Town Hall Dedication Booklet, 1886

A gift from William Colby of Dennis, Massachusetts, who discovered it in an old chest that belonged to his grandmother, Miriam Howes Crowell Westwood, ninth generation of the original settlers from the town of Dennis, (formally Old Yarmouth), born in 1880. Mr. Colby recounts that the Town of Dennis, like Provincetown, was a busy seaport in those times. Many sons, fathers and husbands were lost at sea. One such memorable instance was THE GREAT OCTOBER GALE of 1841. Sixty vessels were sunk or ruined and two hunderd lives lost. Of these, half were Cape vessels and seamen. Twenty-six vessels piled up on the beach at Race Point including the Schooner Bride which was captained by Dennis resident Capt. Noah Crowell. Of its eight-man crew, only one survived. Dennis lost nineteen men in that storm, three of whom were named Crowell and three named Howes.

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Architecture, domestic--Massachusetts--Provincetown, Historic buildings--Massachusetts-Provincetown, Provincetown (Mass.)--History--19th century, and Town Hall