USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Dedham > Proceedings at the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Dedham, Massachusetts, September 21, 1886 > Part 8
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
127
250TH ANNIVERSARY.
of foreign peoples so unlike our own. On which side the balance of the difference, for loss or gain, for good or evil, as the alternative may be, it is enough to know that those who come from our old stock have been moved to make a stand for their own institutions and their own way of man- aging them, against alien methods and influences.
This, however, cannot be done by party or race strifes or animosities, but by calm demonstration of the better way. "On at least four occasions citizens of Boston have successfully engaged the restraining power of the legisla- ture to interpose in keeping their municipal administration in its old paths of economy and responsibility; for pro- tecting ancient burial-grounds and commons; for limiting taxation and indebtedness, and for providing a police not appointed by those of whom they are to keep a sharp oversight. There need be no variance or conflict between those who have succeeded native-born, through their gen- erations, to this fair heritage of the Puritans and those who find it so attractive, so free, so prosperous as to seek here for what they could not have or enjoy on the other side of the ocean.
The PRESIDENT: The next toast which I have to present is as follows : -
" The Sons and Daughters of Dedham, and their Descendants wherever dispersed ! God bless them ! We welcome them with open arms to the hospitalities of this occasion."
It has always been a pleasant and attractive recol- lection of the celebration of 1836, the one more frequently mentioned than any other, that the town was then honored with the presence of the Hon. EDWARD EVERETT. It will be to us one of the most pleasing recollections of this occasion that his son
I2S
THE TOWN OF DEDHAM.
is to reply to the toast which I have just read; and I have the very great pleasure and honor of intro- ducing to you Dr. WILLIAM EVERETT, of Quincy.
ADDRESS OF DR. WILLIAM EVERETT.
Mr. PRESIDENT, FELLOW-CITIZENS, - I think I have a right to call you by that name, because one of my ancestors was one of the nineteen men that helped draw up the town covenant to which Mr. WORTHINGTON re- ferred in his address this morning. In the true Puritan fashion, he and his associates settled what a town ought to be in advance, and then admitted every one who would agree to do exactly as they said; much as I once heard a Californian describe the process of getting up a new mining company: "Three fellows get up a con- stitution, and then assess the rest." In the next genera- tion my ancestor attained the modest town honors of which we were told to-day. He was Captain John Everett, - of course a distinguished man; and he was one of five who got the right to the town lands confirmed by Jo- sias, the grandson of Chickatabut. You see the honest men of Dedham had shrunk from nineteen to five, yet there was an Everett among them; and I suppose that entitles me to claim one fifth of the territory of Old Ded- ham whenever I ask for it. Then, in the next generation, we rose a step further; we had had a founder, we had had a captain, - now we were real good boys, and they made one of us Deacon John Everett, and beyond that town honors do not go.
The last of my own race born in this town was my grand- father Oliver; and as this is a family matter, I should like to take up a little time with his life. His father was a poor farmer with nine sons, and only one of them could receive
129
250TH ANNIVERSARY.
a college education. Oliver, though by no means strong, was apprenticed to his brother as a carpenter, and forced to renounce all thought of a professional life. One con- solation only he had, - a taste for music; and had by some means scraped together money enough to buy a violin. But my great-grandfather's rigid Puritanism thought all music a waste of time, and that instrument in particular an abomination; so the violin was confis- cated and burned. The discipline had its effect; music died out in the blood for three generations. He worked on in his drudgery till twenty-one; and the moment he became his own master resolved in spite of his poverty to force his way to college, which he did at the age of twenty-three. When I think of the sacrifice such a process demanded, I am ashamed to think of our boys, brought up in every luxury, whose parents cannot per- suade them to stay at school after fifteen or sixteen years of age, because they must be in a store making money, which they will not know how to spend when made. The labor bore its fruit. My grandfather, after graduating in 1779, became the honored pastor of the New South Church in 1781. He there carried out a character which has belonged to the whole race of Ever- etts in history or in fiction so far as I know, -a some- what rebellious nature. Sir Walter Scott has an Everett in one of his novels, and a very unmanageable person he is. We have all a streak of revolt. When my grandfather was a candidate, there was a knot of old ladies, mothers in Israel, who used to meet with their knitting in the tower of the Old South and catechise all the young min- isters. Oliver Everett was the first to raise the standard of revolt; he would not be catechised by the old ladies, and his rebellion stopped the practice. He was pastor ten years; his health broke down; he retired to his native county (we all have to get back to Norfolk), though to
130
THE TOWN OF DEDHAM.
another town; he lived an honored life, was one of the first eulogists of Washington in February, 1800, and was voted for for Congress in November, 1802. But it killed him, and he died in December at fifty, having made the name of an old Dedham race loved and honored by dis- tinguished men all over the country. His son's manu- script, which I have in my pocket, says he was the kindest of parents, revered and honored by his children as a sec- ond Providence, to whom they looked for every impulse in the home circle.
Now, I have told this audience details, because I believe it is the story of every Dedham man who has gone out to do honor to the town. It illustrates the necessity of " contentment," as Mr. Worthington so well gave it to us. It does not mean repose or inaction. It means making the very best and utmost of home; never leaving home till you are sure it has no more for you, and then leav- ing it only to carry its principles abroad, and make new Dedhams and Concords, new Plymouths and Bostons, everywhere. I suppose the Dedham settlers were think- ing of the discontented people at Cambridge and Dor- chester, who hurried to Connecticut before they knew the value of Massachusetts. They and the others who stayed, determined to make the most of her. In this our birth-year they founded the College, the original New Towne college, before Harvard came.
The principle of contentment was to stay at home as long as home had anything to give, - as long as parents and kindred, the house walls, the home fields, the home school, the home college, could give anything, and then go out to spread home wider wherever they went. Ded- ham men and their children will always keep the thought of her. I am glad that is her name; it shows whence we came and what we have to give. I have no sym- pathy with those who are trying to revive what they
I3I
250TH ANNIVERSARY.
1
call the beautiful Indian names, which are mostly un- couth and to us unpronounceable and meaningless. I am glad we are Dedham and not Chickatabut or Quino- bequin; it shows that we belong to the great imperial race which subdued the wilderness here to itself, and having raised Massachusetts to her present perfection is leaving her, not yet exhausted, to spread her freedom and her principles over yet undeveloped lands. I hail it as the race of my ancestor, who tradition says was a soldier in the Low Countries before he came here,- a fighter in the old battleground of freedom and culture in Europe, a pioneer in the battle of freedom and culture here.
The PRESIDENT : The next regular toast is two- fold in its nature : -
" The Common School, the best birthright of every child in Puri- tan New England ! Collegiate education, the noblest gift that the parent can bestow on her children ! In the two, fostered and en- couraged by the law from the beginning, 'lies the secret of the success and character of New England.' "
I have the honor of introducing to you to re- ply, Rev. Dr. TIMOTHY DWIGHT, President of Yale College.
ADDRESS OF DR. DWIGHT.
Mr. PRESIDENT, - I shall be unable to reply to the toast you have given, because I have to take the train leaving Dedham at twenty minutes after five. I will only say, sir, that I came here to worship my ancestors; and I find that in the rejoicing in his ancestry which Mr. EVERETT has exhibited so strikingly in the remarks which he has made, he has forgotten one point of history here
I32
THE TOWN OF DEDHAM.
recorded in the annals of Dedham; namely, that the inhabitants felt a disposition to move to the southward. That disposition, sir, followed in the Dwight family, and they moved southward into Connecticut, and there they found the place which you seem to have failed to find here, although you tried for it; namely, the town where " contentment " dwells. That is the town of New Haven, Connecticut. And, as I am obliged to follow my ances- try this afternoon in their migration southward, and am sure of finding contentment when I arrive there, with thanks to you, sir, for your kindness in asking me to say a word, I bid you farewell.
The PRESIDENT: - The next toast which I have to propose is, The Orator of the Day ! to which Mr. WORTHINGTON will respond.
ADDRESS OF ERASTUS WORTHINGTON, ESQ.
Mr. PRESIDENT, - There used to be a very salutary rule which it was found necessary to adopt in the old vil- lage debating-societies, - that no man should speak twice on the same subject. Perhaps at this late hour it would be a good time to enforce such a rule. I recognize the fact that I have had my hour to-day, and I have no heart longer to detain this company. But I suppose that con- ventional usage prescribes that the orator of the day shall be tendered the compliment of a post-prandial opportunity to speak, with the implication that his speech must be a short onc.
I was reminded by the speech of Mr. Everett of a little story which I recently found in one of those bright news- paper paragraphs that appear in the columns of a good newspaper, and which ran somewhat in this manner : " An
I33
250TH ANNIVERSARY.
eminent master of the violin was performing on his won- derful instrument at a private musical party. In the com- pany were two ladies, one presumably older than the other, who behind her fan quietly imparted to her younger neigh- bor the important fact that the violin of the master was two hundred and fifty years old. 'Ah,' responded the younger lady, 'if I could make such music as that upon an instrument two hundred and fifty years old, I would try to raise money enough to buy a new one." This story, among other things, well illustrates the difference between the two kinds of people we meet in the world,-those who 'think anything is valuable because it is old, and those who value anything because it is new.
There are some of us in Dedham who realize that there is much in the history of the old town which is worthy of being preserved and perpetuated. We agree with the elder lady in the story, that an instrument two hundred and fifty years old has a peculiar capacity for music in it. In 1862 the Dedham Historical Society was incorporated. Quietly and unobtrusively during all these years it has been making a collection which while not extensive is nevertheless unique and valuable. It has never had any proper place where this collection could be arranged, clas- sified, and made accessible; it has been obliged to depend upon the permission of the County Commissioners for a place in the Court House, where it might store that collection. But notwithstanding these disadvantages the Society has kept up its organization and meetings, until now it has the opportunity of taking the position of influ- ence to which it is justly entitled.
In February last, by the will of the late Miss Hannah Shuttleworth, the Society came into the possession of an eligible lot of land in a central location, with the munifi- cent bequest of ten thousand dollars, expressly designated by the testator for the purpose of erecting a suitable build-
I 34
THE TOWN OF DEDHAM.
ing for the Society. Our plans are matured and the con- tracts made, and to-morrow morning we propose to begin the new half-century by breaking ground for the new building.
What is quite significant of the deep and genuine in- terest taken by many of the people of Dedham in the work of this Society is their readiness to respond to our recent request for an additional sum of money. It was found necessary to supplement the amount of the legacy by a considerable sum in order to complete the building ac- cording to the plans and specifications. Three weeks ago yesterday we opened a subscription paper for this purpose. Without any extraordinary effort, and asking, besides the members of the Society, those only whom we supposed to be specially interested in Dedham history, we have now ob- tained pledges amounting to nearly fifteen hundred dollars ; and, what gives us a peculiar satisfaction, these pledges have been given heartily and generously, and with many words of encouragement.
In this way those of us who realize that not only what remains of our local history of two hundred and fifty years should be gathered up, treasured, and perpetuated, but also those things which must form a part of present and future history, rejoice in beginning a new half-century with an appropriate building to be devoted to those purposes.
The PRESIDENT: I have now the pleasant duty to propose a toast which must elicit a warm response from every heart : -
The Patriot Soldiers of Dedham ! Brave and true men, they fought not for ambition or titles or fame, but for their country, for freedom, for humanity.
I35
250TH ANNIVERSARY.
I have the honor of introducing to you to re- spond to this toast Colonel JAMES M. ELLIS, of West Dedham : -
ADDRESS OF COLONEL ELLIS.
Mr. CHAIRMAN, - I thank you, sir, for calling upon me to respond to this toast, because as an humble agri- culturist I did not expect so much honor, and chiefly because I wish our honored guests from different parts of the State and country to know that this town here by the banks of the Charles, with its many spots of historic interest, its beautiful streets, its Court House and con- venient jail, is but a small part of the town of Dedham; that the æsthetic and agricultural part lies to the west among the hills, from whose summits one may look on a panorama of exquisite beauty, with Wachusett and Mo- nadnock on the one side, and Blue Hill and the waters of Boston Harbor on the other. On these health-giving hills we raise a sturdy stock, a fair specimen of which sits by your side, Mr. Chairman, - our youthful Joseph Colburn, who at eighty-one has to-day been one of General Weld's chief aids, riding at the head of the column, and I doubt not expects to do like service fifty years hence. At one time we thought of establishing a town of our own, to be called " Contentment; " but the doctrine of secession hav- ing been settled by the war, we have decided to stay with our old mother, who has stood by us so well.
Responding more especially to the sentiment proposed, it seems to me, sir, eminently fitting that you should honor the patriot soldiers of Dedham by giving them a place in the records of this day; for I believe that the citizens of Dedham have ever been prompt to respond to the country's call, and to defend their hearths and homes, from the days
1 36
THE TOWN OF DEDHAM.
when the first settlers shouldered the old "King's Arms," a specimen of which still hangs in the old Fairbanks kitchen, and the days when Captain Joseph Guild led his minute-men to Concord, down to the dark days of 1861 and the war for the Union.
The orator of the day, in his address at the dedication of Memorial Hall, has so well and fully told the story of the services of Dedham soldiers that I need only to state briefly a few facts. While there were those from Dedham serving in various commands on land and sea during the Civil War, the chief enlistments from this town were in Company F of the Eighteenth, Company I of the Thirty- fifth, and Company D of the Forty-third Regiments of Massachusetts Volunteers. The Forty-third, a nine-months regiment, served only in North Carolina, taking part in the battles of Kinston and White Hall. The Eighteenth served chiefly in the Virginia campaigns, in the Army of the Potomac, under General Fitz-John Porter, - a brave and gallant officer, whose recent restoration to the army rolls gives great satisfaction to his soldiers. In the second battle of Bull Run the Eighteenth received its first baptism of blood, and suffered severe loss, more than sixty per cent of those engaged being either killed or wounded. Here fell Captain Charles W. Carroll, in whose honor our Post is named, whose patriotic ardor, bravery in action, and sol- dier's death will ever give him a tender place in the memo- ries of his townsmen. The Thirty-fifth Regiment left in the second year of the war, and formed a part of the Ninth Corps, under General Burnside. When only a month in service it took part in the terrible battles of South Moun- tain and Antietam, and suffered heavy loss, more than two thirds of its officers and one third of its men being killed or disabled. The Dedham soldiers fought and fell at Fredericksburg and Gettysburg, in the battles of the Wil- derness, in the siege of Knoxville, in crossing the bridge
I37
250TH ANNIVERSARY.
under Burnside at Antietam, in facing the fierce fusillade of fire from the stone-wall on Marye's Heights, in charging over the ramparts and into the crater at Petersburg, and in the closing campaign of the war under Grant. Wherever placed, these Dedham men showed their bravery in action and their heroism in death.
And now, sir, this anniversary which we celebrate to- day, - this decorated town, these flying colors, this flag of our Union over all, - what would it have been had these men died in vain, and we to-day a part of a divided country? Many of you here recall the march of the first Massachusetts soldiers from the front of Boylston Hall in Boston, and through the streets of Baltimore. The flag on Sumter had been fired upon from the city of Charleston; and in bitter hatred South Carolina and Massachusetts were face to face in the beginning of a bloody war. To- day we are indeed at peace, and instead of sending thou- sands of men to destroy our Southern brethren, we are sending thousands of dollars to help and comfort them, and to build up again their shattered and fallen homes. We can well believe that we are united in brotherhood again when the editor of the leading Charleston paper can say to his readers : " What I want to bring up to you now is this glorious fact, that this city of Charleston, so symbolic of all that stood for disunion and civil strife in the days of the past, is in the poignancy of her grief furnishing to-day to the civilized world and to the Republic proof of the fact that all Americans are kin, and that this is indeed and in truth one people and one country;" and Mayor Courtenay of that city can say in his despatch, "What a great thing it is to be a part of this magnificent Union of States, surrounded by those who sympathize with us in our distress ! "
Two hundred and fifty thousand men form the Grand Army of the Republic. "Fraternity, Charity, Loyalty,"
I38
THE TOWN OF DEDHAM.
are the watchwords emblazoned on their banners. Their duty to-day is to see that the Union, preserved on the field of battle, shall be maintained for all time; and they mean to do this, not by force of arms, but by fraternity which embraces all their countrymen, by a charity which sends their commander-in-chief to Charleston to see that our old enemies shall not suffer, and by a loyalty that is unconditional.
In behalf of my comrades I desire, in closing, to thank the Committee for giving them a place of honor in the festivities of this day, and to express the hope that all the celebrations of the future which this town shall see may be like this of to-day, with its procession and pomp and parade, under a bright sun and under the flag of the united nation in a victory of peace.
The PRESIDENT : I will now read two toasts, to which I will ask my friend WINSLOW WARREN, Esq., to respond. First, -
The Committee of Arrangements ! We recognize with thanks their zeal and efficiency in the performance of their duties on this occasion.
Second, -
The Pilgrim Fathers !
" Ay, call it holy ground, The soil where first they trod ! They have left unstained what there they found, - Freedom to worship God."
139
250TH ANNIVERSARY.
ADDRESS OF WINSLOW WARREN, EsQ.
Mr. PRESIDENT, MY NEIGHBORS AND FRIENDS, - We are now coming down to the official toasts, when a man has to do double duty ; but my speech, I can assure you, will be very brief. On behalf of the Committee of Arrangements I desire to say, that if our efforts to make this day a success have been in any measure rewarded, that reward has come from your enjoyment of the occasion and from the many evidences of satisfaction throughout the town. But our speech has been made. Ours was the hand that struck the rock from which has gushed forth the wisdom, the wit, and the eloquence you have heard to- day. No, not our hand, but the hands of all those ladies and gentlemen who have labored day and night to make this celebration a worthy one; and I take the liberty now on your behalf of tendering the thanks of the people of Dedham to all the sub-committees and all those who have worked so faithfully for you.
But I cannot stand here as an adopted son of this town of Dedham without recalling that it has been my rare good fortune within the short space of sixteen years to celebrate two two hundred and fiftieth anniversaries of towns near and dear to me, - one, of my native town of Plymouth; and now again, of my adopted town of Ded- ham. And the connection between those two events is not so distant as many of you may think; for I find on reading the records of the old Pilgrim Colony that in 1627, when the first division of land was made by lot among the settlers, after providing for the metes and bounds of the various lots, the Court added as follows : " That whatsoever the surveyors judge sufficient shall stand without contradiction or opposition, and every man
140
THE TOWN OF DEDHAM.
shall rest contented with his lot." This, I believe, is the first and only Pilgrim pun on record.
Now, turning to your records, I find that after your Pilgrim Fathers made their perilous voyage up the stormy Charles from Watertown, and landed on these shores, mindful of the Pilgrim injunction of Plymouth they "rested contented with their lot;" and more than that, they named their town "Contentment," and there it remains on your town-seal to-day, -a bond of union be- tween the oldest town of Plymouth County and the oldest town (save one) of Norfolk County. And I cannot forget as I look round this hall that here are the descendants of those men. When I see a Fairbanks, a Fisher, and an Ellis, a Guild and a Baker, the old names of your settlers come up before me, and I recognize the names of honorable families honorably borne down the years since that early settlement. And so it is, my friends, with the peculiar characteristics of this town of Dedham. No town in New England has to-day the characteristics of those early times more plainly marked than yours. What else was it that carried to the front in the Revolutionary War nearly every able-bodied man in Dedham? What else that inspired the patriotic fervor and devotion of a Carroll, a Lathrop, and of many others who now remain among us? What else put that man, whose name is upon every one's lips to-day, your distinguished townsman Fisher Ames, easily at the forefront of post-Revolutionary orators, and carried his eminent son, Seth Ames, to the supreme judgeship of Massachusetts, - the most lovable of judges, whose smile was truly a benediction, and whose words of wisdom made their impress on the judicial reports of Massachusetts ? What else gave to you the learning of a Dwight, the elo- quence of an Everett, the culture and refinement of him whom we knew and never will forget, -our friend and once our neighbor, Edmund Quincy? What else gave to
141
25OTH ANNIVERSARY.
us the sturdy, incorruptible character of that foremost of our citizens,-whose place, alas ! is vacant here to-day, - Judge Waldo Colburn, whom all of us respected, and whose name will forever remain in the annals of Dedham?
I might go on, but I am reminded that the time is drawing near when these exercises should close, and I will conclude by quoting to you a reply that the Committee of Arrangements received from one of our distinguished guests, who, unable to be here, wrote us that he regretted his " inability to attend the Five Hundred and Twentieth Anniversary of the Incorporation of Dedham." We too regret his inability, and we regret the possibility that some of us also may not be able to attend; but we can all join in the hope that when the Five Hundred and Twentieth Anniversary of the Incorporation of Dedham shall arrive, it may find this town no less prosperous and contented than the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary leaves it.
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.