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Originally published in the Historic Nantucket, Volume 35, Number 4 (Spring 1988)

Memoirs of Nantucket
by Deborah Coffin Hussey Adams; Abstracted by Emil F. Guba, Ph.D.

In January 1917, Nantucket born Deborah Coffin Hussey Adams, then a resident of San Francisco, completed her "Memoirs of Nantucket", related especially to the years after her birth on December 28,1848, and after Nantucket's golden age of whaling and prosperity. They are a thrilling account of 19th century Nantucket, where an adventurous spirit of a sea-faring people combined with the quiet influence of Quakerism, produced an habitation and society different from all other islands and all other people.

Deborah C. Hussey was the daughter of Christopher Coffin Hussey, born June 19, 1820, and Lydia C. (Coffin) , born August 9, 1822. Christopher and Lydia were married in Nantucket on April 16,1943 in the fashion of the Society of Friends, being both of Quaker stock. Deborah married George D. Adams of Lowell, Massachusetts. They moved on to California and settled in San Francisco. This author has abstracted her "Memoirs" as follows:

"Here at Nantucket the sea was the one big factor in making the Island unusual socially and intellectually. Life though restricted and narrow in some ways was delightful. In the summer season the open air life was simple and neighborly. In the winter the inhabitants were thrown upon their own resources, being shut off from the mainland, there being no boats, no cable, and the harbor, occasionally frozen over for days at a time. Most of the men followed the sea going on whaling voyages of two and three years.

"The women were left to manage affairs at home and very well they did them. Nantucket was a woman's suffrage town long before suffrage became a political issue or was even thought about. A notable race of women was bred here. Every one was either a Quaker or descended from Quakers, and thus Quakerism largely shaped the life of the town. Their speech was an odd mixture of plain language and nautical slang. 'Now scud along or thee will be late to school.' For putting on style, 'She was beating along with all sail set.' If one made a mistake, 'O well, it takes one voyage to learn.'

No titles were allowed among the Quakers. Everyone was addressed by the first name. The terms Mr. and Mrs. were not permitted even among children. Deborah's father's and mother's friends were addressed uncle, aunt, cousin, and by such designations everyone on the island was related. Pet names for persons were forbidden except where there were strong leanings towards 'world's people.' The penalty imposed upon children for telling a lie was the denial of the parent's kiss for one whole week and this was indeed a dreadful experience for children. The Quakers felt that the observance of Christmas Day was wrong. New Year's Day was the big day and the only day in the year that the Quakers set apart from all others.

"Cent coins were given to the children of pre-public school age to attend afternoon sessions of the cent school, this being an ideal way mothers would be able to get an afternoon off. The cent school was usually in the home of a widowed friend. The cents in these days were big round coins of copper. The warm hands of the children took on a coppery odor from the grasp of the coin in the hand on the way to the cent school.

"There were also cent shops all over the town, usually in the front room of a house. A bell over the front door rang as it opened to summon the proprietor who would be occupied elsewhere in the house. A cent would buy as much as a nickel now (1917). The front room shops were like 5 and 10 stores, but on a small scale. Where there was a cent to spend several children would go off together to spend it and share in the purchase. There were agate marbles, sticks of candy, peppermint candy, licorice, milk, sublimated doughnuts called 'wonders,' etc., etc.

"On the First Day meetings the men and women would walk slowly into Meeting and take their places on the rising seats facing the Meeting. The women appeared especially beautiful. Their dress was an artistic attractive costume. The long full skirt of wool or silk of soft gray or drab color would stand alone according to purse or social standing. Over the plain bodice of the waist was worn a kerchief of sheerest lawn to match the dainty close fitting cap. A small shoulder shawl of silk like the dress was worn outside of the white kerchief making a most harmonious whole in keeping with the soft slow speech and quiet ways. The outside wrap was a long full cape gathered into a yoke at the shoulders, worn with a close fitting silk bonnet deep enough to conceal the face. The 'doing up' of the fine shed muslin caps was an art in itself known to a favored few only. The caps were starched and gently put into shape.

"Men and women sat on opposite sides of the building with a low partition between them. The heavy shutters were let down when a business meeting was going on, completely separating the two parts of the house. The meetings were silent unless someone on the rising seat felt the moving of the spirit; then she or he would remove bonnet or hat, hand it to the next person, rise and speak the words given them. On one occasion an elderly man very deliberately made his preparations to speak* slowly rose and said impressively, 'remember Lot's wife' and then seated himself. .

"A man got up to speak. An old man sat in the seat below, just in front of him, his hat on his head of course. The man standing used gesture with his speaking and in the course of his remarks he hit the old man's hat tipping it forward. The old man did not move. The man standing and speaking did not notice what he had done. Again he hit the hat, this time sending it so far forward that it rested on the cane on which the old man's head was bowed on his hands. The old man remained motionless, made no sign that anything was wrong until the man, standing and speaking, took his seat and then he quietly replaced his hat on his head.

"In the childhood period of Deborah Coffin Hussey the codfish was sold whole and salted being used as it was needed. A story was told of a revival meeting in progress at the Methodist Church building. This town woman after supper went to the market and bought a salted codfish and on coming up to the Methodist Church was so overwhelmed and affected by the groans and mourners. The Amens and the Halleluyahs of the saved rang out and she went inside to join the service, and there she too was shouting with the rest, and vigorously and emotionally thrashing herself around with her codfish until nothing was left but the tail.

"As other religious sects established themselves and became more and more active, Quakerism declined. There was the North Church, Unitarian, Episcopal, Baptist and others. The new faiths brought new religious concepts and new forms of worship attracting many who had followed a static orthodox Quaker discipline. The Second Adventists had quite a following and often they were expecting the second coming of the Christ. Some even went so far as to dispose of their worldly possessions to be ready for the translation. On the appointed night many of them donned their white ascension robes and went up to the walks on the roofs of the houses to watch for the Christ.

"Deborah related that her father and mother were always inclined toward the ways of the 'world', which sometimes offended the strict Quaker principles even to the point of being rebuked. Deborah and her sister Mattie (Martha) dressed alike with leghorn hats with delicate white and buff colored ribbon around the crown and a white elastic cord under the chin. An attractive rosette of ribbons set on each side on the elastic cord over the ears. They came with new hats to Meeting on First Day, but they were far too gay for the Elders. On the next day (Monday) the Elders waited upon Deborah's mother and labored with her until she removed the offending ornaments. Deborah's oldest sister Lizzie (Elizabeth) attended Nantucket High School. Some Elders without success tried to convince her father and mother how wrong it was to So to school where there was a piano and singing.

The three Starbuck houses on Main Street built by Joseph Starbuck or his sons were beautifully furnished and most grand and wonderful to the children in contrast to the bareness of Quaker homes. The Main Street houses seemed like palaces to the children. We had no pictures,no luxuries of any sort and the only comfortable seating furniture was grandmother's easy chair and two rockers. There were no Mother Goose fairy stories for the Quaker children. They played becoming quiet little games that children of today (1917) would look upon with scorn.

"Joseph Starbuck's family were world's people. They attended the Unitarian Church. We were often at their houses and we really lived two kinds of life, talking the plain language and the 'world's speech' as occasion required.

"We rode in spring wagons, the children seated in the bottom of both sides facing each other with lunch baskets between us. We picked blueberries and little red checker berries on the way to visits to relatives on farms and home again.

"The oil drays were of two long heavy low hung timbers on two wheels drawn by two horses and used for moving barrels of whale oil. The ends of the two long timbers extended beyond the wheels almost to the ground. When an empty dray came along, the children would get on for a ride through the streets, it being easy and safe to jump on and off. Before the State Road to Sconset was built the ruts in the road were so deep that the wagon wheels would sink to the hubs. Then another road would be started along side of the old rutted road. For the children the rides on the roads were great adventure. During the long ride back home from Sconset, over the moors toward sunset, we would always look back to see Sankaty Light flash out. Then as the moon would rise the lights of Nantucket Town would come into view and then the jolting wagon would travel over the cobblestones of Orange Street and the happy day was over.

"Nantucket women were famous cooks. After the meal was finished the children would be sent with the leavings to the shanty of an old Indian hermit who was a great mystery to us and who half scared us to death. We placed the food down at his door sill and scampered away as fast as we could. Everyone recognized the scarcity and value of money and though we had little of it we really had considerable company. Mother made famous Bannocks from white corn meal. For friends in for supper, usually Quakers, a typical meal was Bannock or little tea biscuits, chipped beef, sweet Nantucket butter, delicious tea from China, red and transparent quince preserve and cupcakes. Meat was brought from the mainland and sold at public auction once a week. If someone killed a pig we were given a share. Often roast pork with crackle and other fixings would be given to grandmother Hussey (Deborah's father s mother, Elizabeth Starbuck Hussey).

"Nantucket was one of the stations of the 'underground railroad'. Fugitive slaves sometimes came here under the protection of the Quakers. There was a negro colony called 'Guinea' which was passed on the way to Sconset. The pro-slavery feeling also ran high. Cousin Eliza Barney and others were pelted with rotten eggs at an anti-slavery meeting on the Island. For the table and cooking, the 'free labor sugar' (not made by slaves) was used and indeed it was nasty stuff. I do not know where it came from.

"Father had quite a reputation as speaker at Friends Meeting. He had been invited by the wealthiest New Bedford families to come to New Bedford. People were leaving the Island and people from the mainland began coming in the fifties for the summer. Father's going to New Bedford to join Friends Meeting there would have been greatly to his advantage in a worldly way but he had outgrown the narrowness of the Quaker faith. He departed from the Quakers and joined the liberal Unitarians. Yet many of the Quaker home customs were retained in father's household. The Friends language was always used in the family life and at the table a silent grace preceded each meal. The last time that father spoke was at a little Friends Meeting House in Amesbury. The family attended Meeting with John Greenleaf Whittier.

"Deborah's sister Lizzie passed away at Nantucket in the summer of 1860 at the age of sixteen years, and the family just after the parting with their daughter left for Northeaston, Mass, and there making a new beginning among strangers. Here in that first winter Deborah saw her first Christmas tree. Four years in the period of the Civil War were spent in Northeaston.

"Then at the age of 13 years, Deborah enrolled in a big public school in New Bedford. Peace was declared in the spring season of 1865 and in April President Lincoln was assassinated and the city was draped in black for our dead leader. The familiar Civil War songs were sung as the boys returned home. The singing of John Brown's Body inspired the tired soldiers.

"The summer of the War's ending was the last one spent in New Bedford. We all went to Nantucket in the year of the grand Coffin reunion. There was a notable gathering under a tent. The family moved from Northeaston to Billerica in the spring season that the Civil War ended. There Deborah was married to George D. Adams of Lowell, and also disowned from the Quaker fold of which she was a birthright member, for marrying out of Meeting.

"As in all isolated communities the people are more individual and among them there are odd characters and so it was at Nantucket. An ex-Civil War soldier in a sidewalk nook flourished on poetry and peanuts. Eliza Ann McCleave, a stout handsome woman, widow of Captain McCleave, ran a museum of shells and curios from all over the world "I3? upper room, charging a small admission and the way she explained them to the visitors was a treat. There were three Newbegin sisters noted for their queer ways. One of them always walked around every hitching post she came to in walks to the town.

Here also was an original way of painting the kitchen floor, which was simply a matter of pouring all the bucket of paint in the center of the floor and sweeping it around with a broom.

"Billy Clark Was another odd character, really an island institution,as the Town Crier. He blew his trumpet from each of the four windows of the Unitarian Meeting House Tower when the incoming boat was sighted, then hurry to the wharf to get the papers. Then he perambulated about Town ringing his bell, shouting the newspaper headlines and the local town news gathered through the day. With his passing the office of Town Crier gradually passed also.

"The last concluding section of Deborah's Memoirs pictured a rather gloomy scene. The little Island is still there way out in the Atlantic Ocean. The sea, the wonderful climate, the sunsets, the lovely moors, the narrow crooked streets are all the same but the simple neighborly life is gone.

"The old families have passed away. Some of the fine old mansions have been bought by the 'off-islanders' for summer homes. The wharves are falling into pieces and the big whale oil storage houses are closed or torn down. The last Quaker, Eunice Paddock, whom I well remember, died a few years ago. Sconset has a large theatrical colony, many elaborate cottages and a casino. Nantucket, once so prosperous, is now reduced to one-third her former size and largely dependent upon the summer provider for her existence. And so sic transit gloria mundi, so in this manner passes."

 

1) The original memoirs are in the library of the late Professor George C. Wood, Ph.D., professor Emeritus of Belles Letters, Dartmouth College, seasonal resident of Nantucket, til his death.

2) Emil F. Guba, Commonwealth Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Life member Nantucket Historical Association, Honorary member Nantucket Garden Club and Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association. Former seasonal resident of Nantucket.