(NOT) ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HOLLISTON’S HISTORY)

Holliston is currently celebrating 300 years of existence – well, 299 ½ years as of this month. But who is counting?    Let’s get started thinking back and then also perhaps providing future Holliston historians with some ancient history once our descendants take on the task of adding to Holliston’s glorious place in American history. Instead of diving into past efforts to define our town history, another way of looking it is via a “booklet of lists” – tiny facts to expand our minds and understanding of just what took place here over the past three centuries; Here’s a humble start:

The Great and General Court of Massachusetts Bay did all the initial heavy lifting with assistance from the Town of Sherborn. Thank you, neighbor! Our name was even bestowed upon us by those same politicians in Boston. I can imagine once the letter was received out here in the west part of Sherborn now designated a new town …… Thomas who?

What did Thomas do to receive the honor? He donated 1500 pounds per annum to Harvard. The Great and General Court of Massachusetts Bay was gratified. Holliston’s first minister, James Stone reaped a benefit from that money – he received a scholarship that paid for his Harvard education.

Holliston is the only town in America named Holliston. Hollis, New Hampshire (originally Holles, after the Duke of Newcastle), can claim it – at least indirectly. Later residents of Holles, New Hampshire apparently didn’t like the sound of the name – or they had something against the Duke of Newcastle – a couple of nostalgic Harvard graduates from that town fondly remembered Hollis Hall – which WAS named after Thomas Hollis.

Think about how Holliston in many ways has contributed to the fabric of American history:

Holliston is one of the few towns in America that George Washington traveled through.

Holliston is one of the even fewer towns in America where he stopped for a drink – at the Tavern. George actually traveled through a corner of Medway, thanks to Holliston’s old boundary lines: From Underwood Street to almost Summer Street, that was Medway until town lines were re-drawn in 1829. I do wonder if George and his entourage – or even the town of Medway knew that?

Have fun with Google search! There are more than 3 million ‘Holliston’ hits found there on Google. I wonder what the three millionth is, and I am not inspired to track it down, especially as the number changes every day. (History never sleeps!) But certain questions posed to Google can be interesting. For example, how many Holliston residents who lived here in the 18^th century can be found by googling their name? Not genealogical references, but instead, did they accomplish something worth remembering today?  Here’s three: Jacob Miller and friend of Paul Revere (Revolutionary War), Sambo Freeman (civil rights, and we share his legacy with Medway) and Samuel Bullard, Esq (surveyor, mathematician, astronomer, almanac author and publisher).  Are there others? Have at it!

We have Boggastow Brook, Jarr Brook, and Hopping Brook. But what about ‘Chicken’ Brook? The name appears on the earliest maps of Holliston. The Town of Medway have their story about a wagon load of chickens falling in the brook. But could it possibly be a word taken from the local Native American language, just like Boggastow and Jarr? After all, there are two words very close in pronunciation – ‘ckikkinasuog’ (sparks of fire) and ‘chikkup’ (cedar trees, which, by the way, are still found along the banks of the brook. The jury is still out.

October 14, 1910 – Edward Shackford, whose murder in Boston was exclusively chronicled locally in yesterday’s Journal, was the son of Mrs.(Hannah) Ellen Shackford, one of Holliston’s wealthiest residents up to the time of her death in Sept., 1907. She died from hydrophobia, as the result of being bitten by one of her own dogs. The Boston Journal.

Holliston is the birthplace of the waxed paper cutter box, U. S. Patent No. 2,226,477, December 24, 1940. Celebrate our town history every time you rip a sheet of waxed paper – or plastic wrap along that serrated edge! The first known invention awarded to a Holliston resident was given to William Thorn of Holliston along with John Elder of Westbrook, Maine for a “Domestic Oven” known as the “Economist” – Patent number 13,868 on December 4, 1855 (almost a town birthday present). Of course, many Holliston residents earned patents for their inventions for shoes, stoves, cranberry sorting, hose nipple connection and joint, and an improvement on a lady’s garter belt tab. Yes, lady’s! A couple of Holliston women joined the ranks of local inventors!

The people of Holliston have left many footsteps, easy to find if you know where to look for them. Some are large, others faint, but each will tell a story about Holliston, just as we are leaving our faint footsteps waiting for the next pages to be filled with Holliston’s history.