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 […]
Coyotes in Medfield: If You Can’t Beat Them… Then Feed Them? Read More »
April 1, 2021 Serendipity is a curious thing. While setting final plans to visit the Berkshires, I received an email telling me of “talk” on Facebook about one Israel Bissell, an American patriot who, like Paul Revere, was a post rider during the American Revolution, but performed a much more impressive, yet lesser known, ride
Discovering Medfield’s Connection to Hinsdale, Massachusetts Read More »
Mar 1, 2021 In these COVID-19 times, we often hear of food shortages. It’s especially troubling when the shortage involves children who haven’t been able to go to school, where in some cases they get their best meal of the day. Unfortunately, there’s nothing new about food shortages for the poor. In the Bible, in
How Medfield Has Tended to Its Poor and Homeless Read More »
Jan 4, 2021 Who can deny the appeal and tradition of a big, beautiful Spanish piñata? They come in mostly all bright colors and sizes, the most popular being a colorful donkey. The idea behind the fun of the piñata is to fill it with chocolate and other candies and popcorn balls made with butter
Oct 1, 2020 When I was growing up in the 1950s and 60s, there was a young kid named Harry who was pretty good at finding ways to make money in Medfield. Grace Roberts was an elderly neighbor of his who lived on the left side of the two-family house at 13 Pleasant St.
Midcentury Medfield Memories: A Young Midcentury Entrepreneur Read More »
Oct 1, 2020 It is perhaps the strangest and most horrifying story in all of Medfield history. The fact that events unfolded on Halloween just adds to the intrigue. This very spooky tale takes place here in Medfield back in the year 1802 and involves both the Mason and Allen families. Asa Mason, at the
Medfield Murder, Body Snatchers, and Halloween Read More »
Sept 1, 2020 Medfield began in 1651 as a farming community, although the climate was colder, and the growing season shorter than today. But farms have been extinct in Medfield for decades, with one notable exception: the Medfield Community Gardens, originally on Dale Street and now on Plain Street, with 75 plots, totaling more than
Medfield Gardens Past and Present Read More »
Sept 1, 2020 Linda Morse, formerly of Medfield, teaches history at the Foxboro Regional Charter School. This history of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, focusing on its impact in Medfield and Millis, will be serialized in The Portal. Her complete article is being published in the New England Journal of History. There are striking parallels
The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 in Medfield and Millis – Part IV Read More »
August 1, 2020 Linda Morse, formerly of Medfield, teaches history at the Foxboro Regional Charter School. This history of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, focusing on its impact in Medfield and Millis, will be serialized in The Portal. Her complete article is being published in the New England Journal of History. There are striking parallels
The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 in Medfield and Millis – Part III Read More »
July 1, 2020 A copy of the 50-page 1964 Medfield Civil Defense Operations Plan recently turned up at the historical society. It was prepared by the CD director, Austin Chilson “Buck” Buchanan, Medfield’s CD director from 1958 to 1975 and a Medfield Renaissance man. Much more on the remarkable Buck Buchanan later. The concept of