Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Abington
    Abington
    Abington
    Ebook164 pages39 minutes

    Abington

    By Sharon Orcutt Peters

    ()

    Read preview

    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.

    Related to Abington

    Related ebooks

    Travel For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Nantucket Doesn’t Belong to the Preppies

      Aug 30, 2021

      Photographs by Amani Willett I caught the fast ferry from Hyannis to Nantucket, 30 miles off the coast of Massachusetts. As the boat plowed the waves, I was taken aback by my first view of the island. I could see it all at once, end to end, 14 miles

      12 min read

    • Article

      Pieces Of History: The Story Of Gee’s Bend

      Aug 4, 2021

      Quilts are what propelled the small community of Gee’s Bend into the headlines, so it is fitting their quilts tell the Gee’s Bend tale… Long before the quilts of Gee’s Bend hung in museums of Fine Art, the women of Boykin, Alabama were making quilt

      6 min read

    • Article

      Gene Autry in Oklahoma

      Mar 5, 2024

      Gene Autry in Oklahoma
      6 min read

    • Article

      Cast in Iron?

      Apr 2, 2020

      Cast in Iron?
      7 min read

    • Article

      Pageant Fever

      May 5, 2020

      Pageant Fever
      5 min read

    • Article

      Looking Back 200 Years

      Mar 16, 2020

      Looking Back 200 Years
      4 min read

    • Article

      Looking Forward

      Sep 6, 2018

      II am pleased to introduce Aimee Greenaway, our newest addition to British Columbia History magazine. Aimee hails from Nanaimo, and will be taking over the reins as Book Review Editor in coming months. I asked her in this column to tell us a little a

      10 min read

    • Article

      Quaint Rhode Island Brings Rare Notes

      Apr 5, 2022

      This month, I thought I would take you on a visit to a state about which I have never written before: Rhode Island. It is the smallest state in our union, and one from which I own just a single national bank note, but it is a nice one, and the town i

      4 min read

    • Article

      Accessing BC History in 2020

      Dec 4, 2020

      Accessing BC History in 2020
      11 min read

    • Article

      Front Words

      Dec 15, 2023

      Front Words
      4 min read

    • Article

      Your Letters

      Oct 9, 2020

      Your Letters
      5 min read

    • Article

      Mosaic

      Jul 23, 2019

      Mosaic
      6 min read

    • Article

      Why We Love MANITOBA

      Mar 4, 2019

      Why We Love MANITOBA
      7 min read

    • Article

      Frio Town, Texas

      Sep 24, 2019

      Frio Town, Texas
      3 min read

    • Article

      Huntingburg—An Old Friend

      Dec 30, 2019

      Huntingburg—An Old Friend
      5 min read

    • Article

      Union Bay Historical Society

      Sep 3, 2019

      Union Bay Historical Society
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Other Billie

      Dec 4, 2018

      The Other Billie
      5 min read

    • Article

      Mosaic

      Mar 24, 2020

      Mosaic
      5 min read

    • Article

      Letters from Readers

      Mar 4, 2021

      Letters from Readers
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Kid’s Mom

      Aug 9, 2022

      I think of the morn when I sailed away from thee / I said, ‘Pray to God for me, pray to God for me’ Catherine McCarty sang along to the popular tune “La Paloma” and twirled around the wooden dance floor, her 12-year-old son’s hands in hers. Surely th

      13 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Abington

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      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

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1