Stoughton Historical Society Newsletter Online
VOLUME XLX NO. 4 JUL-AUG-SEPT – 2021
Upcoming Events
Walks -Given our difficulty in meeting inside in large groups, there will be several walks given during the Fall. One will hike to Stoughton’s highest elevation from the Ames Pond beach, another will tour the town-owned barn on West St., and another may be at Glen Echo. E-mails with dates and times will be sent to all members and posted on the Facebook site “Stoughton, Massachusetts Historical Society” https://www.facebook.com/groups/112690516357
September 25 – Stoughton Day at Halloran Park 11:00AM-3:00PM. We plan to have a booth with our recent maps and publications available.
To be determined: Reception at Stoughton Train Station.
October 28 – History of Bay Road-Joe Blansfield will be available in person or on Zoom via the Stoughton Public Library. Bay Road resident and lay historian Joe Blansfield traces the history of one of the area’s first main roads. From Boston to the Bays – Narragansett, Buzzards and Cape Cod, this road was used by Native Americans and then colonists, centuries ago. Much of this series of road and streets is still in use even to the present day. Registration is required.
CONTACT: jolshin@ocln.org 7813442711 jolshin@ocln.org
LOCATION: Community Room
November – Presentation on the History of Harris/Lakewood Pond by Dan Mark. The final date is yet to be determined, but it will be presented at the Library and available on Zoom.
President’s Report
We had been hoping to hold our annual Harvest Dinner, but the re-emergence of Covid has eliminated that possibility. As seen above, we will be running other programs and activities.
Our second Annual Evelyn Callanan sunflower sale was a success. We sold all our sunflowers, a number of copies of the new booklet, “25 Woodland walks in Stoughton and neighboring towns,” as well as trail and stone wall maps. We thank Bonnie Molin and new members Ted and Kitty Zimmerman for their contributions of plants.
A few days later, on Memorial Day, Ted Zimmerman, Rick Woodward, and Zachary Mandosa played Taps on the steps of the Historical Society at 3:00 P. M.
The Stoughton Community Calendar is now out and available at the Library, the Historical Society, and Town Hall. A thank you to John Carabatsos for honing the pictures to a fine edge. In the photo of the War Gardens on the cover, note the trolley car passing behind the tree in left field, first spotted by Dave Foley. This was taken in 1918 when Lipsky field, at that time Robert Porter’s Estate, was being put to good use as a war garden. Another thank you also to David Martin, who was the first to identify the location here. He grew up in one of those houses in the distance. Half of the commentary concerns the War Gardens and half concerns the Home Guard in WWI, which drilled in the farm fields of Elijah Farrington, off of Plain St.
Some of the information for the Calendar mentioned above had been gathered in the production of the 12-page illustrated booklet, “Two Historic Farms on Plain St.: Billy White’s Field and Elijah Farrington’s Farm.” Joan and I had a date night at Staples to get the booklet printed by the day of the 4th of July parade.
For the 4th of July Parade, Joe Mokrisky drove our fire truck, Zachary and Kiara Mandosa carried our banner, and Bob Benson drove his historic woody behind them. Rick and Linda Woodward placed many American flags around the perimeter of our lawn. Spectators viewing the parade from our lawn may have missed the shade of the large Norway Maple, which had been removed a month earlier because of deterioration and branches which extended out over the power lines. We had many visitors after the parade, and some stayed for more than an hour.
This summer, I led two walks sponsored by the Stoughton Public Library: the first to Myron Gilbert’s quarry near the Bradley Lessa Playground, from which most of the stones used to construct our train station were taken. The second walk visited the site of Girl Scout Camp Waluhiyo, which had been the subject of one of our programs several years ago. These walks were well-attended and yielded several new members for the Society.
We received our digital copy of the restored Huntoon manuscript scrapbook Vol I, owned by the Canton Historical Society, containing ancient Stoughton documents, some of them only small scraps of paper up to 1794, when Canton separated from Stoughton. The physically restored and preserved scrapbook will be on display at the library in Canton, then in Stoughton, soon. The restoration and copying were paid for by CPA grants from both Canton and Stoughton. Vice President David Lambert copied the very large Huntoon document transcriptions (the Tiff. files took forever) onto an external hard drive. He has agreed to help create an index, which goes substantially beyond the one created by Huntoon. Student volunteer, Zachary Mandosa has scanned all of our old newletters, which will eventually be added to our website.
Several months ago, we received an email from Stu Woodham, whose father taught at the DeVaux School in upper New York state where our Frank Reynolds taught for two years during and just after WWI. John Carabatsos and I exchanged emails with Stu. John writes, “Once Stu identified his father’s name as Mr. Hudson I was able to find a photo labeled “FRANK REYNOLDS NEGS-586-APRIL 25 1920-DEVEAUX SCHOOL-MR REED AND HUDSON BY A BUNCH OF SLATES.”
The second picture was found and labeled because Stu found the description of a trip to his mother’s house in Frank’s book. Some of the negatives had fallen out of the correct envelope and this was one such photo. When Stu mentioned this trip and that Frank had mentioned taking a picture…I remembered that I had a photo that might have been this one that I had placed in the misc. file.
It now reads… “FRANK REYNOLDS NEGS-588-JUNE 23 1920-MR HUDSON WITH HIS MOTHER AND SISTER’S CHILDREN-HUNTINGTON AVE BUFFALO”
John sent him pictures and, in thanks, Stu transcribed several pages of Frank’s book, Beyond the Years to Seventy. In the process, I came to realize the major transition in the lives of brother and sister, Frank and Bertha Reynolds that took place 1917-1920. As many of you know, Frank and Bertha were stalwarts in the community and gave their house and farm to Stoughton. Bertha was secretary of the Historical Society for many years.
For much of the first two decades of the Twentieth decades `of the Twentieth Century, they had been nearly full-time farmers and raisers of poultry, as covered in our booklet “Pleasant Pines Farm,” which details the considerable work they did on the farm, the way the lots were set up, and the various crops grown on them. They had banner amounts of hay in 1915 and 16, but Frank had been continuing his musical education and was getting deeper into that field. Frank hired Wilbur Capen to run their place in 1916, but then their horse died and a neighbor, Mr. Thomas from Pine St. transported Wilbur and the milk. Then, in 1917, Thomas said that he could no longer do it, so they sold off their three cows and spent the summer hunting for work. Frank got a job at the DeVaux school, and with that income, he bought a car with which, during school vacations, he traveled the long distance between DeVaux (which was very close to Niagra Falls) and Stoughton, Bertha learned how to drive, separately, and they both moved toward being citizens in a larger community. It is interesting to read of Frank’s first adventures and misadventures as a beginning driver. We will add the complete transcription to our next publication of “Pleasant Pines Farm.”
From Stu Woodham’s transcription, here are some excerpts from Frank Reynolds’ Beyond the Years to Seventy: (1917) For me the summer was spent in hunting for work in music or teaching, playing organs, and farm work in between times. The vegetables did well, peas and tomatoes very good. Conheno had the hay. In the fall we rented a part of the house and farm to Melbourne Marshall and his wife. He did some plowing and later kept some stock. At our church I played and gave a little recital once, July 22nd, at Franklin Church five services; and six Sundays, twelve services, for the Presbyterian Church in South Quincy, an Estey organ and Rev. Clarence E. Campbell the minister. Went to church at Tremont Street one Sunday but saw very few I knew. Their console was no longer in the gallery but down in front. Leaving out the story of the agencies joined, trips taken, letters written and references collected, word came in September from Mr. Lahee’s Agency that an Episcopal Military School, DeVeaux School, Niagara Falls, N.Y. wanted an organist and choirmaster who would also teach some other subjects. I applied.
The Headmaster, Mr. Barrows, thought that I was the best prepared of the candidates and wrote that he would pay half the expenses if I would come, which I lost no time in doing and was hired. The other subjects varied as time went on, but in October I was teaching Arithmetic, Algebra and U.S. History, giving voice tests, training the choir for the chapel services, and soon had a small number of piano pupils. Dr. Carl wrote that he had hoped that I would come back for a post-graduate course, but was glad I had the position.
The school is on an estate of 137 acres fronting for more than half a mile on The Niagara Gorge with famous scenery, elevated campus, forest and orchard. DeVeaux Farm was rented, I believe, for thirty per month, the school having 12 gallons of milk per day from it @15¢. The buildings were stone including a chapel with a tower in which were chimes. In the chapel building were class rooms, and a gym on the first floor. A second gym was in a barn like structure with curved roof. The pipe organ used to be in St. Peter’s Church where we went September 30th. Sometimes the boys were taken to this church in the city, otherwise we had church at the school. Short chapel services were held twice a day on week days. Thursday was the boys’ day off and masters need not remain all day, except the one whose turn it was to be “Master of the Day.” He issued the permits off bounds, was in charge of evening study hall, and checked on everything that went on. A joke of the young masters was that he must be present five minutes before any disorders occurred. “Where was the Master of the Day when this thing happened?” Soon I saw The Falls, wonderful! The Whirlpool was only a five minute walk through the woods: Green waters, wooded canyon, white foam and the Gorge Route trolley car… …In Boston March 28th I went on to Canton for the army examination. Our doctor, W. O. Faxon, was in charge and I was rejected and put in class five; 64 inches tall, 110 pounds, anaemic, bronchial rattle in right lung, máybe flat feet. What a wreck!
On returning to DeVeaux we attended various Liberty Loan Drives at The Armory with speakers such as Sec. Daniels, Gov. Whitman, N. D. Hillis, Canon Savage, and Nehemiah Boynton, Brooklyn chaplain. I was put in charge of the war garden project at the school and ordered a wheel plow with a strong T handle like a lawn mower. Later there was cause to be thankful as the soil was clay requiring plenty of push. Those cadets who wished to compete for prizes were given four rows each, the school bought the seeds, etc., and at Founders’ Day I judged the gardens. Capt. Clark’s was best, then those of Paul Downward and Wilfred Armstrong. May 2nd, three of the boys wanted a Thursday hike. As they must have a master with them, I went with Chase and Rose of Rochester, and Buisch of Middleport. As we went to Fort Niagara and the old French Barracks, it was my first real look at Lake Ontario. We took lunches and more refreshments at Youngstown, and were back by three which was some hiking (obliging truckdrivers gave us lifts). Even as early as January, soon after I sat for my pictures at Hart’s Studio, my teeth gave me the worst swelled face I had ever had. When Andy Grabau jested about it I told him not to get facetious. Our Boston dentist, Dr. Hale, worked on them in April, but to make a long story short, in May one foot and later the whole leg swelled. After a week of pain while still teaching, I went to Dr. Chapin. It was inflammatory rheumatism, so to Memorial Hospital I was taken, Townshend Building, Methodist and Baptist Room for five days. As I didn’t sweat enough they gave the same treatment they had used on delirium tremens: Bath in a tub full of very hot water, kept so for fifteen minutes, ice on head and drinking ice water, roll up in blankets and sweat rivers. The cure was not complete for I had two days in bed at the school later, and some walking trouble and knee pains until after four teeth, bad at the roots, were pulled. My appointment for the Organ Guild exam’ in Rochester came at this time so had to be canceled.. …
Bertha had a trip through Vermont for The Children’s Aid Society, and resigned early in the summer to take courses in Northampton. In September she landed a position as social worker at Danvers State Hospital for the Insane, and learned to drive a Ford car provided by the hospital. While renting the rest of the farm to Mr. Marshall we reserved Ward 8. The gardens that he plowed for himself we are not concerned with here. For us he plowed between the grapes, a garden next to them for potatoes, and the garden next Pine Street. He plowed very deep and claimed the first two were too rough to harrow, so he made holes and planted five rows of potatoes Mother, and she put in another five herself. The grape garden grew up to witch grass so that I had to grub it all over by hand, taking out 25 wheelbarrow loads of the dried roots before it was in good cultivation. As I was later home from Niagara, then from the organ school, Mother planted the whole big garden next (to) Pine Street on Saturdays and evenings, and it was a splendid one. I wheel plowed and hoed it, and set strawberries next the street. There were 16 bushels of potatoes, 50 pumpkins, peas, beans, corn, etc. to eat and can. Marshall moved for us the young evergreens (page 98) setting a row of these Douglas Firs along the north wall of Ward 7. The State gave me $92.50 for destroying the currant bushes remaining in Ward 6-A. Mr. Tracy laid a new wooden piazza floor, and I helped him with a cement rain gutter side of it.
Cousin Edith Lovell married Ben Stevens, Brockton dentist, in the Central M.E. Church. Mother and I went to the wedding. Merton Lovell sang. A reception was held in a side parlor under Grandpa Reynolds’s picture which hung there then. From here we went to Clarence Gill’s to supper. In Stoughton we called on Mrs. Norris and saw the Norris and Hyde Piano with transposing key-board, the keys of which move up or down (right or left) as desired.
September 16th, –Back to Deveaux stopping over night at Hotel Richford in Rochester. On arriving at school I found a continuous faculty meeting going on. The prospect was for 71 or more boys. In place of Mr. Witkop listed, we had H. F. Reed from Binghamton weighing only 100 lbs. but a live wire. He soon joined the other pals with a violin, and the new Commandant, William S. Hudson (former Deveaux boy) produced a mandolin for concerts (?) in my room. At meals I had a table with Mr. Reed at the opposite end and a nice lot of boys. Maggie (the cook) reported that the war garden had produced well in the summer. The school had a picnic at Foster’s Flats, Canada, attended by 48 boys. We went over the Whirlpool in the cable car, and down the cliff for a corn roast near the river. Hudson helped me tune the Oboe in the organ. In my collection are, of course, many pictures of Niagara and the school. One comic one was of Reed in drummer-boy (or bell hop) costume. There were hundreds of cases of Spanish Influenza, and the school was quarantined October 9th to November 4th. Day boys had to decide to be boarders or stop school. I was learning to play tennis and kick a football a bit.. The quarantine went on again December 1st and the school closed on the sixth. Again I stopped over in Rochester, leaving there at 6:10 A.M. Made some lantern slides while I was home.
December 20th was Mother’s last day of teaching, and she parted with about forty teachers. The children did not suspect she was leaving, and Mr. Ransom wished he was. Her room in the Ballou house in Stoughton, for times when the Randolph car did not run, could now be given up. At our church I played organ numbers both morning and evening, December 22nd (services 75 and 76 I believe). Rev. Cox had Christmas tableaus at the latter. December 29th-Wore uniform to church and sang in male quartet.
In the evening Bertha and I heard Bonnet at Emmanuel Church, Boston, before time for the sleeper to leave for the west.
… I went home June 25th. The Gypsy Moth caterpillars ate all the leaves off our big oak tree, and were eating everything. Between the grapes I used a hand plow. Rev. Cox asked me to play 15 minute organ recitals at the evening services in July. This drew some from outside the church. At the first one a bird came in, and Judson Marshall snored. Mr. Holden’s wedding was announced. The M. E. (Methodist-Episcopalian) choir and guests had a picnic at Scituate with 19 present. A Mr. Peck took us out in a motor boat to opposite Sea View inside the bar. The boat had stove, sink, bunks and all the fixings. We dined at a Mrs. Webster’s. It was remarked that Ruth Atherton had more than she could manage, and might have to take home her lobster. Bill Kimball said it was the other way about: Ruth’s lobster was taking Ruth home (meaning Al Parent who was going with her). The Farewell Party for Minister Cox is recorded in much detail, on July 25th. Frank Atherton had fallen from a ladder but was at church for Mr. Cox’s last Sunday. The latter gave out in the pulpit that Frank had strained everything but his voice but was going to sing….
YEAR OF 1920. The old Stoughton Concert was in Porter Church, Brockton. Alice Edwards sang. “With Verdure Clad.” Student Sargent interested me in buying an Overland Model 90 car, so I stopped overnight in Rochester to look at the used cars in the Baker and Sargent Garage. One for about $750 had been driven perhaps 3,000 miles by a woman, and was in good shape. In a few days after looking at new Fords and new small Overlands, I decided to buy it and started payments. They would not charge storage until after spring vacation…. There was no test required to own a car in N.Y. State. For $7.76, 3.20 for the car based on value, and 4.56 for license, I obtained the plates in Buffalo. Leaving the Empire State Express at Rochester on March 31st, I delivered them to Sargent. As there was four hours before the train left for Boston, I had a long walk around the city. Pearl Holmes and Mrs. Royce sang solos Easter Sunday, and I met Mr. Bock’s new wife, Mr. Bock being our new minister.
Returning to Rochester April 8th, I met Hudson who was to drive (the) Overland to Niagara, as I had not learned that art yet. It was cold and snowing but the open car had curtains, and we made it in 4 1/2 hours. The car had a floor lever gear shift, a top that could be folded back, spark and gas lever on the steering wheel, and on the steering post a box containing fuse and buttons for lights and ignition. The latter could be locked with a key. The tires took 70 or 75 pounds. It was of good width and would take a trunk between the seats. It was only big in comparison to a Ford, not heavy or clumsy. For a while there were many things to be done such as brakes relined, new battery and the like, but the troubles grew less as time went on. Owners of new cars had some too I found. After one or two driving lessons from “Huddy” I was driving all over the city. Admitting that there were several close calls at blind corners, with brakes that needed attention, I never speeded and there were no clashes. The car proved very handy, not alone for pleasure but to do errands for the school and take boys to ball games. The longest ball game trip was to Albion, some fifty-two miles miles each way.
……Starting home in the auto with the trunk between the seats, I took Hudson to his sister’s place, 271 Huntington Avenue, Buffalo. His mother and sister’s children were there, and I took a snap shot. The car came to a dead stop near Clarence. ‘Phoning for help I had to buy a new coil. Stayed overnight in Geneva with cadet Warren and his folks, then went on taking him to Syracuse for a visit and stopping in Schenectady to look up Jacob Beaver’s home (page 107). He was not there but I met his sister. The
ride down Lebanon Mt. was hair raising on the curves as I don’t think I used the gears for a brake. Perhaps the trunk was all that held Overland down. It being late I slept in the car outside of Pittsfield and was at Clinton Capen’s then in Hinsdale for breakfast. It was the first time I had seen his large two-story house on a hill (more snaps). Bertha was there and rode home with me, but we spent another night with Elwyn in Monson. The whole trip was 543 miles using about 32 gallons of gas. Frank Tracy had moved the dump cart house with the big doors up back of the house near Pine Street for a garage.
Needless to say there were some nice rides though not long ones that summer, and we often took along old people or others that they might enjoy it also. Through the years since then young men under twenty have told me that they envied me for being able to afford a car. I told them not to hurry, I went many places on my two feet and was thirty-three years of age when I bought the first car.
So late was the season, June roses were a month late with us. Mentioning but a few of the summer rides: Scituate and Pegotty Beach on Mother’s birthday, calling on her teacher friend, Miss Beal, of Webster Street, Rockland; to Oakland Street, Sharon to call on Merton Lovell, wife and little girl, Doris, taking Aunt Rebecca Holmes and Hattie Gardner (Aunt olive Gardner had passed away 16 months before), returning by East Foxborough and the Eastons; Church picnic Houghton’s Pond taking several; Hough’s Neck, taking also Mrs. Marshall, Mrs., young Ted and Marjory Smith from the DeLucca place on Pine Street; and to the Chamberlain’s in Norwood, living with Auntie Page, 397 Washington Street (Ellis had died the summer before) but still owning the Neponset Street house. Aunt Emma D. Reynolds and her cousin, Augusta Cartter, were over to our house. Set out a lot of strawberry plants. …
Driving back to school, the plan was to stop at Binghamton to pick up Mr. Reed. Bertha and Mother went with me as far as Springfield and Hinsdale respectively. We called on Elwyn’s wife’s mother, Mrs. Barnes, near Palmer, missed the Jacob’s Ladder turn going to Pittsfield then back to Hinsdale. Next day after minor repairs taking until 10:30, I set forth. Reaching Albany at 1:30, I started into the edge of the Catskills, Altamont, Berne, Cobleskill, through a very nice country between ridges. After Oneonta it became dark, and what with long freight trains at grade crossings and not knowing the road, it seemed I never was going to arrive. Actually it was 1:30 A.M. when I found the house back to the river dike at 304 Front Street. The Reeds must have been delighted to arise and have a feed at that hour, but it was Sunday morning which helped somewhat. Mr. Reed had a sister, Marion, in high school and a brother, James. In the morning he and I went to the M. E. Tabernacle, a theater like church, and in the evening to the Centenary M. E. Church. I had covered 203 miles the day before from Hinsdale. The Binghamton press had a short write up on the visit and auto trip.
Proceeding on Monday I remember coming down an awful hill into Ithaca. We were at Geneva at one.
Meeting Capt. Clark and Kidder we learned where to find Hudson, who after dinner showed us around Hobart College where he was going. Leaving at 2:30 with a short stop at Batavia we reached DeVeaux at 9:45, 229 miles for the day or 601 from home.
Archivists Report
– Liz Fitzpatrick Griffin -Donated a professional quality clothing rack to the clothing department, thus, upgrading from the flimsy home versions that were prone to occasional collapse.
– From the MAY JUN JUL 2021 News Letter (Pg. 6) Newton Talbot comments about two local holidays, the second of which he refers to as “Artillery Day Election Day” on the first Monday in June. This may have been better known locally as “Grenadiers Day” when they held their annual Election, Luncheon and Parade. Schools were closed for this day etc.
– Recently while looking through John Flynn’s “History of Education STOUGHTON MASSACHUSETTS, I ran across the name of Dallas Lore Sharp, who was the Keynote Speaker/ Orator at the dedication of the New Stoughton High School in 1923. Because of my work on a history of the North Stoughton Methodist Episcopal Church, (Not yet finished.) this name jumped off the page and sent me on a search that John Carabatos and Richard Pratt call going down the rabbit hole. What I had known about D. L. Sharp was that as a student at Boston University School of Theology, as an undergraduate he had been assigned to the North Stoughton Methodist Episcopal Church as its Pastor in 1895-96, to complete the year following the departure of Joseph Jackson. (Joseph Jackson had changed schools.) In 1896-97 D. L. Sharp, was assigned to the Porter M. E. Church, Lovell’s Corner, in East Weymouth. That was all I knew.
Discussing this with John Carabatsos, we looked up Dallas Sharp on Google and found a whole lot more. As follows:
DALLAS LORE SHARP (1870-1929) was an American author and university professor, born in the Haleyville section of Commercial Township, in Cumberland County, NJ. He graduated from Brown University in 1895, served as a Methodist Episcopal Minister for four years, and graduated from the Boston Univ. School of Theology in 1899. He married Grace Hastings and the couple had four children, including a son, Waitstill Sharp. He was assistant librarian (1899-1902), assistant professor of English (1902-09), and thereafter Professor at Boston University.
As a writer he became known through his charming magazine articles on native birds and small mammals and for his books which featured illustrations by American wildlife illustrator Robert Bruce Horsfall as well as artist Elizabeth Myers Snagg. (Wikipedia, accessed, May 28, 2021)
By 1923 he had published more than twenty books.
His Son Waitstill Sharp, legacy follows: He and his wife Martha are credited with saving hundreds of Jews from Czechoslovakia and Vichy France during WW II.
An educational curriculum including the Sharps is featured at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The World War II work of the Sharps, including information about the context of their work among other relief workers, is detailed in a book by Susan Elisabeth Subak, called Rescue and Flight, published in 2010.
The documentary film, Defying the Nazis: The Sharps’ War, recounting the experiences of Waitstill and Martha Sharp, was co-directed by Ken Burns and the couple’s grandson, Artemis Joukowsky III, of Sherborn, Massachusetts. (Wikipedia, accessed, May 28, 2021)
– An Album and Class photo of the Stoughton High Class of 1930 was donated by Dorothy Vine, daughter of class member Jacob Goldberg. She is also a niece of Sumner Tapper, who taught at Stoughton High School for many years.
– Dave Lambert brought in several boxes of material donated by Jan Jones of the Stoughton Little theater group. I have worked for several weeks on this sorting, organizing and cataloging programs, audio & video tapes, posters and news articles. Slides and photographs, remain to be catalogued. There are now four cartons of material. Under Cat. No 138.00.
– While trying to date and catalogue a series of photographs taken during the dedication of the current Stoughton Police Station by Hank Herbowy. We uncovered the following dates and places of occupancy: SPD occupied a single room in the basement of the Town Hall from 1888 until 1960 when they moved into their new building at 26 Rose St. Right across the street from the back door to town Hall. At a Town meeting in 1995 funds for replacing that building with a new 17,000 Sq. Ft. building were appropriated. This new building was also located at 26 Rose St. and moved into in April of 1998. During the year and a half required for construction (approx. Nov. 1996 – April 1998) the Police Department operated out of the former National Guard Armory on Pleasant St.
– I have repaired and donated a quilt display rack to the clothing department and purchased a new entrance mat at the front door.
– Denise Peterson and Joanne Callanan have been helping me out with cataloguing on most Thursday evenings. Joanne Callanan purchased two oriental style rugs, which are now at the entrances to the Pierce room and the Clapp room. Joanne is also making complete copies of our cataloguing notebooks.
– Eleanor (Buckley) Terry donated a picture of a Stoughton Women’s Club sponsored Show at the Town Hall from 1930. The photo is of an all-male dance chorus dressed in drag. The only woman in the photo was the show’s director. All of the participants were identified in 1994 by Fred Kelleher.
-Richard Fitzpatrick
Curator’s Report
Our long-term project to inventory the artifacts in our collection continues.
Acquisitions: From Jay Weed: A 37mm Hotchkiss Shell from World War I and a John Glenn for President Button (currently in our display case with many other political campaign buttons); from Janet Clough: a face mask with “Stoughton Reads” “SOLA” printed on it, which was produced for the current Covid-19 pandemic; from John Fernandez: Multiple items, including a Stoughton Civil Defense patch, a 250th Stoughton Anniversary Coin, a Stoughton Auxiliary Police Tie Bar, a half-pound Copper Ingot, and a Coffee Mug from the October 12, 2012 50th Reunion of the Stoughton High School Class of 1962. -Richard Pratt
Clothing Curator’s Report
Soon after the printing of our last Newsletter, we received a quilt made for the celebration of our country’s 275th birthday. It was made by the ladies of the Our Lady of the Rosary Church, which was on Route 27 at the Stoughton/Brockton line. The quilt is red and white bases with 42 hand embroidered squares depicting Stoughton locations. Each square is signed by the woman who made it. The quilt is lovely and is in excellent condition. It was donated by Lynn Howell who is the daughter of one of the creators, Mrs. Rita M. Kearney of Amherst Rd. in Stoughton. We are pleased to be asked to be the caretakers of this very meaningful piece of our history.
John Fernandez has added to our Boy Scout collection with 9 various items of Scouting dress all from the former Troop 57. John also dropped off a Stoughton Civil Defense arm patch and 2 Stoughton baseball style caps with printing of “Knights” and “Stoughton Ath Dept” on them as well as “Stoughton Townie Massachusetts”. Thank you, John, for bringing these “treasures” up from Florida! -Janet Clough
Memberships
New members: Mark Struck, Nancy Munroe, Deborah Powers-lifetime, Kevin and Jane Mooney-lifetime, Ted and Kathryn Zimmerman-lifetime, Carin Weeks-Klipp.