Connors on Washingtonians and the Temperance Movement.

www.westporthistory.com

View articles about Westport from the New Bedford Evening Standard during the 1860s. Topics include the Civil War, fishing at Westport Point, fox hunting, summer activities at Westport Point. Enjoy the oddities!

Left: Tony Connors made a very detailed and highly informative presentation April 15th on the origins of the

Washingtonian Society and Westport’s Washingtonian Hall at the Head of Westport (right). The Society’s top to bottom approach to temperance was viewed as elitist, and was short-lived, survived by organizations

like the Salvation Army and AA where afflicted members were helped by reformed alcoholics.

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A Tidbit from the Collection Corner:

Ship’s Passport….To the Shores of Tripoli

A few months ago the Mattapoisett Historical Society gave us a passport, thinking it more appropriate that we held it, since it once belonged to the Brig Almy of Westport.

Yes, indeed, it was a passport for a ship not a person.

It is a beautiful document, framed and measuring approximately 12” by 16 ½”. It bears a gold seal embossed with the American eagle in the lower left hand corner and two engravings at the top, the upper most being of a ship under full sail and the lower one being a harbor scene with a light house. The

top edge of the passport is scalloped. A matching top piece was held by officials on the Barbary Coast to prove that the ship in question did indeed have safe passage.

The passport reads:

By the President of the United States of America Suffer the Brig Almy of Westport Jonathan Mayhew master or commander of the burthen of 91 17/95 tons or thereabouts mounted with no guns navigated with 14 men to pass with her Company Passengers Goods and Merchandise without any hindrance seizure or molestation of said brig appearing by good testimony to belong to one or more citizens of the United States and to him or them only.

Given under my hand and seal of the United States of America the 11th of October 1825. J.Q. Adams President H. Clay Secretary of State.

It is passport number 21.

Why did the Brig Almy need a passport? Because pirates from Algiers, Tunis, Morocco and Tripoli (the Barbary States), had been enriching themselves by capturing ships from European (Christian) nations and enslaving or ransoming the people on board for vast sums of money, as

well as stealing the cargo. This piracy began in the Middle Ages and continued into the first third of the nineteenth century. At times European nations colluded with the pirates getting them to attack ships of the country with which they were currently at war.

By the 1700s European shipping powers entered into treaties with the Barbary States agreeing to pay tribute annually to be left unharmed. Before the American Revolution the colonies were protected by Britain’s agreement and during the revolution by France’s treaties, but once independent we were on our own. John Adams, our ambassador to England after the Revolution, and Thomas Jefferson, then our minister to France, had to negotiate with the Barbary States. Tripoli’s envoy justified his people’s piratical actions by quoting the Koran.

Jefferson was not enthusiastic about paying tribute. In 1786 while corresponding with the president of Yale he wrote that it would be easier to raise ships and men than to pay tribute because Americans were tenacious of their money. But Congress voted to pay. They appropriated $80,000. Factors playing into their thinking were the nation’s debt and exhaustion from the just concluded Revolutionary War, its lack of a real navy and the belief that the country’s interests lay in westward expansion rather than wars in the Old World. The United States paid ransom and tribute for 15 years for the safe passage of her ships and for the return of hostages. In 1795 alone the United States paid nearly 1 million dollars in cash, and handed over naval stores and a frigate to ransom 115 sailors from Algiers. Continued next page . . . .

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. . . continued from previous page.

By 1800 Federal revenues were still just about 10 million dollars. These payments therefore represented a large chunk of the Federal budget.

In May 1797 a treaty was signed with Tripoli which called for the U.S. to pay Tripoli 40,000 Spanish dollars, 13 watches of gold, silver and pinsbach [an alloy of copper and zinc], five rings of which three were of diamonds, one of sapphire and one had a watch in it, one hundred forty piques of cloth and four caftans of brocade. Still the Pasha of Tripoli was not satisfied and in 1799 an additional $18,000 dollars were paid.

Jefferson continued to argue against paying and when he became president he refused to pay the additional $225,000 the Pasha of Tripoli demanded. Tripoli declared war on the USA and Jefferson sent a squadron of frigates to defend our interests. The first Barbary War ensued. Several naval battles were fought. In the fall of 1803 Tripoli captured the USS Philadelphia which had run aground. All of its men were taken hostage. The Philadelphia was then used as a gun battery against the Americans.

In 1804 Stephen Decatur and a small contingent of the first U.S. Marines stormed the Philadelphia, still held by the pirates, and setting fire to it denied the Tripoli forces the use of it.

The war continued with attacks on Tripoli. Its turning point came in 1805 when William Eaton and US Marine first Lieutenant Presley O‘Bannon led a force of Marines, along with 500 Greek and Arab mercenaries across the desert from Alexandria to capture the Tripolitan city of Derna. Fearing Tripoli proper would be captured the Pasha surrendered.

The Marines had come to the shores of Tripoli, but there were still problems with the other Barbary States. Americans were soon involved in the War of 1812 and they could not tackle the Barbary Coast pirates again until 1815 when the naval victories of Commodores William Bainbridge (who had been held captive on the Philadelphia) and Stephen Decatur led to treaties ending all tribute payments by the United States. Barbary pirates continued to plague European shipping to some extent until 1830 when France conquered Algeria.

The importance, then, of the 1825 passport carried by the Almy is that it proved that she was an American vessel and reminded the Barbary States that the United States had won the peace and no longer had to pay tribute to the pirates. It is a historically significant and probably a monetarily valuable document.

One last tidbit to this passport story is the Tripoli Monument. It is now located at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. It honors the first Barbary War, America’s first victory on foreign soil, and is the oldest military monument in the U. S. It was carved of Italian marble in 1806 and carried here as ballast in the USS Constitution. Barbara E. Moss

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Don’t mess with our lobsters!

Cukie Macomber spoke about his memories July 15 at the Library’s Community Room, including Westport’s Prelude Corporation and its fight with the Soviet Government and its fishing industry in the 1970’s. The Standard Times cartoon (below right) highlighted this national controversy, which Prelude eventually won (more on this fascinating story to come).

Head to Toe Summer Exhibition

“Head to Toe: A Century of Westport Fashion 1800-1900” explored the transformation of fashion during the 1800’s. Worn by women in the Westport area, the outfits on display reflected the everyday fashion of the average countrywoman, rather than the finery of city dwellers. Working from the undergarments outwards, WHS’ latest summer exhibition showed the layers of garments needed to dress a woman in the 19th century. 19th century women left everything up to the imagination; a far cry from what we see today. Exhibition curator, Blair Walker, a textile consultant and graduate of the

Textiles Department at University of Rhode Island, had selected 12 outfits for display. She commented: “Country clothes, which are rarely found in museum collections, are well represented in the Westport Historical Society’s collection. The clothes on display were definitely well worn and show the marks of use by real people more than a century ago. Signs of alterations and adaptations to changing styles give the garments a personal connection to the past.” The exhibition explored specific features of dress, such as the shape of a sleeve, which can help to pinpoint when a piece of clothing was made. Highlights included a brown silk “leg o’ mutton” sleeves dress with matching “pelerine” from the1830s, corsets and stays, hoop and bustle and a bathing costume from the 1890s. Also on display were shoes, boots, hats, and bonnets from the 19th century, and many of the undergarments that provided structure and shape for the changing fashions. The exhibition included objects on loan from the collection of Little Compton Historical Society and Freetown Historical Society as well as from private collections.

Curator Blair Walker also presented “The 19th Century Westport Woman: Exploring her Life through her Clothes” on Thursday June 24th. Blair Walker, curator of “Head to Toe,” presented the program with slide presentation as an introduction and examination of her work that was displayed at the Bell School’s summer exhibition.

Head to Toe Summer Exhibition funded by the Westport Cultural Council through a grant from the Helen E. Ellis

Charitable Trust administered by Bank of America.

Above, left: Curator Blair Walker’s daughter, Kate Walker (right) and daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Vigil Walker, share a laugh at the impossibly tight corset and cumbersome hoop skirt worn by 19th century women.

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Thank you for your generous support!

Although this image may have worked adversely from its intended message, it did represent the mood of the

temperance movement of the 1800s. WHS President Tony Connors ventured into temperate waters with his discussion

of Westport’s Washingtonian Hall. Page 5.

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