Yarmouthport is a part of the township of Yarmouth, which is considerably spread out, from shore to shore, across the Cape. Not so many years ago some stray bullets were found under the bricks of the hearthstone of an old house that was being demolished. The find was reminiscent of the story of Joshua Gray and his fellow soldiers of Yarmouth. Joshua Gray was captain of the early Yarmouth Militia and an officer in the Revolution, who marched with his men to help Washington defend Dorchester Heights. The night before their departure, women of the town worked in his home until sunrise moulding bullets for the soldiers. In great grandfather’s time Yarmouthport was the trading center in this section of the Cape, and people came over from Hyannis to do their shopping. Tom Baker’s mail delivery job was first held by John Thacher, who rode horseback and made his rounds once a week. His pay was $1 a day, and some citizens considered this an extravagance. Total postoffice receipts in the town of Yarmouthport for the year 1795 amounted to $26. The first daily newspaper on Cape Cod was founded in 1893 in Yarmouthport. George Otis operated the _Cape Cod Item_. On the same site the _Yarmouth Register_, weekly newspaper, continues to record the local life, as it did 108 years ago. DENNIS---- _The “Smoky Gold” Craft Thrived When America Was Young_ The “smoky gold” story of Cape Cod gives a rare picture of the pioneering spirit and richness of America’s founding days. Smoky gold was the local name for lampblack, an indispensable base for paints and printer’s ink in the olden days. The little town of Dennis, once a great clipper ship port, was known in those days as one of the world’s greatest sources of lampblack and her precious shipments were in demand in England and on the Continent. A modern summer visitor, the Rev. Ernest G. N. Holmes of Bethlehem, Pa., brought the story of the great Cape Cod industry to light. While clearing a Dennis farm he had bought for a summer home, the clergyman discovered a stone arch two or three feet above the ground; adjoining it was a stone floor and around its edges the soil was as black as night--a very unusual color for Cape Cod earth. AN INGENIOUS OPERATION Subsequent investigation revealed that this was the remnant of a lampblack manufactory, known to the old timers as a Funn. Today this section of Dennis is called Funntown. The Funn was a lamp chimney on Gargantuan lines. Anyone who has used a kerosene lamp knows how annoying it was to have the lamp smoke and smudge the glass. The Funn, however, was erected for just that purpose, only there was no glass and the lampblack formed on the ceiling of the Funn thick enough to be scraped off in layers. Thus, smoky gold was produced.