Timeline of Nantucket

The following is a timeline of the history of Nantucket, Massachusetts, USA.

17th century

• 1621 – Island granted to Plymouth Company of London.^[1]
• 1641 – Island bought by Thomas Mayhew.^[2]
• 1659
  • Island sold to Thomas Barnard, Peter Coffin, Tristram Coffin, Christopher Hussey, Thomas Macy, William Pike, John Swayne, and Richard Swayne.^[3]
  • Proprietors of the Common and Undivided Land established.^[4]
• 1660 – Island becomes part of the Province of New York.^[2]
• 1661 – Settlers arrive from Amesbury and Salisbury, Massachusetts.^[2]
• 1665 – Maddequet Ditch (canal) dug.
• 1671 – Town incorporated.^[5]
• 1672 – Town relocated to Wescoe from Madaket.^[6]
• 1673 – Town named "Sherburne."^[5]
• 1683 – Island becomes part of Dukes County, Province of New York.^[6]
• 1686 – Jethro Coffin house built.^[6]
• 1692 – Island becomes part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.^[2]
• 1695 – Nantucket County established.^[6]

18th century

Map of the Island of Nantucket, 1782, by Crèvecœur

• 1712 – Sperm whaling begins.^[6]
• 1713 – Tuckernuck Island becomes part of Nantucket County.^[6]
• 1732 – Quaker meeting house built.^[7]
• 1746 – Lighthouse and East Mill constructed.^[8]
• 1774 – Population: 4,545.^[5]
• 1775 – Nantucket tentatively states their neutrality during the American Revolutionary War.^[9][10]
• 1779 – April: British loyalists raid island.^[9]
• 1795 – Town of Sherburne renamed "Nantucket."^[5]

19th century

• 1810
  • Second Congregational Meeting House incorporated.^[11]
  • Population: 6,807.^[12]
• 1814 – Nantucket declares neutrality in the US-British War of 1812.^[13]
• 1816 – May: Nantucket Gazette newspaper begins publication.^[14]
• 1817 – Fragment Society formed.^[15]
• 1820
  • Nantucket Mechanics' Social Library Society founded.^[16]
  • Population: 7,266.^[17]
• 1821 – The Inquirer newspaper begins publication.^[14]
• 1823
  • Columbian Library Society founded.^[16]
  • United Methodist Church built.^[18]
• 1827 – United Library Association^[16] and Lancasterian school^[6] founded.
• 1834 – Nantucket Athenaeum incorporated.^[18]
• 1835
  • African Methodist Episcopal Church incorporated.^[19]
  • Silk Factory in business.^[20]
• 1836 – Ladies' Howard Society formed.^[21]
• 1839 – Trinity Church built.^[18]
• 1840 – First Baptist Church built.^[18]
• 1846 – Fire.^[3]
• 1848 – Atlantic House hotel in business in Siasconset.^[22]
• 1854 – Lightship Nantucket and Town Library^[16] established.
• 1855 - Death of Dorcas Honorable, Nantucket's last Native American Wampanoag Indian.
• 1856
  • Nantucket Agricultural Society founded.^[23]
  • Lighthouse rebuilt.^[5]
• 1864 – Josiah Freeman photography studio in business.^[24]
• 1866 – Union Benevolent Society founded.^[15]
• 1873 – Nantucket Relief Association founded.^[15]
• 1875 – Civil War monument erected.^[5]
• 1877 – Sherburne Lyceum organized.^[5]
• 1881 – Nantucket Railroad built.
• 1883 – Siasconset Union Chapel,^[18] Nantucket Hotel, Surf-Side Hotel and Springfield Hotel built.^[5]
• 1886
  • Electric telegraph installed.^[5]
  • New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Steamboat Company formed.^[25]
  • Wyer's Art Store in business (approximate date).^[24]
• 1892 – Point Breeze Hotel in business.^[5]
• 1894 – Nantucket Historical Association founded.^[18]
• 1895 – Goldenrod Literary and Debating Society founded.^[26]
• 1897 – Church of St. Mary-Our Lady of the Isle built.^[18]

20th century

Nantucket, 1937

• 1901 – Brant Point Light rebuilt.
• 1902 – Maria Mitchell Association founded.
• 1908 – Maria Mitchell Observatory built.^[27]
• 1910 – Population: 2,962 (county).^[6]
• 1923 – Sankaty Head Golf Club opens.
• 1925 – Nobska (steamship) begins operating in region.
• 1930 – Whaling Museum opens.^[28]
• 1940 – Straight Wharf Theatre established.^[15]
• 1945 – Murray's Toggery Shop in business.^[29]
• 1956 – July 25: SS Andrea Doria wrecked offshore.
• 1966 – Nantucket Historic District established.
• 1970 – Population: 3,774.
• 1972 – Hy-Line ferry begins operating.
• 1974 – Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Refuge established (approximate date).^[30]
• 1975 – Nantucket National Wildlife Refuge established.
• 1976 – December 15: MV Argo Merchant wrecked offshore.
• 1990 – Population: 6,012.
• 1995 – Nantucket Regional Transit Authority begins operating.
• 1997 – Bill Delahunt becomes U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 10th congressional district.
• 1999
  • October 31: Airplane crash near island.
  • African Meeting House restored.^[18]

21st century

• 2001 – Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound organized.
• 2010
  • Cape Wind (wind farm) development approved.^[31]
  • Population: 10,172.
• 2011 – William R. Keating becomes U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 10th congressional district.

See also

• History of Nantucket
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Nantucket County, Massachusetts

References

Further reading

Published in the 19th century

• "Nantucket". Edinburgh Gazetteer. Edinburgh. 1822. 
• Jedidiah Morse; Richard C. Morse (1823), "Nantucket", A New Universal Gazetteer (4th ed.), New Haven: S. Converse 
• William Darby; Theodore Dwight Jr. (1834), "Nantucket", New gazetteer of the United States of America (2nd ed.), Hartford: E. Hopkins 
• Obed Macy (1835), The history of Nantucket, Boston: Hilliard, Gray and Co.  2nd ed., 1880
• "Nantucket County". Massachusetts Business Directory. Boston: George Adams. 1856. 
• John Hayward (1857), "Nantucket", New England Gazetteer (2nd ed.), Boston: Otis Clapp, OCLC 3441657 
• "Nantucket". Lippincott's Magazine. 1868. 
• Richard Luce Pease (1876), Guide to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, Boston: Rockwell & Churchill, printers 
• Frederic Denison (1879), "Nantucket", Illustrated New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, Providence: J.A. & R.A. Reid, OCLC 22869619 
• Joseph Sabin, ed. (1880). "Nantucket". Bibliotheca Americana. 12. New York. OCLC 13972268. 
• Edward K. Godfrey (1882), The Island of Nantucket: what it was and what it is, Boston: Lee and Shepard 
• Robert Grieve (1889), "Nantucket", Illustrated Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Taunton, New Bedford, Fall River (2nd ed.), Providence, Rhode Island: J.A. & R.A. Reid, OCLC 10563002 
• M.S. Dudley (1895). Nantucket Centennial Celebration, 1695, 1795, 1895. Nantucket: R.B. Hussey, printer. 

Published in the 20th century

• Tourist's Guide to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, Boston: John F. Murphy, 1902 
• J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur (1904), Letters from an American Farmer, New York: Fox, Duffield & Company  Reprint of 1782 London ed.
  • Letters 4-5, 7-8: Description of Nantucket, etc.
• Sea-Girt Nantucket: a hand-book of historical contemporaneous information for visitors. Nantucket: H.S. Wyer. 1906. 
• Flagg (1907). "Nantucket County". Guide to Massachusetts Local History. Salem, Massachusetts: Salem Press Co. 
• John Henry Robinson (1918), Guide to Nantucket (3rd ed.) 
• Samuel Eliot Morison (1921). "Newburyport and Nantucket". Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783–1860. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 
• Alexander Starbuck (1924), History of Nantucket, Boston: C.E. Goodspeed & Co., OCLC 3813742 
• Winston Williams (1977), Nantucket Then and Now, being an updated history and guide, New York: Dodd, Mead, OL 4904260M 
• Nathaniel Philbrick (1993). ""Every Wave Is a Fortune": Nantucket Island and the Making of an American Icon". New England Quarterly. 66. JSTOR 366005. 

Published in the 21st century

• "An Island in Time: An Overview of the NHA's Collections with Accompanying Timeline". Historic Nantucket. Nantucket Historical Association. 49. 2000. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nantucket.

• Library of Congress, Prints & Photos division. Items related to Nantucket, various dates.
• Europeana. Items related to Nantucket
• Digital Public Library of America. Works related to Nantucket, various dates