Compiled by Marion B. Walkden

For the Dighton Community Church

Bicentennial Service and Carillon Bell Dedication held

October 26, 1975

Considerable material in this brief history was taken from the writings and historical research work of Helen A. Lane, our revered church member, town and church historian, and author of the “History of Dighton Massachusetts.”

Credit is also given to the late Rev. George L. Thompson, Minister from 1925 to 1936.  He, too, authored pamphlets dealing with the church history.

THE DIGHTON COMMUNITY CHURCH

     Rugged, chaste and imposing, the Dighton Community Church has stood since the days when King George the Third of England was the ruler of the land.  The first church in Dighton was built beside the old Indian Trail leading from Montaup, or Mount Hope, to Cohannet in Taunton and on to Plymouth.  This trail in Dighton is now Elm Street.  In 1767 this meeting house began to show its age, fifty years, and a quarrel arose about where a new church should be built.  Then one dark night the old building burned to the ground, probably set on fire by persons who wished to see the dispute brought to a close.

     Feeling grew to an intense pitch.  Finally, the selectmen of Attleboro were requested to draw five names from their jury box, and the men thus chosen were asked to ride to Dighton and choose an appropriate site for a church.  The choice lay between the Lower Four Corners, the Upper Four Corners, now Segreganset, and the neighborhood near what is now the Brick Church.  Down the committee rode on horseback, stayed overnight at Mr. Brown’s Tavern, looked over the sites, listened to everyone, and gravely chose a place that no one favored.  It was near a cart path that ran through an area called Buck Plain, somewhere near the center of the town.

 

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