Text Box: The 1628 Charter for the Massachusetts Bay Colony Granted by King Charles I Text Box:             Salem Facts and Trivia                      Little-known facts about Salem         1. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded in Salem in 1626. It included all     of the land area between present day Boston and the Merrimack River to the north.       In  the early years of the colony Salem included land that is now occupied by Lynn,       Marblehead, Peabody, Beverly, Danvers plus several other towns on the present       day North Shore.                                                                                                                                                           Map courtesy of Wikimedia Commons    2. Salem was the center of Puritanism in America.               3. Roger Conant founded Salem in 1626.   4. Hugh Peter, Salem Minister, returned to England and preached the sermon at the funeral of Oliver Cromwell.   5. John Adams, who later became the second president of the United States, defended clients in Salem when he was an attorney in the early days of his career.   6. John Endecott became the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628.   7. John Winthrop, the second governor and founder of Boston, landed in Salem first and later went on to the Shawmut Peninsula to start Tremontaine, which later became Boston.   8. Roger Williams was pastor of the First Church in Salem before he went south to found Rhode Island.   9. The Massachusetts Bay Charter was brought to Salem by John  Endecott in 1628. The charter, which is considered by many to be the third most  important document in America after the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, is now the property of the Salem Athenæum, one of the oldest subscription libraries in the country. 10. Salem’s city hall is the second-oldest city hall in continuous use in the nation. The oldest is in New York City.  11. The train between Boston and Salem began operating in 1838.  12. The first militia in America was formed on the Salem Common in 1637. This was the beginning of the America  military.  13.  Alexander Graham Bell made the first long-distance phone call from the Lyceum in  Salem to the offices of the Boston Globe in Boston on February 11, 1877.             14.  Salem has more examples of Federal Period architecture than any other city in the America.  15.  The First Church in Salem was gathered by the English Puritan settlers in August 1629. It is the oldest Protestant church in North America.                             16.   Salem’s Joseph Story was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1811 at the age of 32 by President James Madison. Story was the youngest person ever to serve on the Supreme Courts.                           17.   British mystery writer P. D. James once called Salem’s Chestnut Street the most beautiful street in America. Every house on the street is on the National Register of Historic Places. 18.    In 1790 Salem was the wealthiest community in the United States. 19.    In 1790 Salem was the 6th largest city in the United States. 20.    In the first half of the 19th Century the Salem waterfront had more than 25 piers and wharves. 21.    Salem has more coastline (18 miles) than the State of New Hampshire (15). 22.    Salem has more than 130 restaurants. 23.    Elizabeth Peabody of Salem and her sister Mary founded the kindergarten movement in the United States. The first kindergarten opened on Pinckney Street in Boston in 1860. Mary was married to another famous educator, Horace Mann.                                                         24. The game of Monopoly was first published in Salem by Parker Brothers. 25. In 1829 Joseph Dixon opened the first lead pencil factory in America in Salem. 26. The first house in the world to be lighted by electricity in 1859 was at at11 Pearl Street, Salem, in 1859. The inventor was Moses Farmer, who explained that, "a galvanic battery, of some three-dozen six-gallon jars was place in the cellar of the house, and it furnished the electric current." 27. William Filene emigrated from Germany in 1848 and opened his first store in Salem in 1856. This  was the beginning of the now famous Filene department store business.      28. The present-day Lyceum Restaurant on Church Street is the site of the former home of Witch Trial victim Bridget Bishop.      29. In 1906 magician Harry Houdini escaped from the jail in the old Salem Police Station in 13 minutes.      30. The Salem Common is the second oldest public park in America, having been founded in 1637. The Boston Common, founded in                1634, is the oldest.      31.  Shakespeare and Company, a famous American bookstore on the banks of the Seine in Paris, is owned and run by nonagenarian             George Whitman, a Salem native.        If you have interesting facts and/or trivia about Salem let us know at SalemFocus: richard@salemfocus.com       We'll try to put them up on this site and give you credit for them.  

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