History of Fall River, Massachusetts - Town of Fall River Established

Town of Fall River Established

On February 26, 1803 "Fallriver", Massachusetts was incorporated as a town. A year later, on June 1, 1804, Fallriver changed its name to "Troy". The name "Troy" was used for 30 years and was officially changed to the separated "Fall River" on February 12, 1834.

The early town consisted of about two dozen families, including Richard Borden and his father Thomas. (His grandfather, Richard (Sr.) (b.1722 d.1795) had been kidnapped by the British in May 1778, according to "Reminiscences of Colonel Joseph Durfee," who was then a Captain of the local Freetown Militia.) The other notable family names included Durfee, Buffington, Davol and Cook.

The First Congregational Church in Fall River was organized in 1816. The church began with five members. Their first meeting house was dedicated in 1823. Some years later, they sold it to the Unitarian Society. That society later sold it to the city, which made a schoolhouse of it. It was burned in the great fire of July 1843.

Other early churches established in Fall River include the First Baptist Church (1825), Methodist Church (1826), Unitarian Society (1832), and the Episcopal Church of the Ascension (1836). Irish Catholics had been established in a small house by 1836, with their first church, St. John the Baptist, dedicated in 1840.

Read more about this topic:  History Of Fall River, Massachusetts

Famous quotes containing the words town of, town, fall, river and/or established:

    O little town of Bethlehem,
    How still we see thee lie!
    Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
    The silent stars go by;
    Yet in thy dark streets shineth
    The Everlasting Light;
    The hopes and fears of all the years
    Are met in thee tonight.
    Phillips Brooks (1835–1893)

    When, in some obscure country town, the farmers come together to a special town meeting, to express their opinion on some subject which is vexing to the land, that, I think, is the true Congress, and the most respectable one that is ever assembled in the United States.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Lest, once more wandering from that heaven,
    I fall on some base heart unblest,
    Faithless to thee, false, unforgiven,
    And lose my everlasting rest.
    John Wilmot, 2d Earl Of Rochester (1647–1680)

    This spirit it was which so early carried the French to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi on the north, and the Spaniard to the same river on the south. It was long before our frontiers reached their settlements in the West, and a voyageur or coureur de bois is still our conductor there.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    I’ve found that there are only two kinds that are any good: slang that has established itself in the language, and slang that you make up yourself. Everything else is apt to be passé before it gets into print.
    Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)