February's Open House, scheduled for Sunday, February 22, will feature a presentation on Anna Coffin Ames. Mrs. Ames was a benefactor to Easton in many ways. One of Mrs. Ames’s gifts to Easton was the Ames Gymnasium on Barrows Street. Now known as Frothingham Hall, the building was built in1902 as a gymnasium for the first Oliver Ames High School on Lincoln Street. For some time, annual exhibitions were held at the Hall to highlight the students’ accomplishments. Adults responsible for preparing for the event were Henry S. Pratt, the boys’ coach, Mrs. Maude Scanlon, who prepped the girls for their dances, and Mrs. Oliver Ames (Anna Coffin Ames), who provided costumes- interestingly the boys wore black and red, not black and orange, like today.  
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A Boston Globe article dated May 10, 1912, describes that year’s production. Events included a ‘silver wand drill’ performed by boys aged 9 to 13, stunts on the horizontal and parallel bars, and a pyramid formation on the parallel bars. The girls performed an array of traditional dances from England, Sweden, Ireland, Spain, and Russia in authentic costumes. A final event, including both boys and girls, was an ‘Indian pantomime and dance’ which included students playing the following characters: Chief Keneu the War Eagle, his daughter White Dove, Osseo- Worker of Magic, Chief Menaow- Rushing River, Spirit of the Waters, and various braves, maidens, and nymphs.
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Although at this event the girls were in very traditional roles the high school did have women’s sports teams and in 1908 the girls’ basketball team was undefeated. The highest game score record was set that year (62 points) against East Bridgewater and an individual scoring record was set by Anna Kelley. The same Mrs. Maude Scanlon was their coach, and Mrs. Ames attended all the home games which were of course held in the Ames gymnasium. Girls on the team were Miss Mary Thompson, Miss Anna Kelley, Miss Mildred Spooner, Miss Grace Roche, Miss Alice McGlincey, and Miss Hannah Sullivan, who was the team’s captain. The Ames Gymnasium, renovated by Mary (Ames) Frothingham and renamed the Louis Frothingham Memorial Hall, is used today by the Council on Aging and the Recreation Department.

For more about Anna C. Ames come to our Open House!

Anne Wooster Drury

Sources - Links:
boston_globe_-_may_10_1912.pdf
Easton Historical Society and Museum

​This is a follow up on the John Johnson incident in the last newsletter. Member Steven Arnoe, who is in the process of translating those articles that mention Easton from Swedish language newspapers to English, has kindly shared some information. There was quite a lot of drinking going on. On the day in question, “Johnson, together with Mauritz Björklund, had hired a horse and sleigh and driven to Brockton, Campello, and South Easton. They were followed by Charles Anderson and Andrew Bengtson who were in another sleigh. The four men had a quart of whiskey with them, which they shared during the journey, as well as stopping for four drinks along the way. Upon their return to North Easton, they visited an unlicensed saloon, Fergus Conn’s, where Moynihan, Conroy, as well as William Derby were present.” (Skandinavia, 06 March 1895, p. 5.) Fergus Conn, who had emigrated with his family from South Africa in 1884, worked as a grinder (sharpening knives and tools) and in 1889 was living in Easton on Picker Lane. He was a renter and it is possible that he boarded in one of the two houses #9 & #11, owned by the Ames family. Or he could have been boarding somewhere else in Easton by 1895. In 1888, prior to the report of the illegal saloon, he had been charged with assault with a deadly weapon on one Irving Johnson. Conn was held on $1000 bail and was committed when he defaulted. (Easton Bulletin, Fri. Sept. 14, 1888) By 1900 Fergus Conn was living in Brockton, later he moved to Plymouth, although he is buried in the South Easton Cemetery. Needless to say, he was not an admirable character.
 

Anne Wooster Drury

This time on Monday, February 11, 1895. At a boarding house in Easton.
John Johnson, a 24-year-old Swedish man, was found dead in his bed Monday morning after a day of heavy drinking on Sunday. On the previous day a group of Swedes, of which John was a part, engaged in an altercation with a group of Irishmen in a saloon. (There is no mention of the location of the saloon but apparently it was within walking distance of John’s boarding house.) After leaving the saloon the unrest continued and John was hit on the head with a ‘board’ by an Irishman but was apparently unharmed, as he continued on walking, taking leave of his friends at his boarding house. Sometime during the night, he was discovered unconscious in the outhouse and brought back to bed. At 3 am he was snoring in bed but by 6 am he was dead. John’s body was examined by a Dr. Presbrky of Taunton, the Medical Examiner, who could find no signs of injury to John’s head. The cause of death was ruled as alcohol poisoning and John was buried.

Then it got complicated. Three of John’s friends came forward to argue that witnesses had seen an Irishman take a picket from a fence and hit John over the head with it. The Medical Examiner met with the Swedes along with the Chairman of the Selectmen of Easton and it was decided to complete an autopsy. It was arranged to wait for a Swedish doctor to be present and the body was exhumed. By February 18th when the autopsy was completed, several physicians were interested in the case including a Dr. Richard Hogner of Boston. While the outer surface of the head showed no injury, blood clots were found and the autopsy report stated cause of death was, “pressure of a blood-clot within the head, caused by a ruptured vessel and probably the result of a blow.” An inquest was called for.

The State Detective, Mr. George E. Seaver, arrested Martin J. Conroy and John F. Moynehan on the charge of manslaughter. They went to trial in Taunton on November 26, 1895. The thesis was that a blood clot or clots formed gradually after the injury causing pressure and nausea (hence the trip to the outhouse) and eventually coma and death. A felt hat worn by the victim may have protected John’s head against visual signs of injury. Conroy was found not-guilty as there was not sufficient evidence against him and Moynehan was declared guilty and sentenced to 9 months in the House of Corrections. The trial was fraught by issues such as the need for language interpretation, memories affected by extreme alcohol use, and class prejudice.

This case was of sufficient medical interest that Dr, Presbrky wrote a paper which was read before the Massachusetts Medico-Legal Society in 1896. “Homicide Without External Marks of Violence.” [Vol.CXXXIV, No. 14, Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, April 2, 1896]

Quite an interesting and complicated situation. Lots going on in the Easton of 1895. Swedish and Irish immigrants had arrived in large numbers, most to work in the Shovel Shops or for the Ames family in other capacities. I was also struck by the thoroughness of the autopsy and medical interest in the case. I’ve told the medical part of the story simply without the minute detail of the autopsy results which were difficult for me to understand.

​Anne Wooster Drury