History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield ...

Chronological Table. 277
1804. Independence day first celebrated in Lynn. Snow fell in July.
1805. First Masonic Lodge — Mount Carmel — constituted June lo.
1808. First law office in Lynn, opened by Benjamin Merrill.
Great bull fight at Half Way House. Bulls and bull dogs engaged.
Lynn Artillery chartered, November i8, and allowed two brass field pieces.
Trapping Lobsters first practised at Swampscott.
1812. Lynn Light Infantry chartered, June 30.
1813. Moll Pitcher, the celebrated fortune-teller, dies, April 9, aged 75.
1814- Lynnfield incorporated as a separate town.
First Town House built.
First Bank established.
181 5. Saugus incorporated as a separate town.
Terrific southeasterly gale, Sept. 23 ; ocean spray driven several miles inland ;
fruit on the trees impregnated with salt.
1816. Great horse trot on the Turnpike, in Lynn, Sept. i ; said to be the first in
New England. Major Stackpole's " Old Blue " trotted three miles in
eight minutes and forty-two seconds.
1817. President Munroe passed through town.
1819. The great sea-serpent appears off Long Beach. Nahant Hotel built. Almshouse
at Tower Hill built.
1824. Gen. Lafayette visits Lynn, Aug. 31, and is enthusiastically welcomed.
1825. First Lynn newspaper — the Weekly Mirror — issued September 3.
1826. First Savings Bank incorporated.
1827. Broad and brilliant night arch, Aug. 28.
1828. A whale, sixty feet long, cast ashore on Whale Beach, May 2.
1829. Splendid display of frosted trees, Jan. 10.
1830. Donald McDonald, a Scotchman, dies in Lynn alms-house, Oct. 4, aged 108.
He was at the battle of Quebec when Wolfe fell, and at Braddock's defeat.
1832. First Lynn Directory published by Charles F. Lummus.
1833. Extraordinary shower of meteors, Nov. 13.
1837. Surplus United States revenue distributed. Lynn received $14,879, and
applied it to the payment of the town debt. Saugus received $3,500, and
appropriated it to the building of a Town Hall. Lynnfield received
$1,328 29, and applied it to the town debt.
1838. Eastern Rail-road opened for travel from Boston to Salem, Aug. 28.
1841. The first picture by the new art known as Daguerreotype, or Photography,
ever taken in Lynn, was a landscape, taken this year, by James R. Newhall,
by apparatus imported from France.
1843. A splended comet ; first appeared about noonday, Feb. i.
Schooner Thomas wrecked on Long Beach, March 17, five men perishing.
Breed's Pond formed.
Theophilus N. Breed built a dam acrcDss the valley, on
the northeast of Oak street, flowing some fifty acres, thus forming the
pond and securing water power for his iron works.
1846. Mexican war commenced. Lynn furnished twenty volunteers.
Congress boots began to be manufactured.
Destructive fire on Water Hill, Aug. 9. Large brick silk-printing establishment,
spice and coffee mill, and two or three smaller buildings destroyed.
1847. President Polk made a short visit to Lynn, July 5.
1848. Carriage road over harbor side of Long Beach built.
Lynn Common fenced.
George Gray, the hermit, dies, Feb. 28, aged 78.