Mattapoisett and Old Rochester, Massachusetts : being a history of these towns and also in part of Marion and a portion of Wareham., Part 5

Author:
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: [Mattapoisett, Mass.] : Mattapoisett Improvement Association
Number of Pages: 516


USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Mattapoisett > Mattapoisett and Old Rochester, Massachusetts : being a history of these towns and also in part of Marion and a portion of Wareham. > Part 5
USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Rochester > Mattapoisett and Old Rochester, Massachusetts : being a history of these towns and also in part of Marion and a portion of Wareham. > Part 5


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In 1851 David Hamblen furnished to the Historical and Genealogical Register of New England, a list of the early men of Rochester, including about seventy-five names. The list, however, has important omissions, and does more justice to some sections of the town than to others. Among the names given in this list that have not already been mentioned may be found: Andrews, Ashley, Blackwell, Bowles or Bolles, Claghorne, Danforth, Grif- fith, Haskins, Johnson, Leavitt, Marshall, Raymond, Robinson, Stevens, Stewart, Sommers, Thomas, and Wiatt. Some of the names given by Mr. Hamblen are no longer represented in the town, but Ashley and Bolles and a few others are still well-known names of this region.


Among Old Rochester names should be given also those of the descendants of the early ministers, Ruggles, Hovey, LeBaron, West, Moore, and Cobb. Also that of the early schoolmaster, De La Noy (Delano). Later ministers of Old Rochester, even if they left no descendants in the town, yet held important relations during the period of


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The Settlers and the Settlements


their pastorate. The names Chaddock, Bigelow, Har- rington, Robbins, Thatcher, Briggs, Crandon, Brett, Sanger, Vose and Faunce are also names that belong to Old Rochester history.


From ancient graveyard inscriptions, lists of baptisms, marriages, military rolls, etc., a much longer list than has been given could be compiled, of names that may be considered as distinctive Rochester names of the eight- eenth century. Fearing, Bassett, Mendell, Parlow, Spooner and Whitridge appear in town at an early date. Fearing was at first a Wareham name. Israel Fearing, a large landowner in the eastern edge of the town, was active in having that region incorporated with Agawam into the new town of Wareham. Bassett and Whitridge were prominent names for awhile and then passed out of town history. Parlow belonged to Parlow town, and later to other localities. Mendell has had a wide dis- tribution in many parts of Old Rochester. Three per- sons of the name of Spooner were in Minister Arnold's first church list.


At the beginnings of the North Rochester parish it included (according to a statement made by Rev. J. P. Trowbridge) families bearing the names of Ashley, Ben- nett, Bisbee, Briggs, Clark, Crapo, Fuller, Haskell, Mor- ton, Nye, Pope, Snow, Swift, White, Whitridge, Winslow, and Wood.


About 1800 (according to a statement made by Mrs. P. A. Wadhams) Coomb, Hooper, Hopestill, Perkins, Pierce, Reed, Bennett, Bisbee, Burges, Clark, Shaw, and Thatcher were family names of North Rochester, and, a little later still, Crandon, Omans, Sears, and Randall were also found there.


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Among old Marion names not before mentioned may be given Deane, Gurney, Hadley, Handy, Hammett, Lewis, and Pitcher. Betsey Pitcher, who became Mrs. Elizabeth Taber, did much for modern Marion by her liberal bequests to the town and the church, and especially by the endowment of the academy that bears her name.


Among old Mattapoisett families not before mentioned are those bearing the names of Ames, Atsatt, Cannon, Eaton, Harlow, Howes, Mead, Macomber, Meigs, Pur- rington, Sisson, Southworth, and Stevens.


Near the beginning of the nineteenth century the names Sparrow and Thompson came into Rochester Center from Middleboro. Some of the Sparrows went soon to Mattapoisett, where Dr. William E. Sparrow was a prom- inent physician for more than half a century until his death in 1899.


Early in the nineteenth century the names Bonney and Leonard became prominent at the Center. The brothers Charles and George Bonney held many town offices, and also kept a store where considerable business was done. Mr. Charles Leonard did much to beautify his estate near the old Sippican Mill site, employing many men to build out of hewn stone long stretches of wall, that are a marked feature to-day of the Leonard (now the Rhodes) estate. Mr. Leonard (and later his wife) gave also liberal be- quests to the town and the First Parish of Rochester.


A little before the middle of the century the Scotch names of Rankin and Smellie came into Rochester, where the Scotch name of Douglass had already taken root as an old town name.


But most of the family names that belong to the vil- lages of Old Rochester refuse to be classified on either a


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The Settlers and the Settlements


local or a temporal basis. Some were in the town for a generation or two, and then passed out of the locality; as Peckham, Vaughn, Cathell. A much larger number were in the town from an early period, and either distrib- uted themselves very soon in many quarters, or were found first in one section and later in quite another.


The following additional names will, however, be recog- nized by students of Rochester history as having at some time (and usually for a long time) held such town rela- tions that they may be considered distinctively names of Rochester before the middle of the nineteenth century: Bates, Bartlett, Barrows, Bishop, Bourne, Bryant, Braley, Burbank, Cole, Cushman, Chubbuck, Denham, Dunham, Freeman, Gammons, Gage, Gerrish, Gibbs, Gillett, Hall, Hatch, Haskins, Howland, Howes, Jefferson, Johnson, Look, Lombard, Manter, Martin, Maxim, Mitchell, Morse, Norton, Nickerson, Rogers, Rounseville, Russell, Shaw, Shurtleff, Sisson, Smith, Snell, Southworth, Stet- son, Taylor, Thatcher, Tilson, Tinkham, Tobey, Tripp, Washburn, Westgate, West.


And there are family names, not so old to the region, - some that came in about the period of the town divisions, and many that have come later still into the towns that have been formed out of this territory, - that are also assimilating themselves into the local history, and will figure prominently in the histories of the modern towns that may yet be written.


Among the names that have here been recorded there are not a few that have been carried by sons of Rochester into business and professional circles of other localities. It is a remarkable fact that of the present Massachusetts Judiciary, in 1907, three are natives of this old town:


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Mattapoisett and Old Rochester


John Wilkes Hammond and Henry King Braley, Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court, and Lemuel LeBaron Holmes, Justice of the Superior Court. Theophilus King is well known in Boston business circles. Dr. Wil- liam H. Cobb is librarian at the Congregational House. The four Johnson brothers, Arnold, Augustus, Joseph, and Lorenzo, all attained distinction in the professions or in business. In the world of letters is the name of Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard, of Mattapoisett, and Rich- ard Henry Stoddard, who, after his mother married James Gallon, spent some of his boyhood days in that village. Woodbridge R. Howes, who for a time con- ducted a private school in Mattapoisett, and who served as a volunteer surgeon through the Civil War, had an extensive practice as a physician in Hanover, Mass. John L. Gifford attained the rank of Lieutenant in the Navy and did daring work in command of scouting ex- peditions at the siege of Charleston. Among military men were Major Rogers L. Barstow, and Brig .- Gen. Wilson Barstow who was on the staff of General Dix. Solomon E. Sparrow, whose father, Dr. William E. Sparrow, of Mattapoisett, had served as a surgeon in the Civil War, was a graduate of West Point and a captain in the regular army. These and many others have been writ- ing deeply on the social life of other communities the family names of Old Rochester.


Among the interesting and ancient houses of Rochester that are still standing are the Nicholas Snow house, near Snow's Pond; the Bates house, the Sherman house, and the Savery (or old Haskell) house. Historic houses that have been taken down or burned within a few years, but which had been well known as landmarks, were the old


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The Settlers and the Settlements


Ruggles Tavern, the Whitridge (or Winslow) house, and the Bourne (or Major Gifford) house. The Sippican Hotel at Marion is in part an ancient structure. The oldest house within the limits of the old Rochester territory is the Lieut. John Hammond house at Mattapoisett Herring Weir, built about 1700. Other ancient dwellings of interest in Mattapoisett are the Hovey house, and the "Old Mansion " built by Minister LeBaron. In the village the Wilson Barstow house and some others along Main and Water streets, and various ones on Cannon and Pearl streets, are old houses. So also is the Benjamin Barstow (Samuel Dexter) house at Cannonville. Many of those now standing on the Necks are ancient, as also a considerable number at Hammondtown and Tinkham- town; and various ones scattered through Aucoot and Pine Islands either stand in their original form or have been enlarged and modernized. Although there are various gambrel and hip-roofed houses in Rochester, it is to be noted that there are none at Mattapoisett.


The effort that has been made in this chapter to bring together in brief enumeration the old families of the Rochester territory is necessarily very imperfect and in- complete. It must be the task of the genealogist of the future, one with a taste for antiquarian research and years of time at his command, to give an adequate account of the people who have lived and died and the families that have taken root on the soil of Old Rochester.


It has been shown that the names cannot be very defi- nitely localized, as most families spread themselves widely, through marriage and removals, into various parts of the town territory.


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But while family names refuse to confine themselves in local or temporal relations, localities always have a marked tendency to assume some personal name and sometimes persist in carrying it even when the personality suggesting it has become a shadow of the past. For in- stance, what do we know to-day of the traditional "Mr. Merry," whose modified name has given rise to false legends relating to Mary's Pond ?


As one looks over the maps of Old Rochester, and listens to the speech of the people, he comes upon geographical and institutional names, almost without number, that tell much of the history of families and of persons and of the general lines of the town settlement.


Thus in Mattapoisett one may hear of Cannonville, Hammondtown, Randalltown, Tinkhamtown; of the Ellis neighborhood, Tripps Mills, of Pease's Point, Good- speed's Island, Barlow's Eel Pond; of the Barlow Ceme- tery, Hammond Cemetery, Hammond Street, Cannon Street, Barstow Street, Tobey Street, Dexter Street; of Purrington Hall and the Barstow School.


In Rochester of to-day one may hear of Snow's Pond, Leonard's Pond, Lewis Pond; of Pierceville, Parlow town, the Church neighborhood, the Morse neighborhood, the Gifford neighborhood, the Rounseville neighborhood; of Braley Hill, Vaughn's Hill, Cathell Hill, the Bisbee Corner, Cowen's Corner, the Sherman Corner, the Sher- man Cemetery; of Look's Mills, and Cushman's store, as names of localities, - of Haskell Swamp, Bonney Hill, the Dexter Road, Old Parlow Road; the Waterman School, and the Stuart School.


In western Wareham are Fearing's Hill, Blackmore's Pond, and the Hathaway neighborhood. And in Marion


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The Settlers and the Settlements


one may hear of Wing's Cove, Blankinship's Cove, Clapp's Island, Haskell Island, Hammett's Cove, Nye's Wharf, Ruggles's Point, Mendell's Bridge, Briggs's Neck; of Allen's Corner, Hadley's Corner, Hamblen's Corner, Handy's Grove, and of Tabor Academy.


Thus do human lives write their names upon features of nature, and upon institutions, even while the personal- ities themselves fade away into the indistinct background of history.


CHAPTER V


THE EARLY CHURCH AND THE PRECINCTS


A S in every New England town, the first thought of the settlers of Rochester was to provide for the religious needs of the community, and as soon as possible to or- ganize a church. The establishment of worship at Little Neck is in a true sense a part of the history of the First Church of Rochester, even though "for want of members to Imbody " no church was really organized in that locality. But the place has intrinsic and historic interest. In the words of Rev. H. L. Brickett, pastor of the Congregational Church at Marion :


"This place of worship at Little Neck is picturesque, with its massive Minister's Rock round which the Indians held their pow-wows, and close at hand the ancient burial- ground where sleep the early dead."


The religious impulses that started in the little tem- porary house of worship where Mr. Shiverick and Mr. Arnold preached for a few years have been transmitted to all the churches that occupy the Old Rochester territory.


But as the growing population spread rapidly over the whole town, it became evident at a very early date that this locality could not be the center of the religious and civic life of the town of Rochester.


The building of the town's meeting-house in 1699 opened the way for the church organization that had been


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The Early Church and the Precincts


so long delayed. As to the plans for this meeting-house (which stood within the limits of the town's burying- ground, laid out at the same time) the town records give considerable information. It was to be "24 by 26 Ft. and 10 ft. between joints, with a gable on each side." It was to have "a pulpit and flours and girts for three gal- erys, with three seats apew," and a rate of sixty pounds was voted to defray its cost, though it was afterwards decided to pay for it "by a free-will offering if that will amount to 50 pounds." The building committee were Samuel Prince, Peter Blackmer (who was also the builder), and Mark Haskel, at whose house the plans were drawn. He died before the house was completed, and to his widow, Mary Haskel, was given the office of sweeping the meet- ing-house " once in 15 days or as often as shall be occation for sweeping of it to keep it Deasent."


Minister Arnold's long religious efforts now began to bear fruit, and October 13, 1703, he wrote in the old church book, "It hath pleased our gracious Lord to shine in the dark corner of this wilderness, and visit this dark spot of ground with the dayspring from on high through his tender mercy to settle a church according to the order of the gospel."


Seven Christian men of Rochester, in addition to Mr. Arnold, signed the covenant that day, the names of the signers being Samuel Arnold, Abraham Holmes, Samuel Hammond, Isaac Holmes, Jacob Bumpus, John Benson, Thomas Dexter, Anthony Coomes.


Five years after the church was organized Mr. Arnold died, and was succeeded a few months later by Rev. Timothy Ruggles. Many years afterwards, when Minister Ruggles was asked for some information regarding his


-


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Mattapoisett and Old Rochester


predecessor, he wrote of Mr. Arnold that "the neighbor- ing ministers who survived him esteemed him as a worthy minister and approved him as a good Divine, but not so well skilled in church discipline as some others." In contemplating this defect, however, it is well to remember that skill in church discipline counted for more among ministerial qualifications in the eighteenth century than it does at present.


Mr. Arnold left at his death in 1709 a church list of thirty-five members as follows :


Males - Samuel Arnold (unworthy pastor); Abraham Holmes, Deacon; Samuel Hammond, Isaac Holmes, Jacob Bumpus, John Benson, Thomas Dexter, Anthony Coomes, Isaac Spooner, Benjamin Dexter, Samuel Winslow, Sam- uel White, Thomas Perry, Ebenezer Spooner, Samuel Arnold, Jr., Experience Holmes, John Hammond, - 17.


Females - Elizabeth Arnold, Mrs. Mary Hammond, Mrs. Sarah Arnold, Mary Haskel, Anna Holmes, Alis Spooner, Sarah Bumpus, Elizabet Bumpus, Abigal Holmes, Lidiah Joy, Mercy Winslow, Mary Whitridge, Ruth Perry, Mary Hammond, Sr., Mary Hammond, Jr., Elizabeth Arnold, Sarah Dexter, Mehitable Clark, - 18.


The names on this first church list seem fairly repre- sentative of the town territory. The Mattapoisett and Wareham names show that persons from the eastern and western edges of the town were active supporters of the new church, while Abraham and Isaac Holmes, who were brothers, lived near Snow's Pond, and represented the Sniptuit quarter.


After Mr. Arnold's death, Rev. Timothy Ruggles of Roxbury, a young graduate of Harvard, was called to be the town's minister, and was ordained November 22, 1710.


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The Early Church and the Precincts


Mr. Ruggles was not made a proprietor as Mr. Arnold had been, but the town gave him a farm of seventy acres, with the use of certain other ministry lands, and an annual salary which was at one time one hundred pounds, though it was often in arrears and subject to adjustments. The town also built him a house, - Mr. Ruggles furnishing the " glasse and nails," and boarded him at Roger Hascol's till the house was done. Capt. Isaac Holmes, John Ham- mond, Ensign Edward Winslow, Sergeant Benjamin Dexter, Sergeant John Briggs, Peter Blackmer, and Elisha Andrews were appointed as the building committee, "to set up such a dwelling-house for Mr. Ruggles as he shall give dimensions for." This house stood on the old road, in the rear of Captain Hathaway's dwelling, that was given up in 1785 when the present road to Marion was built. The site that the house occupied is still owned by descendants of Minister Ruggles.


The congregation increased rapidly, and in 1714, only eleven years after the church was organized, the meeting- house was voted too small, Some wished to enlarge the building by an addition "at ye backside thereof." But after some delays, in 1717 a new meeting-house was built, which stood. for ninety-four years in the grassy triangle opposite the cemetery gate, being used for church purposes about forty-three years. In 1906 the church and parish at Rochester Center placed a stone in this area to com- memorate the two meeting-houses which were built on Rochester Common by the votes and the taxes of all the citizens of Old Rochester.


The new meeting-house of 1717 was "40 Ft. by 35 Ft. and 20 Ft. between joints." The pews were "al of a haith and bult workmanlike," and three seats were built


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"Nye the pulpit stairs for ancient parsons to sett in." In 1725 there was a "Lock gott for it." Neither of these two first meeting-houses had a chimney or any fire unless in foot-stoves. Nor did the parish meeting-house that in 1760 succeeded the one of 1717 on Rochester Common have a fire until the nineteenth century was well begun, when a chimney was added and two box stoves were introduced.


The meeting-house of 1717 was not long adequate to the needs of the growing town. In 1733 permission was given to certain persons to build pews on the beams above the galleries, - a sort of third-story arrangement to utilize the high roof spaces which belonged to the earliest type of New England meeting-houses. One of these lofty pew builders was Timothy Ruggles, Jr., at that time a young lawyer in the town.


But events were coming that would relieve the conges- tion in the Rochester meeting-house, and change again the course of town history.


In 1733, the people of Mattapoisett complained that they were "so remote from the Center as to make their Difficulty great in all public Conserns," and asked to be set off into a new precinct. The matter was delayed for a time, during which an effort was made to have Matta- poisett incorporated as a separate town. But this did not meet the general wishes of the people, and in 1735 the Second Precinct of Rochester was finally set off.


With this event, Mattapoisett village began to develop more distinct lines of local interest. Through the keeping of the precinct and church books also its local history began to be put into written form. Yet for more than a hundred and twenty years longer Mattapoisett still held


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important relations with the other precincts as an integral part of the town of Old Rochester. In 1736 the Second Church of Rochester was organized in Mattapoisett. The interesting history of this old precinct church will be recorded in a later chapter.


With the organization of the Second Precinct, the rest of the town became "The First Precinct or Parish." The first parish was never incorporated by that name, but was always what was left of the town after other parishes had been set off.


. With the setting off of Mattapoisett into a separate precinct, the history of the town itself also took a new line of development. Like all other New England towns, Rochester was at first one religious organization in which all householders were taxed for church support. The incorporation of the Second Precinct was the first of a series of events that finally changed the original town into five religious organizations having definite territorial limits, within which all householders (unless personally excused) were subject to taxation for the support of the Congregational Church in that parish. The Ministry Lands of the town were finally divided up among these parishes or precincts. "Minister's Island" at Matta- poisett Neck was perhaps a part of one of these old Min- istry Lots.


In 1709, by a vote of the town, those who were "pro- fessed Quakers " began to be excused from their ministry dues, and in the latter part of the eighteenth century many Baptists claimed and received such exemption. But it was not until 1836 that the system of church taxation became illegal in Massachusetts and the voluntary system became universal.


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The second parish division in Old Rochester took place July 6, 1739, when the town of Wareham was incorporated. The same year a church was established there, consisting of thirty-three members dismissed from the First Church of Rochester.


The Wareham section was not technically a precinct of Rochester, but it was sometimes referred to as the "Wareham Precinct," and it received finally (though not without some controversy) its share of the "Ministry Lands." About 1770 the town of Wareham, with Eben- ezer Briggs as its agent, successfully upheld in the courts the claims of Wareham. After this, Rochester passed a vote stating that "The Precinct of Wareham's part is to the whole as 1103 is to 5728," and that Wareham was therefore entitled to "the Minister's Land lying in their said town and in Horseneck," but added, "It is neverthe- less to be understood that the above proportions are made exclusive of the Friends and Baptists' Societies. We do, therefore consider the Sd Wareham part or proportion made as liable to contribute their part to the Sd Friends & Baptists Societies when the Said Friends and Baptists shall regularly apply for the same according to the Tenor of the Proprietors' vote."


The cutting off of the Wareham district brought a larger change than the separation of Mattapoisett had done, since it divided the people, not only in church interests, but in those of the town as well. It took from Rochester a large piece of the town territory. The vil- lages of Tremont, Tihonet, South Wareham, Wareham Center, and part of The Narrows lie in what was once Old Rochester.


The following account of the formation of the Third or


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North Rochester parish is found in an article written by Abraham Holmes in 1821, and published in the Massa- chusetts Historical Collections, Vol. X, 2d Series:


" During the administration of Mr. Ruggles an unhappy controversy arose between him and Noah Sprague, Esq., which terminated in the erection of a poll parish, taking in the N. W. part of the town and some who lived in the immediate neighborhood of the meetinghouse of the first parish, a part of Middleboro and a part of Freetown. In this parish the Rev. Tho. West was ordained the minister. Mr. West remained their minister until about the year 1781, though before this time some of the leading members of this church and parish grew disatisfied with this doctrine and some of them went off and joined the Baptist connexion, and at this time his advanced age, & the infirmities incident thereto, induced him to ask a dismission, it was granted.


"The members of this poll parish now found them- selves, on account of diminution to be incompetent to settle a minister. They negotiated with the first parish in the year 1791, and agreed with them for a division line between that precinct and these by which they relinquished a number that belonged to the poll parish and took in a larger number by metes and bounds which had belonged to the first parish. They then applied to the Legislature and obtained an act of incorporation making a territorial parish, taking in a part of the first and second parishes in Middleboro and a part of Freetown. More than half of the people who live in this parish are of different denom- inations of Christians from those who procured the act of incorporation."


After the territorial parish of North Rochester was


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Mattapoisett and Old Rochester


organized the First Parish gave them (instead of Ministry Lands) the sum of seventy pounds, six shillings, sixpence, "whether they continue Congregationalists or whether they are Baptists or Friends." They did continue Congrega- tionalists, and the coming of Rev. Calvin Chaddock in 1793 did much to strengthen them in their Congregational faith.




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