Eben Akin House (ca. 1765)
14 Oxford Street, Fairhaven
(Private residence not open to the public)
This house was built about 1765 by mariner James Sellers and was owned by Jethro Hathaway before being purchased by Bartholomew Akin in the early 1800s. Bartholomew has been a selectman in the town of New Bedford before the incorporation of Fairhaven and was later a selectman of Fairhaven. His son, Ebenezer Akin Sr. (1784-1870) was Fairhaven’s first tax collector in 1812. Ebenezer Akin Jr. (1817-1905) was Town Clerk, Treasurer and Tax Collector for many years as well as serving as a Selectman and Fairhaven’s Postmaster. His son Bartholomew G. Akin was an artist and the last of the family to live in the house.
In 1843, Manjiro Nakahama boarded at with the Akin family for a short time. Eben Akin suggested schooling for the young man. Next door neighbor Jane Allen, a teacher at the Old Stone Schoolhouse, began tutoring Manjiro, teaching him to read and write.
