News & Stories

Halloween, or more accurately, All Hallows Eve (the evening before All Hallows (Saints) Day) has deep roots in Western European history. Our traditions of today likely evolved over the centuries, including from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. Samhain marked the transition from the lighter half of the year to the darker half, which starts around October 31. This was a significant seasonal turning point for agricultural communities. The harvest was over, food was stor

By Jeffrey D. Crocker Lauchlan Crocker election poster (Courtesy of Sue Crocker of Marstons Mills) Perhaps our most notable Crocker from the town of Barnstable is Lauchlan MacLean Crocker, Senior. Lauchlan, or “Lauchie” as he was often called, is remembered as the three-hundred-pound Sheriff of Barnstable County for fourteen years (1932-1947). He served as Sheriff during the end of Prohibition, the Great Depression, and through World War II. He was also Sheriff during B

Barnstable was first settled by English immigrants in 1637. By 1640, more than 30 families lived along what is now Route 6A (Old King’s Highway), from the intersection of what is now Iyannough Road (Route 132) to the West and Cummaquid to the East. The first grant of lands in Mattakeeset (now Barnstable) was to Mr. Richard Collicut (1604-1686). He was born in Barnstaple, England and came to Massachusetts in 1631/32. It is believed that Mr. Collicut never came to Barnstable

James Otis Jr. (1725-83) James Otis Jr. is credited with popularizing the phrase “no taxation without representation”! He was born in West Barnstable, and graduated from Harvard in 1743. In 1761, he was hired to challenge the British Writs of Assistance (laws that granted the authorities the power to enter any, home without advance notice, and without need for probable cause or to give any reasons for entry) before the Massachusetts Superior Court in Boston. He lost the ca

By Jeffrey D. Crocker Wartime often produces great stories of courage and heroism. This is not one of them. The year was 1864, the third year of the American Civil War. The previous year, Congress had passed — and President Abraham Lincoln had signed — the unpopular Enrollment Act, requiring men between the ages of 20 and 45 to register for military service. Thomas F. Crocker of West Barnstable became notorious for his wild attempts to evade the draft during these events. A

Salt-making on Cape Cod, including in Barnstable village, has a very long history. Historian Amos Otis reports in his Genealogical Notes of Barnstable families that: A salt work was erected in Barnstable very early, on the point of land on the west of the entrance of Rendezvous Creek, still known as Saltern point. Otis clarifies that the word “saltern”: Means a salt work, a building in which salt is made by boiling or solar evaporation. It is lost to time who owned t