Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving at Finn's, 1930s

Finn's Sea Grill operated on East Grove Street, opening in May, 1931 on what previously had been the site of the town dump, a fact which gave the establishment its less formal name of "Finn's on the Dump." Operated by William Finn, the Grill also featured an oyster bar and seafood market and advertisements touted the restaurant as the "finest in New England". A drastic change came to the business with the repeal of Prohibition in December, 1933, and the acquisition of a liquor license in March, 1934. That spring, extensive changes were made to the restaurant, including the creation of a cocktail lounge, certainly one of the first in Middleborough. The lounge was noted for a large mural, "The Face on the Bar-room Floor" painted by Helen Martin of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, an admittedly eyebrow-raising title.

Finn's was operated until the late 1930s, and the site has since been occupied by a succession of restaurants including the Zombie, Eugene's and the Riverside.

Illustration:
Finn's Sea Grill, Thanksgiving menu, H. L. Thatcher & Company, printers, Middleborough, MA, 1930s
This small appropriately pumpkin-colored card detailed the Thanksgiving Dinner special at Finn's Sea Grill. Finn's specialty - oysters - were featured as both an appetizer and a main ingredient in the turkey stuffing. The full course meal cost $1.50.

Source:
Middleboro Gazette

Lake Assawompsett Idyll

The view depicts a young girl looking wistfully over Lake Assawompsett from the Lakeville shore near Bedford Street. In the background, a boating party launches its craft into the waters of the lake which were then not restricted for use as a public water supply. Such idyllic scenes were frequent subjects for stereographic card publishers such as Shaw & Childs, druggists at Middleborough center who sought to supplement their sale goods with souvenir novelties such as this card.

Illustration:
Lake Assawompsett, "Lakeville Scenes", Middleborough, MA: Shaw & Childs, publisher, stereocard, late 19th century

Sovereigns of Industry

The Sovereigns of Industry was a reform movement which sought to encourage consumer cooperatives and "the purchasing of all goods used by families at producers' prices". Established in Massachusetts in 1874, it flourished briefly, principally in New England and the eastern states.

The organization of the Sovereigns of Industry was modeled upon that of the Grange which in 1873 began operating cooperative stores for its members, and it was heavily influenced by the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in England, as well. At the height of its popularity, the Sovereigns of Industry had over 250 councils in New England, each of which operated a cooperative store. Essentially the stores sold goods at market prices. Profits were returned in the form of dividends to shareholders as well as to purchasers in proportion to the amount of goods which they purchased.

The avowed goal of the Sovereigns was the promotion of "mutual fellowship and cooperative action among the producers and consumers of wealth throughout the earth....We mean to substitute cooperation, production and exchange, for the present competitive system.... We war with the whole wage system and demand for labor the entire result of its beneficial toil." Most at the time found these goals too radical and the organization consequently suffered from this characterization.

Middleboro Council No. 162, Sovereigns of Industry, was formed either in late 1875 or early 1876. In January, 1876, the organization was meeting in the Town Hall and just a month later hired Assawamsett Hall for their headquarters. Unfortunately, little is known of the local organization or its membership. Certainly by 1879 it was defunct along with the national organization whose stores were unable to weather political opposition and the straitened economic circumstances of the mid and late 1870s. "Like many other associations, this of the Sovereigns had grown too fast and been joined by too many ignorant, discordant elements to bear the shock of adversity. The severa and long-continued hard times, from 1874 to 1879, began to tell upon the order" [Bemis:43].

Walter H. Smith whose membership card appears above was a carpenter who, in 1879, was residing on Wood Street in Middleboro. Eugene P. LeBaron, who signed the card as secretary of the local council, was associated with the LeBaron Foundry on Vine Street.

Illustrations:
Sovereigns of Industry membership card, front and reverse, Walter H. Smith, Middleborough, MA

Sources:
Bemis, Edward W. History of Coöperation in New England. Baltimore: Publication Agency of the Johns Hopkins University, 1888.

Curl, John. History of Work Cooperation in America. Berkeley, CA: Homeward Press, 1980.

Leikin, Steve, "The Citizen Producer: The Rise and Fall of Working-Class Cooperatives in the United States" from Ellen Furlough and Carl Strikwerda, eds., Consumers Against Capitalism: Consumer Cooperation in Europe and North America, 1840-1990. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999.

Middleboro Gazette, "What the Gazette Was Saying Fifty Years Ago", January 8, 1926, p. 3; "What the Gazette Was Saying Fifty-Five Years Ago", January 2, 1931, p. 6, and February 20, 1931, p. 7.

New York Times, "The Sovereigns of Industry", March 6, 1874.

Hill Top Farm

In June, 1901, the original Cape-style farmhouse at Hill Top Farm on Highland Road in Lakeville was burned down as reported by the Plymouth Old Colony Memorial at the time:

Morgan Rotch's country seat at Lakeville, "Hilltop," was burned early one morning recently. A Portuguese farm hand who slept in the barn discovered fire in that building and had barely time to get himself and the horses out, getting burned somewhat while doing so. A little of the furniture was saved from the house. Mr. Rotch is abroad.

Following the fire, a new large house (pictured above in the process of construction) was erected at the bottom of the hill near the shore of Long Pond.

The History of Hill Top Farm in the Words of Lydia Rotch, a new booklet in the historical series published by Preserve Our Lakeville Landmarks, is a continuation of the story of this house, its surrounding property and the family which occupied it as as told by Rotch's grand-daughter Lydia (1910-2005).

Owned since 1889 by the Rotch family of New Bedford which had been instrumental in that city's economic and political growth, Hill Top Farm was the family's summer retreat and was established during the era when the regions surrounding the Middleborough and Lakeville ponds were developed as summer estates by regionally prominent individuals. Occupying the crest of what was once known as Shockley Hill, and sloping eastwards down to the shore of Long Pond, Hill Top Farm was originally operated as a stock farm by Morgan Rotch where dairy cattle and trotting horses were raised. In 1910, the property was inherited by Miss Rotch's father, Boston landscape architect Arthur Grinnell Rotch, who made numerous improvements about the property and continued to spend summers for the remainder of his life there.

Miss Rotch recounts the evolution of the property from 1889 through 2005 and considers its role as both a working farm and a summer retreat for the family. Throughout, the history is illustrated with snapshots from her private collection, depicting both the family at play as well as the buildings and grounds.

In 2006, the 90 acre property was left to the Trustees of Reservations through the generosity of Miss Rotch.

The History of Hill Top Farm in the Words of Lydia Rotch is published by Preserve Our Lakeville Landmarks and is available at the Lakeville Town Clerk's office for $5. P. O. L. L.'s earlier booklets which listed in the right sidebar here are also available for purchase.

Illustration:
"A Summer Cottage Being Built on the Shore of Long Pond in Lakeville by Morgan Rotch 1902", photograph by George Dorr of Middleborough, 1902

Sources:
Lydia Rotch. The Lakeville Historical Tour Committee Presents the History of Hill Top Farm in the Words of Lydia Rotch. Lakeville, MA: Preserve Our Lakeville Landmarks, 2009.

Old Colony Memorial, "News Notes", June 29, 1901, page 3.

A View of Middleborough, c. 1905

This view of Middleborough Four Corners taken from above the Nemasket River about 1905 looks westward towards the town center. Visible on the horizon line (from left to right) are Middleborough Town Hall, the Central Congregational Church, the Central Baptist Church, Leonard and Barrows shoe manufactory on Center Street, the Forest Street standpipe and the Central Methodist Church. In the foreground, on the opposite bank of the river, is the land now occupied by Spencer Street and the Middleborough Housing Authority. Originally, it was used for a small landfill. Mill houses along both Wareham Street at the right and Jackson Street at the far right may be seen as can the newly-built Middleborough Public Library peeking through the trees. Glimpses of the Cushing House at the corner of Wareham and Lincoln Streets as well as the nearby trolley car barn (later Maxim Motors) may also be seen. The Municipal Light Plant is easily recognizable on the right, though its smokestack is long since gone. Across Wareham Street from the plant, on the edge of the river is the so-called "Ocean House". In 1908 the building was condemned and two years later in 1910 it was torn down.

Middleborough Heritage Festival

On Saturday, November 14, the Middleborough Historical Association will sponsor the Middleborough Heritage Festival from 10 am through 4 pm at historic Middleborough Town Hall in celebration of Middleborough's 34oth anniversary. The Festival will include a host of events, craft demonstrations, re-enactments and other activities, as well as displays of historical information presented by local organizations. Children's activities will also be featured and families are encouraged to attend what promises to be a fun, educational (and inexpensive) day out.

Scheduled Events

10:00 a.m. Opening Ceremony

10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Quilt Documentation
Massachusetts Quilt Documentation Project
Appointment required

10:00 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Children's Activities:
Crafts with Soule Homestead Education Center
Face painting by Art on the Spot
Games by the Middleborough Historical Association

10:00 a.m. - 11 a.m.
Images of America: Middleborough
Book signing with author Michael J. Maddigan

10:05 a.m.
Soule Farm Expansion Plan
Presentation with Executive Director Frank Albani

10:30 a.m.
Dialogue with Judge Peter Oliver
Performance by re-enactor Michael Lepage

11:00 a.m.
Historic Preservation Awards
Presentation by Jane Lopes, Middleborough Historical Commission, Chair

11:30 a.m.
“What Did the Colonial People Wear?”
Historic textile talk by Hallie Larkin, Southcoast Historical Associates

11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Images of America: Middleborough
Book signing with author Michael J. Maddigan

12:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Children’s Activities continue
Face Painting by Art on the Spot
Games by the Middleborough Historical Association

12:30 p.m.
Quarterly Meeting
Middleborough Historical Association

1:00 p.m.
Rock Village Publishing
Discussion with author Yolanda Lodi

1:00 p.m.
“How to Research Practically Anything”
Panel discussion

2:00 p.m.
“Petticoat Patriot, Deborah Sampson”
Performance by Joan Gatturna

2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Images of America: Middleborough
Book signing with author Michael J. Maddigan

3:00 p.m.
“Meet Mrs. Tom Thumb”
Illustrated talk by Gladys Beals and Dorothy Thayer, Middleborough Historical Association

3:30 p.m.
340th Anniversary Cake
Cake cutting ceremony

4:00 p.m.
Festival ends

Participants

Participants include American Legion, Cabot Club, Church of Our Saviour, Committee for Preservation of Thompson Street, Eddy Homestead, First Congregational Church of Middleborough, Future of Middleborough Trust, General Society of Mayflower Descendants, Green School Preservation Committee, Lakeville Historical Commission, Lakeville Historical Society, Massachusetts Quilt Documentation Project, Middleborough Historical Association, Middleborough Historical Commission, Middleborough on the Move, Middleborough Public Library, Nemasket Hill Cemetery, Old Colony Historical Society, Pilgrim Hall Museum, Recollecting Nemasket, Robbins Museum of Archaeology, Soule Homestead Education Center, St. Andrew’s Church and Weston Memorial Forest.

Participating craftspeople and individuals include Mary Guidaboni (braided rugs), Dean and Laurie Rantz (blacksmithing and colonial spinning), Spinners with Soul, Harlow House Spinners, Jeff Stevens (gravestones & cemeteries), Country Piecemakers, Trish Holloway (artist), Yolanda Lodi of Rock Village Publishing (author) and Kara Andrews of Art on the Spot.

Refreshments are available for purchase all day with hot dogs available from 12 noon – 2 p.m. All proceeds from the refreshments benefit Middleborough Historical Association and the Soule Homestead Education Center, two local non-profit organizations.