Weekly Update

​Hello from a very wet and soggy Easton!  This has been a different week as I have to quarantine due to possible Covid exposure.  I just found out that our testing returned a negative result, but I am still under quarantine until Thursday as a precaution.  If you have been looking for me at the Museum, or left a phone message, I'll be back in circulation soon.  I do check emails frequently, so if necessary, use email to contact me in the meantime.


Next week I should be able to send you the list of names from our two Little League photos, so be watching for that!

A few of you have asked about 2021 dues.  We are working on a letter that should be out in the mail in early February.

This week, working from home, I reached into my old archives to offer a special photo.  Horace M. Pool (1803-1878), of the Pool family of South Easton, was one of two brothers engaged in the manufacturing of surveyor tools and levels, as well as thermometers.  By the late 1840's, he had built for himself and his young family a nice home at 269 Foundry Street, very near the old manufacturing plant for the Pool Instrument Company.  This young family included a daughter, Ann Maria Pool, and in 1846, at the age of 13, she sat for a photograph in the parlor of her new home.  That photo is attached to this update.

Ann Pool was born September 15, 1833 to Horace M. and Abby Ann (Avery) Pool.  She had a brother, Horace F. Pool.  Ann married Brockton businessman Lucius Richmond (1829-1901)  January 16, 1853, and moved to Brockton.  The Richmonds ran a painting and papering store on School Street in Brockton for several generations, and the business was successful even when Richmond went off to serve in the Civil War.  The couple had four children - Frederick (1855-1930), Jennie (Richmond) Merrill (1864-1948), Agnes (Richmond) Gould (1867-1953) and Charles (1873-1917).  It appears that following her husband's death in 1901, Ann moved back into the family home at 269 Foundry Street where she remained as a widow until her death on January 19, 1920 at age 86.  She is buried in the Richmond family lot at Union Cemetery, Center Street, Brockton.

Some years ago this photo turned up on an auction site, and I was able to purchase it, bringing it back to Easton after many years.  The photo itself is especially early in the history of photography, and must have been quite rare at the time of its taking by an unknown traveling photographer.  It does indicate that the Pool family at that point in time was successful, having the extra income to engage a photographer to take this extraordinary photo. Ann sits very still (exposures could take a while) wearing her best dress and probably a family heirloom necklace and bracelet or watch.  A simple note on the back reads: "From Jane R. Merrill to Ned Richmond - A.M. Pool - Born Sept. 15th, 1833.  My mother (your grandma) taken at her home parlor in 1846, Easton Massachusetts and personally autographed.  Taken at 13 years of age."

Stay well,
Frank