Edward Rowe Snow, the master chronicler of New England sea stories, wrote a letter to the Provincetown Advocate in February 1964, seeking information about descendants of Capt. David H. Atkins, […]
graveyard
GRAVEYARD SHIFT
Mr. Greenough’s Tea
A wreck at Race Point plunged the Outer Cape into Revolutionary politics
In Wellfleet’s Duck Creek Cemetery, three remarkably well-preserved colonial headstones with classic iconography are a tangible reminder of the John Greenough family. The stones, like too many in Cape Cod’s […]
GRAVEYARD SHIFT
The Schooner Rienzi and the ‘Mystery Brig’
A 15-month voyage in 1859 and 1860 was long remembered for a strange encounter
During Provincetown’s fishing and whaling heyday, the Bowly brothers — Joshua Elsbury (1813-1883) and Gideon (1816-1893) — were among the town’s most prominent owners and outfitters of vessels. In 1849, […]
GRAVEYARD SHIFT
Isaiah Hatch and the Wreck of the Franklin
On his first excursion to Cape Cod in October 1849, Henry David Thoreau stopped in Cohasset to view the gut-wrenching aftermath of the wreck of the brig St. John, carrying […]
GRAVEYARD SHIFT
Rediscovering Eastham’s Elijah Knowles
A trusted public servant and justice of the peace
Excitement rippled through Eastham with the recent rediscovery in the archives of the historical society of a document signed by Samuel Adams. Adams, born in 1722, was one of the […]
GRAVEYARD SHIFT
Eastham Looks Back at Its First Preacher
Samuel Treat Day will ask ‘emotional questions posed by our history’
EASTHAM — The grave marker in the Cove Burying Ground is plain: “Rev. Samuel Treat died Mar. 18, 1716, aged 69 years,” it reads. But the story of Eastham’s first […]
GRAVEYARD SHIFT
‘White Bronze’ Monuments Speak of a Forgotten Fashion
Made of cast zinc, they adorn the graves of Victorian-era notables
When the sun is shining, they glow with a bluish hue, standing out from the luminous white marbles, polished granites, and matte-black slates. There are not many of them in […]
