USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Canton > History of the town of Canton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts > Part 13
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
In 1826 a law was passed obliging towns to choose a school committee; and the following year a statute allowing the districts to elect prudential committees, with power to contract with teachers, took the matter of selection out of the hands of the town committee, leaving it a veto-power rarely used.
Nov. 20, 1826, a new district was established; and in 1827 a schoolhouse was erected at a cost of six hundred dollars, in that part of the town which has been designated as the Stone Factory and No. 6. It was intended to place the schoolhouse on the lot where the chapel stands; but the Manufacturing Company offered to give the land at the junction of Neponset and Chapman streets. An addition was made to the original house on the southerly side, and in time a second story added.
The school kept at the corner of Chapman and Neponset streets is now called the Revere School, in honor of Paul Re- vere, who resided in this town from 1801 to 1818. The origi- nal building, though many times transformed, still remains.
I43
. SCHOOLS.
In 1830 books were delivered free to the children of parents unable to pay for them. In 1835 Thomas French and Thomas Tolman, in 1836 Rev. Erastus Dickerman, and in 1837 Asaph Merriam visited the schools. Henry D. Thoreau taught school in Canton during his college vacation in 1835, but with poor success. The same year Mr. William F. Temple drafted a plan for a new division of the town into school districts.
In 1839 the whole number of scholars was, in summer, 386; in winter, 454. There were many absentees, and the com- mittee deeply regretted the fact "that moral and religious instruction has been almost entirely neglected, seemingly by common consent." Asaph Merriam and Ezra Abbot, M. D., were school committee this year. Mr. Ezekiel Capen taught a school for the instruction of youth in Greek and Latin in the old Town-House. He was born in Sharon, January, 1818, and died at Canton, April 5, 1872. He fitted for college at Milton Academy, but never finished his course at Brown Uni- versity. From 1849 to the day of his death, with the excep- tion of three years, he was a member of the school board. Upon the occasion of his death the school committee passed resolutions expressing " feelings of gratitude for his character and worth as a citizen, an educator, and a man;" and the mem- bers of the religious denomination of which he was a zealous member have placed a mural tablet in the Baptist meeting- house, where it appears he was "for many years its wisest counsellor and most liberal benefactor."
In 1840 the committee reported the condition of the schools as "truly deplorable." The schoolhouse in Ponkapoag was "a disgrace to any civilized community," sixty or seventy chil- dren being crowded into a little, low, dirty room that could not supply good air or accommodation to half that number. The seats in the schoolhouse at Canton Centre, especially for the little ones, " could not be made more uncomfortable or more injurious to the health of those who occupy them." The committee consisted of Rev. W. H. Knapp and Levi Little- field. Twelve hundred dollars was appropriated for the sup- port of schools. The number of schools was seven, designated
144
HISTORY OF CANTON.
as follows: Centre, Blue Hill, Forge, York, Chandler, Factory, and Hardware.
In 1841 the committee congratulated themselves that obsta- cles of which former committees had complained -inconven- ient schoolhouses, a multiplicity and variety of textbooks, absence and tardiness of pupils, deficiency in the qualifi- cations of teachers, lack of interest of parents - were less than in former years. The first printed school report ap- peared in 1841-42, Charles O. Kimball and Levi Littlefield, committee.
In 1842 the committee reported that Canton stood ninety- fifth in the list of 307 towns which had made liberal appro- priations for the support of common schools in the State. " It is said by those who are competent to judge, that our schools were never in a better state. . . . The locality of our town, its proximity to the city, the abundant and easy modes of con- veyance by means of the railroad, and various other advan- tages render it, in the opinion of the committee, peculiarly desirable that our means of literary and moral improvement should be multiplied to the extent of their capabilities." Charles O. Kimball and Thomas French were the superin- tending committee.
In 1843 Ellis Ames and James Dunbar were school com- mittee. Mr. Ames appeared to be fastidious in regard to reading, as in his report he wrote of the reading as "bad." Mr. Ames had taught school at Ponkapoag in 1827. The money appropriated was fourteen hundred dollars.
The committee of 1843 were satisfied that the schools had been respectable. The reading, however, "was so indistinct and devoid of energy, emphasis, or animation " that the com- mittee could not keep the thread of the story; in some schools the reading was "bad beyond description."
In 1844 the committee determined that the literary and moral qualifications of teachers should be such as the law required. They therefore organized themselves into a Board of Examination. They recommended that more money be raised by the town, the raising of money by districts having been attended with much perplexity and expense of time in
-
145
SCHOOLS.
soliciting and collecting subscriptions; also the committee believed that the system worked unequally, throwing the burden upon a few individuals, and did not insure a general attendance of the children of the districts. The committee were Benjamin Huntoon, Abraham Norwood, and Leonard Everett.
In 1847 Canton stood number seventy-one in the State av- erage of schools, and fourteen, among the twenty-one towns of Norfolk County. The committee were Benjamin Hun- toon, William B. Hammond, and Timothy C. Tingley, all clergymen.
In 1854 the present schoolhouse, which accommodates the children living between the village of Canton and the Sharon line, was erected. The Hardware, as this portion of the town is sometimes called, had been a part of District No. 3, but in 1835 it was set off as a separate district by it- self, and a new schoolhouse was erected, and designated as No. 7. Oct. 2, 1854, in view of the fact that Gen. Richard Gridley had lived, died, and been buried in the vicinity, the name Gridley School was placed on the front of the building.
We cannot fix the date of the erection of the first school- house in what is now South Canton. It stood opposite the entrance to Walnut Street, and was 13 by 13 feet. It was in good condition in 1766, when Elijah Dunbar taught in it. It was superseded by a new one in 1796, which was situated near the corner of Washington and Neponset streets. It was commonly known as Ingraham's Branch, from the fact that it was situated near the house of Jeremiah Ingraham. In 1826 it had outgrown its usefulness, and was removed to the site of the Universalist meeting-house, converted into a tene- ment-house, and subsequently burned. The stone house at Ingraham's Corner, now occupied by Fuller Brothers as a store, was erected in 1827, and until purchased by the Ne- ponset Bank Corporation, in 1836, was used as a schoolhouse. It was built of stone at the solicitation of General Crane, who agreed to pay the difference between the cost of a wooden and a stone house. The district then erected, about 1837, a one-story building on the site of Peter Crane's house, the lat-
IO
146
HISTORY OF CANTON.
ter having been removed to the Revere Copper Yard. This schoolhouse was raised, in 1846, from one story to two stories, and was used as a repository for the equipments of the militia after the destruction of the old Armory.
The present school building in District No. 3 was dedicated April 18, 1854. This house, when built, was declared to be a building "which in beauty of architecture, completeness of design and adaptation, is unequalled." The land on which it stands had been owned and occupied by Major-Gen. Elijah Crane; for which reason the committee named the school very appropriately the Crane School.
In 1856 the committee decided to appoint a superinten- dent of schools. Mr. Samuel Bradley Noyes, who had for twelve years been a teacher or committee-man, was the first superintendent; he served in that office during the years 1861-63, 1868-70. J. Mason Everett succeeded Mr. Noyes as superintendent in 1859; Ezekiel Capen succeeded Mr. Noyes in 1864. In 1866 and 1867 Daniel T. V. Huntoon was superintendent, and again in 1871; Thomas E. Grover in 1872-73; Frederic Endicott from 1874 to 1878; George I. Aldrich from 1879 to 1883; George W. Capen, 1883.
The map of Canton, published in 1855, has the boundary lines of the school districts distinctly traced.
In 1858, a committee chosen at the March meeting rec- ommended that the town choose a school committee of one from each school district, and two at large. This plan was adopted, and the school committee has been so constituted ever since.
In 1858, a petition for a high school was presented by Nathaniel Dunbar, Virgil J. Messinger, and others, and from this time forward, the establishment of a high school was urged in all school reports until May 4, 1866, when the first examination for admission took place in the Crane school- house. In 1869 it was placed in the building especially erected for it, at a cost of $10,000, after much controversy as to its location. In 1868 the district system was abolished ; and in 1870 the town took possession of the schoolhouses at an appraisal of $27,000. In 1871 evening schools were
147
SCHOOLS.
established, and for a few years were well patronized. In 1878 the salary of the superintendent was raised from five hundred to thirteen hundred dollars.
The following gentlemen have been principals of the High School: Henry B. Miner, 1866-69; John F. Casey, 1869-73 ; Frank M. Wilkins, 1874-76; Clarence H. Berry, 1876-80; Frederic L. Owen, 1881-18 -.
148
HISTORY OF CANTON.
CHAPTER IX.
BURYING-GROUNDS.
T HE centre of population during the first decade of the eighteenth century was near the village of Ponkapoag; and here, on a hillside back from the road, the first settlers of Canton buried their dead.
The Proprietors' Lot.
I have no record of the existence of this place of sepulture anterior to 1708; but I know of no other spot, nor ever heard of any, where those who died between 1690 and 1716 could have been buried. Years passed ; and the heads of families, whose children had been interred on the hillside, and who expected to be placed beside them, deemed it expedient to procure a legal title to their last resting-place, and the deed was procured from Thomas Shepard on the 7th of March, 1741. The consideration mentioned was £5. The parties taking the deed were John Puffer and Benjamin Blackman, and " their associates hereafter mentioned ; " but no associates are mentioned. The land is described as being in Stoughton, and containing one quarter of an acre, on the west side of Shepard's farm, about six or seven rods to the southward of the public road. The deed provides that the proprietors shall have a right of way from the road to the place of burial, and recites that the land is the same that has "been im- proved as a burying place for more than thirty years past, and is now so used and known by that name."
In the mean time the centre of population had moved toward the south. The first meeting-house had been moved to Packeen Plain, now Canton Centre; and the Canton Ceme- tery, as it is now called, was first used as a place of inter- ment in 1716. Naturally the older cemetery was disused ;
149
BURYING-GROUNDS.
and only the descendants of the original proprietors buried their dead at Ponkapoag. Although many are buried there, the stones still standing are few.1
Headstones were not used to mark the first interments. The early graves are marked with the rough stones of the field, with no inscriptions. The headstone of one of the original proprietors, "Old Lieutenant Puffer," as he was called, is in a sad condition; it is broken so as to be almost illegible, and some kind hand has set it up against the wall. When the man to whose memory this stone was erected was ten years old, his mother and his eldest brother, James, were killed by the Indians at Mendon, and he was probably pres- ent at the massacre. He was an early settler in Canton, receiving from his father, in 1691, 120 acres of land, bounded northeasterly by what is now the Milton line, and on the northwest by the Great Blue Hill. He married, Dec. 10, 1695, Mary Holbrook, of Roxbury. In 1705 he was ap- pointed a constable for Ponkapoag. He was born at Brain- tree, Oct. 10, 1665, and died Jan. 19, 1750.
The English Graveyard.
We have shown that the Proprietors' Lot was back from the country road, now Washington Street, and that the owners had a right of way to it. Let us now turn our attention to the land intervening. Among the earlier settlers of Canton were those who had been, in England, members of the Estab- lished Church.
Samuel Spare, who came over in 1728, was a member of Christ Church in Boston previous to his removal to what is now Green Lodge Street in 1738, and by will gives the in- terest of £13 6s. 8d. " for the use of the Church of England in this town forever." Joseph Aspinwall and Henry Crane, the great-grandfather of Margaret Fuller, lived at Packeen.
Jonathan Kenney, in 1754, held the fee-simple of the inter- vening land between the road and the Proprietors' Lot. He was anxious to increase the influence of the denomination
1 See Appendix X.
150
HISTORY OF CANTON.
with which he was connected, and he gives this land to " The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, incorporated by royal charter, and to their successors for- ever." This gift he makes "in consideration of promoting the honor of Almighty God, and in the interest of the Church of England, as by law established, and for the better accom- modation of the professors of that holy religion." The land is to be " for a situation for a church for the worship of God according to the laws and usages of the Church of England, as by law established, and for a cemetery or burying place for the dead."
The land was described as containing twenty-seven square rods, beginning at the road and running six rods to " a bury- ing place belonging to certain proprietors," then running southwest four rods and a half, thence to the road. Whether there was ever any line of demarcation between these two places of burial is doubtful. The line, if one existed, has long since disappeared; hence the two graveyards became merged, and the fact that they ever had a separate ownership was forgotten. The later name has been retained, and the enclosure is known as the English Churchyard.
The question of the title to this churchyard has agitated the town on several occasions. In 1806 Capt. William Bent and others, descendants of the original proprietors, petitioned the town to fence the burying-ground at the northerly part of the town; and a committee, consisting of Benjamin Lewis, Elijah Dunbar, and Samuel Blackman, was instructed to inquire whether a clear title would be given to the town in case it should fence the yard. The town treasurer was di- rected to take good titles of both yards from the proprietors. Whether the treasurer received deeds from either party at the time, I am not informed, but judge that nothing was done about the matter, for in 1818 another committee reported that the town runs a risk in fencing land not its own; that the agent of " the church " could claim the land contemplated to be fenced, or prosecute the town for fencing it; but the com- mittee learned from the aged John Spare that the ground was not church property. This was true as to the church
151
BURYING-GROUNDS.
organization at Canton; and Mr. Spare probably was not aware that the fee-simple was in the Society for the Propa- gation of the Gospel.
However, the wall was tumbling down; the trees were leaning against the old moss-covered stones and cracking them; and the town voted that a sum of money should be granted to the proprietors, "they to fence the land."
In 1843 the granite posts, which had once adorned the mansion of Gardiner Green in Boston, were reset, an iron gate took the place of the old red one, and a new wall was built. In 1883 the town granted the sum of $150 to put this burial-ground in good order; the wall was reset, and large stones were placed, one on each side of the gateway, bearing in old-fashioned lettering the following inscriptions :
OLDEST BURYING GROUND - HERE STOOD VE ENGLISH CHURCH I700.
1754-1796.
The Gridley Graveyard.
The enclosure at the southerly part of Canton, originally the Leonard family burial-ground, known of late years as the Gridley Graveyard, from the fact that here for over eighty years the remains of Major-General Gridley reposed, was established as a matter of necessity, in a trying time. In May, 1764, the town was visited with the small-pox ; and the records of its ravages, as they have come down to us, are terrible. " Awful," says the old pastor, "was the provi- dence among the sick; two adult persons, heads of families, died, and a private fast was had in the Parish on account of the visitation." The following extracts are from the diary of Elijah Dunbar : -
" May 27. Terrible time on account of small pox.
" June -. Vilet died this night, a very terrible time. " Leonards folks taken with the small pox.
" Mrs. Vose dies of the small pox.
" Old Joseph Fenno dies.
" Polly Billings dies of the small pox, purple sort.
"Leonards family in great distress.
" Sunday Mrs. Davenport dies of the small pox.
,
152
HISTORY OF CANTON.
" 14th. Fasting on account of the great sickness. Poor Mrs. Leonard died this forenoon, and Walley this afternoon, of ye small pox.
" 17th. Nurse Howard dies of small pox.
"23d. Ebenezer Talbot dies."
The following gravestones - all that are standing - tell the sad story of three of the victims of the dreadful scourge :
" Here lies ye body of Mr. Walley Leonard, who died of the small pox, June the 14th, 1764, in the 44th year of his age."
" Here lies ye body of Mrs. Mary Leonard (and her new born babe), the wife and child of Ensign Nathaniel Leonard, who died of the small pox, June ye 14th, 1764, in the 39th year of her age."
" Here lies the body of Mary Billings, daughter of Mr. William and Mrs. Mary Billings, who died of the small pox, June 8, 1764, in the 18th year of her age."
Nathaniel was the son of Uriah, and was born March 7, 1717. He married Mary, daughter of Major John and Re- becca (Fenno) Shepard, Jan. 26, 1744. He purchased, in 1743, " London New," and is described as a "bloomer." He paid, in 1764, three shillings for every ton of iron ore he brought from Massapoag Pond. He resided in that part of the town known as the Hardware, and deserves remembrance for his public spirit in erecting the first milestone ever put up in the town. It stands just north of Massapoag Brook, at the point where Washington Street crosses it, a few rods from the original resting-place of Richard Gridley. It was found buried near the roadway, and was preserved by James Strat- ton Shepard; it bears an inscription supposed to have been cut by Leonard's own hand: -
B. 17 M
1736. N. L.
After the death of Nathaniel Leonard, his son Jacob, in conveying the property to Richard Gridley, Edmund Quincy, and others, in 1772, reserves "one rod square for a burial
153
BURYING-GROUNDS.
place, and here some of the grantor's relatives are buried." Here Gridley buried his son, Scarborough, who died Dec. 16, 1787, and his wife, Hannah, who died Oct. 17, 1790, and he was himself interred in this enclosure, near the graves of the Leonards and the collateral Billingses; so that in 1821, when Adam Kinsley bought the little plat, it had been increased, and "three rods were reserved for the burying place."
In 1707 the population of the precinct had extended so far to the southward that it was decided by the Dorchester Committee to locate the meeting-house on Packeen Plain, now Canton Centre, and it was deemed convenient and desira- ble to have a burial-place near this meeting-house. The In- dians cheerfully relinquished all their interest in the land, and the spot selected was that portion of the present cemetery which lies nearly west of Central Avenue, and extends to within a few feet east of the only row of tombs in the ceme- tery; it is bounded on the north by Prospect Avenue and on the south by the Washington Street wall.
In the northeastern part of this division of the burial- ground are interred many of the first settlers. Their graves can easily be distinguished by moss-covered stones half sunk in mould, ornamented with death's-heads, cross-bones, and hour-glasses, standing in irregular rows at an angle with Prospect Avenue. Here stands the oldest stone in the cem- etery, - that of Gilbert Endicott, who died in 1716, and who was, says Mrs. Oliver Wentworth, who died many years ago, the first person buried in this ground. Here are also in- terred the first three ministers; here too are buried the father of Roger Sherman, doctors, squires, colonels, deacons, and the heroes of the French and Revolutionary wars that have been famous in the annals of the town in days gone by.
There are several inscriptions in the Canton Cemetery that are peculiar and worthy of record. Some occur in other places of burial. Miss Thurston's and Mrs. Hannah Daven- port's are far from original.
" Stop, my friends, as you pass by. As you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so you must be ; Prepare for death and follow me."
154
HISTORY OF CANTON.
William Glover's is as follows: -
" My Loving friends, as you pass by, On my cold grave pray cast your eye. Your sun, like mine, may set at noon, Your soul be called for very soon."
This is Mrs. Mary Blackman's: -
" Stop here, my friends, and drop a tear; Think on the dust that slumbers here. And when you read this date of me, Think on the glass that runs for thee."
Mrs. Esther Tolman has the following epitaph : -
" Stop, pensive reader, cast an eye ; Beneath such clod your flesh must lie."
This is Mr. Nathaniel Merion's : -
" Come, my dear friends, prepare to die, That you with me may reign on high. That when the last loud trump shall sound, At Christ's right hand we may be found."
Mr. William Shaller's is as follows : -
" Some hearty friend may drop a tear Over my dry bones, and say They once were strong as mine appear."
This is Miss Polly Patrick's : -
" Praisis on tombstones are vanity ; A good name is her monument."
Aaron Baker's daughter is described as -
" A lovely bud, so young and fair, Called home by early doom, Just come to show how sweet a flower In Paradise could bloom."
There is a peculiarity on two stones erected to the memory of members of the Billings family which I have not noticed in any other cemetery. They begin, "In memory of ye Ris;" then follows the name.
155
BURYING-GROUNDS.
Mr. Jesse Wentworth's epitaph is as follows : -
" Mourn not for me ; Death is a debt To Nature due, That I have paid, And so must you."
This is Eliza Tucker's, who died July 29, 1834: -
"Like a good steward what the Lord gave her she left in the bosom of the church, -$1,200."
The following is the epitaph on the stone of Joseph Shel- den, a native of Staffordshire, Old England, who was born June 13, 1804, and died Feb. 8, 1847: -
" I was a stout young man As you might see in ten ; And when I thought of this I took in hand my pen, And wrote it down in plain, That every one might see That I was cut down like A blossom from a tree. The Lord rest my soul. AMEN."
In 1791 the parish voted to fence the burying-place near the meeting-house, putting a stone wall on the east side; and as there were several families in the parish who " do not make use of that Burying Place," it was agreed that " they shall have the portion of the fencing-tax remitted."
It was also agreed that " if George Crosman, Esq., will please to grant an addition to the Burying Place on the side next to his land, as it is said he has proposed, the Parish will build the fence the entire southerly side." This small plat of land served the needs of the town of Canton for one hundred years from the burial of Gilbert Endicott.
When the ancient place of sepulture became so crowded that it was necessary to enlarge it, the only suitable way to do this was by purchase of a piece of land on the west, - the adjoining land on the east being occupied by the meeting- house. At the beginning of the present century, this vacant
156
HISTORY OF CANTON.
land on the west was used as a timber-yard; and the valley which a quarter of a century ago bloomed with flowers and fragrant shrubs, seventy-five years ago was used as a saw-pit. It contains about an acre, and extends from the imaginary line before referred to, just east of the tombs, until it joins the land on which the meeting-house of the First Congrega- tional Parish now stands. Under an article inserted in the town warrant in 1815, a committee, consisting of Deacon Ben- jamin Tucker, Thomas French, Jr., and Ezra Dickerman, was appointed to inquire into the expediency of enlarging the old, or laying out a new cemetery. This committee deemed it advisable to enlarge the original lot, provided as much of the adjacent land as would be necessary could be purchased at a reasonable price. They recommended that a committee be chosen to inquire the cost of the land, and report. The town appointed the same committee to attend to this matter, with the exception that Ezra Tilden took the place of Ezra Dick- erman. The committee was instructed to ascertain the cost of an acre of land on the opposite side of the street; the owner asking one hundred and fifty dollars for it, and Mr. Oliver Downes asking only fifty dollars an acre for the ad- joining land on the west, the latter was preferred, and the committee recommended its purchase; also, that the money necessary be raised by subscription, the town to take the deed. A committee, consisting of Gen. Elijah Crane, Gen. Nathan Crane, Simeon Tucker, Samuel Carroll, and Israel Bai- ley, was appointed in 1816 to carry the purpose of the town into effect. They however did nothing about the matter, and subsequently the town treasurer was authorized to pay the money and receive the deed.
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.