On January 15, 1919, people in Boston's North End were startled by a loud rumbling noise. They watched in horror as a five-story tank broke apart, unleashing a wave of molasses 15 feet high and 160 feet wide.
Author: Gordon Harris
Gordon Harris is a local historian living in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and publisher of the Historic Ipswich site. Follow him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/gordonrharris/
John Winthrop Jr., Here and Gone
John Winthrop the younger was the son of Massachusetts Bay Colony governor John Winthrop, and led the settlement of Agawam in 1633 (renamed Ipswich in 1634), accompanied by 11 men.
Jane Hooper, the Fortune-Teller
Jane Hooper was in 1760 a Newburyport "school dame" but after she lost that job she found fame as a fortune-teller. When the Madame made her yearly visit to Ipswich, the young and the old called on her to learn of their fates.
The Plantations at New Meadows, Now Topsfield
Large allotments of land in today's Topsfield were granted in the early 17th Century by the colony's leaders, comprising more than one-half of the town's present acreage. The persons who were awarded the lots, sometimes referred to as "king's grants" were merchants and men of influence and power who had joined the Massachusetts Bay Company.
When Herring Were Caught by Torchlight
In the late 19th Century, most of the men around the river would look forward to "herringing" when fall arrived. The foot of Summer Street was the best landing. One year so many herring were caught, they were dumped in the Parker River, and Herring did not return for many years.
Abolition and the Underground Railroad in Essex County
A network of the Underground Railroad ran north along the coast from Boston to Salem, where it split into three trails; one continued through Beverly, Ipswich, Newburyport and West Newbury to Amesbury where escaped slaves were escorted into New Hampshire.
The Cricket
"They are the housewife's barometer, foretelling her when it will rain and are prognostic. Sometimes she thinks of ill or good luck of the death of a near relation or the approach of an absent lover. By being the constant companions of her solitary hours they naturally become the objects of her superstition."
Sketches of Cape Ann
Charcoal sketches From "Gloucester and Cape Ann" by S. G. W. Benjamin, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, September 1875
Supercontinents, Ice Ages, and the Hills of Ipswich
Although half-billion year old granite formed Town Hill in Ipswich, most of the town's landforms date to about 20,000 years ago.
An Ipswich Architectural Timeline
A photographic history of architecture in Ipswich Massachusetts
Ipswich Has Been on Bob Waite’s Mind
WHEN YOU LIVE NEXT TO A CEMETERY, YOU NEVER KNOW WHO WILL COME KNOCKING
2022 Mary Conley Awards for Historic Preservation
At the Select Board meeting on Monday, August 8, 2023, members of the Ipswich Historical Commission presented the 2022 awards to an historic house and a Civil War era barn that were recently restored and renovated.
My Ipswich connections
"I suspect that thousands of New Englanders have their roots based in Ipswich. Is it possible that I was drawn here by deeply ingrained ancestral memories?" By Thomas Palance
Massachusetts Provincial Law: “An Act to Prevent the Destruction of Alewives on the Ipswich River”
Concerns about the environmental toll that dams have on the Ipswich River date to before 1773.
Daniel Hovey
At the foot of Hovey Street along the Ipswich River is a plaque dedicated to the memory of Ipswich settler Daniel Hovey, whose home and wharf were across the river on what is now Tansey Lane.
Remembering Susan Howard Boice
by Beverly Perna (reprinted from 2016) Sue Boice died on July 16, 2013, but word got around town slowly that she had passed. I didn’t know until August 24th when a friend called and asked me to go to a Native American memorial for Sue, hosted that morning at Wolf Hollow by her longtime friend Joni… Continue reading Remembering Susan Howard Boice
Historic Ipswich 