MARTHA’S VINEYARD, called "Noepe" by the Indians, which means in their picturesque language “In the Midst of the Sea,” is the largest island on the southeastern coast of Massachusetts. It is twenty miles long and nine miles wide and but a few feet above the sea level in the eastern part, which is known as the Plains, one of the largest tracts of level ground in New England. However, the land gradually rises to an elevation of over three hundred feet above the sea level at Peaked Hill in Chilmark, not Indian Hill as believed by many summer visitors.

Martha’s Vineyard, was incorporated November 1, 1668. There are six towns on Martha’s Vineyard. Edgartown on the east, named for Edgar, son of James II, who bore the title of Duke of Cambridge; Oak Bluffs on the northeast, named for its location and oak trees; Tisbury for the Mayhew Parish in England; later the village post-office was named Vineyard Haven because of its location; West Tisbury; Chilmark, for the English Parish of Governor Mayhew’s wife, and Gay Head on the west, named for its wonderful cliffs of different colored clay. The first Europeans that visited Martha’s Vineyard were the Northmen, who landed about the year 1000, naming it Vineland. Another discoverer of this island was Verrazano, an Italian explorer, who first sighted the western extremity in 1524.

The next explorer, and the first one to leave any account of the island, was Bartholomew Gosnold, of Falmouth, England. In 1602 he sailed for Virginia. Contrary winds drove him to the Azores; thence he sailed a little north of west, and struck out boldly across the Atlantic. He was the first Englishman to sail directly to the American coast, thereby saving nearly a thousand miles in distance and at least a week in sailing time. He landed on a cape which he named Cape Cod from the abundance of codfish found there. Then doubling the cape and sailing to the southward he landed on an island. After exploring it and finding it so large, well wooded, and with such luxuriant grape vines, many beautiful lakes, and springs of the purest water, he transferred the name and called it Martha’s Vineyard, in honor of his mother whose name was Martha.

Gosnold’s expedition showed Europe a shorter and more direct route to America and kept up the interest in the new country. The Mayflower followed this route eighteen years later. About five years later, in 1607, Captain Martin Pring, with a more courageous company than Gosnold’s, anchored in what is now Edgartown harbor on Whit Sunday and called it Whitsun Bay. Pring traded with the Indians, amused them with music, but enjoyed terrifying them with the sound of the cannon, and with two large mastiffs which he had on board his ship. He sailed away at the first sign of hostility with a cargo of the precious sassafras root. The following noted discoverers and explorers, the Cabots, Champlain, Cartier, and Captain John Smith, must have passed through Vineyard Sound and may have stopped for water at these wonderful springs. Tradition tells us that there were families living here by the name of Pease, Vincent, Trapp, and Stone before 1640. The story goes that these settlers were on their way to join the Jamestown colony, but were driven into Edgartown harbor for shelter.

The first whale ship on record to leave the Vineyard departed Edgartown for a voyage to Davis Straits in 1765. Before this time whales were plentiful about the shores. Men would go out in small boats and capture them. After a while all the whales near the island here caught, and the men were obliged to go farther and farther away from home, until finally they were compelled to go on voyages lasting from three to five years. In 1850 Vineyard ships commanded by the brave and hardy sons of this island were found on every ocean of the globe. Fifty ships were fitted out at Edgartown at one time. In those days the Port of Edgartown was one of the most important on the coast, having its own custom house and doing thousands of dollars worth of business. Ships from all parts of the world came there for clearance papers and to pay the duty on cargoes. Source: The History of Martha’s Vineyard by Henry Franklin Norton, 1923. See http://history.vineyard.net/hfnorton/history.html for more information.
 

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