Bourne

Bourne
127 Pages
ISBN 9781467121989

Bourne is considered the gateway to Cape Cod. Whether one travels across the Bourne Bridge or the Sagamore Bridge to gain access to the Cape, the town of Bourne is inevitably en route. In 1884, Bourne was separated from the town of Sandwich and has grown into a community of distinct villages, including Buzzards Bay and Bournedale, Sagamore Beach, Sagamore, Bourne, Monument Beach, Pocasset, and Cataumet. Uniting all these communities is the Cape Cod Canal, which opened in 1914.

In the beginning was the Comassakumcanit tribe whose Sachem was Cawnacome. The seat of this tribe was the Herring Pond area later known as the village of Bournedale, the very heart of the area that would become the Town of Bourne. This was the tribe that saved the Pilgrims from starvation in the second year of their sojourn here by providing much-needed corn and other food to keep them through the last of the winter and into spring when they could plant again. The tribe, known as the Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe, is part of the current resurgence of native language and customs and maintains its identity to this day.

With European settlement of the area it became known as Sandwich and what is now Bourne was known as South Sandwich.

Fast forward 200 or so years to 1884 when locals decided Sandwich was just too far to go for town meetings. They separated from Sandwich and established the Town of Bourne. It is a town made up of distinct villages: Bourne, Bournedale, and Buzzards Bay, Cataumet, Pocasset and Monument Beach, Sagamore and Sagamore Beach. It has colorful neighborhoods like Gray Gables, Tahanto, Patuisset, ,,, A place of larger than life people like US President Grover Cleveland, who spent his summers here, actor Joseph Jefferson, famous for his role as Rip Van Winkle, Jonathan Bourne who the town is named after and his daughter Emily Bourne who built the original library in 1896 to honor him.

Gioia Dimock

About Gioia Dimock (Cape Cod, Massachusetts Author)

Gioia Dimock

Gioia Dimock has worked as an archivist and consultant for the Bourne Town Archives and as a member of the Bourne Historical Commission for many years. She is also the author of Images of America: Bourne.

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