USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, 1622-1918, vol 1 > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
At last it looked as though the country towns were to be successful in their efforts to secure a division of Suffolk County. But the truth of the old adage, "There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip," was never better verified than in the fate of the petition. On January 9, 1741, a bill carrying out the intent of the petition was passed by the House of Representatives and sent to the Council. There it was read once, when further action was "indefinitely postponed," and again the movement to establish a new county met defeat.
A LONG DELAY
Discouraged by repeated rebuffs, the people of the country towns allowed several years to pass before making another effort to secure the division of Suffolk County. In 1760 a petition was circulated in some of the towns, but it did not meet with a hearty support and the attempt was abandoned.
Again in 1775 it was voted in some of the towns to present another petition to the General Court asking for a division of Suffolk County. Efforts were made to secure signers to such a petition, which was drawn in the names of all the towns in the county, except Boston and Chelsea, praying for the establishment of a new county to be called Hancock. A number of signers had been obtained when the battle of Lexington occurred, the war overshadowed everything else, and all thoughts of the new county were postponed until the restoration of peace.
UNDER TIIE CONSTITUTION
Nothing further in the matter of the division of Suffolk County was under- taken until after the adoption of the Massachusetts State Constitution on June
39
HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
15, 1780. Under that constitution the first General Court was convened in Boston on October 25, 1780. A short time before the meeting of the Court, a number of towns in the county elected delegates to a convention to decide upon some policy relative to the division of the county. The convention met at Timothy Gay's tavern in Dedham, December 12, 1780, and adopted a resolution to the effect "That the towns of Bellingham, Dedham, Foxborough, Franklin, Medfield, Medway, Needham, Stoughton, Stoughtonham, Walpole and Wrentham, with Holliston, Hopkinton, Natick and Sherborn, in the County of Middlesex, ought to be formed into a new county, with Medfield as the shire town."
A petition in harmony with the spirit of this resolution was circulated and was signed by a large number of the citizens in the various towns. It was presented to the House of Representatives on April 28, 1781, where it was read and referred to a committee. When the bill passed by the house came before the senate it was amended, and in the amended form failed to become a law.
On September 29, 1783, a petition from Dedham and other towns was read for the first time in the House of Representatives. Just how this petition was finally disposed of is not clear. It was referred to a committee in the house and sent to the senate for concurrence. On October 20, 1783, the senate voted to concur in the action of the house, but no new county was established.
The next move for the division of Suffolk County came on January 31, 1784, when a petition signed by Daniel Gay and others came before the senate. This petition was presented "in behalf of Dedham and certain other towns in the counties of Suffolk and Middlesex," asking for the erection of a new county. The senate ordered that notice of said petition be given to all the towns in said counties, and the house concurred with an amendment, which the senate accepted.
In May, 1784, a town meeting was held in Dedham, at which it was voted to appoint a committee to confer with the other towns in the County of Suffolk as to the expediency of dividing the county. The meeting also decided "That our representative be instructed to use his influence to secure delay on the petition for dividing the county until the sentiment of said towns can be known." Later in the month, at another meeting, it was voted to instruct the representative "to use his influence to oppose the granting of the prayer of the petition now before the General Court for dividing the County of Suffolk."
The action of the Dedham town meetings seems to have been effective in defeating the purpose of the Gay petition and preventing a division of the county for the time being. But in 1786 Dedham instructed its representative "to endeavor a division of the county whereby we may be separate from Boston, and in support of the motion you are to offer the following arguments, and such others as your ingenuity may suggest."
Then follows in detail a series of reasons for the division of the county, one of which was: "Should courts of justice be erected in some country town within the county, we expect (at least for awhile) that the wheels of law and justice would move on without the clogs and embarrassments of a numerous train of lawyers. The scenes of gaiety and amusements which are more prevalent at Boston we expect would so allure them, as that we should be rid of their perplex- ing officiousness."
Apparently the people of that period believed the average lawyer to be a pleasure-loving individual who cared more for "gaiety and amusement" than for
40
HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
the serious business of his profession. Although the instructions to the Dedham representative were full and complete, he failed at this time to secure the desired division of Suffolk County, and the subject was permitted to rest for another five years.
On February 25, 1791, the petition of Moses Fuller and others, asking for the division of Suffolk County, was read in the House of Representatives. A few days later it was referred to a joint committee and notices sent to all the towns of the county. Remonstrances came in from Boston, Brookline, Hingham and Roxbury, but the joint committee recommended a bill for the establishment of the new county asked for by the petitioners. The report of the committee was accepted by the house on February 24, 1792, by a vote of 72 to 40, but on March Sth the senate voted not to concur.
SUCCESS AT LAST
Encouraged by the action of the General Court on the Fuller petition, the advocates of county division girded on their armor for the final fray. As the project was defeated in the senate, an anonymous letter was sent to all the towns suggesting that a contest be made for the election of senators who would favor the establishment of a new county. Suffolk County at that time had six senators. The election was to be held on the first Monday in April, 1792. Less than a month remained in which to make a campaign, but a man from each of the thir- teen towns that had been advocating division (except Bellingham, Braintree and Medway) met at the house of John Ellis, in Dedham, and assumed authority to nominate a senatorial ticket.
Prior to this meeting, however, what was known as the "Boston Ticket" had already been named. The candidates on this ticket were: Thomas Dawes, Benjamin Austin, Oliver Wendell and James Bowdoin, of Boston ; William Heath, of Roxbury ; and Stephen Metcalf, of Bellingham, all of whom were supposed to be opposed to the division of Suffolk County.
The meeting at Ellis' nominated Stephen Metcalf, Lemuel Kollock, John Everett, Seth Bullard, Elijah Dunbar and Gen. Ebenezer Thayer, Jr. Dr. Nathaniel Ames, in an account of the affair, says: "But their meeting was so public, made such a bustle, and was so indiscreetly managed, that the idlers about the house talked openly of their business of choosing senators, so that it will be in the newspapers and the whole design defeated, as secrecy was the only founda- tion to build on."
Stephen Metcalf, being on both tickets, was elected without question. At the opening of the General Court the senate and house, in joint convention, elected all the remaining candidates on the "Boston Ticket" except James Bowdoin, for whom General Thayer was substituted.
But the "tempest in a teapot" over the election of senators had its effect. On June 12, 1792, the House of Representatives took up the Moses Fuller petition and referred it to a committee, with instructions to report as to the advisability of dividing Suffolk County. Nothing further was done until February 8, 1793, when a joint committee recommended the passage of a bill in accordance with the prayer of the petitioners. The bill was accordingly introduced, passed both house and senate on March 22, 1793, and was approved by Gov. John Hancock
41
HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
on the 26th. It provided that "All the territory of the County of Suffolk, not comprehended within the towns of Boston and Chelsea, from and after the 20th day of June next, be and hereby is formed and erected into a distinct county, by the name of Norfolk, and Dedham shall be the shire town till otherwise ordered by the General Court."
Before the day came for the act to take effect, the towns of Hingham and Hull sent petitions to the General Court asking to be allowed to remain a part of Suffolk County, and on June 20, 1793, an act was passed repealing that part of the act of March 26th relating to those two towns.
As originally erected, the County of Norfolk consisted of twenty-one towns, to wit: Bellingham, Braintree, Brookline, Cohasset, Dedham, Dorchester, District of Dover, Foxborough, Franklin, Medfield, Medway, Milton, Needham, Quincy, Randolph, Roxbury, Sharon, Stoughton, Walpole, Weymouth and Wrentham.
It is not certain who is responsible for the county's name. In the bill a space was left and the name "Norfolk" was inserted just before the final passage of the measure. Geographically, the name is inappropriate. As the first settlers of Massachusetts were English people, it was natural that they should adopt many of the names of their native land. In the eastern part of England, on the shores of the North Sea, there are two counties called Norfolk and Suffolk. The inhabi- tants of the northern county were originally known as the "North Folk," and those of the southern were called the "South Folk." In time the names were shortened to Nor' Folk and Sou' Folk, and the counties became known as Nor- folkshire and Suffolkshire. It is related that not long after Norfolk County, Massachusetts, was organized, John Randolph of Virginia walked up to John Quincy Adams in the national House of Representatives, of which both were then members, and said: "Look here, Quincy, how is this? You live in Norfolk County ; now what the devil do you people in Massachusetts mean by setting off Norfolk County and putting it south of Suffolk County?"
LOCATING THE COUNTY SEAT
When it came to locating the county seat, or shire town, opinion was divided. Braintree, Dedham, Medfield, Milton and Roxbury were all mentioned for the honor, but none of them was satisfactory in every respect. The people of Medfield destroyed the aspirations of that town by declaring that "The practice of visiting the court room during the trial of cases would be prejudicial to habits of industry in the citizens."
On February 8, 1776, seventeen years before Norfolk County was established, the General Court passed the following act: "Whereas, Boston is now made a garrison for the ministerial army and become a common receptacle for the enemies of America, it is enacted that Dedham shall be made the shire town of the County of Suffolk for the future."
Dedham remained the shire town of Suffolk until after the evacuation of Boston by the British army, when the seat of justice was taken back to Boston. But the town having once been thus honored by the General Count seems to have given it some advantage in the contest, and it was declared to be the shire town "till otherwise ordered by the General Court." As that body has never seen fit to order otherwise, Dedham remains the shire town to the present day.
CHAPTER VII
PUBLIC BUILDINGS OF NORFOLK COUNTY
THE FIRST COURT-HOUSE-THE SECOND COURT-HOUSE-FATE OF THE OLD COURT- HOUSE-COURT-HOUSE OF 1861-THE PRESENT COURT-HOUSE-THE DEDICATION -COURT-HOUSE AT QUINCY-THE COUNTY JAIL-THE REGISTRY BUILDING- VALUE OF COUNTY BUILDINGS.
One of the first necessities of a new county is a suitable building in which to hold the sessions of the courts and transact the county business. The first step toward the erection of a court-house in Norfolk County was taken on January 7, 1794, when the Court of General Sessions of the Peace, then in session "in the meeting house at Dedham," on account of cold weather "to adjourn to the Sign of the Law Book" (the Ames Tavern). This brought up the subject of the court- house, and Thomas Crane, of Canton ; Stephen Penniman, of Braintree ; and Joseph Guild, of Dedham, were appointed a committee "to look for a proper spot of ground and report on what terms the County of Norfolk can be accommodated for their public buildings."
At a subsequent meeting of the court, the committee reported that the Episco- pal Church in Dedham offered the house of worship "and the land lying common adjoining," but reserved the right "to worship therein on the Sabbath until such time as they can build another church." This resulted in the appointment of another committee, consisting of Joseph Guild, Dr. Nathaniel Ames and Elijah Adams, to solicit funds to provide the county with a public building. Anticipating that some of the citizens might prefer a new court-house to the old church, the committee was given a twofold authority: First, to raise funds to repair and remodel the church building, and second, to raise funds to build a court-house on the First Church land, near the Episcopal Church.
On June 30, 1794, the First Church of Christ in Dedham made a voluntary grant to the County of Norfolk of "the northeast corner of their lot, near the meeting house of the First Parish of said Dedham, for the situation of their court-house, together with as many suitable trees to be marked by the trustees of said church, as will be sufficient for making all the joists for the proposed court-house on said corner, as a gift to the county," etc.
At the same session of the court the committee appointed to solicit subscrip- tions for repairing the Episcopal Church or building a court-house reported that it had been unable to raise funds for either project. The court then ordered that the offer of the First Church be accepted and that the court-house be built upon the ground thus donated. In the estimates of public expenditures for the year was included the item of six hundred pounds for a court-house. Joseph Guild,
42
43
HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
Thomas Crane, Stephen Badlam, James Endicott and Stephen Penniman were appointed a committee to receive conveyance of the land, and "proceed to con- tract for and make provision of necessary materials for said court-house, as soon as may be; that they contract for the frame of said court-house on the most prudent terms for said county, of good timber, well wrought in a workmanlike manner-sills about 35 by 45 (or 50) feet, more or less, as near consistent with due proportion, according to a plan to be obtained from Mr. Bulfinch, of Boston, and other good architects, and approved by the court at their adjournment; and that they proceed to contract by the job with such persons as they, after they have advertised and received proposals of as great a number as will offer in reasonable time prefixed, shall judge and select as for the best interest of said county at large, to perform each a different part of said court-house in a work- manlike manner, according to a plan approved as aforesaid, and that said con- tracts be made in writing sufficiently secured."
On August 17, 1794, the Court of General Sessions voted to accept a plan- or rather a wooden model-of a court-house submitted by Isaac and Samuel Doggett, contractors of Dedham, which was presented by the committee. The contract for the erection of the building was awarded to Isaac and Samuel Doggett, and on October 28, 1794, the court, then in session in Gay's Hall, ordered: "That the court-house be erected with one end north, fronting the meeting house, the other end south, and that the committee on buildings so far deviate from the plan of the court-house first adopted as to make it nearly con- formable with the plan of the Salem Court-House within, with a door at each end without."
The following spring the court made another addition to the original plan. On May 14, 1795, it was ordered : "That Thomas Crane, Hon. James Endicott and Stephen Penniman, Esq., be a committee to proceed with as great economy as may be for the county, and, by complete workmen, so far finish the court chamber that the Supreme Court may hold its next session for this county therein by the 15th of August next; and that they apply to Mr. Bulfinch, architect in Boston, for a plan of a decent cupola, or turret, to such court-house, agreeable to the rules of architecture for a building of such site, use and magnitude, and proceed in stoning, clapboarding and painting the outside, with such cupola com- plete, and that said committee shall be held responsible for the goodness of work- manship and materials aforesaid."
Another order of the same date was to the clerk "to draw orders on the treasury in favor of said committee for sums not exceeding the amount of three hundred pounds, to be advanced to them as they have occasion to purchase for executing the trust in them."
Just when the "last nail was driven" is not certain, but on April 26, 1796, the Court of General Sessions allotted the rooms in the court-house to the several county officers and courts. The building was two stories high, 36 by 50 feet, with a hall eight feet wide running through the center. The exterior was colonial in style, the corners ornamented with quoins and the roof surmounted by a cupola. The interior was finished with paneled wainscoting. The cost of the building cannot be ascertained. It served Norfolk County for about thirty years, when it was replaced by the
44
HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
SECOND COURT-HOUSE
About 1820 some of the lawyers practicing in the Norfolk County courts, and others, realized that the county had outgrown its court-house and began an agita- tion for a new one. It was urged that the old house was too small for the proper transaction of public business; that, being entirely of wood, it was not a safe place for the public records, and that it was an "undesirable incumbrance upon the church green." Parties interested in litigation soon saw that courts were handicapped by the antiquated appointments of the old house, and the movement in favor of a new court-house gathered momentum as it went along.
On December 26, 1821, the Court of General Sessions appointed as a com- mittee Edward H. Robbins, of Milton ; Elijah Crane, of Canton ; Ebenezer Seaver, of Roxbury; Thomas Greenleaf, of Quincy; and John Bates, of Bellingham, "to take into consideration, among other things, the subject of erecting a fire- proof building for the safe keeping of the records of the county." The committee reported on July 2, 1822, that the members thereof were "unanimously of the opinion that the duty of erecting a fire-proof building for the safe keeping of the records of the county, pursuant to law, is imperious, and that the same should be made of convenient size and construction as soon as practicable."
The committee also reported that two sites had been offered as a site for the new structure, and recommended that one of them be selected. One was an acre of ground adjoining the jail lot, which was offered by John Bullard, and the other was a tract of land belonging to the heirs of Fisher Ames "embracing the whole northeast end of their lot, from Hartford Road to Cross Street. so far as the extreme southeast side of the Mansion House." The Hartford Road is now High Street and the name of Cross Street has been changed to Norfolk. Mr. Bullard asked $800 for his lot and the Ames heirs wanted $1,200 for theirs. The latter was selected by the Court of Sessions and on May 4, 1824, Mrs. Frances Ames executed a deed conveying to Norfolk County "a parcel of land containing about one acre and a half, lying in front of her dwelling-house in Dedham, on the opposite side of the road, as a site on which it is contemplated to erect a court- house."
The land thus conveyed to the county is the site of the present court-house, and the Court of Sessions agreed that no buildings should ever be erected upon the same except those for county purposes. On the day the deed was executed, the Court of Sessions ordered John Bullard, then treasurer of Norfolk County, to give a note, as treasurer of the county, to Mrs. Ames for $1,000, payable in five annual instalments of $200 each, with interest, "said note being the consideration for a parcel of land conveyed by her to said county," etc.
Solomon Willard, then a resident of Quincy, was commissioned to prepare plans for a new court-house, and on November 4, 1824, the Court of Sessions ordered Treasurer Bullard to sign and execute contracts with the firm of Damon & Bates for the erection of the building, which was to be 48 by 98 feet. two stories in height, modeled in the form of "an ancient Grecian temple, with columns at both ends." The cost of the court-house and the ground upon which it was to be built was provided for by a levy of about three thousand dollars a year until the whole expense of about thirty thousand dollars was paid.
On Monday, July 4, 1825, the corner-stone was laid according to the ceremony
45
HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
of the Masonic fraternity. The day being the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, a number of militia companies participated in the ceremonies by forming at the Masonic Hall and escorting the Grand Lodge "through a triumphal arch to the site of the new court-house." Under the corner- stone was placed a silver plate, bearing the following inscription, engraved by Hazen Morse :
"The corner-stone of this court-house was laid with Masonic ceremonies by R. W. Thomas Tolman, Esq., acting as grand master, assisted by Constella- tion Lodge at Dedham, and other lodges of Free and Accepted Masons in the County of Norfolk, July 4, Anno Lucis 5825, and 49 years since the Declaration of American Independence. Norfolk County established June 20th, A. D. 1793. Building Committee : Hon. Jairus Ware, Daniel Adams, Samuel P. Loud, Judges of the Court of Sessions; Elijah Crane, sheriff; John B. Bates, master mason; Isaac Damon, master carpenter : M. W. and Hon. John Abbot, grand master ; M. E. and Rev. Paul Deane, grand high priest ; John Quincy Adams, President of the United States ; Levi Lincoln, Governor of Massachusetts."
Deposited with this plate were, among other things, a small beaver hat of the then prevailing fashion, made by Timothy Phelps of Dedham, the newspapers of the day, Daniel Webster's address, with an account of the battle of Bunker Hill. and specimens of marbled paper manufactured by Herman Mann & Sons of Dedham.
This second court-house in Norfolk County was 48 by 98 feet, two stories in height, with a projection of ten feet at each end resting upon four Doric pillars, three feet and ten inches in diameter at the base and nearly twenty-one feet high. The granite in the walls came from a quarry about eight miles west of Dedham. It was dedicated on February 20, 1827, by Chief Justice Isaac Parker, of the Supreme Judicial Court. In his address Judge Parker gave it as his opinion that the new court-house "excelled the Worcester court-house in its material, and the Suffolk court-house in its architectural beauty."
FATE OF THE OLD COURT-HOUSE
On October 19, 1827, the old court-house was sold at public auction by order of the Court of General Sessions. It was purchased by Harris Munroe and Erastus Worthington and removed to the easterly side of Court Street, a short distance south of its original location. The purchasers had a hope that the building would be bought by the Town of Dedham, but in 1828 the people of the town voted to erect a town hall and the old court-house was used as a millinery shop and dwelling. In 1845 Munroe and Worthington sold it to the Temperance Hall Association, which converted the upper story into a hall for public meetings. Among the noted men who spoke in Temperance Hall were: Dr. Oliver Wen- dell Holmes, Horace Mann, Abraham Lincoln, William R. Alger, Bishop Hunt- ington and John Boyle O'Reilly. On April 28, 1891, the old court-house and some of the adjoining buildings were destroyed by fire. All that is left of Norfolk County's first temple of justice is the old bell, which is now among the relics preserved by the Dedham Historical Society. It bears the inscription : "Revere, Boston. 1790." The bell was cast by Paul Revere, whose famous ride on the
46
HISTORY OF NORFOLK COUNTY
night of April 18, 1775, "Through every Middlesex village and farm," will never fade from the pages of American history.
COURT-HOUSE OF 1861
In 1860 it became apparent that Norfolk County was in need of more room in which to transact properly the public business. The board of county com- missioners was then composed of Nathaniel F. Safford, of Milton ; Lucas Pond, of Wrentham; and Charles Endicott, of Canton. These commissioners first considered the erection of a separate building, to be used by the register of deeds and the register of probate and insolvency, and a tract of land across High Street from the court-house, including the site of the old Ames Tavern, was purchased by John Gardner as a location for the new building. At a later meeting of the board it was decided that it would be more convenient to have all the county business under one roof, which could be accomplished by extend- ing the north front and adding wings to the court-house.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.