VOLUME XLXI NO. 3 APR-MAY-JUNE 2022
Upcoming Events
June 10, 9:00AM to Noon. Sunflower (and a few other) Plants Sale at Stoughton Historical Society, 6 Park St. Come inside and see our new exhibits. This date depends on the maturation of the sunflower seedlings.
July 4th Parade and Open House at the Historical Society. We plan to have our own float this year.
Over the course of the summer, we will continue to schedule numerous walks to many places of natural and historical significance, including the following, dates yet to be determined:
-Lady Slipper walk at Palisades Circle,
-Walk to the Town Conservation fields and on to Drill Rock, over to a huge glacial boulder, on to the site of a possible C. W Welch hunting stand and returning via “the Beartooth,” a very distinctive large pointed rock near which quarrying has been done.
-A Walk around Muddy Pond, which is a major source of Stoughton’s Water supply.
-Walk at Glen Echo Pond The grounds have been cleared, roads greatly improved, six picnic tables installed with more to come and the large lawn seeded. Some time in July, the Park will re-open to the public with an official ribbon-cutting ceremony somewhere in the mix. The Historical Society will celebrate soon thereafter with an historical tour and a kayak expedition.
-A walk to the old road from Stoughton to Easton via the new trail in to the Morse-Totman Meadow and railroad tracks.
President’s Report
We greatly miss our Harvest and Installation dinners that have been important and enjoyable events each year on our calendar until the onset of Covid. We have not felt comfortable scheduling these events at which we have always enjoyed the close contact and fellowship with those around us. We look forward to the time when we feel that it is safe to resume them.
While we have had no meetings at the Historical Society, we have sponsored two programs via the library with Joe Mokrisky making a presentation on the Fred C. Phillips Company’s more than a century of making screw/metal products and employing hundreds, over the years. He also showed a fascinating short video of a movie taken by Fred Phillips of a parade through Stoughton in the 1940’s. We knew that it had to be 1940’s because it had a float from Rock Manufacturing, which as we mentioned in the last newsletter, did not purchase the French and Ward property until 1939. The Program on the Fire Department suffered a technical glitch that kept it from being zoomed, but the twenty plus of us at the library, including several Stoughton firefighters enjoyed the program, especially the narrated (by Fred Phillips?) video of the fire trucks being moved from underneath Town Hall to the new station on Freeman St. and anther several minutes of the parade for Stoughton’s 200th Anniversary. Thank you to Josh Olshin for his planning and preparations at the Library that made both programs possible. We look forward to doing several walks this summer with the sponsorship of the library.
I have led a series of walks, some of which have resulted in new discoveries, such as the route of the earliest road from Stoughton Center to North Easton or the marking of a new trail down to the Morse-Totman Meadow. The discovery of the old road was an off-shoot of several discussions: one with David Lambert regarding the location of the Joseph Morse, and Morse Jr. households which were established on what has later become known as the Totman property in the mid and late 1700’s, and second, the research on the railroad line between Stoughton and Easton. Dave Foley determined from records he found online that there was a major rebuild of the railroad bed less than fifteen years after the original 1855 construction. The bed was widened and straightened, but also left a few visible portions of the old railroad bed in narrower arcs now completely separate from the current bed in at least two places. He also found deeds from Morses, Marshalls, CW Welch’s estate, Totmans and others that showed not only the location of the railroad bed, but also “the old road” which was later crossed by the railroad tracks. David Lambert recalled that he had seen some of William Capen’s notes on the Morse cellar holes, and I found them in the William Capen files, where they had been consolidated by Karen Dropps. The notes included a diagram he had made in 1930, showing that the cellar holes would have been west of railroad tracks.
By studying Capen’s notes, the deeds, and contiguous stone walls, especially of the Marshall-Fleming land, we determined that the road followed a stone wall heading to the southeast and actually became very apparent for a 50 yard stretch in the woods, heading toward the Roche Bros Plaza, before disappearing into developed land just north of the Easton line. Heading North, the road crossed and passed west of the railroad tracks and appears to be the one currently still in use at Stoughton Fish and Game between their clubhouse, shooting range, and their stocked trout pond. Heading North from the clubhouse the roadway disappears into the fields of the horse farm and other dwellings west of Route 138. At that point, the precise route is difficult to determine, but we believe that it intersected with, or was actually an extension of Morton St., somewhere between Forest Road and the intersection with Route 138. What is described above was the road from Stoughton to North Easton, before the building of the Stoughton Turnpike ca.1810-1813. At the southern (Easton) end, this road crossed to the East side of the current Rt 138, but we cannot yet piece together its probable route, and will defer to Easton historians on the matter.
Thanks to a purchase facilitated by Charlie Starkowsky, the Stoughton Conservation Commission has owned for more than 25 years the southern portion of the Morse-Totman meadow, down to the Easton line and west of the railroad tracks. Up until this time, it has been difficult to access the meadow because Whitman Brook, which drains out of CW Welch Pond flows OVER the one access road from Conservation land and flows south through the middle of the meadow, before flowing under the railroad tracks at an impressive, large stone culvert in Easton. I have had an access trail to the meadow on my mind for some years, but it was not until this spring that Stew Sterling assisted me in blazing a trail down to the meadow from a spot on the Roy Robinson Loop trail. We have added two small bridges to assist hikers in passing over a drainage ditch along the west side of the meadow and a seasonal stream which enters the meadow from the west. A topo map from the 1940’s identifies the meadow as a cranberry bog and shows a series of ditches, some of which still exist. A deed to the Totmans includes some kind of cranberrying machinery, possibly the structure which appears of the topo map, very close to the RR tracks.
On an earlier walk in March, beginning behind the grounds of the former Goddard hospital and heading south, Stew Sterling, Richard Fitzpatrick, Dave Foley, and I set off to try to locate the marker where Norfolk, Bristol and Plymouth counties come together, the towns of Stoughton, Easton, and Brockton. We found some interesting stone bridges, roads/paths and stone walls, as we followed the course of Dorchester Brook, south. Dave Foley recalled his many experiences as a child, exploring these trails not far from Atkinson Avenue and Sumner Gardens. As we progressed South, we ended up in wetland through which we could not progress any further. I returned the next day, and with the help of a gracious land-owner, Duke Monsini, found the marker we had been searching for in the rear of his back yard on the Brockton-Stoughton line on lower Sumner St. The marker was only a few feet tall with minimal inscriptions. To the west of the marker was the virtually impenetrable wetland that we had not been able to navigate.
A new computer and printer have been purchased and installed. Dave Foley is cleaning up and re-organizing the files on the computer and has continued to add material to stoughtonhistory.com. We are still working on our mailing address lists, which explains the different look on the address labels to those of you who receive the NL by mail.
We continue to share many informative and detailed posts regarding Stoughton history on Facebook at “Stoughton, Massachusetts Historical Society,” “The Stoughton Time Machine,” and “Stoughton Massachusetts, Scrapbook-Photos & Memories.” We address many aspects of Stoughton history for which there is not space in the Newsletter, and we usually cover two or three new topics each day.
New member Bill Foley has started a genealogy club, “The Tri-County Genealogy Club,” which met at the Historical Society for its first meeting and has subsequently met at the David Allen Lambert Library in 899 N. Main St. in Brockton.
The grounds of the Society have received a lot of attention and hard work from Rick and Linda Woodward and have never looked better. Our flagpole has been repaired and we are in the process of adding another sign, which lists our website.
Another couple walks evolved from a post that Bob Benson placed on the Lenny Whitten Facebook site, which contained a 1953 aerial map of a half mile square of the land from Plain St. and Morton St., covering several hundred acres of land, including Billy White’s Field, Gilbert’s and Messers’ quarries and a provocative location called “Phantom Brook,” where one could hear, but not see a stream flowing underground. Stew and I were able to locate this site and led two walks to that location in April. Bob Benson was not shown that site by Lennie Whitten, but discovered it with his childhood friends. The site is easily accessed from the Blue trail not far from the Boy Scout bridges. One can descend to the Phantom Brook from that Blue trail location and then ascend to the back of the Bird fields. The trail is now well-marked with ribbons.
One more discovery was a short portion of stoned in roadway, 50 yards north of the Roy Robinson Loop off Palisades Circle. The area contains many roads that Timothy Gay, Jessie Gay, Jefferson Jones and others used to access their land near the Easton line. This particular section of road required considerable labor, but it is not clear what other segments of the known roads it connects to. We had a couple walks in to this location and in total, probably one hundred people attended the series of walks, albeit some of them repeats.
The Stoughton Historical Commission is submitting a new article to study the architectural history and estimate the cost of possible repairs regarding the Town-owned Gay-Hurley-McNamara barn on Conservation land just off West St. Our research on the barn has revealed that the first incarnation of the barn was likely built around 1806, when Jesse Gay inherited this portion of the land from his father, Timothy. It is becoming more apparent to us that the current barn contains an older barn inside it with hand-hewn timbers, still standing, more or less as they were assembled. The Stoughton Conservation Commission is now entertaining proposals from agriculturally oriented companies to put the twenty plus acres of cleared fields behind the barn to constructive use. If the fields are not cultivated or mowed regularly, they will revert to woodland, as several parcels of the Gay-Hurley-McNamara farms have already done. On a recent walk, Ed McNamara recalled that they had their young cattle in those fields all the way over to the Lehan-Comacho house lot. When the Town put in an entrance trail to the Bird St. Conservation Area from (what John Flynn called) Mother Jones corner, Ed moved the fences fifty yards to the south west and the cattle grazed in there until he built the horse farm on the other side of West St. For a decade, he also had a llama, which guarded the cattle from coyotes. In the past few decades, the portion of land no longer grazed by cattle has filled in with gray birch, white pines, catbriar and a variety of other vegetation. It now provides very thick cover for deer, rabbits, woodcock and other wildlife. Last spring, Stew Sterling and I blazed and opened a trail from the Bird St./West St. corner entrance trail over to the historic barn, via these fields, which also are accessed by a trail from the south, which connects both to the purple trail via Drill Rock and the Roy Robinson Loop Trail
New member Mark Struck has developed an interest in Messer’s Quarry, the smaller of the two quarry complexes and the one closest to the Forest Ave. standpipe. It is the quarry with the relatively well-preserved stone structure with a still intact stone lintel over a doorway and the remnants of a tank, most likely from a steam boiler inside it. There are several large metal hooks imbedded in nearby stones, which must have been used to anchor cables in the quarrying operations.
With some assist from Dave Foley, Mark researched the history of the Messer’s Quarry business and in the process, greatly expanded our knowledge of the matter. Messer Brothers bought a number of small parcels inside what is now the Bird St Conservation Area. Some of these locations show signs of small quarrying activity, but none approach the size of the quarry where the stone house is located, or Myron Gilbert’s quarries from which the stone for the train station was taken. As far as we can determine, the Myron Gilbert quarrying operations had ceased before the Messer Brothers operations began. In 1924, Messer Brothers (of Brockton) paid Teddy Connors, who owned and farmed the Bird Farm for many years with his immigrant nephews from Ireland, to run an electric line across his property, ostensibly to power some of their machinery. What we have not yet found is how the Messer plots got sold after they went out of business, sometime in the late 1930’s we think. It is possible that they were taken for non-payment of taxes. The deeds mentioned below should allow future historians to distinguish between the Messer quarries and the Gilbert quarries. The following are excerpts from what Mark Struck found:
1901 Nelson Messer transfers business to his sons Franklin P. and Arthur O. Messer. [article 1]
4/1/1909 Messer Bros. buy 3 properties from Alonzo L Willis.
3/6/1911 Messer Bros. buy @ parcels of land from Henry M. Bird. [deed 1d 1169-478, lot 1 is 10 acres and lot 2 is 8 acres mentions Old Road]
12/26/1911 Messer Bros. buy parcel from Mary E. Farrington. [deed 1e 1200-130 5+acres]
October 1913 Messer Bros. Brockton Board of Health meeting about noise complaints. [article 2]
11/16/1922 entered 6/10/1924 to erect utility poles from Bird St. across Thaddeus J. Connor property to Messer Brothers Stone Quarry (first mention calling this Messer Brothers Stone Quarry) [deed 1f & map1 1602-41]
1922 Contributions to Economic Geology PartII Mineral Fuels. ” Messer Quarry operated by Messer Bros. of Brockton. 1 1/2 miles south of Stoughton center on Washington St. The granite is called “Stoughton”. Product is used for trimmings on Public library & Sampson Building, Brockton; and on Oakes Ames residence, Sharon (Borderland?); receiving tomb Catholic Cemetery, Stoughton.” [Article 3]
1922 Mineral Resources, 1922- part II. Stoughton: Messer Bros. (address Brockton); course-grained gray granite; local building. [article 4]
6/10/1924 Thaddeus J Connor pole crossing to Messer Brothers Quarry recorded at Registry of Deeds. bk1602-41.
6/19/1933 Messer Bros. buy lot from Eli S. Bonnell. Has right of way to Washington St. [deed 1g 1992-259]
11/25/1933 Messer Bros. buy lot from Cerda L. Person. [deed 1h 2010-343]
1/20/1950 This looks like The Estate of Franklin P. Messer. [deed 1i 2886-122,123,124]
During the first week of May, we received a request from Larry Ballenger of Pasadena California to visit the Society and learn more of his ancestors Samuel and John Osgood. His niece had communicated with Howard Hansen in the 1990’s and Howard had sent along information, including the location of Osgood graves in the Pearl St Cemetery. We do not have a folder on the Osgood family, but we found a number of references to them including the fact that the schoolhouse which was built on our site in 1768 was eventually moved to Central St., where it was attached to an Osgood house. In 1768, John Osgood built the house which still stands at 156 Pleasant St. Samuel Osgood and his wife are buried at Pearl St. Cemetery and we found their graves. James Capen’s account books list his construction for coffins for the Samuel Osgood family.
Larry Ballenger’s ancestor, a John Osgood had gone to California for the gold rush and remained there. He served in the Union army in the Civil War. In California the army was fighting Indians and Osgood received a wound which limited him for the rest of his life. Ironically, Alfred Waldo, our Civil War diarist mentions several times a local John Osgood who is also serving in the army.
Janet Clough brought us a treasure trove of photos from the files of the Congregational Church, which included pictures of Erastus Smith and his daughter Amy, with husband Ernie Gilbert, all of whom made contributions to our history that have been covered extensively in past newsletters. Some of the pictures matched ones we already had in the Ivaldi collection, but others were new to us. Also in the collection were newspaper articles and photographs on the return of WWI casualty Fred Larson’s (Larson Road) remains to Stoughton and the ceremony which ensued. Larson was killed in action of October 15, 1918. There is a wonderful picture of a group of young veterans of World War I participation in a procession with a horse-drawn carriage, carrying Larson’s remains to the Evergreen Cemetery. Peter McGarvey, who had survived the War was part of those ceremonies, along with Morton Bird, and Baptiste Maraglia also WWI vets of note. Morton was in the Army Air Force and Forrest Bird’s father. Peter McGarvey went on to become the police chief in Stoughton, and Baptiste Maraglia was the most highly decorated Stoughton man for heroism in action in WWI. One of the articles mentioned that a tree was being planted in Larson’s memory at Scandia Park in Brockton. A commenter on Facebook, Bill Hogan believes that Scandia Park Became The Sons of Italy Park off of Plain St. Brockton. Can anyone help in locating that tree? Many of the pictures we mention here have appeared on our Facebook site and led to fascinating discussions.
While on the topic of WWI, here are several months of Peter McGarvey’s WWI diary, (with the blank dates deleted) as transcribed by Zachary Mandosa. By the time of these entries, the American soldiers are becoming full participants in the war and the casualties follow:
“April 1 Got up at 4 o’clock had mess at 5 left for front at 8 o’clock. Rode all day, got off at M. Son J. Hiked to it. Pulled out in morning for N. Rained all the time. Made fire out of bunks to keep warm.
April 2 Pulled out for B at 8:30. Buily nearly scared us to death before we knew what the whistle of a shell was, made trip in 40m. April 3 B is about 200 yds from MT Sec 1st Squad. Went up to front line trenches and pumped out dugouts. A few shells landed in town. April 4 Moved into dugouts today and loafed all day. Stormy. April 5. Went to trenches before daylight and grint? about six o’clock. Saw an anti aircraft barrage on a Hun plane. April 6 Loafed all day. Huns shelled town around mess time. April 7 8. Shelled town. Wilson was killed, he was sitting in dugout writing diary. Bates and Pines were wounded. Had to stand to at night. April 8 7 Huns got a doughboy by shrapnel. April 9 Stood to all night. April 10 Hindenburg charge? came over at S. and got hell beat out of them. Sergt. Ed Beatty killed, bayoneted in neck. Died at his gun. April 14 Stood to all night. April 26 102 got a bad banging at S. April 30. Stood inspection and ?? today. Sh? was operated on for appendicitis
May 3 Par Bern (Arrows pointing at May 4 and May 5. May 4 Signed Payroll. We are laying Barbed wire between 1 of 8 Snel?? line trenches. Worked on camouflage near Mt. Sic. Went to purug?? on carrying party. May 5 Build a piazza on our dugout just our squad in. Later moved into dump. Had a swell job. Eat, sleep and hang around. John (his brother?) came back to Co. May 8 Orders came to move put packs on wagon. Left B. 9:30 pm arrived in R at 10:30. D. Co. Relieved us. May 21. Worked in supply room. Loading wagons. Left R at 9:30 and pulled into Bern at 12:30. May 22. Put up in a dugout and over lost out on brick of electric lights in dugout. May 23. Moved into another dugout. Just our squad there. May 24. Built piazza on our dugout and a wall. John came back to Company. May 25. Had our first gas attack tonight. May 26. Moved over to dump to work there. May 27. Gas again lasting nearly two hrs. May 28. Fine day nothing to do. May 29 Mine? gas, very slight. May 30 Milh Battalion pulled off raid. Belly Ross went with them? got wounded. I? to a fine night to see the gun flashes at night. May 31 Pat Coyen Jim Shannon killed, Patch, Lynch wounded. Patch badly.
…..June 9 Co got orders for an alert. Moved to trenches near Noyon. Didn’t go with them was at Land dump two miles away………….June 25 Left Berncourt and marched to Miver La-Lour and stayed all night in barracks. June 26 Loafed this morning. Left M La Lour after dinner and hiked to Choloy Sandid around 10 o’clock. Stayed in a barn. June 27 Went out walked and picked some cherries. Saw a number of vineyards. Raid on Joul/Toul? at night. June 28 Out walking today. Looked over a French army bakery. Was picking cherries. Had a letter from home and one from Al S. June 29 Hung around today and had a bath in the river. June 30 Left Choloy and hiked to Pagny Sur Meuse. Loaded wagons and entrained. Had a long ride and saw some wonderful country and sights also the Eiffel Tower of Paris
July 1 On train all day. July 2 Left our ride door pulmans at Miaux. Unloaded wagons and hiked a mile out of town and had ? I was out of luck on it. West shooting planes over our heads. The west hike was? put in. July 3 Pulled into Champagny? this morning at 6 o’clock and slept until dinner. Was swimming in the Marne this afternoon. July 4 Celebrated the day by swimming in the Marne. Wonderful day.
July 5 On guard today. Huns pissed over a few shells at night and the band was panic-stricken.
July 6 Was swimming in the Marne. July 7 Washed clothes this morning. Pulled out at 9 o’clock for front. Relieved 2nd Engs. Slept in holes in the ground. Splinterproofs as they were called.
July 8 Was on guard today to keep the men under cover of the woods.
July 9 Same story as yesterday. July 10 On guard. Shelled our woods. John (brother?) was wounded in right forearm at 8:30 am. MacDonald went to hospital shelling too much for him. Shelling this afternoon.
July 11 On guard. Received five letters from home. Very quiet. July 12 On guard. All quiet on the Potomac. July 13 Shelled woods. Loapen + Wilbur killed. West wounded in eye. July 14 On guard. Shelled us this morning, gassed us at night. July 15 H. Co. 101 Counterattacked and knocked hell out of heinie? (nickname for Huns?) We were standing to. July 16 On guard had a seven hr gas attack at night. 12 hrs at our old place. July 17 On guard. Heard from Owen and Al S. Working on dugout. July 18. Guard. Worked on dugout. Moved forward and open up roads. Slept on hillside near Belleau Woods at night. July 19 Hiked about 10/UC? and were stopped by Col. Stayed in field all day. Marched back to Locern? farms and st.”
This transcription of Peter McGarvey’s Diary obviously needs more editing, but even in this rough form, it gives a sense of McGarvey’s understated manner of describing the jarring combination of boredom, bombardments, gas attacks, combat, and the death of comrades that our soldiers endured. Wilson is killed while writing in his diary, MacDonald goes to the hospital for shell shock, and a Sgt. Ed Beatty is bayoneted at his gun. Pete’s brother John will die before the year is over.
Archivists Report
1918 Diary of Peter McGarvey was donated by Gyneth McGarvey. The diary covers the period of time he was with Co. C 101st Regiment of U. S. Corp. of Engineers in 1918. Dwight was able to purchase two booklets on-line advertising former Stoughton Shoe businesses. Burke-Collins Inc. “Guaranteed Shoes” & Colt-Cromwell Co. Inc. So far that is all we know about them. We have filed a “Chicataubut Club” membership card issued to George O. Wentworth, dated 1903. Jim & Betty Lehan, donated a Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Second Class Fireman’s License # 92678 Dated Oct. 4, 1933. (Boiler Operators License, 2nd. Class “Under Supervision”) It was issued to Jim Lehan’s, Grandfather, Clarence Leonard Lehan. Janet Polillio, donated two copies of the charter, founding the Minerva Lodge No. 1846 of Stoughton. One is in Italian the other in English. They are dated 1938. Their lodge is disbanding.
Dwight and I researched one Martha W. Brooks who was a teacher in the North Stoughton Public School District #8 for several years (1866 – 1872) District #8 was later the Capen School. Turns out that she had two other sisters who also taught in Stoughton schools at about the same time. Rebecca C. Brooks, started in 1866 and was in charge of the primary school in district # 6. (This may be what was later known as the Park School on 116 Seaver St. (This building is currently owned by First United Methodist Church and is the home of the Elsa Marks, Ecumenical Food Pantry.) Harriet A. (Hattie) Brooks, was also assigned to District 6. During the Spring term of 1872 she was earning $36.00 /Month. Fall Term $40.00/Month for 56 Students. Winter term at the Drake Sub. Grammar School. She was again earning $36.00 / Month with 75 Students. All of the above came about due to a request by Keiichi Akaishi, an associate Professor of Nihon University, Japan who is working on publishing a biography of their brother William Penn Brooks, Professor of Sapporo Agricultural College & Massachusetts Agricultural College. He had a great role in modernizing agriculture in Japan. Keiichi, quotes a letter from Martha to her brother when she was a teacher at North Stoughton, saying “I have been Stoughton Centre ever since Friday, with the girls, returned to my place of abode tonight. We have been attending a teachers association held in that place Friday and Saturday, that was the reason for my long visit there.” She had taught at a district school In Situate (their home town) till the winter of 1869. The 1870 census shows that she boarded at the house of Mr. & Mrs. Capen in Stoughton. (not verified.) -Richard Fitzpatrick
Curator’s Report
Curator’s Report – Our long-term project to inventory the artifacts in our collection continues.Acquisitions: From Kenneth Gay: Eighteen (18) Metal Stamps for branding leather shoes. Representing 17 different brands, such as “The Brocktonian”, “Regent”, “Aristocrat” and “Kent & Howard”. From Mark Struck: A 1901 Quarter; 2 iron mason feathers (for rock splitting); and 3 antique bottles including an 8” tall x 3.25” wide amber color medicine bottle market Wyeth & Bro. Philadelphia. (The company was established in the 1860’s as an apothecary and pharmaceutical company and was bought out in 2009.); a clear 7.5” tall x 1.5” cylindrical olive oil bottle with bell bottom heel; and an unmarked amber color 7.5” tall x 2.25” square bottle, possibly used for bitters. From Richard Fitzpatrick: a Victorian Era “Cyclist’s Cup” Collapsible Expanding Metal Cup, in excellent condition. From: Jan Byron and the family of Evelyn Callanan: A miniature Cedar Chest (by Lane), 8.75”L x 4.5”D x 4:H (Presented by New England Furniture Co. to female graduates of Stoughton High School Class of 1948.) Thank you to everyone who donated these artifacts. -Richard Pratt
Clothing Curator’s Report
–Donations: Fire Department shoulder patch, a black silk neck tie and other pieces of uniform from the family of Clyde Holmes. A pair of gold leather heeled sandals worn by Evelyn Callanan at her 1954 wedding donated by her daughter. A First Communion dress donated by Linda Woodward.
It has been quite a while since we changed any of our displays as we have not entertained any of you in an open program. We are very pleased to see many of our members and donors drop in to the Society for information or just to browse. And so it is time to offer you something new and different to look at and learn from, and we warmly invite you to come down to 6 Park Street and see our latest display – “History of Unmentionables.” The display had many helping hands. I am very thankful for the assistance of Dan Mark, Richard Pratt, Denice Petersen, Maureen Wahl, and Roseanne Felago. All of these people stepped in and helped without any hesitation. I want to also thank Roseanne Felago for stepping in and filling the place of Jean DeVito in writing the Thank You notes to donors as well as adding up the total hours in worktime record of our volunteers. In addition, Roseanne has helped me in the Clothing Department when she is caught up with her other tasks. She has been very helpful and does whatever chore we need help with. Thank you. -Janet Clough
We are pleased that we have picked up a number of new members in the last year. Whether you are a new member, or a seasoned veteran, even if you cannot come to the Society every week, but have a sincere interest in the Stoughton Historical Society, we welcome volunteers to join us on Tuesdays from 10:00 to 3:00 or Thursday evenings from 6:00-8:00. We welcome new blood and new ideas!
Memberships
New members: Dave Lurie, Lucinda Tompko, Bill Foley
Monetary Donations
The Minerva Lodge 1846 Daughter of Italy (second substantial donation via Janet Polillio.) Thank you!
`