Norfolk County, Massachusetts - Chapter 10: The Town of Bellingham, 1918

Chapter 10: The Town of Bellingham

Bellingham is the most western town of Norfolk County. It is 'bounded on the north by the Town of Medway ; on the east by Franklin and Wrentham ; on the south by the State of Rhode Island; and on the west by Worcester County. The surface is generally uneven, though there are no large elevations in the town. The Charles River flows across the northern part, the Peters River rises near the center and flows in a southerly direction into Rhode Island. Its principal tributary is the Bungay Brook, which rises in Wrentham. North of the Charles River and connected with it by a small stream is Beaver Pond, and in the southern part is another pond of considerable size called Jenks' Reservoir. There are also a few smaller ponds drained by the Peters River.

First Settlement

From the best authority at hand, it is believed that the first white man to locate within the limits of the present Town of Bellingham was Jacob Bartlett. Following the custom of the time, Mr. Bartlett selected a tract of land some time in the summer of 1713 and erected a cabin, to which he moved his family. Land was then plentiful and such a thing as acquiring it by purchase was almost unknown. On October 27, 1713, the proprietors of the Town of Dedham, of which the territory was then a part, granted thirty-five acres to Jacob Bartlett. This grant is the first official mention in the records of the region now included within the town limits of Bellingham.

During the fall of 1713 and the following winter, several families settled near the Charles River. That no confusion should arise regarding the possession of the land, a crown warrant was issued early in February, 1714, the return upon which was as follows :

"In pursuance of a warrant to me directed by John Chandler, Esq., one of her Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the County of Suffolk, these are to give public notice that a meeting of the proprietors of that tract of land belonging to Dedham lying between Wrentham, Mendon and Providence is appointed to be held and kept at the house of Deacon Thomas Sanford, in Mendon, on the eleventh day of March next ensuing, at eight o'clock in the morning, then and then to agree upon a division of land and what relates thereunto, of which all persons concerned are to take notice and give attendance accordingly. Dated this twenty-fifth day of February, A.D., 17 14.

Between the time the warrant was issued and the day of the meeting, the land was divided into lots or parcels containing from twenty to sixty acres each. On the appointed day the residents in that part of the present County of Norfolk assembled at Mr. Sanford's house and the meeting was organized by the election of John Ware of Wrentham, moderator, and Thomas Sanford, clerk. Slips of paper were prepared, each bearing the number of a certain lot of land, and the slips were then placed in a box and thoroughly mixed. Each settled then drew a slip, which entitled him to the tract of land bearing the same number. The highest number was 121, indicating that there were then that number of actual or prospective settlers in the district.

Incorporation

The five years immediately following the distribution of land witnessed the influx of quite a number of new settlers. In the summer of 1719, owing to the great distance from Dedham, where the inhabitants had to go to attend church and transact their business with the town authorities, a movement was started for the establishment of a new town. A petition was accordingly prepared, addressed to "His Excellency Samuel Shute, Esq., Captain-General and Governor in Chief in and over his Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts Bay, in New England, and to the Honourable Council and House of Representatives in General Court convened at Boston."

After setting forth in detail the reasons for asking that a new town be created, the inconveniences to which the inhabitants of the territory was subjected, etc., the petition closed as follows :

"Our Prayer Therefore is that your Honours would Graciously plese to consider our Difficulty Circumstances and grant us our petition, which is That ye above mentioned Tracts of Land (as by one Piatt heretofore affixed & Described) may be incorporated together & made a Town & Invested with Town Preveliges. That we may be Inabled in Conveniant Time to obtain ye Gospel & Public Worship of God settled, & our Inconveniances by Reason of our Remoateness be Removed ; granting us such Time of Dispence from Public Taxes as in wisdom you shall think Conveniant, & in your so doing you will greatly oblige us who am your Humble petitioners : and for your Honours, as in Consciance we are Bound, Shall ever pray.

The plat submitted with the petition showed "a Tract of Land belonging to Dedham, westward of Wrentham, and a small Corner of Mendon adjacent Thereto." On November 26, 1719, the petition was read in the lower house of the General Court and that body ''Ordered that the prayer of the petitioners be granted, and that a township be erected and constituted according thereunto and the plat above : Provided they procure and settled a learned orthodox minister within the space of three years now coming."

It was further enacted that "John Darling, John Thompson and John Marsh be Impowered to call a Town Meeting any time in March next to choose Town Officers & manage ye other prudentiall affairs of ye Town. The name of the Town to be called Bellingham." The upper house concurred in this action the next day, so that the Town of Bellingham dates its corporate existence from November 27, 1719. The name was no doubt chosen as a mark of respect for Sir Richard Bellingham, who was one of the early colonial governors of Massachusetts.

First Town Meeting

The commissioners named in the act of incorporation - Darling, Thompson and Marsh - issued a call for a town meeting to be held at the house of John Thompson on March 2, 1720. Pelatiah Smith was chosen moderator, and the following town officers were elected : Selectmen, John Darling, Pelatiah Smith, John Thompson, John Corbett and Nathaniel Jilson ; Clerk, Pelatiah Smith ; Treasurer, John Holbrook ; Tithingmen, John Marsh and Nicholas Cook ; Constables, Nicholas Cook and William Hay ward ; Hog reeves, "for the due observance of swine," Oliver Hayward and Samuel Darling.

Bellingham did not actually obtain a corporate charter by the act of November 27, 1719, but the people were authorized to form a town government which should become fully operative if they established a church and installed a minister within three years. This provision came before the first town meeting. John Darling, Nicholas Cook, Sr., John Corbet and John Holbrook were appointed a committee to select a location for the meeting house, and another committee, consisting of Nathaniel Jilson, Nicholas Cook, John Corbet and Pelatiah Smith was appointed to build the house, "so far as the covering and inclosing are concerned."

On November 14, 1720, the committee on location reported at a town meeting held at the house of John Thompson - "That the meeting house should be sett whare thare is a Stake standing near Weatherly's corner, with a heap of stones Laid about said Stake and a pine tree marked ; said Stake Standing in an old Road that goes from Mendon to Wrentham, the Demension of the meeting house to be : f ourty foott long thirty foott wide, Eighteen foott Between Joynts. The Stated price for Laborers for a Narrow axx man finding himself tow shillings and a sixpence per day, Broad axx man three shillings pr day, finding themselves."

The location thus selected for the meeting house is a short distance north of the Charles River, near the site of the village of Crimpville, which afterward grew up there. The building was evidently inclosed some time in the summer or early fall of 1 721, for on November, 23, 1721, a town meeting voted that the meeting house should be lathed and plastered with white lime and that an aisle four feet wide should be left through the center and aisles four feet wide between the ends of the seats and the sides of the building. In January, 1723, the town voted to give fifty acres of land to the first minister who would settle in the town and not long afterward Rev. Thomas Smith accepted the offer and entered upon his duties as pastor of the church. Bellingham then became fully incorporated according to the provision of the act, though a little more than three years elapsed before a regular minister was settled.

A Boundary Dispute

In 1723 a difference of opinion arose between the people of Bellingham and those of Wrentham as to the actual location of the boundary line dividing the two towns, and some ill feeling was developed before the question was finally settled. Bellingham appointed a committee to carry the matter before the court, and a tax was levied upon the cattle of the town to defray the expenses. A little later the town sold one hundred and fifty acres of common land, for which the sum of one hundred and forty pounds was obtained, practically all of which was expended in making a survey and securing the establishment of the line as it stands at the present time.

Trouble With The General Court

So far as can be gleaned from the records, the first call for a member of the General Court was made on Bellingham in 1755, but the town meeting voted not to send a representative, on the grounds that the people could not afford the expense. The General Court appears to have been incensed at the action of the meeting and fined the town for its disobedience of orders. When the people of Bellingham learned of the fine another town meeting was called, but the only action taken was to petition the General Court for an abatement of the fine and voted the sum of two pounds and ten shillings to defray the expense of carrying the petition to the Court. At the same meeting it was decided to assess the soldiers who enlisted in the King's service and the people pledged themselves to stand by the assessors in levying a tax on said soldiers. It is not shown by the records that the tax was ever collected and the assessment probably was a "dead letter."

Early in the year 1757 the General Court again made a demand on Bellingham for a representative, but at the May meeting the town again "voted in the negative" and no representative. No fine was imposed upon the town in this instance, but when in April, 1761, Bellingham again voted not to send a representative a small fine was levied against the town. A year later another demand was made for a delegate, but the town meeting declined "by a large vote."

Although refusing to send a representative to the General Court, the people of Bellingham recognized the authority of that body and cheerfully endeavored to observe the laws. At least in one instance they called upon the Court to settle a local dispute. At a town meeting held on March 6, 1764, officers for the ensuing year were elected. Nine days later another meeting (or an adjourned meeting) undertook to annul the action of the former one and elected another set of officers. Nineteen citizens signed a protest against this second election and sent it up to the General Court, with their reasons therefor. The Legislature decided that the election of March 6th was legal and the subsequent action of the adjourned meeting null and void, "much to the satisfaction of the officers first chosen."

At the March meeting in 1773, "the condition of the country being in an unsettled state, and the town being greatly inconvenienced by the excessive taxation, a committee consisting of John Metcalf, John Corbett, Samuel Scott, William Holbrook and Benjamin Partridge was chosen to look into the condition of affairs and report at the next meeting." If the committee ever reported it was not made a matter of record.

About this time, the town being so negligent about sending a representative to the General Court, another fine was imposed and a petition of abatement was sent as payment. It seems that none of the fines had ever been paid and the town had been at some expense in the matter of petitioning for their remission. In the case just mentioned, the Legislature gave no immediate attention to the petition and the town records that on October 22, 1773, when the question came before a town meeting it was "Put to vote to see if the town will send to Court any more to get the fines off that we are fined for not sending a Representative in years passed. Decided in the negative."

At the beginning of the year 1774 the colonies were almost in a state of revolution against the excessive taxation levied by the mother country. In May of that year the people of Bellingham voted to send a committee to the General Court to explain their poverty and ask that the town be assessed for a less amount, as well as that the fines imposed upon them for their failure to send a representative be remitted. This committee met with better success than its predecessors and the fines were abated, restoring good feeling between the Bellingham people and the colonial authorities. On September 2, 1774, a town meeting voted "the sum of nineteen shillings to the General Court, to assist in carrying on expenses." At the same meeting it was agreed that the citizens of the town would purchase no goods imported from England, and the sum of five pounds was voted for ammunition.

On September 30, 1774, Luke Holbrook was elected as Bellingham's "first delegate" to attend the Provincial Congress at Concord on the second Tuesday of the following month. Seven pounds additional were voted on December 19, 1774, "for the purchase of powder and bullets." The action of the people of Bellingham for the purchase of ammunition and the boycott of English goods shows clearly where their sympathies lay in the difference of opinion between the American colonies and the mother country, and from this time forward there was no controversy with the Massachusetts General Court.

A Coincidence

On July 4, 1776, a town meeting was held in Bellingham for. the purpose of discussing general conditions and determining upon a definite course to be followed in case of a rupture between the British Government and the English colonies in America. Almost at the same hour that the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, the Bellingham town meeting declared : "That in case the Honorable Continental Congress shall think it necessary for the safety of the United Colonies to declare them independent of Great

And the declaration was no idle boast. When the news of Lexington and Concord reached the little town in the southwest corner of what is now Norfolk County (then a part of Suffolk), the people of Bellingham were ready. Out of her meager population ninety-three men served in the Continental army during the Revolution and fought to achieve their independence.

New State Government

On September 17, 1776, the General Court sent to the several towns in the state a communication asking opinions regarding the formation of a new state government, with such suggestions as the people felt inclined to submit. Bellingham was not at all backward about expressing her ideas on the subject. At a town meeting held on October 20, 1776, Dr. John Corbett, Coroner John Metcalf, Elder Noah Alden, Deacon Samuel Darling and Lieut. Seth Hall were appointed a committee to prepare the town's reply and report at an adjourned meeting on the first Monday in December. The report, which was adopted at the adjourned meeting, was as follows :

"We are of the opinion that the settling a form of government for this State is a matter of the greatest importance of a civil nature that we were ever concerned in, and ought to be proceeded in with the greatest caution and deliberation. It appears to us that the late General Assembly of this State, in their proclamation dated January 23, 1776, have well expressed that 'power always resides in the body of the people.' We understand that all males above twenty-one years of age, meeting in each separate town and acting the same thing and all their acts united together make an act of the body of the people. We apprehend it would be proper that the form of government for this State to originate in each town, and by that means we may have the ingenuity of all the State, and it may qualify men for public station, which might be effected if the present Honorable House of Representatives would divide this State into districts of about thirty miles in diameter, or less if it appear most convenient, so that none be more than fifteen miles from the center of the district, that there may be an easy communication between each town and the center of its district, that no town be divided, and that each town choose one man out of each thirty inhabitants to be a committee to meet as near the center of the district as may be; to meet about six weeks after the House of Representatives have issued their order for the towns to meet and draw a form of government, and the same committee to carry with them the form of government their town has drawn at the district meeting and compare them together, and propose to their towns what alteration their town in their opinion ought to make, and said committee in each district adjourn to carry to their several towns and lay before them in town meeting for that' end, the form of government said district has agreed to, and the town agrees to or alters as they see meet; after which each district committee to choose a man as a committee to meet all as one committee at Watertown at twelve weeks after the order of the House of Representatives for the town first meeting to draw a form of government, which committee of the whole State may be empowered to send precepts to the several towns in this State to choose one man out of sixty to meet in convention at Watertown, or such other town as each committee shall judge best. Six weeks from the time of said district's last sitting the said one man out of sixty to meet in convention to draw from the forms of government drawn by each district committee one form of government for the whole State; after which said convention to send to each town the form of government they have drawn for the town's confirmation or alteration, then adjourn, notifying each town to make return to them of their doings at said convention, and at said adjournment said convention draw a general plan or form of government for this State, so that they add nothing nor diminish nothing from the general sense of each town, and that each town be at the charge of all they employ in the affair."

Although the language used in this report might be improved on, its purport is clear and shows how zealously the early colonists guarded the right of local selfgovernment as the very corner-stone of their political liberty. Rev. Noah Alden, pastor of the Baptist Church, was elected a delegate from Bellingham to the constitutional convention which met at Cambridge on September I, 1779, and part of his instructions was to see "that each part of the State have properly delegated their power for such a purpose, and that a bill of rights be framed wherein the natural rights of individuals be clearly ascertained - 'that is, all such rights as the supreme power of the State shall have no authority to control - to be a part of the Constitution."

The idea carried by these instructions was not peculiar to Bellingham. It pervaded all the colonies. In a modified form it was applied in the adoption of the Federal Constitution, which was submitted to the several states for ratification, and in every one of the forty-eight states of the American Union the State constitution was submitted to the people for their approval or rejection before it became effective.

Efforts To Form A New Town

Owing to the inconvenience in attending the town meetings at Bellingham Centre, some of the citizens living in the northern portion of the town started a movement in 1807 to form a new town by taking parts of Bellingham, Franklin, Medway and Holliston, the last named in Midlesex County. A petition to that effect was sent to the Legislature, which appointed a committee to view the territory. The committee reported adversely and the matter was dropped for the time.

In 1816 the question again came before the Legislature and the standing committee on towns in the House of Representatives reported favorably, providing the boundaries asked for in the petition were changed so as to take a smaller portion of Bellingham. To this proposition the petitioners would not assent and the petition was then denied by the Legislature.

Eight years later the subject was again agitated and several hearings were granted by the General Court, but nothing definite was accomplished. In May, 1824, another petition came before the Legislature asking for the erection of a new town with the following boundaries: "Beginning at the Milford line on the northerly side of Nahum Clark's farm, and running easterly, including said farm and across the land of Henry Adams, to a stake and stones on the northerly side of a town road; thence across said road to the northest corner of the Adams farm; thence to a white oak tree standing on the east side of the road, about twentyrods north of Capt. Jonathan Harding's barn ; thence to the south side of the farm belonging to the estate of A. Morse, opposite his dwelling house ; thence to continue in a straight line on the southerly side of Morse's farm to the Pond road, so called ; thence running southerly on said road about twenty-five rods ; thence easterly in a straight line along the south side of Capt. M. Rockwood's home farm to the old grant line (so called) ; thence southerly on said line and Candle wood Island road (so called) to the old county road; thence running southerly across said road and Charles River to the end of a road near Amos Fisher's house in Franklin; thence southwesterly on said road to a town road leading from the factory village in Medway to Franklin meeting house ; thence to the corner of the road near the house of Joseph Bacon; thence, following said road by Luther Ellis' house, to the southeasterly corner of Leonard Lawrence's land on the westerly side of said road ; thence to the southeast corner of Stephen Allen's meadow land ; thence westerly across Mine Brook to a white oak tree on the line between Bellingham and Franklin; thence westerly on a division line of lands of Stephen Metcalf and Jesse Coombs to a town road in Bellingham; thence westerly across Charles River to a stake and stones beside the turnpike road west of Elijah Dewing's barn ; thence crossing said road and running northwesterly to a town road on the division line of Nathan Allen and Benjamin R. Partridge, easterly from said Allen's house; thence northerly on said division line to the Holliston town line; thence running westerly on Holliston s line to farm corner (so called) ; thence northerly on the town line of Milford to the corner first mentioned."

Doubtless many of the land marks mentioned have disappeared and the ownership of farms changed until it would be extremely difficult, if not utterly impossible, to trace the boundaries of this proposed town. The prayer of the petitioners was refused by the Legislature and no further efforts were made to divide the Town of Bellingham, consequently its boundaries remain as they were established when the dispute with Wrentham was settled in 1724.

Town Hall

In 1800, the town experiencing some difficulty in obtaining the use of the meeting house for public meetings, appointed Ezekiel Bates, Eliab Wight, John Scammell and Laban Bates a committee "to examine into and report upon the feasibility of constructing a new building and finding a suitable location therefor." The committee reported as follows :

"We are of the opinion that the most central and convenient spot for erecting said building is on the land occupied by David Jones, situated at the end of the road leading from Ezekiel Bates' dwelling house to the road known as the Taunton Road, and is bounded partly on the west by the said Taunton Road. The said Jones proposes giving the town one acre of land for the purpose of setting said house and other buildings upon, provided said town will agree to erect such a building as will best accommodate the religious society in said town for a house of public worship."

About the time this report was submitted Joseph Fairbanks, who had previously set up a saw and grist mill on the Charles River, associated with him several of his neighbors and made the following- offer to the town :

"Bellingham, March 15, A. D. 1800. "We, the undersigned, do hereby propose to the inhabitants of said Bellingham that we will undertake the building of a public house in said town for the purpose of better accommodating said inhabitants to transact their public concerns in. We propose said house to be forty-five by fifty feet on the ground, twenty-five feet posts, and one porch fourteen feet square, which shall be built of good materials and be well wrought; providing said town will grant the sum of one thousand dollars, five hundred to be assessed and paid into the treasury for the above purpose by the first day of April, 1801, and the other five hundred to be paid by April 1, 1802, and also to grant us the privilege of building pews in said house for the accommodation of the religious society in said town, and giving us the benefit of the sale of said pews to defray in part the expense of said building; and if the above proposals shall be accepted by a vote of said town, we do hereby jointly and severally agree and engage completely to finish said house without any other expense to said town, and we will give bonds to indemnify for the above purpose.

At a meeting held in the following September, the proposition of these ten public-spirited men was accepted and work commenced upon the building. It was completed in 1802 and was dedicated in December of that year, Rev. Thomas Baldwin of Boston preaching the dedicatory sermon. That the builders did their work well may be seen from the fact that the building, although more than a century old, is still used as the town hall and is well preserved.

From the first settlement of the town, the people have depended upon wells for their supply of water for domestic purposes. At the town meeting of March 6, 1916, it was unanimously voted "That the town do establish a system for supplying the inhabitants of the town residing in the villages of North Bellingham, Caryville and South Bellingham with water, and that Addison E. Bullard, Cornelius W. Fitzpatrick, Timothy E. Foley, Hadley D. Perkins and Ervin E. Biglow be appointed a committee with authority to construct such system and lay pipes, and to make contracts in relation to the same in the name and behalf of the town."

The sum of $150 was appropriated for the use of the committee in securing expert advice, etc. Plans were drawn and specifications prepared for two water systems - one in the north end and the other in the south end - the former to be connected with the Medway water system and the latter with that of Woonsocket, Rhode Island. Owing to the prevailing high prices of materials nothing further was done by the committee, though the people in the two districts are still hopeful that the near future will find them provided with waterworks.

Early in the year 1837 the people of the town sent a petition to the Post Office Department asking that an office be established at Bellingham Centre, and recommended Rev. Joseph T. Massey for the position of postmaster. Later in the year the office was established under the name of "Bellingham" and Mr. Massey was appointed. For many years this office had but one mail a day from Boston.

In the extreme northeast corner of the town is the village of Caryville, named after William H. Cary who was at one time a resident of that locality. A postoffice was established here a few years after the one at the "Centre," with two daily mails from Boston, one from Milford and one from Medway. At the beginning of the year 1917 the postoffices of the town were those at Bellingbam, Caryville and North Bellingham. Many of the inhabitants receive mail daily by rural carrier.

Vital Statistics

The earliest birth noted in the vital records of Bellingham is that of "Elezebath, daughter of Zuriell and Susanah Hall," who was born on June 8, 1688, while the town was still a part of Dedham and Mendon. The earliest recorded marriage is that of Pliny Holbrook and Martha Perkins, which was solemnized on May 7, 1726. Walter Cook and Margery Corbet were married on the 17th of October in the same year. The date of the earliest death given in the vital records is March 26, 1720, when Elizabeth, daughter of Peter and Hannah Holbrook, died. In the old cemetery stands the gravestone of Josiah Corbet, the inscription showing that he died in 1705, but his name does not appear in the records. Near by is the gravestone of John Corbet [Corbett], who died in 1706.

Odd Legislation

Exercising the privilege of the New England township conferred by the General Court, Bellingham frequently issued orders or edicts having all the force of local laws, and provided penalties for their violation. In April, 1777, Silas Penniman fell ill and it was reported he had the smallpox. A town meeting was hurriedly called and it was voted to establish a hospital "in the -woods." The records of that meeting also show that it was "Voted that the town forbid any person from having the smallpox in the house of Daniel or Silas Penniman, except said Silas, now sick, and if any person or persons be so presumptuous as to have the smallpox in either of them two houses they shall forfeit to the town ten pounds, to be recovered by the treasurer."

In the spring of 1791 the smallpox again made its appearance and the question came up in the town meeting "to see if the town will provide a house for the inoculation of the smallpox, and voted no." The people of that day had little faith in the efficacy of vaccination, but the meeting voted "that the town disapprove of the Smallpox coming into the town Contrary to Law."

During the next forty-five years public opinion underwent a change, for when another epidemic of smallpox came in 1836 an appropriation was made for a hos-

The Bellingham Of Today

On November 27, 1919, Bellingham can celebrate its two hundredth anniversary as a town. During these two centuries great changes have come. The wild beast and the savage Indian have disappeared and in their places have come the hum of civilized industry. The chief occupation of the people of Bellingham is agriculture. Fifty years ago shoes, farm tools, cotton and woolen goods and some other commodities were manufactured in considerable quantities. A few of these factories are still running, but most of them have been discontinued or removed to more favorable localities. Their history is given in the chapter on "Manufacturing." Bellingham has three public schools and in the year 1916 expended $10,702.84 for educational purposes. The public library, though small, is well selected and well patronized by the people. Two lines of the New York, New Haven and Hartford railway system and three electric lines afford ample transportation facilities to all parts of the town. In 1910 the population was 1,696 and in 191 5 the state census reported it to be 1,953, a gam °f 257 m five years. In 1916 the property was valued for taxation at $1,107,960.

The town officers at the beginning of the year 191 7 were as follows : Selectmen, Michael J. Kennedy, Harold M. Bullard and Hadley D. Perkins ; Clerk, Percy C. Burr; Treasurer and Tax Collector, Walter H. Thayer; Auditor, Harold G. Sackett ; Assessors, Orville C. Rhodes, Timothy E. Foley and Carroll E. White ; Overseers of the Poor, Emery B. Whiting, Otto L. Bullard and Percy C. Burr; School Committee, Henry McCarthy, Chester H. Richards and Richard B. Sill.