USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, 1622-1918, vol 1 > Part 36
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THE SOUTH PRECINCT
As the town increased its population the settlements gradually extended over practically the entire territory. Being a long, narrow town, those living in the southern part were placed at a disadvantage in the matter of school and church conveniences. Schools could be provided at comparatively small expense, but the church difficulty was not so easily settled. The church had already been located
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and built in the northern part of the town, and those living near the meeting house looked with decided opposition upon the proposal to establish a new church for the benefit of those living farther south, arguing that the town was too poor to bear the burden.
In 1722 the people of the southern portion came to the determination to ask the General Court to set them off as a distinct town or precinct. The north part, feeling secure in its majority of voters, was just as fully determined to oppose the movement. A town meeting was called and a committee appointed to oppose the petition in the General Court. A majority of the members of the Court, how- ever, recognized the justice of the petitioners' request and in the spring of 1723 the petition was granted. The South Precinct was then organized with an area embracing more than half of the town. There were still occasional difficulties over the possession of the parsonage property, which was in the North Precinct, and which the people there refused to relinquish.
During the next forty years the South Precinct steadily gained in numbers and influence and on March 24, 1761, that section of the town was strong enough to define the word "ministry" in the parsonage deed to include both ministers, and that each should draw his income from the town revenues in proportion to the amount of tax paid by his parish. A meeting house had been erected in the South Precinct about the time the petition was presented to the General Court in 1722. The parish was organized on June 21, 1723, and the Second Congregational Church, of South Weymouth, now the Old South Church, was organized on Sep- tember 18, 1723, with Rev. James Bayley as pastor.
ATTEMPT TO DIVIDE THE TOWN
In 1796 another effort was made to divide the town. This time the North Precinct was the aggressor. A petition to that effect was prepared and signed by a majority of the residents of the North Precinct, for presentation to the General Court. The South Precinct was practically unanimous in its opposition. Nothing came of that petition and for the next six or seven years the subject was one of constant discussion by the citizens and in the town meetings. In 1802 a census was taken, showing 965 inhabitants in the North Precinct and 838 in the South. The question came before the Legislature and the Senate voted in favor of the division, but the House refused to concur. The whole question was then referred to the next session of the General Court, and there the matter ended. A few spasmodic attempts have been made since then to bring about a division, but with- out any prospect of success. One of these was made in the town meeting of March 19. 1866, when by a vote of 269 to 239 an order was made for the division of the town upon the line forming the northerly boundary of the fifth and sixth school districts, and a committee of one from each district was appointed to carry the vote into effect, but nothing was done. At the annual meeting in March, 1878, attention was called to the failure of the committee to discharge its assigned duty, and the selectmen, with three from each ward (twenty in all), were constituted a com- mittee to consider the matter and report. Their report was made at the next annual meeting, March 3, 1879, "that it is inexpedient to divide the town at this time," and there the whole matter ended. Another effort was made about fifteen years later, but it also came to naught.
SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, WEYMOUTH HEIGHTS
VIEW FROM SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, WEYMOUTH HEIGHTS
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
ALMSHOUSES
In 1779, after several unsuccessful efforts, it was voted to build a "work- house near the center of the town, not far from Tirrell's mill, for the accommoda- tion of the poor." Owing to the hardships imposed upon the people by the Revolu- tionary war, and various other causes, the number of paupers had increased to such an extent as to require this action on the part of the town. The house then erected was used as an almshouse until 1809, when another was erected at Wey- mouth Landing for the same purpose. The house at Weymouth Landing was used until the establishment of the town farm, on Essex Street, in 1839.
Early on the morning of September 14, 1917, fire was discovered in the town farm buildings. At that time there were eighteen inmates in the institution, all of whom were saved except Mrs. Mary Rosa, eighty-five years of age, who perished in the flames. Being a cripple, she was unable to escape. The loss was $40,000. At a special town meeting held on Friday evening, September 28, 1917, the sum of $40,000 was appropriated for a new building.
POSTOFFICES
On February 6, 1804, the town instructed the selectmen to petition the post- master-general for a postoffice to be established at the head of navigation on the Fore River. The petition was granted and the postoffice was named Weymouth. It was the first postoffice in the town, but the writer has been unable to learn the name of the first postmaster or any of the history of the office in its early days. At the beginning of the year 1917 there were four postoffices in the town, located at Weymouth, East Weymouth, North Weymouth and South Weymouth.
SOLDIERS' MONUMENT
Weymouth furnished nearly six hundred and fifty men for the Union army in the War of the Rebellion, over one hundred of whom were killed in action or died while in the service of the United States. The war was scarcely at an end when a movement was started to erect a monument to commemorate their serv- ices in behalf of their country. After several meetings an appropriation was made and the monument was erected in the old North Cemetery. It stands upon a terrace on the easterly side of the highway, a plain granite obelisk, a suitable tribute on the part of the people of Weymouth in behalf of the memory of those who sacrificed their lives upon the altar of their country. The monument was dedicated in 1868.
WATERWORKS
For several years prior to 1880, the question of utilizing the waters of Great Pond as a supply for the town had been discussed in private conversations and in town meetings, but nothing was accomplished until April 6, 1881, when the Legislature passed an act authorizing the town to use the waters of the pond for extinguishing fires, domestic purposes, lay mains, set hydrants, etc., when the act was accepted by a two-thirds vote of the town.
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
Two years passed and the act had not been accepted by the voters. On May 3, 1883. Peter W. French, Leavitt Bates, Zachariah L. Bicknell, John P. Lovell, Nathan D. Canterbury, Marshall C. Dizer, Joseph Totman and their associates and successors were incorporated as the East Weymouth Water Company, "for the purpose of furnishing the inhabitants of the Town of Weymouth with water from Weymouth Great Pond and the waters which flow into it," and to connect with the pipes of the Hingham Water Company at the boundary line. The Town of Weymouth was given the power to purchase the franchise and property of the company at any time during the life of its charter.
The passage of this act served as a stimulus to the people of Weymouth to accept the provisions of the act of 1881, which was done at a special town meet- ing called for the purpose on September 18, 1883. The vote in favor of accept- ance was 356 to 114. At an adjourned meeting on the 25th Josiah Reed, Augustus J. Richards and Henry A. Nash were elected water commissioners." In the meantime the waters of Great Pond had been subjected to an analysis and the meeting voted an appropriation of $1,000 to employ an engineer to make survey and submit plans for a system of waterworks. Oran White and Thomas H. Humphrey were added to the board of water commissioners.
The board employed M. M. Tidd to examine the waters of Great Pond and make plans for the waterworks. He reported a plan including thirty-seven miles of mains, with the Great Pond as the source of supply, and estimated the cost of such a plant as contemplated at $296,000. At the annual meeting on March 3, 1884, it was voted to issue bonds to the amount of $300,000, the vote on the question being 529 to 231.
On May 12, 1885, the act incorporating the East Weymouth Water Company was repealed, because it came in conflict with the act of April 6, 1881, which granted to the town the right to use the waters of Great Pond to supply the inhabitants of the town.
In the construction of the works a pumping station was built at South Wey- mouth to lift the water from Great Pond to a reservoir, also at South Weymouth, whence it is supplied to the town by gravity. The pumping machinery was installed by the George F. Blake Manufacturing Company and the Deane Steam Pump Works, each having a daily capacity of 1,500,000 gallons. The reservoir has a capacity of 700,000 gallons. At the close of the year 1916 the system embraced 76.55 miles of mains, 453 hydrants, with 1,940 meters in use. The total number of gallons pumped during the year was 141,126,790. According to the statement of the town accountant, the cost of the plant to December 31, 1916, was $600,339.35.
FIRE DEPARTMENT
About 1830 a company of volunteer firemen was organized at Weymouth Landing and a small hand engine called the "Aquarius" was purchased. For many years this company was the only fire protection in the town, except the primitive "bucket brigade," which passed the buckets from hand to hand, back and forth, the man nearest the fire dashing the water upon the flames, unless the fire was too hot for him to get within reach, in which case the only thing to do was to protect the adjoining buildings from destruction.
FORT POINT BIRD'S-EYE VIEW FROM GREAT HILL, NORTH WEYMOUTH
GREAT HILL FROM QUINCY POINT BRIDGE, NORTH WEYMOUTH
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
The town was divided into fire districts about 1844 and hand engines pro- vided. The next month the order was rescinded, and nothing further was done until the annual meeting on March 5, 1877, when a committee of three from each ward was chosen to organize a fire department. The committee reported in May in favor of the purchase of three fire engines, three hose carriages, and two hook and ladder trucks, also to build three engine houses and construct five reservoirs. The appropriation asked to carry out this plan was $18,000, which was voted by the meeting and the Weymouth Fire Department became a reality. In January, 1878. an appropriation of $1,100 was made for the purchase of another hand engine, and in May the sum of $2,000 was voted for an engine and hose carriage.
In March, 1880, the first steam fire engine was purchased at a cost of $3.200. It was stationed in the Third Ward, which caused the people of some of the other wards to look with some jealousy upon the proceeding, and in 1883 a second steamer was purchased for $4,200 and placed in the Second Ward. The department now consists of seven hose companies and a hook and ladder com- pany. Companies one, two, three and five are equipped with auto combination trucks ; companies four, six and seven, and the "Hardscrabble" hook and ladder company with apparatus drawn by horses. The cost of maintenance for the year 1916 was $14,690, and during the year the department answered forty- seven alarms.
ELECTRIC LIGHT
The Town of Weymouth is lighted by electricity from the plant of C. D. Parker & Company (incorporated) of Boston, which operates about twenty such plants in the State of Massachusetts. The Weymouth plant began business in 1889. It now supplies the towns of Weymouth, Hull, Hingham, Randolph and Holbrook and furnishes power to a number of the shoe factories in Wey- mouth. Between the years 1910 and 1916 the works were generally overhauled, new machinery installed and the efficiency increased along all lines. The prin- cipal office of the company is in East Weymouth. The appropriation made by the annual meeting in March, 1916, for lighting the streets was $12,500. At the close of the year a balance of $219.10 was turned back into the town treasury. The committee on electric lighting in their report at the close of the year, says : "The Weymouth Light and Power Company have given us excellent service and have been ready and willing at all times to assist us in fulfilling their part of the contract."
TOWN HALL
Weymouth was without a town hall until 1852, when "a plain, inexpensive structure was built on the westerly side of Washington Street, at the corner of Middle Street, and very near the geographical center of the town." In 1907 it was taken down and rebuilt at East Weymouth, where it was burned in 1914 and since then the town offices have been housed on the second floor of the East Weymouth Savings Bank Building.
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
FISHERIES
During the early years of Weymouth's history a considerable portion of the food supply came from the fish taken from the ponds or the waters along the borders of the town. The principal dependence was placed upon the herring, or alewives, which came up into the ponds by way of the Back River to spawn. Mention is made of the "herringe broge" as early as 1648, indicating that the fishery dates back almost to the very beginning of the town. At a town meeting held on March 8, 1725, a committee was chosen "to treat with the mill owners on the river, by Bates', to make a convenient passage for fish into Whitman's Pond, to pay not over five pounds."
From that time the "alewives business" appears frequently in the town rec- ords. Officers were regularly chosen to take charge of the fisheries, preserve the fish, take and sell them during the proper seasons, the revenue thus derived being turned into the town treasury. In their report for the year 1916 the board of selectmen make the following statement relating to this subject :
"In compliance with authority conferred by the town, acting under Article 72 of the warrant for the last annual meeting, concerning the alewive fishery, the board communicated with George L. Wentworth, Esq., trustee of the John P. Lovell estate, and obtained the terms upon which the fishery could be leased by the town. The terms for the lease for the year 1916 were $150, and sug- gested the sum of $2,500 for which the fishery right would be conveyed to the town, subject to the approval of the beneficiaries.
"A lease was entered into for the year and Joseph H. Sherman was placed in charge of the fishery. Mr. Sherman was instructed to make sure that a suitable number was taken to the pond and to give his personal care to the protection of the young fry during the progress to tide water. Twenty thousand fish were taken to the pond. The number sold was small. The cost of the fishery, including the lease, was $377.71. The amount received from the sale of fish was $34.43. [Each family received a certain quantity without charge.] As the fish do not return until the third year, it will take at least three years to build up the fishery to its former proportions. We recommend that the right be purchased by the town."
FINANCIAL HISTORY
In the annual town report for 1916 is given a comparative table showing the property valuation and expenditures from 1890 to 1916. During that period the valuation increased from $6,441,845 to $12,981.333, and the expenditures from $130,696.86 to $325.822.49. The principal expenditures for the year 1916 were as follows :
Schools
$ 87.690.20
New school house, Ward 3. 15,886.21
Highways 22,055.26
Sidewalks 4.363.37
Fire department 14.689.78
Police department
8.193.50
FOGG LIBRARY, SOUTH WEYMOUTH
GREAT POND, LOOKING NORTH, SOUTH WEYMOUTH
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
Health department
3.114.00
Poor department
25,767.57
Street lighting
12,280.90
Public libraries
5,877.94
Salaries
10,590.47
Interest
10.788.08
Moth suppression
6,470.99
Public parks
780.46
Applied on public debt.
22,500.00
All other expenditures
74,048.73
Total
$325,822.49
In the amount expended by the poor department the sum of $4,719.54 repre- sented the receipts from the town farm. The auditors reported the town assets on December 31, 1916, as follows :
Real estate, school houses, etc $ 418,150.00
Waterworks
600,339.35
Personal property
60,166.54
Trust funds
15.900.00
Sinking funds 127,309.58
Uncollected dues
152,855.04
Tax deed property
3,518.92
Sidewalk appropriation
717.21
Cash on hand.
38,431.35
Total
$1,418,387.99
On the other side of the ledger the town's liabilities were set forth as follows:
Water bonds $221,000.00
Notes payable
226,200.00
E. B. Nevins school house appropriation. 62,000.00
Trust funds
15,900.00
Miscellaneous
11.340.84
Total $536,440.84
These figures show a balance in favor of the town-the excess of assets over all liabilities-of $881,947.15. Weymouth bonds command a premium when- ever they are offered for sale, owing to the conservative management of public finances that has distinguished the town for years past. And with nearly three dollars in assets for every dollar of liabilities there is no good reason why her bonds should not continue to sell at a premium in the years to come.
WEYMOUTH OF THE PRESENT
Weymouth, the oldest incorporated town in Norfolk County, reported a population of 12,895 in 1910 and the state census of 1915 gave the town a
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
population of 13,969, a gain of 1,074. The town has four banks, three news- papers, two fine public libraries, churches of various denominations, seventeen school houses, well kept streets and sidewalks, and many pretty homes. The town exceeds all the other Norfolk County towns in the manufacture of boots and shoes. The Boston & Plymouth division of the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway system (via Cohasset) passes through the northern part of the town, with stations at Weymouth, East Weymouth and Weymouth Heights. The Boston & Plymouth division of the same system (via Whitman) passes through the southern part, with a station at South Weymouth. There are also several lines of electric railway, hence the town is well supplied with transporta- tion facilities. The town owns three public parks-Webb Park, Beals Park and Great Hill Park-which are being gradually improved and beautified, that future generations may have places for rest and recreation.
TOWN OFFICERS
At the beginning of the year 1917 the principal town offices were filled as follows: Edward W. Hunt, Bradford Hawes, George L. Newton, Henry E. Hanley and Ralph P. Burrell, selectmen and overseers of the poor; Lewis W. Callahan, Charles H. Clapp, John F. Dwyer, Frank H. Torrey and Leavitt W. Bates, assessors ; John A. Raymond, clerk ; John H. Stetson, treasurer ; Charles B. Cushing, accountant ; Winslow M. Tirrell, collector of taxes; Frank N. Blanchard, William H. Pratt and Winfield S. Wells, auditors; Irving E. John- son, superintendent of streets ; George W. Perry, George E. Bicknell, Frank H. Torrey, Edward W. Hunt and John H. Stetson, water commissioners; Walter W. Pratt, chief of the fire department; Arthur H. Pratt, chief of police; Louis A. Cook. J. Herbert Walsh and Nathan Q. Cushing, park commissioners; Arthur H. Alden, Prince H. Tirrell, Elmer E. Leonard, Frederick D. Nichols, Theron L. Tirrell and Sarah S. Howe, school committee; Dr. George E. Emerson, Dr. Fred L. Doucett and John S. Williams, board of health : W. F. Hall, George B. Bayley, Elbert Ford, Arthur H. Pratt, Charles W. Baker, Edward F. Butler, George W. Nash, Thomas Fitzgerald, Charles W. Barrows and George W. Conant, constables.
HOUSE ROCK, EAST WEYMOUTH. LARGEST BOULDER IN NEW ENGLAND
L
STRONG'S SHOE FACTORY, EAST WEYMOUTH
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE TOWN OF WRENTHAM
GENERAL DESCRIPTION-HISTORICAL-THE PLANTATION OF WOLLOMONOPOAG-IN- CORPORATION OF WRENTHAM-ORGANIZING THE TOWN-WRENTHAM VACATED- PERMANENT SETTLEMENT-SOME FIRST THINGS-THE TOWN DIVIDED-WATER- WORKS-FIRE DEPARTMENT-TOWN HALL-SOLDIERS' MONUMENT-MODERN WRENTHAM-TOWN OFFICERS, 1917.
The Town of Wrentham is situated in the southwestern part of Norfolk County. On the north it is bounded by Franklin and Norfolk; on the east by Foxboro; on the south by Plainville and the State of Rhode Island; and on the west by the towns of Franklin and Bellingham. The surface is diversified. Lake Archer and Lake Pearl in the central part are two beautiful little bodies of water, frequented by large numbers of pleasure seekers, and Marsh Pond is on the line between Wrentham and Norfolk. There are a few small streams in the town, but no large ones.
HISTORICAL
Wrentham was included in the grant of 1636 to the Dedham proprietors, which grant embraced "all the land on the southerly and easterly side of the Charles River not formerly granted to any town or particular persons." About 1647 John Dwight and Francis Chickering gave notice of indications of a mine near certain ponds, about thirteen miles from the settlement at Dedham. It is believed that the ponds referred to were within the limits of the present Town of Wrentham. This report of Dwight and Chickering is probably the first men- tion of this part of Norfolk County. Two years later, owing to a scarcity of grass in Dedham, the inhabitants of that settlement went to the meadows called by the Indians "Wollomonopoag" to obtain a supply of hay for their cattle. Wollomonopoag was the Indian name for what is now Wrentham.
The oldest record relating to a settlement in this part of Norfolk County is dated at Dedham, June 22, 1660, to wit: "At a meeting of the Select men there Lieut. Fisher, Sergt. Fuller, Richard Wheeler, Ensign Fisher, are Deputed to view the lands both Upland and Meddow near about the Ponds by George Indian's Wigwam & Make report of what they find to the Select men in the first Opportunity they can take."
This order of the selectmen and the appointment of the committee was in accordance with a desire expressed by the inhabitants "formerly in a Lecture day." The following December the selectmen reported that they had sent men to view the place, and that upon the report of the men thus deputed, which was
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HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
encouraging, two men had been deputed by the selectmen "to endeavor to com- pound with such Indians as have a true Right there." The selectmen further expressed themselves in favor of establishing a plantation there, and recom- mended the appointment of a committee "to Explore the place further & to Consider what measures are propper in the Premises & propose them to the Town in some Publick Meeting to be Considered & Resolved as the Case .may require."
On March 27, 1661, at a general town meeting, the question was brought up as to whether there should be a plantation established at Wollomonopoag and a majority voted in the affirmative. The meeting also voted that the Indian title to the lands at the place intended for the new plantation should be extinguished by purchase, and a committee was appointed "to Settle and Determine such things as shall be mentioned needfull for ye Plantation before named. First they shall Determine when men Present them selves for Entertainment there who are meet to be Accepted Second they shall proportion to each man his part of ye Six Hundred acres Third they shall Order the settling of ye Plantation in reference to Situation High wayes convenient Place for a Meeting House a lot or lotts for Church Officers with such other things Necessary as may hereafter be Proposed."
Later in the year the boundaries of the plantation were established at a general town meeting as follows: "It is ordered that ye bounds of the Planta- tion at Wollomonopoag shall be upon Stop River towards the East Beginning at Medfield bounds and so all along as the river lies up Stream until it comes about half a mile above the Falls in that river near about where ye Path to that Place at present lies & from thence Southward to Dorchester Line & the West Bounds shall be at or about the end of five miles from one of the Ponds in Wollomono- poage to be a line running Paralel with the line of at ye east end of ye Planta- tion Always provided that it Extend not to any lands but such as are at present our owne. And the South Bounds shall be Dorchester Line & ye North Bounds shall be Medfield bounds in Part and Charles River in Part."
Richard Ellis and Timothy Dwight were appointed agents to negotiate a purchase of the land from the Indians and in 1662 they reported that they made a treaty with Philip, sagamore of the Wampanoag tribe, for a tract of land six miles square at Wollomonopoag, for which they had obtained a deed. (See chapter on Indian History for a further account of this transaction.)
THE PLANTATION OF WOLLOMONOPOAG
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