USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > West Bridgewater > Proceedings of the 250th anniversary of Old Bridgewater, Mass. at West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, June 13, 1906 > Part 8
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Every person is not only an individual, but a fractional part of that larger being which we call society. He is a part of the family, the community, the State, the nation, and the race, and his education is a matter of both individual and public interest. The life of today involves the life of the past. The individual man is the product of the lives that have flowed together into his being from the generations of his ancestors. The education of our fathers has given us our family homes, our schools, our churches, our institutions, our Bridgewaters, our State, with our Governor "who knows how to get onto his job," our nation with our Washington, our Lincoln, our Grant, our Roosevelt, and our place as a world power in the human race. Let it be our constant endeavor to cherish and perpet- uate all the blessings of this rich inheritance.
Albert G . Boyden
A.C. Boyden
B.B. Russell
Rev. C. E.Stowe
OLD BRIDGEWATER
Responded to by Barrett B. Russell, Superintendent of Schools of Brockton.
It is good for us to be here. It is well to note the recur- rence of these anniversaries, for each celebration becomes a milestone in history. And it is well on these occasions to note something of the privations, of the earnestness, of the goodness, and of the farsightedness of the early settlers.
When we reflect upon it, what an undertaking it was to subdue the forest and plant the village; to accept the varied material that has come to this shore and this town of Bridge- water and carve out of it three towns and a city. What a task has been accomplished since the first primitive school was started to develop from it the school system of today !
One of the earliest efforts of the settlers of the common- wealth was to make such provision that "learning may not be buried in ye grave of ye fathers," and as early as 1642, only twenty-two years after the landing at Plymouth and fourteen years after the settlement at Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony passed it first law in regard to public education, which required that every person should give to his children and apprentices, "so much learning as would enable them to read perfectly the English tongue ;" and in 1647 a law was passed requiring town. ships of fifty householders "to appoint one within their town to teach all children as shall resort to him to write and read." The wages were paid either by the parents or master, or by the inhabitants in general.
These laws were the foundation of the public school system of today and were a great step in advance of the rest of the world, and two hundred years later, in 1847, Lord McCaulay, then in the height of his fame, said in a speech in parliament, "Illustrious forever in the history were the founders of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. * They could see noth- ing servile or degrading in the principle that the state should take upon itself the charge of the education of the people."
Dedham was the first town, so far as known, to establish and maintain a school by general tax. This it did in 1644. The Old Colony was not far behind, for Mansfield, a town
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organized in 1642, took measures August 19, 1645, to employ a teacher, and although not made a free school by taxation, as was the case in Dedham, it was nevertheless a free school by contribution.
This spirit probably pervaded the other towns in the vicinity, and when Bridgewater was set off from Duxbury in 1656 it undoubtedly brought that spirit with it. It will be interesting to go somewhat into detail about the history of education-the first school-the first teacher-and I will trust that before the next celebration the history of education of Old Bridgewater may be written.
There was another clause in that ancient law of 1647 and that was, that when a town had increased to one hundred fami- lies, they should "set up a grammar schoole, the master thereof being able to instruct youth as farr as they may be fitted for the university," which was no less than Harvard College, which was established in 1636. The object of this law was not prim- arily to benefit the individual child, but for the benefit of the commonwealth ; and the claim that every child has a natural right to an education at the hands of the commonwealth, or the town, is erroneous. On the contrary, every person who receives an education is under obligation to the town-an obligation which can be dissolved only by being a good and useful citizen.
This law of 1647 became inoperative on account of the sparsely settled condition of the towns. Just think of a High School being established for the benefit of the inhabitants of the ancient town of Bridgewater, with no steam cars, no street cars, no streets, no roads-not even cart paths in many sections and think of the miles of travel from the north limit of Brockton to the south limit of Bridgewater. So this law became inoperative and later came the era of the academy, the first of which was the Dummer Academy at Newbury in 1761. The old town of Bridgewater was not without its efforts in this direction, and the Bridgewater Academy was established in 1799 and received from the commonwealth a grant of a half a township of land in the Province of Maine which was sold for $5,000. East Bridgewater opened its academy in 1819. The Adelphian of North Bridgewater was established in 1844 and the North
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Bridgewater Academy in 1855.
These academies throughout the commonwealth did a great work, but with the increase of population and the division of the towns, and the growth of the sentiment that education was for the benefit of the community, and that the individual should not be at the expense of it, but that the town should support the schools, a new idea came up. This was the idea of a High School-the revival of the sentiment of 1647 when towns were required to fit children for the university.
But before this the idea of Normal Schools had arisen and Bridgewater, offering greater inducements than other parts of the county secured, by the aid of its citizens, a school in 1840. This shows that this old town took great interest, not alone in education, but in the public schools. Later Howard Seminary of this immediate town came into existence and is doing most excellent work.
It is very evident that the native born residents, both men and women, of this ancient town, are and always have been well educated. I can say this without hesitation because I was not born here, but because of a long residence in this town of more than thirty years and an extensive acquaintance with its citizens and its institutions of learning. And I think I may say that the great mass of its citizens are more highly educated than they are in any foreign country, and in most parts of this com- monwealth similarly situated, because of its schools and the interest the citizens take in education. On the city seal of the North Precinct are three well chosen words, "education, indus- try, progess." They have a significance.
Medicine.
Our surgeons and physicians have proved an honor to their profession, and a blessing to the afflicted.
Responded to by Dr. Ebenezer Alden Dyer, of Whitman.
Last week Boston was gay with bunting in honor of medicine, and badges of Hygeia were conspicuous throughout
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the city. Thousands of physicians had gathered from all parts of our country to attend the 57th annual session of the American Medical Association. Among the decorations was this sentiment : "The physician of today is the unordained minister of the gospel. It is his mission to uplift humanity and restore the crippled hands to the sanctity of usefulness."
On this commemorative occasion time will not permit to pay due tribute to those members of the medical profession whose lives were spent in ministrations of helpfulness to this community, the State and the nation. In the history of Old Bridgewater Dr. Samuel Alden was the first physician given biographical mention, and for fifty years his life and services were devoted to the people of this vicinity.
In the celebration of 1856 Dr. Ebenezer Alden, whose name I bear, was one of the speakers ; fifty years later by some strange coincidence I am asked today to respond to the same sentiment that ennobled their lives. How true those immortal lines so dear to the heart of Abraham Lincoln :
"For we are the same our fathers have been.
We see the same sights our fathers have seen. We drink the same stream and view the same sun, And run the same course our fathers have run."
Would that their mantles might fall on worthier shoulders ! We know not what hardships those early pioneers experienced on their missions of cheer and healing in a new and scattered community.
Today there is hardly a hamlet in Massachusetts so small but that a physician is there willing and anxious to relive suffer- ing humanity of its ills and bills. Today so numerous and common have doctors become that oftentimes it is thought unnecessary to pay them.
It was in the Old World that a tourist in a remote place asked a native if there was a doctor anywhere about, and when told there was not, in amazement he asked "and what do you do when taken suddenly sick ?" "Oh," he replied, "we just die a natural death."
The advances that have been made in medicine in two hundred and fifty years seem almost incredible, and so skillful have surgeons become in certain operation that you almost
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wonder whether certain organs and parts of the body are really superfluous or to test the skill of the operator. The following epitaph is a testimonial to surgical thoroughness: "To our beloved father, who has gone to join his appendix, his tonsils, his kidney, an arm, a leg and such other parts of his anatomy as his devoted surgeon found he must dispense with. He is at rest with the majority."
It is with great pride that we linger long over the names of that little handful of men that bought their rights on Sachem Rock and gave us brithright in an honored ancestry on historic ground. Little thought that struggling band of Pilgrims that they had found in Plymouth Rock the corner stone of a mighty nation ; that such feeble beginnings, nurtured in weakness by abiding faith, should bear the glorious fruition of our civil and religious freedom. Our heritage today oceans cannot bound, and far isles of the sea float the flag of our freedom.
AMERICA.
I love the land that gave me birth, Where Pilgrim faith a refuge found, Where Puritan of sterling worth A nation built on Freedom's ground. Where'er I be, be thou my star !
My home, thy name, America. I love the flag of Freedom's home Flung over land from sea to sea, Where exiles from all nations come To reap the fruits of liberty.
Your portals flung wide open are A home for all, America.
I love the names that made thee great, Vast nation of the western world ; Whom millions learn to venerate Where'er thy flag shall be unfurl'd.
Time cannot dim, no stain shall mar Thy heroes' fame, America.
The God of nations loves our land Where Justice rules in equity ; America will always stand For Union, Peace and Liberty Till lands and seas and islands far Shall be like thee, America.
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The Law.
Bridgewater Men-by birth and adoption-have from an early period in its history adorned the profession of law and graced some of the highest judicial offices under the government of Massachusetts.
Responded to by Hon. Warren A. Reed of Brockton.
The compact made in the cabin of the Mayflower, in the harbor of Provincetown, in 1620, was prophetic of the declara- tion of independence in 1776-one hundred and fifty years later. The declaration of independence was latent and involved in the compact, but one hundred and fifty years of development in such New England commonwealths as the ancient town of Bridgewater were necessary before the full fruition of the hope for civil and religious liberty.
The compact began : "We, loyal subjects of our dread sovereign lord, King James, by the grace of God, king of Eng- land." In one hundred and fifty years these old New England towns had substituted one word therefor-"The People." They had learned to stand alone. They had solved the problem of human freedom, and of the ability of the people to govern themselves.
The world had dreamed of freedom before, but it had been only a dream. In that short period of one hundred and fifty years our forefathers reached out and caught the spirit of liberty, and made it dwell among men.
Even today, we, their sons, are only beginning to perceive, and but dimly, the stupendous fact. Now and again we catch a glimpse of what liberty is to mean to the world. We are beginning to see that this mighty nation is already shaping the destiny of other peoples ; but it will not be for our eyes to see the real meaning of the fact that freedom was born in these New England towns.
Civil and religious liberty-the moment it was true for this ancient town in 1776, it was potentially true for all nations and all times.
The declaration of independence was a prime cause of the French Revolution and finally, after one hundred years, the
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French Republic. If the ancient town of Bridgewater and her sisters had not solved the problem, you would not hear now the demand for freedom of the 140,000,000 of the Russian people. That period of one hundred and fifty, years in the experience of these old New England towns, in my opinion, is the most important in the political history of the world. That is the real reason why we meet today. As we return to our daily tasks, let us ponder upon this mighty truths-that this ground is sacred to the liberty of man.
In that formative and preparatory period between 1620 and J776, we scrutinize with greatest interest even the common history of the people. Everything which contributed, even in a small degree, becomes valuable, because it bore a part in that most important era.
Undoubtedly the deep religious sentiment of the people was the controlling factor in enabling them to work out the problem, but next to that, the wise judges and upright lawyers must have had a great influence in moulding the temper of the people.
During all her history, ancient Bridgewater has been fortu- nate in numbering among her sons and her sons' sons, children by birth, adoption, or descendants from them, a very large number of men bred to the law, many of them college graduates, who have exerted great influence upon her life.
Among those who were descendants of ancient Bridge- water, but who have been gathered to their fathers, is a considerable list of judges.
Nahum Willis and Howard Cary, both born in Bridgewater, Judges of the Court of Sessions in 1807.
Gov. Marcus Morton, Judge of the Supreme Judicial Court. Gov. Emery Washburn.
Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw, Massachusetts' great Chief Justice.
Ezekiel Whitman, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Maine.
Charles E. Forbes, Judge of the Supreme Judicial Court.
George P. Sanger, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas.
From the list of those who spent their lives among the
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people of the ancient town, and did their share in forming the sentiment which made Bridgewater what it was, I can refer specifically to but few, as their lives are portrayed in the history of our county.
Kilborn Whitman-Born at Bridgewater 1765. Graduated at Harvard in 1785. Died in 1835. Was County Prosecuting Attorney for a period of twenty-one years, from 1811 to 1832. To his ample knowledge of the law he added a keen insight of the characters of men, their tangles, their tastes, their sympa- thies, their temperament and prejudices.
Nahum Mitchell-Born at Bridgewater in 1769. Graduated at Harvard College 1789. Representative to the General Court for nine years. Member of the eighth Congress of the United States. Senator from Plymouth County in 1813, and member of the Executive Council from 1814 to 1820. Chief Justice of the Circuit Court of Common Pleas of this State. State treas- surer for five years. He was a man of great industry, quick- ness of perception, and caution, and united to a discriminating judgment and attentiveness and precision of the mathemati- cian. He did well whatever he undertook and was distinguished at the bar for his sound learning and fair and honorable practice. To his position as leader of the bar, he added that of a patient antiquarian and thoughtful historian.
We remember him as the historian of Bridgewater as well. as Chief Justice. His "History of Bridgewater" will always endure as a monument to his memory. It was a work of vast labor, and was accomplished with great care, judgment and accuracy.
He filled a large place in the life of the people. He was easily the leader in the public affairs of his time, and helped to mould the spirit of indepence and upright living for which his fellow-townsmen were noted.
William Baylies-Born in 1776. Graduated at Brown University in 1795 with highest honors. Settled in West Bridgewater in 1799. Represented West Bridgewater in the House of Representatives in 1808 to 1820 and 1831, and in the Senate in 1825 ; member of Congress in 1813 and 1831. For fifty years a leader of the bar in eastern Massachusetts. A
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consummate and forensic lawyer, who is said to have had greater influence with juries than any other man of his time in Massachusetts. He was well balanced and combined to a remarkable degree the ability to handle facts with clearness of thought, power of analysis, and that perfection of judgment which we are accustomed to call common sense. He had a sound mind in a sound body, and was able by the happy union to accomplish an immense amount of work in a long life at the bar. He possessed to a remarkable degree the confidence of the community and was a natural leader among his fellows.
Hon. Aaron Hobart-Born in 1787. Graduated at Brown University in 1805. Died 1858 in East Bridgewater, where he lived most of his life. He was a man of fine legal training, great force of character and sound judgment. He early took a leading position at the Plymouth bar and very soon became prominently identified with the political interests of Plymouth County. He was Judge of Probate for Plymouth County and held the office for a long period.
Eliab Whitman-Born in East Bridgewater in 1788. Graduated from Brown University in 1817. Died 1861. Representative to the General Court in 1840 and 1841. He was a man of severe integrity. He was not an advocate, rarely engaged in trials, but his integrity, punctuality, diligence and carefulness brought him a considerable office practice. For many years he was the only lawyer in North Bridgewater.
Williams Latham-Born in East Bridgewater in 1803. Graduated at Brown University in 1827. Died 1883. In equity and real estate cases he had a large practice, and his professional life was one of untiring industry and faithfulness to his clients, among whom he was noted for his fairness and integrity. He was for many years active as a trustee and in the settlement of estates. He never aspired to be an orator or to argue cases at the bar, yet few lawyers more fully informed themselves so much in detail concerning all possible ramifica- tions of the law and the facts. He was a peacemaker, not a stirrer of strife. He abhorred shams and appeared wholly without guile. Of the strictest integrity, he had those qualities which attract men and always win appreciation and confidence.
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He was much interested in antiquarian research, genealogical and Indian history.
Ellis Ames-Born in 1809. Was a student in the office of William Baylies. Practiced law in West Bridgewater for a number of years, and represented that town in the Legislature from 1833 to 1836.
Some of us remember his tall, gaunt figure-his massive head covered with a profusion of long, curly hair, his piercing eye and rugged and honest demeanor.
His life seemed to be a protest against shams and hypo- crisy. He was an equity lawyer of the first class, while he took highest rank as a historian, a genealogist and antiquarian. He died in 1884.
William Cullen Bryant-Another of the students of William Baylies and his life-long friend was William Cullen Bryant.
Bryant was a descendant of North Bridgewater, where his father and grandfather were born. He lived in North Bridge- water while he studied law at Bridgewater with William Baylies, and was admitted to the bar of Plymouth County in 1815.
In the following lines he gives us a glimpse of his life in the office of William Baylies, where he scrawled strange words with a barbarous pen :
"O'er Coke's black letter page,
Trimming the lamp at eve, 'tis mine to pore, Well pleased to see the venerable sage Unlock his treasured wealth of legal lore ; And I that loved to trace the woods before, And climb the hills a playmate of the breeze, Have vowed to tune the rural lay no more, Have bid my useless classics sleep at ease, And left the race of bards to scribble, starve and freeze."
Responded to by James S. Allen, Jr., of Brockton.
Mr. President, Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen :- After you have listened to the eloquent words of the three honored Judges of Courts of this Commonwealth, all residents of Old Bridgewater, who have already addressed you, it seems
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presumptuous in me, a mere three-year-old on the legal track, to make any further response to this toast.
Yet, though a novice in this capacity of a representative of the bar, I do not feel a stranger here. Both my paternal and maternal ancestors settled in Bridgewater before 1700 and we have been here ever since. So may I venture to speak today as a representative of the young blood of the old stock, of the youth of this old town, who are today taking the first steps along the path so nobly blazed by those who have gone before.
With what veneration do we recall the names of those who in this town have honored the noble calling of the law. Fore- most, perhaps, should be named Nahum Mitchell of East Bridgewater. Born in 1769. Graduated from Harvard in 1789, for more than a decade a Representative and a Senator in the General Court, a member of the Governor's Council, State Treasurer, member of Congress, Justice and Chief Justice of the Circuit Court of Common Pleas. Scholar, musician, historian, lawyer, judge and statesman; for more than fifty years he was the most prominent man in Plymouth County.
Bartholomew Brown succeeded to his practice. A graduate of Harvard, he, too, was not only a successful lawyer, but a man of wide interests and broad culture as well. He was one of the first members of the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, and was for a time its president.
He was succeeded in 1826 by Welcome Young, who was born in 1792 and graduated from Brown in 1814. For a genera- tion he had a large practice, though not fond of litigation, and it was in partnership with him that our beloved nestor, Judge Benjamin W. Harris, began his legal career in this town.
Aaron Hobart was another of the most eminent lawyers of East Bridgewater. Born in 1787, graduating from Brown in 1805, he was elected to Congress at the age of thirty-three. He was a member of that body during the fiery debates leading up to the Missouri Compromise. Later in life he was Judge of Probate for this County.
In West Bridgewater the most famous name is that of William Baylies. Born in 1776, graduated from Brown in 1795, a member of Congress in 1813 to 1817; and 1831-1835
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he was for fifty years the leader of the Plymouth County bar.
Other prominent West Bridgewater lawyers were Oakes Angier, John Reed, son of the minister of the same name, who moved to the Cape, and from there was elected Lieutenant- Governor, and member of Congress ; William Cullen Bryant, who studied law with William Baylies and was admitted to the Plymouth County bar, but who soon followed the call of the muse to more congenial tasks.
In Bridgewater there was Williams Latham, whom many here remember. Born in East Bridgewater but practicing in Bridgewater, he was for over half a century eminent as a lawyer, historian, lover of nature, and public-spirited citizen. He too was college bred.
There was Eliah Whitman of North Bridgewater and Jonas R. Perkins, whom so many of you knew. There was Kilborn Whitman, born in Bridgewater, educated for the ministry, later admitted to the bar ; for twenty-one years Prosecuting Attorney for this County ; and Ezekiel Whitman, who moved to Maine aud became Chief Justice of its Supreme Court ; Hosea King- man, so recently deceased, we must also mention, though he belongs to our own day. Surely the traditions established by these men can never fail to inspire the lawers of these towns.
But what can I say of the lawyer of today ? The day of the country lawyer has passed. More and more is law business centering in the large cities ; thither the lawyers are drawn by its larger opportunities ; and they, in turn, draw even the country practice after them.
Prior to 1855, when the population of the three towns now bearing the name of Bridgewater was 8,000, about 2,500 less than today, each of these three towns had, at least most of the time, one or more lawyers of first class ability and usually with college training. Today I know of but one lawyer whose principal office is in any of these towns Brockton, on the other hand, with its population of about 48,000, has forty-three lawyers. Of these, however, only eight are college graduates. And I am not now reckoning the increasing number of lawyers who reside in these towns but practice in Boston.
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