Talk:Salem, Massachusetts

Trials in Salem or Salem Village

The Danvers, Massachussets page says that the trials occured in Salem, not in Salem Village. At least one of these pages is obviously wrong.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.211.226.108 (talk • contribs) 17:49, 5 April 2004

Badly worded on the Salem page. Story is complicated. No time to look into it now. It started in Salem Village (Danvers) and the original witchcraft events and accused witches lived there. The trials and some? all of the executions took place in Salem.

http://www.wired.com/news/roadtrip/0,2640,61058,00.html Wired article "It was the town now known as Danvers, once known as Salem Village, that was ground zero for the events of 1692," said Benjamin Ray, professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia and a producer of the Salem Witch Trials website, which tells the real story of the trials.

Picture of Salem Village Witchcraft Victims' Memorial at 176 Hobart Street, Danvers, MA 01923

Danvers, MA website "The first European settlement in present-day Danvers, Massachusetts, was called Salem Village. This village was established in the late 1630's when a group of farmers moved 5 miles from Salem Town to the area now known as "Danvers Highlands". By 1672 Salem Village became a separate parish at which time they built a meeting house and hired their own minister. In 1689 the village established a covenant church with Reverend Samuel Parris as their new minister.... In early 1692, Reverend Parris's 9 year-old daughter, Elizabeth, 12 year-old niece, Abigail Williams, as well as other neighborhood girls began to fall into horrid fits...." etc.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Dpbsmith (talk • contribs) 20:35, 5 April 2004

Thoughts about Salem article

I think there should be a separate article on the Salem Village where the witchhunt took place Stancel 20:16, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

Salem and Jerusalem

The Jerusalem page says that the city was referred to as "Salem" in Genesis, and the "salem" word may be a reference to "shalom" or it may be the word for "complete". I don't know definitively, but it seems to me most likely that Salem Mass was named after the old name for the city of Jerusalem.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.174.107.130 (talk • contribs) 22:35, 7 July 2005

The name Salem is related to the Hebrew word shalom and the Arabic word "Salam", both meaning 'peace'.

Whilst I don't have a source to hand, I would be very surprised if this settlement was not named after Salem in the Bible, Salem being an alternative name for Jerusalem and the abode of Melchizedek. I'm less certain, but suspect, that the Puritan settlers were make an allusion to the heavenly Jerusalem. I'm sure they were not thinking of peace between Jews and Muslims, which the above sentence seems to faintly suggest. Greenshed 08:44, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

Tourists

Mention the motto (slogan? adline?) "Stop by for a spell"? Trekphiler 23:49, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

More about the trials

I'm just going by memory here, but I've attended a handful of lectures by noted local historian Jim(?) McCallister(?) [well, not noted by me obviously]. As I recall, the accused were primarily the decadent rich from Salem Town and the accusers were predominantly from the less-wealthy Salem Village--this was partly a class issue. I'll see what *good* references I can find. Yes, I don't have any particularly good information to contribute at the moment, but I'll see this entry in my log and I'll remember to look stuff up. Straif 18:11, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Importance of Salem in early America

Salem and the counties around it was one of the largest, most prosperous and influential regions in early America, more important than Boston. Perhaps at some point that will be reflected in the article. flux.books 22:03, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Indeed. For a few years right before the rev war it was a capital of Mass (Boston was the capitol of the colonies) in fact and was the #1 maritime port of New England for some time. As I said above about NO mention of the massive influence of the modern Pagan and Wiccan population in this town this article is clearly written by folks ignorant on the topic at hand. -Rev. PMW —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.104.21.44 (talk) 20:33, 20 August 2010 (UTC)

Founded

The city was founded in 2 A.D. ?—Preceding unsigned comment added by Mrrightguy10 (talk • contribs) 02:55, 11 May 2006

Native Americans

"Native Americans called the area 'Naumkeag', meaning 'eel land'."

Needs a source, and more information: which Native Americans, speaking what language? --Ptcamn (talk) 20:25, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

Theft

This section seems tacked on and cites no references. Is it really relevant to the article? Koifishkid (talk) 23:08, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

I removed the following: "The school budget for Salem was recently frozen due to a theft. There is over 1 million dollars missing from the budget, and many teachers have been laid off due to the lack of money." The subject generally may be appropriate for the article; it may have made national and even international news, to boot. I'm not aware of any theft allegations, just some odd coverups; total amount was more like $4.7 million; and teachers, as a whole, may have been spared while other support personnel were cut. In other words, even the section header was misnamed, and the facts claimed in the entry seem to differ from those claimed through an ongoing investigation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.147.106.121 (talk) 15:22, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Redid section. Do not replace theft allegations unless some have actually been made.--Thatnewguy (talk) 00:33, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Mr Zac

I have a question. There is very few non-profit organizations in Salem Massachusetts that are involved in tourism in the town. The article cites places such as Peabody Essex Museum,StudioEIS, and TV Land. What is the deleniation between vanity or blatant advertisement and legitimate additions to wikipedia? Size and scope, or how much money an organization has? Can you clarify? The only non-profit organization listed in the article is National Historic site, should that be the only tourist attraction listed within the tourism section? Docspond (talk) 17:53, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Notability is a big one. Please refer to Wikipedia:Note. Also, it is considered bad form to create an article about yourself or something you did - see Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. There are many precidents and conventions used on Wikpedia, but it's all ultimately up to the user community. CSZero (talk) 18:46, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Citation needed

• Peter L'Italien, Minor League Baseball Player

Given that it's a redlink, i.e. Wikipedia has no article on him, I think a citation is needed to show that the information is correct and that he's considered to be important, at least in the Salem community. A local newspaper article would be OK, I think. Dpbsmith (talk) 18:24, 6 October 2008 (UTC)

Pronunciation

How is Salem pronounced? Jay (talk) 08:11, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

/seɪləm/. AJD (talk) 20:02, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

like the cta out of that t.v show? Sabrina the teenage witch. lol AnOicheGhealai (talk) 01:06, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

Disambiguation, or something equivalent?

Hello, I typed "salem" in google and the first result was this page. However, I was looking for the Oregon capital. Neither of these have a disambiguation page, or some link to easily check the others "salem". I write here, because it's google's first result. I just highlighted/deleted the url to make me go to the disambiguation page, no big deal, but some might find it useful. Should'nt there be an easy link? Thanx and keep up the good work ! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.72.159.69 (talk) 00:01, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

Wiccan and Pagan community

And no mention AT ALL about the modern Wiccan and Pagan community? Nor their driving force retail and event wise during Haunted Happenings? Clearly a article written by people who have not a clue about modern day Salem. -Rev. PMW —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.104.21.44 (talk) 20:28, 20 August 2010 (UTC)

The "modern Wiccan and Pagan community" is hardly a real force in present-day Salem; they mostly cater to the tourists. They aren't serious political or economic players on the scene. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.9.230.26 (talk) 14:53, 26 May 2011 (UTC)

Really? According to the Destination Salem (Salem's tourism board) tourist dump ~99 million a year into the local economy. Of that in a survey done a few years ago over 60% of the respondents said they came to Salem in part or completely for witches past and/or present. So your comment is pretty ignorant they are not a economical player, the local tourism industry is held up by the witch trials, modem witch shops and related attractions. And if you think some of the larger names in Salem have no political pull again, you are ignorant of the facts. One example Christian Day works pro bono on the mayors website which gives him certain access. He is also on the Destination Salem board as well. May want to actually know about a article before you speak on it. Then again, this is wikipedia, where that's the norm. - Rev. PMW — Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.218.147.43 (talk) 17:11, 4 September 2015 (UTC)

Daniel Low

Please note that Daniel Low, who made the witch trial souvenir spoon, was a jeweler (perhaps in addition to being a "dry goods merchant"). I have a gold watch from Low Jeweler inscribed 1892. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souvenir_spoon for Wikipedia article mentioning Daniel Low as a Jeweler. Suggest approval of change or reference to Low being a jeweler in addition to being a "dry goods merchant." Pbh444 (talk) 20:37, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

Spam

Tried to delete the spam added by 190.10.162.188, however it's not coming up. Page must be semi-protected. Please take a look at that user's edits. 91.85.168.1 (talk) 17:16, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

The Tourism section of this article has been ruined by spammers. I've trimmed out what I consider to be spam as well as text that was copied verbatim from here and here. It's tempting to revert the section to its state before the first Segway tour spam was added by User:190.154.72.212 last November. IMHO, it was much better then than it is now. Anyone else out there paying attention to this article who wants to offer an opinion? --sanfranman59 (talk) 02:10, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

I've submitted a request for semi-protection on this article. --sanfranman59 (talk) 03:39, 28 April 2011 (UTC)

Founding

I am not an expert on the history (which is why I looked at this article), but The 1629 Charter of Massachusetts refers to it as "land around Salem". I take that to mean that Salem existed before the proprietors of Massachusetts Bay (Endicot, et Als) were active. The section on the founding suggest that Massachusetts Bay had something to do with the founding of Salem. It appears that someone tried to correct that section, but it resulted in there being some contradictory paragraphs. I hope that someone who knows the history will straighten things out. PLewicke (talk) 16:19, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

File:Salem State University logo Salem Massachusetts.jpg Nominated for Deletion

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Ergot Poisoning

I made a slight modification to the line about ergot poisoning as a possible cause for the hysteria. The original line said "which experts now suspect may have been the result of ergot poisoning." No, it's just one theory that isn't even accepted by all of the scientific community. I think it actually even needs a source to be included here at all. 170.145.0.100 (talk) 02:40, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

(a) Unclear when Salem renamed, and (b) conflict between dates 1626-9 and New England map 1616

The current history of Salem states:
Salem was founded at the mouth of the Naumkeag river in 1626, at the site of an ancient Native American village and trading center (it was originally called Naumkeag and was renamed Salem three years later) by a company of fishermen from Cape Ann led by Roger Conant, and incorporated in 1629.

My queries are:

(a) It is not clear whether Naumkeag was founded in 1623 and renamed to Salem in 1626, or whether Naumkeag was founded in 1626 and renamed to Salem in 1629 (and also incorporated). This needs to be clarified.

ANSWER:
A History of Salem Massachusetts, by Sidney Perley (1924), Volume I (1626-1637) pp 142:
Rev. Mr.Higginson had been at Naumkeag less than a month [he arrived June 29 1629] when, at his suggestion, the name of Salem, from the Hebrew place name meaning peace, was given to the plantation...
Therefore, it was renamed in July 1629 ... and the derivation of the name is also clarified.

(b) ** More importantly **
(see http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/John_Smith_1616_New_England_map.PNG)

Capt John Smith's map of New England dated 1616, clearly shows 'Salem' in its present location some 10-13 years before it is alleged that Naumkeag was changed to 'Salem'. This conflicts with the current history (above).

A History of Salem Massachusetts, by Sidney Perley (1924), Volume I (1626-1637) pp 86, states:
The map of New England made by Capt. John Smith is supposed to have been made about 1617, but it must have been produced after 1620 as Portsmouth is marked upon it. Probably it was drawn in 1627 as the settlement of the old planters at Naumkeag is marked Bristow (Bristol) - a name given to he colony by Captain Smith because they were from the west of England.

My comment: Note that Perley calmly accepts a difference of 11 years between the purported date of the map (1616) and his "probable" year of 1627. Also, he does not comment on the existence of the name "Salem" on the same map, which I find strange, since Bristow is right next to it. Surely this calls into question either the authenticity of the "History of Salem Massachusetts", or Capt. Smith's map? They cannot both be correct.

Cretan stu (talk) 00:59, 10 February 2012 (UTC)

Primary topic discussion on disambiguation page.

I just started a discussion on the disambiguation page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Salem#Discussion_Requested:_Primary_Topic Weebro55 (talk) 04:56, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

1830 murder of Captain Joseph White

The murder of Captain Joseph White in 1830 captivated the American public. The trial of one of the murderers was won by Daniel Webster. The murder was used by both E. A. Poe ("The Tell-Tale Heart") and Nathaniel Hawthorne (in a couple of stories). Is this enough to include it in the town's history?Kdammers (talk) 11:29, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

External links modified

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Portrait of Henry Hoʻolulu Pitman

Main page: Talk:Henry Hoʻolulu Pitman/Archive 1 § Painting

• 
  Better quality but seems heavily edited and table is cropped
• 
  Resolution too low. Also there is no idea if the original portrait is a full-body portrayal or only of the torso
• 
  Full body print from a 1910 Hawaiian newspaper, which claims to be a photograph taken on Washington Street, Boston.

Hello. Are there any editors in the area of the Peabody Essex Museum who would like to help me get a higher quality picture of the portrait of Henry Pitman from the Peabody Essex Museum and possibly help me find any information on the portrait itself like date of creation and artist? I don't know if the portrait is on display or in storage in the museum. Names to look for might be Henry Pitman, Timothy Henry Pitman, Timothy H. Pitman or even Henry Hoolulu Pitman.--KAVEBEAR (talk) 19:50, 12 September 2015 (UTC)

"as" or "was"?

English isn't my first language, therefore I'm not sure, but I think that in the paragraph "Designation as National Guard Birthplace" "This as later approved by the U.S. House of Representatives (...)" should be "This was later approved by the U.S. House of Representatives (...)". 93.222.225.71 (talk) 14:22, 1 October 2015 (UTC)

External links modified

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Orphaned references in Salem, Massachusetts

I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Salem, Massachusetts's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "USCensusEst2016":

• From Dover, New Hampshire: "Population and Housing Unit Estimates". Retrieved June 9, 2017.
• From Quincy, Massachusetts: "Counties Population Totals Tables: 2010-2016, Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Counties: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2016". Retrieved June 10, 2017.

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT⚡ 05:08, 25 June 2017 (UTC)

External links modified

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External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 16 external links on Salem, Massachusetts. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120709211359/http://articles.boston.com/2011-11-06/ae/30367171_1_vaults-endowment-gallery to http://articles.boston.com/2011-11-06/ae/30367171_1_vaults-endowment-gallery
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20121113044505/http://www.wickedlocal.com/salem/news/lifestyle/columnists/x1145375982/John-Goff-Salem-windmills-revisited to http://www.wickedlocal.com/salem/news/lifestyle/columnists/x1145375982/John-Goff-Salem-windmills-revisited
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20141213014439/http://www.salem.com/Pages/SalemMA_BComm/metdata to http://www.salem.com/Pages/SalemMA_BComm/metdata
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120607092441/http://www.ng.mil/news/archives/2010/04/041310-salem.aspx to http://www.ng.mil/news/archives/2010/04/041310-salem.aspx
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140626081430/http://www.salem.com/Pages/SalemMA_ConCommMin/2010Minutes/S02A9C6E1 to http://www.salem.com/Pages/SalemMA_ConCommMin/2010Minutes/S02A9C6E1
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140626063318/http://www.salem.com/Pages/SalemMA_ConCommMin/2009Minutes/S0241A3AE to http://www.salem.com/Pages/SalemMA_ConCommMin/2009Minutes/S0241A3AE
• Added archive https://archive.is/20130202015507/http://www.salemnews.com/local/x1150826975/Salem-gets-1M-for-waterfront/print to http://www.salemnews.com/local/x1150826975/Salem-gets-1M-for-waterfront/print
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120517040714/http://www.salem.com/Pages/SalemMA_PressReleases/I02CF1FBC to http://www.salem.com/Pages/SalemMA_PressReleases/I02CF1FBC
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140627051909/http://www.necn.com/05/12/11/Salem-Mass-power-plant-to-close/landing_business.html?blockID=521746&feedID=4209 to http://www.necn.com/05/12/11/Salem-Mass-power-plant-to-close/landing_business.html?blockID=521746&feedID=4209
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20131203004800/http://www.sierraclubmass.org/issues/coal/coal2.html to http://www.sierraclubmass.org/issues/coal/coal2.html
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20160112164907/http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/25/2559105.html to http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/25/2559105.html
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20141006112134/http://www.salemstate.edu/7242.php to http://www.salemstate.edu/7242.php
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110805204342/http://www.salemstate.edu/6081.php to http://www.salemstate.edu/6081.php
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140325191221/https://www.salemstate.edu/about/10505.php to https://www.salemstate.edu/about/10505.php
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120923062106/http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/457.html to http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/457.html
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20141215235535/http://www.salem.com/Pages/SalemMA_Council/ota to http://www.salem.com/Pages/SalemMA_Council/ota

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Dubious conspiracy material from questionable sources removed

I started looking closely at the recent edit history after noticing a strange assertion [1]:

"Daniel Webster Black Dan, Great Orator, Director of the Second Bank of the United States Boston, Settled Ashburton-Webster treaty with the head of Baring Brothers Bank, Secretary of State to Presidents Fillmore, Tyler, and Harrison, basis for Sam the Eagle of the Muppets, Assassinated Presidents Polk, Harrison, and Taylor with Senator Henry Clay."

Looking through the edit history, I see that this and a lot of other odd material about bribes and assassinations originated with edits from an anon IP back in September [2], sourced to what I'm fairly sure is the IP's self-published books about Salem tunnels and other subjects. The author, Christopher Jon Luke Dowgin, runs local tours which seem to have a whimsical nature. Some of the material looked OK, but there was too much questionable stuff that had no other sources beyond Dowgin's books, so I've removed as much as I could. OhNoitsJamie ^Talk 15:30, 7 February 2018 (UTC)

"Whimsical" is putting it mildly. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.60.122.141 (talk) 13:28, 30 March 2020 (UTC)

He also seems to have added a lot of bad info on the Salem Common page -- more about tunnels and conspiracies. I spent some time cleaning that up, but I am sure he will put it all back. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:18D:581:1030:6494:CA11:5FC4:D2E2 (talk) 13:09, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

Two County Seats

Hey there, User:Dilidor. My wording may be awkward, but what didn’t make sense was two county seats. Isn’t that like a country having two capital cities? My edit was trying to explain this odd situation - well, odd to folks who don’t live in U.S. and don’t know that two simultaneous county seats is the norm. I look to you, and your knowledge on this issue, to use better wording than I did in my poor attempt to cover this double-seat situation. Perhaps, given that the county seats were abolished nearly two decades ago, the entire statement no longer needs to be in the lede, but could be an interesting item in the body of the article? I lean on your expertise, and thank you for your help. Jmg38 (talk) 22:29, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

@Jmg38: I agree that it's somewhat trivial, given that the entire county system is no longer in effect, and as such does not belong in the intro at all. Hence, I removed it. There's a bigger problem with the intro which I will call attention to below. —Dilidor (talk) 10:02, 16 October 2018 (UTC)

Citations in the intro

There are presently 15 citations in the intro, and some instances feature four or five citations for a single statement. This would be considered excessive in the body of the article, but it's beyond excessive in the intro, since citations are not required at all in the intro. I tried removing them, but it caused problems with the references section. Could somebody with more technical facility kindly address this? All citations should be removed from the intro. If there is a statement in the intro which is not expanded upon in the body of the article, it does not require a citation—it should be removed altogether. Statements that are expounded upon in the body do not need to be cited at the top. Clearing out the clutter of notations will make the intro eminently more readable. —Dilidor (talk) 10:08, 16 October 2018 (UTC)

"One of the many sealed tunnels"

There is a photo that is supposed to be "one of the many sealed tunnels," and there is no source, no supporting evidence, no nothing. As wiki says, "content must be verifiable," and this is just someone's unsupported claim. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:18D:581:1030:CD2D:7D76:88ED:6710 (talk) 16:29, 27 March 2020 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 1 September 2021 and 20 December 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): JenRatliff.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 08:34, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Named by John Smith/Charles I?

On John Smith's 1616 map of New England, a location indicated as "Salem" appears north of the Charles River and south of Cape Ann(a). Is it possible that this is the origin of the town's name?

The article currently just says "To recognize this peaceful transition to the new government, the name of the settlement was changed to Salem". 70.172.194.25 (talk) 17:55, 23 September 2022 (UTC)

Funnily enough, right after submitting this query, I found an earlier discussion of the same issue: § (a) Unclear when Salem renamed, and (b) conflict between dates 1626-9 and New England map 1616. Now I'm even more confused. 70.172.194.25 (talk) 18:01, 23 September 2022 (UTC)