History
42º 13’06”N 70º 47’16”W
History of Scituate, MA
Interestingly enough, two of the first presidents of Harvard, Henry Dunster and Charles Chauncy, and the fifth president of Yale, Thomas Clapp, all served first as ministers in Scituate. Their collective time serving in office spans 1640 to 1766. Other famous early settlers include Mordecai Lincoln, the great-great-great-grandfather of President Abraham Lincoln, and Mordecai Lincoln II, Lincoln’s great-great-grandfather, who eventually moved to Pennsylvania. The Mordecai Lincoln Homestead was built in 1691.
But Scituate’s history is entwined with the sea. More than a thousand ships were built on the North River. Perhaps the most famous North River Ship is the Beaver, the ship of the Boston Tea Party from which tea was tossed into Boston Harbor in protest of the tea tax. The Columbia could also claim “The Most Famous” title. It is the first ship built in America to circumnavigate the world.
William Cushing, Chief Judge of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, went on to be appointed as one of the five original Associate Justices of the United States Supreme Court. Cushing was appointed by no less than President George Washington. Chief Justice William Cushing has a main road (Rte. 3A) named in his honor.
Cushing served as the first Massachusetts Chief Justice from 1777 until 1789 when President George Washington appointed him to the United States Supreme Court. One of his most important rulings was in the Commonwealth v Jennison where he said “all men are born free and equal – and that every subject is entitled to liberty, and to have it guarded by the laws, as well as life and property – and in short is totally repugnant to the idea of being born slaves. This being the case, I think the idea of slavery is inconsistent with our own conduct and Constitution; and there can be no such thing as perpetual servitude of a rational creature, unless his liberty is forfeited by some criminal conduct or given up by personal consent or contract…”
Thus Massachusetts forbade slavery long before Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. As Supreme Court Justice, Cushing administered the oath of office when George Washington took the oath for his second term in the then capital of Philadelphia. Trivia buffs might like to learn that William Cushing was the last American Judge to wear a wig.
Just over a quarter of a century later, two teenage girls were victorious over the most powerful navy in the world. Abigail and Rebecca Bates skillfully played their fife and drums, fooling the British Navy into believing that the colonists had an army waiting to attack them. The British left Scituate Harbor and the Army of Two are heroines in the ilk of Betsy Ross and Barbara Fritchie.
Politicians of every variety, honest and otherwise, have summered in Scituate bringing a flavor all their own. Some of the oldest homes in the country are here and even “The Old Oaken Bucket” (made famous in the poem by Samuel Woodworth published in 1817), appropriately found on Old Oaken Bucket Road, is part of this town. The Scituate Common has seven memorials to honor those who fought for freedom. The latest memorial in Scituate, located in the harbor, honors the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, Ireland. The rising led to the eventual establishment of the Republic of Ireland, the first British colony to obtain freedom since the American colonies in the 1770s.
Irish immigrants fleeing The Great Hunger found a home in Scituate where a moss that also grew in Ireland was abundant. Coupled with an influx of mossers and their descendants, many Irish in the Boston area summered in Scituate and eventually settled here, making Scituate the most Irish town in America according to the United States Census. The Irish mossing industry developed and functioned in Scituate until the 1990s.
Enterprising and adventuresome, Henrique Mendes (1880-1970) owned seventeen sailing vessels over his lifetime. His ships brought thousands of Portuguese islanders to the United States including over half of the Cape Verdean Scituate families.
Much has changed in Scituate in the past century and a half. What was once farmland (Prouty, Pitcock, Tilden) has given way to housing modest, “McMansion” and in between. Cottages once used for three or four months have been converted to year round or replaced. The post World War II urban sprawl, the OFD crowd leaving the triple deckers for small ranches or Cape Cods, or converted cottages, as well as the white flight of busing, brought many Bostonians to Scituate. The character remained.
Summer residents made great contributions to the town, establishing “Beach Associations” which offered a myriad of activities for adults and children while providing scholarships, safety equipment and taxes to the town. As adults the children and grandchildren of the “summer people” chose to buy homes and live in Scituate. Some, like James Michael Curley, John B. Hynes, Maurice Tobin, and “Sonny” McDonough, joined businessmen, bookies, barristers, and Barnacle Bills to make the town what it is today.
Events like the grounding of the Etrusco, the occasional beached whale, and the transformative wreckage of the Blizzard of ’78 introduced Scituate to many sightseers, who were charmed by the town. Many chose to stay at the Cliff Hotel in Minot – a Grande Dame for sure until its untimely demise in a spectacular blaze, or at Suzanne’s, a guest house with several properties offering genteel accommodations with hearty meals included. Others came to live here adding to the Scituate story.
As the new century enters its second quarter, Scituate retains its appeal. Offering a proud history, unspoiled, rare natural beauty, and a citizenry, sometimes cantankerous, always proud to “writ large” the story that is Scituate.
