Much of the Homestead’s significance lies in its rich and colorful history, a history that predates European colonization by thousands of years. It is a history shaped by the land by its abundance of wildlife, fertile soil, surface waters and opportunity. The Pilgrim George Soule must have recognized what the land had to offer when he joined together with 25 other men to buy a large parcel from the Wampanoag Indians in 1662. Although he never settled his piece, which lay primarily in what is now E. Middleborough, his grandson James, built a home there. The house was burned to