USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Dedham > Dedham tercentenary 1636-1936 > Part 4
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The fourth loss of Dedham's territory occurred in 1711 when Needham was incor- porated. The preceding year, 45 families in that section applied for a charter, giving as reasons, the fact that so many of them lived from six to ten miles from the Dedham Church, rendering it "utterly impossible for us with our families duly to attend on the public worship of God there . . . and that the Lord of the Universe who hath made man for his own service takes no pleasure in seeing such a number of families as we are arrived unto, content themselves like the brute creature, to graze upon the earth and to starve our own soul and the souls of our poor children, whom he hath given us the charge of." And further they described that "by reason the water being high" at some seasons, "we can neither attend Church Meetings, Town Meetings, nor School Meetings, and so lose all our privileges at once." And finally, they asserted that they did not wish to be made merely a precinct of Dedham, since a precinct being usually in the minority and "the weaker party," has frequently "met with such hard measures from their own as are hard to bear." Dedham opposed this petition, but on advice of the General Court exempted the petitioners from paying taxes for support of the Dedham Minister, pro- vided they would supply a preacher for themselves, and Dedham granted to them a 133 acre lot for the preacher's support. The General Court finally granted the petition, November 5, 1711, "provided they do provide and honorably support a learned Ortho- dox Minister of good conversation to reside with them."
The fifth loss of Dedham's territory occurred in 1719, when the town of Belling- ham was incorporated. The territory included in it lay at the most southwesterly part of Dedham. In 1692 and 1698, committees sent out from Dedham reported that the land there was exposed to Indian attack and that the soil was poor and not worth while laying out in a dividend (as the division of the common lands was termed) among the proprietors; but in 1698, another committee reported as to 2100 acres which the proprie- tors decided to divide by lot in 100 acres portion. A few years later, several Baptists from over the border in Rhode Island decided to purchase and settle in this region. In 1706, "Nicholas Cook on behalf of himself and several of his neighbors being new beginners, and some of them very poor," asked Dedham for relief from town taxes for two years, and it was granted. In 1708 and 1714, settlers bought from Dedham proprietors, a suf- ficient number of acres to pasture 22 cows, that is, 22 "Cow commons." Finally in 1718, twenty heads of families petitioned the General Court to incorporate them as a separate town, since they "were about twenty miles distant from Dedham and being very remote from the publick worship of God . . . and that they have little or no benefit of town privileges or . . . benefit of the school"; and on November 27, 1719, they became the new town of Bellingham.
By the incorporation of Walpole, December 10, 1724, for much the same reasons, Dedham suffered her sixth loss of territory. By this time, since all these new town char- ters were due to the hardships arising from the obligation of distant settlers to pay for the support of the church and the school in the original Town, the General Court, in order to prevent further splitting up into separate towns, adopted the device of estab- lishing new parishes or precincts in the old town; and it was thus that Dedham's Second or South Parish (called Tiot) was incorporated in 1730: the Third or West Parish (called Clapboardtrees ) in 1736; and the Fourth or Springfield Parish, in 1748. By this device, the creation of the new towns, respectively, of Norwood, Westwood, and Dover was postponed for over a century. Prior to the establishment of parishes like these, not only Dedham, but many other Massachusetts towns, might have retained much of their original broad areas, had it not been for the rigid law as to taxes for Church support. (19)
And now, what was the history of that portion of the Town which remained after all these secessions of its outlying regions.
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V.
In portraying the life of the Town since those early days, it is fitting to begin with the part it has played in the Nation's wars. Its early settlers, as I have said, were peacefully minded; and of the friendly disposition of their neighbors, a vote in the early town records of Dorchester, November 13, 1648, gives amusing proof, as follows:
Loving neighbors, whereas we understand that you have unawares trespassed upon a swamp lying within our bounds contrary unto a court order and that you wish it may not be offensive unto us. and for that end you propose unto us that you might give some neighborly consideration for that which is fallen . . . these are to signify unto you that we look upon what is done with as much neighborly patience as we can and are willing to correspond with you upon fair terms; . . . to agree with you upon neighborly terms about it. . . . and in the meantime, we wish you to trespass no further upon us and either in remov- ing any fallen (trees) or felling any more. And so we rest your loving neighbors.
But the Indians did not permit a continuance of peace. As early as November 25, 1636, Dedham voted that "being far remote from other towns so that it is requisite we should enjoy what number of people we may for our better safety from danger as also for other comforts depending therein" all lot owners should improve their lots within a year. On May 11, 1637, it was voted that as the "evile disposition on the natives hath caused us of late to undergo much watching and wardings," all were ordered to pay two shillings for munition and general defence; and Thomas Cakebread, "upon con- sideration of his knowledge of marshall affayers," was invited from Watertown to train the Town's military men, and (as has been said) "to lend the terror of his martial name" for the security of Dedham. On August 12, 1645, the General Court ordered that in view of "the great danger that Concord, Sudbury, and Dedham will be exposed unto, being inland towns and thinly peopled," no man then settled in those towns should remove to any other town without the permission of a magistrate, "until it shall please God to settle peace again or some other way of safety to the said towas."
From that day to this-a fact that is not always realized by those who believe that Americans are a peaceful people-from 1636 to 1936, no person born in Dedham has lived to his fifty-second year without having passed through at least two wars in those fifty-two years. Before our 100th Anniversary, Dedham men had fought in the Pequot Indian War in 1637, in the expedition against the Niantic Indians in Connecti- cut in 1655; in the bloody fights of King Philip's War in 1675-1676; and Dedham men had served in the Quebec expedition under Sir William Phips in 1690. Between the 100th and 150th Anniversaries,, the first war in which Dedham men took part was in South America, directed at the capture of far-off Carthagena-an expedition com- manded by Admiral Vernon (under whom Lawrence Washington served and for whom he named his estate "Mount Vernon"), and an expedition from which only $5 of the $00 men sent out by Massachusetts ever returned. Four years later, Dedham men fought at Louisburg in Cape Breton during the French and Indian War of 1745. In the 1750's they fought at Ticonderoga and at Crown Point and in Nova Scotia during Queen Anne's War. A company of minute men and four militia companies from the different parishes (nearly 300 in all) had gone from Dedham to the Concord-Lexington fight on the morning of April 19, 1775; and over 650 Dedham men had served in the War of the Revolution. Between the 150th and the 200th Anniversaries, there occurred the Shays Rebellion in 1787, the Naval War with France in 1798, and the War of 1812. (20)
At this point, let me make a slight digression to recall the little known fact that, in 1814, war came fairly near to the borders of the Town. In May of that year, Col.
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Eustis' regiment of flying artillery was recruiting here and had its barracks on West- field Street, opposite the corner of Haven Street. In June, the British burned vessels at Cohasset and Scituate; Gloucester and Salem harbors were blockaded, Plymouth attacked, and Nantucket captured. In July, the British fleet came into Boston Harbor and lay off Gallups Island and the Graves. In June 17, our Dr. Nathaniel Ames recorded in his Diary that "seven loads of heavy money of Union Bank of Boston was lodged in Ded- ham bank vaults." On September 17, Dr. Ames recorded "vast stores naval, military lodged in Dedham"; and on September 12, he noted that a Dedham company moved to Boston for defense. (And on October 20, "soldiers return from garrison at Dorchester, South Boston.")
To resume our military record-before the 250th Celebration, the War with Mexico had been fought; and the Civil War, in which 611 Dedham men were enlisted. And after the 250th Anniversary, 34 men from Dedham served in the Spanish War in 1898; and 642 men in the World war (443 in the Army, 147 in the Navy, and 52 in the Marine Corps).
It is fitting, therefore, that, as each Anniversary has arrived, tribute should have been paid to the devotion of these citizens who served Town and Nation so well. And no man, woman, or child should now pass that tablet in Memorial Hall, or that monu- ment in the Old Burial Ground, or that memorial in the American Legion grounds, without bowed head or raised hat, in reverent honor to those who gave up their lives for their country.
VI
And yet, while town histories should contain these particulars of the patriotism of their citizens, it must also be borne in mind that wars, while affecting the destiny of the Nation as a whole, do not vitally alter the character and development of the town as a town. Dedham would probably be much the same town that it is, even if not one of these wars (other than the War of the Revolution) had occurred. For the vital factors in the growth and vigor of a town are things of peace, not of war. It is to such factors that I now wish to direct your attention. What are the real matters which have changed the life of this Town and the lives of its citizens?
First, let us look at Dedham at the 150th Anniversary, when it had completed one half of its present history. The Dedham of 1786, it should be noted, was not essentially different from the Dedham of 1686. Although it had lost the territory included in the old towns of Medfield, Natick, Deerfield, Wrentham, Bellingham, and Walpole, Dedham in 1786 still remained a scattered farming community, having less than 2,000 inhabitants, with a central village consisting of less than one hundred houses, in which lived, in general, mechanics, farm owners, and a few professional men. The chief changes since 1686, had been the establishment of an Episcopal Church (in 1761) and of three new schools-the East Street (in 1717, renamed the Endicott in 1867), the Dexter (in 1774), and the Avery (in 1784). In the next fifty years after 1786, however, very vital changes occurred here. In the first place, in 1793, Dedham became the shire town of the new Norfolk County, and this brought new residents, traffic, and professional business to the Town. The Court was at first held in the Meeting-house, whence (on January 7, 1799); it was "by reason of coldness imme- diately adjourned to the 'Sign of the Law Book' " -- the Ames Tavern. In 1796, the first Court-house (a wooden building) was completed on a site across Court Street next to the present house of Mrs. Walter Austin; but it is interesting to note that it was not large enough to accommodate the crowd of spectators which gathered for Dedham's famous murder case in 1801, so that the trial was actually held in the First Parish Meeting-house. The wooden jail stood near on Highland Street, and a tree near by
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was used as a whipping post, at the corner of Church and Court Streets. The gallows were erected on the Town Common and under them were sometimes buried the bodies of criminals executed. (21)
Accompanying its promotion to shire town, Dedham acquired, in 1794, its first postoffice (in the Shuttleworth house on the site of the Dedham Historical Society building). And two years later, in 1796, its first newspaper was published-the Columbia Minerva, since which date, the Town has lacked a paper in only one year (viz. 1812).
In the year 1804, came the opening of the new turnpike road to Providence (the Norfolk and Bristol Turnpike) which made Dedham a center for travel; and shortly after, came the Middle Turnpike to Hartford. Already, journey by foot and chaise and horseback had given way to the stage-coach. Times had changed since Johnson in his Wonder-Working Providence had written in 1654: "The corn and commodities of the most populous town (Boston) allure the Dedham people to many a long walk." They had even changed since John Adams wrote, July 25, 1775: "Mrs. Cranch and I took our chaise and went to hear Mr. Haven of Dedham and we had no occasion to repent eleven miles ride." In 1792, the Boston stage had begun its regular trips from Boston; and the New York mail coach ran three times a week in 1795 (and daily after 1814). (22) By the year 1832, thirty coaches were leaving Boston early every morning for New York.
With all this new impetus to the Town as a center, there came naturally an increase in its taverns, and to the old Fisher (Ames or Woodward) Tavern (torn down in 1817), there were added Polley's Tavern (Alden's, or Bride's) on the corner of Washington and High Streets; Timothy Gay's Tavern at the corner of Court and Highland Streets; the Howes or Punch Bowl Tavern on the corner of Church and Court Streets (23); and Martin Marsh's on Court Street (afterward Gragg and Alden's, or the Norfolk House ) .
It is singular to recall now that the turnpike, while a benefit and improvement, was bitterly opposed by the conservatives of that time (as one hundred years later, the street railroad was opposed). The farmers in the outlying parishes were particularly hostile. Dr. Ames in his Diary makes frequent mention of this antagonism. On February 25, 1802, noting that Dedham's Representative in the Legislature, Ebenezer Fisher, voted against the turnpike, he wrote:
"It seems very extraordinary that a man honored with the confidence of this town to act as their legislator should prove such a traitor as to wish to divert the road, the travel, all that animates the town. It's part of an ancient preju- dice against the Old Parish, I believe."
On May 19, he wrote: "Great commotion about the course of turnpike thro' Dedham. Many dread it, as bad as a standing army, to spunge them of money!". On May 31, he wrote:
"At the May meeting in Dedham to choose Representatives, it was not Republicans, or Federalism, that governed the choice but the rage against turnpikes that induced the other parishes to attend early and precipitate the choice of a man that wished to leave the town desolate, to turn the great roads from it and have no public travel thro' it."
With the Courts, the post, and the turnpike, there came a burst of housebuilding. In 1792, the land which now lies between Court, Norfolk, Church and School Streets, and also the land on High Street between Maple Place and Wigwam Brook and around
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the Square (about one hundred and thirty four acres) came into the possession of the Episcopal Church, under the will of young Samuel Colburn (who had died in 1756, leaving to his mother a life estate in his lands). During the fifteen years after 1792, most of the houses on this property were erected, as well as the houses of Samuel Haven, Fisher Ames, Edward Dowse, and Elisha Thayer, in the center of the Town, while some of the houses on Federal Hill and at Connecticut Corner also date from that period. In 1801, the First Parish Church in an advertisement of the sale of leases of some of its land near the Meeting-house, stated that: "The soil is good, the situation excellent for mechanics and such as wish to live retired in a pleasant village on the banks of the Charles River."
Following the advent of turnpikes, there came also a development of manufactur- ing and other corporations here. (24) As early as March, 1803, the Columbian Minerva published an article on Dedham's capabilities for manufacturing. Here again, considerable opposition arose from the farmers. More mills meant raising of dams and consequent flooding of hay and pasturage meadows The mill owners were the "big business" of that day and the target for abuse. In 1794, Eliphalet Pond wrote of the "desolating effects of the aristocracy established in the bosom of equality," due to mill privileges granted; and he stated that the settlers on the rivers "find their natural rights stolen from them and their best property at the mercy" of millers, who were likely to remain the "lucky favorites," so long as "the rage for factories" prevailed. In spite of this feeling, however, the Norfolk Cotton Manufacturing Company factory was estab- lished on Mother Brook in 1807-08, which prospered during the days of Embargo and the War of 1812, but which failed after the War. A few years later (in 1823 ) Ben- jamin Bussey established on Mother Brook his woolen mills ---- the origin of the wealth which he later bequeathed to Harvard College to found the Bussey Institute. I7 1834, the stone mill for cotton was built on Mother Brook The settlement in the neighbor- hood of the mills began to be known as "Mill Village" about the year 1806, when High Street was first laid out from East Street to Boyden Square (the road thither in earlier days having been through Walnut Street).
In 1814, another novelty in the Town was the establishment of a bank, in the Nathaniel Guild brick house on Court Street and it is amusing to find Dr. Nathaniel Ames ranged in opposition, because of the fact that the moving parties and first direc- tors were mostly Federalist in politics and-even worse than that, in his eyes-they were lawyers. (25) In 1825, the first mutual fire insurance company was established here; and in 1831, the Dedham Institution for Savings was incorporated. In 1829, the Town discontinued holding its Town-meetings in the old First Parish Meeting-house, and it erected a Town-house on Bullard Street opposite County Street, in which Town affairs were conducted for forty years thereafter. About this same time (in 1825), the brick town schoolhouse, which stood on the site of the first schoolhouse near the Meeting-house was taken down, and the Centre School (later named the Ames School) was built (in 1822) on Back Street (renamed School Street ). In 1831, the Town voted to purchase a fire engine, though as early as 1800 and 1802 volunteer fire com- panies with hand engines had been established at Connecticut Corner and in the Central Village.
Three new activities in the Town should not fail of notice. The first, was the installation of the Constellation Lodge of Masons in the First Parish Meeting-house in 1803, and the building of its Hall in 1829. The second was the organization of the "Detecting Society in Dedham," later changed to "The Society in Dedham for Appre- hending Horse Thieves," which met at Marsh's Tavern from 1810 to 1849. The third was the Dedham Light Infantry which flourished in the 1820's and 1830's.
It is interesting to note that to many of these improvements, and particularly to the lawyers promoting them, the farmers remained hostile, especially those who lived
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outside the old Village and whose votes controlled the town. But Erastus Worthington, in his History of Dedham, wrote in 1827: "Not many years will expire before the influ- ence of the Village will be felt, before husbandry will be of much less comparative importance, when manufacturers, traders, professional men and mechanics will exercise their influence." And he called on the farmers ("the yeomanry") to depart from their rigid exclusion of all other classes, especially from "their aversion to the profession of the law." For one hundred and fifty years, he said, the original dislike to attorneys "had increased and gradually became a distinct trait of character, transmitted from generation by the influence of habit and hereditary, sympathy and nothing in all that time has occurred to counteract it." And he added that "many towns like Dedham exhi- bited a strong inclination to unite in some scheme to blow the whole legal fraternity"- the Pettifogarchy, as Dr. Nathaniel Ames used to term them in his Diary. (26)
One reason for the anti-corporation and anti-lawyer sentiment was the political division in the Town, for they took their politics very hard in those days. In previous Town Addresses, little notice has been taken of this topic; yet politics play a consider- able part in the life of a community. During the first thirty years of our National life, the large majority of voters in Dedham were strongly Anti-federalist and Jeffer- sonian in their views. In fact, Norfolk County, together with Middlesex, Bristol and Northern Berkshire, were the strong-holds of the Anti-federalist party. In the Town itself, the Clapboardtrees Parish ( Westwood) was Anti-federalist, the South Parish (Norwood) was Federalist, and the main Village or Old Parish was divided. In general, the farmers and the older men who recalled the Revolution were Anti-federalist, while the business men, the lawyers, and the clergy were mostly Federalist, with Fisher Ames leading them against his political opponents, whom he termed "Jacobins," "Gallic jack- als" and of whom he wrote: "For talents as statesmen, the New England Jacobins leaders are despicable; their ignorance of commerce, of finance . . . is obvious. . . . All that is base, is J'cobin." In 1802, he wrote: "the extinction of Federalism would be followed by the ruin of the wise, rich and good." And, again: "the only chance of safety lies in the revival of the energy of the Federalists who alone will or can preserve liberty, property, or Constitution." How familiar those words sound today! On the other hand, Dr. Nathaniel Ames, his brother, was a leading Anti-federalist or Jacobin and indulged in equally strong epithets as to his Federalist fellow-citizens, whom he termed "Royalists," "speculators," "disorganizers," "Lobster princes," "the British party,"- "the reign of Devilism." Politics ran so high in 1806, 1808, 1809 and 1810, that the two political parties here had to hold separate meetings to celebrate the Fourth of July. Dr. Ames even refused to attend his brother Fisher's funeral in 1808, beause it was to be held under Federalist auspices. Politics even entered the Church, and the Rev- erend Mr. Bates' political views and activities had much to do with the dissentions in the old First Parish, which, combined with religious difference, led to the establishment of the Congregational Church in 1819. As I have said, in its early days, Dedham was strongly Anti-federalist and Democratic in its voting. It favored Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe for President. In 1824 and 1828, however, its support was given almost unanimously to its friend and neighbor from Quincy-John Quincy Adams; and owing to the influence of the protective tariff, the increase of mills and business interests in the Town, and the rise of the Anti-Masonic party, it cast a heavy vote for Henry Clay against Andrew Jackson in 1832, and for Daniel Webster against Martin Van Buren in 1836. (27)
Interest in politics must have been considerably enlivened in the Town by the fact that three Presidents of the United States were entertained here in the seventeen years between 1817 and 1833-James Monroe who spent the night in the Edward Dowse house (now owned by Dr. Halsted) and who received the citizens at Polley's Tavern, in 1817; John Quincy Adams who attended the ceremonies in the First Parish Meeting House, in 1826, in commemoration of the deaths of Adams and Jefferson; and
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Andrew Jackson who dined at the Norfolk House, in 1833. The visit of General Lafayette in 1824 was also a stirring episode.
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