History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 13

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1818

USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 13

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Ebenezer W. Peirce was educated in the common schools of his native town, Peirce Academy, Middle- borough, Mass., Bacon Academy, Colchester, Conn., and Durham Academy, at Durham, N. H. He has been elected to the town offices of selectman, overseer of the poor, assessor, treasurer, collector, and school committee, and appointed to the county offices of trial justice, coroner, notary public, commissioner to qualify civil officers, publie administrator, and prover of fire- arms, and from the President of the United States received the appointment of collector of internal rev- enue for the First Congressional District of Massa- chusetts. In the local militia of Massachusetts he has held the commissions of lieutenant, captain, major, lieutenant-colonel, and brigadier-general, and in the army in late war of great Rebellion the commission of colonel.

He commanded a regiment in Virginia, a brigade

HISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, and for a short time a division in Tennessee. His right arm was, by a cannon-ball, shot off near the shoulder on the 30th of June, 1862, of which wound he was off duty only thirty days, and participated in another battle in less than two months. He was before and during the late war largely engaged in sheep hus- bandry and raising of wool, and while he had on hand a very large quantity the prices of wool went up from twenty-eight cents to one dollar and eighteen cents per pound, and dropped almost as much imme- diately after he had sold out, for, said he, "while most people advised me to sell I would not dispose of a pound, but as soon as almost every body advised me to hold on I made haste to sell the whole and did not get rid of it a moment too soon." From youth he has given much time and attention to the reading of the Bible, making it for several years the rule of his life to read it through every twelve months, and is yet a thoroughly confirmed materialist, in whose mind reason takes the place of revelation and science has demolished superstition. Since the war he has written considerable for newspapers and became the author of several books upon local history, biography, and genealogy.

Although having attained to more than threescore years and suffered the hardships incident to nearly four years' service in the late war, more than two years of which were performed after the loss of his right arm, he still enjoys almost unimpaired health, and is practically a comparatively young man, all of which he ascribes to a naturally strong constitution, abstemious habits, ever totally ignoring tobacco and all forms of gambling, and that he has, during the most of his life, not allowed himself to be incumbered with the burdens, sources, and anxious care of more than one world at a time.

The Thirty-eighth Regiment was mustered into the service Aug. 24, 1862, and was mustered out June 30, 1865. One company of the regiment (H) was re- cruited in the southeastern part of the county, princi- pally from New Bedford, Dartmouth, and Westport. The regiment participated in the following engage- ments : Cane River, Mansura, Port Hudson, Opequan, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek.

The Thirty-ninth Regiment was mustered into the United States service Sept. 4, 1862, and was mus- tered out June 2, 1865. There was one company in this regiment from Bristol County, Company F from Taunton. The Thirty-ninth participated in the following engagements : Mine Run, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Tolopotomy, Bethesda Church, Petersburg, Weldon Railroad, Dabney's Mills, Gravelly Run, and Five Forks.

The Fortieth Regiment had one company from this county, chiefly from Attleborougli, Company H. The regiment was mustered into the service Sept. 5, 1862, and was mustered out June 16, 1865.

It participated in the following engagements : En-

gagements on the Blackwater, bombardments of Forts Sumter and Wagner, siege of Charleston, Olustee, Cedar Creek, Ten-Mile Run, Jacksonville, Drury's Bluff, Cold Harbor, Fort Harrison, Fair Oaks, and the several battles before Petersburg and Richmond. This was one of the best regiments in the service.

The Forty-seventh Regiment (nine months) was recruited chiefly by Lucius B. Marsh, of Boston. Com- pany C, Capt. L. T. Starkey, was from Attleborough, and Company D, Capt. A. S. Cushman, was from New Bedford. The regiment left Boston Nov. 29, 1862, and proceeded to New York, where it remained until December 21st, when it sailed for New Orleans, ar- riving there on the 31st, and on the following day pro- ceeded to Carrollton, and January 2d went into camp. The regiment remained in the defenses of New Or- leans during its term of service, its loss being twenty by death. It was mustered out at Readville, Sept. 1, 1863.

The Fifty-eighth Regiment was recruited at Read- ville, and left for the front April 28, 1864, under com- mand of Lieut .- Col. John C. Whiton. There were several companies from Bristol County in this regi- ment. The regiment joined the Army of the Poto- mac only a few days previous to the advance towards Richmond, and suffered severely in officers and men.

CAPT. FRANKLYN HOWLAND is a descendant of Henry Howland, who was in Plymouth Colony as early as 1624. It is supposed that John Howland, of the "Mayflower," and Henry were brothers. The de- scent comes from Henry1 through Zoeth2, Nathaniel3, James4, Thomas5, Thomas6, William™, Stephens, and Franklyn". Zoeth's sons, Nathaniel, Benjamin, Henry, and Nicholas, were among the original proprietors and settlers of old Dartmouth. They were sturdy, well to do, highly-respected men. The Howlands of this part of Bristol County all trace their descent from three brothers. Franklyn's grandfather, Wil- liam, above mentioned, married Innocent Wilber, of Little Compton, R. I., where he settled, and was fre- quently honored with public office. Innocent was a | daughter of William Wilbor, who was born in Eng- land in 1580, and whose son Samuel was one of the original proprietors of the island of Rhode Island. Her nephew, Philip Wilbor, was formerly Governor of that State. Her cousin, Jobn Wilbor, was leader of the " Wilborite" faction of Friends. His father Stephen married Lucy P., daughter of Rev. Israel Washburn, a descendant of John Washburn, who was a resident of Evansham, county of Worcester, England, Secretary of the Council of Plymouth in England, and the first secretary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in America. He subsequently moved with the Plymouth Colony, and was one of the original proprietors of Bridgewater, the descent being John1, John2, James3, Moses4, Moses5, Jr., Lettice6, Israel™. Rev. Israel Washburn was born in Acushnet, 24th 10th month, 1796. At an early age he took orders in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and continued in the

Afranklyn Howland.

MILITARY HISTORY.

itinerancy most of the time till he died. His last ap- pointment by the Conference was to the Methodist Episcopal Church in Acushnet village, but he did not live to move to it.

He was an earnest advocate of all moral reforms, especially of total abstinence and anti-slavery, being classed with the Garrison abolitionists. He was for many years a resident of Acushnet. In 1862, then seventy-two years of age, he offered his services to the government, and . was made chaplain of the Twelfth Massachusetts Volunteers September 1st of that year. At the battle of Antietam he contracted a disease of which he died April 23, 1864. His son, Capt. A. Gardiner Washburn, a former resident of Acushnet, a graduate of Brown University and the Albany Law School, subsequently a newspaper editor, also died of disease contracted in the service. A re- markable incident of record is that Moses, Jr., was in the Revolutionary war; his son Lettice in the Revolution and war of 1812; his grandson Israel, his great-grandson A. Gardiner, and his great-great- grandson Franklyn in the last war. A United States pension was granted on account of the last four, and the last three held the same rank.

Capt. Howland was born in Little Compton, R. I., but became a resident of Westport, Mass., the follow- ing year. His opportunities for an education were exceedingly limited. With the exception of six months, his studies were pursued in a mixed country school, " much of the time," he says, "in a honse where daylight could be seen through the roof, and high winds would come through cracks in the walls with sufficient force to turn the leaves of a book." He was in school but twelve months after his four- teenth birthday. Since then, however, he has allowed no opportunity to pass to acquire by close observation, by careful reading, and by intercourse with intelli- gent minds that practical information which has given him mental power and success.

At sixteen years of age he entered the employment of an importing house in New York City, and con- tinued there till the outbreak of the Rebellion. Pass- ing down town on the evening of the 19th of April, 1861, he saw bulletined on the newspaper boards the exciting news of the attack on the Sixth Massachu- setts Volunteers in the streets of Baltimore. The in- herited patriotism, which had been by no means dormant, now reached a white-heat. He enrolled himself at once, being only eighteen years of age, as a private in the Fourteenth New York State Militia, of Brooklyn, where he resided. The regiment was soon ordered to the front. It passed through Balti- more very soon, and was quartered at Washington in the Senate chamber of the capitol. He was in the first battle of Bull Run, when the newspapers re- ported him killed, but he received only a flesh-wound. After a year's service in the Army of the Potomac (where he received his first commission), he was as- signed to duty in the Department of the South with

the Ninth Army Corps. A part of the time spent there he was on staff duty as assistant provost-mar- shal. During his service he was a prisoner of war nearly a year continuously. This time was about equally divided between Libby and Salisbury prison pens, under Winder and Wirz, and New Orleans. The hardships and privations endured here resulted in a sickness which nearly proved fatal, and left him with a partially paralyzed condition of the spinal cord. Since this event he has not stepped without assistance, and requires a constant attendant. Here- signed in April, 1864, having been in service three years on the 19th of that month.

Though totally incapacitated from manual labor, his vigorous mind seeks employment. He edits the agricultural department of the New Bedford Standard, and has since the incorporation of that department in this enterprising paper, January, 1876, which de- partment he suggested to the publishers. He has been president of the South Bristol Farmers' Club, a flourishing agricultural organization, since it was in- stituted. His boyhood was passed on a large farm. Since the war he has been a close observer of agri- cultural and horticultural pursuits, and for the past ten years a farm on which he resides, situated on the Fairhaven road, in the town of Acushnet, has been cultivated under his immediate supervision. He is actively interested in the anti-liquor and Sunday- school canses, is president of the Acushnet and vice- president of the Bristol County Sunday-School Asso- ciations. He is now engaged in preparing for the press a genealogy of the Howland family, and is working up a complete history of Methodism within the boundaries of old Dartmouth. The use of a pen being extremely difficult, and at times impossible, much of his writing is done by an amanuensis.

He studied two years for the medical profession, but not recovering, as he had hoped, he abandoned it. He has no aspirations for political office, but was on the board of school committee of Westport for two years, and was a candidate of the anti-license faction of the Republican party of Westport in 1869, when five of his competitors' votes would have secured his election at the polls. He was a justice of the peace for a number of years.

Capt. Howland married Emma H., daughter of Capt. James H. and Emily G. Hallett, of Barnstable, Mass. Her father was a master-mariner. They have had three children,-Grace (deceased), Le Roy, and Max. Capt. Howland is a man of pleasing address and winning magnetism. He is often called upon to address various bodies and public assemblies, and has an earnest, convincing oratory, not unmixed with humor and wit, which always serves to drive home a point. As a writer, he is graphic and concise, evincing a thorough knowledge of the subject in hand. Labor- ing under disadvantages which would appall many able men, his perseverance and will cause him to ac- complish more actual labor than many men of per-

HISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

fect health. He is a representative man, and remark- able in many respects.

Our military history is closed. We have faithfully traced the history of the various regiments, and it has been our honest endeavor to place before the people of Bristol County a truthful record of her gal- lant sons who risked their lives in the defense of their country. We have sought to deal justly with all, and give deserving credit to each and every regiment.

While the history is a record of many of the severest battles of the war, it is not in any particular over- drawn; it is a "plain, unvarnished tale." It has been impossible to sketch many individual acts of heroism, but these were not wanting.

Bristol County may justly feel proud of her sol- diery, as no section of our country acted a more prominent or honorable rôle in the great tragedy.

Eighteen years have now elapsed since the close of the Rebellion, and we find our country a united and prosperous people. Sectional strife is rapidly passing away, and the same hand strews flowers alike on the graves of the Blue and the Gray.

"No more shall the war-cry sever, Or the winding rivers be red ; They banish our anger forever When they laurel the graves of our dead. Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment-day ; Love and tears for the Blue, Tears and love for the Gray."

CHAPTER VI.1

NEW BEDFORD.

Geographical-Topographical-First Record Reference to Old Dart- mouth-Early Settlement-Indian Deed-Wasamequen and Wam- sutta to William Bradford and others-Incorporation of the Town- The First Representative-Other Early Representatives-The Rus- sells-King Philip's War.

NEW BEDFORD lies in the southern part of the county, and is bounded as follows : On the north by Freetown ; on the east by Acushnet River, which separates it from Acushnet and Fairhaven; on the sonth by Buzzard's Bay; and on the west by Dart- mouth. The surface of the town is generally level and the soil fertile.

The first reference found in the Plymouth Colony records in relation to the territory of Dartmouth is under date of Dec. 1, 1640, twenty years after the arrival of the " Mayflower." By an order of the Gen- eral Court of March, 1639, it was agreed that the purchasers or " old-comers" should make choice of two or three plantations for themselves and their heirs by the December court. When the time came it was

found that the choice had been made, and the returns of the three tracts selected were made and recorded. All the selections were upon the coast.

The following description of the tract called "The Second Place," taken in connection with the language of the conveyance afterwards made by the Indian chiefs Wasamequin and Wamsutta, indicates with sufficient acenracy that it was intended to describe the territory that twenty-four years afterwards con- stituted the town of Dartmouth. The language and orthography of the records are given.

"The second place of a place called Acconquesse als Acokers, wch lyeth in the bottom of the bay, ad- joining to the west side of Poqnt Perrill, and two miles to the western side of the said river, to another place, called Acqussent River, wch entreth at the west- ern end of Nickatag, and two miles to the eastward thereof, and to extend eight miles into the country."

By this allotment of territory no title was acquired. It was owned by the Indians and occupied by them.

Early Settlement of Dartmouth .- Dartmouth was one of the last towns of the Plymouth Colony incorporated. The first record which we have of it is dated two hundred and twenty-nine years ago, thirty-four years after the landing on Plymouth Rock. On the 29th of November, 1654, a conveyance was made by Wasamequin, an Indian chief, and Wam- sutta, his son, of the territory now comprising the towns of Westport, Dartmouth, New Bedford, Fair- haven, and Acushnet to William Bradford, Capt. Standish, Thomas Southworth, John Winslow, John Cook, and their associates, the purchasers, as " old- comers." The tract conveyed is thus described : " A tract of land known by the name of Accushend, alias Aquset, entering in at the western end of Nakata, and to the now Cookset, alias Ackees, and places adjacent, the bounds of which tract fully extend through miles to the eastward of the most easterly part of the river or bay Accushenak aforesaid, and so along the seaside to the river called Cookset, lying on the west side of Point Perril, and to the most westermost side of any branch of the aforesaid river, and extending eight miles into the woods, with all marshes, meadows, rivers, waters, woods, and appurtenances thereto be- longing."

For this large tract Wasamequen and Wamsntta received thirty yards of cloth, eight moose-skins, fif- teen axes, fifteen hoes, fifteen pairs of breeches, eight blankets, two kettles, one cloak, two pounds of wam- pum, eight pairs of stockings, eight pairs of shoes, one tin pot, and ten shillings in other commodities, which phrase being interpreted probably meant rum and tobacco. The grantors, father and son, agree within one year to remove all the Indians from the tract. This condition certainly was not complied with, and it may be inferred from the fact that the Indians were not removed from this favorite portion of their territory that the two chiefs who for this beg- garly inventory of breeches, blankets, and other com-

1 For the greater portion of this and the following chapler the editor is largely indebted to the unpublished manuscript of the late James B. Congdon.

NEW BEDFORD.

modities undertook to barter away the hunting- grounds of the tribe had as little authority to make the transfer as they had power to enforce the cruel stipulation that provided for the banishment of the rightful owners of the soil.1 Previous to this date there were no doubt some settlers upon this territory.

As early as 1650, Ralph Russell came to Dartmouth, and in company with Anthony Sloeum, his companion into the wilderness, established an iron-works at Rus- sell's Mills. They were from the neighboring settle- ment of Taunton.

To the Russells is due the honor of having been the founders of this community, and from that early day, over one hundred and thirty years ago, there has been no time in the annals of the old mother-town of Dartmouth or of the vigorous branches of the parent tree when the name of Russell was not borne by many here whose enterprise and perseverance proved them worthy descendants of him who pitched his tent in the wilderness, and, surrounded by the wondering and it may be hostile sons of the soil, caused the stillness of the forest for the first time to be broken by the clangor of water-driven machinery.

In 1664, Dartmouth was incorporated, and John Russell, the first representative sent by the inhabitants to the General Court at Plymouth, took his seat among the rulers of the people the next year.

John Cook seems to have been the only person named among the grantees of the territory who be- came an inhabitant of the town. His house was situated at the opposite extremity of the settlement, near what is now called the Head of the River. The second year he took Russell's place as representative at the headquarters of the Old Colony, and from that

1 The following is a copy of this deed :

" NEW PLYMOUTH, November the 29th, 1652.

" Know all men by these presents, that I, Wesamequen, and Wam- sutta, my son, have sold unto Mr. William Bradford, Captain Standish, Thomas Southworth, John Winslow, John Cooke, and their associates, the purchasers or old-comers, all the tract or tracts of land lying three miles east ward from a river called Cushenagg, to a certain harbour called Acoaksett, to a flat rock on the westward side of the said harbour. And whereas the said harbour divideth itself into several branches, tho west- ernmost arme to be the bound, and all the tract or tracts of land from the said Westernmost arme to the said river of Cushenagg, three miles eastward of the same, with all the profits and benefits within the said tract, with all the rivers, creeks, meadows, necks, and islands that lye in or before the same, and from the sea upward to go so high that the English may not be annoyed by the hunting of the Indians in any sort of their cattle. And I, Wesamequen, and Wamsutta, do promise to re- move all the Indians within a year from the date hereof that do livo in the said tract. And we, the said Wesamequen and Wamsntta, have fully bargained and sold nnto the aforesaid Mr. William Bradford, Captain Standish, Thomas Southworth, John Winslow, John Cooke, and the rest of their associates, the purchasers or old-comers, to have and to hold for them and their heirs and assigns forever. And in consideration hereof, we the above-mentioned are to pay to the said Wesamequen and Wam- sutta as followeth: thirty yards of cloth, eight moose-skins, fifteen axes, fifteen hoes, fifteen pair of breeches, eight blankets, two kettles, one cloak, £2 in wampan, eight pair stockings, eight pair of shoes, onc iron pot, and ten shillings in another commoditie. And in witness hereof we have inter- changeably set to our hands the day and year above written.

" In presence of

" JONATHAN SHAW,

" SAMUEL EDDY, 4

" JOHN WINSLOW,

" JOHN COOK,

" WAMSUTTA. His MM mark."

time to the year 1674, when Indian hostility leveled every habitation and drove every white inhabitant from the territory, the two Johns, situated at the ter- mini of a line drawn diagonally across the town, con- tinued to discharge the duties of attending to the in- terests of the good people of Dartmouth in the councils of the colony.

Burdensome, doubtless, to these distant settlers was the task of attending to the affairs of state at Plymouth, and it was found necessary in those good old times to impose upon any person chosen to the office of Governor who should refuse to accept the same a fine of twenty pounds. It may be with pro- priety supposed that the office of member of the Gen- eral Court was not sought after with much eagerness.

These hardy pioneers in the wilderness well knew that although legislation was a very good thing in its place and not to be neglected, it was no substitute for the axe and the plow, the forge and the anvil, in the great work of preparing the land to become a com- fortable and pleasant habitation.

In the periods which intervened between the incor- poration of the town and its destruction by the natives, eleven years, John Russell was five years and John Cook six years the town's delegate to the court.

For about three years there is a blank in the politi- cal annals of Dartmouth. A year or two after the close of the war with Metacom the old town again comes upon the stage, and the reappearance of Rus- sell and Cook in their old places in the court-house at Plymouth conveys the double information of the re-settlement of the territory and the continued popu- larity of the men who had shared between them all the honor of representing the people.

It was in 1679 that Dartmouth had so far recovered from the devastation of the war as to be called upon to send a delegate to Plymouth. Cook was that year sent, and continued to occupy the post until 1682, when Russell was again elected. The next two years Cook sustains the burden, and then for the first time a new name is found upon the records of the Supreme Council as furnishing the Dartmouth quota of the assembled wisdom.

For one year, 1685, Joseph Tripp was the represen- tative to the General Court. Russell does not again appear as a public man.

John Russell, who with his father, Ralph Russell, and Anthony Slocum, operated the iron forge at Rus- sell's Mills, and whose death occurred in 1694, did not reside within the limits of the present city. His son Joseph was born in 1650, and during the war lived at the Apponagansett garrison, where his twin sons Joseph and John were born Nov. 22, 1679. He moved from the Apponagansett River to the Acushnet prior to 1711, and resided at what is now the corner of County and South Streets. Joseph Russell, born at the garrison, afterwards resided at what is now the corner of County and Bush Streets, where in my boy- hood stood the "little school-house," in whose yard

HISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

was the well used by this early settler. The title of the lands of the Russells was confirmed by Her Majes- ty's (Queen Anne's) justices of the Court of Quarter Sessions for the county of Bristol, May 25, 1711. The survey had been made by Benjamin Crane, who, under the "eight hundred acre division," established the original boundaries.

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History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 13

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co. Number of Pages: 1818

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) ed
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Co.
Number of Pages: 1818