In a span of merely 20 years, Canton went from one of the busiest industrial communities in the commonwealth to a shuttered factory town. A small blurb in the Boston Globe in 1907 ran under the headline: “Will Be a Blow to Canton.” It was the passing of an industry, an obituary for a way […]
The following is the second in a two-part series. Part one appeared in the February 11 edition of the Citizen. The book is thick and heavy with a leather cover, gilded pages and a brass clasp. From a distance it is imposing, and up close it instantly bears the weight of history. Embossed on the […]
When big things happen in a small town the news can rush like wildfire. Tongues wag fast and the allure of a big crime story can be fodder for the newspapers for weeks. In the summer of 1906, big news literally exploded in Ponkapoag in what can only be described as a brazen robbery that […]
There are old virtues that still ring true today. The value of integrity, economy and perseverance. Are these subjects that come up in the course of discussion in modern-day families? Many readers will look upon their lives and find that they are wealthy, and the question is whether they choose to use their wealth for […]
“Americans are not a narrow tribe,” wrote Herman Melville. “Our blood is as the flood of the Amazon, made up of a thousand noble currents all pouring into one.” We are a nation of immigrants and throughout Canton’s history there have been countless stories that share the tale of coming to America. There is a […]
Is it nostalgia or aging that brings us back to our childhood as we move through the later years of our life? There are these flashbacks to my youth that fire like an electrical synapse in my brain. I have these gauzy images of the large apple tree in our side yard and my great-grandmother […]
The following is an excerpt from “Forgotten Tragedy,” the latest installment of True Tales from Canton’s Past by local historian George T. Comeau. *** As Ida Chippendale locked the door to her apartment at Windsor Gardens in Norwood, she tucked the umbrella under her arm and walked through the light mist to her new Thunderbird. […]
The opening salvo was fired by a local attorney on a Monday morning in May 2008. With the filing of a handful of requests, the attorney, at the direction of his client, was seeking approval for the demolition of the Revere & Son Rolling Mill and the barn built by Joseph Warren Revere that sat […]
The USS Potomac embodied the spirit of a growing nation. The warship was built to establish a naval presence that would span the globe. And her first commander was a Canton-born man by the name of John Downes. As the commander over more than 500 men, a great weight was on the shoulders of this […]
Lemuel Fisher and Benjamin Wentworth had both served in the Revolution together. So it’s fair to say that like all veterans, they shared a common bond. After the war they both returned to Stoughton in that part which is now Canton and began to work the plow and the woodlots. In the spring of 1789 […]
