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62-509: East Chop has no obvious commercial businesses or stores, although it has a private yacht and beach club, the East Chop Beach Club. East Chop became a popular summer resort in the late 19th century. A steamship wharf, known as Highland Landing or Highland Wharf, served regular ferry traffic from the mainland during the 1890s, and a horse railroad connected it to the village of Cottage City, later renamed Oak Bluffs . East Chop and

124-608: A National Historic Landmark by the US Department of the Interior in 2005. Nineteenth-century tourists, arriving by steamer from the mainland, could also choose from a wide range of secular attractions: shops, restaurants, ice cream parlors, dance halls, band concerts, walks along seaside promenades, or swims in the waters of Nantucket Sound. Resort hotels, of which the Wesley House is the sole surviving example, lined

186-613: A 1988 article, Counter noted that these two women had letters and photographs certifying their kinship. They were the only family members to attend Henson's funeral in 1955, along with his widow Lucy Ross Henson. Counter later recommended to the United States Navy and the National Geographic Society that Audrey Mebane, daughter of Virginia Brannum, and Olive Henson Fulton be designated as family representatives for any ceremonies honoring Henson. Henson

248-518: A Washington D.C. clothing store, B.H. Stinemetz and Sons, in November 1887, Henson met Commander Robert E. Peary . Learning of Henson's sea experience, Peary recruited him as an aide for his planned voyage and surveying expedition to Nicaragua, with four other men. Peary supervised 45 engineers on the canal survey in Nicaragua. Impressed with Henson's seamanship on that voyage, Peary recruited him as

310-856: A book about his finding Anauakaq and Kali, his research on Henson's life and contributions, historical racial relations, and the Inuits' meeting with Henson and Peary relatives in the United States, entitled North Pole Legacy: Black, White and Eskimo (1991). The material was adapted and produced as a film documentary by the same name. Matthew Henson's only descendants were the children of his Inuit son and their children. According to S. Allen Counter, in his lifetime Henson had identified families of two nieces as being part of his extended birth family. They were Virginia Carter Brannum, daughter of Henson's sister Eliza Henson Carter of Washington, D.C., and Olive Henson Fulton of Boston, daughter of his half-brother. In

372-586: A colleague and he became "first man" in his expeditions. After that, for more than 20 years, their expeditions were to the Arctic. Henson traded with the Inuit and mastered the Inuit language ; they called him Mahri-Pahluk. He was remembered as the only non-Inuit who became skilled in driving the dog sleds and in training dog teams in the Inuit way. He was a skilled craftsman, often coming up with solutions for what

434-530: A commemoration ceremony. Henson married Eva Flint in 1891, but their marriage did not survive their long periods of separation, and they divorced in 1897. He later married Lucy Ross in New York City on September 7, 1907. They had no children. During the extended expeditions to Greenland, Henson and Peary both took Inuit women as " country wives " and fathered children with them. With his concubine, known as Akatingwah, Henson fathered his only child,

496-459: A curving network of narrow streets lined with quaint "Carpenter's Gothic" cottages, picket fences, and pocket parks. Seeking to take advantage of the camp's seasonal popularity (and overflowing population), the developers established Oak Bluffs Land and Wharf Company, gaining immediate success: Five hundred lots were sold between 1868 and 1871. Copeland would end up creating three plans for the community to accommodate its constant expansion. Oak Bluffs

558-500: A daughter, who have children of their own. While some still reside in Greenland, others have moved to Sweden or the United States. Several Inuit family members returned to Washington, D.C., in 1988 for the ceremony of reinterment of Henson and his wife Lucy at Arlington National Cemetery. Counter had petitioned President Ronald Reagan for this honor to gain recognition of Henson's contributions to Arctic exploration. Counter wrote

620-450: A female householder with no husband present, 42.5% were non-families, 32.6% were made up of individuals, and 13.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.33 and the average family size was 2.94. In the town, the population was spread out, with 22.6% under the age of 18, 6.0% from 18 to 24, 31.9% from 25 to 44, 24.8% from 45 to 64, and 14.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age

682-608: A life member of The Explorers Club ; in 1948, he was elevated to the club's highest level of membership. In 1944, Henson was awarded the Peary Polar Expedition Medal , and he was received at the White House by Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower . In 1988, he and his wife were re-interred at Arlington National Cemetery . In 2000, Henson posthumously was awarded the Hubbard Medal by

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744-550: A newspaper interview, Henson later said: I was in the lead that had overshot the mark a couple of miles. We went back then and I could see that my footprints were the first at the spot. Henson proceeded to plant the American flag. The claim by Peary's team to have reached the North Pole was widely debated in newspapers at the time, as was the competing claim by Frederick Cook . The National Geographic Society as well as

806-423: A son named Anauakaq, born in 1906. Anauakaq's children are Henson's only descendants. After 1909, Henson never saw Akatingwah or his son again; other explorers sometimes updated him about them. The existence of Henson's and Peary's descendants first was made public by French explorer and ethnologist Jean Malaurie who spent a year in Greenland in 1951–1952. S. Allen Counter , a neuroscientist and director of

868-498: A son. After his father died, Matthew was sent to live with his uncle, who lived in Washington, D.C. (Georgetown was made part of Washington, DC in 1871.) The uncle paid for a few years of education for Matthew but soon died. Henson attended a Black public school for the next six years, during the last of which he took a summer job washing dishes in a restaurant. His early years were marked by one especially memorable event. When he

930-436: A temperate oceanic climate (abbreviated Cfb ), closely bordering on a hot-summer humid sub-tropical climate (abbreviated Cfa ). As of the census of 2000, there were 3,713 people, 1,590 households, and 914 families residing in the town. The population density was 504.1 inhabitants per square mile (194.6/km ). There were 3,820 housing units at an average density of 518.6 per square mile (200.2/km ). The racial makeup of

992-483: A year-round home port to a small number of fishing boats. Seasonal passenger ferries to Falmouth , Hyannis , and Nantucket dock along the east side of the harbor, as does a high-speed ferry to Quonset Point, RI . The seasonal car-and-truck-ferry service operated by the Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority docks outside the harbor, at a long pier projecting into Nantucket Sound , as does

1054-501: Is a town located on the island of Martha's Vineyard in Dukes County , Massachusetts , United States. The population was 5,341 at the 2020 United States Census . It is one of the island's principal points of arrival for summer tourists, and is noted for its "gingerbread cottages" and other well-preserved mid- to late-nineteenth-century buildings. The town has been a historically important center of African American culture since

1116-505: Is also home to Martha's Vineyard Hospital, just northeast of the Lagoon, which serves all of the island. Matthew Henson Matthew Alexander Henson (August 8, 1866 – March 9, 1955) was an African American explorer who accompanied Robert Peary on seven voyages to the Arctic over a period of nearly 23 years. They spent a total of 18 years on expeditions together. He

1178-575: Is best known for his participation in the 1908–1909 expedition that claimed to have reached the geographic North Pole on April 6, 1909. Henson said he was the first of their party to reach the North Pole. Henson was born in Nanjemoy, Maryland , to sharecropper parents who were free Black Americans before the Civil War . He spent most of his early life in Washington, D.C. , but left school at

1240-615: Is currently represented by Bill Keating. Massachusetts is currently represented in the United States Senate by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey . On the state level, Oak Bluffs is represented in the Massachusetts House of Representatives as a part of the Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket district, which includes all of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, as well as a portion of Falmouth . The town

1302-412: Is one of the earliest planned residential communities and largely informed later suburban development in the United States. Some of the earliest visitors to the area that became Cottage City and later Oak Bluffs were Methodists , who gathered in the oak grove known as Wesleyan Grove each summer for multi-day religious "camp meetings" held under large tents and in the open air. As families returned to

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1364-682: Is represented in the Massachusetts Senate as a portion of the Cape and Islands district, which includes all of Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and most of Barnstable County (with the exception of Bourne , Sandwich , Falmouth and Mashpee ). The town is home to the Fifth Barracks of Troop D of the Massachusetts State Police , which serves all of Dukes County. Oak Bluffs is governed on the local level by

1426-637: Is the oldest platform carousel still in operation. Like the grounds and buildings of the Campground (so designated in April 2005), the Flying Horses were designated a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior. The Martha's Vineyard Summer Institute was established in 1878, being the first summer school for teachers in the U.S. In 1873, the neighboring community of Harthaven

1488-575: Is water. In terms of land area, the town is 323rd out of 351 communities in the Commonwealth, and the third smallest community (behind Aquinnah and Tisbury ) in Dukes County. Oak Bluffs is bordered by Nantucket Sound to the north and east, Edgartown to the south, and Vineyard Haven Harbor, Lagoon Pond and Tisbury to the west. It also shares a common corner, along with Tisbury and Edgartown, with West Tisbury . The northernmost point of

1550-495: The Peary Polar Expedition Medal , a silver medal given to Peary. Presidents Truman and Eisenhower both honored Henson before he died in 1955. Henson died in the Bronx, New York on March 9, 1955, at the age of 88. He was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery and survived by his wife Lucy. After her death in 1968, she was buried with him. In 1988, both their bodies were moved for reinterment at Arlington National Cemetery , accompanied by

1612-658: The open town meeting form of government, and is led by a board of selectmen . The town has its own police and fire departments, with the police being located near Oak Bluffs Harbor and the fire department being more centrally located in the town. The post office is located just east of the Vineyard Camp Meeting Association lands, as is Oak Bluffs Public Library, which is a member of the Cape Libraries Automated Materials Sharing library network. Oak Bluffs

1674-450: The poverty line , including 13.0% of those under age 18 and 8.5% of those age 65 or over. Oak Bluffs ranks 263rd in population in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and third in Dukes County (behind Edgartown and Tisbury). It is 173rd in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in terms of population density, and second behind Tisbury in Dukes County. On the national level, Oak Bluffs is a part of Massachusetts's 9th congressional district , and

1736-735: The 18th century, and white locals sold them land. After slavery was abolished , the freed blacks came to work in the fishing industries, in turn drawing black residents from the Massachusetts mainland, who came and started businesses to serve the Vineyard's growing population. In the 1800s some black laborers also worked as servants to wealthy white families and in the hotels. In the late 19th and 20th centuries, middle-class blacks bought or rented summer homes, and many of their descendants returned annually. Formerly enslaved people, or their descendants, bought property around Baptist Temple Park in

1798-550: The 1960s. Many bought houses in an area they called the Oval or the Highlands, which Harlem Renaissance writer Dorothy West wrote about in her 1995 novel, The Wedding (edited by Doubleday editor Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis , a Vineyard resident who visited West for two summers). By the 1930s, local black landowners were transforming the town into the country's best-known and most exclusive African American vacation spot. Down

1860-711: The Black American community. Douglass called upon Black people to vigorously pursue educational opportunities and battle racial prejudice. At the age of 12, the youth made his way to Baltimore, Maryland, a busy port. He went to sea as a cabin boy on the merchant ship Katie Hines, traveling to ports in China, Japan, Africa, and the Russian Arctic seas. The ship's leader, Captain Childs, took Henson under his wing and taught him to read and write. While working at

1922-552: The Civil War. To escape from racial violence in southern Maryland, the Henson family sold the farm in 1867 and moved to Georgetown, then still an independent town adjacent to the national capital. He had an older sister S., born in 1864, and two younger sisters Eliza and M. Matthew's mother died when Matthew was seven. His father Lemuel remarried to a woman named Caroline and had additional children with her, including daughters and

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1984-578: The Harvard Foundation, had been interested in Henson's story and traveled in Greenland for research related to it. Learning of possible descendants of the explorers, he tracked down Henson's and Peary's sons, Anauakaq and Kali, respectively in 1986. By then the men were octogenarians. He arranged a visit for them the following year to the United States, where they met American relatives from both families and visited their fathers' graves. Anauakaq died in 1987. He and his wife Aviaq had five sons and

2046-545: The Highlands became a popular camp meeting gathering ground for Baptists , and church members erected a wooden tabernacle in 1877. The remains can still be seen in Temple Park. 41°28′03.67″N 70°34′07.03″W  /  41.4676861°N 70.5686194°W  / 41.4676861; -70.5686194 This Dukes County, Massachusetts geography–related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts Oak Bluffs

2108-452: The Inuit men and 130 dogs working to lay a trail and supplies along the route to the Pole. Peary selected Henson and four Inuit as part of the team of six men who would make the final run to the Pole. Before the goal was reached, Peary could no longer continue on foot and rode in a dog sled. Various accounts say he was ill, was exhausted, or had frozen toes. He sent Henson ahead as a scout. In

2170-922: The National Geographic Society. In September 2021, the International Astronomical Union named a lunar crater after him. Henson was born on August 8, 1866, on his parents' farm east of the Potomac River in Charles County, Maryland to sharecroppers who had been free people of color before the American Civil War . Matthew's parents were subjected to attacks by the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups, who terrorized southern freedmen and former free people of color after

2232-493: The Naval Affairs Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives both credited Peary's team with having reached the North Pole. Others remained doubtful. A reassessment of Peary's notebook by British polar explorer Wally Herbert in 1988 found it "lacking in essential data", thus, renewing doubts about Peary's claim. In 1912 Henson published a memoir about his arctic explorations, A Negro Explorer at

2294-414: The North Pole . In this, he describes himself as a "general assistant, skilled craftsperson, interpreter, and laborer." He later collaborated with author Bradley Robinson on his 1947 biography, Dark Companion , which told more about his life. During the following decades, Admiral Peary received many honors for leading the expedition to the Pole, but Henson's contributions were largely ignored. In 1909 he

2356-490: The U.S. to transform this odious nickname into an emblem of pride, bordering Nantucket Sound just south of the Steamship Authority Pier; Hart Haven Beach, further to the south; and Joseph Sylvia State Beach, a barrier beach (shared by Oak Bluffs and Edgartown ) that separates Sengekontacket Pond from Nantucket Sound. State Beach is punctuated by two inlets that connect the pond to the ocean. The smaller of

2418-576: The age of twelve to work as a cabin boy . He later returned to Washington and worked as a salesclerk at a department store. One of his customers was Robert Peary, who in 1887 hired him as a personal valet. At the time, Peary was working on the Nicaragua Canal . Their first Arctic expedition together was in 1891–92 . Henson served as a navigator and craftsman, and was known as Peary's "first man". Like Peary, he studied Inuit survival techniques. During their 1908–09 expedition to Greenland, Henson

2480-459: The cottages was often accented by the owner's use of bright, multi-hue paint schemes, and gave the summer cottages a quaint, almost storybook look. Dubbed "gingerbread cottages," they became a tourist attraction in their own right in the late nineteenth century. So, too, did the Tabernacle: a circular, open-sided pavilion covered by a metal roof supported by tall wrought iron columns, erected in

2542-420: The early 20th century, drawn by the religious services held there. Teachers, politicians, lawyers, doctors, artists, musicians and entrepreneurs resided there for decades afterward. Affluent African Americans from New York, Boston, and Washington came to Oak Bluffs, the only Martha's Vineyard town that welcomed black tourists as other towns on the island did not allow black guests to stay in inns and hotels until

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2604-544: The eighteenth century. The first inhabitants of Oak Bluffs were the Wampanoag people, who have lived on Martha's Vineyard (Wampanoag name: Noepe) for approximately 10,000 years. The area that is now Oak Bluffs was called "Ogkeshkuppe," which means "damp/wet thicket or woods." The area was later settled by Europeans in 1642 and was part of Edgartown until 1880, when it was officially incorporated as Cottage City. The town re-incorporated in 1907 as Oak Bluffs, named because

2666-454: The fast ferry that provides seasonal service to New Bedford . The exposed nature of the pier means that Steamship Authority ferries are routinely diverted to Vineyard Haven during strong northeasterly winds. Oak Bluffs is also the site of Trade Winds Airport, a private grass landing strip located just north of Sengekontacket Pond. According to the Köppen climate classification , Oak Bluffs has

2728-513: The first self-made American millionairess Madame CJ Walker , singers Paul Robeson , Ethel Waters and Lillian Evanti ; and composer Harry T. Burleigh . In 1866, Robert Morris Copeland was hired by a group of New England developers to design a planned residential community in Martha's Vineyard. The site, a large, rolling, treeless pasture overlooking Nantucket Sound, was adjacent to the immensely popular Methodist camp meeting , Wesleyan Grove,

2790-442: The grove year after year, tents pitched on the ground gave way to tents pitched on wooden platforms and eventually to small wooden cottages. Small in scale and closely packed, the cottages grew more elaborate over time. Porches, balconies, elaborate door and window frames became common, as did complex wooden scrollwork affixed to the roof edges as decorative trim. The unique "gingerbread" or "Carpenter's Gothic" architectural style of

2852-675: The island of Faial in the Azores , and the neighborhood where many of them lived, located between Vineyard Avenue and Wing Rd, was once nicknamed Fayal. Today the town's Portuguese heritage is best appreciated at the Annual Portuguese Feast, held at the Portuguese-American Club on Vineyard Avenue in mid-July. There were 1,590 households, out of which 27.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.3% were married couples living together, 9.4% had

2914-618: The late 1880s, which became a venue for services and community events. The campground's gingerbread cottages are cherished historic landmarks as well as very expensive real estate. Many are still family owned and passed on generation to generation. The cottages and the Tabernacle were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, recognized in 2000 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and declared

2976-402: The pole, and that the men could have fallen 30–60 miles (48–97 km) short of the pole due to navigational errors. Henson achieved a degree of fame as a result of participating in the expedition, and in 1912, he published a memoir titled A Negro Explorer at the North Pole . As he approached old age, his exploits received renewed attention. In 1937, he was the first African American to be made

3038-413: The road from West, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. owned a cottage in the Oval where Arctic explorer Matthew Henson was a guest. Further down the road is Shearer Cottage , the first inn for African Americans vacationers. It was built by a Charles Shearer, the son of a slave and a slave owner, when Shearer saw that black visitors were not able to stay at the homes due to segregation . Guests at the inn included

3100-438: The team needed in the harsh Arctic conditions; they learned to build igloos out of snow, for mobile housing as they traveled. His and Peary's teams covered thousands of miles in dog sleds and reached the " Farthest North " point of any Arctic expedition until 1909. In 1908–09, Peary mounted his eighth attempt to reach the North Pole. The expedition was large, as Peary planned to use his system of setting up cached supplies along

3162-488: The town was 86.72% White , 4.31% African American , 1.51% Native American , 0.67% Asian , 2.50% from other races , and 4.28% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.19% of the population. Like other towns in Southeastern Massachusetts, Oak Bluffs has had a large Portuguese-American population since the late 19th century. Many of these town residents were originally from

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3224-448: The town was the site of an oak grove along the bluffs overlooking Nantucket Sound . Oak Bluffs was the only one of the six towns on the island to be consciously planned, and the only one developed specifically with tourism in mind. People of African descent first arrived at Martha's Vineyard in the 1600s as enslaved West Africans who worked on the farms of European settlers. The Oak Bluffs harbor drew freed slaves, laborers and sailors in

3286-423: The town, East Chop , is just over five miles from the mainland. The town shares Sengekontacket Pond with Edgartown, with the town's land ending at Sarson's Island, but wrapping around the waters around Felix Neck into Major's Cove. The highest points in town are between Sengekontacket and Lagoon Ponds, and west of Lagoon Pond in the irregular triangle of land which juts into Tisbury. There are four public beaches in

3348-405: The town: Eastville Beach, facing Vineyard Haven Harbor and adjacent to the entrance to Lagoon Pond; Oak Bluffs Town Beach or The "Inkwell" is the name of the popular beach frequented by African Americans beginning in the late nineteenth century. The strand was pejoratively called "The Inkwell" by nearby whites in reference to the skin color of the beach-goers. It is the most famous of beaches across

3410-660: The two is spanned by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Bridge, which lies wholly within Oak Bluffs, and the larger by the American Legion Bridge, the midpoint of which is the boundary between Oak Bluffs and Edgartown. The formal names of the bridges are generally ignored by residents in favor of the traditional designations "Little Bridge" and "Big Bridge." Oak Bluffs has a small, tightly enclosed harbor that draws large numbers of recreational boaters, and serves as

3472-476: The waterfront and the bluffs. For a time, a narrow-gauge railway carried curious travelers from the steamship wharf in Oak Bluffs to Edgartown, running along tracks laid on what is now Joseph Sylvia State Beach. In 1884, the Flying Horses Carousel was brought to Oak Bluffs from Coney Island and installed a few blocks inland from the ocean, where it remains in operation today. Built in 1876, it

3534-406: The way. When he and Henson boarded his ship Roosevelt , leaving Greenland on August 18, 1909, they were accompanied by 22 Inuit men, 17 Inuit women, 10 children, 246 dogs, 70 tons (64 metric tons) of whale meat from Labrador, the meat and blubber of 50 walruses, hunting equipment, and tons of coal. In February, Henson and Peary departed their anchored ship at Ellesmere Island's Cape Sheridan , with

3596-462: Was 10 years old, he went to a ceremony honoring Abraham Lincoln, the American president who had fought so hard to preserve the Union during the Civil War and had issued the proclamation that had freed slaves in the occupied Confederate states in 1863. At the ceremony, Matthew was greatly inspired by a speech given by Frederick Douglass , an escaped slave and renowned orator, the longtime leading figure in

3658-408: Was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.2 males. The median income for a household in the town was $ 42,044, and the median income for a family was $ 53,841. Males had a median income of $ 39,113 versus $ 31,797 for females. The per capita income for the town was $ 23,829. About 6.2% of families and 8.4% of the population were below

3720-553: Was established by William H. Hart when he purchased a lot from the Oak Bluffs Land and Wharf Company. The community later moved in 1911 to its present location between Oak Bluffs town and Edgartown. According to the United States Census Bureau , the town has a total area of 26.0 square miles (67 km ), of which 7.4 square miles (19 km ) is land and 18.6 square miles (48 km ) (71.61%)

3782-528: Was honored at dinners within the black community. Henson spent most of the next 30 years working on staff in the U.S. Customs House in New York, at the suggestion of Theodore Roosevelt . He later gained renewed attention. In 1937 Henson was admitted as a member to the prestigious Explorers Club in New York City, and in 1948 he was made an honorary member, of whom there are only 20 per year. In 1944 Congress awarded him and five other Peary aides duplicates of

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3844-472: Was one of the six men – including Peary and four Inuit assistants – who claimed to have been the first to reach the geographic North Pole. In interviews, Henson identified as the first member of the party to reach what they believed was the pole. The team's claim had gained widespread acceptance, but, in 1989, Wally Herbert published research that found that their expedition records were unreliable and indicated an implausibly high speed during their final rush for

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