July 1
1900 The electric car of Henry H. “Harry” Rogers Jr. is seen in Fairhaven for the first time. It has a maximum speed of 12 mph.
1904 Levi M. Snow becomes president of the National Bank of Fairhaven.
1905 The first wedding at St. Joseph’s Parish is held at the monastery on Adams Street. Manual DeRocha weds Maria Jose Indevia.
1960 The beach to the east of Fort Phoenix is declared a state beach.
2005 Robert Baldwin begins work as the Superintendent of Schools.
July 2
1776 The Continental Congress passes a resolution proposed by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia declaring the following: “Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from any allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”
July 3
1762 Marriage intentions are filed for Deborah Delano, daughter of Jethro and Elizabeth (Pope) Delano, to marry Daniel Egery.
1898 Capt. Joshua Slocum, concluding his three-year voyage around the world, sails his sloop Spray from Newport, RI, to Poverty Point, where he had first launched it.
July 4
1785 Capt. Joshua Delano sails on a whaling voyage in the sloop Hero.
1815 Ephraim Delano, father of Warren Delano I, dies in his 82nd year.
1836 Harriet S. “Big Hattie” (Morse) Bowen is born to Joseph B. and Mary (Stowell) Morse.
1909 Bishop Daniel F. Feehan blesses the new Sacred Hearts Church in North Fairhaven.
1918 Japanese Ambassador Viscount Kikujiro Ishii presents Fairhaven with a samurai sword on behalf of Dr. Toichiro Nakahama, son of Manjiro Nakahama.
1997 The first American History Costume Parade, sponsored by the Office of Tourism, is held and the five large cannons at Fort Phoenix are fired by Earl Faunce and Wayne Oliveira.
July 5
1939 Livesey Memorial Park is dedicated in memory of Thomas Livesey.
July 6
1872 Fairhaven men Henry Waldron and Joseph Eldredge, respectively fireman and engineer of the locomotive “Charles L. Wood,” are killed when their train slams into a herd of cows in Marion.
July 7
1850 Riverside Cemetery, created by Warren Delano II, is consecrated during a public service attended by about 1,500 people.
1885 At a Special Town Meeting, the town votes to accept the deed to property and a new schoolhouse from Henry H. Rogers and to name the building Rogers School.
July 8
1844 The cornerstone for the brick Congregational Church is laid.
1916 The Union Street Railway opens its new bathhouse at Fort Phoenix Beach.
2012 A Grand Parade, organized by Larry Roy, a member of the Fairhaven Bicentennial Committee, concludes a week-long celebration of Fairhaven's bicentennial.
July 9
1962 The Massachusetts Department of Public Works, through its division of waterways, is authorized and directed by the legislature to provide recreational facilities at Fort Phoenix beach, and areas immediately adjacent, and to acquire any additional land required to carry out that act.
2012 Ground is broken for the new Leroy Wood School.
July 10
1829 The ship Albion of Fairhaven, commanded by Captain Sheffel Read, sets sail on a whaling voyage to the south Atlantic.
July 11
1815 The schooner Liberty, Capt. Ebenezer Hathaway, departs on a whaling voyage to the south Atlantic.
1996 The Town of Fairhaven enters an agreement to lease the storefront at 27 Center Street for use as the Office of Tourism’s first Visitors Center.
July 12
1817 Jabez Taber becomes the town’s third Town Clerk, succeeding Levi Jenney.
1827 Capt. Henry Huttleston Jr. and Miss Sarah R. Taber are married by the Reverend William Gould.
1902 Henry H. Rogers buys 25 acres of the former John Hawes farm north of Bridge Street from Main to Adams streets.
July 13
1809 Warren Delano II is born to Capt. Warren and Deborah (Church) Delano.
1839 Marine artist Charles H. Gifford is born to Benjamin R. and Betsey J. (Barstow) Gifford.
1917 Job C. Tripp, a school committee member for more than 50 years, dies at the age of 88.
2005 Cleanup of hazardous waste at the Atlas Tack property begins with the demolition of part of the three-story factory building on the site.
2014 Encouraged by text messages and phone calls from 17 year old Michelle Carter, Conrad Roy III, age 18, commits suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in his truck parked in the Fairhaven Kmart parking lot, leading to a notable manslaughter trial, followed by nationally broadcast television movies and documentaries about the case.
July 14
1918 The factory building of the Thatcher Bros. Glass Co., on the west side of Main Street opposite Cushman Park, is destroyed by fire.
July 15
1979 The Ezekiel Sawin Mansion at the southwest corner of Washington and William streets is added to the National Register of Historic Places.
July 16
1750 Levi Jenney is born to Cornelius and Eleanor (Cole) Jenney.
1942 The Delano homestead on Walnut street is sold at auction for $4,025.
1951 George B. Luther, president of the National Bank of Fairhaven, dies, ending a career of more than 62 years with the bank.
1967 The Charles J. Lewin Room in the Millicent Library is dedicated.
July 17
1817 Capt. Nathaniel Pope, commander of the American Revolution’s first naval battle, dies at the age of 70.
1841 The proprietors of the Fairhaven Academy sell the building to John A. Hawes who will use the building for public events.
July 18
1774 Dartmouth, which includes Dartmouth, Westport, New Bedford, Fairhaven and Acushnet, votes to boycott all British and Irish goods, including all foreign tea.
July 19
1944 Walter Silveira, the first Fairhaven selectman of Portuguese descent, is elected to fill the unexpired term of the late Thomas Whitfield. Silveira will go on to serve 44 years in that office.
July 20
1950 At the second meeting of the North Fairhaven Improvement Association, Walter J. Borowicz is elected as the group’s first president.
July 21
1814 A meeting is held in New Bedford calling to quarantine the privateer Yankee out of fear that the armed vessel, having cruised “in various countries and climates,” might bring infectious diseases into the town.
1904 The Town of Fairhaven accepts the deed from Warren Delano Jr., Jennie W. Delano, Frederick A. Delano, and Matilda P. Delano for tract of land between Main Street and Middle Street, south of Thatcher Brothers Glass, opposite the Mill Pond, to be forever maintained as a public park.
July 22
1907 Shortly after returning from a trip to England, Henry H. Rogers suffers a stroke.
1940 The erection of the new WNBH tower on Crow Island begins and it is expected the 375-foot structure will be completed in a little more than a week.
July 23
1794 The covenant is signed to establish the Second Church of Christ in New Bedford [First Congregational Church of Fairhaven] and sixteen children are baptized.
1821 Anson Augustus Bates, the first child of Joseph Bates Jr. and Prudence (Nye) Bates, dies at the age of 20 months.
July 24
1765 Jeduthan Taber marries Patience Jenney.
July 25
1656 Mercy (Cooke) West is born to John and Sarah (Warren) Cooke.
2006 A Fairhaven High School football player is hazed by teammates at a summer football camp held in Bourne. Four students will be charged with felonies.
July 26
1877 Reuel Washburn’s “Ice Cream Saloon” opens in the store at the northwest corner of Oxford and Main streets.
1903 Old Home Week, a six-day celebration of life in Fairhaven, begins.
1968 Centre Methodist Church acquires 63 Green Street for use as a parsonage.
2021 Select Board member Daniel Freitas is removed from office with a town-wide vote of 1,903 to 419. Stasia Powers is elected to replace him, becoming the second woman in Fairhaven history to be a member of the Select Board.
July 27
1990 The newly expanded wastewater treatment plant on Arsene Street is dedicated.
July 28
1943 President Roosevelt announces the end of coffee rationing effective tomorrow.
2021 The School Committee appoints Tara Kolher as Superintendent of Schools, replacing Dr. Robert Baldwin who had held the position since 2005.
July 29
1810 John M. Howland is born.
1813 The Fairhaven vessel Governor Gerry, Joshua Hitch, captain, is captured by the British.
1905 The Major Israel Fearing plaque at Fort Phoenix is dedicated.
1962 The Fairhaven Sesquicentennial Parade caps a week-long celebration of the town’s 150th anniversary.
July 30
1865 Sarah Ellen Clark marries Albert Morton Howard.
July 31
1690 Bartholomew West is born to Stephen and Mercy (Cooke) West. A grandson of the Pilgrim John Cooke, West’s house will be burned by British troops in 1778, when West is 88 years old.
2008 The partners who own Fairhaven Shipyard on Fort Street purchase the D.N. Kelley & Sons Shipyard on Old South Wharf and consolidate the two.
COPYRIGHT © 2022 by Christopher J. Richard. All rights reserved.
