USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 45
USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 45
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 45
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According to the annual town report which was distributed in time for the annual town meeting in 1927, the town has invested in school- houses and land $214,900; public library and land, $78,000; other pub- lic buildings and land, $19,500; Memorial Hall and grounds, $102,000; town land, $1,200; water works, $400,000; fire apparatus, $20,000; fur- niture, school books, supplies, etc., $40,000; other real estate and build- ings, $18,650; making a total of the estimated value of town property of $894,250. These figures give some idea of the size of the town, with its 1,288 dwelling houses, 10,650 acres of land, 988 resident tax- payers and 357 non-resident taxpayers on real estate. There are 1,810 poll taxpayers. There is within the town $969,000 worth of property which is exempt from taxation, owned by religious and educational institutions or devoted to parks and playgrounds.
The Massachusetts Hospital School for cripples and deformed chil- dren is situated in Canton, with Dr. John E. Fish as superintendent. The buildings alone represent a value of $550,000, and it is a worthy and efficient institution.
Four hundred and seventy-one acres of the Blue Hill Reservation and two hundred and sixty-five acres of the Neponset River Reserva- tion of the Metropolitan Park System are in Canton. Two hundred and fifty acres in the town are devoted to cemeteries.
The town's real estate values are about seven million dollars and the personal property valuations, subject to taxation, about two mil- lions.
A World War memorial was erected on the grounds of the high school and dedicated July 4, 1926. The sculptor was Professor Ray- mond Averil Porter of the Massachusetts Normal Art School.
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The town has an exceptionally good school system and nearly two hundred pupils in the high school. Additional accommodations in both high and grade schools are under consideration.
In order to form a new town in provincial times it was necessary to have a meeting-house and an Orthodox minister and show reason- able ability to support the minister. Rev. Joseph Morse was the first minister in the village, which eventually became the town of Canton. Nearly eleven years he preached, previous to his ordination when the first church was embodied in 1717. Canton was then the south pre- cinct of Dorchester and was called Dorchester Village. Canton was incorporated as a separate town February 23, 1797. Its Indian name had been Pakemit or Punkapoag, but that Indian name also included the present territory of the towns of Canton, Stoughton, Sharon, Fox- borough and Wrentham, and was a part of that territory granted by the General Court in 1637, to the town of Dorchester.
It was in this territory that Rev. John Eliot began to preach to the Indians and considerable stirring history was made in the vicinity be- fore it became a town by itself.
One of the early manufacturing plants of importance in Canton, was the Kinsley Iron & Machine Company's works which was estab- lished in 1787. The manufacture of steel by the German process was carried on until 1830. Mill saws, firearms, horse shoes, plow shares, car axles and car wheels, forgings, castings and hardware in great va- riety were manufactured. Lyman Kinsley retired as president in 1859, and was succeeded by Honorable Oliver Ames of North Easton. The Ames family was interested in the business for many years.
Paul Revere & Company established the copper business in Canton in 1801, and manufactured bells, brass cannon and many different things fashioned from copper. In fact, Paul Revere expressed to Con- gress his ability to supply all the copper-manufactured articles which were required in the country and asked for protection against foreign competition, on the plea that the importation of anything of the kind was unnecessary.
The Neponset Cotton Manufacturing Company manufactured cot- ton and woolen goods. The Eureka Silk Manufacturing Company and other succeeding firms have found skilled operatives in silk manu- facturing in the town and carried on the business with success. Cot- ton thread has been manufactured by G. H. Mansfield & Company and some later concerns. Other industries established a considerable number of years ago were the Narragansett Suspender & Web Com- pany, and L. R. Wattles & Company. They manufactured spinning and twister rings and all kinds of elastic web goods. The town has also been engaged in making paper boxes, stove polish and plastic
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WASHINGTON STREET BUSINESS SECTION, CANTON
ST. JOHN'S CHURCH AND RECTORY, CANTON
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wood, fireworks, infants' wear, thread and fish lines, moccasins, cas- ket cloth, knitted goods, artists' colors, and other useful commodities.
COHASSET
This town is in Norfolk County, surrounded by towns in Plymouth County, and many people wonder how such a condition came about. On May 10, 1643, Suffolk County was established and included Bos- ton, Roxbury, Dorchester, Dedham, Braintree, Weymouth, Hingham and Hull, then known as Nantascot. The town of Hingham in those days included Cohasset, which was incorporated as a town, August 23, 1775, and became a part of Suffolk County.
When the present Norfolk County was incorporated March 26, 1793, all the towns of Suffolk County, except Boston and Chelsea, were placed in that county. In this way Hingham, Hull and Cohasset be- came part of Norfolk County.
Hingham and Hull were dissatisfied with their new connection and, at the same session of the General Court, were exempted from the Norfolk County act of incorporation. That left them in Suffolk Coun- ty. June 18, 1803, they were joined to Plymouth County, as they had petitioned.
Cohasset was satisfied to be in Norfolk County and has remained a part of it ever since. It is at present a town of 2,913 inhabitants, using the census figures of 1925, equipped with the usual town depart- ments, functioning well and keeping the merits of the town as a place for permanent or summer residences well to the front. At present there are hundreds of summer homes in the town and each spring brings an additional building program. It was one of the first Mas- sachusetts towns to be selected as a place for summer homes. Bar- ber's "Historical Collections," printed nearly one hundred years ago under Cohasset: "This town has become quite a place of resort for citizens and strangers, in summer months, to enjoy the marine scen- ery and salt air."
Cohasset Rocks, consisting of several small islands and sunken rocks, lie about three miles northeast of the harbor and have proved fatal to many vessels.
Thoreau was on his way to Cape Cod in October, 1849, when he learned of the wreck of the "St. John" on the Cohasset Rocks and he changed his plans to visit the shore, strewn with more than one hun- dred dead. In the opening chapter of his book on "Cape Cod," he asks :
Why care for these dead bodies? They really have no friends but the worms or fishes. Their owners were coming to the New World, as Columbus and the Pilgrims did. They were within a mile of its shores; but before they could
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reach it, they emigrated to a newer world that ever Columbus dreamed of, yet one of whose existence we believe that there is far more universal and convincing evidence-though it has not yet been discovered by science-than Columbus had of this: not merely mariners' tales and some paltry driftwood and seaweed, but a continual drift and instinct to all our shores.
I saw their empty hulks that came to land; but they themselves, meanwhile, were cast upon some shore yet further west, toward which we are all tending, and which we shall reach at last, it may be through storm and darkness, as they did. ... It is hard to part with one's body, but, no doubt, it is easy enough to go without it when once it is gone. All their plans and hopes burst like a bubble! Infants by the score dashed on the rocks by the enraged Atlantic Ocean! No. no! .. . The strongest wind cannot stagger a Spirit; it is a Spirit's breath. A just man's purpose cannot be split on any Grampus or material rock, but itself will split rocks till it succeeds.
Many of the early inhabitants of Cohasset found employment in the fisheries, when cod and mackerel fishing was carried on extensively by all the coast towns of Massachusetts. Shipbuilding was also a considerable industry.
DEDHAM
This is a town to conjure with when it comes to tracing its numer- ous changes from the days of Common Land in 1636, to the setting apart of Westwood, in 1897, as the latest of many towns which have sprung from the original Dedham. Most of this information, which is interesting, is given in earlier chapters or comes into the stories of towns farther down in the alphabet as applied to Norfolk County.
Dedham has a population of 13,918 (1925), is the shire town of the county, a glorious heritage of historical facts, an ideal residential town and industrial centre. The annual town meeting in March, 1927, will be remembered as having the longest ballot ever used in the history of the town. It was eighteen hours after the polls closed be- fore the count was complete. The names of two hundred and fifty candidates were on the ballot, seeking one hundred and fifty elective offices. Miss Veronica P. Murray was elected town treasurer, the first woman to hold that office.
A new Masonic Temple is being erected in the town at a cost of $70,000. It will be in Colonial style to harmonize with the general character of the architecture in Dedham. The lodge room will be forty-one by sixty feet. The temple will stand as a memorial to de- ceased Masons, and will contain a number of individual memorials.
Dedham is about ten miles southwest of Boston, the county seat of Norfolk, and the possessor of many virtues and advantages which make it a delightful town for residences or business purposes. Historically, it is interesting, having contributed to the county, State and nation all that could be expected of it and being the arena for some interest-
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DEDHAM TR
MEMORIAL SQUARE LOOKING WEST, DEDHAM
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HISTORICAL BUILDING, DEDHAM
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ing happenings. With Needham and West Roxbury on the north, Hyde Park (now a part of Boston) and Canton on the east, Norwood on the south and Walpole and Dover on the west, it has good neigh- bors. It is separated from Needham a part of the distance by the his- toric and ever attractive Charles River.
The Indian name for the territory now Dedham, was Tist. The early settlers called it Contentment, but it was incorporated under the present name, complimentary to Dedham in Essex County, England. The territory embraced was considerably larger than the present con- fines of the town, and took in what is now called Wrentham, Wal- pole, a part of Medfield, part of Needham, part of Dover, part of Hyde Park and some other towns. Among the early settlers of prominence were Captain Daniel Fisher, John Allen, John Rogers, Daniel Fisher, Samuel Morse, Ralph Shepard, Francis Austin, Michael Metcalf, John Ellis, Samuel Guild, Thomas Carter. and Eleaser Lusher. One who wants to learn much of the early history of the town will do well to look up the biographies of these men, as well as those of Rev. John Allen, first pastor of the First Church; Rev. Thomas Balch, first pas- tor of the Second parish, and his successor, Rev. Jabez Chickering.
The geological foundation of the town is sienite, in which asbestos and galena occur. Dedham granite is a handsome building material and that from which the court house is fashioned. The highest point of land is 400 feet above sea level. The principal ponds are Buck- minster and Wigwam ponds, from which rivers flow to Bubbling Brook and the Charles River.
Dedham contributed 672 soldiers and sailors in the Civil War and of this number forty-seven were killed in action or died in service.
First Arrivals In Mother Town-The earliest settlers of Dedham arrived in September, 1635. The General Court granted a tract of land south of the Charles River to twelve men in that year. The next year an additional grant, on both sides of the river, was petitioned for and allowed. The present town of Dedham was included in the sec- ond grant. The settlers lived near one another, for purposes of de- fense, until the end of King Philip's War. The Indian danger being, to a large extent, over after that great struggle, houses were built in all parts of the town.
Several other towns in Norfolk County have been set apart from the old town of Dedham and, like the original town, have given a good account of themselves in the struggles and problems which have been associated with the growth and development of the settlements, towns, county, commonwealth and nation. It is for that reason, and because the early story of Dedham is especially interesting, that the amount of space devoted to the town in this history seems somewhat out of
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proportion. The events recorded are the events of the beginnings of several towns, rather than one, and the experiences were those common to the early inhabitants of Norfolk County generally, and typical of the times.
The General Court of Massachusetts was sitting in Newton (now Cambridge) in 1635, when twelve men petitioned for a tract of land south of the Charles River, on which they desired to found homes and eventually a new town. The proposition found favor in the eyes of the members of the General Court and the petition was granted. This original dozen men showed their gratitude and good intentions by improving the land during the first year and, in 1636, came back, joined by nineteen additional pioneers, asking for an additional grant of land, this time situated on both sides of the Charles River, an ex- tension of the land originally granted. The petitioners' prayer was granted. The new area included the territory on which the pres- ent town of Dedham, the county seat of Norfolk County, is located. Some neighboring towns were also included in the second grant, as early petitioners were not bashful in asking for plenty of land and there was plenty of land to ask for.
There were eighteen persons present at the first public meeting held August 15, 1636, at which a covenant was adopted. Each person bound himself to "give information concerning any person who ap- plied for admission, to submit to such fines as might be imposed for violation of rules, and to obey all such bye-laws and regulations as the inhabitants shall judge necessity for the management of their temporal affairs, for religion, and for loving society."
Entering into such an agreement as this, all that seemed necessary was to employ some strong-minded tithing man, keep the dogs out of the church, and go on to a successful administration of affairs, by the aid of occasional town meetings. According to Barber's "His- torical Collections :"
The government of the town was delegated by the freemen to 7 men, who were to be chosen annually. These 7 men met monthly, for many years, made many necessary bye-laws, which were recorded in the records of the town. Con- cerning the appropriation of the land, each man was provided with a lot of 12 acres of land if married, and 8 acres if unmarried; this to begin with. The after grants seem to have been made according to the necessities of the members, or as a reward for services performed. The number of persons in a family was also made a rule by which to divide the lands; quality, rank or desert and usefulness in the church or commonwealth was also a rule considered in the apportionment.
In a petition to the general court the inhabitants requested that the town might be called Contentment; which name is written over the record of the first several meetings. It would seem that the word well expressed the leading motives of the first 24 settlers in coming into this town. They were soon, however, as- sociated with men of a somewhat different and higher character. The celebrated
REGISTRY OF DEEDS, DEDHAM
COURT HOUSE, DEDHAM
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John Rogers, of Dedham, in England, had been forbidden to preach before the first settlers came to this country. Many of his people emigrated, and numbers settled in this place. From that circumstance, it may reasonably be inferred that the general court gave to the town the name of Dedham. The first settlers were more immediately from Watertown. They were as follows, viz: Edward Allyne, Abraham Shaw, Samuel Morse, Phileman Dalton, Ezekiel Holliman, John Kingsbury, John Dwite, John Cooledge, Richard Ewed, John Howard, Lambert Genere, Nicholas' Philips, Ralph Shepard, John Gay, Thomas Bartleet, Francis Austin, John Rogers, Joseph Shaw, William Bearstowe.
In July, 1637, John Allin and Eleazer Lusher, and ten other persons came to Dedham, bringing recommendations, and were at the same time admitted free- men. These 12 persons gave a more decided character to the whole company. The following is the list of freemen who had been admitted into Dedham previous to 1647:
Mr. John Allin, Mr. Timothy Dalton, Mr. Thomas Carter, Mr. Ralph Wheelock, Mr. John Hunting, Mr. Pruden, Mr. Henry Philips, F. Chickering, dead, Abra- ham Shaw, Edward Allyne, John Frayre, Eleazer Lusher, Robert Hinsdale, Ed- ward Kempe, John Leuson, John Dwight, Henry Smith, John Rogers, John Shawe, Nathan Aldis, deac., Daniel Fisher, Michael Metcalf, John Bullard, Joshua Fisher, Ferdinando Adams, Thomas Wight, Samuel Morse, Nicholas Phillips, John Morse, John Page, Michael Powell, Joseph Kingsbury, Nathaniel Colborne, Timothy Dwight, Peter Woodward, John Baker, Nathaniel Whiting, Anthony Fisher, Andrew Dewing, George Barber, Robert Onion, Robert Feashe, John Gay, Lambert Genery, Samuel Guile, John Ellis, Daniel Morse, Thomas Alcoke, John Batchellor, Joseph Morse.
Having allotted to themselves house lots in parallel strips, part up- land and part meadow in each instance, the first setters took up their holdings near the centre of the town, as it exists at present, procured a minister, built a meeting-house, and started municipal housekeeping under favorable auspices. The first meeting-house, intended for wor- ship, town meetings and a general social centre, as was the custom, was a low building, twenty feet in width, thirty-six feet in length, twelve feet in the posts, with a thatched roof, and a ladder leading to the roof, to make it an easy matter to gain the roof in case it caught fire. This meeting-house, erected in, 1637, had box pews, five feet deep and nearly as wide. Before the high pulpit was the elder's seat and the deacons' seat, overlooking the communion table. This building an- swered the purposes of the new town for thirty-five years. When a larger one was needed, the first was pulled down. The second was a two-story, more pretentious affair, with stairways in three corners, leading to the gallery, where the men sat on one side and the women on the other, with the highest taxpayer seated in the highest pew, or pit.
At the time the second meeting-house was built there were ninety- five houses forming a village in the vicinity of the present court house. They had thatched roofs, were near one another and many of them
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around Dwight's Brook. Most of the boards of which the houses were built were sawed by hand in the woods, and the location of some of these saw pits can still be pointed out by people familiar with the local history. Against the thatched roof of each of these small dwell- ings leaned a ladder, as a means of fire protection.
The skyscraper of the town was a three-story building, the lower floor used for school purposes, the middle story for town storage pur- poses and the top story as a watch house, from which the watchmen could view the immediate surrounding territory and detect the ap- proach of Indians or, in times of comparative peace, learn the location of cattle, goats and sheep in the neighboring herd-walks. The school- house was eighteen feet long by fourteen feet wide. The herd-walks were the common feeding grounds. One of them was on Dedham Is- land, north of Charles River. There were many wolves about and many dogs to keep them away from the cattle. The dogs had a pro- pensity for going into the meeting-house and it was one of the many duties of the tithing man to whip out the dogs during the Sunday services.
He was equally busy in subduing the irreverent boys during the long preaching and required to do errands for the elders and seat the congregation according to social distinctions, not forgetting to place the largest taxpayer in a seat built higher than the rest, that his exalted position in the community might be typified by being seated with his head nearest to the roof.
Among the first industries in the town were grinding grain, at first on hand mills; sawing logs at a sawmill on Neponset River, built in 1664; and operating a fulling mill which was built on Mother Brook by Draper and Fairbanks in 1681. Dedham became the county seat in 1793.
Government and Defense-The appearance of the old town went through the usual sequences of all Colonial towns. At first the houses were built close together, as a better protection against raids by the Indians, with the meeting-house, schoolhouse and watch-house in the group, out of which came the invariable town green or square noticeable in every old town in New England. Later, larger tracts of land were cultivated as farms, when the necessity of a compact village had abated, and neighbors lived at a greater distance from one another.
Quoting from Barber's "Historical Collections :"
Of the many eminent men who have lived in Dedham, are the following: Major Eleazer Lusher, came into the town with Mr. Allin, and maintained an eminent rank among the founders of the town, directing and taking the lead in all the most important affairs of the plantation. He was a representative to the
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OLD FAIRBANKS HOUSE-1636 -- DEDHAMI
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MEMORIAL HALL, DEDHAM
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general court, and a number of years, from 1662, an assistant. The following couplet was frequently repeated by the generation which immediately succeeded him:
When Lusher was in office, all things went well,
But how they go since, it shames us to tell.
Captain Daniel Fisher, one of the first settlers, was much employed in public business, in the several offices of deputy to the General Court, speaker of that assembly, and assistant, in which office he died. He was a hater of tyranny, and was one of the four members of the General Court against whom Randolph, the agent of James II, in the colony, exhibited articles of high misdemeanor to the lords in council.
Captain Daniel Fisher 2d, inherited the spirit of his father, and was also much employed in the various affairs of the town. When Sir Ed- mund Andros was seized by the Bostonians on Fort Hill, he sur- rendered and went unharmed to Mr. Usher's house, where he remained under guard for some hours. When the news of this event reached Dedham, Captain Fisher instantly set out for Boston, and came rush- ing in with the country people, who were in such a rage and heat as to make all tremble. Nothing would satisfy the country party but binding the governor with cords, and carrying him to a more safe place. Soon was Captain Fisher seen among the crowd, leading the pale and trembling Sir Edmund by the collar of his coat back to Fort "Hill. History has informed us of this incident in that revolution, but never told who took the lead of the country people, and who had the honor of leading the proud representative of a Stuart prince, the op- pressor of the colony, through the angry crowd, and placing him in safe custody at the fort.
The defense of Dedham in King Philip's War, was partly dependent upon a great gun which was mounted in the centre of the town, a quantity of ammunition stored in the meeting-house or schoolhouse, and a steady watch maintained at the watch-house. There were no assaults upon the town, the warlike appearance evidently having a de- terrent effect upon the scouts of Philip. Not only in Philip's War but in all the wars in which the country has engaged, Dedham has furnished its full proportion of money and soldiers. In King Philip's War (as already mentioned) and the two French wars, the town lost a good number of men, who died of sickness in the camp or fell in battle. A number from the town engaged in the expedition against Havana, none of whom returned, and a considerable number served at the long and memorable siege of Louisburg, Cape Breton.
At the commencement of the Revolution the inhabitants were unanimously opposed to the oppressive measures of the British min- istry. Town meetings were frequently held, and many patriotic res-
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olutions are found on the records. In January, 1774, the town voted "that they heard, with infinite pleasure the determination of other colonies to prevent tea from being used to enlarge the British revenue in the Colonies; and as so many political evils are brought about by the unreasonable liking to tea, and it is also so baneful to the human constitution, that if any shall continue to use it, while the act creat- ing a duty thereon is in force, we shall consider it as a flagrant proof of their hostility to the liberties of the country and of their own stu- pidity." At the reception of the news of the Lexington massacre, all the militia of the town forthwith repaired to the scene of action. In the war which succeeded, the town furnished upwards of 100 men, who served either in the regular Continental Army, or in the State serv- ice performed military duty in one or more distant campaigns.
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