JUL-AUG-SEPT – 2009

Upcoming Events

July 4 -Fourth of July Parade and Open House at the Historical Society -- Stoughton High School Academic Hall-of-Fame's Sixth Year Induction Ceremonies 9:15 A. M. Stoughton High School Auditorium. This years inductees for Extraordinary Achievement: Thomas Gay '63, Maria Sangiolo '82, Frances (Butch) Brien '87, and David Scott Saperstein, M. D. '84. Dr. Saperstein and Mr Brien will be unable to attend.

September  -6 P.M. Harvest Supper

May 9 -Earth Day at the Bird St Conservation Area, including the unveiling of historical signs at the Gilbert Quarry, Twelve Division Stone Wall,  and the Roy Robinson Trail. The commentary for these signs was done by the Historical Society and funding was supplied by the Stoughton Cultural Council and Stoughton Conservation Commission. The Historical Society will have an exhibit and table with maps, trail guides, and booklets on the history and natural history of the area for sale. Check local papers and my emails for more specifics on events

May 30 -- Spring Yard Sale 9 A.M.-2:00 P.M. at the Historical Society.  Please bring items you wish to donate to us during our normal business hours. . Items which have sold well in the past are jewelry, baking dishes, lamps, small tables and chairs, toys, recent books, and small rugs. No plastic ware, electronics, stuffed toys, or skis, please. We could use extra help for set-up at 7:00 that morning.

President’s Report

On May 30th, we had our most successful yard sale yet thanks to the efforts of many volunteers including Denise Peterson, Maureen Gibbons and family, Joe and Jeanne DeVito, Brian Daley, Jack Sidebottom, David Lambert, Ruth and Richard Fitzpatrick,  Joan and Jacob Bryant, Evelyn Callanan, Mary Kelliher, Sarah Dixon, Paul Carter, Donna Hodges, Hank Herbowy, David and Helen Sears, John ?? Louise Dembrowsky. Special thanks to Denise Peterson who, over a two month period put in many hours sorting and pricing the items.  Also thank you’s to the extended Bryant family who between their yard sale leftovers and some moving and house-cleaning, supplied almost half of the items we sold. Finally, a thank you to all of you who contributed items. We made over $1630 on our yard sale items and another $288 from maps, books, and new memberships.

On March 18, a group of us consisting of Joe and Jeanne DeVito, Jack Sidebottom, Brian Daley, Richard Fitzpatrick, Joan Bryant, and Dwight Mac Kerron visited the Old Colony Historical Society in Taunton, where Director Jane

Hennedy gave us two hours of her time, personally showing us most of their exhibits, and often describing how they were created, what still needed to be done etc. Exhibits on Native Americans, military helmets, stoves silver-plated ware and children's toys were among the highlights   Jane warned us that an Historical Society has to show discipline and discretion when accepting contributions of “old” things, since eventually, one runs out of storage and display space. She also gave us a packet of materials on available grants, and literature from various small museum associations.  We bought a copy of William Hanna's History of Taunton and made a donation as a small token of appreciation for Jane's graciously sharing so much of her knowledge and  experience with us.

We picked up useful ideas on how to create more permanent pictures and captions for our own exhibits and are seeking to apply this knowledge to the creation of  a permanent display ,'An Introduction to the History of Stoughton.”. Our daunting challenge is to create displays sufficiently colorful and-eye-catching to replace the enlarged post card images which presently grace the front of the Jones room.

Sometime this spring, we hope to visit  the Commonwealth Museum at the Mass. State Archives, which has just opened a new exhibit of rare, original documents, including the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. A side trip to the JFK Museum, which is nearby, might also be in order. If you are interested in the trip, (we have been going on weekday mornings, usually on Wednesdays) please let us know.

On April 5, we finally got a nice day for our tour of the site of the Gay Cotton Manufacturing Company on Mill St.  The Ark-Less Company was extremely cooperative about letting us park in front of their building. Between our two tours, we had over twenty intrepid explorers trying to match up the stone foundations, : bridges, rnill pond, mill race retaining walls etc. to the several pictures we have of the “White Mill" as it looked circa 1865-1880. Richard Fitzpatrick paced off the length of the boardinghouse foundation and estimated it at 45 feet, leading him to speculate that the factory was about 65 feet long. David Lambert, who was there for both tours, took many pictures and found numerous artifacts of undetermined age including a piece if soapstone with a hole milled in it, which had been wedged into the well-preserved, stone retaining wall of the mill pond. David also found what he believes to be the rear corner of the factory including the steps to an entrance from beneath the first floor to the probable location of the mill wheel. Howard Hansen, Richard, David, and I all shared our opinions on the placement of the factory and agreed that another tour and further excavation and measuring is called for.

Sometime in March, our two ebay mavens, Dave Lambert and Hank Herbowy informed me that the following was up for bid on ebay: ..”A Draught or Plot of a Cedar Swamp late in ye Township of Dorchester & now in ye. Township of Stoughton, call Surveyor's rendering of a place called Conkanpeimshon Cedar Swamp. Laid out Anno 1716. Drawn by ye Proprietors order.  Finished June 23d, 1731. Madd by ye scale of 2 of Gunter's chains to an inch.

James Blake Jr."  I had never heard of the swamp but David pointed out that we had no original maps by James Blake Jr. the renowned  “James Blake the Annalist" who surveyed the land and produced 'The Map of the Twenty Five Divisions. We managed to acquire the map with one bid at the minimum required and then tried to locate this swamp on our Maps of the Twelve and Twenty Five Divisions.  The only clues were its circular shape, relatively small size (just over 8 acres) and the names of three men for whom the map was laid out: John Maw(u)dsley, Clement Topliff, and Nicholas Williams. The only other locating markers were things like to “Gr Chestnut,” “2ft B Oak, " Hornbine” etc.   No circular small swamps caught our eye on either of the two maps and a subsequent search of the records of the proprietors and the maps located several lots for the three men spread over both maps, but nowhere near where any such swamp could be located.

I sent out a request for help to local historical societies and Shirley Schofield at the Sharon Historical Society forwarded the message to the right man, Richard Legee, who has served on the Foxborough Historical Commission for more than thirty years, but who grew up in Sharon and not only knew of the swamp but sent along a magnified scan of a small part of the Map of the Twenty Five Divisions to show its location.  It is near Cow Hill -- King Phillip's Rock in Sharon, approximately one mile south of the south west corner of Lake Massapoag.  It does appear on the Map of the Twenty Five Divisions, but it is so small that we had missed it. Over the years it has come to be known by some as Comprehension Swamp, which is understandable, since its original name seems virtually unpronounceable.  Modern topographical maps show the whole area to be full of swampy ground.  So why was this little plot singled out for a special designation? Apparently, the swamps with a significant number of cedar trees, which were greatly valued for making shingles and clapboards acquired a distinction worth noting, whereas most other small swamps were not marked at all or even  designated as "wast land.”

Some will recall that the first significant travel by English settlers through what is now Stoughton Center began when the Dorchester Proprietors traveled along Pearl, Park, and Sumner Streets to access the cedars in Dorchester Swamp, between the current Sumner and Washington Streets in the land north of Goddard Hospital.  The unauthorized cutting of cedars was banned and fines were given out to those who were caught cutting illegally. Supplying wood from the cedar swamps was also a source of income for some of the Ponkapoag Indians.  Huntoon writes, “The Indians were very useful to the early settlers. They helped then to build their houses and to-day there are houses standing, in the erection of which tradition says the Indians assisted. They were useful in planting the seed and reaping the harvest. The more industrious earned money by cutting and preparing cedar shingles and clapboards for the Boston market.”

On April 19, the Society heard the nominations for Officers for 2009-2010:

President – Dwight Mac Kerron Secretary – Clerk Evelyn Callanan Membership Chair – Mary Kelliher Curator – Brian Daley

Vice President – David Lambert Treasurer – Joan Bryant Archivist – Jack Sidebottom Historian – Howard Hansen;

Board of Directors:

• Jeanne Devito, re-election, 3 yr term,
  Richard Fitzpatrick – 3 yr. Term.

It was moved, seconded and voted in the affirmative that the Secretary  cast one vote for the entire slate. Joan O’Hare, standing in for Secretary Evelyn Callanan, did the honors.

Following that order of business, we drove to the Canton Historical Society, following the route which the 1726  inhabitants of the current Stoughton Center would take every Sunday to the Meeting House at the current Canton Corner ( even if there was no “Canton” until the late 1700’s).  Wally Gibbs, Patricia Johnson, and several other members of the Canton Historical Society were gracious hosts. We enviously studied their wall-sized copy of the combined Maps of the 12 and 25 Divisions.  We also own this map, but ours is much too cracked and fragile to be displayed. We saw fascinating exhibits on the Crowd family, artifacts from the 1700’s and the Civil War, and a hand-written memorandum book of “Hiram Pitcher 1820  Stoughton,” in which he recorded the dates for when he planted his “pees and potatos” etc from 1825-1828. Other parts of the small book, kept by a later generation recorded births and deaths in the Pitcher family.

Wally presented us with an envelope of two hundred year-old documents, most of which are hand-written lists from Ministers, Edward Richmond, Joel Briggs, Ebenezer Gay and others of the couples they had married  in the previous year(s). From these papers we learn that that Jedediah Atherton, William Monk, Asa Capen. Stillman Lincoln, William Merion and several others were paid more than $7.00 for severed crowheads for which they are paid 17 cents per head in May and June of 1800.  We also learn that Mary Colburn, a young woman, who was the first female to appear on the books of the Gay Cotton Manufacturing Company in 1813, and who soon became a worker and boarder at the factory, was married by Rev Richmond to Mr George Adams on May 29, 1815. We have often wondered what happened to the young women who worked at the factory, and now we are beginning to find out.  We greatly appreciate the return of these fascinating documents to Stoughton.

Richard Fitzpatrick has studied and made lists of scores of documents from the 1700's, including the original 1763 indenture papers of James Allen, of Bridgewater, who, having been orphaned  at age three was indentured by Bridgewater selectmen to Consider Atherton of Stoughton for the term of seventeen years six months, “to learn the Art, Trade or Mystery, of Husbandry with said Consider Atherton after the manner of an Apprentice”  with various obligations defined on both parties. James Allen was required to be loyal to his “Master:””he shall not waste his said Master’s goods nor lend them unlawfully to any: he shall not commit Fornication nor contract Matrimony within the said term; at Cards, Dice, or any other unlawful games he shall not play whereby his said Master may have Damage, with his own Goods, nor the Goods of others: he shall not absent himself by Day or by Night from his said Master’s service without his leave; nor haunt alehouses, Taverns or Playhouses, but in all things behave himself as a faithful Apprentice ought to do towards his said Master & all his—during the said term.”  Atherton was obliged to provide “good & sufficient Meat, Drink. Apparrel, Washing & Lodging & all other Necessaries both in sickness & in health.” Also “two suits of apparel for all Parts of the Body one fit for Lord’s Days, the other for working days.” One wonders what happened to this three year-old boy.

Much of the following information is pieced together from stoughtonhistory.com and David Lambert’s compilation of Stoughton’s vital records to1850.  The next we hear of James Allen is that he enlists as a soldier in the Revolutionary War in May of 1775, (twelve years later at age fifteen). His service and his personal life are juxtaposed as follows: JAMES ALLEN, Stoughton . Private, Capt. William Briggs's co., Col. Joseph Read's regt.; muster roll dated Aug. 1, 1775; enlisted May 1, 1775; service, 3 mos. 7 days; also, company return dated Roxbury, Sept. 26, 1775; also, Capt. James Endicott's co., Col. William McIntosh's regt.; enlisted March 20, 1778; discharged April 5, 1778; service, 18 days;  On April 4, 1778 marriage intentions are announced between James and Anna Thompson, the younger sister of David Thompson Jr, who had lost an arm in the French and Indian War. marched to Roxbury; James and Anna are married on May 4 also, descriptive list, dated Dorchester, June 29, 1778, of men enlisted from Suffolk Co. for the term of 9 months from the time of their arrival at Fishkill, June 14, 1778; Capt. Swan's co., Col. Gill's regt.; age, 18 yrs.; stature, 5 ft. 71/2 in.; hair, black; eyes, dark; nationality, American; occupation, husbandman; residence, Stoughton; conducted to camp by Sergt. Elkanah Hixson; also, Maj. Daniel Whiting's co., Col. Ichabod Alden's (6th) regt.; muster roll for March and April, 1779, dated Cherry Valley; enlisted June 14, 1778; discharged March 14, 1779; service, 9 mos.; Their first child, Polly, is born on Christmas day in 1779.  also, descriptive list of men raised to reinforce Continental Army for the term of 6 months, agreeable to resolve of June 5, 1780; age, 21 yrs.; stature, 5 ft. 8 in.; complexion, dark; arrived at Springfield July 9, 1780; also, list of men raised for the 6 months service and returned by Brig. Gen. Paterson as having passed muster, in a return dated Camp Totoway, Oct. 25, 1780; also, pay roll for 6 months men raised by the town of Stoughton for service in the Continental Army during 1780; marched July 5, 1780; discharged Dec. 5, 1780; service, 5 mos. 11 days.

By 1780, James Allen is paying taxes on the property of one Mary Johnson.  By 1801, James and Anna have a total of nine children, including one named Ebenezer, after James’ father who died when he was three and another after James himself.  We are looking for more information to fill in the blanks on the man, who began as an orphaned indentured servant to Consider Atherton (who himself lived to be 95 and the oldest man in Stoughton), served for five years in the Revolutionary War, and went on to have a large family of his own.

Archivists Report - We have completed the cataloguing of our 160+ WWI posters' one of the best collections of its kind in the country.  Richard Fitzpatrick has studied and made lists of scores of documents from the 1700's, including the original 1762 indenture papers of James Allen,  of Bridgewater. Richard has also worked on bonding captions to foam board and created an exhibit on the indenture papers and an antique small scale.  Tony Alfano has created displays relating to the Great Molasses Flood and Sacco and Vanzetti and he is now putting together materials for our “Introduction to the History of Stoughton” display we plan to exhibit permanently in the Jones room. Bob Viola has assembled three foam boards worth of commentary and pictures on the history of the railroad station and put them on display at the station.  See the nice article on Bob, the exhibit, and the train station in the 4/22 Brockton Enterprise or online at http://www.wickedlocal.com/easton/archive/x50626825/TIMELESS-TRACKS-Exhibit-shows-off-historic-Stoughton-train-station.   Tony Alfano added a fourth board for the RR display on individuals who have made a significant contribution to Stoughton’s History. Ruth Fitzpatrick and Millie Foss have mended scores of  Town Reports and other old volumes with acid-free tape and are cataloging the books in the Clapp Reading room. Among Ruth’s “discoveries are a volume of Matthew Brady Civil War photographs and a wonderful if deteriotating scrapbook on WWI Vets, and an over-sized scrapbook on Stoughton History put together by John Stiles.

Judy and Elaine Dahlgren, daughters of Kenny White, gave us a diary from the 1860’s.  We have not yet identified the writer, but have been able to determine that the diarist was a religious female teacher, who knew Erastus Smith. The Dahlgrens also donated papers and pictures from the First Congregational Church in the 1920’s. Scott Beckman donated four Farmer’s Almanacs from 1848, 1850, 1852, and 1856. Beth Donnelly Gross donated several  boxes of documents and artifacts from her late husband, former Police Chief William Gross. We purchased a collection of Henry Britton papers from ebay, most of which turned out to be receipts for a variety of things around the turn of the century including a receipt for his having paid his yearly dues to the Stoughton Historical Society; cost for one year; 50 cents.    --Jack Sidebottom

Curator’s Report

Jack Sidebottom donated a box of old tools and Betty Maraglia gave a Civil War .58 caliber Minie ball, which has been added to our Civil War case. The donation from the Beth Donnelly Gross includes many artifacts to be cataloged including a Police Chief’s hat and several badges.

--Brian Daley

Clothing Curators

We have finished the extensive restoration of our oldest dress and gotten it ready for display; it is green ornate cotton, hand-assembled and sewn circa 1860.

Joan O’Hare has put on display the cap of her great-grandmother Mary Adams Atherton (1751-1843), who was the daughter of Rev Jedidiah Adams and the wife of John Atherton.  The hand-sewn cap exhibits incredibly fine workmanship. Also on display is a blue and yellow print afternoon dress made by Dot Woodward for the 275th.

Welcome to New members:  Betty Dykeman Rubel, Ron De Matteo (Bob’s Food Mart), Greg Veliotis, Ken & Toby Gusciora,  Richard Spurr, Sarah & Gordon Dixon, Heidi Isler