USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Dedham > History of Dedham, Massachusetts > Part 37
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Engine Company No. 2-The residents of the Central Village, not to be outdone by those of the Upper Village, organized a fire company No. 2 in 1802, and purchased by subscription a fire en- gine which they named the "Good-Intent." This company was in existence for many years and its history runs in parallel lines with that of the Hero No. 1. Engine No. 3 the "Enterprise" was purchased in 1826 by subscription for Upper Mill Village. These engines were manned and kept in repair without expense to the town until 1832. On all public occasions the Engine Companies turned out and paraded through the principal streets of the town.
DEDHAM FIRE SOCIETY. To assist in removing articles of furniture and personal effects in case of fire the Dedham Fire
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Society was organized with 25 members on June 5, 1829; a society which supplemented the work of the engine companies and through the years numbered as members most of the prominent men of the town. Meetings were regularly held at the taverns of the town and all absent members were subject to a fine of 50 cents. A captain and lieutenant were annually elected whose duty it was to command the Company at all times. Each member was required to constantly keep in good order a bag marked with the first letter of his Christian name and his surname in full. In this bag was placed articles of especial use at fires furnished by the Society. Each bag and equipment was examined at the annual meeting of the Society in January. Upon the notice of a fire each member was required to immediately repair with his bag to the scene and use his best endeavors, under the direc- tion of the owner if present, or the Commanding officer, and to remove and save all goods and effects and to remain until dis- charged by the Commanding Officer. The bags contained the fol- lowing articles distributed among the members; 2 pincers, 4 jack- knives, 5 bed-keys, 2 screwdrivers, 4 hammers and 2 hatchets; later an iron bar 18 inches long was added. Bed-keys abounded as cord bedsteads were in universal use and bed-keys were required to remove them. At the request of members they were appointed by the selectmen as special police officers at all the fires. "Fire police" badges were furnished members and any one failing to wear his badge was fined 25 cents. At the annual meeting of the Society a "regular set down" was provided. The Society was in active service until 1873 when the last meeting was held at the Phoenix House on July 7th. In 1887 at the request of members the records and the remaining funds of the Society were given to the Dedham Historical Society.
A Fireman's Muster was held on September 12, 1851. The Fire Companies, seven in number had a special parade under the direction of the Firewarden. The line of march commenced at Pitts Head on High street and extended to the Ames street Bridge. The lines for playing and trial of engines were formed in the meadow adjacent to Powder House Rock, the exercises occupying some two or three hours. Leaving the engines on the ground, about
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two o'clock they marched in procession to dinner at their several headquarters at the hotels. There were present at the tables near- ly 400 persons mostly connected with the fire departments. The Powder House Rock was decorated with ladies to witness the ex- ploits of the firemen, in memory of whom the following toast was given at one of the banquets. "The ladies !- encouraged by their smiles, the fireman fears no foe; and can only be subdued when combatting fires of their own kindling."
DEDHAM FIRE DEPARTMENT. In 1831 the sum of $1500 was appropriated by the town for the purchase of a fire engine and apparatus for extinguishing fires. The sum to be divided and expended among the several school districts in proportion to the taxes paid in each. This appropriation had the effect of increas- ing the number of existing engines from three to eleven. Engines were located in different parts of the town and regular Compan- ies attached as follows, six in the First Parish, two in the Second Parish, (Norwood) and three in the Third Parish (Westwood). The First Middle School district-Dedham village-organized an engine company No. 4 and drew $390.87 which was raised by sub- scription to $703.37 with which an engine was purchased which was named the "Water Witch" still remembered by many resi- dents of Dedham.
In 1832 an engine house was built in Dedham Village for the "Water Witch" and free use given to the company for 12 years. Land was purchased, and a double engine house was erected in 1846 for the engines of the district next to J. Everett Smith & Sons market on Washington street. On its completion it was liberally furnished with needed furniture by citizens of the village. The town voted in 1846 to raise $2,500 for the erection of engine houses and for placing the Fire Department in a more efficient state for service. The following year engine houses were built not only in the First Parish but in Westwood and Norwood as well. At this time there were 300 members attached to the sev- eral engine companies of the town, who received for services a sum equal to their poll taxes. The present department of the town was organized in 1858 with Augustus B. Endicott as chief. In 1871 the Selectmen reported; "it is with great pleasure that
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we can say no fire had laid waste the property of any citizen dur- ing the past year in this town. Two slight alarms only have occurred." The present engine house on Washington Street, now somewhat enlarged, was built in 1872 with a lockup, which proved to be a very busy place in the years that followed. In 1871 1,227 persons, of whom 1,160 were "poor travelers" were lodged and fed. In 1887 this class of travelers were first called "tramps" in the town records.
In 1873 the attention of the town was called to the necessity of providing new apparatus for extinguishing fires. The hand engines in Dedham Village and at the Upper Village were old and found inadequate for service in a fire of any magnitude. On the recommendation of a committee appointed to consider the needs of the fire department, the town voted to purchase a steam fire engine with a hose carriage and new hoses at a cost of $7,500. Perhaps in the thought of his father, the first chief of the fire department, Henry B. Endicott, presented the town in 1919, in the name of his wife and himself, with a motor drawn triple-com- bination pump, chemical, and hose truck. The truck throws three streams of water at a time and has a capacity of exceeding seven hundred and fifty gallons a minute. In the development of the Fire Department, much credit belongs to Everett J. Winn, who as chief, did much to increase its efficiency, a work in which his successor, Chief Henry J. Harrigan, has been untiring. It was through Mr. Winn's continued effort that the fire gong was in- stalled which has added greatly to the efficiency of the depart- ment. The two blows at 7 A. M .; 12 noon; and 5 P. M., daily, has proven a great convenience to the residents of the town and has become one of its institutions. Dedham now has a telegraph fire alarm system with seventy-nine hired boxes placed in different parts of the town. In this cigarette-smoking age, forest fires threaten the safety of rural property everywhere. At the time of the settlement of Dedham, a vigorous and persistent war was waged against the use of tobacco. It was ordered "that no person should take tobacco either publicquely or privately in his own house, or in the house of another, before strangers & that two or more shall not take it together anywhere." Today tobacco, in
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one form or another, seems to be almost universally used by men, women, and youth of both sexes. To guard against forest fires, waterholes are now being built in many parts of the state through the aid of the N. R. A. At the request of a government engineer, Chief Harrigan* has located sites for water holes in Dedham. These holes are located where there are no nearby hydrants. Springs and riverlets feed them which insures against their drying up. One of the most interesting water holes is located in the Town Forest. It is a circular well lined with uniform stones having a diameter of eight feet and a depth of six feet. Circling the top of the well is an attractive rustic fence which not only adds beauty but a touch of safety. A gully leading from a small brook to the water hole has been dug to assure a supply of water in the hole at all time, a practical means of meeting brush and wood fires.
RIVER MEADOWS AND SWAMPS. Dedham, the second inland town in Massachusetts, was settled for the same reason as Concord, which has the distinction of being the first inland town to be settled in the state; namely an open space for the cultiva- tion of crops, and river meadows for the gathering of grass for herds, and thatch for the roof of dwellings. As the Charles and Neponset Rivers were clogged with fallen limbs and trunks of trees, and the accumulation of generations of decaying vegetable matter, numerous committees were appointed by the town from time to time to devise means for lowering the river water which kept the meadows flooded most of the time, and which produced
grass of a very coarse quality. The practise of draining the meadows has been kept up through the generations and commit- tees, until a very recent date, have continued the work of drain- ing Dwight's Brook and the meadows around Dedham Village which has added to the general health of the community. In 1921 the town acquired the swamp land on Eastern Avenue owned by the Fisher-Churchill Company. This land to which was later added much more land is now a public dump and is being gradu- ally filled in, thus reducing the swamp area in Dedham. The pur- chase by the town in 1924 of the so-called Greenleaf lot on Eastern
* Many years ago Chief Harrigan suggested, at a convention of New England fire chiefs, the importance of constructing fire holes as an aid in controlling forest fires. He now has the satisfaction of seeing his suggestion materialize.
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Aveune, through the gift of one hundred and fifty-one citizens was a great step forward in the control of a bad situation which for many years had been a menace in the very heart of the town The amount contributed by citizens toward the purchase of the land was in excess of $2,500 to which was added a portion given by an unnamed citizen. Of the large swamp area of the town the Commonwealth of Massachusetts controls 231 acres along the fowl meadows, and the town of Brookline, for water purposes controls 190 acres along the Charles River leaving a remainder of almost 1000 acres controlled by the town of Dedham or owners of private property in Dedham. The town's ownership of swamp amounts to only about sixteen acres, which lies in the heart of the town, between Eastern Avenue and the former railroad sta- tion. Consequently the total swamp area in Dedham which lies outside of State and Town control amounts to about 1000 acres or about 14% of the total acreage of the town.
SEWERAGE SYSTEMS. The town of Dedham having ac- cepted the statute relating to sewers passed by the Legislature of Massachusetts in 1897, a board of Sewer Commissioners, consist- ing of Thomas P. Murray, Everett J. Winn, and George F. Green- law, was elected in 1899, and early instructed by the town to "make immediate examination into the needs of the town with regard to sewers, prepare an estimate of the cost of such sewers as they would deem necessary to construct; also to examine into the methods now in use for sewer assessments and report in print their recommendations thereon at a future meeting." The Com- missioners brought to the subject much study and investigation. Plans and estimates were made for seventeen miles of sewerage at an estimatable cost; including land damages, of $120,000. At a town meeting held in Memorial Hall, November 15, 1900, it was "Voted that the Board of Sewer Commissioners be, and hereby are, authorized to proceed with the construction of a sewerage system in accordance with their report, and to make all necessary contracts therefor and perform all necessary acts in the name and behalf of the Town." The town, as recommended, issued serial bonds to the amount of $120,000. It was unanimously voted "that the town pay one-half of the whole cost of the sewerage
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system and that the remaining half shall be assessed proportion- ately upon the owners of estates situated in the territory em- braced by it and benefited thereby." From time to time the sewerage system has been extended to different parts of the town, and has added greatly to the comfort and health of the inhabi- tants.
MINES. For the encouragement of the discovery, in the common lands of the town, of mines of metal or other minerals, except iron*, the town offered February 8, 1657 to give the right of ownership and land sufficient for buildings and the pasturage of cattle, with such other needful things as the work required. Per- mission was also given to take wood, timber, or stone provided the wood or timber was not cut within a mile of any houselot, reserving at all times such oak trees as the selectmen may desig- nate. The privilege was granted on condition that the owner should annually pay into the common treasury of the town, a tenth part of all profits arising from the mine, after he had re- ceived such charges as he had previously disbursed. Discovery of a mine required the improvement of the same to begin within three years of the discovery. An owner was denied the privilege of taking in a partner to share in the property (unless a towns- man) so long as any one in the town was willing to take the mine off of his hands. Neither was he allowed to bring in as a partner, purchaser, or constant worker anyone who is not for "peaceful conversation," on the forfeiture of the privilege to take wood as previously granted.
Some of the prominent men of the town were alert to dis- cover mines or minerals. At a meeting of Selectmen held on April 20, 1649, Mr. John Allen Pastor and Eleazer Lusher giue notice of their discouery of a mine of mettall or other minerall whervnto they lay clayme to them thier hiers executors or assignes for euer by virtue of the order of the Town in that case pvided wch lyeth betwixt Charles Riuer towards the south and the high Rocke neer the Great Playne towards the north.
BATH HOUSE. Under a vote of the town at the April meet- ing in 1898, a Bath House was erected and turned over to the Park
* At a town meeting held on December 4, 1657 it was voted "to make further triall to have an Iron Works set up in the towne."
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Commissioners on July 28, 1898. The commissioners opened the bath house on July 30 and kept the building open every day, in- cluding Sunday, until September 24 when the house was closed for the season. During the fifty days when the bath house was open, 3,611 children and 724 adults availed themselves of its privi- lege, an average of nearly 87 a day, with an ever increasing num- ber as the years have gone by. In the fall of 1922 the Bath House was burned and new buildings were erected on land purchased by the town which makes a very desirable plant. The main build- ing of the new Bath House is 46'x27'; locker section 45'x45', with seventy dressing rooms. There is a large dressing room for small boys with seventy small lockers for clothes. The shower baths have accommodations for 140 using dressing rooms at the same time.
DISTINGUISHED GUESTS. In the long years of her exist- ence, Dedham has been visited by many distinguished individuals. Many of the prominent ministers of the Congregational order oc- cupied her pulpit; most of the eminent lawyers of Massachusetts, previous to 1850, pleaded at the Norfolk County Bar; many nota- ble conventions, political and otherwise, have been held within her halls. Many distinguished and honored citizens have been among her residents, who have made large contributions to civ- ilization : she also shares in the "greater Dedham" in the number of useful citizens, born in this town, who have contributed to the uplift of humanity in a thousand communities in our land. It would be a fruitful theme to work up a list of those who have been prominent in the life and events of this town in its history cover- ing three hundred years.
At the head of the Presidents of the United States who have heen guests in Dedham, the immortal Washington stands first. He slept in town a hundred and sixty years ago last April (1936). He was then at the head of the Revolutionary Army. Other Pres- idents are John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson. Martin Van Buren, James Monroe, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Calvin Coolidge. President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed through Dedham on June 17, 1933.
Of our distinguished foreign visitors Lafayette stands at the
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head of them all. As the year 1924 marked the one hundredth anniversary of General Lafayette's last visit to America, the event was celebrated by most of the Atlantic States. On this last visit Dedham was one of the towns through which he passed. Lafay- ette was held in almost as much esteem as Washington himself. No visitor to New England was ever received with such a demon- stration of popular affection as that shown Lafayette during the week he spent in Boston beginning August 24, 1824. He was hon- ored by the sons and the grandsons of the Revolution, who knew the great sacrifice he had made for American independence. The loud and repeated cheers from the assembled citizens, who had continued to collect through the day in expectation of his arrival -the salute of artillery, the ringing of the church bells and the brilliant illumination of the houses in the village gave evidence of the satisfaction experienced by all on the arrival of this distin- guished Revolutionary Officer. He tarried here but one hour, but it is recorded that during this time hundreds of ladies and gentle- men had the gratification of shaking hands with him and had he tarried until morning the time would have been too short to grat- ify all who aspired to that honor. The objective for the night was the home of Governor Eustis of Roxbury, which was reached at 2 A. M. At an early hour he was visited by a delegation of the order of Cincinnati of which he was a member. The late Hon. Winslow Warren was for many years President of the Massachu- setts Society of the Cincinnati and President General of the Gen- eral Society of which General Washington was the first President.
There is a well authenticated tradition, that ought to be re- corded, to the effect that General Lafayette, on one of his visits to Boston, passed a night in Dedham. The house in which he slept was located on the estate of Mr. Edward Marsh-Court and Marsh streets-and stood on the old road which ran from the Landing Place on Charles River to Wigwam Pond.
LANDING PLACE. In the early settlement of Massachu- setts rivers were the white man's means of communication with the interior. They were also very much used by the Indians. The late Don Gleason Hill says of Landing Places : Our Supreme Court has recognized the fact that landing places have existed and been
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recognized by law from the earliest existence of the State, and are even now recognized in the very latest revision of our laws. In some towns public landing places exist by immemorial usage, and so sacred have they been held, that no authority has even been given to the towns, or even to the County Commissioners, to discontinue them, even when such landing places have become of no use; and our courts have held that nothing short of an act of legislature can discontinue a public landing place. The Keye was the name given to the landing place of the early settlers on Charles River at the Ames Street Bridge. No formal laying out of the ancient landing place exists ; but as early as 1646 the sel- ectmen by vote, "doe order & determine that the high waye be- twix Joseph Kingsbury & Joshua Fisher Leading down to ye Landing place shall lye is it did before and as it was first layed out by Mr. Edward Alleyn & Abraham Shaw and to ye end that all former grievances may be forgotte & future may be pruented."
In 1927 the Dedham Historical Society and the Dedham Com- munity Association united in marking the Landing Place* of the first settlers at the south end of the Ames Street Bridge, proba- bly the first used landing place in Dedham. The Memorial, de- signed by Charles E. Mills, is a semicircular seat of concrete which bears a tablet with the following inscription.
Here was the Keye Landing Place of the First Settlers of Dedham Plantation 1636
The memorial was dedicated in connection with the opening of the Frances M. Baker Park on Columbus Day, October 12, 1927, in the presence of nearly 500 residents of Dedham and neighbor- ing towns. Charles H. J. Kimball, President of the Community Association, presided. The tablet was presented by Julius H. Tut- tle, President of the Dedham Historical Society, and unveiled by Misses Martha May and Adeline Brown, descendants of John Gay
* There is another old landing place where Common Street is nearest to the river, on the westerly side of Motley's Pond.
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and Eleazer Lusher, two of the early settlers of Dedham. The speakers of the day were the Hon. Frederic J. Stimson, Hon. Wins- low Warren, and Senator Samuel H. Wragg. The occasion was made very vivid and realistic by the appearance of a company, rep- resenting the early settlers, who rowed up the river dressed in the costumes of the early days, thus re-enacting the scene commem- orated by the tablet. The company made its way up the hill sing- ing the old hymn, "Let People that on Earth Do Dwell". The whole scene was very colorful and dramatic. At its close prayer was offered by the Rev. George M. Butler.
Canoes and dugouts, which the settlers had learned to make from the Indians, were used in the first settlement of the town. In making the log boat, a fire was made in the log after it had been somewhat hollowed to shape the inside. From the wood of the pine or cedar tree the frame of the canoe was made, crosspieces were added to stretch and strengthen it, and when the frame was covered with nicely fitted bark, pitch was applied to all joints and holes made in fitting the bark. The canoe was thus made water- tight. In 1637 it was agreed by the Dedham settlers that who- soever really intended to make a canoe and hadn't a suitable tree, might have a pine tree assigned to him for the purpose. The privilege was granted on condition that the canoe should be fin- ished within thirty days of the felling of the tree or subject to a fine of twenty shillings.
NEWSPAPERS. Seaport towns from the earliest time had town criers whose place is now taken by daily newspapers. The town crier went about the town ringing a bell to attract atten- tion and then in a loud voice made his announcement. Dedham contented herself with a sign post. There was little reading in early Dedham homes, but that which the Bible afforded. News went by word of mouth. With the advent, in 1673, of the new Meeting house in Dedham, a publication post was set up and painted. Before the publication of newspapers, all kinds of notices were posted on publication posts. The two buttonwood trees standing on the grounds of the Dedham Historical Society, and in front of the first post office, were used for many years for the posting of notices. Being only ten miles away, some of the
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early Boston newspapers found their way into Dedham homes. Previous to the publication of the "Columbia Minerva" residents took turns in going to Boston for newspapers. Dr. Ames records under date of May 7, 1778 "went to Boston for Capt. J. Gay for newspapers; he to go when my turn comes." For more than a century weekly papers have been published in Dedham. The Col- umbia Minerva published by Herman Mann Senior, since Decem- ber 1796 was the first paper to be published here. It appeared in October 1796, edited by Nathaniel and Benjamin Heaton. On June 8, 1805 the Columbia Minerva made the following announce- ment. For the encouragement of the Patrons, and all who may wish to patronize this Paper, they are informed that all kinds of merchantable Produce, good Paper Rags, well cleaned and dried, and green sheepskins, or those shaved thin for book binding, will be received in Pay for what may become due for the same after this date.
The Norfolk Repository was published by the same proprietor from 1805 to 1811. In 1813 the Dedham Gazette was established by Jabez Chickering, with Theron Metcalf as editor and continued until 1819. In 1820 the Village Register was started by Asa Gowen and continued by Jonathan H. Cobb and later by Barnum Field. In 1822 it passed into the hands of H. & W. H. Mann, who continued it until 1829 when it was discontinued.
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