Norfolk County, Massachusetts - Chapter 13: The Town of Canton, 1918

Chapter 13: The Town of Canton

A little southeast of the geographical center of Norfolk County is situated the Town of Canton. On the north and northwest it is bounded by the Neponset River, which separates it from the towns of Norwood, Westwood and Dedham ; on the northeast by Milton and Randolph ; southerly by Stoughton ; and on the southwest by Sharon. The surface is rolling and in some places hilly, and evidences of glacial action are to be seen in the ponds, of which there are several in the town. Reservoir Pond is located near the center and a little southeast of it is a smaller body of water called Muddy Pond. Ponkapoag Pond is on the line between Canton and Randolph, while in the southern part are Ice, Ames, Forge, Factory and a few smaller ponds. The Pequin River flows into Reservoir Pond, Mill Brook into Ames Pond, and there are a number of smaller streams, so that all parts of the town are well watered.

Early History

The territory now comprising the Town of Canton was originally a part of Dorchester. When the latter town (at first called Mattapan) was created in 1630 it embraced only the little district between Boston and the Neponset River, extending to the Massachusetts Bay on the east. In 1636 the General Court granted to the Dorchester Plantation some six thousand acres south of the Neponset. This was known as the "Unquety Grant" and is now included in the Town of Milton. The next year another grant was made to the town, "being all the territory not before granted between Dedham and the Plymouth Colony." In this "New Grant" were included the present towns of Canton, Stoughton and Sharon, and portions of Wrentham and Foxborough. On December 15, 1715, this territory was organized as Dorchester South Precinct. Its dismemberment began in 1724, when the southwest part was added to the Town of Wrentham, which had been incorporated in 1673. Stoughton was incorporated on December 22, 1726, and included what are now Stoughton, Canton, Sharon and a large part of Foxborough. On July 2, 1740, the Dorchester Second Precinct was established, constituting what are now the towns of Sharon and Foxborough, leaving Stoughton as the old Dorchester South Precinct. Canton then remained a part of Stoughton for fifty-seven years longer.

Canton Incorporated

On March 9, 1795, the inhabitants of the First Parish of Stoughton held a meeting at the parish church. The thirteenth article to come before the meeting was "to see if the parish will petition the General Court to be set off as a separate town." The vote was in the affirmative and Elijah Dunbar, Nathan Crane, Joseph Bemis, Benjamin Gill and Elijah Crane were appointed a committee to prepare the petition. It was further voted that Colonel Gill, Capt. Elijah Crane and Col. Nathan Crane be a committee to present the petition to the General Court. Following is the petition :

"The Petition of the Subscribers, Inhabitants of the first Parish in the Town of Stoughton, in the County of Norfolk in said Com'th, humbly showeth that the local situation of said Town of Stoughton is very singular, being near eleven miles in length & about four Miles in breadth, as may appear by a Plan thereof, and also that there is a large body of land laying upon and contiguous to the line between the North and South Parishes, which is and always will be incapable of any valuable improvement, which throws the bulk of the Inhabitants of said Parishes at a great distance from each other, which peculiar circumstance makes it always inconvenient & sometimes impracticable for the Inhabitants of either of said Parishes to attend Town Meeting as they have been usually held for some years past, by reason of the great distance of way & sometimes impassable roads.

"Therefore your Petitioners humbly pray that the lands within said first Parish & the Inhabitants thereof (except those persons and their property that wish to remain with the Town of Stoughton) may be incorporated into a Distinct and separate Town. And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, shall ever pray."

Paul Revere House, Canton High School, Canton

Michael Shaller, Nathaniel Shepard, Oliver Shepard, Thomas Shepard, William Shepard, Ephraim Smith, James Smith, Lemuel Smith, Redmon Spurr, Joseph Stearns, George Stone, Seth Strobridge, Samuel Strobridge, Benjamin Sylvester, David Talbot, John Tant, John Tant, Jr., Lemuel Tant, Peter Thayer, Jr., Josiah Tilden, Nahaniel Tilden, Benjamin Tucker, Daniel Tucker, James Tucker, John Tucker, Samuel Tucker, Samuel Tucker, Jr., Simeon Tucker, Amos Upham, Samuel Wales, Abel Wentworth, Arunah Wentworth, Benjamin Wentworth, Elijah Wentworth, Oliver Wentworth, Paul Wentworth, Seth Wentworth, John Wentworth, Nathaniel Wentworth, Samuel Wheeler, William Wheeler, Lemuel Whiting, Nathaniel Whiting, Philip Whiting, Richard Wild, Jonathan Withington. The petition was presented to the General Court on June n, 1795, by Benjamin Gill, Elijah Crane and Nathan Crane, the committee appointed for that purpose. Stoughtcn appointed a committee, consisting of James Pope, Samuel Talbot, Joseph Richards and Samuel Shepard, to oppose this petition. Among the arguments advanced by the Stoughton committee was the fact that the petition was signed by one hundred and forty-three persons, when there were but one hundred and forty legal voters in the parish. The whole question was postponed until the next session of the General Court. On January 20, 1796, Stoughton presented a remonstrance signed by Lemuel Drake and one hundred and sixty-nine others. This gave the petitioners a chance to retaliate, by showing that the remonstrance contained fifteen more names than there were legal voters in the second parish, and that several of the names thereon were those of residents of the first parish, who had previously signed the petition. On June 10, 1796, the committee of the first parish and that of the Town of Stoughton agreed that the matter should be referred to a special committee, composed of Senator Seth Bullard, Representative Joseph Hewins of Sharon, and Judge Bullock of Rehoboth. Acting under instructions from the General Court, this committee visited Stoughton and spent several days in looking over the town, hearing arguments pro and con, and on September 3, 1796, made a report in favor of granting the prayer of the petitioners. The report was accepted and on February 23, 1797, the act incorporating the Town of Canton was approved.

First Town Meeting

Thomas Crane, a justice of the peace, issued his warrant on February 24, 1797, to Laban Lewis, requiring him to warn the legal voters to assemble at the meeting house in Canton on the 6th of March "at one of the clock P. M., then and there to choose all such officers as towns are required by law to elect." At the meeting held in pursuance of this warrant, Elijah Dunbar was chosen moderator; Elijah Crane, Benjamin Tucker and Nathan Crane were chosen selectmen and assessors ; Elijah Crane, clerk ; Joseph Bemis, treasurer. No further business was transacted at this meeting.

Town Hall

For many years after the town was incorporated the town meetings were held in the First Parish meeting house and the different officials had their offices at their residences or places of business. Then the meeting place was changed to the Baptist Church at Canton Center, and when that denomination erected a new house of worship at South Canton in 1837 the old one was purchased by the town for $650. It was a small building, but it was Canton's first town house and the public business was transacted there for more than forty years.

At the annual town meeting in April, 1878, a committee, consisting of one member from each of the school districts, was appointed to select a location and procure plans for the erection of a new town hall. The committee was composed of William Horton, Elisha Horton, Frank M. Ames, Ellis Tucker, George E. Downes, Thomas Lonergan and James S. Shepard. On June 17, 1878, the committee reported and after some discussion it was decided to locate the new hall on the corner of Washington and Depot streets, where Elijah A. Morse offered to donate the ground for a site. Frank M. Ames, James S. Shepard, Elisha Horton, Edward R. Eager and Joseph W. Wattles were appointed a committee to take a deed of the land in behalf of the town, and to select a plan from some of those submitted to that meeting. The design submitted by Stephen C. Earle, an architect of Boston, was selected and the same committee was continued to superintend the erection of the building, "to be known as Memorial Hall."

The structure is 62 by 101 feet in dimensions, two stories high, with basement under the entire building. The foundation walls and the steps at the main entrances are of Concord granite. The walls of the superstructure are of brick, laid in black mortar, and the trimmings are of Longmeadow freestone. On the first floor are the offices of the clerk, treasurer, selectmen, etc., and a large fireproof vault for the safekeeping of the public records. For about twenty years the public library also occupied quarters on this floor. In the main corridor are the memorial tablets, bearing the names of the Canton soldiers who sacrificed their lives upon their country's altar in the War of the Rebellion. These tablets were presented to the town by Elijah A. Morse. Over the door to the corridor is the inscription : "Erected to commemorate the patriotism of the soldiers of Canton, who fell in defence of the Union in the War of the Rebellion," and over the tablets is a transom running the full width, in the center of which are the dates "1861-1865," with the motto: "It is sweet and honorable to die for one's country." On the second floor is a public hall 58 by 67 feet, with a large stage at one end. The seating capacity of this hall - main floor and gallery - is about eight hundred, though on special occasions the doors between the anterooms and the stage can be opened, making room for over one thousand.

At the time it was voted to erect a new hall, an appropriation of $31,000 was made to pay for the erection of the building and the improvements of the grounds. The actual cost, including the expenses of the dedicatory ceremonies, was $30,961.12, leaving a balance of $38.88, which was turned back into the town treasury. On October 30, 1879, the people turned out in large numbers to be present at the dedication of their new hall. The address on that occasion was delivered by Charles Endicott and short speeches were made by a number of prominent men, among whom were Governor Talbot, Secretary of State Peirce, Charles Adams, ex-treasurer of state, and Elijah A. Morse, who donated the ground upon which the building is situated. In 1916 the selectmen awarded a contract to Martin F. Burke to install a new heating plant at a cost of $3,500.

The Canton Waterworks were established in 1887 and were paid for by a bond issue, of which the sum of $59,000 was outstanding on January 1, 1917. In their twenty-ninth annual report, for the year ending on December 31, 1916, the board of water commissioners - Michael F. Ward, James A. O'Leary and Walter S. Draper - give the total cost of the works up to that time as $335,258.37. During the year 1916 a new standpipe was erected at Ponkapoag at a cost of $10,359, and $9°5-78 was expended in repairing and painting the old one. The sources of supply are Henry's Springs at Springdale, and the State Board of Health has pronounced the water to be of excellent quality. During the twenty-nine years since the works were first completed the mains have been extended, until at the close of 1916 there were over thirty miles in use. The number of gallons pumped in 1916 was 110,198,000. The report for that year shows 251 hydrants and nearly twelve hundred customers.

Fire Department

In the beginning Canton's fire department differed but little from that of the other towns of Norfolk County - a volunteer company and a hand fire engine that could cope with fires of moderate magnitude, but were powerless against great conflagrations. As the town grew in importance and the property valuation increased proportionately, the people were not slow to recognize the necessity of better means of extinguishing fires. After the waterworks were built in 1887, regular hose companies were organized and a number of men paid by the town were kept constantly on duty. In 1895 a ^re alarm system was installed. At the annual meeting in 191 5 it was voted to purchase two auto combination trucks and the selectmen were instructed to carry out the order. Ten companies submitted bids on the apparatus, but the board accepted that of the Kissel Kar Company, which offered to furnish the two trucks for $6,500. One of these trucks was installed at the Central Fire Station and the other at Ponkapoag. The latter answers all fire alarms at Canton Corner.

At the close of the year 1916 the board of fire engineers was composed of Frederic P. Drake, chief. Ralph C. Crowell and Owen Galligan. In their annual report they give the equipment as one steam fire engine, two motor combination trucks, and three hose companies, each stationed in a house of its own. All members of the department were placed under civil service by a vote of the annual town meeting on March 6, 1916. The appropriation for that year was $4,800, exclusive of the amount paid for the two new trucks ordered the preceding year. During the year 1916 the department answered sixteen calls, in which the value of property involved was over forty thousand dollars, but the loss was only $5,280, fully covered by insurance. No better evidence is necessary as to the efficiency of the department.

Early in the year 1916 a public meeting was held in Lower Memorial Hall to consider the question of granting a franchise to the Brockton Gas Light

Company to furnish the town with gas. It was the sense of the meeting that the franchise should he granted and the board of selectmen was instructed accordingly. The board then awarded the franchise on a basis of $1.40 per 1,000 cubic feet of gas for the term of four years, with a reduction of five cents every two years thereafter until a minimum price of $1.20 is reached, "or fifteen cents in excess of the then prevailing price in the City of Brockton."

On April 25, 191 7, ground was broken at the junction of the boundary lines of Canton, Stoughton and Sharon. The board of selectmen - Joseph A. Murphy, Ernest Guild and Thomas D. Mullin - the members of the Canton Board of Trade, which was the first to advocate gas, and a large number of the town's citizens were present. J. B. Anderson made a short address, in which he outlined the growth of Canton and declared the event to be a fitting one in commemoration of the town's 120th anniversary. Chairman Murphy, of the selectmen, Postmaster John J. Haverty, George H. Priest, representing the gas company, and others made short talks.

The first postoffice in Canton was established in the northern part of the town, but just when, or who was the first postmaster cannot be ascertained. The records of the office date back only to the close of the Civil war. Rufus Wood was appointed postmaster in 1866. He was succeeded in turn by Fred E. Holmes, Thomas F. Lyons, Fred E. Holmes, Bartholomew Doody, Emery Britton, Francis D. Dunbar and the present postmaster (1917), John J. Haverty. The office now employs the postmaster, assistant postmaster, one clerk, four local and one rural carriers. In April, 191 6, the postoffice at Ponkapoag was made a sub-station of the Canton office, which is now the only one in the town. Formerly there were two rural routes, but these have been consolidated and in June, 1917, Canton enjoyed the distinction of having the only motor rural route in the State of Massachusetts. Free delivery was inaugurated in 191 1. The annual receipts of the office amount to about fourteen thousand dollars, and the postal savings department carries deposits of over twenty-eight thousand dollars.

For many years there stood a little south of the base of the Blue Hill a quaint old building, two stories high, with a large attic under its gambrel roof and two large stone chimneys. It was built by John Shepard early in the Eighteenth Century and kept by him as a tavern in 1726. At the time of the Revolution it was conducted by Col. Thomas Doty, better known as "Tom," of whom it was said "He kept the best viands and could mix the best glass of grog of any landlord in all the country around." Under his management the house became widely known as "Doty's Tavern," the location of which was known to every stage driver in Eastern Massachusetts.

When the various towns of Suffolk County chose delegates in 1774, to meet and consider the general conditions then prevailing, it was not deemed safe to meet in Boston, which was then in the hands of the British soldiery, and

Canton Public Library

Dr. (afterward Gen.) Joseph Warren recommended Doty's Tavern as a quiet spot where the convention was not likely to be molested. Warren had stopped at the tavern and was acquainted with the proprietor. The result of his recommendations was that the first meeting of the "Suffolk Congress" was held at this tavern on August 16, 1774. Norfolk County had not yet been organized and the territory now comprising it was then all in the County of Suffolk. A second meeting of the congress was held at Dedham on September 6, 1774, and three days later, at a third meeting held at the house of Daniel Vose. in the Town of Milton, was adopted the famous "Suffolk Resolves," which paved the way for the Declaration of Independence two years later. The Doty Tavern was destroyed by fire on December 19, 1888. General Lafayette stopped at this house while on his way from Taunton to Boston during the Revolution, and John Adams and John Hancock were guests of Col. "Tom" Doty at various times.

Early Ordinances

Some of the early ordinances or orders of the town meetings may seem strange to the people of the present generation. Canton was incorporated in February, 1797, and the annual town meeting of the following year appropriated $1,000 for highways, $500 for the maintenance of schools, $600 for general expenses, and $300 "to clapboard the back end of the meeting house, the back side of the belfry, also to paint the house." In the warrant for the town meeting for 1799 an article was inserted "to see if the town will procure and set up a stove in the meeting house, for the convenience and comfort of those who attend public worship in the winter season." The article was dismissed, as the sentiment that church congregations should defray their own expenses was already finding a lodgment in the minds of many of the citizens.

At the annual meeting on March 7, 1808, it was "Voted that a bounty of one dollar per head or tail for every Rattlesnake absolutely taken and killed within the months of April, May & October the present year." In his address on July 4, 1876, Charles Endicott referred to this bounty as follows: "Practically this was very much like offering a bounty of two dollars for each snake killed, and very likely it was found to be so, for the next year the town voted the same sum for rattlesnakes tails only, and cautioned the treasurer 'to guard against deception when he is applied to for such bounties.' "

Early in the history of the town Canton came into prominence as a manufacturing center, and it is still one of the active manufacturing towns of Norfolk County. The first factory in the State of Massachusetts for making cotton goods by machinery was established in this town in 1803. Paul Revere & Son had established a copper-works two years before, where bells and cannon were cast. Silks, cordage and woolen goods were among the early manufactured products, and some of the factories established a century or more ago are still in operation, though in some cases the character of their products has been materially .altered. A more detailed account of these establishments will be found in another chapter.

In 1910 the population of Canton was 4,797, and in 191 5 the state census reported a population of 5,623, a gain of 826 in five years. On April 1, 1916, the board of assessors reported the valuation of property as $7,038,466, and the estimated value of the town property, school houses, town hall, waterworks, etc., as $602,000. Canton has two banks, a weekly newspaper (the Journal), churches of various denominations, a fine public library, seven public school buildings valued at $140,000, in which twenty-four teachers are employed ; a number of well-stocked mercantile establishments ; an active and energetic board of trade, steam and electric railway lines, good public highways, an almshouse for the care of the poor, etc.

At the beginning of the year 1917 the principal town officers were as follows: Selectmen and Overseers of the Poor, Ernest A. Guild, Thomas D. Mullen and Joseph A. Murphy ; Assessors, Matthew E. Callahan, Frederic P. Drake and Ernest A. Guild ; Clerk, Walter Ames ; Treasurer and Tax Collector, Robert Bird ; Auditors, James E. Grimes, H. E. Beal and Peter Callery ; Water Commissioners, Michael F. Ward, Walter S. Draper and James O'Leary ; School Committee, George H. Capen, Augustus Hemenway, I. C. Horton, H. L. Fenno, Thomas J. Hill, E. L. Underwood, Charles H. French, Francis A. Ryan and Frederic H. Bisbee ; Constables, John H. Flood and John Bowerman ; Highway Surveyor, John Buckley, Jr.