Jan-Feb-Mar – 2016

Upcoming Events

March 13 - 2:00 P.M. – Lecture on the presidency of Abraham Lincoln by Dr Gary Hylander.

March 20 and March 27 - Sunday Open Houses, Noon-4:00pm

*March 31 7:00 P.M. “The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln” Al Smith, President of the Civil War Round Table of Boston will present his findings after his many years of study of Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War. *This date is subject to change. Relevant announcements will be made via email, the Stoughton Journal and the Pennysaver.

April 10 - 2:00 P.M. – Join us for a program celebrating the 300th Anniversary of Isaac Stearns’s coming to Stoughton. Following a brief slide show on Isaac Stearns and Stoughton in 1716, students from the elementary schools will display their projects, and the participating schools will be honored. Students from the Middle School will share their projects on the late Dr. Forrest Bird. President’s Report The Lucius Clapp Memorial, also known as the Stoughton Historical Society Museum, has taken on a new look, not just because of the 12-foot statue of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the East end of the Jones Room, but also because of considerable re-arranging of our exhibits, in preparation for the two Lincoln programs. We all pitched in, but the extended work sessions featured Denise Peterson, Joanne Callanan, Marcia Drago, Trish Kelleher, Joe McStowe, and Joe Mokrisky.

On February 15, Presidents Day, we held a well-attended Open House to introduce the Abraham Lincoln Exhibit. Our Civil War flag from the 12th Regiment was moved in its case to be beside Lincoln, and the Sumner desk, back in its original spot completed the Civil War era theme in the Jones Room. Joshua Williams sang the National Anthem, Boy Scouts from Troop 516 took people’s coats, and Joe Mokrisky, Dwight Mac Kerron, and Joe McStowe gave a few remarks. Videos of the Gettysburg Address and the building of the Lincoln Memorial were shown at intervals in the Reading Room. Plenty of good food and drink was provided by Joan Bryant with contributions also from Ruthie Fitzpatrick, Rick and Linda Woodward, and Ardis Johnston. We also held Open Houses on the next two Sunday afternoons from Noon-4:00 P. M. and will continue these events until at least the end of March.

Howard Hansen brought it to my attention that 2016 was not only the 300th Anniversary of the coming of Stoughton’s first settler, Isaac Stearns, but also the first Town Meeting of the Dorchester South Precinct, which was held on March 28, 1716. I have informed the historical societies of Canton and Sharon, where all Stoughton residents, save for Isaac Stearns, lived in 1716.

Ryan Powers has created a well-crafted exhibit, which features the artifacts he has discovered through his metal-detecting during the last two years. He has explored the site in the vicinity of the North Stoughton train station on Old Page Street, which may also be close to the home site of the Nightengale and/or Goldthwaite families in the 1700’s. He has also explored the Sumner Street site of the Thomas Glover Jr. house ca. 1750, which is now demolished and the site of Stoughton’s first factory, the Gay Cotton Manufacturing Company on Mill St. This exhibit is now displayed in the case in the Pierce Room, which also houses the artifacts from the Glover House.

Early in February, the Town Architect and his associates made several inspections of the windows at the Lucius Clapp Memorial, all of which (pending the approval of the CPC and the Town Meeting) will undergo extensive refurbishment during the next two years. There is significant peeling of paint, decomposition of putty, and several broken windows, but the good news is that very little rotten wood was found. Stoughton Building Facilities Manger Paul Giffune put together the application for the CPA funds.

In the last Newsletter, we mentioned a visit from the descendents of the Rev. Harvey Whitcomb, who served at the Methodist Church and owned a farm at 1355 Central St. They have subsequently sent us an obituary for Rev. Whitcomb, which mentioned that he ran a youth hostel in Stoughton for many years. I have a recollection of hearing about such a youth hostel, but cannot recall specifics. Does anyone recall if the hostel was located at the farm at 1335 Central Street or at Packard Manse, or some other location?

Vice President and Webmaster David Lambert has found copies of the Dorchester South Precinct Proprietor’s Records at the Dedham Registry of deeds and has copied 800 pages of them. He is still searching for the originals. The meetings of the Proprietors are mentioned in Elijah Dunbar’s diaries in the 1760’s and in David Tilden’s diary, 1793-4. The Proprietors were also prominent in the disputes the Glovers had in trying to get more land set off for them in the apportionment of the ranges in the Map of the 25 Divisions.

Our Dorchester roots were also revisited when I attended a program sponsored by the Dorchester Historical Society on Free African-Americans in early Dorchester. It was held at the William Clapp House at 195 Boston St, which is also the headquarters of the Society. In the 1650s, Sebastian Kane, a person of color, was a landowner in Dorchester. Local historian Alex Goldfield presented what is known about Kane and other people of African descent in a predominantly white colony. Cotton Mather supported the creation of a congregation for free blacks and servants “The Society of Negroes,” which was given two hours each week in a local church, as long as their services did not conflict with the regular church services. Alex Goldfield also showed us a list of names of the free blacks, who had performed their unremunerated civil tasks for 6-9 days a year. They were not permitted to serve in the militia and were therefore obligated to serve civilly. One of their jobs was to remove the bodies of small pox victims, which Goldfield told us was not quite as onerous as it sounded, since many blacks had been inoculated in Africa, a practice which was only gradually accepted with Mather’s promotion for citizens of Massachusetts just before and during the American Revolution.

The roots from early Dorchester are also being re-visited in the series of discussions sponsored by the Partnership of Historic Bostons at the Massachusetts Historical Society. On February 20, Katherine Grandjean led a discussion of her recent book, American Passages: The Communications Frontier in Early New England. Her first chapter concerns the paucity of roads from 1630-1660 and the extensive use of Native-American messengers, as demonstrated by the letter sent by authorities in Boston in 1649 to John Winthrop Jr. on the Connecticut coast, informing him of the death of his father and urging him to leave immediately to attend the funeral. The letter was carried by a trusted Ponkapoag/Masschuset Indian, Nahawton. Indian messengers could often travel faster, especially in the winter-time, because they knew the trails and could move more efficiently in the snow, often with the assistance of snow-shoes.

Nahawton, who is referred to in Huntoon as Old Ahauton was the father of William Ahauton, who revealed the alleged murder of John Sassamon, with the resulting execution of three of Phillip’s men, bringing on the rapid onset of King Phillip’s War. I will be giving a presentation on King Phillip’s War for this series on April 9. Two main points of discussion will be Daniel Gookin’s description of the role of the Praying Indians in An Historical Account of the Doings and the Sufferings of the Christian Indians in New England, and more specifically the role of the Punkapoag Indians (formerly the Neponsets.) The Ponkapoag Indian Plantation was set off by the Dorchester Town Meeting in 1657, eighteen years before the war began.

In relation to slightly more recent Stoughton history, third-grade local elementary students have created projects on the coming of Isaac Stearns to Stoughton in 1716. To this date we have more than twenty projects from the Dawe School and the South School, respectively. Most of the students at the South School did illustrated time-lines. Here are a few important dates from some of them: 1719 – First School was held in the South Precinct of Dorchester; 1726 – New Town of Stoughton gets 50L for school money; 1727 – First Town Meeting held at the home of George Talbot & Second Minister Called; 1764 – Smallpox breaks out with some families in Stoughton; 1783 – Stoughtonham name changed to Sharon; 1797 – The most northern part of the town is incorporated as the Town of Canton; 1865 – Stoughton High School opened, 24 students enrolled. The students from the Dawe School did dioramas and drawings, with various renderings of Isaac Stearns house, barn, and fields or other scenes, including the stone placed at the site in 1899 by the Stoughton Historical Society. These projects will be on display at our meeting on April 10 and both schools will receive an award. We hope that other schools may have created projects by then and that we will also have projects on Forrest Bird from the Middle School.

The Stoughton Historical Commission has received more than twenty new house plaques that were created and paid for in part by a grant from the Community Preservation funds in order to replace the old ones, which were crafted in 1976 to identify the Town’s oldest houses, those built between 1726 and 1826. Over the next month, these plaques will be distributed to the homeowners, most of whom have contributed $80 to pay ahead. The next round of house plaques may cover the rest of the homes which were built in the 19th century.

Jo Obelsky has completed the transcription of another volume of the Erastus Smith Diary, which was begun by Christopher Lott. This diary begins in February of 1853 with Erastus Smith’s one term of schooling at the Pierce Academy in Middleboro and continues, sometimes with large gaps until January of 1856. Although we purchased this diary in 2007, the last five months of the diary had not been previously read by any of us. We have several other of his diaries, including the one he began when he was ten years-old and kept for two years, while growing up in the Dry Pond neighborhood, in a time period which coincided with the years when Henry David Thoreau was at Walden Pond. Jo is now editing the already transcribed diary, which Erastus kept for four months in 1857. The pagination of this diary, indicates that it is merely a piece of a larger diary, which probably began around the time the previous one ended in January of 1856. We also have one year-diaries from Erastus in 1860 and 1873 and one written by his wife Emeline Gay Smith in 1863 during an extended trip to Chelsea Vermont. Soon, all of these diaries will be posted on stoughtonhistory.com

Erastus leaves Pierce Academy in very ill health in 1854, and suffers debilitating pain and muscle weakness for much of the year. Fortunately, over the next two years his health gradually recovers and he is able to go back to work as a carpenter, tree-grafter, hoop-maker, cranberry-picker and worker at the many other tasks at the homestead/farm of his father James Smith, which still stands at the corner of Plain St. and Bay Road. It will be receiving one of the plaques honoring Stoughton’s oldest houses. In this recent transcription, Erastus is urged by a friend to go into business, but he wonders how he could leave his father and mother, who need him.

The editing of these diaries will be ongoing, with extensive notes added, since almost every page refers to a person or an event with a separate relevance to the history of our Town. For Example, Erastus often refers to a visit from Susan, or working with her on various projects. His neighbor, Susan Clapp Bradley wrote her own diary in 1859, regarding teaching school in West North Bridgewater and later Stoughton. After the Civil War, Susan traveled to North Carolina to teach freed slaves and lived out much of the rest of her life at the Methodist Campground at Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard, as has been described in previous newsletters.

Later in this diary Erastus relates that his older brother James has leased the Jordan lot from their ailing former neighbor Col. Jessie Pierce. James and Erastus cut and split wood on this lot, especially Black Oak, White Oak, and Walnut, in order to make thousand of hoops, which they sell both locally and in Boston.

In 1859 Erastus married Emeline Gay and in 1865 they had a daughter, Amy, who later married Ernest Gilbert. Emeline died in October of 1866 and three years later Erastus married Maria Quincy Adams, who died in 1879. Erastus was part of the successful popcorn business of Smith, Clapp, and Gay. He was born and lived at 925 Plain St. for almost all of his life and died there at age 92, while in the care of his daughter and step-son. His obituary asserts that he worked up 10 cords of wood a year into his nineties, The following are a few excerpts from 1855:

“Wednesday, Aug. 8. (1855) We have finished haying today and it is a long time we have been about it too, considerable of our meadow has been some wet, but none to do it but very little hurt. There was (an)? usual burden upon the Draper Meadow, but not quite upon the Clay Meadow besides being very wet. There is much hay to be secured yet in the meadows, but if it holds good weather it will go out fast. There have been some heavy thunder storms about us this month, but not immediately here. One that struck Mr. Joseph Tolmans barn in Sharon setting fire to it & entirely consuming it. Also in the same shower a small house in Canton owned by an Irishman was struck and literally all torn to pieces. (12 day gap in writing.) Monday, Aug. 20. My journal seems to be sadly in the rear of late. On Monday last I commenced work again at carpentering. Worked Monday & Tuesday & on Wednesday went to Pigeon Swamp to spend the day. We found them just commencing their meadows, and a long siege they will have of it too. I bought the watch of Uncle Moses that I have been desiring so long. Paid 10$ for it. We intended to have spent a few days with them after haying but as that business occupies so much time I could hardly spare the time at present. On Thursday afternoon J., I. & myself went to the auction of Albert Sumners property. There was a great number of people present. During the remainder of the week I worked on the house. On the Sabbath Father & Mother attended church at Sharon. I received a letter from Oren in which he gives me several strong invitations to visit them this Autumn which I shall do. All their crops look flourishing, grass very good but a bad time to secure it. Today I have worked on the house excepting a couple of hours in which I was unwell. Saturday, Aug. 25. We made James Drakes house ready for the masons this noon, and this afternoon I accompanied Isaac to the village. There was to have been a horse race there this afternoon but there turned out to be but one competitor. It was a small affair like every horse race. Monday, Aug. 27. We commenced on a small job for Mr. Lucius Clapp this morning. This evening Isaac and myself went to the village and engaged a couple of carriages for an excursion to Squantum which is expected to take place on Wednesday. Tuesday, Aug. 28. I have worked for Mr. Clapp today. Everything appears favorable for a pleasant day on the morrow. I hope it will prove so to those who intend to form the Squantum party. But I will go to rest now as I must be stirring betimes in the morning. Wednesday Aug. 29. This day has passed as every other must but they will not probably all be passed in the same manner. But no(w) for a detail of this days excursion. I arose about 1/2 past 2 oclock this morning and went to the village after my horse & chaise reached home about 5, ate my breakfast & proceeded down the road for some one to accompany me. Obtained what I went after & was then of course started for Squantum. After a pleasant ride of 2 1⁄2 hours we reach the desired spot. Have not time to detail the manner in which the time was spent while there and I hope to the injury of no one (excepting to those who ate too much clam chowder[this was crossed out on his journal]) After spending the day happily until nearly 5 PM when we started for home, but a part of the company went earlier. I reached home from the village about 9 PM. Our company numbered 23 carriages and 75 persons. The table was bountifully loaded with everything that was good, and the time passed quickly & pleasantly away.” (In September, Erastus takes a six plus-hour train trip with a cousin Isaac to Charlestown, N. H., where he visits Oren (an Uncle or cousin) and other relatives for several days. He is amazed at the height of the hills in New Hampshire, but acknowledges that he would not like to farm on such steep land.)

Not long after his return, Erastus begins a period of picking cranberries, possibly on the bog which now exists half a mile south of Highland St on Bay Road, behind the Ephraim Payson House, currently owned by the Widrow family: Monday, Sept. 24. I commenced on the cranberry meadow this morning. I never saw them so frost bitten before. I should say that all of two thirds of them are spoiled. I see nothing to prevent the price of cranberries being very high. I never dreaded the job worse than this year. Wednesday, Sept. 26. I am still in the cranberry meadow & am likely to be the remainder of the week certain. I find a great many rotten ones. I should say 4/5 certain. I can pick some more than three pecks a day. Do not use the rake at all. This has been cattle show day, but I did not attend. I should have been glad to but there was no good opportunity about as well in the end.

Thursday, Sept. 27. Raining this forenoon so I could not work in the meadow but found enough to do in picking over those that I had previously picked. This afternoon has been a good time for picking. Saturday, Sept. 29. I expected to finish picking today but have not. There was another heavy frost last night but it was not possible for many more to be spoiled, but it did not injure many that survived he last frost. Mr. Sewall finished his house today and has left us tonight He has been with us four months, and I shall doubtless miss his company. He is a very steady fellow. His worst trouble in company being self sufficiently. Mr. Scott remains with us over the Sabbath. Monday, Oct. 1. We have finished picking cranberries this afternoon I cannot tell at present the precise quantity we have, but it is somewhere in the region of 8 bushels. I carried Mr. Scott as far as Mr. J. Shepards on his way home to the furnace so called. He has a bad finger and cannot work. Tuesday, Oct. 2. I intended to have accompanied James to the city today, but the rain prevented. We were to go with a horse and carriage, Calvins swift horse & Josiah's Express. I do not know when I have had a day before with nothing in particular to do, but nevertheless I have been busy about something nearly all day. I wrote a letter to my friend, Lazell, a job which I have been trying to do for 4 or 5 weeks. It was high time for it is nearly three months since I received his last letter. I have also been after some barberries, gathered nearly half a bushel. Sewall has made us his last call this afternoon. Starts for Down East tomorrow. Wednesday, Oct. 3. Our ride to Boston was again frustrated by there coming a heavy rain at the time in which we intended to have started; if we had gone we should have had a good time to go. We now intend going in the cars as we cannot get a horse tomorrow. James & myself have been helping father pick apples this afternoon. Thursday, Oct. 4. I have accompanied James to Boston today. We started from home about 5 oclock in the morning and returned about 8 PM. We traveled about the city considerably making quite a hard days work of it. I was offered $3.25 for my cranberries by the Messrs. Bent of Canton. I think that they will have them. Saturday, Oct. 6. While I am writing this the rain is driving upon my window furiously from the South. We have now begun to have the fall rains and I think we shall have an abundance.

What labor I have done yesterday & today has been to assist Father in harvesting. I went to the village this morning, found a letter from Oren & a book & letter from Lazell. He wrote advising me to prepare myself for a mercantile life. Says that he can obtain a good situation for me, but I have a Father & Mother at home. Can I leave them?... ... Tuesday, Oct. 9. I carried my cranberries down to E. & N. Bent this morning. I supposed that I had but 5-3/4 bushels but their measure held out to 6 bushels. The whole number of bushels picked on the meadow this year was 8-1/2, I think if it had not been for the frost we should have 30 b. I have picked 6 bushels & worked 6 days to do it & my share of the money is 8194 cts. I have assisted Father to get in his corn this afternoon. He has a very good price this year.

Jim and Anna Byron, longtime members of the Historical Society former residents of Stoughton just celebrated their 70th Wedding Anniversary in January. Congratulations Jim and Anne!

Archivist’s Report

New acquisitions, From Jan & Patrick Byron, by way of Evelyn Callanan: Various Newspaper fragments of Brockton Enterprise & Boston Herald. Both circa 1893-94. From Ruth (Parent) Fitzpatrick: A framed collage of drawing and photographs of the employees of Dykeman Electric Co. in 1970. It was created for her father, Lenard B. Parent and given to him on the occasion of his retirement. He was one of Mike Dykeman's first employees. being Hired in 1923 he worked fr the company for 47 years. He also received an engraved wristwatch, "electric of course, so he could repair it himself."

Since the last report, it we have been moving things starting with the letter files in the archive room, then rearranging furniture to make room for the Lincoln model. Christmas has come and gone with putting up and removing decorations followed by more moving and rearranging, cleaning , etc. etc. all in preparation for the formal opening of the Lincoln exhibit on Feb. 15th.

In the midst of all that I cleaned waxed and polished one of our plant stands worked several days sorting and organizing much of the Stoughton Woman's Club material that we received last year. I did the same for a good portion of the Cemetery material we received from Dave Lambert.

Ruthie, continues working on the Capen files. One of the results from all of this is that we can now see a portion of the top of our work table again.

I have also done some research looking for pictures/information on the location of Louis Green's Fruit Store, and Briffett's Store with success in both cases.

Lastly I spent time looking for information on Rev. Harvey Whitcomb, a former pastor at the North Stoughton, Methodist Episcopal Church for most of 1930's. He retired in Stoughton and was called on for a number of occasions until the church closed in 1943. I have not found anyone who was assigned there after him. While in Stoughton he operated Stoughton's one and only National Youth Hostel. His son-in-law John MacDonald operated a Jenney Gas station on Washington St. and his wife operated the Tea Room. Both were near the corner of Washington Street and Warren Ave, until the MacDonalds later purchased a house on Plain St.

Both the Whitcomb's and the MacDonald's are buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

–Richard Fitzpatrick

Clothing Curator’s Report

Since the last report I wrote, we have received several items for our Clothing Collection: a Stoughton Police Department uniform sleeve patch, probably from the 1980’s and is in excellent condition:

From Mildred Wade: three items of ladies clothing. A dress worn by Rowena Francis Haskins at her wedding to Alfred William Reid on Nov 2, 1929 is a navy blue drop waist dress with a tiered skirt with beige color and cuffs. Mrs. Reid was the donor’s mother. A satin gown with puffed sleeves, a V neck line and smocking at the shoulders with a double peplum was worn by Mrs. Wade at her prom in 1948. Along with this dress she wore a knee length velvet evening coat with mutton sleeves, interlined with wool and lined in taffeta. The coat is in excellent condition. Both of these items were originally owned by Rebecca Ames Thompson in the 1930’s and were given to the young Mildred to wear and keep for her dance .

The Boy Scouts of America now have several items of uniforms included in our collection. These were donated by Janet Clough. They were worn by her husband and sons. The collection includes a red wool leaders jacket complete with 5 patches, a red wool beret, two leaders shirts with 7 patches each, a Troop 57 neckerchief, a Camp Child staff T shirt, a Cub Scout neckerchief, a long sleeved scouts shirt with Troop 57 patches, 2 short sleeved shirts with patches, a pair of leaders pants, two pair of knee sox, and a pair of shorts. All of these items were used between 1965 and 1985.

Our most recent acquisition is a child’s leather high top shoe about 4 inches long . It is made of black and tan leather and was worn in 1910 by Eric Kolman’s grandfather. The shoe is in every good condition. Most of these items have been recorded and stored in our system ready for display. We hope they will help you recall some happy times and educate our younger friends of “how it was”. -Janet Clough

Memorial Donations

Charles Starkowsky: Robert and Dawn Bellay, Chris Peduto, Joan DiMatteo, Ardis Johnston, and Dwight Mac Kerron. For Mary Kelleher: Dennis Lyons. Warren Ross made a donation toward a Historical Society membership to go to the student who writes the best essay on Abraham Lincoln. Chris Peduto for Lorraine F. Roche Correction: Anne Foster made a contribution to the Glover documentation fund, which should have been noted earlier.

Membership

New Members: Mary Lou Giordano, Michael Alexander & family, Nancy Robichau, Norma Freitas, Mary Therese and John O’Connor, Barbara Smith, Trish Kelleher Lentine, Kristen Vasconcelos & family, Eleazar and Karla Chavez.