The spirit of enterprise engendered by the large business interests in which the leading citizens are engaged is manifest also in the management of public affairs, and the town is noted for liberal expenditures of money in the way of substantial improvements. The public buildings, with the exception of two high-school houses recently erected, and the new Universalist Church in North Attleboro, a handsome brick structure, demand no special mention; but its system of abundant water supply and the provision made for an efficient fire department are standing advertisements that the town looks carefully after the health and protection of its citizens and their homes. For many years the Farmers and Mechanics Association has held an autumnal town fair, where in its ample grounds and halls are exhibited a fine display of farm stock, implements and produce, domestic and artistic handiwork, and manufactured goods of the trades. The grounds contain also a fine half-mile track, on which is annually made a showing of horses owned in Attleboro that would compare favorably with any other in the country. Another organization which attests the live, progressive spirit of the place is the Board of Trade, to which most of the leading business men belong. It was established in the spring of 1881, with commodious rooms and appointments on Washington Street, North Attleboro.
No town in Bristol county has provided more liberally for the education of youth than Attleboro, and in the larger centres a graded school system has been adopted; nor is it lacking in the appointed means of moral improvement, since there are within its limits no less than fifteen religious societies, holding regular Sunday services. Two weekly newspapers, the Advocate and the ... are published in the place; there are also two national banks, one savings bank, and a savings and loan association.
Did space permit, it would be possible to single out from the many sons and residents of Attleboro, men who have become distinguished for learning and the public and private services they have rendered their fellow-men; but it must suffice here simply to remark that it is the crowning glory of the town to count among its citizens a large number of sagacious, sensible men of affairs, who have built up its manifold interests, and by personal enterprise and energy have secured for the place a large measure of material prosperity. Very early in its history the family names of these substantial men appear on the records of the town—Allen, Peck, Carpenter, Daggett, Robinson, Blackinton, May, Thacher, Richards, Capron, Ide, Wheaton, Bliss, and others,—names that stand for character, influence, thrift, and wealth. But these have no need of eulogy or praise, since every busy factory and every commodious home testifies to their worth; then let this sketch be concluded with a brief allusion to one whose simple record, though one of the curiosities of the town, and containing an epitome of instructive history, will excite no man's envy and pique no family pride.
In the old-burying ground in the north part of the town—the first cemetery in the region—is a headstone marking the grave of a pious negro slave, on which is rudely chiselled the following inscription:—
Here lies the best of slaves,
Now turning into dust;
Cæsar, the Ethiopian, craves
A place among the just.
His faithful soul has fled
To realms of heavenly light,
And, by the blood of Jesus shed,
Is changed from Black to White.
January 15, he quitted the stage,
In the 77th year of his age.
1780.
