USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 49
USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 49
USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable counties, Massachusetts, Vol. II > Part 49
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There are about 12,000 pupils enrolled in the public schools. The city spends for its public schools approximately $800,000 annually. There are twenty-one school buildings in use and more room needed.
During the World War there was such an invasion of labor for the shipbuilding program that the United States Government erected a new school building at Quincy Point to provide required room for the children of employees at the shipyard. Many of the new comers were unable to speak English. Many were illiterate in their own speech. There was a total population in the city of Quincy, according to the United States census in 1920, of 47,876. There were 14,166 of foreign parentage and 5,948 of mixed native and foreign parentage. There were 1,146 illiterates from ten to sixteen years of age, 1,121 of them of for- eign birth. From sixteen to twenty, there were 3,608 illiterates.
Americanization classes were conducted and splendid results fol- lowed.
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A million dollar Senior High School building was erected in 1924. It was supplied with every modern equipment and is an educational plant in which the city and county take great pride. The old high school building became available for the Junior High School. Another Junior High School building, costing $500,000, has been erected at At- lantic, another at South Quincy costing about the same amount, and a large addition to the Daniel Webster School for Junior High School purposes.
The high school force consists of fifty-seven teachers and the Junior High School employs twenty-nine. In the elementary schools are 245. There are seven supervisors, six special teachers of music, sew- ing, manual training and physical training; three hundred and forty- five different regular day school teachers, four in continuation schools, six in home-making, thirteen in independent industrial schools, thirty- four in evening schools and twenty Americanization teachers.
In 1925, Quincy lost by the death of Thomas B. Pollard, an educator who had been thirty-eight years a principal in the Quincy schools; and Ellen B. Fegan, one who had been a teacher in the Willard School fifty years. Both were universally respected and beloved by all and their passing was a distinct loss to their civic interests as well as the schools.
Adams Mansion A National Shrine-The Old Adams Mansion on Adams Street in Quincy, known to people of the present generation as the Brooks Adams property, was presented to the city of Quincy as a national shrine and dedicated, July 19, 1927. Delegations were pres- ent from patriotic, historical and municipal organizations. The Adams Memorial Society conducted an informal tea in the afternoon.
In the Old Adams Mansion lived two presidents of the United States One was John Adams, signer of the Declaration of Independence, first Minister to Great Britain, second President of the United States, succeeding George Washington. The other was his son, John Quincy Adams, sixth President, ambassador to Russia and England, "Old Man Eloquent."
It had been the home of Charles Francis Adams, Minister to Great Britain during the Civil War, and American arbitrator at the Geneva tribunal for settlement of the "Alabama" claim against England. The golden weddings of these three distinguished members of the Adams family were observed in the house. It had been in late years the home of Brooks Adams, a writer on sociological topics. "The Emancipation of Massachusetts," which was published in 1887, was a vigorous ar- raignment of the Puritan hierarchy for its intolerance and oppression. His writings were internationally known and some of them were trans- lated into foreign languages. His "War An Ultimate Form of Economic Competition" was prophetic of the World War and threw light on the
ASTON BANK
IN THE SQUARE, QUINCY
WOLLASTON BEACH, QUINCY
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dangers as well as the advantages of civilization, especially, that of America.
The house is filled with valuable relics, including the bed on whichi John Adams died. On the walls are paintings of members of the famous family.
The house was built in 1725 for Leonard Vassall, a West Indian plant- er. His estate was confiscated during the Revolution when he joined other Tories in making a swift exit from the town. John Adams bought the place in 1785 and built an addition to the original structure of brick.
Great panels of Santo Domingo mahogany, each in one piece, appear in the finish of the living room of the original house.
Thousand of persons who visit the Adams home know, or at least learn while there, that John Adams was the second President of the United States, the successor to the Father of His Country, and that the term of his presidency extended from 1797 to 1801. Few, however, realize what were the outstanding events during those four years.
George Washington died. Evant invented the high-pressure steam engine. The Navy Department, destined to have many of its vessels built in Quincy, the birthplace of Adams, was organized and a secretary appointed. Louisiana was ceded by the Spanish government to France by the secret treaty of St. Ildefonso. John Marshall was appointed chief justice of the United States Supreme Court.
It appears from an epitaph on a monument raised by elder President Adams, that Henry Adams was the progenitor of the Adams family in this country ; in the epitaph it is said, "He took his flight from the Dra- gon persecution in Devonshire, England, and alighted, with eight sons, near Mount Wollaston. One of the sons returned to England, and, after taking time to explore the country, four removed to Medfield and the neighboring towns two to Chelmsford, one only, Joseph, remained here, and was an original proprietor in the township of Braintree."
Joseph Adams had a son Joseph Adams, who was the father of John Adams, who was the father of John Adams, the President. They were distinguished, as we learn from the epitaph referred to above, "for their piety, humility, simplicity, prudence, patience, temperance, frugality, industry, and perseverance."
New Highway Development-When the Old Colony boulevard opens a direct route from Boston to Merrymount and Hough's Neck, leaving Columbia Road near Elm Street, and going across the Calf pasture, with Dorchester Bay at the left, around Savin Hill Point, over an arch and draw to Commercial Point, it will mean much to the development of Quincy. The new bridge at Neponset will be used to cross the river.
Another new artery opens up Morton street from Blue Hill Avenue
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to Neponset Bridge. It will be a new road from Boston, through the Fenway, to the South Shore, taking in Quincy.
Automobile traffic in Quincy is especially heavy and continuous, as thousands of people pass through to the Quincy beaches, to Plymouth and other places on the South Shore, and to Cape Cod. In the other direction, there are innumerable motor cars bound for the North Shore as well as for business in Boston. Parking areas also have been greatly in demand. The city was fortunate in 1927 to have the use for parking pur- poses of the meadowland between the railroad and Hancock street offered for the purpose as a gift from Joseph B. Grossman.
New England's First Aviation Tragedy-In the early days of avia- tion the flying field at Squantum witnessed flights by the comparitively few fliers of international reputation at the time. The first aviation tragedy in New England occurred in 1912 when Harriet Quimby and William A. P. Willard were killed in a meet which Willard had or- ganized. It was the first meeting in America at which women fliers had been seen, and there was a large number of spectators to watch the California girl who had been taught at the Bleriot School in France. She owned a Bleriot monoplane with a hundred horsepower engine, which had a little cockpit back of the driver's seat. Into this cockpit she invited Willard for a ride to Boston Light, and he accepted the in- vitation. Miss Quimby was the first women to pilot a plane from Lon- don to Paris. She was about twenty-three years of age, tall and attrac- tive.
Amid the plaudits of thousands of admirers, she took to the air, with her passenger, and gave a beautiful exhibition of flying, which was followed admiringly by the people in the grandstand with their field glasses. Coming back Miss Quimby steered over Dorchester Bay to the west and was over the mouth of the Neponset River, when she suddenly turned to the east and made a nose dive for the getaway on the field.
Suddenly Willard was seen to dive out of the plane, followed by Miss Quimby. There were no belts to hold either. Willard weighed more than two hundred pounds and as soon as his weight was thrown out by the nose dive, the plane dipped straight for the ground and Miss' Quimby fell out. Both bodies turned over and over as they neared the shallow water. Both were instantly killed. The girl's mother and Wil- lard's son witnessed the tragedy.
Another flier at that meet was Glenn Martin who flew a biplane of his own design. He has since figured largely in the progress of aviation.
The United States Naval Air Station was later established at Squan- tum. The Victory Plant there was an important defense unit in the World War.
MASONIC BLOCK ON MAIN STREET, RANDOLPH
HOME OF MARY E. WILKINS FREEMAN, RANDOLPH
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The Eventide Home of Quincy was chartered April 28, 1924, as a home for elderly people, suggested by Dr. Elmon R. Johnson, a Wol- laston physician. About fifteen years earlier, William B. Rice had been actively engaged in the development of the Quincy Hospital and he specified in his will the possible use of a trust fund for a home for the aged. His sons, Harry L. Rice and Fred B. Rice, offered the sum of $350,000 as an endowment fund if, within six months, at least $50,000 could be secured for the erection of a suitable building, and the income from the endowment fund be used for the maintenance of the home and not for structural purposes.
Dr. Johnson directed the effort to raise the money and by June 3, 1925, the sum of $65,000 had been paid in or pledged. The name of the corporation was then changed to the "William B. Rice Eventide Home."
Mrs. William B. Rice offered her home, No. 215 Adams Street, Quincy, as a temporary home until a permanent one could be erected. Altera- tions were made and the home was opened for occupancy in July, 1926, with all modern conveniences for its intended use.
RANDOLPH
Randolph had a population in 1925 of 5,644 and 2,662 registered voters. In 1927 the number of registered voters in time for the annual town meeting had increased to 2,865 and of that number 2,235 voted in the elections. For the first time in the history of the town the Repub- licans made a clean sweep, electing their entire slate. The town has usually been Democratic.
One of the new commercial buildings in the town is that of the Ran- dolph Savings Bank, opened in June, 1927. The bank had then been in existence seventy-six years. The new building is of Colonial design, very attractive and well equipped with all modern appointments for banking. It is an imposing building within and without. Organized in 1851,'deposits at the end of the first year were $2,308. At the end of twenty-five years they were $798,810.64. When fifty years old the bank showed in deposits $1,306,193.31, and when the present building was thrown open, with seventy-six years of service to its credit, the bank deposits were $2,425,000.
In an official announcement at that time the bank officials said :
Out of the past, the Randolph Savings Bank has inherited valued traditions of usefulness. Today, with its newer, finer equipment, it faces the future hopeful that it may be privileged to play even a greater part in the prosperity and success of this community, with whose business life it has so long been identified.
It was in the former structure that one of the boldest daylight bank robberies in this vicinity took place a few years ago. Just as the bank
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was about to close, an automobile arrived in front, containing three men. Two went into the bank and, finding a customer doing business, pretended to be making out deposit slips, until the customer departed. Then the two strangers held up the people in the bank, sealed their mouths with adhesive plaster, bound them and made a get-away with considerable loot. It has been believed in police circles that Gerald Chapman, the notorious criminal later executed for killing a policeman, was one of the robbers.
The Randolph Fire Department has an annual appropriation of some over $5,000. About the same amount is spent for health and sanitation, including the salary of a nurse and inspectors. The water department costs about $8,000. The public schools cost about $75,000 annually.
Mary E. Wilkens, who leaped suddenly into prominence as a writer of short stories concerning New England, was at one time a resident of Randolph.
Benjamin Wheeler, for twenty years president of the University of California, was a native of Randolph. He was born July 15, 1854. He died in London May 3, 1927. He wrote the "Greek No'un-Accent," "Analogy in Language," "Introduction of Higher Education in the United States," "Life of Alexander the Great," "Unterright and Dem- okratic in America," and other educational works.
A large school for Catholic deaf and dumb children is one of the in- stitutions in the town, housed in an imposing brick building which was erected about twenty years ago.
The town has some especially beautiful shade trees, over-arching its principal street, many of them in front of solid mansions erected many years ago, giving the town an especially notable appearance.
Shoes, rubber boots, dolls, portable garages, summer homes and poultry buildings and fireworks are manufactured in the town.
Since being set apart from Braintree in 1793 and having certain estates in Braintree reannexed in 1861, Holbrook was made a separate town, out of the east side of Randolph, February 29, 1872. Another town which took a part of Randolph was Avon. This territory was annexed April 16, 1889.
Randolph was originally a part of the ancient town of Braintree. It became the town of Randolph in 1793. At that time it was an agricul- tural community containing one hundred and thirty or more families and about seven hundred inhabitants. Communication with neighbor- ing towns was usually over bridle paths. Roads for wheeled vehicles were few and in most seasons practically impassable. The road to Bos- ton through the Blue Hills was practically impassable and the best route to the big town was through Braintree and Quincy to Milton Mills, thence through Dorchester and Roxbury.
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The year that the town was incorporated the town expenses amount- ed to three hundred pounds, and of this amount fifty pounds were ex- pended for the support of schools. In 1800 the town expenses were five hundred pounds and of that appropriation three hundred and five pounds were devoted to schools. These figures indicate the interest taken in educational matters by the founders of the town.
Shoemaking, or more strictly speaking bootmaking, was an early and leading industry in Randolph before most of the leading shoe towns of the present day were particularly engaged in that industry. Considerable about shoemaking in early days in Plymouth County is told in that part of this history relating to the older county and the important part played by Randolph is related in connection with that story. It might be recalled that Micah Faxon, usually mentioned as Brockton's first modern shoemaker, went from Randolph to that town, then called North Bridgewater. Faxon knew his leather before he knew North Bridgewater.
From information printed on a map of Randolph in 1840 we learn that in 1839 the whole number of families in town was 677. Of these 464 were shoemakers, sixty farmers, forty-eight merchants, forty- five laborers, twenty-three carpenters, six millers, five butchers, four stone-cutters, four tailors, three wheelwrights, three blacksmiths, two harnessmakers, two painters, two curriers, and one each landlord, cabinetmaker, brick maker, cooper, basket maker and sailor. Of the mechanics and laborers fifty-eight were emigrants, as the story was told on the map.
When Randolph became separated from its parent town of Braintree in 1793, it took the name of a distinguished son of Sir John Randolph. This man was Peyton Randolph, born in Virginia in 1723, appointed royal attorney-general for Virginia in 1748, was a member of the House of Burgesses and chairman of a committee to revise the laws of Vir- ginia. In 1752 he was sent to England as a commissioner to seek re- dress for grievances. In 1764 he framed the remonstrance of the House of Burgesses to the king against the passage of the Stamp Act. He was speaker of the House of Burgesses for several years. He was chosen, March 10, 1773, chairman of the Committee of Vigilance. He was first president of the Continental Congress when that body held its meeting in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, September 5, 1774.
The Randolph Fire Department was a considerable fighting force when the old hand engines "Fire King," "Fearless" and "Independ- ence" were the dreadnaughts of the fire fiend. Nearly all the promi- nent men of earlier generations were members of the companies which ran with the old hand tubs.
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SHARON
Sharon occupies the highest land between Boston and Providence and is considered one of the healthiest towns in Norfolk County. It has two stations on the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad on what was formerly the Boston & Providence Railroad line. It is one of the towns that became vested with town government and responsi- bilities on account of the enabling act passed August 23, 1775, when all districts in the Province of Massachusetts Bay were given that privilege. It had been a part of the old town of Stoughton and later of the precinct of that town called the Second Precinct or Stoughton- ham, being at that time one with the territory set apart, just before the passage of the enabling act, as Foxborough.
There is a high rocky region on the west side of the town called Moose Hill and the woods on that hill constitute the Bird Sanctuary in Norfolk County, maintained by the Massachusetts Audubon So- ciety.
From the top of Moose Hill in olden times was lighted the torch of Liberty which could be seen from Beacon Hill in Boston. On the same location, six hundred feet above the level of the neighboring sea, is a steel tower used as an observatory to guard the vicinity against forest fires. The Audubon Society maintains a house and a keeper on the Bird Sanctuary, and some interesting records and relics are kept there.
Rattlesnake Hill, named for obvious reason, is a high, rocky section in the southeast part of the town, still well wooded, but without rattlesnake occupation.
One mile south of the village is Lake Massapoag, a body of water of much beauty and an asset to the town, as about it are many summer residences. The town is visited by thousands of people in the summer who are largely attracted by the "Great Water" of the Indians' desig- nation.
Like most other towns in the Massachusetts . Bay Colony, Sharon was made a separate town because its inhabitants wearied of walking too far to attend religious services. This fact was clearly set forth in the petition of Benjamin Estey and others, which resulted in the second precinct of the old town of Stoughton being set off. Soon the meeting- house was finished, a goodly supply of ammunition was secreted in the repository built into the house for the purpose, and the new pre- cinct was ready to become a going concern. There is a record that "William Price was paid the sum of one pound, ten shillings, for his providing plank and irons, and for making the stocks for the district, and carrying them to the meeting-house."
One of the early industries was the manufacture of cannon, from
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iron ore taken from Massapoag Pond, a beautiful sheet of water which has played a useful part in the development as well as the defense of the town from earliest times. The name is the same as that used by the Indians and is said to have meant to them "Great Water." At present it is surrounded by summer homes and peaceful groves.
Edmund Quincy, Jr., owned a farm east of Massapoag Lake, after his marriage to Hannah Gannett of this town, caused him to move here from Quincy, where he was born. He discovered that the lake was rich in iron ore, imparted the information to Colonel Richard Gridley of Boston, and these men, with Joseph Jackson of Boston as the third partner, bought the right to take the ore from the lake, of the "Dorchester proprietors." They purchased the furnace of the Ebenezer Mann Company in the south part of the town and began the manufacture of heavy guns. It is claimed-and by others disputed- that the first cannon cast in America was made from 1773 to 1775 in the Mann Works. The company manufactured guns for the Colonial army during the Revolutionary War. Iron and steel goods were manu- factured continuously in the town. One hundred and forty years after its incorporation the town contained 1,492 inhabitants and its out- put of steel and iron in 1880 was valued at $61,700.
Stoughtonham became a town by virture of the enabling act, author- izing all districts in the province of Massachusetts Bay to become towns. This was passed August 23, 1775. After Stoughtonham became a town the people requested the General Court to change its name to Washington, but it was never done. June 10, 1778, the south part of Stoughtonham was incorporated as the town of Foxborough. The remainder of the town was then changed by the General Court to Sharon, in February, 1783.
The first general store in Stoughtonham was opened by Benjamin Hewens, Esq., about 1750. The first post office was established at Cobb's Tavern July 1, 1819. The post office at Sharon Centre was es- tablished in 1828. The Cobb's Tavern post office had its name changed to East Sharon June 3, 1841.
Sharon was the home of Deborah Sampson Gannett, a lineal descend- ent of William Bradford of the "Mayflower," who served in the Revolu- tionary War, as "Robert Shurtleff." She was born in Plympton and enlisted from that town, but gave her residence as Uxbridge. She en- tered the service at Worcester. The mustering officer was Eliphalet Thorp of Dedham, who was completely fooled by the apparently quiet young man. The story of her service and discharge with honors, by direct command of General George Washington, is told elsewhere in this history.
Deborah Sampson became the wife of Benjamin Gannett, April 7, Plym-71
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1784. One son and two daughters were born to them. She died April 29, 1827, and her tombstone in the cemetery at Sharon relates briefly her heroism. Deborah Sampson Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, of Brockton, was named in her honor and her grave is dec- orated by a delegation from that organization each Memorial Day.
Education, Peace, Harmony-In June, 1826, the Sharon Friends School Fund was begun by the contributions of former residents of the town, for the education of the youth. The letter addressed to the in- habitants of the town of Sharon set forth that "This fund is now be- gun with a hope and expectation that it will be increased, so that every child in your town will have an opportunity to acquire a good practical education and that it may be the means of increasing Education, Peace, Harmony, and the good feelings of every inhabitant of your place. This is offered as a token of remembrance of the place of our nativity, with our best wishes for your peace, your prosperity, and your happiness as a town and individually."
This letter was signed by Otis Everett, Andrew Drake and Oliver Fisher as a committee. Other contributors were Aaron Everett, Mace Tisdale, Thomas Curtis, Daniel Johnson, H. G. Ware, S. K. Hewins, Whiting Hewins, Warren Fisher, James Hendley and John Curtis, all of Boston; Lewis Morse, Ezra Morse and Luther Morse, of Roxbury ; Oliver Everett of Sharon; Edward Richards and Jabez Fisher of Cam- bridge.
The contributions from the above men aggregated $1,810. By vote of the town surplus revenue was made a permanent fund for the use of school, with interest applied annually, and this increased the fund $2,690.
Mrs. Anna Hewins of Roxbury, whose husband, Abel Hewins, was a native of Sharon, gave $500 and this brought the fund to $5,000.
Sanford Waters Billings, a graduate of Amherst College, erected a schoolhouse at his own expense and gave instruction in the classical and higher mathematical studies, devoting his time in the useful instruction of youth for seventeen years. He became principal of the Sharon High School when it was established.
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