Cuttyhunk and the Elizabeth Islands

Cuttyhunk Historical Society

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2002
• Print ISBN:
  9780738509808
• eBook ISBN:
  9781439611371
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Five of the Elizabeth Islands-Naushon, Pasque, Nashawena, Cuttyhunk, and Penikese-date from 1602, when the Englishman Bartholomew Gosnold explored the waters of Vineyard Sound and Buzzards Bay aboard his ship the Concord. Although the small encampment Gosnold built on Cuttyhunk for trading with the Wampanoags was used for only a few weeks, journals kept by two crew members have survived and give vivid accounts of that voyage. Naushon, Pasque, and Nashawena are currently privately owned. Penikese, once a leper colony, is now the site of a school for troubled boys. Cuttyhunk is now the only island with a village center and easy public access. Captivating photographs and postcards in Cuttyhunk and the Elizabeth Islands trace the special experience of island life from the unspoiled habitat of Gosnold's time to the first invasion of summer folk in the 1950s. These vintage images not only show how the islands' rock-strewn landscapes reflect the hard lives of the early islanders but also attest to the pleasures of picnics and boating as tourism and summer residents brought a modest degree of prosperity. Many previously unpublished photographs of large estates on Naushon portray a life of privilege. Views of Penikese depict the barren dormitories of the lepers who lived out their lives there.

Ten

NAUSHON, PASQUE, AND NASHAWENA

Naushon, Pasque, and Nashawena were acquired at different times by different members of the Forbes family, who now maintain them under separate trusts. Each has its own history and character, but all share a tradition of agricultural use by owners and tenants. Early tenants built their own houses, raised sheep and cattle, cut timber, produced salt, and grew cranberries and vegetables. Remains of their pasts exist on the islands in the many stone walls, a few cellar holes, and some old gravestones.

Naushon, the largest island, was owned from 1654 until 1843 by a succession of families with the familiar New England names of Mayhew, Winthrop, and Bowdoin. In 1843, John Murray Forbes bought the island with the Bowdoins’ manager William Swain and, a few years later, became sole owner. After Forbes’s death in 1898, Naushon was left in trust to his heirs. There are now about 20 houses. All but two are at the island’s east end. An island landmark is the handsome lighthouse at Tarpaulin Cove.

Ownership of Pasque began c. 1680 under the recorded names of Wilcox, Mayhew, and Tucker. Lured by the splendid fishing in the surrounding waters, a group of New York and Philadelphia businessmen led by James Crosby Brown bought the island and, in 1866, founded the Pasque Island Club. Unlike the Cuttyhunk Fishing Club, it welcomed women. As well as a very old farmhouse, it included a large clubhouse, boathouse, icehouse, and a barn for horses and a cow. Forbes ownership started in 1939 and continues now with family use in the summer.

As with the other islands, Nashawena has seen many divisions of land and ownership, the principal owners being various members of the Slocum family. In 1905, Waldo and Edward Forbes acquired the island and built two cottages. The farmhouse, where the caretakers continue to live, is (like the one on Pasque) one of the oldest buildings in the area. Nashawena, with its farm and pastures, has most successfully retained its rural flavor, but the Forbes family has tried to maintain all three islands as much as possible in their original and undeveloped states.

THE NONAMESSET FARMHOUSE. The oldest house on Naushon dates from the Revolutionary period. According to Seth Robinson (whose family was living there at that time), it was built c. 1760. It was then a small cottage with a great central chimney. In 1935, the house was restored and an ell was added on the east side. (Photograph by A.H. Folsom; courtesy Forbes family.)

THE NAUSHON FARMYARD, 1889. Most of these buildings are still in place, including the farmhouse and farm dining room and kitchen on the left. On the right are the meat house, the blacksmith and carpentry shops, and the old hay barn. Beyond the buildings and walled on both sides is the Farm Lane, heading west. (Photograph by A.H. Folsom; courtesy Forbes family.)

thE TARPAULIN COVE LIGHTHOUSE, 1896. Originally erected in 1759, this was the fourth lighthouse to be built on the southern New England coast. Zaccheus Lumbert of Nantucket built the lighthouse at his own expense, stating that it was “for the public good of the Whalemen and Coasters.” The pyramidal structure on the beach held a bell used to warn ships away from the shore in foggy weather. (Photograph by Baldwin Coolidge; courtesy Society for the Preservation of New England Ant...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• One - EARLY HISTORY
• Two - ABOUT TOWN
• Three - FISHING AND FISHING CLUBS
• Four - HOUSES GREAT AND SMALL
• Five - LIGHTHOUSES AND LIFESAVING
• Six - DISASTERS
• Seven - LIFE IN WINTER
• Eight - RECREATIONS, TRADITIONS, AND CELEBRATIONS
• Nine - PENIKESE
• Ten - NAUSHON, PASQUE, AND NASHAWENA
• BIBLIOGRAPHY