Robin Smith-Johnson - Legends & Lore of Cape Cod

Published by The History Press
Charleston, SC
www.historypress.net

Copyright 2016 by Robin Smith-Johnson
All rights reserved

Front cover, top left: Bird carver A. Elmer Crowell in his workshop. From the postcard collection of Wendell E. Smith; bottom: A vintage postcard of bathers at Browns Bathing Beach in Provincetown. From the postcard collection of Wendell E. Smith.

First published 2016
e-book edition 2016

ISBN 978.1.62585.675.3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015960005

print edition ISBN 978.1.46711.904.7

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is dedicated to the Smith Family Writers. You share my love of the written word and have supported me in so many ways.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book has been a labor of love, and I could not have done it without the help of libraries and individuals on Cape Cod.

First, I would like to thank Mary Labombard, Special Collections librarian and archivist in the W.B. Nickerson Room at Cape Cod Community College. She was kind enough to help me pick out photographs for this volume. I would also like to thank the staff at the Mashpee Public Library and Hyannis Public Library for guiding me to period books that helped me in my research. Thanks also to Bonnie Snow of the Orleans Historical Society for help with background on early Orleans history.

I wish to thank Paul Pronovost, editor of the Cape Cod Times, for permission to use Cape Cod Times photos. Steve Heaslip, Cape Cod Times photographer, and Ritchie Kolnos, IT specialist at the Cape Cod Times, were instrumental in helping me with my photos as well. I would also like to thank Cape Cod Times photographer Merrily Cassidy for the author photo.

I would like to thank my mother, Muriel Smith, for sharing the postcard collection from the estate of my late father, Wendell Everett Smith, an antiquarian book dealer. Im grateful to my readers Gregory R. Johnson and Cynthia Sherrick Mitchell. I especially wish to thank my reader and editor, Devin Wells Johnson.

Im indebted to my professional colleagues who encouraged me in this endeavor, including James Kershner, English professor at Cape Cod Community College; Barbara Clark of the Barnstable Patriot; and Gwenn Friss and Susan Eastman of the Cape Cod Times.

Finally, I would like to thank the hardworking people at The History PressTabitha Dulla, acquisitions editor, for bringing me on board with this project, and Karmen Cook, acquisitions editor, for following through with the book.

I would like to thank my family for their uncomplaining support. It has been a wonderful journey of historical research and exploration.

INTRODUCTION

As a longtime resident of Cape Cod, I have an avid interest in the old tales and historical treasures of Cape Cod. This interest has been sharpened and honed by my many years working as the newsroom librarian at the Cape Cod Times. I have access to archives and old clip files that contain stories about Cape Cod that people may have never heard about. Its as if I have the whole history of Cape Cod at my fingertips.

Several years ago, I began a Cape History blog entitled Cape Rewind. It has been an exciting endeavor for me to find unique stories and firsthand accounts to share with my readers. This book is an extension of my research. As I wrote in my very first blog posting: I will try to find stories that appeal to everyones imagination. Some of these stories may be plain and some fancy; some may cover murder and mayhem or gingham and high tea.

I have chosen to concentrate on the legends and lore of Cape Cod because the stories here have often been handed down from one generation to the next. From the spooky tale of Granny Squannit to the wistful figure of Jenny Lind singing from her tower, the stories are evocative and, hopefully, will encourage readers to do more extensive research on their own.

My searching out of stories has been intuitive and sometimes accidental. Readers will often lead me in directions I had not thought to go. One story may suggest another and Im off to search the archives again. There are also family ties that have played into my stories. For example, my mother had a tidbit to share that added to the authenticity of Helen Kellers visit here in 1888. My husbands uncle grew up in Provincetown and remembers the Black Flash of the 1930s. Their stories added richness to my accounts.

Cape Cod is a special place and its history unique in so many ways. In these pages, I hope to present famous and perhaps infamous figures who helped create this rank, wild place, as David Gessner called the Cape in his memoir of spending a year here. For many, the Cape is a summer retreat and for others, myself included, the Cape is a year-round home. It is indeed a place rich in culture and diversity and I will try to offer stories that show its special nature.

ANCIENT CAPE COD

Cape Cod. The name conjures up images of sandy beaches, kettle ponds and saltwater bays. A hook sticking out into the Atlantic Ocean, Cape Cod was once a peninsula, but with the creation of the Cape Cod Canal in 1914, it is now a man-made island. This landmass formed around twenty-three thousand years ago when glaciers retreated. Once the ice began to melt, the sea began to rise. The deposit of sediment formed what we know as Cape Cod today.

There are varying accounts of how Cape Cod was named. In 1605, explorer Samuel de Champlain called Cape Cod Cape Blanc, for the color of the sand and dunes. In the seventeenth century, explorer Bartholomew Gosnold (1572 1607) explored and named Cape Cod and Marthas Vineyard. Since the waters around the Cape were swarming with cod, he chose that as its handle. Marthas Vineyard was named for Gosnolds infant daughter, Martha.

The common view is that no Europeans set foot in North America before 1492; however, it has been rumored that Leif Ericson of Icelandic fame was one of the first summer visitors to winter on Cape Cod in 100405. Some people conjecture that the Vinland of Norse sagas referred to Cape Cod, although it is more commonly thought to have been located in the coastal area of Newfoundland. The only known Norse settlement in North America was discovered in 1960 at LAnse aux Meadows on the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland.

Science fiction writer Frederick J. Pohl visited Cape Cod in the early 1950s and worked to support the theory that Vikings visited Cape Cod by showing as evidence several holes found in large boulders in Follins Pond near West Dennis that were typical of the type Vikings drilled when mooring their vessels. In the July 1953 issue of the Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society, Pohl attempted to verify the existence of these holes:

The holes which I called to the attention of the officers of the M.A.S. were (except possibly the one in Mill Pond) hand chiseled, presumably with a straight-edged chisel. They were definitely not machine drilled. We know this because they are triangular with the corners rounded. They are not verticalImagine the Norsemen in the wilderness centuries ago. Mooring to a tree would require tying and untying a hawser every time the mooring was used. Remember that the Vikings came from a rocky tree-less coastline (Greenland), where it was their custom to moor their ships to rocks.