Benjamin W. Crowninshield speaks from his grave

Thank you to Tom Osborne for sharing this image .

      One of the first impressions made in history was in the day of the Third Plantation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1700, an early settler was drawn to an estate on the hillsides by Spring Pond, in the name of Dr. John Casper Richter Von Crowninshield (Johannes Kaspar Richter Von Kronenscheldt, as first spelled), who was among one of the first families to settle in this country and the first in the country to descend the respectable (Boston Brahmin) Crowninshield Family of Boston whose later generations became so prominent in Massachusetts affairs, cradled by Spring Pond.

Among the heirs of the family country estate and family line was Benjamin Williams Crowninshield.  He served as United States Secretary of the Navy, Representative of the United States Congress, member of the Massachusetts State Senate, in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and became one of the first directors of the Merchant's Bank of Salem creating the East India Trade of Salem; The USS Crowninshield Naval Destroyer was named in his honor.