USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Dedham > Dedham tercentenary 1636-1936 > Part 5
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From the description which I have thus given of the new factors in the life and business and politics of the Town after its 150th Anniversary, it will be seen that at the time of the celebration of the 200th Anniversary, Dedham had become a very dif- ferent place from what it was in 1786. Yet it is a singular fact that the orator on that occasion did not even mention an event which had happened only two years before and which was destined to affect the development of the Town more than any other thing that had happened since its foundation. This event was the opening of the steam railroad from Boston as far as Canton in September, 1834, and its connection with Dedham by the Readville branch in December of that year. Failure by the orator in 1836 to refer to that event was as extraordinary as if an historian today should omit to notice the arrival since then of the telephone, the automobile, the radio, and the air- plane.
VII.
I have thus pictured Dedham conditions at its 200th Anniversary-an event which our local newspaper said "was celebrated in a style of tasteful elegance and rich display rarely excelled." What changes occurred between that date and the 250th Anniversary in 1886? Fewer really vital ones than in the preceding fifty years, and fewer than have occurred in the years since 1886.
Dedham's manufacturing interests, centered in Mill Village and in South Parish (Norwood), had so increased by 1848 as to include two cotton mills, three woolen mills, one silk mill, a shovel factory, a furnace for iron castings, a paper mill, one factory for fancy and marble paper, several furniture factories, including Russell and Baker's at Connecticut corner-employing about five hundred people.
Perhaps the most important progress of the Town was in the growth of religious influence, as marked by the building of the Baptist Church (in 1843), the Methodist Church (in 1843), and the Catholic Church (in 1857), and in the increase of schools -- the High School being established in 1851 after long and hot opposition, the new Ames Schoolhouse being built in 1859, the Quincy (in 1872), the Oakdale (in 1873), the Islington (in 1876), and the Riverdale (in 1885). This era witnessed also the estab- lishment of the Dedham Historical Society in 1859 and of our first Public Library in 1871, and the dedication of the new stone Memorial Hall in 1868 in place of the old wooden Town-house. Among other material changes, there would be mentioned the introduction of steam power on all railroad trains (in 1843 ), the building of the present stone jail (in 1850), the organization of the Fire Department (in 1858), the beginning of street lighting by gas (in 1869), and the advent of our first steam fire engine (in 1872). Probably the thing which most clearly changed living conditions in the Town occurred in 1882 when the Dedham Water Company began operation, with consequent hydrant fire protection for the Town; and it is difficult now to realize that only a little over fifty years ago, we all depended on private wells and pumps and springs, and that the only protection against fire were the small scattered town reservoirs and the brooks and the river. Within those fifty years, living conditions were also vitally altered by the arrival of the telegraph and the telephone. In that period, Dedham lost the territory now included in Norwood (in 1872) ; but by that year, it was stated in the local paper that: "Oak Dale bids fair to become an important suburb. Twelve houses have already been erected." The disappearance of four old landmarks should be noted; first, the destruction by fire in 1874 of the Norfolk Agricultural Society building which with its Cattle Shows and races had occupied the corner of Dexter and Common Streets since 1853; second, destruction by fire in 1880 of the Phoenix House, which, erected on the site of the burned Polley's or Bride's Tavern, had for fifty years been the chief hotel in the Town; third, the removal of the old wooden railroad station, in 1882, which for
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forty-five years had stood opposite the foot of Bryant Street, and the bell on which rung at intervals announced the departure of trains (the station built of Dedham granite took its place ) ; fourth, the removal of the old Shuttleworth house in 1886, to make room for the Dedham Historical Society building.
During these fifty years, Dedham remained steadily conservative in its politics- Whig, Free Soil, and Republican. In 1840, it gave William Henry Harrison (Whig) one hundred majority over Martin Van Buren. In 1884, it voted for Henry Clay ( Whig) against James K. Polk (Democrat ). In 1848, it voted for Zachary Taylor (Whig) ; but the opposition was split nearly evenly between Lewis Cass (Democrat) and Martin Van Buren running on a Free Soil ticket, their combined vote exceeding Taylor's. In 1852, it voted for Winfield Scott (Whig), but the vote for Franklin Pierce (Democrat ) combined with that for John P. Hale (Free Soil ) exceeded Scott's. In 1856, it voted for the Free Soil candidate, John P. Fremont, whose votes exceeded the total of the votes cast for the Democrat, James Buchanan, and the Whig, Millard Fill- more. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln received 34 votes more than the combined total of his opponents. From that date to 1884, Dedham's vote at each election was strongly Republican, except in 1876 when Rutherford B. Hayes had only a majority of 30 over Samuel J. Tilden. (28)
VIII.
Since the 250th Anniversary, changes of importance have occurred, among which I will refer only to the introduction of electric street lighting (in 1890) ; the inaugura- tion of free postal delivery (in 1900); the building of the sewer system (in 1901) ; the remodelling of the Court-house (in 1902) and the building of a new Registry of Deeds and Probate on the site of the house of Fisher Ames (in 1905); and the recent erection of the postoffice-our first Federal building ----- next to the house built by Dr. Nathaniel Ames in 1772, and appropriately located opposite the Town's first post- office site.
Three factors have vastly altered conditions and habits of life here in the past fifty years. The first is the singular fact that this fifty-year period has witnessed the advent and also the complete disappearance of a method of transportation not known before 1886-the electric street railway, and it has seen the reduced use of the steam railroad, and the arrival and swift increase of an entirely new method of transportation- the motor vehicle. The first car of the Norfolk Suburban Street Railway Company ran to Hyde Park on May 21, 1894; and during the next ten years, street railways were built to Norwood, and to Medfield (after a bitter fight by many who opposed cars on High Street ). One may marvel at the quiet acceptance by the public of the swift end of this means of transportation, within thirty-five years of its initiation. The other factors modifying our daily life have been the introduction of the movie theatre and of the radio instrument.
Three historic landmarks of the Town have disappeared during this period: the first, when the Isaac Greenwood house (built in 1799) was removed for the new Ded- ham Public Library building in 1888; the second, when fire in 1891 destroyed the old Temperance Hall Building (formerly our first Court-house and moved across Court Street in 1827), which had been the scene of the Whig rally in 1848, at which Abraham Lincoln spoke, after having first stopped in the present Community House; and the third, when the old Dixon house (built probably by Timothy Gay in the 1790's) was removed and replaced by the new building of the Dedham Institution for Savings in 1892. During these past fifty years, Dedham has become more and more of a residen- tial town, with fewer manufacturing interests. It lost further territory when Westwood was incorporated in 1897; but an attempt to annex a portion of its territory to Hyde Park in 1901 was defeated in the Legislature; and in the last twenty years, there has
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been considerable accretion of population (especially in the Riverdale Section) so that in the last one hundred years, its number has grown from about 3,000 to over 15,000.
From 1886 to 1936, Dedham's vote at each election has continued strongly Repub- lican, though in 1888, it gave a majority of only 58 to Benjamin Harrison over Grover Cleveland; and in 1912, Woodrow Wilson received a plurality vote of 128 over Taft; and in 1916, Dedham gave a majority of only 46 to Charles R. Hughes over Woodrow Wilson. At the election in 1920, women voted for the first time, and the total vote rose from 1688 at the previous Presidential election to 3229. (29)
The catalogue of changes which I have thus given is a dry one, but its recital has been necessary to mark our progress from 1636 to 1936.
IX.
Yet while all these physical changes have, of course, vastly improved the old Town, increasing its size and prosperity and making life more pleasant and healthful, neverthe- less, that which has, in reality, made the Town is the men-the type of men which Ded- ham has nurtured. Of what profit are physical advantages and institutions, if the citizenry of the Town consists not of men of sturdy sense, firm integrity, and vigorous application of energy to civic welfare? Charles Francis Adams, who served in the army, in public affairs, in railroading in the West, and in many other capacities, wrote in 1893: "The older I have grown and the more I have studied and seen, the greater in my esteem as an element of strength in a people has character become, and the less in the conduct of human affairs have I thought of mere capacity or even genius. With char- acter, a race will become great, even though they be as stupid and unassimilating as the Romans; without character, any race will in the long run prove a failure, though it may number in it, individuals having all brilliancy and crowned with genius."
In an Anniversary Address, it is only fitting that tribute should be paid to the men of character who in civil life have been the bone and sinew of the Town. I wish to cite here a few of the men who have passed away since 1886 and who have deserved well of their Town. First, those who served the Nation as Congressmen-Frederick D. Ely and George Fred Williams. (30) Second, he who served on our highest State Court- John Lathrop. (31) Third, those who so long served Norfolk County-among them being Augustus B. Endicott, Erastus Worthington, Chauncey C. Churchill, John H. Bur- dakin, Janathan Cobb, John D. Cobb, and Charles H. Smith. Fourth, those who well and worthily acted as officials of the Town or of its institutions, or who equally served their Town in zealous work and effective debate on the floor of our Town-meetings- Don Gleason Hill, for thirty-two years our Town Clerk, Howard Colburn, Lewis H. Kingsbury, Edwin A. Brooks, J. Everett Smith, Eben. T. Paul, Dr. John P. Maynard, Alonzo B. Wentworth, Dr. Andrew H. Hodgdon, John Crowley, John R. Bullard, Dr. Francis L. Babcock, Calvin Guild, William F. Drugan, Henry O. Hildreth, Alfred Hewins, Winslow Warren, General Stephen M. Weld, Daniel A. Lynch, Lester H. New- comb, Thomas T. Robinson, Thomas P. Murray, Hugh H. McQuillen, John L. Wake- field, Frederic J. Grady, Clifton P. Baker and Joseph A. Laforme, and many, many, other equally fine public servants, who ought to be named but who within my space limits must be unfortunately omitted. And with them should be recalled the courteous services of Dedham's railroad men like Abner Alden, Moses Boyd, James H. Prince and James M. McLaren; and the long teaching of Carlos Slafter, for forty years principal of the High School (1852-1892); and the devoted fostering of Dedham's music by Charles J. Capen (founder and first principal of the High School) and Arthur W. Thayer. (32)
Dedham's'continuance in the forefront of towns will depend on whether it is suc- cessively raising up a crop of citizens of the type and character of those men who have served her so well. There must be soldiers of peace as well as of war; and it is as impor-
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tant that every man should perform his duties in the civic trenches as in the military, it he is physically able to be present. It is well for us to take to heart today the words of Governor Robinson spoken here fifty years ago: "I hear," said he, "from time to time a good deal said about this Republic of ours and our State going to ruin; and it is to go down through the path of luxury. . .. or through some contest between labor and capital. .. . or in one or another of many different ways. But I tell you, no such thing. If it goes down at all, it will go down with men who have become corpses before there was any struggle at all. If it goes down, it will be because our people will talk of the greatness of the town system, will extol the record of the past, will boast of their Puritan ancestry. .. . but will not. ... go one step aside from their course on pleasures, to keep in power the principles that the grand old Puritans established." Let those words again sink in. We speak with pride of Puritan ancestry; but there is also pride in other racial ancestry and the descendants of those who came to this country in later days, in order that they might live under the treer principles of American institu- tions, have an equally great obligation to perpetuate those principles by full perfor- mance of their duties as voters and as citizens.
No man can acquire a better memorial than to have it recorded: "He was a useful citizen."
X
I have spoken of the fact that our pioneers did everything with an eye to the com- munity. It was their devotion to the common welfare which alone made possible the success of the early plantations of our Commonwealth, under the hard conditions of their settlement. It is this sense of a citizen's obligation to his community which alone will preserve the solid character and self respect of our New England towns. We should guard against anything which tends to lessen that community sense, that home- town spirit. Since 1886, one factor has appeared which seriously tends to weaken it. Dedham has, in the past, been noted for having a distinct individuality of its own, which has preserved it from being transformed into the ordinary suburban town. A danger which threatens this common town spirit is the automobile, whose universal use so tends to convert residence in a town into a mere night's resting place, instead of a home, and to eliminate town boundaries and local town interests. Let us beware of this disinte- grating influence, as well as of the same influence which will arise from the private air- plane which will arrive long before the 350th Anniversary.
A second danger to the preservation of community spirit is the acceptance by the Town of the representative form of Town-meeting. This action in 1926, while probably necessary, due to the large increase in population and in voters under the Women's Suffrage Amendment to the Constitution, has undeniably resulted in attendance by a smaller proportion of our voters and in a diminution of the vivid interest aroused by the old-time, heated, spicy, but instructive interchange of common sense discussion and able and witty argument. A third factor in the recent past must be deplored in its effect on community spirit-the lessening of social and group activities. The disap- pearance of the crowds of bicyclists and of bicycle clubs who overran our streets (and illegally, our sidewalks) is a distinct loss. Such a loss also is the cessation of the use of our River by the flocks of canoes which gave enjoyment and exercise to so many of our citizens. In this connection, it is of interest to note how far back the social use of our River has extended; for in the Columbian Minerva of September 5, 1799, there appears this news item:
On Monday last, upwards of an hundred ladies and gentlemen of the town em- barked on a large convenient boat to fish on the waters of Charles River. After having 'toiled' some hours and taken an almost 'innumerable multitude of fishes,' they disembarked on a pleasant green about a mile from the meeting house and under the spreading oaks and elms enlivened by music and good cheer,
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partook of an elegant repast with a dissert of the best fruits of our town country, and the best wines of others-A ball closed the festival where beauty wore her sweetest smile and mirth and hilarity displayed all their charms with- out any of their deformities.
The discontinuance of such activities, as well as the disappearance of the Fisher Ames Club, the Schubert Club, and the Dedham Boat Club are blows to the community.
The preservation of a community spirit may also be injured by the increase of organizations based on racial origins. There ought to be only one kind of Americans here-Americans plain and simple, without any other national name attached. At our National, State and Town functions, no other flag should be flown or borne except the flag of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the flag of the United States of America.
Finally, one method of cultivating a community spirit is through the exercise of tolerance of opinion. I have spoken of the fact that the early pioneers were not tolerant in religion. We have improved on our forefathers in that respect. Freedom of religious opinion and of its expression is today one of the cardinal principles in our government. A striking example of our progress in this respect is the fact that, while one of the orig- inal settlers, Ezekiel Holliman, was requested to leave the Town (in 1637), because of his free views, and went to Rhode Island where he became a Baptist, the original lot of land which he owned in Dedham has since his day become the site of a Unitarian Church, a Congregational Church, an Episcopal Church, and a Roman Catholic Sisters School. But while we of today are more tolerant in religion, there is still room for improvement in civil and political fields. In times of social change, intolerance of the views of other is a distinct danger. On Friday last, at the Harvard Tercentenary celebration, the President of the United States declared the duty of educated men and women to act with "tolerance, self-restraint, fair-dealing, and devotion to the truth." It would do no harm if each of us should undertake a little self-examination to ascertain how far any of us is acting in such a spirit. Let me quote to you a few words from another era and from another land-for America has no monopoly on right thinking. Thirteen hundred years ago, the following was promulgated in the Constitution of Japan, in the year 604: "Let us cease from wrath and refrain from angry looks. Nor let us be resentful when others differ from us. For, all men have hearts and each heart has its own lan- guage. Their right is our wrong, and our right is their wrong. We are not sages, nor they unquestionable fools. Both of us are simply ordinary men." It might promote a better community spirit if we all bore in mind more constantly that thought. And speaking in similar vein, sage old Benjamin Franklin, in 1787, on the closing day of the Convention which framed the Constitution of the United States uttered these words: "Having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better infor- mation or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects which I ence thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is, therefore, that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judg- ment of others."
It is time for me to end.
Old Captain Roger Clapp, a pioneer settler of Dorchester, writing his Memoirs for his children in 1676, said: "You have better food and raiment than was in former times; but have you better hearts than your forefathers had? If so, rejoice in that mercy, and let New England then shout for joy."
If during the next one hundred years, we shall retain a little of the honesty of heart, the toughness of fibre, the iron in the blood, as well as the sturdy common sense and community spirit of the pioneers, all will be well with the Town of Dedham.
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NOTES
(1) Ralph Wheelock, who was at Clare College in Cambridge 1623-27, settled in Dedham in 1637 : Thomas Carter, who was at St. John's College in Cambridge 1629-33, settled first in Dedham and was later admitted a freeman of Watertown in 1638. Three other Cambridge University men Were among the Dedham pioneers - John Allin of Caius College, 1612-16 : Timothy Dalton of St. John's College, 1610-14, each of whom became freemen of Dedham in 1637; and John Phillips of Emanuel College 1600-07 (the College which John Harvard attended) who lived in Dedham in 1610.
(2) Illstory of ( Ivilization in England (1857) by Henry T. Buckle, I, p. 34; History of Party (1837) by G. W. Cooke, III, p. 189.
(3) In a paper on "Ornamental Trees in the First Parish" read before the Dedham Historical Society, March 5, 1860, by D. P. Wight, Dedham Gazette, April 28, 1860, it is said : "Fisher Ames was the first of our citizens who planted trees on the public grounds . . Many of the trees and shrubs which he caused to be placed around his residence still remain (i. e. 1860). Those venerable elns in front of Dr. Lamson's Church, and in rear of the Bank, were planted by him more than sixty years ago. The oldest ornamental trees in the First Parish, of which we know the time when they were transplanted, are the two English Elms directly in front of the mansion now owned by Mr. John Bullard (now Com- munity House) one on each side of the gate. Judge Haven, who built the house, and resided there many years, remarked to me, that he set out those trees the year in which he graduated at College. That was in 1789." It was also stated that ehns on Court Street, near the head of School, were planted in 1790; elms in the Upper Village on the road leading from the pond to Needham Road in 1805 ; Scarlet Maples and Elm on space between Court Street and Marsh's Lane in 1820.
I further point out that the trees on Dexter Street date back to 1858, those on Village Avenue, and those on Mount Vernon Street to 1846, those on High Street near Chestnut Street to 1858 ; and the large elms which. until recently, grew on the Unitarian Church lot were probably planted in 1762-3, when the Meeting-house was built, as Mr. Julius II. Tuttle, President of the Dedham Historical Society counted 180 rings on one of them when it was taken down a few years ago.
(4) See John Winthrop's Journal, I, entries of May 15, September 4-24, 1634, May 6, 1635. Win- throp wrote that: "The occasion of their desire to remove was, for that all towns in the Bay began to be much straitened by their own nearness to one another and their cattle being so much increased."
(5) From information furnished to me by Mr. Julius H. Tuttle, from a study made by Earl W. Pilling, the boundaries as laid out, Abril 13, 1636, were as follows: "The southeasterly line ran from old Roxbury corner, not far from the present corner of Washington and Curve Streets, to a point not far from the Unitarian Church in Westwood, four miles ; thener northwesterly to a point in Dover not far from Pegan Hill ; thence northeasterly live miles to a point easterly of Newton Upper Falls; then southeasterly to a point on the Newtown-Roxbury line, three miles ; thence southwesterly a mile and a half to the Charles River, thence southeasterly by the River and on a line to the old Roxbury Corner."
(6) See Peter Prudden's Company, by Julius H. Tuttle, in Col. Soc. of Muss. Pnb. (1914) XVII. D. 244.
As to the Indian trail and road from Boston to Upper Falls and to the West, see The Bny Puth (1919), by Levi Badger Chase, p. 223 ; Interpretation of Woodward and Saffery's Map of 1642 - the Earllest Bay Path, by Levi Badger Chase, New England Ils- torical and Genealogleal Register (1901) LV.
A cart bridge over the River to Cambridge from Boston and Roxbury and Dorchester was ordered to be paid for March 4, 1635; and from the Boston Records of July 24, 1642, it appears that a Committee was appointed to join with men from Dedham, Cambridge, and Watertown to lay out the highways "from town to town."
Reference to the road "between Watertowne and Mr. Haynes his farme" is to be found in Dedham Records, September 14, 1636, when "every man of our societye" was ordered to "performe one dayes work" or to contribute 2s. d. towards the same work.
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