History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 61

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 61

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The party of Norsemen, whom the Danish antiqua- ries supposed to have made the characters on Dighton Rock, came over to Vinland (so called from the

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Dighton Rock.

Etchings on Rocks in New-Mexico.

Runic Inscription in Greenland.

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abundance of grapes that grew wild there) in the year 1007. The leader's name was Thorfinn Karlsefuc, or Thorfinn the Hopeful. He left Greenland with three vessels and one hundred and sixty-one men, but the men in one vessel mutinied, and turned back to Greenland. Other parties of Norsemen had pre- viously visited Vinland, which Professor Rafu and his co-laborers supposed to be the region of country bor- dering Narragansett Bay and Taunton River. Most of the characters in the drawings of the rock they could make nothing of, but there was a group near the centre of the inscription which they deciphered to be the Runic characters standing for the name of Thorfinn, above which were the Roman numerals CXXXI, followed by a character which they decided to be an anaglyph, standing for the word men. Since that time the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries has been supplied with a photograph of the rock, and it is said they now think that they were in error in claiming Dighton rock as a Scandinavian relic, so that those who think the inscription merely an ex- ample of the rude pictographs of the Indians, of which specimens of the same general character are to be found in other parts of the country, now meet with little opposition to their views. Such was the opinion of Professor Schoolcraft, who visited the rock twice, some thirty or forty years ago. On his first visit he was inclined to think that the inscription was of a mixed character, part Indian and part Runic, or Scandinavian, but on his last visit he decided that it was wholly the work of the aborigines. Professor Schoolcraft, though not a runologist, was well versed in all that pertains to the manners, customs, and art of the Indians, as is evidenced in his great work, pub- lished by the government, on the Indian tribes.

On another page are representations in outline of the characters on Dighton Rock, and also of a genuine Runic inscription from Greenland, the undoubted work of the Northmen, together with a fac-simile of an Indian pictographic inscription on a rock in New Mexico. The latter is copied from a wood-cut in the government report of the Southern Pacific Railroad survey. A glance at the three inscriptions will show the reader the great general resemblance between the characters on Dighton Rock and those on the New Mexican rock. They were evidently executed by people of the same state of artistic development, or the lack of it, while the Runic inscription, which has been translated, is arranged in a systematic and read- able way, and is composed of well-formed letters or characters. It does not seem probable that the North- men, who executed the Greenland Runes, could have descended so far as to scratch out the puerile hotch- potch of characters on Dighton Rock, which bear intrinsic evidence of being the work of a savage race.

Yet notwithstanding that the weight of evidence is against the supposition that this rock is a relic of the Norsemen, as it is also in the case of the Newport round-tower, there is little doubt that the accounts of

the Scandinavian discovery and attempted coloniza- tion of this continent in the eleventh century, as given in the " Antiquitates Americana," are substantially true, and that to Leif Ericsson belongs the honor of being the first European to land on the shores of " that new world which is the old."

A Dighton Sampson .- The extraordinary exploit of Samuel Briggs in capturing a buck has been related in another part of this sketch. Samuel displayed in that affair uncommon pluck, endurance, and tenacity of purpose, but his renown was eclipsed in the first half of this century by the great strengthi, courage, and prowess of another Briggs, who was known in this and neighboring towns as Stout George. As one of the celebrities of Dighton and the product of a state of society that has disappeared forever, he merits some little mention.

George Washington Briggs was born June 27, 1776, in the stirring times just preceding the Declaration of Independence. He was the son of James and Hannah, and was the fifth of ten children, six boys and four girls. Several others of the family were en- dowed with great physical strength and activity, par- ticularly the oldest son, James, who is said to have nearly equaled George in these respects. These virile family gifts were shared, though of course in a less degree, by the girls. The oldest daughter, Nancy, became insane early in life. She is represented as having been a very handsome woman, tall, finely formed, with a queenly dignity of bearing and un- common muscular strength, which she sometimes used in overmastering those who had charge of her.

George in his early days was a seafaring man. Many stories of his adventures on sea and land have been handed down, of which the following are given as specimens. While yet a young man he was on one occasion mate of the ship "Pomona," of which Capt. John Pierce, of this town, was master. They were bound for Valparaiso with a cargo of lumber, which was part dry and part green, the dry having been put in the hold and the green, heavy lumber on deck. This made the ship very crank and top-heavy. Capt. Pierce was overfond of ardent spirits, his indulgence in which often unfitted him for the management of the vessel. When nearing the end of the voyage heavy weather was experienced, and the ship was put under close-reefed topsails. While it was yet blowing a stiff gale, the captain, in his usual semi-inebriated condition, and as obstinate as the proverbial mule, came upon deck and ordered the reefs to be shaken out of the topsails. "Captain Pierce," said George, " the ship has as much sail now as she can carry. If the reefs are shaken out she will capsize." This re- monstrance had no effect upon the muddled intellect of the captain.1 The men were ordered aloft and the reefs were shaken out, but scarcely were the topsails

1 Capt. Pierce fell a victim to his habits of inebriation. His death was caused by his jumping out of a chamber window during a fit of delirium tremens and breaking his neck.

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sheeted home and the yards braced to the wind when a fierce squall struck the ship abeam, and over she went. The deck-load of lumber was instantly swept off, but still the vessel remained on her side, the offi- cers and crew clinging for dear life to the rigging or belaying-pins to prevent being washed overboard by the seas that swept over the ship.

Briggs was now virtually in command, and deter- mined to make an effort to right the ship. Tying a line to his waist, he crept along forward, clinging with vise-like grip to the weather bulwarks, over which the waves were sweeping, and cut the lanyards of each topmast-shroud in succession. The topmasts, unable to bear the additional strain, snapped off at the caps, and the ship suddenly righted, with all her top-hamper gone, and rolling like a log in the trough of the sea. They drifted in this condition for some days, having scarcely any sail set, when they fell in with a mass of wreckage, which, singularly enough, proved to be the ship's top-hamper, which had been cut adrift when she capsized. The floating spars and sails were secured, and the ship, partially rigged again, proceeded on her voyage, and arrived in a few days at Valparaiso.

On their arrival in port new perils awaited the crew. There was a British man-of-war in the harbor, one of the most dreaded of objects to the crews of merchant vessels, for at that time the crews in the British armed vessels were recruited by means of press-gangs, the brutal commanders of which were not at all particu- lar whether the men they seized in their raids were British subjects or not. Soon after the arrival of the " Pomona" in port, Briggs and three of the crew were on shore, when they met a press-gang of nine men from the British vessel. These men were armed with muskets, with fixed bayonets, though, as afterwards appeared, the guns were not loaded.

The commanding officer of the press-gang accosted one of the crew of the " Pomona" and demanded to see his protection. The man handed over the docu- ment, which was such as every American seaman was obliged to carry with him, when the officer imme- diately tore up the paper and directed his men to arrest the man. Another of the " Pomona's" men met with similar treatment, his certificate of Ameri- ean citizenship being torn up and the man being placed under arrest. The only man at liberty now, besides Briggs, was an Englishman named Owen, who of course had no protection, and who did not relish the idea of being impressed on board of a man-of- war. Owen was an active, powerful man, though less herculean in strength than Briggs. While the press-gang were arresting the others these two had determined not to be captured without a struggle for liberty. Briggs carried a heavy club, some two inches thick at the large end, on which was an ugly knob.1 Owen had also managed to secure a club.

The captain of the gang now stepped up to Briggs, and in an insolent tone demanded his protection. "There is my protection !" said Briggs, as he dealt the officer a blow over the head that felled him in his tracks. The two determined men now rushed at the press-gang, dealing death with almost every blow of their clubs. Five of the men were killed on the spot, and the others were placed hors de combat. Owen, or "Johnny Bull," as he was called by his shipmates, received a bayonet-thrust through the leg, which in the excitement of the melee he did not feel, but when the fight was over found his shoe full of blood. Briggs and Owen thought it best to keep out of the way after their encounter with the press-gang, until the " Pomona" was ready to sail, as the captain of the British vessel had sworn to kill or capture them, and had a force of men detailed for the pur- pose. In after-years Briggs was loth to speak of this adventure, and could never do so without tears in his eyes. It was such rough work, he said, that he did not like to think of it.

On the return voyage Owen became ugly and mu- tinous, and Capt. Pierce requested Briggs to chastise him, which he effectually did by a single blow of his fist, sending the rebellious Englishman reeling back- wards over the windlass. When he finally picked himself up all the ugliness appeared to have been knocked out of him, and he gave no further trouble during the voyage.

Briggs afterwards went to Liverpool in the " Po- mona," and while the ship was unloading at that port he displayed several feats of strength that drew attention to him from the sailors and wharf-laborers in the vicinity. Among the classes mentioned it was deemed that the honor of the city required that a man should be found who could beat this young Yankee athlete in feats of strength. Among the stalwart porters, stevedores, and coal-heavers of Liverpool are always to be found a few men of remarkable physical strength, and generally there is one who so far surpasses the rest in muscular force as to be considered a sort of champion, to be called upon at any time to maintain the city's prestige for men of muscle.

At the time referred to the champion strong man was an Irish porter named O'Brien, a heavily-built, brawny-limbed man of some fifteen stone weight. In company with a number of his companions he went on board of the " Pomona" to challenge Briggs to a trial of strength. "The top of the morning till yez, captain," said he, accosting Capt. Price. "Be- dad, it's meself, Johnny O'Brien, that wants to see the broth of a bye they're afther tellin' yez have on board."

Surmising what the man's errand was, Capt. Pierce called Briggs up from below, and introduced him to his visitor, who at once proceeded to business, and proposed a trial of strength in lifting one of the heavy ship's anchors that lay on the wharf. Briggs readily

1 This cane or club, which did such fearful execution on that occasion, is now in the possession of a relative of George Briggs.

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accepted the proposal, and requested O'Brien to show his strength first. The Irishman accordingly placed his hands under the shank of one of the huge anchors, and with great effort succeeded in raising it so that the lower fluke just cleared the ground, a feat that probably no other man in the city could have per- formed. It was now Briggs' turn; he stooped over and grasped the shank of the anchor, and then re- quested O'Brien to get up on his back and sit on his shoulders while he lifted. The Irishman demurred at such a proceeding at first, but was finally pursuaded to comply with Briggs' request, when the latter straightened himself up under the combined weight of the anchor and the Irishman's two hundred pounds avoirdupois.1

George Briggs was about five feet ten inches in height, massively built, broad-shouldered, deep- chested, large-limbed. In the keen steel-gray eyes that looked out from under his bushy eyebrows there were indications that this was not the sort of man to play tricks with or to impose upon with impunity. After he had left off his roving, seafaring life, and had settled down upon his farm near the Upper Four Corners, the fame of his exploits became noised abroad, and he had many visitors from the neighbor- ing towns, who came to satisfy their curiosity with a sight of "Stout George," not unfrequently interfering, to his annoyance, with his work. It is related that on one occasion, while he was at work on the upper part of his farm, which was quite a distance from the house, a stranger dismounted at the gate, hitched his saddle-horse, and inquired of Mrs. Briggs for her husband. She told the man where he was at work, that he was very busy, and did not want to be called from his work upon any trivial pretense. As the stranger persisted in his desire to see Mr. Briggs, she, supposing he had some business of importance, put on her bonnet and went for her husband. The latter, not in a very amiable mood from being interfered with in the work, which he was hurrying to finish before night, came down to the house, where he found his visitor leaning against the wall by the road. The latter introduced himself, and said that, happening along that way, he could not go past until he had seen the man about whom he had heard such remark- able stories. While he was talking, if he had known the indications, he would undoubtedly have seen " danger signals" flying in Briggs' eyes.

"Well, my friend," said George, " now you have seen me, you may as well trot along about your busi- ness, and I will help you over the wall." As he spoke he seized his astonished visitor by the coat-collar and the slack part of his trowsers and tossed him over the wall, so that he landed near the middle of the road.

This story in course of time became exaggerated, as stories are apt to become, and it was seriously related that the horse had been thrown over the wall as well as its rider.

Briggs' remarkable constitution would probably have carried him well on towards his hundredth year if he had taken ordinary care of himself. He worked on Howland's Ferry bridge while it was building, and was accustomed to dive down in deep water and ad- just the heavy stones for the foundations of the piers. Such work as that must have shortened his life many years. Towards the close of his life only the wreck of his splendid physique remained, and he could only hobble about with a crutch or sit at his front window and watch the passers-by, many of whom would stop to talk with him. But even in his decrepitude he had the strength of two or three ordinary men. His son-in-law, Mr. Ashley, relates that once, having a large stone, much heavier at one end than the other, to place on top of a wall, and not knowing how to get it there, the old man hobbled out and told him and another man who was with him that if they would lift the small end of the stone he would lift the heavy end, which he accordingly did with apparent ease. While he was in his prime he built, unaided, save by some slight assistance from his wife, a Cyclopean wall, bordering the road, which has attracted the attention of thousands of travelers by its massive cap-stones. It is to be hoped that this wall will be permitted to stand for many years, as the fitting monument of one of the strongest and most active men that this country has ever produced.

Richmond Hill .- The most considerable eminence in this township is Richmond Hill, in the southeast part. Compared with Tom, or Holyoke, or Wachu- sett, or even with the Blue Hills of Milton, its eleva- tion is very moderate, being but little more than two hundred feet, but it is nevertheless an interesting spot to visit to the student of physical science, as well as to the lover of natural scenery. The view from its rocky summit takes in the Blue Hills on the north, Mount Hope on the south, and the Cumberland Hills, in Rhode Island, on the west. Portions of the cities of Taunton, Fall River, and Providence are visible, as well as the towns of Somerset, Freetown, Berkley, Attleborough, Norton, Raynham, and Rehoboth. More than forty church spires can be counted with the aid of a glass on a clear day in winter. The windings of Taunton River can be traced for several miles.

The singular gorge through the rocks on the top of the hill seems made on purpose to accommodate the road that runs through it. It is evidently one of the furrows left by the great ice-plow that tore its way over the hill from the northward in the last glacial period, and which must have reduced the height of the hill very materially. The marks of glacial action are very distinct here. The rock in place, a gray- wacke conglomerate, or pudding-stone, has been

1 When Briggs had shown the Irish champion what he could do in the way of lifting he suggested a square fight to see which was the best man with the fists, but the Hibernian, although a noted bruiser, excused himself from entering the lists with so formidable an antagonist, and the figlit did not come off.

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HISTORY OF BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS.

ground down, polished, and grooved by the stones imbedded in the ancient glacier, which, according to Agassiz and other scientists, once covered the north- ern portion of this continent to the depth of hundreds of feet, and slowly moved, with irresistible force, in a southerly direction. Huge masses of rock were torn from this hill and shoved along to the south, in some cases, for several miles. The large bowlder in Somer- set known as the Hanging, or Toad Rock, and which weighs probably more than a hundred tons, was origi- nally a part of this hill.

The conglomerate which underlies this town, as well as a large portion of the rest of Bristol County, is composed of rounded fragments of a much older rock, which were broken from the parent ledges perhaps hundreds of thousands of years ago, then rolled upon the shores of the primeval sea for a long period of time, until they become rounded and polished, after which, owing to an increase of the temperature of the earth's crust at this point, the clayey mud that filled their interstices became hardened into stone by heat. Then the rock was gradually raised by forces in the interior of the globe to its present height above the ocean. Scarcely any fossils are to be found in this rock. Some of the nodules or pebbles when broken show the blackened casts of a small, bivalve shell-fish, a species of lingula, an ancient, diminutive represen- tative of the modern clam. The late Professor Wil- liam B. Rogers visited the hill some years ago on pur- pose to get specimens of these fossil shell-fish. In a pasture on the southern slope of the hill is a curiosity of the vegetable kingdom. This is a prostrate juni- per, Juniperus communis. It is nowhere more than two feet in height, while its branches extend outward from the centre to the distance of a dozen feet on all sides, making the tree resemble a large green mat. Smaller specimens of this tree are not uncommon, but it rarely grows to so large a size as the one on Richmond Hill.

Hunter's Hill .- About three-fourths of a mile west of Beal's Rocks, on Richmond Hill, is Hunter's Hill, an elevation somewhat less in height than the former and without its rocky features. The hill was a noted resort for hunters in the early years of the town's settlement, hence the name, which it retains to the present day. From its summit they could see all over the large clearing, or Indian plantation, that has been described, and whether any deer had come out of the forest, as they frequently did, to browse on the vegetation of the clearing. Then the hunters would hasten down the hill and through the woods to get within range, taking care to keep to leeward of the keen-scented animals. At that time, the date of which is uncertain, although it must have been nearly two hundred years ago, there was probably a log house or hunter's lodge on the hill. The first frame house that was built there was put up by one Elijah King, who owned the hill about one hundred and fifty years ago. This old house was torn down in 1838 by Rescome Hart, the then owner of the

farm, who built a stone cottage in its place, the only stone dwelling-house in the town.1

One of the owners of Hunter's Hill after King was Capt. Samuel Talbot, brother to the commodore. He married Capt. Stephen Beal's widow, and had two sons. After his death, which was towards the close of the last century, his widow and one son emigrated to Kentucky. At that period there was a Kentucky fever raging in this town, and about twenty men, with a number of women and children, left for that far-away land at one time. At Johnston, N. Y., the party was increased by the addition of all of Com- modore Talbot's children, who were living in that town. The journey from Dighton to Kentucky occu- pied several months' time, much of the way being through an unbroken wilderness. All of the emi- grants, so far as is known, liked their new home and prospered in their worldly affairs. Capt. Samuel Talbot's widow wrote to her friends here when she was eighty-three that she had taken a long horseback ride that day, and enjoyed life. as much as when she was a girl. This remarkable rejuvenescence was, no doubt, due to plenty of exercise in the open air.

In old times there were many more houses and in- habitants in the vicinity of Hunter's Hill than at present. There are the sites of some half-dozen de- molished dwellings to the north, west, and south of the hill, and there are four old cellars on Richmond Hill. The old King house, on Hunter's Hill, which was torn down by Mr. Hart, was once used by the town as an inoculating hospital for the smallpox. Upwards of one hundred persons were inoculated with the disorder there, and on their recovery were thoroughly fumigated in a smoke-house that stood near the house. Old people, forty or more years ago, used frequently to tell of the fun they had when they were in the smallpox hospital.

Besides Richmond and Hunter's Hills there are two rounded crests of land in the western part of the town, known as Davis' Hill and Goff's Hill, the lat- ter, named from Elder Goff, being near the Rehoboth line, and the former, running northerly from Pitt's Corner, also known as Flat Rock, from a large, smooth ledge of graywacke that crops out there, and furnishes further interesting evidence of glacial ac- tion in a long-past geological epoch. Ledges of gray- wacke also erop ont in other parts of the town, and even in the river, where it forms two rocky islets. The most sontherly of these islets is known to mari- ners as the Whale Rock, it being at some stages of the tide, to use the words of Polonius, "very like a whale." The other islet lies just above the Old Col- ony Iron Company's wharf, and has long been known

1 Mr. Hart came to this town in 1826 from Bristol, R. I., and bought the farm on Ilunter's Hill. He was a man of intelligence and with a taste for reading. He was the father of Henry W. Hart, of North Dighton, and of William T. Hart, a wealthy resident of Boston, and for many years president of the New York and New England Railroad. Rescome Hart died Nov. 4, 1855, æt. seventy-nine. His wife, Sarah, died July 5, 1866, æt. eighty-three years.

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as Reuben's Island. The latter does not resemble a whale, but there is, nevertheless, a tale to it, or about it, which is as follows :

The True Story of Reuben's Island .- As the exact date of the incident about to be related is not known, it might perhaps be allowable to commence with the old formula of the nursery tales, " Once upon a time," but it is possible to be a little more definite than that.

Near the beginning of the present century there lived in the town of Berkley, across the river from Dighton, a young man, a farmer's son, named Reuben Phillips. This youth had a sweetheart named Nancy Simmons on the Dighton side of the stream, whom he was accustomed to visit on Sunday evenings, and perhaps at other times. It would appear that he did not own a boat, but was in the habit of borrowing one with or without the leave of the owners. One sultry evening in summer he started from home just at dusk, appareled in his Sunday suit, and came down to the crossing-place, where he found a skiff, which he jumped into and rowed, as he thought, across the river. Then he got out of the boat and gave it a push out into the stream, knowing that the wind would carry it back near the place from whence he had taken it. He probably thought that the owner would miss the boat and discover who had taken it; his plan was to go home by the way of the bridge.

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History of Bristol County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 61

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