USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Kingston > Report of the proceedings and exercises at the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Kingston, Mass. : June 27, 1876 > Part 2
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It is well for us, at the invitation of such a day as this, to review the past. We stand upon an elevated table-land. From the sunimit of one hundred and fifty years we may look around us as from a hill of observation. Leave this village, with its shaded streets and quiet life, cross the bridge whose double arches span the Jones River, turn sharp to the right, bearing to the left after you have crossed a shallow trout - brook, and then follow the sandy road through thickets mur- murous with insect life, through pine woods with the fragrance of balsam in their breath, skirting the shore of Smelt Pond. stopping a moment, if you please, to notice the easy, graceful sweep of an eagle that, startled from some resting-place, lifts himself on mighty pinions, as if he scorned the earth, into the blue of the heavens, and then, almost breaking your way through serub-oak and birches and alder bushes, climb the narrow path whose sharp ascent brings you to the summit of
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Monk's Hill. Now look about yon ! Yon turn almost instinc- tively to the ocean, but look landward. Far down into the valley, far away to the horizon, south and west, stretches for miles and miles an untravelled wilderness. It needs no extray- agant fancy to imagine that thus it looked a hundred and fifty years ago. Whatever changes may have happened, from the woodman's axe or the besom of fire, it indicates sufficiently well the wilderness of long years ago. You see no indication of human life. There are shaded woods where the Indian to-day might live, and coverts where the timid deer may hide. With any thought of the past in our mind, we cannot fail to be impressed with its lonely and untamed solitude. Turn now so that the wilderness shall be at your back; look down the sloping sides of the noble hill, see the mirror-like brightness and beauty of the pond at its foot; then look beyond, far away across the broad, blue expanse of the level bay, till your eyes touch the bold headlands of Cape Cod, - the clenched fist on the forearm of Massachusetts, stretched ont to hold back the mighty surges of the Atlantic, and to give to Massa- chusetts Bay and Plymouth harbor their first grand break- water. Under the shelter of those headlands, within the security of that mighty arm, that compact for just and equal law's was written and subscribed for the "general" good and " in the name of God," by John Carver and his associates, Nov. 11, 1620, on board the Mayflower. The waves that break to-day upon these shores do not cease to echo the mem- ory of that devoted company of God-fearing and heroic men and women.
This side the bay, you see the sharp, needle-like beach set before the town of Plymouth, which is itself veiled from om sight by the woodlands back of it. To the right are the pine- clad hills of Manomet ; to the left, beyond the beach, the shores
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of the Gurnet; this side of it. Saquish and Clarke's Island - the latter named after the mate of the Mayflower; still farther to the left is Captain's Point and the hill on which stands the monument erected to the memory of Miles Standish ; between the shore at our feet and Captain's Hill we see the mouth of Jones River and can catch glimpses of the river as we follow it up till we see our beautiful village embowered in trees and admirably situated on a high and level plateau. If you look beyond our village you can catch glimpses of Duxbury and Marshfield and so follow the coast-line along, till turning to the north we see the range of Blue Hills in Milton and Dorchester.
A hundred years ago Monk's Hill was one of the beacon hills from which flashed the intelligence which, leaving the coast below, travelled by a well-defined series of beacon heights, till the Blue Hills brightened with their fires. Now we look over a peaceful country. The bay is whitened here and there with the sails of adventurous commerce. The land, in solitary homes and in clustering villages, gives indication of careful thrift and sober prosperity. From the wilderness at the back of us of one hundred and fifty years ago we may look from the hill of observation the present gives us, on scenes of comfort in multiplied homes and on the light of a future promise brighter and more cheerful than any beacon-fire of the past.
While we accept the sober worth of the present and its bril- liant promise of a future with gratitude and exultation, we look back to the past with unfeigned admiration for its heroic fortitude and persistent energy. We cannot fail to notice the record it gives of facts which ennoble individual lives and indi- cate the majestic steps by which Divine Providence has led New England and the American people to the proud eminence occupied to-day.
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I have referred already to the settlement of Plymouth. It is fitting we especially should keep it in mind. We can claim with peculiar appropriateness an inheritance in its wealth of renown. Some of the most respectable of the original colo- nists settled within the present limits of this town, such as Gov. Bradford, - or if that is disputed, certainly his son Major Bradford, at one time deputy governor of the colony, did live in the north part of the town, - Mr. Allerton, Dr. Fuller, Francis Cooke, Mr. Hanburg, Thomas Cushman, and others. Moreover at the very commencement of that settlement the project was entertained of making the site of this town the permanent locality for the colony. In Bradford and Wilson's Journal" we read that the day after the landing of the Pilgrims, a com- pany was sent out to view the land. "We found," says the Journal, " a creek, and went up three English miles, a very pleasant river at full sca." This river was our Jones River, so named from the master of the Mayflower. "This place," the Journal goes on to record, "we had a great liking to plant in, but it was so far from our fishing, our principal profit, and so encompassed with woods, that we should be in much danger of the salvages ; and our number being so little, and so much ground to clear. So we thought good to quit and [not] clear that place till we were of more strength."
Fifteen years later, at the Colony Court held in March, per- sons were appointed "to confer on re-uniting with them at Duxborrow at Jones River, or at such place as shall be most convenient." Later in the same month, so the record informs us there was another meeting of the court and "after much con- ference about the neerer uniting of Plymouth and those on Dux- borrough side, divers were appointed to view Jones his river and Morton's hole which were thought the fittest places and to
*See Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, Chap. 10.
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render a reason for their judgment." The commission of conference thus authorized by the court consisted of five from Plymouth and five from Duxbury, and all but one met in coun- cil. They came to no unanimous conclusion, "seven of the said nine," says the record, " holding Jones River to be the fittest place for the uniting both places into a neerer society and there build a meeting-house and town. And the two preferred Morton's hole before Jones River. Afterwards the governor and council summoned said persons deputed as before had done and read their reasons of their judgement, and after long debating of the thing it was at length referred to the two churches on each side as churches to agree upon and end the same."* There is no record of any meeting of the churches " as churches," and so far as appears the whole matter was suffered to drop by mutual consent. It is thus evident, from the evidence cited, that this locality was prominently before the colony as a place for the principal and permanent settlement. Aside from any such consideration, however, we claim partnership in the renown which is so justly given to Plymouth, since it was not until nearly a century had past after the colony was founded that any separation took place between it and us. Social and civil rights, educational and religious privileges, were common to both. At last, in 1716, those living near Jones River took measures to secure an independent existence as a town. Their petition was not granted. Prominent and influential men were selected, however, to appear at the general court and advocate the cause of the petitioners, and one year later this place was set off as Jones River parish. For awhile this was satisfactory, but at last the people were aggrieved by unsuitable school and church accommodations, and after a good deal of carnest debate, com- missioners were appointed to view the locality, and it was finally
*Old Col. Rec. Ct. orders 1. 90.
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decided that Jones River parish should be set off and incorpo- rated as a town. This was in 1726. The first name proposed for the town was Asburton, but was not approved .* Lient .- Gov. Dummer proposed Kingston, which was adopted.
The spirit of independence which led to the organization of the town was not peculiar. It was a legitimate expression of the principles advocated by the colony in its establishment, and it became common throughout the State. Indeed, the more we study succeeding events in the history of the country, the more important this town spirit will appear. We cannot emphasize too greatly its influence in encouraging and disci- plining public patriotism. I ask your especial attention to it even at the risk of some repetition. We admire a river whose majestic current sweeps through the varying scenery of an extensive territory. The grand lines of a mountain are mir- rored on its surface to-day, to-morrow the same waters glide sweetly through cultivated fields or picturesque woodlands ; now it broadens into a lake peaceful as the blue heavens above it, and now restrains its flood till it shall wake the voice of the thunder as it pours its mighty volume over some Niagara height ; now its smooth surface is so gentle that only a pas- toral beauty slumbers in its embrace, and now it lifts up the freightage of a State, and bears a noble fleet upon its swelling bosom. Yet the river, deep and broad and strong as it may be, has been gathered ont of country rivalets and from springs that have bubbled up under the cool shadows of distant forests. From such sources it feeds its tide. The sea may let its surges sound the praises of the river, but the river minst sing in every wave the praises of the hills. After a similar fashion we judge the beneficence and anthority of the State. The nation is strong in the union of the States, but cach State receives the
*Mass. Hist. Coll. 2 Series, Vol. III, p. 168.
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vital current of its strength from the separate towns and vil- lages set upon the hill-tops or nestled in the valleys. This commonwealth is second to none in the nation. Its industry and valor, its enterprise and virtue, deserve our admiration and respect. He must be a degenerate son of Massachusetts who does not thank God that he can claim by birth or by adop- tion this noble old commonwealth as his home. There is no distinction more honorable than to have been born in Massachu- setts, especially in that part of Massachusetts embraced by the old Plymouth Colony, and to be worthy of such birth. Yet the high estimation in which the State is to be held has been achieved by the independent spirit of the separate communities of which the State is composed. We cannot understand and appreciate the honorable and patriotic position Massachusetts held prior to and during the war of the Revolution without studying the character, the life, the fame of individual towns. It is not the province of this address even to review the canses, the complaints, the repeated aggravations which stirred up so much bitter controversy, so much personal recrimination and hatred, resulting in so long-continued and wasting a war as that of a hundred years ago. I simply desire you to take notice that the spirit which induced Kingston to demand independence as a town was the same spirit prevalent throughout all towns in all the colonies, and to take notice, also, that this same spirit made Kingston, as it made other towns, loyal to freedom, ready in support of public affairs, brave and resolute in opposition to the encroachinents of the royalists. For this reason it had no sympathy with those who were satisfied with the British mile and desired to submit with slavish ignominy to British insults. For this reason this entire colony gave no unmistakable intima- tion to those who were disobedient to the high commandment of freedom and manhood that their absence would be more
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acceptable than their presence. A single instance will illus- trate this better than any argument, and show the extreme feel- ing existing between the Tories and the Whigs, the first being the declared adherents of the crown, the other the vigorous defenders of American liberties. For it is to be remarked, we must look back of Lexington and Concord to greet the first movements of life that gave birth to American liberties. It is not enough to study the history of battle-fields, where the yeoman strength of our fathers met in open conflict with the hirelings of the British crown. You must look over the records of town life. There were indications of the coming struggle long months and years before the first angry blaze of a musket flashed its threat or the sound of a cannon echoed among our hills ; Whigs and Tories were arrayed against each other; there were public controversies ; there were acrimonious conflicts in social life. The large majority of Tories were out- side Plymouth Colony. The same spirit which in religious matters made Plymouth Colony refuse to sign the circular * sent from the Massachusetts Colony, recommending capital pun- ishment for worshipping God in a different form from their own, made Plymouth Colony almost unanimous in defence of civil liberty. Yet the following incident will show that they were sufficiently earnest in punishing what was deemed an infringement of social and civil rights. I give it as I find it in Sabine's Loyalists of the American Revolution. t
"Jesse Dunbar, of Halifax, bought some cattle of a man- damus councillor in 1774 and drove them to Plymouth for sale. The Whigs soon learned with whom Dunbar had presumed to deal, and after he had slaughtered, skinned, and hung up one of the beasts, commenced punishing him for the offence. Ilis
* Meinorials of Marshfieldl, by Marcia A. Thomas, p. 47.
t Vol. I, Art. Jesse Dunbar.
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tormentors, it appears, put the dead ox in a cart, and fixing Dunbar in his belly, carted him four miles, and required him to pay one dollar for the ride. He then was delivered over to a Kingston mob, who carted him four other miles, and exacted another dollar. A Duxbury mob then took him, and after beating him in the face with the creature's tripe, and endeav- oring to cover his person with it, carried him to Councillor Thomas's house and compelled him to pay a further sum of money. Flinging his beef into the road, they now left him to recover and return as he couldl."
The hostility between Whigs and Tories was reported .to be so wide-spread and bitter, notwithstanding order-loving people might have discountenanced any such expression of it, that Gen. Gage determined to send an armed force into the colony. This indignity was felt so sensibly and public sentiment was so greatly roused, that on Feb. 7, 1775, the selectmen of Kings- ton, in conjunction with those of Plymouth, Duxbury, Pom- broke, Hanson, and Scituate signed a remonstrance protesting against it .* The Massachusetts Provisional Congress warmly approved of. this procedure, and on the 15th of the month passed a special vote by which these towns were bidden, as the record reads, "steadily to persevere in the same line of con- duet, which has, in this instance, so justly entitled them to the esteem of their countrymen ; and to keep a watchful eye upon the behavior of those who are aiming at the destruction of our liberties."
Kingston did " persevere in the same line of conduct." She encouraged the loyal spirit already manifested, and prepared for the crisis which was near at hand. Some of her most prominent and energetic citizens, for instance, recruited a
* See Journal of Second Provincial Congress, under date Feb. 15, 1775.
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company of minute men, commanded by Capt. Peleg Wads- worth, afterwards commissioned as general. The eager, devoted patriotism prevalent at that time throughout the colony, is well illustrated by an anecdote told of a member of a minute company, in a town originally embraced within the boundaries of Plymouth Colony. "In the front rank there was a young man, the son of a respectable farmer, and his only child. In marching from the village, as they passed his house, he came out to meet them. There was a momen- tary halt. The drum and fife paused for an instant. The father, suppressing a strong and evident emotion, said, 'God be with you all my friends ! and, John, if you, my son, are called into battle, take care that you behave like a man, or else let me never see your face again.' The march was resumed, while a tear started into every eye."*
We need not go outside our own record, however, to catch the spirit of the times. We are honored to-day, in the person of onr historian, with the presence of a great grandson of Seth Drew, who served as lieutenant of the company of Kingston men to which reference has been made. He was a ship-builder, and on the day when the news of the battle of Lexington reached the old colony, he was at work with his adze in the ship-yard. Without a moment's hesitation he called his brother James, gave his tools into his charge, and took his place in the ranks, and for more than eight years was prominently engaged in the war which gave us our nationality. At Roxbury during the battle of Bunker Hill, at Dorchester Heights when the Brit- ish evacuated Boston, he served under the noble-hearted patriot and soldier, Gen. John Thomas. He was in the forefront of the battle at Saratoga when Burgoyne surrendered, and at Tren- ton, Momnonth, and on the Hudson River during that memora-
* Tudor's Life of Otis.
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ble campaign. He was one of the court martial detailed to try Joshua Hett Smith as an accomplice of Major Andre, and in various services distinguished himself as a soldier and civil- inn. In the war of 1812 the Government appointed him to oversee the fortifications on the Gurnet and at Fairhaven and New Bedford. When the Society of the Cincinnati was formed he became a prominent member .* He was commissioned a Justice of the Peace, held the office for many years of post- master and collector, and was deservedly esteemed by his fel- low-citizens. He died at the advanced age of seventy-seven, in May, 1824.
There were other officers and men whose names are treasured in the annals of this town, such as Hezekiah Ripley, Crocker Sampson, and James Sever. The last named was a boy when the war broke out. At the close of the war in 1783 he was only twenty-two years old; yet he had won promotion, and held the honorable position of ensign, or of color-sergeant as that office is now called.
In such a spirit and by such men Kingston helped the cause of the Revolution. She furnished for the army, sixty men, f her full quota, contributed generously to the common supply. She gave under call of the Provincial Congress, convened at Watertown, May 31, 1775, thirty-eight coats as her proportion for the Massachusetts troops, and paid at one time more than $10,000 of the currency of the time for less than six months' service of a single soldier. In May, 1779, a committee was chosen " to examine the militia record and make a fair list of what services each person has done personaliy or by their
* In the history of this Society is this testimony to his character and worth : " Distinguished for activity of mind as well as of body, he sustained also the reputation of a brave and discreet officer, and merited and received the approbation and esteem of all with whom he associated."
t Sce Win. T. Davis's Address, Supra.
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money since June 1778." A list of such persons was reported, and the amount was as follows : -
£ sd
For the Continental service . 267 3 4
For the secret expedition. 177 0 0
For other purposes
73 10 0
Total 517 13 4
It may be well to state, in estimating the ten-thousand- dollar bounty referred to, that at one period a silver dollar would purchase one hundred in paper. Thacher, in his History of Plymouth, tells us that "a farmer sold a cow in the spring for $40 and in the next autumn paid the whole sum for a goose for Thanksgiving dinner."
In 1777 Kingston, together with Plymouth and Duxbury, built and manned a fort at the Gurnet. It is fitting I should mention another name which made the pages of our history brilliant during the Revolutionary War, -that of Gen. John Thomas. He was born in Marshfield in 1724, but after pur- suing the study of medicine he settled in this town and is claimed among the number of her honored citizens. Our his- torian will, without doubt, make detailed reference to him. It is therefore unnecessary for me to say more than this, that he was held in high esteem not only by the people of this com- monwealth, but throughout the colonies. He was so beloved by the army, so distinguished as a soldier, that he was honored by the personal solicitations of George Washington and Gen. Charles Lee and by special vote of the House of Representa- tives at Watertown, July 22, 1775, to induce him to retain his military command, notwithstanding he had been superseded, through the ill-advised action of the National Congress, by offi-
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cers who had served under him. That action was rectified, and Gen. Thomas served to the satisfaction of all until his lamented death from small-pox in Canada, June 2, 1776 .*
Such men as those I have named, such events as those sug- gested, may serve to indicate the temper of the times and the steadfast resolution which braced the people of these colonies . to deeds of enduring renown. Let it be understood that we cannot measure the personality of any man by his immediate individual life, that we cannot describe or assign honor to any deed by simply comparing it, as it stands alone and at first, with other deeds acknowledged to be famous. The measure of a man is discovered in the influence he has upon his fellows, and in the inspiration his character and life give to succeeding generations ; and the importance of a deed is to be told by its ultimate effect upon the destiny of a nation and the fortunes of a people. Under such law as this men like Thomas and . Wadsworth and Drew and Sampson and others whose names are familiar in our annals are to be honored because they helped originate and increase and preserve that mighty spirit of loyalty to human rights and liberties, which, as the winds of heaven by the sceptre of their breath make forest trees bow before them, swayed the thoughts, fired the zeal, gathered up into heroic courage the hearts of men who followed their lead and wrought valiantly for God and the right. Under such law the mustering of a minute company in this town, the sharp decision that threw down the carpenter's adze, and said
* The nearest living descendant of Major-Gen. Thomas is Mr. Angustns Thomas, a native of Kingston. It is worthy of note that the use of the broad and open field where the exercises of the day occurred, from which there is an extensive view of the surrounding country and the harbor, was generously and courteously offered by Mr. Thomas to the Committee of Arrangements. In his green old age Mr. Thomas has the satisfaction of knowing that he has won and deserved the hearty respect of his fellow- townsmen.
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farewell to home and peace and love, have a meaning as noble, because fraught with great results, as the gathering together of Caesar's legions or Napoleon's battalions. It was because of the power of manhood back of the man himself and not to be determined by stature or speech ; it was because of the power of manhood back of every squad of men, dressed in homespun and with flint-lock on their shoulders, however awkward it might be, that Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill are names written high up upon the scroll that records deeds done in supreme consecration to liberty and justice for the cause of humanity and the service of God. And it was because this good town helped forward, by its manhood, that war of the Revolution in which renowned deeds were performed and in which such splendid heroism was illustrated, that it deserves our sincere and grateful veneration and applause.
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