During the late 1950's Sconticut Neck made it into the daily newspaper comic section version of Ripley's Believe It or Not.
New Bedford Standard Times March 4, 1959, page 26.
RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT
A CLUMP OF WILD CHERRY TREES GROWS FROM THE HISTORIC ROCK in Fairhaven Mass. AT THE SPOT WHERE FIRST ENGLISH CHILD IN THE AREA WAS BORN.
Accompanied by a drawing of a rock and trees this little bit of history was in newspapers across the country. It must have piqued the interest of more than one local resident because 2 weeks later another item in the newspaper appeared.
Now this second story must have gotten even more interest because just over 2 weeks later the next story made the front page.
Sconticut Neck Cherry Trees, Rock May Mark Site of Historic Birth
Fairhaven's historic rock where legend says the first white child was born on Sconticut Neck 300 years ago was pointed out by a 74 year old former clambake master yesterday on a knoll in an open field overlooking Nasketucket Bay. "It's got to be the rock," said Joseph Brown of 502 Sconticut Neck Road. "It's the only one I know of around here where wild cherry trees grow." But, as familiar as he has become with the land and it's people over a span of 60 years, he has never before heard of the rocks legendary significance. The weather cracked rock "with unique crown of wild cherry trees springing from amid it's depths" was featured in a Ripley's Beleive It or Not in the March 4 edition of the Standard Times. A historical pamphlet published in 1896 listed the rock's approximate location on the property of W. Deane, "in an open field overlooking the quiet waters of Little Bay and the low extending neighborhood shoreline." It was in 1899 that Mr. Brown came to this country from the Azores and began working at 14 for Mr. Deane, owner of a 160 acre farm on the southern half of Sconticut Neck. In the center of one of the fields was a large rock. Two large cherry grew beside it. Right near the rock was a sunken depression in the ground. That's where an old Indian had his home." he was told. The Cherry trees are still there. Beaten by the winds blowing off the bay a half mile away and half dead from hurricane waters which have covered the area on at least one occasion, they are still standing. They must be 300 years old Mr. Brown said. The cellar depression has been filled in and no longer exists. From the knoll where the rock is located can be seen the Mattapoisett and Falmouth shorelines as well as nearby West Island. Most of the large Deane farm where Mr. Brown hoed vegetables and plowed fields as a young man is now a dairy farm owned by three Fairhaven brothers, Ernest, Antone and Joseph Viveiros. Another section on the west side of Sconticut Neck was sold about 37 years ago to Mr. Brown. who started Brown's Clambake Pavillion. History states that the earliest record of any white inhabitant in the area was Thomas Pope, who built a grist mill on Sconticut Neck in 1653. About 1660 a few other settlers began to build their homes there. Name of the first baby born there is apparently unkown.
In Mabel L. Potter's 'History of Sconticut Neck'
http://www.delanoye.org/Primary/Sconticut.cfm
on the Millicent Library's website, she goes into the story of the rock.
Keep in mind her story is written 14 years BEFORE the Ripley's articles.
In her paper she writes:
Geologically this region was the southern limit of Arctic glaciers which ploughed our the harbors and brought a mass of boulders with which much of land was over laid-still seen in uncharted pastures and the wealth of stone walls. Two of the largest rocks called the Devils and the Lean-to may be mentioned. On the first could be seen or imagined the print to a human foot, but unmistakable are the imprints of several cloven hoofs. The second tradition says, served as a support for a lean-to where was born the first white child, Lemuel Delano.