IJCSB LIBRARY F\;LLV PRESS OF PEKRV & BARNES, PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, ATTLEBOROUGH, MASS. 1886. GOFF MEMORIAL HALL. This pamphlet is a contribution to Old Colony history. It presents in a more complete and accurate form than was possible within the limits of a newspaper report, the dedicatory exercises of the Goff Memorial Hall in Reho- both. The occasion was a notable one in many particulars. It dealt, historically, with the settlement and growth of one of the oldest townships in the country. It marked the successful issue of a building enterprise of no little importance, and one in which many people were directly interested. The dedication itself brought together a com- pany of distinguished speakers, and an audience that in numbers and appreciation commanded their best efforts. Taken as a whole, the manifold subjects of discourse and the various incidents of the day are of rare value and significance to every American townsman. Especially interesting will the record of these pages prove to the citizens of Attleborough, Cumberland, Seekonk, Paw- tucket, East Providence and Swansea municipalities originally included within the ancient boundaries of Re- hoboth. Hardly less acceptable will the work be in other towns and cities of the Old Colony, or, indeed, wherever in this wide land is found a son or daughter of old Rehoboth. We have endeavored to present the story in acceptable form, incorporating, beside a full report of the dedicatory 4 INTRODUCTORY. proceedings both morning and afternoon, a history of the building enterprise; a picture and description of the Hall itself, with list of relics in the Antiquarian Room and their donors; portraits of the gentlemen most prominently interested in the work; and such other illustrations and sketches as might properly appear in such a publication. The Building Enterprise. Early in the spring of eighteen hundred and eighty- three, while engaged in accumulating material and facts for his ecclesiastical sketch of Rehoboth in the history of Bristol County, Rev. George H. Tilton was im- pressed by the large number of ancient and odd relics which he found in possession of the residents of the town. The antiquity and rareness of some of the documents, books, implements, &c., which he saw, awakened the de- sire in his mind that these be collected and preserved in some suitable place. Accordingly it was with this thought in mind that on the second day of January, eighteen hundred and eighty-four, while examining the relics in the possession of George N. Goff, Mr. Tilton said to Mrs. Goff, "We must have an Antiquarian Society here." Thereupon he immediately went to work to raise sub- scriptions to erect a building. By dint of hard labor and the expenditure of much time, at the close of January he had the sum of fifteen hundred dollars pledged. On the thirty-first of January, Geo. H. Tilton, John C. Marvel and George N. Goff, went to Pawtucket to see Darius Goff, Esq., a former resident of Rehoboth, and find out if he would not aid them. After the facts were presented to him, Mr. Goff pledged an amount equal to that already raised and told them if they raised any more to come and 6 HISTORIC ItEHOBOTH. see him again. The aim of Mr. Tilton at first was for a building simply for relics, &c., but this soon developed into the idea of a building which would contain a hall, a school room and a library. Encouraged by the liberality and promise of Mr. Goff, Mr. Tilton set at work with re- newed zeal to increase the amount pledged. With the aid of others who had already subscribed, he brought the sum up to four thousand dollars which was promptly du- plicated and more than duplicated by Mr. Goff. On the evening of March 5, 1884, the stockholders having been duly notified, the first meeting of the Anti- quarian Society was held in the vestry of the Congrega- tional church, when the following communication from Mr. Goff was presented and unanimously accepted: "If the inhabitants of the town will increase their sub- scriptions up to four thousand dollars, I will raise mine up to the same amount, and in addition, give one acre of land to erect the building thereon, the location of which shall be the old homestead of my father, and a further condition that five gentlemen shall be elected as trustees, one for five years, one for four years, one for three years, one for two years, and one for one year, who, with the president and secretary of the society, shall erect said building and have the whole care and management of the property. After one year, one trustee shall be elected an- nually; and furthermore, I reserve the right to name three of the five trustees, and also to approve the plan of the building. At least three thousand dollars of the four thousand subscribed outside of mine, shall be paid into the treasury before I am called upon. When that is done I shall be ready to pay mine in full. This offer will hold good for sixty days from date." At this meeting the following officers were elected: HISTORIC REHOBOTII. 1 President, Rev. George II. Tilton; Vice Presidents, Esek H. Pierce 'and Francis A. Bliss; Secretary, Wrn. H. Mar- vel, Corresponding Secretary, Rev. G. H. Tilton; Treas- urer, VVm. W. Blanding; Trustees for five years, George N. Goff; four years, Esek H. Pierce; three years, Paschal E. Wilmarth; two years, Charles Perry; one year. George H. Morton. By the constitution of the society,the President and Secretary are made trustees ex-officio,thus making the whole board of trustees to consist of seven persons. In the latter part of March, Mr. Tilton sent a letter to Hon. Thomas W. Bicknell acquainting him with the fact that quite a sum of money had been pledged, and that it was the intention to have a school and library in the building, and that any aid or assistance he could render them would be duly appreciated. Mr. and Mrs. Bicknell were both very much interested in the under- taking, and sent the following letter which led to the founding of the Blanding Library. BOSTON. MASS., April 1, 1884. REV. GEO. H. TILTOX, President Antiquarian Society, DI-: AU SIP.: Your plans with reference to a Memorial Hall, High School Rooms, Antiquarian Hall, etc., at Rehoboth, have interested Mrs. Bicknell and myself very much, and have awakened the living embers of the sincere and deep attachment we have for old Rehoboth and her excellent people, formed under circumstances most interesting and important to all con- cerned. At one time, while we were teaching the high school at Reho- both, very considerable interest was then manifested in the matter of erecting a high school building and hall at the village, and such public- spirited men and women as John C. Marvel, Wm. R. Bullock, Mr. and Mrs. Deacon Brown, William Blanding, Reuben Bowen, Danforth Hor- ton, Mr. and Mrs. Ira Carpenter, Tamerlane Horton, Josephine B. Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Otis Goff, Xolson Goff and others, were deeply interested in the project, which ended only in discusssion. Nearly thirty years have passed since then, and it has been a matter of concern to us, what could be done to preserve the better standard of intelligence and virtue, tradi- tional and historic, in this grand old town. 8 HIST OE 1C RE HO BOTH. You may be assured that your work as a pastor and teacher of the old church of the Rogersons, Thompsons and Grovenors, has been a source of delight to us, who, while absent in person, still have a lively interest in all that concerns the welfare of the parish and the people. Still more have we been delighted with the zeal and public spirit you have manifest- ed in the preservation of the ancient landmarks of Rehoboth,and particu- larly in the work of faith and love which is about to b crowned with the plaudits of success, in the proposed erection of the Goff Memorial, which, while a monument to the noble generosity of the principal donor, is also the sure evidence of your courageous faith and indomitable perse- verance, in collecting the generous gifts of self-sacrificing donors, to an edifice which shall be a means of social, educational and religious benefit to all of the people. Let us congratulate you, then, in the near prospect of the consumma- tion of what is consecrated by prayer and labor for the good of mail and the glory of God; and let us bear testimony to our grateful regard for those who have given generously, lovingly and sacredly to perpetuate t he names of worthy ones who helped to plant a town, which should in its history illustrate the principles of the Puritan stock, and which has sent forth so many men and women to make the world the better. It has oc- curred to Mrs. Bicknell and myself, if agreeable to you and the other trustees, that we would gladly aid you in some way in supplementing the good work you have undertaken, by laying the corner-stone of a public library, which shall be free to all the people of the town, under such regu- lations as the trustees may see fit to make. We believe that a good library is one of the most valuable means of edu- cation; that communion with the best thoughts of the best men and women of the world, through their writings, is a sure method of elevating society, mentally and spiritually; and that the increasing value and power of pure literature in books and magazines are as necessary to the higher life of men, as are the streams in the valleys and the fresh winds of the hills and the ocean to physical life. In order, therefore, to encourage the formation of a library to be kept in the Goff Memorial, we will donate five hundred dollars to the trustees of the Rehoboth Antiquarian Society, to be expended by them in the se- lection of good books, a large portion of which, let us suggest, shall be chosen with special reference to the wants of the boys and girls, the young people of the town. We sincerely hope that others may contrib- ute more or less freely to this nucleus of a library, and that the annual supply of books shall keep it fresh and interesting to all readers, so that the gifts may be a constantly increasing blessing to all who may enjoy their benefits. Wo shall be glad to have the library become so valuable that all the HISTORIC REHOBOTH. 9 people of the town may seek its benefits and the inspiration which may come from it. We would have it free as air and water to all. We hope that many a boy and girl, possibly it may be with a few books or encourage- ments at home, will find help, cheer and hope on the shelves of the library, and that the character of the future men and women of the town may be stronger, manlier and more truly Christian for its existence. We have but one request to make in connection with our humble gift, which we leave for your consideration and decision. The name of Blanding is one of the oldest and most respectable of this ancient town. William Blanding was a contributor to the expenses incurred in carrying on the war with King Phillip of Pokanoket, and for more than two hundred years the name of the family and the town have been associated. In view of these facts, and that the name may be kept fresh in the minds of the future dwellers of Kehoboth, yet more especially for the loving affection we have for the character and memory of our beloved parents, Christopher and Chloe Blanding, whose dust sleeps with that of the long line of their kindred in the old church burial ground on the hill west of Rehoboth village, we most respectfully suggest that the permanent name of the library shall be The Blanding Public Library of Rehoboth, With great confidence in the wisdom and ability of the trustees in ad- ministering all the valuable trusts committed to them, in connection with this beautiful memorial building and its various interesting departments, We are, very sincerely, THOMAS W. BICKXELL, AMELIA DAVIE BLAXDIXG BICKXELL. On the spot selected by Mr. Goff as the site of the new structure, the old "Goff Inn." the birthplace and home of his ancestors, was still standing. The land upon which it stood had been in the Goff family by direct descent ever since 1714. The excellent picture of the old inn, given on another page, shows that a series of additions had been made to the original house. Situated on the road leading from Taunton and various points in the Old Colony to Providence and Newport, the Goff Inn was one of the noted hostelries of Colonial days. As we view it in coun- terfeit, we can almost hear the coachman's horn and see the four horses swing the stage up to the door with a 10 HISTORIC EEHOBOTH. burst of speed reserved for that special occasion. As we look upon its time-honored walls it seems almost too great a sacrifice that they have been torn down even to make room for so handsome a building as the one which succeeds it. The old Inn was removed in April, and in May ground was broken for the new structure. Owing to obstacles, however, the work was delayed until fall. It was then renewed, and the cellar was built under the direction of Mr. George N. Goff. On September 8th, 1884, the con- tract was signed by the contractors, Lewis T. Hoar's Sons of Warren, R. L, and by the committee on contract, consisting of George N. Goff, Charles Perry and Esek II. Pierce. The plastering was let to H. Bryant & Brother of Fall River. THE OLD GOFF INN. From whatever point the visitor approaches Rehoboth Village, the first object that attracts the eye is the tower of the Memorial Hall. He is at once struck by its grace- ful proportions, and a nearer approach confirms the im- pression of its beauty. We cannot better describe it than by referring the reader to our frontispiece, where an excellent view of the structure can be had. It is situated on a gentle eminence, facing south, surrounded by ample grounds. Near by, the Palmer river, now untrammeled by mill wheels, flows cheerily to the sea. A fine elm in front adds to the picturesqueness of the spot. In outward aspect and thorough workmanship, it is all and more than the picture represents it. Its main dimensions, exclusive of projections, are 38 1-2 by 60 1-2 feet. The first floor comprises three rooms, viz: a school room, 24 1-2 by 38 1-2 feet, leading out of which is a reci- tation room 12 by 15 feet, which forms part of the north- ern projection of the building. The school is on the west end and is lighted from the north and south. An antiqua- rian room which is 19 by 30 feet and is lighted from the north and east, and a library room, 19 by 30 feet, which is lighted from the east and south, occupy the east side. The second floor consists of the hall, 38 1-2 by 60 feet, and is amply lighted from the east, south and west. The 12 HISTORIC EEUOBOTII. basement is well-finished, is deep, and contains one of Barstow's best furnaces. In the tower in front, Mr. Goff has caused to be placed a bronze tablet bearing the fol- lowing, "Goff Memorial, 1884," which, with the labor ex- pended upon it, cost not far from five hundred dollars. The building can be said to have been finished in the autumn of '85, although some slight additions have been made by Mr. Goff at intervals since. The Blanding Library, comprising about six hundred and twenty -five volumes,the greater part of which were con- tributed by Mr. and Mrs. T. W. Bicknell, was opened to the public for the first time, February 22, 1886, and has been open ever since, two evenings of each week, Mon- day and Friday. The school room was open for a public school in the fall of 1885, and was so used for two terms. In April a private school was opened, which is supported by various individuals. The total number who have con- tributed toward the building fund is about one hundred and sixty, with amounts varying from ten to two hundred dollars. The total cost of the building is nearly $14,000, of which Mr. Goff furnished about $10,000. The initiative object of the building, as a repository of ancient relics, is recognized as paramount in the completed structure. Its Antiquarian Room on the northeast corner is large and well lighted, and in every way attrac- tive. Much time and labor have been expended on this department, especially by the President, Rev. G. H. Til- ton, and the Secretary, Wm. K. Marvel, both of whom have been actively engaged from the first. The names also of Wm. H. Luther, Esq., Librarian and Custodian, and J. C. Marvel, Esq., deserve honorable mention for their efforts in this direction. The collection, in point of intere.it, is second to none in the State, though there are HISTORIC EEHOBOTU. 13 some more extensive. Still the donations, considering that they were drawn in a single year almost wholly from the garrets of a single town,are quite as remarkable for their variety as for their rarity. In order to render "Honor to whom honor is due," as well as to furnish a catalogue for those visiting the room, we give below a list of the articles with names of the donors. Antiquarian Deflations. Defence of Christianity, two volumes, printed in 1728, Wm. A. Six copies Ladies' Magazine, Fifteen copies town and school reports, Eleven copies Missionary Herald, Three copies Home Missionary, Nine copies Christian Inquirer, Five copies "The Quaker," Twenty-seven pamphlets, One volume sermons, printed in 1708, One old book, printed in 1704, Two pairs old spectacles, Samples of cloth woven at Orleans Mill at different times since 1828, preserved by Dea. Benjamin Peck, " One Hatchel, Two ancient shoe buckles, One sewing machine, made in Rehoboth by Wm. A. King, Encyclopedia of Arts and Sciences, four volumes, " Twenty-eight old books, " One ninepence, dated 1777, One five-dollar note on Farmers Bank, dated 1808, *An ancient Scotch sword, used in the French and Indian wars by a Mr. Davidson, " King. *It is related of Mr. Davidson, that in a battle his adversary cried for quarter. "Halves Is all I can give," Davidson replied, at the same time cutting his antagonist down; HISTORIC EEIJOBOTH. 15 One banner, carried by the Rehoboth Cold Water Army in 1840, " " One hose pipe that belonged to the first and last fire engine used in Rehoboth, " " One musket and cartridge box, owned by Elisha A. King in 1812, " " One pillion, 100 years old, " " One Indian arrow head, Francis V. Bliss. One Indian stone hatchet, " " Ten old books, Nancy M. Smith. One new model spinning wheel, made by Elder Childs Luther, One bag, " " One smoking case used by Stephen Moulton in 1826, " " One old dress, " " Two sleighs for looms, " " Linen cap and dressing gown, 125 years old, Ida F. Smith. Eleven old books, Deborah A. Moulton. One stone arrow head, Benjamin Horton. One Indian pestle, " " One linen shirt, used by Abel Medberry, 100 years old, " " One pair sheep shears, " " One busk, " " Nine forks, " " Four knives, One spoon, One porringer, Shells, One cheese basket and hoop, One powder horn, One pestle and mortar, One bonnet block, One chair, Three brackets, One picture of Henrv Clay, One picture of the Centennial, Bark of the California red wood tree, Ifi HISTORIC EEIIOEOTU. One silk wedding dress worn by the donor's wife, Benjamin Horton. One spoon mould, Henry C. Goff. Twelve Almanacs from 1767 to 1778, Thomas Hill. Copy of an act passed by the General Assem- bly of R. I., in 1776, regulating the price of provisions, Thirty-five Old Farmers Almanacs, Alfred B. Goff. Eighteen town reports, Confederate money, One Columbian family Bible, Gustavus B. Peck. One Indian hatchet, " Wm. H. Bowen. One candle mould, Henry T. Horton. One hatchel, One pair bellows, " Fifty-one Old Farmers Almanacs, " Four town reports, " One foot stove, Tin oven, " Wooden skimmer, " " Tin baker, *Patent certificate issued by James Madison to Dexter Wheeler of Rehoboth, in 1811, Will of Jeremiah Wheeler, 1796, One stone app^, " One military plume, One hand reel, Abigail W. Moulton. Hat, Plate, One Bureau, Bennet, Sword used by James B. Moulton, " Pewter platter, Swifts, Two wine glasses, " Eight old books, *The machinery for the old Swansea factory was made by Dexter Wheeler in the shop that stands opposite the residence ot Tamerlane W. Horton. Dexter Wheeler removed to Fall River, and built the first mill there. IIISTOPJC XEIIOBOTII. 17 One silk banner formerly owned by the Reho- both Total Abstinence Society, E. A. Brown. One state bank bill, George N. Goff. Confederate $10 bill, Mrs. George N. Goff. One handkerchief, over 100 yrs. old, " " Free Masons apron, worn by Russell Potter in 1824, Twenty-one pieces of crockery, (loaned) " " One picture of John Wesley, Alice Goff. Defence of Robt. Emmet, Albert C. Goff. One brass candle stick, sniffers and tray, Electa A. Read. Pair bellows, David Briggs. Sword from sword-fish, George H. Horton. Two candle moulds used at sea by Captain Stephen Martin, Huldah Nichols. One flint lock musket used by Capt. Stephen Martin in the Dorr Rebellion, Stephen M. Nichols. One pair wooden balances, Rachel Hicks. One quill wheel, " " One flax wheel, " " One warming pan, " " Two pair scales, Horatio N. Moulton. One knapsack, " " One candle stick, " " One wood bit-stock, " " One sword, " " One spit, " " Rough notes in rhyme, Whitman Chase. One walrus tusk, Thomas C. Grant One decanter, " " One saucer over 200 yrs. old, Lucy Drown. Two sermons by Rev. Otis Thompson, " " Twelve pamphlets, Joanna E. Freeman Two papers, " " One book, " " Catalogue of Antioch college, Rev. Geo H p Tilton. One book, Augusta E. Newton. One sermon, (Thompson) Lucy B. Sweet. Esquimaux glasses, used to protect the eyes from the sun, Wm. H. Marvel. 1 8 JUS TOR 1C REIIOBO Til. Lead ore from Galena, 111., Wm. H. Marvel. One Powder horn, " " Roster of Anawan Cadets, " " Articles of agreement of Anawan Cadets, organized 1860, " " One cradle, Myranda J. Brown. One hand reel, " " One Indian tomahawk, David H. Briggs. One old knife, " Painting of Leonard Bliss, Jr., Author of History of Rehoboth, Caroline M. Carpenter. History of Rehoboth, One old bible, Mrs. L. Carpenter. One pair handcuffs and one slave whip, brought from South Carolina, A. W. Carpenter. One sermon, (Thompson's) T. W. Horton. One tin lantern, " " One shovel handle, made in Rehoboth 80 years ago, " " One Indian spear head, Albert E. Kenny. Two old pictures, Avis Hicks. Town reports and Farmers' Almanacs, " " Three old books, " One old hat, Wm. VV. Blanding. One pair shears, " " One tobacco box and pipe, used by Wm. Blanding in 1782, " " One boot-jack, made in 1792, " " Cartridge box, " " One valise, " " Crockery from the Fiji Islands, " " Cup and saucer, (loaned) " " One pewter tea-pot, " One spider, Col. Lindall Bowen. Two regimental flags of the ist Reg., 2nd Brig., 3rd Div., Mass. Militia " " One Adjutant's record book of the ist Reg., 2nd Brig. 3rd Div., Mass. Militia, " " One plate, 150 years old, Ruth A. Waterman. HISTORIC REIIOBOTII. 19 One Masonic apron, worn by Joseph Bowen in 1810, Rosella B. Lee. One certificate of membership from Eastern Star Lodge, No. i, of Rehoboth, to Joseph Bowen, given October 16, A. D. 1804, Map of Rehoboth, Mrs. George Kent. Fire shovel, tongs and andirons, David Taylor. Bayonet sheath, on distaff, Larkin Fenton. Straw guage, " Pair of shears, " . Hoe and cow bell, " Horse cutter, " Straw guage, " Swingling board, " Two fourpence, " Half pennies, " " Half cent, " " Cap, Annie P. Fenton. Reel, formerly Mrs. Stephen Goff's, Emma Fenton. Pitcher, Elizabeth M. Wheaton. Almanac, " " Bank bill, made in 1776, " " Confederate Money, " " Hoe, Thomas G. Potter. Two arrow heads, " " Opium pipe, G. C. Brown. Chinese fan, " " Piece of brain coral, T. W. Carpenter. Flax brake, Delight C. Reed. Swingle, " " Saddle bags, formerly owned by Christopher Carpenter, Cynthia Goff. Military cap, formerly worn by Major Otis Goff, Shaker bonnet block, D. C. Reed. Old hatchet, Bayliss Goff. Indian stone pestle, B. G. Goff. Spinning wheel, Joseph S. Pierce. Two wool hand cards, Lindley Horton. 20 HISTORIC EEUOBOTII. Clock, Esek H. Pierce. Lantern, Two Hatchels, Horse-pistol, " " Candle stick, Indenture, 1769, " " Family record, 1751, of Elkanah Eddy, " " Old book, Military Discipline, 1733, " " Almanac, 1786, Herald of Gospel Liberty, the first religious paper printed in the United States, " Silver coin, 1767, and 20 other coins, " " Deed, dated 1694, Two Cent bill, Continental Money, " " Postal script, Silver Dollar, Will of John Brown, Sr., 1750, in rhyme, " " Papers of John Brown, Jr., Paper, Universal Yankee Nation, " ' Old knife, Quaker wedding bonnet, worn by Mrs. Bushee of Swansea, 125 years ago, Mrs. E. H. Pierce. Wood busk, made in 1764, " " Pitcher, 100 years old, Julia A. Pierce. Bible, formerly owned by Hon. Stephen Bul- lock, of Rehoboth, Gideon P. Mason. Three Cranes, " Gun barrel, found among the burnt ruins of the first house built in Duxbury, Mass., by Miles Standish, one of the Pilgrim Fathers, Asaph L. Bliss. Musket, captured from the British during the Revolutionary War, Sylvanus L. Peck. Pair knee buckles, Mrs. Thos. W. Carpenter. History of Worcester County, Rodolphus Luther. Book case and desk, Jeremiah Taylor, D.D. Sixty-five old books, " " Deed, on parchment, 1692, Charles W. Goff. Snow shoe, 150 years old, Albert C. Mason. HISTORIC KEHOBOTH. 21 Surcingle, Hiram Martin. Bread trough and bread pail, owned and used by Martha Martin, wife of Col. Chris- topher Blanding, of Rehoboth, who died in 1856, on her 95th birthday, Lucy Blanding Pearse. Plume, worn by T. W. Carpenter, T. W. Carpenter. Lead window sash and four old almanacs, A. T. Read. Ancient hat box, Joseph H. Pierce. Report of Old Colony Historical Society, 1886, S. H. Emory. Picture of the old Powder House, Attleboro, 1768, Darius Goff. List of soldiers in Lieut. Brown's Company, in Col. Carpenter's Regiment, during the Revolution, Joseph Brown. Receipt given by soldiers, May 22d, 1781, for payment of wages, " " Receipt from Daniel Perrin to Capt. John Per- ry, July 12, 1779, " " Pair of slippers, 150 years old, Amanda Wheaton. Handkerchief, Looking-glass, which has been in the possess- ion of the ancestors of Cyrus W. Bliss, 1 50 years, Angeline Monroe. Old skimmer, formerly owned by the Abel family of East Providence, J. J. Chaffee. Eight old almanacs, " " Two old razors, Rodolphus Luther. Bill, 1806, deed, 1752, First warrant issued from the Secretary of State, to the Selectmen of Rehoboth, to assess a State tax, Wm. H. Bryant. Deed from Richard Hart to Philip Wheeler, 1736, The Charter granted by Charles II, to the Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island, in 1704, Thomas R. Fenner. 22 HISTORIC EEIIOBOTIL Fac-Simile of the Boston News Letter, the first paper printed in North America, No. i, April 1 7th, 1704, Thomas R. Fenner. A narrative of the rise and progress, and issue of the late lawsuits, relative to property held and devoted to pious uses, in the first precinct, in Rehoboth, 1795, J. J. Chaff ee. Secretary's book, and Constitution book of Anawan Lodge, No. 274, I. O. G. T., Lucy B. Nash. Book, 1724, and pepper-box, Mrs. Tim Temple. Indian pestle, and two stones, Charles A. Briggs. Warming pan and saucer, Mrs. John Newell. Two old books, Laura Bett. Oration of Henry Wheaton, Esq., John C. Marvel. Minutes of the Taunton Baptist Association, containing Rev. J. J. Thatcher's ad- dress, " " Journals of each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, " " Brown's Estimate, printed 1758, Welle's Geography, 3 volumes, printed 1728, Old book, printed 1717, Fourteen old books, Six town reports, two pamphlets, Ledger, day book, cash book, time book, sketch book, pattern book, used by the Reho- both Union Cotton Mfg. Co., in 1810, " Eight old letters from R. U. C. M. Co., Letter written by Wm. Marvel, 2d, " Order written by Rev. Otis Thompson, in 1811, Receipt written by Dexter Wheeler, " Note written by Edward Mason, Agt., " Three old letters, " Secretary's report of the meeting of the Reho- both Union Library, June ye 2d, 1800, " Record of doings of Methodist Conference, in Mansfield, August 22, 1810, " HISTORIC REHOBOTH. 23 Constitution of the Rehoboth Village Tem- perance Society, February, 1834, John C. Marvel. Secretary's book of Rehoboth Institute, or- ganized November 19, 1846, " " Deed given by Benj. Buffington, 1782, " " Letter from Owen Fowler, member of Con- gress from this district in 1850, " " Grammar, and Present State of the Kingdoms of the World, 1788, " " Gazetteer of Conn, and Rhode Island, " " Report on the fishes, reptiles and birds of Massachusetts, 1839, " " Cobbett's American Political Register, Vol. XXX, An account of Louisiana, " " Trial of Thomas O. Selfridge, " " Speech of Hon. Daniel Webster, 1832, " " Report of the Geology of the Public Lands of Maine and Massachusetts, " " Review of the Rev. Thomas Andros' essay on the doctrine of Divine Efficiency of Rev. Otis Thompson, " " History of Jemima Wilkinson, " ' The Paradise of Doctors, " " Trial of Ephraim K. Avery, " " A Golden Sermon, by Rev. Elias Smith, A statement of facts relative to the six princi- pal Baptist churches in Cranston, R.I., " Address on the present condition of the Abo- riginal Inhabitants of North America, " Voyage of discovery to Corea and Loo-Choo Islands, Compendium of the Minutes of the Warren Baptist Association from 176710 1825, " Christian Palladium, 1834. Christian Observatory, 1848, A discourse of Abner Jones by Warren Hath- away, " Manual of Congregational church of Rehoboth, 1858, 24 HISTORIC REHOBOTH. Minutes of the Taunton Baptist Association, 1837, John C. Marvel. Agreement between Rememberancc Simmons, schoolmaster, and Jonathan Bufflngton and Samuel Slade, committee in 1753, ' Bond for collection of taxes for the town of Swansea, given by Benjamin Buffington and Isaac Chace, 1729, Indenture of Edward Lord to Jonathan Buf- fington, 1744, Deed from Edmund Batter to Thomas Buf- fington, 1715, Receipt for U. S. Tax, 1814, Deed from Jonathan Buffington to Joseph Buffington, 1744, Order to yoke and ring Kogs, 1752, Inventory of the estate of Jonathan Buffington of Swansea, 1762 Inventory of the estate of Benjamin Buffington of Swansea, 1732, Wooden plate and pewter plate, Miss Eliza Bliss Old book and bonnet, Old Teapot, Mrs. Caroline A. Cummings. Mustard cup, Mrs. H. N. Wheeler. Winchester Record, 3 vols. Rev. Leander Thompson. Centennial official catalogue, 1876, Wm. H. Marvel. Visitors' guide to Centennial, Proclamation for Fast Day by John A. An- drews, 1863, One copy Taunton Whig, 1840, Letter from Marshal P. Wilder, Letter from J.C.Greenough, President of Mass. Agricultural College, Letter from Jonathan Brown of the Governor's Council, Letter from Robert T. Davis, M. C. from First Massachusetts district, Letter from Robert Howard, Senator, Second Massachusetts district, HISTORIC REHOBOTH. 25 Letter from Judge George M. Carpenter of Rhode Island, Wm. H. Marvel. Letter from Lieut-Gov. Oliver Ames, Magazine, "The Englsh Pulpit of To-day," A vindication concerning dietetic abstinence, " " The Manufucturing Jeweler, edited by Walter B. Frost, formerly of Rehoboth, " " Four copies of Pawtucket Chronicle, printed in 1830, edited by Samuel A. Fowler, son of Dr. Fowler of Rehoboth, Specimen of silk, made in Rehoboth, Wm. A King. Tea pot, formerly belonging to Shubeal Goff, son of Elder Enoch Goff, Caroline E. Cummins. Mustard cup, Mrs. H. N. Wheeler. Spray of cotton plant from Georgia, Mrs. S. A. Stearns. Section of Castor bean tree, pods of the horse bean, a lemon, piece of sugar cane, spe- cimens of Spanish moss, pine needles, cabbage palm, a cane from orange tree, all from Orange Co., Florida, Book, Eliza Bliss. A pewter and a wooden plate, " " Indian stone mortar Mrs. G. W. Trafton. Of all the antique and curious implements in the hall, none are more interesting than those used in spinning. Our illustration on the next page will repay examination, as it performs a three-fold office. It gives a specimen of the relics preserved in the Antiquarian Room; and as they are grouped in the south-west corner of the hall on the upper floor, gives an idea of the interior finishing of this apartment; lastly it shows the implements employed in making linen from flax and yarn from wool. On the left is the flax as it is grown and cured; next conies the "break" with a handful of flax between its ponderous jaws; the upright board is the "swingling boafd," 'with the "swingling knife" leaning against it, and the flax hanging submissively over the top; next we see the beaten 26 HISTORIC REIIOBOTH. flax on the box which supports the '"hatchel," through whose comb-like rows of teeth the flax is drawn to rid it of all its "shives"; then it goes to the "distaff" on the "little wheel" and is spun into linen thread. The three implements on the right illustrate the spin- ning of wool. The wool is first taken between the "cards" lying on the floor, just under the "big wheel," with a roll of wool hanging over them; when carded into these rolls the wool goes to the "big wheel," where it is spun, and wound off as yarn on the "reel" at the extreme right. AN ANTIQUARIAN COKNEK. April 23rd, 1886, was a notable day in the history of the Antiquarian society, both from the nature of the exhi- bition given in its behalf, and the substantial addition made to its treasury. Mr. Abiah Bliss, aged 86 years, with a corps of able assistants, whose combined ages were 464, revived for the benefit of younger genera- tions the "lost arts" of spinning flax and wool by hand. Capt. Geo. W. Bliss manned the "flax break," and in spite of his 77 years, yeilded the ponderous implement with EEHOBOTIl. 27 deafening and crushing effect; Mr. Baylies Goff, erect as a boy, though nearly 87 years old, handled the "swingling knife" with dazzling swiftness and sent the "shives" flying in all directions; Mrs. Hannah Darling sat by the "hatche!" and by drawing the flax through its parallel rows of comb- like teeth, straightened the fibres for the "distaff"; Mrs. Abby Carpenter, also more than an octogenarian, spun the flax from the "distaff" upon the "little wheel," and during the evening produced quite a skein of linen thread. This is a very difficult process, and Mrs. Carpenter showed wonderful skill, at her age, in doing the work so well. The wool industry, or spinning of yarn was illustrated by Mrs. Eliza Goff and Mr. Leonard Peterson. Mr. Peter- son took the "cards" which in the picture lie on the floor in front of the "big wheel," and taking the wool carded it into rolls, and when they were rolled fine and close enough passed them to Mrs. Goff, who spun it into yarn on the "big wheel" and wound it off on the "reel." This, too, requires great skill, and was deftly done. During the spinning, Mr. Abiah Bliss explained the various steps in handling both flax and wool, and passed samples among the audience, who kept them as souvenirs. When the curtain dropped there was a round of applause that would not cease until the venerable craftsmen and craftswomen came out and bowed their acknowledgements. Mr. Abiah Bliss sang a song by way of response, and the pleasant evening closed. Biegraphical Sketches. It seems quite appropriate that the active factors in the building of the hall should be recognized in this pamphlet. Three men have been selected as representing three different classes of agents those who contributed means; those who contributed enterprise and effort; and those who helped to fittingly dedicate the completed struc- ture. As chief among contributors stands Mr. Darius Goff, for whom the memorial was named; as first among the workers in the enterprise is Rev. Geo. H. Tilton, its originator and leading spirit; as most prominent of those who officiated at the dedication, is Hon. Thomas W. Bicknell, LL.D., of Boston, orator of the day. Portraits and biographical sketches of these gentlemen are included in these pages, those of Mr. Goff and Mr. Bicknell being immediately subjoined, while that of Mr. Tilton appears in connection with the presentation of his picture to the Society, which occurred during the afternoon exercises. DARIUS GOFF, ESQ. Darius Goff, son of Lieut. Richard and Mehitable (Bul- lock) Goff, was born in Rehoboth, Mass., May 10, 1809. His father was a manufacturer, and in 1790 built a fulling and cloth dressing mill, and furnished it with the best of machinery. His mother was a daughter of Hon. Stephen HIS TOR 1C RE HOBO Til. 29 Bullock. His grandfather, Joseph Goff, lived in Barring- ton, and his great grandfather was Richard Goff. The children of Lieutenant Richard and Mehitabel Goff were, Richard, Otis, Horatio, Patience, Nelson, Darius and Mary B. Darius Goff was educated at home and in the common schools. At an early age he entered his father's factory in Rehoboth, and spent four or five years in the coloring department of the mill, and in trade in a variety store. He was subsequently employed for a short time in the woolen mill of John & Jesse Eddy of Fall River, Mass., and for six years served as clerk in the grocery business, first with William Woodward, and afterward with Tillinghast Almy, in Providence. Returning to Rehoboth, he and his brother, Nelson, purchased the Union Cotton Mill and commenced, in 1835, the manufacture of cotton batting, which business they prosecuted with success. Soon afterward, they began to make glazed wadding, sizing it by hand, a sheet at a time, on a table covered with sheet lead, then hanging it on racks with a common lath to dry. Finally they conceived the idea of making it in a continu- ous sheet, and after experimenting for about two years accomplished the object, placing the cards over an endless apron, conveying the web of cotton from each doffer of the cards to the apron, which run at the same speed with the surface of the doffer, the thickness of the wadding being determined by the number of cards operated. This plan of making wadding is now universal. Its success called for a larger mill, which not being attainable then, experi- ments were made to color the continuous sheets as they came from the cards, and were, after two years or more, successful in the object. A new mill was built, about two hundred feet long, and the old machinery was started in it about 1842, but in about a month it was destroyed by 30 HISTORIC RE HOBO Til. fire, at a loss of over six thousand dollars. E. A. Brown of Rehoboth soon afterward bought out the interest of Nelson Goff, and a new firm was formed, Goff & Brown, who changed the business to the manufacture of carpet warps and twine, and this was continued under the special direction of Mr. Brown, till 1868, when the firm was dis- solved. As early as 1836, Mr. Goff had given special attention to the business of buying and selling cotton waste as paper stock. This material hitherto had literally been thrown away. In this new business, in 1846, he formed a copartnership with George Lawton of Waltham, Mass., and commenced dealing in waste paper stock, in Boston, on Gray's wharf. Mr. Goff came to Pawtucket and in 1847 erected a wadding mill near the railroad sta- tion. It was run by a steam engine, the cotton being carded in the white state, carried through all the processes of coloring and sizing, and brought out in endless sheets. The mill was burned in 1851, but was at once rebuilt on a larger scale. In 1859 tne partnership of Goff & Lawton was dissolved, Mr. Lawton taking the Boston business in paper stock, and Mr. Goff taking the wadding mill in Pawtucket. Mr. Goff then united with John D. Cranston and Stephen Brownell of Providence, under the firm-name of Goff, Cranston & Brownell, and carried on a general business in paper stock and wadding. The mill was burned in 1871 and rebuilt in 1872, in larger proportions and with more perfect machinery. It is driven by a Corliss engine of 300 horse-power. The mill and neces- sary adjoining buildings occupy an area of about four acres. There are about two hundred cards run, turning out an average of about seventy-five miles of yard-wide wadding and batting per day, being twice the size of any HISTORIC fiEHOBOTIL 31 wadding manufactory in the world. In 1878, the two companies Goff, Cranston & Brownell and Union Wad- ding Co. the latter of which though previously formed, was chartered in 1875, with a capital of $300,000, were merged into one under the name of The Union Wadding Co. The capital stock has since been increased to $750,000, with Darius Goff, president; Lyman B. Goff, treasurer, and Henry A. Stearns, superintendent The company runs machinery of its own invention and con- truction, which in a large measure accounts for the re- markable success of the business. In 1861 Mr.Goff with his son, Darius L.,and W.F.and F. C. Sayles formed the American Worsted Co., for the man- ufacture of worsted braids then a new industry in this country. This company was dissolved in 1864, and a new firm for the same business was immediately organized, the name being D. Goff & Son, Mr. GofPs son, Darius L., being the junior member. Lyman B., the younger son, was admitted in 1876. During the years 1867 and 1868, by the efforts of Mr. Goff, the business received protective legislation from Congress, and at once became an immense and flourishing branch of industry, the product, alpaca braids, being well known in the market as "Goff's Braids." In 1884 the firm was incorporated, with a capital stock of $600,000; Darius Goff, president, and D. L. Goff, treas- urer. The firm is the leading one of the kind in America. Mr.Goff served in the Town Council of Pawtucket, and in 1871 was elected State Senator. He was a director in the Franklin Savings Bank from its incorporation to a re- cent date; has been director of the Pawtucket Gas Co., and the Pawtucket Hair Cloth Co., from their origin, and is also one of the directors of the First National Bank. For many years he has been a devoted and influential 32 HISTORIC REHOBOTH. member of the Pawtucket Congregational Church, and has largely contributed to its support, being one of four to enlarge the old church. He was also a member of the Building Committee in the erection of the new edifice, and in the liquidation of the debt subscribed ten thousand dollars. Politically he has been a Whig and a Republican and was always a strong opponent of slavery. During the Rebellion his voice, hand and purse were given to the support of the patriot army and the Union. To every good cause he has freely and earnestly given his aid and his influence. Notwithstanding his extensive business re- lations he has found time to indulge his taste and in- crease his knowledge by travelling over nearly all parts of our country. His vigor of body and mind, sterling qual- ities of heart and executive abilities, well entitle him to be counted as a representative man of New England. He married first, in May, 1839, Sarah Lee, whose only child died; second, Harriet Lee. These were sisters, and daughters of Israel Lee of Dighto'n, Mass. The children by the second marriage are Darius L., Lyman B. and Sarah C. Mr. Goff's sons, as already stated, are now associated with him in business. His daughter, Sarah C., married Thomas Sedgwick Steele of Hartford, Conn. HON. T. W. BICKNELL, LL.D. Hon. Thomas. W. Bicknell, orator of the day at the dedication of the Memorial Hall hereafter described, descended from that Zachary Bicknell who, in the spring of 1635, set sail from Gravesend, Kent, England, for America and settled in Weymouth, the first home of the founders of Rehoboth. His grandson of the same name came to Swansea, now Barrington, about 1705, and there in 1834, the subject of this sketch was born. HISTORIC EEHOBOTn. 33 He received his early education in district and private schools in Barrington until sixteen years of age, when he left home to attend school at Thetford Academy, Vt., liv- ing in the family and working the farm of Enoch Slade, Esq. While at the Academy, under the very efficient principalship and instruction of Hiram Orcutt, he decict-d to take the studies preparatory for college, and in 1853 graduated from the Academy, delivering the Greek oration on Grecian Mythology. He taught his first school at See- konk, Mass., 1853-4; was admitted by examination to Dart- mouth and Amherst Colleges, and entered the Freshman class of Amherst, September, 1853. At the close of Freshman year he was elected by his class as a prize-de- bater. He left college in 1854, to recruit in health and funds. He taught school as principal of the public school and high school, Rehoboth, 1854-5. Went West in 1855, and taught as principal of the academy at Elgin, 111. In the summer of 1856, he joined a Chicago emigration company to settle in Kansas; was taken prisoner by border ruffians on Missouri River, and sent back to St. Louis under escort of Colonel Bufford's South Carolina and Virginia, sharpshooters. He came East and conducted the Rehoboth High School from September, 1856, to December, i857,and entered the Sophomore class of Brown University February, 1858, and graduated with degree of A. M., 1860. He was appointed Commissioner of Public Schools of Rhode Island by Governor Padelford, June 1869, and continued in office till January i, 1875. While Commis- sioner, he secured a State Board of Education, of which he was Secretary; the re-establishment of The Rhode Island Scholmaster, of which he was editor for nearly ten years; the re-establishment of the State Normal School; 34 HISTORIC ItEHOBOTif. secured town school superintendents in each town in the State; dedicated over fifty new school-houses; advanced the school year from 27 to 35 weeks average, throughout the State; and school appropriations were nearly trebled during his administration. He aided in the revival of the American Institute of Instruction, and in the establish- ment of the New England Journal of Education, and as joint proprietor and publisher with C. C. Chatfield, edited the Journal, which united the several monthly magazines of New England in one paper, issued weekly at Boston, Mass; established and edited the Primary Teacher, a monthly magazine, in 1876. In 1880, he estab- lished and became conductor of Education, a bi-monthly Review on the Science, the Art, the Philosophy, and the History of Education; at the same time continuing the editorship of the Journal, and Presidency of the New England Publishing Company, formed in 1875. His present business is that of editing and publishing educa- tional papers, books and magazines. The events and honorable positions of his active life are many, some of the more important of which are here given. He has been president of the Rhode Island Insti- tute of Instruction, the American Institute of Instruction, and the National Educational Association. He aided in the formation of the Boston Congregational Sunday-school Superineendent's Union, and was elected its president May, 1880. Was a delegate to and attended the Raikes Sunday-school Centenary at London, 1880. He is a mem- ber of the Massachusetts Historic Genealogical Society, of the Rhode Island Historic Society, of the American As- sociation for the Advancement of Science, of the American Social Science Association, and an honorary member of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. The Bicknell Family HISTORIC EEHOBOTH. 35 Association was formed in Boston in December, 1879, and Mr. Bicknell was elected its president. In 1872, he was elected an honorary member of the Phi Beta Kappa, and received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Amherst College in 1880, and LL.D., Drury College, 1882. Mr. Bicknell was President of the R. I. Sunday-school Union from 1872 to 1875; was a delegate from the Rhode Island Conference to form the National Congregational Council, and was a delegate from the Suffolk South Conference to the Triennial Council, held in Detroit, Mich., October, 1877; was Commissioner from R. I. to the Universal Exposition at Vienna, Austria, in 1873, and a member of the Postal Congress held in New York, 1878, in forming the Postal Code, adopted by Congress in 1879. Also, he was president of the following societies: Massa- chusetts Congregational Sunday-school Union, 1881-1885; New England Sunday-school Association, 1885-1886. International Sunday-school Union, 1884-1887; Chautau- qua Teachers' Reading Union, 1886. Mr. Bicknell has travelled extensively through the United States, and has made three European trips. In 1873, he travelled through Scotland, England, France, Holland, Belgiun,, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Austria, and Bavaria. In 1879, he revisited England, and in 1880, with his wife, visited Scotland, England, France, Belgium, and Holland. He cast his first Presiden- tial vote for John C. Fremont, in 1856, and still holds fast to the Republican party. Ke was married in 1860, to Amelia Davie Blanding, daughter of Christopher and Chloe Blanding of Reboboth. The Blanding Library of the new Memorial Building is named iji hpnpr pf her contributions to i{. Dedication. If every man and woman interested in the Dedication of the Memorial Hall in Rehoboth had had a voice in making the weather which greeted them Monday morning, May 10, they would have been unanimous in saying they had just what they wanted. A clear, cool atmosphere, no dust on the roads, and not the slightest indication of the moisture which came along in the afternoon by way of variety. At an early hour all was bustle and expectation. The arriving carriages brought guests from Providence, Pawtucket, East Providence, Seekonk, Swansea, Attle- boro, Mansfield, Taunton, Fall River, New Bedford in fact there was hardly a town or city in the Old Colony which was not represented. At least five hundred people were in and around the building. When half past ten o'clock, the hour for beginning, arrived, every seat in the hall and all standing room in aisles and entry was occupied. Among the distinguished guests on the platform were Hon. Thos. W. Bicknell, LL. D., of Boston; Rev. Jeremiah Taylor, D. D., of Providence ; President E. G. Robinson, of Brown Univer- sity ; Messrs. Henry B. Metcalf, Olney Arnold, Darius Goff, D. L. Goff, and L. B. Goff, of Pawtucket; Hon. Amos Perry, Rev. F. Thompson and Henry T. Beckwith, of Providence ; Hon. Frank S. Stevens, of Swansea ; ex- Gov. Littlefield,. of Rhode Island; Rev. E, G. Porter, of HISTORIC EEUOBOTU. 37 Lexington ; Rev. Geo. H. Tilton and Mr. William W. Blanding of Rehoboth, and others. The exercises began with singing " Master Great whose Power Almighty," by the Harmonic Male Quartette of Attleboro, and was followed by the invocation. The Pres- ident of the Antiquarian Society, Rev. Geo. H. Tilton, then gave the following ADDRESS OF WELCOME. MEMBERS AND FRIENDS OF THE REHOBOTH ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY : We are glad to welcome you, as you have come hither from so many different places on this auspicious day. The dedication of this goodly building marks an important era in the history of this ancient town. The Rehoboth Antiquarian Society was organized on the 5th of March, 1884. The trustees entered at once upon the work of erecting a suitable building for the pur- poses of the Society. This building was completed in the autumn of 1885. A charter had been granted by the General Court in March of the same year. The object of the society may be expressed in four particulars. In the first place there is the antiquarian department. This was the germ of the whole enterprise, the nucleus around which all the other ideas have clus- tered. It occurred to some of us that this old town was rich in historical and antiquarian relics which ought to be brought together and preserved. It was this object that gave the name to the Society. We have already a some- what valuable collection, and we trust that our friends, as they see what we have done, will have it in their hearts to add thereto. Another object of the Society was to provide a suitable 38 HISTORIC EEHOBOTH. hall in which we might hold our large public gatherings. The hall speaks for itself a grand, central rallying place for the sons and daughters of Rehoboth on all great occa- sions. The Society has also provided a fine school room, hoping to secure the advantages of a high school for our children. For this object an ample appropriation, cither public or private, is greatly needed. Last, but not least, is our library department. We are delighted with our bright, cheery room, and we are grate- ful to our friends, Mr. and Mrs. T. W. Bicknell, to whose generous interest in our enteprise we owe the Blanding Library. We extend to them a most cordial welcome. There are various factors which enter into this great undertaking, which, we trust, has only begun its impor- tant educational work in this community. We must not fail to recognize the unfeigned interest of our own citi- zens who have contributed some of them from their hard earnings sums ranging from $10 up to $200. Like sums have also been donated by former residents of the town. Friends and helpers in this work, we bid you all welcome here to-day. But with all our gifts combined we could never have built this elegant and commodious edifice. Some build- ing we should doubtless have had, but it would not have been the Goff Memorial. For this we are largely indebted to the munificence of Mr. Darius Goff. We had no sooner put our united sums into one side of the balance, when his contribution brought the other scale hard down, and it has been growing heavier ever since. We congratulate him that on this very spot where he was born just 77 years ago he is permitted to-day to join in the dedica- tion of the Goff Memorial. Sir, we bid you welcome, and of all your seventy-seven birthdays may this be the hap* piest and the best, HISTORIC EEIIOBOTtt. 39 Rev. Mr. Tilton was followed by a statement from the Treasurer, giving the receipts and expenditures of the Society to the date of the dedication. RECEIPTS. Received by subscription ^ $8,820 00 From Mr. Darius Goff $5,000 00 From citizens, former residents and friends.. 3,820 00 Of this sum the following donations have been received from non-residents: Fiom Mr. and Mrs. Henry G. Reed 150 00 " Mrs. A. D. Lockwood and daughter. . . 100 00 11 Mr. Cyrenus Wheeler, Jr 100 00 4i " Everett S. Horton 100 00 " " Stephens. Rich 50 00 John Baker 50 00 John W. Davis 50 00 Darius B. Davis 50 00 Daniel X. Davis 50 00 Samuel O. Case 5000 Charles H. Scott 50 00 David S. Ray 50 00 Simeon Hunt, M. D 50 00 44 Mrs. Laban Wheaton 25 00 " Mr. W. H. Whitaker 2500 " " Jethniel Feck 2500 " Horton Brothers 2500 Smaller sums have been received from others. Interest on deposit 114 04 Received proceeds from entertainment for benetit of library 44 28 Received for use of hall 5 00 " from Farmers' Club, for use of Library 7 00 " subscription for library 9 50 " proceeds from entertainment for benefit of Antiquarian Society 37 90 Total $9,037 72 EXPENDITURES. Paid for blank books, certificates, etc $38 25 " Wm. R. Walker & Sou, architects 300 00 " Lewis T. Hoar's Sons, contractors 5,499 71 " " " " for laths 0095 14 Charles II. Bryant, for plastering 275 00 " Wm. T. Dunwell, for painting 19000 " Gustavus B. Peck, for lathiug, etc 3650 40 HISTORIC KEIIOBOTII. " David S. Ray, furnace setting, etc 294 05 George N. Goff , material and labor 503 99 Carpenter & Bowen, two columns and plates 30 00 Harrison & Howard, for glazing 12 50 Charles Martin, mason 32 18 James H. Horton, mason 32 18 Providence Brown Stone Co 75 00 Otis and Jeremiah Horton 21 00 Manchester & Hudson 45 08 Flint & Co., furniture for hall 155 00 A. G. Whitcomb, school furniture 234 00 Whitmore & Couch, black boards 20 25 French, Mackenzie & Co., book cases 38 70 John R. Shirley, for chandeliers and lamps 100 75 E. L. Freeman & Co 37 74 for wall 555 32 labor and sundry expenses 495 08 Total $8,982 23 Cash to balance 55 49 .-'.U).'i7 72 The contributions of Mr. Darius Goff. in giv- ing and preparing the lot for the structure, together with other gifts, make his entire donation not less than $10,000. WILLIAM W. BLANDIXG, Treasurer. Above is the report of the treasurer, just as it was read at the dedication exercises ; but in this record it seems but just to mention together, without distinction in amounts contributed, ALL who have given either of large or slender means toward this Memorial. The true measure of generosity is the measure of sacrifice, and judged by that criterion the least contributor may be equal in honor to the greatest. As will be seen, there are the names of the rich and the poor, the old and the young ; of men and women alike. Many are residents of Rehoboth and have wrought out their contribution from their ancestral acres ; others are sons and daughters of the ancient town, who have gained a competency in other municipalities ; others, HISTORIC 41 still, are related to Rehoboth by the bonds of mutual, industrial and commercial interests. To all alike, as members of a common household, an equal and impartial recognition is given in the appended NAMES OF CONTRIBUTORS. Darius Goff, Galen Pierce, J. Irving Chaffee, Sylvester A. Miller, Ellery Millard, Stephen S. Rich, D. G. Horton, H. N. Moulton, John A. Earle, Uewit C. Carpenter, George H. Horton, Charles L. Nash, Ellery Robinson, Benjamin Hcrton, Joseph R. Carpenter, J. Walter Bliss, Enoch Goff, Horton Brothers, James P. Carpenter, Williams Lake, Henry C. Goff, Jennie P. Martin, John Baker. W. H. Whitaker, Johnson Black, John W. Watson, John W. Davis, Mrs. Laban Wheaton, Charles L. Thomas, William Walker, Simeon Hunt, M. D., David S. Ray, John O. Horton, Edwin F. Gushing, William L. Pierce, William B. Blanding, Edward H. Horton, Elizabeth B. Pierce, A. F. C. Monroe, Edgar Perry, E. A. Medbury, Christopher Y. Brown, Samuel O. Case, Jr., Albert N. Bullock, Julia B. Goff, James Cornell, Herbert L. Moulton, W. E. Barrett & Co., John Hunt, B. G. Goff, Catherine J. Hunt, George W. Bowen, Hale S. Luther, Farmers' Club, Charles W. Goff, Thomas W. Carpenter, Albert C. Mason, Samuel L. Peck, Samuel Remington, Oliver Earle, George H. Tilton, Samuel L. Pierce, George Baker, M. D., Darius B. Davis, T. W. Horton, Eliza N. Allen, Avice Hicks, Nathan E. Hicks, 42 HISTORIC KEHOBOTlt. Gustavus B. Peck, Jerry W. Horton, Albert C. Goff, Mrs. Harriet N. Goff, Charles F. Viall, Mary B. Goff, Capt. Isaiah L. Chase, Thomas R. Salsbury, Belle H. Bryant, William Thatcher, Tristram Thatcher^ William H. Bowen, Stephen Carpenter, Charles Perry, George H. Goff, George Hathaway Goff, Francis J. Wheeler, William H. Reed, Jasper W. Wheeler, Frank E. Luther, Esek H. Pierce, William B. Horton, Zenas H. Goff, Nathan H. Horton, Nathaniel B. Horton, Betsy Carpenter, Francis A. Marvel, John C. Marvel, Joseph F. Earle, James A. Eddy, William W. Blanding, Abram O. Blanding, Sarah M. Bowen, Amanda Wheaton, Elias Hathaway, Danforth L. Cole, Jethnial Peck, Ellen M. Marsh, Mrs. Hannah Bliss, John W. Humphrey, Amanda M. Brown, Joseph H. Pierce, Paschal Allen, Dexter W. Horton, Henry T. Horton, Paschal E. Wilmarth, Edward R. Bullock, Delight C. Read, Royal C. Peck, Henry G. Read, Daniel N. Davis, Horace F. Carpenter, Samuel O. Case, Samuel R. Chaffee, Charles H. Scott, William H. Marvel, Elizabeth M. Anthony, Simeon Goff, Peleg E. Francis, Almon A. Reed, William H. Luther, Hezekiah Martin, Ellery L. Goff, Francis A. Bliss, Levi L. Luther, Welcome F. Horton, Cyrenus Wheeler, Jr., J. W. Briggs, James M. Peck, Everett S. Horton, George N. Goff, Henry Selaney, Horace Goff, William H. Hopkins, Nathaniel M. Burr, J. W. Buffington, William W. Horton, Mrs. A. D. Lockwood and Daughters. HEHOBOTI1. 43 THE ORATION, BY HON. T. W. BICKNELL. MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: An occasion of unusual interest and importance calls together this large assemblage in this old New England town to-day. The event justly commands the attention of all her citizens, and stirs a just pride in all hearts within her borders. All dedicatory services have a somewhat sacred significance, proportionate to the value of the work to be inaugurated, be it the dedication of a home, a store, a workshop, a mill, a school, a capitol, a church, a cathedral, or a temple ; all in their inner life and meaning stand for something which is helpful to man in his material, social, or soul concerns. The structures we rear, be they humble or costly, are the outer environment, which have much to do in the creation of the man, of society, the state, the church. They are in a sense the expression of the values men place on the offices for which these great institutions stand. Their absence shows the want of development in all that relates to the higher nature of man, his duties and his destiny. Stanley tells us that in his long journey across the Dark Continent he found only the embryo of the home, in the huts of the dwellers in the vast Congo valley, or on the borders of the Victoria Nyanza. The Apache chief mounts his Indian pony, followed by his family, his household goods ; all his wordly possessions are borne on the backs of the pack train. He pitches his tent at night, and in the morning folds his tent like the Arab and silently steals away. Dedications there are none, for there is nought to be dedicated, and no want which seeks satisfaction in the fixed home the centre of all that is best in man, and about which clusters all that adds his life's progress and happiness. How upljke tjiis is. 44 HISTORIC IlEllOBOTU. the dear New England life into which we were born, and of which we have such occasion for honest con- gratulations ! On the deck of the May Flower were 101 loyal souls, sworn to stand or fall together in this new land. Between her decks was a cargo, the value of which far exceeds " the wealth of Ormus or of Ind, or where the gorgeous East with richest hand showers on her kings barbaric pearls and gold." The families on board represented the millions of happy homes which now distinguish our land above all others. Their children needed the guiding hand of education, and the school house was as natural an out- growth of the home as the children for which the school was created. As religion was the chief concern of these Pilgrim founders, the church was the essential expression and home' of this band of faithful men and women, and as civil society was the bond of their faith in each other they built the town house and state house. There needed to be in old New England what exists in new New England so plentifully these outer shrines, which should shelter the worshippers at the altars of home, the school, the state, the church. The origin and structure of the beautiful edifice, which we meet to consecrate to-day, are blessed with happy auguries, which are full of good omens for the future. The conception and birth of the scheme were from the fruitful brain of the pastor of the Congregational Church of Rehoboth, a most worthy successor of Revs. Samuel Newman, David Turner, Robert Rogerson, Otis Thomp- son, John C. Paine, Charles P. Grosvenor, and others. While his presence forbids the utterances which are in all hearts, we can never cease to remember or to be grateful to the Rev. Geo. H. Tilton for his benevolent purpose, HISTORIC HE 11 OB TIL 45 his practical plans, his contagious magnetism, his un- stinted labors, his unflagging zeal, and the wealth of his inventive resources in the leadership of this movement, which has culminated in this elegant public building. Did I say less than this at this opening hour, I should prove myself unworthy of the honor you have granted me as the speaker of the occasion. Still further, how fortunate that Rehoboth, in the midst of so many loyal sons and daughters, had one whose bene- volence and ability responded so promptly and cheerfully to the wants of this community; one, whose loyalty to a noble ancestry and devotion to his native town led him to aid most generously in the erection of this edifice, which as long as the " Goff Memorial " shall stand, will be a monument to well-directed industry, great business saga- city, and a life consecrated to the interests of his fellows. By this act our honored friend and benefactor wisely be- comes his own executor, setting a worthy example, so hon- orable and praiseworthy and not uncommon in these later days, by which other large-hearted and liberal-handed men may be inspired and guided to do likewise, in this and other places, in tribute to the ancestry that bore and the town that nurtured them. In behalf of this grateful people, I may wish for you the full enjoyment of all the good gifts your energy and business ability, with the blessing of Heaven, have brought you, a long continuance in the enjoyments of friendships fairly won, and a late return to Heaven. As the constant drain is made from the country to the city, of its population, its enterprise and its wealth, it reminds one of the constant flow of the rivulets to the rivers, and of the rivers to the sea, carrying from hill and mountain slopes the rich soils, forming the alluvial 46 HISTORIC meadows and broad prairies which grow the world's harvests. Were there no returns of moisture in the evaporation of the ocean, which the winds carry in fogs, rains and snows to add new supplies to the unfailing springs among the hills, these fountains of fertility, of beauty, of growth, and of wealth to the valleys would cease. So there may be a just return of the blessings of wealth from wealth centres, by sending back to the sec- tions less favored by wealth the means which shall keep a healthy supply of intelligent population to make good the wear, the weakness and the decay of forces attendant on large populations and undue wealth. And yet again we are all mindful of the consecrated gifts and deeds which have come from so many persons to supplement and crown the benevolence of the principal donor. You are all shareholders in a greater or smaller measure in this public building. The widow's mite, the gifts of children, the labors and prayers of all are so inter- linked and built into this edifice that it would fall to the ground a useless heap of rubbish without them. Its masonry and girders are Rehoboth stock. It is a matter of universal remark that the most beautiful ornamentation of this building is in the foundation stone, wrought from the quarries on Rocky Hill. Shall we not all agree that the spirit of the people, their deep interest in the work, and their generous gifts proportionate to their ability are also a solid and beautiful foundation which shall uphold and sustain this work throughout its future. We seem to see these toils and sacrifices and contributions transformed into hearts that shall, protect the interests centered within these walls, and we also seem to see the coming generations, grateful for your deeds, and ever mindful of the service yoii are this day rendering, in. HISTORIC REHOBOTIL 47 more beautiful and honorable lives. To this end our labors are devoted and fortunately happy shall we be if this rich result shall follow. There is great significance in the construction and uses of the building we dedicate to-day. The architect has arranged within these walls a commodious room for the Historic-Antiquarian Society of Rehoboth, another for a Public Library, a third for a Public High School, and over all as a superintendent and supporter of the other three, this public hall for the town's use, where its town meet- ings will be held, the town's business transacted, and the interests of the people discussed in lectures, debating clubs, farmers' associations, temperance unions, concerts, school exhibitions, and all other matters that will tend to regulate and elevate society. Like the fabled giant Briareus it is a living thing, having fifty heads and a hundred hands. It looks through its historic society into the past, and with its hands seizes all that the old time has to give. The school and the library have a forward look and grasp in fitting the boys and girls for the warfare of life, in the strength and protection of education; while the town, in its corporate life and work, represents the busy interests of the passing hour, debating, counselling, acting, and in its various agencies working the works of to-day. Of each of these plans I propose to speak briefly. American life is now in a transition period ; old things are passing away, all things becoming new. We are to-day on a mount of vision, looking back into old Rehoboth of the past, and forward into the New Rehoboth of the future. Out of the old the new is born, and the laws of heredity are too compulsory to be set aside. There comes a time to every man and society when it is both wise and profitable to take a backward look. The poet's words are true 48 HISTORIC EEHOB TIL " 'Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours, And ask them what report they've borne to Heaven, And how they might have borne more welcome news ; Their answers form what men experience call." Youth and prophecy have their eyes on the to-morrows of life-age and history on the yesterdays, while our yester- days and our to-morrows must find their full fruition in the results of our to-days. How beautifully this fact is illustrated in the almost historic painting of Malbone, our Newport artist, in the Three Graces, or as the Greeks personified them, Eunomia, Dice and Irene, in the Athe- naeum at Providence. The artist's conception is to paint an ideal of life, and three female figures are presented, full of all the grace and loveliness art could give. The form on your right is glowing with beauty, and radiant with sublime hopefulness. She stands as the tpye of youth and the future. The central figure is severely earnest, devout, courageous, and this is manhood, and the present. The figure on the left has her head partially averted. She is serious, meditative, introspective, and represents age and the past. Each by herself is a study of the three important epochs of human life, and each has its lessons, but what the artist would tell us, it seems to me is this, that the perfect, the harmonious human life has in it, the hopefulness of youth, the earnestness of manhood, and the contemplativeness of age ; that the past must chasten the future, and that its lessons, its tradi- tions, its life, must be read and understood that we may most truly work the works of to-day. He who respects the past has the truest interest in the present, and the highest regard for the coming time. We may rejoice, therefore, that this dedication service relates to all that is worthy of possession in the treasures of the past, the active labors of the present, and the hopes of the future ; HISTORIC JlEHOSOTff. 49 and the Town Hall, the Antiquarian Society rooms, the Blanding Library and the School have each a place in this threefold mission of the town preservation, protection, progress. How intensely interesting is the history of towns and town life of old New England, and especially of this old town, and how delightful it is to review some of its half- forgotten pages, to draw lessons therefrom for present use. Here in this roomy place, breathing an atmosphere filled with the traditions of an earlier day, in the midst of the graves of an honored ancestry, looking upon some homes that far antedate the Revolution, and upon ances- tral estates which still bear the landmarks set by the early planters, our hearts are stirred by strange influences, and we must not forget old Rehoboth in our rejoicing over the new Rehoboth that is, and is to be. For two hundred and forty years it has stood for the principles of the founders of Plymouth Colony, of which it was an integral part. When Rehoboth received its charter in 1645, there were but ten towns within the jurisdiction of the Mother Colony Plymouth, Duxbury, Scituate, Sandwich, Taun- ton, Barnstable, Yarmouth, Marshfield, Eastham, Rehoboth. When Stephen Payne and William Carpenter made a journey to Plymouth in 1645, to secure articles of incor- poration for the Indian Seacunck, this was the western frontier town of Massachusetts. Wm. Blackston, the first white inhabitant of Rehoboth, dwelt in his Eutopian hermitage at a place called by him " Study Hill," on the Blackstone. near the present village of Lonsdale. Roger Williams, with his faithful followers dwelt as yet unrecognized, save as outlaws and reprobates, on the west bank of the peaceful Pawtucket, at the head of Nar- ragansett Bay. On the south the nearest dwellers were so HISTORIC XEIIOBOTJI. the Wampanoags under the wise and pacific Massasoit, occupying the territory now known as Swanzea, Barring- ton, Warren and Bristol, after the deed of the ten mile purchase of Seekonk in 1641. A few of the first families of Taunton had settled along the hanks of the Titicut, on the line of the route marked out by Bradford and Winslow on their first visit to Massasoit at Sowans in 1621. Here lay a great tract of unsettled country, with a good south- ern and western outlook, which bordered on Narragansett Bay with its fisheries and future commerce, and hither the family emigration, which set in in 1620 at Plymouth, continued to flow, to settle the waste places between the Titicut and the Pawtucket, and this family social exodus from England to America, the planting of the towns of Plymouth and the Bay Colonies, are the remarkable charac- teristics of this permanent occupation of New England. Rehoboth, the large place, was waiting the sifted wheat of three plantings. As the unit of society is the individual, so the unit of civilization is the family, and to carry our arithmetic still further, the town is the unit of the American State. When the Northmen landed on our shores, so says the historian, only one woman attended these bold sea rovers. Men can discover continents alone, but they cannot found a state. To the Pilgrim and the Puritan, wife, children, house, home, family, church, were the most precious possessions. Nothing human could divorce ties which nature had so strongly woven. And whenever we think of our honored ancestry, it is not as individual adventurers ; but we see good-man, good-wife, and their children as the representatives of the great body of those who with them planted homes, families, society, civiliza- tion, in the Western world. They came together, or, if HISTOEIC REHOBOTH. 51 alone, to pioneer the way for wife and children or sweet- heart by the next ship, and they came to stay, as witness the names of the old families of Plymouth, Weymouth, Salem, Boston, Dorchester, in the leading circles of wealth and social position in all of these old towns. "Behold," says Dr. Bushnell, "the Mayflower, rounding now the southern cape of England, filled with husbands and wives and children ; families of righteous men, under covenant with God and each other to lay some good foundation for religion, engaged both to make and keep their own laws, expecting to supply their own wants and bear their own burdens, assisted by none but the God in whom they trust. Here are the hands of industry, the germs of liberty, the dear pledges of order, and the sacred beginnings of a home." Of such, only, could Mrs. Heman's inspired hymn have been written : " There were men with hoary hair Amidst that pilgrim band ; Why had they come to wither then-. Away from their childhood's laa 1 '.' There was woman's fearless eye, Lit by her deep love's truth; There was manhood's brow serenely high. And the fiery heart of youth." Hither from Weymouth came Peter Hunt and family ; Walter Palmer, ditto ; Rev. Samuel Newman, William, Edward and Henry Smith, Robert Martin, Richard Bowen, Stephen Payne, John Browne, Obadiah Holmes, Robert Wheaton, Thomas Bliss, John Miller, John Dag- gett, Richard Bullock, William Blanding, John Allin, Mr. Peck, and among others, possibly not least in some of their transactions, William Devil, with a numerous progeny. 52 HIS TOR 1C 11EIIODO TIL Now these picked English families, which settled Reho- both under the head of that celebrated divine, Samuel Newman, were the best seed ever planted for the growth of colonial life. The home was the center and circumfer- ence of toil, thought and affection. For this they perilled all, and its value was more precious than life. Naturally enough in this isolated life in a wilderness it developed what was and is the glory of our New England society, a race of stalwart, individual, independent men and women. You have doubtless often wondered how the free spirited Minerva of our early days could have sprung full panoplied from the head of the monarchical Jupiter of English society of the seventeenth century ; but it is not a wonder of an hour's duration when you picture the con- ditions of that rugged pioneer. The homestead and the farmsteads were detached, one apart from another, often miles away. The great house with its lean-to was the product of the carpentry and masonic skill of the owner. The good man made his own tools, furniture, carts, wagons, ploughs, etc. Within doors, the good wife made herself more famous than the virtuous women of the Pio- verds of King Lemuel, for she also sought wool and flax, and wrought diligently with spinning wheel, distaff and loom, for the clothing of her household, by day and by night. Like the merchant ships she brought her food from all obtainable quarters. She often considered a field, to buy it, and with the fruits of her hands she planted her vines. She perceived that her merchandise was good, and her candle. went not out by night while she laid her hands to the spindle and the needle. Neither she nor her household feared a New England winter, for her hands had wrought the garments that protected. She looked well to the wants of her children, and ate not the bread HlSTOlilC UE110130TII. 53 of idleness. As the result, we, her descendants, rise up and call her blessed, and can say most devoutly : Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou, O good-wife Newman, Bliss, Carpenter, et id genus omne, excellest them all. This was a training for citizenship that a prince might envy, yet never possess. Not only was each man and woman the architect of his own fortune, but every- thing that related to it, and the lazy dog who would not earn his daily bread, and the shrew who talked and scolded, was either disciplined at the whipping post or ducked in the frog pond. There was then no Illinois prairies and Minneapolis flour mills to feed the family; no cattle market at Chicago, and no Porkopolis at Cincin- nati. All was home produced and home consumed, except as the laws of barter and interchange enabled one neigh- bor to accommodate another. The Massachusetts town of two centuries ago was as independent a community as could be found on the planet, and each of its integral families was self-protecting, self-supporting and self-per- petuating, and without any law of primogeniture as to landed estates or rank, the families of the tenth generation to-day cultivate the ancestral acres and cherish the family heirlooms of the settlers of the first planting. In the midst of such a society, peerage was a common inheritance, for every man felt himself the equal of his neighbor, and blood counted only as it was capable of con- quest over a stubborn soil and an inhospitable climate. An attempt was made in the sister municipality of Swan- sea to transplant there a foreign system of ranks to her soil, corresponding to the three Roman orders, the Patri- cian, the Equestrian and the Plebeian. In 1670 the town passed a law, that the people should be divided into three ranks, according to the landed property of each ; the first il HISTORIC HEHOBOTH. rank holding three acres to two for the second and one for the third, in this way building up a landed aristocracy, with a committee for the admission of inhabitants and the appointment of land. The full meaning of this aristo- cratic legislation was not seen until it was ordered, in 1 68 1, that Capt. John Brown, formerly of Rehoboth, and others, their heirs and assigns, forever should enjoy the full right and intent of the highest rank. Then the town entered its unanimous protest against the undemocratic acts of the magnates, and this element of feudal tyranny passed into everlasting oblivion. This independency of the individual, the integrity and purity of the family, and the almost complete autonomy of the town, were the result not only of the native spirit and genius of this remarkable people, but also were supported and perpetuated by agen- cies which were of universal application in the Puritan or Pilgrim towns of these colonies. As has been seen, this New England town grew out of the germ of associated action. The proprietary, the church, the village, all required aggregation, combination and unity of action. Self-preservation and a common sentiment of protection compelled this course. See what valuable results flowed from what may have been at first only an impulse to preserve life and property. Social order was mac 1 j possible. Scattered settlements generated excessive individuality and independence. Mankind easily revert to barbarism, often easily enough in the midst of civilization, but more readily in isolated life. Hermitism is only one remove from criminal desperation. It is the mor- bid sentiment which leads men to attempt to destroy society by a removal from it a determination to punish society for its offences by punishing one's self ; a sort of moral and social suicide. With the savage in the forest, the homes of New England were protected only by the midnight guard which could watch over the village. What was a virtue of necessity, was also the virtue of instinct, and the guarantee of "the highest social order, and the existence and protection, of the best agencies and forces in society. In union was their salvation as well as their strength. In the first place, the morals of society were protected in this village life. The common scandal of the town was at once the prevention and the cure for social disorder. " What will the neighbors say ? " had a powerful deterrent influence among the evil minded. Village gossip, conducted by Mrs. Grundy, her ancestors and descendants, may be a hateful medicine, but it works wonderful cures. The thumb screw and the whipping post were terrible inflic- tions, but these were no terrors to the common scold, the termagant, or the disturbers of the village peace. Public opinion in a New Englacd village two hundred years ago was the real preserver of the high standard of virtue, morality, high regard for law, and the protection of indi- vidual and social reputation more potent than the officer of justice and the lockup. In the second place, church life was made possible in the New England village of our fathers. Robust religious life is best fostered in a com- munity of sturdy settlers, each of whom has an identity, a home, and the means of general intelligence. The two sermons on Sunday, the weekly prayer meeting, the lecture, the prayerful visit of the Godly minister, the per- sonal solicitude for souls, reaching almost to morbid fanaticism, were only possible in communities more or less compact and united by a common and a personal interest. Inter-marriages made the interests the sharper, and the inter-twinings, linkings and lacings of our New England families are the marvellous studies of the genealogist and 56 HISTORIC XEIIOB Til. socialist of our times. Young men and maidens fall in love, court and marry in a sensible way, only in the pre- sence of their fellows. These delighful experiences lose all their romance, and half their delight, outside the restraints, the counter-matching, the frolicking and the flirting of the town. Compare the loneliness of a court- ship with your lady love twenty miles away in a log cabin in the woods, with no rival wooer, whose plots and coun- terplots are your daily study and nightly dream, with the sprightliness, the joy and the heavenly satisfaction of wooing and winning the belle of the town, after repulses and rebuffs, encouraging smile and discouraging rival ; her whose beauty has smitten the heart of every bashful village beau, and whose heart and hand have been sought by all whose courage was equal to the encounter. With such sport, trout fishing or fox hunting have small attrac- tions and little fun, and the capture of the beauteous village maiden is an exploit which in its progress has occu- pied the pens of novelists and poets for the ages. 'Twas the village that gave zest and interest to the four week's publishment, the first announcement of which was so much more entertaining to the village gossips than the environ- ments of modern engagements and match making. And then again, where could the donation parties, the tea par- ties, the quilting bees, the huskings, the paring bees, the house raisings, the ploughing matches, have found their free development and fruition save in our old New England towns. When we consider that all that is left to us of all these old-time social joys is the degenerate skating rink, we may well sigh for some return of the good old days of town life before railroads, telegraphs and hourly mail deliveries had made it possible to conduct business in your office easy chair, with people half round the globe HISTORIC RE HOI! TIL 37 whom you never expect to see ; court and marry by light- ning, and listen to the minister's sermon on Sunday by the telephone leading from the sounding board in the church to your bed-chamber. Little emphasis, so far as I know, has been placed on New England village life as the patron and fosterer uf that remarkable ministry which has made that era so wonderful in its theology and this logical outcome. Look back over New England life two and one-half centuries ago, and the central figure of every town is the minister of the old church on the hill top or on the village green. The dignity, the majesty of that early day is personified in the pastor and teacher of the town. When you think of old Dorchester, the Mathers rise before you ; Brewster, of Plymouth ; Peter Hobart, of Hingham ; John Harvard, of Cambridge ; Roger Williams, of Providence ; John Myles, of Swansea; and Samuel Newman, of Rehoboth ; men of piety unfeigned, of sobriety unchallenged, of scholarship profound for the times, of continuous preach- ing capacity, endless. The New England pastor of olden time was the factotum of the town minister, teacher, judge, counsellor, doctor, surgeon, undertaker, scribe, school committee, town clerk, et cetera, et cetera. Where duty or necessity called there you found him. He an- swered every call from the cradle to the grave, and listened to all appeals either to shoulder his musket and march against the Indians, or to lead his sermons with ammuni- tions fit to kill rebellious souls. He dispenses preaching in large measure but often dispenses with the Gospel. His theology was as terrific as Sinai, square-faced as the Pyramids and as dry as a mummy. Should another deluge engulf the earth, a library of the theology of the Christian fathers of New England would be the dryest if not the hottest place that could be discovered. By its aid and in spite of its terrific thunderings and lightnings, it saved New England character and energized its life. Only the descendants of Thor could stand and prevail midst the display of his mighty energy. The main body of our literature till within a century came from the brains and pens of our divines. Cruden's Concordance, of such world-wide use in the study of the Bible, was the product of Rev. Samuel Newman, of Rehoboth, who was styled the Neander of New England. The length of their pastorates made them objects of special veneration, and it is not to be wondered at that the Barrington urchin of 1785, when asked who was the first man, replied "Mr. Townsend," since his venerable form and figure gave to all the impres- sion of the nearness of the Ancient of Days. INTERIOR VIEAV OF THE OLD BALLOU MEETING HOl'SK. As may be inferred from what I have said concerning the ministry, and the almost sacred veneration in which the ministerial office was held, the ecclesiastic dominated HISTORIC REHOBOTH. 59 in civil affairs. As the pastor was the central figure among individuals, so the church was the all powerful organization in society. Rehoboth was created for the church, not the church for Rehoboth. The church was in many senses the town. The town elected and supported the minister, determined his qualifications, and dismissed him for cause. His orthodoxy or otherdoxy was deter- mined in town meeting. He was the father of the town fathers, and at the same time was the servant of their servants. Town politics and State policy were discussed in the pulpits ; and everybody went to church to hear the new publishments, to learn the news and the latest gossip, to get fresh unction on the doctrine of predestination, the perseverance of the saints, and condition. of unregenerate infants and heathen, and name the candidates for tithing men, constable or deputy to the General Court. The meeting-house was the scene of baptisms, polemic theology and funerals on Sundays, and of the most tremendous muscular Christianity on the following week days, when the intellectual giants of the town met to settle town and State destinies. I wish I could portray to you the religious aspect of the early town meetings of our grandfathers. The scene is worthy of an abler artist, and would demand an even- ing's portrayal. Let it suffice that I call attention to it, that some of our new society may take the task to pre- serve its profusely sacred lineaments. Here freeman met freeman with an honorable desire to glorify God, and to serve the civil community. The ballot box, which was originally probably the senior deacon's bell crowned hat, witnessed no stuffing unless, perchance, it may have been with the deacon's new bandanna, used occasionlly to re- lieve the good man's snuff-taking olfactories, with sten- torian accompaniments. The ministerial prayer opened (50 1IISTeputies of the Massachusetts General Court Joseph Peck and Ste- phen Paine leading members of the Bare Cove planta- tion (Hingham.) At this early day the ancient plantation at Weymouth suffered from three contending factions with 84 SISTOSIC 11EHOBOTH. divers persons in the adjoining plantation of Hingham of like sympathies, and one of those factions under the vio- lent pressure of the other parties, and lacking the sym- pathy of the Government of the Bay, was preparing to emigrate to this wilderness. This appears from the Ply- mouth Records, 6 July, 1641 : "Mr. Parker, of Weyinouth, had a view of the patent ami that clause in writing wch concerned the bound from Narragansett Bay to the utmost pts and linimits of the country called Pockanockett. In regard to the Bay men would have had Secquncke from us." Again the trace of the same movement appears in the Record, 2 August, 1642, Plymouth Records : " There was a request made by some to sit down at Sickuiickc of llin:;- ham. The names of those are John Porter, Thomas Lorine, Stephen Payne." This Stephen Payne was the Deputy from Hingham in the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, with James Parker who was pressing for the Weymouth discontents. It appearing that Seekonk was within the Plymouth patent, the aid of John Brown, a leading assistant of the Plymouth Court, and who had had some differences as to lands at Duxbury, was invoked. John Brown had shown his leaning toward the wilderness i>y moving to " Cohan- net," now Taunton, about 1640, whither he afterwards moved to Wannamoiset, and under his powerful encourage- ment the original planters of Reboboth organized at Weymouth October 24, 1643, and among their number were the minister of the Weymouth church, Samuel New- man, and Joseph Peck and Stephen Payne, of Hingham. These four persons John Brown, Samuel Newman, Joseph Peck and Stephen Payne are the real originators and founders of Rehoboth. The original designation of territory for the new plantation of Seekonk was thus made HISTORIC REHOBOTH. 85 in 1641 by John Brown and James Parker, being " a tract eight miles square," by a purchase from Osamequin, alias Massasoit, in the interest of the Weymouth dissentients, but the principal promoters of this new departure were Stephen Paine and Joseph Peck, of Hingham, and subse- quent purchases extended these bounds so that it had " Cohannet " (Taunton) on the north, the undetermined Massachusetts Colony line on the west, and southerly and easterly Mount Hope and Narragansett Bays, excluding the Indian occupation at Mount Hope. The township was organized under the jurisdiction of New Plymouth in 1645, and the political status of the new town was fixed by the orders of Court which ruled the Old Colony. Much learning has in these later times been expended upon the Teutonic origin of the New England town. The town meeting has been styled " the primordial cell of our body-politic," and the town has been declared in its first inception as an "independent incorporated republic." While we recognize the peculiar excellence of the New England system of "town" government, we claim that the scholastic theories which have been applied to this political growth of many generations are not historic facts- All the towns of the Old Colony organized in the colonial period, that is, before the union of the two colonies in 1691, were organized under the principles set out in the orders of the Court at New Plimouth, February 4, 1638-9, and this includes " Rehoboth." This is as follows : A form of the deputation or committee-ship where wth any shall bee in- trusted by the governt for the desposall of any lands wth in any pculler place or line wth wch is or shall bee thought niete for the erecting of a Planttaoon, neighborhood, colony, township or congrga^on with in this Government. Whereas, our Soveregne Lord, the King, is pleased to betrust us wth the govmeut of so many of his subjects as doe or shall bee 86 HIS TOPIC REHOBOTH. pmitted to live in this goviuent of New Plyin and that it seemeth good unto us to begin, set up and establish a neighborhood, or plantain at a place called being bounded and lying miles westward from sd towne of New Plyin, and Whereas, by reason of the distance of place and our many weighty occasions, we cannot so well see to the receiving in of such psons as may be fitt to live together there in the fear of God and obeydjence to our Sovereigne Lord, the King, in peace and love as becometh Christian people, all which we earnestly desire, that our care therefore may appear in the faythful discharge of our duties towards God, the King's majesty and the people whereof we are, we have thought good to betrust our well beloved with receiving in such people unto them as may make good our desires before expressed, and therefore require of the said that all and every of them be conscionably faythful and carefull as well to receive in peaceable and faythful people according to their best discerning, as also faythfully to dispose of such equal and fitt" persons of lands unto them and enough of them as the severall estates, ranks and qualities of such persons as the Almighty in His providence shall send in amongst them shall require, that so we may comfortably ratyfye and connnne such porons of lands as they shall allot and set forth in our behalf to all and every one that shall be admitted into their societie with in their sd limmitts and bounds, that so we may be free from all manner of complts and troubles thereupon wch may cause us to alter anything wch may seem unjustly or indiscreetly assigned by them or any or said deputies or committees, provided always that the said reserve for our disposal at least acres of good land with meadows competent in place convenient and be lyable from tyme to tyme and at all tymes to receive and follow such good and wholesome instruction as they shall receive and follow for the Govment about the well ordering of the of the neighborhood in conformitie to such good and vholesome laws, or- dinances and offices as are or shall be established under our Sovereigne Lord the King within. This 3d govt of New Plymouth. The Court in anticipation of extended settlements had before ordered : "That the chief government be tied to the town of Plymouth, and that the governor for the time being be tied there to keep his residence and dwelling." Under this theory of local government Rehoboth was HISTORIC HEHOSOTn. 87 in 1645 established. The first recognition of the com- munity appears in the appointment of a. constable. The formal recognition of the township organization appears in the receiving of Deputies to the Court at Plymouth and the approval of the "townsmen," or as subsequently they came to be termed "selectmen." Generally the functions now exercised by the various town officers familiar to this generation, were assigned to certain inhabitants for the care and construction of ways, the providing for the poor, the assessment of taxes, the administration of justice in small causes, etc., but in the Old Colony the Court at Plymouth yearly confirmed all appointments of local offi- cers in the townships and exercised constant supervision of all their proceedings. The organization now known as the town, with its local powers of self-government, existed only in its first beginnings, and rather by way of necessity. There is no question, however, that local government in the towns was constantly acquiring strength and adding to its powers during the whole r.eriod of about fifty years, partly from their isolated position and the emergencies of Indian hostilities, partly from the examples of the planters at Providence, who there maintained a heterogeneous, tur- bulent democracy, in which each individual assumed the largest measure of personal sovereignty, and partly from the established powers of towns at the Bay, where most of the settlers had come. The Colony of Massachusetts Bay at an early day out- stripped New Plymouth in numbers and resources, and thereupon assumed political influence and authority over the adjoining Old Colony, which was greatly increased by the confederation necessary for defense against the In- dians, as a common enemy. Thus the organic foundations of the town at the Bay gradually extended to the Old Colony in the Massachusetts Bay. At a "Genall Court 88 HISTORIC Jt holden at Newtowne," March 3, 1635, the record shows : ' Whereas, pticuler townes have many thing wch concerne only them- selves * * * it is therefore ordered that the ffremen of every towne or the main pie of them * * * choose their owne pticnlar officers as constables, surveyors for the highways and the like/' The predominating influence of the Bay, over the smaller adjoining colony did not stop with simply the ex- ample, potential as this doubtless was. The General Court of the Bay advised the Old Colony as to matters of its internal government of morals and religion. The secession from Weymouth to Rehoboth carried that party from the Bay who were too radical in faith for those ol Massachusetts, and the assistant, John Brown, held like liberal sentiments. Thus the Anabaptists became a large element in its population at a very early date and gave the Bay authori- ties great concern. A letter written from the General Court to Plimouth, " for preventing ye groeth of errors," shows this supervision : October 18. llUfl: Honored and beloved brethren We have heard heretofore of diverse annabaptists arizin up in your jurasdicoon and connived at * * * Particularly wee understand that within this few weeks there have been at Seccuncke thirteene or four- teene psons rebaptized, (a swift progress in one towne) yet we heare not if any effectual restricoon is extended thereabouts. The infecoon of such diseases being so neare us are likely to spread into our jurisdiction, tune tuares ayitur paries cum nroximis ardet. Wee are united by confederacy, by faith, by neighborhood, by fellowship in our sufferings as exiles, and by other Christian bonds, and wee hope neither Satan nor any of his instruments shall by this or any other errors disunite us, and that wet- shall never have cause to repent us of our so neare conjunction with you." These and other causes make it clear that the township of Rehoboth, under the jurisdiction of the Old Colony, had grown into a larger independence than prevailed else- JtEUOBOTB. 89 where in that colony, and it was thus early marked by that ecclesiastical freedom then existing in the dismem- bered settlements adjoining, which afterwards became the Providence Plantations. The consolidation of the two colonies of Massachusetts Bay and New Plymonth into one real province by the name of the Province of Massa- chusetts Bay, under the charter of 1691, invested Reho- both with all the functions which had by a like but faster growth'attached to the towns of the Bay. These func- tions or powers of local government in the town were at the first session of the General Court after the organiza- tion of the new provincial government, under the charter of 1691, fully set forth in an act passed November 16, 1692-3, entitled "An Act for Regulating of Townships, Choice of Town Officers, and Setting forth their Power." This act is one of the most important landmarks in our municipal history, showing the advance made toward local government in towns and by comparison with subsequent legislation and history, and showing how far the authority then established falls short of the enlarged powers attained by the towns at the time when the present constitution was established in 1780. From 1700 to 1775 there was a constant growth in the functions of the town government, owing largely to the town being made the unit in military organization, and at the latter portion of this period arising from the use of the town government to promote the popular discontent against the authority of the crown. In this way the town meeting became the most important factor in securing the independence of the colonies from the English crown in Massachusetts, and the influences thus exerted ex- tended to all the other colonies, so that it may justly be said that the national independence may be ascribed to the New England town meeting. It is not, therefore, sur- 00 HISTORIC fiEHOBOTtt. prising that the constitution of Massachusetts established in 1780, while the contest was pending by which the right of the Commonwealth to be "a free, foreign and inde- pendent body politic or state " was to be determined, should found its " representation of the people to be an- nually elected on the principal of equality " upon the town organizations, and thus Rehoboth retained its repre- sentation as a unit of political power in the state from 1645 until the constitutional amendments made in 1855, a period of 210 years. Time will allow but a brief reference to Rehoboth in the Commonwealth period. At the begining of the pres- ent century Rehoboth held the first place in population" and influence in southeastern Massachusetts. In the census of 1800 it had the largest population of any town in Bristol County. Population and political power move and aggregate on lines of public travel and intercommuni- cation. The energy and enterprise of Massachusetts for the first twenty years of this century were expended on the construction of highways. The turnpike, now for- gotten, determined the growth of the town. For a time the public attention was devoted to canals, and the State and general government were involved in schemes to unite the waters of Massachusetts and Narragansett Bays. This was succeeded by the system of railroads which have marvelously developed the energies and affected the public and political status of the town, and we now are entering upon a new system of electric intercommunication, which opens up for the future new and still more surprising changes in the movements of human industry. The avenues of life and enterprise have changed also from the farm to the workshop. The farmer has given place to the wage laborer and the mill hand. The herds and crops of the farm have given place to the incorporated HISTORIC EEI10BOTU. 91 capital of the manufacturer. The town has given place to the city. These new factors of modern life have had an important bearing on the growth of Rehoboth during the present century. Especially have the interests of Reho- both as a town been seriously affected by the transfer of a portion of her original domain to a foreign jurisdiction, justified by no sound policy, private or public, nor by any substantial claim of title either in history or justice. These influences though they have impared the authority of this ancient town in the councils of the State, have in no measure diminished that attachment for the old town government prevading her sons and daughters, whether residing within her narrowed limits or wandering into the outside arena of business life and enterprise. With glad- ness they do and ever shall return to the homestead of their youth, bearing these memorial tributes to the Old Colony history of this ancient town. Next, to the tune of " Auld Lang Syne," was sung the following very appropriate Dedication Hymn, written for the occasion by Mrs. Lucy B. Sweet, of Attleboro : [Lucy Bliss Sweet, the author of the following hymn, a lineal descend- ant of William Carpenter and Thomas Bliss two of the original found- ers of the town was born in Rehoboth village on the spot now occupied by the house of John C. Marvel, Esq., August 1, 1824, and is the daughter of Joseph and Xancy M. (Bullock) Carpenter. Her father was the son of James and Lucy (Bliss) Carpenter, and eldest grandchild of Col. Thomas Carpenter, of Revolutionary fame, and was himself a soldier and pensioner of 1812. He died in Attleboro November 12, 1880, in the ninety-second year of his age, and his wife May 4, the same year, aged 87, after a union of more than sixty-seven years. Lucy B. Carpenter was married in 1851 Everett Leprilete Sweet, of Attleboro, where she has since resided. Evincing a talent for putting her thoughts in rhyme, and inheriting a large share of love and loyalty to home and country, she has been the author of many poems of a patriotic and social nature ; also from early youth a constant contributor to local papers of articles on a variety of subjects of public interest, and is an earnest supporter of benevolent and reformatory work by example and pen. j 92 HISTORIC REIIOBOTH. DEDICATION HYMN. (Tune, Auld Lang Syne.) Come friends and neighbors, kindred all, To join in sweet accord ; Come Memory, a welcome guest, Inspire each voice and word, In praise and prayer and gratitude To ev'ry heart and hand That wrought in love, so skillfully, This goodly building planned. Sacred may it forever be To all, in age or youth, Who seek to find within its walls The precious germs of truth. May wisdom's golden grains abound To 'nrichthis ancient town; God of our fathers, let thy love Each day and labor crown. The heart goes back to other days When by yon river's side We played, who now are growing grey, Yet view this work with pride ; May we, when time shall be no more, Join with the ransomed throng. Where Daught our perfect joy shall mar In an unbroken song. The impressive dedication exercises of the morning ended with the benediction. INTERMISSION. At the close, the large concourse of people passed from the hall and assembled in social groups, some in the anti- quarian room, some in the library, and more out on the ample lawn. One of the articles added to the library that day was a fine revolving book case, presented by Mr. Gustavus B. Peck. An early call to dinner met a ready response, and hundreds of guests passsed down into the HISTORIC EEHOBOTB. 93 cool, dry and well lighted basement, where a most excel- lent dinner of salads, cakes, ices, fruit, etc., was waiting. After dinner the speakers and invited guests were gath- ered on the lawn and faced the dread instrument of the photographer. Gathering strength from numbers, not a man forsook his ppst. The narrator will leave the com- pany to their postprandial diversions, and again turn his attention to biography. As Rev. Mr. Tilton's directive power was the alpha and omega of the dedication pro- gramme, his biography may be appropriately inserted here as the connecting link between the morning and afternoon exercises. REV. GEORGE HENRY TILTON, A. M. Rev. George Henry Tilton, A. M., son of William Wells and Sarah Ann (Morrill) Tilton, was born in Nashua, N. H., January 31, 1845. Soon after, his parents moved to Concord, N. H., and still later to Hopkincon, where most of his childhood was spent. Besides the district schools, he attended the Contoocook and Hopkinton academies and spent one term at the Rumford Grammar school in Concord, where he enjoyed the faithful instruc- tion of Mr. James W. Webster. He fitted for college at Williston seminary, Easthampton, graduating in 1866. He graduated from Amherst College in 1870, and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1873. Was ordained at Hopkinton, N. H., June 4, 1873. Afterward he en- joyed a course in medicine in New York city. In 1874 he organized the Central Congregational Church at Attle- boro Falls, and remained with the church until the dedi- cation of the new church edifice in May, 1875. Preached at Wolfboro, N. H., from the autumn of 1875 to the summer of 1877, during which period there was an exten- 94 HISTORIC BEHOBOTH. sive revival of religion in the town. On account of ex- haustion from overwork he left Wolfboro, and spent several months in rest. He began his very successful pastorate at Rehoboth in October, 1877, whither he moved January i, 1878. After preaching five years, he was installed over the Congrega- tional Church November 2, 1882. His pastorate has been one of marked success and unusual harmony. In public affairs he has shown the interest of a whole hearted man and a public spirited citizen not the least of his enter- prises being the building of the Memorial Hall. In a speech that follows a deserved tribute is paid him by one best qualified to speak. He was married June 6, 1876, to Ella Minerva, daughter of Thomas Stanley and Minerva Wheaton (Freeman) Mann, of Attleboro Falls, Mass. They have three children. Afternoon Exercises. But neither the epicurean delights of the dinner, the wonderful and various treasurers of the antiquarian room, nor the charms of pleasant converse and companionship made people forget the hour of the afternoon exercises. The hall was filled as in the morning, a decrease of num- bers being shown rather in an increased comfort among the audience than by vacant seats. The speakers, like the victims designed in olden time to amuse the Roman populace, were on exhibition upon the platform. In introducing the afternoon programme, Mr. Whitman Chase, of Harvard College, read the appropriate poem here appended : [Whitman f'hase, author of the poem of the afternoon, is the son of Capt. Whitman and Mehitable I). Chase, and was horn in North Dighton Octoher 27. 18<>7. lie graduated from Bristol Academy, Taun" Ion. and entered Harvard College without conditions at the age of scvcn- tiM-1). He takes great interest in literary studies, and has already shown marked ability in that direction.] LINKS ON THE DEDICATION OF GOFp's MEMORIAL HALL. Though prosy praters ridicule The poet's product and his rhythmic rule, And vote to him the lowest place In arts 'vhich benefit our race, A man of care and thoughtful mind, !)<$ HISTORIC REHOBOTlt. If he should study deep, would find How much the gift of rhyming tends To aid and cheer and teach, and lends A harmony, a condiment, to season life, And gives a respite in its eager strife. From earliest times the usage came, Since David dared the Lord proclaim; Since Homer lived, and Sappho's lyre Inflamed the Grecian heart with fire; Since Norland Skalds their sages sang, Since Welsh and Scottish ballads rang Throughout their native hills, imparting power TO warriors in the needful hour. Since then, whene'er a work of note The assembled public gather to promote, Or column raised, or victory won, Or public edifice begun, Straightway the poet summons up his skill To charm or sicken, or to cure or kill ; This custom prompts, nor worth of ryhme, To dare intrude upon your time. Who, since the last revolving year Has run its course, has chanced to hear Kehoboth named, but failed to hear the hall? Already part and parcel of the all, We meet to dedicate in formal way, A source of pride this offering of to-day. Pride? Yes, for though you take a large amount In well-tilled farms, or lengthy bank account, Enlightment a worthier cause can show, And public spirit more pretension know. What good can wholly selfish breathing give? For merely to exist is half to live; And half to live is not to live at all; A rather faulty logic you may call Such reasoning, still, must you not confess It does a little truth express? Accomplishment is reached at last, Enjoyment comes, the labor's past; This day's momentous deed will crown An epoch in the annals of the town, And seasons hence you'll hear your townsmen say, HISTORIC EEHOBOTII. 97 When calling up some old occurrence laid away In blank forgetfulness : " It happened in the fall Of '85, the year they built the hall. Here let me leave the usual road Of travel to relate an episode : One clay in sore perplex, Minerva came To grimy Vulcan's drear abode of flame, With troubled brow the aged man bespoke And thus essayed assistance to invoke " Alas, that Jove assigned to me The care and weal of human destiny; It grieves me much to see men raise, Huge towers of stone in other's praise, And strive to build, with precious means and moil, A useful work which scarce requites their toil. Now lend your aid, some well-wrought plan devise To show these mortals where their error lies, And thus employ your wisdom, learned of years, To loose my cares and cease my flow of tears." Long pondered Vulcan o'er his art, Long sought the wished for service to impart, Till many an age of short enduring man Had seen the day, and passed its earthly span; Until he gained the precious prize he sought, 1'iHil he reared with matchless labor fraught, Upon a solid fundament of stone, A structure not for ornament alone, Though made with beauty, and with art combined, But still suggestive, useful, fitting, well designed, And high relieved upon the outward wall, He wrote the legend, " Goff 's Memorial Hall.'' PRESENTATION OF REV. MR. TILTON'S PORTRAIT. After the adjournment of the morning session a member of the committee of arrangement sought a private inter- view with Dr. Taylor, and communicated the fact that, entirely unbeknown to Mr. Tilton, an excellent likeness of him had been procured by several of his friends, which they proposed to have presented early in the ex- ercises in the afternoon, and they desired him to render 8 HISTORIC the approptiate service. Matters were arranged accord- ingly. At the conclusion of the poem, Mr. Tilton, the moderator, was requested to suspend for a little the regular order of exercises that a brief statement might be made by another. The portrait in the meantime had quietly been brought in closely veiled. Dr. Taylor re- quested th'e covering to be removed in the presence of the audience, and accompanied the transaction with a brief address to the unconscious victim of the embarrass- ing surprise : MY DEAR SIR :- In the profession we are called to serve, one of the most pleasing and gratifying rewards of our labor is derived from these expressions of gratitude and fond esteem which we are permitted from time to time to receive. Burdens are rendered easy, labors light, as hearts of affection respond so cordially to earnest en- deavors for their good. These sacred fountains of abid- ing joy are opened to the ministry as no where else. In his walks of usefulness the person of the pastor becomes at length associated with the most hallowed things in the sanctuary and the home, and his countenance as the bene- diction of an angel of God, and everywhere there springs up a strong desire to retain the sacred image. And so it comes to pass that I have this pleasant sur- prise for you, and it suits well my spirit of revenge to return your own methods when you made me wonder and weep as the results of your generous deeds]were revealed. Behold this picture ! What say you to its fidelity to the original ? Can you see yourself as others see you ? Your friends think the likeness excellent. They hope it will seem perfect in your own eyes. It is not so much a treasure for to-day as for future times. Those who are about you now prefer the living, abiding original. But HISTORIC BEHOBOTII. 99 when you will not be here, and the story of your work is told to the children, how happy they will be to point to this canvass and say there is the likeness of the good man. Please accept this token of their loving regard, and let it adorn the walls of this Memorial Hall, where your abundant and successful labors are so manifest, and may the memory of this tender scene, and this so appro- priate transaction, remain with you as a source of abiding joy through all days. Mr. Tilton in response said : If I am expected to reply to this speech I shall disappoint you. If I have ever been taken by surprise it is now. I don't know what I can say, my heart is so touched by this token of your affection. I will not attempt to make a speech ; I will only say from my heart I thank you, and may God bless you always. MR. DAVID A. WALDRON'S TRIBUTE. Mr. David A. Waldron, President of the Barrington Historic Antiquarian Society, being called upon, spoke of the influence which such a society and such a building would have in years to come, not only upon the inhabi- tants of the good old town of Rehoboth, but as a pebble cast into the sea causes its pulse to beat until its vibra- tions reached the shores of other lands, so other com- munities would be blessed by this enterprise. His own town had already been provoked to good works by the example set them by this society, through whose efforts we see such results to-day. A little more than a year ago, in driving through this village, he met the President of your Society, who in- vited him to visit the antiquarian room, then located in a building near by not such an imposing edifice as we find here to-day but it made such an impression upon 100 Jf/STOSlC RE HO BOTH. his mind of the magnitude of the work which had been inaugrated that soon after measures were taken to organ- nize a society in Barrington, and in recognition of the debt for the example thus set they have seen fit to make the Rev. George H. Tillon, President of the Rehoboth Society, an honorary member of the Society in Barrington. He presented Mr. Tilton with a finely engraved certificate of membership, properly signed, bearing the State arms, a picture of the building which the Society hope soon to have erected, drawn by the same architects who made the plans for the " Goff Memorial," and also the significant seal of the Society. Mr. Tilton then resumed his duties as chairman, and. with grateful compliment and in fitting terms presented the speakers of the afternoon. As the time was limited all spoke briefly and without notes. Their addresses ap- pear in the order in which they were given: RESPONSE OF GEN. OLNEY ARNOLD. I received a notice from my friend Mr. Goff my young friend I should have said a week ago and the pro- gramme gave me a great deal of pleasure. The number of distinguished names upon it assured me that it would be an intellectual feast, and I have realized it to the full- est extent of my anticipations. It also gave me another pleasure and that was, that I was relieved from the anxiety that I might have felt at the bare possibility of being called upon to say something on the occasion. My personal friends in Pawtucket know that for a few years past, on occasions like this, I have armed myself with a doggeral poem, and when the time came I read it, and I have never been called upon by the same parties a second time. I have never tried it here and I greatly regret that I am without that weapon of defense. Mr. Chairman, it HISTORIC J1EUOBOTH. 101 was very kind of you, I know, to call upon me after the distinguished and cultured gentlemen who have spoken to-day, so much to the satisfaction of all. ADDRESS BY EDGAR PERRY. I wish, first of all, to thank your President for intro- ducing me as "a native of Rehoboth." In this presence and on this occasion who could ask a higher enco- mium ? True, his reference to my adoption by another municipality disturbed me for a moment, until I reflected that Attleborough is a daughter of Rehoboth, and that I, therefore, had simply changed from a son to a grandson a relationship which many have proved brings them just as near the grand-dame's heart. And yet with all the honors which accrue to the origi- nal household to-day, we of Attleborough, Cumberland, old Seekonk and Swansea, have no apology to offer for the daughters' estates. We hold rather that Attleborough's hundred jewelery firms ; Cumberland's daily product of 150,000 yards of cloth; the varied industries of Paw- tucket to the chiefest of which this Memorial owes so much together with the thriving business at Rumford, and the prosperous husbandry of Seekonk and Swansea, do not rival each other nor the mother town, but together contribute to that honor which to-day covers in benedic- tion all the original boundaries of the ancient colony. Our interests are those of a common household, reciprocal and interdependent. So, in imagination, we may consider ourselves at a grand family reunion. The maternal township of Rehoboth, with eye undimned and natural force unabated, receives here at the old homestead, which some of her many sons remain to till, the four daughters whom she married to brave and 102 iiixToitu' /,-/-;//o/;o ///. virtuous citizenship years ago. All are still young, and with their large families are present to-day in festive mood and holiday attire. One has driven hither in her own equipage behind a dashing span of greys. Even a casual glance shows that both carriage and horses have been selected with an appreciative eye. Her dress tells us she is no stranger in Gotham, and her speech that she has ready intercourse with the Hub. She sinks gracefully into the easy chair procured expressly for this occasion, with the unconscious air of one who is used to the good things of life at home. With a loving, generous smile, which rejoices in the evi- dent prosperity of her kindred, she asks after the health of the household. The book she selects from the centre table evinces a taste for good reading, and she joins the conversation in a way that shows wide information and a practical shrewdness which marks her as her mother's own child. In a spirit more of loyalty to the handicraft of her sons than of any weak, personal vanity, she has adorned herself with bracelets, ear-drops, pins and rings, and, as she sees her Puritan mother viewing the finery with a suggestion of reproach, she rises and gives her a hearty "smack," and, with a twinkle in her eye that dis- arms the satire, says : ' Je\\els are baubles: 'tis a sin To care for such unfruitful things : One good sized diamond in a pin- Some, not so large, in rings A ruby and a pearl or so, Will do for me; I laugh at show!" The daughter from the neighboring estate disregards diamonds, but we hasten to say from no sense of poverty, for she has a Diamond Hill on her premises. But when a mere girl she evinced a fondness for machinery, and used HISTORIC jiEnoJioTn. ion always to spin the flax and wool for the household. And when she married and settled over by the Blackstone, she quickly saw the benefits of applying water power to weaving, and now her Lonsdale mills make cloth for the whole country. She may notice with satisfaction that the granite posts by the roadside came from her own quarries, and the horse shoe over the door from her forges at Valley Falls. She is a quiet, industrious body, and, possibly busy in designing some new fabric, takes very little share in the conversation until the labor question is broached. Then she shows she has decided opinions and can make them heard and felt. We can believe her sentiments voice the family respect for honest industry, and ' Haply from them the toiler, bent Above his forge or plow, may gain A manlier spirit of content, And feel that life is wisest spent V\ here the strong working hand makes strong the working brain." Tall and fair, but with the glow of rustic health in her cheek, comes the western daughter, who wins the partial welcome due the youngest child. She is no stranger at the old homestead, for, like the mother, she is wedded to husbandry, and together they often discuss the mysteries of the dairy and the prospects of the garden. Located nearer the centre of trade, she does a flourishing business in all kinds of farm products, and, though not a few of her sons have become wealthy, the tenor of her house- hold refutes the proverb " That plain living and high thinking are no more." She is a model farmer's wife, her only variation from her mother's cooking being the sub- stitution of Rumford "Bread Preparation" for potato yeast. And she says she uses that just to patronize "the boys." Industrious, intelligent and devoted, she is typical of the town 104 HISTORIC KE " Iii whose neat homesteads \\oman hoi, Is With modest ease, her equal place, And wears upon her tranquil face The look of one who, merging not Her selfhood in another will, Is love's and duty's handmaid still.'' First to come and last to leave is the eldest daughter one whose enterprises in copper coinage and ship build- ing won her a competence long ago. We can almost imagine that she has taken upon herself the burden of entertainment to-day, and will trust no one else to bake the shad for dinner. She has just come in, plump and jovial, to say they'll be cooked in half an hour, and, with- out stopping to roll down her sleeves, kisses "the girls" all round, and asks the grandchildren out to the pantry for doughnuts ! Free handed in hospitality, diligent in busi- ness, patriotic in war and constant in the faith, this elder municipal sister and daughter happily lives and thrives " With Earth and Ocean reconciled ****** Under the walls Where swells and falls The Bay's deep breast at intervals. But enough of metaphor. From our town's past so honorable, and present so benign, we turn a questioning eye on the future. And we do it with confidence, for "The best of prophets of the Future is the Past," "And in to-day already walks to-morrow." There is no reason to despond over Rehoboth's indus- trial future. Situated as it is, with main lines of railroad on every side, and no portion of it more than an hour's ride from some station, it offers facilities that half the farmers in New England might envy. With the growing municipalities about her Attleborough on the north, HISTORIC REHOBOTH. 105 Taunton on the east, Fall River toward the south and Providence ever coming nearer on the west there is no reason why a Rehoboth young man should hold his herit- age lightly. And what a heritage it is ! Acres which a resolute and self-denying ancestry redeemed from barbar- ism and defended oftimes with their blood ; homes which have been brightened by the births, gladdened by the weddings, and hallowed by the deaths of seven genera- tions ; walls, which if they could speak, might tell us how costly was the sowing and how careful has been the hus- bandry of this our nation to this day. " A heritage, it seems to me, a king might wish to hold in fee." It is for us this day, with no weak sentiment, but with resolute purpose, to be consecratad to the work which other generations have left us to perform. And whether as readers we learn from history's page the story which other men have wrought out, often in poverty, often in tears, often by the fitful glimmer of a midnight lamp ; or whether as journalists we strive to catch and hold the present by the "art preservative," it is for us all here this day to remember that ' Life is a sheet of paper white, Whereon each one of us may write His word or two and then comes night. (I really begin; and though thou have time Hut for a line, be that sublime; Not failure, but low aim is crime.'' REV. E. G. PORTER OF LEXINGTON. MR. PRESIDENT : When I received the invitation of your committee to attend these exercises, I was uncertain whether I should be able to accept it. Remembering, however, a pleasant visit which I had here three years KM; nisromc ago, when I gave a lyceum lecture in the church, I re- called the fact that I had on that occasion taken upon myself to advocate with some earnestness the possibility of organizing in your town a collection of local antiquities, which I felt sure would have great historical interest. I had a long consultation with Mr. Tilton upon this subject, and, perhaps, I gave him some encouragement to hope that a memorial building might be obtained at no very distant day. Having committed myself to such an enter- prise before it had been even talked about much by others, I could not refuse the kind request to come and bring a word of congratulation on the completion of this beautiful edifice, which I am delighted to find so well adapted to meet the various important uses for which it was built. I do not know what provision the town is to make for its new library, but if your experience is any- thing like ours in Lexington, it will not be long before it will be the most popular thing in the town. We began in 1868 with only a handful of books and a very small fund. After a while, it was proposed that the dog tax be appropriated for the purchase of books. This was will- ingly granted, perhaps because nobody knew exactly how much the dog tax was. It was not much, to be sure, then, but it has gone on increasing thanks to the dog craze and now it amounts to several hundred dollars a year, a very handsome fund for our library which now has, I am h r^ppy to say, ten thousand volumes in its catalogue. I have not seen any clogs in Rehoboth yet, but I presume there are some, and I advise you to cultivate them more and more and give the library the benefit of the tax. And if perchance any one should object to the barking, tell him that every bark means a book and he will complain no longer. J REHQBOTU. 1<>7 Your collection of relics, so well placed and labelled, is a surprise to us all. I can see that some one has been very industrious, and I can well imagine who it is. But you have not exhausted the resources of this grand old town in this direction. There are many treasures stowed away in garrets, in old chests and drawers, which are yet to see the light. Hunt for them. Bring them out from their hiding places and make them tell their story and a wonderful story it will be of the days long gone by. Few towns in New England are as rich as yours in ma- terials of this kind. Make the most of them. They will constitute no small part of your fame. They will serve to educate your children and inspire them with patriotic zeal to maintain the high character and honorable achieve- ments which have been the glory of the town. I was thinking, in coming over from Attleboro, what an advantage it is to be ten miles from a railroad. You can live here in peace, as your fathers did, without being disturbed by the screech of the locomotive and the per- petual din of passing trains. I have several friends who are suffering from nervous prostration. They have tried various places without permanent benefit. Evidently the trouble has been that they could not get away from rail- roads. I shall advise them all to move to Rehoboth, where I feel sure they would gain rapidly under the favorable and unique influences of the place. And if I could follow my own inclinations I would come too and enjoy the rational life which one could lead here, breathing the un- tainted air, revelling in your delicious farm products, and (think of it) driving in all directions without having to cross a railroad ! This is a luxury, citizens of Rehoboth, which I fear you do not fully appreciate. When the world finds it out, there will be a great demand for real estate all about here, especially in the vicinity of this 108 UlSTOlilC IIEUOBOTII. attractive hall. Your corner lots, gentlemen, will then be in demand. But never let the railroad come any nearer. If you do, the Rehoboth of the fathers will pass away. I perceive in the audience a goodly number of elderly people, whose memory must run back to the early part of the century. They could relate to us many interesting incidents of their childhood and traditions which they heard from their elders. May I not ask that they will carefully preserve in writing all such facts and anecdotes as they can recall, and give them to this young Anti- quarian Society, which is so full of life and promise. I congratulate the president upon the realization of his long cherished anticipations, and I trust that his efforts will be seconded by all who have in their power to make this society the means of the greatest possible good to this whole community. And, in concluding, I beg to ex- press my hearty appreciation of the value of this noble gift, which Mr. Goff has made to his native town. Long may he live to see the visible fruits of this wise disposi- tion of his bounty. HON. JOHN S. BRAYTON, OF FALL RIVER. At this point John S. Brayton, Esq., of Fall River, whose maternal ancestors were natives of Rehoboth, was called by the President from the audience, and spoke sub- stantially as follows : MR. PRESIDENT : You well remember the reply of Cor- nelia, the mother of the Gracchi, to that other Roman matron, who had exhibited her own glittering treasures and in return asked for those of Cornelia. She with a mother's affection pointed to her sons and proudly said : "These are my jewels." Rehoboth to-day, after a muni- cipal existence which covers over one-half of the period ULSTOitKJ REHOBOTH. , 109 which has elapsed since the discovery of this continent, the mother of other municipalities in two distinct com- monwealths, and with children scattered throughout the entire country, points to her sainted, heroic and honored dead, and to her sons and daughters now living, and proudly says : "These are my jewels." Well may every child of Rehoboth cherish with filial affection his birthplace. Here the Christian scholar, Samuel Newman, founded a town and gave it its scriptural name. Here he compiled the first concordance of the Holy Scriptures which was written upon this continent, and which to-day forms the basis of all modern concord- ances. By this he has made a name and a reputation among Christian scholars which will last as long as the language in which he wrote. Here John Myles, that eminent divine, established the first Baptist Church in Massachusetts. This church was consecrated by the prayers, the tears and the joyous hopes of your pious an- cestors. The same Christian traits which marked the character of the earlier settlers have descended to these later days. More than two hundred years after the foundation of the church here, the Rev. Mr. Lum, who was one of the predecessors of the President of this occa- sion, in his sacred office of pastor, established the first church in the Territory of Kansas. Just outside the borders of Rehoboth was shed the first blood in King Philip's war, and htre was the scene of that brilliant exploit, the capture of Annawan, which brought to a close that most sanguinary conflict, and re- sulted in the downfall of a great Indian empire. The heroism displayed during these trying times by the Rev. Noah Newman, the then pastor of the church, and by the yeomanry of Rehoboth, makes a record of which their descendants may well be proud, Many of the earlier 110 HISTORIC liK Views of the "Three Houses'' into which History tells us the settlers of Kdioboth were gathered for safety during King Phillip's War. John Myles' Garrison; built of stone and still standing nc:ir .Myles' bridge, Swansea. Bishop house, East Proviilence, on site of the Garrison house, at Seekonk Common. Hatch h.itisc. Norili Attleboro, jiart of " Woodcock's Garrison," in the ^orth Purchase, E18TORIG JiEUOtiOTH. Ill settlers of this town were men of note. Capt. Thomas Willet, the successor of Miles Standish, in the command of the military company at Plymouth, settled here about the year 1660, and purchased of Wamsntta a large tract of land, which was called " Rehoboth North Purchase." He afterward became one of the founders of the town of Swansea, and was also the first Mayor of the City of New York, and in the quaint language of the day " twice did sustain the place." Samson Mason was a soldier in Cromt well's army. Upon the restoration of che House of Stuar- he settled here, raising a family of nine sons, six of whom lived in Rehoboth and Swansea until the youngest was seventy years old. One of his sons, and three of his grandsons, were settled pastors of the Church of Christ in Swansea. Mr. Mason also subsequently became one of the founders of Swansea. Here in Rehoboth have been nurtured many men of letters. Two of the Presidents of Brown University, one of whom addressed you this morning, were born within its limits. Here, too, was the birthplace of that distin- guished mathematician and philosopher, Benjamin West, upon whom the university conferred the degree of Doctor of Laws, for his valuable services in the cause of science. Nathan Smith, M. D., the projector of the medical depart- ment of Dartmouth College, and who was also a professor at Yale, was born here. That eminent divine, Samuel Angier, one of the Board of Fellows of Harvard College, was the third pastor of the First Church, and he was fol- lowed by the Rev. Thomas Greenwood, and he in turn was succeeded by his son John, a native of the town, both of whom graduated at Cambridge. A long line of educated clergymen have ministered unto this people here, and their mantle has now fallen upon him who presides on this occasion a graduate of Amherst College one who 112 HISTORIC KEI10KOT11. by his broad and varied culture, by his zeal in his work, and by his fervid piety adds lusture to the ministry of Rehoboth. Fifty years ago, Mr. Leonard Bliss, Jr., whose portrait hangs upon the walls in the hall below, wrote a history of his native town of Rehoboth, it being among the earlier of town histories published in this commonwealth, and which reflected great credit upon its author. Upon thei r ancestral acres, in this town, were born Abraham Bland- ing, L.L. D., an eminent lawyer of South Carolina, the originator of that great interstate enterprise of construct- ing a railroad between Charleston, S. C, and Cincinnati, O.; William Blanding, M. D., the noted naturalist whose" extensive collection in natural history is now at Brown University, where both graduated, and their brother James Blanding (the father of the treasurer of the Anti- quarian Society), a life long citizen, who for neatly a third of a century was the clerk of the town, and who by his sterling integrity and high character left behind him a cherished memory. Rehoboth has given to the country many eminent phy- sicians. Here were born those two brothers, Nathaniel and Caleb Miller, who were foremost among the distin- guished physicians aud surgeons of their day, and whose reputations were as wide as their country. If time were allowed I would speak of others, born here, who in this and other states have upheld and honored the medical profession. Thus we see that Rehoboth, in scholarship, culture, and in the high professional attainments of her sons, will com- pare favorably with any sister town. The sons of Reho- both, who now reside in the town, pursue to a great ex- tent the avocation of their fathers. There are few towns in which so many farms are tilled by the lineal descendents BISTOSIC HE no no TIL m of the original settlers ; some of these farms are now cul- tivated by the sixth generation. Within the original limits of this ancient town, at Paw- tucket, Mr. Samuel Slater built a factory, which is said to be the first erected in the country for the spinning of cotton. In examining this morning the interesting col- lection of antiquities in the hall below, I noticed the letters patent which were granted to Mr. Dexter Wheeler for an improvement in tide mills. This document was issued in 1811 and bears the signature of James Madison^ the then President of the United States. Mr. Wheeler was born in this town, as were his ancestors. He was a machinist and a manufacturer of rare skill for those early days. In 1807 he ran a mill here, by horse power, for the spinning of cotton yarn. In 1813 Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Anthony, who was then residing here, and whose mother was a native of the town, and who had been in the employ of Mr. Slater for four years, went to Fall River and built, filled with machinery, and set in opera- tion (what is now the Fall River Manufactory), the first mill for the manufacture of cotton cloth erected in that city. One-fourth of the capital of the company was owned by citizens of Rehoboth. Almost contemporaneous with this event the " Troy Cotton and Woolen Manufactory" was established, in which enterprise Mr. Nathaniel Wheeler, another of your citizens, took an active part. From these beginnings have arisen in that city those colossal mills, whose aggregate spindles exceed in number that of any other city in America. There have gone out from here skillful mechanics, in- telligent business men and successful manufacturers the Goffs, the Bakers, the Marvels, the Hortons, the Earls, the Carpenters, the Pierces, the Pecks, the Blisses, the Blanclings, the Wheelers, the Perrys, and many others, iu who have been potent factors in building up the cities which surround Rehoboth. One such of her sons has built this Hall which we to-day dedicate. By this gener- ous act he has raised in the hearts of his fellow citizens a monument more lasting than the stately pile which he has erected. And I know you will all unite with me, upon this his seventieth birthday, in the invocation of Horace to Augustus Serus in coelum redeas, diuque laeto intersis populo. EX-GOVERNOR LITTLEFIELD, OF RHODE ISLAND. I would not forget that I am in the good old Common- wealth of Massachusetts, and within the bounds of the ancient town of Rehoboth. After listening with the deepest interest to the eloquent address of the orator of the day and other gentlemen who have told us what this town was and is at present, I am reminded of attending, a few years ago, the twelfth annual reunion of the Army of the Potomac in the city of Hart- ford, in our sister State of Connecticut. On that occasion many distinguished generals were present. At the grand banquet given in the evening a number of sentiments were offered and responded to. Among the number was this one, " Our Country," to which a citizen of Rhode Island was called upon to speak. He commenced his short address by saying it was both fitting and appropriate that Rhode Island should be asked to respond to this senti- ment, for without Rhode Island our country would be very small, both in territory and population. So, Mr. Presi- dent, I may be allowed to say on this occasion, after learn- ing how large a portion of the territory of the State of Rhode Island was taken from the town of Rehoboth, had it not been for this town, Rhode Island must have' been - n K n o n <> ru. \ i :, looked upon as a small state, and somewhat limited both in broad acres and in the number of her honorable citizens. As I look around me to-day, I am forced to the conclu- sion that nearly all of my distinguished fellow citizens first saw the light of day in this goodly town. I con- gratulate the people of this old town upon its honorable history ; I congratulate them in having this beautiful hall in which they may gather from time to time and look upon so many relics of past generations ; I congratulate you, Mr. President, that your Society has such pleasant rooms in which to hold its meetings and to deposit the antique articles you shall gather in the days to come, and add to the already large collection' of the Rehobcth Antiquarian Society. I am sure, Mr. President, you would not have us under- stand from the interest your Society has taken in the dedication of this hall, that you think the gentleman to whom the citizens of Rehoboth are so largely indebted for this building, shows any signs of being antiquated. We look upon him in the new city of Pawtucket as a young man. No citizen can be found more ready for any new enterprise that shall build up the business of the city than the Hon. Darius Goff. What he has done for his native town may be but a beginning of what he may do in the days to come. I join most heartily in all that has been said in praise of this old-time town to-day. I do not see my friend from Boston. I am sorry he has been obliged to leave the hall. However, I feel safe in assuring you that it will be but a short time before he will remove the office of publi- cation of the Educational Journal, over which he presides with such maked ability, from Boston to Rehoboth, and I have no doubt the President of Brown University will Hi; IIISTOIIW 7,' A7/0//0 y//. commence farming in Rehoboth soon after that institu- tion is closed. The Reverend gentleman from the historic town of Lexington has told us how much he has enjoyed staying here, and I am sure he will soon make this town his home. In view of the prospective demand for land I would advise the farmers to advance the price of corner lots. I do not think I should like farming after learning from one of the speakers this morning that the regular hours of labor were from four in the morning till nine in the evening. I do not enjoy early rising or many hours of labor. Mr. President, I am very glad to be with you to-day. It has been a most delightful occasion. The descendants of the founders of this town, gathered here to day, have a right to feel proud of her more than t\vo hundred and fifty years of honorable history. "He called the name of it Rehoboth, and he said, for now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land." As my closing: word, pardon me for saying in this pre- sence, that Roger Williams passed this way as he jour- nied on to settle the first state founded on the enduring principles of soul liberty. REV. S. L WOODWORTH, OF EAST PROVIDENCE. MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AXD GENTLEMEX. This is a great day for ministers. I am proud to be a successor of Rev. Samuel Newman. This is glory enough for one day. There is one trouble ; .you have set a bad example. Every pastor will now want a memorial hall. I think I shall have a memorial annex to our chapel at Luther's Corners, in Seekonk ; one hears many kind words spoken in his praise, besides having his picture hung up in the hall. 117 I am glad for the good words spoken of my Urolhcr Tilton ; he deserves every one of them ; he is not the kind of a man to be puffed up by deserving words of praise ; they won't hurt him one bit. I have summered and wintered with him ; I know the kind of material he is made of. He is a true man, and worthy of every word that has been spoken. It will be a consolation to him, in the weary, discouraging hours of his pastorate, to think of this day, with all its precious memories. His joy is my joy. It is net all so pleasant and easy to be a country pastor as it may seem ; there are many discouragements, many cold, hard rides in winter. The people are not given to over much enthusiasm in the Lord's work. They are perfectly willing that the pastor should do it all. While you have been rejoicing over this beautiful new building, I have been thinking of Seekonk. She has been robbed until only a narrow strip of land remains. If she has not fallen among thieves, she has among barn burn- ers. Without a town hall, without a meeting house for her people, as our friend Thomas Potter says, " Her people must go to East Providence for her rum, religion and clams." Soon she must look elsewhere for her rum. Some things have happened in Rhode Island lately ; the people have been heard from. After the ist of July the saloon must go. We think that it is time Seekonk had some religious privileges of her own. Some of us are trying to build a chapel at Luther's Corners for the people. If some one will give us a thousand dollars to enable us to complete it, we will have his picture painted and hung up in the building. It will be an oil painting, too, and not a crayon. I am asked to make a five minute speech on " Old Rehoboth." Why, the last time I had anything to say on this subject I spoke for four hours, and then did not use II? up half of my material. One thing is certain; I have something to exhibit here to-day that no one else can pro- duce. Reference has been made to the Newman Con- cordance ; here is a copy of that concordance, prepared by the Rev. Samuel Newman, in part by the light of pine knots, in "Old Rehoboth." When in London, at the British Museum, I found a per- fect copy of the Newman Concordance. I also examined the concordances that had preceded Newman's. I found only two had been published before this one, and they were pigmies compared to Newman's ; one was in Latin, the other was in English, and was prepared by John Mor- beck and published in 1550. This was the first English concordance to the whole Bible. The references were only to chapters, and was far from being as complete as Newman's. The Newman is, as it is called in the preface, "a large and complete concordance of the whole Bible," and was published in 1658. I find that it is more com- plete in some respects than those published to-day. The copy in my hand is one I found in Ohio last summer. I was visiting an uncle in the town of Colebrook, Ohio. He lived back in an out of the way place, almost in the woods. Coming into the parlor my wife called my atten- tion to an old book on an organ stool. It was used by the children to sit on, while they played the organ. I saw at once that it was a well preserved copy of Newman's Con- cordance. With fear and trembling I took it to the owner, and asked him if that book was of any special value to him. He said it was not. I said : " I know of a place where that book would be of very great value ; I am the succes- sor of the man who wrote it two hundred and thirty-eight years ago, in the town of Rehoboth, now East Providence- The people clown there \\culd ccr.sider it a gicat prize.' He took the book out of the room, and after a brief con- ins TOP ic KEiiono TIL 1 1 9 saltation with his wife, he came in and said : " You can have that book." I did not jump up to the ceiling in my joy, but for a few minutes I was the happiest man in Ohio. This is a more perfect copy chan the one once owned by Samuel Newman, and now in possession of our church. This one is in the original binding, while that is not. This copy was brought from England in July, 1830, by Rev. William Allen and wife. They settled in Pittsburgh, Pa.; afterwards in Wayne, Ohio, where he preached, but soon died, leaving two sons. His widow afterwards was married to my grandfather. The eldest son, William Allen, received this book and afterwards gave it to me. You can imagine that I feel rich. This other relic is the well known King Philip chair, one of the most important antiquarian remains connected with the history of this section. It was owned by the Abel family, who lived on the Seekonk plain in the days of Philip. Before the war, in which he was so conspicuous, he used to visit this family, and this large chair was the one he satjn. When the " Ring of the Town " was burned, this chair was brought out of the Abel house and occu- pied by Philip while the house was burning. A fire brand was thrown into the bottom of the chair when the Indians went away. The bottom and four rounds that it was fastened to were burned. The marks of the fire can be plainly seen in the four legs of the chair. After the fire, four rough rounds were hewed out and put in place of those burned. The chair remained in the possession of the Abel family until a few years ago, when it passed into the hands of the late Dr. George Mason, of Providence. After his death his effects were sold at auction. I bought this chair at that auction. It was in a dilapidated condi- tion, and held together by old ropes ; it would not stand alone when they were taken off. 120 HISTORIC K I have worked a good many hours on that old chair, brightening it up and making the weak places strong. It seems like one of the family ; I know every worm hole and crack in it. You will find a picture of this identical chair in Bryant's History of the United States, volume II. Three rounds are missing there, that I have supplied in the chair as it stands. The left arm was taken from an oak beam that was in University Hall, of Providence, and is about 1 15 years old. The V in the cushion, with a dot over it, is a copy of the signature of Philip to the original deed. I think a great deal of this chair ; I regard it as a very valuable his- > torical curiosity. I know you want it for your Memorial Hall. Mr. Porter tells me that the proper p'ace for it is in the fire proof historical rooms of Boston. He would like to take it there. I know that I want it. Of late I have made a very practical use of it ; I marry people in front of that chair, giving them a little history of it. They feel quite honored. Since I began this practice there has been a perfect rush of weddings to the parsonage. Mrs. Woodworth is the happiest woman in town. I know you would not be so cruel as to deprive us of that chair r.nd a large share of our income. I have enjoyed the day exceedingly ; I congratulate you on its success; I trust your beautiful hall will prove a great blessing to the town. HON. HENRY B. METCALF, OF PAWTUCKET. Hon. Henry B. Metcalf replied to a call for a speech substantially as follows : He said that although the call to speak was entirely unexpected, he was not altogether sorry that he had the opportunity to make public correction of the somewhat HISTORIC REHOBOTH. 121 popular fallacy that ministers were usually not apt in what we call business shrewdness. The gentleman who had just taken his seat had, by the narrative of his acquire- ment of antiquarian treasures, given abundant evidence that there was, at least, one parson who didn't need any guardian in secular affairs. His device of making it attractive to young people to come to him to get married by permitting the bride to sit in the antique arm chair, would do credit even to a political Justice of the Peace. Mr. Metcalf, in commending the dedicatory oration, re- ferred especially to its happy presentation of the three- fold provision of the Goff Memorial Building in behalf of good citizenship : First, in perpetuating the instructive memories of the past through its Antiquarian Department ; second, in contemplating discussion of present duty in its hall for the convenience of general assemblage of citizens, and, third, in providing for the education of the citizen of the future, by its school room and library room. He con- gratulated the venerable benefactor, seated by his side, that he had secured for himself the pleasure of witnessing the fruits of his generosity by making himself his own executor. SEN. GEORGE N. BLISS, ESQ., OF EAST PROVIDENCE. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : The chairman said the speakers would be allowed only five minutes each. He is a minister and I have always found the profession, of which he is so bright an ornament, reckless in disregard of rules and orders. The five-minute rule was observed until a minister was called upon, and then it ceased to have any binding force, but as I am a lawyer I propose to obey the law and take my seat when my five minutes expire. 1 ->-2 HIS TOKIC HE HOB Til. As a lineal descendant of that Thomas Bliss who came here under the leadership of Rev. Samuel Newman, in 1644, I take great interest in the work so fitly crowned here to-day. New England has reason to be proud of such towns as Rehoboth. An incident from my own ex- perience may show you how it looks to one " not to the manor born." It was my fortune during the late rebel- lion to come, while wounded and a prisoner, under the charge of J. S. Davis, M. D., then professor of anatomy and materia medica in the University of Virginia, and the friendship then formed between foes in war terminated only with his death. In 1 880 a gentleman from Alabama, who had entered the Confederate service as a Lieutenant at Bull Run, and who was three times wounded in battle, bore when peace came the rank of Brigadier-General, came to me with a let- ter of introduction from Dr. Davis. I had known " that stern joy which warriors feel in foemen worthy of their steel," and with pleasure took him to see the varied indus- tries and wonderful machines of my native state. After a day thus spent he asked, " What is your population ? " and surprised at the small number he replied, " Well, it may be that in figures, but you have so organized indus- try here that you count for at least a million." I went with him to Bristol to attend the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of its settlement, and as we walked through the crowded streets I noticed he was look- ing in all directions as though in search of something. At last he said : " This is the most extraordinary thing I ever saw in my life ; here are thousands of people out foi a holiday, all well dressed, smiling and happy, and not a single man drunk ; why, if it had been in my State I should have seen half a dozen drunken fights by this time." This Southern gentleman said to me : "When I HISTORIC EEUOBOTH. 123 came to New England for the first time in my life I ex- pected to find an entirely distinct species of mankind, but I find we are a homogeneous people." From Rhode Island he went to Boston and after three week's experi- ence of the hospitality, in which Massachusetts is exceeded by no other State, he said to me : " Captain, I love Boston ; I would defend Boston against an attack in any part of the world." Do you not join with me in saying that that rebel had been thoroughly reconstructed and that to thus conquer the prejudices and training of a life time by a residence of a few weeks among the Yankees is the highest tribute that could be paid to the New England civilization, which has given Rehoboth a proud position in the history of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. DEACON JOSEPH BROWN, OF SEEKONK. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : It is unexpected to me that I am called upon, but I should not do justice to myself if I did not express the pleasure it gives me in being present on this occasion. I am not a citizen of Rehoboth, but have always resided within the limits of Ancient Reho- both, and as my ancestors were among the first settlers of this town, whatever pertains to the history of Ancient Rehoboth specially interests me. I most heartily congratulate the inhabitants of this town on the erection of this building, which is an honor to the town and to those individuals who so generously contri- buted to its erection. It is well that some such building as this should be erected, where the relics of the past, and ancient papers, can be deposited, cared for, and preserved. It is well for us occasionally to review the events of the 124 HISTORIC llEHOBOTll. past, that we may more fully appreciate the toils, suffer- ings, privations and perseverance of the early settlers of these colonies. Rehoboth has a history of which its inhabitants may well be proud. Very soon after the settlement of the town, King Philip's war commenced, and as his residence was in the vicinity of this town, perhaps Rehoboth suffered as much, or more, than any other town in the colony. The central part of the town, afterward Seekonk, and now East Providence, was burned, the bloodiest battle of the war was fought within its borders, and Philip's greatest chief- tain surrendered but a short distance from where we are now assembled. During the French and Indian war, Reho- both contributed her quota of soldiers. We felt that the call upon us during the war of the Rebellion was great, but it was not equal to the call made on our fathers during the war of the Revolution. It will be recollected that war lasted seven years, and often calls were made for men equipped for service. I find by ancient papers, I have in my possession, that in some cases they paid as large or larger bounties for re- cruits, than were paid durii.g the late war. In some instances they paid as high as two thousand dollars. (Here an original receipt was read for that amount for enlisting into the service), which is an evidence of the depreciation of the currency, a difficulty they had to contend with at that time. The regiment under Col. Carpenter of Reho- both was the first engaged in the battle on Rhode Island. In the year 1812, the town was divided by a northerly and southerly line, and the western part was incorporated under the name of Seekonk, so that Rehoboth and Seekonk have a common history prior to that time. I have in my possession these ancient papers: The ancient Muster Roll of the company in the western part of HISTORIC RE HO BOTH. 125 the town, belonging to Col. Thomas Carpenter's regiment; the List of men drafted to defend Rowland's Ferry,and Pay Roll for the same; and original ancient Receipts given by individuals for enlisting into the continental service dur- ing the Revolutionary war, which I now present to this Antiquarian Society, and have also others loaned, which, when I shall obtain them, I intend also to deposit with you. REV. LEANDER THOMPSON OF NORTH WOBURN. MEMBERS OF THE REHOBOTH ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY: I am here to-day in response to a very kind invitation of my old friend, your president, and I enjoy listening to others far more than I could enjoy speaking. I come from an old town, originally a part of Charlestown, but having a municipal history of its own going back to 1642, a little earlier, if I mistake not, than the date of your own ancient town. In 1753, one hundred and eleven years after the incor- poration of Woburn, there was born near the homes of my ancestors and related to my own family, Benjamin Thomp- son, since widely known throughout the civilized world as Count Rumford, the greatest scientist of his age, and one of the greatest of any age. In 1876, a few persons were specially impressed with the desirableness of resuing from threatening ruin, the old but still substantial house in which this illustrious man had his first home. They had thought and talked about it for several years, but at this time, there were concurring circumstances, which contrib- uted largely to give definite shape to their hitherto some- what vague wishes. Through the persevering efforts of a few men, money sufficient to purchase the estate was 126 HISTORIC KEHOBOTH. raised, the Rumford Historical Society was organized, and in 1877, was incorporated under that name. In the words of Article II of the Constitution : '"The object of this corporation shall be to hold and preserve a certain lot of land, with the buildings situated thereon, in Woburn, known as the birth-place of Benjamin Thompson, or Count Kumford; also to col- lect and preserve for exhibition or use, books, manuscripts, objects of antiquarian interest, and whatever may illustrate the life and times, and perpetuate the memory of the distinguished man whose title is promi- nently associated with our organization." In accordance with this object, the old mansion has been extensively repaired and the grounds, to some ex- tent, put in order, though in no case has the antique style and appearance of anything, without or within, been changed. In the large old fashioned lower room where the Count was born, we have a free library, called the Rumford Library, and containing a choice collection of nearly 1,600 volumes. And in that room, we have our regular meetings. In the same room, to some extent, and elsewhere to a larger extent, we have a constantly increas- ing collection of relics of the olden time, some of which illustrate especially the life and times of Rumford and of those with whom he was associated. We have an album for visitors' names and a book of biographical sketches, more or less extended, of all deceased members of our Association. Besides these papers, many others have at different times been concributed upon the early and espe- cially the Revolutionery history of our town. Some of these papers have been published by our local press; others are preserved in manuscript among our treasures. We have members scattered through the United States, in Canada, and in England; and we strongly hope that in the future we shall accomplish far more than has been possible in the nine years of our past history, HISTORIC JlETIOBOTfl. 127 As an honorary and corresponding member of the Winchester Historical and Genealogical Society, I may perhaps be allowed to add a few words. For more than 200 years, the present town of Winchester was a part of Woburn, and its history was of course identical with that of Woburn. Two years ago, some of the leading men of this new and enterprising town organized a society whose objects are indicated by its name. During the less than two years of its existence, the society has accom- plished wonders in the way of research, bringing to light old and forgotten papers, records and scraps of important h:story, reducing all discoveries to writing and carefully preserving every item for future use in a more complete history of Woburn in former days, and of Winchester since 1850, than has existed or been thought possible. Many of these valuable papers have been published in the "Winchester Record," a quarterly magazine published by the society, and containing on an average not far from one hundred pages in each number. A considerable number of the articles thus published are biographical sketches of the first settlers of the old town of Woburn, nearly all of whom had been also among the early settlers of Charles- town, and some of them belonging to the large and famous Colony led by Gov. Winthrop in 1630. But I am consuming too much time. As a member of both the kindred societies I have mentioned, I am happy to express to the Antiquarian Society of this old and his- toric town my hearty greetings and congratulations. I am both surprised and delighted to see what a beginning you have made. Your antiquarian collection far exceeds, in the number and value of its articles, many that are much older. At an early day, I should like to read a printed catalogue of these articles, and I am sure that even the reading of the lists with brief descriptions, will be deeply 128 HISTORIC interesting to not a few beside your own citizens. And then last, but by no means least, of all, do I congratulate you on being the possessors of this new, commodious and every way admirable Goff Memorial Hall. A WORD FROM MR. GOFF. Mr. Darius Goff, to whom so many pleasant references had been made during the day, was called for by general acclamation as the exercises were closing. He rose and with evident feeling said : "I am not a man of many words; actions are easier for me. I will only say to audience and speakers If you have enjoyed dedicating this hall as much as I enjoyed contributing to it, the occasion has been a very happy one for you all. I would acknowledge with gratitude the more than liberal share of appreciation which it has been my fortune to receive." In It was with a feeling of profound satisfaction that the audience turned homeward. Important as the work of dedication appeared to all lovers of Rehoboth, and to any who regarded the event from an antiquarian point of view, the exercises left nothing either for local pride or histori- cal criticism to demand. The occasion marks an era in Rehoboth history. The erection of such a beautiful Memorial ; the utterances of the distinguished men at its dedication ; the contribution to Rehoboth history made by the complete and accurate record of this volume, all will serve to win for Rehoboth a rightful recognition as one of the most historic places in the Old Bay State. As the names of John Myles, Samuel Newman, William Black- stone, Thomas Willett and others become properly iden- tified with its history; as the careers of its sons in letters, arms, science and jurisprudence become better known, men will be as proud to trace their lineage to Historic Rehoboth as to name the revered Plymouth or far-famed Lexington as their birth-place. Indeed, Rehoboth holds as distinguished a relation to the annals of Indian warfare, as Plymouth to the inception of the colonies,or Lexington to the Revolutionary struggle. It was the frontier town during King Philip's war. The first blood of a contest which menaced the very life, and 130 HISTORIC not alone the liberty of the-colonies, was shed in its origi- nal boundaries, while within its present limits, the last triumphant strategy of that struggle was consummated. If to stand on the confines of savage territory and defend the hearths and homes that lie behind is patriotism, Myles' Bridge is as truly historic ground as Lexington Common. Standing as the narrative of these pages does, midway between the Ancient Rehoboth that was and the New Rehoboth that is to be, it aims to inspire reverance for the one and aspiration for the other. May we, its readers, appreciate the measure of responsibility which rests upon us, and to our fidelity, in the words of the immortal Burke, " Let us attest the retiring generations ; let us attest the advancing generations; between which, as a link in the great chain of eternal order, we stand ! " OLD POWDER HOUSE, ATTLEBOROUGH.