1893 The Millicent Library opens for business for the first time, following its dedication two days earlier.
1960 William Q. “Biff” MacLean Jr. is elected to the Fairhaven School Committee Later he will be elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives and to the state Senate.
February 2
1857 Mrs. Ada L. Coan gives an exhibition of spiritualism at Phoenix Hall, claiming that spirits will answer a series of test questions provided by a committee of skeptics.
1945 Our Lady’s Haven is dedicated as a Catholic nursing home by the Most Reverend James E. Cassidy, Bishop of Fall River. It will be staffed by Carmelite Sisters.
February 3
1856 Fairhaven STAR founder Charles D. Waldron is born in Fall River, MA.
1917 The National Bank of Fairhaven building sustains heavy damage from a fire.
2020 Jackson’s Variety on Sconticut Neck Road is destroyed by fire.
February 4
1734/35 Jabez Delano is born to Thomas and Jean (Peckham) Delano.
1795 Isaiah Weston is ordained the first full time minister of the Second Church of Christ, now First Congregational Church of Fairhaven.
1895 Harriet S. “Big Hattie” (Morse) Bowen dies. Allegedly weighing close to 700 pounds, Hattie exhibited herself as a fat lady in dime museums in St. Louis and New York.
February 5
1865 Ann Engle Rogers the first child of Henry H. and Abbie (Gifford) Rogers is born in Titusville, PA
1915 Landscape architect A. R. Sargent informs William R. Coe that one of two 50-foot tall copper beech trees from the estate of Henry H. Rogers is loaded on a boat at the wharf in Fairhaven and the second is expected to be loaded the next day. The two trees will be transported to the Coe Estate at Oyster Bay, Long Island.
February 6
1872 The New Bedford and Fairhaven Street Railway Company is chartered.
1926 Town Meeting votes to adopt Fairhaven's first zoning by-laws after a number of public hearings conducted by the Planning Board.
1978 The town is buried under about 26 inches of snow accompanied by hurricane force winds in the “Blizzard of '78.”
February 7
1689 Philip Taber is born to Thomas and Mary (Tomson) Taber.
1830 Dennis and Savory and Betsey D. Taber are married by Justice of the Peace Alfred Nye.
1888 The Rogers School Hall , or auditorium, on the third floor of the building, is dedicated with a special program.
February 8
1934 The Spouters present “The Queen’s Husband” at the Town Hall with a cast including William H. Sparrow, Janet B. Hendrick, and Nathaniel Pope.
February 9
1878 The grocery store and “ice cream saloon” of Reuel Washburn at the northwest corner of Oxford and Main Streets is badly damaged by fire.
February 10
1832 The Fairhaven Institution for Savings is incorporated, with Ezekiel Sawin as its first president.
1902 Edmund Anthony Jr., publisher and managing editor of the New Bedford Evening Standard, dies at the age of 68.
1959 The house on the southeast corner of Union and Walnut streets is purchased for use as a parsonage by the Unitarian Memorial Church.
1985 An opening ceremony is held for the Job Paths program for adults with disabilities at the former Job C. Tripp School.
2022 the Select Board votes unanimously to hire Angie Lopes Ellison as the Town's second Town Administrator.
February 11
1906 The original St. Joseph’s Church is dedicated.
1928 Town Meeting votes to dedicate the triangular piece of land at the junction of Adams and Main streets in Memory of Ernest J. Benoit of Wilding Street, who was killed in World War I.
February 12
1845 The whaleship Ansel Gibbs, Isaiah West, captain, returns from a 20-month whaling voyage in the Indian Ocean.
February 13
1860 Acushnet separates from Fairhaven.
February 14
1886 Capt. William H. Whitfield dies at his home on Cherry Street.
1940 The “Valentine’s Day Blizzard” leaves snow drifted up to five feet in some places.
2015 Winter storm "Neptune," a strong blizzard, brings up to 20 or more inches in our area. The storm along with earlier storms in January and February, gave Boston its snowiest winter season on record.
February 15
1797 Jethro Jenney Jr., Joseph Delano and George Hitch, owning adjoining properties in Fairhaven Village, agree to share a well equally between them and that “expenses in cleaning and repairing it shall be equally paid by all.”
1818 Joseph Bates marries Prudence M. Nye.
1948 Following the devastating fire in 1946, the first floor of the new Centre Methodist Church is completed and the church reopens.
2011 The School Building Facility Study Committee votes to approve a plan calling for the closure of Rogers School and for the replacement of the Leroy Wood School with a new, larger building.
February 16
1849 Businessman Levi Jenney Jr. dies. He had been a founder of the Fairhaven Academy, Town Clerk and Selectman
1992 Don Pedro San Juan, 40, dies in an early morning house fire at 2 West Street. His wife, four children, and downstairs neighbors survived the fast-moving blaze.
February 17
1818 Joseph H. Jenney and Betsey Tupper are married by the Reverend Abraham Wheeler, pastor of the Congregational Church.
February 18
1879 Charles D. Waldron first publishes the Fairhaven STAR, which will be the town’s weekly newspaper until 1967.
1894 Just days before the dedication of the new Town Hall, Henry H. Rogers’ first summer home on Fort Street is destroyed by fire.
1896 The U.M.S. Club present a Minstrel Show at the Town Hall.
February 19
1851 The whaleship Pacific departs for the Pacific Ocean. The voyage will last more than three years.
1856 The ship John Rutledge strikes an iceberg and sinks, leaving Thomas W. Nye of Oxford the sole survivor.
1891 The New Bedford Standard reports “Capt. Slocum, whose adventures in a small boat which he built in South America are well known to our readers, is visiting friends in the vicinity.”
2000 The School Committee votes 4 to 2 to hire Dr. Patricia Ansay as Superintendent of Schools.
February 20
1858 The Fairhaven built ship John Milton is wrecked off Long Island during a blinding snow storm.
1879 Levi M. Snow and James V. Cox become directors of the National Bank of Fairhaven.
1994 A rededication ceremony at the Town Hall commemorates the centennial of the building with period music and presentations of the original speeches.
February 21
1990 The United States Environmental Protection Agency puts 20-acre Atlas Tack property on its Superfund Cleanup list.
February 22
1812 Town of Fairhaven is incorporated.
1894 Fairhaven Town Hall dedicated with Henry H. Rogers‘ close friend Mark Twain as the keynote speaker at the ceremony.
1922 A house and land next door to St. Joseph’s Church is purchased to use as a new location for the church’s overcrowded school.
1922 Whitfield's Premiere, Fairhaven's first movie theater, opens at 54 Main Street, north of the Masonic Building. Built by Selectman Thomas Whitfield and managed by Alfred Nye the theater seats more than 550.
1967 Henry Rogers Benjamin, a Millicent Library trustee and grandson of Henry H. Rogers, dies.
February 23
1787 New Bedford, including Fairhaven, becomes a town separate from Dartmouth.
1894 The day after the Town Hall is dedicated, a gala Dedication Ball is held in the auditorium.
1935 Town Meeting votes to allow the Fairhaven Colonial Club exclusive use of the Academy Building.
1990 The Mullins Freezer building at the northwest corner of Washington and Middle streets is destroyed by fire.
February 24
1896 The new ferry Fairhaven makes its first trip across the river.
February 25
1728 A road is laid out from Susannah Hathaway’s orchard southward along what is now northern Main Street and Adams Street to about Spring Street.
1959 Isaac N. Babbitt III dies at the age of 87. Five years earlier the auditorium of the Congregational Church’s parish house was named in his honor for having served as the church’s capital fund chairman.
1972 The fresco of a shepherd is completed by artist Robert W. Bruce at the Church of the Good Shepherd.
February 26
1778 Levi Jenney Jr. is born to Levi and Molly (Blossom) Jenney. He will be a Town Clerk and a selectman.
1843 Mr. William Gould, former minister of the First Congregational Church, is installed as the minister of the newly formed Centre Congregational Church.
February 27
1909 The Fairhaven Star announces the town’s voter list has grown to 817 names, the largest in town history.
1941 Anthime E. Brunette was born to Mrs. & Mrs. Anthime Brunette of 414 Main Street.
1943 Town Meeting votes to accept Moravia Avenue on the west side of Sconticut Neck Road as a public street.
February 28
1677/78 Lt. Jonathan Delano marries Mercy Warren. Living in what’s now East Fairhaven they are ancestors of both Ulysses S. Grant and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
1800 Massachusetts law gives school districts the power to tax residents for the support of schools.
1912 Sara (Cox) Anthony dies and leaves the town $10,000 in trust to be used for educational purposes in memory of her husband Edmund Anthony Jr., publisher of the New Bedford Standard.
1951 The Whitfield family’s ownership of the house at 11 Cherry Street ends with the sale of the house to Lucian E. Long.
February 29
1824 Stephen Taber of Fairhaven marries Elizabeth Sprague Pitcher of Rochester. Later in life, Elizabeth Taber will found Tabor Academy in Marion.
© COPYRIGHT 2022 by Christopher J. Richard. All rights reserved.
