Massachusetts Gazetteers & Histories
I think the changes in the landscape and physical
descriptions of the towns are particularly interesting,
and those are a big part of the MHS and Dwight sections.
The
Massachusetts Historical Society published many relevant
articles in its early Collections.
In 1794 there were
articles featuring Barnstable, Mashpee, Nantucket,
Truro, Wellfleet, Middleborough, and Raynham,
Massachusetts; Machias, Sebago Lakes, Topsham, Wells,
and York, Maine; and Roger Williams's notes on the
Naragansetts. In 1798 :
Massachusetts and New York Indians and missionaries in
the 1790s, Indian-Plymouth treaties circa 1670,
settlement of the Narragansett country, Yarmouth and
Newton histories, ancient Mass. Bay laws. In 1802 : descriptions
of the Outer Beach with its Humane Society huts,
Sandwich, Dennis, Chatham, Orleans, Eastham and
Provincetown. In 1809 :
Brewster and Harvard, 17th and 18th Century Indians in
eastern Massachusetts.
Edward
Augustus Kendall published Travels through the
northern parts of the United States in the years 1807
and 1808. The Cape and Islands
section is done, with parts of Maine to come.
Rev. Timothy Dwight traveled New England and New York
from 1795 to 1815, and his notes were published in 4
volumes in 1821and 1822. He made a horseback Journey to Provincetown in 1800. I
couldn't find it anywhere else, so I posted the table of contents for
the 4 volumes, also.
There is John Hayward's 1839 New England Gazetteer, with the Cape and Islands and a few
parts of Connecticut,
Maine, more of Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Rev. Enoch Pratt published A Comprehensive History,
Ecclesiastical and Civil, of Eastham, Wellfleet and
Orleans, from 1644 to 1844.
There is Fowle and Fitz's
1845 Elementary Geography for Massachusetts
Children, from which you can read just the entries
for the Cape and
Islands or the full text.
Rev. Elias
Nason wrote The
Massachusetts Gazetteer, published in 1874.
I've posted Barnstable
county and its towns so far.
Elias Nason
and George Varney wrote a revised Massachusetts Gazetteer, published in
1890, and I've scanned and posted the whole thing,
except for the pictures ("a picture is worth a thousand
words; unfortunately, it consumes the bandwidth of ten
thousand words.") This is a county by county and town by
town description of people, industries and geography,
with a long overview of the whole commonwealth.
Click the links to the separate indices to go straight
to the lists of counties, towns and villages and geographic
features. (Cape Cod is Barnstable county, Martha's
Vineyard is Dukes.) Here are the entries for Cape Cod: Bourne, Falmouth, Sandwich, Mashpee, Barnstable
(town), Barnstable
county, Yarmouth,
Dennis, Harwich, Chatham, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, Provincetown.
Simeon
L. Deyo edited the History of Barnstable County,
Massachusetts, over 1000 pages, also published in 1890.
Here are the intro,
industrial resources,
lawyers, physicians, authors and publications,
Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth, Barnstable, Mashpee, Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich, Chatham, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown histories and
biographies. Wellfleet is indexed.
Captain J. Henry Sears compiled Brewster Ship
Masters, published in 1906. Henry C.
Kittredge wrote an article on the Cape-Boston
packets.
"History" for fun.
David L.
Belding's 1920 A
Report upon the Alewife Fisheries of Massachusetts.
The herring runs even then, or especially then, had been
nearly ruined by incompetence, greed and pollution.
Maps
I've posted a set of topographic
and political maps, featuring Cape Cod, coastal
Maine and central Vermont.