On the Massachusetts North Shore
On October 30, 1789, Washington passed through Ipswich on his ten-day tour of Massachusetts. Adoring crowds greeted the President at Swasey’s Tavern (still standing at the corner of Popular and County Streets) where he stopped for food and drink.
Descendants of the enslaved Freeman family of Ipswich will gather at First Church in Ipswich for presentations and discussion, followed by the unveiling of historic plaques honoring the family and their son John Freeman, a black Revolutionary War soldier. The public is cordially invited. Light refreshments will be available.
It was a sad day for Ipswich when on June 13, 1965, lightning hit the steeple on the sanctuary of the First Church on Meeting House Green and the building was destroyed by fire. The building was over a century old and considered to be one of the best examples of Gothic church construction in… Continue reading First Church Burns, June 13, 1965
The concepts of freedom about which Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence originated from the pen of the Rev. John Wise of Ipswich: "The origin of civil power is the people...and when they are free, they may set up what species of government they please."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onAE4zmpe9I The land and marsh on the east side of Labour-in-vain Creek, extending to Northgate Road were bequeathed to John Winthrop in 1634. The Agawam Sagamore Masconomet had controlled the land, and made terms with Winthrop as follows: " I doth testify that I Maskonomet did give to Mr. John Winthrop all that ground that… Continue reading The Story of Argilla Farm, 107 Argilla Rd.
On January 4, 1681, John T. Mason presented the King's letter to the General Court, which ordered "all said tenants" to appear in Ipswich. If an ancient claim was confirmed, every land title would be worthless and a landed medieval system known as "quit-rents" could be grafted upon New England.
Order at Amazon Ornithologist Jim Berry of Ipswich has updated Charles Wendell Townsend's "The Birds of Essex County," including songbirds, marsh birds, seabirds, raptors, and other species that visit our yards, woodlands, marshes, and coastlines. The two-volume set documents the natural history of all the bird species that have ever been positively documented in Essex County,… Continue reading Two-Volume Set Documents the Birds of Essex County
We measure history by time, but for the Ipswich River and its alewives, time could be running out. We can help preserve the human and natural history of the Ipswich River by freeing it from its man-made encumbrances.
"My neighbor’s house was sold to the town and wrecked and picked clean by salvagers and finally burned in a great bonfire of old notched beams and splintered clapboards that leaped tree-high throughout one whole winter day’s cold drizzle. Then bulldozers, huge and yellow and loud, appeared on the street and began to gnaw, it seemed, at the corner of our house.
The history of public utilities in Ipswich starting in 1847. Downtown fires in 1894 prompted construction of the water and electrical systems. Today the Ipswich Electric Department promotes and utilizes renewable energy sources.
A rumor spread that two British ships were in the river, and were going to burn the town. The news spread as far as New Hampshire, and in every place the report was that the regulars were but a few miles behind them, slashing everyone in sight.
Nathaniel Sewell, a child taken from England, was with continual rigor and unmerciful correction, exposed in the winter season with diverse acts of hardship.
The landscape surrounding Strawberry Hill on Jeffreys Neck Rd. invokes a time when saltwater farms were common in Ipswich. Across the street is Greenwood Farm and the First Period Payne House, owned by the Trustees of Reservations.
By Ipswich resident Roger Wheeler On May 21, a yes vote to remove the head of tide Ipswich Mills Dam and free the river will provide Ipswich, Essex County, and New England with a rare fish-accessible river. This could be an extraordinarily uncommon river and watershed if all fish have accessibility at the head of… Continue reading Regarding the Removal of the Ipswich Mills Dam
During the 2016 summer drought, the water level behind the Ipswich Mills Dam was intentionally lowered by about 3 feet to ascertain the geology of the river at that location, to examine the foundation of one of the mill buildings, and to help determine what the river upstream of the dam will look like when… Continue reading Photos from the 2016 Drawdown of the Ipswich River
Massachusetts men played a conspicuous part in the French and Indian War, which resulted in wholesale destruction and deportation in French-speaking Nova Scotia. Surviviors were exiled to the Colonies, their children taken from them and distributed to English families as "nothing more than slaves."
Historic Ipswich 