Stoughton
Historical
Society Newsletter
APRIL
- MAY - JUNE 2007
VOLUME XXXVI NO. 20
Presidents Report
On
Sunday, March 11. I gave a presentation on the Hodges tavern store at the Easton Historical Society.
It was nice to have Brian Daley, Joe Kessel, Donna Hodges, and Joan
Bryant there from our society. Brian
helped me with the presentation and the lugging out of equipment and documents,
while Joan was poised to sell our maps, but
Easton
, being part of the Taunton North Purchase is not
included in our Maps. They stop at
the Old Colony-Easton line. The
Easton Historical Society has a much different rhythm from ours.
Their train-station headquarters is open one Sunday a month and they have
quite a few regulars and visitors who attend.
We are open nine or ten times a month and have our regular crew, who are
always there to work, and maybe the same number of visitors, spread out through
the month, that Easton gets in one day. Anyway,
their reaction was very supportive. I
included some new information I had just gotten on the Tavern-Store’s role in
recruiting for the War of 1812.
I had just received from an
anonymous donor, with the help of Greg Galer at the
Stonehill
Industrial
Museum
, a
gift to the Society of a 200 page leather-bound volume of copies of letters
written and received by Samuel
Hodges Jr.,
copied in his own hand, between 1809
and 1813. During the War of 1812.
the political animosity between the Federalists and the Republicans
appears to have been worse than our current differences over the War in
Iraq
.
The
New England
states, to the extent that they were Federalist,
were seriously considering seceding from the
Union
,
until the Hartford Convention at the end of 1814, decided for compromise and
constituitional amendments, rather than secession,
This volume of letters, which I am just beginning to explore is a
wonderful boon to the research into the Samuel Hodges Jr story.
A year after this volume ends, he will take a job in
Stoughton
at
the Gay Cotton Manufacturing Company for a dollar a day, and eventually, with
the help of his younger brother Leonard, buy out the company as it goes
bankrupt. Samuel will leave for his
ill-fated Cape Verde venture, and enventually Leonard will make the business a
huge success, and sell it to French and Ward at the end of the 1850’s,
the records of which we have in our Hodges Collection of business
accounts. I have compiled a booklet
which covers some of this material entitled “The Culture of the Samuel Hodges
Tavern-Store” which is available in our lobby or at the Easton Historical
Society.
At our meeting at 2:00pm March 18,
“The
Great War in Stoughton and France,” we heard presentations on various aspects of Stoughton
1900-1920, including a fashion show of some dresses put together by Emily
Guertin, Joan O’Hare, and Ruth McDonald, recollections written by Kenneth
Bird, and items related to World War I, the flu epidemic, and the schools and
industries of the period. Subsequent
research has revealed that the soldiers seen training in the Willis scrapbook
were members of 93rd
Company of the Massachusetts State Guard, Stoughton’s “Home Guard,” commanded by
Captain Edwin S. Ross. One
newspaper account from August of 1917 describes their camping/guard duty at
Farrington’s Field on one of the hottest weekends of the summer.
Among the sixty men who were members of this Company are Henry Bird,
Edgar Mardon, Harold Paul, George W. Wade, H Elliot Willis, and Harry H Willis.
It is the presence of these Willises, which undoubtedly led to the
pictures being taken. The
soldiers seen in the Willis photographs dated 5/30/17 in front of Webster’s
Ice Cream Store and also shown marching back toward Stoughton Center with our
building just visible in the back ground, are apparently from Brockton’s 10th
Company of Coastal Artillery, who were supposed to march in the Memorial Day
Parade, but arrived too late to be in the parade,
However, they apparently were in town later in the day, as revealed by
the long shadows in the photograph. The
93rd Company had not yet been formed on that date.
I am working on putting together a booklet on this unit including
items relating to its formation as directed by the “Committee for Public
Safety” which was formed just as the
United
States
was declaring war on the Central Powers in April of 1917.
Forrest Bird has kindly sent along four pictures of his father, Morton
Bird; one shows Morton in “his first car, a 1906 Pope
Hartford
.”
The other three pictures show Morton in the Army Air Corps.
Within his commentary, Mr Bird included another picture, a Waco 10 GXE,
shown the “
Bird
Aviation
Museum
and
Invention
Center
”
in
Idaho
.
This particular plane is three serial numbers away from the plane which
Morton Bird keep at Attleboro Airport during the 1930’s and on which Forrest
Bird soloed on his fourteenth birthday, after he had been flying with his father
and his Morton’s pilot partner for a number of years.
Within the next few years, Forrest would land the plane in the field
behind the Clapp-Libby-Starosta property across the street from his home on
West
Street
.
He adds, “One day when the wind was right, I landed and took off from
the old extended high school sports field, which did get attention..”
We have the pictures Mr Bird sent and his complete three-page
letter on display at the Society. We thank Mr Bird for his reminiscences and
hope to hear more of them. For
anyone visiting the area, it sounds as if his Museum in
Sand
Point
,
Idaho
is well worth a visit.
We will be holding our yard
sale on Saturday, June 16, Please
bring your household items to the Society but NO skis, stuffed furniture, or
electronic equipment. Items which
have sold well in the past are jewelry, baking dishes,, lamps, small tables and
chairs, toys, recent books, and small rugs.
We could use extra help for set-up at
7:00
that morning.
We are planning to set
up a trip to visit The
Samuel Slater Mill just over the
border in
Pawtucket
,
Rhode Island
, possibly on Thursday, June 28th.
We will be driving ourselves with some car-pooling, unless we get a large
sign-up. Admission to the museum is
$9.00 (8.00 for seniors) and there is dining area where food may be purchased
for lunch. Please let us know if you
would be interested. We have chosen
a weekday to avoid crowds, but you may indicate if a Saturday, or a Sunday would
work better for you. If a
substantial number of people would go on a weekend, but not on a weekday, we
will change the date.
On,
March 28th and 29th,
I visited the Swan’s Tavern neighborhood. On
the first day, I took pictures of RR embankment next to a part of Salisbury
Brook to the east, below
Central Street
and acquainted myself with the neighborhood, which includes
Peter
McGarvey
Park
and
Roy Marden Square
and Street. Both men were WWI Vets
who appeared in the pictures we have been displaying for the
Stoughton
1900-1920 exhibit. As many of you
may know, the rest of the neighborhood contains some wonderful old historical
Houses, the Wallace Capen House on Turnpike St, which was the Post Office,
the Battles house with its circular driveway and surrounding fields,
which I have since learned is owned by Robert Millay, and the Samuel
Capen House. Howard Hansen had told
me that if I drove exactly seven miles in either direction on
Turnpike Street
I would find another tavern, and sure enough, seven miles away on
Turpike Street
in
Easton
, I found the Tavern. I
returned on the next day to share a presentation with several Solomon Shecter
teachers and their 7th grade students. .
I met Richard Waldman, the social studies teacher at Schecter, who, as it
turns out, had graduated from Newton
South, where I spent thirty seven years teaching;
Mr Waldman graduated the year before I came.
He and I went outside to look at the old picture of Swan’s Tavern,
taken from the railroad bridge, which Dave Lambert had emailed me and we
tried to line up our current understanding of where the railroad was with the
bridge in the picture. I envy those
of you who can remember where both bridges were at that location, as I am still
having trouble putting the pieces together.
I took the students on
a brief walk to the sites mentioned previously and then we returned to the
Tavern to see the name written in the window glass, “Saml Williams. October
26, 1811,” the many fireplaces in the building, the outlines of the ballroom
upstairs, the wide pine floor boards
in some of the rooms, and some artifacts which had been dug up by Schecter
students at recess over the years, including half a spoon, a skeleton key,
pieces of china, and a Hood milk bottle, the latter clearly an artifact of a
much later time. I showed the
students a few pages from the Hodges tavern-store daybook, giving them some
sense of tavern life of the era and showed them samples of the straw braid from
the Foxboro Historical Society Exhibit box.
I also acquired some new
information from Sandy Specter, one of our members who works at Schecter.
She related the story of a a former boarder, a Mr Everett Hadley had
visited them in 1999 and related how he spent his high school days as a foster
child with “Uncle Joe”and “Aunt Mary” Caddell at their 63 acre farm.
He showed them his room and shared other memories with them.
Does anyone remember Everett Hadley at Stoughton High School?
At our April 15 meeting, we were
presented with the Nominating
Committee’s recommendations of Officers for the next year.
The current slate of Officers was nominated for next year.
President – Dwight Mac Kerron: Vice-President – Brian Daly;
Treasurer – Joan Bryant; Secretary
- Evelyn Callinan. We
then heard and watched a slide/lecture
presentation on “The Historic Quincy Milton Quarries”-The Indian Quarries to
the First Commercial Railroad in the USA, and the Granite Industry” presented
by David Hodgson from the Blue Hill Adventure and Quarry Museum.
Despite the stormy weather and the absence of six of our regulars, we had
a respectable showing with the addition of a few newcomers.
Tuskeegee John “Jimmy” Fischer, a graduate of Stoughton High School
Class of 1942 (along with Joe Devito’s sister Mary) was honored along with a
group of his comrades with a presentation at the White House in March.
His front-page story with picture in the Brockton Enterprise alerted us
to the fact that he is currently living in Brockton.
Historian Howard Hansen and his mother, Ruth have spoken on the phone
with Mr Fischer. Howard writes, “Jim's
mother was a member of the Historical Society.
Jim grew up in Glen Echo neighborhood. He gave my late oldest brother
flying lessons.” We
hope to honor him in a future event,
Welcome to new members;
Please encourage anyone
you think might be interested to join our society and make sure your 2007 dues have been paid for 2007; 15.00 for individual, 25.00 for a
family.
On
May 20 at 2:00pm, we will have a special rededication of the Civil War flag of
the 12th Massachusetts Regiment, which was given to the town by four
surviving veterans of the Regiment in 1903.
The flag was displayed at the Town Hall for many years, until it
eventually found its way into the attic, from which it was recently retrieved by
Hank Herbowy, who convinced the Town to give it to us.
Our ceremonies will include Civil War re-enactors and an honor guard from
the VFW.
Archivists Report – We have
done research on the former Denison Farm on Plain St. for the new owner,
searched our records for the names of all the Principals of Stoughton High
School, searched for pictures of the double railroad bridge near Swan’s
Tavern, catalogued more documents donated by Donna Hodges, located documents for
the WWI exhibit, and are now searching for Civil War documents.
Evelyn Callinan and Millie Foss have been updating our obituary card
file. – Jack Sidebottom
Curator’s Report
We are in the process of cataloguing and relabeling
our collection of Indian artifacts, which include projectile points,
scrapers, and stone axe heads from Muddy Pond, West Street, and Glen Echo.
We are also looking for Civl War artifacts for exhibit at the time of the
flag rededication. Recent
acquisitions: An Elmhurst Dairy, Stoughton Mass. 1/2 pint milk bottle,
a McNamara Farms milk bottle
Clothing Curators Emily Guertin,
Ruth McDonald and Joan O Hare are preparing dresses to accompany the Civil War
exhibition on May 20th
Volunteering at the Stoughton Historical Society
by Jeremy Blumenthal, Ally Di Censo, Jeff Fish
Starting in
November of 2006, we, as members of Stoughton High School’s History Club, have
been volunteering at the Historical Society.
Our job consists mostly of converting the archives (which are currently
on index cards) into the PastPerfect Cataloguing system on the computer, to make
it easier to access the files. Sometimes,
though, we help the Historical Society transfer their videos into DVD’s so
that they will last longer and have better quality.
Working
at the Society has provided us with many great opportunities to learn about
local history. One of our most
memorable experiences was when Dwight Mac Kerron showed us the diary of Alfred
Waldo, a Civil War soldier from Stoughton. It was amazing to see the words and
emotions of someone who had participated in such a pivotal event in American
history come to life.
On an average day here, we usually visit the current WWI exhibit, and we
enjoy looking through the collection of SHS yearbooks from the 1940’s to the
present, where volunteer Jeff Fish has been able to find his grandmother’s
1951 yearbook. Of course, we often
discover insightful, amusing, or surprising little facts about Stoughton’s
past in the index cards and videos with which we work.
Working at the Historical Society has been one of the most worthwhile
activities in which we have participated during our high school career.
If you have an email address, please send it to us at stoughtonhistoricalsociety@verizon.net
and let us know if it is permissible to send you the next newsletter via email.
Our printing cost at CopyInks has gone up from .06 per two-sided page to
.10. Even if you do not want your
newsletter sent via email, it will be helpful to have your address for
communications sent out between the period of the newsletters.
We thank the more than thirty people who have given us their email
address and receive this newletter via email.
Calendar of Upcoming Events
May 12 Old
Stoughton Musical Society Concert
8:00pm
May
20 Rededication
of the Civil War flag
2:00pm
June
4 Annual
Dinner (send in reservation form)
6:00 pm
June
16 Yard Sale
at the Society
8:00am-2:00pm
June
28 (tentative) Visit to Slater Mill in Pawtucket Rhode Island.
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