World War Two

Peaked Hill Deserted
Friday January 18, 1946
Vineyard Gazette
The barracks at Peaked Hill are de­serted. The Army radar station, in­stalled and opened under circumstances of great secrecy in the early days of the war, is closed and locked, its war service completed. At one time a considerable contingent of troops was stationed at the hill, the exact number to be disclosed sometime when the history of the war has been written.
 
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Build Road to Hill Top Observation Post
Friday June 13, 1941
Vineyard Gazette
Work began on Tuesday on the road from the Middle Road to the top of Peaked Hill, the contract having been awarded to R. W. Balam, Boston con­tractor, who is engaged in putting through several jobs on the Island. The road is to be surfaced, after the grading is completed, and will supply a government way to the observation post that is planned for the Island’s highest point.
 
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Government to Take Only Part of Hill
Friday February 28, 1941
Vineyard Gazette
The section of Peaked Hill which the government proposes to take for the purpose of establishing a signal station represents only a small part of the Peaked Hill property so-called. The entire property comprises 150 acres, and the part chosen by the gov­ernment is a four and a half acre plot, which includes the site of the triangu­lation point monument previously erected there. It is not, as a matter of fact, the highest point of the Vine­yard’s loftiest eminence, 311 feet in height, but it is regarded as line of the most beautiful. It is the peak nearest the Middle Road.
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Completes Search Aimed at Acquiring Peaked Hill
Friday February 21, 1941
Vineyard Gazette
Garrett Hagen, of the United States Department of Justice, has completed a search at the registry of deeds in Edgartown looking toward the acqui­sition of Peaked Hill by the federal government for the purposes of a sig­nal station. The hill at present is owned principally by John Wesley Whiting. Preliminary surveys were made some time ago.
 
Mr. Hagen was assisted by a secre­tary and representatives of the federal engineers, and was accompanied also by a car and a chauffeur.
 
 
 
 
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Editorial: A Century Lies Between
Friday December 12, 1941
Vineyard Gazette
One wonders what Nathaniel M. Jernegan would think if he were alive. Or his wife. They were together on the whaleship Eliza Mason in 1851 when Captain Jernegan sailed his vessel into Hakodate while Perry was still there. This was one of the first of the treaty ports when Japan was opened, reluctantly, to the world, and Mrs. Jernegan was the first white woman to sleep ashore in Japan for more than two hundred years.
 
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Vessel Lost at Pearl Harbor Once Stranded on the North Shore
Friday December 19, 1941
Vineyard Gazette
The mine layer Oglala which was lost in the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor was formerly the 4,200 ton passenger steamer Massachusetts of the Metropolitan Line of the New England Steamship Co. On March 12, 1909, she went ashore on Cedar Tree Neck in Vineyard Sound.
 
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Things Insular: Pearl Harbor Memories
Friday December 8, 1961
Vineyard Gazette
There is not a particle of doubt that Vineyarders who were alive and understanding of world events on Dec. 7. 1941 found themselves yes­terday, on the twentieth anniversary of that day, remembering all sorts of circumstances. The sunny, rather brisk weather of that fateful Sunday is as clear as was the sunlight then.
 
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Trial Blackout Proves Successful at Bluffs
Friday January 16, 1942
Vineyard Gazette

The Civilian Defense organization of Oak Bluffs, headed by Dr. Francis C. Buckley reports that the partial blackout held in that town Sunday night, during the bitter cold and with traveling conditions for air raid wardens anything but ideal, was markedly successful. The degree of cooperation shown was gratifying to the officials and the committee feels that the town should be congratulated upon its first effort. Only in five households was it found that the residents had failed to understand the requirements, or were unaware that a test was to be made.

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Tire-Rationing Boards Appointed on Vineyard
Friday January 2, 1942
Vineyard Gazette

The setting up of tire-rationing boards in Island towns this week brings the war yet nearer to the Vineyard. These rationing committees one in each town of the Island, were appointed and set up under instructions which came direct to the chairmen of all board of selectmen on Monday night from a former governor, Joseph B. Ely, who is the state administrator of tire rationing.

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Coast Guard Closes Vineyard Sound To Pleasure Boats
Tuesday July 11, 1944
Vineyard Gazette

Additional restrictions on the operation of pleasure craft in waters around Martha's Vineyard have been ordered by the Coast Guard as of last Friday. The regulations are issued by the Captain of the Port at Newport and are unique in the fact that they have been made public in any written or printed form. The substance of the restrictions has been ascertained from the Coast Guard, however, and charts with the restricted areas marked, are accessible at both Vineyard Haven and Edgartown.

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