USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 46
USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 46
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 46
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In the Revolutionary War, the town contributed its share of volun- teers. There were several Loyalists who became very unpopular, among them being Rev. William Clark, rector of the Episcopal church, who was imprisoned for refusing to swear allegiance to the cause of the colonists. In the Revolutionary War the number of Dedham men exceeded one hundred. When the call for soldiers came in 1740, for the "Spanish War," as it was called, there were several who responded and not one of them came back. At the siege of Louisburg, in 1745, a number of others took part.
The Baptists formed a society in the town in 1811, with Rev. Wil- liam Gammell, as the first pastor. Contemporary with him was Rev. William Montague, rector of the Episcopal church, from which Rev. William Clark had been removed, for his Toryism, in 1768.
Among the able men in Dedham, previous to half a century ago, were: Rev. Eliphalet Adams, a graduate of Harvard College, a learned divine, who died in 1753; Rev. Ebenezer Gay, D. D., another able clergyman, whose death occurred in 1787; General Joseph Dwight, a distinguished soldier and judge, born in 1703 and deceased in 1765; Dr. Joshua Fisher, M. D., an able physician and naturalist, graduate of Harvard College, whose span of life was from 1749 to 1833; Fisher Ames, LL.D., (1758-1808), orator, statesman and writer, whose writings, with a memoir by Dr. J. T. Kirkland, were published in 1809; Na- thaniel Ames, son of Dr. Fisher Ames, an able author; Warren Col- burn (1792-1833), a distinguished mathematician; Samuel Foster Ha- ven, born in 1806, archæologist and author, for many years librarian of the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, Massachusetts ; Reuben A. Gould, born in 1822, author, librarian of Brown Univer- sity, whose writings have contributed much to knowledge of genera- tions since 1848; Erastus Worthington, writer, author of a "History of Dedham," published in 1846. The past half century has contributed
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an even larger number of distinguished men, biographical sketches of some of them appearing in a companion volume to this history.
On the northwest corner of the court house square, on the Boston road from Dedham, is a granite pillar, about five feet in height, which was once the pedestal to a column erected in honor of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and surmounted with his bust. The column and bust are now gone, but on two sides of the pedestal is the following inscription :
On the North Side.
The pillar of Liberty erected by the sons of Liberty in this vicinity.
Laus Deo. Regii et Immunitat m autoribusq. maxime Patronus Pitt qui Rempub. rursum evulsit faucibus Orci.
On the West Side.
The pillar of Liberty to the honor of William Pitt, Esqr. and other patriots who saved AMERICA from impending slavery, and confirmed our most loyal affection to King George III, by procuring a repeal of the Stamp Act, 18th March, 1766.
Erected here July 22d, 1766, by Dr. Nathaniel Ames, 2d, Col. Ebenezer Battle, Major Abijah Draper, and other patriots friendly to the Rights of the Colonies at that day.
Replaced by the Citizens July 4, 1828.
It is believed that Dedham has the first canal ever built in this country. It has been related how in 1681, a fulling mill was built on Mother Brook by Draper and Fairbanks. This is an artificial canal which was excavated in 1639, three and one-half miles in length, tak- ing about one third of the waters of Charles River into the Neponset River. This canal was dug to furnish good mill sites, about four years after the commencement of the settlement. Mills have been situated on the canal ever since and the opinion of the first settlers that its existence would repay the large amount of work which its excavation required has been justified.
DOVER
Dover has the smallest population of any of the towns in Norfolk County (1,044 in 1925). It is one of the border towns between Nor- folk and Middlesex counties, in the northwestern part of Norfolk County. It was originally a part of Dedham and was incorporated as a town in 1781. The first minister, Rev. Benjamin Caryl, remained in charge of the church nearly fifty years, his pastorate terminating with his death. His son, Dr. George Caryl, graduated from Harvard College in 1788, was one of the early physicians of Dover.
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When Paul Revere made his famous ride to rouse the people pre- vious to the firing of "the shot heard round the world," sixty-eight men responded from the precinct of Dedham, now Dover. One of them, Charles Haven, was killed, one of the early martyrs of the Rev- olution. When the call came to join the men in the vicinity of Bos- ton and the battle of Bunker Hill followed, Aaron Whiting was guid- ing his plow, drawn by a yoke of oxen. He left the team as it was. His wife unyoked the oxen but the plow remained in the furrow until Whiting returned three months later.
Dover has been an agricultural town from the first and farming is still a leading industry. In 1815 there was a rolling mill in the town, which was the first rolling mill built to run with one water-wheel in this part of the country. It had a speed of four times as much as those which run by two wheels. The millwright was an Englishman named Johnstone, who had been smuggled into the country some years previously, when it was unlawful for any skilled mechanic to leave that country. There have also been manufactured in the town, nails, cigars, paper and shoes.
The town is well supplied with unfailing springs of pure water for which it is noted.
FOXBORO
The town of Foxboro, using the popular spelling of the present day, nas five thousand inhabitants, and on June 10, 1928, was one hundred and fifty years old as a separate municipality. The town costs about half a million dollars annually to maintain according to the high stand- ard which the town has adopted as the worth-while manner of carrying on. A new high school building was erected in 1927, and there is plenty of adjacent land to provide one of the best athletic fields in the State. Other departments of the town are also well managed.
Foxboro of the present day is linked with the town as it was more than one hundred years ago by a change made the present year, when Donald Carlisle, a Boston business man, purchased the old stone mill on Granite Street, thoroughly renovated it and converted it into a beautiful dwelling for himself and family. The mill was erected about 1810, for use in manufacturing cotton cloth. The old raceway was still in practical use and the new owner converted it into a water- fall in his own yard. The brook is led through a sunken garden and the landscape engineering has brought forth very attractive effects which suggest possible uses for other abandoned property of the long ago.
This particular mill was erected by Simon Pettee who made cotton cloth two yards wide there. He later made paper bags. His son-in-
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law, John G. Jones, later used a part of the mill to manufacture light- ning rods.
Foxboro has been on the border line of so many legislative changes, that it has been claimed that John Shepherd, who was born February 25, 1705, and died April 3, 1809, aged one hundred and four years, had been a resident of three counties and five towns and never moved from his birthplace. The town was incorporated June 10, 1778. It had been a part of Dorchester and in Suffolk County until that time.
An iron foundry was one of the earliest industries, aside from agri- culture in the town. It is said that the only export at the time of the incorporation of the town was charcoal and that the imports were molasses, cod-fish and New England rum. The making of straw bon- nets was an early industry and one of much importance. In 1837, there were 133,654 straw bonnets made in the town, valued at $121,- 571. The population at that time was 1,416.
Betsey Metcalf is said to have made the first straw bonnet. Among the early inhabitants, John Everett was a blacksmith and tavern keeper, Joseph Comey, the village shoemaker, Simon Pettee, a gun- smith, Amos Boyden, a surveyor, Aaron Everett, a carpenter and Jo- seph Everett, a tanner, currier and glove-maker.
From the iron ore bed worked many years in the town, the first cannon for the Revolutionary War are said to have been cast by Uriah Atherton, "and the grog cups used on the occasion are now in the hands of one of his descendants." There has been a counter claim from Bridgewater that the Revolutionary cannon first in the fight was cast in that town but the rejoinder is that the "Bridgewater folks came here to learn the trade, and proved themselves ready appren- tices. A cannon ball, cast by Atherton at this forge is deposited in Memorial Hall."
Foxboro has been engaged in manufacturing many things, among them straw hats, felt hats, sewing machines, leather-board, packing boxes, paper boxes, lumber, tinware, stoves, boilers, hollow-ware, stereoscopic views, slates, clothing, millinery goods, soap, harnesses, carriages, baskets, boots and shoes, brooms, music clamps, dental goods, extracts, medicines, cider, glue, iron utensils, hoop poles, char- coal, iron work, florists and greenhouse goods, as well as maintaining foundries, planing and sawmills, laundry, printing offices, grist- mills, granite quarries and other lines of endeavor. In recent years several commodities relating to the automotive industries have been manufactured in the town.
"Soldiers' Memorial. Erected By the Town, A. D. 1868"-A building, bearing this inscription over the entrance, was erected in the old Burying Ground near the Common three years after the close of the
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Civil War. Built of pebble stones with granite trimmings, it repre- sents the physical make-up of the town. A slated roof and dome, on which was placed the figure of a Union soldier with arms at rest, were appropriate in the architecture. The interior was handsomely finished with oiled chestnut. In the building is the public library with book cases, between which memorial tablets were placed. A bronze coat- of-ams of the United States was placed at the right and the coat-of- arms of Massachusetts, at the left of the marble tablet, which bore the inscription "Soldiers' Memorial. Erected by the Town, A. D. 1868." Rolls of honor of heroes of all the wars and a large figure of the God- dess of Liberty in colored glass are near the entrance. Numerous interesting relics are preserved in the hall.
The Unique Howe Monument-In the rear of Memorial Hall stands a strange monument which has attracted much attention from visitors to the town.
In order to read the inscription it is necessary to raise the lid or cover, which turns up like the lid of a tea-pot, and lays on the rest by the side. The cover is of iron, and is kept to its place by hooks; the date, 1810, is cut upon it. The following is the inscription :
This monument was erected by Doct. N. Miller, to the memory of his friend, Mr. Zadock Howe, who died 1819, Aet. 77, and who fought under the great Washington.
To those who view, before you're gone, Be pleased to put this cover on. 1810.
On the inside of the cover, on a piece of sheet-iron, the following is in gilt letters :
The grave is waiting for your body, And Christ is waiting for your soul, O, may this be your cheerful study, To be prepared when death doth call.
The lower part of this monument is of granite. This, with the ap- paratus at the top, was made by Mr. Howe, who kept it in his house some years before his death.
Following the Revolutionary War, Ebenezer Warren, brother of General Joseph Warren of Bunker Hill fame, moved from Roxbury to Foxboro. A son of General Warren, while visiting his uncle in Fox- boro, died and was buried in the old burying ground. In an ad- dress by Honorable E. P. Carpenter delivered at Foxboro, June 29, 1878, he referred to the death of the son of General Warren and said : "His remains were removed some years since, in a most unceremoni- ous, not to say uncivilized, manner, in a raisin-box for a casket."
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FRANKLIN
Threescore and ten years ago certain residents of Wrentham brought forth a new town, set apart from Wrentham, and named for Benjamin Franklin, the Boston boy, who made America famous. The town contains more than seven thousand inhabitants, has a valuation between nine and ten millions of dollars, and some over 2,100 men of twenty years and older, with a forward look for the town, as repre- sented by the planning board, to make a more beautiful and desirable Franklin. At the end of 1926, there were 1,632 dwelling houses in the town and twelve hundred and eighty-nine of them were connected with the water system.
The town maintains its school department in a high state of effi- ciency. There are more than 1,600 pupils and the school appropria- tion in recent years has been about $125,000 annually. The percent- age of the school population attending the high school has increased remarkably the past few years. A new high school was provided in 1926, and in that year 9.7 per cent more of the school population was in the high school than in 1920, and thirty-one of the fifty-six gradu- ates from the high school that year continued their education in high- er institutions of learning. There are more than five hundred books in the High School reference library. The town appropriates about $120,000 for the maintenance of its public schools, $8,000 for the support of the Fire Department, $35,000 for highways and bridges, $25,000 for public charities, and $9,000 for maintenance and operation of the water department.
Printing presses are manufactured in Franklin, also cotton, woolen and straw goods. It is the seat of Dean Academy.
Having Wrentham for a mother and Dedham for a grandmother, the town of Franklin came of good lineage and began a separate existence as an incorporated town in 1778. It had been set off from Wrentham as a distinct parish in 1737 and became accustomed to walking alone. It was a part of Wrentham during the King Philip War, and Indian Rock is pointed out as the scene of retribution visited upon followers of the wily sachem of the Wampanoags.
After the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Dr. Benjamin Frank- lin was one of three colonists who were sent to France to arrange for a treaty of alliance with Louis XVI. Such a treaty was formed with the ambassadors in January, 1778, while the petition of the new town to be set apart from Wrentham was waiting decision. According to Smalley's "Centennial Sermon :"
The name (Franklin) was selected in honor of Benjamin Franklin, LL. D. While Dr. Franklin was in France, a friend of his in Boston wrote to him that a town in the vicinity. of Boston had chosen his name by which to be known in the
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world, and he presumed, as they had no bell with which to summon the people to meeting on the Sabbath, a present of such an instrument from him would be very acceptable, especially as they were about erecting a new meeting-house. The doctor wrote, in reply, that he presumed the people in Franklin were more fond of sense than of sound; and accordingly presented them with a handsome dona- tion of books for the use of the parish.
The donation from Dr. Franklin consisted of one hundred and six- teen volumes, selected by Rev. Richard Price of London, a friend of Franklin's. These volumes were added to a social library until there were about five hundred in the combined collection. They became the nucleus of the Franklin Public Library. This town was the first of twenty-nine towns in the United States to take the name of the Boston printer boy who became one of the most useful and famous men ever born on American soil.
Dr. Franklin may or may not have been familiar with the history of that part of Wrentham which took his name, during the Revolution- ary War. At all events the village was worthy of such a name. Some of its men "marched from Wrentham on the nineteenth of April, 1775, in the Colonial service." The town voted in 1779, when the money credit of the government was rapidly sinking, instructing all who had money to lend to lend to the Continental and State treasurers and to "avoid lending to Monopolizers, Jobbers, Harpies, Forestallers and Tories, with as much caution as they avoid a pestilence."
Early Industries-Until the beginning of the nineteenth century the industries in the settlement which became Franklin were "The Iron Works," "Ben Works' sawmill," and "Adams' corn mill." No others are mentioned in early records. Franklin was one of the towns which engaged prominently in the manufacture of straw bonnets and cotton goods. The first straw factory in Franklin was begun in 1812 by Asa and Davis Thayer. A few years after the Civil War there were seven local manufacturing establishments turning out braided straw pro- ducts, more than a million hats and bonnets a year. At that time the hats and bonnets were made, pressed and finished by hand. Later hydraulic presses were introduced and sewing machines came into use.
It is said that Frank B. Ray started the first woolen mill in Franklin and used the first shoddy picker in the country in preparing wool shoddy to sell to other manufacturers. Felt, satinet and cassimere manufac- turing was a leading industry for many years, having started in 1839 by the enterprise of Colonel Joseph Ray. There were seven felt mills running in Franklin in 1883 and three others just over the town line owned by Franklin firms. The making of rubber boots, overshoes, wooden boxes, sashes, doors, blinds, cotton and woolen machinery, soap,
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leather goods, leather lacquer, jewelry have been carried on with con- siderable success.
The experiment of making sugar from beets promised to be an in- dustry in town about 1879 but declined from lack of beets. The can- ning industry was more successful, starting about 1873. Most of the firms made their own cans and raised a large share of the material used, fruits, vegetables and cranberries.
One of the interesting places to visit in town at present is the farm of John C. Paine, stocked with saddle horses, ponies, goats and other animals.
HOLBROOK
There was spirited opposition some years ago when the east side of Randolph petitioned to become an independent town and take the name of Holbrook, but the East Siders won out in the contest, convincing the Great and General Court that there were good reasons for the change. In former days there was rivalry and town meeting eloquence between Randolph and East Randolph. Since the separation, and the creation of Holbrook, there has been another rivalry grow up in its midst. Holbrook is one precinct, and Brookfield, another precinct in the same town, is something else again. This neighborhood rivalry expresses itself especially in town meeting sessions.
At the annual town meeting in March, 1928, the town appropriated $121,752, which was an increase of $7,890.25 of the appropriation of the previous year. The park commissioners were granted sufficient sums to make improvements at the Holbrook and Brookville play- grounds and at Holbrook Park. While Holbrook is a small town, its departments function efficiently and well for a town of its size.
Chief of Police Walter O. Crocker received at the town meeting in 1928 a large vote, reëlecting him for his thirty-second year as a con- stable and police officer of the town. He has been chief of police nearly all the time.
The school committee was notified in 1928 by the New England Col- lege Certificate Board that the certificate privilege had been extended for four years. The State Board of Education placed the Holbrook High School in Class A, enabling the school to certify pupils to the State Normal schools so they are admitted without examinations.
The Sumner High School has been in need of additional accommo- dations and an addition to the building was erected in 1928, supplying the need.
The leading industries in Holbrook, a town of 3,273 inhabitants, are the manufacture of shoes, ice cream and disinfectants, with the accent on shoes. When Brockton, or North Bridgewater, was more con-
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cerned in making shoe tools and the earliest kind of shoe machinery, Holbrook was a part of Randolph and was manufacturing boots and shoes and sending them to the South, West Indies and other distant places.
One of the local pioneers in the shoe industry was Ephriam Lincoln. The boot and shoe business began with the nineteenth century. Em- ployment was furnished one generation after another by local manu- facturers named Paine, Blanchard, Holbrook, White, Whitcomb, Faxon and other worthies to whom the town owes a debt of gratitude. They produced worthy footwear, dating from the days of the ten-footers, and the town has sustained its reputation for good workmanship and material.
Brookville is one of the villages of Holbrook and a lively little burg in itself, half way from Holbrook centre to the Brockton line, with shady streets and a general air of a prosperous and happy New Eng- land village. Many people who do business in Boston and Brockton make their homes in Holbrook or Brockville.
The Holbrook railroad station is about half-way from the centre of Holbrook and the centre of Randolph and the number of Holbrook railroad tickets sold are out of proportion to the travel from the station, since Holbrook comes within the zone for a twelve-ride ticket and Brockton is outside of that zone. Consequently thousands of people in Brockton purchase railroad tickets between Holbrook and Brockton, and use the twelve-ride ticket for the remainder of the trip in and out of Boston. Inasmuch as this combination of tickets cannot be used except on trains which stop at Holbrook, there has been a suspicion that less trains would pass by the station without stopping were it not for the Brockton ticket users. The fare between Brockton and Boston on express trains is considerably more.
Holbrook's Leap Year Proposal-The first town meeting of the town of Holbrook was held March 11, 1872. The town was incorporated February 29, 1872, a Leap Year proposition using the extra day in the year as its civic birthday. The division of the town of Randolph had been under consideration for a long time and vigorously opposed by the residents on the west side of the Old Colony Railroad. It so happened that the representative of the town of Randolph in the General Court, at the time the petition for the new town was presented, was a resident of the village represented by the petitioners. The peti- tion was signed by E. N. Holbrook and thirteen others. When a town meeting was held in Stetson Hall, West Randolph, to take action on the petition, it was voted to appoint a committee to oppose the divi- sion of the town, and to instruct the representative to the General
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Court, Ludovicus F. Wild of East Randolph, to carry out the expressed wish of the town, or resign.
While the legislative hearings were taking place, E. N. Holbrook, the first signer of the petition, died suddenly. He had proposed, in the event of the incorporation of the new town, to give a donation of $50,000, half of the sum for a Town Hall and Public Library building, $10,000 for a Public Library, and the remaining $15,000 for the pay- ment of the town debt, or some kindred object. The petition for in- corporation asked that the new town have the name of Holbrook, but this was not because of any condition imposed by Mr. Holbrook in making his offer or any expressed desire on his part. It was the ex- pression of the appreciation of the people of East Randolph for his generous citizenship and in recognition of the Holbrook family, old residents, public spirited, enterprising and successful.
MEDFIELD
According to the census of 1925, the population of Medfield was 3,867. The town is growing slightly in the number of inhabitants and contains numerous advantages to induce persons to cast their lot with the townspeople who are justly proud of one of the smaller towns in Norfolk County. The total valuation of the town exceeds two and a half million dollars. There were 453 dwelling houses assessed in 1926 and the number of residents assessed on property was 617. The town appropriations aggregate $136,000. There is an excellent public library with a circulation exceeding 15,000 volumes. The annual appropriation for the school department is about $30,000. The total number of pupils is about 350.
Medfield was the forty-third town in Massachusetts to be incor- porated. It had been a part of the ancient town of Dedham until the act of incorporation in 1650. It was an agricultural town in the beginning and, blessed with fertile soil, has continued in that industry successfully. Manufacturing has been introduced to a limited extent. It was one of the early boot and shoe towns and also engaged in mak- ing shoe laces, straw bonnets and hats. Some granite quarries have yielded considerable wealth. There are extensive peat meadows. The spelling of the name of the town on the ancient records was Meadfield, indicating that the meadows suggested the name.
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