September 1
1815 George
Parker Swift is born in Fairhaven. Later in life he will establish the Muscogee
Mills in Georgia, one of the nation’s largest textile firms.
1840 Parnel
(Jenney) Whitfield, widow of Joseph Whitfield and grandmother of Captain
William H. Whitfield, dies at the age of 85.
1864 The
Fairhaven Bank, originally a state chartered bank, is reorganized as the
National Bank of Fairhaven.
1939 Flavel M.
Gifford begins his duties as Superintendent of Schools.
1957 A new pay
schedule for the school department goes into effect, with holders of a
Bachelor’s degree receiving $3,350.00 a year.
1977 The Samurai
Sword presented to the town on behalf of Dr. Toichiro Nakahama in 1918 is
stolen from its glass display case in the Millicent Library. It has not been
recovered.
September 2
1879 Captain
Ahira Kelley’s fishing schooner Rescue
arrives in port with about 900 quintals [90 metric tons] of codfish from the Grand
Banks.
September 3
1741 Jethro
Hathaway marries Hannah West.
1845 The new
First Congregational Church is dedicated in a service presided over by the
Reverend Mr. Jacob Roberts and the Reverend Mr. William Gould.
1885 Rogers
School is dedicated. It is the first public building that Henry H. Rogers gives
to the town.
1935 Passenger
service on the Fairhaven Branch Railroad is discontinued, though freight
service will continue until 1953.
1998 Mr. History
Person begins contributing a weekly question and answer column to The Advocate.
September 4
1821 Elder
Charles Morgridge is ordained as the first pastor of the Christian Church which
holds services in a hired hall.
1841 The ship Adeline
Gibbs, Capt. Gustavus A. Baylies, departs on a four-year whaling voyage to the
Pacific Ocean.
2013 Classes
begin at the new Leroy Wood School, which will serve the former Wood School and
Rogers School districts.
September 5
1778 Thirty-six
British ships land about 4,000 troops at Clark’s Point. They march northward,
burning buildings and killing men. At Head of the River (Acushnet) a bloody
battle takes place. Fort Phoenix is attacked and destroyed.
September 6
1778 The British
continue their march from Acushnet to Sconticut Neck, burning and looting. In
the evening an attack on Fairhaven Village is repelled with the help of Major
Israel Fearing of Wareham.
2006 One worker
is killed and another seriously injured when a piece of aluminum siding they
are installing hits an unprotected power line attached to a telephone pole at
the intersection of Main and Deane streets. A resulting gas fire causes the
evacuation of Oxford School and other nearby buildings.
September 7
1834 Eliza Soper
Rogers is born to Rowland and Mary E. (Huttleston) Rogers.
1908 A boys’
college is opened next door to the Adams Street monastery of the Fathers of the
Sacred Hearts.
1969 Southeastern
Massachusetts Technical Institute, SMTI, becomes Southeastern Massachusetts
University, SMU.
September 8
1869 A fierce
gale or hurricane destroys the Fairhaven-New Bedford Bridge again and topples
the 100-foot wooden spire from the tower of the First Congregational Church.
1902 Classes are
held for the first time at the Washington Street School, which had formerly
been the Unitarian Church.
1908 St. Joseph’s
School is opened in the lower floor of the church building.
1953 Miss Avis M.
Pillsbury, Director of the Millicent Library, retires, having held the position
since 1928.
1958 Classes are
held for the first time at the new Fairhaven Junior High School. Its first principal
is Miss Elizabeth I. Hastings.
September 9
1684 Katharine
West is born to Stephen and Mercy (Cooke) West.
September 10
1811 Mary E.
Huttleston, mother of Henry H. Rogers,
is born to Henry and Rhoda (Merrihew) Huttleston.
1896 Edmund
Anthony Jr. sells a lot on the east side of Cherry Street to the Fairhaven
Improvement Association for $900. This will become part of the Cooke Memorial
Park.
1906 Classes are
held for the first time at the new Fairhaven High School.
1911 Sacred
Hearts Academy, a girls’ school, opens on Main Street in North Fairhaven.
September 11
1717 Bartholomew
Taber is born to Jacob and Sarah (West) Taber.
1966 The last
clambake is served to about 200 people at Grimshaw’s Pavilion, located on the
east side of Green Street at Fort Phoenix. The pavilion at this time is operated
by the Xaviers.
September 12
1878 George
Francis Tripp retires as president of the National Bank of Fairhaven. He had
been the bank's second president, having been elected May 26, 1862.
September 13
1953 Ground is broken for the parish house addition to the
First Congregational Church.
September 14
1779 Capt. Levi
Jenney is commissioned to command the schooner Phoenix, a privateer.
1907 It is
reported in the Fairhaven Star that the Academy building has been moved to the
west lawn of Fairhaven High School from its original location near the
southwest corner of Main Street and Huttleston Avenue.
1924 The
cornerstone is laid for the new St. Joseph’s Church, which is being built
across Spring Street from the original church.
September 15
1865 Susannah
Proctor Jenney, widow of Levi Jenney Jr., dies at the
age of 83.
1906 An open
house is held for the public to view the new Fairhaven High School donated to
the town by Henry H. Rogers.
1957 The Anna B.
Trowbridge Memorial Band Shell in Cushman Park is dedicated with a concert
under the direction of Elizabeth I. Hastings. The band shell had been built by
the Fairhaven Junior Chamber of Commerce.
September 16
1860 Twenty-six
of thirty-four crewmen of the whaling bark Superior are killed by natives at
Treasury Island.
1979 Peter F.
Barcellos becomes the Chief of Police, after serving as acting chief since the
previous November.
September 17
1907 When Henry
H. Rogers leaves his electric car to go into a New Bedford store for a
newspaper, his passenger Mark Twain has to jump out of the vehicle when it
abruptly starts to move on its own. Rogers quickly rescues the car, which can
travel at a speed of about six miles an hour.
September 18
1838 Capt.
Alexander Winsor of Duxbury marries
Miss Sarah Pellington Allen, daughter of Capt. Silas Allen, in Fairhaven.
1879 A female
resident of Summer Street is assaulted by an unknown person on Center Street near the home of Dr.
George Atwood. The assailant, dressed in a sailor’s cap, dark pants and a
pea-jacket, flees at the sound of footsteps approaching from the rear.
September 19
1834 Captain
Jonathan Swift dies at the age of 71.
September 20
1977 The vacant
Prefontaine’s/Anchor Aquarium building at the southeast corner of Main and
Hawthorne streets is destroyed by fire.
September 21
1891 The
cornerstone of the Millicent Library is laid.
1938 The Great
New England Hurricane strikes, destroying 400 homes in Fairhaven.
September 22
1890 The
Coggeshall Street Bridge is opened to traffic to meet a deadline imposed by the
state legislature, but the construction will not be completed until 1892.
1908 Dorothea
Richmond Paull is born to Alton B. and Estelle (Delano) Paull.
1930 The first
Feast of Our Lady of Angels is held in North Fairhaven.
September 23
1815 A great gale
destroys the original Fairhaven-New Bedford Bridge.
1967 The Civil
Defense puts into service a 1962 Cadillac ambulance which was formerly used in
New Jersey.
September 24
1902 Beatrice
Cassandra “Cassie” Mosgrove is born to Anthony H. and Mildred (Crane) Mosgrove.
1905 The
cornerstone of the original St. Joseph’s Church is laid. The building will later be used
as St. Joseph’s School.
1935 Businessman
and assistant fire chief Thomas Livesey dies. Livesey had been an enthusiastic
supporter of local athletic programs and had organized several successful
baseball teams.
1987 At a special
Town Meeting, it is voted, against the recommendation of the Finance Committee,
to allocate $15,000 to send a group of townspeople to Japan in December to sign
the Sister City agreement in Tosashimizu, Japan.
2006 Edgewater
Bed & Breakfast, operated at 2 Oxford Street by Kathy Reed, closes after 23
years in business.
2017 The last service
is held at the Church of the Good Shepherd on Main Street.
September 25
1832 William LeBaron Jenney, designer of the world’s first “skyscraper,” is born to William P. and Eliza LeBaron (Gibbs) Jenney.
1920 The original
Fairhaven High School on the west side of Main Street just north of the
Fairhaven-New Bedford Bridge is sold to building wrecker Alpide Cote of New
Bedford for $550.
1965 The newly
formed Leroy L. Wood School PTA holds its first event, a Country Fair and
Costume Contest.
September 26
1888 A “Line
Storm” of heavy rain and wind damages many trees as washes out a portion of the
Fairhaven Branch Railroad, making it impassable.
September 27
1806 Sarah
Russell Taber is born to John and Mary (Hathaway) Taber.
1987 The
Fairhaven Historical Society presents a Fairhaven House Tour featuring eleven
historical buildings and homes.
September 28
1808 Killey
Eldridge deeds 2 1/3 acres of property, with the privilege of a driftway 20
feet wide, at “Eldridge’s Point” to the
United States Government for the Fort Phoenix military reservation.
1968 Ownership of
the private Fairhaven Water Company, founded in 1893 by Henry H. Rogers, is
transferred to the Town of Fairhaven.
September 29
1853 Phoenix
Hall, the second floor of which was the
original Congregational Church, is dedicated.
1948 Registered
pharmacists Everett and Gertrude (West) Daley buy the building at 124 Sconticut
Neck Road, where they will establish Westdale Pharmacy.
September 30
1872 Horse-drawn streetcar service between New Bedford and Fairhaven begins.
1861 With friend
Charles H. Ellis, 21-year-old Henry H. Rogers leaves Fairhaven for the
Titusville area of Pennsylvania, the center of the fledgling petroleum
industry. There the pair will start the Wamsutta Oil Refinery with an investment of $600 each.
1987 Volume 1
Number 1 of the Fairhaven Free Press
is published by Ruth and Bill Galary.
COPYRIGHT © 2022 by Christopher J. Richard. All rights reserved.
