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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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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Description of Purchase Street below
History of the South Easton and Eastondale Fire and Water District below
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261 Purchase Street
By 1880, the James Rankin House, also known as the Maplewood Farm, at 261 Purchase Street was owned and occupied by James, and Harriet Coe Rankin. On October 29, 1768, Abijah Reed, II’s father, Abijah Reed, I married Sarah Bates in Abington. On January 5, 1777, Abijah Reed, II was born in Abington to Abijah and Sarah Bates Reed, I. In 1780, Abijah Reed, II was residing in Abington with his parents, Abijah and Sarah Bates Reed, I. In 1790, Abijah Reed, II was residing in Abington with his parents, Abijah and Sarah Bates Reed, I, and his brother, Noah Reed. By 1795, Abijah and Sarah Bates Reed, I moved their family to Easton from Abington. In 1800, Abijah Reed, II was residing in Abington with his parents, Abijah and Sarah Bates Reed, I, and his brother, Noah Reed. On October 23, 1800, Abijah Reed, II married Catherine Lothrop in Easton, daughter of Isaac and Sarah Bailey Lothrop. In 1800, residing in Easton were Abijah, and his wife, Catherine Lothrop Reed, II, with their daughter, Lydia Reed. In 1810, residing in Easton were Abijah, and his wife, Catherine Lothrop Reed, II, with their three daughters, Mary, Sarah, and Lydia Reed. On June 19, 1816, Abijah Reed, II’s father, Abijah Reed, I passed away in Easton at the age of seventy-two, with his burial at the Isaac Lothrop Cemetery at 396 Purchase Street. In 1820, residing in Easton were Abijah, and his wife, Catherine Lothrop Reed, II, with their three daughters, Mary, Sarah, and Lydia Reed. In 1825, the map of South Easton shows the parcel at 261 Purchase Street as noted with the name, – A. Reed. – In 1830, owning and residing at 261 Purchase Street were Abijah, and his wife, Catherine Lothrop Reed, II, with their two daughters, Mary, and Lydia Reed. In 1840, residing at 261 Purchase Street were Abijah, a farmer, and his wife, Catherine Lothrop Reed, II. On December 23, 1837, Abijah and Catherine Lothrop Reed, II’s daughter, Lydia Reed married Edmund Curtis, son of Daniel and Sally Wild Curtis. In 1850, residing at 261 Purchase Street were Abijah, and his wife, Catherine Lothrop Reed, II. In 1850, Abijah and Catherine Lothrop Reed, II owned real estate valued at two thousand dollars. In 1853, Abijah Reed, II, and Bernard Howard Alger co-owned one of the six structures on the property at 261 Purchase Street. In 1850, residing on Purchase Street were Bernard Howard, and his wife, Martha Fobes Alger, with their three sons, Edward L., Cyrus, and Horace Howard Alger, and three boarders, Amelia Gilmore, Samuel H. Gilmore, and Patrick Mahama, a laborer. On June 21, 1836, Bernard Howard Alger married Martha Fobes Howard in West Bridgewater, daughter of Salmon and Amelia Snell Howard. In 1855, the map of South Easton shows the parcel at 261 Purchase Street as noted with the names, – Abijah Reed & Bernard H. Alger. – On December 31, 1856, Abijah Reed, II passed away in Easton at the age of seventy-nine, with his burial at the Isaac Lothrop Cemetery at 396 Purchase Street. Following the passing of Abijah Reed, II, one hundred and twenty-six acres and a building at 261 Purchase Street, Abijah Reed, II co-owned with Bernard Howard Alger, was passed to Edmund Curtis, husband of Abijah Reed, II’s daughter, Lydia Reed Curtis. On July 1, 1859, Edmund Curtis’s wife, Lydia Reed Curtis passed away in Easton at the age of forty-nine, with her burial in the Melrose Cemetery in Brockton. In 1863, the children of Lydia Reed Curtis sold their shares of ownership of nineteen acres and buildings of the farm at 261 Purchase Street to Eugene Terry, and Sarah Vincent Southworth Lothrop. In 1871, the map of South Easton shows the parcel at 261 Purchase Street as noted with the name of, – T.E. Lothrop. – In 1872, Eugene Terry, and Sarah Vincent Southworth Lothrop sold the nineteen-acre parcel and buildings at 261 Purchase Street to Henry Sargent, and Jane D. Collins Wonson of Gloucester. In 1872, Bernard Howard’s sons, Cyrus and Horace Howard Alger sold their ninety-five acres in two parcels to Henry Sargent, and Jane D. Collins Wonson. In April of 1874, Henry Sargent, and Jane D. Collins Wonson sold the three parcels at 261 Purchase Street to James, and Harriet Coe Rankin of Falmouth for thirty-five hundred dollars. In September of 1874, James, and Harriet Coe Rankin, and their family moved from Falmouth to a new house built at 261 Purchase Street. In 1850, James Rankin was residing in Rochester with his parents, William, a farmer, and Isabella Rankin, and his three brothers, Alexander S., Lawrence R., and William Rankin II. In 1850, Harriet Coe’s parents, Joseph, a farmer, and Julia Coe owned real estate valued at ten thousand and five hundred dollars. In 1855, James Rankin, a farmer, was residing in Rochester with his parents, William, a farmer, and Isabella Rankin, and his three brothers who were all farmers, Alexander S., Lawrence R., and William Rankin II, and two boarders, Jabez Benson, a farmer, and Caroline Augusta Clark. On November 24, 1859, James Rankin married Harriet Coe in Rochester, daughter of Joseph and Julia Coe. In 1860, residing in Falmouth were James, a farmer, and his wife, Harriet Coe Rankin. In 1865, residing in Falmouth were James, a farmer, and his wife, Harriet Coe Rankin, with their son, James H. Rankin, and their daughter, Julia Lawrence Rankin. In 1870, residing in Falmouth were James, a farmer, and his wife, Harriet Coe Rankin, with their son, James H. Rankin, and their daughter, Julia Lawrence Rankin, and a boarder, Martha Crocker, a domestic servant. By 1880, residing at 261 Purchase Street in South Easton were James, a milkman, and his wife, Harriet Coe Rankin, with their son, James H. Rankin, worker at home, and their daughter, Julia Lawrence Rankin, and a boarder, Sarah Wenstrom, a domestic servant. In 1880, James, and Harriet Coe Rankin owned a house valued at eight hundred dollars, a barn at eight hundred dollars, one hundred and twenty-six acres of land, a carriage, three horses, and eleven cows. In 1876, his herd of cows would have been larger had it not been that six cows were by a – steamboat train. – The railroad company did not maintain the fence separating the farm from the nearby railroad tracks. In 1886, the map of South Easton shows the parcel at 261 Purchase Street as noted with the name, – J. Rankin. – In 1889, the Easton Massachusetts City Directory listed James Rankin as a farmer and carpenter, residing on Purchase Street in South Easton. By 1891, James Rankin called the operation Glen Easton duck farm and it was known as Maplewood Farm by 1906. In 1900, owning and residing at 261 Purchase Street in South Easton were James, a farmer, and his wife, Harriet Coe Rankin. In 1895, the map of South Easton shows the parcel at 261 Purchase Street as noted with the name, – Jas. Rankin. – About 1908, James Rankin retired from farming and sold his duck breeding stock to Frank S. Keith of the Furnace Village, who had been breeding ducks by Rankin’s methods since the early 1890s. In 1908, James, and Harriet Coe Rankin sold the just under one hundred- and twenty-three-acre farm at 261 Purchase Street to Ezra R. Pratt. On December 13, 1914, James Rankin passed away in Easton at the age of eighty-three, with his burial in the South Easton Cemetery. In June of 1914, Frederick Lothrop Ames, II, residing at Stone House Hill House at 320 Washington Street purchased the farm at 261 Purchase Street. Frederick Lothrop Ames, II was the great-grandson of the founder of O. Ames in 1803, Oliver Ames. Frederick Lothrop Ames, II used the farm at 261 Purchase Street for his champion Clydesdales including Fairholme Footprint. Fairholme Footprint, foaled in 1912, was purchased by Ames for five thousand dollars. Fairholme Footprint was the champion at the International Livestock Exposition in 1916, 1918 and 1919. By 1914, Frederick Lothrop Ames, II had his own private landing strip, at 320 Washington Street, and plane by 1914. Fairholme Footprint stood stud at the farm until the passing of Frederick Lothrop Ames, II in 1921. In March of 1923, Frederick Lothrop Ames, II’s widow, Edith Callendar Cryder Ames and Old Colony Trust Company sold the farm at 261 Purchase Street, consisting of just over ninety-seven acres, to Producers’ Dairy Company of Brockton. Producers’ Dairy Company, was organized in Brockton in 1917, with the Plymouth County Trust Company, to encourage dairy farming among small farmers. At the beginning, eighty-eight farmers sold their milk to the company’s pasteurizing and delivery plant for an additional two cents per quart of milk in sales. By 1919, Producers’ Dairy was handling and processing seven thousand gallons of milk daily. By 1926, William N. Howard, a insurance man at 116 Main Street, was the President of the co-operative company, with two hundred stockholders and started making ice cream and processing pasteurized milk. By 1930, the property, known then as Maplewood Farm, owned land valued at eighty one hundred and fifty dollars, two houses at four thousand dollars and twelve hundred dollars, machinery at one thousand dollars, a barn at seven thousand dollars, a ice house, a manure shed, and a tool building. In 1951, the Rankin Farm at 261 Purchase Street was sold to Samuel Joseph, and Mary C. Lombardi residing on Phoenix Avenue in Cranston, Rhode Island.
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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James Rankin’s Letter to William L. Chaffin, author of History of Easton, 1886
In April of 1874, I bought a farm in Easton known as the Deacon Reed farm and moved in September of 1874. I found it very much run down, keeping with difficulty three or four cows and a horse. The buildings, both houses and barns, were in very bad condition. I repaired the house, built a new barn, and started in confidently. I had bought the place for its possibilities, it being a fine plot of loamy land, free from stone and sloping gently to the southeast. By utilizing all the fertilizers at my command with scrupulous care in composting them, also by the judicious application of ground bone, some three or four tons each year, with the component parts of potash and nitrogenous salts, the farm cut more than sixty tons of hay and easily kept twenty-five head of cattle with provender to spare. Before locating in Easton, I had been growing poultry on a large scale and found it by far the most profitable part of farm industry. I had also been experimenting somewhat with incubators and became convinced that, if the artificial system could be made a success, it would greatly enhance the profits of the business. In 1879, I constructed a machine with a hot water circulation and an automatic regulation, relying upon the expansive and contractive force of the water in the tank to regulate the beat in the egg chamber, -thus making the very principle which generated the superfluous heat provided for its own escape. The thing worked admirably, and I was enabled to discontinue the use of hens entirely for purposes of incubation. Others wished me to construct machines for them. The demand for them became so great that I eventually patented it, put it out in public competition with all other machines whenever opportunity offered, invariably winning by its meritorious work all honors and the first premiums over all the first-class machines in the country. The past winter, we employed some fifteen or sixteen hands in the manufacture of incubators and could hardly fill the orders we received. Based on his notion that the Pekin (white) duck cannot be depended upon as a reliable mother because her forays from the nest lowered the temperature of her eggs, in 1884, Rankin patented the Monarch incubator, which circulated hot water held in a galvanized iron tank between an inner galvanized iron case and an outer wooden case; the tank was insulated with an inch-thick layer of hair felting. The incubator hatched eggs more efficiently than the natural method, and it enabled a poultry farmer to hatch eggs at times when market demand was greatest. Rankin told a farm journal reporter in January of 1891; I am practically demonstrating the value of my machines to the public every season by hatching from 4000 to 5000 chicks and growing them for broilers. This is by far the most profitable part of my farm industry, as I grow chicks at a cost of from seven to eight cents per pound and realize from forty to fifty cents per pound live weight at the door. As some of these chicks weigh from five to six pounds each when sold, it is easy to see that there is a large margin of profit on each chick. I never hatch less than 90 per cent, and from that to 95 per cent, in my machines. They hatch chicks, ducks, turkeys, and geese equally well. As a natural consequence, the largest sales are to neighbors from adjoining towns and counties, who have seen these machines in actual operation.
source: History of Easton, William L. Chaffin, 1886
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Overview of Rankin’s Farm
In 1884, Rankin introduced the incubator at the Southern Massachusetts Poultry Association meeting in Taunton. It was there declared the wonder and admiration of all, hatching over 300 chicks, or ninety per cent, of the eggs carried, they are being taken from Easton in a trunk the day before hatching. He next exhibited the Monarch at the Waltham Fanciers’ Club, where the incubator won best approved incubator in actual operation. In February 1885 he displayed his invention at Madison Square Garden, where it won first premium by hatching more eggs than the 31 other incubators entered in the competition combined. In February of 1886, the Monarch won again at the same venue against more than one hundred competitors. In 1890, the – Rural New Yorker, – sent a correspondent to visit the South Easton farm, called it the largest duck farm in the United States. In his hatchery, which is an outdoor cellar or dugout as western people would call it, he has six large sized incubators and one small one. In the latter he keeps eggs which are used to fill up the spaces left in the large machines by the removing of the eggs that are found to be infertile, after a certain number of days. The capacity of one of the large machines is 600 hens’ eggs, or 425 ducks’ eggs. When the hatching season commences, which is as soon as eggs can be got, the business is so arranged as to get a setting of young ducklings every four days. These are taken to the brooder, a long building where the fledglings can cluster under artificial mothers and are kept warm by heat carried in pipes from the boiler at one end of the room. Here is the large kettle in which vegetables are cooked and the little bipeds are kept constantly growing on a diet of scraps and succulent vegetables and grains. A windmill pumps water that is carried in pipes to the different breeding stations. The ducks do not have water to swim in. Mr. Rankin stated that they are bred out of all desire to go into the water. When it was thought necessary to drive them to a brook nearby to wash them, a man had to stand over them to keep them from coming out of the water. If it were generally known that ducks did not require water to thrive, many people would find a profitable business in raising them. I noticed several things that made the raising of ducks preferable to the raising of chickens. They are not infested with lice. They grow very quickly. They can be yarded with great ease. When it was through best to change their grazing ground all that was needed was to enclose them with woven wire, held upright by sticks driven into the ground at proper intervals. Rye was sown to give them green food in winter. The duck yards were well set with plum trees, which the birds kept free from insects. In 1890, the farm journal – Poultry Keeper – stated that Rankin was hatching and raising about 10,000 ducks and chicks each year. It is a great advantage to have a machine that will hatch just when the hens are averse to setting, and at a season of the year when the chicks will grow to command the highest prices in the market,” the journal noted. “A machine that will do the work of fifty hens with but a tithe of the care and expense, and in a far more reliable manner, while the fifty hens can be broken up and used as egg-producers.” An April of 1891, article noted that Rankin at that writing had 500 breeding Pekin ducks. In 1890, I sold 5000 ducks between nine and twelve weeks old for 30 to 40 cents a pound, netting $5000. In 1904, Rankin was the father of the green, eight to ten-week-old, duck business in this country. Rankin’s and other incubators had transformed the enterprise from some six operations to duck farms by the score, not only in New England but on Long Island, by then the center of the industry. In his own book, – Natural and Artificial Duck Culture, – which went through at least six editions, Rankin explained his view of that growth: Until within a few years, people did not suppose that ducks were fit to eat. But now the public appetite is fast becoming educated to the fact that a nice, crispy, roasted duckling of ten weeks old is not only a dish fit for an epicure, but is far ahead of either turkey, chicken or goose. As a natural consequence, the demand for good ducks is rapidly increasing. One of the principal poultry dealers in Boston assures me that his sale of ducks had nearly doubled in five years. Twenty years ago, when growing less than 1,500 ducks yearly, I was obliged to visit the city markets personally and tease to dealers to purchase my birds in order to secure anything like satisfactory prices. Now, with a ranch capacity of nearly 20,000 ducks yearly, I cannot not fill my orders. According to the – American Poultry Journal, – Rankin was a hard worker and an ardent gardener and practical farmer, as well as poultryman. We recall that on one of our visits we interviewed him while he was hoeing asparagus. By 1891, Rankin called the operation Glen Easton duck farm, but by 1906 it was known as Maplewood Farm. He also built the Monarch incubator. For many years, James Rankin and his incubators, with hundreds of newly hatched chicks and ducklings fairly popping out of their shells in his machines, were among the foremost attractions at the leading big poultry shows. Rankin’s obituary in the – American Poultry Journal – stated. “Old timers will recall how he used to draw, entertain and instruct the crowds and bring new converts into the field of artificial incubation.” By 1906, when he had stopped manufacturing the Monarch incubator, Rankin was using in the two incubator cellars on his own farm 19 Monarchs, each able to hold 600 eggs, and another two that each could hatch 300 eggs. Later, he was raising from 25,000 to 30,000 ducks a year. Rankin’s breeding houses were divided into pens, each pen 12 by 20 feet and designed to hold up to 25 ducks at a ratio of five ducks to one drake. The ducks had an outdoor yard of 20 by 100 feet with a water trough in the middle for drinking. Rankin employed six men at Maplewood Farm. In 1905, he had sold most of his birds on the Boston market at 30 cents a pound. In 1905 and 1907, Rankin advertised in the – Boston Herald – for a married man and wife to board six to eight men with the promise of good wages and a permanent position.
source: Easton Historical Society
source; Massachusetts Historical Commission
source: History of Easton, William L. Chaffin, 1886
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Early School Days in Eastondale, Edwin H. White, 1950s
The following is part of a paper that Edwin H. White presented to the Easton Historical Society in the 1950s.
In 1818, Asa Howard sold land for a school house at the intersection of Turnpike and Washington Streets, upon which a school house was built. In 1869, the building was moved near what is now Joseph Dardeno’s House at 390 Turnpike Street. (1950s) This was where my father attended school. Also in 1869, a second building was erected on this site. It has recently been torn down, but it was a sore spot to our neighborhood for several years. It was set afire several times, but true to their duty, our firefighters saved a part of the building each time. I understand that during the last fire, the State Inspector appeared while it was still burning and ordered the firemen to extinguish the fire. This was the building in which I first attended school at the age of six. The following are the names of the teachers in their order while I attended school in this building: Miss Henrietta Gilmore, William Springer. Miss Cathell, Miss Jessie Bird and Miss Mary Young. The janitor was one of the older boys, and it became my job for two years, from 1882 to 1884. I had to be there early in the morning to sweep the floor three times a week, start the fire, and heat the school room where the pupils were taught, some of them walking a mile from either direction. There were no buses to carry us and our ears and toes many days seemed frozen even though we were dressed warmly with heavy woolen or red flannel underclothing, woolen stockings, and scarves or tippets as they were called, all of which our mothers had knitted in the long hours of the evening. I also had to fill the wooden pails with fresh water every morning, one for the girls ante room and one for the boys. These pails of water were kept on a shelf over an old iron sink, and a single long handled dipper hung on a nail nearby. I often wonder where the germs were in those days that two dippers were sufficient for all the children. There was no well on the school grounds, and I had to go a distance to a neighbor’s old well sweep to fill the pails and return them to their proper place. Sometimes I had to fill the pails more than once if the children were unusually thirsty. However, the last year I was there, the Town dug a well on the school, and installed a cucumber pump, which made the job easier. For fear some of you may not know about a cucumber pump, it was a six inch square box. extending down into the well and about five feet above the well. A long handle attached allowed long strokes for pumping the water. The schoolhouse was heated by a big oblong wood burning stove in the cellar. This stove, for safety from fire, was built upon a stone foundation and the upper part was enclosed with brick up to the floor and to the register which was in the front of the school room. The smoke pipe came up through the register to the the of room and extended the length of the room to a chimney in the north end of the building suspended by wires attached to the ceiling. Many a one and one-half foot log have I put into that stove. I received twenty-six dollars and fifty cents a for the school year. That was enough for a suit of clothes, a hat, and a ticket for Dickerman’s Sunday School Excursion during summer vacation, a big annual event in those days. The building was about thirty by forty feet. Doors on each side, one for the girls and one for the boys, opened into entries where our outer wraps were left. These entries opened into a vestibule and here the register was located. This vestibule could be separated from the classroom by two sliding gates which could be locked when occasion required. The classroom itself was occupied by four rows of double desks, not open tops. Two pupils sat at each desk. Boys were on one side of the room and the girls on the other, but notes could get across the line sometimes. Long seats were built on both sides of the room, and these seats were used for recitation purposes. As classes were called by the teacher, the pupils left their seats and went in order to these long seats. Then, as called upon, each pupil would rise and recite. The hours were from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., and I p.m. to 4 p.m., with fifteen minutes recess both morning and afternoon. On pleasant days, we were allowed to play in the rear. All grades were taught in this school, from the ABC’s to the fourth and fifth readers. Some of these books I have in my home. One is marked, Entered according to Act of Congress 1871. For the writing period, we were supplied with a lined blank book. Each page had a sample of writing at the top, and our lesson was to copy it. One day, hands were raised frantically. Teacher, there is something the matter with the ink. It was the janitor’s responsibility to keep the ink wells filled, and the teacher looked to him for an explanation, but he was as puzzled as the other children. The teacher boarded on Purchase Street at the home of Mr. Rankin who was on the school committee. He supplied the ink for this school, and after hearing the teacher’s story, he went to his cellar where the ink was stored, and found he had made a mistake and sent a bottle of boiled cider in place of the bottle of ink. The poor janitor had poured the cider in the ink wells, and as you can readily guess, the cider and the ink already in the ink wells did not mix well. And now about discipline. I do not remember that there were any very bad boys. Of course we had our fights and disagreements. A skunk sometimes found his way into the cellar and the school had to be closed. I would not care to tell you if the skunk got in there alone or if was aided by cellar windows being left open. I should like to speak again about the stove. As I think of it now, it was an interesting arrangement. The doors in front of the stove were lifted by chains. A tiny hole no larger than a screw hole was discovered, or made, in the floor near the desk of one of the boys, who attached a cord from this spot through the floor to the cellar, and far enough across to be attached to the outer housing doors, which were made of steel and had two handles. This boy could be studying apparently, and one of the most studious, when by pulling the rope under his desk, the doors which were hung on chains would drop down with a bang, and this noise would startle the teacher and children. She said, Janitor, I fear you did not close the stove doors properly. Please attend to it. But just as the janitor returned, the same thing happened again. But now the teacher caught glances from various parts of the room. This led her to the culprit and the rope. This school building was used until the new brick building of two rooms was erected on Pine Street and dedicated June, 1930. A third room-was later added. In our Eastondale building, we especially liked to watch the cattle being driven through the street, and the shepherd dog that accompanied the driver and helped to keep the drove in order. If they were going by at recess time, we forgot school and went along to help, only to return and find ourselves late. It was a common sight in those days to see cattle driven through the streets. They were being driven from the Brighton cattle mart and delivered to the respective buyers. In closing, I have a tale of how I was teased by some of the boys in the school. I took a pair of shoes one morning to the cobbler just below the school. They were to be retapped. Today we say resoled. That afternoon, the cobbler was seen trudging by with a side of sole leather on his back. A side was probably enough to sole twenty-five or thirty pairs of shoes. The boys said he had to get all that leather for my shoes. They really did razz me considerably as to the amount of leather required for my shoes.
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Edwin C. White, following in the tradition of his grandfather and father, was President of Simpson Spring Company in 1967 until his retirement in 1988. For decades, Ed and his wife Evelyn (Lyn) lived in the second oldest house in Easton, the Benjamin Williams home at 539 Bay Road, which they totally restored. Ed and Lyn have been extremely active in the Easton community. Ed was the first president of the restored Easton Historical Society (1967-69), and facilitated many Antique Auto Meets at the Station. He was also the first Ames Free Library president to come from outside the Ames family, and was a trustee of the North Easton Savings Bank for 46 years, retiring as Chairman of the Board in 20I0. Lyn was one of the major spokespeople for saving Wheaton Farm, and provided the leadership for the creation of the Natural Resources Trust of Easton. (See History of Easton, Massachusetts: Volume Two, page 271.) She was also Executive Director of the Neponset River Watershed Association. Both Ed and Lyn have been active in Unity Church for many years. In 2001, the Lions Club presented the Whites the Outstanding Service Award, the highest award given. In addition, several years ago the Natural Resources Trust of Easton dedicated a bench on the foundation of the mansion of – Sheep Pasture – to Lyn and Ed White –Stewards of the Land.
source: Reminiscences, Early School Days in Eastondale, Edwin H. White, 1950s, Easton Historical Society
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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 have 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, 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.. Many South Easton residents were also active members of the Harmony Grange on Bay Road in Furnace Village.
source, History of Easton, Massachusetts, Vol. II, M. McEntee, Easton Historical Society, ET AL, 1886-1974
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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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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Purchase Street
Purchase Street, Prospect Street, and Bay Road were laid out between 1697 and 1699, before the Incorporation of the Town of Easton in 1725. The first settlers arrived in 1694. Purchase Street begins on the West Bridgewater line near Edwin T. Coward’s, passes James Rankin’s and Lucius Howard’s, and ends on Depot Street, east of the Orthodox church. The easterly portion of it before its alteration was very old. It crossed the swamp west of Washington Street, on a ridge north of the present road, and so extended easterly towards W. C. Howard’s. It also went on the south of the Littlefield house towards Cranberry Meadow, this part being laid out as the old Leonard papers at Taunton show in 1699. The part east of there was laid out in 1703. In March, 1763, that section of the road which runs past Lucius Howard’s was voted on but it extended farther north than now, in order to reach the old road to the meeting-house at the Centre. This old road was discontinued in 1801. The new one, from just north of Lucius Howard’s to the church and past Clapp’s crossing was accepted, this being now an extension of Purchase Street. In 1810, quite an alteration was made in this road east of Mr, Rankin’s place.
source: Easton Historical Society
