Stoughton
in
1849
Norfolk
Co. This town was originally
a part of
Dorchester
, and was named in honor of William
Stoughton
, lieutenant-governor of the
province
of
Massachusetts Bay
, from 1692 to [1701]. The town of
Stoughton
was incorporated in 1726, and at that time included within its limits the
present
towns
of
Canton
,
Sharon
,
Stoughton
, and the largest portion of Foxborough. Some
of the head-waters of Neponset and
Taunton
rivers rise in this town. The records of the proprietors of
Dorchester
Swamp
, (situated in this town,) were, by a resolve of the general court, ordered to
be deposited in the Registry of Deeds for the County of
Norfolk
. They consist of surveys of lots of land made by Mr. Blake, more than a century
ago, interspersed with scraps
of'
original poetry and other curious matters.
The
highest land in the town is a hill called the "Pinnacle," the summit
of which commands an extensive view, including
Boston
harbor. There are a woolen and two cotton mills in the town, and manufactures
of boots, shoes, shoe‑tools, and boot-forms; total value of manufactures
the year ending
April 1, 1837
, exclusive of cotton goods, five hundred and twenty-five thousand nine hundred
and forty dollars; of which four hundred eighty-seven thousand three hundred and
ninety dollars were for boots and shoes. The number of persons employed in
manufacturing was nine hundred and twenty. The business of manufacturing boots
and shoes has probably doubled since 1837.
A
large village of shoe manufacturing has, within a few years, “sprung up as if
by enchantment.” There are in the town five houses of public worship, and a
spacious and commodious town house.
The
Stoughton Branch Railroad Company, chartered in 1844, have completed a railroad
from the village above named to the
Canton
depot of the
Boston
and
Providence
railroad; distance about four miles; cost of read about eighty thousand
dollars.
This
town lies eighteen miles south from
Boston
, and ten south-east from
Dedham
.
Source:
John Hayward, A Gazetteer of Massachusetts, containing descriptions of all
the Counties, Towns and Districts in the Commonwealth’ also, of it principal
mountains, rivers, capes, bays, harbors, islands, and fashionable resorts.
To which are added. Statistical
accounts of its agriculture, commerce and manufactures; with a great variety of
other useful information. (Boston, John P. Jewett & Co., 1849), pgs.
280-281.
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