USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Canton > History of the town of Canton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts > Part 14
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The deed of the land was obtained Jan. 1, 1817, when Mr. Downes, in consideration of fifty dollars, conveyed to the in- habitants of the town of Canton one acre of land bounded easterly on the burying-ground. The same year a commit- tee, consisting of Gen. Nathan Crane, Joseph Bemis, Esq., Thomas French, William Shepard, Elijah Endicott, Ezra Tilden, Jr., and Samuel Leonard, was appointed to assign to particular families such portions or parcels of the land
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annexed to the burying-ground as should be convenient, having in mind "symmetry and order in the improvement." The committee allotted the "westmost" corner in the rear of the purchase for a place of burial of foreigners and people of color, who might die in the town. The committee proposed that such of the inhabitants as might die thereafter should be buried in the rear of the new addition, beginning at the "northeastermost" corner adjoining the old ground, there extending westerly until it reached the lot assigned for for- eigners, filling in the first line all the way with the deceased, leaving a space between graves, and room at the rear for the erection of gravestones. The first line being full, a similar one was to be begun, and so on, until the new addition was filled up. Fearing this arrangement for "symmetry and order " might not meet the views of some of the citizens, the committee recommended that those persons who desired might be allowed to build tombs, - the natural basin in the centre of the lot being adapted to such purposes. It would appear, therefore, that it was intended to have a circle of tombs around this basin; fortunately, few were built. A receiving-tomb was erected in 1837, and rebuilt from designs of G. Walter Capen, in 1882. In order to make a convenient passage around the basin, one rod and a half of land was purchased on the western border of the new addition, for which the town paid at the rate of sixty dollars an acre.
The first person buried in this addition to the burying- ground was Abel Wentworth, who was born March 21, 1764, and died July 9, 1816. It was known as the Meeting-House Lot, from the fact that the two meeting-houses which pre- ceded the present one were located upon it. It is that por- tion of the present cemetery lying east of Central Avenue and extending to the path on the easterly brow of the hill, a few feet west from the beginning of Main Avenue. Its south- eastern corner was, within the memory of some now living, determined by a stunted oak-tree, known as "the old oak." When this tree, about 1858, had decayed, a maple-tree was planted by Mr. Charles Mackintosh on the site of the old stump; it stands near the wall at the northeasterly boundary
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of the lot now owned by Nathaniel Dunbar. From this tree the line ran directly to Prospect Hill, thence turning to the north, extended in a straight line until it was intersected by the line from the old gateway, running through Central Ave- nue, which divided it from the original burying-ground on the west.
An attempt was made by the town, in 1829, to obtain this Meeting-House Lot by exchange; but no satisfactory result being reached, the subject was dropped until 1840, when the question of a further addition to the cemetery was agitated. The town was desirous of knowing on what terms the old Meet- ing-House Lot could be obtained; and at the annual March meeting, Thomas Dunbar, Elisha White, William Tucker, John Gay, Abel Wentworth, and Joseph Leavitt were chosen a com- mittee to inquire into the matter, and also to ascertain the expense of removing the old wall, and building in its place a wall of split granite. The committee estimated the cost of a good wall, four feet high, at nine dollars per rod, and that thirty-one rods were necessary. They recommended that the old wall be removed to the back part of the yard and capped with long flat stones "to prevent thoughtless boys from rolling stones from off the top of the wall down the hill." The old Meeting-House Lot was at this time owned by the First Congregational Parish. The committee of the town reported that by a vote of the parish passed at a meet- ing held on the 3d of March, 1840, the parish agreed to convey the "Old Meeting House Lot" to the town, pro- vided the latter would accept and fence the same, and that the land be improved by them for no other purpose than a cemetery; and the parish further authorized their treasurer to give a quit-claim deed of the premises. A committee was appointed by the town, in 1841, to lay out the walks, and or- nament the grounds by planting trees and shrubs. This com- mittee consisted of Elisha White, William Tucker, and Leon- ard Everett. In their report they said that they had laid out a carriage-way from the entrance on Washington Street to the boundary wall on the northeast rise (Central Avenue), fifteen feet in width; and eight avenues, seven feet in width, running
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parallel to the street, subdividing the ground into lots fourteen feet wide. These strips the committee again divided into lots sixteen feet six inches long, by lines drawn at right angles with the street. The wall was ordered to be completed be- fore the Fourth of July, 1841. The ladies of the Sewing Circle held a fair, the proceeds of which were expended in orna- menting the newly acquired grounds. The first person buried in this addition was the wife of Elijah Bailey.
A decade had not elapsed when the citizens again found that the cemetery was too small. Besides, a great change had taken place in public sentiment in relation to burial- places. The age had become refined. The laying out of Mount Auburn had quickened the hearts and minds of a few men, who, encouraged by the success attending the expen- diture of the small amount of money on the old Meeting- House Lot, determined to bring the matter before the citi- zens of the town at its annual meeting, and on the 8th of November, 1847, Hon. Thomas French, Leonard Everett, and Samuel Capen, were chosen a committee to take the matter of enlarging the burial-ground into consideration. March 6, 1848, the report of the committee was accepted; and another committee, consisting of Hon. Thomas French, Rev. Benjamin Huntoon, Capt. William Tucker, Ezra Ab- bot, M. D., and Silas Kinsley, was appointed, with power to purchase such additional land as they might deem expe- dient. This committee obtained, April 28, 1848, from the heirs of Oliver Downes, a deed of nine acres, three quarters, and twenty rods of land. The rights which the Canton Aqueduct Company had in the premises were reserved to them. This land was all that could be desired; its situation was beautiful, the conformation of its surface being varied, and presenting undulations of hill and dale, - all admirably adapted for a "garden of graves."
At the annual town meeting in May, 1848, it was voted that the same committee with the addition of two - F. W. Lincoln and Virgil J. Messinger - be a committee to grade and lay off the lots, and "that they have full discretionary powers to lay out such a part or parts of said addition as shall seem best
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to their judgment, and make or cause to be made a plan of the same, and appraise the value of the same, and lodge the plan with the treasurer of the town, that the inhabitants of the town may select such lots as may please their tastes and judgment."
The following year the town voted to allow the Ladies' Sewing Circle of Rev. Mr. Huntoon's society permission to expend such sums as they should see fit in ornamenting the burial-ground, and that the care of the cemetery be in the hands of the selectmen. During the years 1850-52, $555 was thus expended by the ladies.
The following is the report of the committee last mentioned :
To the Selectmen and other Inhabitants of Canton, in Town Meeting assembled :
GENTLEMEN, -Your committee, chosen May 8, 1848, to lay out the addition to the burying-ground, with full discretionary powers, also to lay out such a part or parts of said addition into lots as shall seem best to their judgment, and make or cause to be made a plan of the same, and also appraise the value of said lots, and lodge the said plan with the treasurer of the town, that the inhabitants of the town may select such lots as may please their taste and judgment, having attended to the duty assigned them, would offer the fol- lowing report : -
The first and most difficult task assigned your committee was that of laying out the grounds so that they should best subserve their intended use as a cemetery for the dead, and satisfy the taste and meet the convenience of the living. For this purpose a committee of two, Hon. Thomas French and William Tucker, were chosen to obtain an engineer or some other competent person to perform this work ; who at a subsequent meeting of the committee reported that the Hon. Henry A. S. Dearborn, Mayor of Roxbury, the gentleman who projected and laid out the cemetery at "Mount Auburn," and also the "Forest Hills" cemetery at Roxbury, had generously offered to come and give us his services in laying out ours also, which offer was most gratefully accepted, as there is not probably a gentleman in the country better qualified for the work, by science, taste, and experience, than General Dearborn.
The preparatory work of cleaning the grounds of brush and under- wood to fit them for the survey was assigned to the Secretary of the
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Board of the committee, who immediately hired hands and proceeded to the work assigned him. On the 29th of June, General Dearborn arrived, with his assistants, inspected, and commenced laying out the grounds with appropriate avenues and paths, as a general outline, to be filled out as future convenience might require, - the principal avenues being laid out sixteen feet wide, and the footpaths six feet wide. The 30th day of June being rainy, the work was suspended. On the 10th day of July, General Dearborn and the Secretary of the Board completed the work of laying out the grounds ; and at the subsequent meeting of the committee, the Secretary was directed to proceed and mark out by cutting a trench on the side or sides of the avenues and paths, that they might be distinguished, and also to cut out the trees and brush that were within the avenues, to- gether with all the birch-wood upon the grounds, and cause the same to be sold at auction for the benefit of the town, which was accord- ingly done. This closed the first section of the duty assigned your committee.
The next duty was that of laying out a portion of the grounds into lots for the purpose of family burying-places. This task was assigned to the Secretary of the Board, and Mr. Virgil J. Messinger, and con- fined to one tier of lots adjoining the old burying-ground, together with the plot which had been reserved for free interments in the old burying-grounds. This tier of lots, commencing at the southeast corner of the lot belonging to Mr. Nathaniel Dunbar, and proceeding northerly to the northeast corner of the old burying-ground, making nine lots in that range, each lot being sixteen and one half feet long from east to west, and fourteen feet wide from north to south, together with the lots of similar size in the common ground of the old addition, were appraised at $5 per lot and a plan of them given to the treasurer of the town.
On the 5th of December, the committee accepted a plan offered by Hon. Thomas French and Rev. Benjamin Huntoon, who had previ- ously been appointed a committee for that purpose, for laying out twenty lots, bordering on the easterly side of the old burying-ground ; namely, first, a walk or footpath eight feet wide ; then a range of ten lots fifteen feet wide from south to north, and twenty feet long from west to east ; then another walk seven feet wide, and adjoining that another range of ten lots of similar dimensions with the above, bounded on the east by the Main Avenue, with a walk in the centre, running from west to east six feet wide, and a space of three feet between each
1I
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lot from west to east, leaving each lot separate from the other, and that each of said lots be valued at $ro apiece, also that the owners of lots on the west side, adjoining the walk eight feet wide, give the name to said walk, and the plan of said lots was given to the treasurer of the town. This closed the second part of the commission of your committee. The whole number of lots laid out by your committee is forty ; twenty of which were valued at $5 per lot, and twenty at $10 per lot, making the sum of $300 (and the whole land cost less than $350) ; and the whole of the land taken for these forty lots, including all the avenues, walks, and vacant spaces, is less than one half of an acre, at which rate, throwing out three acres of waste or useless land, leaves a residue to be sold by the town for $4,200, in available lots, as they must be wanted for the burial of its dead. Of the lots laid out by your committee, sixteen have been taken or spoken for, at the sum of $100, which is equal, lacking $500, to the price of three acres of the land, and not occupying one fourth part of an acre ; your committee report also that the Messrs. Mackintosh, having taken three adjoining lots, have the privilege of enclosing the same in one lot, - namely, Nos. 102, 103, and 104, - as a family burying-lot, without regard to the spaces between them, as laid down on the plan.
Your committee also have surveyed the strip of ground on the back or north side of the old wall, between the wall and the brow of the hill, and find that a tier of lots, twenty in number and twenty feet long from east to west, and fifteen feet wide from south to north, pass- ing the Main Avenue, continued through to the north side of them, and a pathway between each of the lots of six feet in width, with a sidewalk of six feet north of them, might be laid and valued at $10 per lot, which would produce the sum of $200, and also that of the western side of said strips, eleven lots, of sixteen feet by fourteen, might be laid out, and reserved for free burying-ground, or valued at $5 per lot, making the additional sum of $55, amounting to $255, equal to the cost of seven acres of the ground. But your committee recommend that an avenue sixteen feet wide be made in the ground where the twenty lots might be laid out.
All of which is respectfully submitted. Per order of the
1 committee.
CANTON, April 2, 1849.
BENJAMIN HUNTOON.
The beauty of our cemetery has become renowned through- out the State, and visitors who have travelled far and wide
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have expressed the opinion that it is the most beautiful rural cemetery in the country. The superintendents of city cem- eteries have visited it, praised its natural advantages, and admired the wide view from Prospect Hill. To our own citizens, the cemetery has become a matter of pride. Many expensive and beautiful monuments have been erected within its precincts ; the greensward has been carefully attended to ; and the whole ground presents an attractive and beautiful appearance.
At the April meeting in 1870 the town voted that ten acres of land be purchased for the use of the cemetery, at an expense not exceeding $1,000; and a committee, con- sisting of Hon. Charles Endicott, Oliver S. Chapman, and Virgil J. Messinger, was appointed to carry the vote into effect. The sum of $500 was also appropriated, to be ex- pended on the cemetery, for that year. A committee, con- sisting of Virgil J. Messinger, Oliver S. Chapman, and J. M. Everett, was appointed to have charge of the cemetery. After the death of Mr. Chapman, Hon. Charles H. French was appointed to fill the vacancy. The original committee named the principal avenues in the older parts of the ceme- tery. Fourteen tablets were also erected, properly inscribed, to the memory of those soldiers who were killed or died in service during the Rebellion, whose graves had not been pre- viously designated. The committee purchased of Mr. Wil- liam Horton about ten acres of land adjoining the addition of 1848, on the east side, the ground being admirably adapted for the purpose for which it is intended.
After various consultations with Mr. H. A. May, of Boston, and after a careful topographical survey by Mr. Frederic Endicott, a plan was ordered to be prepared by the com- mittee. On the 3d of April, 1876, the town voted to give a lot in the cemetery for the purpose of erecting a monument to Gen. Richard Gridley. A fine elevation was selected by the Gridley committee, and the bones of the old hero were in due time deposited near it. He was the first person buried in the fourth addition to the cemetery. A lot has also been
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given by the town for the burial of the soldiers who fell in the War of the Rebellion.
This chapter would be incomplete without further men- tion of Oliver S. Chapman, who, except Benjamin Hun- toon, did more to beautify and adorn this sacred place than any other. To him the town's cemetery owes much of its beauty. Here month after month he labored, directing the expenditure of the town's money, and when that was insuffi- cient, freely drew from his own purse the necessary funds. But the last year was indeed the crown and glory of his well- spent life ; and the remembrance of it will be long treas- ured by those who have the welfare of the town at heart. During the thirty years of his residence among us he was ever active in all measures pertaining to the improvement and embellishment of the town. He was more than a good citizen; he was an active and energetic public man, always ready to give more than his share of time and money to benefit his townspeople. He was ready to serve on any committee where the public welfare was concerned. If a schoolhouse was to be built, there was no one so well quali- fied to superintend its erection as Mr. Chapman. Day by day he was at his post, directing, guiding, and taking a part himself if the work flagged. During the dark days of the war he sustained the government, and by his influence induced others to do so who were disposed to be lukewarm. He was to be seen at all public meetings ; and though he seldom spoke, he was ever ready to contribute his time and his money to encourage those less hopeful than himself. No one watched the course of events during those gloomy years with more interest than he, and no one was more gratified at the final result.
While the Boston and Providence Railroad was in process of construction, Mr. Chapman paid his first visit to Canton, where he was engaged upon a piece of work near the viaduct, and occupied, with his employees, the very house of which he died possessed. It was about this time that his friend and cousin, William Smith Otis, married, June 22, 1835, Eliza- beth, the daughter of Deacon Leonard Everett, of this town,
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Mr. Chapman being present at the ceremony; but the hap- piness of their wedded life was of short duration, for on the 13th of November, 1839, at the early age of twenty-six years, Mr. Otis died at Westfield, having invented and per- fected one of the marvellous mechanical inventions of the age, - the Otis steam excavator.
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On the 23d of March, 1845, Mr. Chapman was married to the widow of William S. Otis. In 1863-64 he was sent as Representative to the State Legislature from the Eleventh Norfolk District. In 1856 Mr. Chapman was chosen one of the directors of the Neponset National Bank. He was born at Belchertown, Aug. 18, 1811, and died at Boston, of apoplexy, Feb. 8, 1877.
GEBURT INDIGOT
1
GILBERT ENDICOTT'S TOMBSTONE.
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CHAPTER X.
EARLY MILLS. - INCORPORATION OF STOUGHTON.
F ORGE POND lies in a northeasterly direction from the village of South Canton. It receives its supply of water from Massapoag Brook, the confluence of Beaver and Steep brooks on the south, and Pequit Brook on the north. The outlet to this pond is near the main street of the village, not far from the Massapoag House. The early settlers called it Saw-Mill River; on the modern maps it bears the name of the " East Branch of the Neponset River." It is not a long stream; less than two miles from its starting-point it joins the West Branch of the Neponset River in the Fowl meadows. The water furnishes the motive-power for the Kinsley Iron and Machine Company, the Revere Copper Company, and the Neponset Cotton Factory.
Washington Street crosses the stream near the works of the Kinsley Iron and Machine Company. This spot is identical with the northeasterly corner of a lot which was known on the map of the Dorchester proprietors as Lot No. II. It consisted of forty-five acres, and was laid out and assigned to one Thomas Holman, who appears to have been born in Dorchester, Aug. 6, 1641. He was by
occupation a shoemaker. The exact time at which he began the erection of a dam and saw-mill on the southerly side of the stream is not known. It was standing in 1700, and was the first saw-mill built in Canton. On the 12th of May, 1703, in consideration of £30, Holman sold his mill to Joseph Tucker, Jr., of Milton, who, it would appear, was already the possessor of Lot No. 12, and also had a lease of land in the Ponkapoag Plantation on the north of the
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stream, taking in the land now extending from the Massa- poag House to the residence of the late William Shattuck. The deed of the mill conveys the mill-house standing near the mill, also " all the saws, iron work, running and going gear, utensils, head weirs and mill ponds, earth and soil thereof, and all streams, waters, water courses, fishings, fish- ing places, ways, paths, passages, easements, profits, com- modities, advantages, emoluments, and appurtenances to the said mill and premises belonging." After the death of Dea- con Tucker his widow married, Dec. 16, 1746, Richard Stick- ney; and in 1750 it was known as Richard Stickney's mill.
In 1760 there was conveyed to John Withington, Jr., by the son and grandchildren of Deacon Gamaliel Tucker and Abigail (Howard) Lyon - John and Samuel Howard - all the right in an old saw-mill and the stream and landing- place which formerly belonged to Joseph Tucker. On the map of 1785 it is put down as owned by Withington. It was subsequently, in 1788, purchased by Leonard and Kins- ley. In 1794 it is designated as Leonard and Kinsley's forge, corn and saw mill.
There lived in Dorchester in 1716 two gentlemen by the names of Samuel and Elijah Danforth. They were the sons of the Rev. John Danforth, who for many years was the pastor there. They had a sister, Hannah, who married the Rev. Samuel Dunbar, the second minister of this town. Her gravestone is in the old Canton Cemetery, and bears this inscription : -
" Here lyes buried ye body of Mrs. Hannah Dunbar, wife of the Rev. Samuel Dunbar, who departed this life Sept. Ist, 1746, in ye 48th year of her age."
Elijah Danforth was born Nov. 30, 1683, and died Oct. 8, 1736. In 1727 we find him a resident of Dorchester and one of the assessors. He seems to have devoted himself to the study of medicine, and quaint old Blake says, " He was a good and safe physician, and had been one of the Justices of the County of Suffolk for many years together."
His brother Samuel was born in 1696, and graduated at
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Harvard College in 1715. He is denominated as "Sir" in one of the ancient documents which I shall quote, because he had not then received his degree of Master of Arts. It was in the early period of their lives that their interests for a time drew the brothers to Canton ; and to their enterprise and perseverance were the early settlers indebted for the first, and for many years the only mill for grinding their corn.
On March 11, 1717, the following petition, signed by the most prominent citizens, was presented to the Dorchester selectmen with the request that it be acted on in town meeting : -
" The subscribers being informed that it is no small discourage- ment to such as would settle upon the Twelve Divisions in Dorchester New Grant that there is no corn mill there ; when they hear such as are already settled there are forced to go so far for grinding that it commonly costs them one whole day to get one grist, and sometimes two days; being also informed that there is a good conveniency for such a needful mill on a certain stream, running from below Mr. Tucker's saw mill bridge down to the meadows between the line of said Twelve Divisions and the Indian land in said New Grant ; and being informed that Elijah Danforth, Esq., and his brother, Sir Dan- forth, are willing to build a corn mill and a house and barn for a miller there, the cost whereof will be great, if the town will give leave and encouragement, - therefore, to show our good-will to.works of such public benefit, we, for our part, declare our full consent and approba- tion, and it is our desire and request to the town that the freeholders and inhabitants of the town will please to grant the said Danforths, the undertakers for the said corn mill there, the said stream as above mentioned and described, to their sole use and benefit, they, causing a corn mill to be erected there, together with leave and liberty to pur- chase some adjoining Indian land to set a house on, and to make a small tenement with accommodations to be let only to an HONEST miller. And we pray the Selectmen to insert accordingly in the war- rant for the next meeting."
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