Sold – Franklin Pierce Instructs the U.S. Marshall to Reclaim Federal Land

The small village of Hyannis, Mass. had a thriving shipbuilding industry in the 19th century, with some 200 shipmasters having established dwellings there by 1850. There would be many hundreds of ships using or passing the town’s harbor every month, and as a result there was call for a lighthouse to be built in the harbor to guide all these ships. Lighthouses were only placed on Federal land, so Hyannis provided land in the harbor to the U.S. government. In 1848, Congress appropriated $2,000 for a small harbor light with a fixed white light and red sector to warn vessels away from Southwest Shoal. On Sept 28, 1850, $800 was approved for a keeper’s house to be connected to Hyannis Harbor Lighthouse via a covered walkway. In 1856, a fifth-order Fresnel lens was installed in the lantern room, replacing an antiquated system of five lamps set in reflectors.

Salt production was also an important industry in Hyannis, and one family of saltmakers was the Bassetts who lived by the new lighthouse. Seeing an opportunity to make money on salt, and a proven spot to set up, local people apparently began collecting salt on the grounds of the lighthouse. This proved to be an intractable problem, one of sufficient concern that it reached the desk of the President of the United States.

Document Signed as President, Washington, July 7, 1856, to the United States Marshal for the District of Massachusetts, instructing him to put an end to the problem. “Whereas it appears that certain persons have taken possession of a made settlement on lands ceded to the United States by the state of Massachusetts…at a place called Hyannis…You are hereby directed to remove all such persons…from the said lands above described, and for so doing this shall be your Warrant.”

Signed Executive Orders are extremely rare, this being the first one we have had. A search of public records indicates only two others have appeared on the market over the last decade.