VOLUME XLXIII NO. 2 JAN-FEB-MAR – 2024 Upcoming Events
February is Black History Month and we have new exhibits to honor African Americans in Stoughton’s History. More information later in this Newsletter. February 18, – Reminiscences of A Stoughton Historical Sampler and the year 1995, when the Sampler was published on the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the Stoughton Historical Society. We will celebrate our re-publication of this Stoughton classic, (which really is a great creation of Howard Hansen’s) and share our memories of many things in 1995, including Stoughton businesses and schools. What was beginning or ending in Stoughton in that year? How did we use the telephone, listen to music, watch television or use computers? Windows 95 came out. The Oklahoma City bombing took place. We will try to mix discussions of Howard’s terrific historical sketches in A Sampler with our own recollections of life in 1995. 2:00-3:30pm Lucius Clapp Memorial, 6 Park St. Light refreshments.
Friday, March 15, 2024 at 9:00AM, Stoughton Hall of Fame: Stoughton High School Stoughton High School graduates who have “achieved notable success in their chosen profession either from a singular extraordinary accomplishment or a career of exceptional achievement” are being honored. Please join us at Stoughton High School to celebrate and acknowledge the 2020 Hall of Fame recipients: Honorable David J. Breen – Class of 1982, Erin K. Flaherty, Ph.D. – Class of 2008 March 17, (Estimated date) A Brief History of Stoughton Fish and Game, now the C. W. Welch Memorial Fish and Game and Boy Scout Troop 516. We have been looking at the records from this outdoor organization for more than a year and will share some of the things that we have learned about the organization and the related Boy Scout troop. Here are a few excerpts: The 4/30/56 records of SF&G show that 1,000 evergreens were planted, apparently by Roy Robinson and others. RR crossing was to be moved 300 feet to the north, 43 new wood duck boxes were put up, 500 balsam firs were planted. 350 did well. Intend to plant 1000 evergreens this year, 50 ash, and 50 bittersweet. Mr Totman spoke of the excessive speed of many cars coming under the railroad underpass. (The underpass was probably still being used in November because Bill Totman is asking when the crossing will be done.) 8/6/56. The dam has been repaired, to be hot-topped later. Some of the presentation will also cover the history of the land in that area, including the “rediscovered” old road to Easton, the Morse, Marshall, McCue, and Totman farms, the original C. W. Welch property and the construction of various railroad track beds and crossings. 2:00-3:30pm Lucius Clapp Memorial, 6 Park St. Light refreshments. Saturday, March 30, Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Stoughton Public Library. Town Historian and Trustee of the Library, David Lambert will present a brief lecture on the history of the Library. 2:30pm. Light refreshments
April 21, (Estimated date) The History of the South Elementary School. Students began classes at a not-yet-completed South School in October of 1958. The land surrounding the school has a recorded history dating back to the Dorchester Cedar Swamp, which drew folks out here, long before there were any dwellings in the current Town of Stoughton. A new elementary school will be built during the next several years. This program will highlight and celebrate the South Elementary School’s more than six decades of educating the young people of this section of Stoughton. 2:00 pm, Lucius Clapp Memorial, 6 Park St., Light Refreshments.
President’s Report.
In November, Kevin Weldon of SMAC completed his video of the Stoughton Rail Road Station, which included commentary from Joe Mokrisky and your President. I hope that we managed to sound reasonably articulate on the matter and Kevin did a great job of editing and adding special effects. We have received many compliments on the video.
We were open on the evening of Dec. 9 and had a good number of visitors before and after The Holiday Parade. We had another Holiday event on the evening of Dec. 16, at the Railroad Station at which we had an exhibit table which drew many attendees at the Christmas Carol singing event, organized by David Lurie and the Stoughton Little Theater. We were all celebrating the occasion of there being electricity and heat restored to the station!! Stew Sterling and Dave Foley provided invaluable assistance in taking our items to the station, helping set them up, and/or bringing them back. On December 17th, we had an event at the Society which Santa Claus attended and several young people showed up with their parents or care-takers to meet Santa (thank you George Batte) and create Christmas ornaments. Joan Bryant, grand-daughter Sarah Spencer, Dan Mark, Joanne Callanan, Denise Peterson, and were instrumental in planning and supervising this event. Some time since the last Newsletter, we received word that in order to make the program handicap-accessible we should present our “Tour” of the History of Stoughton’s Indigenous People and African-American at Town Hall. Fortunately, Stoughton Selectperson Debrah Roberts arranged for Facilities Manager Arthur Coelho and several members of the DPW to provide the transport of map panels, books, artifacts, and the Sumner desk to Town Hall. In the evening of January 11, we presented our program to approximately forty people and enjoyed delicious refreshments. More details of this program will appear later in this newsletter, and a video is available from SMAC, whom we thank for recording the event.
In December with the help of Barry Kassler, the Administrative Assistant of the Community Preservation Committee, Dave Foley, our webmaster, and the Stoughton Public Library, we succeeded in getting our Huntoon-Ancient Document files posted on the Stoughton Public Library site, where you may now access them online. As with the Indexed Newspaper files, one clicks “Learn” on the Library Home page and immediately will see the option for “Stoughton History.” Clicking on that will get one to “Stoughton Historical Documents.” Please check them out and let us know what you think. This posting is the culmination of a four-year process of collaboration with the Canton Historical Society and the CPC’s of both communities, which included the material restoration of this Volume of the Huntoon Scrapbooks, which includes documents from the 1600’s up to 1796, when, the period in which Canton was still part of Stoughton.
We have had several history-related walks since the last newsletter, the last of which led to some exciting discoveries! We had one walk in to Goat/Boat Rock, the mossy camp site, the Beartooth/William Rock, and the new boardwalks and stream crossings. We had two walks from the Roche Bros. Plaza Signature Health parking area (on Sundays) to explore the railroad track bed in both directions, including a large glacial boulder and the old road from Stoughton to Easton in our northerly jaunt and the
culverts, trestles, and traces of the1855 railroad bed in the southerly foray. New life member Bill Murphy attended the last walk and told us that the extension of the old road that we had seen on our previous walk, actually ran through his property at the Great Scott Kennels. It took a while for the likelihood for that to be new information to sink in for me, but Stew Sterling visited the site the same day as the walk, and we both went to visit on the next day. Sure enough, there is a 30-40 yard run of stone wall that sits at the proper angle to be the extension of the road, whose other visible section is up near the big rock. Mr Murphy had been told by Bill Totman and his wife, who knew even more of the history, not to disturb the land there, because it was the old stagecoach road from Easton (and parts even further south?) to Stoughton. This adds to our knowledge about where the road intersected the current Rt. 138, which when it was first built as a turnpike in the first decade of 1800’s, made this old road an anachronism, although it may well have served as a “shun-pike” for those who wished to avoid paying the tolls. A couple weeks earlier, we had learned from Ed White, that one of his ancestors, Adonijah White had run the stagecoach line up to Stoughton from the south.
There are petty “crimes” such as avoiding tolls, and then there are big ones. According to Bill Murphy, Specs O’Keefe was living at their location at the time of the Brinks robbery and he was questioned by a Murphy as to why there were so many pieces of auto parts cluttering up the two-bay garage. The parts were removed, one suspects to the dump on West Street in Stoughton, where the parts of the cut-up Brinks truck were eventually found. Some inquiring minds believed that the truck had not been cut up at the dump. Quite possibly, it was cut up in the Murphy garage. If so, that “fact” might qualify Howard Hansen’s tale of delivering the newspaper that had the Brinks headline on it to the O’Keefe household on Glen Echo Boulevard. Howard, in retrospect “sensed” that Specs was lurking just out of site, but then, he may have been down at the Murphy garage, wielding an acetylene torch.
During the end of November and much of December, I worked on getting Howard Hansen’s A Stoughton Historical Sampler 1895-1995 ready for re-publication. I retrieved scores of emails that Howard had sent over the years and used several of them in the new introduction, which consists of commentary from David Lambert and myself and three new articles, “Vignettes of Factory Village in West Stoughton,” “How Stoughton Became Canton,” and “Why Should not Women be Lawyers?” The first two were written by Howard and the third by Anne Cora Southworth. Joan Bryant assisted greatly in the editing and composing. Unfortunately, the printer could not get the book back to us in time for Christmas, but it is now available: $15 for a member’s first copy, $20 for non- members and subsequent purchases. Add $5 for shipping and handling if you would like your copy(ies) mailed to you. See form on the last page. Significant funding from the Stoughton Cultural Council paid for much of the printing costs.
Here are the two contributions that David Lambert and I made to the Introduction of the Expanded Sampler:
Howard Hansen: Man of Stoughton
Over the first seventy years of his life, Howard Hansen contributed as much, if not more than any other man or woman to the study of the history of the Town of Stoughton. Serious health issues have robbed Howard of the ability to continue that work to a later age, but those of us who appreciate his contributions have hereby re-published one of
his finest works, A Stoughton Historical Sampler 1895-1995 with additions of several pieces that Howard planned to publish in a second volume.
Howard Hansen was Moderator for the Town of Stoughton from 1993 to 2017 and printed hundreds of thousands of pages for many town publications, not only for the Town Meeting, but most of its committees as well. Accompanying these documents, there were always historical pictures and often historical articles or sketches which Howard composed. “Vignettes of Factory Village West Stoughton’ and the accompanying photograph is one such article. Hansen Brothers Printing also published many articles and books for neighboring historical societies, including A History of Avon, Massachusetts 1720-1988 by William F. Hanna. For this publication Howard created a schematic map of the large triangle that comprised the original Dorchester South Precinct. We still proudly display this map at the Historical Society.
Howard served as President of the Stoughton Historical Society from 1981-1984 and his wonderful and extensive article on the History of our Society in the Sampler makes it clear that he knew well the tradition that now includes him. He had been paying attention to Stoughton history for a long time. He told me in one of his many emails in
response to questions about Page and Old Page Streets`, and the North Stoughton RR station: “My father delivered groceries to Caleb West (on Old Page St.) in the late 1940s and well into the late 60s. I do remember him driving the old Ford “Woodie” down the old road, but I don’t recall the North Stoughton RR Station still standing. In the spring of 1990, one Sunday morning, Muriel Curtis Cushing and her husband Phillip (?) met me at the back steps of LCM when I was cleaning the Clapp School bricks. I remember her name very well as Arnold “Red” Holmes’ (12-22- 16 to 1-17-15) wife was Muriel Curtis. The Curtis family is among the Alden kindred, and the Mr. and Mrs. Cushing were from Duxbury. Mrs. Cushing remembered her mother telling how Muriel’s grandmother, Emily L. Curtis, was the Station Agent living at the North Stoughton Railroad Station. Passengers would wait in the living room. Emily was widow of Frank L. Curtis who in 1905 was assistant station agent. She took over the agent duties. She moved from the Curtis homestead on Turnpike Street (opposite Dunkin Donuts and South Shore Bank) bringing along her child. For a little girl it was exciting to live at the railroad station. She “entertained” the visitors and would announce when she saw the train coming.” As usual, this priceless information was embedded with personal details from Howard’s past, the things that helped trigger his memories.
Recently, we have used the new resource of the Stoughton Public Library to find references to Judge Benjamin Lynde’s Diary and his purchase of land near the current Sumner St. in the early 1700’s, so that he could have a local man Edward Estey cut and ship the valuable cedar trees that were the first major resource of our Town, long before it was a town. In 2017, before I had much of an appreciation for the Esteys, Howard had written me, “I remember going with my father to the Estey house, (just over the Canton line on Pleasant St.) a 1700s salt box that was about 10 ft. below the road bed. If there was a place where time stopped, it was at the Estey house. Hens running around the yard, the smell of dry chicken manure on a summer day. A walk into the house where the old gray kitchen table must have had six layers of paint. If only I had known in the mid 70s that Mr. Gessner was to demolish that house, I’d have said something to the Canton Hist. Soc. But I really didn’t know them. I am certain that house must have had mountains of old historical papers in the attic. Arthur E. Estey was my father’s insurance agent.” A Sampler contains wonderful and comprehensive essays on “Our Own Story, the Stoughton Historical Society,” and “Over 150 Years of Public Transportation in Stoughton,” as well as many sketches of Stoughton businesses, some of whom paid a fee to support the Sampler and its publication. Howard’s model for A Sampler II also included the concept of letting businesses sponsor the articles describing them. For clarification, this publication was funded by the Stoughton Cultural Council and has no other sponsors, although all the original articles and ads remain. -Dwight Mac Kerron
David Lambert writes: “In December 1980 I attended my first Stoughton Historical Society meeting. At that time as an eleven-year-old I would come down on various weekday afternoons after school and Thursday evenings and volunteer with Johnny Stiles our curator. By 1983 Johnny Stiles decided to retire his post to Howard “Howie” Hansen. I had chatted with Howie often and his long stories breathed life back into the faces from the old photos, and names on faded documents and captured my interest. That same year Howie asked me to be the Assistant Curator Historian, what an opportunity for a 13-year-old that spring! Over the next few years many road trips exploring old Stoughton took place, and late hours exploring the collections at the Historical Society was truly a second Stoughton education for me. When Howie would drive me home, my mother would often wonder if I ever would come in the house – as there was always one more fact, one more story from Howie to share. Sunday afternoons at the historical society were interrupted only by Howie’s mother Ruth Hansen inviting me back to the house at 600 Pleasant Street for their family Sunday dinner, with more Stoughton history being discussed. After I graduated from Stoughton High School, Howie wrote a glowing letter of recommendation so I could get an internship at the Massachusetts State Archives in 1987. This internship job opened the doors to my present career as Chief Genealogist of the New England Historic Genealogical Society of Boston since 1993. Howie was the first appointed Town Historian by the town of Stoughton, I wish this were a title I was still waiting for from the town and he still were able to continue. Howie was always my favorite teacher, and conversations and questions were never short answers. I so wish that I could just ask one more question or go on one more adventure with him – so many unanswered questions I will have to explore alone. The scholarship and publications Howie shared with Stoughton were only an exceedingly small percentage of all the knowledge he holds. I am honored to write these memories and kind words for my Masonic brother, my teacher, and my forever friend Howard Hansen. David Allen Lambert, Stoughton Town Historian
Here is the Introduction to A Stoughton Historical Sampler 1895-1995, written by Howard Hansen in 1995 and the page which faced it:
(E-mail readers see the two attachments.)
Our program at Town Hall focused on the following: The Neponset Indians “sold” their land at the mouth of the Neponset River to Israel Stoughton ca.1630. Israel Stoughton built a grist mill on the site, and that mill is shown on our Town Seal. It is not clear that at the time the Neponsets realized that selling the land meant that they could no longer stay on it, but in 1645 the Ponkapoag Plantation “Praying Indian” village was established between Ponkapoag Pond and York Pond (now Glen Echo.). Thereafter, this band
of Massachusetts (tribe) Native-Americans, was known as the Ponkapoags. The land was supposed to remain theirs in perpetuity, but by 1830, there were no Native-American land-owners left. The Maps of the 12 and 25 Divisions shows how that the land of the Dorchester South Precinct was sold to “Proprietors.” Our Exhibits for Black History Month: The Easton family pursued their rights to sit in pews of their choosing in two different churches, including East Stoughton Baptist Church (now Avon.) They started a trade school of sorts for African-American youth in North Bridgewater, now Brockton. Hosea Easton married Louisa Martrick of Stoughton and moved to Connecticut as an Abolitionist minister, writer, and activist. He became a New England version of Frederick Douglas, before Frederick Douglas emerged on the scene. It may be worth your while to gain access to the book The Eastons: Five Generations of Human Rights Activism, 1748-1935 by Charles Price.
1780-1790 Revolutionary war Veterans Samson Dunbar and Quark Martrick purchased a tract of land near the “Three Swamps,” section of Stoughton. They and their descendants lived there for a century. One of Quark Matrick’s three daughters, Louisa married Hosea Easton and a grand-daughter married a Civil War Vet from the Mass. 54th. Now all that remains are four cellar holes, an unmarked cemetery, and a mile of stone walls. We have learned a lot about the Dunbars, Martricks, Campells, Jacobs, and others, who lived there. We hope to lead a walk in to the site to celebrate Juneteenth.
The American Civil War brought an end to slavery at the cost of hundreds of thousands of men’s lives. David Williams wrote a letter back to Stoughton from Washington D.C. in the 1820’s to a local Capen man, asking him to affirm that he was not a runaway slave. We have transcribed the diaries of two Stoughton men who served: Charles Eaton and Alfred Waldo. The latter lost his arm and then his life when hit by a mini-ball fired from this type of weapon. Eaton died a year after he returned to Stoughton before he was twenty-years old. He never recovered from the diseases he contracted in the Port Hudson campaign. Barker Canady/Kennedy, an African-American soldier from the Mass. 54th, the “Glory” regiment married a Jacobs from the Martrick Three Swamp homestead and is listed as living there in 1865. There is evidence to support the strong possibility that he was a freed slave from South Carolina, where man named Barker sold a slave Martha and her daughter Mary for $500 in 1842 to a woman named Kennedy. Samuel Sharp, also an African-American member of the 54th, was prominent in the activities of Stoughton’s Chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic.
James Fischer was a Stoughton man of Native-American and African American lineage, who served with the Tuskegee Airmen, “the Red Tails” of WWII. Eventually the airmen were honored under President George W. Bush. He also was honored at the Stoughton Historical Society and inducted into the Stoughton High School Academic Hall of Fame. His niece has written a wonderful, illustrated essay on him, which is on our site on Facebook.
Josephine Crawford, an African-American woman, who became one of Stoughton’s most public-service oriented citizens, inherited an estate from her employer Dr. Horace Packard and for twenty-five years, she ran “Whispering Willows,” a summer camp, then an orphanage for African-American children. When she died in 1955, her work was taken up by Dr. Willis Pitts and more predominantly, his wife, Fran, who ran it until the 1970’s.
Around the Lucius Clapp Memorial – Denise Peterson and Joanne Callanan put out our Christmas decorations. Stew Sterling and Joanne Callanan took them down. Dan Mark continues to update our Membership lists and Dave Foley uses the lists to create the address labels for the newsletter. We have discovered more of the scans of our old newsletter, taken by Zachary Mandosa, and Dave will soon add them to the website.
Archivists Report
In November, we received from Town Clerk Stephanie Carrera eight recent years of Stoughton’s “Persons Listed,” which completed our collection at this time. I have spent much of my time during this last period, going through boxes of records from Howard Hansen, looking for publishable materials. Some of these are a part of the recently re-published A Stoughton Historical Sampler: Expanded 2023.
Judith Roberts, now of Swansea, MA, donated a SHS Athletic Jacket, with Judy 1958 on the sleeve. (To clothing curator) Also, a “Fifty Year” Reunion book, authored by herself. Filed in SHS reunion files as 350.1958. Annemarie Leonard, donated several SHS Varsity Letters from the 1940’s, belonging to her (parents-in law), Charley & Alice Leonard. Also, several photos and Postcards.
Angel Grant, of Walpole, MA donated a Stoughton Grammar School certificate belonging to Frank N. Cohenno, dated 21 June 1917, certifying his entitlement, to enter High School.
Helen (Zabrosky) Campanario, by way of Lou Poillucci, donated 6 “old style” framed postcards of Stoughton. (All in one frame.)
Spent several hours assisting Peter Banis, with family research.
Dennis Lyons brought us some large trolley maps, which Dwight took to Town Hall to be copied. Filed framed photo of Boy Scout Troop (2?) standing in front of Town Hall (year unknown). (It is possible the photo is a combination of Boy Scouts, aged 11-13 and Explorer Scouts aged 14-18. My reasoning behind this is that some of the scouts are wearing neckerchiefs and the older ones are wearing neck ties.) File # 905 04 80 28. Filed a framed photo of early Waterline construction c. 1890’s. (No heavy equipment, all hand digging.) File # 905 04 80 29. Filed a framed Pictorial Map of Stoughton c.1890 was filed. File # 905 04 80 30. Lastly, filed the 6 framed B&W Postcards from Helen Campanario. File # 905 04 80 31
We have now run out of space for filing large framed documents or photos. -Richard Fitzpatrick
Curator’s Report
Since the early Fall, Ken Beauregard has been tackling the large backlog of undocumented artifacts in the storage room, some of which go back to pre-covid. In the process, Ken has cleared a considerable amount of space in the Curator’s area and has consolidated duplicate items which have come in over the years. In addition, Ken continues to log-in and file new donations of artifacts. Many thanks to Ken for the good work he has contributed to the Society, and the help he has provided to me in particular. New Acquisitions: From Mike M. Fuenfer: a World War II Civil Defense Arm Band. From Kenneth Gay: a Stoughton Methodist Church Plate and a Stoughton 250th Anniversary commemorative plate. From Diane Radvilas: Woman’s Shoes; an American Flag in a display box. This flag flew over Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. The flag was accompanied by a commemorative photo of the crew members of a U.S.A.F. C-130. We are grateful to everyone who donated these artifacts.
In the Fall, we received a collection of documents from Liz Glover, which involved correspondence between a Mr. John Edmunds and various people over the course of approximately 60 years. Included in the collection are family-related correspondence dated as early as 1857. I researched the collection and provided the donor with the results of my research. Unfortunately, Mr. Edmonds’ family did not have a Stoughton connection, so the family related correspondence should not be held in our archives. The collection was donated to us because it included 12 letters and 3 postcards which are post-Civil War correspondence between George W. Pratt, of Stoughton, who was very active in Veterans organizations (as well as the Stoughton Historical Society and Stoughton town government). This correspondence primarily took place in the 1910s. He was a fellow Civil War soldier “Comrade” in Company H, 43rd Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers (Infantry). Both veterans had enlisted from Chelsea. The donor was not a descendant of Mr. Edmunds, so we will attempt to locate a descendant who would be interested in the family related correspondence. In the last Newsletter, I reported that I had begun the process of examining our collection of photograph albums and individual photos for the purpose of building a database of identified individuals. As of now, the database primarily consists of photographs of Stoughton residents taken in the late 1800s. That Newsletter more fully describes the project. An additional 100 individuals have been identified in our collection of photos, bringing the total to 575.
In the last quarter, I assisted with
research of our records regarding a request for information about certain 1700s Stoughton residents of the Hayden – Bartlett families for someone who was trying to provide proof of a direct connection with Mayflower passenger Richard Warren for a Mayflower Society application. We don’t know if our information was of any help, but if it was, it would be to prove a 10th line, as the requester already has had 9 lines approved. I also worked on a draft of a proposed “Collection Policy” which would, among other things, provide guidance with regard to the collection and maintenance of documents and artifacts. -Richard Pratt
Memberships
New members: –James Kelly. Lifetime- Nancy Sullivan, Lillian and Robert Meunier, Lynn Jardin, Blaine Barham, Andrew Mac Kerron and family.