USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Pembroke > Ancient landmarks of Pembroke > Part 5
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"Terror-struck, with a double offering, they fled to the pond to appease the wrath of Hobomoc. The stump and lilies had disappeared, Hobomoc was not there, and his pale-
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Oldham Pond, Pembroke, Mass. From the Island
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Is Photo in Lewis.
Oldham or Monument Pond
THE JUDGE WHITMAN HOUSE
face children were scattered. Sad and heart-broken, they returned to their wigwams, and prepared for departure; saying, 'where Hobomoc takes paleface, Indian no live.'
"Silently they gathered the scattered remnant of their tribe, and prepared for departure. Slowly they approached the wigwam of Sunny Eye-last queen of the Mattakeesetts -known to us as 'Queen Patience'; but the blue smoke still curled round its dark roof, her little harvest was still un- gathered. She came forth to meet them ; and pointing to the south, said: 'Farewell brother, go, find new hunting ground in the far valley of the sweet-water, where the form of the paleface hides not the smile of the Great Spirit from the wigwam. But no child of the great Wampatuck, whose wigwam boasted one hundred scalps taken in battle, before whom the black bear fled, and the red deer died; shall ever fly before paleface or Hobomoc. I die by the graves of my Fathers.' In vain they threatened and entreated ; she turned to her wigwam, and was seen no more. Slowly they circled her dwelling, and chanted her death song, believing that the great sickness would soon take her to the hunting ground beyond the sky, where no paleface comes; and as they passed her door, laid a portion of corn and venison on the mat before it, that she might have food when no longer able to hunt or fish.
""'Queen Patience' lived to an advanced age, on the little point of land projecting into Furnace Pond at the left, as you pass up along the road from this town to Hanson. Her funeral was attended in 1788, by the minister of the First Parish in Pembroke."
For some years before Mrs. Hersey's death, the western half of the house was occupied by Mr. B. Franklin Paige- now of Hanson -- a skilful farmer and dairyman; who made the old farm "blossom like the rose." About 1900 he re- moved, and the place was held by Mr. Frank Delano. It
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ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF PEMBROKE
was recently purchased by Mr. Herbert Barker, a native of England who with his family now resides there.
The great buttonwoods still tower by the wayside, flank- ing the ancient thoroughfare, and suggesting-even more strongly in decay-comparison with those best loved scenes of Mrs. Hersey's musing, the pillared avenues of Karnak and Heliopolis, and the stately propylaea which guard access to its temple of the Sun. Several of the older trunks were cut down late in the last century, and their butts taken to the sawmill. In the interior of one of these, the saw struck a large iron ring, embedded in the wood; to which-it is said-Mrs. Hersey, then Fanny Whitman, was in the habit of hitching her saddle-horse. Over this ring the layers of fresh wood had grown inches deep ;thus registering the long lapse of years since Judge Whitman's family were leaders in county society, and the favored of his children sat on Daniel Webster's knee.
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The Burton Homestead 1730 : and The Union Store
VI. The Burton Homestead.
The stream is brightest at its spring, And blood is not like wine; Nor honored less than he who heirs Is he who founds a line.
Full lightly shall the prize be won, If lore be Fortune's spur ; And never maiden stoops to him Who lifts himself to her.
Oh, rauk is good, and gold is fair, And high and low mate ill; But love has never known a law Beyond its own sweet will!
The early Barker grants included land on either side of Namassakeesett or Herring Brook ; and on the west, extended as far as the slopes of Highgary-the hill where Pembroke Meeting House now stands. Most of this hill remained, for a good many years, part of the commons of Duxbury and Marshfield ; and it was probably not until about the year 1200 that, in an allotment of Duxbury commons, the southern portion was set off to one Abraham Pearce or Peirce. On this tract, in due course of time, was to be built the large, square yellow house-home of the late George H. Ryder, Esquire, which stands in Pembroke Centre at the corner of Centre and Mattakeesett Streets.
Abraham Pearce came an early settler to Namassakeesett. He was one of those sturdy old pioneers, warriors against the Wilderness, whose forward march was heralded by no notes of fife and clarion, only by the crashing of fallen trees and
ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF PEMBROKE
the clear, full, unremitting stroke of the woodman's axe, ringing through the desert places of the forest, and sounding, trumpet-like, the advance of a new civilization "against the hosts of Chaos and the Dark." Their lives were set amid the terrors of an untenanted wilderness, or the still greater terrors of a wilderness haunted by the unseen menace of cruel foes. They must till the rough uplands for a living daily, and find neighbors in savages and the wild beasts of the wood.
Preceded in his settlement of this region only by the Barkers, Abraham Pearce had his homestead where the Judge Whitman house now stands. Other lands were added to that nucleus; and by the year 1700, he was owner of a considerable estate. Living nearest the meeting house, he had it in charge; and on the ancient records are several entries of "ten shillings paid to John Pearce (his son) for sweeping ve Meeting House." Early in the history of this town, his son Abraham sold it a plot of ground which became part of the present cemetery, and in 1730 conveyed the ad- joining lot of twenty-five acres for £350 to Thomas Burton of Duxbury. Real estate was, evidently, a paying form of investment in those days. Pembroke was prosperous, new residents were moving in from all sides, and the Hill was a spot coveted for dwellings. This place preceded Brockton in disputing with Plymouth the honor of possession of the county seat, for, as is recorded in one of the earliest town books,-
"On March ye Second Day 1729-30 ye town Voted that ye Represente is to use his ntmost Indavr at ye generll Court or Elsewhere to have ye Courts or some of ym movd to this Town for ye future.
Thos Parris Town Clerk"
This vote was several times repeated; it expressed, not a forlorn hope, but a confident expectation, on the part of Pembroke people; and the motion which it embodied, re- ceived wide - though ineffectual - support among the inhabitants of neighboring towns.
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Isaac Jennings 1808 - 1873
THE BURTON HOMESTEAD
Thomas Burton erected a house on his newly acquired property, and settled there. He was a man of high family and much learning. His father was Stephen Burton, a prominent citizen of Rhode Island; his mother, Elizabeth, only daughter of Governor Josiah Winslow of Marshfield. The father of Josiah was Edward Winslow, alternate of Bradford as governor; and he married Penelope, daughter of Herbert Pelham, Esquire, first treasurer of Harvard College. Their grandson, Thomas Burton, received a liberal education, inarried Alice Wadsworth of Duxbury, and became the suc- cessor of 'Thomas Parris, first schoolmaster of Pembroke. He was town clerk 1733-40, and his fine handwriting is con- spicuous upon our records. He had four daughters and no sons : Martha died in childhood; Penelope married Seth Jacob; Eleanor married Nathaniel Bishop, and became- through an intermarriage between the families of Bishop and Jennings-ancestress of that Isaac Jennings who kept so many years "The Union Store" close by the house of his fathers, and who was never known to praise (though he often blamed) the quality of his merchandise, or to change the price of an article once marked by his hand.
Elizabeth-the youngest daughter, born in 1737-was her father's favorite. She was known through the vicinity as Mistress Betty Burton; fond tradition tells of the finery lavished upon her-"trunks full of stiff brocade," says an old legend, "and a quart bowl of diamond rings!" She was sought in marriage by Daniel Bonney, a poor house-carpenter of the neighborhood; the lady favored his suit, but worldly position interposed. "You must give her up, Daniel," said the father, warningly ; "Betty will never make a poor man's wife." But the young man persisted; swearing that, if she inarried him, she should never even bring the water to wash her hands -- which proved literally true. At last her father's consent was won. He recorded their marriage with his own hand in the family Bible, and added devoutly "Pray God to Bless ym."
On the eastern slope of the hill, near Thomas Burton's,
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ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF PEMBROKE
stood in his day -- and still stands, though gnarled and wind- beaten by the storms of two centuries-the noted Sabbaday Orchard. Matter of legend for generations, this spot is the only haunted region for miles around. Dating, undoubtedly, from the seventeenth century, the Orchard is said to have been planted by Huguenot fugitives from persecution before the landing of the Pilgrims. In former days many a mother hushed her children with weird tales of the wandering ghosts of these exiles, which roamed among the gnarled old trees at midnight, and would not be laid.
Less known to fame than Sabbaday, but no less richly stored with historic association, is the Wallis Orchard. Iso- lated among thick woods which streteh eastward from the Barker homestead, it is approached only by a narrow lane or cartway leading from the northerly road. As the lane climbs upward from the valley of Little Pudding Brook, the ground -which has been swampy, and close set with underbrush- becomes open, hilly, and columned by forest trees. The site of the Orchard itself is marked by traces of what must once have been an extensive clearing. Great stone walls-now fallen, or fast falling, into ruins-divide the ancient fields. Among the wild poverty-grass grow savins and paperbirches, with at intervals a giant pasture pine. Hightop sweetings-trees peculiar, it is said, to Huguenot orchards-are still to be found in this neighborhood, although few and far between. Here settled in the seventeenth century, according to an old tradition, the family of Wallis. The same tradition would have us believe that in one of the earlier struggles between Indian and colonist, this remote household fell vic- tims to an invading warparty; that Wallis himself alone survived the massacre; and that he continued to dwell upon his now desolate homestead until disease or the infirmities of age, or some disaster ineident to the remoteness of his habi- tation, occasioned his death. For a considerable time there- after, the farm -- which had passed into strangers' hands- lay vacant. In the year 1755, the French Neutrals were driven from Acadia, and dispersed among the Provinces :
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THE BURTON HOMESTEAD
Wallis Orchard became the home of one of Pembroke's quota, Pierre-or, as his English neighbours soon learned to call him, Peter-Pauline. The ruinous old house afforded him shelter, and a scanty livelihood might still be won from the adjacent soil -- sorrowful consolations withal of banishment from Acadia's rich meadows and homelike cottages. Whether the Frenchman prospered in Wallis Orchard; or what event- ually became of him and his family -- if he had one, and suc- ceeded in reuniting thein there: none can say. Our town
records are silent concerning any of his name. No trace remains to prove the very fact of his existence, excepting only the vague tradition, still cherished by curious villagers, and one other memorial even more seldom brought to mind. In a southerly thicket of the Orchard, hidden and wellnigh lost among scrub-oaks and thorny underbrush, is an ancient well. A wild apple overhangs it, strewing with fruitage of pale yellow hightop sweetings the little hollow where the water flows. Round its margin, the once carefully fitted stones of the curbing lie disjointed and scattered; but the pool itself remains clear and refreshing as when, that mild December morning a hundred and fifty years agone, the Exile paused beside it, and drank of the "waters of captivity." Wandering woodchoppers periodically rediscover it; they share its bounty, and bless the builder whose name nobody- certainly not they themselves-can recall: but the Oldest Inhabitant has not forgotten : and when, from time to time, report goes abroad through the village that some one has found, in the lonely forest of Wallis Orchard, a wellspring which is-nobody can say how old; he listens, smiles to him- self the deep, still smile of the initiate, and knows it for Peter's Well.
In 1766-the year of his marriage-Daniel Bonney bought a half interest in the Burton house; and with his wife Eliza- beth, lived there for many years. They had no children. Thomas Burton died in 1779, aged eighty-seven; and Allice, his widow, died twelve years after, at the still greater age of ninety-five. Elizabeth, wife of Daniel, died in 1807: and
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ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF PEMBROKE
he sold the place next year for $680 to Elisha Keen Josselyn of Pembroke, an anchorsmith.
The present house was built by Elisha Josselyn; the former became an ell. In some part of the structure he kept a general store, from which were dispensed-not always, it would seem, in brimming measure-the two beverages which our great-grandparents could not do without. At least one veteran tippler found cause to lament half jestingly, on many occasions, his good coin gone at Josselyn's for old Jamaica, and Mistress Josselyn's thumb !
Mr. Josselyn died in 1857; and his widow, in 1863: their son James Riley succeeded to the estate. His wife was Maria-daughter of Capt. John Chandler Mann, a native of Pembroke: their children were Ella, who married Morton Jones, now of Denver in Colorado; Gilman; and Everett. All these settled in other towns; Riley Josselyn died in 1882, and his widow three years later; and the homestead was bought by George H. Ryder, Esquire, of Pembroke. Mr.
Ryder held many town and parish offices : he was town clerk, 1870-1893; treasurer, 1875-1893; collector, 1883-1893; and long a member of the school committee. He died in January of 1894. The estate, retained by his widow for some years, has since passed into other hands.
Early in the last century, the ancient Burton house was detached from that of Mr. Josselyn's construction, and inoved to the opposite side of the street. There it became the home of Ambrose Parris-the bard of Highgary-and Mahala Howland, his wife; and later, of Mr. and Mrs. Edgar C. Bailey. It was recently purchased by Mrs. Henry Baker of Pembroke, who removed thither from Little's Avenue upon Mr. Baker's death : its oldtime hospitality is by her richly sustained.
The last and fairest of the Burtons sleeps beside the un- marked grave of Daniel Bonney in Pembroke burying ground, close to the Governor's daughter and the gentle dominie. Their direct male line ended with Thomas Burton, and memorials of the Burton name are few. Still, sitting in
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THE BURTON HOMESTEAD
the old wainscoted room where Mistress Betty pleaded so well the cause of her carpenter lover, methinks-in some depth behind the worn panels-they two look brightly toward us; and highly, confidently as of yore, from that deathless springtime of their betrothal,
"Smile on our claims of long descent."
Dust are the silks and laces, dust too-shade, if you will -the bowl of diamond rings; all that was mortal of the Burtons themselves, is dust: but their souls abide -- bright spirits powerful for loving faith and brave en- deavour, and they are not forgotten. Their ancient dwell- ing is instinct with memories of them. Does a board creak in one of the upper rooms some eerie March evening ?- it is the step of Madam Burton, pacing restlessly her chamber floor : does a sudden gust sigh through crevice and keyhole, and stir the window curtains ?- it is the swish of Mistress Betty's stiff brocade, descending the staircase, or sweeping along the corridor: does the fire start up with a snap and sputter and crackle ?- it is the sound of her father's quill rustling and scratching while he enters the beautiful mar- riage record, tracing laborious characters across the page of his Bible, and murmuring, as he writes, his tender solicitude for the welfare of "Son Daniel," and Daniel's bride.
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VII. Herring Brook and the Herring.
Cato much marvelled how that city should prosper wherein a fish sold for as much as an ox.
W OULD you arouse the enthusiasm of a shop- weary Brocktonian, whisper in his ear some bright April morning that in Pembroke the Herring are up. It is believed that natives inherit a taste for the fishery equally keen, though less open in its workings: certainly at most Pembroke tables a fresh herring two days corned, and served piping hot with salt, pep- per, vinegar, and leisure to eat it, is esteemed the only right supper for a damp, chilly spring evening. As for the small boy-friends, have ye not seen and heard him glorying in this his element? Unhappy the youngster, horn and bred in Pembroke, who knows not the joys of a herring season ! From the sounding of the first false alarm "Herrin' up!" in February, until grass grows high on the well-trodden banks, it is the Children's Hour, and they improve it. To be up and about in the morning before the brookwatcher-peace to him !- arrives on the scene ; to help and hinder in loading the herring-earts till school time; to ride off with one of those travelling shower- baths, then rush baek at the earliest possible moment, and stay until driven home by fear of parental displeasure at late hours and dripping garments -- all this, and more, goes to make their day among the Herring. Their seniors-for the Brook has pleasure for all ages-content themselves with a tour of the bank, and a half-day's visit at the Herring House. Many an April afternoon may be whiled away in holding
ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF PEMBROKE
down one of the antique benches, amid an atmosphere of blue pipesmoke and neighborhood tradition; while the rain patters steadily on the roof, and the wind shrills through the chimney, just as they did in the days when herring sold for a shilling the hundred, and Isaac Barker opened his dam.
The alewife is Pembroke's true proprietor by right of discovery : all others have been no more than squatters, in- terlopers, and tenants on sufferance. The memory-and it may be the existence --- of man, goeth not back to that first spring when the pioneer school threaded its way up North River's shallow channel, and found harbour among the new bays and sandy reaches of Herring Pond; where a gentle surf broke upon jagged boulders not yet made smooth by its un- resting flow. The explorers departed, only to return each succeeding season with reinforcements gathered from dis- tant shores of the mighty Ocean. Centuries passed : then came to the Ponds a vanguard of savages, crowded out of the teeming North. These lingered a brief time-to be meas- ured by centuries -- and were forced southward, retreating before another and more valiant race; who in turn moved on, after due time, toward their destined home upon the slopes of the Cordilleras, perchance even of the mighty Andes. So tribe succeeded tribe.
Last of all came the Massachusetts nation. They pitched their lodges close by the ponds, entrenched by a wide circle of marsh and forest ; and like their predecessors, derived from the waters their chief livelihood. Fresh herring, baked in the ashes, were a luxury brought to them by spring: with herring they made productive their cornfields, exhausted by the unremitting tillage of peoples too indolent to employ- although intelligent enough to recognize-the principle of alternation in crops: cured herring gave a relish, when fresh meat could not be had, to the vegetable diet of summer; and constituted, together with maize variously treated, their staple winter fare. The fish were taken, doubtless, at various points on the course of the Herring Brook; but chiefly-it is believed-at the place where it issues, by the channel now
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FURNACE POND,
Pombroke Mass
Great Herring or Furnace Pond, and the Graves of the Kings
HERRING BROOK AND THE HERRING
called Furnace Ditch, from Herring Pond. Here stood in 1698 an ancient Indian weir, sufficiently well known to be thought a landmark. This weir probably continued in use throughout the first third of the eighteenth century; until the Town, grown greedy of revenue, assumed a monopoly of the herring industry, pensioning off-in 1772 with an allow- ance of five barrels-the remnant of the Massachusetts, and thenceforth prohibiting them from fishing in the stream.
The Brook and its product have never failed of public recognition. The Indians' name for this region was Namas- sakeesett, or Place of Much Fish. That the acknowledge- ment implied in Namassakeesett was less obvious in the later Pembroke, came about through no fault of their successors in its happy hunting ground. Shortly before Thanksgiving in 1710, the inhabitants of Mattakeesett, or upper Duxbury, began to urge incorporation. Their motion was strenuously
opposed by the citizens of Duxbury proper. In February of 1711, Marshfield consented to relinquish her Upper Lands; the proprietors of that district and of The Major's Purchase had already, through a memorial addressed to the General Court, signified their desire to be included in the
new township. Duxbury alone was stubborn; and the men of Mattakeesett, failing to obtain any concession at the town meeting of 19 March 1711, decided to proceed without her sanction. Their petition for incorporation, drafted in May following, and presented to the General Court in June, was granted a formal hearing before that body late in October. Duxbury had received a copy in June, and in October chose Capt. Seth Arnold an agent to enter protest: Josiah Barker and Joseph Stockbridge represented Mattakeesett. After some negotiation, their demands were granted by the Coun- cil in an order hearing date 3 November 1711. The House, however, dissented, and referred adjustment of the rival claims to a board of five commissioners, who reported their decision in a document dated at Duxbury 11 March 1712. Accepted by the Council onc week later, and next day by the House likewise, this report led immediately to the drafting
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ANCIENT LANDMARKS OF PEMBROKE
of an act of incorporation, and to its final passage by both houses on the twenty-first.
The part of Duxbury thus alienated is in the record of the foregoing procedure styled Mattakeesett. The first motion for a change of name appears in the May petition, whose au- thors desired that their new town be called Brookfield. As there had been since 1673 a struggling community of that name in Worcester County, it is improbable that either chamber of the General Court ever entertained seriously the request. The attitude of the Council was plainly signified in its order of 3 November 1711, which directed "that the Prayer of its Petitioners be granted, and that the Town be named Nothing more is heard of Brook- field ; nor of any name, until 21 March 1712. It would seem that, from 3 November to 19 March, the minor question had lain in abeyance, while interest centred on the division of territory. In the Council record for that day appears with- out comment the name Pembroke, which occurs in the act under the form Pembrooke.
Its choice and
adoption were doubtless due to Joseph Dudley, royal governor of Massachusetts from 1:02 to 1715. Always an autocrat, upon the nam- ing of towns he seems to have exercised an influence almost paramount, especially during the later years of his administration. Of the towns incorporated within that period, three-Dighton, 1712; Leicester, 1713; and Sutton, 1714-bear names connected with the Governor's family : four-Pembroke and Abington, 1712; Rutland and Lexing- ton, 1713-bear names of English noblemen, presumably his patrons. Throughout his chequered career, Dudley had been much in England. Heir to a position of independence among the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay, he had early chosen the part of an English placeman ; which he was eminently fitted to perform. On visits home in 1682 and 1689, he had made powerful friends : and his circle of acquaintance became still wider during the years 1693-1702; when, as viceroy of the Isle of Wight, he became a social favourite, and spent his
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HERRING BROOK AND THE HERRING
energies in gaining that interest which eventually secured for him the post of governor. That to men like the earls of Pembroke, Abington, Rutland, and Lexington he should address himself, was natural and politic. All had early cast in their lot with William of Orange, and were now in high favour at his court. All. had been foremost in asserting lately menaced rights equally dear to Englishmen in England and in Massachusetts. All had suffered for their defiance of Stuart tyranny in the later years of James. To few British peers could a political adventurer from the Puritan colony turn with better hope of obtaining assistance, or of its efficacy when obtained. Concerning the first and most distin- guished, especially was this true. The earls of Pembroke had been identified with Puritanism at home and abroad from its earliest beginnings. The third earl had been a principal member of the Plymouth Company. The fourth, siding
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