OBADIAH HARRIS

In his book “A Peoples Army” on Massachusetts soldiers, author Fred Anderson, records Obadiah Harris, a carpenter from Wrentham was one of seventy who kept a diary while serving in the military during the Seven Years War and having only eight days of training before he confronted the French at Ticonderoga. Harris was one of those in 1758 who constructed a hospital at Fort Edwards and a stockade near Lake George. He spent most of his early time with his battalion constructing roads between Albany and Fort Edwards. On July 8 1758, Harris wrote; “The men were ordered up before the breastwork to take it by force and the French discharged their cannon upon us and cut us down in great numbers as the battle began (about two in the afternoon and ended at sunset). At the beginning of the fight our men prevailed and got part of the breastwork. And the French seeing our men prevail, made as thought to surrender, stopped firing, pulled off their hats and; set up an English flag. And our men thought we had got the breastwork in (hand) and the French turned and fired upon us, killing men in great numbers, by which we were forced to retreat. And the French took full possession of the breastwork again, but our men tried a second and third time, but could not prevail, but were killed until the ground was covered with their dead bodies and we were forced to retreat. And orders came to retreat to the boats and we got back at the break of the ninth day (of July). Came off as fast as we could and got back to Fort William Henry at the sun setting.” The Harris diary is in the Huntington Library in San Bernardino, California, however copies of Anderson’s book, with many excerpts, is in the Fiske Library in Wrentham.  JJM                                                                     

 

Angle Tree Stone

The Angle Tree site was first marked in 1664 when surveyors actually laid out a boundry line divididng the colonies. The slate stone was made by a father and son grave stone carvers from Wrentham, erected in 1790 and added to the National Historic Register in 1976. The stone replaced the "Angle Tree" of the 1600s which was a surveying landmark between Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth Colony. In 1640 the Colonies had agreed that a line from Accord Pond in Hingham and Wrentham, Massachusetts, should be the dividing line between the Colonies. It was an extremely important point for at that time Massachusetts Bay extended to the Pacific Ocean. The line was surveyed by Woodward, a mathematician and Saffrey, an unknown, who made many mistakes and were accused of taking too many pulls on their Toddy. The line was often the subject of disputes and not settled until a U.S. Supreme Court decision was handed down two centuries later. The line is still recognized as the boundary between Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. JJM

1917 Wrentham Fire Truck

                                              Photo submitted by Al McClintock

SAMUEL GOLDSBURY

Samuel Goldsbury was born in Wrentham to John and Eunice (Pond) Goldsbury on August 14 1743 and married Rhoda Partridge on May 30 1764.  Sam taught school for twelve weeks in 1771 and again for eight weeks in 1772.  He was listed on the 1771 tax list but had no agricultural property.  Rhoda and Sam had four daughters and five sons between 1766 and 1788 and two children, who were buried without names, according to the Second Church of Christ (Congregational) in  what is now Franklin.  Samuel was a loyalist from the outbreak of the rebellion and as a result his property in Wrentham was seized.  He was reportedly the victim of mobs in Boston in 1772 and 1774  and later acted as a lieutenant in a company of loyalists raised in Boston. He went to Halifax, Nova Scotia with the Royal Army on March 17, 1776, which is celebrated annually in Massachusetts as Evacuation Day.  In 1776 he moved to New York, where he served as a volunteer in the Battle of Brooklyn Heights. He also raised a company in Colonel Fanning's Regiment and served at Newport, Rhode Island and became part of the garrison at Lloyd's Neck, Long Island, New York. Sam also served on the sloop Savage with a party of Loyalists under his command on an expedition to Martha's Vineyard.  Upon the evacuation he went to Nova Scotia, where he was granted a plantation. Samuel spent several years in England appealing for additional funds and reparations for his losses as a result of the war.  By 1790 Samuel had returned to Boston, where he lived with his family until his death on August 20 1815. Researched and photo sent by Judy Bingham of Fullerton, California. This picture of  Sam may be the oldest of  any Wrentham resident. JJM

Wrentham's Famous Band

     From the files of George Winters,

   made available by Muriel Beresford.

A tale I will tell you of some Wrentham boys,

     How they started a band long ago;

Tho a thing of the past, still the memory is there

     They remember those times, I know.

Turn back the pages in life's yearly book.

     To a winter up there in that old town.

Many people up there remember that band   

    And the noise they made, with a frown.

In Wrentham's town, some years ago

   A band was started, boys you know

All joined the thing - how it did grow,

   From field and factory hand.

A leader down from Franklin came;

   Fitzgerald, was his name,

To start the boys on the road to fame:

   This famous Wrentham band.

At first they met over Redding's barn,

   But soon the noise did so much harm,

His horses kicked in wild alarm;

   This racket they could not stand.

So down they went both fat and lank,

   Into the basement of the bank;

Till, "Move again", proposed some crank,

   You famous Wrentham band.

This time they moved up over Stones's Store;

   'Twas just the place - bare walls and floor,

The music sounded with a roar,

   Far out beyond Shackstand,

Fitzgerald taught them all he knew;

   Gave up command, resigned, got through.

Geo. Farrington - they thought he'd do,

   To lead this Wrentham Band.

When learning, awful sounds they'd make;

    'Twas every noise, both great and small

No one played right - 'twas all a mistake,

    Most racket in the land.

The base horn blew, like the lions roar,

   All blew until their lungs got sore

Each house, from shook ceiling to floor,

   With din, from Wrentham's band

 

This band would always take great care,

   To point their horns straight up in the air,

When playing ; for I do declare,

   Thunder never shook the land,

Like noise these boys made when they blew,

   Aimed at a house, the shingles flew

And windows broke, the inmates grew,

   Afraid of Wrentham's band.

From out their horns such noise would pour,

   Dead fish were found on Archer's shore;

The tall church spire would shake and rock

   Such noise would stop the clock:

From off your foot would tear your sock,

   Music - from Wrentham's band.

These Wrentham boys were not so slow, 

    Nice uniforms they bought, I know,

The man that sold them told them so;

   (He was smooth tongued and bland),

Although these suits were not quite new,

   The band boys said "guessed they'd do."

With these we'll cut a dash or two,

   In Wrentham's famous band.

But when the suits were bought, 'twas found

   Some were too short, some dragged the ground

And then began some trading 'round,

   They cussed the suits, and damned;

They tried to fix them up some way,

  Coat tails cut off, sleeves fixed up, they

With caps and plumes, did look quite gay;

   This famous Wrentham band.

The Wrentham band came out one night, 

    In uniforms, (they were a sight)

Their instruments were polished bright,

   They scrubbed them up with sand.

It grew so hot up in Stone's hall,

   That out they came; first one then all,

Oh, what a crush! Oh, what a gall!

   For Wrentham's famous band 

They formed in line up near the church

   When someone yelled, "Come off your perch"

It scared them all, they gave a lurch

   And fell down in the sand.

But strange to say, no one was hurt

   Their instruments were full of dirt

They'd suck it in then spit and squirt

    This famous Wrentham band.

Before the music would begin,

   Each man would put a big chew in;

The juice would run down on his chin, 

   Then on the ground would land.

Each tune they played tobacco flew,

   Unless you dodged, it would hit you

With awful force their horns they blew

   The famous Wrentham band.

They started off a smart quick pace;

   Big Dennis playing base.

Six feet tall, with smiling face,

   You'd think he owned the band.

Travers and Gilmore, tenor played

  McGaw and Morse, alto, much noise they made

Sweet blew trombone, dogs grew afraid, 

  and howled at Wrentham's band

Dunbar, Farnham and Farrington, cornets blew,

   Wheeler, Parker and Finn each had one too

The noise they made would split a rock in two

    They thought it sounded grand.

Such racket there from drum and fife,

  Like many pigs stuck with a knife,   

You'd think would bring the dead to life

   This noise from Wrentham's band.

Three boys up there played clarinet,

   The sounds they made were loud, you bet

They learned on fish horns, play them yet,

  Each thought his noise most grand.

Ashley and Tolliver - B flat,

  Fred Cook blew E flat: dogs did scat, 

Like guinea hens, such squeaks they'd get

  From Wrentham's famous band

   

Lew Perry played the little drum

   'Twas rub-a-dub, for fun.

The sticks were crooked yet they "done"

   As long as drums did stand.

Hatch whacked the big drum, smashed it through.

   The drumstick slipped, inside it flew,

The drum he then beat with his shoe.

   For Wrentham's famous band.

Their uniforms, they were a sight;

  No coats would fit, the pants too tight;

Caps stuffed with hay, oh what a plight

   But then these boys felt grand

The first tune played was "Old John Brown", 

   Some played it backwards -  upside down,

As John was dead, he could not frown

  On Wrentham's famous band.

Then Hayseed Polka they did play,  

   The menfolks winked, old maids got gay

And farmers shouted out "Horray".

   The music was so grand.

But when they dragged "Old Hundred" out,

   With one accord they raised a shout

"Play faster, what are you about,

    You lazy, Wrentham Band"

But worse, the noise from clarinet

   These sounds once heard you'd ne'er forget.

Methinks I still can hear them yet.

  They squealed out o'er the land.

Cook's E-flat screeched the worst of all.

  To play these things took lots of gall,

Between the rests, they'd yell and brawl,

  "Hurrarh; for Wrentham's Band".

One boy had on two pairs of pants,

   To show his shape how he would prance,

And wink at girls at every chance.

   He felt so big and grand.

Young Fillebrown, the horn he blew,

   You'd think he'd bust the thing in two,

'Twas "I can make more noise then you".

   These boys in Wrentham's band.

That night the band so thirst got,

   Raised thirteen cents right on the spot

It was for cider, which they bought,

   And drank all they could stand.

Then started out to make a spread,

   The stuff worked up, got in their head.

By each a different tune was played,

   By Wrentham's famous band.

This band long since has passed away,

   No music good enough to play

Never was written, so they say,

   Since Cook he left the band

One night he tried to lead them all,

   With claironett, Oh, what a gall!

 That finished it, That was the fall!   

    Of Wrentham's famous band.

Their uniforms are laid away

   In some man's barn amongst the hay

No more they'll have them on and play,

   These lads that felt so grand

Some boys have got their brass horns yet,

   They'll keep them too, for you can bet,

They think of days they can't forget,

   With Wrentham's famous band.

Long in the history of the town,

   Will Wrentham's band be handed down,

'Tho some remember, with a frown,

   "Columbia! Happy Land,"

And "Yankee Doodle", Auld Lang Syne",

   Although it made the dogs all whine

The natives said they played them fine

   This famous Wrentham band.

1906                   John Hatch

   

Painting by Joe Cowell

Spinning Wheels

The 58th issue of The Spinning Wheel Sleuth, produced in October 2007 by Florence Feldman-Wood at Andover, Massachusetts, contains a picture of a John Smith spinning wheel. The article was researched by Sue Batchelor of nearby Plainville, who found his estate inventory, which included, "Warming pans and hetchels, two wheels, valued at eight pounds, six pence and nine pounds of flax, valued at seven pounds, six pence." It states John immigrated from Ireland in 1735, exact date unknown, was listed as a wheelwright in the "West List" records in 1741. The spinning wheel had Smith's name on the end grain of the table and has what are called "Sausage Turnings", which are sometimes seen on certain Irish wheel. The number of wheels in his possession at the time of his death, suggests he was no longer in the wheelwright business. In addition to the information on Smith in the printed Volume II of Wrentham History Vignettes in 2008, Smith served for eleven days in 1775 as a Colonel of the West Regiment of Suffolk County during the Revolutionary War. JJM

Old Wrentham Photographs

Itinerant photographer A. E. Alderman visited Wrentham sometime after the Civil War and took a picture of the straw hat factory.  In one of those photographs the horse and wagon was included, providing us the the name of the photographer. Starting at the time of the Civil War, a number of these wagons were outfitted as darkrooms and their output is avidly sought today. JJM

Jabez Fisher

 Jabez was born on November 19 1717 and married Mary (Adams) on March 5 1740. Four years later he was on the Wrentham Committee of Correspondence and elected Selectman in 1755. He was a deacon in the church in 1760 and assessor the following year. In 1764 he was a constable and paid for setting rates. Two years later he was our Representative to the General Court as well as Justice of the Peace. In 1768 Fisher was an assessor and again our Representative to the General Court and had his name engraved on the silver bowl made by Paul Revere. In 1771 he was our representative to the General Court at Harvard and in 1774 at the Revolutionary Convention at Salem while he was on our Committee of Correspondence. JJM

Marble - Outhouse

   They were both married in 1883 in Wrentham, George Marble and Frank Outhouse, the closest the families came to providing Wrentham with a humorous edifice

Joe Cowell

The painting by Cowell

is of Burt Marsden.

COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE

At a Wrentham town meeting in 1772, it was proposed, “To see whether the town would take into their consideration a circular letter from the worthy citizens of the town of Boston, stating the rights of colonies in their diverse respects and also stating the many grievances the good people of this province had from diverse late acts and resolutions of the British Parliament, imposing duties upon and raising revenues on the inhabitants.” Art 2 stated: “To see if the town will choose a Committee of Correspondence to correspond with the committee of Boston and every other committee of this province, for that purpose.” At the town meeting of January 11 1773 the committee gave their resolves, stating; “Proposed to the town to choose a committee of correspondence to correspond with the committee of Boston and every other committee.” After the debate, it was passed (voted) in the negative. On August 29 1774 the Town of Wrentham, chose a Committee of Correspondence, consisting of Day Stone, Ebenezer Daggett, Jabez Fisher, Lemuel Kollock, John Smith and Joseph Woodward. They wrote and received letters from places where decisions had been made and it was necessary to tell others who had to take action. The few newspapers could not be used for the British would know of the preparations. Speed was of the essence because of the great distances involved, from Maine to Virginia. They tried to convince the English people that Gen Gage’s troops at Concord and Lexington, that the British were the aggressors.  JJM

ARCHEOLOGY

In October 1999 the late Esther Anderson, who lived on West Street in Sheldonville displayed a 4X4 inch block of amethyst stone, which she stated was given to her by a representative of the Bardon-Trimont Company after she complained about damage to her property from a blast from the company at Green Street. A small tree in front of her house was knocked down, she claimed, and a rug in a second floor room was moved and required a professional to reset it, for which Bardon-Trimont paid. The violet crystals of the amethyst were huge, some of the largest recalled. She was told the deposit was struck during an excavation on the Barden-Trimont property. JJM 

ROBERT COOK - WRENTHAM LOYALIST

Robert Cook was born in Westboro, married Sarah Crosby, impressed or enlisted under Lieutenant Colonel Twing, but was reported as not having joined the regiment. He served as a Private in 1745 and served the King as a soldier, as a private in 1755 and in Governor Shirley’s Provisional Regiment. From 1755 until 1761 he served the king, the latter part as a Lieutenant in the regiment of Governor Richard Saltonstall. In 1755 he collected 25 Loyalists to suppress the mobs and riots, served as a Private in Colonel Slocumb’s company, in Colonel William’s regiment, April 14 to November 21 1758; as Sergeant in this company, April 2 to December 21 1759; and as Lieutenant in Captain John Nixon’s company from April 17 to December 7 1761. For his loyalty to the king he was imprisoned and persecuted until June 1775, by the residents, when he escaped to the British troops in Boston leaving a wife and thirteen children in Wrentham. From August 14 1776 until March 1777 he was in charge of a company of the Queen’s American Rangers, commanded by Colonel Robert Rogers. He claimed no service after 1777. In these different stations he did all he could to serve His Majesty and asked for a pension. Sgt Nathan Blake was paid by Wrentham in April for supplying Cook’s family and the following month Blake was paid for inventorying Cook’s goods and selling them. In 1779 Timothy Guild and Jeremiah Day were paid for providing the necessities for Cook’s family. Cornelius Cook is shown as having paid his share of Robert’s “pool rate” in 1761. In 1779 David Fisher and Captain Lewis Whiting were paid for sundry services involving Cook, John Hall was paid for taking Cook and Ebenezer Blake evidence. Cook returned to New Brunswick where he lived for a few years, after the Revolutionary War and settled at Auburn, Massachusetts, where he died in 1797.    JJM

WRENTHAM'S FIRST RE-CYCLING COMMITTEE

In the nineteen-seventies, Holly Cafferky went into the town hall to get a dog license and Sumner Perry, the town clerk said, ”Raise your right hand.” It turned out one had to be sworn into office for the re-cycling committee and she thought it was for a dog license.  Many years later Holly saw in the paper, she was on the newly formed committee. At that time there was a dump on Madison Street, a busy place on Saturdays.  The men would go to the dump and came home with more than they brought. Few will remember we had containers there for aluminum, the different colored glass, tin or plastic. Holly and the other committee members, Jackie Farrar and John Blinkiron, tried to get the town interested in re-cycling, but the town wasn’t ready.  At that time Holly was president of the girl scouts and gave suggestions on how to save energy, water, money, but people really didn’t care. Flea markets were becoming the place to be on weekends and they were the biggest re-cyclists, then came yard sales. The town dump closed fifteen years later and the town thought they were doing something new, but it wasn’t, just updated, or changed a little. Contributed by Holly Cafferky. JJM

WRENTHAM'S POWDER HOUSE

In 1766 the town fathers saw a need for a safe receptacle for the ordnance of war, as it was wholly unthinkable that the Center Meeting House fitted that requirement, even though it had done so in the past. So nine years before the outbreak of the revolutionary war, Lt. Joseph Fairbanks and Joseph Shepard were paid for providing 3,000 bricks to construct it. The construction was accomplished in the following year with Capt. James Metcalf, Lt. Joseph Fairbanks and Joseph Shepard, were paid for its construction. That same year Capt. Timothy Metcalf was paid for nailing and painting the door. The safety feature was the lightly constructed conical roof, so should anything set off the powder, the bricks would offer a tube pointing upwards and the lightly constructed roof would allow the force to escape. Old maps show it as being in a field southwest of South and Franklin Streets, but maps didn’t foresee the construction of the railroad that obliterated the landmarks.  It was remem-bered as being east of Depot Street and behind the current (2009) Dunkin Doughnuts shop. JJM

JOSEPH G. COWELL

Joe lived at 424 South Street, Wrentham, was a veteran of WW I, enlisting on Aug 12 1918, became a sergeant first class in Company C, 336^th Battalion of the Casual Tank Corps. His daughter Jean wrote a poem about Kenneth Ames, a Wrentham fighter aircraft pilot who was lost in WWII. When Jean died, Joe wanted her to be remembered, so he had Herbert Marsden of Foxboro, a printer and bookbinder, to make a book and in exchange he painted a portrait of Herb. Joe also painted the portrait of Dr George L. Vogel, in WW I uniform, which is presently hanging in the hall of the Vogel School on Taunton Street, with eight paintings of Wrentham houses which were sponsored by the Works Progress Administration during the depression. There is also a Cowell painting in the Wampum House and Mrs. Dana of West Street had two, some of his twenty paintings.  Joe was commissioned by the town to prepare the flagpole base on the western common. The monument was suggested by Rev. Melville A. Shafer of the Original Congregational Church and the town appropriated $300 and various other sources contributed the balance. Several artists had submitted designs and Cowell’s was accepted. The flagstaff base is of bronze, six feet in height by four feet square at the bottom. The four corner buttresses, flanking the inscription panels, contain the names of soldiers who went to WW I from Wrentham are in the form of a Sphinx-like winged shape which suggest as well the Greek God of sleep, Hypros. These together with the wreaths, laurel and poppies, form the collar of the staff, completing the memorial symbolism. The contract called for the monument to be ready on Memorial Day 1937. Joe offered to do free painting of girls when they became 16 and those paintings are in the possession of the subjects. A female nude painting was in the basement of the old Fiske Library and when a female employee found giggling boys looking at it, she had the nude painted black, which destroyed the Cowell painting on the reverse side.  JJM 

WRENTHAM'S PIONEER ENAMELEER

John E. Maintien, of Wrentham, was the first person to introduce enameling into the United States. During the 1970s Attleboro's historians knew it was a Frenchman, but got no farther, thinking if it was jewelry, it had to be Attleboro and didn't think to look in surrounding towns. John was born in Marseilles, France, on April 19 1801, came first to New York, then to Providence, Rhode Island and lived in the Plainville section of Wrentham for over thirty-five years, operating one of the three jewelry manufacturing establishments there in 1865 and lived at near-by Bacon Street until 1882. JJM

WRENTHAM PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET

Bean, Rev Joseph                     Sermon, 1773

Belcher, Abner                          Abolishonist

Bennett, Mary Alice                 Pioneer Doctor

Blake, Rev Mortimer               Wrote Life of David Avery

Bragg, Col Arial                        Wrote Memoirs, Small Pox Vaccination

Cowell, Joseph G.                     Artist, painter, sculpturer

Daniels, Cora Lynn                   Wrote True Story of Vampires and others

Day, Samuel                               Judge and patriot

Edwards, Cecile P.                     Wrote Party for Suzanne and others

Fisher, George.                          Theologian and professor at Yale

Hancock, Sally                            Painter in 1822

Gerould, Ellen A.                        Read poem at Day's Academy in 1862

Heaton, Nathaniel                      Printer of 1803 Idleness in the Marketplace

Jess, Lola                                     Wrote Young Samuel Slater

Macy, Ann Sullivan                    Teacher of Helen Keller

Mann, Dr Thomas G.                 Wrote Flying Hospitals, War of 1812.

Perrigo, James                           Clockmaker

Pond, Enoch                                Preacher, writer and editor, 1814-1832

Smith, John                                 Made flax spinning wheels

Smith, Josiah                              Teacher and State Senator

Stewart, Earle                             Assisted composing Images of Wrentham

Whiston, Irma M.                       Wrote Pull Out a Plum

White, John Stewart                  Author

Woodhams, Chas G                   Assisted composing Images of Wrentham 

SAMPLERS BY WRENTHAM PERSONS

On March 6 1994, a sampler, dated 1826, made by Charlotte R. Hovey, of Wrentham, was sold at auction for nine hundred and fifty dollars to Ms J Kastler of 125 High Street, Boston. The late Mrs Esther Anderson, of Sheldonville, owned two samplers made by two sisters, while attending Day's Academy. Esther stated. "When they are as old again as they are now, they will be worth what it cost for their restoration."  

MISS KITTY FOLLETT

 Miss Kitty lived in the family home on West Street, Wrentham, opposite Cherry Street, where the wooden fence is being replaced by a stone wall, and retained her old fashioned clothes and ways. Her elderly gardener also so when she had to make a trip into town, she would dress, including a hat, climb into the rear seat of her old Chevrolet and move sedately to her appointments. The house had a tall Victorian tower and Miss Kitty's maid lived up there with no heat or plumbing. The maid was expected to, and did, use the outhouse, aided of course, by that no longer popular "convenience", the thunder jug. It wasn't bandied about locally, but the Follett house was built on a firm foundation, girdles bearing the trade name "Warners". As told by the late Esther Anderson of West Street. JJM 

GAMALIEL GEROULD TRADGEDIES

When you pass the cemetery, on South Street, near the Plainville line, there is no indication of the tragedy it holds. In a period of slightly more the twenty years, in the middle of the 18th century, Gamaliel Gerould had the misfortune to lose, not one, but two wives, and all of their six children. He married Rebecca Lawrence on January 7 1742 and their first child, named for his father, died on April 14 1743. A daughter named for her mother, died on July 5 1747. A second daughter, also named for her mother, died on July 5 1747, and Catee, their fourth child, died on March 14, 1749. Two years later, on January 1 1751, his wife Rebecca died. Gamaliel re-married, this time to Jerusa Mann at Dedham and their first child Ebenezer, died on July 6 1752, his remaining son died  October 15, 1753 at one year. There is no known record of Gamiliel's death at Wrentham. JJM 

Wrentham Man Seizes Historic Flag

One of the emblems which has been placed in the naval headquarters at Camp Mathew E. Emory is a United States flag taken from the Black Warrior in the fight at Elizabeth City on February 10 1862, at the mouth of the Dismal Swamp Canal. The Black Warrior was a small schooner carrying two thirty-two pounders and she was eventually burned. The flag was found by William F. Gragg of Wrentham, who was an officer aboard the Whitehead, which gave chase to the Black Warrior. He was ordered by Commander Rowan to board the Black Warrior, put out the fires, move her to deep water and take charge. He boarded the schooner, but had no means to put out the fires that had already started. He looked around and the flag was the one thing that caught his gaze. He took the flag, but forgot to report it. Mr. Gragg served as watch officer on the General Putnam and the Young Rover and the flag with it's 32 small stars and one large star in the center flew from the peak of these vessels after he had captured it. The flag has been in the possession of Captain Gragg until the present time, it has been carried in many GAR parades, has been used to decorate many churches, halls and figured in Fourth  of July celebrations. The flag is somewhat of a curiosity, because it must have been made by hand and not by a government manufacturer, as its stars are not symmetrical, which had been the rule for government flags since 1818.  After the war Gragg became a harness maker and lived on Franklin Street. JJM

Sarah E. Forbush

Sarah Forbush was a pseudonym of Mrs George Sheldon, daughter of Electa and Preston Ware of Wrentham. who wrote more than thirty best sellers, such as His Hearts Queen, Step by Step, Margarite's Inheritance and Katherine's Sheaves. Sarah was married to George in 1841 and died in 1926. JJM

Sally Hancock

A Wrentham artist, had one of her paintings showing a basket of fruit, valued at $24,000, on the April 9th 2007 Antique Road Show. She used oil paints on velvet. At the bottom she had painted Miss Sally Hancock, Wrentham, Massachusetts, June 1828. Information from the internet.