Civil War Author to Speak at Canton Public Library Tonight

Author Stephen Puleo will speaking on his book about the Civil War as part of joint presentation between the Canton and Stoughton Historical Societies at the Canton Public Library

  The Stoughton and Canton Historical Societes are joining together Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. at the Canton Public Library for a lecture on the Civil War.  Author Stephen Puleo will take about on his recent book, The Caning: The Assault Which Drove America to Civil War. The attack on Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts is featured in the book. His desk is on display at Stoughton Historical Society, 6 Park St. Joe DeVito of the Stoughton Historical Society has been researching who owned the desk before Senator Sumner.  For more information on the talk go to Stoughton Patch. 

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The Canton High School Alumni Directory 2012

The Canton High School Alumni Directory has been five years in the works.

  The Canton High School Alumni Directory was first established in 2007. Now the second edition, five years in the works which includes students from years 1869 - 2012 is available and will be presented on Wednesday, Dec. 12 to the principal of Canton High School by The Canton High School Alumni Association. The Alumni Association meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 1:00 p.m. at the Rodman Center, second floor. Their goals are to build a strong support group, establish a history and to raise funds for Canton High School and their students. Further ceremonies will take place on Sunday, Dec. 16 at the Canton Historical Society on Washington Street and at the Canton Public Library on Monday, Dec. 17. The information for the …

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The Canton Historical Society

Celebrated with friends, laughter and a great barbecue!

The Canton Historical Society preserves the history of Canton and is a non-profit research organization which holds rare artifacts which are unique to the Town of Canton's history. The society recently had a barbecue which raised money for textile preservation. The Board of Directors meets the first Saturday of every month and the Canton Historical Society is open to the public the 2nd Sunday of every month. The members are volunteers and are encouraging new members to join. Among the treasures that curators work to preserve are local papers dating back a hundred years, historic documents, artifacts, photographs and lithographs of historical people and landmarks that have shaped the town's and the country's history.

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Patch Passport

Travel Back in Time: Paul Revere's Copper Mill

Travel back in time with the Wednesday Patch Passport to discover the history of Canton. Take a look at one of the many historical sites in town.

American Revolutionary hero Paul Revere is probably best known for his "Midnight Ride," in April 1775, during which he rode through several towns in Middlesex county–just northwest of Boston–on horseback, warning American patriots, "The British are coming! The British are coming!" Now what Revere actually said during that fateful ride before the battles of Lexington and Concord has been subject to debate. But one thing about Revere that is indisputable: Canton is full of Revere history. "Revere was very fond of Canton and very fond of the people here," local historian, George T. Comeau, who is also a curator for the Canton Historical Society, said. Born and raised in Canton, Comeau said he has been fascinated with Revere since grade school…

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Canton Revealed: The History Patch

If Canton Walls Could Talk

A profile of a local historian who discovered history in his own home.

If walls could only talk, oh, the stories they would tell. Hidden well inside the walls in the Canton home of Jim Roache, there was quite a bit of history. It was that discovery which would also stir a quest for knowledge in Roache, leading him to uncover an even more interesting history about the town he called home. Roache, a curator at the Canton Historical Society, was born in 1952. "I was born in Canton," said Roache. "My father was born in Canton. His father was born in Canton. He had a big family in town." Roache said he never really traced his family roots but believed his ancestors originally emigrated from Ireland and settled in town. "I always liked history in school," said Roache. "But a lot of my interest has to do with the …

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Canton Revealed: The History Patch

Lighting Up Canton

A look at the early history (and cost) of streetlights in town.

The next time you stop under a streetlight at night on some road in Massachusetts, take a moment to ponder this: what would life be like without them? Streetlights or lampposts are so ubiquitous nowadays that we fail to even fathom a time when they did not light our way along a dark passageway or road. But this begs a larger question that Jim Roache, a curator at the Canton Historical Society, first asked himself before he started to delve into an extensive research project on the history of streetlights in the town. Today, Roache said, "Every car we drive has lights on it today. But do we really need street lights?" Over the years, public officials in cities and towns across the country have argued for the presence and continued expansion…

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Canton Revealed: The History Patch

Revere's Copper Helped Build USS New Hampshire

The history behind the ship constructed with Paul Revere's copper pieces.

Opening a drawer at the Canton Historical Society and you're likely to learn something new and fascinating. That was how the society's president Wallace Gibbs explained it one Sunday to a group of several school children who gathered before him, wide-eyed, as he carefully placed what looked to be a group of large rusty nails of various sizes on a display case. The rusty-looking nails turned out to be copper spikes and fastenings forged at Paul Revere's foundry in the 1800s. Further, they were recovered from the USS New Hampshire (later, known as the USS Granite State) shipwreck, off Graves Island in Manchester, Mass. "That's cool," a couple of the boys said, clearly fascinated. Gibbs shared a similar sentiment just a moment before in a …

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Updated: Ways to Give Back in Canton

If your New Year's resolutions include volunteering in your community, you could consider driving a senior to a doctor's appointment, cooking for the Medical Reserve Corps, raking at Mass Audobon, or helping the Garden Club.

If your New Year's Resolutions include donating time, talent or funds to a non-profit organization, staying local may be the way to go. You could consider driving an elderly patient to a medical appointment through the Council on Aging, moving cots and supplies for the Medical Reserve Corps, raking leaves at Massachusetts Audubon, or helping the Garden Club maintain the town's "Welcome to Canton" flower boxes.  Carol Munson grew up in Canton, raised a family in Canton and now volunteers in the town she loves where opportunities abound for all ages and abilities. "I was born in Canton so Canton means a lot to me…my roots are here," said Munson, who is a member of the Canton Garden Club where she works to beautify the streets of Canton for …

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Christine Smith

10:43 am on Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Great article! Other ways to help - these probably both fall under the category of schools - are to volunteer with MusicCounts! or Canton Alliance for Public Education (CAPE) - both are great organizations.   more ›

Canton Revealed: The History Patch

Saving The Tilden House

How local preservationists are trying to protect a historic Canton treasure.

There's a mission in progress right here in Canton to save one of the oldest homes still standing in the United States. The David Tilden House located at 93 Pleasant Street. The back of the home was built in the early 18th century, around 1709. In 1725, its owner and namesake David Tilden constructed the main portion of the home. Tilden bought the home and nearly 34 acres of land on which it was built directly from Native Americans of the Ponkapoag nation. Theophilus Lyon, a grandson of David Tilden and a Revolutionary War soldier who witnessed the birth of America, inherited the property. "It's amazing," Pat Johnson, a curator at the Canton Historical Society, said. "This house is so historic that when Tilden died, he was still a British …

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Canton Revealed: The History Patch

A Look at Doty's Tavern

How an old homestead in Canton made history.

In Canton, near the Milton border on Route 138 at the foot of the Great Blue Hills, there once stood a tavern that told the story of America's beginnings. Doty's Tavern played a vital role in the drafting of the Suffolk Resolves—the precursor of the Declaration of Independence. Historians describe the old homestead as a place were America's early revolutionaries met on the morning of August 16, 1774—out of sight of the British—to hash out their plans to free the country from the British government. General Joseph Warren drafted the Resolves and the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia passed them the following month.  Doty's Tavern was named after its owner Col. Thomas Doty. According to historical documents at the Canton Historical …

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