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 […]
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 […]
When he was born under the watchful eye of Leland Stanford, he was named Arion, a reference to an immortal horse in Greek mythology that was very fast and bred by the gods. And so young Arion grew up to fit his name. Born in 1889 in Palo Alto, California, Arion was the new American […]
At the ripe age of 57, James Shaller looked out across his farm and gave pause. He was at a point in his life where he had attained considerable wealth, land holdings and a farm that was the envy of many of his neighbors in Canton. His house was comfortable and the woman’s touches that […]
By now the story has been well told. In August 2008, the Canton Historical Commission invoked the demolition delay process as a last-ditch effort to raise public awareness in the face of the loss of the Revere & Son Rolling Mill and Joseph Warren Revere Barn. That was the moment that preservation kicked in. The […]
Along a path inside the gate of the Canton Corner Cemetery, quite near the First Parish Church, there is a tall slate headstone. The stone was set in 1852 and the inscription reads, “In memory of Mrs. Mary, wife of Seymour Burr, a Revolutionary pensioner. She died in Canton, November 1, 1852, aged 101 years, […]
The following is the latest installment of True Tales from Canton’s Past by local historian George T. Comeau. Joseph Warren Revere walked across the dusty path that led from his house to the nearby bell foundry. A pair of drowsy-eyed oxen waited, hitched to a heavy oak cart. It was a delivery day and a […]
This column has always endeavored to discover stories that have their roots in Canton and are historically connecting us through time. In this author’s youth, there were always great stories told within the four walls of the Canton Historical Society. Some of the stories were so fantastical that one would often question the veracity of […]
