JAN-FEB-MARCH – 2014

Upcoming Events

March 16 - 2:00 P. M. In honor of Women's History Month, independent scholar Michelle Marchetti Coughlin will give a presentation on her recent book, One Colonial Woman’s World: The Life and Writings of Mehetabel Chandler Coit. (See below for more details.)  We will also vote on a short amendment/addition to our by-laws, which we need to have approved by two-thirds of the members present, in order to remain a tax-exempt organization.   The new sentence would comprise Article II e : “Said organization is organized exclusively for charitable, religious, educational, and scientific purposes, including, for such purposes, the making of distributions to organizations that qualify as exempt organizations under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code.”

April 27 2:00 P.M.  Weather permitting, we will have a tour of the Pearl Street cemetery, led by our cemetery expert,  Vice President David Allen Lambert.

May 18  2:00 P. M.  William Marvell, author of a number of books and scores of articles on the Civil War will give a lecture “The Soldiers of ’62: Nine Month Men and Volunteers for the Long Haul.”  Mr. Marvell will focus on two regiments with prominent Stoughton, Canton, and Randolph connections: the Nine month 4th Mass. of Charles Eaton, Jedediah Bird, Ira Drake, and James Dargan and the 35th Mass. of Captain Horace Niles, Edward Waldo, Henry Monk, Augustus Avery Capen, George, Edgar, and M. B. Hawes.  Mr. Marvell will not focus specifically on these familiar names, which have become known to some of us through the Eaton and Waldo diaries, but on the respective roles of the two regiments in the war.

Here is an overview of the book written by our speaker on March 16:

One Colonial Woman’s World reconstructs the life of Mehetabel Chandler Coit (1673–1758), the author of what may be the earliest surviving diary by an American woman. A native of Roxbury, Massachusetts, who later moved to Connecticut, Mehetabel began her diary at the age of fifteen and kept it intermittently until she was well into her seventies. A previously overlooked resource, the diary contains entries on a broad range of topics as well as poems, recipes, folk and herbal medical remedies, religious meditations, financial accounts, and even some humor. An extensive collection of letters by Mehetabel and her female relatives has also survived, shedding further light on her experiences.

It is clear from the surviving writings that Mehetabel lived a rich and varied life, not only running a household and raising a family, but reading, writing, traveling, transacting business, and maintaining a widespread network of family, social, and commercial connections. While her experiences were circumscribed by gender norms of the day, she took a lively interest in the world around her and played an active role in her community.

Mehetabel’s long life covered an eventful period in American history, and this book explores the numerous—and sometimes surprising—ways in which her personal experiences were linked to broader social and political developments. It also provides insight into the lives of countless other colonial American women whose history remains largely untold.

One Colonial Woman’s World was released in paperback and hardcover by the University of Massachusetts Press in December 2012.  More information at http://www.onecolonialwomansworld.com/

President’s Report

We held an Open House on December 7, the late afternoon and evening of the Holiday Parade.   The cold weather led a number of families to come inside, warm up in our building, and partake of our refreshments.   Alas, we did not pick up any new memberships, but were pleased to provide a service for the Town, which contributes so much to the upkeep of the Lucius Clapp Memorial.

Much of our time and energy in the last several months has been devoted to replacing three older display cases and several tables at Historical Society with eight display cases, two glass towers, and four large, glass-faced cabinets, which had been used to display fine jewelry for many years at the former Wyman’s Jewelers. We also acquired two more cases from the Canton Historical Society and gave our three “extra” cases to the Sharon Historical Society.

The new cases, while in generally fine condition, were in need of considerable cleaning and refurbishment.  Joe DeVito has had his eye on these cabinets for the better part of a decade, and finally, after some recent follow-up inquiries from Ruthie Fitzpatrick, the owner of the property Dewey Dykeman and tenant Steve Panico of Rowlands TV generously agreed to let us have them.  We hired local movers

R & D to make the transfer in early January and have been working on them ever since.  Archivist Richard Fitzpatrick has taken a special interest and has put by far the most hours into the work, including re-wiring of the light panels inside the display cases and painting the cabinets from Canton.   To make room for two of the cases, we moved the fine large oak unit (the old library card catalogue drawers and magazine display racks) from the Clapp Room into the office and hired one of our advertisers, Joe Canning, a fine plasterer, to repair the wall behind it.  Considerable cleaning and moving of the display cases has been done by Brian Daly, Ruth Fitzpatrick, Denise Peterson, Janet Clough, Joe and Jeanne DeVito, Evelyn Callanan, and our new volunteer, Linda Woodward.  Your intrepid President assisted in the above and with the help of assorted sons and grandchildren brought over the cabinets from Canton.  Karen Dropps has helped in the arranging of our exhibits, a task which will continue for some time.

In January and most of February, our meeting space in the Jones Room was full of display cases, which were either arriving, departing, or being disassembled, cleaned, and re-assembled, leaving us nowhere to hold a meeting in February.  We hope that many of you can attend our meeting on March 16 and see our new look!!

We thank the new President of the Old Stoughton Musical Society, Renee LeBlanc and her husband John, who is Vice President, for the considerable snow-shoveling they have done this winter to help keep our building accessible.  Several times, Brian Daly, Richard Fitzpatrick and/or I arrived, prepared for substantial shoveling, only to find that it had already been done.

Regis College graduate student/intern Karen Dropps writes: I recently finished a display which showcases four women of the Capen family: Florence Capen, Matilda (Gill) Capen, Bessie Tilson Capen, and Bertha Capen Reynolds. Displayed are examples of  Florence’s artwork, photos of all the ladies, books, and other memorabilia of their lives.  All of these women were exceptional, as were many other members of the Capen family. Florence was a crayon artist, and was schooled in Boston.  Matilda was a house wife, who at her death at 103 was still a helpful hand around the house.  Bessie Tilson Capen started an all-girls preparatory school in Northampton, MA on the campus of Smith College, where she prepared girls to enter into college.  Bertha Capen Reynolds played an integral part in the field of social work; her textbook on the field is still used today, and she was an active member in our historical society.

Volunteer Matt Orell has been transcribing the David Talbot Diary, 1789-1791 on Tuesdays and his work is continued on Thursday evenings by new volunteers, Briget and Niko Yaitanes.  Niko is a junior at Stoughton High School and his mother Briget has been working with him.

Not long after the Dunbar journal program, George Comeau of the Canton Historical Society informed me that he had found an old David Talbot journal.   I went over and took pictures of all the original pages, only to later find that we have a transcription of our own in Newton Talbot’s neat hand-writing.  This is the copy which our volunteers are transcribing, but we now also have the images of the original for cross-checking.  Newton Talbot, one of the early presidents of our Society, who copied hundreds of pages of Dorchester and Stoughton records, also added a Talbot family tree of sorts, but its complexity requires more unraveling before one can say anything more specific than that David Talbot is one of Newton Talbot’s ancestors.

Most of the diary consists of the documentation of the farm labor or wood-working, which David Talbot performs  for himself and for others in the community such as “Dada Capen” and “Uncle Capen.” Among the many items he makes or repairs are flax brakes, wheelbarrows, ladels, pot lids, grindstone cranks, reels, sleds, wooden pails for a variety of purposes, spinning wheels, chair bottoms, wash benders, and skimming dishes.   He always writes a few sentences on the Sunday church services, mentioning the minister and the theme of the sermon, usually signified by a Bible verse. He mentions town meetings, library meetings and notable deaths in the community. David records sailing upon and fishing in York and Ponkapoag Ponds, sometimes bringing home fifteen, twenty, or more fish.

As with most journals of the period, David does not reveal many emotions.  He writes that he was married on April 14, 1789 “by Mr (Jedediah) Adams at Mr Capen’s,” but he neglects to record the name of the woman he married.  He does record that he split rails in the morning. However, two weeks later later he writes, “Read letters and numbered items. There was thirty letters I sent to Hitty, but one lost.”  Here we learn that he had sent thirty letters to his wife-to-be Hitty, who as we learn from town records is Mehetible Capen.   Soon after the marriage, she goes with David to live in  “John Capen’s house” for which they pay a sum to Theophilus Capen, who also lives in the house with them.

At about this time David Talbot begins to use some simple diagrams at the beginning of his entries, which appear to be symbols for farm tasks such as plowing, hoeing, weeding, rail-splitting, fence building, spreading flax, haying, and possibly whether he spent half a day or a full day at the task.  Unfortunately, he does not provide a key for the symbols, but we are making progress in understanding a few of them. Talbot relates an incident where two members of a neighboring Native-American family, the Mohos, are strongly suspected of stealing and slaughtering one of Mr Hawes’s sheep.  After the still warm skin of the sheep is found, a warrant is filed against George and Asa Moho.  A month later, Talbot writes, “George Moho tried,” but he does not reveal the results of the trial.

Ezra Tilden, the Revolutionary War veteran (two of whose diaries we have published) is apparently related to David Talbot, who often visits the Tilden household.  “Attended the family meeting at Ezra Tildens all day.”  And several weeks later, we read the fascinating tidbit “Mr Tilden and his wife are back together.”  We know from Ezra Tilden’s diary that Tildens, Mohos, and Hawses all served (and often together) as soldiers in the Revolutionary War.  George, Asa, and Samuel Moho and John Hawes went with EzraTilden to Claverick in 1779, and during one period of that campaign, they and two other men are all in the same “mess” (eat their meals together from the supply gathered by the mess leader, Ezra Tilden) and reside in the same room, “7 men, in that Little Room; I think, &c”. (Ezra Tilden’s Diary, Nov. 16, 1779.)  Near the end of their brief enlistment, Samuel Moho and John Hawes accept a note or cash from Ezra Tilden, who later collects their pay from town treasurer Elijah Dunbar. Ezra Tilden’s closest friend in the Claverick campaign appears to have been Samuel Capen, who is mentioned in Talbot’s diary. Tilden and Capen travel home together. “N:B: Saml Capen, & I, go home together: we did keep together, pretty much, a coming-up: &, we have lain together ev’ry night, since we came from home: I think, & C.” (Tilden Nov 25, 1779) “&, that night, Saml Capen gave me 15 s. & 6 d. L.m. for me to write him a journal, of his travels, in the campaign, after I get home; I think, &c.” (Tilden, Nov. 26, 1779, although he may be referring to an earlier date.)   In any case, one reason the Talbot diary is interesting is that it gives us a view of the lives of some of these Revolutionary War veterans in the York neighborhood ten years later.

A few excerpts from 1789:

• (1789  April) “14th Split rails for John Capen on Uncle’s account. PM. I was married by Mr. Adams at Mr. Capens. (Town records (The returns of Marriage from Mr Jedediah Adams indicate that he married Mehetible Capen.)
• 15th Spent the morning at Dadda Capen’s. Laid up some wall that had fell down + c. PM Went to a lecture Mr. Curtis St. John 10.=18. No man taketh etc.
• 16th Split holed and sharpened posts and rails for J. Capen.
• 17th Set fence dug stones and underpinned for J. Capen. PM 3 O’clock went and helped Mr. Recompence Wadsworth raise his barn frame- he had plenty of hands
• 18th Dug stones for Uncle Capen AM. PM went to York to talk with Theophilus Capen +c+c
• 19th Sunday Sacrament Day Mr. Jedediah Tucker preached St. John 7-37-. In the last day that great day of the feast etc.
• 20th Drawed stones and made wall for Uncle Capen
• 21st Put up gaps of wall at York for Uncle Capen
• 22nd Pruned apple trees at York for Uncle Capen
• 23rd Dug stones for Uncle Capen
• 24th Stayed at Dada Capen’s . Tied knots in a cover lid  Read letters and numbered items. There was thirty letters I sent to Hitty, but one lost (Hitty is undoubtedly the woman who became his wife, Mehetible Capen.)
• …25th Went to Mr. Theophilus Capen’s agreed with him to have the improvement of John Capen’s house and house lot and barn with 10 acres of land in being part pasture and village land and some wood which lay at the door for which I gave him a not(e) for 3  6 – also bought a cow and calf 3-18 or ?3-1-8 and paid him 2-7-6. PM went to Mr. Samuel Wales and bought 4s.-3d. and c.
• 26th Sunday- Mr. Adams   Heb. 11-17.18.19 By faith Abraham etc. Mr Elijah Monk has a child baptized Zilpah. Mr. Seth Pierce and wife made their confession owned the Covenant and had a child baptized Thatcher,
• 27th Worked at York   J. Capen helped me put up fences
• 28th Moved to York to a house belonging to John Capen we lived with Mr. Theophilus Capen. Dug up some in his garden with a pick.
• …June 11th  made a skimming dish +c     set out beets
• 12th (flat oval L, which I believe means hoe, possibly plant) corn for dada Capen  see sister A Bancroft
• 13th (flat oval with no hoe  went fishing caught 16 hoed? potatoes and beans  set out – some beets sister Abigail B was here +c
• 14th Sunday  Mr Alden at Braintree  John 10 14 “I am the good shepard etc.  Sacrement day The Church renews their Covenant.   PM Matthew 13 24-30 v inc The Parable of the tares among wheat.
• 15th (sideways capital A plowing? and L hoeing?) corn  Joseph Capen Theo & Eliz Wentworth – had uncle Capen’s horse to plow (indicating that the sideways A probably is plowing)
• 16th  Finished weeding   cut some wood L (hoed) in the garden  PM Hoed potatoes for Elizabeth
• 17th  Planted corn for Uncle Capen  PM Picked the geese got bark  - Cool weather for several days.
• 18th  work for Dada Capen  L (hoed) came home by pond
• 19th went to Ponkapoag Pond – sailed round the pond   Joseph Capen and I caught about 24 fish +c PM put up a piece of wall  went after poplar and sassafras bark – L (hoed) in the garden
• 20th  set out beets in the garden  good weather
• 21st Sunday  Mr Blodgett at Braintree Heb 11-4 “By faith Abel etc  PM Mark 10-21 “one thing thou lackest.”
• 22nd  worked for Elijah Wentworth  making fence in his pasture
• 23rd  Capt. White of Braintree died June 21 aged 7- --i—went to Uncle Capens got 3 1/16 lbs pork  AM PM Hoed in the garden and set out some plants
• 24th L in the garden L and pitched hay for Uncle Capen
• 25th ------ worked for Wentworth       split wood
• 26th Sunday Mr. Sawyer at Braintree. Matt. 5-16
• 27th pulled flax picked huckleberries &c
• 28th to Mrs. Jordan Mrs. Leeds Mrs. Wentworth Mrs. Hall Mrs. Lois
• 29th L corn for Mrs. Janus Tucker
• 30th L  I for Mr. Benjamin Tucker in Cropman Meadow
• 31st ~R—x cleaned out – the cellar+ Lit (?) yard and garden. PM went to Dady Capen’s hooped a tub and mended two rakes this for noon was gone August the first &c &c
• (…September)  “27th M-----_R Sunday Mr. Strong Matt 5= 25-26 “Agree with thine adversary” etc
• 28th Pick apples PM Cut wood on Bear Swamp Island
• 29th Went to Dea Capen’s mill Mr. Benj Tucker Mr. Ely Wentworth Mr. Levi Hawes and my self went to (?). Mr Tucker found some… lamb that was warm.   Mr. Tucker, Mr. Hawes + I went to George Mohos but we found none there. Mr. Tucker and Hawes went and found the skin with the head on; but the ears were cut off which Mr. Tucker found.   The lamb was Mr. Hawes’s. He went and got a warrant for G[eorge] and Asa Moho. Jabon (?) Fisher came and I went to Capt Bents to Court &c.
• 30th  Picked apples PM went Mr. Adams lecture, Mr. Curtis, James 4 7 ~ Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him it is sin” – Drawd Meads (?) almost a Christian?
• Fair weather. No frost yet to do hurt – it hath been very wet.
• Oct. 1st Picked apples – took up flax – got a hogs-head at W.H. (William Henry’s
• 2nd Pick apples dug potatoes & sundries
• 3rd Dug potatoes and sundries
• 4th --/\--  Sunday sacrament day 1 Cor. 11-27.29 Matt 11-28 “come unto me” etc.
• 5th – Put stones in the cellar. Mrs. Tucker made my cider.
• 6th ---R--- worked on the way 2 hours – fetch in 28 pails of cider
• 7th     I     I lost (?) above one barrel of cider by reason of rotten hoops on Mr. Henry’s hogshead – dug potatoes – 20 bushels”

We have acquired a number of items in the last few months, but are behind schedule in cataloguing them, because of the work on our new display cases.  However, I will mention a couple of the acquisitions: We acquired the Nathaniel French ledger from a seller in Georgia.  It details credits and debits from 1793 into the 1800’s.  It mentions Stoughton and has accounts with Stoughton/Canton names such as other French and Porter, but the closest Nathaniel French of this period we can find in records is a man from Walpole. French buys and sells a lot of shoes and farm products, and we look forward to further study of this old volume at a future time.

We received an 1817 hand-written militia order from Lemuel Drake to Eliphalet Monk Jr. from the H. Stanley Bresnick Foundation of St. Paul, Minnesota.  This order instructs Monk to assemble the militia at the Stoughton meeting house.  Within several years, this militia was replaced by the Stoughton Grenadiers. It seems that the purposes of both organizations had become largely ceremonial, as all the events we can find acknowledged are meetings, parades, and dinners.  We especially thank the Director of the Foundation, George Bresnick for this gift, which will supplement our upcoming program on the Stoughton Grenadiers, now scheduled for the Fall.

During my visits to the Canton Historical Society to take pictures of the David Talbot Diary, I also found excerpts which Huntoon had copied from Colonel John Gay’s diary.  It included the following references in the form of a time-line:

• 1811  Leml and John (Gay) ran their father’s grist mill
• 1814  Gay Cotton Ma Co in the old grist mill privilege of which I used? Own(er) sold out and started at Hez. Gay’s old site sawmill ie
• 1817  Col Drake asked me to work for the Steep Brook Co. as overseer.
• 1821  James White and John Gay formed a partnership. March
• 1824  began to split stones in General Crane’s last Monday (15) for the new factory on the old Beaumont privilege.”  The first references seem to apply to the extended Gay family grist and sawmill privileges on Steep Brook in Stoughton, one of which, as referenced, eventually became the site of the Gay Cotton Manufacturing Company (1813/14) on which we have done considerable research.  I believe that the Steep Brook Co. referenced in the 1817 was about a mile downstream in Canton, but the mention of John White in the 1821 raises the question if the “White Mill” in Stoughton, which is what the old Gay Cotton Factory came to be called, had any association with the aforementioned John White.  Or was it (as we have previously assumed) called the White Mill because the building was white? We have assumed that by 1821, Leonard Hodges was the owner, along with his brother Samuel, who had gone to the Cape Verde Islands.  We also have seen the incorporation papers for a second cotton factory in Stoughton circa 1814, which was owned by several of the Gays, but the location of which, we have not been able to determine.

In Mary D. Wade’s “Trails, Tales, and Taverns,” a chapter in Sharon, Massachusetts: A History, she quotes from the Diary of Col John Gay in relation to events which took place at Cobb’s Tavern:  “Apparently Veterans groups also used the hall. Col. John Gay, whose diary is in the Canton Historical Society, notes on May 27, 1818, “Met at Jona. Cobb’s Inn. (Cobb’s Tavern)  I was elected Col.  Capt. James Blackman Lt. Col. Asa plymptin.” (p.25)  In her footnote, number 70, she references the source: “Diary of Colonel John Gay, Jan 27, 1818 – May 4 1822 (in the files of the Canton Historical Society), manuscript.” (p. 34).  At the moment, the Diary itself cannot be located, but they do have Huntoon’s copied excerpts, as quoted above.

One more addition to our access to old and relevant Stoughton-related diaries came when David Lambert found a Google Books connection to the Diary of Ezekiel Price, which according to Huntoon, who also quotes from it, was “ kept during the early period of the war, by Ezekiel Price, Esq., Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas and Sessions, and for many years chairman of the selectmen of Boston, who came to the Doty tavern before the 1st of May, 1775, and remained during the occupation of Boston by the British troops.”  An online copy of the diary can be found at click here

Clothing Curators Report
Mr John Carle has donated to our collection items that had belonged to his mother and grandmother.  His mother was Harriet Bliss Carle and his grandmother was Elvira Baker. The I tems of clothing date from the very early 1900’s and are 3 women’s blouses, a heavily beaded jacket, and a tiered skirt.  Most of these are in very good condition but the skirt and lace on one of the blouses need extensive repair.  Also included is a stiffened wide brim summer bonnet and a child’s straw hat.  We were also given three completed quilt tops. Two of these are all hand sewn in star patterns and the third is machine stitched in a nine block pattern. We thank Mr. Carle for these donations and look forward to being able to display them for all to see and appreciate.

-Janet Clough

Membership

New Members - Jackie Hues, Stephen Connelly, Dori Frankel, Eric and Karen Dropps, Edward White
Life Members  - Mark and Marilyn Hausammann