Nantucket, Massachusetts, USA
1845 - NANTUCKET TOWN. [Pop. 9,012. Inc. 1687.]

The town-of Nantucket (marked n) is situated at the west end of a sort of bay, on the north side of the island, and there are few other houses, except at the small village of Siasconset (S) at the eastern end of the Island.

The harbor is capacious and safe, but a bar of sand before its mouth prevents the entrance of large vessels, unless they are buoyed up or unloaded.

The great business of Nantucket is the whale fishery, which was first introduced in 1690, by a whaleman from Cape Cod, and was long carried on in boats near the shore. As the whales gradually retired from the coast, the enterprising islanders pursued them to the most distant seas,

Thomas Mayhew obtained the first grant of this island in 1641, and Thomas Macy was the first settler, in 1659. In 1695, after Duke's County, in which Nantucket was included, was taken from New York and given to Massachusetts, Nantucket was made a separate county.

The town, under the name of Sherburne, was incorporated in 1687, but after 1795, the Indian name, Nantucket, was given to the County, Island, and Town.

Distance, in a straight line from Boston, about 90 miles ; and by the way of New Bedford, about 107.

An Elementary Geography for Massachusetts Children by William Bentley Fowle and Asa Fitz, 1845
Get it HERE!

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