Seekonk Town (part 2 of 2)

Then, on March 1, 1862, occurred that final divisional event that narrowed the confines of the town to present dimensions - and with a population of only 800 at the time. The dispute between the States of Massachusetts and Rhode Island with regard to this boundary line had been tedious and long-drawn-out, but the influence of Providence and Fall River prevailed in the final settlement of the dispute, when a conventional line was adopted setting the whole of Pawtucket and that portion of Seekonk now East Providence into Rhode Island, Massachusetts at the same time receiving territory from Rhode Island adjacent to Fall River.

Churches and Schools. - With the history of Rehoboth was recounted the story of the Newman Congregational Church, whose beginnings were without doubt within the old Seekonk bounds, the territory retaining that name for two years before it was called Rehoboth by Mr. Newman. With the division of the town of Seekonk, again, in 1812, the old Congregational foundation found itself an Kast Providence, Rhode Island, possession.

The religious body known as the Baptist Church of Jesus Christ, of the First Precinct of Rehoboth, which was formed November 27, 1794, has, with the division of States and townships, changed its title upon three different occasions. Up to the year 1812, it was known by the above name. Again, on June 27, 1812, the name of the church was changed to that of the Baptist Church of Seekonk, as the west part of Rehoboth had by act of Legislature been incorporated into a town by that name in February, 1812. While this status prevailed, in 1836, the church withdrew from the Warren association, and joined with another church, in Bristol county, in forming the 'Taunton association. Finally, August 30, 1862, the church voted to withdraw from the 'T'aunton association, and rejoin the Warren association, as that part of Seekonk where the church was had been set to Rhode Island that year.

The Hebron Church in the north part of the town that is administered by Methodist Episcopalians, is an outcome of the Hebron church that formerly stood within the boundary of Attleboro and that was organized in 1827. A church building, within Seekonk, was erected in 1870; that edifice

Within recent years, a Congregational church was organized at Luther's Corner, of which Rev. Frank Casson was pastor in 1923. A Portuguese Catholic church was organized in the north part of the town in 1915. The cornerstone of the Church of the Holy Nativity, Episcopal, was laid August 251923.

The school history of the town is one with that of Rehoboth and East Providence as to its beginnings. In 1923, there were 783 pupils in the local schools, while seventy-five from this town were attending high schools in other places. In union with Rehoboth, A. Howard Wilkinson was superintendent of schools. The Seekonk Teachers' Association, organized in 1917, had forty members in 1923, and the president of the association was Miss Jessie Gray. The town schools are as follows: District 1, built in 1912; North End Grammar and Primary, built in 1913; Pleasant Street School, built in 1913; Newman Avenue School, built in 1918.

The Township. - At the time of the division, and the transferral of the Town Hall to East Providence, town meetings began to be held in a schoolhouse near the State line, later in a schoolhouse on Arcade avenue. The present Town House on the Providence turnpike was built in 1912. Jonathan Chaffee was the first town clerk, in 1862, Andrew Medbury suc- - ceeded him from 1880 to 1886. Asaph Hill has occupied that office the past thirty-seven years, and he was chosen the committee to secure the present town seal. The town of Seekonk today is yet another of those old townships past whose doors business and greater town construction enterprises have passed for close onto three hundred years; where very few old homes have clung, but where a number of more modern settlements have been begun. It is mostly an agricultural community, the dimensions of the town in length being ten miles and the greatest width two and onequarter miles. The population is approximately 2,800; the total valuation of personal property being placed at $412,799; that upon real estate, $2,864, 670. The centre of the town is at Luther's Corner, where most of the business, schools, churches, and the old tavern are situated. The Luther's Corner Fire and Library Association is here, having been established in 1908. The Nathan Monroe Tavern is the same that stood here: during the stage-coach period, about 1800. The only industry of a manufacturing sort is the Kent Manufacturing Company, producers of tennis racquets and croquet sets. They employ twenty-five or thirty hands. Elijah Kent, the founder, formerly had a grist mill on the location. The loss incurred by the division was not a small one to this town, for not only the Town Hall but the Congregational and Baptist churches and some of the school districts became transferred to another State. From Seekonk there went into Rhode Island two-thirds of the town's valuation, more than two-thirds of the population, and approximately one-half of the town's territory ; and whatever manufacturing interests the town then had became part of the new towns.

The Indian wars, the Revolutionary and 1812 wars were shared alike by Rehoboth and Seekonk. The town stood valiantly by the soldier of the Civil War, Seekonk filling her quota in full, forty-one men enlisting from here, and eight from here enlisting in other places. The bounty paid by the town was generally higher than that in other towns. In the World War, 108 men from this town were in the service, and their names are on the town's honor roll. During the drives for money and men for Seekonk, Raymond Nickerson was in charge of the various committees.