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 7
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 7
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an Academy were established in one of these towns so cen- tral for the whole county, what a mighty power for good would arise! What talents would be evoked into new ac- tivity ! What genius might be awakened ! What improve- ments in practical pursuits and the enterprises of business originated ! What elevation and refinement of social life promoted !
These towns are now organic parts of the Common- wealth of Massachusetts, "The heir of all the ages in the foremost files of time." . In the front lines of Massachusetts' civilization a higher and broader cultures, a more complete and full-orbed life is gradually rising. New influences are at work in our midst. The education now given in Harvard College has a comprehensiveness never known before in our land ; the great musical compositions of Beethoven, Mozart, Mendelssohn; Wagner, are heard in Boston to-day in no less perfection than in Vienna or London; the great works of European art are beginning slowly to migrate to our shores and to exert their influence on the young as well as the old. In the philosophy of Plato, the ends of our rational intelli- gence are defined to be the Good, the Beautiful and the True. Our ancestors devoted their attention mainly to the good, - the good in material things, in civil affairs, in spirit- ual concerns and to the true as subsidiary to the good; but the beautiful entered very little into their consciousness. To-day the beautiful is taking its place by the side of the good and the true -awakening new emotions, aspirations and ideals, and helping to elevate, expand and round our life more nearly into that integral and symmetrical complete- ness which the nature of man and the Author of his nature prescribe. This completer life belongs here as well as in Boston or, Cambridge. Our ancestors, in their day, made Yarmouth a typical town of the Old Colony; it is for their descendants to make Yarmouth and Dennis typical towns of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the twentieth century.
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The oration occupied about forty-five minutes in its de- livery and was listened to with close attention throughout, by an audience that filled every avaliable spot within the walls of the church. Immediately following, an original hymn written for the occasion, by Rev. John W. Dodge, was sung to the tune of Hamburg :
ORIGINAL HYMN.
The sea is Thine and Thine the strand, Thy dome o'erarches sea and land, And on the billowy pavement's sheen, Thy footsteps, mighty God, are seen.
The rolling waves and sounding shore Through forest aisles Thy praises bore, E'er human voices broke the charm, And uttered first their plaintive psalm.
The Hand that led the Pilgrims o'er, And showed the Rock on yonder shore, Concealed in storm our harbor's face, And fixed for us a humbler place.
And yet to us to rear was given, One pillar of the mystic seven Of Wisdom's house; a nation grand, Through coming centuries to stand.
Our fathers toiled through all the years ; They ploughed in faith, they sowed in tears, Thy love sustained their fainting strength, And gladdening harvests came at length.
And here to-day the children come To find a cordial welcome home; And round ancestral altars raise Their grateful hymns of love and praise.
Long live the town-our fathers' pride, Where beauty, health and peace abide; May generations yet to be, Thy bright millennial glories see.
The exercises at the church closed at about half-past one, and the assembly was dismissed for dinner.
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As many were unable to gain admission to the church to enjoy the literary exercises, a varied programme of sports was arranged by the committee, and the grounds provided for the purpose in the vicinity were thronged nearly all day by eager participants in the games. At 9 A. M., was a shooting match, with four prizes. At 10 A. M., Base Ball -the North Side married men versus the South Side married men. - At 3 P. M., the North Side club versus the South Side club. The prize medals were engraved, "Yarmouth, 1639- 1889." For the young people there were a sack race, pota- to race, three-legged race, obstacle race, etc. The honors of base-ball were about equally distributed between the two sides of the town. In the forenoon the North Side married men beat the South Side married men by a score of 21 to 5. In the afternoon the South Side beat the North Side club 13 to 5.
An Antiquarian Exhibition in the vestry of the Congre- gational church consisted of rare and curious articles - household utensils, antiquated implements of various sorts, and relics of by-gone times, around which was gathered an interested throng, continually changing through the day.
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The tent for dinner was pitched on an historic spot, just across the street to the north of the School House, on a spot of land which had formerly belonged to Rev. John Mil- ler, the second pastor of the church. It was one hundred and ten feet long by sixty-three feet wide, with a capacity for accommodating nearly a thousand guests at the tables. It was gaily decorated with flags and streamers, and being visi- ble from many points, from its central situation, was an ob- ject of attraction to all. Over the entrance was the motto, -
"We will our celebration keep."
- King Henry IV.
The interier was brilliantly trimmed with flags, and set off with mottoes in large gold letters on a black velvet back
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ground. The table for invited guests was on a raised plat- form on the North Side, over which was the motto, -
"Feast here awhile."
- Pericles.
The dinner was served by J. Dooling, of Boston, cater- er, and the appointments were superb in every respect. The tables were beautifully decorated with cut flowers and pot- ted plants, and nothing was wanted to secure a complete suc- cess. When the guests were seated, nearly every place was filled, the number by count being nine hundred and fifty. The Band was in attendance and played choice selections at intervals during the afternoon. The following is the
MENU.
FISH.
Boiled Salmon. Sliced Tomatoes.
Green Peas.
Potato Croquettes:
BOILED.
Chicken. Ham. Tongue. Potatoes. Currant Jelly.
ROAST.
Sirloin Beef. Dish Gravy. Turkey.
:
Cranberry Sauce.
Mashed Potatoes.
Pickles.
String Beans. Olives.
ENTREE.
Lobster Salad.
DESSERT. Frozen Pudding. Vanilla. Strawberry. Chocolate. Macaroon. Pineapple.
Ice Cream.
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€
Orange Sherbet. Frosted
Raspberry Sherbet.
Currant Almond
Citron Cake.
Cocoanuts.
Fancy Cakes. Macaroons.
FRUIT.
Bananas. Oranges. Pineapples.
Plums. Walnuts. Raisins.
French Coffee.
The company was called to order by Hon. Henry C. Thacher, president of the day, who called upon Rev. Jeremi- ah Taylor, of Boston, to invoke the divine blessing. After an hour spent in discussing the rich viands, the president called the assembly to order and welcomed them in the fol- lowing brief remarks :
PRESIDENT THACHER'S ADDRESS.
Daughters and Sons of Old Yarmouth : I bid you wel- come. I cordially welcome all who have assembled here to celebrate this day. I welcome you to this pleasant old town ; I welcome you to its shady streets, to its gentle hills, from whose tops the eye looks out over the blue waters of the bay to that point which marks the southern entrance to the har- bor of Plymouth, to the hills of Provincetown, which shelter- ed the harbors on whose waters the Mayflower rode, when in her cabin was enacted that ever memorable instrument, that first written constitution ever adopted by man for self- government, that instrument from which are formed all the constitutions of our states and the constitution of the great and powerful nation, the United States of America. And here by the shore of the sea, among our homes, I welcome you to all the festivities of the day.
The president then introduced his honor Lieutenant Governor Brackett, who spoke as follows :
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR BRACKETT'S ADDRESS.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : - The Common- wealth for which you invite me to respond, seems youthful when compared with Yarmouth.
Its constitution was adopted more than one hundred and forty years after the act of incorporation which we com-
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memorate. It is, therefore, fit that on this occasion it should pay to the ancient town the homage ever due from youth to age. It delegates to me the duty of bringing to Yarmouth on its natal day, its salutations.
The year 1639 was an eventful one in the history of the Cape. Upon a single day in that year, as you all know, three of its towns, Yarmouth, Sandwich and Barnstable, were ush- ered into being. There was one fact probably not contem- plated by the people of that generation, and that was, that because of their incorporation on the same day, the two hun- dred and fiftieth anniversary and other like anniversaries, would naturally fall upon the same day, thus giving to those who are invited and might desire to attend both celebrations, some little degree of embarrassment. Mark Twain, speaking once at a banquet upon the landing of the Pilgrims, com- menting upon the fact that he had been obliged to decline invitations to like celebrations on the same day, remarked that his only complaint against the Pilgrims was, that they all landed upon the same day, because, he said, if they had not done this, then these commemorative dinners might have taken place on different days, and he been able to take them all in.
I understand that the celebration at Barnstable has been postponed. I trust that we all shall be invited to attend the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary, and all accept, un- less prevented by previous engagements elsewhere.
Yarmouth to-day enters into a new chapter. You, its sons and daughters, glorifying in its past, and hopeful for its future, have come together in honor of the event. You have come together to show by your presence, your regard for the town and your reverence for its founders. In the spirit of that injunction which commands us to honor our fathers and mothers, we also honor the fathers and mothers of the town in which we were born or live. They are wor- thy of unstinted praise, the men who founded these old towns, for the heroism they displayed, for the hardships they endured in their pioneer life. By contemplating their con- dition, the condition in which they were placed, and in con- trasting it with our own, we derive every cause for satisfac- tion and contentment for the lot which has befallen us. To be permitted to take part in its mighty work, to be borne forward on its surging tide, is a boon the like of which has not been enjoyed by other generations. Who can measure the extent of our obligations to the hardy pioneers who laid
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the foundations of the towns, and gave to mankind a practi- cal exemplification of that system of popular government which was afterward adopted by the nation, and under which it has gone on in triumph for more than a century ? It was in the town meeting of the colonial period that American liberty was nurtured and the people learned to appreciate their rights. It was there that the idea of an independent Nation originated and grew, until at length it became that living and glorious reality which it at length achieved. It is proper, and becoming, and just, that the people to-day should embrace every occasion to acknowledge that indebted- ness, and pay our grateful tributes to the heroic men who laid the foundations of this old town which we honor. I am reminded somewhat vividly of my first visit to the town. It was several years ago, more than I now care to confess. I came to deliver an address in one of your churches, in be- half of the New England Freedmen's Aid society. It was my first experience in that character, and I came with a great many misgivings. I noticed that I was received with a def- erence unexpected, and soon ascertained the cause. It hap- pened that on that same evening, (Sunday,) a clerical gen- tiemen was to speak in Yarmouth. Your paper announced the meeting, but for some reason it got "those two children mixed," and on taking up the paper, I was somewhat astound- ed and shocked to see my full name printed in large letters, with the title of Rev. prefixed. It was a dignity to which I had no claim, and which I was poorly prepared to sustain. I besought my friend, Mr. Swift, to supply me with all his spare copies of the paper, and he donated them to me, kindly mailed to my classmates scattered around the country, and which filled their minds with wonderment, to think that I had so suddenly come out with the title of a clergyman.
It is customary on occasions of this kind, for the Com- monwealth to be represented by some one of its officials. It is appropriate that this should be. The Commonwealth is interested in the town's growth and prosperity, and in the character of all its towns, for upon them does not its progress and welfare depend ? Its fortune in which all good citizens are concerned, is to be just what its people make it. The history of Yarmouth thus far in its career has been honora- ble and creditable. Its past is secure. May the future be worthy of its past, so that when the three hundredth anni- versary shall occur, the people whose privilege it shall be to take part in it, may review the period intervening with the
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same feelings of satisfaction and pride which you now expe- rience when you look back to the two hundred and fifty by- gone years.
The president then said : "It is seldom that an election occurs in which the majority and minority candidates are alike satisfied with the result. Such an election took place last autumn, and I now have the pleasure of introducing to you, the majority candidate, George A. Marden, Treasurer and Receiver-General of this Commonwealth."
MR. MARDEN'S ADDRESS.
His Honor, the Lieutenant-Governor, and I, were born in New Hampshire. About forty years ago this summer, in the town adjoining where I was born, there were men mow- ing upon a large meadow. One of them was a good old Bap- tist deacon, and he had his hired man in the swath just ahead, (he always had him in the swathe just ahead of him,) and the hired man came to what seemed to him a suspicious look- ing place in the grass, and so he went and set in on the other side. The deacon was a man who was always quoting script- ure, and he said to the hired man, "the wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous is bold as a lion." In a few minutes the deacon was making 2. 40 time across the mead- ow with a hundred bees after him. The hired man shouted out to the deacon, "the prudent man foreseeth the danger and avoideth it, but the simple pass on and are punished." I had an invitation to come to this celebration some months ago. If I had supposed that I was to be brought down here as a representative of the State Government, as one of the fictions which precede our State elections ; if I was supposed to follow His Honor, the Lieutenant-Governor, the prudent man would have foreseen the evil and hidden himself, but he passed on, and you are being punished.
What shall I say on an occasion like this? Not sup- posing the brunt of the speech-making was to come so near to me, I failed to study up the Legislative Manual beforehand. 3 At a grocers' picnic, a few days ago, I was called upon to represent the Common wealth of Massachu- setts, and did it in my feeble way. When we got through and were waiting for the train, a man came up and intro- duced himself to me ; he was a grocer from New York. He said, " Very glad to meet you, sir; you know we don't want anything real good at such a time as this." And I suppose it is fair to presume that you don't want anything real good
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at such a time as this, in the same sense the grocer gave it. The celebration commands the attention of every person witnessing it. Here the men and women of this ancient town, (so ancient that even Governor Brackett can't remem- ber the beginning of it; a town which has only made one mistake, and that is giving him his degree as a minister of the gospel,) represent the best of the Commonwealth of Mas- sachusetts. God bless her! What is there in all the cata- logue of sights, better than a gathering of human beings, and in the gathering, what can be better than the men and wo- men who comprise what the orator says was the typical town of Massachusetts ? Yesterday I came down from the little hill town where the deacon was mowing, and twenty of us had gathered there to talk over old times. It is a New Eng- land town, perhaps a typical New Hampshire town, but not like this. I don't know but the soil might be a little better than that on which this tent stands ; but for growth of men and women, it cannot surpass it.
The orator told us to-day that there is a recuperative energy in this place. The whaling dies out, something else springs up, and in these back hills is found a mine which beats whaling out of sight. You can't kill Cape Cod, and it may be that henceforth we are to see a growth in enterprise and population which shall astonish us. Last Sunday I would have been willing to swear that there was no place so pleasant as the little place where I was born ; to-day I should make the affidavit with reluctance, because the affidavits be- fore me so much outnumber those in the place where I was born. I sympathize with Theodore Parker's remark, who being told that the end of the world was come, said, " It doesn't concern me ; I live in Boston." And I thought, too, of that story about the Americans who got together and had a celebration of the anniversary of their independence, who after eating and drinking, began to get a little excited over the patriotism of their country, and said, "Here is to the United States of America," and they cheered as only men will cheer who are enthusiastic, and another said, "I will go you one better. 'Here is to the United States of America, bounded on the North by the North Pole, on the East by the rising sun, on the South by the South Pole, on the West by the setting sun, '" and then they cheered more. But that was not sat- isfactory, and the most enthusiastic of all said, " I will give you a toast worth something. 'Here is to the United States, bounded on the North by the Aurora Borealis, on the East
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by the Procession of the Equinoxes, on the South by the infer- nal regions, on the West by the Day of judgment.' " That man might have been born in Barnstable or Yarmouth or Dennis or Sandwich for all I know, but there would have been no limit to the bounds of his patriotism and the affection for his home. I am reminded that Mr. Swift, when he asked me to speak, said five minutes and no more. I have outrun that. I want to say, however, in answer to what was said in the introduction, that Yarmouth is my benefactor for hav- ing allowed its foremost citizen to accept a nomination from
the opposing party last year. We agreed exactly, he that he didn't want to be elected, and I that I didn't want him to be elected. And we made this agreement: If he was elect- ed I was to go upon his bond, and if I was elected he should go upon mine. There was this thing about it. His name on a bond would be worth a large part of Cape Cod; my name on his would hardly represent one of its sands. I had the better of him there; he has the better of me this afternoon.
The president then said : " I am glad to welcome here a delegation of the Cape Cod Association of Boston, worthy sons of those fathers, who left the Cape to seek their fortunes in Boston. I now introduce to you Mr. Alpheus H. Hardy, of Boston, a member of that association."
MR. HARDY'S ADDRESS.
When I was over persuaded by my good friend, Mr. Joshua M. Sears, the President of the Cape Cod Association, to say a few words this afternoon in response to your kind reference to it, I had no doubt of my being able to glean from the records of the society something of interest to you ; but found to my dismay when I sought access to them that the Secretary was in Europe. I then turned to the his- tory of the town of Yarmouth, but your orator has exhaust- ed all that and I find myself somewhat in the position of the dog placed in the baggage car by the station agent, who answered the inquiry of the baggage master as to his desti- nation by saying "I don't know where he's going, he don't know, and he's chawed up his tag."
I have found, however, a copy of the report of the first Annual Meeting of the Association, from which it appears that it was formed in 1850, with a full membership, repre- senting every town on the Cape, except Mashpee. Chatham was represented on its board of officers by the Hon. David Sears, as President. There were then thirteen Vice Pres-
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idents, of which Barnstable secured the majority, but Yar- mouth, with her proverbial sagacity, laid her hands on the Secretaryship and Treasury. From a copy of the consti- tution, embodied in the report, I learned that the object of the association, was "to encourage and promote among all the native-born and descended of Cape Cod, temperance, in- dustry, sincerity, good-humor, charity, the social affections and generous impulses," - objects certainly worthy in them- selves, but especially useful in binding together those wand- erers from home, and to keep alive in them an interest in the Cape itself; and to this end a provision existed that the Oc- tober quarterly meeting should be held on the Cape, at some place which the Executive Committee should determine upon. This custom has fallen into disuse and the neces- sity of its revival, I respectfully urge to the attention of the President.
Of the charities of the Association and the use made of its surplus funds in aiding worthy lads from the Cape to a more complete education than the town schools afford, I should be glad to speak in detail, but cannot do so without the book.
Mr. Marden speaks of this gathering as an expression of love for the old home, of the desire to turn back to the days of childhood, with its associations and to what remains of its interests, but to many of us who stand in the second genera- tion this is not possible.
What is there then, to warrant our retaining a personal and lively interest in the Cape ? For myself, the answer and its explanation is simple - it is the most natural thing in the world to do, and why ? I remember being told by a traveller who met on the plains of Arkansas a party of em- igrants from the Black Forest, that when he asked of them their destination, was told, in reply, that they should "go on until they found a hill." The memory of the mountainous land they had left forbade their settling in no matter how fertile a plain ; and so every one who has an ounce of salt water in his veins naturally turns to the shore, and rests sat- isfied only when he has the sea under his eyes, and the sound of its waters in his ears.
To these shores, then, we come, as the blackbirds and swallows, in the spring, to our own delight, and with the hope that we may contribute something to your welfare and happiness, and receive as warm a welcome as they. But contact with, and study of the Cape, confirms and increases
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our love for it, and the people who dwell on it. We have been recently told, by way of joke, of the importance of the " foreigner " to our country. He has built our railways, dug our canals (always excepting the Cape Cod Canal.) He rules our largest cities ; yes, and claims that he discovered the country for us. So indeed he did, but on the Cape this fact is singularly clear, that since the days of discovery there has been hardly any discernible foreign invasion. Here you find the purest old English stock, with a slight admix- ture of the best Huguenot blood, which came over with it ; and here remains, in full force, the sturdy character and the in- stitutions of the Pilgrims, adding grace and dignity to the other attractions of the Cape. Buckly, in his " History of Civilization," claims that races are practically what their natural environments make them ; but it would appear that the Pilgrims and their decendants had overcome the envi- ronment and on the monotonous level of these shores raised as sturdy, as active and enduring a race, as ever swarmed from mountain or forest, for conquest, place and power. And yet, it may have been environment after all, for if toil- ing through these wastes does not give one what is vulgarly called "sand " what will? And if holding one end of a cod- line all day is not learning "to labor and wait" what is? And so the spirit of Longfellow's lines is in this people. "Still achieving, still pursuing, " they stand " with hearts for any fate," and on these barren sands, and in these wild seas, carry the struggle for life to an honorable and success- ful issue.
The Cape Cod Association ought to actively continue its contact with the Cape, and you should welcome its mem- bers by special invitation to hold that quarterly meeting somewhere on the Capc. And, in its behalf, I now wish for the old town of Yarmouth, two hundred and fifty times more prosperity in the future than she has had in the past.
President Thacher said: "In that part of Yarmouth known by its Indian name Hockanom, there stands a large bowlder; against this rock an early settler built himself a hut in which he and his family passed their first winter at Yar- mouth. I now have the pleasure of introducing to you a de- scendent of that settler, the Rev. Jeremiah Taylor, of Boston.
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