USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Hanover > History of the town of Hanover, Massachusetts, with family genealogies > Part 12
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The School-House Spring.
My feet to-day have found the way Down to the mossy brink, Where, five and thirty years ago, The grand old arch of oak below, We, children, knelt to drink.
And pictured there saw faces fair Uplifted to our view, While beckoning boughs allured our sight, Through swaying avenues of light, To Heaven's unsullied blue.
But now alone, to no one known, I kneel by vacant places ; And through the vistas stretched below See far-off skies of long ago That hide my playmates' faces.
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O spring so still, nor good nor ill With thee is hid or hushed; Thou that didst glass my childhood's grace Dost mirrow now a bearded face With sin's slow fever flushed.
Who shall recast the moulded past And give me then for now?
Bring back the early mourned from thence And set the seal of innocence Once more upon my brow?
I only know that waters flow Beyond the sunlit spaces,
Where, nevermore athirst to drink, I yet may bend above their brink And see the dear, lost faces.
Mr. John F. Simmons, a lawyer, was born in Hanover, a son of Perez Simmons. He found time to write on many subjects and always well. Possibly, if he were living, he would favor a dif- ferent selection, but this is worthy of a place here :-
In Memoriam. Mary Ashton Livermore. 1820-1905.
Olympus' heights claim our Minerva fled.
She, who, though woman first, was always great,-
Great 'mid the greatest-aye, defied the fate Which doomed earth's lowly ne'er to raise the head. She never followed but the vanguard led Straight for the citadel, defying hate And fearing only succor might be late Or fires on altars of reform seem dead.
The daring leader, she, yet mother, wife, Whose love unfailing filled her woman's heart, Outlasted death, and in the other life,
Knew that of his her life was still a part.
With immortality her pulses thrilled. With God's immensity her soul was filled.
The following poem written by Mrs. Mary T. Tolman is worthy of a place here. Mrs. Tolman was born in Norwell, a daughter of Cushing O. Briggs. She married James T. Tolman, and resided
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at the corner of Broadway and Oakland avenue. This is published by permission of her daughter Morgianna.
SERVICE.
Is not that worth all the sorrow Of this little life we live? Is not that worth all the loving Which our hearts can ever give ? Will the rest not be the sweeter When the hard-fought battle's o'er ?
Will the joys not be the greater If the trials go before ?
Now with some the shadows deepen, Now the word is "almost home ;" Shall we put aside the armor, Waiting for our Lord to come ? Is he not to each one saying, "Fill your moments full for me, And when I shall reap the harvest, Golden will your offerings be ?"
Many boats are outward sailing, Where the shoals and quicksands be; Shall we put aside the mission, Sent perhaps to you or me ? Where we see His image written, There's the brother we can aid ;
There we break the box of ointment On the Saviour's precious head.
By and by we'll hear the message; May it be with harness on, With our lamps all trimmed and burning, And the Master's work well done! Then the full, abundant welcome, Then the blessed open door ! Then the entrance into heaven, And the rest for evermore !
PUBLIC LIBRARY.
In 1887, the Selectmen of Hanover received a letter of which the following is a copy :
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HISTORY OF HANOVER.
"Boston, Sept. 17, 1887.
To the Selectmen of the Town of Hanover-
GENTLEMEN :-
Born and reared in your town, I enjoyed the advantages of its pub- lic schools in my boyhood, and have never ceased to feel an interest in the welfare of its people. I remember how scanty was the sup- ply of good books at that time, and the eagerness with which all that were available were borrowed and loaned. With a desire to repay, in part, my obligation for early educational training, and with a purpose to afford better opportunities to present and coming generations of boys and girls of my native town, I ask your accept- ance, as representatives of the people of Hanover, of eighteen hundred volumes of standard and popular books, with cases to hold them, as a nucleus for a free public library, for the use of all the inhabitants. Realizing how much is contributed to morals and happiness by a love of reading, especially by the young, I hope they will enjoy the privilege of the library, and that all the people may profit by the companionship of good books long after my brief term of life is ended.
Respectfully yours,
JOHN CURTIS."
A town meeting was held on the 31st day of October following the receipt of this letter, and these Resolutions, prepared by Rev. William H. Brooks, were adopted :
"Resolved, That the appreciation and grateful thanks of the people of Hanover, in town meeting assembled, be given to Mr. John Curtis for his very thoughtful and very generous donation of eighteen hundred volumes to the town, for the founding of a public library for the free use of all its inhabitants; that this appro- priation of a portion of his worldly substance, gathered in the course of an upright and honorable business life, to an institution having for its object, the advancement of the mental and moral education of our whole community, giving gratifying evidence of the continu- ance of his remembrance of, and interest in, his native town, and proving himself a worthy descendant of the fathers of the town of Hanover in their regard for education, is a deed and an example deserving of, and having our heartfelt commendation; and that we wish for him an addition to the enjoyment, in large measure, of that satisfaction which is the fruit of intelligent and unselfish efforts for the welfare of others, that of every blessing, temporal and spiritual, which He, whose never failing providence orders all things, shall see to be necessary and beneficial to our worthy and to our esteemed benefactor.
0
JOHN CURTIS FREE LIBRARY
CURTIS SCHOOL
SALMOND SCHOOL, FORMERLY HANOVER ACADEMY
' KING STREET SCHOOL HOUSE
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Resolved, That these resolutions be entered on the town record, and that a copy be transmitted to Mr. Curtis."
At various times, Mr. Curtis made additional gifts of books to the library and, in 1898, a gift of four thousand dollars in money.
He died on the 6th day of April, 1900, and the following extract
is copied from his will: "I give and bequeath to the town of Hanover in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the sum of fifteen thousand dollars for the purchase of a suitable lot of land and the erection thereon of a Public Library Building, to contain the library heretofore given by me to said town of Hanover, together with the additional books in public use, which building shall be designed by some competent architect and built according to his plans and specifications, with walls of brick or stone or both com- bined."
This bequest was to be payable upon the death of his daughter Alice Marian Curtis; but, during the year 1906, Miss Curtis ex- pressed a wish that the building might be erected in her lifetime, waiving her right to the income of the fifteen thousand dollars, , and adding something from her own funds for the purchase of land, in addition to that dedicated by the town for the purpose.
At a town meeting held June 16th, 1906, the following resolu- tions were presented by Clarence L. Howes, Melvin S. Nash, and John F. Simmons, a committee chosen to draught the same :
"Resolved, that
The town of Hanover, Massachusetts, in town meeting assembled, desires, in this public and formal way, to express to Miss Alice Marian Curtis its deep and lasting feeling of gratitude for her numerous acts of generosity shown to this town.
. Her lamented father has made this, the town of his birth, forever his debtor by his many gifts. We gladly recall his gracious gener- osity in presenting to the town the wide expanse of land whereon the John Curtis School now stands, the valuable John Curtis Free Library, the rich gift of money for its further support and mainte- nance, and the bountiful and munificent donation for the erection of a suitable building for the books we already have.
But no less do we gratefully acknowledge the beneficence of his daughter, through which this largess has now become available for our immediate use and benefit. It is not only a gift to us at the present moment, but it is on her part a continuous sacrifice, for the income of hundreds of dollars yearly which she might, without invidious criticism, retain for her own use, so long as she may live, she voluntarily yields up for our benefit, and this she does with a
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grace as fine as her generosity ; and we wish, as a people and as a town, to evince hereby our full appreciation of her acts, and our deep and heartfelt recognition of her beneficence.
We hereby voice the prayer that her days may be long in the land, and that generations yet unborn, receiving benefit of her generosity, may ever be as gratefully mindful of the donor as we are now.
Voted, that the foreging resolution be spread upon the records of the town and that a copy thereof, properly engrossed, be sent to Miss Curtis."
The library building was constructed in 1907, under the super- vision of the library trustees, Melvin S. Nash, Morrill A. Phillips, and Lavina S. Ford, the architect being Edmund Q. Sylvester, and the contractors, Hapgood, Frost, and Company.
The cost of the building including the land purchased, grading of the same, and incidentals, was about $15,000.
The number of volumes now in the library is something more than six thousand. In addition to the gift by Mr. Curtis and his daughter, the town has received, as an addition to its library fund, the sum of seventeen hundred and seventy dollars from the Han- over academy ($1,000 of this being known as the Barstow Fund).
The library was dedicated on the 12th day of December, 1907, the services being held in the Town hall.
The following, showing something of the personality of Mr. Curtis, is taken from the Dedicatory Address made by the Hon. Jedediah Dwelley on that occasion :
"I dislike to use the personal pronoun, and yet for a brief moment must be reminiscent. The farm of the father of the founder of this library, and that of my father, adjoined. They were large farms, that of Mr. Curtis being more than a mile in length. They were cultivated as well as most of the acres of the time. Science then had hardly touched the question "how to make two blades of grass grow where but one grew before." There was no Burbank to unfold and develop, yea, almost to create, the finer products we so much enjoy, and farming offered slight inducements to an am- bitious young man; and Mr. Curtis in his early youth, after com- pleting what would now be termed his simple education, sought his life-work in the young city of Boston.
There came to the people of Hanover, before the young man Curtis had completed his studies in the district school, a Mr. Doyle, a student gifted with the power to impart; and, on the completion of the term for which he was engaged, as a teacher, he
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returned to the Wesleyan academy of Wilbraham, and Mr. Curtis and two, at least, of his other pupils went with him. Mr. Curtis remained for one year, and then for a brief period attended the Hanover academy under the tuition of Ira Warren, whose widow has so lately been called to her reward.
We shall, however, make a great mistake, if we belittle the period of his life spent on the farm ; for here his character was established.
Looking backward during the seventeenth century and studying the local history of Tenterden, we shall find a long list of Curtises who were bailiffs or mayors of that beautiful English town, and, following down we shall find in Scituate, in the latter half of the same century, a sturdy race of the same name. In the early history of our town, few names were more numerous, and none more hon- orable, than that of Curtis.
The first John Curtis to live within the borders of our town built his house, before its incorporation, on Washington street just south of Henry's lane. No person now living ever saw this house; but the cellar remains, and the lilac which Mr. Curtis placed near the front door, to gladden the inmates with its blossom and perfume, still, with the opening Spring, wafts its fragrance on the air. The name of John was handed down from father to son for five genera- tions, when the founder of this library was born.
Mr. Curtis was born in the house on Main street just north of my own, a Colonial mansion standing back from the street. This house was built by his great grandfather, about one hundred and seventy-five years ago, and has been occupied continuously by the family until the present time.
Mr. John Curtis, the father of the founder of the library, was a man of independent thought, seeking always the truth and abiding therein. Both father and son early espoused the cause of freedom for the slaves, and both were on intimate terms with Thompson, Garrison, Phillips, and others of that magnificent period. The father was with Mr. Garrison, when the mob tried to destroy that glorious life. Many of us remember his hoary head and his absolute forgetfulness of self in his devotion to the cause. When he died, full of years, Wendell Phillips asked to furnish the inscription for his gravestone. You can read it in yonder cemetery. It is true, and I will repeat it. "A man of rare integrity, independent in his opinions, gentle and modest in his disposition, devoted and active in his opposition to negro slavery, unlike most men more enthusiastic in that opposition and in the welcome of all new truth, as he advanced in age; meeting his
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death, at last, most serenely, with an unfaltering trust in God, and the final triumph of justice." "Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams."
The founder of this library left the town when I was very young, and yet my memory of him is as fresh as of my schoolmates. His brother and my father lived in the same house, and, until there were four children in each family, the mothers used one common fireplace to supply the needs of their respective flocks and the children gathered about in their common joys and sorrows.
The founder of the library, by honest, intelligent work ; by giving to his customers apparel that adorned and endured, gained their confidence and acquired a competency ; and yet, I doubt if he cared much for money. In his later life, he delighted in visits to his nephew, who lives on the ancestral homestead, and on these visits we were much together, taking long rides about the county. I doubt if, in this prolonged companionship, a brief ten minutes con- versation was ever given to money-making, or money-saving. He loved the drives in the woods and over the hills, with an occasional view of the ocean; and he loved his birthplace.
"An old lane, an old gate, an old house by a tree,
A wild wood, a wild brook,-they will not let me be : In boyhood I knew them and still they call to me."
"To talk with the wild brook of all the long ago;
To whisper the wood-wind of things we used to know,
When we were old companions, before my heart knew woe."
Mr. Curtis was a devoted husband and father. After the death of his wife, he and his daughter travelled extensively abroad. He wrote occasionally to my mother, and, in one of these letters, describing vividly some of the sights which had impressed him, he said : "But there is always present with me the thought that she who would have enjoyed this even more than I, is not at my side."
Mr. Curtis enjoyed in his later years the leisure and delights which wealth properly used can give and yet he lived the simple life. He was educated in the school of sympathy for the op- pressed, in the school of service for others,-and his last days were his best days.
This brief sketch is by a friend who does not believe in fulsome praise. He is quite sure that if Mr. Curtis were permitted to hear and speak, he would say "It is enough."
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The building which we dedicate to-day stands on land purchased of Henry M. Stetson, and it formed a part of the farm which was owned by his remote ancestor Samuel, a grandson of Cornet Robert Stetson. This farm has been owned and occupied by the Stetsons to the present time. The large two-story house nearby was con- structed by the first-named ancestor, and is the one in which re- ligious meetings were held before the incorporation of the town, and until the erection of the first meeting house.
And here, on this spot, in sight of God's acre, which has been sacred now for two hundred years and where our loved ones rest ; so near the place where our Fathers worshipped ; and where the first school was kept; and so near the place where the first and succeed- ing town meetings have been held; we dedicate this building and believe that it will be an added institution to help us to live noble and unselfish lives.
The influence of this library will depend, largely, on the books the trustees may select, and the people read. We read too much- and not enough. There are books which make a life-long impres. sion for good, and there are others which, while interesting, simply furnish satisfaction for the passing hour. Others seem fitted for vacancy only.
A hundred years ago, families bearing the name of Bailey, Curtis, Stockbridge, Sylvester, and others you will recall, were so numerous in the town, while now, alas, they are so few! God's purpose will ripen, and, whatever the change, our faith abides that the spirit of the Fathers will animate the future.
"Here lived the men who gave us The purpose that holds fast, The dream that nerves endeavor, The glory that shall last. Here, strong as pines in winter And free as ripening corn, Our faith in fair ideals- Our fathers' faith-was born."
Governor Long tells us of his presence at the graduation exercises in one of the schools in Boston, where all of the pupils, girls, were children of foreign-born mothers. Many of these mothers were unable to speak the English language and yet, for these exercises, they had prepared their children in simple and becoming garb; and, with slight thought for themselves, were present, to see their little ones acquit themselves as well as those who traced their lin-
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eage, for generations, to the soil. These girls are to form a part of the great army of mothers; and we have faith to believe that their children will join with ours in holding steadfast the faith in fair ideals. If this is not so, "then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain."
And so we dedicate this building; trusting that, whoever may come, it shall be to them a treasure-house to which they will resort with thankfulness."
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MILITARY HISTORY.
CHAPTER VII.
MILITARY HISTORY.
By John F. Simmons (with the exception of two pages).
Massachusetts was settled by that branch of mankind now known generically as Anglo-Saxons. This is also true of our town. The history of this race is a history of struggle, of contest; not only a struggle upward toward better conditions, but a warfare against hostile peoples as well.
When the first comers arrived in Plymouth, their first foe, the Indians, had, in this part of the county, been decimated by disease and the land was then left unobstructed to the settlement of the white man.
But not much time, historically speaking, had elapsed before the war cry of the red men through the forest called to arms not only their brother savages but, in self-defense, the white man also.
Then came the French wars, when the Colony, fired with an Englishman's zeal for his flag, whether that flag waved over the mother-island or her colonies, took up arms against the French and helped in no inconsiderable way, to regain for the English, possession of the land on the north of us.
France had not been driven from the North American continent ten years, when the Revolution broke out; and the American government was about a quarter of a century along in its new existence, when England had again to be met on land and sea in hostile combat, in the "War of 1812."
The growing threat of slavery was the next casus belli and the Mexican war, which was but a preliminary skirmish, did not, as was hoped, settle the problem. The abolitionist agitation, striking the heart of the North with a mighty conviction of its own moral cowardice, conspired, with other social and economic questions to bring about an explosion of a nation's pent-up indignation, followed by the long civil war of the Rebellion.
Destined apparently to fight about once in thirty years, the American people, their long peace after Appomattox being broken,
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in order to liberate the Cubans from intolerable conditions, again took up arms in the Spanish war.
In all these contests Hanover has ever borne her part, cheerfully, fully, in some cases with distinction, and never without honor.
The first settlers were friendly with the Indians. Massasoit's first treaty, made in 1621, was broken by neither side, so long as that Sachem lived. Few though they were, the Indians soon be- gan to look askance at the diminishing area of their hunting grounds and the ever-increasing advance of the white man.
The first few feeble Pilgrims seemed to threaten but little; but as years advanced, ship succeeded ship in bringing hither new bands of settlers, who were compelled constantly to turn hunting grounds into corn fields and forest into clearings. Philip, usually called King Philip of Pokanoket, whose Indian name was Meta- mora, was the chief sachem of the Wampanoags, a tribe of the Algonquins. Philip was a great man, although an Indian. With foresight he saw the early extinction of his tribe and his race, un- less the encroachments of the pale face were stopped. There was but one thing to do and that thing was to fight.
He was an Indian patriot and in this war made the best struggle he could for his native land.
"Philip's War," as it is called, commenced in June, 1675. Preparations for it began among the whites in 1674, made neces- sary by the apparently increasing hostility of the neighboring tribes. As a part of these preparations, twelve men were sent to the house of Joseph Barstow on Broadway, just north of the Four Corners, as a garrison. There was no other garrison-house in that part of Scituate, (now Hanover), although there were at least two in other parts of the old town.
In the spring of 1676, the Indians' attacks extended even to Plymouth, where some of the settlers were killed. Capt. Michael Pierce with over fifty men and twenty friendly Indians from Cape Cod, marched to Seekonk, arriving on March 25, 1676, unmolested.
This expedition had marched directly into the enemy's country and had yet seen no Indians. They heard that there were red men in that vicinity and proceeded to attack them. The fight
which ensued was very disastrous. Fifty-two white men were killed, fifteen of whom were of Scituate. This number included Capt. Pierce and Jeremiah Barstow, a descendant of William Bar- stow, "the earliest settler on the territory of Hanover."
The attack which the Indians made, at this time, on this part of the country is now almost a household word. It was on the
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twentieth of May, 1676, that they came down the Indian path and the country road from Hingham and the Bay Colony, burning buildings and killing every white person their weapons could reach.
Their first known destructive attack in what is now Hanover was made on the John Curtis' place on Washington street, opposite Silver street, where they burned a house and barn. Cornet Robert Stetson's mill and flume, which were located on the north side of what is now East street and which confined the waters covering what is now Old Pond Marsh, was also attacked and the mill burned. The waters escaped and no dam has since replaced the one thus destroyed.
The war was, of course, absolutely disastrous to Philip's forces. He was defeated and driven back in every attempt and was finally shot at Bristol Neck, R. I., August 12, 1676, by a traitor of his own people.
When Hanover was incorporated in 1727, there were no hostile- Indians within her boundaries. Barry narrates that the last tribe to give the inhabitants of this territory trouble congregated on an island in Drinkwater Swamp, whence they issued and committed depredation. Discovered one morning by the smoke from their camp fires, they were attacked and routed.
The summer of 1678 ended the wars wherein the Indians were the sole enemies of the colonies. The French wars found the red men used as allies, first of the French, in the wars between Eng- land and France for supremacy on this continent; and later by the English, in the struggle of the colonists against the Mother Country.
The details of this long conflict or rather series of wars be- tween England and France on this continent are foreign to the purpose of this history. It is sufficient for us to trace, so far as- we can, the share which Hanover and its people took in these In- ter-Colonial or "French" wars.
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