Stoughton in the 20th Century

By David Allen Lambert and Brenda Lea Lambert

The town of Stoughton has seen many changes since its incorporation in 1726. Stoughton families and fortunes were transformed in the mid-19th century as they prospered from the production of shoes, boots, wooden shoe lasts, and rubber goods. Farming dwindled, and industry was in full swing by the opening decades of the 20th century. Immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Portugal, and the Azores changed the cultural community as they started their own businesses and became a driving part of the workforce. The town also saw its share of tragedy, mourning the loss of resident George Quincy Clifford, who perished on the RMS Titanic, and sending its residents from the farms and the factories to World Wars I and II. Stoughton would celebrate its bicentennial in 1926 as a community united in building a better town, a vision still carried out by residents today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Feb 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9781439649701

David Allen Lambert

David Allen Lambert and Brenda Lea Lambert are a father-daughter author team and lifelong Stoughton residents. David, the town historian, has served as vice president of the Stoughton Historical Society and is currently the chief genealogist for the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Brenda is a recent graduate from Stoughton High School who shares a passion for the rich history of the town of Stoughton with her father.

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Lambert

INTRODUCTION

Stoughton was nearly 200 years old at the dawn of the 20th century. The boundaries had changed in the 18th century with the creation of the towns of Sharon (formerly Stoughtonham) and Canton. Transformation occurred again in 1888, when the section known as East Stoughton was incorporated into the town of Avon, Massachusetts. Stoughton, which started the 19th century as an agricultural community, had transformed itself into a booming factory town. Stoughton created shoes, boots, garments, rubber-fabricated goods, shoe lasts, and other items that were sent on the rail lines to Boston and beyond. Fortunes of old farming families were transformed, and the flow of immigrant labor to help make the shops and factories in Stoughton successful continued well into the 20th century. The trolley lines and busy storefronts in Stoughton Square are different now than a century ago. Trolleys have been replaced with the traffic of automobiles and buses. Stoughton commuters still take the trains daily into Boston under the shadow of the granite clock tower at a train station hand-constructed a century before.

Sermons of one church in the beginning of the 19th century were transformed to that of many faiths and languages, creating a diversified Stoughton in the 20th century. From the sound of a marching band, to the introduction of silent movies at a Stoughton theater, to renting movies on DVD from a local video store, entertainment came to Stoughton residents over the years. A home-cooked meal was often supplemented with takeout food from Stoughton Town Spa and other establishments by mid-century. The buzz of an airplane overhead would make one stop and look, and a camera over the plane’s wing would catch a glimpse of an expanding Stoughton. The town knew what personal loss meant when the Titanic sank in 1912, taking the life of local businessman George Quincy Clifford. One of the community’s residents, Nicola Sacco, would be forever remembered throughout the world for his involvement in one of the most controversial trials and executions in America. This community heard the news of war and answered the call. Many young men and woman of Stoughton were mustered to arms in two world wars, as well as to the battlefields of Korea, Vietnam, and other places. Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, Stoughton has remained a close and united community. The history of Stoughton in the 20th century could be written in hundreds upon hundreds of pages. The names and faces of this community each tell a remarkable story of personal history, and these in turn become the overall history of Stoughton.

My first Stoughton history book, Beyond the Blew-Hills, was written by the late Stoughton historian John E. Flynn. In the chapter The Years Beyond, my late friend Ed Meserve relates the following, which I think is a fitting way to close this introduction:

History does not end with the closing of a book, for as long as the sun rises the world will continue to change and history will be made. Sometimes we do not see history when it occurs but merely as events of passing interest. But news today whether it be of local or world interest becomes history tomorrow.

Your own chapter of Stoughton history is that which historians of the future will seek to explain in the 21st century. We live in an age of e-mails, text messages, and cell phones. With these same phones, we snap photographs and post them to social media, or take hundreds of photographs with digital cameras. Have you stopped to think how many important e-mails you have printed out? Or how many digital photographs you have actually printed? What time capsule are we leaving historians and genealogists of the 22nd century?

I encourage the reader to collect his or her own Stoughton photographs and stories and share them with family. Remember to donate copies or originals to the Stoughton Historical Society, to help it preserve the worthwhile past for future generations.

One

STOUGHTON BUILDINGS

These familiar state signs are located on the borders of every community in Massachusetts. The town of Stoughton, incorporated in 1726, was once larger in size. Stoughton became the parent of the towns of Sharon (formerly Stoughtonham), Canton, and Avon.

Stoughton Town Hall, at Pearl and Porter Streets, was dedicated on November 22, 1881. Over 130 years later, this structure is still utilized as a town hall. It was designed by architectural firm Joseph W. Coburn & Co. of Boston. Besides housing town offices, it was the home of the Stoughton Public Library until 1904, the Stoughton Fire Department until 1927, and the Stoughton Police Department