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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South Easton Railroad Station, Washington Street, Easton, Ma, source, Easton Historical Society
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The train came to a junction in South Easton and branched off toward Matfield, which is south of Brockton. The picture shows the train wreck of 1921 when the tender slipped off the rails and plowed into the South Easton Depot
Easton’s Pictorial Past, 250th Anniversary, Easton Historical Society, 1978
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The development by Oliver Ames and Sons Corporation of the factory and village land use in a rather organic manner with a mix work-related classes created an integrated geographic network. The housing on perimeter edge with factories and business affairs in the center creating the village concept in North Easton. Other important concepts were the Furnace Village Cemetery, Furnace Village Grammar School and the Furnace Village Store, which explains Furnace Village and other sections of Easton.
source: Massachusetts Historical Commission
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South Easton Village
Edward J. W. Morse acquired the mill in 1837 and improved the privilege with a large three-story wooden mill building in mid-century for manufacture of cotton thread. This may have been the first thread mill in the nation. Mr. Morse continued to be listed as a thread manufacturer in the 1889 resident directory. Steam was introduced as a power source in 1844 and the post office opened in the counting room of the Morse Thread Mill in 1849. The post office later occupied part of the Copeland store at the northwest corner of Central and Washington Streets. By 1851, at least nine residences had been constructed in the area. There were a doctor, several buildings to house the thread mill operations including both buildings at 579 Washington Street, Copeland’s store near 579 Washington Street (moved across Washington Street in 1923, demolished in the 1990s) and the third South Easton School, now demolished. Dr. Caleb Swan lived north of 580 Washington Street and practiced medicine here until his death in 1870. His home no longer survives.
source; Massachusetts Historical Commission
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Description of Washington Street below
History of the South Easton and Eastondale Fire and Water District below
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South Easton and Eastondale Fire and Water District
At the turn of the century, this section of Easton consisted of the Town Hall, the Evangelical Congregational Church, the Almshouse, and the Center School, with the one-story Easton Center Depot a little to the east. There were a number of farms along accessory roads like Purchase Street. The village area along Washington Street, from Morse’s square stucco house near the southeastern corner of the intersection of Washington and Grove (now Belmont) Streets to the South Easton Depot south of the Green. Sequasset area, now called Eastondale, included the Eastondale Depot.
Those who were not self-employed or employed in the South Easton/Eastondale area were apt to be workers in one of the many Brockton shoe factories. Transportation to their place of employment was by train via West Bridgewater and Matfield to Campello and locations north. Lighting was by oil, or a reasonable facsimile, since electricity was not available until the first decades of the twentieth century. Police protection was on an informal level and there were no physicians in the South Easton-Eastondale area. At this time each home had its own well and pump. The South Easton-Eastondale Fire and Water District was not organized until 1916. Fire protection was either by neighborhood assistance or had to come from North Easton or Brockton. Such was the case when the Rankin house at the duck farm burned. The duck farm, located on Purchase Street, was owned by James Rankin and employed a number of people. A large wagon load of crated duck would be shipped each morning from the Easton Center railroad station to destinations throughout the United States. The farmers sold their products by horse and wagon with daily milk routes being serviced. The milk was sold by the quart measure from eight-quart cans kept cool by ice. Seasonal products, such as apples and vegetables, were also sold. Another provision ordered and delivered to the home was meat. South Easton was serviced by Henry Heath and his son, Alfred Heath, who slaughtered their own beef. They delivered on a weekly basis and in the early 1900s two pounds of beef cost approximately twenty-four cents. A large part of their meat business was in smoked meats. Mr. Heath had a large smoke house, and people came from all over the area to hav
e hams and bacon smoked. Many farmers did their own butchering, but had no smoke house, so they brought their meats to the Heath Smoke House. The same kind of services were provided by Cyrus Alger, who had meats and vegetables at his place on Turnpike Street.
The Washington Street area contained the thread mills of the E. J. Morse Company, the post office, the general store operated for many years by the Horace Mitchell family, and the Grammar School (both the old and the new, built in 1903). Further south, at the Easton Green, was the very busy J. 0. Dean grist mill. In back of the mill was the Ross Heel Company which was owned by Mr. Dean’s son-in-law, Edwin Kennedy. This was also where the Puritan rollaway screens were made in the early 1900s. Further south, along Washington Street, were the blacksmith shop, the depot on the left, and a new and thriving company on the right, the Simpson Spring Company. There were several paint and varnish shops in the area, and thermometers were made by the Poole’s on Foundry Street. In the Eastondale area, grain, lumber, and daily provisions were available at James E. Howard and Sons Store. Originally his father, James M. Howard, had operated a store as part of his home on Pine Street before buying the two-and-a-half story structure on Turnpike Street. It was burnt on the evening of October 5, 1930, and it was replaced by a smaller one-story store built on the site and ready for operation by March of 1931, by members of a third generation of the Howard family. Just as the South Easton Post Office was housed in or adjacent to the general store on Washington Street, so also was the Eastondale post office, operated by the Howard family for approximately fifty-five years. Other businesses on Turnpike Street were poultry farms and livery stables.
Many of the residents attended the Evangelical Congregational Church at the CenteL Those in the southern part of Easton who were Catholic would travel by horse and wagon or train to North Easton and the Immaculate Conception Church. In Eastondale. those who did not attend the Congregational Church organized a Unitarian Society.
source: Easton Historical Society
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In the year 1915, a second district was established within the town of Easton known as the South Easton and Eastondale Fire and Water District. This district comprises a section of the town about 5 miles long and averaging a little over 1 mile in width lying along the easterly border of the town adjacent to Brockton and West Bridgewater. Its northerly limit is about 2 miles south of the boundary between Easton and Stoughton, and this limit extends from the boundary of the North Easton Village District to the boundary line of the city of Brockton. The North Easton Village District is supplied with water from wells situated in the valley of a tributary of the Coweeset River within the limits of the district. The South Easton and Eastondale Fire and Water District is supplied from separate works through an extension of the pipes of the city of Brockton. The arrangement of the two districts herein described leaves in the extreme northeasterly corner of the town of Easton an area about 2 miles long in a northerly and southerly direction and from miles in width which does not form a part of either district and is practically wholly cut off from the remaining portions of the town. This district, known as Unionville, is inhabited by about ninety families, and, in response to a petition of certain inhabitants thereof, the State Department of Health during the past year investigated the condition of the water supply in Unionville, as a result of which it was found that many of the wells in use were badly polluted, and the Department is informed also that many of them have failed during the dry seasons that have occurred in recent years.
source: Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts, 1915
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August 23, 1915. To the Board of Water Commissioners, South Easton and Eastondale Fire and Water District, Mr. William N. Howard, Chairman. Gentlemen: — The State Department of Health received from you on Aug. 14, 1915, the following application for the approval by this Department, under the provisions of chapter 232 of the Special Acts of the year 1915, of the taking and use of water from Silver Lake for the water supply of the South Easton and Eastondale Fire and Water District through a contract with the water commissioners of the city of Brockton made under the provisions of said act. In order to comply with the conditions of the special act of 1915, chapter 232 in relation to the South Easton and Eastondale Fire and Water District, it becomes necessary to secure a certificate of approval by the State Department of Health of the source of supply and location of dams, reservoir, wells, etc., in compliance with the section two of said act. The South Easton and Eastondale Fire and Water District is under contract with the city of Brockton, which city is furnishing the district with water from its regular supply which is Silver Lake, which source of supply has already been approved and is under constant inspection by the State Department of Health. The attorneys who are passing upon bonds require, however, that a certificate of approval from the State Department be furnished as the law states. The Department has considered the results of examinations of Silver Lake, the proposed source of supply, by the engineer of the Department and finds that the water is of good quality for domestic use and the supply adequate for the requirements of the South Easton and Eastondale Fire and Water District in addition to those of the city of Brockton and the towns now supplied by that city from Silver Lake. The State Department of Health hereby approves the use of water taken from Silver Lake and supplied through the works of the city of Brockton for the water supply of the South Easton and Eastondale Fire and Water District under the provisions of chapter 232 of the Special Acts of the year 1915.
source: Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts, 1915
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(1915) A new water district was established during the year in the town of Easton to supply the villages of South Easton and Eastondale. The supply is obtained from the works of the city of Brockton.
source: Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts, 1915
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In 1915, South Easton and Eastondale Fire and Water District connected to the Brockton water system, which pulled water from Silver Lake in Pembroke. A series of pipes were laid and connections made to houses on Washington, Depot, Turnpike, and Pine Streets. Maps of the district were drawn locating the water connections, identification of the resident’s properties. Illustrated plans of the homes and businesses that connected to the districts water supply. The fire equipment for the South Easton and Eastondale Fire and Water District was housed in a barn on the southeast corner of Depot and Washington Streets. In 1932, the Town of Easton appointed a fire chief to supervise all the town’s fire departments.
source: Massachusetts Historical Commission
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Washington Street
Washington Street is referred to in 1719 in the North Purchase records as the road that leads from Joseph Crossman’s to Boston, Joseph Crossman then living at what is now Thomas Randall’s place, on Main Street near Washington Street, in North Easton village. But that part of the street which ran through South Easton village is alluded to before 1700. The first recorded laying out of any part of it is dated September 30, 1726, when it was laid out from just below the South Easton cemetery to the Green. June 18, 1728, it was laid out from the Stoughton line to Joseph Grossman’s, and March 25, 1737, the survey was continued to South Easton, where the survey of September 1726, began. The old road was quite different from the present and may be traced most of the way at least throughout District No. 8. It began fifteen rods west of the present road at the Stoughton line, crossed the new road diagonally on the hill where the Dickermans lived, kept slightly east of the new road until some distance south of Timothy Marshall’s, then crossed the road southwesterly to avoid the swamp, going to the west of it, and then, as may be still clearly seen, passed nearly due south, coming out into the present road just in front of the Nathan Willis place. South of this the divergence was less than above. The extension of Washington Street southward from the Green was made in 1807. The Stoughton Turnpike Association had then been formed, having been petitioned for as early as 1803. There had been a great wrangle on this question of turnpikes. The General Court in 1805 sent out a committee to view the several routes proposed. The town was not in a pleasant mood. It voted that it wanted a turnpike, but not by the Bay road, nor by the Stoughton road known as Washington Street, nor by Gilmore’s route. The town was however overruled, and not only was the turnpike by Gilmore’s route allowed, but the Stoughton route was also allowed. The Stoughton Turnpike Association was formed, and on petition to the Court of Sessions at Taunton a committee, consisting of the Hon. Stephen Bullock of Rehoboth, Samuel Tobey, Esq., of Berkley, James Williams and James Tisdale of Taunton, and John Pool of Easton, was appointed, and proceeded to lay out a road "our rods wide as the law directs. This was done September 1807. The divergence from the old road has been indicated above, and the survey was most carefully made. Some of the older residents of Easton will be interested in knowing who the then land-owners were, in their order from the Stoughton line to the intersection with the Taunton and South Bridgewater Turnpike. They were Joseph Morse, Ebenezer Dickerman, James Dickerman, Joseph Drake, Widow Drake, Elijah Smith, Ephraim Willis, Jonathan Leonard, Ebenezer Randall, Hopestill Randall, Esquire Guild, Dr. Seth Pratt, Esquire Guild, Thomas Willis, Widow Pratt’s improvement to the well of water and Sever Pratt by’ the burying-place, Calvin Howard, Abial Mitchell, part on the old road, and Lyman Wheelock, and on the old road, Barney Randall, Bela Reed, Esquire Guild, Phineas Randall, and Daniel Randall; same course eight rods on the old road to the Green, James Guild, James Willis, Daniel Randall, Edward Howard [Hayward], Israel Alger, Isaac Lothrop, John Lothrop, Asa Howard, Roland Howard, ending at the Boston and Bristol Turnpike. There was no turnpike gate on this road in Easton, but there was one in Stoughton. The part of the old road south of the Methodist meeting-house to its intersection with the turnpike was discontinued in 1809, that south of this place to the Nathan Willis place in 1812, and that from the Stoughton line to the turnpike in 1815.
source: History of Easton, William L. Chaffin, 1886
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Washington Street
In June 1697, an initial layout took place for the Taunton and South Boston Turnpike which ran from the Stoughton town line through Unionville, into South Easton to the Raynham border. Before the survey in 1726, in the 1710s, in the North Purchases records as the "road that leads from Joseph Crossman’s to Boston." Joseph Crossman lived near what later became known as Dailey’s Corner. In a survey that took place in 1726, the old road began a little west of the present road at the Stoughton line, crossed the new road on the hill by the Dickerman’s property and stayed a little east of the new road past the Washington Street and Timothy Marshall’s house a little way south to take the bend to avoid the swamp south of Timothy’s place. In 1803, the Stoughton Turnpike Association petitioned the state’s General Court for a (Washington Street) road contrary to other suggested paths. In 1805, the General Court sent a Committee to view the proposals for different routes. In 1807, the Committee, as directed by the General Court laid the chosen road (Washington Street). The route, South Boston and Taunton Turnpike, aka, Taunton and South Boston Turnpike, went from Taunton Green to the so-called Blue Hill Turnpike, which was completed in 1809. Showing on the 1852, 1855 and the 1871 maps, the new turnpike divided the travel between Boston and Taunton with the older road, called Bay Road in the northern end of Easton. In 1898, the Taunton and South Boston Turnpike, which included Stoughton at the time, was named as a state road. Showing the street on the map, in 1900, the Easton Street Railway was organized to construct a street car line that ran through Unionville. In the Volume 2 of History of the Town of Easton, Margaret McEntee and other historians, wrote on page 52 about the Easton Street Railway, starting in 1903, ran street cars from Stoughton Square through Unionville to Morse’s Corner on tracks in the middle of Washington Street. The line took on a nickname Joy Line because it looked like the conductor and driver were having fun because of the low ridership that made them feel like going for a ride. The line did not operate in the winter. The line was taken over by the Bristol and Norfolk Street Railway. The merger was not enough to save the Easton line which ceased operations in 1904. In the 1920s, the turnpike getting known as Washington Street in Unionville was given the designation by the State of Route 138. It became the first two-lane concrete constructed highway in Easton. In 1947, the State announced plans to take the traffic off Route 138, to be known as Route 24, along with Route 138, are both built parallel to an old Indian trail. In 1958, the relocated Route 138 portion of Route 24 was opened alleviating traffic through Unionville at the time. On a geographical note, Washington Street is the high point line dividing the water sheds of the Queset Brook on the western side and the Dorchester Meadow Brook, running parallel between Washington Street and the Brockton line.
source: History of Unionville, Carl B. Holmander, 2014
