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 6
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 6
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colony was a theocratic oligarchy, in which church members alone had the right of suffrage and the clergy had the con- trolling power and whose legal code and judgments followed the laws of Moses in all their severity ; but in looking to Plymouth they saw that no man had been punished for the expression of his religious opinions, that all inhabitants of " good conversation," being masters of families, were allowed to vote, and that the laws were based upon the common law of New England, modified by the precepts of the New Tes- tament. The acts of the settlers of Yarmouth at a subse- quent period prove that their choice of jurisdiction was de- cided by this marked difference in the original spirit of the two colonies. More than eighteen years later, after death had taken away all the great original founders of Plymouth, after John Robinson, who was the quickening spirit of that Colony though he never came to it, and William Brewster, William Bradford, Edward Winslow and Miles Standish had all died, when the government of Plymouth, under the pressure of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, enacted laws for the punishment of the Quakers, the settlers of Yarmouth remained faithful to their principles. No Quaker was pun- ished or arraigned in Yarmouth; and, when the authorities of the town under the requirements of law laid taxes upon all the inhabitants for paying the minister's salary and also for enlarging the meeting-house, by vote of the town they laid the tax large enough upon the other inhabitants to ena- ble them to remit the tax to Quakers. All honor, then, to the founders of Yarmouth, who, at that early day, practised those great principles of religious toleration which have since been embodied in the constitution of Massachusetts and in the constitution of the United States.
Having determined for such reasons to settle within the jurisdiction of Plymouth, it was these great tracts of meadow and marsh-land affording hay for their cattle, and the comparatively large area of planting ground cleared up by the Indians and ready for use, that drew them to Mattakeeset.
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In the spring and summer of the year 1639 they came hither, without their families, to secure the assignment of their home-lots and other lands, to build houses and to pre- pare the place for permanent residence, living meanwhile in booths. Before the summer was ended their hastily con- structed houses were ready for occupation, and at the begin- ning of autumn they brought their families, and then, but not before, they became inhabitants of Yarmouth and the real settlement of the town took place. Their life here in those early years, though subject to many hardships, was, on the whole, remarkably fortunate and prosperous. Finding on all sides springs, brooks and ponds of "sweet water," they had built their houses near them, and so, blessed with good water as well as good air, they had health and long life. The raising of cattle for the first twenty years formed their most important, practical business, and, while the influx of new settlers continued, was very profitable. Next in impor- tance was the raising of Indian corn, which had become the currency of the colony and which, when planted with ale- wives or other fish in the hill, bore abundant crops. The other principal products of their lands were rye, barley, beans, peas and flax. Orchards soon appeared near every house and some of the pear trees set out by them are flour- ishing to this day; new lands were rapidly cleared up for cultivation, fences built, roads and lanes opened, their houses enlarged and improved, and soon the wilderness "blossomed like the rose." Governor Bradford, though he did not pos- sess much of "the vision and faculty divine," was inspired to write shortly before his death a descriptive poem upon the condition of the colony as it was a few years previously. Some passages from this peculiar poem will show the condi- tion of Yarmouth :
"All sorts of grain, which our own land doth yield, Was hither brought and sown in every field; As wheat and rye, barley, oats, beans and pease. Here all thrive and they profit from them raise."
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"Cattle of every kind do fill the land;
Many now are killed and their hides tanned By which men are supplied with meat and shoes, Or what they can, though much by wolves they lose. Here store of cows, which milk and butter yield,
And also oxen, for to till the field ; Of which great profit many now do make
If they have a fit place and able pains do take. Horses here likewise now do multiply,
They prosper well, and yet their price is high."
"A cow then was at twenty pounds and five Those who had increase could not choose but thrive; And a cow calf, ten or twelve pounds would give As soon as weaned, if that it did but live."
"And both swine and corn was in great request- To the first comers this was a harvest.
But that which did 'bove all the rest excel, God in his word, with us He here did dwell; Well ordered Churches in each place there were, And a learn'd ministry was planted here, All marvell'd and said 'Lord this work is thine In the wilderness to make such lights to shine.'"
" Here were men sincere, and upright in heart, Who from justice and right would not depart; Men's causes they would scan and well debate, But all bribes and corruptions they did hate."
MS. poem found among the papers of Gov. Bradford, Mass. Hist. Col. 31. p 77.
To their agricultural pursuits the first settlers immedi- ately added another large source of profit by securing the numerous " drift whales" that in those days were cast on shore within the bounds of Yarmouth, and at a later date they originated a new business, which for a hundred years proved to be of the greatest value to these towns, and to this county and the neighboring counties. This was the pursuit of whales in boats and lancing them while still free in their native element. This whale fishing in boats their descendants carried on until whales ceased to frequent the waters of Cape Cod Bay, and then in small vessels they pur- sued the whale in the Atlantic Ocean between George's bank
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and the Capes of Virginia, and later in the strait of Belle Isle and the river St. Lawrence, until at length the Revolutionary war put an end to whale fishery for the inhabitants of Yar- mouth.
But the founders of Yarmouth were not absorbed in mere material interests; one of the first things to engage their attention was the formation of a well-ordered church and the settlement of a devoted pastor. The first Church of Yarmouth, organized at once, was started by them upon that high course which it has pursued for two centuries and and a half. Supplied with a succession of able, learned and godly ministers, breaking the bread of life to generation after generation, upholding the cause of education, diffusing the spirit of true culture, promoting every good work for the improvement and welfare of the community, forming out of itself new churches of like influence in the remoter parts of the original parish, the inhabitants of these towns can never be sufficiently grateful to their ancestors for the establish- ment and maintenance of such an institution.
The first meeting-house erected on the southerly side of the old cemetery, a short distance from this place, was a building of very rude construction. The pastor of the First Church, in his able and interesting historical sketch of the First Church and its ministers and meeting-houses, has de- scribed it as a building of forty feet in length and thirty in width with thatched roof; unplastered, unglazed, unshingled, unpainted, with windows of oiled paper. What a contrast between that small, rude structure and this spacious and beautiful temple of worship in which we are now assembled. But, I doubt not, our ancestors worshipped as devoutly in that building as they would have done in this. They had no organ, no musical instruments, no choir, but those of the congregation who were able to sing three or four of the sim- ple tunes contained in Ainsworth's version of the Psalms, sang the same tunes in regular order Sunday after Sunday, making melody in their hearts.
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The sermons of the early ministers, of Rev. John Miller, the second pastor, of Rev. Thomas Thornton, the third pas- tor, were always able and always lengthy, the hour-glass be- ing turned twice at least during every sermon. There were some in the congregations who dissented from the minister's views and adopted very peculiar methods of showing their dissent.
Peter Worden and William Lumpkin were fined 10s. each for causing disturbance in the Yarmouth Meeting-house on the Lord's day, by talking, it is said, in a low voice during service, in a corner of the meeting-house; Richard Berry and three others were fined 5s. each "for smoking tobacco at the end of the Yarmouth Meeting-house on the Lord's day in the time of exercise ; " William Chase was presented "for driving a pair of oxen five miles on the Lord's day in time of exercise ;" John Gray and two others were fined thirty shillings each "for sailing from Yarmouth to Boston on the Lord's day ; " Nicholas Nickerson was punished for defaming the minister, and William Nickerson was called to account for jeering at religion and disturbing public meetings. And yet, when, subsequently, William Nickerson removed to Mannamoit, within the jurisdiction of Yarmouth, and there preached to those who wished to hear him, the authorities never interfered with his preaching. While, therefore, breaches of the public peace and breaches of order and de- corum, within the sanctuary and without, were most rigidly repressed, the worship of God and the expression of religious opinion were left free. The founders of Yarmouth had solved that problem of ages - the reconciliation of religious freedom with civil order, the harmonious union of individual liberty and public law. Their administration of civil affairs in other respects was marked by singular wisdom and jus- tice. The proceeds of the fisheries at Cape Cod were appro- priated by the General Court of the Colony to the support of education, and the people of Yarmouth soon established for themselves that system of common schools which after- wards became one of the great distinctions of New England.
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Their treatment of the Aborigines living within the limits of the town was so just and kind that the confidence and friendship of these tribes were forever secured. Every foot of land was fairly bought of them and fully paid for, every greivance promptly redressed and the principles of the Gospel were preached to them and practised towards them. Whatever Indian wars might elsewhere arise,-during King Philip's war and all other troubles and disturbances,- the native tribes throughout this county remained uniformly pa- cific and faithful. What volumes does this speak for the justice and Christian conduct of those who then inhabited this town and this county !
The first settlers of Yarmouth, like the first colonists of Plymouth, had a strong disinclination to public office which they regarded, not as an honor, but as a trust and grave re- sponsibility to be accepted only from a sense of duty or from fear of the penalties imposed by law for refusal. If a com- petent man could be found willing to undertake such respon- sibility, they were sure to re-elect him and keep him in office so long as he would consent to it, and thev had no fear of finding any irregularities in his official accounts. None such were ever known in the Colony of Plymouth.
Our New England town is a peculiar organism ; it is a body politic, a distinct unit having functions within itself towards its own members in respect to public health, the public peace, the means of inter-communication, the care of education, and, in former times, the support of public wor- ship, but it is at the same time an organic part of a larger political entity to which it has relations and duties. Yar- mouth had such relations for fifty-three years to the Colony of Plymouth and to the crown of England, for eighty-four years to the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and now for more than one hundred years to the Commonwealth of Mas- sachusetts and the American Union. The people of Yar- mouth regarded and spoke of the Colony of Plymouth as "the country " and, in the performance of their duty towards that country, exhibited the highest patriotism.
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They contributed their full share to meet its financial bur- dens, they took their full part in the counsels and adminis- tration of its government, and in the hour of danger they sent forth their soldiers at a moment's warning to fight in its service. Within three years after the first settlement, in the year 1642 and again in the year 1645, upon notice from the Colonial Authorities, the men of Yarmouth marched forth at once into the country of the Narragansetts in their earli- est military expeditions ; and when in the year 1675 King Philip's war arose, although Yarmouth was far from the scene of hostilities and far from any danger of attack, it sent forth under the command of Captain John Gorham, Cap- tain Thomas Howes, Captain Michael Pierce and Ensign John Thacher, respectively, six successive expeditions for the defence of the United Colonies of New England. The second of these expeditions was engaged in the great Swamp Fight which broke the power of King Philip's allies, and the fourth expedition was in the bloody fight at Reho- both, in which almost every man was slain. The peaceful citizens had been unused to camps and untrained in arms, but, like Cromwell's men, they went forth to battle in the name of the Lord and in the power of his might. Our an- cestors ever felt that they were co-operating in the work and plan of Providence ;. they belived that they were build- ing on this western continent a truer home for posterity in all after ages; they believed that they were helping to found a better commonwealth than the world had known; amid its hardships and discomforts there was in their life something of poetry, much of heroism; in all their work they were sustained by a lofty consciousness, by high hopes, by noble ideals. In looking back at their work from this distance of time, who can fail to admire these men? What striking qualities they displayed ! What energy, industry and fore- cast in their labors upon the face of the earth itself! What enterprise, courage and skill in the development and prosecu- tion of the whale fishery ! What justice and Christian char- ity in the treatment of their savage neighbors ! What care
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for the intellectual welfare of posterity in the establishment of schools! What regard for the highest interests of man in organizing such a church and providing such a ministry ! What wisdom in combining religious liberty with civil order ! What patriotism and heroism in answering the calls of their country in the hour of danger to the sacrifice of life ! They made Yarmouth, in their life-time, a typical old colony town, and so handed it over to posterity.
Receiving such an inheritance, how have their succes- sors acquitted themselves in the trust ? How have they per- formed their part on the stage of life ?
Looking down the long vista of the generations that have followed, we shall not find that they have proved un- faithful. The patriotic record of these towns is surpassed by none. What important service they rendered, especially by their whale-boat fleets, to the Province of Massachusetts Bay and to Great Britain in King William's war, in Queen Anne's war, in the French wars, which resulted finally in the overthrow of the power of France in America ! But it is in the Revolution and in the war of the Rebellion that their brightest record appears. Upon the first news of the battle of Lexington, the military companies of the two precincts of Yarmouth, one hundred and twenty strong, started forth, like minute-men, for the scene of action. When in the year 1776 the towns were requested to express their opinion, whether, if Congress should declare the Independence of the Colonies, the people would sustain them in the act, the town of Yarmouth, rising in its sovereign authority with unparallelled boldness, voted, unanimously, " That the inhab- itants of the town of Yarmouth do declare a state of inde- pendence of the King of Great Britain, agreeably to a late resolve of the General Court, in case the wisdom of Con- gress should see proper to do it."
The town of Yarmouth and the other towns in this county during the Revolutionary war absolutely exhausted themselves in furnishing men, money, provisions, clothing
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and other supplies for the army and the cause of indepen- dence.
The action of the towns of Yarmouth and Dennis in our civil war it is unnecessary to relate. The resolutions passed at their meetings breathed the soul of patriotism; every demand for men throughout the war was promptly filled, and much more than filled ; more than forty thousand dollars were spent in bounties to volunteers and in providing for their families and incident expenses, over and beyond what was advanced to the government and repaid ; and the men sent forth did honor to their towns. No greater patriot- ism, or valor, or heroism was exhibited on the plain of Mar- athon, or in the Bay of Salamis, or at the Pass of Thermop- ylæ, than was displayed by men of Yarmouth and Dennis in the battles of the Revolution and on southern fields and waters in the war of the Rebellion. The military Captains of Europe have expressed great surprise at the facility with which the peaceful American citizen is transformed into the bold and heroic soldier; but the explanation of this phe- nomenon is to be sought in the inherited blood of the Amer- ican ; it must be traced back to the fights of the Vikings, to the conflicts of Saxon and Briton, of Angle, Norman and Dane, to the wars of the Crusaders and the wars of the Roses, to wars with Scotland, with France, with Indians, with England herself, which together have helped to evolve the character of the American of to-day. When the bugle of his country calls, it evokes an echo in his breast.
The system of common schools founded by the fathers has been enlarged and improved beyond their utmost con- ception and was never better than to-day. The work of the schools, too, has been supplemented and extended by the several libraries that have come into existence and especially here in this place, by the large and beautiful library to which so many citizens and natives of Yarmouth have contributed. The church which was organized by the fathers, has steadily done its work through the successive generations and still flourishes in undecaying vigor, doing a fuller and better work
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than ever. Other churches of the same and of different creeds have sprung from it, supplying the wants of every section, suiting every shade of belief and sentiment, and, however differing in some respects, all inculcating that fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom, and co-operating in that charity which is greater than the faith that can re- move mountains.
But it is the practical pursuits and interests of the peo- ple of these towns that have experienced the greatest changes, and that have most fully tested the resources of their character. After the opening of more fertile lands elsewhere had diminished the profits of their agriculture, and after the withdrawal of the whale to remoter waters re- quired larger vessels than their harbors would admit of, the people of these towns on both shores of the peninsula, pre- viously to the Revolutionary war, and immediately after it, took up successfully the business of cod fishery, the business of coasting to southern ports and also the making of voy- ages in small vessels to the West Indies, to New Orleans, and to the ports of France and other countries of Europe. During the Revolutionary war the high price of common salt turned the attention of a native of the eastern precinct of the town to the question of the practicability of producing salt profitably from sea-water through solar evaporation, and before the end of the last century he had succeeded in in- venting and perfecting a set of contrivances by which this end was accomplished. The invention of salt-works gave a business of great value and profit to these towns and to this county and the neighboring counties for nearly fifty years, until through the abolition of duties on foreign salt and the development of new sources of supply within our own land, the business at length ceased to be any longer profitable. Meanwhile the growth of the foreign commerce of the coun- try and the employment of large American ships in this business between the years 1820 and 1861, opened a new field for enterprise and character. The shipmasters from these towns have had no superiors. They found here a con-
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genial element and came forth with surpassing lustre. En- ergy, courage, skill, presence of mind, coolness of judgment, commanding authority and high honor, characterized these men. Transcendent success in this vocation has made the names of Crowell, Eldridge, Hallett, Howes, Taylor, famous for masterly seamanship and noble manhood as widely as the ocean rolls. But with the war of the Rebellion, American ships disappeared from our foreign commerce and the great shipmasters found their occupation gone.
Contemporaneously with the engagement of shipmasters from Yarmouth and Dennis in foreign commerce, a part of the people of these towns engaged in the mackerel fishery, and others, again, in ship-building ; industries that flourished much for a time, but, practically came to an end also with the Civil war. The coasting trade, which began before the Revolutionary war, has undergone many and great vicissi- tudes ; the introduction and extension of railroads long ago superseded the earlier forms of the business ; but the sagaci- ty and enterprise of citizens of these towns quickly took ad- vantage of the development of coal mines and the substitu- tion of coal for wood and have in recent times built up a new coasting business surpassing all that has preceded it. Fifty years ago a native of Dennis discovered the art of cultivating the cranberry ; and this discovery, revealing a better use for the many swamps and marshes throughout Cape Cod, has introduced a new industry which brings to these towns a greater annual income than any previous branch of business. In looking back over the history of these changing pursuits we shall be struck with the recuper- ative power so constantly displayed. New kinds of business have quickly arisen to take the place of the old that had succumbed to fate. What inventiveness and sagacity, what enterprise, versatility and energy have been shown in meet- ing the exigencies of "all-destroying time!" Where such recuperative power is shown, there is never occasion to abate hope or effort. The capacity, that has been able to answer the demands of the past, will not be found inadequate to the
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requirements of the future. When the foreign commerce of the country in American ships shall be resumed, the sov- ereigns of the seas will step forth anew from the shores. If the protection of home industry continue to be the national policy, the inventive talent here existing will soon discover the sort of manufacture suited to these environments.
The history of these towns is not confined wholly within their own local bounds. They have sent forth colonists in great numbers to the State of Maine, to Western Massachu- setts, to New York, to every state and city in the union, and indeed to every part of the habitable globe, who have every- where maintained the prestige of their ancestral home. They have contributed their due proportional number to the learned professions ; they have contributed much more than their proportion to the active callings of the metropolis of the Commonwealth, and especially to the mercantile calling, whose roll of successful and eminent merchants bears the names of Thacher, Hallett, Sears, Hawes, Baker and many others that have belonged to natives of these towns. The complaint is somtimes heard that these towns have not made any like contributions to the ranks of science, literature and art. If there be any ground for this complaint, it is for the future to remedy. The President of Harvard University has called attention to the fact that the County of Barnstable sends to college a less proportional number of students than do the other counties of the State, and he ascribes this fact to the want of an endowed classical school within the coun- ty. His explanation is undoubtedly correct, and there is at this moment no more important want in this county than of the establishment of an endowed academy having a classical department supplied with competent teachers, with libraries and with engravings, and casts of the best works of ancient and modern art, and having also an English department pro- vided with scientific apparatus to fit for the profession of teaching and for all the higher active callings in the commu- nity. Where so much native talent gleams out on every side, there is urgent call for its due development. If such
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