As most know, Old Rochester was made up of several sections that created village centers of their own due to the difficulties in traveling to the town center for church and town meetings. It was a long trek by foot, horseback, or wagon. Two of those sections (Mattapoisett and Marion) solved their travel problems by separating from the mother town in the 1800s.
The North Rochester section of town was not created out of land that was part of the Proprietor’s agreement with the Plymouth Court, rather it was purchased directly from the Native Americans. In 1673, land was bought from Tuspaquin in what was known as the “South Purchase.” Most of the land was Middleboro, but a section that wrapped around the top of Snipatuit Pond was combined with land from another purchase to create North Rochester.
The North Rochester part of town was closer to both Middleboro and Freetown on their borders than to Rochester center, especially since Neck Road, the quickest route, ended at the shores of Snipatuit Pond, necessitating the use of a longer more roundabout route, so North Rochester had its own church, stores, farms, and businesses. However, rather than seeking to separate, they desired a quicker route to the town center. The solution, a causeway, had both its defenders and detractors. Those against its construction believed the pond to be too deep and, therefore, the cost too high.
I’ve heard two stories as to how the matter was resolved. The first had the state involved and an intrepid resident taking off his shoes and rolling up his trousers and walking across the pond to prove its shallow depth. The next and maybe more accurate story was, in order to show the shallowness of the water, Town Meeting was held at the south end of Neck Road. The North Rochester men waded across to attend, and the causeway proposal passed.
The original causeway was built by hand using tipcarts. Gravel came from the land of John and Peleg Clark at the south end and from the land of Hosea Maxim on the north end. A stone culvert was left open to allow for water to flow. The causeway was finished in 1879 and the first people to drive across in a carriage were 5-year-old George Cowan and his parents.
By Connie Eshbach