^^rJ^/ 
 / 
 
 -OF- 
 
 ROCHESTER, MASS., 
 
 jUr,v
 
 UCSB LIBRARY
 
 WOOTONEKAMUSKE. 
 
 CHARLOTTE L. MITCHELL.
 
 TEWELEMA. 
 
 MELINDA MITCHELL.
 
 ^ROCHESTER'S 
 
 OFFICIAL 
 
 BI-CENTE1IAL RECORD. 
 
 TUESDAY, JULY 22, 1879. 
 
 CONTAINING THE HISTORICAL ADDRESS OF REV. N. \V. 
 
 EVERETT; THE RESPONSES BY LIEUT.-GOV. LONG, 
 
 HON. W. W. CEAPO. M.C., JUDGE THOS. RUSSELL, 
 
 AND OTHERS. 
 
 ALSO, A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 
 
 DAY. 
 
 NEW BEDFORD: 
 
 MERCURY PUBLISHING COMPANY, PRINTERS. 
 1879.
 
 Prior to the Rochester El-Centennial Celebration, July 22d, 1879, 
 it was suggested that the proceedings of the day be published. Acting 
 upon that desire a committee, consisting of Capt. Chas. Bryant, A. W. 
 Bisbee, Esq., and Rev. N. W. Everett, have compiled the matter per- 
 taining to the Celebration, to the best of their ability. We trust our 
 efforts have been successful and that the Record will be preserved for 
 future generations.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 THE CELEBRATION 
 
 Procession ....... .................................... " 
 
 The Decorations ........................................ ^ 
 
 Guests ................................................. a - 
 
 Exercises at the Grove .................................. 10 
 
 ORATION ..................................................... 17 
 
 DINNER ...................................................... *1 
 
 AFTER-DINNER EXERCISES 
 
 Sentiments and Responses ............................. 72 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Correspoudence ........................................ 1 19 
 
 Daughters of the Forest ........... . ..................... 121 
 
 A Scrap of History ............ ......................... 122 
 
 Minister Rock .......................................... 123
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CEtppL 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The Town of Rochester, Plymouth County, Massachu- 
 setts, received its name from the ancient city of Rochester, 
 in Kent, England, whence many of the first settlers came. 
 It is recorded in history that the oysters found on those 
 shores were celebrated by the Romans for their excellence 
 and our ancestors finding an abundance of delicious shell- 
 fish here, in memory of their former home very appropriate- 
 ly gave to this tract the name of Rochester. 
 
 A few years ago the voters of Rochester, in town meet- 
 ing assembled, directed Joseph S. Luce, Esq., (the present 
 chairman of the selectmen of Marion) to copy the old 
 proprietors' records. It may be proper here to state that 
 the "Sepecan" grant embraced what is now Rochester, Mar- 
 ion, Mattapoisett, and the greater portion of Wareham. 
 Mr. I*uce still has the records in his possession, and last 
 Winter called the attention of the authorities of the several 
 towns to the fact that on the 22d day of July, 1679, the first 
 meeting of the proprietors was held at Plymouth, and steps 
 taken towards forming a settlement at "Sepecan," the por- 
 tion then best known. He also suggested that the 22d of 
 July, 1879, the two-hundredth anniversary of the first set-
 
 4 ROCHESTER S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 tlement be commemorated by appropriate ceremonies. In 
 accordance with his views an article was inserted in the 
 several warrants to see what action the towns would take in 
 regard to a celebration. Rochester chose a committee con- 
 sisting of H. H. Bennett, Alden Rounsville, Jr., Nahinn F. 
 Morse, (the board of selectmen), Thomas Ellis and A. W. 
 Bisbee. The committee chosen by Wureham was Cap't. 
 Alden Besse, Capt. Benj. F. Gibbs, Geo. F. Wing, (select- 
 men), E. B. Powers, L. H. Bartlett and E. A. Gammons. 
 Marion voted an appropriation of $100, and chose as her 
 committee the three selectmen, Joseph S. Luce, Capt. Obed 
 Delano and Capt. -I. N. Hathaway, also Dr. H. C. Vose 
 and I. N. Lewis. Mattapoisett's committee consisted of 
 Capt. Joseph R. Taber, Jarvis N. Ellis, Capt. Franklin 
 Cross. 
 
 The first meeting of the several committees Avas held at 
 Town % Hall, Marion, April 21st, 1879. Capt. Benj. F. 
 Gibbs, Wareham, was chosen chairman ; Augustine W. Bis- 
 bee, Rochester, secretary ; Capt. I. N. Hathaway, Mar- 
 ion, treasurer. It was unanimously voted to have a celebra- 
 tion on the 22d of July. Mr. Luce stated that in the ab- 
 sence of official records as to when the first house was built 
 it would be well to commemorate the two-hundredth anni- 
 versary of the proprietors' meeting at the date of the first 
 settlement. It was at first decided to have the celebration 
 at Little Neck, the head of Marion harbor, on account of the 
 historical associations connected with the spot. Afterwards 
 it was deemed expedient to change the location to H^ndy's 
 Grove, about a mile from Marion station, on the Rochester 
 road. 
 
 The committee held several meetings and chose sub-com- 
 mittees as follows : 
 
 To Solicit Funds. Capt. Judah Hathaway and George 
 W. Humphrey, from Rochester; Capt. Alden Besse and
 
 ROCHESTER'S SI-CENTENNIAL. 5 
 
 Geo. F. Wing, from Wareham ; Capt. I. N. Hathaway and 
 J. S. Luce, Esq., from Marion ; -Capt. Joseph R. Taber and 
 Capt. Franklin Cross, from Mattapoisett. 
 
 Dinner. Geo. Wi Humphrey and Thomas Ellis, of 
 Rochester ; Capt. Alden Besse and Geo. F. Wing, of Ware- 
 ham ; Capt. Obed Delano and Joseph S. Luce, of Marion ; 
 Dr. Thomas E. Sparrow and Thomas Nelson, of Mattapoi- 
 sett. 
 
 Grounds. Capt. Reuben F. Hart, Leander Cowing and 
 Capt. I. N. Hathaway, of Marion. 
 
 Martial Music. Capt. B. F. Gibbs, Wareham ; Capt. 
 Joseph R. Taber, Mattapoisett. 
 
 Guests. A. W. Bisbee, Rochester; Capt. B. F. Gibbs, 
 Wareham ; J. S. Luce, Marion ; and Capt. Charles Bryant, 
 Mattapoisett. 
 
 Reception, Procession and Transportation. Clark P. 
 Howland, Marion ; Edward A. Gammons, Wareham; Lem- 
 uel LeBaron Holmes, Mattapoisett ; Augustine W. Bisbee, 
 Rochester. 
 
 Vocal Music. Capt. Obed Delano, Geo. Mason Delano, 
 Joseph S. Luce*, Marion. 
 
 Printing. Capt. Charles Bryant, Mattapoisett. 
 
 Decorations. Capt. John G. Dexter, Rochester ; Capt. 
 Alden Besse, Wareham ; Capt. Reuben F. Hart, Marion ; 
 Geo. Purrington, Jr., Mattapoisett. 
 
 Police. Selectmen of Marion, Joseph S. Luce, Capt. 
 Obed Delano, Capt. I. N. Hathaway. 
 
 General Committee (in addition) . Geo. Purrington, Jr., 
 Lemuel LeB. Holmes, Henry Barstow, Mattapoisett ; Capt. 
 Judah Hathaway, Rochester ; Clark P. Howland, Marion ; 
 which filled the number to six from each town. 
 
 Seats and Tables. Geo. W. Humphrey, Rochester; 
 Geo. F. Wing, Wareham ; J. S. Luce, Marion ; Capt. 
 Charles Bryant, Mattapoisett.
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTEIJNIAL. 
 The committee also made the following appointments as 
 
 OFFICERS OF THE DAY. 
 
 Gerard C. Tobey, Esq., of Wareham, President. 
 Wilson Barstow, Esq, of Mattapoisett, Vice President* 
 Geo. Purriugton, Jr., of Mattapoisett, Chief Marshal. 
 Rev. H. C. Vose, of Marion, Toast Master. 
 Rev. William Leonard, of North Rochester, Chaplain. 
 
 At the first meeting of the committee it was unanimously 
 Voted that Rev. Noble Warren Everett, of Wareham, a 
 grandson of the Rev. Noble Everett, one of the eatly minis- 
 ters of the old township, be requested to act as the orator 
 of the day. Mr. Everett accepted the position. 
 
 The Standish Guards of Plymouth, Co. H, 1st Regiment 
 Infantry, M V M, Herbert Morissey, Capt., tendered 
 their services as escort on the occasion and were accepted. 
 
 The Middleboro Brass Band, 22 men, J. M. Carter, lead- 
 er ; were engaged for the day. 
 
 The Chief Marshal selected for his aids Joseph L. Cole 
 and Henry A. Shurtleff, of Mattapoisett ; Win. H.C. Delano 
 and Dr. Robert T. Delano, of Marion. 
 
 Invitations were extended to State officials and prominent 
 men to be present, also to former residents of the town, 
 and long before the day of the celebration it was evident 
 scores would return to the place of their birth and partici- 
 pate in the enjoyment of the occasion. 
 
 Arrangements were made with the Old Colony railroad 
 for reduced fares and extra trains. 
 
 The dinner committee contracted with Otis A. Sisson and 
 L. W. Carl, of New Bedford, to furnish the dinner. 
 
 Your committee held nine meetings and their proceedings 
 were characterized by harmony and unanimity. We are 
 pleased to add that we had the hearty co-operation of the 
 citizens of the old township and that they seconded our plans
 
 ROCHESTER'S SI-CENTENNIAL* 7 
 
 iind efforts to a degree which made the celebration a perfect 
 success The contributions were liberal and freely given, 
 Old Rochester can justly be proud of her record for the last 
 two hundred years, and from the lessons of the past be 
 guided in the future to still nobler deeds of usefulness. 
 This event has rescued from oblivion very much that would 
 have been forgotten and generations to come will read with 
 interest the proceedings of to-day.
 
 ROCHESTER S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 THE CELEBRATION. 
 
 At an early hour in the morning the street leading to the 
 Grove was thronged with residents and visitors. The arri- 
 val of teams brought numbers from adjoining towns. The 
 weather was propitious and all that could be desired, al- 
 though in the morning there were slight indications of rain. 
 Four hundred and ninety-one excursion tickets by railroad 
 were sold at Fairhaven and two hundred and forty at Matta- 
 poisett, in addition to which probably three times that num- 
 ber came by carriage from New Bedford and vicinity. The 
 train from Boston brought the State officials, Middleboro 
 Band,>tandish Guards, and a host of visitors. At the least 
 calculation some six thousand people were in attendance to 
 do honor to the occasion. 
 
 PKOCESSION. 
 
 The opening feature of the proceedings was a procession 
 which moved to the Grove in the following order from the 
 Marion depot : 
 
 New Bedford Police, 4 men, H. W. Bnmpus in command. 
 
 Geo. Purrington, Jr., Mattapoisett, Marshal. 
 
 Aids : Joseph L. Cole, Henry A. Shurtleff', Mattapoisett; W. H. C. Del- 
 ano and Dr. R. T. Delano. Marion. 
 Middleboro Brass Band. J. M. Carter, leader. 
 Standish Guards, of Plymouth, 38 men, Co. H., 1st Regt. Infantry, M. 
 
 V. M., Herbert Moriss-y, Captain. 
 
 Carnages containing Gerard C. Tobey, of Wareham ; Wilson T. Barstow, 
 
 of Mattapoisett; President and Vice President of the day: Rev. 
 
 Noble Warren Everett, Wareham. Orator; Dr. H. C. Vose, 
 
 Marion, Toast Master : Rev. William Leonard, 
 Rochester, Chaplain. 
 
 Speakers and Invited Guests. 
 
 Committee of Arrangements, Capt. B. F. Gibbs, East Wareham. 
 
 Chairman. 
 Clergy. 
 
 Representatives of the Press. 
 
 Town officers of Rochester, Wareham. Marion, and Mattapoisett. 
 Residents and past residents of the four towns.
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 9 
 
 The invited guests were conveyed in hacks procured from 
 Xew Bedford. The route was thronged on either side by 
 visitors and presented a very animated appearance. On the 
 arrival of the procession at the grove, the officers of the 
 day and distinguished guests were conducted to seats on the 
 platform while the crowd collected around in a dense mass. 
 
 THE DECORATIONS. 
 
 The decorations at the grove were put up by Messrs. "W". 
 H. C. Delano and W. P. Delano, the Misses Delano and 
 Hathaway, and were very good. 
 
 A heavy arch of green branches spanned the entrance from 
 the highway to the grounds. Flags were flying by the side 
 of the avenue, near the arch, and the entrance at the grove. 
 Drapery of National colors hung from pine to pine. The 
 speaker's stand had over it and extending far beyond the 
 sides a long line of festooned bunting ; and in front of the 
 stand was a large white banner inscribed July 22, 1879, 
 
 Rochester Bi-Centennial. The letters were two feet hifh 
 
 o 
 
 and formed of one-cent flags affixed to the face of the banner. 
 A canopy of sail-cloth protected the speakers and the stand 
 was so placed that nearly all the listeners could stand or sit 
 in the shade. 
 
 GUESTS. 
 
 Among the invited guests present were Lieut. -Gov. John 
 D. Long, of Hingham ; Attorney- General George Marston, 
 of New Bedford; John B. D. Cogswell, Yarmouth, Presi- 
 dent of the Senate; Hon. "W". W. Crapo, M. C., New Bed- 
 ford ; Hon. Thomas Russell and wife, Boston ; John W. 
 Hammond, Esq., City Solicitor, Cambridge; Edward At- 
 kinson, Esq., Brookline ; Geo. O. Shattuck, Esq., Matta- 
 poisett ; Hon. Charles J. Holmes, Fall River; John Eddy, 
 Esq., Providence, R. I.; Gen. E. W. Pierce, Freetown: 
 Mrs. Zerviah Gould Mitchell and her two daughters, Tewel- 
 
 A2
 
 10 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 ema and Wotonekanuske, North Abington ; Henry Morton 
 Dexter, D. D., New Bedford, Editor of the Congregation- 
 alist; Rev. Wm. H. Cobb, Uxbridge ; Eev. I. C. Thacher, 
 Lakeville ; Rev. Thomas T. Richmond, Taunton ; Mayor 
 Wm. T. Soule, New Bedford; William H. Sherman, Esq., 
 New Bedford; Matthew H. Gushing, Esq., Middleboro ; 
 Noah C. Perkins, Esq., Middleboro; Hon. Bonum Nye, 
 North Brookfield ; Rev. Frederick Upham, Fairhaven ; Geo. 
 M. Barnard, Esq., Mattapoisett. 
 
 EXERCISES AT THE GROVE. 
 
 At 12 o'clock the assembly was called to order by the 
 Marshal, Geo. H. Purrington, Jr. After an olio of Nation- 
 al airs by the band and the singing of "Auld Lang Syne" 
 by a selected choir of fifty voices in charge of Geo. Mason 
 Delano, Mr. Purrington introduced Gerard C. Tobey, Esq., 
 of Wareham, as President of the day. The chaplain, Rev. 
 Wm. Leonard, (Congregationalist,) North Rochester, then 
 read the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy in which the bless- 
 ings of God are promised those who serve him and the curse 
 pronounced on those who neglect him : 
 
 ALL the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye ob- 
 serve to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess 
 the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers. 
 
 2 And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led 
 thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove 
 thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his 
 commandments, or no. 
 
 3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee-to hunger, and fed thee 
 with manna, which thou kncwest not, neither did thy fathers know; that 
 he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by 
 every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live* 
 
 4 Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, 
 these forty years. 
 
 5 Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth 
 his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee. 
 
 6 Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, 
 to walk in his ways, and to fear him. 
 
 7 'For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of 
 brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and 
 hills ;
 
 ROCHESTER^ Bl-CENfEJ}NlAL> 11 
 
 8 A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pome- 
 granates; a land of oil, olive, and honey*, 
 
 9 A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt 
 not lack any thing in it $ a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose 
 hills thou raayest dig brass ; 
 
 10 When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord 
 thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. 
 
 11 Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his 
 commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command 
 thee this day; 
 
 12 Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly 
 houses, and dwelt therein; 
 
 13 And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and 
 thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; 
 
 14 Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God> 
 which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of 
 bondage ; 
 
 15 Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein 
 Were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no 
 Water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint >, 
 
 16 Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers 
 knew not, that he might humble thee, and that*he might prove thee. to 
 do thee good at thy latter end ; 
 
 17 And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine 
 hand hath gotten me this wealth* 
 
 18 But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God; for it is he that giveth 
 thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he 
 sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. 
 
 19 And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the Lord thy God, and 
 walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify 
 against you this day ye shall surely perish. 
 
 20 As the nations which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so 
 shall ye perish ; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the 
 Lord your God. 
 
 PRAYER BY REV. WILLIAM LEONARD, 
 
 O Lord our God, in Thine infinite condescension and love 
 Thou hast made it our duty and privilege to call upon Thee 
 at all times, and to acknowledge Thee in all our ways. We 
 would therefore on this deeply interesting occasion acknowl- 
 edge Thee as the only living and true God, as the father of 
 the spirits of all flesh, as the sovereign ruler of the universe. 
 
 We praise Thee, O Lord, for this beautiful day and for 
 the vast multitude here assembled to celebrate in a befitting 
 manner the first settlement of this ancient domain by. our 
 illustrious ancestors, men of whom the world was most 
 worthy^ whose memories we love to cherish because of their
 
 12 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENXIAL* 
 
 Christian principles, sterling character, solid sense, ancf 
 noble deeds. Great God, from whom cometh ever} 7 good and 
 perfect gift, we bless and praise Thy name for all Thy wond- 
 rous dealings with the Pilgrim Fathers. We thank Thee 
 for directing their thoughts and guiding their steps to this 
 Western World. We praise Thy name that Thou didst pi- 
 lot them over the trackless sea in safety, didst in Thine own 
 peculiar way lead them to these New England shores. And 
 thou didst never leave them, nor forsake them amid the 
 perils of the wilderness, but Thou didst defend them by Thy 
 right arm and guided them with Thy counsel. In all their 
 afflictions Thou wast afflicted and the angel of Thy pres- 
 ence saved them. . 
 
 And now, O Thou God of our fathers, look in mercy 
 upon us as their sons and their daughters ! O lift upon us 
 the light of Thy countenance ! Make us worthy of our 
 sires. Like them may we have grace to fear God and work 
 righteousness. Make us emulous of their virtues. Help us 
 to follow them so far as they followed Christ. Be pleased, 
 our Father in Heaven, to give us grace and wisdom to trav- 
 el in the footsteps of those men of renown. Father of 
 the spirits of all flesh, we most meekly beseech Thee to re- 
 member for good the few relicts here to-day of those primal 
 lords of these ancient forests. O pour upon them, and all 
 the aborgiines of our land, the riches of Thy grace and the 
 bounties of Thy providence ! And may this great nation 
 with all the inhabitants thereof, receive Thy gracious bene- 
 diction, that we may be a. virtuous and happy people and 
 render unto Thee the glory due to thy name. We ask all 
 in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ our Saviour, to 
 whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be everlasting 
 praises. Amen. 
 
 The choir very impressively then sang "My Country 'tis 
 of Thee,"
 
 ROCHESTER'S SI-CENTENNIAL., 13 
 
 The address of welcome was then delivered by Gerard C. 
 Tobey, of Wareham, the President of the Day, and was as 
 follows : 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen: In fulfilling the agreeable duties 
 
 CD G 
 
 which have been assigned to me in the order of exercises for 
 the day, I cannot refrain from expressing rny sincere regret 
 that these offices have not devolved upon some older and 
 more experienced person. As I look upon this large con- 
 course of people and, from this platform, see around me so 
 many brave men who have so often surmounted the surging 
 ocean in its fury, who have commanded every kind of craft 
 from a fishing boat to coasters, whaleships, merchantmen, 
 steamships old Vikings of every sea I feel here to-day, 
 indeed, as if I were intruding upon somebody's quarter-deck. 
 It may be a proper deference for me just now to say to 
 strangers visiting us who may be doubtful of the address of 
 any resident hereabout, call him "Captain," and you will 
 not be far from right; for if you do not find him already a 
 master mariner, the chances are that he will be very soon. 
 Some members of your committees are ship-owners too, who 
 whenever apprehensive of inexperience in the captain of any 
 craft of theirs have a way of supplying him very quietly, 
 but very surely, with the best chief mate that can be ob- 
 tained. I am inclined to suspect they have exercised the 
 same prudence in the orders for this day, as I observe in 
 the appointment of Vice President the name of a highly 
 respected citizen of a part of the original Sippican grant, 
 who bears his years so lightly that age is no impediment to 
 his effort, whose ancestors were among the earlj r colonists, 
 whose personal history is a part of the history of ship-building 
 in Massachusetts, and who, I submit under favor, according 
 to all proprieties should be induced to accept, at once, the 
 commission which I hold with diffidence and would resign 
 lo him with alacrity,.
 
 14 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 But, my friends, do you know that your committee are very 
 arbitrary fellows? Why, last Saturday, when somebody 
 inquired at their meeting whether provision had been made 
 for this celebration in case the appointed day proved to be 
 stormy, what think you was their^conduct? Did they pro- 
 ceed to provide for tents or shelter or a postponement? Oh, 
 no ! they just proceeded to vote, unanimously, that there 
 should be no storm allowed here at all during the celebra- 
 tion of the Rochester Bi-Centenuial. And you yourselves 
 are witnesses, ladies and gentlemen, how the lowering 
 clouds dismally gathered in this vicinity last evening, how 
 sullenly they loitered around here this morning, dropped a 
 few rebellious tears in Mattapoisett, and then dispersed dis- 
 consolately in obedience to the edict of the arrogant com- 
 mittee ; and now we are rejoicing in this genial sunshine 
 while etherial mildness rules the skies. Toward a commit- 
 tee so puissant as this, the only policy must be one of sub- 
 mission ; and therefore it is I rise to salute you and to bid 
 you welcome to our good cheer. 
 
 I welcome you to the festivities and entertainments which 
 have been prepared by your indefatigable and public spir- 
 ited committees. I welcome you to participation in these 
 honors to the dear memory of our forefathers. I welcome 
 you to the sea-blown breezes, the pure air and the inviting 
 shade of this fine old grove in ancient Rochester; and to in- 
 tellectual delights in listening to words of wisdom and of 
 eloquence that will fall from the lips of others who will 
 address you during this festal day. 
 
 The average American, absorbed in strife for the posses- 
 sion of the present good, or in tireless pursuit of a better 
 future, seldom has opportunity for a retrospect. Like the 
 runner figured by St. Paul, "forgetting those things which 
 are behind and reaching forth to those things which are be- 
 fore he presses toward the mark for the prize. " The real-
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 15 
 
 ities and the activities of American life permit no backward 
 views, nulla vestigia retrorsum. Brilliantly progressive is 
 America. 
 
 And, yet, so truly and with such constanc} r does history 
 repeat itself, there are no safe beacons for the future with- 
 out light from the experience of the past. To what purpose, 
 then, can an American, proud of his nationality, proud 
 of the achievements of his countrymen, hopeful, sanguine, 
 confident of the magnificent future of his country, better 
 devote a day, in this heated month of summer vacation, than 
 to tranquil contemplation of the ways and means whereby 
 out of a feeble strip of Christianity struggling for existence 
 upon a hostile coast, was evolved, in two centuries, this 
 great republic of ours, the hope of all nations and to the 
 contemplation of the people, the statesmen, the heroes, the 
 religion, the polity, laws, ethics, customs, and every day 
 life of that sturdy civilization, which, in the same short 
 period of time, subdued a continent of barbarism, re- 
 vealed the majestic resources of our country and advanced 
 our free republic abreast of those grand old nations of 
 Europe from whom it is our privilege to trace an hon- 
 orable descent. 
 
 And thus it happens to-day, irrespective of nationality 
 and of descent 
 
 "For Saxon, or Dane, or Norman, we, 
 Teuton or Celt, whatever we be," 
 
 irrespective of political preferences or denominational differ- 
 ences, we come as Americans, heart unto heart, to this his- 
 toric place near the picturesque shores of our beautiful bay 
 this bay so generous, so bounteous, in gifts alike for suste- 
 nance and for enjoyment this bay so charming in outlines 
 and colors the waters whereof were to our forefathers a 
 highway of traffic between New Plymouth and New Amster- 
 dam, and will become, upon the completion of the project-
 
 16 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 ed canal, the highway of a great commerce from the shores 
 at the north of us to the whole Atlantic coast southward ; 
 here, we convene, just where the ebbing memories of the 
 toilsome past commingle with the flooding promises of the 
 future, to commemorate the deeds and the virtues of those 
 hardy, zealous, godly men, who braved the wintry perils of 
 a storm-beaten and unexplored ocean, proclaimed a new 
 era in civil government, and founded in a savage wilderness 
 a Christian Commonwealth established upon corner stones 
 of religion, education, liberty and law. 
 
 And so, here, to-day, we meet old Rochester proper, the 
 eldest of us all, robust and hearty from his lur^tielcls, farms 
 and woodlands; and here too, comes Wareham, brawny and 
 swart from his iron mills and busy wharves. Hither also 
 cometh Marion, a bright nymph of the sea, the lass who 
 always loved a sailor, God bless her, coy and demure, and 
 just as good as she is pretty. With her too, comes another 
 sea-born beauty, our sister Mattapoisett, fair enchantress of 
 repose, now the petted darling of an alien wealth, well 
 worthy of the full measure of admiration bestowed upon her. 
 And, thus, the whole family having gathered at the trysting 
 tree in this leafy rendezvous, nothing more satisfactory to 
 all, I am sure, can be offered by me than the introduction 
 of a lineal descendant from one of the pious ministers of the 
 Rochester Plantation, who will recite to us much from our 
 local history that has already been forgotten, inform us of 
 much in our annals that we have never known, and stimu- 
 late us to action and aspirations worthy of the memory of 
 an honored ancestry. Ladies and gentlemen, I have now 
 the pleasure of introducing to you the Rev. Noble Warren 
 Everett, of Wareham, the historian of the day we cele- 
 brate.
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 17 
 
 ORATION. 
 
 BY THE REV. N. W. EVERETT. 
 
 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: We are as- 
 sembled here to-day, not far from the Rock of Plymouth, 
 to celebrate the anniversary of an event that is to us one of 
 special interest. And we claim to be scions of the old Pil- 
 grim stock. Before ine are scores through whose veins 
 Pilgrim blood is coursing. 
 
 In the list of passengers that came over in the Mayflower 
 in 1620, and in the Fortune in 1621, we find the familial- 
 names of Aldeu, Dotey, Fuller, Bassite, now spelt Bassett, 
 Bompasse, now spelt Bumpus or Bump, Briggs, Cushman 
 and De La N'oye Delano. 
 
 And while I have been searching the records of the past 
 to prepare for this occasion, ever and anon, the inimitable 
 description of the voyage of the Mayflower, as given by my 
 illustrious namesake* has come to mind. 
 
 "Methinks I see it now, that one solitary adventurous 
 vessel, the Mayflower of a forlorn hope, freighted with the 
 prospects of a future state, and bound across the unknown 
 sea. I behold it pursuing with a thousand misgivings, the 
 uncertain, the tedious voyage. Suns rise and set and weeks 
 and months pass, and winter surprises them on the deep 
 and brings them not the sight of the wished for shore. 
 
 I see them now scantily supplied with provisions, crowd- 
 ed almost to suffocation in their ill stored prison, delayed 
 by calms, pursuing a circuitous route; and now driven in 
 fury before the raging tempest, and the high and giddy 
 waves. The awful voice of the storm howls through the 
 rigging. The laboring masts seem straining from their 
 base; the dismal sound of the pumps is heard; the ship 
 
 *Hon. Edward Everett.
 
 18 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 leaps as it were, imidly from billow to billow; the ocean 
 breaks and settles with engulfing floods over the floating 
 decks, and breaks with deadening, shivering weight, against 
 the staggered vessel. 
 
 "I see them escaped from these perils, pursuing their 
 all but desperate undertaking, and landed at last, after 
 a five months' passage, on the ice-clad rocks of Ply- 
 month." 
 
 In the cabin of that vessel, they settled a general form of 
 government, upon the principles of a pure Democracy. In 
 1636 they published a declaration of rights, and established 
 a body of laws. 
 
 The first fundamental article was in these words : "That 
 no act, imposition, law or ordinance be made or imposed 
 upon us, at present or to come, but such as have been or 
 shall be enacted by the consent of the body of freemen, or 
 associates of their representatives legally assembled." 
 
 Here we find advanced the whole principle of the Revolu- 
 tion, and not only that, we find the whole doctrine of our 
 Republican institutions. 
 
 Said one of Rochester's sons* in the House of Representa- 
 tives of the United States, on the l(Jth of May, 1830 : "Sir, 
 our ancestors migrated hither to build a country; as well 
 for themselves as for their descendants. When they had 
 landed here, they looked out upon the earth, on which they 
 had placed their feet, and back again on the bosom of the 
 ocean, which had borne them to these shores ; and thence 
 up to the clear blue heaven over their heads, and lifting 
 their hands in supplication toward the God above, they re- 
 solved under his direction, to depend on those hands and 
 those elements for subsistence ; for their food, their clothing, 
 and habitation. Independence was their first inspiration. 
 And from that hour to this, all true Americans, who have 
 *Hon. Tristam Burgess.
 
 ROCHESTER'S .BI-CENTENNIAL. 19 
 
 understood and pursued the great interests of this country 
 have lived and labored for this independence." 
 
 And we know full well, Mr. President, their hatred of 
 oppression. They hated it with a hatred beyond expres- 
 sion. And whenever they found it, they smote it as did 
 St. Artigele's iron man Talus, with his flail, without conde- 
 scending to administer an anesthetic. 
 
 These were the men fore-ordained to control the destinies 
 of this new world ; and their enterprise and intelligence has 
 spread all over this land. 
 
 Wherever you find the church and schoolhouse ; the col- 
 lege and seminary; wherever you find the railroad and tele- 
 graph ; wherever you find any portion of this county blos- 
 soming like Eden ; it can almost invariably be traced to 
 Pilgrim influence. 
 
 And this influence shall widen and deepen until the end 
 of time. 
 
 Some have sneered, and laughed at their austere manners 
 and psalm singing; but those who have encountered them 
 or their descendants in the hall of debate or on the field of 
 battle have had little reason for sneers or laughter. They 
 were men and had their faults. But it is hardly our duty 
 to search for them in the musty files of the past. 
 
 Sir, we glory in our birth-place and lineage ! 
 
 And as Sargeant S. Prentiss once said to the men of the 
 South ; so we say here to-day : "Who would not rather be 
 of the Pilgrim stock, than claim descent from the proudest 
 Norman that ever planted his robber feet in the halls of the 
 Saxon or the noblest paladin that quafled wine at the table 
 of Charlemagne ?" 
 
 FIRST SETTLEMENT. 
 
 How the white men first became possessed of the Sippi- 
 can or Rochester territory, whether by purchase or conquest
 
 20 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENXIAL. 
 
 I am unable to determine ; and no gleaner who has preceded 
 me has been able satisfactorily to answer this question. A 
 large part of it, but not the whole, as stated by some, was 
 granted to Thomas Besbeck and others January 22d, 1638-9. 
 In 1647, "Liberty is granted unto the townsmen of Ply- 
 mouth, to make use of the land at Sippican for herding and 
 keeping of cattle and wintering of them there as they shall 
 see cause." 
 
 In 1651, "For the continual support of the township of 
 Plymouth, for the place and seat of government, to prevent 
 the dispersing of the inhabitants thereof, it is ordered that 
 Sippican be granted to the town of Plymouth to be a gen- 
 eral help to the inhabitants thereof, for the keeping of their 
 cattle, and to remain for the common use and good of the 
 said township." 
 
 In 1666, King Philip, sachem of Pokanoket, youngest 
 son of Massasoit, gave power "to Watuchpoo and Sampson, 
 two Indian chiefs, and their brethren to hold and make sale 
 of these lands to whom they pleased." 
 
 And on the 24th of December, 1668, Philip informed the 
 Honorable Court at Plymouth, that they were for sale. 
 
 In Plymouth court orders dated June 3d, 1679, we find 
 the following : "In answer unto the proposition of several 
 that would purchase lands at Sippican and places adjacent, 
 the Court are glad to take notice of what they propound and 
 offer themselves to oblige in order to a comfortable settle- 
 ment of a Plantation there, and shall be ready to accommo- 
 date them as far as they can, on reasonable and easy terms, 
 and give them all due encouragement, if they can procure 
 some more substantial men, that are prudent persons, and 
 of considerable estate, that will make a speedy settlement 
 of themselves and families with them, and we desire and 
 expect to hear further from them at the next meeting of this 
 Court by adjournment in July next, at which time, we may,
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL, 21 
 
 if satisfied in the premises, bargain with them for the lands 
 they desire, or put it in a way to be done." It seems that 
 "some more substantial men, who were prudent persons," 
 were procured, for on the 22d of July, 1679, the purchase* 
 was made and the deed was given. On the same day, the 
 purchasers met, organized and transacted considerable busi- 
 ness, at the house of Mr. Joseph Bradford in Plymouth. 
 
 Joseph Lothrop. William Dexter, Benjamin Foster. 
 
 Barnabas Lothrop, Samuel Brings, Benjamin Bartlett, 
 
 Kanelm Winslow, Seth Pope, Elizabeth Ellis. 
 
 William Clark. Samuel White, Joseph Dunham, 
 
 William Bradford. Joseph Dotey. .Thomas Hinckley. 
 
 Ralph Powell, Aaion Barlow, Thomas Clarke, 
 
 Joseph Bartlett, Moses Barlow. John Cotton. 
 
 John Burge, John Perry, John Bradford. 
 
 Joseph Burgp. Samuel Hammond, William Peabody. 
 
 George Morton. Samuel Davis, 
 
 The names of Samuel Arnold, William Connett and the 
 Ministry share were added to the list subsequent to 1079. 
 
 The territory they purchased embraced the whole of 
 Rochester, Mattapoisett, Marion, and a much larger part of 
 Wareham than has generally been supposed, The deed 
 shows that the easterly line was the westerly jumping 
 brook, now known as the Silvanus Besse brook, the Aga- 
 wam and Wankinco rivers. But they must have soon pur- 
 chased additional land, for hundreds of acres were assigned 
 to Thomas Clark and others on the east side of the Wan- 
 kinco river. 
 
 Soon after the purchase was made, an Indian named 
 Charles, alias Paumprnutt of Ashimuitt, claimed a portion of 
 the purchased possesssions, but on the payment of six 
 pounds, New England money, renounced all title. 
 
 Nov. 19, 1769, Lieut. Joseph Lothrop, agent of the com- 
 pany, paid Peter Suscacow, five shillings to satisfy his claim. 
 
 In 1683, William Connett, an Indian, claimed the whole 
 land they had purchased. He proved a bitter and stubborn
 
 22 ROCHESTER'S 
 
 contestant, but finally entered into an agreement with 
 Thomas Hinckley and Joseph Lothrop that was satisfactory 
 to both parties. 
 * After this, the whites remained in undisputed possession. 
 
 It is probable the first settlers took up their residence 
 here in 1680. 
 
 Their names as given by Barber, are as follows J 
 Rev. Samuel Arnold. John Winr, John Haskoll. 
 
 John Hammond, Joseph Burgess, Samuel White. 
 
 Samuel Hammond, Job Winslow, ,l<i-cph Dotoy, 
 
 Jacob Bumpus, Moses Barlow. Spra<*ne. 
 
 Abraham Holim -. A#ron Barlow. 
 
 Not far from where we are assembled, they erected their 
 first church, and tradition says that until their antique edi- 
 fice was completed they worshipped upon and around a huge 
 rock, since known as "Minister's Rock." 
 
 Rochester was incorporated as a town, June 4, 1686. 
 
 The first ordained minister was Rev. Timothy Ruggles, 
 who commenced his labors here in 1709. 
 
 '.'Iu 1773, the settlers in Mattapoisett were set oft* as a 
 distinct parish under the pastoral care of Rev. Ivory Hovey. 
 He was born in Topsfield, Mass., 1714. Graduated at 
 Harvard College, in 1735. Installed Pastor of the Second 
 Church of Rochester, (Mattapoisett) October 29th, 1740, 
 Resigned in 1765. Installed at Plymouth, Mass., Second 
 Church, April, 1770. Died in office, November 4th, 1803, 
 aged 90. While in Mattapoisett, he devoted considerable 
 time to the study of medicine, and became a respectable and 
 useful physician. His life was not only filled up with duty 
 and usefulness, but was marked by meekness, humility and 
 Christian piety. He kept a journal through the 65 years 
 of his ministry, which he left at his decease, spread over 
 7000 pages of short haaid. He published his valedictory 
 sermon at Mattapoisett, and one on the subject of mortality. 
 His immediate successor, in 1772, was Rev. Lemuel Le-
 
 ROCHESTER'S 
 
 Baronv These two men continued in the ministry for one 
 hundred years." 
 
 "Rev. Thomas Bobbins, D. D., the successor of Mr.-Le-* 
 Baron, possessed in his day the most valuable private 
 library in the State. It consisted of over 3000 volumes* 
 and 4000 pamphlets, some of them rare, He also had an 
 extensive collection of coins and manuscripts." 
 
 "Rev. Oliver Cobb, D. D., fourth pastor of the First 
 Church in Rochester, was born in Kingston, Mass., March 
 18th, 1770, in a house still owned and occupied by his 
 father's descendants. Near by stands the ancient residence 
 of his grandfather, who lived in three centuries, 1694- 
 1801. Dr. Cobb was graduated at Brown University, or- 
 dained and installed at Rochester in Jane, 177!', and con- 
 tinued in this pastorate just 50 years, till his death in 1849, 
 During his ministry, 222 were added to the church. He 
 was especially esteemed as a sermonizer, and some of his 
 characteristic discourses are well remembered still. He 
 published two sermons, preached at Sandwich during the 
 famous Unitarian division. One of these was delivered at 
 the installation of Rev. Johnathan Burr ; the charge to the 
 pastor, by Rev. Noble Everett of Wareham, is published 
 in the same pamphlet. Dr. Cobb left a numerous family 5 
 his eldest son, Nathaniel, was the eccentric evangelist, who 
 died in 1878; the second sou, Leander, succeeded him in 
 the ministry of this ancient church, and died in 1872." 
 
 Wareham was incorporated as a town July 6, 1739. The 
 first ordained minister svas Rev. Rowland Thatcher. He 
 was born in Barnstable, a graduate of Harvard in 1733, or- 
 dained Dec. 26, 1739, and died Feb. 18, 1775. His name 
 is clerical in Massachusetts. Mather is hardly more so. 
 He died in office, at a good age, having served the church 
 in Wareham more than thirty -five years, and left behind 
 him the fragrance of his good name, and the fruits of his 
 faithful labors.
 
 24 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENXIAL. 
 
 Josiah Cotton, the second pastor, bore another clerical 
 name of just celebrity. He was a graduate ot Yale, and 
 was ordained Nov. 1, 1775. He was a young man of am- 
 ple talent and popular address, but less grave in manners 
 and less zealous in spirit, than his predecessor. Finding 
 that his ministry was not satisfactory, he resigned his office 
 May 31, 1779, and subsequently the profession. 
 
 Noble Everett, the third pastor, was born in Woodbury, 
 Conn., and a graduate of Yale in 1772. He was a chaplain 
 in the Revolutionary army, and was present at the battle of 
 White Plains. He was ordained in Warcham, October 15, 
 1782, and died in office, Dec. 30, 1819. 
 
 He read the Hebrew Scriptures with familiarity, and was 
 justly esteemed sound in doctrine, prudent in discipline, and 
 upright in conduct. He was of the school of the famous 
 Bellamy, earnest and substantial, rather than accurate or 
 conciliating. He disclaimed the use of the pen, and de- 
 pended much on the impulse of the hour ; yet he was 
 often impressive, both in grave preaching and in earnest 
 prayer. 
 
 Under his instructions, Ebenezer Burgess, D. D., John 
 Mackie, M. D., an eminent physician of Providence, R. I.. 
 Timothy G. Coffin, Esq., so long a shining light at the 
 Bristol Bar, and others were fitted for college. 
 
 On his tombstone is the following inscription: "Emi* 
 neut for piety, and a faithful preacher of the Gospel." 
 
 Marion was incorporated May 14, 1852. 
 
 Mattapoisett was incorporated May 20, 1857. 
 
 OCCUPATIONS OF OUR PEOPLE FROM THE FIRST SETTLEMENT 
 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 And now let us dwell for a few moments on the pursuits 
 of our people. 
 
 For a long period after the first settlement, the principal
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 25 
 
 'occupation of the inhabitants was agriculture. The pro- 
 ducts of the soil, together with game from the woods and 
 fish from the adjacent waters, gave them an ample subsist- 
 ence. 
 
 During the war of the Revolution, when salt was in great 
 demand, our citizens embarked largely in manufacturing 
 this article by boiling sea wati-r. About the year 1806, the 
 making of salt by evaporation was commenced and con- 
 tinued some forty years. 
 
 In former years, ship-building has been carried on to a 
 considerable extent. In Wareham the ships Pocahontas, 
 Jubilee, Ware ham, Kutusoff, George Washington, Republic 
 and others were built, Some of them at the time attracted 
 considerable attention by their size ; but now, they would 
 be but as "long-boats" compared with the Great Eastern. 
 
 In Mattapoisett, hundreds of ships have been built for 
 the whaling and merchant service, and their prows have 
 Vexed the waters of every sea. 
 
 In 1809, Rev. Noble Everett erected a fulling mill at 
 Wareharn Centre, Avhich was operated by him and his sons 
 for many years. 
 
 The first cotton factory here was built in 1812. This and 
 the fulling mill occupied the present site of Parker mills. 
 
 In 1816, Curtis Tobey, Esq., erected a cotton factory on 
 the Weweantit river, and in 1823 Benjamin Lincoln built 
 another on the same stream. 
 
 In 1824, Pardon Taber built a paper mill on the Wewe- 
 antit ; and another paper establishment was erected near the 
 Tremont depot, by Wheelwright & Co., about the year 
 1864. 
 
 In 1825, the manufacture of hollow ware gave employ- 
 ment to hundreds of citizens, and the business was carried 
 on to a greater or less extent for many years prior and sub- 
 sequent to that date.
 
 26 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENSIAL. 
 
 Our leading industry, the manufacture of cut nails, was 
 begun in Wareham in the year 1822, by I. and J. Pratt & 
 Co. Our nails have found a market in every part of the 
 habitable globe. I have myself purchased them in the 
 stores of Pennsylvania, on the slopes of the Pacific, and in 
 the mountains of Sierra Nevada. 
 
 It remains to be seen whether in the future we shall be 
 able to compete with the factories of the Western and Mid- 
 dle States, where iron and coal is near at hand. 
 
 At one time, scores of vessels were employed in the whale 
 fishery from the ports of Mattapoisett, Wareham and Mar- 
 ion, and some of them were remarkably successful. 
 
 Large numbers of our sons have "followed the si-a." 
 We have furnished hundreds of captains for steamships, 
 whaling and merchant ships; and some 'of them have risen 
 to eminence in their profession and have been known exten- 
 sively in the Old World as well as the New. 
 
 High on the roll of popular commanders for a long series 
 of years stood the name of James C. Luce, of Marion, 
 But when the ill-fated Arctic went down, he closed his ca- 
 reer on the ocean. For a quarter of a century he has re- 
 sided on the banks of the Hudson. We had hoped to have 
 seen and welcomed him here on this occasion ; but alas I 
 only a few days ago he sailed on that returnless voyage, 
 where lights and shores eternal greet the vision. 
 
 PATRIOTISM OF THE INHABITANTS. 
 
 Thirdly, as some preachers would say, let us notice the 
 patriotism of the people. I affirm that the sons of this old 
 Sippican tract have been noted for their patriotism ; and in 
 all the great wars that have shaken this continent, they have 
 taken an active part. 
 
 FRENCH WAR. 
 
 In the French war of 1757-8, nine citizens of Wareham,
 
 ROCHESTER'S EX-CENTENNIAL. 27 
 
 John Bates, Barnabas Bates, Jabez Besse. Henry Saunders, 
 Oliver Norris, Joshua Besse, 'Ebenezer Chubbuck, Joseph 
 Norris and Samuel Besse, went to Cape Breton and assisted 
 in taking that place, some in the land forces and some in 
 the navy, and Samuel Besse lost his life in the expedition. 
 About the same time, Nathaniel Besse, Gershom Morse, 
 Newb,ury Morse, Elnathan Sampson, and Nathaniel Chub- 
 buck went into the Northern army and were employed in 
 taking Canada. 
 
 Also, there were three Indians who resided in this town 
 named Jo Joseph, Sol Joseph and Jabez Wickett, who went 
 and fought against the hostile Indians on the Canadian fron- 
 tier. The Nathaniel Chubbuck already mentioned was in 
 the English army at the time it was defeated near the city 
 of Carthageua in South America, in 1741 ; and also at the 
 taking of Havana in Cuba, in 1763. 
 
 REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 
 
 We find that the town of Rochester took action in refer- 
 ence to the approaching struggle at an early day. 
 
 On December 28, 1772, after reading the Letter of Cor- 
 respondence from Boston, chose Deacon Seth Dexter, Sam- 
 uel Briggs, Jr., Ebenezer White, Nathaniel Hammond, 
 David Wing, Noah Sprague and Thomas West, to consider 
 the matter and report at the adjourned meeting. 
 
 January 11, 1773, they reported the following resolves, 
 which were adopted by the town : 
 
 Resolved, that we are entitled to all the Rights of natural 
 born subjects of Great Britain ; and have not forfeited said 
 Rights. 
 
 That the acts of Parliament raising a revenue in America, 
 with the extended powers of the Board of Commissioners 
 and Court of Admiralty ; and the stationing a part of the 
 navy and troops here, are in variance of our Rights, estab- 
 lished by Charter.
 
 28 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 That the Governor's salary being made independent of 
 the General Court is a dangerous measure. 
 
 That the establishment of the Judges of the Supreme 
 Court is a most alarming innovation, and if these proceed- 
 ings are submitted to, our General Court may soon be con- 
 sidered a riotous body. 
 
 That we have a right to petition for a redress of these 
 grievances, and if such petition is treated with neglect or 
 contempt, it is a yoke which our fathers, or we, are not able 
 to bear. And we do instruct our Representative in the 
 General Court, not to act inconsistent with these resolutions, 
 as that will be very displeasing to his constituents. 
 
 And that he in conjunction with the House of Represen- 
 tatives pursue every legal measure for our political salva- 
 tion. 
 
 That we pay our grateful acknowledgments to the town 
 of Boston, for circulating through the Province a plan which 
 we hope will be productive of happy effects. 
 
 The town further voted, that if our Representative or any 
 other person in this town, either has or shall basely desert 
 the cause of Liberty, for the sake of being promoted to a 
 post of honor or profit, or for any other mean view to self- 
 interest, shall be looked upon as an enemy to his country 
 and be treated with that neglect and contempt that he justly 
 deserves. 
 
 June 30, 1774, voted to sign a covenant to break off trade 
 with Great Britain, until the Boston Port bill is repealed, 
 and we restored to our constitutional rights. 
 
 Sept. 29, 1774, instructed our Representative not to act 
 in conformity with the act of Parliament altering the Char- 
 er, &c. ; and to adhere to the provisions of the charter of 
 William and Mary, and if dissolved, to form into a pro- 
 vincial Congress. 
 
 Chose Charles Nye to examine the town stock. Voted to
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 29 
 
 purchase forty fire-arms, and to purchase powder so that 
 the stock be four hundred pounds, and lead in propor- 
 tion. 
 
 Chose a committee to call the companies together, for the 
 choice of officers. 
 
 June 7, 1775, accepted of the Association recommended 
 by Congress and chose Nathaniel Hammond, John Doty and 
 David Wing, a committee to see it carried into effect. 
 
 Voted, that every "minute man," amounting to one hun- 
 dred, that shall attend three half days in each week, as 
 shall be appointed by their captain, and twice a month in a 
 body, to the first of April, and shall be ready to march if 
 needed, and 'equip themselves, shall have one shilling a 
 week. 
 
 March, 1775, chose Nathaniel Briggs, Joseph Parker and 
 David Wing, to see that the "Minute Men" equip them- 
 selves. 
 
 Rochester company of "Minute Men" that responded to 
 the first call, April 19th, 1775 : 
 
 Commissioned officers Edward Hammond, captain ; Jo- 
 siah Burgess, lieutenant ; Timothy Ruggles, ensign. Non- 
 commissioned officers Sergeants, William Nye, Jonathan 
 King, Stafford Hammond, Sylvester Bates. Corporals 
 Church Mendall, Elisha Briggs, David Snow, William 
 Crapo. Private soldiers Ichabod Nye, William Randall, 
 
 Nathan Savory, Bassett, Richard Warren, Nathaniel 
 
 Ryder, George Hammond, Joseph Clark, Shubael Ham- 
 mond, Rufus Bassett, Jonathan Clark, Lemuel Caswell, 
 Nathan Nye, Seth Mendall, Moses Bates, Consider King, 
 Hathaway Randall, Seth Hathaway, Elijah Caswell, Jr., 
 Nathan Perry, Isaac Washburn, Japhet Washburn, Caleb 
 Combs, Joseph Hammond, Benjamin Haskins, John Briggs, 
 Elijah Bates, David Bates, Daniel Mendall, Samuel Snow, 
 Nathan Sears, Nathaniel King, Weston Clarke, Robert
 
 30 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 Rider, Silas Bussett, Ebenezer Foster, George Clarke, 
 William Hopper. 
 
 Rochester second foot company of militia that responded 
 to the "Lexington Alarm," April 19th, 1775. 
 
 Nathaniel Hammond, captain ; Nathaniel Briggs, lieuten- 
 ant: John Briggs, Lemuel LeBaron, sergeants ; corporals, 
 
 Increase Clapp, Samuel Jenness, John , Charles Stur- 
 
 tevant, Sturdevant, Hammond, Joel Ellis, Na- 
 thaniel Sears, Joseph Haskell, 2d, Benjamin Dexter, Daniel 
 
 Hammond, Briggs, Samuel Sampson, Ichabod Cla]*p, 
 
 Joshua Allen, John Allen, Jr., John Clarke, Hosea Boles, 
 John Keen, Joseph Wing, Ebenezer Hammond, Elisha 
 Briggs, private soldiers. (See roll at the State House.) 
 
 July 3d, 1775, voted to hire one hundred pounds, to buy 
 war stores. 
 
 Voted that those who have good guns, but no ammuni- 
 tion, repair to the keepers of the town stores aud draw half 
 a pound of powder, and bsills answerable ; they paying for 
 the same, or leaving their names. 
 
 Aug. 7, 1775, sundry persons subscribed 216f yards ot 
 thick cloth for the army. 
 
 May 23, 1776, voted, that when Congress shall declare 
 Independence, we will defend them with lives and fortunes. 
 
 Nov. 27, 1777, made choice of Seth Dexter, E. Hammond 
 and E. Haskell, a committee to supply soldiers' families. 
 
 Oct. 9, 1778, chose a committee of three to supply the 
 families of soldiers who arc now in the Continental arm}'. 
 
 The patriotism of this town was intense, and it is a his- 
 torical fact that Rochester furnished more men in propor- 
 tion to territory or inhabitants than any other town in the 
 
 Old Colony. But there was one notable exception. The 
 
 
 Tories of New England found their great champion in the 
 
 person of Timothy Ruggles. He was the son of Rev. Tim- 
 othy Ruggles, and was born in this town in 1711, and grad-
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 31 
 
 uated at*Harvard University in 1732. He represented the 
 town in the Legislature in 1736. In the old French war in 
 1755, with the rank of Brigadier General, he led a body of 
 troops to join Sir William Johnson. He distinguished him- 
 self in the action with Baron Dieskau, for which he was re- 
 warded by the gift of a lucrative place. 
 
 In 1757, he was appointed Associate Justice of the Com- 
 mon Pleas, and subsequently placed at the head of the 
 bench of that court. 
 
 To the congress of nine colonies at New York, in 1765, 
 he, Otis and Partridge, were the delegates from Massachu- 
 setts. Ruggles was made President of that body. His 
 conduct gave great dissatisfaction to the Whigs of Massa- 
 chusetts, and in addition to a vote of censure of the House 
 of Representatives, he was reprimanded in his place from 
 the speaker's chair. 
 
 He became, as the Revolutionary quarrel advanced, orie 
 of the most violent supporters of the ministry, and he and 
 Otis, as the leaders of the two opposing parties, were in 
 constant collision in the discussions of the popular branch 
 of the government. 
 
 In 1774, he was named a Mandamus Councillor, which 
 increased his unpopularity to so great a degree that his 
 house was attacked at night and his cattle were maimed and 
 poisoned. He died at Digby, Nova Scotia, in 1798, aged 
 87 years. 
 
 Sabine, the historian, says of him, "General Ruggles 
 was a good scholar, and possessed powers of mind of a very 
 high order. He was a wit and a misanthrope ; and a man 
 of rude manners and rude speech. Many anecdotes con- 
 tinue to be related of him, which show his shrewdness, his 
 sagacity, his military hardihood and bravery. As a lawyer, 
 he was an impressive pleader, and in parliamentary debate, 
 able and ingenious. That a person thus constituted should
 
 32 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 make enemies, other than those which men in prominent 
 public stations usually acquire, is not strange, and he had a 
 full share of personal foes. In Mrs. .Warren's dramatic 
 piece of 'The Group,' he figures' in the character of Briga- 
 dier Hate-all." 
 
 Lieut. -Col. Ehenezer White of this town performed good 
 service for the cause of his country, in the "days that tried 
 men's souls." He was commissioned as Lieut. : Colonel of 
 the Fourth Regiment Plymouth County Militia, in the first 
 year of the Revolutionary War, and while participating in 
 one of the engagements that took place in Rhode Island, had 
 a part of the hilt of his sword shot off. In the cemetery at 
 Rochester Centre, on that part called "Rochester Town," 
 stands an old brown stone, bearing the following inscrip- 
 tion : " Memento Mori, Sacred to the memory of Colonel 
 Ebenezer White, who died March, 1804, aged 80. He was 
 1.9 times chosen to represent the town of Rochester in the 
 General Court ; in 14 of which elections he was unanimously 
 chosen. As a tribute of respect for his faithful services, 
 the town erected this monument to his memory." 
 
 Elnalhan Haskell, of Rochester, was Major of Artillery 
 in the Continental army. His likeness appears in one of 
 the historical paintings that adorn the dome of the capitol 
 at Washington. 
 
 In visiting your ancient cemetery, I scraped the moss 
 from an old tombstone and read the following: "Ensign 
 Ebenezer Foster, killed at the taking oi Burgoyne, Sept. 
 19, 1777, in the 21st year of his age." 
 
 In your town records, the following unique biography 
 may be seen : " Ichabod Burgess departed this life in 1834. 
 He was a soldier of the Revolution, and during the whole 
 war he nobly dared to meet in awful fight the enemies of his 
 country. He fought and bled and conquered ; and now has 
 conquered his last enemy and joined his glorious file leader, 
 Washington, in glory. 5 *
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 33 
 
 I have searched for other individual records, but searched 
 in vain. Alas, the old Revolutionary heroes of Rochester 
 sleep their last sleep, and nearly all those who listened to 
 their deeds of valor have followed them. 
 
 Turn we now to the history of Wareham in the Revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 Pier first act was to answer the people of Boston as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 At the request of the town of Boston, the inhabitants of 
 the town of Wareham met together on the 18th day of Jan- 
 uary, 1773, to consider matters of grievances the Provinces 
 are under. Capt. Josiah Carver, moderator. 
 
 Voted to act on the request of the town of Bo'ston. 
 
 Chose David Xye, Barnabas Bates and Benjamin Briggs 
 a committee to act on the above said matters of grievances, 
 and la} r it before the town. Voted to adjourn to the 8th of 
 February. 
 
 Feb. 8th, 1774, voted to receive the committee's resolves 
 and record them on the town books. 
 
 1. Resolved, That by the Charter of this Province we 
 are entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the nat- 
 ural born citizens of Great Britain, therefore 
 
 2. Resolved, That the raising a revenue on the people^ 
 by a legislative authority where they have no right in the 
 election or returning of any of the members, is a great griev- 
 ance, as we are thereby taxed by other than our own repre- 
 sentatives. 
 
 3. Resolved, That the extensive power given to the com- 
 missioners of His Majesty's customs in America is a griev- 
 ance. 
 
 4. Resolved, That the affixing salaries on the Judges of 
 Supreme Court of Judicature within this Province out of 
 the aforesaid revenue is a grievance, as our lives and prop- 
 erty are so nearly concerned in the decision of the Judges 
 
 c
 
 34 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 who hold their places during pleasure, and are entirely de- 
 pendent on the Crown for their support. 
 
 5. Resolved, That the extending the power of the courts 
 of vice admiralty, so as that in many things it destroys the 
 privilege of the trials by juries, is an extreme grievance ; 
 and in particular that remarkable distinction made between 
 the subjects in Great Britain and those in these colonies, in 
 sundry acts of Parliament, in which the property of the 
 colonies is given up to the determination of one*single Judge 
 of Admiralty, where by the same act the subject in Britain 
 is tried in His Majesty's Court of Record. 
 
 6. Resolved, That we will freely join with the town of 
 Boston, or any or all other towns in the Province to take 
 any legal measures to obtain a removal of the above griev- 
 ance in a constitutional manner. 
 
 7. Resolved, That whereas we are not in the capacity to 
 send a representative to represent us in the General Assem- 
 bly of the Province, we desire the committee of correspond- 
 ence of the town of Boston to use their influence in that 
 constitutional body, that they may petition our most gra- 
 cious sovereign for a removal of the above said grievances, 
 or that such method for the recovery of our ancient and 
 valuable privileges as in their wisdom may appear most con- 
 ducive to the common good of the Province. 
 
 8. Resolved, That the thanks of the town be returned 
 to the inhabitants of the town of Boston for their letter of 
 correspondence and the care they have taken to acquaint the 
 Province in general, and us in particular, of the divers 
 measures that have been and still arc taken to deprive us of 
 the privileges enjoyed by the subjects of the same Prince in 
 Great Britain. 
 
 9. Resolved, That if any person for the sake of any 
 post of honor, or for any private advantage whatsoever, 
 shall basely desert the common cause of British freedom,
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 35 
 
 and endeavor to hinder or obstruct our thus recovering our 
 ancient and invaluable privileges, he shall be deemed as an 
 enemy to his country, and shall be treated by us with that 
 neglect and contempt that his behavior deserves. 
 
 Failing to obtain a constitutional remedy, they resorted 
 to other means; and on Jan. 16, 1775, they voted to allow 
 each "Minute Man" Is. 4d. per week; refused to pay any 
 Province or County tax under the King's authority, and 
 voted to pi\y the Province tax already made to Dr. Andrew 
 Mackie, with instructions that he keep it subject to the 
 town's order. 
 
 On March 17, 1775, they voted to purchase six guns for 
 the use of the town, and directed Nathan Bassett to put 
 the other guns in order and make bayonets to fit them, for 
 which service they paid him 24, 16s. 6d. 
 
 The militia company of Wareham, that responded to the 
 call April 19th, 1775: 
 
 Commissioned officers- -Noah Fearing, captain ; John 
 Gibbs, lieutenant. Non-commissioned officers Jonathan 
 Gibbs, Joseph Sturtevant, sergeants; Euos Howard, corpo- 
 ral; Thomas Norris, drummer; Joseph Bumpus, Jorseph 
 Winslow, Jesse Swift, Bumpus, John Bates, Bas- 
 sett, Benjamin Swift, Jno. Bourne, Archipaus Saundera. 
 Hathaway, Samuel Savery, David Nye, privates. 
 
 Company of "Minute Men " from "Wareham that marched 
 to Marshfield, April 19, 1775 : 
 
 Commissioned officers Israel Fearing, captain ; Joshua 
 Briggs, lieutenant; Ebenezer Chubbuck, second lieutenant. 
 Non-commissioned officers Samuel Savery, Prince Bur- 
 gess, Edward Sparrow, Burgess, sergeants ; Jno. 
 
 Besse, drummer; Joshua Besse, fifer ; Samuel Burgess, 
 Sylvester Bumpus, Calvin Howard, Wilbur Swift, Ben- 
 jamin Gibbs, Samuel Phillips, Ruf'us Perry, Nathaniel 
 Burgess, Joshua Gibbs, Jr., William Parris, Isaac Ames,
 
 36 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 William Burapus, David Perry, Benjamin Briggs, Bar- 
 nabas Bumpus, Elisba Burgess, Richard Soars, Asaph 
 Bates, Jabez Nye, Jno. Lothrop, Ebenezer Bourne, Willis 
 Barrows, Samuel Norris, Joseph Bumpus, Elisha Swift, 
 Jabez Besse, Samuel Morse, Thomas Sampson, Timothy 
 Chubbuck, privates. 
 
 Soon after this the following men enlisted for six months, 
 were stationed along the shore in this town, and paid by the 
 State. A part of them, however, went to Roxbury, and 
 there served two months of the time: Ebenezer Chubbuck, 
 Samuel Bassett, Nathan Bassett, Barnabas Bates, David 
 Saunders, Barn abas Bumpus, Judah Swift, Daniel Perry, 
 Jabez Nye, Joseph Bos worth, John Brsse, Joshua Besse, 
 Joseph Saunders, Wm. Conant, Joseph Bumpus, Ephraim 
 Norris, Rufus Perry, Baruabas Bates, Jr., Consider Sturte- 
 vant, John Bourne, Benjamin Russell, Samuel Morse, Ca- 
 leb Burgess, Joseph Bates, Thomas Bates, Samuel Bates. 
 
 At the same time the following were in the army near 
 Boston, with the eight months' men : Lieut. Willard Swift, 
 Edward Spooner, Lemuel Caswell, John Lathrop, Cal/in 
 Howard, Samuel Phillips, Samuel Barrows, Benjamin Chub- 
 buck, William Thorn. 
 
 Two others went to the Lakes; so that this little town, 
 tiiat did not have voters enough to entitle it to a represen- 
 tative, furnished thirty-six soldiers the first year of the war. 
 
 And when the public authorities called for a re-enlistment 
 for the term of one year, and it was submitted to the citi- 
 zens of Warehara, to see who would enlist for 1776, the 
 following responded : Edward Sparrow, Josiah Harlow, 
 Willard Swift, Lemuel Caswell, Samuel Barrows, Samuel 
 Phillips, William Pierce, Arthur Hathaway, Wm. Thorn, 
 Jesse Swift, Benjamin Gibbs, Caleb Burgess, Benjamin 
 Burgess, William Bumpus, Benjamin Swift, John Gait, Sol- 
 omon Hitchman, Rufus Perry.
 
 BI-CEKTENKIAL. 3 
 
 They joined the army near Boston, and after the British 
 evacuated that place went to New York. 
 
 In June there was another call for men to go to New 
 York, when Joseph Bates, Perez Briggs, William Hunt, 
 Joseph Bosworth, Nathaniel Burgess, Benjamin Swift, and 
 Benjamin Chubbuck, enlisted for the term of five months; 
 making twenty-five men in the regular army the second 
 year of the war. 
 
 Upon the call of Congress for men to serve in the Conti- 
 nental army for three years, or during the war, commencing 
 with 1777, the following enlisted and were marched against 
 Burgoyne's army: Lieut. Joseph Bates, Joseph Saunders, 
 Jonathan Saunders, William Conant, Lot Sturdevant, Na- 
 than Sturdevant, Moses Sturdevant, David Burgess, Solo- 
 mon Hitchman, James Bumpus, Amaziah King, Reuben 
 Maxim, Joseph Bumpus, William Pnrkman. 
 
 About the same time the State called for two months' 
 men, to go to Rhode Island, when the following responded 
 to the call, and were stationed near Rowland's Ferry : Silas 
 Besse, Hallett Briggs, Benjamin Bourne, Joseph Swift, 
 John Winslow, Asa Bumpus. 
 
 After this Lieut. Prince Burgess, Ebenezer Burgess and 
 Herman Sturdevant went to Rhode Island and were in the 
 battle fought by Gen. Sullivan, at the south end of the 
 island, and it is said they all fought bravely. 
 
 In August of this year, nearly every man of the militia 
 went against Newport, on the secret expedition which did 
 not succeed, and they soon returned. 
 
 March 26, 1777, chose Jeremiah Bumpus, Ebenezer 
 Chubbuck, Israel Fearing, Edward Sparrow and Barnabas 
 Bates, Jr., a committee of correspondence, inspection and 
 sutety. 
 
 Sept. 29, voted 23 to pay for one hundred pounds of 
 powder.
 
 38 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 Nov. 25, voted 100 for the purpose of supplying the 
 families of the Continental soldiers, and chose a committee 
 to provide such articles as they should need. 
 
 Soon after the taking of Gen. Burgoyne's army, Barnabas 
 Bates, Silas Besse, Silas Fearing, John Gait, David Perry, 
 Jabez Besse and Nathan Norris went to Boston on a three 
 months' tour, to guard the prisoners. 
 
 March 2, 1778, chose John Fearing, James Burgess, An- 
 drew Mackie, Samuel Savery and Barnabas Bates a commit- 
 tee of correspondence, inspection and safety. 
 
 Oct. 5, voted to raise money to pay for soldiers' clothing, 
 and chose a committee to supply the soldiers' families the 
 ensuing year. 
 
 Jan. 11, 1779, voted to raise by tax 184 in the west end 
 of the town to pay two nine months' men, viz. t Andrew 
 Sturdevant and Asa Bumpus. 
 
 Voted to raise soldiers in the future by a town tax, and a 
 committee was chosen to hire them for the town. 
 
 March 8, chose John Fearing, Joshua Gibbs and David 
 Nye, to see that there be no forestalling and monopolizing 
 in the town, agreeably to an act of the General Court. 
 
 Chose John Fearing, Andrew Mackie, Samuel Savery, 
 Barnabas Bates and Prince Burgess, a committee of corres* 
 pondence, inspection and safety* 
 
 July 5, chose a committee to supply the soldiers' families 
 with the necessaries of life. Voted 110, 16s., to pay sol- 
 diers' bounty and mileage. 
 
 Dec. 6, voted to send to Boston for 160 pounds ot 
 powder. 
 
 March 22, 1780, chose Israel Fearing, Barnabas Bates 
 mid Rowland Thatcher, a committee of correspondence, in- 
 spection and safety. 
 
 June 20, voted that the six months' men now sent into 
 service be hired by a tax, and that each man have 69 silver
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 39 
 
 dollars, as a bounty, and 130 paper dollars per man mileage 
 money. 
 
 Voted to eleven three months' men 40 silver dollars per 
 man and 100 paper dollars per mile. 
 
 Capt. John Gibbs, William Conant, Thomas Bates, Silas 
 Besse, Lot Thacher, Lot Bumpus, Seth Stevens, Isaac Ste- 
 vens, Geo. Glover, Benjamin Benson, George Gurney and 
 Thomas Barrows were the captain and eleven men men- 
 tioned in the last vote. These men went to Rhode Island. 
 
 Sept. 21, voted to raise 86, 17s. hard money, to pay for 
 beef sent to the army. 
 
 Dec. 26, voted to raise seven men for the army during 
 the war. 
 
 July 9, 1781, chose a committee to procure beef for the 
 army. 
 
 Sept. 24, voted for two five months' soldiers, 21 ; for 
 four three months' men, 72; and for seven three years' 
 soldiers, 126. 
 
 Oct. 8, voted 235, 8s., to pay for 9146 Ibs. of beef sent 
 to the Continental army ; and 15 for 400 Ibs. of beef for 
 soldiers' families. 
 
 Dec. 17, voted to join with Plymouth to petition to take 
 off the excise act. 
 
 Sept, 16, 1782, voted 210 for seven three years' sol- 
 diers. 
 
 Sept. 29, 1783, voted 180 for six three years' soldiers. 
 
 Wareham furnished about one hundred soldiers for the 
 entire war. We have the names of 86, who served at dif- 
 ferent times ; 13 of them dying in the service. 
 
 There are some instances of individual bravery, worthy 
 of special record. 
 
 On the 7th of September, 1778, the British troops made 
 an attempt to destroy the village of Fairhaven, but were 
 bravely repulsed by a small force, commanded by Major
 
 40 fcOCHESTER's BI-CEJ?TEXXtAL. 
 
 Israel Fearing 1 of Wareham. The enemy a day or two pre- 
 viously had burned houses and destroyed a large amount of 
 property at New Bedford. The following is from Dwi f ht's 
 Travels, Vol. Ill, p. 71 : 
 
 "From this place the}' marched around to the head of 
 the river to Sconticut Point, on the eastern side, leaving in 
 their course, for some unknown reason, the villages ot Ox- 
 ford and Fairhaveu. Here they continued till Monday, and 
 then re-emharked. The following night a large body of 
 them proceeded up the river, with a design to finish the 
 work of destruction, by burning Fairhaven. A critical at- 
 tention to their movements had convinced the inhabitants 
 that this was their design, and induced them to prepare for 
 their reception. The militia of the neighboring country had 
 been summoned to the defence of this village. Their com- 
 mander was a man far advanced in years. Under the influ- 
 ence of that languor which at this period enfeebles both the 
 body and the mind, he determined that the place must be 
 given up to the enemy, and that no opposition to their rav- 
 ages could be made with any hope of success. 
 
 This decision of their officer necessarily spread its be- 
 numbing influence over the militia, and threatened an abso- 
 lute prevention of all enterprise and the destruction of this 
 handsome village. 
 
 Among the officers belonging to the brigade was Israel 
 Fearing, Esq., a major of one of the regiments. This gal- 
 lant young man, observing the torpor which was spreading 
 among the troops, invited as many as had sufficient spirit to 
 follow him, and station themselves at the post of danger. 
 Among those who accepted the invitation was one of the 
 colonels, who of course became the commandant ; but after 
 they had arrived at Fairhaven, and the night had come on, 
 he proposed to march the troops back into the country. He 
 was warmly opposed by Major Fearing; and finding that he
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTEXMAL. 41 
 
 could not prevail, prudently retired to a house three miles 
 distant, where he passed the night in safety. . 
 
 After the colonel had withdrawn, Major Fearing, now 
 commander-in-chief, arranged his men with activity and 
 skill ; and soon perceived the British approaching. The 
 militia, in the strictest sense raw, already alarmed by the 
 reluctance of their superior officers to meet the enemy, and 
 naturally judging that men of years must understand the 
 real state of the danger better than Major Fearing, a mere 
 youth, were panic struck at the approach of the enemy, and 
 instantly withdrew from their post. At this critical mo- 
 ment, Major Fearing with the decision which awes men into 
 a strong sense of duty, rallied them, and placing himself in 
 the rear, declared in a tone which removed all don lit, that 
 he would kill the first man whom he found retreating. The 
 resolution of their chief recalled theirs. With the utmost 
 expedition he then led them to the scene of danger. The 
 British had already set fire to several stores. Between these 
 buildings and the rest of the village he stationed his troops, 
 and ordered them to lie close in profound silence, until the 
 enemy, who were advancing, should have come so near that 
 no marksman could easily mistake his object. The orders 
 were punctually obeyed. When the enemy had arrived 
 within this distance, the Americans arose, and with a well 
 [lirectcd fire gave them a warm and unexpected reception. 
 The British fled instantly to their boats, and fell down the 
 river with the utmost expedition. From the quantity of 
 blood found the next day in their line of march, it was sup- 
 posed that their loss was considerable. Thus did this heroic- 
 youth, in opposition to his superior officers, preserve Fair- 
 haven, and merit a statue from its inhabitants." 
 
 Nor were the operations of our patriotic citizens confined 
 to the land. Capt. Barzillai Besse went out privateering 
 tinder a commission from the State, in an armed sloop, and 
 c2
 
 42 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 took one prize. He, together with John Gibbg and sonic 
 others of his crew, left his vessel at Nantncket and went on 
 board Captain Dimmick of Falmonth, as volunteers in a 
 wood sloop borrowed in the place lor the occasion, and run- 
 ning down towards the enemy's vessel, wl ich was a shaving 
 mill mounting six swivels. Dimmick was ordered to strike. 
 He showed submission ; but in running under the stern, he 
 put his bowsprit under the enemy's taffrnil, and calling upon 
 his men, they sprang on board, killed the English captain 
 and took the vessel, in a few minutes. 
 
 Also a ten-gun sloop, named the Hancock, owned by John 
 Carver, Nathan Bassett and others, was fitted out from this 
 place as a privateer, commanded by James Southard. The 
 first cruise, they went to the West Indies and took two 
 prizes. The second cruise, they took two Grand Bank fish- 
 ermen, both brigs, and brought them into Wareham. 
 
 Rufus Lincoln enlisted at the commencement of the war, 
 rose to the rank of captain, and fought in the battle of 
 Bemis Heights, Princeton and other battles. He was at 
 one time taken prisoner, and kept for a long time in a 
 prison near Philadelphia. 
 
 Nathan Savery and John Bourne marched into the fort at 
 Ticonderoga, under Ethan Allen, when he demanded its sur- 
 render "in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Conti- 
 nental Congress."' They were also present at the taking of 
 Crown Point. 
 
 Lieut. Josiah Smith was a member of the "Society of 
 Cincinnati," and one of Washington's Life Guard. He 
 fought in the battles of Saratoga, Monmouth and Yorktown, 
 and was one of "Mad Anthony's " forlorn hope that stormed 
 and captured Stony Point, one hundred years ago last Wed- 
 nesday, (an event that electrified the nations. Paris was 
 all ablaze, and for many days her streets rang with nothing 
 but the name of Gen. Wayne.) This brave old soldier
 
 4 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL, 43 
 
 ; Sank to rest, 
 
 With all his country's honors blest." 
 
 In 1845, at the extraordinary age of 92, and was buried with 
 military honors. 
 
 WAR OF 1812-15. 
 
 Our people were not as zealously engaged in this war as 
 in the war of the Revolution. A large portion of New 
 .England was opposed to the declaration of war, uot be- 
 lieving there was sufficient cause for war. When a bill 
 was discussed in Congress appropriating three millions 
 for the conduct of the war, Daniel Webster declared he 
 would not vote for it, " if the guns of the enemy were bat- 
 tering down the capitol.'' 
 
 The British frigate Nimrod anchored oft' "Gre.it Hill" in 
 June. 1814, and 200 marines in barges landed at Wareham, 
 where they destroyed property to the amount of $25,000, 
 
 On departing, they left word that they should soon re- 
 turn. A military company was at once formed, with com- 
 missioned officers; trenches were dug on one of the 
 " Necks," where their guns would rake the channel, and 
 here they drilled and watched for the space of three 
 months. 
 
 If the British had made their words good, they would 
 have met with a warm reception. 
 
 A large number of our citizens served in the "Coast 
 Guard," and twelve men went from Wareham to Xevvport, 
 and were there employed in the corps called " Sea Fenci- 
 bles," where they served until peace was declared. 
 
 Moses Bumpus and James Miller shipped on board a pri- 
 vateer, where Bumpus was killed and Miller lost a leg by a 
 cannon ball. Of the few men killed on the American side, 
 it the battle of New Orleans, Joseph Saunders of Wareham 
 was one.
 
 44 ROCHESTER'S BI-CEKTENNIAL. , 
 
 William Bates of Warcham,.in early life, so distinguished 
 himself in the battle of Bladensburg, that honorable men- 
 tion is made of him in history. He subsequently Iweame a 
 famous instructor of youth in his native town, fitting many 
 young men for college, filled various local offices with honor, 
 and at one time ran for the office of Secretary of State in 
 this Commonwealth, but his part}' ticket was defeated. 
 His ability, both natural and acquired, was of a high order. 
 
 Seth Leonard of Wareham, performed a feat during this 
 war that would have gained him deification among the an- 
 cients. He happened to be in Stonington, Conn., in 1814, 
 when the British frigate Ximrod attempted to enter the har- 
 bor. Causing an old cannon to be hastily mounted, he al- 
 most single-handed and alone, served it with such precision 
 and effect that the frigate was obliged to retire to repair 
 damages, and Stonington was saved. 
 
 WAR OF THE REBELLION. 
 
 Iii this war, Rochester furnished for the army and navy 
 125 men. Of these, '.' died in the service. 
 
 .Marion furnished for the army and navy 25 men. Of 
 these, G died in the service. 
 
 Mattapoisett furnished 215 men for the army and navy. 
 Of these, 18 died in the service. 
 
 Wareham furnished 320 men for the army and navy. t)f 
 these, 34 died in the service. 
 
 Three brothers, Joshua Besse, Jr., Ichabod Besse and 
 Lathrop A. Besse, and Benjamin B. Besse, the son of the first 
 named, were in the buttles of Antietam and Gettysburg. 
 Benjamin B. Besse enlisted at the commencement of the 
 war at the age of 15, and was engaged in more than forty 
 battles. 
 
 William A. -Edson was 'wounded at the battle of Ball's 
 Bluff, a minie ball passing entirely through his body. He
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI- CENTENNIAL. 45 
 
 remained in the hospital awhile, came home, re-enlisted, 
 served a few months, was pronounced unlit tor duty, came 
 home again, and soon after died. He was called by his 
 comrades, "The Iron Man." 
 
 Mr. President, as I have been looking over the military 
 record of our sons in the late terrible war, my tears have 
 wet that record as I have read, "Died of Starvation" ap- 
 pended to the names of four. 
 
 And when their piercing shrieks came up from the stench 
 pens and miasma yards of Andersouville, Salisbury and 
 Belle Isle, and reached the ear of that old public function- 
 ary at Richmond, one stroke of his pen, o--e word from his 
 mouth would have saved them, but he was as silent as if he 
 had been in the tombs of the Capulets. 
 
 A few years ago I was conversing with a distinguished 
 clergymau, who had grown gray in the service of his Mas- 
 ter, on this topic. We had uot proceeded far, ere he began 
 to manifest a little righteous indignation. Said he, " If a 
 son of mine had been starved there, I would have had my 
 revenge on Jeff. Davis if I pursued him to the gates of 
 hell." "But," said I, "you don't mean that." "Yes," 
 said he, " I mean it." And he looked it, as much as 
 ever Andrew Jackson did when he swore " by the Eter- 
 nal !" 
 
 Now I am not prepared to go as far as that, but I will tell 
 you where I stand. We read that the devil goeth about as 
 a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and if I should 
 see him running off with Jeff. Davis in his mouth, I would 
 .. be the last man to cry "stop thief I" Yet while I stood ex- 
 ulting he would drop him, finding that he had made a mis- 
 take, for Satan is ashamed of a man who would starve his 
 fellow man, as is evident from the fact that he once im- 
 plored the Creator of this earth to turn the stones into' 
 bread.
 
 46 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 I have sometimes thought that at the Lust Great Day, 
 when tho angel shall stand with one toot upon the sea and 
 the other upon the land, and putting the golden trumpet to 
 his month shall swear by him that livcth and reigneth, time 
 was, time is, but time shall be no more, he would have to 
 give an extra blast to arouse the monsters of the earth. 
 Antiochus, Epiphanes, Asdrubal, Jenghis Khan, Hamilcar,. 
 Nero, Tamerlane, George Jeffrej's, the judicial butcher, 
 Nina Sahib, Caligula, the builder of the Black Hole of Cal- 
 cutta, Jeff. Davis, and their kin will turn from side to side 
 in their dusty beds and howl at the angel, as their ancestors 
 howled at the Saviour, " Hast thou come to torment us be- 
 fore the time?" Again the fearful tones of the trumpet are 
 heard, " Time shall be no. longer." 
 
 Reluctantly they arise and appropriately form the rear- 
 guard in the resurrection. Think ye, will not the hounds 
 of Bedlam grow leaner in the presence of such rivals? 
 
 HONORED SONS OF SIPPICAN. 
 
 Turn we now from this revolting contemplation and from 
 the record of the wars, to things more pleasing. Let us- 
 notice some of the sons of the old Sippican tract who have 
 distinguished themselves in the walks of life, and gained far 
 move than a local reputation. 
 
 Ebenezer Swift was bom in "\Vareham, October 8th, 1817. 
 He entered the United States army as a medical officer, in 
 the Spring of 1847, and in August of the same year was 
 promoted to a 1st lieutenant of his corps. He reported for 
 duty to Gen. Franklin Pierce at Vera Cmz, and on the ar- 
 rival of his division of the army at Puebla, he was assigned 
 to duty as aid to Gen. Lawson, at Gen. Scott's headquar- 
 ters, and with Capt. Phil. Kearney, who commanded tliL 
 General's body guard. He was present in every battle irj>
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 47 
 
 which our troops were engaged, on the line from Vera Cruz 
 to the city of Mexico, except Cerro Gordo. At one time, 
 during the battle of Molino del Rey, Gen. Worth, who com- 
 manded in person, ordered him to fall back with our waver- 
 ing lines, saying: "You are drawing tire from the enemy's 
 artillery at Chepultapec." Dr. Swift, who was earnestly 
 engaged, did not look up from his work, and on account of 
 smoke, dust and noise, did not recognize the person ad- 
 dressing him, and simply replied : " 1 will in a moment, 
 after another amputation, sir." He had not discovered that 
 our lines had been driven back in some disorder by the en- 
 emy, and that he was exposed to a fire in front and upon 
 our right flank, while our troops were reforming for another 
 charge. 
 
 Another incident of a similar nature occurred later in the 
 same day, when his horse was shot while being held by his 
 orderly. 
 
 The above was reported verbally to Gen. Scott, who per- 
 sonally complimented him in the presence of his entire staff: 
 and subsequently mentioned him with favor in his report to 
 the Secretary of War. 
 
 He several times commanded troops and posts on our In- 
 dian border ; was military aid to Gov. Walker, in our Kan- 
 sas troubles ; and in the war of the Rebellion was recom- 
 mended for promotion, for gallant conduct at the battle of 
 Stone River, in Tennessee, and in other engagements ; for 
 all of which he received three brevet commissions, the high- 
 est being Brigadier General. 
 
 During reconstruction South, he was for more than a year 
 Mayor of the city of Vicksburg, and also in performance of 
 other important civil duties. 
 
 Gen. Swift is still retained in the service of the United 
 States, and resides at Staten Island, occupying a mansion 
 that was formerly the home of one of the Vanderbilts.
 
 48 ROCHESTER'S BI-CEXTENXIAL. 
 
 "Hon. Abraham Holmes was born in Rochester, June i>, 
 1754. He was admitted to the bar of Plymouth County at 
 the April term, 1800. He was then nearly forty-six years 
 of age. He had previously been President of the Court of 
 Sessions, and though not regularly educated for the profes- 
 sion, the members of the bar voted his admission in consid- 
 eration of 'his respectable official character, learning and 
 abilities, on condition that he study three months in some 
 attorney's office.' He might be called, with great pro- 
 priety, a self-made lawyer. He continued in practice till 
 August, 1835, when eighty-one years of age, with a consid- 
 erable degree 'of reputation and success. Even when thus 
 advanced in life, he was a regular attendant upon the ses- 
 sions of the court, and was regarded as an acute and learned 
 lawyer. In his intercourse with the bar, he was courteous 
 and familiar, especially toward the younger members. 
 
 He was full of anecdote and traditional lore, abounding 
 in wit and humor. His mind was well stoied with facts re- 
 lating to the older members of the bar, and so late as June, 
 1834, when eighty years of age, he delivered a very inter- 
 esting address at New Bedford, to the bar of Bristol County, 
 in which he discoursed of the rise and progress of the pro- 
 fession in Massachusetts, with sketches of the early law- 
 yers ; of the necessity of such an order of men ; and upon 
 the duties of the profession." 
 
 He was a member of the State Convention to revise the 
 Constitution, in 1820, and took a part in the debates. 
 He was a member of the Executive Council of Massachu- 
 setts for the political year, May, 1821-22, and May, 
 1822-23, when Governor Brooks was in office. 
 
 He furnished some items for "Tudor's Life of James 
 Otis;" wrote an essay on the nature and uses of a " Writ 
 of Right," and he left in manuscript many interesting rem- 
 iniscences of the olden times.
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 49 
 
 His writings show great ability. Rev. Jonathan Bigelow, 
 who knew him well, said: "If he had only been favored 
 with a liberal education, it would have been his own fault 
 if he had not become the Chief Justice of Massachusetts." 
 
 After his decease, which occurred Sept. 7, 1839, the 
 members of the bar of the counties of Bristol, Plymouth 
 and Barnstable, at a meeting held at Plymouth, Oct. 25, 
 1839, paid a most respectful tribute to his talents, learning 
 and character, and adopted a resolution expressing a high 
 sense of his professional worth; as a man "whose mind 
 was enriched with various learning ; whose memory was a 
 repository of the most valuable reminiscences ; whose legal 
 attainments gave him high professional eminence, and whose 
 social qualities were an ornament of the circle of friendship 
 during a long life of integrity and usefulness." 
 
 Mr. Holmes was one of those grand old characters whose 
 history it is delightful to contemplate. Intimately associ- 
 ated with the Otises of Barnstable, and the Freemans of 
 Sandwich those giants of the Revolutionary period he 
 struck hard blows for the cause of freedom. In old age, he 
 writes: "The retrospection ot these olden times resusci- 
 tated all the feelings, sensations and animations of 1774; 
 such as none can feel in the same degree who did not live at 
 the time and participate in the fears and hopes, toils and 
 dangers of those times. The contemplation of those events 
 gives me a satisfaction unknown to the miser in counting 
 his hoards ; the agriculturist, when his corn and wine in- 
 creaseth ; or the merchant, when his ships return laden with 
 the riches of the East." 
 
 Through life he held a correspondence with the greatest 
 and best men of our country, and letters still in existence 
 show that they felt honored by his friendship. 
 
 "Hon. Charles Jarvis Holmes, son of the preceding, was 
 born at Rochester, May 9, 1790. 
 D
 
 50 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 He studied l;iw in the office of his father, in Rochester, and 
 was admitted to the Plymouth county bar in 1812, just before 
 the commencement of the second war with Great Britain. 
 He practiced his profession in his native town more than a 
 quarter of a century ; identified with the feelings and inter- 
 ests, and enjoying the confidence of his fellow citizens. He 
 represented Rochester in the Legislature of Massachusetts 
 in the years 1816, 1817, 1819, 1820, 1824, 1826, 1827, 
 1831, 1832. He was a Senator Irom Plymouth County in 
 1829 and 1830 ; a member of the Executive Council in 1835, 
 and an Elector of President and Vice President in 1836. 
 He tilled all these offices while residing in Rochester. 
 
 In December, 1838, with a view to more extended pro- 
 fessional practice, he removed to Taunton. In 1842 he was 
 appointed by President Tyler, Collector of Customs for Fall 
 River ; to which place he removed his residence. He re- 
 mained there till towards the close of his life. He filled at 
 various periods other offices of some importance, as Master 
 in Chancery, Commissioner of Bankruptcy, &c. All the 
 duties of these offices he faithfully discharged. He was a 
 man of ardent friendship, genial temperament, of a high 
 sense of honor. His intellectual powers were strong and 
 well cultivated, although he was not educated at college. 
 He was a careful reader of the English classics, and a thor- 
 ough student of the law. In political life, he was ardent, 
 sanguine, strong in his convictions, and indefatigable in 
 maintaining them. He wrote his own epitaph, closing with 
 these words : "By profession a lawyer ; by practice a peace- 
 maker." He died at Fall River, May 13, 1859, aged 69. 
 
 The ancestors of the Holmes family in America were nu- 
 merous in England, generations ago, and some of them were 
 composed of stern material. The following may be found 
 in Macaulay's History of England, vol. I, page 509 : 
 
 "The claims of the King to unbounded authority in
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 51 
 
 things temporal, and the claim of the Clergy to the spiritual 
 power of binding and loosing, moved the bitter scorn of the 
 intrepid Sectaries. Some of them composed hymns in the 
 dungeon, and chanted them on the fatal sledge. Christ, they 
 sang while undressing for the butcher, would soon come to 
 rescue Zion and to make war on Babylon ; would set up his 
 standard, and would requite his foes tenfold for all the evil 
 which had been inflicted on his servants. The dying words 
 of these meu were noted down ; their farewell letters were 
 kept as treasures ; and in this war, with the help of some 
 invention and exaggeration, was formed a copious supple- 
 ment to the Marian Marty rology. A few cases deserve es- 
 pecial mention. Abraham Holmes, a letired officer of the 
 Parliamentary army, and one of those zealots who would 
 own no king but King Jesus, had been taken at Sedgemoor. 
 His arm had been frightfully mangled and shattered in bat- 
 tle ; and as no surgeon was at hand, the stout old soldier am- 
 putated it himself. He was carried up to London and exam- 
 ined by the king, in council, but would make no submission. 
 ' I am an aged man,' he said,' 'and what remains to me of 
 life is not worth a falsehood or a baseness. I have always 
 been a Republican ; and I am so still.' He was sent back 
 to the West and hanged. The people remarked, with awe 
 and wonder, that the beasts which were to drag him to the 
 gallows became restive and went back. Holmes, himself, 
 doubted not that the angel of the Lord, as in the old time, 
 stood in the way, sword in hand, invisible to human eyes, 
 but visible to the inferior animals. 'Stop, gentlemen,' he 
 cried, ' let me go on foot ; there is more in this than you 
 think. Remember how the ass saw Him whom the Prophet 
 could not see.' He walked manfully to the gallows, har- 
 angued the people with a smile, prayed fervently that God 
 would hasten the downfall of Antichrist and the deliverance 
 of England, and went up the ladder with an apology for
 
 52 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 mounting so awkwardly. ' You see,' he said, ' I have hut 
 one arm.' ' 
 
 John Milton Maekie, an American author, was horn in 
 Wareham in 1813. He was graduated in 1832 at Brown 
 University, where he was tutor from 1834 to 1838. In 
 1845 he published a "Life of Godfrey William von Leih- 
 uitz," a "Life of Samuel Gorton." In 18-iS appeared his 
 "Cosas dc Espana, or Going to Madrid via Barcelona." 
 Mr. Maekie has heen known as a contributor to the "North 
 American Review" of a number of articles on various sub- 
 jeets, principally on German literature and history. He 
 has also written a "Life of Schamyl, the Circassian Chief," 
 and "Life of Tai-Ping-Wang, Chief of the Chinese Insur- 
 rection." Mr. Maekie has been residing for many years in 
 Great Barrington, Mass., and has been as successful in agri- 
 cultural pursuits as he was formerly in literary. 
 
 Ebenezer Burgess, D. D., was born in Wareham, April 
 1, 1790. He graduated at Brown University, in 1801', with 
 a distinguished rank as a -scholar. After graduating at 
 Brown, he became a tutor in that college, and subsequently 
 a Professor in the college at Middlebury, Vt. In connec- 
 tion with Samuel J. Mills, one of the great founders and 
 originators *of American Missions, he sailed on November 
 16, 1817, for Africa, under the auspices of the American 
 Colonization Society ; became owe of the founders of the 
 colony at Liberia, and was invited to become its Superin- 
 tendent. He visited England both going and returning, 
 and was presented to Macau lay, father of the eminent 
 statesman and historian, and was cordially received by Wil- 
 berforce, Lord Bathurst and Lord Gambier, who expressed 
 deep interest for the African enterprise. On his homeward 
 voyage, he buried at sea the heavenly minded Mills, and ar- 
 rived alone in his native land, Oct. 22, 1818. Some years
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 53 
 
 after this he married the daughter of Lieut. Gov. William 
 Phillips. After his settlement in Dedham, Mass., he was 
 invited to take the presidency of the Middlebury College, 
 Vt., but declined. On the 30th of July, 1820, he preached 
 for the first time in Dedham, and on March 13th, 1821, was 
 ordained pastor of the church, with which he remained con- 
 nected tor forty years. His decease occurred Dec. 5, 1870. 
 Weeping throngs dismissed him : to Heaven with their bene- 
 diction. 
 
 Alexander Bourne was born in Wareham, Sept. 11, 1786. 
 He emigrated to Marietta, Ohio, in 1810, where he found 
 employment for a while in the office of Judge Paul Fearing, 
 a native of this place,, for whom the town of Fearing, 
 Washington county, Ohio, was named. His work here was 
 surveying and drawing. Judge Fearing kindly loaned him 
 a fine case of drawing instruments that once belonged to 
 the celebrated Blenncrhassett.- Soon after this, the Au- 
 ditor of the State employed him in his office, and pro- 
 nounced him the best map-maker in the country. In 1811 
 he was employed by Gen. Duncan McArthar to copy the 
 entries and surveys of the Virginia military bounty lands in 
 Ohio. In the war of 1812, though without any military ex- 
 perience, he served as Adjutant, Judge Advocate, and for a 
 short time as Colonel, by appointment of Governor Meigs. 
 In the battle of Fort Meigs, one of the most sanguinary of 
 the entire war, he greatly distinguished himself by his per- 
 sonal bravery. He was brave even to recklessness, and at 
 one time during the battle Gen. Harrison cursed him fear- 
 fully for exposing himself so much to the fire of the enemy. 
 In Gen. Harrison's dispatches to the government, although 
 there were fifty officers in the garrison that outranked him, 
 the name of Alexander Bourne is the fourteenth mentioned 
 for bravery and good conduct. In 1814 he was appointed
 
 54 ' ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 aid-de-camp to Gov. Worthington ; in 1815, Adjutant- 
 General of the State of Ohio ; and also to act as Inspector- 
 General. In 1816 he married Helen Mar, daughter of Gen. 
 Duncan McArthur, who succeeded Gen. Harrison in the com- 
 mand of the Northwestern army, and was subsequently Gov- 
 ernor of Ohio. Soon after this, he was appointed by Gov. 
 Worthington, on the part of the State of Ohio, to settle the 
 account of public arms with the government of the United 
 States. In 1818, during the recess of Congress, he was ap- 
 pointed by President Munroe, Receiver of Public Money 
 for the State of Ohio, and the appointment was subse- 
 quently confirmed by the Senate. During this year he 
 wrote his first communication to Sillimari's Journal in Rela- 
 tion to the Origin of the Prairies and Barrens of the West- 
 ern Country ; and subsequently during life, was an occa- 
 sional contributor to our leading scientific journals. Some 
 of these articles were, republished in London. In 1827, he 
 was appointed by Gov. Trimble, Commissioner of the Ohio 
 Canals the vacancy being caused by the death of Gov. 
 Worthington. In 1827, he was dismissed from the office of 
 Receiver of Public Money for the State an office he had 
 held for nine years, by President Jackson, because he pre- 
 ferred John Quincy Adams for President : and would not 
 change his flag to save his office. He was a member of the 
 Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, a correspond- 
 ing member of the Western Academy of Natural Sciences 
 at Cincinnati, an honorary member of the Natural History 
 Society of the Ohio University, and a corresponding mem- 
 ber of the National Institutes at Washington, District of 
 Columbia. What a record for a man, who graduated at a 
 district school in his native town in 1804, when district 
 schools were held only three months in a year ! The even- 
 ing of his life was spent not far from the spot where he was 
 born, and it was my privilege to be with him during the last
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 55 
 
 night ho spent on earth. He passed away peacefully, hope- 
 fully and trustingly, August 5, 1849. His manuscripts, 
 which have never been published and were not designed for 
 publication, show him to have been a brave soldier, a pro- 
 found philosopher, a cultured scholar, an astute theologian, 
 and a devout Christian. 
 
 Zephauiah Swift was born in Wareham, February, 1759 5 
 died in Warren, Ohio, Oct. 27, 1823. He was a graduate 
 at Yale College in 1778, and established himself in the prac- 
 tice of the law at Windham, Conn. ; was a member of Con- 
 gress from 1793 to 1796; was Secretary of the Mission to 
 France in 1800; and in 1801 he was elected a Judge, and 
 from 1806 to 1819, was Chief Justice of the State of Con- 
 necticut. He published a "Digest of the Law of Evi- 
 dence," and a "Treatise on Bills of Exchange," in 1810; 
 and a " Digest of the Laws of Connecticut," 2 vols., 1823. 
 In the celebrated Bishop case recently tried in Norwich, 
 Conn., Judge Culver in quoting an opinion from him, styled 
 him " Connecticut's ablest jurist, sixty years ago." A mas- 
 ter of jurisprudence and busy in the courts, he had a hand 
 and a heart for every grand moral enterprise. And that 
 glorious old pulpit Titan, Lymau Beecher, in the early da}'s 
 of the Temperance Reform, thanked God and took courage 
 when Judge Swift, Dr. Dwight and Hon. Tappan Reeve 
 came to his aid ; and he soon after delivered a series of tem- 
 perance sermons that were shots heard around the world. 
 
 Thomas Burgess was born in Wareham, Nov. 29, 1778, 
 died in Providence, R. I., May 18, 1856. He was distin- 
 guished through life by scrupulous integrity, by habits of 
 great industry, and by the conscientious discharge of every 
 trust, as well as by eminent sagacity and prudence, merited 
 and acquired the confidence of his fellow-citizens, in a meas-
 
 56 ROCHESTER'S HI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 ure which is accorded only to the most blameless. Hi* 
 counsel was sought with a peculiar reliance on its value ; 
 and ihe weightiest affairs and the most delicate duties were 
 intrusted to him without apprehension. A Judge of the 
 Municipal Court of Providence, an office which he held from 
 the organization of the city government till within a few 
 years of his death, lie presided over the distribution of the 
 estates of that large and wealthy community, with more 
 than satisfaction to those whose interests demanded an exact 
 and watchful guardian. He was also Judge of tlie Common 
 Pleas till a new organization of the Courts superseded thai 
 office, which had never been in wiser or purer hands. His 
 professional practice, with his other undertakings, secured 
 to him, under the blessing of God, .a prosperous position; 
 and he was able and ready to lend cheerful and considerate 
 assistance to those who needed his kindness, and to bear 
 his part in works of public beneficence. The honorable 
 profession of the law has seldom furnished a worthier ex- 
 ample of the Christian virtues-, than his character displayed 
 from youth to age uprightness, fidelity, discretion, dili- 
 gence and the fear of God. His son, Thomas Mackie Bur- 
 gess, was Mayor of the city of Providence, R. I., for ten 
 successive years, and his sons, George and Alexander, be- 
 came Bishops in the Episcopal church. 
 
 Tristam Burgess, the "Bald Eagle of the Xorth," was 
 born in Rochester, Feb. 26, 1770 ; died Oct. 13, 1853. He 
 graduated at Brown University in 1796, with the first hon- 
 ors of his class. He studied law in Providence, R. I., and 
 was admitted to practice there in 1799. Soon after his ad- 
 mission to the bar, while pleading a case in one of the 
 smaller courts, being severe and personal in his remarks, 
 he was interrupted by the judge, who asked him if he knew 
 where he was and to whom he was talking. "O, yes," said
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIALI. 57 
 
 Mr. Burgess, " I am in an inferior court, addressing an in- 
 ferior judge in the inferior State of Rhode Island." In 
 1815, he was made Chief Justice of the State. In 1825, 
 he was elected to Congress. He 'took his seat in the CJ. S. 
 House of Representatives in December of that year, and in 
 a few days offered an anti-slavery petition from Salem, in 
 this State. At once, the sharp, piercing voice of John 
 Randolph was heard : " Mr. Speaker, I understand that the 
 petition of the gentleman is from Salem, and I move that it 
 be referred to the committee of the whole on the state of 
 the Union." Mr. Burgess sprang to his feet and cried, im- 
 itating Mr. Randolph's peculiar voice exactly : " Mr. 
 Speaker, and I move that the gentleman from Roanoke be 
 referred to the same committee." 
 
 ' When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war." 
 Ill a contest with the distinguished Representative from 
 South Carolina, he went on to say that Mr. McDuffie had 
 not adopted the style of speaking common to scholars and 
 gentlemen. The following ma.y be taken as a sample of his 
 language in reply: "It would (and the gentleman cer- 
 tainly knows it) be very unbecoming in me to say what 
 what might very appropriately be said of him. The gentle- 
 man seems to claim the whole right to himself. Few men 
 would, I believe, pirate upon his property. The fee simple 
 of the honorable gentleman in his principles, opinions and 
 thoughts, together with his own manner of expressing them, 
 will never be feloniously invaded by any person of sound 
 mind, and having the fear of God before his eyes. He says 
 what he is, he is himself. Why, sir, I do not question 
 this. He is himself, and neither he nor any other person 
 will ever mistake him for anybody else. The honorable 
 gentleman need not fear being lost in the ordinary samples 
 of existence. His individuality is secure. It is very prob- 
 able there is but one specimen in the whole mass of moral, 
 
 D2
 
 58 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 intellectual and physical being. With what other thing can 
 he be confounded? Men would as soon mistake the fiery 
 element, or the augry action and tiery visage of a wildcat, 
 for the quiet blood and peaceful countenance of the lamb." 
 
 The most famous encounter between Mr. Burgess and Mr. 
 Randolph occurred during a debate on the tariff. Mr. Bur- 
 gess having remarked, in the course of his speech, that there 
 was a disposition among some gentlemen to support British 
 interests in preference to American, Mr. Randolph rose and 
 interrupted him, saying: "This hatred of aliens, sir, is the 
 undecayed spirit which called forth the proposition to enact 
 the alien and sedition law. I advise the gentleman from 
 Rhode Island to move a re-enactment of those laws, to pre- 
 vent the impudent foreigner from rivalling the American 
 seller. New England what is she? Sir, do you remem- 
 ber that appropriate exclamation, " Delenda est Cathargo?" 
 Mr. Burgess replied as follows : " Does the gentleman 
 mean to say, sir, New England must be destroyed? If so, 
 I will remind him that the fall of Carthage was the precur- 
 sor of the fall of Rome. Permit me to suggest to him to 
 carry out the parallel. Further, sir, I wish it to be dis- 
 tinctly understood that I am not bound by any rule to argue 
 against Bedlam ; but where I see anything rational in the 
 hallucinations of the gentleman, I will answer them." At 
 the command of the speaker, he took his seat, remarking as 
 he did so, "Perhaps it is better, sir, that I should not go 
 on." The next day he resumed his speech on the subject, 
 and referred to Mr. Randolph as a spirit which exclaims at 
 every rising sun : " Hodie ! Hodie ! Carthago Delenda ! 
 To-day ! to-day ! let New England be destroyed !" Sir, 
 Divine Providence takes care of its own universe. Moral 
 monsters cannot propagate. Impotent of everything but 
 malevolence ot purpose, they can no otherwise multiply 
 miseries than by blaspheming all that is pure, prosperous
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENN T IAL. 59 
 
 nncl happy. Could demon propagate demon, the universe 
 might become a Pandemonium ; but I rejoice that the Father 
 of Lies can never become the Father of Liars. One adver- 
 sary of God and man is enough for one universe. Too 
 much ! Oh, low much to much, for one nation ! 
 
 Mr. McDuffie, by the part he took in this discussion, 
 came in also for a large share of Mr. Burgess's notice, who 
 introduced one of his speeches by saying that the inhabit- 
 ants of the sea sport only in foul weather, and when " the 
 winds and waters begin to hold controversy," the whole 
 population of the mighty realm is awake and in motion. 
 "'Not merely the nimble dolphin gives his bright eye and 
 dazzling side to the sunshine, but the black, uncouth por- 
 poise breaks above the waters, and flounces and spouts and 
 goes down again. The foul cormorant, stretching his long, 
 lean wings, soars and sinks, piping shrill notes to the rest- 
 less waves. The h aglet and cutwater spring into flight, and 
 dashing over the white crest of the lofty billows, scream 
 their half counter to the deep bass of the mighty ocean." 
 These were personal references, called out as he went on to 
 say b} T the "wailing menaces, calumnies and all the demon- 
 strations of outrageous excitement exhibited on that floor, 
 by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Randolph), the gen- 
 tleman from South Carolina (Mr. McDuffie), and the gen- 
 tleman from New York (Mr. Cambreleng)." He said he 
 would defend New England, though he would not take part 
 in the contest of the two parties, each of which had been 
 assailing her, "for when cat and cat fly at each other, 
 though the fur and skin may suffer, yet what prudent boy 
 will risk either hands or eyes in parting the combatants, 
 in any attempt to interrupt the kitchen-yard melody of their 
 courtship?" 
 
 At the centennial celebration of Brown University, Sept. 
 6, 1864, the Hon. John H. Clifford, in the course of an elo-
 
 60 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 quent address, said, " The brilliant Burgess, our Professor 
 of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, whose fume is bounded by 
 no local limits, be-fore whose scathing retort in the Congress 
 of the United States the Ishmaelite of Virginia statesman, 
 Randolph of Roanoke, for the first time quailed and was for- 
 ever silenced." 
 
 Perhaps, Mr. President, the Phillipics of Demosthenes 
 may have produced a greater effect upon his auditors, but 
 from the time when Chatham's thunder rolled through the 
 corridors of the British House of Commons until now for 
 scorching invective that like lightning burns when it strikes, 
 Tristam Burgess stands peerless. 
 
 And don't delude yourself with the idea that sarcasm was 
 hfe only weapon. His biographer says "the richness of 
 his classical and scriptural allusions was beyond that of his 
 compeers. The acuteness of his logic was felt and admitted 
 by all even his opponents. The brilliancy of his scholar- 
 ship, the beauty of his allusions, his exquisite ornamenta- 
 tion of his more finished efforts ; th^se are points that give 
 him a far higher title to remembrance than the deadly 
 thrusts of his satire.'' 
 
 A few weeks ago, on a bright June morning, I visited the 
 birth place of this remarkable man. The old house at 
 whose hearthstone, he early listened to the tales of the Revo- 
 lution from the lips of his honored sire was gone, replaced 
 by one more modern. But the old locust trees under which 
 he played, a few apple trees of a once large orchard, where 
 he plucked fruit ; the fields where he assisted his father in 
 the cultivation of the soil, and the old well where his thirst 
 was quenched as he came from the fields and meadows, 
 were still there. I drank from the old oaken bucket, some 
 of the clear refreshing water, and imagined I felt a little 
 more sarcastic for the draught. The grass was waving in 
 the gentle wind nearly ready tor the mower's scythe the
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 61 
 
 birds were singing in the branches, and it seemed hardly 
 possible that his great fiery soul received its first inspiration 
 and early trainings amid such quiet surroundings. How 
 little we know where the giants will spring from ! VVho 
 among the men that saw the boy Napoleon, rowing in his 
 skiff boat along the shores ot Corsica, predicted that the 
 better part of the civilized world would one day be under 
 his subjection? Who predicted that the " Mill boy of the 
 Slashes," would hold senates in awe? who told us twenty 
 years ago, that the Tanner of Galena would become United 
 Htates Grant and command the obeisance and homage of 
 the nations ? 
 
 Among our adopted sons we may mention the following : 
 
 Nathan Willis was born in West Bridgewater, in 1763. 
 He moved to Rochester shortly after 1789, and represented 
 that town in the General Court in 1799 and 1800. 
 
 He was also Representative of Rochester for the political 
 year 18045. He was a Senator of PI}' mouth County for 
 the political year 1805-6, and for the seven ensuing politi- 
 cal years. In 1814 or 1815 he moved to 'Pittsfield, Mass. 
 He was a member of the Governor's Council for the politi- 
 cal years 18245, and 18256; and was candidate for Lieu- 
 tenant Governor in 1832, and for several years after. He 
 was many years chairman of the Selectmen of Pittsfield, 
 and was one of the Board of County Commissioners for 
 Berkshire County, several times. He represented Pittsfield 
 in the General Court in the years 1831 and 1832. 
 
 One of the leading barristers of this State says, " Nathan 
 Willis was one of the ablest men ever known." 
 
 The following sketch of Dr, Clark is taken from a History 
 of Niagara County, N. Y., published in 1878 : 
 
 "Simeon Tucker Clark, A. M., M. D., was born in Can- 
 ton, Norfolk County, Mass., October 10th, 1836. In 1838, 
 before he was quite two years old, his parents returned to
 
 62 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 Rochester, Mass., the place of their former residence, and 
 there resided until 1858. He is a son of Rev. Nathan Sears 
 Clark, his mother's maiden name having been Laura Stevens 
 Swift. Dr. Clark graduated as M. D. at the Berkshire 
 Medical College in 1860, and received the degree of A. M. 
 from Genesee College, in 1866. He was married in 1857 
 to Ruth Jennie Mendall of Marion, Plymouth County, Mas- 
 sachusetts. In 1861 he came to the city of Lockport, 
 where he has since resided, actively engaged in the practice 
 of his profession. He was pension examining surgeon for 
 ten years. In 1872 he was elected a permanent member-of 
 the New York State Medical Society, and in 1876, at the 
 twenty-fifth annual meeting of the American Association for 
 the Advancement of Science, he was chosen a member of 
 that society. He has been for three years president of the 
 Niagara County Medical Society, and has served as a dele- 
 gate to the American Medical Association. 
 
 Dr. Clark is corresponding secretary of the Jewett Sci- 
 entific Society, and is recorded in the Naturalist's Directory 
 as a conchologist. He has been especially identified with 
 the poetical literature of the past twenty years, his poems 
 having been published in mary of the best magazines and 
 extensively copied in the newspapers, while his Masonic 
 poems have given him a transatlantic reputation, and his re- 
 ligious verse has found a permanent place in several popular 
 collections. 
 
 Having obtained an enviable reputation in his profession, 
 Dr. Clark is regarded as one of the most successful phy- 
 sicians and surgeons, and has a very extensive practice. In 
 questions of medical jurisprudence he has few equals, and 
 his opinions on questions in that department are regarded 
 as the very highest authority. His command of language 
 and the ready, clear and lucid manner in which he gives his 
 opinions as a witness upon the stand, give to his testimony
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 63 
 
 a force which carries great weight with courts and jurors, 
 and produces a conviction in the minds of all that hear it 
 that he is not only learned in his profession, but a great 
 scholar." 
 
 Captain John Kendrick, who was one of the early ex- 
 plorers of the Northwestern coast, and under his command, 
 the Columbia river was discovered and the American flag 
 first carried around the world. On old maps, his voyage 
 was represented by a line across the Pacific and Southern 
 oceans. He came to his death by the hand of savage bar- 
 barism, in the isles of the Pacific. The house where he so 
 long resided in Wareham is in a good state of preserva- 
 tion. 
 
 We have furnished for the professions, in addition to 
 those already named, the following : 
 
 Clergymen. Elijah Dexter, Nathaniel Cobb, Homer Bar- 
 rows, Nathan S. Clark, Wm. H. Cobb, N. Warren Everett, 
 Leonard Luce, John G. Gammons, Asa B. Bessey, Benja- 
 min Swift, Freeman Ryder, Jonathan King, Leander Cobb, 
 Philip Crandon, Samuel Mead, Oliver E. Bryant, Asa N. 
 Bodfish, Lemuel K. Washburn, Matthias Gammons, George 
 Pierce. 
 
 Physicians and Surgeons. John Mackie, Andruw 
 Mackie, Warren Fearing, Caleb Briggs, Joseph Haskell, 
 Henry C. Haskell, George King, Roland Hammond, Eben- 
 ezer Swift, Benjamin Fearing, Gideon Barstow, Clarence S. 
 Howes, Isaac B. Cowen, Herbert Shurtleff, Peter Mackie, 
 Elisha Fearing, William Everett, N. Southworth, Joseph 
 H. Haskell, Theophilus King, Thomas W. Hammond, Ezra 
 Thompson, Charles Gibbs, David H. Cannon, 2d, Wood- 
 bridge R. Howes, Marshall V. Simmons, Walton N. Ellis, 
 W. E. Sparrow, William Southworth, Joseph Johnson, 
 Benj. F. Wing, Lindley Murray Cobb, Benjamin F. Pope % 
 James Foster.
 
 <i4 KOCHESTEK'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 La wyet *.- -Walter S. Burgess (a nephew of Tristam Bur- 
 88, :i learned counsellor and judge), Rufus Bacon, Win. 
 Bates, John W. Hammond, Charles T. Bouncy, James G. 
 Sproat, Henry K. Braley, Scth M. Murdock, George B. X. 
 Holmes, Thomas Hammond, George Bonney, Gerard C. 
 Tobey, John Eddy, L. LeBaron Holmes, Hollen M. Bars- 
 tow, Anselm Bassett, K/ra Bassett, Philip Crapo, Augustus 
 Johnson. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 I have thus, Mr. President, as best I could, traced our 
 history in the past. Here, we stand today where our 
 fathers stood 200 years ago. The same heavens are above 
 us; the same ocean -washes these shores; and the everlast- 
 ing hills are here; but ail else, how changed. 
 
 Instead of the dense forest we look out upon smiling vil- 
 lages. Instead of the howl of the wolf and the yell of the 
 savage, we hear the music of the church bell. 
 
 Our cars are daily saluted with the hum of machinery, 
 and our sons and daughters attend the seats of learning. 
 Our fathers labored, and we have entered into their labors. 
 They sowed ; we are reaping. 
 
 Divine Providence has permitted us to live in one of the 
 most interesting periods of the world's history. It is the 
 inventive age-. There has been no period, since the world 
 was created, in which so many important inventions tending 
 to the benefit of mankind have been -made, as in the pres- 
 ent. Some of the grandest conceptions of genius have been 
 perfected. 
 
 It is remarkable how the mind of this age has run into 
 M-it-ntitic investigation, and what achievements it has ef- 
 fected since the year 1800. Before that time, there was not 
 a steamboat in existence, and the application of steam to 
 machinerv was unknown. Fulton launched the first steam-
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 65 
 
 boat in 1807. The first steamer that crossed the Atlantic 
 ocean was the " Savannah," in 1818, and the son of her 
 commander, Rev. Daniel M. Rogers, is the present pastor 
 of the Methodist Episcopal church at Cochesett in this 
 county. 
 
 In 1800, there was not a single railroad in the world. In 
 1830, the first locomotive ever made in the United States 
 was built at West Point, and weighed but four tons. The 
 electric telegraph had its beginning in 1843. Wonder of 
 wonders ! We take up the paper of to-day and read what 
 transpired yesterday in London and Calcutta. 
 
 Electrotyping has been in use but a veiy few years. 
 Hoe's printing press, capable of printing 10,000 copies an 
 hour, is a recent invention. Daguerre communicated to the 
 world his beautiful invention in 1839. Gas, gun cotton, 
 chloroform have been but recently used. Torpedoes have 
 been brought to such a state of perfection, that they will 
 soon revolutionize the whole system of naval warfare. No 
 more swimming Golgothas, with their scuppers clogged 
 with human gore. And what marvellous improvement in 
 firearms ! What would one of the old Continentals, that 
 used to stop and pick his flint with his jack-knife in action, 
 say of a gun that could be discharged 26 times without re- 
 loading? What would Gen. Knox think of a cannon that 
 weighed 100 tons, and sent with precision huge masses of 
 iron a fabulous distance? We stand amazed ourselves at 
 the new French arm, that throws a respectable shower of 
 balls within the limits of a minute. 
 
 The improvements in agricultural implements have been 
 such, that it is doubtful if we could have carried on the late 
 civil war without them. 
 
 The heavens above, the earth beneath, and the waters un- 
 der the earth, have been made subjects of investigation, 
 until their relations, affinities and properties have been, to a ' 
 E
 
 66 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 large extent, discovered and applied to some practical pur- 
 pose. 
 
 We now stand gazing with rapture at the phonograph, tel- 
 ephone and electric light; and the inquiry is, What next? 
 
 Perhaps it will be some aerial vehicle, that will transport 
 us through the heavens in safety, at a speed far exceeding 
 steamboat or railroad. 
 
 If that comes to pass in our day, sir, we will test the ac- 
 curacy of the telescope by personal observations, and see if 
 it has told us the truth in regard to the distant planets, visit 
 the Ursa Major, the moons of Jupiter, the orbs of Uranus 
 and Neptune, enjoy the sweet influences of Pleiades, exam- 
 ine the bands of Orion and the rings of Saturn, go down 
 into the Southern hemisphere and behold the great Southern 
 Cross and Magellan Clouds, and conclude the voyage by a 
 search for the lost Pleiad. 
 
 What would the immortal fourteen say, if they could 
 come up from their graves to-day, headed as of yore by 
 Samuel Arnold, and standing on "Ministers' Hock" (hav- 
 ing listened to the recital of the last five minutes) be told 
 that "the Briareau hands or arms of genius can do the work 
 of the world, whether in the shop or in the mill, on the land 
 or on the sea, from polishing a needle to forging the shaft 
 of a steamship ; from turning a gimlet to tunneling a moun- 
 tain ; from cutting a thread to reaping a prairie ; from meas- 
 uring a field to measuring the heavens?" 
 
 In 1813, the first band of foreign missionaries left our 
 shores. 
 
 " When they first the work began. 
 
 Small and feeble was ihe day; 
 Now the word doth swiftly run, 
 Now it wins its widening way. 
 More and more it spreads and grows, 
 
 Ever mighty to prevail ; 
 Sin's stronghold it now o'erthrows. 
 Shakes the trembling gates of hell,"
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 67 
 
 This is no time to enlarge upon missionarj' success, but 
 in passing, I may mention one individual instance. It is 
 said of Geddes, the missionary in the New Hebrides, when 
 he came in 1846, there was not a Christian ; when he left in 
 1872, there was not a heathen. 
 
 We have witnessed in our day the death of Slavery. 
 Privileged men ! Our fathers died without the sight. The 
 prophecy of Henry B. Stanton, made in the days of my 
 boyhood, has been fulfilled: "When the sun in its broad 
 circuit through the heavens, neither rises upon a master nor 
 sets upon a slave." It is one of those events that will for- 
 ever loom up in the history of the ages. It caused wailing 
 in Pandemonium, but it drew such music from the harpsi- 
 chords of heaven, that " archangels stood uncovered of their 
 golden crowns" to listen. 
 
 In 1845, Charles Sumner, speaking of it in prospective, 
 said: "Then there shall be a victory, in comparison with 
 which that of Bunker Hill shall be as a farthing caudle 
 held up to the sun. The victory shall need no monument 
 of stone. It shall be written on the grateful hearts of un- 
 counted multitudes that shall proclaim it to the latest gen- 
 eration. It shall be one of the famed landmarks of civiliza- 
 tion ; nay, more, it shall be one of the links in the golden 
 chain by which humanity shall connect itself with the throne 
 of God." 
 
 And we may add in this connection, the triumphant lan- 
 guage of Wendell Phillips, uttered over the lifeless remains 
 of his friend Garrison: "Whether one flag or two rules 
 this continent in time to come, one thing is settled it can 
 never henceforth be trodden by a slave !" 
 
 There is another event, near at hand, that will thrill the 
 nation ; and some of us will witness it, ere we go down to 
 the grave when every man, white or black, throughout the 
 length and breadth of this country, will march up to the
 
 68 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENXIAL. 
 
 ballot box and exorcise the God given right of franchise 
 without the fear of molestation. 
 
 Behold the progress of education ! Once it was three 
 months in a year at a district school ; now it is all the year 
 at. a primary, intermediate or high school. And then we 
 have our normal and development schools and our techni- 
 cal Institutes. When I contrast the educational facilities of 
 the present with those of my early childhood, the figure of 
 Horace Mann rises before me, and I never ascend the steps 
 of the State House without feeling like taking off my hat 
 to the bronze statue of this great lover of the rising race. 
 
 Ah, ye sons and daughters of Sippican, the debt ye owe 
 him can never be repaid ! Give his name to your children, 
 and as they advance in years, tell them of his self-denial 
 of his sacrifices that he abridged his mortal existence a 
 whole decade by almost superhuman labors for the youth of 
 our country. Rehearse the story from father to son, from 
 mother to daughter, until the last of your line goes up to 
 greet him in some sphere of the heavens, made luminous by 
 the presence of assembled conquerors. 
 
 If in the years to come, there does not arise from this soil 
 some Swift to sit peerless on the Bench ; some Burgess to 
 command admiration in the Pulpit; some "-Bald Eagle" to 
 scale the heights and scream defiance at the crows and hawks 
 beneath ; it will not be for lack of facilities, such as no pre- 
 ceding generation has enjoyed. 
 
 Now cast your eyes over the land and view the palaces 
 that benevolence has erected for the unfortunate, the indi- 
 gent, the blind, the deaf and dumb, the idiotic and the in- 
 sane ! One beautiful autumnal afternoon, while gliding on 
 the waters of New York harbor, I espied near at hand a 
 charming island ; one that would have suited the fancy of 
 Blennerhassett. " What building is that?" said I to a stran- 
 ger standing at my side, pointing to a huge mass of granite
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CEXTENNIAL, 69 
 
 several stories high. "That," said he, " is a hospital." A 
 little further on appeared another of the same dimensions. 
 "That," said lie, "is for the indigent and infirm." Still 
 further on, rose another of mammoth proportions. "That," 
 continued the stranger, " is for the insane." As the sun 
 went down behind the western hills, I lingered upon the 
 deck of the steamer, gazing back wistfully at these monu- 
 ments of American philanthropy I felt proud of my coun- 
 try, and uttered unconsciously these familiar lines : 
 
 " Breathes there a inan with soul so dead, 
 Who never to himself halh said. 
 T!ii.- is my own. my native land?" 
 
 Was there ever such u country? No monarchial throne 
 presses these States together ; no iron chain of despotic 
 power encircles them ; they live and stand upon a govern- 
 ment popular in its form, representative in its character, 
 founded upon principles of equality, and calculated, we 
 hope, to last forever. Its daily respiration is liberty and 
 patriotism ; its youthful veins are full of enterprise, cour- 
 age and honorable love of glory and renown. This Repub- 
 lic now extends, with a vast breadth, across the whole con- 
 tinent. 
 
 The two great seas of the world wash the one and the 
 other shore. We realize on a mighty scale, the beautiful 
 description of the ornamental edging of the buckler of 
 Achilles : 
 
 Now the broad shield complete the artist crowned 
 With his last hand, and poured the ocean round. 
 In living silver seemed the waves to roll. 
 And beat the buckler's verge, and bound the whole." 
 
 This will be recognized as language used by the immortal 
 Webster on an important occasion, and who can think of 
 the greatness or glory of our country without thinking of
 
 70 ROCHESTER'S BI-CEXTEXXIAL. 
 
 him. How he loved to hunt and fish in our woods and 
 waters ! spending days and weeks among us. The last time 
 he was here, the year before he died, he was heard to ex- 
 claim, " Buzzard's Bay is one of the most beautiful bays in 
 the world." As the years roll by, I often think how little 
 men understood him in the days of compromise. Sir, I 
 have often stood in awe and admiration gazing at some old 
 giant oak of the forest, swaying its huge branches in the 
 tempest, as if struggling to feel through the darkness and 
 let the sunlight in. And thus have I been wont to look on 
 this Agamemnon King of men. 
 
 Never did there devolve on any generation higher trusts 
 than now devolve upon us for the preservation of the bless- 
 ings we enjoy and the transmission of them to posterity. 
 Let us make our generation one of the purest and noblest 
 that ever left the shores of time to scale the steeps of light 
 and enter the presence of the eternal King. 
 
 But the hours of this Summer day are swiftly passing, 
 and I must hasten, knowing your anxiety to hear from other 
 sons of Rochester, and from the distinguished strangers who 
 have kindly favored us with their presence to-day. When 
 two hundred years more have rolled away and our descend- 
 ants assemble here for- a similar celebration, the orator of 
 the day w r ill have ample inspiration. It is possible that the 
 great purposes of Jehovah concerning this little planet will 
 then have been accomplished. The tread of hundreds of 
 millions will then be heard on this continent. The vast 
 areas now uncultured will bud and blossom like the gardens 
 of the Hesperides. The mighty lakes and rivers will be 
 covered with fleets richly laden with the products of the 
 soil. The uncounted acres beyond the Rocky Mountains 
 will be covered with churches and seminaries. Asylums for 
 earth's suffering poor will be found in every hamlet. The 
 gold of California and the silver of Xevada will be found in
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 71 
 
 the vaults of beneficence, and the philanthropies of America 
 will belt the world. 
 
 The sons of the Roundhead and Cavalier will march under 
 one flag, side by side, shoulder to shoulder, like an army of 
 God's noblemen, inspired by the same spirit, striving to out- 
 vie each other in every Godlike work. 
 
 Art, science and invention will have exhausted their re- 
 sources, and the priceless product used for the aggrandize- 
 ment of the races. 
 
 The Bible will be read and be preached and its matchless 
 teachings practiced on every continent, island and strand. 
 And the long sought period of which Cowper so eloquently 
 sang seems at hand : 
 
 "The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks shout to each other; 
 The mountain tops from distant mountains catch the flying joy. 
 Till nation after nation taught the strain, 
 Earth rolls the rapturous hosanna 'round." 
 
 This, sir, may be but a vision. If so, there will be 
 enough in the conquests and triumphs of the past to cause 
 them to sing and exult with exceeding great joy. 
 
 Standing on and around yon consecrated rock, I hear 
 their jubilant song ! How familiar the words ! They have 
 echoed from the slopes of Gettysburg down through the 
 centuries : "The government of the people, by the people 
 and for the people shall not perish from the earth." 
 
 May God, in his infinite mercy, permit us to look down 
 from the heights of eternity upon the august scene. 
 
 DINNER. 
 
 The oration concluded, an intermission was taken for the 
 dinner, which consisted of roast clams, baked fish, corn, po- 
 tatoes, lobsters, tripe, bread, tea, coffee, &c., &c. One hun- 
 dred bushels of clams constituted the main portion of the 
 bake.
 
 72 ROCHESTER'S EI-CENTENNTAL. 
 
 AFTER-DINNER EXERCISES. 
 
 About 3 o'clock, r. M., the vast multitudes gathered about 
 the stand again ; and the distinguished guests resumed their 
 places. After music by the band, the President introduced 
 the toast-master, Dr. H. C. Yose of Marion, Avho conducted 
 the exercises in the following order : 
 
 SENTIMENTS AND RESPONSES. 
 
 The First Sentiment " The Commonwealth of Massachu- 
 setts." Response of His Honor John D. Long of Hingham, 
 Lieutenant-Governor of the Commonwealth. 
 
 Responding for the Commonwealth, I bring you the kind 
 wishes of Gov. Talbot and his regrets that, called yesterday 
 out of the Commonwealth, he is unable to be with .you. 
 But whoever mav represent her, Massachusetts is always 
 present and always responsive on such an occasion as this, 
 which commemorates the 200th anniversary of the birth of 
 one of her oldest daughter towns so old a daughter, in- 
 deed, that she gathers here again to-day at her knee, and at 
 her table, daughters of her own the flourishing and thrifty 
 towns of Marion, Mattapoisctt and Wareham. With your 
 stout old English name ; with your soil not stolen from the 
 Indians, but granted by King Philip \\ith his own mark at 
 the bottom ol the deed ; with your history running back to 
 the lifetime of some of the Pilgrims ; with the same blood 
 flowing in your veins that flowed in the veins of the found- 
 ers of New England civilization ; with the sacred memories 
 of your early church ; with the long line of generations of 
 men who by their devotion to education, their observance of 
 religious worship, their business thrift and bold enterprise 
 on sea and land, and their patriotism and loyalty proved 
 iu every crisis of the State or nation, have honored
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 73 
 
 the record of your existence; with all these, you arc ;> 
 striking type of that most significant auxins: the foundation 
 stones on which Massachusetts is builded her towns. For 
 more than two centuries the genius of Massachusetts has 
 been in her towns. In them have been maintained sacredly 
 her principles of sobriety, virtue, thrift, intelligence, equal- 
 ity. From them have come her leaders and the loyal guar- 
 . dians of the ideas and principles which have been her in- 
 spiration. In each of them still is the ark of her covenant. 
 To them, to you still she looks to stand with her for the 
 stability of order, for the government of law. for standards 
 of civilization that shall meet the problem of her increasing 
 population, which, crowded into her cities, needs more than 
 ever the healthy counterpoise of the sparser and sithpler 
 town. Nor on such a day, nor in such a presence as this, 
 can I fear that she will look to them and to you in vain. 
 
 Responding for the Commonwealth, I bring you only 
 words of good cheer. For you, the most sincere pride and 
 satisfaction in your two hundred years of honorable record, 
 and the kindest wishes for more than two hundred more of 
 even greater happiness and thrift. For herself, her health 
 in spite of her advancing years was never better, thank 
 you. Her family has increased so that her children number 
 something more than a million and a half; but they are all 
 doing well the boys ambitious, thrifty and industrious, and 
 the girls married, or getting ready to be married, or else 
 keeping school. Times, which were a little hard for a "year 
 or two, are better now, and she is getting good stead}' work 
 at better wages. Her eyes are open, and her great heart is 
 warm for all who need her help or pit}'. For the poor, for 
 the unfortunate, for the sick, for the infirm, her Christian 
 charity never fails. Among her children she knows no dis- 
 tinction, and they all stand equal in her esteem, so long as 
 they behave themselves equally well; all with equal rights, 
 
 E2
 
 74 ROCHESTER'S BI-CEXTENNIAL. 
 
 and all equally expected to do their duty to her and to one 
 another. She is a great, happy, noble, industrious Com- 
 monwealth especially under her present modest adminis- 
 tration the hum of her myriad industries is her sweetest 
 music; the happy homes of her people are hor brightest 
 sunshine ; and the intelligence and education of her sons 
 and daughters are her chicfest pride. Nothing was needed 
 to till her cup to the brim but to come into the county of 
 the large-hearted Pilgrims ; to get the elbow-room and the 
 free breath of the great salt sea and its shore ; to find that 
 two hundred years have but made this one of her daughters 
 only younger and fresher and more promising; and to go 
 back assured that nothing that was of value in the character 
 of th* fathers has been lost, but that each one of her towns 
 is an npwinding spiral of progress a fulfilment of the 
 promise of its birth ; another illustration of the harmony of 
 liberty and law ; another tribute to republican institutions. 
 
 The Second Sentiment "The President of the United 
 States." Response by Hon. William W. Crapo, Member of 
 Congress from the First District. 
 
 Mr. President, I did not suppose when I came here that 
 I should be called upon to respond for the President of the 
 United States. That duty usually devolves upon some dis- 
 tinguished officer in the Executive Department of the gov- 
 ernment. It would have been more appropriate perhaps, 
 on tlws occasion, to have called upon some one of the post- 
 masters within the four towns constituting old Rochester, or 
 upon the keeper of one of the many light-houses which il- 
 lumine its coast. The President during the past three or 
 four months has been speaking for himself, and with such 
 frequency and clearness that as a member of the national 
 legislature I have had no difficulty in comprehending his 
 meaning. But I will not undertake to-day, in this presence,
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 75 
 
 the discussion of the great questions involved in the prerog- 
 atives ol the Executive, the exercise of the veto power, 
 and the conflicts between national supremacy and State sov- 
 ereignty. There are themes in your local history, suggested 
 by this celebration, which are more agreeable. One fact, 
 however, may be properly mentioned in connection with the 
 sentiment of respect which you have proposed to the Presi- 
 dent. There has been ascribed to him an "amiable obsti- 
 nacy." My personal acquaintance with him leads me to say 
 that there is in his character an element of earnestness and 
 good-natured firmness which is conspicuous, and I am in- 
 clined to think he acquired this amiable obstinacy, which is 
 an Old Colony trait, from his maternal ancestors, the Bur- 
 chards, .who many years ago resided within the limits of the 
 Colony. 
 
 I have listened with pleasure to the very able and inter- 
 esting address made by the orator of the day. His account 
 of this early settlement, its purposes and progress, his com- 
 parisons of the past with the present and his reflections 
 thereon, have been entertaining and instructive. There is 
 a charm and fascination about the early history of the Old 
 Colony. The recital of its local incidents, the portraiture 
 of its pioneer men, the story of its hardships and priva- 
 tions, its heroic struggles and its commanding success, not 
 only excite our admiration, but thrill us with their romance. 
 The history of the Old Colony is a history of achievements. 
 It is the history of an inflexible purpose, in obedience to 
 truth and right, never bending to expediency, never yield- 
 ing to human weaknesses, but conquering adversity and tri- 
 umphantly securing freedom for the consciences and minds 
 ot men. The history of the world is full of colonizations, 
 some for conquest, some tor wealth, some as a refuge from 
 tyranny and oppression, but this alone was undertaken to 
 secure the civil and religious liberty of man. But these are
 
 76 EOCHESTEK'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 familiar thoughts, and which can be much better expressed 
 l>y others than by me. 
 
 I cannot boast, as many of you can who are here to-day, 
 of a birth-place in Rochester, neither am I a descendant of 
 the old town. But I am a very near neighbor. I was born, 
 as were my ancestors for many generations, just over the 
 line, in the old town of Dartmouth. If not one of your 
 family, I have rights here to-day as a neighbor, and I come 
 with the spirit of a neighbor to enjoy your bi-centennial 
 party and to tell you how proud I am, and how proud the 
 Dartmouth family is, of your acquaintance and intimacy. 
 AVe esteem our Rochester r.eighbors ; we know their ster- 
 ling good qualities, their intelligence and their hospitality. 
 We rejoice at their prosperity ; we appreciate the thrift and 
 good sense of their sons, and we admire the beauty and 
 graces of their daughters. For two hundred years we have 
 lived side by side in harmony. We have never quarrelled 
 about the boundarj 7 lines, nor engaged in local disputes. I 
 can, however, remember that we used to say that the her- 
 rings which formerly went to the ponds by way of the 
 Acushnet, you diverted to Sippican and Agawam and Snip- 
 tuit. But perhaps the herrings were to blame ; and then, 
 too, we did not own the spawning ponds, and so had less 
 reason to find fault. 
 
 In celebrating your two hundredth birthday, you can rea- 
 sonably be proud of maturity of years, and yet you are not 
 so old as your neighbor. The old town of Dartmouth was 
 settled in 16(54, which was fifteen years before the settle- 
 ment in Rochester. The question very naturally suggests 
 itself, why did the Dartmouth pioneers pass by the fertile 
 lands and pleasant shores of Rochester, to settle in the 
 rocky woods of Dartmouth? The streams of Rochester 
 were as well stocked with fish as were those of Dartmouth ; 
 the harbors of Sippican and Mattapoisett, although not as
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 77 
 
 commodious and deep as the harbors of Acushuet and Ap- 
 ponagansett, were well protected and were equal to all the 
 requirements of a primitive commerce; while the lands 
 around your ponds and on the necks which stretched into 
 the sea were among the most productive in the colony. 
 Why did the men of Dartmouth go further and fare 
 worse? One reason perhaps may be found in the causes 
 which led to, and the circumstances attending, their de- 
 parture from Plymouth. With the exception of Dart- 
 mouth, the early settlements, such as Sandwich and Barn- 
 stable and Kingston and Scituate, were made under the 
 auspices and directions of the Plymouth church. The 
 central figure of the new town was the minister. He not 
 only guided the spiritual affairs of the little community, but 
 was the leader in its local administration. The settlement 
 of Dartmouth was prompted by the exaction of church 
 rates, assessed by the Colony Court. . A small portion of 
 the colonists disapproved of taxation levied for the support 
 of a hireling ministry, especially if that ministry was not in 
 sympathy with their peculiar religious notions. The refusal 
 to pay the church taxes led to the distraint of their goods, 
 the seizure of their cattle and the imprisonment of their per- 
 sons. They were non-resistants, but terribly in earnest ; 
 and after suffering for some time for conscience' sake, the 
 Dartmouth pioneers withdrew from Plymouth and sought a 
 new home. The Plymouth church, which ruled the colony, 
 let them go in peace ; glad, doubtless, to be rid of the stiff- 
 necked and rebellious Quakers. In going from Plymouth, 
 they went as far as they could and not get uncomfortably 
 near the hostile and treacherous Indians ; for while they re- 
 sented the interference and dictation of Plymouth in matters 
 of conscience, they respected its military power and desired 
 its protection and support when their homes were invaded 
 by cruel foes.
 
 78 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 There is another reason which may be suggested why 
 these men passed by the attractions and advantages of Roch- 
 ester and located in Dartmouth. In the early history of the 
 colony, the lands of Rochester furnished the pasturage for 
 Plymouth. It was the place where the cattle found suste- 
 nance during the winters. As early as 1651, Sippican was 
 granted to Plymouth by the Colony Court "for a place to 
 herd their cattle," and this grant was eight miles by the sea 
 and four miles into the land. 
 
 It is an interesting fact, and worthy of mention to-day, 
 that this locality in its earliest history was devoted to the 
 advancement of education. The rental which the colony 
 derived from these rich grazing fields was donated to free 
 schools, for the maintaining and upholding of the school at 
 Plymouth, and, in the language of the order, "not to be 
 estranged from that end." The school fund of the Ply- 
 mouth Colony came from the rental of the pasture lands of 
 Rochester and from the income derived from the rights 
 granted to take mackerel and bass and herrings with nets 
 and seines.' The pasturage of Rochester and the fisheries 
 of Cape Cod must always be associated together as furnish- 
 ing the earliest support for free schools upon this continent. 
 Massachusetts has always been proud of her fisheries, and 
 has watched them with jealous care and protected them by 
 laws. She may well do so, considering the benefits received 
 from them in the education of the boys and girls of the Col- 
 on}'. A citizen of Massachusetts, writing more than one 
 hundred years ago about her resources and material wealth, 
 said that the mackerel fishery was of more value to Massa- 
 chusetts than would be the pearl fisheries of Ceylon. The 
 comparison may be an exaggerated one, if the computation 
 is to be made in dollars and cents; but when the revenue 
 derived from the fisheries is devoted to the education of the 
 .youth of the Commonwealth, their value is not overstated,
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 79 
 
 The fund arising from this source could not have been very 
 large, for we read that in 1673 the sum ot 33 was charged 
 for the expense of the school out of the profits obtained 
 from the fisheries of Cape Cod. There was at that time an 
 allowance of 5, out of the fishery fund, to every town of 
 fifty families, for schools in that town ; and any town of 
 seventy families which failed to maintain a grammar school, 
 was compelled to pay 5 every year to the next town that 
 had such a school. These figures may seem trivial when 
 contrasted with those of the present day. There was ex- 
 pended last year for the education of the youth of this 
 country, sixty-four millions of dollars. Massachusetts 
 alone has 5,730 schools, with 310,000 pupils and 8,500 
 teachers, and upon these she expends $5,000,000 annually. 
 But magnificent as these figures appear, they are not more 
 interesting nor suggestive to us, -to-day, than the mention 
 of the efforts made by our fathers in donating the pasture 
 lands of this town and the fisheries of the Cape for the edu- 
 cation of the youth of the colony. 
 
 The Third Sentiment "The Legal Profession of the 
 Commonwealth." Response of Hon. George Marston of 
 New Bedford, Attorney-General of the Commonwealth. 
 
 Mr. President, After the very excellent response which 
 has been made by His Honor, the Lieutenant-Governor, for 
 the entire Commonwealth, which includes, of courss, all 
 classes and conditions of its people, and among them the 
 members of the legal profession, there can be little need 
 that anything more should be said in reference to them, or 
 on their behalf. And after the honorable mention which 
 has been made by the orator to whom we have listened with 
 so much of pleasure and interest, of some eminent lawyers 
 who had their origin in old Rochester it might be quite as 
 well to take them as representatives of what the profession
 
 80 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 of the law nmy do, and has done, in titling men for the im- 
 portant duties of life, and to assert that what this locality 
 has done, in this respect, has been done hy most, if not all, 
 of the older townships and settlements which now make up 
 so large a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
 Yet, if there were time given me here, as fortunately for 
 you there is not, I should like to recall to your memory a 
 few of the lawyers of more recent times, who had their 
 homes in this territory of Rochester. It would be pleasant 
 to speak at length of Abraham Holmes, who, coming to the 
 bar after middle age, earned for himself an honorable place 
 in his profession and a position quite as honorable as a citi- 
 zen and as a man ; and of his distinguished son, Charles 
 Jarvis Holmes, a man of genial temper, of excellent wit, 
 tilted for the brightest companionship, whose disposition 
 and method of lite may be seen in the sentence which he 
 truthfully framed, as he said, to be inscribed on the stone 
 which should mark his resting-place, "by profession a law- 
 yer, by practice a peacemaker"; and of Seth Miller, Jr., 
 who. though born in Middleborough, wns for a lifetime so 
 identified with Wareham, as to be fairly entitled to be 
 counted a Wareham man, and who by faithful adherence to 
 the work of his office and patient continuance in well-doing, 
 won the respect of his brethren of the bar and the confi- 
 dence of the public. 
 
 In acknowledging the courtesy of your invitation to be 
 here to-day, I prefer to pass by the fact that I am a resident 
 of New Bedford and remember that I have been a Cape Cod 
 man, for there is good reason why all of n^ of Barustable 
 origin should have special regard for this territory of ancient 
 Seipigan, for we came near being descendants of the early 
 settlers here, and this town came near to being forty years 
 older than it is. The people of Rev. Mr. Lothrop, who ar- 
 rived with -him in Boston in September, 1634, and pro-
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 81 
 
 ceeded thence to Scituate, which was their destination, and 
 where a meeting house had been erected for them, in antici- 
 pation of their coming, remained in the latter place only 
 five years; and when, in 1639, they found reason for re- 
 moval, their intention at first was to go to Seipigan, where 
 lands had been assigned them, and which evidently were 
 goodly and desirable lands, and which, as we have heard to- 
 day, were afterwards the pasture grounds of the primitive 
 farmers and mariners of this region. But a settlement at 
 Barnstable was preferred, because of the more extensive 
 "hay grounds" there; meaning, no doubt, the large salt 
 marshes in the westerly part of that town. The settlers 
 evidently thought they could manage to find subsistence for 
 their beasts during the summer time, even on Cape Cod ; 
 but to provide for the then long and cheerless winters, the 
 marshes had strong attractions, after the advantage which 
 they had derived from them while in Scituate. So Mr. 
 Lothrop's company went to Barnstable as early, at least, as 
 1639 ; by which movement of policy, Rochester has been 
 shorn of forty years of its civic life. Whether it was bet- 
 ter or worse for them or for you, I will not undertake to 
 say ; yet it is certain that there has proved to be something 
 vital and tonic in the atmosphere of that piece of amphibious 
 prairie, the "Great Marshes" of Barnstable, for it was on 
 their margin that were reared such patriots and advocates 
 and statesmen as James Otis, such naval commanders as 
 John Percival, and such jurists as Lemuel Shaw. One 
 thing ought to make us grateful that Barnstable was settled 
 in 1639 instead of Rochester; for if the latter place had 
 been occupied at that time, we should have missed the 
 pleasure of being here to-day. 
 
 And speaking of the relations between Barnstable and 1 
 Rochester, we ought not to forget that for the first thirty 
 years of its existence, Rochester belonged to the County of 
 F
 
 82 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 Barnstable. Somewhere about 1709 it passed into the 
 County of Plymouth, for what cause or reason I cannot 
 understand or ascertain. Surely, they parted with very 
 good company when they went away, and 1 will not under- 
 take to say they did not find companionship equally as good 
 when they cast in their lots with the towns of Plymouth. 
 But I think I may well say that much of the success which 
 has attended these Rochester towns, since the transfer to 
 Plymouth has been due to the early training in the Cape 
 Cod school, and the wise and pious inculcations of the 
 Lothrops and Cudworths and the other worthies of those 
 days. 
 
 You, sir. and the citizens of what was formerly Roches- 
 ter, are entitled to the highest commendation for the patri- 
 otic purpose and spirit with which you have commemorated 
 this day, and which has drawn together this large concourse 
 of those who are entitled to ca!l themselves the sons and 
 daughters of Rochester. It is well to keep in mind and to 
 study to imitate the virtues and characters of those men and 
 women who have filled with usefulness and honor these two 
 centuries which lie behind us. There is nothing in the in- 
 struction or example which the present day affords that 
 equals the lesson which we can derive from the contempla- 
 tion of the simple lives of those early generations which 
 have peopled and blessed these shores. In all that was 
 given them to do, in the homely routine of every day ; in 
 faithful performance of duties to the struggling colony and 
 the feeble province; in the enforced vigilance of watch and 
 ward ; in the perilous edge of battle in the early Indian hos- 
 tilities, and in the later wars for independence of govern- 
 ment or for national supremacy, they have taught us a 
 "deep and lasting lesson of virtue, enterprise, patience, 
 zeal and faith." Standing here to-day and taking this retro- 
 spection of these two hundred busy and eventful years, we
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 83 
 
 are compelled to admit that there is nothing in the allure- 
 ments of the present time which can promise us anything 
 better than this history presents. There is higher and 
 purer inspiration to be drawn from the past, as it has dis- 
 played itself in the recital which we have heard to-day, than 
 in all the enticements which the gilded hand of speculation 
 and distant adventure holds out to the view. There is no 
 need that the children of these towns should look beyond 
 their limits to see whepe they may lead lives of happiness 
 and honor and success. The highest success, the highest 
 happiness has been attained and may yet be attained here at 
 home. As we seek to know what the next century here 
 shall be, whether it shall be a good time that is coming, an 
 all hail hereafter ; whether we shall be lifted upon some 
 higher wave of prosperity than any that has yet borne us 
 upwaid and onward, or whether a reflex and ebbing tide is 
 to bear us backward, may be best determined by the heed 
 we are willing to give to the record which is now rounded 
 into two centuries of most honorable history. Looking at 
 this record, we can learn, if we will, how much more ser- 
 viceable to the State, how much more productive of serene 
 happiness is the plain and patient performance of the simple 
 duties of life, than are any of the successes or rewards which 
 are to be sought in distant fields or in the dizzy pursuits of 
 ambition. And catching the quiet inspiration which comes 
 to us from these two hundred years of Rochester life and 
 effort, let us so live and work that when the story of the 
 coming centuries shall in their time be told, we may share 
 in the honor and glory and renown which has been achieved 
 by those who have preceded us. 
 
 The Fourth Sentiment "The General Court which in- 
 corporated the town of Rochester. We call upon the Pres- 
 ident of the State Senate to explain the historical relations
 
 84 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 between Barnstable County and the ancient Sippican." 
 Response of Hon. John B. D. Cogswell of Yarmouth. 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : I have great 
 pleasure in being present on this occasion, and especially in 
 being introduced in this connection, and to speak to the 
 early historical relations of Rochester with Cape Cod, where 
 I was born, and which I have the honor to represent in our 
 General Court. But as the old philosopher said : "Count 
 no man happy till his life is finished," so let no after-dinner 
 orator felicitate himself upon his speech until he has deliv- 
 ered it. For here, in the first place, bur distinguished Con- 
 gressman, Mr. Crapo, who so satisfactorily represents Barn- 
 stable County as well as Plymouth and Bristol and the 
 Islands, has most happily anticipated what I had hoped to 
 say about the curious associations between the Cape fisher- 
 ies and the lands of Sippican and Wareham for the support 
 of a school at Plymouth, and that "our approved friend," 
 Mr. Thomas Hinckley of Barnstable, on the Cape, was ap- 
 pointed as "a steward of the said school." And so, again, 
 my friend and countryman, the eminent Attorney-General, 
 himself a native of Barnstable, has told you and who has 
 a better right to speak of aught connected with that most 
 venerable and even illustrious town ? how nearly it hap- 
 pened that the settlement at Barnstable was made at Roch- 
 ester, and that Rochester after that was for thirty years in- 
 deed a part of Barnstable County. It is of course useless 
 to speculate upon what might have been if the noble and 
 God-fearing Mr. Lothrop, who gathered his church in Lon- 
 don some years before the sailing of the Mayflower, and 
 whose congregation was broken up by the pursuivants of 
 the Bishop of London, and he himself thrown into prison 
 and long languishing there, and only released upon condi- 
 tion of leaving England, had brought his flock, after the 
 short sojourn at Scituate, to Sippican instead of Barnstable.
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 85 
 
 There, arriving after the tedious journey, he offered up prayer 
 in thanksgiving under the shadow of the "great rock in a 
 weary land," long marked upon the highway, and here he 
 would have done the same. And this is all of still less con- 
 sequence, since we know that the descendants of Pastor 
 Lothrop and the other pioneers of Barnstable and the Cape 
 were in fact the pioneers and actual settlers of Rochester. 
 For in 1679, Joseph and Barnabas Lothrop of Barnstable, 
 with Winslow of Marshfield and Clark of Plymouth, were 
 agents of the thirty proprietors who bought all of Roches- 
 .ter outside of Plymouth for 200. In 1684, Sandwich on 
 the Cape had sent you Blackburn, Hammond and Barlow ; 
 by 1689, Wing and Burgess were here ; and about the same 
 time or soon after, Saunders, Nye, Swift, Willis, Ellis, 
 Blackmer, Dexter, Gifford, Allen, all Sandwich names. 
 From Barnstable, you got Davis, Lombard, Amiable and 
 Chase; from Eastham, Higgins. From Yarmouth, my own 
 native place, came Tilley, Sears, Rider, Hiller, White. Of 
 the latter stock, sprang Lieut. -Col. Ebeiiezer White, of 
 whose revolutionary services your orator has made such 
 honorable mention, being no other than the stock of Pere- 
 grine White, that famous child born on board the May- 
 flower in the harbor -of Provincetown, to whom I also have 
 the great satisfaction of tracing lineage, and so " claim kin- 
 dred here." Nay, we of Yarmouth even furnished you 
 your first minister in Samuel Arnold, son of Rev. Sam- 
 uel Arnold, the third minister of Marshfield, who be- 
 fore that had lived at Yarmouth, where, in 1649, your 
 Samuel was born. Thus you are very bone ol our bone and 
 flesh of our flesh. 
 
 The first representative of Rochester in the General Court 
 (1692) is said to have been Samuel 'Prince, formerly of 
 Sandwich, and father of the famous annalist of Xew Eng- 
 land, grandson of our good Gov. Thomas Hinckley of the 
 Cape. So at least runs one account.
 
 86 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENJSTIAL. 
 
 This historical feast is like a basket picnic, to which each 
 brings and contributes that which he has been able to gather. 
 I have been specially interested in reading of your first 
 ministers, whose virtues would admit the application to 
 them of the epitaph of one of the old ministers of Barn- 
 stable. " Think what a Christian minister should be, 
 you've then his epitaph; for such was he." Rev. Ivory 
 Hovey and Mr. Le Baron, the two first ministers of Matta- 
 poisett, in their joint pastorates, covered just one hundred 
 years. Mr. LeBaron was the descendant of a good French 
 surgeon who, shipwrecked in a privateer on the back of 
 Cape Cod, was detained as a close prisoner until Lieut.' 
 Gov> Stoughton released him at the urgent request of the 
 people of Plymouth, that he might become a physician 
 there, where indeed he proved himself a good medicine, as 
 well as a good Christian, though our fathers shuddered 
 when they learned that he always slept with the crucifix 
 pillowed upon his breast. But the Mattapoiselt clergyman 
 was as devoted to his Protestant parishioners as his ancestor 
 had been to his patients or to the papacy. I have recently 
 read a very beautiful and interesting account of him. When 
 he grew so old that he was obliged to give up the active 
 care of his people, he still clung to the Sunday school the 
 lumbs of his flock. No priest of his ancestral religion, no 
 French cure, no good Romanist father of his parish, con- 
 fessor as well, and so depository of the secrets of his peo- 
 ple, more tenderly loved, and was loved by them, than this 
 good and pure pastor of Mattapoisett. 
 
 From these people of Scituate and Sandwich and the 
 Cape, once more you got your name of Rochester in County 
 Kent in England, whence many of your fathers came. They 
 were " Men of Kent," and proud of the famous county of 
 their origin and of the city of Rochester, seat of an ancient 
 oyster fishery. Kent is affectionately called " the flower of
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 87 
 
 the English counties," and Rochester is an old, old city, 
 scene of Danish warfare and sack, and rescued by King Al- 
 fred more than a thousand years ago. 
 
 Here many kings of England have visited and here 
 fought. King John, after Magna Charta, here besieged his 
 high-spirited barons. Here is a famous old cathedral, and 
 the famous castle they say the Romans built. Lastly, and 
 perhaps best of all, here is Walts' hospital for the six poor 
 travellers which Dickons has described for us. How pleas- 
 ant that you should have a kind message from old Rochester 
 by the sea to-day ! 
 
 When your people had been about a hundred years at 
 Rochester, they paid a visit to the old folks down on the 
 Cape. This was in the fall of 1774. 
 
 Under act of Parliament, the king had summoned coun- 
 cillors by mandamus, who before had been elected by the 
 General Court, and the sheriff was also directed to appoint 
 jurors previously selected in the towns. These were seri- 
 ous infractions of the charter, and it was determined that 
 the courts should not sit. The Barnstable Court of Com- 
 mon Pleas being to be held Sept. 27, 1774, the men of Bris- 
 tol and Plymouth counties met at Rochester Sept. 26, and, 
 entering into an agreement to preserve order on the expedi- 
 tion, appointed a committee for that purpose, on which 
 figure the Rochester (and before-time Cape) names of Bar- 
 low, Sears and Wing. The same day, the expedition moved 
 on Sandwich and matured its organization, and the next 
 morning proceeded to Barnstable in good order, there dis- 
 suading the court, not much loath, from its session. The 
 members also signed an agreement not to act or take office 
 under the recent acts of Parliament. 
 
 On the return of the "expedition" to Sandwich, a per- 
 son was dealt with for saying he wished "the Rochester 
 people were in hell for their treatment of Ruggles and
 
 88 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 Sprague." " He expressed sorrow and asked forgiveness 
 ot all. This gave satisfaction." 
 
 Only a few days afterwards, some Tories at Sandwich 
 having brutally assaulted Col. Freeman of that place, the 
 authorized commander of the Barnstable " expedition," the 
 Rochester and "Wareham people went down again, to see 
 that justice Avas done to the ruffians. 
 
 The venerable Abraham Holmes of Rochester wrote his 
 account of this affair in 1834, sixty years after. He says : 
 "There may be some who took part in this adventure now 
 alive, beside myself; but I know of none." His grandson 
 is here ; through whom I hope we shall hear other of the 
 reminiscences of Abraham Holmes. 
 
 But who were " Ruggles and Sprague T" The circum- 
 stances indicate that the persons whom the Rochester peo- 
 ple had ill-treated were Tories. Both names were well 
 known and honored here. When, in 174(5, the General 
 Court directed Mr. Otis of Barnstable, Tupper of Sandwich 
 and Foster of Plymouth, "to provide a suitable place for 
 the reception of the Pigwacket Indians, now at Fort 
 William," they reported that they had provided a place for 
 them at Assanomock Neck in Rochester, under tlft? care of 
 Capt. Noah Sprague and Benjamin Hammond, Jr., both of 
 Rochester. The report was accepted, and 25 in money 
 was directed to be paid, that Sprague and Hammond might 
 provide a boat, tools, provisions and other necessaries for 
 the present support of the Indians. 
 
 A son of Capt. Noah Sprague was John Sprague, born at 
 Rochester, June 21, 1746; graduated at Harvard, 1765; 
 who taught school and studied medicine first at Roxbury ; 
 then in May, 1766, began to keep the grammar school at 
 Worcester, and, at the same time, to study with that famous 
 lawyer, James Putnam of Worcester, the last Attorney- 
 General under the king ; who was a Loyalist refugee in
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 89 
 
 1776. Sprague was admitted to the bar in 1708, and began 
 to practice in Newport, R. I., afterwards at Keene, N. H., 
 and then permanently, at Lancaster in Worcester Count}', 
 where he became partner with Abel Willard, another noted 
 Loyalist refugee. I thought, therefore, he must have been 
 a Tory like his associates; but I was mistaken. Of all the 
 attorneys and barristers in Worcester County, he was the 
 only one who was not a Tory and a refugee. He was called 
 to be a barrister by writ of the Supreme Court in 17S4; 
 was in the Senate and House ; Sheriff of Worcester County : 
 in the Massachusetts Convention to consider the adoption of 
 the Federal Constitution, and voted for it ; 7 for to 43 
 against of Worcester County delegates. Lastly, he was law 
 adviser to Gen. Lincoln in the Shay's rebellion, and a Jus- 
 tice of the Court of Common Pleas for Worcester County. 
 
 His practice was extensive in Middlesex, Worcester and 
 Hampshire counties in- Massachusetts, and Cheshire and 
 Hillsborough, in New Hampshire. He was among the 
 ablest jurists of his day. His mind was clear and compre- 
 hensive, and he. was weighty with juries. He had "strength 
 and research, modesty and independence." On his tomb- 
 stone was written, " Blessed are the peacemakers." 
 
 Peleg Sprague, nephew of John, was born at Rochester, 
 Dec. 10, 1756; was originally in a store, but studied law 
 with Benjamin West at Charlestown, N. H.,. who has been 
 styled "the Parsons of New Hampshire." Sprague prac- 
 ticed at Dartmouth, now New Bedford, then at Keene, N. 
 H., and was in Congress from New Hampshire. He is said 
 to have had "fortitude of mind." "He felt no kind ot 
 intimidation in opposing any measure which he thought 
 incorrect, however great the character might be which sup- 
 ported it." He graduated at Dartmouth College, 1783. 
 
 Among the former ministers of Rochester, was Rev. 
 Thomas West, "whose sou, Rev. Samuel West, was pastor 
 r2
 
 90 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 successively at Nceclham, Mass., and Hollis street church, 
 Boston. "He was distinguished for learning, piety, liber- 
 ality of sentiment and apostolical simplicity of manners." 
 He wrote a sketch of his brother Benjamin West, first a 
 minister and then a lawyer at Charlestons, New Hamp- 
 shire, with whom Peleg Sprague studied as previously 
 mentioned. Chosen member of Congress under the Confed- 
 eration and under the Constitution, member of the conven- 
 tion which framed the Constitution and of the state conven- 
 tion which ratified it, appointed Attorney-General and 
 Judge of Probate, West resolutely declined all these pos- 
 itions, "resisting the entreaties and even the resentments of 
 his friends." 
 
 Thomas Hammond, born at Rochester, Sept. 17, 1766, 
 was a grandson of Rev. Thomas West, and was fitted for 
 college by him, and graduating at Harvard College, studied 
 law with his uncle Benjamin West, and commenced its prac- 
 tice at New Bedford. He was an excellent classical scholar, 
 ' a man of quick apprehension, sound judgment and strong 
 powers." with good legal training. High expectations were 
 entertained that "he would be an ornament to the bar and 
 shine with unrivalled lustre." But his invincible *timidity 
 was such that he broke down in his first cause, and never 
 made any figure in trials afterwards. 
 
 Yes ! it is good for us to be here this day, and participate 
 in this pleasant, peaceful, country-side celebration, where 
 there is nothing which the fathers would not have smiled 
 upon. Looking back, we see clearly that the men of "Kent" 
 were providentially brought to this spot to establish a 
 nobler Rochester in a greater Britain on the shores of a fairer 
 and larger sea, and that we fail to comprehend the meaning 
 of this day, if we do not now gird up our loins to carry for- 
 ward the great work of civil and religious liberty, begun 
 by the fathers of this town and all our towns'.
 
 ROCHESTER'S SI-CENTENNIAL. 91 
 
 Fifth Sentiment "The Pilgrims; the men who 
 spoke the word heard round the world." Response of 
 Judge Thomas Russell of Boston, President of the Pilgrim 
 Society* 
 
 Fellow Citizens, It is always pleasant to speak of the 
 Pilgrims, especially when standing on the soil of Plymouth 
 County and in presence of their sons. We have been re- 
 minded that Rochester once left this jurisdiction for that of 
 Barnstable* B-ut she might say in the language of the 
 psalm : 
 
 4i -And if ray feet dtd e'er departs 
 
 Thy love reclaimed my wandering heart." 
 
 And this is characteristic of all the sons of Plymouth. 
 Their love of home is a little stronger than that of other 
 men. Only last nisjht, I heard an illustration of this. A 
 gentleman was talking about the success of the Old Colony 
 Railroad a gentleman who knows more about railroads 
 than an average commissioner and he said that part of its 
 success was due to the fact that every Plymouth boy, and 
 very son and daughter of Cape Cod was determined, if 
 possible, to spend every Saturday night at home. You see 
 that Boston capitalists can invest their money in the faith of 
 our notorious love of our birthplace. 
 
 Here are men who have sailed among the- islands where 
 perpetual summer scatters fruit and flowers over the fertile 
 land, where the soil and climate are all that ours are not. 
 And yet you never envied the inhabitant of those Edens ; 
 you always turn with pride and joy to your own dear Old 
 Colony. Because, for one reason, chilly as its winds are, 
 they wafted the Mayflower to these -shores ; barren as its 
 sands are, they first were trodden by the Pilgrims' feet, and 
 they hold the Pilgrims' graves. And it is your faith, that 
 where those heroic men and women lived and died, just
 
 92 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 there the Pilgrim ways of thought and life are most closely 
 followed by their children. 
 
 But, before I speak further of our fathers, let me correct 
 an omission made by those who have spoken so eloquently 
 of the sons of the old Plymouth Colony. I refer to one 
 who was born within her ancient limits, and to whom we 
 owe an eternal debt of gratitude. Where would the colony 
 have been ; what would have become of our forefathers but 
 for the generosity and trust of Massasoit? When he ap- 
 peared on Strawberry Hill, across the brook, and when 
 Capt. Standish made ready to meet him, then the destinies- 
 of New England hung trembling in the balance ; then it was 
 to be decided whether the Pilgrim enterprize should live or 
 die. No, I do not quite believe this. However our faith 
 may wayer elsewhere, standing here to-day in the more im- 
 mediate presence of the memories of the past, we do believe 
 that before the foundation of the hills was laid, or ever the 
 earth had been formed, it had been decreed that the Pil- 
 grims should land just where they landed and bear just 
 what they bore, and triumph just as they did triumph, and 
 become the framers of such a government, and the fathers 
 of such a church as the world had never seen. 
 
 The noble chieftain was but an instrument to accomplish 
 this design. So, every trial of our fathers was but the 
 appointed means of forming the character that was to be 
 stamped on New England. Every chilling wind, each day 
 of drought, every week of famine was measured out so as to 
 fit this chosen people for their predestined work. Philip, 
 as well as his father, was appointed to aid in working out 
 this end. From the plains of Swansea and Dartmouth, of 
 Middleboro and Bridgewater ; from that sharp fight on the 
 banks of Pawtucket River, that decimated the youth of 
 Plymouth, not one of the little army escaping or trying to 
 escape ; from every field of battle and from every scene
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 93 
 
 of suffering came the stern, strong nature, that was to 
 |ubdne the western world, and consecrate it to indepen- 
 dence. 
 
 I love to trace the unity of glory, that marks the succes- 
 sive generations of Old Colony life. The speaker here re- 
 ferred to the exploits of Capt. Church, to the preservation 
 of the old charter, to the contest with Gov. Andros carried 
 on by Wisvvell of Duxbury, and Elder Faunce of Plymouth, 
 to the services of Old Colony men in the French and Indian 
 wars and especially to their share of service in the Revo- 
 lution. Barnstable can boast of Otis, who breathed into 
 Independence the breath of life, and Plymouth tells of War- 
 ren, who gave to Sam Adams the idea of Committees of 
 Correspondence, and who presided over the first Provincial 
 Congress. Falmouth honors the memory of the Dimmocks : 
 Rochester had her brave Haskell, and Wareham her gallant 
 Fearing. We have been reminded that Dartmouth was set- 
 tled before old Rochester ; but Dartmouth would have been 
 settled in another sense, if your hero had not driven to their 
 ships the English troops that came to destroy the town. 
 And so we might, if there were time, look throughout the 
 three counties, and trace the contribution of each little town 
 to the great cause of liberty. Sproat from Middleboro' and 
 Morton from Plymouth ; Sampson from Kingston ; Gen. 
 Thomas from Marshfield; the Cushings and Baileys; Gen. 
 Lincoln from Hingham (for Hingham is Old Coloivy now) ; 
 Gen. David Cobb, as steadfast for law as he was for liberty ; 
 the Daggetts from Attleboro' ; Deborah Sampson from lit- 
 tle Plympton. Time would fail me, if I tried to give the 
 names and deeds, which in the hour of trial showed that the 
 Pilgrim spirit had not fled, and that American liberty even 
 flourished on the bleak shores where it was born. 
 
 Nor is it only by deeds of war that the children of the 
 Pilgrims have shown their heroism. Only the other day,
 
 94 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 the death of a son of Rochester reminded us of this. 
 When, twenty-five years ago, the Arctic foundered at sea, 
 there was one who might have left her, but who would not 
 desert his post ; one son of your good town, who stood on 
 his own quarter-deck, clasping his son in his arms, sinking 
 with his ship in heroic devotion to duty, saved as by a mir- 
 acle. 
 
 - So sfnks the (Jay-star rn his ocean bed. 
 And yet anew repairs his drooping head.'* 
 
 Such examples are lights to guide us in all the ways of 
 life. 
 
 I have just b.een asked to say a word for the Cape Cod 
 ship canal. But I would not obtrude a plea for that enter- 
 prize among the festivities of this memorial day. Nor 
 would time permit me even to sketch the benefits that it 
 would confer upon the Old Colony, upon Boston and upon 
 New England. Yet one incident may well be stated. The 
 proposed route, as you all know, was used by the Pilgrims 
 as the line of their traffic with the Dutch and with the set- 
 tlers in Connecticut. Avoiding the shoals of Cape Cod, 
 they sailed up Scusset Creek, and with a short portage 
 reached Manomet river, at the mouth of which they built a 
 trading-house, where their corn and tobacco were stored, 
 till their customers ariived from Long Island Sound. And 
 one of the men, who was stationed on this lonely spot, em- 
 ployed some of his leisure hours in drilling into a rock near 
 the river's mouth these words : 
 
 k> The Eastern nations sink ; then* glory ends ; 
 And Empire rises \yhere the sun descends. * r 
 
 I know not where to find in secular history such a display 
 of faith as this. Written in 1627, while the infant colony 
 was struggling for existence, it foretold all the glories of to- 
 day, all the greater glories yet to be. The Empire of 
 which that Pilgrim dreamed we are privileged to see.
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 95 
 
 Heaven grant that neither we nor our children's children 
 may ever see any stain upon its honor ! 
 
 The Sixth Sentiment " The old township of Roches- 
 ter." Response of John Eddy, Esq., a prominent lawyer 
 of Providence, R. I. 
 
 An old man who had recently married a young and beau- 
 tiful girl was inquired of how it came to pass that he had 
 been so successful. He replied "poetry did it." His 
 friends begged to be furnished with a copy. "Certainly! 
 here it is." 
 
 u If love be a flame as some do affirm, 
 
 The drier the stick the quicker 't will burn." 
 
 Now, Mr. President, after two hundred years of well 
 preserved life, when this grand old town was so kind as to 
 extend to me an invitation to assist in commemorating her 
 two hundredth birth day, the blood in my veins leapt for 
 joy, and although I am a dry old stick yet the flame of love 
 burns not more brightly in the bosom of any one here pres- 
 ent than in my own for this quaint old town and the noble 
 and hospitable people who inhabit it. 
 
 Early in 1843 I came to Rochester almost a stranger. I 
 had just been admitted to the bar. My health was perfect, 
 my hopes high and spirits buoyant. Every day was a red 
 lettered one, full of rich experience and overflowing with 
 life and joy. It was then that I received from the good 
 people of this town such a hearty welcome, such unde- 
 served consideration and such generous hospitality that 
 there is no spot on earth to which my affections so instinct- 
 ively turn, and I hope while life lasts to make at least an- 
 nual pilgrimages to the locality sacred to so many memories 
 and associations.
 
 96 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 Still o'er these scenes m\- memorj' wakes 
 
 And silent broods with miser euro. 
 Time but the impression deeper makes 
 
 As streams their channels deeper wear." 
 
 What :i galaxy of noble and entertaining men and women 
 then gave a wide reputation to the town ! At the centre, 
 Jonathan Bigelow, the elegant preacher; John B, Sturte- 
 vant, the chronicler of all pleasing incidents ; Elnathan 
 Haskell, the kind and genial physician; George Bonney, 
 true as steel to virtue and truth ; James Ruggles, entertain- 
 ing and witty ; and the women also, who were not a whit 
 behind in culture and grace. 
 
 Time would fail me as it did Paul when he desired to 
 speak of Barak and Gideon, but there are two men still liv- 
 ing who were then in their prime. "Heaven has bounteous- 
 ly lengthened out their lives that they might behold this 
 glorious day." Jesse Briggs, the encyclopedia of poetry 
 and wit, and Theophilus King, whose name I would mention 
 if he were not DOW upon the platform. 
 
 At that time the Rev. Dr. Cobb was living and held in 
 such reverence by old and young that a school boy came 
 near being castigated for profanity in speaking of him as 
 old Dr. Cobb. 
 
 In Mattapoisett there remained the venerable Dr. Rob- 
 bins ; John A. LeBarron, the Christian gentleman; Joseph 
 Meigs, the clear-headed and shrewd merchant ; Moses Rog- 
 ers, overflowing with kindness and good nature, and many 
 others which time will not permit to mention. 
 
 There has always been among the citizens of Rochester a 
 decided individuality, and a volume might be written filled 
 with curious incidents. Of all who have lived in this town 
 my opinion isJ;hat no two men have stamped their charac- 
 ters and made such impressions upon society as Abram 
 Holmes and the elder Ruggles.
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 97 
 
 As time will not allow of my further detaining yon, per- 
 mit me to close by relating an incident which occurred when 
 I first came among you. The ladies of Sippican gave a 
 clambake, to which I had the good fortune to be invited. 
 They did not conceive of it as a dress parade. They very 
 appropriately arrayed themselves in their neat attire and 
 jaunty sun-bonnets ; but when some of the guests from a 
 neighboring city arrived with dyed garments from Bozrah 
 and hats highly ornamented with feathers and flowers, the 
 young ladies began to be ashamed of their sun-bonnets. 
 Among them was one whom I distinctly remember, and of 
 whose sun-bonnet 1 could give a perfect description, of 
 whom it might as well have been written as of Jean In- 
 flow's heroine : 
 
 "The fairest form that e'er drew breath 
 Was my son's wi'e. Elizabeth." 
 
 Perhaps the sun-bonnet made her still more modest and 
 charming ; but her graces on that occasion caught a lover, 
 and not long after they were happily married. For aught I 
 know, she was the original of Miss Nora Perry's verses, be- 
 ginning : 
 
 ' Tying her bonnet under her chin, 
 She tied her raven ringlets in ; 
 But not alone in the silken snare, 
 Did she catch her lovely floating hair. 
 For, tying her bonnet under her chin. 
 She tied a young man's heart within." 
 
 The Seventh Sentiment " The old Ministers and Dea- 
 cons of Rochester." Response of Henry Morton Dexter, 
 D. D., of Xew Bedford, Editor of the Congreyationalist: 
 
 I may rightly claim this qualification to respond to the 
 sentiment to which you have invited me to speak, that my 
 honored father was a clergyman born in Rochester, and that 
 G
 
 98 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 his father and his grandfather were both deacons of the an- 
 cient church in this place. 
 
 It is not altogether easy for us in this day to comprehend 
 the real character and value of the ministry of the early 
 days of New England. Napoleon said that an army of deer 
 led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a deer. 
 Now the minister was the leader of the old New England 
 town. He was such, not merely because he was the minis- 
 ter, but because, as the rule, he was a man of that native 
 force and that broad culture which lifted him head and 
 shoulders above the mass of the people to whom he min- 
 istered, and so made it natural that he should lead, and that 
 they should follow. 
 
 When secretary John Washburn minuted down for the 
 use of the farmers of the Massachusetts Colony the most 
 essential requisites for which provision ought to be made, 
 he named " Mynysters" :is the first even before the Patent 
 with the great seal. And it was the invariable fact, that an 
 able and a godly ministry was deemed the first essential to 
 the settlement of a New England town. Men wanted then 
 for their ministers, those not merely who, as Tickell said, 
 should be " Saints who taught and led the way to heaven," 
 but who could suggest wise counsels, set good examples, 
 and in all things aid their flocks while on their way to the 
 blessed land. In those days, learning was the possession of 
 the few ; but the New England ministry was a learned min- 
 istry. As the fruit of some careful research, I am prepared 
 to affirm, without fear of contradiction, that of the ministry 
 of the first century of New England, about ninety-seven 
 per cent, were graduates of universities. Of these, nearly 
 thirty per cent, were graduates of Cambridge (Eng.) ; 
 not quite thirteen per cent, of Oxford ; some two or three 
 per cent, of Dublin ; a little short of fifty per cent, of Har- 
 vard, and about five per cent, of Yale then in its earliest 
 stages of life.
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 99 
 
 I need not say to you, Mr. President, that to be a Uni- 
 versity man then meant something more than to live four 
 years within college walls, spend large sums of money, go 
 on various sprees, and carry away a sheep's skin bearing wit- 
 ness to these various qualifications for the degree of Bachelor 
 of Arts. Students then were drilled in logic until they were 
 masters of sentences ; while they usually made the classic 
 tongues almost as much their own as that into which they 
 were born. It is related of Thomas Parker, one of the ear- 
 liest ministers of Newbury, that, on one occasion, being 
 waited on by some of his brethren, desirous of fraternal 
 labor with him as to some point of doctrine or practice 
 which to them seemed awry, the interview began on their 
 part in the. vernacular, but Mr. Parker replied in Latin. 
 They proved quite able to go on, when he slipped into 
 Greek, and next into Hebrew. They still gave him as good 
 as he sent ; when he made a few remarks in Arabic, to 
 which there was no reply ! 
 
 These were the men of whom Stoughton, in his Election 
 sermon of 1668, made the famous remark to which one of 
 the honorable gentlemen who have preceded me has already 
 referred : " God sifted a whole nation, that he might send 
 choice 6 rain over into this wilderness.'' Not less worthy of 
 citation here is this further testimony from that same ser- 
 mon : "They were men of great renown in the nation from 
 whence the Laudian persecution exiled them; their learn- 
 ing, their holiness, their gravity, struck all men that knew 
 them with admiration. They were Timothies in their 
 houses, Chrysostoms in their pulpits, Augustines in their 
 disputations." 
 
 Of course such men were at home in the divinity of the 
 time. But they were also experts in other departments. 
 The first written code of the Massachusetts Colony, under 
 the charter of 1629, was drawn up by a minister. Nathaniel
 
 100 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTEXNIAL. 
 
 Ward, Hugh Peters and Thomas Weld three ministers of 
 the Buy were sent over as the agents of the colony to Eng- 
 land in 1641. While in their distress under the misgovern- 
 ment of Sir Edmund Andros, in 1688, Increase Mather, 
 then 48 years of age, being urged to go to London on the 
 public business, left the pulpit of the Second church in Bos- 
 ton and the president's chair at Harvard College vacant. 
 that by night, and in disguise on the friendly compulsion 
 of the patriot party he might do what it was thought no 
 other man could do so well for the common cause of \o\v 
 England liberty. I think even down to the present century 
 the country pastor has been often called upon to write the 
 wills of those among his people desiring to make testamen- 
 tary disposition of their property partly because they felt 
 sure they could safely trust him, and partly because they 
 would save the fee which the attorney would have charged 
 for the like service. 
 
 Further, that charming "American Medical Biography," 
 which was the gift to our libraries of a venerable son 
 of the Old Colony, is careful in outlining the early fortunes 
 of the healing art on this side of the sea, to state distinctly, 
 that partly because some knowledge thereof was then 
 among the accomplishments of the finished scholar, and 
 partly because the anticipation of the probable needs of 
 their new lite here suggested the study ; as a matter of fact, 
 if indeed for a long time the chief dependence of the sick 
 were not upon the pastor, at least, the practice of medicine 
 was to a very large extent, and for many years, "united 
 with the parochial duties of the ministers of religion." I 
 can very well remember when, as late as my own time, it 
 was quite the custom in my father's parish, to send to him 
 before they sent for the medical doctor and many a sick 
 man did he carry through alone. 
 
 Nor was this all. W r e read in the case of nearly the first
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 101 
 
 young aspirant for the pulpit here, who was on the wrong 
 side of the Atlantic for the old Universities, and for whom 
 even the young Harvard was not yet ready John Higgin- 
 son, son of Francis, at Salem that "he was assisted in his 
 education by the ministers of the Colony a favor for which 
 in after life he expressed the deepest gratitude." This was 
 continually done. It was indeed a 'part of the business of 
 the minister of the old time to search out the bright-eyed, 
 long-headed boys among his flock, and begin their training 
 for college. Hundreds of the best scholars and patriots of 
 New England have owed their first impulse toward great- 
 ness and usefulness, to this gracious labor, while in later 
 years, the college graduate studied theology, and perfected 
 himself for the sacred calling, in the family of his pastor, or 
 of some eminent minister. Thus Dr. Nathaniel Summers of 
 Franklin was for more than forty years in himself sole and 
 alone a theological seminary, graduating in all at least one 
 hundred pupils. 
 
 Such were the early ministers of Massachusetts and their 
 deacons were their helpers : good men and true, honest and 
 of good repute in their generations. 
 
 But, Mr. President, even this long summer's day will 
 have its end, and its shadows are stretching swiftly toward 
 the east. Let me close with two thoughts more. 
 
 In the first place, let us correct a too common impression 
 which attaches darkly the idea of gloom to Ihese grand old 
 men, and the general effect of their lives and labors. Sir, 
 this is a mistake. They .were earnest men, grave and sin- 
 cere, but they were not men with a long- faced and whining 
 spirit. Cotton Mather says of Nathaniel Ward, that he 
 was a man " whose wit made him known in more Englands 
 than one," and that he inscribed as the motto over his man- 
 tel-piece, these words : 
 
 - Sobrie, juste, pie, loete."
 
 102 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 That, sir, was their notion exactly ; that the man who is so- 
 ber, just and pious, will have reason to he, and ought to be, 
 a happy man. 
 
 And, finally, let us as wo look forward from the vantage- 
 ground of the past into the future, and consider what shall 
 be the fortune and what the feeling of those who shall stand 
 here a hundred, or two hundred, or a thousand years hence, 
 to celebrate the day let us adopt for ourselves, and let us 
 pray and hope and labor, that all our children, and our 
 children's children, and their children's children to the latest 
 generation, may take with sincere heartiness for their own, 
 the language of good old John Higginson : "If any man 
 among us make religion as twelve and the world as thirteen, 
 such an one hath not the spirit of a true New England 
 man! " 
 
 To the same sentiment Rev. Wni. H. Cobb of Oxbridge, 
 a grandson of Rev. Oliver Cobb, D. D., responded a fol- 
 lows : 
 
 Mr. President and Friends : Let me call back your atten- 
 tion at once from the degenerate sons to the worthy sires, 
 the early ministers of Kochester. 
 
 I- hold in my hand a book bearing the date "London, 
 1704," the year after this church was organised. It has 
 come down to me partly by natural descent (for it was my 
 father's), and partly by ecclesiastical, for it contains the fol- 
 lowing note over the signature of Jonathan Moore : "Fin- 
 ished the fourth reading of these volumes, Dec. 17th, 1812." 
 Jonathan Moore was then 73 years old, but he kept up his 
 studious habits, as the manuscript notes in this volume tes- 
 tify. A book was a rare thing in those days ; it was read 
 and re-read, till it had read itself into the mental discipline 
 of the reader ; a feat not always accomplished now that 
 books are as plenty as blackberries. This particular book,
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 103 
 
 by the way, is the second volume of the "Lives of the 
 Fathers," "adorned" (as you see) "with all their effigies cu- 
 riously Ingraven." I have in my possession another book 
 with the autograph: "Jonathan Moore, 1768," the very 
 year he was settled over the first church of Rochester as 
 colleague with Timothy Ruggles. That book is a System of 
 Divinity by Isaac Watts, the hymn-writer, who thus taught 
 our ancestors by his doctrine as well as his songs. The 
 book is only a little larger than this, but the price of it is 
 $10 of our money. No wonder they read them four 
 times. 
 
 Let us go over our two centuries in two steps. Jonathan 
 Moore was your revolutionary pastor. A hundred years 
 ago, he was preaching in the old meeting-house at Roch- 
 ester Centre, and he preached on until 1792, being the im- 
 mediate predecessor of my grandfather, Dr. Oliver Cobb. 
 But we must go a hundred years further back to find the 
 earliest minister. In 1683, twenty years before the church 
 was formed, and three years before Sippicau was incorpor- 
 ated as Rochester in the county of Barustable, we find here 
 Rev. Samuel Shiverick, whose name has not been alluded 
 to by the previous speakers. Please bear in mind that this 
 was before Rochester was thought of; the whole territory 
 from Sandwich to Dartmouth, twelve miles along the sea- 
 coast and four miles inland, was " Sepecan." We are very 
 familiar with the story of the exiled Pilgrims, the Separ- 
 atists of England. It may not be known to most of you, 
 however, that two streams of exile met here in old Sippi- 
 can, for Mr. Shiverick was a Huguenot. Escaping from 
 Catholic persecution in France, he came to this spot, where 
 he preached from 1683 to 1687, removing then to Fal- 
 mouth. He was the first minister of the latter church, and 
 he became the progenitor of all the persons by the name 
 of Shiverick who have ever lived on Cape Cod. (" This
 
 104 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENXIAL. 
 
 highly respectable family," says Mr. Freeman in his excel- 
 lent history.) 
 
 In 1687, Samuel Arnold succeeded him and preached 
 here twenty years. He was born in 1649, by a curious co- 
 incidence the same year that Sepecan was born, that being 
 the date of its first mention in Plymouth Colony records. 
 His father was Rev. Samuel Arnold of Marshfield. Since I 
 came to this grove to-day, I have been informed by G. W. 
 Humphrey, Esq., of Rochester, that four generations of 
 Samuel Arnold's descendants are now living in one house in 
 Rochester. Mr. Arnold preached here sixteen years before 
 he could form a church, but in 1703 the following entry ap- 
 pears in the old church records : "It hath pleased our gra- 
 cious God to shine in this dark corner of this wilderness, 
 and visit this dark spot of ground with the day-spring from 
 on high, through his tender mercy, and to settle a church 
 according to the order of the gospel, October 13th, Anno 
 Domini 1703." 
 
 The ancient covenant is also recorded. It closes in these 
 words: " The Lord keep this forever in the thoughts and 
 imaginations of the hearts of us his poor servants, to stab- 
 lish our hearts unto him ; and the good Lord pardon even- 
 one of us that prepareth his heart to seek the Lord God of 
 his fathers. Amen." 
 
 The difficulty with this subject of the early ministers of 
 Rochester is to know where to draw the line. Allusion has 
 been made to the fact that two of the ministers of the Sec- 
 ond church cover by their pastorates a period of one hun- 
 dred years half the entire time we are celebrating. I 
 would call attention to the further fact that the united pas- 
 torates of two of the ministers of the First church embrace 
 108 years, viz : Timothy Ruggles (1710-1768) and Oliver 
 Cobb (1799-1849). You see, therefore, that it becomes 
 hard to distinguish between early and recent ministers.
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENXIAL. 105 
 
 Time would fail me to tell in detail of Hovey and LeBarron 
 in Mattapoisett, of West and Chaddock in North Roches- 
 ter, of Thacher and Cotton in Wareham. But let me close 
 with one or two outlines of the picture that might be drawn. 
 
 You have heard today, and the world has heard, of Timo- 
 thy Ruggles, Jr., the President of the Stamp Act Congress, 
 the Tory who turned against his country. But the world is 
 ignorant of Timothy Ruggles, Sr., the humble minister who 
 stood at his post here for almost 60 years, received 303 mem- 
 bers into the church of Christ, and then died in the harness. 
 And yet, my friends, I would rather, and you would rather, 
 have the name and the fame of that father, than the fame 
 and the shame of his son. On a slatestone slab in the old 
 cemetery at Rochester Centre is the following inscription : 
 "In memory of ye Rev'd Mr. Timothy Ruggles, pastor of 
 ye church of Christ in Rochester, who \vas an able Divine 
 and a Faithful Minister. Having a peculiar talent at com- 
 posing Differences and healing Divisions in Churches, he was 
 much imployed in Ecclesiastical Councils and having spent 
 his Days and his Strength in the Work of his Lord and 
 Master, Finished his Course with Joy and departed this 
 Life Octob'r ye 26, 1768, in the 84th year of his age, and 
 58th of his Ministry. They, that be wise shall shine as the 
 Brightness of ye Firmament, and they that turn many to 
 Righteousness as ye stars for ever and ever." 
 
 I conclude with an incident from the pen of Rev. Thomas 
 Noyes, of Needham, published in the American Quarterly 
 Register for Nov. 1835. It. relates to the second pastor of 
 the Second church of Rochester, that at Mattapoisett. , 
 
 " Mr. LeBarron has retained the pastoral office more 
 than 63 years, and continues to enjoy the affection and re- 
 spect of the people of his charge ; now in the 89th year of 
 his age, yet retaining his mental powers in an uncommon 
 degree. In the autumn of 1832, Thomas Robbins % was in-
 
 106 KOCHESTER'S BI-CENTEXXIAL. 
 
 stalled colleague pastor. The venerable LeBarron retired 
 from his public labors, but could not cease to be useful to 
 the people so long endeared to him. Having ceased to im- 
 part public instruction to the sheep of the flock, he now de- 
 votes himself to impart divine knowledge to the lambs. He 
 is the superintendent of the Sabbath School, and takes a 
 lively interest in promoting its spiritual improvement. His 
 head bleached with the storms of life, his heavenly mien, 
 his soft and mild voice, and his impressive manner, all con- 
 spire to speak his worth, and give weight and effect to the 
 solemn instructions which fall from the lips of the patri- 
 arch. Never had the writer of this such a lively view of 
 patriarchal times as when on a visit to this venerable and 
 godly man. After an interview of several hours, the part- 
 ing of hands at the threshold of the door lingered till the 
 mutual tears copiously flowed, and the voices of the two 
 strangers who had never before met together were suffo- 
 cated till they could hardly give utterance to their thoughts 
 and feelings." 
 
 Such were the early ministers of Rochester. May their 
 influence" never die. 
 
 The Eighth Sentiment "Our Honored Dead whether 
 sleeping in the depths of the sea, in soldiers' graves, or 
 quietly in the cemeteries at home." Rev. I. C. Thacher, 01 
 Lakeville, a grandson of the Rev. Rowland Thacher, the 
 first ordained minister in Wareham, was to have responded, 
 but was unexpectedly called from the platform. 
 
 The Ninth Sentiment "The Finances and Industries ol 
 Massachusetts." Response of Edward Atkinson, Esq., ot 
 Brookline. 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : The best service 
 I can^render you, in response to the call with which you
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 107 
 
 have honored me, is to remember that the most widely cir- 
 culated financial speech I ever made was never spoken ex- 
 cept by its title, and I shall please you most if I only re- 
 spond in a few words in the name of the adopted citizens of 
 Mattapoisett and of other parts of the old Town of Roch- 
 ester. 
 
 A few months since, a gentleman of rny own name, resid- 
 ing in Washington, wrote to me asking what branch of the 
 Atkinson family I belonged to, and what member of it had 
 become distinguished. I was then forced to reply that I 
 was a descendant of one of the usual three brothers who 
 came from England about 1640, that they were an estimable 
 family so far as I knew, and only one had become distin- 
 guished he was made a Judge ; but he was an adopted son. 
 If my correspondent should address me now, I could tell 
 him that another Atkinson had become distinguished by be- 
 ing adopted by Rochester and Mattapoisett, and chosen to 
 speak to you at this time. 
 
 We have listened with the greatest interest to the remin- 
 iscences of this old town and it is right that the birthday of 
 a New England town should be remembered. It is the in- 
 tegrity of the towns that has kept the old Commonwealth 
 tone during these late long years of war, of trial, of loss 
 and of depression. 
 
 It has been the devotion of the men of the towns to their 
 convictions of right and duty, that marked them in the days 
 of the Revolution, whether they were patriot or tory. We 
 can recognize this quality now, when we listen as we have 
 today to the anecdotes of the tory Ruggles or of the patriot 
 who opposed him. 
 
 It has been the right conviction of the men of the towns 
 of Massachusetts that has made her financial record what it 
 has been ; that has caused her to pay her debts in the best 
 and truest dollars she could obtain of coined gold. It is
 
 108 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 this that has placed her in the van and made her the leader 
 of this nation, to the end that our country is the first among 
 the nations of the world that ever issued a paper promise of 
 a dollar, made it legal tender, and yet redeemed it in coin 
 without depreciation or repudiation. 
 
 This is what the representatives of the towns of Massa- 
 chusetts have taught the cities to do, and it is well that we 
 should cherish every memory, as we have to-day, that shall 
 lead us to maintain the town governments of New 7 England. 
 
 Again, in the name of the adopted citizens of this noble 
 old town, I thank you for the honor you have done me and 
 them, in calling upon me to respond at this time and in this 
 piace. 
 
 The Tenth Sentiment "The Aborigines, once the 
 rightful owners of the soil ; we should cherish the few who 
 remain with us in a careful and Christian spirit," Response 
 of Gen. Ebenezer W. Pierce of Freetown. 
 
 Mr. President, Friends and Citizens : It is with no ordin- 
 ary degree of pleasure and satisfaction that I am enabled to 
 be present here today and to participate with you in a 
 proper observance of this the two hundredth anniversary of 
 the European settlement of the time-honored town of Roch- 
 ester, in the history of which I have and for at least a quarter 
 of a century have had a deep, a great and an abiding in- 
 terest. This day, therefore, happy as it is to me with its 
 pleasant scenes and agreeable associations, is not the birth- 
 day of the lively interest that I have and feel in this locality 
 and the true story of its present people and past inhabitants. 
 For more than twenty years last passed, such has been rny 
 desire to possess myself with a true and full knowledge of 
 the persons and places, the story of which embraces your lo- 
 cal history, that I have not been content to examine printed 
 books that contain brief sketches either of the one or the
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL, 109 
 
 other or of both combined, but have extended ray researches 
 further and given a close scrutiny, careful and prolonged 
 study to manuscripts on file in the office of the Secretary of 
 State, at Boston, to those in the public archives of the coun- 
 ty, to town records, church and parish records, private accum- 
 ulations that are treasured with jealous care by their posess- 
 ors, as also those neglected and almost forgotten, lying in 
 lumber rooms, sky parlors and garrets, and last, though by 
 no means least, your numerous and ancient cemeteries,' 
 where tables of stones covered with the dust of many years 
 of neglect that was prolific of thick coatings of moss, were 
 by patient labor made to reveal hidden and long forgotten 
 facts that but for the scraping of moss would have continued 
 to have been as effectually obscured from the mind and 
 memory of mankind as are the " lost arts." I am glad, yes 
 heartily srlad, that you as communities and as a people have 
 become so thoroughly awakened to the importance of your 
 history, and are actuated by the zeal therein, that this great 
 gathering, this intelligent and attentive audience gives 
 the most conclusive evidence of. 
 
 Allow me, friends, to congratulate you upon the fortunate 
 selection that you have made in the orator of this day. You 
 are indeed fortunate to possess such an one. Your "old, old 
 story " great, good and grand as it is, has lost nothing from 
 his lips or pen. His production will be a source of joy to 
 your children and childrens' children, and wherever and 
 whenever read will be, as it justly ought to be, an honor to 
 him. 
 
 Though doing what I have never known to have been 
 done before on an occasion of this kind, your committee 
 have nevertheless done well to invite to this entertainment, 
 this feast of reason and flow of soul, living representatives 
 of the nationality and people that possessed this goodly 
 Land before our Pilgrim fathers came hither. And we are
 
 110 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 thus enabled to see, to look upon, question uud hold con- 
 verse with the lineal descendants of those who for thousands 
 of years, for aught we know, here lived, moved and had a 
 being, swaying unquestioned and unobstructed the sceptre 
 of power, true representatives of pre-historic centuries and 
 pre-historic man. 
 
 At the date of the landing of the Pilgrim fathers in Ply- 
 mouth, now more than two centuries and a half ago, the 
 Indian inhabitants of a large part of what is now known as 
 New England, together with no inconsiderable portions of 
 the present State of New York, were ruled by two Indian 
 Kings, viz. Ousamequin and Sassacus. 
 
 Ousamequin shortly after came to be called Massasoit, 
 and by the white people was denominated "good old Mas- 
 sasoit" while to Sassacus they applied the appellation of 
 " the terrible." Massasoit was loved, honored and obeyed 
 by his people, who then occupied what is now the counties 
 of Barnstable, Bristol, Plymouth, Dukes and Nantucket, 
 together with a large part of the State of Rhode Island on 
 the main land and th islands contiguous. Such were the 
 dimensions of the lordly domains of the great and good 
 Massasoit good not only in the estimate of his people, but 
 by his exemplary and unexceptionable conduct, forcing the 
 white people to acknowledge his just claim to the commenda- 
 tory title of good. And hence, from the pens of those who 
 were no real friends to him, or to his people, we learn that 
 he was " Massasoit the Good." 
 
 These Indians, of what is now the entire State of Connec- 
 ticut, all of Long Island with probably a part of Eastern 
 New York and a portion of Western Massachusetts, togeth- 
 er with the small islands in Long Island Sound and New 
 York harbor, were the subjects of King Sassacus, or he who 
 early European writers characterized as " Sassacus the terri- 
 ble," for to the pioneer white settlers he was appalling,
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. Ill 
 
 such was his great strength of power and extended influence, 
 such the number of his warriors ready to follow him upon 
 the war path, and such the jealousy with which he regarded 
 white men. Two mighty potentates were Massasoit the 
 good and Sassacus the terrible. Their people were numer- 
 ous, their dominions extensive, their warriors many. But a 
 word, one single word from Massasoit or from Sassacus, was 
 all sufficient to have cut off, destroyed and wholly extermin- 
 ated the Pilgrim fathers at the date of their tirst landing in 
 America. Had Massasoit and Sassacus agreed as touching 
 one thing, and that thing the destruction of European emi- 
 grants to New England and the latter even after having 
 gained a foothold, a possession of considerable tracts of 
 country and reinforced their numbers here, would. have been 
 utterly destroyed root and branch, so that no trace of them 
 would have remained, no one of their number left to repeat 
 the dismal tale. To the kindness of Massasoit more than 
 to any other one cause, and indeed more than to all other 
 causes combined, did the Pilgrim Fathers owe their success 
 in the attempt to settle a European colony in the New Eng- 
 land portions of North America. 
 
 Massasoit and Sassacus were to all intents and purposes 
 kings, and the kingdom of each was made up of quite a 
 large number of Indian tribes, each of which was under the 
 direct supervision and lead of a sub chief or sachem, who 
 owed allegiance to his king. 
 
 Tuspaquin, who in history is not unfrequently met with 
 under the title of " the Black Sachem," was one of the sub- 
 chiefs of Massasoit, whose daughter Amie he took to wife 
 and thus became, as we reckon relationships, a son-in-law 
 of Massasoit, and a brother-in-law to Wamsutta alias Alex- 
 ander and to Pometacom alias King Philip, both of whom in 
 turn were the successors of their father Massasoit as kings 
 or chief rulers of the Wampanoag tribes or nation.
 
 112 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 
 
 Another Indian, of scarcely less notoriety in early Xc\v Eng- 
 land history was Wassamon, who came more generally to 
 be known as John Sassamon. This NVassassamon, or John 
 Sassamon, originated in what became the English township 
 of Dorchester, not long since annexed to the city of Boston, 
 and his love for the white people led him to leave the homes 
 and associations of his "kith and kin," and to take up his 
 residence with the English, whose school or college at Cam- 
 bridge (now Harvard University ) he was permitted to enter 
 as a student, and to whose religion he professed to have be- 
 come converted. In the first great conflict between races 
 that occurred in 1637, or what is now generally spoken of 
 as the " Pequot War," John Sassamon accompanied the 
 Massachusetts troops to Connecticut, and there aided the 
 united forces of Massachusetts, Plymouth and Connecticut 
 colonies in making war upon Sassacuss and his followers ; a 
 war that resulted in the destruction of nearly all the war- 
 riors of the latter, and by which the power ot the Pequots 
 was once and forever broken, fully and finally destroyed. 
 
 On the principle that "to the victors belong the spoils," 
 our pious forefathers sent to the island of Bermuda and sold 
 as slaves the male children of the conquered Pequots, scat- 
 tered the women and female children of that destroyed na- 
 tion among the families of Massachusetts, Connecticut and 
 Plymouth Colonies, where they were regarded and treated 
 as servants. 
 
 In common with the white conquerors, John Sassamon, 
 their red ally, was allowed to select from among the female 
 captives a servant, which privilege he exercised by taking a 
 little Indian maid, a daughter of King Sassacus, which little 
 maid John Sassamon made his wife, and from that marriage 
 union resulted the daughter " Assawetough," who the whites 
 called "Betty" or "Squaw Betty," and some portion of 
 whose former princely inheritance in lands are called "Bet-
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CEXTENNIAL. 113 
 
 ty's Neck" in Lakeville, and "Squaw Betty" in Tauntou 
 and Raynham to this day. 
 
 Some time between the close of the "Pequot War," 1637, 
 and the commencement of "King Philip's War," in 1675, 
 John Sassamon was settled as a Christian missionary to the 
 Assawomset and Xemasket Indians, having his home at 
 what is now called Betty's Neck, in Lakeville, where Tispa- 
 quin, chief of the Assawomsets and Nemaskets, for Sassa- 
 mon's encouragement in prosecuting the work of the gos- 
 pel ministry, conferred upon the latter liberal bestowments 
 of lands that Sassamon was occupying at the date of his 
 death. 
 
 >:issamon was slain by the Indians for having taken part 
 with the white people against his own countrymen, in those 
 troubles that preceded and eventually brought on that blood- 
 iest and most desolating of all New England conflicts, and 
 now known in history as King Philip's war. 
 
 The hanging upon a gallows of two Indians at Plymouth, 
 convicted of murdering John Sassason and secreting his 
 dead body under the ice of Assamomset pond, hastened on 
 that war, and when it had ended to the advantage of the 
 white men and utter discomfiture of the Indians, Plymouth 
 Colony court in acknowledgement of indebtedness to John 
 Sassamon, and in gratitude to his memory who had laid 
 down his life in behalf of that and other European settle- 
 ments in New England, by legislative enactment, secured 
 and confirmed to an Indian named Felix, the husband of 
 Assawetough, and as a consequence the son-in-law of John 
 Sassamon, all the lands that had been the property of said 
 John Sassamon, deceased, whether at Betty's Neck or else- 
 where, within the limits of Plymouth Colony. This Indian 
 Felix had also quite large tracts of land that had been con- 
 veyed to him by deeds from the Sachem Tuspaquin prior to 
 the date of King Philip's war, and as Felix took part with 
 H
 
 114 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTEXNIAL. 
 
 the English in that war, his title to the same remained un- 
 disturbed. 
 
 This friendly Indian Felix and wife Assawetough had a 
 daughter named Mercy Felix, who became the wife of Ben- 
 jamin Tuspaquin, a grandson of Tuspaquin the Black Sachem 
 so-called, chief of the Assamomset and Xemasket Indians, 
 and great grandson of King Massasoit. Benjamin Tuspa- 
 quin and wife Mercy Felix had an only child, a daughter 
 named Lydia, in whom was united the blood of King Mas- 
 sasoit, King Sassacus, of the sub-chief Tuspaquin, and of 
 the educated, christianized, martyred Indian, John Sassa- 
 mon. To be a little more explicit, Lydia Tuspaquin was in 
 lineal descent, a great great granddaughter of King Massa- 
 soit, and she was also a great great granddaughter of King ' 
 Sassacus, a great granddaughter of Tuspaquin, chief of the 
 Assawamset and Nemasket Indians, and a great granddaugh- 
 ter of John Sassaraon ; and we will add that Lydia was also 
 grandniece to two other Indian Kings, viz : Wamsutta alias 
 Alexander, and Pometacom alias King Philip. 
 
 This Lydia Tuspaquin married an Indian named Wamsley, 
 and their daughter Phebe, born Feb. 26th, 1770, married an 
 Indian named Brister Gould, the fruit of which marriage 
 was a daughter Zerviah Gould, who married Thomas C. 
 Mitchell, and is the aged Indian woman here present toda}'. 
 She was boru July 24th, 1807, married Oct. 17th, 1824, 
 Thomas C. Mitchell, who was of mixed blood, part English 
 ana part Cherokee Indian. He died March 22d, 1859, and 
 Mrs. Mitchell for more than a score of years has remained a 
 widow. 
 
 Her two daughters, here upon the stage, are of a family 
 of eleven children, three sons and eight daughters, of whom 
 one son and five daughters survive ; two sons and three 
 daughters are dead.
 
 KOCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 115 
 
 The Eleventh Sentiment "Sons and Daughters of Roch- 
 ester, not resident in the Old Township, who are here to 
 take part in this celebration." Response of Hon. Charles 
 J. Holmes of Fall River, a former resident -of the town of 
 Rochester, and a grandson of Hon. Abraham Holmes. 
 
 Mr. Holmes said the name of the Orator of the Day 
 brought up profitable and proud thoughts, Noble Warren 
 Everett. The genius of old Rochester has risen up to-day 
 to listen to the deeds of the past. He recently had been 
 reading the writings of his grandfather, Abraham Holmes, 
 on the men of his time and town. 
 
 His grandfather noted the events of importance as they 
 occurred, and his account of the proceedings in Rochester 
 on the tea question is as follows : 
 
 The town ot Boston sent letters to all the towns in Mas- 
 
 i 
 
 sachusetts, requesting them to call town meetings and agree 
 and advise what was best to be done. Meetings were gen- 
 erally, if not universally, held. The proceedings were gen- 
 erally very spirited. In Rochester, the meeting was very 
 free. But as the business was new, and very serious conse- 
 quences might flow from the proceedings ; and as an open 
 opposition to the government might be considered as dan- 
 gerous, the people generally thought it was the better way 
 to proceed with due caution. The town clerk (David 
 Wing) for some reason thought it best to stay at home. 
 The meeting opened, and Joseph Haskell, 3d, was chosen 
 town clerk pro tern. Deacon Sylvanus Cobb was chosen 
 moderator. He was quite an old man, and seldom, if ever, 
 attended a town-meeting. He took his seat and read the 
 warrant, and as nobody wished to break the ice, perfect si- 
 lence continued for about fifteen minutes, when N. Rug- 
 gles, Esq., arose and asked the moderator what method was 
 proposed to proceed in. The moderator said as this was a 
 solemn occasion, he thought it would be proper to com-
 
 116 ROCHESTER'S BI-CEXTENXIAL. 
 
 mence the business by an humble address by prayer for di- 
 rection in so critical and important an occasion. Justice Rug- 
 gles replied there was no article in the warrant for pr.iyer, 
 and the law forbid the acting on anything for which there 
 was no article in the warrant. The moderator said he was 
 astonished to hear such an observation come from Justice 
 Ruggl.es. Haggles said, " Not more astonished than 1 a:n 
 to see your honor in that seat." After some observations, 
 Ruggles said if there must he prayer, he hoped it would 
 not be by Mr. Moore, for he had heard so much of his pray- 
 ing on Sunday that he could not bear to hear it on a week 
 day ; for that man had done more hurt in Rochester than 
 he ever did or ever would or ever could do good. The 
 moderator was about making some reply, when Mr. Moore 
 arose, and said he "wished to have an oppportunity.to re- 
 turn his humble and respectful thanks for the great and sin- 
 gular honor that the gentleman last up had done him. For 
 if any man was to contrive to bestow the highest possible 
 panegyric on me, he could not do it any way so effectually 
 as to get that man to speak reproachfully of me." 
 
 On motion, it was voted to have a prayer by Mr. Moore. 
 He stepped into the moderator's seat and said that previous 
 to his addressing the Throne of Grace he would make a few 
 preliminary observations. That as to prayer, he had long 
 been of opinion that that gentleman was in general no friend 
 of prayer; yet, he did not believe he would have come for- 
 ward in open town meeting and have sarcastically and con- 
 temptuously opposed it, if he had not have had a strong 
 suspicion that what would be prayed for would have been in 
 opposition to the strong bent of the inclinations and wishes 
 of his depraved and wicked heart. He then proceeded with 
 his prayer. Perhaps Mr. Moore never felt more pleasing 
 sensations than he did in the course of this prayer ; though 
 some people might doubt of the prayer's being so strongly
 
 ROCHESTER'S BI-CENTENNIAL. 117 
 
 seasoned with humility as that of Hezekiah after the mes- 
 sage brought by Isaiah. After the prayer, the meeting 
 went into the consideration of the business, and passed a 
 number of spirited resolutions, and subscribed what was 
 called a solemn league and covenant to abstain from the use 
 of tea, and to transact no business with those who would 
 not become parties to the covenant. 
 
 One gentleman from Dartmouth^ attended, and though he 
 did not presume to act in the town meeting, yet he made 
 himself very busy out of doors. At last he began to think 
 that his safety required him to go home. He departed, but 
 Seth Barlow 7 took a horse and with a hunting whip followed 
 him more than a mile ; overtook and applied the whip to his 
 shoulders and back with great energy. The whole town 
 were very w r ell agreed in opposing the British claims. Only 
 six persons were willing to submit to the trans-Atlantic 
 claims. But after open hostilities had commenced they all 
 submitted to the public will. 
 
 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The vast concourse of people joined with the choir in the 
 singing of "Praise God from whom all blessings flow," and 
 the official ceremonies of the Rochester Bi-Centeunial cele- 
 bration came to an end. May our posterity at the next 
 centennial have as much reason to rejoice, and as many, and 
 as good friends to reciprocate the joy with them, as we have 
 had at this.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE . 
 
 Among the many interesting communications received by 
 the committee was the following from Prof. Bickmore ; 
 
 American Museum of Natural History. 
 
 New York, July 14, 1879. 
 
 A. W. BISBEE, ESQ., 
 
 Sec'y 200th Anniversary of Rochester : 
 
 Dear Sir, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your polite 
 invitation to be present at the interesting ceremonies to be held at 
 Marion, commemorating the Bi-Centennial Anniversary of the settle- 
 ment of the township of Rochester, and I have been keeping your letter 
 before me with the purpose of so arranging my duties as to allow me 
 the pleasure of witnessing your celebration, but not having yet been 
 able to do so I forward this acknowledgment of your kindness in invit- 
 ing me. 
 
 I should come with the desire of manifesting, by leaving other duties, 
 the high appreciation in which I hold whatever pertains to the early 
 settlers of the Bay State, whose devotion to the cause of public educa- 
 tion led them to erect the log school-house, the beginning and the foun- 
 dation of all the higher culture which we at the distance of two centu- 
 turies are now privileged to enjoy. 
 
 I admire the spirit which prompts an acknowledgment of the great 
 debt we owe to the early settlers of your State, and I most heartily join 
 you in paying homage to their memory. 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 ALBERT S. BICKMORE.
 
 I2U APPEN 7 DIX. 
 
 The following letter was. received by the President of the 
 Day from the Past-Mayor and present Recorder of the 
 Borough of Ware ham in England : 
 
 WAUEIIAM. DORSET, ENGLAND, > 
 9th July. 1879. 5 
 
 Dt'ir Sir : I am grateful for your kind and courteous invitation of the 
 2Gth ultimo, to the anniversary of the first settlement by the English at 
 your interesting- place, and I regret much that it will not be in my power 
 to accept it. My friend, Mr. Thomas Lean Ske\ves, this year's Mayor, 
 is at present on a tour in Cornwall, but I know he will be equally grati- 
 fied to have received your invitation, although I do not expect he will be 
 able to avail himself of it. 1 am very pleased indeed that pleasant re- 
 membrances of our old town are retained, and I hope that you may live 
 to revisit it. I am asked how your town came to be called Wareham. 
 but am unable to answer. I do not understand from you that any settlers 
 went out from here and founded Wareham in Massachusetts. Ourfown 
 dates back to the old Saxon age before the Norman conquest. With 
 best wishes for the prosperous direction of this anniversary festival. 
 I am, dear sir, very faithfully yours, 
 
 FKEKLAXD FILLITER. 
 
 The following was received since the celebration occurred : 
 
 ELM HOUSE, WATCEHAM, DORSET, EXG., 
 August, 1879. 
 
 To Gerard C. Toliey. Esquire, Wareham. Mass., U. S. A. 
 
 Dear Sir: Absence on a tour through the west of England when 
 your courteous invitation reached this borough 'for me as Mayor to visit 
 the town of Wareham, in Massachusetts, and attend the celebration of 
 the Rochester bi-centennial on the 22d ultimo, must be my apology for 
 not acknowledging the receipt of. and most cordially thanking 3^011 for 
 the same. Our respected recorder, F. Filliter, Esq., ha- given me to un- 
 derstand that he wrote to you at the time, intimating that it would be im- 
 possiblc for himself or for me to undertake the journey just then. * * * 
 I trust the festival, now an event of the past, proved a success in every 
 sense of the word, and that it will continue to exert an influence for 
 good by cementing indissoluble bonds of friendship and unity. Here, 
 in our ancient borough, we lack marble statues, ornamental architecture 
 and gorgeous temples, yet we have royal ruins, antiquated fortifications, 
 Roman roads, and other relics interesting to the lover of antiquities. 
 Many pleasing historical events are associated with this town and neigh- 
 borhood, so that in reading of the gr:\.nd fetes around us our thoughts ir-
 
 APPENDIX. 121 
 
 repressibly turn toward the past and conjure to our imaginations the 
 :nen of j'ore who took prominent parts in the drama of life. I hope a 
 bright future is before the Wareham of the Xe\v World, and that many 
 of her sons will rise to eminence and distinction in that great and distin- 
 guished country to which you belong. 
 
 K'p dly accept my hearty thanks for your invitation, and 1113' best 
 wishes that every blessing may fall on yon and yours; and believe me, 
 di.-ar sir. yours faithfully. 
 
 THOS. LEAK SKEWES. 
 
 Mayor of \Varchain. 
 
 DAUGHTERS OF THE FOREST. 
 
 The aged Indian woman, Mrs. Zerviah Gould Mitchell and 
 her daughters Tewelema and Woontoiiekanuske, late of 
 Xorth Ahington, but now residing upon the Indian reserve 
 lands at ''Betty's Neck," so called, in Lakeville, were among 
 the guests at the celebration. The daughters were richly 
 dressed in Indian costumes, in the st}-le of their ancestors 
 two hundred years ago, the groundwork of the dress of 
 one being a sky blue, and the other an orange color. One 
 was heavily surmounted with white beads, and the other 
 with white shells ;' arms set off with fine bracelets, and 
 necks hung with necklaces of different colored beads. One 
 daughter wore a cap curiously constructed of partridge- 
 feathers surmounted with beads, and the other, a head 
 dress of scarlet cloth, ingeniously worked with white beads, 
 and surmounted with a single tall, drooping white feather. 
 Their lower limbs were encased with highly, ornamented 
 cloth and deerskin, and feet in richly wrought moccasins. 
 The old lady appeared in her usual European costume of 
 black. 
 
 Portraits of the two daughters will be found in another 
 part of this volume. 
 
 H2
 
 122 APPENDIX. 
 
 A SCRAP OF HISTORY. 
 
 At a Great and General Court for her Majesty's Province 
 of Massachusetts Ba}' in New England, began and held at 
 Boston, upon Wednesday, the 28th day of May, 1707, and 
 continued by prorogations until Wednesday the 29th day of 
 October following, by their session : 
 
 In Council The following orders were passed in the 
 House of Representatives upon the petition of the town 
 of Rochester praying to be annexed to the County of Ply- 
 mouth. Read and concurred in. 
 
 Ordered That the the prayer of the petition be granted ; 
 rates already assessed on the County of Barnstable to be 
 paid there ; and that for the future that they be annexed to 
 the County of Plymouth, any usage or custom to the con- 
 trary notwithstanding. 
 
 ISAAC ADDINGTON, Secretary. 
 Transcribed Dec. 31, 1824, per Abrarn Holmes, T. Clerk. 
 
 Dr. William Whitridge was a native of Rochester. He 
 practiced his profession in New Bedford for many years.
 
 APPENDIX. 123 
 
 "MINISTER ROCK;" 
 
 A MEMORIAL POEM, BY SIMEON TUCKER CLARK, M. D. 
 
 . I. 
 Devotion, like the ivj T , loves to cling 
 
 To all things ancient. With uplifted hands. 
 Adoring some imperishable thing, 
 
 It finds a deity, in suns or sands. 
 The worship of Jehovah, long ago, 
 
 Raised to his praise, huge altars built of stone. 
 Which flaming red. with sacrificial glow. 
 
 Burned night and day, and ever to atone. 
 
 II. 
 
 Now in the fullness of prophetic days. 
 
 Since Christ The Prince of Peace began His reign ; 
 The sons of men have never ceased to raise 
 
 The pictured temple and the sculptured fane. 
 And, when the Pilgrims, on the tortuous way 
 
 From Wankinco's. or Weweantit's source, 
 First found the sounding shores of Buzzard's Bay, 
 
 They praised the Power, which led them on their course. 
 
 III. 
 
 On Minister Rock they stood, and. as they gazed 
 
 Upon the white-caps, sailing out to sea, 
 Their prayerful souls to heaven devoutly raised. 
 
 They praised the Lord for Christian liberty. 
 And, as the}* sang: 'The hill of Zion yields" 
 
 To contrite souls, "A thousand sacred sweets ;" 
 The fragrant marshes seemed like ^'heavenly fields ;" 
 
 The yellow sedges glowed like 'golden streets." 
 
 IV. 
 
 The wandering wind had healing in its breath. 
 
 Distilled from cedar, pine and spicy birch; 
 The sea had saving salt; nor second death 
 
 Itself could fright a member of the church. 
 In ages past, the servants of the Lord 
 
 Were glad to seek the shadow of a rock ; 
 Here, \va* the ponderous substance, to reward 
 
 These scions of a puritanic stock.
 
 124 APPENDIX. 
 
 V. 
 
 To guard them from the tempter's subtle wiles. 
 
 Unceasingly our fathers worshipped God ; 
 But. when the Sabbath dawned, those long church-ai.-les- 
 
 Tiie paths which led to Minister Rock they trod. 
 And. even now. I fancy when I hear 
 
 The pine-trees chanting a melodious stave. 
 The melody of Sherburne, or of Mear, 
 
 Is echoed from the land beyond the grave. 
 
 VI. 
 
 This was the Sinai of that pilgrim race. 
 
 For here they heard the thunders of the Law ; 
 And. while they worshipped in their holy place. 
 
 Their love for God. they measured by their awe. 
 Here wa> their Horeb; when they were athirst 
 
 For draughts of grace, some mighty-man-of-pra\ -or 
 On this proud summit, bade the fountain burst. 
 
 And living waters banished sin and care. 
 
 VII. 
 How beautiful for situation stands 
 
 The Minister Rock, not Joppa's fortress gray. 
 N"or Babylon's gardens, (wonder of all lands.) 
 
 \Vere ever kissed by mists from Buzzard's Bay. 
 duple at Jerusalem, each morn, 
 Glowed crimson in the orient sun-god's ray : 
 But Minister Rock stands draped in vesture, bora 
 Of fleecy fogs that float from Buzzard's Bay. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The bellowing tides, beyond Bird-Island-Light. 
 
 May battle, wave with wave, in tierce afl'ray. 
 But like tame, herded kine, at fall of night. 
 
 They find a friendly fold, in Buzzard's Buy. 
 Oh! Minister Rock, two hundred years of change 
 
 Have left no impress on thy granite breast; 
 The screaming sea-gulls still around thee range, 
 
 And. in thy shadows, still the sparrows nest.
 
 I 
 
 APPENDIX. 125 
 
 IX. 
 
 Thou art the same, as, when in reons past, 
 
 Set like a jewel hi an iceberg crown, 
 Some hurrying glacier, glittering, frigid, vast. 
 
 From arctic polar regions, rolled thee down 
 And left thee, to the rest, thou well hadst earned ; 
 
 I watch, from underneath thy frowning brows. 
 The bluest furrows, that were ever turned 
 
 By father Neptune's white-winged, wind-blown ploughs. 
 
 X. 
 
 There shalt thou stand, a sentinel for aye 
 
 A hoary monitor of bye-gone days 
 While countless companies shall pass away, 
 
 And tongues unnumbered, celebrate thy praise. 
 Thou wert the grand cathedral of our sires ; 
 
 And, generations yet unborn, shall flock 
 From gargoyled towers, and decorated spires, 
 
 To praise their father's God, on MINISTER ROCK ! 
 
 Lockport, N. I 7 ., July 15, 1879.
 
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