Barrels, buckets, and Benjamins
The day after I shared my weird presidential trivia at History Camp, I embarked on a tour of Hingham (A Town Torn Apart: Patriots vs. Loyalists in the American Revolution).
It was fabulous.
We explored the exhibit at the Hingham Historical Society, then toured the Old Ordinary, The Benjamin Lincoln House, and Old Ship Church.
I gathered collection of photos from the day, with some doodles and requisite tangents sprinkled throughout for good measure.
#2 on the map
We took a ferry from Boston to Hingham, while our guide pointed out various Revolutionary War landmarks on a map she provided to us. I’m proud to share that I didn’t giggle when she told us that Deer Island, #2 on the map, is now a wastewater treatment facility. #2. Wastewater. I wonder if anyone else stifled a giggle and then felt an outsized pride in themselves.
Probably not.
But maybe!
Speaking of #2s and waste management, though…
Why did children back then get to go on a little adorable potty seat like this, while adults had do do their business in a bowl?
Spectacle Island
#3 on the map housed a smallpox quarantine hospital from 1717-1737, which I was excited to learn about because I included a slide in my presentation about smallpox and how George Washington considered it the “most dangerous enemy”.
15 taverns
Back in the day, the tiny town of Hingham had fifteen taverns (see above for three of them). Pretty impressive, but then I remembered that Massachusetts circa 1770 had nothing on New York City circa 1770 drinking:
The rum doodle is from the spread below… which I tried very hard to summon from the recesses of my brain so I could contribute to a conversation about Revolutionary War guns at History Camp. I was unsuccessful, and thus unable to add my thoughts on how funny it is that both sides favored British-made guns (despite them being less accurate than the American alternative). Probably for the best, since I didn’t exactly have any follow-up info to carry on a conversation about it.
The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington, by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch
Fife and drums … not just hype music!
I had no idea that the band was used for communications — ensuring that everyone knew the officers’ orders. Or that fifers could be as young as 12.
“Lincoln’s 7 different.”
During the tour, I texted myself a few things I wanted to remember, including this unhelpful partial sentence. Autocorrect added both an unnecessary apostrophe and confusion. I believe it was to remind me that seven generations of Lincolns lived in The Benjamin Lincoln House after General Benjamin Lincoln (plus several generations before him). There were also several different Lincoln families in town, but they weren’t related to each other.
Why didn’t I just bring a little notebook to jot notes into, you ask? I wondered the same thing. Then I remembered my handwriting would probably lead to as much confusion as my cryptic and excessively-punctuated text messages.
In any case, Lincoln was a common name in England. It’s also a place. With castles and everything!
I’m currently reading Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald. Coincidentally, Hingham is mentioned. (And I read that part in June — before I realized the Lincoln / Hingham connection and after I selected the Hingham tours from the other options.)
According to my doodle, Samuel Lincoln came from England and settled in Hingham, MA in 1637. Then “blah, blah, blah, etc., Pennsylvania… Virginia” and finally Kentucky after distant relative Daniel Boone said great things about the state. Abe Lincoln, Sr. relocated with his wife and their five kids.
In 1786, dad and the three boys were attacked while planting corn.
Abe, Sr. died right away.
Fifteen-year-old Mordecai sent Josiah for help.
Mordecai ran to a cabin where — through two logs — he saw eight-year-old Thomas (Abe Lincoln’s dad!) still in the field with their dad’s body… with a Native American man quietly approaching from the woods.
Mordecai killed the man before he reached Thomas.
Thomas repeated this story often.
Abraham Lincoln (our Abraham Lincoln — you know the one!) reflected that “the legend more strongly than all others imprinted upon my mind and memory.”
Wow, I sure am flexible with how I spelled Mordecai, huh?
Mordecai
Mordecai was mentioned by one of our guides, giving me the opportunity to share with you that Uncle Mord performed Andrew Johnson’s marriage ceremony. The Johnsons were married for nearly half a century. It’s possible that Eliza taught Andrew how to read. Both of those facts originally seemed pretty cool until I learned more about Andrew:
He was … not great. Perhaps if he couldn’t read, the VP job would have been out of reach and then he wouldn’t have been next in line when Lincoln was assassinated and then maybe Reconstruction wouldn’t have been all messed up and where would we be today? Something to consider.
Most of the fifty-ish years was spent apart and there was likely infidelity. By him. When he was in the state legislature, he bought a 14-year-old named Dolly (his first slave). Dolly eventually had three kid listed as “mulattoes”. There was chatter that perhaps they were Johnson’s kids. Which would be batty, since he was so afraid of interracial relationships.
Andrew Johnson: The American Presidents Series: The 17th President, 1865-1869, by Annette Gordon-Reed
Prince Demah, limner
Prince Demah was a Black artist, enslaved by Loyalists (the Barnes family). He took painting lessons from Robert Edge Pine when he was in London with Henry Barnes.
Prince painted portraits of both Christian (Arbuthnot) Barnes and her husband. I took pictures of Christian’s portrait (both the original and the reproduction), but for some reason none of Henry.
Notice the damage on Christians’ chest — the portraits may have been vandalized during the war.
Prince self-emancipated during the Revolutionary War and fought with the Americans, living as a free man in Boston afterward.
Unfortunately, he died (possibly of smallpox) in 1778.
Daniel Webster
Webster showed up in my presentation, poo-pooing the vice presidential role (whilst twice turning down opportunities that could have lead to a Webster presidency). And look! Here he is hanging around the Old Ordinary!
PS (gasp!)
In my presentation, I mentioned that Daniel Webster could have been president if he’d said yes to William Henry Harrison (who died a month into office). But maybe not, as we didn’t have rules for the line of succession yet and John Tyler kind of just came in (I simplified it quite a bit for both brevity and levity) and decided he was president and that was that. While preparing this post, I discovered the doodle below. I’d completely forgotten that William Cranch, John Quincy Adams’ cousin, swore John Tyler in. And that JQA was pissed because he believed that a “worthless and profligate faction” had seized the nation.
John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life, by Paul C. Nagel
Benjamins
The weekend was heavy with Benjamins. (And not just heavy Benjamins, like Benjamin Harrison V… who joked with Elbridge Gerry that with his 6’ 4” overweight body he “shall have a great advantage” over Gerry if they were hung. Ben V would die immediately, but the very thin Gerry would “dance in the air an hour” before dying. Sometime-friend John Adams nicknamed Ben V “Jack Falstaff”.
In my presentation, 10 Benjamins appeared:
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Rush
eight different Benjamins Harrison
On the tour, I got to visit The Benjamin Lincoln House, which had been occupied by several Benjamins Lincoln.
Just one of the very sophisticated slides from my presentation.
From Gallop Toward the Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison's Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation, by Peter Stark and Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose, by Joe Biden.
Benjamin Lincoln, shown both with and without one of our fantastic tour guides. (And with one of my new friends in the foreground!)
Benjamin Lincoln
Revolutionary War hero
Served in the Continental Army alongside George Washington
The only one there for all three major campaigns of the war (including Saratoga!)
Accepted Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown
His dad was “one of the most prominent Loyalists in Massachusetts”
Learn more about him:
Simon Willard clock
I’m related to Simon Willard. Whenever I see an old clock, I check to see if it’s one of his. A woman on the tour noticed me noticing and it turns out that she’s a huge Simon Willard fan. She rattled off a bunch of cool facts about him, which I did not text to myself and consequently do not remember at all. I also didn’t think to formally introduce myself, so I have no idea who the Mysterious Willard Fan is to ask for details. Nevertheless, here’s both a photo and a doodle of a Willard clock.
John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life, by Paul C. Nagel
Ebenezer Gay was minister of Old Ship Church for 69 years
… which made me think of Eliphalet Nott, the longest-serving college president. I couldn’t remember how long he held his post. Turns out Gay beat Nott — who only served as Union College president for 62 years.
If this post wasn’t already getting out of hand, I might’ve made a Venn diagram about these guys. Both were ministers with now-uncommon first names beginning with E who served in their posts for more than six decades and lived into their 90s. They only overlapped each other by ~14 years.
A few photos and random tidbits…
Hingham was once known as “bucket town” — they produced wooden buckets and barrels (and wooden canteens). Once the bucket business dried up, they pivoted to making adorable wooden toys.
Check out the Venn diagram carved into the wood!
The bed with the gingham curtains? A precursor to the Murphy bed. It folds up to make floor space during the day. Genius.
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