Photos from Ipswich Town Reports
In the 1950’s and 60’s, Ipswich town reports had photos that we find very amusing now.
Mothers Day Flood, May 14-16, 2006
Fourteen inches of rain fell between May 14 and May 16, 2006, creating the historic 2006 Mothers Day Flood. Water flow levels in the Ipswich River were 27% higher than recorded in previous epic floods. Photos are from the Ipswich River Watershed Association site with additonal photos provided by myself and readers. Kerry […]
A photographic and chronological history of the Ipswich Schools
In 1652, the Town of Ipswich voted “For the better aiding of the school and the affairs thereof,” money toward the building a Grammar school and paying the school master, By the 19th Century there were at 10 grammar schools spread throughout the town in addition to the high school.
Ipswich town meeting
Featured image: Ipswich woodcut, 1838 attributed to S. E. Brown. Thomas Franklin Waters recorded the early history of Town Meeting in his book, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The first Ipswich public official appointed was the Clerk, Robert Lord, chosen in February 1643-4, “from this time forward to be […]
Birthplace of American Independence
Resistance by the citizens and leaders of Ipswich to a tax imposed by the Crown in 1687 is commemorated in the seal of the town of Ipswich, which bears the motto, “The Birthplace of American Independence 1687.”
John Winthrop’s journal of the ship Arbella’s voyage to America, March 29 – July 8, 1630
On April 7, 1630, the Arabella was a week out from its port in England, and the last well-wishers returned to shore. The winds were finally favorable, and the ship weighed anchor and sailed for New England, with Governor John Winthrop and approximately 300 English Puritans on board, leaving their homes in England to settle in a fledgling colony.
The Hayes Hotel
The Hayes Hotel was constructed in 1842 as a woolen goods factory. Converted to a tavern and hotel in 1885, the building was being used as a rooming house when it burned in 1969 with a loss of life.
“A Land of Promise,” April 1614
In April of 1614, Captain John Smith of Virginia sailed near Ipswich, about which he recorded, “Here are many rising hills, and on their tops and descents are many corne fields and delightful groves… There is also Okes, Pines, Walnuts and other wood to make this place an […]
Gorton’s becomes the largest fishing business on the Atlantic coast, March 31, 1906
On March 31, 1906, the people of Cape Ann were stunned by the news that Gorton’s would merge with three other Gloucester fish companies.
Ipswich and the Salem witchcraft trials
During the Salem witch trials, Elizabeth Howe of Linebrook Road was tried and hung. The Ipswich jail was filled with the accused, but the ministers of the town opposed the trials as a delusion. Residents blocked the bridge to prevent the accusing girls from being brought into Ipswich.
Four-year-old Dorothy Good is jailed for witchcraft, March 24, 1692
On March 24, 1682. a child, Dorothy Good of Salem was taken custody, and interrogated by the local magistrates for two weeks. Hungry, cold and missing her mother, Dorcas broke down and told the inquisitors what they wanted to hear, that her mother was a witch, and consorted with the devil.
Glover’s Wharf and the Ipswich coal industry
John S. Glover opened a wharf on Water St. in 1847, receiving shipments of coal and cement, along with maritime salvage. His wharf was a short distance from the home be built on East St. around 1872 across from the present-day Town Wharf, which was demolished recently. The business was sold to Charles Lovell […]
Lowell women’s suffrage activist Florence Luscomb
Florence Luscomb was among the first women to graduate from M.I.T. with a degree in architecture. In her career she designed designed public buildings and housing for workers, while working tirelessly for women’s suffrage.
Photos from the Great Snow of 2015
Images from the blizzard, January 27, 2015 and the series of snowstorms that followed. Many photos are from the I Love Ipswich Facebook group. Featured image: the road into Crane Beach, by Diane Young.
1639: “The pigs have liberty”
From the Ancient Records of the town of Ipswich, January 13, 1639 “Agreed that if any swine shall be taken within two miles of the towne, after the tenth day of April next, running, the owners of such swine shall forfeit five shillings a piece for every such swine, the […]
1793 and 1818: the “Burden of the Poor” divides Ipswich into 3 towns, Ipswich, Hamilton and Essex
As the people of the Hamlet were financially stable, the burden of taxation for the support of the poor in the old town of Ipswich was considered to be an unjust imposition. The leaders of the parish petitioned Ipswich to be allowed to incorporate as the new town of Hamilton. 25 years later, the men of Chebacco petitioned the Legislature for incorporation as a separate town, and to not be held for any part of the new establishment for the relief of the poor in Ipswich. The following year, Chebacco Parish became the Town of Essex
WWII scrap metal collection in Ipswich
To build tanks, ships, and planes during WWII, scrap metal drives were held across the country, and Ipswich was no exception.The location is Market Square across from Market Street.
Captain Arthur H. Hardy, 1972
Arthur Hans Hardy grew up in Ipswich, On a mission over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos on March 14, 1972, Hardy’s aircraft was hit and he bailed out nar enemy troops. His body is buried at Highland Cemetery in Ipswich.
The Ipswich Company, Massachusetts State Guard, 1942
(Thanks to Larry Collins for sharing this document) With substantially 15,000 man hours of practice, procedure and training under their military belts, the Ipswich Company of the Massachusetts State Guard is rapidly being whipped into shape as a trained military unit for the protection of life and property […]
The Great New England Hurricane, September 21, 1938
Daniel Denison
Daniel Denison became Major General of the colonial forces and represented Ipswich in the general court. He was remembered with high esteem by the people of Ipswich well into the 19th Century. You can visit Denison’s grave at the Old North Burial Ground.
Police open fire at the Ipswich Mills Strike, June 10, 1913
On June 10, 1913, police fired into a crowd of protesting immigrant workers at the Ipswich hosiery mill. A young Greek woman named Nicholetta Paudelopoulou was shot in the head and killed by police. Fifteen persons, including the local leaders of the I.W.W. were taken into custody.
John Winthrop Jr. here and gone
John Winthrop the younger was the son of Massachusetts Bay Colony governor John Winthrop, and led the settlement of Agawam in 1633 (renamed Ipswich in 1634), accompanied by 11 men. During that first year they erected crude shelters and the next year brought their families to join them […]
The Ipswich Safety Steam Automobile, 1901
The Safety Steam Automobile Company headquarters was in Boston but its factory was at Depot Square in Ipswich.
Anne Dudley Bradstreet, the colony’s first published poet
Often alone in Ipswich while her husband Simon was engaged in government, Anne Bradstreet wrote a collection of poems published in London in 1650 titled, “The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America…by a Gentlewoman in these Parts.”
Agawam
At the time of the arrival of European colonists in the 1630′s, the Ipswich area was known as Agawam but the Native Americans had been decimated by what is now believed to have been a hepatitis plague. The population of the Agawam region stretching from the Danvers River to the Merrimack River had been in the thousands. Arrowheads are still found in the fields, along the Ipswich River and out to Jeffreys’s Neck.
Ipswich, the Brookfield Massacre and King Philip’s War
In 1660, a group of Ipswich families settled in Quaboag which they renamed Brookfield. Indian attacks in 1675 resulted in its destruction.
The Middle Circumferential Highway (that never happened)
In its 1968 comprehensive report “Recommended Highway and Transit Plan” the Massachusetts Department of Public Works (MassDPW) proposed a new beltway around the Boston area that would be situated between MA 128 and I-495. The Middle Circumferential Highway would have been a 66-mile loop six-lane expressway cutting through the Ipswich River […]
Hay Scales
By the time of the Civil War, Fairbanks’ scales were the best known American product in the world. Erastus and Thaddeus Fairbanks were now joined by their younger brother, Joseph. The modest one-building operation expanded to 40 buildings with more than 20 acres of floor space by 1910. […]
The Ipswich drive-through ban
In 1999, the Town of Ipswich began a growth management initiative for the 21st Century which came to be called “The Future of Ipswich Planning Project.” Its overall purpose was to help the residents, business owners, and property owners in Ipswich agree on a vision for the future […]
Wreck of the Lucy M. Collins, August 19, 1891
When you’re walking on Crane Beach near Steep Hill Coal, you might be surprised to see lumps of coal lying on the sand. This would be quite a mystery were it not for the tragic history of brigs and schooners transporting coal in the 19th century. Wreck of the Lucy […]
A look back at the 1950 Ipswich Town Report
With the recurring subject of the school budget override in mind, I decided to look back to the annual report for the year I was born, condensed below: IPSWICH SCHOOL REPORT The School Budget for 1950 The budget here presented for 1950 requires the expenditure of $181,524.42. Of […]
The Blizzard of ’78, February 5, 1978
The “Blizzard of ’78” raged from Sunday evening February 5 through Tuesday evening February 7. Over a billion dollars of damage occurred, including the loss of 11,000 homes and the lives of 29 Massachusetts residents. The highest total snowfall was 43.7 inches in Ipswich.
1894: the Year that Ipswich Burned
At about 1:30 am, Police gave the alarm that Central Street was on fire.The citizens of Ipswich tumbled out from their beds and faced as wicked a night as the town has ever seen. Four months later the other end of downtown burned.
The Missing Burial Ground
The Case of the Missing Burial Ground Lesslie Road Burial Ground Linebrook Parish, Old Ipswich, Massachusetts Story by: Bruce Laing Toward a comprehensive documentation of the greater Ipswich burial grounds In 1935 Arthur Warren Johnson and Ralph Elbridge Ladd jr. wrote Momento Mori, a map and transcription of tombstones […]
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