Martha's Vineyard

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You've been working on the story for the first time in school.

No, not at all. I'm so sorry for my savings. You're all right. Yes, exactly. I'm so sorry for the story. I just understand. I'm just a studio, a job or a home.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the story. I'm sorry. - You're right. With this story. For such a small island,

Martha's Vineyard has played host to an incredible amount of human history,

going back many thousands of years. Although it's thought of as a retreat for the rich and famous nowadays, the Vineyard has an intriguing past that is surprising in its scope. But who were the first people to inhabit this island and how did colonization alter its course?

“More recently, how did the winds of war and cultural trends shaped the island we know today?”

Tonight we'll start with native folklore and geology and then travel through history until we reach the island's glamorous modern image. So just relax and let your mind drift as we explore the sleepy history of Martha's Vineyard. According to the indigenous people of today's North Eastern United States,

there once was a giant benevolent being called Masha. As the legend goes, Masha lived on a nearby island, the native people called Noepay, and which is now referred to by others as Martha's Vineyard. He was responsible for creating many aspects of his landscape. In the stories, Masha's main sustenance was broiled whales.

“Sometimes throwing rocks into the water,”

he would wade out to the whales from his dwelling in the cliffs of Aquina and pling them onto the shore.

According to the Wapanoid people who first populated the island,

the deity also did this as a gift to them to help them survive. The abundance of Masha's whales is credited for some of the bones that, even now, are embedded in the cliffs there. Masha did not just provide the tribe with food. According to their stories, he also cared for their mental and emotional well-being,

teaching them to be respectful and charitable by his example. The first people's hold that Masha was responsible for shaping other geographical features nearby, including Nantucket and parts of Cape God. They say that once he felt his work was done, teaching the Wapanoid how to live on Noepay,

he transformed into a white whale and swam off into the ocean. Confident that they would be safe and secure for the future. According to the Wapanoid Tribal website, the island had once been a peninsula. As the story goes, it first became separated from the mainland when Masha,

weary from a day's journey, dragged his foot. When he did a trickle of water grew in the depression he left behind. The stream that appeared kept widening until Noepay was an island. If you consult today's scientists, they have a somewhat more detailed explanation for the early formation of Martha's Vineyard,

but it certainly shows some similarities.

geologists believe the island was initially created by the slow movement of enormous sheets of ice,

“beginning roughly 2.5 million years ago.”

At that time, glaciers as large as two miles thick edged all the way from the far north and then to Europe, where they traveled on to North America. Moving ever so gradually, the ice churned up everything in its path,

creating mounds of earth and rock. This progress took literally thousands of millennia, which is a little hard for the human mind to comprehend. But eventually, the ice reached warmer parts of the earth and began to slow down.

Then in a comparatively recent period 20,000 years ago,

finally the ice began to recede.

“At that point, the places off of Cape Cod,”

that we now know as islands, were still attached to the mainland. Because of that, humans were able to trek out to these locations on foot. But then slowly, the ice sheets began to melt.

As the water rose, these bar-flung points became islands. Some scientists believe the sea may have risen as much as 400 feet. The receding glaciers also left behind a gift. They created cavities in the earth

that joined with underground springs to give the islands their fresh water ecosystems. And as they plowed their way backwards,

“the glaciers also pushed around the earth,”

creating the unique modern day terrain of that place that would become known as Noebay, which means land amid the waters, or land amid the streams. On that dry land, there was now a profusion of hills

and large stones, especially on the western side of the island. Meanwhile, the eastern or southern coastal portions were predominantly gentle plains. Not all of the Wampanoags settled there.

According to the tribe website, the Wampanoag nation once encompassed all of what we now consider south-eastern Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island. Reportedly, there are more than 67 distinct tribal communities.

Wampanoag means people of the first light,

and the tribe says that they've been living on Noebay for more than 10,000 years. Carbon dating can account for at least a few thousand of those. Apparently camps have been uncovered that are thought to be from roughly 2270 BCE.

Certainly, there is a general agreement that the Wampanoag were, as the tribe states, the islands first people. The Wampanoag lived peacefully on the island for millennia. According to the New York Times,

some historians theorize that Vikings attempted to settle the new England area about 500 years before the arrival of Columbus, but were repelled by the indigenous people. Evidences, however, inconclusive,

and there is absolutely no indication that any Vikings landed on Noebay. In 1524, an Italian explorer named Giovanni Di Verizano, some of whom may recognize from the name of the Verizano-Neros Bridge in New York,

on a mission from the King of France.

“He never seems to have landed on Noebay either,”

but he named the island Louisa when he made a map of the area. But that was just cartography. Nobody tracked on to Noebay at that time. So it seems the Wampanoag were not actually disturbed

by Europeans until an Englishman named Bartholomew Galsnull arrived in 1602, making yet another map. This one for the British Crown. There are conflicting stories about

how he gave the island his own preferred name.

Some say that he named the main island,

Martin's Vineyard, and a smaller nearby island, Martha's Vineyard,

“after either his mother-in-law or daughter.”

In either case, the vineyard portion of the name is attributed to the wild grapes that grew in abundance there. It seems that Galsnull didn't hang around

in Noebay. But just three years later, according to the widely cited blog, history of Massachusetts, a Frenchman by the name of Pierre Du Croix-Démons,

happened by on an expedition. He may have called the place Lassup Senus, which means the doubtful or the suspicious. Apparently, this was because the crew originally

“thought the landmass wasn't even an island.”

Unsurprisingly, that name didn't stick. In 1610, a man named Edward Harlow sailed his ship among the islands of New England and kidnapped Indigenous men.

His aim was to bring them back to England for his own financial game. He took a satchum or chief, named Epinow, from the Nosset tribe,

and included him in that number. After three years of being exhibited in Europe as a curiosity, Epinow escaped by convincing his thin captor for the Nondogorges that he could lead him to a gold mine on Martha's Vineyard.

His ruse worked. Epinow was sent on a voyage to the island with a Captain Nicholas Hobbson, holding a position as a translator and guide. When the ship arrived,

Hobbson's crew were greeted peacefully by the Wabanoic, including Epinow's own relatives. By the next day, the tribe showed up with weapons and canoes and battled the English while Epinow escaped.

The Englishmen returned home in disgrace. Years later, in 1619, a famous English explorer named Thomas Durmer sailed to Martha's Vineyard in an attempt to locate Epinow. He was also peacefully received by Epinow and his tribe,

and the satchum told the story of his escape from Hobbson in an apparently humorous tone. Durmer departed without incident. But when the explorer returned to Noepay a year later, Epinow considered him at threat and responded with hostility.

Most of Durmer's men were killed, and he himself was wounded and taken prisoner. Although he did escape to Virginia afterward, he soon passed away either from his injuries or from disease. Many expeditions tried and failed to leave their mark on Noepay

in the first half of the 17th century.

It wasn't until 1642 that colonists really arrived permanently. At that time, in the eyes of the colonial government, the rights to the island were acquired by a businessman from Medford, Massachusetts named Thomas Mayhew. According to some sources,

he purchased the island known as Martha's Vineyard

from two other settlers.

“He sent his son Thomas there with 40 English families”

to create a settlement. Four years later, Thomas the elder joined them and was considered by the colonists to be governor of the island. Of course, in reality, he was only the governor of the colonist settlement, which evolved into what is now Edgar Town on the eastern coast.

Meanwhile, there were about 3,000 wallpanoic people living happily on the island who did not seek his leadership. Mayhew started off relatively well with the tribe.

He didn't interfere with their lives at first

and the local safes continued their political institutions as before.

“The wallpanoic people responded to them generously”

by teaching them how to hunt whales, first on shore, and later at sea. With their help, the European settlers learned to live well on the island, surviving by both farming and fishing. However, the elder and younger Thomas Mayhew's eventually tried to Christianize the indigenous people.

They did so with the backing of a missionary society called the New England Company, which still exists today. At the same time, they also taught members of the tribe to read and write. In fact, a man named Peter Fulger assisted with that task. And while you might not have heard of him,

“you'll certainly know of his grandson, Benjamin Franklin.”

In fact, due to Peter Fulger, two-wompanoic men named Caleb Chishottamak and Joel Hayagooms went to school on the mainland,

and eventually were among the first Native American students

to study at the Indian College of Harvard University. Joel perished in a shipwreck just before commencement, but Caleb is still celebrated as the university's first Native American graduate. Their story was reimagined in a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Geraldine Brooks called Caleb's Crossing.

Particularly, the European settlers began to spread out on Martha's Vineyard. In 1660, they settled in the northern area now known as Tisbury. Less than a decade later, they also settled in Aquina in the southwest,

which was, and still is, sacred territory for the indigenous people.

The name, meaning, land under the hill. The younger Thomas Mayhew passed away on a sea voyage in 1657, but his son's Matthew and John continued his work on Martha's Vineyard. In 1671, the entire island was granted to the Duke of York, becoming a holding of the province of New York,

but the Mayhws were allowed to stay on in their current capacity. In 1675, a conflict between the Wompadoic tribes and European settlers on the mainland had the effect of creating heightened tensions on Martha's Vineyard. Led by a seachum named Metacomet, whom the English dubbed King Philip, the mainland Wompanoics joined with other native tribes

and rose up against the encroachment of the colonists. The violent conflict was devastating for the Wompanoics, drastically reducing their numbers, even Metacomet himself fell in battle. Although the Wompanoics on Martha's Vineyard had remained neutral,

the event created distress between the colonists and the native people living on the island. Perhaps in response to that, the English stepped up their efforts to convert the Wompanoics to Christianity, persuading as many as possible to embrace their religion.

In 1682, Matthew Mayhew succeeded his grandfather as governor, and in 1692, the island was transferred from the province of New York

Most histories of the island gloss over much of the early 18th century,

“jumping straight from the era of the Mayhws to the American Revolution.”

But it is worth mentioning that during this time, colonists continued to deepen their roots, creating more formal communities, and establishing meeting houses in the lake. And it wasn't just land that was lost to the native people.

Although the Wompanoics on Martha's Vineyard had not fallen victim to all of the health epidemics colonists brought to New England,

they were caught up in a particularly bad one that started in Nantucket

in 1763 and killed hundreds. Historians only have theories about which sickness was to blame, but epidemics such as these, combined with other factors, strange the Wompanoic population everywhere, including on Martha's Vineyard.

“Additionally, it's important to note that not long after the early colonists had arrived,”

there were also people from the African diaspora living on the island, often brought by white settlers as enslaved people or indentured servants. As it happens, the mid-1700s marked a notable event in the Black community there. According to historical records, that year of formerly enslaved woman named Rebecca Amos, who had been born in West Africa,

became the first Black resident to own her own home.

This came to pass after her Wompanoic husband died, leaving her the property. She is now recognized on the African American heritage trail on the island. The year 1778 brought a misfortune so widespread that it negatively affected every group of people living on the island.

On September 10th, in the midst of the American Revolution, a British fleet of 40 ships stormed Martha's Vineyard. Amid the devastation, 30 vessels and assault works were burned. Perhaps even worse, more than 10,000 sheep were taken, as well as 300 cattle and 30 firearms.

The economic setback was so severe that it echoed down through the decades, hampering the formerly prosperous islanders, until a rise in wailing filled the void for more than a half century later. However, better times did come. In fact, the 1820s heralded what some consider to be the golden age

of wailing on the island. Although the wailing trade there was not as grand as that of Nantucket or New Bedford, a fair amount of wealth flowed into the island economy. As proof, the Martha's Vineyard website and the New York Times cite the large number of lavish captain's homes

that were built in Vineyard Haven and Edgar Town between 1820 and 1845.

“Further, the history of Massachusetts's site lists a number of other important buildings”

and enterprises that appeared in that era, such as the Backster Academy and the Customs House and Burst Methodist and Congressional Churches in Edgar Town. In 1844, there was even a rebuild of the wooden Cape Hogue Light on Chapequitic Island, which had deteriorated since its original construction in 1801.

Wailing was not just important to the white colonists, according to historical records, both the native people and many African Americans also made their living at sea. Official correspondence about the Walpanoag who were still living on Chapequitic Island discussed the fact that it was actually one of the few ways they could still support themselves

with their land ever more encroached upon by the white population.

In fact, living among the Walpanoags on Chapequitic

“was an African American man named William A. Martin.”

He was married to a member of the tribe and has the distinction of being the era's only master of wailing ships on Martha's Vineyard who was black. Adding to the diverse group of people living and working on the island at the time, there was a particular community that now comes as a surprise to many people.

By the early 1800s, Martha's Vineyard, particularly the northern town of Chilmark, had attracted notice for its extremely high concentration of people who had been born deaf.

“Not only did the island exhibit the highest rates of deafness in all of New England,”

but many of the people on the mainland who were born deaf happened to be related to people on Martha's Vineyard. More than 200 years later, listeners like ourselves would naturally conclude there was a genetic link. But in the 19th century, genetics was very much an emerging field. In fact, Alexander Graham Bell of telephone fame had a special interest in that area of science. He was a foremost expert in the education of deaf people.

And in the beginning of the 19th century, he said about trying to explain how deafness might be inherited. His methodology was to trace the genealogy of residents of New England who had two or more deaf children.

“This is how he stumbled upon the large concentration of deaf people on Martha's Vineyard.”

We now know, of course, that he was on the right track,

but he was never able to account for the fact that some parents had both deaf and hearing children,

and that hearing parents also had deaf children. His work went unfinished. We now know that the reason this was happening was because of recessive genes. Some hearing parents carried the gene without being deaf, when combined with the same gene in another parent, deafness would be present.

At 1981 article published by the Duke's County Historical Society, explained how this genetic trend was magnified by island life. Since a regular ferry was established only in 1800, in the early days, the island was much more isolated and travel was far more difficult. Further, chill mark was not near any busy ports.

Even for other residents, it was an arduous journey across the island to reach it in those days. As such, people living there were fairly insular.

The first deaf islander was a man named Jonathan Lambert, who arrived with his family in 1692,

and his wife must have carried a recessive gene for deafness. His will revealed that two of his seven children were also deaf, and his hearing children also carried the gene and it took to their marriages. According to the article by 1807, 75% of the island's families came from a pool of only 32 names. So it's easy to see how the number of deaf people could become so great.

But what's truly fascinating and inspiring about this story is how the people of Martha's Vineyard included and accommodated deaf residents in mainstream life. In fact, the people on the island developed their own sign language, known as MVSL, from Martha's Vineyard Sign Language, and it was widely used, which made life much easier for the deaf residents.

Tax records show deaf residents were always as gainfully employed as anyone else,

and were involved in social affairs. In other words, deaf people on Martha's Vineyard encountered few barriers, especially compared to other places. By mid-century improvements in transportation resulted in much more mobility and the concentration of people carrying the deafness gene dissipated.

“But the story is such an important one, providing a model for inclusion that is still relevant today.”

Speaking of transportation and mobility, by the mid-19th century, the same routes that allowed people to leave the island were also allowing them to arrive.

That's relevant to a very notable development in 1835, which was the year that the Methodists first held what they called a camp meeting and Wesleyan Grove.

Religious activities were nothing new on Martha's Vineyard. However, this particular two-week campground retreat would go on to catapult the new England island to the status of a resort, eventually creating the glamorous getaway that people think of in popular culture today.

“If you're wondering how a Methodist camp meeting could beer off in that direction, you're not alone.”

It's a very interesting aspect of Martha's Vineyard history. To begin with, the 1835 retreat was such a success that it began to happen annually. As it did, the words spread and more and more people joined in. By 1857, the original cluster of nine tents had expanded to 250. Gradually, people began to build permanent platforms to camp upon and then the platforms gave way to actual colleges.

“The first of these old school tiny houses were what we would call pre-fab, and were brought in on horse-drawn wagons in 1864.”

So even as the Civil War brought an end to the golden age of wailing and presumably some of its abundant income, the Methodist camp, which was named Wesleyan Grove, Chapter Methodism Founder John Wesley, continued to grow. By 1880, the Grove had become a community of five hundred tiny cottages. It just so happens that Wesleyan Grove was being built during a time when Carpentry was getting fancier and cheaper, thanks to the power-driven jigsaw.

Lots of us have seen Victorian era homes that are covered in lacy woodwork. This style is often called gingerbread. So it's easy to understand why the people building these cottages took advantage of the trend, constructing their tiny houses in a manner that the New York Times describes as a hybrid of Eurogothic Revival Styles. The result was a look that was sometimes referred to as Carpentry Gothic,

and keeping with the mood of a tent with its flaps always open to conversation, the little houses were modeled in a triangle with steeply pitched roofs.

During this period, while all the cottages were being built, Wesleyan Grove continued to attract attention. Naturally, where there was a popular destination, spectators were going to try to take advantage.

And by 1869, low and behold, the former campground got its very own host office.

“In 1880, the area was incorporated officially as Cottage City.”

Meanwhile, in 1874, former President Ulysses S. Grant arrived in a steamer called the River Queen, and visited many locations on the island, including the Methodist Camp meeting.

After a whirlwind day in a fireworks display, he wished his supporters farewell with the words,

"I thank you for your cheerful greeting, no doubt you are tired and sleepy as am I, so I will not detain you." But, however short his visit may have been, it did make an impression. As it turns out, he was a precursor for a parade of political celebrities who would follow a century later.

“However, it's important to remember that vacationers were late to come to Martha's Benjert in the scheme of things.”

There was another official chain to decade earlier in 1870 that is important to note. That was when, over the abjection of the Wapanoag people, their tribal lands in Aquina were incorporated under the name, the colonists had assigned to it in the 1600s. It was now known as gayhead. Although the government of gayhead continued to be controlled by tribal leaders,

“its incorporation under that name was an act that the Wapanoag would seek for many years to overturn.”

As the 19th century moved on, steamer ships brought more and more vacationers to Martha's Benjert from the big cities of the East Coast. Far from roughing it in a tent, people were playing lawn games, swimming and enjoying nature. And as the century waned, Martha's Benjert became a luxurious haven with grand hotels popping up around Oaks Bluffs Harbor. Accordingly, a railroad was built to connect the town with the beach at Katama on the southern shore. As the 20th century dawned, cottage city was renamed Oak Bluffs.

This part of the island became in particular, a center of activity for a fluent black visitors.

In 1912, a man named Charles Shurer, whose mother had once been enslaved, turned a cottage in Oak Bluffs into the first in for black vacationers.

The popularity of the island in the black community continued to grow when reverend Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and his wife Isabelle bought a house there in 1837. Isabelle was a well-known figure in the Harlem Renaissance and a former dancer at the famous Cotton Club. Powell was a minister at the Obsidian Baptist Church in Harlem at the time. They lived together at their house in Oak Bluffs, hosting many influential figures of the era until they divorced in 1945. At that time, Powell began his impressive career as a congressman in New York, eventually figuring prominently in the civil rights movement.

Their home is now a stop on the African American Heritage Trail on Martha's Vineyard. With the 1940s, the onset of World War II presented major challenges to normal life on the island.

With activities ranging from beach landings to cliff climbing to simulated gunfire and bombing rounds, the maneuvers were designed to replicate planned landings in Normandy on D-Day.

“Thankfully, with the end of the war, Martha's Vineyard was able to return to its prior lifestyle.”

The latter half of the 20th century saw the development of Martha's Vineyard into the elite haven most people would recognize today. Although the island is only about 96 square miles and has a year-round population of fewer than 21,000 people, that number grows to over 200,000 people in the summertime. Further recent data suggests that more than half of the 14,000 homes on the island are only occupied seasonally. Unfortunately, only about 300 of the current residents are often know it.

“But in 1997, the region's native people rallied and not support to return the area of gay head back to its original name of Aquina.”

The island, and especially the Oak Bluffs area, has continued to be a locus of activity for successful figures in the Black community. Author Maya Angelou was quoted as saying that it was "a safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned."

Although the Kennedy family may have been the first political clan most strongly associated with Martha's Vineyard,

the island has also become known for hosting the Clintons in the 1990s and the Obama family who visited in 2009 and purchased a 30-acre homestead on Edgerton Great Pond in 2019.

“As history has shown, of course, life on Martha's Vineyard can always pose unexpected barrels.”

The Kennedy family did suffer more than their share of misfortune during their extensive time on the island. First, in 1969, when Senator Edward Kennedy drove off a bridge on chapquidic, causing his passenger Mary Joke a peck knee to drown. Then, in 1999, when the private plane carrying John F. Kennedy Jr. his wife Carolyn Bezett and her sister Lauren was lost.

These were high-profile tragedies that will always be associated with the history of the island.

In recent years, Martha's Vineyard has also been jokingly called Hollywood East. To begin with, in 1974, the island gained broad national attention when the hit movie "Jaws" was filmed there, featuring local residents in some roles. Just a few years later, in 1977, there was actually a movement for Martha's Vineyard to succeed from Massachusetts after losing a guaranteed seat in general court. Vermont and Hawaii both offered to annex the island, and the residents even discussed trying to become a separate territory, or perhaps a state.

Ultimately, the effort failed.

But the Separatist flag, which features a white seagull flying over an orange disc, is still proudly blown by some enthusiasts today. All kinds of celebrities have flocked to Martha's Vineyard for recreation in recent decades. It is remained popular with artists, writers, musicians, and actors. John Balushi is actually buried on Martha's Vineyard, and the list of modern stars who have frequented the island include people like David Letterman, Bill Murray, spouses Ted Danson, and Marystein Bergen, and Quincy Jones.

This profusion of stars and politicians has its downside as they bring with them security details that further complicate traffic on the island.

“And even for the common visitor, the summer fairy is notoriously busy.”

But people who love the Vineyard say that, despite it all, it's a place of respite and enjoyment for them.

They are happy to put up with the hassle.

For an area less than a hundred square miles in size, the island known as Noebay or Martha's Vineyard has created a stage for a staggering amount of history.

“Rich with the interwoven lives of so many people who came from so many different backgrounds, its allure continues to be undeniable.”

Perpetually beautiful, although often controversial, the former stomping grounds of mashup seems likely to endure with dignity.

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