And so my quest began. I headed for the library and straight to the road atlases. Since it seems as if practically every state in New England has two of the cities to be found, this proved a little more difficult than I’d originally imagined.(1) I spent most of my spring break on the internet trying to find anything to help narrow my search down. On the last night of my spring break, I remembered hearing about an Internet site called Ask Jeeves. I was able to find all of the cities or names referred to (except one) in the state of Massachusetts. I figured four out of five wasn’t bad so I concluded this to be the state.

I learned the hard lesson that cities named in the 1800’s don’t always retain those names or the spelling may have changed over the years. For example, Pitchard is actually spelled Pritchard and is now known as Hood Pond.(1) Titicut is located in Plymouth County in what is now North Middleborough.(2) Monroe, Massachusetts proved to be a tough nut to crack since I couldn’t find any reference to it on the internet at all. I finally found that it used to be located in the western part of Massachusetts near Vermont.(3) I say "used to be" because I have not been able to locate Monroe on any of the more recent road maps.

I was relieved that I wasn’t going to have to eat humble pie because I was able to return to class from spring break armed with my information and a visual presentation to boot. After receiving the accolades from my professor and classmates following the presentation of my findings, Dr. Long dropped the bomb on me: I was to research what Plymouth County was like during the 1800’s. After the initial shock wore off, I set up my game plan once again. The Internet and the library were going to be my best friends and companions over the next few weeks. Foolishly, I once again did not consider this task to be a tough one. Once again, I was proven wrong.

The library and the Internet are filled with a great amount of information concerning Plymouth and Plymouth County. Unfortunately, very little of it pertains to the time period in which my research was to take place. If Dr. Long had requested information on the Mayflower, the Pilgrims or the first Thanksgiving, I would have been able to oblige him with a vast array of information. Alas, I was not able to do so with this time period.

Undaunted and not generally one who admits defeat easily, I scoured to find anything I could on the state of Massachusetts. What I discovered was that during this time period, many in Massachusetts changed how they earned a living.(4) While most of Massachusetts had farmed in earlier times, manufacturing was developing quickly during the 1800’s.(4) Many of these farmers came to the cities for better opportunities.(5) By 1860, Massachusetts was the leader in producing shoes and textiles and there was at least one factory in almost every town by then.(4)

Massachusetts was also the first state to end slavery.(4) Many people turned their homes into safe havens for slaves on the Underground Railroad.(4) When the Civil War broke out, approximately 150,000 Massachusetts troops helped the North to defeat the South and end slavery in the entire United States.(4)

While initially dreading this aspect of the project and hoping I was through, I really enjoyed learning about the contributions Massachusetts has made to this nation as a whole.

For a contemporary map of Plymouth County, click on this link.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Ask.com. Visited March 12, 2000.
2. U. S. Road Atlas: includes all 50 states, U. S weather maps, maps of major cities, Canada and Mexico. San Jose, CA: Gousha/Clek-Chert, 1993.
3. Bearse, Ray. Massachusetts: A Guide to the Pilgrim State. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1971.
4. Fradin, Dennis. From Sea to Shining Sea: Massachusetts. Chicago: Children’s Press, Inc., 1991.
5. McNair, Sylvia. America the Beautiful: Massachusetts. Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier Publishing, 1998.