The History of Olde Dartmouth

Links to Olde Dartmouth Area History Pages

What did a founder of Standard-Oil, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Joshua Slocum, Frederick Douglass, Herman Melville, and ten pilgrims all have in common? All of them lived at least for a time in a part of the territory known as "Olde Dartmouth."

Olde Dartmouth Sotheby's International Realty takes its name from the historic area hugging the south coast of Massachusetts from Tiverton, Rhode Island on the west to Plymouth County on the east. Settlers from Plimouth Colony bought the territory of Olde Dartmouth from the Wampanoag Indians in 1652. Although 36 names were on the deed, including William Bradford, Myles Standish, and John Alden, only ten of these original purchasers actually moved to the territory known as Dartmouth. These families had the names of Cooke, Delano, Francis, Hicks, Howland, Jenny, Kempton, Morton, Samson, and Soule. Many of these Pilgrims are remembered by street names and plaques on historical homes in our area.

In time, other settlers came to Dartmouth to avoid the edicts of the Puritans in Plimouth and the Massachusetts Bay Colony in Boston. Many were Quakers, originally hailing from towns close to Dartmouth, England, which, like Olde Dartmouth, was on the mouth of a river.

Olde Dartmouth covered an area of 104 square miles, including several riverbeds and the present-day municipalities of Dartmouth, New Bedford, Fairhaven, Acushnet, Westport, Tiverton and Little Compton. The local Indians also had names for the settlements of the territory. New Bedford and Acushnet were called "Cushnea," which means "as far as the river." Dartmouth was known as "Ponagansett", and Fairhaven was called "Sconticut", which means "Summer Place." Westport was known as "Coakset." These Indian names are still used in parts of these towns.

The village of Padanaram was named by Laban Thacher who moved there from Cape Cod. Laban had fathered a large family of daughters like the prolific Laban of Genesis 28:1,2,3, who had lived in the northwest corner of Mesopotamia, in the plain of Aram---Padanaram. Laban Thacher settled on the Apponegansett River and was one of the founders of the ship building industry in the area. He later started a salt works business. Seeing parallels in his own life, Laban named his community "Padanaram" after the place in the Bible where the original Laban lived, prospered and "begat a multitude".

The section of Olde Dartmouth now known as Fairhaven was settled by John Cooke and Thomas Delano. Poverty Point, a federal period village, directly on the Acushnet River, is the oldest part of town. This village gets it name from the fact that many husbands were lost at sea, giving the area a relatively high population of widows. Many of these women had to take in laundry and find other ways to support their children, which caused the area bounded by the streets of Oxford and Lafayette (where the Revolutionary War hero had once stayed) to become known as "Poverty Point."

During the Revolutionary War, it was the ship "Dartmouth", built in Padanaram by Bedford Village resident Joseph Rotch that was emptied of its precious tea cargo by patriots dressed as Indians in protest of the British tax on tea. This episode became known as the "Boston Tea Party." Olde Dartmouth was also the site of the first naval battle with the British at what is now Fort Phoenix in present day Fairhaven. The patriots at Fort Phoenix, where the British were successfully turned away, protected Fairhaven from being burned, unlike the neighboring Olde Dartmouth village of Bedford.

Bedford, on the west side of the Acushnet River, settled in large part by three families, the Russells, Rotches and Rodmans, who like other Quakers were opposed to active aggression against the British, did not have an artillery. On September 5, 1778, the British landed at Clark's Cove, marched up County Street and set fire to all homes, ships and wharves. (This is why the historical, architectural stock of Fairhaven is older than that of New Bedford.) Bedford Village took several years to recover from the devastation caused by the British, while vessels continued to use the Fairhaven side of the harbor. In 1787, Bedford Village separated itself from the rest of Dartmouth, calling itself "New Bedford" to distinguish itself from the township of Bedford, north of Boston, and to symbolize its rising from the ashes.

The young city of New Bedford prospered and became the whaling capital of the world, outranking Nantucket, and was in fact considered the wealthiest city in the world in 1857. Herman Melville walked the streets and stayed at the Mariners' Home next to the Seaman's Bethel while researching his famous novel, Moby Dick. These two buildings, in particular, are well preserved for present day tourists and are situated across the street from the nationally acclaimed New Bedford Whaling Museum on Johnny Cake Hill. This waterfront historic area has been designated a National Park by the U.S. Congress and is the centerpiece of New Bedford's new Renaissance. Utilities have been moved underground, streets are cobblestoned, and upscale restaurants in elegant buildings lure visitors. The University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth has recently moved its College of Fine Arts to this area, taking up residence in a grand, historic, commercial building, once the site of New Bedford's most elegant department store.

Once these factories began to age, many of the textile companies moved south for warmer climates or abroad for cheaper labor, and New Bedford turned again to the sea. With the construction of fish processing plants, cold storage facilities, rehabilitated wharves, and an oceanography campus, New Bedford is again known as the "fishing capital of the world", not for whales this time, but for scallops, cod, and other species, outranking Gloucester, MA and Alaskan ports in yearly fish tonnage.

South Dartmouth and Fairhaven are also known for their outstanding shipbuilding and ship repair facilities and offer resort waterfront areas for recreational boaters. The Town of Fairhaven, which separated from Dartmouth in 1812, has several summer communities with seasonal residents who are atrracted by the warm south coast water and sandy beaches. The rural areas of Acushnet and Rochester, land-locked neighboring towns north of the coastal communities, are magnets for horse farmers and apple and peach growers. Westport, rural, yet with access to the ocean from its deep-reaching rivers, combines the seacoast with the farm, and through land preservation efforts will remain largely rural into the future. Mattapoisett and Marion, picturesque coastal towns with village housing stock dating back to the early 1800s, lie just east of Fairhaven, connecting the Olde Dartmouth area to Wareham and the Cape Cod bridges. Marion and Mattapoisett offer some subdivisions of new housing, and like Dartmouth and Fairhaven, have struggled with land-use issues in recent years.

The original Olde Dartmouth area benefits from a diversity of residents and industries; proximity to the coast for livelihood, recreation and temperate weather conditions; and a rich history symbolic of the American spirit. An active and growing community of artists and academics is attracted by the natural beauty of the area and the evolving prestige of the local University. Now better long-term planning by government leaders and non-profit organizations is helping to protect of its future. Nowhere is there more proof of a prosperous economic outlook for these south coast communities than in review of real estate transactions over the past few years. Property values are increasing here by as much as 30 percent annually and housing stock on the open market is at an all-time low. There are more buyers than homes to purchase and many new purchasers are migrating into the area from elsewhere. If you want more information about a particular town please contact us at Olde Dartmouth Sotheby's International Realty.