  In 1879, the Massachusetts Legislature voted to allow women to vote for school committee members. This small step eventually led to full women's suffrage in 1920, and it is interesting to see how many women took advantage of their new freedom. This document, found in our archives, lists eight women residing in Sutton, who "desire to vote in School matters". They wished to be able to vote for members of the School Committee for the Brick School House district of the town. Of course, rights come with responsibilities, and in this case, the right to vote came with the assessed tax of 50 cents per head. We can learn a little about these women from this document. Firstly, they must have been willing and able to afford the tax that came with voting rights. Secondly, they had to be over 21. Thirdly, women wishing to vote needed to be able to read and write in the English language. Here we see a second page, where each woman was required to write her name, presumably to prove she could meet this requirement. So who were these women?
Wives, widows and spinsters, with an average age of 57 years old. All were living within a few houses of each other in South Sutton, and many were related. Alvira was Lorinda's daughter, Sally her sister-in-law, and Abigail and Annah her sisters. Clara was Eliza's daughter and is an outlier in terms of age, being only 25 years old. However, her circumstances were unusual, as her husband had recently begun proceedings to divorce her, and she was fighting to keep custody of her young daughter Lillian. Involving herself in local affairs was a good way to establish her good character for the judge, and keep an eye on her child. Eliza J. Hewitt was unrelated to the other women, the wife of Barnabas Hewitt. You can see many of the last names appear on this 1870 map.  Note that this part of Sutton is now mostly east of Rt.146, and lies close to the border with Northbridge. In fact, the town history tells us that "the brick school-house was built in the fall of 1822, and known as the Union school-house, a part of the district being in Northbridge." p. 363. I was delighted to discover that this unique school house, described as "one of the best in town" in 1876, is still standing at 583 Mendon Road, Sutton. 
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Click here to read the Woonsocket Call from July 6, 1920. The paper gives extensive details of the events in Manchaug on July 5,1920 for the Fourth of July which included a 5:00 am Horribles Parade, a 9:30 am parade, field day events, baseball games, and dancing and refreshments in the Tucker Grove from 2 pm - 8 pm. Parade float winners, field event winners, organizers, and more are detailed in the article. The Society is still seeking more photos or memorabilia from this event which was touted as the "Biggest Affair in the Town for 25 Years"  Postcard 21 Location has been identified thanks to Marian King.
Marian and her father, Don King, resided at 5 Whitins Road which is the home pictured below of the fire department. Don was a founding member of the Sutton Historical Society. Thanks, Marian!! In 1920, the Village of Manchaug, a company-owned town of approximately 1,600 residents of mostly French-Canadian descent, owned by the B. B. & R Knight Manufacturing Company producing muslin cloth under the Fruit of the Loom trademark, had a large parade. The following photos are from an incomplete postcard series obtained from a variety of sources. Each photo has a small number in the bottom corner. The parade appears to be in celebration of the 4th of July. Several floats are hosted by a mill department, ie Machine Shop and Weaving. The Society is interested in obtaining copies of any of the missing postcards from the series, photos of the event, newspaper clippings, or diary accounts of the event. Reach us at [email protected] or through our contact page. Identification of any individuals in the photos would be appreciated  A return of Sutton militia in companies in the Regiment commanded by Ebenezer Learned, March 18th, 1885 A month before the Lexington Alarm, Sutton was asked to provide the number of men it had in its militia companies. John Blanchard was given the task and this document was the result. Each company lists men, flintlocks, powder, bullets, flints, swords or bayonets, and cartridge boxes. Sutton had six companies:
This totals 550 men. Unfortunately, there were only 400 flintlocks, and the provision of powder was worse, with only 371 measures available. Regardless of their ammunition shortcomings, it must have been an incredible sight, seeing hundreds of Sutton men training in the center of town, knowing that at any moment they might be called to fight for their freedom.  Images from the collection "Sutton (Mass.) : Records [manuscript], 1683-1883; 1940." Courtesy, American Antiquarian Society.
 Unidentified miniature photograph from the Lowe-Fuller collection It Sutton Historical Society exists because of its supporters. We rely upon generous people with an interest in preserving the history of Sutton for the future, both financially and in the form of donations to our collection. We are always happy to hear from anyone who has items that relate to our mission. If you wish to donate them we are working towards being able to provide permanent, secure storage. If you would like to make them accessible for others, then we can digitize photographs and documents and you may keep the original. In 2025 we received a number of donations, and are working through processing them and adding them to our collection. One such donation was a large box of photographs and other ephemera relating to several local families that are underrepresented in our collection. We have chosen to give this collection the working title of the "Lowe-Fuller collection" as these families are the most predominant in the collection. The small photograph album from the collection is shared below. Dexter Daniel Lowe (1834-1917), a shoe cutter, married Jane Elizabeth Putnam (1837-1866) of Grafton at the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Dorchester, Boston, on 3 September, 1857. Dexter had only recently moved to Sutton, and it is unclear why the couple decided to marry outside the town. This photograph album likely belonged to Dexter, or his mother, Hannah (Buckley) Lowe, as it includes photographs of Jane, as well as Dexter's second wife's family. It was also clearly added to over time, rather than compiled in one go. Jane (Putnam) Lowe died in 1866, and Dexter remarried two years later. His second wife was Nancy Almira Barney (1843-1933), from Williston, Chittenden, Vermont. It is uncertain when Nancy met Dexter, but her brother had relocated from Vermont to Sutton a few years earlier, so she was possibly visiting the town. The captions below the photographs are a later addition, probably by Barbara Louise Lowe (1912-1983) or her brother, Walter Lowe (1909-1973). These siblings were children of Walter Albert Lowe (1860-1939) and his wife, Anna Louisa Fuller (1872-1938)
Names, and tentative identifications, appearing in the album:
Stella Osborne was Nancy Barney's sister
Dennis Perkins Barney was Nancy Barney's eldest brother
Nancy Barney's mother was Stella Abigail Isham (1809-1885). Hiram was her cousin.
For my recent "Sutton's Revolutionary War" presentation, I was given permission to look through Sutton's town records. Our town is lucky that the early meeting and treasurer records are well preserved, and have been rebound so they are accessible for any researcher to leaf through without worrying about damage. Although I was looking for soldiers, I took photographs of any page that caught my eye, knowing that those rabbit holes are the ones that often lead to the most interesting places. This was one such page.  This page, dated 1776, begins and ends with monies paid to refurbish the "grate gun" - a cannon which was received as a replacement for the one we sent with John Sibley on 19 April 1775, which was never returned. As an aside - this replacement was not a good one and pages of the treasurer's records are devoted to payments to replace or fix up parts of it. The entries in between relate to payments for caring for the poor. 1. Caleb Chase is paid one pound, five shillings and four pence for a cow for the Widow Kenney. 2. Edward Putnam is paid three pounds, 12 shillings to support Hannah Wakefield "a non compos child" 3. Daniel Buckman is paid nine pounds, six shillings and two pence for suporting "Anna Kinney a non compos child with food and rament from the fifteenth day of May 1775 to the 7th of June 1776"  "Non compos" was a term used to describe those who were considered incompetant to manage their own affairs. It is most often seen in documents relating to the elderly. Steps would be taken to place the "non compos" person under guardianship arrangements to ensure their property was managed, and their needs cared for. In this case, we have two "non compos" children being cared for by men who are, at first glance, unrelated to them. This article outlines the likely identity of Anna Kinney. Abigail Davis of Western (now Warren) married Daniel Kenney Jr. in Sutton on 29 April 1751. The couple had four children, with Rose-Ann being the youngest, born on 11 December 1757. This is our Anna Kinney. Less than a year after her birth, Daniel Kenney was killed in battle in Albany, New York during the French and Indian Wars. His wife charged his estate to bring her husband's body and wages home - paying Deacon Gould and Edward Lyon to provide this service. Within four years, Abigail had remarried. There are no guardianship documents for her children, so we can assume that they were still being cared for by their mother. Abigail's second husband, Jabez Pratt was also widowed, with six children from his first marriage and the couple would have two more children before Jabez' death in early 1774. Once again, no death record has been found, but we can assume a death date from probate documents. Abigail was bound to administer Jabez' estate on 8 March 1774. The process was complete on 8 April of the same year, and ten days later Abigail married Daniel Buckman. Abigail gave birth to her final child, Russell, on 2 February 1775. Daniel Buckman is the man named in our treasurer record above, charging the town for taking care of Anna Kinney. In 1775, Rose-Ann Kenney would have been 18 years old, so technically still a child. Daniel himself was 77, with grown children making their own way in the world. He died in 1783, leaving the majority of his estate to his wife and youngest son. Abigail died in Millbury in 1814. Rose-Ann's fate is unknown. References
"Non compos mentis, or, The law relating to natural fools, mad-folks, and lunatick persons inquisited and explained for common benefit / by John Brydall, Esq." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A29951.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed December 30, 2025. Vital records of Sutton, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849. Worcester : Franklin P. Rice, 1907. Worcester County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1731-1881. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.) Administration documents for Daniel Kenney, 1758. Case: 34783. https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1635/rd/30222/34783-co1/682825217 : accessed 30 December 2025) Worcester County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1731-1881. Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.) Administration documents for Jabez Pratt, 1774. Case 47679. (https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1635/rd/30216/47679-co1/682665000 : accessed 30 December 2025) The announcement below appeared in the Kenosha Telegraph, on August 17, 1883.  This article in a Wisconsin newspaper does not at first seem to have any link to Sutton, Massachusetts. But this is the story of a young boy and a very long journey, and does indeed begin in our small town. One Poor Apprentice Isabella Santee, a woman of color, first appeared in Massachusetts in the Resolves of the General Court of 1811, when Sutton charged the State with $65.47 for boarding and doctoring Isabella and her children1. She was not legally settled in Sutton, and did not become so during her lifetime. Instead, her support was entirely delegated to the Common Treasury. In total, she had at least six children born between 1804 and 1820. Isabella’s eldest son Andrew was taken from her by the Overseers of the Poor of Sutton, and sent to work for Joshua Miller, a leather tanner who lived in Rehoboth. Andrew’s indenture bond dated February 26 1818 was drawn up by Daniel Woodbury, Nathan Lumbard, and Samuel Taylor. It required Andrew to be employed “in any lawful work or trade or farmer” until October 6th 1826, when he turned 21 (“if the said Andrew be living”). This twelve-year-old boy had the following terms imposed upon him: “he shall do no Damage to his said master or mistress nor willingly suffer any to be done by others and if any to his knowledge be intended he shall give his master and mistress notice […] he shall not waste the goods of his said master and mistress nor bind them unlawfully to any cards and dice or any other unlawful game he shall not play. Fornication he shall not commit nor matrimony contract during the said term. To ale houses or plays of gaming he shall not haunt or frequent. From his masters service he shall not absent himself but in all things and at all times he shall carry and behave himself as a good and faithfull servant aught during the whole time aforesaid” In return, Joshua Miller agreed to teach Andrew “in the art of labouring at a trade or farming” as well as to read, write and cypher (“if he is capable of learning”). He also agreed to provide the child with “sufficient meat and drink, cloathing and lodging and other necessaries fit and convenient for such a boy”. Upon the expiration of the indenture, Andrew was to be given a woolen suit of clothes. These terms are common to indentures of this period. Sometimes apprentices would be given ‘freedom dues’ – a sum of money, but in this case, a set of clothing was all Andrew could expect after 9 years of unpaid service. Very occasionally, an arrangement of this sort turned out well. Isaiah Thomas was bound at the age of seven to a printer named Zachariah Fowle. Although he ran away from the apprenticeship, the skills he learned therein served him well when he started The Massachusetts Spy newspaper2. Few poor children achieved this level of success, but Andrew Santee does appear to be one of the luckier ones. He left his apprenticeship (it is not known if he finished it or broke the terms of the indenture) and made his way north to Vermont. Andrew is first named in the decennial census in 1830, as the head of a multigenerational household – most likely two or three Black families cohabiting in Bristol, VT. By 1834 he was established enough to purchase the land and trip-hammer shop he had been renting from Nathan Drake, for $300.3 This was a considerable sum for the time – the equivalent of over $10,000 today. Given that he was apprenticed to a leather tanner in Rehoboth, how did he learn the skills to run his trip-hammer shop? And where did he get the money from? 1840 finds Andrew Santee in a single-family household with his wife and three boys under 10. We know the identities of these boys from later census records, although in common with many minority groups of the time, there are scant vital records to help our research. Andrew Santee met Lois Hunter (1812-1875) at some point before 1834. No marriage record has yet been found, but their children were Cornelius (1834-1914), George (1836-?), and Andrew (1838-1857). Andrew and his family then decided to relocate to Wisconsin. As the town they settled upon later became known as Bristol, he likely moved with other Vermonters from the same place. He set up as a blacksmith and owned $400 of real estate in 1850. Homesteading in the Midwest in the 19th century cannot have been easy, and several newspaper articles attest to problems along the way, but the Santee family persevered, until Andrew’s death at age 77. Records from later in his life give no clue, beyond the State of Andrew’s birth, as to his origins. It was only with the chance discovery of a single document that I was able to link the poor child from Sutton and the venerable settler from Wisconsin. Genealogical research thrives on these unusual discoveries, but it is not always easy. AUTHOR’S NOTE
I believe that archival collections, and the research undertaken therein, should represent an entire community. However, their contents are often biased in favor of the wealthy, the influential, and the notorious, as these are groups who leave the most evidence of their lives. Wills, letters, newspaper articles, deeds, and other documents all combine to give us a clear picture of the lives of these notables. But for the poor, the transient, racial and ethnic minorities, and women, it can be a different story. Sutton has a relatively complete set of vital records, but not every person born in the town had their birth recorded. The poor, the unhoused, Native Americans, and people of color were only sporadically recorded, making the process of researching these groups increasingly difficult the further back we travel. We have to turn to alternative records, the marginal notes of history, deductions based on documents featuring no names, and negative space – the use of what does NOT appear to infer events. The inspiration for this article was a collection of such alternative records. In this case, nineteen indentures held by the Sutton Historical Society. They include details of seventeen children, ranging in age from 5 to 16 as well as two adults. Details of the names of the indentured children and their masters are available on request (email [email protected]) This is not a complete list of all children bound out in Sutton. I am sure that there are more in the collections of the Society yet to be rediscovered, and in the collections of other towns – where children from elsewhere were bound to Sutton families. I discovered four early indentures on the Digital Commonwealth4 website, which is well worth a look – it’s a state-wide project to digitize local museum collections and make them accessible to researchers worldwide. Andrew Santee’s life story is still just a sketch. It has huge gaps, and some facts will never be confirmed. But I feel that we should continue to research our ancestors and share their stories, even if they did nothing of import, and especially if their names do not live on in our road-, building- or place-names. I aim to remember the forgotten. REFERENCES 1. Resolves of the General Court of Massachusetts, passed at the session begun and holden at Boston, on the thirtieth day of May, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and ten. Boston: Adams, Rhoades & Co., 1810. p.262 2. Murray, John E., and Ruth Wallis Herndon. “Markets for Children in Early America: A Political Economy of Pauper Apprenticeship.” The Journal of Economic History, vol. 62, no. 2, 2002, pp. 358. JSTOR, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2698184] 3. Williamson, Jane. “African Americans in Addison County, Charlotte, and Hinesburgh, Vermont, 1790-1860.” Vermont History, vol. 78, no. 1, 2010, p 26. [https://vermonthistory.org/journal/78/VHS780102_15-42.pdf] 4. http://digitalcommonwealth.org From the History of the Town of Sutton volume 1.  On April 19, 1775, 150 men in four companies of Minutemen, plus a cannon, marched from Sutton in response to the Alarm sounded on that day.
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