USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 67
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 67
USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 67
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Photo by courtesy of A. S. Burbank
THE SQUARE, PLYMOUTH
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Pilgrim Spirit," was written and staged by Professor George P. Baker, of Harvard University. One thousand costumed actors and a trained chorus of three hundred voices took part in five episodes and some twenty scenes.
President Warren G. Harding, vice-President Calvin Coolidge, and other prominent persons were guests of honor August 1, when an im- mense crowd filled the old Pilgrim town and witnessed a wonderful civic, military and naval parade. President Harding came on his of- ficial yacht, the "Mayflower," with an escort of naval vessels.
Special days for fraternal organizations were observed during the summer of celebration and the whole district, notable in Pilgrim his- tory, was visited by many thousands of people every day from all parts of the United States and Canada, by land and water transportation. The town's accommodations were mobilized for the accommodation of the countless guests and the whole affair was conducted with re- markable success.
Just how much the visitors were impressed by Plymouth as a town of today, with its industrial life, with its present population of numer- ous nationalities, descendants of Pilgrims of recent as well as former days, one cannot say. The Tercentenary Committee prepared maps and guides for the accommodation of visitors in seeing historic Plym- outh. It was a time for recalling the past, rather than stressing the present problems and how they were being met, and facilities which make Plymouth a residential town filled with delights for those with leisure, and with industrial plants which furnish opportunities for those whose mission it is to create the future rather than revel in those things built up by workers of the past.
In place of the wharves which were destroyed by the Tercentenary Commission in December, 1920, there is now a town wharf on Water Street at which the first cargo of coal arrived and was unloaded in February, 1927. The new wharf is equipped with a modern coal hand- ling tower with high speed machines capable of discharging one thou- sand tons of coal a day. The new wharf is a valuable asset to Plym- outh.
The mainstay of Plymouth's prosperity is manufacturing, although catering to summer visitors is by no means unimportant. In recent years the manufacturing reports show a substantial increase, likewise wages per employee. In 1925 there were twenty-four industries with one thousand or more employees which changed their locations in the United States, showing that a Chamber of Commerce or any such or- ganization which attempts to persuade industries to locate in the town must be content to secure small industries, if any. Many commercial organizations have discovered after costly experience that an industry which is helped into town usually soon gets into a condition where
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someone else has to help it out of town. Better results are obtained by starting an industry and helping it grow in the same place. This has been the experience in Plymouth and many present-day manufac- turing plants which are the mainstay of the town started small. The Plymouth Chamber of Commerce is organized to keep present indus- tries supplied with such assistance as can legitimately be rendered and foster new ones as opportunity presents itself.
The Plymouth Mills were discontinued some time ago and on its property on Town Brook there are four water power sites which are taken into consideration with plans for future use.
The expenditures of the town in 1926 were approximately $800,000. There are 2,500 children enrolled in the public schools. There are Senior and Junior High schools and seventeen building's devoted to the grade schools. In the summer the residences or hotels for vacationists contain about six thousand people. The steamboat between Boston and Plymouth brings an average of five hundred visitors in the sum- mer months. The Plymouth Country Club has one of the best eigh- teen-hole golf courses in New England.
Plymouth is well supplied with parks. The earliest was Morton Park, named in honor of Nathaniel Morton who was the first to strive persistently for an early start in this direction. He gave a large tract of picturesque land which he called Forest Park, but the name was changed to Morton Park later. It now contains one hundred and sixty acres. There are numerous other parks and playgrounds and about $20,000 is devoted annually to their upkeep and improvement. One of the latest is the Veteran Field on Standish Avenue, dedicated in 1926 to the service men of the World War who went from Plymouth.
In 1926 the town erected a Memorial Town Hall on Court Street as a memorial to the soldiers and sailors of all the wars. In it are quar- ters for the various veterans organizations. Grand Army Hall on Middle Street, the home of Collingwood Post, Grand Army of the Republic, since 1912, was taken over in 1927 by the Plymouth Boys' Club which has a membership of three hundred and fifty and has been in existence fifteen years.
Plymouth has an excellent Public Library which, in 1926, had a circulation of 76,309 books. The attendance at the library that year was 42,737. The library received a gift of $10,000 from the late Miss Anne P. Appleton, with the wish expressed that it might be especially helpful to the children's department. The total number of books in the library is nearly 20,000. More than one thousand volumes were added in 1926.
There is a town forest which increases the number of trees each year. The Town Forestry Committee caused 28,000 trees to be planted in 1926, making a total of 55,000 for 1924-5-6.
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Some Physical Beauties-The boundaries of Plymouth are Kingston, Duxbury Bay and the Atlantic Ocean on the north, the ocean on the east, Sandwich and Wareham on the south, and Carver and Kingston on the west. The date of incorporation is December 11, 1620. It has a seacoast of about sixteen miles and extends about ten miles into the country, making it the largest town in the county, in area. Granite, together with drift and alluvium make up its geological formation. Plymouth Rock is a solitary sienite boulder, geologically considered, and was itself a Pilgrim, coming from somewhere up north as a pas- senger on a glacier before the days of rapid transit. But of this rock DeTocqueville said: "This rock has been an object of veneration in the United States. I have seen bits of it carefully preserved in sev- eral towns of the Union. Does not this sufficiently show that all hu- man power and greatness is in the soul of man? Here is a stone which the feet of a few outcasts pressed for an instant, and the stone becomes famous; it is treasured by a great nation; its very dust is shared as a relic. And what has become of the gateways of a thousand palaces? Who cares for them?"
The Manomet Hills add much to the picturesqueness of the shore line of Plymouth. This hill or hills are a beautiful wooded eminence, three hundred and ninety-six feet above sea level, and two miles or more south of Plymouth Rock and the centre of the business section of the town. Burial Hill, which forms the background for the village as seen from the harbor, is one hundred and sixty-five feet above the low water in the harbor. On this hill are buried many of the Pil- grims and "first-comers." It was on the site of the original fort, with Captain Myles Standish in command. The National Monument to the Forefathers, commonly called "Faith, Monument," was erected on this hill. Nearer the harbor, at the foot of which is Plymouth Rock, stands Cole's Hill, on which were buried those of the Pilgrim company who died the first winter. There is a monument on this hill to the memory of Massasoit, sachem of the Wampanoags, erected by the Improved Order of Red Men, as a tribute to the faithfulness in which he kept his treaty with the Pilgrim Fathers.
Watson's Hill, on the opposite bank of Town Brook from Burial Hill, is another distinct rise in the center of the town, on the way to Manomet.
The town has some 40,000 acres still in woodland and the numer- ous ponds and lakes cover 3,000 acres, including Billington Sea, a pic- turesque body of fresh water, of which Town Brook is the outlet to the sea. Great South Pond is drained by Eel River, flowing into the sea at the point where the long stretch of Plymouth Beach north- westerly joins the mainland. Behind this stretch of naked sand lies Plymouth Harbor, separated from Massachusetts Bay. A similar
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stretch of narrow land from Marshfield forms Duxbury Beach, and between these unusual peninsulas the "Mayflower" sailed into Plym- outh Harbor.
Half Way Pond is where the Agawam River rises. In this pond is a curious little island. Great Herring Pond extends into Sandwich and its waters overflow into Monument River. South Pond is the body of water from which the town obtains its water supply. Long Pond is another sheet of water of considerable size and Bloody Pond has upon its shore a Boy Scouts' camp. Many of the Plymouth ponds have summer homes erected upon their shores.
Beyond Eel River from the center of the town is Chiltonville, where there was formerly a large factory for manufacturing cotton duck. The industries have included the manufacturing of cordage, nails, riv- ets, cotton and woolen materials, iron ware, insulated wire, boots, shoes, and many other products, and some of the same industries are still in operation. The Plymouth Cordage Works is the largest in the world. In early days there were many vessels engaged in cod and mackerel fisheries and in the coastwise trade, but Plymouth, like all the other towns on the coast, has had the business connected with the sea largely get away from it, as water transportation has been carried on by larger vessels, of steel construction.
Of eight hundred men from Plymouth in the Civil War, seventy- three were lost.
The first sermon ever printed in America was preached by Elder Robert Cushman to the congregation at Plymouth, December 12, 1621. It was on "The Sin and Danger of Self Love," was republished in 1785 by John Davis and is an interesting sermon to read at the pres- ent day. Elder Cushman died in 1625 and his resting place on Burial Hill is marked by a monument of Quincy Granite twenty-seven feet in height, which was consecrated September 16, 1858.
Before the ministrations of Elder Cushman, the church, founded in Holland with Rev. John Robinson as pastor, was under the care of Elder William Brewster, who preached twice every Sunday but re- fused to administer the ordinances. The first regular pastor of the church in Plymouth was Rev. Ralph Smith, settled in 1629.
There was no newspaper in Plymouth at the time of the Revolu- tionary War and few in the country. The "Plymouth Journal" was, however, established by N. Coverly in March, 1785. The "Old Colony Memorial" was established in 1821, and is still in existence, with no number missing from the files.
The Pilgrim Society was organized in 1820 to commemorate the deeds of the Pilgrims. Daniel Webster delivered the first oration be- fore that society, December 22, 1820. The cornerstone of Pilgrim Hall was laid September 1, 1824. The population of Plymouth in 1800 was
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3,524. Some of the distinguished men born in the town previous to that time were Colonel Benjamin Church, the Indian fighter; Josiah Cotton, preacher to the Indians; General James Warren, Revolutionary patriot ; Elkanah Watson, noted agriculturist; John Davis, LL.D., jurist and author; Joseph Bartlett, poet and editor; Isaac Goodwin, lawyer and author; Oakes Ames, member of Congress, distinguished manufacturer, financier, philanthropist; Charles Thomas Jackson, M. D., geologist and scientific discoverer; Thomas Russell, collector of the port of Boston, son of Hon. Thomas Russell, at one time treasurer of the Commonwealth.
The First Celebration of the Landing of the Pilgrims took place half as many years ago as the landing itself,-in 1769. Dr. Thatcher's "His- tory of Plymouth," published in 1835, gave the following account of it:
Friday, December 22, (1769.)-The Old Colony Club, agreeably to a vote passed the 18th instant, met, in commemoration of the landing of their worthy an- cestors in this place. On the morning of the said day, after discharging a cannon, was hoisted upon the hall an elegant silk flag, with the following inscription, "Old Colony, 1620." At 11 o'clock, A. M., the members of the club appeared at the hall, and from thence proceeded to the house of Mr. Howland, innholder, which is erected upon the spot where the first licensed house in the Old Colony for- merly stood. At half after two a decent repast was served, which consisted of the following dishes, viz.
1, a large baked Indian whortleberry pudding; 2, a dish of saquetach (succatash, corn and beans boiled together); 3, a dish of clams; 4, a dish of oysters and a dish of codfish; 5, a haunch of venison, roasted by the first jack brought to the colony; 6, a dish of sea-fowl; 7, a dish of frost-fish and eels; 8, an apple pie; 9, a course of cranberry tarts, and cheese made in the Old Colony.
These articles were dressed in the plainest manner, all appearances of luxury and extravagance being avoided, in imitation of our ancestors, whose memory we shall ever respect. At 4 o'clock, P. M., the members of our club, headed by the steward, carrying a folio volume of the laws of the Old Colony, hand in hand marched in procession to the hall. Upon the appearance of the procession in front of the hall, a number of descendants from the first settlers in the Old Colony drew up in regular file, and discharged a volley of small-arms, succeeded by three cheers, which were returned by the club, and the gentlemen generously treated. After this, appeared at the private grammar-school, opposite the hall, a number of young gentlemen, pupils of Mr. Wadsworth, who, to express their joy upon this occasion, and their respect for the memory of their ancestors, in the most agreeable manner joined in singing a song very applicable to the day. At sunsetting a cannon was discharged and the flag struck. In the evening the hall was illuminated, and the following gentlemen, being previously invited, joined the club, viz.
Col. George Watson, Col. James Warren, James Hovey, Esq., Thomas May- hew, Esq., William Watson, Esq., Capt. Gideon White, Capt. Elkanah Watson, Capt. Thomas Davis, Dr. Nathaniel Lothrop, Mr. John Russell, Mr. Edward Clarke, Mr. Alexander Scammell, Mr. Peleg Wadsworth, Mr. Thomas South- worth Howland.
The president being seated in a large and venerable chair, which was formerly possessed by William Bradford, the second worthy governor of the Old Colony, and presented to the club by our friend Dr. Lazarus Le Baron of this town, de-
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livered several appropriate toasts. After spending an evening in an agreeable manner, in recapitulating and conversing upon many and various advantages of our forefathers in the first settlement of this country, and the growth and increase of the same, at 11 o'clock in the evening a cannon was again fired, three cheers given, and the club and company withdrew.
Starting of the Pilgrim Society-While there was one surviving member of the Old Colony Club the Pilgrim Society was organized to carry on the commemoration of such historical events. How this so- ciety came into being is related in "Barber's Historical Collections," a few copies of which are still in the possession of people in the Old Colony. As it is set down in that volume :
In 1820, a society was instituted at Plymouth, called the Pilgrim Society, and was incorporated by the Legislature of the State. The design of this association is to commemorate the "great historical event" of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, "and to perpetuate the character and virtues of our ancestors to posterity." The centennial celebration of the landing of the Pilgrims this year was of uncom- mon interest, and the concourse of people was far greater than on any former occasion. "A procession was formed at 11 o'clock, soon after the business of the Pilgrim Society was transacted, and, escorted by the Standish Guards, a neat independent company, lately organized, and commanded by Captain Coomer Weston, moved through the main street of the town to the meeting-house, and, after the services of the sanctuary, were attended by the same corps to the new courthouse, where they sat down to an elegant though simple repast, provided in a style very proper for the occasion, where the company was served with the treasures of both the land and sea. Among other affecting memorials, calling to mind the distresses of the Pilgrims, were five kernels of parched corn placed on each plate, alluding to the time, in 1623, when that was the proportion allowed to each individual, on account of the scarcity. John Watson, Esq., respectable by his years, and dignified by his gentlemanly manners, and the only surviving member of the Old Colony Club, presided during the hours of dinner."
In 1834, Colonel Sargent, of Boston, presented to the Pilgrim So- ciety his valuable painting, representing the landing of the Fathers from the "Mayflower" in 1620. This painting, which decorates the walls of the Pilgrim Hall, is valued at $3,000. It is about 13 by 16 feet, and represents all the prominent persons in the colony who first landed, being a most valuable and interesting acquisition. Among the antiquities in the cabinet of the Pilgrim Society, there is an antique chair, said to have belonged to Governor Carver, the identical sword- blade used by Captain Myles Standish, the identical cap worn by King Philip-and a variety of implements wrought of stone by the natives, such as axes, tomahawks, arrowheads, etc.
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Photo by courtesy of A. S. Burbank
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SUBURBAN LIFE AT ITS BEST
Pilgrim Hall, in which are deposited many relics of the "First Comers," was completed in 1834, although the cornerstone was laid ten years earlier. For many years a representation of the welcoming of the Pilgrim Fathers by Samoset adorned the front of the building. The building was considerably improved in time for the Tercentenary Cele- bration in 1921.
When the cornerstone was laid, an excavation in the stone was made and the following articles deposited :
Sermon delivered at Plymouth by Robert Cushman, December 12th, 1621 .- First newspaper printed in the Old Colony, by Nathaniel Coverly, at Plymouth, in 1786 .- Coins of the United States, and of Massachusetts .- Odes composed for the Anniversary .- Constitution of the Pilgrim Society, and the names of its mem- bers .- Daniel Webster's Century Oration for 1820 .- Massachusetts Register .- Old Colony Memorial, begun in May, 1822, by Allen Danforth .- Columbian Sen- tinel, by Benjamin Russell, containing an account of the entry of General Lafayette into the city of Boston .- Plate-"In grateful memory of our ancestors who exiled themselves from their native country for the sake of religion, and here success- fully laid the foundation of Freedom and Empire, December xxii. A. D. MDCXX, their descendants, the Pilgrim Society, have raised this edifice, August xxxi, A. D. MDCCCXXIV. A Parris, Architect. J. & A. S. Taylor, Builders. H. Morse, Sc."
Some Old Places of Burial-The "Mayflower" Pilgrims who died in the winter of 1620-21 were buried on the bank a little distance from Plymouth Rock on what is now called Cole's Hill. It is related, that the graves were leveled, instead of following the English custom of erecting a mound of earth above them, that the Indians might not know of the great mortality and the consequent deplorable state of the Colonists as regards defense. The grave of Governor Carver was on Cole's Hill and the spot has not been designated. According to an old record : "About the year 1735, an enormous freshet rushed down Middle Street, by which many of the graves of the Fathers were laid bare, and their bones washed into the sea."
When the historic old canopy was placed over Plymouth Rock, re- placed by a memorial erected by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America to commemorate the three-hundredth anniversary of the Pilgrims' landing, the bones of some of the Pilgrims were sealed in the construction. These were bones found very close to the spot in 1855 and fittingly preserved in the top of the old canopy.
During the observance of the Pilgrim Tercentenary in 1921 the General Society of the "Mayflower" Descendants erected a $25,000 me- morial on Cole's Hill and it was appropriately dedicated. In a crypt beneath the monument lie the bones which had previously been pre- served in the top of the old canopy. In 1927 it was learned that the monument had suffered depredations from the vandalism of souvenir hunters. A number of the bronze letters had been defaced or broken.
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Cole's Hill, in the Revolutionary War and again in 1812, was forti- fied.
Burial Hill, formerly Fort Hill, is at the end of the first street built and used by the Pilgrims. It consists of about eight acres. On this hill the Pilgrim fort was erected under command of Captain Myles Standish. In 1675, in preparation of King Philip's War, a fort one hundred and fifty feet square, strongly palisaded, ten and a half feet high, was built.
This hill was later appropriated as a burial place for the dead. It was not until sixty years after the first interments that a gravestone was erected. Some of the oldest are of English slate stone. The oldest monument is that of Edward Gray, who died in June, 1681, aged fifty-two years. The house which he erected in Kingston was moved in July, 1927, to Duck Hill, Duxbury, to be reerected as a summer residence.
Among the many memorials on Burial Hill, there are some inter- esting epitaphs, and books have been printed giving nearly all of them. Two of the gravestones are especially interesting as they mark the resting place of leaders in the Colonial life whose names appear in many of the more important affairs of the Plymouth Church and town. They are:
Here lyes ye body of ye Honorable William Bradford, who expired February ye 20, 1703-4, aged 79 years.
He lived long, but was still doing good, And in his country's service lost much blood. After a life well spent he's now at rest; His very name and memory is blest.
Here lyeth buried ye body of that precious servant of God, Mr. Thomas Cush- man, who after he had served his generation according to the will of God, and. particularly the church of Plymouth, for many years in the office of the ruling elder, fell asleep in Jesus, December ye 10th, 1691, and in the 84th year of his age.
PLYMPTON
The Indians had a way of selecting some distinguishing character- istic of a locality and giving it the name appropriate for its situation. It was for that reason that the town now called Plympton was called, by the Indians, Winnietuxet, as that was, and still is, the name of the river which flows through the southerly part of the town, thence through Halifax into the Taunton River. The Winnietuxet has had various spellings as various references have been made to it in writings, but, by whatever name, it has remained a beautiful stream, turning wheels of industry, and a community asset.
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Plympton is bounded by Kingston on the northeast, Carver on the southeast, Middleborough on the southwest, and Halifax on the north- west. The town is thirty miles southeast of Boston and was some forty years ago best known as the town which contained Silver Lake Grove, a beautiful place for holding picnics, outings and sporting events. The grove comprised about twenty-seven acres of towering pines, the whole area carpeted with pine needles and presenting a most inviting and suitable place for the celebrations conducted there on holidays and at various other times. The grove was owned by the Old Colony Railroad Company and excursions were run from Boston whenever gala days called out the traveling public. The explosion of a small steamboat on Silver Lake on one of these occasions and an ac- cident to one of the excursion trains filled with Boston people re- turning from the grove on another occasion, were reasons for the place losing its popularity.
A generation ago the railroad company converted the tall pines into logs and fire wood, removed the bowling alleys and other pleasure- making appurtenances, and its connection with the pleasures of the people of Boston have since had only one link, a mammoth ice house in which is harvested chilling material, forwarded by freight to the "Hub." So, while the people of Boston no longer go to Silver Lake for their pleasure, Silver Lake goes to them, and still distributes health and comfort.
The railroad accident referred to was on October 8, 1878. There was a boat race at Silver Lake, and on the return trip from Boston, the excursion train carrying many Boston sportsmen, was wrecked at Wollaston. Nineteen were killed and fifty injured. Among the killed was Patsey Reagan, one of the oarsmen, who raced that day.
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