Stoughton Historical Society Newsletter Online Edition
VOLUME XLIX NO. 4 JULY-AUG-SEPT 2020 Upcoming Events
Given what it happening with Covid 19, it is difficult to schedule our next events. We will put out another Newsletter, possibly two, before Christmas and let you know where we are. We will use Facebook and email messages to communicate as much as possible. Please pay your dues for 2020, if you have not yet done so.
President’s Report
Alas, COVID-19 has taken a heavy toll on our programs and dinners in 2020. We have missed our Installation and Harvest dinners and our Earth Day programs. A few of us have been at the Society on Tuesdays and Thursdays, entertaining several visitors, who had made appointments. If you would like to visit, call or email ahead to make an appointment and bring your mask.
Our celebrations of Stoughton’s 50th Earth Day during the week of April 18- 25 were quashed by the Coronavirus outbreak. Kathleen Sylvester has posted a number of tributes and reminiscences on the Facebook page Stoughton Earth Day 2020. It turns out that having families housebound has encouraged more people to go out and walk in nature, and thereby appreciate the resources that the Town has acquired and preserved for them. Dan Mark has his program on Harris Pond ready to go, and we eagerly await the time when it can be presented. We have received a grant from the Cultural Council for Earth Day programs and publications and we will endeavor to put that to good use.
The sunflower sale in June to benefit the memory of Evelyn DeVito Callanan was very successful with many safely masked individuals appearing on our lawn and buying all the sunflowers available before noon! The next day, I home-delivered several others to folks who arrived after they were sold out.
Newly elected selectperson Debra Roberts paid two visits to the Society to acquaint herself with our institution and learn some of Stoughton’s history regarding our citizens of color. Ms. Roberts is the first African-American female to be elected to the Board of Selectmen in our Town’s almost 300-year history! Ms. Roberts was fascinated by our Charles Sumner desk, informing us that she had graduated from Charles Sumner High School in East St. Louis.
Other visitors included Brian Hansen and two daughters, John Sidebottom, Becky Mathers, Lawton Gaines, and Joseph Blansfield. Brian Hansen, who is now living in Goffstown New Hampshire was reconnecting with his Stoughton roots. He was very interested in the current location (unknown) of the “Hansen Bros. Store” sign. Howard was no relation, but apparently Brian had talked to him about the sign in the past.
John Sidebottom brought in a small suitcase full of his Uncle Earl Leathers’ memorabilia from WWII. Earl was Norma Leathers Sidebottom’s brother, who died at St Lo, France. I recall from an earlier program on WWII that the family received one of his V-Mail messages after they had been informed by the War Department that he had been killed.
Becky Mathers and family live on Orchard Road and have done a lot of exploring in the land between Sumner St. and Rt. 138. I suggested that they develop some of their own trail maps and also distinguish between the several raised pieces of land in there above the wetland from the railroad bed, which also runs through there from the Old Stoughton Junction, on past Swan’s Tavern to the site of the former North Stoughton Railroad Station. The Mather family purchased some maps and joined the Historical Society.
Lawton Gaines lives in Canton on Downes Avenue and has spent his whole life in that section of Canton. He spent many hours of his childhood, visiting a friend who worked at the Inn at Glen Echo. He donated to us the top of a heavy, white-metal street sign that he had found in the bushes beside the road, many years ago. It reads “Indian Lane – Glen Echo.” A century ago, it likely stood at the corner of York St. and Indian Lane. Lawton lives on Downes Ave., near that intersection and also near Wagner’s Pond, which is just north of Indian Lane. He recalls that back in the day, Canton played a tournament hockey game against Brockton on that ice. I believe that pond is the former mill pond of the Elijah Wentworth mill, which was often run and repaired by David Tilden, whose diaries we have transcribed. The Wentworths were one of the families to emigrate to this area, from York, Maine after an Indian massacre. It did not take long for the name York to begin to appear in that section of Old Stoughton, now Canton.
Lawton has collected many maps over the years and he and I compared and shared copies of maps we had, which focused on the general environs of York Pond – Glen Echo. I sent him a digital copy of a map of Stoughton that Rich Pratt had found, which showed a road running on the East shore of York Pond, much closer to the pond than York/Page/Pigwacket streets would be. Our best guess is that this road is one that came in from York St., crossed Monk’s Meadow at the crossing that is still visible at Glen Echo, and then proceeded south on what later became Wigwam Path and Glen Echo Blvd. Trying to match its path to the south and connecting to any of our current streets remains a challenge.
I told him about the ancient stone slab bridge between Greenlodge and Elm Streets in Canton, which I had learned about from George Comeau. Lawton did not know of that bridge, but was fascinated to discover it and recalled fishing in that brook downstream and being amazed at how cold the water was, much colder than the water was when it left Ponkapoag Pond. Springs must add their cooler water to the brook as it flows out to the Neponset River. Lawton checked old maps and wondered why that bridge would have been built in the 1700’s, when there were so few houses nearby. I speculated that it would have been the route by which Dorchester-Milton residents might have taken hay from the lush Fowl Meadows along the Neponset River, back to their barns. Certainly, Elijah Dunbar was getting hay from those Fowl Meadows in 1806, as he often notes in his diary, which we have published.
Meeting Lawton and discussing these and other matters was much more pleasant than my introduction to Downes Avenue, earlier in the summer. I was driving down the Avenue on my way to search for Elijah Wentworth’s millpond, not realizing that Downes Avenue turns into a nearly impassable road, once you pass Lawton’s house. It turned out that the road WAS impassable for my Ford Focus wagon, which hit a protruding rock, which did not move, thereby wrecking the front suspension of the car. The car had to be towed and the suspension replaced, all in the name of the search for local history.
Joseph Blansfield lives on the Sharon side of Bay Road, just south of Highland St. An old road leads from his back yard up to Rattlesnake Hill. This year, he has taken on the task of researching Bay Road and its lengthy history. I have shared with him some of the materials we have, and he has also visited the Canton and Easton Historical Societies and received valuable information from Frank Menino, Ed Hands, George Comeau, and Jim Roache, among others. I told him that one major problem/challenge with studying the history of Bay Road was that there was so much history over several centuries in each of the Towns along its route. There is considerable oral tradition about luminaries like Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams, Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Lafayette, who may or may not have traversed it and/or lodged along it.
One challenge is to define the extent of Bay Road, and which Bay does it lead to? It seems that at Taunton, there are connections to a route to Narragansett Bay, a route to Buzzards Bay and even an easterly route to Plymouth Bay. Joseph is getting his teeth into the material and we look forward to the day when he can give us a presentation from his findings.
In August Richard Fitzpatrick gave us a bound copy of A History of Stoughton Massachusetts During the Colonial Period, which was written by Michael Baxter in 1976 “in partial fulfillment” for a Masters Degree in the Arts, concentration history at Bridgewater State. The thesis is 100 pages in length with footnotes from many sources. Mr Baxter currently resides in Canton and we are in the process of communicating with him to see if he would like to renew any interest in his past scholarship with an eye toward possibly republishing a supplemented version of the history for the Town’s 300th Anniversary. Some of our own scholarship, including the publication of the Ezra Tilden and Elijah Dunbar diaries and the transcription of the David Talbot diary, have provided more details which could flesh out some of the chapters. Mr Baxter cites a story from Huntoon, which relates the tale of a couple of men, Ebenezer Nightingale and Ebenezer Allen, who had collected their bounty to join a local regiment during the French and Indian Wars in 1762 and soon thereafter deserted along with two other men and returned to Stoughton. The men were hidden in the woods with food allegedly being supplied to them by George and Turel Allen. Turel Allen lived at the site of the current Charles McNamara farm and undoubtedly built some of the stone walls in that area. The deserters were thought to be skulking in the old forge house of Ebenezer Stearns near Dry Pond. One night the old forge house was surrounded by a detail of solders sent to capture them, but the men were nowhere to be found and never were captured. This innocuous nugget of local history, is, of course, invaluable to aficionados of Dry Pond history.
Another development which can add substance to the next history written or re-written is the restoration of Daniel T. V. Huntoon’s voluminous scrapbooks, which has been completed using Community Preservation funds from Canton and Stoughton. Covid 19 has precluded having a public showing of the restored scrapbooks, but digital copies are in the works. We will share selected images on our Facebook page. Is it possible that the Huntoon scrapbook will contain the notices regarding the deserting Dry Pond men? We shall soon find out.
In July, we received an email from Peter Flynn, nephew of our former President John Flynn informing us that he has uncovered some Stoughton history-related materials from his Uncle’s effects. We exchanged a series of emails. He did not know of our explorations of John Flynn’s journals in the last six years. I shared the fact that I have started to pay attention to the house where John Flynn lived on Morton Street with wife Margaret and daughter, Mary. I acknowledged that often, I feel that I am walking in his shoes.
Peter did not know of our recent research, but was immediately interested. He wrote,” John was my grandfather Patrick’s brother. Patrick died at 51 in about ’39. John and his daughter’s visited our home in Brockton a few times a year and we visited Morton Street on occasion. John was a book hoarder as am I. I remember John as soft spoken. Usually they’d stay an hour- have tea or coffee and some pastries. Usually he’d keep his overcoat on while the woman would remove theirs….Mary brought me one of his bookshelves when they sold the house. I assisted Margaret moving from her apartment to a nursing home. I was one of four at her burial- no priest available, holiday weekend I read some prayers. I visit some Flynn graves, including John’s at Holy Sepulchre” He acknowledged having thrown out the deeds transferring the Morton Street house from John to wife Margaret and then to daughter Mary. Peter lives in Newburyport and Mary had a place on Plum Island where he would visit her.
He continued, “I visited the 38 acre farm in Cork where my great grandfather Patrick (b.1850) came from. I believe he had three brothers that went to Stoughton after him, one died in Braintree, not sure about the others. The farm was sold to developers in about 2006 and ugly attached housing was built replacing the charming, if antiquated building on the farm. After the economic downturn in ’08 most of the units went unsold for years.”
I sent Peter three recent Newsletters that have had excerpts from John Flynn’s diaries and a few thousand more words of text that we have transcribed from the diaries, and he “read them all.” We have more transcriptions done by Zachary Mandosa, that we can also send along to Peter. It turned out that the material he sent included several copies of John Flynn’s Stoughton, Mass. A Study in Local History, the book he wrote for the Stoughton Public Schools in 1956 with an introduction written by Aaron Fink, Principal of Stoughton High School. It was one of the books cited in Michael Baxter’s thesis. This yellowing twenty-five page document is a testament to how local history flows and ebbs in school curricula, as continuing winds of change blow with each new generation of students, teachers, and administrators.
Denise Peterson has become a regular volunteer on Thursday nights. She is helping Richard Fitzpatrick in the imposing task of whittling away at our piles of documents, which need to be catalogued and filed. Denise also brought in a deed that documents that her great-grandfather bought the land on Winter St. on which St Mary’s Convent was built. Denise writes: “Joseph and Mary Ellen Rowen moved from Ireland to the United States in the mid 1860’s. Stoughton at that time was predominantly Protestant and the Town would not sell the land on Winter St. to the Catholic Archdiocese. My Great grandfather Joseph Rowen lived across the street at 49 Winter St. He was able to buy the property and transfer it to the Archdiocese. It became the convent for the Sisters of St. Joseph, who were the teachers at the St. Mary’s School. The Convent building is stil standing, but now a multi family home, as is the Rowen homestead. I am the fifth generation to live in Stoughton: Rowen, Tighe, Sullivan, Dunn, VanLaarhoven, and Peterson’s have all called it home.” We are pleased that Joanne Callanan has also recently joined the Thursday night crew.
This year’s Stoughton Community Calendar features an article I wrote on the Spanish Flu in Stoughton in 1918/19.
The year 1918 was the best of times and it was the worst of times in Stoughton, Massachusetts. It marked the end of WWI, “the Great War” and the celebrations of the Armistice on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month were wildly enthusiastic. But Americans had suffered heavy casualties in the last several months of the War, at about the time that Stoughton was experiencing terrifying casualties from “the Spanish Flu.” More people in Stoughton died from the flu in September and October of 1918 than all the Stoughton men who died in the War, a third of whom died of the flu, as well.
Stoughton resident Edward Marden felt the pain of the World War and the flu. Mr Marden, after his wife, Etta (Guild) Marden died in 1903, was left with six children, whom he had to send off to various relatives in the greater-Boston area. His diary records that he would visit and send all of them money as he could. In 1917, two of his sons, Harold and Ray joined the army. Ray Marden was killed by an artillery shell FOUR HOURS before the Armistice went into effect. Edward’s daughter Gertrude, who was attending nursing school in Boston became deathly ill with the flu in February of 1919 and Edward, who was then, seventy years-old, received a message that he should prepare for the worst. Fortunately, Gertrude recovered, and over time, all the surviving children seem to have led productive lives.
The Stoughton Historical Society now possesses Edward Marden’s diary for every year from 1909 to 1925, except for 1918, the year in which Ray died. Etta, Edward, and some of the children are buried at Maplewood Cemetery, where, in his diary, Edward describes the placement and tending of his wife’s grave.
In response to the outbreak of the “Spanish influenza,” on September 27, the Board of Health closed the Public Schools, Library and Orpheum Theater and banned public meetings at the Town House, the lodges, and any other public hall. An order came one week later to ban attending church services as well as pool halls, bowling alleys, and club rooms.
In the same edition of The Stoughton News-Sentinel that announced the ban, were listed the deaths of Pvt Lester A. Whitten (Lennie “Skunk” Whitten’s brother) and Joseph R. Green, (brother of Pvt. Leo Green of Camp Devens) both of whom had died of the influenza while serving in the military. Whitten died in the base hospital at Fort Devens.
An emergency make-shift hospital with twenty beds was set up in the Chickataubut Club (at the site of the current Stoughton Cooperative Bank) and it was staffed by local doctors and many citizen volunteers.
The Board of Health listed 947 cases of the flu. From September 20 to October 28, 34 people in Stoughton died from the flu. The board estimated that 1 out of 20, who contracted the flu, died from it. In a second wave of the influenza from January to March of 1919, another seven people died of the flu or the pneumonia, which often set in as a result of the flu.
In the most extreme cases, victims died within hours or days of developing symptoms, their skin turning blue and their lungs filling with fluid that caused them to suffocate. In just one year, 1918, the average life expectancy in America plummeted by a dozen years. Certainly the deaths of 116,500 young Americans in WWI was also a factor, but more than 63,000 of those deaths were from “disease,” and most of those deaths were from the influenza.
Many people in Stoughton refused to leave their homes, except when absolutely necessary, but from their homes, they could hear the church bells tolling for another funeral. One woman recalled, “It sounded as if the whole world was dying.”
On October 16, the restrictions were lifted, the Chickataubut Club was fumigated and returned to its previous function. On November 12, there was a parade and the “biggest celebration ever held in the Town,” celebrating the end of the Great War. It was followed by a “Victory Ball” on December 6.
In January, because of increases in new cases, the residents of the Town were warned to take more caution or the bans would be re-imposed. The primary warning was that those with flu-like symptoms and any members of their house-holds, NOT go to work, school, or circulate in public from ten days to two weeks. The larger ban was never re-imposed. People continued to die of the influenza, but in isolated cases, rather than the wave, which had occurred earlier.
Although it was called the Spanish Flu, the state of Kansas in the United States is one of the more likely origins of this pandemic. There had been a small civilian outbreak in a small town in Kansas early in 1918 and then a much larger outbreak in March at Camp Funston in Fort Riley Kansas, where 40 soldiers eventually died. More than two million American men had enlisted or been drafted from April of 1917 to the signing of the Armistice. With America training and sending more than one million of those troops overseas, from crowded barracks into crowded troop ships, the spread of the virus was inevitable. It became known as the Spanish Flu, apparently because the newspapers in neutral Spain covered the outbreaks extensively, whereas the news media among the combatants in WWI were heavily censored, and reports of major flu outbreaks were considered bad for morale.
More than one million American troops were in Europe by early in 1918, but most were not seeing front-line action and being trained, mostly under the command of the French. However in June, American troops were thrown into action at the Battle of Chateau-Thierry, first to blunt a last-gasp, but powerful German offensive, which was threatening Paris. After Russia withdrew from the War, the Germans had brought many of their divisions from the Eastern Front and thrown them into this battle. By the end of June, with the key addition of hundreds of thousands of fresh American troops, the German offensive had been halted. In July, American troops played a major role in the counter-offensive that would cost many American lives, but eventually forced the Germans to retreat.
This action was followed by the Meuse-Argonne offensive in September, which caused many more casualties, and for a time the logistics of the Americans’ getting their supplies to the front-lines became hopelessly snarled. Gen. Pershing was overcome by the stress of the high casualties and logistical problems and essentially gave up his command for a time to the next two ranking generals. More than 26,000 Americans died in this final campaign, which eventually ended the War on 11:00 A. M. on November 11, 1918.
Back on the home front in 1918, Stoughton had several large factories, the largest of which were French and Ward, The Stoughton Rubber Company: Stoughton (shoddy) Mills, Charles Stretton & Sons, Panther Rubber, J. W. Wood Elastic Web and Meade Rubber. Electrification of the Town was slowly replacing gas lights. There were also many farms, most of them small. The Town Assessors report listed the presence of approximately 400 cows, 280 horses, and 10,000 swine. The Town Poor Farm between School and Elm St. had eleven occupants.
The number of automobiles was not listed. Lehan’s Ford dealership had just opened, but only a few of the wealthiest people had cars. Nevertheless, the following citizens of Stoughton donated their cars and drivers to transport those ill with the influenza, or the volunteers to and from the hospital: “James Lehan, 3 cars, James Meade, car and truck, W. E. Maltby, Miss Evelyn Legarde, Mrs Paul Ester, Mrs Ira F. Burnham, Geo. E. Belcher, 2 cars, Mrs. Nathaniel Faxon, Myra Blaisdell, John W. Wood, Daniel F. Vaughn” (one car?)
Large “war gardens” were being grown in several places including Billy White’s field, diagonally across from the current Andy’s Market at the corner of Plain and Morton Street, and the large field, which has since become known as the Lipsky property, west of Canton Street. There was also a large corn field at the southwestern corner of Central and Washington streets, including the current site of either CVS or Walgreens.
The Stoughton Historical Society has an exhibit featuring photos of these “war gardens,” some of which were overseen by high school administrators, teachers and students. Vegetable seeds were distributed to high school students for a small sum and prizes were awarded as they might be at a 4H fair. 2500 people attended the War Garden display and awards ceremony at Town Hall. It is not clear exactly how these fields contributed to the war effort, but at least some of the sales benefited the Public Safety Committee.
The Great Hall in Town Hall was much larger in 1918; its floor was the current second floor and it balcony was at the level of the current third floor, with no office spaces on either side. In 1918, movies were shown in the Great Hall at Town Hall on 34 different evenings at $17 a night rental. The State Guard drilled there eleven times from January to March and eight times in November and December. . There was no charge for them, but they had been asked to select evenings when the hall was not likely to be rented. It was rented for dancing eighteen times, including a “Victory Ball on Dec. 6. If pictures and dancing were combined it was often an $18+ rental. On a few occasions it was also rented for basketball.
The Town was extending its paved streets and sewage lines and “drying fields” for sewage were being placed in the vicinity of the current Tosca Drive. Street lighting was being installed on Seaver Street between Prospect and Lincoln Street. The Town Report reveals that the north end of Old Page St. was discontinued, that the Town voted to protest the fare increase on the trolley to Brockton run by the Bay Street Railway, and in a voter referendum for Amendments to the State Constitution, Stoughton voters favored empowering the state to buy historically significant houses and properties. Yes-463 No-148 Blanks-497. Also favored was an Amendment to make voting compulsory: Yes-351 No-256 Blanks 501. The 501 blanks may tell a different tale than the majority vote would indicate. John E. Flynn, later to be our President was appointed a Library Trustee, a position that he would hold for many years. The largest taxpayers were French and Ward at $ 12,875, Stoughton Rubber Company: $5,400, and Stoughton (shoddy) Mills: $4,035. Edison Electric, Charles Stretton & Sons, Panther Rubber, and Brockton Gas Light Co. all paid more than $2000 in taxes, and the NY, NH, &H Railroad, J. W. Wood Elastic Web and Meade Rubber all paid more than $1000. The highest individual tax payers was George Belcher: $5,792, while Louis Clapp, Charles Swan, Charles Welsh, Cornelius Murphy, James Lehan, and Walter Swan all paid more than $1000 each. Dwight Mac Kerron – Stoughton Historical Society
Our apologies for the mis-pagination of the entries on Uncle Joe Page and the naming of Page Street that Richard Fitzpatrick and Rich Pratt wrote for the last Newsletter. The email copy was fine, but apparently the printer misplaced several pages, resulting in the two entries being mixed together.
Archivists Report
During the winter months, I managed to completely alphabetize the indexes for our file books. Now to get the larger part of the books in the same condition should really speed up the finding of specific items. One of the first things I did after we re-opened this fall, was to set up a display of political items. Donations for this display come from the following sources: Janet Clough, Liz Fitzpatrick, Denise Peterson, Maureen Wahl, Dianne Radvillas, Stoughton Historical Society’s collection & the writer.
We received a box of material from the family of Evelyn Callanan, who passed away earlier this year. Personally, I miss seeing her each Tuesday morning. Contained, in the box were a ‘Stoughtonopoly” Game in new never used condition. A copy of John Flynn’s Beyond the Blue Hill, a copy of the booklet, “Stoughton Public Library, 100 Years, 1874 – 1974”. A pictorial history of the “Hurricane of 1938” and a 1995 version of the “Stoughton Sampler”
Bonnie Molin has taken over the collection, formatting and printing of the Stoughton Obituaries that Evelyn had been doing since 2004. Denise Peterson and Joanne Callanan have begun to file the more than one hundred entries that Bonnie has put on neatly-typed file cards.
Early in the year we received a 250th Anniversary Spoon and a Doty Tavern necklace from Steve Farrell of Stoughton. Also, received from Steve, was a OUELLET PHARMACY Pill envelope and a NICHOLS CO. pink and silver stripped paper bag.
Dianne Radvillas, donated a copy of a letter address to “My Boy’s – Wherever you are”. The subject was regarding the baseball season of 1944 at Stoughton High School. Signed Your old coach F. V. Burke. As a side note the SHS Class of 1943 had 44 boys graduated. The SHS Class of 1944 had only 25 boys, graduated, one of the effects of WWII. Joe DiVito, was one of the 25 graduated in 1944.
In a separate donation Dianne, donated a pair of Political Dolls. Mike Dukakas & his running mate Lloyd Bensen, from the Presidential campaign of 1988. (See them in our display of political buttons and ephemera. A pair of Round Gold framed eye glasses. A photo the St. Anthony’s, Lithuanian Benefit Society, Band. The picture was taken at the corner of Perry and Wyman Street, looking up Wyman Street toward the Railroad Station. Also included in this group was a picture of the Spingdale Finishing Co. employees receiving the Army/Navy Production Award. Otherwise known as an (E-Award). Dianne’s father Anthony Malakuskas, is in the picture. The Springdale Finishing Co. was located in Canton and the picture was taken in the Auditorium of the Canton Town Hall.
John Fernandez donated an orange Baseball Cap and matching orange warm-up jacket both with Stoughton Knights logos. Also, in this group of items was a photo of Freeman Maltby c.1916. At the time he was the Mascot of Stoughton Boy Scout Troop One. Several rank or merit badge cards from various boy scout troops, one each for the following: Robert Dray, TP 2, First Class & Personal Health; Robert Blair, Tp. 57, Public Health; Edgar Parent, Tp. 1, Carpentry; Chris. Carabatsos, Tp. 1, Carpentry; and Robert Smith, Tp. 2, (Scoutmaster), Woodwork, Automobiling & Woodcarving. -Richard Fitzpatrick
Curator’s Report
Acquisitions: A 50 caliber machine gun shell casing from Rick Woodward; a cardboard box from American Biltrite from Ed DeFelice; a large “Frank’s Market” sign from Dave Sweeney; a wood handled multi-purpose hand tool in excellent condition, with multiple awl & screwdriver bits, manufactured by Horace E. Britton in Stoughton, from Willard Thorne. (See http://www.stoughtonhistory.com/1898-britton.htm for a profile of the Britton family of tool manufacturers with images of Joshua and Horace Britton tool holders.); a circa 1910 “Regular Fellers” cardboard pencil box, an “Ivaldi Motors, Canton” deck of cards, and Stoughton Special Police Officer and Constable badges with name tags and stars from John Fernandez; a “Stoughtonopoly” game from the family of Evelyn Callanan; a Health Record checkbook from Goddard Memorial Hospital, an “Armstrong’s Quilted Combination” rubber syringe in the original box, a curved throat style rubber Ice Bag in the original box, an Ace Hard Rubber double sided fine-tooth comb in the original cardboard sleeve, and a 5 x 4 ft. POW – MIA flag from Rick and Linda Woodward; a 250th Anniversary Stoughton Spoon and a Doty Tavern Necklace from Steve Farrell.
John Sidebottom has loaned a suitcase full of documents and World War II memorabilia relating to PFC Earle B. Leathers of Stoughton, who was an Army Ranger killed in action at St. Lo, France on July 7, 1944. He was interred at the U.S. Military Cemetery at St. Laurent, France. The corner of Park Street and Broadway was named for him in 2008. -Richard Pratt
Clothing Curator’s Report
Joan Bryant and I have worked on the Bi-Centennial Quilt trying to minimize the damage from the roof leak where the quilt had been hanging. We began by carefully vacuuming each side of the quilt in order to remove as much dust as we could. Step two was to “wash” all of the areas that showed damage. We carefully scrubbed the areas with a detergent and rinsed with clear water. We blotted as much moistness out of the quilt that we could, draped it over items to allow for air circulation, and left it to dry for a week. This process was repeated the following week to those areas that needed more cleaning. We did find that the fabric used to frame each picture block was not color-fast and it was necessary to avoid getting these areas wet. We feel that the areas that are still discolored are due to this bleeding of dye and think that we have done what we could with this problem. A small hole in the quilt was patched. The next question is what do we do with the quilt now. It has been suggested it be hung on the wall over the organ. If that is the chosen plan, that wall should be cleaned before the quilt is hung. The workmanship of the picture squares is exceptional and needs to be seen and appreciated. Hanging the quilt at a lower level would help people enjoy the work that was done in 1976. We received several clothing storage bags from Ruth McDonald via her son Gerry. -Janet Clough
Our continued condolences to the friends and family of our good and faithful member, Evelyn Callanan. We miss her! We have received more donations in her memory since the last Newsletter from Thomas and Maureen Horgan, Stephen and Susan Lechter, Camilla and David Powers, Virginia Davis, Richard and Ruth Fitzpatrick, Mary Ann Cartier, Vasco Rodrigues, Millie Foss, Mary Baumann, and the proceeds of our Sunflower sale fund. Our apologies for not getting all the names of the people who purchased sunflowers, but Evelyn would be pleased that many of those sunflowers bloomed this summer in Stoughton!
In memory of Dolores Rodrigues: Carlos Vargas Insurance.
Membership
New members: Lawton Gaines, James Rush and family, Dan and Becky Mathers, Joseph Blansfield.