Was A Bold Puritan

.-gjRN ALEM and DanföV vers, of witchcraft S distinction, center Sjfc all the enthusiasm 5j) of vlsitors that is -jy not expended on 55? Hawthorne associa'o- tions about those weird days of 1692. , But there are two generations of years anterior, even to tliat early date, which makes these ola colonial settlements notable and interssting. Moreover, there is a living link In ancient Danvers which connects this earllest New World life with today - a fruit tree of indisputable age, planted by John Endicott himself, the Puritan par excellence. Now, in this year of grace 1895, 263 years since it was planted in the sunny meadow of the "Endecott grant," it flourishes its annual output of gnarly pe=irs, unrivaled in all the land - if not in fruit of juicy excellence, at least in intiquarian interest. This propped-up shell of a tree, with apparently all its inner integuments gone, nothing but the outer bark remaining, and the substance of that split in twain, stands alone of all the host of thrifty trees, the pride of the colonial governor's heart, whose number gave to the original manor of 300 acres its patronymic orchard farm. How lovely the Bifce is! Upland and meadow, it stretches away between two silvery rivers, a fair and fertile farm, once included within Salem limits, now set off with old witchcraft Salem village, into the town of Danvers. The shrewd old governor was a good judge of land. It was in 1628 when he with nis wife, Anne Gower, and that determined company of a hundred or so followed the Plymouth Pilgrims and founded Salem, in the New World, the famous Massachusetts Bay 2olony. According to the quaint chronicler, in "Wonder-Working Providence of Sion's Saviour in New England;" "The much honored Mr. John Indicat came over with them to governe, a fit instrument to begin this wildernesse worke, of courage bold, undaunted, yet sociable, and of a cheerfull spirit, loving and austere, applying himself to Bither, as occasion served." Occasion quickly served in tho case of the rollicking scoffers at Merrymount, and, while Miles Standish, from the Plymouth colony, captured the repróbate Morton - "the devil in the Massachusetts paradise" - preparatory to shipping him back to England, Endicott, the head of the Massachusetts Bay oolony, and a sturdy fighter of Apollyons, solemnly chopped down the May pole "idol," and ordained that the place 3hould be no longer be called Merrymount, but Mount D&gon, in memory of the Philistine image that feil down before the ark. Thus, promptly on his arrival, despite the threatened onslaught of the Saugus Indians, did he march his soldiers on to "rebuke profaneness and to admonish them to look to it that they walk better." There were no such May dances in righteous Salem, rhere the house lots were being apportionod by the "loving and austere" 5overnor, the flrst streets laid out, the Qrst Puritan Church in America organized, and, according to Working Providence," again, "this church ol Christ being thus begun, the Lord, witb. the water spouts of Hls tender mercy, caused to increasw and fructify." Who paints the first governor's picture so vividly as Hawthorne in nis "Twice Told Tales: Endicott and the Red Cross?" The famous Puritan, in hls armor, the colonista assembled in Salem Townhouse Square; Roger Williams, the minister of the adjoining meeting house (whor.e timbera are so cherished in Salem today); the train band of the church militant, the red cross flag wlth symbol rnt away by Endlcott'a sword, and hls resolute voice ringing out, "Beat a flourish, drummer, In honor of the ensign of New England. .Neither pope nor tyrant hath part in it now!" "With a cry of triumph," says Hawthorne, "the people gave their sanction to one of theboldest exploits which our history records, and forever honored be the r.ame of Endicott! We look back through the mist of ages and recognize in the rending of the red cross from New England's banner the first omen of that deliverance which our fathers consuinmated after the bones of the stern Puritan had lain more than a century in the dust." Of sueii uncompromising stuff was this doughty leader made! Smalt wonder, then, that he was soon superseded as governor, especially as the Brownes - two men whom he, in hls opposition to all ecclesiasticisrn, expelled fröm the colony because of their devotion to the Episcopal form of worship - were making trouble for him ia England. His successor, John Winthrop, was his good friend, however, and, relieved from the cares of the flrst office in the colony, the thrifty pioneer had time to make the wilderness blossom as the rose with vineyards and orchards. In the Salem court house a scholarly Incumbent showed the writer how and when the Endicott grant, over which we were to have an afternoon's ramble, was made. The government of the colony was vested in a governor, deputf governor, and eighteen assistants, chosen by the freemen. Four general courts were held each year, when all the freemen were to assemble, but other courts were to be held by these officers. At such a court as the last named, the three hundred acres of land between the two rivers of ponderous Indian names (ncw called Waters and Crane rivers) were granted to Captain John Endicott July 3, 1632. Much of the land was covered with birches when the grant was made, and aside from its Indian title it was known in Englisk as Birchwood, but when the governor had cleared it he naoned it Orchard Farm, calling the stream toward whlch it principally sloped "Cow-House River," with a characteristic absence of sentiment. He loved the spot more than his "Broadfield" in Salem, and hia tillage made it famous. The Salem planters wanted to raise tobáceo. Endicott thought it Injurious to health and moráis, and this difference of opinión was another source of alienation. The Rev. Mr. Higginson, the Salem minister, writes very early: "Our governor has planted a vineyard with great hope of increase;" but later accoants would indícate that grapes were not a success. Not so with his orchards, however. There is a sufflcient record of his bargain with William Trask, when he sold him 500 apple trees, for which he received 250 acres of land. A fine pioneer nurserymaa the Puritan governor had become, albeit he does not so figure in history. When this "Endecott grant" was made, he had lost the wife who crossed the seas with himthe Anne Gower who was niece or cousin to Governor Matthew Cradock of colonial fame, and whose fairly wrought sampler is trlumphantly exhibited, with her husband's sun-dial, in the Essex Instituía at Salem. His second wife was Elizabeth Gibson of Cambridge, England, and the year he acquired his manor land his first son, John, was bom, Three years later, Zerubbabel, the onial physicfan, saw the light on the Orchard Farm. It was he who built the old-fashioned fcomestead, still standing - with its quaint, low-studded roominess - not far from the site of the original house and that older survivor, the pear tree. Dr. Zerubbabel, Endicott's second wife, who outlived him, was Elizabeth Winthrop, daughter of John Winthrop, Ir., governor of Connecticut, and in his will she is thus dowered: "She shal enjoy my now dwelling-house so lang as sho shal be pleased to live upon the farme orchard." At his death, in 1684, (ninetoen years after his father, the great emigrant), we read that "Nathaniel Ffelton, Sen., and Joseph Hutchinson went to view his estáte and they ippraised the properïy in certain terms: " 'In the new house,' and other property which was 'In the old house.' " Tilia may bear out the stater ent made to us by the present courteous occupant, that part of the original house of the governor was moved to this point and added to. Before this time the Bndicott possessions covered a much larger territory - a full tnousand acres- taking in the now famous Witchhouse Farm, the Rebecea nurse homestead, which John, Jr., left to his wife, and that estáte adjoining on which the Provincial mansion, known as the Collina House, was built. This was the renowned headquarters of General Gage, now called The Lindens, the home of the Endicott cousins, the Peabodys. In the meadow, near the river, is the governor's old spring - the Shaded spring, whereof he drank, On the pleasant willow bank.