News

Southborough Historical Society

Southborough, MA

News

Historical Society Receives Funding For Two Projects (Summer, 2006) - An affirmative vote by Town Meeting has provided the Historical Society with funding for a project that will not only protect but also allow for public display some of Southborough’s oldest documents.

Display Case

The Historical Society applied for over ten thousand dollars of Community Preservation Act monies to purchase a safe for storage of the documents, have a display case custom made, and have the documents digitally photographed.

The safe is large enough so documents may be laid flat in archival protective folders on shelving and other items may be kept in archival storage boxes. Inside is a humidity control rod that will keep the environment friendly to the items stored inside.

The funding will also be used to have a display case built to exhibit the documents and other historic papers, photos, and artifacts in the old room of the Southborough Library. The display case will have glass that protects fading from ultra-violet light sources, glass shelving, and be constructed of wood to match the quarter-sawn oak woodwork in that section of the Library. The Library Commissioners have welcomed this project by the Historical Society and the Director has provided a space in a high traffic area of the Library that will assure that the display is seen by the many daily visitors.

Also, The Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities has awarded a Research Inventory Grant ($1000 maximum) to the Historical Society in the amount of nine hundred and ninety-eight dollars. The funding was used to purchase archival storage boxes and materials. To qualify for the grant a specific research question had to be answered pertaining to the collection that is inventoried. Our application question was stated as; “will an inventory of our late 18th and 19th century tax records and town reports yield enough information to support a lecture or exhibit relating to Southborough’s triphammer.

Remains of an Old Wheeldriven Triphammer

The Massachusetts Archives holds a 1795 map of the mill industries which were located along Stony Brook in Southborough. Also indicated on this map is a triphammer, a large, water-powered hammer used for pounding and shaping iron. In 1895 the Boston Water Works built a dam on Stony Brook creating a reservoir that covered 25% of the town with water including the triphammer site. Many towns in colonial Massachusetts had saw mills and grist mills but rarely did they have a triphammer. Southborough’s may have been the first to be built inland and in Worcester County.

Treasurers Vouchers stored for over 200 years reveal much about the towns history

The town records ( currently being catalogued )indicate the type of work and purchases the town experienced during the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. (RH)