USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 18
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 18
USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 18
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3,669,475
1,048
Hanson
Feb. 22, 1820
1,910
2,790,455
792
Hingham
Sept. 2, 1635
5,604
13,168,694
2,508
Hull
May 29, 1644
1,771
19,243,291
1,204
Kingston
June 16, 1726
2,505
3,065,777
918
Lakeville
May 13, 1853
1,419
1,750,779
405
Marion
May 14, 1852
1,288
4,850,904
586
Marshfield
March 2, 1640
1,379
5,170,483
880
Mattapoisett
May 20, 1857
1,277
3,315,467
622
Norwell
Feb. 27, 1888
1,348
2,027,455
689
Pembroke
March 21, 1711
1,358
2,671,467
490
Plympton
June 4, 1707
1,047
904,980
203
Rochester
June 4, 1686
1,047
1,600,478
262
Rockland
March 9, 1874
7,544
9,924,993
3,822
Scituate
Oct. 5, 1636
4,415
11,002,630
1,814
Wareham
July 10, 1759
4,415
12,261,758
1,814
West Bridgewater
Feb. 16, 1822
2,908
2,851,792
1,099
Whitman
March 4, 1875
7,147
9,324,443
3,830
Legal
Valuation
Voters
Bridgewater
June 3, 1656
8,438
7,966,986
2,508
Middleborough
June 1, 1669
8,453
9,400,946
3,050
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LAUNCHING OF THREE COUNTIES
Officials-The present Plymouth County officers are : Judge of Probate and Insolvency Court, Loyed E. Chamberlain, Brockton; Register of Probate and Insolvency Court, Sumner A. Chapman, Plymouth; As- sistant Register, Mary W. Gooding, Plymouth; Sheriff, Earl P. Blake, Plymouth; Clerk of Courts, Edward E. Hobart, Plymouth; Assistant Clerk of Courts, Edgar W. Swift, Plymouth; County Treasurer, Horace T. Fogg, Norwell; Register of Deeds, John B. Washburn, Plymouth ; Assistant Register of Deeds, Edward C. Holmes, Plymouth; County Commissioners : Charles S. Beal, Rockland ; Jere B. Howard, Brockton; Frederick T. Bailey, Scituate.
Assistant Commissioners : William L. Sprague, Marshfield; Ezra S. Whitmarsh, East Bridgewater.
Masters in Chancery : William T. Way, Plympton; Edward N. Dahl- borg, Brockton; Charles H. Wilkes, Abington; Edmund J. Campbell, Brockton; Frank M. Reynolds, Hull.
District Attorney, Southeastern District (Plymouth and Norfolk counties) : Winfield M. Wilbar, Brockton; Assistants : William P. Kel- ley, Braintree ; Dudley P. Ranney, Wellesley ; Deputy, John V. Sullivan, Middleborough.
State Farm Superintendent and Treasurer : Henry J. Strann; Master, J. Arthur Taylor; Clerk, Fred P. Turner; Medical Director, William T. Hanson, M. D. Located at Bridgewater.
State Normal School Principal, Arthur C. Boyden. School at Bridge- water, opened September, 1846.
Police Court-Brockton (jurisdiction in Brockton, Bridgewater, East Bridgewater, and West Bridgewater), Justice, C. Carroll King; special Justices, William G. Rowe, Herbert C. Thorndike; Clerk, Charles F. King.
District Courts-Second Plymouth (court held at Abington and Hingham; jurisdiction in Abington, Whitman, Rockland, Hingham, Hull, Hanover, Scituate, Norwell and Hanson), Justice, George W. Kelley; Special Justices, Edward B. Pratt, James T. Kirby ; Clerk, Her- bert L. Pratt.
Third Plymouth (court held at Plymouth; jurisdiction in Plymouth, Halifax, Kingston, Plympton, Pembroke, Duxbury and Marshfield), Justice, Harry B. Davis; Special Justices, Morton Collingwood, John P. Vahey ; Clerk, John E. Miles.
Fourth Plymouth (court held at Middleborough and Wareham ; juris- dictions in Middleborough, Wareham, Carver, Lakeville, Marion, Matta- poisett and Rochester), Justice, Nathan Washburn; Special Justices, Dennis D. Sullivan; Bert J. Allan; Clerk, Luke F. Kelly.
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PLYMOUTH, NORFOLK AND BARNSTABLE
Postoffices-Postoffices in Plymouth County :
Postoffice
Town
Postoffice
Town
Abington
Abington
Montello
Brockton
Accord
Hingham
Nantasket Beach
Hull
Allerton
Hull
North Abington
Abington
Assinippi
Hanover
North Carver
Carver
Brant Rock
Marshfield
North Duxbury
Duxbury
Bridgewater
Bridgewater
North Hanover
Hanover
Brockton
Brockton
North Marshfield
Marshfield
Bryantville
Pembroke
North Middleborough
Middleborough
Bumkin Island
Hull
North Pembroke
Pembroke
Campello
Brockton
North Plymouth
Plymouth
Carver
Carver
North Scituate
Scituate
Centre Street
Brockton
Norwell
Norwell
Cochesett
West Bridgewater
Ocean Bluff
Marshfield
Duxbury
Duxbury
Onset
Wareham
East Bridgewater
East Bridgewater
Pembroke
Pembroke
East Carver
Carver
Plymouth
Plymouth
East Pembroke
Pembroke
Plympton
Plympton
East Wareham
Wareham
Rivermoor
Scituate
Egypt
Scituate
Rock
Rockland
Elmwood
East Bridgewater
Rockland
Middleborough
Fort Andrews
Hull
Sandhills
Scituate
Greenbush
Scituate
Scituate
Scituate
Green Harbor
Marshfield
Scituate Centre
Scituate
Halifax
Halifax
Sea View
Marshfield
Hanover
Hanover
Shore Acres
Scituate
Hanover Centre
Hanover
Silver Lake
Kingston
Hanson
Hanson
South Carver
Carver
Hingham
Hingham
South Duxbury
Duxbury
Hingham Centre
Hingham
South Hanover
Hanover
Hull
Hull
South Hanson
Hanson
Humarock
Scituate
South Middleborough
Middleborough
Island Creek
Duxbury
South Wareham
Wareham
Kenberma
Hull
Standish
Marshfield
Kingston
Kingston
State Farm
Bridgewater
Lakeville
Lakeville
Straits Pond
Hull
Manomet
Plymouth
Swifts Beach
Wareham
Marion
Marion
Wareham
Wareham
Marshfield
Marshfield
West Bridgewater
West Bridgewater
Marshfield Hills
Marshfield
Westdale
West Bridgewater
Mattapoisett
Mattapoisett
West Duxbury
Duxbury
Middleborough
Middleborough
West Hanover
Hanover
Millbrook
Duxbury
West Wareham
Wareham
Minot
Scituate
White Horse Beach
Plymouth
Monponsett
Halifax
Whitman
Whitman
Apples, Cranberries and Poultry An Important Trio-The problem of wresting a living from the stubborn soil of New England has chal- lenged the brain and brawn from the beginning of things in New Eng- land, but agriculture has been an important industry all the while and continues to be. Some of the first lessons in agriculture were learned
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LAUNCHING OF THREE COUNTIES
from the Indians, such as burying herrings with the corn which was planted to feed the Pilgrim Fathers, Mothers and Children.
Another early custom, whether learned from the Indians or forced upon the First Comers as a matter of experience, was cutting down trees in the winter, allowing them to remain until spring, then burning them, allowing the ashes to mingle with the soil and planting corn while the earth was still warm.
It must be remembered that Plymouth County farms were shaped out of the forests. There were no domestic animals the first few years and the soil was, unlike that of the Middle West, dependent upon the co- operation of fertilizing elements before it would produce much of a laugh at the time of harvest, however faithfully it might have been tickled with the crude agricultural instruments from planting time till approaching winter.
There were unusual agricultural difficulties in Plymouth County from the first and some of them exist today. In order to be picturesque and make a hit with the summer visitor, the topography of Plymouth Coun- ty is uneven and there are boulders and stones of all sizes distributed over the fields with a lavish hand. This condition makes a hit with the vacationist but makes a mess for the implements. It makes it unusually hard to use the modern agriculturists to the same advantage they can be used on level country, free from rocks and stones. This region was once covered by the great continental glacier, which rounded off the corners and perhaps removed mountains, but it left heaps of gravel and unfertile sands which have been the despair of many brave men agriculturally inclined. This condition helped to make Massa- chusetts an industrial State and accounts for wooden nutmegs in Con- necticut.
A little more than one-third of the farm land in Massachusetts is what is called "improved land." The percentatge is better in Plymouth County but most of the farmers have discovered that success lies in specialization, rather than attempting to grow many of the farm prod- ucts which the climate permits. Practically all Plymouth County soils are strongly acid and require treatment. According to agronomy special- ists, it now pays to do this in Plymouth County. It pays to grow heavy crops of good hay, silage, clover and alfalfa. The market is safe enough to begin building up the farms. According to John P. Helyar, State extension soils and plants specialist, "Plymouth County soils are generally light and well drained, all the land is sour but plenty of lime and acid phosphate to the acre will correct that condition. The land is especially adapted to alfalfa and many progressive farmers are be- ginning its cultivation on a large scale."
Fruit growing and especially the raising of apples has become an
160
PLYMOUTH, NORFOLK AND BARNSTABLE
important agricultural specialty in the county in recent years. Apples have always been a staple crop in the Old Colony and there is no sec- tion where the flavor, aroma and juiciness and sweetness, and all those qualities upon which we base our estimate of the excellence of an apple are more highly developed than . in this county. There are many thousands of young trees in the commercial orchards now receiving careful scientific care and their condition is full of promise. The Federal census of 1920 gives the total yield of Massachusetts apples. as 3,187,211 bushels, and Plymouth County produced its share. The value of the Massachusetts crop is given as $6,000,000, which is about one-ninth of the value of all crops produced in the State. The statistics for Plymouth County have not been produced, but in Massachusetts the increase in young trees during the decade 1910-1920 was three times as great as the falling off in number of trees of bearing age, which shows a healthy condition.
. On the subject of apple culture in Massachusetts, Governor Alvan T. Fuller in his "Apple week" proclamation, said: "Let us plant more apple trees about our homes for the loveliness and fragance of their flowers, the beauty of their form, for the shade of their verdure, and the joy of their delightful fruit. The apple tree, in the minds and hearts of many, symbolizes the rural home of America."
The hills, of which there are so many in Plymouth County, are prefer- red as sites for apple orchards, thus providing good water drainage, and, what is equally essential, air drainage. A gravelly loam soil is ideal.
There are many small cities and large towns in Massachusetts alone, to say nothing of New England, which are inadequately supplied with fruits and vegetables of local production. The northern line of Ply- mouth County is less than twenty miles from Boston, seventh in popula- tion among the cities of the United States. In 1922, Boston received and distributed 50,000 carloads of sixty-six different kinds of fruits and vegetables. These came from forty-two States and twenty foreign countries. There are shipped into Boston each season many carloads of cauliflower, celery, spinach and tomatoes, much of which might well be grown in the truck gardens of Massachusetts. There is no lack of marketing opportunities if the producers will put their products into commercial boxes as attractive as they arrive from greater distances. This has been one great handicap to marketing with the best results. The Plymouth County agriculturist has produced quality fruits and vegetables but has not always presented them at the markets all dressed up and ready to sell to the fastidious purchaser who was willing to pay a good price for an article pleasing to the sight as well as every other sense. Boston annually distributes almost as many carloads of
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LAUNCHING OF THREE COUNTIES
fruits and vegetables as Philadelphia, and about one-third as many as New York.
Importance of Cranberries-Cranberry growing is a highly specialized industry in Plymouth County, which produces more of that fruit than any other county in the world. There are in the county many hundreds of acres of marshes and swamps. The soils in these swamps are heavy with muck and peat. About 15,000 acres of peat bogs in southeastern Massachusetts have been developed for cranberry production. From these otherwise worthless areas-not all of which is in Plymouth County-in some years one-half of the entire cranberry supply of the country is produced. The prices obtained for cranberries have been increased great- ly the past few years. Cranberry sauces and jellies have been supplied as a canned product and well received throughout this country and abroad. It required quite a campaign of education to convince many human be- ings that turkey and other fowl required cranberry sauce or jelly to make it doubly desirable as an epicurean possession. There seems no limit to the quantity of cranberries which can be sold, if the right effort is expended in sales promotion.
The Massachusetts Agricultural College maintains a special experi- ment station in recognition of the importance of the cranberry in- dustry. There is a cranberry school for practical field instruction of growers and students. Weather observations and frost warnings are included in the service.
Massachusetts has 13,891 acres of cranberry bog in bearing, and its crop is running over a million bushels a year. It is the leading export crop of the State, and is exchanged for about $4,000,000. Plymouth County has 8,582 acres devoted to cranberries, and Barnstable County has 4,331, although most people associate cranberries distinctly with Cape Cod. In Plymouth County the leading town in cranberry culture is Carver, which has an area of 2,691 acres. The other counties largely concerned in this industry make the following contributions in acreage : Bristol, 422; Dukes, 46; Norfolk, 55; Middlesex, 115; Essex, 10; and Nantucket, 330.
This industry has been largely built up to its present importance through propaganda. People have to be educated to like cranberries, much the same as they have to be educated to like olives. To have a good thing is not sufficient in itself. People once attempted to lift themselves by their bootstraps. Now they lift themselves by their yeast cakes-a matter of advertising.
Just what reaction the cranberry acid had on the palate of an Indian, we do not know from any of the early historians but there is an area in the vicinity of Herring Pond in Plymouth which had the Indian
Plym-11
162
PLYMOUTH, NORFOLK AND BARNSTABLE
.name Massassoomineuk, which means "much cranberries," from which we infer that, passing along that way, the noble red skin was wont to sit up and take notice and cranberry sauce on the shore of Herring Pond if never again.
Records show that the people in the counties producing one million bushels of cranberries annually consume less than five per cent of the total cranberry crop, or two-fifths of a pound per capita. The Missouri River States, including Missouri, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas and Iowa, consume 28 per cent of the crop. In Minnesota the per capita consumption is one pound, showing that the people of that State, half way between Plymouth Rock and the Golden Gate, are well sold on the berry that made Cape Cod famous.
The North Central States, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, consume 24 per cent of the crop. There is another strange fact, that, in Wisconsin, where the cranberries literally grow on bushes, the Badger state population depends largely upon New England for their turkey "trimmings," much preferring the coast-line variety to their own. Wisconsin is the third largest cranberry-producing State.
The mid-Atlantic States eat 18 per cent of the cranberries.
The Southern and Western States consume a very small percentage of the crop although the Pacific Coast, which has to add to the f. o. b. price a freight rate of nearly $4 per barrel, last year consumed 15,000 barrels of berries. The whole of New England, with a population of seven and one-half millions and a freight rate not exceeding forty cents per barrel, used only 20,000 barrels.
The profit made on cranberries in Plymouth County depends to a considerable extent on the price of sugar and this commodity is eagerly watched by the cranberry men who preserved a large percentage of the berries. Picking the early blacks, the first cranberries to be harvested, begins about the first of September and continues till after some of the early frosts. Great care has to be taken to flow the bogs, if there is to be a killing frost, and the warning from the Weather Bureau is treated with great respect. Much of the picking is done by foreign- born families who move into the shanties erected by owners of the bogs when the time comes to harvest. Some of the picking is done by a power machine, One such picker consists of a revolving cylinder containing fourteen scoops, each covering thirty inches of space. The vines are combed through two inches. One revolution of the machine covers an area of fifteen square feet. The berries are stripped from the vines at the bottom of the cylinder and taken to the top, where they are deposited on a movable apron which conveys them to the opposite side of the machine.
Some cranberry growers believe that they will get a much larger
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LAUNCHING OF THREE COUNTIES
yield from their bogs in the future by placing colonies of honey bees on their bogs for cross pollination and other purposes. Bees contribute much to the fruit and vegetable production ; and growing cucumbers in hot houses, which is another industry in Plymouth County, would be impossible without their cooperation. But Charles Bradford Hathaway of Marion is the pioneer in the field of harnessing his bees and bogs together.
The scourge of the cranberry bog is the fruit worm. The egg which produces this worm is laid by a moth in the nectar in the small blossom of the cranberry. The moth lays its eggs in the warm part of the day and the egg incubates in the warm nectar. Mr. Hathaway has found by experimentation that the moth does not lay eggs where there is a bee at work for obvious reasons. The Hathaway bogs have been prac- tically free from the ravages of the fruit worm since he has supplied them plentifully with working colonies of bees. Furthermore he has been able to harvest a considerable quantity of cranberry flower honey in excess of the amount of honey produced by the bees at other times, when the cranberry plant is not in flower. Cranberry flower honey has a good taste and color and finds a ready market. According to Mr. Hathaway, a colony of about 60,000 bees will keep two acres of bog free from the moths and the results of laying their eggs. Such a colony can be purchased for about $15. Without the bees the bogs would have to be sprayed at least twice to keep the worms away. . He there- fore expects a substantial saving in labor as well as increase in both cranberry and honey production.
"God's Cranberry Bog"-Two things have occurred within two years to greatly advertise cranberry culture in this vicinity. Both of them happened in Carver, one of the smallest towns in Plymouth County as regards inhabitants ; the largest as regards cranberry production. Rev. Charles W. Hidden, pastor of the Baptist church in that town, some- times called "the little white church by the wayside," received the gift of a cranberry bog from a lady, to be operated for the benefit of the church. This gave the pastor an idea. He announced that it should be called "God's Cranberry Bog" and it would be dedicated to the work of copious harvests for the benefit of God. Accordingly the day for the dedication was widely announced and the bog was surrounded by motor cars from far and near to witness the service of dedication. Rev. Mr. Hidden made the service simple but impressive and expressed his firm belief that it would be blessed with a liberal harvest.
By the time the berries were ready to pick, calls came for them at far more than the market price. The yield was satisfactory and the profit was pleasing, enabling the society to make needed repairs to the
164
PLYMOUTH, NORFOLK AND BARNSTABLE
church edifice and give it an era of prosperity such as it had not had before. Recently a legacy of $500 came to the church from the estate of Olive A. Sawyer, late of Woodstock, Vermont, bequeathed because of the pastor's supreme faith in dedicating the bog as he did in May, 1925.
Many people have had a feeling which other people have called super- stition, about this wayside church and especially about "God's Cran- berry Bog." It was not strange, therefore, that the village was some- what startled, and Edward Rowe in particular, one cool night in August, 1926, when a huge ball of fire appeared in the Heavens, like Elijah's chariot of fire in reverse gear. It came hurling through the air in the direction of "God's Cranberry Bog." The astonished Edward Rowe watched it strike heavily into the ground, not of "God's Cranberry Bog," but one near it belonging to Harvey Burgess.
Mr. Rowe did not know whether to follow the moving star, like one of the wise men of old, or to wait for at least two others to appear. Soon several men came from one of the shanties in the neighborhood and, upon investigation, it was decided that the celestial visitant was a meteor. From front to back it was wedge shaped and weighed about fourteen pounds. It was later viewed by mineralogists who said pebbles bedded in the meteor were granite, gneiss and quartz. It was grey green in color, and looked like various stones, concrete and smooth pebbles melted together. Whether it came from Mars or some nearer shore no one seemed to know but it was placed on exhibition in the centre of the town and attracted much attention and comment.
Wonderful Marketing Opportunities-Another small town which has become the centre of an important Plymouth County industry, or specialized farming, is Halifax. This town of less than 500 inhabitants is the geographical centre of the county. A generation ago its principal industries were farming in general in the summer and lumbering in the winter. There were several sawmills, operated by water power or steam, and many thousands of logs were cut, hauled to the mills and sawed into box boards; while the limbs of the trees became com- mercial wood fuel which sold for a liberal price. Most of the forests were of white pine.
Halifax is today one of several of the smaller towns in the county extensively engaged in producing poultry, eggs for hatching and day old chicks. Most of the fanciers prefer Rhode Island Reds and several hundred thousands of little reds are hatched in the incubators and find a waiting market, or are sold as broilers in another market.
What has been done in Halifax has been done to a large extent in other towns in the county. As a matter of fact the Plymouth County
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LAUNCHING OF THREE COUNTIES
Extension Service for several years has advocated poultry farming rather than truck farming and the advice has proven profitable to follow. The opportunity for poultry raising in the county seems un- limited. The Boston market secures from the farms in Massachusetts only a small proportion of the eggs and poultry it consumes. Millions of eggs are imported from China and other countries. It is said that eggs cost more in the Boston market than anywhere else in the country, and the prices tempt shipments by train loads from the Middle West.
The brown shelled egg brings a slightly higher price in the Boston market; New York demands white eggs. Since the Boston market is the one for Plymouth County, Rhode Island Reds, which usually produce brown eggs of good size, are the favorites. Plymouth County has be- come a nursery for red hens. It took much interest in a monument which was dedicated August 28, 1926, in Little Compton, Rhode Island. The monument is in the State where it is supposed the Rhode Island Red originated, but there are other monuments or memorial buildings all over Plymouth County housing her numberless descendants. It is in Plymouth County that the highest degree of specialization in the poultry industry has grown up and persisted.
The governor of Rhode Island, college professors, scholars and economists took part in the dedication of the monument to the little red hen which has become such an important factor in New England agriculture. In Plymouth County, for instance, the highest grade breeding stock is obtained and sent all over the domestic and foreign markets. There are many poultry farmers who have incubators capable of hatching 40,000 eggs at a setting. Economically the business is sound. Highest quality poultry and eggs must be produced near the point of consumption and it is highest quality that the Boston market demands. Western eggs may continue to appear in the cooking but the Plymouth County egg cannot be excelled as the delight of the breakfast table.
Poultry as a meat is also produced for the best markets. There is a poultry farm in Island Creek, between Kingston and Duxbury, from which are shipped to the New York market broilers in the largest quantity of any broiler producing farm in the East. The entire county looks to New England dealers as sources of superior breeding stock, and Plymouth County is the poultry tenderloin of New England. The breeding plant is an added opportunity for the poultry husbandry of the county which has assumed substantial proportions and a matchless reputation. In recent years there has been a great demand for ducks for food, and profitable duck farms are taking the place of those devoted a generation ago to raising vegetables with indifferent success.
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