USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Dedham > History of Dedham, Massachusetts > Part 18
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Stage coaches for long distance travel at first had three wide seats, one at each end of the coach and one in the middle, called the strap seat. This style is illustrated by the Dedham Coach which accommodated nine persons, and owing to its shape was called the egg coach. Later seats were erected on top of the coach, as illustrated by the Concord coach.
In 1842 that section of the Turnpike between Dedham and Foxboro was taken over by the County Commissioners and became a public road, and a few years later the whole length of the pike passed from the hands of the Turnpike Company and is now the much traveled road between Dedham and Providence. The Hart- ford and Dedham Turnpike was chartered in 1804 and was planned for through travel between Boston and Hartford, the distance by this line being only 106 miles. This turnpike was laid out to run from the Ninth Massachusetts Turnpike at Bellingham, through
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Medway, Medfield and Dover, to the Pitt's Head near the Court House in Dedham, a distance of 161% miles. It was determined that there should be two toll gates, one between the house of Ho- ratio Adams in Medway and Brick's Corner in Medfield, and an- other to be located between the house of Henry Tisdale in Dover, and the house of Abner Ellis in Westwood. Running so largely over a public highway, there was no collection of tolls in Dedham. As the returns were small, the Dover toll house was given up after a few years, and the collections were made at what has been known for many years as the Guy place. This turnpike was a dirt road and cost about $1,940 a mile to build or $32,000 all told.
As previously seen there were many daily stage coaches run- ning through Dedham. In 1825 there were 68 stage lines leaving Boston, with 317 stages in and out each week. There was much travel southward in those days as Newport overshadowed New York as a Commercial port. Previous to 1750 Boston was the most important city in the United States. The Hartford stage was a competing line for New York travel. The Hartford stage left Boston at 4 A. M. and reached Hartford at 8 P. M. covering the distance in 16 hours, a little less than 7 miles an hour. There were relays of horses every ten miles, the first change being made in Dedham. The running time, over the pike of about 7 miles an hour was exceptionally fast. Capt. Basil Hall, a distinguished British naval officer, who traveled in America in 1827-28 speaks of 7 miles an hour as being considerably the quickest rate of travel met with anywhere in America. In 1830 the portion of the Hart- ford and Dedham Turnpike in Dedham, Dover, Medfield and Med- way became free, and in 1838 the balance was thrown open.
Wigwam Pond was so essential to the settlers that one of the first roads was laid out from the Keye, to Wigwam Pond. This road followed Court Street, to the Memorial erected to the French Soldiers, and then across the estate of the late Francis Marsh to Washington Street and so on to Wigwam Pond.
The first vehicle drawn by horses or oxen on Dedham roads was the two wheel cart. While early provision was made by the town for laying out cartways, horseways and footways "yet most of the local travel was on horse back as numerous horse-blocks testify." As Dedham lay on the principal highway between Bos-
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ton and New York, it saw all the carriages known in our history from the first coach to the Concord Coach. Coaches must have been a familiar sight in Dedham before the 18th century as the rich of Boston rode in a coach and four. The great middle class rode in the calash, a two wheel vehicle with a top. The chariot, a four wheel vehicle with two seats, was also in use. Governor Belcher's chariot in 1743 was "lined with red affy, handsomely carved and pointed-the seat cloth embroidered with silver, and a silk fringe round the seat." Peter Fanuel probably rode over East Street "bewigged, beruffled and bebuttoned" seated in his "chariot" with arms and horns "in the handsomest manner." The vehicles for pleasure on Dedham roads were coaches, chaises, cal- ashes and sleighs; for freight and merchandise the cart, dray, truck and sled.
SANDY VALLEY ROAD. All early travel to Clapboard Trees was through Sandy Valley, following perhaps an Indian Trail, or at least a cart road. Later a highway was laid out, but through the years fell into disuse as the settlement of the town led the travel either over High Street or Washington and Gay Streets. The action of the pioneer settlers in caring for, and de- veloping means of travel are of interest. On September 5, 1636, it was ordered that "ye next Fair day evry man of our society shall meet at ye foule (footway) & assist to mend ye same and soe many as can to bring whelbarrowes." Town surveyers were appointed and required to set apart, by public notice, six days for highway work in each year the last of the six days to expire be- fore the 20th day of September. Four days of work were re- quired to be performed under the surveyers appointment. A strict account was kept of work performed and when it was found upon good knowledge that an inhabitant was behind in his work he was fined for his neglect as follows: A man, cart and four bul- locks, six shillings for each day; one man and two bullocks, four shillings; one cart, two shillings. No less than eight hours was allowed for a day's work on the highway. Robert Onion had his highway work set off from year to year for his service in ringing the bell forenoon and afternoon on the days appointed for highway work. The Selectmen declared in 1662 that all young men liv- ing in Dedham and not under parents or masters should be counted inhabitants of the town and required to do work on the highways.
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In 1661 the widow Luson is required to pay 4s, 6d, in Indian corn for her defect in highway work. On August 11, 1637 it was or- dered that "a dilligent & a carefull Respect shalbe had for ye lay- ing out of all high wayes yt may be conceived Fitting & to be well mrked & dooled, & the bredthes seurally Recorded." and being carefull of the "compforte of succedding tymes doe order that it may be laweful at any time heerafter for our society to take & laye out in or through any mans lott: a sufficient cartewaye, horseway, or Footewaye for ye use of all men or some pticuler accomodations. All wayes pvided that care be had to doe the same wth as litle priudice unto ye owner as may be." For this privilege the town agreed to pay full conpensation "by some other pcell of grownd in our sayd Towne for ye grownd itselfe & the conven- iency thereof."
Any person who "encumber, interupt or anoye" any highway or woodway by felling trees across the same and failing to im- mediately "freely and sufficiently" to remove the same was fined two shillings for each tree, the fine to be paid to the person first informing the Selectmen, and for every week the way remains obstructed to pay to the town, five shillings for each tree. In 1708 Daniel Fisher asked to have a way laid to Clapboard Trees by the Sandy Valley. The Selectmen appointed Capt. Samuel Guild, Joseph Fairbanks and Samuel Whiting a committee to lay out said way. This committee returned January 17, 1709, that they had laid out a highway by the Sandy Valley to Clapboard Trees, two rods wide, no further action by the Selectmen or town was taken. From these records it appears that there was a com- mon right of way defined in some manner through Sandy Valley. In 1735 a private way with gates was laid out from Sandy Valley to the house of Joseph Richards. In 1750 the town laid out a new way to Clapboard Trees which was probably Gay Street. In 1753 the town voted, at the annual town meeting, to allow individuals to close a portion of Sandy Valley way from Nathaniel Smith's pasture to John Bascom's land. Gates were provided for passers. In 1784 it was voted to allow a fence with gates or bars across Sandy Valley road to stand during the towns pleasure. A part of the road for at least forty years was under private use sub- ject to certain passages through gates and bars. Under date of
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May 26, 1786 Dr. Ames records, "Removed obstructions in Sandy Valley road."
In 1894 a petition signed by prominent citizens of the town petitioned the Selectmen, asking for action relating to building a road through Sandy Valley to Fox Hill. The committee appointed by the town to consider the matter employed William E. McClin- tock, chairman of the State Highway Commission, an engineer of known and acknowledged ability, to make a study of the prob- lem. He recommended the building of a road eighty feet wide through Sandy Valley with a double electric car line in the center of the street, as the times demanded that convenience, at a cost of eighty thousand dollars. Mr. McClintock reported that the territory contained some of the finest building sites in the town and equal to any in the state. No definite action was taken by the town in favor of the enterprise.
CIRCUMFERENTIAL HIGHWAY and PROVIDENCE PIKE. The Circumferential highway starts at the Worcester turnpike and Reservoir Street in Wellesley and continues to Canton, a dis- tance of about eleven miles. The road was built at a cost of $1,- 500,000.00 and was opened through Dedham in 1932. The road bed is from thirty to forty feet wide and has a maximum grade at any point of 6%. The road avoids all settlements, has no rail- road grade crossings and few with other auto routes. To avoid accidents the highway is built forty feet wide at the summit of all grades, thus providing plenty of room at these blind spots. It is also built forty feet wide at all bridges and intersections. The road passes into Dedham at the Charles River bridge and after crossing High Street enters the Sandy Valley section and con- tinues for some distance in and out of the boundary between Dedham and Westwood passing into the latter town near the Providence Pike. The part of the General Clarence E. Edwards Highway* between Dedham and Neponset Street, Norwood, a distance of four and one half miles, was opened to the public in October, 1933. The road was built at a cost of approximately three fourths of a million dollars of which amount $550,000.00 represents actual construction expense; it completes a four line cement concrete highway to the Rhode Island boundary which has been constructed to bypass the business centers of Dedham,
* Named October 17, 1934.
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HIGH STREET
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Norwood, Walpole, Wrentham and North Attleboro. Its mission is to handle the heavy flow of vehicle traffic between Boston and Providence. This new highway incorporates an engineering feat never before attempted in Massachusetts, the building of a road on a "mat." At the Dedham end the engineers encountered a layer of peat which extended through a large part of the sec- tion. To assure permanence more than five thousand wooden piles were driven through the peat on which a mattress of con- crete reenforced with steel was laid. It is the state's first attempt to build a road on a "mat" and will be watched with interest.
The point of entrance to the new highway on Washington Street is about a 1000 feet from Dedham Square. The road passes through the railroad yard and then follows the abandoned right of way of the old Norfolk County railroad. The road has two twenty foot traffic lanes and a construction heavy enough to carry the estimated weight of traffic for many years to come. In cross- ing the Circumferential Highway it passes over on a, high level and ramps have been provided at the four corners to expedite changes from either road. At Islington the road crosses the tracks of the New York, New Haven and Hartford system by passing beneath the railroad. While travel on our streets today is almost wholly by automobiles it is interesting to note that as late as 1827 residents of Dedham traveled either on foot, horse- back or in chaises, no wagons were seen upon the street.
The highway across the Charles River marsh making the connecting link between the Veterans of Foreign Wars Parkway at Spring Street, West Roxbury, and the General Clarence E. Ed- wards turnpike at Dedham is an extension of the super highway, U. S. Route 1. It was built in 1935 at an approximate cost of half a million dollars. The highway was built under the National Recovery Highway Act, the Federal Government assuming the cost of construction, with the Commonwealth paying the land damages. The high cost of constructing this highway-which was originally estimated to be $200,000-was caused by the peat deposits which had to be removed and replaced with gravel in order to form a solid base for the road. The average depth of the peat ranged from 12 to 15 feet with an occasional depth of 30 feet. The roadway is 8 feet above the marsh and two feet above
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high water. The highway is 11/8 miles long with two 30 foot lanes of bituminous macadam, separated by a 10 foot middle strip of grass. Where the highway intersects Washington Street a traffic circle was constructed, while the Spring Street end is controlled by traffic lights. To Thomas T. Doggett, Sr., belongs the credit of the conception of the Providence Turnpike and its extension across the meadows. It was Mr. Doggett who, when the towns- people and householders were sorely troubled over traffic condi- tions in Dedham Square, Washington and Court Streets worked out and launched the plan of this new road .*
BRIDGES OVER CHARLES RIVER. Nearly three hundred years ago a bridge was thrown across Charles river to enable the settlers to reach their homes, planting fields, and enterprises on Dedham Island. This first bridge was called "Cart Bridge" and its site is now marked by the Stone Bridge near the Pumping Sta- tion. It is recorded October 29, 1644, that Michael Bacon had parted with some of his planting ground, on the south side of Charles River, for a common highway from the Training Ground to Cart Bridge over Charles River. For this grant he was fully compensated by the town. The name given this bridge indicates its purpose and care was taken that it should be kept in repair. January 10, 1652, John Gay and Thomas Fuller were deputed to require "highway worke for the layeing a newe floore of clifts wher need is sufficientlye upon the cart bridge." At a later date in rebuilding the bridge, John Simpson was allowed 5s. 9d. for six and one half quarts of rum used in the raising. In the devel- opment of Dedham an important connection was made at Ded- ham Island with the road leading to the great planting field lo- cated at what is now Needham proper. Here the early settlers went to plant corn, wheat, rye, and barley; their vegetables were grown in home gardens. With the building of the Long Cause- way, a public highway was laid out which connected with the road from Cart Bridge, making direct communication with the "greate plaine." In 1644 the number of rods of fence required to enclose the plain was assigned, by the town to seventy-seven proprietors. The assignments ranged from thirty rods, set down to Eleazer Lusher, to two rods assigned to Ephriam Wilson. The Rev. John
* See map of the proposed road printed in the Dedham Transcript July 11, 1925.
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Allin, the largest land holder in the town, was required to build seventy-five rods of fence.
CANOES. The place called the "Canoes," (a ferry across Charles River), was located at the foot of Common Street. This was a more direct way to the planting grounds at the great plain than that across Dedham Island; so it came into early use. Here the planters located their boats and canoes, the use of which were regulated by town ordinance.
NEW BRIDGE. In 1680 Sergeant Wight and Samuel Mills petitioned the town for liberty to erect a bridge "where a pas- sage is usually made over said river with canoes." Their request was granted. Here connections were soon made with highways which were built on either side of the river. Thus the inhabi- tants were enabled to reach their planting fields direct without going through Dedham Island. The present one arch bridge was built in 1877 at a cost of $10,000 which was shared by Norfolk County and the towns of Dedham and Needham. This structure is officially called Lyon's Bridge by the town of Needham.
DEDHAM AVENUE BRIDGE. The abutment to this bridge were laid in 1871, and the bridge of iron construction was com- pleted in 1873. It was planked and had a span of eighty-five feet. The bridge was damaged by the spring freshet of 1886, and was repaired by Dedham and Needham. This iron bridge gave way in 1910 to a two arched concrete bridge after plans by Benjamin T. Wheeler at a cost of approximately $20,000.
VINE ROCK BRIDGE. On the first Tuesday of April, 1736, Caleb Smith, Henry Dewing, Joseph Hawse and others, inhabi- tants of Dedham, Needham, Medfield, and towns near by, pe- titioned the Suffolk Court of General Session of the Peace, to lay out a public highway from the Great Causeway in Dedham to Great Road in Roxbury. The petitioners claimed that such a road would be of much service to them as well as to towns of neigh- boring counties in the western part of the Province, in giving them a more convenient way to Boston. These petitioners had already bought land as far as the Roxbury line, laid out a road from the Great Causeway to the river, fenced it and built a suit- able bridge across the river at their own expense of nearly four hundred pounds. The town of Dedham voted September 15, 1740,
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to petition the Suffolk Court of General Sessions, "that the lower Bridge over Charles River in Dedham called Vine Rock Bridge may be made a County Bridge," and the following committee was chosen to prosecute the same at the said Court, Joseph Ellis, Ser- geant Hezekiah Fuller, Dr. Nathaniel Ames, and Dr. Nathaniel Chickering and William Everett. This committee and other com- mittees through the years, failed in a persistent effort to make this a County Bridge. In 1773 the bridge was rebuilt. A new bridge was built in 1828 about one eighth of a mile above the site of the first bridge. The new bridge was built of stone at a cost of $3,000. The old Vine Rock Bridge at the foot of Bridge Street was discontinued in 1829.
AMES STREET BRIDGE. This bridge was built over Charles River in 1843 by Greenwood and Fuller at a cost of $2,181. A part of the Government surplus revenue is invested in this bridge. In 1926 the bridge was widened by the state. The stone work of the old bridge was covered with concrete, the material used in the construction of an addition, thus making the whole bridge of concrete construction. The Ames Street Bridge is now an attractive addition to the highways of the town.
PAUL'S BRIDGE. This bridge spans the Neponset River which separates Readville and Milton. The surrounding territory was originally a part of Dorchester. The part of Hyde Park which borders on the Neponset was set off from Dorchester to Dedham in 1739 and remained a part of the town until 1868, when it be- came a part of the new town of Hyde Park. The first bridge at this point was built about 1719 by John Nelson, whose wife Eliza- beth inherited the land from her uncle, Lieut .- Gov. William Stoughton. At the time the bridge was built Mrs. Nelson had a farm house here occupied by tenants. This house was the only house within the limits of Readville previous to about 1720.
RAILROADS. The New England settlers, after the lapse of a century and a half, had out-grown the ox-team and were reach- ing out for new means of transportation. It was believed for a time that the canal offered the solution of the transportation prob- lem. About this time attention was also given to turnpikes, which in the evolution of travel were developed and abandoned in Massa- chusetts by 1830, when the agitation for railroads came to the
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front. The first charters granted for the building of railroads re- garded them as iron turnpikes, upon which individuals and trans- portation companies were to enter and run their own carriages, paying toll to the company for the use of the road. Such was the conception of the Boston and Lowell railroad when it was chart- ered in 1830. But the true nature of the business of the railroad soon developed, and the character of the service which they per- formed took permanent shape. Because railroads were intended for the use and benefit of the people, the Legislature had the power to provide for building and maintaining them, to the extent of tak- ing property by eminent domain. The same qualities which made them useful, also made them dangerous, and required that great precaution be taken against harm, and all crossings were regu- lated by law.
Railroads were such an important factor in the growth and development of Dedham that their history should be briefly told. In March, 1827, the Massachusetts Legislature directed the "Com- missioners of Internal Improvements" to survey a route for a railroad from Boston to the Rhode Island line in the direction of Providence. This committee was empowered to receive gifts of land and money for the project and John Guild of Dedham, with many others in Roxbury, Canton, Sharon, and Foxboro, were given a grant of a right of way by the Commonwealth in 1828. In ac- cordance with this right, a committee of Internal Improvements and the Boston, Providence, and Taunton Railroad Company were chartered in 1829 to construct a railroad from Boston to the navi- gable waters of the Pawtucket River in Seekonk or the Rhode Is- land line in Pawtucket, but no road was built. The Legislature, June 22, 1831, granted a charter to John Bryant and others for the construction of the Boston and Providence Railroad. Most of the land across the Neponset meadows in Dedham was deeded to the Corporation as late as 1833 and 1834. Trains commenced to run on this road as far as Canton in September, 1834.
The building of the Boston and Providence Railroad was an event which excited much interest in Dedham as the original sur- vey located the road in Dedham Village and followed the line of the turnpike. A later decision to change the location, occasioned great disappointment in Dedham because it was believed that the
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beneficial effects of a railroad upon the interests and trade of the town could not be too highly estimated.
In 1834 George Dixon and Samuel Sweet were appointed a committee to confer with the President and Directors of the Bos- ton and Providence Railroad in reference to building a branch line from Readville to Dedham Village. A charter was obtained March 31, 1834, and the Directors agreed to build a branch on the con- dition that the land be given. This condition was promptly met by gifts of land and the raising by subscription of nearly $2,000. The road was completed and opened to Dedham December 28, 1835 in the presence of the President and Directors of the road who were entertained with a collation at the Phoenix Hotel.
John A. Gould and others were incorporated on April 16, 1846 as the Walpole Railroad Company to locate near the termin- us of the Dedham Branch Railroad, then to run southerly through South Dedham to the center of Walpole. The location closely fol- lowed where later was built the Norfolk County Railroad as far as South Dedham. On April 24, 1847 Welcome Farnum and others were incorporated as the Norfolk County Railroad Company with the right to construct a road from the Walpole Railroad Company in Walpole to Blackstone. They were given the further right to unite with the Walpole Railroad Company under the combined name of the Norfolk County Railroad Company. The two roads were united July 19, 1847. Trains commenced to run to Walpole on April 9, 1849 and to Blackstone on May 15, 1849. The location of the road was filed on April 18, 1848 from Dedham near Eastern Avenue to near the Rhode Island line, but avoided East Walpole in their route, in spite of the protest of Francis W. Bird of East Walpole, and went directly from South Dedham to Walpole Vil- lage leaving that part of the Walpole Railroad located through East Walpole to be taken up many years later by the Wrentham Branch of the Old Colony Railroad.
John Fisher, Merrill D. Ellis, and Oliver Caper were chartered in 1849 as the West Dedham Branch Railroad to run from West Dedham to the West Roxbury Branch in Dedham, or in West Roxbury. A survey was made, which is still on file, but nothing was done about building the railroad.
The Boston and Providence Railroad was chartered May 9,
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1848 to build a branch from Dedham across Charles River mea- dows to West Roxbury to meet the main line at or near the Toll Gate. (Forest Hills)
In 1850 Marshall P. Wilder and others were incorporated as the Midland Railroad Company to run from South Boston through Dorchester, Milton, and Canton to the Norfolk County Railroad. This road was actually constructed and succeeded in 1854 by the Boston and New York Central Railroad which ran from South Dedham over the Norfolk County Railroad to Islington and through Endicott* to Readville, and Dorchester to South Boston. The depot stood at the foot of Summer Street near the site of the present South Station. Trains were first run on January 1, 1855. This road was succeeded in 1863 by the Boston Hartford and Erie Railroad. In 1873 the road was sold to the New York and New England Company and later called the New England Railroad which was later bought by the New York, New Haven and Hart- ford Railroad Company.
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