USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Dedham > Dedham tercentenary 1636-1936 > Part 2
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Upon my return to America, I had the very great pleasure of visiting Cotton Mather Hall, where it was customary for young Cotton Mather to preach in the early puritan days, and where he later had been incarcerated for giving expression to his religious views. A righteous man he was, of sterling character, firm in his convictions and religious beliefs, and it is the puritan women and men of similar strength and zeal who gave to their posterity the will to carry on with their beliefs and views at whatever cost. The fact that every city and town in Massachusetts is paying tribute to the memory of these women and men through whose faith, fidelity, purity and indomitable courage the Massachusetts Bay Colony became a reality, is in my opinion the best test of our right to the best and highest title ever conferred on men-the title of AMER- ICAN CITIZEN.
If we could live just a little more in what is best of the past, and disregard the weaknesses that are common to humanity, but which historians and biographers, in order to sell their output, always retain in the autobiography, the biography, or in the history whenever it may be written, how much finer we could be, for certainly every heritage left to us by our forefathers was of a most capable nature. They gave to us a faith and a fortitude without which in all human probability the American Republic even might not have become a reality, or the blessings of Liberty might have been long delayed. They not only gave this to us, but they gave us the means of keeping it alive. Yes, they gave to us a faith, and it was a faith that the world is sadly in need of in the present hour. It was the character of faith that is a predominant characteristic of generations of a democratic people; faith that recognizes the necessity for belief in
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and the love of God, faith in God, faith in one's country, faith in one's self-and with- out that faith, probably, the Massachusetts Bay Colony venture would have been a failure.
I had the very great pleasure a short time ago, in connection with an Act adopted by the Massachusetts Legislature, to sign an order for the revocation of the Act ban- ishing Roger Williams from Massachusetts forever. I confess I found it rather difficult to understand why that edict had been allowed to remain on the statute books of Mas- sachusetts for 300 years, in view of the fact that the only wrong thing Roger did. as far as I could see, was to give a glass of water to Ann Hutchinson when Ann had been put in stocks in the public square because of her religious activities and expressions. We have done our penance, and should Roger through some act of Providence ever return to Rhode Island again, he can also come into Massachusetts without fear of incarcera- tion either in the Dedham Jail or elsewhere. It gives us some idea of the little things we permit to become of importance, either in the life of the individual or the Common- wealth.
I attended all the exercises of Harvard University within the last week, attended them with students from all over the world, who came to pay tribute to the leading university of its kind in America, and possibly in the world, and here I learned that while the Boston Latin School was established one year prior to the establishment of Harvard University, first free public education can be traced to the establishment of Harvard University, and Harvard itself might never have continued in existence were it not for the generosity of our Legislature in Massachusetts and the generosity of women and men comprising the population of the cities and towns of Massachusetts who also realized that the most important essential to the establishment and maintenance of democratic government was a higher love than that which they had for their fellow man. And so, we may trace not only our educational system, but in some measure the establishment of religious liberty to the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the blessings of both ultimately being passed on down through the years to these United States.
Certainly, anyone familiar with the history of our country during that trying period of the American Revolution, realizes that in those days of 1774, 1775, and 1776 when our forefathers had their important decisions to make and battles to fight, it must have required the sublimest character of faith to throw down the guage of battle and challenge one of the most powerful nations of the world, and for a time be strangers to the very word "Contentment." Such an undertaking, they realized, would only be possible through the capture of the ships of the enemy country and their arms or ammunition. That our forefathers carried on for eight years in the face of many hard- ships and obstacles, may be traced back to the primary source of pioneering implanted in their hearts; the source of faith-faith in God, faith in their fellow man, and faith in themselves.
What an interesting period has passed over this nation of ours during the 300 years since Dedham was settled. What a kaleidoscope of events without number-pestilence, famine, war-and perhaps in the present hour it is the faith of the fathers that founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony that may be the one essential to our salvation in these unsettled days when we live in a world where apparently the most popular form of work is disregarding the Maker of the Universe and forcing him out of the lives of the people. The result is that today the spirit of communism and the spirit of atheism prevail.
Thanks to those who established the Massachusetts Bay Colony-I was going to say our Puritan ancestors (they were just a little ahead of mine) - thanks to those men and women who brought us through many years along a rough but safe course to the pursuance of free government and the enjoyment of liberty by the people of the Commonwealth, they left to us an heritage which we in our day are permitted to enjoy -- the heritage of a faith that knows no fear-a faith sufficiently strong to over- come all obstacles-the faith of our fathers.
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CONTENTMENT AND COMMUNITY SPIRIT
ADDRESS DELIVERED A T
THE TERCENTENARY OF THE TOWN OF DEDHAM
ON SEPTEMBER 20, 1936
by Charles Warren
(HON. CHARLES WARREN INTRODUCTION) (By Dr. Arthur M. Worthington)
And now, we look forward with the greatest pleasure to hearing from a fellow towusman, who like myself, has watched the river flow under the bridge, and dreamed dreams here in his boyhood. He can never forget Dedham, and Dedham can never for- get him. We are glad to do him the honor of delivering the principal address on this memorable occasion. And now I present to you, for a renewal of acquaintance -- the Honorable Charles Warren, of Dedham and Washington.
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Charles Warren PRINCIPAL SPEAKER AT TERCENTENARY EXERCISES
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CONTENTMENT AND COMMUNITY SPIRIT
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By
CHARLES WARREN
Twenty-two years before the founding of Dedham, Captain John Smith, visiting the eastern shores of Massachusetts in 1614, wrote: "And of all the fair parts of the world that I have yet seen, not inhabited . .. I would rather live here than anywhere." and John Winthrop wrote from Charlestown in 1630 (July 23 ) : "Here is as good land as I have seen there. . . . Here is sweet air, fair rivers and plenty of springs, and the water better than anything in England." Two years before Dedham, William Wood wrote in 1634 as to the Massachusetts Bay Colony: "It is for certain the best ground and sweetest climate in all these parts." Such undoubtedly were the sentiments felt by that hardy band of pioneers who struck out from Watertown and crossed the Charles River to fix their settlement here on the edge of the wilderness and upon the pleasant plateau which they named Contentment-three hundred years ago. And such, I feel sure, are the sentiments of all of us who gather here today.
Three hundred years! Do we realize what that period of time is? It is nearly one sixth of all the years that have elapsed since the birth of Christ. It is equal to the whole period of the might of the Roman Empire from Caesar Augustus to Constantine the Great. It is exactly twice as long as the life of the United States of America.
In the moving picture of history we can best conceive the far-off place of the pioneers of three hundred years ago, by considering them in relation to the world then around them. Most of Dedham's pioneers were alive when Queen Elizabeth died (in 1603 ) and when the King James' version of the Bible was first issued (in 1611). All of Dedham's pioneers could remember the death of Shakespeare. John Milton was only twenty-eight years old in 1636, and two of Dedham's pioneers attended Cambridge University with him-Thomas Carter, and Ralph Wheelock, our first schoolmaster. (1)* In the world of art, Dedham's pioneers were contemporary with Rembrandt and Murillo; in the world of music, they antedated the birth of Bach and Handel by half a century. All modern science and modern invention have come into being since 1636. The Dedham pioneers had not heard of the law of gravitation, for Sir Isaac Newton did not ascertain it until 1687. They had just been informed that the earth moved around the sun, but they did not yet believe it. William Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood in 1628 was not then accepted by the world. Chemistry, as we know it, did not take its start until Robert Boyle's book in 1662.
Such was the world in which our ancestors moved, three hundred years ago.
Does any man or woman of this town need to go to Europe to find the romance of age and historic association? Look around your home Town and recall its antiquity. Dedham's Town government is older than the government of any State in Europe (save Great Britain). The written Town records of Dedham embodying the liberties of its citizens are older than the written Bill of Rights which established the liberties of Brit- ish citizens. Dedham's Town-meeting is one hundred and thirty three years older than the first public meeting ever assembled in England at which political rights of English- men were discussed. (2) The Fairbanks House is older than the Palace of Versailles.
· The Notes are collected at the end of the Address.
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The Fisher-Whiting house is older than St. Paul's Cathedral. The Unitarian Church building is older than Buckingham Palace. The Powder House is about the same age as the British Museum. Court Street and High Street are older than the famous London Streets of Piccadilly and Pall Mall. A French Army camped in Dedham (on the land mainly between School, Marsh, an Court Streets) in 1782, thirty two years before it camped on the field of Waterloo. The trees in front of the Community House (1789) and those at the corner of School and Court Streets (1790) were planted when Washing- ton was President of the United States and George the Third was King of England. Trees on Chestnut and Court Streets date back of Dedham's 200th Anniversary in 1836. (3)
What is regarded as one of the most ancient of British institutions? Is it not the House of Lords? Yet the Dedham descendants of Gay, Kingsbury, Fisher, Everett, Dwight, and Fairbanks and of so many other pioneer names, familiar to us all, can trace their title back further than most of the present high peers of Great Britain; for only two of the existing Dukedoms and only four of the 150 Earldoms were created prior to 1636.
Of Dedham's early history, I shall treat but briefly, as it has been fully and admir- ably dealt with in previous Addresses; but three points it may be of interest to dwell upon: first, how our Town happened to be settled here; second, what were its original boundaries; and third, how it received its name.
I.
How did the town happen to be settled here? Before 1630, while no white man had traveled or settled in the interior of Massachusetts, the coast was rather well known; as, from the year 1602 (when Captain Bartholomew Gosnold landed on Cape Cod), it had been explored by Captain Martin Pring, by De Champlain, by De Poutrincourt, by Captain John Smith, By Hendrik Hudson, by George Popham, by Captain Robert Dermer, and by the Pilgrim settlers at Plymouth. Moreover, between 1610 and 1628, scattered settlements had been made at the mouth of the Penobscot, the Kennebec, and the Piscataqua Rivers, on Monhegan Island, and at Cape Ann, Salem, Nantasket, Winni- simmet (now Chelsea), Shawmut (now Boston), Noddles Island (now East Boston), Thompson's Island, Mount Wollaston (now Quincy), Weymouth, and Plymouth. In addition, the coast was frequently visited by fishing vessels (Captain Smith reporting fifty in 1623). Therefore, when the colonists of the Massachusetts Bay Colony landed at Salem and Charlestown in 1629 and 1630, they did not come to an unknown country. And it was a peculiarly fortunate time and location that they chose. For, less than fifteen years before, a disastrous disease had swept away nearly nine-tenths of the Indian population in Eastern Maine and Massachusetts; the lands which the Indians had cleared and planted with corn for so many years were lying fallow and easy of cul- tivation by the white man; and while it is a popular impression that in those days the lands were covered with impenetrable forest, William Wood wrote, in 1634, in New England Prospect to the contrary, as follows:
"There is no under-wood save in swamps and low places, for it being the custom of the Indians to burn the woods in November when the grass is with- ered and the leaves dried, it consumes all the underwood and rubbish. . . . In the Spring, the grass grows rapidly on the burnt lands. . . . The woods are open and the forests penetrated without difficulty. The only obstruction were streams, hills and swamps. ... Owing to the destruction of many saplings by the annual burnings, valuable timber trees were not abondant. They grow
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in moist places and low water courses where the fires were less severe." Furthermore, Wood deemed the Boston surroundings particularly favorable, "as they are not troubled with three great annoyances, wolves, rattlesnakes, and musketoes." Under such conditions, all the early Massachusetts Bay Colony settlements clustered along the coast and the river mouths; and by 1636, there were about ten thousand inhabitants in the Colony. North of Boston, there were the towns of Newbury, Ipswich, Salem, Marblehead, Saugus (Lynn), Medford, Watertown, Newtowne (Cambridge), and Charlestown; to the south of Boston were Roxbury, Dorchester, Weymouth, and Hingham. Boston itself was a rather small peninsula ending at the Roxbury line, but possessing farm and grazing lands in what was known as "Muddy River," (the present Brookline) which lands extended southwesterly, nearly to the Charles River. Roxbury was only about two miles in width and also extended southwesterly to the Charles River. Newtowne (or Cambridge) had at first been compressed within very narrow limits about a mile in width north of the River, but in 1634 it had acquired territory to the south of the River, included in the present Brighton and most of the city of Newton. Watertown was first settled in 1630 on the River, at about the spot now covered by the James Russell Lowell place known as Elmwood and by Mount Auburn Cemetery now in the City of Cambridge; in addition, Watertown owned the lands which later became the towns of Weston, Waltham, and Belmont.
As a very considerable amount of land was needed by each pioneer family for graz- ing and for crops, the settlers at Watertown, Newtowne, Roxbury, and Dorchester very soon became dissatisfied with their boundaries. "Land, more land," has throughout our history been the cry of the American pioneer. News had come of rich lands on the Connecticut River which some of the Plymouth Colonists had been exploring. In 1633, John Oldham had followed the Indian trail west from Boston to that river; and the next year several other men going overland to examine that territory had brought back glowing accounts. (It is possible that the Indian Trail which they followed, later known as "The Bay Path," took them through a portion of Dedham now included in Natick. ) Accordingly, Newtowne men petitioned the General Court for leave to remove, com- plaining of "straightness for want of land, especially meadow," "their want of accom- modation for their cattle so as they were not able to maintain their minister and could not receive any more friends to help them," and also "as a fundamental error, that towns were set so near each to other"; and, as a final (and probably the real reason) "the strong bent of their spirits to remove thither," i. e., to Connecticut. Similarly, at the same time, the inhabitants of Watertown alleged that "there be too many inhabitants in the town and the town is thereby in danger to be ruinated." (4) Accordingly, the General Court, on May 6, 1635, finally recognized these conditions by ordering that: "There is liberty granted to the inhabitants of Watertown to remove themselves to any place they shall think meet to make choice of, provided they continue still under this government," and inhabitants of Newtowne, Dorchester and Roxbury, were allowed the same privilege. Acting under these orders, emigrants from these towns settled the towns of Hartford, Wethersfield, Windsor, and Springfield far away on the Connecticut River; and at the same time, Watertown men began two other emigrations into the interior of Massachu-
setts. These, the General Court recognized by two orders of September 3, 1635 --- one establishing the plantation named Concord, and the other, the plantation later known as Dedham as follows: "That there shall be a plantation settled about two myles above the falls of Charles River on the northeast syde thereof, to have ground lyeing to it on both sydes the ryver, both upland and meadows to be layde out hereafter as the Court shall appoynt" Under these orders, the first two frontier towns in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were settled. This first Dedham grant as laid out in detail, April 13, 1636, provided that:
"the bounds of the town shall run from the marked tree by Charles River on the northwest side of Roxbury bounds one mile and half northeast and from
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thence three miles northwest and so from thence five miles southwest and on the southwest side of Charles River from the southeast side of Roxbury bounds to run four miles on a southwest line, reserving the properties to several persons granted by special order of Court."
These boundaries would have given to the new town a portion of the present city of Newton about three by one and a half miles on the northeast side of the River where, by the order, the plantation was to be settled; and it would have also possessed, south of the river, land comprising about one half of the present area of Dedham, also about one half of Westwood, Dover, and the present Needham. (5) This limited area was unsat- isfactory to those Watertown men who had already explored the lands south of the River; and accordingly twenty-two of them, on September 5, 1636, asked for further territory as follows:
"May it please this Honoured Court to Ratifie unto your humble petitioners your grant formerly made of a Plantacion above the Falls that we may possesse all that Land which is left out of ail former grants upon that side of the Charles River. And upon the other side five miles square."
They asked the Court "to distinguish our Towne by the name of Contentment or other- wise what you shall please"; and the spirit of their petition was shown in its final para- graph:
(6) And lastly we intreate such other helps as your Wisdoms shall knowe best in favour to grante unto us for our well emproveing of what we ar thus en- trusted withall unto our particular but especially unto the genrall good of this whole weale publike in succeeding times."
At a session of the General Court begun September 8, 1636, the petition of the settlers was granted, on September 10 according to our Town Records as follows:
(1) That this Plantacion shall have 3 yeares Immunitie from publike charges.
(2) That our Towne shall beare the name of Dedham.
(3) All the rest of ye Peticion fully granted by a genrall voate freely and cheerefully wihout any exception at all whereupon this short Order was drawen up and recorded by ye Secretary, Mr. Bradstreete.
Ordered yt the Plantacion to be settled above Charles River shall have 3 yeares Immunitie from publike charges as Concord had to be accounted from the first of Maye next and the name of the said Plantacion is to be Dedham.
To enjoye all that Land on the Easterly and southerly side of Charles River not formerly Granted unto any Towne or particular person. And allso to have 5 miles square on ye other side of the River.
And our Town Records further state that:
This Draught: or Tract of our Plantacion being presented unto the Court Genrall after publishing of our Peticion. It pleased the said Court by a full consent to grante our said Towne of Dedham to extend every waye according to the same forme there in Delineated without any contradiction at all made of or concerning the same being viewed by the whole Courte.
It would appear from the above that a map or plan of the proposed Town was presented to the General Court -- the "draught or tract" and the "forme there in Delin- eated" --; but no trace of it is now extant.
And thus was founded our Town-the sixteenth in the Colony; and for their "good successe at the General Court," the petitioners entered in their records a "thanksgiving made unto God."
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Just when our pioneers actually came here is uncertain. Their early Town- meetings were held in Watertown on August 18, 29, September 5, 14, November 25, December 31, 1636 and January 28 and February 2, 1637. On August 18, 1636, when the only land they held was that given to them by the earlier grant of September 3, 1635, they began to make allotments of territory extending from the present Haven Street to East Street; and on September 14, 1636, a bridge was planned over Dwight's Brook (Little River). Building was begun on these lots before any general settlement was made here, as appears from the record of a meeting in Watertown, December 31, 1636:
Whereas certeyne of our Company are gone up to inhabite this winter at our Towne of Dedham, and that other materialls are not well to be had for the closeing in of their houses at such a season. .. . we doe therefore give liberty only for every such inhabitant abovesayd to make use of Clapboards to any parte of his house for his present necessety.
By March 23, 1637, however, the original settlers assembled in a Town-meeting held here; and at this first Town-meeting, the first regulation passed was: "That in ye great Iland under ye Rocke shall a yard be paled in for Swyne."
It is interesting to note the modest area assigned for lots to the original settlers- for married men, twelve acres of upland, an equal amount of meadow land, and five acres of swamp; for an unmarried man, eight acres of upland, an equal amount of meadow, and three acres of swamp. Compare with this, the fact that, two hundred years later, when American pioneers settled the West, they each preempted or bought usually from a quarter section to a full section, i.e., from 160 to 640 acres; and west of the Mississippi after 1862, they received under the Homestead Act 160 acres each. The total individual allotments of upland and meadow to all the original proprietors in Dedham did not exceed 1200 acres. These original proprietors and those who later became proprietors, however, held extensive additional rights in the common lands extending over the wide-flung area of the Town. (At first, new settlers in the Town received their share of the common lands, but after 1656, it was voted that no further rights in common lands should be granted to newly-admitted inhabitants. )
As to the manner in which the pioneers came here, it has been popular tradition that the first of them paddled up the River; but as there was then a road in existence from Watertown to the Upper Falls (in the present City of Newton), they probably came overland as far as the Falls. The only boats at that time were dugouts, each made from a single pine tree; and boats large enough to take the settlers would not have been carried around the Falls. But it is also probable that many of the settlers soon came overland all the way from Watertown; for there was then a road from that town to Roxbury and Boston, passing through the present Town Square of Brookline and along Huntington Avenue; and there was also a road from Boston to Jamaica Pond and thence to the Upper Falls (probably the present Center Street), which followed the old Indian Trail to Connecticut known as the "Bay Path." The difficulty of using the River was noted at the time, in a letter now extant from Rev. John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton to the General Court, March 12, 1638, in which they say that they had been "pressed with much importunity" to go to a place (undoubtedly Dedham) , but they objected that "a boat cannot pass from the bay thither nearer than 8 or 10 miles distance." (6) Samuel Foster Haven, in his Address at the 200th Anniversary, stated that the new settlement was "so near to Watertown and Roxbury as to admit of going backwards and forwards from one to the other in the same day." Certainly, they could not do this by boat. It is to be noted also that the General Court, on June 1, 1634, had made a grant of 300 acres to Samuel Dudley, located between the present Spring Street and our present Town east of Little River (Dwight's Brook), and there may have been access to it from Boston by land. It is probable, therefore, that, as I have said, many of the early settlers came overland from Watertown through the Muddy
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