| Alpheus COLE | ||
| Olive Darling COLE | ||
| Peter DARLING + | ||
| Olive DARLING | ||
| Jerusha DARLING + |
Person Notes:
[NI1328]
[Holbrook.ged]
Harley A. Stone
Edgar
James
---mona(?)
| James FORESTER | ||
| Mary Elizabeth FORESTER | ||
| Elizabeth BOWMAN | ||
Person Notes:
[NI0356]
ID Number: A-FORESTE-000059[Holbrook.ged]
Feb. 19 per family papers
| Richard GODFREY + | ||
| Richard GODFREY | ||
| unknown | ||
| Alice GODFREY | ||
| John TURNER + | ||
| Jane or Mary TURNER | ||
| Jane |
| Sylvanus HOLBROOK + | ||
| Selvanus HOLBROOK | ||
| Naomi COOK + | ||
| Stephen HOLBROOK | ||
| Samuel THAYER + | ||
| Thankfull THAYER | ||
| Mary SAMPSON + |
Person Notes:
[NI1166]
[Holbrook.ged]
[56882] [SOURCE] "The Martyn Wives of Robert & John Bullard," NEHGS
"Register," Vol 146, pg. 280
| Robert MORSE + | ||
| Thomas MORSE | ||
| Agnes MOSSE | ||
| Thomas MORSE | ||
| Agnes | ||
| Gordon Edward WALLS | ||
| Peter Holbrook WALLS | ||
| Mary Forrester HOLBROOK + | ||
| Christopher Holbrook WALLS | ||
| Dona Kay VITENSE | ||
| John WIGHT | ||
| Robert WIGHT\WRIGHT | ||
| Anna BRAY | ||
| Thomas WIGHT\WRIGHT | ||
| Elizabeth FULSHAW | ||
Person Notes:
[NI1904]
[Holbrook.ged]
History of Medfield
The Official Website of Medfield, Massachusetts
The story of Medfield begins in Dedham, which originally included the
territory that is now Medfield as well as several other towns. Dedham
was incorporated in 1636 and by 1640 Dedham men started farming and
pasturing animals along the broad meadows and continuous plains of our
area. The land was perfect for farming because of the Indian custom
of burning the fields each November to provide grazing for wild game.
Our area was first known as Dedham Village.
In November of 1649, Dedham held a town meeting which approved the
laying out of an area for a new town. This was accomplished in the
early spring of 1650 and corresponds very nearly with the boundaries
of the present town. The thirteen original settlers paid fifty pounds
to the inhabitants of Dedham in compensation for the land.
Ralph Wheelock, a graduate of Cambridge University, considered the
founder of Medfield, proceeded with Thomas Wright and Robert Hinsdale
to the new settlement, which was finally incorporated as the 43rd town
in Massachusetts on June 2, 1651. Eighteen new men were accepted as
townsmen and grants of land made to them in 1651.
Education was very important from the start of the settlement. In
1655 the settlers voted fifteen pounds "to establish a schoule for the
education of the children." Ralph Wheelock became the first
schoolmaster in the schoolhouse (site of the old post office on the
corner of Janes Avenue and North Street). A later school on the site
Dr. Stagg's office on Pleasant Street was named after Ralph Wheelock,
as is the present elementary school on Elm Street.
By 1660 the town was laid out and new families admitted, thus
increasing the population to 234. During the King Philip War in 1675,
Medfield became the frontier town when Mendon was abandoned. In
February of 1676 approximately 1,000 Indians, under the command of
Monaco, burned 32 houses, two mills, and many barns. Eight people
were killed, including Timothy Dwight, the original owner of the
Dwight Derby House on Frairy Street. Two streets serve as reminder of
those fateful days- Philip and Metacomet (Philip's real Indian name).
After King Philip was killed in August of 1676, the indomitable
settlers rebuilt and repaired the damage to their farms and mills,
with monetary assistance from the provincial legislature.
Patriotic fervor was evident in 1774 when the town sponsored 25
Minutemen to fight in the battles of Lexington and Concord although
they did not arrive in time to fight. One hundred and fifty-four men,
however, fought in the Continental Army. That made the ratio of
soldiers one for every five of population. By 1787 a new oath was
required of the town officers who renounced loyalty to the king and
swore allegiance to the new sovereign, the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts.
In 1800 the population of the town was 745. The manufacture of straw
bonnets first commencedthat same year and the manufacture of ladies'
hats was the principal industry of the town until 1954. Mansions for
the owners were built near the factory on North Street and the
seasonal workers lived in boarding houses throughout the town. During
the busy season as many as 1,000 were employed at the straw hat shop.
In 1806 the Hartford and Dedham Turnpike was established and its stage
coaches stopped at Clark's Tavern, next door to the Peak House. The
stage route through Medfield was known as the Middle Post Road, but
the Upper Post Road through Sudbury was preferred by travelers because
it provided better taverns. For a period after the discontinuance of
the stage coaches, the town had no public transportation until the
first passenger train of the New York and Boston Railroad came to
town. By 1870 Medfield became an important rail junction and freight
depot to the Framingham/Mansfield branch of the New York, New Haven,
and Hartford Railroad. At the end of the century, steam and electric
railways terminated in front of the Town House.
The people of Medfield prepared themselves to fight in the Civil War
following the election of an abolitionist senator who would represent
the district. Eighty-two men served in the army and navy and fifteen
men gave their lives for the preservation of the Union.
Medfield remained a rural village for all of the nineteenth century.
However, with the 1896 establishment of the "asylum," (now Medfield
State Hospital), the population of the town grew to over 3,000 by the
end of the century. Half of the town's population were patients at
the hospital, which provided employment for over 600 residents of
Medfield and surrounding towns.
At the time of the 250th anniversary in 1901, Medfield was still a
lovely village with green fields, lush meadows, and winding rivers.
Medfield had grown to 1,600 residents, not counting the patients at
the state hospital. It was a typical New England Town consisting of
335 dwellings. A tax rate of 1.1% based on townwide valuation of $1,
454,265 met the appropriated obligation of $17,347. Education had the
highest share of the town budget; $5,375 for 283 students enrolled in
grades one through nine. Those continuing their schooling graduated
from Dedham or Walpole until the new high school graduated its first
class of eight in 1908.
Long before the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920, Medfield
encouraged the voting rights of women. In 1900 seven women paid a
poll tax and qualified to vote. As early as 1881 women voted for the
school committee and by 1916 women were permitted to serve on the
school committee, as overseers of the poor, and as trustees of the
public library. When the state constitution was amended to conform to
the federal law, 48 of the 381 votes were cast by women.
Charles Innes, one of America's great landscape artists, painted
Medfield Meadows, Evening in Medfield, and his famous Peace and Plenty
during his stay here from 1859 to 1864. Many of his paintings are the
property of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Boston
Museum of Fine Arts.
In 1900 the importance of farming was reflected in personal property
taxes which were levied on 431 cows, 64 other cattle, 31 swine, 1,637
fowl, and 256 horses. Associated trades and small industry, such as
three sawmills, and slaughter houses, a tannery and two cider mills,
were flourishing trades. A wire factory, a straw shop, a hat shop,
and a steam packing mill also existed. The wagons and carriages
manufactured by J.H. Baker were known worldwide for their quality.
The twentieth century also saw buses and automobiles begin to replace
steam and electric trains. The town sold its electric company in 1906
to the Boston Electric Illuminating Co. and in 1921 the town took over
the operation of the Medfield Water Company. In 1924, the town
established a Planning Board to prevent haphazard growth. That same
year the Peak House was restored and Baker's Pond was purchased from
the carriage manufacturers. Other attempts to conserve green areas
came with the establishment of the Conservation Commission in 1962.
In 1964 a Master Plan was undertaken to plan for projected growth.
Medfield has continued to grow into a desirable, residential suburb.
New subdivisions are developed in a controlled fashion. Industrially
zoned land has been limited to clean light industry.
Medfield passed an historic district bylaw and created the John
Metcalf Historic District during the 1989 annual town meeting. This
first historic district included four houses on west Main Street and
the oldest portion of Vine Lake Cemetery. The district was enlarged
to include a total of sixteen historic buildings in 1996. The second
historic district, established in 1994, included 33 buildings at the
Medfield State Hospital and the historic landscape surrounding the
buildings. A third district, the Clark-Kingsbury Farm Historic
District on Spring Street, was approved at the 1997 Town Meeting.
This provides some protection to the unique grouping of the 18th
century farm house, outbuildings, and pond with grist mill.
The voters of Medfield have committed themselves to several
significant projects downtown. Having agreed to purchase land for a
post office site a year earlier, in 1996 the town went forward with
plans to completely renovate the Town Hall, to construct a major
addition to the library and to assist the historical society in its
efforts to preserve and restore the Dwight Derby House. The Town
Hall, library and post office were completed in 1998.
The Dwight Derby House, an ongoing project, is of particular
significance because it is one of the oldest houses in the United
States. The original section was built in 1651, the year Medfield was
incorporated. Once restoration is complete it will undoubtedly join
the Peak House and the Unitarian Church on the register of State and
Federal Historic Landmarks.
Anyone wanting a more detailed history may refer to the three books
available at the Medfield Public Library. History of the Town of
Medfield, Massachusetts: 1650-1886 by William S. Tilden has an
interesting section on genealogy, Medfield Reflections, 1651-1976 is
an historical commemorative book published during the town's 325th
birthday, and the recently published History of the Town of Medfield,
Massachusetts 1887-1925 by Richard DeSorgher. The Norfolk Hunt- 100
Years of Sport has text and pictures of Medfield as well as
surrounding towns. The brick Medfield Historical Society headquarters
on Pleasant Street, behind the library, is open every Saturday morning
for those who wish to know more about the town and its history.