USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Abington > Celebration of the one hundred an fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of Abington, Massachusetts, June 10, 1862, including the oration, poem and other exercises > Part 2
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Andrew Ford's house is supposed to have stood not far from where Deacon Joseph Cleverly now lives. In 1654, a grant of land three miles square, beginning at Accord Pond, and bounded casterly by the Scituate line, was made to Timothy Hatherly, then a resident of Scituate, a devout Christian, and a prominent and influential citizen in the Colony. Other grants of land were subsequently made to the heirs of Clement Briggs, to Phineas Pratt, James Lovell, Cornet Robert Stetson, Lieut. Peregrine White. Lient. James Torrey, Lient. John Holbrook, Ensign Mark Eames, and probably to some others.
Whatever might be the Indian titles to any of these lands, government required that they should be scru- pulously extinguished, and no person was allowed to receive from any Indian a land title as a gift.
Manamooskeagen, the name by which the territory of this township was known to the Indians, was so
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called because its brooks abounded in beavers. It was principally taken from the cast part of Bridgewater.
The town is described in Barber's Historical Collec- tions as " situated on elevated land between Massachu- setts and Narraganset Bays." Between these Bays, it is probably the highest elevation, for all the water- courses lead out of town, and none into it. In the Massachusetts Historical Collections, the land is said to be of a moist, strong soil, and the best grazing district in the county. The south-east part of the town was swampy and rocky, and from this circum- stance was known both before the incorporation of the town and for a long time after, by the significant name of " Little Comfort."
The first county road in town was the road now leading from East Bridgewater, by Edmund Gurney's house and by the South and Centre Meeting-houses, to Weymouth. It was laid out in 1690, and was the road from Middleborough to Boston. At the period of the incorporation of the town, there was only one other county road. That led from Hanson to Wey- mouth, through what is now called " Plymouth Street."
There were probably not above forty families resi- dent in town in 1712. Among these are recorded the names of Ford. Joselyn, Chard, Shaw, Reed, Dyer, Gurney, Tirrel, Jackson, Hersey, Whitmarsh, Porter,
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Harden, Nash, Bates, Lincoln, Pool, Noyes, and French.
On the fourth day of July, 1706, a petition was presented to the General Court, for an Act of incorpo- ration. The petitioners were directed to return a map or plan of the territory described in their petition, and, subsequently, to ascertain what sum the inhabitants and proprietors were willing to pay annually, for the support of an able, learned and orthodox minister. As the means of the people were probably inadequate to enable the petitioners to report a satisfactory sum, the subject was deferred. A few years later, on the presentation of a new petition, the prayer of the petitioners was granted, and on the tenth day of June, 1712, the General Court passed an Act of incorporation which constituted this territory the town of Abington. (Appendix, A.)
Previous to this event, there were within the limits of the town, three saw-mills. The first was John Porter's, built in 1693, on the dam near Benjamin Hobart's, in South Abington. The second, of Nash and Pool, was built about 1700, on the same stream, near where Gurney's Tack Factory now stands, yonder. The third, in 1703, by Thaxter, of Hingham, near the present site of Beal's corn-mill, in East Abington.
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The carly establishment of these mills confirms what history has recorded, that Abington formerly furnished large quantities of masts and square timber, which found a market in the sea-board towns.
The first religious society in this town probably embraced all the inhabitants of the settlement. 'The first Church, formed about 1712, had eight male members, embracing the names of Brown, Hersey, Ford, Tirrel, Whitmarsh, Joselyn, Reed, and Lincoln. The first meeting-house was a rude structure, un- painted, without steeple and without pews. Between the years 1750 and 1760, a new meeting-house was finished, and furnished with a bell of six hundred pounds. In 1770, this bell was re-cast by Colonel Aaron Hobart, who established one of the earliest bell foundries in the country. This second meeting-house
was more fashionable. It had pews and a sounding- board. At a legal town meeting, held July 8, 1751, it was voted " to color the meeting-house with a skie color S. mixe the color with Lincett oyl." It was also voted, that all the north end of the meeting-honse should be left for the women. Nothing is said about an organ, or a clock, or even a furnace or a stove, such as adorn some of the more costly and elegant churches in town at the present day. In 1819, this house was taken down to give place to another, which has since been
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converted into Hatherly Hall, while the society now worships in a more modern, more convenient, and more costly house, erected within a few years on the north-east corner of the Rev. Mr. Niles's homestead.
'The first minister of this town was Rev. Samuel Brown, of Newbury. He graduated at Harvard Uni- versity in 1709, began to preach in Abington two years afterwards, and in 1714 was ordained and settled. The first entry made in your town records embraces the articles of agreement between the inhabitants of Abington and Mr. Brown. The town generously gave him, at his settlement, sixty acres of land for a home- stead, with a salary of £48, which was afterwards increased to £70. They showed him numerous other tokens of their kindness and interest in his temporal welfare. In the carlier years of his ministry, Mr. Brown appears to have been an acceptable preacher, and to have lived in harmony with the people. Difficulties at length arose ; Whitfield appeared ; Mr. Brown took a decided stand against him. Other difficulties arose. The sect called " New Lights " sprung up, and after a ministry of thirty-seven years, he resigned the pastorate, and died in 1749, aged sixty-two years.
In addition to the care of so extended a parish, the care of a farm, and the care of a family, Mr. Brown,
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like many of the clergymen of his day, employed a portion of his leisure in practicing medicine, both in this and in the neighboring towns, and is said to have had quite an extensive practice.
In seven or eight months after Mr. Brown's decease, Mr. Ezekiel Dodge, of Ipswich, was ordained as his successor. Ile also was a graduate of Harvard. He was an amiable and estimable man ; prudent and discreet, learned and devout, zealous and firm ; he commanded the respect and secured the affections of his people ; and after a diligent and peaceful ministry of twenty years, among the people of his first love, he died suddenly of apoplexy, in the forty-eighth year of his age. The town defraved the expenses of his funeral, and according to the custom of that period, presented gold rings to the widow and the bearers.
His successor was Rev. Samuel Niles, of Braintree, a graduate of Princeton. Ile was ordained in 1771.
Mr. Niles was a man of more than ordinary note. Hle is presented to us, in the " American Quarterly Register," as possessed of a " vigorous intellect, and a heart imbued with the true spirit of the Gospel. He was an able and faithful minister, and though fond of metaphysical investigations, he did not neglect the oracles of God, but made them the standard of his faith and the rule of his life." Dr. Strong, of Randolph,
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in his obituary notice of him, and the late Dr. Emmons, of Franklin, confirm this testimony. From them we learn that his manner of preaching was plain, lumi- nous, solemn and impressive; and that his sermons were full of weighty and solemn truths. He was a very agreeable, interesting, and hospitable man. With a large heart, deep knowledge of human nature, and a mind capable of grasping great truths in Philosophy, Politics, and Religion, he made his mark upon the character and customs of this people, and so deported himself during a ministry of forty years, as to leave a name more revered, and an influence for good more widely and permanently felt in this town, than that of any other man. So fervent were .his public prayers and so impressive was his eloquence in the pulpit, it was impossible to sit under his preaching with levity or with indifference. Mr. Niles represented this town at the General Court from 1808 till 1811, when a stroke of paralysis cut him off from the active duties of his calling, and the years which remained to him were years of infirmity and pain. Yet he bowed submissively to the rod of the chastener, and in the sixty-ninth year of his age breathed out his spirit unto God who gave it.
Those who never saw Mr. Niles, except on public occasions, might have regarded him as a very stern
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and austere man. But in social life he was far other- wise. He was dignified indeed, but Dr. Emmons describes him as especially entertaining in private circles, by the flashes of his wit, and his curious and amusing and striking and pertinent anecdotes. 1 know not that any of those anecdotes are recorded. But I remember to have heard my grandfather say that Mr. Niles was fond of exciting wonder, by relating incidents bordering on the marvellous, and he gave this as a specimen. I once had occasion, said Mr. Niles, to go into the woods with a yoke of cattle and a pair of forward wheels, to procure a stick of timber. The stick was forty feet long. I had chained up the but-end under the axle, and left the other end to drag on the ground. I started my team into the cart path, and went back for a few moments. When I returned and overtook my team the cattle were proceeding quietly along, but the stick of timber had changed ends and was fairly loaded on the top of the axle. This was doubtless a fact-the like might occur again in a stony and stumpy cart path-but how it happened was at the time to some a complete marvel.
In 1807, a new church was formed in the south part of the town. Some of the citizens of East Bridgewater united with the citizens of that part of the town and organized a society, which was incorporated in Febru-
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ary, 1808, as the Union Calvinistic Society. A new meeting-house, with two steeples, was erected on land given by the late Ebenezer Porter, and dedicated June first of the same year. Rev. Daniel Thomas, of Middleborough, a graduate of Brown University, was ordained their pastor the same day. He was a man of very exemplary moral and Christian character. In public, he was grave, gentle, modest and firm ; in private, social, entertaining and instructive. He was not what might be termed an eloquent man, and yet neither during his long ministry of upwards of thirty years, nor since his decease, do I remember ever to have heard any man accuse him of levity in conduct or of unsoundness in the faith.
In 1813, the Third Congregational Society was incorporated in East Abington, and a church was organized with fifteen members. Their first meeting- house was raised fifty years ago yesterday, on a lot of land given by the late David Hersey. It was erected in a bush pasture, near a forest of pines, and nearly half a mile from any public road. That house was afterwards enlarged, and has since given place to one of the finest houses of worship in the county.
Of this society Rev. Samuel Colburn, a graduate of Dartmouth, was the first pastor, and continued his ministry as a faithful watchman and under shepherd
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for about sixteen years. Ilis successors are still living.
These societies were colonies from the First Society during the life of Mr. Niles. Since that period no less than six new societies of various sects have been formed, and beautiful houses of worship have been erected for their accommodation, as all may see in this and other sections of the town. These societies are of the denominations of Baptist, New Jerusalem, Methodist Episcopal, Congregational, and Universalist.
But these are modern matters, and the sun would sink to his pavilion long before I could chronicle the events worthy of record, or rehearse the marvellous progress of this town from its small beginnings to its present high rank in population, wealth, manufactures and intelligence.
It would be pleasant to dwell on many matters touching the carly history of the town, beginning with the first public school in 1724, taught by Samuel Porter, senior, and glance at the vote of the town in 1747 to draw £50 from the treasury for the support of women's schools, and then point you to the universities, and colleges, and seminaries, where scores of the sons and daughters of Abington have since sought to lay a foundation for usefulness, by drinking at the fountains of classical learning ; and then to stretch out the hand
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and point you to the lesser institutions of learning which now rise up in every section of your town, supported by your generosity, for the benefit of those who are soon to enter into your labors. And at this point we might pause to congratulate you, citizens of Abington, that you still cherish the same regard for the educational and religious welfare of your successors which animated the bosoms of your worthy sires a century and a half ago. (Appendix, B.)
It would be pleasant to trace the history of manu- factures in this town, from the period when Colonel Aaron Hobart first cast canon balls and cannon for the war of the Revolution, to the present hour. But we can only glance at a few of the more prominent items. Thread of flax was formerly manufactured here to some extent, and woollen fabrics and tow cloth were early woven in many a domestic loom. In 1813, David Pool and Josiah Holbrook, of this town, pub- lished in Providence, R. I., an octavo volume entitled, " The American and European Harmony, or Abington Collection of Sacred Music."* Abington has had also its manufactories of cabinet work, of carriages, of leather. of saddles, trunks and harnesses, and bricks,
* The chorister of the third church in Abington, Mr. David Holbrook, brother of Josiah, has, since the celebration, put into my hands a copy of this Collection.
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and still has its manufactures of iron and tin ware, of bread, confectionery, of clothing, and of excellent soap. But those branches to which chief attention has been paid, and which have over-shadowed all the rest, are box-making, tack-making and
shoemaking. I know not who made the first boxes, the first nails, or the first shoes in town ; but the names of Elihu and Benjamin Hobart, Esquires, are prominent as pioneers in the history of the tack manufactures. I cannot remember so far back as fifty years, for I was not then an inhabitant of the town. But I well remember the original " tack tool," invented by Ezekiel Reed, of this town, for heading cut tacks ; and that successive improvements were afterwards made in machinery for tacks and brads, by Col. Jesse Reed, his son, and by Blanchard, Rogers and Otis, of other towns. On the original machines, tacks were simply headed, and it required some experience for a diligent and skilful hand to head eight thousand tacks in a day. Subsequently tacks were manufactured, cut and headed at a single operation by horse-power, after- wards by water-power, and now by steam, at the rate of from one hundred to two hundred thousand a day. For a fuller account of this branch of industry and source of wealth, as for many other historical matters of local interest. reference may be made to the valuable
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" Historical Reminiscences," published in the "Abing- ton Standard," during the last two years, by Benjamin Hobart, Esq., of South Abington, who probably knows more of the history of this branch of business in this town, than any man living.
The extensive boot and shoe business of Abington is of more recent growth. I well remember the days when, in this town, the shoemaker and cobbler com- bined in one, went from village to village and from house to house, like a bishop on his circuit, to "do up" the making and mending of shoes for a neighborhood, and when Major Humble made rich music on his lap- stone, for the cars of expectant children, who had the promise of their new winter shoes the week before Thanksgiving,-and now, the eyes of nearly half the world look to the boot and shoe manufactories of Abington for fashionable soles and serviceable under- standings.
One prominent reason why no more extensive man- ufactures prevailed here in former years, is found in the fact already stated, that Abington is better adapted by nature for agriculture than for manufactures, since it contains the best soil for grazing in Plymouth County. Cattle were early kept here in large herds, sheep in great flocks. Page after page of your town records is filled with descriptions of the cattle-marks
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of various proprietors, and votes regulating the man- agement of flocks and herds. Abington was then to Plymouth, Marshfield, and the shore towns, " away up country," and probably furnished large quantities of butter and cheese for market. While the shore towns engaged in fisheries, Abington probably furnished meats, flax, masts, limber, and various other products of agriculture for their consumption. September 4, 1774. The town voted that no flax-seed should be sold to any person whatsoever, to go to sea, without approbation of the Continental Congress or of General Court of this Colony.
While the manufactures of Abington have wonder- fully increased, its agricultural products have propor- tionately decreased. In 1845, there were kept in town four hundred and forty swine, ten years later only one hundred and fifty-four. The decrease in the product of Indian corn alone, from 1845 to 1850, was more than three hundred bushels. That of wheat, barley, oats, and rye, in proportion. In 1816, Abington was distinguished as the leading town in the county for fresh beef, mutton, &c. In 1850, there were in town, eighty oxen ; ten years later only sixty, and only two sheep .* This decrease in agricultural products is the
* This statement with regard to sheep, taken from Bigelow's Statistics compiled from valuation returns, I learn is erroneous. There have never been in town so few sheep, though the number is very small.
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more to be regretted as the arable lands of Abington are generally strong and productive, so strong and so productive that in 1845 there were raised of potatoes, in this town, 24,509 bushels. Another reason, prob- ably, why manufactures were not more extensively established here in early years, is found in the great elevation of the town, and the consequent shallowness of the water-courses, so that there was no water-power to tempt the establishment of mills, save that which was carly improved for corn and saw-mills. The whole number of acres of land in Abington was found by actual survey in 1860 to be 16,106 acres, of which upwards of 1,300 acres are covered with wood and water.
When we look abroad over the villages which rise to-day in every section of this town, and look into the public schools, and see there the seventeen hundred children between the ages of five and fifteen, and who with mottoed banners are so beautifully represented here to-day, observe the numerous temples where a majority of them, we would hope, are instructed from the pulpit and in the Sabbath schools ; when we count the numerous habitations where they dwell, many of them elegant and expensive structures; when we survey the lovely cemeteries set apart and consecrated for the repose of the departed, and listen to the hum
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of industry which pervades all portions of the town and which reveals the medium of all this wealth and prosperity, we find it difficult to go back even in imagination, to that distant period when the Massa- keesets roamed through the haunts of nature here, and claimed the privilege of hunting the moose, the deer and the bear in these wilds, and fishing for troutlets in these streams ; when the Indian paddled his light canoe along this unfettered stream, and heard only the growl of the bear, the howl of the wolf and the screaming of the eagle. Then Wampatuck, the son of Chickatabut, claimed dominion here, as the Sachem of his tribe, and the smoke of the wigwam may have risen from the very spot where we are assembled. It is difficult, I say, amid all this progress of civilized life, to go back to the period when the primal trees stood here an unbroken forest, covered with the moss of centuries, and conceive of the red man employing all his sagacity and skill in hunting the bear, and entrapping the beaver, just as his tawny predecessors had done ages before him. Yet more than a century after the Mayflower discharged her precious cargo on Plymouth Rock, and fourteen years after the incorporation of this town, I find a record which states that on application of Scituate and eight families of Abington to be set off to that town, the
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inhabitants of this town in their dissent, give the following reasons : First, that there were but fifty-three families in town, five of whom were lately married and lived under the roofs of others, six of them were widows, and of the rest, some of them were so poor that they were not rated, but had need of support from the town ; and Second, that only the easterly part of the town was then fit for settlement.
At this time, 1726, Abington was altogether the poorest town in Plymouth County. In the list of the Province taxes for that year, the tax of Abington was only £35 4s 8d, while that of Seitnate (then including Hanover) was £317 Gs. At that period there was not a town in the whole county which was not taxed con- siderably more than twice as much as Abington. In 1751, twenty-five years later, out of fourteen towns in the county, Abington was the ninth in point of wealth. In 1800, Abington was the eighth town ; in 1830, the sixth ; in 1851, the fourth ; and in 1861, the valuation of Abington by the State, greatly exceeded that of any other town in the county; and while the whole State taxes of Scituate, South Scituate and Hanover were only $5,958, those of Abington alone were $7,578. (Appendix, C.)
When I call to mind these feeble beginnings and then look upon the thrift and prosperity of my native
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town to-day, embracing a population of near cight thousand six hundred souls, I am tempted to exclaim, behold, what hath God wrought !
In looking over the record of men who have held prominent positions in the town in former years, I find the names of many, whose descendants are still with you. Conspicnous among them stands the name of Woodbridge Brown, the son of the first minister of the town .* Beside's filling the office of Town Clerk, and various other town offices, he represented the town in General Court for a period of sixteen years-begin- ning with the May and June session, 1759, and ending in 1777. Hle was a staunch foe to oppression, and a worthy and valuable member of society. In the House of Representatives he made his influence felt. Ile was a prominent politician of that day, and is men- tioned by name in Hutchinson's History of Massachu- setts.t as one of the most active and zealous members of the House of Representatives, in opposition to the measures of the British Parliament. He was a dele- gate to the Convention in Boston in 1768, to the first Provincial Congress in Salem in 1774, and to the second at Cambridge in the year following. One of
* WOODBRIDGE BROWN, son of Rev. Samuel and Dorothy, was born Sept. 28, 1714. Besides his civil honors, he attained the military title of captain.
t Vol. 3. page 335. Note.
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his great grandsons, Hon. Jared Whitman, is with us to-day. Dr. David Jones was also a prominent man in town at this period. He was a delegate to the third Provincial Congress at Watertown in 1775, to the Convention at Concord in 1779, and also at Cambridge in the autumn of the same year, to form a Constitution for the State. Col. Aaron Hobart, whose son is also with us to-day, was likewise a distinguished citizen ; he represented the town in General Court from 1793 to 1806, inclusive. Of his grandsons, Elihn was a prominent pioneer in the tack manufactures in this town, and Hon. Aaron, of East Bridgewater, was at one time a representative in Congress, afterwards a Judge of Probate for the County of Plymouth, and author of a Historical Sketch of Abington. William Reed, Town Clerk of Abington for the first six years, and after- wards employed in various offices, appears to have been a prominent and valuable citizen. He is repre- sented here to-day by numerous descendants, and among them by the Chairman of the Selectmen of Abington, and in the person of the Auditor of the State, Hon. Lovi Reed, President of the Day. But I may not pursue this history. The famous Abington Resolves of 1770, full of determined and patriotic zeal, were highly honorable to the town and attracted great attention as noble resolves, both in this country and in
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