USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Somerset > History of the town of Somerset Massachusetts : Shawomet purchase 1677, incorporated 1790 > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18
John began the garden while his father was still alive, persuading him that it was being built from profits of his own enterprises in the family business. Its extent and general outlines suggest that it must have been at least adequate in floral beauty. In the shelter of a high brick wall separating it from the house the garden was divided into three features: a formal bed crossed with marble paths adorned with statuary at their intersections; a sunken garden of double the formal garden's area, to the west of it; and an immense glass conservatory backed against the wall. Here, says Avery Slade, the only resident to chronicle its details, "native summer fruits and asparagus were grown in winter. Tropical fruits of the finest flavor daily supplied his table; and the floral department was alleged to have surpassed the flora of the tropics."
In extent the garden reached from Main Street along the lane serving the David Bowers house "to the duck pond." The duck pond was filled in by the later extension of High Street which may be taken as its approximate western boundary. The wall, shown in the drawing, is said to have required more than half a million bricks to build. This number of bricks was sufficient, when the wall was later torn down, to build the entire Borland block in Fall River,
76
HISTORY OF SOMERSET
and all the brick work of Fort Adams at Newport. The marble of the walks still serves as the marble walks in front of the Colt homestead in Bristol. The iron fence in front of the Colt home is that which originally fenced the Jerathmel Bowers house.
By the beginning of 1812 the new Somerset had for a second time reached what was described as its "palmy days," a description which would twice later, in different details, be deserved. England had not given up hope that North America could be brought to heel. The activity of the young United States on the seas was a real menace to her dominance, and she was using the cruel and exasperating practice of impressing seamen to irritate the Americans into what is properly called the Second War for Independence.
The gathering storm struck at Somerset on January 12 of 1812, when the schooner James and Eliza, built in Somerset two years before and commanded by Robert Gibbs, was taken and burned by the British frigate Aeolus. The entry in the customs house register, on affidavit of Captain Gibbs, names the British commander as the notorious James Townshend.
The capture of the James and Eliza sounded the knell of Somerset's second fleet. Within a few days Collins Chace had laid the Hiram up at Georgetown, "on account of the enemy's cruisers." One by one the Somerset vessels gave up the struggle of eluding the British blockade and laid up, in the nearest port, from South Carolina to Maine. The next year the Industry, belonging to Barzillai Walker, James Chace and Daniel Bowers, was destroyed by the British at sea. A few local vessels dared the blockade, sometimes with success and resulting fortunes, but by 1815, when the frigate Loire caught the Troy-owned packet High Flyer almost off Mt. Hope and burned her, the Atlantic seaway was practi- cally bare.
First repercussions of the war in the town records appear on August 22, 1812, when a "meeting of the inhabi- tants legally warned and duly convened for the purpose of taking into consideration the alarming state of our country" unanimously voted "to choose a committee of five gentlemen
77
THE NEW TOWN
to represent the town in a county convocation to be holden at Taunton on August 25."
The committee appointed consisted of Israel Anthony, Thomas Danforth, Billings Coggeshall, Captain William Read and John Brayton.
The upshot of the Taunton and similar meetings was that every New England state firmly refused to let its militia join in the war. There is little memory today of the unpopularity of President Madison's action in declaring it. Not only did it instantly cripple New England's vast sea trade, but Parliament had already settled the impressment question by voting its discontinuance and an apology to America.
When Madison refused to recall his declaration of war, New England wrath mounted high. A convention was actually held for the purpose of deciding whether New England should secede from the Union. Cool heads prevailed and the action was not taken.
What record exists of those from Somerset who took part in this war is found in the votes of Town Meeting, following a resolution on August 27, 1814, that in the case of men drawn in the draft of that year "the Town have liberty to hire men in their room or make up their wages to $20 a month." The draft was for twenty-five days' duty at the "New Barracks at Fairhaven." Somerset's contingent in this draft was fourteen men under Captain John Hood : Elijah Slade, Wanton Chace, Lloyd Cummings, John Hood, Jr., George Bowen, John Forester, Clothen Hathaway, Otis Handy, James Thompson, George Fish, David Hunt, Jonathan Peirce, Hale Kingsley and Joseph Luther. Jonathan Buffington, great-grandson of Thomas, and a Rice of Egypt, served in the war in other contingents.
The Treaty of Ghent was signed in December 1814. Somerset courage began to revive. Out of the harbor, early the next year, there nosed a little 51-ton sloop owned by John Chase and Peleg Gardner of Swansea and Philip Bowers of Somerset. They hoped there might again be profitable commerce. They named their sloop First Attempt.
78
HISTORY OF SOMERSET
Somerset's trials were not over. Upon the town and its gradually reviving fleet there broke in September of 1815 one of the four great hurricanes this coast has known since the Pilgrims landed. The description of the "September Gale," as it came to be called, written by a woman who watched it from Richmond Hill, shows how like it was, in all respects, to the recent hurricane of 1938.
"Great waves were dashing over the houses that stood near the river, which seemed like a raging sea, while large oak trees, in a grove nearby, were snapping off like pipe- stems as the fiercer gusts of the cyclone struck them. Windows many miles inland were covered on the outside with a film from the waves borne along by the gale. The coast was strewn with wrecks and several men from this town were lost."
The next year brought another, and before it was done more costly, misfortune. It was 1816, the "year without a summer." Snow fell every month of the year. Ice formed on the ponds in June. July brought a real snowstorm. August found the cornfields, planted late in cold and muddy soil, black with mould and stunted beyond possible use. Any kind of crop was rare, no farm made a profit, and food was scarce. By September, cold had begun to settle down, with snow again, which was repeated in October.
With the close of December, Somerset finished the most depressing five years in its history.
School district figures for 1813, however, indicate that it had not stopped its growth. In the town records for that year the division is: North District, 93 families; Middle District, 68 families; South District, 54 families. This is a total of 215 families as against 188 in 1790; an increase of nine per cent, with the Middle, future Pottersville, Dis- trict gaining steadily on the Village.
79
THE NEW TOWN
HEADS OF FAMILIES IN SOMERSET THE YEAR OF ITS INCORPORATION AS A TOWN - 1790
With The Number Of Members In Each Family
Allen, Anna-3
Chace, Paul-8
Algur, Joshua-6
Chace, Edward-7
Anthony, Benjamin-2
Chace, Silas-4
Anthony, William-8
Chace, Silas, Jr .- 8
Anthony, Stephen-6
Chace, Uriah-4
Anthony, David-12
Chace, Lydia-3
Anthony, Caleb-6
Chace, Moses-5
Anthony, John-7
Chace, David-8
Anthony, Gardner-9
Austin, Benjamin-5
Chace, Peleg-6
Baker, Jonathan-5
Baker, Lydia-1
Baker, Samuel-5
Baker, Aaron-3
Chace, Ezra-13
Bourn, Joshua-5
Chace, Ebenezer-3
Bourn, Elizabeth-3
Bourn, Francis-10
Chace, Nathan-9
Chace, Charles-2
Bourn, Sarah-5
Bowen, David-4
Chace, Daniel, Jr .- 11
Bowen, Jonathan-3
Bowers, Jonathan-7
Bowers, Phlip-8
Bowers, Jerethmuel-7
Bowers, David-3
Bowers, David, Jr-9
Bowers, Lloyd-8
Bowers, William-5
Bowers, Mary-2
Dana, Orlando-4
Davis, James-7
Davis, Silas-5
Davis, Arthur-4
Brayton, John-8
Brown, James-6
Davis, Benjamin-5
Brown, Mary-1
Dennis, Arthur-7
Brown, John-10 Buffington, Benjamin-9
Buffington, Benjamin 2nd-5
Buffington, Jonathan-7
Buffington, James-5
Buffington, Moses-7
Bush, William-9
Bush, Benjamin-2
Butterworth, Phebe-7
Gardner, John-6
Gibbs, Benjamin-4
Gibbs, Robert-4 Gibbs, Robert 2nd-6
Gibbs, Mary-6
Gibbs, Henry-3
Chace, Asa-8 Chace, Francis-3 Chace, Ichabod-9 Chace, Jonathan-8
Cummings, Noble-6
Cummings, John-12
Borland, Francis-6
Bragg, Henry-3
Brayton, Israel-6
Chace, Job Jr .- 6
Chace, Daniel-1
Chace, Abel-7
Clark, Silas-4
Cornell, Lillis-1
Bourn, Stephen-5
Chace, Obadiah-8
Chace, Robert-3
Chace, Stephen-3
Chace, William-5
Chace, James-10
Chace, Philip-10
Chace, Allen-8
Davis, Benjamin Jr .- 4
Earl, Benjamin-5 Eddy, Obadiah-8 Evans, Jacob-9
Forrester, Rebecca-3 Fortner, Samuel-9
80
HISTORY OF SOMERSET
Goss, Thomas-5 Gray, Mercy-7
Gray, Joseph-4
Hill, Ruth-2 Hoar, Gideon-7
Holland, Richard-3
Ingraham, John Bennett-2
Keen, Robert-4
Keen, Robert Jr-5
Layton, William-4
Lee, John-3
Lincoln, Thomas-7
Luther, Caleb-6
Luther, Bathsheba-5
Luther, David-9
Luther, Barton-4
Manchester, Stephen-7
Marvel, Benjamin-7
Marvel, Thomas Jr .- 3
Marvel, Thomas-9
Marvel, Ebenezer-4
Mason, Job-4
Morse, William-6
Morton, Elijah-5
Northrum, Joseph-6
Palmer, Elkanah-7
Peirce, Jonathan-5
Peirce, Jonathan Jr-6
Peirce, Preserved-8
Peirce, James-3
Peirce, David-9
Peirce, Miel-3
Peirce, Asa-5
Pettis, Sibel-6
Purrington, Clerk-8
Purrington, Clerk Jr-10
Purrington, Edward-6
Reed, Samuel-7
Reed, Elizabeth-3
Reed, David-5
Reed, John-5
Reed, Nathan-4 Reed, Benjamin-5
Reed, Durfee-2
Shaw, John-8
Shaw, Eliphalet-3
Sheldon, John-4
Sherdon, John-8
Sherman, Peleg-8
Sherman, Benjamin-6
Sherman, Gideon-8
Sherman, Caleb-8
Shove, Nathaniel-5
Shove, Theophilus-8
Simmonds, Brown-9
Simmonds, Abiel-2
Simmonds, Zephaniah-10
Sisson, Isaac-7
Slade, Baker-6
Slade, Philip-9
Slade, Job-13
Slade, Charles-11
Slade, Jonathan-12
Slade, Samuel-3
Slade, Mercy-3
Slade, Elizabeth-10
Stutson, Luther-6
Swazey, Joseph-2
Swazey, Joseph Jr .- 6
Swazey, Samuel-4
Swazey, Jerethmuel-8
Tubbs, Samuel-5
Vincent, Solomon-4 Vinicum, Susannah-3
Walker, Margaret-3
Weaver, Waistill-3
Weaver, Thomas-6
Winslow, Ebenezer-16
Wilbore, Joshua-7
Wilbore, Elisha-9
Wilbore, Daniel-13
Wilbore, William-12
Wilbore, Thomas -:
Wilbore, Peleg-4
Wilbore, Mary-5
THE DAYS OF SAIL
W WITH the war at an end, Somerset turned again to ships and shipping. Oliver Chace had started a cotton mill in Dighton in 1810; Tiverton's Globe mill was in opera- tion in 1811; the Union, the Troy, and the Fall River Manufactory had started in operation in 1813, the latter under the management of David Anthony, son of the John Bowers business receiver. Somerset men, Eber Slade, William Slade, 3rd., William Reed and Anthony had joined in financing these. The machine age was not far off.
But Somerset's faith was still in commerce and its faith would be justified to the extent that the next forty years would see greater and richer fleets sail from Somerset harbor, and mightier ships built, than in either of its two previous eras of sail, notable as they were.
By midyear of 1815 the two pre-war shipyards had re- sumed : Robinson Brothers at Bowers Shore, with the able Jonathan Cartwright again their master builder; and Nathan Davis 2nd. and Joseph Simmons at the site of the later Hood shipyard. Before the end of the following year there were eight shipyards in operation on the borders of the Taunton river, from Dighton down, besides numerous vessels building as individual enterprise all along both shores.
The war had left its mark on the town. Captain Barzillai Walker, who in the preceding decade had at one time owned and operated six vessels, had been ruined by it and had given up the great Jerathmel Bowers house which he had bought from the receivers in 1804. Many vessel owners had suffered complete or serious losses. Some of Somerset's best vessels had been burned or captured by the British; a score or more of them sold at the ports, north and south, where the war had caught them. Sharers in their profits as
81
82
HISTORY OF SOMERSET
THE MARBLE HOUSE - "1723"
THE CAPTAIN ANDREWS HOUSE - "1723"
83
THE DAYS OF SAIL
well as those who depended on them for employment had felt the pinch.
Many vessels however, had been merely interned and the Somerset fleet was soon reassembling. The first work of the yards was the reconditioning of these; and also of the numerous craft from other regions which the war had laid up here. Most of these had had some young mate or owner's representative in charge during the internment; and it is recorded that as the refitted vessels sailed away in 1815 and '16, so did many a Somerset bride.
Egypt Shore now emerged as a shipping village in its own right. At Egypt in this period lived Samuel Bourne, master carpenter in the construction of the Defiance and the Betsy ; Henry Gibbs, shipowner, master and the builder of the Maria; Jonathan Cartwright, one of Somerset's ship- building geniuses; his son John, master carpenter of the James and Eliza and the Lydia and Margaret; John Brown, master carpenter of the Mary ; and a full dozen other owners, builders and masters.
The name "Egypt" was now generally applied to the shore beginning with the store of Joseph Brown, south of the foot of Buffington Street, and extending to the foot of Center Street where the residence of Jonathan Cartwright was regarded as marking its northern limit.
In the year 1801, Joseph Brown, already located here for some time, began with the small sloop Harriet to trans- port loads of hoop poles from Somerset to Albany, bringing back loads of New York State grain, and such butter, cheese and other saleable commodities as he might trade for en route. Residents of other parts of the town, and of Steep Brook, Assonet and other up-river neighborhoods, used to "go down to Joseph's" to buy grain. The parallel between this and the Bible story of the brothers of Joseph who went down to buy grain of him in Egypt was appreciated, and the name became fixed on the neighborhood.
The Brown store grew to be the outstanding grain depot of the region. It was located on the shore at the foot of Buffinton Street, between the two docks still there in good
84
HISTORY OF SOMERSET
condition, on the approximate later site of the Wilbur dance hall. All but a few feet of the building was on solid ground. The southerly of the two docks was later used by Joseph's son David for a lumber dock and shed. On the north dock Seth Brown built and operated a grocery.
David succeeded his father, Joseph, in the operation of the business which during the lives of the two assumed large proportions, with half a dozen vessels, owned and sailed by them, serving it. The later well known Fall River schooner Daniel Brown was not one of their vessels, but was built and sailed by the Fall River Captain, Robert Reynard, who married Daniel's daughter.
Joseph's grandson William was Somerset's first noted captain of steam, sailing the propeller Eudora, and the first steamers of the Bay State Line.
No trace of the thriving merchandizing plant which succeeding generations knew for many years remains, except the two neat docks. Half of the grain store is, how- ever, still in use as a carriage shed on the George P. Slade place on Prospect Street and the other half is used as a farm house on the Buffinton estate at the corner of Prospect and Buffinton Streets, after some years of use as a grocery store by Robert Buffinton.
The present Hindle house, at No. 2430 Riverside Avenue, is one of the original Brown residences. The little white house, No. 2457 Riverside Avenue, next north of the fire house, is considered by some to be the oldest house in Egypt. It was built by John Bourne of the Bourne family which was one of the original Shawomet Purchasers. The original Joseph Buffinton house, from which the street and the Egypt Buffinton Corner take their name, is at the corner of Buffinton and Prospect Streets, the ancient one- story house being raised to two and now occupied by Mrs. Thomas Buffinton.
At the middle of Egypt, between the Browns and Jonathan Cartwright, was the Weaver farm, extending from shore to Prospect Street. Here was the home of Sheffel Weaver, owner and master of several trading vessels and part owner
85
THE DAYS OF SAIL
in many. The Weaver property, including the homestead of James Luther, was purchased in 1843 by Obadiah Gardner whose bakery and home in Fall River had been destroyed by the Great Fire. The present Gardner Avenue is the approximate center line of the Weaver land.
Just south of Egypt the clustered little village of this period ceased abruptly with the great farm of David Luther beginning at the river and running westerly up the hillside to the Swansea town line. Some few lots had been sold from this farm, but in the main it formed a solid belt, comprising several lots of the original Purchase, with a southerly line south of the later Johnson Street.
South of the Luther farm lay the Read's Woods Farm of Captain Preserved Read, founder of Read's Corner, comprising the present Montaup property and extending to the main highway, now County Street. West of County Street, and north to the Luther farm which here included the present high school site, descendants of the original Purchasers still held the Bourne and Sherman lots. On the Buffinton brook Caleb Butterworth operated a tannery.
The Friends Meeting, at a focal point in this expanding area, was growing in members and jurisdiction. With no Friends' Meetinghouse as yet in Fall River, the Quaker people from across the river attended here, coming by ferry or private boat. To lessen their problem of attending, Eber Slade, in 1821, built a commodious sailboat for the special purpose of furnishing free and dependable travel between the church and Troy shores. This landed at Read's Cove.
On the northern border of Egypt, 1815 saw the dawn of the Pottersville era in the beginning of the pottery plant of Clark Chace. This would expand in 1847 in the formation of the Somerset Pottery by his sons Leonard and Ben- jamin.
Thus the future Somerset Centre was growing steadily, while in 1825, the southern section experienced a substantial impulse of progress in the establishment of regular stage coach service between Providence and New Bedford. Slade's Ferry was part of this service. Providence coaches unloaded
86
HISTORY OF SOMERSET
on the Somerset side, New Bedford on the Fall River side, with passengers transferring by water while the stages returned to their starting point. A similar connection with the Newport stage had been in effect since 1808. The business from two stage lines now necessitated the replace- ment of the sail ferryboats by larger, more commodious boats propelled by horse power. The first horse-power boat was immediately ordered built and was put in service the next year, 1826.
Systematic travel facilities was the order of the day. In 1820, Joseph Marble built and put into service the 127- ton packet brig New Packet, the beginning of the local packet fleet.
Up to this time water journeys, necessary as they were, were impromptu. Captains with a boat sailing to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, or beyond, spread by word of mouth, or by placard, the day and hour of intended sailing and the number of passengers that could be accomodated. Some owners made a business of catering to such trade with attractive cabins and fine table. Out of this grew the regular passenger packets, sailing on schedule and built more and more for speed and passenger convenience.
Somerset's packet fleet in the next few years, besides the New Packet, consisted of the Charleston, also owned by Joseph Marble; Nathan Slade's Reindeer, William Law- ton's Industry, Benjamin Davis's Sally, Benjamin Cart- wright's Fall River, and the Somerset-built High Flyer, besides several Fall River boats. These ran on more or less regular schedule to Providence, Warren, Bristol, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Savannah, with William Law- ton's Industry running as far as Havana.
The fare from Fall River to New York varied from $2 to $5 according to accomodations and whether times were hard or not. The hour of Fall River departure was eight in the morning and the run each way, weather favoring, was twenty-four hours, the packet spending one night in New York with passengers sleeping on board without additional charge.
87
THE DAYS OF SAIL
In September of 1828, Mt. Hope Bay's first regular steamboat, the Hancock, began sailing past Brayton Point on alternate daily trips between Fall River and Newport. The next year the steamboat Experiment ran for a while daily past Somerset shores between Newport and Taunton, with Somerset passengers required to go over to Fall River to board her. The days of steamboat travel were nearing their end.
But packet owners refused to believe that steam could put them out of business. For some years they comfortably out-sailed the crude and cumbrous early steamers. Then the race grew closer. Trimmer boats were built and more sail was piled on; but still the steamboats gained. The packets dropped their fares until passengers were paying twenty-five cents for the trip, with fine meals and plentiful wine included. The battle waged for twenty years before the packets met their final defeat, on the longer runs. The canny Somerset owners had long before that dropped out of the contest and turned exclusively to freighting except for occasional cabin passengers who preferred the sail.
Meanwhile, from Point to Broad Cove Somerset's great fleet grew. In the twenty years following the War of 1812 owners in the town registered 72 vessels of over 20 tons burden, refitted, new-built or purchased. In the next twenty years the total would rise to 124. Many of these were, as before, in the coastal trade of picking up and discharging cargoes wherever they could get a charter. But many others made this port regularly with fruits, molasses, sugar, dye- wood, tropical lumber, rice, cotton, coal, tobacco, turpentine, and every other West Indian and Southern product, coming north; New England manufactures going south. The wagons were on the road again; a constant caravan, trans- porting to the railroads which came year by year nearer, or with heavy non-perishables going all the way to the final destination.
Whalers and fishing boats were added to the activity of the crowded Village harbor.
88
HISTORY OF SOMERSET
Two vessels appear to be the total of Somerset's whaling ventures. The first of these was the bark Pilgrim, built by Davis and Simmons, owned by George B. Hood and cap- tained, in 1841, by Job Collins. Among the crew were James D. Marble, Henry P. Marble, George Davis, Edward Miller, Charles Luther, Albion K. Slade and Moses Chace.
On a second voyage, in 1843, the Pilgrim sailed in com- mand of Henry B. Clark. This voyage ended after a storm three days out had stripped the vessel and forced it to return for refitting. Captain Clark took the Pilgrim on several later, more successful, trips. She was then laid up for several years on the Somerset shore, until the gold rush made her seem profitable for New Bedford parties to refit her and sail her around the Horn. In California, however, she was con- demned and this Somerset Pilgrim's bones now lie at the bottom of the Pacific.
While the Pilgrim was still in commission, the bark Jane was fitted out for whaling at Somerset and sailed, beginning in 1841, on several trips under Captain Abraham Manchester of Fall River. Her voyages were generally unsuccessful and she, too, was sold to New Bedford where her bad luck continued and she was decommissioned.
George B. Hood was also one of the principals in the herring fisheries at Broad Cove which at this time paid enormous dividends. Here, from the first of April until June, the seines were set at every high tide and hauled at every low tide, day and night. Captain Samuel P. Marble was Hood's manager in this business. At the head of Broad Cove there was at this time another herring fishery owned by Oliver Simmons of Somerset, although the plant was in Dighton. The herring business continued exceedingly profit- able until the railroad bridge cut down the runs.
Broad Cove was added to Somerset's shipbuilding area in the years beginning 1821 when Edward Slade established there a shipyard at which he built a total of three recorded ships. One of these was the Raven, not to be confused with the smart little clipper which later slid from the ways at Hood's shipyard to capture some of the highest honors of the clipper age.
89
THE DAYS OF SAIL
Ashore, the town had progress befitting its energy and prosperity. The Somerset school system took shape with good schools in all the districts, growing educational standards, and systematic administration, as evidenced by the beginning, in 1835, of permanent school committee records which are still in the possession of the present superintendent.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.