Bristol County, Massachusetts - Chapter 1: Introductory, 1924

Chapter 1: Introductory

At the close of three hundred years, the most eventful in the history of our country, we again approach as near as possible to the threshold of their times and motives, and inquire: Who were the founders of Bristol county, and the cities and towns contained therein? And, witnessing our own day and achievement, we desire to know how the present has fulfilled _the expectations of the founders. The past has undeniable fundamental values; the present is working and building upon the foundations that have been laid; both are one in the purpose and progress of their structure. History depends upon their mutual aid. And so the workmen of yesterday and today join forces as the labor proceeds.

As we, from our summits, survey some of the results of the dealings and ventures of the first settlers, it appears to us that they were men, anid women of the psychological time and the hour, endowed with special capacity for home-building and town-making, equipped both spiritually and physically to begin the colonization of their land of promise. This is no mere sentiment, either, for that which they began has progressed and thriven to this hour.

Historians of earlier works have not made it clear that Bristol county was so named as the result of a promise made by the'General Court at Plymouth in 1677 to the inhabitants of the town of Bristol, now in Rhode Island. The promise was, in effect, that when the time came that sixty families should have settled in the town, a new county should then be established, and that Bristol should be denominated the county seat. It was on September 1, 1681, that the townsfolk named the village for the great English port, Bristol, and four years later, in June, 1685, the county was incorporated, with Bristol as the shire town. Up to that time all this territory had been a part of the Old Colony, whose General Court headquarters had been established since 1639. Bristol county towns were represented at the court only seven years; for after June, 1692, the General Court of Massachusetts Bay issued all orders to the military and for the civil conduct of the towns of the Old Colony. Thus were the workmen laying foundations. At the time of King Philip's War, 1675-6, these towns were included in the limits of the county that was to be - Attleboro, Berkley, Easton, Dighton, Dartmouth, Freetown, Raynham, Norton, Rehoboth, Swansea and Taunton - with an aggregate population of 22,571. The other towns of this section were not yet incorporated.

In 1685, then, New Plymouth, or the Old Colony, as it soon began to be called by the sons of Pilgrims, was divided into the three counties of Plymouth, Barnstable and Bristol, the town of Bristol continuing as the county seat up to November, 1746, when Taunton was made the shire town. From that date the town of Bristol went over to Rhode Island, and keeping it company were the towns of Barrington, Little Compton and Warren. A petition had been presented to the General Court from several of the towns, asking that Dighton be made the county town in place of Taunton; but it was reported back from the court that "they are of opinion that Taunton will be most benefitiall for the county."

All courts up to the year 1828 were held at Taunton, where to the present time a series of four court houses have been constructed. But in that year, New Bedford, then being the largest town in the county, with a population of 6332, was created a half-shire town, with its own court house. The growth of the county called for further division in 1860, when Pawtucket and a part of Seekonk were set off to Rhode Island, and a part of Tiverton was given from Rhode Island to Fall River. The latter city, with its then population of 46,000, was made a half-shire town, with its court.

Retaining its ancient name, and linking its past with that of the colonial era, Bristol county, known for great industry, holds an advanced place in the line of march of the State's success. With an area of six hundred square miles, with Norfolk county on the north, Plymouth county on the east, Rhode Island on the west, and Rhode Island and the Atlantic on the south, the county occupies a southern block of the State, about thirty-five miles from Boston. Within the county limits there are now four cities, namely: Fall River, incorporated April 12, 1854, with a present population of about 128,000; New Bedford, incorporated March 9, 1847, with its present population close to 130,000; Taunton, incorporated May 11, 1864, its population being about 38,000; Attleboro, incorporated June 17. 1914, its present population being about 20,000; and there are fifteen towns namely: Acushnet, Berkley, Dartmouth, Dighton, Easton, Fairhaven, Freetown, Mansfield, North Attleboro, Norton, Raynham, Rehoboth, Seekonk, Somerset, Westport.

The senatorial districts are three: the First, Bristol, including Attleboro, Berkley, Dighton, Easton, Mansfield, North Attleboro, Norton, Raynham, Rehoboth, Taunton, with a population close to 90,000; Second Bristol District, including Fall River, Somerset and Swansea, with a population of over 130,000; Third Bristol: Acushnet, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Freetown, New Bedford, Westport - population about 130,000.

In the First Councillor District are included Acushnet, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Fall River, Freetown, New Bedford, Swansea, Somerset, Westport. In the Second Councillor District: Attleboro, Berkley, Dighton, Easton, Mansfield, North Attleboro, Norton, Raynham, Rehoboth, Seekonk, Taunton. And there are eleven Representative Districts in the county, with nineteen Representatives.

The District Courts include: First Bristol (court held at Taunton); Second Bristol (court held at Fall River); Third Bristol (court held at New Bedford); Fourth Bristol (court held at Attleboro). The polls of the county total close to 100,000, and the property valuation is over $400,- 000,000.

The means of transportation and freightage throughout the county are furnished by the New York, New Haven and Hartford steam railroad and its branches, the outgrowth of the Old Colony and other railroads; the Massachusetts street railway, the outgrowth of the Bay State

Few rolling-land sections of the State, such as Bristol county is, are more pleasingly situated, both for charming lake and river scenery and for practical utilities. There are a number of rivers that not only water the lands and furnish means of transportation, but provide water power for some of the largest textile mills in the world. The Taunton river, known to the red race as the Tetiquet, or Great river, is a small stream compared with many New England rivers, but it is the most noted among this county group of rivers, rising in Plymouth county, and flowing southwesterly, directly across Bristol county, and emptying into Mount Hope Bay, or Sachem's Bay, as it was called in early times. This river has a remarkable industrial history that began with the Leonard iron-workers and the Lincoln saw-millers, in the middle of the sixteenth century. The head of navigation is at Weir Village, Taunton, though the ocean tide itself flows to East Taunton. Mill river flows directly through Taunton, rising in Scadding's pond to the north of the city, and joining the Taunton river near the location known as the Neck-of-Land.

Three Mile river, which the Indians called the Nistoquahannock, is formed by the Wading and Rumford rivers, and, flowing through West Taunton, it makes the boundary between Taunton and Dighton and becomes a part of Taunton river. For many miles Ten Mile river constitutes the boundary between Seekonk and Rhode Island. Palmer river rises in the town of Rehoboth, and flows into the Warren river at Swansea. The Segregansett river rises in Taunton, and flowing southwesterly across Dighton, eventually becomes a part of Taunton river. The Westport river has its east and west branches in Westport, and the Slocum and Aponagansett rivers are in Dartmouth.

Bristol county lakes and ponds share largely in the topographic features of the region. The Watuppa lakes are in Fall River; Sabbatia lake and Scadding's pond are in Taunton; Winnecunnet pond is at Norton; Wilbur pond is at Easton; and Reservoir pond is in North Attleboro.

We can have no actual comprehension of the manner of living of the first settlers in Bristol county bounds; we are better acquainted with that which is nearer our day, a century or two after the Pilgrims - the story of the simplicity of the pre-Revolutionary times; that is, as compared with the luxury that followed, and of our own day. But it was upon their frugality and their laborious life that the foundations of these townships were laid; it is in their artlessness that we of today can find a great deal that is worthy of imitation. Their "board" was actually a board, seldom a table as we know it, and the hands were employed more than any other utensil for the holding and breaking of food. Porridge, fish, meat, some vegetables, constituted the early dishes. Coffee and tea were not to be had. Beer and ale were brewed, and were drank freely, as was the custom in all lands. It is interesting to note that the laws regarding spirituous drink were always sharply restrictive, and that even as early as 1667 cider was added in the restriction; and measures were taken to keep everything of the sort from the Indians, although the law was outwitted then, as now. The point is, that Colonial law in these and all essential matters was in effect.

Civil Government - Town meeting, wherever we find it, had its New World origin in the Old Colony. From this hither period of time, students of history's eras rejoice in and make much of the rediscovery, too, that the "town" of New England was the cropping up again of a most ancient Saxon institution. But to the forefathers here it was all so natural and primitive a proceeding that they were unaware of any intention on their part to resurrect that old town idea and practice. All they were concerning themselves with, in reality, reducing the matter to its simplest terms, was the making of an independent home and an independent living, and the securing of these by mutual plans for government. Whatever the origin of the institution, no one for a moment believes that any of the first-comers to the Bristol county towns went into the business of townmaking because the Saxons or the Angles or any of the Aryan nomads before them did so and so. The germ of it all may have been transplanted by the Pilgrims; but the Old Colony and the counties that were divided up from it, had their inception by their different towns only because of the practical needs of home-makers and independent nation-builders.

The first of the town meetings in this part of the country was not inaugurated upon a stated day, nor with celebrations. It was a quiet and at times unannounced gathering of the leading men of the town in one another's houses for deliberative purposes, and looking to the everyday welfare of the community. It was the early mark and sign of the living needs, the essentials, the individual and community rights in the process of civilization. The senior, the patriarch, the man of chief influence, whether in Bristol county or elsewhere, was the acknowledged leader, and in the course of time a man of that calibre became the meeting moderator, or the keeper of records, or the town clerk. Though the first regularly organized town meeting was held at Marshfield (outside these bounds), in 1642, yet it was not until four years later, or in 1646, that the General Court at Plymouth established the office of town clerk. Town meeting exercised from the first an influence upon the governing power and customs of the community that today is deeply felt and recognized. It is at this hour a great event in the town life of Bristol county. No assemblage can be more democratic. None signifies so much directly by and for the people.

The county court house in Taunton makes its appearance in our story as the present-day representative judiciary structure, an imposing and beautiful building, almost in the center of the section. Its cornerstone was laid at noon, June 30, 1892, with Masonic ceremonies, and the building was dedicated March 4, 1895. On both occasions, great crowds assembled to witness the event. The following names were included in the list of those connected with the construction of the building: Francis §. Babbitt, chairman, Taunton; Franklin Gray, Fall River; William Sanders, New Bedford, these being the county commissioners; Frank Irving Cooper, Bridgewater, architect; J. A. Woodworth, Cambridge, clerk of the work; J. J. Cooper, Bridgewater, supervisor; George A. King, Taunton, civil engineer; Beattie & Wilcox, Fall River, contractors; Charles W. Coburn, Dedham, general superintendent of construction; Edward Russell, Fall River, superintendent of stone cutters. ;

The steps that led up to the construction of the court house of today are as follows: Commissioners were appointed to settle the question of the eastern boundary of Rhode Island, and as a result, in 1746, Tiverton, Little Compton, Bristol, Warren, Barrington and Cumberland were set off to Rhode Island. It was then that Bristol lost the distinction of being the county seat. Thereupon, the act establishing Taunton as the shire town of Bristol county was passed at the session of the General Court of Massachusetts, begun and held at Boston, November 6, 1746, and the records were removed to Taunton, where the first session of the Court of Common Pleas was held, December 9, 1746, Hon. Seth Williams, George Leonard and Stephen Paine presiding. The Court of Sessions was held the same day, fifteen justices being present.

The county house of 1747 was built considerably to the front of the present structure, and, though of simple construction, it answered tne purpose for about a quarter of a century. On December 17, 1771, the court ordered that a new court house be built, "to be 48 feet square and 24 feet post; and George Leonard jr., Benjamin Williams, Robert Treat Paine and Daniel Leonard, esquires, or either two of therm, are appointed a committee to dispose of the now standing court house, by sale thereof, or by taking it down and disposing of the timbers." 'Therefore the old building was removed to Court street, and finally to Leonard street, where it is now used as a boarding house. The second court house, like the first, was built of wood, and that in 1826 gave way to a brick building that was removed to Court street, and is now used for District Court purposes.

It was in 1821 that the judicial system was organized in this county, and the Court of Common Pleas for the Commonwealth was established. The Superior Court was established in 1859, to take the place of the Court of Common Pleas.

Material Development - From the standpoint of their general farming interests, Bristol county townships have for some years held third position, in the estimate of experts, among Massachusetts counties' townships - the farmers' enterprise, the excellence of the soil conditions, and the number of farms themselves, contributing to that standard. The but recently established farm bureau movement, the increasing cooperation of city and town, and the progress that is being made in the improvement of farming property, are factors that combine to feature the agricultural proposition in this history approximately to its full value. It is a subject whose continuously historic worth, at least, has been almost completely neglected. Bristol county is nothing if it is not an agricultural community, hundreds of farmers would declare. The other factors in the industrial world here are almost unparalleled, some of them, yet they are of comparatively recent establishment. But the agriculturist we have always had with us.

When we are told that 49 per cent. of the county lands are in farms, we become aware of the influence of the farmer. With Worcester and Hampden counties in the lead, Bristol county follows with 3770 farms to her credit, and within her area of 567 square miles. With her 324 farms of from 100 to 174 acres, 1108 farms of from 20 to 40 acres, and three farms of 1,000 acres and over, the approximate land area in farms here is 362,860 acres; improved land, about 69,000 acres, and woodland about 71,000 acres.

000,000; the value of land in farms is over $11,000,000; that of farm buildings nearly $11,000,000; of implements and machinery, nearly $2,000,000; of live stock on farms, over $3,000,000. The average value of land alone, per acre, is $62.47, and the number of farms operated by the owners themselves is close to 3300. More than 5000 horses are in use on Bristol county farms, their total value being rising $20,000, and the total number of cattle is 18,500, valued at $1,886,000. The total of beef cattle is more than 900, valued at over $74,000; dairy cattle, more than 17,000, with a value greater than $1,811,000; sheep, over 400, worth rising $10,000; goats, about 80, value about $2,200; swine, 11,700, valued at more than $272,000. Throughout the county, more than 7,000,000 dairy products are raised, valued at $2,870,000; eggs and chickens total more than 1,265,000, at a value of more than $1,085,000. And the value of all crops including vegetables, hay and fruits is approximately $4,000,000.

Among the modern and at the present day very active organizations that have been established in the special interests of the farmer are the North and South Bristol Farmers' clubs, the County Holstein Club, Milk Producers' Association, the County Cow-testing Association, dairymen's clubs, farm clubs in the various towns, poultry protective associations; and clubs for boys and girls in the city and town schools, in pig and poultry raising and home economics.

The county fairs were the unique social occasions of seventy-five and one hundred years ago, when the towns were growing into cities, and before the host of new-comers had arrived. It was the Bristol County Agricultural Society that was the means of providing the show and diversion for farm-folks and everybody else, and within the bounds of its existence is included the record of the social recreations and contests of a century for county people.

On June 21, 1820, a group of agriculturists and men of other callings convened at the hostelry in Taunton, known as Atwood's Hotel, that stood at the corner of City Square and Weir streets. The gathering consisted of men from different parts of the county, and they there and then started the society that was the fifth of its kind and purpose in this State, and all succeeding farmers' societies here have taken inspiration from that one. Leaders in the movement were Hon. Samuel L. Crocker, one of Taunton's captains of industry; Rev. Otis Thompson, of Rehoboth; and Thomas Kinnicut, of Seekonk.

The first annual meeting of the society, which was a mutual organization with farmers and manufacturers, took place, but officers were not elected until October, 1821, when Hon. Samuel L. Crocker was chosen president; Rev. Otis Thompson of Rehoboth, Rev. Pitt Clark, of Norton, Nathaniel Morton of Freetown, and Thomas Almy of Dartmouth, vicepresidents; Horatio Leonard, of Raynham, recording secretary; James L. Hodges of Taunton, financial secretary; Peter Thacher of Taunton, treasurer. Hon. Francis Baylies, Old Colony historian, Samuel L. Crocker and James L. Hodges visited the county towns to arouse interest; and when at the meeting that was held in April, 1823, it was announced that the sum of $1,000 had been raised, it was voted to have a public exhibition. The act of incorporation was also passed in 1823, and on October 21 that year, the first exhibition of the society took place. During the first ten years, with but one exception, these events were held in Taunton, and afterwards they became portable affairs. At the opening fair there were thousands in attendance, and Hon. Francis Baylies was the leading speaker. The amount paid in premiums at that time was $161. In 1853 Taunton was established as the fixed location of the society, and the Sproat lot was purchased for the sum of $5,000. From the older society a new one developed in 1860 at Myricks, that was continued many years.

The fairs of the original organization were continued at the Sproat lot, and in 1863 it was voted to have the exhibition three days instead of two, while in October of that year the exhibition building was erected. In 1864 Hon. Oliver Ames of Easton was elected president of the society, and he was succeeded in 1869 by William Mason, of Taunton, who in 1872 presented the society with the judges' stand. The fair of 1875 went into sheds and barns, and in the Centennial Year, 1876, the society codperated with the leading industrial organizations of the State in representing Massachusetts at the Philadelphia Exhibition. Theodore Dean was the president that year, and he was succeeded in 1884 by Philander Williams. In 1892 the society was reorganized, and after many vicissitudes the property was disposed of to Walter N. Smith. The fair of 1885 was considered the most profitable in the history of the institution, when the receipts for the three days amounted to $9,000.

The Bristol County Agricultural School is the outstanding institution of the kind in this county that has made itself and its aims known, and secured a high value for its mission since any other history of the county was written. In the ten years of its existence (1913-1923), George H. Gilbert, directed and aided by capable boards of trustees and advisers, has directed the school, and the scope of its influence has ranged the county bounds, and beyond.

While it has a curriculum of study and a force of teachers that fulfill the requirements of the farmer-student, the school also has made its presence permanent here because of the vital efforts being made to be of practical use to the farmer in general, as well as to interest boys and girls in garden-making, in poultry and pig raising, in canning, in rural home-making, and the like. Since county conferences and demonstrations have hecome annual features of the school's constructive work, the Bristol county farmer everywhere has become interested, and his inquiries for assistance and advice from this source are part of his own day's work. The school has its attractive location in the town of Dighton, near the geographical centre of the county (the railroad station nearby being that of Segreganset) with Taunton and the Attleboros to the north, and Fall River and New Bedford and their clustering villages to the south.

Looking back to the beginnings of the institution, a law was signed by the Governor of the State, March 6, 1912, providing that the people of this county should vote at the next State election upon the question "Shall the County of Bristol establish an independent agricultural school?" And a majority of the voters of every city and town in the county favored the establishment of the institution. The law provided that the control of the school property and the management of the school should rest with a board of seven trustees, subject to approval by the Massachusetts State Board of Education, these trustees being appointed by the governor, and the three county commissioners being trustees of the school ex-officio; that funds for establishing and maintaining the school should be provided by the county; but that the county should be reimbursed each year by the State for onehalf the cost of maintaining the school; that to enter the school a candidate must not be under fourteen years of age, and that candidates should be admitted without examination, and without the payment of tuition. The work of starting the school was advanced with the appointment of trustees at the beginning of 1913, the election of the school director in February, and the purchase of property, May 12, at Segreganset in Dighton. Land and buildings were then bought, together with a small herd of pure-bred Ayrshire stock, poultry and some farm equipment. Then began actual farm operations, with the purchase of teams and tools, the farm labor as performed by the young men at the school being a necessary part of their agricultural training. The school property now includes a farm of nearly 150 acres on the west bank of the Taunton river, the farm being used first ot all as an aid to agricultural instruction, but its management being that of a productive farm. Certain of its areas are devoted to each of the important lines of productive agriculture, such as a dozen acres to orchard, a plot fenced to poultry, another for hog-breeding pens and pasture; others for gardening, small fruits, field crops and dairying. The plant consists of a main building with its offices, class-rooms, laboratories, halls and assembly room; the hothouses, the poultry and hog houses, barns, silos and stables.

'The school furnishes a four years' course, which includes English farm business and a forum for debates; agricultural botany; mathematics; agricultural survey; with the usual courses of kitchen gardening, small fruits raising; and the care of beef cattle, draft horses, dairying, etc.; and project work, like the caring for poultry, hives of bees, a market garden, a dairy herd, etc. Graduates have often been placed as managers and assistant managers of farms, as herdsmen, as supervisors of home gardening, and as foremen. Class-room work begins the first Monday in October, and continues through the last week of April; legal holidays, the Friday of Thanksgiving week, and ten days in December, excepted; though the school is actually in session the entire year, and the teachers are co-operating with the pupils through the summer at home and elsewhere. Lectures and institutes, the annual Bristol County Fair, and tours of observation of successful farming, are part of the year's programme. 'The county farmers are in constant touch with the school and its purpose through the county .agent, a member of the staff specially appointed for that work, and the calls are miscellaneous, such as those for plant-insect troubles, seed-testing, pruning and spraying methods, poultry-raising and farm building plans.

Throughout the year, hundreds of farm visits are made, with demonstrations in orchard-planting, spraying, caponizing, apple-grading. Also, the boys and girls in the school have been directed in their corn clubs, in garden club work, dairy, poultry and canning club work, as well as in home economics. The officers of the school, in 1923: Board of Trustees: Allen P. Keith, New Bedford, president; Joseph K. Milliken, North Dighton, vice-president; John I. Bryant of Fairhaven, and Algernon H. Barney of Swansea, auditors; William N. Howard, North Easton; Richard E. Warner, Taunton; Arthur M. Reed, North Westport. The teaching staff: George H. Gilbert, director; Curtis Peckham, manager and instructor in poultry; Walter E. Curtis, instructor in farm crops and soil fertility; David A. Millard, instructor in animal husbandry and dairying; H. Judson Robinson, instructor in gardening; Lester W. Simmons, instructor in orcharding and small fruit culture. Extension staff: Warren L. Ide, assistant director and county agricultural agent; Flora M. Miller, home demonstration agent; Edwin R. Wyeth, junior agricultural agent. Advisory council: Elmer M. Poole, North Dartmouth, president; Mrs. Lucy P. Morse, Segreganset; John A. Smith, South Westport; Ralph M. Strange, Taunton; Charles S. Bliss, Raynham; Russell L. Hutchinson, Raynham; Alden C. Walker, Norton; Frank G. Arnold, Touisset; Mrs. W. H. Allen, Mansfield; Mrs. Percy Blatchford, Rehoboth.

The institution met with the severest loss in its history when the main building was burned on the morning of January 17, 1923. The building, a brick structure two stories in height, built in 1915, at a cost of $35,- 000, housed the classrooms and administrative offices. The equipment of the school was a total loss, but plans for rebuilding were immediately begun.

The Forestry Division of the State has given generous attention to the county, especially in the popular proposition of taking over, upon agreement with owners, and planting many theretofore barren properties with white pine. Thus there are now five Forestry plantations in Bristol county, totalling two hundred acres, the sections planted being those in Attleboro, Berkley, Raynham, East Taunton and Freetown. 'The enterprise, that was started about 1910, has brought about satisfactory results here and there. Formerly wild and otherwise useless lands, that had been placed in the care of Forestry, are now valuable pieces of property with their growing timber. Besides the farmers, too, the cities have become interested and Forestry associations and committees on Forestry interests have been formed in a number of communities. The business of Forestry, as well, is to protect farm-lands and growing timber; and Fall River has its district fire warden, while there are fire-towers at Fall River, Rehoboth and Acushnet. The work of safeguarding against fire is county-wide.

The State Division of Fisheries and Game has forwarded its notable effort in this county, as elsewhere, by installing fishways wherever it has been found necessary to do so, and by planting mature alewives upon the spawning grounds in the fresh-water ponds. Stocking operations have been performed in Taunton river. For a long time, these natural spawning grounds have been shut off by dams; and the ponds in the Nemasket river above the county, were the only breeding grounds at hand for keeping up the supply of the Taunton river alewives - this limitation being one of the chief reasons for the lessening of alewive fishery on Taunton river. The work of developing the Taunton alewive fishing by this means was undertaken in 1917, when a new fish-way was installed at East Taunton; and in 1921 work was started on the final fishway in the Taunton river series at the Eastern Investment Company's property on Town river.

Bristol county receives its proportionate share of the fish distributed from the fisheries station, fish planted in the county from December 1, 1921, to November 30, 1922, being as follows: Brook trout eggs planted in streams, 25,000; brook trout fingerlings, 65,750; brook trout yearlings and adults, 900; small mouth bass fry, 48,000; small mouth bass fingerlings, 2200; small mouth bass adults, 115; yellow perch fingerlings, 8000; white perch adults, 5600; pike perch fingerlings, 450,000; horned pout fingerlings, 6000.

The State fire warden, the fish and game warden and the Forestry department frequently co-operate in the county, as their work is related in several ways.

With the increase of population in Bristol county to twice the number of three decades ago, the question of the water supply of the large cities is one of the leading problems continuously affecting the county's general welfare. The State Department of Public Health is the source of such information that brings facts up to the minute in this regard, and it is through Hon. Thomas J. Morton that these facts have been ascertained.

The county is fifth in number of inhabitants in the State, and fourth in density of population, the population per square mile being exceeded only by Suffolk, Middlesex and Essex counties. Five-sixths of the population is concentrated in New Bedford, Fall River, Taunton and Attleboro, and most of the remaining municipalities of considerable population are adjacent to those cities. The city of Attleboro, whose population in 1920 was 19,731, obtains its water supply from reservoir and ground-water sources in the water-shed of the Seven Mile river, and the consumption of water in | the city has reached the safe yield of these sources of supply. There are other waters in the regions about the city, however, from which an additional supply can be obtained independently, so that, in the light of present information, the department states, it will be best for Attleboro to obtain a water supply from independent sources near the city.

The chief problems of water supply in southeastern Massachusetts, the State report has it, are found in Bristol county, and they are especially those of the large and growing manufacturing cities of New Bedford, Fall River and Taunton, in the central and southerly part of the county. Fall River obtains its water supply from North Watuppa pond; and the cities of Taunton and New Bedford, including the towns of Acushnet and Dartmouth, which are furnished with water by the city of New Bedford, take their supplies from the Lakeville ponds.

The population of the cities of New Bedford, Fall River and Taunton, including that of the towns of Dartmouth and Acushnet, now supplied with water by the city of New Bedford, increased from 144,728 in 1890, to 288,407 in 1920 - that is, the population had doubled in thirty years. The aggregate quantity of water used in these municipalities in 1890 was about 7,000,000 gallons per day, while in 1920 it was about 19,950,000 gallons. The growth of these cities in the future will be affected, doubtless, by varying business conditions, changes in industries, and other causes, and these causes will also affect the quantity of water which will be used from the public supply. The per capita consumption of water is gradually increasing here, as elsewhere, after the meter system has become established, and in making provision for future water supply requirements, allowance must be made for further gradual increase in the per capita consumption of water. Assuming that these cities will continue to increase in population in the future about as in the past, and allowing for a gradual increase in the consumption of water per capita, the probable future water supply requirements have been estimated thus for 1925: New Bedford, with estimated population of 136,300, total consumption 11,858,000 gallons; Fall River, estimated population 132,800, total consumption 7,556,000 gallons; Taunton, estimated population 40,000, total consumption 3,756,000 gallons.

Because of her dominant manufacturing interests, Massachusetts is rightly considered an industrial rather than an agricultural State, writes George H. Gilbert, director of Bristol County Agricultural School. And what is true for the State as a whole is similarly true for Bristol county. Yet this is not so much because of the meagerness of her agriculture as because of the wealth of her manufactures. There is somewhat over a quarter of a billion of dollars of capital invested in agriculture in Massachusetts, yielding an annual return of more than $50,000,000 in created wealth. Among the counties, Bristol ranks but third or fourth in agriculture, outranked only by such large counties as Worcester, Middlesex, and by the intensive farming in the county of Essex. The exact figures of the latest census are not at hand as I write, but the investment in farming in this county is between fifteen and twenty million dollars, with an annual income from agriculture of about one-third that sum. Bristol enjoys the rather unique distinction of being the only county of the State in which the dairying industry has shown an increase during the past decade. Poultry husbandry within the county has shown like development. But the possibilities for production of poultry products, of small fruits and orchard fruits for the special market, and of vegetable gardening, have hardly been touched. Until recent years the county has supplied its own whole milk, but of late some milk is being shipped in from distant farms; yet there is no good reason why Bristol county should not largely supply its own food and help supply the large cities just beyond its borders.

The markets are at our very doors, and the roads to market and transportation facilities are nowhere better. Home conditions for those on the farm can, in many sections of the county, be made equal to those in the village or city. The best educational opportunities are available for the farmer's family wherever he may live in the county, on a par with those for the children of the city. There are considerable areas of land well suited to farming in the county that are not being farmed, or are only partially developed. The soil is often poor, but is of a type that will respond quickly to right handling. What, then, is lacking? Why is farming in such ill repute with the vast majority of people who are residents of the county? There are several reasons. One has already been mentioned - that agriculture is overshadowed by the wealth of city industries. Another very potent factor is that farming in this section very rightly lost prestige in an earlier day, when the Massachusetts farmer could not compete with the free, rich lands of the Middle West, and, consequently, few able young men went into this as a life work. Those conditions have changed, and we shall see steadily increasing numbers of capable young fellows taking to farming in Bristol county. Farming has lagged behind all other industries, almost, in organizing to rightly sell the products of the farm, with the result that a fair price at the farm has been the exception rather than the tule. In this, also, a very rapid improvement is already well under way. The California Fruit Growers worked out their own salvation, and have pointed the way to others. The movement among farmers for codperative selling and effectively handling their products to their own advantage has, during the last few years, spread to the South and East, and to every line of farm products. Selling organizations have thus far not come to pass among the farmers of this county, except in a limited way among the duck growers, the market gardeners and the dairymen; but it will come, and in the meantime those farmers of the county who rightly grade and put up their products will profit measureably by the effect of selling organizations elsewhere in the better prices that result from standardizing the product and stabilizing the market. This sketch would hardly be complete without some word in regard to the forestry of Bristol county. We have stripped our timber lands bare. There are thousands of acres that must be replanted - land that is suitable for growing fine timber, but of little value for anything else. Here, again, a movement is now well under way that promises to do much to replace our wasted resources and add tremendously to the natural wealth of the county. The readiness with which those who hold lands have responded to the first call for reforesting, insures a steady improvement in this direction also, contingent on one condition only, namely, that the public generally protect our forests by suitable precautions against devastating fires.

Proposed Waterway. - For more than one hundred years the question of the canalization of Taunton river fora barge-way between Weir Village at Taunton and Massachusetts Bay has been frequently presented to the State Department of Public Works. The county as a whole has its leading interest in the project from its north bounds to Narragansett Bay. Should the plans of the Atlantic Inland Waterways Commission meet with their expectations, they would bring about a solution to a large proportion of transportation problems that have always confronted the county.

The earliest recorded survey of an inland waterway from Boston harbor to Narragansett Bay was that shown in a map by Benjamin F. Baldwin in February, 1808, and it included two routes: The one beginning at Weymouth Back river, and passing through Weymouth, a corner of Hingham, Abington and East Bridgewater, to the Taunton river at Titicut bridge, about ten miles above Taunton; the other route began at Weymouth Fore river, and passed through Braintree, Randolph, North Bridgewater (Brockton), West Bridgewater, Bridgewater and Raynham, to the Taunton river near the easterly line of Taunton. The water supply was considered at the time, and it was decided to be sufficient.

A survey and report were made in 1902 of the cost of a canal 130 feet wide on the bottom, and 25 feet deep, extending from the deep water in the Taunton river at Somerset to deep water in Boston harbor, at the mouth of the Weymouth Fore river. The length of this structure would be about three and one-half miles between the outer faces of the terminal locks at each end of the canal. The summit level would be fourteen locks, sixty feet wide and 550 feet long, with intermediate gates. The amount of water required for the canal was so great that there was no source of supply which could be used, nearer than the Blackstone river; and this could only be used by destroying the water power of the river. It was also found that water could be pumped from the ocean cheaper than it could be secured from the Blackstone river, and the estimates were based on installing pumps for furnishing this water. The total was estimated at that time as $57,618,358. At the present time, the cost would doubtless be at least double that amount. Surveys were made in 1910 and 1911, when four routes were planned under the direction of a special board of United States Army engineers. Both routes started from Taunton river, one terminating in Hingham bay and Boston harbor, the other in Plymouth harbor, thirty miles south of Boston harbor. These surveys were found to be superior to all the others that had been considered, including the route surveyed in 1902, and the Cape Cod canal route.

In 1915, the Harbor and Land Commissioners were authorized to make surveys from Weir Village to Brockton, and they reported two routes: One along the Matfield river, at an estimated cost of $8,861,960; the other along the Town river, at an estimated cost of $9,026,531. The summit level of the canal would be sixty-nine feet above tide-water in the Taunton river; and the distance from Weir bridge by the Town river route 25.85 miles, and by the Matfield river route 25.45 miles, the summit level being the same in both cases. In 1916 the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners were authorized to make further surveys for the construction of a canal from Taunton river to Massachusetts Bay, by the construction of a canal from Taunton river to North river, and the canalization of various rivers to Boston harbor. No final report was made, as none was called for by the resolve for the survey.

It is evident that the cost of a ship canal from Taunton river to Boston harbor would be prohibitive, but the only solution of the problem would be a canal of barge dimensions. The report of Colonel John Mills, of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, upon the improvement of Taunton river from Fall River to Weir Village, submitted June 30, 1916, gives the sum of $1,301,746.60 as the total cost of a channel which would have a minimum width of one hundred feet and a minimum depth of eighteen feet at mean low water.

County Treasurer and Commissioners - The functions of these officers are directed by a group of practical and far-sighted officials who have in their financial charge a number of county institutions, judicial, educational and medical, each of which adds in no small degree to the general excellence of the aggregate of similar institutions throughout the State. It has been the continuous endeavor of these officials to make the institutions paying ones; and the latter are at this hour county foundations that are gradually being freed of debt through their efforts.

A statement made by Chairman John I. Bryant, of the County Commissioners, early in 1923, was to this effect. The county debt twenty-three years ago amounted to $1,250,000. Since that time the commission has built the Registry of Deeds building in Taunton, the Bristol County Tuberculosis Hospital in Attleboro, the Second District Bristol Court building at Fall River, the Third Bristol District Court building at New Bedford, the Registry of Deeds building at New Bedford, and the Agricultural School building at Segreganset (burned in January). With all this improvement to the county, affairs have been so managed that the debt before the school building burned was but $331,500. The records of County Treasurer Edgar L. Crossman show that in the twelve months previous there had been a net reduction of $69,000 in the bonded debt of the county,

The New Bedford district continues to lead all the registries of deeds of the county, as it has for several years past, in the amount of fees from recording real estate transfers. The total receipts there were $23,489.75. The receipts in the Fall River Registry in the same period were $17,432.90, and the Taunton Registry collected $11,475.45. Criminal costs in the superior courts were increasing, the expenses of this branch of the county business during 1922 being $33,716.19, as against $29,227.86 in 1921. The expense of the civil side of the superior court was more than $2,000 less than in 1921. The amount received in fines was $28,632.28, as against $20,068.96 in 1921.

Work at the Bristol County Agricultural School had been making commendable progress, the receipts from produce sold and from other sources outside of the appropriation having been $28,039, as against $22,605.96 in 1921.

In 1922, the county treasury paid out more than $64,000 for improvement of inter-city roads, through more sparsely settled communities, such bills totalling in 1921 only a little over $38,000.

The following was the 1923 inventory of property of the county of Bristol: County Court-house, land and furnishings, Taunton, $385,000; Registry building, land and buildings, Taunton, $100,000; Jail, land and buildings, Taunton, $175,000; Court-house, land and furnishings, New Bedford, $100,000; House of Correction, land and furnishings, New Bedford, $400,000; Registry of Deeds building, New Bedford, $175,000; Third District Court-house, New Bedford, $150,000; Court-house, land and furnishings, Fall River, $260,000; Second District Court-house, Fall River, $100,- 000; Third District Court-house, Attleboro, $100,000; Agricultural School, Dighton, $75,000; Law Libraries, $50,000; Norfolk, Bristol and Plymouth Union Training School, $3,500.

County Landmark - The most famous landmark within the bounds of Bristol county is the "Dighton Writing Rock," at Berkley, that town having originally been a part of Dighton, This noted granite rock within the river margin is eleven and one-half feet long and five feet high. Since the year 1889 it has been the property of the Old Colony Historical Society at Taunton, from a deed of gift of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries of Copenhagen. The rock was purchased in 1857 of Thomas T. Dean, of Berkley, by Neil Arnzen, of Fall River, who placed it in the possession of the Copenhagen Society in the belief that the findings of the archeologist were proof positive that the markings were those of Danish explorers.

Up to the present time, and dating from the year 1680, there have been proposed more than twenty distinct theories concerning the origin of the symbol-like drawings and letter-like marks that cover the face of the rock, but all of which traceries are slowly becoming defaced both by tides and weather. The theories of the writings are many and varied, the leading one being that they were originally those of native red men. Professor E.

The Indian Story 17

D. Delabarre, renowned archzologist, whose earlier criticism was that the drawings might have been made by Egyptians, 2000 B.C., has compiled three volumes from the publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts on the subject of the rock. His more recent theory is that there are marks on the rock that appear to disclose the name of Miguel Cortereal, Portuguese explorer, and the date 1511. In the realm of ethnology, archeology and cheirology, this monument of great age has been visited and written about by savants of all times and for nearly three centuries. John Fiske and others refute the Norse origin of the writings. Schoolcraft, the explorer, in 1853 decided they were of Indian origin. Yet concerning the source of the writings on the rock, about which a small library has been written, no one is absolutely sure.