USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Barnstable > Report of proceedings of the tercentenary anniversary of the town of Barnstable, Massachusetts > Part 6
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Like most of the first settlers Cobb was a farmer who turn- ed his hand to any kind of work needed. Probably he was both carpenter and mason, for he built two houses in Scitu- ate and several, including this fortification one, here in Barn- stable. I think of him as a short, stocky, blue-eyed and sandy haired man, very silent, affectionate but not demonstrative, an indifferently good leader but a responsible, self-obliter- ating, devotedly loyal second, a man with little imagination but with solid common sense. Needless to say I am indulging imagination I deny him. Turning to assured fact, he was active in Town affairs, often a deputy to the General Court, and throughout his life in Barnstable a church official-a deacon till 1670, and after that a ruling elder.
It would be interesting, very, to know just how much the church, at first all-powerful in the Colony, dominated the community from year to year. Less and less, for the colonists
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who came after the Pilgrims were less and less actuated by religious motives. Lothrop, coming fourteen years after, when ships were passing to and fro continuously, met with opposition and disrespect in both Scituate and Barnstable. In both places he had loyal support from Cobb. Cobb, pre- sumably, had come to America with James Hurst and Hurst's daughter Patience to escape what he thought religious perse- cution. He is said to have been in Plymouth by 1628, but on what basic authority I have not discovered. He is recorded a freeman there in 1633. In 1634 he and his first wife, Patience Hurst, were two of twelve who joined Lothrop in establish- ing a church at Scituate. Seven of those twelve moved to Barnstable; he and his wife, Anthony Annable and his, Henry Rowley and his, and Richard Foxwell. All seven had pretty certainly been members of the London church, but all had left England well ahead of Lothrop ; the Annables eleven years ahead. This means that the Annables left before Loth- rop became pastor of the London church. Facts seem to in- dicate that Lothrop came to America pretty much alone except for his family, and that only a small proportion of his Scituate congregation had known him in England. He was made pastor of the Scituate church in January, 1635; and Cobb became its first deacon in December of that year. Probably more than anyone else Cobb was Lothrop's right hand man.
In England Lothrop and Cobb were radicals. In America they became conservatives, striving to solidify and perpetu- ate the church of their personal faith. Though tolerant when compared with the Salem Puritans they were doubtless thought intolerant by the more radical of the rising genera- tion; for tolerance is relative. They believed their way the narrow and the only way to the Kingdom of Heaven, and anyone departing from it damned hopelessly to everlasting torture in the fires of a material Hell. Believing this sincere- ly and earnestly, they would have been inhuman had they not been intolerant. Neither of them could have had the slightest desire to foster religious freedom; but by insisting on it for themselves they, and others like them, put the door ajar. Succeeding generations have forced it wide open to our inestimable benefit. Henry Cobb died in 1679, a very old man who must have been much troubled by the trend of the times.
Shakespeare was alive when Lothrop was over thirty. Con- ditions of life and habits of thought have changed greatly since then, but human nature has not. Old age was and is
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naturally intolerant, rebellious youth inevitably so; and al- ways the self-conscious liberal has been militantly illiberal. Humanity, tossed on a sea of violent cross currents, driven back and forth by conflicting tides of conservatism and radi- calism, is moving forward slowly, steering as best it can through centuries of birth and death. Some of the present dying generation are fearful for the future now as Henry Cobb and his fellow churchmen were in their day. They must remember that history repeats itself. Honoring our ancestors. with gratitude for the past, we can also take pride in our offspring, confident of the future.
Captain John Gorham
A BRONZE TABLET set on a natural stone boulder, marking the home of Captain John Gorham was dedicated at 4 p.m. on Monday, August 21st. It is situated in front of the old Gorham house in Cummaquid, now owned by a Gorham descendant, Dr. Gorham Bacon. The house is the original Gorham homestead, built by Captain John, considerably re- modeled through the years. The tablet's inscription reads:
This House Was Originally Built in 1660 By Capt. John Gorham 1621-1676 It Was Enlarged And Remodeled In 1745 Captain Gorham Died From A Wound Received In "The Great Swamp Fight" In King Philips War Barnstable Tercentenary 1939
Alfred Crocker introduced the speaker at this dedication, Henry C. Kittredge, vice-rector of St. Paul's School, Con- cord, N. H., and a summer resident of Barnstable. Mr. Kit- tredge presented Gorham Bacon Harper, Jr., of New York a lineal descendant of Captain John Gorham, and a great- great-grandson of Dr. Bacon, who unveiled the tablet.
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DEDICATORY ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE UNVEILING OF THE TABLET MARKING THE HOME OF CAPTAIN JOHN GORHAM BY HENRY C. KITTREDGE
Ours is the age of the specialist ; and in a society so highly organized as ours, specialization is inevitable and on the whole convenient. But there is danger that, never having experienced anything else, we shall come to believe that this is the only way of life. How wrong such an opinion is will appear if we take the trouble from time to time to glance at the lives of our ancestors who settled this town of Barn- stable and brought it through the precarious years of its youth into security and permanence. These men were not specialists ; if they had been, the town would have perished. They were jacks of all trades (and masters of a good many of them) and a proper time to remind ourselves of this fact is the three hundredth birthday of the town which they settled. Few men, furthermore, did more in their generation to bring Barnstable from an experimental outpost of prog- ress into an organized town than John Gorham, whose mem- ory we are met today to honor. His was not a long life, but it was an active and a varied one, and its activity and va- riety did much for civilization on Cape Cod.
John Gorham was born in England in 1621 and came to Plymouth with his father when he was sixteen. At twenty- two he married Desire Howland and a year or two later moved to Marshfield, where the inhabitants showed their opinion of his character by electing him constable. He stayed in Marshfield for six or seven years, and in 1652, when he was thirty-one, he moved to what was then Yarmouth but later became a part of Barnstable. Here he bought a hun- dred acre farm, the very ground on which we are now assem- bled, and here our particular interest in him begins, for he immediately showed the breadth of interest and the diversity of talent which proved to be of such value to the new settle- ment,-new in the strictest use of the word: the town was just thirteen years old when Gorham arrived.
To operate a farm as large as his, would, it might be sup- posed, be as much as one man would want to undertake, particularly since he kept a very large part of it under cul- tivation, and within a year or two bought seventeen acres more, some of it marsh from which he got salt hay for his cattle. But Gorham was not satisfied. He built and operated a tannery down by the Mill Pond, where he cured his own cow-hides, and, finding, like all early settlers, that mills
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DEDICATION OF THE GORHAM TABLET-Henry C. Kittredge (the speaker), Dr. Gorham Bacon, Alfred Crocker, Gorham Bacon Har- per, and leaning against the boulder, Gorham Bacon Harper, Jr.
for grinding corn were few and far between, he set up a grist mill of his own close beside his tannery. What these establishments-to say nothing of the annual produce of his farm in corn, and milk and beef-meant to the struggling settlement may easily be imagined. His less prosperous neigh- bors brought their corn to his mill and their hides to his tannery ; his influence grew with his usefulness. With a farm like Gorham's at hand, the settlers could face hard winters without a tremor.
But John Gorham had still other calls on his time and energy ; he was chosen deputy to the General Court at Plym- outh a year after he arrived in Yarmouth; he was made Surveyor of highways; and he was Captain of the local mili- tary company. This commission cost him his life. With his troops he took part in the Swamp Fort fight against the Narragansetts, near North Kingston, Rhode Island, in De- cember, 1675, and he was wounded by a musket ball which shattered his powder horn, blowing fragments of it into his side. The wound would probably not have been fatal if
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Captain Gorham had had proper care and rest, but the bat- tle was followed by a twenty-mile march through snow and darkness back to Wickford. Fatigue and exposure aggra- vated the wound; fever set in, and the Captain died after a six weeks' illness.
Though his death removed from the town of his adoption one of its most valuable citizens, Captain Gorham's children and grand-children carried on his work-albeit in other spheres ; and our gratitude to the Captain is almost as great for the descendants he left as for the work which he did with his own hands. He brought his town permanence ; they gave it prosperity. Chief among them we remember his grandson and namesake, John Gorham, who became the leading mer- chant of Barnstable and one of the town's first owners of vessels. Early in the eighteenth century, he built a wharf at the foot of Scudder's Lane, from which he sent cod-fisher- men to the Grand Banks, and outfitted occasional whalers as well. Some of the fares of fish were salted on Labrador beaches and carried direct to the West Indies, whence the little vessels returned to Barnstable with cargoes of rum and molasses; and thus Gorham gradually built up an ex- tensive fishing and coasting business which gave occupation to scores of Barnstable men. John Gorham died a few years before the Revolutionary War began, but his grandson, Stur- gis Gorham, carried on the business after him and became, like his grandfather, the principal merchant and one of the wealthiest men in Barnstable.
Another of old Captain John Gorham's descendants is of particular importance to us today-a young lady named Desire T. Gorham. She was born in 1793, and with the going on of time, she married a rising young shipmaster of Barn- stable, named Captain Daniel C. Bacon. This union brought together two of the first families of the town, a pleasant event in itself; but our special interest in it is that their grandson, Dr. Gorham Bacon, is the present owner and occu- pant of a part of Captain John Gorham's original farm (now within the limits of Barnstable) ; and he, like his dis- tinguished ancestor, is a leading citizen of the town. Where could a commemorative boulder to Captain John Gorham be more appropriately placed than here, where we are assem- bled, on the lawn in front of Dr. Bacon's house ? And who could more appropriately unveil it than his great-grandson, Gorham Bacon Harper, who, though perhaps the youngest, is certainly not the least important, of those gathered here
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this afternoon. This young gentleman will now come for- ward and conclude the present ceremony by removing the veil from the tablet on the boulder so that all may read it.
The First Settlers of Centerville
A BRONZE TABLET on a natural boulder, flanked by two new- ly planted English beech trees, was dedicated in memory of the first settlers of Centerville, in ceremonies commencing at 12 noon Sunday, July 30th. The memorial is situated on the lawn of the Centerville Public Library. The inscription reads:
1639 1939 Barnstable Tercentenary These Two Trees Were Respectfully Dedicated on July 30 By The Residents of Centerville In Memory of the First Settlers Of the Village of Chequaquet Known Since 1834 As The Village of Centerville
The dedicatory program immediately followed the Ter- centenary service in South Congregational Church, beside the memorial. James F. Mclaughlin introduced the Rev. John A. Douglas who acted as chairman of the exercises. Mr. Douglas introduced Elisha Bacon Worrell of Center- ville and Boston, who delivered the address. As its inscrip- tion shows, the tablet marks two young English beech trees which in time will surely add beauty to the village center. After the dedicatory address flowers were laid on the mem- orial by two small children, Priscilla Belknap and Stanley Crosby, who also presented bouquets to several of Center- ville's oldest residents, gathered for this occasion.
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DEDICATION OF CENTERVILLE TABLET-Elisha B. Worrell of Boston and Centerville delivering the dedicatory address before a large assembly.
DEDICATORY ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE UNVEILING OF THE TABLET TO CENTERVILLE'S EARLY SETTLERS BY ELISHA B. WORRELL
(Mr. Worrell's address, delivered without notes, was set down by him later substantially as delivered. He selected three important phases of community life : the Church, the School, the Public Spirited citizen, and spoke on three Centerville citizens of former times who by ability, char- acter and experience, well represent these phases of community life).
THE CHURCH
The Rev. Elisha Bacon was an outstanding personality in the line of devoted ministers serving the Centerville church. Not only through his influence did many jon the church, but he counseled and advised on family and community matters as the logical outcome of his sincere, manly charac- ter and fine intelligence. A native of Maine, in early youth deciding on obtaining a full education, though knowing the essential money must be personally earned, he went steadily forward overcoming all obstacles as they arose. Of strong convictions, his gracious personality allowed these frank expression, without creating antagonism.
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It was said of Mr. Bacon that he knew and called about every person in Centerville by their first name, yet in so doing never lost his personal dignity. Many years after his death a local business man said to me, "Mr. Bacon could ask one to do some needed act for the church, yet so kind- ly and naturally make the request one almost felt it a favor to one's self to comply."
After concluding his pastorate, Mr. Bacon opened and for years successfully conducted a private school. Here many boys fitted for college. Some of Boston's well known business men were graduates of this school. The writer, then a very small boy, dimly recalls the fact of Mr. Bacon's death, which occurred about the time of the outbreak of the Civil War.
I will close these remarks on "The Church" by giving a word picture of its Sabbath program, sixty-five years ago, in Centerville village. It consisted of preaching service at 10 :45 a.m. and again at 2 p.m .; Sabbath school at 12 o'clock; evening service at 7:30 o'clock. This final service, for the people to participate in, was called "conference meeting" and was especially for prayer and testimony. The minister spoke briefly, then threw the meeting open. Many of those participating had been for years under the influence and training of Mr. Bacon. The singing of gospel hymns by the big audience led by Mr. Asa Stevens was inspiring. Those speaking always included Deacon Samuel Crosby, and ac- companying his earnest words, tears would wet his cheeks. As Mr. Alvan Crosby spoke, his face would be radiant. Cap- tain John F. Cornish seldom spoke, but his rich singing voice was valued asset in the service. I must not forget Mr. William Crosby, whose prayer always contained two words, repeatedly spoken, viz: "Heavenly Parent." Why did the testimonials and prayers of these and other participants, with the singing, make so deep impress and bring the crowd every week? Sincerity, genuineness, is the only answer! These people like millions of others, had drank from that Fountain of Living Water which will never run dry !
THE SCHOOL
The records at the New England Historic Genealogical Society Library, Boston, state that three pioneer Richard- son brothers came from England, one in 1634 and two in 1635. They were soon known as deeply interested in educa- tion, good citizenship and the Christian church. They were Puritans. Both Pilgrims and Puritans, dissatisfied with the
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mother church, differed as to their duty in the premises. The Puritan attitude was, "Stay and purify the church from within"; while the Pilgrim decision was, "Leave and begin on a new basis."
We are especially interested in Thomas Richardson, the youngest of the three brothers and who came in 1635, be- cause the same genealogical authority previously quoted states that, "in the fifth generation from Thomas, was born John Richardson, who in 1795 went direct from Harvard College to Centerville, Massachusetts, opening there the first advanced school on Cape Cod." While it is impossible now to find details of a school in session 145 years ago, some important facts of teacher and family will be related, also of an outstanding teacher fully seventy years later. In 1799 Mr. Richardson married Miss Hannah Lewis of Cen- terville, daughter of Deacon Edward Lewis. As time went on, seven children were born, four sons and three daugh- ters. As time continued, all married, the youngest daughter being the mother of the speaker. Two sons became notable sea-captains. Captain Ephraim Richardson was in the Ore- gon and China trade, while Captain Josiah Richardson, be- fore the days of steam, did a large passenger business to and from Europe and commanded the two famous clipper ships, "Staghound" and "Staffordshire." Mr. Henry C. Kittredge in his well known book treating of Cape Cod shipmasters, gives prominent place to Captain Josiah Rich- ardson.
Following his marriage, Schoolmaster John Richardson, possessed of an instinctive love of nature, bought several acres of land in so-called "Phinney's Lane," which was then a leading section of Centerville. The land ran from the county highway clear over to Long Pond, embracing several acres. He kept a cow, hens, a pig, and a flock of sheep. Soon he set out a large orchard which for very many years bore abundantly. The only member of that orchard now remaining is a walnut tree which is still beautiful. The sheep were a source of very definite profit, which was need- ed for a big, vigorous family on a school teacher's limited income.
My mother told me much of her father's habits and ex- periences. He kept a detailed record of every branch of the estate, doing so in Latin and Greek, that all outside the family could learn nothing. She also told me that clergy- men from far and near called, because of his Harvard con- nection. One of the modern inventions in youth training,
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as to church attendance, is this, viz: If the youth prefers staying home on the Sabbath, let him, for if you compel church attendance, at maturity the church will be totally neglected. This illustration now given proves an opposite result. John Richardson was a Puritan, and on those lines reared his children. The church in early days was in Phin- ney's Lane, quite near. Sunday preaching service was somewhat irregular, however. It was established as a work- ing principle that when Centerville had no Sunday preach- ing service, all the children, girls and boys, must walk to Barnstable, four miles-both ways being eight miles-to attend there the morning preaching service.
What was the life result of this Puritan training ? Why those girls and boys furnished examples of splendid loyalty to the church when and after maturity was reached. Cap- tain Ephraim retired from Pacific ocean business when about fifty years of age, and I well remember his splendid loyalty to the morning and afternoon preaching services, at the home church. Captain Josiah held every morning, de- votional service in the cabin of his ship, to which passen- gers were welcome. Also, when on shore he gave occasional religious addresses in Sunday schools, in whose work he was much interested.
In closing these remarks on "The School" I must mention one very worthy teacher among many. Eugene Toppan for some years, about 1870, was unique in his original methods, all embedded in devotion to the very best interests of pupils. Occasionally he would stop regular work and give a practi- cal talk to the school. He taught in the church Sunday school, also, and was from every standpoint an ideal citi- zen. He married a daughter of Captain Lewis Crosby, be- came a lawyer, and for some years prior to his death was member of a Boston firm of attorneys.
I do not recall the author of the following statement, but its sentiment is indeed beautiful, and fittingly concludes my remarks on "The School"-"The Town Meeting and the Public Common School, two institutions created by the Early Fathers, were, next to the Bible, God's greatest gift to civilization."
THE PUBLIC SPIRITED CITIZEN
I believe the average citizen of our village conversant with its life for a large part of the nineteenth century, if asked, "What one man stood out as actively public spirit- ed ?" would at once reply, "F. G. Kelley." His first name,
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"Ferdinand," was rarely spoken. For very many years he was town clerk and treasurer, postmaster, justice of the peace and director in the Hyannis bank. He wrote wills and settled estates, also conducted, as owner, an up-to-date country store which included in its stock groceries, dry- goods, boots and shoes, hardware, farming tools, etcs. As a boy, in my 'teens, I was with him for five years and gladly testify to his sagacity, honesty and promptness in perform- ing every duty. It was a liberal business education for a developing boy to be thus associated for several years. No portion of his tireless energy I am sure was more satisfac- torily employed than in planning improvements for Cen- terville.
Repeatedly Mr. Kelley spoke of the three cornered tract of land lying east of where the Hyannis and Phinney's Lane roads meet, and that a lovely park could be created out of that acre of land (more or less). The lovely park exists there now, created by money supplied by Mr. Howard Mar- ston, and called "Mother's Park," in honor of Howard's mother, a very gracious lady as all who knew her realize. But my point is, and it detracts not an atom from How- ard's generosity, that Father-in-law F. G. Kelley, out of his eager and tireless planning for Centerville improvement, without any doubt suggested the park idea! When the new schoolhouse was to be built and the location talked of not thought to be proper, it was chiefly F. G. Kelley, who worked tirelessly in arousing public protest, and how ad- mirable is now the changed location !
Centerville Beechwood Cemetery is preeminently leader among village cemeteries throughout New England. Very many of our citizens have splendidly contributed to its beauty and impressiveness. But it was F. G. Kelley who, some generations ago, sensing the need for an improved resting place for our loved and honored dead, engaged a landscape gardener of Boston to visit Centerville and at its present location lay out a plan for what might be, if the village citizens so decided-as they did-a future ideal cemetery.
A leading charm of Centerville is its tree bordered main street. Some regard it as unequalled on the Cape. Here are facts as to its history. For a long time, in earlier years, realizing the need for street tree planting, Mr. Kelley called on his neighbor across the street, Mr. Gorham Crosby, to discuss the matter. Mr. Crosby cordially cooperated in every way. Ample funds were provided by general subscriptions
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and all know the successful outcome. From that time on, Mr. Kelley first talked with this same good neighbor when any village improvement was required and he always promptly cooperated, as did others. It is this spirit of good will which is so splendid and which characterizes the en- tire Cape Cod area when worthwhile things are needed be- ing accomplished. Mr. Kelley left us soon after the 20th cen- tury opened. Other good citizens are now following where he so faithfully led the way.
In closing, I must mention one great charm of Cape Cod which I fear many do not comprehend-its both tonic and healing atmosphere, washed as its shores are by four salt seas while health and vigor ever exude from its vast acre- age of pitch pines which grow everywhere. The chief and abiding charm of Cape Cod, however, is its prosperous vil- lages, its homes built from modern times back to Pilgrim days, with its architecture, whether modest or more pre- tentious, all reflecting self respect and good citizenship.
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