Sutton Historical Society Inc. - Sutton, Massachusetts

2023 Calendar of Events

All events open to both Society members and the general public.
Updated event information will be posted here, on Facebook, and emailed to members
Upcoming meetings/events are listed in the Millbury-Sutton Chronicle, The Uxbridge Times, and the Blackstone Valley Xpress.

2023 CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR VIEWING ON MOBILE DEVICE

April 4                         7:00 pm          Joe Iamartino, Thompson Historical Society First Congregational Church
Tuesday The Nipmuc Lithic Trail 307 Boston Road
                                                            Explore the history of Native Americans in the
                                                            Nipmuc Territory of Central Massachusetts
                                                            and Northeast Connecticut


May 9                         7:00 pm Carol Crossed, Curator First Congregational Church
Tuesday Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum 307 Boston Road
                                                            Vintage Tweets: A Book of Suffrage Era Postcards
                                                            Presentation how postcards of old were like
                                                            Twitter posts today.


June 17                      8:00 am          Annual Yard Sale M. M. Sherman Blacksmith Shop
Saturday                    1:00 pm 6 Singletary Avenue

July 8 -July 16                                    Can/Bottle Redemption Drive M. M. Sherman Blacksmith Shop
                                                            Drop off your returnable cans/bottles at 6 Singletary Avenue
                                                            your convenience 24-hours
.
August 4                     6:30 pm          Annual Potluck Supper Eight Lots School House
Friday 54 Eight Lots Road

September 5              7:00 pm          Andrew Noone, Author First Congregational Church
Tuesday                                              Bathsheba Spooner: A Revolutionary War 307 Boston Road
Murder Conspiracy


September 30           12:00 pm–     Wagon and Cart Show M.M. Sherman Blacksmith Shop
Saturday                    4:00 pm 6 Singletary Avenue

October 3                   7:00 pm          Annual Meeting First Congregational Church
Tuesday Officer Election 307 Boston Road

October 28                 7:00 pm Historic Cemetery Tour Sutton Center Town Cemetery
Saturday                                             Re-enactors will tell the tale of early 4 Uxbridge Road
Sutton settlers buried in the Sutton
Center Town Cemetery

November 7               7:00 pm Mark Savolis, Thompson Historical Society First Congregational Church
Tuesday                                              The Mass15th of the Civil War and 307 Boston Road
Sutton Soldier, Wilder Holbrook


December 2               Various Chain of Lights Eight Lots School House
Saturday                                             Annual Town-wide Christmas Event General Rufus Putnam Museum
M. M. Sherman Blacksmith Shop

December 5               6:30 pm          Christmas Potluck First Congregational Church
Tuesday 307 Boston Road

December 31             Midnight         Last Night Cannon Firing M. M. Sherman Blacksmith Shop
Sunday Cannon Club 6 Singletary Avenue

RECENT HAPPENINGS

WAGON & CARRIAGE SHOW

Saturday, October 1, 2022
Noon - 4 pm
M. M. Sherman Blacksmith Shop
6 Singletary Avenue
The rain held off! We had a few visitors! It was a SUCCESS!!!!

Photos below courtesy of Joyce Smith

Photos below courtesy of April Eaton Brown

Saturday, September 10, 2022

Finished!!!!
Bottle/Can Drive Sorting and Redemption

It took two days, combined 20 volunteers, for a total of 80 volunteer hours. Now we wait for the tally!

Thanks to Jim Stevenson for this awesome time lapse of the tenacity of these volunteers!!

August 2022
General Rufus Putnam Museum Building gets a new paint job

Ahead of the 200th anniversary of this historical building in Sutton Center in May of 2023, the General Rufus Putnam Museum received a much-needed paint job. A great job for an historic gem!

Saturday, August 6, 2022 - Bottle and Can Drive Sorting Day

HOT! HOT! HOT!
It was one of the hottest days of the summer, but 9 hearty souls worked from 8-1 to sort and bag a small portion of the donated cans and bottles!!
Several more days of sorting ahead, but we will wait for cooler days! We could use more VOLUNTEERS!!!!
THANKS
to all who donated to this important fundraiser for the Society.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 2022 - Eight Lots School House Potluck

It was a beautiful evening for a get together. The rains held off. The food and friendship were wonderful.
Several toured the historic school house including new Sutton School Superintendent, Kimberly Roberts-Morandi.
Hope to see everyone again next August!

SUTTON TOWN CENTER CEMETERY RESTORATION COMPLETED!!

July 15, 2022 - Last stones reset

Commencing in the summer of 2019 and continuing through the pandemic, the Cemetery Conservation crew has completed work on the oldest cemetery in Sutton located behind the Town Hall, 4 Uxbridge Road. The last gravestone reset was for Private Jonas Sibley. It measured 96" top-to-bottom. John Jay Sibley's stone reset the previous week measured 99" top-to-bottom.

This cemetery will be highlighted on Saturday, October 29 at 7 pm with a costumed, guided tour in conjunction with the Sutton School's PTO's Trunk or Treat and the Fourth of July Committee's "Oh My Gourd - The Great Pumpkin Extravaganza" on the Common.

A special THANK YOU to members of the Dudley Gendron Post 414 American Legion for their generous financial support of this important community project.

The Conservation Crew has moved on to the Dodge Cemetery located on Leland Hill Road. The stones in the Dodge Cemetery were cleaned in the midst of the pandemic by John and Marion Belculfine. Now it is time for the crew to reset the stones. Volunteers are always needed.

A special thank you to Ross Weaver who presented this project to the Society's Board of Directors and led a crew of dedicated volunteers and boy scouts for three years who have been working on several cemeteries throughout town.

Consistently by Ross's side, a special shout out to Dave Pizzi, Brian Stevenson, John Belculfine (l-r below image).
If not now, then when.....if not us, then who!!

Thanks to Ed Chrostowski for the below photographs.

3rd Graders Tour Sutton Center

June 6, 2022

Thank you to Steve Colonies; The Sutton Cannon Club; Museum Curator - Joyce Smith; Board members - Keith Downer, Rochelle Forsythe, and Christine Watkins for hosting the Sutton 3rd Graders!!

samuelslaterexperience.org

Thank you to the Samuel Slater Experience staff for hosting
the Sutton Historical Society!!!

For those who missed it, the museum is open
Friday 10-4
Saturday 10-4
Sunday 12-4

Cemetery Tour - Enjoyed by over 100 visitors!!

Rescheduling and weather that did not cooperate did not hamper the spirits of the visitors who toured Sutton's oldest Cemetery on
Sunday, October 31.
Interpreters shared their stories about some of those interred in this historically-significant cemetery.
The Society hopes to make this an annual event!!!

THANK YOU!!!

ROBERT ERNEST HUBBARD, Author
Presentation about General Rufus Putnam

Robert Ernest Hubbard, a retired professor and author from New Haven, Connecticut, recently presented his book
General Rufus Putnam, George Washington’s Chief Military Engineer and the “Father of Ohio.”
to our Society. It was a well-received presentation.

Go to israelputnam.org to order a copy of this book in addition to one about Israel Putnam.

Prior to his presentation, Robert and his wife, Kathy, discussed how to become an author with a group of home-schooled children. This, too, was greatly appreciated.

Thank you to member, Malcolm Ketchum, for sharing his images of Sutton

*******************************************************************************

Annual Meeting Update

- Donation by Mike and Sheila Moss to the General Rufus Putnam
  Museum of a framed 1915 Boston Herald photo spread of
  Purgatory Chasm prior to its being established as a State Park in 1919

- Election of 6 non-officer Board positions for a 2-year term

- Presentation of work completed on the Sutton Center Meeting
House and tour of the inside

- Update on status of Cemetery cleaning/repair at Sutton Center
and Dodge Cemetery. Almost complete. Committee will continue
work in other town cemeteries. Thank you to the countless
volunteers. This group is definitely "Quietly making noise!"
Volunteers always needed.

- Update on progress of organizing General Rufus Putnam
  Museum. Grant received through the Massachusetts Board of
  Library Commissioners to help move forward with cataloguing
  and digitizing collection. Thank you to Joyce Smith, Curator, and
Betsy Perry, Sutton Librarian, for this great effort.

- Sutton Cultural Council grant received and utilized for the
creation and production of a brochure on Society holdings to
be distributed at events. Thank you to member, Dave Pizzi, for
his efforts.

Cemetery Project Update - June 2020

During the period of higher COVID-19 restrictions, members of our Restoration Committee cut and burned a lot of brush and wood debris while maintaining the individual "social distancing" guidelines in this open area.
Still more to do, but the difference is very noticeable in the Sutton Center Cemetery.

More recently, some stones have been reset, including repaired stones, and others cleaned. A few photos are below.

As we have now reached the second round of re-openings, we are going to proceed with our original planned workdays at Sutton Center Cemetery on the second Saturday of each month.

Weather permitting, start day will be Saturday, June 13. We will be on-site starting at 9:00 am

Come with a mask or face shield.

PROGRESS PHOTOS - SUTTON CENTER CEMETERY (behind Town Hall)

BEFORE AFTER

Image above is Elliot stone reset and cleaned. GREAT JOB - Restoration Committee!!!

1816 - The Year without a Summer

Our ancestors weathered crazy times before us.
See a few events noted below

The year 1816 was known as ‘The Year Without a Summer’ in New England because six inches of snow fell in June and every month of the year had a hard frost.

Temperatures dropped to as low as 40 degrees in July and August as far south as Connecticut. People also called it ‘Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death’ and the ‘Poverty Year.’

The Year Without A Summer had a far-reaching impact. Crop failures caused hoarding and big price increases for agricultural commodities. People went hungry. Farmers gave up trying to make a living in New England and started heading west. Politicians who ignored the melancholy plight of their constituents found themselves out of office.

Flurries fell in Boston on June 7. The snow was 18" deep in Cabot, VT, on June 8. One June 11, a temperature of 30.5 degrees was recorded in Williamstown, MA. Frozen birds dropped dead in the fields. Some Vermont farmers who had already shorn their sheep tried to tie their fleeces back on, but many froze to death anyway.

Many people believe the Year Without a Summer was caused by a massive volcanic explosion on Mt. Tambora in Indonesia, killing 15,000 instantly. Soon after, another 65,000 perished of disease and starvation. The volcanic ash and debris thrown up into the stratosphere is thought to have blocked the sun and caused a gradual lowering of temperatures.

The Influenza Epidemic of 1918
Sutton

The great Influenza Epidemic of 1918 appeared in the Blackstone Valley in September 1918. It is believed that Patient 0 was a soldier from Company D 75th Infantry from Camp Devens, who came to Whitinsville to visit. He died in Whitinsville on September 19, 1918. By September 1918, Fort Devens had 9,000 dead, dying and sick.

Sutton's first death came on September 30, 1918. The individual was employed by Whitin Machine Works.

Between September 30, 1918 and December 30, 1918, Sutton lost 19 of its approximately 2,800 residents, including the renowned Manchaug physician,
Dr. Pierre Couilliard.

For more information about the
1918 Influenza Epidemic
Click on Image below
to view film
pbs.org

_________________________________________________________________________________

GRAVESTONE MAINTENANCE WORKSHOP
GREAT SUCCESS!!!
August 25, 2019

Thanks to all who joined in the workshop on Sunday, August 25, 2019 and those restoring the Reverend Hall memorial crypt.
Special thanks to Betty & Carlo Mencucci for sharing their vast knowledge, demonstrating proper methods and giving us opportunities to learn hands-on

Plans are in the works for a workday in September at the Town Center Cemetery. The exact day and time will be determined soon.
The notice will be emailed to those who signed up at the previous event, will be passed out at the Labor Day breakfast, will be published in the
Millbury-Sutton Chronicle and posted on the Sutton Historical Society website and Facebook.

The focus that day will be on resetting the front or back leaning gravestones - which are the most prone to breaking - and honing the skills that Betty & Carlo have taught us. Also, if your preference is to put your effort into cleaning of the gravestones and memorial stones, please join in. And, if you have friends who have expressed interest in - or curiosity about - restoration, please bring them along!

SPECIAL THANKS TO
Tiny Leaf Designs Photography, April Eaton Brown
for the amazing images below from the April 25 event!!!