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| The Pickering House. Photo by Erik Smith. |
| email the webmaster |
| Copyright 2008, Erik K. Smith, Salem, Massachusetts |
| The inspiration for this website is Tom Sito, who has been emailing me Daily Histories for over 10 years now |
The majority of the research done to create this website was possible thanks to
the Salem Public Library. If you would like to learn more about any of these
topics, please visit the Sources page where you can find links to books
available there.
the Salem Public Library. If you would like to learn more about any of these
topics, please visit the Sources page where you can find links to books
available there.
It happened on this day in
Salem, Massachusetts:
Salem, Massachusetts:
| The Friendship. Photo by Erik Smith. |
| The Salem Public Library. Produced by Erik Smith for Salem Access Television. |
July 14, 1747 Prominent Salem merchant Thomas Lee died.
1767 Timothy Orne, another of Salem’s early merchant seamen, died.
1850 Nathaniel Silsbee died in Salem at the age of 77. He was a
sea captain, Representative in both the Massachusetts and U.S.
Congress, and the Massachusetts and U.S. Senate. Captain Silsbee
was buried in Harmony Grove Cemetery.
1873 Charles S. Osgood delivered a speech to the Common Council
“On The Question of Establishing A Free Public Library.”
1952 The Chase House on Restaurant Row at Salem Willows burned
down in a spectacular fire that began just before midnight. The
building was 78 years old.
July 15, 1847 P.T. Barnum exhibited General Tom Thumb at the
Salem Lyceum.
July 16 1770 John Turner sold Baker’s Island to John Erving of
Boston. The price was 5 shillings down with a bond for 470
pounds to be paid by July 7, 1771. The island’s size was given
as 58 acres and 93 poles.
1831 The “Friendship” returned to Salem. (Pepper page 98). They
had been attacked by Malays in Quallah Battoo while negotiating
for Pepper. Captain Endecott, who had been ashore when his boat
was taken, lead the assault of three ships to retake the
“Friendship”. While the Malays had held the ship, it was
reported that they stole about $12,000 in cash (or specie) and
$9,000 in opium as well as doing extensive damage and looting to
the ship’s instruments and stores. Five men, one third of the 17
members of the crew, had been murdered as well. About a year
after the “Friendship” was attacked, the U.S. Navy Frigate
“Potomac” attacked the island and reduced its forts to rubble,
thanks to 32 pound guns and 500 men, some of whom landed on the
island to secure the forts.
1952 Sheldon Alpert, a 21 year old United States Coastguardsman
and Photographer photographed UFOs from Winter Island. Alpert, a
Denver native, was at the weather station where he was cleaning a
camera. He managed to get one photo of the four lights he saw
hovering over the Power Plant, through the office window. There
were over 80 UFO incidents reported around the country that
summer.
1970 The Cast and Crew of Bewitched filmed exteriors in Salem. A
fire in the Screen Gems Studios in Hollywood had destroyed the
show’s set of the Kitchen. It was decided that the show should
go on location and shoot exteriors while the set was rebuilt.
July 17, 1700 The ship “Beginning” arrived in Salem from London.
According the journals of Captain Thomas Marston and crew member
Richard Derby, it had sprung a leak on June 28. The crew pressed
on, though, and successfully delivered the cargo of 40 tons of
braiseletto wood and 12 hogsheads of molases. (303 Perly)
1745 Timothy Pickering was born in Salem. He would be General
Washington’s Quartermaster General during the Revolution,
Postmaster General, a Senator and later a Congressional
Representative from Massachusetts. He was also the founder of
the Essex Agricultural Society, which hosts the Topsfield Fair.
1866 General William Tecumseh Sherman visited Salem.
1881 Work began on filling Beckford Street Basin in the North
River and extending Bridge Street. The job was completed January
17, 1882 and took 130,000 tons of gravel.
July 18, 1671 Roger Derby, about 28 years old, arrived in Boston
from Topsham, Devonshire, England. He would spend about 8 years
in Ipswich before moving to Salem in 1679. His heirs were among
the most successful and colorful of Salem’s early history.
1832 The Naumkeag Fire Club was organized. There were 42 members
who formed “in order to render effective aid in protecting each
other’s property when endangered by fire.” Each member was
issued fire buckets, a bag, and a bed key for taking apart beds.
July 19, 1801 The ship “Margaret”, Samuel Derby, master, was the
first Salem vessel, and only the second from the United States,
to enter a port in Japan. She arrived in Nagasaki with the ship
dressed, meaning all the flags flying, and firing salutes.
(Osgood 149)
1825 Elijah Briggs, nephew of Salem shipright Enos Briggs,
launched the brig “Olinda” for the Tucker Brothers and Daniel
Mansfield. She was 88 feet 2 inches and displaced 178 tons.
July 20, 1792 Shipwrecked on the shores of Arabia, Salem’s Daniel
Saunders recorded that on this day:
At daybreak, we sat out again along the beach but Captain
Johnson’s sinews and nerves had been so contracted by the sun in
the day time, and chilled by the dews at night, that he found
himself unable to travel any longer; he therefore concluded he
must make his grave at that place, and told us that he could not
wish us to make any delay for him, but advised us to make the
best of our way along.
Last week's history is archived here.
1767 Timothy Orne, another of Salem’s early merchant seamen, died.
1850 Nathaniel Silsbee died in Salem at the age of 77. He was a
sea captain, Representative in both the Massachusetts and U.S.
Congress, and the Massachusetts and U.S. Senate. Captain Silsbee
was buried in Harmony Grove Cemetery.
1873 Charles S. Osgood delivered a speech to the Common Council
“On The Question of Establishing A Free Public Library.”
1952 The Chase House on Restaurant Row at Salem Willows burned
down in a spectacular fire that began just before midnight. The
building was 78 years old.
July 15, 1847 P.T. Barnum exhibited General Tom Thumb at the
Salem Lyceum.
July 16 1770 John Turner sold Baker’s Island to John Erving of
Boston. The price was 5 shillings down with a bond for 470
pounds to be paid by July 7, 1771. The island’s size was given
as 58 acres and 93 poles.
1831 The “Friendship” returned to Salem. (Pepper page 98). They
had been attacked by Malays in Quallah Battoo while negotiating
for Pepper. Captain Endecott, who had been ashore when his boat
was taken, lead the assault of three ships to retake the
“Friendship”. While the Malays had held the ship, it was
reported that they stole about $12,000 in cash (or specie) and
$9,000 in opium as well as doing extensive damage and looting to
the ship’s instruments and stores. Five men, one third of the 17
members of the crew, had been murdered as well. About a year
after the “Friendship” was attacked, the U.S. Navy Frigate
“Potomac” attacked the island and reduced its forts to rubble,
thanks to 32 pound guns and 500 men, some of whom landed on the
island to secure the forts.
1952 Sheldon Alpert, a 21 year old United States Coastguardsman
and Photographer photographed UFOs from Winter Island. Alpert, a
Denver native, was at the weather station where he was cleaning a
camera. He managed to get one photo of the four lights he saw
hovering over the Power Plant, through the office window. There
were over 80 UFO incidents reported around the country that
summer.
1970 The Cast and Crew of Bewitched filmed exteriors in Salem. A
fire in the Screen Gems Studios in Hollywood had destroyed the
show’s set of the Kitchen. It was decided that the show should
go on location and shoot exteriors while the set was rebuilt.
July 17, 1700 The ship “Beginning” arrived in Salem from London.
According the journals of Captain Thomas Marston and crew member
Richard Derby, it had sprung a leak on June 28. The crew pressed
on, though, and successfully delivered the cargo of 40 tons of
braiseletto wood and 12 hogsheads of molases. (303 Perly)
1745 Timothy Pickering was born in Salem. He would be General
Washington’s Quartermaster General during the Revolution,
Postmaster General, a Senator and later a Congressional
Representative from Massachusetts. He was also the founder of
the Essex Agricultural Society, which hosts the Topsfield Fair.
1866 General William Tecumseh Sherman visited Salem.
1881 Work began on filling Beckford Street Basin in the North
River and extending Bridge Street. The job was completed January
17, 1882 and took 130,000 tons of gravel.
July 18, 1671 Roger Derby, about 28 years old, arrived in Boston
from Topsham, Devonshire, England. He would spend about 8 years
in Ipswich before moving to Salem in 1679. His heirs were among
the most successful and colorful of Salem’s early history.
1832 The Naumkeag Fire Club was organized. There were 42 members
who formed “in order to render effective aid in protecting each
other’s property when endangered by fire.” Each member was
issued fire buckets, a bag, and a bed key for taking apart beds.
July 19, 1801 The ship “Margaret”, Samuel Derby, master, was the
first Salem vessel, and only the second from the United States,
to enter a port in Japan. She arrived in Nagasaki with the ship
dressed, meaning all the flags flying, and firing salutes.
(Osgood 149)
1825 Elijah Briggs, nephew of Salem shipright Enos Briggs,
launched the brig “Olinda” for the Tucker Brothers and Daniel
Mansfield. She was 88 feet 2 inches and displaced 178 tons.
July 20, 1792 Shipwrecked on the shores of Arabia, Salem’s Daniel
Saunders recorded that on this day:
At daybreak, we sat out again along the beach but Captain
Johnson’s sinews and nerves had been so contracted by the sun in
the day time, and chilled by the dews at night, that he found
himself unable to travel any longer; he therefore concluded he
must make his grave at that place, and told us that he could not
wish us to make any delay for him, but advised us to make the
best of our way along.
Last week's history is archived here.
| The Turner Ingersoll House, also known as the House of Seven Gables. Photo by Erik Smith |
