MILITARY HISTORY. 



BY WALTER L. BOUVE. 



The story of the settlement of Hingham and of the struggles, 

 employments, and daily life of her lirst inhabitants, is one differ- 

 ing but little from that of many other of the older sea-coast towns 

 of Xew England. Alike in their origin, their religion, and their 

 opinions, similar in their pursuits and experiences, menaced by a 

 common danger, and, with the exception of the Plymouth Colony 

 communities, influenced by the same hopes and purposes and 

 governed by the same laws, it was natural that in their growth 

 and development the little hamlets forming a frequently broken 

 thread from the Merrimac to Buzzard's Bay, should, fur a con- 

 siderable period, bear a strong resemblance to one another. Yet 

 each, from the first, possessed those peculiar characteristics which 

 differences of wealth, the impress of particular families, and the 

 influence of vigorous leaders inevitably create. This individualism 

 was enhanced by the effects of time, of situation, and of interest, 

 and in each grew up the legends, traditions, and local history 

 peculiar to itself. 



If those of our own town are devoid of the dramatic and tragic 

 incidents which light up the chronicles of Salem, of Deerfield, of 

 Hadley, and of Merry Mount ; if no Myles Standish with his mar- 

 tial figure, no Eliot with the gentle saintly spirit, and no Endicott 

 with fiery speech and commanding will, grace our story, and if no 

 battle-banner like that of a Lexington, a Concord, or a Bunker 

 Hill, wreathes about us the halo of a patriotic struggle, there is 

 nevertheless within the pages of our modest records not a little to 

 awaken the absorbing interest which the tales of the grandfather 

 always bear to those of the younger generations. And the local 

 colorings, if not of unusual brilliancy, still glow for us with all the 

 warmth of the home-hearth, and to the quaint pictures of the 

 olden time the mellowing of change and of years only adds a 

 hallowing light. The chapters, of which this is one, treating of 

 the forefathers and their descendants, from the religious, indus- 

 trial, social, educational, and public relations in which we find 

 them, are mainly for ourselves and our children, for our and 

 their use and pleasure, prepared with little ambition other than to 

 preserve and transmit a fairly accurate account of the birth and 

 growth of our native town, — one which even to this day is typical 



VOL. I. — 14 



