I have thus far in my wanderings omitted to mention any member of
the Harlow family, scarcely one of whom can be found on the north
side of Town Brook. But in crossing the brook I am at once confronted
by three Harlow houses, standing like sentinels to guard what may
be considered their family domain. These are the houses which in an
earlier generation were occupied by Ephraim, Sylvanus and George
Harlow. In my study of family names I have often found them confining
themselves within certain town bounds. For instance there are the
names of Stetson, Gray and Willis in Kingston; Sprague, Weston,
Winsor and Soule in Duxbury; Lobdell, Harrub and Parker in Plympton,
and of Ransom and Vaughan and Murdock in Carver, all like the clans
of Scotland, keeping within their own borders. Nor were the limits
within which the various names were found always as broad as the
bounds of the towns. As for instance there were on the north side of
the brook the Jacksons, Russells, Hedges, Spooners, Cottons, etc.,
and on the south side the Harlows, Dotens, Stephens and Barnes,
representatives of each succeeding generation, settling among the
familiar scenes of their youth. A hundred years, or perhaps more,
ago, it was the custom in town meeting to divide the house in voting
on important questions, the affirmative voters gathering on the
north side, and the negative on the south. On one occasion after the
division, but before the count, the moderator called out—a Ponds man
on the wrong side of the house. When I see the sign of C. B. Harlow
on Market street I am tempted to say, a Harlow man on the wrong
side of the brook. In 1851 I was riding from Halifax, Nova Scotia,
to Shelburne, and stopped at the inn in Liverpool for dinner. While
eating alone, the landlord came into the dining room and entered into
conversation. I asked him his name, and he said, Bradford Harlow, and
in answer to my inquiry where he came from he said, “You may guess a
hundred times and you will not guess right.” “Well,” I said, “I will
venture to say that either you or your father came from Plymouth in
Massachusetts.” “By George,” he exclaimed, pounding his hand down on
the table, “You have guessed right the first time.” I then told him I
was a Plymouth man, and I did not believe such a combination of names
could be found in any other town. His father was a ship carpenter,
who after the Revolution moved down to Liverpool to work at his
trade, and made that town his future residence. For some reason,
which I cannot satisfactorily explain, there was at that time quite
a migration of ship carpenters from Plymouth to Nova Scotia, which
was made practicable by the frequent resort of Plymouth vessels bound
to the fishing banks, to the harbors of Shelburne and Barrington and
Liverpool. Among them were William Drew, who went to Liverpool, and
James Cox, who went to Shelburne, the latter of whom married there
Elizabeth Rowland about the year 1800, and continued there until his
death. The late William Rowland Cox of Chiltonville, a son of James,
and a well known master carpenter, came to Plymouth as long ago as I
can remember, and Martha Taylor, a daughter, also came and married
Ephraim Bartlett, whose daughter Martha Ann, widow of the late Geo.
E. Morton, is a much respected resident of Plymouth.
Ephraim Harlow, above mentioned, was the son of Sylvanus and Desire
(Sampson) Harlow, and was born in 1770. He was somewhat extensively
engaged in navigation and real estate. In navigation he not only
built one or more vessels on his own account, but he was also
associated with James Bartlett, Jr., and others, in building the
bark Fortune in 1822 for the whale fishery, and at a later period in
building the schooner Maracaibo, for the same business. In the early
part of the last century he owned in connection with his brother
Jesse, Nathaniel Carver, and Benjamin M. Watson all the land on
the west side of Pleasant street, between the brook and Jefferson
street extending back to the poor house land, the northeasterly
part of which, after sundry sales and divisions, came into his sole
possession. On this part he built the house which he occupied until
his death, on Robinson street in the rear of the old Robinson church.
In the rear of his house he opened a Court in 1825, and built a
house which was occupied by James Morton, sexton of the Unitarian
church, whom I remember sitting during the service at the head
of the south pulpit stairs. Mr. Harlow was a man of tried probity
and intelligence, receptive of various measures of reform, such as
anti-slavery and temperance measures, which both he and his family
did much to support. He married in 1794 Jerusha, daughter of Thos.
Doten, and had Jerusha Howes, Ephraim, Thos. Doten and Jabez. He
married second, Ruth, daughter of William Sturtevant of Carver and
had Jane, 1808, who married Atwood L. Drew, Hannah Shaw, 1810, who
married George Adams, Ruth Sturtevant, 1815, whose early death was
lamented by a large circle of friends; Zilpha Washburn, 1818, who
married Nathaniel Bourne Spooner, and Desire Sampson, 1821. He died
December 15, 1859.
The house on the corner of Pleasant and Sandwich streets, now
occupied by William H. Harlow, was built by his grandfather, Jesse
Harlow, not long after the Revolution, and in my early days was
occupied by David Harlow, the father of the present occupant, who
kept a store there for many years. David Harlow married in 1823,
Eliza Sherman, daughter of Lewis and Betsey (Weston) Finney, and
had David L., who married Lucy Cook of Kingston; Isaac Newton, who
married Catherine Weston; Henry M., who married Sarah F. Cowen;
Ezra, who married Catherine Covington; Ann Eliza, Hannah, Pelham W.,
who married Etta H. Mayo; Edward P., who married Nancy Sanford of
Taunton, and William H., who married Annie Gibbs of Providence. David
Harlow died July 22, 1859.
The house on Sandwich street, next but one to the David Harlow house,
was built in 1825 by George Harlow, who bought the lot on which it
stands, in that year from the heirs of Thomas Doty. George Harlow
was the son of Samuel and Remembrance (Holmes) Harlow, and was born
in 1789. He was in my day chiefly engaged in the Grand Bank fishery.
He married in 1813, Lydia, daughter of Nathaniel Ellis, and had
Nathaniel Ellis, 1813, who married Julia A. Whiting of Bangor; Lydia,
1819, who married Albert Tribble; Esther, 1821, who married John
Henry Hollis; George Henry, 1823, who married Sarah E. Morton, and
Samuel, who married Mary H. Bradford. Mr. Harlow died May 9, 1865.
I must not wander far beyond the brook without a notice of Rev.
Adoniram Judson, the distinguished Baptist missionary, who was a
citizen of Plymouth from 1802 to 1812, and who always, until his
death, considered it his American home. His father, Rev. Adoniram
Judson, was born in Woodbury in 1751, and graduated at Yale in 1775.
After settlements in Malden and Wenham he was settled, May 12, 1802,
the first pastor of the third Plymouth church near Training Green.
Before coming to Plymouth he married Abigail, daughter of Abraham
Brown of Tiverton, and had four children, Adoniram, Elnathan, Abigail
Brown and Mary Alice. Elnathan, born probably in Wenham in 1795,
was a surgeon in the United States Navy, and died in Washington
May 8, 1829. Of Mary Alice I know nothing. Abigail Brown was born
in Malden March 21, 1791, and died in Plymouth, where since 1802
she had always lived, January 25, 1884. I remember her well, and
many times called at her home to talk with her about her brother,
Adoniram, and his missionary service. She was a calm, placid woman,
with a saintly face, and in everything but speech resembled a
Quakeress. The last time I saw her she was crossing Town Square on
a hot summer day, wearing a green calash pulled down by the ribbon
loop attached to its front, to protect her face from the rays of the
sun. The father continued his pastorate until 1817, when becoming a
Baptist he resigned, and after preaching for the Plymouth Baptists,
then worshipping in Old Colony Hall, previous to the erection of
their meeting house on Spring street in 1822, he removed in 1820
to Scituate, where he died November 28, 1826. During his Plymouth
pastorate he became the owner of all the lots of land on the west
side of Pleasant street, which for a time was called Judson street,
from the lot now owned by Chas. P. Hatch to Jefferson street
inclusive. On the Hatch lot he built and occupied the house, which
with considerable alteration is now standing, and in 1808 sold it
to his daughter, Abigail, who made it her home until her death in
1884. Rev. Adoniram Judson, the missionary, son of Rev. Adoniram
and Abigail (Brown) Judson, was born in Malden, August 9, 1788, and
graduated at Brown University in 1807. After leaving college he
taught a private school two years in Plymouth, where he published
the “Young Ladies’ Arithmetic,” and a work on English Grammar. Until
1810 his religious views were unsettled, but in that year he joined
his father’s church, and after a short time at the Andover Seminary
was admitted to preach by the Orange Association of Congregational
ministers in Vermont. Having determined to enter the missionary
service, he sailed for England with the view of making the necessary
arrangements, and was captured by a French privateer, and after a
short imprisonment at Bayonne, reached England, returning in 1811,
and being ordained as missionary at Salem, February 6, 1812. He
married February 5, 1812, Ann Hazeltine, of Bradford, Mass., and
daughter of John and Rebecca Hazeltine, and sailed for Calcutta
on the 19th of that month. Soon after reaching India he became a
Baptist, and severing his connection with the American Board he was
baptized by Dr. Carey, the English missionary at Serampore. When
the war broke out between the East India Company and the Burman
Government, Dr. Judson was arrested for alleged complicity with the
English, and suffered a long imprisonment, during which a child,
Maria E. B. Judson, was born, who died April 24, 1827, at the age
of two years and three months. Mrs. Judson died at Amherst, Burman
Empire, October 24, 1826. In 1834 he married Sarah Hall Boardman,
widow of Rev. George Dana Boardman, and daughter of Ralph and Abiah
Hall of Alstead, N. H., who died on her way to America at St. Helena,
September 1, 1845. In the autumn of that year Dr. Judson made his
first and only visit to the United States, where he remained until
July, 1846. During that visit it was my privilege to meet him. At
that time the mail stage for Boston, leaving Plymouth at half past
ten, met the accommodation stage leaving Boston at eleven o’clock,
and the passengers dined together at the half way house in West
Scituate, and there I met and sat next to him at the dinner table. He
was rather above the average height, had brown hair, a smooth face,
and an expression indicative of a life of serious thought and sad
experience. He reminded me of portraits of Charles the First, and
also of the portrait now in Pilgrim Hall of Governor Josiah Winslow,
in both of which is depicted the expression to which I have referred.
During his visit he married in June, 1846, Emily Chubbuck, a native
of Eaton, N. Y., known in the literary world as Fanny Forester, and
sailed with her for India in the following month. By his second wife
his children were Adoniram, Elnathan, Henry, Edward and Abby Ann, and
by his third wife, a daughter, Emily, who married a Mr. Hanna. Dr.
Judson died at sea April 12, 1850, and his widow returning to America
in 1851, died June 1, 1854. His great literary works were a Burmese
translation of the Scriptures, and a Burmese English dictionary.
Ichabod, son of Ichabod and Sarah (Churchill) Morton, was born in
Plymouth in January, 1790. He always lived in Wellingsley, but
precisely where he was born I am unable to say. His father built
the house now owned by the heirs of Edwin Morton, when Ichabod was
a year old, and there he lived until he bought in 1829 the house
in which he died. For many years he kept with his brother Edwin,
a general store in a building which was erected and occupied as a
dwelling house by Eleazer Churchill. The firm of I. & E. Morton early
added to their business that of the Grand Bank fishery, and also
built vessels engaged in coastwise and foreign trade. They were the
earliest traders in Plymouth to abandon the sale of intoxicating
liquors, and among the first to join the movement against the
institution of slavery. Mr. Morton became also much interested in
the cause of education, and in town meetings strongly advocated
increasing appropriations for the support of public schools. When
the policy was adopted by the state of establishing Normal schools,
he only needed the co-operation of the leading men in Plymouth to
make his own earnest efforts successful in securing the location
here of the school which was established in Bridgewater. Horace Mann
publicly recognized in him one of his ablest coadjutors in the cause
of education. For a short time his business was interrupted by his
association with the Brook Farm enterprise, but the dreams of that
social experiment soon gave way to the practical pursuits of business
life. He married Patty, daughter of Coomer Weston, and had November
22, 1821, a daughter, Abigail, who married Manuel A. Diaz. He married
second Betsey, daughter of Gideon Holbrook, and had George E., 1829,
Nathaniel, 1831, Ichabod, 1833, Austin, 1834, and Howard, 1836, and
died May 10, 1861. Mrs. Diaz, well known as a writer, died in Belmont
in the spring of 1904, and was buried at Mount Auburn.
One of the measures in which at one time Mr. Morton was much
interested, was that for a division of the town. In 1855, at the
time when the construction of town water works was decided, it was
supposed by many in the south part of the town that the pecuniary
burden which the enterprise would impose on the town, it was their
duty to adopt every means to escape. Henry W. Cushman, who had been
Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts from 1851 to 1853, had expressed
a desire for the incorporation of a town bearing his name, and it
was understood that the christening might confer a financial benefit
on the town so named. It was thought therefore that the time was a
favorable one to have the southerly part of the town set off under
the name of Cushman. If I remember rightly the dividing line asked
for in the petition of Caleb Morton and others ran from the harbor,
through Winter and Mount Pleasant streets. Favorable reports were
made in both 1855 and 1856, but the bills recommended for passage
were rejected. Mr. Morton took an active part in urging the division,
but I suspect that neither he nor any person now living regretted the
issue.
Two other attempts to divide the town have been made since Kingston
was set off and incorporated in 1726. In 1783 ten heads of families
representing themselves as composing one-sixth of the precinct of
Manomet Ponds petitioned the General Court to have Cedarville and
Ellisville set off to Sandwich. The petitioners who were given
leave to withdraw were, Seth Mendall, Wm. Ellis, Thomas Ellis,
Eleazer Ellis, Barnabas Ellis, Phineas Swift, Samuel Morris, Prince
Wadsworth, Samuel Gibbs and Catherine Swift. Another movement in
favor of a division was started in 1837, but when brought before the
town it was defeated by a vote of 376 to 246.
While the question of the division was pending in 1855 and 1856, I
was chairman of the Board of Selectmen, and of course was cognizant
of all that was done to defeat the measure. In those days the
members of the legislature remained during the week in Boston, or
its immediate vicinity, only going home to spend the Sabbath. The
board invited them to make an excursion to Plymouth on Fast Day,
and entertained them at the Samoset House. It is needless to say
that the argument was conclusive. A more difficult task awaited the
board the next year to oppose a petition to change the shire to
Bridgewater. As soon as the legislature of 1857 came together, the
board of which I was still chairman, placed printed remonstrances
in the hands of reliable men in every town in the county, which
poured into the legislature bearing, I think, the names of a majority
of the voters of the county. A similar petition was sent to the
legislature at a time earlier than I can remember, headed by Col.
Sylvanus Lazell of Bridgewater, who unfamiliar with the meaning of
words, claimed that Plymouth had been a seaport long enough, and that
it was Bridgewater’s turn. At that time a resolve was passed by the
legislature requiring the submission of two questions to the voters
of the county: First, are you in favor of a removal of the shire, and
second, in what town shall the shire be located. In answer to these
questions a majority voted for a removal, and singularly enough, a
majority also voted in favor of Plymouth for the location. With the
erection of a Court house in Brockton, and the erection of a Registry
in Plymouth, I think the crisis is passed, and that no further
attempts will be made to remove the shire. The increasing population
of Plymouth will serve to check the disturbance of the equilibrium of
the county, which the growth of Brockton has heretofore caused.