USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, 1622-1918, vol 1 > Part 9
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On September 30, 1774, Luke Holbrook was elected as Bellingham's "first delegate" to attend the Provincial Congress at Concord on the second Tuesday of the following month. Seven pounds additional were voted on December 19, 1774, "for the purchase of powder and bullets." The action of the people of Bellingham for the purchase of ammunition and the boycott of English goods shows clearly where their sympathies lay in the difference of opinion between the American colonies and the mother country, and from this time forward there was no controversy with the Massachusetts General Court.
A COINCIDENCE
On July 4, 1776, a town meeting was held in Bellingham for the purpose of discussing general conditions and determining upon a definite course to be followed in case of a rupture between the British Government and the English colonies in America. Almost at the same hour that the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, the Bellingham town meeting declared : "That in case the Honorable Continental Congress shall think it neces- sary for the safety of the United Colonies to declare them independent of Great
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Britain, the inhabitants of this town, with their lives and fortunes, will cheerfully support them in the measure."
And the declaration was no idle boast. When the news of Lexington and Concord reached the little town in the southwest corner of what is now Norfolk County (then a part of Suffolk), the people of Bellingham were ready. Out of her meager population ninety-three men served in the Continental army during the Revolution and fought to achieve their independence.
NEW STATE GOVERNMENT
On September 17, 1776, the General Court sent to the several towns in the state a communication asking opinions regarding the formation of a new state government, with such suggestions as the people felt inclined to submit. Belling- ham was not at all backward about expressing her ideas on the subject. At a town meeting held on October 20, 1776, Dr. John Corbett, Coroner John Metcalf, Elder Noah Alden, Deacon Samuel Darling and Lieut. Seth Hall were appointed a committee to prepare the town's reply and report at an adjourned meeting on the first Monday in December. The report, which was adopted at the adjourned meeting, was as follows :
"We are of the opinion that the settling a form of government for this State is a matter of the greatest importance of a civil nature that we were ever con- cerned in, and ought to be proceeded in with the greatest caution and deliberation. It appears to us that the late General Assembly of this State, in their proclamation dated January 23, 1776, have well expressed that 'power always resides in the body of the people.' We understand that all males above twenty-one years of age, meeting in each separate town and acting the same thing and all their acts united together make an act of the body of the people. We apprehend it would be proper that the form of government for this State to originate in each town, and by that means we may have the ingenuity of all the State, and it may qualify men for public station, which might be effected if the present Honorable House of Representatives would divide this State into districts of about thirty miles in diameter, or less if it appear most convenient, so that none be more than fifteen miles from the center of the district, that there may be an easy com- munication between each town and the center of its district, that no town be di- vided, and that each town choose one man out of each thirty inhabitants to be a committee to meet as near the center of the district as may be; to meet about six weeks after the House of Representatives have issued their order for the towns to meet and draw a form of government, and the same committee to carry with them the form of government their town has drawn at the district meeting and compare them together, and propose to their towns what alteration their town in their opinion ought to make, and said committee in each district adjourn to carry to their several towns and lay before them in town meeting for that. end, the form of government said district has agreed to, and the town agrees to or alters as they see meet ; after which each district committee to choose a man as a com- mittee to meet all as one committee at Watertown at twelve weeks after the order of the House of Representatives for the town first meeting to draw a form of government, which committee of the whole State may be empowered to send precepts to the several towns in this State to choose one man out of sixty to Vol. I-5
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meet in convention at Watertown, or such other town as each committee shall judge best. Six weeks from the time of said district's last sitting the said one man out of sixty to meet in convention to draw from the forms of government drawn by each district committee one form of government for the whole State; after which said convention to send to each town the form of government they have drawn for the town's confirmation or alteration, then adjourn, notify- ing each town to make return to them of their doings at said convention, and at said adjournment said convention draw a general plan or form of government for this State, so that they add nothing nor diminish nothing from the general sense of each town, and that each town be at the charge of all they employ in the affair."
Although the language used in this report might be improved on, its purport is clear and shows how zealously the early colonists guarded the right of local self- government as the very corner-stone of their political liberty. Rev. Noah Alden, pastor of the Baptist Church, was elected a delegate from Bellingham to the constitutional convention which met at Cambridge on September 1, 1779, and part of his instructions was to see "that each part of the State have properly delegated their power for such a purpose, and that a bill of rights be framed wherein the natural rights of individuals be clearly ascertained-that is, all such rights as the supreme power of the State shall have no authority to control-to be a part of the Constitution."
The idea carried by these instructions was not peculiar to Bellingham. It pervaded all the colonies. In a modified form it was applied in the adoption of the Federal Constitution, which was submitted to the several states for ratification, and in every one of the forty-eight states of the American Union the State consti- tution was submitted to the people for their approval or rejection before it became effective.
EFFORTS TO FORM A NEW TOWN
Owing to the inconvenience in attending the town meetings at Bellingham Centre, some of the citizens living in the northern portion of the town started a movement in 1807 to form a new town by taking parts of Bellingham, Franklin, Medway and Holliston, the last named in Midlesex County. A petition to that effect was sent to the Legislature, which appointed a committee to view the terri- tory. The committee reported adversely and the matter was dropped for the time.
In 1816 the question again came before the Legislature and the standing com- mittee on towns in the House of Representatives reported favorably, providing the boundaries asked for in the petition were changed so as to take a smaller portion of Bellingham. To this proposition the petitioners would not assent and the petition was then denied by the Legislature.
Eight years later the subject was again agitated and several hearings were granted by the General Court, but nothing definite was accomplished. In May, 1824, another petition came before the Legislature asking for the erection of a new town with the following boundaries: "Beginning at the Milford line on the northerly side of Nahum Clark's farm, and running easterly, including said farm and across the land of Henry Adams, to a stake and stones on the northerly side
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of a town road ; thence across said road to the northest corner of the Adams farm; thence to a white oak tree standing on the east side of the road, about twenty rods north of Capt. Jonathan Harding's barn; thence to the south side of the farm belonging to the estate of A. Morse, opposite his dwelling house; thence to continue in a straight line on the southerly side of Morse's farm to the Pond road, so called; thence running southerly on said road about twenty-five rods; thence easterly in a straight line along the south side of Capt. M. Rockwood's home farm to the old grant line (so called) ; thence southerly on said line and Candlewood Island road (so called) to the old county road; thence running southerly across said road and Charles River to the end of a road near Amos Fisher's house in Franklin; thence southwesterly on said road to a town road leading from the factory village in Medway to Franklin meeting house; thence to the corner of the road near the house of Joseph Bacon; thence, following said road by Luther Ellis' house, to the southeasterly corner of Leonard Lawrence's land on the westerly side of said road; thence to the southeast corner of Stephen Allen's meadow land; thence westerly across Mine Brook to a white oak tree on the line between Bellingham and Franklin; thence westerly on a division line of lands of Stephen Metcalf and Jesse Coombs to a town road in Bellingham; thence westerly across Charles River to a stake and stones beside the turnpike road west of Elijah Dew- ing's barn ; thence crossing said road and running northwesterly to a town road on the division line of Nathan Allen and Benjamin R. Partridge, easterly from said Allen's house ; thence northerly on said division line to the Holliston town line; thence running westerly on Holliston's line to farm corner (so called) ; thence northerly on the town line of Milford to the corner first mentioned."
Doubtless many of the land marks mentioned have disappeared and the owner- ship of farms changed until it would be extremely difficult, if not utterly im- possible, to trace the boundaries of this proposed town. The prayer of the petitioners was refused by the Legislature and no further efforts were made to divide the Town of Bellingham, consequently its boundaries remain as they were established when the dispute with Wrentham was settled in 1724.
TOWN HALL
In 1800, the town experiencing some difficulty in obtaining the use of the meeting house for public meetings, appointed Ezekiel Bates, Eliab Wight, John Scammell and Laban Bates a committee "to examine into and report upon the feasibility of constructing a new building and finding a suitable location there- for." The committee reported as follows:
"We are of the opinion that the most central and convenient spot for erecting said building is on the land occupied by David Jones, situated at the end of the road leading from Ezekiel Bates' dwelling house to the road known as the Taunton Road, and is bounded partly on the west by the said Taunton Road. The said Jones proposes giving the town one acre of land for the purpose of setting said house and other buildings upon, provided said town will agree to erect such a building as will best accommodate the religious society in said town for a house of public worship."
About the time this report was submitted Joseph Fairbanks, who had pre- viously set up a saw and grist mill on the Charles River, associated with him several of his neighbors and made the following offer to the town:
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
"Bellingham, March 15, A. D. 1800.
"We, the undersigned, do hereby propose to the inhabitants of said Belling- ham that we will undertake the building of a public house in said town for the purpose of better accommodating said inhabitants to transact their public con- cerns in. We propose said house to be forty-five by fifty feet on the ground, twenty-five feet posts, and one porch fourteen feet square, which shall be built of good materials and be well wrought ; providing said town will grant the sum of one thousand dollars, five hundred to be assessed and paid into the treasury for the above purpose by the first day of April, 1801, and the other five hundred to be paid by April 1, 1802, and also to grant us the privilege of building pews in said house for the accommodation of the religious society in said town, and giving us the benefit of the sale of said pews to defray in part the expense of said building ; and if the above proposals shall be accepted by a vote of said town, we do hereby jointly and severally agree and engage completely to finish said house without any other expense to said town, and we will give bonds to indem- nify for the above purpose.
"In testimony whereof we have hereto set our hands.
"JOSEPH FAIRBANKS "SAMUEL DARLING, JR.
"LABAN BATES "JOHN SCAMMELL
"ELIAB WIGHT
"JOHN CHILSON
"SIMEON HOLBROOK
"ELISHA BURR
"SETH HOLBROOK "STEPHEN METCALF, JR."
At a meeting held in the following September, the proposition of these ten public-spirited men was accepted and work commenced upon the building. It was completed in 1802 and was dedicated in December of that year, Rev. Thomas Baldwin of Boston preaching the dedicatory sermon. That the builders did their work well may be seen from the fact that the building, although more than a century old, is still used as the town hall and is well preserved.
WATERWORKS
From the first settlement of the town, the people have depended upon wells for their supply of water for domestic purposes. At the town meeting of March 6, 1916, it was unanimously voted "That the town do establish a system for supplying the inhabitants of the town residing in the villages of North Belling- ham, Caryville and South Bellingham with water, and that Addison E. Bullard, Cornelius W. Fitzpatrick, Timothy E. Foley, Hadley D. Perkins and Ervin E. Biglow be appointed a committee with authority to construct such system and lay pipes, and to make contracts in relation to the same in the name and behalf of the town."
The sum of $150 was appropriated for the use of the committee in securing expert advice, etc. Plans were drawn and specifications prepared for two water systems-one in the north end and the other in the south end-the former to be connected with the Medway water system and the latter with that of Woonsocket, Rhode Island. Owing to the prevailing high prices of materials nothing further was done by the committee, though the people in the two districts are still hope- ful that the near future will find them provided with waterworks.
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
POSTOFFICES .
Early in the year 1837 the people of the town sent a petition to the Post Office Department asking that an office be established at Bellingham Centre, and recom- mended Rev. Joseph T. Massey for the position of postmaster. Later in the year the office was established under the name of "Bellingham" and Mr. Massey was appointed. For many years this office had but one mail a day from Boston.
In the extreme northeast corner of the town is the village of Caryville, named after William H. Cary who was at one time a resident of that locality. A post- office was established here a few years after the one at the "Centre," with two daily mails from Boston, one from Milford and one from Medway. At the beginning of the year 1917 the postoffices of the town were those at Bellingbam, Caryville and North Bellingham. Many of the inhabitants receive mail daily by rural carrier.
VITAL STATISTICS
The earliest birth noted in the vital records of Bellingham is that of "Eleze- bath, daughter of Zuriell and Susanah Hall," who was born on June 8, 1688, while the town was still a part of Dedham and Mendon. The earliest recorded marriage is that of Pliny Holbrook and Martha Perkins, which was solemnized on May 7, 1726. Walter Cook and Margery Corbet were married on the 17th of October in the same year. The date of the earliest death given in the vital records is March 26, 1720, when Elizabeth, daughter of Peter and Hannah Holbrook, died. In the old cemetery stands the gravestone of Josiah Corbet, the inscription showing that he died in 1705, but his name does not appear in the records. Near by is the gravestone of John Corbet [Corbett], who died in 1706.
ODD LEGISLATION
Exercising the privilege of the New England township conferred by the General Court, Bellingham frequently issued orders or edicts having all the force of local laws, and provided penalties for their violation. In April, 1777, Silas Penniman fell ill and it was reported he had the smallpox. A town meeting . was hurriedly called and it was voted to establish a hospital "in the woods." The records of that meeting also show that it was "Voted that the town forbid any person from having the smallpox in the house of Daniel or Silas Penniman, except said Silas, now sick, and if any person or persons be so presumptuous as to have the smallpox in either of them two houses they shall forfeit to the town ten pounds, to be recovered by the treasurer."
In the spring of 1791 the smallpox again made its appearance and the question came up in the town meeting "to see if the town will provide a house for the inoculation of the smallpox, and voted no." The people of that day had little faith in the efficacy of vaccination, but the meeting voted "that the town disap- prove of the Smallpox coming into the town Contrary to Law."
During the next forty-five years public opinion underwent a change, for when another epidemic of smallpox came in 1836 an appropriation was made for a hos-
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
pital on the town farm and one hundred and fifty dollars were expended for vaccination.
THE BELLINGHAM OF TODAY
On November 27, 1919, Bellingham can celebrate its two hundredth anni- versary as a town. During these two centuries great changes have come. The wild beast and the savage Indian have disappeared and in their places have come the hum of civilized industry. The chief occupation of the people of Bellingham is agriculture. Fifty years ago shoes, farm tools, cotton and woolen goods and some other commodities were manufactured in considerable quantities. A few of these factories are still running, but most of them have been discontinued or removed to more favorable localities. Their history is given in the chapter on "Manufacturing." Bellingham has three public schools and in the year 1916 expended $10,702.84 for educational purposes. The public library, though small, is well selected and well patronized by the people. Two lines of the New York, New Haven and Hartford railway system and three electric lines afford ample transportation facilities to all parts of the town. In 1910 the population was 1,696 and in 1915 the state census reported it to be 1,953, a gain of 257 in five years. In 1916 the property was valued for taxation at $1, 107,960.
The town officers at the beginning of the year 1917 were as follows : Selectmen, Michael J. Kennedy, Harold M. Bullard and Hadley D. Perkins; Clerk, Percy C. Burr; Treasurer and Tax Collector, Walter H. Thayer; Auditor, Harold G. Sackett; Assessors, Orville C. Rhodes, Timothy E. Foley and Carroll E. White; Overseers of the Poor, Emery B. Whiting, Otto L. Bullard and Percy C. Burr ; School Committee, Henry McCarthy, Chester H. Richards and Richard B. Sill.
CHAPTER XI
THE TOWN OF BRAINTREE
LOCATION AND BOUNDARIES-SURFACE AND DRAINAGE-FIRST WHITE MEN-BRAIN- TREE INCORPORATED-PETITION OF 1645-SAMUEL GORTON-NEW BRAINTREE- THE PRECINCTS-THE FIRST MILL-TOWN HALL-SOLDIERS' MONUMENT- WATERWORKS-ELECTRIC LIGHT WORKS-FIRE DEPARTMENT-POSTOFFICES-A FEW FIRST THINGS-BRAINTREE IN 1917-TOWN OFFICERS.
The Town of Braintree, situated in the eastern part of Norfolk County, was incorporated by act of the General Court on May 13, 1640. As originally estab- lished, it embraced the present towns of Braintree, Quincy, Randolph and Hol- brook. Quincy was set off on February 22, 1792, and Randolph ( which included Holbrook) on March 9, 1793, reducing Braintree to its present dimensions. On the north it is bounded by the Town of Quincy ; on the east by Weymouth; on the south by Randolph and Holbrook, and on the west by Quincy and Randolph.
SURFACE AND DRAINAGE
In common with other portions of Norfolk County, Braintree has a generally rolling surface, though the elevations here are not so large as those in some of the adjacent towns. The north fork of the Monatiquot River crosses the western boundary at the northeast corner of Randolph and flows in a south- easterly direction. The south fork forms part of the dividing line between Braintree and Randolph. A short distance south of South Braintree the two unite and from that point the main stream follows a northeasterly course to the Weymouth Fore River. Great Pond is situated between the forks of the Monatiquot, on the line between Braintree and Randolph : Little Pond is near the center of the town, and in the southern part is a small body of water called Cranberry Pond. The waters of all these ponds finally reach the Monatiquot through small streams.
FIRST WHITE MEN
In September, 1621, an expedition of thirteen men, under command of Capt. Miles Standish, came up the coast from Plymouth in a large sailboat, entered Boston Harbor and landed on Squantum Head, in what is now the Town of Quincy. These were the first Englishmen to set foot upon the soil of this part of Norfolk County. They made no attempt to found a settlement but "returned in safety to Plymouth, full of admiration of the noble harbor and the fair country surrounding it, which they had then for the first time seen, and wishing they had been there seated."
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
Thomas Morton, with a company of about thirty men, came to Mount Wol- laston in June, 1622, and made a feeble effort to establish a plantation. He soon afterward returned to England, but came back to America as a member of Captain Wollaston's company of adventurers in June, 1625. This company es- tablished a settlement at Mount Wollaston (then so named after the leader of the expedition), building several houses and laying out a plantation. The severe winter that followed seems to have been enough for Captain Wollaston, who left there early in 1626 and went to Virginia. Those who remained came under the leadership of Morton, who was afterward arrested and sent to England, charged with selling liquors and fire-arms to the Indians in violation of the royal proclamation. (See the chapter on Quincy for a further account of Morton's doings ).
After the expulsion of Morton, the Neponset River was for several years the southern border of the settlements about Boston. But in May, 1634, the General Court ordered "that Boston shall have convenient enlargement at Mount Wollas- ton, to be set out by four different men, who shall draw a plot thereof and present it to the General Court, when it shall be confirmed." The report of the "four different men" was confirmed by the General Court the following September. By this arrangement large tracts of land were given to certain people of Boston, most of whom held their lands for speculation, but a few came and established their homes south of the Neponset, and from 1634 dates the first permanent settle- ment of Braintree. Some five years later considerable dissatisfaction arose on account of the non-resident land owners, and the following covenant was agreed upon as a settlement of the question :
"It is agreed with our neighbors of Mount Wollaston, viz .: William Cheese- brooke, Alexander Winchester, Rich: Wright, James Penniman, i. e. in the name of the rest ( for whom they undertooke) that they should give to Boston 4 shs the acre for 2 acr of the 7 ac formerly granted to divers men of Boston upon expectation that they should have continued still with us; and 3s the ac for every acre which hath bene or shallbee granted to any other who are not inhabitants of Boston, and that, in consideration hereof and after the said potions of money shallbee paid to the towne treasurer, all ye said lands shallbee free from any towne rates or charges to Boston : & upon the tearms and alsoe from all county rates assessed with Boston, but to bee rated by the Court by its selfe: Provided that this order shall not extend to any more or other lands than such as shall make payment of the said rates so agreed upon of the 4s and 3s the ac; & upon the former consideration there is granted to the Mount all that Rockye Ground lying between the Fresh Brook & Mr. Coddington brooke adjoyning to Mr. Hough's farme & from the West Corner of that farme to the south west corner of Mr. Hutchinson's farme to be reserved & used in common for ever by the Inhabitants & landholers there: together with an other parcell of Rockie ground near Knights Neek which was left out of the third company of lots excepting all such ground lying among or near these said Rockye grounds formerly granted in lots to particular Persons."
BRAINTREE INCORPORATED
Soon after this covenant was made a petition of the residents was presented to the General Court asking that they might be incorporated into a separate town,
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