Unionville
Even well-built businesses and roads are sometimes as fleeting as the first snowflakes and on reflection it seems like they disappear in no time at all. Unlike snow, sometimes they leave permanent traces behind. One day in early December, the first small snow fell in Easton, drifting somewhat lazily through the heavy cold air. Having received some interesting feedback from some members in response to my last newsletter (more about that in another newsletter), I am lingering in the Unionville area. The first settler in what we now call Unionville was William Phillips (circa 1720). Roads are key to the growth of neighborhoods. “Growth began after the development of a road to Stoughton. This road ran roughly parallel to but generally west of the present day Washington Street. It is mentioned in records as early as 1719 and was first surveyed as a road in 1728.” (Easton’s Neighborhoods, Ed Hands)
Early Unionville depended on the Dorchester Brook. The brook travels south into Easton from Stoughton and runs under both Union Street and Elm Street extension. Early businesses included a sawmill on Union Street (1724-5 to 1829) close to the Brockton line and another further south off Elm Street extension where Eliphalet Leonard Jr. operated a forge and furnace for making steel. Both used the resource of Dorchester Brook. Traces of these businesses have disappeared.
Today there are still traces of Monte’s Ice Company, a business that once operated on Elm St. extension. Fred Monte took over an existing icehouse in 1927 and ran it until 1967. But 1967 is not that long ago. And what's left is largely built of glacial rock that was already here, and will be here long after we're gone.
74 Washington Street, Unionville. This building, built in 1930 was on the corner of Washington & Union Street. Sometime during the 1940’s and 1950’s it was known as Peaselee’s having been bought by Floyd and Dorothy Peaselee and operated as a grocery store. Later it was sold to James and Lucinda Murphy. Neighborhood children walked there for candy; sat on the big rock to eat it. Today the store no longer exists. Below is what the corner looks like today.
Site of Peaselee’s store as it looks today.
181 Washington Street, Unionville. Swift’s Store, built in 1895. First known as Swift’s Grocery Store, later McMenamy’s Hamburger House, today the Beanery.
A bit further south on Washington street from Swift's Grocery, on the corner of Elm, was the Square Top Methodist Church. The land for the first church was purchased in 1795. To the left can be seen a corner of the Washington Street Cemetery. The first church here was subsequently moved and the Square Top was dedicated in 1830. It was torn down in the early 1900's. Many different businesses have been located here since. Today the land is part of a private residence.
Some remains of Monte's can be seen in the woods off Elm St. extension, the church and Peaslee's are gone now, Swift's store has undergone its own metamorphosis. Time passes.
I make my way out of the woods near Monte's old Ice House, getting caught up by briars as I do so. I've been poking around the site but the undergrowth and damp ground make it difficult. I emerge from the woods to see my car parked precariously on the edge of the road. And in the blink of an eye, it's stopped snowing.

Anne Wooster Drury
[email protected]

Please stop in at the Easton Historical Society and Museum for our December Open House. It will be from 12-4 on December 17th. Great last minute gifts, including glass ornaments, puzzles, vintage Easton maps, books, coloring books for the kids, and so much more. See our new display and view our Station’s “bull’s eye” window from the inside! Also, our Ames tool belt buckle collection and famous suffrage movement artwork from Blanche Ames Ames will be on display. As always, refreshments will be served.
SPECIAL NEWSLETTER/GUEST WRITER
Today’s newsletter is written by Chris (Mark) Bergeron after a recent gathering to honor Private First Class Edward “Smitty” Smith, graduate of Oliver Ames High School, the first Easton resident to die in the Vietnam War.
“Edward ‘Smitty’ Smith was remembered on Saturday November 4 in a poignant gathering at Beaver Brook Wood of family members, friends, veterans, and a teacher who’d known him since 1962 as an outstanding athlete who lived his life with fearless exuberance and the first Easton resident to die in the Vietnam War.
Surrounding a boulder inscribed with Smith’s name and located at a trailhead leading into serene town-owned woods off Poquanticut Avenue, about 25 guests, including five of Smith’s siblings, their spouses and children, shared their memories of their daredevil brother with others and then heard from three Marines who had accompanied him on his last patrol and written his parents heartfelt letters after his death.
The hour-long gathering was organized by Mark Bergeron and Dale Kerester, an Easton community activist and Lion’s Club member, who provided customized frames for photographs of Smith in high school and Vietnam to be hung from a nearby tree. At the gathering and at a later meal at Leandros Italian Restaurant, Kerester played pre-recorded telephone calls from Marines David Backer and Jim Rowe II who remembered Smith as a dedicated and courageous platoon member whether in a firefight or teaching survival skills to newcomers.
Setting an elegiac tone, brother Jim Smith read a free verse poem, “A Requiem for Smitty,” written by ‘a friend’ to be hung from a nearby tree with his photos that imagined Smith speaking from the dead and asking a passerby to look into his face: ‘I hope they can understand how short and precious life is …/Look into my face – and all the other faces like mine – and remember us.’
In letters to his parents, the Marines who accompanied Smith on his final mission recalled him as courageous under fire, helpful to new platoon members and thoughtful about the complexities of a divisive war. By the rock Kerester played a recording of former Marine David Backer, of Oregon, reading a letter he wrote Smith’s mother describing the time her son saved him from stepping on a Viet Cong booby trap, gave him leather boots to protect him from the soggy jungle and taught him to work with him as a ‘tail-end Charlie’ who ensured no enemy fighters were sneaking up from behind other Marines to ambush them from behind.
‘As I write this, I’m looking at some leather bootstraps that Smitty braided for me to give me good luck. It has constantly reminded me of Smitty and how kind he was to me. My heart aches that he didn’t get to live a longer life and continue his kindness,’ he wrote.
Later at Leandros Restaurant, Kerester played an 18-minute recording of former radio operator James Rowe II, of Pennsylvania, recalling an early discussion with Smith while they protected a Montengard village that he’d left college to join the Marines so he could draw his own conclusions about the justness of the war.
Guests listened raptly as Rowe described how the 11 Marines dug in atop a small hill behind enemy lines on a reconnaissance mission. Just after night fell, he recalled Smith firing an M-60 machine gun and shouting ‘Here they come’ as the Viet Cong attacked the outnumbered platoon.
After the firing stopped, Rowe recalled radioing, ‘We have one American kilo India alpha,’ stunned to realize he was reporting Smith’s death in phonetic radio code.
Two Easton residents who’d known Smith since high school in the mid-1960’s remembered him in their own ways for transcending the usual social conventions of being an outstanding athlete and reaching conclusions about classmates on his own.
Hazel Varella, who taught 41 years in Easton’s school system and presently serves as treasurer of the Easton Historical Society, said Smith always enlivened her classes with his provocative opinions and, despite a seemingly outspoken public persona, took what he considered the ethical path.
In a letter written and distributed to Smith family members for this event, Kevin Dee, a high school classmate who joined the Marines the same time as Smith, concluded the letter as if speaking to him; ‘I think of you often and what you all gave up. You didn’t deserve to have that taken from you. We can honor you by remembering your sacrifice and, as one of the lucky ones, by keeping our promises and not wasting our lives.’
In a voice strained with emotion Bergeron read a short letter to Smith’s parents from former Marine Suluki Qawiy, now  member of the Nation of Islam who was born Roger Smith, in which he described Smith as ‘one of the roughest human beings I have ever come in contact with and a rebel. A rebel means he believed in fair play and tried to change what he felt was wrong in the world. To me, freedom, justice and equality was his method of life and that was one of the reasons I loved him so much. … When Smith had his eye on a goal, he went for it all the way. Please let us not refer to those who passed away as dead. They are alive in our hearts. Your brother, Suluki.’”
Thank you to Mark Bergeron for providing this moving tribute to his childhood friend.


 Anne Wooster Drury
[email protected]

Upcoming: Today, Saturday December 2nd – EASTON GARDEN CLUB HOLIDAY GREENS SALE will be held from 9 to 12 at the Historical Society. Purchase some beautiful greens for your holidays! In addition, the RR Station is now decorated with festive white lights and the ‘official’ lighting will take place on the same day. The RR Station will remain open until 6 pm.

​Old Road
On Sunday November 19th Director Steve Anderson and I met up with members of the Stoughton Historical Society, led by Dwight MacKerron, off Roche Bros Way to access the railroad tracks. This section of track runs from the North Easton Station, behind Roche Bros Supermarket and on to Stoughton center to the Station there. We were looking for remains of an old road that connected Easton and Stoughton prior to the laying of the turnpike now known as Washington Street. It was a sunny and brisk day, but not too cold. It was a short walk to the tracks and once there we walked north toward Stoughton.

​One stone wall, one side of the old road.


Before long a very large glacial rock could be seen off to the east. Once beyond the rock Dwight pointed out the remnants of the old road. It runs for perhaps seventy-five yards and is bordered on both sides by stone walls. The road was originally discovered by Dwight MacKerron and members of the Stoughton Historical Society. According to him the road was shown on at least one old map. He believes the road- (the part we saw was in Stoughton)- probably swung east toward Washington Street. In the other direction it ran toward Easton. Exactly where is currently unknown.

Glacial rock.
​
On our walk we came upon a small animal skull laying on top of the ground- a bit of a surprise, a railroad spike, and telegraph/telephone poles (pictured below) from sometime after the railroad line went in. The Easton Branch Railroad opened from Stoughton to North Easton on May 16, 1855.

​Fallen pole.
Another Old Road
Chaffin in his History of Easton (Highways) writes that some of the early Easton roads were merely cart-paths and that “there are a number of abandoned roads in Easton that were once considerably used highways. There was one from North Easton village to Solomon Foster’s place, and so round east to the old Stoughton road, now Washington Street.” Solomon Foster lived close by the Stoughton line. In Chaffin’s time this road was “not yet obliterated.” Solomon R. Foster fought in the Civil War and is buried in the Washington Street cemetery.
In another passage (Old Abandoned Homesteads) Chaffin writes, “Not long after the incorporation of the town a few settlements were made up in the extreme northeast quarter, and an old road ran…. northerly from the village of North Easton nearly to the Stoughton line, and thence easterly, and so round by Washington Street.” In the village there was a road sometimes referred to as the Sol. Foster Road, that according to Chaffin did not fare well in the long run. The road was voted in 1744 and later in 1772, though little was done to maintain it. In Chaffin’s time “it was no longer a thorough-fare to Stoughton and was in fact very early superseded by the other two roads to that town.” Where Solomon Foster’s road was exactly is also unclear.
Thank you to Dwight MacKerron and the Stoughton Historical Society for a nice walk and great information.

            In granite cold, I

Follow rust-colored 
Fragments of old tracks 
Going nowhere
 
Anne Wooster Drury
[email protected]