Hearths and Homes of Old Lynn - Lynn Massachusetts Genealogy ...

of Old Lynn
crowding unrest of our people, as if nothing else
was sought for save commercial or material triumphs
over the rest of our fellows. Our fathers were of
a strenuous race and habit, as they needed to be to
keep the wolf (either as a metaphor or a fact) from
the door, in this bleak climate of ours. They tilled
the not too rich soil in the proper seasons. They
fished upon the deep in storm and sunshine, and
they made shoes when out-of-door life was impossible.
Lynn was the scene of the first iron-works established
on the soil of America. It has long been
noted as the seat of the largest ladies' shoe manufacturing
output in the world. Its name on electrical
appliances has gone around the globe. But
it was reserved for something else to raise it from
the plane of a prosperous manufacturing centre
that of an aesthetic community, appreciating nature
and planning wisely for the future.
Lynn was the pioneer in the establishment of a
great communal forest, where, within sight of the
landing place of Endicott and Winthrop and of all
the devoted Puritans who planted New England,
a promising attempt is being made to restore a wild
woodland of pine, hemlock, oak, hickory, beech, hornbeam
and all the other native trees that have their
habitat upon our hillsides and valleys.
We have prospered and waxed strong in the handling
of leather, but in response to the sneers of the
people who say we talk leather, smell leather and
know nothing but leather, we point to the Great
Woods, to Oceanside, and then, perhaps best of all,
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