20
Cisco—How It Was Originally Designated And The Man For Whom It Was Named BY EDOUARD A. STACKPOLE
In recent years that area of Nantucket's South Shore famil iarly known as Cisco has become one of the most popular summer spots on the Island. Here, during the season, whether on sunny or overcast days, large groups of young people swim and enjoy that comparatively new sport called "surfing," and many spec tators are on hand to watch. The scene becomes both colorful and exciting, as the younger generation brings gaiety to any spot where they may congregate. But, if one should ask, on some summer day, of one of the bronzed swimmers. "Why is this place called Cisco?" it is doubt ful that the answer would be forthcoming. This is not unexpected, as localities bearing names unfamiliar to new generations are often obscured by the passing of time. The particular region which has been called "Cisco" has had this name affixed over a much longer period than is realized. Its name came from the fact that a New York banker named John Jay Cisco had decided to buy a small piece of land on the beach front, and during the next eighty years successive generations of the Cisco family regularly came here to enjoy swimming and relaxing on the white beach. Three decades ago, the great-grand son of that first John Jay Cisco, and bearing the same name, built a small cottage on the bluff, which he retained until recent years. But the reason for the first visit of the first John Jay Cisco should not be forgotten, as it brings to the naming of the area an important significance. The year of that initial visit was 1867, one hundred five years ago. Cisco was then one of the most prom inent financiers in New York City, and he was in the midst of an enterprise that only a man of tremendous courage would have attempted — the building of the Union Pacific Railroad (as Ex ecutive Secretary of the United States Treasury at New York under Lincoln, he represented United States Government inter ests in the Union Pacific). It was a time of crisis. Despite an auspicious beginning, the progress of this unprecedented venture was almost to a complete halt, and the possibility of a disaster was close at hand. At this time John Jay Cisco came to Nantucket, where he found the peace and quiet which had been denied him in the city. Walking along the south shore of the Island, he would often stop to gaze out to sea, his mind filled with the exigencies of the
