Fathers, Sons, and Brothers
by Helen Seager
The sons of Caleb and Judith Macy who made it to adulthood were Elisha (born 1751), Silvanus, (born 1756), Barzillai (born 1759), Obed (born 1762), and Caleb (born 1764). Their youngest daughter Ruth (born 1771) was the only female child to reach adulthood. Among Obed’s many notebooks and journals are remarkable short recollections about Macy family members in a notebook he entitled Family Mirror.
Obed describes his grandfather Richard Macy (Caleb’s father), as “strong and robust and remarkably industrious, which enabled him to contribute to the necessary calls of his family and led him to various kinds of business.” A carpenter, Richard built a windmill in which his son Caleb “was much employed to grind grains for the Inhabitants at large. This was a business which in no wise was congenial to his (Caleb’s) feelings.” Caleb continued without complaint “through obedience to his father’s commands.”
When Caleb came of age, he left the hard labor of farming and keeping the mill to get a “sufficient portion of School education to fit him for business,” and to look out for himself. Although “not a workman of the first class,” he became a shoemaker, but left for short whaling voyages and, later, even shorter voyages in the “coasting trade.” After marriage to Judith, he began employing “all the best workmen that he could procure.” His shoemaking business was soon providing shoes to islanders, seamen, and strangers (non-islanders). “He cut and prepared all the shoes that was made (sic) in his shop with his own hands and was clerk to all his own business.” Whenever he found that he had a cash surplus, he would first acquire land; then he “embarked on the whaling business... until he owned a part of five vessels at one time.” He became wealthy, but his physical health was not good; in that respect, he differed from his strong, robust father. He sold most of his share of shipping and purchased land, “generally hiring his farming work done.” At one point he owned a thirtieth of the island, which he kept well stocked with horses, cattle, and about 400 sheep.
As Caleb’s children grew to adulthood, he became concerned about “protecting them from the casualties of war.” He provided them all with a good school education, and a “mechanical trade” (e.g. carpentry, shoemaking/ cordwaining) and encouraged them to stay at home. He kept up his cordwaining business and farming, and kept his perspective about losing property during the Revolution. “(H)e considered that he had brought up his children and fitted them for business.” After the war, he did not return to business except to manage the property he had and to assist his children in their businesses. “His farming was carefully attended; in this he appeared to enjoy ... more satisfaction than in any other business.” Obed described his father’s character as unimpeachable, “a peacemaker among all classes of people (who) often would suffer a loss rather than distress a poor man.” He left an estate of $20,000; Judith survived him by about twenty one years.
Elisha Macy (1753-1806)
Elisha, Obed’s oldest brother, was “never capable of much hard labor, much like his father Caleb.” When young, he too was a shoemaker, probably in his father’s shop, and, also like his father, “never was very proficient. His mind was more on study and books.” He excelled in mathematics, especially arithmetic and Navigation.” He too made some short whaling voyages which were not to his liking. Since “no business suited him unless he was ... teaching others,” he started an evening school, while shoemaking during the day. Later, he gave up shoemaking altogether and established a successful day school, with “generally as many scholars as he could manage. After many years of untired devotion to this business, he found his health on the decline...including years with a troublesome cough.” Once again he changed professions, this time to “settling whaling voyages. He was the principle person in this business for many years.”
His health became worse, and he “travelled in the country, in the back part of the State of New York ... some weeks....This did not avail. (H)e returned home as much or more out of health than he ever had been.” We can speculate that he was seeking a remedy. He grew gradually sicker and weaker, and died in spring of 1806 at the age of 53.
Obed remarked that Elisha “would rather suffer wrong than do wrong. He was a member of the Society of Friends and a steady attender of meetings. His life and deportment corresponded with the religious profession of the Society.”
Elisha had married Phebe Gardner in 1774; there were no children. She lived to age 88, dying in 1834.
Silvanus Macy (1756-1833)
In December, 1756, two baby boys named Silvanus were born into different Macy families. Records make distinctions between the two: the Silvanus born on Dec. 6 was referred to as Silvanus I; the boy born to Obed and Abigail nine days later was called Silvanus II. Sometimes, although they were not father and son, “Sr.” and “Jr.” were used to maintain the distinction. Silvanus I became a boat-builder; at one point he sold a lot on Pleasant Street with boat shop to Silvanus II. When Silvanus I moved to Hudson NY ( he died in 1813 in Athens, NY), there was no further need on the island to maintain the distinction.
Silvanus and Anna Macy lived at 89 Main Street, the house inherited when Silvanus’s father died in 1798. Obed describes Silvanus as “of a strong constitution.... He followed the sea many years in the coastal line, which employment was congenial to his health.” Their children were Paul (1780 - 1834), Eunice (1781 - 1845), John (1786 - 1849), Rachael (1787 - 1861), Barzillai (1793 - 1869), and Lydia (1801 - 1871). Anna encouraged her children on the attendance of religious meetings
Anna had domestic help, whom she directed herself in her prudent household. She was “kind and obliging to her friends and neighbors, always ready to lend her aid and assistance.” According to Obed, “her constitution was generally slender....Not withstanding her bodily infirmities, most of the time she was able to keep about house and see to the continuing of her domestic affairs....Her spirits kept up.”
Silvanus and Anna were married for 56 years, and “sustained a good harmony between them;” she died only five months after her husband. They lived to see six of their children reach adulthood and they visited Anna to enjoy her company, “especially on first-day (Sunday) evenings.” When she died, their youngest was 33 years old.
Barzillai Macy (1759 - 1789)
Brother Barzillai was the third son of Caleb and Judith, born between Silvanus and Obed. He was given a school education and was apprenticed to a carpenter. There was “nothing remarkable in his minority.” When he came of age (1780), he did not continue carpentry, but went into the whaling and codfish business with his brother Silvanus. Obed wrote:
After a few years, I (Obed) joined them and established the firm of Silvanus Macy and brothers. Under the firm, we carried on business to as great an extent as our limited means would warrant.
Their business was varied: whaling, fishing, coasting (i.e., sailing the eastern coastal routes of the United States), farming, and, yes, shoemaking.
My elder brother Silvanus chose coasting to Baltimore, and sometimes to Philadelphia and the West Indies. Brother Barzillai had the principal care of the outdoors business, and my time was mostly devoted to the Shoemakers Shop. Thus we planned our business in good harmony, and conducted lovingly as three brothers ought to.... The tide of success seemed to be with us.
Barzillai married Elizabeth Macy, the 24-year-old daughter of Nathaniel Macy, in 1787. Their daughter Judith lived to adulthood, dying at age 42 in 1829; a son, Barzillai, Jr. died at age 2 in 1791.
Barzillai died in January 1789, before their son Barzillai was born. He was only 30 years old. Elizabeth was a widow for 40 years thereafter, until she died in 1829. Obed’s feeling about Barzillai was that “he was not only a loving brother, but a co-partner in trade.” Silvanus was in Baltimore when his brother died. Returning to the island a few days later, “he was much affected, ... considering that he (the deceased Barzillai)was much beloved by him.”
Obed Macy (1786 - 1844)
Obed’s first job was the same as his brothers: shoemaker, the trade urged on all of them by their father Caleb. Like the others, Obed decided that he was not called to that trade, but he never really abandoned it. It was not unusual for Nantucketers of the time to be involved in several ventures and trades at the same time or in sequence, on land and/or sea. At various times, Obed’s occupation included shoe maker/cordwainer, spermaceti candlemaker, merchant, and trader. The brothers outfitted ships, and bought and sold parcels of pasture and farm land. As a landowner, Obed participated in over 20 land transactions in 1799 and 1800 alone. Although both went to sea at one time or another in coastal and seagoing voyages, they were more successful in land-based maritime support industries.
Obed began writing in his journal in 1799 and continued that practice for the rest of his life. He reported on weather, comings and goings of ships and cargos, current issues of local and national importance, farm commodity prices, recipes and cures, deaths of island citizens, travels, building construction on island, disasters, and other events of daily life. In July, 1799, he reported building a raft to transport material for building his house in Polpis. It was finished in sixteen days! Carpenter David Hussey began work on the house in town on Pleasant Street in 1801.
The census of 1830 listed only Abigail and Obed as residents; the mansion on Pleasant Street was an empty nest. Their sons Thomas, Peter, Reuben, Peter, and Daniel were all married and living elsewhere. Both Obed and Abigail had already outlived their three daughters.
The second and fourth sons of Caleb and Judith Macy shared not only in-laws, but nearly everything else: property, their business firm O. & S. Macy, leadership and influence in the Nantucket Quaker Meeting, civic responsibility, including the Proprietors of the Common and Undivided Land, and various Town Offices. Obed wrote in his journal that they started business together “around 1786 and continued in co-partnership until (Silvanus) died, and had no difference between us ... to produce hardness or animosity.” (Journal #5, p. 121, 9/20/1833) Their close relationship was a model for subsequent Macy generations.
Helen Seager has lived at 15 Pleasant Street year round and is an occasional writer or speaker on topics of history for island publications organizations. Her articles this summer are based on research in the NHA research library and elsewhere about residents and owners of 15 Pleasant Street.
