On June 2  3, 1908, Nat Harris and his sister Catherine boarded a train at Dedham for Woods Hole, crossed Vineyard Sound on the sidewheeler Gay Head, and landed at Oak Bluffs. Nat, who was ten, and Catherine, nearly nine, climbed into a carriage. Nat sat in front with his father, Charles, Catherine in the rear with her mother, Olivia. With their trunks, small wood stove, and oilskins, they set off over dirt roads for the hilly Chilmark pastureland just east of Menemsha.
    
Much of this ground is now the forested Menemsha Hills Reservation, owned by The Trustees of Reservations, a state conservation group, and opened to the public for hiking. But in those days it was all Harris family land, hundreds of open acres rising and falling from the western border of Menemsha Hills down nearly a mile of Vineyard Sound shoreline to the ruin of an old brickyard at the mouth of Roaring Brook.
      
In the middle of the nineteenth century, the Brickyard – known as the Boston Fire Brick and Clay Retort Manufacturing Company – was one of the most prosperous land-based industries on the Vineyard. Fed by clay in the north shore cliffs, it was turning out some 600,000 bricks, worth $2.4 million, in 1852. But it went bankrupt shortly after the Civil War. Nathaniel Harris, president of the Atlantic Bank in Boston and the future grandfather of young Nat and Catherine, assumed the mortgage and recapitalized the business. Again it thrived until sometime in the 1880s, when shortages of wood and clay, and the grumbling of a restive work force, finished it off for good. His sons Charles and Sydney tried making china clay from the veins of kaolin that still lay in the cliffs. But that operation failed too, and in 1908 the Harris family was using the land, crisscrossed with ancient stone walls, for farming.  

And for camping. From 1907 until 1919, the Charles Harris family spent the summer living in a tent on the western edge of what is now the Menemsha Hills Reservation. For three months each season, Nat and Catherine had the run of the place. They woke up with the sun each morning, scampered down to Vineyard Sound from the tent for a swim before breakfast, and then set off on adventures over the old hills. With their parents, Charles and Olivia, and their occasionally epileptic dog, Wendy, they explored freshwater springs and saltwater marshes and rowed up the new channel – straightened and dredged only five years before – to the growing fishing port of Menemsha, then still called by its old descriptive name of Creekville. We know almost everything the children saw and did that summer because, beginning June 23, 1908, and running through the middle of September, the family kept a journal– Logbook of the Camp at Shore Place – in which Nat and Catherine (or Nathl. and C.P.H., as they often signed their names) tell us all about it.

June 30, 1908

7:00 a.m.: Weather clear, strong breeze from the south-west. Breakfast of oatmeal, coffee, pilot bread, bacon and eggs. Flag raised at 8 a.m.

The parents, Charles and Olivia, write entries in the logbook too. Charles, referred to in the logbook as “the Captain,” makes weather observations and records the raising and lowering of colors. Olivia, “the Mate,” writes often of housekeeping in the tent, sewing, and berrying. Nat and Catherine – “the Crew” – give us a sense of what was really important about the day.

Nat: Went down to beach and let waves break on my feet. There was a large rock, when the waves broke against it there was a large spray and it came down like a rainstorm. I went to the Post Office with ma, bought dates, stubbed my toe against a rock, bought paper. Went to creek with Pa and Catherine, saw Dave Butler and Mayhew, spoke to them. There are a lot of deaf mutes down here.

Nat is meeting the last generation of Vineyard residents to carry a genetic trait for deafness that had passed through the isolated up-Island population since the coming of the white man in 1642. Near the creek, the ratio of deaf to hearing in 1908 is nearly one in four, and Vineyarders, deaf and
hearing alike, converse easily and without prejudice in an idiosyncratic sign language that nearly every Chilmarker knows, according to Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language, a 1988 book on the subject by Nora Ellen Groce. David Butler, a Menemsha Creek fisherman who can hear, is one of the most versatile and well-known Island boatmen of his time. He dies in 1943 at the age of eighty-four.

July 1, 1908

5:30 p.m.:  Weather foggy. Wind S.W., light. Steamers whistling in the sound on account of fog. Catherine and Nat went down on the beach. Catherine uttered a horrible screech. “Look,” said she to her brother Nat, “at that fearful worm. Ain’t he horribly fat.”

Catherine: This p.m. Nat and I went down to the beach. I was pushing off snails from rocks. I made believe that the rocks were tenement houses. When the snails were very close together I pushed them off. We got all wet. I had to change clothes. Pa’s just come with a basket of wood.

July 17, 1908

6:00 a.m.: Up and in boat to pound for bait.

A pound is a fishing net running through a line of stakes from a beach to an offshore funnel and trap. At least three pounds are set up between the Harris camp and the Menemsha jetties. The Harrises seem to have permission to raid a pound belonging to Dan Look for mackerel – which they eat morning, noon, and night – and squid to fish for flounder (fluke) when the trap holds no mackerel.

Catherine: Today is Mother’s birthday. I gave her a basket. It is not finished yet. Nat & I gave her half a lb. of candy. Pa gave her a birthday cake. Later Papa, Nat & I went fishing. Pa caught 9 flounders, Nat caught 8 flounders and I caught 4 flounders. Pa gave 16 away to other boys that were fishing. Mister Flanders gave us a tow in his motor boat. We kept five flounders for our selves. Later Pa, Mother, Nat & I and Wendy went to the creek. Carl Reid’s [Reed’s] store was shut up. We had to go to his house and get him. We got our rope and anchor.

We caught 21 fish. In the p.m. staid about camp. Later went to creek (Pa, Nat & I), got mother’s birthday cake. Supper.

Carl E. Reed’s store, located at the head of the basin at Menemsha, is a grocery, confectionery, tobacco shop, boat supply store, gathering place, and site of what was then called the Creekville Post Office. David Butler’s store is next door, and beyond this is Ernest Mayhew’s store. It is noteworthy that during the middle of the summer season in 1908, Reed’s store is closed and the Harrises must track him down at his house.

July 29, 1908

6:00 a.m.: Clear, calm, wind E’ly.

Nat: In the a.m. Pa and I went in swimming. Breakfast. After breakfast we went out to Dan Look’s pound for some mackerel but he had not got any so we got some bait and caught 11 flounders. Ma and Catherine caught 3 apiece and I caught 5. Pa didn’t catch any. We had two for dinner [lunch]. Before dinner Catherine and I went to the creek for potatoes. We each had a bottle of sarsaparilla. When we got home the whole family went in bathing. Dinner, two flounders, tomatoes, potatoes. In the p.m. we got all ready to go for a trip in the boat. I was up on a cliff and Pa was halfway down the path. There was a clump of bushes behind me and Ma and Catherine were in the tent. Ma wanted to know if Pa had his purse. He said he had not and ’twas locked up in the trunk, so he threw the keys up to me. They went over my head in the bushes. We had a fine time getting them.

August 11, 1908

9:00 a.m.: Rain. S.E., light.

Nat: a.m. Swim. Breakfast. Catherine and I built a small house out of boards and boxes, about 4 ft. long, 3 ft. wide, 3 ft. high. We found an old door, 2 H ft. high, 1 H ft. wide, with hinges. Bath. Dinner. p.m. Pa, Catherine and I to Brick Yard. Pa going to Uncle Sydney’s and Catherine and I to clay deposits. We got chunks of Red, Gray, Yellow and White clay for house. When we got home, we put them in the boxes. P.S. Search-light from Fort Rodman [at the eastern tip of New Bedford] very bright.

August 19, 1908

6:00 a.m.: Weather clear, wind N.W. light.

Charles: This morning about 10:30 left the camp with all hands aboard the boat for a trip of exploration around Menemsha Pond. Stopped at the creek for provisions.

Catherine: . . . we got olives, Dole’s tongue, pilot bread, ice cream and cake. . . .

Pilot bread, eaten nearly every day by the Harris family, is the staple otherwise known to seafarers as hardtack.

Nat: From there we went up to the pond to an old scow where we had ice cream and bananas. From there we went up to a house (nobody living in it) on Gay Head.

Olivia: A high hill back of this place, which we climbed. A very beautiful view from there – the Sound islands, Falmouth, etc., on one side, Menemsha Pond & Chilmark, also Quitsa Pond, then still further round on south side Squibnocket Pond, open ocean & Noman’s Land. We hated to leave the hill, but finally did, thence in the boat again a short distance to Lunch Cove, as we called it . . .
Catherine: . . . as I named it. . . .

As late as 1908 grazing and farming still keep the up-Island landscape denuded of scrub and trees. From this hilltop – nowhere near the highest point on the Island – it is possible to see Cape Cod, ten miles and more to the north, on a clear afternoon.

Olivia: After finishing, Nat found a nice little stream running into some marshes & here he & Catherine had a great time playing. After some time we again embarked and rowed another short distance & landed near a Gay Header’s house, where we asked for water. . . .

Catherine: . . . Pa gave the Gay Header’s boy a nickel for some water. . . .

Olivia: Had a little talk with the owner (Cook), then walked across the road & up Shotinier [Shotnigher] Hill. A very pretty view from there. Then returned to our boat & rowed up to & through Quitsa Pond to opening to Stone Wall Pond. There we again landed & walked over to the South Beach.

The Cooks are a famous whaling family in Gay Head. William Cook is one of the last Islanders to die on a whaling voyage. In December 1895, three days into an Atlantic trip out of New Bedford, he falls overboard from the bark Swallow and is lost. Shotnigher Hill, according to Names of the Land, a 1983 book by Eugene Green and William Sachse, is given this name because it put hunters “nigher”
to the ducks and geese that fly back and forth between Menemsha and Squibnocket Ponds.

Catherine: There we helped [a] minister out of the pond where he was stuck.

Olivia: Not as much surf as usual. Back to the boat & Charles & I rowed home stopping for a few minutes at the creek. Nat & Catherine had taken turns rowing with Charles until then. We all enjoyed the day very much.

In 1908, the Vineyard is evidently a place without poison ivy, deer ticks, or “no trespassing” signs.

September 1, 1908

6:00 a.m.: Weather clear, wind S., light.

Nat: In the a.m. I went to Uncle Sydney’s. He was not in the house but plowing with a man in the Great Meadow. . . . Aunt Edith then telephoned Mrs. E.C. Mayhew [at the family store] to ask Pa to telephone when he got there, and it was agreed that I would stay to dinner, and Ma, Pa, and Catherine would come down after dinner, and the whole family would go to Vineyard Haven. We started about 3 o’clock p.m. Pa and I in the front seat, Ma and Cath. in the back seat. We first went to Bodfish and Call’s [a grocery and grain store at Union wharf, now the Steamship Authority wharf]. From there we went to a small confectionery where we got ice cream and soda. [We saw the] “Spray” in V.H. harbor. . . .

Spray is the thirty-seven-foot sloop in which Joshua Slocum, a native of Nova Scotia, becomes the first man to sail alone around the world in 1898. His eponymous book on the adventure, published in 1900, makes him the most famous sailor on earth. In 1902 he buys a small farm in West Tisbury, the only home he will ever own on land.

Coming home saw two rubberneck autos and Zeb Tilton.   

Tilton, one of nine brothers and sisters from Chilmark, has just become master of the coastwise schooner Alice S. Wentworth, which will become the last vessel to carry freight under sail on the eastern seaboard. The Wentworth is sold in 1943, and Captain Tilton – a legend up and down the coast on which he sailed and romanced the ladies in every port for forty years – dies in 1952 at the age of eighty-six.

We saw an awfully poor looking crop of corn. We had supper at Uncle Sydney’s. After supper we went to boat. Uncle S. and I carried lanterns. We put one lantern in the boat and Uncle S. took the other. It was very dark. I steered and Ma and Pa rowed. When we got to the tent it was 8:45 p.m. Went right to bed. P.S. We passed lots of autos coming and going from the [West Tisbury Agricultural] Fair.

September 3, 1908

7:00 a.m.: Weather cloudy, wind N.W., moderate.

Catherine: This a.m., N. and Pa went to Uncle S., had dinner there. Mate and Captain [their mother and father] have gone for a walk along the beach. Nat is bothering me dreadfully, running away with the ink, dragging me from my seat, putting the cork on the ink when I’m writing and etc. I shall tell mother and Pa when they come home.

September 4, 1908

6:00 a.m.: Weather clear, wind N.W., light.

Catherine: This a.m. mother and pa went to the P.O. Nat and I staid at the tent making paper faces according to the St. Nachol’s [St. Nicholas]. I was the old fashioned girl, Nat was the Spanyard. We dressed up in funny clothes. We surprised Mother and Papa with them when they landed. In the p.m. Nat and I went down on the beach to get some boards for a floor in our clay house. Papa went down on the beach to get wood. Mother read to Nat and I. Then Pa, Nat and I rowed to the creek. We got three fish from Wilbur. A scup, mackerel and sea bass.

St. Nicholas, a children’s magazine published from 1873 to 1939, presents the works of Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, and Robert Louis Stevenson, among others (it serializes the original edition of Little Lord Fauntleroy  in 1885). A 1908 edition of the magazine apparently offers suggestions about how to play a creative game of “fancy dress,” a popular pastime for children of the period.

September 14, 1908

9:00 a.m.: Wind N.E., fresh. Weather clear.

Catherine: This a.m., Pa, Nat and I went to the creek and gave Mrs. Hammett some clothes. We met Captain Slocum. We went aboard his boat. He gave me some shells and a piece of coral. Nat and pa went on to the P.O. while I walked home from the creek alone. Packing most all day.

Fourteen months after this entry, Captain Slocum departs the Vineyard for the Orinoco River in Venezuela and vanishes, never to be heard from again. Six years later he is declared dead and his widow, Henrietta, quickly marries Ulysses E. Mayhew, one of the proprietors of Alley’s General Store in West Tisbury. She dies in 1952. In July 1973 Nat Harris gives to the Historical Society the piece of yellow coral that Captain Slocum gives the children in 1908.

September 15, 1908

8:30 a.m.: Wind N.E., moderate. Weather clear.

Charles: Broke camp this morning. All hands busy packing and preparing to leave. . . . Ira Davis arrived with truck wagon to take luggage. Struck and packed tent and all hands left the shore place at 9 a.m. to the creek and loaded the baggage aboard D. Vincent’s boat. At 10 a.m. left the creek. Wind N.E. brisk. Very rough in the sound. 11 a.m. Wind N.E. Carried a reefed sail, passed through Robinson’s Hole into the bay. A very heavy sea in the bay.

Catherine: This a.m. all start for New Bedford with Dan Vincent. It was terribly rough going over. We took the train from N.B. to Boston and Dedham.

In 1908, it is easier for the family to return to New Bedford by catboat under sail than to go overland to Vineyard Haven or Oak Bluffs and catch what we now call the ferry. Some things never change.

Copies of the journals and photographs of the Harris family, covering the years 1908–1919, were donated to the Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society in 1991 by  Nathaniel Harris Jr. of South Dartmouth. Information about the history of the Harris family land was provided by Ebba R. Hierta of West Tisbury, who is writing her thesis on the subject for a master’s degree in environmental science at Oklahoma State University at Stillwater.
    
In June 1966 Nathaniel P. and Catherine Harris gave two hundred acres of the family land to The Trustees of Reservations.  Two public trails on what is now the Menemsha Hills Reservation are named for Nat and Catherine, the brother and sister who scampered over these hills “without let or hindrance” – as Catherine once put it – nearly one hundred years ago.
    
Photographs courtesy of the Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society, except the picture of Nat and Catherine Harris in front of their tent, which was provided by Judith Osojnicki, granddaughter of Nathaniel Harris.