The very first of Cape Cod's 15 towns to be incorporated was Sandwich, settled in 1637, when permission was granted to Edmund Freeman of Saugus to establish a settlement comprising 60 families. In that year, Freeman and nine other men from Saugus (now Lynn, Massachusetts, a city north of Boston) arrived to tame this area known as Manomet, which was close to the Aptucxet Trading Post in what is now the town of Bourne. These 10 men became known as the "10 men of Saugus" and were joined by some 30 other families from Plymouth, Lynn, and Duxbury.

Pilgrims Myles Standish and John Alden journeyed down from Plymouth in 1639 to establish the bounds of this growing settlement. The town became incorporated with the name of Sandwich because a number of its residents had originally come from Sandwich, England. At that time, the new township of Sandwich also included all the land that would later become Bourne.

The first settlers were largely Congregationalists, but Quakers came to town shortly afterwards, seeking converts. Some settlers did convert, but the Quakers were persecuted in town and many left for other parts. Pockets of Quakers remained in Sandwich, however, to take their place in the town's history, and are still there.

The earliest settlers were chiefly farmers who also raised cattle and sheep. Because Sandwich lacked an adequate harbor, the maritime history of the town was limited to local fishing and reaping the harvest of the occasional beached whale. Local sailors and ship captains typically sailed from ports of other towns, such as neighboring Barnstable and Falmouth, each of which had decent harbors. Sandwich did contribute with its share of saltworks, but the town remained mainly a farming community, earning its living from the soil rather than from the sea.

The 19th century brought change and unthinkable prosperity to Sandwich. In 1825 Deming Jarves established the Boston and Sandwich Glass Works, which he figured would utilize two of Sandwich's more abundant natural resources: sand and trees. Unfortunately, the sand was found to be the wrong type for producing the glass Jarves had in mind. Sand had to be imported to Sandwich! By 1850 the plant employed 500 workers and was producing a half-ton of glassware each week. Besides standard glassware, the company also created artistic pieces. Jarves enticed some of the world's greatest glassmakers to relocate from Europe to Sandwich to fashion these intricate, decorative works of art.

The same year glassmaking came to Sandwich, Keith & Ryder opened for business to produce wagons, stagecoaches and, later, railroad freight trains. This highly successful company remained in business for 102 years, employed many Sandwich residents, and produced the vehicles that helped America expand westward.

The decade of the 1880s saw Sandwich's future grow dim. In 1884 Bourne and her six villages separated from Sandwich, taking away residential tax dollars as well as the Keith & Ryder company. Four years later, in 1888, the major blow came when the glass company closed its doors due to competition from elsewhere. People were out of work and Sandwich's economy crumbled. The ripple effect closed local businesses, which in turn put more people out of work, thus closing more businesses. A number of people moved away to start again elsewhere.

Fortunately, Sandwich has survived intact and remains a charming village that attracts many visitors with its numerous historical buildings. Visitors also come to see the Sandwich Glass Museum (see our Attractions chapter), which traces the history of the town's glass works and displays one of the largest collections of blown, pressed, cut, and engraved Sandwich glass in the United States.

Falmouth was officially settled in 1660 by a dozen families led by Isaac Robinson and John Hatch, both Barnstable Congregationalists fed up with the religious persecutions of the day, particularly of Quakers. The original name for this area was the Indian term Suckanesset, or Succonessitt, which translated as "black clam" or "the place of the black shells." In 1690 the town was renamed Falmouth after an English seaport.

Falmouth was the site of a handful of small battles with the British during both the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, and in each case the Falmouth men prevailed. During the American Revolution, Falmouth was one of the few Cape towns fired on by the British. In 1779 the British attempted to loot the town of its supplies and weaponry, but their advances were repelled. Frustrated, the British decided to teach the Falmouth patriots a lesson by burning their town. The marauders were met by 200 members of the Cape militia who prevented an attack. One year earlier, the waters off Falmouth saw perhaps the first naval victory in American history. The British had been off shore capturing Falmouth ships, ransacking them, and confiscating their supplies. Colonel Joseph Dimmick, who had been training the Falmouth militia on the village green, took three whaleboats out against the British navy and won back a schooner that the British had hijacked earlier!

During another war, in 1814, the British ship Nimrod sailed into the waters off Falmouth. Its captain demanded that the town's cannons, which were positioned in the village square, be handed over. Captain Weston Jenkins of the Falmouth militia flatly refused to comply, and the pages of history state that his reply to the British was, "Come and get 'em!" This, of course, prompted heavy fire, and a number of buildings in town were hit, including the Elm Arch Inn and the Nimrod Inn. Both establishments proudly wear their battle scars today--a cannonball-sized hole still exists in a wall at the Nimrod Inn.

The town was ideally suited to fishing and farming, and a whaling fleet was based in Woods Hole, where there remains a stone building on Water Street once used to make candles from spermaceti whale oil. Shipbuilding was an important maritime trade, and at one point Falmouth's 300 households included 148 headed by sea captains.

Agriculture thrived here, and cranberries and strawberries were leading crops. In fact, around the turn of the century, the Town of Falmouth was the leading producer of strawberries east of the Mississippi. (Many Cape Verde Islanders who had come from the Portuguese islands off the coast of Africa to work in the fishing and whaling industry, sought agricultural work here and eventually bought land and settled in the area.) Salt harvested from seawater was also an important "crop."

Falmouth set aside its village green in 1749 as common land for the town's 600 residents. Once used for grazing livestock and military training, the expanse now adds charm as well as its proud history to the town.

Across the street from the village green is the First Congregational Church, built in 1708. Its 807-pound bell was made by Paul Revere and cost the town of Falmouth $338.94. Falmouth is also home to Nobska Light, built in 1828; Marine Biological Laboratory, established in 1888; and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, established in the 1930s.

The history of Mashpee reflects the white man's attempt to allow the Native Indians of the area to "own" their own village and manage their own affairs. Though these intentions were probably good ones, in truth it is a tale of one race of people trying to decide what another race wants. The results, though not completely disastrous, were at best off the mark.

Centuries before the Pilgrims landed in Provincetown, the Wampanoag Federation was well established in southeastern Massachusetts. The federation consisted of approximately 30 tribes of peaceful people who had a complex social structure. These native Indians grew crops, hunted, fished, traded amongst themselves, and pretty much lived without war, religious persecution, economic and social hardships, and the other trappings that troubled the European settlers' lives. Among these people, the Massipees of the South Sea tribe lived in the vicinity of the present town of Mashpee.

The town's history is complex and very different from the other 15 Cape towns because it is the only one in which native people acquired legal title to their lands. As white settlers began to hoodwink the Indians out of their native lands, three men stepped forward as missionary ministers to level the playing field. Those men were Samuel Treat in Eastham, Thomas Tupper in Bourne, and Richard Bourne in Mashpee. Though not an ordained minister, Bourne arrived in Mashpee in 1660 in an attempt to convert the natives to Christianity and to establish a native Indian church. Bourne had the background, contacts, and desire to help native people establish the "Kingdome of Marshpee." He realized early on that the only way to gain rights for the Indians was to get them to adopt some of the white man's ways, primarily the church and an understanding of their law.

The year 1684 saw the building of the present Indian Meeting House (see Attractions chapter), now standing as the Cape's oldest church. In 1685, the year of Bourne's death, the General Court voted that no property within the plantation could be sold without the consent of the native residents. Despite this, the Native Americans were not prepared for self-government within an essentially foreign society, and the overseer system imposed by Plymouth virtually made the natives slaves on their own lands. In the 1700s the tribe numbers dropped critically. In 1767 the area had 21 shingled homes, 52 wigwams and 291 people; 100 years later, the population stood at 331 people. During the American Revolution, 70 Mashpee Indians were killed fighting against the British.

Throughout the remainder of the 18th and 19th centuries, the town of Mashpee sought its freedom from the oversight of Plymouth. Assisting in that cause were Indian pastors Blind Joe Amos and William Apes. In 1834 the district of Mashpee was established, but the overseer system remained in effect. Immigration in the form of blacks, natives of the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa, and even captured Hessian soldiers who had fought with the British in the American Revolution added to the bloodlines and began to reduce the numbers of pure-bred Indians. Finally, in 1870, Mashpee was incorporated as the Cape's 14th town.

Freedom was still something to be achieved, even with incorporation. Advisory boards, convinced that the natives could not manage their own town, continued to meddle in Mashpee's affairs. The last of these advisory councils finally released its grip in 1970 during the year marking the town's centennial celebration. Recent years have seen legal suits initiated by the Wampanoag Tribal Council coupled with unprecedented development, the most of any town in the state for several consecutive years.

Today, its Indian heritage is still solidly a part of Mashpee, and those who want to learn about it can visit the Indian Museum and Tribal Council on Mass. Rt. 130, the Indian church and cemetery on Mass. Rt. 28, and the town archives on Great Neck Road. Or you can attend the Pow Wow in July (see our Annual Events chapter). Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth is also a good source of information on the culture of the Wampanoag people.