Massachusetts
Gazetteers & Histories
I think the changes in the landscape and physical
descriptions of the towns are particularly interesting, and those are a
big part of the MHS and Dwight sections.
The Massachusetts
Historical Society published many relevant articles in its early Collections. In 1794 there were articles featuring
Barnstable, Mashpee, Nantucket, Truro, Wellfleet, Middleborough, and
Raynham, Massachusetts; Machias, Sebago Lakes, Topsham, Wells, and
York, Maine; and Roger Williams's notes on the Naragansetts. In 1798 : Massachusetts and New York Indians
and missionaries in the 1790s, Indian-Plymouth treaties circa 1670,
settlement of the Narragansett country, Yarmouth and Newton histories,
ancient Mass. Bay laws. In 1802
: descriptions of the Outer
Beach with its Humane Society huts,
Sandwich, Dennis, Chatham, Orleans, Eastham and Provincetown. In 1809 : Brewster and Harvard, 17th and 18th
Century Indians in eastern Massachusetts.
Edward Augustus
Kendall published Travels through the northern
parts of the United States in the years 1807 and 1808. The Cape and Islands section is
done, with parts of Maine to come.
Rev. Timothy Dwight traveled New England and New York from
1795 to 1815, and his notes were published in 4 volumes in 1821and
1822. He made a horseback Journey to Provincetown in
1800. I couldn't find it anywhere else, so I posted the table of contents for the 4 volumes,
also.
There is John Hayward's 1839 New England Gazetteer, with the Cape and Islands and a few parts of Connecticut, Maine, more of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Rev. Enoch Pratt published A Comprehensive History, Ecclesiastical
and Civil, of Eastham, Wellfleet and Orleans, from 1644 to 1844.
There is Fowle and Fitz's 1845 Elementary
Geography for Massachusetts Children, from which you can read just
the entries for the Cape and
Islands or
the full text (650KB).
Rev. Elias Nason
wrote The Massachusetts Gazetteer,
published in 1874. I've posted Barnstable
county and its towns
so far.
Elias Nason and
George Varney wrote a revised Massachusetts
Gazetteer,
published in 1890, and I've
scanned and posted the whole thing, except for the pictures ("a picture
is worth a thousand words; unfortunately, it consumes the bandwidth of
ten thousand words.") This is a county by county and town by town
description of people, industries and geography, with a long overview
of the whole commonwealth. Click the links to the separate
indices to go straight to the lists of counties, towns and villages and geographic features. (Cape Cod is Barnstable county,
Martha's Vineyard is
Dukes.) Here are the entries for Cape Cod: Bourne, Falmouth, Sandwich, Mashpee, Barnstable (town), Barnstable county, Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich, Chatham, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, Provincetown.
Simeon L.
Deyo edited the History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, over 1000 pages, also published
in 1890. Here are
the intro, industrial resources, lawyers, physicians,
authors and
publications, Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth,
Barnstable, Mashpee, Yarmouth,
Dennis, Harwich, Chatham, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown histories and biographies. Wellfleet is indexed.
Captain J. Henry Sears compiled Brewster Ship Masters,
published in 1906. Henry C. Kittredge wrote an article on the Cape-Boston packets.
"History" for fun.
David
L. Belding's 1920 A Report
upon the
Alewife Fisheries of Massachusetts. The herring runs
even then, or especially then, had been nearly ruined by incompetence,
greed and pollution.
Maps
I've
posted a set of topographic
and political maps, featuring Cape Cod, coastal Maine and central
Vermont.