USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Falmouth > Suckanesset; wherein may be read a history of Falmouth, Massachusetts > Part 4
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Benjamin Bowerman, to whom old Thomas Bower- man deeded the property, died in 1743, leaving the house and land po his three sons, of whom Daniel by purchase became the sole owner, bequeathing to his son Barnabas and from them on they alternate Daniel and Barnabas in the generations of Bowermans till we arrive at Daniel Bowerman, father of Mrs. Virtue Bowerman Gifford, the present occupant of the old house.
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CHAPTER V
DULY AND LEGALLY ASSEMBLED
F . FA
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BUCKANESSET 1602
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S ETTLED as Succanessett in 1661 by the original fif- teen grantees, the town in 1686 was incorporated .. The Plymouth Colony records, June 4, 1686, read "Upon the request of the inhabitants of Seipican, alias Rochester, to become a township and have the priviledges of a town, the Court granted theire desires in yt respect, & the like granted to Suckannesset inhabitants."
Oct. 25, 1700, is the date of the earliest book of town records extant which is entitled "This is Falmouth Town Book." The entry relating to several months earlier, uses both names: "At a meeting of the proprietors of the lands at Suckanesset, alias Falmouth, March 19, the proprietors made choice of Thomas Lewis to be their clerk."
There is nothing unusual in the change of name; nearly all the early settlements began by using either the Indian place names of the spot where they settled, or some fanciful title bestowed by the first settlers; and
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later adopted a more formal name. In the old days tra- dition by word of mouth was much stronger than nowa- days when people rely on cheap and plentiful printed newspapers, books, etc., to record events; white men in New England were so few in numbers that their indi- viduality stood out strongly and only eighty years had elapsed since Bartholomew Gosnold sailed from Fal- mouth, England to land at Cuttyhunk, so that it is quite natural to infer that the early settlers of Falmouth were thoroughly familiar with the visit of Gosnold, attributed to him the honor of being the first white man to build a dwelling in this vicinity, and christened their town in honor of his home port. In the provincial statutes 'Fal- mouth' is used as early as 1694, and appears in old deeds of the same date.
Economically the town has passed through several phases in the two and a half centuries of its establish- ment. Agriculture, cattle and sheep-raising, and ship- building were the first occupations of the pioneers. The young men went a-fishing in small sloops that were not too small nor too timid to run as far south as the Baham- as. Mills were set up to grind the corn, and by 1719 the grist from the local crops was large enough to cause con- troversy between the inhabitants and Philip Dexter, who had put up a mill on Five-Mile Creek (Coonemessett River) for the benefit of the town, the farmers complain- ing that he was taking excessive tolls for the grinding of their grain.
In 1701 the tilled fields were of sufficient acreage to attract devastating crops of birds, so that every house- keeper was ordered by town vote to "kill 6 old or 12 young blackbirds, or 4 jays, by the 15th of June next and de- liver the same to the selectmen; in default thereof to pay 3 shillings for delinquency." Game was abundant in the woods, deer, raccoon, quail; also marauding animals that vexed the husbandman, foxes, woodchucks and wolves. In 1717 the towns of Falmouth and Bourne adopted votes to persuade the other towns of the Cape to 'joyn with us in the charge and to inform them that if they will bear their proportion with us of 500 pounds that we will make a good board fence of more than six feet high', this fence to be built straight across the Cape to keep the wolves from coming down from the Plymouth and Middleboro woods to prey upon their sheep.
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THE FALMOUTH TOWN BOOK-6 SHILING
To record all marridges birth and buriels and the make of raites and all that is nedful to be taiken out of ye old book and placed in this with all towns bisnes that con- sernes the town but not Landes begines the 25 day of oc- tober 1700.
The 10 of December 1701 the towne being orderly -asembled together it was voted that Mr. Shiverick is none of this townes minister.
The 4 day of December 1701 the towne of Falmouth met together to consider of the charg that did arise in this towne to be paid this year for the Ass-labor the fourth the day of December 1-10-0 for the- - 1701 Runing of the line
0-8-0 for
Robert Rowley and 14-01-0 for Mr.
Shiverick
The earmark yt Joseph Gifford gives his Creaturs a mckral Tail in Left Ear and a Cut under the same.
1779150
Timothy Robinson and Mehitebel weeks was married the 3 day of May 1697 Mehitabel Robinson was born the last day of Febury in the year 1700.
Jacob Gifford had a son born the 10 day of Aprel 1700 and his name is Jonathan.
The first page of the earliest book of Falmouth town records, copied verbatim above, is more than a quaint document-it forms a cross-section of life in the com- munity in the year 1700, when the town had been settled for forty years, incorporated for 14. Thomas Lewis was Town Clerk in 1700 and it is presumably his handwriting and orthography we find on the first page of the book.
It would be tedious to copy for the casual reader the long, and often illegible, history of the births, marriages, deaths, earmarks for 'creatures' and town meetings that fill the book; but a few records of the early town meet- ings may be interesting since this government is still in force in 1930.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of glimpses into a town meeting in Falmouth two centuries ago is the formality observed by those old pioneers. The place of meeting at that date is not specified, except that a little later in discussing building a new meeting house
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they incorporate in the vote that it shall be used for as- sembling for town business, so we may infer that they gathered in the first rude building, which Rev. H. H. Smythe locates as near the old burying ground, and which was not equipped with 'window Sheaths' till 1703.
The men who gathered to transact the town's busi- ness dwelt 30 miles from the nearest town, a day's journey through the forest; we may imagine that they wore home-made garments of linsey-woolsey or home spun, with clumsy shoes cobbled by themselves; they had no school in the town, no minister as yet (their church was not set apart from Barnstable till 1708); nothing that would tend to create a culture or refinement of civiliza- tion.
Yet, in this forest-girt hamlet of a few score souls population, these men adopted and observed rigorously the conventions of a type of government that proved well-founded enough to endure through two hundred years of expansion and development of civilization.
What may be termed the 'first town report', the fore- runner of the 199-page book of the Town Report of 1929, is dated October 25, 1700.
"The 25 day of. October 1700 the town of Falmouth asembled together and it was then voted by sd towne that there should be Raised nineteen pound and five shiling and all the Inhabitants of sd towne be rated to defray the charge of the same towne this year.
for Mr. Shiverick 15-00-00
for the fencing of the pound 2-00-00
for Assessors 1-10-00
for Leftenant Hatch 00-10-00
The same meeting Melatiah bourne and Thomas bowerman was chosen by the vote to tarke around Eb- enezer Nye and Moses Hatch about the meting house. 1700 the 26 December Ebenezer Nye was chosen by vote to sarve on the pettit jury the same meting it was voted that Thomas Bowerman and Philip Dexter sould repair the towne house and it was voted that they should be paid out of the tresury."
Even in 1700 a town meeting was not 'duly warned and legally assembled' until a warrant had been issued. "The 25 march 1701 the town of Falmouth being warned to assembel together to choose officers for the sd town in anser to this warrant we have chosen Thomas Hatch Con- stabel for the year ensuing and Stephen Harper is chosen
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SET OFF IN 1749 --- FALMOUTH VILLAGE GREEN
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to sarve on the grand inquest for the year insuing. Jos- eph Parker was chosen to sarve on the petty jurey. Thomas Bowerman and Philip Dexter and Meltiah bourne were then chosen Selectmen and assessors for this town for the year insuing Joseph parker was chosen Tithing- man Joseph Hatch Thomas parker were chosen to view the fences of this town Thomas Lewis Town Clarke and Philip Dexter were chosen survaiors for the year insuing."
In 1703 apparently the first 'revaluation' took place. "September 29th, 1703 At a towne meting held by the in- habitants of Falmouth Ebenezer Nye was chosen to serve on the Jury of Tryals at the court in the County of Barn- stabel. At the same meting the Town did agree and order four pounds seven shilling and six pence to defray the recovering of the charge of the town as foloweth 1-7-6 for the commissioner and selectmen and 1-10-0 for the Assessors and the Assessors are to goo to the houses of the inhabitants to take an acount of their estate At the same meting Isaac Green James Lewis and Thomas Bow- erman were chosen Assessors for this year."
In 1704, doubtless following the taking account of in- dividual estates by the Assessors, the town meetings be- gin to employ the form "At a meeting holden by free- holders and other persons qualified to vote for town offi- cers"; or "Att a meeting holden in Falmouth by ye Rate- able Inhabitants."
There is no record of fixed salaries for town offices at this date, but all work requiring a man to take time from his own employment was recompensed, as in 1702, for instance, it was voted that the selectmen (who were also assessors) be paid 30 shillings for making the rates.
The office of Moderator first appears in the records in 1712. "At a town meting holden at Falmouth on the third day of June, 1712, william basset chosen moderator, it was voted and agreed that the Selectmen of Falmouth do lay out one way from the town down to naquisett an- other road from the town along the back lots so far as the house of Joseph Lawrence. At the same meting it was then voted who so ever shal kil the wolfe shall have five pound paid to him besides the twenty shilling wich the Law alows but he must be killed between this and the twenty day of june."
It seems thoroughly familiar to us of Falmouth today to read of a Moderator being chosen and the Selectmen ordered to lay out a road, for in 1930 the same offices
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exist and same powers are exercised; but the mention of killing "the wolf" rings strangely on our ears, and so far are we removed from the menace of such dangerous wild beasts in our neighborhood today that we can find the in- cident humorous enough to permit a jesting query as to whether the dark threat that 'he must be killed between this and the twenty day of june" applied to the wolf or was a penalty inflicted on the wolf's executioner after collecting the reward of 'five shillings wich the law alows' and the bonus of five pounds so extravagantly offered by the town!
The Woods Hole lots were laid out in 1677 "beginning at the south end of the Little Neck and running wesi and by north to the Great Harbor" assigned to John Robinson, William Gifford, Moses Rowley, Sr., Samuel Filley. Thom- as Lewis, Nathaniel Skiff, Joseph Hull, John Jenkins, Thomas Crippen, Thomas Johnson, Jonathan Hatch, Sr., William Weeks, Thomas Ewer.
The Rowley's, who were related by marriage to Jona- than Hatch, owned the upland lying between Quissett and Woods Hole. Quissett at one time had the largest school in the township except Falmouth village. Salt and ship- building were the principal industries. The house now occupied by Charles Eldred at Quissett Harbour is very old.
In 1685, under what is known as "the new Purchase" permission to buy land from the Indians and lay out lots in the east end of the town, beyond Five-Mile River, was granted to Robert Harper, James Percival, Joseph Hull, John Weeks, Joseph Hatch, Moses Rowley, Sr., James Lewis and Thomas Crippin, Sr. From this grew the set- tlements of Hatchville, East Falmouth and Waquoit, (originally spelled Wawquawett).
West Falmouth village was formally founded in 1688 when lands were laid out to Thomas Bowerman, and, in 1691, to Thomas Parker, Joseph Parker, Benjamin Hatch, Moses Hatch, William Gifford, John Gifford, Jonathan Hatch, Christopher Gifford. John Jenkins, William Wyatt and Thomas Bowerman, However, as early as 1678 land near Hog Island (now Chappaquoit) was laid out to William Gifford, Sr., and his son of the same name, John Weeks and William Weeks; and ten years earlier, in 1668, an old document says: "This record testifieth that Wil- liam Gifford hath exchanged with John Jenkins for three-quarters of a share in the Great Hill Neck and John
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Jenkins hath given William Gifford liberty to take up ten acres of upland that belongs of right to his share, and William Gifford hath made choice of Hog Island and the land measurers having laid out to William Gifford ten acres of upland more or less lying at the North-west end of Hog Island and contains all ye upland that is there." Also it is evident that Thomas Bowerman was established in that neighborhood by 1668 for the document goes on "and also that Thomas Bowerman shall without damage to him dry his fodder on said Island and to dry his fodder ye point of upland within ye said William Gifford's field next adjoining his house."
North Falmouth's earliest settlers were Nye's of the old family originally called Noye that came to Weymouth in 1636 from England. John and Ebenezer Nye, sons of Benjamin Nye of Sandwich in February 1688 received a deed from William Bradford of Plymouth to "a certain parcel or tract of lands (whose right herein hath for many years been peaceably possessed by them the said John and Ebenezer Nye) at a place commonly called by the Indians Mahegansitt adjacent to Saconesset, 'by es- timation 150 acres, bounded southerly by lands now in occupation of Daniel Butler."
In 1712 Thomas Bowerman and Philip Dexter were appointed, at three shillings a day, to lay out "the new purchase" which included the land north of a line drawn from Hog Island to the head of Five-Mile River, thence north to the Sandwich line, west to the North Falmouth grants and from Five-Mile River east to the Mashpee line. Jonathan Hatch was given one share in this new pur- chase for earlier disbursements of his in purchasing the right of "Crapish Indian" in said lands. "Queppish" is (1930) still the name of the Mashpee Indian whose blood links him with the old sachems. William Gifford and Thomas Bowerman were the official agents for this pur- chase, on behalf of Ebenezer Nye, Philip Dexter, Benja- min Nye, Sr., Richard Landers, Stephen Harper, Benja- min Lewis, Jonathan Hatch, Jonathan Johnson, Nathan Johnson.
The old surveyors left "a vacancy of three rods wide for a way for the proprietor's use" which divided the pur- chase into two parts, hill lots and plain lots. Much of this woodland, particularly the old hill lots, has come down direct to the descendants of the original proprietors, and on the easterly end of Brick Kiln road today stands
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an old 'bound tree,' with a pine grafted on an oak, the two trunks rising from a common stump, each 18 inches or more in diameter. The antiquity of Brick Kiln road is attested by the record of 1712 "we reserve in this hill al- lotment to the use of the proprietors, their heirs and as- signs, the privilege of digging clay to carry away or to make brick and burn them at a certain place of clay where people are wont to dig near the path that goes from Isaac Robinson's to Benjamin Nye's."
As late as 1886 a brick kiln and manufacture of scouring brick was maintained here by Josiah Thompson, father of Colonel Edward H. Thompson, archaeologist, who while U. S. Consul at Merida, Yucatan, discovered the ancient Mayan ruins of Chi-chen-itza.
In 1725, the eastern boundry of the town was def- initely fixed; : "We begin at a creek called Moonowist, Waquoit, on a straight line northwest to a certain tree marked by a heap of stones at the south-west, end of Ashumet Pond, from whence westerly to a small pine tree standing near the county road that leads from Sandwich to Falmouth, from thence by the aforesaid road easterly until it meets with Sandwich line."
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CHAPTER VI
THE VILLAGE GREEN
A LIKE to the stranger entering Falmouth for the first time, and to the resident who has passed up and down Falmouth ways for years, the Green stands out as the very heart and focus of Falmouth town.
It is fitting that it should be so, for with the excep- tion of the Old Burying Ground, the Green has a longer continuous communal history than any other part of Falmouth.
The first mention of a town house in the records oc- curs in 1703 when it was "voted to pay John Robinson s. for nails, and Thos. Bassett 4s. for work about the town house." The next year, Oct. 15, 1704 it was "voted to pro- cure window shutters for the four lower windows of the meeting house." In 1708, the congregation having grown to sufficient size eighteen inhabitants of Falmouth were dismissed from the church at West Barnstable "to the work of gathering a church estate in Falmouth," the Rev. Joseph Metcalfe having accepted a call to be minister of the town in the preceding year.
In 1713 the General Court on June 8, made an ap- propriation to aid the town of Falmouth building a meet- ing-house, and in 1715 a vote of the town gives us the first clue to the location of the structure referred to in the preceding paragraphs. "It was agreed to build a new meeting-house 42 feet square, to stand on the same lot where the old one does, and to be for the town's use in public worship and to meet in open town meetings." There was controversy over this vote; it was stipulated that "the old house be improved to build the new." Wil- liam Green and Elnathan Nye entered their dissent form- ally to the town's proceedings. Eventually the dimensions were compromised at "to build 30 by 34, 18 to roof, flat as
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convenient, and finish only the outside walls, but build the ground floor and pulpit as soon as convenient."
It becomes obvious that the first building used for worship and town meetings stood near the Old Burying Ground. The precise location is not determined, but by the terms of a later vote of the town it would appear that the land from the Old Burying Ground through the pres- ent Green at least was held as common land, for in 1749, the common, undivided lands having been encroached on in various particulars, it was "agreed that there shall be part of that lot of land called the meeting-house lot and training field about one acre and a half besides the road that leads to Woods Hole and bounded Southerly by Sam- uel Shiverick and Westerly by Silas Hatch Northerly by Nathaniel Nickerson and easterly by Paul Hatch and Sam- uel Shiverick to lay perpetually forever to that end as the fence now stands except before Paul Hatches house."
By 1717 the new meeting house was so far completed that it was ordered that the seats be chalked out and bids received for spots for pews. This refers to the old custom whereby individuals purchased a spot on which they might build a pew suitable to their own tastes and family needs.
A vote of the Old Proprietors of Falmouth May 17, 1718, says "Voted at the same Meeting that the lot called the Burying place lot and that called the Meeting House lot is for the Meeting House to stand on, and for a train- ing field, or for any other common use or uses." Thirty years later another vote reads "At an adjourned meeting held Wednesday the 10 day of February, 1747 ... voted to sell the 4 acre lot about the Meeting House except one acre and a half exclusive of the way."
No records have come to light establishing the bounds of these four acres. The Rev. H. H. Smythe, president of Falmouth Historical Society, is of the opinion that they lay between the Old Burying Ground and the present railroad crossing on Locust Street, including the present property of Eugene E. C. Swift, and the triangle on which stands the Mariner's Memorial boulder.
Taking into account the indisputable fact that in 1749-50 a new meeting house was built on the present Green, it seems to us equally, if not more plausible, that the common lands and "meeting house lot" extended north from the Old Burying Ground along the shores of Sider's Pond towards Shiverick's Pond, and that the pres-
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ent Green was set off from the larger tract, when it was laid out in 1749. Bearing out this theory is the fact that the oldest house sites traceable appear to have been on Palmer Avenue, whereas the really excellent sites oc- cupied today by St. Barnabas Church, Mrs. John E. Dwight's house, Dr. T. A. Wiswall's and Mr. Thomas Keck's are not recognizable as house sites in the records until just before the Revolution when we come on talk of Dea- con Timothy Crocker's house. If that land had come on the market between 1747 and 1755 it would not be sur- prising for the staunch old deacon to have bought in there.
There seems little doubt that the first meeting house, and that built in 1715 on the site of the first, were near the Old Burying Ground; there is no doubt that the meeting house of 1749 was built on the present Green; the rest, in the absence of further documentary evidence is only to be surmised.
On May 27, 1718, still concerned with the necessity of preserving a perpetual site for the meeting-house, it was voted "that that lot called the burying place and that called the meeting house lot is for the meeting-house to stand on and for a training field and for any common use or uses as the major part of the proprietors shall hereinafter see cause to put them to or any part of them."
Thirty years later, however, it became necessary to build a larger structure. In 1749 the town voted to build a meeting house 45 feet square with 17 spots for pews below and 12 above, but still the matter was wrangled over and the following March, 1750, it was voted "that the new meeting house to be built shall be 42 feet square and the present house used to build." This new church appears without doubt to have been erected not on the site of the old one, but on the present Green. In June 1756 it was completed for we read the list of pew-holders. On the lower floor were 22:The Minister (Rev. Mr. Palm- er), Capt. Thomas Shiverick, William Eldred, Mr. Joseph Bourne, Eben Hatch, Jr., Nathaniel Nickerson, Lt. Samuel Shiverick, Capt. Joseph Robinson and Eben. Dimmick, Solomon Swift and Solomon Nye, Joseph Dexter, and Lt. Butler, Silas Hatch, Paul Hatch and Solomon Davis, Shubael Weeks, Sylvanus Parker, Joshua Crowell and David Crowell, Benjamin Parker, Ensign Theodore Morse, Capt. Joseph Parker, Noah Davis, Ephraim Swift, and Shubael Nye, Roland Robinson, Esq., Thomas Parker. On
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the gallery floor were 11 more pews owned by :- Stephen Crowell, Jabez Davis, Reuben Gifford, Solomon Price, John Crowell, Ebenezer Weeks, Benjamin Davis, Silas Hatch, John Hammond, Widow Mary Bourne, Sylvanus Hatch.
It is at this period that we first begin to visualize the aspect of the old Green. The Rev. Samuel Palmer, who came from Middleboro and had graduated from Harvard College in 1727, was called to the town in 1731 and or- dained November 24th of that same year. Mr. Palmer be- gan the volume of records still possessed by the First Congregational Church. He married Mercy Parker Jan. 25, 1736 and his second son, Joseph, born June 12, 1739, in 1795 had the post office in the house which stood on Palmer Avenue, about opposite the present home of George W. Jones. The Rev. Mr. Palmer's lands were ex- tensive, reaching it is said as far as the railroad crossing, and he cultivated them by the aid of a negro servant "Titus." Legend recounts that Titus, in spring plowing time had often occasion to admonish his master for the crookedness of the furrows. "Why, massa," he would say, "it seems to me you might do a leetle better." Titus, after his master's death in 1775 went to sea in an Ameri- can privateer and never returned to Falmouth.
There were other negro servants in Falmouth at the time, for in 1732 Deacon Parker's negro servant "Cuffee" was baptised and received into full communion with the consent of the brethren.
The Rev. Samuel Palmer settled on the lot where today stands the house occupied by William C. Conant, on Palmer Avenue.
Mr. Palmer was not only the town's minister but also its physician. He served for forty-five years, beloved by all. His first wife died in 1750 and in 1751 he married Mrs. Sarah Allen of Chilmark. His granddaughter, Eliza- beth, daughter of Joseph ("Squire") Palmer married a Bourne man and was the mother of Samuel Bourne, for many years cashier of the Falmouth National Bank. Mr. Palmer contracted pneumonia through making a call on a sick person in the east end of town in severe weather and died April 13, 1775. He is buried in the Old Burying Ground with the inscription "His virtues would a monu- ment supply; But underneath this stone his ashes lie."
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