The Inspiration

See Below:

"A Bit of History"

"Information & Publications" 

Writers Block Interview:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qW4EM-DgL0

Prologue from Moss on Stone

Amazon Author Page

Cosmicseanotes Blog

The inspiration for the novella, Moss on Stone came gradually, triggered by a small sign. While my husband and I were taking a walk in the lovely town of Rockport, Massachusetts on a warm day in May, we passed the Inn on Cove Hill. On the gate was the sign: "Built in 1771 by Caleb Norwood with pirate gold found at Gully Point. Hmm...interesting, but was it true? I wondered.

A few weeks later, I went to the the Sandy Bay Historical Society (SBHS) in Rockport and to the Rockport and Gloucester libraries to do a little research. I found the Ebenezer Pool papers, a chronicle written by hand (1822-1870). In them he wrote of a discovery of gold by Caleb Norwood and that, "the money find was not made public, but was of many thousands value. Even more interesting! Gwen Stephenson, kind and patient curator at SBHS, directed me to Fish, Timber Granite & Gold by Eleanor Parsons/Peter Berkholtz, wherein there is reference to later research which found documents to support a discovery of gold by Caleb Norwood. Also, mentioned was Caleb's great granddaughter, Susannah, who kept a diary (March 1849 - August 1849) when she lived in that very house we had passed on that spring morning!

Sandy Bay Historical Society also had a copy of Susannah's diary (not the original) but a typewritten one and also a published book by Lucy B. Painter, a Norwood family descendant. When I read Susannah's entries, I became enthralled by the thoughtful and eloquent expressions of her experience. The diary revealed a young woman with fine sensibilities, a reflective mind, a sense of humor and many interests. Most notably, she was a keen observer of nature who seemed to live for solitude--in her "garret," or at the seaside, meadows and woods of Cape Ann where she gathered sea moss to arrange into beautiful designs on paper. She also collected moss on stone and grasses to weave into baskets and mats.

I wanted to (had to) bring Susannah to life again through her diary entries, a springboard to expand into a "story" consistent with the recorded thoughts, feelings, and events she describes. Ironically, the novella's perspective is from Susannah's afterlife, as she reviews her life in mid-nineteenth century Rockport, MA, "waiting to return to life anew." It is my fervent hope that she is rescued from oblivion, to once again "live" and be heard in her beloved native home - Rockport, Cape Ann.

Let us go forth, the tellers of tales, and seize whatever prey the heart longs for, and have no fear. Everything exists, everything is true, and the earth is only a little dust under our feet. (W.B. Yeats, The Celtic Twilight)

A Bit of History

 In 1605, Samuel deChamplain and John Smith, a decade later, came to Cape Ann. Champlain named the area "Island Cape," and Smith called it "Cape Tragabigzanda," thought to be after a Turkish princess. Later, Prince Charles renamed it Cape Ann, after his mother, Queen Anne, the wife of James I). 

In John Smith's guide book to New England, he refers to Cape Ann as the “Paradise of New England," noting that he would rather live there than anywhere else.  Subsequently, immigrants came to settle. By 1645 Cape Ann was chartered.

Francis Norwood (1636-1709), Susannah Norwood Torrey's great, great, great grandfather was of aristocratic heritage by all indications. He traveled to Saugus, MA in 1657 from Gloucestershire, England with other members of his family, seeking a safe haven from the Cromwell years. His father, Thomas, was killed during that time, and King Charles I was beheaded. Francis’s uncle (brother of Thomas), took guardianship of his young nephew, Francis, who lived with his uncle, his aunt and nine cousins at Leckhampton Court, a 2000 acre property with manor house in Gloucestershire.

Six years after his arrival in America, Francis moved from Saugus with his wife Elizabeth Coldum to Cape Ann. In 1664 he received a six-acre land grant in Goose Cove, then a remote settlement. The house is still standing and can be seen from the causway bridge across Goose Cove on the way to Annisquam. The Pooles, Tarrs, Allens and Haskells were other families who settled and made significant contributions to Cape Ann. Some of those families' descendants still live on Cape Ann. 

With Francis and Elizabeth, began the “Norwood Dynasty.” By the time Francis died (buried in Bayview Cemetery, Gloucester), he had acquired 170 acres on Cape Ann from Goose Cove to Pigeon Cove, where his 8th child, Joshua (1683-1782), and his wife (also an Elizabeth) settled (north end of Curtis Street) in the Garrison House, also known as the Witch House or Old House. This house is associated with a long-circulated story that a Salem woman accused of being a witch was sheltered there because of its obscurity in the woods of Pigeon Cove. Some believe the sheltered accused “witch” was Elizabeth Proctor, whose story is dramatized in Arthur’s Miller play, The Crucible.

Joshua sold Garrison House and moved to Cambridge and Attleboro, MA for a time.  He came back to Cape Ann and bought property across Sandy Bay behind Straitsmouth Island and built a cottage. Visible from there were the comings and goings of pirates and privateers, who had scouted the coves trading in rum, molasses and sugar, Gully Point and Gap Cove being among their known haunts. The Davises, Allens and Norwoods were aware of, and sometimes tolerant of these “visitors,” as many were British from their homeland before the American Revoluton.

Joshua's cottage was later moved from Straitsmouth to Atlantic Avenue in Rockport and still stands next to the Inn on Cove Hill (Susannah's childhood home). Joshua's youngest son, Caleb (1736-1814, AKA Red Cap) was said to have discovered the gold at Gully Point. Caleb married Elizabeth Grover, who died after 10 years and five children. Caleb, Jr. was the last child from this marriage. 

Within three months, Caleb had remarried widowed Jerusha Story of Ipswich, MA, who had other children. Together they had three children, one of whom was another Francis (1771-1823), William, and Lucy (half-siblings of Caleb Jr.), part of the third generation of Norwoods on Cape Ann. 

When Caleb died (1814), he left 14 acres (from Sandy Bay to Norwood Avenue) to his three sons, Caleb, Jr., (1762-1839) from Caleb’s first marriage, and to William and Francis from his second marriage. Caleb, Jr. married a cousin, or step-sister (sources revealed two different versions), also named Jerusha.

In 1771, the twin Thacher lighthouses were built and illuminated, and was also the year the rumors began of Caleb’s discovery of pirate gold, referred to in the Ebenezer Poole papers (Sandy Bay Historical Society). He writes that “the money find…of many thousands value” was found, “south of the seashore Gully….” It is thought that Caleb shared his find with neighbor, Francis Poole, on whose land the gold was said to have been found—estimated in 2001 with a conversion value of $700,000. 

Though the gold discovery remained a rumor, it seems very probable according to the findings of Peter Bergholtz and Donald Dawson, researchers for Parson's book, Fish, Timber, Granite & Gold.  Records reveal that Joshua (AKA Old Joshua) and Francis were referred to as "gentlemen" because of their land holdings and business dealings. Caleb and Francis Poole also made significant investments in Revolutionary War bonds, all evidence of unusal, out-of-the ordinary wealth for average citizens.

The Norwood family, within the 20 years after the said discovery of gold, had bought up property, built six large houses (not of usual construction, style and size for the average person at the time), and, according to Gloucester tax records, had their status at the highest assessment in town. All these expenditures and expansions further fueled (and still do) the rumors of discovery of gold.

Two of the houses built were homes to Susannah Norwood (1826-1908), 37 and 39 Mt. Pleasant Street, both still standing in Rockport (see picture above of 37 Mt. Pleasant -  The Inn on Cove Hill). 

Susannah was the great, great granddaughter of Caleb (Red Cap), who was father of Caleb, Jr., (great grandfather to Susannah). Caleb Jr.'s son, Charles was Susannah's father and her mother was Susanna Norwood. Both sets of her grandparents were Norwoods.

At age 17, in 1843, she married Solomon F. Torrey, a stone cutter, who worked for his father, William Torrey, the owner of quarries in Rockport and Quincy. After their marriage, they lived at 39 Mt. Pleasant Street with her maternal grandparents, William Norwood (Caleb Jr.s’ half brother) and Susanna Wheeler, who had built an addition on the home for the couple. In 1845, Susannah and Solomon had a child, William Francis. Sadly, he died a few days before his first birthday. 

Susannah kept a diary for a short time, from March of 1848 to August of 1849, which was the inspiration for Moss on Stone. When Solomon left with 10 other young men from Cape Ann for the gold rush in California, Susannah again moved next door with her parents, Charles and Susanna (Norwood) Norwood, to 37 Mt. Pleasant Street, formerly the Inn on Cove Hill, now renovated into luxury condos, losing much of the historic value, and perhaps sweeping out the ghosts of the lives once lived there).

     

When Solomon returned home, he and Susannah built their dream house they had referred to as the "stone cottage,"  the dream of building it is mentioned many times in Susannah's  diary, although she stops writing in the diary before Solomon returns from the Gold Rush. The house still stands on Norwood Avenue and today is known as "Granite Lodge,"  a most unique construction. in Rockport.  Susannah and Solomon subsequently had two daughters, Aria and Susannah, but Solomon lived only 5 years after his return from the Gold Rush.  Susannah lived a long life as a widow thereafter, died at age 82 in 1908, and is buried at Union Cemetery in Rockport, MA. 

The author of Moss on Stone has settled in Rockport and is able to see both 37 and 39 Mt. Pleasant St. from her window and sometimes imagines Susannah in the garden with her grandmother or walking down to the sea. 

There is no separation!

References

• Callam, G. Marion Norwood. The Norwoods II: A Chronological History. Bexhill-on-Sea. East Sussex, England: published by the author, 1997.

• Parsons, Eleanor. Bergholtz, Peter and Dawson, Donald, researchers. Fish, Timber, Granite & Gold. Sponsored by Sandy Bay Historical Society and Museums: Rockport, MA, 2003.

• Saville, Marshall, H. Champlain and His Landings on Cape Ann 1605, 1606. American Antiquarian Society, 1933. Collection of Sandy Bay Historical Society.

Sandra and husband Robert at Susannah and Solomon's stone cottage in Rockport, MA, who were kindly given a tour by the new owners.