Plymouth, North Carolina

“ PLYMOUTH, a borough of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the north branch of the Susquehanna river, immediately west of and across the river from Wilkes-Barre, of which it is a suburb. Pop. (1910) , 16,996. Plymouth is served by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad. The borough is finely situated in the Wyoming Valley among the rich anthracite coalfields of eastern Pennsylvania, and its inhabitants are chiefly engaged in the coal industry ”

“ The old Plymouth Company (pp. 38, 39) , organized in 1606, was succeeded in 1620 by a new corporation called the Council for New England, which received a grant of all the land in America between 40° and 48° of north latitude. From this Council for New England, therefore, the Pilgrims bought as much land as they needed. The king, however, refused to give them a charter, so the people of Plymouth, or the Old Colony as it came to be called, managed their own affairs in their own way for seventy years. At first the men assembled in town meeting, made laws, and elected officers. ”

“ And thus it is that Plymouth, of all the ancient ports of the West Country on the Channel, has increased in greatness as the years have rolled by.
Few more inspiring and beautiful pictures are to be found along the coast than those afforded by Plymouth Sound. Wedded to fine scenery is bustling commerce. Across the seaway lies the world-famous breakwater, and behind it all along up to Plymouth the sea is beset with craft of all kinds; huge trading vessels, mostly three and four masters, which have voyaged to the ends of the earth; fishing boats, which look like cockle shells in comparison ”

“ The vessel which bore so rich a cargo of faith to the New World, and has enjoyed such fame, was destined to have a prosaic end. After she had borne the “Pilgrim Fathers” safely across the Atlantic, she was sold as a trader, and after many years in the East India Company’s service was lost off Masulipatam on the east coast of India.
Plymouth played its gallant part in the Civil War. The Royalist forces recognized the importance of the possession of such a town and attacked it almost continuously for several years. It also had to stand actual and protracted siege. ”

“ When the Massachusetts Bay Colony was at its full inception in 1630, there appeared the greatest threat of native opposition up to that time, considering its extent. It aimed at the annihilation of all New England settlements, north and south along the coast where they had obtained, or were securing, a firm footing. The older community was to be attended to first.
The scheme was to request another grand sporting festival at Plymouth, natives and whites together, such as had been allowed to Massasoit and his men in 1621, the year of the treaty. ”

“ There are few spots on blue water where is given so great a248 touch of life to things inanimate. And when one comes to an anchor off Drake’s long low isle, or in the shelter of the beautifully wooded Mount Edgcumbe, the ghosts of mighty seamen of the past seem to flit across the scene, and visions of long lost fleets, and adventurers’ galleons rise unbidden to the mind.
Plymouth is one of those “ancient places in the making of which all periods of national history have had a share.” ”

“ As they break along the shore.”
The introduction of visitors to Plymouth as they come by rail, is at Seaside, a station in the extreme north part of the town, at the dividing line between Kingston and Plymouth. As the cars slow up passengers see the beautiful panorama of Plymouth Harbor spread out before their eyes. At the near left, across the bay appears Captain’s Hill, so called from its being the home of Capt. Myles Standish, and on its crest is a monument in honor of the Pilgrim warrior, surmounted by his statue fourteen feet in height. ”

“ In 1633, when the Plymouth colony had determined to commence the work of settlement, they commissioned William Holmes, and a chosen company with him, to proceed to Connecticut. They took with them the frame of a house, which they set up in Windsor. They achieved their object, notwithstanding the threatened opposition of the Dutch at Hartford, where the latter, after learning that the Plymouth people intended to settle on the river, had erected a slight fort. The Plymouth people, also, were successful in defending their trading-house subsequently, both against the Dutch and the Indians. ”

“ Although the Pilgrims were the first Europeans to establish a permanent colony in northeastern North America, they did not come to an unknown land. As early as 1605, Samuel de Champlain had mapped Plymouth Harbor, in the course of a three-year expedition during which he explored the coast from Nova Scotia to Martha’s Vineyard. The quality of his detailed and accurate observations on the land and people appears in this map, and in his notes on the visit: “There came to us two or three canoes, which had just been fishing for cod and other fish which are found there in large numbers. ”

“ Plymouth’s manufacturing industries show great diversity of character, and are exceedingly prosperous. The yearly 78 value of their total product is not far from fifteen million dollars. The great cordage works at North Plymouth are the very largest concern of the kind in the world, employing above 2,000 hands, and have built up a flourishing corporation hamlet in that quarter of the town. ”

“ In 1624 each member of the colony received a parcel of land, which he was allowed to work for himself. After that there was always plenty of food in Plymouth. The colony was united with that of Massachusetts Bay in 1691.
Today Plymouth is a busy city of more than 12,000 people. The great boulder upon which the Pilgrims stepped is still there at the harbor edge, and a protecting canopy of granite has been built above it. The bones of some of the Pilgrims have been placed within the canopy. ”

“ The Town of Plymouth is fortunate in having this wide expanse of adaptable terrain within its confines. The entire area with its scenic beauty, its woods, its lakes, its bay, its beaches, its rocks, its foliage and flowers, is a natural heritage, which, combined with man’s handiwork, is becoming more and more inviting, not only as a haven of rest and recreation, but as the ideal American homesite. ”

“ No news ever spread more rapidly. In the New England states, and in Massachusetts, especially, a wave of migration set in, which was as strong in Plymouth as elsewhere. The time was favorable; the supply of labor was just then greater than the demand, and the temptation to seek wealth in California became almost irresistible. ”

“ So greatly were they then worried that they faced another winter of short rations more willingly than they did the savages, and took much valuable time from the tilling of their crops for the building of a fort.
Until the great immigration into Massachusetts Bay, in 1630, Plymouth continued to be the largest single settlement in New England; but, from 1622 onward, there were scattered beginnings at other points along the coast, many of which proved permanent. ”

“ We hope you will pardon us for our imperfect writing in your language, and take it in good part; through want of practice we cannot so well express what we understand, nor understand everything as full we should. We humbly pray the Lord for His mercy’s sake that He will take both us and you into His gracious keeping and protection.
By the Governor and Council of New Plymouth,
Your Worships’ very good friends and neighbours, etc. ”

“ The character of Plymouth’s industrial life has entirely changed within a half century. Within the memory of men now living, the time was when the town boasted a fleet of seventy-five fishermen, and enjoyed prestige as a fishing port. In common with other seaport towns of New England, this industry has departed, but thriving manufactories have risen in its place and coal barges and steamships are doing business at the port, superseding the old fishing schooners which once crowded the wharves or whitened the harbor with their sails. ”

“ A band of seventy men, under arms, with banners displayed, assaulted the Plymouth house, but they found it so well fortified, and the men who kept it so vigilant and determined, that it could not be taken without bloodshed ”

“ The Plymouth Fathers of old time evidently accepted it as having some foundation in fact, as they caused a representation of the giant to be cut in the turf of the Hoe, which remained to remind the townsfolk and seafarers alike of the combat until about the time of the Restoration.
Of the doings and history of the town of Plymouth, known in the Domesday Book as Sutton or South Town, then having about half a score of inhabitants, prior to the Norman Conquest (if any town existed, which one may doubt, notwithstanding Geoffrey of Monmouth) there are practically no records or traces of any kind. ”

“ Why have we dwelt upon the little settlement that was never very flourishing, that consisted at its best of only a few thousand peaceful and agricultural people, and that after seventy years was merged politically in its more vigorous neighbor the colony of Massachusetts Bay? Historical importance does not depend on population. Plymouth was the second step in the founding of a great nation. When Bradford and the other leaders had at last successfully extricated the little settlement from its economical difficulties, it became the sure forerunner of a greater Puritan migration. ”

“ However much the centres of population may change, the needs of men never change, and even if other churches should follow their constituencies to other sections, Plymouth will remain, a living monument to the truth and the life that has been from its origin its power. ”

“ Plymouth is the American Mecca. It does not contain the tomb of the Prophet, but the Rock of the Forefathers, their traditions, and their graves. The first impressions of a stranger are disappointing, for the oldest town in New England looks as fresh as if built within the century. There is not much that is suggestive of the old life to be seen there. Except the hills, the haven, and the sea, there is nothing antique; save a few carefully cherished relics, nothing that has survived the day of the Pilgrims. ”

“ In the first year of the sixteenth century there landed at Plymouth yet another ill-starred lady, the Princess Katherine of Aragon, on her way to marry Prince Arthur, and destined afterwards to become the wife of his brother Henry VIII. She was entertained right royally by the citizens of Plymouth, chiefly by one of the merchant princes of the port, named Paynter, who lived in a magnificent mansion not far from the waterside, which has, alas! in recent years shared the fate of most historical buildings that come in the way of modern and commercial progress. ”

“ Opposite the armory is Plymouth’s Memorial Building, dedicated in 1926 to the men of Plymouth who served in all the wars in which the country has been engaged. It has a large hall with a seating capacity of 2000 and was built at a cost of $300,000. This building is a few steps north of Pilgrim Hall, that sacred depository of Pilgrimiana, a mecca for modern day Pilgrims, visited every year by thousands from the world over.
The town has diversified industries. Its mills and factories are devoted principally to the production 7 of high grade woolens, cordage, tacks and rivets, and zinc products. ”

“ Plymouth now began to flourish; the land was equitably divided; each man laboured for himself and his family, burdened neither by debt to foreign usurers, nor having to provide for “quarter-day.” Their government was a pure democracy; each male inhabitant had a vote, the governor had two. Admirable and loyal as was the conduct of the Plymouth colony, and deep root as it had immediately taken in the soil to which the Indians themselves had made them welcome, they found it impossible to obtain a charter from King James. ”

“ In order to feel the true sense of history,—not a worked-up sentiment, but the real thing,—you have to look at Plymouth, not in panorama but in detail. You have to accept with philosophy such modern phenomena as the Massasoit Shoe-Shine Parlors and the Plymouth Rock Garage, and keep your eyes open for certain types of old houses scattered in unexpected places everywhere.
One of these is a neat old house in excellent repair, the ends of the house of brick, the side toward the street of wood, plain gable roof, stout chimney, the whole thing painted white, and all fascinating within. ”

“ The early records of the Town, as distinct from the Colony, are kept by the Town Clerk in the Plymouth Town House. In 1889, the Records, from 1636 to 1783, were published by the order of the Town, and may be consulted in the Public Library and elsewhere.
All these early records will repay the research of the student of American history.
“But this must stand above all fame and zeal:
The Pilgrim Fathers laid the ribs and keel.
On their strong lines we base our social health—
The man—the home—the town—the Commonwealth.” ”

“ The park reservation surrounding the Rock, from the roadway eastward to the water, is the property of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is cared for and controlled by the State.
“Plymouth Rock does not mark a beginning or an end. It marks a revelation of that which is without beginning and without end, a purpose shining through eternity with a resplendent light, undimmed even by the imperfections of men, and a response, an answering purpose from those who oblivious, disdainful of all else, sought only an avenue for the immortal soul.” ”