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 Centennial Anniversa^^-t 
 
 TOWN OF COHASSET, 
 
 May 7, 1870. 
 
 ORATION BY Hon. THOMAS RUSSELL. 
 
 SPEECHES BY GOV. CLAFLIN, HIRAM REVELS, 
 
 LORING LOTHROP, SOLOMON LINCOLN, 
 
 GEORGE B. LORING, AND OTHERS. 
 
 Boston: 
 
 WRIGHT & POTTER, PRINTERS, 79 MILK STREET. 
 
 1870.
 
 Centennial A 
 
 ENTENNIAL rLNNIVERSARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 TOWN OF COHASSET 
 
 May 7, 1870. 
 
 ORATION BY Hon. THOMAS RUSSELL. 
 
 SPEECHES BY GOV. CLAFLIN, HIRAM REVELS, 
 
 LORING LOTHROP, SOLOMON LINCOLN, 
 
 GEORGE B. LORING, AND OTHERS. 
 
 Boston; 
 
 WRIGHT & POTTER, PRINTERS, 79 MILK STREET. 
 
 1870.
 
 COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 J. Q. A. LOTIIROP. 
 MAKTIN LIXCOLN. 
 LOUIS N. LINCOLN. 
 A. H. TOWER, Jb. 
 ADNA BATES. 
 LORING BATES. 
 LEVI N. BATES. 
 
 SOLOMON J. BEAL. 
 ZENAS D. LINCOLN. 
 AARON PRATT. 
 ZACCHEUS RICH. 
 EDWARD E. TOWER. 
 TH03IAS M. SanTH. 
 J. P. T. PERCIVAL. 
 
 CHARLES A. COUSENS.
 
 CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 
 
 The One Hundredth Anniversary of the Organization of 
 the Town of Cohasset took place, in accordance with pre- 
 vious announcement, on Saturday, May 7. The weather 
 was not what we call pleasant, although no rain fell until 
 after four o'clock, P. M. 
 
 The dwellings generally were liberally and tastefully 
 decorated. The occasion was one of more than ordinary 
 interest to Cohasset people. The residents of the neighbor- 
 ing towns also participated in this enthusiasm to some 
 extent, — as did many others who dweU in more remote 
 localities. 
 
 The programme of the day commenced with the ringing 
 of bells, and the firing of cannon at sunrise ; and this was 
 continued at noon and sunset. 
 
 At seven o'clock a concert was given on the Common by 
 the Atlantic Musical Association. 
 
 The Governor and other State officials and distinguished 
 guests arrived in an extra train at ten o'clock. A procession 
 was then formed, as follows : —
 
 4 Town of Coliasset, 
 
 ORDER OF PROCESSION. 
 
 Aid, Chief Marshal, Aid, 
 
 L. P. Cusliing. William B. Johnson. J. M. Pieper. 
 
 Atlantic Musical Association. 
 
 Military escort, consisting of a company of returned veterans in 
 uniform, under the command of Capt. John W. Tower. 
 
 President of the Day, Governor and Staff, Orator, and other invited 
 guests in carriages. 
 
 Carriage, with the following ladies : Lydia Bates,, aged 90 years ; 
 
 Hannah Stoddard, aged 89 years ; Lucy Nichols, aged 85 
 
 years ; Lydia Pratt, aged 84 years. 
 
 Selectmen of Hingham, Scituate, and Cohasset, in carriage. 
 
 Committee of Arrangements in carriage. 
 
 Citizens and others on foot. 
 
 Children of the Public Schools, consisting of about two hundred and 
 fifty in number, with small flags and bouquets. 
 
 Private carriages. 
 
 The two field-pieces which were used in firing the salutes 
 upon the Common, and the gunners, joined in the line. 
 One of the three large carriages was also filled with young 
 Misses, each bearing a small flag, representing the States of 
 the Union. 
 
 On each side of the barouche containing Governors Claf- 
 LiN, of Massachusetts, and Stearns, of New Hampshire, 
 Judge Russell, the Orator of the day, and J. Q. A. Loth- 
 ROP, Esq., the President of the day, were the following 
 Assistant-Marshals : — 
 
 On the left, On the right, 
 
 A. H. Tower, Jr., Col. Hawkes Fearing, 
 
 Frederick Nickerson, Capt. John Stephenson, 
 
 M. B. Stetson, Henry Stephenson, 
 
 N. H. WaiTen, George Lincoln, 
 
 Of Cohasset. Of Hingham.
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 5 
 
 Assistant-Marshal J. L. Battles was detailed for services 
 at the church. 
 
 Among the novelties in the procession was a boat on 
 wheels, manned by sailor-dressed boys, called the " Relief," 
 and a wagon containing representative women of the past, 
 wearing immense bonnets and calashes. A spinning-wheel 
 was kept in motion in this wagon, which reminded us of the 
 days when our grandmothers spun and wove their own cloth. 
 A piano and a sewing machine were also exercised to repre- 
 sent the pursuits of the present day. 
 
 A lady and gentleman riding together upon the back of 
 one horse — representing the ancient mode of riding on a 
 pillion — was another noticeable feature in the column. 
 
 The procession moved through South Main street to the 
 bridge. It then countermarched, passing through Summer 
 and Elm streets to North Main street. Main street, and 
 through Winter and Green streets, to the old meeting- 
 house. 
 
 Exercises at the Church. 
 The procession reached the church shortly after twelve 
 o'clock, and the edifice was soon filled to overflowing, the 
 galleries being occupied almost exclusively Ijy ladies. The 
 church was tastefully decorated for the occasion with flags 
 'and other memorials and devices. Over the clock, in the 
 front gallery, were the original and present names, " Cono- 
 HASSETT " and " Cohasset." On each side of the pulpit were 
 floral displays. Flags were very prettily arranged in the 
 centre of the platform in front of the pulpit, and also around 
 the galleries. On this platform were seated William B. 
 Johnson, Esq., Chief Marshal, J. Q. A. Lothrop, Esq., Rev.
 
 6 Toion of Cohasset. 
 
 Messrs. Osgood, Fitts and Smith, and Hon. Thomas Russell, 
 orator of the day. 
 
 The exercises opened with a voluntary on the organ, 
 which was followed by an anthem. 
 
 The Chief Marshal then said : — 
 
 Strangers and Fellow- Citizens^ — Permit me to introduce 
 to you our President of the Day, Mr. J. Q. A. Lothrop. 
 
 ADDKESS OF ]Sni. LOTHROP. 
 
 Mr. Marshal, — I will not say that this is an unexpected 
 honor, for such is not the fact ; but I thank you, and through 
 you the Committee of Arrangements, for the honor conferred 
 upon me in appointing me to preside over the dehberations of 
 the day. I will endeavor faithfully to perform the duties. One 
 hundred years ago to-day, (Mr. Lothrop continued, turning 
 toward the audience,) our ancestors assembled in this church, 
 under an act of incorporation, to elect the first officers, pass the 
 first votes, appropriate money to pay the necessary expenses, 
 and to put in working order all matters pertaining to the then 
 new town of Cohasset, and what is considered as a singular co- 
 incidence, and may not be improper for me to mention, is that 
 two out of the three selectmen then elected were named Lin- 
 coln, and that two of the present selectmen bear the same 
 name, descendants and good representatives of the fonner. 
 The first were noble men and patriots, good specimens of the 
 citizens of their time ; the pi-esent ones we beUeve are able 
 ■men, and caj^able of following in their footsteps — one of them, 
 the elder, having held all the oflices in the gift of the town, and 
 now serving for the twentieth time as one of the selectmen. As 
 the time approached when the one hundred years of our exist- 
 ence as a town would expire, it seemed fitting to the citizens 
 that some appropriate notice should be taken of the same, and 
 accordingly a town meeting was called last December, a Com- 
 mittee of Arrangements, consisting of foiirteen, chosen to take 
 the whole matter in charge, and to prepare for such a celebra- 
 tion as they might deem necessary. That committee met, chose
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 7 
 
 its officers, appointed sub-committees, and, having held numer- 
 ous meetings, engaged an orator, appointed a chief marshal, and 
 made all the preparations in order to fitly celebrate this day. 
 And they believe the arrangements have been so far perfected 
 that there can be no serious obstacle to a good and social gath- 
 ering. And I, for and in behalf of the Committee of Arrange- 
 ments, and of the citizens of the town, extend to your Excel- 
 lency the Governor of Massachusetts, to your Excellency the 
 Governor of New Hampshire, to the orator, to all Government 
 and State officials, strangers, former citizens, and descendants of 
 citizens and all others who have honored us with theu* presence, 
 a most cordial and hearty welcome. It gives us pleasure to 
 welcome you among us. We are happy to entertain you. We 
 feel that you may have made some sacrifices to come here, but 
 the joy your presence gives us we hope will in j^art repay you 
 for your trouble. We feel honored by your coming, and we 
 hope you may derive some benefit from your visit. This is an 
 event in the history of the town which will not be forgotten by 
 any one of its present inhabitants, and I have no doubt it will 
 be published and handed down and mentioned at the two hun- 
 dredth anniversary of its incorporation. When you dej^art 
 fi'om us at the close of this celebration, we hope you will leave 
 with the impression that we are an industrious, happy, law- 
 abiding and order-loving people, fit to take high rank with the 
 towns of the good old Commonwealth of Massachusetts. (Ap- 
 plause.) 
 
 EEADIXG OP THE SCRIPTUKES. 
 
 Rev. Calvin R. Fitts, of Cohasset, read selections from 
 the Scriptures, as follows : — 
 
 [Joshua, iv : 1-9 ; 10-24.] 
 
 And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed 
 over Jordan, that the Lord spake xinto Joshua, saying. 
 
 Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a 
 man. 
 
 And command ye them, saying. Take you hence out of the 
 midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood
 
 8 Town of CoTiasset. 
 
 firm, twelve stones, and ye shall cany them over with you, and 
 leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night. 
 
 Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared 
 of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man : 
 
 And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the 
 Lord your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every 
 man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the num- 
 ber of the tribes of the children of Israel : 
 
 That this may be a sign among you, that when your children 
 ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by 
 these stones ? 
 
 Then ye shall answer them. That the waters of Jordan were 
 cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord ; when it 
 passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and 
 these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel 
 forever. 
 
 And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and 
 took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the Lord 
 spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the ti'ibes of the 
 children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the 
 place where they lodged, and laid them down there. 
 
 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in 
 the j)lace where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the 
 covenant stood : and they are there unto this day. 
 
 And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of 
 the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of 
 Jericho. 
 
 And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did 
 Joshua pitch in Gilgal. 
 
 And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying. When your 
 children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saving. What 
 mean these stones ? 
 
 Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came 
 over this Jordan on dry land. 
 
 For the Lord your God di-ied up the waters of Jordan fi'om 
 before you, iintil ye were passed over, as the Lord your God did 
 to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were 
 srone over :
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 9 
 
 That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the 
 Lord, that it is mighty : that ye might fear the Lord your God 
 forever. 
 
 [105th Ps. : 1, 15.] 
 
 Oh give thanks unto the Lord ; call upon his name : make 
 known his deeds among the people. 
 
 Sing unto him, sing jDsalms unto him : talk ye of all his won- 
 drous works. 
 
 Glory ye in his holy name : let the heart of them rejoice that 
 seek the Lord. 
 
 Seek the Lord, and his strength : seek his face evermore. 
 
 Remember his marvellous works that he hath done ; his won- 
 ders, and the judgments of his mouth ; 
 
 O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his 
 chosen. 
 
 He is the Lord our God : his judgments are in all the earth. 
 
 He hath remembered his covenant forever, the word which he 
 commanded to a thousand generations. 
 
 Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto 
 Isaac ; 
 
 And confinned the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel 
 for an everlasting covenant ; 
 
 Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of 
 your inheritance : 
 
 When they were but a few men in number ; yea, very few, 
 and strangers in it. 
 
 When they went from one nation to another, from one king- 
 dom, to another j^eople ; 
 
 He sutFered no man to do them wrong : yea, he rej^roved 
 kings for their sakes ; 
 
 Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no 
 harm. 
 
 [135th Ps.: 1-6; 19-21.] 
 
 Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the name of the Lord ; ])raise 
 him, O ye servants of the Lord. 
 
 Ye that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the 
 house of our God, 
 
 Praise tlie Lord ; for the Lord is good sing praises unto his 
 name ; for it is pleasant. 
 2
 
 10 Toion of Coliasset. 
 
 For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for 
 his i)eculiar treasure. 
 
 For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above 
 all gods. 
 
 Bless the Lord, O house of Israel : bless the Lord, O house of ' 
 Aaron : 
 
 Bless the Lord, O house of Levi : ye that fear the Lord, bless 
 the Lord. 
 
 Blessed be the Lord out of Zion, which dwelleth at Jerusalem. 
 Praise ye the Lord. 
 
 PRATER BY REV. JOSEPH OSGOOD. 
 
 Oh, thou infinite and eternal God, our fathers' God and our 
 God, we would ask thy blessing upon us now. We have as- 
 sembled to commemorate the inauguration of the civil organ- 
 ization of our town, and we would ask thy blessing on these 
 rejoicings ; we would ask thy blessing on these solemnities ; 
 we would ask thy blessing on all the hallowed memories that 
 rise in our hearts ; and we would ask thy blessing on all those 
 who would seek to give exj^ression to our thought, our feeling, 
 our gratitude, this day. 
 
 We thank thee, heavenly Father, for the organization of this 
 town, one hundred years ago, and for all the precious privileges 
 that have been secured by that organization, and for the civil 
 order and harmony that have resulted. We thank Thee for the 
 support of our institutions of religion, by which the Christian 
 faith and hope and love of the people have been cherished, and 
 in which they have found expression. We thank Thee for our 
 institutions of learning, in which the young have been educated 
 in heart and in intellect, and have been fitted to become useful 
 citizens and members of the community. AVe thank Thee for all 
 the noble sons and daughters who have been born in this town, 
 who have lived and labored mthin its borders, or who have gone 
 forth to discharge the various ofiices for Avhich they were fitted in 
 other towns and other lands. We thank Thee for those who have 
 gone forth to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, thy Son. We 
 thank Thee for those who have gone forth as beloved physicians, 
 to work in another field of the Master's service. We thank 
 Thee for those who have gone forth as leaders in commerce, who
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 11 
 
 have done business on the great waters, and have helped to 
 caiTy the blessings of commercial intercourse and modern civi- 
 lization round the world. We thank Thee for all who have 
 labored with their hands or with their hearts, for all who have 
 shown their faithfulness to Thee and to duty, in whatever posi- 
 tion thou hast placed them, whether engaged in cultivating the 
 soil, in ploughing the deep, in mechanical occupations, or in 
 trade and commerce. And we would thank thee, heavenly 
 Father, for the order and harmony that have characterized the 
 proceedings of this town. We thank Thee for the warm hearts 
 of the inhabitants, who have been ready to rescue and to re- 
 ceive to their homes the shipwrecked mariners who have been 
 cast on our shores. We thank Thee for those who went forth 
 in the early wars to defend the rights of their country and 
 to redeem the land from oppression ; and we thank Thee for 
 those who, in the later struggles of our common country, have 
 shown their patriotism, their self-sacrifice, their willingness to 
 do service, and to shed their blood in defence of their common 
 country. And especially at this time would we remember 
 those who have borne arms in the late war, and who are here 
 with us. We would remember those who are absent from us, 
 and especially him who was a noble leader of our forces in our 
 great struggle, and who received a severe wound in our cause. 
 And we would remember those brave young men whose forms 
 repose in distant parts of our country, or which were brought 
 to their home for burial, who have died so nobly in defence of 
 all that was most precious to us. 
 
 And while we thank Thee for all these blessings, while we thank 
 thee for our sons and our daughters, while we thank Thee for all 
 the prosperity with which thou hast favored us, we would sup- 
 plicate a continuance of thy favors, and pray Thee to enable us, 
 in the future, to be more true, more devoted, more faithful, more 
 loyal, more patriotic, than in the past. And while we supplicate 
 thy blessing upon us as a town, we would remember the mother 
 town, our ancient neighbor, to whom we bear the relation of 
 daughter, thanking Thee for the pleasant relations that have 
 subsisted between the daughter and the mother, and praying 
 Thee to bless that ancient mother more and more. And we 
 would remember the other contiguous towns, which have shared
 
 12 Toiun of Cohasset. 
 
 in all our interests, in oiir prosperity and in our adversity, pray- 
 ing Thee to shower down thy rich blessings upon them. 
 
 We would, Almighty God, remember our ancient Common- 
 wealth, of which this town has alw^ays been a loyal member, 
 beseeching Thee to bless her ; give to her increased prosperity, 
 and grant that all the institutions that ennoble and bless our 
 State may flourish more and more from year to year. 
 
 We would commend to Thee the chief magistrate of our Com- 
 monwealth, the lieutenant-governor, the members of the coun- 
 cil, and all who are associated with them in civil authority, 
 praying Thee to send down thy blessings upon them. May they 
 feel the greatness of the trust committed to them ; may they 
 feel that " righteousness alone exalteth a nation," and that as 
 they promote the righteousness, honor and dignity of the State, 
 they make this ancient Commonwealth more and more glorious. 
 
 Almighty God, we commend to Thee our common country. . 
 We thank Thee that thou hast delivered our country from all its 
 perils ; that thou hast subdued its enemies ; that thou hast over- 
 thrown those evil institutions that were a curse to it, and that, 
 while we commenced our life as a town subject to a foreign 
 nation, we are now permitted to rejoice in belonging to a 
 country where freedom universally prevails, and all distinc- 
 tions of class and of color have ceased. 
 
 We thank Thee that we have been enabled to welcome to our 
 shores strangers from over the deep, and those who have come 
 to us from the islands of the sea ; — to welcome them to our ci\\\ 
 privileges, to welcome them to oxw schools, to welcome them to 
 all the rights and opportunities which we ourselves enjoy. 
 
 And now, heavenly Father, again we supplicate thy blessing 
 upon us, praying thee that as this day ends the first century of 
 our existence as a town, crowned with so many rich blessings, 
 and leaving us surrounded with so many tokens of thy love and 
 proAidential care, it may be the beginning of a new century of 
 increased nobleness, prosperity, glory and harmony, of higher 
 culture, and of a more Christian and elevated civilization. 
 
 Wilt thou send down thy blessing, heavenly Father, upon 
 him who is to speak to us at this time. Send down thy blessing 
 upon all the oflicers engaged in the exercises of this day. Send 
 do^^^l thy blessing upon those who have sung to thy praise.
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 13 
 
 And unto Thee, in the name and as the disciples of Jesus 
 Christ, we would ascribe the kingdom, the power, and the glory- 
 forever. Amen. 
 
 Then followed a song by the choir. 
 
 The President. Ladies and Gentlemen, — I have the 
 honor and pleasure of introducing to you the Hon. Thomas 
 Russell, of Boston, the orator of the day. 
 
 Mr. President, — It is a natural and praiseworthy feeling that 
 leads the good men and women of New England to celebrate 
 the day that marks the birth of each town; to repeat the 
 names of their fathers, and to trace the steps by which each 
 little independent community has risen from the poverty and 
 weakness of former times to the wealth, prosperity and comfort 
 of the present. The town government is the foundation of the 
 State ; attendance on town meeting and performance of town 
 duties are precious training to the people ; and the New Eng- 
 land youth, who has wandered to the ends of the earth in search 
 of fame or fortune, looks forward to the day when he shall cast 
 anchor near the old homestead, and hopes that, at last, his dust 
 shall mingle with the dust of his kindred. 
 
 One hundred years ago your fathers met within these walls 
 to receive the charter, and to organize the town of Cohasset. 
 The careful antiquarian may remind me that the word " dis- 
 trict," instead of " town," was used in the act of tlie General 
 Court, for the reason that Cohasset was still joined with Hing- 
 ham in the choice of representative. But in performing muni- 
 cipal duties and in bearing municipal burdens, in the care of 
 roads, of the poor and of schools, in sharing the counsels of the 
 State, and in upholding the arm of the nation, Cohasset has 
 always shown herself to be every inch a town. And if any 
 lingering doubts remain in your minds as to the style of your 
 loved municipality, you will be ghid to know, that in 1 786 it 
 was enacted, that all disti-icts incorporated before 1777 sliould 
 be, to all intents and purposes, towns. 
 
 The history of the founders of Cohasset begins long l)efore 
 this date. For they were also among the founders of Hingham.
 
 14 Toion of Cohasset. 
 
 On September 18, (O. S.) 1635, Peter Hobart and twenty-nine 
 others drew lots for homesteads, and thus organized that settle- 
 ment, which had been begun two years before by a few of Mr, 
 Hobart's townsmen from England. These earliest settlers bore 
 the names of Hobart, Jacobs, Smith and Gushing. Peter Ho- 
 bart came, with his friends, from Hingham, in Norfolk County, 
 and, like many of the early settlers, they gave to the new town 
 the name of their old home. In his diary we read this record : 
 " 1635, June 8. — I, with my wife & 4 children came safely to 
 New England June ye 8, 1635, forever prazed be the God of 
 Heaven, my God & King." Mr. Hobart was a man of learn- 
 ing, of ability and of zeal — a good specimen of the strong men, 
 who, in poverty and in danger, laid the foundations of the 
 American Empire. 
 
 In the early annals of your parent town we find much to re- 
 mind us of their hardships. We read of bounties given for 
 wolf scalps ; of the meeting-house surrounded by palisades as a 
 protection against sudden attack ; of John Jacob slain by In- 
 dians in his wheat-field, in April, 1676 ; of five dwelling-houses 
 burned during King Philip's war. Such was the welcome of 
 your fathers to these shores. Such were the perils which they 
 gladly bore for their faith. 
 
 The horrors of Iving Philip's war have often been sketched. 
 The flames that were kindled at Swanzey and Dartmouth rolled 
 all over the land ; the best blood of the youth was poured out 
 in the meadows of Deerfield ; by Turner's Falls ; in the swamps 
 of Rhode Island. No town, no home, no man, was safe. Won- 
 derful was the devotion that, unaided and alone, endured the 
 fearful conflict. 
 
 As an illustration of the sacrifices of our ancestors, we read 
 that the public debt of the neighboring colony of Plymouth 
 far exceeded the whole amount of personal property in that 
 colony. Well may the historian feel pride in recording the fact 
 that this debt was paid, principal and interest, — paid just as it 
 had been agreed to be paid. Our fathers never dreamed of re- 
 pudiation. And this contract-keeping people found favor with 
 a covenant-keeping God. 
 
 This flourishing town was greatly disturbed by the question 
 of militia elections, and by a quan-el about the location of the
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 15 
 
 second meeting-house. This quan-el I pass by as more interesting 
 to the people of that day than to this generation. What inter- 
 ests us most is, that the meeting-house was finally biiilt in 1681, 
 and that it now stands, — the oldest church edifice in the United 
 States, containing beams which were in the first meeting-house, — 
 fragrant with old memories. We love to believe that some of 
 the earliest comers to Massachusetts Bay have worshipped in 
 this venerable structure, and to know that the first-born of the 
 Pilgrims may have sat within its walls. Such thoughts bring 
 us into the more immediate presence of our fathers. Well for 
 us if we could act as jn that j^resence and be animated by their 
 spirit. 
 
 The militia excitement of 1644 and '45 fills a large space in 
 the annals of Massachusetts Bay, and for seven years disturbed 
 the peace of Hingham. The origin of this trouble was the elec- 
 tion of militia captain, and the question involved was the right 
 of the people to choose for themselves, without the control of 
 the magistrates. Mr. Hobart's course was objected to by Dep- 
 uty-Governor Winthrop as tending to " mere democracy." He 
 and his associates were fined for their turbulent opposition to 
 the court. These fines were resisted ; and for this resistance 
 Mr. Hobart was once more dealt with by the court. And when, 
 at a great wedding of a Hingham man, Mr. Hobart was invited 
 to preach in Boston, he was forbidden by the magistrate, be- 
 cause, among other reasons, " he was a bold man, and would 
 speak his mind." The people stood by their pastor, paid his 
 fines and held him always in higher esteem. 
 
 It is an honorable record for his many descendants to read of 
 their ancestor, that, two hundred and twenty-five years ago, his 
 views tended to pure democracy, and that, being a bold man, he 
 would speak his mind. Such assertions of equal rights as he 
 made helped to forward the day when a brave son of Hingham 
 should receive the sword of Cornwallis at Yorktown, and to 
 that greater day, when another man, of Hingham descent, pro- 
 claimed that slavery in America was forever at an end. 
 
 We lose our patience as wo read the story of this contest. 
 Wc smile at the superstitious bigotry of Winthrop, wlio finds 
 a Providential interposition, when some Hingham men made 
 light of the colony's fast, and attempting to take a raft to Bos-
 
 16 Town of Cohasset. 
 
 ton, were delayed a month by bad weather. But while we crit- 
 icize and smile, we should remember that Hobart and his friends 
 were believed to threaten the powers of the rulers of the Prov- 
 ince, and that such threats imperilled the right of self-govern- 
 ment. We know, also, that they were dreaded, because they 
 troubled the churches, and those who troubled the churches 
 were believed to endanger souls. On both sides we find eiTor ; 
 on both sides sincerity, — the great manly virtue fi*om which aU 
 virtue springs. There have been men of gentler disposition 
 than Peter Hobart, of more enlightened views than Gov. Win- 
 throp, of more refined taste, of more graceful speech than any of 
 the Pilgrim Fathers ; but those men have no New England for 
 then* monument. 
 
 Besides this internal strife, your fathers were constantly in 
 danger from the savages and from the enemies of England. 
 They sent six men to fight the Pequots in 1637. They armed 
 against the French, the Dutch and the Spaniards. The mounds 
 in the burial place at Hingham are believed to be relics of the 
 Dutch fort. Capt. Thomas Andrews and nine others perished 
 in Sir William Phipps' expedition, in 1690, one of the party 
 being slain by the enemy, and the others dying of small-2:)0x. 
 Major Samuel Thaxter and five other citizens of Hingham were 
 taken prisoners at the fall of Fort William Henry in 1757. Two 
 Hingham men had been captured before the suri'ender of the 
 fort, one of whom was j^ut to death, and one of whom, Jere- 
 miah Lincoln by name, escaped from captivity to lead an hon- 
 orable and useful life. Knight Sprague, a survivor of this ex- 
 pedition, lived to a great age, at Leicester, Massachusetts. Caj^t. 
 Joshua Barker was among those who served in the attack on 
 Havana in 1740. For these facts I am indebted to the careful 
 researches of that learned antiquarian, your neighbor and friend, 
 Hon. Solomon Lincoln. These wars were a fit prei:)aration for 
 the great war of Independence. The stories of the living and 
 the memory of the dead kept ahve a martial spirit in the hearts 
 of the colonists, — cAen as the stories of '76 and the memories of 
 1812 prepared for the greater contest of our own day. 
 
 An interesting event in the annals of your parent town was 
 the obtaining of a deed of its territory from the heirs of Chick- 
 atabut. This powerful sachem, living on the banks of the Ne- 1
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 17 
 
 ponset, niled over a great part of what is now Plymouth and 
 Norfolk Counties. He is supposed to have given i^erniission to 
 the first settlers to make Hingham their home. His sons, Wam- 
 patuck, Squmuck and Ahahden, deeded the whole tract which 
 comprise Hingham and Cohasset to Capt. Joshua Hubbard and 
 Ensign John Thaxter for the inhabitants, in 1665, on the 4th of 
 July. That day was destined to become famous as the date of 
 an infinitely greater charter. 
 
 The first mention of this locality in the town records of Hing- 
 ham is in February, 1647, when division of meadow laud was 
 made among the proprietors at Conghasset. Not all of these 
 proprietors, however, were residents of this territory. The first 
 Hingham settlers here are said, by Rev. Mr. Flint, to have borne 
 the familiar names of Beal, Gushing, James, Lincoln, Tower and 
 Sutton. With these were joined the families of Bates, Kent, 
 Nichols, Orcutt, Pratt and Stoddard. The first settlement is 
 reported to have been at Rocky-nook, and on the Jerusalem 
 Road. The name of your town is said by. some to mean " a 
 fishing promontory ; " by others to mean " a place of rocks." 
 Either name would fit ,the place, and either name would apply 
 to Cohasset Narrows in Sandwich. Mr. Trumbull, the best liv- 
 ing authority, assures me that neither of these is correct. Un- 
 fortunately he cannot give the true meaning of the word. It is 
 enough that Cohasset now means a j^lace where, for two hun- 
 dred years, upright men have led honorable lives, and where an 
 honest New England town has flourished for a century. 
 
 In 1714, Hingham was requested in vain to remit the school 
 and ministerial taxes to this portion of the old town. In 1715 
 Hingham voted to grant the request, provided that Cohasset 
 would settle an orthodox minister, and accept this settlement of 
 the matter cheerfully. But the citizens of Cohasset voted that 
 they could not do so cheerfully. In 1717, an Act of the Gen- 
 eral Court was obtained creating a second jiarish in Hingham ; 
 and on July 14, 1718, the Act was accepted at a meeting, over 
 which Daniel Lincoln presided. The meeting was called for 
 Cohasset, alias Little Hingham. This strange phrase is several 
 times repeated. To lawyers the word alias savors of anything 
 but honesty. Yet here it was applied to a community as honest 
 as ever breathed.
 
 18 Town of Cohasset. 
 
 In 1719, a fast was appointed for the third Thursday of April, 
 in order to give a minister a call. Mr. Pierpont was called at 
 this time, and Mr. Spear in the spring of 1721. But no one was 
 settled until September of that year, when Nehemiah Hobart 
 became pastor. In 1727, the precinct petitioned the General 
 Court for liberty to apply taxes to schools ; and in October, 1728, 
 schools were established. In 1731, it was voted that the two 
 arms of the district should each have its share of school money, 
 Rocky-nook at one end, and the Beech-Woods at the other. 
 
 In 1740, the church lost its able and beloved pastor, who was 
 a worthy descendant of Peter Hobart. His place was not filled 
 without long delay, nor without various attempts to fix proper 
 terms. One proposition was to pay £400, old tenor, as settlement, 
 and £350 as salary, corn and rye to be taken at 15s. in February, 
 and beef at lOd. in November, with money enough for twenty 
 cords of wood. John Fowle was for a short time the successor 
 of Mr. Hobart, and then Rev. John Brown became pastor. 
 This able preachej; served faithfully for forty-five years, preach- 
 ing on the last Sabbath of his life, and dying at the age of sixty- 
 six. Governor Hancock's state visit to him was a great event in 
 Cohasset. Your town is filled with traditions of his quaint say- 
 ings. Serving for one campaign as regimental chaplain in the 
 Nova Scotia expedition, he never lost his military spirit, and his 
 love of liberty made him a warm friend of Independence. 
 When the mild and conservative Mr. Gay asked him what he 
 would do if the British should come into Cohasset Harbor and 
 try to burn the vessels, your minister replied : " I would shoot 
 them ! " When, at a meeting in 1775, he had urged recruits to 
 enlist, and an old man had taunted him with calling upon others 
 to do what he dared not do, he raised his staff and threatened 
 to cane the " old Tory " who insulted him. His sermon, preached 
 to volunteers under the old elm in Hingham, was a powerful 
 exhortation to fight for the liberties of America. A stimnof 
 sermon on the Boston massacre was published. No one, then, 
 had proclaimed that a clergyman should never exhort men to 
 discharge their duties in this world ; no one had denied that 
 patriotism is a duty. Woe to New England, if, when liberty, 
 loyalty and humanity are in danger, her pulpit ever shall be 
 dumb.
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 19 
 
 In 1750, it was reported, at a parish meeting, that the meet- 
 ing-house had been completed at a cost of £4,000. This was, 
 of course, old tenor, but it was a large sum for the men of those 
 days. The building was sufficiently completed to be used in 
 1747-48. This is the building in which we now are assembled, 
 and for more than a hundred and twenty years its walls have 
 echoed the prayers and praises of four generations of men. 
 
 In March, 1752, it was voted to petition Hingham and the 
 General Court for the setting off of a new town. This project 
 was renewed again and again, more especially when town meet- 
 ings became frequent, on account of the questions with the 
 Mother Country. But Hingham, while earnest for Indfipen- 
 dence, could not see the importance of self-government to her 
 subject province. Yet her oj)position was after all a comj^li- 
 ment. No wonder that the parent town was loth to part with 
 so fair a territory and with so worthy a people. 
 
 Before leaving Hingham, let me refer to a vote in 1768, when 
 impending trouble with England admonished the people to look 
 well to their ways. A committee was chosen in March, com- 
 posed of the best men in the ,town, who, in May, reported re- 
 solves : "First, that we will, by all ways and means in our 
 power, encourage and promote the practice of virtue and sup- 
 pressing of vice and immorality, the latter of which seem daily 
 increasing among us, and the decay of the former much to be 
 lamented." This " passed in the affirmative." 
 
 Next, they reported, that to jDromote vix-tue and discourage 
 vice, it Avas desirable to lessen the number of licensed houses, 
 so that there should only be six in the town, three in the North 
 Parish, two in the East and one in the South. This passed in 
 the negative, for there were men in those days (the race is now 
 extinct) Avho loved virtue in the abstract, but opposed every 
 practical measure for the suppression of vice. 
 
 On March 23, 1767, it was voted by this precinct not to give 
 up singing line by line, conservatism winning a victory over the 
 radical youth of the church ; and in March, 1768, the porch was 
 added to this house. 
 
 On May 7, 1770, the Act of Incorporation, which had been 
 signed by Lieut. Gov. Hutchinson on April 26, was accepted at 
 a meeting, where Dea. Isaac Lincoln acted as moderator, and
 
 20 Town of Cohasset. 
 
 Daniel Lincoln as clerk. It was voted to ask tliat the style of 
 " district " be changed to " town." I have referred to the Gen- 
 eral Act by which this was finally accomplished. 
 
 In December, 1770, it was voted that each child bring* one 
 foot of wood to school, or Is. 6d., and the assessors should 
 charge each person that was " behind." Such votes carry us 
 back to primitive times, and remind us that even then the edu- 
 cation of children was not neglected. The annual election of 
 "deer-reeves" tells of the time when the beech-woods were 
 alive with game, as the mention of Turkey Hill, in running the 
 bounds of the precinct in 1747, kindles the imagination of 
 sportsmen. But graver matters soon occupied the minds of 
 men who could use fire-arms. On March 7, 1774, it was voted to 
 build a closet in the meeting-house for ammunition. Already 
 the little town was preparing to resist the British Empire ; and 
 the same walls that heard your fathers' prayers for deliverance, 
 and their resolves to resist oppression, sheltered the ammunition 
 which was to enforce those resolves, and to show that those 
 prayers were honest. 
 
 On December 25, 1774, the town chose a committee of eleven, 
 agreeably to the Articles of the Continental Association. Jesse 
 Stephenson was chairman of this committee. Thomas Lothrop 
 wa^ placed at the head of a committee to draft a paper to 
 be signed by freeholders in approval of that association. At 
 the same meeting, it was voted to pay the province tax to 
 Henry Gardner, and to indemnify the selectmen and constables 
 for so doing. This seems a simple matter. But Mr. Gai-dner 
 was treasurer under a revolutionary government, and this vote 
 was an act of treason. Thus, day by day, in regular town meet- 
 ing, by solemn vote, each little municipality fell into the ranks, 
 and pledged its faith for the contest with Great Britain. 
 
 On March 6, 1775, it was voted to pay the share of Cohasset 
 for Deacon Lincoln's attendance on the Provincial Congress 
 and for Col. Benjamin Lincoln's attendance at the Genera 
 Court at Salem. It was worth while to be united with Hing 
 ham in the choice of a representative, since thus you shared the 
 credit of having such a patriot as your spokesman. Again, u 
 November, 1775, your fathers joined with Hingham in sendinj 
 Col. Lincoln to the Provincial Congress at Concord and a
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 21 
 
 "Watertown. Thus, by being united with Hingham as a repre- 
 sentative district, your town was honored in sending to the leg- 
 islature the able general who was destined to receive the sur- 
 render of Cornwallis, to sit in the United States Cabinet, to 
 crush by his vigor the rebellion of Shay, and to continue always 
 the trusted friend of Washington. 
 
 On April 28, it was voted to buy 500 bushels of corn, 100 
 pounds of gunpowder and 500 flints. On May 29, a committee 
 of correspondence was chosen, of which Dea. Isaac Lothrop was 
 chairman. Also a committee, of which Joseph Luther was the 
 head, to call on Major Thomas Lothrop, to see whether he will 
 call the alarm list together and settle them in some order. In 
 March next a committee of safety was chosen, of which Thomas 
 Lincoln was chairman. In May, Jonathan Beal was elected rep- 
 resentative. On June 15, 1776, it was voted (and no other vote 
 was taken) that if the Honorable American Congress should 
 declare the United Colonies independent of the Kingdom of 
 Great Britain, the town would support it with their lives and 
 fortunes. Thus, when Congress made the declaration, they only 
 echoed the voices of the people, and renewed their sacred 
 pledges. 
 
 On August 22, it was voted to raise £52 as a bounty for four 
 soldiers required for the Northern army. In September, £62 
 were raised as bounty for sixteen soldiers to march to Connec- 
 ticut. In December, forty shillings were added to the pay of 
 volunteers to encourage them to march on the shortest notice. 
 Subsequent additions were made to this sum, and a final addi- 
 tion was voted of £3, if ordered to march. At a later date, the 
 sum of £10 was given for three years enlistments. 
 
 The Declaration of Independence was, in December, copied 
 into the town records. That Declaration, as all the world 
 knows, contained the immortal words, " All men are created 
 equal." Now, I say it reverently, these words have become flesh 
 [here the speaker pointed to Senator Revels], and appear 
 before us to-day. 
 
 The towii did its full sliare of service in the war. One full 
 company, commanded by Capt. Job Cushing, was attached to 
 Col. Revere's regiment. Capt. Stow'crs commanded a company, 
 nearly all from Cohasset, who did guard duty on the coast ; and
 
 22 Town of Cohasset, 
 
 Noah Nichols was commissioned as captain of an artillery com- 
 pany comprising many Cohasset men. 
 
 In the early days of the controversy, your town was repre- 
 sented at the Boston tea-party by Major James Stoddard. Tra- 
 dition tells, also, of an English brig bound for Boston with sup- 
 plies for the British amiy becalmed off these shores, and taken 
 by a boat manned by Cohasset men. Major Stoddard was the 
 leading spirit on this occasion ; and when one of the boat's crew 
 pointed to the brig's artillery and proposed to return, the major 
 declared that there should be no going back. The defences of 
 the brig proved to be " quaker guns," and she became an easy 
 prize. Her cargo was rum ; and if, as is reported, the town was 
 for a few days a little more lively than usual, we must borrow 
 the words of Burke, and " pardon something to the spirit of 
 liberty." 
 
 Many of you must remember the veteran Noah Nichols, who 
 was accustomed in his old age to shoulder his fii-e-lock 
 
 " And show how fields were won." 
 
 You have heard his story of Washington ordering him to repair 
 the wheel of a gun carriage while on a forced march, of his re- 
 quest for permission to stop while mending it, and of the gen- 
 eral's abrupt refusal. " It was the hardest thing I ever did," the 
 old man would add, " but I did it." 
 
 One of your truest patriots in this contest was Joseph Bates. 
 Marching to join the army around Boston, he declared that he 
 never should return. He fought at Bunker Hill, and when the 
 ammunition of the Americans had failed, and they were obliged 
 to retreat, he was seen throwing stones at the well-armed British 
 soldiers as they swarmed into the redoubt. Such was the spirit 
 of our fathers, firm in defeat; cast down but not destroyed. 
 Well did Washington say, when he heard of the result, the re- 
 treat, the British victory, but heard, also, of the spirit of the 
 people — well did he say : " Thank God, America is free." 
 When a man is in earnest for the right, whether he stands on a 
 lost battle-field in CharlestowTi, Massachusetts, or beneath a gal- 
 lows in Charlestown, Virginia, he knows that failure is only the 
 prelude of success, and that death will, at last, be swallowed up 
 in victory.
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 23 
 
 During the war, in 1780, the Constitution of this State was 
 adopted, with its Bill of Rights, containing the words : " All 
 men are created free and equal." These words are often mis- 
 quoted as occurring in the Declaration of Independence, but the 
 slaveholder who wrote that instrument did not and could not 
 use the word " free." It was inserted in our Bill of Rights by 
 a wise judge, in order to abolish human bondage in Massachu- 
 setts. Prior to this time, slavery was held to have a legal exist- 
 ence in Massachusetts; and, as the old records of Hingham 
 show, even the soil of Cohas&et was trodden by master and 
 slave. But after the adoption of the State Constitution, a fel- 
 low-townsman of your fathers by birth, Levi Lincoln, trying the 
 cause of a man held as a slave in Worcester County, procured 
 the decision that broke the shackles of every bondman in Mas- 
 sachusetts. Mr. Lincoln, who was born in Hingham, rose to 
 great eminence at the bar, was chosen to Congress, was ap- 
 pointed attorney-general, held the office of lieutenant-governor 
 in this State, and declined appointment as judge of the supreme 
 court of the United States. But his greatest honor was, that 
 he pleaded the cause of the oppressed, and won a victory for 
 freedom. 
 
 This was one of the forward steps that gained for our State 
 its proud position. When the Fifteenth Amendment went into 
 operation a few weeks since, it had no effect in Massachusetts. 
 Here was no law which it could repeal. Other States obtained 
 their freedom with a great i^rice. We were born free. 
 
 The war of 1812 found the men of Cohasset ready to stand 
 by the flag, although they were not attached to the administra- 
 tion, and although the town had suffered greatly from the em- 
 bargo. They forgot that they were Democrats or Federalists, 
 and only remembered that they were Americans. A committee 
 of safety was chosen, a coast-guard of seventy-five was formed, 
 and a committee was sent to ask arms and ammunition from the 
 State. Lieut. Gov. Cobb (in the absence of Gov. Strong), re- 
 fused the request, and recommended the hoisting of a wliite 
 flag. The men of Cohasset disdained the timid counsels of the 
 executive, and finally procured muskets and a field-piece. The 
 executive of to-day would give no such prudent advice in any 
 similar peril. Governor and lieutenant-governor alike would
 
 24 Town of Coliasset. 
 
 counsel the use of no flag except their country's flag, — and that, 
 nailed to the mast. 
 
 In June, 1814, a British man-of-war having sent a flotilla of 
 barges to burn the shipping of Scituate, sailed for Cohasset on 
 a like errand. Capt. Peter Lothrop, roused by a messenger from ' 
 Scituate, leaped from his bed ; and without hat or coat, mount- 
 ing a horse without a saddle, rode through the village and 
 roused the slumbering inhabitants. Marching to White-Head, 
 the militia and other citizens threw up an earthwork, pastor and 
 people working together ; and when, on Sunday morning, the 
 British appeared, they found a redoubt held by what appeared 
 to be a formidable force. The enemy withdrew ; the fleet of 
 twenty-seven vessels was carried to Gulf River and scuttled. 
 The militia of Hingham and Weymouth, with the artillery of 
 Abington, Hanover and Scituate, marched to Cohasset ; and for 
 three months White-Head was occupied by a garrison. And so 
 the community was kept in constant alarm, till, on February 21, 
 came the glad tidings of peace, which was celebrated, with the 
 birthday of Washington, by a dinner at the academy. 
 
 The diary of Josiah Willcutt tells of the fishing schooner 
 Nancy, captured in September, 1814, two of her crew being set 
 ashore at Plymouth, and the others carried to Halifax jail. In 
 April, 1815, Ezekiel Wallace returned, bringing news that 
 Isaiah Lincoln had died in prison. England alone, among civi- 
 lized nations, makes war on poor fishermen. 
 
 Tradition tells of a brave son of Cohasset who could not bear 
 to see the English fleet insulting our shores. Alone he em- 
 barked in his ducking boat, declaring that he would have one 
 shot at the enemy. He fired his shot with effect, but was taken 
 prisoner, and died in Halifax jail. I have inquired in vain for 
 his name, but I cannot give up my fixith in the story of the Brit- 
 ish fleet assailed by a punt. 
 
 To us it seems strange that through this contest the shores of 
 this State were invested by the enemy — Nantucket flying a flag 
 of truce, Provincetown Harbor occupied by a hostile fleet, and 
 Boston closely blockaded. This can never happen again. The 
 growth of the country forbids it. Our mail-clad ships would 
 forbid it. And, better far, the spirit of the people would guard 
 the shores from foreign insult. There may be different opinions
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 25 
 
 as to the efficiency of our navy as compared with England's. 
 But there can be no doubt about the sailors who would man our 
 navy. 
 
 " Vain are those fleets of iron framed, 
 
 Vain tliose all-shattering guns, 
 
 Unless THE Union keep untamed 
 
 The strong heart of her sous." 
 
 And that the strength of American hearts is unbroken, the 
 recent rebellion has shown. 
 
 Your good town early responded to the call of the country. 
 In May, 1861, most liberal provision was made for the pay of 
 volunteers and the support of their families. Similar votes were 
 passed as need arose. And under the folds of a noble flag, 
 given by a patriotic citizen, the sons of Cohasset met, from time 
 to time, to enlist for the defence of the Union and Libeii/y of 
 which that flag is the emblem. 
 
 One of your fellow-citizens, Oliver E. Simpson by name, fell 
 in the first great battle at Bull Run. The names of your other 
 martyrs are known to you all — Ai'nold, Bates, Litchfield, Lin- 
 coln, Manuel, Nimms, Riply, Shays, Treat, Thayer. William 
 Bates had the mournful honor of giving two of his sons to his 
 country. 
 
 You are all proud of Gen. Zealous B. Tower, first in his class 
 at West Point, afterward for a time head of that institution, 
 distinguished in the Mexican war, where he fought by the side 
 of Lee and Beauregard, winning the high praise of Gen. Scott, 
 serving bravely on many a field of the war against rebellion, 
 wounded while fighting for the Union, known and honored 
 wherever courage and loyalty are honored. Such men are the 
 glory of their homes and the strength of America. 
 
 But I must not forget : 
 
 " Peace hath its victories 
 
 Not less renowned than war." 
 
 And of such victories this rugged coast has often been the 
 scene. For when the gales have hurled the Atlantic waves 
 upon Cohasset rocks, and when some vessel has become a wreck, 
 there have never been wanting men who were ready to risk 
 their lives to save the forlorn strangers, and every house has 
 4
 
 26 Town of Cohasset. 
 
 been ready to become a home for the rescued mariner. The 
 days of chivalry have not gone, when every north-easterly 
 storm summons to the shores of New England a host of men 
 ready to brave death in the hope of saving life. To-day you 
 can point out the men, who, if to-mon-ow morning should bring 
 a storm and a wreck, would man the life-boat and welcome the 
 shipwrecked sailor. If I must ever be subject to marine disas- 
 ter (which is not wholly improbable), let it be off Cohasset, and 
 let some Doane, or Lothrop, or Tower, receive me on the shore. 
 
 Grandest of all the scenes of nature is a winter storm upon a 
 rocky coast. But grander far to see, as I saw once, as you have 
 often -seen, the will of man triumphant over the strife of the 
 elements. The stranded vessel lies hopeless on the shoal. Her 
 master is lashed to the bulwarks ; the freezing sleet has numbed 
 his limbs; eveiy wave dashes over him. All the billows of 
 despair have gone over his soul. Then a man of the sea leaps 
 into his cockle-shell of a boat, sends a token to his children, 
 who may be orphans at night, and guides his fi'ail canoe among 
 the rocks. Now the waves have swallowed him up, but strength 
 and skill prevail ; he reaches the ship ; he bears the almost life- 
 less sailor in safety from the parting fragments of the wreck. 
 
 Time would fail me if I sought to recall all the marine disas- 
 ters which this spot has witnessed. Let a few records suffice. 
 
 On February 12, 1793, the Danish ship Gertrude Maria, in a 
 driving snow storm, struck on a ledge, and finally went to pieces 
 on Brush Island, where the survivors of the wreck found poor 
 shelter for the night. In the morning hardy sailors rescued 
 them, with great hazard, losing one boat upon the rocks, and 
 humane friends sheltered them at their homes. This was the 
 reception of men, who, fearing that they were about to fall 
 into the hands of savages, had cut the gilded buttons from their 
 coats, lest they should tempt the barbarous people to crime. 
 
 The King of Denmark, learning the facts, sent medals of gold 
 and silver to honor the gallantry and humanity of the people of 
 Cohasset ; and when, years after, Mr. Hubbard, a citizen of Bos- 
 ton, was carried into the harbor of St. Croix dangerously sick, 
 the health laws were suspended ; the rigorous quarantine gave 
 way in token of the hospitality which Capt. Clien and his men 
 had received when wrecked at Cohasset near the port of Boston.
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 27 
 
 Thus was America honored in distant lands ; the humanity of 
 your fathers was repaid to a stranger, and the nations of the 
 world were brought nearer to each other. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Shaw was among those who were conspicuous for 
 their humanity. The names of Doane and Tower were not 
 wanting on the Roll of Honor. The proceeds of one of the 
 gold medals were most apj^ropriately used to add to the com- 
 munion plate of the first church — appropriately, for when the 
 imen of Cohasset rescued and fed and clothed and sheltered the 
 poor wayfarers cast upon these shores, they bestowed their gifts 
 on Him who is commemorated by the communion service : 
 
 " The Holy Supper is kept indeed 
 In whatso we share with another's need." 
 
 In October, 1849, the British brig St. John, with immigrants 
 from Galway, struck on the Sea Ledges, a little to the west of 
 the Minot, and immediately went to pieces. More than a hun- 
 dred of her passengers were drowned. Others were rescued by 
 the humane exertions and heroic daring of the men of Cohasset ; 
 and every house was open to welcome those who* were thus 
 snatched from the grave. I have already named the founders 
 of your town. Let me name some of those who, in our own 
 Iday, sustained its honor and the honor of humanity. Studley, 
 Snow, Lawrence, Hardwick, Lothrop, Tower — these were prom- 
 inent in their efforts to save. I have not been able to procure 
 ithe names of all. Their modesty will thank me, as the modesty 
 of all would have thanked me, if all the names had been with- 
 held. 
 
 One affecting incident of the wi'eck must be familiar to you 
 all. Mr. Lothrop watched a little package that floated in the 
 surf, and grasping it, found, to his surprise, an infant girl. The 
 mother had wrapped up her child with careful hands, and com- 
 mitted her to the waves, as once a ihother placed her loved child 
 in a little ark upon the water's edge, and prayed that Heaven 
 would save the infant's life. And this child, also, Avas received 
 into princely hands. But a mother's care and the stranger's 
 daring would have been vain, had it not been decreed by Ilim 
 who holds the waters in the hollow of his hand that this child 
 should live and not die.
 
 28 Town of Cohasset. 
 
 Another child was brought in this vessel by her aunt to meet 
 the mother who had come to America before. When the mother 
 sought her infant, she found her resting with her head upon the 
 shoulder of her aunt, but the child and the woman alike were 
 dead. The heart-broken mother only survived for three days. 
 
 In striking contrast with the heroism and kindness of your 
 people, was the heartlessness of the captain of the St. John, 
 who, with the crew, left his vessel in a boat only half filled, and 
 who, in his cruel cowardice, neglected to inform the crew of a 
 life-boat that his wrecked vessel was filled with perishing men 
 and women. 
 
 Life is filled with just such contrasts. The same waters that 
 witnessed the heroism of Capt. Williams and his officers going 
 down at their posts, unwilUng to desert the sinking flag, saw 
 the captain of the Bombay leaving the ship whose sides he had 
 crushed, hurrying away as fast as wind and steam could cany 
 him, trembUng all over with cruel fear, lest in the bottom of his 
 vessel there might be some plank as rotten as his own heart. 
 
 On January 19, 1857, the brigantine New Empire was wrecked 
 at Little White Head. The floating ice prevented all aj^proach 
 to the shore. Peter FoUen, procuring two cylinders fi^"om the 
 Humane House, placed them beneath his knees, and took a line 
 to the ship, casting in his lot with the shipwrecked men that he 
 might save them all. 
 
 Of course the standard jokes about wreckers are related o! 
 the inhabitants of these shores. Of one it is said especially, 
 that when asked what his luck had been for the season, he an 
 swered : " I got a good deal of stuff and put it in the barn, bulj] 
 they do steal so the second time, that sometimes I almost wisl 
 there never would be another wreck." 
 
 A much better authenticated story, is that of the Swedisl 
 brig wrecked on IMinot's Ledge, December, 1836 ; her two deck; 
 washing ashore upon Beach Island, three miles distant, he 
 precious cargo strewn all along the shores upon the bottom o 
 the sea. Ninety per cent, of that cargo was recovered ; ever^ 
 bar of iron was delivered to the owners, the count answering 
 the invoice ; while of forty bales of crash, consigned to om 
 Boston merchant, forty save one were carried to him in th^ 
 winter, and the remaining bale was restored in June.
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 29 
 
 In 1798, the last slave ship that sailed from Boston was driven 
 upon the bar at the mouth of your harbor, and so her criminal 
 voyage came to a fortunate end. 
 
 Since the erection of Minot Light, these disasters are almost 
 unknown in this spot. The whole country recollects the de- 
 struction of the first light in April, 1851. A long stonn had 
 strewn the shores of New England with shipwrecked vessels. 
 A foraier gale had shattered one of the iron pillars that upheld 
 the structure. And when the morning light of April 18 broke 
 through the stonn, the anxious eyes that looked seaward could 
 see no vestige of the lighthouse. Two men perished in its 
 downfall. The present structure is the pride of the coast. Had 
 it been erected in ancient times, it would have added one to the 
 wonders of the world. As it stands now, firm and erect amid 
 the raging sea, it is not only a noble triumph of human skill, 
 but the fittest emblem of a true man constant for the right 
 against a gainsaying world. Such a symbol might have been 
 borne upon the coat-of-arms of Peter Hobart in 1645, or, in 
 1829, upon the spotless shield of William Lloyd Garrison. 
 
 But it is not in scenes of war or of wreck that the true life 
 of such a town is found. You love Cohasset, because here for 
 generations an industrious, intelligent and contented people 
 have found a happy home. Here, as among all your neighbors 
 of the South Shore, hard work, " plain living, high thinking," 
 [ ^ with peace and freedom, have been the habitual life of the peo- 
 ple. Your fathers turned early from the hard and scanty soil 
 to reap their richest harvests on the sea. The exportation of 
 lumber to the West Indies has ceased. No more fortunes can 
 be made by selling fish at famine prices in the Atlantic and 
 Mediterranean ports of France and the Peninsula. But still, 
 I like your fathers, you draw wealth from the ocean, and with it 
 the more precious treasures of vigor, energy and enterprise. 
 Nor is agriculture neglected even on these shores. Labor and 
 j skill make your rocky fields productive. Your pleasant beaches 
 y tempt and refresh the wearied fugitives from the cares and toils 
 01 of the city. The growth of Cohasset in wealth has been used 
 f as an argument to stimulate your neighbors to demand railroad 
 {1 facilities. Well may they desire to share those facilities, when 
 they read that your valuation has increased from $306,000, in
 
 30 Town of Cohasset. 
 
 1840, to nearly 81,800,000 to-day. Your care of schools in- 
 creases with your wealth, increasing the town appropriation ir 
 twenty-five years from 11,100 to $4,000. Three youngei 
 churches have grown up around this venerable mother. The 
 last not only bears a pleasant name—" the Beechwood Church '. 
 —but its origin carries us back to Puritan days, for it was 
 founded after forty days of prayer by an earnest woman. And 
 while this takes our thoughts back to old times, the first contri- 
 bution for this church reminds us of a story that can never grow 
 old. For the first gift set apart for its treasury was the smallest 
 coin that ever issued from our mint. 
 
 And who and what are the men that are the product of youij 
 institutions ? You may well boast of Benjamin Pratt, who was 
 bora March 13,1710-11, in a house on what is now called South 
 Main Street — on a homestead which has now been in possession 
 of the family for one hundred and eighty-five years. A gifted 
 writer in prose and verse, an eloquent and successful lawyer, he 
 was appointed to the high place of chief justice of New York, and 
 died in 1763, too early to share in the contest for Independence, 
 although he heard the argument of James Otis against Writs of 
 Assistance, and declined a retainer on each side of that great; 
 argument. He had collected materials for a history of New> u 
 England ; and those Avho love to read her story have reason to 
 lament that he did not complete his work. In his youth, a fall 
 from a tree made Benjamin Pratt a cripple for life, and this waa- 
 tlie reason that he gave up his chosen occupation as a black/ 
 smith and become a lawyer. Rare example of Yankee thrift!, 
 Accident ruins the young blacksmith. His parents send him t(ij 
 the greatest master of law, and fit their unfortunate boy t<j' 
 become chief justice of a great State. i 
 
 In later days, Middlebury College was glad to receive a Co 
 basset man as president, in the person of Rev. Dr. Bates, li 
 have already spoken of the soldier who is your pride. If the 
 grief were not too recent, and if his friends were not so near, 1 
 should speak of the skilled and loved physician who served thill 
 State faithfully for years, and whose hospitality made so mantik '' 
 New Englandei-s at home in the heart of a Western city. 1|' 
 
 The true glory of this, as of other New England towns, '^k '^ 
 found, not in the conspicuous few, but in the honorable and ust*
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 31 
 
 ful lives of the many. And if a stranger desired to see a com- 
 munity who live in the fear of God and the love of their fel- 
 low-men ; who mind their own business, and yet make the 
 cause of the poor and ignorant their business ; whose best men 
 render every precious service to their town without money and 
 without price ; a community from which a dying man would be 
 glad to select guardians for his orphan children ; a people who 
 stand firm for the faith of their fathers, yet are ready to receive 
 all the truths which lay undeveloped in the creed of those 
 fathers ; " Catholic for all the truth of God : Protestant against 
 every error of man ; " if a visitor sought such a community, I 
 would take him to a village on the " South Shore " and tell him 
 to seek no farther. 
 
 And as we admire your pleasant town to-day, decked as it is 
 in holiday attire ; as we see all around iis proofs of comfort and 
 thrift and taste and progress, we know that we owe it all to the 
 character of our people and to the virtues of their ancestors. 
 As I enjoyed yesterday the beautiful suburbs of Boston, the 
 trim lawns and blossoming shrubs and graceful mansions, an es- 
 teemed friend said to me : " It is all the fruit of free schools." 
 And true it is, that all the comfort and elegance of your homes 
 is the direct product of New England institutions and of Pur- 
 itan virtues. Faith and thought made our fathers exiles. They 
 founded this new country in faith, and reared their children to 
 careful and vigorous thought. They decreed that all the chil- 
 dren should be taught — above all, that they should all be 
 ' taught of the Lord." 
 
 They honored labor. Never was it a reproach in New Eng- 
 and, even when slavery had a nominal existence here, that a 
 nan worked with his hands. Never was there a time when the 
 ulers of our towns, and the majority of their representatives, 
 ;vere not men who earned their living by the sweat of their 
 )row. 
 
 They kept the day of the Lord strictly according to their light, 
 jiving, on their first Sabbath, such an example of devotion as 
 he world had never seen. Who knows how much of the en- 
 irgy and vigor of New England men is due to this their ances- 
 ral habit ? Of all innovations that are called reform, the most 
 .ccursed is that which would rob the working man of his day of
 
 32 Town of Cohasset. 
 
 rest. I speak not of theological origin or of divine sanction, 
 but of common-sense and of human need. Men may diifer hon- 
 estly about ten hour laws and eight hour laws, but the worst 
 enemy of labor is the man who, upon any pretence, would take 
 from the sons of labor this precious inheiitance. 
 
 Let us stand in the old ways ; with free thought, with free 
 schools, and, in Choate's words, " the Bible in the schools as 
 long as there's a piece of Plymouth Rock left, big enough to 
 make a gun-flint of; " with the Sabbath undesecrated ; labor 
 honored and protected ; public faith kept. Then we will not 
 fear that any local change in the preponderance of power, any 
 hostile legislation, any sectional prejudices, will ever blight our 
 prosperity. New England can never be left out in the cold 
 while the fire of faith glows in her heart and the warm blood 
 of patriotism'courses in all her veins. 
 
 Men speak of the danger from foreign influence ; from the hosts 
 of ignorant immigrants ; from superstition and from atheism. I 
 look at our meeting-houses and school-houses, the fortifications of 
 America ; I find the great heart of the people sound, and I defy 
 all hostile powers. From unbelief and misbelief, from tyranny 
 and anarchy, the faith of our fathers, as firm as in their day and 
 with all the light of this day, will ever save us, even as the rocks 
 of Cohasset roll back the Atlantic waves. 
 
 The red cedar, that fastens itself in the granite, and forces it- 
 self through the crevice of the rock, and sends its roots deep 
 into the earth, and spreads its verdant boughs in spite of north 
 wind and east wind — that is an emblem of New England pros- 
 perity. It is a symbol of native virtue, contending with cu-cum- 
 stances, triumphant over fate. He who planted that vigorous 
 shoot on these rugged shores Avill sustain it. And while we are 
 true to ourselves, as He was with the fathers, so He will be with 
 us. 
 
 The Peesident. I will take this occasion to introduce to 
 you a gentleman whom it gives us pleasure to have with us 
 here to-day, as an honored representative of the State of 
 Mississippi in the Senate of the United States, and a repre- 
 sentative, also, of a once down-trodden race, the Hon. 
 HiEAM Revels, of Mississippi. (Loud applause.)
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 33 
 
 ADDRESS OF SENATOR REVELS. 
 
 3Ir. President and Friends, — I am in no condition to make a 
 speech, as I have a very bad cold, and am very hoarse, as you 
 perceive ; but I cannot refrain from the effort to say a fcAV words, 
 at least, to an audience like this — a body of ladies and gentle- 
 men to whom I and my race owe so much. 
 
 It may seem a little strange that I, an entire stranger to most 
 of you, am in your midst. Should it seem so to any, I will 
 assign a few reasons why I am here : I was invited to come, and 
 very thankfully accepted the invitation. Again, I was aware, 
 that if I came here to-day, I shou^ld see quite a number of the 
 citizens of the old Bay State, whom I should not see if I did 
 not come. And, in the next j^lace, I desired to see them in 
 order that I might say to them what I would I could say to 
 every citizen of the State of Massachusetts, that I, and the 
 entire colored people of the South, aye, the colored people of 
 the United States, are fully aware of the extent of our indebt- 
 edness to you for the happy condition we occupy to-day in this 
 country. The colored people of the South, to an extent that 
 would be very surprising to you, were you fully aware of it, 
 have known, for years and years past, the sympathy that you 
 have felt for them. For years past, they have known the efforts 
 that you were making in their behalf, to break the fetters with 
 which they were bound. For years and years they have known 
 how you have been laboring and toiling for them, sympathizing 
 with them, and doing everything in your power in order to 
 secure their emancipation from degrading and ruinous slavery. 
 The question may occur to the minds of some. How did they 
 know that, when, according to the laAvs of most of the slave 
 States, they were not allowed to be taught to read the word 
 "Christ," not allowed to be taught to read the word "heaven," 
 even? IIow could they have a knowledge of these things, 
 when it was for the interest of their OAvners to keep from tliem 
 the knowledge of what you were doing in their behalf, more 
 than it was to keep them from learning to read the name of 
 Christ ? I will enlighten your minds upon this point. There 
 were not only in the southern States the field or plantation 
 hands, consisting of men, women and children, but there were 
 house servants. These, of course, came in contact with their
 
 34 Town of Cohasset. 
 
 owners constantly, and their quick and ready ears, whenever 
 they heard a word in regard to slavery, or in regard to the 
 people of Massachusetts, — "Wendell Phillips, Garrison, Sumner, 
 Wilson, and many others, whom I could name had I time, — 
 whenever they heard a woi'd in regard to what these men were 
 doing against the institution of slavery, those quick ears would 
 retain the words, and, prompted by joy, as soon aa they got 
 among their fellow-servants they would tell them what they 
 had heard, and then the news spread and spread through the 
 South, until the names of Phillips and Garrison, and the name 
 of Massachusetts, became sacred names with the slave popula- 
 tion. (Applause.) 
 
 Now, I wish to express to you, and they desire that I shall 
 express to you, their thanks for what you have done in their 
 behalf; for the labors and efforts which, as they are well aware, 
 accomplished so much towards their liberation. 
 
 My friends, I have but very little more to say at this time. I 
 wish to say for your encouragement, as I know that you wish 
 those well for whom you have labored so long and so hard, 
 that they are doing surprisingly well, everything considered. 
 Schools are being established all over the South, and never did 
 you see men and women, even grown men and women, more 
 desirous of acquiring knowledge and becoming enlightened, 
 than are the colored men and women of the South ; and 
 when it comes to the children and youth, they desire to 
 become educated and enlightened, and the opportunities of 
 becoming so are being extended, and they are drinking in 
 knowledge as the thirsty earth drinks in the summer rain. 
 I say this to you, my friends, for your encouragement, and it is 
 my belief, that, if a fair opportunity is given to the colored 
 people of the South, they will do well. They have a greal 
 desire to acquire property, and they are acquhing property very 
 rapidly. Many of them desire to purchase land, and they have 
 the means to purchase small amounts of land if they could get 
 it ; but their former owners are trying to hold on to their land. 
 You know that one of those men owns as much land as six men 
 should own. That is the way, you know, it has been there ; 
 but now the taxes are so heavy that, as they have no one to 
 work the land for them, but are obliged to hire their labor, they 
 will be compelled to sell their land, or a part of it. Occasion-
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 35 
 
 ally a very large plantation or farm is sold, and then the way 
 the freedmen do is this : One or two cannot buy that planta- 
 tion, but as many as fifteen or twenty put their money together, 
 and thus get enough to purchase the farm. Then they go to 
 work on it together for a while ; but there is this regular agi'ee- 
 ment, when they jDurchase it in the way I have described, that 
 by-and-by it shall be divided equally among the twenty, if they 
 desire it, and each one have his part separate from the others. 
 I merely mention this fact to let you see how desirous they are 
 of acquiring property. They are doing well, I know it will 
 encourage you to hear it, dear friends. 
 
 Let me say, in conclusion, you are doubtless aware of this 
 fact, that somehow the southern people, while they hated all 
 New England, hated Massachusetts a little more than they did 
 any other part of it. That was greatly in your favor ; and the 
 more they hated you, the better the slaves, knowing why they 
 did it, loved you. 
 
 Dear friends, I thank you for your attention. I am so hoarse 
 that it troubles me to speak or think. I have this to say to you, 
 my friends : I love you, my race loves you. The Lord bless you. 
 I hope to meet you in heaven. (Applause.) 
 
 The choir then sang an anthem. 
 
 The exercises concluded with prayer by Rev. C. B. Smith, 
 of Cohasset : — 
 
 Great and eternal God, our God, from everlasting to ever- 
 lasting thou art God. With Thee there is no variableness or 
 shadow of turning. Thy years are through all generations. 
 "We thank Thee that we are performing our brief part upon the 
 stage of action at this time ; that we have been relieved from 
 the perils and the hardships which have been endured by those 
 who have gone before us ; and while we enjoy the legacy con- 
 ferred upon us by them, may we feel that still greater responsi- 
 bilities devolve upon us, to leave to those who sliall come afler 
 us better things than our fathers left for us. 
 
 And now, as we enter upon the duties of a new century, wo 
 call upon our souls and all within us to bless Thy great and glo-
 
 36 Town of Coliasset. ' 
 
 rious name, that we welcome here to-day the representative of 
 a race long down-trodden and oppressed, but who to-day, with 
 unmanacled limbs, stand upon the same platform of universal 
 liberty with us, endued with all the rights and privileges of 
 citizenship. And we pray that thy blessing may attend them 
 in the acquisition of knoAvledge, and in making such progress 
 as will enable them to acquit themselves with honor to them- 
 selves and our whole nation. 
 
 Great God, let thy blessing be upon us; and, as we shall have 
 passed from the stage before another occasion like this will have 
 come to pass, oh may it be our lot to be acting in scenes more 
 glorious and desirable ! When heart and flesh shall fail us, be 
 Thou our j^ortion and our God, and in the world to come may 
 we be prepared to honor and praise and glorify thee. And to 
 God, the only wise. Father, Son and Spirit, shall be the glory 
 evermore. Amen. 
 
 The procession then re-formed, and marched to one of the 
 depot buildings, which had been handsomely decorated for 
 the occasion by Lamprell & Marble, of Boston, where a 
 dinner had been provided by Thomas M. Smith, of Cohasset. 
 The tables were laid for six hundred persons, and nearly 
 every seat was occupied, the presence of ladies adding 
 greatly to the interest and pleasure of the occasion. The 
 company having been seated, the President of the Day again 
 extended a cordial welcome to all, and requested Rev. J. R. 
 HusTED, of Cohasset, to ask the divine blessing. 
 
 PRATER BY REV. MR. HUSTED. 
 
 Our heavenly Father, source of all being and blessing, we 
 thank thee for all the gifts of thy providence and grace, and espe- 
 cially for the gift of thy Son, Jesus Christ, through whom all 
 other blessings are derived to us. We thank Thee for this day, 
 for these pleasant memories and associations, for the intellectual 
 entertainment with which we have been favored, for the pleas- 
 ant auspices under which we are convened to celebrate this
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 37 
 
 centenary occasion, and for the food now spread before us for 
 the refreshment of our natures. May Thy blessing rest upon 
 us, and may we partake of thy gifts with grateful hearts, recog- 
 nizing the Giver, and by cherishing the sentiments and pui-poses 
 of patriots and Christians show that the example of our fathers 
 has not been lost upon us. Finally, when we, like them, shall 
 be called upon to pass from earth, may we be received to enjoy 
 the blessings of thine upper and better kingdom. All of which 
 we ask in the name and for the sake of thy Son, our Saviour 
 and Redeemer. 
 
 An hour was then happily spent in disposing of the sul> 
 stantial and bountiful repast spread upon the tables, after 
 which the President introduced Mr. George Beal, Jr., of 
 Cohasset, as the Toast-Master of the occasion, who gave the 
 first regular toast, as follows : — 
 
 The President of the United States. 
 
 Hon. Thomas Russell, Collector of Boston, was called 
 upon to respond. 
 
 SPEECH OF COLLECTOR KXJSSELL. 
 
 I am sure you have all heard enough of my voice to-day, and, 
 fortunately, there is no need for any one to respond to a senti- 
 ment in honor of the President of the United States. Tliis 
 rescued land responds for him. Every spear of grass that grows 
 upon your hills, every wave that rolls upon your shores, takes 
 to itself a tongue, and tells the praises of the loyalty and cour- 
 age to which we owe the deliverance of our country. (Ap- 
 plause.) If the President were here, I am sure he would turn 
 to those volunteers who acted as our escort to-day, and say that 
 all the wealth and all the beauty of this town and of this lan.1, 
 all these thriving farms, all the comfort of these homes, all the 
 grateful feelings with which we keep this thanksgiving to-day, 
 we owe to them, and to those Avho, like them, braved death at 
 the call of patriotism for the defence of liberty. (Applause.)
 
 38 Town of Cohasset. 
 
 And then, perhaps, the President would add that it is the glory 
 of America that she is known in foreign lands, not only by her 
 great cities. New York and Washington and Boston, but in 
 time of war they hear also of the little towns, of the Cohassets, 
 the Hinghams, the Scituates, the Plymouths. Our glory is that 
 our strength is not in a great city, like Paris or London, but all 
 over America, from ocean to ocean, in these little patriotic com- 
 munities. There is the imperishable life of the nation, which, 
 
 " Vital in every part, * * * * 
 Cannot but by annihilation die." 
 
 One word more of the President. It is the glory of Gen. 
 Grant, that long before the proclamation of emancipation, he 
 announced that emancipation must come ; that only by justice 
 could we win victory. He was the author of that imperishable 
 sentiment : " Human liberty the only foundation of human gov- 
 ernment." That we have obtained. Now we want to go one 
 step further. We want a fifteenth amendment of the heart ; we 
 want to see the last of that mean, lingering prejudice which 
 denounces and despises any man because of his color. (Ap- 
 plause.) The world does move ; I thought of it when I saw 
 that honored senator take his place in the church. Forty 
 years ago, in a country town of Massachusetts, such was the 
 prejudice against color, that the hotel refused to receive any 
 colored man who happened to be travelling through the place. 
 There was one man in the town whose doors were open to any 
 one, and to his house every colored man was sent. That man 
 is to-day Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
 (Applause.) And speaking — presuming to speak, as you have 
 called iTpon me to do — for the President of the United States, I 
 give you, — The Fifteenth Amendment of the National Heart: 
 Equality before the law, we have it ; equality in social life, we 
 must have it. 
 
 Music. 
 
 Second regular toast : 
 The Cojimokwealth of Massachusetts— The home of the Puritan 
 
 still. 
 
 i
 
 Centennial Anriiversary. 39 
 
 Gov. Claflin rose to respond, when three cheers were 
 called for, and given with great heartiness and unanimity. 
 
 SPEECH OF GOV. CLAFLIN. 
 
 I am sure, Mr. President and friends, that yon would all pre- 
 fer that the gentleman who has just taken his seat should have 
 answered for the State as well as for the President of the 
 United States. I accept your cheers as an indication of the 
 sentiments which you cherish towards the State of Massachu- 
 setts, the glorious old Commonwealth. 
 
 I thank you most cordially for the opportunity you have given 
 me to attend these ceremonies to-day, and to hear the pleasant 
 voice of my friend, who has delineated your history so graphi- 
 cally and clearly. I am sure that, a hundred years hence, the 
 historian who turns back to the oration which has been deliv- 
 ered this day will feel that, with all the advances that may have 
 been made in that time, they cannot hope to have a better 
 oration on the celebration of the second centenary than that to 
 which we have listened to-day. 
 
 I am called upon to say a word in behalf of the Common- 
 wealth. Looking back for a moment to the period to which 
 our thoughts naturally turn to-day, looking back to the year 
 1770, what was our number? Including the State of Maine, 
 we then had 250,000, possibly 275,000 inhabitants. To-day we 
 have almost six times that number in our own Conimonwealtli, 
 of about one-third the territory then embraced within the limits 
 of the colony. While the population has increased in this 
 great ratio, the wealth of the State has increased in much 
 greater proportion. To one coming from a distant State to 
 visit us, the question might occur, " What has brought all this to 
 pass ? How comes it that this State, with its unfavorable soil, 
 with its cold and cheerless climate, should have been so success- 
 ful? " Now, I am not one of those who believe that Massachu- 
 setts is without great natural advantages. I believe that God 
 has given us a very favorable location on the earth's surface. 
 Our immense sea-coast, our fine and beautiful harbors, afford 
 advantages which, in the hands of an enterprising and energetic 
 people, enable them to make good their position. True, we
 
 40 Town of Cohasset. 
 
 have not the mines nor the fertile soils which abound in other 
 States, but we have these other facilities ; and, above all, in the 
 providence of God, he ordered to these shores that bold Puri- 
 tan band who laid the foundations of the State in righteousness, 
 and left us a richer legacy than mines or soils. They left to us 
 a system of public schools and a love of industry and integrity, 
 which have borne theii* fruits in enriching our State, in giving 
 us a world-wide fame, and in giving us men who shall make the 
 State forever glorious. And to-day, as we look back to the 
 year 1770, and see that Massachusetts then took a high place in 
 the counsels of the nation, how can we say that, with all the 
 advancement of other parts of the land, we have fallen back ? 
 We stand to-day with two members of the cabinet — noble, 
 trusted, faithful, true men, Avho in all parts of the land are 
 honored for their intelligence and their true principles, repre- 
 senting the State of Massachusetts. Then, when we look at 
 the Senate, in what period of the history of Massachusetts do 
 we find her better represented than she is to-day ? I like to 
 look forward to the future. Some people fear that Massachu- 
 setts is not to grow ; that she is not to progress in all that makes 
 a State great and glorious. But I have no fears ; I believe that 
 she is greater to-day in her power and in her opportunities for 
 improvement than ever before. The great improvements of 
 Massachusetts have been made principally in the last fifty years. 
 All her material interests have been improved in that time ; her 
 school system has been brought to its present degree of perfec- 
 tion, and it is bearing its fruits. Her population has increased 
 more rapidly in the last ten years than at any previous period 
 in her history, and so, as it seems to me, she is to go on in the 
 future ; and at the end of another hundred years, this State, 
 though small in territory, will have two or three times the pop- 
 ulation she numbers to-day. Nothing can take from us the 
 advantageous position we hold upon the earth's surface, and 
 nothing, I believe, will take from us the resolution to improve 
 all the opportunities we have, whether material, moral or intel- 
 lectual. 
 
 I thank you, gentlemen, for the opportunity you have given 
 me to be with you and enjoy this pleasant occasion. I will not 
 trespass further upon your time, for I see all around me men
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 41 
 
 who are familiar with your history, who rejoice with you more 
 than I can express, who feel that they are a part with you, and 
 are ready to express their feelings. 
 
 Music. 
 
 Third regular toast : 
 
 Welcome, sous and daughters of Cohasset ; welcome adopted sons 
 and daughters ; welcome all to the family table to-day. 
 
 SPEECH OF LORING LOTHROP. 
 
 31)'. Chairman, — It has been said of language, that it was 
 given us to conceal our thoughts. It is indeed true that speech 
 does partially conceal or misrepresent many of the thoughts we 
 desire and strive to utter. But there can be no obscurity as to 
 the sentiments of this hour. Uttered or unexpressed, they are 
 simple and eloquent. The girls and boys of this fair town, in 
 returning, on this festal day, to the home of their earliest years, 
 do so with a clear conception of its significance. The lapse of 
 time changes not our sympathies. The warm pulses of youth, 
 of love and beauty, of confident hope and innocent joy, are 
 cherished still. The heart is freed from perverting influences. 
 The sensibilities are tender and open to impressions, and the as- 
 sociations of the hour warm and enliven them. We think of 
 matters in which the affections are concerned. Precious, in- 
 deed precious, the remembrance of our youthful home. Pre- 
 cious the remembrance of meetings at the domestic fireside, 
 seasons of warm-hearted fellowship. We cherish these memo- 
 ries with afiectionate and unfailing regard. And so, Mr. Chair- 
 man, we are happy to be with you to-day, and 'give and receive 
 the warm hand of fellowship, and go up together to a higher 
 standpoint, from which to look out upon the past, view the 
 present, and prepare for the future. Thus we mark our progress 
 in life. 
 
 It is, however, with mingled emotions that I respond to your 
 call. Returning to the scenes of our brightest and happiest days, 
 we feel deeply the changes of the past. Even the face of nature 
 wears a difierent aspect. The hills are not so green, the rocks 
 are not so rough and huge, and 
 6
 
 42 Toivn of Coliasset. 
 
 " The schoolboy spot 
 We ne'er forget, though there we are forgot," 
 
 appears less cheerful now. 
 
 Everything relating to man in this world is stamped with 
 change. This we recognize ; this we experience. Still we can- 
 not think of the companions of our youth, who have left their 
 native land, the land of their fathers ; who have forgotten us, 
 or themselves lie forgotten in the grave ; of the house which 
 sheltered us; of the parents who cared for us, and the spot 
 where we knelt down to say our simple prayer ; of the father 
 whose hand was laid upon the head of his boy as he went forth 
 to meet the duties and perils and struggles of life ; and, above 
 all, of her whose smile was the dearest enjoyment of our young 
 life, without feeling in the soul a void which naught can fill. 
 All, all, is changed. A century is past, 
 
 " And all its aching joys are now no more, 
 And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this 
 Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur. Other gifts 
 Have followed for such loss ; I would believe, 
 Abundant recompense." 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I loved, when a boy, to stand on the summit 
 of the great rock a little south of the house in which I was bom, 
 just as the sun's golden rim touched the horizon, and linger 
 there till the village beneath was hushed, and, their evening 
 song ended, the birds had gone to their leafy homes, and the 
 harvest moon, pale and silvery, came forth undimmed by the 
 brightness of her effulgent brother. Many years since then have 
 passed away. The green leaves have withered and dropped and 
 perished ; the tr§es have bent under the winter's snows, and 
 again have put forth their buds and blossoms, and their thick 
 foliage has cast in summer its broad shadow on the earth. Suc- 
 cessively have they been changed by decay's effacing fingers, to 
 again live in beauty and joy. It was an inviting spot. That 
 rocky hillside is even now more grateful to my view than almost 
 any other place. 
 
 " Oh, there are green spots on the path of time ! " 
 
 So, my friends, as we return each to his once cherished spot 
 and linger there, the freshness of young life returns. Our past
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 43 
 
 lives in the present, and the scenes of childhood are not loved 
 in vain. 
 
 But touching memories are now awakened. 
 
 " It was a night of summer, and the sea 
 Slept like a child in mute tranquillity," 
 
 and from the heights of that granite hill I looked out upon the 
 broad ocean, and watched the white sail far distant down the 
 bay, and fancied the joy of the mariner as he saw his native 
 land once more. 
 
 It was a winter's night, and I watched the white-winged ves- 
 sels as they went out from the land, and saw the storm-cloud 
 gather round some frail bark. 
 
 " In her was many a mother's joy, 
 And love of many a weeping fair ; 
 For her was wafted in its sigh 
 The lonely heart's unceasing prayer ! 
 And oh ! the thousand hopes untold 
 Of ardent youth, that vessel bore. 
 Say, were they quenched in waters cold ? 
 For she was never heard of more. 
 
 These pensive utterances are natural, and it seems to me in 
 harmony with the spirit of this anniversary day. But I must 
 end them now, to say a word in regard to a matter of local in- 
 terest. Cohasset is a fair town, as well as a land of mighty 
 rocks. Your common looks fresh and cheerful. The old church, 
 which has witnessed scenes which none of us can recall, still 
 stands. I have heard it said that some persons desire to remove 
 it, and place it on the west side of the street. Why, my friends, 
 the plain was large enough forty-five years ago, when Col. New- 
 comb Bates commanded the regiment, and Job Bates and Eliot 
 Stoddard were the drummers of the Cohasset company, and Mr. 
 John Wilcutt was fifer. The brigade mustered at that time at 
 Cohasset, and the town has not seen such a day since, nor wit- 
 nessed such exploits as were then accomplished by the Ilingham 
 Rifle Company, when, in sham fight, they vanquished their foes, 
 and drove them, in the confusion of utter defeat, from the field 
 of battle. You will never see a day like that. (Laughter.) 
 The town had room enougrh then. Don't remove the old chiu-ch.
 
 44 Town of CoJiasset. 
 
 Should you ever do it, be sure and put up on the spot where it 
 stood a notice of the fact in large letters, assuring all interested 
 that this is Cohasset still. 
 
 Indulge me now, Mr. Chairman, in a few brief reminiscences. 
 Soon after I began the study of Latin, I was told that the goose 
 was placed by the Romans high among the sacred birds, because 
 the cackling of geese preserved the Roman State from the in- 
 cursions of the Gauls, who were about to render themselves 
 masters of the capital ; and I soon learned that they had not 
 failed to still be the most vigilant sentinels that could be placed 
 to warn parents when their boys or girls returned a little late at 
 night, and wanted to get into the house and up to bed in the 
 most quiet way possible. I remember well two companies of 
 them, belonging to the neighbors, which used to station them- 
 selves on the hillside just opposite my father's house. Do my 
 best, I never could escape their vigilance. The slightest noise 
 was sufficient to awaken them, and then they sent forth reiter- 
 ated cries, not unlike the hissing of a serpent ; and though I 
 used now and then " to put in a stone by way of punctuation," 
 it seemed only to stir the whole multitude to join in a loud 
 chorus. Then ensued the silence and sullenness of defeat. Let 
 me ask if any of you suffered thus ? If you did, I am glad of 
 it. You can well remember what measures of satisfaction you 
 devised but never executed. Have you not despised a goose 
 ever since ? I have, exceedingly. 
 
 I should like, Mr. Chairman, to review the past, and speak of 
 some of the men who in my boyhood seemed to wear a myste- 
 rious being ; but I must content myself with alluding to one 
 only, who lived in the south part of the town, and who spent 
 much time in fishing and gunning. Some of his adventures and 
 stories were wonderful. He had an old English gun, which he 
 said would carry about a pint and a half of shot. One day he 
 was on the beach, where was a multitude of peeps. He said the 
 beach was literally covered. So he raised his gun, and, just as 
 he pulled the trigger, he gave her a good shake, so as to scatter 
 the shot well ; but, strange to tell, he did not get a single peep, 
 though he picked up a bushel and a half of legs. I knew him 
 well, as in summer I passed his house daily, and he had a won-
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 45 
 
 derful influence upon my youthful fancy. I would not haA^e said 
 anything but " Yes, sir " and " iVb, sir " to him, for the world. 
 
 Some of you recollect when old Father Little carried the mail 
 and two passengers beside himself in a square-top chaise to Bos- 
 ton, and when he came to a decent sort of a hill he used to 
 push behind and help his jaded animals all he could. One 
 morning the town was surprised at the appearance of a stage 
 coach, drawn by two horses, one very large and one very small. 
 It took some weeks of observation and reflection to settle in my 
 mind why he selected horses so difiering in size, one so large and 
 one so small ; and the conclusion at last was, that he did it on 
 true philosophical principles — in perfect harmony with the oper- 
 ation of the laws of the mind. The large horse was an indica- 
 tion of strength and power and of high aspirations ; the small 
 one of weakness and humility ; so that, as he looked upon them, 
 Father Little was sure to preserve the medium of thought and 
 feeling, and keep on in the even tenor of his way, neither elated 
 by success nor dejDressed by difficulties and doubts. I have no 
 doubt his horses knew just how many steps they took from Co- 
 hasset to Boston. But who shall describe the scene when a 
 coach drawn by four horses left the tavern, then kept by our 
 fellow-citizen, Thomas Smith ! 
 
 Did time permit, I should like to give myself up to the many 
 and various associations which now cluster around the memory. 
 This I should like to do, in view of my personal union with my 
 fellow-men, and in view of the union of man with man, and in 
 illustration of the sure results of such union. I know you will 
 yet indulge me in one or two reminiscences. First, of old Dea- 
 con Kent, who used to sit under the pulpit in yonder venerable 
 church during the Sabbath service. He seemed to me the old- 
 est man that ever lived. He sat nearly in front, thougli below 
 the preacher, exposed, as it often seemed to me, to great peril. 
 Parson Flint used to place his sermon on a large open Bible, 
 and when filled with the spirit of his discourse would courtesy 
 and gesticulate with energy. I expected to see the large book 
 fall on Deacon Kent's devoted head. Imagine the suffering of 
 a little fellow, six years of age, looking, during the dehvcry of 
 one of Parson Flint's sermons, for such a catastrophe ! Deacon 
 Kent wore a cocked-up hat and large knee and shoe buckles,
 
 46 Toicn of Cohasset. 
 
 which made a deep impression upon my youthful imagination. 
 It seemed to me that he was a being from another world, and 
 that impression has not left me yet. More than anything else 
 does the recollection of him, unless it be that of my old grand- 
 mother, whom I see as a little old woman, connect me with the 
 men and things of other days, and perhaps of sterner virtues. 
 I could speak with reverence and affection of Parson Flint, 
 whose voice I heai*, and whose venerable form I see still. So I 
 might notice Deacon Beals, Deacon Bourne, Hon. Elisha Doane, 
 the Lincolns, the Towers, and many others whose names and in- 
 fluence live and still will live. It would be most interesting to 
 more fully review the past, and mention the men of other days, 
 and trace their influence in the light of their deeds. Many of 
 them were men of power. Strong in the truth, they were found 
 setting it ever before them as a vitalizing principle. They were 
 ready for their day and their day's demand upon them. Such 
 men were Col. Thomas Lothrop, and the early ministers of the 
 town, and many others within my own recollection, who pass by 
 us still in their written or unwritten history. So, too, I might 
 speak of the Rev. Mr. Phipps, David B. Tower and Dr. Joshua 
 R. Lothrop, and those of later times, whose scholarship and 
 patriotism and religion will live in their power and influence 
 down through the ages : 
 
 " Those that we loved so much and see no more, 
 Loved and still love ; not dead, but gone before." 
 
 But I must forbear. A century is gone. It has bestowed 
 upon us a rich inheritance. I am happy, therefore, to mingle 
 my thoughts and feelings in communion with my fellow-citizens 
 on this anniversary, — this festive occasion, — and to rejoice with 
 them in its scenes and associations. A century has passed, and 
 has borne with it a changeless record. We cannot call it back ; 
 we cannot erase from the pages of its history one thought, word 
 or deed. It is well thus to think of it ; to have it unfold its 
 history ; to have it come in the deep feeling of the present hour, 
 and admonish, if it must, and cheer, if it may. And cheer I 
 know it does, for it brings to us voices soft and soothing, full of 
 pleasant memories, assuring us that we have 
 
 " Deposited on the silent shores 
 Of Memory, images aud precious thoughts 
 That cannot die aud cannot be effaced."
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 47 
 
 My fi'iends, I will detain you no longer. The remarks which 
 I have offered, however loose or desultory their character, I hope 
 will meet your indulgence as my small tribute of respect. I 
 close with the sentiment : 
 
 That, while Cohasset is grateful for the character and influ- 
 ence of generations passed away, may we, her sons and daugh- 
 ters, active in the duties of the present, ever remember that we 
 carry about with us the most noble thing God has created — an 
 intelligent spirit. Let it find in enterprises of good citizenship 
 a field of action, and we may be sure it will find a field of use- 
 fulness. So shall we cherish the spirit and emulate the virtues 
 of our forefathers. 
 
 Music — " Home, Sweet Home." 
 
 Fourth regular toast : 
 
 HiNGHAM,— Commenced business iu 1635,— Copartnership dissolved 
 in 1770. 
 
 RESPONSE OF SOLOMON LINCOLN. 
 
 Mr. President, — I perform a grateful service, in behalf of the 
 inhabitants of Hingham, in expressing to you and to this large 
 company their thanks for the cordial manner in which a senti- 
 ment referring to the connection between Hingham and Co- 
 hasset has been received. 
 
 For one hundred and thirty-five years, the inhabitants of both 
 towns lived under one town government. The early jilanters 
 of both bore the same names and sprang from the same stock. 
 The Orator of the Day has, with great felicity, gleaned from 
 their common history many striking facts wliich show that they 
 lived in harmony and friendship. When the Second Precinct 
 of Hingham was established, November 21, 1717, comprising 
 the territory of Cohasset, the same names were common to both 
 parishes. When your first pastor was ordained, December 13, 
 1721, there were gathered around him those bearing the names 
 of Cashing, Lincoln, Tower, James, Stodder, Bates, Beal and 
 Nichols, all of which are recognized as among those of the old 
 planters of Hingham. The pastor. Rev. Neheminh Hobart, 
 was a grandson and a worthy representative of Kev. Peter
 
 48 Town of Coliasset. 
 
 Hobart, the first pastor of Hinghara. One hundred years ago, 
 the Second Precinct became a town. Until that period your 
 history is our history, and it is one upon which we can look back 
 with the deepest reverence for the character of the actors in 
 those scenes. Thence you became our neighbors, and always 
 our friends. 
 
 Cohasset is a fair specimen of a New England town. Its 
 fertile soil, its beautiful scenery, the industry, enteii:)rise, may I 
 not add the intelligence and piiblic spirit, of its inhabitants, 
 their steady maintenance of the institutions of learning and 
 religion, all make it an attractive place. 
 
 I do not forget what this town has done for the country, nor 
 the distinguished men whom it has produced. Some of them 
 have been spoken of by the Orator of the Day in terms of elo- 
 quent eulogy. I will mention three natives of this place, all 
 educated at Harvard, who nobly represented the three professions 
 of Law, Divinity and Medicine. 
 
 Benjamin Pratt, of the class of 1737, rose in provincial 
 times to be the leader of the Suffolk Bar, and was afterwards 
 made Chief Justice of New York. He was a man of splendid 
 abilities, a fine poet, an accomplished scholar and a profound 
 jurist. 
 
 Joshua Bates, who was graduated in 1800, with the highest 
 honors of his class, which contained Buckminster and Allston 
 and Chief Justice Shaw, was President of Middlebury College 
 for a quarter of a century. He was a learned and eminent 
 divine. 
 
 Isaac Lincoln, of the same class, was for more than half a 
 century an ornament of the medical profession. Residing at 
 Brunswick, Maine, he was for sixty-three years an efficient 
 Overseer of Bowdoin College. His reputation was extensive 
 throughout the State. He was eminently distinguished for 
 public spirit and good works as a true man, to the very close of 
 his patriarchal life. 
 
 I cannot omit to allude to the brilliant career of another son 
 of Cohasset, who is now in the service of his country. Lea\ing 
 West Point bearing the highest honors of his class, he entered 
 at once upon official duty as an officer of the Engineers, and 
 through the Mexican wai-, in all the battles from Vera Cruz to
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 49 
 
 the city of Mexico he rendered such valuable service as to elicit 
 the warmest commendations of his superior officers and of the 
 Commander-in-Chief. 
 
 His conspicuous gallantry in various scenes in the war of the 
 Rebellion crowned his career with still higher honors, which we 
 trust he may long live to enjoy. 
 
 I might speak of other distinguished sons of Cohasset among 
 the living and dead, but I must forbear. 
 
 From the old hive of the First Parish in Hingham, whose 
 ancient meeting-house was erected forty years before your 
 church was organized, there have sprung ten other religious 
 societies, all having places for public worship, four of which are 
 within the limits of Cohasset. 
 
 Permit me, in closing, again to express the interest which the 
 inhabitants of Hingham feel in the observances of this day. 
 They are here in large numbers, to show their cordial feelings of 
 friendship, and to rejoice with you in the inspiring historic as- 
 sociations which crowd upon the memory, and to tender to you 
 their best wishes for the prosperity and happiness of all your 
 citizens. 
 
 Fifth regular toast : 
 
 The Industry of our Ancestors — The foundation of their pros- 
 perity and happiness. May it ever be an object of our care aud regard 
 as a people. 
 
 SPEECH of dr. GEO. B, LORING. 
 
 Mr. President^ Ladies and Gentlemen, — I am in the habit, in 
 the discharge of my duties as a private citizen of Massachusetts, 
 of attending during the year, a great number of public occasions 
 and ceremonies, and I assure you that, in the long list of tliem, 
 I find none equal in fascination and charm and enjoyment to the 
 celebrations of the anniversaries of the settlement of our 
 towns. There gathers around an occasion like this a multitude 
 of thoughts and associations wliich can be brought together on 
 no other occasion known to us in this Commonwealth. It is 
 our towns, sir, which have lain at tlie foundation of all our 
 prosperity as a people, and have given forth from their lu-arth- 
 stones those fires that have kept alive the great spirit of the 
 American people in their advancement within the last two hun- 
 7
 
 50 Town of Cohasset. 
 
 dred years. Why, here in Massachusetts, long before the great 
 author of the Declaration of Independence conceived of the 
 thought that all men were created equal, an intelligent and 
 well-educated town clerk of a little town declared in open 
 town meeting, by resolution, and had it recorded there, within 
 the old church walls, that all men were created equal. He sent 
 that declaration forth from a town in Massachusetts, to Lnsiiire 
 the American people and American statesmen in that contest. 
 We have heaixl from your distinguished Orator to-day statements 
 with regard to the principles of action of the early citizens of 
 this town, which ought to inspire every American citizen with 
 love for his country, and with the determination to do his duty 
 in every crisis which may fall upon that country. 
 
 But now, having passed through all those public reminis- 
 cences, and being brought right down home by your own culti- 
 vated son to the enjoyment of your hearthstones, — to Dea. 
 Kent, Parson Flint, and the rest, — I am asked to deal with the 
 industry of your people — that industry which gave them their 
 wealth and their power, and their influence in this Common- 
 wealth and throughout the world. Now, my friends, in looking 
 about here to ascertain what that industry is, I find a somewhat 
 hard soil, I find a boisterous ocean, and I find no streams capa- 
 ble of carrying a water-wheel ; and so it seems to me, that, as 
 regards the three great interests, — commerce, agriculture and 
 manufactures, — Cohasset, of all places on the face of the earth, 
 defied them all instead of encouraging them ; and yet, as I turn 
 back, after being reminded by the Orator that the sea furnished 
 its share of their wealth, that the ports of the world were con- 
 tinually open to their ships, that they ransacked every sea for 
 its treasures, I find that, after all, — now pardon me, my friends ; 
 do not call me a maniac, — I find it was agriculture on these 
 hard hills that did the business. This lay at the foundation of 
 the prosperity of the people of this town, as of other portions 
 of the Commonwealth. It was the " embattled farmers " who, 
 as the poet says — 
 
 " Fired the shot heard round the world." 
 
 It was the patriotic farmers, who carried on their operations 
 here, in spite of all obstacles, on a little ribbon of land, extend-
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 51 
 
 mg from the coast of Maine clown to North CaroHna, mostly 
 on hard soil, — it was these farmers who gave wealth and pros- 
 perity to the country. Patriots during the Revolution, honest 
 men in peace, they paid, during the earliest administrations, 
 more than 130,000,000 of the old war debt, and paid it in 
 money. (Applause.) 
 
 That was the industry, and that was the occupation, of your 
 fathers. And when the soil of Cohasset failed, — the Western 
 States were unknown, the great valley of the Mohawk had been 
 unexplored, the Ohio was unheard of, — it was the fertile lands 
 of Cape Cod that attracted their attention. (Laughter.) It 
 was the valley of the Bass, not of the Connecticut, the Mohawk 
 or the Ohio, that attracted the farmers of this region. They 
 went down to those fertile lands that may be found in Harwich 
 and Truro and Barnstable, and all over Cape Cod. (Laughter.) 
 Tell me that the farmers of that day did not know how to 
 defy obstacles ! When they ihet a hard soil in one place, they 
 buckled on their armor and went forth to yet harder soil in 
 another place, determined to " subdue the earth," in obedience 
 to the Divine injunction. It was agriculture, say what you will, 
 that was the industry of your fathers. It was the tilling of the 
 land that made the prosperity of the State. There were no 
 mills here. The boys went to church in homespun ; the women 
 combed the wool, twisted it into something that they called 
 yarn, and knit stockings ; the fathers got the dyestuffs from 
 the woods, and, clad in homely brown, they went forth to dis- 
 charge their duties as good citizens. The only manufactories 
 were in the garrets and in the kitchens. Agriculture was the 
 industry by which your people grew rich, and paid their debts. 
 
 But let me tell you, that, down at the bottom of all this, there 
 was something better that they did. They left behind the rural 
 homes which are not yet extinct. Those lowly houses, always 
 facing to the south, as if to catch the first warm and genial 
 breeze, ornamented to-day, my friends, by that old elm tree, 
 standing there as a type of New England institutions. Do not 
 talk to me of the palm and the olive as significant. That old 
 Yankee elm, that has cast its shadow on the door-stone gener- 
 ation after generation, telUng of domestic virtues unecjualled on 
 the face of the earth, and telling, moreover, of a determination
 
 52 Town of Cohasset. 
 
 to secure civil rights and privileges, without which man walks 
 the earth but a slave at the bidding of a despot — that old elm 
 tree — do not forget it ! And let the policy of this Common- 
 monwealth stiU be to cherish that industry which in earlier days 
 gave to your fathers wealth and prosperity, and brought forth 
 such solid virtues to make Massachusetts citizenship honorable 
 on the face of the earth. It was this kind of agriculture on the 
 land, it was this kind of citizenship in the farmer's home, that 
 was made here, which built up those institutions which have 
 lasted until this day, and which, my friends, thank God, have 
 prevailed at last through this whole land. The Puritan, the 
 Old Colony man, the South Shore man, is he who in this great 
 struggle has come out victorious. It is the elm tree of New 
 England, the farm-house of the Old Colony. 
 
 Now, my friends, I think this is a substantial basis to stand 
 upon. I feel that, when the winds blow and the rain descends, 
 and the floods come and beat ujDon that house, it will not fall ; 
 for here, at least, it is founded upon a rock. (Laughter and ap- 
 plause.) I think the industry of this section of Massachusetts 
 is, at least, founded on rocks. I know, my friends, that the prin- 
 ciples of this end of Massachusetts are actually, in history and 
 reality, foimded upon a rock, against which no storms can ever 
 prevail. I am reminded by your sea-coast, by the ocean that 
 beats upon it, and by that old beacon light which was alluded 
 to so eloquently this morning by the Orator of the Day, of those 
 lines of our American poet and satirist, one of the bright men 
 of this day, who, in alluding to the power of truth, and the vain 
 attempts to beat it down, says : — 
 
 " The feeble sea-birds, blinded by the storms, 
 On some tall light shall dash their little forms, 
 And the rude granite scatters for their pains. 
 Those small deposits that were meant for brains ; 
 But the proud column, in the morning sun, 
 Stands all unconscious of the mischief done ; 
 Still the red beacon pours its evening raj^s 
 On the lost traveller, with as full a blaze, 
 While shines the radiance o'er the scattered fleet 
 Of gulls and boobies brainless at its feet." 
 
 Let those who attempt to assail the old-fashioned industry of
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 53 
 
 the Puritans, or to assail the principles which the Puritan has 
 planted in this land, remember the fate of those who, assailing 
 the beacon Hght on your shore, have met a fate which is worthy 
 of all the assailants of truth and justice in our land. 
 
 I am much obliged to you for listening to me so long. I be- 
 lieve in the industry of the Puritans ; I believe in their princi- 
 ples. I think they will last as long as tlie world stands. I con- 
 gratulate you that you live in an age when your inheritance, 
 handed down from them, is the great law of this land, as it will 
 one day become the great law of the civilized world ; for I re- 
 member that the most eloquent of recent French writers has 
 said, in view of the great advancement of Ameiican institutions : 
 " C^esarism, or despotism, is passing away ; Republicanism is 
 taking possession of the whole civilized world." 
 
 Music. — " Should auld acquaintance be forgot? " 
 
 Sixth regular toast : 
 
 The Fathers and Mothers of our Town — In the fulness of good 
 old age, they rest from their labors and their works. 
 
 SPEECH OF AEAD H. WOOD. 
 
 Mr. President and Felloxo- Citizens of both Sexes^ — I rise on 
 this occasion in response to your reverent allusion to the " Fath- 
 ers and Mothers of the town of Cohasset, who rest from their 
 labors." 
 
 But here and now, let me thank our friend who has preceded 
 me, having spared me the emotional tribute so justly and api»ro- 
 priately paid to the earlier inhabitants of this town, whose 
 works of patience, endurance and toil still remain in your midst 
 as their monuments of praise, while their children's children rise 
 up and call them blessed. 
 
 I am drawn here to-day by the law of sympathetic attraction. 
 All I know of life — its shines and shades — takes its begiinnng 
 here. My memory carries me back more than a lull decade into 
 the first half of the century you this day consecrate. And not- 
 withstanding our life and all its labor belongs to the ever-pres- 
 ent, we are ever stealing backward among the loved memories 
 of the past, and ever singing — 
 
 " Sweet were all our fathers' festivals."
 
 54 Town of Cohasset. 
 
 I came to see Cohasset ; but, alas ! how little remains of this 
 town and the people as they exist in my memory. In these 
 walls of faces before me I see fair and comely blocks wrought 
 from noble quarries ; but few of the old boulders that supported 
 your municipal fabric a half century ago are visible here to-day 
 — here and there one, it may be. On my left I see one whose 
 military title still adheres unto him, in whose company I have 
 sometimes marched with measured tread and also at measured 
 distance, not in defence of our country's rights, but in defiance 
 of the incoming tides that invade your marshes. 
 
 I see in the distance, passing before me, the fathers and moth- 
 ers of this town, whose piety and patience, whose industry and 
 perseverance, laid the foundation of your virtues, your material 
 prosperity and social and political position among the towns of 
 Massachusetts. They aspired worthily, and so they wrought 
 worthily, and have bequeathed to their descendants excellences 
 that we do well to reproduce in our lives and affections. 
 
 The progi'ess of a half-century has changed everything but 
 the laughing sky and the sound of the sea-lashed shore. The 
 hills are not half so high, and the roads not half so long nor half 
 so rough, as when I was a boy. 
 
 " Sweet home of my boyhood ! once more I retrace 
 The beauty and charms of my dear native place ; 
 The roads aud the hills, the fields and the streams, 
 Awake to remembrance my juvenile dreams. 
 
 " Each object I gaze on holds with it combined 
 Some early occurrence, still fresh to my mind; 
 Here life's sunniest hours, and youth's brightest day. 
 Glided lightly aud blithesome and careless away ! 
 
 " I remember the place where the blackberries grew, 
 Aud ofttimes I feasted myself on them too ; 
 In the clover fields watched the industrious bee, 
 Or the woodpecker tapping the hollow pine tree. 
 
 " On the banks of the brook that winds through the vale, 
 I wandered in boyhood, when sprightly and hale ; 
 Oft bathed in its waters, aud fished on its shore, 
 Oft catching a — bite, that would make me feel sore ! 
 
 " On the east of the common, near yonder hill, 
 Stood the old schoolhouse, — I remember it still;
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 55 
 
 'Twas there I received my first lesson at school, 
 And learned by experience a pedagogue's rule ! 
 
 " The home of my boyhood ! my much-beloved home ! 
 It clings to my memory wherever I roam ; 
 Amid all the changes that I have passed through, 
 The scenes of my boyhood have gladdened my view. 
 
 " Dear home of my boyhood ! though years have gone by, 
 I love thee and prize thee, as if thou wert nigh 1 
 Thy name hath a magic to none other given, — 
 It links my affections to dear ones in heaven. 
 
 " The home of my boyhood ! my boyhood no more ! 
 Yet, if I should live to be three or four score. 
 Its name shall be dear till life's latest even. 
 When may it be changed for my home up in heaven ! " 
 
 The comforts aud luxuries of your people fill ine with glad- 
 ness and surprise. New channels of trade have opened up new 
 fields of industry, and where penury sat barefoot sorrowing, 
 plenty spreads her table, and her guests are clothed in linen aud 
 purple. 
 
 With the material prosperity of a people, culture and refine- 
 ment are sure attendants. The educational advantages through- 
 out the Commonwealth have lifted the men and women of to- 
 day out of the ruts in which their fathers and mothers travelled 
 during the early days of this settlement. Your zeal in the 
 cause of public instruction is evinced by the commodious houses 
 I see about town, dedicated to the fundamental interests of any 
 people who would be free. Skilled labor and cooperation have 
 lifted the burden from the weary shoulder of toil, and equalized 
 the profits of industry among the people. 
 
 No longer do I see the docile ox yoked to the thing called a 
 cart, moving with its plank wheels and hubs of trii)le jilank 
 trenelled together, creaking up and down "Beecliwood Lane," 
 (now Beechwood Street). The wooden axletroe wagons of tin- 
 receding and passed generations, in which the aristocracy of my 
 young days took their ^:)?eas?<re rides and Sunday-nu'otiiig air- 
 ings, have, with their proprietors, gone from our midst, and (ho 
 places that knew them shall know them no more. 
 
 I shall never forget the excitement that prevailed when M.ajor 
 Pratt bought "his new wagon," the first of the sort ever owned
 
 56 Town of Coliasset. 
 
 in town. It was a marv'el in itself; and one old lady (with a 
 slight admixture of envy and solemnity, it may be,) complained 
 of the uns6lemn sound of its axles as the major drove by her 
 dwelling on a Sunday morning. There were many other curi- 
 osities of the genus carriage in town when I was sixty years 
 younger than I am to-day ; but I must mention only one — an 
 ancient English manufactured chaise. It was a stately vehicle, 
 I assure you, as high and square as a bam. I will tell you 
 where it used to stand, and for aught I know it stands there 
 now ; if so, you will find it in Capt. Peter Lothrop's barnyard. 
 
 It was in this town I gained the first rudiments of what we 
 call an education ; and under the tutelage of the most popular 
 teacher in town, I learned my A, B, C's. Since then I have 
 visited many schools and conversed with many teachers ; but no 
 " schoolmarm " yet ever filled " Miss Fanny's " place, when bal- 
 ancing the sands that determined the exact point of time when 
 we could have our recess. She had a pious care for the souls as 
 well as the heads of her pupils. Many an earnest lesson on the- 
 ology and faith has been seemingly lost on, at least, one of her 
 scholars. Peace to her memory ; hallowed be her name. She 
 has gone to the shadowy unknown, and so has her Westmin- 
 sterian creed through which she saw God and humanity and 
 duty, as the sainted fathers and mothers " of ye olden times '* 
 saw the sun and stars through the plumbed diamond panes, that 
 admitted the light of day into the dwellings of those who could 
 pay the tax on " crown glass.'* 
 
 My memory is densely freighted with people and events of 
 thrilling interest. The outgoing and incoming generations are 
 full of significance. 
 
 How blessed that generations are not made like houses and 
 barns, with upright posts and partitions, but overlapping each 
 other on so easy a plane, that the old slide off as the new crop 
 out on the opposite margin, with faces radiant as sunbeams, 
 while not a ripple disturbs the solid stratum that supports the 
 body politic, vitalizing society and breathing into the children 
 principles of right and duty, life and liberty, without which man 
 cannot be man. 
 
 Mr. President, time is infinite, but patience is finite. A brief
 
 Centennial Anniversary » 57 
 
 tribute to the fathers and mothers of the Beechwoods, and I 
 close my remarks. 
 
 I know pious detractors have said the Beechwoods was a be- 
 nighted comer of the town, where the gospel ! had not been 
 preached for one hundred and fifty years. No matter for that. 
 I know the people of fifty years ago were constant attendants on 
 the ministry of the Rev. Jacob Flint, who believed when he said, 
 " The Father is greater than I." They practised the precepts of 
 Jesus with marked fidelity. The charities and kindnesses of the 
 Pratts and Whitcombs, Bates's, Wheelwrights and others are 
 engraved on my memory, never to be effaced only with the 
 demon-blight, ingratitude. 
 
 Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens, I am glad to meet you 
 here to-day. I feel the touch and hear the voice of the fathers 
 saying to me and to you : Be true to the high interests and needs 
 of manhood ; be faithful one to the other. I feel the destitution 
 of age only as I neglect to harvest the harmony and sympathy 
 of the living Present. 
 
 I can think of no words more fitting to close my response 
 than the following dirge : — 
 
 " "When I remember all 
 The friends so linked together, 
 I've seen around me fall 
 Like leaves in wintry weather, 
 I feel like one who treads alone 
 Some banquet hall deserted ; 
 "Whose lights have fled, 
 "Whose garlands dead, 
 And I alone departed." 
 
 Rev. F. A. Reed was called upon, and said : — 
 
 I came here, Mr. Chairman, in response to your kind invita- 
 tion, to shake hands with many of my old friends, to eat a good 
 dinner, and not to make a speech. But thinking tliat I might 
 possibly get into a corner, I pro])arcd a toast, wliioh T will read, 
 with a few lines that I wrote to accompany it : — 
 
 The Adopted Sons of Cohasskt who ake Ausent— Change of 
 place has not impaired their affection for the old home. 
 8
 
 58 Toion of Coliasset. 
 
 One-fifth of the Centeunial, 
 
 Mine, save a year and more, 
 Comes stealing o'er me at the call 
 
 To visit the South Shore. 
 
 The past re-lives— its hopes, its fears, 
 
 Of youth and manhood's prime, 
 TVake me to laughter and to tears. 
 
 Like a sad and merry chime. 
 
 And each familiar face, I ween, 
 
 That at this board appears, 
 Is linked vrith something fresh and green, 
 
 In those eventful years. 
 
 Cohasset ! I can not forget 
 
 The scenes I lived among ; 
 The ocean's grand old anthem yet 
 
 In memory's ear is sung. 
 
 "With change of place, the heart's the same, 
 
 New friends are not the old ; 
 A country flat, insipid, tame, 
 
 Is not the sea-coast bold. 
 
 " Taunton Great River," at my door, 
 
 Is not the boist'rous deep 
 That used to fill night with its roar, 
 
 And drive away my sleep. 
 
 The fact'ry bell, the smoke that fills 
 
 The throat, when it is breezy. 
 Does not invade the sense where wills 
 
 Each one to take life easy. 
 
 And yet there is affinity 
 
 'Twixt here and where I dwell; 
 There fills all the proximity 
 
 " An ancient, fish-like smell." 
 
 Herrings have come ! 'Twas told in meeting ! 
 
 Our tars are doing well ; 
 And to their fellow-tars send greeting — 
 
 " How fare the mackerel ? " 
 
 "We eat the herrings, bones and all. 
 
 One for a whole meal stands ; 
 Our fishers, having made their haul, 
 
 Through me with yours shake hands.
 
 Centennial Amiiversary. 59 
 
 We bought our town for a peck of beans- 
 
 For so tradition has it ; 
 In olden time, did no more means 
 
 Avail to buy Cohasset ? 
 
 POEM. 
 
 BY REV. GEORGE OSGOOD. 
 
 The child, who tracl^ed Cohasset's sand 
 
 One hundred years ago. 
 May sleep in some far distant land, 
 Or in the deep, whose billows grand, 
 
 Above him ceaseless flow; 
 Or rest in yonder slope of green. 
 Where sweet and tender flowers are seen. 
 
 And friends may come and go. 
 
 The same wild scenes around us lie. 
 That met of yore his kindling eye, 
 Though cultured grounds and villas fair 
 Adorn the landscape everywhere. 
 Yes, here, like him, we still may find 
 The wild and beautiful combined, 
 
 The lovely and the grand. 
 Whether through woodland paths we stray, 
 Or sit where ocean surges play 
 In broken wreaths of foam and spray, 
 Around the ancient rocks of gray 
 
 That line our rugged strand. 
 Like him, fi'om headland bold, we view 
 The wide expanse of waters blue, 
 
 Or on the beaches stroll. 
 And listen to the solemn roar, 
 As on the smooth and shining shore 
 
 The billows break and roll. 
 When sunset sheds its sweetest smile 
 On wave and shore, on rock and isle, 
 
 On lake and winding stream, 
 We love on yonder hills to stray. 
 And watch the twilight fiide away, 
 Till shines from Minot's tower of gray 
 
 The lamp's resplendent beam. 
 We, on a summer eve serene. 
 May find a lovely moonlight scene 
 
 While sitting on the clitf; 
 And think of those, wlio, years ago,
 
 60 Town of Cohasset. 
 
 Beheld the breakers clash and flow 
 
 Around the fisher's skiff. 
 The child who climbed from crag to crag 
 
 A hundred years ago, 
 Beheld the folds of England's flag 
 
 From many a war-ship flow. 
 Then, as he saw the royal fleet 
 
 Sail by Nantasket shore, 
 With joy and pride he loved to greet 
 
 The ensign that it bore. 
 
 But ah ! the child too fondly dreamed 
 The fleet and flag that friendly seemed 
 
 Would always guard his home ; 
 Nor feared the tyrant's boasted power 
 Would, in some dark and evil hour, 
 
 In woe and vengeance come. 
 
 And soon, his earnest heart was stirred 
 By many a true and fearless word 
 
 From those who led the age ; 
 He heard the statesman's strong appeal, 
 Beheld the hero's force and zeal. 
 
 And watched the gifted sage. 
 When Franklin, with unerring eye. 
 Could see the gathering tempest nigh. 
 
 And gave his warning clear ; 
 When Henry, 'gainst the tyrant's throne, 
 Spoke with that true inspiring tone 
 
 That knew no doubt nor fear ; 
 When Otis fired the patriot's zeal 
 With many a true and bold appeal. 
 
 And urged the freeman's right ; 
 When Lincoln drew his trusty sword. 
 To show by deed as well as word 
 
 He for the cause would fight ; 
 The boy that tracked Cohasset's sand 
 Then bravely joined the noble band 
 Which rose to save his native land 
 
 In danger's darkest hour ; 
 And through war's long and dreadful storm, 
 His faithful heart beat true and warm 
 
 For freedom's blessed power. 
 When overboard they threw the tea,* 
 What patriot had more pluck than he ? 
 When came the news from Lexington, 
 
 * Major James Stoddard.
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 61 
 
 Who Tvas more glad to grasp his gun,* 
 And show on famous Bunker Hill 
 He could defy the tyrant's Tvill ? 
 When Lincoln from the English lord 
 At Yorktown took the yielded sword, 
 And shouts of joy and triumph rose, 
 He gladly hailed the contest's close, 
 And saw with pride his country's foes, 
 
 Defeated, pass away ; 
 And to his home of peace returned, 
 For which his heart had fondly yearned 
 
 Through many a weary day. 
 
 Years passed away — and yet again, 
 England, the mistress of the main. 
 
 Despised our nation's power ; 
 And then Cohasset's sons arose 
 And met on sea and land her foes, 
 
 In many a battle-hour. 
 Here some may yet remember still, 
 How oft they saw from rock and hill 
 
 The hostile ships pass by ; 
 While to the battle's fearful roar. 
 In echoes from our rocky shore, 
 
 Came back a sad reply. 
 
 The war soon closed, and peace again 
 Brought hope and joy to earth and main. 
 Then might the fisher safely guide 
 His bark along the trackless tide ; 
 Then might the earth her treasures yield 
 To him who tilled the fertile field. 
 And the mechanic's skilful hand 
 Enrich and bless the prosperous land ; 
 Then steam outstripped the chaugeflil sail. 
 Or sent her trains along the rail. 
 While lightning, trained by human skill, 
 Sent forth the words that cheer and thrill 
 
 To those of every clime. 
 And through the dark, unfathomed deep. 
 Through deserts drear and mountains steep, 
 
 Outrun the steps of time ! 
 Thus has our hard and rocky strand 
 Joyed in the progress of the land ; 
 And in the patriot's spirit shown 
 The nation's weal to be her own ! 
 
 * Joseph Bates.
 
 62 ToR'n of Cohasset. 
 
 When slavery's minions sought to tear 
 From Sumter's walls our banners fair, 
 
 And blast the nations power, 
 The boTS who tracked Cohasset's sand 
 Uprose, a brave and noble band, 
 
 And met the fearful hour. 
 Then, after fights on land and main, 
 After the loss of comrades slain, 
 
 Or starved in prisons vile ; 
 After sad years in suftering spent, 
 They saw upon a land unrent 
 
 The sun of Freedom smile. 
 
 The freedman now may blithely rest, 
 Or revel* in the traitors nest, 
 
 And show a nobler life. 
 Than those Avho deemed it high renown 
 To crush the poor and feeble down 
 
 Through years of bloody strife. 
 
 Now, through this happy land of ours, 
 From where unfold the tropic flowers 
 
 To wild Alaska's snows ; 
 From the right arm that guards our State, 
 Far westward to the Golden Gate, 
 
 The air of freedom blows I 
 
 * Hon. Hiram Bevels, the successor of Jefferson DaTis, was present at the celebration.
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 63 
 
 The following letters were received from invited guests 
 unable to be present : — 
 
 [Letter from Hon. C. F. Adams.] 
 Mr. Adams feels himself much flattered by the polite invitation to 
 the Centennial Celebration at Cohasset, and regrets that his arrange- 
 ments will not permit his acceptance of it. He begs to assure the Com- 
 mittee of his interest and sympathy in cherishing such anniversaries. 
 
 59 Mt. Verxox St., Boston, ) 
 30 April, 1870. ) 
 
 Boston, May 6, 1870. 
 A. H. Tower, Jr., Secretary of Committee of Arrangements : 
 
 My Dear Sir, — I have to acknowledge the receipt of your invitation 
 to be present at the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of 
 the establishment of the town of Cohasset. I have delayed an answer 
 till the last moment, in the hope that I might be able, consistently with 
 my oflicial duties, to be present ; but I am compelled to forego the 
 pleasure which I had promised myself. 
 
 No town in Massachusetts bears such a place in my affections as Co- 
 hasset, for it was the birthplace of my most cherished friend. I should 
 be glad of an opportunity, if it should be oflered me, to express my 
 feelings in regard to him who was endeared to me by the closest friend- 
 ship. Dr. Joshua Rich Lothrop was my classmate in college — my inti- 
 mate and beloved friend. For many years we saw each other almost 
 daily, and our studies, our reading and our pleasures were the same. 
 Both limited in our pecuniary resources, we almost shared a common 
 purse. As he grew in distinction in his chosen profession, our locali- 
 ties separated, but not our aflection or esteem. 
 
 I should like to speak of him as an honor to his native town, of his 
 modesty, of his learning in letters, of his thorough mastery of his pro- 
 fession, of his success in reaching the highest reputation, of the depth 
 of attachment felt for him by the friends Avho surrounded liim in his 
 new home, and of the grief which wrung their hearts when the good 
 physician was called away. 
 
 What treasures has a town like the character and reputation of such 
 a man? 
 
 Could I present him as I knew him, I believe his actiuaintanccs, who 
 perhaps knew him less intimately than I did, would feel a greater pride 
 both in their townsman and their town. 
 
 I am, respectfully, yours, very truly, 
 
 Harvey Jeweix.
 
 64 Town of Cohasset. 
 
 Boston, May 6, 1870. 
 J. Q. A. LoTHROP, Esq.: 
 
 Dear Sir, — I find my engagements will prevent my being with you 
 to-morrow. I regret very much that I cannot participate in your in- 
 teresting celebration, but it is quite out of my power. I trust you will 
 be able to find some person who will gladly take the part which you 
 had intended for me. Indeed, all who may be assembled will respond 
 to any sentiment complimenting President Grant. 
 
 I am, yours truly, 
 
 B. W. Harris. 
 
 Boston, May 5, 1870. 
 
 My Dear Sir, — I am deeply sensible of the honor conferred by your 
 invitation to attend the Cohasset Centennial Anniversary. Most gladly 
 would I be associated with you on this occasion, but the afflictive dis- 
 pensations of Providence in my family of late render it improper for 
 me to join in public demonstrations of joy. 
 
 This anniversary will be full of pleasure to every one who feels an 
 interest in our glorious old Commonwealth, bringing the mind to reflect 
 upon the traditions and reminiscences which have made your noble Co- 
 hasset the home and birthplace of many who have contributed largely 
 not only to the advancement of the commerce and honor of Massachu- 
 setts, but the whole country. Tour section of the State has furnished 
 many precious jewels that have adorned the coronet of our Common- 
 wealth — many who are now living, and I have no doubt will be present 
 at your celebration, and by recounting the fame and influence of your 
 good old town and vicinity, place on record an example which may be 
 transmitted to future generations for great benefit. Although I cannot 
 be with you, I trust you will believe that, in these days of spirits, al- 
 though the body may be absent, the spirit of your humble servant will 
 rejoice in the occasion. 
 
 With personal regards to yourself and your committee, 
 I am, most sincerely yours, &c., 
 
 Marshall P. Wilder. 
 J. Q. A. LoTHROP, Chairman Com., &c., &c., &c. 
 
 QuENCY, April 30, 1870. 
 Hon. J. Q. A. LoTHROP : 
 
 Dear Sm, — I have delayed an answer to the kind invitation of the 
 Committee to attend the centennial celebration of the incorporation of 
 your town, in the hope that I might so arrange my business engage- 
 ments as to enable me to attend ; but I find myself reluctantly con- 
 strained to deny myself the gratification. 
 
 Kespectfully yours, 
 
 J. Q. Adams.
 
 Centennial Anniversary, 65 
 
 30 Court Street, Bostox, ) 
 May 4, 1870. 5 
 
 Dear Sir : — I beg to thank you for jour invitation to the Centennial 
 Celebration, but my engagements here are imperative, and will prevent 
 my having the pleasure of attending. 
 
 I am, very respectfully yours, 
 
 Charles Allen. 
 J. Q. A. LOTHROP, Esq. 
 
 commonwealth op massachusetts. 
 
 Auditor's Department, ) 
 Boston, May 6, 1870. ) 
 J. Q. A. LOTHROP, Esq. : 
 
 My Dear Sir, — I regret to say that I shall be unable to be with you 
 to-morrow, in consequence of sickness in my family. 
 Many thanks for your kind remembrance of me. 
 
 Truly, 
 
 Chas. Endicott. 
 
 cojevionwe.vlth of massachusetts. 
 
 Senate Chamber, Boston, ) 
 May 6, 1870. ] 
 
 Mt Dear Sir : — Until this afternoon I had supposed I should be per- 
 mitted to enjoy the pleasure of participatiug with the citizens of Co- 
 hasset in their Centennial Celebi-ation to-morrow, but I tiud that im- 
 portant duties at the State House will prevent. 
 
 Thanking you for the honor, and trusting that the occasion may be 
 one of unalloyed enjoyment and pleasure, and deeply regretting the cir- 
 cumstances which prevent my being present, 
 
 I remain, very truly yours, 
 
 F. A. IIouart. 
 J. Q. A. LoTHEOP, Esq., Chairman, tCx. 
 
 Cohasset, May 30, 1870. 
 De.vkSir:— By request I send you the following: The " whipping- 
 post and the stocks stood on Maiu Street, nearly opposite tbe entrance 
 of Winter Street," where persons convicted of crime under his majesty's 
 laws received a certain number of lashes at the whipping-post, and 
 then were fastened into the stocks, to remain there a certain length of 
 time, according to the degree and aggravation of the crime. 
 
 Respectfully yours, &c., &c., 
 
 • Marshall Pratt.
 
 66 Town of Cohasset. 
 
 New York, April 2, 1870. 
 Deak Sir : — Permit me, in acknowledging the receipt of your letter 
 of March 31st, to thank the Committee for their courtesy in inviting 
 me to act as chief marshal of ceremonies at the Centennial Celebration 
 to take place in Cohasset May 7th. The occasion will be one of much 
 interest to its people, and especially so to those whose ancestors have 
 been associated with its settlement, its incorporation and its growth. 
 It would give me much pleasure to witness the ceremonies of the cele- 
 bration, but there is no certainty that I shall be able to do so ; and I 
 must, therefore, beg you to present my thanks to the Committee of Ar- 
 rangements for their complimentary invitation, with my regrets that I 
 shall not be able to comply Avith their wishes. 
 
 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 Z. B. Tower. 
 A. H. Tower, Jr., Sec. Com. of Arrang'ts, Cohasset, Mass. 
 
 Boston, May 6, 1870. 
 A. H. TO's\TER, Jr., Esq., Secretary : 
 
 Dear Sir, — Your very kind invitation for to-morrow's celebratioE; 
 was duly received. A previous engagement for that day will unavoid- 
 ably prevent my being with you on that occasion. I had hoped, until 
 this moment, to have postponed my other engagement, but 'tis impos- 
 sible. 
 
 Thanking you for your invitation, and regretting, much more than 
 you can, my inability to accept it, I am. 
 
 Yours, very truly, 
 
 Chas. Adams, Jr. 
 
 Boston, May 6, 1870. 
 Mr. Tower : 
 
 Dear Sir, — I sincerely I'egret that I am obliged to decline the honor 
 of your invitation for to-morrow, but I find myself so placed that I 
 cannot come. 
 
 Kespectfully yours, 
 
 H. L. Ca'rgill.
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 
 
 07 
 
 Ifuster-HoU of Capt. Joh Cushing's Company^ in the 3G?/i 
 Hegiment of Foot Infantry^ Continental Army, encamped in 
 Fort No. % October 5, 1775. 
 
 
 
 Enga 
 
 ged. 
 
 
 Job Cnshiug, Capt., . 
 
 . ' May 
 
 16 
 
 John Kilbj% Jr., 
 
 Natli. Nichols, 1st Lieut. 
 
 If 
 
 > 
 
 16 
 
 Galen Lincoln, 
 
 Josiah Oakes, 2cl Lieut., 
 
 (( 
 
 16 
 
 Jerome Lincoln, 
 
 Eleazer James, Sergt., 
 
 (( 
 
 18 
 
 Charles Luueand, 
 
 Gideon Howard, Sergt., 
 
 . June 
 
 1 
 
 Joseph Neal, . 
 
 Isaac Burr, Sergt., . 
 
 May 
 
 16 
 
 Caleb Nichols, . 
 
 Peter Nichols, Sergt., 
 
 Cf 
 
 16 
 
 Daniel Nichols, 
 
 Abraham Tower, Corp., 
 
 « 
 
 22 
 
 Ebenezer Orcutt, 
 
 Adua Bates, Corp., . 
 
 (( 
 
 22 
 
 Ephi'aim Orcutt, 
 
 James Bates, Corp., 
 
 (.1 
 
 22 
 
 Luke Orcutt, . 
 
 Bela Nichols, Corp., • 
 
 u 
 
 22 
 
 Haugh Oakes, . 
 
 Levi Tower, Drummer, 
 
 (( 
 
 18 
 
 Joshua Oakes, . 
 
 William Stoddard,- Fifer 
 
 « 
 
 17 
 
 Samuel Oakes, . 
 
 Elisha Bates, . 
 
 f( 
 
 22 
 
 Caleb Pratt, . 
 
 Jonathan Bates, 
 
 
 « 
 
 22 
 
 Oliver Prichard, 
 
 Josiah Bates, . 
 
 
 1( 
 
 23 
 
 Eichard Prichard, 
 
 Zealous Bates, 
 
 
 (( 
 
 16 
 
 Elisha Stephenson, 
 
 Ephraim Battles, 
 
 
 (f 
 
 16 
 
 Luke Stephenson, 
 
 Jared Battles, . 
 
 
 (C 
 
 16 
 
 John Sutton, . 
 
 Joshua Beal, . 
 
 
 June 
 
 1 
 
 Joseph Souther, 
 
 Sam'l Beal, 
 
 
 . May 
 
 23 
 
 James Stoddard, 
 
 Amos Brown, . 
 
 
 11 
 
 16 
 
 Benj. Stutson, . 
 
 Calvin Cushing, 
 
 
 (1 
 
 22 
 
 Ecuben Thorn, 
 
 Obed Dunbar, . 
 
 
 It 
 
 23 
 
 Jesse Tower, . 
 
 George Humphrey, 
 
 
 It 
 
 16 
 
 Isaac Tower, . 
 
 Benj. Jacobs, . 
 
 
 If 
 
 16 
 
 Jesse Worricli, 
 
 Jared Joj', 
 
 
 It 
 
 16 
 
 Jolm "Whitcom, 
 
 Melzer Joy, 
 
 
 If 
 
 20 
 
 Gershom Wheelwri 
 
 John Kilby, 
 
 
 ff 
 
 16 
 
 Benj. Woodward, 
 
 Eichard Kilby, . 
 
 
 tf 
 
 16 
 
 
 ight, 
 
 Engaged. 
 
 Maj 
 
 16 
 
 " 
 
 16 
 
 It 
 
 16 
 
 " 
 
 17 
 
 If 
 
 25 
 
 tf 
 
 16 
 
 June 
 
 1 
 
 I\Iay 
 
 17 
 
 ft 
 
 16 
 
 It 
 
 27 
 
 ft 
 
 16 
 
 ft 
 
 16 
 
 ft 
 
 16 
 
 ft 
 
 IS 
 
 ft 
 
 18 
 
 " 
 
 16 
 
 June 
 
 1 
 
 May 
 
 16 
 
 " 
 
 25 
 
 ft 
 
 24 
 
 tf 
 
 17 
 
 ft 
 
 23 
 
 " 
 
 16 
 
 ft 
 
 21 
 
 ft 
 
 16 
 
 " 
 
 23 
 
 " 
 
 23 
 
 ft 
 
 16 
 
 tf 
 
 IG
 
 68 
 
 Toimi of Coliasset. 
 
 List of Yolu7iteers who have entered the United States Service 
 since May^ 1861. 
 
 Arnold, Daniel P., SSth Eegimeut. 
 Arnold, George, 38tli Regiment. 
 Arnold, Edward H., 38th Eegiment. 
 Ainslie, Peter, U. S. N. ' 
 Ainslie, Henry, U. S. N. 
 Beal, Samuel, 1st Co. H. Art. 
 Beal, James S., 1st Co. H. Art. 
 Bates, James L., 1st Co. H. Art. 
 Bates, Lincoln, U. S. N. 
 Bates, Joseph J., 1st Co. H. Art. 
 Bates, Bela, 38th Eegiment. 
 Barnes, Albert F., 24:th Eegiment. 
 Bourne, Ezekiel P., 12th Regiment. 
 Bates, Cyrus, 45th Regiment. 
 Bourne, Elias W., 45th Eegiment. 
 Bates, Caleb L., 45th Eegiment. 
 Bates, John F., 4th Cav, Eegt. 
 Beal, Eobert Y., U. S. N. 
 Barnes, John, 3d Co. H. Artillery. 
 Barnes, John O., 4th Cav. Eegt. 
 Crane, Franklin J., 7th Eegiment. 
 Carl, William E., 41st Eegiment. 
 Couilard, David J., 3d Co. H. Art. 
 Clark, John, 3d Co. H. Artillery. 
 Conner, Moses, 29th Eegiment. 
 Curtis, Alonzo, U. S. N. 
 Doane, J. Foster, 1st Eegiment. 
 Dunster Samuel K., 24th Eegiment. 
 Davis, Joseph E., 11th Mass. Bat. 
 Davis, Charles F., 3d Co. H. Art. 
 Dinsmore, John H., Engiu'r U.S.N. 
 Fish, Joseph W., 38th Eegiment. 
 Taller, Warren, 32d Eegiment. 
 Fish, George A., 2d Co. H. Art. 
 Groce, Leander W., Co. H. Art. 
 Gibbs, Thomas O. S., 44th Eegt. 
 Gross, Charles A., 45th Eegiment. 
 Henry, Harrison, 24th Eegiment. 
 Hayden, Thomas O., 38th Eegt. 
 Hayden, John G., 1st Co. H. Art. 
 
 Hardwick, Henry C, 1st Co. H. Art. 
 Haskell, Alfred, 3d Co. H. Art. 
 Harris, Wm. F., Jr., 3d Co. H. Art. 
 Hayden, Solomon J., Co. D, H. Art. 
 Kane, Thomas, 3d Co. H. Artillery. 
 Linsey, Alexander, U. S. N. 
 Litchfield, George A., 32d Eegt. 
 Lincoln, Stephen P., U. S. N. 
 Lincoln, Daniel B., U. S. N. 
 Leithead, George F., 19th Eegt, 
 Lincoln, Stephen, 45th Eegimeut. 
 Lincoln, Richard H., 45th Eegt. 
 Lincoln, Alfred W., U. S. N. 
 Litchfield, Joseph W., U. S. N. 
 Morey, George T., 1st Co. H. Art. 
 Morey, Oliver L., 1st Co. H. Art. 
 Manuel, John L., 1st Co. H. Art. 
 Minot, Leonard W., 18th Eegt. 
 Morse, William H., 2d Co. H. Art. 
 Minot, Levi L., 3d Co. H. Art. 
 Murphy, Thomas, Co. D, H. Art. 
 Manise, Joseph, Co. D, H. Art. 
 Nott, Dawes, 12th Eegiment. 
 Newcomb, Warren, Co. D, H. Art. 
 Orcutt, John, 20th Eegimeut. 
 Oakes, B. Franklin, 24th Regt, 
 Phinney, Isaac, 35 th Eegiment. 
 Pratt, Charles A., 1st Co. H. Art. 
 Pratt, Charles H., U. S. Sappers 
 
 and Miners. 
 Pratt, Nichols, U. S. N. 
 Poole, Amos L., 26th Eegiment. 
 Pelby, Foi-rester A., 1st Eegiment. 
 Prouty, George H., 32d Eegiment. 
 Palmer, Alonzo L., 2d Co. H. Art. 
 Pratt, William XL, 45th Eegimeut. 
 Pratt, Gustavus,Asst. Surgeon 19tb 
 
 Eegiment. 
 Powers, Henry, U. S. N. 
 Eipley, Martin T., 32d Eegiment.
 
 Centennial Anniversary. 
 
 69 
 
 Elchards, John J., 1st Co. H. Art. 
 Randall, "William, 4it]a Regimeut. 
 Eemiugtou, Wm. H., 3d Co. H. Art. 
 Rooney, James, Jr., 4tli Cav. Regt. 
 Simpson, Oliver E., 1st Regiment. 
 Stoddard, Zenas, Jr., U. S. Sappers 
 
 and Miners. 
 Smith, William L., 2d Regt. D. C. 
 
 Guards. 
 Shaw, Robert B., 32d Regiment. 
 Spoouer, George, 1st Co. H. Art. 
 Spear, Thomas F., U. S. N 
 Sweeney, James M., 45th Regt. 
 Sewall, George TV., 47th Regt. 
 Shays, James, 30th Regiment. 
 Studley, Andrew J., 6th Regiment. 
 Treat, John A., 14th Regiment. 
 Treat, Sylvauus F., 14th Regiment. 
 Tilden, Caleb F. B., 1st Co. H. Art. 
 Tower, John W., 1st Co. H. Art. 
 Tower, Francis H., 1st Co. H. Art. 
 Towle, Joseph M., 32d Regiment. 
 
 Thayer, William F., 1st Regiment. 
 
 Tower, Geo. B. N., Eng. U. S. N. 
 
 Thayer, Anselm, 32d Regiment. 
 ► Tower, Thomas, 2d Co. H. Art. 
 
 Tower, Levi C, 2d Co. H. Art. 
 
 TUden, Eustice W., 2d Co. H. Art. 
 
 Tower, Isaac, 2d Co. H. Artillery. 
 
 Thayer, Willie F., 4th Cav. Regt. 
 
 Willistou, Thomas, 38th Regiment. 
 
 Whittington, Hiram, U. S. N. 
 
 Wells, Charles F., 1st Regiment. 
 
 Williams, Andrew W., U. S. Sap- 
 pers and Miners. 
 
 Willcutt, Elbridge, U. S. Sappers 
 and Miners. 
 
 Whittier, Charles. 1st Co. H. Art. 
 
 Whittier, William, 1st Co. H. Art. 
 
 Whittier, Leavet, 39th Regiment. 
 
 Willcutt, Lyman D., 45th Regt. 
 
 West, Charles H., 29th Regiment. 
 
 Wheelright, Lewis L., Co. D, H. 
 Artillery.
 
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