Norfolk County, Massachusetts - Chapter 16: The Town of Dover, 1918

Chapter 16: The Town of Dover

Dover is situated in the north central part of Norfolk County. It is bounded on the north by the towns of Wellesley and Xeedham ; on the east by Westwood ; on the south by Medfield and Walpole ; and on the west by Natick and Sherborn, two towns of Middlesex County. For about ten and a half miles the Charles River forms the boundary line of the town, separating it from Sherborn and from Wellesley and Needham.

Topography

The word "hilly" might be used to describe generally the surface, though there are also some fertile valleys, in which are located some of the finest farms in Norfolk County. Several of the largest hills have been designated by names.

Pine Rock Hill, the highest in the town, rises to a height of 449 feet above sea level and is the highest elevation in the county except the Blue Hill range in Milton. From its summit a fine view of the surrounding country can be obtained and on a clear day vessels can be seen in Massachusetts Bay.

Pegan Hill, so named for an ancient tribe of Indians, lies on the boundary line between Dover and Natick. It is 420 feet high and from its top can be seen the state house in Boston, Bunker Hill monument, and some twenty villages. Around the base of this hill are attractive homes and fertile farms.

Strawberry Hill, in the eastern part of the town, received its name because in early days its sides were covered with wild strawberry vines. Its summit is 200 feet above the Charles River.

In the southern part are Cedar and Oak Hills, the former 400 and the latter 360 feet high. Here there are fine deposits of granite. From the quarries in these hills was taken the stone for the court-house at Dedham, the Dedham Memorial Hall, the asylum at Medfield and several other public buildings.

Big Brook, so named in the early Dedham records, is the largest stream in the town and flows in a westerly direction into the Charles River.

Clay Brook received its name because the early settlers in the vicinity took clay from its banks to be used in the construction of the dwelling houses.

There are two streams called Mill Brook. One rises in Dedham and flows in a southerly course to the Charles River, and the other rises in Dover and flows in southerly direction into the Town of Medfield.

Noanet Brook rises in the southern part of the town and flows northwardly, emptying into the Charles River not far from Charles River Village. It is the outlet of Reserve Pond, which originally covered some twenty acres of land. In the early land transactions Noanet Brook played an important part, defining boundaries of grants to settlers. It was named for an Indian chief.

Trout Brook, west of Noanet and flowing in the same general direction, has its source in the Boiling Springs and takes its name from the great numbers of trout which formerly sported in its pure waters.

In the southeastern part of the town is Great Spring, one of the largest in the county and furnishing a never-failing supply of the purest water. Its outlet, called Tubwreck Brook, is a tributary of the Neponset River. This stream derived its name in a curious manner. - One spring, when the brook was much higher than usual, Capt. James Tisdale embarked in a half hogshead for the purpose of floating down the brook to gather flood cranberries. The novel craft was capsized and from this incident the little creek became known as "Tubwreck Brook."

Early Settlers

So far as can be learned, the first settler within the limits of the present Town of Dover was Henry Wilson, a native of Kent, England, who came to Dedham in 1640. He received a grant of land, along with the other settlers, but never built upon it, preferring to go farther west, and he established his home in the easterly part of the town, not far from the Westwood line. He married and brought his wife to the new home in the wilderness, and here their first child, Michael Wilson, was born in 1644, probably the first white child to be born in the town. Game of all kinds was plentiful in those days, and it is said that Mr. Wilson, upon awakening in the morning after the first night spent in his new house, was surprised to see a huge wildcat looking in at the window.

The first settler in the western part was doubtless Thomas Battle (spelled Battelle in some of the early records), who built his house on the Clay Brook Road, not far from the Natick line. In 1687 he received another grant of land consisting of "half an acre of upland and meadow bottom as it lieth his own land near the Great Brook, near Natick, bounded by his own land southeast the way to the brook, and by the brook in all other parts." Mr. Battle was elected one of the selectmen of Dedham in 1677 and served in that capacity for five years. He then held for two years the office of town clerk.

In 1682 Thomas Battle sold a portion of his land to James Draper, of Roxbury, whose son John married in 1686 and it is believed he settled in Dover soon after his marriage. Some years prior to that time a road had been opened from Medfield to South Natick, and several settlers located along the line of this road. Nathaniel Chickering came from England in 1681 and within a few years, by grant and purchase, became the owner of about one thousand acres of land, part of which lay within the present Town of Dover. He settled in Dover in 1694. but did not live to occupy the house he built, his death occurring on the 21st of October of that year. His widow and children moved into the house and some of his descendants still live in the town.

Roving bands of Indians were a great source of annoyance to the Dover pioneers. For protection and defense they built a fort of thick white oak plank, in two walls, filling in .between them with brick. Small windows were left at intervals through which the settlers could fire upon their assailants. The fort stood near the road leading from Medfield to Natick, on the high land overlooking the Charles River. It was torn down in the spring of 1800.

Political History

Dover was a part of Dedham for nearly a century after the latter town was incorporated in 1635. About 1725 the inhabitants of the western part of Dedham reached the conclusion that they should be freed from the rates for the support of the' minister at Dedham and permitted to build a meeting house of their own. Nothing was done, however, until March 3, 1728, when they petitioned the Dedham town meeting to be set off as a precinct, with the following bounds : "Beginning at Bubbling Brook, where it crosses the Medfield road ; thence, taking in the lands of Samuel Chickering, to the westerly end of Nathaniel Richards' house lot, and so down to the Charles River, with all the lands and inhabitants westerly of said line."

The town granted the request of the petitioners on November 9, 1729, but almost immediately the inhabitants developed an ambition to be set off as a separate and distinct precinct by the General Court. Consequently, on November 19, 1729, a petition, signed by Jonathan Battle and others, was presented to the Court making that request. The petition was referred to a committee, which reported on December 2, 1729, in favor of freeing the petitioners and their neighbors from paying the minister rate in Dedham. The report was accepted and an act passed providing that "Samuel Chickering and twelve others should attend church at Medfield, Ralph Day and four others the church at Needham, and Eleazer Ellis and thirteen others the church at Natick."

Under this act the territory referred to in the petition became the Fourth Dedham Precinct. An old tax list of the precinct for the year 1732, three years after it was set off, shows the names of the following property holders, a few of whom may have been non-residents: Aaron Allen, Benjamin Allen, Eleazer Allen, Hezekiah Allen, Moses Allen, John Bacon, Michael Bacon, Jonathan Battle, Jonathan Battle, Jr., Nathaniel Battle, - Battle (widow) , Jonathan Bullard, John Bullard, Nathaniel Bullard, John Bullin, Eliphalet Chickering, Nathaniel Chickering, Samuel Chickering, Ralph Day, John Draper, John Draper, Jr., Joseph Draper, Benjamin Ellis, Caleb Ellis, Eleazer Ellis, James Ellis, Jonathan Ellis, John Fisher. Joshua Fisher, Mrs. Jonathan Gay (widow), Abraham Harding, Ebenezer Knapp, Samuel Leach, Ebenezer Mason, Jonathan Mason, Seth Mason, Seth Mason, Jr., Thomas Mason, Joseph Merrifield, David Morse, Nathaniel Morse, Mattis Ockinson, Jonathan Plimpton, John Rice, Ebenezer Robinson, Ephraim Ware, Jr., Jonathan Whiting, David Wight, Ephraim Wight, Samuel Wight, Nathaniel Wilson.

For nearly twenty years no change was made in the conditions relating to attendance at church, the people being content to worship in other towns, but in 1747 another appeal was made to the General Court to be established a distinct precinct, the act of 1729 merely freeing the people from paying the minister rate in Dedham without conferring full precinct privileges. Those who attended church at Medfield and South Natick opposed the movement and sent in a remonstrance. Some time was spent in winning over some of those opponents and on April 5,

1748, a petition for a precinct organization was presented to the General Court. It was dated at "Dedham, March 30 ,1748,'' and was signed by the following resident's of the territory it was proposed to include in the new precinct: Samuel Metcalf, Joshua Ellis, Hezekiah Allen, Jr., Ebenezer Newell, Thomas Merrifield, Jonathan Battle, Ralph Day, John Draper, Samuel Chickering, Josiah Ellis, Jonathan Day, Nathaniel Wilson, Ezra Gay, Timothy Ellis, Thomas Battle, Jonathan Bullard, Thomas Richards, Seth Mason, Joseph Chickering, Eliphalet Chickering, Jabez Wood, Oliver Bacon, John Bacon, Joseph Draper, Benjamin Ellis, David Wight, John Cheney, John Chickering, John Battle, Josiah Richards, Jonathan Whiting, Daniel Chickering, John Griggs, Abraham Chamberlain.

On November 18, 1748, the General Court granted the prayer of the petitioners and the precinct now became the Fourth, or Springfield, Parish, with "all the powers and privileges which precincts were entitled to enjoy." Two days later the warrant was issued for the first precinct meeting, but as the General Court failed to nominate any one to notify the inhabitants, Joshua Ellis, a justice of the peace, warned the people to assemble at 10 o'clock A. M. on January 4, 1749, at the school house near the residence of Joseph Chickering "to choose a moderator, precinct clerk, and a committee to call parish meetings." At that meeting Joshua Ellis was elected moderator and later precinct clerk. The committee to call meetings consisted of Joshua Ellis, Joseph Chickering, Joseph Draper, Samuel Metcalf and Samuel Chickering.

At a precinct meeting held on March 15, 1749, Jonathan Whiting was elected precinct treasurer, and the following committee was chosen to prepare timber for a meeting house : Hezekiah Allen, Daniel Chickering, Joseph Draper, Jonathan Day and Samuel Metcalf. Captain Allen, the chairman of the committee, was a carpenter by trade. This committee was instructed to prepare the materials for a meeting house "forty-two feet long, thirty-four feet wide, and twenty feet high from the top of ye eel to ye top of ye plate."

Another meeting was held on March 24, 1749, at which an effort was made to choose a site for the meeting house. Two sites were proposed - one on the hill near Morse's swamp, and the other on the hill south of John Battle's house. The meeting then adjourned to give the voters an opportunity to inspect the two locations proposed. Upon reassembling in the afternoon the question was submitted and resulted in a tie vote. It was then decided to leave the selection of a site to a committee of five, each member of which was to be a resident of some other town. The committee finally selected was composed of Thomas Greenwood, of Newton; Joseph Williams, of Roxbury ; Joseph Hewins, of Stoughton; Elkanah Billings, of Dorchester; and Joseph Ware, of Sherborn. After viewing the different localities suggested, the committee reported in favor of "the hill east of Trout Brook," which report was accepted by the precinct "after much debate." A further history of this parish will be found in the chapters on Church History.

Writh the exception of the church rates, the people of Springfield Parish still paid taxes to Dedham. At times these taxes became rather burdensome and some of the inhabitants of the parish began to talk of separation. Then came the Revolution and all thoughts of a new town were for the time forgotten in the great struggle for independence. As the war drew to a close the subject was revived and on October 10, 1780, a precinct meeting voted "that we desire to be incorporated into a town." On February 16, 1781, another meeting was held, at which Col. John Jones, Capt. Hezekiah Allen, John Reed, Capt. Hezekiah Battle and Thomas Burridge were appointed a committee to prepare a petition for presentation to the Town of Dedham, asking to be set off from that town. At a Dedham town meeting held on June 4, 1781, the petition was granted upon the following conditions : "The question was put whether the town will consent that the Fourth Precinct in said town may be incorporated into a township, the said town relinquishing their right or share in the workhouse, school money, all donations, and other public privileges in said town. Passed in the affirmative."

The conditions were accepted by the people of the Fourth Precinct on September 17, 1781, when they voted to relinquish all their rights in or claims to the property of the Town of Dedham, provided they were incorporated into a separate town by the General Court. Col. John Jones, Joseph Haven and John Reed were appointed to present a petition for incorporation to the next session of the General Court. The petition was accordingly presented on January 16, 1782, and passed the house, but on April 23, 1782, it was defeated in the senate. Another petition was presented to the General Court on March 17, 1784. In it the following reasons were given for asking that the precinct be incorporated as a town :

"Those of our members that have attended town meetings in Dedham have been obliged to travel between four and ten miles out and as far home, to attend in the First Precinct, the constant place of town meetings in said town; and, by reason of the extra distance, the badness of the ways, and sometimes deep snow and stormy seasons, there hath not been more than two or three of said Fourth Precinct at their town meetings when matters of great weight are transacted. And a considerable part of said precinct are wearied with such unreasonable toil and travel, and determined several years ago never to attend another town meeting in said place again, and still adhere to their determination, whereby the interest of the said Fourth Precinct has frequently suffered, and probably sometimes not from any unreasonable desire in the other precincts to infringe on the interest of the said Fourth Precinct, saving that the said Fourth Precinct has never been able to obtain a town meeting in rotation within their limit. That the extra expense and charges that would be incurred by their being incorporated into a town would be fully compensated by their negotiating their affairs within themselves and without much travel ; and, although the said precincts are not many in number or opulent and wealthy, they are considerably filled with inhabitants and are increasing. But if they were fewer in number and of less ability, they are under the absolute necessity of being incorporated into a town by reason of their irregular form and distance from the other precincts."

A committee of the General Court took the petition under consideration and reported that "in view of the smallness of the population, the request should not be granted." Having thus failed to secure the incorporation of a town, the people of the parish voted unanimously on June 28, 1784, to ask the General Court to incorporate them into a district as by that means they could be united with some other town in the election of a representative to the General Court. A petition to this effect was presented to the General Court and resulted in the passage of the following act, which was approved on July 7, 1784:

"Whereas, the inhabitants of the Fourth Precinct in the Town of Dedham in said County have repeatedly and earnestly petitioned this Court that they may be incorporated into a district, and it appears that they labor under great difficulties in their present situation;

"Lie it therefore enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in the General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, that the said Fourth Precinct in Dedham be, and it hereby is, incorporated into a district by the name of Dover, with all the powers, privileges and immunities of incorporated districts ; provided, that the freeholders and inhabitants of the said District of Dover shall pay their proportion of all taxes now assessed by and debts due from the said Town of Dedham, and that the said District of Dover relinquish all their rights, title and interest in and to the workhouse, school money and all donations, and other public privileges in said Town of Dedham.

"And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the polls and estates in said District of Dover that were returned by the assessors for the said Town of Dedham on the last valuation, which then belonged to said Town of Dedham, be deducted from the return made by the said assessors and be placed to the said District of Dover until another valuation shall be taken.

"And be it further enacted that Stephen Metcalf, Esq., be and is hereby empowered to issue his warrant, directed to some principal inhabitant within the said District of Dover, requiring him to warn the freeholders and other inhabitants within the said District of Dover, qualified to vote in district affairs, to assemble at some suitable time and place in the said district, to choose such officers as shall be necessary to manage the affairs of said district.

"And be it further enacted that the selectmen of the Town of Dedham, fifteen days at least before the time of choosing a representative for the said town, shall give notice of the time and place by them ordered for that purpose in writing, under their hands, to the selectmen of said District of Dover, to the intent the -selectmen of said district may issue their warrant to the constable or constables of the said district, to warn the inhabitants thereof to meet with the said Town of Dedham at time and place so appointed for the choice of a representative.

Under the laws of Massachusetts in 1784, a district was endowed with all the powers and exercised all the functions of a town, with the exception of having a representative in the General Court. On August 9, 1784, the first district meeting was held in the meeting house. Col. John Jones, Deacon Joseph Haven and Lieut.

Ebenezer Newell were elected selectmen ; Col. John Jones, clerk ; William Whiting, treasurer ; Theodore Newell constable and tax collector. Dover remained attached to Dedham for representative purposes until 1789, when a new representative district was formed of Medfield and Dover. For forty-seven years after that date the voters of Dover went annually to Medfield to cast their ballots for a representative to the General Court.

On February 17, 1836, the selectmen of Dover - Walter Stowe, Lowell Perry and Timothy Allen - pursuant to instructions given them at a previous district meeting, presented a petition to the General Court asking to be incorporated as a town. The petition was granted on the 31st day of March following, and Dover, having passed through all the vicissitudes of precinct, parish and district, became a full-fledged town. The first town officers were : Selectmen, Walter Stowe, Lowell Perry and Hiram W. Jones ; Clerk, Noah A. Fiske ; Treasurer, George dickering; Representative, Rev. Ralph Sanger. Noah A. Fiske was first elected clerk in 1825 and held the office for twenty-four years. George Chickering served continuously as treasurer from 1821 to" 1842.

Town Hall

For many years the district and town meetings were held in the meeting house. When that structure was destroyed by fire on January 20, 1839, the town officials offered to assist in the building of a new one, with the understanding that the vestry might be used for town meetings. A meeting was held at the Centre school house on February 11, 1839, at which Daniel Mann, John Williams and Hiram W. Jones were appointed a committee on the part of the parish to superintend the erection of a new meeting house. The town appointed Walter Stowe, Lowell Perry, Joseph A. Smith, John Shumway and Jeremiah Marden a committee to cooperate with the parish committee, and the sum of three hundred dollars was appropriated as the town's share of the cost. This sum was used in the construction of the vestry, which was used for town purposes until 1880.

The ceiling of this vestry was only eight feet high and it was poorly lighted and ventilated. In 1859 a petition signed by Aaron Bacon and thirty-eight other taxpayers came before the town meeting asking that a new hall be erected, but it was not granted. Twenty years later (1879) the question again came before the town meeting, when the sum of three thousand dollars was appropriated for a new hall. Warren Sawin, Eben Higgins and William A. Howe were appointed a committee to procure plans. They reported in favor of a two-story building, a site was selected on the common facing Springdale Avenue, and the work was commenced. On July 16, 1879, just after the walls were up and the roof completed, a cyclone struck the unfinished building and ''scattered it to the four winds." One of the workmen was killed and others were more or less seriously injured. A meeting was called to determine what should be done under the circumstances and the board of selectmen - John Humphrey, Asa Talbot and Barnabas Paine - were instructed to proceed with the erection of a new building and another appropriation was made. The loss caused by the storm amounted to $1,926.85. The selectmen chose a new site and decided to build a one-story hall with basement, after plans made by Thomas W. Silloway of Boston. The new hall was dedicated on June 17, 1880, with appropriate ceremonies.

With the growth of the town and the establishment of a public library, the one-story structure was found to be inadequate, and in the spring of 1893 a committee, consisting of Eben Higgins, Barnabas Paine and Benjamin N. Sawin, was appointed to consider the improvement of the building. This committee reported in favor of raising the building and placing under it another story, eleven feet in height, which report was accepted and the work was completed in the fall of 1893, at a cost of $3,594.28, giving Dover a town house ample for all needs. In addition to the assembly hall, the building contains a banquet hall, kitchen, toilet rooms, quarters for the town officers, and a fireproof vault for the preservation of the town records.

Town Seal

On April 30, 1894, nearly one hundred years after the incorporation of the District of Dover, the town adopted a seal which is thus described by Henry E. Woods in heraldic language : "Upon a field showing on the dexter side a school house and brook, and on the sinister side a hill and Indians, an escutcheon bearing : azure on a mount vert a meeting house, without steeple, proper; crest, a plough and garb, crosswise, proper; motto 'Incorporated 1836,' surrounded by a circle inscribed in chief 'Town of Dover,' and in base 'Massachusetts,' divided on the dexter side by 'Parish 1748' and the sinister side by 'District 1784.' ':

The meeting house is made the prominent figure upon the escutcheon to indicate the desire of the early inhabitants to have the privilege of worshiping among themselves ; the school house on the left (representing the building erected in 1762) shows that education is the handmaiden of religion, and that it was so regarded by the Dover pioneers ; the hill on the right represents Pegan Hill, only part of it being shown to indicate that it is not wholly within the limits of the town ; and the principal industry of the people is indicated by the plough and sheaf of grain surmounting the shield.

The first postoffice in the town was established at Dover in February, 1838, with John Williams as postmaster. Prior to the establishment of this office the mail was brought from the office at Dedham by whoever might be passing between the two towns. At first there were but two mails during the week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. In February, 1840, Rev. Ralph Sanger succeeded Air. Williams as postmaster and held the office until January, i860, when he resigned. During his administration daily mails were inaugurated.

Later in the year 1838 a second postoffice was established at Charles River Village and Josiah Newell was appointed postmaster. This office was established with the understanding that the mail should be delivered to it by interested persons without expense to the Government. When the railroad was completed the office was removed to the railway station. Upon the introduction of the free rural delivery system all the offices in the town were discontinued except the one at Dover, though the inhabitants still receive daily mail by carrier.

Fire Department

The first record of any effort to organize a fire department, or to take steps for the means of extinguishing fires, was made in 181 1, when some of the resi- dents in the western part of the town presented a petition to the selectmen asking that the subject be taken into consideration. The board appointed Benjamin Guy, Jr., John Plimpton, Seth Mason, Noah Fiske, Jonathan Battle, Jr., Obed Hartshorn, Benjamin Guy, James Mann and Draper Smith a committee "to draft some plan of such an engine or machine to extinguish fires as will be suitable to the district, and to calculate the probable cost of the same."

The committee was unable to present any device that was acceptable to the people of the district, at a reasonable cost, and more than forty years elapsed before the question again came up before the authorities. In 1858 it was proposed in the town meeting that the selectmen be authorized "to provide a set of fire hooks, ladders, axes and carriage for the same," but again nothing was done. In 1896 a committee was appointed to purchase a wagon, ladders and chemical fire extinguishers, and an appropriation of $500 was made for the purpose.

From this modest beginning has been developed the Dover Fire Department, which at the close of the year 1916 consisted of twenty men, equipped with two trucks, ladders, a number of fire extinguishers, etc. The appropriation for 1916 was $1,600, which was expended under the supervision of a board of fire engineers composed of C. F. Lyman, V. A. Hovey and J. A. Knowles. The firemen receive pay only for the time they are actually on duty.

Early Taverns

During the old colonial days the tavern was an important institution and generally stood near the meeting house. As there were no newspapers, the gossip around the tavern fire was the principal channel through which news was disseminated. It is believed that the first tavern in Dover was kept by Ebenezer Newell, a cooper by trade, who came from Needham a few years before the middle of the Eighteenth Century and opened a house of entertainment near the center of the parish. In 1764 he was elected one of the selectmen of Dedham and served on the board for seven years. When the Town of Dedham decided in 1774 that no imported tea should be used by the inhabitants, he was one of the committee to see ithat the order was properly observed. At the time of the "Lexington Alarm" he was a lieutenant in Captain Guild's company and later served in the Continental army. He was succeeded as "mine host" of the tavern by Daniel Whiting.

John Reed kept a public house for a short time before the beginning of the Revolution, but the best known tavern in the history of Dover was the Williams Tavern, which was situated near the center of the district. It was kept by John Williams, who added a wing on the north side early in the Nineteenth Century, where many social gatherings were held. The "Sons of Liberty" held meetings in the great room, where weighty matters were discussed, while the genial boniface passed around New England rum to enliven the debate. The Boston & Woonsocket coaches stopped daily at this tavern, and many prominent men were at one time or another guests of "The Williams."

The Town Name

When the petition went to the General Court in January, 1782, the petitioners asked that the town might be named Derby. It is said that this choice was that of Col. John Jones, chairman of the committee which presented the petition, and was selected in honor of Derby, England. In the bill incorporating the district the name was changed to Dover, after the old English town. "Either name would probably satisfy Colonel Jones' fondness for old English names." Before the District of Dover was erected, the territory was included in Springfield Parish, a name derived from the beautiful boiling springs which form the source of Trout Brook and the field in which they are located.

Sundry Incidents

Prior to 1730 the people of Dover buried their dead in the cemetery at Dedham. In February, 1730, a small tract of ground on the farm of Nathaniel Chickering was inclosed as a cemetery. In 1746 Mr. Chickering donated this ground to the precinct in the following document, to wit : "I give and bequeath to the West Precinct of the Town of Dedham the burying-ground as it lyeth now within fence, to be for the use of the said precinct for a burying place."

The first body to be buried here was that of John Battle, a grandson of Thomas Battle, whose death occurred on February 14, 1730. Additions were made to this cemetery in 1762, 1826, 1864 and 1891. The oldest gravestone is that over the grave of John Wight, who died on October 4, 1743, "in ye 12th year of his age."

The first preacher, after the parish was established in 1748, was Thomas Jones, who began his work on the first Sunday in December, 1749, and filled an engagement of thirteen weeks. The first meeting house was dedicated in December, 1754, though not completed at the time. It was finished in the spring of 1758.

In 1726 the Town of Dedham appropriated five pounds "to support a school in the westerly part of Dedham." This was the first appropriation from the mother town for educational purposes in Dover, though schools had been taught there prior to that date.

A law was passed by the General Court in 1760 that "any persons able of body who shall absent themselves from public worship of God on the Lord's Day shall pay a fine of ten shillings." Col. John Jones held a commission as justice under the king and the following is taken from his "Book of Minits" :

"Memo. That on ye 25th day of July, 1774, Ephraim Bacon of Dedham (Dover), yeoman in ten pounds, Oliver Kendrick of Dedham (Dover), yeoman in ten pounds, Recognized that ye said Ephraim should appear before ye Court of General Sessions of ye Peace to be held at Boston on ye 26th Inst at 10 A.M., to answer for his unlawfully absenting himself from Publick Worship of God on Lord's Days three months as Expressed in a bill of indictment filed in said Court.

"Suffolk ss., August 8, 1774. Ephraim Bacon in ye same sum and ye same surety recognized and held to answer at ye General Sessions of ye peace ye 1st Tuesday in October next."

The records do not show whether a verdict was rendered for the plaintiff or the defendant, but as the laws at that time were rigidly and impartially enforced, and Ephraim appears to have been somewhat habitual in his non-attendance at church, it is quite likely that he was made to pay his fine in accordance with the statute.

Dover In I917

In years gone by there was some manufacturing- carried on in Dover, but the establishments have been discontinued or removed to localities where conditions were more favorable. The Dover of today is a typical New England agricultural community, some of the finest farms in Norfolk County being located in this town. Dover has Baptist, Unitarian and Congregational churches, a good public school system, a public library with over six thousand volumes, a historical society which occupies a building given by Benjamin N. Sawin and his wife and known as the "Sawin Memorial Building," well kept streets and highways, a public park, etc. The Boston & Woonsocket division of the New York, New Haven & Hartford passes through the central portion and affords transportation facilities. In 1910 the population was 798 and in 1915, according to the state census, it was 999, a gain of 201 in five years. In 191 5 the property was valued for tax purposes at

Following is a list of the town officers as they were at the beginning of the year 1917: Selectmen, Overseers of the Poor and Board of Health, Charles S. Bean; James H. Chickering and Michael W. Comiskey; Clerk, John H. Faulk; Treasurer, Eben Higgins ; Auditor, George Battelle; Assessors, Judson S. Battelle, Eben Higgins and John V. Schaffner; School Committee, Richard H. Bond, Dr. William T. Porter and Mrs. Agnes Y. Rogers ; Highway Surveyor, James McGill.