USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Duxbury > The story of Duxbury, 1637-1937 > Part 7
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The sentiment felt by the entire assembly was summed up in the toast to which Sir James Ander- son replied: "The French Atlantic Cable; uniting two continents, may it be, for all time, a medium of good will, and the promoter of an international peace as serene and undisturbed as that of the still ocean deeps through which it holds its course."
When the meeting adjourned, it was with the understanding that the assembly should reconvene at the call of the first locomotive whistle to sound from a Duxbury train.
That evening, at the home of George W. Wright, Governor Claflin and others of the guests con- tinued their celebration with speech-making and with dancing to the music of the Germania Band of Boston, thus bringing to a close a day which Sir James Anderson said he would remember as one of the "brightest among the jewels of memory."
The Cable House, as it is still called, is now occupied by the Western Union Telegraph & Cable Company.
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Western Union Telegraph Co.
Duxbury Bank Building, 1833-1842. Office of French Atlantic Cable, 1869. Now occupied by
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Industries and Commerce
The Railroad
Shortly before the gold rush, when most of the eastern half of the country was seething with ex- citement over the growth of the railroad sys- tems, Duxbury viewed this mode of transportation calmly.
Duxbury had satisfactory stagecoach lines to Boston in the one direction, and to Kingston in the other. It had packets and direct ship connec- tion with the ports of the United States and the rest of the world. It had a thriving business in ship- building, fisheries, manufacturing and coasting. Duxbury could see no reason for believing that a railroad would be of appreciable advantage.
Even when neighboring Kingston, in 1845, was included in the route of the railroad from Boston, ship-minded Duxbury declined to look upon it as a necessity, but rather as a convenience to those who happened to like that mode of travel. And since Kingston was but six miles by stagecoach from Duxbury, those who did want railroad travel could easily obtain it by making the short connect- ing trip.
The more farseeing minority, however, endeav- ored to arouse interest in bringing the railroad to Duxbury. In 1846, about six months after the railroad from Kingston to Boston had been opened to traffic, John Hicks, Gershom B. Weston and Wil- liam H. Sampson were among a group which re- ceived a charter to build the South Shore Railroad
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The Story of Duxbury 1637-1937
from Braintree through Cohasset, Scituate and Marshfield to Duxbury. But after three years of effort to interest the latter three communities, the promoters decided to bring the railroad only as far as Cohasset.
In 1847, another group which included Samuel Stetson, Rev. Josiah Moore and Samuel Knowles received from the state a charter to build the Dux- bury Branch Railroad northward from Kingston to Duxbury, to ". .. some point between the house of Solomon Washburn and Andrew Stetson's shop. .. . " Lack of support caused this plan also to be abandoned.
The United States was still a maritime nation. Duxbury, therefore, was content to continue to rely on the sea for its chief source of income. It was not until the economic tide began to turn westward at the expense of the maritime interests, that the majority of the people of Duxbury began to give serious thought to the need for railroad service.
In 1861 and again in 1866, companies were formed to build a horse-car line along the highway from Duxbury to Kingston. Stephen N. Gifford, Joshua W. Swift and John S. Loring headed the Duxbury Railroad Company which first advocated this plan. Mr. Gifford, Harvey Soule and Gershom B. Weston headed the second group, the Duxbury Street Railroad Company. The horse-car did not impress the people as a satisfactory solution to the railroad problem; and, therefore, both char- ters were permitted to lapse.
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Industries and Commerce
The indefatigable Stephen N. Gifford was again among the leaders of a group which received a char- ter, in 1867, to construct the Duxbury and Co- hasset Railroad from the Cohasset terminus of the South Shore Railroad to South Duxbury. The in- corporators included Joseph G. Cole, Amherst A. Frazar, Samuel Hall, Bailey Loring and Nathan Whitney. The towns of Scituate, Marshfield and Duxbury each agreed to subscribe $75,000 for cap- ital stock.
Ground was broken at the Cohasset end of the proposed route on December 17, 1870; and on June 15, 1871, the railroad was opened for service as far as Greenbush in North Scituate. The re- mainder of the seventeen mile road to South Duxbury was opened to traffic on August 17, 1871.
The work had been so rushed that it had been none too well done. As a result, the roadbed was not firm through the sections of swampy land. When the first train, filled with guests, made its trium- phant journey over the new line, the engineers were dubious as to the safety of the passengers through these swampy stretches. At one point where the roadbed had sagged, the guests were requested to leave the train and to walk along the right of way until the train could again pick them up when it reached more solid ground.
From South Duxbury, the line was continued to Kingston and opened for business on January 22, 1874.
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The Story of Duxbury 1637-1937
Authority to complete the railroad had been won only after sharp debate in Duxbury town meet- ings. Captain Henry B. Maglathlin was one of the leaders in opposition to the appropriation of town funds for the purchase of capital stock, and one of the most insistent in the belief that the rail- road never would prove to be a paying investment. Though he was in the minority, Captain Ma- glathlin's judgment was vindicated by subsequent developments.
During its brief period of operation as an in- dependent line, the Duxbury and Cohasset Railroad was operated at a loss of $20,000. Constructed at a cost of approximately $450,000, it was sold in 1878 to the Old Colony Railroad Company for $15,000. This sale was made possible by the town's im- patience with the continuing operating deficit, and the consequent desire to "unload" the responsibility of further operation. Once the sale had been con- summated, the town then proceeded to liquidate its railroad debt to the state by annual payments for a period of several years.
As an independent investment, the $75,000 sub- scribed by Duxbury never paid dividends. But, indirectly, the town profited, not by attracting man- ufacturing interests as had been hoped, but by opening Duxbury to summer residents. The sum- mer people have added much to the taxable prop- erty of the town, have contributed generously to the town's civic and charitable enterprises and have given wide publicity to its advantages, not only
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Industries and Commerce
as a summer resort, but as an all-year place of residence.
The railroad is now operated as the "Old Colony Branch" of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company.
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CIVIC AND MILITARY ACTIVITIES
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CIVIC AND MILITARY ACTIVITIES
T HE year 1837, when the third century in the corporate life of Duxbury began, found the nation struggling with an economic depression which brought distress to a great majority of the people. As the century closes, an economic depression again is causing deep concern.
During both crises, Duxbury found relief in the sea. The clam industry has lightened the bur- den of Duxbury citizens during the present de- pression; shipping shielded the town from the dis- tress suffered by most communities one hundred years ago.
In one of the many discussions of the condi- tions of money and business and the underlying causes for the economic disturbance, Daniel Web- ster, on August 19, 1840, told a great meeting at Saratoga, New York, of the manner in which Dux- bury, a typical shipping port of that time, solved the problem of unsound money. After having de- scribed the suffering caused to most Americans, he said:
"There is . .. another class of our fellow-citi- zens, wealthy men, who have prospered during the last year; and they have prospered where nobody
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The Story of Duxbury 1637-1937
else has. I mean the owners of shipping. What is the reason? .. . The shipping of the country car- ries on the trade, the larger vessels being largely in the foreign trade. Now, why have these men been successful? I will answer by citing an example.
"I live on the sea coast of New England; and one of my neighbors is the largest ship-owner in the United States.1 During the past year, he has made what might suffice for two or three fortunes of moderate size. How has he made it? He sends his ships to Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, to take freight of cotton. This staple, whatever may be the price abroad, cannot be suffered to rot at home; and, therefore, it is shipped.
"My friend tells his captain to provision his ship at Natchez, for instance, where he buys flour and stores in the currency of that region, which is so depreciated that he is able to sell his bills on Bos- ton at forty-nine per cent premium.
"Here, at once, it will be seen, he gets provision for half-price, because prices do not always rise suddenly as money depreciates. He delivers his freight in Europe, and gets paid for it in good money. The disordered currency of the country to which he belongs does not follow and afflict him abroad. He gets his payment in good money, places it in the hands of his owner's banker, who again draws at a premium for it. The ship-owner, then, makes money, when all others are suffering, because
1 Ezra Weston of Duxbury.
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Civic and Military Activities
he can escape from the influence of the bad laws and the bad currency of his own country."
At the time when Webster made his speech at Saratoga, the nation was still young - only sixty- four years old - and correspondingly inexperienced and unstable. Duxbury, on the other hand, had been an incorporated town for more than two hundred years; the town was one hundred thirty-nine years old when the Declaration of Independence was read. The experience and stability accumulated during that period proved to be a powerful weapon with which to strike at the depression.
The youth of the nation is emphasized when it is pointed out that in 1840, in Duxbury alone, there were eighteen men who received pensions for having served in the War of the Revolution, and thirteen widows of veterans of that war.
The men were Isaiah Alden, Judah Alden, Ed- ward Arnold, Joshua Brewster, Howard Chandler, Thomas Chandler, Reuben Dawes, Jephtha Delano, Oliver Delano, Samuel Gardner, Nathaniel Hodges, Joseph Kinney, Abner Sampson, Andrew Samp- son, Seth Sprague, Uriah Sprague, James Weston and Levi Weston.
The houses which stood on the streets of Dux- bury at that time were old houses, many of them dating from the seventeenth century. In outward appearance, Duxbury of 1837 was not greatly dif- ferent from the Duxbury of today - except, of course, along the waterfront where the shipyards
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The Story of Duxbury 1637-1937
were then booming and the vessels of the merchant fleet swung at anchor.
Colonial houses of seventeenth and eighteenth century architecture line the older highways as they did one hundred years ago. Some of the houses there now, were standing then; houses built sturdily by the same men who built vessels to withstand the buffeting of wind and waves; houses built in just such a solid manner as an old time sea captain might logically be expected to insist upon.
In spite of the absence of ordinances to compel it, most Duxbury citizens have endeavored to make the architecture of the newer houses conform to that of the fine old residences of ship-building days. With few exceptions, the summer residents have shown similar good taste and civic interest. The result is that Duxbury, to a degree that is almost unique, retains the atmosphere of quiet, dignified stability which typified the people who founded and developed the town.
A second feature of Duxbury's outward appear- ance is its neatness. The town comes honestly by that. Pilgrim law required that housekeepers should be orderly; and the law was enforced. On one occasion, Captain Myles Standish and John Al- den made the long trip to Sandwich to verify the alarming charges of disorderly housekeeping made against two bachelors. The officers not only found the charge to be justified, but arrested the men and took them before the court for punishment for "disorderly keeping house alone."
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Typical Duxbury captain's home. Now occupied by Judge A. C. Beane.
E. C. Turner, Photographer
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Civic and Military Activities
During the peak of the ship-building prosperity, Justin Winsor, a freshman at Harvard College, checked and rechecked the many legends that had been handed down from generation to generation, studied moldering old records of early Duxbury, and in 1849 published his History of Duxbury, . which is still regarded as authoritative.
The work of young Winsor was of particular value because little attention had been paid to the preservation of records. Not until 1853 did the town of Duxbury print the annual reports of the town officers. The memories of old residents, care- fully preserved letters and personal memoirs were, as often as not, depended upon to furnish infor- mation concerning the past.
For the first half of the nineteenth century, Dux- bury was too much engrossed in its shipping to be disturbed by the disputes which troubled other sections of the nation. But the threat of secession by the South aroused the town.
Nothing has ever stirred Duxbury more deeply than did the dispute over slavery. Abolitionists found receptive hearers in the town. And one of Duxbury's most esteemed citizens, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, played a leading role in advancing the Abolitionist cause. She was one of the vigorous group that surrounded William Lloyd Garrison in arousing the popular passions against the practice of slavery.
The fervor with which the citizens opposed slav- ery is indicated by the temper of the resolutions
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The Story of Duxbury 1637-1937
passed at a meeting held in the town house, March 13, 1854, at the time when the Congress had be- fore it a bill to open to slavery the territory north of the Mason and Dixon line.
Addressed to the Congress, the resolutions read in part:
"Resolved that as firm and unwavering friends of the Union, lovers of liberty and equal rights of mankind, and the uncompromising and unconquerable enemies of slavery, we should prove treacherous and recreant to the great and sublime principles of the Declaration of Independence . . . and to the professed principles of the Constitution .. . should we suffer ourselves to . . . fail to raise our voices, however feeble those voices may be, when a base and wicked attempt is being made to open new territory to the blasting and withering curse of slavery.
"Resolved that in our judgment, Congress is invested with free power under the Constitution to preserve and protect all territory within its jurisdiction from the polluting stain of slavery, and that the just and equitable rights of the North, the principles of a common humanity and the dictates of re- ligion alike call upon and justify us in requesting them to exercise this power to preserve and secure all present and future acquired territory free, and consecrate it to freedom, that the foul and demoralizing influence of slavery may never pollute and curse another inch of American soil, thereby re- moving one of the greatest objections and obstacles, and offering an honorable inducement to the enterprising and hardy sons and daughters of the North to emigrate thither and there sow the seeds of the religious, civil, literary and common school institutions which characterize and distinguish New England, whose enterprise and industry will, we have no reason to doubt, in process of time, if the corrupting and deadly malaria of slavery be not permitted and legalized there to fill the air with its foul and polluting breath, cause
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Civic and Military Activities
the now uninhabited region many portions of which possess naturally a fertile and luxurious soil, as it has the hard, cold and barren hills of New England to smile and blossom as the rose ;
"Resolved that this resolution be placed upon the town records and that a copy be signed by the selectmen of Dux- bury, certified by the town clerk, and transmitted to the Hon. Samuel L. Crocker, the member of Congress from this Congressional district."
As the breach between the North and the South was widened by the rise of passions, and the ques- tion of how to solve the problem of slavery was subordinated to the dispute as to which side must yield to the other, so the anti-slavery sentiment in Duxbury deepened.
Duxbury men were members of the first regi- ment to leave Massachusetts for Washington, only two days after the epochal firing on Fort Sumter, on April 12, 1861.
During the early half of that summer, the town took active steps to fill its quota of enlistments. On May first, in compliance with general orders issued by Governor John A. Andrew, the citizens in town meeting voted to appropriate four thou- sand dollars to equip and maintain a company of volunteers. In addition to his pay from the fed- eral government, each volunteer was promised fifteen dollars a month for the duration of his enlistment. Conversion of the town's thirty-seven shares of stock in the New England and Mer- chants Bank into cash as needed was authorized.
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The Story of Duxbury 1637-1937
George Lowden was moderator of the town meet- ing that took this action. The selectmen were John Holmes, Elbridge Chandler and Samuel Atwell. Jo- siah Peterson was town clerk, and Eben S. Samp- son was treasurer and collector.
In the preamble to resolutions urging vigorous prosecution of the war, Gershom B. Weston ex- pressed sentiments that reflected the attitude which prevailed in the town at that time; he advocated stern measures to save the government from ". . . a traitorous, rebellious, domestic foe who have ... torn down the glorious stars and stripes . . and threatened to raise . . . the black pirati- cal flag of a despotic southern confederacy, founded upon the system of chattel slavery "
Duxbury men enlisted readily. Companies of men from Marshfield and Duxbury were united with others to form the Twelfth Massachusetts Regi- ment, commanded by Colonel Fletcher Webster of Marshfield, son of Daniel Webster. After a brief stay at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor, the regi- ment left for the front on July 23, 1861. During the second battle at Bull Run, Colonel Webster was fatally wounded, and is said to have been carried back to a dressing station by an unnamed Dux- bury volunteer.
On July 24, 1862, to fill Duxbury's quota of thirty-two men, in response to a call for fifteen thousand replacements and additional enlistments from the state, the town voted to pay one hundred
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Civic and Military Activities
dollars "bounty" for each Duxbury volunteer. The selectmen acted as recruiting officers.
In accordance with resolutions presented by Henry Wadsworth and others, the town voted on August 26, 1862, to pay the one hundred dol- lars bounty also to Duxbury members of Company E, Fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, under Captain Henry B. Maglathlin, then encamped at Dedham. Each new man who would enlist before September 10, for a nine months period, was offered the bounty as an inducement.
The cost of the war began to make itself felt in a grimly dramatic manner when a committee con- sisting of Peleg Cook, Gershom B. Weston and Stephen N. Gifford was selected to arrange for the return of the bodies of Duxbury men who had died in service, "that they may be deposited in the burying ground of their fathers, and their dust mingle with theirs."
During the remainder of the war, Duxbury pressed every effort to fulfill its quota of the obli- gations of the state. The town paid one hundred twenty-five dollars to each man who enlisted in re- sponse to the calls of October 17, 1863, and Feb- ruary 1, 1864; and in 1864, it raised by assessment some three thousand eight hundred dollars to repay individuals who had advanced some of the cash for the bounties.
In March, 1864, George W. Ford, Gershom B. Weston and Samuel Loring were designated a com-
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The Story of Duxbury 1637-1937
mittee to select a site for erection of a monument to the Duxbury war dead. Eventually, the monu- ment was placed in Mayflower Cemetery.
Though the price of the war was constantly be- coming more frightful, the town did not lose any of its zeal for prosecuting it to a successful conclu- sion. At the meeting of June 4, 1864, it was voted to raise funds for the purpose of "recruiting its (the town's) proportion of the quota of volunteers or towards buying men to fill said quota in the mili- tary service of the United States that may be here- after called for ... provided that the amount so appropriated shall not exceed the sum of $125 per man."
According to the town records of 1864, twenty- two men who enlisted for one year were paid one hundred dollars each; sixty-two who volunteered for an enlistment of three years received one hun- dred twenty-five dollars. Up to February, 1865, the state paid four thousand eight hundred dollars to aid families of Duxbury volunteers.
Of the two hundred thirty-six Duxbury men who enlisted in the Union forces during the course of the war, thirty-five were listed by Henry Barstow, a veteran of the war, as having died in service. They were: Charles E. Alden, William Bailey, James H. Bowen, Edward Bishop, Joshua T. Brew- ster, George Bryant, Charles J. Chandler, David F. Church, Stephen Clark, John H. Crocker, Daniel W. Delano, Oscar Delano, Francis B. Dorr, Harri- son T. Glass, Seth Glass, William J. Keep, Abel T.
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Civic and Military Activities
Lewis, Henry B. Paulding, Walter Peterson, Daniel Rix, Bradford Sampson, Eden Sampson, George B. Sampson, Daniel J. Simmons, Joseph E. Simmons, Wilbur F. Simmons, Aaron Snell, Aurelius Soule, William Soule, John Southworth, Elisha Swift, Wil- liam Wadsworth, James H. Weston, Walter Weston, and Gershom Winsor.
Almost twenty years after the close of the war between the states, Captain S. B. Beaman, assisted by Dr. Benjamin A. Sawyer and George F. Ryder, began soliciting enrolments for a proposed Dux- bury post of the Grand Army of the Republic. On May sixth, after twenty-three men had been en- rolled, Captain Beaman applied to John D. Billings, commander of the Department of Massachusetts, G.A.R., for a post charter.
On May 19, 1885, under the direction of De- partment Inspector Stephen A. Cushing and Chief Mustering Officer George H. Bonney, Jr., of Martha Sever Post, Number 154, G.A.R., of Kingston, the William Wadsworth Post, Num- ber 165, was officially formed. The first officers elected were:
Commander, Benjamin A. Sawyer Senior Vice Commander, J. T. Turner Junior Vice Commander, J. K. Burgess, Jr. Surgeon, Thomas Gridley Chaplain, George L. Higgins Officer of the Day, John W. Tower Officer of the Guard, George F. Ryder Quartermaster, LeBaron Goodwin
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The Story of Duxbury 1637-1937
Adjutant, Henry Barstow Sergeant major, C. W. Hunt Quartermaster sergeant, Lebbeus Harris
On Memorial Day of that year, the newly or- ganized post held its first memorial service. It decorated forty-one graves and held services in the Unitarian Church and at the soldiers and sail- ors monument in Mayflower Cemetery. The town had appropriated its first contribution to such serv- ices-twenty-five dollars-to be used in event a post should be formed before Memorial Day.
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