Bob and Liz Bennett led another successful tour of 23 Garretson area folks to Boston, MA. We left on Thursday, September 9th from the Sioux Falls airport, and arrived in Boston, met our guide, boarded our bright yellow bus, and headed out to see the sights. Unfortunately, the rainy weather prompted us to adjust our agenda to do more inside things the first day. We visited Faneuil Town Hall, the Holocaust Memorial, and the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum where we were a part of the famous event that forever changed the course of America. Our very own Tom Godbey threw tea in the harbor! From there we headed to the Cheers, where surprisingly everyone DID NOT know our name, but nevertheless it was one of the favorite things on our trip. Good food and wonderful atmosphere! To finish the day, we took a tour of Fenway Park, which was built in 1912.
The next day we went on a harbor cruise, journeyed out to Salem to see the Salem Witch Museum, the House of Seven Gables including Nathanial Hawthorne’s home, and finished out the night by going on a ghost tour.
The third day we traveled to Plymouth to see the Mayflower II and experience a living history museum at Plimoth Patuxet Museums. We returned to Boston and headed down the Freedom Trail taking in Quincy Market, the Old North Church, Paul Revere’s house, the Old State House Museum where The Declaration of Independence was read from the outside balcony and the USS Constitution “Old Ironsides” the world's oldest commissioned warship still afloat.
We finished our Revolutionary War History trip by going to Lexington and Concord, crossed the Old North Bridge, site of one of the earliest battles of the Revolutionary War, followed by the Minuteman National Park, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and Concord Inn. Then it was on to the airport to return home.
The next History trip to Washington, DC is planned for June 9-12, 2022.
If you are interested in joining us, here is the information: http://sites.google.com/view/dc2022
Pictures from all History trips dating back to 1992 to present are found here: https://mrbennettshistorytravels.shutterfly.com/pictures
Boston trip Journal, Sept. 9-12
Boston, Massachusetts Trip
Notes Compiled by Julie Hersom
Thursday
Our tour guide, Joan, greeted us with, “Our roads wind around because they were built on cow paths!” Boston has many tunnels. The tunnels with blue tiles run underwater, while the tunnels with brown tiles run under land.
1. Faneuil Town Hall “Taxation without representation”
2. Holocaust Memorial
The little stones on either side represent graveyard. The steam coming up in between the glass represents the gas chambers. Each set of glass towers represents a concentration camp and 6 towers for 6,000,000 Jews who died
3. South Station – goes to an underground subway
4. Boston Tea Party Museum
5. Cheers Bar
Supper: hamburger $18, beer $10, mug $8
6. Fenway Park
- Ted Williams holds the all-time record for career on-base percentage (.452) to this day. He was asked to sit out the last two games of his career, but he said, “No.”
- Fenway Park was built in 1912. Games back then were played with only one soft ball. Babe Ruth hit home runs, which changed out the balls that were used. They were switched to harder balls.
- Tickets run $114-$116. When playing the Yankees, tickets run $400-$500.Prices for Green Monster seats: $16,000. It can seat over 37,000 people.
- The rooftop farm grows 30,000-40,000 lb. of veggies. All are used here at the park. The gardens help with heating and cooling the floors down below.
- The scoreboard is the oldest manually operated scoreboard. It takes 3 workers. It was built in 1934. Back then; it was state of the art because it had electricity.
- Tom Yawkey and his wife owned Fenway Park. Both are now gone. The Fenway Sports Group bought it and has invested $350 million over the past 18 years to repair and update it.
- The Park also hosts concerts. Men were setting up the stage on the outfield for the Maroon 5 concert that was to be held Sunday night at 7:00. Tickets sold for $42.
- Retired numbers are posted on the back of the playing field. Number 42 belonged to Jackie Robinson. He was the first African American to play in the Major League. There is a movie and a book called “42”!!
Friday
1. Granary Cemetery has graves for:
- James Otis, Jr - was a lawyer, statesman, patriot, and advocate of independence from Great Britain. He predicted the war 10 years before it happened.
- John Hancock – very wealthy. He was the money behind the Revolutionary War. He owned land on Beacon Hill.
- Paul Revere – another rich man. He was married twice. He had 8 kids with each totally 16. 5 children from his first marriage survived and 6 from his second.
- Ben Franklin’s Parents – He, however, is buried in Philadelphia.
- Samuel Adams – was the brain behind the Revolution. He signed the Declaration of Independence. He was a brother to John.
- Victims of the Boston Massacre
- Bodies may not be buried by headstones; headstones were put in straight lines so cemetery could be mowed
*Picture of the white clock steeple is where people paid their taxes.
2. Harbor Tour – Cruise was on Dorchester Bay
Boston was formed in 1630, ten years after the Mayflower landed.
*Picture of the green and rust colored building is where the Boston Tea Party was actually held.
*Picture of Logan Airport – When we left the airport, we drove underneath the water in a tunnel with blue tiles (*Picture). The airport is located on man-made land. It covers 3 islands. Johnny Appleseed got his seeds from Apple Island, one of the 3. The others were called Bird Island and Wood Island. The 2 airplanes that crashed into the Twin Towers on 9/11 took off from Logan Airport.
*Picture of Freight Port
*Picture of Oil Tanker
The word “Massachusetts” comes from the Native Americans. In the distance we can see blue hills that the Natives claimed as sacred. The Native word for “sacred” is Massachusetts. Thus the state was named for these blue hills.
March 17, 1776, is called Evacuation Day in Boston. It is the cay all British were evacuated out of America.
*Picture of church – the Old North Church noted in The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. There were 2 lanterns in the steeple to warn the Charlestown patriots. This is where the “one if by land, two if by sea” signal was sent.
3. Quincy Market – lunch & shopping
4. Salem Witch Museum – people were falsely accused of witchcraft by teenage and younger girls. More than 200 innocent people were accused of practicing witchcraft. 30 were found guilty. 19 were hanged, 5 died in jail and Giles Corey was pressed to death for refusing to plead. Trials went on for 13 months. One of the magistrates was John Hathorne, Great, Great Grandfather of Nathaniel Hawthorne.5. The House of Seven Gables – The title of a book by Nathaniel Hawthorne. He also wrote “The Scarlet Letter.” It was built in 1668 by John Turner (pic) John Turner was a merchant and a mariner. He became quite wealthy. The house was passed down to his son, who also was a mariner and acquired a hearty fortune. Upon his death, the house went to John Turner III, who lost almost all of the family fortune. It is said John Turner lost the fortune because he was a Loyalist. He was also an abolitionist and freed the house slaves. He also didn’t have a head for money and he spent it well!! He died penniless and his sons disowned him. This Turner was forced to sell the house to Samuel Ingersoll, a ship captain. Ingersoll’s daughter, Susanna inherited the house from her parents. Rumor has it that Susanna had a romance with a naval officer, but was jilted or she possibly had an affair with a servant. She did have an adopted son named Horace Connolly. Could he have been an illegitimate son of one of her slaves or one of her brother’s?? Her second cousin was Nathaniel Hathorne, who frequently visited Susanna. Because of his great, great grandfather’s involvement in the Salem Witch Trials, Hathorne changed the spelling of his name to Hawthorne…the “w” was added and stood for “witch.” It is said that Hawthorne could see spirits!! Through the years there were many changes to the structure of the house: gables removed and gables returned. It’s ownership changed hands until Caroline Emmerton, a philanthropist, acquired it, had it restored to its original appearance, as it was when John Turner owned it and turned it into a museum. A few changes to match Hawthorne’s book were made as well. Caroline put in a hidden stairway. It is said the house was used in the Underground Railway, but the stairway was not put in for this purpose.
(pic) Gables are rooflines at the top of the house
(pic) Block of tea, blue sugar cone & sugar cutter
(pic) The Great Chamber – bedroom
(pic) Parlor – One of the owners, Henry Upton, was a musician and taught piano.
(pic) Liquor closet
(pic) Back door & our Guide – This style of door promotes the phrase “batten down the hatches”
*The TV show “Bewitched” did some filming in this house!!
6. Salem Ghost Walk
- The Puritans came 6 years after the Pilgrims. They landed in Salem. The Pilgrims came to escape religious persecution, but the Puritans came to purify the Catholic Church. They were very devout and conservative. They went to church for 12 hours on Sundays. The boys and girls learned to read so they could read the Bible. They were also very suspicious people!! For an example: If your crop failed, but your neighbor’s crop flourished, they were suspicious. Coincidences such as this pitted neighbor against neighbor. This suspicion led to the Salem Witch Trials. 19 people were hanged and 24 died altogether.
- Gardner Pingry Building - Captain Joseph White was a wealthy shipowner, a merchant and a powerful politician. His nephews, Frank and Joe Knapp, were impatient to inherit his large fortune. So they hired a hitman, Richard Crowninshield, to murder White. White was found brutally murdered in his bed. Daniel Webster convicted both Knapps of the murder, even though they were accessories. Crowninshield, also a member of a powerful Salem family, was arrested but committed suicide in his jail cell before he was brought to trial. The murder ended up inspiring local game maker George Parker to create the board game Clue, and even influenced Edgar Allen Poe in his tale of The Telltale Heart.
- Hawthorne Hotel – was built in 1925 on an apple orchard owned by Bridget Bishop, the first lady hanged in the Witch Trials. Guests claim to see a female apparition walking up and down the halls and pausing by Room 612. Guests have felt someone tug on their sheets. Room 325 is said to also be haunted. Faucets turn on and off by themselves and guests have heard a young child crying. Nathaniel’s, a restaurant in the building, has had table settings messed with and there is a ship’s wheel that has been seen to turn.
- The Old Burying Point Cemetery, also known as Charter Street Cemetery, is the oldest Salem cemetery. It dates back to 1637, which is 11 years after the Puritans first arrived. Judge Hathorne is buried here. He is known as “The Hanging Judge” due to his involvement in the Witch Trials and lack of apology for convicting and hanging 20 innocent people. Also buried here is Judge Bartholomew Gedney who was the father-in-law of the sheriff, George Corwin, and another key player in the Salem Witch Trials. Several of the Salem accusers are also buried here.
- The 19 accused were hanged at a place called Gallows Hill. The 19 were likely buried in a mass grave, except for one woman: Rebecca Nurse. Her son actually came in the middle of the night, dug up her body and brought it back to the Nurse homestead to bury. Proctor’s Ledge is the memorial for those 19. It is a stone wall built in 2016. The names of each who died are on a marker in this wall. If you go around counterclockwise, each stone has the person’s name and the date of their death. It begins with Bridget Bishop and ends with Samuel Wardwell. A white oak tree is planted there to symbolize the tree used for the hangings. Each marker has a light at the base to shine up at night.
- Joshua Ward House – was built in 1784 by Samuel Macintire for Joshua Ward. Five years later, President George Washington stayed here. This is the most haunted building in all of Salem. This building sits on the site of George Corwin’s house. Corwin became High Sheriff at the age of 25. He enjoyed torturing his victims. He seized property of over 200 convicted witches. He interrogated them in a house on this property. Giles Corey was one who Corwin tortured to death. Giles wasn’t a very nice man either. He beat an indentured servant with a stick once. If one didn’t plead guilty, they could hang on their property. Giles would not talk during his trial so Corwin and Corey pressed with rocks on wooden planks. Giles was 81 at the time. Corwin asked if Giles was guilty or innocent, but Giles wouldn’t talk. He had over 280 pounds of rock on him. After a day and a half, Giles’ only words were, “More weight!” Corwin jumped into the grave on top of Giles and asked him one last time. Nothing. Giles died soon after. It is said that there are those in this house who have felt hands around their necks, maybe those of George Corwin, the strangler. Books have been thrown off of shelves by an angry entity, possibly Giles Corey.
- First Church – Puritans worshipped on the top floor and businesses were on the ground floor. The Puritans then moved down the street and sailors moved in. We are standing on4 miles of underground tunnels. Smugglers would use them to escape paying taxes. In 1863, a 68-year-old sea captain had a 16-year-old girl named Sarah working for him. Sarah fell in love with a young sailor. The old sea captain forbid them to see each other, so they snuck around. They were married when the old captain was gone. However he came back early and walked in on the wedding. He fought the young sailor and Sarah got in the way. She was thought to be killed and buried in the tunnels by the old sea captain, her young lover and the preacher. They bricked her up in a wall. She called to the young sailor in the night. She was still alive!! The young sailor looked and looked, but couldn’t find her so Sarah died. Sarah, the Lady in Blue, still haunts this place. The show “Ghost Hunters” has come here. They asked the apparition 3 questions. They heard 3 words: “Sarah, struck, here.”
- In those days, some were buried alive so to ward against this, some were buried with a bell above ground attached to their finger. Someone would walk through the graveyard at all times listening for the sound of the bells ringing. Thus the saying “Dead Ringer”, “Saved by the bell” and “the Graveyard Shift.”
Saturday
1. The Mayflower Ship in Plymouth, MA
(pic) Traverse Board in which pins are put to show the location:
The traverse board was used to approximate the course run by a ship during a watch. It consisted of a circular piece of wood on which the compass points had been painted. Eight small holes were evenly spaced along the radius to each point, and eight small pegs were attached with string to the center of the board. Every half-hour one of the pegs was stuck into the next succeeding hole for the compass point closest to the heading the ship had maintained during that half hour. At the end of that watch, a general course was determined from the position of the pegs. With speed information from the long and line, the traverse board served as a crude dead-reckoning computer reminiscent of those used to this day aboard aircraft. This type of measuring was called “Dead Reckoning.”
- Officers’ quarters were in the front of the ship – estimated 25 officers; 5 would be in the quarters
- Christopher Jones was the Master Captain
- The grate in the floor allowed communication for steering the ship
(pic) The bell was rung in honor of all who were affected by 9/11.
2. Plymouth Colony
(pic) Wampanoag winter home
- About 15 people slept here
- Homes were for sleeping and storage
- They slept on about 4 inches of furs
- A family unit had 5-7 members
- The true lesson of the Pilgrim story – “The great work of living is living with others.”
3. Old North Church
- Oldest standing church in Boston
- It has an active congregation
- It is 298 years old
- Holds the first organ made in America
- On April 18, 1775, the Sons of Liberty, a spy group, wanted to know how the British would get out of Boston. Paul Revere had the idea to light lanterns in the church’s steeple “One if by land, two if by sea.” Robert Newman & Captain John Pulling, Jr. held the lanterns. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride.”
(pic) Pulpit with Sounding Board suspended above; a flat-bottomed dome. This is called a “wine glass pulpit”. The sounding board is hollow inside and functions as an amplifier.
(pic) Newman window – how Newman & Pulling escaped the British when they spied his lantern in the steeple. Lantern was presented to the church by US President Gerald Ford in 1975
4. Old State House Museum
(pic) Lion signifies England, unicorn signifies Scotland
- Declaration of Independence was read from outside balcony
- Boston Massacre
5. USS Constitution
Nickname “Old Ironsides” - earned its nickname during the War of 1812 when British cannonballs bounced off its wooden hull
- The ship was undefeated in battle and destroyed or captured 33 enemy vessels.
- world's oldest commissioned warship still afloat
- defended sea lanes from 1797 until 1855
- goes out in the harbor on 9/11 to shoot cannons in honor of all who were affected by 9/11
6. Paul Revere’s house
7. Union Oyster House – dinner
- Scrod – special catch of the day; “c” means cod, “h” means haddock
Sunday
Militia vs. Minutemen: Minutemen had to be ready to fight in a minute. They had little training. Militia did training each month. The British formed organized lines to fight. The colonists scattered all over and hid behind trees and rocks – this was to their advantage.
- Lexington Green
- Samuel Adams and John Hancock were warned to flee
- One colonist was wounded, drug himself home and died in his wife’s arms (pic) of house
- Concord
(pic) Alcott Home – Hawthorne owned this home at one time
Concord grape jelly came from here
- Colonial Inn - Lunch. We were seated family style in a room
- Is made up of 3 buildings: the middle was an ammunition store
- East section was Henry David Thoreau’s Grandfather’s house; Thoreau stayed there with his aunts for 2 years while attending Harvard University
- Jackie Kennedy stayed there while visiting Caroline when she attended Concord University
- North Bridge Visitor Center
- Large stores of ammo and weapons were stored in Concord. The British were on their way to get them. Colonel Barrett gave the order to head to the bridge.
(pic) White house with black shutters – Ralph Waldo Emerson’s house
(pic) Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge
