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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 582 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 582 pagesAbout this book
What does a famous town look like when you know its neighbors, its streets, and its changing habits?
In Plymouth Memories of an Octogenarian, William T. Davis looks back across a long life in Plymouth, Massachusetts. His subject is the town he knows from within: its people, trades, streets, and daily customs. You follow a resident’s recollections rather than a distant historian’s account, finding the small details that give a place its character.
Plymouth’s Pilgrim past forms a familiar backdrop, present in monuments, traditions, and yearly commemorations. But Davis’s memories also draw attention to ordinary life and the changes that gather over decades. Ways of working, travelling, and living shift, while neighbors and familiar figures give this New England town a history beyond its best-known story.
What you’ll discover
- A townsman’s view See Plymouth through the recollections of a resident whose long life connects place and memory.
- People beyond national history Meet the neighbors and familiar figures who help shape the character of daily life.
- The texture of everyday life Explore streets, trades, and habits that bring a changing New England town into focus.
- A famous past close by Discover how Plymouth’s Pilgrim story remains part of its monuments, traditions, and commemorations.
- Change across a lifetime Follow the quiet thread of change through memories of working, travelling, and living.
Who will love it
This book will delight readers who love local history, old ships, family stories, Pilgrim lore, and the everyday life of nineteenth century New England.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Memory becomes a gift to others
- Familiar stories need evidence too
- Streets preserve the lives around them
- The waterfront depends on human skill
- New transport widens the town’s world
- Neighbors give the town its character
- Daily routines belong to history
- War makes home connections matter
- Small details reveal a community’s life
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Plymouth Memories of an Octogenarian
by William T. Davis · 1906
A Plymouth man in his eighties walks the old streets and rescues the people, ships and customs of his boyhood.
Challenging10–20 hours to read20 languages
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“When a person dies, something within the reach of that person’s study and knowledge is lost forever.”
In short
What does a town remember when the last person who saw it as it was is gone? William T. Davis, in his eighties, decided that Plymouth would not forget.
Plymouth Memories of an Octogenarian at a glance
- Reading time
- About 13 h 15 min10 h 30 min fast, 15 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 188,600 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1906by William T. Davis
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A lifetime of memory becomes a legacy
Davis opens with a plain claim. When a person dies, knowledge that no one else holds goes with them. He writes to rescue the people, habits and fashions he saw across a long life.
It reads like a walk with a grandfather who stops at each house and tells you who lived there. He reminds the young that the comforts of the present grew out of the simple habits of earlier generations.
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A Plymouth man in his eighties walks the old streets and rescues the people, ships and customs of his boyhood.
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Details
- First published
- 1906
- Language
- English
- Level
- Challenging
- Paperback
- 582 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Hardcover
- 582 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
- 582 pages · 8.5 × 11 in
- Large print hardcover
- 582 pages · 8.5 × 11 in
- Delivery and returns
- Printed when you order. Usually here in 12 to 14 days.Arrives Tue 1 Dec to Mon 7 Decto United States, printed for you at cost
For Christmas, order by Thu 12 Nov
Cite this edition
Davis, William T. Plymouth Memories of an Octogenarian. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/plymouth-memories-of-an-octogenarian.
Davis, W. T. (2026). Plymouth memories of an octogenarian. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/plymouth-memories-of-an-octogenarian (Original work published 1906)
Davis, William T. Plymouth Memories of an Octogenarian. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/plymouth-memories-of-an-octogenarian.
@book{davis2026plymouth,
author = {Davis, William T.},
title = {Plymouth Memories of an Octogenarian},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/plymouth-memories-of-an-octogenarian},
note = {First published 1906}
}
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What is Plymouth Memories of an Octogenarian about?
It is William T. Davis's recollection of Plymouth, Massachusetts, from his boyhood in the 1820s to about 1904. He covers streets, houses, ships, fisheries, schools, customs, the Civil War, and town affairs, naming many real residents.
Who was William T. Davis?
Davis was a Plymouth native, born in 1822, who became a merchant, shipowner, bank president, selectman, moderator and state senator. He wrote the book in his eighties as a legacy for his children and the town.
Is Plymouth Memories of an Octogenarian a true story?
Yes, it is a nonfiction memoir. Davis draws on his own memory, town records, family letters and conversations with older neighbors, and he often corrects popular legends when documents disagree.
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