VOLUME XLXII NO. 2 JAN-FEB-MAR 2023 Upcoming Events
Feb 23*, 6:30 P. M. Stoughton Photography Part II. (Note the change in location from the library to our building, the Lucius Clapp Memorial 6 Park St.) – John Carabatsos, who has worked extensively with historically important photographs will present pictures taken by Stoughton photographers between 1890’s and 1927, with a special focus on George Gerard, whose pictures grace many of the Town Memorial Booklets, including those for Stoughton’s 200th Anniversary in 1926. * The weather report looks ominous and this may have to be canceled and re-scheduled for March 2.
March 19, 2:00 pm. Lucius Clapp Memorial, 6 Park St. Martha Washington: “A Personal Conversation in Mrs. Washington’s Bedchamber” with Sandy Spector, Martha Washington interpreter. Spend time with Mrs. Washington as she completes dressing for her day in this interactive and informative program. During the time together, Mrs. Washington will share news of her family, and how the current events that her husband is so deeply involved in impact her family and her developing nation. If you are interested in clothing, this is the conversation for you!”
April 16, 2:00pm. Lucius Clapp Memorial, 6 Park St. “Glen Echo, Past and Present.” We will share memories and pictures of this beautiful spot which now looks better than ever with the recent improvements. We hope to have representatives of some of the families who ran businesses there over the years, a few pictures from the older days, our memories of childhood adventures there, and yesterday’s new discoveries. President’s Report
On January 22, we had a joint meeting with the Canton and Sharon Historical Societies at which we introduced the restored version of Daniel T. V. Huntoon’s scrapbook Volume 1. George
Comeau recounted the process which led to the restoration of the scrapbook and the creation of digital images of every page, using Community Preservation Act funding from both Canton and Stoughton. David Lambert spoke on the Massachusetts-Ponkapoag Native-Americans and their representation in a conveyance of property to the Town of Dorchester in 1665. Joseph Blansfield spoke on Second Precinct-Stoughtonham-Sharon founding father John Hixson and John Jr., who appear many times in the scrapbook. I concluded the program by discussing entries relating to the school districts in1742 and described how they corresponded to our current three towns. The only school listed for the current Stoughton was held “at or near Isaac Stearns.”
Seeing these ancient school districts inspired me to envision a local history mini-unit for each of our elementary schools. We would supply each with a map of the historically relevant features near them, accompanied by older maps, pictures, and relevant commentary. Now all we have to do is make it happen. Here is a starter, rough outline/draft. Dawe: Glen Echo, Ponkapoag Plantation marker stone,
Elijah Tilden mill site, and “Hansen Forest.” Gibbons: train station, Gilbert quarries, all of Bird St. Woods Pond, Packard Manse, Whispering Willows. Wilkins: train station, Southworth Ct. Pratt’s Ct. Holy Sepulcher Cemetery. South School: Ryan Road, Connie Sullivan’s bog, Atkinson Ave, RR tracks, Line Lumber Road. Hansen: Mill St, Luther Southworth Screw Factory, Southworth Court, Harris and Muddy Ponds , the Water Works, the hill behind them. There can be plenty of cross over, but maybe each school will have one or two that are just theirs.
What we also have to make happen is a gathering together of the many pages that Howard Hansen had begun to prepare for an illustrated book for which he had two possible titles: Stoughton Sampler II or Snippets of Stoughton History. We have received a substantial grant from the Stoughton Cultural Council to cover much of the cost of publication and printing. If you would like to be part of this labor-intensive, but ultimately rewarding process, please let us know.
Recently, we were thrilled to receive an email from Win Southworth, headed “something marvelous happened today!” informing us that he had discovered in one of his storage boxes, and would be glad to send us, ten small green bank passbooks in which 17-year-old Stoughton Civil War soldier Charles Eaton had entered daily entries in pencil! Young Eaton would survive his nine-month (it turned out to be eleven months) tour of duty, but came home extremely ill with chronic diarrhea, fever etc. and he died in Stoughton, five months after his return, barely eighteen years of age!
More than a decade ago, Win Southworth had let us copy a copy of this diary, which we have since published and had available for purchase at the Society. As I recall, Win acknowledged that he had spoken with someone else, who recalled there being more to the diary, especially the final pages when Eaton was being held captive inside Port Hudson, as his comrades outside the fortress bombarded them every day, and the Confederate soldiers and Union prisoners inside were being starved out. Therefore, we awaited with great anticipation the arrival of these passbooks.
My first quick scan of the dates of the entries revealed that they began a few days before our current account, but ended several months earlier, thereby, alas, removing the possibility that we would learn more about his captivity. However, these diaries did fill in a two-week period from January 15, 1863 to January 30th, where there had been a gap in the earlier diary. These two weeks cover the ocean journey on the side-paddle steamer The Empire City, which carried the 4th Massachusetts and several other regiments from New York City to New Orleans.
Eaton’s account describes the windy conditions, which caused extensive sea-sickness among the men, including Eaton and induced one corporal to vomit overboard, losing his $13 false teeth in the process. One evening, a few days into the trip, the cooks were too ill to cook supper, so Eaton and a man from a Maine regiment volunteered to help. They managed, after considerable difficulty to cook a rough meal
using steam from the ship’s boiler, as the boat was pitching and heaving so much that cooking with pans on a stove, was impossible!
Reading these little books made it clear that they were the originals and that the account we previously had copied was a re-written, slightly edited, and more legible version. The re-writing may have been done by Eaton himself, possibly with assistance from his mother. He did not have long to do the re-writing as he died after the aforementioned five months after his return to Stoughton. One can imagine the gravely-ill Eaton rewriting his diaries as one of his final acts. It is also possible that the account we saw was a separate journal account that he sent home to “Ellen.” David Lambert’s research revealed that she was Eaton’s younger sister, who later married Massena Ballou Southworth, which explains the Southworth connection. Excerpts from the newly acquired sections will appear later in the Newsletter.
Many thanks to Win Southworth for thinking of us when he found these precious little volumes!
David Lambert recently gave us a chapter reproduced from a book, The Eastons: Five Generations of Human Rights Activism, 1748-1935 by Charles Price. The chapter is compelling because it describes James Easton, a local (North Bridgewater, later Brockton) African-American business-owner in the late 1700’s and his connection to Quok Martrick, whom we have mentioned several times in relation to the multi-racial community Campbell’s Station, just East of the current Page St.
Several of us were sufficiently fascinated by the chapter, that David brought a complete copy of the book, which also had a signed note from the author, thanking David for his help with local background. I later purchased a copy from Google Books and include a teaser from Chapter I below: The Origins of the Easton Family and their Activist Tradition
In 1789, when James and Sarah Easton led the first known sit-in protest against racial segregation in history, they were compelled in part by a long series of personal and ancestral struggles against English colonialism and American racism. The historical context that led to their struggle against racial segregation in two churches (which is detailed in the next chapter) is illuminated here in this first chapter. The Easton family was formed by a convergence of people from diverse ethnic, tribal, and national origins during the late 17th century, at a time in English colonial history when racial concepts and categories were still nascent and divisions between social elites and commoners were often more clearly-defined and consequential than “race.” From its inception, members of this family defied racial definitions as consistently as they defied racism, slavery, and social injustice. The family began with the blending of people of African and Native American descent who were the “servants” of Rhode Island Quakers, and eventually included people of European ancestry as well. The social and historical context which moved such diverse peoples to join together into families and communities and engage in resistance against their common oppressors is essential to the unveiling of the Easton family saga. The Easton family’s long tradition of active opposition to social injustice began while they were part of the mixed Wampanoag and Massachusset Indian community of Titticut in the mid-18th century, as they fought to keep their remaining lands from being confiscated by local English colonists. Their activism increased after the American Revolution, when veterans of that war who were family members, along with other veterans of color in their community, were denied the equal rights for which they had fought and suffered. Several Easton family members in the next two generations became abolitionists, three of them being instrumental in the early stages of the movement during the late 1820s, and one also becoming a leader in the movement to integrate Boston’s public schools during the 1840s and `50s. Two Eastons went west to California during the Gold Rush and were involved in the struggle against racial discrimination there. Another became a teacher in the post-Re-construction era South, and later a published author and political activist in Texas and California.
For five generations, over a span of nearly 200 years, a tradition of active resistance to oppression and social injustice was carried on by at least some Easton family members in each one of those generations.
The writings of some of the later Easton activists clearly show that they were conscious of the legacy of the earlier Eastons who went before them. … The roots of the Easton family’s remarkable tradition of consistent opposition to injustice can be found and better understood through an examination of the diverse circumstances and influences present in the southeastern Massachusetts colonial era communities in which the Eastons first lived. The history of relations between people of African and Native American descent in this region is especially pertinent to understanding the Easton family, for it was through the joining of such people that the roots of this family germinated. The common struggles of both groups, as they sought to fully live or just simply survive under the op pressive reach of a society intent on dehumanizing and dispossessing them, provided fertile ground for the seedbed of Easton family activism.” It is fascinating to read of the struggles between the Easton family and the 4th Parish Congregationalist Church of North Bridgewater and later, the East Stoughton Baptist Church of what is now Avon, regarding where they could sit in the church: “Sometime after the third seating protest in 1804, the Easton family left the Congregational Church again, and joined “the Baptist Church at Stoughton Corner.” The East Stoughton Baptist Church records state that James and Sarah Easton became members of that church again on August 2, 1807. It was during this tenure at the Baptist Church, in the year 1812, that the protests there which William Nell described in Colored Patriots occurred. This church had initiated a segregated seating policy in August of 1800, and it appears that the Eastons sat in the section reserved for “Black people” for at least five years before purchasing their pew in the whites only section of the church, which was probably how long they had to wait until a pew became available from a church member willing to sell to them. Two very noteworthy facts found in Nell’s account of the protests at the East Stoughton Baptist Church suggest that the Euro American members of that church were not unanimous in the disdain for integrated seating and racial equality among the believers in Christ. Again, the fact that the Eastons were able to purchase a pew in the “white” seating area reveals that at least the person who sold them the pew was not opposed to treating the Eastons on an equal basis with the “whites.” Secondly, the fact that the offended church members did not succeed in, as Nell puts it, “their attempt to have the bargain cancelled,” suggests that there may have even been a majority, within the church hierarchy as well as among the general membership, in support of or in sympathy with the Easton’s cause. Of course, there could be other reasons, and it could just mean that they were uncertain about how to proceed with enforcing a policy that might not stand up to the tenets of their faith, if seriously challenged. Since Stoughton adjoined North Bridgewater and the Eastons lived just a few miles from the Stoughton Baptist Church, it is certain that the people of this church had heard about the Eastons’ protests at the 4th Congregational Church, and knew of James’ reputation as a man who was able and willing to put forth substantial opposition to injustice.”
There are many more pages of fascinating reading for $12 online with GoogleBooks. Here is the new section of the Charles Eaton Diary after one transcription: Jan 15 Thurs. On board the steamship Empire City…. (This is where the narrative stops in our first version.) We were marched down the Earth/Castle Card? and went on board a tug boats Lefts? Talbot in the city looking for a wash woman that had his shirt. The tug brought us on board this vessel. It was and is awful foggy and the tug like to speak 3 or 4 vessels before they found this but they found this which put us on board. We found it pretty well filled with soldiers. There is not as much room as there was on the tugboat, but there is better air. Talbot has just swong? on board. I slept in the long boats last night (it) gets a little wet from the rain but slept fairly well.. The 28th Maine are on this vessel (put that in the to Ellen journal) (Eds. Note: here is where we learn that he is sending another account to his younger sister Ellen.) The boys cursed a good deal when we go to get our meals. Got a good bun today. Raining. Jan 16 Friday. Raining and a little foggy. There is a right bad south east storm. Cleared off about noon but rather rough and a few clouds. I think we shall sail be…a good while. Wrote to mother and yesterday? to the major/megger to carry ashore.
Jan 17 Sat. Lift anchor and started at 6 Bells or 7 ½ oclock A. M. We started with only steam on but after the pilot left us at about 9 oclock the sails were sheeted some and we went along at a good rate for Dixie land. We go very easy with the steamer retering? a little from the swell this is on. There is another
steamer close in shore that started with the 49 Mass. right this morning. We are leaving her astern. It is amffu…wild? Today and quite cloudy.
Jan 18 Sunday Went on deck at 4 bells this morning and could not see land. It is eight bells and cape Charles is on our beam and a man in the for doing with the lead soundings reporting no bottom at 7 fathoms and again half six, quarter six &c. I was told it was an awful shallow place off cape Charles and the sounding proved it. At ten oclock cape Henry was on our starboard bow but soon the vessel is brought rite so that it is on our labbord bow and after a while it is on our beam and its noon. We are here at anchor a little ways from fortress Munroe. A man came off from the fortress and from him we learned that it took the Peabody a week to come here from N. Y. and they were all sick, caused by the ship rolling so
Jan 19 Mon At seven bells this morning we got under way and started out of the harbor. On the way out saw two “porposes” playing in the water. When most nigh to the light, saw the steamer Racer with a Regt. of Mass. boys and ci folthing? Sights. They started from N.Y. at the same time with us. When we lost sight of them coming and they were hugging the shore. The Racer is a screw steamer and ours (the Empire City) a side-wheeler showing the reason we can go so much quicker than they did. We swan past cape Henry and with fair weather we are going along with good speed. About eleven oclock I went to the rail and vomited. I did not feel sick but felt as if there was wind in my stomach, but instead of wind it proved to be a hankering to feed the fishes which I did. The wind is increasing. Looks as if we are going to have a blow. but I see that the ship’s officer is keeping sail on and so from that I think all is well. At half past six Hateras lights in sight. There is quite a swell caused by its being shallow water I am told. Jan 20th. Tues. We had a good time around Hateras. No blow as.I expected. This morning the wind is blowing quite fresh, a good many are seasick. Last night the cooks all being sick to work, Elli Wentworth, a Maine boy, and myself volunteered to do the work if they would place a cook over us as a “boss” but no cook could be found, so we had to do without. We had to cook with steam and none of us knew how. Wentworth had cooked before but not with steam but by a little Yankee guessing, we turned out some good stewed beans and some meat. The wind is blowing hard, making the vessel rock, so that is why it is hard work to stand on our feet. I fell onto the deck once. What makes a bad matter worse is the fact that it is raining quite hard. I have had a good deal to see two fellows roll around the decks (with the motion of the vessel half a dozen times. The wind blew so hard that it burst out the bolt rope of the jib. We are in the trough of the sea so the we roll a great deal. I suppose that some of the waves roll fifteen feet high. This is quite a blow.
Jan 21st Wednes. It still continues blowing although the rain has stopped. It was awful close between decks last night that with the vessel rolling so made it a sleepless night for a great many but not for me. I believe I can sleep anywhere if I can keep warm and dry. There was a wind sail rigged in the fore and only hatch today but the wind tore it from the fastenings so that it was taken down. The sailors were stretching the sea-air? sheet today and they had to take it in. The stay sail was set and a gust of wind tore away the fasteners and tore the sail clear up to the stay before the sailors could get it furled. No more mischief from the wind today, as is lulling fast now. The vessel course has been changed so that we are standing in for land. The captain says we are 160 (written above the line) one hundred fifty miles from land. Had some gruel for supper. It tasted nice, but I missed the milk that I always get in it when up home. It went so good that I got two different fills of it.
Jan 22 Thursday. Pleasant this morning. Running about south. I slept in the engine room part of the night. The boys are all about well except seargt.R Taylor who has got the joy furied> cruets? whjch you find everything wrong fever. (“Dr Ellen” above line.) She sent us to mending the sails which were torn in the storm. I saw some flying fish today; they looked awful small. We went through a school of “porposes” this afternoon. One of them had his fin cut off. That looked as if the knife had been in the hand of some
man. Broke the topsail boom this afternoon. It was all done through carelessness. The soldiers and sailors were filling it up and the braces were tight as they could be. Someone went to loose them but were not quick enough for those that were pulling gave one more pull and snapped it in two. It is cloudy, looks like a storm
Jan 23d Friday. It was four months today that I have been in the United States service. The coast of Florida is in plain sight. To look at the coast it looks like summer. I should think that we are not more than two miles from shore. I should like to go ashore here for a few days. Saw some curious looking birds this morning. One was called “pelikin” that carry fish in a bag under their bills. And the other the sailors called “marlinfishes”. The last named are black birds with long slender wings. long bills, and very shiny long tails that look like a darning needle. We have not seen land (before today) for three days. Corporal Freeman was so sick that he vomited up his teeth. He had six fals teeth and was eating his rations when he wanted to vomit. He went to the rail and gave a throw and his teeth being loose went over the events? They cost him thirteen dollars. There is a sail in sight which the boys call the Sherburner? as they have every vessel we have seen since we left New York. It would be an easy job to take us as we are unarmed with no convoy. Just saw two black fish. Could see that they are quite large with long fins. Jan 24th Satur. Pleasant morning. I should judge our course to be about west-north-west when ten oclock this forenoon it looked like quite a city in the distance we were from it. Back some weeks ago from today we left “Camp Hooker”. I thought at that time we should be at New Orleans before this time. Yesterday I paid a quarter of a dollar for a dried apple but I could not help thinking how much better my mother’s pie tasted. When we passed Key West today I could see Fort Taylor quite plain. It looked old and small.
Jan 25 Sunday. The ship captain kept one of the mates in the rigging looking for Tortugas lights until past eleven oclock and then he did not see nb/any. We ought to have made it by six oclock. I am on guard today over the cabin to keep the soldiers from going aft. There was a prayer meeting held on the “hurricane” deck this forenoon. Capt Morse led the meeting. There is no chaplain on board. This is a very pleasant day. Another meeting this afternoon. Elijah was about all the talking and talks well. This forenoon he read from the fifteenth chapter St. Luke. He gave it out as the 26th. Had a 3rd meeting this evening. This is the best Sunday I have passed since I left home.
Jan 26th Mon. Releived from guard this morning. I was dismissed ab 9 oclock last night until 8 ½ this morning so that I slept all night. One of the boys told me that when the captain took the sun yesterday, he found himself 70 miles further south than he ought to be. That’s the reason he could not see Tortugas lights. The captain expects to make the mouth of the river about 4 oclock this P.M. A fine rain is falling this afternoon. It is about 7 oclock and we are off the mouth of the river. We’re sailing in a circle and shall continue doing so until morning when we shall run in.
Jan 27. Tues We are standing in towards the mouth of the river with a pilots signal at the mast head. A pilot came on board and piloted us over the bar. It was an awful crowded channel. At the mouth of the southwest ? there are a lot of islands composed of mud which has been washed down the river. I suppose
that the bar is composed of the same. I saw a brig aground (on the) bar. When we got into the river we were stopped by gunboats and the papers examined. They proved to be all right and we were permitted to go along. One of the gunboats was a side wheel steamer ironclad. It looked as if it would do some work. The banks of the river are nearly as low as the water and are covered by tall grass. Further up the river we came upon forts Jackson & Philip. Fort J. is not very large, has a moat around it and brick casements. Fort Philip is nothing but a breastwork thrown up with a few guns mounted. We could see where the balls plowed up the ground and knocked holes in the back casements of Ft. Jackson. I should think they would not be very hard to capture. Saw negro huts on the banks and also a hut where a family of four whites lived. The negroes had the best huts. The next thing of interest was the quarantine where the U. S. Marine hospitals are. The sick boys of the 28th Me. were sent ashore there. I can see plenty of orange trees but no oranges on the banks of the river. I heard of drinking the muddy water of the Mississippi and have tried it and found it good. It is nearly as cold here as it was in NY when I left. Jan 28th Wednes. We are at anchor off New Orleans. The river here runs north, the city being on the west side of it. There is a good deal of shipping here, the most of it in the service of Uncle Sam. I suppose there are some prizes here taken by the blockading fleet. One prize that in this morning (a steamship) had her bowsprit carried away for? the U. S. mail steamer. Cannot see much of New Orleans from here. It looks like quite a city. Algiers? Look quite and pretty. Binghts? is pie that was brought along side in a
boat. I paid only seven cents. Quite a difference between that and 25 cents I paid for one on board this craft. Chal? Fuller died tonight about half past seven oclock. The poor fellow worried himself to death. Jan 29 Thurs. Wrote to mother yesterday. I sent it this morning. Somewhat warmer today than it was yesterday. I have seen some horses/houses too. I wrote to Ellen and Inez.(his sisters). This noon weighed anchor and came down the river three miles Going into camp the 128th N Y Regt is here. I saw some of the U.S. Service riding out in a handsome silver mourater? carriage. No wonder the war last so long as officers are taking so much ease and getting so much pay. I (This is where the narrative resumes in our earlier version) saw plenty of orange trees with the fruits on them and eat some of the oranges. They were bitter and sour. I don’t suppose they are good for a person to eat….” (Our rewritten version:” I don’t think they can be healthy.”
Around the Lucius Clapp Memorial. Joan Bryant has been a great help in cleaning out and reorganizing the office. Our flagpole cable has been repaired, but still awaits the clamps needed to hold the flag. With some effort, we brought upstairs two display cases that we had stored in the basement and placed them in the Clapp Room in order to make space for four large map-drawer cabinets that we will be receiving from the Engineering Dept at Town Hall. Richard Fitzpatrick spent a couple hours cleaning the cabinets and they are now ready to have displays placed in them. Stew Sterling has taken on the task of checking and re-cataloguing as needed, ancient books in Cabinet #85. Zachary Mandosa has continued summarizing and transcribing notes from the logs of Stoughton Fish and Game. Dave Foley has made a breakthrough in our address label printing efficiency and continues to work on our computer files and website. Dan Mark has read hundreds of old Stoughton newspapers and regularly passes on things of interest and value. John Carabatsos posts many pictures and “cleans up” any photographs of which we need better copies. David Lambert has (re)discovered fascinating ancient documents to photograph, including a dozen pages of births, marriages, and deaths in the handwriting of Stoughton’s (the Third Precinct’s) first minister Jedediah Adams. Almost every other piece of his writing was purposefully destroyed by him, possibly because of circumstances surrounding the end of his tenure and his severance-retirement settlements. Don Naja, a long-time Stoughton resident, now living in Clearwater Florida visited on a Sunday and shared many memories including his time working at Corcoran’s, Dino Buick, and Town Spa.
Walks: Stew Sterling, Dave Foley, and I have made substantial progress in discovering the location of Connie Sullivan’s bog (no sign of the Great Tree yet) the re-routing of Dorchester Brook at the east end of Atkinson Ave., and a passable trail from the west end of Atkinson Avenue through to Ryan Road. We
are working on finding our way in to the Ponkapoag Plantation Marker near Glen Echo and the actual site of the old road to Easton, as it runs through Stoughton F&G land. Dan Mark, David Martin, and Richard Fitzpatrick came on some of the walks.
Archivists Report
Debbie Grant donated two programs from the class of 1990. 1. National Honor Society Induction Ceremony, dated 2/5/1990 and 2. A Stoughton High School Class Night Program, dated May 30, 1990. Both are filled with class of 1990 under # 300.1990 A business card for Michael L. Pazyra, Veterans Agent for Town of Stoughton. Found among other donations. A New York, New Haven, and Hartford Ticket booklet, dated April 1. 1897, and a ticket booklet dated June 1, 1897, both issued to Mr. W. P. Tilden. For passage between Boston and Stoughton. Both partly used and expired. To be filed in the transportation file. Denise Peterson donated an Album from the Tintype Era (Mostly Unidentified) Two photos are identified as Brene Randall & Winnie or Winnit Randall. Both are 4 years old. The album measures 5 X 5 X 3 inches. Terry McLaughlin of Stoughton, brought in on behalf of the Patrice McLaughlin family, various items related to Stoughton Grenadiers Uniforms. Including assorted documents and memorabilia. All items are from the 250th Anniversary/ 1976 era. Daniel O’Meara of Stoughton, also donated his father’s Grenadier uniform. I will be bringing this with me on Tuesday Feb 14, 23. None of the above two items have been catalogued. Beverly A. (Tate) Costa of Assonet, MA, Granddaughter of Fred Tate (Late of Brockton who grew up in Stoughton and served in the Spanish
American War) has a painting he did of the “Battleship Indiana” on which he served. Paperwork includes his citizenship, birth, marriage, residency, social security card, photograph, naval acceptance and discharge., several medals and a swimming achievement from Glen Echo. A newspaper article tells of his coming from England, residence here, family members, burial place, etc. These items were delivered to us by the Gallagher family of Leominster. Bernard Gallagher grew upon Page St. where his family had a chicken farm. His wife is the daughter of Beverly Tate. Ralph Polillio, of Stoughton donated three postcards, different views, of Stoughton Square. Kenneth Gay of Stoughton donated a framed map of Stoughton in 1875. Kenneth A. Beauregard , now of Avon, donated a 1977 Massachusetts High School Drama Group Regionals – Crew name tag – Stoughton High Drama Club. Graduation/Commencement Exercises Program. Stoughton Public Library Card, c. 1960’s 1970’S time period. A Blue Hill Drive-in 1979 season-courtesy-discount pass. A Canton and Blue Hill Bus Line, ticket, Canton to Mattapan, c. 1979. and a 1979, 36th reunion, name tag. -Richard Fitzpatrick
Curator’s Report
A few years ago, the Town of Stoughton donated 258 land plans of developments and individual properties drawn up primarily from 1900 to the late 1950s. Several plans were drawn up in the 1800s. Most of the plans were done by Walter G. Pratt. While the plans were already numbered 1 to 258, we had no index to use in order to find a particular plan. Over the past few months, I went through the plans and, using the pre-assigned numbers, entered the information for each plan into an Excel spreadsheet. The plans are now indexed by Plan Number, Plan Date, Property Owner, and Street or Development. Acquisitions: From Beverly A. (Tate) Costa via Marelyn Gallagher: Several artifacts relating to the Spanish American War that were owned by her grandfather, Fred Tate. In addition to the items mentioned in the Archivist’s report, we received the following items: a 37mm anti-aircraft shell, circa 1898, from the USS Indiana; a 57mm shell, with the casing and a wooden holder, from the Spanish Cruiser Admiral Oquendo; 3 Medals from the Spanish American War; a copper-colored aluminum Grave Marker for Spanish War Veterans 1898-1902; a “100 yd. Championship Swam Medal” from Glen Echo. From Jay Weed: a World War I Model 1907M brass Scoville 21-second “Fuze” timing device. From Kenneth Beauregard: a McGovern 1972 Presidential Campaign Button. Please Note: All explosive devises had been previously defused! A red, pennant/banner from the Town’s 200th Anniversary, purchased on Ebay. Thank you to everyone who donated these artifacts. -Richard Pratt Clothing Curator’s Report
We are more than half way through the 24 boxes of collected clothing stored in our building. We have been able to re-organize the boxes, move items that had been mis-filed, labeled most of the boxes with the name of the type of clothing in each box, set aside items needing repair and changing locations of many items. Many items have been relabeled but many more need to be done. Denise Peterson has helped in sorting and separating. If you have an interest in any part of this program, please let us know. All hands and heads are welcome. -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 with their fresh ideas to join us on any Tuesday from 10:00 to 3:00 or a Thursday evening from 6:00-8:00.
Memberships
New members: William Murphy (re-joining after a hiatus,) Stephen Merrill, Paul McShane, Bill Conopka-Lifetime, Stew and Diane Sterling Lifetime, Bernard Gallagher, Peter Jay, Ken Beauregard, Jack Morrisey.
