Class. Book_ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT ^ ^ 2« CO O ^ r< H H K • Q ^• h 1 ^ ^ a 'X S 1 * "^ o ^ 0:1 m 6 ^ <% PQ < (A) E < < ■< z < m x > < Q Z < vjp- ^ .-^^ # a ^y^ ) 1 / ^^^ /■li«r PRICE 25 CENTS (Copyritibtecl June, 1889, by George 'asliington Eldridgo. All righ a" reserved.) ^MOYNAN S CO.,^ SUCCESSORS TO GEORGE M. EDDY & CO., t f =EDDY BUILDINa.= THE ^LEADIIMGi^ • • ->»-^->->^:^^^#^^t><^-^^^ HOQS0 OF msitr m'mmwmm.m^ moLM^mm ». o w o < H H O o < X (J < w JVTartl^a's \/ir^eyard; HISTORY AND ADVANTAGES HEALTH AND SUMMER RESORT. :^ BY a. W. KLDRIDOE, A RESIDENT OF THE ISLAND. PROVIDENCK. R.I. K. I.. I'KKK.M.VN & SON, liOoK .AND Joi; I'UI N TK.KS-, 1889. PREFACE The author of this work Ccame to Martha's Yineyarcl four- teen years ago, an invaHd. To-day, he is a practical demon- stration of what the singularly salubrious climate of this Island has done to restore him to health, and his experience has been verified in the cases of many others, and the princi- pal object he has in publishing this book is to make its ad- vantages as a health resort more extensively known. He has endeavored to conscientiously represent these advantages in the following pages, and he believes that when they are more fully known and understood that the people of the United States will make of this Island a grand sanitarium. May this work be one of the means of its becoming such is the earnest wish of THE A UTHOE, LOCATION AND DESCRIPTION IVXiVRTHA'S VTneyard Martha's Vineyard is the hirgest iskind on the New England coast. It is in the form of an irregular triangle, about 23 miles long and lOi miles wide at its widest part. It is bounded on the north by Vineyard Sound, east, south and west by the Atlantic Ocean, and is situated 2{o miles from the main land at its nearest point. The surface of this beautiful island is gently undu- lating and gradually rising to an elevation of 300 feet above the level of the sea at the highest part, which is a little north of the central part of the is- land, and is known by the name of Indian Hill. It is largely covered with wood-land, farms and miniature lakes. Several villages are pleasantly lo- cated on different parts of the island. The climate, especially in summer, is delightful, and for health- fulness is unsurpassed. jv sketch The Islands 4H[iST0f^Y. The curious student, in his translations of Ice- landic lore, Avill find a vague and hazy outline of reference to the discoveries and explorations in America by the intrepid and adventurous Norseman. According to Scandinavian sages, one Leif Erikson, a mariner in the eleventh century, was the first to sail to this hemisphere, but we fail to find any ex- planation of the configuration of the coast made by this fearless adventurer. One of his successors, how- ever, Thorpine Karlesphine, who sailed around a cape, which he called Kjaruless — generally supposed to be Cape Cod — discovered an island which he called Stranmay, the description of which will fit Martha's Vineyard closely. Professor Hosford, of Harvard College, has gone so far as to suggest that the names of some of the Vineyard localities are of Norse origin. For instance, Noman's-land is a corruption of Norse- thp: islands history. / man's land, and that East Chop and West Chop, at the entrance of Vineyard Haven harbor, is the Norse- man's name for Ost Kop (East Cape) and Vest Kop (West Cape). The first discoverer of this isUmd who comes within the reahii of autlientic history was Varrazzani, an Italian explorer, who saw the western extremity of it from the sea in 1564, and called it Claudia in honor of the mother of the Emperor Francis II. of France. The next explorer, and the first one who left any account of the New England coast, was Bartholamew Gosnold, an English mariner, who, having the love of adventure in his breast, set sail from Falmouth, England, in 1002, to explore the shores of the new world. He sailed around Cape Cod and up the southern shores of Nantucket and the Vineyard, mistaking them, at first, for the main land. He landed on Noman's-land and named it Marthae's Vineyard, which name was afterwards transferred to this Martha's Vineyard of the present day. It appears that on May 28th, 1602, that Gos- nold decided to locate on Cuttyhunk island (which is to the northward of the Vineyard about five miles), the westernmost of a group which lie named tlie Elizabeth Isles, in honor of C^ueen Elizabeth, who died that year. This beautiful and picturesque group of islands lies longitudinally east by nortli and west by south — i .2 o <»' — □ a a M -a s 2 o o "3 o Op a 2 a O H H O O W H O E o Ii( <1 O J5 'A ta Sep 1888 No. sedi- 3165 11 13 ment. 0.0 None None 4.00 0.45 3.55 None .0000 .0010 .73 .0050 .0000 Temperature of water 49° F. These springs had bubbled forth in their native purity for ages, untrammeled by the hand of man. But one day, the fertile brain of a summer visitor conceived the idea of leading these limpid waters into the houses of the villagers, and it was in this way that it came about. In the summer of 1885, a gentleman from Colorado was sojourning at Vine- yard Haven, and in his rambles among the hills in the vicinity of the village he came upon '' Tashmoo " springs, that fed the beautiful lake by that name, and after tasting it he said to a friend, here is a source from which Vineyard Haven, and, in fact, all the island if necessary, can draw an inexhaustible supply of water. As to the name of these springs, our best authority is the following legend, for which we are indebted to Mrs. Captain M. A. Claghorn of Vineyard Haven. Also the pleasing poem which is based on the legend. VINEYARD HAVEN. OO LEGEND. Pohosanot, an old sachem, who ruloil an Indian tribe neur S