“The meersteads and garden plottes of those which came first, layed out 1620.”
To honor the memory of the courageous men and women who established their homes and made their gardens along the Town Brook in 1621–22, Mrs. William Forbes of Milton, with the co-operation of the Town, created in 1920–22, a beautiful little park on the site of the first meersteads.
The land apportioned to Elder Brewster was half way up the hill, and his garden sloped down to the brook. A flowing spring in the hollow has been reclaimed for a drinking fountain, and a branch has also been piped to the Main Street in front of the Government Building which was built on Brewster land.
The inscription on the fountain reads:
“Pilgrim Spring
on the Meerstead
set off to
Elder William Brewster
in the original allotment
December, 1620
erected by the Town 1915
“Freely drink and quench your thirst
Here drank the Pilgrim Fathers first.”
Near a little pool below the spring stands a fine statue of a Pilgrim Maiden, by H. H. Kitson. It is inscribed:
“To those intrepid English women whose courage, fortitude, and devotion brought a new nation into being, this statue of the Pilgrim maiden is dedicated.”
Presented to the Town of Plymouth by the
National Society of New England Women.
The statue is full of life, vigorous and alert, typical of the strength and cheerful courage with which the youthful Pilgrims met the hardships and dangers of their new homes.