Norfolk County, Massachusetts - Chapter 27: The Town of Plainville, 1918

Chapter 27: The Town of Plainville

Plainville is the youngest of the Norfolk County towns. It is located in the southwestern part and is bounded as follows : On the north by Wrentham ; on the east by Foxboro ; on the south by Bristol County, and on the west by the State of Rhode Island. From north to south its average width is a little over two miles, and from east to west it is five miles in extent. The surface in this part of the county is less hilly than in some other portions. There are no large streams in the town and the few small ones all flow toward the south. Miramichi Pond is on the boundary between Plainville and Foxboro. It is sometimes called Shepard's Pond, after one of the early settlers in the vicinity. There is another large pond about a mile west of Miramichi, and there are a few smaller ponds in the neighborhood of Plainville Village.

Early History

From 1636 to 1673 the territory now comprising the Town of Plainville was included in the Town of Dedham. In the latter year it was made a part of Wrentham, where it remained until the Town of Plainville was incorporated in 1905. For more than ten years after the incorporation of Dedham, the inhabitants knew comparatively little of this region, which was known by the Indian name "Wollomonopoag." About 1647 John Dwight and Francis dickering reported indications of some mines, "about thirteen miles from Dedham Village," and the general opinion is that some mines were at Wollomonopoag. Two years later, "on account of the scarcity of grass in Dedham, the inhabitants went to Wollomonopoag to cut grass from the meadows there." That is the only mention in the Dedham records of this part of the county until July 22, 1660, when the selectmen appointed Lieutenant Fisher, Sergeant Fuller, Richard Wheeler and Ensign Fisher to view the lands and make report to the selectmen, etc. On the last day of December following, the selectmen submitted the report of the viewers, to wit : "To us it seemeth that it might be helpfull to Conduce to publick and particuler good that the place might be planted with meet Inhabitants in due time."

At a general town meeting held on March 2j, 1661, it was voted that a plantation be set up at the place called Wollomonopoag, and that a committee be appointed to allot to each settler his proportion of the 600 acres set apart for the plantation; to determine who were meet to be accepted; and "to order the setting of the Plantacion in reference to High Wayes convenient place for a Meeting House, with such other things Necesary as may here after be proposed." This was the beginning of authorized settlement at Wollomonopoag, the name of which place was changed to Wrentham in 1673. The account of the settlement will be found in the chapter devoted to Wrentham.

Petition For Incorporation

While still a part of Wrentham, the Village of Plainville was laid out and settled and a postofhce was there established. Early in the year 1905 the following petition was presented to the Legislature, then in session :

"The undersigned petitioners, citizens of Wrentham, respectfully represent that they are inhabitants of the Village of Plainville, in said town ; that they are desirous of having said Village of Plainville set off as a separate town under the name of Plainville, or such other name as to the General Court seem suitable ; and that the boundaries of the new town be fixed as follows : Beginning at the northeast boundary stone of the State of Rhode Island; thence in a straight line to the Foxboro town line on the south side of Thurston Street; and on*all other sides by the Town of Foxboro, North Attleboro, and the State of Rhode Island."

This petition was signed by William S. Metcalf, H. E. Thompson, Willis M. Fuller, Rufus King, "and many others." On April 3, 1905, a bill, which had previously passed the senate, was reported in the house of representatives and passed the same day. It was approved the following day, so that Plainville dates its corporate existence from April 4, 1905.

The Organic Act

"Section 1. All the territory now within the Town of Wrentham which lies south of the following described line, to wit: - A straight line drawn from a stone monument in the boundary line between the Town of Wrentham and the Town of Cumberland in the State of Rhode Island, which monument is at the intersection of the lines forming the northeast corner of the State of Rhode Island, to a point where the southerly line of Thurston Street in the Town of Wrentham intersects the boundary line between the Town of Wrentham and the Town of Foxborough, is hereby incorporated as a separate town by the name of Plainville, and the said Town of Plainville is hereby vested with all the powers, privileges, rights and immunities, and shall be subject to all the duties and obligations conferred or imposed on towns by the constitution and laws of the Commonwealth.

"Section 2. The inhabitants of the estates within the Town of Plainville and the owners of all such estates, shall be holden to pay all arrears of taxes which have legally been assessed upon them by the Town of Wrentham, and all the taxes heretofore assessed and not collected shall be collected and paid to the treasurer of the Town of Wrentham, and all moneys now in the treasury of the

Town of Wrentham, or that may hereafter be received from taxes now assessed, shall be applied to the purposes for which they were raised and assessed, in the same manner as if this act had not been passed ; and until the next state valuation the Town of Plainville shall annually, in the month of November, pay to the Town of Wrentham its proportion of such state and county taxes as may be assessed upon the Town of Wrentham, said proportion to be ascertained and determined by the last valuation of the Town of Wrentham; and the assessors of the Town of Wrentham shall make return of said valuation and the proportions thereof in the towns of Wrentham and Plainville, respectively, to the secretary of the Commonwealth and to the county commissioners of the County of Norfolk."

Section 3 relates to the liability of each of the towns of Wrentham and Plainville in the care of paupers, and Section 4 provides that all suits and proceedings at law or in equity, in which the Town of Wrentham is a plaintiff or defendant, shall be prosecuted or defended as though the act had not been passed.

"Section 5. The corporate property of the Town of Wrentham both real and personal, in existence at the time of the passage of this act, and the town debts then existing, shall be divided between the towns of Wrentham and Plainville, according to the valuation of the property within their respective limits as assessed the first day of May in the year 1904. The towns shall severally retain and hold all the real and personal property now within their respective limits, at a valuation to be agreed upon by a committee consisting of six legal voters, three to be chosen by each town at a legal meeting to be called for that purpose ; and the differences in valuation shall be equalized and balances adjusted by apportionment of the town debt. In case of failure to agree upon a valuation and division of the assets and liabilities the same shall be determined by a board of three commissioners, none of Whom shall be a resident of either of said towns, to be appointed by the Superior Court for the County of Norfolk, in term time or vacation, upon the petition of either town after notice to the other, whose award when accepted by the court shall be final, and the said court may issue any writ or make any order thereon necessary to carry their award into effect. The award may be set aside for fraud or manifest error, but for no other cause, and the matters to be determined as aforesaid may be recommitted to the same or to other commissioners to be appointed for the purpose, with like powers and duties as aforesaid."

Section 6 provides that the public library building at Wrentham Centre and the fund held by the trustees of said library shall belong to the Town of Wrentham. Section 7 places the Town of Plainville in the judicial district of the District Court of Western Norfolk, the Twelfth Congressional District, the Second Councillor District, the Second Norfolk Senatorial District and the Tenth Representative District of Norfolk County. Section 8 authorizes any justice of the peace in the County of Norfolk to issue his warrant for a town meeting in the Town of Plainville, and Section 9 makes it incumbent upon the selectmen of Wrentham to call a special town meeting within thirty days for the purposes of electing town officers to fill vacancies caused by the incorporation of Plainville. Section 10 relates to powers and privileges reserved to Wrentham in the construction, maintenance and operation of certain street rail- ways. Section 1 1 provides that the Town of Plainville shall bear the expense of making the surveys and establishing the line between it and Wrentham. Section 12 sets forth that Plainville shall receive a proportional part of any funds paid by the Commonwealth or by the United States to Wrentham on account of bounties to soldiers or for state aid heretofore paid to soldiers' families, ''after deducting all reasonable expenses," and Section 13 declares the act shall take effect upon its passage.

First Town Meeting

On April 5, 1905, the day following the approval of the act of incorporation, James H. Shannon, a justice of the peace residing in Plainville, issued a warrant to William F. Maintien "to notify and warn the inhabitants of the Town of Plainville qualified to vote in town affairs, to meet in the Plainville Methodist Episcopal Church on Wednesday, the 12th day of April, A. D. 1905, at nine o'clock in the forenoon," to elect officers and transact certain other business set forth in the warrant, especially the appointment of a committee to act with a committee of Wrentham for the division of the town property.

The officers elected at that first town meeting were as follows : William F. Maintien, George F. Cheever arid William S. Metcalf, selectmen, overseers of the poor and board of health ; James H. Shannon, clerk ; Walter E. Barden, treasurer ; George W. Wood, tax collector ; William F. Maintien, Joseph F. Breen and J. F. Thompson, assessors; John J. Eiden, auditor; Edward C. Barney, highway surveyor; Rufus King, Bentley W. Morse and Gardner Warren, school committee ; John Ff. Greven, Sylvester Smith and Daniel Crotty. constables.

On the question of the division of the town property, William F. Maintien, Herbert E. Thompson and Walter E. Barden were unanimously chosen by the meeting as Plainville's members of the joint committee provided for in Section 5 of the act of incorporation. The meeting also voted to borrow $15,000 for the purpose of erecting a new school house, and Herbert E. Thompson, W. M. Fuller, Rufus King and Edward C. Barney were appointed a committee to superintend the erection of the building. Walter E. Barden, Frank O. Corbin and Rufus King were appointed a committee on by-laws, with instructions to procure designs for a town seal and report at the next meeting. Their report .on by-laws was made at a special meeting held on Monday, November 6, 1905, and was accepted.

Division Of Property

The committee above named met with the Wrentham members - Elbridge J. Whitaker, Artemas Willard and Edward F. McClennan - and the joint committee organized by electing Elbridge J. Whitaker as chairman and William F. Maintien as clerk. After canvassing all the property, real and personal, they found within the limits of Wrentham property valued at $43,592, and in Plainville at $13,712.22, in addition to which the former held assets of $16,- 391.44, making the total valuation of corporate property $73,695.66. Wrentham assumed all the town's liabilities, amounting to $29,277.11. The final settle- ment was that Wrentham should pay to Plainville $4,055.20 to equalize the division of corporate property, and $727.30, with interest thereon at 4 per cent from February 1, 1905, as the town's share of the school fund.

The Town Seal

At the meeting of November 6, 1905, the committee on by-laws, pursuant to the instructions of the first town meeting, submitted a design for a town seal, a representation of the new school building to occupy the center of the seal. James H. Shannon, town clerk, brought forward a design making use of the Angle Tree boundary monument as the proper emblem to occupy the center of the seal, and explained at some length the significance of his design. Walter E. Barden, a member of the committee, moved that the design submitted by the town clerk be substituted for that offered by the committee, which was carried by a decisive majority.

A brief history of the Angle Tree monument shows the wisdom of the town in selecting it as the central figure of the corporate seal. When Charles I granted the patent to the Massachusetts Bay Company in the spring of 1628, the southern boundary was designated as "three miles south of the southerly end of the Charles River." It was not long until disputes arose between the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies as to the exact location of the boundary line. In 1640 Plymouth selected William Bradford and Edward Winslow, and Massachusetts Bay selected John Endicott and Israel Stoughton, "for ye setting out, setting & determing of ye bounds & limitts of ye lands betweene ye said jurisdictions," etc.

The work done by these commissioners evidently was not satisfactory to the people of the two colonies, for in 1664 a second commission was appointed to run and mark the line. The record of this survey was outlined on a tree, called the "Angle Tree," standing on the line between the present towns of Plainville and North Attleboro, where it remained for more than a century. Finally the old tree disappeared and in May, 1790, the General Court appointed Lemuel Kollock to erect a monument where the tree stood, and to "make a return of his doings into the Secretary's office with a Certificate from under the Hands of the Selectmen of the Towns of Wrentham and Attleborough or the Major Part of them sworn to before some Justice of the Peace certifying that said stone is erected in the same spot where the said station or angle tree formerly stood & is one of the bounds between said towns, and lay his account before this Court for allowance and payment."

On March 11, 1791, Lemuel Kollock was allowed £21 2s 6d for "procuring and fixing a Monument upon the important Bounds in the Town of Wrentham, by order of the Government." It is a representation of this monument which occupies the center of the town seal. At the top of the monument are the words "Mass. Colony 1628"; in the center, divided by the figure of the monument, "Wrentham, 1673, Plainville, 1905," and in the circle surrounding the central field the inscription: "Town of Plainville, Mass., Incorporated April 4, 1905."

Miscellaneous

A fire engine house had been built in the Village of Plainville before the town was incorporated in 1905. This became the property of the Town of Plainville in the division, and the department has since been improved by the purchase of some new equipment and a supply of hose. The appropriation for the department in 1916 was $500. Soon after the town was incorporated a system of waterworks was established. At the close of the year 1916 the amount of water bonds outstanding was $29,400. In their report for that year the water commissioners announce that the total supply of water pumped and distributed was 9.968,954 gallons, and the amount received from water rates was $2,366.06. Plainville is well supplied with public schools, churches of different denominations offer opportunities for public worship, the manufacturing interests include jewelry, shoestrings and shoddy, the town claming the largest manufactory of ladies' mesh bags in the world, and the mercantile interests are in keeping with the general demands of the town. The Boston & Providence division ( via Wrentham) of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad and the electric railway running from Franklin to Attleboro provide good transportation facilities. In 1910 the population of Plainville was 1,385, and in 1915 *it was 1,408, a gain of only 23 in the five years, owing to the removal of several persons from the town. In 1916 the assessed valuation of property, as shown by the report of the assessors, was $1,070,032.

Town Officers, I917

At the beginning of the year 1917 the principal town officers were: Earl B. Thompson, William E. Blanchard and Fred W. Northup, selectmen, overseers of the poor and board of health ; Theodore E. A. Fuller, clerk ; Walter E. Barden, treasurer; J. Fred Thompson, William E. Blanchard and Frank E. Barney, assessors; Harry B. Thompson, William H. Nash and Charles N. Moore, water commissioners; James H. Cheever, auditor; John J. Eiden, Willis M. Fuller and Charles C. Root, school committee; Oliver P. Brown, tax collector.