File:A gazetteer of the state of Massachusetts - with numerous illustrations (1890) (14580313450).jpg

Identifier: gazetteerofstate00naso (find matches)
Title: A gazetteer of the state of Massachusetts : with numerous illustrations
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors: Nason, Elias, 1811-1887 Varney, George J. (George Jones), 1836-1901
Subjects: Massachusetts -- Gazetteers
Publisher: Boston : B.B. Russell
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Public Library

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iversify the scenery. Scrub oak is frequent. Theprinciple timber growth is oak and yellow pine. Extensive tracts ofland, in addition to the natural growth, have been planted from timeto time for twenty or thirty years past, with the seed of the last-mentioned tree; so that there are now many thrifty young foreststo be found in almost every part of the Cape. The county contains fifteen towns,— which are as follows : —Barnstable, Bourne, Brewster, Chatham, Dennis, Eastham, Falmouth,Harwich, Mashpee, Orleans, Provincetown, Sandwich, Truro, Well-fleet and Yarmouth. The first of the list is the shire town.The population by the last census was 29,845, with 8,330 families.Its valuation in 1888 was $17,574,222, and the number of dwelling-houses was 7,797; of horses, 3,161; of neat cattle, 3,909; of sheep,435. The number of public school buildings in 1885 was 223; andthere were twelve high schools. There was also one incorporatedschool, the Lawrence Academy, and the Sandwich Academy (under
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CAPE COD VIEWS. BERKSHIRE. 65 trustees.) which included the town high school. Of the fifteen townscomprised in the county, Barnstable is the most important;though in recent years Provincetown has gained an excess inpopulation. Being the seat of justice for the county, it containsa commodious court-house and other countv buildiners. The recordsof the court and of deeds, from the separation of the Plymouth andMassachusetts Bay colonies down to September, 1827, were destroyedby the fire which destroyed the county offices. These were ina building separate from the court-house of that time, and the latterhas been remodelled into a church for the Second Baptist Society.There were burned in this conflagration ninety folio volumes of therecord of deeds, and several of the court-records. The settlement of the county appears to have been made almostsimultaneously in Sandwich, at the western extremity, and at Prov-incetown at the eastern; both towns having been incorporated onSeptember 3d, 1639.

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