History of Wellfleet, Massachusetts, USA

Wellfleet, Massachusetts
Barnstable county. This township lies on both sides of Cape Cod: it is bounded N. by Truro, S. by Eastham, and is 33 miles below Barnstable.

The town is on the west side of the Cape: it is neatly built, and although it is surrounded by sand hills and almost entirely destitute of vegetation, it makes a handsome appearance. Wellfleet bay sets into the town from the south, and is separated from Cape Cod bay by several islands, which form a good harbor, at a place called "Deep Hole."

In 1837 there were 120 vessels, measuring about 6,000 tons, belonging to this place, employed in the cod and mackerel fisheries, and a number engaged in the coasting trade. The fishermen took 3,100 quintals of cod fish, and 17,500 barrels of mackerel: the value of which was $128,500. The quantity of salt used was 29,350 bushels: the number of hands employed was 496. During that year there were 39 establishments for the manufacture of salt in this place; the quantity made was...

Wellfleet was formerly the north part of Eastham, and extends across the peninsula.

From this town to the extremity of Cape Cod, is a range of Hills, all composed of sand except one, which is of solid clay, and on the seashore.

The town has many ponds among its sands, and the harbor is a good one for small vessels.

The fisheries, and the manufacture of salt, employ most of the inhabitants.

Distance from Barnstable, 33 miles, from Boston, by water, 60.

Wellfleet, a post-township of Barnstable co., Massachusetts, on the northern part of the peninsula of Cape Cod, 65 miles by water and 100 by land S. E. from Boston. The village is situated on the W. side of the peninsula, at the head of Wellfleet Bay, which affords good anchorage for vessels being protected from the sea by several islands. The mackerel fishery is more extensively carried on here than at any other port of Massachusetts, Gloucester only excepted. In 1851, 79 vessels (tons, 6411) and 852 men and boys were employed in the mackerel fishery alone ; the inspections for the year amounted to 11,367 1/ 2 barrels. Pop. of the township, 2411.

The territory comprising this town was formerly included in Eastham, and until the period of its separation their political history is inseparably interwoven; but so far as possible the historical facts pertaining to the territory of the present town, from its first settlement, will find a place in this chapter. Prior to 1644 the territory of Wellfleet had been purchased of George, sachem, succes­sor to Aspinet, and was known as Pononakanet. Here, when the pur­chase of lands to and including Herring brook, with its meadows, had been made, the committee of whites asked the Indians whose lands were those down the Cape, to which the answer was, "Nobody's." "Then they are ours," was the reply, and Wellfleet was the last terri­tory paid for at this end of the county.

Billingsgate was an early name given to the present territory of Wellfleet, which unexplained cognomen still clings to some of its surroundings. At Billingsgate point, where the first lighthouse was subsequently erected,...

Wellfleet is an interesting fishing and commercial town in the northeasterly part of Barnstable County, and near the middle of the outer arm of Cape Cod, 106 miles from Boston by the Old Colony Railroad. The stations are Wellfleet, (village and centre) and South Wellfleet; which are also the post-offices. The other villages are Billingsgate, Dog Town, Fresh Brook Village and Painsville.

The population is 1,687. The boundaries are Truro on the north, the ocean on the east, Eastham on the south, and Cape Cod Bay on the west. The assessed area is 5,450 acres; and nearly one half is devoted to woodland; but the actual forest, consisting of oak and pine, is but 833 acres. The territory is about 8 miles in length, and from two to four between ocean and bay. It consists of hills and knolls of sand; and in the hollows between them lie as many as fifteen fresh-water ponds. Of these, eleven are situated almost in a straight line north and south. Gull Pond, the largest and most beautiful, is...

Well'fleet, a post-village in Wellfleet township, Barnstable co., Mass., on Cape Cod Bay and the Old Colony Railroad. It is about 65 miles by water and 106 miles by railroad S.E. of Boston. It contains a high school, a savings bank, and 3 churches, and has about 100 vessels employed in the mackerel-fishery, which is the main support of the inhabitants. The township is bounded on the E. by the Atlantic Ocean, and is a part of the peninsula of Cape Cod. Pop. of the township in 1880, 1875; in 1890, 1291.

First trans-Atlantic radio broadcast between President Theodore Roosevelt and King Edward VII of Great Britain at Marconi Station at Wellfleet