Recently there was mention of early talk of separation between the town of Rochester and the Mattapoisett section of town. The 1736 organization of the second precinct was about the creation of a Second Church of Rochester and had no change in the governmental structure of the town. However, at this period of history very little of Rochester’s infrastructure was carved in stone.
It’s interesting how much was fluid in the early Rochester area. Road names came and went with both names and boundary changes that would confound many cartographers. A lot of the descriptions of new roads being created relied on the property under a specific owner’s name. Also, deeds and roads often relied on impermanent markers, such as trees, stones, and small streams. Some of those streams seem to have come and gone.
In 1699, it was “voted that the meetinghouse shall be sit on the westerly sid of the long Bridg”. This has puzzled many looking back at old Rochester as it has not seemed possible that there was any “long Bridg” in the center of Rochester. Additional study has determined that there was a trout brook behind houses which are today on Rte. 105. Possibly, there could have been a bridge in that area. While that area may have been wet enough to need a bridge, by the 1800’s, the land was dry and arable.
Even the town of Rochester went from being in Barnstable County to Plymouth County without moving at all. Most know the story of the homeowner who lived in three towns without moving from his house. Mr. Abiel Robinson petitioned the state in 1826 to change the Rochester town line from being in Rochester, Plymouth County to Fairhaven, Bristol County. His reasons for the move were based on the fact that he worked at the Registry of Deeds in Bristol County, sold real estate there and the schools were less crowded. Amazingly, the set off was granted. Then, in 1860, the town of Fairhaven was divided with Acushnet being set off which then placed his house in Acushnet.
When the towns of Marion and then Mattapoisett separated from Rochester, changes to boundaries and street names were made. While many were happy with the changes, there was one Rochester resident who was adamantly against any change. Capt. David Lewis was Captain of a small sloop and a man well thought of in his community. At the bequest of his “fellow townsmen” he took charge of the town’s “poor farm”. He moved into 269 Marion Rd. (the last house before Marion) and ran the poor farm for four years. After that, he was the agent for the poor and at one time he was the Town Clerk.
In 1850, Capt. Lewis was appointed to a committee formed to consider Marion’s separation from Rochester. He was strongly opposed to the idea of separation and though he lived closest to what would be the new town line, he was reported as saying, ” I was born in Rochester and in Rochester, I mean to live and die.”
By Connie Eshbach