When Essex Lost Its Head: Part II

Geolocating a Particular Rock on a River (1811–2023)

(For this story to make sense, you may want to read Part I first)

So you may be asking yourself? Is this Old Baldy a true story? Is this real?

Thomas Marshall Burnham, Jr. was certainly a real person. Reverend Robert Crowell and David Choate were real people, and they did write the first history of the town of Essex. The Essex River is real — plenty of people cruise, sail and paddle board down it each summer season and can vouch for its veracity. Though Essex itself at times can seem to be its own alternate universe, it is still solidly connected both by population and geography to the rest of Massachusetts. But can we know where this stone-faced stone was dug up?

The Registry of Deeds is where all Essex Country land transactions have been recorded for almost four-hundred years. In the old days (and by the old day’s I mean the 1980’s, when I interned there one summer), to find the history of a property or a specific deed required the expertise of a profession called Title Examiners, an eclectic bunch of individuals with an affinity for the library sciences and a tolerance for a mole-like existence amid a dark warren of ceiling-scraping shelves containing thousands of leather-bound books. Thanks to the internet, all these records can now be found on the Salem Deeds website. It’s a wonderful resource, but still a challenge to conduct a search a property title, especially one from 212 years ago.

But there it is on Book 191, page 222 recorded on Feb 15, 1811 — a deed to Thomas M Burnham. The Grantor (i.e. the seller) was a David Marshall plus practically a dozen other Marshalls and Burnhams who had relocated to what is now Maine. For $452, Thomas M Burnham purchased “a piece of mowing land in said Ipswich in the Chebacco Parish containing two acres.” The description of the parcel was as follows:

· Beginning of the northerly corner of the premises by the corner of Amos Burnham’s shop

· Thence running southwesterly by land of Amos Burnham, the said Thomas M Burnham and Lt. Aaron Low to Israel Andrew’s marsh

· Thence southwesterly by said marsh to Thomas Choate’s land

· Thence northwesterly on a straight line by said Choates land to a stake

· Thence northeasterly by said Choate and heirs of Benjamin and David Marshall to the corner first mentioned

· With a privilege of a way to and from the same for improving the same,

· Through that part of the estate of Benjamin Marshall

Hmmm. Ben & Dave Marshall are long dead. Same for Thomas Choate. Amos Burnham went out of business years ago. Couldn’t find the wooden stake. That pinpoints our search to:

The entire town. :(

Based on the above deed description, Essex residents can (and have) debated the location of Thomas Marshall Burnham’s house, placing it anywhere from north of White’s Hill near Castle Neck River down to east of the Essex River by the Gloucester line.

But an intrepid researcher remains undaunted! There is a passing reference to where Old Baldy was found in an 1889 Beverly Citizen newspaper article — More on that article in a bit. It describes the location as:

“…On Thompson’s Island near the head of the tide water of the Essex River, Essex, Essex County, Mass., A.D. 1811…there was found by the late Moses Andrews a carved stone head. ”

Quick! Run to Google Maps -find Thompson’s Island!

Oops. That’s not it.

You won’t find a reference to “Thompson’s Island” in Essex on Google Maps. In fact, you won’t find a reference to “Thompson’s Island” in Essex on all maps of this period, period.

A quick consultation with the experts at the Essex Historical Society helped solve the mystery. In the 17th century, before there was a causeway across the Essex River, there was a creek that ran north to south around where the Richdale/Mobile Gas station is now. A settler named Thompson lived in the raised land above the water and salt marsh, and this became known as Thompson’s Island:

“Thompson’s Island,” was a rather nebulous geographic appellation that stretched — at least according to modern landmarks — from the Duncan Donuts on Main Street down Southern Ave to School Street and Eastern Ave towards the Blue Marlin Grille. Essex had a “Thompson Island” school district in the 19th Century, but the terms gradually faded away to be replaced by the more prosaic term “South Essex.”

Now we’re getting somewhere. But that’s still roughly a 3-million square feet area, roughly the size of 56 football fields. Not particularly approximate for a Baldy boulder hunt.

However, a Saturday morning spent in the archives of the Essex Historical Society helps us narrow our search further. Digging into the executive meeting minutes in the early summer of 1944 (more on that later! ) — the finding-place of Old Baldy came up as a topic of conversation. You are invited to imagine a Norman Rockwell-style scene of a half-dozen New England types huddled next to a wood stove and a cracker barrel sipping clam chowder and arguing in flat-a “ENEE” (Eastern New-England English aka “Yankee”) accents. The committee members discussed where Old Baldy was dug up, and the general consensus, based on their consultation of books like the Choate/Crowell history and Roderick H. Burnham’s 1869 genealogical work The Burnham Family, was that the Thomas Marshall Burnham House was the John Boyd house.

We’re getting closer! There are no maps of 1811 Essex, but there are later maps that we can consult. The first one is from 1830:

Or the one from 1856:

Or this one from 1884:

On the last map above, you can see the “J.Boyd” notation on the middle right area of the image. The John Boyd house is the Thomas Marshall Burnham house, site of where Old Baldy was found. Sometime between 1884 and 1944 the John Boyd house was demolished.

The consensus among the executive leadership of the 1944-era Essex Historical Society that the site of the old house was The Captain’s Table Restaurant:

OK, we’re getting closer. The Captain’s Table was one of the first seafood restaurants in Essex, next to the Knights of Pythias function hall on Main Street by the southern end of the causeway. It was a well-known restaurant. They probably served a good pour, scrod and a tasty clam chowder.

There’s a slight problem, though. The Captain’s Table doesn’t exist. It was torn down in 1967, 56 years ago.

Can’t stop, won’t stop. Back to our friends at the Essex Historical Society, who consult our mutual friends at the town’s Assessor’s Office. Bingo! We can trace the location of the Captain’s Table through a computerized printout of a deeds list from 1922 to 2022 plus an 2023 assessor’s map:

So where was Old Baldy found? To the best of our research, “X” marks the spot:

Now you know where Old Baldy was found in 1811, read Part III to learn where he ended up between 1868–1956…

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