A Brief History of Wareham by Michael J. Vieira PhD

Author:Michael J. Vieira PhD
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2014-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

In addition to those above, other sources list the following deceased: Besse, Christopher C.; Bumpus, David C.; Connell (also spelled Cornel), James; Coyne, Patrick; Ellis, Harrison; Pratt, Andrew; Snell, Joseph. More than $32,000 had been spent by the town by the time the war ended on April 9, 1865. The Civil War remains the deadliest in American history.

A WARTIME WEDDING

By the mid-1800s, the nail industry was at its peak in Wareham, but so were the whaling, cod and mackerel fisheries, as noted in the Wareham Preservation Plan. The overall population increased with immigrants arriving from Ireland and other countries. Although modest cottages remained the norm for most people, those prospering from the industries in town built Greek Revival and Italianate homes in Wareham Center. Many well-known and wealthy people visited or had connections with Wareham. Among them was Tom Thumb.

In the midst of the Civil War, a wedding with a Wareham connection and worldwide appeal received great notoriety. In 1863, Charles Stratton, better known as Tom Thumb, and Mercy Lavinia “Vinnie” Bump were married. She was thirty-two inches tall, and he was thirty-six inches tall.

Vinnie Bump was a descendant of the Bumpus family who originally settled Wareham. As a child, she reportedly was encouraged to live a life hidden away from the public. Instead, she became a schoolteacher at sixteen, but she left town at seventeen years old to sing and dance on a Mississippi showboat owned by a cousin. Then, she met P.T. Barnum, who went on to manage her entertainment career. Barnum had also “discovered” Charles Stratton, at age five, and as “Tom Thumb,” Stratton had become a superstar who spent his life in the entertainment business. Barnum introduced Bump and Stratton, and the two became engaged.

Theirs was considered to be the wedding of the century, and the Astors and Vanderbilts reportedly fought to be invited to the ceremony. They were married in Grace Episcopal Church in New York.

P.T. Barnum sold tickets to their reception, at which the couple greeted thousands of attendees from the top of a grand piano. In spite of the ongoing Civil War, Abraham and Mary Lincoln invited the Strattons to the White House for a reception in the Blue Room. Tiffany and Company gave them a silver coach.

In 1883, the couple narrowly survived a hotel fire in Milwaukee. Six months later, Tom Thumb died at the age of forty-five. Two years later, Vinnie Bump married an Italian dwarf, Count Primo Magri, and they operated a famous roadside stand in Middleborough, Massachusetts. Bump died in 1919 at about seventy-seven years old.

After the war, Wareham continued to be a center for manufacturing. The Wareham Preservation Plan pointed out that two new industries would transform the town: cranberry growing and summer tourism. In about 1860, one of the earliest bogs was built on White Island, and by the turn of the century, there were thirty-seven cranberry growers in town. The area also again became known as a “summer home,” this time for Victorians who headed to the waterfront to escape the heat of the cities inland.

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