While Elizabeth Pitcher Taber rests in peace in an Acushnet cemetery, her beloved town of Marion is alive and thriving with culture and prosperity 127 years after her death, thanks to the generosity she bestowed upon a town that to this day remains a beneficiary of a legacy left by a remarkable woman.
There is a resurgence of appreciation and celebration of Taber in Marion these days with the 125th birthday of the Marion Music Hall approaching. Members of the Music Hall Advisory Committee and Gala Committee have been busy preparing to celebrate Taber in a multitude of ways, with the committee’s eyes set on the weekend of October 2 through 4 planned as the “Elizabeth Taber Gala Weekend.”
On September 9, several members of the Marion community gathered at the Acushnet Cemetery beneath a breezy bright blue sky to pay tribute to the lady and lay a wreath of yellow flowers upon her grave. Taber, then known as Betsy Pitcher, born on August 22, 1791 and died October 5, 1888, grew up in Marion and taught at a school in town until she married Stephen Taber in 1822 and moved to Acushnet.
When she was widowed in 1862, also after having lost all three of her children before the age of five, Taber returned to Marion to help bring the town back into the light after the darker days after the Civil War. With a fortune she amassed through shrewd investments in the railroad and in mill stocks, she built the Taber Library and established the Natural History Museum that still resides on the second floor of the building. Included were an endowment of $15,000, a $4,000 life insurance policy, and $6,000 for the museum.
She then built Tabor Academy at the current Town House building, named after Mount Tabor in Palestine, and then Union Hall on South Street where the Fellowship Hall of Saint Gabriel’s now stands. Tabor Hall, Taber’s fourth building she gifted to the town, was where the current Sippican School is now located. She later built the Congregational Chapel before her final building was built, the one that is the focus of celebration next month, the soon-to-be 125 year old Marion Music Hall. As Marion Selectman Jonathan Henry put it, “Taber is to Marion as Henry Huttleston Rogers is to Fairhaven.”
Henry read aloud a proclamation at the gravesite of Taber, reminding attendees that since an early age, Taber believed “education must be the root of all endeavors.” Henry said he and his brothers were beneficiaries of Taber’s endowment to fund the education of Marion students at Tabor Academy.
“We still remember her … and we give thanks today because after many, many years we are enjoying the fruits of her labors,” said Reverend Sheila Rubdi of the Marion First Congregational Church during her opening prayer, reminding those present that we should all follow Taber’s example of her “spirit of giving.”
Before departing, guests sang together the Tabor Academy Alma Mater, singing,
“Hail, Dear Old Tabor, noble and strong/ To thee with loyal hearts we raise our song/ Swelling to heaven, loud our praises ring/ Hail, Dear Old Tabor, to thee we sing.”
In celebration of the Music Hall’s 125th birthday, the Marion Music Hall Advisory Committee and Gala Committee will present a musical show titled “Our Fair Lady” on October 2-3 at 7:30 pm and October 4 at 2:00 pm at the Music Hall. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at the Marion Town House.
By Jean Perry
