Books

Massachusetts Books

Broad View Books
Massachusetts History, Town Histories, Church Histories, Vital Records, Quabbin Valley, Mayflower and Genealogies

Massachusetts County and Town Histories Quabbin Towns

Massachusetts
Massachusetts Genealogical Research $13.95
By George K. Schweitzer, Ph.D., Sc.D.
1990
This is a comprehensive work that covers many sources.
Chapter 1 starts with a brief history of the state and features county maps with a listing of the towns. At the end of the chapter is a recommended bibliography.
Chapter 2 describes the types of major records available. Record types include: bible, biography, birth, cemetery, census, church, city directory, county history, colonial, Daughters of the American Revolution, death, divorce, ethnic, gazetteers, maps, atlases, genealogical compilations, periodicals & societies, historical societies, land (deed, grant, tax), manuscripts, marriage, military (Revolution, 1812, Mexican, Civil War, Spanish), mortuary, naturalization, newspaper, published genealogies, regional, tax, will & probate and the WPA.
Chapter 3 covers record locations: The New England Historic Genealogical Society, The Massachusetts State Archives, The Massachusetts State Library, The Boston Public Library, other Massachusetts repositories, Family History Library & branches, The National Archives and its branches, Large genealogical libraries and local libraries and repositories.
Chapter 4 covers research procedures and detailed listings of records for each of the counties or towns. Each county has a list of its towns and the records available. The last section is on extinct names, towns and districts.
170 pages, 6x9 new softbound.

A Geographic Dictionary of Massachusetts $12.00
Henry Gannett
Baltimore: GPC, 1978 reprint of 1894 edition printed by the Government Printing Office.
The Geographic Dictionary of Massachusetts, which constitutes this bulletin, is designed to aid in finding any geographic feature upon the atlas sheets of that State which are published by the U. S. Geological survey. It contains all the names given upon the sheets, and is limited to them. Under each name is a brief statement showing the feature it designates and its location, and opposite to it the name of the atlas sheet, or sheets, upon which it is to be found.
126 pages, very good condition.

Massachusetts Beautiful $13.00
Wallace Nutting
Bonanza Books 1973, reprint of 1923 edition
Here is a volume with photographs as eloquent as its prose. In over 300 reproductions the numerous picturesque cottages and haunts of Massachusetts-many never shown in any book--are presented. The interior as well as the exterior of stately houses and old rural homes is feelingly depicted by the author who has a confessed great love for the landscape and history of the state.
Two main ideas have been kept in mind in the preparation of this book. The first is that of avoiding clichés about the subject Mr. Nutting has succeeded in stating and showing in a fresh way the essence of the state's distinctive architecture and natural environment. The second is to place before the public scenes with which they are not generally familiar but which merit attention.
Originally compiled in 1923 the book has a special value in capturing permanently that which may no longer exist or that which has changed. Photographs of women in long dresses working on their farms or chatting in their living rooms have an intimate and nostalgic quality. Each picture whether of a sea-port, forest or country lane has received a fitting caption.
Natives of the state will delight in recognizing some quaint feature of their own home town. For those who have vacationed there, this book will expand and preserve their experiences. And finally, for readers who have yet to visit Massachusetts this book may help to explain the subtle charm and indescribable mystique of New England now and as in days gone by.
301 pages, 6x9 hardbound, dust jacket, very good condition. gift inscription inside front cover.

Genealogical Notes, or, Contributions to the Family History of Some of the First Settlers of Connecticut and Massachusetts. $119.95
Nathaniel Goodwin.
Hartford, Conn.; F.A. Brown; 1856.
Memoir Of Nathaniel Goodwin. Genealogy Of The Goodwin Family. Adam Blakeman, Of Stratford, Conn. Leonard Chester, Of Wethersfield, Conn. Daniel Clark, Of Windsor, Conn. John Dwight, Of Dedham, Mass. William Edwards, Of Hartford, Conn. William Goodrich, Of Wethersfield, Conn. John Goodrich, Of Wethersfield, Conn. William Gurley, Of Northampton, Mass. John Hollister, Of Wethersfield, Conn. John Hopkins, Of Hartford, Conn. Joiin Ingersoll, Of Hartford, Conn., And Of Northampton, Mass. Lewis Jones, Of Watertown, Mass. William Judson, Of Concord, Mass. And Of Stratford And New Haven, Conn. John Kent, Of Suffield, Conn, Richard Mather, Of Dorchester, Mass. Michael Metcalf, Of Dedham, Mass. Joseph Mygatt, Of Hartford, Conn. John Nott, Of Wethersfield, Conn. John Porter, Of Windsor, Conn. Robert Sedgwick, Of Charlestown, Mass. Rev. Henry Smith, Of Wethersfield, Conn. Jared Spencer, Of Cambridge And Lynn, Mass., And Of Haddam Conn. Thomas Spencer, Of Hartford, Conn.
362 pages. Hardbound. Ornately embossed brown cloth binding. Pages foxed. Chip at top of spine. Shelf wear. Binding is tight. Fair Condition. <G MA CT>

40th Annual Report of the Trustees of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind. October, 1871 $10.50
Boston: Wright and Potter, State Printers, 1872
Table of Contents:
Trustees Report
Detailed Statement of Treasurers Cash Account
List of Blind People At Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind
Teachers
Domestics
Employees of Workshop
Members of the Corporation
Officers of the Corporation 1871-72
Appendix: Letter a the director to the second convention of American instructors of the blind.
Education of the blind. Communicated to the US Bureau of education by Samuel G. Howe
Statistical Table of the Institutions for the Education of the Blind in the United States.
Circular: To the Managers and Superintendence of Institutions for the Blind and the Friends of the Enterprise of Procuring a Library in Raised Letters.
Terms of Admission.
Vacations
40 Page Pamphlet, Semidetached Covers, Worn, Fair Condition. LAN/MA

Strange Superstitions $2.50
Robert Ellis Cahill
Salem: Old Saltbox Publishing House, 1990
Table of Contents:
Raising the Devil
Wisdom of the Witches
That Old Black and White Magic
48 pages, 6x9 softbound, very good condition.

Records of the Courts of Assistants Of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay 1630-1692 Volume 2 1630-1644 $45.00
Printed under the Supervision of John Noble Clarke of the Supreme Judicial Court
Boston: Printed by the County of Suffolk, 1904
Interesting compilation of who did what to whom, who was fined, whipped etc.
Table of Contents:
Part One Records, so far as recovered reproduced from 1632-1644
Part Two Court of Assistants 1641-1644 (from a contemporaneous copy now in the Boston public Library)
Index
289 pages, good condition, covers have light scratches and some white dots shelf wear, corners bumped.

I Joined the Cardinal's Army Memories of a Massachusetts State Trooper and Pacific Combat Marine $15.00
Richard Tonis
Brewster, Mass: Privately printed c1998
(from the back cover) "From Brockton, to Lee, to Guam and back this book is the recollections of a Massachusetts State Trooper during the early days of the state force and a combat marine in the thick of battle on the islands of the Pacific Theater."
235 pages plus appendix approx 80 pages, 6x9 softbound, title page is half missing. top of spine is wrinkled and pitted, looks like someone dropped it.

Building the Mass Pike (Images of America) $9.00
Yanni K. Tsipis
Arcadia Publishing, 2002
(from the back cover) By 1950, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and its capital city had fallen on hard times. With the region's railroads in decline and the roads in appalling disrepair, the difficulty of moving people and goods around the state and into its largest port was taking a heavy toll on the economy. The solution came in 1952 from one man and the road he devoted the last decade of his life to building. The man was William Callahan, and the road was the Massachusetts Turnpike. Building the Mass Pike tells the story of the road's planning, construction, and impact on the communities through which it passed. The book includes previously unpublished images from the Turnpike Authority archives and provides a vivid document of the largest public works project in the state's history and the firestorm of controversy that surrounded it. Written by an engineer-historian, Building the Mass Pike will appeal not only to those fascinated by the history of the Commonwealth and its capital but also to those with an interest in construction, urban history, and the politics of old Boston.
Author Bio: Yanni K. Tsipis holds degrees in civil engineering and urban planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A Boston native, he is the author of Arcadia Publishing's Boston's Central Artery, the bestselling account of the construction of the elevated expressway through the city. Tsipis leads walking tours around Boston and serves on the editorial board of Civil Engineering Practice, the journal of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers.
128 pages, 6x9 softbound, good condition.

Society and Power: Five New England Towns 1800-1860 $14.95
Robert Doherty
Privately printed, 1977
(from the forward) "Alexis de Tocqueville described nineteenth-century America as an open society in which the traditional European restraints of inherited social position and powerful church and state were absent. In this study, Robert Doherty uses the raw material of social history—census reports, tax lists, assessors' records, estate inventories, and town directories—to examine geographic and social mobility, wealth distribution, and political power in five Massachusetts towns from 1800 to 1860.
In contrast to much recent research which has focused on individual nineteenth-century communities, this work is a comparative study of towns of varying types. Included are two "hill-towns" (Pelham and Ware), two "market and administrative centers" (Northampton and Worcester), and one "major international sea-port" (Salem). Using a framework derived from central-place and regional economic theory, Doherty analyzes the statistical data and attempts to answer basic questions about the inhabitants of these towns: to what extent were they able to attain material security and make choices about their lives, and which geographical and socio-economic factors appear to have contributed to the availability of choice and security? He concludes that the actual opportunities of the "open" society in antebellum New England varied systematically in quantity and quality according to the physical location and socio-economic characteristics of the individual towns."
Table of contents: American Society, 1800-1860: Themes and Problems, The Five Towns: Pelham, Ware, Northampton, Worcester and Salem, Massachusetts, Economic Change, 1800-1860, Geographic Mobility, Wealth Distribution, Property Mobility and Group Status, A Summary and Interpretation of Social Structure, Political Power, Appendix, Notes, Index.
112 pages, 6x9 hardbound, very good condition, dust jacket has some closed tears and some ragged spots on the bottom.

Town and City Seals of Massachusetts Volume 1 $15.00
The State Street Trust Company, Boston 1950
State Street Trust produced a number of interesting books on different facets of Massachusetts history. These two volumes are my among my favorites. Each town includes a picture of the seal, some history of the seal, a brief history of the town and some interesting historical tidbits. This volume includes the towns of Athol, Attleboro, Barnstable, Beverly, Brockton, Canton, Dedham, Dover, Essex, Fall River, Falmouth, Fitchburg, Framingham, Gardner, Gloucester, Groton, Hamilton, Haverhill, Hingham, Holyoke, Ipswich, Lawrence, Lexington, Lowell, Manchester, Marblehead, Milton, Nantucket, New Bedford, Newburyport, Norwood, Peabody, Peru Pittsfield, Plymouth, Salem, Sherborn, Southbridge, Springfield, Sturbridge, Topsfield, Walpole, Wellesley, Weston, Westwood, Winchester, Winthrop and Worcester.
146 pages, softbound, good condition, corners bumped.

Hayward's Massachusetts Gazetteer $65.00
Boston: J. Hayward, 1847
Includes descriptions of every town in the Commonwealth.
444 pages, hardbound, fair condition, spine is decaying.

Early Homes of Massachusetts $15.00
From Material Originally Published as the White Pine Series of Architectural Monographs,
Edited by Russell F. Whitehead and Frank Chouteau Brown
Arno Press and the Early American Society, 1977
Historical Introduction Preface 1. 17th Century Massachusetts Cottages by Joseph Everett Chandler, Photographs by Julian A. Buckly 2. Newburyport, Massachusetts by Richard Arnold Fisher, Photographs by Julian A. Buckly 3. Newbury Old Town by Frank Chouteau Brown, Photographs by Arthur C. Haskell 4. Marblehead, Part I by William Druman Aldrich, Photographs by Arthur C. Haskell 5. Marblehead, Part II by Frank Chouteau Brown, Photographs by Arthur C. Haskell 6. Marblehead, Part III by Frank Chouteau Brown, Photographs by Arthur C. Haskell 7. Marblehead, Part IV by Frank Chouteau Brown, Photographs by Arthur C. Haskell 8. Cottages of Cape Ann by Daniel 0. Brewster, Photographs by Arthur C. Haskell, Measured Drawings by Frank Chouteau Brown 9. Cape Ann Interiors by M.S. Franklin, Photographs by Arthur C. Haskell, Measured Drawings by Frank Chouteau Brown, 10. Cape Ann Houses by Stuart Bartlett, Photographs by Arthur C. Haskell, Measured Drawings by Frank Chouteau Brown 11. Annisquam, Massachusetts by Frank Chouteau Brown, Photographs by Arthur C. Haskell 12. New England Entrance Halls and Stairways by Frank Chouteau Brown, Photographs by Arthur C. Haskell 13. New England Staircases by Benjamin Graham, Photographs by Arthur C. Haskell, Measured Drawings by Frank Chouteau Brown 14. Paneled Room Ends by Frank Chouteau Brown, Photographs by Arthur C. Haskell
234 pages, 9x12 hardbound, very good condition.

Massachusetts Newspapers and the Revolutionary Crisis 1763-1776 $6.00 & $1.50 s&h
Francis G. Walett
Boston: Massachusetts Bicentennial Commission 1974
44 pages 7x10 softbound pamphlet, good condition.

Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Vol XI 1720-1733 $45.00
To which are prefixed The Charters of the Province with Historical and Explanatory Notes, and an Appendix
Volume XI being volume VI of the appendix, containing Resolves, Etc., 1720-1733.
Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., State Printers, 1903
This volume also contains petitions from Maine which was a part of Massachusetts. Much more interesting than today's politics. Many citizen and town petitions to the legislature.
888 pages, leather hardbound, index, covers are worn, some tears on the spine.

Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Vol XII 1734-1740 $45.00
To which are prefixed The Charters of the Province with Historical and Explanatory Notes, and an Appendix. Volume XII being volume VII of the appendix, containing Resolves, Etc., 1734-1741.
Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., State Printers, 1904
This volume also contains petitions from Maine which was a part of Massachusetts. Much more interesting than today's politics. Many citizen and town petitions to the legislature.
833 pages, leather hardbound, index, covers are worn.

Journals of the Mass. House of Representatives 1765-1766 Vol. 42 $15.00
The Massachusetts Historical Society 1975
These volumes concern the period of the French & Indian War, events leading up to the Revolution and the Revolutionary War Years. It also contains numerous citizens petitioning the House of Representatives making them an interesting source of primary information on the period. These volumes include an extensive indexes. If you buy them all take $5.00 off each volume.
335 pages, 6x9 hardbound, good condition, light stains on covers

The Glorious Ninety-Two Members of the House of Representatives: Selections from the Journals of the Honorable House of Representatives, of His Majesty’s Province of Massachusetts-Bay in New England - Begun and Held at Boston in the County of Suffolk, December 30, 1767 and May 25, 1768. $19.95
Joint Committee for the Convention of the Senate and House of Representatives held on February 15, 1949 to Commemorate the Return to Massachusetts of the Paul Revere Liberty Bowl.
Boston: 1949.
71 pages; hardbound, no d/j; illus. with b/w photos; good; unread copy, some pages not cut.

Journal of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1880. $19.95
Printed by Order of the House.
Front end-paper inscription: “Sidney A. Bull, Carlisle, Mass., Nov. 11^th, 1880.” (Sidney A. Bull, grandson of Ephraim Bull, was the author of The History of Carlisle).
Proceedings of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, January 27 to April 24, 1880.
Boston, Mass.: Rand, Avery & Co., Printers to the Commonwealth; 1880.
524 pages., appendix, index; hardbound; ornamental binding; gilt title and arms of the Commonwealth on spine; good.

Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society volume 118, 1996 $13.00
Boston: Massachusetts historical Society, 1998
Table of contents:
Passing: Race, Religion, and Healy Family, 1820-1920, by James M. O'Toole
"Macintosh, Otis and Adams are our demagogues": Nathaniel Cotton and the Loyalist interpretation of the origins of the American Revolution, by Colin Nicholson
Notes and documents:
New light on the Bathsheba Spooner execution, by Deborah Navas
routines of upper-class life in Boston, 1887-1919: two women diarists by P.A.M. Taylor
199 pages, 6 x 9 hardbound, good condition.

Memorials of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati $75.00
Edited by James M. Bugbee
Boston, Mass: Printed for the Society 1890
Table of contents: Past and present members, Historical sketch of the General Society, Annals of the Massachusetts Society, Biographical Notices of members, Appendix: Statement of Dr. William Eustis, Note on the original members of the Massachusetts Society, Officers of the Massachusetts Society from 1783 to 1890, Acts of incorporation, 1806, By-laws and rules of the General Society from 1783 to 1890, Rules and regulations of the General Society, Members of the American Order of the Cincinnati in France.
575 pages, red cloth hardbound with gold inlay.

William Shirley, King’s Governor of Massachusetts. $22.50
John A. Schutz
Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1961
Table of Contents:
Newcastle's Friend, Newcastle's Promises, The New Governor, Smugglers, Politicians, and Clergymen, Louisbourg, The Canadian Expeditions, New Alliances, His Majesty's Commissioner, The Empire in Crisis, Limited Warfare, Niagara Campaign, Patronage Lost, Patronage Regained.
292 pages, 6x9 hardbound, very good condition.

Political Parties in Revolutionary Massachusetts $14.95
Stephen E. Patterson
University of Wisconsin Press 1973
(from the end flaps) In this, the first book of recent times that develops the history of the American Revolution through the 1770s, Stephen E. Patterson explodes the myth that Massachusetts revolutionaries approached the American Revolution in a united and cohesive way. They were, the author finds, partisan in their behavior both before and during the revolution, and their internal conflicts were at times of greater significance to them than the war with Great Britain.
Patterson explores the meaning of "party" in eighteenth-century Massachusetts, and he presents significant new evidence of surprisingly vigorous party activity among the state's political leaders. Thus, while illuminating the many conflicting political, social, and economic forces at work in Massachusetts in the period 1774 to 1780, Patterson makes a solid contribution to our understanding of the party concept in all of revolutionary America.
Of all the participants in the revolution, none were more successful in appropriating it and making it their own than the men of Massachusetts. While a leader in the movement, Massachusetts also was constrained by its attachment to traditional values . Both English common law and the Puritan tradition were based on principles of social unity and intolerance of dissent. In spite of this background, political parties existed in Massachusetts before 1765, and Patterson turns to the voting records to prove it. By the time of the revolution, the people of Massachusetts were used to coping with political problems in a partisan way, although the parties were still not fully developed and were not freely accepted as desirable. The book thus points to the contradiction that existed between theory and reality in the political life of revolutionary Massachusetts. Paradoxically, the revolution there was shaped by political parties whose goals, in part, were the eradication of partisanship.
Patterson offers a striking interpretation of the shifting concepts of the nature of society and the evolution of political thought. He portrays the clash between traditional holistic values and modern pluralist reality that characterized the situation and laid the groundwork for the modem acceptance of political parties. Of especial importance are his presentation of the problem of devising a constitution and his discussion of the changes wrought by the revolution in the political role of Massachusetts towns. He explores the political struggle for power at the time when the strength of many early revolutionary leaders, such as Sam Adams, had declined. Particularly interesting is Patterson's documentation of the struggle between coastal conservatives and the agriculturally based democrats of the inland counties for political control of the new state.
Patterson's book, lively with quotations from the men who shaped this history, will go far in stimulating reevaluations of America's political behavior in this crucial period. It will also serve as important and challenging collateral reading in many advanced courses dealing with the American Revolution.
Stephen E. Patterson is Associate Professor of History at the University of New Brunswick.
654. 299 pages, hardbound, dust jacket, V/F V/F, end flap price clipped.

Journal of Convention, Dept. Mass. Woman's Relief Corps 1897 $50.00
Boston, Mass: 1897
Full title: Journal of the 18th Annual Convention of the Department of Massachusetts, Woman's Relief Corps, Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic. Worcester, Mass. February 10 and 11, 1897.
290 pages, hardbound, green cloth, some rubbing, top and bottom of spine show wear, bumped.

The Bay State Monthly $20.00
Boston: John McClintock and Company 1884
A Massachusetts magazine of literature, history, biography and state progress. Lots of articles about Massachusetts history. Some articles by Samuel Abbott Green about Groton Mass, among others.
Table of Contents
426 pages hardcover bottom right hand corner is worn, edges are worn.

The Massachusetts Miracle $4.00
Edited by David R. Lampe
Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press 1988
An economic analysis of the booming economy of the 1980s
366 pages, hardbound, dust jacket, good condition.

The Maritime History of Massachusetts 1783-1960 $7.50
Samuel Eliot Morison
Boston: Northeastern University Press: second impression 1922
The classic story of maritime Massachusetts.
Table of contents: Coast and sea, the colonial background, revolution and reconstruction, pioneers of the pacific, the northwest fur trade, canton market, Salem East Indies, ships and seamen, merchants and mansions, the sacred codfish, Newburyport and Nantucket, federalism and neutral trade, embargo and war, ,the passing of Salem, the hub of the universe, ships and seamen in southern seas, china and the east Indies, Mediterranean and Baltic, Cape Cod and Cape Ann, the whalers, oh! California, the clipper ship, conclusion, supplement of letters, appendix: statistics, bibliography, index.
401 pages, reading copy, covers are stained and have wear along the edges, pages are in good shape.

Quabbin Towns
Great Waters - A History of Boston's Water Supply $19.95 (Out of Print)
E. N. Hartley
University Press of New England 1983
Boston's thirst for water destroyed several communities. This book covers the controversial history of Boston's water supply from 1846 to the present including the building of the Cochituate, Sudbury, Wachusett and Quabin reservoirs. The pictures show before and after the reservoirs. Includes a bibliography.
106 pages, 6x9 hardbound, dust jacket VF/VF

Henry W. Smith: Quabbin's Controversial Spiritualist $9.95
J. R. Greene
Winchendon, Mass: Performance Press, 1999
(from the back cover) Séances and spirits in the old Swift River valley?
This book recounts the eventful life of Henry W Smith (18301914), a native of Enfield, MA., one of the four towns flooded for the Quabbin Reservoir. A talented composer, as a young man Smith went to Boston, and made a fortune manufacturing organs.
Discovering spiritualism in his middle age. Smith's passion for this cause broke up his family, leading to three lawsuits. When he moved back to the Swift River valley, the intolerance of some toward Smith's beliefs led to several religious disputes.
These disputes caused Smith to build his own church in Greenwich Village, involved a lawsuit against the town, and a quarrel between Smith and his fellow parishioners! This fascinating story will be of interest both to Quabbin history buffs and those concerned with struggles over religious intolerance in 19th century rural New England.
86 pages, 6x9 softbound, new.

County and Town Histories

This page last updated April 15, 2008

Books

Magazines

Massachusetts Books