Articles from the Portal
The Medfield Historical Society publishes a monthly newsletter, The Portal, containing articles about our events, our collections, and people and places of the distant and not-so-distant past. Below are selected articles from past newsletters. Looking for a specific topic? Use the search function below to search by subject, author or date. Click to sign up for our free monthly newsletter, The Portal.
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
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Sep 1, 2023 Christina “Tinah” Levant, the daughter of Frank LeVant and his wife who were brought over on a slave ship from the east coast of Africa1, was born into slavery in 18422 on a plantation in Marion, South Carolina. Tinah’s first work as a slave began at the
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Jul 30, 2023 It’s 5:00 pm on a Friday in June and you are in Medfield Center, standing at the corner of North and Main Streets. It’s eerily quiet. There are no cars, no trucks, no cement mixers clogging the intersection. One or two people saunter across the street without looking!
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Jul 30, 2023 Medfield’s outgoing keeper of the clock, David Maxson, has given many Medfield Day steeple tours at the NRHP-listed First Parish Unitarian Universalist church. Before moving to Connecticut, he gave what may be a farewell tour for Mike Taylor, Don Rolph, and other members of the church’s buildings and
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Jun 2, 2023 The Memorial Day parade in Medfield has always been a festive occasion. Historically speaking, the holiday celebration would start with Clifford Gerald Doucette. Gerry was Medfield’s veterans’ agent, past American Legion commander, key member of the Medfield Memorial Day Committee and Committee to Study Memorials, and a prime
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Jun 2, 2023 In the MHS weapons collection there exists a musket cataloged as the “Mayflower Musket.” There is little to no documentation to substantiate this title, so the Society has enlisted several knowledgeable people over the years to supply their opinions. None has been able to definitively identify the piece,
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May 2, 2023 Who could ever forget the Horgan twins, Jimmy and Joey, who grew up in an antique Greek Revival house at the corner of North and Cottage Streets, now the site of Rockland Trust bank?Jimmy passed away from a long illness on August 22, 2015. Joey passed away December
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May 2, 2023 Sane, insane, or idiotic? Temperate or intemperate? Epileptic or paralytic? Able to labor? Startling, but these were four of the boxes town hall workers were asked to fill out in the early 20th century as they made entries in the Medfield Pauper Register.The volume at hand covered the
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May 2, 2023 The c. 1780 Peregrine White clock – also known as the Morse clock – is running again, keeping good time, chiming on the hour, and even telling the date! It stands right beside the society’s front entrance. Peregrine White (1747-1834) of Woodstock Connecticut was a prominent silversmith and
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April 1, 2023 What was it like to be living in Medfield 70 years ago? Thanks to a donation by Jane and Warry Lomax of almost all the issues of the Medfield Enthusiast, edited by Joe Coan, we have been granted access to first-hand, and in some cases, quite personal, information
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April 1, 2023 Portal readers of a certain vintage will recall 20 or 30 years ago a delightful annual fall fundraiser called the “Emperor Onion Fair” at the venerable Unitarian Universalist church.It begs the question, what or who was the Emperor Onion?It was not a vegetable of the genus Allium.Charles “Emperor”
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April 1, 2023 The last weekend in April will be Medfield History Weekend, thanks to the efforts of Chris McCue Potts.During that time, many of Medfield’s historic sites will be open. We hope people will come to visit the historical society building at 6 Pleasant Street, right behind the library.Medfield split
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