USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Dedham > History of Dedham, Massachusetts > Part 38
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On December 3, 1829, the Norfolk County Republican was pub- lished for one year.
The Dedham Patriot was established in 1830 and passed through various changes of name and location. It was finally edited by Edward L. Keyes, who purchased it in May 1844 and published it in Roxbury and afterwards in Dedham under the name of the Dedham Gazette. It was afterwards owned by Henry O. Hildreth who subsequently removed it to Hyde Park where it is still published as the Norfolk County Gazette. The Inde- pendent Politician and Workingmen's Advocate was started in 1831. In 1832 it became the Norfolk Advertiser. It was after- wards published under the name of the Norfolk Democrat and in 1854 it was merged in the Dedham Gazette.
Dedham Transcript. The removal of the Dedham Gazette to
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Hyde Park offered a favorable time for the establishment of a new paper in Dedham, which opportunity was immediately em- braced by John Cox, Jr., Samuel H. Cox and Hugh H. McQuillen who formed a partnership and founded the Dedham Transcript on April 1, 1870 which for many years was owned by one or more of the original proprietors. Samuel H. Cox bought out his part- ners at the end of the first year and was sole proprietor until February 26, 1881. On that date he sold out to Hugh H. McQuil- len who edited and owned the paper for many years. It is now published by the Transcript Press, Inc. of which Charles M. Cox, a son of John Cox, Jr., holds a large interest. The prime mover in the establishment of the Dedham Transcript was probably John Cox, Jr. who was then the successor to the Mann printing and publishing house, an early established Dedham firm of which he was then the sole proprietor. Mr. Cox's natural intelligence and aptitude for public affairs brought him into many positions of public favor and responsibility. He was elected a member of the Board of Selectmen for sixteen successive years. During the Civil War he rendered a very important service to the town, but more especially to the wants of the families of the soldiers in the field, and in conducting the correspondence of many who relied upon him as their confidential friend and advisor. Mr. Cox was for many years a Prudential Committee man and for five years a member of the School Committee. The Schools of Dedham never had a more devoted friend. He was a volunteer member of the Fire Department and did much to maintain its efficiency. He was for many years a director of the library Association and for some time its president. When in 1864 company F of the Eighteenth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers returned Mr. Cox was in- vited to extend to the war-worn veterans the official welcome of the town, a duty which he ably performed in an admirable his- torical and patriotic address. So in all its endeavor to carry out the traditions of the town the Dedham Transcript of today is but exemplifying the spirit which governed the life of one of it: founders.
The Dedham Standard. A weekly paper devoted to the local interests of Dedham and vicinity was printed for the Standard
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Company by W. L. Wadle & Co., in Smith's Block on High Street. The first number appeared January 1, 1886 and continued in the field until 1908. H. H. McQuillen was the last of several different publishers of the Standard.
The Dedham Historical Register, a quarterly magazine, was first issued in 1890 and continued through fourteen years. The Register was replete through the years with various matter relating to the history, growth, and progress of Dedham including biographical sketches, genealogies, diaries, and family papers, including church and town records within Ancient Dedham. The Register made many valuable contributions to the history of Massachusetts, and its volumes are highly prized by students of history throughout the country.
TEMPERANCE HALL. The old Court House was sold at public auction on October 19, 1827. The building was purchased by Worthington and Munroe and moved to a site on the easterly side of Court Street. It was hoped that it would be purchased by the town of Dedham for a Town House, as the town at that time was using the meeting houses in the several parishes in which to hold town meetings; as this expectation failed to materialize, the lower floor of the building was made into stores and the upper part into dwellings. In 1845 the property was purchased by the Temperance Hall Association. The upper story was enlarged and a hall known as "Temperance Hall" was constructed. Here were given the concerts, lectures, exhibitions, and most of the town's entertainments for more than fifty years. Among the noted men who spoke in Temperance Hall should be mentioned Abraham Lin- coln, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Horace Mann, Theodore Parker, William R. Alger, F. D. Huntington, John Boyle O'Reilly, and John Pierpont. Temperance Hall was burned April 28, 1891.
TOWN HOUSE. Town meetings were held in the meeting houses of the several parishes for many years. The method of calling town meetings was by posting a copy, in each parish, of the warrant issued by the Selectmen. In 1791 the measure of calling future town meetings was changed to posting a copy of the warrant in the several meeting houses of the town. The refusal of the South Parish November 3, 1828 to allow a meeting to be held in its meeting house for the transaction of town busi-
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ness called renewed attention to the need of a Town House and at a special meeting held November 17, 1828, it was voted to erect such a building. A site was selected on Bullard Street and in 1829 the town built a plain one-story Town House at a cost of $2200. The building had no rooms for offices or places for the preserva- tion of records. The Town House was soon outgrown. A commit- tee appointed in 1859 to consider the building of a new Town House said: The present Town House is neither in location, size, or style satisfactory to meet the reasonable requirements of the town. Owing to the crowded state of the house it is difficult to determine the result of votes, or of hearing what is said, together with various other annoyances to which we are subject, all of which may mainly be attributed to the size and construction of the house. There are upwards of a thousand legal voters in the town and the present house cannot at the utmost seat over two hundred and seventy-five persons. The house is not only too small and badly arranged, but utterly destitute, both exteriorly and interiorly, of any architectural beauty. To accommodate the town at present, and with reasonable allowance for future in- crease of population it is apparent that a building must be two stories high, or else be unsightly and in violation of all laws of proportion.
The town evidently was ready to act on the matter but gath- ering war clouds delayed all activities. Here meetings of the town and elections were held until the completion of Memorial Hall in 1868.
THEATERS. A statute was enacted in Massachusetts in 1750 forbidding play acting because it "not only aroused great and un- necessary expense, and discourage industry and frugality, but otherwise tend generally to increase immorality, impiety, and contempt for religion." Yet the strict Puritanism of New Eng- land could not hold out against the rising desire of the people to see plays and the law was repealed in 1793. While the law was in force, the colonists continued to witness plays under the dis- guise of "lectures", "entertainments", etc. Some residents of Ded- ham were interested in plays and traveled considerable distances to attend them. November 14, 1762 Dr. Ames records: Propose
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to act a play in Dedham. The Toy-shop, a farce, was acted at the house of Ebenezer Battle* on April 20, 1771. Dr. Ames wrote a Prologue to the play. He made the following record. The Farce called the Toy-shop was acted before a numerous audience of the most respectable inhabitants of the First Parish in Dedham, both male and female. To evade the law, the audience was in- vited to come to an evening lecture. Mehitable, Hannah, Rebecca and Samuel Shuttleworth, Jr., were among the nine who took part in the play; also Ebenezer and Prudence Battle.
Dramatic clubs appeared nearly a century ago which through the years developed much fine local talent among the young people of Dedham. With the advent of the "Movies", the Methodist- Episcopal Society, at East Dedham, having erected a new edi- fice, sold the old church in 1909, which was converted into a mov- ing picture house known as the Starr Theater. At that time this was one of the finest local theaters in Massachusetts. In 1927 the Dedham Community Theater was erected by the owners of a chain of theaters, in Newton and vicinity at a cost of nearly $250,000. In opening the theater, attention was called to the answer of the late Rev. Dr. Parkes Cadman, to the question, "Can the movies be utilized to help civilization in general?" "Yes. They have already helped it in manifold ways. When rightly employed and directed the movies are entitled to a premier place in the relief of the plain people's burden, the increasing of their knowledge and the quickening of their imagination. Yet many scenarios have not as yet had enough brains behind them to give them a desirable qual- ity of enough character in point of theme to insist on that quality. Like other scientific inventions, the film picture depends upon healthy morals and sound sense for its usefulness and humanness." How far the movies have fallen short of their possibilities in Dedham is illustrated by the fact that a meeting of the townspeople to protest against the menace of bad motion pictures was held in Haven Hall on Patriot's Day in 1934.
"The Rice Players" a company of amateur actors, located in Dedham soon after the opening of the Community Theater and
* Ebenezer Battle's House seems to have been a semi-house of entertainment. Here the Sons of Liberty held banquets and Dr. Ames went here to board. The house was licensed by the Court for inoculation in 1777.
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for several years presented interesting plays in Dedham and other places. "The Dedham Playgivers," a local organization, presented for a time fine plays each year in the Parish House of the First Church.
DEDHAM WATER COMPANY. Calvin Whiting, author- ized by an Act of the Legislature, brought water in pine logs from a large spring on Federal Hill to residents in the Village in 1797. The charge was $5.00 a family. The reservoir was located on the northerly side of School street between Franklin Square and Washington street. As the water was conducted to homes through lead pipes it was found to be injurious to health. The Rev. Dr. Lamson and others were sufferers from lead poisoning. As the spring was not high enough to carry the water into upper stories of houses; it was of little use in extinguishing fires. Dur- ing the drought of 1797 about seventy cattle were daily watered from this aqueduct. For the most part the village depended upon water drawn from wells from twenty to thirty feet deep, and coming up through sand and gravel furnished a good supply of pure water. The Town Pump was located at the head of Frank- lin Square and here many residents got their drinking water. Later a drinking fountain was set up in Memorial Hall Square to slacken the thirst of man and beast. Before the enactment of a statute law in 1910 forbidding the use of common drinking cups in all public places, two iron cups, dangling at the end of chains, hung from the fountain and were in daily use. There is a drink- ing fountain in Daniel R. Beckford Jr. Square given by Percy A. Chamberlain who also gave the traffic light.
The purchase of a steam fire engine in 1873, and the discus- sion and investigation of the means of extinguishing fires led to the consideration of providing a full supply of water not only to be used in extinguishing fires but in providing a supply of water for all domestic purposes. In 1876 a number of interested citizens ob- tained an act of incorporation of the "Dedham Water Company" which was given the right to take water from Charles River or from any pond or brook in Dedham. The Company was organized January 1, 1887; the capital stock was placed at $75,000. There was at first little interest in the subject, but the organization
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of the corporation was maintained. In the autumn of 1880 Percy M. Blake, a competent engineer was employed to examine and report on the best source of supply and the cost of constructing works. Mr. Blake made a careful study of the contours of the village, and recommended the plan of taking ground water from: the meadows on the south side of Charles River near Bridge street, and to pump it through the village to a stand pipe to be located on Walnut street. His recommendation was accepted and in January 1881, the work of construction was authorized by the directors of the corporation. Royal C. Storrs was elected the first president of the company, but resigned in a few months and was succeeded by the Hon. Winslow Warren, who for many years gave his best efforts to the development of the Dedham Water Company. The pumping machinery consists of two independent engines, one a compound condensing engine capable of raising 750,000 gallons, 180 feet high, in 24 hours; the other a duplex high-pressure engine capable of raising 1,400,000 gallons, 235 feet high, in 24 hours. These engines have been for many years the delight of every mechanically-minded boy in Dedham. The iron reservoir on Walnut street is 103 feet in height and 20 feet in diameter. In 1883 the surface pipes were extended to East Ded- ham and later to all sections of the town. In 1931 the system was extended to Westwood. With the introduction of water the general health of the town has increased and as a result, diseases formerly prevalent, are now seldom found in the town. The quality of the water is remarkably pure and for the most part so cold that it does not need to be iced for drinking purposes. The springs have never failed to furnish an abundant supply.
DEDHAM TAXPAYERS' ASSOCIATION. This association, which is affiliated with the National Economy League, was organ- ized amid an audience of a thousand citizens on Wednesday eve- ning, November 2, 1932, in the auditorium of the Dedham High School. The object of the organization is to effect economy in the town government and to thereby reduce the tax rate, ever on the increase and out of all proportion with the selling value of prop- erty. The growing extravagance of the times hark back to the very beginning of the government, when in May 1787, the town
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of Dedham instructed her representative in the General Court that "we desire you would endeavor to reduce our public taxes". Again in the Centennial Year, Governor Rice in his address to the Legislature in 1876, informed that body that the indebtedness of the cities and towns of the Commonwealth had increased dur- ing the preceding ten years, more than 300%, and recommended with much force the applying of the pruning knife in arresting the tendency toward excess and extravagance in all things. The present membership of the Dedham Taxpayers' Association is 2100, the largest organization in the town.
CHARLES RIVER. From the founding of the town to the present time, Charles River has been closely identified with the life of Dedham. It was in fact the Charles River meadows, where thatch could be gathered for roofs and grass for cattle, that caused the Dedham plantation to be set up on the northerly bor- der of the grant from the General Court, which extended from Roxbury to the Rhode Island line. Charles River rises in swampy land in Hopkinton, Middlesex County. Mr. W. A. MacDonald, who has an intimate acquaintance with the river thus describes its source. "The river where it first appears in anything like trace- able quantities is merely a thin trickle of water running in the grass of a farm. It is necessary to part the grass to see the river". As the stream courses on, it enters Echo lake, and emerging over a dam, it becomes a sizable stream. It has a descent of four hundred and thirty two feet from its source to its broad entrance into the Atlantic Ocean. Prince Charles, at the request of Capt. John Smith, renamed the locality and called the river after him- self. The Indian name is said to be Quinobequin but this is not authenticated. The Norsemen called it Norumbega. Poets have written about the Charles and it has been called, as it meanders through the county, one of our most beautiful rivers. The Ded- ham Historical Society's collection of views of Charles River fairly establish this claim.
While still living in Watertown the Dedham pioneers rowed up the Charles River and prepared their homes for a permanent settlement here. At the "canoes" they crossed the river to reach their planting field on the plain which is now Needham. In 1639,
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to meet the needs of a watermill for the grinding of corn*, they diverted the water of Charles River ** thus creating Mill Creek or Mother Brook which connects the Charles and Neponset Rivers. On Mother Brook they set up their first mill.
The old swimming hole above Cart Bridge has a background of nearly three hundred years; housewives from the earliest time rotted their flax in the river, and the husbandmen washed their sheep in the Charles preparatory to shearing the wool which en- tered into the homespun of the family. With the growth of the town, boat clubs came into existence which added much to the social life of the community. Regattas, for many years added greatly to the amusement and entertainment of the people on that great holiday-the birthday of the Nation. Charles River, summer and winter, has been an unfailing resort for the youth of the town. Skating is a sport of which they are very fond.
DEDHAM ISLAND. A loop of Charles River some eight miles in length, nearly surrounds what was early called the "island", which contains some twelve hundred acres and at cer- tain points is only separated from Dedham Village by the width of Charles River. On the island, just beyond the end of Broad Meadow, there was a fertile tract of land called the "Greate Plainse" which was early used as a planting field. On another part of the island there was a fenced in enclosure for the care of domestic animals, and farther on brick making was carried on. There were two ways of reaching these industries; one, by boat across the river, and the other way by a road across the island which connected with Cart Bridge. At a meeting of the Select- men held on October 29, 1644 "John Kingsbury, Eli Lusher, Jno Dwight, and Tho. Wight were deputed to lay out a highway from ye island to the great playne." Nearly a mile of this road ex-
* Fortunately wheat was early grown in Dedham. Wheat flour when mixed with corn meal enabled housewives to make raised bread which they had known in England.
** In 1654 the inhabitants of Dedham dug the "Great Ditch" and thus united the loop of Charles River, making it is believed, with Mother Brook, the first two attempts in America to change the natural currents of a large stream into arti- ficial channnels.
* A landing piace on the southwest bank of Charles River on the Needham road, opposite Metcalf's pond, was established by the Selectmen in 1717-"about five rods in width in the narrowest place and eight or nine rods next the highway." A iand- ing place was also laid out in 1717 from the highway leading to the house of Nath- aniel Richards to the river. MANN'S ANNALS.
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tended through the Broad Meadow. From the earliest time Charles River Meadows have been flooded in the spring and these freshets have often caused much inconvenience and serious dam- age. To overcome this obstruction, it was voted at a town meet- ing held January 3, 1652 that "Libertie is granted to cutt a creeke or a ditch through any common land of the towne which shall be occasioned by the cutting the same through the Broade Meadowe from River to River." The creek called the "Long Ditch" crosses the narrowest part of the long loop of Charles River. The Long Ditch is just two hundred and fifty-five rods long and actually makes an island of this section of Dedham. Surveys have estab- lished that the difference in level between the two nearest parts of the loop is only a foot which accounts for the meandering course of the river.
SPRING FLOOD. The spring flood of 1936, one of the most serious in the history of the town, was caused by the overflow of the waters of the Charles and Neponset Rivers and Mother Brook, a condition which brought havoc to several streets and many homes in Dedham. Melting snow, following an unusually cold and icy winter, was augmented on March 13 by a severe rain storm which caused the freshet to reach an unprecedented high peak in river water. The flood water spread out over many miles of meadow land which was transformed into lakes of many acres. Plank walks, two feet wide, were set up on High Street and East- ern Avenue to enable pedestrians to reach their homes or places of business. Isolated houses were reached only by boat or raft. Much hardship and discomfort came to hundreds of Dedham homes where fires were out, owing to the depth of water ranging from one and a half to seven feet, in cellars. Traffic on Needham Street, between Dedham and Needham, was cut entirely off be- cause the water was two feet deep on the Causeway. On Bridge Street, where the water was one and a half feet deep, traffic was cut off. One-way traffic was established under the New Haven Railroad Bridge on High Street. Williams Street and Eastern Avenue were closed. Only by a long detour were automobiles able to get from East Dedham to the center of the town. In the Readville Manor section people carried drinking water in buckets
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from those homes which had running water, in much the same way as the Dedham settlers, three centuries ago, carried water from Dwight's Brook for the same purpose.
CHAPTER XXIV
EARLY WARS
INTHE fear in which the residents of Dedham dwelt, in the years before the close of King Philip's War, ,cannot be realized today. But from the first the settlers were not to be taken by surprise by the Indians for lack of watching. April 25, 1637 it was ordered that "the watches & wards shalbe carefully set & kept" and all other things done" in ye best manner we may be able". Daniel Morse was chosen sergeant at arms to direct the work. On May 11th further action was taken, "Whereas ye evill disposicon of ye Natiues hath caused vs of late to vndrgoe very much watching & wardings &C wherby much expence of muni- con and time." It was ordered by general consent that henceforth every man that shall be admitted into the society shall presently pay ten shillings of English money to be employed for munition and general defence of the town. January 1, 1648, a general meet- ing of the town resolved to build a school house and watch-house, the care of which to be left to the Selectmen who specified that "the watch house to be a leanto set at the back of the chimney sixe foote wide. the length therof 2 foote & one half mor then the house is wide. so placed that the end ther of may extend past the corner of the house so that the watch may haue an aspect 4 seuerall wayes. & open windowes therin suitable to a watch house & couered wth board. vp to those windows. & vpon the roofe. & a mandle tree hewen & fitted for the Chimney." December 19, 1649 the Selectmen proposed that the meeting house be allowed for the use of a watch-house until the town can provide a house built for that end. In due time the watch-house was completed and watch men were appointed. Owing to the favorable location of the town and the watchfulness of the inhabitants, Dedham was spared, while the houses at Medfield, a part of the original terri- tory of Dedham, were burned by the Indians, excepting the so- called "Peak House."
In August, 1673, the Selectmen received an order from the General Court to put the town in order for war. The Military Company was immediately called out for more frequent trainings
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on the training field, and Commissioned Officers were appointed by the General Court, as the Company was destitute of such officers. In the words of the town records "the great gun* now in town with the carriage thereunto belonging to be immediately set in repair fit for service." A search was made for the town's supply of ammunition to learn "what remains and where it is." Later the meeting house was made the depository for a barrel of powder and other ammunition. The Indians then living in Dedham were ordered to depart and go to Indian settlements in the vicinity.
The fear excited in 1673 was so great that residents of Ded- ham in no small numbers fled to Boston. In March, 1675-6, the inhabitants of Wrentham, formerly a part of Dedham, petitioned the Governor and Council for leave to withdraw, and Captain Daniel Fisher of Dedham, was authorized to give them assistance in moving. They removed their goods in carts to Dedham. All but two of their dwellings were afterwards burned by the Indians.
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