252 HIS TOR V OF COHA SSE T. 



There are no shops mentioned in the tax list of 1737, 

 but there were doubtless tan shops, blacksmith shops, and 

 cooper shops, for those industries were practiced in this 

 precinct at that time. A blacksmith shop on the west 

 side of Beechwood Street, not far from Turtle Island, is 

 said to have forged out the bolts for some of the first 

 shipbuilding in Cohasset. 



Nevertheless, we were but a small community and 

 scattered in those days. Only about fifty houses could be 

 counted in the whole precinct at the year 1737. Of these 

 King Street had perhaps six ; Rocky Nook and Hall Street, 

 eight ; Beechwood, ten ; Jerusalem Road, six ; Main Street, 

 thirteen for its whole length of three miles ; and the Cove 

 region had about seven houses. This is a careful estimate 

 from a study of the names in the tax list of 1737. 



It will be noticed that this distribution was governed by 

 the need of land for farms, so that the Cove region, which is 

 now the most densely populated, was then fairly empty. 

 But the fishing industry had just begun its growth, and bits 

 of land large enough to hold a sailor's home near by the 

 sea, nestling against rocky ledges or edging out upon the 

 marshes, were soon to be in demand. 



Growth was slow, and how could it have been other- 

 wise .'' There was no idle capital in those days eagerly 

 seeking investment in new communities, and our citizens 

 could use for advancing their fisheries or manufactures 

 only such means as their tireless energy and pinching 

 economy had slowly accumulated. 



This handicapping may be readily seen by comparison 

 with the fishing industry of Hingham at that period. 



Although Cohasset enterprise made her foremost in 

 this business, so that she had more than twice the tonnage 

 of the mother town in 1737, yet as soon as the greater 

 capital of that town began to pour into the lucrative busi- 

 ness, Cohasset was readily surpassed. The Leavitts and 

 Captain Francis Barker of Hingham so advanced the 



