Thomas Franklin Waters
Thomas Franklin Waters was the Minister of the South Congregational Church. He arrived sometime after the Civil War and stayed until it merged with the First Congregational Church about 1920. He had an avid interest in the history of Ipswich and studied and wrote about it prolifically. The books shown in the Historical Society Booklist are just some of his writings. He was also the prime mover behind the establishment of the Ipswich Historical Society and the purchase and refurbishment of the Whipple House.
By far his most ambitious work was Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony published in two volumes by the Ipswich Historical Society in 1905 and 1917. Although a difficult book to read because of its organization and writing, it is the most complete history of Ipswich. Rev. Waters apparently was a student of land and provides a chronicle of the properties in the core of Ipswich from 1640 to about 1900.
From 1909 through 1912 he served as the Editor of "The Massachusetts Magazine", "A Quarterly Magazine Devoted to History, Genealogy and Biography". Lack of funding led to its final demise in 1913.
Waters died in 1921. Several of his publications were published from his notes after his death.
The items listed below are from his books.
The following were published as pamphlets by the Ipswich Historical Society in the years given:
THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR TOWN GOVERNMENT AND COMMON LANDS AND COMMONAGE (1900)
Ipswich Mills and Factories (1904)
The
John Whipple House
In
Ipswich