Stillman J. Spear: Soldier, Printer, Community Leader, Legislator

I had a hypothesis. My hypothesis was wrong. This little story is a perfect example of how much fun it is to volunteer at the Medfield Historical Society. One line of inquiry leads to another, which leads to still another, until I am uncovering stories I never knew I needed to hear.

 

Old scrapbooks are fascinating precursors to Facebook, Pinterest and other forms of digital archiving. The Medfield Historical Society has a number of these hand-assembled collections of ephemera, and many will eventually be scanned for online viewing. As with every wave of technology, something is lost while something is gained. We lose the tactile and sensory aspect of connecting personally with the people who put the scrapbook together. Most scrapbooks in our collection have a unifying principle, with a family name written inside the cover, and that family’s story told through photos, clippings, and personal “scraps” that span a lifetime—sometimes, continuing for a generation or longer.

 

One particular scrapbook, however, has mystified me for some time. I could not figure out who put it together, or why.  This massive book is about six inches thick, stuffed with printed matter of all kinds, from the period of about 1875-1895. There are colorful tickets for dances and lectures; invitations to parties; ads for ice cream; Medfield High School report cards; and notices of all kinds, including rewards offered for stolen horses; town meeting warrants;  road races; spelling bees; concert programs; church suppers; appearances by the Greatest Magnetic Physician Known; reminders to be quiet in the library, and that fireworks are illegal in Medfield, and even an odd warning for people with “running ears” to “have them syringed before seeing the doctor”. How did this collection come to be?

 

I was very fond of my hypothesis about the origins of this scrapbook. Surely, I thought, these must be the collected notices that were posted on the ancient elm tree that once stood at the corner of Main and North Streets, in front of Monks Block. This tree was well-known to all Medfield citizens, as explained in the following note found in the MHS archives:

 

 

 I clung to my hypothesis for as long as I could, enjoying the romance of the elm tree, but the true origin of this scrapbook soon revealed itself. One of the printed notices bore the name of the printer: “S. J. Spear, Medfield.”  Perhaps this scrapbook was merely the work portfolio of a local printer. Although disappointed at the collapse of my tree hypothesis, I knew that these pieces of ephemera represented a unique window into the community life of Medfield in the late 1800s.

 

Of course, I immediately had to find out more about S. J. Spear, Printer and Stationer.

 

I turned to our wonderful photo album that once belonged to W.S. Tilden, donated to MHS in 1920, and full of notes about the people pictured. Stillman J. Spear was born in Boston on April 25, 1839, to Jesse S. and Mary M. Spear. He was educated at the Quincy School of Boston, the Academy at Wolfboro, and the Conference Seminary at Tilton, NH.  In1859, Spear enlisted in the Army, Company B, 1st Regiment of Infantry as a private and was honorably discharged as a 1st Sergeant in 1867, having served during the Civil War in the battles of Gettysburg and Island 10 (MHS photo album notes). After his service, he became a member of the Moses Ellis Post No. 117, the GAR in Medfield (MHS GAR file). He married Josephine Maria Hartshorn (1842-1932) of Dover on April 11, 1867. After residing for a short time in Dover, the couple moved to 101 North Street in Medfield, where Spear established himself as a printer for the Excelsior Straw Works as well as running his own shop, located at 39 North Street (MHA photo album notes), the approximate location of today’s Montrose School, according to Google Maps. The couple had no children.

 

Spear’s printing and stationery business thrived, with framing service and even a circulating library. For a time, his firm provided printing services for the Towns of Walpole and Medfield, printing documents like Walpole’s Town Meeting Warrants and Medfield’s Annual Report of the Receipts and Expenditures for 1875 (MHS files).  The notice about “running ears” was one of several pieces Spear printed for the Massachusetts Charitable Eye and Ear Hospital, the precursor of today’s Mass. Eye and Ear.  He also served Medfield on the Board of Directors of the Historical Society, the School Committee, the Trustees of the Library, as Justice of the Peace, Vice-President of the Medfield Board of Trade, and as Town Clerk from 1886 until his death in 1922 (MHS Photo Album).

 

In 1899 Spear was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, District 9, representing Dover, Medfield, Millis, Needham, and Wellesley, for the term beginning in January 1900.  As a State Representative, Spear joined the Harbors and Public Lands Committee. Among other things, this committee was involved in establishing the Massachusetts Maritime Canal Company, the clearing of “wrecks” from tidal waters, and passing legislation examining the “feasibility and cost” of ensuring that all vessels moored in Boston Harbor would not “interfere with the navigation by other vessels of the channels of the harbor” (Mass. Legislators). 

 

Stillman J. Spear passed away on April 25, 1922. Flags were lowered to half-mast.  His wife Josephine followed him ten years later. The Spears are buried in a prominent memorial at Vine Lake Cemetery. I was glad to learn about this man, a leader who cared about our town, our state, our waterways, and our public space. And to think it all started with a scrapbook of seemingly random papers. The printing portfolio of Stillman J. Spear can be viewed during our open hours, and we would love to show it to you.

 

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Work Cited

 

“A Souvenir of Massachusetts Legislators : Bridgman, A. M. (Arthur Milnor), b. 1851 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, Brockton : A.M. Bridgman, 1 Jan. 1970, archive.org/details/souvenirofmassac1900brid.