USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Acushnet > History of the Town of Acushnet, Bristol County, State of Massachusetts > Part 15
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Nye avenue, that section of it between Bridge (the main street of the village) and Slocum streets, was accepted by the town in 1906.
Peckham road. From Long Plain road west by Timothy Davis's
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orchard and Joseph Severance and Ebenezer Allen's mill dam, past Reuben Mason's to Ebenezer Keen's land on this road. Ebenezer Allen, Jr., Nicholas Davis and Job Wilcox were on the line of this road. Laid out May 11, 1792.
Peckham road. Cyrus Clark run out a road from the Long Plain road in the village to Ansel White's mill dam, formerly owned by Ebenezer Allen, past the house formerly owned by Joseph Severance, July 2, 1823. The section of the Peckham road from Jonathan Tobey's place on the County road easterly to the above layouts. was laid out March 29, 1841.
Post road. The south part of this highway, from the bridge at Acushnet Village to Perry Hill, past the land of Stephen West, Meeting house green, John Jenney, John Spooner, John Taber's homestead at Mason Taber's corner, Elnathan Pope, Elnathan Spooner and Joseph Taber. To be four rods wide. Nov. 6, 1724.
Post road. The north part of this road from Perry Hill road, com- mencing at land of the widow of Capt. Seth Pope, past and through land of James Dexter, William Bennett, Jeremiah Bennett, Joseph Sampson, James Howland, Timothy Davis's house, John Cook's barn, widow Pierce, Elnathan Hathaway, Seth Spooner and Walter Spooner, to Peaked rock, on the north line of the town. Laid out forty feet wide, March 13, 1760.
Quaker lane. The County Commissioners ordered the road from the house of Stephen Tripp past the residence of Walter C. Davis and that of Wing Howland widened and straightened, Jan. 20, 1848.
Rochester road. Laid out from Long Plain road to Rochester line from the northwest corner of Joseph Sampson's line past land of Ebenezer Allen and Amos Simmons, May 14, 1789.
Rochester road. Cyrus Clark run out a road from Charles F. Thatcher's house past land of Capt. Williams Ashley to the Rochester line, July 16, 1832.
Slocum street, extending from Fairhaven road westerly to Hope street, was accepted by the town in 1905.
MACADAM HIGHWAYS
Probably no town in the Commonwealth has more miles of macadam highway in proportion to the assessed valua- tion than this little town. The voters realized the expen- siveness of the work, the debt to be incurred and the high rate of tax that must and did inevitably follow, but the dirt highways were abominable from the nature of the soil, and the taxpayers were determined they should be made better, and they were.
The first work of this description done in town was in 1896. At the spring town meeting $5,000 was appropriated to macadamize the Mill road northward from Ball's Corner. This was done by contract at a cost of seventy-five cents per running foot. At a special town meeting $1,500
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was appropriated to build such a road by contract from the bridge east- ward, a distance of 1,500 feet.
In the spring of 1897 Henry H. Rogers of Fairhaven donated to Acushnet a crusher and engine, which enabled the town to do its own macadamizing and save contractors' profits. At this date the Fairhaven road was macadamized. Distance, 6,610 feet, sixteen feet wide and eight inches deep on the crown; expended $2,848.64, at a cost of less than 43 cents per running foot. The above was the width and depth of nearly all the macadam afterwards laid on the main roads.
Mill road. In 1897. Extended from Whelden Brook to Potter's Corner, 7,200 feet, at an outlay of $3,024.62.
Perry Hill road of 6,600 feet was constructed in 1898 at an expense to the town of $2,553.71, besides subscriptions of over $600.
Rochester or Robinson road was also laid in 1898. Distance 4,900 feet; cost to town $1,471.08, besides nearly $700 subscribed for the pur- pose by citizens of this town and Rochester. This and the Perry Hill road being on the direct line of travel from the latter town to New Bed- ford, citizens of that town subscribed liberally to encourage Acushnet to appropriate.
Middle or Cross road. In 1899. Distance 6,289 feet; town's money $2,192.54; cash subscriptions $504.62.
Long Plain road from the state road at Captain James R. Allen's northward in 1899. Distance 7,351 feet; town's money $2,870.26; sub- scriptions $1,035.55.
Mattapoisett road, 1899. Distance 7,000 feet, (part twelve feet wide) ; town's money $2,708.16; cash subscriptions $852.94.
Long Plain road, from G. A. Fuller's to Long Plain. In 1900. Dis- tance 12,225 feet; town's money $5,693.01; cash subscriptions $214.55; total cost $5,478.46 ; cost per foot 50 1-3 cents.
Long Plain road completed, 1901. Distance 9,300 feet ; town's money $5,516.65 ; subscriptions $496.
Morse road. In 1905. Cash subscriptions, besides the sum expended by the town, $189.
This put the two main highways running parallel the length of the town, and several of the roads in good condition. The chief defects were insufficient crowning and too shallow gutters in most of the work. This has resulted in a rapid and expensive deterioration in the macadam.
At the outbreak of the macadam fever James C. Gammons was road commissioner. He served the town with great efficiency till the original macadam work was completed in 1905.
At the outset of this work the town wisely appointed a committee consisting of Moses S. Douglass, chairman of the Board of Selectmen; Henry W. Cushman and Augustus White, successful business men of the place, to co-operate with the road commissioner in this work. When the roads at the south end of the town had been built Mr. White withdrew
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from the above committee, and was succeeded in 1901 by Thomas E. Braley, a resident of the north end.
The above comprises more than twelve miles of macadam highway at an outlay to the town and contributors of about $33,000, not including interest on notes. Besides the above the state constructed a mile of macadam on the Long Plain road.
BRIDGES The only bridge across the Acushnet river for nearly a hun-
dred and fifty years after the original settlers came here was the bridge at Acushnet Village. This place, in my judgment, as before stated, is where the Indian trail from Plymouth to Rhode Island crossed the river. The location of Precinct cemetery; and the crooked highway from Parting Ways to the bridge, and the contour of the land indicates that the present road and bridge is where the Indian trail and later the Rhode Island way were located.
This bridge was torn up by the Yankee forces the night of the fa- mous British raid in the Revolutionary War, and partly destroyed in the September gale of 1815, when it was partly reconstructed with wood. By a vote of the town of Fairhaven, 1828, a sum of money was appropriated to build a stone bridge here. James Sherman of Acushnet was given the contract. It was commenced in 1828, but the money was insufficient to complete the job. An additional appropriation was made for the purpose in the spring of 1829 and the work was finished that year. This accounts for the date 1829 carved on the south wall, and 1828 on the north wall, which are the years they were laid. A view of this arched granite structure from a point down the river is a picturesque one.
. No bridge spanned the river below this point till a corporation con- structed a toll bridge a mile in length connecting Fairhaven and New Bedford, three miles farther down the river, in 1796. The bridge was constructed at once, but much of it was swept away in May, 1807. It was immediately rebuilt, and again demolished in the September gale of 1815. Previous to this date the only way the south end of Dartmouth was reached from the south end of Fairhaven was by rowboats, or around the Head-of-the-River, a total distance of twenty miles.
This was a toll bridge. The rates charged in 1800 were as follows: Foot passengers, four cents each; twelve cents for each person and horse ; twenty-five cents for each chaise or sulky ; thirty-six cents for each four-wheeled carriage, and six cents for a wheelbarrow and the person propelling it. This bridge was rendered useless by the September gale, when it was rebuilt at an expense of $45,000 and was thereafter free to the public. This bridge was replaced by a new and elaborate one, which was begun in 1895, and finished in 1904, at a total outlay of over one and a quarter million dollars. Of this sum Acushnet was compelled to pay $6,000, but is fortunate to be exempt from the tremendous expense of maintaining it.
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Indignation of the tax payers of the county at the inefficient manage- ment of the county officials in charge of the work became so great that they induced the legislature to take the matter out of their hands and give the city of New Bedford the privilege of completing the structure. An humiliating act !
The third bridge across the river is from Spooner's Point in Fair- haven, at the foot of Howland road, to Coggeshall street at New Bedford.
NEW BEDFORD AND FAIRHAVEN BRIDGE 1
This was probably the "lower passing place" of the Indians, called so to distinguish it from their "upper passing place" at the village bridge. This bridge was commenced in 1891 and completed in 1894 at a cost of $50,000. Acushnet was called upon to invest $2,000 in this enterprise, which, like the Fairhaven bridge, pays Acushnet small dividends.
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The fourth bridge is a wooden structure a few rods below the one at the village, and crosses the river at the foot of Slocum road. It is a private affair and was built to aid in the development of the Stephen West and Joseph B. Slocum farms for building purposes. It is not an unreasonable conjecture that the river will be bridged in the near future from the vicinity of the Nonquitt mills, to supply building lots for the operations of the rapidly growing cotton manufacturing industry on the New Bedford side of the river in that locality.
POSTAL 1 Acushnet had no United States post office till the year FACILITIES 1820. Previous to that date mail for the residents of Acushnet came to New Bedford by stage subsequent to 1794, when the first post office in that town was established. The mails were brought from Boston once a week at the beginning, and on the return of the stage the driver left the mail for Acushnet people at the taverns. There was little except important letters transported in the mails, as postal rates were too expensive for anything except business or urgent matters. The rate to Boston was ten cents, to New York eighteen cents, and Philadelphia twenty-five cents, the rate increasing with the distance.
This was the only mail facility Acushnet had till Dec. 30, 1820, when the "North Fairhaven" post office was established and the nine years' term of James Taber as postmaster began. James was a brother of Jabez, who was proprietor of the Taber Tavern. The post office was in James's dwelling house, which is still standing, perhaps one hundred feet north of the tavern. The office was transferred to Acushnet Village Feb. 11, 1829, when Gustavus Gilbert became postmaster. He was succeeded Sept. 14, 1831, by Cyrus E. Clark, who held the office through the different party administrations, covering a period of more than a half century.
The name of the office was changed to Acushnet in 1864, and the appointments since the change have been as follows :
Cyrus E. Clark, April 4, 1864. George H. Gifford, Dec. 23, 1893.
Rufus W. Gifford, May 14, 1884. Charles H. Kenyon, July 21, 1896.
Allen Russell, Jr., Dec. 6, 1886. Walter F. Douglass, June 13, 1904.
Long Plain Village had no post office till 1834. Here are the names of the postmasters who have served there with the dates of their appoint- ments :
Charles F. Thatcher, April 19, 1834. Caleb Slade, April 20, 1883.
William S. Wilde, April 7, 1864. Dennis S. Mason, May 17, 1889.
John Manter, Jr., April 17, 1866. Sarah J. Braley, July 2, 1901.
Richard Davis, Jr., Jan. 4, 1875.
Mrs. Braley is the only woman who has held the position within the bounds of original New Bedford. She has been an efficient and faithful official.
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As to the location of post offices at Acushnet Village, from the most reliable information the writer has been able to obtain he concludes the first one was in the grocery store of Cyrus E. Clark, now the second build- ing west of the bridge on the north side of the street, next house to the northeast corner of Bridge street and Mill road. Postmaster Gilbert was a law student of Judge N. S. Spooner and Mr. Clark was his assistant. Mr. Clark gave up the grocery business about 1832, the year after he was appointed postmaster, and the office was transferred to the little building
Photo. by James E. Reed, New Bedford.
RURAL FREE DELIVERY, NO. 1
between the above store and the bridge, where Shubael Gifford then manufactured and repaired boots and shoes.
The third office was in the dwelling house now of the heirs of Hananiah Collins on the north side of Bridge street, where Mr. Clark then lived. Later Mr. Clark built and resided in the house across the way from the above, which was burned and rebuilt in 1847, where the post office was till Mr. Clark's successor was appointed in 1884, when the post office was established at the 'northwest corner of Bridge street and Mill
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road, on the New Bedford side of the line. There it has been located ever since that date.
The first post office at Long Plain was in the store of Charles F. Thatcher, at the southeast corner of Rochester and Long Plain roads. Mr. Thatcher at one period was both postmaster and mail carrier. At first the mail came tri-weekly. It is said Mr. Thatcher sometimes covered the mail route to Acushnet Village on foot, and it was not unusual for him to carry the small quantity of mail in his beaver hat or in his red ban- danna handkerchief.
The next office was in Samuel Wilde's variety store, at the north end of the village, his son, William S., being the postmaster. During the terms of John Manter, Jr., who never performed the active duties of the
U. S. MAIL
No. B.
Photo, by James E. Reed, New Bedford.
RURAL FREE DELIVERY, NO. 2
position, and that of Richard Davis, Jr., the office was in the same store, and its successor across the way, now occupied by Mr. Davis.
From 1883 till 1901 the office was in the grocery store opposite the west end of Rochester road, and since the latter date at the residence of the postmistress, next north of the Baptist church, till the office was abolished in 1907.
Soon after the United States congress provided for the free delivery of mail in rural districts a route was established in this town. The route covered twenty-two and one-half miles of highway, including the follow- ing roads: Fairhaven, Mattapoisett, Perry Hill, Rochester, Quaker Lane, Long Plain (the whole length). William A. Gurney was appointed the first carrier and made the first trip Jan. 2, 1901. On that date he delivered
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fifty-seven pieces of mail and collected twelve pieces. He is now deliver- ing an average of about 9,000 pieces per month and collecting about 4,000 pieces. Mr. Gurney is the only carrier this route has had.
Route No. 2 was established in 1903. It also goes out from the Acush- net post office. Part of the territory covered is in this town and the balance in New Bedford. The distance is about the same as No. 1, and the route is on the following roads: Tarkiln Hill, County, Philips, Braley, Peckham, Keene, Morse, Mill, Nye, and White's Factory. The first and only carrier is Abraham L. Dillingham, whose appointment dates Oct. 1, 1903.
THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC
At the very commencement of the life of the Pilgrims in their new homes at Plymouth they found that the liquor habit was present and at once its demoralizing and direful effects were manifest. This is shown by the court records. So alarming had the results of intoxicants become that the General Court passed the following semi-prohibitory law as early as 1638 :
"Forasmuch as grate inconveniences have beene occasioned by younge men & other labourers that have Dyeted in Inns & Ale houfes efpecially who have had other houfes to repair vnto in the Towne, It is therefore enacted by the Court, That none shall Dyett in Inns or Alehoufes, nor haunt them which are in the Townes they live in, nor make them the ordinary places of their Abode."
Then as now, the people licensed the ungodly traffic and then deplored the cursed work it wrought.
The colony limited the price of liquors by this act of 1663: "Noe liquors shall bee sold in any p'te of this Gov'ment that shall exceed in prise six shillings the gallon, except it bee English Sperritts."
License liquor laws were in force when Acushnet first became the abode of the white man. Here is an amended law of the colony made soon after :
"1669. It is enacted by the Court & the authoritie thereof that none shall sell wine, liquors, Cyder, or beere by retaile in this Collonie except they have a lysinse & to pay for theire lycense according to the Capacitie of the place where they live."
One hundred years ago liquor was sold in this town not only in taverns and ordinaries, but in all grocery and provision stores where the conscience of the proprietor would admit of it. The baneful effects of ability to procure liquor within a short distance of every home and the enormous patronage of these places were apparent in some of the families and farms of the town. There were as many as eleven places at one time in this town where intoxicating liquors were as openly sold as groceries.
The public attitude towards the iniquitous business then was quite unlike the present day. Men of good standing in society, in business and in the church engaged in the traffic without losing caste. Here are the names of eight men who held liquor licenses in this town more than a
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hundred years ago : John Spooner, Elnathan Pope, Daniel Spooner, Lemuel Mendall, Richard Pierce, John Crandon, Stephen Bennett, Thomas Crandon.
A liquor license was granted to Captain William Gordon (for a tavern) in 1783-84. To Squire Samuel Sprague in 1779-80-81. To Joseph Cook (building contractor) in 1779. To Seth Spooner in 1788-89. To Archelus Taber in 1788. To Jabez Taber (tavern keeper) as late as 1812.
In 1741 in some way the authorities omitted to grant a liquor license to John Crandon of Acushnet Village, tavern keeper, and there was no place in the village where liquor could be bought. A petition was signed by fifty men to have a license granted to him and presented to the General Court. Among the petitioners were :
Lemuel Pope,
Samuel Joy,
Elnathan Pope,
Samuel Jenney,
Samson Jenney,
Thomas Wrightington, Robert Wrightington, John Spooner.
Some of these men at least were highly respected men in the com- munity and members of the Precinct church.
. That there has been a delightfully encouraging change in the senti- ment of the town on this very important subject, which every one will rejoice in who has an interest in the well being of the town, is demon- strated by record evidence. It is contained in the vote of the town at each annual town meeting of the past ten years on the question: Shall license be granted for the sale of intoxicating liquors for the ensuing year ?
1897. Yes, 2. No, 124. 1902. Yes, 0. No, 64.
1898. Yes, 7. No, 119. 1903. Yes, 0. No, 55.
1899. Yes, 1. No, 99. 1904. Yes, 2. No, 110. 1900. Yes, 3. . No, 86. 1905. Yes, 1. No, 113. 1901. Yes, 8.
No, 159. 1906. Yes, 0. No, 114.
FIRE DEPARTMENT Acushnet village has long been supplied with an apparatus for extinguishing fires, as a large part of it is in the New Bedford fire district. The first fire engine placed at the Head-of-the-River was in 1821 or 1822. It was a bucket engine, but its name, if it had one, cannot be learned by the writer. It was succeeded by No. 3, a Hunneman Tub, from New Bedford.
This early type of fire engines were called Bucket engines from the fact that water had to be carried from the source of supply, a river or well or pond, to the machine in buckets. Every member was supplied with a bucket, which he was required to keep at his abode. Generally they were hung in a convenient position in the front hall, in readiness for immediate use. At a fire the engine was taken close to the burning building, two lines of men were formed to the nearest water supply, one
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line to pass the filled buckets to the reservoir of the engine, and the other to pass them back. These lines were called "lanes." If boys were present, they were placed on the dry lanes, where the work was lightest. The buckets were filled by the bailer, and were passed from one to another - up the wet lane, and returned by the dry one. Thus the men at the brakes of the engine were kept busy. These buckets were made of the best of leather with the number of the engine on them, or the name of the owner when they were kept at his house.
The water was thrown from the engines through a flexible pipe attached to a tower placed over the pump, which was worked by side brakes. At the first trial of this machine at the village, Foreman Samuel Pierce of Acushnet stood on top of the tower directing operations when the pipe burst at the butt and the enthusiastic foreman was actually lifted into the air by the force of the stream. He declared the engine to be a powerful one, which she proved to be. This machine was in service here till 1828, when it was wrecked-purposely, it was generally believed, so that the company could have a better one-on the way to the fire of Capt. Pardon Nye's barn on Nye lane. This engine was housed in a small building adjoining the present post office on the north.
The second machine stationed at the Head-of-the-River was evidently here as early as 1835, when the following persons constituted the mem- bership of the company :
Captain, Shubael H. Gifford; clerk, Jireh Swift, Jr .; members, Philip T. F. Davis, Isaiah Parlow, Thaddeus W. Perry, B. Parlow, Thomas P. Terry, Samuel Spooner, Mark Snow, James Spooner, William Spooner, Jr., Erastus Merrick, Obed Nye, Isaac Terry, Obed Gifford, R. B. Smith, Levi Hawes, Silas Stetson.
The above are the names of the first fire engine company at the Head-of-the-River that has come to my knowledge. The next company roster recorded is that of the same company in 1844-45, which was as follows :
Foreman, Thomas P. Potter; clerk, Silas Stetson; Mark Snow, Amos Braley, Philip T. Davis, Silas Braley, Augustus Harrington, Andrew B. Grinnell, Peter Taber, Simeon Hawes, Lemuel Terry, Nathaniel Spooner, George T. Russell, Sr., A. B. Richardson, Charles McArthur, Edward Payson, Levi Strong, Borden Spencer, Parkman M. Lund, Warren Parker, Rufus Williams, John Mansfield, Joseph S. Spooner, W. R. Carroll.
No. 3 was sold to the town of Fairhaven for $150 about 1855, and was transferred to the building erected and used by Samuel Pierce as a car- penter shop, located on the east side of the river nearly opposite school- house No. 4, the present town house. It is evident the name and number were changed, as the inscription over the entrance to the quarters was: "Accushnett 4." Here she remained till Acushnet was incorporated,
1
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after which the company disbanded and the machine was sold to a junk dealer.
The vacancy made by the sale of No. 3 was filled by Citizen No. 2, in 1856, when the roster of the company consisted of the following names :
Foreman, Reuben Washburn; clerk, Edward P. Lund; James S. Howard, James Butler, Lemuel A. Washburn, Thomas S. Potter, Charles H. Potter, Valentine Luce, Charles A. Cushman, Rodolphus Nye, James H. Terry, John McCagh, Howard Pittsley, L. M. Emerson, George L. Hathaway, Andrew B. Grinnell, Arthur Ricketson, Samuel P. Burt, Edward Spooner, Francis Spooner, George Collins, Augustus Hathaway, Seth Hoard, B. Ritter, H. Mathews, Charles D. Reynolds, William Chase.
This machine remained here only a short time, as appears by Ellis' History of the New Bedford Fire Department, which states that on Jan. 18, 1861, Hancock No. 9 was transferred to the Head-of-the-River, and Citizen No. 2 was withdrawn and sold. On the company record book is the statement that Hancock No. 9 was built by John Agnew in Phila- delphia, and was moved to Acushnet June 18, 1861. Ellis also states that- the Hancock replaced the Citizen in 1860. No. 2 was housed for a while in the building south of the bridge.
The officers, previous to 1890, were called Foreman, 1st Assistant, 2nd Assistant and Clerk. Since the latter date they have ranked as Cap- tain, 1st Lieutenant, 2nd Lieutenant and Clerk. These offices since 1854 have been filled by the following persons :
Foremen and Captains. Reuben Washburn, 1855-56-65 to 1877 inclusive. Simeon Hawes, 1860-61-62-63-64. George W. Bennett, 1879-80. John A. Russell, 1881-82-83 to 1893 inclusive. . Frank P. Washburn, 1894 to the present time.
First Assistants and Lieutenants. Seth Hoard, 1855-56-69 to 1876 inclusive. Reuben Washburn, 1860-61-63-64. Elias Hoard, 1862. Charles E. Howland, 1865-66-67. Thomas R. Hawes, 1868. John A. Russell, 1879. George W. Paige, 1880. George W. Bennett, 1881-82. George W. Randall, 1883-84. Francis P. Washburn, 1885 to 1893 inclusive. Herbert M. Spooner, since 1894.
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