Acushnet, Massachusetts
A Short History of Acushnet
From a Wampanoag name for a quiet river, to the whaling port that sent a young Herman Melville to sea, to the town that gave the world the Titleist golf ball.
The River and Its Name
The word Acushnet is Wampanoag. It comes from Cushnea, understood to mean a peaceful resting place near water, and it names the river that runs the length of the town. Long before any English colonist arrived, the Wampanoag lived along that river, and the land that is now Acushnet was purchased from them in 1652. European settlement followed a few years later, beginning around 1659. The river is still the town’s spine, and the town still carries the name the Wampanoag gave the water.
The Town That Was Carved Out
Acushnet spent two centuries inside larger towns before it stood on its own. It was part of Old Dartmouth, then part of New Bedford after New Bedford separated in 1787, then part of Fairhaven after Fairhaven was set off in 1812. Finally, in 1860, the northern farming section broke away and was incorporated as the Town of Acushnet. From that year forward its residents have voted their own budget and their own bylaws at open Town Meeting, the same form of self government the town uses today.
The Ship That Named a Novel
In 1841 a young man named Herman Melville signed on to the whaling ship Acushnet, which sailed out of the port at the mouth of the river. The voyage carried him across the Pacific and gave him the experiences he would later turn into Moby-Dick and other sea stories. It is a strange kind of fame for a small town: the ship took the town’s name to sea, and the town’s name came back attached to a classic of American literature.
The Home of Titleist
Acushnet’s best-known company started with a bad putt. In 1910 the Acushnet Process Company was founded here, and it grew into the Acushnet Company, the maker of the Titleist golf brand. A ball that carries a town’s name became a fixture of the game worldwide, and the company remains one of the anchors of the local economy. Not many towns of ten thousand people can say their name is stamped on equipment used in professional tournaments on every continent.
The River Comes Back
For generations a dam and an old lumber yard blocked the lower Acushnet River. In 2007 the Buzzards Bay Coalition worked with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to remove part of the dam and build a nature-like fishway of carefully placed boulders that lets fish climb the river again. The nineteen-acre lumber yard at 32 Mill Road became a public preserve called The Sawmill. The change is measurable: the spring run of herring climbing the river has risen from an estimated 350 fish to about 10,000. In 2022 the town’s own Acushnet Elementary School was named a National Distinguished School, one of only two in Massachusetts that year, so the town keeps making new history too.
Sources: Wikipedia, Acushnet, Massachusetts, and kids.kiddle.co (incorporation, name, early settlement, Melville, the Acushnet Company); the Buzzards Bay Coalition, The Sawmill (the fishway and herring counts); Acushnet Public Schools, superintendent’s message (Acushnet Elementary School’s 2022 recognition). Read 2026.