Benjamin Nye Homestead & Museum  

June 2016

 

News


The Nye Family of America Association, Inc. was established in 1903 to hold reunions and publish a genealogy.  After a dormant period, it was reorganized in 1959 for the purpose of acquiring, restoring and operating as a museum, the 1678 Benjamin Nye Homestead.  Genealogical, local history, Nye-oriented research and publishing are ongoing.  

      

Greetings!  

 

Happy Spring!  As this is being written, we are busily engaged preparing the Homestead & Museum for Opening Day - Open House on Saturday, June 18th, 12-4 PM.  We are excited about what we are offering that day.  Upstairs in the museum, we have an exhibit on local shoe making in East Sandwich, including some of the actual shoes made across the street from our Homestead in the 1800s. In the Grange Hall, renowned pianist Jacqueline Schwab will play vintage American music - a treat! She is well known for having provided background music for "The Civil War" and other documentaries by filmmaker Ken Burns.  We will also have refreshments, books and merchandise for sale, and our genealogist and President, Judy Hendy.

 

We also invite you to explore the grounds - the millpond, swans, quick-flowing stream, the pools, fish ladder, meadow and the observation platform overlooking the marsh.

 

If you can't attend our Open House  on the 18th, we will be open until mid-October, Tuesday though Saturday afternoons.  The Nye Family Association is devoted to preserving old-fashioned Cape Cod beauty, local history, and antiques and artifacts from the "pre-electric era".  Please come for a visit! 

   

 

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   Grange Mill Restoration Begins!

We are pleased to announce the start of a new restoration project -the Grange Mill, which sits on the site of Benjamin Nye's  1669 grist mill.   
This ca. 1855 building was built as a grist mill 8 miles away in Centerville by Oliver Jones.  In 1889 it was purchased by the East Sandwich Mill and Hall Association, led by Samuel H. Nye.  Nye was also Master of the newly-formed East Sandwich Grange #139 - a farm family fraternity.  The mill was taken apart and re-assembled on the foundation of Benjamin's 17th century grist mill, which had been taken down in 1867. 

The Grange Mill in 1915 after conversion to trout hatchery purposes.  Other buildings in the background L to R: Holway blacksmith shop, Grange horse shed, Benjamin Nye Homestead, the East Sandwich Grange Hall. 


The Grange Mill was run cooperatively for 8 years.  By 1897 the era of profitably raising of flint corn on Cape Cod was nearly over, and the mill was sold to John Armstrong, an East Sandwich man who had learned the jewelry and electroplating trade in Attleboro, MA. Armstrong converted the mill, and the old tub wheel was set up to run  a dynamo for electroplating and jewelry making machinery.

A watch fob made by J.A. Armstrong in the mill ca. 1900.


  Around 1905 Armstrong ceased jewelry work and developed a trout hatchery below the mill with a partner, John Carleton.  This hatchery was acquired by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1912, and developed for re-stocking Massachusetts ponds.  The mill became an office and workshop, used until 1990.  After this the mill, with standing water in the basement and roof leaks, deteriorated rapidly and by 2002 was in danger of collapse.  That year the Nye Family Association set up a management agreement with the Division of Fish and Wildlife, and got permission to stabilize the structure.

 
 
The two photos above were taken in May 2016, and show the jacking-up process and the replacement of floor joists.  Restoration carpenters Pret Woodburn and Dave Wheelock are at work. They are also assisted by contractor Peter Thomas.

Our Goal
is to restore the mill so that it can be used for museum purposes, such as the interpretation of the Nye mill site and farm - we have lots of material available for this.  Due to past filling and other changes, we are not able to restore it as a working mill, but we would have a scale model of a wooden tub wheel of the type used in the original Nye mill.  The Grange Mill had an iron wheel, long since disappeared.

Are you interested?  Would you like to help fund restoration?

It goes without saying that we will need a lot of financial support, which we will seek in several ways.  If you wish to help with a tax-deductible donation, you can send a check dedicated to this project, or click here:

 


Thank You!
   
 
 
                   














New Item!
 
                                             
Written by Russell Lovell,Jr., this fine book is a wealth of information on Sandwich, from early settlement to the present day. Paperback version 4th edition 634 pages
$24.95.
 
 
 

Nye Family of America Association, Inc. | 85 Old County Road | P.O. Box 134 | Sandwich | MA | 02537-0134