USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 60
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 60
USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 60
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1916-John S. Burbank 1922-Roger Keith
1917-Stewart B. McLeod
1923-Frank A. Manning
1918-William L. Gleason
1924-William A. Bullivant
1919-William L. Gleason
1925-William A. Bullivant
1920-William L. Gleason
1926-Harold D. Bent
1921-Roger Keith
CITY CLERKS
1882-1912-Dewitt C. Packard
1915-1920-Calvin R. Barrett
1912-1915-Clinton F. Packard 1920-J. Albert Sullivan
CITY TREASURERS
1882-1886-Henry R. Ford 1907-1913-E. Francis Pope
1887-1894-Augustus T. Jones
1913-1922-John J. O'Reilly
1894-1907-William H. Emerson 1922-Calvin R. Barrett
CARVER
Town of the First Tea Kettle-Motoring into Carver from Plymouth, Middleboro or the Cape Cod towns, one feels that he has arrived in an especially beautiful New England town, with numerous lakes, smooth, well-kept roads and a general air of prosperity and hospitality. It is a town of two hundred and eighty-four cranberry bogs, having a valuation of $1,553,904 to show for the 2,629 acres given to this culture. The average valuation of bogs per acre is $590.95 but over two hundred acres are valued at more than one thousand dollars an acre.
The valution of the taxable land in Carver in 1926 was $1,928,990 and of buildings $632,955. The value of personal property was $274,685. The number of resident property owners was three hundred and eighty- five and of non-resident property owners one hundred and seventy. The town is built on 19,834 acres of land, on which are six hundred and seventy-eight dwellings.
The town spends $29,000 for the support of its schools, out of an aggregate appropriation list of $68,525, showing that it runs true to tradition in being exceedingly appreciative of the advantages of educa- tion, and liberal in its support. For the protection of persons and property Carver spends $2,000; and the overseers of the poor found good use in 1926 for an expenditure of $2,674. The town has a reputa- tion for being especially prompt and generous in removing snow from the highways after storms in winter. To sustain this reputation in 1926 required an expenditure of $4,362.
All of the towns in the Plymouth Colony were much concerned in the
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early days in fostering the herring or alewives industry and in suppress- ing animals and birds which interfered with the processes of agricul- ture. In the early history of Carver, for instance, the year following its incorporation as a town, Joseph Vaughan, Isaac Cushman and Abijah Lucas were made a committee "to take charge of the fish called ale- wives." At the same meeting Meletiah Cobb and Joseph Ransom were elected hog-reeves, and a vote was passed that swine might run at large, being yoked and ringed according to law; voted to pay from the town treasury eight pence for the head of each crow brought to the selectmen before the first of June. The following year it was voted to pay Robert Waterman two pounds and eleven shillings to build a pound for the impounding of cattle. Soon after the pound was built near the centre of the town, according to vote, Joseph Vaughan was chosen pound keeper.
Hogs running at large caused a vote some years forbidding the prac- tice and in other years it was voted to allow them such liberty, provided they were suitably ringed and yoked. In 1801, it was voted that both swine and cattle might run at large. About this time the town was paying bounties for killing crows, crow blackbirds, red-wings, blue- jays and red-birds. The same was true in the neighboring towns, and we are led to believe that the numerous birds and the practice of allow- ing hogs and cattle to run at large caused much annoyance and consider- able losses to the people engaged in agriculture.
While today the subject of prohibition seems to be a close runner-up with that of the weather as a topic of conversation, and it is blamed for everything from bobbed hair to the Mississippi overflowing its banks, it is nothing new. Way back in 1824 the town of Carver voted to instruct the selectmen to use their influence and exertions to suppress the evil of intemperance in the town. Nearly every year, the records show that more pressure was brought to bear on the retailers of spir- ituous liquors to keep within due bounds. In 1829 it was "Voted to recommend to all persons who may be called upon to officiate at funerals to abstain entirely from the use of spirituous liquors on such occasions." It was a custom in those days to have liquors served on all occasions where neighbors and friends gathered for any purpose, not excepting funerals. Some happening occurred about that time in Carver which made it advisable, in the opinion of the voters, that those who officiated on such occasions should be total abstainers that day.
There was another day when the use of liquors was especially frowned upon, as it was in recent years when saloons were in vogue. That was on "town meeting day." In 1844, the town voted "to disapprove of anyone selling ardent spirits in or around the meeting-house on town meeting day." It was voted on another occasion "that the selectmen post up the names of all such persons who misspend their time and
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property by the excessive use of intoxicating liquors. It does not appear on the records just where this social register was published but presumably on the door of the meeting-house, on the "town tree" or possibly in the meeting-house itself, to be perused with interest on "Thursday lecture" nights.
The custom was for town paupers to be placed in the hands of some- one who would "agree with the town" to support him or her at a low figure. In 1790 James Vaughan made such an agreement with the town and received one shilling and four pence per week. Intemperance was considered one of the principal causes for pauperism.
A committee consisting of Ezra Thompson, Samuel Shaw and Thomas Adams, was appointed by the town in 1827 to inquire into the matter and this committee rendered a written report which read: "We have viewed with grief the increased progress of dissipation in the town of Carver, and feel anxious that some arrangement might be made which will come within the limits of the authority of the town to check the progress of that evil, which in our opinion is the principal cause of the multiplied crime and poverty which the inhabitants of this town are becoming noted for, and your committee are of the opinion that these evils are promoted by a want of due observance of the laws by the licensed houses and stores in town."
Education and Defence were provided for immediately upon Carver being incorporated as a town in 1790, and interest in these two branches of the public welfare has never lagged. One of the first votes of the town was to appropriate thirty pounds for the support of schools. A committee was appointed "to Moddle the School Districts and to propor- tion the Money to each district, and provide a school in each district." The committee was composed of Captain Benjamin Crocker, Consider Chase, Samuel Lucas (3), Captain William Atwood, Benjamin White and Caleb Atwood. At the next annual town meeting in March the appropriation was raised to forty pounds and this was the appropriation in 1792 and 1793. In 1794 it was raised to sixty pounds but this proved a burden and forty pounds became the appropriation in 1795. The following year sixty pounds again appeared on the records and it continued that figure or a larger one, until 1804 when the amount was given as two hundred dollars, the English term no longer being used.
The schools began to be regularly assisted in 1859 by a voluntary pledge of William Savery to give one hundred dollars each year toward the support of the Carver schools, as long as he should feel able and willing. He also presented suitable libraries to each of the schools. Mr. Savery was born in Carver, and supplemented his common school education received here by terms at the Bridgewater Academy and Pierce Academy at Middleboro.
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The first church was organized in Carver in 1733, the same year one was organized in Halifax, a neighboring Plymouth County town. Rev. Othniel Campbell was ordained as the first pastor in 1734. The town was incorporated and took the name of the first governor of Plymouth Colony June 9, 1790. Carver is bounded on the north by Plympton, on the east by Kingston and Plymouth and Wareham and on the west by Middleborough.
There are twelve pretty ponds in the town, among them Sampson Pond, which was named for an Indian sachem who showed commendable industry and had a good business sense, for one of his nationality. In 1705 he secured the privilege of fishing and hunting, making tar and turpentine and cutting poles and bark in a cedar swamp, the whole reservation allotted to him with these concessions numbering two hundred acres.
The names of the other ponds are Wenham, Crane, Mohootset, Cooper, Muddy, Vaughan, John, Flax, Clear, Barrett and Wankonquog. The Commonwealth maintains a game reservation in the town and allows camps to be built and the land occupied on a rental basis. The principal streams are Beaver and Cedar brooks, which are useful in draining the town and also are converted to cranberry culture.
Lumbering was formerly an important industry and 9,000 acres were covered with woodland a generation ago, with six sawmills assisting in reducing them to building material.
The first iron tea kettle cast in this country was made in this town in 1762 at the "Charlotte Foundry," established about 1757. The foundry was later called the Ellis Foundry and became famous for the quality of its hollow ware.
Some of the earlier ministers of the old Congregational Church were Othniel Campbell, 1734-1743; John Howland, 1746-1804; John Shaw, 1807-1815; Luther Wright, 1821-1825; Plummer Chase, 1828-1835; Paul Jewett, 1836-1839; Jonathan King, 1839-1846; Ebenezer Gay, 1846-1851; Stillman Pratt, 1851-1854; William C. Whitcomb, who afterwards served as chaplain in the army, where he died; Henry L. Chase.
Of the other old churches, the Baptist, at the Centre, was organized in 1791, the Methodist Church in 1831; the Union Society, composed of various denominations in 1853.
When the town was incorporated in 1790 the most numerous names of the inhabitants were Shurtleff, Cobb, Atwood, Shaw, Cole, Ransom, Dunham, Lucas, Vaughan, Sherman, Barrows, Savory, Hammond, Till- son, Murdock, Crocker, and Ellis. At that time there were about one hundred and fifty families, which included about eight hundred and forty-seven persons, twelve of these being colored.
The first burial in the town was in 1776.
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SUBURBAN LIFE AT ITS BEST
DUXBURY
Commander of Pilgrim Army Lived Here-Duxbury is one of the most attractive towns in Plymouth County for summer residential purposes, and also has an interesting history and has contributed much in industrial achievement. It is one of the oldest towns in the State, having been incorporated June 7, 1637. It is bounded on the north by Pembroke and Marshfield, east by Marshfield and the Atlantic Ocean, south by Kingston and Plymouth and Kingston harbors, and west by Kingston, Plympton and Pembroke.
Captain's Hill in South Duxbury is the highest land and at the foot of this hill was the home of Captain Myles Standish, commander-in- chief of the first army in the Plymouth Colony. For him the hill is called Captain's Hill. At its summit is a monument of granite, erected in his honor, and surmounted by a statue of the Pilgrim warrior. A few years ago lightning struck the statue and the head and right arm of Standish fell to the ground, an achievement which the Indians are believed to have plotted on numerous occasions, three hundred years before, unsuccessfully.
The cornerstone of the monument was consecrated with imposing ceremonies October 7, 1872. A memorial plate enclosed in the corner- stone bears the following inscription :
The corner-stone of the Standish memorial, in commemoration of the character and services of Captain Myles Standish, the first commissioned military officer of New England. Laid on the summit of Captain's Hill in Duxbury, under the superintendence of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachu- setts, in presence of the Standish Monument Association, by the M. W. Grand Lodge of the Free Masons of Massachusetts, M. W. Sereno D. Nickerson, Grand Master, on the seventh day of October, A. D. 1872; being the two hundred and fifty-second year since the first settlement of New England by the Pilgrim Fathers. Site consecrated August 17, 1871; association incorporated May 4, 1872; associa- tion organized, and ground broken, June 17, 1872; corner of foundation laid August 9, 1872.
The monument is one hundred and ten feet in height, surmounted by the statue. There is an octagonal base twenty-eight feet in diameter and twenty-five feet high, above which is a circular tower.
Captain Myles Standish lived in Duxbury with his second wife, Bar- bara, who survived him. His first wife, Rose, died during the first winter after the arrival of the "Mayflower" at Plymouth. This town was also the home of John Alden; Thomas Prence. afterward a resident of Eastham on Cape Cod; William Bassett, afterward a resident of Bridgewater; George Soule, Joshua Pratt, William Brewster and others.
Duxbury Harbor is a beauty spot, with a narrow strip of beach extending seven miles, the north end being at Marshfield, near Brant Rock, and the south end at the Gurnet, past which the "Mayflower"
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sailed into Plymouth Harbor. Powder Point is a part of the mainland nearest to the long line of Duxbury Beach. The two were connected some forty years ago by a bridge, with a draw in that part over the channel. The bridge is somewhat over a mile in length and it was ex- pected that the whole stretch of Duxbury Beach would become sites for summer homes, with such easy means of access. Not long after the bridge was erected, however, an unusual storm caused the ocean to cut through the beach and, while this break was afterwards filled in, the beach has not been in demand for building lots and the bridge has failed to supply the need which it was believed existed.
Blue Fish River flows into Duxbury Bay near Powder Point and at this point there were in earlier years a shipyard and a tide-mill. At the mouth of Blue Fish River is the terminus of the Atlantic Telegraph or French Atlantic Cable. The terminal point of the cable was laid July 23, 1869. There was an appropriate celebration of the event July 27, with numerous prominent men participating.
Captain Myles Standish was one of the four principal men of Plym- outh in its earliest days. The other three were William Bradford, the governor and historian ; William Brewster, for a long time the spiritual leader of the colonists; Edward Winslow, governor of Plymouth three years and the one whose diplomacy with the great sachem, Massasoit, made possible the treaty which prevented the annihilation of the Pilgrim settlers at the outset. We of the present generation owe much to him for writing his history of the early days, which has been titled "Wins- low's Relation."
Captain Myles Standish had been commissioned a captain by Queen Elizabeth for bravery in her service. He was essentially a soldier and was placed in full charge of the defence of the colonists. How he hap- pened to join the Pilgrims no one knows but many suspect it was to gratify his love of adventure. If so, he had plenty of it all the years he lived after landing on Plymouth Rock. He was never a member of the Plymouth church.
His wife, Rose, died one month after the arrival in Plymouth. He took up his residence in Duxbury and Captain's Hill in the South Duxbury section, overlooking Duxbury, Kingston and Plymouth bays, was a part of the large amount of land which was allotted to him. He left four sons, when he died October 3, 1656.
The town of Duxbury was first settled about the year 1632 by the people of Plymouth, although it is probable, according to the records, that there were some settlers in Duxbury before this period. These, however, returned to Plymouth in the winter, to insure their better attendance at church service, and also to protect themselves from the attacks of the Indians.
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The town was incorporated June 7, 1637. It received its name out of respect to Captain Myles Standish, from Duxbury Hall, the seat of the Standish family in England.
The first tavern license was granted Francis Sprague in 1638. In 1678 the town licensed Mr. Seabury "to sell liquors unto such sober minded neighbours as hee shall think meet, soe as hee sell not lesse then the quantities of a gallon at a time to one person, and not in smaller quantities by retaile to the occasioning of drunkeness."
In 1643 there were 82 persons capable of bearing arms, thus indicating that the population was about 400. In 1800 there were 1,664 inhabitants.
Among the earlier settlers of Duxbury were some of the ablest men in the Colony, among them being John Alden, William Brewster, Thomas Prence, George Soule, Joshua Pratt, Samuel Eaton, Joseph Rogers, Henry Sampson and Love Brewster.
Inseparably connected with those early days will ever remain the story of the "Courtship of Miles Standish," so beautifully told by Long- fellow, where the old warrior sent his fair-faced, stripling assistant, John Alden, to plead his case with Priscilla Mullins.
"If the great Captain of Plymouth is so very eager to wed me, Why does he not come himself, and take the trouble to woo me? If I am not worth the wooing, I surely am not worth the winning."
"Archly the maiden smiled, and with eyes overrunning with laughter, Said, in a tremulous voice, 'Why don't you speak for yourself, John?'"
Churches and Schools-Rev. Ralph Partridge was the first minister ; he was settled as early as the incorporation of the town, and continued in the ministry until his death, in 1658. He had been a minister in the Church of England; but "being hunted," as he expressed it, "like a partridge upon the mountains, at last he resolved to get out of there and take his flight to New England." He was a man of superior abilities, and suffered much on account of the poverty of his flock, but he did not forsake them. He was succeeded by Rev. Mr. Holmes, who was succeeded by Rev. Ichabod Wiswall, who continued pastor about thirty years. The next minister was Rev. John Robinson, who was settled in 1700, and continued in the ministry nearly forty years; after him was Rev. Samuel Veazie, who was pastor about eight years. Mr. Veazie was succeeded by Rev. Charles Turner, who continued in the ministry seventeen years. Rev. Zedekiah Sanger, the next minister, was settled in 1776, but on account of ill health, his pastoral relation was dissolved in 1785. The eighth minister, Rev. John Allyn, was ordained in 1788.
The famous Partridge Academy, sharing the Green with the First Church, was organized shortly after the settlement of the town, its age corresponding to that of Harvard College. Among famous people
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who taught at Partridge Academy was the late Mary A. Livermore, as related elsewhere. The academy was conducted as a separate institu- tion of learning until 1927, when more consistent arrangements were made for schooling in the town and the Partridge fund was converted to scholarships.
The Powder Point School, conducted many years by Francis B. Knapp, is delightfully located on Powder Point, not far from the French Cable terminal. It is conducted as an exclusive school for boys during the school year and as a summer hotel during the vacation season. Many eminent men have been graduates of this school. The Knapp family also conducted a boys' school in Plymouth some years ago, and it was this school which furnished the setting for Louise Alcott's famous book, "Little Men."
There were 236 Duxbury men in the Civil War and thirty-seven of them died in the service. The monument erected in their memory in the cemetery near Partridge Academy, is a granite shaft bearing the inscrip- tion, "Memoria in Eterna; The Soldiers and Sailors who Gave Their Lives for Their Country in the War of 1861; Honor to the Brave."
The old burial ground, where sleep Captain Myles Standish and other members of the Standish family, and many old residents of the town, is on the highway between the turnpike passing the First Church and Partridge Academy, and South Duxbury. Among the old epitaphs which appear on headstones in this old cemetery is one which reads: "Here lyes ye body of Deacon William Brewster, who departed this life Novbr ye 3d, 1723, aged nearly 78 years." There are other headstones erected in memory of early mariners who were lost at sea.
In the cemetery containing the Soldiers' Monument is a headstone on which is chiseled :
"Aseneath Soule. The chisel can't help her any."
Ideal Summer Homes-These are historical facts which come readily to the mind of whoever guides one into the old town of Duxbury, taking it for granted that the visitor first sees the most conspicuous memorial in the town and wants to hear the Pilgrim history before looking about Duxbury of today. But there are as interesting people above ground in Duxbury as there are buried beneath the sod. There are 1,787 per- sons who pay property taxes, live in 1,135 houses, on 14,257 acres of land and represent a total valuation of their possessions to the figure of $6,049,757. Of the property owners, eight hundred and fifteen are residents, and seven hundred and seventy-two, non-residents. As there are only five hundred and sixty-six poll taxes assessed it shows that there are many summer residents. It is as a place for summer homes that Duxbury has an enviable reputation.
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ST. JOHN'S CATHOLIC CHURCH, EAST BRIDGEWATER
DE
FORGE POND FROM SOUTH SHORE DRIVE, EAST BRIDGEWATER
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SUBURBAN LIFE AT ITS BEST
Duxbury does not live in its glorious past nor in its pleasant present alone. It looks forward to the town of tomorrow, as evidenced by the fact that it has a planning board to consider the best method of devel- oping the natural beauty of the town, with measures for the protection of health as well as property. The problem of sewage disposal for the town is under consideration.
In 1926 Duxbury spent $8,209 for public welfare, largely outside poor. The school department expended $46,561, exclusive of the special loans authorized of $110,000 and an appropriation of $20,000 for the new High School building. The school plant of Duxbury is modern and consists of three buildings: the new High School building, the Village School and the Tarkiln School. It is believed by the superintendent of schools to have been a progressive step by which the number of school buildings were reduced from nine to three, permitting better grading. In 1926 there were three hundred and fifty-seven pupils enrolled, two hundred and seventy-seven in the elementary schools and eighty in the High School.
The Duxbury clam which was a life-saver in the earliest days of the Plymouth Colony and now a delicacy enjoyed far and near, is having the careful oversight of the Board of Health, in cooperation with the Engineering Department of the Massachusetts Board of Health. The emptying of sewage into Duxbury Bay has been stopped, thereby elimi- nating danger, and the Duxbury clams are enjoying greater prestige than ever.
Every visitor to Duxbury wants to sample the clams and see the Standish Monument. The Sunday before July 4, 1927, 3,000 visitors climbed Captain's Hill, on the Fourth 2,500 and the following day 2,000. In 1926, visitors to the monument numbered 105,000, and of these 10,000 climbed to the top. The registry shows tourists from all over the United States, Canada, England, Holland, Egypt, Palestine, India and Australia.
Among many famous people who have made their summer homes in Duxbury in recent years were Melbourne MacDowell and his famous wife, Fannie Davenport, William Seymour and his equally famous wife, May Davenport. The residence of the MacDowells was called "Mel- bourne Hall" and that of the Seymours "Clamavi Towers." Mrs. Sey- mour passed away in New York early in the summer of 1927. The body was cremated and the ashes buried at the summer home in Duxbury.
East Bridgewater, Once Satucket, Bought of Indians-Glide into a parking space along-side of any of the well-kept streets in East Bridge- water, many of them bordered by handsome elm trees which form a veritable bower of beauty and haven of shade in the good old summer time, and you will be the guest of 1,091 poll tax payers, or 1,029 resident individuals assessed on property. The slight difference in these figures Plym-36
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denotes that it is a prosperous community with wealth fairly evenly divided. The valuation of taxable real estate in the town is $2,996,419, and the value of personal estate taxed $1,485,242. There are 10,042 acres of land assessed.
East Bridgewater in 1926 spent for support of schools $58,374, out of total disbursements for the year of $203,259. The East Bridgewater Public Library is an important aid to education. On December 31, 1926, there were 11,727 books in the library. The circulation for the year was 19,579, a daily average of one hundred and seven. The enroll- ment in the High School this year is approximately one hundred and ninety pupils. In the eighteen schools of the town, including the High School, in 1926, there were seven hundred and twenty-five pupils, in- structed by twenty-seven regular teachers and three special teachers.
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