Update and A Look Back at Summer Days A quick update on the last newsletter. This is a great photo showing the wooden screen and librarian’s desk as they originally looked. They provided a barrier to the stacks and only the librarian could retrieve books. Borrowers would approach the desk and ask for what they wanted. Notice the drapes on either side. This week, a reminiscence by Tom Wooster about summer days in Easton, 1970’s-‘80’s. Enjoy! "Growing up in Easton in the 70’s and 80’s was a great time to be a kid as we had much more freedom than kids nowadays. Planning our day wasn’t done by parents, but by meeting my friends on summer mornings at the bench by Day Street at Frothingham Park. We would meet most summer days and figure out what sports or adventures we wanted to do on that particular day. Most days involved playing baseball or basketball or going to someone’s house to listen to records and eat whatever snacks were in the house. Sometimes we would go on bike rides around town and my favorite was going to Borderland. We would go through the Town Forest and cross Bay Road and down the dirt road to Borderland and ride the trails there and then usually head to the Corner Store to get soda and candy. Some of my favorite candy bars were the Marathon Bar, Rally Bar, and the Waleeco Bar (which was actually produced by the FB Washburn Candy company in Brockton and they are known today for making Ribbon Candy). If I remember correctly candy bars were around $.15 and cans of Coke or Pepsi $.20 and still could get some penny candy as well. Sometimes we would ride to the fire station and get Simpson Spring soda from a machine where they parked the fire trucks. I don’t remember how much they cost, but I’m thinking it was more than Coke or Pepsi or we would have gone there more often Frothingham Park, bench near Day Street gate, today. We would go home for lunch and then get our chores/jobs done in the afternoon. My jobs were picking up any trash on the ground at the park which took about an hour each day for which I was paid $.25 a day, if I remember correctly. I also had jobs mowing lawns once a week and for that I was paid $5.00 by the homeowner and that price never changed over the years. While I was always eager to run to the store to buy junk food my parents made sure I deposited most of it in the bank. I had my account at Easton Co-operative Bank, which then was located at the corner of Center and Main Street, and ironically is my current employer just at a different location. After dinner on most nights I would play croquet or hide and seek with my siblings until either the mosquitoes drove us inside or our parents called us in for the night. As I look back I realize how good I had it growing up in Easton as I had a great group of friends to hang around with and a very loving family with six siblings. We had much more freedom in those days, but we also were responsible and were where we were supposed to be when we were supposed to be there. I hope you enjoyed my short summary of what I remember most about how I spent my summers during my childhood in Easton. Of course growing up with a beautiful park across the street and having six siblings also allowed us to do many things together and for that I will always be grateful to my parents who raised us to enjoy life, but also to be responsible for our own actions." ...playing games in the park til way after dark….back through the crooked bar again, where only children fit. Anne Wooster Drury ehsnewsletter12@gmail.com
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"When all else fails, give up and go to the library." Stephen King North Easton: left to right, Rockery, Oakes Ames Hall, Ames Free Library. Fortunately, in Easton, we have a lovely library with an interesting history. I have enjoyed it throughout my life. I remember sitting on the wooden floor in front of the shelves in the Children’s Wing searching for a mystery I hadn’t read yet. Later, in junior high, I remember working on homework with friends and waiting to be “shushed” if we so much as whispered. (I remember there was a book on human biology or anatomy that had to be requested from the librarian at her desk. We had some giggles about that.) Then in college, snagging a study alcove and hiding in it for hours. Later, I loved venturing upstairs to the balcony area, where the floorboards creaked as you walked, searching for treasure among the books on art and exotic religions. Picture of the Reading Room with its large brownstone fireplace designed by Stanford White, above it a bas relief of Oliver Ames, the library's donor, by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Here are some interesting facts about the library’s early days, collected from A Centennial History of Ames Free Library of Easton, Inc. 1883-1983 on the Ames Free Library website. The Ames Free Library opened in 1883. Prior to that, there were some subscription libraries in Easton, but this was the first public library, funded by Oliver Ames in his will. *In 1883 when the library opened a borrower had to be over fourteen years old and could only take out one book at a time. *Initially the books were arranged by subject, with 19 departments. Black covers were put on the books to protect them. *When the library opened in March of 1883, 1,643 books went into circulation. At the time, the population of Easton was 4,000. An impressive amount of interest. The first borrowers preferred Prose Fiction (novels) and Juvenile Reading. *For a long time, the book stacks were separated from the rest of the library by a carved wooden screen and the librarian’s desk. Only the librarian could go into the stacks and retrieve your book. *Mary Lavinia Lamphrey, daughter of the Easton High School principal, Maitland C. Lamphrey, became the second librarian in 1891. Although she’d been a student at Boston University, she received only one month training before officially taking over; she and her family moved into the apartment on the second floor of the library. Interestingly, her father was to complete or oversee any janitorial work. She served as librarian for 53 years and was enormously loved and respected. Miss Mary Lavinia Lamphrey. She continued to live in her library apartment even after she retired.
*Because there had been an increase in the Swedish population, in 1905 twenty books in Swedish were acquired along with a subscription to a Swedish newspaper. *Sometimes young boys were sent by Miss Lamphrey directly to the Queset to wash their hands before they were allowed to touch the books. *In 1932 there was a huge change when, “‘the cage’ (Miss Lamprey's high desk) was removed. Also removed was the grill between the charge room and the stack area. The high desk and grill gone, the library moved into the era of the open stack, and readers could go directly to the shelves to pick out their own books instead of filling out ‘Hall Slips.’ The balcony was still off-limits and would be, until Mrs. Irene Smith, Miss Lamprey's successor, opened it in 1944.” Today it is closed and used for storage. Today, as in the past, the Ames Free Library is an island of calm in a busy world and a portal to numerous other worlds. Slip into River Heights with Nancy Drew or walk into the woods of Concord with Henry David Thoreau. The fact that it is within walking distance of schools is a bonus. To quote Mary Lamphrey on the occasion of her 50th year as librarian, "In a library you deal with the stuff out of which eternity is made - the garnered best that mortals have thought and hoped, preserved in words of force and beauty." Anne Wooster Drury ehsnewsletter12@gmail.com There used to be a Flyaway Pond in Easton. Now there is the Flyaway Pond Management Area. In March of 1968, Flyaway Pond flew away. There was a breach of the dam after heavy rains; the dam broke and tumbled a short distance to where it still sits today. The dam, built by the Ames Company in 1845, created the 50 acre pond, which harnessed needed water power for the growing Company. An 1895 map showing Flyaway Pond. Apparently the Ames Company monitored the dam over the years, especially during storms, but by 1968 the industry and the town had changed. The shovel works had begun to shut down by 1952. No one was watching as the rain continued to fall that March. As Ed Hands writes in Easton’s Neighborhoods, “Shortly after 5:30 pm, (3/18/1968) a large section of Flyaway Dam collapsed, unleashing an estimated 350,000 tons of water on North Easton. The burst of water uprooted trees, washed away cars, overturned two loaded freight cars and damaged houses.” I remember walking around the area of the dam within days of the flood, climbing over fallen trees that spanned what was left of the ‘pond’, now an otherworldly jumble of demolished trees, spewn concrete, and moving water. I remember writing an essay about it in my sixth grade class. Prior to that day, as children, my siblings, cousins, and I, led by my father, often walked on weekend mornings from our house on Sheridan Street, up Coughlin Road, then right off Western Ave., through the woods to the Plains and across Lincoln Street to Flyaway. Maybe we’d stop at Pout Rock, then walk on, making sure to walk across the dam before turning back, slightly unsettled by the shooting from the nearby Ames Rifle and Pistol Club. We often found shotgun shells on the ground. I remember them as red or green-colored. Last Sunday I walked a trail in the Flyaway Pond Management Area that begins at the Easton Town Pool and meanders about, exiting the woods at Deer Run, a residential Road off Bay Road. A blue jay and an iridescent green bug were my only company, except for three mountain bikers who raced past me. The trails are more popular with bikers than walkers, I think. The warm, slightly humid air was regularly punctuated by gunshots and occasional murmurings of flowing water. Well-constructed boardwalks spanned wet areas. It amazes me, wherever I go in town, including here, there are always stonewalls in the middle of the woods reminding me of our colonial past. The trail is not a loop so to walk it out and back is over four miles. Scenes along the way: Boardwalk. Parts of the trail are incredibly rocky, especially as one heads left from the dam area. Step carefully. In some places further on, the ground is riddled with tree roots, in others, fallen pine needles. The ubiquitous stonewall. Stone walls began to appear the closer to Bay Road I walked. Hikers or bikers can continue on, crossing Bay Road and taking Bob's Trail into Borderland State Park. Incredible green foliage. This was toward the end of my walk back to the old dam location.
It was a beautiful and nostalgic walk; I strongly suggest enjoying it if you live nearby. Also a nice hike, and more remote- you'll feel completely alone- is a fairly new trail (2021) behind the Edwin Keach Park off Chestnut Street. Quite a long walk and not a house or person in sight. Depends on your preference! “In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” – John MuirAnne Wooster Drury ehsnewsletter12@gmail.com I am going to follow up with two interesting stories that connect with the 'unusual' or 'unexplained' in Easton. The first is shared by Jim Carlino, who with his partner Peter, witnessed uncommon events and sensations during their stewardship of Unity Close; the second one, shared by both David and Fred Ames, is about a premonition experienced before the aviator Freddie Ames’ death in 1932. The story about Freddie Ames was mentioned to me initially by David and Fred followed up with a detailed memory. During their stewardship of Unity Close, Jim Carlino and his partner Peter, were given a photo of the gardens from sometime in the '30's- they guessed. It was the Urn Garden where there were four cherry trees. The photo showed a shadow of a man with one hand on his hip, and close by, the shadow of two dogs. Some time later, they were given additional photos from the same approximate time, with a clear picture of one of the gardeners standing in the same manner, but in a different location, and another with Mrs. Parker and her two small dogs, positioned similarly as in the shadow photo. A coincidence? Jim was also certain that Sarah Ames' spirit was in the house. Sometimes they would feel as if someone walked by them briskly; they didn't see anyone, but the sensation was there. Other times they noticed a shadow going up or down the main staircase. This was usually at dusk and they sensed she was always happy. Parker House/Unity Close, North Easton. Painting by Bill McEntee. The second story, in the words of Fred Ames, May 2023: "Sunday, November 6th, 1932, the last day of his life, Freddie Ames, 27, had breakfast with his mother at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. Edith Cryder Ames, the widow of Lothrop Ames, lived in a suite of rooms at the hotel. Freddie lived at Stone House Hill in North Easton and had a Back Bay apartment in town. He planned to fly his plane down to North Easton later that day with college friend and flyer, Oliver Sproul, along with Oliver’s friend Frances Burnett, also a licensed pilot. Freddie had a small airport on his estate, “Ames Country Club of the Air”, on what are now athletic fields for Stonehill College. Not only was he an experienced pilot with a cross-country flight under his belt, but Freddie was also known on both sides of the Atlantic as an ocean racer. Besides his passengers he took along his small dog “Salud”, a Mexican chow, and a case of champagne. A week before, on that Sunday, my father David, then twenty years old and a sophomore at Harvard, went looking for Freddie at Stone House Hill. Although seven years younger than his first cousin, they were good friends who shared a love of blue water sailing and carousing. As my father told me, while walking by the garage, a terrifying feeling of dread overwhelmed him. Something terrible was going to happen. In a panic he fled from the estate and drove to the telephone exchange on Main Street. Those were the days of operators sitting at switchboards with jacks and switches. He asked them to call the police. The chief came shortly. Given my father’s agitated state the chief decided the best thing to do was to drive my father back to Langwater, his parents’ house. Dad said the chief obviously thought he was just a crazy college kid and didn’t take him seriously. But what rational evidence did my father have? Supernatural sensations were not admissible. At the time of his death Freddie was married, settled in his childhood home in North Easton, and the father of a two-year daughter, Sally, who herself would become a noted ocean racer. He was outgrowing his life as a playboy adventurer and was on the cusp of a serious career in the new field of commercial aviation. Besides his airfield in North Easton, he had an air travel services company, Skyways, Inc., at the East Boston Airfield. In the late morning Freddie’s private plane took off with Frank and Frances on board and headed south to Stone House Hill. The plane crashed about halfway there in Randolph and all on board were killed. Being an experienced pilot Freddie had the presence of mind to turn off the ignition to prevent a fire on impact. Unfortunately, it was the impact that did them in. My father got the call that afternoon at Langwater from the Easton chief of police to come and identify Freddie’s body. The plane crashed nose-first and Freddie’s face smashed into the instrument panel, and he was unrecognizable. Not much was said in the cruiser on that trip to Randolph. My father was able to identify the body of his friend and cousin by the shape of an ear. Image of plane carved into Freddie Ames’ gravestone in the Village Cemetery, North Easton.
The question I should have asked my father was, did he tell Freddie about his premonition? Would it have made any difference? That’s a good question. Why was it my father who had the premonition? Was he chosen? I know that sounds a bit silly, but one has to wonder." As Jim Carlion wrote, "It would seem Ames properties have lots of ghosts or connection to the supernatural!" Thank you all so much for sharing your stories! (Any mistakes are mine alone.) Anne Wooster Drury ehsnewsletter12@gmail.com A big thank you from Hazel Varella for her tribute at the May 7th Open House. What an amazing turn-out, and so well deserved. (Who left the windchimes? Much appreciated.) This week we have a wonderful reflection on Memorial Day by guest writer and EHS member Ed Leonard. He is something of an expert on war memorials and monuments. MEMORIAL DAY Monday May 29, 2023
We remember the many lives lost in all the Wars to protect our democracy and all of those who mourn their loss- Mothers, Fathers, Sisters, Brothers, Family and Friends. The first observance was May 30, 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery and called “Decoration Day” with the placement of flowers on the graves of the soldiers lost in the Civil War. Easton Dedicated its Civil War Soldiers Monument on May 30, 1882. I recently found a pamphlet at the Historical Museum “Exercises Held at the Soldiers Monument”. The Preface identifies the Committee chosen in 1880 at Town Meeting to “Consider building a Monument or Memorial Hall” as Dr Geo. B. Cogswell, Geo. A. Lacky, L.S. Drake, Oakes A. Ames and Joseph Barrows. The 1881 Town Meeting approved their recommendation of erecting a monument and $5000 to defray expenses by the same committee. At the March 1882 Town meeting, $200 was appropriated for the G.A.R. to plan and meet the expenses of dedicating the monument on May 30th, including building a platform for speakers in front of the Town Hall. Two thousand people, including those in two hundred carriages, attended the dedication. Good weather favored the all-day event. The program began with a prayer by Rev. W.H. Bowden, followed by an Introduction by Dr Cogswell, the President of the Day. Joseph Barrows Esq gave a historical address, naming the 47 soldiers who gave their lives. Four more speeches were made, interspersed with music by a chorus and a band. Two of the speakers were veteran military officers from Brockton and Bridgewater. An Appendix lists the names of the soldiers who returned from the war and were buried in local cemeteries. The Monument was moved 75’ last fall at a cost of $100,000 to make room for the new intersection. A massive concrete base was allowed to settle and cure for ten weeks before the 16 granite pieces, including the statue, were carefully assembled to recreate the Monument. Pressure washing completed the process. Curved granite curbing was removed from the original site and now surrounds the base. Two issues regarding the relocation of the Monument come to mind. 1. The committee was directed to consider a “Monument or Memorial Hall”. I have documented a collection of 1,650 Soldier Statues dedicated in the United States since the Civil War. Only 5 have a “Memorial Hall” with a Soldier Statue. One is on the Common in Foxboro which has the only Statue of a Soldier sculpture in wood. It is also the 6th earliest soldier monument to be dedicated following the War. Erected in 1868 and dedicated in 1870. Foxboro’s Hall must have been considered? 2. The most active period for dedicating Soldier Statue Monuments was from 1880 to 1920. Motor vehicles were of basic design or non-existent and the drivers were without license or experience during this period. The horse-drawn carriages maneuvered easily around the monuments in town centers. Motorized vehicles were constantly crashing into them. Thus, many were removed to safer locations such as into cemeteries. The closest example is the Soldiers Monument in Attleboro which was originally located in the town square, dedicated in 1908 and moved to Capron Park in 1929 at a cost of $3,300. It is interesting that our Monument survived being damaged by vehicles but had to be moved to prevent vehicles from hitting each other. Ed Leonard ehsnewsletter12@gmail.com A new biography, "Blanche Ames Ames (1878–1969) and Oakes Ames (1874–1950)—Cultivating That Mutual Ground." has been published by Wipf & Stock and is available now! [wipfandstock.com]. It is written by Elizabeth F. Fideler, EdD. Dr. Fideler is a founding member of the Sloan Research Network on Aging & Work at Boston College. You can read more about the book and author at https://www.amazon.com/author/olderworkers
in Just – spring when the world is mud – luscious……… (E.E. Cummings) Blossoming trees and fiddlehead ferns, Sheep Pasture 2023. I am stuck on Spring and how beautiful Sheep Pasture is in this season. The Ames children, Elise, Olivia, Oliver Jr., and Richard, who lived in the mansion at Sheep Pasture developed an appreciation of nature there. Their nurse Matilda Golden taught them names of wildflowers. “Bunny Woods organized outdoor games and helped the children catch snakes. Coachman John Swift taught the children the names of birds as he drove them around the property in a pony cart. The cook Sophie Nelson was in charge of curing and taming injured birds.” (Quote from plaque at Sheep Pasture.) Clearly the hired help was very important in the lives of the children, influencing them greatly. The coachman’s children, Lizzie and Bertha often played with the Ames children. Oliver Ames House, Sheep Pasture. Built 1893-4. On the estate were stables, garages, a pony barn, kennels, three henhouses, a squash court, playhouse, barn, corncrib, and apple orchards. The grounds were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who had rhododendrons brought in for what is today’s Rhododendron Trail. According to Hazel Varella and Elise A. Parker who wrote Growing up at Sheep Pasture, there were fourteen servants. Parkes the butler, the cook Sophie Nelson, an assistant cook, kitchen maid, parlor maid, girl’s maid, two chambermaids, two laundresses, lady’s maid, two footman and a choreman. To the children it seemed the help was present every day of the year. Most likely they had very little time off. The Ameses were wealthy, but these were certainly different times. The house was built in 1893-4 and the children born in 1892, 1893, 1895, and 1896. Their youngest years were at the turn of the century, prior to both World Wars, the Depression, and an increasingly ‘modern’ society. Chickens, Sheep Pasture. April, 2023.
When Oliver Ames was at home for a day, “he would go out to the hickory tree in the front of the house, blow his whistle, and start walking.” (Growing up at Sheep Pasture) He didn’t look back but expected his children to be following him, and apparently they always were. Today the NRT continues the tradition of fostering respect for nature with night walks, educational school programs, summer camp, farm animals, the spring farm festival, and community gardens. Although I’ve been there an untold number of times, I always find something new and worthy of note. A sunny spring day is joyous- just like an Emily Dickenson poem: The sun just touched the morning; The morning, happy thing, Supposed he had come to dwell, And life would all be spring. The small book titled Billy Rock. The Museum’s April 16th Open House was dedicated to Sheep Pasture and the NRT. Interim Curator Arielle Nathanson put together a nice, well-researched exhibit that was well attended. I’ve included some pictures People on the rock face at Sheep Pasture. It is much more overgrown today. The potato cellar at Sheep Pasture. The entrance is currently barred but it wasn’t when I was young. We would dare each other to go all the way in. It was damp and creepy. Adorable photo of two young residents of Sheep Pasture. Olivia & Elise. Sheep Pasture was built during 1893-94. At one time sheep grazed in the meadow, hence the name. The grounds were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The mansion was demolished in 1946. Mrs. Elise Ames Parker bequeathed the majority of Sheep Pasture to the Natural Resources Trust.
When the sun caught A bluebird in flight I breathed deep with The relief that is spring Anne Wooster Drury ehsnewsletter12@gmail.com There will be an Open House on Sunday April 16th. More information to come. Thank you to Fr. Anthony V. Szakaly, CSC, and Director of Campus Ministry at Stonehill College for clearing up where the architectural features on Rhododendron Drive pictured in the last newsletter came from. Mr. Ken Percy also came forward with the correct answer. The heavy stone pieces were from the old main gate to the estate that led from Washington Street onto Rhododendron Drive. The wrought iron gates with the Ames seal are located on campus near Boland Hall. Mystery solved. The gates to Stonehouse Hill House when Rhododendron Drive was the main entrance. Now a different type of mystery. Many people enjoy being scared. People like to speculate on the supernatural. Who played with a Ouija board? Told scary stories around a campfire? I remember as a teenager visiting the cemetery behind Unity Church on Halloween night to see if I could hear the "Wailing Woman". I didn't. I admit to enjoying Halloween festivities- as long as they are not gruesome. Last October the Ames Free Library hosted a fundraiser where S.P.I.R.I.T.S. of New England led a ghost hunting tour to look for paranormal activity at Queset House. Easton has a long history of ghost stories. Prior to 1900 when it burned down, the Shepard House on Bay Road, near the intersection with Randall Street, was believed to be haunted. The house was possibly built about the time of the Revolutionary War and served at one time as a tavern; it was a stop on the stagecoach route between Newport and Boston. It was no longer serving as a tavern when the fire broke out in 1900 and the owners at that time, Frederic Griffin, and his wife, fortunately, were not at home. The ghost is said to belong to a one-time occupant who had hanged himself there. This ghost made himself known in various ways and was persistent enough that there was difficulty attracting tenants. Strange things happened in the house but the ghost itself was never seen. Sometimes the family that lived there was frightened by what sounded like “a wagon-load of stones falling from a great height onto the roof”. A chronic problem was tenants finding themselves suddenly awakened in their sleep and lying on the floor of the room. The cords on the corded bedstead had been removed- without cutting or breaking. A joke by a playful ghost? Wheaton Farm is at the center of many ghost stories. One story dates from 1957 when John Webster and his friend Gregory Knowlton saw a female ghost rise from the mist, float across Bay Road, and enter a barn without opening the door. John and his friend were driving on Bay Road from Norton to Easton. They were in an area of older homes, one of which had previously been an inn. It was a dark and foggy night. The two men stopped the car and tried to enter the barn, but it was padlocked. They saw nothing when they looked in the windows. Both men agreed they had seen the same thing- a woman with blond hair, wearing white, with a flickering hurricane lamp in her right hand. Although they drove back and forth on the road for some time but saw nothing else. Afterwards they would return, on foggy nights, hoping to see the woman, but never saw the apparition again. The Wheaton House, Bay Road, Easton, MA. Barn across the street from Wheaton House. Is the ghost still in there? There are many stories about Nathan Selee of the Poquanticut area who was, among other things, apparently clairvoyant. There is an unsettling story about Mr. Selee refusing to tell the fortune of a young woman whose house he was visiting and shortly afterwards telling a companion that if the woman could see her future, she wouldn’t have asked about it. She died the next week. Nathan’s sister, Thankful (Selee) Buck, was supposedly a witch, although if so, perhaps a good witch. She and her daughters were said to recite incantations at midnight and pour water from one pan to another. There were tales she could turn into a black cat. One time, a neighbor of Thankful's admitted to becoming angry at a mischievous black cat and hitting it about the head, only to discover the next day that Thankful was missing an eye. It wasn't the only story that claimed she could change shape and turn into a black cat. Sign on the corner of Mill Street and Rockland. When people heard the mill running at night some attributed it to satanic imps.
People have always enjoyed these types of tales, and although skeptical, I do also. There are many other stories that have stood the test of time: the “Blue Mist” at Stonehill (the ghost of Fred Ames), “Doctor” William Webster’s haunted house in Unionville, and several connected to Queset House. I’m curious if any readers have supernatural experiences of their own connected to Easton. If so, I would love to hear about them. The streetlight catches A black cat on the drive Stepping without sound And undetermined intent Anne Wooster Drury ehsnewsletter12@gmail.com “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.” ― Albert Einstein, Anyone who knows me, knows I love a good mystery. Louise Penny and Kate Ellis aside, one of the reasons I love studying and teaching history is because the study of history is simply uncovering the mysteries of the past. Whether digging into the ground or into a book, there are always intriguing clues, though often only a partial answer is revealed- a glimpse at a long-ago life, culture, reality. Rhododendron Drive. A hint of spring in the air. Stonehill College. I was drawn to the woods at Stonehill College by tales of the John Dailey homestead that was uncovered over 20 years ago by Stonehill professors and students. Beginning in 1999 an excavation was begun ‘deep in the woods’ off Rhododendron Drive, now Blessed Basil Moreau Drive.* John Dailey came to Easton, very early, before 1708. According to Chaffin, “he lived east of the brook near Stone-House Hill, between where the old road once ran and the present road now runs.” He was a hogreeve or hog constable, on the lookout for wandering domestic pigs. The excavated foundation showed Dailey's home to be about 250 square feet. It was also established where the well, animal pens, and midden (refuse heap) were located. The artifacts are archived at Stonehill College. I’m still looking for the site, which was allowed to revert back to nature, (more about that in another newsletter), but over the period of a few days I explored much of the wooded campus, being careful, of course, to stay off of any paved roads. In the lower right-hand corner of this circa 1750 map can be seen John Dailey’s name. His property would have been on the current Stonehill College campus. To the west of Jos. Crossman's would become Main Street and North Easton Village. While it is wonderful and appropriate that many Ames buildings have been renovated and/or repurposed; it is nice to see some artifacts let to 'just be', whether on purpose or by default. The photo below shows abandoned architectural features resting peacefully along Rhododendron Drive. The rhododendrons themselves were imported from England. Leftovers from Stone House Hill House? (Now Donahue Hall.) Seen along the right-hand side of Rhododendron Drive walking from Washington Street. Also mysterious on campus is the collection of huge boulders in an area near the Belmont Street entrance that have been linked to the late 17th century, the era of King Philip, chief of the Wampanoags. Some call it King Philip's Cave and believe King Philip himself hid out there during the First Indian War (1675-6). There was a student excavation at that site in 1957. Additional artifacts are dated to between 1500 BC and 500 AD. Some ‘cave-like’ formations. The area was strewn with large boulders. There was graffiti on some, and remains of a campfire nearby. Still more to learn- off St Andre Drive, also near Belmont Street, are examples of millstones that were quarried and carved for the J.O. Dean Grist Mill that was located at the intersection of Route 138 and Depot St. Only hand tools were used to carve them. One of several millstones, some unfinished. This expedition is over for now, but stay tuned for more mysteries- of another nature altogether! “The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.” ― Anais Nin Anne Wooster Drury ehsnewsletter12@gmail.com *Basil Moreau (1799-1873) was the founder of the Congregation of the Holy Cross. The Congregation purchased the estate of Frederick Lothrop Ames in 1935 to be used as a seminary. Stonehill College was founded in 1948. Some information was gathered from the Stonehill Alumni Magazine, Fall 1999, and stonehillcollege.edu. |
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