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town in Bristol County, Massachusetts
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Dartmouth (Massachusett: Apponeganset) is a coastal town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. Old Dartmouth was the first area of Southeastern Massachusetts to be settled by Europeans in 1652, primarily English. Dartmouth is part of New England's farm coast, which consists of a chain of historic coastal villages, vineyards, and farms. June 8, 2014, marked the 350th year of Dartmouth's incorporation as a town. It is also part of the Massachusetts South Coast.
The northern part of Dartmouth hosts the town's large commercial districts. The southern part of town abuts Buzzards Bay, and there are several other waterways, including Lake Noquochoke, Cornell Pond, Slocums River, Shingle Island River, Little River and Paskamansett River. The town has several working farms and one vineyard, which is part of the Coastal Wine Tour. With a thriving agricultural heritage, the town and state have protected many of the working farms.
The southern part of Dartmouth borders Buzzards Bay, where a lively fishing and boating community thrives; off its coast, the Elizabeth Islands and Cuttyhunk can be seen. The New Bedford Yacht Club in Padanaram hosts a bi-annual regatta. It has been a destination for generations as a summer community. Notable affluent sections within South Dartmouth are Nonquitt, Round Hill, Barney's Joy, and Mishaum Point. As of the 2020 census, the year-round population of Dartmouth was 33,783.
Dartmouth is the third-largest town (by land area) in Massachusetts, after Plymouth and Middleborough. The distance from Dartmouth's northernmost border with Freetown to Buzzards Bay in the south is approximately 16 miles (26 km). The villages of Hixville, Bliss Corner, Padanaram, Smith Mills, and Russells Mills are located within the town. Dartmouth shares borders with Westport to the west, Freetown and Fall River to the north, Buzzards Bay to the south, and New Bedford to the east. Boat shuttles provide regular transportation daily to Martha's Vineyard and Cuttyhunk Island.
The local weekly newspapers are The Dartmouth/Westport Chronicle and Dartmouth Week. The Portuguese municipality of Lagoa is twinned with the town; along with several other Massachusetts and Rhode Island towns and cities around Bristol County.
The town is named after Dartmouth, England. This could have been because Bartholomew Gosnold, the first European to explore the land, sailed to America on a ship from Dartmouth in England. It could have been also named Dartmouth to commemorate when the Pilgrims stopped in Dartmouth for ship repairs.
Before the 17th century, the lands that now constitute Dartmouth had been inhabited by Algonquian-speaking people. John Winthrop (1587–1649), the English leader of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, wrote in his journal that the indigenous community inhabiting the territory that would become Dartmouth was that of the Nukkehkammes. The Wampanoag, with a population is believed to have been about 12,000, had settlements throughout the territory that is now southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, including Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
Massasoit (c. 1581 – 1661), sachem of the Wampanoag, administered a territory roughly corresponding to Bristol and Plymouth counties. The Narragansett inhabited areas to the West.
The English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold in the ship Concord landed on Cuttyhunk Island on May 15, 1602, and explored the area before leaving and eventually settling in the Jamestown Colony of Virginia. Gosnolds explorations of the area took him to Round Hill, which he named Hap's Hill. Additionally he described the territories of Dartmouth as being covered in fields with flowers, beech and cedar groves. He picked wild strawberries, and noticed deer. He also saw the Apponagansett River which runs through Padanaram Harbor, and the Acushnet River.
Settled sparsely by the natives, with the arrival of the pilgrims in Plymouth, the region gradually began to become of interest to the colonists, until a meeting was held to officially purchase the land.
On March 7, 1652, English colonists met with the native tribe and purchased Old Dartmouth—a region of 115,000 acres (470 km2) that now contains the modern cities and towns of Dartmouth, Acushnet, New Bedford, Fairhaven, and Westport—in a treaty between the Wampanoag—represented by Chief Ousamequin (Massasoit) and his son Wamsutta—and high-ranking "Purchasers" and "Old Comers" from Plymouth Colony: John Winslow, William Bradford, Myles Standish, Thomas Southworth, and John Cooke. John Cooke had come to America as a passenger on the Mayflower, a Baptist Minister, he was forced to leave Plymouth due to religious views that differed from the rest of the Plymouth Colony. He would settle in Old Dartmouth.
30 yards of cloth, eight moose skins, fifteen axes, fifteen hoes, fifteen pair of breeches, eight blankets, two kettles, one cloak, £2 in wampum, eight pair of stockings, eight pair shoes, one iron pot and 10 shillings in another commoditie [sic].
While the Europeans considered themselves full owners of the land through the transaction, the Wampanoag have disputed this claim because the concept of exclusive land ownership—in contrast with hunting, fishing, and farming rights—was a foreign concept to them. According to the European interpretation of the deed, in one year, all Natives previously living on the land would have to leave. This led to a lengthy land dispute as the deed did not define boundary lines, and merely referred to the ceded land as, "that land called Dartmouth" and the younger son of Massasoit, Metacomet, began to question the boundary lines of the purchase. Metacomet stated that he had not been consulted about the sale, and he had not given his written permission. The situation culminated with new boundaries drawn up by referees. Chief Massasoit gave his final permission to the changes in 1665.
About six months after the official purchase, Dartmouth began to be settled by English immigrants around November 1652, and it was officially incorporated in 1664. While the Europeans considered themselves full owners of the land through the transaction, the Wampanoag disputed this claim because the concept of land ownership—in contrast with hunting, fishing, and farming rights—was a foreign concept to them.
The town was purchased by 34 people from the Plymouth Colony, but most of the purchasers never lived in Dartmouth. Only ten families came to reside in Dartmouth. Those ten families were the Cooks, Delanos, Francises, Hickses, Howlands, Jennys, Kemptons, Mortons, Samsons, and Soules.
Members of the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, were among the early European settlers on the South Coast. They had faced persecution in the Puritan communities of Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay Colony; the latter banned the Quakers in 1656–1657. When the Massachusetts Bay Colony annexed the Plymouth Colony in 1691, Quakers already represented a majority of the population of Old Dartmouth. In 1699, with the support of Peleg Slocum, the Quakers built their first meeting house in Old Dartmouth, where the Apponegansett Meeting House is now located.
At first, the Old Dartmouth territory was devoid of major town centers, and instead had isolated farms and small, decentralized villages, such as Russells' Mills. One reason for this is that the inhabitants enjoyed their independence from the Plymouth Colony and they did not want to have a large enough population for the Plymouth court to appoint them a minister. There are still Quaker meeting houses in Dartmouth, including the Smith Neck Meeting House, the Allens Neck Meeting House, and the Apponegansett Meeting House, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The rising European population and increasing demand for land led the colonists' relationship with the indigenous inhabitants of New England to deteriorate. European encroachment and disregard for the terms of the Old Dartmouth Purchase led to King Philip's War in 1675. In this conflict, Wampanoag tribesmen, allied with the Narragansett and the Nipmuc, raided Old Dartmouth and other European settlements in the area. Europeans in Old Dartmouth garrisoned in sturdier homes—John Russell's garrison in Padanaram, John Cooke's home in Fairhaven, and a third garrison on Palmer Island.
One of the minutemen signalled by Paul Revere spread the alarm of the approaching British forces into Dartmouth, after moving through Acushnet, Fairhaven, and Bedford Village. Three companies of Dartmouth Minutemen were marched out of the town on April 21, 1775, by Captain Thomas Kempton to a military camp in Roxbury, joining 20,000 other soldiers. Prior to the war Kempton had been a whaler in New Bedford. The additional two Dartmouth companies were led by Captain's Dillingham and Egery. The last Dartmouth town meeting called in the name of George III occurred in February 1776. Also in 1776, and again in 1779, Dartmouth voters where called upon to sit on the Committee of Correspondence, Safety and Inspection, with the job of looking for individuals performing treasonous acts—and to report them to the War Council. Dartmouth had two companies of soldiers in the 18th Regiment of the Bunker Hill Army. No Dartmouth troops were ever again ordered north following March 17, 1776.
In 1778 the village of Padanaram was raided by British troops as part of Grey's raid. The village was then known as Akin's Landing, and following Elihu Akin driving three Loyalists out of the village in September 1778, British raiding parties burned down most of the village, focusing on Akin's properties. The raiders targeted Akin specifically because he had expelled the Loyalists from Dartmouth. They forced Akin to move to his only remaining property, a small home on Potters Hill—the Elihu Akin house. Elihu never financially recovered from the attack and died poor, he lived at the house until he died in 1794. Fixing the damage to the town from the raid cost £105,960 in 1778. Which is roughly equivalent to nine million dollars in today's money. In honor of Elihu, and to commemorate his earlier shipbuilding, the village of Padanaram was called Akin's Wharf for 20 years after the war.
In 1793 Davolls General Store was established in the Russells Mills area.
In the years before the Civil War, in the early 1840s, Dartmouth launched a whaling vessel owned by Sanford and Sherman, had a bowling Alley burn down, as well as hosting an Abstinence rally with some shops refusing to sell Rum and cider. In 1855, the town was home to one cotton mill, three salt works, one factory that made railroad cars, sleighs, wagons, and coaches, two tanneries, seven shoemakers, and five shingle mills, as well as launching one ship. The town had an abundance of livestock, including over a thousand sheep and cows. 850 swine. 428 oxen. As well as 4102 acres of English hay, and 712 acres of Indian corn.
The first town meeting in Dartmouth related to the Civil War was held on May 16, 1861, and contained a preamble about the towns stance on the war.
The Government of the United States is now in a struggle for National existence, popular Liberty, the perpetuity of the Constitution, and the Supremacy of the Laws against the Myrmidous of Slavery and enimies [sic.] of popular Liberty, Therefore resolved that as patriots and friends of the Constitution the National Government and our righted institutions, we the people of Darmouth in Town Meeting assembled do recognize the full extent of the perilous position of our once happy but now beligerent [sic.] and distrac [sic.] country and also, the duty whiche [sic.] we owe to that Constitution and Flag under which we have lived in happiness and prosperity for more than Eighty Years And that we proffer unreservedly and with cheerfulness our aid and cooperation in defence of our liberties and National Flag.
— Dartmouth Town Meeting Notes
At the onset of the Civil War, the first troops to be sent to Washington, D.C. in Massachusetts were called by telegram on April 15, 1861, by Senator Henry Wilson. The Dartmouth men enlisted in the first call to arms were enlisted in the 18th, 33rd, 38th, and 40th regiments.
According to the New Bedford Republican Standard, on September 4, 1862, Dartmouth fulfilled its part in the quota sent from Washington, D.C. Which called for 20 companies, three full regiments, and four regiments of militia to be brought from Massachusetts. The fighting force was meant to be made up of the strongest companies in the state. Dartmouth had eight men in the 18th Regiment, twelve men in the 38th Regiment, and one in both the 33rd and 40th.
In 1862, the town of Dartmouth voted to pay volunteers for the war. William Francis Bartlett stopped in Dartmouth after being wounded at the Siege of Yorktown. Several Dartmouth soldiers were at the Second Battle of Bull Run. George Lawton, Leander Collins, Robert H. Dunham, Frederick Smith, Joseph Head, Abraham R. Cowen, and John Smith were all present at the battle. They served in the 8th Battery MVM, the 16th, and 18th Regiment MVI, and the light artillery. In the New Bedford Republican Standards August 18, 182 issue it was reported that a Dartmouth town meeting voted to pay a $200 bounty to nine-month volunteers. In the month following the Battle of Antietam, many Dartmouth men joined the 3rd regiment of infantry in the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia. They completed training at Camp Joe Hooker in Lakeville before leaving for Boston on October 22, 1862. They then embarked on the Merrimac and Mississippi for New Bern, North Carolina. Dartmouth then proceeded to fulfil its second quota, sending 20 men to Company F, and three to company G. At the Battle of Fredericksburg, Private Joseph Head, a machinist, Frederick Smith, a seaman, and Frederick H. Russell—all from Dartmouth—were injured. Isaac S. Barker, a carpenter, was killed.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Dartmouth, Massachusetts”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.