Our country and its people; a descriptive and biographical record of Bristol County, Massachusetts, Part 13

Author: Borden, Alanson, 1823-1900; Boston History Company, Boston, pub
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: [Boston] Boston History Company
Number of Pages: 1399

USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Our country and its people; a descriptive and biographical record of Bristol County, Massachusetts > Part 13

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).

Joseph Porter,

Joseph Bowen,

William Fairbrother,

Simeon Round,

James Cole,

Laben Lake,

Nathan Hix 2d,

Timothy Fuller,

Nathaniel Thurber,

Cyril Smith, Jacob Bliss, jr.,

Daniel Short,

Hezekiah Smith, Square Goff, jr.,

James Bullock,

Oliver Smith,

Benjamin Monroe

Nathan Newman,

Benjamin Bowen,

Jabez Round 3d,

Samuel Carpenter,

Jacob Cole,

Charles Round,

Jarvis Peck,

Ezra Thayer,

James Martin,

Luke Bowen,

Jacob Bliss,

Isaac Burr,

Asa Bowen,

Irael Hicks,

Laben Briggs,

John Hopkins.

Abiel Horton,

Amos Cole,

The First Congregational Church in Rehoboth was organized in 1721 by ten members as follows: David Turner (pastor), Elisha May, Thomas Ormsby (deacons), Jethniel Peck, Samuel Peck, Benjamin Wilson, Solomon Millard, Samuel Fuller, William Blanding and Jo- seph Willson. The people built a church that year in the Palmer's River neighborhood. This society was incorporated in 1759 as the Sec- ond Precinct of Rehoboth. Rev. Robert Rogerson was the second pas- tor, called in 1759. In March, 1773, it was " voted that the old meeting- house should be sold or pulled down, provided that a new one can be built upon the plane near Timothy Readways." This was on the site of the village cemetery ; the new house was built in the following summer. In 1792 the inhabitants of the precinct were incorporated under the name of the Catholic Congregational Church and Society. Mr. Rogerson was succeeded by Rev. Otis Thompson in 1800, and later pastors were Revs.

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FROM 1776 TO 1815.

Thomas Vernon (1826), John Chester Paine (1838), Charles P. Grosve- nor (1847), Walter P. Doe (1857), and later acting pastors covered the period to 1864, followed by Francis H. Boynton, Thomas Henry Johnson and others.

The Old Oak Swamp Church was gathered together originally under the faith of the Six-Principle Baptists, by Rev. John Comer, who was installed pastor in July, 1732. Elder Samuel Maxwell succeeded in 1745. A little later he became a Congregationalist and the society waned. The few who held together called Elder Richard Round, who had organized a church in the northeast part of the town; he continued to 1768. The original church building stood at the junction of two roads at South Rehoboth. After Elder Round's death the society adopted open communion and Jacob Hix was installed pastor. Other early elders were Charles Luther, during whose pastorate a house of worship was built and the old one became a barn; Joseph Blackmar, M. E. Gammons, Luther Baker, James Pierce, J. W. Osborne, William Miller and others. The church is now substantially extinct.

The so-called Hornbine Church of the Six-Principle Baptist sect was formed in the southeast part of the town and ordained Samuel Morton pastor in 1753. A little later Elder Morton Pierce was installed as colleague and continued to preach forty years. Other early elders were Thomas Seamans, Preserved Pierce, William Manchester, Joseph Blackman, Otis Potter, and various supplies. The church building is still in existence.

The Irons Church, Free Will Baptist, in the north part of the town, was organized in October, 1777, with thirty-one members. James Sheldon was ordained pastor in -1780. The list of subsequent elders was a long one and not of great importance. The society finally be- came extinct.

The Six-Principle Baptist Society, organized in 1740 in the northeast part of the town, had its house of worship on the site of the school house; it fell into decay about 1824 and a new one was built on the corner of the road to Norton. In 1826, when Lorenzo Dow Johnson, an eloquent Methodist minister, went there to preach, the declining society was revived and began worship in that faith. The existing edi- fice was built in 1843. The society finally became merged in the Wes- leyan Methodist Church and in 1840 Rev. William Cone was called to preach. He succeeded in uniting with the church a class originally formed in 1798 by Rev. John Broadhead, greatly strengthening it.

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

The Union Baptist Church (Anawan), was formed by a few members of the Congregational society who were unwilling to change when that society left the old meeting-house in the cemetery lot to occupy the new one in the village. These joined with several Baptist families who were members of the church on Long Hill in Dighton, meetings began in 1840, and in that spring the Union Baptist Society was organized. A meeting-house was built on land on the Providence and Taunton road.

In the year 1788 the town voted "to provide a work-house for the accommodation of the poor of this town." The schools also received due attention during this period. In 1787 it was voted to "raise £120 for schooling, £20 to be applied towards the support of a grammar school." In the year 1792, £150 was appropriated and it was voted that "the selectmen be empowered to procure such grammar schools as shall answer the law, in the different parts of the town, for learning the Greek and Latin languages." From that time forward the schools of the town were liberally supported. The appropriation for 1795 was £175; 1796 to 1806, $666.66; in 1807-10 inclusive, $700, and in 1811, $800.

In February, 1794, it was voted " to remonstrate with the legisla- ture of Rhode Island against a bridge being built over Kellogg's ferry, near Warren." In 1795 an attempt was made to incorporate the west precinct into a separate town, but the vote was in the negative. This undertaking was ultimately accomplished in the formation of Seekonk.

The Orleans Cotton Factory in Rehoboth, situated on Palmer's River at the head of tide water, was built in 1811 by a company which was afterward incorporated as Palmer's River Manufacturing Company. The principle stockholders were Asa Bullock, Barnard Wheeler and Capt. Israel Nichols, of Rehoboth; Thomas Church, John How and Capt. Benjamin Norris, of Bristol; and Richmond Bullock of Provi- dence. The business was continued several years, when the factory was leased to Nathan Sweetland until about 1822. At that time the whole property was sold to Ebenezer Ide and others. The business was continued under the style of the Ide Manufacturing Company until 1825, when the company became embarrassed and the real and personal property was sold separately. David Wilkinson and others purchased the real estate, put in forty-eight looms and sufficient spindles, assum- ing the name of the Orleans Manufacturing Company. They made fine cloth for calicoes. About 1830 David Wilkinson & Company failed

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FROM 1776 TO 1815.

and the property passed to Benjamin Peck and others. In November, 1832, the principal building was burned, and rebuilt.

The Rehoboth Union Manufacturing Company, consisting of Dexter Wheeler, Richard Goff, Stephen Carpenter, Thomas Carpenter, James Carpenter and Peter Carpenter, built a cotton factory in 1809. In 1832 about fifteeen hands were employed in making yarn. Later this mill passed to Nelson and Darius Goff and Stephen Carpenter.

Joseph Goff had a fulling mill at the Goff homestead in Rehoboth in 1776. Richard Goff, son of Joseph, was the first to manufacture cot- ton in that vicinity. He was followed by Nelson and Darius Goff.

This town is now, as it always has been, largely an agricultural dis- trict, and the few business industries are noticed in the later Gazetteer of Towns.

The old town of Dartmouth made history for itself that is not with- out interest and importance before and during the Revolutionary period. As already stated many of the early inhabitants of this town were Quakers, and others were Baptists, both of which sects were firm in their determination to pay no tax for the support of ministers of the gospel. The Quakers were recognized as a religious body in 1683, and their first meeting house was built in 1699, on the site ever since occu- pied by them at Aponagansett. Laws were passed in 1692 and 1695 requiring all towns to provide learned orthodox ministers. In 1704 the town was indicted for not complying with the law. A minister was chosen whose orthodoxy was questioned by the government, but he was satisfactory to the inhabitants and they so plainly informed the Quar- ter Sessions held at Bristol in 1705. In order to settle all similar ques- tions of orthodoxy, a law was passed in 1715, which provided substan- tially that the ultimate determination of who should be ministers should rest with the General Court. Dartmouth resisted and still claimed the right to choose her own ministers. At the March town meeting of 1723 Nathaniel Howland was chosen minister over Samuel Hunt, a Presbyterian, by a majority of fifty-five to twelve votes. In 1722 the Assembly passed an act to raise £100 in Dartmouth and £72 11s. in Tiverton for the support of ministers. This was the culmination of the struggle. Dartmouth refused to pay the tax; voted money to pay charges of the Selectmen incurred in the contest, and finally voted them a certain sum " each of them, a day for every day they lie in jail on the town account." Only five taxpayers opposed the appropriation of £700 to protect the Selectmen. This defiant attitude attracted at-

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

tention and was promptly punished by the authorities; the Selectmen were imprisoned in Bristol jail, where they stubbornly remained about eighteen months; their names were Philip Taber and John Atkin of Dartmouth, and Joseph Anthony and John Sisson, of Tiverton. Part of these were Quakers and part Baptists. The contest was carried to the English court, where a petition was heard on June 2, 1724, for re- lief from the obnoxious laws. The result was the repeal of the laws and the release of the imprisoned Selectmen. (See History of New Bedford herein).

A characteristic feature of municipal government in the very early years, to which we have already referred, was the extent to which it entered into private personal and domestic affairs. This sometimes became irksome and individuals endeavored to shirk obedience to the trivial regulations. For example, the following was inserted in the town meeting warrant for 1751:

Whereas the Easterly and Westerly villages in said town, experience teaches, have often neglected and omitted their duty in coming to said meetings to help carry on and manage the affairs of said town, especially in the difficult seasons of the year and foul weather (and not in danger of being chosen to troublesome offices), and so have at such times trusted and almost entirely relied and depended on the Middle village, of which the body of the people therein inhabiting live remote from said house, to do all the business of said town, which said Middle village is obliged to do though a hardship, otherwise said town would have incurred many a fine for neglect of duty, the want of grand and petit jurymen, and other ways suffered.

To overcome this difficulty it was voted to remove the town-house, which was done; but in the following year an article appeared in the warrant, as follows:

To see if the persons who carried away the town-house will bring it back again and set it up in the same place where they took it from, in as good repair as it was when they took it away, and for the town to act on the affair as they should think proper.

This town-house was undoubtedly the one that was ordered built in 1739, "nine feet between joints and twenty-two feet wide and thirty- six feet long." Another quaint example of personal legislation was the ordering of every householder to kill twelve blackbirds between the months of January and May, or pay a penalty for his neglect, and that "a crow should count for three blackbirds."

While no community in modern times would be subjected to this class of domination in its public and private affairs, it may be safely assumed that in those times public sentiment was different, and that the inhab-

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FROM 1776 TO 1815.

itants of towns in the last century and the early years of the present one were more closely held to their responsibility as good citizens by the watchfulness and paternal legislation described in all the old town records.

The sixth article in the warrant of 1741 enters quite fully into the reasons for establishing a public institution, as follows:

That whereas such course does much abound within said town, many running about from house to house to supply their own present want, miserably neglecting their families at home, which is the only cause of many's suffering who are not capa. ble of labor, which practice is to the great detriment of that part of the inhabitants that are industrious and laborious, which pernicious practice, together with spend- ing idly what they have or earn, is a great if not the only cause of scarcity of bread in said town, now to pass a vote at said meeting for the building a work-house in said town for the setting and keeping to work all such persons who misspend their time as above stated, which said vote is thought by all those who request the same cannot be spoken against, except by those which are in danger of breaking into said house themselves.

Several attempts were made in early times to divide the county, in some of which the people of Dartmouth were especially active. One of the plans involved joining Dartmouth with Tiverton and Little Compton in a new county. It must not be forgotten that Dartmouth still embraced a vast territory, neither New Bedford, Westport, Fair- haven nor Acushnet having yet been erected. At another time it was proposed to change the county seat to Assonet (Freetown) as a more central point than Taunton. An article in the warrant of 1746 has the following on this important subject :

To consult and vote something with respect to petitioning the General Court that we may have a county taken off or made on this side of Assonet River, otherwise we must unavoidably be expressed to go and our children after us, for what we know, to Taunton, which will be upwards of thirty-five miles distance from many of said inhabitants, which will be in the journey extremely tedious and expensive, it being too far to set out from our homes to get there before the court setts, as likewise the largeness of the county aggravates the case by reason that one case must wait for another, and is at times the occasion of adjournment. In the whole, it will be tedious and expensive to plaintiff, defendant, jurymen, and evidences, but more especially to poor widows, who are ofttimes obliged to go several times before an estate can be settled with the judge of probate.

This difficulty was overcome after a hundred years of agitation by making New Bedford a half-shire in 1828.

Educational affairs were taken in hand in Dartmouth at an early day, but we are not able to trace the record back of March 23, 1734, when the following was voted:

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

That such vilage shall have free toleration to elect a schoolmaster for each vilage, to be paid by a rate upon each vilage if the said vilages see cause to elect one, & that vilage which shall clear the town of being fined for want of a grammar school master, by procuring a lawful one, shall receive ten pounds to be paid by the whole town in general & that every person or persons in each of sd vilages shall have free access or liberty to sent their children to sd master for benifitt of the lattin tongue but no other; at an annual meeting in March 1733, voted-That William Lake serve as grammar school master at forty-five pounds pr annum: Voted-That all people who receive benifitt of ye sd schoolmaster, by sending their children, shall frankly give sd master their proportionable part of his diet, washing and lodging-also he shall be removed by order of the selectmen.

The oldest record of a Meeting of the Friends in this town is dated April 4, 1699; but meetings had doubtless been held previous to that time. A lot was purchased of Peleg Slocum for one pound, sixteen shillings, the deed dated June 6, 1706, and the first meeting house was built at Aponagansett, where it has ever since been maintained. The building must have been erected before the date of the deed, as there is a record of November 6, 1698-9, as follows: " At the house of John Lapham we, the underwritten, Peleg Slocum, Jacob Mott, Abraham Tucker and John Tucker, undertake to build a meeting-house for the people of God, in scorn called Quakers, thirty-five foot long, thirty foot wide, and fourteen foot studds, to worship and serve the true and living God in," etc. The money for the building was contributed by the people. This Meeting greatly prospered and became one of the largest in this section. Other meeting houses were built as necessity demanded, at Smith's Mills (North Dartmouth), where it has since been main- tained; at Smith's Neck, and at Allen's Neck, all forming one Monthly Meeting. In 1845 there was a separation in the Meeting, making two organizations.

The First Christian Church in Dartmouth was organized May 21, 1790, as a branch of Elder Jacob Hix's church in Rehoboth. Elder Daniel Hix, brother of Jacob, was installed in October, 1781. In 1808 two hundred and sixty-two additions were made to the membership for the year, with a total number of six hundred and ninety-nine, including the branches of New Bedford, Fairhaven, Freetown, Berkley, Long Plain and Rochester. Elder Hix continued pastor until 1834, and had numerous successors; the society still exists.

The Congregational Church was formed in the spring of 1807, and in October Rev. Daniel Emerson was ordained the first pastor; he died about a year later, and from that time until 1816 the church was with-

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FROM 1776 TO 1815.

out a settled pastor, but meetings continued in dwellings and the school house. In April, 1816, Rev. Peter Crocker was called and served until 1821. During his pastorate the meeting-house was built. Other early pastors were Revs. Jonathan Wing, Francis Horton, Thomas J. Richmond, Charles S. Adams, Andrew Bigelow, William Mandell, Melancthon Wheeler, Martin Howard, John Lord, John G. Wilson and others.

Industrial operations in what is now Dartmouth have been confined largely to the saw and grist mills of early times, a few of which are still in existence, as noticed further on. The old Smith mills have already been described. What has been known as the Cummings mill (Dart- mouth P. O.) was built in the early history of the town, and a saw mill was located there. The so-called Allen Howland mill is also an old one. Saw mills were built in early years at Hixville and at other points. Ship-building was formerly carried on to a considerable extent at South Dartmouth, Matthias Thatcher and John Mashon having been identified with it.

In Dighton two additional churches were organized during the period under consideration in this chapter. In the year 1771 during a revival in the Rehoboth Baptist Church a number of converts were made who belonged in Dighton. To accommodate these another church was organized in the west part of the town in 1772, under the labors of Elder Enoch Goff. A meeting-house was built in 1780, which had been commenced sometime before. In 1796 a larger and better house was erected about a mile north of the first one, and which has always been known as Elder Goff's meeting-house, although the owners subsequently were of a different denomination. The old society prospered and included members from Freetown, Berkley, Somerset and Taunton. Elder Ephraim Sawyer was the next pastor in 1806, and in 1807 there were one hundred and ninety-one members. Other early ministers were Bartlett Pease, a Mr. Lovejoy (1821), who preached Uuitarian doctrines and created a division in the church, this faction finally obtaining possession and took the name of the Christian Baptist Society. Other early pastors were Revs. Otis W. Bates, John Reed, J. L. Whittemore, and many other supplies for short periods. In 1842 a meeting-house was begun at the Four Corners which was com- pleted in 1845.

Methodist meetings were held in this town in 1814, through the influ- ence of Israel Anthony, who had moved in from Somerset. The next

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

year Rev. Orlando Hinds was on the circuit and a revival began, A society was soon afterward formed, but the date is not known. The meetings were held in different places until 1830, when a house of wor- ship was begun and finished in the next year; this was superseded by a new building in 1865, and was completed at a cost of $20,000, and is still in use.

After the close of the Revolutionary war ship-building was actively carried on in Dighton and prospered until the Embargo act put a stop to that and kindred interests. In 1789 the commercial and shipping interests of the town had become so important that Dighton was made a port of entry, and Maj. Hodijah Baylies was appointed collector of customs, holding the office until 1809; the office continued in existence until 1834. Ship-building was begun in this town as early as 1693, when Thomas Coram came over from England to Boston to build ships for several merchants. In 1699 he purchased land on Taunton River in the South Purchase and established a ship-yard at what has been known as Zebulon's Landing. He was an energetic man and did a large business; but subsequently he became involved in law suits and in 1700 his lands and house, with two new ships, were attached by Stephen Burt, of Berkley. Coram remained in this country about ten years.

About the middle of the last century John Reed was ship-building at what has been called Muddy Cove; that was before the bridge was built over the mouth of the cove. This bridge was built in 1772 by Capt. Elkanah Andrews, under whom John Reed was the contractor, and lost his property in the job; the road was laid out at the same time. Before the beginning of the war of 1812, several other firms carried on ship-building here. Among them were Smith & Wardwell (Josiah Wardwell, and his father-in-law, James Smith), whose yard was on the north side of what became known as Whitmarsh's wharf, and Bowen & Hathaway's on the south side (David Bowen, a native of Dighton, and John Hathaway, an influential citizen. )

Dighton boasts of some of the earliest cotton mills in the county. A small factory was built on the Three-Mile River at North Dighton in 1809, of which Nathaniel Wheeler was agent; it was known as Wheeler's factory. Mr. Wheeler was subsequently interested in the first mills in Fall River, whither he removed in 1813. The building in which this early industry was conducted was burned in 1881. In 1810 another and larger mill was built on the same stream a little above the Wheeler

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FROM 1776 TO 1815.

mill. Thomas Baylies, one of the owners, sold the site for the mill and the power privilege, which had descended to him from his father, Nich- olas Baylies. This property became known as the Mount Hope Mill. The business was conducted by several different proprietors, until finally it passed to Chadwick & Co .; it is still in operation. On the Segregan- set River were a number of very early industries, among them what was known as the White-Birch cotton factory, which was probably built a little earlier than the Wheeler mill; there is only a saw mill now on that site. A little above was the old saw mill of Simeon Will- iams, and near by the lap·mill of Joshua Williams, in a building which had previously been occupied by Isaac Babbitt for making plugs for ship-carpenters. About the beginning of the last century Matthew Briggs came from England, bringing machinery for a grist mill, and a forge, which were set up on the pond west of the brick meeting-house. The property remained in that family many years, but the site is now occupied by only a saw mill. Other industries of Dighton are noticed farther on.

The formation of the first Baptist Church in Massachusetts in Swan- sea, in 1663, by Rev. John Myles (Miles) has already been noticed. Mr. Myles, although a Baptist, was a broad-minded man and admitted to communion all persons who "by a judgment of charity, we conceive to be fellow-members with us in our head, Christ Jesus, although dif- fering from us in such controversial points as are not absolutely and essentially necessary to salvation;" so the covenant read. The suc- cessors of Mr. Myles were Calvinistic Baptists and the church covenant was changed to harmonize therewith.

The organization of this society-called forth opposition from the or- thodox churches of the colony, who solicited the court to proceed against it. Later on each of the members of this church was fined five pounds for "setting up a public meeting without the knowledge and approbation of the court; " they were at the same time advised to re- move their meeting to some other place where they might not preju- dice any other church. Under this order Mr. Myles removed from Rehoboth (Swansea territory), to New Meadow Neck (now Barrington, R. I.). A meeting-house was built there soon after. The subsequent history of this first church is given in preceding pages.

It is referred to here again as a probable indication that the building of the meeting-house on the lower end of New Meadow Neck was a reason why the inhabitants of the "easternmost part of the town up- 16

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Our country and its people; a descriptive and biographical record of Bristol County, Massachusetts, Part 13

Author: Borden, Alanson, 1823-1900; Boston History Company, Boston, pub Publication date: 1899 Publisher: [Boston] Boston History Company Number of Pages: 1399

Author: Borden, Alanson, 1823-1900; Boston History Company, Boston, pub
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: [Boston] Boston History Company
Number of Pages: 1399