More information on this image is available at the Easton Historical Society in North Easton, MA
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Jones House, Horace W., 11 Mechanic Street, North Easton, MA, Wakefield’s Toll House, Whitman, source, The Virginian-Pilot , info, Easton Historical Society
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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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We have as yet made no attempt to describe the town as it is today. For residents such description is needless; but for those who once lived here and have long been absent, and for Others who have not been here, an attempt at a description must be made, although the result will necessarily be inadequate. Carefully prepared maps of the town are given, showing the location and ownership of dwelling-houses and other buildings, as also the location of highways, streams, and ponds. In order to secure sufficient space for names, it was necessary to give the map of North Easton village on a separate sheet. The visitor who came to Easton a few years ago by cars and stopped at North Easton, received an unpleasant impression of the place at once by alighting in a dark and smoky station, and seeing only dismal waiting-rooms and surroundings singularly unattractive. He would now, however, in alighting find himself upon the platform of one of the most beautiful small railroad stations in the country. It is the generous gift to the Old Colony Railroad of Frederick Lothrop Ames; but the real intent of it is to beautify and benefit the village where it stands, and its giver has laid the whole community under obligations for his kindness. It is the work of the noted architect, the late H. H. Richardson; is built of Braggville granite, so-called, and brown sandstone, and has spacious and elaborately finished waiting rooms. A heliotype print of it is presented to the reader’s attention; it is a view taken from the southeast, and gives some idea, though an imperfect one, of the well laid-out grounds about the station. All the surroundings have been greatly improved. Concrete sidewalks are laid on Oliver Street, which is north of the station, and which has recently been widened and straightened. The large Hinge Factory of E. W. Gilmore and the long substantial stone shops of the Ames Shovel Works give a decided business aspect to this locality. A little way east of this building are the spacious grounds owned by Governor Oliver Ames and Frederick Lothrop Ames. These grounds are finely laid out. The large stone house at the left, not far from the entrance, is that of Governor Ames.
source: History of Easton, William L. Chaffin, 1886
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11 Mechanic Street
The Horace Wood Jones House at 11 Mechanic Street was the childhood home of Ruth Graves Wakefield in the 1910s and the ‘20s. In 1880, owning and residing at 11 Mechanic Street were Horace Wood, a hinge factory worker, and his wife, Mary Jane Hurst Jones, with their son, Harry LeRoy Jones. Horace Wood Jones was employed at the Edward William Gilmore Hinge Factory at 25 Elm Street. On October 10, 1869, Horace Wood Jones married Mary Jane Hurst in Easton, daughter of Aaron and Elizabeth Hurst. In 1886, the map of North Easton Village shows the parcel at 11 Mechanic Street as noted with the name, – H. W. Jones. – On July 11, 1894, Harry LeRoy Jones married Florence C. Swain in Concord, New Hampshire, daughter of Charles F., and Sophia H. Webster. In 1895, the map of North Easton Village shows the parcel at 11 Mechanic Street as noted with the name, – Horace Jones. In 1900, residing at 11 Mechanic Street were Horace Wood, a stationary engineer, and his wife, Mary Jane Hurst Jones, with their daughter, Helen Vesta Jones, a dry goods store clerk, and their son, Winthrop Marsden Jones. On April 9, 1901, Fred Luther Graves married Helen Vista Jones in Easton, daughter of Horace Wood, and Mary Jane Hurst Jones. In 1910, residing at 11 Mechanic Street were Horace Wood, a water works engineer, and his wife, Mary Jane Hurst Jones, with their son, Winthrop Jones, and their daughter, Helen Vesta Jones Graves, a dry goods store clerk, and her daughter, Ruth Graves. Horace Wood Jones was employed by the North Easton Water Company at 101 Lincoln Street. In 1917, the Easton Massachusetts City Directory listed Horace Wood Jones residing with his wife, Mary Jane Hurst Jones on Mechanic Street working as a water pumping station engineer. In 1920, residing at 11 Mechanic Street were Horace Wood, a water works engineer, and his wife, Mary Jane Hurst Jones, with their granddaughter, Ruth Graves, a dietitian and food lecturer. In1924, Ruth Graves graduated from the Department of Household Arts at the Framingham State Normal Schools. Following her graduation, Ruth Graves Wakefield taught Home Economics at the Brockton High School until 1926. On June 26, 1926, Kenneth Donald Wakefield I, married Ruth Graves in Easton, daughter of Horace Wood, and Mary Jane Hurst Jones. In 1928, Horace Wood Jones passed away in Easton at the age of eighty-one. In 1930, residing in Brockton were Kenneth Donald, and his wife, Ruth Graves Wakefield. Around 1930, Ruth Graves Wakefield developed the Butter Drop Do cookies and realized it was lacking a baker’s chocolate flavor. Andrew Nestle gave Ruth some semisweet chocolate bars so she made small pieces to add to the cookie dough. She thought the bit would melt with the heat but kept their shape. Ruth decided to have a name of chocolate chip cookies. The recipe called the Toll House Cookies was published in a newspaper in Boston. The increase in the knowledge of the chocolate chip cookies led Nestles to give them a lifetime supply of their semisweet chocolate for the right to print the recipe on the package of their bars. In 1930, Kenneth Donald, and Ruth Graves Wakefield purchased the property of The Toll House Inn of Whitman at 362 Bedford Street in that Town which was built in 1709. Kenneth Donald, and Ruth Graves Wakefield operated Toll House Inn until 1966. They changed the dwelling to The Toll House Inn of Whitman and served homemade meals with the colonial times touch. In 1940, residing at 487 Auburn Street in Whitman were Kenneth Donald, an innkeeper, and his wife, Ruth Graves Wakefield, an innkeeper.
source: Easton Historical Society
source; Massachusetts Historical Commission
source: Ancestry
source: History of Easton, William L. Chaffin, 1886
source: Easton’s Neighborhoods, Edmund C. Hands, 1995
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The Ames Family & the North Easton Village
One of the well-known Ames properties, Sheep Pasture estate, was owned by Oliver Ames (1864-1929), son of Frederick, (1835-1893), and Rebecca Caroline Blair Ames, (1838-1903), and Oliver’s wife, Elise Alger West Ames, (1867-1945) Oliver was born on October 21, 1864. Oliver was a great-grandson of Oliver Ames, (1779-1863), whose father, John Ames, started making shovels just before 1774, older than the United States, in West Bridgewater. In 1803, Oliver came to Easton, purchasing a forge, a nail-making shop, a house and the Shovel Shop Dam with surrounding land on Pond Street. Oliver’s siblings were Helen Anglier Ames Hooper, (1862-1907) who married her husband, Robert, and residing in Manchester, MA, Mary Shreve Ames Frothingham, (1867-1955), later at Wayside, Frederick Lothrop Ames, (1876-1921), later at Stone House Hill House and John Stanley Ames, (1878-1959) later at Langwater. Henry Shreve Ames died in infancy. Shortly after his graduation from Harvard University in 1886, Oliver joined the Oliver Ames & Sons Shovel Works, becoming a director of various business, railroad and trust companies. Oliver and Elise were married in Boston on December 3, 1890. Their children were Elise Ames Parker, (1892-1979), Olivia Ames Cabot, (1893-1978), Richard Colwell Ames, (1897-1935) and Oliver Ames, Jr., (1895-1918). Their older son, Oliver Ames, Jr., was killed in service to his Country in France during World War I. Oliver’s father, Frederick Lothrop Ames became a member of the firm of Oliver Ames & Sons Shovel Works in 1863, and when it was incorporated in 1876 as Oliver Ames and Sons Corporation, became the Treasurer. After the passing of his father, Frederick Lothrop Ames, (1835-1893), Oliver became one of the trustees of his father’s estate and following in the footsteps of his father, becoming Director and Treasurer of the Oliver Ames and Sons Corporation. From 1860 through 1930, the Ames Shovel and Tool Company at 28 Main Street owned buildings on the north side of Lincoln Street between Day Street and Reardon Way. These buildings provided housing for workers at the shovel shops, shoe shop workers, worker and domestic helpers for the Ames family and other factories in North Easton. The earliest tenement houses for employees were built close to the factories near ponds using the water resources. Example of housing were The Island and along Pond and Mechanic Streets, and south on Andrews Street and north to Oliver Street. The mixture was a combination of single- and multiple-family dwellings and boarding houses for unmarried workers. The elevated status in the social and economic factory hierarchy was shown by single dwellings which were inhabited by supervisory and skilled workers. Smaller housing units with two or more households were used by families of unskilled laborers. The houses had very basic accommodations, most houses were shared with strangers. The initial industrial development focused on improved ponds that provided motive power to the factory buildings. Eliphalet Leonard had a nail manufactory at The Island on the east side of Shovel Shop Pond and Asa Waters had a hoe factory on the south end of Hoe Shop Pond. In 1803, Oliver Ames came to Easton as this area around the Langwater Pond became the initial location for the shovel works. Later, Oliver Ames purchased the water privilege at the south end of Langwater Pond and expanded the water resource. By 1815, Oliver Ames and Asa Waters built a cotton mill on the current housing site of the Ames Shovel Works at 50 Main Street powered by canal dug from Hoe Shop Pond. In 1852, a devastating fire on The Island burnt down the wooden constructed shops which were replaced by the construction of the stone shops on the western side of the Shovel Shop Pond. The properties #55, #59, #63, #71 and #73 Lincoln Street were built for laborers similar in construction and style. Records show another four properties #45, #49. #85 and #89 Lincoln Street were moved from the shovel shop area. The parcels #41, #79 and 81 Lincoln Street were built on or moved onto properties on Lincoln Street. In 1815, the Easton Manufacturing Company, a cotton cloth factory, owned six-acre of land on the north side of Lincoln Street. In 1839, the Easton Manufacturing Company was dissolved which paved the way for David Macomber to purchase the six-acre parcel which he sold to Howard Lothrop. Later, Howard Lothrop sold the land to same parcel Oakes Ames (1804-1873), the son of company founder of the Oliver Ames and Sons Corporation, Oliver Ames Sr., (1779 -1863). In 1845, Oakes Ames, (1804-1873), transferred ownership of the parcel to his father, Oliver Ames Sr., (1779-1863) followed by Oliver Ames Sr., and deeded the parcel to Oliver Ames and Sons. In 1875, the six-acre property and other parcels of land were deeded to Frederick Lothrop Ames (1876-1921) and moving ownership back to Oliver Ames and Sons. In 1850, this area of Lincoln Street was woodland owned by the Ames family. In 1901, Oliver Ames and Sons Corporation transferred all of its real estate to the newly named Ames Shovel and Tool Company. The Ames family owned large parcels of land north, east and west of the factories. The Ames family built their residences in the middle of the work area on the west side of Main Street with two of those houses, Unity Close at 23 Main Street and Queset House at 51 Main Street near the shops. This was typical of factory village development in the period. During these times, owners and laborers interacted with each other in work and daily life where private locations were limited. The social status was shown in the size and styles of architecture, but they would be near or part of the work settings. The fancy iron fencing on the western side of Main Street was the only separation between the owner and employees. Later, the Ames family started create estates outside, but close to the North Easton Village. The estates featured large buildings called mansions, gardens, farm, other small buildings, passive conservation spaces, and recreational areas within their estates. In 1820, the Oakes Ames, Sr. owner of the O. Ames, began building worker testament housing for their workers. In 1820, the first two houses Oakes Ames, Sr. built were for the manager of his shop in Braintree. In 1832, Oakes Ames, Sr. built his second testament house for the workers in his shops in West Bridgewater. The house of Oliver Ames Jr., (1807-1877), was northeast of this area, facing Main Street. In 1886, historian William L. Chaffin, in his book, History of Easton, wrote that forty-five Roman Catholics, most from Ireland, lived in Easton in 1849, 150 by 1852, and 400 by 1860. In 1850, at least thirty-five of ninety-seven Irish-born males were working in Easton, or 36 percent, worked at the shovel shops. Seven were furnace workers at the Ames shops or iron forges. In 2002, historian Gregory J. Galer wrote in his book, Forging Ahead: The Ames Family of Easton, Massachusetts that by late 1820s, the shovel shop company, O. Ames found out that this area could not meet the need for labor at the shovel shops. By the 1840s, the workers who immigrated from Ireland helped to meet the need of labor. In 1836, Oakes Ames built a boardinghouse big enough for twenty workers. In 1845, Oliver Ames and Sons built twenty houses for their workers. By 1861, building and owning thirty houses and ninety houses for workers by 1884. From the historical area of Canton, Massachusetts called South Canton. In 1847, the Ames Shovel Shop began operating at 160 Bolivar Street in Canton, Massachusetts at a location between Bolivar and Forge Pond. In 1792, a corn mill was built followed by a cotton factory in 1812. In 1841, the Bolivar Mill burned to the ground. In 1845, the property was purchased by Lyman Kinsley for purposes of operating a iron forge followed by Oliver Ames and Sons taking over operations in 1848. In 1847, the land was used by Lucius Buck as a hammer shop to help in the expansion of the shovel shops in North Easton. In 1844, the expansion happens when Oakes and Oliver Ames, Jr., took over as operatives from their father Oliver Ames. In 1845, the Stoughton Branch Railroad allowed the Ames Shovel Shop to shipped stamped shovels for finishing from Canton to Easton. In 1852, a fire destroyed the Ames factory in North Easton and the shop in Canton was in heavy use until the factories were rebuilt with stone in 1853. In 1901, Oliver Ames and Sons Corporation transferred all of its real estate to Ames Shovel and Tool Company, a merger of the Ames company and several other shovel and handle companies. In June of 1930, as part of selling its tenement properties, Ames Shovel and Tool Company submitted and registered two sets of plans detailing lot boundaries for sixty-two properties including the twelve on Lincoln, Pond, Mechanic, Day, Barrows, Main, Canton, Elm, and Oliver Streets and Picker Lane off Canton Street. Ames Shovel and Tool Company contracted Samuel T. Freeman and Company, an auction handler, from Boston and Philadelphia, to auction forty-one of its properties in Easton. The auction list consisted of eighteen cottages, sixteen with two-family houses, three with four-family dwellings, two stores, and two building lots. In 1933, Ames Shovel and Tool transferred properties to John F. Neal, a lawyer from Malden for individual disposal of the properties to future owners.
source: Easton Historical Society
source; Massachusetts Historical Commission
source: Ancestry
source: History of Easton, William L. Chaffin, 1886
source: Easton’s Neighborhoods, Edmund C. Hands, 1995
source: Forging Ahead: The Ames Family of Easton, Massachusetts, Gregory J. Galer, 2002
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Mechanic Street
The neighborhood concentrated along Mechanic and Andrews Street comprises a neat enclave of small dwellings associated with North Easton’s factory workers. Nestled behind (north of) Main Street and backing up to shovel company holdings along Pond Street, the area was the location of mostly private development in the late 19th century. A certain amount of the land there was owned by boot maker William S. Andrews, whose house at 15A Mechanic was the only building depicted in the area on the 1855 village map. Neither street was platted in 1855, but by 1871 the private lane that connected the house with Main Street and, after bending around a hill behind the house, with Pond Street had been named Andrews Street. Ten more houses had appeared, including two Ames Company tenements at the Pond street end. Soon after 1871, Mechanic Street was extended from its southern terminus at Pond Street to Andrews Street, effectively bisecting what remained undeveloped on the west side of the area. It appears that the Ames Company owned a significant portion of this section, and at least one building was moved here from the site of the new Unity Church on Main Street in 1875.
source: Massachusetts Historical Commission
Mechanic Street
Mechanic Street and Andrews Street were voted in 1873, Jenny Lind Street in 1875, and extended in 1883. Pond Street in 1881, and Bridge Street in 1884.
source: History of Easton, William L. Chaffin, 1886
Easton Historical Society
80 Mechanic Street
North Easton, Massachusetts 02356
