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 5
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Sept. 26, 1774, a meeting of the towns of Plymouth County, by their committees or delegates, was held at the tavern of Widow Loring, in Plympton, and John Thomas, Esq., Capt. John Gray, and William Drew were the Kingston delegates. Subsequently, these same gentlemen, with Hon. William Sever,
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Deacon Ebenezer Washburn, Mr. Benjamin Cook, Mr. Peleg Wadsworth, Jedediah Hohnes, and Capt. Joseph Bartlett were chosen the Committee of Correspondence. The minute com- pany was probably formed in 1774, as in the early part of 1775 the town voted "to purchase thirty-three stand of good fire- arms, with all accoutrements suitable to equip thirty-three soldiers." This company was commanded by Capt. Peleg Wadsworth ; Seth Drew was lieutenant, and Joseph Sampson, ensign. As soon as the news of the Lexington battle reached the Old Colony, the Kingston company marched with Col. Cotton's regiment to attack Balfour's regiment of British troops, which was stationed at Marshfield. After arriving there, a conference of officers was held, and Capt. Wadsworth, being dissatisfied with the delay, marched his company to within a short distance of the enemy ; but his numbers were too small to venture an attack, and before any action took place, Balfour conveyed his troops through the Cut River, and when on board the sloops, which were anchored off Brant Rock, sailed for Boston. Thus the Kingston minute company has its place in history.
Of the officers in the Revolutionary army, the most prominent. ones who went from Kingston were Gen. Peleg Wadsworth (a native of Duxbury, but for several years a resident of Kings- ton), Gen. Jno. Thomas, and Major Seth Drew. Gen. Wads- worth distinguished himself by many acts during the war, and finally lived and died in Maine in 1829. Of the eminent ser- vices of Gen. Thomas I need not speak, as they are so well known to all who are acquainted with the early history of the army at Roxbury and Dorchester Heights, and as such honor- able mention has been made of them by the orator on this occa- sion. Major Drew was in the army throughout the whole war, being at Saratoga when Burgoyne surrendered, also at Trenton,
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Monmonth, and in the vicinity of West Point during that mem- orable campaign. He was one of the court-martial appointed to try Joshua Hett Smith, accused of being an accomplice of Major Andre.
Simeon Sampson, the distinguished naval commander, was a native of Kingston. He was appointed by the Provincial Con- gress of Massachusetts the first naval captain in the service, and commanded the brig "Independence," and afterwards the "Mars," both vessels being built at the Kingston Landing. While in the first-named vessel in 1776 he captured five prizes, but was himself soon after taken by Capt. Dawson, after a bloody conflict. March 24, 1777, Samuel Foster, Charles Fos- ter, and Wrestling Brewster were considered internal enemies of the government. The Messrs. Foster were tried by a court in the meeting-house, and both were sent on board a guard-ship in Boston Harbor, where they remained ten months. At this time several persons left town, as they were attached to the royal cause, and it was made very uncomfortable for any one suspected of being a Tory, as he was in constant danger of a coat of tar and feathers by the vigilance committee, to say nothing of the numerous indignities they at times received. At one time, while the British soldiers were stationed in Marshfield, a man by the name of Dunbar carried an ox, which had been slaughtered by a Tory of that town, to Plymouth for the pur- pose of selling it. As soon as the facts were discovered the vigilance committee took the case in hand. Dunbar was put inside of the carcass with the tripe tied around his neck, and in that condition was sent to the committee at Kingston. Ou arriving at the liberty pole here, the contents of the cart were tipped out, and after a sort of demonstration was made, the cart was reloaded and sent to the authorities of Duxbury, where Dunbar was subjected to the same treatment he had previously
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received in this town. He was then taken to the bounds of Marshfield and there left, his escort not caring to risk a contact with the troops stationed there.
Another incident of those times of a different nature will be mentioned in this connection. A certain sea captain, whose sympathies were decidedly with the Royalists, had absented himself from public worship for a long time on account of the revolutionary proelivities of Parson Rand. But it came to his cars that on a certain Sunday the minister would read a procla- mation from the king. This so delighted him that he resolved to attend divine service on that day, and Mr. Rand did read the king's proclamation ; but to the great consternation of the Tory, the minister turned over the document, on the back of which he had written his sermon, containing many severe allu- sions to King George and his advisers in Parliament, and it proved to be a sermon more decided in its political nature than Mr. Rand had ever before preached. He listened to it until he became very angry, then left the house in an excited manner, slamming the pew-door after him and shuffling his feet on the floor as he passed down the aisle. To irritate him a little more, just as he was passing out of the house a member of the congregation cried out to him, " Shet the door arter ye, Cup- tain! " much to the amusement of the audience.
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At a meeting in 1778, William Drew and Nicholas Davis, Jr., were chosen "to purchase articles of clothing, etc., to be sent to the suffering soldiers in the army." On the 14th of March, 1779, the Rev. William Rand, after a faithful ministry of thirty-three years, died suddenly of apoplexy, aged seventy- nine years. In July of the same year Wm. Drew, Esq., was chosen a delegate to attend the convention at Cambridge for framing a new State Constitution. May 22, 1780, the town voted " to coneur with the church in giving Mr. Willis a call to
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the work of the Gospel ministry in this town," his salary to be £80, to be paid partly in Indian corn, rye, pork, beef, etc., at specified prices. A settlement of about £133 was also granted him. He was ordained Oct. 18 of the same year, and continued in the ministry forty-eight years, until he resigned in 1828. He lived until March 6, 1847, when he died in the ninety-first year of his age. The first election of State officers under the new Massachusetts Constitution took place Sept. 4, 1780, and the Kingstou vote for governor was, for Hon. John Hancock, 13, for Hon. James Bowdoin, 12. About this time the paper currency had become so greatly depreciated that no confidence could be placed in its value, for in December $75 per bushel was allowed the soldiers for the corn that was dne them, and in May, 1781, it was voted " to allow Mr. John Fnl- ler's account for £22 10s. old currency, one hard dollar. The ancient burial ground, that was given to the town for a burying place by Major John Bradford in 1721, remained without an enclosure for sixty-six years, when in 1787 a wall was built to protect it. There the remains of most of the founders of the town, with their descendants, in some cases to the number of seven or eight generations, repose, and there, also, rest three of the four carlier ministers (Messrs. Stacey, Rand, and Wil- lis), whose pastorates, with the exception of Mr. Maccarty's three years, extended over a space of abont one hundred and eight years. The earliest inscription there bears the date of Feb. 14, 1718, and down to the year 1800 nine hundred and thirty-five names were inscribed on the gravestones in that old burial place. As many graves have no monument or stone to mark them, the whole mumber buried there can only be imag- ined. Down to the year 1840 this continued to be the only public burying place, but about that time the old ground was enlarged on the northerly side, and since 1854 the beautiful
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Evergreen Cemetery has been connected with this latter por- tion, so that the ancient resting-place of our fathers, with that of the present generation, are still in one enclosure The Hon. William Sever, Esq., was chosen a delegate to the State Con- vention for ratifying the United States Constitution, which was held in January, 1788.
The most remarkable case of longevity in this vicinity was that of Ebenezer Cobb. On the first day of April, 1794, he completed his hundredth year and continued to live until December, 1801, when in his one hundred and eighth year. Being born in 1691, he lived in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. As he was five years old before Mary Allerton, the last of the Pilgrims, died, it makes him the link that connects the Mayflower Pilgrims with the present time, for aged people are now living who recollect of seeing this centenarian; and it is a peculiar pleasure that we have two of that number on the platform here to-day, the venerable Rev. Job Washburn, of Rockport, Me., now in his ninetieth year, who is visiting his native town probably for the last time, on this interesting occasion, and the Hon. Joseph R. Chandler, a distinguished son of Kingston, now a resident of Philadelphia.
The first meeting-house, that had stood for eighty years, was demolished in 1798, and a new one was built that year, which is well remembered by many of us, as it was not taken down until May, 1851, after standing fifty-three years. The present church edifice of the First Congregational Society occupies the same site as the two which preceded it, and some of the timber from the very first building was used in the con- struction of the last.
I did intend before finishing this sketch to notice many things which must be passed over. A mere reference to the
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schools of seventy years ago will doubtless cause many of the aged people of this community to think of their youthful days, when they were instructed by Mr. Martin Parris as he went from one section of the town to the other, and thus in his circuit was teacher of the whole.
A very important business carried on in town in the ancient times and down to within a few years was that of ship build- ing. Vessels were built on Jones River or Stony Brook before 1714. The Stetsons and Drews were builders at a very early date, and the latter family can count back at least six genera- tions who were engaged in the same business.
During the first sixty years of the present century Joseph Holmes built seventy-five or more vessels, while in the same period many others were launched from the yards of the Drews, Bartletts, and Delanos.
CONCLUSION.
Two hundred and fifty-five years have passed since the first settlement of New England at Plymouth, and I have endeav- ored in this imperfect sketch to notice the interesting facts and speak of the most important events that transpired in the vicinity of Jones River for one hundred and seventy-five years of that period. As Kingston has shown so good a record in the years gone by, may we, her children, assembled here to-day, forever honor the old town from whence we sprung, and keep alive the memories of the worthy deeds of our ancestors, so that our children and their descendants may never forget the starting-point of their race, in this good Old Colony town.
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1. The day we celebrate, designated for the public recital of our town history by the Proclamation of Divine Providence.
SPEECH OF HON. GEORGE B. LORING, OF SALEM.
Ladies and Gentlemen, - After the exhaustive and elabo- rate addresses to which we have listened to-day, it would seem as if there were no more to be said with regard to the events which you have met to commemorate. But I have felt that . I should not do justice to my own natural feelings were I to fail in attempting, at least, to perform the part which has been assigned me. This spot is filled with personal interest to my mind. The hero and heroine of this locality, and of that period in history out of which grew the organization of this town, stand at the head of one branch of my own family, and bind me with a strong and tender bond to the people who made these shores immortal. I have always taken especial delight in the personal contest between Miles Standish and John Alden, feeling that the very beginning of my fortune and fate, ay, of life itself was fixed when the valiant captain sur- rendered at the feet of the fair Priscilla Mullins, and John Alden, a successful and triumphant suitor, laid the foundation of that family from which my paternal grandmother sprang, and whose name she bore. The landscape here is the setting to my mind of a picture which I never grow weary in contem- plating. I cannot forget, moreover, that there is an unadjusted account of charity and kindness still open between the colony
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at Plymouth and the colony at Naumkeag, which I now repre- sent, an account created when the Pilgrims sent their wise and learned physician to heal the distemper which broke out among . the followers of John Endicott, and threatened to destroy them. Perhaps I, as a quasi-physician from old Essex, can, on this occasion and at this late day, perform some service here which may be considered a humble and inadequate offset to the debt inenrred by my ancestors.
But more than all this, the town itself in which we have assembled stands in history, to my mind, as a representative spot. The planting of colonies in various ages of the world constitutes one of the most interesting chapters which man is called upon to contemplate. The power of a great nationality manifests itself as much in the quality of the colonies it sends forth as in any more conspicuous step in its carcer. The swarms which poured forth from Greece and Rome to occupy the remote regions of the globe in those carly days, told of the vital force of these great nationalities, and gave them an influence not surpassed by that acquired by their schools and their social and civil organization. It was the principles which the colonies bore with them that indicated the character of the parent stock. Imagine then, if you can, the significance . of a colony whose fountain sprang from the foot of Plymouth Rock. When your ancestors started forth from the immortal colony which settled there, they bore with them the very foundation of our government itself. They carried with them as the ark of their covenant those doctrines of state and society which have enabled our country to endure, and have given a grand significance to this centennial anniversary of our nation's birth. The people who inherited the character of John Carver, the immortal governor, and the philosophy and example of Winslow and Bradford and Brewster have a right
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to a high distinction, unknown to many a more conspienous and imposing nationality. For let it be remembered that the associations which cluster here to-day belong to the immortal events of history,- events which will not be forgotten when the glory of many a conquest shall have faded from the memory of man.
I always contemplate with great pride and satisfaction the work performed by our fathers here, simple and unpretending as it was. The historian of this occasion has told us that in the early days of the colonies, a path was cut through the forest having Plymouth at one end and Boston at the other. Along this rude highway the defiant colonists of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay are said to have travelled in those heroic times, when the solemnity of the primeval forests was a fitting retreat for the serious and determined adventurers, who brought with them from the Old World all the great doctrines of freedom and right upon which to found the New. It was along this path that the advocates of those principles of church and state, which we now enjoy passed along on their sacred errand. Here might have been heard the truth which was thundered from the gallery of the Old South and echoed through Faneuil Hall in the days of Adams and Otis and Warren and Quincy, the orators of the uprising people. Here might have been heard those doctrines which were woven into the Declaration of Inde- pendence. Here was laid the foundation of universal freedom, and that human law out of which grew the Proclamation of Emancipation. Here was written the sacred word borne by our soldiers on the point of their bayonets through the great civil war, and here, on this path, in those primeval days, might have been found the prophets of American nationality. It is on this path, my friends, that the American people are travelling to-day.
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Allow me, then, to propose to you : "The Massachusetts path, - may it encircle this continent, and become the high- way along which a great people may travel to never-ending glory and renown."
2. Kingston, though born under a monarchy and of royal name, has ever been a most loyal portion of the Great Republic.
RESPONSE OF HON. E. S. TOBEY, POST-MASTER OF BOSTON.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, -I confess to a degree of sympathy for you that, after the eloquent word's of the distinguished gentleman who has just preceded me, you are obliged to listen to the common-place remarks of the speaker. I am not unmindful that it is the accident of birth, rather than any special merit of mine, which has placed me in so prominent relations to this truly interesting and com- memorative occasion. As it is a kind of family gathering, I may, perhaps, be permitted the liberty of referring to some early local reminiscences, even though they be personal. This is not the first time that a topic has been assigned to me by my fellow-townsmen.
Memory at once recalls to my mind and, perhaps, also to the minds of some early friends whom I now have the pleasure of addressing, the fact that, at the age of ten years, when a scholar in the academy, the well-known soliloquy of Alexander Selkirk was given me on which to exercise my powers of declamation, in those familiar lines commencing, -
" I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute."
I can assure you that these carly and delusive ideas of uni- versal empire have long since been dispelled, and my rights, although in my judgment often remarkably well-founded, have
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been successfully disputed. But deeply as this and other inci- dents of my early school-days are graven on my memory, not less vivid are the recollections of the old church, with its pecu- liar but dignified architecture, and its equally dignified pastor, who ministered at its altar for so long a period.
The tones, of its bell, as in solenm cadence it noted the departure of a beloved friend or neighbor, seem still to echo in my ears, reviving the memory of the honored dead; and although no " storied urn or ambitious monument" marks their final resting-place, the record of their worthy deeds and private virtues will ever be enshrined in the hearts of their descendants.
But no longer to indulge in these reminiscences I turn to the sentiment to which I have been invited to respond. No one can question the fact that our worthy progenitors had no love for monarchy in any form. It is, however, evident that they did not wholly lose their taste for royalty, or at least for some of its more pleasing associations, as partially indi- cated by their adoption for our native town the name applied by the Duke of Kingston to his extensive domain in England.
As to the loyalty of Kingston to the Great Republic we need no further evidence than is contained in the interesting sketch given us by the faithful historian of this occasion as to the ser- vices of our fellow-townsmen in the war of the Revolution, the maritime war of 1812, and in the recent war of the Rebellion. But evidence of loyalty and patriotism is not confined to either military or naval service. " If War has its victories, Peace has its victories too." Kingston has shown her loyalty to the principles of Republican government by her full share of influ- ence in shaping both state and national legislation. Although never directly represented in the halls of Congress, she has had representatives there in her sons, who have been readily
* Rev. Mr. Willis.
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adopted by the States to which they had transferred their resi- dence. Our venerable friend * who honors us with his presence to-day, was, as you are aware, a representative in Congress from Pennsylvania, and was subsequently appointed by the President of the United States as Minister to Naples. The late Hon. John Holmes was also adopted by Maine, and ably represented her in the United States Senate. The sons of Kingston who have removed to other parts of the State have also been chosen to participate in determining her political policy.
And, now, friends, aside from the social and intellectual enjoyments of this pleasant occasion, what is its practical les- son ? Is it not that it may deepen our convictions of duty, and inspire us, each and every one, with an earnest and sincere desire so to discharge our responsibilities, that those who shall at some distant period gather here may be able to testify to our fidelity to the principles and virtues transmitted to us by the fathers whose memory to-day we seek to revive and perpetuate ?
3. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, all the more flourishing and fruitful because engrafted upon Pilgrim stock and watered by Pilgrim springs.
RESPONDED TO BY HON. HENRY B. PEIRCE, SECRETARY OF STATE.
His Excellency, Gov. Rice was expected to speak to this sen- timent but was unexpectedly detained by "an official duty." The Secretary, after explaining the enforced absence of the Governor and apologizing for him, in a short but unreportable speech put the audience into the best possible good humor by his wit and drollery, which served greatly to mitigate the keen disappointment felt by all.
It is proper to add that the Governor's Private Secretary and personal Staff were present and participated in the festivities of the day.
* Hon. Joseph R. Chandler, of Philadelphia.
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4. Plymouth: Our Mother Town. We invite her to join us to-day in welcoming her grandchildren to this feast.
SPEECH OF HON. WILLIAM T. DAVIS, OF PLYMOUTH.
Mr. President, - In riding from Plymouth into your village this morning, had I not on various occasions in an official capacity been called upon to define the boundary between the two towns I should have found it difficult to determine where Plymouth ended and Kingston began. The population is so continuous from one town to the other that I am not sure a scheme of annexation will not soon be contemplated. Whether Kingston shall be annexed to Plymouth or Plymouth to Kings- ton will be a question in which your taxpayers will have far more interest than ours. It has already been suggested that Plymouth might supply Kingston with water, but I am inclined to think that the suggestion has its origin in the fact that the other ingredient of your half and half she supplies you with too bountifully already. Of Plymouth gas you will probably have no need, as I fear that the specimen exhibited here to-day will be more than you desire of that article.
But seriously, sir, I thank you for the privilege of being here to-day, and in behalf of the town of Plymouth which I unworthily represent, of tendering to you the congratulations of a parent to her child on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its birth. On this interesting occasion Plymouth mingles her rejoicings with yours and repeats your cordial welcome to the sons and daughters of Kingston gathered around this board. I cannot fail to remember that for more than a century after the settle- ment of that ancient town you were bone of her bone and flesh of her flesh, that your history and hers were identical, and that
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now the same ancestral glories which stir her pride, kindle also a warmer glow in the blood which courses through your veins. Your early traditions and hers are the same ; the sacred places where our fathers lived and died are scattered over your domain ; the names of Adams, Bradford, Cooke, Cushman, Ful- ler, Gray, Holes and others in your midst attest your Pilgrim descent ; and yonder river, which in 1620 bore the shallop of the Mayflower on its bosom, still winds its reluctant way to the sea as if loving to linger among your homes and repeat its story of those early days. But, sir, these are not the associations which the voices of the hour recall. More recent memories cluster around the day you celebrate, - memories exclusively your own, which no stranger can either appropriate or share. The history, however, of your town, from the organization of the north parish of Plymouth in 1717, and the incorpora- tion of your municipality in 1726, has been so thoroughly and accurately portrayed that nothing is left to be culled by those whose fortune it is to follow your orator and historian. Its current has flowed on with placid stream through lengthened periods of ordinary municipal life, marked only by the intelli- gence, enterprise, and thrift of its people, and through shorter and more eventful seasons of revolutionary and rebellious wars, in which its patriotism and courage have been tested and proved.
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