17th Century
When the French explorer Samuel de Champlain made his second trip to
Cape Ann in 1606, he came ashore in Gloucester for a peaceful encounter
with some of the 200 Native Americans who had settled in the area. Before
he left, he drew a map of Gloucester harbor which he called le beau
port. Eight years later, the English Captain John Smith named the area
around Gloucester Cape Tragabigzanda after a Turkish princess. Later,
England’s King Charles renamed it in honor of his mother Queen Anne.
The Native Americans who extended the hand of friendship to the
explorers became their victims. By 1617, three-quarters of the Native
American population in Massachusetts had died of common diseases brought
from Europe.
By 1623, the English knew there was an abundance of codfish in the
waters off Gloucester, and a vessel belonging to the Dorchester Company
started a settlement on the coast. A group of Pilgrims also sailed to
Gloucester and built the first racks for drying fish. In the years that
followed, both groups experienced difficulty in establishing a profitable
operation.
The settlement of Gloucester continued, however, and farming became the
livelihood of many residents. The General Court of the Massachusetts Bay
Colony incorporated the Town of Gloucester in 1642, and the Governor of
Salem began distributing land titles. The Reverend Richard Blynman was the
town’s first clergyman.
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The White-Ellery house, Gloucester |
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Joseph Ange Roux
Corporal Trim of Gloucester, Francis Haskell Davis, Master
Early 1820s |
The town green was established where Grant Circle is today. The first
meeting house and a number of residences were located there. One of them,
the White-Ellery house, has survived and is located on Washington Street,
not far from where it originally stood.
18th Century
The abundance of oak forests on Cape Ann played a major role in
Gloucester’s emergence, along with the neighboring town of Essex, as two
of the ship building capitals of New England. Early in the century, a new
type of vessel was introduced which allowed crews to get out to the
fishing grounds faster and make a quick return to sell their catch. For
reasons not entirely clear, they were called schooners, and they would
dominate Gloucester harbor into the early years of the 20th century.
The vessels made on Cape Ann were used for commercial fishing and
foreign trade, and a wide range of supporting businesses were established
to maintain the fleet -- sail makers, chandleries, rope walks, marine
railways to name just a few. Salted fish was Gloucester’s principal
export. The goods brought back included wine, fruit, salt, molasses, rum
and sugar.
The hardships of the American Revolution devastated Gloucester. Some
schooners were commissioned as privateers. They took prisoners of war and
claimed enemy supplies at sea. In the end, nearly 400 residents died in
battles, shipwrecks and as prisoners of war. British warships all but
destroyed Gloucester’s fishing fleet and interrupted the profitable
trading established in previous years.
By the end of the century, however, recovery was well under way. With
the growing focus on maritime activities, the town center moved to the
harbor, merchants opened their doors to sell a wide variety of goods, and
prosperous traders and ship captains built substantial houses near the
harbor. Public transportation in the form of two-horse carriages could
take people from Gloucester to Boston in a day.
19th Century
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| Delftware, Dutch Surinam trade, 19th
century |
Fitz Henry (Hugh) Lane, who would become a maritime luminist artist and one of
the country’s most important painters, was born in Gloucester in 1804.
Itinerant artists came to paint portraits, but the mainstream of Cape Art
was soon taken over by seascapes and landscapes. In the latter part of the
century, the completion of a rail link to Boston made it easier for
artists to visit Gloucester, and the town’s natural beauty made it a
favorite of artists such as Winslow Homer. The Rocky Neck Art Colony in
Gloucester is the oldest in the nation.
The fisheries prospered at mid-century and fortunes were made in trade
with the Dutch colony of Surinam. Gloucester businessmen provided low
grade salted fish to feed black slaves and brought back molasses which
they used to make rum.
The appearance of the town was radically altered by two fires. In 1830,
much of the downtown area burned, and in 1864 buildings that lined the
harbor were lost. Many of the buildings in the historic West End survived,
however, because they are constructed of brick and granite.
Gloucester’s granite industry began in
mid-century, with retired army general Benjamin
Butler leading the way. Immigrants from Finland, Sweden, and Ireland
found work in the quarries, adding variety to the town’s existing
population of English descendants. New vessels called stone sloops were
designed and built to carry granite to ports along the eastern seaboard
for use in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.
Toward the end of the century, immigrants from Portugal (particularly
the Azores) came to work in the fishing industry. They brought new ideas
and customs to Gloucester and became owners and operators of large
vessels. Just before the turn of the century, immigrants from Italy began
coming to Gloucester to seek opportunities in the fisheries. They, too,
brought a vibrant culture, and they became a dominant force in the fishing
industry.
The same railroads which brought an influx of artists to Gloucester
also expanded opportunities for land-based trade and opened up the area
for tourism, which was destined to emerge as one of the city’s major
industries.
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