Gradually, more people moved to this settlement but they were still required to attend Sunday sendees and Town Meetings in Dedham Village, which remained the sole religious and political center of the town.

Travel to and from these meetings was always difficult and often dangerous, especially in the winter, because of the poor conditions of the roads through the wilderness that separated the settlements.

In 1730, the citizens began gathering in one another’s homes to discuss petitioning the General Court to be set off as a separate Parish. The petition was finally granted in 1731, officially creating the South Parish of Dedham.

Rev. Thomas Balch, the first minister, was ordained ln 1736 in a mooting house located near the present library site. The location was prophetic, for the Rev. Balch later began the first circulating library in the town.

With the establishment of the Parish, South Dedham Village became a community in itself and the meeting house and parsonage became the focus of the community life in South Dedham. At the passing away of anyone in the village, the church bell would peal in the early morning, tolling twice for a man and three times for a woman and then striking the number of times that the person was years old.

For many years to come, the voice of the church was the voice of the village: Its joy, its grief, its authority.

By Marguerite Krupp, Originally published in the 1972 Centennial Magazine

dummy-img

It was called TIOT, “the place to cross the water.”

By Marguerite Krupp, Originally published in the 1972 Norwood Centennial Magazine The Indians who lived near the Great Blue Hill…

Related:  1923 Planning Board Report-Streets Near Norwood Railroad Station
dummy-img

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.…

dummy-img

Norwood’s Living History-“The Hook” Is Born

ln 1806, when the Norfolk and Bristol turnpike was laid down along present Washington Street, it brought even more business…

dummy-img

Norwood’s Living History-Manufacturing Begins

In 1849, the sound of pick and shovel on the Norfolk County Railroad re-awakened agricultural South Dedham to its industrial…

dummy-img

Norwood’s Living History-Independence

In this atmosphere, the frictions between Dedham and its South Parish, which had been building since 1734, finally set off…

dummy-img

Norwood’s Living History-Post War Norwood

The dream of “home” that sustained so many soldiers during the long war years began to take tangible form when…

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.