CHAPTER I

THE EARLIEST DAYS

The Native Inhabitants and Their Lives .

King Philip and Weetamoe.

The Pocasset and

Freemen's Purchase s

Though the New World was discoveredby Columbus in 1492 and the northern coas twas skirted six years later, by SebastianCabot under the protection of the EnglishKing, thereby giving England some claimto the territory, it was not till the Pilgrim slanded at Plymouth in 1620 that any perma-nent settlement was made in New England .Till then the territory that now comprisesthe city of Fall River had been a part of th edomain of the Wampanoag Indians, in whos epossession it remained till shortly befor eKing Philip's war, fifty-five years later, an dwith these original proprietors of the soi lthe history of the city properly begins .

The section had been visited by othersbefore the Pilgrims came, however, thoughone cannot speak with absolute certainty o ftheir names or the date of their coming.The Northmen, the hardy, sea-loving Viking sof many a tale, were of an adventurous dis-position. and, according to their sagas, in1008, a party of them, under Thorfinn, saile dup the Seaconnet River to Mt. Hope Bay ,where they spent the winter. They "calledthe place Hop," whence some have though tto trace the name Mt . Hope . They trade dwith the natives and may have marked acuriously-traced stone found at Bristol, a swell as Dighton rock . On this, however ,critical historians are skeptical .

Far more thoroughly authenticated tha nthis, and, indeed, a matter of accepted his -tory, is the visit of Joseph Verrazzano, aFlorentine discoverer, under French patron -age, who in 1524 . after calling at Block Isl-and, entered Narragansett Bay, where h eand his company of fifty men remained ,probably at Newport, about fifteen days . Hewas greatly pleased with the natives, ofwhom he saw much, and described them an dtheir customs at length in a letter to the king . *

"They were," he said, "the finest-lookin g

*Bicknell's Barrington .

people and the handsomest in their costume sthat we found on our voyage. They exceedus in size, and are of a very fair com-plexion ; some of them incline more to awhite and some are of a tawny color . Thei rfaces are sharp ; their hair is long and black,on the adornment of which they besto wgreat care. Their eyes are black and keen ;their demeanor is gentle and attractive . . . .The women resemble them in size and ar every graceful and handsome, and quite at -tractive in dress and manners . They hadno other clothing except a deer skin, orna-mented as were the skins worn by the men .Some had very rich lynx skins upon thei rarms and wore various ornaments upon thei rheads, braided in their hair, which hungdown upon their breasts . "

These were a part of the Wampanoag s,long a powerful and populous people, able t ocall together 3,000 warriors, and the owner sof nearly all of Southeastern Massachusetts .They were an important division of th

e Algonquin nation, but as the result of a terribl eepidemic, possibly smallpox, about 1612 ,their numbers had been greatly reduced a tthe time of the Plymouth settlement, an dthey had been obliged to pay tribute to thei rancient enemies, the Narragansetts, wh odwelt on the west shores of the bay . It wasthis weakened condition of the tribe whichwas probably a potent factor in bringing th echief, Massasoit, early to make a treaty offriendship with the Plymouth settlers ,through Indians who had learned Englis hfrom chance traders, and to remain thei rfirm friend till his death, forty years later .The treaty, too, was of great advantage fo rall, not only in trade, but as a shield for th ewhites against hostile natives, as well as fo rthe Wampanoags against their foes. Onesub-chief, Corbitant , who occupied this ter-ritory, was hostile to the whites, but he wa srestrained by Massasoit and died a fe wyears after the Plymouth settlement.

2

HISTORY OF FALL RIVER

The good qualities of the Wampanoag In-

dians may, of course, be easily overesti-

mated, and yet much could be said for thei r

intelligence and hospitality, as well as for

their generally superior qualities whe

n compared with some other tribes. During the

long reign of Massasoit, whose death oc-

curred in 1660, they were consistently friend-

ly to the Plymouth settlers, and it was no t

till he was gone and Wamsutta, his eldes t

King Philip

son, had succeeded him, that the whites be-

gan to question their good faith

. Wamsutta's humiliating treatment by the English ,

and his death of fever possibly brought on

by this, which the Indians suspected was

poisoning, did not improve a feeling already

growing tense . Philip, the second son,

known to his followers as Metacomet, be-

came chief, and as matters grew worse and

the settlers encroached more and more o n

his hunting grounds, nursed thoughts tha t

had their vent in the historic war that bears

his name. Though this raged about th e

present city, no important incident in th e

conflict took place within its limits . The

end of the struggle was the practical de-

struction of the Wampanoags as a tribe, an d

the flight of most of the few survivors to th e

Penobscot Indians in Maine. Philip himsel f

was killed, near Mt . Hope, August 12, 1676,

and his wife and child sold into slavery in

Bermuda.

So complete was the destruction of th e

Indian power that in the Governor's Thanks -

giving proclamation in December it wa sstated : "Of those several tribes and parties

that have hitherto risen up against us ,

which were not a few, there now scarc e

remains a name or family of them in their

former habitations, but are either slain, cap-

tivated or fled into remote parts of thi swilderness, or lie hid, despairing of thei r

first intentions against us ." *

One of the best, if not the very best, docu-

ments setting forth the Indian attitude to -ward the whites about 1670, and more espe-

cially that of King Philip, is his reply t o

John Borden, of Portsmouth, following th e

receipt of a complaint from the council a t

Plymouth, just before the outbreak of th ewar . This reply, which was prepared an d

probably delivered at Mt . Hope, sets fort h

the grievances of the Indians most simpl y

and yet forcibly and is a notable example ofIndian eloquence. It is as follows :

"The English who came first to this coun-

try were but all handful of people, forlorn ,

poor and distressed . My father was thei rsachem. He relieved their distresses in th e

most kind and hospitable manner . He gave

them land to build and plant upon . He di d

all in his power to serve them . Others o f

their own countrymen came and joine d

them. Their numbers rapidly increased . My

father's counsellors became uneasy andalarmed, lest, as they were possessed o f

firearms, which was not the case with th e

Indians, they should finally undertake t o

give law to the Indians, and take from them

their country . They, therefore, advised hi m

to destroy them, before they should become

too strong, and it should be too late . My

father was also the father of the English .

He represented to his counsellors and war-

riors that the English knew many science s

*Memorial History of Boston 1 : 325 .

HISTORY OF FALL RIVER

3

which the Indians did not ; that they im -proved and cultivated the earth, and raise dcattle and fruits, and that there was suffi-cient room in the country for both the Eng-lish and the Indians . His advice prevailed .It was concluded to give victuals to the Eng-lish . They flourished and increased . Experi-ence taught that the advice of my father' scounsellors was right .

"By various means they got possessed ofa great part of his territory. But he stillremained their friend till he died . My elde rbrother became Sachem. They pretended t osuspect him of evil designs against them .He was seized and confined, and therebythrown into sickness and died. Soon afte rI became Sachem . they disarmed all mypeople . They tried my people by their ow nlaws, and assessed damages against themwhich they could not pay . Their land wastaken. At length a line of division wa sagreed upon between the English and m ypeople, and I myself was to be responsible .Sometimes the cattle of the English woul dcome into the cornfields of my people, fo rthey did not make fences like the English .

"I must then be seized and confined til lI had sold another tract of my country fo rsatisfaction of all damages and costs .

"Thus tract after tract is gone . But asmall part of the dominion of my ancestorsremains .

"I am determined not to live till I have n ocountry . "

Of the habits of the Wampanoags a fairl ycomplete picture has come down to us . The ywere considerably advanced in civilization ,cultivating corn, beans, pumpkins an dsquashes, preparing food by no means unpal-atable, with the aid of fire, dressing bar kfor their canoes, and weaving mats of rushe sand grasses for their wigwams . They madecooking utensils of stone and clay, and othe rrude articles of shell, stone and bone, an dprepared skins for clothing . They were ac-curate in their observations of the weather ,and had names for the constellations . Theyworshipped various gods but believed in onesupreme being and the immortality of thesoul . Their weapons were the familiar ston etomahawk and the bow with arrows tippedwith sharp stones .

Their lives were wandering, though wit hpermanent haunts, which can be traced to -day by heaps of shells or stone implements .The summers they spent near the ponds o rshore, where they could most easily obtainfish and shellfish, both of which, as well as

game of many kinds, were abundant, and inwinter they retired to sheltered valleys o rdense swamps . Their residence was alway swhere the means of obtaining food wer eeasiest and life the most comfortable . Thesoil was fertile, and though this section wa sheavily wooded with oak, walnut and pine ,they had cleared some places for gardens ,three of which are known to have existe dwithin the limits of the present city, in eachcase where the presence of water on one ormore sides made fencing against wild ani-mals easiest . One of these garden spot swas on the flats near Slade's ferry, anothe rnear the Fall River Iron Works, where aneck of land now occupied by the prin tworks ran out with tide water on threesides, and a third where the QuequechanRiver makes out from the ponds . As else-where among Indians, the women cultivate dthe crops, dug the clams, carried burden sand in general did the drudgery, while thei rlords hunted and fished . They had learnedto fertilize their corn by placing fish in th ehills, a custom which they taught the white sand which is still practiced .

Game fish, scallops, oysters and clams ,the latter baked much as in the clambaketo-day, together with corn and nuts, wer etheir staple foods . The corn was parched ,pounded to meal in a mortar and baked ,sometimes with the addition of berries ,which were abundant . The latter, notablystrawberries, were often bruised and adde dto the bread to make a primitive shortcake .Shad roes, boiled with acorns, were anothe rfavorite dish. Nuts of all kinds were gath-ered for winter stores and acorns for thehair oil they would produce, as well as fo rtheir nutriment .

For protection against the winter the ybuilt easily transported 'wigwams, made o fthick and well-woven grass mats thrownaround poles meeting at the top. These cov-erings were double, with the finer inside .A small mat could be thrown over the topto retain the warmth, and another was use dto close the entrance which was about threefeet high. Mats were also used for beds.

The leaders did not encourage efforts o fmissionaries to convert their followers, toChristianity . It is told of Philip, for ex -ample, that on hearing of such work acrosshis borders he positively refused to entertainthe preachers, to listen to their teaching orto allow his subjects to be approached by it .He spoke bitterly in contempt of the Englishcreed, and on one occasion, taking hold of

4

HISTORY OF FALL RIVE R

Eliot's coat button, told him he cared n omore for his religion than for that . *

The sharpness of the native intellect an dtheir acuteness in framing difficult question smay be seen in some of the queries the In-dians about Boston put to Eliot.t He hadtold them they were the children, not of God ,but of the devil, and they were naturall ymost interested in the latter. They asked :Whether the devil or man was made first ?Whether there might not be something, i fonly a little, gained by praying to the devil ?Why does not God, who has full power, kil lthe devil that makes all men so bad? If al lthe world be burned up, where would hel lbe then ?

Their language was easily learned, by th ewhites, at least sufficiently for most pur -poses, but was difficult to put in writing .It was extremely guttural, and often thewords were of great length, sometimes run-ning to more than forty letters each, wit hthirteen or even fifteen syllables . Thoughthe dialects varied considerably, it was th esame tongue as that spoken throughout Mas-sachusetts, Rhode Island and the greate rpart of Connecticut . The natives soon cam eto understand the English language, thoug hthey were not so quick to acquire the abilityto speak it.

Many of the implements of the Indian shave been found in various parts of th ecity, and some notable private collection shave been made. The Indian names hav elargely been preserved in the titles of bank-ing and manufacturing corporations an dclubs within the city, as well as in the nam eof the Quequechan River and in the designa-tion of scores of near-by sections .

Until the war which wrought the exter-mination of the Wampanoags. there hadbeen no white settlers within the bounds o fthe present city, though the title to the sec-tion north of the Quequechan had passe dto the English in 1659 by what is known a sthe Freemen's Purchase . This extende dfrom the Quequechan River on the south toStacey's Brook, the present northern boun-dary of Freetown, a distance of eight or ninemiles, and easterly from the Taunton Rive rabout four miles. It had been granted tothe twenty-six residents of Plymouth wh owere its purchasers by the general cour tthere July 3, 1656, and was conveyed b ythe Indians in accordance with a writte n

*Memorial History of Boston, I :264 .tlbid, 269,

promise made by Wamsutta, eldest son o fChief Massasoit, to John Barns, of Ply-mouth, to whom he was in debt, Decembe r24, 1657 . In addition to satisfying this debt ,the English paid the Indians the various ar-ticles named in the deed which was as fol -lows :

"Know all men by these presents that we ,Ossamequin, Wamsitta, Tattapanum, Na-tives inhabiting and living within the gov-ernment of New Plymouth, in New Englan din America, have bargained, sold, enfeoffe dand confirmed unto Captain James Cud -worth, Josiah Winslow, Sr ., Constant South-worth, John Barns, John Tesdale, Humphre yTurner . Walter Hatch, Samuel House, Sam-uel Jackson, John Daman, Mr . TimothyHatherly, Timothy Foster, Thomas South -worth, George Watson, Nathaniel Morton ,Richard Moore, Edmund Chandler, Samue lNash, Henry Howland, Mr . Ralph Partridge ,Love Brewster, William Paybody, Christo-pher Wadsworth, Kenelme Winslow, Thoma sBowen and John Waterman, the son o fRobert Waterman, and do by these presentsbargain, sell, enfeoff and confirm from us ,our heirs, unto James Cudworth, JosiahWinslow, Senior, Constant Southworth, JohnTesdale, &c ., and they and their heirs, allthe tract of upland and meadow lying on theeasterly side of Taunton River, beginning o rbounded towards the south with the rive rcalled the Falls or Quequechand,and so ex-tending itself northerly until it comes to alittle brook, called by the English by th ename of Stacey's Creek : which brook issue sout of the woods, into the marsh or bay o fAssonate close by the narrowing of Assonat eNeck, and from a marked tree, near the sai dbrook at the head of the marsh, to exten ditself into the woods on a northeasterl ypoint four miles, and from the head of sai dfour miles on a straight line southerly unti lit meet with the head of the four-mile lin eat Quequechand, or the Falls aforesaid, in-cluding all meadow, necks or islands lyin gand being between Assonate Neck and theFalls aforesaid (except the land tha tTabatacason hath in present use) and themeadow upon Assonate Neck, on the southside of the said neck, and all the meado won the westerly side of Taunton River fro mTaunton bounds round until it come to thehead of Weypowset River, in all creeks ,coves, rivers and inland meadow not lyin gabove four miles from the flowing of th etide in and for the consideration of twent ycoats, two rugs, two iron pots, two kettles

HISTORY OF FALL RIVER

and one little kettle, eight pair of shoes, si xpair of stockings, one dozen hose, one doze nof hatchets, two yards broadcloth and adebt satisfied to John Barnes which wasdue from Wamsitta, unto John Barnes be-fore the 24th of December, 1657, all bein gunto us in hand paid, wherewith we, th esaid Ossamequin, Wamsitta, Tattapanum ,are fully satisfied, contented and paid, an ddo by these presents exonerate, acquit anddischarge (here all the grantees are agai nnamed) they and either of them and eac hof the heirs and executors of them forever .Warranting the hereof from all persons ,from, by or under us, as laying any clai munto the premises from, by or under us ,claiming any right or title thereunto, or unt oany part or parcel thereof, the said (gran-tees) to have and to hold to them and thei rheirs forever, all the above upland an dmeadow as is before expressed, with all theappurtenances thereunto belonging from us ,Ossamequin, Wamsitta and Tattapanum ,and every of us, our heirs and every of the mforever, unto them, they, their heirs, execu-tors, administrators and assigns forever, ac -cording to the tenure of East Greenwich, i nfree soccage and not in capte nor by knights 'service . Also the said Ossamequin, Wamsit-ta and Tattapanum do covenant and gran tthat it may be lawful for the said (grantees )to enter the said deed in the court of Ply -mouth, or in any other court of record pro-vided for in such case, in and for the tru eperformance whereof Ossamequin, Wamsitt aand Tattapanum have hereunto set ourhands and seals this 2d day of April, 1659 .

[Seal ]WAMSITTA

his X mark. [Seal ]

TATTAPANUM, her X mark . [Seal ]

Signed, sealed and delivered in presence o f

THOMAS COOKE ,JONATHAN BRIDGE ,JOHN SASSAMON .

Chief Massasoit (Ossamequin) never sign-ed the deed . He was already aged and mayhave declined business or delegated it t ohis eldest son, Wamsutta, on account of hi sadvanced years . Wamsutta's wife Weetamo e(or Tattapanum), who had succeeded herfather Corbitant as squaw sachem of th e

Pocassets, raised strenuous objections t osigning the document, on the ground tha tthe territory was her own property, whichher husband had no right to sell . A settle-ment was finally made with her and he rsignature obtained by the payment in addi-

tion of twenty yards blue trading cloth, tw oyards red cotton, two pairs shoes, two pair sstockings, six broad hoes and one axe . Shehas been described by a white woman wholived some time among the natives as " asevere and proud woman, . . . bestow-ing every day in dressing herself nearly a smuch time as any of the gentry, powderin gher hair and painting her face, going withher necklace, with jewels in her ears an dbracelets upon her hands ." She was drown-ed at Slade's Ferry during King Philip' swar, while fleeing from the English .

The grant from the Plymouth governmen tunder which the Freemen's Purchase wasmade was later confirmed in a deed fro mthe Plymouth officials .

That part of the city lying south of th eQuequechan, as well as the present tow nof Tiverton, was designated as the Pocasse tPurchase, from the name of the sub-tribe o fIndians from whom it was taken in Kin gPhilip's war . It extended from the Queque -chan to the Puncatest and Dartmouthbounds on the south and easterly from th ebay from four to six miles . The price, a sgiven in the deed from the Plymouth govern -ment, was £1,100 . The text of the instru-ment is as follows :

"To all to whom these presents shall come ,Josiah Winslow, Esq., Governor of the Col-ony of New Plymouth ; Major Wm. Bradford ,Treasurer of the said Colony ; Mr. ThomasHinckley and Major James Cudworth . As-sistants ,to the said Governor, send Greeting ;and whereas we, the said Governor, Treas-urer and Assistants, or any two of us, b yvirtue of an order of the General Court o fthe Colony aforesaid, bearing date Novem-ber, A. D., 1676, are impowered in sai dColony's behalf to make sale of certai nlands belonging to the Colony aforesaid, an dto make and seal deeds for the confirmationof the same, as by the said order remainin gon record in the said court rolls more a tlarge appeareth ; now, know ye that we, thesaid Governor, Treasurer and Assistants . a sagents, in behalf of the said Colony, for an din consideration of the full and just sum o fone thousand and one hundred pounds i nlawful money of New England, to us in hand ,before the ensealing and delivery of thesepresents, well and truly paid by EdwardGray, of Plymouth, in the Colony aforesaid ;Nathaniel Thomas, of Marshfield, in th eColony aforesaid ; Benjamin Church, ofPuncatest, in the Colony aforesaid ; Christo-pher Almy, Job Almy and Thomas Waite, of

6

HISTORY OF FALL RIVER

Portsmouth, in the Colony of Rhode Island,and Providence Plantations ; Daniel Wilcox,of Puncatest, and William Manchester, o fPuncatest, in the Colony of New Plymouthaforesaid, with which the said sum, we, thesaid agents, do acknowledge to be fullysatisfied, contented and paid, and thereof doacquit and discharge the said (grantees) an dtheir heirs, executors, administrators andassigns forever ; by these presents havegiven, granted, bargained, sold, aliened ,enfeoffed and confirmed ; and by these pres-ents for us and the said Colony of New Ply-mouth, do freely, fully and absolutely give ,grant, &c ., to the said (grantees) all thoselands situate, lying and being at Pocasset ,and places adjacent in the Colony of Ply-mouth aforesaid, and is bounded as follow-eth: Northward and westward by the Free-men's lot, near the Fall River ; westward b ythe Bay or Sound that runneth between thesaid lands and Rhode Island ; southwardpartly by Seaconnet bounds, and partly b yDartmouth bounds, and northward and east -ward up into the woods till its meets withthe lands formerly granted by the Court t oother men, and legally obtained by themfrom the natives, not extending further tha nMiddlebury town bounds and Quitquissettponds ." (Several small reservations previous-ly sold are here named, and the deed pro-ceeds in the usual form, and adds) : Thatis to say, to the said Edward Gray nineshares or thirtieth parts ; to the said Na-thaniel Thomas five shares or thirtiethparts ; to the said Benjamin Church oneshare or thirtieth part ; to the said Christo-pher Almy three shares and three quartersof one share; to the said Thomas Waite on eshare ; to the said Daniel Wilcox two shares ;to the said William Manchester five shares . "(The rest of the deed is in the usual form o fa warrantee deed . )

Signed, sealed and delivered in the pres-ence of witnesses, March 5, 1679-80 .

JOSIAH WINSLOW, Governor ;WM. BRADFORD, Treasurer ;THOMAS HINCKLEY,

JAMES CUDWORTH, Assistants .

The Freemen's Purchase was incorporate din 1683 as the town of Freetown, then apart of the Plymouth Colony . Two year slater the lands under the control of th ePlymouth government were divided into thethree counties of Bristol, Barnstable an dPlymouth, and Freetown. as well as thePocasset Purchase, became a part of Bristol

County . In 1692 the three counties wereunited with Massachusetts and the Plymout hColony government, which then includedTiverton, came to an end .

The first owners of the Freemen's Pur-chase divided it among themselves by lo tinto twenty-six shares, each having a front -age of about 100 rods on the river andextending easterly about four miles to theeastern boundary of the strip purchased .These lots were numbered consecutively ,beginning a few rods north of the Queque-chan River . Thirteen full lots and a part ofthe fourteenth fell within what is now th ecity of Fall River .

The first lot, nearest the Quequechan, wa sdrawn by Timothy Foster and sold in 167 9to William Earle, John Borden and David L .Lake, all of Portsmouth, for £140. Muchof it was sold to the Bordens and remaine din that family for generations. The secondwas drawn by Humphrey Turner, and pass-ed through various owners till 1731, whe nthe west end of it became the property ofBenjamin Durfee at whose death it passedto his son, Thomas, who had also acquiredthe north half of the first lot and was thu sthe owner of all the land from Elm street toTurner, and from the river to the ponds .Christopher Wadsworth drew the third lot ;Edmund Chandler, the fourth ; SamuelHouse, the fifth ; John Howland, the sixth ;George Watson, the seventh ; Ralph Part-ridge, the eighth; Timothy Hatherly, theninth ; Love Brewster, the tenth ; Richar dMoore, the eleventh ; William Hatch, thetwelfth ; Thomas Southworth, the thirteenth ;and William Paybody, the fourteenth . Thedivisions and transfers from these earlyowners to the present day can be tracedby the curious at the registry of deeds with-out much difficulty .

The Pocasset Purchase was likewise di-vided among the proprietors by a commit-tee consisting of Christopher Almy, Jo bAlmy, William Manchester and Nathanie lThomas, appointed at a meeting of the pur -chasers April 11, 1 681 . The first twelve lot swere within Fall River, and with the excep-tion of seven, eight and nine were fifty-tworods wide. A strip thirty rods wide adjoin-ing the Quequechan was owned in common .The others were called "great lots" and ex -tended from the bay one mile eastward to

Eight Rod Way, now Plymouth avenue,which was ordered laid out in 1696 . Theywere numbered beginning thirty rods southof the Quequechan and were drawn as fol-

HISTORY OF FALL RIVER 7

lows : Lots 1, 2, 4, 8 and 12, Edward Gray ;3 and 5, William Manchester ; 6, Benjami nChurch 7 and 9, Christopher Almy ; 10, Dan-iel Wilcox ; 11, Job Almy .

A second division was made later of th eland between Plymouth avenue, Watuppapond and the Quequechan River, which waslaid out in 120-acre lots, called

"six-score-acre lots," with Richard Borden, John Cook ,William Corey, Job Almy, Thomas Corey ,Lidy Gray, Christopher Almy, NathanielSouthwick, Joseph Wanton, Seth Arnold an dEdward Gray as the first owners . A thir ddivision of land near the pond was made i n1697 and included the section between th eQuequechan River and Bedford street, nowknown as Flint Village . It extended west-ward nearly to Twelfth street .

The original grand deed of the Pocasse tPurchase has been carefully preserved, an dis now in the possession of the family of th elate Cook Borden . The original deed of theFreemen's Purchase is believed to have bee nlost . The records of the Pocasset proprie -

tors are still preserved and show that hous elots with gardens in the rear were laid ou tat Stone Bridge, where a ferry lot and aministry lot were also set aside, evidenc ethat it was there the original owners ex-pected the settlement would be made . Thespelling is curious for its marked variationfrom present styles, sometimes greatlyshortened, as in the form "Xofer Allmy "for Christopher Almy, and sometimes length-ened by the addition of apparently unneces-sary letters, as in "att" and "lott ." Twosmall "f's" were used instead of a capitaland a small "w" in nearly every case . Therecords pertain almost entirely to the land ,but there are occasionally other matters ,like the vote that those who had not pai dtheir share should not have the right todraw for sections, and another vote, Ma y29, 1792, that "Levi Rouncifull of Freetownand Joseph Durfee of Tiverton be appointe dagents by this proprietee to forbid all an devery person from taking iron ore out ofany fresh pond or ponds . "

The Old Slade House, formerly at S. W. Corner of North Mam and Elm Streets