Rehoboth, Massachusetts

Rehoboth, Massachusetts
Town
Official seal of Rehoboth, Massachusetts Seal
Location in Bristol County in Massachusetts
Country	United States
State	Massachusetts
County	Bristol
Settled	1636
Incorporated	1645
Government
• Type	Open town meeting
Area
• Total	46.8 sq mi (121.1 km2)
• Land	46.5 sq mi (120.4 km2)
• Water	0.3 sq mi (0.7 km2)
Elevation	50 ft (15 m)
Population  (2000)
• Total	10,172
• Density	218.8/sq mi (84.5/km2)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (Eastern)
ZIP code	02769
Area code	508 / 774
FIPS code	25-56375
GNIS feature ID	0619437
Website	http://www.town.rehoboth.ma.us/

Rehoboth is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 10,172 at the 2000 census.

History

First Congregational Church, Rehoboth

It was incorporated in 1643 making it one of the earliest Massachusetts town to be incorporated. The Rehoboth Carpenter Family is among the founding families. When it first became part of Plymouth colony, it included all of Seekonk, Massachusetts and East Providence, Rhode Island, and parts of the nearby communities of Attleboro, North Attleborough, Swansea and Somerset in Massachusetts, and Barrington, Bristol, Warren, Pawtucket, Cumberland, and Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

Among the earliest purchasers of the land that is now Rehoboth and nearby communities was the Peck family, who came from nearby Hingham initially. Joseph Peck, the brother of Rev. Robert Peck, the disaffected Puritan who had fled his Hingham, England, church after the crackdown by Archbishop Laud, had purchased sizeable tracts of lands from the Native Americans. (Peck died in Rehoboth in 1697.) These tracts of land Peck willed to his son Samuel. The family continued to live in the area through the twentieth century. Today's Pecks Corner in Rehoboth is named for this early Puritan family.

Through the years, due to cedings of land and incorporations of the neighboring communities, Rehoboth has taken its present shape. The town was and still is a site of crossroads which help to serve Taunton, Providence, Fall River and points to the north.

It is the site of Anawan Rock, where Captain Benjamin Church surrounded and captured Anawan, a Wampanoag sachem and advisor to King Philip, and his men, effectively ending the campaigns in Southeastern Massachusetts of King Philip's War. The Wampanoags had taken this position above Squannakonk Swamp to hide from the colonists. (Although a desolate place at the time, the rock itself is not far off modern-day Route 44.)

Rehoboth also has a claim to one of the birthplaces of public education in North America. Upon incorporation, the Newman Church in modern-day East Providence elected to support a teacher for the congregation's children. Because of the lack of separation between church and state at the time, Rehoboth claims one of the earliest known education systems in America. One of the town's landmarks is also education related; the Hornbine School located in the southeast corner of town was built in 1845 as one of the town's nine one-room schoolhouses.

Today Rehoboth is mostly a suburban community, with small historic sites dotting the landscape. Although the population is increasing rapidly, Rehoboth is still considered a rural community.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 46.8 square miles (121.1 km²), of which, 46.5 square miles (120.4 km²) of it is land and 0.3 square miles (0.7 km²) of it (0.60%) is water. Much of the land is hilly and swampy, with most of its brooks and swamps feeding into the Palmer River, which empties out into Narragansett Bay to the south. The town has a small state forest in the northeast corner, and two small conservation areas: Borden Conservation Area near the center of town and Rehoboth Conservation Area along the Palmer River in the south.

Rehoboth shares its entire western border with Seekonk. It is also bordered by Attleboro and Norton to the north, Taunton and Dighton to the east, and Swansea to the south and southeast. Rehoboth's localities are: Four Corners, Hornbine, Kingmans Corner, North Rehoboth, Pecks Corner, Perrys Corner, Perryville, Rehoboth Village, South Rehoboth and Anawan Rock. The town is located 11 miles east of Providence, Rhode Island and 50 miles southeast of Boston.

Transportation

The town does not have many major routes. The longest state routes through town, U.S. Route 44 and Route 118, intersect near the center of town. Route 6 and Interstate 195 run though the southwest corner of town for approximately 0.7 and 1.5 miles, respectively. Exit 2 off I-195 ("Route 136/Warren, R.I.-Newport, R.I.") is located just south of the interstate's passing into Swansea, and can be reached by Kingsley Way (which also leads into Rte. 136).

Rehoboth is a part of the Greater Attleboro-Taunton Regional Transit Authority (GATRA), which provides bus service to towns in central Bristol and Plymouth Counties. The nearest rail service is in Attleboro, where there are two stops on the MBTA's Providence line. The nearest local airport is in Taunton; the nearest national airport is T.F. Green Airport in Rhode Island, less than 20 miles away; and the nearest international airport is Logan International Airport in Boston, 53 miles away.

Demographics

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 10,172 people, 3,523 households, and 2,871 families residing in the town. The population density was 218.8 people per square mile (84.5/km²). There were 3,597 housing units at an average density of 77.4/sq mi (29.9/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 97.70% White, 0.35% African American, 0.30% Native American, 0.52% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.26% from other races, and 0.86% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.50% of the population. The leading ancestries reported by Rehoboth residents are 17% Irish, 17% English, 16% Portuguese and 11% French.

There were 3,523 households out of which 37.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 70.8% were married couples living together, 7.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.5% were non-families. 14.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.89 and the average family size was 3.20.

In the town the population was spread out with 26.2% under the age of 18, 6.1% from 18 to 24, 29.6% from 25 to 44, 28.2% from 45 to 64, and 10.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 98.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.2 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $65,373, and the median income for a family was $71,992. Males had a median income of $45,557 versus $32,445 for females. The per capita income for the town was $26,467. About 2.1% of families and 3.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.7% of those under age 18 and 7.4% of those age 65 or over.

Government

The town is part of the Fourth Bristol state representative district, including Seekonk and parts of Swansea and Norton. In the state senate, the town is part of the Bristol and Norfolk district, which includes part of the city of Attleboro and all or part of the towns of Dover, Foxborough, Mansfield, Medfield, Norton, Seekonk, Sharon and Walpole. Rehoboth is patrolled by Troop D (Southeast District), 4th Barracks (located in Middleborough) of the Massachusetts State Police. On the national level, the town is part of Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district, which is represented by Jim McGovern. The state's senior (Class I) Senator, re-elected in 2006, is Ted Kennedy, and the state's junior (Class II) Senator, is John Kerry.

The town is governed by an open town meeting run by a board of selectmen. The current board of selectmen consists of 3 members. Currently, the three selectmen of Rehoboth are Frederick "Skip" Vadnais, Kenneth Foley, and Christopher P. Morra, Sr. The town has a central police and fire station, as well as branch fire stations in North and South Rehoboth. The Blanding Library is located in the Goff Memorial Hall, also near the center of town.

Education

Rehoboth's educational system can be traced back to the earliest days of the town (see "History" for more details). Today, it shares the Dighton-Rehoboth Regional School District, formed in 1958 and expanded to include all schools in 1987, with its neighbor to the east. The high school, Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School, is located just across the town line in North Dighton, and is a comprehensive high school, providing both college preparatory and vocational-technical training. The town has two schools, the D. L. Beckwith Middle School and the Palmer River Elementary School, both located on Winthrop Street (Rte. 44).

As a result of having a vocational-technical wing at the high school, Rehoboth has no direct affiliations with any regional vocational schools; the closest are in Taunton and Fall River. Students can, however, attend Bristol County Agricultural High School in Dighton. The town is also home to one private school, the Cedar Brook Seventh-day Adventist School, which is a K-8 school.

The athletics teams of Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School (the "Falcons") participate in the South Coast Conference ("SCC") of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association ("MIAA"). Sports include cross-country, soccer, football, volleyball, baseball, softball, basketball, golf, field hockey, indoor track, outdoor track(best is the state), and tennis.

Trivia

• Rehoboth was once listed in the Guinness Book of Records for the town with the most golf courses in the United States. Today there are six: Rehoboth, Crestwood, Sun Valley, Pine Valley, Hidden Hollow and Middlebrook.
• Rehoboth had the first recorded tornado in the United States by European colonists in August 1671.

External links

• Official website - Town of Rehoboth, Massachusetts
• Community website for Rehoboth, MA, started 10/2008
• Public Unmoderated Discussion Forum on Town matters