USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Taunton > Quarter millinnial celebration of the city of Taunton, Massachusetts, Tuesday and Wednesday, June 4 and 5, 1889 > Part 2
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 | 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 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35
CHARLES T. HUBBARD, EDWARD L. HYDE,
EDWARD N. JENNEY, ELIJAH U. JONES,
JEREMY B. DENNETT, JOHN H. ELDRIDGE, THOMAS O. FALVEY, JOHN P. FORBES, WILLIAM H. Fox, EVERETT D. GODFREY,
CHRISTOPHER A. HACK,
FREDERICK S. HALL, CHARLES F. HANSON, HENRY S. HART, JOHN T. HAWKINS, LEONARD B. HIGGINS, GEORGE F. HOWARD, FRANK A. HUBBARD,
ELISHA T. JACKSON, CHARLES F. JOHNSON,
WILLIAM F. BODFISH, GEORGE BRABROOK, JAMES BROWN, CHARLES H. BUFFINGTON,
GEORGE F. CHACE,
WILLIAM B. CHURCH,
WALTER J. CLEMSON,
22
QUARTER MILLENNIAL CELEBRATION.
Committee on Reception of Guests Continued.
HOWARD A. L. KING,
JOHN KITTREDGE,
JOSEPH MAURICE LAMOTHE,
NATHAN LAWRENCE,
HENRY B. LEACH,
CHARLES H. LEAROYD,
LORENZO LINCOLN,
THOMAS J. LOTHROP,
CHARLES L. LOVERING,
DONALD MACDOUGALL,
EDWARD B. MALTBY,
FRANCIS MANSFIELD,
JOSEPH F. MCDONOUGH.
DANIEL L. MITCHELL,
FRANCIS L. MORSE,
GEORGE O. MORSE,
HENRY W. MORSE,
EDWARD MOTT,
THOMPSON NEWBURY,
NOMUS PAIGE,
ABEL W. PARKER,
CHARLES H. PAULL,
JOHN PAULL,
DAVID D. PERKINS,
JOHN B. PERKINS,
PARLEY I. PERRIN,
JOSEPH PHILBRICK,
ALFRED C., PLACE,
FRANKLIN PRATT,
SILAS D. PRESBREY,
GEORGE H. REED,
HENRY G. REED,
WILLIAM REED, JR.,
MARCUS M. RHODES,
CHARLES E. RICHMOND,
JOHN S. SAMPSON,
JOHN E. SANFORD,
ZACHEUS SHERMAN,
WILLIAM J. SMITH,
ALFRED V. STALL, SYLVANUS N. STAPLES,
ALBERT E. SWASEY,
EDWIN A. TETLOW,
CHARLES THORNTON,
ELIJAH TOLMAN,
SALMON WASHBURN, '
LLOYD E. WHITE,
JOHN P. SWINERTON, SYLVANUS M. THOMAS, E. DAWES TISDALE,
DANIEL A. TREFETHEN,
LUTHER B. WEST,
WILLIAM L. WHITE,
WILLIAM C. LOVERING,
JAMES T. MAHER,
FREDERICK MASON,
JOHN T. MEATS,
ERASTUS MORSE,
JOSEPH MURPHY, JOHN O'HEARNE, JR., ONIAS S. PAIGE,
WILLIAM H. PHILLIPS,
WILLIAM H. PLEADWELL,
JOHN D. REED,
S. HOLBROOK RHODES, JAMES F. ROACH,
JOHN C. SHARP, JR.,
NATHAN H. SKINNER,
LEANDER SOULE, ABIEL B. STAPLES,
ANDREW J. LAWRENCE, ARUNAH A. LEACH,
23
SUB COMMITTEES.
WILLIAM L. WHITE, JR.,
ALEXANDER H. WILLIAMS,
GEORGE B. WILLIAMS,
JOHN R. WILLIAMS,
NATHAN WILMARTH,
JOSEPH K. WILSON,
JOSEPH E. WILBAR,
A. KING WILLIAMS,
G. EDGAR WILLIAMS,
LEWIS WILLIAMS,
GEORGE C. WILSON,
GEORGE M. WOODWARD.
Other members of the Committee.
Dighton, JAMES H. CODDING, CHARLES N. SIMMONS,
Berkley, HERBERT A. DEAN, THOMAS PAUL,
Norton, GEORGE R. PERRY, GEORGE H. TALBOT.
Easton, Mansfield and Raynham failed to apppoint.
N. B. Some few names fail to appear on the lists of com- mittees of such persons as felt obliged to decline serving. This statement is made to explain the absence of certain names, which might be looked for.
Committee of Publication.
24
QUARTER MILLENNIAL CELEBRATION.
PROCEEDINGS
On the morning of the First Day in Music Hall.
The Literary Exercises of the Anniversary were begun on the morning of June 4th, and proceeded in accordance with the following
PROGRAMME :
"GLORIA," from Mozart's Twelfth Mass.,
BEETHOVEN SOCIETY.
PRAYER. REV. SAMUEL HOPKINS EMERY.
ADDRESS OF WELCOME. RICHARD HENRY HALL, MAYOR.
"The Heavens are Telling," from Creation, - Haydn. BEETHOVEN SOCIETY.
HISTORICAL ADDRESS. HON. EDMUND HATCH BENNETT.
"Star-Spangled Banner,"
BEETHOVEN SOCIETY.
POEM. HENRY WILLIAM COLBY, EsQ.
CLOSING HYMN. "America,"
BEETHOVEN SOCIETY AND AUDIENCE. Accompanied by REEVES' AMERICAN BAND.
BENEDICTION. ]
REV. CHARLES HENRY LEAROYD.
West-Crocker House.
County Court House.
Leonard-Padelford House.
King House.
TAUNTON GREEN, 1889.
PROCEEDINGS AT MUSIC HALL.
On the morning of the first day of the celebration Music Hall was crowded with spectators, the stage filled with officials and invited guests and the whole scene one of the grandest, perhaps in all respects the grandest, in the history of the city. The proceedings were opened with the beautiful "Gloria" from Mozart's Twelfth Mass by the chorus and orchestra. It was magnificently performed.
The Mayor then introduced Rev. S. Hopkins Emery as chaplain of the day, who said :
Let me read a few words from that Blessed Book, which has been the solace and strength of the fathers and mothers of New England in all its generations-of the founders and first settlers of this ancient town and their childrens' child- ren down to the present time :
We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the days of old. Thou didst drive out the nations with thy hand and plantedst them in. For they gat not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them ; but thy right hand and thine arm and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.
That which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us, we will not hide from their children, telling to the generation to come, the praises of the Lord, and his strength and his wondrous works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise
26
QUARTER MILLENNIAL CELEBRATION.
and tell them to their children, that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep his command- ments.
The reading of the Scripture lesson was followed by prayer :
God of our fathers, we, their children and thy children, bow reverently and humbly before Thee on this glad day. We adore the riches of the Divine goodness in which our God hath passed before us and those who have preceded us in this place, lo, these two hundred and fifty years. We this day review these centuries of busy life and behold them crowded with tokens of God's care, guiding grace and abundant blessing. We unitedly bring our tribute of thanks- giving and praise. We thank Thee, Lord, for all the pre-
£ We cious memories which crowd these memorial days. thank Thee for the re-union of long separated friends-for the return to the home circle of such as years ago went out from us. We thank Thee for the coming of such as represent this Commonwealth and the sisterhood of states, in their various departments of government, in their industry and in their social life. We commend to Thee, merciful Father, our general government, our state government, the cities and towns in all this broad land, whilst in a very special manner our supplication is in behalf of our own city, its officers and its people, that, as Thou hast been with us in the generations past, Thou wilt never leave nor forsake in the generations to come. With the increase of our popula- tion and the enlargement of material resources, grant, Lord, the still greater blessing of spiritual growth-a higher civili- zation-a nobler manhood and womanhood-a completer likeness in all who make our homes, to the perfect man, Christ Jesus. To this end, let all our schools and churches, and home training, household influences conform to the teachings of the Great Teacher and be under the inspiration
27
MAYOR'S ADDRESS.
and guidance of his most holy religion. Direct, Lord, in all which is said or done, this day and this hour. All which we ask in his most worthy name, who hath taught us to pray, saying,
Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory for ever, Amen.
His Honor, Mayor Richard Henry Hall, then wel- comed the sons and daughters, friends and visitors in the following words :
MAYOR'S ADDRESS.
Ladies and Gentlemen : -
It falls to my pleasant lot to welcome you to the cele- bration of the founding of the ancient town of Taunton. Two hundred and fifty years on the page of the world's history seems but a trifle, and yet that same number of years in the history of our own town carries us back to the earliest days of colonial life. How changed the scene. How different the condition of this locality-its inhabitants, its industries and its relations. From a few scattered fami- lies, we have become a flourishing city of twenty-six thou- sand people.
In place of a small and lowly settlement in the midst of the forest, stands to-day a thriving municipality, peopled by a busy, industrious populace. Where once the red man
28
QUARTER MILLENNIAL CELEBRATION.
held undisputed sway, and the sturdy pioneers tilled the soil, now trades and pursuits of manifold description are followed on every hand.
Instead of a barter trade confined for the most part to the indigenous red men, have sprung up commerce and negotiations with a thousand and one distant places. We stand to-day a prosperous and happy community, and yet the vast change which has been wrought in this long span of years, has not easily been accomplished. Our dear country has taken the foremost place in the family of nations, but with what sacrifices has this been done, and through what an ordeal has it passed. The savages who once roamed at will through its wilds, have been driven to remote regions and well nigh exterminated.
Two dangers which assail every nation, we have suc- cessfully met and passed.
Foreign invasion will no longer have terrors for us, and internal strife is not easily renewed. These and many other obstacles have been surmounted in our nation's progress, and in them Taunton has taken an earnest and active part ; and so she may fittingly say to-day as she looks upon her fortunate and prosperous people, "This is my reward. "
A quarter of a thousand years have passed. It is very fitting therefore, at this time for us to pause in our daily routine of duty, to forsake our fields, our work shops and places of business, and gather here in the observance of this natal day ; and as we have been guided and protected by Divine Providence in the past, may we humbly claim the same guidance in the future, and by God's blessing continue a united and prosperous people. I bid you all a most hearty welcome. To the daughter towns, who for many years were bound to us, and of us were a part, but who now lead an
29
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
independent existence, mother Taunton to-day extends her warmest welcome. She bids them be merry with her in the festivities now to be held, for to-day ancient Taunton and our present city join hands and celebrate.
To the most distinguished representatives of nation and commonwealth who have honored us by their presence at this observance of her two hundred and fiftieth birthday, I give a heartfelt and generous welcome.
To all our guests, be they sons or daughters of Taun- ton, be they neighbors or from distant states, whatever may be their relations to us, we this day throw open the gates of the city, and bid them most cordial and sincere greeting.
The Beethoven Society next sung "The Heavens are Telling;" after which Mayor Hall introduced the orator of the day, Hon. Edmund H. Bennett who delivered the fol- lowing
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Sons and Daughters of the Ancient Town of Taunton :-
It is the story of the virtues and the sufferings of that worthy band, which so successfully laid the foundations of this community, and secured for us the manifold blessings we now enjoy, that you have assembled this day with such tender interest to hear. The presentation of such a subject, which reaches so many ears, attracts so many eyes, and interests so many hearts, properly belongs to some one who is a "native here, and to the manor born ; " some one, whose childhood has been passed in your daily sight, who has been
30
QUARTER MILLENNIAL CELEBRATION.
reared amid those hallowed memories that cling around your hearth-stones, and whose ancestors sleep beneath the same sod, side by side with your own. But notwithstanding the natural hesitation of one not thus blessed to undertake so deli- cate a duty, none of your own sons, I assure you, could more highly appreciate the honor conferred on me by your kind invitation ; not the least of many others received during my residence among you. And, conscious of my own inability to adequately present so eventful a subject within the time allotted me, may I not appropriately add one more peti- tion to those which have already ascended to the Throne of Grace from the lips of our beloved chaplain, and be permit- ted to repeat those devout words in which the divine poet introduced his more exalted theme :- " What in me is dark, Illumine ; what is low, raise and support." With all the aid vouchsafed me, the field is so broad and the period included so long, I shall necessarily weary your patience in considering matters of public and general interest only, and, therefore, I reserve for an appendix many minor details, whatever interest they might have for some here present.
But I must hasten to the immediate topic of the hour, the treatment of which naturally assumes a more narrative form than if we already possessed complete local histories, or even former memorial addresses to which reference might be made.
The exact date of the first settlement of Taunton can not now be ascertained, and the loss of her public records by the disastrous fire of 1838 makes it difficult to satisfac- torily trace her early history and progress. Many interest- ing facts are doubtless now wholly lost, while many others can be discovered only by the dim light thrown upon them from various collateral sources. But it is well known that in the early summer of 1621, ere the Mayflower had scarcely
3 t
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
completed her first return voyage to the mother-land, two distinguished pilgrims, Edward Winslow and Stephen Hop- kins, whose united families at that time constituted about one-fifth of the entire Plymouth colony, passed through this region on a friendly visit to Massasoit, the great sachem of the Wampanoags. He had himself visited Plymouth in the March preceding, and had there entered into a written treaty of peace and friendship with the colonists, which was ever after called "the Peace of Plymouth;" a treaty which he faithfully kept until his dying day in 1660. In response to his friendly advances, Plymouth now sent two noble messen- gers, laden with gifts, to enquire after the health and wel- fare of this "greatest commander among the savages here- abouts, " and to renew the treaty of peace and amity be- tween them. So far as positively known, theirs were the first white feet that ever trod our soil.
Under the guidance of a friendly Indian, named Squan- to ; the same Squanto who afterwards taught them the still prevailing custom of fertilizing each hill of corn with a herring ; they crossed the Great River on Tuesday morning July 3d, 1621, at a "knowne shole place, " probably Shallow Water, at East Taunton.1 Wending their way along the northwest bank of the river, through what is now Dean street, thence by the Neck o' Land to Dighton and Somerset, they struck southwesterly to Pockanokick, the home of the Indian Chief, situated in what is now Warren, Rhode Island, where a pure spring of living water still bears the name of Massasoit's spring.
Probably, they followed an old Indian trail leading from Plymouth to the Narragansett, and recently there have been discovered on the farm of the late Joseph B. Warner in Dighton, large flat stones in a row, through wet and swampy places, as if for stepping stones for the traveller. Winslow's 1. See Appendix A.
32
QUARTER MILLENNIAL CELEBRATION.
description of the country, written at the time, contains these words :- "The ground is very good on both sides (of the river), it being for the most part cleered. Thousands of men have lived there, which dyed in a great plague not long since ; and pitty it was, and is, to see so many goodly fieldes, and so well seated, without men to dress and manure the same. * There is much good timber, both Oake, Wallnut-trees, Firre, Beach, and exceeding great Chestnut trees. The country in respect of the lying of it, is both champanie and hilly, like many places in England. "1
With the exception of Winslow's account of a subse- quent visit to Massasoit, two years later, we have no authentic mention of this locality for the next fifteen years. The growth of the Plymouth colony was slow and feeble, her struggle being for existence rather than for extension. Her first new town (Scituate) was not created until October 5, 1636, by which time the younger but richer Massachusetts colony had planted nearly a score of flourishing towns,2 had pushed as far northerly as Dover, N. H., and penetrated the interior to Springfield, and even into Rhode Island and Connecticut. The first settlers of Taunton also came chiefly from the Massachusetts and not from the Plymouth colony. They came over in the Arbella, and the Mary and John, rather than in the Mayflower or the Fortune. Of all the Massachusetts towns Dorchester seems to have been the most enterprising in planting new settlements, and as early as 1637, a number of its people, "feeling much straitened for want of room, " and perhaps having their attention turned in this direction by the extension that year of Dorchester bounds southward to the Old Colony line, united with some others, the exact number is uncertain, in purchasing a large tract of land in this region, intending to make it their future home.
1. See Appendix B.
2. Certainly Boston, Cambridge, Charlestown, Concord, Dedham, Dorchester, Hingham, Ipswich, Lynn, Medford, Newbury, Quincy, Roxbury, Salem, Springfield Watertown and Weymouth,-though not chronologically in that order.
33
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
Neither the original deed of this purchase, nor any rec- ord of it, can now be found, nor is its exact date known ; but there is abundant reason to believe that it came from Mas- sasoit, whose Indian name was Ousamequin, to whom the purchasers paid two shillings per acre on their home lots to extinguish the Indian title.1 This conveyance was confirm- ed in 1663, by his son Philip, who received sixteen pounds more. Indeed it is an established fact that our forefathers never took possession of a foot of land in this colony, which they did not fairly purchase of the Indians, with the excep- tion of Assonet Neck, and some other similar sections, which they were not allowed to buy, but which were confiscated by the Government to pay the expenses of King Philip's war, and sold by the Colony to individuals. A list of the first pur- chasers may be found in the Proprietors' Records, now in the city clerk's office, among whom we find the prominent names of Richard Williams, George Hall, William Poole, John Deane, John Crosman, Walter Deane, John Gilbert, Henry Andrews and William Scaddinge, from whom doubt- less that lovely, but not fully appreciated sheet of water, Scadding's Pond, derives its name.2 This Richard Williams, whose many descendants have led honorable and useful lives among us for generations, deserves justly to be called the father of the town, or certainly one of the most prominent of them.
The monument to Elizabeth Poole, now standing in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, erected by the ladies of Taunton in 1836, describes her in glowing eulogy as the "Foundress of the Town of Taunton ;" but her name nowhere appears as one of the original purchasers, although that of another lady, " Widdo Randall," does ; and so far as we can ascertain, the popular tradition of her purchase of the place with a jack-
1. See Appendix C.
2. See Appendix D.
34
QUARTER MILLENNIAL CELEBRATION.
knife and a peck of beans must be ranked with the legend of Romulus and Remus as the founders of Rome, with that of William Tell as the deliverer of Switzerland, or that of Pocahontas as the saviour of Captain Smith.1 But notwith- standing the doubt that Miss Poole can justly be deemed the "foundress" of the town, we do know with sufficient cer- tainty that she was born of noble lineage in Devonshire, England, on the 25th of August, 1588; that when nearly fifty years of age she came to this country with her younger brother William, and after a short tarry in Dorchester re- moved to Cohannet, and became the owner of much land in this vicinity, and an active promoter of its interests.2 Gov. Winthrop says (Vol. I, p. 302) under date of 1637, "She went late thither, and endured much hardship and lost much cattle." The Poole family usually spelled their name P-o-l-e, and the plain towards Berkley was called "Mrs. Pole's plain," easily abbreviated to Pole plain, as now com- monly known. Miss Poole's homestead and adjoining land containing about twenty acres, was on the south side of Main street, extending from the Bristol County Bank build- ing easterly to near the Leonard Block, and bounded on the south by Mill river. From this estate she removed in 1653 to the corner of Dean and Winter streets, at or near the present residence of James H. Dean, Esq. With a well earned reputation for "Piety, Liberality and Sanctity of Manners, " she departed this life on the 2 Ist of May, 1654, in the sixty-sixth year of her age ; and after resting in her own private tomb on her homestead estate for more than a cen- tury, her remains were removed in 1771 to the Plain Ceme-
1. The romantic story that Pocahontas saved the life of Capt. Smith by rushing between the descending war club of her father and the head of his captive, rests upon no reliable evidence. She was only thirteen years of age at the time of the alleged incident, and recently published documents leaving little doubt but that the story is, in the main, a fiction. See English Colonization of America, by E. D. Niell, 1871; Deane's Edition of Wingfield's Discourse of Virginia, 1859.
2. See Appendix E.
35
HISTORICAL ADDRESS.
tery where her ashes still lie. Her virtues deserve to be held in perpetual remembrance.
We know but little of the events of these first years, but we learn from the Plymouth Colony Records (Vol. I. p. 105) that on the 4th of December, 1638, seven inhabi- tants of Cohannet, viz. William Poole, John Gilbert, Sr., Henry Andrews, John Strong,1 John Deane, Walter Deane and Edward Case were admitted and sworn as freemen of the Colony,2 having been propounded for that office some- time previously ; and Mr. Strong was sworn as constable on the same day. The law of this Colony provided that "none could be admitted as freemen but such as are one and twenty years of age, at the least, and have the testimony of their neighbors that they are of sober and peaceable con- versation, Orthodox in the Fundamentals of Religion, and such as have also Twenty pounds rateable Estate, at the least, in the Government. " (Ply. Col. Laws, p. 258.) No Unitarian, Episcopalian or Quaker, whatever his qualifica- tions, was eligible as a freemen under that law. The Massa- chusetts Colony was even more strict. There all freemen must be church members, and not only so, but all church members must become freeman, upon penalty of being "dealt with" by the Church, whatever that may mean. (4 Mass. Col. Rec. p. 420). Happily such regulations did not long survive.
On the 5th of March following the admission of these seven freemen, viz. 1638, (O. S.) we read that "Captain Poole was ordered to exercise the inhabitants of Cohannett in their Armes." (Ply. Col. Rec. XI. p. 31.)3 Some have thought that one of these dates should have been selected
1. This John Strong came to Cohannet from Dorchester and originally from Taunton, England. He was a brother-in-law of Walter Deane, and the father of seventeen children. He remained here only a few years and removed to Northampton
2. See Appendix F.
3. See Appendix G.
1154049
36
QUARTER MILLENNIAL CELEBRATION.
for our celebration. But these facts do not necessarily prove that Cohannet had yet any separate town existence, since all the freemen of the colony, whether residing in in- corporated towns or unincorporated precincts, were alike registered as freemen at Plymouth, and were alike entitled to vote as individuals in the affairs of the colony. And not only were the inhabitants of towns liable to military duty, but also "all and every person within the colony, "1 whether in towns or not. £ Also when John Strong took the oath as constable in December, 1638, it was not as constable of the town of Cohannet, but only of the ward of Cohannet ; where- as after 1639 the records describe the constable as of the town of Taunton.
Unfortunately no positive vote can now be found, ex- pressly incorporating our town ; but we soon have an act of the General Court apparently recognizing it as such. Pre- viously to June, 1639, the whole body of freemen assembled at Plymouth several times a year, to regulate the affairs of the Colony ; but the many inconveniences and great ex- pense to which the freemen were thus put by continual attendance at the Court, led to a very decided change in the system of legislation, and what had been heretofore a pure and simple democracy became, on the 5th of March, 1638, a true representative government.2 The same princi- ple had been introduced into the Massachusetts Colony five years earlier. By this law Plymouth was entitled to four " committeemen or deputies" to the General Court, and every other town to two. The first town election occurred soon after, and on the 4th of June following (1639, O. S.) two freemen from Cohannet, viz: John Gilbert and Henry Andrews, took their seats in the General Court at Plymouth as our first representatives, and thus our existence as a sep-
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.