Norwood’s Living History-Colonial War Years

The years between the founding of the South Dedham Parish and the Revolutionary War were busy ones in South Dedham.

The first schoolhouse was voted in 1710.

War touched the village again when six South Dedham men were called to serve in the British Army in campaigns in the West Indies. All six died of the mortal illness that plagued the troop.

In 1741, the Old Burying Ground (Ed, Old Parish Cemetery) was given to the town by Captain Ebenezer Woodward to remedy a need in the community.

The Seige of Louisburg in 1745, which was fought to secure American colonial shipping against the French privateers, also claimed ã number of men from the South Parish. A monument to their memory is carved in a boulder in Guild Square. Many who later fought in the Revolution got their first taste of military life during the siege.

South Dedham was not included in the general area of fighting during the Revolution, but British soldiers were known to march down the Old Roebuck Post Road, now Pleasant Street, as they patrolled the area between Boston and New York.

A stone in front of the Library is a monument to Captain Aaron Guild, one of the South Dedham men who fought in the War for Independence. Aaron Guild, however, was not the only one from South Dedham to answer the call of April 19, 1775.

More than 60 men responded to “the shot heard ’round the world” while those who remained at home bravely bore the human costs of sacrifices and suffering, as well as increased taxes and frequent requisitions for the Continental Army.

Even as the War was going on a new age was being born, industry and transportation emerged again as major forces shaping the town.

The building of Abner Guild’s tannery in 1776 was of more immediate local importance than the War. The presence of the tannery and the sawmill led to the building of “Sawmill Way” along the present Walpole street, inaugurating the area of transportation.

Taking advantage of the increasing commerce brought by the new roads, Paul Ellis built a tavern on the Old County Road, thus creating Norwood’s first traffic bottleneck.

By Marguerite Krupp, Originally published in the 1972 Centennial Magazine