Month: April 2014

Salem was a hot bed of secrecy. Three museums smuggled art treasures and artifacts into their museums, escaped gentlemen from the south scurried to freedom, goods moved underfoot to the stores, men roamed to the brothels, murders escaped, and men where shanghaied through the tunnels. This is all known. I have touched on the one railroad above, but what about the real one in which had ..something to do with where the Choo-Choo go.

The old wooden Salem Depot was built in 1838 after tearing down the old corn mill. This site in 1636 was the location of the first English Port House which collected Customs in. In 1664 the first  corn mill was erected next to it. The Granite structure was built in 1847. The stations sat at the corner of Washington and Norman streets where Riley Plaza is now. The Eastern Railroad started in 1836 with famous smuggler George Peabody as their owner. His house is now the Bertram House for the elderly on the Common’s. Famous authors would leave his home through the tunnels to read at the Lyceum.  In 1839 an open tunnel was built in the center of Washington Street for the trains to run through. The Old Court House which was used before as the 4th Town House in Salem was torn down to make way for the tunnel. It was on the site in which the men and women were tried for witchcraft on. Also in this building John Hancock held the First Provincial Congress in. The Eastern Railroad was absorbed by the Boston and Maine Railroad when they started leasing their tracks in Dec. 1884. Leading west from the station up Washington Street the train ran. To the East of the tracks there was a row of buildings which have long since been torn down. The present sidewalk in front of the Eastern Bank and Daniel Low’s was an alley that ran behind these buildings to Front Street. Before the tunnel could cross Essex Street it became covered and ran to the Tabernacle Church on Federal Street.  The basements of Red Lion Smoke Shop, Frye’s Building, and the Kinsman building had tunnels leading to them. The original buildings which used to be on top of these foundations are gone (except the Kinsman which was built on a lot which housed two homes in 1882), but their tunnels remain.

 

 

 

 

John Kinsman originally owned the Salem Car Company which manufactured rail cars.  The location of his company is where the Brake and Clutch shop is on Bridge Street. He would sell the site to the Eastern Railroad and become their superintendent. He would hold this position from 1842-1855. His office was in the granite train station. He would also buy the property that ran along Collins Street from William Parker, Parker Brother’s father, to build a rail to connect that site to the tracks that ran along Web Street. Parker was also a fellow smuggler and neighbor for Kinsman lived in front of their house on Parker Court.  The Eastern Railroad would use the lot to fix their cars. many of the homes in the area  were built for railroad employees.

In 1844 John Server founded the Old Colonial Railroad that ran from Boston to places south like Plymouth, Fall River, and Providence. By 1848 it was added to the smuggling project in Salem.  Elias Hasket Derby III becomes their president. In 1850 his cousin Francis B. Crowninshield takes over the position till 1854. So once the Eastern Railroad entered Boston goods could continue south on the Colonial Railroad.

From 1877  to 1894 Charles Francis Choate Sr. was president of the Colonial Railroad. Previous he was the lawyer for the Boston and Maine Railroad and Old Colonial. Elias Hasket Derby III was the previous lawyer for Old Colonial Railroad before he became president as well. He married into the Manning and Hodges family when married Margaret Manning Hodges. These families were some of the original 159 Subscribers of the Salem Common Improvement Fund created by Elias Hasket Derby Junior in 1801 to hide his tunnel expansion project behind. The Hodges are cousins to the Derby’s. Richard Derby had connected his son’s brick house on Derby Street to the Hodges house on Essex and Orange by tunnel.  It was built upon Elias Hasket Derby I marrying into the Crowninshield family. Also Choate will become president of the Salem Athenaeum much like the famous subscriber Edward Augustus Holyoke.

In 1882 John Kinsman built the building in which houses the bar Opus now.  George C. Lord, the son of David Lord who had built many homes in Salem connected to the tunnels, would build the block. Kinsman was married to his sister. He would have 5 tunnels connect to the rear of the building and one that led to a secret train station within the railroad tunnel.  Further up it was rumored that the railroad tunnel had another secret station for the judges on Federal Street to use. The current railroad tunnel built in 1950 has a stop for prisoners to enter the district court through a fire escape ladder into the building. To this day Salem Green has not been developed because of these tunnels entering the Kinsman Block . So now the reason for the covered section of the Eastern railroad tunnel is exposed.  Imagine this; the mill cities to the north are expanding along with Boston, Providence, and Fall River. They need raw materials to build their city and to manufacture into finished goods in their mills. What better way to receive these than getting them through the tunnels from the sea to the train without paying customs? By 1882 Kinsman has learned from these mill owners to run these tunnels on an assembly line of thought. He built a well organized hub in his building to facilitate the ancient art of smuggling into the modern age. Plus the Crowninshield and Derby families kept up with the times as well. Their families profited through the ages by transporting finished goods from port to port. It was not a big change for them to transfer them now from station to station.

So Salem kept up with the times of transporting goods. They now could move cargo from China on the Sea and then move it through the tunnels to the train to access the interior of the country without paying any duties. Imagine what else they could of  smuggled throughout the country? The sky is the limit!

It is said Kinsman was also an Oddfellow. They would sneak in the middle of the night and deliver aid to poor families and hold fast to their anonymity. Which brings us to the second underground in Salem. The Underground Railroad. Could residents in town have been a little nefarious? If you were moving freed slaves through the tunnels in Salem and had a secret train station, would you use this opportunity for your benefit and have a cheap labor force in your mills? A labor force that  could not complain about conditions or wages for fear of being sent back into slavery?  Just a supposition… I have not read anything about it.

Salem’s Underground Railroad: Part two

Coming soon….

For more about the tunnels in Salem read Salem Secret Underground:The History of the Tunnels in the City. Also you can venture on the route of the tunnels and learn their history first hand by going on one of Salem’s best walking tours there is!  The Salem Tunnel Tour offers tours at various times throughout the week. Check them out today!

 

 

Smuggling is a way of life in Salem. It stretches back to the 17th century. The Daniel’s House on the corner of Daniels and Essex Street was built in 1667 and is connected to one of the older tunnel systems in town. Richard Derby’s wharf was probably connected to the old colonial fort on Winter Island.  Avoiding the Customs Official either British or American was a way of life.

They were not alone in this practice. Most of the American coast was involved. In fact the majority of New England seaports have tunnels running from the ocean. In1680 Gov. Andros  imposed duties on commerce on Delaware River spurring an increase of smuggling. By 1699 British Vice-Admiral Robert quarry writes,”Apprehend 4 Pyrates at Cape May. I  might have with ease secured the rest of them and the ship too had not the local officials entertained the Pyrates, conveyed them from place to place, furnished them with provisions and liquors, gave them intelligence, and sheltered them from justice. All the persons I have employed are abused and affronted and called enemies to the country for disturbing and hindering honest men.”. In New York City it cost a hundred pounds per man for Gov. Fletcher to ignore the smuggling. Captains of the ship had to pay a higher fee… Pirate Captain Tew often frequented his carriage about town.

Then in 1733 England passed the Molasses Act. This taxed non-British imported molasses 6% per gallon. Soon afterwards James Otis in NJ had said, “a very small office in customs can raise a man to fortune sooner than a post in government.”. Sometimes you could not count on bribery, so you had to have some tricks up your sleeve. One trick was to be granted a receipt for taxes paid on 8 barrels in one port, load up 72 more in another, then ad a ‘y’ to the eight on the receipt before selling the cargo in the last.

In 1760 George Greenville who was appointed by the penniless King George III to fill his coffers at the expense of the American colonies. The 1651 Navigational Act was enforced once more forcing any colonial ship to sail to a British port to be taxed before sailing to its final destination. Before this Greenville realized it cost the Royal Navy 8,000 pounds a year to collect 2,000 pounds in duties. He figured 700,000 pounds were lost each year from the American sea trade. Plus they hired customs agents from impoverished Scotland to collect the tax who were happy with their pay, bribes were not needed.

By 1764 in NJ ports were moved up river and to islands not charted to avoid taxation. The British would pay sailors to lead the them up the Mullica River to find the smugglers, but the sailors would only get them lost in the winding river full of branches and islands and jump ship. Customs agents were treated even worse in Salem. Tidewaiter James Rowe and Robert Wood were tarred and feathered on Common in 1769 and wheeled through town in a cart.

Now during the Revolutionary War the Salem merchant was able not only to bring goods into port customs free, but also to rob the British on the high sea. 67  Privateer ships in Salem with 10,000 men sailing them harassed the British merchant fleet. Elias Hasket Derby had 158 shares in these boats.  A life of a privateer made Elias Hasket Derby the first millionaire in the country along with many others in Salem.  He built a second mansion next to his first brick mansion on Derby Street just to store all of the stuff he confiscated from the British. His tunnels from these homes to his cousin’s home on Essex Street would inspire his son to expand the tunnels throughout town in 1801.

In 1778  733 ships were reported in England captured at a loss of 10 million Pounds by the privateers. American records from 1776 to 1782 state 1,200 ships captured with a loss to the English of 20 million pounds. Almost 20 times more than Greenville’s original complaints in 1760.

Now Salem had experienced too much of a good thing. by the end of the war their was so many new fortunes  made and they wanted to keep them. It was a period of jubilee and they did not want it to end. Washington and Adams was very lenient of seaport merchants in the new nation. Duties were low. Then Jefferson removed the Federalist from his throne and the Democratic-Republican held sway. In his first year Jefferson imposed new custom duties in 1801. He had asked all of the local militias to help collect it. Now in Salem the local militias who were the grandfather to our National Guard units were the private bodyguard to the wealthy privateer or corrupt politician. Not only did they not help collect the duties, they actually helped Elias Hasket Derby Junior bury the tunnel dirt in the five ponds in the common. Junior had 159 subscribers pay to dig a new series of tunnels in town under the disguise of a park beautification program.

In fact Elias Hasket Derby Junior’s grandfather’s house was connected to the tunnels. So when they raised his home to erect the new Custom House on the location, the site came with tunnels already attached to the basement. The previous building built by William Gray on Central Street was also connected to the tunnels. Maybe all of them in town were? The new Collector of Customs was one of those subscribers. Joseph Hiller was also the head Mason of the Essex Lodge in which the Derby’s were members of.  Other subscribers included other custom officials  like Surveyor of Ports Bartholomew Putnam , Inspector of Customs Henry Tibbets, Deputy Collector C. Cleavland, Inspector of Customs Elijah Haskell, Officer in the Custom House James Cheever, Secretary of the Navy and Custom Collector of Marblehead Benjamin Crowninshield, Revenue Agent Penn Townsend, and Revenue Cutter Captain Henry Prince Junior. You remember what Otis said about a small office in customs could do to one’s fortunes… The funny thing was that Benjamin Crowninshield was called up to New Londonbery NH to testify about the honesty of his friend who was the Collector of Customs in that town. New Londonbery was the town Elias Hasket Derby Junior moved to after leaving Salem. Also, who would want to collect honest customs in a town in which not too long ago they tarred and feathered custom officials?

Appointments to customs depended on political alignment. These appointments tended to be lost when the other political party took over the White House. That is how Hawthorne lost his patronage as a writer for working for the custom agency when the Whig Party won in Washington. On a side note Herman Melville took a job in customs in NYC when he was loosing money as an author. His grandfather Thomas was a Custom Officer in Salem from 1789-1814.

Six years after Elias Hasket Derby Junior extended the tunnels;  from  1807 to 1808 there was a 50% drop in tonnage of customs collected reported the Collector of Customs in Salem.  (Digest of Duties, 2 Vols. Manuscript Peabody Essex Museum). Now that was on hell of a dent made from Mr. Derby’s tunnels.

In time smuggling was not stopped in Salem from honest custom agents and personal, but shallow ports. The trade moved to Boston. It probably would of continued on to the modern day if the ports were deeper. So today our tunnels serve as sewers and conduits for our utilities and we are only left with their stories. A loss to us all.

Hello,

Today we are going to the sordid life of Elias Hasket Derby. His father arranged his marriage to his political rival George Crowninshield’s daughter and built them a small brick house. Now it was strange for a man as smart and wealthy as Richard Derby was to build this new couple such a small home and to build it out of brick. For everyone knew who lived in Salem you never build a brick house in this town. One man did and he died of a cold, so no one there after with any good sense would ever build a home out of such.

Soon this little brick house would spur a slur of brick homes built for the wealthy in town associated to the Derby’s through marriage or blood. Now the queer thing about the house, beyond it being made out of bricks, was it took a year to just get the roof on. A second thing was the pile of bricks that were purchased was enough to make 3 homes of the same size as this modest dwelling. Day after day the pile got smaller and the home didn’t get any bigger. So what was going on?

Behind this tiny brick house on the next block was a home of a totally different affair. The Derby’s cousin had a home there. This man of the Hodges family was the founder of the Salem East India Marine Society whose museum would morph into the Peabody Essex Museum in time. Se the museum he founded had a series of tunnels leading to every location it dwelt in to move artifacts to. Also the Hodges utilized these tunnels to move cargo from their wharves to their stores without paying taxes to  his majesty. Now Richard was bringing his son up in the business and felt it pertinent to have his house connected to the tunnels too.

Now the Derby’s were loyal British subjects at the onset of the Revolutionary War, but that would all change once they confiscated one of Elias’ ships. Afterward Elias had became the most successful privateer in the country which led him to become America’s first millionaire. He might not of been the first privateer in Salem, but he sold his ship Come Along Paddy to the first privateer which was renamed Revenge!  His brother John sailed for England and was the first to tell the crown the war had started.  I guess he failed to mention that his brother was the most successful privateer fleecing their merchant fleet… Plus it was Elias’ cannons they smuggled out of Salem to Lexington during Leslie’s Retreat.

Now what is the difference between a Privateer and a Pirate? A Piece of paper. Even Blackbeard was a privateer who let his paperwork slip… By the way, that museum I was mentioning earlier; it has Blackbeard’s skull in their basement because of his poor clerical skills. So just in case the British would invade Salem, they had extended the tunnels throughout town to smuggle cargo through. Derby had a second mansion built next to his tiny brick home. Only half of it remains. The second half was moved off the commons. This home he never finished or moved into. He used it as his warehouse in which he smuggled all of the booty he confiscated from the British. In fact the half that was moved has a  plaque on it describing it as Derby’s warehouse. Now this was strange though, the fact they feared an invasion from the British. The colonial merchant knew the war was unfavorable in London. The longer the war took, the longer the British merchant was not going to get paid for the credit he extended to these merchants who turned into privateers.  Also they were still doing business with them.

Point in fact. The HMS Nautilus was chasing a privateer into the Salem-Beverly harbor when both ships ran aground on a sand bar. The privateer unloaded their cannons and floated them to the beach and began firing. Fort Lee was trained on the Nautilus as well as cannons on the beach in Beverly. Within 6 hours all of those cannons did not hit the Nautilus even once. There might of been naval battles off Marblehead, but never again off Salem. In fact these families aligned with the Derby’s would become Federalist. The Federalist were led by the Adams who had strong monarchical tendencies, they shared the same colors with the Tories (Black and White), and continued to do business with the British off the coast during the War of 1812.  They were so blatant about their beliefs many painted  their chimneys black and white right after the war. Only supporters of the crown painted their chimneys this way. Federal Street has the most in town painted in this fashion. We still can see politicians in our government today with ties to these New England families doing favors for British Petroleum; assassinating presidents in Iran and Chile, finishing the Great Game, and leading coups in Venezuela. JP Morgan being fined for causing the housing bubble and market crash of 2008 has ties to George Peabody who started the banking firm and his engineering with Norman Rothschild 4 financial collapses in the 1800’s. Eventually the Federalist after their collapse would rise again as the Whig Party which was a British designation…

Now after the war, these privateers went into politics and extended the tunnels throughout town to avoid paying customs to the new country they helped create. The person who laid out the plans for the extension of these tunnels was Elias’s son. Elias Hasket Derby Junior had inherited his father’s 4th mansion. The infamous tunnel maker Charles Bulfinch had built it for the father who died within the first year living there. So after 2 years of living in retirement as a playboy, Elias Junior had to find gainful employment. So he outfitted the country’s first National Guard unit paid by 144 merchants in town to extend the tunnels in town under the disguise of improving the local common.

 

 

Remember that first brick house? Now it was all the rage to build these brick mansion all over town. When you built two next to each other no one asked where all of the extra brick was going…   A lot easier than hiding the bricks when you are building a tiny single home. Over the next 50 years the five ponds in the common, the river leading to Collins Cove, Mill Pond, Ruck’s Pond, the pond by the train station, Collins Cove, Forrester Street, and portions of the South River would be used to hide all of the tunnel dirt that was being dug up. All of these brick homes not only hid the purchase of bricks needed to build the tunnels, but it also allowed for the tunnels to be connected to their fireplace arches in the basement. This provided an advancement to the previous simple square door frames that connected the homes to the tunnels which were always leaking.  Now these arches would extend 2 to 3 feet into the homes removing the fear of leaking. Also with the flue in the arch leading up the chimney it created a draw system throughout the tunnels which would draw fresh air into them. Now Elias Junior kept this up till 1814 when he decided to take his friend John Fairfield to New Londonbery, NH and go into the Sheep business.

He sold the mansion and its property to John Derby and Senator Benjamin Pickman. They tore it down and built several properties on Derby Square which they promptly connected to the tunnels. Also Elias Hasket Derby III would find the Colonial Railroad and work with John Kinsman, superintendent of the Eastern Railroad, and connect the old train tunnel on Washington Street to the Kinsman Building which had a secret underground train station in front of it.

 

By the way, all of those brick homes around the commons are separated by the original length from that tiny brick house to the Hodges home on the corner of Essex and Orange Streets. You work with what you know. Elias Junior had the plans and purchase orders for the bricks needed to build that tunnel to his cousin’s house from his grandfather. If any of the Derby’s descendants are out their in politics to this day, you can be guaranteed they are sticking to what they know too. One of those things is the ability to utilize game theory. When Coke and Pepsi decided to only have taste challenges against each other these to giants shared the funding to out promote all of the competition which went by the way side. In Salem the Crowninshiled’s of the Democratic-republican party had worked with their enemies the Derby’s of the Federalist Party to effectively control both sides. Much like today graduates and friends of Yale sit on both sides of the aisle in Congress and control both of our current political parties. Things do not change much, now do they….

For more about the tunnels in Salem read Salem Secret Underground:The History of the Tunnels in the City. Also you can venture on the route of the tunnels and learn their history first hand by going on one of Salem’s best walking tours there is!  The Salem Tunnel Tour offers tours at various times throughout the week. Check them out today!