On the Massachusetts North Shore
"The night before the Fourth of July, thousands of people were milling up and down Central and Market Streets and Depot Square. Every man and boy carried a revolver and shot off blank cartridges as fast as they could reload. "At five o'clock on the morning of the Fourth, the sexton of the Methodist Church could open up the doors and let in the boys to ring the church bell for an hour. Then came the parade."
The Native American village of Agawam became a Puritan settlement in 1633 as an outpost of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The community was named Ipswich in 1634 upon the official founding of the town. Click on any photo to begin the slideshow.
When Ipswich was settled in the 1630s, the immigrants came from only one area of England, and they brought with them the socio-economic ranking system they knew in the old country.
Revivalist Rev. John N. Maffit held a "protracted meeting" which was undoubtedly the most extraordinary episode in the history of the churches of Ipswich since the days of George Whitefield and Gilbert Tennent, preaching sixty nights to congregations which occupied every inch of the meeting-house.
In 1909, W. Starling Burgess joined with Augustus Moore Herring to form the Herring-Burgess Company, manufacturing aircraft under a license with the Wright Brothers, thus becoming the first licensed aircraft manufacturer in the United States. Burgess took the initial flight of his first plane in 1908 at Chebacco Lake in Hamilton, MA. Flight tests of Burgess biplanes were conducted in November and December, 1910 near Essex Road in Ipswich
On October 7, 1813, the keeper of the Ipswich jail was given orders by the President "to "receive into his custody and safely keep in dungeons, in the gaol aforesaid, 16 British prisoners of war" as hostages.
Dustbane Products was founded in 1908 by two entrepreneurial Canadians who managed to convince people to buy pine-scented sawdust for cleaning floors. U.S. Manufacturing plants were established in Chicago and Ipswich.
The Ipswich Company of the Massachusetts State Guard during WWII
Arthur Hans Hardy grew up in Ipswich, On a mission over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos on March 14, 1972, Hardy's aircraft was hit and he bailed out nar enemy troops. His body is buried at Highland Cemetery in Ipswich.
On June 10, 1913, police fired into a crowd of protesting immigrant workers at the Ipswich hosiery mill. A young Greek woman named Nicholetta Paudelopoulou was shot in the head and killed by police.
"Such small piggs as are pigged after the first of February shall have liberty to be about the towne, not being liable to pay any damage in house lotts or gardens, until the 16th of August next."
Walking near Steep Hill Beach, you might be surprised to see lumps of anthracite coal lying on the sand. This would be a mystery were it not for the tragic history of brigs and schooners transporting coal in the 19th century.
Town meeting has been a cardinal element of local government in New England for about four hundred years. In Massachusetts, they started in the early 1600s and were formally recognized until 1641. No doubt meetings were pretty rocky during the Puritan era. Things got so raucous that the Legislature finally had to impose rules governing all town meetings, some of which, with slight modifications, are still on the books.
Often alone in Ipswich while her husband Simon was engaged in government, Anne Bradstreet wrote a collection of poems published in London in 1650 titled, "The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America...by a Gentlewoman in these Parts."
Soffron Brothers were the exclusive suppliers of clams to the Howard Johnson chain for 32 years, which featured Ipswich Fried Clams on the menu. The four brothers, Tom, George, Pete and Steve, were the children of Greek immigrants who came to work at the Ipswich mills. Their Ipswich factory was at Brown Square in the building that now houses the Ipswich Ale Brewery.
Traditional hand rug hooked rugs were the most popular item in Ipswich antiques dealer Ralph Warren Burnham's shop on High St. in Ipswich.
Historic Ipswich 