Boat shop interior, no date

 

This photograph just turned up in a recent donation to the Local History Room.  It has no date, no place, nothing beyond the image itself.  Context and best guesses, however, suggest that it dates to the late 19th century and shows the interior of one of the small boatyards on the Jones River.  Further, the vessel under construction very likely belonged to a member of the Holmes family.  More research may turn up additional information.  In the meantime, enjoy the unusual view.

 

 

Martin Parris, no date

Who was Martin Parris?

One of Kingston’s first school teachers, Martin Parris was born in Pembroke in 1766.  He attended Brown University; in May 1794 the Kingston Selectmen hired him to teach school at an annual salary of seventy pounds.  That same year, he married Kingston native Julia Drew; they would eventually have three sons, all of whom predeceased them.  Parris taught in Kingston for about eight years, then continued teaching in Plymouth for several more.

In 1817, he was ordained as a minister of the First Congregational Church of Marshfield.  Though noted as an excellent teacher of good character, he appears to have been less successful in his second career, perhaps in part due to the deaths of two of his sons during his Marshfield tenure.  Parris retired in 1838 and returned to Kingston, where on November 15, 1839, he died of “old age and hiccoughs.” *

In 1792, he was inoculated against smallpox.

Certificate of 'inoculation' of Martin Parris by Ephraim Wales, 1792

Braintree Oct.r 9th 1792
This certifies that Mr. Martin Parris, having received the Small-Pox at my hospital, is properly cleansed from the infection, and has paid the customary fees for inoculation, board and attendance.
Ephraim Wales

And who was Ephraim Wales?

Born on May 9, 1746, in the South Precinct of Braintree (later Randolph ), Ephraim Wales was “an eminent and successful doctor.” After graduating from Harvard College in 1768, he studied with Dr. Amos Putnam of Danvers, then returned to South Braintree to establish his medical practice.  He opened a smallpox hospital across South Main Street from his home, where in 1777 he inoculated Continental Army soldiers after General George Washington ordered all troops and recruits who had not had the disease to undergo the treatment.

A year earlier, the disease had struck the Army severely, part of an epidemic that affected the new country between 1775 and 1782 and killed an estimated 125,000 people. Though the first inoculations in North America dated to 1721, town residents opposed Wales’ hospital.  The disease had a frightening mortality rate and inoculation, also called variolation or insufflation, meant purposeful infection with a milder form of the disease to create immunity. A true vaccine would not be developed until 1796.

In 1793, Dr. Wales served on the committee that formed the town of Randolph from the South Precinct, and as the first town moderator. He also taught a number of  He died April 7, 1805.

 

Sources:

* Vital Records of Kingston Massachusetts to the Year 1850. (1911)

In the Pilgrim Way: History of the First Congregational Church, Marshfield, MA. by Linda Ramsey Ashley (2001)

“Old house isn’t as historic as was thought” by Fred Hanson. The Patriot Ledger, May 2, 2005

Contributions to the Annals of Medical Progress and Medical Education in the United States Before and During the War of Independence by Joseph Meredith Toner (1874; reprinted 1970)

Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts. Edited by William Richard Cutter and William Frederick Adams (191 0)

Whale beached at Ah-de-nah, October 20, 1948. By Ethel Packard.

In the 1948 Annual Report of the Town of Kingston, the Board of Health reported:

On October 20th, 1943, a fin-back whale came ashore north of the town pier [today's town landing] at the foot of River Street. Measuring 42 ft. in length and weighing approximately 30 tons, this would ordinarily have been a human interest story, but it developed into a Board of Health problem when this Board was forced to dispose of the mammal.  Our Highway Department with the assistance of power machinery, loaded the whale on a heavy-duty platform trailer and carried it to the Town Dump where it was suitably buried.

After the dump closed a few years later, the Kingston Drive-In was built on the site.  Today this location is occupied by Summerhill Plaza, so yes, indeed, there is a whale buried under the Stop-n-Shop!

Whale beached at Ah-de-nah, October 20, 1948. By Ethel Packard.

A beautiful cabinet card recently came into the Local History Room, part of a larger collection. While the contrast in the original is a little faded (and has been adjusted in this scan), the image is otherwise perfect, and the subject — harvesting the cranberry crop — could not be more timely.

Cranberry harvest, possible around 1900

This close-up shows men, women and children at work, dressed more formally than we might expect for such manual labor.

Detail of cranberry harvest, possibly around 1900

But where is this bog?  It could be almost anywhere: the blank back of the cabinet card yields no clues.  A little sleuthing through the photograph collections however, turns up a second copy, much more worn but bearing a typed caption that tells us that this is indeed a Kingston location.

Keith & Adams Cranberry Bog, Kingston, Mass. possibly around 1900

A family of "Pilgrims," no date

This week’s study in incongruity comes from the Ruth Forbes Chandler papers.  The finding aid for the collection gives the following biographical snippets:

Author of a number of books and short stories for children.  Teacher and principal in the New Bedford school system.  Moved to Kingston in the 1950s. Lived at at 228 Main Street. Communicant of the Kingston First Parish Church, member and secretary of the Jones River Village Club, and a Friend of the Library.

What it does not tell us is the identities of the these latter-day First Comers, where they were headed, and perhaps most interestingly, what kind of cars did Pilgrims drive?

Update: It’s got to be a Plymouth, right?

The Local History Room started some time ago, and while the exact date may never be known, the point of initiation is clear: a box of memorabilia carefully kept somewhere in the Frederic C. Adams Library.

Frederic C. Adams Library, no date

At some point during her tenure, which stretched from the Library’s founding in 1898 to her retirement in 1936, Jennie F. McLauthlen “1st Librarian” wrote this undated note

It has been my object to slip into this box anything which may promise to be of local interest in the years to come.  After a generation or two, a picture of the life of Kingston in these days as shown by this varied and heterogeneous collection may prove of value as well as of interest.  At times it may look like a collection of trash, but I trust that my successors may consent to give it house room and perhaps add to it samples of their history.

And consent we do! Thank you Jennie, for saving us from the trash.

Jennie McLauthlen (at right) and friends, no date. Photograph by Emily Drew.

To the despair of children everywhere (and likely to the joy of their parents), it is that time of year when the school year starts anew.

Here are Elspeth Hardy’s first graders at the Center Primary school on Green Street, now called the Faunce School.  Mrs. Hardy taught generations of Kingston children in a career that spanned several schools and more than fifty years.

Mrs. Hardy's first grade class at the Center Primary School, 1915

The text on the chalkboard tells us that “the body is the temple of the soul,” a lesson for all time perhaps.

Or, as Johnny Cash might sing, “I got livestock, I got livestock.”

Walter Faunce and his double yoke on Wapping Road, no date.

"Patrons of Husbandry" parade float, 1919.

Michael McGrath and his team at the Bailey Playground, 1925.

Horatio Adams' oxen, no date.

Eugene Malone with Joseph Holmes' team on Summer Street, 1900.

Published in 1899 by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Topographical Survey Commission, The Atlas of the Boundaries of the Town of Kingston describes the 18 corners marking the town limits and the seven “triangulation stations” used to locate the corners. The Atlas includes the statutes that formally defined the boundaries, textual descriptions, a scale map of the town along with details of each corner, two tables of geographical data and nicely captioned photographs.

The witness stone at corner 17, near Kingston Bay, 1899

Among the readily identifiable landmarks, such as Monk’s Hill, the Kingston Unitarian Church and the Standish Monument, is one known to many but now gone: Nick’s Rocks.

In the 1920’s Emily Drew wrote

Nick’s Rock on the line between the towns of Plymouth and Kingston, not far from Monk’s Hill is one of three rocks in Kingston which “testify” to the visits of the Devil as imprints of his feet and hooves prove “conclusively” that such visits were really made. The other two rocks are both called Devil’s Rock. One lies near Bay Farm and the other in the brick-kiln pasture near C. Drew and Company on Stony Brook.

Nick’s Rock was also used as a boundary marker for the town line between Plymouth and Kingston. Originally the rock marked the way for Nick’s Rock Road, which was the main road from the early Plymouth settlement. The road branched at the rock with one direction heading towards Plympton and the other towards the Flaxing Place at Smelt Pond.

Nick's Rock, 1899

The 1899 Atlas locate Nicks’ Rock on the line between corners 17 and 18, at latitude 41 57 35.95 and longitude 70 42 59.64,  and describes the landmark as

situated in the boundary line between Kingston and Plymouth, in a thick growth of low scrub oaks, with scattering yellow pines, about 75 feet west of a wood-road.  It is a well know point being marked by a rock about 10 feet high and measuring 12 x 15 feet on the top, which slopes to the southwest.  A good view is obtained for miles to the south and west.

The witness stone at corner 18, 1899

Nick’s Rock is gone now, though a marker in the median strip of the new Route 44 just west of the Cherry Street overpass commemorates this bygone stone.

Earlier this week the Patriot-Ledger asked “Have you had a penny lick, a hokey pokey or a toot today?” The paper went on to explain that before cones became the preferred holder, ice cream was eaten from a small glass (a penny lick), wrapped in a bit of paper (a hokey pokey) or scooped into a cup (a toot). Ice cream has been around awhile, but how long exactly?

Before mechanical refrigeration, ice cream and its well-chilled relatives depended on snow and ice either transported from colder areas or packed away during previous winters. It is unclear where or when ice cream was invented but the historical record shows that ancient cultures around the world — Egypt and Persia, Greece and Rome, India and China — all enjoyed sweet iced treats, though the expense generally limited the dish to the wealthiest elites.

In the 19th century, however, two American developments would democratize ice cream. First, in 1805 Boston businessman Frederick Tudor opened the first large scale commercial harvesting business, shipping New England ice as far away as the West Indies and around the country throughout the year. Then in 1843, Nancy Johnson of Philadelphia patented the hand-cranked ice cream freezer. By the later years of the 19th century, the combination meant everyone could enjoy an ice cream party.

An outdoor ice cream party, no date.

In Kingston, ice cream could be bought in stores, restaurants. In the 1940s, Jordan’s Pharmacy on Summer Street in Kingston Center had a soda fountain, where school teams were known to stop in after practices at the Bailey Playground or the Reed Community Building.

Flora Kite scoops ice cream at Jordan's, around 1940. By Ted Avery.

Located on Main Street in the building that now houses the Charlie Horse restaurant, Dutchland Farms was known for its ice cream treats in the 1930s. By the 1940s, the building housed Leland’s Restaurant but ice cream remained on the menu.

Staff outside Dutchland Farms, around 1935

Today, we are spoiled with the easy availability and many flavors of ice cream. It is still a favorite warm weather treat.