Meandering Along the Taunton River

It is wonderful to receive more information about the long gone Sabbatia Lake Park in Taunton. I hope to get more photos in the future and we will come back to this again.  For former Tauntonians, you may be interested in an invitational Facebook page.  Once accepted and registered you can participate in a great nostalgia dialogue.  The page is well administered and does not allow advertisements or personal information other than sharing nostalgia in photos, comments and stories.

 It is delightful. Look for  I'm From Taunton on Facebook.

There is another "cool" subject in Taunton history: the  Taunton River.  Once you start researching, it is fascinating to read of its importance all through Taunton history.  Forgive me the number of websites linkages I allude to, but the subject is unending for a former Tauntonian.

We are talking early 1900's and earlier, no doubt right back to the Native Americans who inhabitated Taunton.  There is a good website about many aspects of the river at this site.

                                        http://www.tauntonriver.org/history.htm#2

From that site, I gleaned that:

   "Various cultures made the Taunton River central for their people.  There are remains of historic sites such as Native American trails (especially the Wampanoags who called it 'The Great River') , river crossings, settlements, remains of colonial grist mills, ship building yards, industrial iron works as well as paper and textile mills.

The River played a central role in battles between the Wampanoags and colonial settlers in the historic King Phillip's War in 1675, statistically considered one of the bloodiest battles in U.S. History.

The Taunton River flows for approximately 40 miles from the (beginning of the mysterious Hockomock Swamp) confluence of the Town and Matfield Rivers in Bridgewater, MA and continues through the towns of Halifax, Middleboro, Rayhnam, City of Taunton, towns of Dighton, Berkely and Freetown to the confluence of Mt. Hope Bay to the City of Fall River and town of Somerset.  

In 2009 the Taunton River advocates won designation as Wild and Scenic. This is important, as the website article quoted below explains, to protect it from the federal government allowing permits and funding which would endanger the River.  Historic cleanup has occurred to date. The River hosts the largest herring run (a symbol of Taunton) with up to 2 million fish swimming upriver annually.  When we were kids the herring run was a must see for all of us families each year. This vintage postcard from http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=photos+of+the+Herring+Run+in+taunton,+ma&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8dates dates back to 1911 --- and today the herring still run!!! 

There is a fine slide show of the event at the following link.   

http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/greenblog/2009/04/decadeslong_fight_to_protect_t_1.html

  The River is the cornerstone of a 562 mile fresh water system providing essential services such as water filtration, flood protection and recreation to 38 towns.  Rainbow smelt, striped bass and bluefish enter it to feed. It is home to the rare Northern Redbelly Cooter turtle and the rare Brindle Shiner Fish as well as the river otter, 45 other species of fish and many species of shellfish, 154 types of birds including 12 rare types, mink, grey fox and deer.
              http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/greenblog/2009/04/decadeslong_fight_to_protect_t_1.html

Relating to the importance of the River to industy in Taunton I found this interesting. Though it has taken years to clean-up the river, there is little doubt that it was once the lifeblood of the city for the jobs in provided early immigrants as well as the way supplies came in to Taunton.

We can date the photograph below at around 1907 by researching the
history of Staples Coal, Co.

That company was incorporated in 1888 and was still going in 1930
when someone researching their grandfather on Ancestry found him working there at that time.  The company had 6 tugs and 22 barges and shipped coal from as far away as Cuba.  They had coal silos on Dana St. in Taunton adjacent to railroad tracks.  The advent of oil heating put an end to companies such as this.  That is just a bit of researching one can do into the history of the Taunton River.

   It is obvious from these old postcards that the river was once well utilized for recreation as well as industry.  How far we have come when now we have to work so hard to bring these waterways back to their pristine conditions. Still various waterway alliances are working to do just that.

         

There is a book written by Tauntonian Timoth Brown "On the Taunton River in Taunton, MA - a Journey down the River and Back in Time" which looks to be an interesting historical 

read on the River.

                                    Taunton even had its own Boat Club once upon a time....

what a lovely buccolic photograph.

When I said I was going to meander, I surely did just that didn't I?  I also promised that when I began this summer series, saying that summer is just for that.  Meander along with me with more of your thoughts and photos....there is surely so much more to share about this subject.

Cooling off ---way back when

Doing research for a blog like this is a journey easily detoured.  Often one finds treasures just a bit removed...or even a lot...from the subject at hand.  Such was my experience when I wandered through old photos of Taunton summers on the net.  To be sure, all Tauntonians, including Villagers, enjoyed these cooling venues.  Come along, then, who knows where we will end up.  I do not have a whole lot of information on these photos, but we will let imagination roam.....and also hope some readers who chip in with stories and photos.

Here is a 1908 photo of what must be Bay St. but is labeled Sabbatia Lake Road and Lake.  The lake is just off Bay St. in the Whittenton.  Only memories of what is was, remain in the soft echoes of the water sounds.

But, back in the early 1900's this was a destination!  The trolley took Tauntonians all the way to "Sabatia Lake Park."  According to this old linen map shared by a fellow Tauntonian, Dave Melanson, there was a Merry-Go-Round there which has its own place on the map.  Incidentally, in a story worthy of The Pickers on T.V. Davefound a whole set of linen maps blowing in the breeze on a table at a flea market.  Apparently, in those days architects often recorded plans and maps on linen.  The moral of that story is always to treat flea markets with respect, one never knows the finds awaiting discovery.  Here is  one of Dave's maps, for which we are grateful,
showing Sabbatia Lake, the Pavillion and Merry Go Round.

Below a postcard photo (source:Cardcow) of

Main St. in Taunton in the early 1900's.  You can see the

web of Trolley tracks crisscrossing the streets.

Here is another postcard, but taken in 1946.  So clearly, when I was a child,

Sabbatia was still a destination where families could cool off.

The Park reportedly included amusements, such as the Merry Go Round we mentioned.  Also, dancing and such as well as places to purchase food.  Knowing my folks, we probably brought our own however.  As cars because more commonplace, fathers drove families further and we were to be found in the early 50's at Swift's Beach and such. The highway system that has become a voracious beast needing constant feeding and a technological age has taken our focus from simpler pleasures and gathering places of generations past.  Yet today, many of us seek out remnants of those places, get excited when we actually get to stroll down a country road or is we can, go for a quiet bike ride. In the days of yesteryear those were the norms....we still seek out those norms today.

                                                                                           

 1940's photo from Pinterest that could 

    have been taken at the old Sabbatia Lake Park...

        Here is a little musical interlude helping us to get in the mood for a different day long ago....

More Summer Memories and Thoughts....

Summer seemed endless in the days of our youth.
Previously, we mentioned the smell of freshly mown grass

taking us back to those summers.  But, the one that does it for me....whoosh...
is the aroma that pine needles give off baking in the sun.
They take me to one place: Myles Standish State Park.
 For our family, and many other Tauntonians, this was a favorite day trip.
 Like Swift's Beach, it was an easy drive and little to no traffic.
 It offered safe swimming in the ponds and easy children-

viewing by parents nesting in the pine groves.

The State Park is in Carver, MA and consists of 14,635 acres of pitchpine forest, the largest such north of Long Island.  No wonder it gave off such a wondrous scent 

and so imbedded itself in my memory.

It is ecologically significant as it has 16 "kettle" pond left over from 

melting glaciers 12,000 years ago. Who knew they flowed in and out 

of the surrounding aquifer 

 giving you the fresh water in which you swam?

What did we know....we kids splashing into the calm pond waters?  We knew it was hot and we were at one of our favorite spots.   Our family often had mini-reunions there.  Our parents, aunts, uncles and cousins loaded up with picnic stuff from the cars and trotted down to a site we could adopt for the day.  Chairs were unfolded, tables set with vinyl tablecloths. 

We were there til sunset when

we would be called in from the water by both the smell 

of hotdogs and hamburgers and

 the beckoning voices of parents at water's edge.

Often the trip would include stopping at nearby Edaville Railroad in Carver. It was a chance to take a train ride through the deep red cranberry bogs.  In those bygone days, most family members were close by and such excursions were more common.  Today, it would be a major endeavor to gather us  from 

all over the country.  There is also one child here not a cousin, but who was brought along anyway.  This would happen often with one or another neighborhood child.  

After all, we were a Village....

Ah, days gone by.  When it got hot, you turned on a fan or gathered together to go off to a pond like this where memories were made. 

 Of all the seasons summer seems to evoke the most memories.

Those summers were spent in the raw sweltering arms of Mother Nature. 

 Home air conditioners were rare.  You loved it when a thunderstorm broke the heat.

You ran in the heat....all day and into the evening.  You drank when you were thirsty.

You swam 'til you were tired out.  You learned how to swim pretty quick.

You laughed and giggled.  

You learned the art of interrelationships with brothers and sisters, and cousin

buddies without reading a book.  

 Everyone in your class was your buddy, too, as were all the kids in the Village.

 You read....a lot, and loved it.  From there you learned 

a vocabulary, you learned history and geography.  

You learned from storytelling when we families gathered at times like these

at  Myles Standish as the parents relayed experiences

 and family stories.  You listened and appreciated. You learned the art

of storytelling yourselves.

You absorbed.  You were used to prayer in public places as was everyone. 

 It was another time,

far, far removed in so many ways, 

yet right nearby. Those times still offer us

the values, the mores, the traditions we so need in these

confusing days we live in.  If we seek quiet more often,

perhaps their lessons would comfort us in times like these.

Remembering our group wanderings, out of parents views in the neighborhood

 I recently came upon this quote:

"Hypercaution has saved lives, but it has diminished lives in the bargain." 

                      

Seems that there was less worrying then, more living.....