Scraggy Neck is a peninsula in Buzzards Bay south of the Cape Cod Canal, in Cataumet, Massachusetts, USA. It is south of Wings Neck and southeast of Bassetts Island.

As with all land in the area, the ancestral people on and around Scraggy Neck were Wampanoag. In 1637, through means that are not entirely clear, Thomas Dexter acquired the land that is now Scraggy Neck from the Wampanoag. Around 1667, he transferred the land to the Town of Sandwich and it became "parsonage property" of the First Church, Sandwich Massachusetts. [1]

On 9 February 1847 the "First Parish in Sandwich County of Barnstable" transferred title to Martin Ellis for $1,350.[2]

In 1866, Ellis offered the property for sale, advertising in the Yarmouth Register "Scraggy Neck for Sale." The ad copy declared "The estate lying in Pocasset (Sandwich)... consisting of 384 acres, principally woodland, cut off in 1846, but with pasture for cattle and sheep, and unrivalled privileges for shell and other fisheries. There are on the premises a dwelling house for a small family, a good barn, and other out-buildings. Also, a thrifty young orchard of apple, pear and quince trees. Making this a very desirable place for farming, sheep raising, or shore fishing. The present proprietor is obliged to give it up on account of ill health. Price $2,000. For further particulars apply to JOSHUA HANDY, near the premises. MARTIN ELLIS" [3] [4]

On 3 March 1870, Joshua Handy, on behalf of Ellis, sold the land for $1,000 to Charles W. Parker and George P. Ellis.[5] They subsequently, on 13 May 1870, sold to Washington Allen for $1,600.[6]

On 21 April 1892, through a series of transactions between Allen, Francis H. Learned, and Edith H. Eustis, William Ellery Channing ("W.E.C.") Eustis [7] "bought the entire three-hundred-acre, flounder-shaped peninsula" and began developing property on the neck. [8] [9] The total purchase price of the land seems to have been $50,000.[10]

In 1937, Edward C. Johnson II and his wife Elsie L. Johnson bought a house on the neck [11] and began a long family association with the area. The Johnson and Eustis families converted the central 75 acres of the island to a protected forest.

Current residents of the neck are members of the Scraggy Neck Recreation Association [12]

References

  1. ↑ Freeman, Frederick (1862). History of Cape Cod: the Annals of the Thirteen Towns of Barnstable County, vol. II. Boston, MA: Geo. C Rand & Avery. p. 134. Retrieved 6 August 2021. Scraggy Neck, formerly parsonage property of the 1st Parish and situated S. W. of Red Brook harbor, is now at high water an island.
  2. ↑ Barnstable County Registry of Deeds, book 38, page 312
  3. ↑ "Scraggy Neck for Sale". Yarmouth Register. Yarmouth, MA. 1866-05-25. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  4. ↑ "Scraggy Neck for Sale". Yarmouth Register. Yarmouth, MA. 1866-09-21. Retrieved 2021-08-05.
  5. ↑ Barnstable County Registry of Deeds, book 102, page 58
  6. ↑ Barnstable County Registry of Deeds, book 103, page 48
  7. ↑ "NYT Obituary of WEC Eustis". New York Times. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  8. ↑ "Brief Locals". Barnstable Patriot. Barnstable, MA. 1892-05-31. Retrieved 2021-08-03. Scraggy Neck, or, as it is sometimes called, Cataumet Island, near the Cataumet station on the Woods Holl [sic] branch of the Old Colony railroad, has been sold by Mr. Washington Allen to Mr. William E. C. Eustis of Milton. The island or neck contains about 350 acres, well wooded and bordered by fine beaches. Mr. Eustis will make a summer home of it.
  9. ↑ The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home. Simon & Schuster. 7 August 2012. ISBN 9781439124918. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  10. ↑ Barnstable County Registry of Deeds, book 199, pages 525-529
  11. ↑ "With Our Summer Residents". Hyannis Patriot. Hyannis, MA. 1937-02-04. Retrieved 2021-08-06. The summer estate of Robert C. and Helen H. Bacon at Scraggy Neck, Cataumet, has been sold to Elsie L. Johnson, wife of Edward C. Johnson 2nd, of Milton. Benjamin C. Tower was the broker.
  12. ↑ "Scraggy Neck Recreation Association". SNRA. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
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