On a snowy December morning in 1784, a few days shy of Christmas, Naomi Downes labored as her husband, Jesse, waited outside for the news of the birth of their child. Naomi pushed and during her last contraction, she uttered to her midwife, “I am ready.” The Downes were not wealthy, and the small house […]
On a very hot July morning, Johnny Jorgensen gets up early and fills the back of his Chevy S10 pickup truck with pails, scrub brushes, and a large plastic pump bottle filled with water. Heading up Washington Street toward Ponkapoag, Jorgy, as everyone around town knows him, realizes that he has probably been in every […]
She probably wrote dozens if not tens of dozens of letters to her husband throughout the war. Her florid handwriting curves beautifully, with an assured hand of a well educated woman. The beginning of the end was in sight, the winds of the War of the Rebellion had shifted, and as Caroline Tucker McKendry writes to her husband, her pain and suffering burns through the paper. William McKendry Jr. was born in Canton in 1825 on the farm that had been in the family since the first settlement of Dorchester.
Editor’s note: The following is the second in a two-part series on WWI hero Helen Homans. Click here to read part one. On her coffin is engraved “MORTE POUR LA FRANCE.” Her medical colleagues had fought to keep her alive, and she herself had struggled valiantly. In the end, it was said, “She had given […]
In a town where modern history extends back over 300 years, there are plenty examples of colonial architecture. But perhaps the most famous colonial revival building in Canton is largely hidden and destroyed by progress.
Editor’s note: The following is the first in a two-part series on WWI hero Helen Homans. Click here to read part two. On July 4, 1926, a small parade formed at the corner of Neponset and Washington streets. The men of the Edward J. Beatty Post gathered to march to Canton High School in order to […]
They came in droves to hear their neighbor speak. Packed into the parish hall that February night, young and old sat shoulder to shoulder as Henry Helm Clayton walked to the front of the room. Wearing simple gold-rimmed glasses and a winning smile, Clayton began describing “How It Feels to Fly.” Clayton spoke softly: “We […]
On March 3, 1913, the annual town meeting voted down an article that would have authorized the Board of Health to appoint an inspector of milk. Fifty-five days later, the Canton milk epidemic struck. One hundred years ago the town of Canton looked very different than it does today. There was certainly a sense of […]
Over 900 men and women came to Canton two weeks ago to see a rare display of one of our country’s greatest handmade treasures. This particular piece of handcraft has been a part of Canton’s history for over 225 years. Martha Crafts was very particular, and most especially in her needlework. The second child of […]
As Captain Harold Winslow sat at his kitchen table, his boyhood home of Canton seemed so far away. It had been more than 25 years since he had been in his parent’s home on High Street.
