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Orleans
Incorporated March 3, 1797. Population in 1860, 1,678; in 1865, 1,586. Valuation in 1860, $487,914; in 1865, $558,858. The selectmen in 1861 were Joseph Cummings, Calvin Snow, George W. Cummings; in 1862 and 1863, Jesse C. Snow, John Kenrick, Edmund Crosby; in 1864 and 1865, John Kenrick, Truman Doane, Ira Mayo. The town-clerk and town-treasurer in 1861, 1862, and 1863, was Thomas Higgins; in 1864 and 1865, Freeman Mayo. 1861. The first legal town-meeting, to consider matters relating to the war, was held on the 27th of May, at which the following resolutions were read, and unanimously adopted:—Resolved, That, as true and loyal citizens of the United States, we will cherish inviolate the Union and the Constitution and the enforcement of the laws, believing them to be the only safe palladium of our liberties, under which as a nation we have been favored with unexampled prosperity. Resolved, That the active measures now being made by the National Administration, in all departments, for the successful crushing out of the unnatural rebellion on the part of the so-called Southern Confederacy, meets with our warmest approbation, and should have the aid and encouragement of every true lover of his country, without regard to party proclivities. Resolved, That as, in the language of Jefferson, ‘the price of Liberty is eternal vigilance,’ it becomes the sacred duty of every loyal citizen, in this hour of his country's peril, to frown down with abhorrence any attempt to aid and abet treason, whether at home or abroad, expressed or implied; and that we will use our best endeavors to give traitors that punishment which they so justly deserve. Resolved, That the patriotic stand taken by Massachusetts in responding with alacrity to the requirements of the President for troops to defend the national capital is worthy of all praise, and is an earnest of that spirit which has ever characterized the citizens of the old Bay State,—in times of danger and alarm to manfully uphold and defend the glorious stripes and stars even unto death.The resolutions having been adopted, the town authorized the selectmen to borrow one thousand dollars for the payment of State aid to the families of volunteers, as provided by the act recently passed by the Legislature in extra session.
