The second recognition of the Rock as the place of the landing, occurred in 1774, when the inhabitants of Plymouth under the lead of Col. Theopilus Cotton assembled about it with about twenty yoke of oxen, with the view of removing it to Liberty Pole square, as they called Town square, and consecrating it to the shrine of liberty. In attempting to raise it it separated into two parts, one of which was permitted to remain and the other was carried to its destination. There it remained until 1834, resting against the lower elm tree on the southerly side of the square. In that year the fourth of July was celebrated by its removal to the front yard of Pilgrim hall. A procession, of which Capt. Samuel Doten was marshal, preceded by the school children of the town, escorted a decorated truck bearing the Rock, then weighing 6,997 pounds, which was followed by a model of the Mayflower mounted on a car and drawn by six boys, of whom I was one. The Plymouth Band and the Standish Guards performed escort duty, and on reaching Pilgrim hall an address was delivered by Dr. Chas. Cotton, and a prayer was made by Rev. Dr. James Kendall. The ceremonies of the day closed with a dinner served in the basement of the hall by Danville Bryant, proprietor of the Pilgrim House, at which Hon. Nathaniel M. Davis presided, assisted by Hon. Isaac L. Hedge, Abraham Jackson, John Bartlett 3d, Nathaniel Wood and Eliab Ward as vice presidents. In June of the next year the Rock, in its new place, was inclosed by an iron fence designed by George W. Brimmer of Boston, the designer of the Gothic meeting house of the Unitarian parish, and so remained until 1880, when it was removed without display and placed within the canopy on that part of the Rock from which it was separated one hundred and six years before. The iron fence has since that time served to inclose a granite memorial in front of Pilgrim Hall bearing on its face the text of the Pilgrim compact.