Lower Cape

Like all of Cape Cod, Harwich was home to local Indians, in this case the Nauset Indians of Harwich, consisting of the Sauquatuckett tribe to the north and the Monomoyick tribe to the south. These Indians lived in unspoiled beauty, undisturbed for many centuries and even for the couple of decades after the settlements of Yarmouth to the west and Eastham to the east. This land was the Cape's last wilderness until white settlers began to arrive toward the end of the 1650s.

In 1656, John Wing became the first settler to tame these wilds. He was a converted Quaker from Sandwich who apparently tired of the persecutions in that town and left to build a life elsewhere. He settled in the part of old Harwich that would eventually become what is Brewster nowadays. Wing was followed by John Dillingham and later, Gersham Hall, who in the 1660s became the first to settle in the southern area of old Harwich (the section that would remain the Harwich of today). More families followed, and, by 1690, there were enough living in the area to establish a church. In 1694 this area became incorporated as Harwich and contained the present towns of Harwich and Brewster as well as parts of Eastham and Orleans.

Harwich of the 18th century was a town in separation. Residents in the southern part of town grew weary of traveling to the Church parish in the north, so in 1744 they appealed for the building of a church in the south. Two years later permission was granted and a church was built. This southern parish later saw itself being split into some 15 splinter churches as a religious revolution of sorts took place in town. These religious groups included Congregationalists, Baptists, New Lighters, Come Outers (those who "came out" against slavery), and Standpatters (those who were not abolitionists).

In the 18th century the town itself began to come apart. The areas known as Portonumecot and Namecoyick became parts of Eastham in 1772, later becoming South Orleans. About a quarter of a century later the remaining part of Harwich split in two, the northern part becoming Brewster in 1803.

The earliest settlers were farmers who occasionally shored a whale. Harwich would later become one of the Cape's major fishing ports, reaping huge harvests of cod and mackerel. Other industries included the fishing for alewives, or young herring, from a number of streams as well as the harvesting of cranberries from the many bogs. This latter industry was developed in town by Alvin Cahoon who was instrumental in making cranberries a harvestable crop. Meanwhile, Harwich's Major Nathaniel Freeman gave the saltworks industry on the Cape a big boost by utilizing windmills to pump seawater into the salt vats. In fact, so profound was Harwich's contributions to the industry that it became home of the Massachusetts Salt Works Company established in 1797. The industry peaked during the 1830s only to see its decline a decade later when salt mining in the Midwest provided a more cost-effective alternative.

Two structures in Harwich of historical interest are the South Harwich Methodist Church on Chatham Road and the Captain James Berry House on Main Street, both on the National Register of Historic Places. You can see other historic sites at the Herring River in West Harwich and Muddy Creek between Harwich and Chatham.

If the 13th-century Flateyjarbok (Flat Land Book) does in fact provide an accurate account of Norse expeditions around 1000 AD, then the first visitors to Chatham could most likely have been Vikings from Iceland. If these Norse sagas are true, then Bjarni Herjulfsson sailed right past these shores just over a thousand years ago. The earliest accepted historic record, though, indicates that Samuel de Champlain anchored in Stage Harbor in 1606 to repair a broken rudder. Though Champlain and his crew were only able to navigate the treacherous shoals with the aid of Monomoyick Indians of the area, fear between the two groups once Champlain's men had set up camp on shore resulted in bloodshed. With a fixed rudder, the French left the harbor to explore Canada. Champlain named the locale Port Fortune after the misfortune he had encountered there.

Fourteen years later, Chatham provided the Pilgrims with their first glimpse of land since leaving England. Shoals off Monomoy Island drove the ship to the north, however, rather than to their intended southern route to Virginia. Chatham remained unsettled until 1664 when William Nickerson of Yarmouth arrived in the area to stay. Since 1656 Nickerson had been acquiring land from the Monomyicks, though it wasn't until 1672 that he actually received a deed of any kind. By 1682, he possessed about 4,000 acres of land--nearly all of Chatham!

In Nickerson's time, the area was known as Monomoit, and he had a difficult time attracting settlers to this remote area of the Cape. Besides the Indians, there was also the threat of attack by pirates. The Monomoyicks turned out to be friendly neighbors to the settlers who determined to "brave the wilds." At one time it was considered under Yarmouth's jurisdiction and, later, under that of Eastham. Though not a town, this area of Monomoit was allowed to separate from Eastham in 1679 to become what was termed a "constablewich," meaning Monomoit could collect its own taxes but had no representation in the Colony Court. Monomoit's only chance at incorporation was in establishing a church and then in attracting a minister to this wilderness outpost. After a number of preachers came and went (no less than eight including one who drowned), Rev. Hugh Adams arrived in 1711, and, in June 1712, the town was incorporated. The stipulation was that the town had to be incorporated with an English name, so Chatham was chosen.

Chatham was the site of one of the worst smallpox epidemics on the Cape. During the winter of 1765-66 some 60 people, 10 percent of the population, contracted the disease. Thirty-seven people died, including the town doctor.

Chatham has one of the most dangerous coastlines along the northeast. As Champlain learned in 1606, Chatham is guarded by treacherous shoals that have caused many a shipwreck over the centuries. In 1808, two wooden lighthouses were constructed at the mouth of the harbor to warn approaching ships. They crumbled over the eroded cliff and were replaced in 1841 and again in 1879 and 1881. Today, one of the towers, Chatham Light, still serves as a navigational aid. The other tower was moved north to Eastham to become Nauset Light. The terrible shipwreck called the Monomoy Disaster of 1902 took place just south of Chatham Light off the Monomoy Islands. Twelve men lost their lives on Shovelful Shoals in a fierce winter storm that March morning. Sole survivors Captain Elmer Mayo and Captain Seth Ellis became heroes, each man putting his own life in harm's way with the slightest hope of saving the life of another. Their tale of heroism is told on a monument standing in front of Chatham Light.

The history of the Cape town of Orleans is sprinkled with French seasoning. Though it's not known for sure, the origin of the town's name seems to point to Louis Philippe de Bourbon, the Duke of Orleans in France. The Duke was in exile during the French Revolution and had visited America one month before the Cape town was incorporated. Thirty-three years later he would become the king of France.

Originally settled as the south precinct of Eastham in 1710, the area was known as Pochet. The first meetinghouse was built in 1718 to become the South Parish of Eastham. Graves in the nearby cemetery date back to 1719. Orleans broke away from Eastham and was incorporated in 1797 to become one of only two towns on Cape Cod to not bear an English name (the other town is Mashpee). Prior to the white settlers, this land belonged to the Nauset Indians, more specifically the subtribes known as the Monomoyick and the Potonamiquoit (there are numerous spellings for this second tribe). Leif Ericson of the Norse sagas may have visited Nauset Beach along Orleans' Atlantic coast around the year 1000; Bartholomew Gosnold stopped here in 1602 and named this place Cape Cod for the many codfish he found; and French explorer Samuel de Champlain visited these outer shores in 1606.

The first recorded European shipwreck on the East Coast occurred off Nauset Beach in December 1626 when the ketch Sparrowhawk wrecked in a storm. During the 19th century the remains of the historic vessel emerged from the dunes and are now housed in a museum in Plymouth.

One of the smallest towns on the Cape, Orleans borders Cape Cod Bay to the northwest, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the waters of Pleasant Bay to the south. The land itself is marked by many bays, ponds, and creeks. The town is also the site of the Cape's first canal, Jeremiah's Gutter, a hand-dug trench that connected Boatmeadow River and Town Cove. Extremely high tides would flood the low-lying lands between the two bodies of water--in fact, Gosnold mistakenly concluded that the Cape north of this spot was actually an island cut off from the rest of the peninsula by this gulf of water. Dug in 1804, Jeremiah's Gutter (named for resident Jeremiah Smith who owned land through which it traveled) was useful during the War of 1812 when British ships were blockading Cape ports. After the war its use diminished and the canal was left to fill in with silt.

The French returned to Orleans in 1898 in the form of the French Cable Company. The company managed an undersea cable that connected the Cape town with Brest, France. A second cable then ran from Orleans to New York. Many important news items were received at Orleans first before being referred on to New York and the rest of the country, such as the loss of the steamer Portland in 1898, Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic in 1927, and Germany's invasion of France in 1940. Along with the cable came workers from France to man the company's building. Many of these French remained on in Orleans and raised families here.

Orleans has an extraordinary distinction--it has been attacked by both the British and the Germans. During the War of 1812, the H.M.S. Newcastle anchored off Rock Harbor and its captain demanded payment of $1,000 to spare the town's saltworks. The offer was refused and so commenced the Battle of Rock Harbor. British sailors attempted a landing but were driven away by the town's militia. The ransom was never paid.

On July 22, 1918, during World War I, a German U-boat surfaced off Nauset Beach to fire on and sink three barges and a tugboat, the Perth Amboy. An estimated 146 rounds were fired in the one-sided exchange. At least one of the submarine's shells landed on the beach, the only assault on American soil during the war. When word of the attack was received at the Chatham Air Station, three planes were sent up to launch a counter-attack. Without weaponry, the best the Yanks could do was toss a monkey wrench at the fleeing sub.

In 1984 the 470-foot Maltese freighter Eldia grounded on Nauset Beach. It had unloaded its cargo of sugar in New Brunswick and was riding light off Cape Cod when high winds and heavy seas blew it onto shore. Although the 23-member crew was evacuated with no loss of life, few will forget the bizarre sight of a giant ship on Nauset Beach, a sight that hearkened back to the old days when this coastline snatched many a passing ship to wreck upon her shoals.

The decade of the 1640s saw the Pilgrims in Plymouth considering their future, and whether or not they wanted to stay in Plymouth. Some thought of relocating their settlement to the outer lands of Cape Cod, and in 1643, a committee was formed to investigate that very possibility. Among those in the party who journeyed to the outer Cape was Thomas Prence, who came across to the New World on board the vessel Fortune in 1621. Upon their return to Plymouth, the committee decided to pack up their belongings and take their chances in the land known as Nauset, now known as Eastham.

Settlement commenced in 1644. The boundaries were vague at best, at first consisting of everything east of Old Yarmouth and including the towns of Brewster, Harwich, Chatham, Orleans, Wellfleet, Truro, and, of course, Eastham. The township was known as Nauset until 1651 when it was renamed Eastham. This land was reserved for the Old Comers, those Pilgrims who voyaged across the Atlantic on the first three ships to carry settlers--the Mayflower, Fortune, and Anne. Joining Prence were John Doane, Nicholas Snow, and Josias Cook, as well as Higgins, Smalley, and Bangs. Eastham is the only Cape Cod town founded entirely by people from Plymouth Colony. It's interesting that Pilgrims should return to Eastham as it was the site of their first contact with Native Indians, at First Encounter Beach, in December 1620, just before they sailed the Mayflower across the Bay to settle at Plymouth. Founding father Thomas Prence would later become Governor of Plymouth Colony from 1655 until his death in 1673.

The first meetinghouse was erected in 1646 on the north side of Town Cove. The much-loved Rev. Samuel Treat came to Eastham in 1693, and his ministry would span the next 45 years. Besides preaching to the white settlers, Treat also ministered to more than 500 Native Americans, or "Praying Indians," and wrote services in their language. He enlisted Native preachers and lived up to his name by treating the Indians with the respect they were owed.

Harwich, which at the time included Brewster, separated from Eastham very early on with its settlement in 1656. Chatham departed next when that area became a constablewich in control of its own destiny in 1679. Truro broke away from Eastham in 1709. Around 1720, a north parish was established in the area of Wellfleet and a south parish at what was later to become Orleans. The divisions were made official in 1763 when Wellfleet became its own town and in 1797 when Orleans followed suit. Eastham, once the most populated town on the Cape, became the least populated. Over the century since its settlement, so many trees had been cut that the once-rich Eastham topsoil was stripped away by the savage ocean winds. Scrub pine took hold where vast forests of oak once stood. Farmers turned from their barren soils to the seas and became fishermen. Those who did remain behind on shore became dairy farmers.

Old Cove Cemetery is Eastham's oldest cemetery. Three Pilgrims are buried here. In the mid-1800s a small plot was added nearby for the graves of many children who died when a terrible epidemic of smallpox struck the town. The small cemetery was so deeply associated with grief and tragedy that people shunned it, and it became overgrown with weeds and briars and was long forgotten. Only recently have the 22 headstones dating from 1836 to 1892 been rediscovered.

Henry Beston's famous book, The Outermost House, published in 1928, relates the year he spent in his beach cottage on the Great Dune of Eastham. Although the cottage was destroyed by the blizzard of 1978, its place in literary history is commemorated by a placard at Coast Guard Beach.

When the settlers arrived at Nauset in 1644 to purchase lands from the Indians of the area, they asked them who owned the northern lands from Wellfleet toward Provincetown. The Indians, perhaps not understanding the question and possibly not identifying with the European notion of ownership, answered "nobody." So the settlers announced, "Then we own it!" And so began the settlement of Wellfleet, known then as Billingsgate, at that time merely the north precinct of the town of Eastham.

The lay of the land at Wellfleet was much different than it is today. Land masses that are now attached to the mainland were actually islands back then. Other 17th and 18th century islands that once supported homes and communities are now gone, swept away by the tides. Such is the case with the Island of Billingsgate, which over the years was devoured by the waves. Strangely, much of the settlement of the area occurred on the islands rather than on the mainland. A north parish meetinghouse was erected in the area in 1723. As early as 1734, the residents here applied for town status, but it would be another three decades before their application was approved. In 1763 the town was incorporated, briefly, as the town of Poole, later changed to Wellfleet. Some say that the name "Wellfleet" may have come from "Wallfleet," after the Wallfleet oyster bed located in Blackwater Bay in England. Samuel de Champlain, who visited these Wellfleet shores back in the early 17th century, named the harbor Port aux Huitres (no need to look for your French dictionary, huitres does in fact translate as oysters). Of course, "Wallfleet" (or Wellfleet) sounds a lot like "whale fleet" too--another possibility source for the town's name.

It is only a mile between Wellfleet's shores on the outer beach of the Atlantic Ocean and Cape Cod Bay. Wellfleet Harbor was once known as Grampus Bay for the blackfish, or pilot whales, that stranded themselves there. When the oyster beds died off in 1770 due to an epidemic of some sort, Wellfleet men became commercial fishermen, lobstermen, and whalers. Seed oysters were imported after the Revolutionary War and the beds thrived again making Wellfleet the largest producer of oysters in the state. During the early 19th century, salt vats were big business, and the town had some 40 saltworks during the 1830s producing roughly 18,000 bushels of salt on an annual basis. The Wellfleet wharf business grew during the mid-1800s, catering to the fishing industry.

In 1717 off the shores of Wellfleet, the pirate known as Black Sam Bellamy was returning to the Cape on board his vessel Whydah when the ship was caught in a storm and sank. The location of the wreck baffled salvagers and historians until, in 1982, a treasure salvager located the wreck of the infamous ship. The bronze ship's bell with "The Whydah Galley 1716" inscribed on it was brought to the surface, along with hundreds of pieces of gold and other treasures. Artifacts from the Whydah can be seen at a museum on Provincetown's MacMillan Pier.

Wellfleet is the site from which one of the first trans-Atlantic wireless telegraph messages was sent in 1903. The year before, a huge station was built on the cliff overlooking the ocean. This miracle of science that allowed messages to travel across the invisible airwaves was the invention of Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi, who began experimenting with sending wireless messages in his teenage years. Besides that first telegraph message of 1903 (from President Theodore Roosevelt to King Edward VII of England), the Wellfleet wireless station also received a distress message from the sinking Titanic in April 1912.

The following are some of Wellfleet's other claims to fame: The steeple of Wellfleet's First Congregational Church is the only town clock in the world that keeps ship's time (see our Attractions chapter). In the 1870s Captain Lorenzo Dow Baker of Wellfleet introduced bananas to the United States and established the L.D. Baker Company in 1881, which later became United Fruit Company. Wellfleet resident Luther Crowell invented the square-bottom paper bag.

The history of Truro can be traced to three hills: Corn Hill, the Hill of Storms, and the Hill of Churches. In November 1620, the Mayflower, with its passengers and crew, found its way to Provincetown Harbor. An expedition that included Captain Myles Standish and William Bradford explored the lands of this lonely outpost in search of food and water and possibly a good place to settle. In the area of Truro, upon a hill now known as Corn Hill, the Pilgrims stumbled across what appeared to be an abandoned Indian encampment. Here they found Indian gravesites and unearthed buried baskets filled with ears of corn. They took this corn and it became the seeds of the Pilgrims' first planting. Also in Truro, the Pilgrim expedition located their first fresh water supply since leaving England, at Pilgrim Spring, which can still be seen on a Cape Cod National Seashore walking trail.

Truro was originally settled as part of the Nauset tract in the mid-17th century, later incorporated as Eastham. A group known as the Pamet Proprietors bought the land from the natives in 1689, and by 1697 farms were established in this remote area of the Cape, first called Pamet after the Native American tribe there. Pamet was granted municipal privileges in 1705 and called Dangerfield because of the treacherous coastline. When Dangerfield officially separated from Eastham in 1709, the township was renamed Truro for the English town in Cornwall, which, with its rolling hills and lonely moors, resembled this area. The first meetinghouse was built in 1710 on the Hill of Storms. This meetinghouse was dismantled in 1840. The hill is also the site of North Cemetery, where the town's oldest stones can be found.

Truro was primarily a fishing and whaling town. At first, whaling was done from shore and later from boats. In the 18th century, Truro was a leader in this industry with vessels visiting the African coast and the whaling grounds of the Pacific. One particular Truro whaler, Icabod Paddock, was even recruited to teach Nantucketers his techniques. (He must have been a good teacher!) Truro's history has always reflected a relationship with the sea. It had two good harbors, Pamet River Harbor and East Harbor (which is now the fresh water Pilgrim Lake, where the Pilgrims were thought to have anchored when they first arrived). Pamet River Harbor was the site of a thriving wharf business that grew from Union Wharf built in 1829. The town had a sail loft and a shipbuilding yard built in 1830 on the Pamet River where brigs and many Grand Banks schooners were built. The successful Union Company Store, which specialized in ship chandlering and general merchandise, epitomized the flavor of this fishing haven, and many townsfolk owned shares in the store and thereby shared in the town's victories.

But a series of events would send the town into a downward spiral. First was the terrible gale of October 2, 1841, which would see the loss of 57 Truro men (10 percent of the town's able seamen) and seven of the town's eight fishing vessels. Then, in the 1850s, erosion began to claim the harbor. Citizens saw that erosion could eventually allow the Atlantic Ocean to cut right through Truro, creating an island of North Truro and Provincetown (the North Truro we know today is well south of Pilgrim Lake, up on the hill; this are is now called Beach Point). To avoid this, the entrance of East Harbor was blocked to become a lake. Then came the big blow when the Union Store went out of business in 1860. A growing 1840 population of about 2,000 had been cut in half by 1880. Migration cut that number in half again to about 500 people by 1930 as residents moved away to earn a living elsewhere.

The Hill of Churches is the spot where the Methodists of Truro built their meetinghouse in 1826. Methodists had first arrived here in the 1790s. The Congregationalists then decided to build their new church on the very same hill in 1827. It was built on this high ground to serve as both a worship center and as a beacon for ships. Its bell was cast by Paul Revere's son and cost $320, and the windows were made of Sandwich glass. In 1830, the Town Hall, or Union Hall, was constructed on the same hill and its architecture resembles that of a church. The spires of these buildings can still be seen among the trees as you drive through Truro on U.S. Rt. 6.

Highland Light in North Truro, also known as Cape Cod Light, is Cape Cod's oldest lighthouse. The 80-foot tower, which sits atop a 120-foot cliff, was built in 1797 and rebuilt in 1857. Cliff erosion threatened the structure's future, so, in 1996, the historic lighthouse was moved to its present location. In November 1778, during the days of the American Revolution, the British man-of-war Somerset wrecked along the Truro coast at Dead Man's Hollow in a gale. Some 480 British sailors were saved as the vessel cleared the outer bars and wrecked along the beach. The people of Truro and Provincetown divided up the spoils of the wreck, stripping the vessel of all its cargo and equipment. The British were eventually marched to Boston to confront the revolutionary forces, while the Somerset's doctor is said to have stayed on in Truro and married a local woman.

At the very end of the Cape, at Provincetown, is where the history of Massachusetts began. Though English explorer John Smith sailed past this spot in 1614 without a thought of making landfall, Provincetown has the historic distinction of being the landing place of the Mayflower's Pilgrims on November 21, 1620. The Pilgrims then went on to Plymouth where they established a successful settlement America. Perhaps even more historically significant, while the vessel was moored in the harbor, the Pilgrims drafted and signed the Mayflower Compact, a document that became the foundation of democratic government in America. It spelled out the Pilgrims' plans for self-government--a government of, by, and for the people (sound familiar?). The Pilgrims spent five weeks in the Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, and Eastham area before they realized that the Cape's tip did not offer all they needed for settlement--namely fresh water and a protected harbor. Though some members wished to remain in this area, eventually all the Pilgrims got back on board the Mayflower, raised anchor and continued along the coast to eventually land in Plymouth. Incidentally, a handful of Pilgrims who had died on the crossing were buried in Provincetown.

Long before the Pilgrims came, however, the tip of the Cape had attracted native tribes and foreign explorers. Norse legends believe Vikings were the first discoverers of the New World, and Leif Ericson's brother, Thorvald, may have landed here during the first years of the 11th century to repair a damaged keel, naming the place Keelness.

Due to its remoteness, the tip of the Cape was one of the last parts to be settled. The area earned a somewhat unsavory reputation because of the smugglers, looters, and gamblers who came here before its actual settlement. Much carousing was done here! No civil order was in place, and anyone who docked here to participate in whatever illegalities took place in the few coastal shacks did so in a land where laws simply did not exist. When nearby Truro was incorporated in 1709, this land to the north termed "Cape Cod" was thrown into the package in an attempt to bring some order to this faraway land. Eventually a permanent, though undisciplined, settlement did take hold. Law and order took hold as well, and this port town would quickly get down to business.

The township of Provincetown was incorporated in 1727, and the people immediately turned their attention to the sea and became expert fishermen and whalers. By 1760 a dozen whaling ships called Provincetown Harbor their home port. These whaling boats, always in search of good crews, found them in the Azores, Canary Islands, and Cape Verdes. By the middle part of the century, Provincetown had a tremendous fishing and whaling fleet and was considered one of the most prosperous ports in the country. Seventy-five wharves sprouted up along Commercial Street in this Cape Cod seaport, which was third behind only New Bedford and Nantucket in terms of whaling. The famous whaler, Charles W. Morgan, now on prominent display at Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, was a Provincetown whaler that worked up until 1921, well after the quest for the leviathan had ended in most other ports. Experienced Portuguese fishermen joined the whalers who had made Provincetown their home and by the turn of century, the port town had evolved into a flourishing fishing village with a Portuguese flavor. Today, the annual Portuguese Festival, held the last weekend in June, celebrates the town's proud fishing tradition.

Provincetown also has the distinction of being the longest continuously running art colony in the country. In 1899 it became the site of an important art colony when Charles Hawthorne opened the Cape Cod School of Art. Art schools and galleries sprung up in this salty yet beautiful fishing village. That art legacy lives on with the many art schools and galleries in Provincetown today. This harbor community also attracted writers such as Eugene O'Neill, Sinclair Lewis, and John Dos Passos. In 1915, O'Neill, who in his early years worked on fishing boats, joined the Provincetown Players, a group who presented plays in an old fish house on Lewis Wharf in the East End of town. O'Neill went on to earn three Pulitzer Prizes and a Nobel Prize in 1936.

There are several historic monuments in Provincetown, the most impressive being the Cape Cod Pilgrim Memorial monument, constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and funded by descendents of the Pilgrims. President Theodore Roosevelt laid its cornerstone in 1907, and President William Howard Taft attended its dedication ceremony in 1910. At 252 feet high, it is the tallest all-granite structure in the United States. A bronze plaque at the western end of Commercial Street commemorates the landing site of the Mayflower's Pilgrims in 1620, and the Pilgrim Bas Relief on Bradford Street behind Town Hall depicts the signing of the Mayflower Compact in Provincetown Harbor.

Today, Provincetown's fishing industry is a shadow of its heyday in the 1850s, and the main source of income is tourism. Commercial Street attracts thousands of visitors each year to its many shops, fine restaurants, and exciting nightlife. Provincetown is a colorful place, a vibrant mix of artists, fishermen, craftspeople, professionals, and retirees. An integral part of this mix is Provincetown's gay and lesbian population who call this town home because of its accepting attitude, easy-going lifestyle, and respect for the individual.