VOLUME XXXVIII NO. 4
Upcoming Events
April 19—Brief meeting at the Historical Society at 2pm for business. At the conclusion of the meeting, we will drive to the Canton Historical Society and see many artifacts, documents and pictures from our shared past, including a special exhibit on the Crowd family, which should provide an excellent follow-up to David Lambert’s presentation last Fall on local Native Americans. We will follow the Pearl St in Stoughton to Pleasant St in Canton route, which Stoughton’s earliest residents took to get to church on Sundays. But instead of turning right at the end of Pleasant St, toward the “Meeting House” we will turn left on Washington St and their building will be a block ahead on the right on the corner of Washington St. and Historical Way.
April 27 -- Stoughton High School Academic Hall-of-Fame’s Sixth Year Induction Ceremonies 9:15 A. M. Stoughton High School Auditorium. This years inductees for Extraordinary Achievement: Thomas Gay ’63, Maria Sangiolo ’82, Frances (Butch) Brien ’87, and David Scott Saperstein, M. D. ’84. Dr. Saperstein will be unable to attend.
May 2 – 8 P.M. Old Stoughton Musical Society Spring Concert “It’s All About Spring.” For more information call 781 344 5711
May 9 –Earth Day at the Bird St Conservation Area, including the unveiling of historical signs at the Gilbert Quarry, Twelve Division Stone Wall, and the Roy Robinson Trail. The commentary for these signs was done by the Historical Society and some funding was supplied by the Stoughton Cultural Council and Stoughton Conservation Commission. The Historical Society will have an exhibit and table with maps, trail guides, and booklets on the history and natural history of the area for sale. Check local papers and my emails for more specifics on events
May 30 -- Spring Yard Sale 9 A.M.-2:00 P.M. at the Historical Society. Please bring items you wish to donate to us during our normal business hours. . Items which have sold well in the past are jewelry, baking dishes,, lamps, small tables and chairs, toys, recent books, and small rugs. No plastic ware, electronics, stuffed toys, or skis, please. We could use extra help for set-up at 7:00 that morning.
June -- Annual Installation of Officers Meeting and Dinner to be held
President’s Report
Since the last Newsletter we have had our new computer installed as well as a new 3 in 1 printer, scanner, copier, and are now working on learning out how to use them. We send or receive on average more than fifty emails per week, and they greatly facilitate our communication with researchers.
On Febrary 15, we enjoyed the presentations of Ruth Fitzpatrick sharing some fascinating facts about Colonial money, Tony Alfano giving an enthusiastic description on his recent work compiling lists and brief descriptions of the ancient volumes and documents in our rare books cabinets, and Roger Hall, who educated us on the early history of music in Stoughton. On March 22, we had a well-attended presentation by colonial re-enactors David Jennings and Hallie Larkin, who entertained and edified us with artifacts and their lively descriptions of colonial habits of dress, child-raising, making war, and assorted other topics. Their presentation made the front page of the Stoughton Journal, complete with pictures and a substantial article written by Kate Foley. We had several visitors from the Canton Historical Society and a number of other new faces in the audience.
In late February, Joe Mokrisky got Engine 2 running with a jury-rigged fuel tank and drove the truck over to Brockton as a tribute to the late Robert Donovan, who sold us the the truck several years ago. Bob’s funeral party passed by the truck on their way to his burial and the presence of Engine 2 was noted and much appreciated.
On March 18, a group of us consisting of Joe and Jeanne DeVito, Jack Sidebottom, Brian Daley, Richard Fitzpatrick, Joan Bryant, and Dwight Mac Kerron visited the Old Colony Historical Society in Taunton where Director Jane Hennedy gave us a good two hours of her time, showing us not only most of their exhibits, but also describing how they were created, what still needed to be done etc. Exhibits on Native Americans, military helmets, stoves, silver-plated ware and children’s toys were among the highlights She also gave us a packet of materials on available grants and advantages of aligning with the small museum association. We bought William Hanna’s History of Taunton and made a donation as a small token of our appreciation for Jane’s graciously sharing so much of her knowledge with us. We picked up useful ideas on how to create more permanent pictures and captions for our own exhibits and are seeking to apply this knowledge to a permanent display “A Brief History of Stoughton” from the Wisconsin glacier to the 275th Anniversary of the founding of Old Stoughton. Our daunting challenge is to create displays sufficiently colorful and-eye-catching to replace the enlarged post card images which presently grace the front of the Jones’ room. Sometime this spring, we hope to make a visit to the Commonwealth Museum at the Mass. State Archives, which has just opened a new exhibit of rare, original documents, including the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. A side trip to the JFK Museum, which is nearby, might also be in order. If you are interested in the trip, (we have been going on weekday mornings) please let us know.
On April 5, we finally got a nice day for our tour of the site of the Gay Cotton Manufacturing Company on Mill St. The Ark-Less Company was extremely cooperative about letting us park in front of their building. Between our two tours, we had over twenty intrepid explorers trying to match up the stone foundations, bridges, mill pond and mill race retaining walls to the several pictures we have of the “White Mill” as it looked circa 1870. Richard Fitzpatrick paced off the length of the boardinghouse foundation and estimated it at 45 feet, leading him to speculate that the factory was about 65 feet long. David Lambert, who was there for both tours, took many pictures and found numerous artifacts of undetermined age, including a piece of soapstone with a hole milled in it, which had been wedged into the stone retaining wall of the mill pond. David also found what he believes to be the rear corner of the factory, including the steps to an entrance from beneath the first floor to the probable location of the mill wheel. Howard Hansen, Richard, David, and I all shared our opinions on the placement of the factory and agreed that another tour and further excavation and measuring is called for. If anyone else would like to see the site, stop by the Historical Society, pick up one of the booklets, and get out there before May, when the site will become more obscured by greenery, including poison ivy.
Conkanpeimshon Cedar Swamp -- Sometime in March, our two ebay mavens, Dave Lambert and Hank Herbowy informed me that the following was up for bid on ebay: “A Draught or Plot of a Cedar Swamp late in ye Township of Dorchester & now in ye Township of Stoughton, call Surveyor’s rendering of a place called Conkanpeimshon Cedar Swamp. Laid out Anno 1716. Drawn by ye Proprietors order. Finished June 23d, 1731. Madd by ye scale of 2 of Gunter’s chains to an inch. James Blake Jr.” I had never heard of the swamp, but David pointed out that we had no original maps by James Blake Jr. the renowned “James Blake the Annalist,” who surveyed the land and drew “The Map of the Twenty Five Divisions. We acquired the map with one bid of just under $100 (the minimum bid) and then set out to locate this swamp on our Maps of the Twelve and Twenty Five Divisions. The only clues were its circular shape, relatively small size (just over 8 acres) and the names of three men for whom the map was laid out to: James Mawdsley, Clement Topliff, and Nicholas Williams. The only other locating markers were things like “Gr Chestnut, ” ”2 Ft B Oak,” and “Hornbine” etc. No circular small swamp caught my eye on either of the two maps and a subsequent search of the records of the proprietors and the maps located several lots for these men spread over both Maps, but nowhere near where any such swamp could be located.
I sent out a request for help to local historical societies and Shirley Schofield at the Sharon Historical Society forwarded the message to the right man, Richard Legee, who served on the Foxborough Historical Commission for more than thirty years, but grew up in Sharon and not only knew of the swamp, but sent along a magnified scan of a small part of the Map of the Twenty Five Divisions to show its location. It is near Cow Hill -- King Phillip’s Rock in Sharon, approximately one mile south of the south west corner of Lake Massapoag. It does appear on the Map of the Twenty Five Divisions, but it is so small that we had missed it. Over the years it has come to be known by some as Comprehension Swamp, which is understandable, since its original name seems virtually unpronounceable. Modern topographical maps show the whole area to be full of swampy ground, so it is difficult to know why this little plot was singled out, but it is likely that it is the only one of the swamps which had a significant number of cedar trees, and the value of these trees for shingles gave such swamps a distinction worth noting, whereas others were not marked at all or even have been designated as “wast land.”
Some will recall that the first significant travel by English settlers through what is now Stoughton Center began when the Dorchester Proprietors traveled along Pearl, Park, and Sumner Streets to access the cedars in Dorchester Swamp, between the current Sumner and Washington Streets in the land north of Goddard Hospital. The unauthorized cutting of cedars was banned and fines sere given out for those who illegally cut the cedars. Supplying wood from the cedar swamps was also a source of income for some of the Ponkapoag Indians. Huntoon writes, “The Indians were very useful to the early settlers. They helped them to build their houses; and to-day there are houses standing, in the erection of which tradition says the Indians assisted. They were useful in planting the seed and reaping the harvest. The more industrious earned money by cutting and preparing cedar shingles and clapboards for the Boston market. To the less industrious, the woods and the swamps offered the prospect of game; while the ponds, the river, and the brooks furnished them a supply of fish for their own consumption, or for barter and traffic with their English neighbors.” It is still not clear to us why Maudsley, Topliff, and Williams have the rights to Conkanpeimshon Cedar Swamp, since none of their names appear in nearby lots. For example, Dorchester Swamp was divided into narrow plots with each one going to various adjacent lots and thereby to their Proprietor-owners.
Historical Society members Dave Sears and Joe Devito, Co-Chairmen of the VFW “Voice of Democracy” Contest will be attending the VFW State Convention in June when John Gallivan, Director of Social Studies at Stoughton High School will be honored as the VFW 2009 “Teacher of the Year.”
Archivists Report –We have been locating more documents for the 1700’s exhibit, and have done research on Johnson Tolman, who lived in Stoughton and whose house appears on the 1746 map. We have completed the catalogue our 160+ WWI posters, one of the best collections of its kind in the country. Richard Fitzpatrick has ex-plored and made lists of scores of documents from the 1700’s, including the indenture papers of James Allen
Tony Alfano has created displays relating to the Great Molasses Flood and Sacco and Vanzetti and he is now putting together materials for our Introduction to the History of Stoughton display we hope to have in the Jones room. Bob Viola has assembled three foam boards worth of commentary and pictures on the history of the railroad station and put them on display at the station. Tony Alfano added a fourth board on individuals who have made a significant contribution to Stoughton’s History.
Judy and Elaine Dahlgren, daughters of Kenny White, gave us a diary from the 1860’s. We have not yet identified the writer, but have been able to determine that the diarist was a religious female teacher, who knew Erastus Smith. They also donated papers and pictures from the First Congregational Church in the 1920’s. Scott Beckman donated four Farmer’s Almanacs from 1848, 1850, 1852, and 1856. Beth Donnelly Gross donated several boxes of documents and artifacts from her late husband, former Police Chief William Gross. We purchased a group of Henry Britton papers from ebay, most of which turned out to be receipts for a variety of things around the turn of the century including a receipt for his having paid his yearly dues to the Stoughton Historical Society; cost for one year; 50 cents. Purchased from ebay was a 1731 surveyors draft of Conkapeimshon Cedar Swamp in Stoughton drawn by James Blake Jr, the renowned “Annalist” who oversaw the surveying and drawing of the Map of the Twenty-five Divisions.
--Jack Sidebottom
Curator’s Report
Jack Sidebottom donated a box of old tools and Betty Maraglia gave a Civil War .58 caliber Minie ball, which has been added to our Civil War case. The donation from the Beth Donnelly Gross includes many artifacts to be catalogued including a Police Chief’s hat and several badges.
--Brian Daley
Clothing Curators
We have finished the extensive restoration of our oldest dress and gotten it ready for display; it is green ornate cotton, hand-assembled and sewn circa 1860. Joan O’Hare has put on display the cap of her great-grandmother Mary Adams Atherton (1751-1843), who was the daughter of Rev Jedidiah Adams and the wife of John Atherton. The hand-sewn cap exhibits incredibly fine workmanship. Also on display is a blue and yellow print afternnon dress made by Dot Woodward for the 275th.