Gloucester Poems: Nugents of Rockport
The Nugent family settled in Rockport, Mass on Beaver Dam Farm where my great grandparents raised a family of thirteen. They owned Good Harbor Beach and a deep wedge of land in Dogtown Common. The beach was seized by eminent domain. The family abandoned the leased Beaver Dam Farm and George Nugent became the eminence grise of Gloucester politics. His property has been developed as Nugent Farms. My mother, Josephine R, Flynn, was the daughter of a saloon keeper and bootlegger who paid to put her through medical school. During an annual commute from Palm Beach I recorded six hours of colorful family history with her. That was augmented by other family interviews. My uncle Arthur Flynn was a Kennedy appointment to the Federal bench. Another uncle, Jimmy Sullivan was a war hero who grew up with Tip O’Neill in Cambridge. My uncle “Brother” Flynn was an air traffic controller and the last to speak with Joe Kennedy who crashed after a mission over Germany. The book includes Gloucester Poems inspired by Charles Olson.
Introduction
The salt air and briny deep of Gloucester, Massachusetts, are in my DNA.
My great-grandparents, Patrick and are Nugent, emigrated from Ireland. In 1876, they leased Beaver Dam Farm in Rockport, Massachusetts, from the Hawkes family. Widowed in 1900, Mary abandoned the farm in the 1920s when she retired and moved to an apartment in Gloucester.
Patrick and Mary raised nine boys and four girls, three of whom died in 1913. Ten of their children had families. Most left Gloucester, starting with Henry, who relocated to Vancouver around 1910, where he founded a canvas and awning business. Others left in search of jobs and opportunities.
Today, branches of the family are located from coast-to-coast, north-to-south, and offshore in such disparate localities as Hawaii and Bermuda. There are now six going on seven, generations since the iconic photo (cover), circa 1910, when all but Henry gathered to pose in front of the stone wall of the farm’s summer kitchen. My mother, the firstborn of the next generation, is shown in front of her grandmother.
Originally farmers, they went forth and multiplied. To a large extent, the ever-expanding family has prospered. They were a part of the Greatest Generation. Nugent descendants struggled through the Depression, fought in World War II, attended college on the GI Bill, started families. They became doctors and veterinarians, a federal judge, businessmen and women, contractors, teachers, housewives, lawyers, farmers, fishermen, and laborers.
Overview & Preview
48 Poems, Six Chapters
375 Pages
There was an annual ritual for Charles Giuliano to drive his mother, Dr. Josephine Rita Flynn, from a condominium in Palm Beach, Florida, to her summer home in Annisquam, Massachusetts.
During one such trip, on May 5, 1986, Giuliano turned on a tape recorder. Over the next few days, he created six hours of interviews.
Interviews with his mother form the spine of this book. The story of Dr. Josephine Rita Flynn’s career as a family doctor has been extended to include stories of her siblings, one a federal judge, another an administrator at Harvard Business School, and a third a pharmaceuticals company executive.
The book also includes sections of Nugent and Gloucester Poems which extend a collection of his work from previous books.
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Poet Charles Giuliano, a descendant of Cape Ann’s founding families, presents you with poems and his family’s legacy that lives on along Nugent Stretch in Rockport, MA