Sandy Point State Reservation

From 1634 to 1649 use of the southern portion of Plum Island was ungoverned. Individuals pastured farm animals there in the summer, mainly hogs. In 1649 the General Court of Massachusetts apportioned the southern 2/5 of Plum Island to Ipswich, Massachusetts. It was at first managed by appointees of the town as a commons. If the town harvested the grass it was distributed to those who had no grass; otherwise, individuals were allowed to harvest grass at will. Mutual interferences were punishable by fine.[6]

By popular demand at town meetings the Ipswich portion of Plum Island, Hog Island and Castle Neck (on which was Castle Hill) were divided into lots, 1664–1665, which were distributed to the legal residents. On April 10, 1665, selectmen chosen by town meeting for the purpose found that there were 203 "reckoned and allowed inhabitants" and 800 acres (3.2 km²) of commons. Allowing 2 shares (6 acres) for 28 persons, 1.5 shares (4.5 acres) for 70 persons and 1 share (3 acres) for the rest, they specified a method for laying out 266 shares starting from the Rowley border. The shares received by a person: 2, 1.5 or 1, depended on the person's assessed wealth. The lots were distributed by a system that combined chance and wealth such that "the fine upland lots fell in the main to the humbler folk."[7]

In 1667 the town acted to restrict herd animals from the newly distributed commons, as "the value of the upland lots, particularly, was greatly impaired by the unrestrained wandering of the cattle and swine...." These and other measures were not effective. Animals originating in Newbury continued to devastate the island. In 1679 Ipswich petitioned the General Court again charging that the marshes were being "trodden to dirt" and the cover removed from the dunes was destabilizing the sand. The court acted to forbid animals from the island without proprietor permission, but as this measure was not effective either, in 1739 all animals were restricted from the island under penalty of impoundment and heavy fines if the animals were claimed, confiscation if they were not. The cutting of trees and bushes also was forbidden, with a fine for each plant cut. The act was continued until at least 1785.[8]

The commons division of 1665 was no great windfall to the population of Ipswich. Many were not farmers and had no animals. The remote location prevented most from occupying and building on their land. Other crops could not be grown in the sandy and salty soil; only salt marsh hay was worth anything. The parcels were advertised as "fine upland farms", but they were neither farms nor upland. If a farmer did pasture his animals there in the summer, they had to compete for the grass with unrestrained herds from the north. The best course for the new owner was to sell if he could find a buyer. They were not long in arriving; entrepreneurs gradually bought up the land for their own purposes.

Middle Island was the richest farmland and was close to the Ipswich shore. The original recipients were John Brown and William Buckley. In 1693 John Pengry bought the island and in subsequent years the lots in the marsh and dunes opposite. He acquired Stage Island. He did not occupy the land himself, but chose to build a house and barn and lease the expanded farm to Amos Goodwin. In 1712-13 Pengry sold 20 acres (81,000 m²) to Nathaniel Emerson, a fisherman who had been born in Ipswich but lived in Gloucester, thus starting the Emerson dynasty. The Emersons placed a fishing business there: a wharf, a warehouse, fish-drying stages, and kept two sloops in the creeks: the Sea Flower and the Hope. Emerson Rocks are named after the Emersons.

In 1732 Pengry sold another tract including Stage Island, which was resold and ended up in the hands of William Dodge, a "wealthy merchant." He kept a schooner, the Rebecca, and a fleet of smaller boats in Plum Island sound and owned a "negro man servant, Scipio." Although slaves could not be legally purchased in Massachusetts, they could be bought elsewhere and owned in Massachusetts, and were, extensively. In 1783 Dodge bought Bar Island, which had been tenanted by small landholders attempting to live there. The island was clear of vegetation and remained so until the 20th century. The Emersons reached a peak in the 1730s when the estate came into the hands of the brothers, Nathaniel and Broster. An alcoholic, Broster squandered the assets of the business, forcing it into bankruptcy. Nathaniel's son Stephen in 1740 sold to Ralph Cross, a shipbuilder from Newbury, the first of the Cross dynasty. He gradually bought all the Ipswich portion of Plum Island up to and over the Rowley line, except for Stage Island and Bar Island, which was sold as a single estate to various owners. The Cross holdings became known as Cross Farm, a name which they hold today. Stage Island and some of the marsh to the north were the last remnant of privately held land in the south of the island, but now they have been left to the Federal reservation. Although the hay was cut and sold for a profit, the holdings were never a subsistence farm as on the mainland. The now apparently rural sound was then a busy harbor where 3-masters anchored between shores lined with shipyards and the warehouses of merchants from the Parker River southward. By the 19th century the businesses were preempted by Newburyport Harbor, not accessible from the sound, and the region declined.

Bar Head Rocks, a prelude to disaster. Seen here at low tide, they are covered at high, waiting to take the bottom out of a vessel trying to clear Sandy Point.

Ipswich Bar, as Sandy Point has been called historically, has a long history of tragedy. The swift currents and shallow waters are dangerous at any time of year, but they are fatal most often in winter and in a storm. Sailing vessels were driven aground on the bar and although in full sight of land only 1/4 mile or less away the victims could not reach it except through the chilled waters and breaking surf, and if they did reach it, found themselves far from assistance. The main cause of death is hypothermia or drowning following on hypothermia, which ensues in only a few minutes in the winter waters of Massachusetts, chilled by the Labrador current. Records of the loss of small boats began in the 18th century. They went aground on the beach or bar in winter. The boat's complement attempting to reach shore died in the surf or on the beach. As those buried in the sand did not stay buried a cemetery was established for them on Bar Island.

Among the disasters of greater magnitude is the wreck of the Falconer, a 360-ton brig from Belfast captained by Joseph Rolerson, of the same city, whom the town records of Ipswich, Massachusetts, list as Captain Joseph Rawlinson. She was transporting 350 tons of coal from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, to Boston when she encountered the northeaster of December 15, 1847. The ship carried 53 passengers and crew, including the captain's wife and son.

The initial phase of the storm was mild and foggy. A lumber ship, the Pliant, of Eastport, Maine, under Captain Reynolds, lost its way in the fog and struck on Ipswich Bar, the entire crew escaping without further incident. Captain Rolerson out at sea observing Squam Light at Gloucester, Massachusetts, believed it was Cohasset Light south of Cape Ann and tacked north to enter what he thought was Boston Harbor. In reality it was Ipswich Bay. Observing the bar lights at Ipswich and Newburyport he knew he was lost and dropped anchor three miles (5 km) from shore to wait out the storm, a fatal judgement. On the night of the 17th the temperature dropped, the full force of the storm struck the ship, she dragged anchor and struck Ipswich Bar 3/4 of a mile from Patch's Beach, as it was then called, at the foot of Castle Hill. There was a driving snow. At daybreak the residents immediately sent for help to Ipswich 5 miles (8.0 km) away. The vessel foundered in breakers throwing spray mast-high and began to disintegrate. The ship's boat was thrown in the surf, drowning three. The captain's wife and son with many passengers died of exposure in the cold wind, unable to shelter below deck. Help arrived at the beach, the remaining ship's complement were taken off at great hazard in small, open boats. The captain died within an hour of reaching safety. The residents of Ipswich opened their homes. The wreck resulted in 17 deaths. After a funeral procession winding through town they were buried in Ipswich, except for the captain and his family, who were shipped back to Belfast. Many of dead were poor immigrants headed for a new life in America.

On December 3, 1849, the Nancy with a cargo of bricks went aground on Plum Island. The crew of five were lost. On December 24, 1850, the Argus with a cargo of worked stone foundered on Emerson Rocks. The captain and some of the crew were lost. Two were trailed through the snow to a thicket, where they were found dead. The list continues: the Ornament, the Teazer, the Votary and in 1883 the City Point, a sidewheeler, on Emerson rocks. In 1802 and in 1852 the Merrimack Humane Society of Newburyport constructed shelters for cast-away mariners at Sandy Point. Only scattered stones remain. The dunes at the south end of Plum Island are strewn with massive ship timbers, some protruding from the sand at odd angles, causing visitors to speculate concerning their origin.