April
1
1701 Reliance Jenney is born to
Lettice and Desire (Blackwell) Jenney.
1905 Ground is broken for the
new Fairhaven High School.
1906 The Mission of the Good
Shepherd holds its first prayer service in the Old Stone Schoolhouse, having
previously met at the Oxford Chapel.
1991 Ruth Galary becomes the
first woman elected to the Fairhaven Board of Selectmen.
1996 After a year-long
controversy during the high school expansion project, a non-binding referendum
question regarding “Room 7” appears on the town’s annual election ballot. It is
voted 1,567 to 929 that the student desks and chairs in “Room 7” of Fairhaven
High School be kept in place.
2013 The annual town election results in a controversial one-vote win by incumbent Peter Deterra over challenger John Wethington in the race for Board of Health. After a court hearing and examination of some questioned ballots, a judge rules the race a tie, resulting in the scheduling of a special election.
2024 Andrew Romano becomes the first openly gay person to be elected to the Fairhaven Select Board, defeating three other candidates to win one of two open seats.
April
2
1969 A tragic house fire at the corner of Blackburn and Main Streets causes the death of three young boys of the Weeks family, Alan, Glen and Kevin.
April
3
1906 The cornerstone of Rogers School is reopened in order to
remove “certain papers wanted by Mr. Rogers.”
1939 The Reverend Wilburn B.
Miller is elected minister of the Unitarian Memorial Church.
1971 Town Meeting votes to
establish a Historical Commission under section 8D of Chapter 40 of the
Massachusetts General Laws.
1997 The FHS Drama Club presents the musical “Bye Bye Birdie” in the Knipe Auditorium. The lead roles are played by Melissa Oliver and Jacob Fowle.
April
4
1940 The Fairhaven STAR reports
that the cupola is being removed from the top of the Phoenix Building.
1965 Rex Monument Works of New
Bedford moves the Henry H. Rogers monument from the traffic island at
Huttleston Avenue and Main Street to the southwest corner of the high school
lawn.
2022 At the annual town election, the size of the Select Board is increased from three members to five. Leon Correy III becomes the first black person elected to the Select Board.
April
5
1953 The second floor of the
New Center Methodist Church is completed and a special service is held.
2008 A knife fight outside VFW Post 2892 on Middle Street results in the death of Joshua Fitzgerald, age 30.
2021 In the annual town election, Ronnie Manzone wins a seat on the Housing Authority, becoming the first openly transgender person elected to town office in Fairhaven.
April
6
1872 The sloop yacht Pointer
built by Capt. John B. Smith for Mr. Robert Bennett is launched.
1895 The state legislature
grants permission for the Fairhaven Improvement Association to take control of
the old burial ground known as the “Railroad Cemetery” at the head of William
Street, and to remove the remaining bodies and grave markers in order to create
a public park.
1992 Twenty-three-year-old John T. Haaland becomes the youngest person elected to Fairhaven’s Board of Selectmen.
April
7
1888 Town Meeting votes 198 to 31 to allow the Fairhaven Water Company to develop a public water system in town.
April
8
1802 William Proctor Jenney is born to Susannah (Proctor) Jenney and Levi Jenney Jr.
April
9
1853 About 100 Irish laborers begin arriving in town to begin construction of the Fairhaven Branch Railroad.
April
10
1846 The ship Maine,
George E. Netcher, captain, begins a 2 ½ year whaling trip, bound for the
Indian Ocean.
1906 In an informal ceremony on the 50th anniversary of his graduation from Fairhaven High School, Henry H. Rogers dedicates the new Fairhaven High School, the last public building he donates to the town.
April
11
1853 Construction of the Fairhaven Branch Railroad is begun.
April
12
1902 Edward T. Pierce starts work as a teller at the National Bank of Fairhaven. From 1912 to 1950 he will serve as the bank‘s cashier.
April
13
1798 A group of prominent men
agree to build “an academy between the villages of Fairhaven and Oxford.”
1926 Cara L. Broughton,
daughter of Henry H. Rogers, presents selectmen with a check for $5,000 to be
used for the purchase of Fort Phoenix, to be preserved as a town park.
1975 The second floor auditorium in the main building of Fairhaven High School is dedicated to long-time English teacher Mabel Hoyle Knipe.
April
14
1926 School children line the
rocks and parapet at Fort Phoenix, singing and waving flags at the departure of
Cara L. Broughton aboard the yacht Saphire.
1941 Ground is broken for the water supply line to Sconticut Neck.
April
15
1906 On Easter Sunday, the
Mission of the Good Shep-herd holds its first communion service.
1917 Fr. Stanislaus Bernard is
appointed as the second pastor of St. Joseph’s parish.
1996 The Fairhaven-New Bedford Bridge opens after having been closed for repairs for eleven months.
April
16
1922 The Church of the Good Shepherd celebrates its first
service in the new church on Main Street. The previous evening ten young
children had been baptized in the church.
1930 A large fire at the
Fairhaven Airport (Sound Airways) damaged two small buildings, part of the main
hangar and five planes.
1945 Fire Chief Edward G.
Spooner dies at the age of 62.
1996 The Board of Selectmen votes unanimously to hire Christopher J. Richard as the town’s first Director of Tourism.
April
17
1671 Esther (Taber) Perry is
born to Thomas and Hester (Cooke) Taber. There is no further record of Thomas
Taber’s first wife Hester and it is speculated that she died from complications
of the birth of Esther.
1840 Banker and whaling
merchant Ezekiel Sawin purchases the lot on the southwest corner of Washington
and William streets from George H. Stevens, Charles F. Stevens and others.
Sawin will build a large Greek revival mansion there.
1883 The whaleship John Howland is wrecked in the Arctic.
April
18
1868 A robbery attempt at the
Fairhaven Bank is foiled when clerk William Stoddard returns after hours to
retrieve his pipe.
1976 A fire causes extensive damage to the “Levasseur “or “Eldridge” estate at Adams Street and Huttleston Avenue, the home of former selectman Victor N. Fleurent.
April
19
1831 The Fairhaven Bank, later
known as the National Bank of Fairhaven, is formed with Ezekiel Sawin as its
first president.
1864 The Fairhaven Iron Works
begins operation in its factory on the lot bounded by Laurel, Center, Chestnut
and Union streets.
1945 Gail (Jacobsen) Isaksen is
born.
1985 William and Carol
Crompton, owners of Associated Printing, buy the building at 124 Sconticut Neck
Road from Sconticut Neck Pharmacy, Inc.
1995 Ground is broken for the ill-fated BioSafe mining project at the landfill. The project will be halted by the fall.
April
20
1933 The Fairhaven Branch
Railroad operates for the first time with a five-mile trip to Mattapoisett.
1854 Henry L. Card dies at the age of 82. Until his retirement in 1916, Mr. Card has run a variety store in the Phoenix Block for 46 years.
April
21
1775 The local militia
companies march to Roxbury following the “Lexington Alarm” two days earlier.
Daniel Egery leads the company from Fairhaven Village.
1855 Captain Arthur Cox is severely injured when frightened horses upset his carriage at the railroad station.
April
22
1982 The Massachusetts Department
of Public Health begins a study of families living near Cushman Park because
four cases of childhood leukemia have been reported in the past five years.
1995 A day-long centennial celebration is held to commemorate the beginning of Capt. Joshua Slocum’s around-the-world voyage in the sloop Spray.
April
23
2000 Early on this Easter morning, five vandals break into Fairhaven High School and smash the marble bust of Henry H. Rogers, stealing its head. The statue’s head is later recovered in Riverside Cemetery.
April
24
1895 Capt. Joshua Slocum sails
the sloop Spray from Boston to begin the first solo voyage around the
world.
1999 A ribbon-cutting ceremony
is held to dedicate the new, $633,272, state-funded Phoenix Bike Trail.
2001 Retired Fairhaven Police Chief Peter F. Barcellos dies at the age of 64. He had joined the police force in 1959 and had served as chief from 1978 to 1992.
April
25
1892 Noted marine artist
William Bradford dies.
1932 Civil War veteran George H. Carpenter dies at the age of 86 at his home on Lafayette Street.
April
26
1944 Selectman Thomas W. Whitfield dies. With 27 years in office, he was the second-longest serving selectman in Fairhaven’s history.
April 27
1810 Seventeen-year-old Joseph Bates Jr. of Oxford Village is impressed to join the British Navy in Liverpool, despite having American citizenship papers.
2003 A fuel barge operated by Bouchard Transportation Co. leaks nearly 100,000 gallons of heavy oil into Buzzards Bay 13 miles offshore, causing widespread damage to the shorelines of West Island and Sconticut Neck.
April
28
1977 A Fairhaven High School production of “My Fair Lady” opens for a three-day run at the Town Hall. The show stars Christopher LeBlanc as Henry Higgins and Bonnie Brault as Eliza Doolittle.
April
29
1849 The whaleship Friendship, Capt. William Scott, returns to port after a 2 ½ year voyage to the Indian Ocean.
April
30
1823 Artist William Bradford is born on
the Kempton farm in the part of Fairhaven that will later become Acushnet.
© COPYRIGHT 2022, 2024 by Christopher J. Richard. All rights reserved.
