May 1
1800 The New Bedford (later Fairhaven)
Academy opens on the west side of Main Street, north of Bridge Street.
1915 The Oxford Branch of the Millicent
Library opens at Oxford School with 835 books, 70 of which are in French.
1976 “American Moments,“ a bicentennial
pageant by Mabel Hoyle Knipe, is presented by Fairhaven High School students
and faculty at Elizabeth I. Hastings Junior High School.
1980 The first issue of The Advocate, a
weekly newspaper, is published by Gilbert Vieira.
May 2
1967 Ground is broken for the addition to
the Millicent Library.
May 3
1892 The cornerstone of the
Millicent Library is laid.
1925 The new St. Joseph’s Church is
dedicated.
2004 After 110 years of weekly winding,
the mechanism of the Town Hall Clock is electrified.
May 4
2003 Willow Park at Fort and South
streets is renamed Leonard E. Pierce Memorial Park in memory of the former
National Bank of Fairhaven president, avid gardener and neighbor of the park
who had tended a lovely perennial garden in the park for about a decade before
his death.
May 5
1828 Joseph Bates Sr. dies at the age of
78. He was a Revolutionary War veteran , a deacon of the Congregational Church
and a founder of the New Bedford (Fairhaven) Academy.
May 6
1795 At a Town Meeting it is voted to
extend Main Street north from Fairhaven Village across the Herring River to
Oxford Village.
1833 The sloop Helen begins ferry service
on the Acushnet River. The fare is 6 ¼ cents and the ferry operates from
sunrise to 8:00 p.m.
1868 Capt. Alexander Winsor begins a 118
day voyage sailing the clipper Herald of the Morning from New York to San
Francisco.
2018 Fire destroys the Thomas Livesey
Memorial Club building at 15 Hopkins Street.
2023 Town Meeting prohibits the use of thin-film single-use plastic bags, polystyrene plastic or expanded polystyrene (foam) food service packaging, and polystyrene foam cups. In a separate article Town Meeting prohibited the sale of alcohol "nip" bottles holding less than or equal to 100 milliliters.
May 7
1843 The ship John Howland arrives in
port carrying Manjiro Nakahama, who is the first Japanese person to live in
America.
1907 Two years before his death Henry H.
Rogers records his will.
1930 The state legislature approves an
act allowing Fairhaven to adopt a
limited representative form of Town Meeting.
2000 The 150th anniversary of Riverside
Cemetery is celebrated with a program including speakers and tours of the
grounds.
2009 Following a fundraising effort by
Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara of Japan and the purchase of the Capt. William Whitfield
house at 11 Cherry Street by a group of Japanese donors, Dr. Hinohara presents
the house as a gift to the Town of Fairhaven.
May 8
1830 Hiram Tripp buys from the Rotch
family the lot at the southeast corner of William and Center streets for
$183.65.
1902 Capt. Eben Pierce dies at the age of
84. Inventor of the Pierce Bomb Lance harpoon gun, the former whaling captain
gave his old sloop Spray to Capt. Joshua Slocum in 1891.
1902 The dedication of the new Atlas Tack
factory on Pleasant Street takes place.
May 9
1776 Levi Jenney marries Molly Blossom,
daughter of Benjamin and Bathsheba Blossom.
2004 Following the showing of the film
“Intermission,” the Bijou Theater in North Fairhaven closes.
2022 Former Select Board member Daniel Freitas
dies at the age of 53 after a period of declining health.
May 10
1904 Captain John Charry of Main Street
dies at the age of 79.
2003 The Fairhaven Heritage Center at the
First Congregational Church holds its opening.
May 11
1739 Deborah (Delano) Egery is born to
Jethro and Elizabeth (Pope) Delano.
1935 A new Cape Cod style cottage on
Huttleston Avenue opens as the ice cream shop of the Rogers Brothers Dairy.
May 12
1929 The Fairhaven Iron Works factory on
Ferry Street is destroyed by fire.
1972 Fire Chief Donald R. Bernard and
members of the 4th Old Dartmouth Militia stage the first “Nathaniel Pope Day,”
including a re-enactment of the first naval battle of the American Revolution.
1997 Rick Boyer, author of the Doc Adams
series of suspense novels, visits Fairhaven to research locations for his next
book, “The Man Who Whispered.”
May 13
1845 The whaleship Acushnet, Capt.
Valentine Pease, returns from a whaling voyage to the Pacific. “Green hand”
Herman Melville had hopped ship before the conclusion of the trip.
1901 The Concordia Lodge votes to accept
the Masonic Building from Henry H. Rogers and to change the its name to George
H. Taber Lodge.
May 14
1775 Fairhaven captains Nathaniel Pope
and Daniel Egery and the crew of the sloop Success capture two British vessels
in the outer harbor in the first naval battle of the American Revolution.
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.
May 15
1884 The cornerstone of Rogers School is
laid.
1902 Financed by Henry H. Rogers, the new
Atlas Tack factory is dedicated at Pleasant Street. It will soon be operating
20 hours a day.
1995 The Fairhaven-New Bedford Bridge is
closed for major repairs that take eleven months. Just 18 days after its April
15, 1996, reopening, the bridge’s two new transmission units break down and the
bridge is closed for another three weeks.
May 16
1846 The whaleship Franklin departs from
New Bedford with Manjiro Nakahama on board as a steward.
1975 A Colonial Ball is held at the Town
Hall as part of Nathaniel Pope Weekend.
May 17
1675 A month before the outbreak of the
King Philip War, John Cooke, Arthur Hathaway and James Shaw are elected
Selectmen.
1971 The organizational meeting of the newly appointed Fairhaven Historical Commission is held at the Millicent Library. Members of the Commission are Rita B. Steele, chair, Paul B. Drake, secretary, Mary Battaini, Elizabeth I. Hastings, Donald R. Bernard, Milton Delano, and Kenneth M. Wood Jr., chair of the Select Board.
1975 A re-enactment of the first naval
battle of the American Revolution is staged off the shore of Fort Phoenix beach
by Donald R. Bernard as part of Nathaniel Pope Weekend.
May 18
1821 Marriage intentions are filed for
Mr. Hosea Reed and Miss Mercy Cornish.
1939 In the Fairhaven Star, Mrs.
Elizabeth A. Adams of the Tabitha Inn announces she will open a restaurant
known as the Skipper in a building on Middle Street south of Huttleston Avenue
that was formerly the home of Furnan's Yacht Agency.
May 19
1902 The last service is held in the old
Unitarian Church on Washington Street.
1909 Henry H. Rogers dies at his New York
home at the age of 69.
1989 The “main office” of the high school
is dedicated in honor of Evelyn (Teixeira) Martin, who retired the previous
year after serving as the secretary to the principal for 45 years.
2001 The World War II aircraft spotting
tower is re-dedicated by the West Island Improvement Association.
May 20
1851 William F. Nye, founder of Nye Oil
Company, marries Mary Keith.
May 21
1894 Just three months after presenting
the Town Hall to her hometown, Abby (Gifford) Rogers dies in New York following
surgery for stomach cancer.
1905 The first Roman Catholic Mass in
Fairhaven is celebrated in Phoenix Hall by the newly arrived Fathers of the
Sacred Hearts.
1966 A ceremony marks the completion of
the New Bedford-Fairhaven-Acushnet Hurricane Barrier.
2000 The new $19.4 million addition to
Fairhaven High School is dedicated.
May 22
1886 George H. Taber, auctioneer, acting
on behalf of the town, sells the old “Pink Schoolhouse” in North Fairhaven to
Amos Rogers for $52.
1909 Henry H. Rogers’ memorial service is
held at the Unitarian Memorial Church.
May 23
1855 Lightning strikes the chimney of a
house belonging to “the Misses Pease,” splitting the building in two.
May 24
1796 The Second Church of Christ [First
Congregational Church] receives its bell from the foundry of Paul Revere in
Boston.
1833 At noon, the 70-ton steamboat
Acushnet is launched from the shipyard of Fish and Delano to begin ferry
service between Fairhaven and New Bedford.
May 25
1841 The whaleship Sharon, Howes Norris,
captain, departs. Capt. Norris will be murdered before the voyage is over.
1940 Direct dial telephone service begins
in greater New Bedford.
1943 A meeting held at the Milli-cent
Library by a group of interested boys leads to the formation of the Fairhaven
Boys Club.
1946 Naval architect William H. Hand Jr.
of Middle Street, dies at the age of 70.
May 26
1828 William Rotch, son of Joseph Rotch,
dies. He owned approximately 86 acres of land directly east of William Street
at Fairhaven Village.
May 27
1895 Installation of electric poles and
wiring for the trolley line begins.
May 28
1924 Captain Sheffel Read marries Miss
Almira Hathaway.
1841 Trustees of the Center
Congregational Church purchase land at the northeast corner of Center and
Walnut streets from William Rotch Jr. to build their church.
May 29
1646 In
Plymouth Sarah Jenney, daughter of John and Sarah (Carey) Jenney, marries
Thomas Pope.
1841 The whaleship Heroine, Francis C.
Smith, captain, departs for the Pacific Ocean.
May 30
1765 Elnathan Eldredge sells about 86
acres of his land east of Fairhaven Village to Joseph Rotch. This land,
extending from William Street to Adams Street, was held in the family until
after the death of William Rotch in 1828.
1892 Cornerstone of Town Hall is laid in
a public ceremony.
1943 An honor roll listing servicemen
serving in WWII is dedicated. Built by American Legion Post 166, the honor roll
is located at a small park at the southwest corner of Main Street and
Huttleston Avenue.
May 31
1934 Fairhaven’s first police radio call
is broadcast. Before this time, patrolmen had to telephone the police station
at regular intervals from homes and businesses on their beats.
1997 Fairhaven native Christopher LeBlanc
is named Executive Director of the Zeiterion Theatre in New Bedford.
2004 A flagpole just south of the Main
Street overpass at Route I-195 is dedicated to the memory of veteran Charles F.
Albaugh, who displayed a multitude of flags on the overpass for several months
following the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001.
COPYRIGHT © 2022, 2023 by Christopher J. Richard. All rights
reserved.
