History of Lynn, (Essex County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Local History Notes:

LYNN, a city and seaport of Essex co., Massachusetts, on the Eastern railroad, 9 miles N. N. E. from Boston. Lat. 42? 27' 51" N., lon. 70? 57' 27" W. It is situated on the north-eastern shore of Massachusetts bay, in the midst of the most varied and picturesque scenery. The beaches and Nahant, in the vicinity, are noted places of resort, both for pleasure and health. Lynn was incorporated a city in 1850, and is handsomely built on wide and pleasant streets. The principal public edifices are the City Hall, Lyceum Hall, and the churches, of which there are fifteen, of the various denominations. Among the institutions, the Society for the cultivation of Natural History deserves notice. It has a library, and a valuable collection of curiosities. An efficient system of education has been provided, similar to that generally adopted in the state. There are in the city an academy, a high-school, 9 principal, 6 intermediate, and 18 primary schools, besides several private ones. The press consists of two weekly issues. Lynn has long been celebrated for the manufacture of ladies' shoes. This branch of business was pursued here before the Revolution. The sales were then chiefly confined to New England; but since that period the business has been greatly extended, and shoes are now exported in large quantities to almost every part of the United States. It is estimated that at the present time there are 150 manufactories in the city, giving employment to about 10,000 persons, more than half of which are females; and that 4,500,000 pairs of ladies' and misses' shoes are annually made, amounting in value to some $3,500,000. From 400,000 to 500,000 pairs are also purchased from neighboring towns. Besides the above, there are manufactories of leather, morocco, cotton prints, chocolate, glue, machinery, tinware, &c. There are 2 banks in Lynn, with a capital of $250,000, a savings' institution, and 2 insurance offices. Settled in 1629, and incorporated as a town in 1632. Population in 1830, 6138; 1840, 9367; 1850, 14,257.

Biographies:

Enoch Mudge, clergyman and author, was born in Lynn, Mass., June 26, 1776; son of Enoch and Lydia (Ingalls) Mudge, and grandson of John and Abigail Ingalls. His father was one of the sentinels who guarded the Old Province house when occupied by Washington as headquarters; his mother was the granddaughter of the first white settler of Lynn, Mass., and his brothers, James and Samuel Mudge, were prominent Methodist laymen of Lynn. Enoch entered the itinerancy of the Methodist church in 1793, traveled through Maine, 1793-99, and was settled over the church at Orrington, Me., 1799-1816. He was twice elected a representative in the Massachusetts general court and obtained a repeal of the law imposing a tax on other religious denominations for the benefit of the Congregationalists. He took up the itinerancy again in 1816, laboring in Boston, Lynn, Portsmouth, N.H., Newport, R.I., and smaller towns, 1816-32, and in 1832 was transferred to the Seaman's chapel, New Bedford, serving, 1832-44. He was a member of the Massachusetts constitutional committee of 1819. He is the author of: Camp Meeting Hymn Book (1818); Notes on the Parables (1828), Lynn: a Poem (1830); The Parable of Our Lord (1831); Lectures to Seamen (1836); The Juvenile Exposition in 70 numbers of Zion's Herald, and of prose and verse to current periodicals. He died in Lynn, Mass., April 2, 1850.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

John Buffum Alley, representative, was born in Lynn, Mass., Jan. 7, 1817. He learned the trade of shoemaker and engaged in the manufacture of shoes until 1886, when he retired. He was one of the originators of the Free-soil movement; a member of Governor Boutwell's council, 1851; state senator, 1852, and chairman of the committee on railroads; member of the state constitutional convention, 1853; represented his state in the 36th-39th congresses, 1859-'67, and served as chairman of the committee on post-offices and post roads. During the civil war he contributed largely to the support of the war and was financial manager of the Union Pacific railroad. He died in Lynn, Mass., Jan. 19, 1896.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Charles Frederick Holder, author and naturalist, was born in Lynn, Mass., Aug. 5, 1851; son of Dr. Joseph Bassett and Emily Augusta (Gove) Holder, and grandson of Dr. Aaron Lummus and Rachel (Bassett) Holder, and of John Chase and Hannah (Green) Gove, of Weare, N.H. His first paternal ancestor in America, Christopher Holder, of Winterbourne, Gloucestershire, England, a minister of the Society of Friends, author and missionary, landed at Providence, R.I., June 8, 1656, from the ship Woodhouse, Capt. Robert Fowler, and settled in Sandwich, Mass., where he established the first society of Friends in America, and aided pecularily in the erection of the first Friends' meeting-house. His first ancestor in America on the maternal side was Edward Gore, son of John Gore, of London, who settled in Charlestown, Mass., in 1647, and in Hampton, N.H., in 1665, where he was leader of the famous assembly dissolved by Governor Cranfield, his estate seized by the Crown, and he imprisoned three years in the Tower of London. He was pardoned in 1686 and his estates restored by James II. Charles F. Holder attended the Friends' school, Providence, R.I., and Allen's English and Classical school, West Newton, Mass., and was appointed by President Grant midshipman in the U.S. Naval academy, class of 1869, but resigned before graduation. He spent five years on the Florida Reef with his father, who was studying the growth of corals: was assistant curator at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, 1870-75; consulting naturalist of the New York aquarium, 1876-77; and finished the initial equipment of the institution by the aid of a large steamer, stocking it with thousands of fresh and salt water fishes in a single day. After retiring in 1877 he devoted himself to literature and especially to the popularization of natural history for young people. He removed to Pasadena, Cal., in 1885, for the benefit of his health, and there founded the Pasadena Academy of Sciences, 1888, and was elected president of the Pasadena board of education, a trustee of the free library and trustee of Throop university. He was also elected to the chair of zo?logy at Throop university, but did not accept the position. He served as trustee of the Los Angeles state normal college, 1890-94; founded the Valley Hunt club and was its president in 1889; founded the Tuna club for the protection of game fishes of the state of California, and was its president in 1898; edited, with ex-Governor Lionel A. Sheldon, the Los Angeles Daily Tribune in 1889; founded the Californian lllustrated Magazine in San Francisco in 1891; and edited it three years, then returned to Pasadena and devoted himself to the production of books. In 1899, acting upon his suggestion, the Banning Brothers of Los Angeles erected at Santa Catalina Island the first large aquarium and zoological station on the Pacific coast. Under his direction this was stocked with the remarkable semi-tropic fauna of the region, which was thus made available to students and teachers of zo?logy in the schools and colleges of California. He was elected a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences, and a member of the Linn?an society and of the National Geographic society. He is the author of: Elements of Zo?logy (1885); The Ivory King (1886); Natural History of the Elephant (1887); Living Lights (1888); Marvels of Animal Life (1889): Along the Florida Reef (1890); A Strange Company (1891); Southern California (1892); The Pasadena Highlands (1893); Economic Development of Southern California (1893); Life of Louis Agassiz (1893); Natural History Tales (1894); Life of Charles Darwin (1895); Loomis Agassiz, His Life and Work (1896); Angling (1897); Santa Catalina, Its Sports and Antiquities (1897); Nature Stories (1898); Stories of Animal Life (1899); The Treasure Divers (1899), and many contributions to magazines.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Abraham Pierson, educator, was born in Lynn, Mass., in 1645; son of the Rev. Abraham Pierson (1608-1678), who emigrated from Yorkshire, England, in 1639, and settled successively in Boston, Mass., Long Island, N.Y., Branford, Conn., and Newark, N.J.; was most successful in his efforts to convert the Indians, and prepared an Indian catechism (1654). Abraham Pierson, Jr., was graduated from Harvard in 1668, and was ordained to the ministry in 1689. He was assistant to his father at Newark, N.J., 1872-78; pastor 1678-94, and was appointed pastor at Killingworth, Conn., in 1694. He was associated with the Rev. James Pierpont in the revival of the plan to form, found and govern a college in New Haven. A charter was drafted and after the legislature had convened Oct. 9, 1701, an act was passed giving them the liberty to erect a collegiate school. It was first established at Saybrook with Abraham Pierson as rector, in 1701, which office he continued until his death. The office did not entitle him to membership in the Corporation, but he was one of the eleven trustees constituted by the charter of 1701. He composed a system of natural philosophy, and published an Election Sermon (1700). A bronze statue by Launt Thompson was erected to his memory on the Yale grounds in 1874. He died in Killingworth, Conn., March 5, 1707.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor