USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Franklin > History of the town of Franklin, Mass., from its settlement to the completion of its first century > Part 18
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It only remains for me to say that by direction of the Committee of Arrangements (and it is with great pleasure that I obey their injunction, ) I hereby tender to you all -to our honored guest, His Excellency Governor Rice, to Lieutenant-Governor Knight, and the other members of our State government, now present - to you our friends who have come from your distant homes to spend with us, we trust, a happy day - to our townsmen and neigh- bors all - a cordial and affectionate welcome to the amenities and festivities of the present occasion.
The original act of the incorporation of the town was then read by the Secretary of the Commonwealth. Hon. H. B. Pierce, after which "ye antient choir " in the gallery as of old sang " Majesty " under the lead of Mr. Frank Ware and accompanied only by " stringed instruments."
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The oration by Rev. Mortimer Blake, D. D., occupied an hour and twenty minutes. It is printed in full elsewhere.
At the close of his address the orator read the XLIVth Psalm from an original copy of President Dunster's version of the Old Bay Psalm book, 1650, and Mr. Ware " pitched the tune " of York upon the veritable pitch-pipe used by Dea. John Whiting, the first chosen chorister of the church. The people sang three verses in unison after the old way, and the choir and organ joined with all the parts in the last stanza -
We, with our ears have heard, O God, Our fathers have us told, What works Thou wroughtest in their days, Ev'n in ye days of old.
How Thy hand drave ye heathen out, Displanted them Thou hast; How Thou ye people did'st afflict, And ont them Thou did'st cast.
For by their sword they did not get The land's possession, Nor was it their own arm that did Work their salvation.
But Thy right hand, Thine arm also, Thy countenance of light; Because that of Thine own good will Thon did'st in them delight.
The singing of .. America " and the benediction by the chaplain closed the exercise's in the church.
The procession was again formed of those who held tickets to the dinner, and marched to a large pavilion on Emmons' Park. or the ancient Common, where plates had been placed for 1.200 guests. It was not long before every seat was occupied. and a vigorous dental activity prevailed for half an hour.
It is not possible to report all the good things said at the table. The programme of speeches intended could not be fully carried out for want of time, even if a sudden shower had not delayed the exercises. But judges of wide experience declared that they had never heard a richer flow of wit and wisdom. We are again in- debted to the indefatigable Mr. Stewart of the Franklin Register for such reports as are here given.
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The President of the day welcomed the company as follows : - -
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : The limited time remaining warns me that I must be very brief in my introductory remarks. I will offer only one thought regarding the day we celebrate.
Prominent above all others stands the sentiment that this cele- bration is in honor of those men who, under Divine guidance, by labors and sacrifices, laid deep the foundation of all our blessings. Let us hope that the record of the century upon which we have entered may show as clearly to those who shall participate in the centennial celebrations of the future that we are not unworthy descendants of the men we honor to-day.
It is my pleasant privilege to again tender to all in behalf of the town and of the Committee of Arrangements, a sincere and heart- felt welcome to the remaining festivities of the occasion, and to introduce Waldo Daniels, Esq., as Toast-master, who will read the first regular toast.
Mr. Daniels then read : -
1. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Mr. Green proceeded : -
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : Franklin is honored to-day by the presence of the Governor of our State, one of a long line of illus- trious men who have so ably filled the Executive office, and of whom Massachusetts is so justly proud. I am highly honored with this opportunity of presenting to you His Excellency, Gov. Alex- ander H. Rice.
Upon the subsidence of the applause, Governor Rice arose, and after complimenting in high terms the cordial reception and the whole arrangements and exercises of the celebration, proceeded substantially to say : -
As I looked out into the faces of the congregation in the church this morning, it was about the most interesting spectacle that I have seen. I said to myself, now this is a characteristic New England assembly. In the cities we gather of all sorts and con- ditions and nationalities, but when I came into your audience this morning and looked around. I saw that unmistakable type of gen- nine New England citizenship with which I would be willing with- out any guarantee to trust the most sacred things. We see here something of the value of what was done for us by our fathers a century or two ago. We cannot look around upon this New England civilization and suppose that it is in any sense or degree an accident, or that it is something that has happened or may be done over again in a short space of time.
The civilization of New England to-day is a growth, and a growth
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from those principles that were planted when civil society was organized here. Whoever seeks for the secret of what New Eng- land is to-day must go back to those days which you, men and women, and we who have the honor and privilege of being with you to-day, are celebrating. I saw in your village what is the natural outcome of this civilization. I saw those pleasant homes varying in size, but unvarying in the evidences of comfort. I ob- served your well-kept streets, your well-painted houses- all sig- nificant of the ease and comfort which characterizes an intelligent and virtuous community. I saw, also, your school-houses ; I saw that noble institution of learning which is an eternal and enduring monument of the liberality and foresight of one of your citizens.
I saw the spires of your churches, showing that you are con- vinced of the fact that it is not sufficient to train the intellect alone. but that the heart also must be trained, so that the two may go to- gether. I congratulate you on all these pleasing things, but I beg of you to hold fast to the principles which they all represent and without which they must fall - without which they cannot exist. I beg to remind you of what the orator of the day said when he gave us that rapid and brief glance over the past, of the changes that have taken place in the last hundred years - not only in in- stitutions, but in the state of the arts, of learning, of scientific dis- covery, and in the phase of the world.
Although in many senses these changes are progress. yet let me remind you that they render our lives more and more likely to be absorbed in the common incidents of our daily life, so that we are withdrawn from the contemplation of nature and of those principles which are akin to nature, the influence of which is to elevate our manhood, ennoble our natures and make us braver, more aspiring. and worthy people. We must, therefore, resist the influences of these new-discovered elements of progress. We must adapt our education to them, make it more and more thorough, and our re- ligion more and more a thing of practical life.
You will understand me, of course, that in speaking of religion I am not speaking of theology - there is a great, a wide difference between them. Men differ in their theology as widely as the lati- tudes of opinion, but men always and everywhere agree in the true spirit of religion. Whatever warms the heart, whatever teaches men and women to love that which is good, that which is pure, that which is noble. and of good report - to love their neighbors as themselves and, above all, to love and worship God as the first duty of life - that is the religion which all can adopt. and which, when adopted, will elevate the society in which it prevails.
Therefore, wherever we plant our churches and our school- houses, we must remember that they are twin sisters who ought never to be separated : but they are only external symbols of the two parts of our nature which must be educated, and educated
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symmetrically, in order to bring out that type of noble and illus- trious manhood which it was the aspiration of our fathers and is the mission of New England to propagate and develop to the end of time.
With renewed thanks for his cordial reception, His Excellency closed with the warmest applause.
2. Our Mother Town - Wrentham. Franklin. her first-born, forgets not what she owes her parent, and on this anniversary of her birth gratefully acknowledges her obligation.
Samuel Warner, Esq., Town Clerk of Wrentham, responded : -
The little west precinct of Wrentham, which first saw the light 141 years ago when Robert Pond and forty-six others petitioned the Great and General Court that they be set off as a separate township ; because they had, as they said, " conflicted with great hardships and difficulties with respect to their attendance on the public worship of God, by reason of the extraordinary distance of their habitations from the meeting-house in Wrentham ;" that little precinct of some forty families is to-day an enterprising, busy, thriving community of some three thousand people, whose first century as a township this year completes.
In answer to this petition, the Committee of the General Court. suggested a parish. The old town readily voted that, with the boundaries which, with little change. if any, were adopted forty- one years afterward, when the town was incorporated, and which, I think. remain the same to-day. That little band of worshipers (twenty-six church members) to whom Haven, Barnum and Em- mons preached a hundred years ago, and for whom one small house sufficed, has been succeeded by some five or six societies whose elegant houses of worship attest the greater wealth, if not the greater piety. of the present day.
This was then the west precinct or parish in Wrentham. Na- thanael Emmons. the famous Dr. Emmons. whom some in this assembly have seen and heard. and of whom everybody is think- ing to-day, was, good Mr. Bean says, "to the great joy of the inhabitants." ordained. 21st April, 1773, pastor of this west parish in Wrentham ; and our old records of Wrentham say that Rev. Nathanael Emmons. of Wrentham, was married to Deliverance French. of Braintree. in 1775. The long life of that distinguished man so linked those days with these after times as to give his little parish perpetual life ; and here it is to-day.
In 1773 it was estimated that there were more people in the west parish than in the whole town of Wrentham when that was set off. The time had come for a renewal of the former petition. The unanimous report of a committee of such men as Dea. Thomas Man. Capt. Lemuel Kollock and Jabez Fisher that " the inhabi- tants of the west precinct in this town be set off' as a separate
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township by themselves" was adopted, 16th February, 1778. The General Court followed by an act of incorporation, March 2. and Franklin began to exist. As the history of our first century was also your history, so we have felt the strength of the family tie ever since you went out from under our roof and set up for your- selves.
We have lived peaceably, like good neighbors, having no quar- rels abont boundaries, nor even any lawsuits about paupers. Let us hope it may continue to be so in the centuries to come.
I feel, sir, that we have a right to boast to-day. We claim praise for so bringing up this fair child, of whom so many fine things have been said and of whom so many more will be said be- fore the sun goes down. Yes, sir, the mother town shares in all these words of praise and compliment. We claim that the fame of Emmons, of the Fishers, the Manns, the Metcalfs, and others, is ours as well as yours. The old town gladly bears witness to the fidelity of the younger. to those sentiments of patriotism and honor which reflect so much credit upon both. What you have done for religion, for education. for temperance. for the Union, for many benevolent and industrial enterprises, is surely worthy of honorable mention here. Especially let us commend that tolerant spirit - so different, perhaps, from that which prevailed a hundred years ago.
I will add that the old town has given freely of her substance to her children - Franklin, Foxboro and Norfolk, and has seen them all well-to-do in the world, while she herself has some broad acres left, and is still fair to look upon. Except our old mother, Ded- ham, none can show a better family record.
3. Our Fathers. We reverence the memory of the departed. and we welcome on this occasion the grey-haired sires of Franklin with all their early reminiscences. Of them it may be truly said, " multitude of years teach wisdom."
Hon. M. M. Fisher of Medway, but a son of Franklin, re- sponded : -
MR. PRESIDENT : According to the State census of 1875, there were then living in Franklin 127 men between the ages of 60 and 92 years. With few exceptions, these are your resident fathers of to-day. Considering that your recent growth has attracted many younger men, the proportion of one old man in eleven of your pop- ulation speaks well for the salubrity of your climate, and the good habits of your people. Besides these, there are many non-resident fathers whose right hands would sooner forget their cunning than they ever forget this Jerusalem of their birth and of their early joy.
You remember that Daniel Webster. a native of another Frank- lin, once said, and without any disparagement to his native State,
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"New Hampshire is a good State to emigrate from." Now, it must not be inferred, because Horace Mann, a native of our own Franklin, and now equally honored in immortal bronze with " the great expounder " on the grounds of our State Capital, and because men of lesser note have emigrated from you, that this detracts any- thing from the luster of their native town; for their distinction achieved in other fields may have been the direct result of their birth and early training among you.
Time would fail me to mention even by name all the fathers, living and dead, who have now such distinction, either at home or abroad, as reflects honor upon the place of their nativity. Some of this class going abroad, drawn by love of kindred and early associations, have returned to their " native heath," bringing their sheaves with them. New York, while it attracted and still retains some of your sons, returned others, who, though fathers in age, are Greene to-day. At the beginning of the late civil war, South Carolina reluctantly spared one of her merchant princes to return to his old home, and you find him here loyal and true, with brothers upon either side of him, and all now honored as among the young fathers of your town. New Hampshire, though it did attract one of your sons to become the founder of their great city of spindles, yet nothing could repress his love for the home of his youth. So he becomes the founder of your noble academy, one of your churches, and the chief patron of your public library.
But besides native sons returned to become fathers among you, how many sons of others have come to be fathers with them. Do I see before me an adopted father prominent in all business enter- prises, who by taking a single K-napp within your borders, after- wards became enamored with your whole town? After the good Joseph had planted corn on the fertile banks of your little Nile, did not the whole tribe of brothers, their wives and their little ones come down to dwell in this Goshen, to live and to die with you, and ever since have not the Rays of light shone brighter all around you? Did not one Caleb, coming Nye to this land of promise enter in? Did he not find the grapes of Eschol sweet to his taste, and did he not Cleve to the land with all his heart?
Franklin has, indeed, been hospitable to strangers, and strange mont sent you down a modest Stewart and a Russegue, Middle- would it be had she not entertained some angels unawares. Ver- boro an Atwood and a King, Blackstone a Nolan to heal your sick, Bellingham a Freeman to moderate your public meetings, Stoneham a Squires to manage your schools, and Connecticut a young Father Stewart to Register your good deeds and report your progress to the outside world. Once, when waiting for more to come, behold a Waite came and a whole class of new industries sprang up, as if by magic. Though he must wait patiently to be
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ranked as a father in years, he is known and Felt to be a father in your largest business industry.
Among your native sons, while some aspired to distinction in civil and professional life, others chose to be simply men of straw. Of this class a quartette at least have reaped as well as strawed, and neither the character nor the paper of your Daniels and Greene, your Thayer and Morse need any endorsement from me. Your master-builder. after long years of service in his chosen vocation. has recently added musical claims to rank as father, perhaps. to a large posterity.
Though many of your fathers have "stayed by the stuff," no sin of Achan stains the Babylonish garments. the golden wedge or the silver shekels which adorn their tents. Among your intel- ligent farmers a Richardson makes your taxes and writes your deeds and wills ; a Clark. a Deacon Adams, serving often in af- fairs of church and state, and many other farmers in years now cultivate their ancestral acres.
But what shall I say of those elder fathers, of fourscore years and more - a Knapp, a Bullard. a Gilmore, a Daniels, a Pond, a Holbrook, a Fisher, a Paine, a King and others, the scattering remnant of past generations. The events of the day, my aged friends, have brought past events before you in quick succession. Where the beautiful village now stands, adorned with churches and stately dwellings, schools, banks, mills, shops, railroad and telegraph. you once saw, and I saw, but a dozen houses and fam- ilies - with the old church, bleak and barren without, and cheer- less and cold within. Together we recall the old noon-houses, with stone hearth and warm coals ; the hundred horse-sheds flank- ing the meeting-house and Common ; the tall Lombardy poplars, with spire-pointed limbs more dead than living. We have heard on our farms the bleating of sheep, whose washing and shearing were holiday times for the boys. In our houses, though bare of carpets and pianos, the buzz of the spinning-wheel and the flying-shuttle foretold the new jackets of homespun to protect us against the snows of winter. The Bible and catechism, Bunyan and Baxter, with a volume from the old Franklin library, supplied the family with solid food for the intellectual man. A little post- office in the mother-town of Wrentham detained a few letters and papers, brought weekly for distribution at the store of Asa and Davis Thayer, chiefly on Sunday noons, before the day of Sunday- schools.
Your ears were greeted with sharp and angry controversies be- tween Federalists and Republicans about the embargo and the gunboat system, the policies of Adams and Jefferson, the treason and trial of Burr, and the War of 1812.
After alluding to the many home changes and the time when
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the Ponds and Fishers could have out-voted all the rest, Mr. Fisher continued : -
A prolific emigration has borne many of your sons to the town I represent (Medway). Deacons Allen and Blake, and Uncle Elias, all of blessed memory, sleep to-day. But we have living a Ray, a Fuller, a Daniels - municipal fathers all ; besides Met- calfs and Bullards, Ponds and Whites, a Clark, a Boyd, a Wood- ward, all fathers, but proud to have been your sons in former days.
With a tender reference to his own attachments, the speaker closed with the sentiment : -
May the young fathers and mothers of Franklin understand their real mission, and resolve that their young children, becoming the future fathers of the town, shall excel in all grace and wisdom even the best of all the fathers who have gone before them.
4. Our Sons. May they prove themselves worthy descendants of a sterling ancestry, emulating the thrift and sturdy integrity of the fathers.
George A. Adams, Esq., of Attleboro, after a graceful saluta- tion to his native town, said : -
We have good reason to entertain deep gratitude and interest in the welfare of this town, for we have had the advantage of her schools and educational institutions, and have been surrounded by her healthy moral influences. And to-day the officials and fathers of the town may congratulate themselves that not a town in the State of the same size can show less native criminals than the little town of Franklin.
Mr. President, we can offer no better evidence of the loy- alty of the sons of Franklin than the band of veterans who are assembled with us to-day. Their heroic deeds and sacrifices are within the memory of most of those present. I need not recall that wave of patriotism which swept over our country in 1861. The sons of Franklin, under the command of Captain Rockwood, joined with the Wrentham Home Guards, and on this very Com- mon took their first lessons in the tactics of war. Many of these very men did noble service on the field of battle in the ranks of the old Eighteenth Massachusetts. But all of those gallant sol- diers are not here to-day. Many lie buried on the fields of Vir- ginia. where they nobly gave their lives that we in prosperity under a solid Union might live. May the memory of the fallen be made especially sacred on this day, and may it never be said in the future that Franklin is unmindful of their services. May old Franklin continue in her prosperity. May her educational institutions in-
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crease in usefulness. May the busy hum of the factory loom and the din of industry resound throughout the place until she as a town shall have obtained a foremost rank in the old Commonwealth.
6. Our Daughters.
Mrs. H. M. Miller of Providence, formerly Miss Harriet M. Partridge, replied in earnest language in behalf of her native town. We regret we cannot produce her speech.
7. The President of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society. We welcome his presence not only as the official head of this association, but as the friend and constant patron of the great moral and industrial interests of our land, who in his acquisition of treasures has borne from Franklin two of her fairest daughters. Verily he should speak on this occasion and give an account of himself.
Hon. Marshal P. Wilder responded : -
MR. PRESIDENT : Oh ! yes, yes, I wish I could speak as I ought in response to the kind sentiments with which you have honored me. But, sir, I am somewhat in the condition of certain virgins who appeared on another festive occasion without much oil in their lamps ; and then, sir, the flame of my lamp is already flickering in its socket. and will shine but dimly in the presence of so many luminaries of learning and eloquence whom I see around me. Still I beg to assure you that I am most happy, happy, HAPPY to be here and to participate in the ceremonies of this interesting celebration.
I thank you for your recognition of the society over which I have the honor to preside - a society whose mission is to gather up, . preserve and transmit to future generations all that can be known of the history, progress and influence of our beloved New England, in which your good town has played so important a part. When we reflect upon what our New England has done for our country and the world, we should remember with undying affection the homes and sacrifices of our fathers, and the benign examples and influences that have made us what we are. When we reflect on what the good old Commonwealth, thank God ! the accomplished statesman and Christian gentleman - our beloved Governor Rice, who honors this occasion with his presence -- what they have done for the dif- fusion of knowledge, the spread of the gospel. the extension of hu- man freedom, the support of constitutional liberty, and whatever tends to the advancement and happiness of the human race. I feel deeply the obligation which rests upon us, to preserve and trans- mit unimpaired its history to those who are to come after us, and I commend, with all my heart, occasions like the present as emi- nently adapted to this purpose. Mr. President, we live in an age
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of astonishing activity and enterprise - an age when science, art and civilization seem to have been roused from the sleep of centu- ries, and to have commenced a new era in human advancement. In all this progress your good old town of Franklin has furnished her full share of distinguished men and noble women - her Em- monses, Fishers, Blakes, Thayers, Manns, Millers, Richardsons, Deans, Metcalfs, Bacons, Bakers, Rays, Smalleys, Greenes, and others of fair fame, which she has sent out as ornaments to soci- ety and blessings to our land.
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