USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Fairhaven > Old-time Fairhaven; erstwhile Eastern New Bedford, Volume I > Part 2
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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 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30
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tholomew Taber, forty lamps." The committee appointed, contract- ed for fifty lamp posts. This number was augmented from time to time, giving to Fairhaven an increasing number of small, kerosene- burning lamps, at the various corners. Old photographs show the old, iron lamp posts.
Mr. George E. Reeves, who held the cane presented to the oldest Fairhaven resident, died on Monday, January 6, 1947, in his 97th year. It was he who cleaned the chimneys, trimmed the wicks, and lighted the lamps within our remembrance. We also remember his father, Mr. George Reeves, working for the town in the same capacity. During a short interval between the employment of the Reeves, a Mr. Gifford kept the oil lamps burning.
Atlas Tack Corporation. - Fairhaven has had brass foundries, candle works, cigar manufactories, coffin makers, a comb manufac- tory, cooper shops, a cotton mill, coal yards, iron foundries, furni- ture repair shops, granular fuel mill, hatting business, tidemills, wind- mills, paper collar manufactory, New England Embroidery Co., tin- shops, rope walks, salt works, shoe factory, livery stables, glass fac- tory, sperm factory, etc.
One business concern stands out pre-eminently. In the year 1864 the American Nail Machine Co., of Boston, purchased the Rodman property - the old spermacetti candle works with its stone wharf, now the headquarters of Peirce & Kilburn's boatyard. This company bought in the same year seven parcels of land situated in the southwest part of the town. In 1874, the directors of the Ameri- can Tack Company which name, by the way, was later legally assumed, voted a dividend of ten per cent from earnings of 1873. In 1900 the management announced that the working day thereafter would be eight hours instead of ten.
This concern, the backbone of Fairhaven industry, has had a creditable record, becoming with additions, within our memory, the Atlas Tack Corporation, without which Fairhaven's welfare would be enigmatical.
Horse Cars. - The horse railroad, as it was first called, between Fairhaven and New Bedford, was instituted in the year 1872. There were one-horse, two-horse, and three-horse cars, the last being drawn by two horses on a level but with an additional horse, called the hill- horse, when going up hill. On Monday, July 15th of that year, the one-horse cars, seating fifteen or twenty passengers, arrived. On these there were no conductors except during rush hours. These new, one-
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horse cars were at first drawn by two horses until the axles were worn smooth. Notices in the cars read :
"Passengers will please put their fares into the box, as the driver is not allowed, under any circumstance, either to receive or deposit it. Change to the amount of $2.00 will be furnished by the driver, who will return the full amount, thus enabling the passenger to place his fare in the box. No person allowed to ride free. Passengers will put their fares into the box on entering the car."
Yes, the conductorless horse-cars appeared with the cash-box at either end of the car, and in winter the floors were strewn with straw under which we thrust our feet to protect them from the biting cold. It was a long time before cars were heated, and vestibules installed. On August 14th the tracks were laid to the Fairhaven draw, and on the 28th the work commenced on the Fairhaven side of the river. On Monday, September 30th, the street cars between the two places made hourly trips. The rides on that day were free, and the cars were well patronized. Later the trips were half-hourly.
It was handy to have a blacksmith shop on the line of the cars. On the southeast corner of Main and Bridge streets, Fairhaven, stood the shop of Roland Smith. Should a horseshoe become loose, the animal would be detached, and led into the farrier's place of business. Meanwhile the passengers would patiently wait until the horse was shod before continuing their prepaid trip.
One wag wrote: "The quiet of this 'ancient' town was disturbed yesterday (September 30, 1872) by the arrival of the first car on the horse railroad. You should have been there to witness the excitement it awakened. All day long the corners were filled with expectant children and some of the old fogies who crowded to get free rides to the busy and modern city of New Bedford."
The Telephone. - Early in 1880, there was a rumor, later veri- fied, that Fall River and New Bedford were to be connected by tele- phone, including Fairhaven. After the wires had been strung to the Fairhaven end of the bridge, it was the intention to run the wires over the roofs of the houses, but opposition to that procedure mani- fested itself. Gradually telephones were installed, first at the Ameri- can Tack Co.'s office, the houses of Dr. George Atwood and Cyrus D. Hunt, etc. It was a new experience to have a lady play and sing at Dr. Atwood's, being joined in the song by, several ladies in Mr. Hunt's parlor. It was a story worth telling about in those days to learn that Levi M. Snow, our druggist, gave an order to a business house in Providence direct.
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Electric Lighting. - Another event of importance took place in 1889. Poles began to be erected and wires to be put up for the electric lighting service. The Star building, which then stood north of the Masonic building, had been wired, and on a dark and dismal after- noon, on the 2nd of December, at 3:30 o'clock, with the wiring completed, the switches for both the interior and the exterior lights were snapped on. The little building, still standing at the northwest corner of Main and Ferry streets, next door to the present Star office, became the center of attraction. Visitors came from far and near that evening, and the office was filled to capacity. Orders for electric lighting began to pour in, and it was evident that electric lighting was the illumination of the future in the little town of Fairhaven.
Electric Cars. - The electric cars were destined to come, but strenuous opposition was bound to delay them. The streets of New Bedford, a mile away, first tolerated their existence. By October, 1890, the electric cars had forced the horse-drawn vehicles off the rails. The opponents of the electric cars, in Fairhaven, claimed, in May, 1892, that horses would be frightened on the bridge, and many accidents would result.
The street railway company endeavored to please the public and to fill their coffers simultaneously, for on January 13, 1893, the com- pany cleared the snow from the Mill Pond in an effort to attract the people of New Bedford to the Fairhaven skating arena. Holmes' lunch cart was on the ice doing a rushing business in the sale of "hot dogs" and coffee.
In November, 1893, the electric cars ran across the bridge as far as the east end of Fish Island, beginning on Thanksgiving Day. The Fairhaven cars were towed, and the passengers were transferred. In November of that year the cars were towed from Pope's Island in- stead of Fish Island as formerly. Thus the monster crept surrepti- tiously toward our shores. A little later the Road Commission ex- pressed themselves as opposed to transferring. Grievances poured in from all quarters. Even in the '90's people were shouting vocifer- ously for speed.
Then came the news that the electric road would be extended over the bridge as far as the town line as soon as the weather per- mitted. The pestilence was approaching! Then more howling. It seemed that the New Bedford draw was good for six tons whereas the electric cars weighed seven tons. In consequence, citizens for- bade their families to ride, so great was the jeopardy. A local clergy-
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man sided with the alarmists and asserted in February, 1894, that he had seen overhead trolley wires snap, and falling on the track, make the rails alive and dangerous to the lives of anyone stepping upon them.
On Saturday, March 10th, a vote was passed at the town meet- ing instructing the selectmen NOT to permit the electric cars to run in the streets of the town. The railway managers, however, extended the electric service to the west line of the town, on the bridge. The sentiment, in April, 1894, seemed to be as expressed in The Star, "Just imagine the streets of Fairhaven lined with trolley poles and wires, particularly when there is no necessity for it."
In 1894, heaters were installed in the electric cars, In May, 1895, the Fairhaven Town meeting authorized the selectmen and advisory committee to contract for electric cars to run into and in the town. On the morning of Monday, May 27th, 1895, the work of erecting poles in Fairhaven for the electric cars was® begun.
The "Spray". - Let us conclude this hastily written paper with a subject about which much is known, not only locally but in various parts of the habitable globe, namely, the "Spray."
The annals of Fairhaven, especially Oxford, would be incom- plete without the mention of the rebuilding of the "Spray," the 40- foot sloop that sailed from Fairhaven more than two score years ago and became world-renowned. In this staunch craft Captain Joshua Slocum set sail, making his famous three-year trip.
Every resident of Fairhaven should be conversant with Captain Slocum's book, portraying his journey around the world and his safe return, mooring at the end of the sojourn in foreign parts, in the exact spot of his departure, three years previously.
The foregoing isn't, by any means, all that Fairhaven has ex- perienced. Nearly a hundred years ago, while Acushnet was yet a part of Fairhaven Town, the communities appeared to be in style.
Bloomerism. - Fairhaven did not escape the influence of the hoop-skirt period. It even encouraged the use of this combination of circles by preparing, on Spring street, the strips of whale bone used in their manufacture. The ladies when attired in their ex- panded dresses, it was said, were unable, in some instances, to at- tend church, due to their inability to pass between the posts at the entrance. Then, too, these large skirts, hooped with whalebone, caused frequent collisions.
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The truth is, Fairhaven hasn't missed anything since its exist- ence. It was in 1850, or thereabouts, that Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, an American, advocated a change in feminine attire, and this town took her advice. Let us very briefly record the first appearance of this style, emanating from the brain of Mrs. Bloomer, in a few localities, and see whether Fairhaven fell in line, wearing a crimson tunic with white flowing pettiloons and a Bloomer hat, an offshoot of the pantalette period. We quote the Standard.
"Bloomerism in New Bedford. We understand that one lady in this city has come out in the Turkish costume and that others are preparing to follow suit. More anon - that is to say - when we learn it." May 23, 1851.
"Bloomerism. We learn that a lady appeared yesterday, on Pur- chase street, dressed in a new costume a la Turc. The dress is now worn by a number of ladies within doors, who as yet have not the courage to adopt it in public." June 8, 1851.
"In New York on Monday, June 9, 1851, says the Tribune, a young lady appeared in Canal street, in the new costume, a short skirt reaching a little below the knee, and wide Turkish trowsers of plaid silk. She attracted so much attention that she was forced to take refuge in a store until the crowd subsided."
"Progress in Bloomerism. Tuesday afternoon, June 10, 1851, says the Boston Bee, Washington street was alive with Bloomer- dom. In going from State to Boylston st., we met over a dozen. One was dressed in a magnificent brocade silk, with trowsers of the same."
"More Bloomerism. A correspondent states that two young ladies have recently appeared in the full Bloomer or American cos- tume, in Fairhaven, and one in North Fairhaven," July 12, 1851.
"More Bloomers. About a half dozen of our New Bedford Bloomers took a walk in a body over to Fairhaven last evening (Wed- nesday, July 16, 1851) mayhaps to astonish the natives of that local- ity. We have not heard whether they succeeded, but have no doubt that they themselves enjoyed the exhibition."
"New Bedford Bloomers. We learn that the Misses who went over to Fairhaven from New Bedford on Wednesday evening last, had a very pleasant time. They were treated with perfect courtesy though they did astonish the natives some, ladies in the American costume being still rarities in Fairhaven. The six fair pedestrians are all connected with one clothing house in New Bedford."
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Fairhaven early put into practice the sane words of Alexander Pope : "Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside."
Under the date of December 29, 1851, it is recorded that Mrs. Bloomer said :- "Never since we were a child have we been so com- fortably dressed; and never for a moment - notwithstanding the furor we have raised - have we regretted our emancipation from long petticoats, or felt a desire to return to their bondage."
"Mrs. Bloomer, at the recent Woman's Temperance Conven- tion, at Rochester, N. Y., appeared in the costume which bears her own name. Her dress and trowsers were of 'silver grey' silk, the prevailing color, relieved by a lighter figure; she wore a short tur- ban. In the street, she wears a white beaver hat in 'flat' style, and her appearance is very unique." April 28, 1852.
Let us conclude this topic of feminine attire by quoting from the Standard of Wednesday, June 24, 1857 as follows: "Whalebone, too, is to be done away with, the New York 'Evening Post' hopes, by some other means of expanding ladies' skirts and parasols. We don't tremble in the least as to any such result. What fashion calls for will be had at any price; and whalebone is so much more elastic, light and safe than any metal that fashion will always call for it in some shape. It may, and probably will, decline somewhat in price, as the fair sex 'take reefs,' in their huge balloon-like lower apparel, but that it can be materially set aside or totally done away with, is as unlikely as that style and display will cease to reign in the wealthy nations of the world."
Hoops had their advantage. "HOOPS SAVED HER. As the steamer 'Commonwealth' came alongside the wharf at New London, on Friday night, March 27, 1857, on the passage from Norwich to New York, a lady walked overboard, and would have been drowned but for the hoops in her dress, which rendered the same somewhat balloonish, and withal answered the purpose of a more complicated life-preserver." Thousands of hoop-skirts worn at this period were made at Sing Sing prison.
"The Hoop Mania. - The popularity of hoop skirts appears to be on the increase. Messrs Douglas & Sherwood, leading manu- facturers in New York, announce that their sales in the month of August amount to 20,000 more than during the same month last year. Now that the period of thunder showers has passed, the demand for steel hoops has taken a new start." (September 4, 1857.)
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Indian Lands, Acquired and Transferred. - Having made a brief summary of the story of Fairhaven, let us now deal with sub- jects, in a chronological order, beginning with the days of the ab- origines.
The Wampanoags, with Massasoit as their Chief, densely popu- lated the old Dartmouth territory before the sale of the land to the white men was consummated. The tract of land called Dartmouth, originally about thirteen miles square, including the present town of that name, together was approximately the present areas of West- port, New Bedford, Fairhaven and Acushnet, was purchased from the Indian Chief, Massasoit, and his son, Wamsutta, in the year 1652. This tract was then owned by 36 persons, there being 34 shares, four persons owning one-half share each. Among those, each owning a whole share, were Francis and John Cooke, father and son, who ar- rived in the Mayflower in 1620. Francis Cooke signed the com- pact as the Mayflower lay at anchor in Provincetown harbor. John, his son, a Baptist minister, on account of religious differences, re- moved to Dartmouth.
John Cooke selected as his portion the section now known as Oxford. In 1634, at the age of 29, he married Sarah Warren. They lived at Plymouth until 1659, and settled at Oxford in 1660. They had five daughters: Mercy who married Stephen West after whom West Island was named; Esther who married Thomas Taber ; Sarah who married Arthur Hathaway; Elizabeth who married Daniel Wil- cox, and Mary who married Philip Taber.
Massasoit died in 1661. Less than thirty-five miles from Fair- haven, in the town of Halifax, on the shores of the Monponsett ponds, stands a boulder with a bronze tablet bearing the following inscription : "Near this spot Wamsutta was taken prisoner by Maj. Josias Winslow, an incident said to have precipitated King Philip's War," which began in 1675.
Few of the original thirty-six purchasers of Dartmouth settled here, the land passing into the hands of others, many of whom were Quakers. By 1694 Dartmouth was owned by fifty-six individuals. The land was surveyed and divided, eight hundred acres being al- lotted to each proprietor. This was known as the "Eight Hundred Acre Division."
Some time after the territory which became Fairhaven, was ac- quired from the Indians, it was owned by a few individuals, namely Henry Sampson, Thomas Taber and Elnathan Pope. This total area, extending from that plot later denominated "Oxford" on the
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north to that section of the town called the Fort on the south, and from the harbor on the west to Adams and Summer streets and Farm Field lane on the east, was eventually sold, so that the present number of lots are in the possession of many persons.
Elnathan Pope made two notable sales, one to Noah Allen, of twenty acres ; the other to Joseph Rotch of eighty-six and a half acres, a total of one hundred six and a half acres. 1
Henry Sampson, "Old Comer," was one of the original pro- prietors and once owned all the land south of the present location of the Fairhaven Branch Railroad, extending south to the salt water and easterly from the Acushnet to Crooked Creek at the Cove.
In 1700, William Wood purchased of Philip Taber, son of Thomas Taber and son-in-law of John Cooke, a tract of land ex- tending from Bread and Cheese road to a boundary just north of Washington street, and extending from Adams street to the Acushnet river. He lived in the house built by Thomas Taber soon after the close of the Indian War, the ruins showing the position of the wide fireplace which was fed by logs drawn by horses that passed through one doorway, halting in front of the capacious fireplace long enough to have the log rolled aside, then making their exit from the door- way on the opposite side. This house was unquestionably the first house at the Point. The acreage of William Wood extended to the northern line of a twenty-acre plot, the nucleus of Fairhaven Village.
On October 20, 1760, Elnathan Pope, another large landholder, sold to Noah Allen twenty acres (estimated) extending from the line later taken by the railroad to a line about midway between Spring and Washington streets, and from a line about midway between Wil- liam and Main streets to the Acushnet river. The deed, in part, reads : "In consideration of ye full and just sum of three hundred and thirty- three pounds, six shillings, and eight pence; on ye easterly side of Accuishnut (Acushnet) river and in ye westerly part of my home- stead farm, together with a strip of land thirty feet wide for a way ; together with all my right, title and interest in ye island commonly called and known by ye name of Crow Island." At the southwest corner of the purchase try kettles were located.
This twenty-acre lot, the nucleus of Fairhaven Village, carved out of the tract once belonging to Elnathan Pope, was set aside in 1790. This demanded ways for traffic, and Water, Middle, and Center street from Middle to Main, Union from Main to Water, Washing- ton from Main to the river, Main street from Washington to the south end of the purchase, were laid out.
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On December 12, 1760, William Wood sold to Elnathan El- dredge a tract of land at the Point, afterwards called Oxford, west of the east line of Cherry street and south of North street. The deed states, in part : "In consideration of ninety-three pounds, six shillings and eight pence ; on ye easterly side of Cushnet river (and is ye north- westerly part of my homestead farm) six acres (estimated), always excepting and reserving to myself, my heirs and assigns forever that part of ye same where ye try house and oil shed now stand at the southeast corner." This tract comprised thirty building lots west of Cherry street, including one for the Common, south side of Ox- ford street, next to the river.
Under the firm name of Elnathan Eldredge & Company, a store of West India goods, groceries, etc., with merchandise appertaining thereto, was conducted at the foot of Oxford street for a period of fifteen years beginning with 1765. At the foot of this street, the Point wharf was built in 1768, during the period of Elnathan Eldredge & Company's existence.
In 1765, Elnathan Pope sold to Joseph Rotch eighty-six and one-half acres of land lying east of Fairhaven Village, that is to say, between the twenty-acre lot purchased by Noah Allen on the west, Summer street on the east, Herring river or Spring street on the north and the site of the old Burying Ground or the later railroad route on the south.
For this area of eighty-six and a half acres (estimated) Joseph Rotch paid to Elnathan Pope, according to the recorded deed, nine hundred and twenty-two pounds, thirteen shillings and four pence. The deed was dated May 30, 1765, "in ye fifth year of ye reign of George the Third, King of Great Britain," and continued : "Exclusive of ways through the same, and is part of my homestead farm, always excepting ye driftway that goes through the same from my home to Caleb Churche's, and ye open way that goes from ye driftway to ye Town lot; also a driftway from where ye old warehouse formerly stood to one of ye ways in ye Town lot."
This eighty-six-acre purchase was undoubtedly made for the pur- pose of speculation, and was held by Joseph Rotch and his son Wil- liam from the time of purchase 'until about 1830, a period of about sixty-five years. Joseph Rotch had three sons : William, Joseph, and Francis. Joseph, Senior, died on November 24, 1784, aged 80. Upon William's death which occurred in 1828 the land was divided among the children who sold it according to the demand which was great. This opened a way for the cramped-up and over-crowded
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section, the twenty-acre lot, to expand, for this latter purchase suit- able for forty house lots, due to the increase in population, had been divided and subdivided so that there were more than one hundred holdings.
Bicentennial Celebration - "Old Dartmouth," including New Bedford, Fairhaven, Dartmouth, Acushnet and Westport, observed its bicentennial celebration September 14, 1864, more than three quarters of a century ago. Fairhaven was represented at the meet- ing of the Mayor of New Bedford and the Selectmen of the several towns mentioned above, by Bartholomew Taber, Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, and Ellery T. Taber.
From the printed proceedings of that day, we quote from the address of William W. Crapo, Esq., as follows: "Stringent laws were from time to time enacted, one in 1692, and another in 1695, requiring the towns to provide able, learned and orthodox ministers to dispense the word of God. The definition of orthodoxy was then the bone of contention in the balance, and a law passed in 1715 gave the General Court the power to determine this question. In 1722, the Assembly of Massachusetts passed an act requiring Dartmouth and Tiverton (part of Massachusetts) to be taxed for the support of the ministry whose selection was subject to the approval of the Gen- eral Court. These two towns were the only ones in the Province that had not received Presbyterian ministers. Trouble ensued. The re- fusal of the selectmen to assess the tax was followed by their im- prisonment in Bristol jail where they remained eighteen months. The persons who were imprisoned were Philip Taber and John Akin, selectmen of Dartmouth and Joseph Anthony and John Sisson, selectmen of Tiverton, a part of whom were Baptists and a part Quakers. A showdown came in 1724 when an embassy was sent to England with a petition considered at the Court of St. James, and it was ordered that the obnoxious taxes be remitted and that Philip Taber and his fellow-sufferers be immediately released from their imprisonment."
Royal Commissions. - George III, of England, only 22 years of age, was seated on the throne in 1760. There were no separate townships of Acushnet, Fairhaven, and New Bedford at that time. This entire tract was known by the name of Dartmouth.
Before us rests a commission printed on a sheet 13 inches by 163/4 inches, with the following wording: "Francis Bernard, Esq; Cap- tain General and Governor in Chief, in and over His Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, and Vice-
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