USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Acushnet > History of the Town of Acushnet, Bristol County, State of Massachusetts > Part 6
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1730. Nye to Bartholomew West.
1799. William West to John Hawes all between the Summerton place and the Lemuel Mendall or "Mill" lot.
1828. Mary and William Hawes to Samuel Pierce.
1858. Capt. Richard W. Hathaway, whose wife was a daughter of Pierce, bought out the other heirs.
1872. Hathaway to Charles L. Kenyon, the owner and occupant in 1906.
Lot E. Title same as "D" till 1801.
1801. John Hawes to Seth Bumpus.
1848. Bumpus' widow and Isaac Vincent to Samuel B. Hamlin, whose son, James B. Hamlin, owned and occupied it in 1906.
Lot F. Title same as "D" till 1849.
1849. Samuel Pierce to Town of Fairhaven, "lot whereon his car- penter's shop stood." It was used as an engine house. The town of Acushnet sold it to Charles L. Kenyon.
Lot G. Title same as "D" till 1836.
1836. Samuel Pierce to Gideon Nye. Gideon Nye's heirs to George F. Bartlett; later Dr. Fred B. Nesbitt, and now Lizzietta E. Ashley.
Lot H. Title same as "D" till 1811.
1811. John Hawes to Obed Nye, Jonathan Danforth, John Perry. John Wady, Daniel Summerton and Zacheus Cushman, trustees of M. E. Church. The lot on which the Methodist Church now stands.
Lot I. Title same as "D" till 1755.
1755. Bartholomew West to Daniel Summerton.
1814. Summerton to Humphrey Hathaway. Hathaway heirs to George T. Russell, Sr., whose heirs were the owners in 1906.
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4
Photo. by A. H. MacCreary, Phila.
ACUSHNET RIVER,
Looking towards the Village Bridge.
ACUSHNET RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES
Before the New Bedford Water Works trans- formed the upper Acushnet into a reservoir, it appears to have been a long, narrow pond north of the road which crossed it at Ansel White's shop. At the Freetown line it was only a small brook, and at that point in 1730 was some sort of an object called "the beaver dam." Where Ansel White's mills stood was originally Young's dam. It was set off to James Sampson, and in 1715 transferred to Anthony Young. Mills were established at this point and owned in 1716 by Tisdale and Gage, 1720 George Brownell, 1765 Daniel Hunt, 1768 Nathan and Nicholas Davis, 1776 Abraham Davis, 1784 Ebenezer Allen, and in 1818 Ansel White acquired the entire property.
A short distance south in 1725 Jeremiah Bennett had a mill on the east side of the river, but the same must have been a temporary affair, as the records contain only a single mention concerning it.
Between Long Plain Village and the Head of the River is Deep Brook, which rises in the swamps in the north part of the town. It fur- nished extensive and valuable water power early in the history of the village. The land was set off to Samuel Jenney and was later owned by Stephen West, Jr. 1738 West conveyed to James Fuller, "bloomer, "twenty- four acres near the new forge, and the same year West conveyed to Christopher Turner one-fourth of the forge. It seems that iron ore existed in a swampy tract a short distance north of the location of this forge. In 1749 Stephen Taber acquired the entire property, both water power and farm adjoining, and the same remained in his family many years. In
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recent years the farmhouse was owned by Capt. Godfrey Macomber, and the factory, which has become a saw mill, for a number of years has been owned and conducted by the Morses, and in 1905 by William G. Taber.
RUINS OF WHELDEN COTTON FACTORY. Erected about 1815.
A short distance south of its junction with Deep Brook is a stone mill, which in recent years has become a ruin. It was established in 1815 by Joseph Whelden, and in 1818 its owners were Joseph Whelden, Job Gray, Jr., Reuben Mason, Loum Snow, Jireh and Jonathan Swift. After passing through several conveyances in 1866 it was conveyed by Sylvanus Thomas to the City of New Bedford, which purchased the property rather than pay the damages on account of the diminution in water power due to the use of the water above that point for municipal purposes.
A well known enterprise still further south is commonly known as "White's Factory," or the "Hamlin Mill." The land was formerly owned by John Spooner, and in 1746 was conveyed to Samuel Hammond. In 1778 a "new mill-dam" had been built and in 1799 Moses Washburn sold to William White three-quarters of the saw-mill near Colonels Pope and
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Kempton, with a passageway through Kempton's land. This was the modern White Factory road. In 1790 Edward Pope sold to Joseph Whelden the upper grist mill, which Samuel Hammond conveyed to Thomas Pope in 1751. 1811, William White to Joseph Whelden two acres and a cotton factory. 1814, Whelden to William White, Jr., an interest in the dam, two houses, grist mill, saw mill, dye house, cotton factory and machinery. In 1863 the entire property was purchased by the late Samuel B. Hamlin. Only the saw mill has been operated for many years.
The mill privilege on the north side of the road at the Head of the River has always been an important property. Land was set off to cer- tain persons as an inducement to build a mill in the early years of the set- tlement. The owners in 1725 were Samuel Hunt, George Babcock, Jonathan Hathaway, Joseph Taber, Nathaniel Shepherd and Stephen West, and mill land was on both sides of the river. In a deed in 1798 from Stephen 'i'aber to William Rotch, Jr., it appears that there was a saw mill and corn mill on the west side of the river ; the latter has long disappeared, but the saw mill still continues. Before his decease Colonel Samuel Willis owned a large proportion of the privilege and of the land on both sides of the river. On the east side have flourished several industries, In 1789 Simpson Hart conveyed to Isaac Terry land for a blacksmith business, and the year following Terry conveyed to William White the forge and shop that he bought of Hart. In 1794 J. Hathaway sold to Hart land on which stood the tan works south of Isaac Terry's iron works. The forge ceased to be used many years ago. Judge Nathaniel S. Spooner conducted a grist mill at the corner of the road and river, and the building was taken down in 1903.
On the stream which crosses the Long Plain road about a mile and a half north of the Head of the River, on the place owned by Moses S. Douglass, is a privilege formerly called "Taber's Mill." It may have been used by Capt. Thomas Taber. In 1750, when John Taber divided his homestead farm, this mill was in the south third, and went to his son Amaziah with the fulling mill, dwelling house, smith's shop and seventy acres of land. It later became owned by a grandson named Thomas Wood, and in 1874 was conveyed to Moses S. Douglass, and in 1905 was owned and conducted by Henry Cushman.
REVOLUTIONARY WAR Only a little over a century after the burning of the dwellings of Acushnet by the Indians the inhabitants within the bounds of our town again suffered from terror and the torch. As soon as the tocsin of the Revolutionary War sounded Old Dartmouth indicated her purpose to resist the tyranny of the mother country. The inhabitants of the Acushnet section of the town resolutely resolved that, "survive or perish," they were determined to be American patriots from the beginning of the terrific struggle for liberty till its close.
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The women of Acushnet were in the vanguard and joined the men in the first show of resistance by refusing to drink tea, which every patriot declared was unjustly taxed. Encouraged by this total abstinence move- ment, the men had an article inserted in the warrant for a town meeting July 18, 1774.
"For sd Town at sd Meeting to adopt such methods as they shall think Best to prevent the use of Bohea tea in sd town for the future."
It was so voted, and at the same meeting it was also voted to
"Boycott all articles manufactured in Great Britain and Ireland."
Besides this the women cheerfully agreed to "stay by the stuff" if the men would go to the front, all of which was of an enthusing character and gave a powerful influence and impetus to the cause of patriotism hereabouts.
An important matter before the town meeting of July 18, 1774, was to decide what steps should be taken in regard to settling oppressive restrictions of the English government. "Honorable Walter Spooner esq." was chosen moderator. A committee including Honorable Walter Spooner, Esq., Capt. Seth Pope, Seth Hathaway and Hannaniah Cornish, all of this town, were appointed to prepare an order of business for the meeting.
Later a "committee of correspondence to serve with the other com- mittees of correspondence in America" was chosen, which included Capt. Seth Pope, Hannaniah Cornish and Jireh Swift, Jr.
At a town meeting held Jan. 7, 1775, a committee of twenty-one per- sons were chosen by advice of the county congress, previously held in Taunton, to advise and consult with other similar delegations upon mat- ters in relation to the Revolutionary struggle. In this committee were Capt. Philip Taber, Capt. Seth Pope and Capt. Thomas Crandon of this town.
On the 19th of April, 1775, Paul Revere and other messengers rode in every direction from Boston, spreading the direful intelligence that open hostilities had commenced. One of these rode southward through Middleboro, Long Plain and Acushnet Village to Bedford Village, sound- ing the alarm and calling "to arms" as he dashed along. Three com- panies of minute men from the loyal citizens of Dartmouth were soon ready to march. The rallying point of the Acushnet volunteers was at the bridge. On April 21, only two days after the attack on Lexington, these three companies of heroes started from Swift's corner, in the village, and marched up the "post road," by Parting Ways, through Long Plain to the general rendezvous of the American army at Roxbury.
Dartmouth furnished a large number of men for the civic and military part of the struggle, and while Bedford Village neither owned nor fitted out privateers, Dartmouth furnished many daring and efficient men in this service, and many of the vessels engaged in the business rendezvoused in
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Bedford harbor. The loyalty manifested by the people of Dartmouth in the ways already mentioned became well known to the British, who deliberately planned to retaliate and to punish, if possible, those who were devoted by word and deed to their country's cause. The officials of Dart- mouth soon obtained knowledge of this purpose.
Apprehending a naval attack, Dartmouth wisely appointed a Com- mittee of Safety to look after the welfare of the people. Obed "Ney" (Nye) of Acushnet was on this committee. They posted in public places notices urging the inhabitants to immediately cause all goods, wares and merchandise that were private property and not necessary for present subsistence to be moved into the interior, or some safe place. Many heeded the warning and carried their bulky effects of value up to Roches- ter, Freetown and Lakeville. Small articles of value were buried in the earth, or lowered into wells, or secreted in some place where their discov- ery seemed improbable. Even while this work was going on the dreaded event opened upon the terrified community.
Saturday, Sept. 5, 1778, commenced one of the gloomiest acts in the history of this locality since the Indian holocaust in 1676. This and the following day, the Sabbath, were hours of tremendous anxiety and fearful unrest. Everybody was panic-stricken and filled with dread of the impending danger to person and property. On the morning of this fateful Saturday the beautiful inner harbor of Bedford was full of all sizes and description of vessels: fishermen, merchantmen, whalemen, privateers and prizes. Storehouses at Bedford, Fairhaven, Belleville and Acushnet were full of merchandise. These were an easy prey for the enemy, and they were conscious of it. The public defence of the port consisted of only eleven cannon mounted on wooden platforms, where Fort Phenix now stands, and a company of 22 men to work them. Two more guns were mounted at Clark's Point. These, with the knowledge that hundreds of organized minute men could be summoned and reach the harbor in a few hours to repel the landing of a naval force, led the authorities heretofore to feel comparatively secure. Alas, they awoke on that Saturday morning unprepared for a terrible event which was at their doors. At the southeastern entrance to Buzzards bay was an approaching British fleet which sailed from New London. Conn., on the day before. A merciless foe, consisting of two frigates, an eighteen gun brig-of-war, six transports in command of Major General Charles Grey. The orders issued the day previous by General Grey, from which the following is an extract, are characteristic of the man and show his contempt for the American people :
On Board the Carysfort, September 4, 1778.
When the enemy are so posted that they can be got at, the Major- General commands the troops that are ordered to attack them to
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march vigorously up, and receive their fire, till they come very close, and upon every proper opportunity they are to rush upon the enemy, with their bayonets, immediately after they have thrown in their fire, without waiting to load again: in which method of attack, the superior courage and strength of the troops must always be crowned with glory and success. The Major-General is impressed with every assurance, that the officers and men are so thoroughly convinced of the great advantage they have over the enemy in the mode of fighting, and their great zeal for the service, that the present expedition cannot fail of success, but do them honor, and answer the expecta- tions of the comander-in-chief, whose opinion of these troops cannot be more strongly manifested than by sending them upon this essential service. In case of bad weather, or other accidents, that any of the transports should be separated from the fleet and fall in with a privateer, so as to make an escape impossible, which may not be unlikely, many small ones being lurking about upon the watch, the Major-General desires the commanding officer of each transport would oblige the captain of the ship to bear immediately down upon such privateer, running him directly and without delay on board, the troops being ready at the critical moment to enter and take possession of the vessel. This being properly done, will ever succeed, the enemy not being aware of such an attack, and the troops so superior in every respect to put in execution.
The commanding officers are to be answerable that no houses or barns are set on fire by the soldiers, unless by particular orders from Major-General Grey.
By Command of MAJ. GEN. CHARLES GREY.
The fleet anchored off Clark's Point about noon, and preparations were at once made for the memorable invasion.
Elijah Macomber related how the information of the approach of the British fleet into the bay reached Fort Phenix. He said that about one o'clock p. m. on Saturday, Sept. 5, Worth Bates, who lived at a place on the Bedford side, called McPherson's wharf (now Belleville), and who had been out fishing, landed at the fort in his boat and informed the captain (Timothy Ingraham) that a British fleet of 30 sails was in the bay moving towards Clark's Point. Mr. Macomber was 21 years of age at this time and was from March to December, 1778, one of the troops that garrisoned the fort, therefore he was familiar with all the details there and the movement of his company after the fort was evacuated. His sub- sequent relation of the existing affair is given below.
As soon as it became known at headquarters that the fleet was approaching the harbor messengers were dispatched in every direction to carry the alarming tidings. One of these rode the length of Acushnet urging every able-bodied man to seize his flintlock and report at the bridge in the village immediately and warning housekeepers to flee with their children and valuables to a place of safety.
There were very few men in Acushnet at that time to respond to the
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call. Many of them were of the Friends' society, who refused to bear arms, and most of the other able-bodied men were already at the front. In many of the houses there were only women, who "staid by the stuff" with the children, as they promised their husbands. Other houses had been vacated. Some of the women and children, it is related to me, yoked the oxen to the farm cart, filled it with the most valuable household articles and drove into the densest forest for safety.
The only military at Bedford Village to resist the landing of the enemy was a detachment of a light battery. The battery with 80 men had been sent down to Clark's Point from Boston some time previous to this. Unfortunately, the whole battery had been ordered to Howland's Ferry (Stone Bridge) a few days previous to the approach of the enemy's fleet to the bay. Fortunately, a detachment of the battery with one gun, in command of the brave and heroic Lieutenants William Gordon and James Metcalf, returned on the morning of the day of the invasion. The out- look must have been appalling to this handful of untrained men as they faced the host of 4,000 regulars of the British army and navy filled with the spirit of war and devastation. Events demonstrate that these young American patriots were no cowards, that they possessed the "give me liberty or give me death" spirit of Patrick Henry.
Lieutenant William Gordon afterwards became a prominent citizen of Acushnet, and Lieutenant James Metcalf's body was soon after laid in the Precinct cemetery at Parting Ways.
It must have been after sundown before the army started, for Gen. Grey reported that the debarkation of the troops at Clark's Cove did not begin till five o'clock. The marauders immediately commenced their work of destruction in the harbor and on the line of their march to and through Acushnet Village and down Fairhaven road, Main street and Adams street to Sconticut Neck, where they re-embarked the next day. Soon the night was made lurid with a tremendous conflagration, covering the inner harbor and extending the length of the charming Acushnet river, consuming the shipping, and the accumulations and homes of resi- dents along its prosperous shores. From the cove the horde marched up County street and divided at Union street, a part going to the river, where they destroyed some of the business portion of the village and the ship- ping, and the balance proceeded northward towards Acushnet, over the same way that Capt. Church with his band of Indian captives marched about a century before.
Let us return to the little one gun battery. There is a well estab- lished tradition that one of its officers, Lieuenant William Gordon, while on the watch for the enemy down in Bedford Village, was attracted into the house of Caleb Russell. The inducement to enter was a powerful one to a hungry soldier. He saw within, steaming hot Indian pudding served on pewter platters for the occasion. The temptation was irresistible. The
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lieutenant had evidently miscalculated the location of the British, for as he was in the act of helping himself to the delicious contents of a platter an alarm sounded. He sprang to his feet, rushed out of doors, and was soon a prisoner of war, the first capture made by the enemy in that eventful raid. The British doubtless exulted over their prize, but did not realize that it comprised one half of the commissioned officers of the troops that were resisting their progress. Their cause for rejoicing was brief, however, and fortunate for the Yankee boys it was. The gal- lant lieutenant closely watched his captors, and in an opportune moment leaped a wall, fled into the woods and was soon with his battery. About this time Captain Cushing, the commander of the battery, appeared on the scene. As has been stated, he was at Howland's Ferry when the enemy's fleet was approaching Bedford harbor. Receiving intelligence of this event he flew with all possible speed to join the detachment of his command that was left here, as Sheridan did from Winchester, but un- like Sheridan, Cushing failed to "save the day."
As this small detachment of our brave forces with its one mounted gun drawn by a yoke of oxen were forced northward on the County road, now Acushnet avenue, they were rapidly reinforced by volunteers from Acushnet, Freetown and the north end of New Bedford, and these home defenders that dreadful night made to the advancing host of 4,000 the strongest possible showing of their numbers, power of resistance and courage.
This demonstration of valor and patriotism encouraged .Captain Cushing and his Lieutenants, Metcalf and Gordon, to decide to make a bold stand at the village bridge and resist an attempt of the enemy to cross the river and invade the "sacred soil" of Acushnet. This proposi- tion met with the brave, enthusiastic approval of the numerous heroes that had gathered there to drive back the advancing foe-a hopeless task.
Captain Cushing ordered the bridge torn up and in various other ways prepared for an engagement with the enemy, which was slowly advancing in the moonlight.
From what is known it seems clear to my mind that when the head of the enemy's column filed right at Lund's corner, the intrepid Yankees had the one gun battery in position in the road west of the bridge, and they were in battle array in its rear, on its flanks and on the hills which lie on both sides of the highway, and that here they made a determined, desperate resistance to the enemy's purpose to cross the river. As they stood there in almost breathless silence as the enemy's host advanced, they must have seriously wondered
"Who at the bridge would be first to fall, Who that night would be lying dead, Pierced by a British musket ball."
It is my belief that at this point, at the midnight hour of Saturday,
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September the fifth, 1778, a bloody battle was fought. Though such an affair is not distinctly of record, the tradition that an engagement with fatal results did occur in this immediate locality is strongly supported by the following and other evidence. The report of General Grey con- cerning the raid, to his superior officer, Gen. Sir Henry Clinton, contains this paragraph :
"The enemy's loss, which came to my knowledge, was an officer and 3 men killed by the advancing parties of light infantry who on receiving a fire from their enclosures, rushed on with their bayonets. Sixteen were brought prisoners from Bedford to exchange for that number missing from the troops.
Charles Grey, M. G."
He reported one killed, four wounded and sixteen missing of the British forces.
Furthermore one who was living at the time, a man of intelligence, related to a person well known to the writer that "near the Head-of-the- river Lieutenant Metcalf of the state artillery company was badly wounded and died soon after." Capt. Lemnel Akin of Fairhaven stated that "it was at Acushnet Village that Lieutenant Metcalf was mortally wounded."
Again, Gen. Grey states that his infantry received a fire from the enemy's "enclosures", which were doubtless the hills near the bridge already referred to. It is stated that Lieut. Metcalf was secreted till the enemy's column had passed over the bridge, when he was carried by his men to the headquarters of the company, North Water near Union street, New Bedford, where John Gilbert of that village wrote that he saw him the next day. Metcalf died the third day after he was wounded. "I attended his funeral," wrote Gilbert.
His comrades mournfully bore his lifeless body over the County road along which he was driven by the foe only a few days previous; over the village bridge near which he became a sacrifice for the cause he had nobly espoused; up to the Meeting Honse green and there in the Precinct cemetery, amid strangers in a strange land, with no loved one near, they "buried him with military honors." There is no tombstone, nothing to indicate
"The grave where our hero lies buried."
Had there been in Bedford Village at that time an enterprising daily newspaper and connected with it a reporter of 1907 model there would probably have been issued that fateful Sunday morning an extra, with a startling, mammoth headline announcing The Battle of Acushnet Bridge, and beneath it the thrilling intelligence that an American officer was mortally wounded, four men wounded, sixteen missing and sixteen pris- oners of war. The enemy are advancing into Acushnet.
It is a reasonable supposition that when our heroic men found it was useless to longer engage the enemy that they withdrew, not across the
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river, for they had cut off their way of retreat in that direction by tearing up the bridge, but up the Mill road. With them they carried "their wounded Lieutenant and comrades and cared for them till the enemy dis- appeared across the river." The only printed information now possessed of the number of Americans wounded in this encounter is that given in Gen. Grey's report, but persons who were well acquainted with men who were living in Revolutionary war days have stated to the writer that the former assured them the number of our wounded was greater than given by Gen. Grey.
It is to be regretted that there is nothing more known of the details of this memorable event: Who were there; how long and courageously they stood to "save the day"; who were injured and captured; where they passed the balance of the night; scenes at the death, and the burial of the heroic Metcalf in a now unknown grave. It is a glorious fact, however, that
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