XXII - Number 12

January -- 1992

ANNUAL REMINDER Better begin practicing writing the new year number 19 9 2.

FROM THE PRESIDENT . . . Dear Fellow Members, I am pleased to announce that we are starting, 1992 having completed two years of concentrated work evaluating, recording and story the Stoughton History Collection. The new material system designed by us to specifically; accommodate the contents of our collection is easy, to maintain and use. Our manuscripts and artifacts are now stored in the best of acid-free folders and containers +++ We continue to reach out to the community encouraging use of the Society's facilities for research and programs. Attracting new members and visitors to the museum will be out goal for 1992. Spread the word that we are here and are open, free to the public. Start by bringing a guest to the January 20th meeting. HAPPY NEW YEAR! -- Alice

JANUARY MEETING . . ."Treasures in Your Attic: Old and Rare Books." The speaker will be Mr Kenneth Gloss of the Brattle Rook Shop. His program will be a talk, followed by a question and answer period. Mr. Gloss will appraise a few books that are brought in. Date and time: January 20, 1992, at 7:30 PM.

FROM LOCAL newspaper of several years past: "The tithing man was the nearest thing to a police officer [that] the town of Stoughton had in its beginning. He was partly constable and partly corrector of public morals. His duties were to see that no driving was done on Sunday, except in case of life or death; that no disturbances were created by any merrymaker; that no one took walks and that everyone attended church services. He admonished some for their habits and brought others to the village squire, who would sentence them to a period of repentance in the stocks. The first stocks were built soon after the incorporation and were placed in the section of town known as Packeen Plain, now the Springdale section of Canton."

SOMETIME BACK we reported that a "thank ye ma'am" was a bump in the road. It seems we got that sort of upside down. We learned only recently that it was a dip in the road. It was not tho result of poor road building, but was a rear-level spot or, an incline put there to afford a brief rest for horses and oxen. The: dip also served to drain water from the road.

SEVERAL YEARS ago, a local farmer found it necessary to build a slope up to his barn door ,so that his horse, which had the habit of tripping, night need no longer to step so high and frequently fall in. or cut. 

SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 1926, the Maguire Brothers of North Attleboro opened, now dining "parlor" in. Stoughton — named it The Stoughton Diner Incorporated.

WHERE was the Washington Hotel? See your copy of "Beyond the Blew Hills.

"THE REVERSE of this sheet displays a collection of pictures from 1926, each identified with a letter. "A" is the First Parish Universalist Church in Stoughton Square; "B" is the Immaculate conception Church at Canton and School Streets; "C," the Methodist Church (N. Stoughton); "D" is the trinity Episcopal Church on Freeman St.; "E" is the Congregation Ahavath Torah synagogue on Porter Street; "F", the First Methodist Episcopal Church (Pleasant Street); lastly, "G" is the First Congregational Church, south of the square on Washington Street. The reader must bear in mind that all of these pictures present the buildings as they appeared in 1926. The intervening years have brought several changes, some due to destruction by fire, others due to a need for larger quarters. Only "D" and "F" remain as they were in the 1920s.

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