March 1
1925 On Ash Wednesday, the first Mass at the original St. Mary’s Church in North Fairhaven is celebrated by Fr. Charles De Baetselier.
1961 Rupert and Margaret A. Wunschel begin publication of The Phoenix Press, which will be printed weekly for several years.
March 2
1867 New Bedford oil merchant Weston Howland purchases the Ezekiel Sawin mansion at the corner of Washington and William streets.
1879 Temperance lecturer Robert Scott delivers an address at the Congregational Church.
1914 Town Meeting votes to set aside a 12-acre portion of the Town Farm on the east side Main Street in North Fairhaven for park purposes.
March 3
1997 Gail Isaksen buys the vacant Phoenix Building at the northeast corner of Main and Center streets for $125,000.
2006 Fairhaven Convenience Store on Sconticut Neck Road is robbed by two masked men who are apprehended a short distance away.
March 4
1857 Alfred Nye first opens a store in the cellar of the home on the southwest corner of Main and Washington streets. Nye will later move to a new building that he has built diagonally across the intersection.
1826 Zebulon Haskell and Sally Church are married by Justice of the Peace James Taber.
March 5
1971 Three youths, Russell and Charles Macomber and Mark Pimental, drown in a boating accident off of Jack’s Cove. In September donations of land lead to the creation of Macomber-Pimental Park on Sconticut Neck.
March 6
1727 Lt. Seth Pope dies at the age of 79. He had been one of the most prominent land owners and civic leaders of his day.
1731/32 Stephen and Mercy (Cooke) West deed the north half of West Island to their son John West.
1809 Privateer Capt. Noah Stoddard, 55, marries his third wife, 22-year-old Mary Sherman, a niece of his second wife.
1898 Benjamin Jenney, who lived at the southwest corner of Cherry and Lafayette streets, dies. His niece Martha (Jenney) Coggeshall will later build the house that became the Coggeshall Memorial House, home of the Fairhaven Colonial Club.
1907 Henry H. Rogers and his wife Emilie H. Rogers convey Fairhaven High School to the Town of Fairhaven.
March 7
1832 The proprietors of the Fairhaven and New Bedford Ferry are incorporated.
1857 The whaleship Erie returns after a 3 ½ year voyage to the north Pacific.
March 8
1664 Capt. Miles Standish sells his share of Dartmouth to John Russell.
1816 Rebecca West, daughter of William and Nancy West, is born.
1905 Henry H. Rogers 3rd is born in New York to Col. Henry H. and Mary (Benjamin) Rogers.
1952 The Town votes to purchase Plot 18, Lot 77 and buildings thereon, adjacent to Benoit Square Memorial for park purposes. The Selectmen are authorized to dispose of the buildings at public auction to be removed from the property as soon as possible.
March 9
1883 The Hon. John Hawes dies. He served as a Selectman, School Committee member and State Senator. In 1878 he was elected first Commodore of the New Bedford Yacht Club.
1894 Town Meeting votes not to allow electric trolleys to enter Fairhaven, although they run from New Bedford as far as Pope’s Island.
March 10
1781 Killey E. Merrihew is born to Stephen and Ruby (Eldredge) Merrihew.
March 11
1877 The National Bank of Fairhaven moves into the Richmond building at the southwest corner of Main and Center streets. The old bank building next door will be sold to the Fairhaven Institution for Savings.
1889 The Ladies Benevolent Society of East Fairhaven is founded.
1904 The Diocese of Fall River is created with William Stang as its first bishop.
March 12
1841
The whaleship Acushnet puts in to Rio de Janeiro to sell 200 barrels of oil.
1957
The Millicent Library starts its Bookmobile service using a vehicle funded with
$3,220 from the Philip E. Young Memorial Fund.
March 13
1844 Capt. Jahaziel Jenney of the whaleship Albion is lost at sea when he becomes entangled in a harpoon line which is attached to a whale.
1965 Chester A. Hathaway is elected Town Moderator in a vote by ballot at the Special Town Meeting held within the Annual Town Meeting.
1968 Charles Pittle sells to Berdon Inc. the property which will become Fairhaven’s first large shopping plaza on Route 6.
March 14
1825 Joseph Bates Sr. sells about twenty-one acres of farmland east of the Mill Pond in the vicinity of Mulberry Street.
1841 Rev. William Miller begins a series of fifteen lectures about the Second Advent of Christ at the Washington Street Christian Meeting House.
1850 Artist Lemuel D. Eldred is born.
2004 The membership of the Centre Methodist Church votes to close the church in June due to dwindling membership.
2012 Just before 9:00 a.m. a crane lifts into place the blades of the north turbine built by Fairhaven Wind LLC south of Arsene Street.
March 15
1840 Capt. Nathaniel Bonney puts in at Pohnpei Island with the whaleship Charles Drew. Four men try to jump ship but are captured and put in irons.
March 16
1828 A contract is signed by a committee from Oxford Village, for the construction of a stone schoolhouse in District 11. The school on the north side of North Street is the first Fairhaven school built under the district school system.
1865 Prominent businessman Nathaniel Church dies at the age of 66. He served as a Selectman for eight years and was State Representative in 1846-47.
1924 Evelyn L. (Teixeira) Martin is born. She will serve as secretary to the principal of Fairhaven High School from 1942 until 1988.
2020
Fairhaven schools, the senior center and the Millicent Library are closed
because of concern over the worldwide outbreak of coronavirus COVID-19.
March 17
1724/25 Sarah Delano, daughter of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Durfee) Delano, is born.
1939 A daughter of Henry H. Rogers, Cara (Rogers) Broughton, “Lady Fairhaven,” dies in England at the age of 71.
1949 One-hundred and forty turkeys die in a fire in a brooder house at the property of Joseph Batistelli in East Fairhaven.
March 18
1961
Town Meeting votes to allow the Select Board to petition the Massachusetts
General Court for authority to sell park property between Main Street and
Middle Street, originally deeded to the town in 1904 by members of the Delano
family, to neighboring Park Motors.
March 19
1812 The New Bedford Mercury reports the first officers for the newly established Town of Fairhaven are Joseph Tripp, Town Clerk, and Stephen Tripp, James Taber and Benjamin Tripp, Selectmen.
1928 An early morning fire causes $12,000 damage to the unoccupied “Fairhaven Hospital,” owned by Dr. Joseph N. Tessier, located on the west side of Fort Street at the foot of Cedar.
1950 Charles Radcliffe becomes the cashier of the National Bank of Fairhaven.
1960
Town Meeting votes to sell the Town Infirmary or “Poor Farm” property at Route
6 and Sconticut Neck Road for $40,000 to Melmar Corporation of Delaware, a
developer who will build the “Brunswick Lanes” bowling alley.
March 20
1833 Mary E. Huttleston marries Rowland Rogers. They will be the parents of Henry H. Rogers.
1938 “Lady Cara Fairhaven,“ Mrs. Urban Broughton of London and daughter of Henry H. Rogers, makes her last visit to Fairhaven, presenting the Selectmen with a portrait of her father which hangs in the Town Hall.
1941 The elm tree is adopted as the State Tree of Massachusetts.
March 21
1836 William Augustus Clark is born to Cyrus E. and Sophronia Clark.
1979 A Fairhaven High School production of the musical “The King and I” begins a four-day run at the Town Hall. The cast includes Bonnie Brault as Anna and Stuart Rogers as the King.
March 22
1830 Eliza Williams Nye, Mrs. Edward A. Dana, is born to Amelia (Chambers) Nye and Thomas Nye Jr.
1843 About 100 members of the First Congregational Church are dismissed and form the Centre Congregational Church under the leadership of Rev. William Gould, who had also left the First Congregational.
March 23
1915 Former U.S. President William Howard Taft visits Fairhaven High School, Rogers School and addresses the public at the Town Hall as a guest of the Fairhaven Improvement Association.
1957
Town meeting votes to appropriate $350,000 to build and equip an addition to
Rogers School.
March 24
1713/14 John Jenne (Jenney) deeds an acre of land to “the people of God called Presbyterians” for a burial ground. Later known as “Burial Hill,” this is now part of Acushnet Cemetery.
1916 Charles Dean Waldron, founder of the Fairhaven STAR and its publisher for 37 years, dies of a heart attack. The newspaper is taken over by Waldron‘s son Henry.
1990 The First Congregational Church votes to sell its parsonage at 113 Laurel Street to its minister, the Rev. Roger C.B. Daly.
March 25
1730 Stephen West deeds the south half of West Island to his son Stephen West Jr.
March 26
1954 Town Meeting votes to appropriate $14,140 for the purchase or taking of land to build a junior high school. Another $15,000 is voted for preliminary plans and drawings.
2017 The Fairhaven Kmart closes after doing business in town for about 40 years.
March 27
1634 John Cooke marries Sarah Warren in Plymouth.
March 28
1942 The Fairhaven Institution for Savings holds a public open house in its new building at 15 Center Street.
1966 The 48-foot fiberglass steeple is installed on the Centre Methodist Church, completing the 20-year rebuilding of the church following a fire in 1946.
2003 The Fairhaven Village Militia is established by a volunteer group of historical re-enactors that was first organized in 1999 by the Fairhaven Office of Tourism. Charles Cromwell is elected as the group’s first commander.
March 29
1952 The Progressive Club at Main Street and Alpine Avenue is heavily damaged by fire.
1929 The ferry “Winifred” makes its last run across the Acushnet River.
1953 Railroad days in Fairhaven end when the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad closes the Fairhaven Branch line.
March 30
1958 Lynwood
P. Harriman becomes Superintendent of Schools.
© COPYRIGHT 2022 by Christopher J. Richard. All rights reserved.
