1980s

There Was Once a Place Called Lord’s

Jul 31, 2023   Once cosmopolitans who thought themselves sophisticated, might have asked, “Medfield? Where’s that? What’s that?” And many of the young people living in Medfield were chagrined by the frequent snide remarks about Medfield being Deadfield or Mudfield. Times change. Gradually the transplanted city people came to recognize a bustling community after driving down […]

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From Hooves to Wheels: The Odyssey of a Family Business

January 6, 2022    Thanks to Claire Shaw for her recent snippet about our family’s long-standing livery service. The snippet prompted the Historical Society’s David Temple to contact me about writing a deeper dive into the story of Newell’s Livery. How many small-town taxi companies, do you suppose, have ever been featured on national television?

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Medfield Stone Walls — With a Surprise at the End

July 24, 2021   As the Laurentide Ice Sheet gradually receded 15-30,000 years ago, in the American Midwest, the retreating glaciers easily ground up the soft limestone underneath, leaving the farmer-friendly soil of the Great Plains. But in New England, granite, rather than limestone, was underneath the ice sheets. So, when the ice melted, our forebear

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Coyotes in Medfield: If You Can’t Beat Them… Then Feed Them?

May 1, 2021   Farmers from Dedham first settled Medfield in 1949, only 29 years after the Mayflower landed. The colony had grown rapidly through immigration and reproduction after 1630, and in William S. Tilden’s History of Medfield, the population was reported as 18,000 in 1643. The influx forced settlers to look west for grazing land

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