On the Massachusetts North Shore
A heat wave during the summer of 1896 produced 1500 deaths from the Midwest to New England. Fifteen years later the record for heat-related fatalities was broken. July 1936 remains the warmest U.S. month ever measured, and ironically, February, 1936 is the coldest February. Record-breaking temperatures in Boston, Providence, and Hartford set in 1936 stood until the summer of 2017.
The largest contingent to arrive in Ipswich from the same village were 15 men and women from Assington, Suffolk, including Thomas French and his family.
During the late 19th century and during the Great Depression, thousands of hobos and tramps arrived in Ipswich by the railroad.
A handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence was entered in the Ipswich, MA town records in July 1776. On July 17, 1776, the Massachusetts Bay Council resolved to order an official printing of the Declaration of Independence. This copy of that printing, created by Boston printer Ezekiel Russell, was sent to the Rev. Lev. Frisbie in Ipswich, which is preserved in the Town vault.
Continuing the town's reputation as the "Birthplace of American Independence," over a thousand patriot Ipswich citizens lined South Main Street at the No Kings Rally on Saturday, June 14. The event was part of a national mobilization against the authoritarian excesses of the Trump administration.
The Ipswich Female Seminary was established in April 1828 by Zilpah Grant and 24-year-old Mary Lyon for the secondary and college-level education of young women. It was the first endowed seminary for women and the first to give diplomas to its graduates.
In September 1776, the vulnerable Continental Army under George Washington evacuated New York after a devastating defeat by the British Army. One of Washington's favorite generals, Benedict Arnold, miraculously succeeded in postponing the British naval advance down Lake Champlain that might have ended the war. Thomas Franklin Waters wrote about Arnold's march through Ipswich on the way to Quebec "The… Continue reading Benedict Arnold and the Fate of the American Revolution
May 21 Wednesday Evening Lecture: The Revolutionary War Letters of Joseph Hodgkins & Sarah Perkins Hodgkins7:30-9:00 PM Join Gordon Harris, town historian, as he shares the poignant letters of Lieutenant Joseph Hodgkins, written in 1775 from the battlefronts of Boston and Bunker Hill to his beloved wife, Sarah. In these heartfelt correspondences, Hodgkins expresses his deep… Continue reading Ipswich Museum May 21 Wednesday Evening Presentation
In John Adams’ 1765 opposition to the Stamp Act, he referenced the citizens of Ipswich who resisted a tax imposed by the Crown in 1687. An Ipswich town meeting on August 11, 1768 approved of "the Conduct of those Gentlemen of the late House of Representatives...when it was required of them at the Peril of their Political Existence." The Town meeting on Dec. 28, 1772 supported the rights of the Colonists as British subjects, and established a Committee of Correspondence to communicate resistance with the Committees of other towns. Delegates from throughout Essex County arrived in Ipswich on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 1774, and by unanimous vote, bound themselves together in establishment of the Provincial Congress for the common safety.
(This article was written by Beverly Perna before the cottage was torn down, and has been updated.) An iconic Ipswich landmark, the last privately owned cottage on the Ipswich end of Plum Island, was turned over to the Fish and Wildlife Service and was taken down in 2016. Boaters and Great Neck residents were most familiar with… Continue reading The Last Cottage on Plum Island
The following article was written in 2013 by Beverly Perna for the Ipswich Chronicle. Reprinted with permission. It is true—when you become “of an age,” you start to scan the obituaries. Sadly, with each passing year, I see more familiar names. If I didn’t know them, I knew of them. I looked at the paper last week, and one… Continue reading Remembering John Dolan
In 1641 the Massachusetts Bay Colony adopted a code of laws that made slavery legal. In 1755, the slaves in this town above the age of sixteen numbered sixty-two, but within ten years, public opinion began turn against slavery. In 1780, the present Constitution of Massachusetts was adopted, its first article asserting that all men are born free and equal.
Ipswich Mills Dam Removal Project Nationally Recognized Among 43 Projects to Receive U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Funding On April 23, 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that 29 states will receive just over $70 million to support 43 projects that will address outdated or obsolete dams, culverts, levees, and other barriers fragmenting… Continue reading Ipswich Receives $1.2M Grant For Dam Removal
*From its earliest days, the people of Ipswich made frequent contributions to Harvard College. William Hubbard of Ipswich, the son of the Rev. William Hubbard, in his twenty-first year, was one of that remarkable group of nine young men whom Harvard College sent forth in 1642, as the first specimens of high culture achieved in… Continue reading A Nostalgic Glance at Harvard’s Early History
Republished from Ipswich Yesterday by Alice Keenan, 1982. Photos by George Dexter and Edward L. Darling. Ipswich has the habit, long ingrained, of turning on those who love her most, and who, innocently and willingly, donate their time, talents, energies, and in some cases — money -- for her welfare and adornment. Sometimes the reprimand is delivered… Continue reading The Great and Famous Not So Gentle Ipswich Putdown
by Helen Breen Question: What Do Wakefield and Peabody Have In Common? Answer: Both renamed their Essex County towns in the mid-19th century to honor their "favorite sons" and benefactors - Cyrus Wakefield (1811-1873) and George Peabody (1795-1869). PORTRAIT OF THE SHIP "CYRUS WAKEFIELD" FLYING AN AMERICAN FLAG, SHIPS AND LIGHTHOUSE IN THE DISTANCE –… Continue reading The Merchant Princes, Cyrus Wakefield and George Peabody
Historic Ipswich 