The small box looks like a miniature treasure chest. A skin of brittle leather covers the box, which is appointed by brass tacks. The original handmade lock is wrought from a blacksmith’s forge, and the entire box has an air of secrecy. Inside is a small glass photo trimmed in copper foil. This box was […]
In this two-part installment of True Tales from Canton’s Past, local historian George T. Comeau recounts the February 1895 murder of John Fleming, a young man of just 18 who was fatally shot in a downtown Canton shop. The series was originally published in the Citizen in early 2020 and was reprinted over the past […]
On a bright Friday afternoon on May 19, 1922, Atherton Dunbar returned to his laboratory in the basement of the Jefferson Physical Laboratory at Harvard University. It was just after lunch, and the budding scientist was working on a very important project in the cryogenic engineering lab that was both of military and industrial importance. […]
For some of our readers this week, you are reading the Canton Citizen for the first time. This issue is in your hands illustrating the breadth and width of town news, events, and culture. Subscribers will be pleased to know that this is the 245th installment of True Tales from Canton’s Past. And for our […]
This story originally appeared in the Canton Citizen on March 30, 2017 and was reprinted this week. The weather in the Bahamas is quite beautiful this time of year, and for the members of the Skycombers Flying Club it would be a perfect way to spend a weekend away after a tough New England winter. […]
This story was originally published on February 8, 2018 and was reprinted in the most recent edition of the Canton Citizen. As the moon rose over Canton on a cold January night in 1887, the distant sounds of laughter echoed across Forge Pond. It was a night for sleighing and late into the night the […]
The full version of this story appears in the November 23 print edition of the Canton Citizen. The message was not unexpected. It was a text that read, simply, “George, call me. This is Wally Gibbs’ daughter.” I knew a text at 6:15 on a Sunday morning was not the harbinger of good news. And […]
It passed without any notice. February 23, 2022 — two hundred and twenty five years to the day that Governor Samuel Adams put pen to paper and signed the act that separated what is now our town from the mother town of Stoughton — came and went without fanfare or even so much as a […]
As the winter sun rose over Canton on February 8, 1849, Reverend Benjamin Huntoon took note that the temperature was six degrees. Turning to his son, Marcellus, he quipped, “Soon you will be basking in the sun with a fortune awaiting.” Already packed, under the watchful eye of his father, young Marcellus, not yet 23, […]
Jim Roache is a good father, but like all dads he has an arsenal of stories and “dad” jokes. Often times when he is with his daughter Kaitlin, they will drive up the hill in Ponkapoag and when approaching the Route 128 cloverleaf, Jim will turn to his daughter and point toward the highway interchange […]
