USA > Massachusetts > Norfolk County > Medway > The history of Medway, Mass., 1713-1885 > Part 21
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For general information the Commissioner would state that about one-fourth part of the receipts of the road now in operation is derived from Woonsocket, in Rhode Island. All which is respectfully submitted.
BOSTON, Jan. 3, 1866.
M. M. FISHER, Commissioner of Massachusetts."
The Boston and Erie Railroad Company made a sad failure, and was finally re-or- ganized, April 17, 1873, as " The New York and New England Railroad Company."
The Northern, or Woonsocket, Division of the road was neglected, and, in conse- quence, several accidents occurred to trains. Whereupon the selectmen of Medway petitioned the Railroad Commissioners to meet the citizens of Medway in Sanford Hall March 14, 1883, and a hearing was granted. The principal business men stated their grievances, and the Commissioners ordered new stations at Medway Village and West Medway, also the improvement of the track and better facilities for passengers and freight. The road is now in fair condition.
SUMMARY SHOWING THE AMOUNT OF FREIGHT AND PASSENGER BUSINESS TO AND FROM THE THREE STATIONS IN MEDWAY, FOR TWO YEARS ENDING JANUARY 31, 1883.
1881.
ISS2.
AGGREGATES.
Total for Passengers.
Total for Freight.
Total for Passengers.
Total for Freight.
1881.
1882.
E. Medway.
$3.472 62
$1,635 12
$3,749 29
$1,752 75
$5,219 74|
$5,500 04
Medway. .
6,229 05
11, 187 90
6,708 98
12,389 49
17,416 95
19,098 47
W.Medway.
7,773 52
9,113 42
7,492 81
9,751 91
16,886 94
17,244 72
Total of each
class of Receipts
$17,475 29|$21,936 44 $17,949 08 $23,894 15 $39,521 33 $41,843 23
Total, both classes, East Medway,
. $10,719 78
Total, both classes, Medway Village, .
. $36,515 42
Total, both classes, West Medway,
. $34,131 66
Total for two years, .
· $81,366 68
THE SANFORD HALL MOVEMENT IN 1871.
The Village community having for more than thirty years occupied either the vestry of the church, or the hall of the district school-house, or the hall in the straw factory, for lectures and secular purposes, the need of a more capacious audience-room had long been felt. The young ladies, encouraged by the citizens, and especially by Mrs. Edena H. Sanford, began, by fairs and tea parties, to raise money for building a public hall, and in the autumn of 1871 the fund amounted to $500. This sum was increased by the gen- erous donations of $5,000 from Milton H. Sanford, and $2,500 from his brother, Edward S. Sanford, of New York, for the benefit of the Evangelical Society of Medway Village. These were accepted at a meeting held on Monday, October 30, 1871, and it was Voted: "That the society gratefully acknowledge the generous donations of Five Thousand Dollars from Milton H. Sanford, and Twenty-five Hundred Dollars from Edward S. Sar ford, toward the erection of a Public Building in this village for the benefit of this.
171
Society and the Dean Library, and will make all reasonable efforts to comply with the conditions required. Voted, That the Plan of Subscription pre- sented by M. M. Fisher, is hereby approved, and that a committee be ap- pointed to carry the same into effect, and M. M. Fisher and E. C. Wilson were chosen to act as a committee for that purpose."
The following is the plan referred to :
" SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR A PUBLIC BUILDING, TO BE LOCATED IN MEDWAY VILLAGE.
Whereas, Mr. Milton H. Sanford having generously donated to the Evangelical Congregational Society of Medway the sum of $5,000, and Col. Edward S. Sanford the sum of $2,500, toward the erection of a Public Building for a Hall, Offices, Library- Room, and other purposes, to be located in Medway Village; to cost, including land, not less than $15,000; and whereas, the young ladies have raised the sum of $500 for the same object ; - The undersigned hereby pledge ourselves to give on demand, or by installments, the sums against our names : Provided, that not less than $12,000 in the whole shall be pledged for the object. The balance, if any is required, may be raised by a loan or stock subscription.
The Dean Library Association shall have the free use of one room for their Library and for a Reading-Room, and the use of the Hall for public lectures.
The net income from the rents of said building shall be applied and given in such proportions to the Society aforesaid and the Association, as the sums given and desig- nated by the donors for each shall bear to the whole amount donated.
The location, plan, construction, and management of said building shall be deter- mined by a Board of Trustees, chosen by the subscribers, every ten dollars being a share, and entitled to one vote, and said Trustees shall be authorized to fill vacancies in their own Board occasioned by death, resignation, or removal from the town or the limits of the Society. NOVEMBER, 1871.
Milton H. Sanford,
$5,000
E. C. L. B. Whitney,
100
Edward S. Sanford,
2,500
Harding & Bassett.
1,000
Clark Partridge,
1,000
John Cole,
100
Edward Eaton, .
1,500*
R. O. Davis,
10
John A. Bullard,
1,000
Eli Darling,
5
E. Cutler Wilson,
500
D. Daniels,
M. M. Fisher,
500
M. A. Woodward,
25
Allen Partridge,
500
T. R. Fairbanks,
50
Mason & Brother,
150
W. A. Jenckes,
75
George W. Ray,
100
George Newell, . Samuel D. Force,
IO
George P. Metcalf,
25
Emmons Force,
10
J. P. Plummer, .
25
Charles F. Daniels,
25
J. W. Thompson,
50
W. R. Parsons, S. A. Metcalf,
10
Wales Kimball, .
50
Alex. L. B. Monroe
20
Henry F. Cooper,
25
J. R. Knowlton,
5
Stephen W. Richardson,
25
J. F. Adams, .
5
Luther Metcalf,
250
Mrs. C. Hathon,
10
Daniel Rockwood,
10
Jason E. Wilson,
25
Total. . . $15,815
A. P. Phillips,
50
O. A. MASON, Treasurer."
" NOTICE .- The subscribers to the Fund for erecting a Public Hall Building in Med- way Village, and all who intend to become subscribers, are invited to meet at the Ves- try of the Village Church, on Monday evening next, at Seven o'clock, to hear the Report of the Committee on Subscriptions, and to choose Trustees, agreeably to the terms of the subscriptions, and to transact any other business proper to be done at said meeting.
DECEMBER 7, 1871.
E. C. WILSON, M . M. FISHER,
Committee."
10
John W. Richardson,
20
30
Joel P. Adams, .
500
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SANFORD HALL
CASON- TOO
THE SANFORD HALL. ERECTED IN 1872.
On Monday evening, December 11, 1871, the subscribers met ; Dr. Mon- roe, chairman, and Deacon Wales Kimball, secretary, and the following res- olutions were unanimously adopted :
" Resolved, That as a memorial of the name of Sanford, a name asso- ciated with the dearest interests of this community through several genera- tions, and in honor of the principal donors and especially of their venerated mother, Mrs. Edena H. Sanford, the Building shall be called the SANFORD HALL."
The following persons were elected the Board of Trustees: Messrs. Clark Partridge, M. M. Fisher, E. C. Wilson, Edward Eaton, A. S. Hard- ing, O. A. Mason, and John A. Bullard.
A vote of thanks was passed to Mr. Oscar M. Bassett, of the firm of Hard- ing & Bassett, for joining with the firm in a donation of $1,000.
It was also voted that copies of all proceedings antecedent to the con- struction of the building be engrossed, and other documents and mementoes be deposited under the corner-stone of the building, and they were so de- posited under the northeast corner thereof.
An eligible location was found which contained 67,807 square feet. The land and the buildings standing thereon were purchased for $4,500, of Mrs. Patty Lincoln, of Holliston. Nearly one-half of the land was devoted, sub- sequently, to streets, and sold for other purposes.
Propositions for building the hall agreeable to a plan of Lewis Fales, of Milford, were received from the following persons: W. W. Douglass, of Walpole, $13,475 ; Holden & Sawyer, of Portland, Me., $12,174; Ross, Clark & Company, of Medway, $12,975 ; Corson & Verry, of Franklin, $11.557.60. The contract was given to the lowest bidder, to be executed on or before the 15th of November, 1872.
-
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THE DEDICATION OF SANFORD HALL.
This Hall was dedicated on Tuesday evening, December 31, 1872, with appropriate exercises, a full account of which appeared in The Medway Journal of January 10, 1873.
The Hon. Milton M. Fisher, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, made an address of welcome, which was followed by prayer led by the Rev. Alexis W. Ide, and the singing of an original hymn. Theodore W. Fisher, M. D., of Boston, then delivered an historical address, in which he gave an account of Medway Village and its early inhabitants. From this address are taken the following extracts :
Nature evidently reserved the Village for what it afterward became, the cradle of that manufacturing interest which has since absorbed most of the enterprise of New England, and has carried the fame and fabrics of Massachusetts to the ends of the earth. The settlement and growth of this place has been due largely to the mechani- cal instincts of the Whiting family, transmitted from father to son for many genera- tions. In tracing this branch of the family, we find an almost unbroken succession of millers. The records show that in 1638 the settlers of Dedham engaged in an engineer- ing operation of remarkable magnitude for that period. Not finding sufficient fall on the Charles River they dug a canal across the country from the Charles to the Nepon- set, diverting water enough to turn several mills. Nathaniel Whiting, of Dedham, was interested in this artificial water-power, and was the first miller. His son John mar- ried Mary Billings and went, in 1688, to establish a mill in the then new town of Wren- tham, where the Eagle Factory now stands. John Whiting's son Nathaniel was also a miller. He was born in 1691; married Margaret Mann, daughter of the Wrentham minister, in 1711, and came soon after to establish a grist mill at the foot of the hill in the rear of this building. He died in 1799, at the age of seventy-nine years. His son Nathaniel, also a miller, lived on the same spot, and died in 1779. forty-five years old, leaving two daughters. The older married Luther Metcalf, of Franklin, whose son Luther was also a miller and a manufacturer of cotton goods.
Let us endeavor to reconstruct the Village in imagination, as it existed ninety years ago, at the close of the Revolution. The present Village Street was then the Boston and Hartford Middle road, because it lay between one going north through Worces- ter, and another going south through Providence. On this road, commencing at the west, stood Simon Fisher's house, where Cutler Wilson's house now stands. This was of that old-fashioned style sometimes called the " saltbox house," with two stories in front, but sloping in the rear almost to the ground. It had a well with a sweep, a large barn, a row of elms, and a butternut tree. It also had an ell which con- tained a bakery and a store. Where the customers came from is a mystery. In this store was the following notice, worth repeating :
" Pay to-day, trust to-morrow, May to-morrow never come."
The next house was a one-story frame building, just built for Luther Metcalf, of Franklin, a returned Revolutionary soldier. The carpenter who built it was after- wards concerned in a rebellion in Canada. This small house was moved away in 1792, and till recently, served as the Village bake shop. The present Metcalf house was built in part the same year and has been repeatedly enlarged.
The third house was Job Harding's, standing where the tavern now stands. This was also a new house in 1784, and was probably a small one. It grew, however, by various additions, so as to accommodate a store, kept first by Job Harding himself, and afterwards by Captain William Felt, and the first tavern, kept by William Fuller. The old tavern, as it appeared just before its removal northward twenty years ago, consisted of a two-story building with a long ell, and a low piazza in front and at the west side. A fine elm stood in front, under whose shade the mail coaches used to dash up in fine style to the door. The hay scales stood under this tree.
I74
The fourth house stood still farther east, at the foot of the first part of the Village hill, where William H. Cary's house now stands. It was the Joel Hawes place, an old yellow two-story house with a row of dying poplars in front. Its chambers, once sacred to domestic uses, then resounded with the tintinnabulation of a tin shop.
Just below was the Samuel Bullen house. It stood on the cellar, still open, opposite William Parson's boot shop. It was at one time occupied by Asa Fuller, wheelwright and maker of spinning-wheels. Samuel Bullen and Asa Fuller died long ago; spin- ning-wheels are obsolete; and the old house itself is gone. Nothing remains but the cellar, choked with burdock and cellandine, good for a " lame back " and warts.
These five, with the old Whiting house under the hill, which was burned in 1811, make six houses, of which the Village proper was composed ninety years ago. They all faced south, standing at long intervals on the main road, surrounded with gardens and fields. Their exterior was humble, but their timbers were sound, and their frames bid fair to outlast the villas of to-day. What stories they could tell of old time Village life, and of individual history ! Human life is seldom tame or uneventful. Goethe says, " grasp anywhere into the thick of it, and you will always find it interesting."
Take the old tavern, for instance, with its successive keepers, William Fuller, Colonel Ethan Cobb, Laban Adams, Elijah Thayer, Amos Fisher, Captain Luther Green, and Collens Hathorn, think of the sleigh-ride frolics, the militia suppers, the country balls, the stage coach arrivals before these days of steam, when staging was a business ! Think of the queer customers accommodated ; the strollers, the showmen, and the peddlers, and their stories round the bar-room fire! The bargains, the horse talk, and the village gossip! Here was life and variety, and 'tis no wonder the Village boys found a fascination in the tavern which was not wholly unreasonable nor dan- gerous.
Besides these six houses in the Village proper, was that of Nathan Fisher, grand- father of the late Amos Fisher, which stood in Franklin on the hill across the river, where Captain Paul's house now stands ; in fact the present one may be the old house itself. At the extreme eastern limit of the present village was the Abram Harding house, where J. B. Peck lately resided, the Comfort Walker house, now owned by Edward Eaton, and the Timothy Clark house, kept by him in early times as a " house of entertainment," where Deacon Fairbanks now resides.
Cotemporary with these ten houses were the grist mill, a saw mill, built by Ichabod Hawes, where Eaton & Wilson's middle mill now stands, and at the same place a blacksmith's shop with a trip hammer worked by water and a machine for boring guns. There was no Franklin road, or bridge, and grist for the mill from the Franklin side of the river was brought down a bridle path on horseback and carried across a foot- bridge over the dam.
The year 1803 was signalized by the establishment of a post-office. Previous to this time the mail came through from Boston to Hartford once a week on horseback. Captain William Felt was the first postmaster, and to the office in his store in the old tavern building came letters for all the surrounding towns. In 1807 the turnpike was built, running through Black Swamp, extending from Dedham to the western limits of Medway, and directly connecting, for the first time, the east and west parishes. Candlewood Island road was laid out to meet it a little east of the boundary between the old and new grants. It was named from a patch of hard land in its route, covered with pitch pines. The Holliston road was soon after cut through in a straight line to the Village Street, and Lover's Lane fell into disuse, or rather into the use its name implies. There was a guide-board on an oak tree at the junction of the Holliston and Village streets, which read as follows :
" The shortest run to Hollistoo! Come on, Daddy Niles, It's only five miles ! "
There was also a picture of a man on horseback galloping towards Holliston. This bit of waggery, strange to say, was perpetrated by Deacon Samuel Allen, whose many noble traits of character are well remembered. The first stage from Boston to Hart- ford was put on in 1812 by Ebenezer Clark, of Dedham. It ran twice a week and was
175
driven by Joseph Miller, one of the best men of his profession. Collens Hathorn and Anson White started the Providence and Framingham stage line in 1838.
Early in the present century the Village received a new impulse to its growth. The water privilege at the grist mill was seen to be available for a more profitable business. In 1806 it was proposed by Dr. Abijah Richardson, Major Luther Metcalf, and others, to build a cotton mill on the Franklin side of the river. The refusal of the town of Medway to lay out a street to it, if located on that side, induced its location on this side, and gave us the present Franklin Street. A wooden bridge was built over the river about this time, replaced in 1846 by a stone bridge of one large arch, which fell the night before Thanksgiving of the same year, and was at once rebuilt. The mill was set in operation in March, 1807, being the only cotton mill, except the Slater's, at Pawtucket, in the country. In 1809 the Medway Cotton Manufacturing Company was formed. It was the first corporation of the kind in the country, and consisted of Dr. Abijah Richardson, Major Luther Metcalf, Philo Sanford, Captain William Felt, Comfort Walker, Dr. Nathaniel Miller, John Blackburn, and Lyman Tiffany. The doctors in those days seem to have had money to spare, since, beside the two mentioned, Dr. Dean, to whom we owe the Dean Library, was afterwards a member of this corporation. On Sunday, October 20, 1811, the mill was burned, but was rebuilt the same year, and now stands, at the venerable age of sixty-one, wait- ing for some enterprising spirit to give it a successor worthy of its historical interest.
The new business of cotton spinning and weaving brought many families to the Village, and introduced an element of prosperity which was soon supplemented by the erection of mills at other points on the river. In 1813 William Felt and two brothers, by the name of Tufts, from Boston, Comfort Walker and George Barber, built a cotton mill lower down, on the site in the rear of William Parson's boot shop. This was afterwards owned by William H. Cary, and was burned in 1855, and re-built by J. B. Wilson.
George Barber at this time owned a small mill for dressing woolen cloth, built in 1795, by Job Harding, near the same site. In company with Alexander Wright, a native of Scotland, he went abroad and returned with a mechanic competent to con- struct and operate a power loom for carpet weaving. Here carpets were first woven by machinery in this country. Under their direction also, a loom for weaving coach lace was set up, the first in the country except one in New Jersey. They also made thread lace. In 1811 William Felt, Elias and Sanford Whiting built a cotton mill on the Flat. It was afterwards owned by George Daniels, and then by Hurd and Daniels. It was burned, and rebuilt for the manufacture of wadding, and is now owned by Eaton & Wilson. In 1816, Sewall Sanford built a thread mill where Eaton & Wil- son's upper mill now stands. It was afterwards owned by J. B. Wilson, and was burned in 1839, but was at once rebuilt.
In 1815 a cotton mill was built by Major Luther Metcalf, Captain Luther Metcalf, Cephas Thayer, and Joel Hunt, a mile to the west. It was burned in 1844 and was rebuilt as a paper mill by the Campbell Brothers. Around this nucleus a village has grown up.
It is impossible in the time allotted to dwell upon the host of interesting person- alities which crowd the memory. It would be pleasant to review the long line of ster- ling men, in all the professions and walks of life, who have lived here, or who have gone out from this village. I must, however, pay a passing tribute of respect to the members of my own profession, who have successfully filled the post of duty here. The Village has never lacked physicians, faithful, skillful, and generally eminent in their calling. Men equal to all emergencies, and qualified to fill positions more lucra- tive, perhaps, but not more honorable.' That would be impossible !
We have fortunately been able to settle our quarrels so easily that the practice of law has not been particularly profitable. It is to be regretted that the Hon. War- ren Lovering is unable to be present to represent his profession, and to give us a re- minder of that vigor and eloquence of speech so well remembered by many.
I have thus far omitted allusion to the school and the church. In every New Eng- land community these agencies are taken for granted. Religion and education, as a matter of course, go hand in hand with material progress, each being a cause as well
176
as an index of every kind of material prosperity. In Puritan times each new town was bound by its act of incorporation to provide for the establishment and support of a local orthodox ministry. For a people whose watchwords were "liberty of con- science " and " freedom to worship God" according to its dictates, this practical union of church and state in town affairs looks at first a little inconsistent. It is evi- dent " liberty of conscience " then and now had two different meanings. But we need not criticise a policy which was a necessity of the age, and which gave a moral backbone to the colony, the stiffness of which is not yet entirely relaxed. This policy was the source of many sterling virtnes of which we are the happy inheritors.
We need not dwell long on church matters here, not because of their small impor- tance, but on account of their recent date. You have also heard them set forth in the thirtieth anniversary sermon of your late pastor. In 1834 the Universalists began to worship in the old school-house hall: In 1836 the Rev. David Sanford, then settled in Dorchester, began to agitate the question of establishing an Orthodox church and so- ciety here. In consultation with Comfort Walker, Luther Metcalf, Orion Mason, James B. Wilson, and others, the plan was pronounced feasible. The Universalists generously relinquished the field, and Dr. Ide, in conference with Mr. Sanford, acquiesced in the withdrawal of those of the Village who attended his church in West Medway, thus securing harmony at the outset between the new and the old societies. Milton M. Sanford circulated a paper, and the above-named parties and inany others subscribed liberally, without regard to personal religious opinions. The financial crisis of 1837 delayed the completion of the meeting-house till June, 1838. On the 3d of October following, after much hesitation on account of his health, Mr. Sanford was installed as pastor. I am wholly unable to pay a just tribute to one whose life has been so radiant with Christian virtues, and whose long labors here have been the con- stant source of influences far-reaching and beneficent. Still less am I able to antici- pate the advantages of the new pastoral relations this year so happily formed with the Rev. R. K. Harlow.
The children of the Village formerly attended at the district school-house, standing, till last year, when it was burned, beyond the Flat, near Bent Street. Afterwards a new district was formed, and a small house was built on the hill, opposite the tavern. This was, perhaps, a mistake in location, though the scholars, who found their minds pleasantly diverted by outside occurrences, did not think so. As the village grew, the school-house was enlarged, until the original structure became the woodshed to a large building with a projecting second story, supported on a row of wooden posts, making a very convenient shelter for rainy days. This building was metamorphosed into a Catholic Church when the new school-house was built, and is soon to undergo another change.
The old school-house holds a conspicuous place in the memory of every scholar who frequented it, and need only be mentioned to call up a long panorama of vivid recollections. For the benefit of the older inhabitants, I will remind them of an am- bitious educational establishment which it once accommodated about the year 1832, known as the Medway Classical Institute, and kept by the Rev. Abijah Baker.
Some very good schools and some very bad ones were kept in the old school-house. I am inclined to attribute the success of the Rev. S. J. Spalding, of Newburyport, in his experience here, to his having lived in the factory village of Nashua, N. H., where he learned how to deal with factory boys. Other teachers distinguished themselves professionally afterwards.
For many years the old school-house furnished the only hall available for secular purposes. The hotel hall was used for balls and parties, and for a time the Odd Fel- lows' hall was devoted to the better class of lectures, concerts, and exhibitions, but the old school-house hall was our main-stay. Here the plank desks and benches, the green wooden chandelier stuck full of oil peg lamps, and the tin side reflectors, gave welcome to every sort of nondescript entertainment. Magic lantern shows, and dis- plays of prestidigitation ; lectures on phrenology, biology, physiology, and psychology, all equally delusive ; administrations of laughing gas ; exposés of Free Masonry, and the similar imaginary horrors of Catholic nunneries; Swiss bell ringers and cheap concerts, all spread their nets here for the hard-earned ninepences of the people.
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