Edwin Thompson was born in 1809 in Lynn, Massachusetts where he was educated at a Quaker School. As a teenager he took up the abolitionist cause and quickly became active in the Young Men’s Anti-Slavery Society of Lynn. By the early 1830s, he was engaged as a speaker throughout Massachusetts often in the company of abolitionist leaders William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips. Thompson was among the abolitionist lecturers who influenced escaped slave Frederick Douglass to take on a public role in the anti-slavery cause.

Thompson embraced the Universalist faith in 1833 and was the minister at South Dedham from 1841 until 1846. While the leader of this community’s Universalists, in April of 1844, he spoke – alongside Frederick Douglass – at a meeting of the Norfolk County Anti-Slavery Society held in Dedham. During this time period and through the Civil War, Thompson’s home at 12 East Street in East Walpole was a safe house for runaway slaves heading to Canada.

Well-loved, jovial, and without bias of any kind, Thompson, who was nicknamed “Little Thompson” due to his short stature, was also a leader in the Total Abstinence Movement. He organized a temperance chapter in South Dedham and convinced local tavern owner Joseph Sumner to join the cause by buying up Sumner’s existing stock of liquor.

Rev. Edwin Thompson died in his East Walpole home in May of 1888 at the age of 79. A few months earlier, in December of 1887, Frederick Douglass recalled how clearly he remembered the powerful effect Thompson and his friend, the anti-slavery poet John Greenleaf Whittier, had upon audiences in New Bedford during their abolitionist campaign.

Rev. Harrison Greenough Park (1806-1876)

and Family

Home of Civil War widow Julia Bird Park Hale - 1921

John Henry Hale Memorial Bernardston, MA

Harrison G. Park was born in 1896 and graduated from Brown University in 1824. Following his graduation, he studied theology and law. He was ordained as minister of the South Church of Dedham in 1829.

In 1830, he married Julia Bird, daughter of George Bird who began paper manufacturing in East Walpole. The couple lived in a house in South Dedham that was later occupied by Dr. Fogg, and later still, was the first headquarters of the Norwood Cooperative Bank. The couple had 4 children: Abigail, George, Harrison Jr., and Wisner, all born in the house. Julia Bird Park died in 1835. A few months later, in September, 1835, Park left the South Church of Dedham and served in parishes in Danvers, Massachusetts, and Burlington, Bernardstown, and Westminster, Vermont.

In 1837 he married for a second time. His wife was Elizabeth Bird, daughter of George Bird, and sister of his first wife, Julia. The couple had 6 children: Julia, Ebenezer, Henry, Montgomery, Calvin, and Francis.

The eldest child of this second marriage, Julia Bird Park (1838-1921) was born in 1838; she was named after Elizabeth’s sister/Park’s first wife, Elizabeth. Julia Park was married in 1863 to John Henry Hale of Bernardston, Massachusetts, a community in which her father had served as pastor. The couple settled in Westminster, Vermont. 

John Henry Hale (1837-1864) enlisted in the Civil War. He was killed in the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864. He is buried with his wife Julia Bird Park Hale in the Old Parish Cemetery alongside her family. (An additional interesting note. There is a stone engraved to John Henry Hale’s memory in Bernardston. After contacting parties there, it seems that this stone, which also lists the name of John Henry’s brother, was erected as a memorial to the two at a later date.)

The Park family suffered another loss during the Civil War as well. Elizabeth and Harrison’s son, Henry Martin Park (1842-1864), enlisted in the 40th Massachusetts Volunteers at the age of 20.  The 40th was organized at Camp Stanton in Lynnfield, Massachusetts in August of 1862 and mustered for a 3-year enlistment. The Regiment was attached to the 2nd Brigade. Stationed primarily near Washington, DC, they marched in pursuit of Lee to Berlin, Maryland in July of 1863 and also sailed to Folly Island, SC in August of that year. They were in Hilton Head, SC during January of 1864. By May of 1864 the Regiment was back in the Richmond, VA area. Henry M. Park was wounded three times in battle. On May 20th, 1864, he was taken to the hospital at Fortress Monroe in Virginia and died there on June 18, 1864. He is buried in Old Parish Cemetery with his father and mother.

Two more of Harrison Park’s sons, Wisner and Ebenezer, enlisted in support of the union during the Civil War as well. Both survived. Wisner became a Captain during the conflict and participated in much of the hard service of the Army of the Potomac. He died in 1919 and is buried in the Canton Corner Cemetery. Ebenezer Burgess Park became dentist and well-respected citizen of Neosho County, Kansas.

After her husband’s death, Julia Bird Park Hale returned to South Dedham, where her father occasionally preached at local services. Rev. Park died in 1876 just shy of his 70th birthday. For many years Julia lived with her widowed mother, Elizabeth Bird Park, and her sister, A. Elizabeth Park, who was a school teacher. Later, she lived on Nahatan Street with her sister-in-law Rachel Park and her niece, Ida Park.

Julia never remarried. She died in 1921 at 83, certainly one of the oldest Civil War widows in Norwood.

Francis Tinker 1816-1896

Francis Tinker, apothecary and for 23 years the town clerk, passed away on June 6, 1896 at his home on Cottage Street. He was 80 years, 5 months, 1 day old.

Francis Tinker was born in Worthington, MA and lived for many years in Ashby, MA where he was postmaster, town clerk, librarian, and wrote a history of the town. He moved to South Dedham around 1867, and opened a small drugstore at the corner of Nahatan and Washington Streets. For a time, he lived on Maple Street.

In 1872 at the incorporation of Norwood, he was elected the first town clerk. He recorded all proceedings in a clear, even, legible hand. He held that office for 23 years until age and ill health caused him to resign. His resignation was accepted at the town meeting of 9 March 1895. He served as trustee to the library too, assisting in its re-organization and making its first catalog after the library was owned by the town. 

A lover of books, especially history, Tinker prepared a sketch of the town for publication in the History of Norfolk County. His history also appeared in Norwood’s History and Directory of 1890. He was the clerk for the Congregational Church and prepared a history of the settlement and growth of the church. He was avidly interested in the Revolutionary War and the War of Rebellion and kept a list of the names and service of all from South Dedham who served.

The Norwood Advertiser and Review, then the only local paper, wrote on June 6, 1896: “He was a mild, peaceable man, but intensely patriotic, approving of war for the sake of liberty, country, honor and home, but in no other sense. In character, Dr. Tinker was quiet, sincere, conscientious, modest but firm. His words were few; his voice low and pleasant; his principles decided and humane; his religious faith unwavering, but tolerant and kindly towards that of others who differed from him. He possessed a good-natured vein of humor, enjoying a joke and a pleasant anecdote as well as anyone. Socially he was genial and pleasant, full of kindly feeling and easily moved by distress and pathos. He was an abolitionist and a Republican in politics but in no sense a politician. He had no enemies, and perhaps no man in town has so many friends. He was Deacon of the Congregational Church, and leaves his widow, one son, and two grandchildren.”

After his death, condolences were sent from the Library Board of Trustees dated 13 June 1896: “Francis Tinker was a member of this board from the time of transfer to the library to the town and its establishment as a public library, immediately after the town was incorporated, and continuously up to his death. He had also been librarian till 1880 and treasurer of the trustees until 1892 and had rendered long and faithful service upon our purchasing committee. His acquaintance with and interest in literature, his excellent judgment and natural inclination toward elevating thought, as well as his unselfish interest in our town, its people, and especially its youth, have been of the greatest value. Of all his public duties, it was those connected with this library to which he clung the longest, notwithstanding the infirmities of age and health.”

In 1931, Deacon Francis Tinker was immortalized in Win Everett’s first historical reminiscence titled, “Have a Drink of Deacon Tinker’s Choklit Sody” published in the Norwood Messenger on September 18. In the article, Everett described Tinker: “dear, kindly, and gentle-voiced Deacon Tinker with his black skull-cap on his pure white locks.” Tinker’s store sold stationery supplies of all kinds, and “sundries” including wallets, combs, pocket mirrors, button hooks and scissors. “Behind the soda fountain” Everett continued, “was a black curtained door – the Prescription Dept…white-faced men, women and children came running to that door and scuttled away with a clutched bottle and trembling lips. It was the Gate of Sorrow – and Hope – for an entire community.”