USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > The Bristol County directory, 1875-6 > Part 8
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BRISTOL COUNTY HISTORY.
The resolution displayed by the chief, recalled theirs, and he then with the utmost expedition, led them to the scene of danger.
The enemy had already set fire to several store buildings. Be- tween these buildings and the rest of the village Major Fearing stationed his little band and ordered them in profound silence to lie close until the British, who were still advancing, should have come so near that no marksman could miss his aim or easily mis- take his object. These orders were punctually obeyed, and when the enemy had arrived within this distance, the American militia men arose and with a well directed fire gave the invaders a warm reception, at which the latter instantly fell back and fled to their boats. From the quantity of blood found in the line of their re- treat, it was supposed that their loss was considerable. "Dr. Dwight's travels," to which I am indebted for a large part of this account, justly concludes: "Thus did this heroic youth in opposi - tion to his superior officers, preserve Fairhaven and merit a statue from its inhabitants." Major Fearing a few years later was pro- moted to Lieut. Colonel of the 4th Regiment of the local militia of Plymouth county, and on the 17th of July 1787, to Colonel.
In 1794 Col. Fearing was promoted to Brigadier General, and held that position about fifteen years. His remains are in Ware- ham, and grave marked by a handsome slab of white marble bearing an inscription.
In the local militia of Bristol county, Fairhaven has been repre- sented in the lists of field officers and adjutants as follows:
SECOND REGIMENT.
Thomas Wood, Major, from Feb. 1, 1819 to 1822.
Thomas Wood, Adjutant, from Aug. 24, 1815, to Feb. 1, 1819.
The entire militia of the State were for the last time required to muster in the autumn of 1833, forty-two years ago. Fairhaven militia at that time formed a part of the 2d Regiment in the Bristol County Brigade, then known as the 2d Brigade of 5th Division Mass. Militia.
This last inspection and final review came off on the 14th day of October, 1833, the 2d Regiment being at that time commanded by Lieut. Colonel Henry H. Crapo, who was soon after promo- ted to Colonel .*
* NOTE. On that occasion the Field Officers of the 2d Regiment were, Lieut. Colonel Henry H. Crapo, acting as Colonel Commanding, and Major David Syl- vester, acting as Lieut. Colonel, Besides the Fairhaven militia then and there inspected, was three companies from Dartmouth under Captains Simeon P. Pullen, Gilbert Millard, and Samuel P. Allen, a company from New Bedford under Lieut. George C. Tew, and two companies from Westport under Captains Ebenezer Sherman and Christopher A. Church.
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BRISTOL COUNTY HISTORY.
Fairhaven militia was then organized as two companies, and the names found upon the rolls were as follows:
CAPTAIN WOOD'S COMPANY.
Isaac Wood, Jr., Captain; William C. Brown, Lieut .; Charles H. Wing, Ensign; Ezra Babcock, Sergeant ; Ammita Hammond, Luther Howard, John Howard, Reuben Delano, Jr., James R. Lawrence. Wm. B. Hammond, Kelley M. Huttleston, Isaiah F. Terry, Frederick Hitch, Ebenezer Keen, Jesse Sherman, Sylva- nus Hitch, Sethi Jenney, Henry Hitch, Caleb Chandler, Joseph Butman, David C. Wood, David Howe, John Terry, George Dean, Harvey Tripp, Charles Eldridge, Joseph West, Samuel P. Jen- ney, John L. Richardson, Everett Waterman, Nathaniel Higgins, Joseph Lairth, Richard E. Macomber, Warren Maxfield, Jr., Ebenezer Jones, Stephen Nye, James Taber, Thomas Allen, Abel D. Bond, Elisha Bump, John Stoddard, George Snow, Jonathan Maxfield, Wm. Mason, David Saunders, Wesley Chase, Wm. Savory, Benjamin Potter, Zachariah Sturtevant, Bartholomew Taber, Jr., Benjamin Harlow, Nathaniel Smith, John Shaw, Andrew J. Rodman, Wm. H. Pope, Alborn Allen, Leander May- hew, Alfred M. Wright, Joseph B. Morse, John Smith, Sylvanus Covington, Joseph Simmons, Samuel Shaw, Hiram Tripp, John Bray, Nathaniel S. Stoddard, Ebenezer Thompson, Nathaniel Head, Caleb S. Purrington, Wm. A. Worden, Jeremiah Bray, Frederick Hammond, Isaac N. Babbitt, Jonathan Heart, Abner W. Brownell, Roland Rogers, Benj. R. Gifford, Daniel Hathaway, Enoch Taber, George Luther, James Crocker, Hiram Irish, George Smith, Edwin R. Alney, Nathaniel Hammond, Noah Ashley, Amos S. Pierce, Rufus Peacock, Elisha B. Stephens, Private Sol- . diers.
LIEUT. ALLEN'S COMPANY.
Philip Allen, Lieut .; John L. Wesgate, Ensign; Amos Braley, Silas Perry, and Benjamin Evans, Sergeants; William B. Omey, Hiram Parris, and Peter Merrihew, Corporals; Leonard Kean, John L. Braley, and Rufus White, Musicians ; Levi Mason, Alex_ ander H. Taber, Nathaniel S. Pierce, Benjamin Chamberlain, John Vincent, Gideon Harden, Jesse Harden, Charles Tripp, Savory Hathaway, Nye Gifford, Charles A. Rounsevill, James S. Allen, Freeman Hathaway, 2d, George Morse, Elias Reynolds, John B. Chase, Benjamin Chase, Leonard Hathaway, Edward Morse, Sam- uel R. Howard, Albert Morse, Job Hathaway, Stephen Davis, Lynde Davis, Barnabas Spooner, Isaac S. Tobey, Seth I. Tobey Alden Spooner, Robert Smith, Elihu H. Lawrence, Samuel Hath. away, Warren Ashley, Amos Cushing, Hiram Pierce, George
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BRISTOL COUNTY HISTORY.
Omy, Alden Lawrence, Nathan Willcox, Levi Russell, Abram Sherman, Jr., Job Whelding, Azariah Cushman, Amos Merrihew, David Peirce, Darius Bosworth, Ezra Spooner, Tallman Taber, Marcus T. Ashley, Phineas Peckham, Wm. S. Peckham, Isaac Rey- nolds, Jr., Sampson Perkins, Lemuel M. Amesbury, Caleb Spoon- er, Edson de Moranville, Joshua Morse, James Potter, Benjamin Chamberlain, Mason Taber, Humphrey Davis, Jr, Private Sold- iers.
Recapitulation. Capt. Wood's company, 1 Captain, 1 Lieut., 1 Ensign, 1 Sergeant, 0 Corporals, 0 Musicians and 85 privates. Total, 89.
Lieut. Allen's Company. 0 Captain, 1 Lieut., 1 Ensign, 3 Ser- geants, 3 Corporals, 3 Musicians, 60 privates. Total, 71. Grand total of the militia of Fairhaven Oct. 14, 1833, = 160.
Population of Fairhaven in 1865, = 2547, and in 1870, == 2626. Legal voters in 1865, = 664, valuation 1870, $1,676,529,57.
Distance from State Capitol for which milage is allowed to a Rep- resentative, 60 miles. Fairhaven and Acushnet constitute one rep- resentative district, and these towns are entitled to one represen- tative every year, and to make honors easy the representative is selected alternately from each town.
Fairhaven people were formerly engaged quite extensively in the whaling business, but that is now greatly diminished, almost abandoned.
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BRISTOL COUNTY HISTORY.
NEW BEDFORD.
The pale-face first trod New Bedford territory in 1602, when Bartholomew Gosnold, having fortified himself at Cuttyhunk Island, made an excursion to the main land. The adventurers described the locality as possessing stately groves, flowery mead- ows and running brooks, and were delighted with the climate, the beauty of the country and the fertility of the soil. Bartholomew, however, was not much of a settler, but rather an explorer and a speculator. In modern phrase, he was "on the make." Had he chanced to land at Newburyport and struck its silver mine, he might have remained, but as it happened he soon abandoned both the main land and Cuttyhunk and sailed for England with a cargo of sassafras-root, cedar and furs. It was not till 1664 that the local- ity now New Bedford was settled and incorporated as an offshoot of the Plymouth Colony. The corporate name was Dartmouth, and the original tract included besides what is now New Bedford the present towns of Dartmouth, Westport, Fairhaven and Acush- net in this State, and Tiverton and Little Compton in Rhode Island.
The advantages of the situation were, no doubt, in part the in- ducement to the settlement, but mainly it appears to have been owing to a family jar in the Plymouth household in regard to religion. The bulk of the first settlers were Quakers and Baptists. The "free- dom to worship God."-which the tuneful Hemans says the Pil- grim Fathers found at Plymouth-the Dartmouth section of the colony were resolved to hold on to, and rather than be taxed to pay and be compelled to listen to the minister of Bradford, Stand- ish and Winslow, they chose to emigrate. The project was favor- ably regarded by the Plymouth leaders, and on Nov. 29, 1652, a bargain was made whereby the Indian chief, Wesamequan, better known as Massasoit, and his son, Wamsutta, sometimes called Alexander, conveyed by deed to Bradford and his associates, the Dartmouth territory and the islands lying before it.
The Quakers built a meeting house at Dartmouth in 1699, and were organized as a religious body at an earlier date. The Bap- tists appear to have maintained a travelling preacher, who visited various settlements in turn. It was not till 1761 that the Congre- gationalists formed a society, and then at the village of Acush- net.
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BRISTOL COUNTY HISTORY.
THE REVOLUTION.
The flames of patriotism burned warm and bright in the Dart- mouth community at the time of the Revolution. The place was famous as a rendezvous for privateers. Among the notable events of that epoch was the capture of His Majesty's twelve-gun brig, the Diligent, by the Dartmouth privateer, Providence, a sloop of about ninety tons. The captured vessel was brought to New Bed- ford harbor. This and other similar acts were avenged by the British, who made a raid under command of General Grey on September 5, 1778, destroyed all the stores and warehouses and part of the dwellings of the town, also seventy vessels in port, four of which were privateers and eight large ships with valuable cargos. The British expedition included two frigates, an eigh- teen-gun brig, and about thirty-six transports and 5000 men. The force of the patriots was not sufficient to cope with the enemy, al- though there was considerable fighting and several were killed on both sides. The acts of opposition to the measures of the King and Ministry begin on the record with the year 1768. and corres- pond in their character to the official action taken from time to time by other towns of Massachusetts during the interval between that date and the close of the war.
THE CIVIL WAR.
New Bedford has ever been one of freedom's strongholds. During the comparatively recent anti-slavery agitation it was one of the noted places of refuge for fugitive slaves. It was the refusal of a negro landowner in Dartmouth to pay taxes, because of being deprived of the right of suffrage that led the Massachu- setts Legislature to grant equal rights of suffrage to black and white within the State. In the recent war of the rebellion, New Bedford took a prompt and active part and fulfilled all the de- mands of patriotism, in a manner and spirit not exceeded by any of her sister towns and cities. Since the war a handsome monument of granite has been erected at the Common, near the centre of the city, on which are to be inscribed the names of the patriots who fell in battle or died from wounds or sickness incident to the struggle of arms. The first post of the Grand Army of the Republic of the Massachusetts District was organized in New Bedford. It is entitled William Logan Rodman Encampment, Post No. 1. Rodman was Lieutennant-Colonel of the thirty-eighth Massachusetts Regiment, and was killed at Port Hudson, May 27, 1863.
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BRISTOL COUNTY HISTORY.
THE WHALING INDUSTRY.
In the year 1850 and the three following, the average annual product of American whaling vessels was: Sperm Oil, 93,608, bar- rels; whale oil, 218,354 barrels; whalebone, 3,436,975 pounds. In the year 1874 it was: Sperm, 32,203 barrels; whale, 37,782 bar- rels; bone, 345,560 pounds. The decrease has been pretty regular from the former date to the latter. In 1854 there were 668 Amer- ican vessels employed in the whale fishery, the highest number ever reached. January 1, 1875, there were 163 vessels so em- ployed. Of these, New Bedford sent out 119; Edgartown, 2; Provincetown, 18; Boston, 6; New London, 14; Sag Harbor. 1; New York, 2; San Francisco, 1. At the present time the New Bedford fleet is distributed nearly as follows: North and South ·Atlantic, 68 vessels; Indian Ocean, 17 vessels; Pacific Ocean, and New Zealand, 33 vessels; Cumberland Inlet and Hudson's Bay, 4 vessels; North Pacific, 18 Vessels. Of the New Bedford fleet, 110 are ships or barques.
OTHER MATTERS.
The first Mayor of New Bedford was Abraham H. Howland. The present mayor is Abraham H. Howland, Jr., son of the former. He is a popular citizen, and in party politics is reckoned a Dem- ocrat. The present is his first year in the Mayoralty. The issue of the canvass last fall had no relation to national politics, but was of the respective merits of the prohibitory and the license law policies in regard to the sale of intoxicating liquors. The oppo- sing candidate was a prohibitionist. The present Mayor is, how- ever, a good temperance man, and is ambitious to have the law as existing strictly enforced. He has not heretofore held public office excepting in the Fire Department, wherein he has served as Chief engineer.
The schools are classified as follows; High school, 1; grammar schools, 3; primary schools, 11; country schools, 7. Besides these, there are two evening schools, and what is called the "Mill School." Of pupils, there are in the high school, 259; grammar schools, 1153; primary schools, 1556; country schools, 260; evening and mill schools, enrolled, 312. The school expenditures of last year were $80,851.18, including the income of the Sylvia Ann Howland fund of $30,136.09. The school buildings of the.city are in gen- eral up to the demands of the age, and a new high school building is now in course of erection.
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Next to the whaling interest, manufacturing has contributed to the wealth of the city.
The New Bedford and New York Steamship Company is an im- portant auxiliary in the business transactions of the city. Its vessels are safely and promptly navigated from port to port with- out much regard to wind or weather. It is relied upon by the merchants of New Bedford as a sure freight connection between the city and the commercial metropolis. Under this head it may be added that the valuation of the city for 1874 was : Real estate, $11,665,400; personal, $13,846,904.95. Population, 25,876.
TAUNTON.
Taunton is one of the pleasantest of inland cities. It is not one of those cities which, for reasons set forth in Scripture, "cannot be hid." It has no resounding shore-front, and gazers from the decks of steamboats have no ocular knowledge of its existence ; nor is the traveller by railroad much privileged in thisrespect, and as he is whirled past it, or is delayed momentarily at the usual stop- ping places, his glance at its situation conveys but a vague idea of the actuality. To the traveller by balloon it must appear as a lovely picture and, doubtless, offers such an one tempting invita- tions to linger and abide. Its streets and dwellings have an air of calmness and stability, certifying that they were not a growth of yesterday ; yet there is nothing rusty or antiquated about it, as if its mission were ended, and it lived only to cherish the record or the legend of a glorious past. It looks to be a city of to-day, just evenly abreast the age, not too swift and railroady, nor too moder- ate, conservative and stage-coachy. The grounds about its man- sions have a paradisaical aspect, the right mingling of sunshine and shadow, as if contentment and peace were possible there, sug- gesting the beginning of things and the original garden; while the principal street and Central square call the visitor's attention to the latest styles and all modern improvements, and make him instinct- ively ask for the morning newspaper and the noon stock quotations of London, New York and Chicago.'
Taunton is a city of levels rather than acclivities, and would inevitably have had an agricultural destiny had it not chanced that one of the river courses that meanders through its territory was compelled to make a comparatively sudden descent of sixty or seventy feet, This river incline caught the attention of the enterprising mill-wrights of former days, so that in the progress of events Taunton has, from small beginnings in the use of water
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power, become one of the great manufacturing cities of the State and Nation. The arts of man have admirably supplemented the devices of nature, and the woodland stream which the aborigines knew is but one of many factors which have contributed to the city's growth and prosperity. Chief among these is the railroad or rather the multiplicity of railroads which find, or can at will find, a centre and connection here. A glance at the map discloses something like the lines of a spider's web, the centre of which is Taunton. Southerly the lines extend to Fall River and Newport, and again to New Bedford and Fairhaven. Southeasterly, a long line stretches away in the most determined manner as if it would cross the seas, until at Harwich it bends with seeming reluctance towards the north and pushes forward with renewed vigor, stop- ping only at the finger tip of Massachusetts, sand-bound and ocean-bound Provincetown. Eastwardly the lines make Middle- boro', Bridgewater, Abington, Plymouth and all the South Shore towns accessible. Northwardly the line blends with others at Stoughton and Canton, and at Randolph and South Braintree, and from these separated points the spider of civil engineering con- verges the lines so that they meet at Boston. Northwesterly, a line extends from Taunton through Mansfield, South Framingham and Clinton to Fitchburg, and thence beyond the Green Mount- ains into Canada. The westerly line stretches to Attleboro' and Providence. At Providence and South Framingham other lines connect with other webs, and thus the great cities of the West and South and the great city of the Pacific shore are "opened up." Accessibility is therefore to be predicted of Taunton, and what is next in importance for manufacturing and commercial purposes, ' ready, rapid and unintermittent transportation to-well, to almost anywhere in North America. In nearly every State in the Union, a railroad corporation may order a locomotive from Taunton, and have it deliver itself to the buyer on its own wheels. Taunton's prosperity began in an humble way in the grinding of grists and the catching of herring; it is consumated in a mass of wonders, not peculiar to itself, certainly, but which, except that the age of miracles should recur, would have been deemed rank impossibili- ties by the millers and fishers of the early days. In 1870, the pop- ulation of the City was 18,467; this year, by the census just taken, it is 20,429.
The manufacture of iron is the leading business of Taunton, and in its various branches, a capital of about $2,000,000 is in- vested.
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The majority of people would not, probably, at first thought class Taunton among the shipping ports, yet in fact a very considerable business in this line is transacted, the Weir Village, so-called, being at the head of navigation of Taunton River. To this point, ves- sels of from 600 to 800 tons burden are constantly brought by tow- boats, the channel being too crooked and narrow to permit of sail- ing to advantage. Vessels of eight or nine fect draft may now be navigated to the Weirs. A serious obstruction formerly existed in rocks in the river bed, at a point called the "Needles." These have been blasted away from time to time, formerly at the expense of business men and firms of Taunton contributing, but latterly by appropriation of Congress. The work is to be prosecuted still further, and a few years hence the city will doubtless have still better than the very satisfactory facilities for navigation now en- joyed. The banking capital of the city is as follows: Taunton National Bank, capital, $600,000; Bristol County National Bank, $500,000; Machinists National Bank, $200,000; Bristol county Savings Bank, deposits, $3,309,000; Taunton Savings Bank, de- posits upwards of $1,000,000. The valuation of Taunton by the Assessors of 1874 was $18,326,228.
Bay State Electrotype Foundry.
15 Cornhill,
BOSTON.
ELECTROTYPING & STEREOTYPING.
Book and all kinds of Job Work done in the best manner, at low prices. Type composition for electrotyping done in good style. Designing and Engraving at engravers' prices.
The attention of all parties using Wood Cuts is called to the fact that by using elec- trotypes instead of the cut, they save all wear on the cut, and insure it against loss for a small sum.
MORDOR
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BRISTOL COUNTY HISTORY.
SURGERY AS A SCIENCE AND ART. - In the material universe nature is constantly improving herself throughout the ever varying cycles of her boundless empire, and by the aid of science and of art is giving double lustre to the glory of her endless charms. The skilled hand of the gardener, the scientific acumen of the botanist and the persevering efforts of the horticulturist, are crowning the world with fragrance and beauty. As in nature so in art. One generation succeeds another; and the skill, science and wisdom of the past, in their manufactures, architecture and infinite manipulations for usefulness and beauty, are ours to-day to study and to improve; and so rapid is our advance that we cease to wonder and look but to admire. And as in Nature, Art and Science, so in Medicine. "Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth wisdom," and it would almost seem that the flaming sword which guarded the Tree of Life had been withdrawn. If men would be guided by their medical advisers we verily believe that one-half of the ills that flesh is heir to would cease to be. There has recently been reference made, through many of the newspapers to a remarkable surgical opera- tion, in the removal of a tumor from the neck of a Mr. Stevens of Hoboken. This gentleman, like a great many others under simi- lar circumstances visited Europe for the express purpose of hav- ing an operation performed by an European surgeon. As he was very wealthy he offered the fabulous sum of one million dollars for a successful removal of the tumor, but none dared to risk their reputation on so critical an operation. After returning home ap- plication was made to Dr. Willard Parker of New York, who, as- sisted by a dozen other veterans in the medical service, successfully removed it.
An operation has recently been performed in this city perhaps ' quite as critical and more complicated. Mr. S. H. Newport, residing at No. 23 Trumbull street, has for some time past been afflicted with tumors on the side of his neck; within a few months they increased in size rapidly, rendering breathing and swallowing extremely difficult, owing to their great pressure upon the throat. " One was situated just above the clavicle or collar bone; another beneath the external jugular vein, and the sterno-mastoid muscle at the angle of the lower jaw, just below the ear; and the third was deeply imbedded beneath the internal jugular vein and carotid ar- tery pressing upon the larynx. These tumors were of the encysted type, which rendered their extirpation more difficult and hazardous. Dr. E. F. Whitman, of Beacon Street, administered ether and removed the tumors with perfect success.
The human organization is to the skilled physician and surgeon what the most complicated machine is to the mechanic,-a thorough knowledge of which enables him to restore to action and harmony such derangements as would seem impossible to one less skilled in the science. It is evident that there is no need of going abroad for medical advice, as we have many in this country who are in no wise inferior in medical and surgical skill to those of Europe.
Boston Globe.
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BRISTOL COUNTY HISTORY.
CARPENTER & ROBINSON, Wholesale and Retail Dealers in Beef, Pork, Mutton, Veal AND COUNTRY PRODUCE.
Market on High St., near the Taunton Branch Depot. TAUNTON, MASS.
WM. B. CARPENTER. NATHAN G. ROBINSON.
Mechanics National Bank, NORTH WATER, FOOT OF WILLIAM STREET.
Capital,
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WM. W. CRAPO, President. ,
E. WILLIAMS HERVEY,
JAMES W. HERVEY,
Cashier,
Assistant Cashier.
LEMUEL T. TERRY,
NATHAN C. HATHAWAY,
Bookkeeper,
Clerk.
DIRECTORS .- W. W. Crapo, J. R. Thornton, Jireh Swift, jr., Thomas Wilcox, William Watkins, Edward D. Mandell, Andrew G. Pierce, Horatio Hathaway, Henry F. Thomas, Loum Snow.
Discount days Tuesday and Friday.
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BRISTOL COUNTY HISTORY.
RAYNHAM.
Raynham was formerly a part of Taunton, from which it was set off and incorporated, as a new and distinct town, April 2, 1731. Some dispute about the boundary line between Raynham and Taunton was settled as late as 1866.
Raynham was included in that ancient purchase made of the Indians by Miss Elizabeth Poole and her associates, in or near 1637, and called "Tetequet Purchase," and also Cohannet.
This was incorporated as a part of Taunton Sept. 3, 1639, and it thus remained nearly 92 years.
The first European settlements were commenced about 1650, or some 13 years after the date of purchase.
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