Instead of singing happy birthday to celebrate Wareham’s Anniversary, residents could hear a pin drop as they listened to Angela Dunham, Historical Society President, recount stories of the town’s history.

Local history buffs gathered to celebrate Wareham’s 286th Anniversary on Monday, July 21 in the Old Methodist Meeting House.

As old militia uniforms hung from the walls and artifacts and documents were spread around the room for participants to observe during the celebration, Dunham shared the story of how Wareham and Japan became connected.

Dunham described her 2016 trip to Japan to celebrate the 225th anniversary of Wareham’s Captain John Kendrick making landfall in Kushimoto.

In 2016, Hayato Sakuri, an Advisory Curator for the Japanese-American Friendship Museum in Kushimoto, contacted Dunham wanting to flesh out the history between Captain Kendrick and Kushimoto.

Dunham learned that Kendrick landed in Kushimoto to avoid a typhoon in 1791 and began a friendship with the Japanese, who at the time were, “closed off to foreign ships for 150 years,” she said.

Dunham dove more into the history and said “The Samurai had closed off the coast of Japan to stop more missionaries from converting the Japanese to Catholicism, and Captain Kendrick, to avoid a typhoon, dropped anchor there…The Japanese appreciated the fact that he broke that isolation period they had self-imposed.”

Old militia uniforms hung from the walls while artifacts and documents were spread around the room for participants to dissect and observe during the celebration, including a map of Kenrick’s sea passages from the United States to Asia.

Dunham also took time to honor those in the community that make Wareham the, 'wonderful place to live that it is.'

“This event is to pay tribute to the numerous people who have, since 1739, made this the community that it is today- a melting pot of hardworking people that care about the community,” she said.

One participant involved in multiple Wareham historical organizations is Malcolm Phinney, Captain of the Wareham Minutemen and Militia and Historical Society Board Member.

During the celebration, Phinney recounted just how long his family had resided in Wareham.

“One part of my family got here in 1770,” he said.

Phinney’s far from a historical event newcomer, he started to get involved after the bicentennial of the War of 1812 in 2014.

Phinney encourages “anyone who’s interested in history” to come to the historical society’s events.