USA > Rhode Island > Bristol County > Bristol > Celebration of the two-hundredth anniversary of the settlement of the town of Bristol, Rhode Island : September 24th, A.D. 1880 > Part 8
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spirit of calm judgment, of criticism, of deprecation of the animosities of the past, we may fail to remember that there are truths to-day endangered, as there were truths endan- dered in the times of the Puritans, and it is well for us to ask, What are the perils? What are the convictions-there are some views, some thoughts, some principles, political, personal, and even religious, which it is worth while to think of and suffer for, and if need be, to emigrate and die for. We are in danger of forgetting them. The founders of this town believed, among their first principles, in education. Their first provision was for the school-master and the min- ister-the meeting-house and the school-house-primary education, education for the child, education for the youth, education for the young man. The school, the high school, and the college are indissolubly allied. To encourage one, is to encourage the other.
Let me beg you, therefore, cherish the primary school, cherish the high school, cherish your college. Brown Uni- versity is the college of Rhode Island, and it relies upon the sympathy, the support, and the friendship of the sons of Rhode Island. As an immediate neighbor of Rhode Island by birth, I feel that in a certain sense I am a Rhode Islander. Standing in my old homestead, as I almost bare one foot in Massachusetts and one in Rhode Island, and I stretch out the hand, rejoicing that I was born in Massachusetts, and equally rejoicing that I was born so near to the State of Rhode Isl- and. So that all that belongs to the distinguished history of Rhode Island and Massachusetts-admirably blended in this town of Massachusetts origin and of Rhode Island history- we alike may cherish all that is good and praiseworthy in education and in religious teaching.
SENATOR BURNSIDE. The next toast is :
" The Providence Light Infantry Veteran Association :- We honor them for the interest they manifest in historic
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matters. Their participation in our celebration to-day, is cause for gratulation."
This toast will be responded to by a distinguished divine, who has been a great favorite in Bristol ever since he came to Rhode Island. I present to you Rt. Rev. Bishop Clark.
SPEECH OF BISHOP CLARK.
Mr. Toastmaster and Ladies and Gentlemen :- It is natu- ral that our Veteran Association should manifest an interest in historic matters. We ourselves are beginning to be his- torical, and yet we hope the time is far distant, when it will be said of us,
" Superfluous lag the veterans on the stage."
We are glad that we were not so far advanced in years, as to prevent us from participating in this delightful celebra- tion. We have marched with you through your pleasant streets, and seen how the old town of Bristol still continues to glow with the life and joy of youth. You have inherited a goodly legacy from your fathers.
I have been asked on this occasion just "to say a word." That I consider equivalent to a request that I shall not make a speech. I am very glad it is so. It seems to me some- what of an impertinence for anybody who has not had the good fortune to be born and bred in Bristol to make any appearance on this occasion. After such indications of trans- cendent talent and complete culture as have been presented to us to-day, both by the orator and the poet, and by others who have spoken, it seems becoming in all outsiders to keep silence.
There is one thing about Bristol which is not so peculiar to this place. It belongs to all these decayed seaboard towns, in one of which I had the good fortune to be born and bred-the old town of Newburyport, Massachusetts, which was a kind of fac-simile of Bristol. It is a peculiarity of
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these places that all their children seem to cherish a very special attachment to their birth-place. Wherever they go -and they have the faculty of going almost everywhere- their motto seems to be always : " My heart untravelled, still turns,"-well, to Bristol, or Newburyport, or wherever the place may be. And so, to all Bristol people, Bristol is the centre of all things, the centre of their affections, the centre of the land, the centre of the world, and in some sense the centre of the universe.
Now this is a feeling worth cherishing; for a man who does not care about the place where he was born, cannot be good for much. To be sure if it had been our fortune to be born in the centre of one of the great flat prairies of the West, where there is nothing of mountain or valley, or forest, or brook, or stream, to vary the landscape, it might be difficult to get up any attachment to our birth-place. But with such surroundings as you have here, there is no such difficulty. And even the old mouldering peculiarities of the place-the quiet streets, the ancient, weird sail-lofts down on the wharf, and the little relics that remain of a past com- mercial prosperity, have their peculiar charm, and they hold us as with an iron grasp. We never get away from the influences and associations of our native town.
I rejoice to have been here to-day. I rejoice in the fact that so many of the sons and daughters of Bristol have come home to their old mother to do her honor. And if any of us are so fortunate as to live to meet our successors here on the next centennial, I hope that we shall cherish the memory of those who have addressed us to-day, and who have left an impression upon our minds which is indellible.
SENATOR BURNSIDE. The next regular toast is :
The Rhode Island Historical Society.
This will be responded to by one of Rhode Island's dis- tinguished and venerable citizens, President of the Historical Society, Hon. Zachariah Allen, of Providence.
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SPEECH OF HON. ZACHARIAH ALLEN.
Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen :- The members of the Rhode Island Historical Society join, with others, in cordially congratulating the good people of Bristol on the two hundredth anniversary of the planting of their pleasant town. They all unite also in praising the hospitality they have received, and in complimenting the distinguished citi- zen who has enlightened them by presenting some of the historical details, to the study of which he has been devoted professionally during his entire life. Still his allusion, in the course of his remarks, to the good old Massasoit, has opened a field which deserves further investigation concern- ing the merits of that noble chief, and concerning the friend- ship which existed for many years between him and the founder of the State of Rhode Island. Having investigated this subject for some time past, I have become convinced that had it not been for the befriending of Roger Williams by Massasoit, and his hospitable reception of him when he was expelled from Massachusetts and fled into the wilderness, he would have been sent away from Boston on board the vessel then waiting in the harbor, and transported back to England, precisely as the two brothers Brown had been transported back to England, for their opinions in matters of religion. He had, however, some place to flee to, sure friends to receive him during those cold, bitter days of winter; otherwise he must have been carried across the water, and could not have been the founder of the State of Rhode Island. I look upon it, therefore, as owing especially to the friendship of Massa- soit, that Rhode Island now exists. There would not have been any Rhode Island had it not been for that friendship ; for the Massachusetts people would have absorbed this State as they soon afterwards absorbed the other little colonies, and amalgamated them into one. There would have been no establishment here of religious liberty, or of a constitutional
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basis of a free State. I hope that the discussion of this theme, which has been opened by the historian to-day, may be further pursued, and that due justice and credit may be awarded to Massasoit in this regard.
The following poem is from the pen of a son of Bristol " by adoption," his wife being a native :
POEM ON THE BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION.
BY E. W. ROBBINS, A. M.
Two hundred years have come and gone- Of sunshine and of shade, Since on this memorable spot, In faith and prayer were laid The first foundations of this town, Distinguished in our State, Whose annals at the old hearth-stone, To-day we celebrate !
'Tis well at this convivial board We should their deeds recall- Immortal founders of the race, In our home festival- WALLEY, and BYFIELD', OLIVER, And BURTON, with their peers, (Whose names these trees? perpetuate) Of the two hundred years-
Descendants of the Pilgrim sires, (Sprung from no common stock), Who trod the May Flower's wintry deck, And hallowed Plymouth Rock-
1. The Byfield School-so called in honor of Hon. Nathaniel Byfield, this early ben- efactor to the town-is his latest, and, perhaps, best monument. The late Rev. Dr. SHEPARD, pastor of the Congregational Church, whose portrait hangs side by side with that of Judge Byfield, in the above building, was no less devoted to the cause of education.
2. Referring to the planting of four memorial trees on the Common, in honor of the four founders of the town.
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HOWLAND' and BRADFORD2-him renowned Alike with sword and pen, Of Plymouth Colony the chief- A princely man of men.
Nor in this brief review forgot, (Perchance left in the lurch) The brave Miles Standish of his time,- Heroic CAPTAIN CHURCH,3 Who eminent in Church and State, An added laurel wore,- Who slew the Wampanoag's pride, And its dread Sagamore !
Two hundred years have come and gone- And Bristol sits to-day, Nor yet like Venice-discrowned Queen, By her bright, beauteous bay, Still musing on her splendors past, Which this gay sight recalls,- On her rich freighted Argosies, And her Armada walls,-
(Save, where invaded by the foe, In scene of ruthless strife, The flaming fire-brand4 was applied To desolate her life ; ) In factory and dock-yard, now, Once more the stranger greets The hum of active industry Resounding in her streets.
1. John Howland, (a lineal descendant of whom, Mrs. Rebecca Smith, has lately de- ceased at the great age of nearly 99 years). From him are derived the Howlands of New- port and Bristol.
2. Hon. Wm. Bradford, second Governor of Plymouth Colony, was both a military leader and an historian. His son, Wm. Bradford, was Deputy Governor of the same Col- ony. Governor Wm. Bradford, of Rhode Island, was his lineal descendant; also, Major Wm. Bradford. These still are represented by their descendants, living in Bristol.
3. Capt. Benjamin Church, a son of Richard Church, was born in Plymouth, Mass., and married Alice Southworth, the granddaughter of the distinguished wife of the first Governor Bradford. He was at the head of the party by whom King Philip was slain in the swamp at the foot of Mount Hope.
4. Bristol was invaded by the combined forces of the British and Hessians, May 25, 1777, resulting in the burning of a part of the town, and the taking of some prisoners. Before this, in 1775, a British squadron fired on the town.
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Nor yet unfitting in this place Their praises just, to speak, The proof of whose munificence We have not far to seek- Yon graceful structures late proclaim, Which to our view appear- Religion, Education, both Have found their patrons' here !
Then, to hand down to future times The glories of this day, Let the historian? weave his web- The poet2 sing his lay- As rises near yon eminence, With its green, beckoning slope,
One backward glance to-Memory- The future trust to-HOPE ! 3
KENSINGTON, Berlin, Conn., September, 1880.
1. The Memorial Chapel of the Congregational Church, and the Rogers' Free Library, will long perpetuate-the former, the memory of the munificent donors, Miss Charlotte De Wolf, and Mrs. Maria De Wolf Rogers, whose modesty is equalled only by their benevo- lence-the latter is the gift of Mrs. Rogers, in memory of her deceased husband, Mr. Robert Rogers.
2. The historian, and poet, of this occasion.
3. Mount Hope. To those not " to the manner born," it will be enough to say, that it is a picturesque and romantic height in Bristol, R. I., and noted as being the residence of Philip, the Chief Sachem of the Wampanoags.
SENATOR BURNSIDE. The next regular toast is : The Honored Dead.
This toast will be responded to by the Hon. J. Russell Bullock.
SPEECH OF JUDGE BULLOCK.
Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen :- In responding to this sentiment, it will not be expected that I should speak of the many men, now gone, who in their day and generation filled important official stations among us, and exercised a controlling influence both in the councils of the town and of the state. There was Simeon Potter, and Governor Brad- ford, and after them Judge Bourn, and James D'Wolf; all stalwart men, eminent in their various callings, and the im- press of whose lives remain among us, even unto this day.
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I shall come down to a later generation, and speak of one whom I knew, and who, descending from an early settler of Bristol, was himself born here, passed here the three-score and ten years allotted to life, and was here gathered to his fathers ; and who, so far as I know, has been the only native of Bristol ever chosen to the office of Governor of the State. I refer to BYRON DIMAN.
After receiving the usual academic education of his day, Governor Diman entered the counting-room of the late James D'Wolf as a clerk, and remained there many years, and until the death of that eminent merchant. During the latter part of Mr. D'Wolf's life, Governor Diman became his confidential adviser, and was entrusted by his employer with large and responsible business duties. After his death, Governor Diman was intimately associated with the acting executors of Mr. D'Wolf's will, in the care, management, and settlement of his large estate. This embraced extensive and complex landed, commercial, and manufacturing inter- ests, in different States, and in a foreign country.
This service to the family of his late friend and early pa- tron, no one else could render as he could ; but he rendered it cheerfully, and in some measure without a compensation adequate to its value, and often under circumstances of em- barrassment and disadvantage to himself; for there was no streak of avarice in his composition.
In person, Governor Diman was tall, well proportioned, erect in mien, and of a commanding presence.
In character, he was what I call a large-hearted man, hos- pitable, a good neighbor, public spirited, generous, charit- able to the poor of every sect, loving his friends, and not hating his enemies.
In politics, Governor Diman was a Henry Clay Whig, and a Puritan of the Plymouth Rock school in his religion. He early imbibed these principles, and whatever change of name these principles underwent through the mutations of time and parties, he still adhered to them, or what he believed
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to be the representative of them, to the close of his life. Strong and sincere as he was in these his beliefs, he was ever tolerant of the opinions of others.
Governor Diman was the most observing man I ever knew. When business called him, as it often did, away from his home, he saw everything, and appreciated and remembered everything that he saw. His power in this respect was remarkable. And this knowledge so acquired did not lay loose in his mind. He analyzed it and weighed it, and applied it to use in life. In conversation he would often draw from this store-house, much to the amusement and instruction of his friends.
For many years it was my good fortune to sustain intimate personal, political and professional relations with Byron Diman. I never knew him to harbor an unworthy motive, or be guilty of an ignoble act to others.
He served his town and state in many public trusts. He was often elected to represent Bristol in the House of Repre- sentatives, several times in the State Senate, for three suc- cessive years he was chosen Lieutenant-Governor, and in 1846 was chosen Governor. His official duties he discharged with uniform ability and fidelity. His official honors he wore with becoming modesty.
The traditions and early history of his town, Governor Diman was quite familiar with, and he loved to dwell upon them. He took a deep interest in whatever promoted its well being and prosperity.
In our past annals may be found men more successful as merchants, more distinguished as legislators, more eminent and highly gifted as public speakers ; but no grave in that ancient cemetery near by us, or in those on yonder hills, holds the mortal remains of a more devoted son of Bristol, or of a truer Rhode Islander, than the grave of Byron Diman.
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The "feast of reason" at the table ended all too soon, leaving much unsaid that would, otherwise, have been spoken. There were many honored guests present, other than those who had spoken, to whom it would have been a delight to listen, had time permitted. Notably of this number we take pleasure in naming the venerable Rev. JOEL MANN, of New Haven, Conn., who, albeit in his ninety-second year, was able to make the journey from New Haven to Bristol unattended. He rode in the procession, and was present at the table. Mr. Mann came to Bristol in 1815, and for twelve years was associated with the late Rev. HENRY WIGHT, D. D., grandfather of the historian of the day, in the pasto- ral charge of the Congregational Church. He resigned in 1827, and removed from Bristol ; yet, during the more than half a century that has since elapsed, he has kept up his inter- est in the town and its people, and made frequent visits here.
But the " low declining sun " admonished that the " flow of soul " must cease, and our distinguished Toastmaster was reluctantly compelled to close the exercises in the tent, in order that the "Tree Planting " might be proceeded with on the Common.
MEMORIAL TREES.
The planting of four MEMORIAL TREES, to the memory of the original proprietors of the town, came immediately after the exercises in the dining tent.
The committee having charge of this matter, had in early spring placed this number of trees in large casks, and after they had formed a part of the public procession of the day, were then each put in their intended places.
The one north from the centre of the Common was first planted.
Mr. Babbitt, the chairman of the committee, in introduc- ing the subject, spoke as follows :
REMARKS OF EDWARD S. BABBITT.
Fellow Citizens, Sons and Daughters of Bristol, and Visiting Friends :- We have come to the concluding and most important part of our celebration. What we have listened to with so much profit and pleasure will soon be forgotten, and, if desired, must be sought from between the covers of a book ; and the remembrance of the feast from which we have just risen will soon be lost with our departure. But the result of that which we now propose to do will continue on for ages to come. While the wide- spreading branches of these trees catch the heat and moisture of heaven, and their deep-reaching roots draw from the earth their strength to put on each year their livery of green, they
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will ever be honoring the memory of those who formerly owned the very ground from which they draw their life. Let us hope that all who follow us, as they see these evi- dences of our appreciation of the work done by the original proprietors of the town, will be inspired to keep green in their memory the names of those whose wide views and gen- erous impulses gave us this ample Common, our wide, tree- lined avenues, and stamped upon the town that which now renders it so inviting to all who visit it. By this act of ours, we say all honor to the memory of BYFIELD, WALLEY, BUR- TON and OLIVER. Let their names have a living existence in these trees.
THE NATHANIEL OLIVER TREE.
The tree now planted is to keep alive the name of Nathaniel Oliver, and his successor, Nathan Hayman. We are most fortunate in having with us to-day a direct descend- ant of Nathaniel Oliver, and separated from him by only three removes, Gen. Henry K. Oliver, now Mayor of Salem, Mass.
REMARKS OF GEN. OLIVER.
After brief introductory remarks, expressive of his gratifi- cation at participating in the ceremonies of the day, Mayor Oliver said : In the year 1632, there came from England to Boston (and, for satisfactory reasons, it is believed from the old city of Bristol, whence, perhaps, the suggestion of the name of your town), an emigrant Puritan bearing the name of Thomas Oliver. He was a " chimegeon " (surgeon) by profession, and brought with him his wife Anne, and seven children, they coming in the ship Lyon, with the fam- ily of Governor Winthrop, the Governor having himself pre- ceded them, and landing at Salem in 1630. Thomas Oliver appears to have been greatly respected and beloved in the young town, and I find that by a vote of the people in 1646,
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it was declared that no horses should be kept on Boston Common among the seventy cows allowed to pasture there, "except that the horse of good Elder Thomas Oliver may continue there." He was Ruling Elder of the First Church of Boston, "distinguished as an apt scholar, occasionally preaching, and highly esteemed for his gentleness of temper, generous heart, pure life, and liberal public service." Very many of his descendants have been graduates of our colleges, and many distinguished in professional, mercantile, and pub- lic life. Of forty-five Olivers who are alumni of Harvard and Dartmouth, up to the present date, thirty-six are known to be his descendants, and there are very many more from in- termarrying families, bearing, of course, other names ; among them being Brattles, Hutchinsons, Lyndes, Bradstreets, Wendells, Prescotts, Vintons, and Appletons.
Of the seven children of Thomas Oliver, one of them, Nathaniel, was, in 1633, most unfortunately, most sadly, and suddenly killed by the fall of a tree, which he, then a lad of fifteen years of age, was felling, whilst his father was at work near by. The sadness of that event, and the tender- ness of heart which ensued, caused the name of Nathaniel to be perpetuated for the coming generations, and it has been continued down to the present day.
The Puritan Thomas had a son Peter, a Boston merchant, who, by his wife Sarah Newdigate, had a son, Nathaniel Oliver, whom I will call your Nathaniel Oliver. Born in Boston, in 1652, he there married (in 1677) Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Tyng) Brattle. This Nathaniel, by his wife Elizabeth (Brattle), had, in 1684, a son Nathaniel, who, graduating in 1701, at Harvard, became a Boston merchant, marrying, in 1709, Martha Hobbs, a rich heiress, by whom he had a son Nathaniel, in 1713,- who, graduating at Harvard in 1733, became a lawyer in Boston, where he married, in 1741, Mercy, daughter of Hon. Jacob Wendell, their son, Nathaniel, born in 1744, dying in 1750. Another son, Rev. Daniel Oliver, born in 1753, and
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graduated at Dartmouth in 1785, had, also, by his wife, Elizabeth Kemble, a son Nathaniel K. G., born in 1790, a graduate of Harvard in 1809, brother of the present speaker. He was a lawyer and teacher, dying in 1832, and leaving a son, by his wife Anne T. Hunt, named also Nathaniel (Cordis), born in 1830, and dying unmarried in 1863. There thus appears a sequence of eight Nathaniel Olivers, and there were others in other branches of the family. Your Nathaniel Oliver was a Boston merchant, and a most sagacious, most successful, most thoughtful, most highly accomplished and enterprising gentleman. He achieved a fortune, which for those days was considered simply enormous, namely, a sum something near £5,000 sterling, the purchasing power of which at this day would be upwards of $200,000. In con- nection with the gentlemen whose names have been repeated to you very often to-day, he joined in the projection of this town. Seeing its very great beauty now for the first time- seeing the beauty of its streets, the intellectual beaming of the faces of its men and the beauty of its women, I regret that he did not come here to live, that I, his great-great grandson, might have been born here within your limits, and perhaps, an owner of some of his fair possessions. It is a remarkable thing and a very sad thing to their remote generations, that great-great grandfathers never think much of their great- great grandchildren. And it seems to me that ought not to be so ; for why should not a reasonable man of ordinary aspirations desire to own two or three acres down here in the middle of your town, for instance-which might have come to my share if my great-great grandfather had only thought of me? My friend, Col. Higginson, in a speech which he delivered a while ago in behalf of Gov. Long, on the two- hundredth anniversary of the landing of Winthrop, said that he wished his ancestor had let him have Salem Neck, and I really wish that I had some such share of my great-great grandfather's property here ; but he sold it to Nathan Hay- man, as I understand it ; so that I was entirely cut off, and it
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