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Town of Rehoboth History and Resources
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Wheaton House |
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| The Town of Rehoboth is an
historic pastoral community in Bristol County incorporated in 1745. The town never had a large amount of
agricultural land because of its extended marshy terrain and hills, but there was
always good fishing on the Palmer River and an annual herring run
provided abundant food. The first settlement of the town was about 1652 on
the southern portion of the river. The colony suffered a good deal of
damage in the King Philip war but the earliest house in town, Kingsley
House, built 1680, still remains a part of the town. By 1704 there was an iron forge in town and by 1714 the Goff Inn was handling travelers coming through on the stage to Taunton, Providence or Newport, Rhode Island. Sawmills were established in 1747 and the primarily agricultural economy was supplemented in 1809 by the opening of two cotton yarn mills at Rehoboth Center. One of these is thought to be the first to spin very fine cotton yarn. In the Perryville section of town, historians conjecture that Era Perry was the first in the country to manufacture bobbins for the area's cotton factories about 1850. The 325 farms of the town grew Indian corn and potatoes and fattened beef cattle. Rehoboth retains dozens of Colonial and Federal houses and cottages and there is a remarkably widespread of historic houses and buildings preserved throughout the community. Narrative supplied by the community. |
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| Carpenter Museum | Rehoboth Historic Sites |
| Colonel Thomas Carpenter House, Rehoboth, Bristol County, MA | |
| Rehoboth, Massachusetts: the Curious Ancestral Home of Many Gaspee Raiders | |
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