USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, 1622-1918, vol 1 > Part 14
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On April 25, 1917, ground was broken at the junction of the boundary lines of Canton, Stoughton and Sharon. The board of selectmen-Joseph A. Murphy, Ernest Guild and Thomas D. Mullin-the members of the Canton Board of Trade, which was the first to advocate gas, and a large number of the town's citizens were present. J. B. Anderson made a short address, in which he outlined the growth of Canton and declared the event to be a fitting one in commemoration of the town's 120th anniversary. Chairman Murphy, of the selectmen, Postmaster John J. Haverty, George H. Priest, representing the gas company, and others made short talks.
POSTOFFICES
The first postoffice in Canton was established in the northern part of the town, but just when, or who was the first postmaster cannot be ascertained. The records of the office date back only to the close of the Civil war. Rufus Wood was appointed postmaster in 1866. He was succeeded in turn by Fred E. Holmes, Thomas F. Lyons, Fred E. Holmes, Bartholomew Doody, Emery Britton, Francis D. Dunbar and the present postmaster (1917), John J. Hav- erty. The office now employs the postmaster, assistant postmaster, one clerk, four local and one rural carriers. In April, 1916, the postoffice at Ponkapoag was made a sub-station of the Canton office, which is now the only one in the town. Formerly there were two rural routes, but these have been consolidated and in June, 1917, Canton enjoyed the distinction of having the only motor rural route in the State of Massachusetts. Free delivery was inaugurated in 19II. The annual receipts of the office amount to about fourteen thousand dollars, and the postal savings department carries deposits of over twenty-eight thousand dollars.
THE DOTY TAVERN
For many years there stood a little south of the base of the Blue Hill a quaint old building, two stories high, with a large attic under its gambrel roof and two large stone chimneys. It was built by John Shepard early in the Eighteenth Century and kept by him as a tavern in 1726. At the time of the Revolution it was conducted by Col. Thomas Doty, better known as "Tom," of whom it was said "He kept the best viands and could mix the best glass of grog of any landlord in all the country around." Under his management the house became widely known as "Doty's Tavern," the location of which was known to every stage driver in Eastern Massachusetts.
When the various towns of Suffolk County chose delegates in 1774, to meet and consider the general conditions then prevailing, it was not deemed safe to meet in Boston, which was then in the hands of the British soldiery, and
CANTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
MASSACHUSETTS HOSPITAL SCHOOL, CANTON
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Dr. (afterward Gen.) Joseph Warren recommended Doty's Tavern as a quiet spot where the convention was not likely to be molested. Warren had stopped at the tavern and was acquainted with the proprietor. The result of his recom- mendations was that the first meeting of the "Suffolk Congress" was held at this tavern on August 16, 1774. Norfolk County had not yet been organized and the territory now comprising it was then all in the County of Suffolk. A second meeting of the congress was held at Dedham on September 6, 1774, and three days later, at a third meeting held at the house of Daniel Vose, in the Town of Milton, was adopted the famous "Suffolk Resolves," which paved the way for the Declaration of Independence two years later. The Doty Tavern was destroyed by fire on December 19, 1888. General Lafayette stopped at this house while on his way from Taunton to Boston during the Revolution, and John Adams and John Hancock were guests of Col. "Tom" Doty at various times.
EARLY ORDINANCES
Some of the early ordinances or orders of the town meetings may seem strange to the people of the present generation. Canton was incorporated in February, 1797, and the annual town meeting of the following year appro- priated $1,000 for highways, $500 for the maintenance of schools, $600 for general expenses, and $300 "to clapboard the back end of the meeting house, the back side of the belfry, also to paint the house." In the warrant for the town meeting for 1799 an article was inserted "to see if the town will procure and set up a stove in the meeting house, for the convenience and comfort of those who attend public worship in the winter season." The article was dis- missed, as the sentiment that church congregations should defray their own expenses was already finding a lodgment in the minds of many of the citizens.
At the annual meeting on March 7, 1808, it was "Voted that a bounty of one dollar per head or tail for every Rattlesnake absolutely taken and killed within the months of April, May & October the present year." In his address on July 4, 1876, Charles Endicott referred to this bounty as follows: "Prac- tically this was very much like offering a bounty of two dollars for each snake killed, and very likely it was found to be so, for the next year the town voted the same sum for rattlesnakes tails only, and cautioned the treasurer 'to guard against deception when he is applied to for such bounties.'"
CANTON IN 1917
Early in the history of the town Canton came into prominence as a manu- facturing center, and it is still one of the active manufacturing towns of Norfolk County. The first factory in the State of Massachusetts for making cotton goods by machinery was established in this town in 1803. Paul Revere & Son had established a copper-works two years before, where bells and cannon were cast. Silks, cordage and woolen goods were among the early manufactured products, and some of the factories established a century or more ago are still in operation, though in some cases the character of their products has been materially .altered. A more detailed account of these establishments will be found in another chapter.
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In 1910 the population of Canton was 4,797, and in 1915 the state census reported a population of 5.623, a gain of 826 in five years. On April 1, 1916, the board of assessors reported the valuation of property as $7,038,466, and the estimated value of the town property, school houses, town hall, waterworks, etc., as $602,000. Canton has two banks, a weekly newspaper (the Journal), churches of various denominations, a fine public library, seven public school buildings valued at $140,000, in which twenty-four teachers are employed; a number of well-stocked mercantile establishments ; an active and energetic board of trade, steam and electric railway lines, good public highways, an almshouse for the care of the poor, etc.
At the beginning of the year 1917 the principal town officers were as follows : Selectmen and Overseers of the Poor, Ernest A. Guild, Thomas D. Mullen and Joseph A. Murphy ; Assessors, Matthew E. Callahan, Frederic P. Drake and Ernest A. Guild; Clerk, Walter Ames; Treasurer and Tax Collector, Robert Bird; Auditors, James E. Grimes, H. E. Beal and Peter Callery ; Water Commis- sioners, Michael F. Ward, Walter S. Draper and James O'Leary ; School Com- mittee, George H. Capen, Augustus Hemenway, I. C. Horton, H. L. Fenno, Thomas J. Hill, E. L. Underwood, Charles H. French, Francis A. Ryan and Frederic H. Bisbee ; Constables, John H. Flood and John Bowerman; High- way Surveyor, John Buckley, Jr.
CHAPTER XIV
THE TOWN OF COHASSET
GENERAL DESCRIPTION-FIRST WHITE MEN AND SETTLEMENT-DIVIDING THE LAND -THE HINGHAM REBELLION-DISTRICT OF COHASSET-FIRST TOWN MEETING- TOWN HALL-COHASSET WATER COMPANY-FIRE DEPARTMENT-ELECTRIC LIGHT-MISCELLANEOUS. O
By the act of March 26, 1793, establishing the County of Norfolk, the towns of Hingham and Hull were included in the new county. Before the act went into effect, the people of these two towns presented a petition to the General Court, asking that they be permitted to remain a part of Plymouth County. The petition was granted and on June 20, 1793, the very day the law went into effect, that portion of the act relating to Hingham and Hull was repealed. This left Cohasset detached from the main body of Norfolk County. On the north, south and west it is bounded by parts of Plymouth County, and on the east by the waters of Massachusetts Bay. Cohasset is noted for its rocky coast line, and for the number of shipwrecks that occurred there during the days of the old sailing vessels. The Indian name of this part of the coast was "Cono- hasset" (sometimes written Quonahassit), which means "long, rocky place." Along the sea shore the scenery is rather picturesque, the rocky bluffs being indented by numerous bays and coves, among which are Cohasset Harbor, Sandy Cove, Little Harbor and "The Gulf." There are no streams of consequence in the town, though in the southern part is Lily or Great Pond, a pretty little body of fresh water.
FIRST WHITE MEN
Capt. John Smith, who visited Cohasset Harbor on his voyage of 1614, was the first man to make a report on this part of the Massachusetts coast. He traded with the Indians of Cohasset, from whom he purchased "neer 1,100 bever skins, 100 martins and neer as many otters."
Among the Indians living in what is now the Town of Cohasset there was a faint tradition that white men had been there prior to the visit of Captain Smith. In 1568 about one hundred men were abandoned on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico by Capt. John Hawkins. David Ingram and two others of the marooned men started northward and by following the Indian trails reached the New England coast. Subsequently Ingram was rescued by the crew of a French vessel, who found him on the shores of New Brunswick. From the story told by him to his rescuers, it is possible that he and his two associates were the white men of the Cohasset Indian tradition.
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In 1633 Edmond Hobart, with his wife, his son Joshua and his two daugh- ters, Sarah and Rebekah, came from Hingham, England, and landed at Charles- town. Later in the same year they were joined by Edmond Hobart, Jr., his wife, his brother Thomas, with his wife and three children, Thomas Lincoln and Nicholas Jacob, all from Hingham, England. Most of the available land about Charlestown had been allotted to those who came earlier, and the new- comers began looking about for a suitable place to found a new settlement. They selected the place called Bare Cove, on the inside of the Nantasket peninsula. Under the order of 1629, any man who would cross the Atlantic at his own expense was to be given fifty acres of land. The settlers at Bare Cove availed themselves of this order and on September 25, 1634, the little colony there was taxed four pounds as a plantation.
On June 8, 1635, twenty-eight more persons arrived at Charlestown. Among them was Rev. Peter Hobart, a son of Edmond Hobart, Sr., and a graduate of Cambridge College, England. This company joined the colony at Bare Cove, the name of which was changed to Hingham on September 2, 1635. Rev. Peter Hobart was asked to become the pastor of several of the early churches, but cast his lot with the settlement at Hingham, where he was the first minister.
On April 19, 1637, Thomas Loring, Clement Bates, Nicholas Jacob and Joseph Andrews were granted a monopoly of the herring fisheries of the river "over towards Cohasset," called "Lyford's Liking." Lyford was an Irish preacher who came to Plymouth in 1624, but was dismissed from that colony for treachery. In 1625 he settled near the mouth of this stream, which doubt- less derived its name on account of his "liking" the location. After Loring and his associates built their fish weir, the stream took the name of Weir River, which it still bears. One condition of their monopoly was that they should "sell fish at not more than ten shillings and sixpence per thousand."
Some time in the year 1637 the settlement at Hingham adopted the system of having nine picked men to manage the affairs of the colony. The first. men selected for this purpose were: Edward Hobart, Sr., Nicholas Jacob, Clement Bates, Henry Tuttle, Thomas Hammond, Anthony Eames, Henry Rust, Samuel Ward and Thomas Underwood. They had authority "to receive any person into the municipality ; to give, grant, let & set, all for the good of the whole," but had not the power to fix the rate of taxation. A rule was adopted that if any one of these nine men should fail to attend a meeting he should be fined "one peck of Indian corn."
The nearest place where the settlers of Hingham could have their corn ground into meal was the little corn mill in what is now the Town of Weymouth. A bare trail was the only road to the mill and it sometimes happened that a settler would fall a tree and leave its trunk lying across the pathway. On April II, 1637, the people decreed at a meeting that if any man should fall a tree across the road, so that a horse and cart could not pass, he should be fined twelve pence.
At the beginning of the year 1638 the population of Hingham was forty-two. In that year the ship "Diligent" brought over 133 immigrants to seek homes. Several of them were mechanics, who brought their tools with them, and quite a number of the newcomers settled in Hingham, the mechanics especially proving a welcome addition to the little community.
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DIVIDING THE LAND
As early as 1637 the people of Hingham went to the Cohasset marshes to har- vest hay for their live stock. The first individual ownership of land within the present Town of Cohasset were the grassy plains called Turkey Meadows, at the foot of Turkey Hill. On March 5, 1638, these meadows were parceled out to some of the settlers in lots of about fifteen acres each, in order that they might be certain of a supply of hay for their cattle. During the next two years there was a marked increase in the number of inhabitants, and on July 6, 1640, it was "agreed by joint consent that after the newcomers and others, which come short, the old planters' accommodations be made up by equal proportions, according to their stocks and necessities-that the remaining part of Conyhasset shall be divided by equal proportions according to the men's heads and stocks, twenty-five pounds in stock to go by equal proportion to a head."
Although the language used in framing this agreement is somewhat ambigu- ous, the settlers seemed to understand just what it meant, as they divided the land without dispute under its provisions, a man who possessed live stock worth twenty-five pounds receiving twice as much land as the one who owned no live stock. Nine men were chosen to make the division, viz .: Joseph Peck, Nicholas Jacob, Henry Smith, Edmond Pitts, John Parker, Henry Tuttle, Nicholas Baker, Thomas Hammond and Clement Bates. By this division each of the newcomers secured a small tract of the Cohasset meadows. Joseph Peck and Nicholas Jacob were evidently men of some prominence among the pioneers. The meadow lands drawn by them in the division of 1640 still bear their names. Peck's meadow is situated at the foot of the Richardson Hill on the north side, along the Jerusalem Road, and Jacob's meadow is crossed by South Main Street, not far from the Catholic Church.
On February 28, 1648, Thomas Hammond, Clement Bates, Joshua Hobart, Nicholas Jacob, William Hersey, Anthony Eames, John Otis, Matthew Cushing and Joseph Underwood were appointed to make a second division of the "Cohasset Meadows," or that portion of them that had not been allotted to settlers in the division of 1640. Among those who received tracts of meadow land in this divi- sion were: Thomas Andrews, Nathan Baker, Clement Bates, Thomas Barnes, James Buck, William Chapman, Mark Eames, Francis James, Philip James, Andrew Lane, Matthew Lane, Thomas Lincoln (cooper), Thomas Lincoln (car- penter), John Morrick, David Phippeny, William Ripley, Thomas Thaxter, John Tower, Joseph Underwood, Edward Wilder and Ralph Woodward.
Surveyors of the present day would probably look with disdain upon the methods employed by the nine men selected to divide the Cohasset meadows in 1640 and 1648. With chain and wooden stakes, they measured and marked off the marshes in the neighborhood of Little Harbor, and in the case of some irregu- larly shaped pieces of land they "guessed" at the number of acres. They were guided in their work, however, by a spirit of fairness and impartiality, and if any dissatisfaction arose over the division it has not been made a matter of record.
There still remained some undivided land in what is now the Town of Cohasset after the action of February, 1648. On July 4, 1665, the three sons of the Indian sachem, Chickatabot, deeded the lands now comprising Hingham and Cohasset to Joshua Hubbard (or Hobart) and John Thaxter for the inhabi-
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tants. The consideration named in that deed was satisfied by granting twelve acres "on Turkey Hill, on the north side of a way leading to Scituate, to Lieut. John Smith and Deacon John Leavitt, on condition that they satisfy all the charge about the purchase of the Town's land," etc.
At a meeting held on January 17, 1670, about four and a half years after the Indian title was extinguished, the settlers "determined to throw the whole of their undivided lands into seven hundred shares, and then distribute those shares by an open vote, and afterwards to survey the land, giving pieces to each shareholder according to the number of his shares."
Under this arrangement there were about fourteen hundred acres of land to be distributed, hence each share entitled the holder to approximately two acres. Daniel Cushing, then the town clerk, received thirty-five shares, the largest num- ber given to a single individual by the "open vote." Peter Hobart, pastor of the church, received twenty-five shares; Joshua Hobart, eighteen; John Thaxter, sixteen and a half; John Smith and Nathan Baker, fifteen shares each; John Leavitt, fourteen and a half; John Ripley and Jeremiah Beal, thirteen each ; Thomas Hobart, John Beal, Sr., Thomas Lincoln (husbandman), Edmond Hobart, John Tucker, Thomas Lincoln (carpenter), Edmond Pitts, Thomas Andrews and John Otis, ten shares each; the other participants being awarded from three to eight shares each, except Clement Bates, Jr., who received but one share.
THE HINGHAM REBELLION
In 1644, several years prior to the division of the Cohasset lands, Anthony Eames, lieutenant of the militia, became so disgusted at the awkwardness dis- played by the local company that he used some sarcastic language and refused to drill the men. Eames had been elected captain, but had not yet been confirmed. To punish him the members of the company held a meeting and elected Bozoan Allen in his place. The colonial authorities refused to concur in this action, which meant that Eames must remain at the head of the company until the next session of the General Court. Two-thirds of the company refused to drill under Eames and the Boston magistrates issued warrants for the arrest of the offenders. Five men were arrested-three of them members of the Hobart family-and by order of Deputy-Governor Winthrop two were lodged in jail.
When the General Court met ninety men from Hingham and Cohasset ap- peared with a petition asking that Winthrop be tried for exceeding his authority in committing the men to jail. Rev. Peter Hobart, pastor of the church, was at the head of this movement, and Joshua Hobart was also quite active. The latter was fined twenty-five pounds. A smaller fine was imposed upon the pastor, on account of his calling, but he refused to pay and his fine was increased to twenty- five pounds. Altogether the penalties levied against the recalcitrants amounted to one hunderd and twenty-five pounds. The incident disturbed the peace of Hingham for several years. The people stood by their pastor, paid his fines, and apparently regarded him with more esteem than before the affair. Some years afterwards he was forbidden to preach in Boston, the magistrates assigning as the reason that "He is a bold man and will speak his mind." Hon. Thomas Russell, in an address delivered at the centennial anniversary of Cohasset, May 7, 1870, in re- ferring to this controversy, said :
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"We lose patience as we read the story of this contest. We smile at the superstitious bigotry of Winthrop, who finds a Providential interposition when some Hingham men made light of the colony's fast and, attempting to take a raft to Boston, were delayed a month by bad weather. But while we criticise and smile, we should remember that Hobart and his friends were believed to threaten the powers and rulers of the province, and that such threats imperiled the right of self-government. We know, also, that they were dreaded because they troubled the churches, and those that troubled the churches were believed to endanger souls. On both sides we find error, on both sides sincerity-the great manly virtue from which all virtue springs. There have been men of gentler disposition than Peter Hobart, of more enlightened views than Governor Winthrop, of more refined taste, of more graceful speech than any of the Pilgrim Fathers; but those men have no New England for their monument."
While the turmoil was at its height a few Hingham families left the town to find peace in some other locality. Lieutenant Eames was ostracized for a time by a majority of the militia company and their intimate friends, but it seems he was restored to the good graces of the community, as he was one of the nine men appointed to divide the lands in February, 1648. And after all, the spirit which moved the people of Hingham and Cohasset to protest against the sarcasm of their military commander and what they regarded as the tyranny of Governor Winthrop, was the same spirit of independence which cemented the American colonies together more than a century later in their resistance to British oppres- sion, a resistance which culminated in the Revolution and resulted in the estab- lishment of a republic.
DISTRICT OF COHASSET
Early in the Eighteenth century the few settlers in Cohasset became dissatis- fied because of the great distance they had to go to attend church or to send their children to school. In 1711 the Hingham tax list showed that there were thirty- six people in Cohasset against whom poll taxes were assessed. The taxable property of that year consisted of "22 dwelling houses, 48 oxen, 78 cows, 31 horses, 213 sheep and 14 hoggs." The total tax was about fifty-four pounds. As the residents of that section of the town paid a considerable portion of the taxes, they asked to be relieved of part of the burden and permitted to establish a church and school within easy distance. In response to this request, the Hingham town meeting of May 14, 1713, voted "That the Inhabitants of Conahasset shall have Liberty to get up and erect a meeting house there on that land called the Plain."
While the citizens of the Town of Hingham were willing to allow the peti- tioners the privilege of building a church, they failed to remit any part of the tax, consequently the people of Cohasset did not "get up and erect a meeting house." On March 7, 1715, they submitted three propositions to the Hinghani town meeting, to-wit: First, that the eastern portion of the town be made a separate precinct, so the people there could tax themselves for the support of a church and school; second, that they be allowed something out of the town treasury to help maintain a church; third, the abatement of the sum paid to the minister in Hingham. All these propositions were rejected by the town meeting.
In June, 1715, a committee was appointed by the General Court "to repair to
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Hingham and have a town meeting called for the purpose of securing satisfaction for the Conohasset pioneers." The meeting was held the following month, at which it was voted "That the inhabitants of Conohasset, that is to say the in- habitants of the First Division and Second Division & part of the Third Division of Conohasset upland to the fifty-fourth lot of the Second Part of the Third Division, be freed from time to time from paying toward the support of a minister in Hingham during the time that they provide an orthodox minister among them- selves, provided they cheerfully accept of the same."
But the inhabitants of Conohasset did not "cheerfully accept" for the reason they considered the burden imposed was too heavy for them to bear. In March, 1716, the Town of Hingham voted "to allow £17. 19s. 6d. out of the town treasury towards maintaining the worship of God in Conohasset." That sum represented Cohasset's share of the church and school taxes for the preceding year and the money was ordered to be paid to John Jacob. It appears that Mr. Jacob, probably advised by some of his neighbors, refused to accept the money, and in February, 1717, the town was again asked to establish a precinct. In the summer of that year a committee appointed by the General Court again visited the town to investi- gate the conditions. Upon the report of this committee the Court passed an act on November 21, 1717, creating a precinct of Cohasset, "alias Little Hingham," and setting off the inhabitants in the matter of church and school.
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