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