Chapter 5 -5

Chapter 5 - Pages 74-91

ADDRESS BY REV. E. G. ROBINSON, D. 0.

It must seem inexcusable, almost impertinent, for one to venture upon even few words at this late hour, and after the full and careful address which we have had so much pleasure in listening to. Two reasons, however, induced me to except the very cordial invitation to be here to-day, and I do not feel quite at liberty to decline the earnest request to add a few words, though unpremeditated, to what has already been said. My first reason for coming was that I wished to drive along the roads and look on the fields and streams of the old town that was the home of my ancestors. George Robinson, one of the men of Rehoboth who made the North Purchase, as it was called, from the Indians, a territory including my native town — Attleborough — was my great-great-grandfather, and in the old First Congregational church of Attleborough, the one of his sons who was my grand- father, as well as his sons, including my father, were accustomed to worship and to receive their religious instruction.

Another reason for my being here has been a desire to show appreciation of the generous gift of our friend in the erection of this memorial building; to recognize one of the noblest uses to which wealth can be donated — the increase of means for the diffusion of knowledge — a knowledge of what is and of what has been. Honor to him whose memory this building will so worthily per-

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petuate, and to all who have joined in contributing to make the building so fitting a source and centre of knowledge and intellectual quickening for the town. By no means least among the good ends which the building will subserve will be its antiquarian and historical uses. Nothing of the present can be fully understood and appreciated without knowing the past out of which it has sprung. If the Rehoboth of to-day would understand itself it must remember the Rehoboth of the earlier days. .And it- will be here that the relics of past days will be preserved and may be studied when they shall elsewhere have vanished.

And it is none too soon that relics of the past have began to be gathered here for preservation. Dropping out of use and uncared for they would speedily be forgotten forever. And there are later memories in some of the aged heads here to-day that, unless soon garnered, will be irrecoverably lost. Where, outside of New England, in all our country, can you find so many men among the same number of people, whose years are touching the last quarter of a century, as are here assembled? They could tell of experiences strange but useful to youthful ears—experiences that would help to a better appreciation of what now is as well as of what is to come. But far behind the memories of all living men lie our richest fields of inquiry. Implements of industry and of household economies speak to us of toils and of endurance to which we are strangers; but they were toils that bred men and women of heroic mould — an ancestry of whom we never need be ashamed.

And additional to what will here speak of the past to the eye, there are less conspicuous relics that ought in lectures here to be pointed out to the ear. Brown bread, pork and. beans, pumpkin pie and fish balls speak dis-

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tinctly of the plain living and hard working of the fathers, but subtler elements remain to be recognized. Traces of Puritan dialect still linger in our daily speech. Phrases are common on the lips of our farmers that have come down to us from the first settlers of Rehoboth and Attleborough. The phrase "English hay" that distinguishes the hay grown on the upland from that of the natural grass that grows on the wet meadows or swales ; what a light is thrown back by it on the beginnings of New England life! The only hay the first settlers had on which to carry their half-starved cattle and horses through the winter was that of the native grasses of the low meadows. Readers of Mr. Bliss’s History of Rehoboth, and of John Daggett’s sketches of the History of Attleborough, will remember the jealous care with which these meadows were divided and distributed among the original settlers of both towns. Imported seed from England gave them in due time a sweeter hay from grasses grown on cultivated fields, and from that time on all cultivated hay from upland fields has been known as English hay. And so, could we go back to the earlier days, we should find in them the origin of many a social custom and form of speech now prevailing in the rural parts of Rehoboth and Attleborough, and Seekonk and other towns, to which the earlier Rehoboth gave birth.

But this building looks to the future as well as to the past. It is not only memorial but educational. The gentleman who has addressed us is interested in education. We all are. It is to educational ends that this building is chiefly to be devoted. The generations to come are here to be helped to outstrip their fathers that have lived in these neighboring homes. And all this is good ground for our rejoicing. But in all education, even in the highest and broadest, no lessons under heaven should be more

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earnestly and continuously instilled into the minds of the young than those of personal integrity and honest industry. Next to what we owe to God stands what we owe to society — the duty of honestly earning one’s own living and sustaining the state, of contributing something to the possessions of mankind and to the common weal. If the schooling that shall be given within these walls shall but teach the young men of Rehoboth the folly of forsaking the country for the city and crowded towns, of abandoning the tillage of the soil for trade and the counting room, shall teach them by skillful tillage to bring these surrounding fields into the productiveness of which they are capable, then a service will have been rendered for which all wise citizens and good men will rejoice and give thanks.

But I must cease. With congratulations to our friend, whose name this building is to bear, on the successful completion of his purpose, and to all who have aided, in its completion, my earnest hope is that boundlessly more than the most sanguine have anticipated shall flow out in future years from this memorial structure.

ADDRESS BY REV. JEREMIAH TAYLOR, D. D., OF PROVIDENCE.

MR. PRESIDENT AND CITIZENS OF REHOBOTH :---It was said of a distinguished English divine, of a former generation, that he was a very unfair preacher, inasmuch as he left nothing to be said by another when he had completed his discourse. The orator of the day has rendered himself open to a like charge by the fullness and completeness with which he has covered the ground open to review on this interesting occasion. We are all impressed that this a stirring, proud day for this old town, which is wont

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to be in such quiet rest and cheerful repose in the lap of its richly cultivated farms and contented homes. That you have this building to dedicate, and that you are here on this auspicious occasion for so suggestive and inspiring a service, is one of the best things that has occurred here of recent years.

It is a matter for congratulation that seventy-seven years ago there was born on this spot a child, who to-day has come up hither in perfected manhood, with his noble benefaction already conferred, while the benediction of his presence offers such additional pleasure. I am prepared to congratulate him, I can almost say envy him, for what he has found purpose and means to do, in connection with others, for his native town. If, according to the adage of the ancients, it be sweet and honorable to die for one’s country, it certainly ought to be no less pleasant and honorable for a man while living to do something to beautify and enrich in things most excellent, for all time, that particular section in his country which cradled him in infancy and imparted to him these vital forces which so materially aided in creating the manhood of later years. How much subsequent life depends upon the birthplace. The physical, moral, intellectual, are all toned by the atmosphere of the place. Mountains, valleys, streams of water, trees, flowers, birds, houses, churches, are constant and efficient teachers. A person would be insensible to the most important surroundings of his being who had no love for his native town. Surely, if Mr. Goff had been born any where else than just here, he would not have been the man among us that he is to-day.

Nothing more beautifully reveals the spirit of Lamartine, the French statesman and poet, than the story he tells of his effort to portion off and sell his paternal estate, at Milly, when under the hard pressure of poverty. His

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tender associating was so inwrought with every foot and yard that he rather suffer from want than to see the same domain in the keeping of strangers. A sacred sentiment might not be exchanged for gold. The town, in our New England, has had such a formative influence, in connection with all that is most excellent in the state and national government, that it is only a just recognition of such influences that prompts us to do what we can to perpetuate the institutions of the town.

Happy, indeed, ought the man to esteem himself, who aimed the decadence in the older portions of our country, is enabled to do something for his native town, which will serve to perpetuate her industries, maintain a spirit of such enterprise among the young men as will hold them to the farm, sufficiently, at least, to preserve the blessings, beauties, and thrift of the past, in the rural districts, down through succeeding ages. The decay of homesteads which cluster around the country villages, always offers a scene of sadness. Under the hand of a master genius Sweet Auburn, the deserted village of Goldsmith, made a beautiful poem but a gloomy picture. It is well, it is well, therefore, that Mr. Goff has so nobly met the claims of nativity; that his birthplace is crowned with a Memorial Hall. Here with the antiquarian room, which will always offer object lessons to teach this and the following generations how wisely and well their fathers planned and toiled, with so few facilities to lift the burdens from their own shoulders, will be found the library stored with the best thoughts of all the ages, in. close proximity to the school room, where the young may be taught and trained for the opening fields of usefulness ; and then the spacious hail, where from time to time the thoughtful and intelligent yeomanry will assemble to discuss. the vital questions of the hour, ever ruling wisely from the forum,

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however, such questions as how many hours constitute a clay for labor; for what farmer does not know that labor in the field requires all the time from sun to sun, and as much more as the twilight may yield. If other young men, who go away from home, will follow the example here set and make their individual profit a gain to the town in the end, they may depart; otherwise let them stay by the old acres and make them rich and fruitful.

Personally, I have an interest in this occasion that does not appear on the surface.

In 18oo Rev. Otis Thompson was settled here as pastor. Three years later the Rhode Island Home Missionary Society was formed in Newport. Of this Society I have been Secretary for the past ten years. Mr. Thompson was one of the early friends and patrons of the Society. The counsel and aid so timely bestowed by him may well be remembered, as we note the ever widening work which this agency has accomplished. Mr. Thompson had an accomplished daughter; he had several, as is well known, but I refer to Miss Fidelia. She became the wife of Rev. Tyler Thacher. Mr. Thacher was the pastor of the church in Hawley — my native town - — for several years. He was a man of marked scholarship and high intellectual ability, to whom I owed many of those better influences which entered into my forming manhood. During a college vacation his niece, then on a visit at the parsonage, accompanied him to an evening prayer meeting held at my mother’s cottage. An acquaintance then begun resulted in that young lady becoming my wife, and who has blessed me in that relation for thirty-seven years just as much as any man needs to be blessed.

Fidelia Thompson Thacher, when she removed to Hawley, took with her the first piano forte that was ever carried there. With her fine vocal and instrumental cul-

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ture she gathered the young about her and her home became the centre of attraction, and she also kindly consented to take her place in the choir and lead in the service of song in the sanctuary. She fell a victim to consumption in the bloom of years, passing away too soon, alas! for those who so tenderly loved and relied upon her, but, as the sequel proved, none too soon to save her motherly affection from the sore bereavement which awaited her household, as one after another her three sons came to an untimely death by drowning, sunstroke and the bludgeon of an Indian. How often in later years, when revisiting the scenes of my youth, has the memory of this dear friend been replete with pleasure. Late though it be, Hawley thanks Rehoboth for giving them such a pastor’s wife.

Some two years ago, when tracing the early life of the late Amos D. Lockwood, of such honored memory, it was discovered that it was in this town that he began his business life in the employ of the firm of Peck & Wilkinson, and while the healthful influences that surrounded him there shaped admirably his character as a man, he was no less fortunate in being under the pastoral care of the Rev. Thomas Vernon, who led him tenderly and wisely to the beginning of a Christian life. Mr. Goff, your townsman, who has the seat of honor to-day, I have known, happily, for years, and have sought his aid in benevolent work, always with a prompt and hearty response.

Your pastor, too, who is so important a factor in all that has been and is in connection with this day’s transacting, is no stranger to me. Through his counsel and benevolent deeds my labors have been lightened and my pleasure enhanced. The speed with which, in company with the honored President of Brown University, I came to this gathering, evinces how well he knows how to help

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one on in the world. Allow me to express the thought, in concluding, that any town which has such a Memorial Hall as this, inscribed with the name of a son so worthy, and has for a pastor such a man as Rev. George H. Tilton, who knows so well how to husband and use all valuable things, ought to regard itself as extremely fortunate. May your stream of blessings continue to flow in all affluence.

ADDRESS OF HON. CHARLES A. REED, SECRETARY OF
THE OLD COLONY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :—A native of the ancient town of Weymouth, the first settlement in Massachusetts, it is with pleasure I address you on this historic occasion, as the representatives of Rehoboth, the first migration from that historic settlement of the Bay. No town in Massachusetts better exhibits the phases of municipal history peculiar to a New England town than Rehoboth. Removed from the new civilization based upon organized, incorporated, mechanical industry—the cotton mill, the railroad, the machine shop, and its counterpart, the political organization, the city — pursuing rather ~he industries and customs which spring from the farm, and therefore adhering to the township traits of early New England life, it is interesting in the light of the history of ancient Rehoboth to consider the relation of the town government to the State: In the colonial period extending from 1645 to 1691 ; in the provincial period extending from 1691 to 1775; and in the Commonwealth period extending from 1775 to the present time.

The wilderness of "Secunke" was first broken by the Englishmen, in the person of the eccentric Blackstone, who, having abandoned the mother country to escape the

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tyranny of the Lord Bishops, fled thither to escape the tyranny of the Lord Brethren at Trimountain (Boston) in the Bay, and afterwards by the contumacious Roger Williams, whose last refuge from the imaginary enemies that he unwittingly stirred up by his intemperate theological zeal was close by at the mouth of the Mosshassack, where Providence now stands. Neither of these persons contemplated a settlement, a plantation, a town. Other interests led to the permanent settlement of Seekonk, yet peculiar to those times.

Two distinct, independent colonies had located here— the colony of New Plymouth without any territorial limits, an original trading venture, holding its property in common, without plantation designs, but permanently divorced from the Old World by separatist principles and imbrued with heroic virtues—the colony of Massachusetts Bay having territorial limits; westerly by the South Sea, and northerly and southerly by bounds of which they knew at first but little more, but with potential designs of fixed and permanent settlement of a marked English type. Each by charter and by treaty came early to an adjustment of their adjacent boundaries. The General Court of Massachusetts Bay, June 2d, 1641, "ordered that Secunke near New Providence should be accepted under our government if it fall not in Plimouth Patent," and "Mr. James Parker is appointed to go to Plimouth to see their patent and take a coppey of it."

This James Parker was the Deputy from Weymouth and was moving in the interest of certain persons in Weymouth and Hingham, induced by two other Deputies of the Massachusetts General Court—Joseph Peck and Stephen Paine—leading members of the Bare Cove plantation (Hingham.) At this early day the ancient plantation at Weymouth suffered from three contending factions with

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divers persons in the adjoining plantation of Hingham of like sympathies, and one of those factions under the violent pressure of the other parties, and lacking the sympathy of the Government of the Bay, was preparing to emigrate to this wilderness. This appears from the Plymouth Records, 6 July, 1641.

Mr. Parker, of Weymouth, had a view of the patent and that clause in writing wch concerned the bound from Narragansett Bay to the utmost pts and limmits 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 sonic to sit down at Sickuncke of Hingham. 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 by moving to "Cohannet," now Taunton, about 1640, whither he afterwards moved to Wannamoiset, and under his powerful encourage-merit the original planters of Rehoboth organized at Weymouth October 24, 1643, and among their number were the minister of the Weymouth church, Samuel Newman, 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

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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 subsequent 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 tithes 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 deputacon or committeeship where wth any shall bee intrusted by the governt for the disposall of any lands wth in any pculler place or line wth wch is or shall bee thought mete for the erecting of a Planttacon, neighborhood, colony, township or congrgacon with in this Government.

Whereas, our Soveregne Lord, the King. is pleased to betrust us —with the govment of so many of his subjects as doe or shall bee

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pmtted to live in this govment of New Plym and that it seemeth good unto us to begin, set up and establish a neighborhood, or plantaçon at a place called—— being bounded and lying — miles westward from sd towne of New Plym, and

Whereas, by reason of the distance of place and our many weighty occasions, we cannot so well sec to the receiving in of such psons as may be fitt to live together there in the fear of God and obedience 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 several 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 confirme such porcons 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 front all manner of complts and troubles thereupon welt may cause its to alter anything wch may scent 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 tire Govment about the well ordering of the of the neighborhood in conformitie to such good and wholesome laws, ordinances 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

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in 1645 established. ‘The first recognition of the community 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 officers 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 period 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, turbulent 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 outstripped 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 Indians, 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

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holden at Newtowne," March 3, 1635, the record shows:

Whereas, pticuler townes have many thing wch concerne only themselves * * * it is therefore ordered that the freemen of every towne or the main pie of them * * * choose their owne pticular 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 example, 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 of 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 authorities great concern. A letter written from the General Court to Plimouth, "for preventing ye groeth of errors," shows this supervision:

October 18, 1649:

Honored and beloved brethren— We have heard heretofore of diverse annabaptists arizin up in your jurasdiccon and connived at * * *. Particularly wee understand that within this few weeks there have been at Seccuncke thirteene or fourteene psons rebaptized, (a swift progress in one towne) yet we heare not if any effectual restriccon is extended thereabouts. The infecçon of such diseases being so neare us are likely to spread into our jurisdiccon, tune tua res agitur paries cum proximis 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 wee 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-

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where in that colony, and it was thus early marked by that ecclesiastical freedom then existing in the dismembered settlements adjoining, which afterwards became the Providence Plantations. The consolidation of the two colonies of Massachusetts Bay and New Plymouth into one real province by the name of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, under the charter of 1691, invested Rehoboth with all the functions which had by a like but faster growth attached to the towns. of the Bay. These functions or powers of local government in the town were at the first session of the General Court after the organization 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 extended 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

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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 independent body politic or state" was to be determined, should found its "representation of the people to be annually elected on the principal of equality" upon the town organizations, and thus Rehoboth retained its representation 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 beginning of the present 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 intercommunication. The energy and enterprise of Massachusetts for the first twenty years of this century were expended on the construction of highways. The turnpike, now forgotten, 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

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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 Rehoboth 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 impaired the authority of this ancient town in the councils of the State, have in no measure diminished that attachment for the old town government pervading her sons and daughters, whether residing within her narrowed limits or wandering into the outside arena of business life and enterprise. With gladness 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, tile author of the following hymn, a lineal descendant of William Carpenter and Thomas Bliss two of the original founders 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 Nancy 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 57. 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 inherit 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.] -