More information on this image is available at the Easton Historical Society in North Easton, MA
www.flickr.com/photos/historicalimagesofeastonma/albums
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Paul Dean Lodge
The objectives of the Masons are service and charity. The Masons in this region sponsor the Burn Center in Boston, and aid in financial assistance to the Muscular Distrophy and Cerebral Palsy institutions. They also sponsor a home in Charlton, Mass., and, in Charlton, they are undertaking an expansion program. There will be a rest home, and hospital, and a community within the Town. The Officers elected to the Easton Lodge in 1974 were: Worshipful Master, Austin Phillips, South Easton, Mass., Senior Warden, Donald Kidder, Norton, Mass., Junior Warden, Charles Baker, West Bridgewater, Mass., Treasurer, John Christman, Eastondale, Mass., and Secretary, Wendell G. Anderson, South Easton, Mass. You will notice from the list of officers that the Lodge in North Easton has members from surrounding towns, and it could be said the scope of the Lodge is regional. Anyone who believes in the Diety can apply for membership; each application is decided separately. The Masons are now enjoyed their own Hall at 18 Williams Street, North Easton, after having been located for many years in Oakes Ames Memorial Hall.
Source: History of Easton, Massachusetts, Vol. II, M. McEntee, Easton Historical Society, ET AL, 1886-1974
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Browning Club
The Browning Club was organized December 2, 1895. It joined the State Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1915 and the General Federation in 1927. The original name of the club was "The Badge". It was organized by nine young women: Miss Mary A. Stone, President; Mrs. Walter Andrews, Mrs. James Driscoll, Mrs. Henry Frost, Mrs. Amasa Heath, Miss Pearl Kilburn, Miss Alice Mitchell, Mrs. Charles Simpson, and Miss Sadie Waldron. The membership fee was five cents a meeting, and the meetings were held on Friday evenings at the homes of the members. On October 1, 1897, the club was reorganized with new by-laws and a constitution. Nine members signed the by-laws – Miss Mary Stone, Miss Louise Marshall, Miss Marion Copeland, Mrs. Sadie Waldron Hurst, Mrs. Lillian Evans, Mrs. Mary A. Speed, Mrs. Hattie Frost, Mrs. Pearl Kilburn French, and Mrs. Louise Simpson. As mentioned earlier, the Club’s first name was The Badge. It then became, successively, the Ladies Literary Circle, the "Browning Circle", and finally the Browning Club. The club colors are Blue and Yellow; the flower is the forget-me-not. Members had to sign the Constitution and membership was limited to 25 members. Meetings were held at 7:30 P.M., except in June, July, August, and September. The fee was then ten cents. Each member was charged the fee unless absent because of illness. On roll call each member answered with a quotation or proverb. On February 20, 1908, meetings were changed from Friday evenings to Thursday afternoons at 2:30 P.M. In October 1945, the meeting place was changed from the homes of the members to the Frothingham Memorial House in North Easton. Meetings were held on the third Tuesday of each month at 1:30 P.M., coffee hour, and 2:30, meeting time. This meeting date and hour remained until 1960 when it was changed to evening meetings. Because the Frothingham Memorial House is no longer available, the meetings were held at Oakes Ames Memorial Hall. Miss Harriet Stone, who joined the club on June 8, 1896, and a signer of the Constitution, was with the Club until the time of her death on December 15, 1967. The Browning Club was a literary and social club, and it awards a scholarship of $150 to a worthy student of the graduating class of the Oliver Ames High School.
source: History of Easton, Massachusetts, Vol. II, M. McEntee, Easton Historical Society, ET AL, 1886-1974
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Oakes Ames Memorial Hall
Probably the finest building in Easton, architecturally speaking, is the Ames Memorial Hall. This hall was built in memory of Oakes Ames by his children and was presented by them to the town. It stands on the solid foundation of a natural ledge. The material used was sienite stone from a nearby quarry, the trimmings are of red sandstone, and the second floor is finished in brick, It was designed by the famous Henry Hobson Richardson who was also the architect for the Ames Free Library next door. On the northeast corner of the building there is an octagonal tower with a frieze on which are carved the twelve signs of the zodiac. An ar-cade with five arches supported by low columns with carved capitals forms an impressive facade. Over the front dormer window appears a monogram formed of the letters O. A. On the first floor, there are two small halls, and on the second floor the main hall, 59 feet in length, has a large stage. The hall contains a beautiful mural over the entrance. Winthrop Ames gave the building stage scenery for use in the many theatrical product-ions which, once upon a time, drew townspeople to this building. Lectures and concerts, school graduation exercises, gay balls, all sent townspeople flocking up the wide stone staircases, often in evening clothes and full gala attire. The town offices were installed here for many years, and the North Easton people climbed the long steps to vote in the first-floor room to the west. Now the building seems to wake up a little when a wedding party arrives, or a Saturday night dance is held here. Memorial Hall was dedicated on November 17, 1881. On that occasion, Oliver Ames presented the building to the chairman of the Board of Trustees, who were instructed to maintain the building for the benefit of the town. of Easton. Except for the use of the top floor by the Masons the building is used very little these days. The beauty of the structure is apparently not appreciated by Easton people, although budding young architects come from miles around to admire and photograph the building. Many people have suggested ways to improve the facilities of the Hall and it seems probable that someone will find the answer to the way to put this fine building to its full use.
source: Easton Historical Society
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History of Barrows Street below
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Oakes Ames Memorial Hall
In 1879 through 1881, the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall, designed by H. H. Richardson, was built by the children of Congressman Oakes Ames, (1804-1873), in memory of their father, who had passed away on May 8, 1873. Oakes Ames Memorial Hall was built and paid for by Oakes Angier Ames’ two sons. Governor Oliver Ames, residing at 35 Oliver Street, and Oakes Angier Ames, builder of the – Queset House – residing with his wife, Catherine Hobart Ames at 51 Main Street since 1854. In 1877, Oakes Angier Ames became President of the Oliver Ames & Sons Corporation. On May 6, 1873, Oakes Ames, (1804-1873) passed away at the age of sixty-nine, with his burial in the Village Cemetery when was established in September of 1875. At the time of his passing, Oakes Ames was an active member of the United States House of Representatives. The Village Cemetery is located in the rear of the Unity Church of North Easton. Early in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln asked Congressman Oakes Ames to take over the slow construction of the Union Pacific part of the Transcontinental Railroad. Oakes asked his brother, Oliver Ames to help him by being a leader in the railroad construction. Oakes Ames was the main person of influence in the successful building of the Union Pacific Railroad. A small town in Iowa was named after Oakes Ames. Also, in Ames, Iowa, a railroad station on the Transcontinental Railroad was named for Oakes Ames. In 1869, Oakes Ames (1804-1873) as a congressman from Massachusetts. was instrumental in accomplishing the construction of the first transcontinental railroad with the Golden Spike connecting the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads. Before his passing, Oakes Ames was censured by Congress for his work with the building of the railroad. On May 6, 1873, Oakes Ames, (1804-1873) passed away at the age of sixty-nine, with his burial in the Village Cemetery which was established in September of 1875. In 1883, the Massachusetts Legislature pass resolutions of gratitude for his public service and faith in his integrity. They asked the United States Congress to passed similar resolutions
– Resolved, in view of the great services of Oakes Ames, representative from the Massachusetts Second Congressional District for ten years ending March, 1873, in achieving the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, the most vital contribution to the integrity and growth of the national Union since the war; In view of his unflinching truthfulness and honesty, which refused to suppress, in his own or any other interest, any fact, and so made him the victim of an intense and misdirected public excitement and subjected him to a vote of censure by the Forty-Second Congress at the close of its session;
And in view of the later deliberate public sentiment, which, upon a review of all the facts, holds him in an esteem irreconcilable with his condemnation, and which throughout the whole country recognizes the value and patriotism of his achievement and his innocence of corrupt motive or conduct;
Therefore, the legislature of Massachusetts hereby expresses its gratitude for his work and its faith in his integrity of purpose and character, and asks for like recognition thereof on the part of the national congress. –
The third generation of Ames, children of Oliver Ames Jr., Frederick Lothrop Ames (1835-1893), and Helen Angier Ames (1836-1882), and sons of Oliver’s brother, Oakes Ames, were Oakes Angier Ames (1829-1899) and Governor Oliver Ames, (1831-1895). The third generation of Ames in Easton brought together two noted designers, architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1836-1886) and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), to design the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall at Three Barrows Street in the North Easton Village. The buildings included the Oliver Ames Free Library at 53 Main Street, the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall at Three Barrows Street, and the Rockery. In the same time era, Henry Hobson Richardson designed Frederick Lothrop Ames Gardner’s Cottage at 137 Elm Street, Frederick Lothrop Ames Gate Lodge at 135 Elm Street, and the Old Colony Railroad Station at 80 Mechanic Street. The five buildings designed by Henry Hobson Richardson in North Easton Village represents close to ten per cent of all the Richardson buildings in the world. As it was mentioned previously, Frederick Law Olmsted designed, as he did for the other four Richardson buildings in Easton, the landscaping for the grounds. Olmsted continued to work on the building grounds until 1885. In the summer of 1879, Norcross Brothers of Worcester constructed building for a bid of twenty-nine thousand and nine hundred and ten dollars, with the extras being sixteen hundred and sixty-six dollars. The final cost may have been over sixty thousand dollars due to the complexity of the construction. The rectangular foundation of Oakes Ames Memorial Hall was fifty-one feet by ninety-seven feet sitting on a large mass of stone ledge. The building was completed by 1881 and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted was working the landscaping until 1883 through 1885. Olmsted placed the siting of the building to use the ledge for stairs that look like being cut out of the rock. He started at the foundation using the rough stone in the ledge to feature the handcrafted stones of the building. The same spirit of his appreciation of nature in his designing shows in the memorable setting of the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall. The location on Barrows Street is within the North Easton Historic District in Easton, Massachusetts, next to another Richardson building, earlier known as the Oliver Ames Free Library at 53 Main Street. On November 17, 1881, the Oakes Memorial Hall was dedicated, with interesting exercises given by one of Oakes’ sons, Oliver Ames to Lewis H. Smith, chairman of the Board of Trustees, who was to hold, and manage the building for the benefit of the Town of Easton. The chairman made an appropriate response to the presentation address of Mr. Ames. The trustees noted that they are members of a legal corporation called the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall Association. The corporation has entire control of all the property, and of its management. However, the Town can have – the full and free use of said premises, without payment of rent for all the ordinary purposes of a Town Hall, – if it chooses to do so. The building was meant to be a new Town Hall, however, due to dissent in other districts in Easton, the building was not used as a Town Hall. It is not centrally located for Town Meeting as the Town having just built a new Town Hall at the northwest corner of Depot and Center Streets in Easton Centre. Instead, the building serves as a meeting place for the corporation, organizations, cultural and Town events. The hall has three floors with the first floor having a hallway entrance way and small function rooms with a kitchen. The entrance has a front porch with four stone crafted arches. The second floor has a stage and a large function room. According to historical records of the Paul Dean Lodge, the building has a winding path with a staircase with one hundred and nine steps to the third floor. The third floor was finished for the Paul Dean Lodge. On February 18, 1867, a meeting of Master Mason instructed Dr. George B. Cogswell, of 104 Main Street at the time, and twenty-eight others to form and open a Masonic Lodge in the Town of Easton. The group named the Lodge after Rev. Paul Dean, who presided over the Unitarian Society at Easton which was forerunner to the Unity Church of North Easton. In 1845. Rev. Dean became pastor of the Society for five years. He was a well-known Mason, having served in almost every official position as a Mason, being Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts in 1838, 1839, and 1840. The first meeting of the Paul Dean Lodge was in the building now (1886) occupied by the Post Office, which then stood on the land now used as the schoolhouse yard. On January 1, 1868, the Lodge moved to the E. P. Spooner Building on Center Street, to meet in the upper hall. On March 24, 1868, the hall was dedicated and the officers publicly installed by the officers of the Grand Lodge. The Paul Dean Lodge stayed in the building until the Oakes Memorial Hall was built with apartments built for them on the third floor. Agreement was made for use of the third floor for fifty years at one dollar per year. On November 22, 1881, the new space was dedicated by the officers of the Grand Lodge. On October 7, 1959, Worshipful Norman Anderson led a special meeting of the Paul Dean Lodge in the lower hall to vote on the purchase of property of the Lebanon Evangelical Lutheran Church on Williams Street. The trustees of the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall were given a sum of two thousand dollars which produced about one hundred dollars above yearly expenses. The unspent fund, after insurance payments and repairs, was given to the Town Treasury. Upon her passing in 1979, Elise Ames Parker, (1892-1979), daughter of Oliver Ames (1864-1929), and Elise Alger West Ames, (1867-1945), left a sizeable contribution to the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall. Family members serve on the Boards of the Ames Free Library and the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall. Oakes Ames Memorial Hall is held by a trust which allows for municipal and private use of the building.
source: Easton Historical Society
source; Massachusetts Historical Commission,
source: Ancestry
source: Oakes Ames: A Memoir: with an Account of the Dedication of the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall at North Easton, Mass., November 17, 1881
source: History of Easton, William L. Chaffin, 1886
source: The New England States: Their Constitutional, Judicial, Volume 1, William Thomas, 1897
source: American Biography, William Richard Cutter, The American History Society, 1918
source: Growing Up at Sheep Pasture, Hazel L. Varella, 1976
source: Easton’s Neighborhoods, Edmund C. Hands, 1995
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Ames, Iowa
The original Town consisted of twelve blocks laid out and platted by the John I. Blair Land Company in 1865. Boundaries were the railroad on the south, Duff Avenue on the east, 8th Street on the north, and Burnett Avenue to the west. Ames was incorporated as a village in 1870 at a time when the population was slightly less than 700 residents. (It became a city of the second class in 1893). Blair named the city in honor of Oakes Ames, a congressman from Massachusetts with railroad interests. In 1863 Oakes Ames came to Chicago to meet Blair, who was building the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad in Iowa. They traveled on a tour of inspection, going by train as far as Marshalltown, the end of the line. Taking a stage, they traveled into our county because Blair was choosing sites for stream crossings and possible station stops. A year later, Blair would locate a station stop on the flat low lands between the Skunk and Squaw and designate it as – Ames. – In 1866, the first church in Ames (Congregational) was dedicated. The speaker at the dedication, Josiah Grinnell (Grinnell College) announced he was writing to Oakes Ames to suggest that he present a bell to the church in the Town that bore his name. Church records show that a formal thanks for a bell was sent in January of 1867. That bell rings yet today in the Ames, Iowa Congregational Church.
Source: Ames Historical Society, Ames, Iowa
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RESOLUTION
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Relating to the Resolutions of the Forty-Second Congress censuring the Hon. Oakes Ames.
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Resolved, in view of the great services of Oakes Ames, representative from the Massachusetts Second Congressional District for ten years ending March Jr., 1873, in achieving the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, the most vital contribution to the integrity and growth of the national Union since the war;
In view of his unflinching truthfulness and honesty, which refused to suppress, in his own or any other interest, any fact, and so made him the victim of an intense and misdirected public excitement and subjected him to a vote of censure by the Forty-Second Congress at the close of its session;
And in view of the later deliberate public sentiment, which, upon a review of all the facts, holds him in an esteem irreconcilable with his condemnation, and which throughout the whole country recognizes the value and patriotism of his achievement and his innocence of corrupt motive or conduct;
Therefore, the legislature of Massachusetts hereby expresses its gratitude for his work and its faith in his integrity of purpose and character, and asks for like recognition thereof on the part of the national congress.
Senate, April 23, 1883. Adopted. Sent document for concurrence.
S. N. GIFFORD, Clerk.
House of Representatives, May 7,1883. Adopted in concurrence.
EDWARD A. McLAUGHLIN, Clerk.
source: Oakes Ames: A Memoir: with an Account of the Dedication of the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall at North Easton, Mass., November 17, 1881
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Dedication of the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall
On November 17, 1881, the dedication of the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall began with Mr. A. A. Gilmore, the chairman of the day, requesting Rev. William L. Chaffin to offer prayer. Chairman Gilmore welcomed people to the village, home to Oliver Ames, Senior, and his sons, Oakes and Oliver Ames, to dedicate to the memory of Oakes Ames, this building. The chairman introduced one of the sons, Oliver Ames. During his address, Mr. Ames, speaking to Lewis H. Smith, chairman of the Board of Trustees, entrusting the building to the trustees for care and pleasantry to the people of the Town. On behalf of the trustees, Mr. Smith accepted the gift for the Town and appreciation for the service by the Honorable Oakes Ames. The band offered musical selections for the exercises and letters were read, by Honorable Charles W. Slack of Boston, from public men and business associates of the late Oakes Ames.
Some of the speakers introduced by Chairman Governor Long, a close confidant of Oakes Ames, George S. Boutwell, a theologian, Rev. Edward Everett Hall, Judge Thomas Russell, President of the Massachusetts Senate, Robert R. Bishop, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Charles J. Noyes, all during the war, Oakes’s pastor, Rev C. C. Hussey, of Billerica, a friend to brothers, Oakes, and Oliver, Henry B. Blackwell, Colonel Jonas H. French, and the chairman called on Rev. R. R. Meredith to close the exercises. A multitude of letters were included in the program including from five former governors, John Quincy, and Benjamin F. Butler.
Source: Oakes Ames: A Memoir: with an Account of the Dedication of the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall at North Easton, Mass., November 17, 1881
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By the will of the Hon. Oliver Ames, who died in 1877, It will be observed that the income of this fund is not all necessarily applied to school purposes. It may be used for whatever is – for the benefit of the children – of North Easton village, and it furnishes an opportunity of good which is deserving of careful study. It has been used for various purposes hitherto. By means of it, illustrated and scientific lectures are given weekly through the winter months in Memorial Hall, intended more especially for the children, but open to all without admission fee. Magazines have been subscribed for and sent, one to each family of all North Easton scholars, and one of the executors of this fund, Lieut. Gov. Oliver Ames, in order that all the scholars of the Town may have magazines, has sent them for several years at his own expense to the school children of Easton outside of No. 7. Besides lectures and magazines, supplementary books have been furnished and apparatus has been bought, including the skeleton and manikin already spoken of. The teachers of industrial classes, including sewing for the girls and the use of wood-working tools for the boys, and latterly mechanical drawing, are paid by this fund. A Kindergarten school is also supported by it in North Easton. It opens a field of usefulness which will be occupied as time goes on and the best way to use it becomes clear.
source: History of Easton, William L. Chaffin, 1886
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The North Easton schoolhouse stands on a foundation of sienite, but Memorial Hall is supported by a basis of both sienite and diorite. The rock at the northeast corner of that hall will repay careful study. In the diorite there may be seen veins or small dikes of syenite, which must have been forced into the parted seams in a fluid condition, the syenite, if once a conglomerate rock, having been re-melted here. The two formations have been curiously welded together. Under the tower is an example of igneous inclusion, where the semi-fluid diorite lifted a block of syenite, and was able to hold it in its fiery embrace until all was solidified. Close to it is a narrow-enclosed strip of a stratified soft shale, wholly different from the igneous rocks that imprison it. The shale is found in small quantities in other parts of the Town. Easton is in fact on the dividing line, where the syenite is more or less succeeded by the shale and carboniferous sandstone.
source: History of Easton, William L. Chaffin, 1886
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The noble and massive Memorial Hall, also elsewhere mentioned, (History of Easton) before which we must pause for a few moments. This Hall was built in memory of Oakes Ames by his children, and was presented by them to the Town. It stands on the solid foundation of a natural ledge, from the northeast corner of which rises the beautiful octagonal tower, on whose frieze are carved the twelve signs of the zodiac. For the entire length in front the building is ornamented with an arcade having five arches, which rest upon low strong columns with carved capitals. The material used in the construction of the first story of this building is the syenite stone from a quarry only a few rods distant, the second story being finished in handsome brick, the trimmings are of red sandstone, and the steep imposing roof is covered with red tiles. Over the front dormer window appears a monogram formed of the letters O. A. The Hall stands at a high elevation above the road, though near to it, and is approached by wide stone staircases, terminating on stone platforms, and so combined with the natural stone work as to present a grand appearance. On the first floor of the building are two small halls, on the second floor is the main hall, which, exclusive of a large stage, is fifty-nine feet in length, forty-seven in width, and twenty in height, the stage measuring twenty-six by eighteen feet. The upper room is beautifully finished as a Masonic Hall. The whole building outside, excluding the tower, is ninety-six and one third feet in length. The architect of this noble building was H. H. Richardson. Memorial Hall was dedicated November 17, 1881, with interesting exercises; and on that occasion it was formally presented by Oliver Ames to the chairman of the Board of Trustees, who were to hold and manage the building for the benefit of the Town of Easton. The chairman was Lewis H. Smith, who made an appropriate response to the presentation address of Mr. Ames. The trustees alluded to are members of a legal corporation called the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall Association. This corporation has entire control of all the property, and of its management. The Town can have the full and free use of said premises, without payment of rent for all the ordinary purposes of a Town Hall, if it chooses to do so. But the building is not centrally enough located for Town Meeting purposes, and is not likely to be used for them, the Town having just built a new Town-Hall at Easton Centre. A fund of two thousand dollars has been given to the trustees of Memorial Hall, the interest of which may be applied to the payment of insurance, and the unexpended balance used for repairs. For several years the Hall has realized about one hundred dollars annually above expenses, and this sum has been paid into the town treasury.
source: History of Easton, William L. Chaffin, 1886
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The Lodge was named after the Rev. Paul Dean, a Unitarian clergyman, who was settled over the Unitarian Society at Easton in 1845, and continued their pastor for five years. He was a prominent Mason, having served in almost every official position, being grandmaster of Masons in Massachusetts in 1838, 1839, 1840. Paul Dean Lodge first met in the building now occupied by the post-office, which then stood on the land now used as the schoolhouse yard. On the ist of January, 1868, they removed to the upper hall in E. P. Spooner’s building. The hall was dedicated and the officers publicly installed by the officers of the Grand Lodge, March 24, 1868, the installation, however, occurring in the Methodist Church. The Lodge occupied this hall until the completion of the Ames Memorial Hall, elegant apartments having been provided for them in the upper part of that building, and secured for fifty years at a rental of one dollar per year, they were dedicated by the officers of the Grand Lodge, November 22, 1881, in the presence of a large number of the brethren and of ladies and gentlemen. After the dedication exercises were over, while sitting in the ante room, the recording grand secretary, Tracy P. Cheever, remarked, my record is finished; it will read right a hundred years hence. – Within half an hour he was taken suddenly ill, and was carried from the hall in an unconscious state. He died of apoplexy about three o’clock the following afternoon, without having recovered his consciousness. The Lodge has grown to a membership of one hundred, and is now in a prosperous condition. The following brothers have served as masters: Geo. B. Cogswell, 1868. 1870, and 1871. George G. Wethington, 1869. Lewis H. Smith, 1872 and 1873. Edward R. Hayward, 1874. Samuel K. Kelley, 1875 and 1876. John H. Swain, [877 and 1878. J. D. Atwood, 1879 and 1880. Luther Sisson, 1881 and 1S82. George K. Davis, 1883. L. B. Crockett, 1884, 1885, and 1886.
source: History of Easton, William L. Chaffin, 1886
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The Presidential canvass of 1844, Henry Clay and James K. Polk being candidates, was an exciting one in the Town. Clay awakened an ardent personal attachment, and the Whigs worked for him with a hearty will. They attended a great convention at Taunton, September 10, which was presided over by Daniel Webster. The ladies of Taunton had promised to give a silk banner to the Whigs of any Town who would send to the Convention the largest delegation proportioned to their vote for governor in 1842. The vote of Easton for John Davis in 1842 was one hundred and fourteen, and its delegation to Taunton consisted of two hundred and fifty men, showing a larger proportional gain than any Town there represented. The banner was therefore bestowed upon the Easton Whigs, Daniel Webster himself proposing three cheers for Easton, which were heartily given. Oliver Ames, Jr., was chosen to make the response to the presentation. The banner is now in Memorial Hall, on one side of it is a portrait of Henry Clay. As Easton cast only two hundred and two votes for Clay, one wonders what became of the forty-eight other Whigs who were in the delegation.
source: Easton Historical Society
source; Massachusetts Historical Commission,
source: Ancestry
source: History of Easton, William L. Chaffin, 1886
source: The New England States: Their Constitutional, Judicial, Volume 1, William Thomas, 1897
source: American Biography, William Richard Cutter, The American History Society, 1918
source: Easton’s Neighborhoods, Edmund C. Hands, 1995
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Barrows Street
Barrows Street was laid out in 1862, and extended or relaid in 1871.
source: History of Easton, William L. Chaffin, 1886
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Barrows Street in North Easton was laid out from Lincoln Street south to Day Street in 1862. The map of North Easton in the 1871 Bristol County atlas shows a larger lot with a house at its northern rather than southern end. Ten Lincoln Street, at the southeast corner of that street’s intersection with Barrows Street (laid out in 1862 and named for Joseph Barrows), was located on a 10.25-acre tract that the Ames family had sold to him in 1860.
source: Massachusetts Historical Commission
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Easton Garden Club
Shortly after 8:30 P.M. April 6, 1930, a small group of people gathered in the Reading Room of the Ames Free Library. They shared a common purpose – to start a garden club in Easton. Miss Mary Lamprey was librarian at the time, and she was known and still is remembered as an outstanding naturalist. Her enthusiasm for gardening was contagious and she was instrumental in helping start many a garden. Miss Lamprey was elected President; Mrs. Robert Porter, Secretary; and others present included Mrs. Robert Birnie, Mrs. James Burke, Mrs. Royden Leonard, Mrs. Elmer Randall, Reverend Samuel Knowles, and Mrs. Leo Harlow. Shortly before this first meeting at the Library, Mrs. Louis A. Frothingham heard that a Garden Club was being formed in Easton and said to a friend, I wonder if it is my duty to be President? At the time, she was President of the Noanett Garden Club. A week later after the first meeting, visiting the same friend, and laughing heartily she said, The Club is beautifully organized, and they haven’t asked me to do a thing. The next month the membership was forty-one and by the start of 1931 the membership had grown to 104. The most important article in the Constitution was the qualification for membership, which read: "possession of a flower garden; active personal work therein; willingness to share in the activities of the Club." The present By-Laws state the object of the club: advance and encourage the art of gardening and study horticulture, floriculture and landscape architecture; to aid in the protection and conservation of natural resources and to promote civic beauty and roadside improvement. The gardens of the early 1930s might be called memory gardens as they were made and enhanced by members swapping plants. This is still true today. In 1930, during the first year, the members wore out a lot of shoe leather by walking to visit the twenty-five gardens. Some of the estates visited in the early years of the Club were Mrs. William Ames’, the Winthrop Ames’ to see the bluebells and lilacs, Oliver Ames’ to see the columbine and dictamnus, the spring garden at the Frothinghams, the azaleas at John S. Ames, Sr.’s, the wild orchids at Oakes Ames’, and the rhododendrons at Lothrop Ames’, not to mention the individual gardens of the members. The gardeners of the estates were most generous with their knowledge and time. They helped to arrange flower shows and judged the horticulture exhibits. In 1930, an exhibit was entered at the Brockton Fair which won a $30 prize and the State blue ribbon. The first public flower show was held in the fall of 1930 with 215 exhibits entered. In 1931, Mrs. William Ames gave a silver bowl to be presented each year to the member who accumulated the highest number of points. The bowl now goes to the member accumulating the highest number of points in flower arranging. In 1968 a pewter bowl was given to the Club in memory of Mrs. John S. Ames, Sr., which goes each year to the member with the highest number of points in horticulture. The youth of the town were encouraged to grow plants and participate in flower shows. From flower show reports we find these winners of interest: 1935 – Master Oliver Ames in two horticulture classes, 1937 – Charles McCarthy. Jr. with an arrangement for children, 1939 – Louis Freitas received a First and Jane Rydholm a Third in a presentation of a dish garden, and 1940 – Joan Mason and Diane Reynolds placed in the children’s exhibits. Charles McCarthy was an avid vegetable gardener and Master Oliver Ames became President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. The membership and activities of the Garden Club dropped off considerably in the early 1940s due to World War II and gas rationing. However, the spirit of the Club continued through Club endeavors: civic projects which included not only town beautification but out of town as well and a donation to a European country in 1943, a generous sum was given to send seeds to Britain. Garden Club service brought joy and happiness at Christmas to boys in hospitals at Camp Myles Standish and Camp Edwards as it still does at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Brockton. In the mid-50s a new thrust of enthusiasm emerged and in 1953 the Easton Garden Club once again became a member of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts. Between the years of 1962-1972 the Garden Club held four flower shows and four house tours and received three National awards and one State award. In 1974, the Easton Club has a membership of 100 active members and 16 honorary members. Mrs. Louis Freitas, Mrs. Herbert Everett and Mrs. Robert Gordon are National Accredited Flower Show Judges and Mrs. Paul Anderson, Mrs. Louis Freitas, and Mrs. Herbert Everett have become much in demand for their lectures on gardening and flower arrangements. Still interested in working with young peoplei or Garden Club was formed by the Club. It has an active membership of 25. Club projects include the beautification of the former rose garden at the Town Offices (the former Mrs. Louis A. Frothingham estate), care of the grounds at the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall, Christmas Doorway Contest, Arbor Day Plantings, as well as supplying flowers and services for the Veterans Hospital in Brockton and the Massachusetts State Hospital for Children.Source: History of Easton, Massachusetts, Vol. II, M. McEntee, Easton Historical Society, ET AL, 1886-1974
