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aan AND REMINDER 
Vol. XII Manchester, Mass., Friday, September 11, 1914 
La 
No. 37 
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ie 
Choate Island 
i PTE early settlers coming to the shores of New Eng- 
. land gave the old home names to the spots of their 
selection and perpetuated many of the familiar customs. 
- And here in the new scenes they built their homes and all 
“along the coast the names they left remind one of the 
scenes and localities from whence they came. 
; Near to the town of Essex, in the river which bears 
the same name, is the historic Choate Island which has 
been the home of the descendants of John Choate, who 
‘emigrated to America in the middle of the seventeenth 
century, and settled in what at that time was included in 
Ipswich, but later was set apart as Essex. 
This spot was in the early days one of the favorite 
‘resorts of the Indians whose burial ground is still seen in 
a beautiful knoll on the northern slope near the water’s 
_ edge. It was the last reservation which was sold to the 
‘town of Ipswich and it is within the memory of man that 
there encamped on the opposite shore in the woods for 
many years an Indian and his squaw, mingling freely with 
One day they were seen to pass round 
the point in their canoe, glance back longingly at the Is- 
- land, and then pass forever from sight of Essex. 
It was when the Island was first inhabited that a 
band of the Tarrentine Indians planned to come quietly 
up the Ipswich river in forty canoes, suprising the white 
men and exterminate the settlement. 
- plan was discovered by one of the friendly 
This diabolical 
Indians of the 
Agawam tribe and the natives were warned and thus the 
infant settlement was saved from annihilation. 
When this island was first settled it was covered with 
_ dense forests of which then as now we could say with the 
Quaker poet, 
“Health comes sparkling in the streams ; 
The pines are trees of healing.” 
John Choate, known as “Sergeant John,” the first of 
~ the name in America, came to this country in 1655, sett- 
- ling on a creek which was the dividing line between Essex 
and Ipswich. He was a successful and enterprising 
farmer and gradually acquired title to the whole of the 
island, known at that time on account of its peculiar for- 
mation, as Hogg Island. 
. The ownership of the island passed in succession to 
his son Thomas, to whom his primitive neighbors gave the 
title of “Governor.” The house to which he took his bride 
in 1690 remained standing more than a century, the found- 
ation being still visible. Just in front of this now stands 
the house erected in 1725 by his son Francis Choate, the 
second of the family to live on the Island. He was by 
trade a blacksmith and his art was put into requisition 
through the making of all the iron work used in the con- 
struction of three schooners built by Francis and his 
brother Thomas with the assistance of Caesar, a slave. 
All of the wood used in making the ships was sawn by 
these three by hand. While not himself a seafaring man, 
The Ancestral Home of Forty 
By MARY HARROD NORTHEND 
Lawyers 
he was much interested in maritime affairs, owning and 
chartering many vessels engaged in coasting and fishing 
trade. 
Francis Choate was prominent in the church and it 
is recorded that “among the Choate ancestry, none were so 
illustrious for piety as Esquire Francis and his good wiie 
Hannah.” 
Like many others in those days, he was the own>r 
of slaves, the first one, Ned, being purchased at Long 
Wharf by his father. Governor Thomas Choate, while 
attending a General Court in Boston. Ned married and 
became the father of many children, two of whom slept 
in the barn one night after a famous husking, and beirg 
taken sick, died and were buried on the island, being the 
only ones besides the Indians who have been buried there. 
Ned lived to be ninety years of age and two of his 
children remained with Mr. Francis Choate as slaves until 
1845 when their freedom was given them but they chose 
to retain their old position and accordingly were cared for 
as long as they lived. 
William Choate, fourth son of Governor Thomas 
Choate studied for the ministry but relinquished it to 
master the science of navigation, following the sea and be- 
coming the captain of a ship when only twenty-five years 
of age. During the winter months it was his habit to 
take charge of the schoo! on the island, and his thorough 
methods with his own children fitted then with a far 
better education than that of the boys on the mainland. 
He was a dignified man, tall and very handsore, dis- 
inclined to public life yet it is said that he beca™e collector 
and treasurer of the parish during the Revolutionary War. 
Tradition says his wife was one of the bravest of women, 
and when one day a British frigate was seen in the bay 
and twelve men were stationed to prevent the enemy fron 
landing on the island, she was the only woman who did 
not flee for protection to the mainland, but remained on 
the island with her little ones without suffering harm 
from the enemy. 
The last Choate to be born in the old homestead on 
Choate Island was Rufus Choate. one of America’s great- 
est advocates. He was born on Tuesday October 1, 1790, 
the event being carefully noted by his father in the fa ~ily 
Bible. 
A scholar by instinct, he entered Dartmouth while he 
was yet sixteen and there distinguished himself by his 
remarkable fluency and high rank. Under the college 
system of rating he held a standing of absolute perfec- 
tion which in the history of the college has been reached 
by only three graduates. Rufus Choate, Professor Putnam 
and Judge Walbridge A. Field. 
After his admission to the bar in 1823 his reason, 
ambition and conscience brought success and increasing 
honors and his devotion to the welfare of his country was 
shown in his service in the United States senate, by which 
he relinquished for nearly seven years the personal bene- 
