Bristol County, Massachusetts - Chapter 2: The Forerunners, 1924

"It is the present that we have most interest in," is the veracious statement of busy Fall River men of this hour. "The story of today is so absorbing to us that we have very little time to share with the narrative and the people of yesterday." It is, as stated, an almost completely absorbing Present. Yet there is not one business man in Fall River, as we write, who is not vitally concerned with the history of his own plant and company, his own school and church, from the beginnings thereof; so that to him their story cannot be gainsaid or ignored. The history of his city, his town, then, from the start to the present status - does not that call for a like respect, since the very business he is engrossed in, the neighborhood he lives in, the school he attended - these could not have been without all those earlier stepping-stones in the town's journey, that have led up to this hour?

This being no more nor less than a plea for a revival of interest and veneration for the historical record, we are ready to inquire: Who, then, were the people of the Fall River of yesterday - of the former Troy - of the earlier Freeman's Purchase, - and how may we come to know them, as partakers in our common story?

It has become well-nigh impossible for us to transplant ourselves in imagination to their far-off times, or to apprehend the conditions of the pioneer age and people. All their story, as the researchers have found it, has been but fragmentary. We can never, in all probability, clearly and to modern satisfaction state the case of their coming, their settlement, and the exact procedure of their relationship with the native races. It is not for us to infer from present-day overworked comments upon traditions of blue-law rulings and rum-drinking that the colonists were worse in their morals than this generation. Meantime, the reader of contemporary history will prove that certain social usages were not isolated, but rather international; and the history of our own day, in further rebuttal, is prone to point out our own serious defections toward men of the black and red races. At least, we have concluded that the firstcomers, the earliest of all, fought against great odds to establish themselves here; and that it was not at all against the will of the Indians of the time of Massasoit that they built and delved. They ate the bitter bread of need and loss; they labored with the soil and with the rivers to produce from them their living. They were not heaven-born; they were human - they were everyday workers and builders of our towns.

It has been shown that there were twenty-six purchasers of the Quequechan, or Falling Water section, - the Freeman's Purchase - and that they were Plymouth men, and they had bought here for the same reason that other Plymouth men had purchased the Duxbury and the Marshfield sections - to provide pastures-lands and lands to settle upon, with the increase of the arrivals from abroad. By name, these purchasers, though not settlers, of the Freeman's location, were: Captain James Cudworth, Josiah Winslow, senior, Constant Southworth, John Barnes, John Tesdale, Humphrey Turner, Walter Hatch, Samuel House, Samuel Jackson, John Daman, Mr. Timothy Hatherly, Timothy Foster, Thomas Southworth, George Watson, Nathaniel Morton, Richard Moore, Edmund Chandler, Samuel Nash, Henry Howland, Mr. Ralph Partridge, Love Brewster, William Paybody, Christopher Wadsworth, Kenelme Winslow, Thomas Bowen, John Waterman. 'These are names of surveyors of lands of the Old Colony, builders, farmers; and one, Josiah Winslow, would follow in the footsteps of his father, Edward, and become Governor of the colony. They by lot divided the Freeman's Purchase into twenty-six shares, each share having its frontage of about one hundred rods on the river; and that which interests us in the item of the settlement to be, is the fact that most of these shares, or thirteen full lots, were within the present boundary of Fall River.

The story of those thirteen or fourteen lots is contained in the almost illegible account of the beginnings of Fall River. But we have it thus, as the old recorders have set it down: Most of the lots owned by Timothy Foster were purchased by John Borden, the first of the name here, he having originated at Portsmouth, Rhode Island. This portion of land had come largely into John Borden's possession three years after King Philip's War, in 1679; though smaller portions had been bought by William Earle and David Lake - the entire lot being exchanged for 140 pounds, or about $700. Thus we first welcome the name of Borden to our story, settlers of that name and their descendants for generations continuing on the same lot. Then the Durfees, in their turn. Humphrey Turner's lot passed into various hands, until in 1731 Benjamin Durfee, pioneer of the name, became owner of its westerly portion. His son Thomas, who had also bought the north half of the Foster lot, came into possession of Benjamin's lot, and was soon a leading landowner. Successively, the other lots in question were the property of Christopher Wadsworth, Edmund Chandler, Samuel House,

John Howland, George Watson, Ralph Partridge, Timothy Hatherly, Love Brewster, Richard Moore, William Hatch, Thomas Southworth, William Paybody. These lots had come into the holdings of the Plymouth men, through direct purchase of the Indians, before the war with King Philip.

The Pocasset Purchase (so-named from the territory upon which the Pocasset branch of the Wampanoag tribe dwelt), to the south of the Quequechan stream, was no longer in the natives' hands when that purchase was made in 1680, conquest having determined it as the property of the Plymouth government, by whom it was sold to Edward Gray of Plymouth, Nathaniel Thomas of Marshfield, Benjamin Church of Punkatest, Christopher Almy, Job Almy, and Thomas Waite of Portsmouth, and Daniel Wilcox and William Manchester of Punkatest. The historian Fenner has followed with care the statement of the deed, in which it is plainly set forth that the purchase was made of the government by the abovenamed men for 1100 pounds, while earlier historians had erroneously declared that the purchase had been made of the Indians.

The holdings of these new purchasers, then, included part of Fall River and the whole of the present Tiverton. The first twelve lots themselves were within the present Fall River, while a strip thirty rods in width adjoining the Quequechan, was owned in common. 'The twelve lots referred to were in the ownership of Edward Gray, William Manchester, Benjamin Church, Christopher Almy, Job Almy, and Daniel Wilcox. Theirs were called "greate lots," and extended from the bay one mile east to the present Plymouth avenue, which was laid out as early as 1696. Soon afterwards, 120 one-acre lots were laid out in a second division of land between Plymouth avenue, Watuppa pond, and the Quequechan river, - the first owners of that tract being Richard Borden, John Cook, William Corey, Job Almy, Thomas Corey, Lidy Gray, Christopher Almy, Nathaniel Southwick, Joseph Wanton, Seth Arnold and Edward Gray. A third division of land was made in 1697, near the pond, and including the present Flint Village.

The colonial story of Fall River is almost void of annals of any substantial value. 'here was no permanent settlement at all before the King Philip War. We have little more than tradition concerning a possible few individuals who then dwelt within the bounds. We catch but fleeting glimpses of the shadows of men hastening beyond the wilderness to the safety of towns. The first actual sign of settlement that we have, then, is that of Matthew Boomer, who, purchasing in March of 1676 the north half of the fourth lot, built the first house that we know of, on the east side of the main road, and opposite the present Brownell street. His son, Matthew Boomer, Jr., came into possession of half his father's purchase in 1692. From that time onwards appear names to which are attached the unfading interests of industry, so closely connected with the growth of town and city.

In 1686, John Reed, who had come up from Newport, had built his home on the site of the present St. Joseph's Church. Samuel Gardner, town clerk, also a Newport townsman, in 1687, bought of George Lawton, another of the early settlers, one half of the fifth lot, with buildings that were upon it; and it was this same Gardner who later became owner of Gardner's Neck of South Swansea. It is recorded that the very year that Freetown was incorporated, in 1683, Henry Howland, who hailed from Duxbury, occupied the sixth lot, and that his sons, Samuel and Nathaniel, afterwards divided the lot with the house thereon, in 1647. Even earlier than Howland, Robert Durfee, in 1680, built on the tenth lot, while Henry Woodberee was the occupant of the eleventh lot.

The records show that William Chase was living here in 1684, and that the Henry Brightman house was then newly built. Ralph Earle had come up from Portsmouth about the year 1690, and made his home here on the main road nearly opposite the "cleft rock,' - a landmark later known as the boundary between Tiverton and Fall River. In 1690, also, Benjamin Church's house stood at the corner of the present Pond and Anawan streets, on the "Mill Lot;" and Francis Brayton, blacksmith, built, in 1791, where the Baptist Temple now is. George Brownell was one of the Portsmouth men who early settled in this neighborhood. He bought and built in 1699 on the present Morgan street. 'These and yet others have been pointed out by the historians Fenner and Buffinton, who also refer to Deacon Richard Durfee's house on Cottage street, Benjamin Durfee's on Middle street, the Pearce house on Hamlet street, the Bowen house at the corner of Globe; a Durfee house at the northeast corner of Slade - all the homes of ancestors of many prominent citizens of the present hour.

Older residents once followed the ancient road lines, to point out the Dwelly homestead, where now stands the Bellevue house; the Davis house near Cook pond; and the Townsend house, near the hill of that name. They have proceeded to state that on the second lot of the Pocasset Purchase was the Snell homestead; that Richard Borden's farm was the third lot; that Aaron Bowen's house was on the third lot (the Grinnell land, socalled); that the Wordell house was built on the Stafford road about 1720. Other landmarks of those days were: The Curry house,.on Jefferson street; the Negus place, date 1789, was north of Tower street; next to that in turn came three houses owned by Cook settlers - the Perry house, the Thomas Cook house, and the Estes house; and at the northeast corner of June and French streets, the house of Charles Church, Tory, built about 1750. It was in those days that Tiverton was a part of the Pocasset Purchase, but the town was annexed to Rhode Island in 1741, together with Little Compton and other villages.

(ne of New England's many homely sayings is a simple one: "There's not a lazy bone in his body,' and it may well be applied to Fall River at the outset. So far as history has informed us, the first settlers were ever anxious to keep themselves at work at something. Thus it was that the "Mill Lot" of the Pocasset Purchase was the colonial arena of the sources of business hereabouts. The "Mill Lot" sends its call down the years to the greater convocation of the mills of the Fall River of today, to declare: Here were your beginnings.

The "Mill Lot" was set aside by the proprietors of the Pocasset Purchase, as soon as they had bought the tract, in 1680. Water power included, it was thirty rods wide and extended from the river shore, easterly, to the vicinity of the present Twelfth street. Colonel Benjamin Church and his brother Caleb at once became owners of twenty-six and one-half shares of the lot, and it was understood that John Borden owned the remainder of it. The first factory business that we have any record of at the lot was that of the Church saw mill built there before 1691, at which time Benjamin came into his brother's share by the payment of one hundred pounds. About twelve years later, he had added a grist and fulling mill, and business action was begun. With the passing of the mill interests and the water power, to the Borden family, in 1714, the industrial section of this work will be devoted. Other early business ventures were those of the tanyard of Joseph Read, at the site of the Westport Manufacturing company's storehouse; the town's saltworks, established July 7, 1777, near the site of the present Mechanics Mills, and other saw and grist mills, as well as the iron works that were established in 1704.

Growth and expansion and increase in population of the young colony brought along in their train consideration of the problems of boundary lines, first of towns, later on, of states. Differences of opinion that existed as to the line between Freetown and Tiverton were adjusted in 1700 by the Freetown committee, consisting of Robert Durfee, Henry Brightman and Josiah Winslow, and the Tiverton committee, consisting of Richard Borden, Christopher Almy and Samuel Little.

But it required a royal commission to set forth what should be understood as the true boundary between the Massachusetts and Rhode Island colonies; and even their report was appealed from by both colonies, although corifirmed by King George II in 1746, in which year Tiverton and Little Compton were added to Rhode Island. This proved one of the most long-drawn-out boundary disputes on New England records, ranging throughout a period of more than 240 years. The transfer of the towns was granted by Massachusetts, but the definiteness of State lines continued to be a matter of controversy, and commissions of 1791 and 1844 made no satisfactory progress toward settlement of the matter. The solution of the difficulty was not reached until the year 1861, and the result was that nine square miles were added to Fall River, together with $1,948,378 in taxable property, and 3,593 in population. ,

So proceeded the general course of the problems of settling down and of dividing the lines in the old days. The first folk were rather late in arriving - somewhat tardier than was the case with the settlers a little to the north; though, as a township, they thus avoided earlier colonial perplexities, including the combat with the Indians. But they chose well to build their homes at Falling Water, and thenceforth went into partnership with River Quequechan, that brought them and their descendants and the new pilgrims of today, increase of industry and wealth.