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    Abington
    Abington
    Abington
    Ebook164 pages39 minutes

    Abington

    By Sharon Orcutt Peters

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    About this ebook

    Throughout Abington's history, its central location between Boston and Plymouth has been a vantage point that has been reflected in both work and play. It is Abington that provided the white-oak planks for the USS Constitution, and the town's Island Grove Park had national significance during the abolitionist movement. Abington was founded and built around the mills and then grew with the times to become a focal point for the thriving shoe industry. Many wealthy industrialists and capitalists have left their mark with brick and mortar. Their mansions still line the streets, and their lives shaped Abington forever.

    Abington presents an illustrated portrait of what it was like to live and work in the town during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It presents vivid images of the townsfolk, the shoe factories, and the old roads through Abington. The book includes images of John L. Sullivan, heavyweight boxing champion, and of the Buffum automobile, built on Centre Avenue. With photographs from the Abington Historical Commission, the Dyer Memorial Library, the Historical Society of Old Abington, and personal collections, Abington is sure to evoke memories of a bygone era.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateJul 9, 2002
    ISBN9781439611531
    Abington
    Author

    Sharon Orcutt Peters

    Author Sharon Orcutt Peters is a member of the Abington Historical Commission and a resident of Abington. She is also a freelance writer who has produced works pertaining to South Shore history. With the help of many, including Abington organizations and private residents, she has compiled this intriguing town history for all to enjoy.

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      Book preview

      Abington - Sharon Orcutt Peters

      generations.

      INTRODUCTION

      In a deal known as the Bridgewater Purchase, the area now called Abington was sold by Massasoit to Myles Standish. At that time, land grants divided Bridgewater into shares and settlements. Abington was born of this region, known to the Native Americans as the land of beaver. The area was more vast in those times and included the towns that we know today as Whitman and Rockland. We are told that two rivers, as well as numerous brooks and streams, drifted through open forests of white oak and groves of pine.

      In 1668, Andrew Ford was the first to make his settlement. His acreage is thought to have stretched from the boundary of North Abington to the center of Abington.

      Lumbering became the foremost trade of the original Abington settlers. By the early 1700s, mills had been erected to manufacture wood for the growing shipbuilding trade in Scituate, Hingham, and Weymouth. In this way, Abington wale planks came to be a part of the USS Constitution. Some of the boards from these old Abington trees still support the floors and attics of Abington houses.

      In those days, Abington had only two popular routes of travel. According to Benjamin Hobart’s History of the Town of Abington (1866), the first road was said to stem from Middleborough, through East Bridgewater, down Washington Street, and into Weymouth (Route 18). The second road came from Plymouth, through Hanson, into Abington via Plymouth Street, and continued on to Weymouth (Route 58). Journeymen would then find their way to Boston from these towns, a trip that would take days. In addition to these roads, there were many cart paths and cutthroughs. One such path was a route from South Weymouth’s Great Pond area, which was already a formidable location of mills and settlements. Settlers coming from Weymouth, including our own Andrew Ford, built some of Abington’s oldest houses.

      The Massachusetts Bay Colony was still under the direction of England, and posts and land grants were doled out. Anne Bertie, England’s Countess of Abingdon and daughter of the Earl of Abingdon I, was said to have been instrumental in naming Gov. Joseph Dudley to his post. In appreciation for her help, the governor named the town of Abington for the countess. In 1712, it became incorporated.

      By 1732, the town of Old Abington had its first schoolhouse. In addition, Andrew Ford’s meadow had been dammed and flooded to create a millpond for growing industry.

      The early 1800s brought the weaving trade. In 1845, the Old Colony Railroad was started. Irish settlers began to make their homes in Abington at this time. The population of Old Abington is thought to have been about 5,200 residents. It was sometime in the first half of the 1800s that the shoe industry began to take root. The railroad, successful industry, and the growing population created the need for a bank. In 1850, the Abington Bank was first incorporated.

      While Abington was certainly earning a reputation for its success as an industrial town, the town had already become known as the location for some of the greatest speaking engagements of the time. Island Grove hosted some of the nation’s best-known abolitionists. In William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper the Liberator (1831–1865), the Beautiful Grove is mentioned no fewer than 50 times. We lent both our soldiers and our land to the cause of liberating slaves. After the Civil War, Abington was where soldiers were mustered out. In 1870, eight citizens of this area called themselves Musterfield

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