YEAR |
EVENT |
1650 |
"Latin School" established in Chebacco to prepare youths for Cambridge |
1654 |
Road from Ipswich to Chebacco laid out (little more than a footpath) |
1656 |
First sawmill in Chebacco |
1679 |
Sills laid for a meeting house in Chebacco; work halted by court order. Building raised, despite order, through efforts of the women of the Parish (April) Building completed (July) following court permission |
1681 |
First Meeting House dedicated. Gallery and turret added. Parsonage built for John Wise, near the Meeting House |
1687 |
Spring Street opened when John Cogswell divided his 300 acre grant among his four sons. |
1695 |
Nathaniel Rust, the first schoolmaster, began teaching in a room in his home (now on John Wise Ave.) |
1700 |
In Chebacco were a church, a school, five sawmills, one shipyard, three bridges, and two causeways. |
1702 |
First school house erected (on the common) |
1712 |
Tanning yard established alongside brook, in back of Burying Ground |
1718 |
New (second) Meeting House built on the common |
1733 |
A Pound constructed |
1741 |
School held in a house at the Falls two months each year |
1742 |
School sessions held two months at the Falls, two months on the South side of the River, and two months at the schoolhouse on the Common (an annual arrangement) |
1752 |
Separatists' new meeting house built on site of present Congregational Church |
1754 |
Sixth Parish purchased property on spring Street as location for parsonage for Mr. Cleaveland |
1757 |
First schoolhouse sold; second schoolhouse built on same site. |
1761 |
First schoolhouse at Falls |
1774 |
A pound, built of stone, established. |
1779 |
First schoolhouse built on south side of Chebacco River |
1793 |
New Meeting House constructed on site of third meeting house (present Congregational Church) |
1797 |
Bell cast by Paul Revere installed in meeting house |
1800 |
A new schoolhouse was built as the Falls, on the site of the first one. |
1801 |
A second schoolhouse built on the south side of the river A new schoolhouse in the North district |
1809 |
The Christian Baptist society erected a meeting house on site of present United Methodist Church |
1817 |
New road to Manchester built |
1819 |
Chebacco Parish, separated from the Town of Ipswich by the Massachusetts Legislature; incorporated as the Town of Essex |
1821 |
Essex Canal opened, for moving timbers between the Merrimac and Chebacco Rivers |
1824 |
Engine house built across from congregational church at site of present White Elephant Shop. Engine and equipment purchased by Town. |
1834 |
A new "poor house" built in the town A bark mill established at the Falls for a tanning business |
1835 |
A school house constructed in the center of Essex (now the Shipbuilding Museum) |
1836 |
The Universalist church constructed in the center of Essex |
1841 |
New schoolhouse in the South District |
1842 |
Congregational Meeting House remodeled to provide a second-floor Sanctuary and a first-floor meeting hall. The selectmen occupy an office in the corner of the meeting hall |
1845 |
Schoolhouse built in the East District |
1851 |
New engine house on Thompson Island, near the causeway New fire engine for the town |
1854 |
Horse/ carriage sheds built at Congregational Meeting House |
1860 |
Records indicate operation of four rope-walks in Essex at this time |
1864 |
Hardy's Hall and the engine house at the end of the causeway destroyed by fire |
1865 |
Construction of a new engine house on the causeway |
1867 |
First Essex post office located in Richardson's Hall |
1893 |
Construction of Essex Town Hall; transfer of all Town offices and all Town meetings from the Congregational Meeting House to the new building |
1946 |
Universalist church destroyed by fire. Rebuilt on same site. |
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