History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 41

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1706

USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 41

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The dissatisfied portion of the church adhered to their determination to form a new church, and on the 30th of March, 1802, they were incorporated as the Third Congregational Society of Plymouth. In the same year they occupied their new meeting-house, on the westerly side of Training Green, now the high- school house, built on land bought by them of Thomas Jackson in 1800. On the 12th of May, Adoniram Judson, a native of Woodbury and grad- uate of Yale College, was settled as pastor, having been previously settled in Malden and Wenham, He married Abigail, daughter of Abraham Brown, of Tiverton, and had four children, one of whom was Adoniram, the well-known missionary. In 1817, having become a Baptist, he dissolved his eonneetion with the soeicty, and after having preached two years to the Baptist Society in Plymouth, went to Seituate in 1820, and there died in 1826. William T. Tor- rey succeeded Mr. Judson, closing his pastorate in 1824, when he was succeeded by Frederick Freeman, whose pastorate continued until 1833. Thomas Boutelle followed Mr. Freeman, and in 1837, Robert B. Hall was ordained. In 1840, during the pastor-

ate of Mr. Hall, the present church was built and dedicated as " The Church of the Pilgrimage," and a new society formed called the " Society of the Pilgrim- age," the name which the "Third Congregational Church" now bears. Charles S. Porter followed Mr. Hall in 1845, succeeded by Joseph B. Johnson in 1855. Nathaniel B. Blanchard succeeded Mr. John- son, when, after a few months' supply by P. C. Headley, W. W. Woodworth became pastor. In 1864, David Bremner was installed, remaining four years, and in 1870, George A. Tewksbury, the pres- .ent faithful and beloved pastor of the ehureh, was in- stalled.

In 1814 the Eel River Church was organized under the pastorate of Benjamin Witmore. This church may be considered a child of the Third and a grandehild of the First. Under the ministry of Mr. Witmore it beeame divided into two seetions, each of which has had a meeting-house of its own, and the division remains unhealed. In 1830 the Robinson Church was organized, also a child of the Third Church, and after the pastorates of Charles I. War- ren, Lueius Clark, John Avery, and Cyrus Mann was dissolved and its meeting-house, built in 1830, was sold in 1852 to the Methodist Episcopal Society, which now occupies it. In 1844 the Episcopal Church was established under the inspiration of Rob- ert B. Hall, who had beeome Episcopalian and left the Third Church, of which he was pastor. On the 18th of August, 1844, an Episcopal service was held in Leyden Hall, Theodore W. Snow officiating, and on the 15th of November a society was formed, and on the 13th of April, 1846, Mr. Snow was chosen reetor. On the 3d of October the church in Russell Street was conseerated, and its ministers, in the order of their service, have been Mr. Snow, Samuel Clark, Thomas L. Franklin, Benjamin F. Cooley, G. W. E. Fisse, Benjamin B. Babbit, Robert B. Hall, William H. Brooks, John Downey, James A. Sanderson, J. E. Wilkinson, and its present incumbent, C. D. Bar- bour.

Having described the various offshoots of the First Church, the narrative leads us to a elosing sketeh of that ehureh. In 1838, George W. Briggs, a gradu- ate at Brown University, left a settlement at Fall River and became colleague pastor with Dr. Kendall, in which eapaeity he continued until 1852. In 1853, Henry L. Myriek suceceded Mr. Briggs, fol- lowed by George S. Ball, of Upton, who in turn was sueceeded by Edward H. Hall, of Providence, a graduate of Harvard in the elass of 1851. During the pastorate of Mr. Hall, Dr. Kendall died in 1859, leaving Mr. Hall the full pastor of the ehurel. Mr.

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Hall was in 1869 succeeded by Frederick N. Knapp, a Harvard graduate of 1843, and Mr. Knapp, in 1878. by Edmund Q. S. Osgood, of Cohasset, the present pastor.

In 1809 a Baptist Society was organized. and until its church in Spring Street was built, in 1821, its ser- vices were held for the most part in Old Colony Hall, in the rear of the market-house of Charles T. Holmes. Lewis Leonard, of Middleboro', was its first pastor, and was succeeded. in 1818, by Adoniram Judson, who in turn was succeeded. in 1820. by Stephen S. Nelson. In 1823, Benjamin S. Grafton was settled, and in 1829. Thomas Conant. In 1835, Elisha Cush- man was settled ; in 1838, Horatio N. Loring, who was followed by Joseph M. Driver. In 1842, Ira Person became the pastor; in 1845, Adiel Harvey ; in 1856. B. A. Edwards; in 1861, C. C. Williams ; in 1862, R. A. Patterson ; in 1863, E. Humphrey ; in 1868, R. B. Moody ; in 1875, B. P. Byram ; and in 1880, the present incumbent, H. W. Coffin. In 1861 the church in Spring Street was burned, and in 1865 the present church was built.

In 1842 a Methodist Episcopal Church was organ- ized, and E. B. Bradford, of Duxbury, was appointed preacher. For some years services were held in vari- ous halls and in the present high-school building. In 1843 Plymouth was made a mission station, and Nelson Goodrich assigned to it as preacher. In 1852 the society bought the meeting-house of the Robinson society, and Lorenzo White became its minister. Since that time the various ministers in their order have been Moses Chase, William Keller, Carlos Ban- ning. Edward H. Hatfield, E. K. Colby, Robert Clark, Thomas Sleeper, Franklin Gavett, George F. Pool, Henry F. Martin, William Liversey. T. M. House, A. W. Mills, George A. Morse, John W. Malcom, James O. Thompson, F. A. Crafts, J. H. Allen, and Walter J. Yates.

On the 10th of March, 1822, a Universalist Soci- ety was organized, and in 1824, Massena Ballou was invited to preach for six months. The society was incorporated in 1826. Mr. Ballou was followed by a Mr. Morse, who was succeeded, in 1826, by James H. Bugbee, who continued his pastorate until his death, in 1834. Mr. Bugbee was followed by Albert Case, who was succeeded by Russell Tomlinson, who re- signed in 1867. In 1869 the pulpit was supplied for a time by A. Bosserman, who was followed by Al- pheus Nickerson in 1872. In 1874, George L. Smith took charge of the pulpit, and was followed by A. H. Sweetser in 1877, and he, in turn, by W. W. Hay- ward, who has recently resigned.

A Christian Society was organized in 1825, and in

1827 built their church on Pleasant Street. John V. Himes, of New Bedford, was its first minister, and was succeeded by Timothy Cole, George W. Kel- ton, and Elders Baker, Sanborn, and Goodman. For a time after 1843 it was united with the Second Ad- vent Society, under the care of H. L. Hastings, again for a time separated, and finally, in 1868, reunited, since which time it has continued in the occupation of its Pleasant Street Church under the name of the " Christian Society."

An African Methodist Church was formed in 1866, and until it bought the gymnasium building near the reservoir and converted it into a church, in 1871, it occupied a small extemporized chapel near the Plym- outh Mills. Its ministers have been William John- son, James Elsemore, Ebenezer Ruby, Daniel Fran- cis, Joshua Hale, D. N. Mason, E. P. Greenwich, Isracl Derrick, Isaac Emery, Jeremiah B. Hill, and Henry Buckner.

In addition to the above, a small society was or- ganized some years since by William Faunce, near the Russell Mills, at Eel River, of which the author has no record. In 1874 a Catholic Church Was erected on Court Street for the accommodation of a society which had previously held services for some years in one of the halls of the town. It was under the charge of James C. Murphy until his death, in 1879. D. B. Kennedy, assisted by John D. Colbert, succeeded Father Murphy, and the society is now under the charge of Father P. J. Halley. The first Catholic service ever held in Plymouth was in 1813. At that time John Burke and Michael Murphy were the only Irishmen and Catholics in the town. These men were in the employ of Joshua Thomas, who was then living in the house now occupied as a hotel, called the " Central House." Mr. Thomas, with a liberality of spirit already referred to in this narra- tive, for the gratification and benefit of Burke and Murphy and their families, interceded with the bishop in Boston, who consented to the performance of high mass in Plymouth, and the two parlors in the house of Mr. Thomas, on the south side of the entry, were used for the ceremony.

This narrative would be far from complete without some reference to the schools of the town. Some charges have been made that in the early days of the Plymouth Colony little interest was felt in the cause of education. Such charges, when investigated, will be found groundless, and Plymouth will be found to have been always abreast of the times in efforts to adequately instruct its youth. It is true that until 1662, when the court " recommended to the consideration of the several towns some preparations for schools," the only

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allusion to schools in the records is that under date of 1635, when it was ordered " that Benjamin Eaton, with his mother's consent, be put to Bridget Fuller, being to keep him at school two years." In explana- tion of the silence of the records the circumstances of the Pilgrim Colony must be considered, and in the consideration this very entry concerning Benjamin Eaton will furnish important aid. It must be re- membered that the Pilgrim Church at Leyden was composed of men of a fair education, surrounded by a population speaking a language different from their own, and compelled necessarily, during their residence there of eleven years, to educate their own children. This custom they brought with them to New England, and nothing occurred to require a change until many years after the landing, when im- migration from England and the Massachusetts Colony had introduced more families of poor estate than the teaching heads of families ; such, for instance, as Bridget Fuller, referred to in the entry, could prop- erly provide for. In other words, the colony of Plym- outh was content with the work of private schools until increasing illiteracy demanded the establishment of public ones.

In 1663 the recommendation of the previous year took the form of an enactment, and it was ordered " that the several townships in the jurisdiction ought to take into their serious consideration that there may be a schoolmaster in each town to teach the children in reading and writing." In 1670 a grant was made by the Colony Court " of all such profits as might or should annually accrue to the colony from time to time for fishing with nets or seines at Cape Cod for mackerel, bass, or herrings to be improved for and towards a free school in some town of this jurisdiction, provided a beginning was made within one year of the grant ;" and in 1672 the profits and benefits of the Agawam and Sippican lands were appropriated by the town of Plymouth for the maintenance of a free school already established there. The enactment of 1670 established the first absolutely free school in America. In 1672 the Colony Court, "in order that they might have an interest with others in the bless- ing that the Lord may seek to convey unto the country" from Harvard College, ordered "that it be recom- mended to the ministers and elders in each town that they, taking such with them as they shall think meet, would particularly and earnestly move and stir up all such in their several towns as are able to contribute for the support and maintenance of the college." It does not scem probable that such a recommendation as this could have emanated from a community which had been backward in its educational efforts. It must

before that time have exhausted the resources of school education and seen the necessity of something higher to crystallize into an enactment its hopes and aspira- tions. Indeed, before that time Plymouth had grad- uated three of its sons from the college.

In 1671, John Morton, a nephew of Secretary Na- thaniel Morton, was employed by the town " to crect and keep a school for the teaching of the children and youth of the town to read and write and cast up accounts." He was succeeded in 1672 by Ammi Ruhamah Corlet, a graduate of Harvard in 1670, who enjoyed the distinction of being the first grad- uate bearing, a middle name, a distinction shared by no successor until the graduation of Brocklebank Samuel Coffin in 1718. This school was a free school, and in 1673 it was ordered by the court " that the charge of this free school, which is thirty-three pounds a year, shall be defrayed by the treasurer of the profits arising by the fishing of the Cape until such time as the minds of the freemen be known concerning it, which will be returned to the next court of election." In 1677 it was ordered that " in whatever township in this government, consisting of fifty families or upwards, any meet man shall be ob- tained to teach a grammar-school, such township shall allow at least twelve pounds to be raised by rate on all the inhabitants of said town; and those that have the more immediate benefit thereof, with what others shall voluntarily give, shall make up the resi- due necessary to maintain the same; and that the profits arising from the Cape fishing, heretofore or- dered to maintain a grammar-school in this colony, be distributed to such towns as have such grammar- schools, not exceeding five pounds per annum to any one town. And, further, that this Court orders that every such town as consists of seventy families and upwards, and hath not a grammar-school therein, shall allow and pay unto the next town that hath a grammar-school the sum of five pounds, to be levied on the inhabitants by rate, and gathered by the con- stables of such towns by warrant from any magistrate of this jurisdiction."

In 1699 the town voted that " tlie selectmen pro- cure a schoolmaster for the town and settle him as near the centre as may be convenient, and that every scholar who comes to write or cipher or to learn Latin shall pay three pence per week ; if to read only, then to pay three half pence per week, and what re- inains due to the school to be levied by rate on the inhabitants." This vote indicates that the receipts from the fisherios and lands were insufficient for the support of tho school, and that a small charge was necessary. After the passage of this vote, Moses Hale,

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a son of John Hale, of Newbury, and a Harvard grad- uate of 1699, was engaged to keep the school, and he was succeeded for a time by John Dyer, a Plymouth man. who afterwards succeeded Elder Thomas Faunce in the office of town clerk. The charge for attend- ing school was of short duration, as in 1703 the town voted " that there shall be a grammar schoolmaster provided for the use of the town, and that there shall be a rate on the inhabitants to defray the charges thereof." At this time the school was a movable one. and kept for a " quarter" at a time in each of the districts of the town. In 1705 the town voted " to pay thirty pounds per year for a schoolmaster for the term of seven years, provided that said schoolmaster be settled within forty rods of the old meeting-house, and that the town pay twenty pounds per year during the said seven years; and all children sent to said school, excepting the children of those who have sub- scribed for the support of the teacher, that live within one mile of said school, pay four pence a week for in- struction in Latin, writing, or ciphering, and two pence a week for reading ; and all those that are with- ont the bounds of one mile and within the bounds of two miles, to pay two pence per week for Latin, writ- ing, or ciphering, and one penny for reading, except- ing the children of such as through poverty are un- able to pay, who are to go free; and all fines that are by the law devoted towards the support of a school, and the money to be paid per week as abovesaid, to be improved toward paying the town's part of the said twenty pounds, and the subscribers to have no benefit thereby."

Under this vote Josiah Cotton was engaged as teacher, and a school-house which had been erected by individuals on the south side of the present Uni- tarian meeting-house was sold to the town. Mr. Cot- ton was the son of John Cotton, a former pastor of the Plymouth Church, and a graduate of Harvard in 1698. At the expiration of his term of service, in 1712, it was voted by the town "that for the four years next ensuing the use or interest of all the money voted by the town for the use of a school for- ever in said town, from the lands within the mile and a half already sold or yet to be sold, shall be by the town treasurer yearly paid to Capt. James Warren, Mr. Nathaniel Thomas, and Mr. John Murdock, pro- vided they shall keep, or cause to be kept, in the middle of said town, in the school-house, a good grammar school, according to law, for the said four years." It was also voted " to pay, or cause to be paid, yearly during the said four years, ten pounds per annum unto the said Warren, Thomas, and Mur- dock, to be raised by rate on said inhabitants ; and all

fines which by law shall belong to said school within four years shall be paid to said Warren, Thomas, and Murdock." And it was further voted "that during the said four years the school grant to be paid to the persons above named, according to the vote, and the said three persons be empowered by the town to col- lect and gather the same, and to have the benefit thereof." This arrangement was not in the nature of a contract by which the school was farmed out for the benefit of the contractors, if such might accrue, but one by which these three gentlemen, among the most influential and respectable in the town, acted as a sort of school committee. Mr. Warren was a mag- istrate, Mr. Thomas judge of probate, and Mr. Mur- dock an enterprising merchant, who at his death made a bequest to the town of two hundred pounds for the benefit of its schools and its poor. The bequest may perhaps be taken as an indication of an interest in the schools sufficiently strong to induce him to lend gra- tuitous service for their efficient management and support.

In 1714 it was voted by the town " to allow twenty pounds to the north end of the town, and twenty pounds to the south end, for the erection of school- houses ;" and in 1716 it was voted "that there be three free schools set up in the town, one at each end, to teach reading and writing, and one iu the middle of the town to be a grammar school, and that there be a committee chosen to provide suitable persons to keep the said schools, and the interest of the money of what lands are sold within the mile and a half to go towards the support of the schools, and the town will make up the deficiency, and the school to be continued five years." The committee consisted of John Bradford, Isaac Lothrop, Benjamin Warren, and Abiel Shurtleff. The north and south schools were located at Wellingsley, or Hobshole, and that part of Plymouth which is now Kingston.

John Denison, a son of John Denison, of Ipswich, and a graduate of Harvard in 1710, succeeded Mr. Cotton, and was followed by John Angier, son of Samuel Angier, of Rehoboth, and a Harvard grad- uate of 1720. These were the teachers of the grammar school. In 1724, opposition having sprung up to the maintenance of three schools, a town-meet- ing was held, at which much feeling was excited ainong the residents of the remote northerly and southerly sections of the town, and it was voted that the " two schools at the ends of the town be women's schools, or any other, so far as their proportion of taxes will go." This action, manifesting an indispo- sition on the part of the town to adequately provide for the educational wants of the Jones River district,

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precipitated the incorporation of Kingston, which took place in 1726.

John Sparhawk, of Cambridge, a Harvard graduate of 1723, succceded Mr. Angier, and was himself succeeded by Nathaniel Eels, of Scituate, a graduate of Harvard in 1733. Ebenezer Bridge, a Harvard graduate of 1736, after Mr. Eels, was succeeded by Ezra Whitmarsh, a Harvard graduate of 1736. In 1741, Enoch Ward, of Littleton, of the same class, became the teacher of the central school, followed by Samuel Gardner, of Stowe, a Harvard graduate of 1746. In 1747 it was voted to have two permanent schools besides the grammar school, one at Eel River and one at Manomet Ponds, and in that year Enoch Ward, of Haverhill, a Harvard graduate of 1748, assumed the charge of the central school, and was followed by Thomas Foster, also a graduate of Harvard in 1745. Mr. Foster was succeeded by Matthew Cushing, of Hingham, a Harvard graduate of 1739, who was fol- lowed by Charles Cushing, a Harvard graduate in 1755. Joseph Stockbridge, of Hanover, of the same class, succeeded his classmate, and was followed by Nathaniel Lothrop, of Plymouth, of the class of 1756. In 1765, Mr. Lothrop was succeeded by Perez Forbes, of Bridgewater, under whose incum- bency a new school-house was built on the north side of the Unitarian Church, which until recently stood on the lot now inclosed within the Burial Hill in front of the tombs. John Barrows, of Attleboro', followed Mr. Forbes, and was succeeded in 1769 by Alexander Scammell, a Harvard graduate of the previous year. In 1774, Joseph Crocker, a Harvard graduate of that year, taught the grammar school, followed in 1776 by Ezra Ripley (Harvard, 1776), and in 1781 by Bartlett Le Baron of Plymouth (Harvard, 1766), who was succeeded by Timothy Healey, Joseph and Eleazer Tufts, and Nahum Mitchell, of East Bridge- water (Harvard, 1789). In 1795 a school for girls was established, to be kept during the daily intervals of the other schools. In the year 1803 there were eleven schools in the town,-the central and ten dis- trict schools at Northtown, West District, Wellingsley, Eel River, Manomct, Cedarville, Ellisville, Half-Way Ponds, and South Pond,-for all of which the sum of twelve hundred and twenty dollars was appropriated. To this sum, however, must be added the proceeds of the sale of Indian lands, and of the sale of herrings in Town Brook, applicable by a vote of the town to the support of schools.

In 1802, Martin Parris took the central school, followed by Nathaniel Bradstreet, a graduate of Harvard in 1795, and Benjamin Shurtleff, of Car- ver, father of the late mayor of Boston, who were

succeeded in order by Alexander Parris, of Pcm- broke; Thomas Wetherell, of Plymouth; Moses Webster, of Harvard, 1804; Philander Shaw, and Benjamin and Thomas Drew, of Plymouth. In 1826 the central school received the name of High School, and was taught from that time successively by Addison Brown, of Harvard, 1826; George W. Hosmer, of the same class ; Horace H. Rolfe ; Josiah Moore, of Harvard, 1826; and Charles Field. In 1830 the school came into the hands of Samuel R. Townsend, of Harvard, 1829, who was succeeded by Le Baron Russell, of Harvard, 1832; Isaac N. Stod- dard, of Upton, a recent graduate at Amherst ; Leonard Bliss, of Rehoboth; William H. Lord ; Robert Bartlett, of Plymouth, of Harvard, 1836; and Mr. Stoddard again, whose second term of ser- vice expired in 1841. Mr. Stoddard was succeeded again by Charles Clapp, Philip C. Knapp, Francis Jenks, John Brooks Beal, Thomas A. Watson, of Harvard, 1845, and Samuel Sewell Greely, of Har- vard, 1844. William H. Spear succeeded Mr. Greely, followed by J. W. Hunt, Frank Crosby, Edward P. Bates, and, in 1855, Admiral P. Stone. Mr. Stone taught five years, and during his term of service the High School for Girls, established in 1836, was con- solidated with the High School for Boys. After its formation, in 1836, it was kept by Mary Adams, of Newburyport, in the lower room of Pilgrim Hall, until 1840, in which year the Russell Street school- house was built, and received both of the high schools. Mrs. Adams was succeeded by Frances Greigg, Almira Seymour, Mary E. Kendall, and Dorcas Maxwell ; and in 1850, on the advent of Mr. Stone, the High School building at the Green was bought, and both schools were united. In 1853 the school districts were abolished, and Adiel Harvey was appointed superintendent of all the schools in the town, followed in 1859 by Charles Burton, who resigned in 1883, and was reappointed in 1884, after a year's service by T. D. Adams, of Newton:

Mr. Stone continued as principal of the school until 1855, when he was succeeded in order by George L. Baxter, of Harvard, 1863; Theodore P. Adams and Joseph L. Sanborn, both of Harvard, 1867; Henry Dame; George W. Minns, of Harvard, 1836; Gilman C. Fisher, and the present principal, Charles Burton, who, with the exception of one year of his services as teacher, has performed also the duties of general superintendent.

It is impossible, within available limits, to do more than follow the general current of school history. The affairs of the various districts, their methods and their teachers, are beyond the scope of this narrative.

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History of Plymouth county, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 41

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 1706

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 1706