Bristol County, Massachusetts - Chapter 23: Fall River.i, 1883

Geographical - Topographical - Original Purchase of 1656 - The Indian Deed - The Pocasset Purchase in lfiSO - Incorporation of Freetown and Tiverton - Disputed Boundaries - Division of Pocasset Purchase - Early Settlers - Col. Benjamin Church - John Borden - The Pioneer Grist-, Saw-, and Fulling-Mill - Early Valuations - Slow Growth of the Settlement - The Village in 1803 - Increased Population - Census of 1810 - The First Cotton-Factory - Col. Joseph Durfee - Fall River in 1813 - A New Era.

Fall River lies in the southwestern part of the county, and is bounded as follows: On the north by Taunton River and Freetown ; on the east by Freetown ; on the south by Westport, Dartmouth, and Rhode Island; and on the west by Mount Hope Bay and Taunton River.

This section of territory originally embraced a portion of what was known as the " Freeman's Purchase,'' a tract of land which was granted by the Plymouth Colony to a number of freemen July 3, 1656. This tract lay east of Taunton River, four miles in width, and from six to seven in length, bounded on the south by Quequechan, and on the north by Assonet Neck. April 2, 1659, a warrantee deed of this tract was given to Capt. James Cudworth, Josiah Winslow, and others by Ossamequin (Massasoit), Wamsutta, his son, and Tattapanum, wife of Wamsutta, usuall}r called Weetamoe. This deed was signed by Wamsutta and Tattapanum, in presence of Thomas Cooke, Jonathan Bridg, and John Sassamon, and July 9, 1859, was acknowledged by " Wamsutta and Squaw Pattapanum" before Josiah Winslow and William Bradford, assistants. Ossamequin never signed the deed.

The consideration for this purchase was " twenty coats, two rugs, two iron pots, two kettles and one little kettle, eight pairs of shoes, six pairs of stockings, one dozen hoes, one dozen hatchets, two yards of broadcloth, and a debt satisfied to John Barnes, which was due from Wamsutta to John Barnes." This grant was incorporated in 1683 as Freetown. " The first settlers," says the late Rev. Orin Fowler, " were principally from Plymouth, Marshfield, and Scituate. Some were from Taunton, and a few from Rhode Island. The early names were Cudworth, Winslow, Morton, Read, Hathaway, Durfee, Terry,

1 For much of the earlier history of Fall River, before it became a separate town, including original owners of lots, names of Revolutionary soldiers, early record history, etc., see history of Freetown elsewhere in this work.

Borden, Brightman, Chase, and Davis. The purchase was divided into twenty-six shares, and the shares were set off* - whether hy lot or otherwise does not appear - to the several purchasers. After the division into shares was made, there was a piece of land between the first lot or share and Tiverton bounds, which in 1702 it was voted by the proprietors be sold ' to procure a piece of land near the centre of the town for a burying-place, a training-field, or any other public use the town shall see cause to improve it for.' Accordingly this piece of land was sold to John Borden, of Portsmouth, R. I., the highest bidder, for nine pounds and eight shillings, and was the territory on which that part of the village south of Bedford Street and north of the stream now stands. This John Borden is believed to be the ancestor of all who sustain his name in this vicinity."

The occupation of this tract soon attracted the attention of other enterprising pioneers, and in 1680 a second grant was made to Edward Gray, of Plymouth ; Nathaniel Thomas, of Marshfield ; Benjamin Church, Daniel Wilcox, and Thomas Manchester, of Puncatest; and Christopher and John Almy and Thomas Waite, of Portsmouth, R. I., of a tract extending south along the bay from the Quequechan to the town of Dartmouth and Seaconnet and inland from four to six miles. This tract was purchased from the Indians for the sum of eleven hundred pounds, and was known as the Pocasset Purchase, and was subsequently incorporated as the town of Tiverton.

For several years after Freetown and Tiverton were incorporated there was a dispute respecting the boundary line between the two towns, which was amicably adjusted in 1700 by a committee, consisting of Josiah WinsloWj Robert Durfee, and Henry Brightman, of Freetown, and Richard Borden, Christopher Almy, and Samuel Little, of Tiverton.

The division line settled by this committee extended by a cleft rock, over which the store of Reed & Bowen1 now stands, southwardly to the Fall River, thence the river to be the bound to its mouth, and from the cleft rock easterly about on the line of the present Bedford Street. This continued to be the line between these two ancient towns so long as Tiverton belonged to Massachusetts.

In 1740 a dispute arose concerning the boundary line between the colonies of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and a royal commission was appointed to determine the true boundary, whose report, in 1746, was confirmed by the king, though appealed from by both colonies. Ex parte lines were run by Rhode Island, which were found incorrect when revised by Massachusetts in 1791.

"One of the decrees in the king's award mentioned ' a certain point four hundred and forty rods to the southward of the mouth of the Fall River,' from which a line was to be run three miles towards the east, forming the northern boundary of that part of Rhode Island. In measuring this four hundred and forty rods the ex parte commissioners of 1746 'measured round a cove or inlet, and followed the sinuosities of the shore' until they reached a point from a quarter to a half mile farther north than if the same distance had been measured in a straight line. From this point they extended the three-mile line, running it through the southern part of the village of Fall River at the old Buttonwood Tree, so called, on Main Street, a little north of the present line of Columbia Street. No definite decision of the question in dispute was reached at the time, and in 1844 another commission was appointed, which in 1848 made a report to their respective Legislatures.

" In a matter so seriously affecting the interests of Fall River, it was deemed expedient to appoint a committee, consisting of Rev. Orin Fowler, Dr. Foster Hooper, and Dr. Phineas W. Leland, to petition the Massachusetts Legislature not to allow any settlement of the boundary line less advantageous than that granted by George II. in 1746. This committee claimed, and gave good reasons therefor, that George II. designed that the point from which to run the three-mile line should be four hundred and forty rods in a divert line from the mouth of the Fall River. They showed that in making these measurements as they had ' the Rhode Island commissioners added to their State a thickly-settled territory with about fifteen hundred inhabitants, and a taxable property valued at nearly half a million dollars, when, if the measurements had been made in straight lines, not only would the design of George II. and his commissioners have been carried out, but Fall River would have been brought within the bounds of one State, with no danger of its thickly-settled territory being again placed under a divided jurisdiction.' In consequence of these representations the Massachusetts Legislature refused to ratify the decision of the commissioners of 1848, and by agreement of the two States the question was referred to the United States Supreme Court.

" In 1860 the Supreme Court appointed engineers, with instructions to measure and mark a described line which should be the true boundary between the two States, the decree to take effect in March, 1862. The full claim of neither State was granted, but such a boundary fixed as to give an undivided jurisdiction to densely-populated districts without infringing on the rights of any. By this change of boundary Massachusetts acquired a territory comprising about eleven square miles. Of this about nine square miles, with a population of nearly three thousand six hundred, and a taxable property of some two million dollars, were embraced within the limits of the city of Fall River." " The Pocasset Purchase," says Rev. Orin Fowler, i in 1841 (after reserving thirty rods wide adjacent to i the Freeman's Purchase and the river and some other small tracts), was divided into thirty shares and distributed among the proprietors, the lot nearest the river being numbered one. This piece of land, including the water-power on the south side of the river to (the present) Main Street, and on both sides east of said street to Watuppa Pond, containing sixty-six acres of land, was also divided into thirty shares and sold to the original purchasers. Col. Church and his brother Caleb, of Watertown (who was a millwright), bought twenty-six and a half of the thirty sbares, and thereby became the chief owners of the water-power. On the 8th of August, 1691, Caleb Church sold his right in this property (thirteen and a half shares) to his brother Benjamin, who then became the owner of twenty-six and a half shares. Probably John Borden purchased the other three and a half shares. In 1703, Col. Church had moved to Fall River and improved the water-power by erecting a saw-mill, grist-mill, and fulling-mill. His dwelling-house stood between the present residence of Col. Richard Borden and that of his brother Jefferson, and remained till within forty years. He continued at Fall River but a few years, and, Sept. 18, 1714, sold the above-named twenty-six and a half shares to Richard Borden, of Tiverton, and Joseph Borden, of Freetown, sons of John ; and thus the lands on both sides of the river, with all the waterpower, came into the possession of the Borden family, John Borden having previously purchased that on the north side, west of Main Street."

Caleb Church sold his interest for one hundred pounds. At this rate the whole sixty-six acres was valued, in 1691, at about seven hundred and forty dollars. The piece on the north side cost John Borden about thirty-one dollars and thirty-four cents ; total, seven hundred and seventy-one dollars and thirty-four cents. This included the whole of the water-power and most of the land where the village now stands, together with a strip east to Watuppa Pond. Twentysix and a half shares of the above sixty-six acres were sold by Col. Church in 1714 for one thousand pounds.

The Village in 1803. - The embryo settlement thus founded by Col. Church and John Borden was, however, of slow growth. Although Col. Church had erected a saw-, grist-, and fulling-mill1 on the stream, and was doubtless an enterprising man of that day, still there seemed to be nothing of particular advantage to attract the settler, and as late as 1803, one hundred years later, we find the village numbering only eighteen dwellings and about one hundred inhabitants.

"In North Main Street," says Rev. Orin Fowler, " there were six houses occupied by Charles Durfee, Daniel Buffington, John Luther, Abner Davol, John Cook, and Mary Borden. In East Central Street there were four occupied by Nathan Bowen, Perry Borden,

Seth Borden, and Elihu Cook. In West Central Street there were two occupied by Nathan Borden and Daniel Borden. In South Main Street there were five occupied by Simeon Borden, Richard Borden, Thomas Borden, Benjamin Brayton, and Francis Brayton. Near the shore there was one occupied by Thomas Borden. Of these eighteen families nine were Bordens."

From this period, however, as the natural advantages of the place began to be appreciated the growth of the settlement was more rapid, and in 1810 the population of the town numbered twelve hundred and ninety-six. And among this number was one particularly enterprising spirit who did much to advance the interest of the town at that period, and became the pioneer in cotton manufacturing in Fall River, Col. Joseph Durfee. This pioneer mill of Col. Durfee's was a small affair, erected in 1811 at Globe village.

Fall River in 1813. - Henry H. Earl, Esq., in his excellent work published in 1877, entitled " Fall River and its Industries," in speaking of the town in 1813, says, -

"The resident community of Fall River, or Troy, as it was then called, was located about what is now the centre of the city, the main street following the line of the present principal thoroughfare northward, and another considerable street trending eastward to the lake. The greater part of the residences were in these two avenues. Within a territory approximating to one and a half miles square, which would be designated at that day the village, were about thirty dwelling-houses, three saw-mills, four grist-mills, one fulling-mill, a blacksmithv with trip-hammer, and several small stores. The population was estimated at three hundred.

" One small, three-masted vessel, which had been engaged in foreign trade, but was, for a short period after the war, hauled up in the creek where the ' Old Depot' was afterwards located, and a few small sloops carrying cord-wood to Newport and Bristol, constituted the local shipping interest. There was no regular conveyance to Providence, and what freight was transferred between the two places went by craft plying between Providence and Taunton, which, in default of wharfage convenience at the Falls, stopped at the ferry two miles up the river, where all the cotton and merchandise was lauded for some years. The first craft regularly sailing to Providence was a small schooner, or two-masted lighter, large enough to load ten bales of cotton and a small additional cargo of flour and miscellaneous goods. This was succeeded by the sloop ' Fall River,' of thirty or forty tons capacity, and that again by the sloop ' Argonaut,' and another craft whose name is forgotten, which sustained the communication till the steamer ' Hancock' was put on.

ber, convenience, or architectural beauty. ' In 1813,' says our chronicle, ' there was one poor old dilapidated wooden meeting-house, neither plastered nor lathed, which stood upon the line dividing the States, occupied occasionally. The regular place of worship on the Sabbath was at the Narrows, about two miles east. There was one, and only one, good schoolhouse in the village, which stood on the corner of Annawan and South Main Streets.' The residences were of the usual simple and plain construction adopted in early New England communities, the most pretentious one being erected by Charles Durfee in 1S11, and standing until 1857, when it was burned down. The richest resident from 1813 to 1824 was estimated worth forty thousand dollars, ' and there were but a small number of this class.' The entire valuation for some years did not exceed five hundred thousand dollars, and the total taxation in 1813 was fifteen hundred dollars."

The location as a manufacturing centre now began to attract the attention of leading men in this and adjoining towns, and the year 1813 witnessed the organization of the Fall River Manufactory and Troy Mills, and from that time to the present, the growth of the city as a manufacturing centre has been almost phenomenal.