USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 66
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 66
USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 66
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the railroad from Boston to Provincetown, or the other from Middle- boro to Taunton and direct to New York. Middleboro is at the junction of the two lines mentioned and in more recent years has been connected by the Plymouth & Middleboro Railroad, through Carver.
On the southeast Middleboro is bounded by Carver, Plympton and Halifax. The Weweantit River separates it from Carver a part of the distance. Rochester borders Middleboro on the south, Lakeville and three of the chain of Lakeville ponds on the west and southwest, Rayn- ham is on the west and Bridgewater on the northwest. The Taunton River marks the boundary line of Bridgewater. Middleboro is drained by the affluents of the Taunton, Mattapoisett and Weweantit rivers and these streams have furnished power for considerable development of industries from the earliest times.
Shoemaking, paper box manufacturing and other industries of the present day have followed the manufacture of fine cassimere and broad- cloth, straw hats, shovels, wooden boxes and casks, which were made many years ago in large numbers. There was a cotton mill for many years with 2,000 spindles in use.
There are several handsome ponds in the town and on one of them, Tispaquin, is located a large Young Men's Christian Association boys' camp, which is a very popular place in the summer. Tispaquin Pond had one hundred and seventy-five acres. It was named for one of the Indian chiefs who had local jurisdiction previous to King Philip's War. Wood's Pond of forty-five acres has Fall Brook for an outlet. About 30,000 acres are devoted to agriculture, including poultry raising.
There are five postoffices at Middleboro, North Middleborough, East Middleborough, South Middleborough and Rock. In addition to villages in the town bearing these names, there are the villages of Titicut, near which the State Farm in Bridgewater is located; Eddyville and Water- ville in the northeast section; the Green, near the centre.
The town suffered destruction in the King Philip War, inasmuch as the mill and about twenty dwellings were burned by the Indians but the only white man killed was Robert Danson. He was warned by John Tomson of the beginning of the war but attempted to get some of his property together and started for the fort the next morning after the warning, instead of accompanying Tomson and his family the pre- vious evening. He was killed on the banks of a stream which has since been called Danson's Brook.
When the town was incorporated in 1669 it was given the name of Middleberry. The first church for the English was formed in 1694 but the Indians had two churches as early as 1665. Rev. Samuel Fuller was the first pastor of the English church. Like Lakeville, the territory occupied by Middleboro was a favorite hunting and fishing locality for the Indians, situated half way between Mount Hope, the home of
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PUBLIC LIBRARY, MIDDLEBORO
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ST. LUKE'S HOSPITAL, MIDDLEBORO
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Massasoit and his successors, Alexander and Philip, and Plymouth. The Indians called Middleboro Nemasket, "a place of fish," and Plym- outh was called Patuxet, Accomack, Apaum or Umpaume, each Indian name having some signification and each one having members of the tribe favoring the respective names. There were several Indian burying grounds in the town, one of them, a knoll on the farm owned by Major John Shaw in 1825, giving up eighty Indian skeletons.
"Pond" Thomas and "River" Thomas, et al-About the year 1690 several families came to the Plymouth Colony from Salem, to escape the consequences of the witchcraft delusion. Two brothers named Thomas had been drawn to serve on a witch jury in Salem and, as they did not believe in witchcraft and knew well the penalty in store for them if they did not find guilty whoever was charged with being a witch, they fled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to Middleboro. They became known in Middleboro as "Pond" Thomas and "River" Thomas, since one had settled on the pond and the other on the river. In addition to the Thomases, other families who fled from Salem were named Bennett, Smith, Morse and others. After their coming the popu- lation of Middleboro was about two hundred. The following year Plymouth was annexed by royal charter to the colony of Massachusetts.
Middleboro figured largely in Indian history and was the strong- hold of numerous sachems and chiefs, among them Massasoit, Corbitant, Chicataubut, Wampatuck, sachem of the Monponsetts; Tispaquin and many others, concerning whom much appears in many places in this history.
Prominently mentioned among the first settlers were John Tomson, Isaac Howland, Francis Coombs, Samuel Fuller, John Morton, Nathaniel Southworth, Ephraim Tinkham, Henry Wood, William Nelson, David Thomas, John Cobb, Jabez Warren, Edward Bump, Moses Simmons, Samuel Barrows, Samuel Eaton, Francis Billington, George Soule, Obadiah Eddy, Samuel Pratt, George Vaughan, John Shaw, Jacob Thompson or Tomson, Francis Miller, John Holmes and John Alden. According to Thomas Weston who wrote a "History of Middleboro" which was published in 1906: "John Tomson, the most prominent of the first settlers, was a carpenter, and lived on land which was after- wards set off to form a part of Halifax. He came to Plymouth, a lad of six years, in the month of May, 1622. He, with Richard Church, built the first meeting-house in Plymouth in 1637. Before settling in Middle- boro he had purchased land in Sandwich."
Among the noted men in the early life of Middleboro were Rev. Peter Thatcher, 1716-1785, an able writer as well as a clergyman; Ezra Samp- son, author of several theological works, among them "Beauties of the Bible" which he published in 1802, and the "Brief Remarker," published
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in 1820; Colonel Ebenezer Sprout, a Revolutionary officer who was called by the Indians "the Big Buckeye;" Oliver Shaw, musical compos- er, who wrote among other compositions, "Mary's Tears," and "Arrayed in Clouds," both very popular in his time, 1778 to 1848; Rev. Enoch Pratt, 1781-1860, author of a "History of Eastham" and one of the gifted preachers previous to the Civil War; Cephus G. Thompson, a portrait painter who won considerable fame; Enoch Pratt, who liberally endowed the Pratt Free School at Titicut; Rev. Isaac Backus, who was the first Baptist pastor at Titicut and concerning whom much appears on other pages in this book. Luke Short passed away in Middleboro in 1746 at the advanced age of one hundred and sixteen years.
Middleboro was the birthplace of Lavinia (wife of General "Tom Thumb") and Minnie Warren, internationally-known dwarfs, and was their home as long as they lived.
The territory now embraced in the town of Lakeville was incorporated July 19, 1710, as the West Precinct, with a part of Taunton also included.
The parish of Titicut was incorporated in 1743. It included that part of Bridgewater on which the State Farm is located.
The parish of North Rochester was incorporated in 1783. It included all that part of Middleboro south of Pocksha Pond, due east to the town of Carver, with a part of Rochester and a part of Freetown.
The first mill in the town was for grinding corn. It was located in the Star mills neighborhood previous to King Philip's War. Two saw- mills were early industries and were located on Bartlett's Brook.
A slitting mill was built, with the permission of the town, on Nemas- ket River in 1734, but strong objections were made, as it was believed it would be an injury to herring fisheries. The herring were used as fertilizer, as well as for food, and much attention was paid to them, every property owner in the town being entitled to a given number. In 1706 the price for a load of herring was six pence but, in after years, when the loads increased much more, in an endeavor to get much for the money, the town voted to limit a load to 8,000 fish, as the reasonable number to expect for six pence.
Middleboro was one of the early shoe towns in Plymouth County. The Star Woolen Mills and the Bay State Straw Works furnished employment for many previous to and following the Civil War.
The population of Middleboro in Revolutionary War times was 4,479 (in 1776). The following winter there were 1,066 males above the age of sixteen, when the military strength of the town was recorded. This number included five Indians and eight negroes.
NORWELL
Most Recently Acquired Name in County-The history of Norwell, under that name, only dates back to 1888, when, on February 27, South
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Scituate was authorized to take on a new name. The name itself was not adopted until March 5. The last change in the town was April 30, 1897, when bounds between Norwell and Hingham were established.
As South Scituate there was much interesting history made in this same territory and some reminders of the olden times are easily dis- tinguishable as one rides through the town, which has a total taxable valuation of approximately $2,000,000 at present. There are 1,070 per- sons assessed in the town and four hundred and eighty-seven of them are male residents twenty years or older.
Norwell has considerable area, 12,896 acres in fact, and there are five hundred and sixty-eight dwelling houses, most of them surrounded by neat lawns, and many of them pretentious residences which help make the town present an appearance of unusual prosperity, even in thrifty New England. The per capita valuation is $1,188 and the per capita tax, $50.90. The town engages considerably in poultry raising and is doing its part to demonstrate the fact that a lucrative future lies in store for Plymouth County people who engage in poultry raising intelligently and industriously.
According to the State census taken in 1925 the population of Nor- well was 1,466. Commendable generosity is shown in conducting the public schools, which contained in 1926 two hundred and sixty-two pupils. The expenditure for support of schools from all sources per pupil in net average membership is $105.13.
Demand for Ships Too Big for North River Hurt Local Industry- The town now called Norwell was taken from the southwesterly part of Scituate and incorporated February 14, 1849, under the name of South Scituate. Its name was changed to Norwell March 5, 1888. The town is bounded on the north by Hingham, on the east by Scituate, on the south by Marshfield, with the North River between, and by Pembroke, and on the west by Hanover and Abington.
In the days when shipbuilding on the North River was a big industry in Plymouth County, South Scituate men engaged in the business owned yards known as Stetson's, Curtis', Foster's, James', Taylor's, Tilden's and Delano's. Native white oak was used in building these ves- sels and they won considerable fame. When the demand changed to larger vessels some of the ship builders established yards in East Bos- ton, Medford and Chelsea and continued to meet the new conditions, where there was more water for the launchings. Two of the sons of William Delano, an early ship builder, were Edward Delano, naval con- structor at Charlestown; and Benjamin Delano, naval constructor at Brooklyn, New York, many years ago.
Among industries in this town have been shoemaking, the manufac- ture of tacks, trunks and wooden boxes.
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The highest land in Norwell is Mount Blue in the north part of the town and Wild Cat Hill in the south part. There are several ex- tensive swamps, Valley Swamp, Dead Swamp, Hoop-pole Swamp and Old Pond Swamp or Meadows, the latter in the southwest part of the town.
Cornet Robert Stetson was the first person who permanently settled in South Scituate. He selected a beautiful plain near the river and received a grant of a large tract of land as early as 1634. History speaks of him as possessed of considerable wealth, an enterprising and valuable man in the plantation, a deputy to court, a cornet of the first light horse corps raised in the Colony, a member of the Council of War, a Colony Commissioner of settling the patent line, and several other posts of im- portance. In 1656, he, with others, erected a sawmill. This mill was burned by the Indians, May 20, 1676, who came into Scituate from Hingham, where the day before they had created great havoc.
South Scituate may well be called the "nursery of shipbuilders." North River ships were considered first class, both as to beauty and durability. Many of the whale ships of Nantucket and New Bedford were built here. The industry flourished until the demand came for ships too large to be launched in the limited depth of North River.
PEMBROKE
Defiance to the King-George Bancroft, in his "History of the United States of America," said: "The first official utterance of revolution did not spring from a congress of the colonies, or the future chiefs of the republic; from the rich who falter, or the learned who weigh and debate. The people of the little interior town of Pembroke in Plymouth County, unpretending husbandmen, full of the glory of their descent from the Pilgrims, concluded a clear statement of their grievances with the prediction that 'if the measures so justly complained of were per- sisted in and enforced by fleets and armies, they must, they will in a little time issue in the total dissolution of the union between the mother country and the colonies.' "
Pembroke is today, as it was before the Revolutionary War, "a little interior town." As a matter of fact the population in 1927 is not much greater than it was when "the shot was fired heard round the world," the shot which the people of Pembroke predicted. When we of the present day read of the utterances of those of the past who took decided positions in regard to weighty matters, we sometimes wonder how well they backed up those positions. The answer in regard to Pembroke is that the town sent more men in proportion to its inhabitants than any other town in this vicinity, perhaps in all the colonies. About five hundred men served with honor and distinction, a ratio of one to every three inhabitants, men, women and children.
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When Benjamin Franklin appeared before Wedderburn and was given that most scathing examination, he used the attitude of the little town of Pembroke as an example in citing an instance of fearlessness and loyalty to principles possessed by the colonists. Old England heard the defiance of Pembroke as well as the guns of Concord and Lexington. Solicitor-General Wedderburn of the Privy Council, referring to the "incendiary" efforts of Samuel Adams to stir up the colonists and the replies, declared that "those of Pembroke and Marblehead are par- ticularly curious."
In 1774, when the tea tax was imposed the town of Pembroke voted entire approval of the resolves of the town of Boston "to prevent the landing and vending the tea sent here by the East India Company," and "that we will at the risk of our lives and fortunes in every justifiable method assert and defend our just rights and privileges as men and as colonists." It was an uncompromising attitude which the people of Pembroke took and, after the war, in May, 1783, they instructed their representative to use his "best endeavors to prevent those bitter and implacable enemies of America, the Tories, from gaining admittance into the country, so far as may be consistent with the engagements of Congress."
The attitude mentioned by Bancroft, the historian, and Benjamin Franklin before Solicitor-General Wedderburn, was two years before the battle of Lexington and three years before the Declaration of Inde- pendence, but it was no sentiment of sudden arising in this community. Even as early as 1740 the town protested against the efforts of the Prince to suppress the emission of bills of public credit, which had become depreciated on account of the large export of silver. The following is a very brief extract from the protest: "Which instructions from the Crown are we presume a manifest infraction of our charter rights and privileges as well as that of our invaluable national constitutions, so long enjoyed as well as so dearly obtained, whereby the people have a right of thinking and judging for themselves, as well as the Prince. And the representative shall be directed at all times strictly to adhere to the charter rights and privileges which we are under, as also that of our English rights, liberties and constitutions, any royal instruction from his Majesty to the contrary notwithstanding."
Pembroke was noted for its patriotism. There was scarcely a Tory in the town. The town records are full of patriotic resolves passed by the town all along through the "Times that tried men's souls."
December 28, 1772, the following was passed among other resolves : "That this Province and this town as part of it, hath a right whenever they think it necessary, to give their sense of public measures, and if judged to be unconstitutional and oppressive, to declare it freely and to remonstrate or petition as they may deem best."
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Conspicuous among the leading men of those times were Josiah Keen, Dr. Jeremiah Hall, John Turner, Eleazor Hamlen, Seth Hatch, Josiah Smith, Captain Freedom Chamberlain, Abel Stetson, Aaron Soule, Is- rael Turner, Captain Ichabod Thomas, Asaph Tracy, Consider Cole, Asa Keen and Nathaniel Stetson.
Purchase From Indians; Garrison House Erected-Previous to 1712, all the territory that the limits of Pembroke now embraces was Dux- bury, except a small portion below what was known as Robinson's Creek. The western part of what is now Pembroke was called Namat- takeeset.
In March, 1641, the bounds of Duxbury were fixed at a court. It was "Ordered," That the bounds of Duxburrow Township shall begin where Plymouth bounds do end, namely at a brook falling into Blackwater, and so along the Massachusetts path to the North River." This path was the regular line for travel between the Plymouth and Massachu- setts colonies.
That portion of Pembroke below Robinson's Creek was included in the Two Mile Purchase made by Mr. Hatherly and his associates of Scituate, of the Indian chief Josiah Wampatuck. In 1661, a grant was made to the town of Duxbury and Marshfield, of a tract of land between Jones' River and Indian Head River. This was known as Marshfield upper lands. The "Major's Purchase," an earlier grant to the town, included the Great Cedar Swamp, now in the limits of Hanson. Both these grants were included in the limits of Pembroke, at one time.
The tradition of the Barker family is that in 1628, or 1630, Francis Barker and his brother, who were among the Plymouth adventurers, took a boat and coasted along the shore until they came to the North River, which they ascended as far as it was navigable, that they landed on a rock near the site of the herring weir and went in pursuit of a good place to locate. They built a house of brick, containing one room, and one story high. This, with the additions that have since been made, is the old garrison house, said to be the oldest house in the United States. In 1679 this dwelling house was converted into a garrison and was a place of refuge for those who feared their savage neighbors.
At the time of its incorporation Pembroke had two places of public worship, one on the site of the later Unitarian Church, and the peaked meeting-house erected by the Friends.
The first Congregational meeting-house was erected in 1703, the Friends meeting-house in 1706.
The Indians that lived in this vicinity belonged to the Massachusetts, at one time a powerful tribe, numbering 3,000 warriors and occupying the whole country from Neponset to Duxbury, and extending back from the shore to Bridgewater and Middleboro.
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A large portion of this tribe were converted to Christianity and were known as the Praying Indians. At the breaking out of King Philip's War many of them were conveyed to Clark's Island, where they might be secure from their hostile brothers. Chicatawbut was their sachem. His father, Josiah Wampatuck, sold Scituate to Mr. Hatherly and his associates for fourteen pounds.
In 1684 there were about forty residents at Namattakeeset. The particular sub-division of this tribe that lived near the Indian ponds was called Mattakeeset, and from these are descended Joseph Hyatt, Martin Prince, and William Joel.
Pembroke was in early days thought to be the very hub of Plymouth County, for in 1726 and for a number of subsequent years, endeavors were made to effect the removal of the county buildings to the town, and constitute it the shire town.
Pembroke was the home of fifty-four families when it was set apart from Duxbury and incorporated as a separate town March 21, 1711. It took the name of a town in England, from which some of the early settlers in the vicinity emigrated. Pembroke is bounded on the north by Hanover and Norwell, east by Marshfield and Duxbury, south by Plympton and west by Hanson. It is the only town in Plymouth County never touched by a steam railroad.
The town is separated from Hanover by the North River, upon which numerous ships were built in early years. The first sawmill and the first furnace for smelting iron in the county were built in Pembroke. The Garrison House is one of the oldest structures in the State. The first church was erected in 1703. The first pastor was Rev. Daniel Lewis who was ordained as such in 1712.
One of the smallest towns in the State, its proportion of volunteer soldiers in the several wars has been near the highest. General James Wolfe recognized the bravery of one of the early residents of Pembroke, publicly thanking him for running the blockade of the St. Lawrence to get much needed supplies to General Wolfe's army. This early hero was Captain Seth Hatch. Colonel Nathaniel Cushing was a captain in Rufus Putnam's regiment from 1777 to the close of the Revolu- tionary War. He was born in this town April 8, 1753, and died at Marietta, Ohio, in August, 1814. Jeremiah Hall (2nd) died while a solder in the Revolutionary War service at Cambridge. His father, Dr. Jeremiah Hall, was a friend of General Joseph Warren of Bunker Hill fame and was a member of the Provincial Congress from this town.
Pembroke furnished one hundred and sixty-seven men in the Civil War, of whom twenty-one were killed in action or died in the service.
When the Spanish War came in 1898, and again in the World War, Pembroke responded to the call, as was to be expected. Only one
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Pembroke boy died in the service during the World War. Leonard Raymond Turner enlisted April 23, 1917, and was assigned to the Naval Training Station at Newport, Rhode Island. He was an ap- prentice seaman in the United States Navy and died at the Newport Naval Hospital May 30, 1917, of pneumonia.
Among men of distinction in recent years, natives of Pembroke, was the late Willard Howland, for many years chairman of the Mas- sachusetts State Board of Conciliation and Arbitration.
PLYMOUTH
Aside from Historical Glories-Bare mention of the name of Plym- outh awakes thoughts of historical action to such an extent that few realize that this town of 14,000 inhabitants, twenty churches and over fifty social organizations, is a town of industrial importance, in- dependent of its historical connections. For the early history of Plymouth, fragments appear all through this history, as it has been linked with the early courts, the setting apart of all the other towns, inter-relationships with places near at hand and places which, in Colonial days or even before railroads and good roads, were far away.
In some ways, Plymouth does not present today as much an appear- ance of commercial activity, at the water front, as it did previous to 1921, when the vicinity of Plymouth Rock, with its wharves, coal pockets and other water navigation conveniences, were cleared away to make a Federal holiday. Even the historic canopy over the rock, pictures of which had been familiar to public school pupils of three or four generations by being printed in histories and geographies, was demolished, although cemented into its structure were bones of some of the Pilgrims. Some of the stones of the canopy were dumped into the harbor, used as filling. A new memorial, more ornate, more mod- ern, satisfying the ambition of those who wished to have the honor of erecting it, was placed over the rock, after that historic boulder had been lifted from its position and lowered into tide water, in a location where somebody thought it might have been originally left after its joy-ride from the North, a captive of some monster glacier.
Plymouth Rock stood its ground for three hundred years after acting the part of Sir Walter Raleigh to the Pilgrims, but what will be left of it three hundred years hence after being given to the tide and waves, can more easily be imagined than asserted.
The observance of the three hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims took place July, August and September, 1921. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with the aid of the Federal Gov- ernment, created a park adjacent to Plymouth Rock, and on this park was enacted a pageant recalling the scenes and events in Pilgrim his- tory both in the Old Dominion and in America. The pageant, "The
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