Wenham Lake
Encyclopedia
Wenham Lake is a lake located in Wenham
and Beverly
, Massachusetts
. In the 19th century the lake was famous for its ice, harvested and transported by ship throughout the world. It was reputed to be Queen Victoria
's favorite. Today the lake is dedicated to being a water supply operated by the Salem
and Beverly Water Supply Board.
Wenham lake collects water from the water table and from a system of brooks leading from Beaver Pond, Norwood Pond and Longham Reservoir in the fields and woods to the east. These streams are controlled waterways. Drainage into the lake is through a pipe running under Route 1a in the vicinity of the public golf course to the north of the lake. To the west drainage enters the lake through deeply cut ravines in glacial features forested with hemlock and pine. These abut on Beverly Airport.
The lake in the 21st century and its shores are not accessible to the general public. The facilities at the southern end are restricted by high fences kept under surveillance by cameras. The shores of the lake are posted against trespassing. Stands of evergreens left on the knolls surrounding the lake are privately owned. Due to increased isolation of the lake bed migratory birds typically seen only in Wenham Swamp a mile to the north now rest and feed in larger numbers in the lake.
probably lived around Wenham Lake before European settlements in 1635, no such traces have been found. The Agawams
owned it as part of their tribal lands, which comprised all of eastern Essex County
. Those lands were ceded to the English in a quitclaim deed by Chief Masconomet
to John Winthrop the Younger as part of an amalgamation arrangement of what was left of the Agawam (decimated by disease) and the English colonists of Charlestown, Massachusetts
.
The lake first appears in recorded history as Great Pond, part of Salem, Massachusetts
. It was the site of the well-publicised murder of John Hoddy by John Williams. Hoddy's dog detained the murderer until his discovery and arrest.
In 1638, Hugh Peters
, the Puritan
minister of the First Church of Salem, delivered a sermon to a small group of settlers on its shore. His sermon turned upon "Enon, near Salem, because there was much water there," a biblical reference to . The small village nearby was thus named Enon. (A stone with an engraved plaque off Route 1a marks the spot today.) It was officially recognized by the General Court of Massachusetts as a village of Salem on November 5, 1639. On May 10, 1643 it was incorporated as a distinct community and was renamed Wenham
, after a group of towns in England. The lake then became Wenham Lake.
The Quaker
poet John Greenleaf Whittier
wrote in 1877 the poem "The Witch of Wenham" which was set on the shores of Wenham Lake.
fishing was an important part of the economy, and Wenham Lake was the region's main alewife spawning ground via the Miles River, which in turn joins the Ipswich River
. Alewife harvests continued to be important until the 19th century, when dam construction on the Ipswich River ended the trade.
Ice was harvested as follows. A crew of 100 men and 30-40 horses was required. Only in temperatures below freezing, the crew waited for a foot of black ice to form. Snow was swept off and snow-ice was scraped off by horse-drawn vehicles if necessary. Then a horse-drawn cutting tool, the marker, scored a grid 2-3 inches deep forming 21-inch squares over 2-3 acres of ice. Men with saws cut along a line one direction while men with ice spades knocked the blocks free from the strip. Another crew with ice hooks drew the ice onto platforms over ramps. Full platforms were slid onto sledges for transport to ice houses on the shore. An ice house was built of pine walls filled with sawdust to the thickness of two feet. The blocks were packed in sawdust for transport, moved to the train in special wagons and brought directly to a wharf in Boston. They arrived within an hour of cutting with no loss. Transport to Britain by ship lost about 1/3 of the ice.
The ice business continued until at least 1912, when John C. Kelleher founded Beverly Ice Company to harvest the lake's ice. Its end came shortly afterwards.
dating from the 1950s and 1960s. These deposits totaled about 7,800 cubic yards, and were more than 3 feet deep in some locations. Their origin was the nearby Vitale dump, an abandoned gravel and sand quarry that had illegally stored refuse from coal burned at the Salem Harbor Power Generating Station. In subsequent years the lake has been dredged and is now monitored for its long-term health.
Wenham, Massachusetts
Wenham is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,875 at the 2010 census.The Town of Wenham was originally settled in 1635 and has retained much of its unique historic character and tranquil rural scenery...
and Beverly
Beverly, Massachusetts
Beverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 39,343 on , which differs by no more than several hundred from the 39,862 obtained in the 2000 census. A resort, residential and manufacturing community on the North Shore, Beverly includes Beverly Farms and Prides...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. In the 19th century the lake was famous for its ice, harvested and transported by ship throughout the world. It was reputed to be Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
's favorite. Today the lake is dedicated to being a water supply operated by the Salem
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
and Beverly Water Supply Board.
Wenham lake collects water from the water table and from a system of brooks leading from Beaver Pond, Norwood Pond and Longham Reservoir in the fields and woods to the east. These streams are controlled waterways. Drainage into the lake is through a pipe running under Route 1a in the vicinity of the public golf course to the north of the lake. To the west drainage enters the lake through deeply cut ravines in glacial features forested with hemlock and pine. These abut on Beverly Airport.
The lake in the 21st century and its shores are not accessible to the general public. The facilities at the southern end are restricted by high fences kept under surveillance by cameras. The shores of the lake are posted against trespassing. Stands of evergreens left on the knolls surrounding the lake are privately owned. Due to increased isolation of the lake bed migratory birds typically seen only in Wenham Swamp a mile to the north now rest and feed in larger numbers in the lake.
Discovery of the lake
Although Native AmericansNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
probably lived around Wenham Lake before European settlements in 1635, no such traces have been found. The Agawams
Agawam (tribe)
The Agawam tribe was a Native American tribe in New England at the arrival of the English colonists in the early 17th century. Decimated by pestilence shortly before the English colonization and fearing attacks from their hereditary enemies among the tribes of Maine, they invited the English to...
owned it as part of their tribal lands, which comprised all of eastern Essex County
Essex County, Massachusetts
-National protected areas:* Parker River National Wildlife Refuge* Salem Maritime National Historic Site* Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site* Thacher Island National Wildlife Refuge-Demographics:...
. Those lands were ceded to the English in a quitclaim deed by Chief Masconomet
Chief Masconomet
Masconomet, spelled many different ways in colonial deeds, was sagamore or chief of the Agawam tribe among the Algonquian peoples during the time of the English colonization of the Americas...
to John Winthrop the Younger as part of an amalgamation arrangement of what was left of the Agawam (decimated by disease) and the English colonists of Charlestown, Massachusetts
Charlestown, Massachusetts
Charlestown is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and is located on a peninsula north of downtown Boston. Charlestown was originally a separate town and the first capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; it became a city in 1847 and was annexed by Boston on January 5, 1874...
.
The lake first appears in recorded history as Great Pond, part of Salem, Massachusetts
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
. It was the site of the well-publicised murder of John Hoddy by John Williams. Hoddy's dog detained the murderer until his discovery and arrest.
In 1638, Hugh Peters
Hugh Peters
Hugh Peters [or Peter] was an English preacher.-Early life:He was baptized on 29 June 1598 in Fowey, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge....
, the Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
minister of the First Church of Salem, delivered a sermon to a small group of settlers on its shore. His sermon turned upon "Enon, near Salem, because there was much water there," a biblical reference to . The small village nearby was thus named Enon. (A stone with an engraved plaque off Route 1a marks the spot today.) It was officially recognized by the General Court of Massachusetts as a village of Salem on November 5, 1639. On May 10, 1643 it was incorporated as a distinct community and was renamed Wenham
Wenham
-Locality:*Wenham, Massachusetts, town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States**Wenham Historic District, historic district in Wenham, Massachusetts**Hamilton/Wenham , Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Company passenger station...
, after a group of towns in England. The lake then became Wenham Lake.
The Quaker
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
poet John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier
John Greenleaf Whittier was an influential American Quaker poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. He is usually listed as one of the Fireside Poets...
wrote in 1877 the poem "The Witch of Wenham" which was set on the shores of Wenham Lake.
The fishing industry
In early colonial times, alewifeAlewife
The alewife is a species of herring. There are anadromous and landlocked forms. The landlocked form is also called a sawbelly or mooneye...
fishing was an important part of the economy, and Wenham Lake was the region's main alewife spawning ground via the Miles River, which in turn joins the Ipswich River
Ipswich River
Ipswich River is a small river in northeastern Massachusetts, USA. It is long, and its watershed is approximately , with an estimated population in the area of 160,000 people. - Geography :...
. Alewife harvests continued to be important until the 19th century, when dam construction on the Ipswich River ended the trade.
The ice industry
The transatlantic ice trade began in the 1840s, with the first ice cargo arriving in England in 1844 from Wenham Lake. The Landers family, owners of the lake's first ice house, constructed a railroad spur to help transport ice; one of its builders was Grenville Mullen Dodge, later to become famous as a Major General in the Union Army and central in the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. The railroad is now the Beverly-Newburyport Commuter Rail Line. The roadbed of the spur is still visible directly behind the fifth hole at Lakeview Golf Course.Ice was harvested as follows. A crew of 100 men and 30-40 horses was required. Only in temperatures below freezing, the crew waited for a foot of black ice to form. Snow was swept off and snow-ice was scraped off by horse-drawn vehicles if necessary. Then a horse-drawn cutting tool, the marker, scored a grid 2-3 inches deep forming 21-inch squares over 2-3 acres of ice. Men with saws cut along a line one direction while men with ice spades knocked the blocks free from the strip. Another crew with ice hooks drew the ice onto platforms over ramps. Full platforms were slid onto sledges for transport to ice houses on the shore. An ice house was built of pine walls filled with sawdust to the thickness of two feet. The blocks were packed in sawdust for transport, moved to the train in special wagons and brought directly to a wharf in Boston. They arrived within an hour of cutting with no loss. Transport to Britain by ship lost about 1/3 of the ice.
The ice business continued until at least 1912, when John C. Kelleher founded Beverly Ice Company to harvest the lake's ice. Its end came shortly afterwards.
The water supply
Wenham Lake was set aside as a water reservoir for Salem and Beverly Water Supply Board (established 1913). Today Wenham Lake is integrated into the local water distribution system.Environment
In 2001, the Wenham Lake Watershed Association discovered significant contamination of the lake from large deposits of fly ashFly ash
Fly ash is one of the residues generated in combustion, and comprises the fine particles that rise with the flue gases. Ash which does not rise is termed bottom ash. In an industrial context, fly ash usually refers to ash produced during combustion of coal...
dating from the 1950s and 1960s. These deposits totaled about 7,800 cubic yards, and were more than 3 feet deep in some locations. Their origin was the nearby Vitale dump, an abandoned gravel and sand quarry that had illegally stored refuse from coal burned at the Salem Harbor Power Generating Station. In subsequent years the lake has been dredged and is now monitored for its long-term health.