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Oh, Wintry Christmas of My Youth!
It’s popular to recall – albeit with questionable accuracy, the Christmases of our childhood. Poets, songwriters and silly memoirists love to wax nostalgic of a time and place where the winters were...
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George Washington returns to Mount Vernon, Christmas Eve 1783
Featured image: George Washington and Family by Thomas Pritchard Rossiter, 1858-1860. by Helen Breen General George Washington welcomed back to Mount Vernon on Christmas Eve 1783 at the end of the...
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Illegal Currency: Ipswich and the Land Bank scheme of 1740-41
In the first half of the 18th Century, the colonies suffered greatly from a shortage of money in circulation, the result of which was an unsanctioned scheme to print currency in Massachusetts, led in...
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“A Christmas Carol” – the Back Story
Featured image: Bob Cratchit and his son Tiny Tim represented the London poor with whom Charles Dickens sympathized. (painting by Jessie Wilcox Smith) by Helen Breen LONDON 1843 “Marley was dead to...
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“Dying Confession of Pomp, a Negro Man Who Was Executed at Ipswich on the 6th...
Long before the corner of Mile Lane and High Street in Ipswich became famous for the Clam Box, it was known as Pingrey’s Plain and was where the wicked were hung at “Gallowes Field.” On Aug 6th 1795,...
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A Very Ipswich Christmas
“You live where?” “Ipswich, MA. It’s about 45 minutes north of Boston. “Oh. Well then you must get a lot of snow.” “Yes. Unfortunately.” “Unfortunately? What are you talking about? Christmas must be...
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Historic events and legends
Ipswich Massachusetts was founded in 1634, and became one of the most important towns in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Read hundreds of stories about Ipswich, North Shore communities and their history,...
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“The Orchard” by Adele Crocket “Kitty” Robertson
The Orchard: A Memoir is an exquisitely beautiful and poignant memoir of a young woman’s single-handed struggle to save her New England farm in the depths of the Great Depression. Recently discovered...
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The Laces of Ipswich
In its lace making heyday in the late eighteenth century, Ipswich, Massachusetts boasted 600 lace makers in a town of only 601 households. George Washington himself, a lace afficionado, paid a visit to...
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The First Winters in Ipswich
Featured image: painting by George Henry Boughton Nearly half of the original 102 passengers on the Mayflower did not survive the first winter after arriving in Plymouth in December 1622. Only four of...
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The Ipswich River
The Ipswich River begins in Burlington, MA and passes through the towns of Wilmington, Reading, North Reading, Peabody, Middleton, Topsfield, Hamilton, and Ipswich, connecting with the Atlantic Ocean...
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Measuring Time–by an hourglass
Kitty Robertson’s Measuring Time—By an Hourglass is an exquisite collection of essays, reflections on a 20th century life in small town New England, that first were published in the Ipswich Chronicle....
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Market Street, a photographic retrospective
Photos of Market St. from the present day back to the early days of photography. Filed under: Roads
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A photographic history of Market Square and the lower North Green
Featured image: Ipswich woodcut attributed to S. E. Brown, 1838, or John Warner Barber, 1839 Filed under: Roads
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Jake Burridge, the sailor
Featured image: 2014 photo of Jake Burridge, courtesy Ipswich Chronicle. Original color photo by Kirk Williamson. In October, 2016 I was privileged to speak with Jake Burridge, a legendary 99-year-old...
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North Main Street photographic retrospective
North Main Street starts up the hill directly across from Market Street, bears left at Meetinghouse Green and continues to an abrupt stop at the point where High Street and East Street merge. This...
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The Great Agawam Stable Fire
By Harold Bowen, 1975 In the days of stagecoaches, there were several inns along the old Bay Road and High Street. These inns also provided stables in which to house the horses.. One of the later...
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The Lowell Offering
The Lowell Offering was a monthly periodical, first published in 1840, which featured poetry and fiction by female workers at textile mills in Lowell, MA. Known as the Lowell Mill Girls, they often...
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The Civil War Monument
Photograph by George Dexter, circa 1900; story by Harold Bowen, “Tales of Old Ipswich,” 1975 Each Memorial Day for the last 15 years it has been my job to decorate the different monuments in town early...
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Andover in the Civil War
The Spirit and Sacrifice of a New England Town They departed Boston in August 1861 to a cheering crowd and the tune of “John Brown’s Body.” Though some of these Andover soldiers would not “see the...
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