Fairhaven, Massachusetts
Encyclopedia
Fairhaven is a town
New England town
The New England town is the basic unit of local government in each of the six New England states. Without a direct counterpart in most other U.S. states, New England towns are conceptually similar to civil townships in other states, but are incorporated, possessing powers like cities in other...

 in Bristol County
Bristol County, Massachusetts
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 534,678 people, 205,411 households, and 140,706 families residing in the county. The population density was 962 people per square mile . There were 216,918 housing units at an average density of 390 per square mile...

, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is located on the south coast
South Coast (Massachusetts)
The South Coast of Massachusetts is the region of southeastern Massachusetts consisting of southern Bristol and Plymouth counties bordering Buzzards Bay, and includes the cities of Fall River, New Bedford, the southeastern tip of East Taunton and nearby towns...

 of Massachusetts where the Acushnet River
Acushnet River
The Acushnet River is the largest river, long, flowing into Buzzards Bay in southeastern Massachusetts, in the United States. The name "Acushnet" comes from the Wampanoag or Algonquian word, "Cushnea", meaning "as far as the waters", a word that was used by the original owners of the land in...

 flows into Buzzards Bay
Buzzards Bay
Buzzards Bay is a bay along the southern edge of Massachusetts in the United States. The name may also refer to:*Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, a village in Bourne, Massachusetts*Buzzards Bay , the name of the horse that won the 2005 Santa Anita Derby...

, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

. The town shares a harbor with the city of New Bedford
New Bedford
-Places:*New Bedford, Illinois*New Bedford, Massachusetts, the most populous New Bedford**New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park*New Bedford, New Jersey *New Bedford, Ohio*New Bedford, Pennsylvania...

, a place well known for its whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...

 and fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

 heritage; consequently, Fairhaven's history, economy, and culture are closely aligned with those of its larger neighbor. The population of Fairhaven was 16,112 at the time of the 2008 census.

Henry Huttleston Rogers

Among Fairhaven's natives was Henry Huttleston Rogers
Henry H. Rogers
Henry Huttleston Rogers was a United States capitalist, businessman, industrialist, financier, and philanthropist. He made his fortune in the oil refinery business, becoming a leader at Standard Oil....

 (1840–1909), who was a United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 capitalist
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...

, businessman, and philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...

. Rogers was one of the key men in John D. Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller was an American oil industrialist, investor, and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of...

’s Standard Oil
Standard Oil
Standard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...

 trust. He later developed the Virginian Railway
Virginian Railway
The Virginian Railway was a Class I railroad located in Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The VGN was created to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port at Hampton Roads....

. Rogers and his wife, Abbie Gifford Rogers
Abbie G. Rogers
Abbie Gifford Rogers , was the first wife of Henry Huttleston Rogers, , a United States capitalist, businesswoman, industrialist, financier, and philanthropist....

, another Fairhaven native (who was the daughter of the whaling captain, Peleg Gifford), donated many community improvements in the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century, including a grammar school, an extraordinarily luxurious high school, the Town Hall
Fairhaven Town Hall
Fairhaven Town Hall is a historic town hall at Center Street in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.The town hall was built in 1892 and added to the National Historic Register in 1981....

, the George H. Taber Masonic Building, the Unitarian Memorial Church
Unitarian Memorial Church
Unitarian Memorial Church is an historic church on 102 Green Street in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.The church was built in 1901 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996....

, the Tabitha Inn, the Millicent Library
Millicent Library
Millicent Library in Fairhaven, Massachusetts was donated to the town by the family of Millicent Gifford Rogers, the youngest daughter of Abbie Gifford and wealthy industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers. Young MIllicent had died of heart failure in 1890 when she was barely seventeen years old...

, and a modern water-and-sewer system. These structures were erected to top-quality construction standards, a trademark philosophy of Henry H. Rogers; most are still in regular use more than one hundred years later.

The original land purchase

Fairhaven was first settled in 1670 as "Cushnea," the easternmost part of the town of Dartmouth
Dartmouth, Massachusetts
Dartmouth is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States established in 1664. The population was 30,665 at the 2000 census. It is the location of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth....

. It was founded on land purchased by English settlers at the Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 to 1691. The first settlement of the Plymouth Colony was at New Plymouth, a location previously surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement, which served as the capital of the colony, is today the modern town...

 from the natives, — specifically, from the Wampanoag sachem
Sachem
A sachem[p] or sagamore is a paramount chief among the Algonquians or other northeast American tribes. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms from different Eastern Algonquian languages...

 whose name was Massasoit
Massasoit
Massasoit Sachem or Ousamequin ,was the sachem, or leader, of the Pokanoket, and "Massasoit" of the Wampanoag Confederacy. The term Massasoit means Great Sachem.-Early years:...

, and his son, Wamsutta
Wamsutta
Wamsutta , also known as Alexander Pokanoket, as he was called by New England colonists, was the eldest son of Massasoit and a sachem of the Wampanoag native American tribe. His sale of Wampanoag lands to colonists other than those of the Plymouth Colony brought the Wampanoag considerable power,...

.

Dartmouth, divided and redivided

In 1787, the eastern portion of the Dartmouth township seceded and formed a new settlement called New Bedford
New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, located south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and about east of Fall River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 95,072, making it the sixth-largest city in Massachusetts...

. This new town included areas that are the present-day towns of Fairhaven, Acushnet
Acushnet, Massachusetts
Acushnet is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 10,303 at the 2010 census.- History :Acushnet was first settled in 1659. It has been included as a part of three separate towns throughout its history. It was formerly the northeastern section of the town of...

, and New Bedford itself. Fairhaven eventually separated from New Bedford, and it was officially incorporated in 1812. At that time, Fairhaven included all of the land on the east bank of the Acushnet River
Acushnet River
The Acushnet River is the largest river, long, flowing into Buzzards Bay in southeastern Massachusetts, in the United States. The name "Acushnet" comes from the Wampanoag or Algonquian word, "Cushnea", meaning "as far as the waters", a word that was used by the original owners of the land in...

. A portion of Fairhaven, the northern portion, upriver from Buzzards Bay
Buzzards Bay
Buzzards Bay is a bay along the southern edge of Massachusetts in the United States. The name may also refer to:*Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, a village in Bourne, Massachusetts*Buzzards Bay , the name of the horse that won the 2005 Santa Anita Derby...

, formed another independent town, called Acushnet, in 1860. Thus, what had once been a single town, Dartmouth, with a substantial land area, became, in less than 75 years, four separate municipalities. (Note that the western portion of the original Dartmouth land-purchase eventually became a fifth town, Westport
Westport, Massachusetts
Westport is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 15,532 at the 2010 census.The village of North Westport lies in the town.- History :...

.)

Fort Phoenix

Fort Phoenix
Fort Phoenix
Fort Phoenix is a Revolutionary War-era fort located at the entrance to the Fairhaven-New Bedford harbor, south of U.S. 6 in Fort Phoenix Park in Fairhaven, Massachusetts....

 (now called the Fort Phoenix State Reservation) is located in Fairhaven at the mouth of the Acushnet River, and it served, during colonial and revolutionary times, as the primary defense against seaborne attacks on New Bedford harbor.

Within sight of the fort, the first naval battle of the American Revolution took place on 14 May 1775. Under the command of Nathaniel Pope and Daniel Egery, a group of twenty-five Fairhaven minutemen aboard the sloop Success captured two British vessels in Buzzards Bay.

On 5 and 6 September 1778, the British landed four thousand soldiers on the west side of the Acushnet River. They burned ships and warehouses in New Bedford, skirmished at the Head-of-the-River bridge (approximately where the Main Street bridge in Acushnet is presently situated), and marched through Fairhaven to Sconticut Neck, burning homes along the way. In deference to the overwhelming force approaching from the landward side, the fort was abandoned, and it was destroyed by the enemy. An attack on Fairhaven village itself was repelled by militia under the command of Major Israel Fearing, who had marched from Wareham
Wareham, Massachusetts
Wareham is a town located in Plymouth County, Massachusetts. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 20,335, with an estimated 2008 population of 21,221....

, some twenty kilometres away, with additional militiamen. Fearing's heroic action saved Fairhaven from further molestation.

The fort was enlarged before the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

, and it helped repel an attack on the harbor by British forces. In the early morning hours of 13 June 1814, landing boats were launched from the British raider, HMS Nimrod. Alerted by the firing of the guns at Fort Phoenix, the militia gathered, and the British did not come ashore.

The fort was decommissioned in 1876, and, in 1926, the site was donated to the town by Cara Rogers Broughton (a daughter of Henry Huttleston Rogers). Today, the area surrounding the fort includes a park and a bathing beach. The fort lies just to the seaward side of the harbor's hurricane barrier.

Whaling

Prior to the second half of the nineteenth century, whale oil
Whale oil
Whale oil is the oil obtained from the blubber of various species of whales, particularly the three species of right whale and the bowhead whale prior to the modern era, as well as several other species of baleen whale...

 was the primary source of fuel for lighting in the United States. The whaling industry
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...

 was an economic mainstay for many New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

 coastal communities for over two hundred years. The famous whaling port
Port
A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

 of New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford, Massachusetts
New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States, located south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and about east of Fall River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 95,072, making it the sixth-largest city in Massachusetts...

 is located across the Acushnet River from Fairhaven. Fairhaven was also a whaling port; in fact, in the year 1838, Fairhaven was the second-largest whaling port in the United States with twenty-four vessels sailing for the whaling grounds. The author of Moby Dick, Herman Melville
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....

, departed from the port of Fairhaven aboard the whaleship, Acushnet, in 1841.
However, once New Bedford's predominance in the whaling industry became apparent, Fairhaven's economy evolved into one that supplemented the New Bedford economy rather than competing directly with it. Fairhaven became a town of shipwrights, ship chandler
Ship chandler
A ship chandler is a retail dealer in special supplies or equipment for ships.For traditional sailing ships items that could be found in a chandler might include: rosin, turpentine, tar, pitch , linseed oil, whale oil, tallow, lard, varnish, twine, rope and cordage, hemp, oakum, tools A ship...

s, rope
Rope
A rope is a length of fibres, twisted or braided together to improve strength for pulling and connecting. It has tensile strength but is too flexible to provide compressive strength...

makers, coopers
Cooper (profession)
Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden staved vessels of a conical form, of greater length than breadth, bound together with hoops and possessing flat ends or heads...

, and sailmaker
Sailmaker
A sailmaker makes and repairs sails for sailboats, kites, hang gliders, wind art, architectural sails, or other structures using sails. A sailmaker typically works on shore in a sail loft. The sail loft has other sailmakers. Large ocean-going sailing ships often had sailmakers in the crew. The...

s. It also became a popular location for ship-owners and ship-captains to build their homes and raise their children.

Mark Twain

Fairhaven's great benefactor, Henry H. Rogers, befriended a number of the high and mighty; he also became a friend, advisor, and patron to a number of the less-well-off. Among them were Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and political leader. He was the dominant figure in the African-American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915...

, Anne Sullivan
Anne Sullivan
Johanna "Anne" Mansfield Sullivan Macy , also known as Annie Sullivan, was an American teacher best known as the instructor and companion of Helen Keller.-Early life:Sullivan was born on April 14, 1866 in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts...

, Helen Keller
Helen Keller
Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree....

, and Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...

, all of whom came to visit Rogers in Fairhaven, sometimes for protracted periods.

Late in Twain's life, he had, through imprudent investments and more than a little bad luck, managed to impoverish himself. Rogers lent him a helping hand, and Twain did whatever he could to return the favors.
On 22 February 1894, the third of Rogers's great bequests to his hometown, the Fairhaven Town Hall
Fairhaven Town Hall
Fairhaven Town Hall is a historic town hall at Center Street in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.The town hall was built in 1892 and added to the National Historic Register in 1981....

 (pictured above), was dedicated. Earlier, in 1885, Rogers had built a huge and modern (for the times) elementary school and, in 1893, a memorial to his beloved daughter, Millicent, in the form of an Italian-Renaissance
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...

 palazzo
Palazzo
Palazzo, an Italian word meaning a large building , may refer to:-Buildings:*Palazzo, an Italian type of building**Palazzo style architecture, imitative of Italian palazzi...

 that serves as the town's free public library to this day. When the Fairhaven Town Hall, a gift of Abbie Palmer (Gifford) Rogers, was dedicated, Henry Huttleston Rogers’s friend, Mark Twain, delivered a humorous speech to mark the occasion. Less than three months later, on 21 May 1894, Abbie Rogers died in New York following surgery for stomach cancer.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the town has a total area of 14.1 square miles (36.5 km²), of which, 12.4 square miles (32.1 km²) is land and 1.7 square miles (4.4 km²) (12.06%) is water. The town is located on Buzzards Bay
Buzzards Bay
Buzzards Bay is a bay along the southern edge of Massachusetts in the United States. The name may also refer to:*Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts, a village in Bourne, Massachusetts*Buzzards Bay , the name of the horse that won the 2005 Santa Anita Derby...

, on the eastern bank of the mouth of the Acushnet River, and is the southeastern-most town in Bristol County. The lands of the town jut out into the bay via Sconticut Neck and West Island, along with several other small islands. It is bordered by the river and New Bedford to the west, Acushnet to the north, Mattapoisett to the east and Buzzards Bay to the south. Most of the town's water area consists of its harbors, bays and coves, along with a portion of the Acushnet's waters, and the Nasketucket and Scipping Creeks. Fairhaven's localities include Fairhaven Center, North Fairhaven, East Fairhaven, Oxford, Poverty Point, Nasketucket, Sconticut Neck, and Winsegansett Heights.
The town has two large public parks, Livesey Park and Cushman Park, as well as a number of smaller ones; Cushman Park, as well as having tennis courts and ballfields and a bandstand, is also the location of Fairhaven High School
Fairhaven High School
Fairhaven High School is located in the town of Fairhaven in south eastern Massachusetts. The school building was donated in 1906 by Henry Huttleston Rogers, who was one of the key men in John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust...

's running track. The town has several commercial wharves, a yacht club, and several marinas for recreational craft. There are several small bathing beaches, the largest being the Fort Phoenix State Reservation, a south-facing beach to the east of the fort and the New Bedford Harbor Hurricane Barrier. There is also a bike path which travels along a long-unused railroad right-of-way, just to the south of Route 6.

Transportation

Interstate 195 travels on an east-west path through town, crossing the Acushnet River at the point where it begins to broaden as it approaches New Bedford Harbor. It is also crossed by U.S. Route 6
U.S. Route 6
U.S. Route 6 , also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, a name that honors an American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the U.S. Highway system, running east-northeast from Bishop, California to Provincetown, Massachusetts. Until 1964, it continued south from Bishop to...

, which enters the town on a bridge between the mainland and Pope's Island, which is connected to the rest of New Bedford by the New Bedford-Fairhaven Bridge, a swing-span truss bridge over one hundred years old. Access from I-195 to Route 6 is Route 240, a short, one-mile divided highway which leads, at Exit 18, to the intersection of Route 6 and Sconticut Neck Road. The town's retail center is located at this intersection, and includes several stores, markets, and restaurants.

Demographics

As of the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2008, there were 25,065 people, 8,423 households, and 4,354 families residing in the town. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 1,303.4 people per square mile (503.1/km²). There were 7,266 housing units at an average density of 586.1 per square mile (226.2/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 96.32% White, 0.60% African American, 0.26% Native American, 0.44% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 1.19% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

, and 1.17% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.84% of the population.

There were 6,622 households out of which 27.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.6% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 11.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.8% were non-families. 30.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 2.98.

In the town the population was spread out with 21.7% under the age of 18, 6.6% from 18 to 24, 27.9% from 25 to 44, 24.3% from 45 to 64, and 19.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 89.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.3 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $41,696, and the median income for a family was $52,298. Males had a median income of $38,201 versus $29,736 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the town was $20,986. About 6.5% of families and 9.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.4% of those under age 18 and 11.6% of those age 65 or over.

Business

Fairhaven is the home of the Acushnet Company
Acushnet Company
The Acushnet Company is a subsidiary of the Fortune Brands Corporation that makes golf equipment and golfing apparel.However, Fortune Brands announced on December 8, 2010, that it planned to focus on its liquor business, and would spin off or sell other parts of the company — including home...

, a world-renowned manufacturer of golf equipment. Fairhaven is also home to Nye Lubricants, Inc
Nye Lubricants, Inc
Nye Lubricants, Inc. traces its origins back to 1844 in New Bedford, Massachusetts. As the whaling industry’s epicenter, New Bedford proved a hot spot to start an oil and lubricant company.-William F. Nye:...

., a firm dealing in industrial lubricants whose history dates back to 1844.

Government

Fairhaven is located in the 10th Bristol state representative district, which includes all of Fairhaven, Marion, Mattapoisett, and Rochester, as well as a portion of Middleborough. The town is represented in the state senate in the 2nd Bristol-Plymouth district, which includes the city of New Bedford and the towns of Acushnet, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, and Mattapoisett. On the national level, the town is part of the 4th Massachusetts Congressional District, which is represented by Barney Frank
Barney Frank
Barney Frank is the U.S. Representative for . A member of the Democratic Party, he is the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and is considered the most prominent gay politician in the United States.Born and raised in New Jersey, Frank graduated from Harvard College and...

. The state's senior (Class I) Senator, re-elected in 2006, is Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...

, and the state's junior (Class II) Senator, re-elected in 2008, is John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...

.

Fairhaven is governed by a representative town meeting
Representative town meeting
A representative town meeting is a form of municipal legislature particularly common in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Vermont....

, run by a board of selectmen
Board of selectmen
The board of selectmen is commonly the executive arm of the government of New England towns in the United States. The board typically consists of three or five members, with or without staggered terms.-History:...

 and an executive secretary. The town has one library (the Millicent Library), two fire stations (the Central and East Fairhaven stations), a central police department, and one post office, located behind the library. The Fairhaven police department is located on Washington Street, a kilometre east of the center of town.

Education

Fairhaven has its own school department, with three elementary schools (Leroy L. Wood, East Fairhaven, and Rogers, which is named for H. H. Rogers and his family), one middle school (Elizabeth Hastings Middle School), and Fairhaven High School
Fairhaven High School
Fairhaven High School is located in the town of Fairhaven in south eastern Massachusetts. The school building was donated in 1906 by Henry Huttleston Rogers, who was one of the key men in John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust...

, which also accommodates some high school students from neighboring Acushnet.

Fairhaven High School
Fairhaven High School
Fairhaven High School is located in the town of Fairhaven in south eastern Massachusetts. The school building was donated in 1906 by Henry Huttleston Rogers, who was one of the key men in John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust...

, donated by Rogers in 1906, is the most recognizable landmark in the town, given its prominent location on Route 6 (Huttleston Avenue) and its impressive appearance. The school's teams are known as the Blue Devils, and their colors are royal-blue and white. The school's fight song is sung to the tune of the "Notre Dame Fight Song". In addition to the public school, high school students may choose to attend either Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational-Technical High School
Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational-Technical High School
Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational-Technical High School is a vocational high school located in New Bedford, Massachusetts for students in grades 9-12. The school draws its student body from the towns and cities of New Bedford, Dartmouth, and Fairhaven...

 ("Voc-Tech") or Bristol County Agricultural High School ("Bristol Aggie"), free of charge.

The town is also home to Saint Joseph's School, a Roman Catholic parochial school
Parochial school
A parochial school is a school that provides religious education in addition to conventional education. In a narrower sense, a parochial school is a Christian grammar school or high school which is part of, and run by, a parish.-United Kingdom:...

 which provides an education to kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...

ers through eighth-graders.

Notable residents

Henry Huttleston Rogers was, without doubt, Fairhaven's most remarkable citizen. Other than Rogers, Fairhaven was also home to:
  • Joseph Bates
    Joseph Bates (Adventist)
    Joseph Bates was an American seaman and revivalist minister. He was the founder and developer of Sabbatarian Adventism, a strain of religious thinking that evolved into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Bates is also credited with convincing James White and Ellen G...

     (1792–1872), co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist
    Seventh-day Adventist Church
    The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...

     movement.

  • John Cook Bennett
    John C. Bennett
    John Cook Bennett was an American physician and a ranking and influential—but short-lived—leader of the Latter Day Saint movement, who acted as second-in-command to Joseph Smith, Jr., for a brief period in the early 1840s....

     (1804–1867) was an American physician and a ranking and influential (but short-lived and controversial) leader of the Latter-Day-Saint movement, who acted as second in command to Joseph Smith, Jr. for a brief period in the early 1840s.

  • World-renowned marine painter and photographer William Bradford
    William Bradford (painter)
    William Bradford was an American romanticist painter, photographer and explorer, originally from Fairhaven, Massachusetts, near New Bedford....

     (1823–1892) lived and worked in Fairhaven.

  • John Cooke
    John Cooke
    John Cooke may refer to:*John Cooke , Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University*John Cooke *John Cooke , English cricketer...

    , the last surviving male Pilgrim from the 1620 voyage to found the Plymouth colony (and who was, with Thomas Delano, one of the original buyers of the land from the Wampanoags).

  • Captain Paul Delano
    Paul Delano
    Captain Paul Delano , born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, was a sea captain and a member of the prominent American Delano family. He moved to Chile as Captain of the Curiacio where he arrived in June 22, 1819 and became an important part of that country's First Chilean Navy Squadron...

     (1775–1842), a sea captain, moved to Chile in 1819 where he became an important part of that country's early Navy.

  • Warren Delano II, grandfather of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

  • Lemuel D. Eldred (1848–1921), a talented marine painter, who depicted New England’s dramatic seascapes, rocky beaches, and quiet coastal villages in the manner of the Hudson River School
    Hudson River school
    The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism...

    ’s second generation.

  • William H. Hand, Jr.
    William Hand
    William H. Hand, Jr. has been described as one of the most prolific yacht designers of the 20th century with an exceptionally good eye for handsome boats. Hand’s career began around 1900 with small sailboats, but soon shifted to V-bottomed powerboats...

     (1875-1946), was one of the most prolific yacht designers of the twentieth century. Hand’s office was in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.

  • William Le Baron Jenney
    William Le Baron Jenney
    William Le Baron Jenney was an American architect and engineer who became known as the Father of the American skyscraper.- Life and career :...

     (1832—1907), an American architect and engineer who became known as the "Father of the American Skyscraper", was a Fairhaven native.

  • "John" Manjiro Nakahama
    Nakahama Manjiro
    , also known as John Manjirō , was one of the first Japanese people to visit the United States and an important translator during the Opening of Japan.-Voyage to America:...

     (1827–1898), the first Japanese person to live in America.

  • Albert Pike
    Albert Pike
    Albert Pike was an attorney, Confederate officer, writer, and Freemason. Pike is the only Confederate military officer or figure to be honored with an outdoor statue in Washington, D.C...

     (1809–1891) was an attorney, soldier, writer, and prominent Freemason. Pike is the only Confederate military officer or figure to be honored with an outdoor statue in Washington, D.C. (in Judiciary Square). A Massachusetts native, he taught school in Fairhaven as a young man.

  • Christopher Reeve
    Christopher Reeve
    Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist...

     (1952–2004), of Superman fame, kept a sailboat, the 40-foot sloop-rigged "Chandelle", at a Fairhaven shipyard and sometimes flew into New Bedford Regional Airport to pick it up or to stay in town during a stopover en route to Martha's Vineyard.

  • Gil Santos
    Gil Santos
    Gil Santos is the longtime radio play-by-play announcer for the New England Patriots of the National Football League, and morning sports reporter for WBZ radio in Boston. He retired from WBZ on January 30, 2009. Santos was inducted into the WBZ Radio Hall of Fame on July 9, 2009...

     is the longtime radio play-by-play announcer for the New England Patriots
    New England Patriots
    The New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...

     of the National Football League
    National Football League
    The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

     and morning sports reporter for WBZ radio
    WBZ (AM)
    WBZ is the call sign for an AM radio station in Boston, Massachusetts owned by CBS Radio, itself owned by the CBS Corporation. Originally based in and broadcast from Springfield, Massachusetts, WBZ was the first commercial radio station in the United States...

     in Boston.

  • Frances Ford Seymour
    Frances Ford Seymour
    Frances Ford Seymour was a socialite, the second wife of actor Henry Fonda and the mother of actors Jane Fonda and Peter Fonda.-Early life:...

     (1908–1950), wife of actor Henry Fonda
    Henry Fonda
    Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...

     and mother of actress Jane Fonda
    Jane Fonda
    Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...

     and actor Peter Fonda
    Peter Fonda
    Peter Henry Fonda is an American actor. He is the son of Henry Fonda, brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget and Justin Fonda...

    , lived in Fairhaven for several years with family members, and attended Fairhaven High School
    Fairhaven High School
    Fairhaven High School is located in the town of Fairhaven in south eastern Massachusetts. The school building was donated in 1906 by Henry Huttleston Rogers, who was one of the key men in John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust...

    .

  • Captain Joshua Slocum
    Joshua Slocum
    Joshua Slocum was the first man to sail single-handedly around the world. He was a Canadian born, naturalised American seaman and adventurer, and a noted writer. In 1900 he told the story of this in Sailing Alone Around the World...

     (1844–1909), the first man to sail alone around the world, and his ship, the Spray
    Spray (sailing vessel)
    The S.V. Spray was a oyster sloop rebuilt by Joshua Slocum and used by him to sail single-handed around the world, the first voyage of its kind...

    . The Spray originally belonged to Captain Eben Pierce of Fairhaven, a whaling captain, who gave the derelict boat, slowly deteriorating in a ship cradle
    Ship cradle
    A Ship cradle is a support, made of wood or metal, to hold a ship or boat upright on land so that the vessel can be built or repaired. The vessel is chocked up by wooden chocks and fixed on the cradle...

     in a meadow on Fairhaven's Poverty Point, to his friend, Captain Slocum. Slocum spent thirteen months in Fairhaven while working on the Spray, making her fit for open-ocean sailing. Fairhaven oak formed much of the boat's refitted structure. The Spray and her one-man crew returned after nearly three and a half year to the very cedar spile that was used for her launch. Today, the student newspaper at Fairhaven High School
    Fairhaven High School
    Fairhaven High School is located in the town of Fairhaven in south eastern Massachusetts. The school building was donated in 1906 by Henry Huttleston Rogers, who was one of the key men in John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust...

     is called "The Spray".

  • Captain Noah Stoddard was a famous American Privateer. He was successful during the American Revolution
    American Revolution
    The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

     in numerous raids against the British such as the Raid on Lunenburg, Nova Scotia (1782)
    Raid on Lunenburg, Nova Scotia (1782)
    Not to be confused with the Raid on Lunenburg, Nova Scotia The Raid on Lunenburg occurred during the American Revolution when the famous American Privateer Captain Noah Stoddard of Fairhaven, Massachusetts and four other privateer vessels attacked the British settlement at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia...

    .

See also

  • Baron Fairhaven
    Baron Fairhaven
    Baron Fairhaven, of Anglesey Abbey in the County of Cambridge, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1961 for Urban Huttleston Broughton, 1st Baron Fairhaven, with remainder to his younger brother Henry Broughton. He had already been created Baron Fairhaven, of Lode in...

  • Cara Rogers Broughton
  • Fairhaven Branch Railroad
    Fairhaven Branch Railroad
    The Fairhaven Branch Railroad was a short-line railroad in Massachusetts. It ran from West Wareham on the Cape Cod main line of the Old Colony Railroad, southwest to Fairhaven, a town across the Acushnet River from New Bedford.-History:...

  • Huttleston Broughton
    Urban Huttleston Broughton, 1st Baron Fairhaven
    Urban Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Baron Fairhaven was a British nobleman, born at Fairhaven, Massachusetts in the United States, who was usually known as Huttleston Broughton....

  • Kanawha, the yacht
    Kanawha (1899)
    Kanawha was a 471-ton steam-powered luxury yacht initially built in 1899 for millionaire industrialist and financier Henry Huttleston Rogers . One of the key men in the Standard Oil Trust, Rogers was one of the last of the robber barons of the Gilded Age in the United States...

  • Lady Fairhaven
  • Gideon Nye
    Gideon Nye
    Gideon Nye was an American diplomat, art collector, and a merchant in the East India and China trade, known both for his art collection and for his writings on China....

  • Mai Rogers Coe
    Mary (Mai) Huttleston Rogers Coe
    Mai Rogers Coe was born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. She was christened Mary Huttleston Rogers, and was the youngest of four daughters of Henry Huttleston Rogers and Abbie Palmer Rogers ....

  • Urban Hanlon Broughton
    Urban H. Broughton
    Urban Hanlon Broughton was an English civil engineer, railroad and mining executive, and Conservative Party Member of Parliament. In 1929, he was in line for elevation to the peerage, but he died in January before the process was finalized...

  • Runnymede
  • Whale oil
    Whale oil
    Whale oil is the oil obtained from the blubber of various species of whales, particularly the three species of right whale and the bowhead whale prior to the modern era, as well as several other species of baleen whale...

  • Whaling in America
    Whaling in America
    The origins of whaling in the United States date to the 17th century in New England and peaked in 1846-52. New Bedford, Massachusetts, sent out its last whaler, the John R. Mantra, in 1927.-History:...


External links

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