A GUIDE TO
PLYMOUTH
And Its History
Compiled from Inscriptions on Tablets, Monuments
& Statues erected in Honor of Its Founders
THE PILGRIMS, or given in prose or verse
on Occasions of Memorial Celebrations
By Helen T. Briggs and Rose T. Briggs
Illustrated by Raymond C. Dreher
PUBLISHED BY
THE PILGRIM SOCIETY
and
THE PLYMOUTH ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY
Copyright, 1938
By The Plymouth Antiquarian Society
THE MEMORIAL PRESS
PLYMOUTH, Massachusetts
[i]
FOREWORD
Plymouth preserves with loyal respect the places which are associatedwith her Forefathers, the Pilgrims.
In the town they founded, tablets, statues, and public monuments bearwitness to the veneration that historical societies, the State, andthe Nation, hold for the memory of that small group of men and women,simple in their origin, exalted in their purpose, who were destined toprove themselves great among the greatest, and whose example of a freecommonwealth and a free faith, is one of the far-reaching influences inhistory.
Many questions are asked by visitors to Plymouth about Plymouthhistory and the localities of Pilgrim Life. It is the purpose of thisshort guide to review the Pilgrim story and give in the words ofpermanent inscriptions, the public estimation of the Pilgrims and theiraccomplishment.
Plymouth, 1938.
PILGRIM HALL
In grateful memory
Of our ancestors
Who exiled themselves from their
native country
for the sake of Religion
And here successfully laid the
foundation
of Freedom and Empire
December XXII A.D. MDCCCXX
their descendants the Pilgrim Society
have raised this edifice
August XXXI MDCCCXXIV
PLYMOUTH
“Forever honored be this, the place of our fathers’ refuge!Forever remembered the day which saw them, weary and distressed,broken in everything but spirit, poor in all but faith andcourage, at last secure from the dangers of wintry seas, andimpressing this shore with the first footsteps of civilized man!”
—Daniel Webster