A New Raspberry
02 May 1874, Sat New England Farmer
Among the novelties of the fruit garden, introduced in the present season, is a new raspberry from Norwood, Mass., said to be a hybrid between the red raspberry and the black cap, and having the good qualities of both. The great objection to the improved sorts, now under cultivation, is their tendency to die down during our cold winters. If the “Norwood” proves to be what is claimed for it, it will be a valuable acquisition. See advertisement.
Man Fights Off Attempted Holdup at Norwood Garage
02 May 1942, Sat The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) Newspapers.com
NORWOOD, May 2, 1942—Charles Fanning, 65, of 103 Winslow ave., frustrated an attempted holdup at gas station at the intersection of Walpole and Wilson streets, shortly after noon today by four or five young men in a car who fled when Fanning attacked one-armed assailant with a quart bottle of oil.
Fanning was slugged on the head by the butt of a gun in the hands of one of the holdup men who attacked him while he was bending over to procure a bottle of oil requested by his assailant who posed as a customer.
Fanning was staggered by the attack, but quickly grabbed a full bottle and threw it at his armed assailant who fled into the street and joined a car filled with youths. Fanning said the car was an out-of-state auto. The young gunman fled, empty-handed.
The car headed in the direction of Norwood Center, and the police cruising car went on the trail without success.
Nicholas Abdallah Dies in Norwood; Noted Sports Fan
Obituary for Nicholas Abdallah (Aged 72) 03 May 1961
NORWOOD, May 3—Nicholas Abdallah, 72, of 1027 Washington st., operator of a hardware store here for more than 50 years, died today.
A well-known sportsman and a backer of local sporting events for years. Abdallah was known as the “Mayor of South Norwood*’ by two generations.
He was a member of the Norwood Lodge of Elks, Norwood Chamber of Commerce, Norwood Grange and a former member of the board of governors of the Norwood Civic Assn.
Surviving are his wife, Rashede, and a son, John A., a member of the Norwood Board of Selectmen.
NORWOOD GROWTH MAKING RECORDS
Mighty Change After Two Score Years of Independence
Thousands of Artisans Find Homes In An Old Colonial Village.
04 May 1909, Tue The Boston Globe
By A. J. PHILPOTT.
NORWOOD. May 3, 1909—This town had been in a trance for about 235 years before it woke up to the fact that it was of age and had a right to its independence. That was in 1871 and the following year the inhabitants of that portion of South Dedham known as Norwood were given permission by the legislature to set up housekeeping for themselves as the town of Norwood.
It had had an indifferent existence as a part of Dedham up to that time. As a community it had done its honorable share in the early Indian wars, in the taking of Louisburg in 1745, in the revolution and the civil war, but it had done nothing of much importance for itself.
It had had a tannery, a paper manufactory, a furniture factory, a foundry, and Samuel Morrill, an old printer, had established a small place for the manufacture of printers’ ink in 1856, as a result of which he and especially his descendants became very’ wealthy.
In 1873 the old New England railroad established car shops in Norwood, and this gave the town a little boost. It had a population of 1749 in 1875 and Dedham had 5756 the same year. But it took Norwood very nearly 20 years more to fully wake up, and since then it has stepped into the spot light and taken its place on the map as one of the most wideawake towns in Massachusetts, with a population the present year of our Lord of more than 8000 people, which is going some for a Massachusetts town.
Has Caught Up With Dedham.
It has fully caught up with its parent Dedham and is about the most enterprising little town in Norfolk county today with a splendid municipal lighting plant, fine water works, a good sewerage system, excellent schools, fine churches and good roads, most of which have been built within a few years.
It Is up-to-date in nearly everything, and if the steam railroad would put up something a little larger than a flag station at Norwood the casual passerby might know it was on the map.
Then Norwood had a sort of second awakening in 1892, when a committee of its citizens decided to hunt up “new business.’’ George S. Winslow was chairman of that committee. Norwood had little to offer by way of inducement for manufacturing enterprises. It had no water power except the Neponset river, which was used principally as a sewer for the tanneries, paper mills, etc. There was a good deal of vacant land about the town and it was decided to purchase some of this and present it to a concern or concerns that would establish manufacturing enterprises.
Canvassing for Business.
“Ed” Shattuck, who ran the ink factory, and was a son-in-law of George Morrill, met “Jim” Berwick, a Boston printer, one day and asked the latter why he didn’t move his business out to Norwood, where he would at least have plenty of light and air, and cheap rent, and further, he would be near the ink factory.
Berwick’s business was largely press work, and used considerable ink. In the same building with Berwick on Summer st was J. Stearns Cushing, another printer of school text books. It is work that requires care and accuracy in the extreme. Mr. Cushing urged Berwick to go, but finally went himself, the Norwood board of trade giving nine acres of land and $7000 cash with which to put up a plant. Cushing, Berwick & Co, a bookbinding concern, established in 1893 a publishing plant employing now more than 1000 hands. Since then another large printing plant has been established there.
Norwood got back all it ever gave the new concern in five years in water rates, and perhaps there is no better indication of the growth of the town of Norwood than the receipts from water rates. In 1893 the receipts were $7647.89, and in 1908 they were $21,620.60. This water department of the town showed a profit over all expenses last year of $12,331.34.
So, where Norwood was formerly somewhat celebrated for its printing inks it is now celebrated for its printing, and there is no doubt but this industry has brought at least 3000 people to the town, nearly all of whom are of the “skilled” class and “very desirable” citizens.
Mr Berwick has also given the town an excellent club house, largely for the use of his employees. It cost about $40,000, and has a fine library, reading rooms, concert hall and athletic appointments.
There was nothing in the traditions of Norwood to attract a printing business to the place and the success of the whole affair is due to J. Stearns Cushing and “Jim” Berwick.
Boosting a Factory.
A new personality has come to the front in Norwood, however, during the past decade in George F. Willet, a young man from Walpole, who married a daughter of George S. Winslow. Mr Willett took hold of the tannery and gave it a boost, and now manufactures 60 percent of the sheepskins used in New England in the boot and shoe industry.
Mr Willet, who is only 39 years old and who came to Norwood without a dollar, is one of the largest wool brokers in the United States, and he is head of a company controlling 17 different mills. He is also interested in a dye manufacturing concern and in a printing machine company.
The old paper mills of Isaac Ellis disappeared from Norwood some years ago, but the Bird paper mills on the East Walpole line have flourished and give employment to some 900 people, most of whom live in Norwood.
Then there is the Hollingsworth & Vose paper mills, employing about 300 hands on wrapping papers principally. Another comparatively new enterprise is that of pancake innersoles made from scraps of sheepskin.
A new business which is coming to the town this summer and will employ eventually about 500 hands is the manufacture of brake shoes, which will occupy a portion of the old car shops.
Cost of Development.
In order to get a good fire department, good schools, an adequate sewerage system and a lighting plant it incurred a rather large debt a few years ago and jumped the taxes from $18.40 in 1907 to $25.50 in 1908. But they are coming down to about $20.50 this year. It took some courage to do this, but nobody in Norwood got scared and everybody now sees it was wise. The total indebtedness of the town is $349,296.47. It has a sinking fund of $37,753.53, and it has something to show in the way of civic assets and civic improvements for every cent it has spent. The valuation of the town is figured at $6,100,660.
The town has a splendid library, the gift of Miss Sarah Bond Morrill, daughter of Mr and Mrs George H. Morrill. It is Romanesque in style, built of granite, with a red-tiled roof. It has grown more and more popular since it was dedicated in 1902 and, like all such up-to-date institutions, is beginning to make itself felt as a power and adjunct to the educational system of the town.
There are some excellent schools in Norwood, but it needs a new high school. There is some talk of adding a “vocational school’’ to the public school system. in which boys in shops can be given courses in the trades in which they are engaged, much the same as in Germany and at Fitchburg and Leominster in tills state.
Municipal Lighting Plant.
The municipal lighting plant, which was finished a year ago last September cost some $80,000. Already 35 miles of streets are lighted by the new plant and the people are generally taking the light in their houses. Some of the manufacturing plants are also taking power from the plant.
Norwood has a very good fire department. except that it doesn’t get much practice. There were only eight box alarms last year and in no case was the fire serious. The new central fire station cost $30,000.
The sewerage system has been very nearly completed. It empties into filter beds, which are said to work perfectly. AH of the manufacturing establishments will be connected with this system in the course of another year. It cost about $196,000. The filter beds cover 6 1/2 acres.
A new Catholic church is approaching completion in the center of the town and on the opposite corner of the same street is the Universalist church. There are also large congregations of Baptists. Methodists and Congregationalists. There are about 1000 Finns and Poles in the town and every one of them is regarded as a ’desirable citizen’. They are hard workers and well liked.
May Be a City Soon.
The town is about equally divided between republicans and democrats, but there are a great many independents, especially in town affairs. The town hasn’t much of a town hall, but it will probably have a new city hall before it lays out any money on a town hall. If it keeps on the pace it has been traveling the past five years it will have enough population to make a city in another five years.
There are some splendid residences in Norwood—in fact some of them should be designated as estates—but the bulk of the houses are ‘‘homes” for a good, healthy, middle class of people. They are neat, and the roads and streets are neat and the whole place has an air of being up-to-date. There is good electric car connections with all the surrounding towns and with Boston.
Norwood is touched by two lines of steam cars—the Midland division of the New York. New Haven & Hartford, and the Wrentham branch of the Providence division of the same system. It is 15 miles from Boston.
There is nothing the matter with Norwood.
NORWOOD LADS HELD FOR DEFACING TOMB
Judge Also Orders Perjury Charge Against Pair
04 May 1932, Wed The Boston Globe
DEDHAM, May 4—Two Norwood youths, Patrick Curran, 18, of Warren st, and Everett Saunders of Nahatan st, were held in $1500 each for the Grand Jury today when Judge Clifford B. Sanborn of the Dedham District Court found probable cause on two complaints of carrying a revolver and defacing a tomb in a Norwood cemetery. The bench also ordered a third complaint, of perjury, brought against the two youths.
Chief William H, Sullivan of the Norwood place, charged that on April 9 the boys shot a number of holes through the mausoleum in the Hillside Cemetery, Norwood, owned by Frank O. Winslow, father-in-law of Ex-Gov Frank G. Allen. The youths, Chief Sullivan testified, also shot at other tombstones in the cemetery and at the Norwood water tower.
The perjury charge against the pair was ordered by Judge Sanborn when Saunders, on the witness stand, denied certain details of an alleged confession Chief Sullivan had produced in his previous testimony.
Judge Sanborn ordered each youth held in $500 on each of the three complaints, a total of $1500 for each boy.
GEORGE H. MORSE, WIDELY KNOWN IN NORWOOD, DEAD
Obituary for GEORGE H. MORSE (Aged 83) 07 May 1917
NORWOOD. May 6, 1917—George H. Morse, one of the oldest and best-known residents of Norwood, died this morning after a few days’ illness, aged 83, at his home, 1319 Washington st.
Mr Morse was born here Feb 12, 1834. He was the son of Joseph and Millie (Dean) Morse and came from families of old settlers. He was a member of the first Board of Selectmen when Norwood was set off as a separate town, and a former chief engineer of the Norwood Fire Department. He was a former member of the old Norwood Brass Band and of the old South Dedham Band which preceded it. Up to a few days ago he was very active for one of his age.
He was famous at one time as an auctioneer, but had been a farmer all his life and had dealt considerably in real estate, accumulating much property.
He was a member of Orient Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and Hebron Royal Arch Chapter of Norwood, of Hyde Park Council, R. & S. M., and Cyprus Commandery, K. T., of Hyde Park and of Aleppo Temple, Mystic Shrine, of Boston. He also belonged to Tiot Lodge. I. O. O. F., of Norwood. He is survived by a daughter, Miss Florence Morse.
The funeral will be held Tuesday afternoon at 2 o’clock at the First Congregational Church.