USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Yarmouth > The celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of old Yarmouth, Mass., including the present towns of Yarmouth and Dennis. September 1 and 3, 1889 > Part 5
USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Dennis > The celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of old Yarmouth, Mass., including the present towns of Yarmouth and Dennis. September 1 and 3, 1889 > Part 5
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nessed far more changes, and accomplished more results, than many centuries preceding. But there is good reason for our natural reverence for antiquity. I would love es- pecially to help celebrate the history of Yarmouth ; but I suspect, if I were to be there next Sunday, my chief inter- est in Yarmouth's history would not be about its beginning. My heart would get warmest, and my eyes moist, as they do now, when I heard, or thought, of Yarmouth as I first saw it, and of the men and women and children whom I honored and loved as I, personally, knew them. Many of them long ago passed into the state of the " blessed dead, " but are alive forever more, and often come as vividly to my remem- brance as any that remain, or as friends I meet here. The old burial place there would have an interest for me beyond what it used to have. My associations with the Yarmouth church and people have a kind of sacredness in my mind : they are happy, sad, and mingled, but generally pleasant. I cannot indulge the expression of them in this letter. I beg you to convey to the church my hearty congratulations on its honorable history, and my earnest wishes for its future prosperity, and the assurance that I often remember it in my prayers.
I referred to the rapidity with which towns and commun- ities are now founded and builded. I hear much in new communities of the responsibility of those who are at the be- ginnings. But I often think how the materials for building these new towns and churches are brought, like those for Sol- omon's temple, ready prepared elsewhere, so that the old communities are determining the new.
My thoughts will be much with you Sunday, and it would give me a rare pleasure to be actually with you, and I shall desire to learn of the services of the church and town anniversaries.
The Lord greatly bless you and the people and prolong your ministry and make it increasingly useful.
Yours heartily,
A. K. PACKARD.
New York, August 3, 1889.
REV. JOHN W. DODGE, Yarmouth, Mass.
My Dear Brother :-
I have held your letter of July 27th, several days, hoping for a way out of the complication which seemed to
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forbid my acceptance of your kind invitation. I leave for an extended tour in the West, the first week in September. This means thirty busy days of preparation in order to leave business matters in a forward condition at the office. Just at the time of your celebration, I shall be in the thick of this work doing last things in preparation for a long absence.
I do not see in the first place how to be away from home dur- ing the early days of September, still less do I see any oppor- tunity for previous preparation such as I would desire to make, if I were to take the part which you have suggested. Therefore I must thank you most sincerely for your kindness and for the honor intended and regret profoundly that I can- not even take part as a spectator in your quarter-millennial celebration. I am thankful every day that my ministry be- gan on Cape Cod and in old Yarmouth. I have a feeling for that place and church and people that I share with no other. Something of this is doubtless due to its being a young min- ister's first love. But more, I think is due to the people themselves. I do not know where in the world to look for nobler men and women than I have seen and known on Cape Cod. I wish you would give my kindest regards to the few of my old people who still live to keep with you this inter- esting day. Most of those with whom I labored are now on the other side. I should feel more at home in the cemetery, reading their names, than I should in the church. But for the sake of the fathers and mothers whom I knew, I still have a most kindly feeling for their children and extend to them my heartiest congratulations upon this quarter-millenial anniversary.
With kind regards personally, I am,
Truly yours, Jos. B. CLARK.
The exercises closed with the singing of a hymn and the benediction. The spirit of the occasion was of the happiest. No event has occurred in the religious history of the town since the earliest days that has tended to promote harmony and mutual confidence comparable with this. May its effects prove as lasting as they have been happy.
THE TOWN CELEBRATION.
The day appointed, September 3, 1889, was exception- ally fine. The charm of early autumn was over all the land- scape. The waters of the bay reflected the bluest of skies. The salt meadows were putting on their earliest shades of yellow and brown, while the maples and elms that line the street borders were radiant in their brighter hues. It was the first memorial day in the annnals of the town, and there was a thrill of expectancy in all hearts. The Scotchman loves his heathery hills, and the Swiss, his Alpine valleys, but not more ardently than does the denizen of Cape Cod his sea-girt home. The sentiment of their own poet finds a response on occasions like these :
" We lift the Pilgrims war cry still For Freedom and for God, And Wear as proudest title yet The Sons of old Cape Cod. "
Animated with such feelings, the children of Old Yar- mouth returned to honor the memory of those who came here for liberty of conscience, and to lay the foundation of many generations. There was a cordial co-operation on the part of all to make the occasion worthy of a glorious past and when the day was over there was but one expression and that was - that it had been a grand success.
The decoration of the town was done under the super- vision of Charles Thacher, Esq., the flags and other ornaments
HALLETT STREET, LOOKING EAST.
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being furnished by Col. William Beals of Boston. An arch decorated with bunting and wreaths spanned Railroad Ave- nue. It bore the inscription "Sons and Daughters of Yar- mouth Welcome Home "-and "Mattacheese, 1639. - Yar- mouth 1889." "Another arch, similarly decorated, near the old church, bore the mottoes -" Yarmouth and Dennis honor their Common Ancestry to-day," and on the reverse face, "Foremost in Enterprise on Land and Sea." The decorating of the arches was very tastefully executed by Mr. Joshua Sears, of Boston, and contributed gratuitously for the occa- sion ; on the old church front were the inscriptions "The old Religious Centre ;" " The glory of Children are their Fathers." On the residence of Mr. Benjamin R. Howes, the former home of Rev. Nathaniel Cogswell, for many years pastor, was the inscription " The site of the old parsonage." Mr. A. C. Snow's house bore the legend :
"Of what avail is plow or sail On land or sea, if freedom fail."
The spot on which the first house was erected near the sum- mer cottage of Mr. Thomas Thacher was marked by a flag a' little distance from the street and easily recognized. The house occupied by Mr. Benjamin Lovell, that owned by Mr. Henry C. Thacher, now unoccupied, at the head of wharf lane, and the house occupied by Mr. Eben A. Hallet, being the three oldest houses in town were indicated by signs show- ing the date of their erection. The Thacher homestead, now owned by George T. Thacher, Esq., built in 1686, was also appropriately designated. The house in which the brothers John, Asa and Oliver Eldridge, well-known shipmasters, were born, was fitly marked. Flags spanned the streets at inter- vals throughout the town. Citizens vied with each other in decorating their houses in the most appropriate ways. Scarce- ly a house but had some fitting token for the occasion, giv- ing a brilliant holiday appearance to the entire village. Among those especially noticeable for their good taste, were the following : The Register Office, Charles Thacher, Charles F. Swift, E. D. Payne, D. G. Eldridge, Item Office, H. Q.
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Brigham, Allen H. Knowles, George Otis, Insurance Office, Doane & Guyer, Mrs. Almira Hallet, Isaac F. Gorham, First National Bank, Reuben Howes, William P. and William J. Davis, Howes Cottage, John Simpkins, Thacher T. Hallet, Fred. Hallett, Daniel B. Crocker, Mrs. Clara Sears, George W. Thacher, Mrs. Sarah Baker, R. H. Harris, Mrs. Nathaniel Matthews, Edward B. Hallet, J. G. Thacher, A. C. Snow, A. H. Eldridge, 2d., Phoebe W. Crocker, Zenas H. Snow, Joseph Bassett, William D. Loring, Capt. Thomas Matthews, Mrs. Lucy Taylor, Mrs. Charles Sears, Kilburn M. Taylor, Mrs. Benjamin Hallet, Miss Deborah Hamblin, A. C. Megathlin, H. C. Thacher, Mrs. Alice Matthews, George W. Simpkins, George Hallet, George Nickerson, Jr., Joseph H. Bray, El- bridge Taylor, H. L. Kern, Seth Taylor, E. S. Waite, Charles H. Gorham, David Nickerson, Luther Baker, Miss Martha Thacher, Mrs. Edmund Hamblin, Mrs. Edwin Thacher, B. R. Howes, Rev. John W. Dodge, Seth H. Hamblin, Mrs. Bethiah Whelden, Samuel H. Thacher, Watson Thacher, Freeman Howes, John Lundberg, Mrs. Deborah Bray, I. H. Thacher, George Hallet, 2d.
The literary exercises were held in the Congregational church, which was tastefully decorated for the occasion. Long before the appointed hour every available seat was taken, and crowds of people thronged the grounds in the vicinity. It had been arranged that there should be special trains on the Old Colony Railroad from Boston, New Bedford and Provincetown. Large numbers of people arrived on these trains, and many came in private carriages from the imme- diately adjoining towns. The invited guests were received at the station by Messrs. Fred C. Swift, Obed Baker, George T. Thacher, Cyrus Hall, C. M. Underwood, and C. S. Knowles, of the Committee on Reception, and were conducted to the car- riages assigned to them. The Governor by reason of illness, was unable to be present, but the Lieut .- Governor very grace- fully and acceptably filled his place.
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THE PROCESSION
formed at Railroad Avenue a little after 11 o'clock A. M., the train from Boston having been somewhat delayed. It was composed as follows :
Detachment of Police, under Command of Capt. Charles M. Bray. Boston Cadet Band, J. T. Baldwin, leader. Chief Marshal, John Simpkins. Aids, Edmund Eldridge, Thomas C. Thacher. Cavalcade under Command of Capt. Frank Thacher. Guests in carriages, Lieut .- Governor Brackett and staff, Councillors Mudge and Tufts, Treasurer Marden, and other Invited Guests. President of the Day, Orator and Chaplains.
Aged Citizens in carriage, driven by Freeman Howes, Esq. Whaleboat gaily decorated, containing Thirteen Girls repre- resenting the Original States.
The line of march was down Railroad Avenue, along Hallet street to Main street as far as the First Congregational church, the route being necessarily shortened owing to the lateness of the hour. The streets were thronged with people, and cheers went up at various points along the way, as well- known personages were recognized in the passing carriages.
The exercises at the church were conducted by Rev. John W. Dodge. Among those present were his Honor the Lieut .- Governor, Councillors Mudge and Swift, Cols. New- man, Woods and Bennet of the staff, Treasurer George A. Marden, Hon. W. W. Crapo, Alpheus H. Hardy, Joshua M. Sears, Capt. Thomas Prince Howes, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Tay- lor, Judge Darius Baker, Capt. Richard Matthews, Joshua C. Howes and others.
Mr. Charles A. Clark, of Salem, presided at the organ, and the chorus was composed of ladies and gentlemen from the two towns, under the leadership of Mr. William N. Stet- son, of South Yarmouth.
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At a quarter to twelve o'clock the exercises commenced with an organ voluntary, by Mr. Clark, which was followed by Keller's American Hymn, effectively rendered by Miss Emma C. Baker, soloist, supported by the chorus.
The words of the hymn are as follows :
"Speed our republic, O Father, on high ! Lead us in pathways of justice and right ; Rulers as well as the ruled, one and all Girdle with virture, the armor of might !
Foremost in battle for freedom to stand, We rush to arms when aroused by its call; Still as if when George Washington led, Thunder our war-cry, We conquer or fall !
Faithful and honest to friend and to foe, Willing to die in humanity's cause,
Thus we defy all tyrannical power, While we contend for our Union and Laws.
Rise up, Proud Eagle, rise up to the clouds, Spread thy broad wings o'er this fair western world, Fling from thy beak our dear banner of old,
Show that it still is for Freedom unfurled !
Chorus :
Hail! Three times hail to our country, and flag. PRAYER OF REV. JOHN W. DODGE.
Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty ; for all that is in the Heaven and in the earth is Thine; Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all. Thou only hast immortality. A thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is passed, and as a watch in the night. All the generations have come forth at Thy bidding. They have done that which Thou gavest them to do. They have re- flected Thy glory in the use of the light that Thou hast given them.
We give Thee thanks for our fathers, for their faith, their courage, their self-sacrifice and their devotion to duty. We rejoice in their lofty ideas of the future, towards which they wrought so faithfully. They looked for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. In the day of
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small things they saw the grandeur of the future and grasped the greatness of the promise. They built deep and wide the foundations of a noble temple. We thank Thee for the wisdom that characterized their laws ; that they were led by the spirit to translate Thy perfect law into theirs to so large an extent, and to fashion their commonwealth after the pat- tern that had been given in the Mount. We thank Thee for the principles of freedom that animated them from the beginning, and especially that they were ready to peril all, that they might secure freedom to worship God.
We thank Thee for the ancestors of this ancient town, whose virtues have been perpetuated through eight genera- tions to the present. Thou hast been with them on sea and land, in prosperity and adversity, in peace and in war. Thou hast presided over their deliberations in the interest of pub- lic safety, of education and of religion. Thou didst defend them in the beginning from the savage. Thou preservedst them from threatening famine and pestilence. Thou wast a shield to them in weakness. Through Thy fostering care their interests upon the sea have been promoted, and they have been safely returned again and again from their voyages over the treacherous ocean. Thou hast taught them hardi- hood and patience by their privations and their toils. Thou but made this place a nursery for strong and enterprising and self-reliant men and women. Here Thou hast trained them to sagacious forecast, to self-sacrifice and to pray- er. It has been Thy pleasure, O God, that there should go forth from this town, many brave and faithful men and wo- men to lay foundations of other towns in our land, to preach Thy word, to teach the young, to expound the law, to cure the sick, to engage in commerce. and trade, and to do valiant service in all honorable ways for the whole country. May Thy favor still shine upon them wherever they may be. Bless the home-coming to-day ! May all hearts be warmed anew in social and faternal love around the old hearth-stone. May a new devotion to this home of the fathers be awak- ened in the breasts of all the sons and daughters who are with us to-day, and may they ever share richly with us in Thy blessing, for the life that now is, and the richer inheritance of eternal redemption.
Bless, we beseech Thee, the Chief Magistrate of this great Commonwealth ! Be very gracious to him in his pres- ent illness. Restore him to health and uphold him in the discharge of his high duties. Let Thy favor be upon Thy
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servant, the Lieutenant-Governor, who is with us to-day, with his councillors and the officers of his staff. Remember gra- ciously all the members of our state government who have gathered with us to honor the memory of a noble ancestry. Bless the orator of this occasion, who comes back to render a grateful tribute to the memory of the fathers, as a labor of love. May the exercises of the day be an inspiration and a joy to all who participate in them, and may we all who now assemble here, be gathered at last in Thy kingdom on high, through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Amen.
After the Quarter-Millenial prayer, Rev. Mr. Dodge in- troduced the orator of the day as follows :
It is a source of great satisfaction that the town has been able to secure as the Orator of this occasion a native of the old town, and a lineal descendant of one of its most notable founders, - Richard Sears, -sometimes called "The Pilgrim." A gentleman born on the ancestral acres, who has himself shed lustre on the names he bears, in the profession of the law. I have the honor to introduce as the Orator of the day,
PHILIP HOWES SEARS.
In the light of this auspicious morning, which ushers in the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of this ancient town of Yarmouth, I greet this great assembly that has gathered here for its celebration ; I greet the de- scendants of Pilgrim fathers and of primeval emigrants to these shores, who have inherited that spirit which makes this anniversary so welcome; I greet the settlers and the sons of settlers of later times, who have here imbibed the same spirit, and who join with the same heart in honoring the primitive fathers; I greet those who have come hither to-day from other dwelling-places to unite with us in com- memorating the founding and building of these typical old colony communities; I invite you all to lay aside for awhile the busy life of to-day, and to live for a brief space with the men and the days of old.
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Far away in remote geological ages this long outstretch- ed projection of the mainland was gradually formed and pre- pared to become eventually the fitting seat of intelligent life. In the slow lapse of time all its upland surface from the borders of Plymouth to the extreme point of Provincetown became covered with a continuous forest, reaching to the water's edge, while at the same time its vast tracts of tree- less marsh land adjacent to its streams became overgrown with luxuriant grass, which for season after season only help- ed to fertilize the ever-deepening soil ; for centuries before the Pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock a peculiar race of savage men had here found' a congenial habitation, roaming freely through the unmeasured woodlands for game, drawing abundantly from the neighboring bays and brooks a rich va- riety of fishes, and cultivating Indian corn upon the isolated patches of ground from which they had succeeded in clear- ing off the native forest ; in the succession of revolving years at length the great year sixteen hundred thirty-nine(A. D. 1639) arrived when this territory reached the destination for which all its previous history had been preparing - it be- came the home and theatre of action for a community of civ- ilized men. In the Records of the Colony of Plymouth un- der the date of January seventeenth (17th) sixteen hundred and thirty-nine (A. D. 1639) N. S., this entry appears ;
" The names of those to whom the grant of the land at Mattacheeset, now called Yar- month, is made.
Mr. Anthony Thacher, Mr. Thomas Howes, Mr. John Crow."
(1 Plym. Col. Rec. p 108.)
Under the authority of this grant, Anthony Thacher, Thomas Howes, John Crow and their associates proceeded to settle and organize the town of Yarmouth.
What were these men who thus undertook to establish a new civil and ecclesiastical community? What were their motives, aims and ideals ? What kind of life did they live here in their new settlement ? What did they accomplish in their day and generation ? What has been accomplished by
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those who came after them ? What remains to be accom- plished in the coming time by those who may here succeed them ? What do we owe them, what does the world owe them for the work which they inaugurated, and the work which they performed ? The topics that crowd upon the mind at a time like this are manifold and vast, but only a hasty glance at the most important of them is possible in the flying moments of this occasion.
The doctrine of evolution has in our times brought the principle of heredity into special prominence ; it may be in- teresting, therefore, to notice in the outset, the operation of this principle in the history of the original Yarmouth and of its divided parts, the present Yarmouth and Dennis.
The whole history of these towns was indeed prefigured in the ethnological and the personal character of the prime- val settlers. A cursory view of that history will show two things most strikingly : it will show in what a remarkable manner these settlers and their descendants have illustrated the distinguishing traits of all those branches of the Aryan race that make up the composite people of Great Britain ; it will show also how peculiarly, how typically, they have at the same time represented the distinctive spirit of the lead- ing founders of the Colony of Plymouth and have exempli- fied that spirit in their public and private life. The historian of Yarmouth and Dennis, in his able and valuable work, has given a descriptive catalogue of the dozen or more early set- tlers who, through their descendants have continued to be represented in the people of these towns and have, in fact, determined their history. In that catalogue two, at least, Thomas Howes and William Nickerson, came from the county of Norfolk, and one, William Hedge, from the county of Northampton, counties that were, at the time of the Anglo- Saxon conquest of England, settled by the Angles and later in part by the Danes, who have both been ever noted for en- terprise, courage, independence and practical sagacity, and who are wont to take to the sea as if to their native element ; two in that catalogue, John Gorham and Richard Sears,
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whose ancestry lived long in France before their appearance in England, belonged to the Norman race, which, in addition to the characteristics of the Angles and Danes, is said by Macauley, to have brought into England the spirit of chivalry and a taste for literature; three in the catalogue, Anthony Thacher, Andrew Hallet, and James Matthews, came from the southerly counties of England which were set- tled by the Saxons, who are described by Mackintosh, in his ethnological survey of England, as remarkable for well-bal- anced minds and characters, leading to orderly lives and to judicious action in public and private ; one, Edmund Hawes, came from the city of London, which, while settled at first by the Saxons, has been immemorially the great reservoir into which all England has poured perpetually its young men of mercantile aptitude ; two, John Crow and John Hall, were from Wales, whose population belongs to that Celtic branch of the Aryan race, which in its early migration across the continent of Europe conquered and absorbed into itself the pre-historic Turanian inhabitants, a people possessing a more emotional and imaginative temperament, which the later Celts have inherited, and which sometimes develops, in individu- als who are partly of Celtic descent, a talent for invention, a gift of wit or a genius for poetry, music or eloquence. Of all these divisions of the Aryan race a versatile adaptiveness to new circumstances and indomitable energy and pluck in meeting new exigencies are, perhaps, the most striking char- acteristics. These various traits of character to which I have referred, separate or combined, modified, mingled together in manifold ways, will be found to reappear continually in the history of these towns.
What now, let me ask, what was it that brought such men, so diverse in local origin and in many peculiarities, to this place for settlement ? Like most of the colonists of New England they quitted their native land through fidelity to their religious convictions in order to escape the persecutions of the Stuart Kings and the English hierarchy. In coming to America, " They sought a faith's pure shrine." They left
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behind the homes of their childhood, the graves of their fore- fathers, the society of kindred and friends, the comforts and blessings of a civilized community, and they braved the dan- gers and hardships of pioneer life in the wilderness, in the midst of savage neighbors, for the sake of
" Freedom to worship God."
A conscientious sense of duty towards God and the spirit of freedom were the controlling motives of their action. With these motives were united some hope of spreading the Gos- pel among the heathen natives, some hope of enlarging the dominions of the British Crown, and especially some hope of helping to found a Christian Commonwealth in this New World. But why, it may well be asked, did they come to the territory of the Colony of Plymouth rather than to the great- er and more powerful Colony of Massachusetts Bay ? There subsequent conduct and history clearly show that their course in this respect was determined by their sympathy with the spirit and policy of the founders of Plymouth and their dis- approval of the policy of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. Two of the first settlers of Yarmouth had lived long in Hol- land and must have known the practice of John Robinson and his church at Leyden in holding communion freely with Dutch, French and Scotch Protestants and with Puritans of the church of England ; they must also have known of those wonderful farewell words of Robinson addressed to the part of his congregation then embarking for America, in which he charged them to follow him no farther than he followed Christ, and if God should reveal anything to them by any other instrument, to be as ready to receive it as ever they were to receive any truth by his ministry, assuring them of his persuasion that the Lord had more truth and light yet to break forth out of his holy word. A majority of the princi- pal settlers of Yarmouth had previously lived in the jurisdic- tion of Massachusetts Bay and had seen that colony banish- ing for the expression of religious opinion John Wheelwright, William Aspinwall, Mrs. Ann Hutchinson and her family and adherents ; they had seen that the government of that
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