I recently attended Seth Mendell’s lecture on the building of the Cape Cod Canal in honor of its centennial anniversary. Surprisingly, Mendell began the history of the canal with the Pilgrims settling in the area. From then until now, the Cape Cod Canal has been a figment of imagination and a massive flowing reality. With a blank canvas upon which to draw the rich local history of this major historical event, Mendell filled my brain.

Yet, stepping through the mists of time from that auspicious day in July 1914 stood one person: Huybertie Hamlin (b. April, 1878 – d. March, 1964). She was there observing and experiencing first hand all the monumental changes that took place in the late 1800s and through to the mid-1960s. Living in a time that saw the industrial revolution propel the world into new areas of thought and mechanical ingenuity, she was a woman slightly ahead of her day. A contemporary and lifelong friend of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Hamlin hobnobbed with the rich and famous, a social group into which she was born in Albany, New York.

Although I was thoroughly delighted and enlightened to learn the history of the first and second Cape Cod Canals (yes there were two, well, sort of two and a half), it was she who intrigued me, she who seemed to want her eyewitness account to be heard again. Thanks to Hamlin’s chronicling of this wonder of construction capabilities, we can still hear her voice.

But first let me give you the briefest history of the Cape Cod Canal you’ll find anywhere. As far back as the days when Myles Standish and his contemporaries roamed the sandy beaches at Head-of-the-Bay in Bourne and beyond, a canal was imagined. Assuredly not on the scale it is today, they envisioned a more modest canal similar to those that were common throughout northern Europe. Something comparable to the small cuttings with locks that were sliced through Britain, Holland, and France to help manage the water’s depth, currents, and tides and which allowed easier movement of people and goods even though they most likely allowed traffic in a single direction.

And so the notion of digging through the Isthmus of Cape Cod was pondered for many centuries. Along with Standish, George Washington thought about a canal, Dutch traders from New York and Pennsylvania thought about a canal, as well as more southerly merchants who wanted to get their goods to Boston and north to Portland. They had the foresight to dream, but lacked the technological wherewithal. All these people believed it could and would one day be done; the need was great.

Without a canal, those wanting to get from Cape Cod Bay to Buzzards Bay and vice versa had to navigate rivers that were little more than streams and then portage overland or sail 165 miles around Provincetown. There were numerous attempts throughout the 1800s, and the Senate conducted a study in 1818 that went directly into a library never to be seen again. As commerce was increasing along with tourism to the Cape, all the canal idea needed was time, money, and know-how.

The Ship Canal Company tried to build a canal. It sold shares in what was slated to become a for-profit toll canal. They purchased land while other parcels were taken by eminent domain and sold shares at $100 per unit. They brought Italian workers to the Cape by the hundreds. But, for ten years, the project stalled. Enter August Belmont.

In 1904, Belmont bought them out at a much depressed price per share and began to build a team that could get this project moving again. Belmont’s lineage is rich with people who changed the course of politics, policies, and commerce on an international level. His maternal grandfather was none other than Commodore Matthew Perry who sailed into Tokyo Harbor and demanded the Emperor to “open your ports.”

Belmont knew that the construction of the canal needed engineering on a scale equal to that which was taking place in Panama. So when William Parsons, a civil engineer with an impeccable resume who had been part of the engineering team in Panama became available, Belmont brought him on-board the Cape Cod Canal project. From 1905 until 1914, the canal was designed and built. At times, crews worked 12-hour days with only two days off per year. There was heavy equipment, boulders to be moved or exploded both above ground and underwater, special rail cars to remove dirt from the site, and ships to ferry dirt away to designated dumping locations. It was a Herculean undertaking. Belmont was determined to stay the course “until the last shovel” full of dirt was removed with a goal of opening up his canal before the completion of the Panama Canal. They succeeded with a mere 17 days to spare.

Hamlin saw it all. She wrote, “We had gone over to see the work at various stages during the intervening years and General Charles Taylor of Buzzards Bay had been most kind in showing the progress to us every summer when we went over to luncheon with him and Mrs. Taylor.” (Taylor’s Point is now the location of Mass Maritime Academy). Further on she recorded, “…the Scussett and Manumet Rivers had to be changed entirely in their courses as they were small and crooked streams. Manumet in Indian means “the trail of the burden carrier”. Hamlin describes two beautiful highway bridges that in later years would be closed to traffic for security reasons when ships carrying supplies to Camp Edwards sailed through.

Mendell told us that before the canal was cut through, the first two bridges were built roughly where they are located today to ensure that movement back and forth from the Cape would remain unimpeded. He said they were ‘dry built’ with no water passing under them at first.

On the grand opening day of July 4, 1914, Hamlin described a flotilla of ships and boats that gathered in New Bedford. The plan was to sail through the canal from Buzzards Bay into Cape Cod Bay, turn around, and dock at Taylor’s Point for a grand opening ceremony. Many dignitaries, politicians and the like were making the trip and were on the agenda to speak at this ceremonial opening.

Hamlin wrote, “Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt invited us to go with him on a U.S. torpedo boat the Destroyer from New Bedford. Anna and I accepted but Charlie had promised to go in the Rose Standish with the State officials and speakers.” As Mendell explained, the Rose Standish was a passenger carrier, a 993-gross ton steel-hulled paddle steamship, designed for calm waters.

At 9:00 am, Hamlin was in New Bedford on the Destroyer and watched as Belmont’s personal vessel, the Scout, headed the parade of ships from the harbor. “It was a lovely sight on a lovely day” with no shadow cast on the day from “the far away murder of the Austrian Arch Duke in a place called Sarajevo … We knew and cared little about these European imbroglios…”

Heading toward Grey Gables, the Scout “broke the ribbon … horns blew … steam whistles sounded … sirens blared … the banks were thronged with people waving…”

            She then describes a strong northeasterly wind, believing it to be the worst thing for the navigation of vessels at this location along with water height differences and tidal shifts between the two bays, “…Buzzards Bay was rising while Massachusetts Bay was falling…” It became a very choppy mess to get through.

“It was with great difficulty that the ships turned about in the Bay to return through the canal to Bourne … The Standish was overloaded with people and it looked as if that excursion boat would tip over … our Destroyer let the Standish get far ahead as the tide was rushing hard with the wind to push it and our ship was a much faster one but the poor Standish was rushed past the wharf at Bourne where a great crowd in an enormous tent waited for the speakers. The Standish had to run down the five mile channel before she could turn in Buzzards Bay and bring back the speakers…it took two hours for this extra performance.”

All was well that ended well, and Belmont’s canal made him money as a toll waterway. The first year, an estimated 2,000 vessels went through, with double that the following year.

However, in 1918, citing security reasons after a German boat came dangerously close to Nauset Beach, President Wilson ordered that the Federal Railroad Administration take over operation of the canal. After WWI, Belmont with great hesitation resumed responsibility of the canal while concurrently negotiating with the government to sell it to them. Finally, in 1927, a deal was made for which Belmont received $11.5 million, probably $5 million less than he originally invested, as Mendell speculates. Once the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers had control of the canal, it made improvements, reconstructing and modifying the location of this glorious and massive waterway.

As for Hamlin, Mendell told us she was an extraordinary woman. She, too, was a visionary. She spearheaded an organization known as the Mattapoisett Improvement League, which aided in opening public spaces in Mattapoisett – notably Shipyard Park – municipal trash collection, town beach, and tree plantings. She was also a published author (as was her mother), and wrote An Albany Girlhood that is still available. I found it on Amazon! Now wouldn’t that thrill her? Mendell’s elder family members were also contemporaries of Hamlin, and he recalls that all felt she was an exceptional person whose talents benefited the beautification of Mattapoisett.

Some of her personal papers are resting in the Mattapoisett Historical Society Museum, which is presently in the process of cataloging its vast collection into 21st century style computerized records. The museum’s summer program includes additional events featuring Mendell: walking tours on August 2 and 16 (stepping off from the museum at 2:00 pm) and a lecture on local mover and shaker Joseph Meigs on August 31 at 5:00 pm in Shipyard Park. All events are free, but donations appreciated.

So the next time you look at the Cape Cod Canal, think of that day long ago when Mrs. Charles “Bertie” Hamlin witnessed its opening while chatting with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I think she would like to be remembered in part as an eyewitness to history.

(Sources: www.nae.usace.army.mil; H. P .Hamlin diary transcriptions/Mattapoisett Historical Society Museum; and Seth Mendell’s lecture: “Opening the Cape Cod Canal”)

By Marilou Newell

He warned us that he’d jump from current day to many centuries prior, so we strapped on our virtual seat belts and began our journey. Speaking almost without pause except when passersby cheerily greeted him with a “Good to see you,” Seth Mendell transported us during his walking tour of Mattapoisett. This special event was one of many being offered by the Mattapoisett Historical Society Museum. Certainly no one would have been better suited as our guide.

Mendell’s historical knowledge, not only of Mattapoisett but of much of New England and beyond, pours from him like the outgoing tide at Eel Pond. One finds oneself taken back in time as he describes the people, the industries, and the structures that comprised those yesteryears.

Stepping off from the Christian Church that houses the Mattapoisett Historical Society Museum, he began the hour and 15 minute tour that took us back and forth in time – a time Mendell has forged in his memory bank.

Of the museum, he said that a man by the name of Elder Faunce set up a trust for the church building that at some point in its own history was claimed by the Baptists, hence the name of the street that runs along the west side of the property. In 1958, the newly-founded historical society – yes, Mendell’s ancestors were part of that group – partnered with the church trustees to give the town its precious gem of a museum. In 1968, the society built the carriage house. Today, the rental agreement between the society and the church trustees continues in what he described as a type of ‘Hong Kong’ lease.

In 1821, the shipbuilding industry of Mattapoisett was in full swing. But prior to that, the first settlements were along the river where agriculture was the primary focus. It wasn’t until the 1800s that shipbuilding became a major industry for this tiny community.

As Mendell explained, by the 1800s whales had been so heavily fished in local waters that the hunt went farther and farther away from the shores of New England and Nantucket. All one need do is read Melville to glimpse that reality.

Nantucket had been the major whaleboat building location, producing small ships able to ply the Sound, Cape Cod Bay, Buzzards Bay, and other coastal locations. As larger ships became necessary for longer sea voyages, Nantucket’s shallow harbor couldn’t handle the bigger boats. Enter New Bedford and Mattapoisett.

Ship builders whose talents became regarded as the best available moved to Mattapoisett and set up shop. Thus, this area was thrust into an industry that for many decades to come was in high demand.

As we strolled from the museum, there didn’t seem to be a building that Mendell could pass that didn’t speak a memory to him worth sharing or a story worth elaborating upon.

Take the Town Hall for instance. Town Hall was built in 1896 and for that specific purpose. Four investors – one being George Purrington, a forefather of Mendell – funded its construction. Early on, it also housed the first fire and police departments. He said he remembered a large metal cage inside the first floor where the cops would lock-up those who wandered outside the lines of the law.

The Town Hall’s second floor was a large open space used for dances, town meetings, movies and other gatherings. He recalled watching newsreels on sweltering summer evenings while sitting on hard benches: A far cry from the lavish movie theaters of today. He pointed out that the small tower we see today on the Town Hall building had once been another story higher. Like many buildings he described during the tour, the Town Hall suffered severe damage from the 1938 hurricane. That was when it lost the top of its tower, which never returned to its former height.

He pointed out 6 Church Street as a home once belonging to a Mr. Tabor, a whale-man. Not to be confused with whale-boat captains, whale-men worked on the boats and also earned vast sums of money during the height of the whale oil demand. 4 Church Street belonged to Mr. Johnson, a cabinet maker. Mendell said that there were many shops sprinkled up and down the village streets, many taverns and public houses, boarding establishments and other businesses. As the shipbuilding companies proliferated and prospered in Mattapoisett, supporting enterprises were needed to supply the population with its needs for goods, food, drink and lodgings.

Across from Ellis Square, the apartment building at 13A and 13B Main Street was once a store owned by a retired whale-man named Eldridge Caswell. At this intersection, he also described the introduction of modern transportation: the electric rail. It ran up Church Street to where Oxford Creamery is today. He told us about mass transportation hubs from New Bedford to Onset long before the automobile became America’s most-loved machine. My own maternal great-grandparents, the Ransoms, traveled on those rail cars from New Bedford where they lived all the way to Onset by the bay. My grandparents eventually moved to Onset, but continued to travel through Mattapoisett on their way to New Bedford to do the monthly shopping. They must have disembarked here in Mattapoisett and found it a restful place indeed. They have long rested in Cushing Cemetery along with their daughter, my grandmother. But I digress.

14 Main Street was a restaurant owned by Mr. and Mrs. Barrows called ‘Anchorage By The Bay’. Prior to being at this location, it sat squarely in the middle of what is today Shipyard Park. Again, the 1938 hurricane had its way, smashing that panoramic multi-paned eating place with explosive power. The Barrows reopened a bit farther from the open winds and waters.

12 Main Street was also a tavern in the 1800s and ol’ Solomon Leach’s binnacle shop was located in the back. For those, like me, who don’t know what a binnacle is, it is the housing around a compass.

Moving farther along, Mendell said that three houses along Main Street (6, 8, and 10) were owned by the Rodgers brothers. They had relocated from Nantucket when those larger whaling ships were in demand and brought with them much sought after expertise. Like many early residents, the Rodgers family shared their wealth and good fortunes. They helped fund Center School.

Pointing across Main Street to the marshlands, he said that in the 1800s it was not as filled in and vegetated as it is now. One of the Rodgers brothers was able to build and float a whaling ship there, which is something our modern minds might have a hard time conceiving.

Stopping at what is today the Mattapoisett Land Trust’s ‘Munro Property’ across the street from what was the Willis house at the corner of Pearl and Main, Mendell told us about the three-story mansion that was wiped out in the 1938 hurricane. Collective memory being what it was at the time, no one remembered a hurricane powerful enough to demolish a structure so sturdily built. So Lewis Stackpole built his huge home on the beach area now belonging to the “Sands” resort. All that paradise ended in the fateful 1938 hurricane.

While standing at this lovely site, Mendell told us about the War of 1812 – which actually was three years long – and the advance into our harbor of the British ship, HMS Nimrod, in September 1814. The mistress of the Willis house (2 Main Street built by Elijah Willis) ran to the Olive Branch School (the yellow house now situated across the street from Center School) where she rang the bell, warning the residents that the British were coming. The Mattapoisett militia was successful in turning back the British. The Brits headed north to Wareham where they burned everything in sight.

As we reached the wharves where so many people today enjoy Mattapoisett’s waterfront, Mendell said that many shipbuilders established their businesses here cheek to jowl. The land needed to set up a shipbuilding shop only needed to be as wide as the ship itself. Therefore, many shops lined the waterfront in narrow strips. Names such as Cannon (more than one), Barstow, Holmes, Hammond, and Meggs worked side-by-side in friendly competition. There was plenty of work for all.

Other slices of life from by-gone days that Mendell imparted include: Cannon Street was known as ‘clam shell alley’ because the residents would throw their shells onto the street to keep the dust down; 7 Water Street (which is adorned with a plaque) was the home of Francis Davis Millett who went down with the Titanic in 1912; Goodspeed Island was the site of a major salt works, an industry that helped the financial solvency of the area; entering the town from the harbor must have been quite a sight, Mendell speculated, with windmills for the salt works and giant whale ships riding high in cradles in various stages of completion; the YMCA building was a mansion built by Charles King who had his own rail car called ‘The Dude Special’; King was also responsible for building the Reservation Golf Course; 1 Water Street, built in 1746, is claimed to be the oldest house in Mattapoisett; the Wanderer and the Acushnet of Melville fame were built in Mattapoisett; the Inn was once the Meggs Tavern.

The tour ended where it began – at the museum – and was certainly only a small taste of all the history Mendell could share. It was just all the history his 81-year old frame could impart at that moment.

The Mendells now spend the summer months here and the winter months in Florida. While he is here, though, Mendell will be involved in enriching the historical experiences available through programs at the Mattapoisett Historical Society and other venues.

If you have an opportunity to hear Seth Mendell speak about the people, places and events of the past, do yourself a favor: Go and absorb all you can. People like Mendell, with such a depth of knowledge, are treasures to us all.

By Marilou Newell