The Genealogy Impulse

I think it is human nature to wonder where we come from, in the sense of knowing our ancestors. Ever since I went to my first major family reunion with extended relatives, I have been interested in looking back into history to see how we all connect. One branch of my family, the Webbers, hailed from around Salem, Massachusetts. In 2013, I traveled there in order to do some genealogical research on my great-great-great-grandfather, Charles Henry Webber (1845-1923), who was somewhat of a family legend. Charles had served as a drummer boy in the U.S. Civil war starting at age 16, and he later made a name for himself as a journalist, playwright, actor, orator, and editor of the Salem Post. He spent the later part of his life devoted to practicing and writing about concepts that today we might categorize as New Thought. It is no wonder I connected deeply with this ancestor and wanted to learn more about him.
I stayed with friends for a week in Cambridge (and got to explore Harvard a little) and used this as my home base for getting to Boston, Salem, Beverly, and Danvers. I also visited Cheers (being a huge Frasier fan) and caught up with an old friend from junior high school.
During this trip, I spent my days looking through library archives, museums, and even deed records in order to find information about where Charles Webber and his family lived. All the while, I imagined what life must have been like for them in the 19th century.

Tracing my Ancestors' Footsteps

Going to Salem was like traveling back in time. The colonial architecture, the historic brick roads, the libraries filled with centuries-old books—everything seemed to ring of a familiar past that I never knew but desperately wanted to experience. From there, I made my way to the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston, where I found young Charles's name (as well as his brother's) in the listings for military service during the Civil War.
Charles Webber, who sometimes shortened his name to Carl, was the editor of the Salem Post. He also wrote and published non-fiction, including Old Naumkeag​ (1877), a historical and geographical description of the Salem area (Boston's "North Shore"). Naumkeag was the Native American name for the area. While in Salem, I managed to find the church that had appeared on the front cover.
In Old Naumkeag, Charles wrote of a place in his hometown of Beverly (near Salem) called “Webber’s Point,” which didn’t appear on any current map. I found a drawer of old map scrolls in the Beverly public library, including an 1870s property map of Beverly, in which a street called Webber Avenue led to a point on a river matching Charles' geographical description. It is now called Goat Hill Park.

Colonial Roots

Old Naumkeag also traces the history of some of the prominent families of the area back to colonial times. One such family was the Endicotts (formerly spelled Endecott), with which Charles had an intimate connection. In 1870, he married Mary Endicott (1853-1930), the daughter of Capt. Charles Endicott (1823-1906) and a direct descendant of John Endecott (c. 1588-1665), the first colonial governor of Massachusetts.
According to Charles Webber, Gov. Endecott is often overlooked by historians who credit John Winthrop as being the first Massachusetts governor. This is because Endecott was the extension of British rule, holding government meetings in England, whereas Winthrop conducted government business in Massachusetts. Gov. Endecott is also credited with having planted—in about 1632—the first fruit tree in America. The now-known Endicott Pear Tree still stands in the town of Danvers, which is not its original location.
Over the generations, most branches of the Endecott family (who changed their spelling to Endicott early on) left Salem and settled elsewhere. Capt. Charles Endicott (1826-1906) represented one of the branches who stayed. He began his life as a seaman when at the age of 15 he joined Captain Augustus Perry and sailed for Calcutta, India, on the ship Carthage. He would later sail aboard the Unicorn, the Thomas Perkins, and the Josiah Quincy, all involved in the trading business. His most distant voyages took him to the Philippines, China, South Africa, and Indonesia. Salem was a world-renowned seaport in Capt. Endicott’s time. He lived in the ritzier part of town, at the address 90 Bridge Street. The Custom House (photo below), which would have had logs of all the ships’ dates of arrival and departure as well as manifests, was not open to me during my visit. (It's the same Custom House that Nathaniel Hawthorne describes in The Scarlet Letter!)
Another intriguing piece of history I set out to investigate was the controversy surrounding the birth and custody of his daughter, Mary Endicott (who would eventually marry Charles Webber). Capt. Endicott was married to a woman named Sarah and with her had a daughter, Elizabeth (“Lizzy”). But he also sired another daughter, Mary, with another woman whose name is not clear. Rather than abandon Mary (whose mother may have been no longer living), Capt. Endicott and Sarah legally “adopted” her. This caused complications and tensions in the family, especially with regard to Capt. Endicott’s will, over which family members disputed the fact that Mary was the captain’s biological daughter. Unfortunately, my trip did not reveal any new details about this matter. The captain’s house, which he had inherited from his father, Capt. Aaron Endicott, was left to a third daughter, Alice, whom he fathered much later.
Finding Capt. Endicott’s house was my next mission, but it proved to be difficult. The address 90 Bridge Street no longer exists. Using Salem’s public library, I looked through every possible city directory up to the 1890s, looking for addresses under the name Charles Endicott. Up through 1884, his address was indeed 90 Bridge Street, and the older directories even gave a geographical description of the house’s block as being between Lemon Street and the railroad tracks. However, starting in 1886, Capt. Endicott’s address was given as 116 Bridge Street. At first, I figured he had simply moved. But when I visited this new address, I noticed it matched the geographical description of what was originally 90 Bridge Street, indicating that the houses along Bridge Street were actually renumbered sometime between 1884 and 1886! An 1851 property map with Capt. Endicott’s name on it confirms that this is indeed the same Endicott house.

The Family Legacy

The Salem of the 1870’s was quite different than it is today. First of all, as I learned, the hype and tourism based on the witch trials began only in the 1900s. In the 1800’s, Salem would have been much better prided for its maritime trade status than for the witch trials, which, as Charles Webber wrote, still wrought a bit of shame on the locals even two hundred years after they took place.
Charles Webber married Mary Endicott, the captain’s daughter, in May of 1870. But where did they live during that time? Surprisingly, the city directories from the 1870s place Charles and Mary Webber at a house none other than 90 Bridge Street. Indeed, it appears that Capt. Endicott took in both his daughter and his new son-in-law after the wedding, and these three individuals lived under one roof until about 1880.

In the photos below, you can also see the Salem Athenaeum, which houses a grand library and at which Ralph Waldo Emerson once gave lectures, as well as the First Unitarian Church, where Charles Webber's brother Putnam Webber served as a minister, and the Salem Witch Museum.
While living in Salem, Charles Webber owned and ran a newspaper called the Salem Post, which operated out of what was then known as Hale’s Building on Essex street. The building still stands, though it has since gained a fifth floor and is now called the Bank Plaza Building. By chance, I met the owner of the building, who confirmed that the building was the same one as in the photograph in Charles Webber’s (1877) book. To the late editor’s amusement, perhaps, the business presently operating on the main level of this building is a toy store.
Barnun Circus Elephants, seen from Essex Street, Salem 1877
Even after this trip, there was still much to learn about Charles Webber, particularly his Civil War service as a teenager. For this reason, in 2016 I ventured into the south for another historical research trip...