Timeline of Nantucket

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

17th century

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

18th century

• 1712 – Sperm whaling begins.
• 1713 – Tuckernuck Island becomes part of Nantucket County.
• 1732 – Quaker meeting house built.
• 1746
  • Lighthouse and East Mill constructed.
  • The Old Mill an historic windmill.
• 1774 – Population: 4,545.
• 1775 – Nantucket tentatively states their neutrality during the American Revolutionary War.
• 1779 – April: British loyalists raid island.
• 1784 - Great Point Light established.
• 1795 – Town of Sherburne renamed "Nantucket."

19th century

• 1810
  • Second Congregational Meeting House incorporated.
  • Population: 6,807.
• 1814 – Nantucket declares neutrality in the US-British War of 1812.
• 1816 – May: Nantucket Gazette newspaper begins publication.
• 1817 – Fragment Society formed.
• 1820
  • Nantucket Mechanics' Social Library Society founded.
  • the Essex (whaleship), aboard which were mostly residents of the island, was sunk by a randy sperm whale;
  • Population: 7,266.
• 1821 – The Inquirer newspaper begins publication.
• 1822 - the Quaise Asylum was commissioned in 1822, and originally meant to house indigent, aged, and chronically ill
• 1823
  • Columbian Library Society founded.
  • United Methodist Church built.

• 

  1827 – United Library Association and Lancasterian school founded.
• 1834 – Nantucket Athenaeum incorporated.
• 1835
  • African Methodist Episcopal Church incorporated.
  • Silk Factory in business.
• 1836 – Ladies' Howard Society formed.
• 1838 - Nantucket High School established.
• 1839 – Trinity Church built.
• 1840 – First Baptist Church built.
• 1846 – Fire.
• 1848 – Atlantic House hotel in business in Siasconset.
• 1850 - Sankaty Head Light built.
• 1854 – Lightship Nantucket and Town Library established.
• 1855 - Death of Dorcas Honorable, Nantucket's last Native American Wampanoag Indian.
• 1856
  • Nantucket Agricultural Society founded.
  • Lighthouse rebuilt.
• 1864 – Josiah Freeman photography studio in business.
• 1866 – Union Benevolent Society founded.
• 1869 - Nantucket's last whaler sailed.
• 1873 – Nantucket Relief Association founded.
• 1875 – Civil War monument erected.
• 1877 – Sherburne Lyceum organized.
• 1881 – Nantucket Railroad built.
• 1883 – Siasconset Union Chapel, Nantucket Hotel, Surf-Side Hotel and Springfield Hotel built.
• 1886
  • Electric telegraph installed.
  • New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Steamboat Company formed.
  • Wyer's Art Store in business (approximate date).
• 1892 – Point Breeze Hotel in business.
• 1894 – Nantucket Historical Association founded.
• 1895 – Goldenrod Literary and Debating Society founded.

Original Nantucket Railroad reaches bankruptcy, Nantucket Central Railroad Company established

• 1897 – Church of St. Mary-Our Lady of the Isle built.

20th century

• 1901 – Brant Point Light rebuilt.
• 1902 – Maria Mitchell Association founded.
• 1908 – Maria Mitchell Observatory built.
• 1910 – Population: 2,962 (county).
• 1917 - Nantucket Central Railroad Company closes after all available trains were commandeered by the United States Army to serve in the Western Front of World War One
• 1923 – Sankaty Head Golf Club opens.
• 1925 – Nobska (steamship) begins operating in region.
• 1930 – Whaling Museum opens.
• 1934 - The LV-117 is sunk by RMS Olympic off the coast in a collision.
• 1940 – Straight Wharf Theatre established.
• 1945 – Murray's Toggery Shop in business.
• 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).
• 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: EgyptAir Flight 990 crashes south of island, 217 dead.
  • African Meeting House restored.

21st century

• 2001 – Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound organized.
• 2010
  • Cape Wind (wind farm) development approved.
  • Population: 10,172.
• 2011 – William R. Keating becomes U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 10th congressional district.
• 2020 – Nantucket introduces COVID-19 safety measures, including travel restrictions and mask mandates.

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. hdl:2027/yale.39002088370268.
• 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., OL 6905739M 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, OL 18095063M
• 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. Vol. 12. New York. OCLC 13972268.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Edward K. Godfrey (1882), The Island of Nantucket: what it was and what it is, Boston: Lee and Shepard, OL 22961957M
• 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, OL 24158445M
• J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur (1904), Letters from an American Farmer, New York: Fox, Duffield & Company, OL 7093278M 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.
• "Nantucket" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 166.
• John Henry Robinson (1918), Guide to Nantucket (3rd ed.), Washington, National capital press
• Samuel Eliot Morison (1921). "Newburyport and Nantucket". Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783–1860. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. hdl:2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t3bz6407p.
• 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 (3): 434–447. doi:10.2307/366005. JSTOR 366005.
• "An Island in Time: An Overview of the NHA's Collections with Accompanying Timeline". Historic Nantucket. 49. Nantucket Historical Association. 2000.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to History of 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