This Old Tree, with Doug Still
The Mariner and the Mulberry - Transcript Season 2, Episode 5 February 28, 2024 Doug Still: [00:01] A large old mulberry tree spreads its branches over the property at Truro Vineyards on Cape Cod, a popular spot for locals, tourists and wine lovers. It stands near the entrance of the main building, an old house, shading and welcoming visitors. It makes the perfect picture. The twisting branches, the bulging trunk and the craggy bark give it a wise, weathered character, like the face of an old salt. I spoke to one of the owners, Kristen Roberts. Do people ask you about it? Kristen Roberts: [00:00:33] Every single day. [Doug laughs] Well, I'll tell you this, the most asked question at Truro Vineyards is, "What kind of tree is that and, where is the bathroom?" And also, probably the most photographed thing at the vineyard. We get tagged in photos all the time with the mulberry tree in the background. People get married under it. We've had people get engaged under it. Lovely. Doug Still: [01:01] And there is an engaging, if unspecific legend that floats around the mulberry tree. Kristen: [01:07] When we purchased the vineyard, it had been run by two women who started it in 2007. And the story that they passed down to us was that a sea captain owned the house and brought the mulberry back for his young wife, for her to plant and think of him while he was out at sea. That is the story that we repeated probably two tours a day for the last 16 years. [sea shanty music] Doug Still: [01:42] That is the beginning of a tasty Cape Cod yarn right there. I've admired the tree for many years as a regular visitor to the area. Provincetown is just to the north of Truro, and Wellfleet sandwiches the town on the other side. I'd heard similar versions, but being the nudge I am, I needed details. I had to wonder, is there a real story here? Who was the sea captain and where did he go? What happened to him? Why a mulberry tree? I rolled up my sleeves and did some research. And with the help of the Truro Historical Society, a local arborist from Bartlett Tree Experts, my brother who lives nearby, and good old ancestry.com, I came up with some answers. Come with me and learn what I found out about the legend. Coming up, The Mariner and the Mulberry. I'm Doug Still, and this is This Old Tree. [This Old Tree theme] Doug Still: [03:00] Although this narrative focuses on the inhabitants of Truro from the 18th century to the present, I like to acknowledge that the area was the traditional homeland of the Payomet tribe, members of the Wampanoag Nation, People of the First Light, who have inhabited Cape Cod for more than 12,000 years. The Payomet are no more, but their heritage lives on in the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe. I honor the Payomet and all of the Wampanoag who faced displacement, suffering and forced assimilation. I remain committed to learning more of the past and being an active ally in the present. Like I mentioned before, the main shop at Truro Vineyards is an old house, a farmhouse, actually. Over two centuries, several different families have owned it. The Roberts family now run their business there after it was purchased by Kristen's parents, I asked her what her role is. Kristen: [03:59] I do the hiring, make sure the bills get paid, run the day-to-day operations. My brother, who is the other managing partner, is the head distiller. So, he makes our entire spirit line and manages the production on the winemaking side. Doug Still: [04:18] Whenever I visit, it's always packed. How many people visit a year do you estimate? Kristen: [04:23] It's tough to estimate. We base it on how many people do wine tastings, and I would guess it's probably in the 40,000 to 50,000 range. Doug Still: [04:34] Wow. That's impressive. And so, people can come and sit outside, right? They come and have lunch- Kristen: [04:43] Yes. Doug Still: [04:43] -go into the store, buy wine. That mulberry tree helps create the ambiance, I think that makes eating and drinking out on the lawn special. It's spectacular right now with all the holiday lights. Kristen: [04:56] Oh, thank you. Doug Still: [04:57] While the Roberts learned about the sea captain story from the previous owners, Kristen expressed that it's unclear how it actually got passed down. And how do you think they heard about it? It's just an oral tradition passed down between owners? Kristen: [05:14] I don't know what their communication was. The property had been, I believe, foreclosed on when they bought it. So, I'm not actually sure how much communication they had with previous owners. So, I don't know where they got this. It's funny, we never thought to ask like, "Oh, how do you know that?" Doug Still: [05:31] I asked about particular variations of the tale printed in local newspapers and websites. I'm a stickler. I don't know, I'm a pain in the ass. [Kristen laughs] I ask these questions. There was one legend that I heard about a sea captain bringing the tree back for his girlfriend. Have you heard that one? Kristen: [05:48] Yep, I have. I've heard girlfriend and wife. So, I assumed it was the same person with a different title, not two different people, but I don't really know. Doug Still: [05:57] One newspaper article said that the captain's name was Atkins Hughes, and that he planted the tree for his wife, Amelia. Remember that name. It also suggested that the captain planted two trees, not one, because for years, two huge trees framed the house at Truro Vineyards. The other tree was a graceful elm tree. Kristen: [06:19] You know, I had heard that at one point, when that tree came down, it's so funny because we had these two just so beautiful and spectacular trees. And the mulberry always got the lion's share of the attention, but the other one was just-- It's just as majestic, and it was absolutely huge and it created so much shade for the property and for the house. People, they didn't even realize how impactful that tree was on our property until it was gone. I described it like it was losing a part of us when it came down, because it was just so much a part of the landscape, and it was so beautiful. Doug Still: [07:03] Yeah. So, what happened? Kristen: [07:05] It came down in the Nor'easter in October of 2021, I believe. I went over in the morning to look, and it had splintered right down the center and fallen. And so, I called my friend, Ken at Bartlett Trees, and he takes care of all of our trees, and he said there was nothing that we could do and that it had to come down. Doug Still: [07:29] Oh. What did you think when you drove up to see that tree down? Kristen: [07:32] Oh, it was awful. It was just awful. Doug Still: [07:35] When I first met you mentioned a sign that you took down that said circa 1840. Was that the date on it? Kristen: [07:44] That was the date on the mulberry tree. Yes, that sign is still in our attic. Doug Still: [07:48] It is. Okay. She later found the sign in the attic and emailed me a photo. The sign says, Mulberry 1836. Different than the current sign on the tree. Right now, the sign says Chinese Mulberry circa 1870. Kristen: [08:08] Yes. Doug Still: [08:09] You made that sign? Kristen: [08:12] We did make that sign, and that was based on information, right or wrong, that we got since the other sign got taken down. Doug Still: [08:21] I felt a little bad peppering poor Kristen with these questions. But no worries, there are many different bits of lore floating around. So, the possibilities I had at that moment were that a Chinese mulberry tree and perhaps an elm tree were planted between the years 1836 and 1870, provided by a sea captain named Atkins Hughes for his wife or girlfriend, Amelia. Hey, that's some progress. Kristen mentioned her arborist, Ken MacPhee of Bartlett Tree Experts, who had been caring for the tree for a couple of decades. It turns out Ken and I are both graduates of Barnstable High, which is also located on Cape Cod. Although I was four years ahead of him, he was kind enough to come and tell me more about the tree itself. Hi, Ken. Thanks for joining me under the Truro Vineyards mulberry. Ken MacPhee: [09:12] No problem. Glad to be here. Doug Still: [09:14] So, you and the Bartlett crews have been taking care of this tree for many years. Do you still find it as spectacular as I find this tree? Ken: [09:24] Yes. I mean, just looking at the structure of the tree, it's absolutely incredible. Just the gnarly knots and the twists with the limbs and the branches. It's a very cool tree to look at. Doug: [09:38] Yeah. And it's multi-stemmed, which mulberries are in general. And it's covered in green moss. Ken: [09:45] Yep, it's a great little lichen that we have on the cape, and some of its yellow mulberries tend to get the yellow color to it, as well as Siberian elm. Doug Still: [09:57] Just also being close to the ocean, I think, just all the fog and moisture in the air. Ken: [10:02] Yep. Doug Still:[10:04] I see that there are cables up in the tree. Ken: [10:06] Mm-hmm. Doug Still: [10:07] Why do you have those up there? Ken: [10:08] I've got some large, overextended limbs, so they're there for supplemental support to try to limit any possible failure. Much needed on some of these larger, overextended limbs. Doug Still: [10:20] Yeah. And we're standing on a path that comes underneath the canopy of the tree and curls around and there are tables out here too on the lawn where people come and eat. So, that's obviously very important to have a safe tree. Ken: [10:35] The pathway was put in, if I remember correctly, six years ago. Doug Still: [10:39] Ken told me about how they protected the roots during some recent construction, and also the soil aeration work they do to mitigate compaction caused by the feet of tens of thousands of visitors each year. This can compromise an old tree's root system, even a stalwart mulberry. Ken: [10:56] Of course, the older trees, they just need a little bit more care. We fertilize twice a year. Doug Still: [11:02] In general, mulberries are pretty tough. I mean, they can grow anywhere. Ken: [11:06] Yes. Doug Still: [11:06] As we know, they are growing in vacant lots and along highways and wherever they want. Ken: [11:12] Yeah. Currently some-- [crosstalk] Doug Still: [11:13] One reason I love that this great mulberry specimen is celebrated is that for the most part, here in America, we consider the mulberry a weed. The short story is that the white mulberry, Morus alba, was introduced to North America back in the early 1600s at the doomed colony of Virginia. King James I promoted the planting of white mulberries to wishfully promote sericulture or the production of silk. You see, silkworm larvae love the leaves of white mulberry. Mulberries were imported and planted extensively in Europe and England after the species was transported from China. So, it was shipped to the American colonies too. It was planted everywhere, even Massachusetts. The silk industry didn't pan out, but the white mulberry was here to stay and even naturally hybridized with our own native red mulberry. For a full story on this, check out a recent episode of My Favorite Trees podcast about the history of mulberry trees. Ken: [12:17] Yeah. Currently, some states are listing them as invasive. There are some fruitless varieties out there that if you want to introduce them to the landscape, I encourage those. The white mulberry, alba, can actually produce the speed of the male flower, releasing pollen in excess of 350 miles an hour. [Wow] So, it's a wind-pollinated species in it. The male just sends it out rather fast. And you see, in Wisconsin, they're having complaints with the red mulberry becoming just hybridized between the white because of that pollination that occurs. Doug Still: [12:57] Ken and I were pretty sure we were looking at a white mulberry, but wondered if the tree was a variety of white mulberry called ‘multicaulis,’ which became available in the regional nursery trade in the 1830s. This question had some implications regarding the origin of this tree. To follow up on our identification question, I had the pleasure of speaking with Peter Coles, the person who literally wrote the book on mulberries recently in 2019, in a beautiful book simply called Mulberry. Peter lectures frequently, and leads tours in London to bring attention to the historic mulberry trees scattered around the city, where they are mad about mulberries. His website is called Morus Londinium. Peter, thanks for joining me today. Peter Coles: [13:43] Yeah. Welcome. Lovely to meet you and to have the opportunity. Yeah. Doug Still: [13:47] I'm glad you had a chance to look at the photos of the Truro Vineyards mulberry that we're looking into. And based on the photos, which were, there was one that was from a ways away, and then a close up of some of the leaves. What would you say the species of this tree is? Peter: [14:06] It looks like a Morus alba. And knowing something about the history of the mulberry in North America, that's the most likely guess. Doug Still: [14:18] Which is white mulberry. Peter: [14:20] The white mulberry. Yeah. And the white mulberry was being used for a silk industry that eventually took off, especially in the 19th century. They were imported in large numbers. So, that would be turning out to be the most common mulberry tree in the US, as it's ousting the native red mulberry unfortunately, because it hybridizes with it, it mixes with it. And so, it could plausibly be a red mulberry, because they both have fairly small leaves. But the red mulberry can have quite distinctly lobed leaves. This one doesn't really have lobed leaves. They're quite small. And that looks like your standard Chinese white mulberry. I say Chinese because it does really originate from China, which is where the silk industry began, and it's the natural host for the wild silk moth, Bombyx mori. Doug Still: [15:14] Right. So, it's most likely the straight species, Morus alba. Peter: [15:20] Yes, I would say so, the one that's most commonly found. Some people talk about another variety, I don't know if that's relevant or not, called Morus ‘multicaulis.’ Doug Still: [15:34] ‘Multicaulis.’ Peter: [15:35] Yeah. Morus alba ‘multicaulis.’ And that was imported on quite a large scale in the early 1800s, because it turned out to grow really quickly and to accept being chopped right back, its leaves harvested, if you like, and it would grow again very quickly. It wouldn't grow very tall, so you didn't need ladders or anything to harvest the leaves. And that kind of spread really at one time and became very popular. It doesn't actually look like that for me. They tend to have larger leaves. I would say that the multicaulis tends to plateau out at about 7ft to 10ft, really. It really was grown for silk. So, if there's no association with the silk industry for this particular tree, it wasn't part of a plantation or it wasn't on a farm or something like that. If it was planted as a single tree. A white mulberry, and possibly from China with a sea captain, why not? It's a nice story. Doug Still: [16:39] That answers the question, why a mulberry tree? They were in fashion at the time, but it is unlikely that the owners were interested in producing silk with one tree in this tiny seafaring town. And the tree is the straight species of white mulberry, not the variety multicaulis that was locally available for the purpose of feeding silkworms. But what about the elm tree that shared the lawn? Should it be part of the legend or not? After the break, I returned back with Ken MacPhee. Together, we figured it out, and then I learned all about Captain Atkins Hughes and the Hughes family. You're listening to This Old Tree. [theme music] [sea shanty music] Doug Still: [17:46] There was another tree next to it. I believe it was a Chinese elm. Ken: [17:52] It was a Siberian elm. Doug Still: [17:54] Was it a Siberian elm? Ken: [17:56] Yes. The October 2021 nor'easter. Kristen sent me a text saying that there was a large limb that had failed in the tree. I showed up, and her late father, Dave, was sitting in his car smoking his cigar. And that limb was a central leader, and then there was two other fractured leaders in the tree, so we had to unfortunately remove it. Doug Still: [18:24] I told Ken about something really cool I found while I was doing some Internet searches. This house that we were standing next to was the subject of a watercolor by Edward Hopper painted in 1930. The famous American painter lived and worked in Truro, unlike many other artists who found their way to Provincetown just down the road. He loved Truro and painted its quaint houses and landscapes. Entitled "Rich's House" after the owners at the time, the piece sold at Christie's in 2018 for $3.2 million. It was from the estate of Peggy and David Rockefeller, and was one of Mr. Rockefeller's most cherished artworks. In the watercolor, there's our mulberry tree, prominently featured. There is no other tree, no elm. Could he have simply left it out? So, there's a question as to the age of that tree. I saw in Edward Hopper's watercolor from 1930, that tree is not there. Ken: [19:27] No . Doug Still: [19:27] And the mulberry tree is. Ken: [19:29] Mm-hmm. Doug Still: [19:30] However, I'm told that sometimes he left things out of his compositions. Did you count the rings? Ken: [19:36] We never counted the rings. Doug Still: [19:38] Oh, you didn't? Ken: [19:39] No, they're still there. [laughs] Doug Still: [19:40] Well, I think maybe we should. Ken: [19:42] Yeah, we can do that. Definitely. Doug Still: [19:44] The stump was still in the ground right next to us near the parking lot, a remnant of the beloved tree. Kids love to jump on it now. The stump may be left as an unplanned tabletop. We leaned over on either side of it and counted separately. How many did you get, Ken? Ken: [20:00] I came up with 89. Doug Still: [20:02] I got 83. That's close, right? Ken: [20:05] Yeah. Doug Still: [20:06] It's a little muddy where I started. It looked like there were two young leaders that fused together in the center. Ken: [20:12] Yes. Yeah, I definitely say that too. Doug Still: [20:15] And this is about 3.5ft, 4ft high? Ken: [20:20] Yeah. Doug Still: [20:21] So, we could probably add a few more years on, maybe 90 years old. Ken: [20:27] I would say. Yeah. Doug Still: [20:28] That puts it at 1943. Another question answered. Hopper did not ignore the elm tree in 1930, because it was planted ten years later. And the sea captain most definitely did not plant the elm tree 70 years to 100 years earlier than that. Ken then took me around town, which he knew so well, and introduced me to a couple of his long-term clients. One property on Collins Road had three old mulberries out in front of an old cape house. Although one was dead and another fell over in a storm. They weren't as old as the Truro Vineyards mulberry but were another example of the fashion for planting mulberries. We had a great chat about the Cape's history of other exotic plants and “washashore” trees, quite literally, that are now a part of the environmental legacy. I told him about an English oak I found once in a natural area in Eastham's Fort Hill, part of the Cape Cod National Seashore. I thought an English oak was a very strange exotic to find on the bank of a marsh. What's the story? Ken: [21:35] With the English oaks, they used the acorns as packing back in the shipping days, the old sailing days. And with all the shipwrecks that we've had on the Cape, those acorns naturally would float and come on land, and people would either collect them or they'd just self-seed or an animal would collect them. Eastham used to have a lot of English oak. Lost well over 90% of them due to Phytophthora root rot. Doug Still: [22:02] So, there was a big stand of English oak in Eastham? Ken: [22:05] Yeah. Salt pond area used to have quite a bit going all through the national seashore. And the cedar banks on the way down to Coast Guard Beach used to have hundreds of trees. Doug Still: [22:14] Wow. And that was just a result of the shipping trade. Ken: [22:18] Mm-hmm. Rosa rugosa was another accidental, due to the shipping trade. So, Chinese in origin, and rosehip is the highest content of vitamin C. So, to prevent scurvy, sailors would come back with the rosehips, eat the rosehips, getting the vitamin C to combat the scurvy. Doug Still: [22:39] Amazing. Ken: [22:39] Shipwreck would happen, wash up, and that's why we have Rosa rugosa on the Cape. Doug Still: [22:44] It's a quintessential Cape Cod plant now. You go to the beach, you see banks of Rosa rugosa. Ken: [22:49] Yeah. Doug Still: [22:50] It seems then that our mulberry tree is not such an anomaly. Cape Cod mariners had access to the world, and ships were returning with all kinds of cargo, including plants. But I had one mariner in particular to find out about Captain Atkins Hughes. Was he real? And if so, does he truly connect with this legend? [theme music] Doug Still: [23:19] Oh, ancestry.com, you're always there when I need you. I went down a rabbit hole and became a bit obsessed, mapping out the Hughes family and its origins. It goes something like this. There was an Atkins Hughes that lived in Truro. There were several of them, actually. The name Atkins, stemming from the Atkins surname, found up one maternal line. The Atkins Hughes we are concerned with, the one that became a ship captain, was born in 1828 to James Hughes and his wife, Jane Avery. Census information has them living in the village of North Truro, which is the part of town where we find Truro Vineyards and the mulberry. As most communities were, it was established on the bay side of the Cape, not the rugged Atlantic side with its dune cliffs and dramatic surf. There were no addresses listed in the census, just ID numbers that show the order of data collection. Atkins was the fourth of nine children, and he was the fourth son. [sea shanty music] The father of James Hughes was one John Hughes, and John was the first Hughes to immigrate to Truro as a boy of 12 years in 1763. He came from the Isle of Wight, just offshore from Portsmouth and Southampton, England, one of the world's major shipping hubs. Perhaps, the Isle of Wight was just a launching point. In Truro, John Hughes learned to become a dependable shipmate and quickly rose to the rank of “master mariner,” according to one source. He married Rachel Dyer in 1776, who was from a prominent family in Provincetown. They had seven children. James was the fifth. James ‘younger brother was Atkins Hughes, the first to receive that name. I met with some really welcoming people at the Truro Historical Society. Janice Pelosi: [25:20] I'm Janice Pelosi, I'm the Manager of Truro Historical Society. Norman Pope: [25:25] Norman Pope. I just volunteer here and play know-it-all. Doug Still: [25:28] How long have you volunteered here? Norman: [25:31] Well, I used to be on the board many years ago and now I've been volunteering here for about six or seven years. Doug Still: [25:36] Oh. How about you, Janice? How long have you been the manager? Janice: [25:40] This will be my third year. What will you call-- [crosstalk] Doug Still: [25:42] Wow, a newbie. Janice: [25:44] Absolutely. [laughter] Doug Still: [25:46] They received me at their home base in the Cobb Archive and Truro Centre, a charming and echoey little building that used to be the public library. They confirmed what I'd learned so far and taught me a lot about what the village of North Truro was like back in the day. This village is where the family lived? Janice: [26:05] Yes. Doug Still: [26:06] Were most of the men sailors in town? Janice: [26:09] We did some research on the 1850 census, and we found that the population at that time was about 2,000 residents. Looking through the census, we found that 74% were listed as mariners. Norman: [26:29] You have to think of Truro, it has no natural resources. So, what do you have? The population peaked around 1840, because the mackerel industry was so stunning in Cape Cod Bay, thereafter mackerel and cod. 63 vessels were tying up at Pamet Harbor at that point. That's a lot of ships for a small harbor. Doug Still:: [26:50] It is. They were also whaling too, then, apparently. Norman: [26:54] Yeah. Janice: [26:55] Whaling as well. The next largest industry was farming, and that was a very small proportion. Doug Still: [27:02] What was life like, do you think? Norman: [27:04] Think of the landscape of Turo. It's all sand. You notice when you drive down Route 6, you're going up and down. When you're driving to Route 6 in mid-Cape, it's all flat. Go to Truro, you're driving up and down. So, supposedly, those are hollows raked by a retreating glacier. Doug Still: [27:22] Norman explained that the village was set down in one of these hollows, offering some protection from the maritime winds. Sometimes these hollows formed what are known as kettle ponds, if they dipped low enough to reach the water table. It's also where the best soil could be found on this sandy peninsula, washed down along the gentle slopes. By the early 19th century, there was barely a tree in sight. The forest had been completely cleared long ago for building materials and firewood. Henry David Thoreau passed through Truro on his famous walk to Provincetown, described in his book Cape Cod. He called Truro Cape Cod's wrist, and Provincetown its fist. You’d be able to look around for miles. He described the scattered houses and spires of churches among the hollows as if they had been swallowed by the earth. A beautiful photo of the village from the 1880s owned by the Historical Society shows small white cottages dotted within rolling hills. Hopper's 1930 watercolor, even then, portrays the house set within a lonely barren landscape, highlighting the importance of that solitary mulberry tree. Since then, pine oak forest has returned. Almost 70% of the Truro's land is protected within the Cape Cod National Seashore, and more than 80% of the town is forested. So, it's easy to forget what it was like back then. The soil eroded. The land depleted. Quite literally, people had nowhere to look for their livelihood but the sea. Janice: [28:58] From a human standpoint, if you can imagine that 74% of the men were out at sea and the season ran from March to November. You can imagine that during that time, the burden of the women folk who are in town, they took a lion's share of keeping the families running, making sure there was food on the table with really not a constant partner by their side. So, from a woman's standpoint, I always envision the Truro women as being pretty much pioneers. They did their weaving, they did their own farming, they talk a lot about berry picking. A lot of parenting - Doug Still: [29:41] They had to, because- Janice: [29:42] -because they had to. Doug Still: [29:43] -the husband was out to sea. Janice: [29:44] Out to sea. Doug Still: [29:45] And the boys. Janice: [29:46] And the boys. Norman: [29:47] Yeah, the 13-year-old boys. Yeah. Doug Still: [29:49] Boys from coastal communities would begin working on fishing vessels or even larger ships in their early teens. This was not uncommon. Doug Still: [29:57] There was a school. Is there an old schoolhouse? Norman: [30:00] 1841 of the earliest maps we have of Truro shows seven schoolhouses within about a mile of the Pamet Valley. Doug Still: [30:08] Oh, really? Norman: [30:09] Everybody who had a living room and a couple kids could have a school. Janice: [30:13] So, it was a nurturing environment. You can envision a very close-knit community that took very much care and really had a community spirit when it came to raising their children and keeping in touch with everybody. I think just-- [crosstalk] Doug Still: [30:26] We looked up the family patriarch, John Hughes, in the vital records. That's when we learned that one day in May of 1799, he and three others were lost in Cape Cod Bay. Could you read what the town vital records state? Norman: [30:40] John Hughes, age 48. Shuble Coan. That's an old name in Truro. Paul Dyer, age 29, and Hutta Dyer, age 17, were drowned just off the pond as they were coming in from a whale boat from their rig to shore. “Man knoweth not his time.” Doug Still: [31:01] “Man knoweth not his time.” That soon became a repeating theme in our research. Wow. So, four people died at sea. They were coming in from their whaler? Norman: [31:13] True. Doug Still: [31:14] Just off the… Norman: [31:15] They were in a long boat. Doug Still: [31:16] They were in a long boat. Norman: [31:17] True. Doug Still: [31:18] -just off the pond. What's the pond? Janice: [31:22] So, the pond is right off of the Bay of Cape Cod in North Truro. At the time of their history, it would have been an open estuary onto a pond, where the harbor was, was further south down the bay in a harbor called Pamet Harbor, which was a large shipping and whaling harbor in the outer Cape. Doug Still: [31:49] Later in the afternoon, I took a ride over and visited the pond. Its shape is a long oval sitting east-west in one of the glacial hollows. On the western end, an embankment rises up to a parking lot which overlooks Cape Cod Bay. The eastern end points into the village. It was called Pond Village, in fact. Otherwise known as North Truro. It was an industrial center, so to speak, with a general store, library, warehouses, a barbershop, lunchrooms, guest houses and a hotel. Another historic sign next to the pond was even more fascinating. Apparently, on November 16th, 1620, a scouting crew of 16 pilgrims led by Miles Standish and camped on the shore of this pond for their second night on American soil. The Mayflower was anchored in what is now Provincetown harbor. John Hughes and his young mates drowned within shouting distance. They are on their way down to the harbor. Janice: [32:49] Exactly. Norman: [32:51] Hard to say. At that time, Truro was really known as a whaling capital. They could have anchored the vessel offshore. They could have dropped him off, because that's where he lived. But Cape Cod Bay, off the shore there, is fairly shallow, so the whale boats probably were not coming in. Doug Still: [33:09] Interesting. So, they were just going home to their houses near the pond in a small boat, and then they capsized. Norman: [33:18] That's probably what happened. Doug Still: [33:20] It was tragic. John's wife was left to care for all seven children, including nine-month-old Rachel. The eldest, Emma, was married that October. Her father's absence must have been sharply felt. James was only five years old. Two decades later, James married Jane Avery and started his own large family. The maritime life brought more sadness, however, when James's younger brother, Atkins, died at sea in April of 1828, according to a gravestone in Old North Cemetery. That August, James and Jane had a new baby, a boy. They named him Atkins, after his lost uncle. He grew up to become the sea captain relevant to our story. And James, unlike his father and his brother, was determined not to die at sea. Hardscrabble life as it was, he became a farmer, as noted in the censuses. Could James have owned the farm that became Truro Vineyards? Janice and Norman got out a few old maps for the town, one from 1850 and another from the 1880s. They were huge, and we unrolled them across the big wooden tables and leaned over them. This is the 1850 map of Pond Village. What does it show? Norman: [34:41] It shows the pond. It shows the road beyond the pond, doesn't it? Doug Still: [34:44] In all of the little houses with family names. [Right] Which one is the one that's now Truro Vineyard? Janice: [34:52] It is up in the far corner. It's listed on the map as J. M. Hughes. Norman: [34:58] This is north. Janice: [35:00] Here's Bay Road. Doug Still: [35:02] It was unclear at first. There were multiple J. Hughes'. It says J. Hughes. So, from this, we actually don't know if it's James or John. Janice: [35:15] Correct. Doug Still: [35:16] John was James's older brother. But we found a house closer to the pond with the full name John Hughes listed next to it. We surmised that as the eldest son, John, likely inherited the family house and James moved down the road. Doug Still: [35:30] And then, this J. Hughes has got to be James. Janice: [35:36] Yes. Atkins-- Doug Still: [35:37] Why is all this important? So, Atkins Hughes would have grown up in that house? Janice: [35:42] It appears so, based on the map, that he would have been raised at what is now Truro Vineyards. Doug Still: [35:50] We confirmed our guess when we unrolled the second map, created 10 years after James' death. It labeled the same house as the “Mrs. James Hughes Estate.” Bingo. Norman celebrated by opening some candy. So now, we're looking at– [sound of candy wrapper crackling, then laughter] Norman: [36:08] My fireball. [laughter] Norman: [36:11] I'll switch to a gummy bear. Doug Still: [36:13] Yeah. Norman's eating a fireball. So, great. We'd located Atkins Hughes in the house at Truro Vineyards at least as a child in the 1830s and 1840s. But regarding the mulberry legend, it still didn't add up. Supposedly, he, at some point, brought this tree back from China or the South Pacific for his wife or his girlfriend or someone named Amelia. But this was his parents’ house, later to become part of his parents’ estate. [theme music] When we return after a short break, the pieces fall into place, the family, life and career of Atkins Hughes. This is This Old Tree. [sea shanty music] Doug Still: [37:14] Young Atkins Hughes began seafaring in 1840 at the age of 12 years, according to a blurb in the History of Barnstable County written in 1890. It couldn't have made his parents happy, but that's where fortunes were made. Most likely, he was brought onto a fishing vessel, as there were plenty of them. Unfortunately, life in Truro was about to take a very dark turn. You mentioned a storm in 1841. Could you talk about that storm? Norman: [37:45] Was it December? Janice: [37:47] October 3rd. Norman: [37:48] October 3rd, 1841? Janice: [37:49] Correct. Norman: [37:50] Everybody in Truro was out to sea. Doug Still: [37:53] 57 fishermen in seven boats were lost in the surprise gale. Janice: [37:58] 57 men. Norman: [37:59] 57. Janice: [38:00] What's interesting, we talked a little bit about Pamet Harbor, and we talked about fishing in the Bay as Norman mentioned. By 1850, the Bay was getting pretty much overfished with mackerel. And these fishermen kept on having to move further and further and further out to sea. When this storm hit, all but one of the seven ships that went down were in the George's Bank area. The seamen, as they did at the time, they read the wind. Most of them lashed themselves. The captains- Doug Still: [38:39] It was getting bad. Janice: [38:40] -lashed themselves to the masts and hoped for the best. Two boats survived. There are two survivor accounts, the “Water Witch” we talked about and the “Garnet.” Now, the “Garnet” floated out, it was a little further out. They were actually rescued by a merchant ship that was going from Liverpool to New York. It's one of the first iron merchant ships with 400 passengers. But there were 57 fatherless children, and I believe, 27 widows out of that one storm. It was said, by further accounts, that a lot of widows refused to marry a mariner after that. They'd like to remain widows. Doug Still: [39:27] I don't blame them. Janice: [39:28] One of the most moving things, if I could say, there's a quote that was in the Provincetown Advocate as far as reminiscence, if I may say, of observations. And the quote was, "We saw a father who had two sons among missing, for days and weeks go morning and evening to the hilltop, which overlooked the ocean, and there, seating himself, would watch for hours, scanning the distant horizon with his glass, hoping every moment to discover some speck on which to build a hope." Doug Still: [40:04] This was crushing to a small village. Some said the people of Truro never recovered. Atkins Hughes was not on one of these fishing boats. It's hard to know where he was. But many of the lost fishermen were really just boys. These were his schoolmates, neighbors and friends. A memorial with an obelisk was created in the cemetery at the first congregational parish. The town sailing master spoke. Norman: [40:30] A gentleman named Joshua Davis developed the first academy, and he was basically the equivalent of a high school. And his stated goal was really to educate people as mariners. One of the things they taught at the school was how to set a course and travel it. They had math and English and stuff like that, so these youngsters could actually get an education to eventually captain a ship. And when the monument, the obelisk, was dedicated in 1841, Joshua Davis gave the benediction for it. Doug Still: [41:12] After our talk at the Cobb Archive, Janice brought me over to the churchyard to see it. Set among hundreds of other gravestones, the obelisk was surrounded by a wrought iron fence. It had four plaques on it. Would you mind reading what's on the main plaque? Janice: [41:28] Yes, absolutely. This memorial was dedicated in 1842. And what the plaque says is, "Sacred to the memory of 57 citizens of Truro who were lost in seven vessels which founded at sea in the memorable gale of October 3rd, 1841. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Man goeth to his long home, and mourners go about the street." Doug Still: [42:03] Wow. And the other three plaques are names. Could you read some of them, or do you want to point out some of them? Janice: [42:12] I sure can. A couple of notable, very sad events. The Snow family lost eight family members alone as you go across this plaque. I can read one of the plaques, and we can go through the names. Joshua Snow, age 35. Ephraim Snow, age 16. Moses Snow, age 16. Elisha Rich, age 26. Joseph Rich, age….. Doug Still: [42:41] I left my visit with the Truro Historical Society with a better understanding of the people of the old village and feeling moved by their hardships and fears. It was against this backdrop that young Atkins learned his trade at sea during the 1840s. What would be his destiny? This is where my brother, Chip, comes in. As a writer and former news editor, he is a skilled online researcher with access to newspaper databases most people wouldn't know about. He's also a resident of Cape Cod and was particularly interested in this story. I was soon peppered with texts with links to everything he found. Of particular interest was Atkins Hughes' obituary in the Boston Globe, which illuminated his early career. It said, "Captain Hughes, at the age of 18, became mate of the brig, Pauline, under Captain Levi Stevens." This was the beginning of his deep-sea voyaging. A brig is a medium-sized sailing ship with two masts, both square rigged. A product of the 18th century, it was the workhorse of the 19th century. Brigs were most commonly used as merchant vessels, but due to their speed and maneuverability, there were warships too. It was the favorite ship of pirates. An ocean voyage could be made with a brig, but more commonly they kept to the coastal routes. So, by 1846, Atkins was likely seeing the Caribbean in ports all around the Atlantic, one later ship manifest has the Pauline journeying from Venezuela to New York City. Atkins showed his executive ability early on and his few years of fishing off of George's Bank were behind him. He was on the path to becoming a commander. Even so, the fate of his grandfather, uncle and companions lost in the gale of 1841 were in the back of his mind. As captain of the Pauline, Captain Levi Stevens was Atkins Hughes's boss and mentor. Stevens had a stellar reputation as a ship captain sailing out of Boston and is featured in later history books. And here's the connection. Stevens was born and raised in Truro. He lived there with his wife, Olive, and four children, although they eventually had a fifth child elsewhere. It was likely Stevens who recruited the promising young Atkins Hughes, stamping his ticket to the high seas and higher reputation. [music] Doug Still: [45:05] We are getting close to the crux of the legend, aren't we? When Atkins wasn't on a ship with Levi Stevens, he returned to the family homestead in Truro. The family must have been relieved to see him each time. By the winter of 1850, he was 21 years and unmarried. As a commander in training on ships out of Austin, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that he was a little bit cocky, his head swelling with promise. At the very least, he had charisma and certainly was full of stories of far-off places and people. Despite young Truro women avoiding sailors, he was a catch. He courted a young woman from town that winter. Her name was not Amelia. She was Betsy Lewis Paine, and they were married on March 28th, 1850. She was the oldest of a large family. Her father, Jesse Payne, was a farmer, not a mariner. The census of 1850 shows Betsy L. Hughes living with James and Jane Hughes in their family, although the census taker misspelled all their names as Hages. So, after the wedding, Betsy moved into the farmhouse with Atkins family, as they didn't yet have a home of their own. Atkins didn't appear in that census, which was collected in August of that year. He had to have been out to sea. In July of 1850, Captain Levi Stevens and his wife had their fourth child born in Truro, a girl. In December, Atkins and Betsey had their first baby, also a girl. I don't think it's a coincidence that Atkins daughter received the same name as Levi's daughter did a few months earlier. Amelia. [music] Doug Still: [46:50] Mm-hmm. Amelia wasn't Atkins wife or girlfriend. She was his firstborn. The young mariner, his wife and daughter were living at the farm that is now Truro Vineyard. With a different slant than we started out with, it seems the legend has some very solid footing. Atkins Hughes brought a mulberry tree back to Cape Cod to plant for his new family, his wife Betsy and daughter, Amelia. His parents were apparently fine with a new tree in their front yard. So, the remaining questions are when and from where? I've got a theory. Atkins and Betsy purchased a house nearby on Shore Road in 1853, their first home. There's little reason why he would have planted the tree at his parents’ home after that when they had their own property. He also wouldn't have planted the tree for Betsy as a girlfriend or wife prior to 1850, as she didn't live at the Hughes' house until the end of March. So, that puts the tree planting between 1850 and 1853. Could he have acquired the mulberry tree while at sea that summer of 1850? Possibly, but I doubt it. Amelia wasn't born yet, and the brig, Pauline, likely wasn't making transpacific voyages to Southeast Asia, where white mulberries are from. For me, all circumstantial evidence points to an 1851 journey halfway around the world aboard the Southern Cross. [music] Doug Still: [48:22] The Southern Cross was a clipper ship built in Boston over the winter. The heyday of the clipper ship had just begun within the past decade, and they were fast, state of the art three-mast ships with a large spread of sail. They were magnificent. And clipper ships were breaking speed records across the globe. According to one source, the emphasis on speed was due partly to the commercial desire to bring the first tea of the spring back from China. Another reason was to quickly get to San Francisco without having to cross North America over land, as this was the time of the gold rush. The Southern Cross was built by E. & H.O. Briggs, or the Briggs brothers hired by Baker and Morrell. It sported a flying golden eagle as its figurehead. The launch in March of 1851 was a big event. The new ship was painted twice by the famous maritime painter, Fitz Henry Lane. Both paintings can be found in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. It departed Boston for San Francisco on May 8th. Levi Stevens was hired to command the ship for its first voyage. Unfortunately, the trip to San Francisco was beset with problems as it lost all three of its top gallant masts in a windstorm called a pampero near the Rio de la Plata between Buenos Aires and Montevideo. They got fixed, but the journey took 136 days. Leaving from San Francisco, things got much better. The ship sailed to Singapore, then to Calcutta in 56 days, a new record for that run. They returned directly to Boston, which took only 97 days. So, the Southern Cross returned to Boston by my [unintelligible [00:50:09] sometime following February of 1852. The trip made the newspapers. [music] Doug Still: [50:21] Frustratingly, the archives I contacted did not have the ship log for this voyage, and I couldn't put my hands on it to prove Atkins Hughes was aboard. But I'm guessing he was. Follow my deductive reasoning. As the new captain, Stevens would have hired upper-level staff that he knew and could trust. He had Atkins under his wing for a number of years, his hometown mentee. Secondly, Atkins second child wasn't born until January 1853, a two-year gap with Amelia. He was away for almost the entirety of 1851. So, a late winter return to Truro in 1852 means the timing was right for the conception of their daughter, Phebe. There were later connections to the Southern Cross too. It turns out that Captain Levi Stevens left as command of the ship in 1852 and settled in the San Francisco area, Oakland, to be specific. He started a shipping firm and was incredibly successful. A new captain took the helm', a man named Thomas Prince Howe, and later Baker and Morrell hired Benjamin Howe. He was the captain in 1863, when the Southern Cross met its demise during the Civil War, when an armed merchant raider called the Florida caught the ship, allowed the crew to de-board, and then put it to the torch, a tragic end for such a majestic ship. Captain Hughes remained in touch with Howe and reported that Howe's next ship to the South Pacific had been boarded by pirates. And Howe and his wife were shot in their own cabin. Atkins heard about it while he was in China and described the story to a later author. In 1868, a new Southern Cross clipper ship was built by Baker and Morrell, and this time, Atkins Hughes was the commander. If Baker and Morrell offer a consistent thread between ships and relationships, it makes sense that it began with Atkins Hughes as their employee on that first voyage of the Southern Cross in 1851. If so, then Atkins acquired the white mulberry tree on his trip through the South Pacific, quite possibly in Singapore to bring back home. Where did he get the idea? I have one more bit of information about Levi Stevens to share with you. He was a plant collector. According to several histories, he was a connoisseur of exotic shrubs. The garden that he created in his new estate in the Fruitvale district of Oakland was described as beautiful and picturesque, and it was full of plants from Asia and South America. If Captain Stevens was finding plants to bring home, it's tempting to think that the mentor encouraged Atkins to transport a mulberry tree if he wanted one. [music] Doug Still: [53:09] So, that's my best guess as to what happened. In the end, I don't know if it matters. I mentioned Thoreau, someone once mistakenly quoted him, but I like this mashup anyway. “Many men go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” Maybe that's true of legend hunting too. After the mulberry tree was planted, Atkins Hughes led a long and successful career. He and Betsey had five children together, all girls. He was captain of the second Southern Cross ship until he retired from sailing in 1879. He crossed the equator 88 times, always safely, and he always returned home. According to his obituary, he often took his wife and daughters with him. Apparently, that mulberry was a good luck charm. Today, the gnarly tree is still loved. Underneath its protective branches, people get married and taste the wine created by its new family of owners. It connects to the people of old North Truro, and a sea captain vowing that he'll return home. [sea shanty music] Doug Still: [54:32] I'd like to thank everyone who contributed to the research or appeared on the show today, Kristen Roberts, Ken MacPhee, Janice Pelosi, Norman Pope and all the staff at the Truro Historical Society, Peter Coles and my brother, Chip or David Still II. I had a blast and more information about them can be found in the show notes. I'll be posting many pictures of the mulberry tree, historic landscapes, and the Southern Cross on Facebook and Instagram. The show website is thisoldtree.show. I'd also like to thank my friends, David Bor and Kimberly Wass, for recording traditional sea shanties just for this show played on recorder. Just wonderful. Thank you very much for listening. I'm Doug Still, and this is This Old Tree. [music plays out] [Transcript provided by SpeechDocs Podcast Transcription]
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