NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
AND REMINDER 
Vol. XIII 
Manchester, Mass., Friday, July 2 
No. 27 
The North Shore in Colonial Days—the Roads 
By KATHERINE GAUSS 
T is not only in the day of the automobile that the 
townsfolk complain about the bad roads, but as long 
ago as 1789 the worthy people of this section were mur- 
muring about the rough and rocky ways. And it is 
most interesting to know about the North Shore roads 
which nowadays have reached such perfection of smooth- 
ness. Long, long ago, a party of Salem people who went 
visiting to Eastern Point said that Gloucester was the 
most rocky parish known, and the roads were horrible. 
After a visit to Daniel Rogers rough farm at the tip of 
Eastern Point one of the party remarks the fact that 
“the return to town was heart rending and the trip was 
made on foot as we dreaded the ride back through such 
dangerous passes.” In the evening this same party ven- 
tured out to attend a gathering in the same town which 
is described thusly: “there were 6 candles, 12 ladies, 7 
gentlemen, a black fiddler for 2 shillings, a fifer for a 
shilling, sixpence. Both sexes partook of the grog pro- 
vided.” Not much like the affairs of today on the good 
old Eastern Point. 
A little description found in Dr. Bentley’s wonder- 
ful diary is worth the while reading, as it describes so 
well and fully the North Shore of about 1799. One 
day with a party of men Bentley went down along the 
old Chebacco road, which was rough and tiresome, and 
after a short stop in the town of Gloucester, they went on 
a little journey about the Cape. He says: “We found the 
road through Cape Ann woods much assisted by the new 
road, but there remains one and a half miles yet unfin- 
ished to remind the traveller what that road once was 
and has lately been.” <A trip was made up the Squam 
river and he describes Sand Beach, which supplied ail 
the shore with sand for the use of families from Boston 
to Portsmouth. At bar rocks near Squam bar he saw a 
beacon upon which was hoisted a lantern in foul weather 
to aid the fishermen in passing the bar without mishap. 
He describes quite minutely the mooring of boats called 
Jebaeco boats, so-called because that type of boat was 
first built in that part of Ipswich. ‘They perforate a 
large stone and raise a tree with its roots, stripped 
of its branches, and then slide the stone over the stock 
of the tree upon the root. The root prevents the stone 
from a separation and this is carried and sunk in a con- 
venient place the top remaining like a post above water. 
The fish houses are at the head of these coves, and from 
the number of sunken trees we may see that neatly 300 
boats belong to this body of water.’ 
Later as fishing is spoken of he says: “Eels came 
down in abundance and the alewives striving to ascend 
being tossed back by the water, great numbers were taken 
without the labour of dipping into the stream. It is but 
lately the alewives have been led into this course and it 
is said that $2000 was expended in Cape Ann for ale- 
wives as bait from Jebacco and other towns. ‘There fisn 
also attract larger fish.” 
The next day the trip was resumed and Dr. Bentley 
first observes that “we stopped in the Harbour to be 
shaved by a woman named Becky, who in due form ex- 
ercises all the functions of a barber. She has her shop 
decorated with all the pictures which belong to such place 
of resort from the meanest black print to the best en- 
graving, with all the songs which are in the taste of the 
varied multitude of her customers. It was a solitary ex- 
ample of a woman in this employment. She shaves well 
but has few attractions of her sex.’ He further de- 
scribes the houses of the town as small and of two stories 
and generally painted. The doors were commonly placed 
on the side so as to afford a good front room and back 
kitchen, with a bedroom back of the front entry. he 
school-houses were neat and in repair but the churches 
were rotting from lack of care. The people were of very 
decent appearance, with florid complexions and uncom- 
mon neatness in their dress. 
“The road from Squam to Upper Town Mills over 
the two Squam hills, was in a very neglected state and 
by far the worst of any we found upon the island. It 
is so easy to pass up the river and the distance is so muci 
less that men always in their boats never think of stretch- 
ing three miles over the worst roads when they can sail 
pleasantly only one mile. At leisure we examined the 
Tide Mill and found few improvements in the construc- 
tion. The water wheel is upon the new plan of side 
boards and flats instead of the old floats tunnelled upon 
shafts. The shoot was open and the clack was by iron 
claps on wood instead of open iron, and the spout was 
short and trough narrow. Near the cove was a per- 
petual spring which is conveyed in a wooden spout so as 
readily to afford any quantity of the freshest water, al- 
though a lot runs to waste into the sea.” 
The last day of this expedition was spent viewing 
Cape Ann as a miltary location. “The military character 
of Cape Ann is established. On a point of land, they 
can afford to employ the greatest hospitality towards all 
who visit them, and forming all their pleasures among 
themselves they must be fond of social institutions. They 
excell in their parties, in their clubs and also in their 
military parades. <A late proof has been given that their 
artillery house is beyond example in the country. It 
is two stories high, in the lower there is all the arrange- 
ment of an arsenal or a laboratory. Their own two 
brass field pieces and two iron nine pounds, with all the 
apparatus are disposed in the best order. In the front is 
a piazza and the building has folding doors which open 
under it and form a full communication with it. Over 
the piazza is a balustrade and place to accommodate a 
large company and the apartment of the second story is 
provided for a hall of entertainment. In the front is 
suspended a bell given to call them to dinner. “We do 
not know just what may have happened to stir the old 
doctor up, but as a parting remark about Cape Ann he is 
said to have remarked that “In no place can they so easily 
combine for any social pleasure, in no place can they 
pursue pleasure with so little interruption and yet they have 
all the jealousies, competitions and even enmities belong- 
ing to little towns and to human nature. How unhappy 
it is that such an air of disapation should appear in so - 
