USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Canton > History of the town of Canton, Norfolk County, Massachusetts > Part 20
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In 1823 Capt. William Tucker purchased the property from his father, and erected upon a pole about sixteen feet high a gilded ball about one foot in diameter, which about 1827 dis- appeared and gave place to a sign with "Ponkapoag Hotel " painted upon it.
A number of Boston gentlemen were in the habit of coming out to Ponkapoag to pass the day; and from 1830 to 1850 the hotel was mostly patronized by them and the scores of their friends who were fond of a day's recreation. Captain Tucker erected a shelter on Puffer's Neck, which was known as the Sheep Shore ; and here celebrated chowders were made by the landlord, who was well versed in the mysteries of the culinary art.
The Ponkapoag Hotel differed in one respect from other country taverns. There were no boarders and few transient lodgers. The guests mostly confined themselves to a day's sport, driving from Boston early in the morning and return- ing in the evening. On the 4th of July, 1826, the military company took dinner at Capt. William Tucker's. Pigs were roasted whole, and a fine repast was furnished in a pavilion in the rear of the house. After dinner, the company went up Blue Hill. The Crane Guards, commanded by Capt.
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William Shaller, turned out on the occasion. Here, in 1820, Rev. Mr. Huntoon put up when he came to Canton for the first time; and here the council which ordained him met on the 22d of January, the following year. In 1825, a circus ring was constructed in front of the house, and drew the attention of the younger residents of Ponkapoag of that time. There was a bowling-alley connected with the house which has long since disappeared.
Captain Tucker at one period of his life took an active part in town and parish affairs. He was very fond of hunting. A good picture of the jolly captain with his favorite setter is still in possession of his daughter. After the death of the captain, the hotel was occupied, in 1863, by Mr. William Lord, and subsequently by DeForrest Lewis; but with the death of the old landlord Tucker, the old glory departed. In 1869 the property passed into the possession of Hon. Henry L. Pierce. He has added to its area, built a delightful avenue from the house to the pond, and made the Redman farm one of the best in Norfolk County.
The land on which the Cherry Tavern stands was originally a part of Lot No. 5 of the "Twelve Divisions." It was owned in common by David Jones, Samuel Paul, and Daniel Preston. In 1700 it was owned by William Bennett, who sold it to Charles Salter. In 1714 Salter's widow sold the southern third of a sixty-acre lot to Jonathan Kenney. At his death in 1724 it came into the possession of his son, Jona- than, Jr., who sold it to his brother John.
John, the son of John and Abigail (Wentworth) Kenney, was born Feb. 9, 1729, and died March 9, 1805. He was a prominent man in the history of our town. Although not a lawyer by education, he did much of that kind of business which has of late fallen into the hands of lawyers; and many of the deeds, bonds, leases, and indentures in old times were written by him. He was a good bass singer, and went to Boston to buy books for the singing-club as early as 1766. During the War of the Revolution he was active and energetic in the patriotic cause. He was at the outset one of the five sent to the adjournment of the Doty Tavern Congress, which
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was held at the tavern of Richard Woodward, at Dedham, on the 6th of September, 1774. The following year he was a minute-man and one of the Committee of Inspection, and again in 1776. He listened to the evidence against the Tories in 1777 ; and the expression, " This is what I call doing busi- ness, as Squire Kenney said when he wiped his mouth and sentenced a Tory," comes down in folk-lore as evidence of his zeal. In 1778 he was selected by our townsmen to bear a message to General Washington, and in 1783 was sent as Representative to the General Court. He gave his property to his son, who agreed to support him, but disregarded his agreement; and the old gentleman who had been considered worthy to clasp the hand of the father of his country died a town pauper.
In 1753 he erected a small gambrel-roofed house on the site where stands the Cherry Tavern. It now forms the southeast corner of the lower story of the present building ; and we are informed that the only cellar this large mansion now has is the old cellar of the original house. This house remained in the possession of the Kenney family until 1818, when it was sold to John Gerald, the son of William Fitz- gerald, the first of the name in Canton. William lived in 1785 in a house which formerly stood back of the Ponkapoag schoolhouse, on a deserted lane running to Green Lodge Street, on the line between Lot No. 5 and the Indian land. The Canton Historical Society identified the cellar-hole on the Fast Day walk of 1885. This house was afterward pur- chased by Laban Lewis and removed to his father's farm op- posite the Ponkapoag schoolhouse. William Fitzgerald died Sept. 17, 1802. His descendants have dropped the Fitz.
In 1823 the cherry-trees planted by Squire Kenney were in their prime, and persons who were fond of this fruit began to go to John Gerald's; but it was not until 1826 that the old house was raised to a two-story house and extended toward the north. Seven or eight years later the back was raised to correspond with the front.
Before the house was a pole, from which hung a swinging sign on which was represented a cherry-tree and the legend,
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"John Gerald, Cherry Tavern, 1827." In 1839 landlord Ger- ald informs his patrons that "he still retains the well-known stand called the Cherry Tavern, where he will continue to receive and entertain his customers with the choicest fruits and viands of the season."
But landlords are not without their troubles. Now, Captain Tucker of the Ponkapoag Hotel had a fine road across his farm to the pond, a good landing-place with boats, and opportunities for a fish-fry, so that many persons drove by the Cherry Tavern and patronized the rival tavern. In order to divert a portion of this custom and to make his place of equal attraction, Gerald had a canal dug in 1831 from the old pond bank near where the house of David Talbot stood, through the bogs to the pond, placed upon it a boat, and announced that boats were in readiness for those who de- sired a sailing or fishing excursion on Ponkapoag Pond ; but the scheme was not a success.
The long house on the opposite side of the street was formerly connected with the Cherry Tavern. The lower part was used as a shed for horses, while in the upper story was a bowling-alley. It was removed to its present site in 1839. Under its roof the old canvas-covered baggage-wagons from Leach's furnace at Easton used to pull up.
Mr. Francis Sturtevant purchased the place in 1841. He was born April 2, 1779, and died at Canton, March 18, 1863. He continued to keep the tavern until his death. The house subsequently was purchased by Samuel Cabot, M. D., of Boston, who converted it into a private residence. The open yard was filled with trees, the old pump with its ample trough denied the public, the bar removed, and man and beast pass it now with thirst unquenched.
Philip Liscom, Jr., who kept a hotel in 1769, was the grandson of that Philip Liscom who married Charity Jordan, of Milton, Dec. 24, 1701, who was living at York in 1716, and may have lived there in 1708, when he was warned out of Dorchester. He owned our church covenant in 1718, and the same year held the important position of constable; and two years later, when his neighbor, Jonathan Jordan, under-
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took to resist his authority, he was forced for his audacity to pay forty shillings to the king. One of his sons, Benjamin, who was born Nov. 4, 1720, is recorded as having been killed by the Indians in 1746. He died "in the twentieth year of his majesty's reign, leaving no wife nor child nor any legal heir." His brothers, Philip and John, immediately began a law-suit for a seventh part of his estate, consisting of a house with seven acres of land, bounded west by the road leading to Bear Swamp. This Philip had a son Philip, born June 23, 1731, who married Miriam Belcher, Nov. 16, 1752, and died Feb. 8, 1774. He was the innkeeper of 1769. His inn was situated, according to the old almanacs, " one mile south of Doty's and two miles north of May's." It occupied the site at the corner of Washington and Sassamon streets, and pre- ceded the house built in 1848, still standing, and owned by George B. Hunt. The original house was probably built about 1767, for Squire Dunbar mentions it as the place where, on Sept. 16, 1767, they had "Fine singing at Liscoms New House." But though Liscom was a good singer, he could not keep a hotel; and after running it two years, he could not pay his taxes, and could not pay the fine for not paying his taxes, so to jail he went.
From 1760 to 1768 Henry Stone styles himself "inn- holder." He resided on his father's homestead, now occu- pied by Thomas Bailey Aldrich. He was the son of Daniel and Thankful (Withington) Stone, and was baptized by the Rev. Joseph Morse, Feb. 19, 1721. In 1756 he was out in the French War, and the following year was at Crown Point. In 1760 he was at home again, and occupied the estate of Samuel Vose. In 1762 he administered upon his father's estate, and the same year desired to purchase the town's right in "The Landing Place at Milton." In 1765, in connection with Ed- ward Wentworth, he erected at Milton the first chocolate- mill in the country, which has been doing business ever since. He had a mill on Ponkapoag Brook, on the "upper mill pond," the remains of which are still to be seen a few rods below the bridge at Ponkapoag, and are worth a visit for their picturesque beauty. He married, about 1742, Lydia
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Wadsworth. To his house to woo his daughters came Joseph Bemis, Nathaniel and Lemuel Davenport, Elisha Crehore, Capt. Thomas Crane, and Thomas Allen, and were successful in their suits. From 1766 to 1774 he was on the committee of the First Parish. He died June 7, 1784.
Another tavern kept by Mr. Kinsley is mentioned in 1798. Here the committee chosen by the town of Milton met the committee of Canton on the 19th of March.
From its intimate connection with the Revolution, an ac- count of the Doty tavern will be found in the history of that struggle.
Williams's tavern was not properly in Canton, but just over the Sharon line, opposite land owned in 1803 by Jonathan Cobb. It was in existence and frequently mentioned about 1788.
In 1830 Mr. Francis W. Deane kept a tavern at the corner of Washington and Neponset streets, in the house built in 1828 by Dr. Simeon Tucker, but it was only for a year or two.
On the opposite side of the street from the Eagle Inn stands the old Blackman house. Rev. Theron Brown says this house was for many years known as the Baptist Tav- ern. It was evidently not a public-house; the only event of any public interest which has taken place within its walls was the meeting on the 22d day of June, 1814, when the Baptist Church was organized, and when the dinner served must have equalled that of any hotel. When Mr. Porter preached here on Sept. 12, 1783, he boarded at Blackman's, as did also Rev. Mr. Ritchie in later days; for boarding these and other can- didates, Mr. Blackman received £22 15s. Id.
" The moss-grown dome where first they met, By the old road is standing yet ; And near the landmark mountain high, The small brown schoolhouse, where in days Of strengthening hope they sung God's praise, Waits while the years of time go by."
In 1840 Zadock Leonard had a tavern at the junction of Church and Neponset streets. The hall is known as Union Hall.
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CHAPTER XIII.
CIVIL HISTORY, 1726-1750.
W TE have thus far traced the history of the Dorchester South Precinct from the time it was a wilderness until it became incorporated into the township of Stoughton.
The records of the town from its incorporation principally consist of the names of the town officers chosen at the annual meetings, of the perambulation of the boundary lines between Stoughton and the adjoining towns, of the amount of money yearly raised to defray expenses of the town and the minister, of the presentation of petitions, of the manner of notifying legal meetings, of the bounds of highways, of the choosing of a representative to the General Court, of the right of swine to go at large, of the bounty on crows and squirrels, of the remitting of rates, of the mending of the high- ways, and of the appointing of a suitable person "to inspect yª boys on ye sabbath."
From the year 1700 the inhabitants of the "New Grant" increased very much in population and material prosperity. Twenty-seven years after, the number of ratable polls was one hundred and eighty, and one hundred and twenty-one houses had been erected. Seven hundred and sixty-three neat cattle and horses were owned by the cultivators of the soil, and the land had been redeemed to a certain extent from the wilder- ness. Lands lying between the modern towns of Stoughton and Canton were still called Mount Hunger Fields; but no settler need starve to death on his land.
The settlers, aside from their natural increase, received large accessions from strangers. The streams had been util- ized; six or seven saw-mills and two grist-mills were in active operation. On Ponkapoag Brook, Robert Redman had built
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a saw-mill; and near the road leading to "Mashapogue," Ebenezer Maudsley (Mosely) owned the "corn mill." Philip Goodwin and William Royall had also mills.
Again the manufacture of iron implements had become a business ; and at this time there were four iron-works engaged in smelting ore from Massapoag Pond, which was obtained by purchase from the "Proprietors of Dorchester." In the year 1724 Ebenezer Jones and others, "ye owners of ye iron works," purchased three hundred and seventy tons of ore at three shillings per ton, and Capt. Ebenezer Billings one hun- dred tons at the same price; and the total amount sold to all purchasers during this year alone was seven hundred and seventy tons.
One of the articles in the warrant, March 4, 1728, was to see "if the town would purchase some lands of the Indians for pasturage lands, if liberty can be had of the Council so to do; i. e. the two pieces formerly petitioned for." This would appear to be land which it was desirable to purchase for the use of the minister. It consisted of two pieces, of fifty acres each, -one on Pleasant Street, west of the almshouse, and one adjoining land of George Wadsworth and Edward Capen, near Indian Lane. It would appear that the council did nothing about it, for in 1729 an article appeared in the war- rant "to see if the town would pay for the piece of land near Mr. Dunbar's, which the town voted to purchase, that was, or is, Mr. John Withington's, for the benefit of the town, or if said land is not purchased, to see what salary will satisfy Mr. Dunbar without purchasing any land at all." This land was bounded on the east by land of Capt. John Vose, and on the west by land of James Endicott and Daniel Stone.
This year £80 was voted "by way of rate for the use of the ministry in this town," and a committee was appointed to provide for the council attending the coming ordination of Samuel Dunbar.
On the 9th of October, 1727, a petition was received by the town, from Nathaniel Hubbard, Richard Williams, James Draper, Jeremiah Whiting, and John Eaton, all of whom lived on the northerly side of the Neponset River, in the part of
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Stoughton now Dedham. The petitioners said that they could not possibly attend the public worship of God at Stoughton, although they had cheerfully and constantly borne their portion of the charges of the ministry when it was a pre- cinct, and they desired that they, with their estates, might be freed from the ministerial rate. This petition was granted.
In 1737 Ebenezer Woodward said: "About nineteen months ago I removed from Dedham to my house and farm in Stoughton, on the west side of Neponset River, about two miles and a half from the meeting-house in Dedham, and eleven or twelve from the Stoughton meeting-house as the road goes." Hubbard purchased his farm at Green Lodge, in 1719, from Capt. John Nelson, - one of the Stoughton heirs by right of his wife.
In 1730 the town refused to send a representative, and was accordingly fined.
An article was inserted in the warrant in 1727 "to see what action the town will take in regard to procuring a free passage for fish up the Neponset River."
Thus was opened a fight between the towns of Canton, Stoughton, and Sharon, and the mill-owners on the Neponset River, which was to be fought with bitterness and great ex- pense to both parties, and to continue nearly a century.
The alewives are accustomed in the spring to leave the salt water and pass, with the incoming tide, up the rivers and brooks to the fresh-water ponds. Before the coming of the white man, the Indians had learned that these fish, placed upon the corn-fields and allowed to decay, rendered them more fertile. The number of fish that annually journeyed to the brooks of Canton was enormous. Before any obstruction existed to their passage, Ponkapoag and Pecunit brooks were so filled with fish that a traveller, riding through one of these brooks, destroyed numbers of them with the tramp- ing of his horse.
The migration of these fish was a great source of income to our ancestors. Whether they were made proud with the coming, and humble at the going of the alewives, like our neighbors of Taunton, we cannot say; but it was a great
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source of trouble to our people when the manufacturers on the Neponset put in dams so as to prevent the passage of fish, and deprive them of one of their sources of income. If they did not eat them, they sold them to the poor "French Neuters" in 1758, and charged two shillings a hundred for them.
The only course open was to appeal to the General Court. A petition was accordingly prepared by Elhanan Lyon, "the great troubler of the church," setting forth this grievance.
In 1766 the matter was again discussed. The mill-owners at the lower or first dam demanded that the towns should make and maintain a passage-way six feet wide, which should remain open one month in the year, and that they pay $100 per year to each of the two owners. The towns did not see the fairness of this proposition, and refused to accede to it.
In 1783 Hon. Elijah Dunbar was appointed to present a petition to the General Court that the obstructions in the Neponset River should be removed, the towns of Sharon and Walpole joining. Daniel Vose and David Leeds agreed that if they were subject to no expense, they would open a sluice- way four feet wide, to be open only when the tide came in. The committee of the towns were in the habit of sending emissaries to spy out the obstructions; and it is asserted that Daniel Vose, finding one of Canton's myrmidons looking about his dam one dark night, threw him into the pond.
In 1788 the inhabitants of Stoughton and Sharon were in high glee; for the lower dam gave way and let the fish pass in great plenty, some going as far as " Ponkapogue and Mas- sapoag." The brooks were cleared as far as Colonel Gridley's mill, but whether beyond that or not I am not informed; and the expense for one year alone was £89 15s. In 1789 Mr. James Endicott was employed in work at the Lower Mills connected with the fish-ways.
In 1793 Mr. Benjamin Gill attended the General Court for the purpose of obtaining some redress, and an important suit against Leeds and Vose was decided in favor of Stoughton and Sharon the following year.
In 1794 Hugh McLean petitioned for leave to close his
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sluice-ways; and the town again sent Benjamin Gill to re- monstrate. In 1796 a joint committee from the towns of Dorchester and Milton represented to the General Court that great damage was done to individuals in the most valuable season of the year, by stopping from work the numerous mills on the Neponset, many of which were important manu- factories, and the inconvenience to which the inhabitants were subject to, by stopping the grist-mills; and that they believed that the quantity of fish which passed up the river was so in- considerable that it was not a matter of much consequence.
The Act of incorporation of the town of Canton, passed on Feb. 23, 1797, continued to the inhabitants of modern Stoughton the same rights that had been enjoyed by both towns; but on March 10, of the same year, a new Act was passed, whereby Stoughton was debarred from the privilege of choosing a committee to join with the other towns referred to, for the purpose of regulating the fisheries.
In 1802 John Billings offered to pay for the exclusive right of taking the fish in Ponkapoag Brook, five dollars for the first, ten dollars for the second, and eighty dollars for the fifth, years.
In 1803 the towns again petitioned for sufficient sluice-ways through the dams on the river; and Paul Revere and others were notified not to shut their gates until the 20th of June, agreeable to an order of the Committee of the Court of Sessions.
In 1805 the Committee of the General Court desired that three disinterested persons repair to the dams on the Nepon- set River, and take into consideration the whole interest, order such alterations to be made as should allow the fish to pass, see that the gates should be hoisted and continue open thirty days, and require the expense to be paid by the mill- owners. Edmund Baker, who owned one half of a dam, re- fused to pay his assessment, and a suit was instituted, which was decided adversely to the town. The expense attending the fish contest amounted in the year 1806 to $78.98; and Mr. Jabez Talbot estimated the expense that the town of Stoughton had been at, in order to get free passage for the
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alewives, from 1730 to 1800, at $182.93. As late as 1809, I find " the mill-owners are to be opposed by all lawful means by this town."
Finally, modes of obtaining a livelihood increased with the growth of the town; and the benefit derived from the ale- wives was not equal to the expense of fighting the mill- owners of the Neponset.
By referring to the Act of incorporation of Stoughton as a town the reader will observe that a certain section begin- ning, "And further it is to be understood " provides that those persons who were the owners of the common and undivided lands in Dorchester or Stoughton should have the same rights that they had always possessed, provided no Act of incorporation had ever been passed, any law or custom to the contrary notwithstanding. Now, one of these rights was immunity from taxation. Three years after the incorporation this matter which was "to be understood " seems to have been the very thing that it was advisable should not be understood. The inhabitants of Stoughton were desir- ous that wealthy land-owners should assist them in paying a portion of the town, county, and State taxes, thus lighten- ing their own burdens and adding to the material wealth of the town. The matter was proposed for the town's consid- eration in 1728; but nothing was done until the 18th of May, 1733, when a committee was appointed, consisting of Capt. Isaac Royall, Lieut. William Crane, and Elhanan Lyon, to petition the General Court, through their representative, Moses Gill, for liberty to tax the non-resident proprietors. The matter of drawing the petition was referred to Elhanan Lyon, who says he was seven days composing it and six days transcribing it. This memorial set forth that the inhabitants of Stoughton "have been at great expense in settling and sup- porting a minister; that the charge of supporting their poor is very great; and that within a short time nineteen or twenty families have been released from the town and annexed to Dedham, and that sixty or seventy acres of meadow land have been lost by such transaction." To contest this petition, a committee of the proprietors was appointed under the lead-
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ership of Edmund Quincy. He was born in 1681, graduated at Harvard College in 1699, was subsequently a judge of the Supreme Court, and commander of the Suffolk Regiment. He was sent to England in 1737 by the General Court to arrange the boundary line between New Hampshire and Massachusetts Bay; while there, he was attacked by the small-pox and died. His remains were interred in Bunhill Fields, where the remains of John Milton and John Bunyan rest, and over his grave the General Court erected a monu- ment, which was subsequently destroyed, when the ground was ploughed, as it was customary to do every fifty years. In answer to this petition Mr. Quincy said that --
"in the first place, the inhabitants of the town of Stoughton have been at no more expense in supporting the institution of religion than formerly ; they are not a young people, and the minister now settled over them is not the first one they ever had ; that from 1 707 until the present time they have maintained the ministry without taxing the non-resident proprietors, and cannot possibly stand in need of it now, when they are four times as numerous and able as they were at first. To the second allegation the non-residents reply, That had they remained a part of Dorchester, they would have had their poor sup- ported at the town's charge, to which they contributed less than their actual proportionate share ; but to pray the town of Dorchester first to set them off, and then to pray the Court that they may have liberty to tax the unimproved lands belonging to the inhabitants of the town of Dorchester, for they are the owners, the proprietors deem without reason or precedent. To the plea that they have lost some families lately, the proprietors reply that the court judged Stoughton to be strong enough to support themselves without the aid of these families, or they would not have set them off.
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