Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry describes the mysterious, abandoned village of Dogtown on Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

The myth, magic, and mystery of Dogtown, an abandoned village in Gloucester on Cape Ann in Massachusetts, continues to haunt and intrigue generations.

Up in Massachusetts there’s a little spit of land.
The men who make the maps, yes they call the place Cape Ann.
The men who do the fishing call it Gloucester Harbor Sound,
But the women left behind, they call the place Dogtown.
–Harry Chapin, lyrics to Dogtown

Here are three scenes from Dogtown: (top, left to right) cows roaming the abandoned settlement; “Whale’s Jaw” boulder; (bottom) an explorer standing at the cellar remnants of a home. See: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1616858611876439

Before it became known as Dogtown, it was called “the Commons,” or “the Common Settlement,” and was a thriving farming village, considered the most cultivated section of Gloucester. It was a locale that housed many prominent families of enterprise and patriotism, such as Coffin, Wharf, Pearce, Witham, Stevens, Day, Dade, Riggs, and others.

With the boom of the dangerous whaling and fishing industries, the Commons became overrun with widows and their watch dogs. Hence the name “Dogtown.”

What is now associated with this enchanted colonial ghost tract of land is not a wasteland; instead, over the years it has become a sanctuary for bird watchers, hikers, and picnickers. The only traces of the homes that once stood in this now-abandoned village are cellars, some marked with numbers.

Below is a photo taken in 1902 of two women taking a rest from exploring the Dogtown cellars.

The best blueberries grow wild there among a magical Stonehenge-like collection of giant boulders and rock formations left behind when the last glaciers melted. Below is a photo of the magnificent “Whale’s Jaw,” taken about 1900.

Below are photos of Dogtown in 1907 for a feature story published in the Boston Herald with a befitting headline: “The Ghosts of Dogtown, the Deserted Village of Cape Ann. Up the Road from Sandy Bay, Past the Whale’s Jaw, Into the Cellars, Above Which Were Once the Homes of Patriots and Witches; Weird Sights and Sounds.”

This article reports:

They say that on stormy nights you can still hear the beat of the drums that marched the fated patriots out of Dogtown. They say this sound gradually dies away and the wailing of women is heard, and that finally this also becomes an echo and only the barking and howling of dogs break the silence of the deserted village, the haunted village, the mystery of Cape Ann.

So few travelers visit Dogtown after dark that the existence of these uncanny and ghostly sounds will never be disputed. The paths of Dogtown are rocky and tortuous enough in the daytime, and there are many pitfalls in the way of bogs and blackberry patches. After nightfall they become impassable from the bowlders that line their ragged edges. And the traveler might fall into one of the cellars that mark the habitations of the revolutionary inhabitants of the abandoned town.

Dogtown, the village that was, Dogtown, the rocky, desolate pasture that is, lies in the interior of Cape Ann, beyond Gloucester.

Below is a map from Charles E. Mann’s book, In the Heart of Cape Ann — The Story of Dogtown, published in 1896 and drawn in the author’s own hand.

One resident of the village was Tristram Coffin (1762-1852), the third son of State Senator the Hon. Peter Coffin and his wife Mary (Currier) Coffin.

Tristram was a direct descendant of Salisbury settlers Richard Currier, John Hoyt, Thomas Barnard, and John Hoyt, as well as many Newbury settlers including his namesake Tristram Coffin – who would later settle the island of Nantucket.

Tristram, a farmer, lived on Cherry Street next to the Wharf family home and married one of their kin, Mrs. Mary Millett (Wharf) Jeffs, daughter of Arthur and Lydia (Cunningham) Wharf. Mary was the widow of James Jeffs, son Thomas and Abigail (Clark) Jeffs.

Initially, Tristram’s marriage to Mary was forbidden without explanation, as recorded in this town record courtesy of FamilySearch.

This marriage record states:

The purpose of marriage between Mr. Tristram Coffin and Mrs. Mary Jeffs, both of this town, entered August 25^th, 1800.
I hereby forbid the banns of matrimony between Mr. Tristram Coffin & Mrs. Mary Jeffs above named. Gloucester, Aug. 26^th, 1800. –Mr. Coffin.
The prohibition was withdrawn and the certificate was thereafter given.

According to sources, Peter Coffin, father of Tristram, came to Gloucester in 1688, and occupied a large tract of land, about 500 acres, between Annisquam and Chebacco rivers.

Tristram, like his father, was a true Patriot. He served in the Revolutionary War. He enlisted as a private in Maj. Thomas Thomas’s company, which served on an expedition to Rhode Island in 1778.

Tristram died on 10 March 1852. He had four children with Mary and left many descendants.

Below is the advertisement placed in the Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph newspaper for the sale or lease of Tristram’s home.

To be continued…

Create a free account at GenealogyBank for 7 days to start your journey and discover the stories your ancestors left behind.

Note on the header image: Dogtown, Massachusetts, 1908. Credit: Alice Curtis; Wikimedia Commons.