It should be no surprise to any regular readers of the column that the Gazette Chronicle, compiled each week by our librarian Hilary Wall, is a favorite of mine. Last Friday featured portions of Louise Aldrich Bugbee’s March 8, 1974 On Circuit Avenue, And All About Town column about her first town meeting.
Folks on social media have been buzzing appropriately enough, about the website BuzzFeed that recently proclaimed Oak Bluffs as one of 24 Small Towns in New England You Absolutely Need To Visit.
Finishing touches remain on the new fishing pier. On one hand, I’m disappointed that the railings match the industrial look of the SSA more than the Victorian look of Ocean Park, but on the other hand, I guess it’s all neatly done.
In May 1879 a group calling themselves the Vineyard Publishing Association started the Cottage City Star in Vineyard Grove. The Star, a weekly newspaper (bi-weekly in July and August), was expressly founded to spearhead the effort of Oak Bluffs’ seceding from Edgartown.
On reflection, Ogkeshkuppe, as the original people named Oak Bluffs, is extraordinary in many respects, and not just because it’s a cool place to grow up, the summers, or that it’s the colorful, honky tonk capital of Martha’s Vineyard.
The news of the Smithsonian Institute including Oak Bluffs in an exhibit in the National Museum of African American History and Culture is spreading and creating much excitement. People are proud that our small town will be nationally acknowledged for its contributions to black history, appropriately enough with this announcement in February.
President Grant's visit to Oak Bluffs was interspersed with side trips to the Cape, Hyannis and Nantucket, all aboard the River Queen.
Celebrated as a vacation spot for many whose contributions are highlighted during Black History Month, Oak Bluffs is also proud of lesser-known black entrepreneurs who established successful businesses.
Sally Dagnall’s book Circle of Faith anointed Rev. Hebron Vincent (1805 – 1890) the man who kept the records. Born in Edgartown, Mr. Vincent had no formal education other than less than a year of study at Maine Wesleyan Seminary. He was apprenticed to shoemaker Jeremiah Pease at age 13, converted to Methodism at age 17 and received lessons from “a good educated brother,” which led to his becoming the camp meeting secretary for 35 years. Hebron Vincent was one of the folks who went to Eastville’s forest to identify what would become our Camp Ground in 1835.
