USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Falmouth > The celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of the town of Falmouth, Massachusetts, June 15, 1886 > Part 3
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side of Maffit who, being very full of zeal, put one hand on Father Taylor and the other upon Otis and exclaimed : "Oh ! brethren, may there be such a bowing down of the sinful to-day as the bend- ing of the cedars of Lebanon." "All right, Brother Maffit," said Father Taylor, "but do let me finish this custard pie first in peace."
Father Taylor was in Falmouth when there was much delay in settling a minister over the First Church. The church was willing to proceed, but the council were unrelenting, and so adjourned over from time to time. At a prayer meeting during this halting state Father Taylor fervently remarked : "Oh, Lord, we are weary of in- stallations. If it be thy will, let our brother begin his work in this vineyard, and may the lost be found and the fatted calf be killed. Amen."
" It is admitted," says Gladstone, "that social order is the end of all political aim." The New England town system has become a model for municipal imitation in order best to advance civilization. It inaugurated that method of control over local affairs which the grandest of living and the equal of any departed statesman, against " the spirit and power of class" is now endeavoring to accomplish for the security and liberation of the Old World. If social order be rule by consent, without need of external interference to keep peace or enforce law, then we may challenge a superior to this town in the exhibition of prosperous, courteous, decorous social order. Falmouth has been spared unusual misfortune or calamity. It has escaped widespread pestilence, wasting floods and destructive fires. If the red hand of murder ever soiled its history my eye has been unable to
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read of such deed of blood. It began and it remains a town without social or mercantile pretensions, but with old-fashioned notions of personal honor and virtue, and may the time never come when it can be said here,
" That plain living and high thinking are no more."
FAMILY NAMES.
The perpetuation of original names in Falmouth is remarkable. Of the names of the fourteen persons who landed here in 1660, six names, viz., Hatch, Robinson, Jenkins, Hamblin, Fuller, Hinckley, are here still. In 1689, John Robinson was first deputy from this town to the Legislature. We have with us to-day the Hon. George D. Robinson, the chief magistrate of a Commonwealth of 1,800,000 souls. In his presence it is only fitting for me to say that none of his honored predecessors ever received from the people a heartier recog- nition of those qualities which constitute an able and upright ruler than Massachusetts extends to him. Falmouth is free from snobbery and aristocratic airs, and yet it believes in and has its first families, and one of our very first bore the name of Robinson. There can be no true Robinson who does not feel it an honor to claim descent from the Rev. John Robinson, the pastor of Leyden. Isaac Robin- son, his son, our patriarch, is also the patriarch of the Robinson fam- ily in New England. While we welcome here other officers of the State, and the military staff of the commander in chief of our land and naval forces, we have the welcome that comes from ties of blood for the governor because we hold that through Isaac Robinson he is one of our relations. The Robinsons, sisters, aunts, cousins, and the Robinson voters are present to do honor to one of our own kith and
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kin who has added to the distinction and upheld the fame of Massa- chusetts.
The voting-list of Falmouth is proof of the tenacity with which this people have clung to this locality. The dying-out or loss by removal of old names occurs as a matter of necessity, yet they are wonderfully preserved. On the polls there are of the name of Davis 35, Baker 22, Fish 22, Gifford 21, Lawrence 19, and from them came the only benefactor by bequest the town has had, Mr. Shubael Law- rence. Of the name of Hatch on the list there are 18, Nye 17, Rob- inson 17, Swift 16, Childs 15, Jones 13, Bowman 12, Phinney II, Hamblin 10, Crocker 9, Fisher, Smalley, 8 each ; Dimmick, Bourne, Studley, 6 each ; Jenkins, Chadwick, Hewins, Edwards, 5 each ; Shiverick, Eldred, Tobey, Burgess, Crowell, Baxter, 4 each ; Green, Donaldson, Weeks, Wicks, 3 each ; Lewis, Pease, Butler, Bearse, Bowman, 2 each ; Bodfish, Sturgis, Dillingham, I each. There are other names, but these mentioned have been selected because they can be traced to the first days in most instances, and because from them have been taken representatives, senators, selectmen, clerks, treasurers and other officials of the town.
"DIED AT SEA."
Upon the tombstones of those who are laid away under the sod will be found their names cut in marble, and often may be seen the words, "died at sea." For 160 years the main occupation here was seamanship. In a splendid burst of oratory, speaking of the whale fishermen of New England, Edmund Burke says : "We know that while some of them draw the line and strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa, others run the longitude and pursue their gigantic
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game along the coast of Brazil. No ocean but what is vexed with their fisheries, no climate that is not witness to their toil. Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dex- terous and firm sagacity of English enterprise ever carried this peril- ous mode of hardy enterprise to the extent which it has been pressed by this recent people, a people who are still as it were in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood." To this W. H. Seward in 1852 in the Senate of the United States, adds : "Boston finds more lucrative employment in her capital in spindles, in rail- roads, and even in her fields of ice and quarries of granite ; and so leaves the profit and loss of the whale fishery to Freetown, Falmouth, Sippican, Wareham, Plymouth, Holm's Hole, Fall River, Providence, Fairhaven, New Bedford, and Nantucket, towns, which but for their pursuit of the whale fishery would scarcely have been honored with designation on the chart or names in the gazetteers."
THE SAILOR'S LIFE.
It has often been said, and there is truth in it, that in the expres- sion of great joy or of deep grief our people are not demonstrative. For a century and a half some member of nearly every Falmouth family followed the sea. "The great and wide sea wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships ; there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein." So speaks the Psalmist. By Milton that leviathan is described as :
Hugest of living creatures, on the deep Stretched like a promontory, sleeps or swims, And seems a moving land, and at his gills Draws in, and at his trunk spouts out a sea.
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To part from home for years with chances of never returning ; to be far away hunting the whale, and to think in some flash of mem- ory of little faces in their beds ; to be cast away, and in a lifeboat to have the home you left behind burned into your soul ; or to be at home and to hear the winds crack and to see the gray skies and re- member the dangers to son, or brother, or husband, living always in the innermost core of the heart ; or to have come to you a fair-haired, blue-eyed child, and then to wait and to watch for news, with an ach- ing heart human tongue cannot describe, for the father to come home to see and to clasp the unseen one ; and then some morning to find that he is never to come; and like Tennyson's inscription to Sir John Franklin, to know he is
Not here! The white North has his bones, and thou, Heroic sailor soul,
Art passing on thy happier voyage now Toward no earthly pole.
Such lessons teach command and nerve and self-control, hiding both the grief and the gladness of the heart. With changing customs these stern lessons of the perils of the great deep and their attendant sorrow passes in a great degree from our history.
CHURCHES.
The Mayflower intended to make haven in Virginia, but disem- barked its one hundred and two Pilgrims to become the founders of New England. Isaac Robinson, with his fourteen associates, as they skirted these shores in 1660, were supposed to have had Martha's Vineyard in view as their point of destination. For some reason which to us seems other than mere chance they landed here to found
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this now venerable town. Dr. R. S. Storrs referring to the divine meth- ods which appear in New England history, says that God "prepared this continent with a Christian colonization, insignificant in its begin- ning, apparently almost accidental in its direction, but providential in its movement and amazing in its growth." Dull indeed must be the mind that does not realize what we owe to the faith of our fathers, a faith that controlled their personal and directed their political aims. Religious instinct was the powerful motive in New England civiliza- tion, and the central conviction that a people could only prosper as they followed conscience and obeyed Deity, caused church existence and religious influence to be contemporary and coincident with our civil career. In this town, balancing the present with the past, there is in Falmouth no diminution of religious ideas or incentives. Organ- ized church life began here one or two years after town incorporation, with very feeble membership and meagre pay to its first teacher. Falmouth has now five Congregational, four Methodist, one Quaker, one Episcopalian and one Catholic society, with churches in which to worship. All these churches have had pastors endeared to the societies over which they presided, and of each one of them who have left their work on earth in all probability it could be said as of the Rev. Mr. Metcalfe, who lies in your cemetery :
Ilis virtues would a monument supply, But underneath this stone his ashes lie.
Of the 12 ministers who have been connected with the First Congregational Church the Rev. Mr. Metcalfe served 16 years, the Rev. Mr. Palmer 45 years, the Rev. Mr. Lincoln 33 years, Dr. Henry B. Hooker 20 years, and the present minister, the Rev. Mr. Craig, is
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in his 15th year of service. These five men, occupied 125 of the 200 years which Falmouth has known.
REV. DR. HOOKER AND DAUGHTER.
When a lad, visiting at Teaticket, I attended church with my grandmother, and first saw and heard the Rev. Henry B. Hooker. I remember with what affection his parishioners at that time spoke of him and the tenderness and love and implicit trust they had for him. Many years afterward, when I had reached 50, and time had touched my head with gray, in an evening meeting of the church in Boston, with which I worship, there was a missionary service. And there again, after the lapse of nearly 40 years, I saw and heard Dr. Hooker. He spoke of two young Falmouth sailors in a foreign land who went to hear a devoted missionary in some far port, and were won to the faith that carries the "glad tidings " to the uttermost parts of earth. He concluded his words with prayer, and every heart was by it borne upward. In that little room, under the sway of that prayer, we mounted to the skies to look upon hills "whence cometh our help." It was so full of hope, taking us out of grossness and cares to the atmosphere of trust and confidence in the great Plan- so rare and jubilant that no one who listened to that prayer could ever forget its help and power. No wonder that the daughter of such a father, among the dwellers of "India's coral strand ", teaches the sublime faith taught to her in her Falmouth home from his glow- ing speech. No wonder that such men live in our memories, or that old men and women speak of such a minister with tears in their eyes. What visions of blessedness come to us as we think of such servants of our Father in our Father's home, where "is no more sea," no
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more partings, nor heart-breaking sorrow, but where the young to whom baptismal rites were administered, and the aged for whom the last prayer went up to God, gather around him in the city, the gates of which are pearl and the streets golden.
THE QUAKERS.
In attempting to settle Rev. Mr. Palmer in 1728, objection was made by Stephen Harper, Benjamin Swift, two by name of Bower- man, three by name of Landers, and five Giffords, who were all Friends and were opposed to further compulsory support of the church in which they did not worship. The Quaker vote on this occasion seems to have been out in full force. The town settled the difficulty by "clearing the Quakers " from ministerial tax. In 1732 Dea. Parker's negro servant "Cuffee " was baptized and received into full communion with "consent of the brethren." This was advanced action against the race prejudice of that day, and the town must have fallen from grace on the color line, for in my youth the graveyard had a corner set apart for our "brother in black." Toleration and hos- pitality are the acknowledged characteristics of our townspeople. An illiberal Falmouth man or woman is hard to imagine, and their hos- pitality is hard to excel. Our habit of toleration began with Isaac Robinson in 1660, who from his father, the Leyden minister, was taught "to follow truth whenever and by whomever taught."
THE INDIANS.
Intercourse with the Quakers had undoubtedly much to do with the liberal tone and tolerant ways of the community. This liberality and humane disposition is seen in the just treatment of Indians, with whom Falmouth was always on the kindest terms. Lands were orig-
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inally procured from the Indians by purchase, and no dispute because of cruelty or unfair transactions has here been known. Massachusetts has many black marks against her for dealing with the savage upon a martial rather than a merciful basis. Of late the State has sought to offset its harsh and sometimes cruel record in this particular. Massa- chusetts, a few years ago, did much to condemn the cold-blooded policy of an American Secretary of the Interior in his inhuman deal- ings with the Poncas. Now her senior senator is the recognized champion of the rights of the Indians, and he is regarded as high authority upon what may be deemed one of the most important of our public questions.
In North Falmouth, upon lands bought 200 years ago from the heirs of Governor Bradford, and now in possession of the Hon. Francis A. Nye, bounded by a lake, there is a picturesque elevation that from time immemorial has been the burial-place of Indians. There can now be seen upon this interesting spot more than one hundred stones of the field, which mark these rude graves. Once, by permission of the authorities, a son of Arthur Tappan of New York, residing here, was allowed an examination of one of these in- terments, to discover if any relics could there be found. Nothing of the traditional accompaniments was revealed; but this place has been piously guarded by all owners and every generation out of respect to the dead of a nearly extinct race. This incident is typical of the consideration which has signalized our entire intercourse with the aborigines.
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WHAT FALMOUTH HAS DONE.
Falmouth makes no boasts. No huge fortunes has it gathered from commerce or fisheries. No mighty ships have here been launched. It does not rank as a manufacturing town. Its attempt at new industries, such as the erection of glass-works, proved, as a venture, as brittle as the fabric sought to be made. Only within late years has the railroad broken the primeval stillness and the successful enterprise at Wood's Holl obtained a foothold. But Falmouth has always had in it true, warm-hearted, capable men and women. From every portion of this town, north and west-Falmouth, Wood's Holl, Waquoit, East End, Hatchville, Davis's Neck, Teaticket or the Centre -this tolerant and hospitable people have gone forth to find other avenues of enterprise and to make elsewhere their homes. As ship- masters, as mechanics, as traders, as lawyers, as preachers, as pro- fessors and teachers, or as public servants, they have carried with them the traits of generosity and impartiality that by birthright have enabled them to enrich with exemplary conduct and example their new habitations.
On the headstone of Lot Dimmick, once a prominent man of Falmouth, is the inscription : "He merits that noblest of mottoes, an honest man." It reads to us better than it would if it told us that he had left millions. Lot Dimmick had a descendant whose name was Edmund Chadwick. Many years since a Southerner came North for health, and not finding it, longed to get back to his Southern home. He was sick and no master would accept the care of him. Edmund Chadwick was a merchant doing business in winter at the South, and offered to take charge of the stranger. His labors and exposure
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caused his own death, but his noble sacrifice was never forgotten by those who loved him, and to this hour they have treasured him as "one who loved his fellow-men." Only a few days since Edmund Chadwick's widow was buried here.
SOME OF ITS SONS.
The contribution of Falmouth to society has been the rearing of such men. Without them there could have been for us no republic, no Bunker hill, Yorktown or successful Washington, no Grant or Appomattox. It ,is the rank and file of our towns which constitute the forces of national strength and character, by which has been builded a fabric of government that startles its beholders as they gaze upon its extent and power. It is the rank and file that win the bat- tles and create the safeguard of humanity. So, it is the rank and file -the every-day men and women-that have given reputation and honor to this township, sending its surplus of trained citizenship to the valley of the Mohawk, to Western plains, to California mines, to Arctic seas, to far frontiers, to our Canaans of corn and wheat, to do everywhere the daily duty of honorable men and women.
From this town went out Samuel Lewis, to become the First State superintendent of Ohio common schools, a man distinguished for his zeal in " the promotion of all educational, anti-slavery, temperance, and kindred reforms." When a boy, living in a city hundreds of miles from here, often have I heard the remark, "As honest as Job Parker," a native of Falmouth, whose standard of integrity was as familiar to the city of Utica as that of Aristides was thousands of years ago to the people of Athens. Among the most energetic, kindly and influential of the Catholic priesthood of Boston is Father J. P.
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Bodfish, born in Falmouth. In the bayous of Louisiana the 19th Army Corps was delayed by a jam of debris and logs which seriously interfered with our plans. Word came to the general : We have found an officer equal to the emergency, who will soon extricate us. He did, and he was Captain Elijah Swift, a native of this town.
Thomas Lewis was the town clerk of Falmouth for a quarter of a century, and as capable as his predecessor, Thomas Lewis, who occupied the same position at Falmouth in 1700. He had a son Frederick T. Lewis, who was mustered into service as second lieu- tenant in 1862, promoted to first lieutenant in January and captain in July, 1863, fighting in a Western regiment at Champion Hills, Black river, Jackson, and in the charge at Vicksburg. Captain Lewis, while acting assistant adjutant-general of the brigade under command of Colonel Spicly, was engaged in the last battle of the war at Blakely, Ala., April 9, 1865, and was mentioned in the official report "for fearless and gallant conduct." Twenty-three years ago next Fourth of July Captain Lewis sent to his father a letter dated "Vicksburg, July 4, 1863. Glory ! Glory ! ! Glory ! !! Vicksburg is ours, sur- rendered to-day, on the 4th. Hurrah for Grant and the Western army." He concludes : "Now let us hear from General Meade and the Army of the Potomac. Love to all. Yours, Fred." Captain Frederick Lewis couldn't wait an hour before sending to his old Fal- mouth home the wonderful news of victory with his "love to all." Heroes come from such material.
IN THE CIVIL WAR.
In the civil war Falmouth had from its resident citizens but two commissioned officers. Of men it furnished 10 over its quota, though
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the greater portion of Falmouth men were at sea when the war broke out. Of its own people, however, the town sent out 138 for the army and 20 for the navy, and 100 men from other places. Exclusive of State aid, Falmouth spent $20,156.33, beside $647 for sick and wounded, and for families of volunteers $4;174.20. The patriotic women of this place were tireless in their efforts to forward barrels and boxes for relief of the soldier, in all articles and sanitary stores valued at $1,200. Mr. Thomas Lewis, Jr., who gave these facts to the authorities, says: "With no set speeches to record, there was always manifest at our meetings a determined will to do all in our power to bring the rebellion to an end." "Could you," he adds, "have been present at the gatherings of the fair sex words of patriot- ism would have been heard as flow from no other hearts." He also says : "Three sons of a very poor citizen in town enlisted. One was married and had a family of five little children. The aged par- ents were dependent upon the other two for support. All three sons were killed in the war." Thus Falmouth did its duty for the flag.
It has not fallen to this town to give to the world men eminent in law, letters, invention or politics-not even a member of Congress. Though without any citizen distinguished for great riches or great celebrity, yet Falmouth has had its men of mark. Ministers have gone from here whose learning and eloquence have met with recog- nition in other parts of our country. Years ago Elijah and Thomas Swift were prosperous men of affairs, doing much for the commercial reputation of this town.
John Jenkins was a notable citizen, much in public life and a fore- most man among his fellows. Fox once said : "No man could be
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as wise as Lord Thurlow looks." When young I saw and was much impressed with Mr. John Jenkins. He was of imposing presence, and it seemed to me that few men on this earth could be as great as Mr. Jenkins looked. He appeared to me to be a born leader.
MASTER SEAMEN.
This town has been rich in master seamen, the Hamblins in the whale fishery,-and for captains that trod all decks with skill and courage. Captain William Bodfish was a shipmaster at nineteen years and superior in his profession. Captain John Crocker was with Mr. Sturgis of Boston, the founder of the Oregon trade. Captain Watson Chadwick commanded one of the celebrated packets in the Liverpool line that before steamships made extraordinary passages across the Atlantic. Captain R. R. Crocker crossed the ocean 164 times, at one time saving the lives of 32 wrecked men. For an almost miraculous escape with a costly ship and cargo after abandon- ment by a pilot, Captain Crocker was rewarded by the Lloyds with £500 and by a present of a silver.cup.
Falmouth has had its military hero, as brave and patriotic as ever lived or fought. Joseph Dimmick was a lieutenant at Ticonde- roga, a colonel in the war of the Revolution, a brigadier-general in 1812. He was representative from this town and district and for twenty years high sheriff of the county. His daring capture of pri- vateers and his constant service to the country need no repetition from my lips. The historian has drawn him as "a consistent Chris- tian, fulfilling every task with dignity, fidelity and honor." The place of General Dimmick in the recollections of Falmouth will be lasting, not only as a soldier in command, but for that uniform superiority of
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personal worth which we may say with Freeman, "was his crowning glory."
There are men and women who exalt and hallow the scenes and places in which they live. Over them no note of fame is sounded, but when they leave us to go beyond it is said of them as it was said in Falmouth of Thomas Fish, "no man could have a purer record."
ITS UNKNOWN HEROES.
Ah ! There are unknown heroes and heroines in this life, and of these Falmouth has had its share. Faithful, believing hearts, who for principle, in the quiet of their homes plodding on unheralded and seeking no reward,-but for whom is the crown that knows no fading. We know them, and their friendly doors were ever opened to the negro slave on his way to liberty, and were never closed to any deserv- ing one in need ; men who besought in every prayer that the fallen might be rescued and the oppressed be made free. Yes, we have known homes from which devoted women went out to hovels and to prisons, with bread to stay hunger, and with the message of the Living Bread to save the lost. They were men and women to whom every forlorn, helpless outcast was a brother man or woman, and who gave up pos- sible wealth that they might live true to their sense of right, always having the confidence and gratitude of the poor to bless them. Such men and women have come from Falmouth homes. No trumpet proclaims their praise, but of their virtues hymns sing.
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