USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 34
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 34
USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 34
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The ancestors of most Americans in earlier days came from Great Britain, Ireland, Germany and the Scandinavian countries. Consequent- ly a large percentage of the immigrants up to a certain time were from those same countries. But since forty years ago southern and eastern Europe has sent their many thousands every year, many of them fleeing from political tyranny or religious persecution of the present century,
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for these things have by no means passed away and the spirit of intoler- ance is still an active foe to the brotherhood of man. Immigrants from Italy, Austria-Hungary, Poland and Russia have come to escape military service at home or unendurable economic conditions. Armenians and Syrians have come here to escape the tyranny of the Turkish govern- ment. Jews have fled from persecution in Russia and elsewhere. All of these have their representatives in Plymouth County and the task of Americanizing them has been far different than was that of making Americans out of those who were from countries in which there was more progressive agriculture, thriving manufacturing, skilled labor and more participation in government. Many of them have been hardy and industrious people and their rise in industrial life in the community has been creditable to them and of value to the county.
Negroes Arrived Before Pilgrims-The Negroes have contributed much to the development of the county. There have been several notable teachers who have given their best efforts to bringing this race into a worthy position in society, by going to the South, or elsewhere, from Plymouth County homes.
Rev. Alan Hudson, for many years pastor of the First Congregational Church in Brockton, was deeply interested in the education of the col- cred race. He spoke on several occasions before the students of Howard University in Washington, and in 1904 that institution conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity and made him a trustee. He later became president of the university and held that position until his death in 1916.
Rev. J. Stanley Durkee, Doctor of Philosophy, for several years pas- tor of the South Congregational Church in Brockton, succeeded Rev. Dr. Hudson as president of Howard University, and remained in that position until early in 1927, he became one of the successors of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher as pastor of the Plymouth Congregational Church at Brooklyn, New York. The two men were friends and, shortly after the passing away of Rev. Dr. Hudson, a memorial volume, entitled "In the Footsteps of a Friend," was written by Rev. Dr. Durkee. The title proved a prophecy, so far as continuing the work among the colored people was concerned. A copy of this book was sent to Rev. Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis, as that time pastor of Plymouth Church, and in response he wrote to Dr. Durkee:
I have returned from a long lecture trip to find the news of the death of Alan Hudson and your tribute of affection to our old friend. It spreads a black cloud over the face of the sun. I have always associated Hudson with life, and never thought of him in relation to death,-and I am unable to realize that the announce- ment is true.
This inability in itself is a kind of argument for immortality, and, if the intellect questions, the heart stands up 'and answers, "I have felt." He was only at the
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beginning of his career and what treasure was locked up within him, none of us can ever know.
Another Brockton minister who became deeply interested in educating the colored people was Rev. Pitt Dillingham, several years pastor of Unity Church in Brockton, later identified with collegiate education among Negroes in the South. Rev. Dr. Charles M. Melden, several years pastor of the Central Methodist Episcopal Church in Brockton, was in later years president of a colored university in the South.
The first church organized among the colored people in Brockton had as its organizer and first pastor, Rev. Sabastian D. Turner. He remained in Brockton until he went into the army, as chaplain of a colored regi- ment in the World War. He was induced to remain in the service after the war.
One of the conspicuously successful colored men of Plymouth County is Watt Terry, once janitor of the Brockton Young Men's Christian As- sociation Building and several apartment houses in Brockton. He later took up real estate and at one time controlled a large amount of real estate in that city, being one of the largest owners of record of real estate in the county. Later he changed his base of operations to New York City, where he became conspicuously successful. He retains his home in Brockton, is a leading member of the Messiah Baptist Church in that city, rated among the wealthy residents and progressive citizens. He has been much in demand in recent years as a speaker before organizations of colored men throughout the East, giving them inspirational talks, based on his own experiences.
Negroes landed at Jamestown two years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, and the Indians were here years without number before either Negroes or Pilgrims, but the white people had strong antipathies against both black and red. This rouge et noir antipathy asserted itself in the way in which Negroes and Indians were treated in the meeting-houses. Negro slaves were placed in the furthermost corners of the galleries and sometimes in pens on the walls about the galleries. Sometime Indians were required to sit on the stairs leading to the pulpit or to the gallery but this did not disturb the Indians to any serious extent. Probably any of them would have preferred to squat upon the floor, as was their custom in their wigwams.
In the Plymouth town records, as late as 1715, is a donation recorded that "the owners of the seat before the place where the Negroes and Indians sett at the meeting-house Doe give 3 pounds Towards Erecting a plase for said Negroes and Indians to sett in Elsewhere." These were evidently war captives who had been sold into slavery.
There is a record that in 1676 in Bridgewater, the town voted to "see what should be done with the money that was made of the Indians that
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were sold last, and it was voted that the soldiers that took them should have it."
John Bacon, a man of prominence in Barnstable about that time, directed in his will that his Indian slave, Dinah, be sold and the proceeds "improved by my executors in buying Bibles."
There were white slaves also in those days, men, women and children, brought by transports from Ireland, in most cases, under an agreement that the persons so imported should be sold as slaves for a time agreed upon. The Boston "News-Letter" contained, in 1727, an advertisement which read: "A likely Servant Maid's Time of about Five Years, to be disposed of." Another advertisement, under date of January 5, 1764: "Just imported from Dublin in the brig 'Darby' a parcel of Irish serv- ants, both men and women, to be sold cheap by Israel Boardman at Stamford." (Connecticut.)
Some servants of this type were bought in Plymouth County and the neighboring counties but not many, so far as the records show.
The first Fugitive Slave law made no distinctions concerning the color of slaves but the articles of confederation between all the New England colonies included the following :
If any servante rune away from his maister into another of these confederated jurisdictions, that in such case, upon ye certificate of one magistrate in ye juris- diction out of which ye said servante fledd, or upon other due proofe, the said servante shall be delivered either to his maister or any other yt pursues such certificate or proofe.
Sometimes Negro slaves were admitted to church membership and the number of "praying Indians" became large, thanks to the work of Rev. John Eliot and Roger Williams, more especially than to the Pil- grims. No general effort was made to convert slaves, however, as it was feared their conversion might entitle them to personal freedom. Some ministers protested against this lack of missionary work in 1696, proposing to the General Court, "That ye wel-knowne Discouragement upon ye endeavours of masters to Christianize their slaves, may be re- moved by a Law which may take away all pretext to Release from just servitude, by receiving of Baptisme." No notice was taken of this proposal.
Occasionally there was a brand saved from the burning, the most con- spicuous example being that of Phillis Wheatley, who not only became a church member but a poetess worthy of mention. When about eight years of age, Phillis was brought from Africa with other slaves. She learned to read and write, had an understanding of religion and became . author of a volume of poems. Her book bore on the title page her name, under which was the line "Negro servant to Mr. John Wheatley of Bos- ton in New England." Her book was entitled "Poems on Various Sub-
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jects Religious and Moral." Telling her own story in one of the poems, she wrote :
'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too; Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. Some view our fable race with scornful eye, "Their colour is a diabolic die." Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.
In the early records of the first church in North Bridgewater (now Brockton) it is recorded under date of March 19, 1789, "Voted to build a porch, provided it can be Don without expense to the parish, and also to put seats in the porch and Belfree for the negroes, and sell the room where the stairs and negro pew now are."
Evidently there was some resentment on the part of the colored people at being expected to occupy a loft especially set apart for their use, and there is a 'later record, August 4, 1800: "To see what measures the parish will take to prevent the blacks from occupying the seats appropriated to the use of white people, so as to prevent any disturbance in time of Public worshipe." At that meeting it was "Voted that the side galleries and the seats in the Body of the meeting-house be appropriated to the use of the white people, and the seats in the porch above to the use of the blacks."
Whether this vote was carried out and there was no controversy worth mentioning for sixteen years, we have no way of knowing, but there is no official evidence of dissatisfaction recorded until December 5, 1816, when it was "Voted that the People of Color may occupy the two back seats in the west gallery of our meeting-house and no other seats, or that they may have ground for one pew in the northwest corner of the Gallery, and ground for another pew in the North East corner of the Gallery as they choose, and that the Parish clerk serve the people of color with a copy of this vote."
Booker T. Washington, by one writer defined as "the wisest and most influential leader that the Negro race has ever had in America," was for a time a citizen of Weymouth, a neighboring town. Dr. Washington was, it will be remembered, entertained by President Roosevelt, at a dinner at the White House, and for this act of courtesy to a great leader, was greatly criticized by those who worried about the Negro being given a place of social equality with a white man, regardless of his achieve- ments. To this fear Dr. Washington himself said to a white audience at Atlanta, Georgia, in 1895: "In all things that are purely social, we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress." Dr. Washington devoted his life to training Ne-
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groes in industrial pursuits in a school which he built at Tuskegee, Ala- bama, in support of which many generous contributions were sent from Plymouth County.
Our Inter-relations With China-There are comparatively few, per- haps, who realize that there has been any contribution from China which has entered into the industrial or agricultural life of Plymouth County, or that Plymouth County has in any way had its effect in China. The average man, when Chinamen are mentioned, thinks of the laundry busi- ness but there is in Hanson a Chinese farm on which scientific methods are employed and good results obtained.
The Porter Congregational Church in Brockton has for many years maintained a foreign pastor in China. It was the first church in Plym- outh County to have a Chinese Sunday school and has assisted in edu- cating several Chinamen who have become industrious citizens of Brock- ton and other towns in the vicinity.
Rev. and Mrs. John Delmore Mowrey returned to Brockton in March, 1927, after working as missionaries in China, forced to leave their foreign field temporarily on account of war-torn conditions. Their daughter, Julia Elizabeth Mowrey, was born in Ku Ling, in the mountains north of Changsha, where the fighting started. Mrs. Mowrey is the daughter of Rev. and Mrs. David B. Matthews of Brockton.
Nearly fifty years ago, Captain Calvin Bryant, a deep water sea cap- tain whose home was in Plympton, made a voyage once in two years to China. He was a thorough shipmaster and a keen observer. He had a son whom he wished to start in some position which would give him the greatest advantages and decided to take him to China. One day the sea captain sailed on his homeward voyage on the old windjammer, leaving Nelson Bryant, his son, as clerk in an office in China, telling him he would be back in two years and expect to find him doing so well that he would not want to return. Captain Bryant told the writer: "I always believed boys were like cabbage plants-they never amounted to much until they were transplanted."
Nelson Bryant became attached to the Chinese Customs Service and remained in the employ of the Chinese government many years, until he retired from active business, returned to this country, and took up his residence, with his wife, a former Marshfield girl, in California.
There is a considerable Chinese population of laundrymen, restaurant owners, real estate operators, farmers and poultry-raisers in Plymouth County. Something is true of the Chinese which is, perhaps, not true of any other nationality, unless it is the Indians. A Chinaman may be illiterate but by no means ignorant. This is because much of the knowledge and culture of China is handed down to succeeding genera- tions by word of mouth and one may converse with an illiterate China-
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man and find him responding with a quotation from Confucius; an experience which would challenge one to make inquiries. He would be likely to find that while the man was not well-read he might be well- taught.
Baalis Sanford Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, in Brockton, con- ferred the degrees a few years ago upon an honored member, a China- man of distinction, Dr. Tsieh.
When the term "Americanization" is used it is of doubtful meaning, because many flagrant violations of courtesy to newcomers have been done in that name. In its better sense, teaching the foreign-born new- comer to desire and attain a higher standard of living and, by means of education and opportunity, show him how it can equitably be obtained, is the true Americanizing.
The Negro slaves were brought to America in the sevententh and eighteenth centuries, as captured, barbarous Pagans from the jungles of Africa. As slaves in America they were taught to wear clothing, to live in houses and work, although in a lazy and inefficient way. But they were kept in ignorance and superstition and were helpless and shiftless for the most part when the proclamation of emancipation gave them a freedom they did not understand. The Chinamen early in this country were accustomed to living upon a few cents a day and satisfied with the standard of living which it brought them. The immigrants from various countries had low standards of living, many were ignorant, herded themselves together and used their own language instead of making sufficient efforts to learn that of their new country.
The children have gone into public schools, first instituted in Plym- outh County, and the older people have been taught higher standards of living by the trade unions, among other agencies. In these trade unions many immigrants have received their first lessons in citizenship and self-government.
CHAPTER XXII WHEN THE CRUEL WAR WAS OVER.
Abington Was Largest Town in the County, and Aggregate Popula- tion Was 63,974-Town Academies Were Worthy Branches of "The Chief Glory of New England"-First State Normal School In America Erected Building in Bridgewater in 1846-Banks, Insurance Com- panies, Industries, Societies and Inventions-Ship-Wise County Un- willing to Part With Training School for Marines.
It is generally known by most people that cruel punishments, such as sitting in the stocks, standing in the pillory and being lashed at the whip- ping post were practiced in the early days of the Plymouth Colony, but fewer have any idea how long these inhuman practices continued. In the early days a man, in order to vote, had to possess a certain amount of property and be a member of a certain church. It was comparatively few years ago that one could serve as governor of Massachusetts unless he possessed $10,000 in property. When the late Governor William E. Russell was elected, it was necessary for some of his friends to sign over to him certain property to comply with this requirement. This circum- stance led to the condition being abolished.
The growth of a more democratic consciousness came in the early part of the nineteenth century. Laws were changed in the interest of humanity and justice. Cruel punishments were stopped to a large de- gree, and sanitary jails took the place of those which had been disgraces. Well-kept poor houses, institutions for the insane, schools for the deaf and dumb were established, not in every county, but through coopera- tion and agreements which made such institutions available regardless of their location. Free schools for boys had been established in the earliest days in Plymouth Colony and in the early half of the nineteenth century girls were admitted to such schools everywhere, following an earlier example from this section. The first Normal school for the training of teachers was established in Bridgewater as a part of the great advance in education in Massachusetts, under the inspiring leader- ship of Horace Mann. American literature became enriched by the writings of Bryant, Longfellow, Whittier, Holmes and Lowell, all Massachusetts poets ; and by the prose writings of such men as Emerson and Hawthorne. The Transcendentalists of Concord began to be heard from and liberality in religion and the spirit of toleration gained its greatest impetus.
At the close of the Civil War nearly a million, within a year, returned from army to civil life. Some to whom army experiences had given a
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taste for adventure, established new homes in the West. It was at this time that the Union Pacific Railroad was built to connect the valley of the Mississippi with the Pacific Coast. The prime mover in that great railroad project was Oakes Ames of Easton, just over the line from Plym- outh County in Bristol County. The Civil War showed the great necessity for better means of transportation and from that time on build- ing railroads progressed with great rapidity.
The earlier railroads were short, like the Old Colony Railroad which connected Plymouth with Boston, a distance of 39 miles. Later short railroads were joined together and it became possible for the first time to take long journeys without changing cars, and something like rapid transit was known. By 1880 the railroad mileage of the country was more than three times as great as it had been at the opening of the Civil War. In 1862 Congress encouraged two private companies to build a railroad to connect the Pacific Coast with the East by loaning them large sums of money and giving them vast tracts of land along the sides of the great railroad. One company started at the Pacific and built east- ward and the other worked westward up the Platte River. They met near Ogden, Utah, where the golden spike was driven in May, 1869.
ยท Far up on the bare face of one of the Rocky Mountains, visible from the trains of the Union Pacific Railroad which his genius helped build, is a monument made of the mountain rocks erected in honor of Hon. Oakes Ames of North Easton, manufacturer, capitalist and politician, as well as railroad builder, a member of the much respected Ames family of Massachusetts.
Comparison At Close of Civil War-The first vessel constructed in Plymouth Colony registered forty or fifty tons and was built in 1641. Iron manufacture was an early industry in the Colony, being introduced in the town of Raynham in 1652, by James and Henry Leonard. They had previously had forges in Lynn and Braintree. It was some years later, however, before iron manufactures began in Plymouth County, as Raynham is in the adjoining county of Bristol. The Plymouth Colony did not progress as rapidly as the Massachusetts Colony, owing to the poverty of its inhabitants. The two colonies were united in 1692.
Plymouth, Bristol and Barnstable counties took on county govern- ments in 1685 and the combined population did not exceed 10,000. Probably Plymouth County started with about 4,000 inhabitants. At that time Scituate was the most important town in the county. In 1690 the county raised a body of troops, under Major Benjamin Church, to march against the Indians who were ravaging that part of Maine which lies between the Piscataqua and Kennebec rivers. Nineteen men were sent and of this number Scituate sent six, Plymouth four, Marshfield and
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Bridgewater three each, Duxbury two, and Middleborough one. Twenty- three pounds was raised for their equipment, according to the same ratio, showing the comparative importance of the towns which con- stituted the newly-born county. Bristol and Barnstable counties also contributed men to go with Major Church ; so, five years after the coun- ties were organized, we have, in this cooperative effort, some indication of the beginning of the union of forces and efforts in the New World.
New towns were added and the boundary lines changed from time to time, and the story of the early struggles and developments up to the Civil War has already been related. In Civil War times the largest town in the county was Abington. At the close of the war, in 1865, its popu- lation was 8,576. Brockton was then North Bridgewater and its popu- lation was 6,335. It would have required the combined population of North Bridgewater and Scituate at that time to equal that of Abington, and Abington also led in business and wealth. Abington in those days included the present towns of Rockland and Whitman.
Plymouth County towns and their population in 1865, at the close of the Civil War were as follows: Abington, 8,576; Bridgewater, 4,196; Carver, 1,059; Duxbury, 2,377; East Bridgewater, 1,977; Halifax, 739; Hanover, 1,545; Hanson, 1,195; Hingham, 4,176; Hull, 260; Kingston, 1,626; Lakeville, 1,110; Marion, 960; Marshfield, 1,810; Mattapoisett, 1,451 ; Middleborough, 4,525; North Bridgewater (now Brockton), 6,335; Pembroke, 1,488; Plymouth, 6,075; Plympton, 924; Rochester, 1,156; Scituate, 2,269; South Scituate (now Norwell), 1,578; Wareham, 2,842; West Bridgewater, 1,825. The total population at that time was 63,974, less than the present population of Brockton.
; In that year, when the Boys of '61 came marching home to again take up the vocations of peace, Judge William H. Wood of Middleborough was judge of probate and insolvency. Several other county officers claimed Plymouth as their place of residence. They were Daniel E. Damon, register of probate and insolvency; William H. Whitman, clerk of courts; William S. Danforth, register of deeds; William R. Sever, county treasurer; William H. Whitman, D. J. Robbins and Daniel E. Damon, overseers of the House of Correction at Plymouth, the shire town; James Bates, county sheriff, jailor and master of the House of Correction.
The county commissioners were William P. Corthell of Abington, Charles H. Paine of Halifax, and Harrison Staples of Lakeville; with Alden S. Bradford of Kingston, and Jedediah Dwelley of Hanover special commissioners. Samuel Stetson of Duxbury was public adminis- trator and William H. Whitman, of Plymouth, master in chancery. Com- missioners of wrecks were Elisha Holmes, Duxbury; Nehemiah Ripley, Jr., Hull; John Baker, Otis Baker and George H. Hall, Marshfield; Jo-
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siah D. Baxter and Barnabus H. Holmes, Plymouth; Perry L. Parker and John Tilden, Scituate; and John Damon, North Scituate.
The trial justices were Isaac Hersey, Abington; Lewis Holmes and Elisha G. Leach, Bridgewater; William H. Osborne, East Bridgewater ; James S. Lewis, Hingham ; Ebenezer Pickens, Middleborough; Rufus L. Thatcher, North Bridgewater; Albert Mason, Plymouth; Caleb W. Prouty, Scituate; William Bates, Wareham; Austin Packard, West Bridgewater.
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