Nancy Virginia Weare passed away in Exeter on December 12 of 2017 at the age of 92. She taught at the Brown School in Newburyport for 17 years. She spent 33 years at her family’s summer camp at Plum Island, and after the Parker River Wildlife Refuge was established, she moved to a home on Great Neck in Ipswich overlooking Plum Island.

Nancy was a member of The Ipswich Historical Society, The Museum of Old Newbury, The Maritime Museum, The Sons and Daughters of Old Newbury, and The Friends of Plum Island Light.

In 1993, after Nancy retired, she wrote “Plum Island: The Way It Was.” Her second book was “Anne Bradstreet America’s First Poet Selections From Her Works.” Both books are out of print but used copies are still available through Amazon. Portions of “Plum Island: The Way It Was” are reprinted on the Historic Ipswich site with permission from her surviving sister. https://historicipswich.org/plum-island-the-northern-end/

Plum Island the Way it Was - Published in 1993, this 100-page book is copied with permission from the estate of the late Nancy Weare. Read by scrolling this page, or click on any image to read as a slideshow.

The Northern End of Plum Island - Nancy Virginia Weare spent 33 years at her family’s summer camp at Plum Island. After the Parker River Wildlife Refuge was established, she moved to a home on Great Neck in Ipswich overlooking the island. In 1993, after Nancy retired, she wrote “Plum Island: The Way It Was.”

The Early History of Plum Island - Nancy Virginia Weare spent 33 years at her family's summer camp at Plum Island. In 1993 she wrote "Plum Island: The Way It Was," which is reprinted on this site with permission.

300 years on Grape Island - Grape Island was once a small but thriving community, and briefly a popular summer resort. In 1941, 3000 acres of Plum Island including Grape Island were purchased by the U.S. government to establish the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge.

Ipswich Bluffs - The hotel at Ipswich Bluff on the southern tip of Plum Island was a favorite destination of locals in the late 19th Century, who took the steamer Carlotta from the Ipswich wharf with Capt. Nat Burnham.

The Knobbs - The Knobbs is a small beach in a stretch of salt marsh on the west side of the Ipswich section of Plum Island. On the Atlantic side was the Kbobbs Beach Life-Saving Station, replaced in 1947 by a camp for children who had been victims of polio.