USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Taunton > Quarter millinnial celebration of the city of Taunton, Massachusetts, Tuesday and Wednesday, June 4 and 5, 1889 > Part 9
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Richard Williams evidently named his first born, John, in honor of his wife's father. His naming his first daughter, Eliza- beth, and the fact that he had a sister (apparently the oldest) by the same name, indicate that his own mother bore that name also. Considering, too, the practice in those times, the facts that Rich- ard named his second son, Samuel, and that his older brother's name was the same, if I were endeavoring to trace his parents, I should look first for Samuel and Elizabeth Williams.
But this reminds me that my work is confined to his descend- ants, and I am happy to say that in spite of the deplorable loss of early records, with the generous aid I have received, I have had unexpected success, and I expect to add something to the mate- rials for the history of Taunton.
And in this connection may I be allowed to express the hope, that in the near future, some son or daughter of Taunton, "to the
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manor born," will undertake to write that history. My friend on my right (Rev. Mr. Emery) has already given us an exceedingly valuable and interesting history of the "Ministry of Taunton ; " but there is yet a mine of historic wealth, almost wholly unex- plored. Few towns in the whole country afford materials for a history so well worth writing as " Ancient Taunton." It is a duty which this generation owes both to the past and to the future to prevent the loss of these materials. I trust you will allow my re- cently discovered relationship to be a sufficient justification for my pressing this matter most earnestly upon your attention.
Does some one ask "cui bono?" What good will result ? For answer, I point to the wonderful growth and prosperity of your city and her sister towns, founded by that little colony two centuries and a half ago, and, in turn, ask what have been the causes ? Will not the same causes continue in the future to pro- duce the same results ?
It has been well said that "Eulogies of the dead are useful only as lessons to the living." So the history of the past is use- ful only as a guide to the present and the future.
The history of "the First Settlers" shows that with them came the minister and the school master; their earliest laws denounced idleness and dissipation. The foundations, which they laid for the success of their enterprise, were industry, sobriety, education and religion ; to know how well they succeeded we have only to look around us. To continue this success, you must con- tinue to build upon the same foundations ; and in earnestly bespeak- ing for you, growth and prosperity, equal to your most ardent hopes, I can best do so by expressing the wish that when another "two hundred and fifty years " has rolled away and your descend- ants of that day and generation shall assemble to celebrate the event, they may be able to say truly, "As the First Settlers found- ed, so have their successors builded."
Our next toast shall be "Taunton in the Revolution," and I am happy to present to you one who bears with undi- minished honor the name of his great-grandfather, the adopt- ed son of Taunton, who was one of the immortal signers of the Declaration of Independence; Robert Treat Paine.
RESPONSE BY HON. ROBERT TREAT PAINE. Mr. Chairman :-
I rejoice in the privilege of being here to share in the pleas- ures of this great day, and to be inspired by the reminiscences of our glorious past.
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I come with the feelings of a wanderer returning to the old home from which 108 years ago my great grandfather wandered away, but I read on the great arch which you have thrown across your Main street the cordial words, "Sons and Daughters, Wel- come Home. "
I am glad to have listened to the profoundly interesting ad- dress of the Orator of the Day, your distinguished fellow citizen and my honored friend, and to have heard his vivid account of the growth of this wonderful quarter millennial period.
No wonder that after we pass from the Platform of History to the freer festivities of this Hall of Banquet, we feel tempted to let the American Eagle scream just a little with irrepressible delight and even ourselves to give again that famous American Toast.
Even while we are celebrating this and our recent centennial anniversaries, some of our countrymen have gone abroad to wit- ness similar centennials in France.
How can we help comparing our growth in prosperity with the decay which is seen in parts of Europe.
Only this week we read of workmen leaving Italy in such numbers as almost to depopulate some places, and we know how the intolerable burdens of taxation crush their energies and how homes are emptied of their young men drafted into their great standing army.
Turn for a moment to the striking contrast of France to the United States now and in the days of our Revolution.
Then France was rich in all the accumulations of wealth and art and poetry and cultivated life. Massachusetts was bare in- deed! Rich only in the character of its citizens, but otherwise in the condition of barest need described by Shakespeare :-
"Oh reason not the need; Allow not nature more than nature needs. Man's life is cheap as beasts."
Shay's Rebellion grew out of the dire distress into which a large part of our people were plunged when the war was over and the army disbanded and the payments for the war had ceased. Perhaps it was true of Taunton as it was said of some towns, that there was not actually money enough in the whole town to pay the tax. What a wonderful contrast in these two nations physically !
Washington and Napoleon were types of the two national characters. Each nation rose under its great leader to a place of high honor before the eyes of the world.
The aim of Washington was honorable peace and a stable government of the people,
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That of Napoleon was brilliant war and successful conquest. The aims of each were accomplished, but what has been the har- vest ?
Washington's name has risen in the affectionate honor of the world, till to-day men like Gladstone proclaim that the loftiest pedestal in the history of the world belongs to Washington, and the character which he typified and helped to impress on our country, has become our noblest inheritance, but in France in less than sixty years after his warlike uncle's death, the younger Napo- leon, in needless and fatal war lost at the disastrous defeat at Sedan, besides his own throne, the accumulated glory which it had taken France ten centuries to acquire.
No wonder that to-day France is ready to cast itself in des- pair into the arms of an exiled charlatan.
What are the great causes of this tide of prosperity which has changed the face of Taunton and of Massachusetts from the gloom of Shay's Rebellion to the abounding wealth of to-day?
What are the deep causes of this even more striking contrast of character between France and our country ?
Were there not four noble traits of character which had long been growing strong but which were fully matured in the great days of the Revolution, when this nation like a young giant was just rising out of youth into full life ?
Shall we not put first, as the most prominent feature of our national character in those days, as ever since, fixed, resolute, in- domitable Will ?
Who can conceive how sad would have been our fate and how striking the contrast if the national character had been weak vacillation !
Was not the second great trait the strong sense of Justice, in both directions; yielding justice towards others, (what more strik- ing illustration and proof of the spirit of justice than in the ac- count we listened to this morning from Judge Bennett of how every inch of land in Taunton was acquired of the Indians with absolute honesty, a fact I was surprised and delighted to hear ;) and also demanding justice for themselves at all hazards, at any cost or sacrifice, without purchase or concession ; proclaiming to the world their rights, and pledging their lives and fortunes and sacred honor to maintain them.
The third great trait of the character of those days was pro- found religious faith which in every event of life, looked to God for support, a spirit which was powerfully manifested on many oc-
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casions in the early life of Taunton, as told in the address this morning and which we have just heard wonderfully described in the address from Dr. Dexter.
The last great trait of character which in my judgment molded the life of those days and of these, is a profound spirit of hopefulness :- which could listen to Jonathan Edwards and still love God: which could throw overboard the tea and still be calm; which wrestled with all the varying problems of a life some- what severe and still was full of hope.
If to-day I were searching for that trait which like Aladdin's magic lamp, is most potent to improve the lot and physical career of the masses of the people, the habit of hope seems to me most able to accomplish this grand consummation.
Are not these the four great characteristics of the times and lives of our fathers?
Strong, fixed, indomitable will which wrenched victory from any circumstances most adverse.
ยท That sense of justice which has made this people love law and grow into the most law-abiding people in the world.
Firm religious faith has given depth and intensity to life and has inspired our race with the ennobling conviction that as we live in God, so God guides and supports us.
Soaring hope has lifted man's aspirations to lofty possibilities and grows into a mighty power to make possibilities our actual life. Even as no more fatal palsy can create the evil it dreads, than weak despair, so no force more potently creates what it desires than unwavering hope.
Fixed Purpose, Justice, Faith and Hope, these are the four corner-stones of American character. These are the noble quali- ties which were the bulwarks of our national life in the crisis of the Revolution and which were brought to full maturity in that long ordeal.
These are the qualities which are our strength to-day and which we rejoice to have inherited from our fathers' fathers and to believe that we shall transmit to our children's children.
These are the qualities which make great men. These are the qualities which are radiant with enduring promise, and which enable us to look into the future with head erect and eye toward Heaven, and hearts beating high with hope, as we repeat the bold prophecy of Tennyson in Locksley Hall.
" Forward, forward let us range ; Let the great World spin forever Down the ringing grooves of change."
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This seems to be a good time to hear from our Orator of the Day, whose admirable address was just what we ex- pected from one who always does his work so thoroughly and well. Let me introduce to you the Hon. Edmund H. Bennett.
RESPONSE BY HON. E. H. BENNETT.
Mr. Toastmaster :-
I rise, sir, at your bidding, but not to make a second address to an audience which has already heard me for two mortal hours and more. I am aware it is customary on these occasions to call up the Orator of the Day, as he is sometimes styled, but who might on this occasion more properly be called simply the " Histori- cal Addresser. " Such a custom is one of those perhaps "more honored in the breach than in the observance, " were it not that it properly limits the response to thanking the audience for their patient attention and kind consideration in listening to his pre- vious effort of the day. This is especially fitting in this case, be- cause of the very extraordinary but necessary length of my address, which not only must have sorely tried the patience of the hearers, but which has left my voice in a condition totally unfit for any longer service. Thanking you for the courtesy of your request, and all here present for their patient attention to, and tender in- terest in what I had to say this morning, I beg to be excused from saying more.
We do not intend to lag behind the statelier ceremonies of the morning in paying our homage to the Muse. A poem written by one of Taunton's gentle poets, Miss Mary E. N. Hatheway, will now be read by the Rev. John P. Forbes :-
THE OLD COLONISTS.
Let us recall them to-day, With reverence due their degree,- Men who through hardship and toil Opened the Land of the Free.
Leaving their country and kin, Stations of plenty and pride, Slender in number their bands, They crossed the ocean-track wide.
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Reaching these unchristened shores, Bleak in their barren repose, Girded by forests untrod Save by the footsteps of foes;
But steadfast in courage and heart To face the known and unknown,
United in purpose they stood, And chose the New World for their own ;
Turning not back in despair When pressed with want and disease ;
Not famine, disaster nor death, Could daunt such spirits as these.
Valiant the birthright they owned,
Saxon, Norman and Dane,
Blent in their English blood, Molding their fibre and brain.
Lovers of justice and law, They gave defiance and hate To error, and tyrannous sway Ruling in Church or in State.
Faith in the guidance Divine, Faith in man's knowledge of Right, Led them in peril and peace, Wrought in their labors with might.
Simple in order they built Altars of Learning and Home, Fairer than sculptures of fame, Arch or imperial dome.
Time, the searcher of lives, Their work has measured and weighed, And over their memory sheds Honor that never can fade.
Liberty, star of their hope, Worshipped through storm-beaten days, Risen full-orbed in the West, Now lightens the earth with its rays. Seed which in darkness they sowed, Tending with vigils and prayer, Through all the ages shall grow, Harvests immortal to bear.
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At this time of good feeling and good cheer we will have no quarrel about Elizabeth Pool and her peck of beans. Our historians who throw doubt on that story are tied to the traditions of Plymouth Rock, where they undoubtedly never had a bean. For do we not frequently read in the chronicles of the colonists the brief but significant legend, "Nota Bene."? Now Elizabeth Pool came from Boston or its imme- diate vicinity ; and without doubt brought with her for her Sunday dinner a supply of those delicious vegetables which have always been a distinguishing feature of Boston culture. And it is fair to presume that in making her trade with the aborigines, she threw in a few beans as a delicate token of her "bean"eficent spirit towards the poor Indians. So let critics no longer peck at that peck of beans story.
If I am not right in these conclusions let me be aided and counselled by the most worthy president of the Old Colony Historical Society, a society which in its thirty-five years' existence has done excellent service in rescuing our local history from oblivion and from falsehood which is worse than oblivion. But as my friend has been doing two men's work all his life, I am going to call on him to respond not only for the Old Colony Historical Society, but also for the Ministry of Taunton, of which he has himself been so large a part, the Rev. Samuel Hopkins Emery.
RESPONSE BY REV. S. H. EMERY. Mr. Toastmaster :-
You very well know that I persistently refused to answer any sentiment, for the very good reason that none of the precious time of this memorable occasion should be wasted on one, who is but a relic of a past generation and who might better form a part of the loan exhibition over yonder in Historical Hall. But your persist- ence, it seems, proves more than mine, and here I am in the pres- ence of this most respectable company, called upon to speak for the "Ministry of Taunton."
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Having already, some years ago, published all I knew on this prolific theme in two bulky volumes, I will not presume to enlarge -certainly not to the extent of issuing a new edition of that work in an after dinner speech of two or five minutes, when we are all anxious to hear from our eminent visitors from abroad, one of whom, the present chief magistrate of our sister state of Rhode Island, sits by my side.
I will content myself with expressing my extreme satisfaction at taking by the hand to-day a direct descendant, of the seventh generation, from that most eminent first settler and father of the ancient Cohannet, Richard Williams, (at the same time grasping the hand of the Hon. Josiah H. Drummond of Portland, Maine, who sat next to him) my satisfaction also, at looking into the face of another, sitting yonder, the Rev. George E. Street, of Exeter, New Hampshire, who is directly descended, in the seventh genera- tion, from the Rev. Nicholas Street, the eminent associate of the no less eminent William Hook, in the first pastorate of the Taun- ton church.
This descendant has the distinguished honor likewise, of be- ing a direct descendant, on his mother's side, of the famous John Davenport of New Haven and Boston-which Davenport had for his colleague in New Haven, first Hook and afterward Street, who also became his successor in the ministry. The first two Taunton ministers, Oxford graduates in Old England, were learned and godly ministers, ranking among the foremost Divines in this, then new world.
In passing, I may say, in a letter just received from Mr. Edwin Sloper, the well known antiquarian of the mother town, Taunton, Somersetshire, England, expressing his regret at not be- ing able to be with us to-day, he writes :- " Had I been able to participate in your welcome gathering, it was my intention to read a short paper on 'old Taunton' and how a tribe of incoming Saxons settled in the Dean and made it their home in the seventh century. I think I should also have been capable of nearly prov- ing that Street gave the name to your town."
Well, if he did not give our town its name, we know the Spring street bridge bore his name, and, although superseded by another and a better may well be called Streets Bridge, for the minister's homestead was by its side.
But I must hasten on, and-out of respect to that virgin mother of Taunton, the gentlewoman, who, if she did not buy the town in its beginning, was as Robert Treat Paine wrote of her, "a chief promoter of its settlement, " and should be held in ever- lasting remembrance, Miss Elizabeth Pole-I will ask your atten-
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tion to the production, in verse, of one of the daughters of Taun- ton, ever loyal to the good old town and a lover of its hills and brooks-its every foot of soil and drop of running water-Miss Anna Dennis Reed.
I may add, these lines were prepared specially for this occa- sion, and made to be sung to the melody of "Sweet Afton, " but you will hardly expect a song from one, who long ago hung his harp on the willows.
To present residents on Mill river, it may not be necessary to say, that the "Sweet Taunton," which is the subject of our song, is not that stream but the larger, grander, sweeter stream, on which are built the Taunton Water Works, and which has long borne the name of "Taunton Great River, " to distinguish it from inferior, smaller streams.
Flow gently, sweet Taunton, thy bright course along,
Flow gently, sweet river, the theme of my song,
For planted along by thy silvery tide,
Are the happiest homes in all the world wide.
We love thee, sweet River; thy banks are as green, As when by brave Winslow and Hopkins first seen; The sturgeon and shad still in summer are here,
And herrings make glad the spring-time of the year.
Flow gently, for oft by thy murmuring stream,
The maiden and lover have breathed life's young dream ;
Flow gently, the wise and the fair of lang syne, Have wandered so oft on those green banks of thine.
Sweet River, so long as thy tides ebb and flow, And o'er thy clear water the cooling winds blow,
Thy name for fond memories and hopes will be dear, To all who find peaceful and happy homes here.
For many years and until our vigorous sister city on Mt. Hope Bay came in for her thirds, Taunton divided with New Bedford the honors of the Shire town of the County. We want to hear to-day from this our twin shire and I call upon her distinguished citizen, the Hon. William W. Crapo.
RESPONSE BY HON. W. W. CRAPO.
Mr. Chairman :-
Manufacturing New Bedford brings greetings to maritime Taunton. The City of the Sea joins in the general congratula- tions and with hearty good wishes recognizes the importance of the merchant marine of the City at the head waters of Taunton
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River. The web-footed denizens of Buzzards Bay are a trifle per- plexed as they hear of the growth of vessel ownership in this inland community. How comes it that while our tonnage fades yours in- creases ? You do not hear the music of the waves as they roll upon the beach ; you do not gather inspiration from the breakers dashing against the rocks. You must have learned the story of the sea from the herrings, as in the spring time they climb your fish ways on their journey to the spawning grounds. While your sister shiretown has put the earnings of many generations, gathered from the Brazil banks and the Gallipagos Islands, from New Zea- land and the Arctic, into hundreds of thousands of cotton spindles, the proceeds of your labor and thrift find investment in a fleet of magnificent sailing vessels which in model and carrying capacity is the envy of every sea port. May your pluck and enterprise in this direction meet, as it deserves, with continued and abundant success.
But on this occasion we turn from the present, however pros- perous and promising, to the contemplation of the past. Our thoughts go back to the first beginnings of this model New Eng- land Community, as we listen to the story of its founders, so elo- quently told by the Orator of the day. The men who penetrated the wilderness and built their cabins on the banks of your beau- tiful river were hardy, sturdy, earnest men who had a purpose which unselfishly and heroically they maintained. We need not repeat the phrases which describe their qualities and virtues. They were God-fearing, self-reliant men. They have never been ex- celled for inflexible integrity of character. With toil and self- denial they met unflinchingly the exigencies which surrounded them. History furnishes no instance of public honor and individ- ual self-sacrifice surpassing that of our fathers at the close of the Indian Wars which devastated this region. After a struggle for existence, in which the mother Country had rendered no assist- ance, but with strange indifference had left the Colonists to fight single-handed against savagery; with numbers decimated and homes desolated by the tomahawk and the torch, the pioneer men of the old Colony proved themselves as honest as they had been brave. With a public debt greater in amount than the value of the entire personal property within the Colony they paid that debt, not in paper promises, but with gold and silver coin, unmurmur- ingly asking no abatement. These men as they saw their duty performed it. If their public administrations were at times marked with austerities, they were never marred by compromises and were free from evasions. Whatever the issue presented, they met it squarely. There was no mistaking the meaning of your David
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Cobb when, standing in front of the Court House, facing the armed mal-contents who demanded the abandonment of the Court, he said, "I will sit as a Judge or I will die as a General." And he did sit as a Judge. The men who inaugurated civil government in the Old Colony may not have been, in details and methods, as broad-minded and liberal as the men of the present day, but they were clean handed and brave hearted. Whatever their limitations they stood by the principles of uprightness and strict justice and old fashioned honor, and the result, after the lapse of two hundred and fifty years, is a proud, powerful, influential Commonwealth, leading the nations in moral and mental elevation of the people and in the triumphs of social order.
In many things we are in advance of our fathers. In these days a man may believe in his religion and allow every other man the same liberty; a man may practice piety without feeling it necessary to practice persecution. The intolerance of the past has been softened by liberality. We have lifted and broadened the social, moral and intellectual life of all the people, and in count- less ways have beautified humanity by works of philanthropic en- terprise. These are results expected of us from the training and teachings, the wisdom and virtue of the past. The foundation upon which rest the progress and glory of the present was laid in the character and struggles of the early settlers. By their example we have been strengthened, encouraged and cheered. The duty which devolves upon us, in meeting the fortunes and trials which are before us, is to keep up the standard of public virtue which they established.
The Military Record of Taunton :- The first military order issued in Taunton was given in 1639, and was to the effect that "Capt. Pole exercise the inhabitants in armes." That order having been issued to an infant colony, the natu- ral result, of course, has been that babes in Taunton have been exercised in arms ever since. The next notable military order (of which I care now to speak,) was when Brig. Gen'l and Judge David Cobb cried aloud near the court house steps, "I will sit as Judge or die as General." . The result of that has been that a kernel from the same Cobb has cried aloud in the court house ever since, or at least for the last generation.
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