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NORTH SHORE BREEZE 9 
MINGO BEACH, PRIDE’S CROSSING 
ele tS: ORE G ALL So leGONals Pele Cea NGG: EE 
BY MARY TAYLOR FALT 
INGO Beach stands out as a tragic reminder of 
the infantile development of this portion of 
the North Shore, a reputed namesake of a 
slave, whose freedom hung strangely in the 
balance at the will of a fickle sea. 
Robert Mingo was a negro slave, the property of 
Thomas Woodberry, in 1707. His wife was Deborah 
Tailor, an Indian woman. A rude hut near the beach 
was their abode. The Thomas Woodberry, who num- 
bered Robert Mingo among his slaves, descended from 
the original Beverly settler of that name, as did Hon. 
Levi Woodberry, who was a Secretary of the U. S. 
Treasury and a son of Hon. Peter Woodberry, born in 
Beverly in 1767. 
Before the marriage of the negro and the Indian 
woman was performed, she was obliged to agree to 
live with her husband’s master and mistress during 
Mingo’s life, to be then ‘‘dismissed with only two suits 
of clothes suitable for such a person.’’ 
The strong religious tendency of those days brought 
avout Mingo’s baptism on July 15, 1722, with admit- 
tance to the church, a Christian faith and fortitude 
which he certainly needed, for freedom was promised 
kim with a strange proviso—his release from slavery 
when the tide should recede so far as to leave a dry 
passage between the shore and ‘‘Becky’s Hedge”’ lying 
off the beach. Sad to relate this phenomenon happened 
but once, and that was during the year of his death, 
1/73. Mingo was then the property of Capt. Nicholas 
‘Vhorndike, one of the best types of Bewerly’s early 
settlers. 
These traditions call vividly to mind the bold, 
rugged, wooded rocks of Mingo Beach, the environs 
peopled with the Indians and early settlers from Hng- 
Jand making the first history of a most notable section 
of Massachusetts. 
Mingo Beach also played a part in the British coast 
invasion of June 9, 1814, when a schooner belonging 
to Manchester was pursued by a British ship of war. 
I'seape being impossible, the mariner from Manchester 
ron his boat ashore on Mingo Beach and abandoned 
her. Then all was excitement. The Britishers set her 
cn fire, but the flames were afterward extinguished by 
tlie residents of the neighborhood. 
This incident brought about effectual protection 
of the Beverly coast from the British by a company of 
infantry from Haverhill, Methuen and Danvers. For- 
tunately in December 24, 1814, the treaty of Ghent was 
executed and was ratified February 16, 1815, putting at 
rest all fears of further invasion. This incident doubt- 
less had a bearing on its execution and ratification. 
Today the aspect of Mingo Beach has no tangible 
connection with its dramatic role of the long ago. 
it is now only a picturesque landmark in a community 
of costly mansions depicting affluence, rest, pleasure 
and sylvan quietude. 
_ The beautiful forests and wild natural beauties re- 
tained and enclosing some of the estates hint of the 
wcenderful and beautiful wilderness which must have 
met the gaze of our Pilgrim fathers when searching for 
new abodes. 
_The nearest estate bordering the beach is that of 
Tits L. Dresel, formerly owned by Robert Saltonstall 
and oceupied last season by his parents-in-law, Col. and 
Mrs. R. H. Stevenson of Boston. 
Across from the beach, on the wooded heights above 
is the W. A. Gardner estate, occupied this summer (July 
and August), by Congressman and Mrs. A. P. Gardner, 
and a little beyond is H. M. Sears’ property. Not far 
away are the costly estates of Henry Clay Frick of 
Pittsburg and Oliver Ames of Boston. 
Now the main roadway along the North Shore be- 
teen Manchester and Beverly goes by the beach, and 
himdreds of automobile parties admire the grand view 
cl the ocean as it stretches out, with the islands in 
the offing, and the Marblehead and Salem shore beyond. 
The scene as one drives along from Beverly, at this 
peint, is one of the finest on the North Shore. 
SOCIETY NOTES 
Robert Gould Shaw, 2d, who is summering at Lake 
Sunapee, N. H., spent a few days of the early part of 
this week with his mother at Pride’s. 
: o°O909 
The Berkshires by auto provided Mrs. Henry Pratt 
McKean with a very enjoyable trip last week. She 
returned to Pride’s Y Per crerey upon its termination. 
Mrs. George Scott Winslow and daughter, Anna, 
of the Beverly Farms colony, have returned from their 
trip to Neweastle, Maine. Mrs. Winslow’s brother, 
Mr. Glidden, Bae ay them for a week-end visit. 
After a very successful attempt angling the wily 
fish of Metapedia, Quebec, Barrett Wendell Jr., was 
welcomed home early this week to Pride’s, where he 
end Mrs. Wendell are enlarging the F. L. Higginson 
family party. 
SOCIETY NOTES 
Miss Clara Winthrop of Boston and West Man- 
chester has sailed for Europe to be absent until Septem- 
ber first. 
00909 
John Caswell, Jr., and Miss Florence Lee of the 
Beverly Farms colony distinguished themselves Sunday 
by swimming from hee Boneh to Mystery Isles. 
so 
The Fulton Cuttings of New York, who were at 
Beverly Farms last season have the Procter cottage at 
Pride’s this season. 
oO 4 
Mr. and Mrs. Augustus P. Loring Jr. (Rosamond 
jowditch), who are abroad on their wedding trip, will 
rake their future home on Thissel street, Beverly, on 
their return. This estate has just been conveyed by Mr. 
Loring Sr. to his son, and it will be renovated to suit 
the needs of the young people. 
