APR-MAY-JUNE – 2015

Upcoming Events

May 24 at 2 PM – Tour of the Pearl Street Cemetery, Stoughton’s oldest, with David Lambert and Howard Hansen as our guides. We will attempt to secure parking in the Pop Warner football facility at the end of Vose’s Court. Watch the Pennysaver and your email for further updates.

June 8 at 6 PM - Officer Installation Dinner at Foley’s Backstreet Grill. Fill out the form at end of newsletter to reserve your place. Thank you’s to our nominating committee of Mary Kelleher, Hank Herbowy, and Maureen Gibbons. President’s Report

Joan Atherton O’ Hare R.I.P. Not long after the mailing of our last Newsletter, we received word of the passing of our former-President Joan Atherton O’Hare. Joan was President from June of 1999 to 2000. In her introduction as President, she wrote in the newsletter that she joined the Society after her retirement in 1993. “and I’m delighted to be part of an organization of which my great grandmother was one of the original members back in 1895.” Under Joan’s presidency, computers were introduced to the Stoughton Historical Society. She wrote, “we are working on the purchase of a computer to make life easier for the Archivist Curator and Historian to do their work.” In the Mar-Apr-May NL of 2000, she announced that the computer and printer had been purchased. “Now it is going to take months to enter our inventory into the computer, but we have people of knowledge, who have volunteered to help us.” Years later, of course, we are still working at getting our inventory into the computer. Our beautiful sign out front was created on Joan’s watch by Eagle Scout Jeff Palermo.

After Joan chose not to run for re-election, she served for many years as writer of the Newsletter and shared the position of Clothing Curator with Emily Guertin. Several years ago, Joan received the Jack Sidebottom Award for Exceptional Service to the Society.

At Joan’s funeral at the First Unitarian Parish, across the street from the Society, one of the speakers called our attention to the picture which is displayed in their vestibule of Joan’s father, Robert Atherton, then eight years old, standing beside the stone, given by the Stoughton Historical Society which was dedicated in July of 1908 in honor of the First Meeting House, built on that site in 1744 on the occasion of the100th Anniversary of the Second Meeting house. Robert Atherton was present, since he was a descendant of the first permanent minister, Jedediah Adams. Also present is Mrs. Etta Atherton, Robert’s mother and Mrs L. Augustus Atherton, the great-grandmother mentioned by Joan in her introduction as President. This picture, along with a drawing of the First Meeting House and a picture of the Second, belongs on the historical sign, which will be placed on that site later this year by the Historical Commission.

Joanne (McEvoy) Blomstrom R.I.P. We also regret to inform our members of the passing of Joanne Blomstrom, who, more than ten years ago, approached Historical Society President Joe DeVito, suggesting that the Historical Society initiate and sponsor an Academic Hall of Fame for Extraordinary Achievement at Stoughton High School. Since then, a number of former students have been honored, including our own Vice President David Lambert.

Joanne G. (McEvoy) Blomstrom, a lifelong resident of Stoughton, was born in Stoughton and graduated from Stoughton High School. She earned degrees at Lasell College in Newton and Simmons College in

Boston. Joanne was an instructor at UMass-Dartmouth for 20 years and founded the Fashion Institute, which served to build a relationship between the manufacturers and local retailers with UMass Dartmouth. She was a fashion commentator and owned her own consulting business for years. She was a longtime member of Thorny Lea Golf Club in Brockton and was the first woman elected to their Board of Directors. She served on the Stoughton School Committee for 13 years and the Board of Selectmen for seven and was a member of the Cedar Hill committee. She was the original petitioner for the Bird Street Conservation land.

Several years ago, she attended our program honoring Charlie Starkoswsky and Roy Robinson for their roles in the purchase of the land for the Bird St. Conservation Area. Although she was not pleased when hunting came to Bird St. the three of them were prime movers in the creation of the Bird St. Conservation area, and we should include them and others in the historical sign(s) that the Historical Commission will place there. We may create two: one relating the history of the Bird-Connors farm and another on the prime movers in getting the land made a conservation area. Certainly Kathy Sylvester Murphy made important contributions as well.

At our meeting on March 15, we paid tribute to Joan O’Hare’s many contributions to the Town and the Historical Society. We displayed photographs of activities in which Joan had played a key role. Joan’s daughter, Jane and her husband Kevin Mooney dropped off several boxes of Joan’s historical accumulations over the years for which we thank them greatly. After Rick Woodward was voted onto the Board of Directors, Karen Dropps and I gave presentations on the Capen family. I concentrated on the Capens in the 1600’s in Dorchester: Bernard Capen, the patriarch, who arrived in 1630 and his son, Captain/Deacon John Capen, who became a prime mover in the affairs of Dorchester as a Deacon, Selectman, and recorder of Town meetings. Karen focused on Adam Capen Jr. his older brother Jonathan and the Capen-Reynolds farm. Jonathan was a farmer with a family, who lived at the aforementioned farm, and a practicing Methodist. Adam Jr., who kept a daily diary for forty years, never married, was active in town affairs, an owner of many properties in town, and a representative in the state legislature. Adam, though not a farmer himself, would often work on the family farm. We have a wonderful picture of the two brothers working together in a hayfield, while both are in their eighties. Jonathan, while not as well-known as Adam Jr. in his lifetime, had more people attend his funeral, many of them from the Methodist Church of which he had been a member his whole life. Adam Jr., who was not a member of any church had fewer people at his funeral and Frank Reynolds thought that the remarks expressed, lacked the warmth, affection, and sincerity of those which Jonathan received.

On March 25, I gave a presentation at the Sharon Historical Society on “Sharon in the 1600’s in conjunction with the Town of Sharon’s reading of the book Caleb’s Crossing, a well-researched historical novel by Geraldine Brooks. This novel is centered around the life of Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, a Wompanoag Indian, who in 1665 was the first Native-American to graduate from the Harvard Indian School. The preparation for this program, as well as our Capen program permitted me to revisit and discover some interesting information on both Dorchester and our South Precinct in the Seventeenth Century; I will share a few of these discoveries later in the Newsletter.

On April 19, Vice-President David Lambert and his daughter Brenda Lea Lambert gave a slide presentation on their new book, Stoughton in the Twentieth Century. It was entertaining and instructive to see the pictures and listen to the commentary. We have sold almost thirty copies of the book, since we ordered it, and have ordered twenty more. At that meeting, Stoughton musicologist Roger Hall presented us with a copy of his new publication Dedication: Singing in Stoughton, 1762-1987. You can find out more about this book and how to acquire it at www.americanmusicpreservation.com.

Around the Lucius Clapp Memorial Town facilities Manager Paul Giffune has arranged that Sheldon Richardson, a custodian at Town Hall and a fill-in at other facilities, come to our building once or twice a week for several hours and help with much needed cleaning and maintenance. Rick and Linda Woodward, Brian Daley, and Evelyn Callanan have begun spring clean-up outside the building and Richard Fitzpatrick repaired an electrical cord on a lamp in the President’s office. I stopped a small leak in the new piping near the water circulator pumps by simply tightening a couple nuts. Fortunately, there has been no further visible leaking of the roof, but the staining remains. The small iron railing in the center of the steps, next to the sidewalk came loose because of rust and has since disappeared; it will have to be replaced. We are in the market for a water sensor to place in the basement, which will set off an alarm, and/or inform us by text message when there is a problem with water or temperature.

Old Glover documentation: 264-year-old chestnut boards David Lambert has continued to put many hours into his documentation of the 1744-1750 Thomas Glover Jr. house at 480 Sumner Street, and has collected a number of artifacts, including hand-hewn laths, which were filled with plaster and hair. David has also taken many more pictures and samples of plaster with a hand-painted wallpaper design. On May 4, our documenter William Gould, after looking at the pictures David and I had already taken, spent all day at the property, taking many more pictures and notes and gathering a few more artifacts for us, including the remnant of a six-pane wooden-pegged window frame, styled to accept the older and smaller 7x9 inch panes. All of the present windows in the house had been refitted with the newer frames, but there was one frame, lying discarded which Bill believes to be from 18th Century. Bill showed me another room that he believed had had only ONE layer of wallpaper on it in the history of the house. He found evidence that there had been only whitewash on the walls for the first century or more. He also found there to be a fair amount of wide-board pine flooring, for which there is a market and the owner, Samuel Shoneye generously agreed to let the Historical Society recoup the value of these boards in order to help pay for the documentation. There are also some large chestnut planks as well as split, rather than sawed, chestnut floor joists. These are of particular interest, since American Chestnuts no longer grow nearly large enough to produce this kind of timber, since the blight almost always kills them before they reach one foot in diameter. We have brought several of the large (more than 1 foot wide) boards, which were the flooring of the attic to the basement of the Lucius Clapp. We will consider cutting them into smaller squares, possibly finishing one side, and adding appropriate commentary on the Glover house and the American Chestnut. Some pieces may go as mementos to those who have donated to document the house; and others may be available for purchase at some time in the future. It is not often that one can find 264-year-old chestnut boards, of this size. We also look forward to receiving William Gould’s detailed documentation by the Summer.

If you would like to support this documentation and the subsequent creation of an exhibit, please send your tax- deductible donation to The Stoughton Historical Society, Box 542, Stoughton, MA 02072 and designate Glover House on your check. Thank you to those who have already made contributions: Recent contributions: Betty Jean Molin, George Hagerty, and Janice Esdale-Lindwall.

Dorchester, Old Stoughton, and Ponkapoag Plantation in the 1600’s A confluence of events, inquiries, presentations and a course offered by The Partnership of the Historic Bostons has yielded new information on many aspects of our early history, especially as it relates to Old Stoughton and the families who eventually settled here. Considerable research on the Glover, Capen, and Billings families drew upon a variety of sources, including The History of the Town of Dorchester, Massachusetts and The Diary of John Winthrop. We purchased the latter book, several years ago on the recommendation of Foxborough historian Jack Authelet. The Winthrop Diary was the second reading in the course-seminar, mentioned above, which meets at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Another indispenble source was Sharon Massachusetts, A History. Two programs, one on the Capens presented to our Society and one on Sharon in the 1600’s permitted, or forced me to immerse myself in the Seventeenth Century.

Possibly the most fascinating discovery was learning the story of the construction of what would become Wainman’s Ordinary, the first building erected by white men in all of the area which would eventually become the New Grant, then the Dorchester South Purchase, and finally Old Stoughton. The term, “ordinary” is an obsolete one meaning “inn” or “restaurant.” Whatever it was, it was an identifying landmark in the southern part of early Dorchester, built before anything which could have been called a “road” went by it.

According to Solomon Talbot, Sharon historian at the turn of the century, the building was the shelter constructed by the emigrants from Dorchester, who set out for the Connecticut valley in October of 1635. Stopping between a height of land, (now called the Sharon Highlands,) between Boston-Dorchester-Newtown and Narragansetts Bay, they built a shelter while the men were clearing a better path through the woods for them and their cattle. The cattle, women, and the youngest children would have stayed near or in this shelter. This rude structure was located very close to the West (Billings) Cemetery, next to the cranberry bog across South Main Street from the Shaw’s Plaza in Sharon. . In his diary, John Winthrop writes: “8-ber 15 (1635) about 60: men woemen & little children went by land towards Conectecott, with their Cowes, horses & swine: & after a teadious and difficult iornye arived safe there.” Almost two month later, Winthrop writes, “ (November) 26 there came 13 men from Conectecott: they had been 10: days upon their iourney and had lost one of their company droned in the ice by the waye & had been all starved, but that by Gode’s providence, they lighted upon an indian wigwam Conectecott river was frozen up the 15: of this month” These men were from the party of 60 who had moved from Newtown to Hartford in October. They were returning to help move the remaining Newtown residents in 1636.

An alternate title for the Sharon presentation was “Boundaries, By-ways, Bibles, Blizzards, Blood, and Beer. The blizzards were included because of the extreme cold weather of the 1600’s, an extension of the “little ice age,” which drove the Vikings out of Greenland. This cold weather is reflected in the fact that Connecticut River was frozen in 1635 by the middle of November!! Our exceptionally cold spring in 2015 would have likely been a normal, or even warm spring in the 1600’s.

The following Spring, a larger party of pilgrims made the trek to Connecticut. Winthrop’s Diary: 1636 (May) “25 mr Hooker pastor of the Church of N: towne & the most of his congregation went to Conectecott: his wife was carried in a horse litter, and they drove 160: cattle & fedd off their milke by the waye” Presumably, they would have passed by the Wainman’s Ordinary site and quite possibly stopped there on the journey. These people went to Connecticut so that they could form their own colony with a separate charter. Rev./Mr Hooker and a Rev./Mr Stone had crossed theological swords with Rev./Mr Cotton and it seems that the Massachusetts Bay Colony was not big enough to contain all of these influential men. Two of the three went west to Connecticut.

“The Reverend Messrs. Hooker and Stone, with a number of settlers from Dorchester and Watertown, moved to Connecticut. With no guide but a compass, they made their way one hundred miles, over mountains and through swamps and rivers. Their journey, which was on foot, lasted a fortnight, during which they lived upon the milk of their cows. They drove one hundred and sixty cattle. This party chiefly settled at Hartford. Mr. Hooker and Mr. Stone became the pastors of the church in that place, and were both eminent men and ministers.” http://www.celebrateboston.com/history/connecticut.htm

In 1638 both Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson escaped to Rhode Island. I have often imagined both of them traversing Bay Road in the depths of winter, but it may be more likely that they escaped via the rough and developing post road past Wainman’s Ordinary. The route that all these people took may have established the general route for the southern post road to Providence and New York, which is apparent on the Map of the Twelve Divisions. Subsequently, the location of Wainman’s Ordinary was occasionally mentioned in Dorchester Town Records, most likely written down by recorder Captain/Deacon John Capen, whose descendants would eventually move to Old Stoughton.

The first man, known to have purchased land in the New Grant was Roger Billings, and his son Ebenezer was the first known settler. Billings’ purchase included the land around Wainman’s Ordinary and most of Moose Hill, and it is clearly marked on the Map of the Twelve Divisions as land previously purchased. Roger was a great builder of roads and bridges. In 1652, he and Henry Woodward were commissioned to build a bridge across the Neponset River in Norwood “in the way leading from Dedham unto Rehobeth. It may be at this time that Roger followed said road and took a right fork to the area of Wainman’s Ordinary, because we know that he had purchased that land by 1672, BEFORE the Division of land in the Map of the 12 Divisions. Solomon Talbot speculates creatively: “Arriving opposite the great Moose Hill, he observed the sturdy oaks...He passed along, turning to the left, until he arrived at the watershed, at the highest point of land between Boston and Taunton. Here, upon the south side of a beautiful hill, was a building, partly an Indian wigwam and partly built of small logs cut out by the hand of a white man. This was the building erected several years before by the company of Connecticut emigrants.”

I cannot yet find the origin of the name Wainman’s Ordinary, as it implies an inn of sorts being established there, but since we cannot (yet) find a Mr or Mrs Wainman, it is possible that the name was an ironic reference to an inn that did not really exist. In 1658, the same year that Billings may have purchased the land, a Mrs Gore is warned not to “make any use of the land at or near Wainman’s Ordinary.” There is some evidence that the Widow Gore came out to Wainman’s Ordinary with a Lt. John Remington (whom she eventually married) in order to help him procure wood for an addition to the Roxbury Meeting House. But if all other titles or squatters on the land are being cleared so that Roger Billings is the sole owner, it is worth noting that no Wainman’s are ordered to abandon the purchase. “It was not until 1682, however, just a year prior to his death, that Roger Billings received from Elisha Menunion, William Ahauton, and James Maumition (Massachsetts-Ponkapoag) Indians, a deed to 700 acres of land. This followed the Mass. Bay Colony practice of securing deeds from both the Indians and the English.” Mary Wade, Sharon Massachusetts, A History p.16

In 1670, Roger Billings was one of five men, chosen “to Run the line from the top of the blew hill between braintry and us; and soe home to Plymouth line.” This line later becomes a template for the Map of the 25 Divisions, which, as mentioned in detail in the last Newsletter, created 36 half mile ranges, parallel to this line, all the way to Rhode Island.

In his will, which Roger Sr. makes out at the Glover Farm in Milton, (the same farm at which Thomas Glover Jr resided half a century later, while his house in Stoughton was being built) he gives all the land to his two surviving sons, Roger Jr. and Ebenezer, with 20 pounds added for Ebenezer. Ebenezer establishes a tavern on the other side of the road from Wainman’s Ordinary. It would have been in the southwest corner of the current parking lot, between Shaw’s and South Main Street. Several people at the Sharon presentation remembered the exact site, since remnants of it persisted for cranberry storage until the mall was constructed. Ebenezer, may have been living on the land during the bloody King Phillip’s war and local legend has it that the Indians spared him from attack because of a friendship between Ebenezer and Metacom (King Phillip.) “However, Ebenezer was only 21 years of age, quite young to have established. Nevertheless, he undoubtedly, did live on the property, was married, and had a son, one year old.” - Mary Wade.

Billings Tavern became a regular stop for travelers on the post road. It is mentioned many times in Judge Samuel Sewall’s diary (which is available online) between 1690 and the death of Ebenezer Billings in 1718. In its early years it was the only tavern/inn between the Great Blue Hill in Milton and Rehobeth. In 1704, one Madam Sarah Kemble Knight

came through on her famous journey to New York. Her diary entry records being somewhat disgusted with the yokels, especially a 25-year-old Billings daughter at the Tavern. Shirley Schofield tells me that she played the part of Madam Knight in a past Sharon celebration. Mary Wade’s chapter, “Trails, Tales, and Taverns” in Sharon Massachusetts, A History covers almost all of the above and gives more detail on specific quotations from Sewall and the Dorchester records.

By 1751, a year after Thomas Glover Jr. married Rebecca Pope and moved into the soon-to-be-demolished house on 480 Sumner St., the course of the regularly used post road changed, bypassing this section and taking a route through Wrentham and Walpole. The structure of the tavern was rebuilt on several occasions, and the Turner family, who ran the cranberry bogs, used portions of the tavern as a cranberry store-house.

Two things became more clear to me during the research for the presentations. First, our Old Stoughton patriarchs John Glover, Bernard/John Capen, and Roger Billings played essential roles in Dorchester, which contributed to their being able to purchase land out here in the New Grant. Second, lay historians like Solomon Talbot and Mary Wade of Sharon, Michael Ward of Canton, and William Capen of Stoughton have played vital, and generally unsung roles in the preservation of our history. It remains for we, the living, to continue to weave together the relevant facts and sources which they have preserved for us.

Artifacts located off Old Page Street Ryan Powers, has continued his explorations with his Garrett AT Pro metal detector in or near the 16x24 cellar-hole just north of the site of the North Stoughton train station on Old Page Street. He has found two more coins; an 1883 seated Liberty dime and a 1749 Georgius II half-farthing, silver-plated English colonial buttons, a few belt buckles, an Eighteenth Century crate pry bar, a silver thimble, four styles of railroad spikes, at least fifteen different year and style balls and bullets, and two Old Colony RR 50 (1850) wire ties. Ryan plans to display all of them together at some future time.

-Dwight Mac Kerron

Archivist’s Report

Received and cataloged: Framed pictures from the Stoughton High School Class 1928: A record book of Stoughton School field trips (Jan., Feb., Mar. and Sept. of 1978 thru Nov. 1984) kept by George Gay. George Gay was one of the High School Custodians and the School Bus Driver. The note book was recently found in the old Glover house. George and his wife Eleanor (Krona) were the last two residents of the house. I bound and filed a copy of a diary. “My experiences in Service or a 9 months Man.” Four volumes (853.00 filed in Cab.81). Linda Woodard donated a copy of Our Town a Stoughton Almanac, published in 2001 for Stoughton’s 275th anniversary, and two newsletters, Spring & Summer issues, 1977 & 1978, published by the Stoughton Friends of Conservation. Matthew and Elizabeth Mees, donated an oil on canvas portrait c. 1830-40, believed to be painted in the style of Stoughton artist Azel Capen, American, 19th Century (1796-1884). Azel Capen was born in Stoughton on Feb. 22, 1796 and died in Stoughton Feb. 9, 1884. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery. Matthew Mees is the son of the Rev. Matt and Jean Mees who was Pastor of First United Methodist Church of Stoughton from 1946-1953. The painting is from his parent’s estate.

I met with other members of the society and the people from Hartwell Antiques. Re: stored furniture. We received several boxes of materials on Stoughton cemeteries, John Stiles’ negatives, and other documents of valuable Stoughton history from David Lambert, all of which await cataloguing. - Ruth Fitzpatrick: Helped to put together the display in tribute to Joan (Atherton) O’Hare, catalogued another box of Belcher/Hodges materials, and has been entering catalogued information into our computer. Karen Dropps has been discovering, sorting, and consolidating scores of documents in our files relating to William Capen’s historical research.

The archivist compiled several pages (see below) of information regarding 449 Central Street for Joe DeVito to deliver to the YMCA, from the original and subsequent owners through 2003. (Samuel Atherton to Charles and Ethyl Low) Most notable is the Agricultural report of 1850 and the start of the Rockledge Mink Farm by Charles H. and Ethyl A. Low in 1943. 449 CENTRAL STREET LAND & RESIDENTS Rnf 21 April 2015 1812 – 14 House built by Samuel Atherton b. 19 Sep 1784, Son of John and Mary Atherton (See Stoughton Houses 100 Years 1726 – 1826. ) Copyrighted and published by the Stoughton Public Library, 1981. 1850 Agricultural record for the year 1850 list Samuel Atherton as a Farmer owning 80 acres, Improved acres = 60, Unimproved =20, Cash value = 4000. Implement value 100, Horses: 2, Milch cows: 4, Swine: 2, Value of livestock: 300, Bushels of: Rye: 6, Indian corn: 50, Oats: 0, Rice: 0, Tobacco: 0, Irish Potatoes: 100. Orchard Products: 18, Value of Market Produce: 20, Pounds of Butter: 150, Cheese: 0, Tons of Hay: 10. Value of Animals Slaughtered: 40 Ownership remains listed as Samuel Atherton until 1936, when it changes to Robert B. Hawes.

1920 - 26 William E. Ferrin, Age (1940) 61, Mill Hand 1927 No one is listed as living at this address. 1928 – 30 Frederick G. Maynard, Age (1928) 32, Foreman, Prev. Yr. Res. 1480 Turnpike

Harriet E. Age (1928) 31, At Home Edward Koppelel Age, (1928) 31, Operative, Prev. Yr. Res. 1480 Turnpike 1931 – 1940 Robert B. Hawes, (Age not given) Broker, Prev. Yr.Res. Brookline , Margaret F. (Age not given) At Home 1940 - 1942 Robert B. Hawes, Age (1940) 48, Poultryman Margaret F. (Age not given) At Home 1943 Charles H. Low, Age (1943) 33, Musician Ethyl A. Age 35 At Home

The ROCKLEDGE MINK FARM was established about this time by Charles and Ethyl Low. It has not yet been determined how long it remained in operation. 1944 - 1993 Same 1994 - Charles H. Low, d. 30 December 1994 at age 85. 1995 – 1999 Ethyl A. Low, At 449 Central St. Her occupation: Direct Sales. (Shaklee Products) 2000 – 2001 (No Information Available) 2002 – 2005 Ethyl A. Low, Continued to live at 449 Central St. and her occupation was Retired. 2006 - No residents listed for 449 Central St.

Ethyl A. Low’s published obituary does not list a date or year of death, (however her birth year was found to be 1907) and death occurred at age 96, placing her death Abt. 2003. –Richard Fitzpatrick

Curators Report Acquisitions –a brick from the old Capen School from 1892 from David Lambert; a soda fountain plate from the DeVito store and soda fountain from Evelyn Callanan; a fragment of the frame of a six-pane window, most likely an original from the Glover house and a strip of beveled clapboard siding, thought to be from the second round of siding put on the house. Both were found by our documenter William Gould. We have a number of other pieces of wood from various parts of the house, retrieved by David Lambert, which we have yet to catalogue.

I cleaned out the two urns on the steps and filled them with fresh pansies. We assisted in the temporary moving of our Sumner desk to the Stoughton Public Library where it was used in a dialogue between William Sumner, played by David Lambert and Preston Brooks, played by Gary Hylander. The discussion ended with “the caning.” The desk was returned on May 12. -Brian Daley

Clothing Curators Report

We have not had any donations to our clothing department since our last Newsletter. However, we have been involved in two projects for the Historical Society. The first was helping to set up a display to honor the memory and work of our former Clothing Curator, Joan O’Hare. On display is the last major article of clothing which Joan worked on. It involved many hours of work to preserve a dress from the late 1800’s. Also on display is a quilt and quilt bag, which she initiated for properly storing our quilts. With the help of Ruth Fitzpatrick, the display was completed with numerous photographs of Joan’s work from the many years that she served the Society. It was an honor to be able to help recognize this devoted, talented lady.

The second project was to work with our Town Librarian, Pat Basler, in gathering clothing that would fit in with the time period of the current “Stoughton Reads” program. We let the Library borrow men’s and women’s clothing from the 1850’s that would help set the scene for the discussions of The Caning, the book that was the center of this year’s program. -Janet Clough

Contributions In memory of Joan O’Hare: Chris Peduto, and Rick and Linda Woodward (they also included Ralph Clough.) In memory of Betty Rubel: Chris Peduto

Membership

Shirley Lindberg and Richard Pratt became Life members.