The Mystery of Cape Cod's Boundary Stones

I was very busy this spring preparing an article for the June 2013 Summerscape, which is published by the Barnstable Patriot. My article article is now available online. I very much enjoyed participating in Summerscape this year and thank the editors for allowing me to do so. The subject of my research concerned the creation of the original town boundaries on Cape Cod, or at least one of the theories that tries to explain the boundaries. The research was absolutely fascinating and took me to places and sources I had never seen before. Through these sources it became clear to me that there are still so many things we do not know about the history of the Cape, how our town earned their borders is just one of them.

One of the biggest mysteries uncovered in my research has been the lack of information surrounding the various boundary stones one can find sitting on Cape town lines. Although a couple of these markers are registered as important landmarks by the National Register of Historic Places, there is still very little information explaining where they even came from, when they were placed at their current locations, and who placed them there.

In my article for Summerscape, I focused primarily on the stone uncovered by Michael Faber’s Cornerstone Project. This large flat boulder is located just off Rt. 6a, between Barnstable and Yarmouth. It very clearly has the letters "YxB" chiseled into its surface, signifying the boundary between the towns. However, as to who did the chiseling and when it was done . . . no one seems to know. The earliest concrete historical reference to the existence of the stone can be found in a 1907 Atlas. Although its existence in 1907 makes the stone historical at this point in time, there are some who believe it was created as part of the originally boundary between Yarmouth and Barnstable. This would date the inscription to around 1641.


The YxB Stone - Spring 2013

As the Summerscape article focuses heavily on the history of the “YxB” stone and the theories of the Cornerstone Project, I won’t restate huge portions of it here. If you’d like to know more about the stone, do check out the Summerscape link. Instead, I wanted to expand upon some of the other sources I didn’t use previously.

The other set of markers I researched, but did not devote as much space to in the article, were the boundary stones between the towns of Sandwich and Barnstable. One of these, a marker along Race Lane in Sandwich, has been recognized by the National Register of Historic Places since about 1987. This marker is a simple stone post a little over 2 feet tall. The letters "B/S" have been carved on its surface, showing the boundary between Barnstable and Sandwich.

Marker on Race Ln - you can just see the B/S at the bottom

According to their information, this marker was erected in 1639 when Myles Standish and John Alden were sent by the Plymouth Court to settle the boundaries of Sandwich. Of course, no one can prove this to be true. Even the records of the Plymouth Court are unclear about when the boundary between these two towns was officially established.

Plymouth Court records indicate that Standish and Alden were tasked as early as 1638 with the establishment of the Sandwich boundaries. However, the same records show that boundary disputes between Sandwich and Barnstable needed reconciling in both 1651 and 1652. However, it was not until June of 1670 that bounds were actually set in writing by the court. Though the Plymouth records make no mention of the creation of a stone marker, this particular boundary stone was referenced in a 1901 report on bounds of Sandwich, which is now housed in the Sandwich archives. Again, no mention of who created it or when it was put there.

Although some may argue that just because no one knows the exact origins of these boundary stones and their carvings, it doesn’t make them really mysterious. Cape Codders pass by them every day and they are as common as spring weeds on the side of our roads. Our forefathers just did not think to record exactly when they were placed, which is a shame because history geeks like me would like to know.

Still, the marker stones are part of a greater Cape Cod unknown. Truthfully, we only have bits and pieces of sources that explain the creation of the boundaries between the modern Cape towns. As I explain in the article, the Cornerstone Project has been trying to prove one theory; that these boundaries were surveyed and marked from a ship in Cape Cod Bay. While it is an interesting theory, I am still left without any rock solid historic facts as proof. Until then, as with other posts on this blog, the mystery persists.

Connecticut - First In Flight?

Whitehead (2nd left) in front of No. 21 "The Condor"

Most students learn in school, as I did, that Orville and Wilbur Wright were the first to successfully make a sustained, controlled, powered, heavier-than-air human flight in an aircraft they built. Most also know this flight took place in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903. The string of adjectives is important because they were not the first to invent human flight, nor the first to even create controlled human flight. Still, the Wrights are so well known that the North Carolina license plate announces "First in Flight" to anyone taking a look. However, according to the state of Connecticut, this statement is no longer true.

Earlier this month the Connecticut State Senate passed House Bill No. 6671. Essentially, this bill paves the way for an annual holiday celebrating the Connecticut aviation industry. The bill is also designed to celebrate the achievements of a German immigrant named Gustave Whitehead, who some now claim was the true originator of the powered fixed wing aircraft and truly the first in flight. 

Although supporters of Whitehead have claimed for decades that his flight preceded that of the Wright brothers, recently the argument has been rekindled by the evidence and website of an Australian researcher named John Brown. According to Brown, Gustave Whitehead first successfully flew an aircraft, design No. 21, which he called the Condor near Bridgeport, Connecticut in the early morning of August 1901. If correct, he beat the Wright’s Kitty Hawk flight by more than two years.

Brown presents several pieces of evidence to support the case for Whitehead. First, he claims to have uncovered at least 110 newspaper articles between 1901 and 1902 which reported Whitehead’s flying success. One of the most well known of these articles was published in the Bridgeport Sunday Herald. The author, Richard Howell, describes witnessing Whitehead’s first manned flight on the Condor. Further, he lists at least three other witnesses to the event, Andrew Cellie, James Dickie, and a local milkman.

The Herald article did include a photo of Whitehead and a drawing of the Condor in flight, which was supposed to have been based on a photograph taken at the scene. Of this original picture, Brown says it has been lost. Still, he claims to have now uncovered a copy of this visual evidence by examining the background of a separate panorama photo taken in 1906 at the first exhibition of the Aero Club of America. This photo shows a glider hanging from the ceiling in front of a wall containing photographs of what appear to be other aircraft. Several of these photos, according to Brown and other researchers, show aircraft built by Whitehead. One of them, Brown insists, shows the Condor in flight.

Drawing from the Bridgeport Sunday Herald

Though most of these background photos are unrecognizably blurred, Brown sites two articles, one published in a 1906 edition of Scientific American as evidence that he has found the correct picture. The articles describe the same wall of photos shown in the picture. According to the author, one of the wall photos showed “A single blurred photograph of a large birdlike machine propelled by compressed air . .constructed by Whitehead in 1901.” The author also goes on to say that this was the only photo of an airplane in flight.


Panorama of the Aero Club Exhibition - Whitehead section enlarged
From Wright-Brothers.org

On his website, Brown compares several of these photos with pictures of aircraft known to have been built by Whitehead. Indeed, he seems to prove that the majority of the pictures are not those referenced in the Scientific American article. However, Brown next examines one of the most blurred images to the drawing created for the Bridgeport Herald in 1901. Ultimately, Brown concluded that there were remarkable similarities between the two images. Enough similarities, in fact, to conclude the blurred image in the panorama photo is the long lost photo taken in Connecticut in 1901.



John Brown's comparison - Do these images show the same event?

Though the image Brown compares to the Bridgeport drawing is very unclear, Brown points out that it does seem to be situated with other Whitehead pictures, it does seems to show an aircraft above the ground, looks vaguely similar to other picture of the Condor, and is located pretty much in the same place as the mystery photo described in Scientific American. Therefore, he deduces that this blurred image must be the picture described in the article. Based on the evidence given, he surmises that Whitehead did fly before the Wright brothers.

Additionally, Brown goes on to explain that Whitehead next built an aircraft he called No. 22, with which he performed even longer flights. Brown sites the affidavits and statements from at least 17 witnesses to support the flights of No. 22. Replicas of this plane have been flown in both Germany and the US in more recent times.

Though there seems to be substantial evidence that Whitehead actually flew in 1901, others disagree. Tom Crouch, at the Smithsonian Magazine site critiques the Whitehead case. According to Crouch, who is the director of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, there is not enough evidence to support that the 1901 flight actually took place.

First, Crouch examined the written account published in the Bridgeport Herald. In the article, the author listed at least three witnesses to Whitehead’s flight. However, in 1936 a researcher from Harvard University named John Crane returned to Bridgeport in order to investigate the 1901 event. Crane could only find a single person who claimed to remember Whitehead’s sustained flight as reported in the Herald.

Furthermore, no relation, neighbor, or friend of Whitehead could remember to have even heard of the prolonged flight Whitehead claimed to have made in August of 1901. The one witness who claimed to have seen this flight was deemed less than credible by Crane due to the profit the witness was set to receive upon the publication of a book about Whitehead.

According to Crouch, the 1936 investigators even attempted to interview the witnesses referenced in the Bridgeport Herald. One witness could not be found, nor did anyone remember him. The other witness denied having ever seen Whitehead fly in August of 1901. He even went as far as to suggest that the Herald invented the story.

Crane did seem to attempt investigate the Whitehead’s case fairly. He did find several witnesses in the village who claimed to have seen Whitehead actually fly. What they could not agree upon was the duration and height of the flights they saw. Therefore, Crane concluded that Gustave Whitehead might have actually made several short, un-sustained, manned flights. Based on eye witness accounts these flights ranged from as low as 4 feet to as high as 25 feet and lasted anywhere from several yards to over 60 yards. However, they were not the sustained, controlled, powered flight as described in the original article.

At this point, despite the bill the Connecticut legislature has passed, whether or not Gustave Whitehead flew before the Wright brothers is pretty unclear. There are conflicting witness reports, no real conclusive photographic evidence, and other pieces of historic evidence don’t lend credence to the August 1901 event. For instance, though Whitehead went on to become a designer of airplane engines, no other aircraft designed by Whitehead ever actually flew until recently.

Still others point to the conduct of Orville and Wilbur Wright as evidence of a conspiracy. The brothers were secretive and were embattled in lawsuits against competitors. Critics point out that the Smithsonian currently holds a contract with the estate of Orville Wright. The contract dictates that the Smithsonian would lose custody of the aircraft of the Wright brother’s should they ever declare that another was actually first to fly. I must agree, on the surface that does not give me confidence in the unbiased historic opinion of the Smithsonian Institution on this matter.

However, I personally love this controversy. It demonstrates how history is constructed, de-constructed, and re-constructed. The very essence of this conflict stems from differing interpretations of the same sources, the sense of which I try to impart to my students all the time. Aspects of the arguments used on both sides of the issue are fascinating and at least sound enough to convince the law makers in Connecticut to legislate the recognition of Gustave Whitehead as the father of aviation. Perhaps the missing original photograph taken by the Bridgeport Sunday Herald, key to the entire argument, will eventually turn up. Until then, I am not convinced New England was first in flight. That honor remains with the Wright brothers and with the state of North Carolina.

Happier Than Paul Revere With a Cell Phone

I love this commercial. But I'm guessing it wasn't that easy to warn "every Middlesex village and farm." Still, even the wife thinks this one is funny.

Wampanoag Language Reclamation



Douglas Pocknett - from Boston Globe

It is now graduation season throughout our country. Thousands of our nation’s youth are completing one part of their lives and moving toward the next with pomp and circumstance. For most, graduation is a simple secular ceremony signifying the beginning of adulthood in our culture. It is repeated with minor variation year after year. However, on the Cape, the 2013 graduation at Mashpee High School has made history.

Earlier this month, a Mashpee Wompanoag student named Douglas Pocknett graduated from Mashpee High School wearing the ceremonial dress of the Wampanoag. Although Douglas is only the second Mashpee student to have done this, he is the first to have delivered a traditional Wampanoag prayer to the assembly in his own native language called Wôpanàak.

According to the documentary We Still Live Here, no one can say for sure when the last native speaker of Wôpanàak died. However, certainly the language was near extinction by the mid 1800's. Although Wôpanàak is an Algonquian language, it is distinct and separate from similar languages like Abenaki or Narragansett.

Remnants of the language exists in colonial documents and in Bibles written for Praying Indians. In 1993, the Wôpanàak Language Reclamation Project began under the direction of a linguist named Jesse "little doe" Baird. Baird began earning a Masters Degree in Algonquian linguistics at MIT. Through the cooperation of the various Wampanoag groups of the Cape and Islands, the project reconstructed a nearly lost language and began teaching the language to tribe members. It’s amazing to think that Cape Cod missionaries like Richard Bourne, who helped to translate Christian payers into the Wampanoag language, have now helped reconstruct that language.

Jesse "little doe" Baird

What is even more amazing is that Douglas Pocknett is a student of Jesse Baird. Pocknett was also the first Mashpee student to earn foreign language credits by studying his ancestral language, which is a practice I hope the Mashpee school system continues to expand.

I have been following the Wôpanàak Language Reclamation Project for a few years now. I totally respect the work of Jesse Baird and the Wampanoag groups that took part in the continuing reclamation of the Wampanoag language. I consistently remind any of my Wampanoag students of the project. Like any young student, I find they have varying levels of interest in their own ancestry. I did have one student this year who was interested in attending one of the language immersion summer camps though and another who was totally fascinated when I shared the news about the Mashpee graduation and Douglas Pocknett.

I must admit, I am also totally jealous. There hasn’t been a native speaker of Irish Gaelic in my family in at least three generations. Also, my maternal grandmother and her parents spoke French asa first language, which has now completely died out in my generation. Like I said, jealous. The difference, however, is that those languages continue to exist and are still used in large parts of the world. Certainly, I wish the Wmpanoag luck in the re-establishment of their native language in their native land. One day I would love to walk the lands of Cape Cod and hear the same language our Yankee ancestors did.

Jamestown Rediscovery Project - Cannibalism Evidence

Here is a short video clip created by the Jamestown Rediscovery Project, detailing the evidence of Cannibalism discovered at the site of the colony. The video shows the area where the remains were discovered, more pictures of the skull, as well as the evidence of cannibalism. It is a good watch!

Cannibalism at Jamestown



Possible reconstruction of "Jane" - Cannibalized victim

If you know anything about the Jamestown colony, this title probably doesn’t surprise you. In fact, when I initially read this article by the Washington Post, detailing the first physical evidence of cannibalism at the first permanent English colony in the new World, I thought it had long since been a matter of common knowledge. I call it the first physical evidence, because strong written evidence of the consumption of human flesh at Jamestown has existed almost since the colony’s infamous "starving time" of 1609 – 1610. Still, the newly discovered archeological finds at the site of the former colony are compelling and fascinating.

According to the Washington Post, the remains of a butchered 14 year old girl were discovered in an excavated cellar in the former English fort by the ongoing Jamestown Rediscovery Archeological Project. The girl, who has been nicknamed Jane, showed evidence of having been carved by an axe or cleaver and a knife. In fact, the skull, lower jaw, and the leg seemingly show the sloppy technique of the killer. Some guess that this demonstrates hesitation on the part of the one that butcher.

Although the identity of Jane is not yet known, researchers assume she was one of 300 new colonists who set sail from England in 1609 to resupply the struggling colony. Since its establishment in 1607, the Jamestown colony had consistently come into conflict with the local Powhatan Tribe. In addition, the settlement had struggled to provide food for its colonists from its initiation. With the arrival of the new settlers, things only became worse.

Though the new ships were meant to resupply the colony with both provisions and a healthy labor force, the 300 new people were more of a burden than a boon. According to the article, the crew of the ships horded supplies and the existing summer crop was woefully inadequate. Furthermore, the famous Captain John Smith, the military leader who had largely been responsible for organizing the colonists during their first years, was severely injured in a gunpowder explosion. Smith returned to England in October along with the departing ships.

Captain John Smith

What followed was a winter of famine and suffering known as the "starving time" in Jamestown history. One of the most detailed accounts of this winter comes from George Percy, one of the original Jamestown settlers and president of the colony after the departure of Captain Smith. First, Percy describes the desperation of the Jamestown settlers, saying:

"Then haveinge fedd uponn horses and other beastes as long as they Lasted we weare gladd to make shifte wth vermine as doggs Catts Ratts and myce All was fishe thatt came to Nett to satisfye Crewell hunger as to eate Bootes shoes or any other leather some colde Come by And those being Spente and devoured some weare inforced to searche the woodes and to feede upon Serpents and snakes and to digge the earthe for wylde and unknowne Rootes where many of our men weare Cutt off of and slayne by the Salvages."

Hence, well before the colonists resorted to eating human flesh, they had fallen to eating animals like horses, dogs, and cats. Percy also described how those who looked for food outside of the fort walls disappeared, for which he blamed the local natives. However, things quickly become much worse at Jamestown. At this point Percy described what was really history’s first evidence of the cannibalism at Jamestown. According to Percy:

"And now famin begineinge to Looke gastely and pale in every face thatt notheinge was spared to mainteyne Lyfe and to doe those things wch seame incredible As to digge up dead corpses outt of graves and to eate them and some have Licked upp the Bloode wch hathe fallen from their weake fellowes And amongste the reste this was moste Lamentable Thatt one of our Colline murdered his wyfe Ripped the childe outt of her woambe and threw itt into the River and after chopped the Mother in pieces and salted her for his food."

Yikes, that’s pretty bad. Not only does it seem the desecration and consumption of a previously deceased human body occurred, but also the double murder, salting of, and cannibalization of one of the victims. Or course it is somewhat more shocking to see the crime was committed by a husband against his own wife and child. In addition, though I am thankful, I find it odd that apparently the murderer felt cannibalizing his own offspring was going too far. Instead, he disposed of the poor child in a river.


George Percy

Percy goes on to describe how the killer was caught and punished for his crimes. After being hung by his thumbs to prompt a confession, the murderer was then executed. However, Percy also explains that the situation had become so bad that many Englishmen abandoned the fort in an attempt to join native villages. In fact, by the time help arrived at the colony only 60 men of the 500 colonists who began the winter of 1609 remained alive. Sadly, it is guessed that Jane was not among them.

Finally, in the spring of 1610, the new Governor arrived in Virginia, after having been shipwrecked on Bermuda for some time. He and his men found the colony in such a bad state that they decided to abandon the whole project and head back home. However, as the ships began sailing down the James River they were intercepted by vessels arriving from England , carrying the new governor Lord Thomas West, the Baron De La Warr. Of course, the State, a river, and an entire nation of natives would be named Delaware after him. It as with the arrival of De La Warr that the modern story of Jane picks up.


Thomas West - the Baron De La Warr

According to the Washington Post, the 14 year old girl’s bones were found in a heap of trash that also contained the bones of dogs, a horse, and squirrels. This, again, supports the evidence presented by Percy. It is thought this garbage pile was made during the cleanup process after the winter and the arrival of Lord De La Warr. Maybe someone was attempting to conceal a crime from the new governor. Though no one really knows Jane’s true identity, it seems there are many who are already brainstorming how it could be discovered. The use of both traditional historical evidence and newly developed DNA technology has been discussed.

Though this new discovery did not come as a surprise to me, I still found it super interesting. Although gruesome by our standards, resorting to cannibalism in the face of a desperate situation is not without historical precedent. Even in New England, we are still haunted and by and fascinated with the story of the whale ship the Essex. The story of the Donner Party is so infamous in the history of western expansion that even those who have limited historical knowledge have heard of it. Yes, historic accounts of cannibalism are both plentiful and compelling. However, what makes this story unique is the physical evidence that now supports the centuries old accounts of the witnesses of the "starving time." Of course, the Jamestown Project is a continuing effort, one which has already shown interesting results. I find it particularly fascinating considering no one even knew where the Jamestown colony was when I was growing up. I certainly look forward to seeing what else can be uncovered from the site of the first permanent English colony in the New World. Gruesome or not, I'll be waiting.

English Towns Clash Over Mayflower History



Mayflower II - Replica of the original ship

According to the UK newspaper the Telegraph, as the 400 year anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower from England to Massachusetts approaches in 2020, two English towns are clashing over exactly which can claim to be the place from where the famous ship originated. Although the city of Plymouth has generally been more associated with the Mayflower and its 1620 voyage to New England, the town of Harwich in Essex also asserts to have significant historical ties to the ship and voyage.

In fact, supporters of the Harwich claim to the Mayflower state that their town was the ship’s original home port, the place where she was constructed, and the home town of her captain. However, Plymouth’s connection to the ship came when the Speedwell, the second ship hired to make the trans-Atlantic trip, sprung a leek. The Mayflower and the Speedwell then needed to backtrack to Plymouth to transfer the passengers onto the Mayflower. From there the vessel set sail in September of 1620 to ultimately etablish one of the seminal American colonies. Hence, some claim that Plymouth’s only historical connection to the ship and the voyage came about due to an unlucky accident.

Furthermore, a charity called the Harwich Mayflower Project has set the multi-million dollar goal of building a replica of the ship which would sail from Essex to New England in time for the 400 year anniversary. Funders of this project have made the claim that their efforts have been hindered by the unfortunate fact that most people only associate the city of Plymouth with the Mayflower.

The whole conflict has motivated funders of the Harwich Mayflower claim to attempt to assert legal ownership of the first voyage of any new Mayflower replica. This would hinder the ability of the city of Plymouth to cash in on what is expected to be a high exposure anniversary event. The Harwich project is declaring their right to both the name and any merchandise associated with the upcoming celebration.

I found the article and the conflict highly entertaining. I suppose Plymouth really gets connected to the Mayflower because the settlers named their colony after the city they left from. Most people probably just assume that’s the whole story. I guess I would not find the fight as entertaining if I were from either Plymouth or Harwich. Although the 2020 anniversary of the Mayflower and Plymouth colony may not be on everyone’s minds quite yet, I will certainly be looking forward to it and any other further developments in this battle to claim a piece of New England history.