USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > North Bridgewater > History of North Bridgewater, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to the present time, with family registers > Part 2
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HILLS.
Of the town of North Bridgewater, we may say that its surface is comparatively level, with but a few hills. Beside those already mentioned, there are some elevated spots here and there ; prominent among which is Cary Hill, situated in the north-east part of the town, overlooking the village on the south, gently sloping in either direction, from the top of which we may get pure air and fine views in an autumn day. When the leaves are turned into rich drapery, it is worth while to ride to this place for the prospect that may be had. It is of very easy access by good roads ; and the wonder is, that it is not more generally selected as a place of residence by those wishing a healthy and retired locality. The land in the immediate vicinity is good, well adapted to tillage, produces fine crops with little labor.
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HISTORY OF NORTH BRIDGEWATER.
Prospect Hill is another high and pleasant spot of land, very desirable for building purposes, and but a short distance from the village in a north-west direction, and west of the late Captain Asa Jones's residence.
Ridge Hill is a rough and rocky pasture, running from near the residence of Frecman Holmes, in the south part of the town, northerly for about one mile, and has been much celebrated for its plentiful crops of huckleberries and black- berries.
Stone-House Hill is situated on the boundary line between North Bridgewater and Easton, a short distance west of the manufactory of H. T. Marshall, at " Tilden's Corner." At this place is an old cave, made in the solid stone ledge, and is said to have been used by the Indians as a dwelling. The cave may now be seen as formerly used. It is situated on the old road leading to Easton.
NATURAL HISTORY.
To the true votary of science, everything in Nature pre- sents a lovely aspect. "To him, there are books in the run- ning streams, sermons in stones, good in everything."
" There is a pleasure in the pathless woods; There is society where none intrudes."
Every town has its natural history, and every mile of its surface, with its hills and plains, its rivers, ponds, rocks, and trees, -all have a charm that clusters around the home of childhood. The forests of North Bridgewater consist of red, white, and sugar maple (although the latter is scarce, it is occasionally found); white, red, and black ash; the tremu- lous poplar and verdant hemlock; the tall spruce, much used in building; white ash, used for carriage-work, scythes, and rake-handles, for hoops, sieve-rims, and boxes, and a superior wood for oars. Sassafras was in early times quite plenty, valuable only for medicinal purposes. Chestnut is not abundant. White oak is used for carriages, red oak for
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NATURAL HISTORY.
casks, the bark of which is used for tanning; hickory affording plenty of good shellbarks.
Butternut is not common,- here and there a tree. White pine is tolerably plenty ; although it has been, of late, much cut for fuel and building purposes. Pitch pine is quite plenty, - good only for fuel, being knotty and pitchy ; red cedar, used for rail-fences and pencil-woods, also very useful for linings to chests, as a protection from moths; red beech, used for plane-woods, last, and boot-tree forms. Tall and graceful elms rejoice the eye in every direction. In the early settlement of the town, large quantities of ship-timber of oak and chestnut were carried from the town to the sea- shore towns of Weymouth, Scituate, and Duxbury. Among those who did a large trade in that line were Messrs. Abel and Eliphalet Kingman, and, later, Edwin H. Kingman. Of late years, a ready market is found at home for all the wood cut, where formerly large lots were either carried to Boston and the seaport towns, or made into charcoal, and then sent to Boston. Since the railroads have been built, wood has been much used on the locomotives, and has made it scarce at times ; but, if we take a look about the town, we shall find " a few more left of the same sort."
Fruit-Trees. - Of this kind of tree, not so great a variety is found as in many places ; although the writer is happy in believing that there is an increasing interest being felt in this most important of agricultural pursuits, - that of raising fruit. The most common fruit is the apple. There is a fair assortment of them in the town; and the new orchards con- tain choice varieties, while the old and wild orchards have given way to the woodman's axe. Now, the apple is a staple article of consumption, the consumers being more numerous than the producers ; and people are looking more to the cul- tivation of all kinds than ever before. Choice varieties are engrafted upon the stumps of old trees; and were it not for
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HISTORY OF NORTH BRIDGEWATER.
the borers that eat the roots, canker-worms and caterpillars that eat the leaves and branches, we might look with delight upon as fine orchards as could be found in any place. These pests have destroyed the orchards, as grasshoppers have the nice fields of grass ; and the ways and means of ridding the orchards of these plagues is not yet fully understood. Next to the apple comes the pear-tree, which does not appear to thrive as well in this town as in many others, the land not being well adapted for this kind of fruit, though, of late, many have been successful, and raised choice kinds.
Peaches are raised to a very limited extent, the climate not being adapted for the successful cultivation of this variety. The trees are said to be short-lived, and do not flourish.
Cherries do very well; and much is being done in this kind of small fruit, many varieties being cultivated. Of the native shrubs, we find the town has the usual variety, - such as the blueberry and huckleberry, - that affords employment for the boys and girls in a pleasant afternoon, and a source of pleasure to older persons, furnishing an agreeable repast when caten with milk. Then we find the raspberry, goose- berry, and thimbleberry. Of the raspberries, there are the red and white, that grow wild, and are cultivated in gardens. Gooseberries, of late years, have become an article of much use, many new varieties having been introduced, the best of which is the English variety, that grow as large as shellbarks. Then we have the currant, an exceedingly useful article of culture, and easily raised, valuable for wine or table use. Of these we have also several varieties, -red, white, and black. Then comes that highly esteemed and valuable luxury, - " a dish of ripe strawberries, smothered in cream." These are found in many places growing wild in the pastures ; and, although they are sweet and delicious, they are found so scarce, that not much account is made of them. The culti- vated fruit of this kind is a favorite dish, of which there is a
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NATURAL HISTORY.
great variety, among which are the "Hovey's Seedlings," " Early Virginia," and " Boston Pine." These are fast be- coming an article of cultivation as much as the potato or corn, and large amounts are cultivated in the gardens and fields of this town. The first that were raised for market, to any extent, were those by Mr. B. F. Lawton, of the West Shares. Since then, several have raised them with profit, and sent them to market. Of late, the most successful, or doing the most in that line, are Ira Copeland, in the Factory Village, and C. H. Packard, of Campello.
" Wife, into the garden, and set me a plot With strawberry-roots of the best to be got; Such growing abroad among thorns in the wood, Well chosen and picked, prove excellent and good." TUSSER.
The birds common in this locality are the quail, partridge, snipe, woodpecker, woodcock, sparrow, thrush, robin, blue- bird, bobolink, wren, pewee, lark, king-bird, blue-jay, black- bird, chickadee, martin, barn, and bank swallow, cat-bird, cuckoo, humming-bird, kingfisher, whip-poor-will, owl, hawk, crow, bats. Wild geese occasionally light on the small ponds in the outskirts of the town.
" What songs with those of birds can vie, From the goldfinch that on high Swings its wee hammock in the sky ?" CANNING.
Among the different kinds of fish that abound in our streams may be found the trout, pickerel, sucker, shiner, minnow, hornpout, eels, perch. Herrings, in early days, used to run up the rivers, but, of late, are seldom found.
The early forests in town had their share of vexatious ani- mals that were common in this part of the country; as wolves, wild-cat. Foxes have become shy of company. Skunk, musquosh, and mink have been severely hunted. Woodchucks, rabbits, and squirrels of different kinds. Rac- coons, that damaged the cornfields, have almost disappeared.
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HISTORY OF NORTH BRIDGEWATER.
Moles and meadow-mice are found in the fields, and often do much damage, gnawing bark off of trees in winter.
But the worst enemy the early settlers had to contend with among the beast kind was the wolf, which troubled the infant settlements exceedingly ; so much, that shepherds were appointed over the flocks by day, and put in folds at night, and securely guarded; and, even after the town be- came quite thickly settled, these pests would make night hideous by their howling around the farms. Rewards were offered by the town for their. heads, and wolf-traps were common in all parts of the town.
The geological formation of this town is similar to many other towns in Plymouth County. The hills, meadows, large plains and intervales, deep swamps and rocky pastures, fur- nish food for almost all kinds of grass, trees, and shrubs. Of the rocky portions of the town, we find sienite, or composi- tion of feldspar, quartz, and hornblende. Says Dr. Hitchcock in his survey through the State, -
" The most elegant variety of porphyritic sienite that I have met with in the State occurs in North Bridgewater and Abington, and in other parts of Plymouth County. Its base consists of quartz and feldspar, with an abundance of epidote, disseminated, and in veins. This rock, if polished, would form, it seems to me, the most ornamental stone in the State. The feldspar, crystal, that constitutes it a porphyry, are of a flesh color. There is a dark-colored mineral diffused throughout the mass, which may be horn- blende or mica."
Where mica is found plenty in the composition, it is some- times called sienite granite.
Large quantities of peat have been cut in the meadows of the town in past times, and is now being used as a fuel which is of an excellent quality.
Large quantities of iron-ore have been found in the western and other sections of the town, and some has been manufac- tured into iron. It is not, however, plenty now, and the business of making it into iron ceased several years since.
CHAPTER II.
FIRST SETTLEMENT.
Grant of Plantation. - Bridgewater purchased of the Indians. - Division of the Town. -- Petition of the North Precinct to be set off a separate Town. - Char- ter for a Precinct. - First Meeting of the same
rTo give a clear account of the early settlement of the town of North Bridgewater, it will be necessary to give some account of the origin of the town, its connection with and its identity with the parent town of Bridgewater, and a brief account of its having been set off from Duxbury, and the purchase of the Indians. The ancient town of Bridge- water - then comprising what is now North, East, West, and South Bridgewater, or Bridgewater proper - was formerly a plantation granted to Duxbury, in 1645, as a compensation for the loss of territory they had sustained in the setting apart of Marshfield from them in the year 1640. The grant was in the following language : -
" The inhabitants of the town of Duxbury are granted a competent pro- portion of lands about Saughtuehquett (Satucket), towards the west, for a plantation for them, and to have it four miles every way from the place where they shall set up their centre ; provided it intrench not upon Winny- tuckquett, formerly granted to Plymouth. And we have nominated Capt. Miles Standish, Mr. John Alden, George Soule, Constant Southworth, John Rogers, and William Brett, to be feofees in trust for the equal dividing and laying forth the said lands to the inhabitants."
How these lands were divided, or what should entitle any one to a share, no record appears to show. Gov. Hinckley, in his confirmatory deed, says that the "inhabitants agreed among themselves." There were fifty-four proprietors, - each of whom held one share, - the names of whom are as
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HISTORY OF NORTH BRIDGEWATER.
follows : William Bradford, William Merrick, John Bradford, Abraham Pierce, John Rogers, George Partridge, John Starr, Mr. William Collier, Christopher Wadsworth, Edward Hall, Nicholas Robbins, Thomas Hayward, Mr. Ralph Par- tridge, Nathaniel Willis, John Willis, Thomas Bonney, Mr. Miles Standish, Love Brewster, John Paybody, William Pay- body, Francis Sprague, William Bassett, John Washburn, John Washburn, Jr., John Ames, Thomas Gannett, William Brett, Edmund Hunt, William Clarke, William Ford, Mr. Constant Southworth, John Cary, Edmund Weston, Samuel Tompkins, Edmund Chandler, Moses Simmons, John Irish, Philip Delano, Arthur Harris, Mr. John Alden, John Forbes, Samuel Nash, Abraham Sampson, George Soule, Experience Mitchell, Henry Howland, Henry Sampson, John Brown, John Howard, Francis West, William Tubbs, James Lendall, Samuel Eaton, Solomon Leonard. To these shares were afterward added two more shares, -one to Rev. James Keith, of Scotland, their first minister; and the other to Deacon Samuel Edson, of Salem, who erected the first mill in the town, - making fifty-six shares.
This grant was considered as little more than an authority or right to purchase it of the natives. For this purpose, Capt. Miles Standish, Samuel Nash, and Constant Southworth, were appointed a committee to make the purchase; which they did, as appears by the following instruments : -
WITNESS THESE PRESENTS, that I, Ousamequin, Sachem of the Country of Poconocket, have given, granted, enfeofed, and sold unto Miles Standish of Duxbury, Samuel Nash and Constant Southworth of Duxbury afore- said, in behalf of all the townsmen of Duxbury aforesaid, a tract of land usually called Satucket, extending in the length and breadth thereof as followeth : that is to say, from the wear at Satucket seven miles due cast, and from the said wear seven miles due west, and from the said wear seven miles due north, and from the said wear seven miles due south ; the which traet the said Ousamequin hath given, granted, enfeofed, and sold unto the said Miles Standish, Samuel Nash, and Constant Southworth, in the behalf of all the townsinen of Duxbury, as aforesaid, with all the immunities, privileges, and profits whatsoever belonging to the said tract of land, with
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THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS.
all and singular all woods, underwoods, lands, meadows, rivers, brooks, rivulets, &c., to have and to hold, to the said Miles Standish, Samuel Nash, and Constant Southworth, in behalf of all the townsmen of the town of Duxbury, to them and their heirs forever. In witness whereof, I, the said Ousamequin, have hereunto set my hand this 23d of March, 1649.
JOHN BRADFORD,
WILLIAM OTWAY, alias PARKER,
Witness the mark of OUSAMEQUIN.
In consideration of the aforesaid bargain and sale, we, the said Miles Standish, Samuel Nash, and Constant Southworth, do bind ourselves to pay unto the said Ousamequin, for and in consideration of the said tract of land, as followeth : -
7 coats, a yard and a half in a coat.
9 hatchets.
8 hoes.
20 knives. 4 moose-skins. 10 yards and a half of cotton.
MILES STANDISH,
SAMUEL NASH, CONSTANT SOUTHWORTH.
This contract is said to have been made on what was called "Sachem's Rock," in East Bridgewater, a little south of Whitman's Mills, and near the house of the late David Kingman.
This Ousamequin, sometimes called Ossamequin, was no other than Massasoit himself, who, in the latter part of his life, had adopted that name. The deed written by Capt. Miles Standish, one of the original planters of the Colony, and signed with the mark of the Sachem, is still in existence. When the old Sachem was called upon to execute his deed, he endeavored to make it as sure as possible. For that pur- pose, he affixed a mark in the shape of a
Thus we have seen that the original town of Bridgewater, comprising the territory now known as North, East, West, and South Bridgewater, was purchased by Capt. Miles Standish and others for the trifling sum of seven coats, nine hatchets, eight hoes, twenty knives, four moose-skins, and ten and a
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HISTORY OF NORTH BRIDGEWATER.
half yards of cotton; the whole not amounting to thirty dol- lars in value.
This town was the first interior settlement in the old Colony. The grant of the plantation, as we have seen, was in 1645. and the settlement made in 1650. The first settlers had a house-lot of six acres each on the town river, and the place was called Nuckatest, or Nuncketetest. The first lots were taken up at West Bridgewater; first houses built and the first improvements made there. The settlement was compact, - the house-lots being contiguous, - with a view for mutual protection and aid against the Indians; and, as a further protection from the natives, they erected a stockade or garrison on the south side of the river, and fortified many of their dwellings. It is said that not more than one-third of the original fifty-six proprietors ever removed and became inhabitants of their new settlement. From this original home, the settlers scattered into other portions of the town, extending their dwellings first into the south part of the town, toward Nippenicket Pond, on the road to Taunton, whither they were in the habit of going either to mill or to trade ; and we are told they frequently went to that place on foot, with the grists on their backs, a distance of several miles.
The last settled part of the town was the north, which was not till after 1700; no permanent settlement being made in what was called the North Parish till after that time, and the settlers were mostly from the West Parish, now called West Bridgewater.
The plantation remained to Duxbury until June, 1656, when it was incorporated into a distinct and separate town in the following concise language : -
" ORDERED, That henceforth Duxborrow New Plantation bee allowed to bee a tounshipe of ytselfe, destinet from Duxborrow, and to bee called by the name of Bridgewater. Provided that all publieke rates bee borne by them with Duxborrow upon equally proportions."
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THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS.
The court settled the rates to be paid by the proprietors as follows : -
" The town of Bridgewater is to bear one part of three with Duxbury, of their proportion of the country rates for the officers' wages and other public charges."
Previous to the incorporation of the town, the plantation had been called Bridgewater; but, of the origin of the name, we have nothing authentic, except a matter of fancy for a town in England of that name; and, from the time of its set- tlement, the town has maintained a strong position in the history of the country.
The town continued a united and harmonious whole until 1715, when a petition was sent to General Court to be set off into a separate parish or precinct; the petitioners repre. senting themselves as inhabitants of the easterly part of Bridgewater. A committee of two in the Council, and three of the House, was appointed to examine into the matter; who attended to their duties, and reported in favor of grant- ing their request; which was accepted, and an act of incor- poration passed June 1, 1716, with this condition : -
" That the whole town stand obliged to an honorable maintenance of the Rev. James Keith, their present aged minister, if he should outlive his powers and capacities of discharging the office and duty of their minister."
The new parish was called the South, and the old one the North, Precinct, which then included the West and what is now North Bridgewater. In 1723, that part of the old North Precinct now known as East Bridgewater, then known as the West Parish, was set off, and constituted a precinct called the East Parish, in Dec. 14, 1723; and May 31, 1738, fifty- five individuals, belonging in the old North Parish, sent a petition to the General Court, asking to be set off into a separate township; which petition was so far granted as to allow them the powers and privileges usually allowed to
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HISTORY OF NORTH BRIDGEWATER.
parishes. The following is a copy of petition and the act of incorporation : -
To His Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Esqr ., Captin General and Governour in Chief in and over his Majesties Province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England, and to the Honourable his Majesties Council and House of Representatives in Generil Court Assembled at Boston, on the 31st of May, 1738, the Petition of us, the Subscribers, Inhabitants of the Town of Bridgewater, Consisting Chiefly of the North part of the west pre- cinct, and two Familys of the East precinct, in sd Town, --
Humbly Sheweth :
That, when the meeting house was lately bult In the West precinct, the Inhabitants of the North part of sd West precinct Cheerfully Consented to, and Did their proportionable part In, building of sd meeting House where it Now stands, tho very Remote from the Petitioners, and at such a Distance from them so as but few of their Families Ever Could, without Great Diffi- culty, attend the Publick Worship of God there; but, Notwithstanding, thay were Willing to Do the utmost of their power and ability to Promote the Worship of God their, In hopes when thay ware able to have it Nearer to them ; and, by the Providence of God, thay are Greatly Increased In Numbers and Something In Estates, So that they look upon themselves Capable of Bulding a Meeting House, and Sittling a Minister, and uphold- ing the publick Worship of God among themselves, and are in hopes that the Best part of the Town and West precinct have no Just Cause to object against it, Since we have been so helpful, and Done to the utmost of our power in Sittling the minister and Bulding the New Meeting House, In sd West precinct, and we are willing and Desirous that what we then Did should be left to that precinct, who are now able of themselves, under their priesent good and Growing Circumstances, to maintain the Public Worship of God ther without us, as will appear by the Valuation of their Estates herewith Exhibited, which the more Emboldens us to petition this Honour- able Court to Set us off a Distinct and Separate Township, by the following metes and Bounds, which Includes not only the North part of Bridgewater, but a small Tract of land and a few of the Inhabitants of the town of Stoughton, which suitable accomodites them as well as us, viz. : Beginning at a white oak tree standing on the North west part of Jonathan Packard's field, on the Easterly side of the Countrey Road, and from thence East and West till It meets with Easton Line, and East till it meets with the East precinct Line, and then North on sd Line Half one mile, and then North East till it meet with Beaver Brook; then by said Brook to the Colony Line, So called; then Westerly by sd Line to a Beach tree which is tho Easterly Corner Bounds of Stoughton ; then on the Line between Brantrey and Stoughton to Capt. Curtis' Land ; then Westerly to Salisbery plain River ; then southerly by sd Rever to the Colony Line ; then Westerly by 64 Line to Easton Line ; and then South By sd Line first mentioned. We
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THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS.
having In time past once and again petitioned this Honourable Court for Relief in the premises, but it so happened that this Honoured Court Did not then Grant the prayer of our petition in full, But Nevertheless, accord- ing to our Desier, Sent a Committee to view and Consider our circumstances, whose report (we humbley Conceve) was somthing Different from What we prayed for in our petition, and the matter falling through, in as much as it happened that his Excellency the Governour Did not then sign what the Honoured Court acted on said report, and we remaining under our Diffi- eulties and unrelieved, But yet taking encouragement from what was acted on sª report by the Honoured Court, and also from what was acted by our town in general, at a Town meeting Legally Called and Notified to that purposee, on the 15th of February Last, In which We had the major vote for our being set off a Distinct Township, and, that we might not be under Difficulties In Bulding an House and Settling a Minister all at once, have erected and Inclosed a good House for the publicke Worship of God Where it may Best accomodate us all. We Do therfore think it our duty once more humbly to Renew our Petition that We may be set off a Township as Before herein prayed for, and we Humble beg leave here to say, that what we now offer in Respect of our being So Set off is Sincerity for the pro- moting the Worship of God and Religion In the Puriety of it among us.
Wherefore we pray your Excelleney and Honours would be pleased to here our Request and Grant our petition, and as we in Duty Bound Shall Ever pray.
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