A 
 
R W O O D 
 
 OF THE NEWEST AND MOST PRO- 
 SSIVE TOWNS IN MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 Industries, Past and Present, Business 
 ises, Societies, and Advantages for Location 
 
 P u ' a t i o n has' the sanction o i t he Norwood 
 B' ess Association and Board of Trade 
 
 ' ' <tA M B R O S E '•BROS., PRINTER S, Norwood ^Messenger 
 
j 
 
N O R W O O D 
 
 ONE OF THE NEWEST AND MOST PRO- 
 GRESSIVE TOWNS IN MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 Her Industries, Past and Present, Business 
 Houses, Societies, and Advantages for Location 
 
 This 
 
 Publication has the sanction o 
 
 f 
 
 t he 
 
 Norwood 
 
 
 Business Association and Board 
 
 o 
 
 f T 
 
 
 Norwood, 
 
 ^ass. AMBROSE mROS., 'PRINTERS, 
 
 
 
 Norwood iMessenger 
 
F 
 
NORWOOD AS 
 
 IT IS TO-DAY. 
 
 THE growth of any town or city is largely de- 
 pendent on the character and expansive abilities 
 of its industries and the character of the labor 
 which these industries employ. Intelligent and educated 
 labor is ambitious ; it is made of the stuff that builds 
 and creates ; it enlarges its capacities and forges to the 
 front. 
 
 Let us put the character of Norwood's indvistries to 
 the test. How great are they and what is their character 
 as compared with those of other towns? Do they em- 
 ploy skilled, intelligent labor, or do they not? Do they 
 tend to bring in a class of labor which is hopeful, which 
 can rise in the world, which has the encouragement of 
 good wages and good social and industrial conditions? 
 These questions can be satisfactorily answered. Nor- 
 wood has larger and better industries than those of most 
 towns of its size. They are industries which pay good 
 wages and employ men of intelligence, push, and ambi- 
 tion. The town is a home for the intelligent mechanic, 
 the man with a family and home ties, the man who has 
 
 a stake in the town and an interest in its growth and 
 welfare. 
 
 Norwood is the kind of a town which attracts pro- 
 gressive, intelligent American citizens, men who can 
 take a real and loyal interest in the land of .their birth or 
 adoption. Its industries have the one curious character- 
 istic of showing unity in diversity. Most of the larger 
 industries have some connection with book-making, but 
 the industries themselves vary from leather to type- 
 setting. There are big ink works, big tanneries, two big 
 book-making plants, large railroad shops, and a good- 
 sized foundry. There are also paper mills, a manufac- 
 tory of leather soles, and greenhouses whose productions 
 have won the attention of lovers of the beautiful through- 
 out the civilized world. 
 
 The tanneries are among the largest in the United 
 States and have been an important part of the industrial 
 life of the community for over a century and a quarter, 
 dating their inception in 1776. But it is largely as a 
 book-making town that Norwood is known to the out- 
 
4 
 
 side world, not only because it has two very large book- 
 making plants, but because nearly everything which 
 enters into the production of books is made in the town 
 or near it. The tanneries make leather for book covers. 
 The Holliston Mills make book-cloth of all kinds in 
 immense quantities. Printers' ink is represented by one 
 of the largest ink works in the country. Binders' board 
 is made not far away, and so is book-paper. Glue is pro- 
 duced in large quantities within the town. All through 
 the country the names of several Norwood industries are 
 household words — Morrill's inks, Winslow Bros, & 
 Smith Co.'s tannery products. Bird's Paroid roofing and 
 waterproof papers, and the school and college text-books 
 and works of miscellaneous literature turned out in im- 
 mense quantities by the Norwood Press and the Plimpton 
 Press. 
 
 In the Norwood Press three firms are combined in 
 two large buildings, conveniently connected — J. S. 
 Cushing & Co. do the type-setting and electrotyping, 
 Berwick & Smith do the press-work, and E. Fleming & 
 Co. the book-binding. The buildings were erected 
 especially for the work, and it has been found necessary 
 to add large additions on account of increasing business. 
 The Norwood Press well merits its high reputation, and 
 is especially noted for its school books. The proprietors 
 
 keep well supplied with modern machinery, and the 
 establishment turns out several million books yearly. 
 
 The Plimpton Press, otherwise known as H. M. 
 Plimpton & Co., is under the direct oversight of the 
 proprietor, Mr. Herbert M. Plimpton, who has found it 
 necessary to double the size of his plant since coming to 
 Norwood. Composition, press-work, and book-binding 
 are all done by the latest improved methods and with 
 modern machinery, and the capacity of the plant is over 
 three million books a year. Artistic book-binding of 
 editions-de-luxe is a specialty, and large quantities of 
 book-cloth are manufactured. 
 
 The paper mills of F. W. Bird & Son can practi- 
 cally be comprehended under Norwood industries, since 
 one of the mills is in Norwood, and, although the larger 
 part of the plant is over the line in East Walpole, em- 
 ployment is given to many Norwood residents. This is 
 one of the most enormous paper manufacturing plants 
 in the country, and its chimney, two hundred and fifty 
 feet high, is a landmark for miles. Specialties of its 
 productions are different kinds of waterproof paper of 
 the Neponset Brand, all kinds of paper boxes, dress suit 
 cases, lunch boxes, paper for shells and wads for ammu- 
 nition, and Paroid, a heavy outside roofing paper. 
 
 Among the oldest and largest industries in Norwood 
 
are the Winslow Bros. & Smith Co. tanneries, whose 
 history goes back as far as 1776, or earlier, and is now 
 a large stock company. This tanning industry deals in 
 the conversion of hides, sheep-skins, etc., into leather, 
 and is also interested in the wool industry. It has en- 
 joyed a steady growth from its very beginning, and is 
 now one of the largest plants of its kind in New Eng- 
 land. 
 
 The second largest ink manufactory in the world, 
 and the second largest printers' ink producing plant in 
 the United States, was founded here in 1869, and is now 
 known as the George H. Morrill Co. 
 
 The New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad 
 shops give employment to a great many men and have 
 been a very important factor in the growth and develop- 
 ment of the town in bringing here a class of intelligent, 
 well-paid and thrifty mechanics. 
 
 The Plimpton Iron Foundry was established here in 
 1854, by Spencer, Fuller & Colburn, under the firm 
 name of Fuller & Colburn. In recent years it passed 
 into the hands of J. Edward Plimpton. The business 
 gives employment to many men, is growing every year, 
 and it is generally believed that it will in the future form 
 the nucleus for the establishment here of other and 
 larger iron industries. 
 
 5 
 
 The existence of these large and important indus- 
 tries, the history of which goes back, in some instances, 
 to the days when Norwood was a mere precinct or 
 village of the old town of Dedham, accounts for the 
 great growth and importance of the modern town of 
 Norwood, a town which, though only fourteen miles 
 from a great city, is not a mere sleeping place for a few 
 city people, but a live, progressive town with large busi- 
 ness interests, fine homes and a most intelligent, wide- 
 awake and up-to-date population, reaching out always 
 for greater and better things. 
 
 Norwood lays no claim as to being a summer resort, 
 but it has many advantages as a place of suburban resi- 
 dence. In a good many ways it is a central point. It 
 is one of the few important business points between 
 Providence and Boston. It is within three miles of East 
 Walpole, with its enormous and constantly growing 
 paper mill industries. It has admirable steam railroad 
 facilities, and in its splendidly kept streets and roads, 
 and the great beauty and picturesqueness of its residen- 
 tial portions, it will take rank as one of the prettiest 
 towns in Eastern Massachusetts. It has good water, 
 good schools, a fine public library, and, in proportion 
 to its size, a remarkably large school population. Its 
 tax rate is low. It has about 7,000 inhabitants, fine 
 
school buildings, seven handsome church buildings, and 
 eight religious parishes or societies. 
 
 Norwood has become in recent years a great center 
 of trolley car travel. There are three street-railway 
 systems centering in Norwood, the Old Colony, which 
 connects with the Boston Elevated a little below Ded- 
 ham ; the Norfolk and Bristol, running between Nor- 
 wood and Mansfield, and connecting with roads to 
 Wrentham, Franklin, Woonsocket, the Attleboros and 
 Providence, and a road to Canton, Sharon and Stough- 
 ton, which is practically a branch of the Blue Hill road. 
 
 The natural beauty of the town and its residential 
 portions should not be forgotten. The town is noted 
 for its many beautiful shade trees, its picturesque hills, 
 its well cared-for streets and its many beautiful private 
 residences. A ride about town will show the beautiful 
 Morrill Memorial Library building, the fine and substan- 
 tial Shattuck School, which is accepted as a prophecy 
 of what the town's future school buildings will be, the 
 many handsome churches of the town, the several good- 
 
 6 
 
 looking school-houses, the beautiful grounds of the Nor- 
 wood Press and many other handsome objects. Beyond 
 all, in general interest to the passing stranger, are the 
 many fine residences of the town's solid and substantial 
 citizens. 
 
 Even residences of more ordinary pretensions are so 
 comparatively costly and so well kept as to grounds and 
 surroundings, that the exact value put upon them by 
 their owners staggers the speculator, the home-seeker 
 and the would-be investor. "Can I buy such and such 
 a place for $10,000? " or, " Can I buy such and such a 
 place for $20,000?" are inquiries frequently made. 
 "Not for sale," replies the real estate dealer, calmly. 
 And he means it. 
 
 Real estate comes high in Norwood. The people 
 who really have places to sell know that the town is 
 growing and that this growth is likely to continue. The 
 more solid citizens have no desire to speculate in their 
 home properties. They like their own town and are 
 determined to stay here. 
 
NORWOOD dates its birth as a separate township 
 from February 13, 1872, when the bill incor- 
 porating the town passed the General Court of 
 the Commonwealth. Its real birth, however, can be 
 said to date back to October 18, 1730, when the South 
 Parish of Dedham was incorporated by the General 
 Court. Previous to 1872 this community formed a part 
 of the town of Dedham, and was known by the appella- 
 tion of South Dedham. 
 
 Though this brief historical sketch purposes to deal 
 with this community distinctively, mention may be made 
 of the founding of the old mother town of Dedham. Jn 
 the year 1635 the General Court granted a tract of land 
 south of the Charles River to twelve men, and the 
 following year an additional grant was made to these 
 twelve and seven others. This grant included the 
 present town of Dedham and several others, including 
 probably over two-thirds of the present territory of 
 Norwood. The township was first named "Content- 
 ment," as this name appears over the records of the 
 
 SKETCH. 
 
 first meetings of the settlers, but was later changed to 
 Dedham. This name was probably chosen because 
 some of the first settlers are believed to have come from 
 Dedham, England. 
 
 The title to these lands was purchased by Governor 
 Winthrop from the tribes of Indians of which Chicka- 
 tabut was chief, but if any conveyance was then made it 
 seems to have been lost, and in 1685, when the colonists 
 feared their charter would be taken from them, they 
 procured new deeds of the Indians, conveying what is 
 now Dedham and Norwood. 
 
 The first historic record of the birth of that part of 
 Dedham afterwards to be known as South Dedham was 
 in a grant of land, dated 1697, to Ezra Morse and Josiah 
 Fisher, of fourteen acres in Purgatory Swamp. As has 
 previously been stated, the real birth of the community 
 occurred when the South Parish of Dedham was incor- 
 porated by the General Court, October 18, 1730, and on 
 June 23, 1736, the church connected with the Second 
 or South Parish of Dedham, consisting of fifteen mem- 
 
8 
 
 bers, was created. The Sovith Parish at the time of its 
 incorporation was made up of part of the town of 
 Dedham and also of Stoughton, and so continued for 
 several years. The part of Stoughton included in this 
 precinct was bounded north by a line beginning at a 
 place called Purgatory on the Neponset River, west or 
 northwest by the old Dorchester line, south by Walpole, 
 and east by Trap Hole Brook and the Neponset River. 
 In 1738 the inhabitants of that part of Stoughton lately 
 set off a precinct with the south part of Dedham peti- 
 tioned the Court that they might be annexed to the town 
 of Dedham, which was granted. 
 
 Leading up to the incorporation of the Second Parish 
 is an interesting bit of history, which shows how the 
 Congregational Churches were regarded in this part of 
 colonial New England. In those days it was considered 
 of the first importance that religious services should be 
 held, and every community was to have religious 
 instruction. So in 1638, two years after the settlement 
 of Dedham, steps were taken toward the formation of a 
 church. One of the early orders that were passed by 
 the town of Dedham was that houses should not be built 
 beyond two miles from the church. The purpose, how- 
 ever, of this vote was probably for protection against 
 the Indians, but our first settlers do not appear to have 
 
 suffered so much from Indian raids as some of the 
 adjoining settlements. 
 
 As the population increased, people began settle- 
 ments farther and farther from the center, toward the 
 south and the west part of Dedham. In 1721 certain of 
 the inhabitants living near the old saw-mill, near what 
 is now Ellis Station, petitioned the town to be freed 
 from paying the minister in the town, in order to have 
 preaching among themselves, which was voted in the 
 negative. Two months later several inhabitants of the 
 southerly part asked the town that they might be set off 
 from the northerly part, in order to have a township of 
 their own. This the town did not consent to. Again, 
 the next year, the petition was repeated, and also the 
 inhabitants of Clapboardtrees presented their petition, 
 either to have the meeting-house removed, or to be set 
 off as a township or a precinct ; and for several years the 
 inhabitants in the south part of the town kept up this 
 agitation, either that the meeting-houses should be re- 
 moved nearer to the center of the town, or that they 
 should be relieved from the support of the minister and 
 be permitted to provide a minister for themselves, or 
 else that they should be set off as a separate town. So 
 it is evident that the spirit which afterward brought 
 about the birth of Norwood and Westwood was alive 
 
BEACON HILL, NOW Ax\D TWENTY YEARS AGO. 
 
 I 
 
9 
 
 over one hundred and fifty years before the incorporation 
 of this town. 
 
 At that time Stoughton included about one-third of 
 the present town of Norwood. The inhabitants of 
 Stoughton who Hved near the Dedham Hne were also at 
 an inconvenient distance from the church which they 
 were required to support. These people, and also the 
 Dedham people living near the dividing line, seemed to 
 have abandoned the idea of a new town and to have 
 exerted all their power towards the formation of a new 
 parish or precinct. The Dedham Records show under 
 March 6, 1727, that the town was served with a copy 
 from the General Court of a petition from the southerly 
 part of the town and the westerly part of the town of 
 Stoughton ; and a committee was appointed to give their 
 reasons why the petition should not be granted. And 
 in May of the same year the town considered whether 
 they could come to some agreement with the inhabitants 
 of the south part of Dedham. First, either to maintain 
 two ministers at the expense of the whole town ; and, 
 second, to remove the meeting-house more into the 
 center of the town than where it stands ; and, third, 
 whether they will leave the determination of the pro- 
 posals to a committee of disinterested men ; all of which 
 were answered in the negative. Further committees 
 
 were appointed to oppose the division of the parish. 
 The question of removing the meeting-house to a posi- 
 tion more nearly the center of the town was frequently 
 agitated without success. Petitions were presented to 
 the General Court asking that a parish be formed out of 
 the southerly part of Dedham and the northerly part of 
 Stoughton, and the committee to whom these petitions 
 were referred made a favorable recommendation thereon. 
 In 1728, however, the town voted that if the inhabitants 
 of the southerly part of the town would unite with some 
 families in the westerly part of Stoughton in a petition 
 to be made a parish it would give its consent, and 
 accordingly the South Parish of Dedham was incorpor- 
 ated October 18, 1730. Thus was formed the South 
 Parish, later to be known as South Dedham, and now 
 our town of Norwood. 
 
 In 1769 the town of Dedham appropriated to the 
 South Parish as its proportion of the school money for 
 that year the sum of £18 los., which was divided by 
 the parish assessors between the five schools according 
 I to the number of scholars in each. The first appropri- 
 ation made by the new town of Norwood, that is in 
 1872, was $6,000 for the support of the schools. The 
 school appropriation for 190^ was $38,100. 
 
 After the establishment of the new parishes the desire 
 
I 
 
 o 
 
 for a new town appears to have subsided for a time, but 
 in 1 817, at the town meeting of December 15, the ques- 
 tion was put whether the town would consent to a 
 separation by setting off the Second and Third Parishes 
 into a distinct town. This was defeated 78 to 37, and 
 the town instructed Colonel Abner Ellis to oppose the 
 said separation in the General Court. Again, in 1828, 
 Article 4 of the warrant for the Town Meeting, Novem- 
 ber 17, read: "To see if the town wishes to have the 
 Second and Third Parishes set off as a town." It was 
 voted to dismiss the article. 
 
 The occasion of the movement which finally resulted 
 in the creation of Norwood as a town by itself was said 
 to be a controversy over the establishment of a High 
 •School in South Dedham. The first meeting of the 
 •citizens of the South Parish interested in the formation 
 «of a town was held in Village Hall, December 22, 1871, 
 at which measures were adopted to secure that end ; and 
 a committee was chosen to appear before the Legislative 
 Committee on Towns and support the petition of George 
 B. Talbot and 251 other legal voters within the limits of 
 the old parish lines, which were adopted with but little 
 variation for the new town of Norwood, except the 
 reception of a small territory and a few persons from 
 Walpole. The warrant for the Dedham Town Meeting 
 
 of January 22, 1872, contained the following article: 
 " To see what action the town will take in relation to 
 the petition to the General Court of George B. Talbot 
 and others, praying for the formation of a new town to 
 be composed of territory from the town of Dedham." It 
 was voted that the inhabitants of Dedham, assembled in 
 town meeting, were especially opposed to the setting off 
 of any inhabitants of Dedham who desire to remain in 
 the old town, and were also opposed to any inconvenient 
 division of the lands owned by the inhabitants of Ded- 
 ham, by the boundary lines of such new town ; and that, 
 in any event, such proposed new town shovild include 
 only the territory heretofore recognized as belonging to 
 the Second Parish. Also voted that the Selectmen be 
 authorized and instructed to appear before the Legislative 
 Committee and represent the interests of those persons 
 who may wish to remain with the town of Dedham. 
 
 Everything was quickly arranged, however, and on 
 February 23, 1872, the act was approved by the General 
 Court, incorporating the town of Norwood. The new 
 township comprised over 6,200 acres of land, situated in 
 the eastern part of Norfolk County. It is bounded on 
 the north by Dedham and Westwood, on the east by the 
 Neponset River, on the south by the Neponset River and 
 Sharon, and on the west by Walpole and Westwood. 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 There was considerable controversy over the naming of 
 the new town. Some of the names proposed were Ames, 
 Balch, Cedarville, Day, Elgin, Fairfax, Glenwood, 
 Hook, Irving, Judea, Kingsbury, Lyman, Montrose, 
 Nahatan, Norwood, Olney, Prescott, Qiieertown, Rum- 
 ford, Seneca, Tiot, Unadilla, Vernon and Winslow. 
 
 In "Recollections of Old South Dedham," a histori- 
 cal address delivered by Mrs. Marcia M. Winslow before 
 the Norwood Woman's Club, in December, 1903, and 
 published in the Norwood Messenger, it is stated that 
 Mr. Tyler Thayer suggested the name "Norwood." 
 Mr. Thayer found, in looking over an index of a United 
 States atlas, that there was but one Norwood in all the 
 states of the Union, and that was situated in Stanley 
 County, North Carolina. Mr. Thayer was pleased with 
 the name, as he said the name looked well in print, had 
 a pleasing sound, was easy to write, and as there was 
 only one town by this name in the country, he favored 
 Norwood for the name of the new town. His sugges- 
 tion was endorsed by the townspeople and the new town 
 named Norwood. It was learned after the town was 
 named that in England there is a Norwood, situated 
 near Dedham, and noted for her schools. 
 
 The valuation of Norwood in 1872 was $1,618,565, 
 and the population about 1,600. The valuation in 1904 
 
 was $5,127,735, and the population by the state census 
 of 1905 is 6,731 . 
 
 The town of Dedham lost about one-fifth of its 
 valuation and one-fourth of its population by the incor- 
 poration of Norwood. Dedham paid into the treasury 
 of the new town $6,500, as her share of the money that 
 had been raised by taxation and paid out on public 
 buildings. This money was deposited in the bank, and 
 several years later was used toward purchasing and lay- 
 ing out Highland Cemetery. 
 
 March 6, 1872, the townspeople celebrated the birth 
 of the town of Norwood. Governor Washburn was 
 present, also Senator Thomas L. Wakefield of Dedham. 
 The Dedham Board of Selectmen was represented by 
 A. B. Endicott and Benjamin Wetherbee. The warrant 
 for the first town meeting was drawn by Willard Gay. 
 Deacon George Lovis was chosen moderator, and the 
 following board of town officers were elected : 
 
 Selectmen, Samuel E. Pond, J. Edward Everett and 
 Willard Gay ; assessors, Tyler Thayer, Caleb Ellis and 
 George H. Morse; clerk, Francis Tinker; treasurer, 
 L.Waldo Bigelow; school committee, Hon. J. C. Park, 
 Francis O. Winslow and Rev. A. E. Wyman (Rev. 
 Theron Brown and George W. Gay were appointed to 
 take Mr. Park's and Mr. Wyman's places before the 
 
year was out, as these two gentlemen resigned) ; con- 
 stables, Captain C. W. Strout and James Engler. 
 
 The first action taken, after expressing their grateful 
 acknowledgment to the committee — John C. Park, 
 J. Warren Talbot and Caleb Ellis ^ — who had served 
 faithfully, was the following : 
 
 "Resolved, That the citizens of Norwood, in town 
 meeting assembled, recognize with grateful pleasure the 
 readiness and courtesy with which the citizens of Ded- 
 ham and Walpole have assisted us in the inauguration 
 of our new town, and that the clerk be instructed to 
 present a copy of this resolution to the Selectmen of 
 Dedham and Walpole." 
 
 Thvis was created the town of Norwood, soon to 
 take its place as one of the most enterprising and pros- 
 perous towns of Norfolk County, with a reputation from 
 its various productions which may, without exaggera- 
 tion, be called world-wide. It is significant to note that 
 the incorporation of the parish, and finally of the town, 
 grew out of the desire of the inhabitants for the best 
 opportunities for religious worship and education. It is 
 also noteworthy that since Norwood's books have gone 
 all over the country, the name has multiplied to a great 
 extent for towns throughout the United States. 
 
 This has always been a patriotic community, and 
 
 2 
 
 though the inhabitants have been a peace-loving people, 
 yet whenever war called for volunteers, they have fur- 
 nished their quota, who have done their duty well. The 
 first tradition of men from this community to do mili- 
 tary duty was in 1740, when the British government 
 fitted out an expedition against the Spanish West Indies, 
 and of the five hundred Massachusetts troops six men 
 from the South Parish in Dedham were among those 
 who perished. The names of only two have been pre- 
 served, Eleazer Farrington and Walter Hixon. In 1745, 
 during the French and Indian Wars, a number of men 
 from this community participated in the expedition 
 against Louisburg, under Colonel Pepperell, which re- 
 sulted in the capture of that stronghold. The Norwood 
 Old-Home Week Association erected a memorial to these 
 soldiers in 1903, at the corner of Washington and Guild 
 Streets, with suitable exercises and an address by Fred- 
 eric J. Stimson of Dedham. On the memorial are in- 
 scribed the names of Rev. Thomas Balch, John Thorp, 
 Captain Eleazer Fisher, Samuel Thorp, Lieutenant 
 Ebenezer Sumner, Michael Bright, William Weather- 
 bee, Hugh Delap and Samuel Weatherbee. Later, 
 during the same struggles with the French and Indians, 
 Captain Eliphalet Fales led his company through the 
 wilderness to Lake George, with Sergeant Moses Fisher,. 
 
VIEW PROM TOWER OF FLEMING'S BINDERY. 
 
 Small view taken from tower of old church twenty years ag'o. 
 
I 
 
 3 
 
 Corporal Benjamin Holden, William Woodcock, John 
 Hawse, John Scott, Ebenezer Everett and David Fair- 
 banks from the South Parish. Captain William Bacon's 
 muster roll, made October 1 1, 1756, show^s several names 
 from this community. 
 
 At the opening scenes of the Revolutionary War a 
 company of brave patriots from the South Parish, under 
 Captain William Bullard, hurried toward the scenes of 
 action which began at Lexington and Concord. 
 
 In Captain Joseph Guild's First Parish company, in 
 the northern campaign of 1775-1776, there were several 
 South Parish men, some of whom died near Ticonderoga. 
 In the expedition to Rhode Island to retake Newport, 
 sixty-five men marched from the South Parish in Captain 
 Ebenezer Everett's company. In Captain Alexander's 
 company were many familiar names. Captain John 
 Gay's West Parish company included several from this 
 community. Of Captain Aaron Guild's company of 
 three-months' men a large proportion were from the 
 South Parish. 
 
 In the Shays Insurrection of 1787 this community 
 stood loyally by the state and promptly responded to the 
 requisition upon Captain Gay for twelve men. 
 
 The Civil War brought forth a goodly number of 
 South Dedham men who marched to the defence of the 
 
 Union. Most of the first enlistments from this com- 
 munity were in Company F, 2d Massachusetts Volun- 
 teers, Company I, 24th Massachusetts Volunteers, and 
 Company D, 43d Massachusetts Volunteers, though 
 other regiments also had representatives from here. 
 
 There are Norwood residents who made an excellent 
 record in the Spanish War, as there are also some who 
 saw active and honorable service in the Philippines. 
 
 Turning from war to this community's record in 
 other lines, it is to be noted that it has long had the 
 reputation of a temperate community. In 1841, Rev. 
 Edwin Thompson, pastor of the Universalist Church, 
 began a campaign against the liquor traffic. He com- 
 menced at Joseph Sumner's hotel, and continued his 
 arguments, seconded by Mrs. Sumner and a few others, 
 till Mr. Sumner offered to stop selling liquor forever if 
 anyone would buy his stock on hand. Rev. Mr. Thomp- 
 son received but $300 a year salary, but he bought the 
 liquor and poured it in the street, pledging his salary 
 in payment; and Mr. Sumner kept his word. Norwood 
 has long kept in the list of no-license towns by a strong 
 majority. 
 
 Since its incorporation as a separate town the history 
 of Norwood reveals a steady, prosperous growth, with, 
 fortunately, nothing to record in the line of calamities, 
 
I 
 
 4 
 
 while special additions to its industries are described 
 elsewhere. Being outside of what is generally known as 
 "Greater Boston," this town has had an independence 
 of action and an enterprise which have given it a steady 
 and rapid growth in population and wealth. 
 
 The various industries which have been here since 
 the early days of the community, or have been estab- 
 lished since then, have grown and prospered. The 
 building of the New York, New Haven & Hartford 
 Railroad car shops here in 1876 was an event in the 
 industrial history of the town, and though much of the 
 work was transferred to Readville in 1903, yet Norwood 
 lost little, for the locomotive repairing was increased 
 here, and but a short time before this writing the rail- 
 road management has announced the intention to transfer 
 the locomotive repairing at New Haven to Norwood, 
 building a large plant to accommodate the work. 
 
 Norwood's splendid electric railroad facilities began 
 when the Norfolk Central Street Railroad built a line 
 through to Norwood from Dedham, connecting with the 
 Boston roads, in 1896. The Norfolk & Bristol Street 
 Railway connected with the towns and cities to the 
 
 south, even to Providence, soon after, and, by the build- 
 ing of the Norwood, Canton & Sharon line, the towns to 
 the east were made neighbors. 
 
 The p-ift to the town of the Morrill Memorial Li- 
 brary by Mr. and Mrs. George H. Morrill, in 1898, 
 marked an era in the literary history of the town which 
 cannot be overestimated. 
 
 In 1903, Henry O. Peabody, the famous fire-arm 
 manufacturer, died and left the bulk of his property for 
 the establishment of an industrial school for girls on the 
 King Gay farm, naming among the trustees Mr. Francis 
 O. Winslow of this town. It is probable that the school 
 will be built soon. 
 
 Thus, in this brief sketch, the writer has endeavored 
 to give an outline of the history of this community, 
 which, founded on a desire for worship and education, 
 promises much for the future. 
 
 [Note. — In Mr. Don Gleason Hill's Old-Home 
 Week address in 1903, he stated, "February 13, 1872, 
 the bill was passed incorporating the town of Nor- 
 wood." According to the "Acts of 1872," the bill was 
 approved February 23.] 
 
BUSINESS ASSOCIATION. 
 
 AT the annual meeting of the town of Norwood, in 
 the month of March and year 1891, a committee 
 was chosen to take into con- 
 sideration the introduction of new 
 business interests in the town. This 
 committee was appointed through the 
 instrumentahty of the late Judge John 
 C. Lane, and its personnel consisted 
 of the following prominent citizens : 
 Messrs. George S. Winslow, Lewis 
 Day, Edmund J. Shattuck, George B. 
 Talbot, Francis Doane, Thomas E. 
 Clary, J. P. Oldham, James M. Folan 
 and Rev. George Hill. The commit- 
 tee organized with George S. Wins- 
 low as chairman and Rev. George 
 Hill secretary. Over a period of sev- 
 eral months the members continued 
 their deliberations. Each recognized 
 the many advantages offered to new- 
 comers by the town, in its railroad 
 facilities, its abundance of unoccupied 
 land available for factory sites and 
 
 houses, its prosperous churches and well-ordered schools 
 and good government, and became convinced that with 
 a unanimity of endeavor on the part 
 of the citizens, new industries could 
 easily be attracted to our borders. 
 
 Assured that the business men of 
 the town were ready to co-operate in 
 any endeavor to further the material 
 development of the municipality, the 
 committee reported to the town meet- 
 ing in March, 1893, unanimously 
 recommending the appointment of a 
 committee with full power to form an 
 organization that would bring into a 
 body the citizens who were interested 
 in attracting new enterprises and new 
 home-seekers to our midst. 
 
 The report was unanimously 
 adopted and the same committee ap- 
 pointed to carry the recommenda- 
 tion into effect. Accepting the trust, 
 the committee organized with the 
 same officers as before, adding a 
 
i6 
 
 treasurer in the person of Mr. Francis Doane. The 
 secretary was authorized to compile a constitution and 
 code of by-laws for an organization to be known as 
 " The Norwood Business Association," and a call was 
 issued inviting all citizens interested to 
 meet on the evening of January 4, 1894, 
 at the store of James M. Folan, to adopt 
 the constitution and sign the same as 
 members of the Association. Fourteen 
 persons responded. 
 
 A committee was appointed at this 
 meeting to nominate a list of persons to 
 be elected permanent officers and to re- 
 port at an adjourned meeting, to be held 
 in the Everett School-house on January 
 1 1. At that meeting the following officers 
 were chosen : President, George S. Wins- 
 low ; vice-president, J. Stearns Gushing; 
 secretary. Rev. George Hill ; treasurer, 
 
 DR. H. LEON STEELE 
 
 Edgar L. Bigelow ; executive committee, secretary. 
 Lewis Day, James A. Hartshorn, Thomas 
 E. Clary, M. J. O'Brien and Frank A. Fales. Mr. 
 Winslow soon desiring to be relieved of active office, 
 J. Stearns Gushing succeeded to the presidency. He 
 was followed in turn by James A. Hartshorn, John G. 
 
 Lane, H. Allen Halstead, Frank A. Fales, J. Edward 
 Plimpton and James A. Halloran, and their several 
 administrations covered the twelve years of the Associa- 
 tion's activities to June of the current year. During 
 these years two secretaries only served 
 the organization, Rev. George Hill offici- 
 ating until his decease, in June, 1896, and 
 his successor, William T. Whedon, filling 
 the office for the succeeding nine years 
 ending last June. Edgar L. Bigelow has 
 had the distinctive honor of having been 
 treasurer from the very beginning. From 
 an organization starting with fourteen 
 members, the society has grown to a full 
 limited membership of one hundred and 
 fifty, with a waiting-list bearing a goodly 
 number of applicants for admission. En- 
 listed on its roll will be found the many 
 officials of the town with hardly an excep- 
 tion, also representatives of every manu- 
 facturing industry, as well as nearly all 
 the merchants, clergy and professional men of Norwood. 
 With all the varied and diversified interests of the town 
 thus represented, the organization has naturally come to 
 be in a large sense the town in miniature. From the 
 
very beginning it has been eminently a constructive 
 force. In the early days of the Business Association 
 the special idea which projected the organization mani- 
 fested itself in the bringing to town of the Norwood 
 Press, dedicated December 20, 1894, which industry 
 has, through its intimate connection with the literary 
 and educational public, heralded the name of our town 
 the world over. 
 
 With the growth and development of the town fol- 
 lowing the introduction of new business enterprises there 
 gathered a constantly increasing interest in the organiza- 
 tion and its endeavors. The constitution under which 
 the Business Association was working was soon found 
 to be inadeqviate to the demands and needs of a growing 
 organization, so on February 2, 1897, the present one of 
 more comprehensive scope was adopted. At that time 
 the name was changed to "The Norwood Business 
 Association and Board of Trade." Affiliation was made 
 
 with the Massachusetts State Board of Trade and the 
 influence of the organization lent in matters of state and 
 national concern. Yet with all these extraneous attrac- 
 tions the Association has never lost sight of the fact that 
 the mission of its founding is "to encourage the growth 
 and advance the business prosperity of the town," and,, 
 therefore, the endeavors of the organization, through its 
 regular monthly meetings, are given over largely to the 
 initiation of municipal projects and improvements, and 
 the discussion of town policies, in which the Association 
 has come to be a directive force in moulding public 
 opinion and inducing action in town meeting. The 
 directorate for the current year is as follows : President, 
 William T. Whedon ; vice-president, Clifford B. San- 
 born; secretary. Dr. H. Leon Steele; treasurer, Edgar 
 L. Bigelow; executive committee, Charles T. Wheelock, 
 Dr. F. S. Baston, Rev. E. B. Barber, Dr. J. J. Mulvehill 
 and George H. Smith. 
 
NORWOOD CHURCHES 
 
 FOUNDED first as a separate community from a 
 desire for better facilities for religious worship, 
 the church-going people of Norwood have re- 
 mained true to the traditions of their forefathers in their 
 endeavor to have all things which pertain to the church 
 life of the town of the highest standard. 
 
 The church buildings themselves are a credit to the 
 town, some of them being of such architectural beauty 
 as to call forth comment from visitors ; while the in- 
 teriors are fitted up in the manner demanded by the 
 needs of modern church life. 
 
 Situated near Boston, with the privilege so acces- 
 sible of hearing the most noted pulpit orators, Norwood 
 •church members have seen to it that their own pastors 
 were of the best. A remark was once made by a 
 ;gentleman sojourning in town, who had enjoyed unusual 
 privileges of hearing famous preachers, to the effect that 
 whatever Norwood church he might happen to go to on 
 any Sunday, Catholic or Protestant, he was sure of 
 hearing an excellent sermon if any local clergyman 
 
 preached. The efforts of the pastors toward raising the 
 standard of the young is being felt in the higher morale 
 of the town. Each church has its various societies, all 
 doing their work faithfully and well. 
 
 If the standard of a town can be judged by its 
 churches and schools, Norwood certainly should rank 
 high among the communities of the Commonwealth. 
 
 ijXf 
 
 METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
 The records of the Norwood Methodist Episcopal 
 Church show that in the year 1876 there was a flourish- 
 ing Sunday-school under Methodist leadership. Officers, 
 teachers and scholars numbered one hundred and twenty- 
 five. A pastor was in charge of the work, but there was 
 no building. After a year or two the work was dropped, 
 and was not taken up again until 1887. In that year a 
 1 church was organized, in the midst of some opposition, 
 
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
19 
 
 ■I 
 
 ■i 
 
 and services were held in the League Room, better 
 known now as the room used for the public library. To 
 have a larger place, meetings were later held in Odd 
 Fellows' Hall. In i88S the small chapel 
 on Day Street was built, at a cost of 
 $1,878, though considerable work was 
 done free, in addition. It would seat 
 eighty people. In this unsuitable single 
 room the work was carried on for over 
 eleven years. In 1900 the chapel was 
 sold. It is now an unsightly ruin by fire. 
 
 With the efficient aid of the Ladies' 
 Aid Society, the old mortgage was paid 
 off, and, after self-denying effort, a new 
 lot was purchased, a building erected, 
 and services begun in the vestry on 
 Christmas Sunday, 1900. Later, Mr. 
 George F. Willett, having donated one 
 thousand dollars, and given as a loan 
 five hundred more, the balance of the 
 money required to finish the house was 
 raised, and on September 8, 1901, the 
 church was dedicated. The building 
 cost over $6,000, all paid, but the cost 
 of the land, $2,000, is covered by mortgage, the interest 
 
 REV. W. R. VAUGHAN. 
 
 on which is a heavy burden to carry, in addition to the 
 repayment of the loan mentioned. The present officers 
 of the church are: Trustees, E. P. Chalmers (chair- 
 man), W. E. Mauger, I. H. Bigelow, 
 T. F. Wellington, James Blair, E. H. 
 Grant, Reuben Beck, Kenneth Mc- 
 Donald and F. A. Olmstead. Stewards, 
 I. H. Bigelow, W. E. Mauger, O. B. 
 Small, Mrs. E. H. Grant, Mrs. F. A, 
 Olmstead, E. P. Chalmers, Miss Annie 
 Davis, J. W. Falkins, Mrs. I. H. Bige- 
 low and Mrs. W. E. Mauger. Church 
 treasurer, W. E. Mauger. Recording 
 steward, E. P. Chalmers. 
 
 Rev. William Richardson Vaughan, 
 S. T. B., pastor of the Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church, is a native of Fries, Va, 
 He was educated in the Virginia public 
 schools. Southwestern Kansas College, 
 Vanderbilt University, School of The- 
 ology of Boston University and Harvard 
 University. Prior to coming here he 
 held Methodist pastorates at Effingham, 
 Kan., and Catlettsburg, Ky. He was 
 appointed pastor of the church here April 25, 1905. 
 
r. 
 
 ST. CATHERINE'S CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 This church has been standing about three-quarters 
 of a century. It was originally the meeting-house of the 
 Universalist Society, but in 1863 it was purchased by 
 Rev. Patrick O'Beirne, and remodeled in the usual 
 manner for use as a Catholic church. The 
 exercises of dedication were performed 
 August 3, 1863. Previous to this time 
 (in the later forties) the Catholic popula 
 tion had assembled at 
 the house of Patrick 
 Fay, on the corner of 
 Prospect and Nahatan 
 Streets. As their num- 
 bers increased. Union 
 Hall and Village Hall 
 were rented succes- 
 sively for occasional 
 gatherings. 
 
 As Norwood was 
 a part of Dedham, 
 known as South Ded- 
 ham, until 1872, there 
 was no established 
 
 ST. CATHERINE S CHURCH. 
 
 parish up to that time, it being a 
 mission attended by the priests from 
 Dedham. The Norwood parish was 
 created in 1890. The pastors who 
 officiated from 1863 to 1890 were 
 Rev. Patrick O'Beirne, Rev. John 
 P. Brennan, Rev. D. 
 J. O'Donovan and 
 Rev. Robert J. John- 
 son, in the order given. 
 The last named is now 
 at the Gate of Heaven 
 Church, South Boston. 
 Father Brennan be- 
 came pastor in 1866. 
 During his pastorate 
 the church was en- 
 larged. 
 
 The Rev. James B. 
 Troy, the present pas- 
 tor, came to Norwood 
 in April, 1890. The 
 parish contained at 
 thaft time 1,500 Catho- 
 lics. There has been 
 
21 
 
 an increase of about seventy per cent, during the last 
 ten years, and there are now over three thousand people 
 of the Catholic faith in the parish. 
 
 During this time, also, under the 
 wise and efficient charge of the pres- 
 ent pastor, much material as well as 
 spiritual progress has been made. The 
 corner property, to Nahatan Street, 
 has been purchased. The grounds 
 have been graded and beautified. 
 Curbing has been placed around 
 Washington and Nahatan Streets. 
 The parochial residence has been en- 
 larged and greatly improved. 
 
 The church has been entirely re- 
 newed ; there remains hardly anything 
 of the old structure but the outer 
 walls. The only thing remaining in- 
 side is the old organ, which still gives 
 good service. New windows, new 
 flooring, new pews, new altars, new 
 altar railings, new vestments — in truth 
 everything new in the furnishings have 
 replaced the old, and the march of progress is by no 
 means ended. A larger church eventually will have to 
 
 REV. JAMES B. TROY 
 
 be built to accommodate the increasing membership. 
 Best of all, it may be said at this time, everything has 
 been paid for ; there is no debt, and 
 there is a " balance on hand." 
 
 Rev. Father Troy was born in 
 Boston, October 12, 1854. He was 
 graduated from the Boylston Grammar 
 School in 1866, and from the Boston 
 Latin in 1872. He then attended St. 
 Charles College, Maryland, graduat- 
 ing in 1S73, afterwards completing a 
 course at St. Mary's Seminary, Balti- 
 more. He was at the latter institu- 
 tion ordained priest by Archbishop 
 (now Cardinal) Gibbons, in Decem- 
 ber, 1S77. 
 
 He was then sent as assistant to 
 St. Joseph's Church, Roxbury, and 
 was there until he came to Norwood 
 in I 890. 
 
 Father Troy has two assistants, 
 Rev. James F. Stanton and Rev. 
 Thomas J. Golding. Father Stanton 
 was born in Worcester County in 1867. His parents 
 moved when he was very young to Needham, Mass. 
 
Here he attended school, graduating from the Needham 
 High. Afterwards he attended Boston College and 
 St. John's Seminary, 
 Brighton. He was 
 ordained priest in 
 1892. He was first 
 sent to St. Joseph's 
 Church, Roxbury, as 
 an assistant, and in 
 the fall of 1893 came 
 to Norwood, where 
 he has remained. 
 
 Father Golding 
 was born in Boston 
 in 1875. He gradu- 
 ated from Boston 
 College and St. 
 John's Seminary. 
 Ordained as a priest 
 in December, 1899, 
 he was sent to Nor- 
 wood as an assistant 
 to Father Troy. 
 
 The societies of the church are a good indication of 
 its growth and life. They are as follows : The Holy 
 
 REV. JAMES F. STANTON. 
 
 Name Society of Men, 300 members; Married Women's 
 Sodality, 200 members ; Unmarried Women's Sodality, 
 
 180 members; Chil- 
 dren of Mary, for 
 young girls under 
 sixteen, 120 mem- 
 bers ; St. Aloysius 
 Society, for boys 
 under sixteen, 100 
 members ; League of 
 the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment (about three 
 thousand visits a 
 month are made to 
 the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment by the mem- 
 
 IIH^Hk^ jgamm^Km ^^^^ of the League) . 
 ^^^^HbHjjj^^^^^^H St. Catherine's Total 
 HHj^^H^H^^^^^Hj Abstinence Society, 
 
 for young men, has 
 upwards of one hun- 
 dred members. The 
 Sunday-school holds 
 two sessions in the church building in the afternoon, and 
 has an enrollment of about 650 children. 
 
 REV. THOMAS J. GOLDING. 
 
THE FIRST UNIVER- 
 SALIST CHURCH. 
 
 Organized Univer- 
 sal ism in Norwood 
 dates from September 
 8, 1827. At that time 
 a paper was circulated 
 among the people of 
 South Dedham and vi- 
 cinity who entertained 
 liberal views, looking 
 to the formation of a 
 parish which should 
 stand as the represen- 
 tative of these senti- 
 ments. Fifty-two 
 signatures were ob- 
 tained, among which 
 were the names of 
 Jabez Sumner, Jona- 
 than Bird, Leonard 
 Everett, Newell Guild, 
 William Guild, Reu- 
 ben R. Gav, Seth E. 
 
 Smith, Paul Ellis, 
 Lewis Rhodes, Eli- 
 phalet Rhodes, Jr., 
 George W i n s 1 o w , 
 Enoch Talbot, Jr., 
 Royal Ellis, John 
 Smith, 2d, Nehemiah 
 Fales and Nathaniel 
 Sumner. 
 
 A month later a 
 warrant was issued, 
 calling a meeting of 
 the signers for Mon- 
 day evening, October 
 22, in Joseph's Sum- 
 ner's hall, where the 
 organization was per- 
 fected and the proper 
 officers chosen. 
 
 These were the days 
 of theological debate. 
 Opinions were advo- 
 cated or attacked with 
 vigor, and, in conse- 
 quence, the young 
 
24 
 
 parish and its thought were seriously opposed ; but they 
 had the courage of their convictions and proceeded to 
 call a pastor, Rev. J. C. Waldo, and 
 erect a house of worship, on the lot 
 where the Catholic Church now stands, 
 which was dedicated January 14, 1830, 
 Rev. Thomas Whittemore preaching 
 the sermon from the text, Ezra v. 11 : 
 "We are the servants of the God of 
 heaven and earth, and build the house 
 that was builded these many years 
 ago." Rev. Hosea Ballou made the 
 dedicatory prayer. So far as the 
 writer knows, Miss Evelyn Rhodes of 
 Norwood is the only person now liv- 
 ing who was present at the service of 
 dedication. Able pastors served the 
 church in its days of beginning, among 
 them Rev. Rufus Pope. He attacked 
 the tavern as a liquor nuisance, and 
 was the first man to publicly strike a 
 blow for temperance in South Ded- 
 ham. Rev. Edwin Thompson, who 
 began his pastorate in 1840, succeeded, at great per- 
 sonal sacrifice, in closing the tavern bar. The years 
 
 REV. EI-LIOT BATES BARBER 
 
 following were marked by a gratifying growth of the 
 society. A bell was placed in the tower, and many 
 other improvements were added to the 
 property, and new families were being 
 added constantly. 
 
 In 1855, Rev. Ebenezer Fisher 
 became pastor. He was a man of re- 
 markable gifts, and combined with 
 great scholarship rare executive 
 power. The parish greatly prospered. 
 An addition was put on the front of 
 the building, the church was organized 
 and a pipe-organ installed. In 1858, 
 Rev. Mr. Fisher resigned to become 
 president of the Canton Theological 
 School, N Y. 
 
 At a meeting, held March 9, 1863, 
 it was voted to sell the old meeting- 
 house and build a new one. Rev. Pat- 
 rick O'Beirne of Roxbury purchased 
 the property in the interests of the 
 Catholic people of the town, and, with 
 additions, it is the Catholic Church of 
 to-day. The new church was erected on the lot at the 
 corner of Washington and Nahatan Streets, Rev. M. R. 
 
25 
 
 Leonard being the pastor at the time. Mr. Tyler Thayer 
 was the contractor, the whole cost of the structure being 
 $16,270.44. It was dedicated with impressive services, 
 February 11, 1864. 
 
 Rev. George Hill succeeded Mr. Leonard, February 
 3, 1865, and was pastor for seventeen years. During 
 this time the semi-centennial was celebrated, October 32, 
 1877, with fitting services. It is worthy of note that 
 Mr. Hill chose as the text of his sermon the same text 
 used by Rev. Mr. Whittemore at the dedication. Mr. 
 Hill was an able preacher and a man of rare personality. 
 He was largely instrumental in founding the Norwood 
 Business Association, and became its first secretary. He 
 was always actively interested for the town's welfare and 
 recognized as one of her first citizens. 
 
 Rev. W. C. Selleck succeeded Mr. Hill, who, after 
 a short pastorate, was succeeded by Rev. G.I. Keirn in 
 1S84. On November 19 of this year the beautiful church 
 edifice burned to the ground. It was a dramatic spec- 
 tacle, but a very sorry sight to the members of the parish. 
 The society, however, under the lead of its pastor, im- 
 mediately took action to erect a new building, and the 
 corner-stone of the present beautiful structure was laid, 
 September 21, 1885, the Grand Lodge of Free and 
 Accepted Masons of Massachusetts assisting in the cere- 
 
 mony. The church was consecrated December 22, 1886. 
 M. H. Howard, Timothy Shea and Mack & Lucas were 
 the builders. 
 
 Mr. Keirns resigned in 1887, and was succeeded by 
 Rev. Dr. H. R. Nye, who, after a brief pastorate, died 
 January 17, 1889, greatly beloved by all. 
 
 Dr. Nye was succeeded by Rev. Charles Nickerson, 
 in whose pastorate the mortgage on the chvirch was can- 
 celed, to the great joy of the pastor and people. 
 
 Rev. W. B. Eddy succeeded Mr. Nickerson in the 
 spring of 1892. The vesper services were inaugurated 
 in the early days of this pastorate, which proved most 
 attractive and became a prominent feature of the church 
 life of the town. On October 22, 1902, the seventy- 
 fifth anniversary of the founding of the church was cel- 
 ebrated with appropriate services in both the afternoon 
 and evening. After serving the church for eleven years 
 Mr. Eddy was succeeded in December, 1903, by the 
 present pastor. Rev. Elliot B. Barber. 
 
 Rev. Elliot Bates Barber was born in Norwich, 
 Conn., of sturdy New England parents, on the paternal 
 side tracing their descent from almost the earliest colo- 
 nial settlement, George Barber having been one of the 
 signers of the famous compact in the founding of the 
 town of Dedham. Mr. Barber attended the public 
 
26 
 
 schools of his native city, also the Free Academy, after 
 which he was engaged in business for two years. In 
 1882 he entered the Divinity department of Tufts Col- 
 lege, taking his degree in 1886. His first pastoral work 
 was at North Orange, Mass., from which place he was 
 soon called to Bristol, N. Y., then the largest rural par- 
 ish of the denomination in the state. On October 10 
 following his settlement there he was married to Minerva 
 Anne Johnson. After a successful pastorate he accepted 
 work in what was then a mission field, Newark, N. J. 
 Property was repaired, the interior made new and the 
 congregation greatly strengthened. In 1892 he accepted 
 a call to Gardiner and Hallowell, Me. During his pastor- 
 ate, for nearly three years he was superintendent of the 
 cities' schools. In January, 1900, Mr. Barber was called 
 to the Westbrook Universalist Church. The early part 
 of his pastorate was largely occupied in getting church 
 property into good condition, and extensive repairs were 
 made. A series of Layman's Vespers were inaugurated, 
 which proved to be a very real service to the city. Prom- 
 inent layinen were invited to give addresses in place of 
 the evening sermon upon topics of reform or religion. 
 The subjects discussed as well as the personnel of the 
 speakers commanded a crowded house at each service. 
 During his pastorate Mr. Barber interested himself con- 
 
 siderably in the political life of the city. In December, 
 1903, he began his pastorate in Norwood. During this 
 time the Vesper services have been maintained, the 
 Boys' Camp inaugurated, and at present the reorganiza- 
 tion of the Sunday-school is in progress. 
 
 FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 
 
 The Second or South Parish in Dedham was incor- 
 porated October 10, 1730, but the organization of the 
 church was not effected till a few years later. January 
 4, 1734, the record reads : "Voted to build a meeting- 
 house on the land formerly of Ebenezer Dean." June 
 23, 1736, was observed as a day of fasting and prayer, 
 and the church was organized with fifteen male mem- 
 bers. June 30 Rev. Thomas Balch was ordained as its 
 pastor. Capt. Ezra Morse, Mr. John Dean, Mr. John 
 Everett and Mr. Ebenzer Everett were the first deacons. 
 The first meeting-house occupied very nearly the site of 
 the present church building. It was 40 feet long and 36 
 feet wide. In the summer of 1745 Rev. Mr. Balch and 
 several members of the church went to take part in the 
 siege of Louisburg. In 1745 it was voted "to take down 
 
27 
 
 the hindermost body seats in the meeting-house to accom- 
 modate the women that bring children to the meeting." 
 In 175 1 "twelve persons were chosen to oversee the boys 
 on the Lord's day." 
 
 Rev. Mr. Balchwas 
 a man of remarkable 
 piety, a graduate of 
 Harvard, "exemplify- 
 ing friendship and 
 brotherly love, inter- 
 ested in the young peo- 
 ple of his charge, a 
 preacher of great abil- 
 ity, honored and be- 
 loved by his people in 
 an unusual degree." 
 His home, the first 
 parsonage, stood on the 
 hill back of the elms on 
 Walpole Street, north 
 of the site of the Mor- 
 rill Library. After a 
 ministry of thirty- 
 seven years, Mr. Balch 
 died, January 8, 1774, 
 
 FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 
 
 aged sixty -two. In 1 770 the church moved into its second 
 meeting-house, situated near the present Norwood Cen- 
 tral Station. Rev. Jabez Chickering was ordained pastor 
 
 July 3, 1776. Mr. 
 Chickering married 
 the daughter of Mr. 
 Balch. He was a very 
 generous man, expend- 
 ing a large part of his 
 salary in relieving ob- 
 jects of distress in his 
 vicinity. The youth of 
 to-day should hold him 
 in kind remembrance, 
 for he really laid the 
 foundation of our Pub- 
 lic Library. In the 
 fifty-eighth year of his 
 age and the thirty-fifth 
 of his ministry. Rev. 
 Mr. Chickering died, 
 March 12, 1812. 
 
 Rev. William Cogs- 
 well was ordained 
 pastor April 26, 1815. 
 
 * 
 
Under his ministry the church moved into its third 
 meeting-house, situated near the Norwood Press, over- 
 looking the valley near Winslow Station. The building 
 was dedicated October 9, 1828. During 
 the early part of this year thirty-five 
 members closed their connection with 
 the church to form the Universalist So- 
 ciety. On December 16, 1S29, Rev. 
 Mr. Cogswell resigned, after a pastorate 
 of fourteen years, and Rev. H. G. Park 
 was ordained the next day, and con- 
 tinued to be pastor till September 23, 
 1835. On March 2, 1836, Mr. Calvin 
 Durfee was installed, and preached for 
 fifteen years, till 185 1. From October, 
 185 1, till August II, 1866, another 
 period of fifteen years. Rev. M. M. 
 Colburn was the pastor and teacher. 
 
 October i, 1866, Rev. Joseph P. 
 Bixby commenced his labors as pastor. 
 May, 1878, after twelve years of active 
 labor, he tendered his resignation. rev. Arthur 
 
 Rev. Ellis Mendell was ordained 
 June 4, 1879. During his ministry the present church 
 was erected on the site where the original first meeting- 
 
 house was erected in 1 736 — a spot marked out by a 
 committee of the "Great and General Court" in 1734, 
 where the fathers of the church covenanted to walk to- 
 gether in peace and love. The church 
 building cost $20,000, the land $1,500 
 additional. The amount was fully paid 
 by voluntary subscription before dedi- 
 cation. Mr. F. O. Winslow, Mr. C. 
 WiUis Morse and Mr. WilHam A.Wil- 
 liamson were the building committee. 
 Memorial windows were donated by 
 Mr. Richard Briggs of Boston, in honor 
 of his ancestors : Rev. Thomas Balch 
 and Mary Sumner, his wife ; Rev. Jabez 
 Chickering and Hannah Balch, his 
 wife ; Dr. John K. Briggs and Hannah 
 Chickering, his wife. 
 
 Rev. Ellis Mendell, to whose untir- 
 ing efforts the building of the present 
 church was due, was a pastor beloved 
 by all. Bright and cheerful, with a 
 winning personality, helpful and un- 
 selfish, and a good friend to everybody 
 who needed help and sympathy, he became universally 
 loved and it was with many painful regrets that he was 
 
 OWE PINGREE. 
 
29 
 
 dismissed to take up the work in the Boylston Church, 
 after a pastorate of ten years, November 23, iSSS. 
 
 On December 11, 1889, Rev. A. L. Loder was in- 
 stalled as pastor. During his ministry the present parson- 
 age w^as built at a cost of $7,500; Dr. L. H. Plimpton, 
 Mr. E. H. Morrill and Mr. F. O. Winslow, building com- 
 mittee. On April 13, 1894, Rev. Mr. Loder tendered his 
 resignation, and on October i, 1895, Rev. Charles F. 
 Weeden vs^as installed as pastor. During his ministry, at 
 a meeting of the Suffolk South Conference, Rev. D. L. 
 Moody, the noted evangelist, made the address. It was 
 his last address in New England and will long be re- 
 membered by those who heard it. On December 13, 
 1900, after a pastorate of five years, Rev. Mr. Weeden 
 resigned to accept a call to the Central Congregational 
 Church of Lynn, Mass. 
 
 On November 13, 1902, Rev. Arthur H. Fingree, 
 the present pastor, was installed. The present church 
 membership is 252. The membership of the Sunday- 
 school is 325, The following organizations are con- 
 nected with the church : The Women's Union, includ- 
 ing the Women's Benevolent Society, the Foreign and 
 Home Missionary Departments. Young People's So- 
 ciety of Christian Endeavor. Young People's Union. 
 " The Little Women." " The Phi Alphas." 
 
 THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH. 
 
 The First Baptist Church of Norwood, centrally lo- 
 cated on Washington street at the foot of Vernon street, 
 is a church which is nearly always well attended, and 
 its history calls up the names of a number of prominent 
 old families, such as the Morses, the Bakers, the Boydens 
 and many others which will occur readily to old-time 
 residents. The church was organized in South Dedham, 
 now Norwood, in 185S, with a constituent membership 
 of 4|. It was really a branch, in its earlier history, of 
 the West Dedham Baptist Church, which was itself an 
 offshoot of the Baptist Church in Medfield. The first 
 pastor was Rev. Joseph B. Breed, 
 
 The present church meeting-house was publicly ded- 
 icated December i, 1859. Some ten years ago the inte- 
 rior of the church was considerably improved, memorial 
 stained glass windows were put in and the church other- 
 wise beautified. The present membership of the church 
 is 175. The Sunday-school has an enrollment of 200. 
 It has a men's class of 35 members. 
 
 Rev. Milford R. Foshay, the present pastor, has been 
 officiating in that capacity for about a year. He came 
 here from the Newton Theological Seminary, having 
 held a pastorate at Osterville, Mass., during his semin- 
 
ary course. Previous 
 to that time he had 
 held, for three years, 
 a pastorate in Ver- 
 mont. He graduated 
 from Acadia Univer- 
 sity in Wolfville, N. 
 S., in 1899. He is a 
 native of Yarmouth, 
 and is the son of a 
 clergyman w^ell know^n 
 in the Baptist denomi- 
 nation. 
 
 The church building 
 is one of the most cen- 
 trally located religious 
 edifices in town. It is 
 very active in its social 
 organizati ons, has 
 largely attended and 
 well managed Chris- 
 tian Endeavor and Ju- 
 nior Endeavor soci- 
 eties, a ladies' sewing 
 circle which gives 
 
 FIRST BAPTIST 
 
 many suppers and en- 
 tertainments d VI r i n g 
 the winter months, 
 and a social side to all 
 its work which much 
 attracts children and 
 young people. 
 
 A former pastor, 
 Rev. Geo. W. Nead, 
 did much toward 
 forming a men's class 
 in the Sunday-school. 
 The idea was perfected 
 under the next pastor, 
 Rev. Frank A. Heath, 
 and it was decided that 
 the class should have 
 a name. It was finally 
 thought best to name 
 the class after a prom- 
 inent worker in the 
 church and Sunday- 
 school, the late Henry 
 Woods. This class is 
 independent of the 
 
31 
 
 main school and holds its exercises in the balcony of the 
 church, which by means of curtains is made a separate 
 room. There have been some 35 or 
 40 men, young and old, connected 
 with the class, and this in past seasons 
 made a great success of men's socials. 
 It is taught by the pastor, Rev. M. R. 
 Foshay, with Herbert S. Chickering 
 as assistant teacher. Its president is 
 Charles M. Thompson, and its vice- 
 president Charles I. Davis. The su- 
 perintendent of the Sunday-school is 
 William Thomson. Among promi- 
 nent workers in the juvenile depart- 
 ment of the school are Mrs. H. D. 
 Fisher, superintendent, and Miss Fan- 
 nie Taylor, assistant superintendent. 
 The church has a large, efficient cho- 
 rus choir, under the direction of the 
 organist, Mrs. H. S. Chickering. 
 Herbert D. Fisher is church clerk, and 
 among the deacons are Orrin T. Leach 
 H. D. Fisher and James H. Hadden. 
 
 The Baptist people are eminently social and kindly 
 in their treatment of strangers. The church has, prob- 
 
 REV. MILFORD R. FOSHAY 
 
 ably, in proportion to its church attendance, the largest 
 active membership of any Protestant church in town. 
 
 Its pastors have been men who have 
 worked with an especial attention to 
 results, and the church's growth in 
 about half a century of existence has, 
 on the whole, been remarkably steady, 
 healthy and encouraging. The same 
 old line of church workers have la- 
 bored for the church's spiritual and 
 temporal interests and the spiritual in- 
 terests have never been subordinated 
 to the temporal ones. While the 
 church gives many social entertain- 
 ments, largely of the minor and con- 
 ventional kind, it has always laid a 
 strong emphasis on the religious side 
 of its efforts. The present pastor. Rev. 
 Mr. Foshay, while eminently quiet, 
 modest and dignified in his methods, 
 has been singularly earnest and devo- 
 ted in his religious spirit and his efforts 
 have been highly satisfactory. Though 
 a young man he is of marked personality and though 
 modest and unassuming he has plenty of assertiveness. 
 
♦ 
 
 GRACE EPISCOPAL MISSION. 
 
 Some years ago, services of the Episcopal Church 
 were held in Norwood by Rev. J. C. Hewlett of Roslin- 
 dale. This clergyman labored success- 
 fully and held together the devoted 
 band of church people. Unforeseen 
 circumstances made it impracticable to 
 continue these services, and they were 
 abandoned. 
 
 After a lapse of several years, the 
 Rev. J. P. Hawkes of St. Paul's 
 Church, Dedham, took an interest in 
 the growing demands of the chvirch 
 people for a liturgical service, and 
 every Sunday evening, in Odd Fel- 
 lows' Hall, he officiated and interested 
 a large number of the unchurched. 
 He was obliged to interrupt these 
 services because of various changes 
 which were then beyond any human 
 control, and they were finally sus- 
 pended till they came more directly 
 under the management of the Diocesan 
 Board of Missions. This Board can- 
 
 REV. ALBERT E. GEORGE. 
 
 vassed the town in 1904, through a representative. It 
 was found that a large number of families belonged to 
 the church. The Rev. Albert E. George of Walpole 
 had already gone among them and encouraged their 
 attendance upon the services in the 
 Church of Epiphany. 
 
 Many availed themselves of this 
 opportunity. It was, however, evident 
 that the larger increase of the church 
 people in the town indicated that the 
 time was ripe for the restoration of 
 the church service. In March, 1905, 
 Rev. Mr. George held services in Odd 
 Fellows' Hall, with the assurance that 
 the Diocesan Board of Missions would 
 give him every encouragement. Ser- 
 vices are now held regularly in this 
 place every Sunday evening at seven 
 o'clock. They are well attended. The 
 mission has been organized, and is 
 under the care of Archdeacon Bab- 
 cock, who has now declared that the 
 experimental stage of the mission has 
 passed, and the people will always be 
 assured of services in the future. 
 
SWEDISH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH. 
 
 The first distinctive Swedish religious service in Nor- 
 wood appears to have been a Swedish Sunday-school in 
 the Norwood Congregational Church, first held about 
 1889, or, possibly, a little earlier. This continued until 
 it was merged in the union meetings of the Swedish 
 Congregationalists, Lutherans and Baptists, which were 
 begun in a hall at the corner of Chapel and Cedar 
 Streets, about May, 1895. When the other denomina- 
 tions began to hold separate meetings, some of the Con- 
 gregationalists attended the Baptist meetings and some 
 the Lutheran. In June, 1903, the Congregationalists 
 began to hold services in the homes of the members, and 
 in November of that year they began to build a church 
 on Savin Avenue. February 18, 1903, the first meeting 
 was held in the basement, and June 10, 1903, the build- 
 ing was dedicated. A Sunday-school was organized 
 February 25, 1903. On March 21, 1904, the Norwood 
 Swedish Congregationalists formally organized as a 
 church. A Ladies' Sewing Circle was organized in the 
 autumn of 1902, and a Young People's Society in the 
 winter of 1904- 1905. An orchestra furnishes music at 
 Sunday services. Rev. G. A. Suber, the present pastor, 
 assumed the pastorate in the fall of 1905. 
 
 SWEDISH BAPTIST CHURCH. 
 
 The inception of a distinctive Swedish Baptist relig- 
 ious society in Norwood commenced back in 1890, when 
 a Ladies' Sewing Circle was formed among them. In 
 1895 the Swedish Baptists joined with the Congrega- 
 tionalists and Lutherans in the union services in the hall 
 on Chapel and Cedar Streets. In 1897 the Baptists began 
 to hold separate services, and in 1898 were incorporated 
 as a mission of the Swedish Baptist Church in Boston. 
 June 10, 1898, they dedicated their chapel on Cedar 
 Street, which they had built. A Sunday-school was 
 organized that year, a Young People's Society in 1899, 
 and a Missionary Circle in 1900. The membership and 
 attendance increased so that they found the chapel too 
 small, and in 1902 they commenced a new church build- 
 ing on Chapel Street, opposite Savin Avenue, and dedi- 
 cated it December 21, 1902, having organized a church 
 the previous day. Rev. A. Kallgren was pastor at the 
 time of the dedication, and among those who took part 
 from other Norwood societies were Mr. Francis O. 
 Winslow, Rev. George W. Nead, and members of the 
 German Baptist Sunday-school, also several prominent 
 Baptists from Boston and other places. Rev. A. G. 
 Linde is the present pastor. 
 
34 
 
 SWEDISH LUTHERAN EVANGELICAL EMMANUEL 
 
 CHURCH. 
 
 The Swedish Lutherans joined with the Baptists and 
 CongregationaHsts in union services, commencing in 
 May, 189^. When the union meetings were discon- 
 tinued, about two years later, the Lutherans met at the 
 homes of members, and on April 11, 1898, organized a 
 church. In the fall of that year work was commenced 
 on a church building on Cedar Street, and April 30, 
 1899, it was dedicated. A Ladies' Sewing Circle was 
 organized in 1898, a Sunday-school in January, 1899, 
 and a Yovxng People's Society, February 7, 1903. A 
 sick benefit society is connected with the church, in two 
 ■divisions. The church, when first built, cost about 
 $1,900. Then a basement was built, fitted up with 
 Sunday-school rooms and kitchen, at a cost of $800. 
 
 In the winter of 1904- 1905 the church was enlarged 
 and an addition built on the back, at a cost of $700. A 
 new pastor has accepted a call, Rev. A. M. L. Herenius, 
 and probably will be installed before Christmas, 1905. 
 
 (J^ 
 
 GERMAN SERVICES. 
 
 The German Baptists organized in Norwood April, 
 1900, and hold services in the Swedish Baptist Church. 
 Rev. O. F. Pistor is pastor. 
 
 The German Lutherans organized in Norwood Octo- 
 ber, 1 90 1, and hold services in the Swedish Lutheran 
 Church. Rev. Frederick C. Wurl of East Boston is the 
 pastor. 
 
PUBLIC 
 
 THE education of the children in Norwood is pro- 
 vided for in seven buildings : the High School, 
 the Everett, the Guild, the Edmund J. Shattuck, 
 the East, the West, and the Balch. All these buildings 
 have effective systems of ventilation ; in most of them, 
 the supply of fresh air is abundant. In other respects, 
 a good standard of hygienic conditions is maintained. 
 Thus the health, the comfort, and the happiness of chil- 
 dren and teachers are considered worthy of serious and 
 painstaking attention. 
 
 There are thirty-three schools and forty -four teachers, 
 including the supervisors of music, drawing, and sewing. 
 At this writing (September 30, 1905) the actual member- 
 ship is 1,492. During the school year i904-'o5, 1,520 
 children were enrolled ; the average membership was 
 1 ,392, the average attendance i ,300. The school census, 
 showing the number of children between five and fifteen 
 years old in town September 1, 1905, was 1,370. 
 
 It is interesting to note how these items of population 
 and attendance compare with those of other towns. In 
 the following table, 1,453 is the enrollment reported to 
 the state authorities, which is found by deducting from 
 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 1,520 the number of children, 67, who came from other 
 towns in the state. In the previous year the number 
 coming from other towns w^as 57. 
 
 Towns. 
 
 Winthrop, 
 
 Montague, 
 
 Whitman, 
 
 Stoneham, 
 
 Milton, 
 
 Norwood, 
 
 Andover, 
 
 Middleboro, 
 
 Northbridge, 
 
 Athol, 
 
 N. Attleboro, 
 
 Dedham, 
 
 Marblehead, 
 
 Spencer, 
 
 Palmer, 
 
 0 
 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 OS 
 
 On 
 
 OJ 1- 
 
 > a 
 03 
 
 6 
 
 1) IS 
 
 " !r! 
 
 a « 
 
 C 
 
 .2 
 
 C 
 
 0 
 
 l-H M 
 
 V 
 
 u _o 
 
 > e 
 
 > V 
 
 a, 
 
 'd 
 
 Oh 
 
 6 ^ 
 
 :-■ 
 C 
 W 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 cu 
 
 o, 
 
 Z ^ 
 
 
 
 
 6,058 
 
 7,034 
 
 1,177 
 
 1,320 
 1,408 
 
 1,115 
 
 1,01 1 
 987 
 
 6,150 
 
 7,015 
 
 1,158 
 
 1,068 
 
 6,155 
 
 6,520 
 
 1,078 
 
 1,227 
 
 1,116 
 
 1,018 
 
 6,197 
 
 6,578 
 
 6,320 
 
 1,003 
 
 1,129 
 
 1,050 
 
 970 
 
 7,051 
 
 1,247 
 
 1,528 
 
 1,333 
 
 1 ,202 
 
 5,480 
 
 6,813 
 
 6,885 
 
 6,731 
 
 6,630 
 
 1,370 
 
 1 ,453 
 
 1,392 
 
 1,300 
 
 1,137 
 
 1,138 
 1,346 
 
 1,112 
 
 1,027 
 
 6,888 
 
 1,090 
 1,366 
 
 1,153 
 
 1,049 
 
 7,036 
 
 7,395 
 
 1,473 
 
 1,267 
 
 1,199 
 
 7,061 
 
 7,196 
 7,878 
 
 1,199 
 
 1,203 
 1,338 
 
 1 ,061 
 
 986 
 
 7,253 
 
 1,254 
 
 1,194 
 1,436 
 
 1,079 
 1,306 
 
 7,457 
 
 7,774 
 
 1,294 
 
 1,663 
 
 7,582 
 
 7,209 
 
 1,073 
 
 1,216 
 
 1,152 
 
 1 ,042 
 
 7,627 
 
 6,963 
 
 1,391 
 
 1,191 
 
 1 ,05 I 
 
 978 
 
 935 
 
 7,801 
 
 7,755 
 
 1,290 
 
 1,192 
 
 901 
 
36 
 
 The preceding is a list of fourteen towns whose 
 population extends from 6,000 to 8,000 (exclusive of 
 the latter) by the 
 census of 1900, not in- 
 cluding any whose 
 population reached 
 8,000 in the count of 
 1905. The list in- 
 cludes all the towns in 
 the state within these 
 limits. The statistics 
 for school population 
 and attendance are for 
 the school year 1902— 
 '03, the latest returns 
 accessible, excepting 
 Norwood, whose sta- 
 tistics apply to the last 
 school year, i904-'o5. 
 The other towns are 
 thus placed at an ad- 
 vantage, with refer- 
 ence to the census of 
 
 1900, because the statistics are two or three years later 
 than that, whereas the statistics for Norwood are prac- 
 
 SHATTUCK SCHOOL. 
 
 tically contemporaneous with the count of 1905. No 
 towns of less than 6,000 are included, because Norwood's 
 
 statistics of i902-'03, 
 in every item, exceed 
 those of every other 
 town of its population 
 (5,480 in 1900) in the 
 state. 
 
 It seems to be true, 
 then, that, on equal 
 terms at least, no town 
 in the Commonwealth 
 makes provision for so 
 large a number of chil- 
 dren as does Norwood. 
 
 During the last five 
 years the population of 
 the town has increased 
 23 per cent. ; its school 
 population, 27 per 
 cent. In the last ten 
 years the increase of 
 the former was about 
 47 per cent. ; the latter, 69 per cent. 
 
 The town can afford a high standard of education. Its 
 
valuation is high, its tax rate comparatively low ; the 
 former being $5,421,670, the latter $17.40. It need 
 not, it would not, tolerate conditions to which other less 
 favored communities must submit. It has a firm hand on 
 its patronage and investments. It is cautious and wary 
 in the disposal of its franchises, conservative in engaging 
 in enterprises that would involve itself heavily in debt. It 
 regards education a good invest- 
 ment, a valuable asset. It desires 
 to provide better privileges for 
 the children than the fathers en- 
 joyed. Like the wise and hope- 
 ful parent, it is willing even to 
 sacrifice something to secure 
 that for the children which will 
 place them at an advantage in 
 the world. 
 
 In the fiscal year of 1904, 
 the town expended $36,424.96 for its schools from 
 money raised by taxation, which was about $26.50 per 
 pupil. It gave each pupil $2.10 for text-books and 
 supplies for the same period. 
 
 In the last State Report, Norwood is recorded as 
 standing number 73, among the 353 towns and cities of 
 the state, in the amount raised by local taxation for the 
 
 HIGH 
 
 support of each child in the average membership. It 
 ranked number 20 in the amount appropriated for each 
 thousand dollars of valuation. 
 
 There are nine grades below the High School. The 
 average child, therefore, is enabled to secure a good 
 preparation for high school work ; but opportunities 
 are provided whereby pupils of superior scholarship can 
 
 enter the High School in less 
 than the nine years prescribed. 
 
 The High School is an ob- 
 ject of especial interest, care, 
 and pride of the committee and 
 the community. It is recognized 
 that this institution is the peo- 
 ple's college, and an earnest 
 endeavor has been made to pro- 
 vide ample accommodations, 
 appliances, and teaching force. 
 Seven teachers are employed in the High School, 
 every one of them a college graduate ; several of them 
 have pursued a year or more of post-graduate study, the 
 better to fit them for the lines of work they have chosen. 
 Among the colleges represented in the corps are Am- 
 herst, Boston University, Brown University, Wellesley, 
 and Cornell. As there are at present about one hundred 
 
 OOL. 
 
38 
 
 and fifty students, there is one teacher for every twenty- 
 one pupils, which is a good showing and is a guaranty 
 that every pupil can have attention corresponding to his 
 needs. 
 
 Danvers, Natick, and Wakefield are said to lead the 
 state in the number of teachers in their high schools for 
 the population. They each 
 have one teacher for about 900 
 inhabitants. Norwood High 
 School is practically in the 
 same class, since it has one 
 teacher for 970 of its popula- 
 tion. The average in the state 
 is one for every 1,400. But 
 while Norwood is second to 
 these towns in this respect, it 
 leads them in its ratio of 
 teachers to pupils, which is a 
 matter of more practical im- 
 portance. 
 
 The school maintains four courses of study : classical, 
 scientific, general, and commercial. Those who intend to 
 enter college choose the first ; while the second prepares 
 more specifically for institutes of technology. Both these 
 courses, and also the general course, have large cultural 
 
 GUILD SCHOOL 
 
 value and are taken by many students who will not attend 
 higher institutions of learning. 
 
 The commercial course is designed as a basis for 
 business pursuits. It is under the special charge of two 
 teachers who have had suitable training and experience 
 for such work. Though this department is still in process 
 
 of development, it is even now 
 very well equipped for the ac- 
 complishment of its purpose. 
 
 The teachers in the ele- 
 mentary grades have nearly 
 all been trained in the best 
 normal schools, and, as a re- 
 sult, are skillful in the instruc- 
 tion and considerate in the 
 treatment of the children. 
 There is a high standard of 
 professional enthusiasm 
 among them, their methods 
 are up-to-date, and these qual- 
 ities are reflected in the high character of the work done 
 by the pupils. The fact that 93 per cent, of the average 
 membership attended school every day last year proves 
 the interest of the pupils and indicates that they appre- 
 ciate their educational privileges. 
 
39 
 
 The School Committee are representative of the best 
 life of the town. They are progressive and susceptible 
 to nevs^ ideas in the evolution of educational history. 
 The improvements in the schools are an embodiment of 
 their liberal views, and attest also the liberality, interest, 
 and appreciation of the citizens. 
 
 Indeed, the final and fundamental explanation of the 
 good standing of the public schools in this town is fovmd 
 in the intelligent and liberal support they have received 
 
 by the citizens of the town. The schools, as they exist 
 to-day, are a worthy monument to the public spirit of 
 the citizens of Norwood and will be a rich legacy to 
 their posterity. 
 
 The members of the School Committee at present are 
 as follows: Clifford B. Sanborn, chairman; George H. 
 Smith, Edward W. Jewett, Cornelius M. Callahan, Mary 
 J. Alden, Harriet W. Lane. William C. Hobbs, secre- 
 tary and superintendent of schools. 
 
FRATERNAL SOCIETIES 
 
 NORWOOD has a large number of societies organ- 
 ized for fraternal and benevolent purposes. All 
 of them appear prosperous and add much to the 
 social life of the town, while each is evidently doing well 
 the work for which it is specifically intended. 
 
 The following sketch is necessarily brief, and any 
 distinctive features mentioned are confined to facts rela- 
 tive to the Hfe of the community. The societies are 
 described in the chronological order of their organization 
 in this town. 
 
 As is the case in many other places. Freemasonry was 
 the first fraternity to be established in this community. 
 In the old Constellation Lodge of Free Masons, which 
 existed in Dedham from 1802 to 1850, men from South 
 Dedham were members, and a Masonic oil painting, 
 formerly belonging to that lodge and said to have come 
 from France, now hangs in Masonic Hall in Norwood. 
 
 Orient Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, was insti- 
 tuted in South Dedham in 1861, and worked under dis- 
 pensation until the charter was granted, which is dated 
 
 March 16, 1862. The regular communications are held 
 on the second Monday evenings of each month, except 
 July and August, in Masonic Hall. This hall was reno- 
 vated and refitted in 1904, and one of the finest pipe- 
 organs in any lodge-room in the state installed. Many 
 members of Orient Lodge belong to other Masonic 
 bodies, and there is a large Norwood membership in 
 Cyprus Commandery, Knights Templar, of Hyde Park, 
 who have celebrated Christmas with a banquet here each 
 year since December 25, 1897. Orient Lodge owns 
 Village Hall block, and is considered one of the most 
 prosperous lodges in the state. 
 
 Division No. i. Ancient Order of Hibernians of 
 Norfolk County, was chartered June 26, 1880. Regular 
 meetings are held in Temperance Hall, the second and 
 last Tuesday evenings of each month. There is a very 
 large membership, and the division is very prosperous, 
 owning considerable valuable real estate in Norwood. 
 
 Norwood Lodge, No. 38, Ancient Order of United 
 Workmen, was chartered April 26, 1882. Regular 
 
4 
 
 I 
 
 meetings are held the first and third Friday evenings of 
 the month in A. O. U . W. Hall. Norwood Lodge leased 
 and occupied its present hall in January, 1887, and gave 
 it the name it now bears. The hall was dedicated at the 
 first meeting of that year, with a public installation and 
 banquet, at which the grand officers were present. 
 
 Hebron Royal Arch Chapter was chartered June 12, 
 1883, and meets in Masonic Hall the last Friday evening 
 of each month. Included in the membership are many 
 Masons from Orient Lodge and several resident Masons 
 belonging to out-of-town lodges. 
 
 Loyal Contentment Lodge, No. 6594, Independent 
 Order of Odd Fellows, Manchester Unity, was insti- 
 tuted in Dedham, January 17, 1884, and moved to Nor- 
 wood in 1886. Regular meetings are held the first and 
 third Wednesday evenings of each month in A. O. U. W, 
 Hall. 
 
 George K. Bird Post, No. 169, Grand Army of the 
 Republic, was organized July 21, 1884. Regular meet- 
 ings are held the first and third Tuesday evenings of 
 each month in G. A. R. Hall, which was leased by the 
 post in 1904, and dedicated in November of that year. 
 On Memorial Day the post decorates the graves of sol- 
 diers and sailors in the Norwood cemeteries with fitting 
 ceremonies, memorial services also being held in Village 
 
 Hall, and the post attends special service at one of the 
 churches the Sunday preceding. The post was named 
 for George K. Bird, who served in the Civil War in 
 the 47th Massachusetts Regiment. The George K. Bird 
 Post Associates are composed of persons who are not 
 veterans, but who desire to show their sympathy with 
 the aims of the Grand Army by a yearly contribution. 
 The Post Associates in Norwood date from Memorial 
 Day, 1904, and now number about thirty well-known 
 residents. 
 
 Tiot Lodge, No. 50, Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
 lows, was instituted March 17, 1886. Regular meetings 
 are held every Wednesday evening in Odd Fellows' Hall. 
 The lodge was instituted in A. O. U. W. Hall, but bought 
 the Norwood House property, in which their hall is lo- 
 cated, and took possession in January, 1887. The lodge 
 holds memorial services each year for deceased members 
 and decorates graves of Odd Fellows in Norwood with 
 fitting ceremonies. Tiot Lodge Orchestra is a musical 
 organization, composed of members of the lodge, which 
 furnishes music for degree work and social occasions. 
 
 George K. Bird Woman's Relief Corps, No. 78, was 
 organized December, 18S6, and chartered January 27, 
 1887. Regular meetings are held the second and fourth 
 Thursday afternoons of each month in G. A. R. Hall. 
 
42 
 
 St. Catherine's Court, No. 62, Massachusetts Catholic 
 Order of Foresters, was chartered December 21, 1886. 
 Regular meetings are held the first and third Monday 
 evenings of each month in Odd Fellows' Hall. The 
 members attend communion in a body the first Sunday 
 in Lent, and mass for deceased members is said each 
 month in St. Catherine's Church. 
 
 Neponset Lodge, No. 9, New England Order of Pro- 
 tection, was chartered December 10, 1887. Regular 
 meetings are held the first and third Thursday evenings 
 of each month in Odd Fellows' Hall. The degree staff 
 is noted for the excellence of the work, often exempli- 
 fying for other lodges. 
 
 Nahatan Tribe, No. 89, Improved Order of Red Men, 
 was organized April 15, 1889. Regular meetings are 
 held the second and fourth Tuesday evenings of each 
 month in Odd Fellows' Hall. The tribe was named for 
 Nahatan, an Indian chief, whose wigwam was in the 
 woods at Westwood, near where the white church now 
 stands, and whose hunting-grounds were in the vicinity 
 of what is now the western part of Norwood. 
 
 Hook Council, No. 1535, Royal Arcanum, was char- 
 tered June II, 1894. Regular meetings are held the 
 second and fourth Friday evenings of each month in Odd 
 Fellows' Hall. 
 
 Norwood Council, No. 252, Knights of Columbus, 
 was instituted September 25, 1897, in Odd Fellows' 
 Hall. In June, 1905, the meeting-place was changed to 
 Knights of Columbus Hall, which was specially fitted 
 up for the council. Regular meetings are held the second 
 and fourth Monday evenings of each month. On Pente- 
 cost Sunday the council attends communion in a body at 
 St. Catherine's Church. 
 
 Division No. 11, Ladies' Auxiliary to the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians of Norfolk County, was chartered 
 December 19, 1897. The division meets on the third 
 Wednesday of the month in Conger Hall. 
 
 Progressive Lodge, No. 213, Ancient Order of United 
 Workmen, was chartered August i, 1899, as Dean Swift 
 Lodge, and changed the name in 1903. Regular meet- 
 ings are held the first and third Thursday evenings of the 
 month in Temperance Hall. 
 
 Nahatan Conclave, No. 695, Improved Order of 
 Heptasophs, was instituted October 21, 1899. Regular 
 meetings are held the first and third Friday evenings of 
 each month in Odd Fellows' Hall. The name, Nahatan, 
 taken from the Indian chief whose hunting-grounds were 
 in this vicinity, is said to be synonymous with the ancient 
 Greek word Heptasophs, which represented the seven 
 wise men of Persia who combined for mutual protection. 
 
43 
 
 Prosperity Loyal Orange Lodge, No. 453, was insti- 
 tuted March i, 1900. Regular meetings are held the 
 first Monday of each month in G. A. R. Hall. The 
 Lookout Club is a social branch of the lodge, which 
 meets at members' houses. 
 
 Chosen Knights Commandery, No. 286, Ancient 
 and Illustrious Order of Knights of Malta, was chartered 
 April 17, 1900. Regular meetings are held the second 
 and fourth Thursday evenings of the month in Odd Fel- 
 lows' Hall. The Crusaders' Club is a social organiza- 
 tion of members of this commandery which gives card 
 parties and dances in the winter. 
 
 Norwood Commandery, No. 2, United Order of the 
 Golden Star, was chartered July 12, 1900. Regular 
 meetings are held the second and fourth Thursday even- 
 ings of the month in Conger Hall. 
 
 Clan Stewart, No. 9, American Order of Scottish 
 
 Clans, was chartered November 20, 1901. Regular 
 meetings are held the second and fourth Wednesday 
 evenings of each month in Conger Hall. Membership 
 in the clan is confined to persons of Scottish birth or 
 descent. 
 
 Nelson R. Stevens Camp, No. 47, Sons of Veterans, 
 was organized May 14, 1902. Regular meetings are 
 held the first and third Friday evenings in each month 
 at G. A. R. Hall. The camp was named for the first 
 soldier killed in the Civil War who came from South 
 Dedham. A camp formerly existed in Norwood by the 
 name of Corporal Charles D. Force Camp, No. 66. 
 
 Conseil Taschereau, No. 82, L'Union Sainte Jean 
 Baptiste d'Amerique, was chartered January 19, 1904. 
 Regular meetings are held the third Monday evening 
 of each month in Conger Hall annex. The members 
 are of French birth or descent. 
 
TRADES 
 
 UNIONS. 
 
 BEING a manufacturing town, with a population 
 largely composed of wage-earners, Norwood 
 naturally contains several trades unions, all of 
 which are prosperous and conservative. They are listed 
 here in the order of their organization. 
 
 Norwood Typographical Union, No. 228, Inter- 
 national Typographical Union, was chartered February 
 II, 1895. Regular meetings are held the fourth Tues- 
 day evening of each month in G. A. R. Hall. 
 
 Norwood Printing Pressmen's Union, No. 35, Inter- 
 national Printing Pressmen's and Assistants' Union, was 
 chartered August 10, 1895. Regular meetings are held 
 the second Friday evening of each month in Conger 
 Hall annex. 
 
 Branch No. 742, National Association of Letter 
 Carriers, was chartered January, 1900. Meetings are 
 held at the call of the president. 
 
 Iron Moulders' Union of Foxboro and Norwood, 
 No. 323, Iron Moulders' Union of North America, was 
 chartered in February, 1900. Regular meetings are 
 
 held the first Sunday in each month alternately in Fox- 
 boro and Conger Hall annex, Norwood. 
 
 Norwood Lodge, No. 391, International Association 
 of Machinists, was chartered Jime 14, 1901. Regular 
 meetings are held the second and fourth Tuesday even- 
 ings of each month in Conger Hall annex. 
 
 Carpenters' Union of Norwood, No. 866, United 
 Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, was 
 chartered July 2, 1901. Regular meetings are held the 
 first and third Tuesday evenings of each month in 
 Conger Hall annex. 
 
 Norwood Lodge, No. 281, Brotherhood of Boiler 
 Makers and Iron Ship Builders of America, was char- 
 tered August 14, 1901. Regular meetings are held the 
 second Tuesday evening of each month in Conger Hall 
 annex. 
 
 Norwood Union, No. 441 , International Brotherhood 
 of Blacksmiths, was chartered February 8, 1904. Regu- 
 lar meetings are held the first Friday evening of each 
 month in Conger Hall annex. 
 
45 
 
 Musical Protective Union of Norwood, No. 343, 
 American Federation of Musicians, was chartered June 
 8, 1904. Regular meetings are held the fourth Saturday 
 evening of each month in the band hall. The members 
 of the Norwood Band and orchestra players in town 
 belong to this union. 
 
 Besides these unions there are a number of workmen 
 affiliated with unions in Boston, including many of the 
 bookbinders, electrotypers and pressfeeders. There was 
 an assembly of Knights of Labor formed in 1SS6, Local 
 Assembly No. 4591, which went out of existence several 
 years ago. 
 
CLUBS AND ASSOCIATIONS. 
 
 THE spirit of co-operation is notable in Norwood, 
 and the clubs and associations formed for various 
 purposes are remarkably prosperous, each accom- 
 plishing the aim of its being admirably. For many 
 years Norwood has been well represented on the base- 
 ball diamond by a number of organized clubs, while 
 foot-ball, tennis, golf, basket-ball, and other athletic 
 games also have societies in their interest. A number 
 of small societies for social purposes help to enliven the 
 town, and several benefit societies, connected mostly 
 with manufacturing concerns, are doing good work. 
 
 Brief sketches of the larger societies, which enter 
 to some extent into the life of the town, are appended. 
 
 The Norwood Literary Club was organized in 1883 
 as a Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, with 
 thirty-one members. At the close of the four years 
 Chautauqua course the members took so much interest 
 that it was continued as a history class, and then the 
 name was changed to the Norwood Literary Club. It 
 grew so fast that it became necessary to limit the mem- 
 
 bership to fifty, in order to continue meeting at the 
 houses of the members. On alternate Monday evenings, 
 from the first Monday in October to June, the club 
 holds meetings which are noted for their literary, mu- 
 sical, and social merit, and also conducts a course of 
 lectures each year. Mr. Francis O. Winslow has been 
 president of the club since its organization, and Mrs. 
 Maria E. Colburn has been secretary for the same time. 
 The club gives an annual reception, which is one of the 
 principal events of the social life of the town. The in- 
 fluence of the club on the community has been most 
 excellent and far-reaching, as the standard of literary 
 merit has been raised, not only among the members, but 
 also among the residents who have enjoyed the privilege 
 of attending the lecture courses. 
 
 St. Catherine's Total Abstinence and Literary Society 
 was organized October 14, 1892. Rev. James B. Troy 
 called a meeting of young men to form a company of 
 cadets to take part in the Columbian parade in Boston, 
 and it was voted at this meeting to organize a Total 
 
47 
 
 Abstinence Society. Rev. Fr. Troy did much to make 
 the society a success, paying several months' hall rent 
 and giving books and papers. The old skating rink v^as 
 occupied until the society moved into the hall in the 
 Draper building. Then rooms w^ere secured in Mr. 
 Folan's brick block, but in 1900 the society leased the 
 upper part of the block at the corner of Washington 
 Street and Railroad Avenue, re-naming the hall Temper- 
 ance Hall, and fitting up the other rooms into handsome 
 and convenient club-rooms. Shortly after organization 
 the members took the pledge in St. Catherine's Church, 
 and this has been repeated each succeeding January, 
 w^hile annually, too, the members receive holy commun- 
 ion together in the church. In May, 1894, the society 
 joined the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of the arch- 
 diocese of Boston, a great public meeting being held at 
 that time in Village Hall. The society has given several 
 dramatic entertainments with pronounced success, and 
 the social features are v^^ell observed. The effect of the 
 society upon the temperance sentiment of the town has 
 been very notable. Meetings are held twice a month, 
 and the rooms are always open. 
 
 The Norwood Turnverein dates its organization from 
 December 29, 1892, when a number of residents of 
 German birth or descent came together for the purpose 
 
 of organizing a Turnverein — an organization to promote 
 physical and mental training for members and their 
 children and others. The first meeting was held at what 
 is now the Oak Grove bowling-alleys, being called to 
 order by John Meyer, its first president and first sub- 
 scriber. The other original subscribers were George 
 Riedel, Karl Blasenak, Herman Herzog, George Knoll, 
 Paul Koch and Emil Miller. A plot of land was pur- 
 chased on the south side of Wilson Street, and a building 
 erected, which was dedicated September 16, 1893. A 
 charter was granted March 20, 1893. Members won 
 prizes at games in Holyoke, in 1894, and also at other 
 places. An exhibition was given in Village Hall, 
 March 3, 1896; and July 10, 1896, a flag presented by 
 the ladies of the Turnverein was dedicated, Mr. Carl 
 Eberhart of Boston and prominent residents delivering 
 addresses. In 1896 the Turnverein added two acres of 
 land to its possessions. A sick benefit was started on 
 April 1 , 1905. The Turnverein has conducted a German 
 school, entertainments, gymnastic training and dances. 
 
 The Sick and Death Benefit Fund, Branch 121, was 
 organized in Norwood June 17, 1895. In 1900 the 
 society erected a hall on Wilson Street, which was dedi- 
 cated November 2 of that year. Regular meetings are 
 held the second and fourth Saturday evenings of each 
 
48 
 
 month ; meetings to pay sick claims every Monday 
 evening. The purposes of this organization are to help 
 members when they are sick and to assist the families of 
 deceased members. 
 
 The Norwood Historical Society had its inception 
 about 1900, but the organization has never been com- 
 pleted. 
 
 The Norwood Tennis Chib was organized May 21, 
 1900, primarily for the purposes of encouraging the 
 game of lawn tennis and of securing suitable courts 
 where members might enjoy the game. The interest in 
 the club was so great that it branched out into other 
 lines of social endeavor, and dances, card parties, and 
 dramatics have been a part of the enjoyment of the club. 
 Each summer for several years a tournament has been 
 held on the courts, opposite Norwood Central Station, 
 and handsome prizes given. Tournaments have also 
 been held with tennis clubs of other towns. In the 
 spring of 1905 the members placed the affairs of the 
 club in the hands of a board of directors, chosen for 
 three years, which it is believed will strengthen the 
 club. 
 
 The Norwood Woman's Club had its inception at a 
 preliminary meeting of a few ladies held Saturday, No- 
 vember 10, 1900, to discuss the advisability of forming 
 
 such a club. A second meeting was held November 13, 
 and another in Library Hall, Tuesday, November 27, 
 this meeting being addressed by Miss O. M. E. Rowe, 
 president of the State Federation of Woman's Clubs. At 
 the close of the address committees were appointed to 
 draft a constitution and by-laws, and to nominate officers. 
 As a result of this meeting the Norwood Woman's Club 
 was organized in Library Hall, Tuesday, December 4, 
 1900, with eighty-six charter members, all ladies in 
 Norwood interested in its formation being invited to be 
 present. The object is to become a social centre for 
 united thought and action upon matters of general im- 
 provement. The club is made up of four departments — 
 Household Science, Education, Literature and Art. 
 Each member of the club is a member also of one of the 
 departments. Regular meetings are held twice each 
 month, from October to May inclusive. Department 
 meetings are held monthly or semi-monthly, and each 
 follows some line of study for the season. The follow- 
 ing committees, appointed by the board of directors, 
 have their purposes indicated in their names : Social 
 Science, Mothers', Public Schools, Hospitality, Village 
 Improvement, Library, Music and Reception Com- 
 mittees. The stamp savings system has been instituted 
 in the public schools, whereby the children are taught 
 
economy and thrift. At the Mothers' Meetings women 
 from all parts of the town, from every church, and from 
 every sphere of life converse on subjects which are of 
 vital interest. The band-stand at Guild Corner is a 
 result of the Village Improvement Committee's efforts, 
 the Woman's Club having appropriated one hundred 
 dollars toward its erection. 
 
 The Norwood Golf Club was organized in 1901. 
 Extensive links, covering about ten acres, have been laid 
 out at considerable expense on Walpole and Chapel 
 Streets, with a six-hole course, affording a good variety 
 for play. 
 
 The Norwood Athletic Club was organized February 
 I, 1902, and has since been an important factor in the 
 athletic life of the town. It has occupied club-rooms in 
 Village Hall Block since its inception, and within a 
 month has leased additional rooms in the basement. 
 The facilities of the club for gymnastic work have been 
 gradually added to until it now possesses a good equip- 
 ment. The club has placed base-ball nines on the dia- 
 mond and foot-ball teams on the gridiron, which have 
 represented the town most creditably, and indoor athletic 
 exhibitions are occasionally held under the auspices of 
 the club. Dramatic entertainments and dances have also 
 been given by the members. 
 
 Sixteen of Us, a club of young men, was organized 
 July 6, [902, for social purposes, the original member- 
 ship of sixteen having been increased to twenty-seven. 
 The club at first had quarters in Bigelow Block, but 
 moved to its present handsome club-rooms in the Day 
 Building, corner of Washington and Day Streets, June 
 
 30^ 1903- 
 
 The Scandinavian W^orkingmen's Association was 
 organized October, 1902, and is a sick and death benefit 
 society. Meetings are held the first and third Tuesday- 
 evening of each month at the association's rooms, John- 
 son Court. 
 
 The Norwood Choral Society was organized Novem- 
 ber 18, 1902. Each winter weekly rehearsals of some 
 well-known musical work have been held, and four suc- 
 cessful concerts have been given. William T. Whedon 
 has been president since its organization, and the mem- 
 bership includes some of the best singers in town. The 
 society has done a good work in raising and keeping up 
 the musical standard of the town. 
 
 The Norwood Basket-ball Association was formed in 
 1902, and did much to promote the interests of that 
 game, so that very good teams have represented the 
 town, especially the boys' and girls' teams representing 
 the Norwood High School. 
 
The Tiot Tennis Club was organized in January, 
 1903, to promote the game of lawn tennis among the 
 members and to provide good facilities. Courts were 
 laid out at the corner of Lenox and Cross Streets, and 
 tournaments have been held each summer among the 
 members for handsome prizes. The club has a member- 
 ship of over fifty, and during winter seasons socials are 
 held for the members. 
 
 The Norwood Old-Home Week Association was or- 
 ganized May 26, 1903, and includes all the inhabitants 
 of the town. In 1902 an Old-Home Week celebration 
 had been conducted vinder the auspices of the Norwood 
 Business Association, and the sentiment was strong to 
 have it repeated with the whole town as participants. 
 The Old-Home Week Association observed July 29 and 
 30, 1903, as Old-Home Week, and a large number of 
 former inhabitants returned to visit the town. The occa- 
 
 sion was of great historical and social value to the town. 
 The annual meetings of the association are held in 
 February, and, though holding a permanent organiza- 
 tion, the sentiment has been against repeating the cele- 
 bration every year. Among the permanent features of 
 its work was the erecting of a tablet to the heroes of 
 Louisburg at Guild Corner in 1903, while in 1902 the 
 Business Association's Old-Home Week Committee 
 erected a memorial to Captain Aaron Guild, a Revolu- 
 tionary soldier, on the lawn in front of the Congrega- 
 tional Church. Hon. Frank A. Fales is president of the 
 association and Charles E. Smith secretary. 
 
 There are many other associations and clubs, which 
 are generally private affairs and confined to a small 
 membership. Each of the local churches has various 
 societies connected, which help in the religious work of 
 the community. 
 
THE 
 
 THE Norwood Band dates its origin from 1866, 
 but its traditions extend back into the Civil War. 
 The Eighteenth Massachusetts Volunteers went 
 South with a band, which was mustered out after three 
 months, and the regiment being left without music a 
 band was organized from members of the regiment. 
 Among these were several from this community. 
 
 On returning from the war in 1866 they at once 
 thought of forming a local band, and on May 25, 1866, 
 a meeting of those interested was held in the old engine 
 house, now used by the Norwood Water Department. 
 At this meeting there was organized the South Dedham 
 Musical Association, with the following officers : Wil- 
 liam P, Fairbanks, leader; George W. Lewis, director; 
 Henry R. Jenks, clerk and treasurer. Through the efforts 
 of M. M. Alden the army drum and cymbals of the 
 Eighteenth regiment were donated to the new organiza- 
 tion, and the cymbals are still in use. 
 
 In March, 1868, it was voted to change the name of 
 the association to Union Cornet Band. The services of 
 
 BAND 
 
 Professor Bond were secured as instructor, and the band 
 began to have many engagements, principally out of town. 
 
 On the evening of February 24, 1872, the day after 
 South Dedham became Norwood, the band met and 
 changed its name from South Dedham Union Cornet 
 Band to Norwood Brass Band. At the ratification 
 meeting the following week the band furnished music 
 for the occasion. In 1874 the band suffered from lack 
 of interest, and on November 25, 1875, the band wound 
 up its organization by a ball in Village Hall. 
 
 However, after a dormant period of eight years, on 
 September 12, 1883, the old musicians once more met 
 together and reorganized. Ellis' skating rink, where the 
 present bowling alley stands, was engaged as a band 
 hall, and the band furnished music for the rink. 
 
 February 8, 1887, Bernard F. Colburn was engaged 
 as director and has continued in that capacity since then. 
 The band built its present hall in 1891, occupying it 
 May 5 of that year. Recently the band joined the 
 Musicians' Protective Association. 
 
MORRILL 
 
 THE Morrill Memorial Library Building, erected 
 to the memory of Miss Sarah Bond Morrill, 
 daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George H. Morrill, 
 and presented by them to the town for the use of its free 
 public library, has been pronounced by library experts 
 the finest of its size in the country. It is in the Roman- 
 esque style of architecture, built of Dodlin granite from 
 Oakland, Maine, with red-tiled roof, ninety-seven feet 
 long by thirty-seven feet wide and thirty-three feet high 
 to the ridge-pole. The front elevation is enriched with 
 carvings. Upon panels along the base are cut the names 
 of ancient and modern writers, and in the series of tran- 
 som lights, thirty-two in all, above the windows, are 
 facsimiles of ancient printers' marks. The broad vesti- 
 bule from the imposing entrance arch is embellished with 
 Sienna marble wainscotting and heavy mahogany doors. 
 
 The interior is finished entirely in rich mahogany. 
 At the right of the entrance hall is the reading-room, 
 broad, lofty and well lighted ; at the left, the delivery 
 desk and the stack-room, the librarian's room connected 
 
 LIBRZ^RY 
 
 with it and opening upon the entrance hall. In the read- 
 ing-room, above the great fireplace, is the inscription : 
 " This building was erected and presented to the Town 
 of Norwood, in memory of Sarah Bond Morrill, A.D. 
 MDCCCXCVI." On the wall of this room also hang 
 oil portraits of Miss Morrill and Mr. Morrill. The 
 stack-room is furnished with metallic stacks and highly 
 polished mahogany tables with glass surfaces. On the 
 second floor is a dainty assembly hall, used for literary 
 and scientific meetings. In the commodious basement 
 are work-rooms and the steam and electric plants. 
 
 The building was formally dedicated in February, 
 1898, and occupied the following month. Mr. Morrill, 
 the donor, is the head of the ink manufacturing house 
 of the George H. Morrill Co. The daughter, whose 
 memorial this building is, died, three years before its 
 completion, of typhoid fever, at the early age of twenty- 
 three years. The architect of the building was Mr. 
 Joseph H. Neal of Pittsburg, Penn. The town votes a 
 generous sum each year for the support of the library. 
 
MORRILL MEMORIAL LIBRARY. 
 
THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 WHEN the town of Norwood was organized in 
 1873, the fire equipment stationed in South 
 Dedham, inckiding two hand engines, was 
 taken by the new town. A department was organized, 
 consisting of two companies, which manned Washington 
 Engine No. i and America Engine No. 2. The first 
 Board of Engineers was made up of Tyler Thayer, 
 chairman, Isaac ElHs, and John E. Morse, clerk. The 
 town report of 1874 said : "$500 is too small an amount, 
 even under favorable circumstances, to supply this de- 
 partment." In 1879 the report said : "Our Fire Depart- 
 ment is one of the most expensive luxuries we as a town 
 enjoy." All the time, however, improvements were 
 being made, and in 1884 the first report of the Board of 
 Fire Engineers appeared as a part of the town report. 
 In 1883 occurred the great Purgatory Meadow fire, 
 which cost the town $743.80 to subdue. The following 
 year the town authorized the purchase of a hook and 
 ladder truck, for which $554 was paid, and next year's 
 report stated that it "had more than paid for itself." 
 
 November 19, 1884, the department had a strenuous test 
 in the Universalist Church fire. On account of the in- 
 troduction of the water system into the town, with the 
 hydrant service, the Fire Department was reorganized 
 August I, 1 886. The hand engines were no longer 
 generally needed, but the hose reels were still used. The 
 department as reorganized consisted of Hook and Ladder 
 Company, fifteen men ; Washington Hose, No. i, fifteen 
 men ; America Hose, No. 2, fifteen men ; a total of forty- 
 five men — a reduction in the force of fifty men. This 
 same year $1,000 worth of hose was purchased, and in 
 1887 the town report stated that the Fire Department 
 was in good condition. In 1887 the town appropriated 
 $3,500 to build a hook and ladder and hose house, and 
 it was erected on the west side of Market Street. New 
 hose wagons were purchased in 1888 and 1899. The 
 electrical fire alarm service was introduced into the town 
 in 1897. At a special meeting, held in October, 1905, 
 the town voted to buy the lot on Mafket Street, opposite 
 Nahatan Street, as a site for a new fire station. 
 
THE POLICE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 WARREN E. RHOADS. 
 
 constable the following year. The 
 
 THE Police Department of the town 
 of Norwood was organized in 1896. 
 Previous to that time the protection 
 of the town had been in the hands of con- 
 stables, the first two elected after the 
 town's incorporation being C. VV. Strout 
 and James Engles. In 1879 the lock-up 
 on Market Street was built, it having 
 been the custom to put the tramps up at 
 the hotel before then. In 1903 the lock- 
 up was equipped with modern steel cells. 
 In 1896 it was decided to have a regular 
 police force, and Warren E. Rhoads was 
 chosen chief and Michael D. Creed night 
 patrolman, which positions they have held 
 ever since. Mr. Rhoads was first chosen 
 constable in 1884, and Mr. Creed was ap- 
 pointed policeman in 1891 and elected 
 town has a force of six uniformed constables 
 
 MICHAEL D. CREED. 
 
 In the spring of 1905 the town 
 
 voted to place the regular police under the civil service law. 
 
THE PUMPING STATION. 
 
 THE Pumping 
 Station is 
 situated by 
 the source of Nor- 
 wood's water sup- 
 ply, the beautiful 
 Buckmaster Pond, 
 in Westwood, about 
 two and a half miles 
 from the centre of 
 Norwood. Buck- 
 master Pond cost 
 the town nothing. 
 It was what is 
 known as a state 
 pond when the 
 town took posses- 
 sion. The land around it, where the Pumping Station 
 is located, cost the town about $300, The Pumping 
 Station was built in 1886, the contract for building it 
 
 being awarded to 
 F. A. Fales, whose 
 bid was $3,550. 
 Power for pumping 
 is fuiniished by an 
 engine having a ca- 
 pacity of 1 ,500,000 
 gallons every 
 twenty-four hours. 
 In 1904 a large 
 addition was built 
 and the pumping 
 facilities weare 
 greatly increased. 
 Mr. George A. P. 
 Bucknam, who has 
 been superintendent 
 of the water-works since the Pumping Station was estab- 
 lished, has taken much interest in beautifying the land 
 near the pond with flower-beds and shrubbery. 
 
CHAPEL OF 
 
 ONE of the most beautiful edifices in Norwood, and, 
 indeed, in the state, is the Chapel of St. Gabriel 
 the Archangel, the mortuary chapel situated in 
 Highland Cemetery. The chapel was erected by Mr. 
 and Mrs. Lewis Day in memory of their parents, Joseph 
 and Hannah (Rhoads) Day and Lyman and Melinda 
 (Gould) Smith, and was consecrated with fitting cere- 
 monies on Memorial Day, 1903, and the keys delivered 
 into the keeping of the Board of Selectmen of Norwood. 
 
 The Chapel of St. Gabriel the Archangel is regarded 
 by architects as the highest type of mortuary chapel in 
 the country. The architects of the building were Cram, 
 Goodhue & Ferguson of Boston, whose reputation is 
 well merited. The style is that late form of Gothic 
 dating from the fifteenth century, the architects having 
 developed it so far as they could on such lines as would 
 bring the work into harmony with contemporary condi- 
 tions. The material used is Weymouth seam-faced 
 granite and Indiana limestone. Simplicity was sought 
 for at every point by the builders, and the edifice de- 
 
 GABRIEL 
 
 pends for its effect rather on its proportions and lines 
 than on elaboration of detail, the only approach to 
 elaboration being in the rich window tracery. Jt is solid 
 masonry throvighout, the only wood employed being in 
 the roof and doors. Opening out of the chapel, yet 
 separated from it by iron grilles, is a chantry, containing 
 tombs destined for members of the family through whose 
 bounty the chapel was built. 
 
 The situation of the chapel is such as to show its 
 impressive and solemn beauty to full advantage, and 
 reflects great credit on the foresight of the donors. 
 
 The purpose of the donors was that the mortuary 
 chapel should be used for funeral services by all who 
 might so desire, without reference to religious profes- 
 sion and without fee. It has been used for that purpose 
 several times since its consecration. It was dedicated, 
 as was said at its consecration, "in the name of St. 
 Gabriel the Archangel — the mighty one of God — the 
 angel specially charged in the Scriptures with the minis- 
 tration of comfort and sympathy to man." 
 
CHAPKL OF ST. GABRIEL THE ARCHANGEE. 
 
NORWOOD'S BUSINESS INTERESTS. 
 
 NORWOOD is essentially a manufacturing town 
 and its industries support by far the larger part 
 of its population. These are well described in 
 another part of this book. However, the trade of the 
 residents also supports a goodly number of stores, and 
 notwithstanding the proximity of the town to Boston, 
 the merchants of Norwood carry the highest standard of 
 up-to-date stocks, so that there is no practical necessity 
 of doing any of the usual line of trading out of town. 
 That the people of Norwood appreciate this must be 
 evident not only to a student of social economy, but also 
 to the most casual observer, for the very keynote of busi- 
 ness in the town appears to be prosperity and success. 
 Failures are almost an unknown quantity, hard times an 
 obsolete expression in this commvinity, and the standard 
 of business life is of the highest. 
 
 Much of the credit for this may well be given to the 
 Norwood Business Association and Board of Trade, and 
 the influence of that organization upon Norwood's com- 
 mercial interests cannot be overestimated. 
 
 The merchants, employers, and employes are loyal to- 
 the town, and take up their share of the life of the place, 
 religious, social, fraternal, or political, cheerfully and 
 earnestly. Probably in no other place on earth could 
 any higher expression of true democracy of government 
 be found than in a Norwood town meeting. 
 
 In the following description of Norwood's noted in- 
 dustries and many of the well-known residents, it will 
 be noted that as the fame of the industries is widespread,, 
 so has the life-work of the residents extended far beyond 
 the borders of the town. There is still another class of 
 residents — those who, employed in other places, choose 
 this beautiful town for their home. All work in evident 
 sincerity toward the welfare of the town, and though 
 sometimes ideas may be at variance — for the inhabitants 
 of this community were ever famous for independence 
 of thought — yet when a plan has been decided upon for 
 the town's benefit, the residents seem to be a unit toward 
 its success. It is sure that in no town of its size is the 
 morale of the residents any higher than in Norwood. 
 
t 
 
 THE NORWOOD PRESS. 
 
THE NORWOOD PRESS. 
 
 About one-half mile from the Post Office on the road 
 to East Walpole is the Norwood Press. The buildings 
 
 are fronted by spacious 
 lawns dotted with flower 
 beds and trees. They 
 are of brick and have a 
 frontage of about 550 
 feet. The northerly end 
 is occupied by J. S. 
 Gushing & Company as 
 a Composition Room 
 and Electrotype Foun- 
 dry ; the central portion 
 by Berwick & Smith Company as a Press Room ; and 
 the southerly end, or four-story part, by E. Fleming & 
 Company as a Bindery. In these works all processes 
 of book-making may be seen, from the casting of the 
 individual type to the finished book. All departments 
 are equipped with the latest improvements in modern 
 machinery, and since the installation of the plant in 
 January, 1895, have been more than doubled in capacity. 
 
 The Norwood Press makes a specialty of scientific 
 and school and college text-work, but also produces a 
 
 7Aair\E FA trainee to 
 Tf\e Pri nti r{g JSepa rt ment 
 
 large amount of the best kind of illustrated book, cata- 
 logue, and pamphlet work. 
 
 In the Composition Room the type is set up by hand 
 or by machines for the equivalent of about seven hundred 
 new books per year, the larger part of which are school, 
 and college text -books, not only in English, but also in all 
 of the modern languages using the English alphabet, as. 
 well as books in Greek, Hebrew, Anglo-Saxon, German,, 
 etc. The facilities for mathematical work are probably- 
 unexcelled by any composing room in the world, and 
 the firm has attained a well- 
 merited reputation for work 
 of this character. Such an 
 enormous amount of type and 
 other composing room sup- 
 plies is kept on hand that, 
 when necessary, a book can 
 be set up in a marvelously 
 short time. A number of 
 the latest improved Lanston 
 Monotype machines have re- 
 cently been installed in the 
 Composition Room. The 
 type-setting is done on such a large scale here that a sys- 
 tem prevails throughout which serves to departmentize 
 
 •"-'iBlKclerY 
 
6o 
 
 the work to great advantage, and is one of the factors 
 which faciHtates the amount of prodviction. 
 
 In all cases electrotype plates are made from the 
 type instead of printing from the type direct. 
 The Electrotype Foundry is one of the 
 largest in the country, and has a capacity of 
 ^bout twelve hundred plates per day. 
 
 Mr. J. Stearns Gushing, the sole propri- 
 etor of the Composition and Electrotyping 
 Departments of the Norwood Press, under 
 the name of J. S. Gushing & Gompany, 
 started in business in Boston in 1878. He 
 made a specialty of high-grade school books, 
 and his business grew so rapidly that he 
 had to move several times to secure larger 
 quarters. In 1894 the building of the Nor- 
 wood Press was commenced, and in 
 January, 1895, Mr. Gushing moved into the 
 new building. In 1900 he bought out the 
 Norwood electrotyping business of Scott & 
 Son, and has conducted it since in connec-. 
 tion with the Composition Room. 
 
 Mr. Gushing is a member of the Busi- 
 ness Association, and is a thirty-second degree Mason. 
 He is, and for many years has been, president of the 
 
 J. STKARNS GUSHING. 
 
 Master Printers' Association of Boston and vicinity, 
 known as the Boston Typothetae. He is a past com- 
 mander of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Gompany 
 of Boston, and quartermaster of the Gorps 
 of Goast Artillery, with the rank of captain. 
 With his wife and daughter, he resides in a 
 beautiful colonial mansion on Saunders 
 Road. 
 
 The Press Room is one of the largest in 
 the country, having a floor area of more 
 than one-half of an acre and a capacity so 
 extensive as to enable the printing of large 
 editions in the least possible time. About 
 eleven tons of paper are used on an average 
 per day, and in rush seasons as much as 
 fifteen tons have sometimes been used. In 
 the equipment are single-cylinder, perfect- 
 ing, two-color, and job presses. Anything 
 in size from a common visiting card to a 
 sheet of paper 44 x 62 inches, or from i to 
 128 pages of an ordinary school book or 
 novel can be printed. In some instances a 
 small -page Bible has been printed, 256 
 pages on a single sheet at one impression. Every de- 
 scription of book printing in black or colors is done 
 
1 
 
 MU 
 
 RESIDENCK OF J. STEARNS GUSHING. 
 
6i 
 
 here, from the small pamphlet to the 
 large Pulpit Bible. The finer classes 
 of illustrated work are features of the 
 business. In the past year nearly seven 
 million volumes, ranging from loo to 
 1, 600 pages each, in editions from 100 
 to 100,000, w^ere printed, an equivalent 
 to about 23,000 vokimes daily. Be- 
 tv^een nine and ten tons of black ink 
 are used yearly in printing the above. 
 Under the Press Room is a plate vault 
 in vs^hich are stored over 40,000 boxes 
 of plates, which cost to make over 
 $3,000,000. 
 
 The Press Room is owned by Ber- 
 wick & Smith, who started in business 
 in Boston in 1884, and came to Nor- 
 wood on the opening of the Norwood 
 Press in 1895. Mr. James Berwick, 
 the senior partner, is president of the 
 New England Printers' Board of Trade, 
 having held the position for several years. He belongs 
 to the Norwood Business Association and takes much 
 interest in town affairs. Mr. George Harding Smith, the 
 junior partner, is a member of the Business Association, 
 
 JAMES BERWICK. 
 
 and has been a member of the Norwood 
 School Board for several years. Both 
 gentlemen occupy handsome residences 
 on Walpole Street. In January, 1903, 
 the firm was reorganized and incorpo- 
 rated as the Berwick & Smith Co., with 
 the following officers : James Berwick, 
 president and general manager ; George 
 H. Smith, vice-president and secretary ; 
 Walter J. Berwick, treasurer. 
 
 The Norwood Press Book Bindery 
 is a branch of E. Fleming & Company 
 of Boston, and occupies a four-story 
 brick building, containing over one 
 acre of floor space, and is equipped 
 with all the latest machinery, capable 
 of pi-oducing in the shortest possible 
 time, consistent with good workman- 
 ship, any amount of cloth, leather, 
 board, or paper bovind books. The 
 printed sheets are stored in the base- 
 ment. A careful record is kept from the time these 
 sheets are received until the bound books are delivered, 
 assuring customers of a fvill count on their editions. On 
 the upper floor of the building the sheets are folded and 
 
the fly-leaves pasted on by the latest machinery. The 
 sections of the book are then gathered and sewed, also 
 by machinery, the only hand-work in this department 
 being the pasting in of plates, maps, 
 etc., in such books as have illustrations. 
 On the second floor of the building the 
 edges of the books are trimmed, the 
 backs rounded, and the covers placed 
 on the book by machinery especially 
 built for this work. The board and 
 cloth for the covers are cut and the 
 covers made and decorated by machines 
 adapted for these processes. The edges 
 of the books are gilded in this depart- 
 ment, this work being done by hand, 
 as well as the laying on of the gold on 
 the covers, this being the only work in 
 this department which cannot be done 
 by machinery, a machine having re- 
 cently been invented for placing the 
 linings on the back of the book, al- 
 though one has not yet been placed in 
 operation here. On the ground floor 
 of the building the bound books* are 
 stored and packed for shipment in cases 
 
 which are made to fit the books, about five car-loads of 
 lumber being used for this purpose each year. A spur 
 track from the main railroad at the rear of the building 
 furnishes means of shipping direct to 
 any city or country where the books 
 are to be delivered. The Bindery is 
 equipped to take on the largest con- 
 tracts, and uses immense quantities of 
 paper, binder's board, cloth, leather, 
 gold, ink, thread, flour, and glue in the 
 course of a year. The building is fitted 
 with all the latest devices for protection 
 against fire, thus assuring customers 
 of the lowest rates of insurance on 
 their property while in the process of 
 binding. 
 
 Charles B. Fleming is the manager 
 of the Press Bindery. He is a grand- 
 son of E. Fleming, the founder of the 
 Fleming Binderies. 
 
 About seven hundred people are 
 employed at the Press on an average, 
 of which number about one -third are 
 women and two-thirds are men and 
 boys. 
 
63 
 
 While a large amount of the product of each depart- 
 ment of the Press is shipped to other establishments for 
 completion, an equal amount of outside work is received 
 by these departments from other 
 establishments. 
 
 Among the customers of the Nor- 
 wood Press are to be found nearly all 
 the leading school-book publishers of 
 the country. 
 
 The Press is situated very conve- 
 niently between two stations of the 
 New York, New Haven & Hartford 
 Railroad, Norwood Central and 
 Winslows, and as the Old Colony 
 Street Railway runs directly in front, 
 the location is unsurpassed, while for 
 freight purposes spur tracks run di- 
 rect to the rear exits of the building. 
 
 No establishment in Norwood is 
 more widely known than the Nor- 
 wood Press, and none is more thor- 
 oughly identified with the business 
 life of the town. 
 
 The removal of a concern like the 
 Norwood Press from a great city to a 
 
 CHARLES B. FLEMING. 
 
 country town was something in the nature of an experi- 
 ment. That the experiment has been successful no one 
 can doubt who visits the finely appointed buildings, 
 
 compactly arranged with every con- 
 venience and most of the luxuries of 
 work-a-day life ; the rooms filled with 
 hundreds of busy employes of both 
 sexes. In many respects the estab- 
 lishment is a model. The sanitary 
 conditions and surroundings are un- 
 excelled by those of any similar plant 
 in the country. It is safe to say that 
 a large part of the success of the 
 establishment has been due to the fact 
 that each department has been built 
 up by and is under the direct manage- 
 ment of men who have made a spe- 
 cialty of their particular branch of the 
 business and who have devoted their 
 lives to its improvement. It is along 
 the line of strict attention to details, 
 the thoroughness with which the 
 work is systemized, and the constant 
 striving after something better that 
 the Norwood Press has prospered. 
 
64 
 
 THE RAILROAD CAR SHOPS. 
 
 An industry which for many years has given employ- 
 ment to a large number of the residents is the machine 
 and car shops of the New York, New Haven & Hartford 
 Railroad. In 1873, while the car shops of the Boston, 
 Hartford & Erie Railroad at Readville were in the hands 
 of trustees, a fire destroyed the shops, and the road was 
 for several months without facilities for repairing and 
 building cars. It was shortly after this that the road 
 passed into the hands of the New York & New England 
 Railroad Company. 
 
 A number of residents of Norwood, prominent among 
 whom was the late Mr. George Everett, conceived the 
 plan of inducing the railroad management to build new 
 car shops at Norwood. As an inducement the town 
 appropriated money to buy the land where the shops 
 now stand, about seventeen acres, and presented the land 
 to the railroad, which built three shops there in a most 
 substantial manner, and work was begun in the new 
 shops in the fall of 1874. Elias E. Pratt was the first 
 master car-builder and the late George E. Boyden was 
 the first master mechanic. 
 
 For several years only the building and repairing of 
 passenger and freight cars was done here, but about 
 
 1880 the road brought the locomotive repairing from 
 Readville to Norwood. In order to accommodate this 
 additional work, a paint shop and a blacksmith shop 
 were built, the building that had been used for that 
 work being turned into a machine shop. A building 
 was also erected in which to keep the locomotives over 
 night. 
 
 The railroad work brought an excellent class of 
 skilled mechanics to Norwood, while it also gave a 
 good opportunity for young men of the community to 
 learn several good trades, which a number of them took 
 advantage of, and many high-grade artisans served their 
 apprenticeship here. 
 
 The work on the cars and locomotives was carried 
 on under one management, and continued so after the 
 road passed into the hands of the New York, New 
 Haven & Hartford Railroad Company, until 1903, 
 when the car building and repairing was moved to the 
 new shops at Readville, the locomotive repairing being 
 continued in Norwood. Francis Tinker's " History of 
 Norwood," issued in 1890, states that at that time about 
 three hundred men were employed there. Since the 
 car repairing has been moved to Readville many of the 
 men employed there continue to make their residence in 
 Norwood. 
 
NEW YORK, NEW HAVEN & HARTFORD RAILROAD CAR SHOPS. 
 
THE PLIMPTON PRESS. 
 
65 
 
 THE PLIMPTON PRESS. 
 
 The Plimpton Press, as the estabHshment of H. M. 
 Plimpton & Company is generally known, has had an 
 important part in making Norwood 
 famous as a book-making town. Mr. 
 Herbert M. Plimpton is the sole pro- 
 prietor, the other member of the 
 company having been Mr. Howard 
 E. Plimpton, his brother, who died 
 several years ago. 
 
 Mr. Herbert M. Plimpton was 
 born in that part of Walpole still 
 known as Plimptonville. He had an 
 early training as compositor and press- 
 man, though later his talent came out 
 strongly in the line of book-binding. 
 He learned the binder's trade in New 
 York city, and in 1882 came to Bos- 
 ton and set up a plant with about 
 twenty-five employes. In those days 
 most of the processes of book-making 
 were done by hand, and it took the 
 Plimpton establishment weeks to turn out as many books 
 as are now produced in a single day. Mr. Plimpton has 
 
 HERBERT M. PLIMPTON. 
 
 always been a believer in labor-saving machinery and 
 was a pioneer in its use in book-making. The first fold- 
 ing machines, the first new model sewing machine, the 
 first rounding and backing machine used in Boston were 
 in the Plimpton plant. The Plimpton 
 Press also used the first cover-making 
 machine and the first gathering ma- 
 chine, the latter being invented by 
 them. 
 
 In 1897 Plimpton Press was 
 established in Norwood at its present 
 location, the press-work and binding^ 
 being done principally in this estab- 
 lishment. The business grew so 
 steadily that Mr. Plimpton decided to 
 move all the work to Norwood. In 
 1904 work was begun on a large 
 addition to the already extensive 
 plant, and December 21, 1904, this 
 annex was dedicated with a recep- 
 tion, at which all of Mr. Plimpton's 
 employes, many of his townspeople, 
 and a number of representatives of 
 publishing firms, representing customers of the Plimp- 
 ton Press, were present. It was an occasion long to be 
 
66 
 
 Temembered, as, by Mr. Plimpton's desire, it was in- 
 formal and most pleasant in every way, being practically 
 an introduction by Mr. Plimpton of his working force 
 to his customers. The town officers and other local 
 establishments were well 
 represented. One of the 
 pleasantest features was 
 the expression to Mr. 
 Plimpton of the good-will 
 of his employes. 
 
 Mr. Plimpton finds 
 time to take a keen in- 
 terest in town affairs, and 
 is prominent in the social 
 and literary life of the 
 •community. He is a 
 member of the Norwood 
 Business Association and 
 Board of Trade, and has a 
 beautiful residence at 150 
 Chapel Street. 
 
 The Plimpton Press, 
 as it now stands, is one of 
 
 the largest and best equipped printing plants in the 
 country, with a capacity of twenty-five to thirty thou- 
 
 RESIDENCE OF HERBERT M. PLIMPTON. 
 
 sand books a day. About six hundred people are em- 
 ployed in the busy season. The annex and the older 
 building have a total length of 334 feet and a floor space 
 of about 150,000 square feet. The composing room is 
 
 provided with a number 
 of L a n s t o n Monotype 
 type-setting machines and 
 with other modern ap- 
 pliances, and is as well 
 lighted as it is possible to 
 be. The press-room is 
 equipped with modern 
 presses, each provided 
 with an individual motor. 
 In the bindery depart- 
 ment is the best and most 
 up-to-date machinery, and 
 a specialty is made of ar- 
 tistic binding, Mr. Plimp- 
 ton's talent for beautiful 
 cover-designs and the ex- 
 cellent facilities producing 
 admirable results. The 
 establishment produces its own book-cloth in the depart- 
 ment known as the Holliston Mills. 
 
WINSLOW BROS. & SMITH COMPANY. THE WINSLOW PLANT. 
 
 The view in the upper left-hand corner is from a photog-raph taken twenty years ago. 
 
67 
 
 WINSLOW BROS. & SMITH COMPANY. 
 
 The manufacture of raw hides and skins into leather 
 was one of the earliest industries of this community, a 
 tannery having been found to exist in South Dedham, 
 owned by Abner Guild, as early as the year 1776, and 
 the business was continued by the Guild family for nearly 
 half a century. From this early small beginning, by a 
 process of evolution and consolidation of various in- 
 terests, there has been established the Winslow Bros. & 
 Smith Company, operating two large plants. 
 
 In 1 79 1 Abner Guild received John Smith, a poor 
 boy of seven years, as an apprentice in his tannery, and 
 this boy, by courage and perseverance, became so suc- 
 cessful as to succeed his employer. George Winslow, 
 who was born in Brewster, Mass., in 1800, left his home 
 at eighteen years of age and learned the tanning and 
 currying trade of one David Guild, in Roxbury. He 
 came to South Dedham in 1826, married the daughter 
 of John Smith, and formed a partnership with John 
 Smith, under the name of Smith & Winslow. In 183 1 
 John Smith retired, and was succeeded by his son, Lyman 
 Smith. In 1853 firm dissolved, and George Winslow 
 & Sons continued at the old location, where the present 
 Winslow Plant stands, while Lyman Smith & Sons 
 
 (John E. and Charles L.) built a new tannery near 
 the Norwood Station, where the Smith Plant now 
 stands. 
 
 At the Winslow tannery, George Winslow retired in 
 i860, when his sons, Elisha F., George S., Martin M., 
 and Francis O., took charge and carried on the business 
 under the name of Winslow Brothers. 
 
 In 1 90 1 the Winslow and Smith concerns were con- 
 solidated under the name of Winslow Bros. & Smith 
 Company, and were incorporated under the laws o£ 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 At the Winslow Plant there are three general depart- 
 ments, the Leather Department, which manufactures 
 sheep, calf, and goat skins into two distinct lines : one 
 of shoe leather, which is sold in the Boston store of the 
 Company, at 43 South Street ; the other into leathers for 
 special lines of trade, which are sold direct from the 
 factory. 
 
 The Wool Department is where wool is pulled from 
 sheep-skins, which come in large quantities from the 
 western country and from all parts of the world. 
 
 In connection with the Wool Pulling Department 
 is an up-to-date scouring plant, and the company not 
 only handles its own wool, but also that of Willett & 
 Co. of Boston, and their consignors and customers. 
 
68 
 
 Large storehouses are required for the storage of wool 
 held for manufacture and sale. 
 
 The Glue Department is a large industry in itself. 
 The company handles the stock which comes as a by- 
 product from its own leather departments and also large 
 quantities from outside sources. 
 
 In addition to the general lines noted above, there 
 are various by-products which are worked up and placed 
 in condition for sale to the best advantage. 
 
 At the Smith plant a specialty is made of manufac- 
 turing leather for the binding of law-books and roller- 
 leather for use on rollers in cotton spinning. It is the 
 largest law and roller-leather manufacturing plant in the 
 country. Selected domestic lamb-skins are used exclu- 
 sively in making roller-leather, and the firm still ad- 
 heres to the old hemlock-bark tannage. 
 
 The company takes pride in maintaining their plants 
 in the best possible condition and extensive improve- 
 ments are continually being made. The most recent are 
 a fine office building at the Winslow Plant and a large 
 addition to the Glue Factory. A new boiler house and 
 bark room have also been built at the Smith Plant. 
 
 Probably nothing has been more conducive to the 
 success and prosperity of the Winslow Brothers & Smith 
 
 Company than the system which controls everywhere. 
 The whole plant and corps of employees are organized 
 according to up-to-date ideas and cleverly department- 
 ized, so that the business runs as methodically and 
 smoothly as a perfectly-balanced machine. 
 
 It is especially notable that neither of the concerns 
 united in the Winslow Bros. & Smith Company have 
 ever had a strike or lock-out or any kind of labor trovible 
 worthy of mention. 
 
 The members of the company who reside in Norwood 
 are among the most progressive men in the community, 
 taking a deep and earnest interest in town affairs -and 
 giving much of their valuable time to the public service. 
 
 This business forms a large part of the history of 
 this community, for established in the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, they have grown and prospered steadily until they 
 are to-day the largest of their kind in the world. During 
 their existence other industries have been established and 
 discontinued, or have moved out of town, while most 
 of the other prosperous industries are comparatively 
 recent acquisitions to the town. But this ancient in- 
 dustry, the tanning of leather, has the prestige attaching 
 to antiquity as well as that of modern success in Nor- 
 I wood. 
 
WINSLOW BROS. & SMITH COMPANY. THE SMITH PLANT. 
 
i 
 
 I 
 
WILLIS COLBURN FULLER. 
 
 WilHs Colburn Fuller was born in West Dedham, 
 May 2 2, 1858, and was educated in the public schools of 
 that place. After leaving 
 school he entered the em- 
 ploy of his father, Green- 
 
 wood Fuller, who 
 
 established the business 
 of building mover in 
 1840. In 1883 Mr. Fuller 
 went into business for 
 himself as a building 
 mover in West Dedham, 
 and located in Norwood 
 in July, 1899, continuing 
 in the same business. 
 Mr. Fuller's work covers 
 a large territory, inckid- 
 ing Needham, Medfield, 
 Dedham, Hyde Park, 
 W^alpole, Canton, Fox- 
 
 boro, and other places. He has excellent facilities for 
 moving anything in the line of wooden buildings, and 
 employs continually a dozen men and four horses. His 
 
 long experience and careful promptness in executing 
 orders have given him a well merited reputation in his 
 line, and he has a large number of orders constantly on 
 hand. The work of moving buildings requires the utmost 
 
 care in planning and the 
 exercise of great skill in 
 executing successfully 
 those plans, and Mr. 
 Fuller is an adept at both. 
 Mr. Fuller belongs to the 
 famous Society for the 
 Apprehension of Horse 
 Thieves, of Dedham, one 
 of the oldest societies in 
 the country, and to 
 Chosen Knights Com- 
 mandery , Knights of 
 Malta, of Norwood. In 
 politics he is a Republi- 
 can, and was elected a 
 member of the Board of 
 , Selectmen of Dedham in 
 
 1887. He married Miss Frances D. Cox of West Ded- 
 ham in 1885, and they have one son, Roger Greenwood 
 Fuller. They reside at 229 Winter Street. 
 
70 
 
 ERNEST HAMLIN GRANT. 
 
 Ernest Hamlin Grant was born in Wrentham, No 
 vember 20, 1871. He received his 
 education in the public schools of 
 Wrentham and at Dean Academy, 
 Franklin. He came to Norwood in 
 1889 and entered the dry goods store of 
 G. Forbes, Jr., as clerk, and was after- 
 wards employed in the grocery stores 
 of E. W. Talbot & Company and I. T. 
 Snow. In October, 1893, he removed 
 to Franklin, bvit returned to Norwood 
 in September, 1894, and opened the 
 People's Market at the present stand, 
 corner of Washington Street and Rail- 
 road Avenue. 
 
 The People's Market covers an area 
 of one thousand square feet and is well 
 equipped with first-class modern re- 
 frigerators. A large stock is carried, 
 including beef, pork, veal, ham, lamb, 
 poultry, tripe, sausage, butter, eggs, 
 oysters, fish, canned goods, and country produce, and 
 one of the things that impresses the visitor to the People's 
 
 ERNEST H. GRANT 
 
 Market is the strict attention to hygienic arrangements 
 and cleanliness that prevails. In a town like this, where 
 the population covers such a wide range of tastes, it re- 
 quires considerable business acumen to 
 cater acceptably to a large clientage of 
 customers, and Mr. Grant has met these 
 conditions admirably in the People's 
 Market, and its prosperity and growth 
 for eleven years under his progressive 
 and conservative management bears 
 significant testimony. While giving 
 employment to several courteous assist- 
 ants, Mr. Grant keeps a careful over- 
 sight over all the details, and may well 
 feel satisfied at the success he has at- 
 tained and at his business standing in 
 the community. 
 
 Mr. Grant is a member of Orient 
 Lodge of Masons, Tiot Lodge, I. O. 
 O. F., and of the Norwood Business 
 Association and Board of Trade. On 
 October 26, 1896, he married Miss Ida 
 M. Olson of Norwood, and they have 
 Lois Almeda. They live at No. 171 
 
 one daughter, 
 Vernon Street. 
 
71 
 
 EDWARD EVERETT RHODES. 
 
 Edward Everett Rhodes was born in Boston, Novem- 
 ber lo, 1882, but his parents moved to Norwood when 
 he was quite young, and he was edu- 
 cated in the Norwood pubHc schools 
 and the High School. He also took a 
 commercial course in Burdett's Busi- 
 ness College in Boston. After leaving 
 school he entered the employ of John 
 C. Paige & Co., insurance brokers, of 
 Boston, in February, 1901, remaining 
 with that firm till December, 1904. 
 
 Mr. Rhodes then went into photog- 
 raphy at his home, 66 Hoyle Street, 
 and has followed that profession since, 
 building up a large clientage. His 
 work is principally developing, print- 
 ing, and enlarging, a great deal of this 
 being a mail order trade from out-of- 
 town customers. He has made a spe- 
 cialty of souvenir post-cards, and has edward e. 
 issued series of these for Norwood, 
 Attleboro, Hyde Park, Mansfield, Stoughton, Casco Bay 
 and Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Mr. Rhodes does all 
 
 kinds of photographic commercial work, and most of 
 
 the views in this book are from photographs taken by 
 
 him, and reflect great credit on his artistic ability. He 
 
 is preparing to take up portraiture work to a greater 
 
 extent, having already accomplished 
 
 much in this line. 
 
 Modern photography has made such 
 
 marvelous progress that it hardly seems 
 
 practicable now to attempt to limit its 
 
 possibilities. Its contributions to 
 
 i science as well as to art cannot be over- 
 I 
 
 estimated, while in the business world 
 photography has its share. One who, 
 like Mr. Rhodes, unites to natural ar- 
 tistic talent a painstaking skill and an 
 ability to study modern methods cannot 
 fail to make a success of his chosen 
 profession. To the above essentials for 
 success Mr. Rhodes adds an enthusiasm 
 and interest in his work which is sure 
 to bring him well-deserved reward. 
 RHODES. Mr. Rhodes is popular among the 
 
 young people, but the growth of his 
 business has been so rapid as to leave him little time for 
 the demands of social life. 
 
72 
 
 GEORGE EDWARD SANBORN. 
 
 George Edward Sanborn was born in South Ded- 
 ham, August 17, 1870, and was educated in the public 
 schools and High School of Norwood. 
 He entered the employ of E. W. Talbot 
 & Co., as clerk in their hardware and 
 grocery store in 1S85, and in 1891 
 boueht out the hardware business of 
 the firm, and has since conducted it at 
 the same stand, corner of Washington 
 Street and Railroad Avenue. 
 
 The premises cover a very large 
 floor space, with store room nine hun- 
 dred square feet in dimensions. A 
 heavy and varied stock is carried, com- 
 prising hardware, tin and enamelled 
 ware, roofing and sheathing papers, 
 manufacturers' supplies, carriage hard- 
 ware, paints, oils, varnishes, brushes, 
 lead, zinc, etc. ; also carpenters', ma- 
 sons', and painters' tools, cutlery, elec- 
 tric bells, batteries, wire, and all other 
 goods found in a first-class hardware store. An immense 
 business is done in drain pipe, Mr. Sanborn supplying 
 
 GEORGE E. SANBORN. 
 
 all the surrounding towns as well as Norwood. In the 
 early spring, he, in connection with several associates, 
 will erect a large and handsome block on Washington 
 Street, and will remove his business to one of the 
 largest stores in the completed block. 
 Under the progressive management of 
 the proprietor the business has steadily 
 increased to large proportions, and as 
 Mr. Sanborn caters to every class of 
 trade, he carries the highest grade of 
 goods at the lowest market prices. By 
 keeping a close watch over the details 
 and development of the business, Mr. 
 Sanborn is always prepared to furnish 
 anything in his line for which there 
 may be a call, with the result that his 
 clientage of steady customers has rapid- 
 ly increased and the business has spread 
 far beyond the town lines, with a well- 
 deserved prosperity. 
 
 Mr. Sanborn belongs to the Nor- 
 wood Business Association and Board 
 of Trade. In 1894 he married Miss 
 Violet Brooks Pond, daughter of the late Charles E. Pond 
 of Norwood, Jand they have one son, Edward Kenneth. 
 
THE F. W. BIRD & SON PAPER MILLS. 
 
 The upper view is a photograph of the main mills ; the one on the right-hand side the Paroid mill, and the one on the 
 
 left the boiler plant. 
 
73 
 
 F. W. BIRD & SON. 
 
 The paper mills of F. W. Bird & Son at East Wal- 
 pole were established in 1817, on the site of where the 
 present boiler-house and No. i machine room are to- 
 day. They consisted at first of two small plants, known 
 as the Upper Mill and the Lower Mill, and were under 
 the management of the late Francis W. Bird for a great 
 many years, until Mr. Z. T. Hollingsworth was taken 
 in as partner, when the firm was known as F. W. Bird, 
 Hollingsworth & Co. 
 
 Later a division of the property took place, and the 
 Lower Mill was then turned over to the present Hollings- 
 worth & Vose Company, and the Upper Mill was to be 
 known as F. W. Bird & Son, Mr. Charles S. Bird being 
 admitted into the firm with his father. 
 
 In conjunction with the paper mills was a special 
 waterproof department, which became inadequate to 
 take care of the demand for special waterproof and build- 
 ing papers, and permanent ready roofings, so it was 
 
 found necessary to build a new and distinct mill for these 
 particular purposes. 
 
 Thus came the present Norwood Faroid Mill, which 
 was built in the spring of 1902. The Paroid Mill is 
 about a mile from the main East Walpole mill, over the 
 Norwood line, near the banks of the Neponset River. It 
 was ready for manufacturing operations March i, 1903. 
 Since that date it has been run steadily, most of the time 
 both day and night, producing the special waterproof 
 goods which are distributed to all parts of the globe. 
 
 The growth of the trade in Paroid roofing has been 
 so great that a constant increase in the plant has been 
 found necessary to supply the trade, and the outlook is 
 promising that the Paroid Mill will increase in the ratio 
 of the main mills. The demand for F. W. Bird & Son's 
 Paroid is such that a mill similar to the one in Norwood 
 has been erected by the company at Hamilton, Ontario. 
 
 F. W. Bird & Son's office and main mills are at 
 East Walpole, Mass. They have branch offices at 
 Chicago, New York, Washington and Hamilton, Ontario. 
 
74 
 
 THE GEORGE H. MORRILL COMPANY. 
 
 One of the most important and best known industries 
 of Norwood is the George H. Morrill Company, whose 
 factories are the largest producers of printing inks in 
 America, and whose reputation is world-wide. The 
 business was founded by Samuel Morrill, father of 
 George H. Morrill, in 1845, at Andover, Mass. In 1856 
 he moved the works to South Dedham, and his sons, 
 George H. and Samuel S. Morrill, became partners. In 
 1869 this firm was dissolved, and the business was con- 
 tinued under the name of George H. Morrill & Com- 
 pany, which appellation it bore until October i, 1903, 
 when it was incorporated vinder the name of the George 
 H. Morrill Company. 
 
 The story of the inception of the industry is most 
 interesting. Samuel Morrill, who was born in Salis- 
 I)ury, Mass., April 4, 1804, was in the printing business, 
 and believing he could make his own ink to good advan- 
 tage, was led to experimenting, with such good results 
 that in 1845 he gave his whole attention to the manufac- 
 ture of printing inks. From this small beginning has 
 grown the immense business which has made the name 
 of Morrill to be ranked among those of the captains of 
 industry and given to Norwood a part of the town's 
 
 prosperity. This company was the pioneer in the manu- 
 facture of printing ink in New England and one of the 
 first of the large manufacturers in the country. 
 
 For many years the company manufactured black ink 
 only, but about thirty-five years ago the manufacture of 
 colored printing inks was commenced in San Francisco, 
 and they began to manufacture colored printing inks in 
 New York about twenty-five years ago. In 1904 a new 
 departure was made when a building was erected in 
 Norwood for the manufacture of dry colors, used in 
 making colored inks, which had previously been bought 
 of other concerns. In 1905 a building was added to the 
 Norwood plant for the manufacture of colored inks, 
 most of which are now made in this town, although the 
 factories at San Francisco still manufacture large quan- 
 tities and the New York mills are retained for the 
 purpose of getting out quick orders. 
 
 The growth of the business has been remarkable, even 
 in this country and age of large commercial expansions. 
 The original Norwood factory was entirely re-built in 
 1894, and new buildings are being added to the plant 
 almost continually in order to provide facilities for 
 meeting the ever-increasing demand for the Morrill ink. 
 
 While all grades of black ink are made, the com- 
 pany's great specialty is perfecting-press ink, of which 
 
THE GEORGE H. MORRILL COMPANY INK MILLS. 
 
the George H. Morrill Company makes more than the 
 combined product of all other firms. Some idea may 
 be had of the enormous business done by the company 
 in this line alone by the fact that a short time ago it was 
 estimated that over twelve million papers a day were 
 printed with the George H. Morrill Company's perfect- 
 ing-press ink. The name of the company is a synonym 
 for good ink in the great majority of newspaper offices 
 in the country, and there are probably few Americans 
 connected with the printing business but have heard of 
 the Morrill inks. 
 
 Another notable fact in connection with this com- 
 pany is that it is the only one in this country which does 
 all the work in connection with the manufacturing of 
 printing inks, even making its own machinery required 
 for the work. Part of the remarkable success of the 
 business is doubtless due to this comprehensiveness of 
 detail on a vast scale. 
 
 The main office of the George H. Morrill Company 
 is at the corner of Pearl and Purchase Streets in Boston. 
 There are branch offices in New York, Chicago, San 
 Francisco, and London, England, and a distributing 
 plant in Toronto which supplies a large Canadian trade. 
 Practically every part of the United States, Canada, and 
 Mexico is covered by the trade of this company, and a 
 
 large export business is done to nearly every civilized 
 country, except a few of the European countries. 
 Australia is a good customer of the company's inks, and 
 an immense quantity is sold in Japan, branches being 
 maintained in Kobe and Yokohama. 
 
 The factories in Norwood are situated on Pleasant 
 Street, at the south end of the town, near the station 
 of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad 
 known as Morrills. They cover considerable territory, 
 and new bviildings are being constantly added. They 
 are supplied with the most modern appliances for the 
 manufacture of printers' ink, and the equipment is com- 
 plete in every respect. 
 
 It is interesting to note that four generations of the 
 Morrill family have been connected with the business — 
 Samuel Morrill, the founder; George H. Morrill, his 
 son, for whom the company is named; George H. 
 Morrill, Jr., the grandson, and Leon G. Morrill, the 
 great-grandson of the founder, respectively. Deacon 
 Samuel Morrill was one of South Dedham's most re- 
 spected residents, and the other gentlemen are highly 
 esteemed in Norwood, where they reside. 
 
 The president and treasurer of the company is George 
 H. Morrill, Jr., and the assistant treasurer and general 
 manager is Frank D. Colburn. 
 
76 
 
 HENRY EUGENE RICE. 
 
 Henry Eugene Rice was born in Malcom, Iowa, 
 November, 1869. He was educated in the public schools 
 of Malcom, and after graduating from 
 the High School, his parents moving 
 East and locating in Chelsea, Mass., 
 Mr. Rice took a course in Bryant & 
 Stratton's Commercial College. As a 
 clerk in the dry goods store of his 
 uncle, M. E. Rice, in Chelsea, he 
 acquired his first training in practical 
 business methods. In 1886 he entered 
 the employ of his father, George E. 
 Rice, who kept a dry goods store in 
 Maiden, but after about a year and a 
 half he again entered the employ of his 
 tincle, with whom he remained ten 
 years. This service in the dry goods 
 .stores of his father and uncle gave Mr. 
 Rice that special fitting for conducting 
 a dry goods store which has made his 
 l)usiness so successful in Norwood. 
 
 In 1898 Mr, Rice located in Norwood, buying out 
 the dry goods business of Edward Poore in Conger 
 
 HENRY E. RICE. 
 
 Block. When Conger Block was built it was the plan 
 of Mr. Conger to have one store for dry goods, one for 
 groceries, one for drugs, and one for shoes. Mr. Conger 
 occupied one himself for the shoe business. Partridge's 
 Cash Grocery the next one, and the 
 third was the dry goods store under the 
 management of Edward Poore. After 
 a few months Mr. Poore became blind, 
 so his brothers ran the business for a 
 year and a half, but finally decided to 
 sell to Mr. Rice the lease and fixtures. 
 Mr. Rice opened with a new stock of 
 goods on April 7, 1898. Two years 
 later the business had grown to such 
 dimensions that more room became 
 necessary, and the next store, formerly 
 occupied by a grocery, was leased by 
 Mr. Rice, the partition being cut out. 
 After a little less than two years more of 
 growth Mr. Rice leased the next store, 
 occupied by J. W. Conger, dealer in 
 boots and shoes, and Mrs. S. C. Cross, 
 millinery, and added these two lines of 
 trade to his business, making it a department store. Mr. 
 Rice has had the consolidated store arranged in most 
 
77 
 
 convenient manner and equipped with all modern fit- 
 tings, so that the goods can be displayed and handled to 
 the best advantage. He keeps an extensive variety of 
 goods in all grades and styles, from which selections to 
 
 due in great measure to Mr. Rice's thorough knowledge 
 of business and careful oversight of details. 
 
 Mr. Rice is a member of the Business Association. 
 For five years he was superintendent of the Congrega- 
 
 suit all tastes can easily be made. As a result of prompt 
 and pleasing service, excellent goods and satisfactory 
 prices, Mr. Rice has earned an enviable reputation in 
 Norwood and vicinity. The success of the business is 
 
 tional Sunday-school, and accomplishes much along the 
 lines of church work. He takes an active interest in town 
 affairs. In 189 1 he married Miss Gertrude M. Evans of 
 Chelsea, and they have two children, Dorothy and Edith. 
 
78 
 
 THE BOARD OF SELECTMEN. 
 
 Frederick Leonard Fisher, chairman of the Norwood 
 Board of Selectmen, was born in South Dedham, Janu- 
 ary 29, 1862, son of William Cvirtis 
 and Emily E. (Atkins) Fisher. He is 
 a descendant of David Fisher, who was 
 an early settler of Dedham, familiarly 
 known as "King David," the line of 
 descent being through Oliver (David's 
 son) , David (second) , Leonard and 
 William Curtis. Frederick L. Fisher 
 was educated in the schools of this 
 community. He early began to make 
 a study of agricvilture on his father's 
 farm, and has made that his chief occu- 
 pation. In other occupations he has 
 been prominent in building and de- 
 veloping real estate, having built at 
 least twenty houses in the last fifteen 
 years. His first business venture was 
 the leasing of a clay pit, the product of Frederick 
 which he sold to the paper mills. Mr. 
 Fisher was connected with the Norwood Fire Depart- 
 ment for twenty-two years, for fifteen of which he was 
 
 foreman of the Hook and Ladder Company. He is a 
 Republican, and has long taken an active interest in 
 politics. He was highway surveyor from 1885 to 1890. 
 In 1892 he was elected a member of the Board of Select- 
 men, and has been re-elected every 
 year since. He was clerk of the board 
 for the first ten years of his service and 
 has been chairman since 1902. He is 
 a Mason, belonging to Orient Lodge, 
 F. & A. M., and Hebron Chapter of 
 Norwood, and Joseph Warren Com- 
 mandery, K. T., and Aleppo Temple, 
 Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, of Boston. 
 He was a charter member and first 
 vice-grand of Tiot Lodge, 1. O. O. F. 
 In 1888 Mr. Fisher inarried Miss Har- 
 riet D. Blackman. They have four 
 children, Curtis B., Leonard C, Emily, 
 and Frederick Leonard, Jr., and live at 
 386 Neponset Street. 
 
 Richard E. Oldham, clerk of the 
 Board of Selectmen, was born in South 
 Dedham in 1855, and received his edu- 
 cation in the South Dedham public schools. He made 
 himself proficient as a telegrapher after leaving school, 
 
 L. FISHER. 
 
79 
 
 and became an operator at stations on the New York & New England Railroad. He was subsequently appointed 
 station agent at Winslows and then at Norwood, holding each position several years, when he was promoted to be 
 
 station agent at Southbridge. In 1899 
 Mr. Oldham gave up railroad work to 
 engage in the insurance business, repre- 
 senting the Penn Mutual Life Insurance 
 Company. In politics Mr. Oldham is 
 a Democrat. He was elected selectman 
 in 1902, and has been re-elected an- 
 nually since. He has been clerk of the 
 board since 1902. In the fall of 1905 
 he was the Democratic candidate for 
 representative to the Massachusetts 
 General Court and carried Norwood, a 
 Republican town, by a good majority, 
 though defeated in the district. 
 
 Samuel M. Winslow, was born in 
 South Dedham, July 16, i860, and was 
 educated in the public schools. He 
 was interested in the Winslow tannery 
 until 1895, and has since been engaged 
 in agriculture and real estate. He is a 
 Republican, and was chosen selectman in 1902, having been re-elected each year since. Mr. Winslow is a member 
 of Tiot Lodge, I. O. O. F., and Norwood Lodge, A. O. U. W., and has been manager of the Norwood Band about 
 twelve years. In 1882 he married Miss Clarissa Marston, and they have two children. 
 
 RICHARD E. OI.DHAM. 
 
 SAMUEL M. WINSLOW. 
 
THE NORWOOD POST OFFICE. 
 
 The Post Office was established in 1846 on the 
 corner of Washington and Nahatan Streets, where the 
 UniversaHst Church now stands, during the term of office 
 of Moses Guild and the first part of the term of E. F. 
 Gay. On the completion of the Gay & Bigelow store, 
 corner of Washington and Cottage Streets, it was moved 
 to that building and kept there until 1857. It was then 
 moved to a room in the old hotel for two years, and then 
 to the basement of the D. B. Farrington store building 
 until it was moved by Postmaster Willard Gay, in the 
 year 1 861, to a room in Village Hall, near the entrance. 
 After a time it was changed to the store now occupied 
 by Mrs. J. Anson Gay in the same building. An office 
 was fitted up in the Gay & Bigelow, now the Wheelock, 
 building, and it was moved there, where it was kept for 
 several years. In 1899 it was moved to the present 
 quarters in the Bigelow Block. Following is a list of 
 the Postmasters of South Dedham and Norwood : 
 
 Captain Moses Guild, appointed December, 1846 ; served 
 until 1850. Ebenezer F. Gay, from 1850 until 1857. Captain 
 Moses Guild (second term), from 1857 until his death, July 21 
 of that year. Mark Guild, from 1857 until 1861. Willard 
 Gay, from 1861 until his death in 1882. Miss Emma F. Gav, 
 from 1882 until 1886. William J. Wallace, from 1886 until 
 his death in 1903. Frank A. Fales, appointed in 1903. 
 
 Business transacted at the Norwood Post Office for 
 the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1905 : 
 
 REGISTERED MATTER. 
 
 Number of letters and parcels received - - 1,554 
 
 Number of letters and parcels dispatched, - - 2,679 
 
 MONEY ORDER BUSINESS. 
 
 Balance on hand July 1st, 1904, - - - - $ 587 50 
 
 Foreign and domestic orders issued, - 6,645 67,368 52 
 
 Fees on same, . . - . . 519 04 
 
 Total, 6,645 $68,475 06 
 
 Foreign and domestic orders 
 
 paid, ----- 2,014 $19,422 01 
 
 Total money deposited with Post- 
 master at Dedham, Mass., for 
 the Money Order Division, - 48,776 00 
 
 Balance on hand June 30th, 1905, - 277 05 
 
 ,475 06 
 
 RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES OP OFFICE. 
 
 Received for stamps, stamped envelopes, paper 
 
 wrappers, postal cards, and box rents, - - $11,853 80 
 
 Expended for rent, light, fuel, salary of Post- 
 master, Assistant Postmaster, clerks, car- 
 riers, special delivery fees, etc., - - - 10,206 65 
 
 Deposited in U. S. Sub-Treasury, - - - $1,647 15 
 
 Special Delivery Letters and Parcels: — Received, 784; 
 delivered, 773 ; undelivered, 11. 
 
 For a period of six days, at Christmas time, 1904, there 
 were handled 31,647 pieces of mail matter. In the record of 
 letters and packages registered by the free delivery carriers 
 in the whole New England states for the year 1904, Carrier 
 Fairbanks of Norwood stands No. 7 on the list. 
 
8i 
 
 JAMES ALBERT HARTSHORN. 
 
 James Albert Hartshorn was born in Walpole, Mass., 
 February 34, 1856. His parents were 
 George and Elizabeth (Payson) Harts- 
 horn. He received his education in 
 the Walpole public schools and High 
 School, subsequently taking a course 
 at Bryant & Stratton's Commercial 
 College, Boston. He then engaged in 
 the provision business with his uncle, 
 Warren Hartshorn, in Walpole, and in 
 1880 bovight the routes in East Walpole 
 and Canton. In 1881 he located in 
 Norwood, and established the provision 
 business which he has since conducted 
 at the same stand. 
 
 In politics he is a Republican, and 
 has been a member of the Republican 
 Town Committee for fifteen years. In 
 1891 and 1892 he represented the First 
 Norfolk District in the Legislature, 
 serving as chairman of the Committee 
 on Roads and Bridges in his last term. 
 He was elected town auditor in 1895, and served several 
 
 JAMES A. HARTSHORN 
 
 years in that ofiice. As president of the Norwood Busi- 
 ness Association and Board of Trade in 1896 and 1898, 
 Mr. Hartshorn did excellent work in the interests of the 
 town, and his energy in behalf of the 
 community have won esteem and ap- 
 preciation. Mr. Hartshorn is a mem- 
 ber of Orient Lodge, F. and A. M., 
 and held the office of Worshipful 
 Master three years ; he is a member of 
 Hebron Royal Arch Chapter, and of 
 Cyprus Commandery, K. T., of Hyde 
 Park, and was District Deputy Grand 
 Master of the 2 2d Masonic District in 
 1900. He is a charter member of Tiot 
 Lodge, I. O. O. F., and also belongs 
 to Nahatan Tribe, I. O. R. M., and to 
 Norwood Lodge, A. O. U. W. 
 
 Though prominent in social, politi- 
 cal, and fraternal life, Mr. Hartshorn 
 has attended closely to his provision 
 business, which has grown under his 
 progressive management. He married 
 Alia C. Thayer, daughter of Tyler 
 Thayer of Norwood, and they have 
 three children, Helena E., Maude P. and George Tyler. 
 
82 
 
 FRANK ALDRICH FALES. 
 
 Frank Aldrich Fales was born in South Dedham October 13, 1848. He 
 was educated in the public schools of this community, and at the age of eighteen 
 began to learn the carpenter's trade, following that occupation for five years after 
 finishing his apprenticeship. He then entered the employ of Clark & Leatherbee, 
 lumber dealers, of Boston, and remained with them four years, being promoted 
 
 to the posi- 
 
 HON. FRANK A. FALES. 
 
 RESIDENCE OF FRANK A. FALES. 
 
 tion of su- 
 perintend- 
 ent of their 
 wharf. In 
 1877 he re- 
 turned to 
 Norwood 
 and p u r- 
 chased the 
 
 flour, grain and feed business of William Fisher, 
 at that time located on Washington Street, con- 
 ducting it under the name of Frank A. Fales & 
 Co., he being sole proprietor. In 1880 he built 
 his present spacious establishment on Railroad 
 Avenue, where an extensive business is con- 
 ducted in flour, grain, meal, feed, hay, and 
 similar commodities, which has prospered under 
 Mr. Fales's progressive business management. 
 
^^3 
 
 Mr. Fales has always been a loyal and consistent 
 Republican. In 1882 he was chosen a member of the 
 Board of Selectmen of the town, holding the position 
 for twenty years, the last nine of which he was chair- 
 man. He was a member of the first Board of Fire 
 Engineers and of the committee appointed to secure the 
 construction of the water-works, which were completed 
 in 1885. To him much of the credit is due for securing 
 the abolition of grade 
 crossings on Washington 
 and Guild Streets, as well 
 as many other town im- 
 provements. 
 
 Mr. Fales represented 
 the First Norfolk District 
 in the House of Represen- 
 tatives of the Legislature 
 in 1886, 1887, and 1888, 
 and the Second Norfolk 
 District in the State 
 Senate in 1900, 1901, and 
 1902. He was appointed 
 postmaster of Norwood by 
 President Roosevelt, No- 
 vember 17, 1903, and has 
 brought to the office that 
 
 FRANK A. FALES & CO. S GRAIN MILL. 
 
 comprehensive business talent which has served so well 
 in whatever he has undertaken. 
 
 Mr. Fales is an ex-president of the Norwood Business 
 Association and Board of Trade, and takes an active in- 
 terest in its work. He is a member of Orient Lodge, 
 F. and A. M., Hebron Royal Arch Chapter, and Cyprus 
 Commandery, Knights Templar. He is a charter mem- 
 ber of Tiot Lodge, 1. O. O. F., of which he was the first 
 
 noble grand, and was also 
 the first sachem of Na- 
 hatan Tribe, I. O. R. M. 
 He is a member of the 
 Ancient and Honorable 
 Artillery Company and of 
 the Norfolk Club. He has 
 been president of the Old- 
 Home Week Association 
 since its organization. 
 
 In 1887 Mr. Fales mar- 
 ried Miss Jennie F. Train 
 of Potsdam, N. Y., and 
 they reside in one of Nor- 
 wood's most handsome 
 houses, which is situated 
 at the corner of Nichols 
 and Winter Streets. 
 
84 
 
 HARVEY LEWIS EOYDEN. 
 
 Harvey Lewis Boyden was born in South Walpole, 
 June 21, 1840, and received his educa- 
 tion in the public schools of that town. 
 After leaving school he went to work 
 in the country store of James Edson 
 Carpenter, in South Walpole, after- 
 wards in the Union store, and later en- 
 tered the employ of David E. Metcalf 
 at his grocery store in Walpole. In 
 1859 he went to Minot Corner, Me., 
 and was employed there in a country 
 store. Returning to Massachusetts he 
 was employed in the railway station at 
 Mansfield from 1861 to October, 1863, 
 and then was in the employ of an ex- 
 press company in Taunton for nearly a 
 year. 
 
 In July, 1864, Mr. Boyden opened 
 a country store in South Walpole, 
 which he conducted successfully for 
 about twenty years, until April, 1S84, 
 during the first ten years of that time having as a part- 
 ner Naaman B. Wilmarth. From April, 1S84, to 1886 
 
 HARVEY L. BOYDEN 
 
 he was not in active business. In January, 1886, Mr. 
 Boyden came to Norwood and bought out the grocery 
 business of Eastman Webb, and has since then con- 
 ducted the business successfully at the 
 same stand — a record of nearly twenty 
 years, which has gained for Mr. Boy- 
 den the reputation he so well deserves 
 of dealing in strictly reliable articles 
 and at the lowest prices. Though spa- 
 cious, the store has none too much 
 room for the very large and complete 
 stock of all varieties of staple and fancy, 
 groceries which are constantly kept on 
 hand. A record of forty years in the 
 grocery business is one of which any 
 merchant may well be proud. 
 
 Mr. Boyden was a member of the 
 Board of Selectmen of Walpole for 
 three years, from 1868 to 1871. He 
 was one of the original members of the 
 Norwood Business Association and 
 Board of Trade. He has been a dea- 
 con of the Congregational Church 
 since January, 1898. Mr. Boyden married, in 1867, 
 Miss Louisa C. Boyden of South Walpole. 
 
PERLEY BRYANT THOMPSON. 
 
 Perley Bryant Thompson was born in North Anson, 
 Me., September 12, 1869. On his mother's side he is 
 descended from the old Puritan stock, 
 his ancestor, John Bryant, being one of 
 the old Plymouth Colony settlers. 
 
 Mr. Thompson received his early 
 education in the public schools of Penn- 
 sylvania, and graduated from Anson 
 Academy, Maine. He graduated from 
 the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy 
 in 1892, and at the present time is 
 president of the Alumni Association of 
 the college. 
 
 In 1889 Mr. Thompson came to 
 Norwood and entered the employ of 
 M. F. Wetmore as a drug clerk. On 
 Mr. Wetmore's death, in 1893, he pur- 
 chased the drug business, and has since 
 continued it at the place where Mr. 
 Wetmore conducted the business for 
 so many years. 
 
 He is a member of Orient Lodge, F. and A. M., 
 and is secretary of Hebron Royal Arch Chapter, having 
 
 held the position ten years. He also belongs to Cyprus 
 Commandery, Knights Templar, of Hyde Park, and to 
 Aleppo Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the 
 Mystic Shrine, of Boston. As a member of the Ancient 
 and Honorable Artillery Company of 
 Boston he was orderly to Captain J. 
 Stearns Cushing and Colonel Sidney 
 M. Hedges, commanders in 1902 and 
 1903, respectively, and in performance 
 of his duties had a prominent part in 
 entertaining the Honourable Artillery 
 Company of London on their visit to 
 this country in 1903. He is a member 
 of the Norwood Business Association 
 and Board of Trade and the Sixteen- 
 of-Us Club. 
 
 To conduct a drvxg business of high 
 standard successfully is a record to be 
 proud of, and Mr. Thompson's care in 
 his prescription department merits well 
 the confidence of the community. 
 
 Mr. Thompson married Miss Mary 
 A. Niles of Union Springs, N. Y., 
 June 6, 1895. They have one son, Bryant Niles, and 
 reside in their handsome residence, 190 Vernon Street. 
 
 THOMPSON. 
 
86 
 
 FRANK HENRY FARNSWORTH. 
 
 Frank Henry Farnsworth was born in Hyde Park, 
 August 14, 1879, being the son of Henry E. and Miriam 
 Farnsworth. In 1880 his father established Farnsworth's 
 Bakery in Norwood, and moved the family here in 1883. 
 
 farnsworth's bakery. 
 
 Mr. Farnsworth was educated in the Norwood public 
 schools and graduated from the High School. After 
 completing his education he entered the employ of the 
 United States Flour Milling Company of Boston, as 
 
 bookkeeper, remaining there three years. In 1899 he 
 entered the employ of his father at Farnsworth's Bakery, 
 and on the death of his father, in 1903, he assumed the 
 business, which he has since conducted. 
 
 Farnsworth's Bakery started in 1880 with one team 
 and two men, and during its quarter century of business 
 it has prospered till now Mr. Farnsworth employs 
 twelve men and three teams. The relations between 
 employer and employees have always been of a most 
 pleasant character. The establishment makes about 
 forty different kinds of pastry, pies, etc., and thirteen 
 different kinds of bread, and is well equipped for any 
 work demanded of a modern bakery. 
 
 The business of a baker is one of the most important 
 in a community, the art of bread-making being one of 
 the oldest trades. Farnsworth's Bakery, conducted by 
 two generations of the family in Norwood for twenty- 
 five years, is a credit to the business-life of the town. 
 
 Mr. Farnsworth is a member of Orient Lodge, F. and 
 A. M., Hebron Royal Arch Chapter, and Cyprus Com- 
 mandery, K. T. He is a Republican, and has always 
 taken an active interest in political affairs. 
 
 He married, in 1901, Miss Florence M. White of 
 Potsdam, N. Y., and they have one child, Frances, born 
 in 1904. 
 
EDWARD HAMILTON DUNBAR. 
 
 Edward Hamilton Dunbar was born in Worcester in 
 
 1848. The family 
 moved to Colum- 
 bus, Ohio, where he 
 grew to manhood. 
 When the Civil 
 War broke out he 
 enlisted, at the age 
 of fourteen years, 
 but his father ob- 
 jected. In April, 
 1864, he enlisted in 
 Company E, 176th 
 Ohio Infantry, in 
 which he took an 
 active part in the 
 Battle of Nashville, 
 December 15 and 
 16, 1864, and saw 
 much active service 
 in Tennessee and 
 
 EDWARD H. DUNBAR. 
 
 Northern Alabama. 
 He was promoted to corporal in August, i864,|and dis- 
 
 charged at Nashville, July 14, 1865. Ever since that 
 time Mr. Dunbar has taken a great interest in the Grand 
 Army of the Republic. 
 
 He joined U. S. Grant Post, No. i. Boys in Blue, at 
 Columbus, Ohio, in 1865, which was later absorbed into 
 the G. A. R,, and has since been an active member of 
 five different departments, his business calling him to 
 several states. 
 
 In 1901 Mr. Dunbar came to Norwood, where he 
 engaged in the jewelry business. He at once identified 
 himself with George K. Bird Post, No. 169, G. A. R., 
 and in 1904 was elected commander, and re-elected in 
 1905. During his first term as commander the post leased 
 the present G. A. R. Hall in the Messenger Building. 
 
 To Mr. Dunbar is due the credit for the organization 
 of the Norfolk County G. A. R. Association, of which 
 he is serving his second term as county commander. At 
 the Massachusetts Department Convention in 1905 he 
 was chosen a member of the Department Council of 
 Administration. 
 
 Mr. Dunbar is a member of Orient Lodge, A. F. and 
 A. M., Clan Stewart, A. O. S. C, Loyal Contentment 
 Lodge, I.O.O.F.,M.U., and of the Norwood Business 
 Association and Board of Trade, and has taken an active 
 interest in town affairs. 
 
88 
 
 FORREST MORTIMER DOUGLASS. 
 
 Forrest Mortimer Douglass was born in Lee, Maine, 
 May 24, 1865, and received his education in the public 
 schools of his native town and Lee 
 Academy. After leaving school he 
 learned the carpenter's trade in Lee. 
 He came to Massachusetts at the age of 
 twenty and located at Franklin, where 
 he worked at his trade with R. K. 
 Stevens, contractor. 
 
 About fifteen years ago Mr. Doug- 
 lass came to Norwood and worked at 
 his trade with local contractors for five 
 years, his first work being on the house 
 of the late Howard E. Plimpton. In 
 1894 he started in business for himself 
 as contractor, his first houses being the 
 row on Washington Street this side of 
 the High Bridge. Among the chief 
 buildings which Mr. Douglass has built 
 are the Guild School, the Shattuck forrest m 
 
 School, and two large additions to the 
 Plimpton Press. The work of Mr. Douglass has by no 
 means been confined to Norwood. His facilities for 
 
 affording all-round modern contracting and the excel- 
 lence of his materials have been widely recognized in 
 this section of the state, and have given him an influence 
 with high-class trade. Among the many large contracts 
 may be mentioned the car-barns at 
 Westwood, which are as fine a set of 
 country car-barns as there are in the 
 state. He also built the car-barn at 
 Islington, and has done extensive work 
 on the handsome residence of Mr. 
 Farnum, in Brookline. One of the 
 most notable contracts carried through 
 successfully by Mr. Douglass was the 
 large factory of the New England Bolt 
 and Nut Company in Everett, covering 
 an area of 275 by 125 feet. In all, Mr. 
 Douglass has built about four hundred 
 houses in Norwood and vicinity. 
 
 Mr. Douglass is a member of the 
 Business Association and Board of 
 Trade, of Tiot Lodge, I. O. O. F., and 
 of Hook Council, R. A. He married, 
 in 1S94, Miss Clara Frye of Woburn, 
 and they have'two sons, Henry Frye and Forrest Morti- 
 mer Douglass. Jr. They reside at 9 Douglass Avenue. 
 
 DOUGLASS. 
 
89 
 
 JAMES T. WELLINGTON'S PHARMACY. 
 
 in Norwood for about a year, making it a genuine first- 
 class prescription drug store, conducted on the solid 
 3 on which a drug store should be con- 
 not only a safe, honest, conservative, and 
 experienced man in the prescription 
 business, but he knows what the people 
 want and expect in a drug store. In 
 addition to his full line of drugs, 
 chemicals, and patent medicines, he 
 also carries toilet articles, fancy and 
 sporting goods, hot and cold soda and 
 syrups, candies and cigars, and enjoys 
 a large trade in these things. Charles 
 J. Barker of Boston is his experienced 
 prescription clerk. 
 
 Mr. Wellington has been in the 
 drug business for twenty -five years, and 
 is a registered pharmacist of excellent 
 standing. He puts up a number of 
 valuable and excellent preparations of 
 his own, including cough mixture, 
 blackberry cordial, headache powders 
 and tablets, toothache gum, and other 
 All these are articles of genuine merit and 
 ig a large and rapidly increasing sale. 
 
 James T. Wellington, proprietor of Welhngton s 
 Pharmacy in the Hawkins Block, has during the past 
 year demonstrated the fact that a first- 
 class drug store can be successfully 
 maintained in the South End of the 
 town. He is a genial gentleman of 
 high character, very conscientious in all 
 his dealings, generous and accommo- 
 dating, and exceedingly popular with 
 all who know him. 
 
 Mr. Wellington is skilled in all the 
 practical work of a pharmacist. He 
 was born in Waltham, Mass., and re- 
 ceived his early education in the public 
 schools of that place. He learned the 
 profession of a prescription druggist 
 in the old and popular drug store of 
 George H. Rogers in Waltham, where 
 he remained for several years, and 
 gained a thorough practical knowledge 
 of drugs and prescriptions. He after- 
 wards conducted drug stores of his own in Boston and 
 Stoughton. He has conducted Wellington's Pharmacy 
 
 legitimate lim 
 ducted. He i 
 
 JAMES T. WELLINGTON. 
 
 preparations, 
 are command 
 
J. E. PLIMPTON & CO. 
 
 The iron foundry and coal business carried on under 
 the firm name of J. E. Plimpton & 
 Company was established as the Nor- 
 wood Iron Foundry in 1854 by 
 Spencer Fuller and Isaac Colburn, 
 under the firm name of Fuller & Col- 
 burn. Mr. Colburn withdrew in 1858, 
 and on the death of Mr. Fuller the 
 establishment was sold to E. D. Draper 
 & Son, and later passed into the hands 
 of Mr. J. E. Plimpton, the present pro- 
 prietor, under the name of J. E. 
 Plimpton & Co., about 1890. 
 
 The foundry and coal plant are lo- 
 cated near Norwood Station, on Rail- 
 road Avenue, with a Boston office at 
 161 Summer Street. The premises 
 utilized cover an area of 2,500 square 
 feet, and are finely equipped with all 
 modern facilities for carrying on the 
 business. The foundry does a general 
 business as iron-founders and machinists, and special 
 attention is given to castings for light machinery and 
 
 J. EDWAR 
 
 fine surface work, and japanning. Employment is given 
 to eighty-five men, and the firm has achieved a high 
 reputation for promptness and carefulness in filling 
 orders. Mr. Plimpton is solicitous in 
 keeping the foundry equipped with the 
 latest machine tools, so that it is up to 
 date in every respect. 
 
 In the coal business a specialty is 
 made of Reading and Lehigh Valley 
 nut, stove, egg, and furnace coal, 
 which is delivered in bags when de- 
 sired, making a quick and quiet way 
 of delivery. The firm's coal trestle 
 enables it to carry a large quantity of 
 coal, so that immediate attention can 
 be given to prompt delivery of orders, 
 and the lowest market rate is charged. 
 
 J. Edward Plimpton, sole pro- 
 prietor of the businees, was born in 
 Walpole, October 27, 1856. He re- 
 ceived his early education in the public 
 schools and High School of Walpole. 
 In 1874 he graduated at Phillips 
 Academy, Exeter, N. H., and entered Amherst College, 
 graduating in 1878. He took great interest in base-ball 
 
 PLIMPTON. 
 
while a student and played first base on the representa- 
 tive teams of both the academy and college, and the new 
 Plimpton Athletic Field at Phillips Exeter Academy, 
 donated by his brother, George A. Plimpton, is named 
 in honor of the four 
 Plimpton brothers who 
 attended the academy. 
 
 In 1879 Mr. Plimpton 
 went to England and 
 spent six years with his 
 brother, J. C. Plimpton, 
 a wholesale importer of 
 American goods in Liver- 
 pool. Returning to this 
 country in 1885, he was 
 in the New York office 
 of Ginn & Co. for three 
 years. He purchased his 
 present business about 
 1890. 
 
 Mr. Plimpton was 
 president of the Norwood 
 Business Association in 
 
 1902-3, and did much to advance its interests. He mar- 
 ried Miss Kate Johnson of Lowell, who died in 1893. 
 
 THE J. K. PLIMPTON FOUNDRY. 
 
 In memory of his wife, in 1905, he furnished a room in 
 the building of the Lowell Y. W. C. A., of which Mrs. 
 Plimpton was one of the founders. Mr. Plimpton moved 
 to Walpole in 1893, and resides in the family homestead 
 
 at Plimptonville. He has 
 been chairman of the 
 Walpole School Board 
 for seven years. 
 
 The iron foundry of 
 J. E. Plimpton & Com- 
 pany is the oldest estab- 
 lished industry in Nor- 
 wood, with the exception 
 of the tanneries, and how 
 greatly the business has 
 increased under the con- 
 servative and careful 
 management of Mr. 
 Plimpton is shown by 
 the fact that in a sketch 
 of the town published in 
 1890 it was stated that 
 thirty-five men were em- 
 ployed, while at present the number is eighty -five, with 
 good prospects for steady growth in the future. 
 
ALMAND W. MORSE. 
 
 Almand W. Morse was born in Bridgetown, Nova 
 Scotia, which we all know as the beautiful land of 
 Evangeline. At the age of eight years 
 he with his parents removed to this 
 country, taking up their residence at 
 Charlestown, Mass. He received his 
 education in the public schools of Bos- 
 ton. At the age of fifteen he entered 
 the employ of C. J. Peters & Son, 
 learning the art of electrotyping, staying 
 with that concern nine years. Being of 
 an ambitious temperament, and wishing 
 to get more experience, he started to 
 seek employment in New York city, 
 locating with the Moss Engraving Co. 
 After a year's stay in New York he 
 came back to Boston and entered the 
 employ of George C. Scott & Sons, 
 and it was in this building, at 208 
 Summer Street, Boston, that the foun- almand 
 dation of the Norwood Press was 
 started. All of the four concerns that came to Norwood 
 Press were at that time doing business under one roof : 
 
 2 
 
 J. S. Gushing & Go., type-setters; Berwick & Smith, 
 printers; E. Fleming & Go., book-binders, and George 
 G. Scott & Sons, electro typers. On removing this large 
 and beautiful plant to Norwood, he came with it as 
 manager of the electrotyping depart- 
 ment for George G. Scott & Sons, and 
 it was here that he showed his merit. 
 Electrotyping being quite a new busi- 
 ness, he found it very hard to get help 
 to come into the country in the depth 
 ^ of winter. There was only one thing 
 j to do, and that was to hire green help 
 [ and teach them the art of electrotyping. 
 I He accomplished this by working night 
 ^^^k and day himself. After a number of 
 
 l^mk years J. S. Gushing & Go. bought the 
 
 ^ ^^^L plant, and Mr. Morse continued in their 
 
 ^^^^PF employ until about three years ago. 
 ^^^^^ He is now employed as superintendent 
 
 of the electrotype department of G. J. 
 Peters & Sons Go., Boston, one of the 
 largest engraving and electrotyping 
 houses in this country. 
 It is very gratifying to Mr. Morse to be with the firm 
 in which he first found employment. Although his 
 
 W. MORSE. 
 
93 
 
 business takes him to Boston, he, like a great many 
 others, still resides in Norwood, in a beautiful residence 
 on Walpole Street which he built six years ago. He has 
 always taken a deep interest in the welfare of Norwood, 
 having a number of Nor- 
 wood's young men in his 
 employ at present. He 
 is an active member of 
 the Norwood Business 
 Association and Board of 
 Trade, Orient Lodge of 
 A.F.& A.M., the A.O. 
 U. W., and the Franklin 
 Typographical Society, 
 and is one of the few 
 superintendents who hold 
 an honorable withdrawal 
 card from the Interna- 
 tional Typographical 
 Union. 
 
 Mr. Morse is also a 
 lover of all clean athletic 
 sports, being one of the 
 
 best all-round athletes in New England. He had the 
 pleasure, in 1887, of bringing out the champion tug-of- 
 
 RESIDENCE OF ALMAND W. MORSE. 
 
 war team of this country. The name of this famous team 
 was the "Unas" of Charlestown. In 1887, in old Music 
 Hall, Boston, the "Unas" won the championship, defeat- 
 ing the best teams the country could produce, including 
 
 Yale, Harvard, the Insti- 
 tute of Technology, and 
 several others, all in one 
 evening. He was captain 
 and trainer, and pulled 
 scratch man on the team. 
 At all the games where 
 the team competed he 
 would take part in the 
 competition of the all- 
 round sports, being one 
 of the best distance run- 
 ners and heel - and - toe 
 walkers of New England 
 at that time. 
 
 Mr. Morse hopes, in 
 the near future, to see a 
 fine Y. M. C. A. build- 
 ing, equipped with an 
 up-to-date gymnasium, so that the young men can keep 
 up athletic exercises in winter as w^ell as summer. 
 
W. F. VARNUM & CO. 
 
 W. F. Varnum & Co., clothiers and men's furnishers, 
 occupy the store in the large Folan Building on Wash- 
 ington Street. The store was re-arranged and refitted 
 last spring for their use, and is admirably located for 
 the retail clothing 
 Their goods 
 
 trade 
 are of the best 
 manufacture, in- 
 cluding David 
 Marks & Son's 
 celebrated "Horse- 
 shoe Brand" of 
 clothing. The store 
 is always well 
 stocked with the 
 most up - to - date 
 and seasonable 
 goods, and is ad- 
 mirably appointed 
 with the latest fix- 
 tures. Above all, 
 the lighting of the 
 store is perfect. 
 
 WILBERT F. VARNUM. 
 
 Wilbert F. Varnum, the senior member of the firm, 
 is a native of Lowell, Mass., where he was employed for 
 twenty-six years in one of that city's largest clothing 
 stores. He thoroughly understands the public and its 
 wants in the clothing line. 
 
 Alvin C. Holman, his partner, has had twenty-five 
 
 years' experience 
 as a commercial 
 traveler and whole- 
 sale clothing sales- 
 man, and, like Mr. 
 Varnum, is a close, 
 shrewd buyer and 
 a pleasant, accom- 
 modating gentle- 
 man. 
 
 Grover C. MoUi- 
 son, clerk of the 
 house, is a well- 
 known Norwood 
 young man, and is 
 known to all as a 
 popular and oblig- 
 ing young gentle- 
 ALViN c. HOLMAN. man. 
 
THE BEAVER COAL & GRAIN CO. 
 
 The Beaver Coal & Grain Company was organized 
 July, 1903, as the Beaver & Cain Company, under the 
 
 THK BEAVER COAL & GRAIN CO. S OFFICE. 
 
 laws of Maine. On July 15, 1905, Mr. L. Herman 
 Beaver bought the vs^hole business and changed the name 
 to the present style. The establishment carries an im- 
 mense stock of the best kind. In coal a specialty is 
 made of the Alden coal, a free-burning anthracite coal, 
 Pocahontas and Georges Creek bituminous coal, vv^hile 
 Blue Grass cannel coal, for early spring and fall, is also 
 carried in stock. Among the other staples carried by the 
 
 company are pine, kindling and hard wood, best grains 
 of all kinds, poultry supplies and feeds, Pratt's veterinary 
 remedies and feeds, building material in lime, cement, 
 hair, etc. ; also sole agent for Sucrene dairy feed. 
 
 Mr. Beaver, the sole proprietor, came to Boston from 
 Pennsylvania in 1886, and was employed in the office of 
 the New York & New England Railroad Company until 
 1896. He was then appointed purser of the Fall River 
 line of steamers and held that position till November i , 
 1904, when he resigned and came to Norwood to take 
 charge of the Beaver Coal & Grain Company. 
 
96 
 
 FRANK A. MORRILL'S INSURANCE AGENCY. 
 
 This is the largest insurance agency in Norfolk 
 County, representing thirty of the strongest Stock and 
 Mutual companies, and 
 has been established in 
 Norwood, Walpole, and 
 Boston for more than a 
 quarter of a centviry, Mr. 
 Morrill having purchased 
 the same in April, 1894. 
 Previous to this time Mr. 
 Morrill vs^as engaged in 
 the banking business, 
 having for six years been 
 Cashier of the Hopkinton, 
 Mass., National Bank and 
 Assistant Treasurer of 
 the Hopkinton Savings 
 Bank, and before this time 
 he had been Teller in the 
 National Bank of Redemp- 
 tion of Boston. His wide 
 
 business experience makes him very valuable in his 
 present position, and the reputation that he has estab- 
 
 RESIDENCE OF FRANK A. MORRILL 
 
 lished of quickly and satisfactorily adjusting losses has 
 placed this office first among all others in this vicinity. 
 Every manufactory in Norwood, also, with few excep- 
 tions, every manufactory in Walpole, as well as many of 
 
 the largest manufacturing 
 plants in New England, 
 place their entire business 
 with this agency. He has 
 attractive offices in the 
 Bigelow Block, Norwood, 
 and at No. 30 Kilby 
 Street, Boston. Among 
 the manufacturing plants 
 in this vicinity which in- 
 sure with Mr. Morrill are 
 the Norwood Press Co., 
 G. H. Morrill & Co., H. 
 M. Plimpton & Co., J. E. 
 Plimpton & Co., Winslow 
 Bros. & Smith Co., F. W. 
 Bird & Son, the Union 
 Sandpaper Co., the 
 American School Furni- 
 ture Co., L. F. Fales & Co., the Lewis Batting Co., 
 B. Lewis & Son, and the Mahoney Mattress Co. 
 
97 
 
 JAMES M. FOLAN. 
 
 James M. Folan, the well-known 
 shoe dealer, was born in old South 
 Dedham of poor but honest parents 
 on February 14, 1865. The somewhat 
 meager education he received was ob- 
 tained at the public schools of the 
 village. He left the Everett School 
 in the spring of the year when he 
 should have graduated. This was 
 in 1880. Subsequent to that time he 
 worked at various occupations in pur- 
 suit of an honest living. He worked 
 in the foundry, in both tanneries, and 
 was employed for a year in the jewelry 
 shops at Attleboro, and three years at 
 house-painting and decorating. Early 
 in 1887 he opened a small shoe store 
 in the building now occupied by San- 
 born's hardware store, Washington Street and Railroad 
 Avenue. In 1890 he purchased the Farrington property, 
 which he has greatly improved, and opened the shoe store 
 where he is still located. He was married in June, 1892, 
 to Miss Julia A. Ford of Needham. Three children 
 
 JAMES M. FOLAN 
 
 have blessed that union. Mr. Folan 
 has always taken a deep interest in 
 town affairs and labored for what he 
 believed to be the best interests of the 
 town. In politics he is a Democrat, 
 but has never been afraid to vote for a 
 good Republican if he believed the 
 cause of good government subserved 
 thereby. Mr. Folan counts it among 
 the greatest achievements of his life 
 that he was one of the foremost in 
 the movement which resulted in get- 
 ting the Norwood Press established 
 here. Mr. J. Stearns Gushing once 
 said: "To Mr. Folan's efforts more 
 than to those of any other individual 
 the successful establishment of our 
 enterprise here in Norwood is attri- 
 butable." To his perseverance the 
 founding of the Norwood Business 
 Association was due, and he has repeatedly been made 
 a member of its executive committee. In starting the as- 
 sociation his first assistants and supporters were Francis 
 Doane and the late Rev. George Hill. The first meet- 
 ing of the association was held in Mr. Folan's store. 
 
98 
 
 ELTON ORLANDO CLARK. 
 
 Elton Orlando Clark was born in Franklin, Mass., 
 March 26, 1864, and was educated in the Bellingham 
 School. His first employment after 
 leaving school was as station agent for 
 the railroad in Unionville. In 1885 he 
 •entered the employ of Henry L. Patrick 
 of Hopedale as clerk in his grocery 
 «tore, where he remained for several 
 years, acquiring a thorough insight into 
 the grocery business, which stood him 
 in good stead in later years. In 1892 
 ■he went into the grocery business for 
 himself in Mendon, remaining there 
 until his removal to Norwood. During 
 this time he was postmaster of Mendon, 
 being appointed by Presdent Cleveland 
 in 1893, although a Republican. When 
 he came to Norwood Mr. Clark resigned 
 the office, but his successor was not ap- 
 pointed for a year after, so he held the 
 office for the four years' term. 
 
 Mr. Clark came to Norwood in October, 1896, at- 
 tracted here, as were others, by the possibilities of the 
 
 ELTON O. CLARK 
 
 growth of the town, which have since been so well ful- 
 filled. His first business venture here was in the grocery 
 business in company with W.J. Partridge, as Partridge's 
 Cash Grocery. In March, 1903, he formed a partner- 
 ship with his brother, Stephen B. Clark 
 of Norwood, and his cousin, Clinton M. 
 Clark of Medfield, under the title of 
 Clark's Grocery, continuing the business 
 in the commodious and convenient 
 quarters at the corner of Washington 
 Street and Railroad Avenue, where 
 they do an eminently satisfactory and 
 enterprising business, employing eight 
 men and five teams. 
 
 Mr. Clark is well known in frater- 
 nity circles, being a member of Oghneta 
 Tribe, I. O. R. M., of Milford ; Onward 
 Lodge, K. of P., of Dedham ; Tiot 
 Lodge, I. O. O. F. ; Norwood Lodge, 
 A. O. U. W., and Nahatan Conclave, 
 I. O. H. He has been auditor of Nor- 
 wood for two years and belongs to the 
 Business Association. Mr. Clark mar- 
 ried Miss Bessie W. Wilcox of Mendon in 1890, and 
 they have four children. 
 
99 
 
 FREDERIC JOHN REA. 
 
 Frederic John Rea was born in London, England, 
 July 26, 1869, and was educated in the public schools 
 of the English metropolis. After finish- 
 ing school he was apprenticed to the 
 nursery business with one of the best 
 nurserymen of London for four years, 
 making a special study of herbaceous 
 perennials. He came to America in 
 March, 1889, and took the position of 
 foreman for a large nursery in Cam- 
 bridge, remaining there a year. 
 
 Mr. Rea then came to Norwood and 
 entered the nursery business with his 
 brother, Charles H. Rea, under the 
 name of Rea Brothers, at their present 
 location on Pleasant Street. They con- 
 tinued in business together till 1900, 
 when the partnership was dissolved, and 
 Mr. Frederic Rea has since conducted 
 it alone. 
 
 While Mr. Rea is a dealer in all 
 kinds of hardy plants, he makes a specialty of herbaceous 
 perennials, in which line he is a recognized expert, owing 
 
 FREDERIC J. REA 
 
 to his long and comprehensive experience with them. 
 His business covers not only all the United States, but 
 Canada as well, and he has made shippings to as distant 
 and widely separated points as Los Angeles, California, 
 North Carolina, Montreal and Wash- 
 ington. His place includes three large 
 greenhouses for propagating. 
 
 Mr. Rea has won medals for his ex- 
 hibits at the World's Fair, Chicago, at 
 the Pan-American Exposition, Bviffalo, 
 and at the exhibitions of the Horticul- 
 tural Society, in Horticultural Hall, 
 Boston. His reputation in his specialty 
 is of the highest throughout the country. 
 He is a member of the Norwood Busi- 
 ness Association, and, while chairman 
 of the committee on trees, gave much 
 valuable information as to the care of 
 trees, his suggestions doubtless accom- 
 plishing much towards saving Nor- 
 wood's beautiful shade trees from the 
 ravages of destructive moths. 
 
 Mr. Rea is also a member of the 
 Massachusetts Horticultural Society and of the Gar- 
 deners' and Florists' Club of Boston. 
 
lOO 
 
 Wright's creamery. 
 
 CHARLES HENRY WRIGHT. 
 
 Charles Henry Wright was born in Greenville, N. H., 
 November 5, 1879, and received his education in the 
 public schools of Connecticut, where his father removed 
 when he was young. He went to work at the age of 
 twelve in the inilk business, and in 1901 came to Nor- 
 wood and entered into the milk business for himself at 
 the age of twenty-one. Attending closely to supplying 
 the wants of the community in his line, Mr. Wright soon 
 
 found his reward in a rapidly increasing trade, until at 
 present he handles a clientage of over five hundred cus- 
 tomers. His milk room is built and fitted in the most 
 modern style, being all cemented. His dairies are situ- 
 ated at Highland Lake, Walpole, where there is running 
 water uncontaminated by any factory. He makes a 
 specialty of one herd's milk for infants and invalids. In 
 1904 he married Miss Edith Payne of Woburn, and they 
 reside at his fine estate, 256 Railroad Avenue. 
 
 Wright's creamery (interior) . 
 
FRANK WARREN TALBOT. 
 
 Frank Warren Talbot was born in South 
 Dedham, September 13, 1861, and was edu- 
 cated in the public schools of the community. 
 In 1875 his father, W. Allen Talbot, started 
 the florist's business at his home, his green- 
 houses being located in the same place as 
 they are to-day. After finishing his studies 
 at school Mr. Talbot entered his father's 
 employ, learning the business of a florist in 
 all its manifold details. In 1893 he went 
 into partnership with his father, and in 1898 
 he succeeded to the business, buying out his 
 father's interest. 
 
 To go through the spacious greenhouses 
 of Mr. Talbot is a revelation of the high 
 plane to which a modern florist's business has 
 attained. He furnishes all kinds of bedding 
 plants, palms, ferns, and similar products, 
 and supplies for any occasion cut flowers, 
 floral designs, and horticultural embellishments of every 
 description. Mr. Talbot has been a member of Nor- 
 wood's Fire Department for twenty-five years, having 
 served as clerk and foreman of Hose No. i, and is at 
 
 talbot's greenhouses. 
 
 the present time a member of the Board of Engineers. 
 He is a member of the Business Association, Orient 
 Lodge, F. and A. M., and Hebron Royal Arch Chapter, 
 and also a charter member of Tiot Lodge, I. O. O. F. 
 
I02 
 
 EPHRAIM CHAMBERLAIN. 
 
 Ephraim Chamberlain was born in Sweden, Maine, 
 but his parents moved to Boston when he was a small 
 boy, and he was educated in Boston's 
 public schools. After leaving school 
 he learned the machinist's trade, but 
 about two years after finishing his 
 trade he embarked in photography, and 
 has followed that business almost ex- 
 clusively since. 
 
 He was in business in Boston with 
 several famous photographers, like 
 Marshall, Hardy, and others. Then he 
 conducted studios in Foxboro, Wey- 
 mouth, Westboro, Medfield, and Ayer 
 Junction, and for twelve years had a 
 large and successful summer studio at 
 Old Orchard, Maine. 
 
 In February, 1901, he located in 
 Norwood, and has centered all of his 
 business interests in this town. How- 
 ever, his work is by no means confined 
 to Norwood, for he has a large number of customers 
 from Foxboro, Walpole, and other towns ; indeed, his 
 
 EPHRAIM CHAMBERLAIN. 
 
 out-of-town trade practically equals that from Norwood. 
 In view of the advanced state of the photographic 
 art and the special requirements and skill needed to 
 produce the best results, it is highly creditable to any 
 photographer to merit the reputation 
 of being a first-class artist. That Mr. 
 Chamberlain has acquired this reputa- 
 tion there is no question. He attended 
 the Lowell Institute Art School and 
 obtained an insight into the business 
 that few photographers attain. In fact, 
 he has made a thorough study of the 
 possibilities of photography, with re- 
 sults that commend his work to all 
 photographers. 
 
 Mr. Chamberlain does every part of 
 the photographic business, including 
 crayon work, and also teaches crayon 
 work and retouching. Many of the en- 
 gravings in this book were made from 
 his photographs. Mr. Chamberlain be- 
 longs to the Business Association. 
 
 He married, in 1870, Miss Cordelia 
 Stedman of Medfield, and they have three children, 
 Ephraim Webster, Agnes Eloise, and Bertha Cushman. 
 
[03 
 
 MILTON HARRINGTON HOWARD. 
 
 Milton Harrington Howard was born in West Bridge 
 water, Mass., September 8, 1851. His 
 parents were Lewis Gibbon and Abi- 
 gail (Copeland) Howard, and he is a 
 descendant of John Howard who came 
 from England and settled in Duxbury, 
 bearing arms with Miles Standish. Mr. 
 Howard worked on his father's farm 
 summers and attended district school 
 winters. After serving at his trade for 
 a year he attended Bridgewater Acad- 
 emy, and while completing his appren- 
 ticeship in North Bridgewater (now 
 Brockton) attended evening instruc- 
 tion, and later took up draughting 
 under private instruction in Boston. In 
 1872 he installed a number of factories 
 in Boston and Cambridge with exhaust 
 fans for the removal of shaving chips 
 and dust. 
 
 In September, 1872, Mr. Howard 
 left the employment of B. F. Sturtevant to locate in 
 Norwood, where he commenced the building business 
 
 1 
 
 MILTON H. HOWARD. 
 
 with one assistant. In 1875 he hired a shop where the 
 Shattuck School now stands, and began the business of a 
 contractor, since which time he has erected some of the 
 finest buildings in Norwood. While 
 catering to the best trade, he has built 
 many manufacturing buildings, extend- 
 ing operations to many other places. 
 
 In politics Mr. Howard has always 
 been a Republican and served on the 
 town committee several years. He was 
 a member of the School Board five 
 years. He belongs to the Business 
 Association, the Literary Club, Orient 
 Lodge, F. & A. M., and Hebron Royal 
 Arch Chapter. He is a charter mem- 
 ber of Norwood Lodge, A. O. U. W., 
 and Neponset Lodge, N. E. O. P. 
 
 In 1872 Mr. Howard married Mary 
 Elizabeth Cottle of Boston, who passed 
 away September, 1874, leaving one 
 son, who died in January of the next 
 year. On July 6, 1876, he married 
 Ella A. Capen, daughter of Silas P. 
 Capen, and they have four children, C. Ethel, Maud S., 
 Herman C, and Marion W. Howard. 
 
 w 
 
CHARLES BRADFORD WILLIAMSON. 
 
 Charles Bradford Williamson was born in Scituate, 
 Mass., January 25, 1867. His early 
 life was spent in the place of his 
 nativity in attendance at the public 
 schools. After the completion of his 
 school studies he accepted a position in 
 the boot and shoe factory of his cousin, 
 G. W. Litchfield, at Scituate. After 
 working three years in the factory he 
 was sent by Mr. Litchfield to Spring- 
 field, Mass., as general manager of the 
 retail boot and shoe store there. 
 
 In 1890 Mr. Williamson came to 
 Norwood and entered the employ of 
 Ball & Davis, at their innersole factory, 
 starting in with the firm as superin- 
 tendent, which position he held until 
 their removal to Boston in 1900, when 
 he started in the same business for 
 himself. By careful attention and 
 direct supervision, the business of 
 manufacturing flexible sheep-skin innersoles grew and 
 prospered until in his large factory on Lyman Place 
 
 CHARLES B. 
 
 Mr. Williamson employs a force of twenty-five em- 
 ployes. In this work Mr. Williamson keeps his plant 
 up-to-date, using the latest modern machinery, and has 
 had the satisfaction of building up one 
 of the prosperous industries of the 
 town, which is sure to increase and 
 give permanent employment to many 
 residents. 
 
 The factory is so conveniently situ- 
 ated near the Smith tannery as to en- 
 able Mr. Williamson to secure his goods 
 advantageously . 
 
 Mr. Williamson has been a member 
 of the Norwood Fire Department for 
 about ten years and is assistant foreman 
 of Hose No. I . He is a member of 
 the Norwood Business Association and 
 Board of Trade, and is a Mason, be- 
 longing to Orient Lodge, F. and A. M. , 
 and Hebron Royal Arch Chapter. He 
 also belongs to Tiot Lodge, I. O. O. F. ; 
 WILLIAMSON. Nahatan Tribe, I. O. R. M., and Nor- 
 
 wood Lodge, A. O. U. W. 
 In 1900 Mr, Williamson married Miss Lillian Brooks 
 of Norwood, and they reside on Market Street. 
 
PENDERGAST & CALLAHAN. 
 
 The firm of Pendergast & Callahan was formed in 
 1890, and succeeded to the grocery business of T. J. 
 Casey, which was established in 1S79. Commencing 
 with one team, the two proprietors attended so closely 
 to the business and supplied the wants of customers 
 so well that now three teams and six persons are 
 necessary to care for the prosperous business. The 
 store at 69 Railroad Avenue, where the present firm 
 has done business for fifteen years, is one of the hand- 
 somest and pleasantest in Norwood, and is a model 
 of cleanliness and convenience inside. It is heavily 
 stocked with all varieties of the most up-to-date and 
 staple groceries with which to supply their large and 
 constantly increasing trade. 
 
 Edward B. Pendergast, the senior partner, was 
 born in South Dedham, May 30, 1861, and was edu- 
 cated in the public schools. After leaving school he 
 worked in the car-shops until 1890, when he entered 
 the present firm. In 1887 Pendergast married 
 Miss Margaret Coakley of Norwood. 
 
 Daniel E. Callahan, the junior partner, was born 
 in South Dedham, August 11, 1869, and educated in the 
 public schools, after which he worked with T. J. Casey 
 
 105 
 
 PENDERGAST & CALLAHAn's GROCERY STORE. 
 
 until he bought out the business with Mr. Pendereast. In 
 1897 he married Miss Margaret T. Donovan of Norwood. 
 
JOHN F. CALLAHAN. 
 
 John F. Callahan was horn in South Dedham, De- 
 cember 20, 1S63. He received his education in the 
 public schools and graduated from the High School, 
 also taking a post-graduate course, and a course in 
 Comer's Commercial College. 
 
 After leaving school he learned the machinist's trade 
 at the Norwood car shops, and worked there about six 
 years. He then went West, where he stayed about four 
 years, during which he was in Evanston, Wyoming, 
 about a year, two years in Chicago as foreman of a work 
 train on a branch of the Illinois Central Railroad, and a 
 year in the railroad shops at Porfirio Diaz, Mexico. 
 
 Mr. Callahan returned to Norwood in 1S91 and 
 worked in the car shops four years. In 189:^ he saw an 
 opening for a furniture store here, and went into busi- 
 ness under the name of the Norwood Furniture Com- 
 pany. He persuaded Mr. Folan to erect the brick 
 block at 648 Washington Street, and occupied the first 
 floor. Soon the business increased so he had to take the 
 whole block, and also occupied a large storeroom in 
 Village Hall Block. 
 
 The business remained here for nine years, when 
 seeing the opportunity to buy the Crocker Building at 
 
 71S Washington Street, Mr. Callahan and his brother, 
 Daniel E. Callahan, bought the place and enlarged it, 
 and he has now the largest floor space of any store in 
 town. Yet the growth of the business will soon neces- 
 sitate more room, for the Norwood Furniture Company 
 is one of the most prosperous business houses in town. 
 
 The Norwood Furniture Company's store is heavily 
 stocked with a large and varied supply of goods, which 
 comprises furniture, ranges, oil stoves, crockery, window 
 shades, refrigerators, and in fact practically everything 
 in house-furnishing which could meet the taste or needs 
 of any class of patrons in this town. Strict attention 
 to all details of the business, combined with courteous 
 treatment and prompt delivery, are typical traits of this 
 progressive firm. 
 
 Mr. Callahan was elected to the Board of Water 
 Commissioners in 1S93, been a member con- 
 
 tinuously since, having served as chairman of the board 
 the past two years and at present occupying that posi- 
 tion. He has also served on the Committee of Fifteen 
 several times. He is a past president of Division i, 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, and belongs to Norwood 
 Council, Knights of Columbus, St. Catherine's Total 
 Abstinence and Literary Society, and the Norwood 
 Business Association and Board of Trade. 
 
THE HANOVER BANK. 
 
 For some years the establishment of a Bank in this 
 town was much discussed, and the need of such an insti- 
 tution was agitated. In September last, as an indirect 
 result of such agitation, the 
 Hanover Bank of Boston estab- 
 lished a branch here, with a 
 good capital and large facilities 
 for doing a profitable business 
 and giving all reasonable ac- 
 commodations to the public. 
 
 The Bank has a capital of 
 $250,000,00, and a surplus of 
 $100,000.00. Its officers and 
 directors are : C. P. Andersen, 
 president, also president of the 
 Andersen Coal Co. of Boston; 
 C. E. Lauriat, vice-president, 
 a member of C. E. Lauriat 
 Co., Boston; Foster Hooper, 
 
 cashier; John H. Casey, assistant cashier. The directors 
 include such well-known names as L. P. Fay of Talmage 
 Fay Co., Boston; Hon. Francis W. Jacobs, vice-presi- 
 dent of the Legal Adv ice Society, New York city ; 
 
 H. H. Newcomb, president of Massachusetts Banking 
 and Loan Co., Boston; J. Bromley Adams, president of 
 New Amstertlam Publishing Co., New York; Hoyt L. 
 Conary of Hoyt L. Conary Co., Boston ; Robert G. Rux- 
 ton, banker, New York; I. B. Aronson, Boston; C. F. 
 
 Clarke, Philadelphia ; Foster 
 Hooper, C. E. Lauriat, C. P. 
 Andersen. 
 
 The Hanover Bank is prac- 
 tically a new institution. On 
 September 18 it took over the 
 business of the State Banking 
 and Safe Deposit Company of 
 Boston, and the Norwood 
 branch opened the following 
 week. The first financial state- 
 ment, issued by the Bank Octo- 
 ber 1 8, makes a good showing. 
 The deposits of $208,215.20 
 speak for themselves. 
 
 The Bank has a department 
 for permanent accounts entirely distinct from other de- 
 partments. The accounts are placed on interest quar- 
 terly at four per cent, per annum. Small accounts are 
 accepted and can be opened with a dollar or more. 
 
io8 
 
 NORWOOD CLOTHING COMPANY. 
 
 EUGENE M. SULEIVAN 
 
 The well-appointed store of the Nor- 
 wood Clothing Company, located in the 
 Talbot Block, is the oldest, largest, and 
 most reliable clothing store in town. It 
 carries a large stock of boys' and chil- 
 dren's clothing, and puts especial pains 
 into its work of catering to the best trade 
 among people of all ages. The store has 
 been some twenty years in existence, and 
 has the largest floor space of any clothing 
 and furnishing store in town. It aims to 
 please the public in every way, in prices, 
 style, and careful attention to buying 
 things saleable and desirable. 
 
 The proprietors, Eugene M. Sullivan 
 and George M. Corbett, are well known 
 and popular young men in town, and both 
 reside here with their families. Mr. Sulli- 
 van is a native of Templeton, Mass., and has been for nearly twenty years in the clothing and furnishing business. He 
 is a keen, shrewd, successful and affable business man, who knows what customers want and who it is always a 
 pleasure to trade with. George M. Corbett is a native of Norwood. He has been connected with the store for some 
 fifteen years, and is a genial and agreeable young man, popular with the younger element. Both Mr. Sullivan and 
 Mr. Corbett are amonof the town's most reliable and conservative retail business men. 
 
 GEORGE M. CORBETT. 
 
THE NORWOOD MESSENGER. 
 
 The Norwood Messenger, published every Saturday 
 by the Ambrose Brothers, is now most decidedly one of 
 the institutions of the town ; but before the paper reached 
 its present high plane of success and prosperity there was 
 a story of hard w^ork and perseverance on the part of the 
 publishers, Alfred, Willard and Edward Ambrose, and 
 their assistants, which might well compare with the opti- 
 mistic stories of success often found in popular fiction — 
 only the story of the Messenger is real history. 
 
 The original inception of the Messenger was in West 
 Newbury, Mass., in 1886, when the publication of it was 
 commenced by Alfred Ambrose. In 1895, attracted to 
 Norwood by the probability of the growth of the town, 
 the three brothers brought the paper here and re-named 
 it the Norwood Messenger, retaining the last appellation, 
 which the paper had borne since 18S6. Their first office 
 here was in a room, up one flight, in Sanborn's block, 
 corner of Washington street and Railroad avenue. In 
 these small quarters, with such facilities as they had at 
 their command, these young men got out the first issue 
 in Norwood of the Norwood Messenger October 26, 
 1895, under circumstances which required perseverance, 
 energy and ingenuity. Among other setbacks the stock 
 
 of paper on which it was to have been printed did not 
 arrive, and the issue was printed on wrapping paper, 
 butcher's bundle paper, and almost anything that could 
 be secured which would take an impression from type 
 and ink. 
 
 Though independent in politics, the paper at once 
 took a decided stand in local matters, and it was soon 
 recognized that a new influence had entered into the 
 community. 
 
 In 1898 two of the brothers, Alfred and Edward, 
 went to Porto Rico on a business venture during the 
 Spanish War, leaving the paper in charge of Willard 
 Ambrose. Here a sad event broke the chain which had 
 united the three, for Edward, the youngest brother, died 
 on the way home from Porto Rico. 
 
 Arriving home, Alfred, the elder brother, entered 
 into the work of the paper with fresh energy. Early in 
 the fall of 1902 the work increased to such an extent 
 that the publishers felt that some of the burden of the 
 paper must be taken from their shoulders, and at the 
 same time they saw that the time had come to broaden 
 the sphere of influence of the Norwood Messenger. 
 Accordingly the editor, Alfred Ambrose, offered the 
 position of reporter on the paper to Charles E. Smith, a 
 Boston proofreader residing in Norwood, who was an 
 
I I o 
 
 experienced newspaper writer. After a brief trial of the 
 place Mr. Smith consented to devote some of his spare 
 time to the work, and has held the position since. 
 
 In the fall of 1902 the Central Norfolk Democrat, 
 published for twenty years in Walpole 
 by the late John D. Emmons and his 
 son , was purchased by Ambrose 
 Brothers, and has since been run in 
 connection with the Messenger as a 
 separate edition. 
 
 The reward of their perseverance 
 and hard work had commenced to 
 come in to the publishers, and their 
 quarters in Sanborn's Block, where 
 they had been since coming to Nor- 
 wood, were outgrown. On April 15, 
 1903, the Ambrose Brothers moved 
 their plant to the present quarters, 
 the Messenger Building, No. 10 Cot- 
 tage Street, which had been fitted up 
 specially for their occupancy by the 
 proprietors of the building. How 
 well this is adapted to the printing of 
 a weekly paper and the conducting of a large job print- 
 ing business everyone knows who has visited the place. 
 
 ALFRED N. AMBROSE 
 
 A light business office in front, a composing-room in 
 the centre, and a press-room at the rear make a set of 
 rooms which could hardly be excelled for convenience. 
 The office is well equipped, the proprietors keeping up 
 to the times in their line. On moving 
 to the Messenger Building they pur- 
 chased a Campbell two - revolution 
 cylinder press and a quarter-medium 
 Golding jobber to add to the Hoe 
 pony-cylinder and the eighth-medium 
 Golding which they brought with 
 them . 
 
 Steady growth of the advertising 
 patronage and increase of the news 
 matter induced the publishers to 
 change the form of the paper from a 
 small six-page to a large four-page 
 sheet, March 19, 1904, though it is 
 often necessary to print a six-page 
 paper of the large size. The increase 
 in work made a larger repertorial staff 
 on the paper desirable, and in Decem- 
 ber, 1904, the publishers engaged as 
 reporter Charles M. Thompson, for eight years on the 
 editorial staff of the Norwood Advertiser and Review, 
 
his services being at liberty through a temporary change 
 in the management of that paper. 
 
 During the summer of 1905 a bi-weekly edition was 
 started, the paper being printed Wednesday and Satur- 
 day. On account of the Post Othce 
 Department requiring a stamp on each 
 copy sent by mail, the Wednesday 
 edition was discontinued. 
 
 Good premiums have been given 
 out to the newsboys, all the legitimate 
 news has been impartially printed, 
 and every honorable effort has been 
 made to make the Norwood Messen- 
 ger a necessity in every home in town. 
 This object has come very close to 
 accomplishment. 
 
 Among those who have made the 
 paper and the business what they 
 have become to - day is the senior 
 partner, Alfred Noyes Ambrose. He 
 was born in West Newbury, Mass., 
 and educated in the public schools 
 and High School of that town. His 
 talent for newspaper work developed early, and in 1885 
 he bought some type and a hand-press and started a 
 
 WILLARD p. AMBROSE. 
 
 paper in the West Newbury High School, called the 
 Era. He ran this paper a year, and then it branched 
 out into a country paper, which he named the Messen- 
 ger, and which is practically the Messenger of to-day, 
 having kept the name since. While 
 pviblishing this paper Mr. Ambrose 
 was bookkeeper for Brown & Mosher, 
 electricians, and later bought out a 
 Boston express business to Essex 
 County towns in company with Mr. 
 Lewis Knight. In 1890 he went to 
 Cleveland, Ohio, and was reporter on 
 the Cleveland Press. Returning East, 
 he removed the Messenger, which his 
 brother Willard had published during 
 his absence, to Groveland, Mass., and 
 there the paper was published by 
 them for both towns. In 1895 they 
 moved the paper to Norwood, and, 
 with another brother, Edward, came 
 here to live. 
 
 Mr. Alfred N. Ambrose is editor 
 of the Messenger, and either writes 
 or directs the writing and the policy of the editorials. In 
 December, 1903, he was appointed local correspondent 
 
112 
 
 of the Boston Globe from Norwood and Walpole. He 
 is a member of the Norwood Business Association and 
 Board of Trade, Onward Lodge, K. of P., of Dedham, 
 Nahatan Conclave, I. O. H., and the Norwood Athletic 
 Club. In February, 1903, he married 
 Miss Estelle Baker of Norwood, and 
 they have one son, Carl W. 
 
 Willard Perley Ambrose, junior 
 partner of the firm of Ambrose 
 Brothers, was born in, West Newbury, 
 Mass., and educated in the public 
 schools and High School of that place. 
 As before mentioned, he united with 
 his brother in the publication of the 
 Messenger. In 1899 the brothers pur- 
 chased the Georgetown Advocate, 
 published at Georgetown, Mass., and 
 Mr. Willard Ambrose went there and 
 conducted it successfully for about two 
 years, when it was resold to its original 
 owner. Mr. Ambrose makes a specialty 
 of reporting athletic events, and his 
 style of writing makes them most 
 readable. He is a Mason, belonging to Charles C. Dame 
 Lodge, F. & A. M., of Georgetown. . 
 
 CHARLES E. SMITH 
 
 Charles E. Smith, who has been reporter on the Nor- 
 wood Messenger since September, 1902, was educated 
 in the Concord (N. H.) public schools, taking a special 
 course in the Concord High School, and graduating at 
 Hadley's private school. Since then 
 he has been almost continuously con- 
 nected with the newspaper business, 
 and has been proofreader in several of 
 the best-known printing offices in New 
 England. Coming to Norwood in 
 September, 1899, to accept the position 
 of proofreader at the Norwood Press, 
 he has kept his residence here, though 
 employed for some years in Boston. 
 He has served as correspondent of the 
 Boston Globe, has also written for 
 other Boston and New Hampshire 
 papers, and has been proofreader on 
 the Boston Journal. He is now proof- 
 reader on Hearst's Boston American, 
 having held that position since the 
 starting of that paper. With the co- 
 operation of the publishers he has tried 
 to place the news columns of the Messenger on the same 
 basis as those of a city paper, and his efforts in this line 
 
"3 
 
 have evidently met with the appreciation of the Norwood 
 reading pubHc. Mr. Smith is a member of the Masons, 
 Odd Fellows, and Pilgrim Fathers in Concord. He 
 belongs to the Norwood Business Association, is secre- 
 tary of the Norwood Old-Home Week 
 Association, and a member of the Bos- 
 ton Proofreaders Association, Boston 
 Typographical Union, and Franklin 
 Typographical Society of Boston. 
 
 Charles M. Thompson, reporter on 
 the Norwood Messenger since Decem- 
 ber, 1904, had been employed fur some 
 seven or eight years as reporter and 
 editorial writer on the Norwood Ad- 
 vertiser and Review, lie performed 
 some admirable work on that paper, 
 having done practically all the writing 
 for its departments. For some three 
 years he was correspondent of the Bos- 
 ton Globe in this vicinity, and previous 
 to that time had been an Associated 
 Press representative. Mr. Thompson 
 has devoted much of his life to local 
 newspaper work in this vicinity, having been editor of a 
 paper called the Enterprise in early life. This paper 
 
 CHARLES M. THOMPSON. 
 
 was published in Walpole. He afterwards went West, 
 and was for nine years connected with the daily news- 
 papers of Denver, Col., serving for six years on one 
 Denver paper, the Rocky Mountain News. There is 
 no branch of editorial or reportorial 
 work on daily or weekly newspapers 
 which Mr, Thompson has not had 
 some experience in. He has had the 
 acquaintance of many eminent men, 
 has been a great reader of books, and 
 is a man of fine literary tastes. He is 
 thoroughly acquainted with the town, 
 its interests, and its history. 
 
 The Norwood Messenger has many 
 contributors in addition to its regular 
 staff, among them Mr. William T. 
 Whedon, president of the Business 
 Association. 
 
 In December, 1905, Ambrose 
 Brothers bought the name, good will, 
 and subscription list of the Norwood 
 Advertiser and Review, with the in- 
 tention of consolidating it with the 
 Norwood Messenger, so that the Messenger is now Nor- 
 wood's only representative newspaper. The Norwood 
 
Advertiser and Review w^as for many years the only 
 newspaper published in Norwood, being a consolidation 
 of the Norwood Review and the Norwood Advertiser. 
 
 The Norwood Review was started in iSSi, under the 
 ownership of Charles J. McPherson of Walpole, with 
 Norman J. Stone as Norwood representative, who, how- 
 ever, was succeeded after a service of three months by 
 William T. Whedon. The paper was printed in Boston 
 for nearly three years, when Mr. McPherson, Mr. 
 Whedon, and others formed a stock company, erected 
 the Tribune Building in South Framingham, and printed 
 a number of papers there, among which was the Nor- 
 wood Review. 
 
 The Norwood Advertiser was started in 1S83 by 
 Francis W. Crooker, the paper being printed out of 
 town. In 1886 Mr. Crooker bought the Norwood Re- 
 
 view and consolidated the papers under the name of the 
 Norwood Advertiser and Review. One of the stipula- 
 tions made by Mr. Crooker was that Mr. Whedon of the 
 Review should serve as associate editor of the consoli- 
 dated paper. The paper continued to be printed out of 
 town until July 23, 1887, when Mr. Crooker issued the 
 first newspaper printed in Norwood. In 1894 
 Crooker disposed of the paper to a Mr. Colby, who only 
 kept it a short time, selling it to E, B. Thorndike, who 
 published the paper until December, 1905, when, as 
 previously stated, he sold it to Ambrose Brothers. 
 
 The Norwood Enterprise was started in 1894 by 
 A. E. Langley of Hyde Park, John Appell being the 
 Norwood manager. It was printed in Hyde Park and 
 was published for nearly two years, being discontinued 
 in the fall of 1895. 
 
THE BOOK 
 
 ALWAYS on the lookout for anything of vakie to 
 the interest of the town, the Ambrose Brothers 
 conceived the plan of publishing a souvenir book 
 which should be practically a history of Norwood, as 
 well as a graphic description of the town. In the spring 
 of 1905 they began to formulate this idea, and at the 
 June meeting of the Norwood Business Association and 
 Board of Trade received the sanction of that organiza- 
 tion for the book. With this indorsement the publish- 
 ers went ahead on the work, with the result as presented 
 in this publication; and in future times this will be a 
 most valuable reference volume in many ways. 
 
 The credit of the work belongs to several persons, 
 though Ambrose Brothers accomplished the work of 
 securing the support of the employers and business firms 
 which made the publication possible. Practically all the 
 photographs were taken in town, the views being mostly 
 from pictures taken by E. Everett Rhodes, and the por- 
 traits mostly the work of Ephraim Chamberlain, both 
 gentlemen being very accommodating in this work. The 
 
 NORWOOD 
 
 sketches of the churches were written by their respective 
 pastors, except those of the Swedish churches ; the 
 account of the Business Association was written by 
 William T. Whedon ; the sketch of the public schools 
 by W. C. Hobbs, superintendent of schools; the sketch 
 of the Post Office by Postmaster Fales, and the intro- 
 duction by Charles M. Thompson. 
 
 The general write-up of the book was in charge of 
 Mr. Smith of the Messenger staff. Valuable assistance 
 was furnished by Mrs. Marcia M. Winslow, Miss Jane 
 A. Hewitt, Miss Harriet E. Davenport, Miss Christine 
 Smith, Warren E. Rhoads, Elias E. Pratt, Francis O. 
 Winslow, John R. Parker, John T. Clifford, Francis E. 
 Mattson, and many others. 
 
 In the historical sketch of Norwood credit should be 
 given to " Recollections of Old South Dedham," by Mrs. 
 Marcia M. Winslow, the Old-Home Week addresses of 
 Don Gleason Hill, Frederic J. Stimson, and William T. 
 Whedon, and Francis Tmker's "History of Norwood," 
 published in connection with the directory for 1890. 
 
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