Assonet is one of two

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

s in the town of

Freetown, Massachusetts Freetown is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 9,206 at the 2020 census. Freetown is one of the oldest communities in the United States, having been settled by the Pilgrims and their descendants in the la ...

in Bristol County,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. An original part of the town, Assonet was settled in 1659 along with the city of

Fall River Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 United States Census, making it the List of municipaliti ...

, then a part of Freetown. It rests on the banks of the

Assonet River The Assonet River is located in Bristol County, Massachusetts. It flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 in a westerly direction through Freetown and joins ...

. As of the 2000

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

, the village had a total population of 4,084; up from 3,614 in 1990. As of the 2014 census the village had a total estimated population of 9,093.

History

Assonet was first settled in 1659, shortly after the completion of

Ye Freemen's Purchase Ye or YE may refer to: Language * Ye (pronoun), a form of the second-person plural, personal pronoun "you" * The Scots word for "you" * A pseudo-archaic spelling of the English definite article (''the''). See '' Ye olde'', and the "Ye form" sec ...

. It was part of the

Plymouth Colony Plymouth Colony (sometimes Plimouth) was, from 1620 to 1691, the first permanent English colony in New England and the second permanent English colony in North America, after the Jamestown Colony. It was first settled by the passengers on the ...

until the 1691 merger with the

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as th ...

. The word comes from the local

Wampanoag The Wampanoag , also rendered Wôpanâak, are an Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands based in southeastern Massachusetts and historically parts of eastern Rhode Island,Salwen, "Indians of Southern New England and Long Island," p. ...

Indians, who had a settlement in the area, and has two meanings: "place of rocks" and "song of praise". Those meanings are traditional, but the former can be segmented as ''(h)assun-et'' where'' hassun'' or ''assin'' is a word used by southern New England Algonquian to mean ''stone''. The ''-et'' is a locative suffix, to give the meaning "at the place of the stone". The entire region was sold to the English in 1659 by the

s, but, due to the Algonquian mobile way of life and the splitting and recombining of social units, the Nipmucs may have been subject to or at the time part of the Wampanoags. The English settlement remained for many years a small fishing and farming village, growing to be

Freetown Freetown is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educ ...

's more industrious side by the end of the 18th century. By the end of the 19th century, Assonet had begun to slowly return to its origins, having less and less industry in town. At the beginning of the 21st century, the village has once again begun to expand rapidly.

17th century

Assonet was settled on April 2, 1659, but a string of wars between

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

settlers and the local Wampanoag Indians, including

King Philip's War King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, Pometacomet's Rebellion, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict in 1675–1676 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England coloni ...

, prevented much permanent settlement until later. History shows the area existed as a

proprietary {{Short pages monitor From the early 19th century until 1950,

was serviced by several neighborhood grammar schools, at least three of which existed in Assonet.

South School

South School, 1869–1950, currently exists at the corner of Copicut Road and South Main Street. It was a three-room schoolhouse used initially for grades 1–8, and later for grades 3–6 and "special class". Grades 3–4 were in one room on the east side and grades 5–6 in one room on the west side of the building. There was one teacher for each room of two grades. Ethel O'Brien was the grades 5–6 teacher in the mid-1940s. There were no bathrooms and the outhouse (since razed) was located at the Northwest corner. A grassy play area was adjacent the grades 3–4 side of the building and Red Rover was played in the street at recess time. Before being abandoned, it spent time as an

American Legion The American Legion, commonly known as the Legion, is a non-profit organization of U.S. war veterans headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is made up of state, U.S. territory, and overseas departments, and these are in turn made up of ...

hall. It is currently unoccupied, but remains in the possession of the American Legion.

Structure

It is a one-story, ground-level building with three rooms. There is no discernible cellar. The building is constructed of brick, and is covered in white clapboards. Most of the windows have been removed or boarded over, so an analysis cannot be provided. There were windows on the East and West walls that are no longer visible (2012).

Village School

Village School, closed in 1950, currently exists on Taunton Hill between the Town Hall and North Church, being the elder of those two buildings by 94 and 15 years, respectively. It began as a lawyer's office in 1794, then became a string of schools. Originally, the minister of North Church served as the schoolmaster. In the 1850s it was a private school, the Assonet Academy. It was purchased by the town circa 1903 and used as a grammar school until 1950 for grades 1-8, and later grades 1 and 2. In the 1940s, grades 1-2 were on the left (South) side and grades 7-8 on the right (North) side of the building. Heat was provided by a pot-bellied wood-burning stove in each room. Mrs. Cudworth was the grades 1-2 teacher and both grades were in the same room; two grades, one teacher. In the 1980s and 1990s, the structure was used for public meetings of municipal committees. Throughout its history, it served as a meeting place for local

Boy A boy is a young male human. The term is commonly used for a child or an adolescent. When a male human reaches adulthood, he is described as a man. Definition, etymology, and use According to the ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'', a boy is ...

and

Girl Scout Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) is a worldwide movement, originally and largely still designed for girls and women only. The movement began in 1909 when girls requested to join the then-grassroot ...

troops A troop is a military sub-subunit, originally a small formation of cavalry, subordinate to a squadron. In many armies a troop is the equivalent element to the infantry section or platoon. Exceptions are the US Cavalry and the King's Troo ...

. Currently, the Town Hall uses it for storage.

Structure

It is a two-story building, with two rooms on the upper (primary) floor. The lower floor is a two-room cellar, and partially underground. The foundation is brick, and the building itself is wood. The exterior is white clapboards, and the front staircase has a portico and both wooden and iron railings. A cupola adorns the center of the roof, and the windows are six-over-one. The interior of the building is divided in the center, with the wall travelling parallel to School Street between the two front doors. Each room has chalkboards (blackboards) running along the walls, and hanging fixtures from the ceiling provide artificial light when necessary. The building has no plumbing and a woodstove provides heat, with a central brick chimney. An outhouse, now razed, was located at the left rear of the building. Facing the building from Taunton Hill, the righthand room is painted in bright colors, and was formerly used for meetings of the Girl Scouts and the town's Cultural Council. The lefthand room is panelled in faux stained wood, and was used by the Boy Scouts. A revitalization effort seeks funds to help restore the ailing structure, which suffers from the effects of weather, rot, deterioration, and a lack of maintenance funds.https://web.archive.org/web/20040623175320/http://www.assonetriver.com/preservation/project_detail.asp?P=VSH Village School House Restoration]

Forge School

The latest in a string of schools known as the Forge School closed in 1940. It functioned irregularly from c.1920 - 1940 and housed grades 7 and 8. The schoolhouse was later converted to a dwelling house, which burned in 2002. It has since been rebuilt, now with dormers. From 1857 to 1862, the Forge School existed in an outbuilding known as the "corn crib" on the property of Daniel Macomber on Forge Road, which was once the site of the oldest dwelling in town, dating back to the 17th century.

Today

From 1950 on, students have attended the Freetown Elementary School, Massachusetts, Freetown Elementary School, first for grades 1-8, later K-6, and currently PreK-3. Students then attend the George R. Austin Intermediate School for grades 4-5, an
Freetown-Lakeville Middle School
for grades 6-8. For public secondary education, students have three options:

Apponequet Regional High School Apponequet Regional High School (informally known as Apponequet or ARHS), located at 100 Howland Road in Lakeville, Massachusetts opened September 21, 1959. Apponequet serves secondary academic education students from the towns of Freetown, and L ...

serves students with an academic focus for grades 9-12.

Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School or Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School District is located on an 80-acre campus in Rochester, Massachusetts, United States, the geographical center of the five-member town schoo ...

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

accepts students from Assonet when there are openings, and provides a voc-tech atmosphere. Bristol County Agricultural High School serves students wanting to focus primarily in agricultural and animal studies. In addition, there are a variety of Catholic high schools in the area.

Geography

Assonet is located in Southeastern

. It is bounded by

, Berkley,

Lakeville Lakeville may refer to: Canada *Wilmot Parish, New Brunswick#Lakeville, Lakeville, a local service district north of Woodstock, New Brunswick **Lakeville, Carleton County, New Brunswick, a community within the local service district *Lakeville, Wes ...

, East Freetown, and the

. It has a hilly terrain, with many outcroppings of bedrock. One such outcropping is the famous Profile Rock, a rock said to resemble the profile of Wampanoag Indian chief

Massasoit Massasoit Sachem () or Ousamequin (c. 15811661)"Native People" (page), "Massasoit (Ousamequin) Sachem" (section),''MayflowerFamilies.com'', web pag was the sachem or leader of the Wampanoag confederacy. ''Massasoit'' means ''Great Sachem''. Mas ...

. Maple, elm, oak, pine, and birch trees are common throughout. Numerous streams and brooks flow through the village, as does the

. Bodies of water include Assonet Bay and Mill Pond. Bryant's Neck, also calle
Assonet Bay Shores
is a large peninsula situated between Shephard's Cove and Assonet proper on Assonet Bay. This area is also well known for its

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is domin ...

es. The area around Mill Pond is frequented for its

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Ocean ...

runs. A large section of the village comprises approximately one third of the

Freetown-Fall River State Forest The Freetown-Fall River State Forest (commonly shortened to Freetown State Forest) is a publicly owned forest covering more than in the city of Fall River and the towns of Freetown and Lakeville in the state of Massachusetts. The forest lies m ...

Gallery

File:Assonet Village in MA.jpg, Col. Thomas Gilbert House File:Ebenezer Peirce birthplace.jpg,

Ebenezer Peirce Ebenezer Weaver Peirce (April 10, 1822 – August 14, 1902), was a brigadier general in the Massachusetts militia, serving as 90–day volunteers in the Union Army in the opening months of the American Civil War, and a colonel of the 29t ...

Estate ( razed 1938)

References

External links

Friends of Historic Preservation - Freetown, Massachusetts

Assonet Bay Shores Association
{{authority control Freetown, Massachusetts Historic districts in Bristol County, Massachusetts 1659 establishments in Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Bristol County, Massachusetts Populated coastal places in Massachusetts Populated places established in 1659 Providence metropolitan area Villages in Bristol County, Massachusetts Villages in Massachusetts

History

17th century

South School

Structure

Village School

Structure

Forge School

Today

Geography

Gallery

See also

References

External links