Chapter 13 of 25 · 815 words · ~4 min read

CHAPTER XIII.

PELEG BURGESS

Peleg Burgess, 1840-1931, by purchase from his brother, Phineas Franklin Burgess, became the sole owner of the homestead and kept the property until October 17, 1918, when at the age of 78 he sold it to his children. In 1923, Book 1445, Page 428, it is recorded that it was granted back to him for his lifetime use when he had sold it to his four daughters, Annie, Charlotte, Susan and Mary and his son Harrison for $300.00 each. Peleg’s home on Union Street was sold in 1930 to these children and his son Walter, then of California, in addition.

As a young man, Peleg had wanted to be a sea captain and started training early in life. He spent some time in Bangkok, then Siam, during the Civil War, at the age of 22, because of ship movement problems brought on by the war. He brought back a large dictionary and many small art treasures from the Far East. He did not live regularly at the homestead, but his father Phineas did so.

At the age of 27 Peleg married Ann Jane Nicol, 1843-1891, on July 22, 1867.

They had eight children: Annie Sprague, 1868-1956; Harrison Nicol, 1870-1954; Frances Allison, 1872-1896; Charlotte Jane, 1875-1934; Susan Howland, 1878-1968; and Mary Alma, born 1885.

Six years after the death of Ann Nicol in 1891, he married Henrietta Lavender of Provincetown in 1897.

During his career, Peleg lived for a time in Boston, where he was engaged in construction. In Plymouth he participated in construction of Plymouth Cordage Company buildings and the original part of Jordan Hospital. He also built houses on Union Street where the family home is located. He played the violin well and served for a time as organist at the Baptist Church. He was proficient in carpentry, cabinet making and surveying.

During the latter part of his period of ownership at the Pond, after 1874, he sold small pond frontage lots from time to time, up to 15 or so in number for summer cottages or camps, as they are generally called. The small peninsula jutting into Boot Pond was sold to the Douglas family who built there a large summer home. Mary Burgess told me her father considered Mr. Douglas a pious man and would be sure to observe a quiet Sabbath. These sales provided perhaps needed revenue. Five hundred feet of Boot Pond shoreline was reserved for the use of the homestead.

Peleg’s daughter Susan was born in Boston and was a graduate of the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts in modeling. She became a talented artist in several fields and taught art courses for many decades in the public schools of Hollywood, California, in its early days of prominence. Earlier she had won an award to be a student for four years of the sculptor Rodin in Paris. Her opportunity was not realized because of World War I. She excelled in many fields, in sketches, painting, sculpture, wood carving, ceramics and children’s book illustration. Many of her works are in existence. A memorial exhibit of her many works was held by the Plymouth Black and White Club, an art society, in 1970. She was always energetic at the Pond where she summered with her sisters and converted the barn into a sort of studio for art classes. She was somewhat upset by seeing the family homestead in other hands after 200 years, but did come out for a visit in her early eighties.

[Illustration]

Mary Burgess became a registered nurse as a 1910 graduate of Boston’s Children’s Hospital and served with distinction in Boston hospitals and St. Luke’s in New York City. In 1913 she lived for a year in England on an estate on the Thames near Hartley as a special nurse for a Boston family. She was an army nurse in France during the first world war for a year and a half and underwent hospital bombardment at times. For many years she and her sister Susan travelled to California by car to spend winters in the Santa Barbara and other regions. Since retiring and living in Plymouth she has been until recently active as a hostess at the Spooner House.

She is a warm, kind and friendly person. She has been most helpful to me in providing information about what she remembers of the family and the Pond from her long lifetime and delights to visit her family homestead.

One of Peleg’s sons, Leonard, lived in Plymouth and was a builder. He had a son, Eldon, who has two sons, Eldon and Richard, living in California. Leonard also has a daughter, Frances Burgess O’Keeffe, who resides in Santa Barbara, California.

The children of Richard Burgess, who with his family takes a summer cottage at South Pond, are in the tenth generation of Burgesses since the first Thomas came in 1630.

[Illustration]