APR-MAY-JUNE – 2017

Upcoming Events

May 22 or June 5  6:00 P.M. Backstreet Grille   Installation Dinner. If you plan to come, please fill out the form on the last page of this Newsletter.

June 24, 10:00 A. M. at the West School - Stoughton Day

President’s Report

On February 19, David Lambert and I stepped in for an ailing John Carabatsos and gave a presentation on The Stoughton Time Machine, a site on Facebook, which David Lambert started and for which John Carabatsos has become a co-administrator.  We were able to access the site online and project many great pictures from Stoughton’s past which had been posted by David and John.  There was considerable audience participation as folks recognized various sites around our Town. Since the program, many pictures have been added to the site, which permits people who have moved far away to share their reactions and even post their own pictures from Stoughton’s past.

During the last several months we have done research on Asahel Smith, a spiritualist doctor from Easton,  as well as the Bird and Goward families.

We had two visors seeking more information on a fascinating location off Page St in Avon of Quok Matrick, spelled many different ways.  Quok was a former slave, who lived in what became a family enclave. In later generations a family named Campbell lived there and the place came to be also known as Campbell’s Station.  Our first visitor was simply trying to get a name of who lived at that location, whereas our second visitor, Bruce Lane of the Avon Historical Society was also looking for the location but had some fascinating information to share regarding newly discovered death records in Avon.  A number of deaths, including several infants and young children was accompanied by the notation “At Martricks.”

Lee Meade Rivers, who grew up in the neighborhood recalled on Facebook that in her youth there were three Krona houses in a row.  George and Eleanor lived at 480; Tilly Krona and her husband lived in the next house, and Dolph and Hazel lived at 512.  Lee wrote that Dolph was the closest friend of her grandfather, Edward Rubel.

With the help of a grant from the Stoughton Cultural Counsel, we have published an illustrated 40-page booklet commemorating the program we held at the Isaac Stearns house site during the 300th Anniversary year of Isaac Stearns’s arrival in Stoughton as the first settler.  The booklet contains a complete copy of the booklet created by Newton Talbot following the dedication of the stone placed on that site in 1899, as well as new commentary, a 1953 aerial view of the complete Stearns lot, and color pictures from our activities this year.  If you would like a copy of this sent by mail, please send a check for $10 to Box 542, Stoughton, MA 02072 and we will mail you a copy.

The Christmas decorations have gone up and come down at the Society.  On December 10, the afternoon of the Holiday Parade we had an open house and entertained many visitors.  Available were the new Isaac Stearns booklets and new copies of the stone-wall map of the Bird St. Conservation Area, which the Town Engineering Department had reproduced for us.  The new copies include markings for added stone walls, which I have found over the years that were not caught by the aerial camera for the first printing of the map.

Thank you’s to Donald Interrante for installing a new deadbolt on the door leading to the small balcony which faces Pleasant St. and to Joe Mokrisky for taking charge of removing Father Abraham from our premises.

We are continuing our study of the John Flynn Diaries.  To get a sense of the overall scope of his work, I have jumped ahead from 1951 to the Spring of 1962.  John Glenn has just orbited the earth three times and President John F Kennedy is locked in a struggle with the steel industry.  When JFK orders the steel industry not to raise their prices, Flynn seems to be conflicted between his admiration for and pride in the Irish-Catholic President and his Republican leanings, which make him mistrust the arbitrary use of power by the Federal Government.

In Stoughton, John Flynn's journal in April of 1962 includes a page from the Immaculate Conception Sunday Bulletin on April 8, which finally confirms all the rumors, that the St. James the Greater Parish will now be designated as the Parish for two (previously IC) neighborhoods in Stoughton as well as neighborhoods in Canton and Randolph not mentionen in the bulletin.  Its First Parish Prost will be the Rev. John L. Greely. Immaculate Conception’s First Parish priest, the Rev. Robert J. McCabe will be transferred to Arlington and replaced by Rev. Paul O' Hearn. Needless to say, these are big changes for all concerned. Flynn’s wife and daughter have visited the St. James church and do not like it because it is too simple, too open, and too Protestant.

Later in the same month, now representing the Stoughton Historical Society as Historian, not President, John Flynn deliver remarks at the celebration of the 200th Anniversary of  “Ye Olde Musical Society in Stoughton Massachusetts,” assisted by the “The Old Stoughton Musical Society.” There is a long and complicated, history between these two groups. The former is basing the celebration of a 200th on an entry in the diary of Elijah Dunbar. He wrote in May of 1762, "6. Cloudy – Go to Milton, at Soper, at a Singing Meeting very good Singing – Vote to have Singing Lectures." In 1962 all the concerned parties believed that the diary was written by Samuel Talbot, but none of them could find it.  In 1921. Alice Talbot had had it taken from her house where George Gerard, famous Stoughton photographer, but also a juror in the Sacco-Vanzetti trial, was staying. She feared that violence might strike her house and sent the diaries (which were actually not even written by her relative, but she thought that they were) somewhere and they could NOT be located in 1962.

The Old Stoughton Musical Society traces its birth from the time a Constitution was written for the group in 1768. One of my (very) humble claims to fame is that I was the person who finally figured out that the diary was written by Dunbar (eventually a Canton resident), not Talbot (who remained a Stoughton resident.) All those who read it previously must have simply assumed that it was Talbot and/or were mainly looking for a founding date. Not knowing any better, when we "rediscovered” it at the Society mixed in with other almanacs, I read it as something written by an unknown person and realized after a few pages that the writer's father was a minister, that he had a sister and soon a fiance, who had nothing to do with any of the Talbots. As far as I can tell, John Flynn never got to read it, or he might have figured that out as well.  We published this diary several years ago and it is available for purchase at the Society, accompanied by two periods maps of Stoughton and Canton.

John Flynn spends six hours with Frank and Bertha Reynolds looking for information in the records of the Stoughton Historical Society on the roots of the musician Jacob French.  A man from Iowa has asked for the information on French and this trio spends 18 hours of their time to search without any apparent compensation.  Bertha then types a two-page letter to this Mr Marvin C. Genuchi, reporting on their findings and apologizing for not finding more. They did find that Jacob French was listed as a member of the Billings Singing School in 1774.  Bertha ends the letter, “We wish our search could have been more fruitful.” Sincerely Yours, Bertha C. Reynolds, Secretary, John E. Flynn, Historian, and Frank W. Reynolds, Pres. Musical Soc. 760 Pleasant St. Stoughton, Mass.

On May 20, Flynn writes, “Fifty-nine years ago today, the Flynn’s took possession of this property, then 59 Morton St. “Requiem eaternamix donna nobis pacem” has been pronounced for nearly all of them.  “Let perpetual light shine upon them, with Thy saints, for Thou art merciful.” And the neighbors too have all gone home.”

“Received invitation yesterday from the Trustees of the Longyear Foundation to Mr and Mrs John E. Flynn to a private viewing of the restored Wentworth House where Mary Baker Eddy lived 1868-1870.  This is a result of some aid I gave Kenneth Hufford in writing his brochure.” Included is a copy of the invitation complete with a wood engraving of the house, printed from the original block cut by Nora S. Unwin.  On the invitation is a hand-written note: “You’ve been so helpful. Do come sometime. Wilfred B. Wells.”

Flynn clips an includes a newspaper article on the promotion of Edmund Rafalko to Lt. Colonel in the United States Air Force

Corrections

In the last Newsletter we mistakenly referred to John Flynn’s friend and neighbor as Willis Hooper, when it should have been Wilfred Hooper, who, by the way, also appeared in the picture with Joe DeVito’s father heading off to WWI.  Wilfred’s wife was Helen, not Mary, and Mr Maioli’s first name was Frank Stearns, who delivered a speech on that day; Maj. George Dutton, a Civil War veteran; Edwin Jones, for whom the Jones School and one of our rooms was named: Wales French, another major benefactor of the library, who is described in this year’s Community Calendar; and Mrs. H. Augusta Atherton, historian of the Society at that time and grandmother to our beloved Past President, the late Joan Atherton O’Hare.  Many of these people also appear in the photo, which can soon be seen on the sign next to the First Universalist Parish.

On a related note from 1899, our records, recorded by Amelia Clifton note that at a meeting of the Historical Society on November 14 (seven months after the stone dedication), Newton Talbot read accounts from Asa Waters and Ezra Tilden, and Lucius Clapp gave a little book containing the account of Asa Waters service.  Erastus Smith read a letter he (AW?) wrote on incidents in his life.   These documents are all now treasured pieces of our collections.

I made a few remarks, followed by a presentation by David Lambert on several of Isaac Stearns’ descendants.  Here are a few excerpts:

• “Today’s ceremony focuses on three dates in history, which do not particularly stand out in national significance, although our upcoming election may, or may not, make this year a memorable one.  But for the next few minutes, let us have no more talk of elections, as we try to keep the Stoughton Historical Society as apolitical as possible.
• We are gathered here today for three reasons.  First, to honor our first settler Isaac Stearns, who at this time three hundred years ago was preparing for his first winter in Stoughton.  Second, we are here to honor the Members of the Stoughton Historical Society, who placed this stone here in 1899 and whose pictures are present on this sign.  Third, we are dedicating this new sign, which is the first of ten, and then twenty such historical signs, which will be placed at various locations in Stoughton and will connect our citizens to important moments and buildings in our past.
• In the fall of 1716, Isaac Stearns house would have been here, with a barn not far away.  There would have been a road headed to my left, possibly splitting into one out toward Bay Road and another toward Central St.  The surrounding fields may still have had many tree stumps protruding from them, unless the Stearns had spent the considerable extra effort to pull each of them out by their roots.  Most often the earliest settlers would cut the trees down, often burning the tops and branches where they fell and leave the stumps and roots in the ground until they had begun to rot before they spent the labor of pulling them out with their oxen.  If and when they did pull them out, they often used the stumps with their large tangle of roots to form instant fencing. They would also have chopped and sawed a number of the medium-sized logs into uniform lengths, notched them to interlock with each other and rolled them up temporary dirt ramps on top of each other to build four, or more, log walls.  Isaac Stearns was accompanied by a wife and twelve children, so he may have begun with more than a simple square or long rectangle, but he did not have access to sawn boards, as the saw-mill in the vicinity of Cobb’s Corner was not built until the following year. He almost certainly would have begun improving his house with the boards and eventually replaced or added onto the log house with a frame house of beams and boards….”

There is now a beautiful, large hickory tree growing directly behind the site.  It has supplanted the large white pine seen in the pictures from 1899. The hickory nuts would have been highly valued by the first settlers to feed both themselves and their cattle. Janet Clough, who was attired in period clothing, including a heavy wool cloak, remembered that the stone had been moved a few yards in the early 1970’s when the owner of the new home at 363 West Street objected to looking out her front window and seeing what appeared to be a grave stone in her front yard.  On the other hand, we could find no records of the stone being moved, nor anyone else who remembered it happening. Do any of our readers know about the Isaac Stearns marker stone getting moved?

Many pictures of the event can be seen at the Stoughton Massachusetts Historical Society site on Facebook, and eventually some may go onto our official website.  Be sure to look for “Massachusetts” in your search, as there is another Facebook site, which was created for the Abraham Lincoln exhibit.  An expanded booklet, which combines the original booklet from 1900 with a considerable supplement from this year’s event will be printed, using the last of the money from the Stoughton Cultural Council’s grant to us for the celebration of the 300th Anniversary of Isaac Stearns coming to Stoughton.

Revisiting the Isaac Stearns lot yet again, did advance my knowledge, but at considerable cost to what I thought I knew from some of my earlier research.  The Flynn map’s depiction of the open fields permitted me to locate a stone wall, which now runs between the Little League field and the western end of Elm St.  It may well be the northern boundary of the Stearns-Glover lot, as it appears to be in the proper location and angle, and I was able to create a template in the proportionate size of the Stearns-Glover lot and anchor it on this potential northern boundary.

Several years ago, I found what I thought was convincing evidence evidence from a Bird St. Conservation Area Map that a line running from the Bird St. entrance and then taking a bend and heading out toward Bay Road, just north of King St., marked the line between the earlier 12-Division and the later 25-Division land.  It was a spot where the parallel range lines of the 25-D plots stopped and the lots became more randomly shaped, as they are in the 12-D lots. What I was ignoring was the fact that the long straight run of West Street, all the way to the other side of Plain St was a clear marker of its being 25-D land. It is now clear that the original Glover-Stearns lot ran only as far south (coming from the other direction) as the point where West St. turns into its completely straight run down to “McNamara’s Corner.”  Simon Stearns Jr’s house may have been as far south as King St., but his father, Simon’s house, which was at the southern boundary of the original lot, was near Camp Westwoods. With that adjustment, the template of the lot, anchored to the wall mentioned earlier as its northern boundary, shows the southwestern corner on the West side of Bay Road, just north of Dry Pond as it should be. More details will be given in the upcoming booklet. In summary, the original Glover-Stearns lot ran from Elm St to just beyond the current Camp Westwoods, NOT all the way down past Plain St. to King St.

Sandy Smith Moneypenny, who now lives in Ohio, visited Stoughton with her son for several weeks at the end of September.  Sandy and I had made connections online, when she had expressed an interest in donating her father’s army uniform to the Historical Society.   When she visited the society to donate the uniform, she was fascinated by our recently assembled “John Flynn’s Neighborhood” map, as it covered the area in which she grew up.  Her father, William Smith, a WW II vet, built a house on School St., the first of several houses built by WW II vets on land that was part of the former Town Farm along School St. and given to them by the Town.   Sandy had many memories of the area, including setting out on a hike that took her across the Poor Farm fields and eating her lunch while sitting on the stone wall behind the Isaac Stearns marker stone. She recounted another adventure in which she and some companions hiked over to the other side of Bay Road, stayed out after dark, and were eventually found by the police department on Mountain St. in Sharon!  She claims that they were not scared at all.

On a subsequent visit, accompanied by her sister Mindy Rodrigues, Sandy gave us a picture of her father standing near the newly poured foundation of the house on School St. and became a life member of the historical society.  Mindy also joined. Sandy let us copy four issues of Shawmut Yarns, a monthly newsletter/booklet of the Shawmut Woolen Mills, which had facilities on Canton and Porter streets. One of the booklets has a cover, which features a picture of Rudolph Krona, bare-chested and titled “Mr. Shawmut 1922!”  Rudolph Krona lived at 480 Sumner St. for many years.  His daughter Eleanor was “given?” the property after her marriage to George Gay.   Eleanor’s Stoughton High School graduation picture in the recently-donated Charles Leonard documents was identified by Ruthie Fitzpatrick and Evelyn Callanan.  Evelyn recalls working with Eleanor (Krona) Gay in the lunch program at the Chemung School.

Sandy’s visit and recollections became part of what has been a stimulating convergence of events both in Stoughton history and their continued presence in the people and events in 2016.  Our study of the John Flynn diaries led us to create the map of his neighborhood, which also happened to coincide with the Isaac Stearns neighborhood of 1716.  Sandy Moneypenny shared pleasant memories of growing up in and exploring the area, including lunching by herself near the Isaac Stearns stone.  Current members of the Historical Society, the Holmes and Ramsdells  live on either side of the Stearns stone and “our” new sign.  Society stalwarts Evelyn Callanan and Janet Clough live along the southern boundary of the Stearns land and Jack Dembrowsky’s grandparents had a farm inside its northern boundary.  The Stearns land was formerly owned by a Glover, and a later generation of Glovers owned the land and built houses, including “Old Glover” along Sumner St.  John Flynn describes this land as “Catholic Country,” but acknowledges that its roots were English-Puritan. The list of connections and correspondences could (and will) go on and on, but overall, they support the view that we are connected as people in the present, by family in the past, but also by the LAND, which we all now share.  Our present will become tomorrow’s history, and the Stoughton Historical Society will continue to do its part in “preserving the worthwhile past.”

The first ten Historical Commission Historic signs have been a long time in the making, but they are now ready to go to their designated places.  There are two completed signs at Ames Pond, and a third completed one (mentioned above) at the Stearns site.  The metal frames have been placed in the ground at the other locations, awaiting the installation of the signs: two at the Bird St. Conservation Area, and one at Mill St., Pearl St. Cemetery, Town Hall, the First Univ. Church, and the Stoughton Historical Society, respectively.

This year’s Stoughton Community Calendar has our building, the Lucius Clapp Memorial, (back when it was the Public Library) gracing its cover, as rendered in a wonderful pen and ink drawing, copied from a postcard by Armand Rodrigues.  Armand is 84 years old and has lived in Stoughton all his life.  After his discharge from the U. S. Navy, he took classes at the Museum of Fine Arts school. He also sculpts antique English style figures and is an avid gardener.  Some of his work is currently on display at the Stoughton Public Library. Much of the commentary concerns the history of the Stoughton Public Library and the men such as Lucius Clapp, Henry Pierce, and Wales French, who contributed greatly to it making it possible for our town to have such a fine library.

Congratulations to Joe DeVito, who recently celebrated his 90th birthday.  You may have seen his picture on the front page of a recent Stoughton Journal, accompanying an article, which describes his service on a PT Boat in the Pacific in the last days of WWII.  Joe also donated to the Society a fine optical scanner, which he had used at home, but has replaced by a newer one.   It will be a useful tool to those of us whose eyesight is not getting any better.

Joe is also following closely the progress being made in setting up the specifications for the refurbishing of our windows at the Lucius Clapp Memorial.  One of the latest steps involved a visit from a paint specialist, who took samples in order that we may match the color of the original paint.  She determined that the original color of the inside moulding surrounding the large window in the office was green! A similar process is being carried out for the windows at Town Hall, as the CPC has recommended expending CPA funds for a major window replacement, using materials which are as durable, energy efficient, and as historically accurate as possible.  The Town Hall windows will be replaced, as they are already replacement windows, whereas ours will be restored because they are still the originals, many of them with the original wavy glass.

Archivist’s Report

Letter from Kathy Tracy Harju containing several news articles about Charles E. Cushing and the people he saved from drowning at Glen Echo Lake, c. 1906, 1907, 1909 & 1913. Also, a letter of commendation from BRISTOL & NORFOLK STREET RAILWAY CO., Operators of GLEN ECHO dated June 25, 1913.

Gyneth McGarvey donated: A Boston Herald publication: Scenes and Characters of the Massachusetts Bay Colony 1630 – 1700. Copyright by Old Colony Distributing Co. 1930; Two publications about the great hurricane of 1938. One from the Fall River - Herald News, the other from the Providence Journal: A manuscript: “History of the Stoughton Co-Operative Bank” written by Howard Hansen in 1994. Also regarding the bank, a manuscript “The Challenge of Reaching the Centennial” This one is unsigned & undated; Several pictures of the Stoughton’s, 1926 Bicentennial parade. One in the square, three of the Dry Pond float, and one of the Brockton Edison float.

From Carrie Sievers: two maps, a Paper Hat c. 1988, (Currently on display in the toy exhibit) advertising for Child World – Brockton & Romper Room, TV show and many Stoughton postcards.

Russell Clough has donated his record books, news articles, plaques and a class trip photo from his days as the Stoughton High School Girls Tennis Coach. (c.1982, 83, 84, 85).

Sandy Moneypenny, of Winchester, OH, donated copies of documents and pictures of William Smith, a WWII veteran who purchased the first lot of land in Stoughton that was offered to returning veterans. The properties along School St. were formerly a part of the Town Poor Farm.

Janet Olson, of Duluth, MN, sent a Photograph album that had belonged to Mira Southworth, who was born in Stoughton 1883. A copy of her birth certificate, biographical information and copies of the Southworth Marsh project in Duluth were included.

Joe DeVito has donated a “Clear View” viewer and enlarger, made in the Netherlands by the OPTELEC Co. The viewer allows for visual enlargement of documents in black & white, (negative or positive,) and in color.  We have already used it several times.

Evelyn Callanan has given us a number of items related to her 19__ Stoughton High School graduation. The year is left out on purpose.

Mrs  (Brady) Beals gave us a picture of the Stoughton HS Class of 1935.

Ryan Powers gave us a loose-leaf notebook of four years of the Sanborn Insurance Maps of Stoughton: 1885, 1891, 1896, and 1901.  Ryan, who ordered the maps online, highlighted in yellow all the street names.

Fred Dimond, has given us a mounted news article and two letters regarding his military service in WWII. One letter is from State Senator; Thomas P. Kennedy, the other is from Michael G Bellotti, Sheriff, Norfolk County. Also included, was a series of pictures and news articles from his time working at the Stoughton branch of the U.S. Post Office.  One of the pictures included his co-worker John Stiles.

John Carabotsos & I have been working at clearing the top of the work table, along with some of the bags and boxes that have been cluttering up the work room.

The Robert Parsons, Stoughton High sports team’s collection, has been filed away in our new cabinet. There are still a couple of boxes of sports-related news clippings that will require much work for some hardy soul to sort and catalogue.

From Ruthie Fitzpatrick: I've catalogued the rest of the Capen, Leonard, and Urciuoli materials.  Much of the last two consisted of high school graduation photographs circa 1930 - 1942.  With the help of Evelyn Callanan, I've been able to identify more than half of these.  The help of anyone who grew up in Stoughton in the 40's with a willingness to look them over would be very much appreciated.   Also: we NEED a yearbook from 1949!

John Carabatsos continues to scan pictures from various collections posting many newly-scanned photos on the Facebook site, The Stoughton Time Machine.         –Richard Fitzpatrick

Curator’s Report - Acquisitions:  a bottle and a dish from the Glover house, which was recently demolished and which is the subject of our program on November 13; a wooden plaque from the Mass. Association of School Committees in 1947.  It was given to Dr. Appleton Woodward, who was head of the Stoughton School Committee from Rick Woodward: a 1952 pink baby scale and a thermometer from the Stoughton Trust Company from Evelyn Callanan;

I have lowered our flag to half-mast recently for Past President Aina McMann, who passed away at 96.  She was President of the Historical Society from1992 to 1995.  The flag was also lowered to honor the death of veteran and long-time Historical Society member, James Byron.

–Brian Daley

Clothing Curator’s Report

Janet Clough located clothing in our collection which might be worn at the Isaac Stearns sign dedication ceremony. The men’s outfits were too small for our members to wear, but she put together an outfit which included a hat and a heavy wool cape, which she wore and found another hat for Ruthie Fitzpatrick.   We received the World War II army uniform of Willam Smith from his daughter, Sandy Moneypenny. Janet is continuing the process of entering our collection more accurately in the Past Perfect program. .

Recently Deceased Members

Mary DeVito Martin, Past President Aina Carlson McMann, and James Byron.   Obituaries are collected and catalogued by our Secretary, Evelyn Callanan.

Monetary Donations

Fred & Nadine Yataines, Ann & Brian Klimm in honor of Joe DeVito’s 90th Birthday, Stephen Farrell.

Membership

New members:  Michael Horan & Ann Maderer, Fred and Nadine Yaitanes, Mindy Rodrigues, David Sousa & family.

Lifetime: Sandy (Smith) Moneypenny.