Tour of Dedham, MA & Surrounding Areas Focusing On The Original Fairbanks Family: Part I

Time Traveling to the 17th Century with the Fairbanks Family

Whether you are taking a historical vacation in New England or a Fairbanks Family history tour, you will feel as if you have entered the 17th Century if you visit the area that was once the Massachusetts Bay Colony of the early 1600’s. As a fellow traveler back in time, I suggest the more you know before you go, the more you will appreciate what our ancestor’s lives and our outstanding heritage.

This blog will be providing a lot of information to prepare you for your trip. If you would like a condensed version of the self-guided tour, contact me on the right under “Sign Me UP,” under comments, ask for a self-guided tour of Dedham and the surrounding area. I will provide the condensed version along with a URL that will return you to this blog. Remember, there are more detailed discussions of many of the sites and events throughout previous blogs on this website. Visit them all before you travel.

Part I includes Plimoth/Patuxet Plantation and Museum and the main village of Dedham. Part II covers other towns developed out of the Dedham Grant ( Natick, Medfield/Millis, and Wrentham), Saugus Iron Works National Park Service, Lancaster and Sterling, MA, and Boston.

Mayflower II

Mayflower II is an example of what the ships were like in the 17th Century

Begin your trip at the Mayflower II that is harbored in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Board the ship with the mindset of Jonathan and Grace, that you will live on the ship for six to eight weeks with little more than what you brought with you today. You won’t change clothes, you might get sick, probably will go hungry, suffer tempests, and possibly pirates.

This ship is similar to the one the Fairbanks family sailed on to the New World 13-16 years after the Pilgrims arrived. Unfortunately, a ship manifest listing the Fairbanks family has not been found.

When the Pilgrims arrived at the New World, they had only the supplies they brought to sustain them until they could start their homes and plant gardens and fields the next spring. Think of the modern day television reality series “Survivor” then multiply it by at least ten. They made a life commitment to whatever condition they found at the end of their journey.

If you sailed with the Fairbanks family. You arrived at Boston which was already established by John Winthrop’s Puritan followers. Your ship would be greeted by dock workmen and townsfolk anxious to get items and news from England. Perhaps Richard and Elizabeth Fairbanks preceded Jonathan and Grace and met them at the docks.

Plimoth and Patuxet Museum

Immerse yourself in the early lives of Patuxet and Plimoth by going to the museum and plantation. This is a live replica and re-enactment of the Indigenous People, the original people on the land and the Pilgrims (Separatists), a religious sect, that were pursued and persecuted by King James for their religious beliefs. The Separatist believed they had to cut all ties with the Church of England to follow their beliefs.

The Fairbanks family were Puritans. The Puritans, unlike the Pilgrims, didn’t want to separate from the Church of England but to purify it to a simplicity that followed only the teachings of the Bible. At the time they fled England King Charles I , King James’s son, reigned. Charles espoused the Church of England, favored the pomp and ritual of the Catholics in the Church of England. He continued to persecute the Puritans who disagreed.

First visit the museum that has both authentic items from the Indigenous People and things brought on the Mayflower by the Pilgrims to start a new life in the New World.

Next visit the Indigenous People at Patuxet Village. Interact with the people, listen to their stories, Watch them make a canoe, garden, play games, cook, and work. Visit their woven mat homes, called wetus. The Indigenous People considered their homes much more comfortable and warm than the settler’s wooden homes. The first settlers learned much from the Indigenous People. They relied upon what they learned to get started and sustain in the New World.

Next visit Plimoth Village. Note the house structures and the woven thatch roofs. Look for a wall that has been insulated by waddle and daub, the large clay hearths, the cooking, the clay-mound baking ovens outside, the furniture, and the games. Talk to the people, note the clothes they wear, and the chores they are doing. Discuss medicines with the women working in the gardens with the healing herbs and plants. With permission put on the men’s armor.

All of what you see in Plimoth have similarities to how the Fairbanks family lived when they arrived thirteen to sixteen years later.

The Fairbanks House probably had a thatch roof at first. They used waddle and daub, a sapling framework and with a clay covering, to insulate their homes. Clapboards on the exterior of the house to protect the insulation. Note the very large hearths. These are made of a wooden structure covered by clay. The Fairbanks’s was made of brick. Grace Fairbanks probably had a clay-mound oven outside for baking like the ones found in Plimoth. Their fencing, animals, gardens, clothes, chores, activites, etc. would be very much the same.

Note thatch roof and clapboard siding above.
Waddle and daub insulation was used widely in
England and New England. A willow structure held the clay. The clapboards protected it from the weather.

Visit the crafts areas. See how clapboards were made using a saw pit. Examples and explanations of how clothes, pottery, and Indigenous articles were constructed are also available.

Before you leave, visit the fort which doubled as a meetinghouse (church). Plimouth had cannons in the watch area of the fort. Dedham, the town of the Fairbanks’s, had a watch area, first in the meetinghouse and later in the school. They didn’t receive a drake or small cannon until much later.

Plimoth Fort top floor. Meetinghouse (church) bottom floor.

If you are interested in the animals of the time, Plimoth has heritage breeds that come from the original stock of that time. These would be similar to what the Fairbanks family raised.

Dedham, Massachusetts

The Fairbanks House
The Only Home of the Original Fairbanks Family

Oldest Standing Timber-Frame House in North America

Jonathan and Grace Fairbanks’s family probably lived in Watertown for a period of time before moving to the new town of Dedham, Massachusetts. In 1636, Jonathan was the first on the list for the second thirty lots to be granted in the new town. Some of the first proprietors had already begun to settle on the land that winter.

On March 23, 1636/7, Fairbanks was accepted into Dedham after scrutiny by all the proprietors already accepted into town. (In old times, the year changed at a different time than now. Then the new year started on March 25th. Today our new year starts January 1. That explains the 1636/37 designation .

When Jonathan was accepted into town, the law required him to live on his land by November 1637 or forfeit his grant. Many of the men put up temporary homes, but it appears Jonathan had his mind set on building the house his family would live in forever. He, his sons and one indentured servant had many responsibilities the first years. In 1637 alone, Jonathan had to build the house, or enough to live in, and he was assigned to procure timber for a communal hog barn and fencing to be built on the Big Island. The men of the family had to clear a certain amount of swamp the family was granted within a year, clear a garden and fields for crops, and share military duties for the town.

Let’s go to The Fairbanks House at 511 East Street, Dedham, MA 02026. Make a reservation for a 40-50 minute docent guided tour of the original house, the gardens, and the subsequent additions. You will not get any closer to your original ancestors than when you walk through the door into the main part of the house and feel the presence of that time and culture. Tour reservations should be made at least 48 hours prior to your desired date. I suggest you make them as soon as you know you will be in the area. Tours are only available Saturdays and Sundays at 10:00, 1:00, 2:30 & 4:00.

Don’t wait to go to Dedham to tour the house. Prepare by watching an optional virtual tour of the house on the internet in your own home. It won’t spoil your visit. It will prepare you to take in and understand the vast amount of history that you immerse yourself in during your tour. reservation

The first thing to notice on the Fairbanks lot at the corner of Eastern Avenue and East Streets is a stone fence surrounding the 3.28 remaining acres of the 12 acres granted to Jonathan Fairbanks in 1636/37. The trees on the lot likely became part of the original house, fences and firewood. Perhaps the large white oak that was used for the summer beam in the hall (kitchen) of the house was cut from their lot. Originally, there were wooden fences made of posts and cross pieces, called bales and rales.

Inside the house, you will find a post topper that dates back to the original family. It has a ring on it to tie your horse just outside of the dooryard. Within the fence, called the dooryard , are signs that proclaim The Fairbanks House to be on the National Registry of Historic Places and another naming it a National Historic Landmark. It is the oldest timber-frame house still standing in North America.

Ringed post topper. a portion of a post is still attached.

In early Dedham, The Fairbanks House was one of the largest, most prestigious houses in the town. Most of the homes were single or double room, one story homes with a hearth at one end.

The original house of 1637 is the large rectangular middle section. The only addition to the house during the time of Jonathan and Grace was the lean-to at the back of the house.

The well outside the front door was dug early for a source of fresh water. It is said that they only had to dig three feet down to get to the water. There was a well sweep to aid in pulling up the heavy buckets. Look for the well sweep on pictures you see inside. After 1650, a brass sundial, made in London, might have sat on the well to tell the time of day. You can see the sundial either at The Fairbanks House or at the Dedham Historical Society and Museum.

The house probably had a thatch roof at the beginning but was soon changed to shingles. Initially the town ruled not to allow clapboards, overlapping boards covering the sides of the house to protect the insulation from the harsh winter assault. The men founding Dedham was very protective of the trees after England experienced a devastation of their forest from over use. Look for or ask to see the wall with the original waddle and daub insulation which the clapboards helped protect. It is one of the few original waddle and daub construction that still exists in England or New England..

I will leave the rest of the tour of the house to your very capable, personable docent and guide. Many docents are descendants of the original Fairbanks family. I have personally adopted all of those who are not. Be sure to see the following items that are believed to belong to the original family: the post topper, the eight legged table, the oxen yoke and saddle, the livery cabinet, and the replica or authentic chest made by John Houghton. If you are fortunate you will see the only items believed brought over from England by the family, the mazer bowl and the lacquered jug.

Do pay attention to the other items in the main house and lean-to. They are not all the original tools and furniture, but they depict the things the original Fairbanks’s had or used. Notice the hall or kitchen summer beam which will be mentioned again in this blog.

Wigwam Pond

Cleared swampy land between the Fairbanks House and Wigwam Pond left. View of Wigwam Pond through the trees above.

Wigwam Pond is a 23 acre lake, a 15 minute walk west-southwest of the Fairbanks house, just off East Street. Likely Jonathan owned some of the swampy land between his house and the pond which had to be cleared. At night sounds of wolves emanated from the swamps. A story is told of ten-year-old John Dwight Jr., son of the man who sponsored Jonathan Fairbanks to become a proprietor of the town, who went into the uncleared swamp and was never found. John Dwight Jr. was about ten-years-old at that time, about the same age as Jonathan Fairbanks Jr.

South of the pond was Wigwam Plains. The Indigenous Neponset, a part of the Massachusetts Nation, had a path through the Fairbanks grant that took them to their seasonal homes and hunting grounds they occupied long before Dedham was settled. Although the town of Dedham was granted the land after the Massachusetts Bay Colony bought it from Chickatabut and Sachem John, the Indigenous People were free to hunt, fish, and plant on all the land.

There are unconfirmed stories of the Indigenous People visiting the Fairbanks House one cold night. They sat in the hall (kitchen) wrapped in their blankets until morning. Another tale says an arrow was stuck in the roof of the house. There are no records of an attack on the Fairbanks House or Dedham even during the Indian Wars.

It is believed there is an Indigenous burial ground near the Fairbanks House that was destroyed for commercial development.

To experience what our ancestors may have found, go into the enclosure of Wigwam Pond, within the chain-link fence. You will stand amidst tall reeds and rushes that will give you the feeling of what the settlers saw when they first came to Dedham.

Directions to Wigwam Pond: Turn right on East Street as you exit the front gate of the Fairbanks House dooryard. Walk or drive to Jersey Street and turn right. Turn left on Central Avenue. Take one of the community roads right until you can glimpse the lake over the embankment through the trees.

Another access to Wigwam Pond can be found at https://massachusettspaddler.com/wigwam-pond-dedham-norfolk-county

Now return to the Fairbanks House before you continue the tour.

Avery Oak
A Significant Tree from the Beginning of Dedam

Picture of 17th Century Avery Oak, above.
Today you will see the Avery Oak marker that I am standing by and an oak more recently planted.

The Avery Oak is about a 7 minute walk northwest of The Fairbanks House on East Street and can be found at the address 450 East Street. It is on the east-northeast side of the street. A plaque commemorates the stately oak that was 6 feet in diameter at the base. This large white oak stood at Dedham when the settlers arrived in 1635 and toppled during a storm in 1972. Jonathan Fairbanks hewed a white oak like the original Avery Oak and used it as the summer beam in the hall or kitchen of their house.

The Avery Oak, quit possibly, was used as a gathering place for the townsfolk during the first summer of the settlement. A large tree on the west side of town and a large tree on the east side of Little River were used alternately for meetings for the village. It was hoped that these meetings would bring the very busy settlers together in a cohesive loving community and to help establish the church. When it became cold the townsfolk met in various houses.

Dr. William Avery and his family bought the land where the large white oak stood in 1650. He was a good friend of the Fairbanks’s and witness Jonathan Fairbanks’s will in 1668.

See a cutting from the tree at Dedham Historical Society and Museum.

Now return to the Fairbanks House at the corner of East Street and Eastern Avenue. Turn west and proceed down the declining road.

Little River or Dwight’s Brook

Little River, sometimes known as Dwight’s Brook, is a tributary off of the Charles River. It divided the village of Dedham into east and west. As you go down the decline from the Fairbanks House back into the town, you will find a sign designating the river. The Fairbanks House was on the east as were the wet cattle commons (for milk cows). The Fairbanks families had cattle and it is believed that Grace made butter and cheese (called white meat) . She may have bartered it for other goods the family needed.

Jonathan and other men on the east side planned and directed the building of a bridge over the Little River to connect the two sides of town.

Continue up Eastern Avenue until you turn left onto High Street. This was the main path in early Dedham. You will have walked one mile from the Fairbanks House. Just after you pass the present church. Turn right on Bullard Street.

Keye

Dedham’s Landing Spot on the Charles River

Bullard Street declines with a natural rock wall on the right. You will pass a canoe sign. As you veer left, you will arrive at a low area of the Charles River. This is a boat launch now and is considered the Keye or landing spot for the earliest settlers of Dedham. You will find a Dedham sign in the middle of the Ames Bridge that commemorates the Keye or Landing Spot.

Dedham Meetinghouse and Church

The meetinghouse is a mile from The Fairbanks House. Villages were built around a meetinghouse that was used for church and a Commons. All homes had to be within one mile. The family walked to church. Occasionally, Grace might ride an ox with a saddle. When the family had horses, they may have ridden them to the meetinghouse, but they were fined if they tied them to the ladder reaching the roof of the building in case of a fire.

In 1638, the meetinghouse was built. It looked much different than the structure of today.

The Puritans believed in simplicity and lived only by the words of the Bible. Their worship of God was the church. The structure was only for convenience. The meetinghouse served all civic and religious activities. It served as the school at times prior to the building of the school.

Inside, there were rows of benches on both sides of a central aisle leading to the Pastor’s table where a sand hourglass marked the time. Services were held all day with a break at noon for dinner, we call it lunch. Then resumed for the afternoon.

The men and boys sat on one side of a central aisle. The women sat on the other. Should a man or boy misbehave in church, the tithing man would use the knobbed end of his six foot staff to discipline him. If a woman nodded off during the sermon, a feather or foxtail on the staff would tickle her face until she awoke.

Men brought their guns and dogs into the church. Women brought warming boxes to keep their feet warm in winter. There was no heat in the church until after 1651.

Schoolhouse and Watchtower

Before you leave this property, you might want to look at the marker for the first schoolhouse built in Dedham in 1651. It is believed to be the first tax supported free school in North America. It served all boys, proprietor’s sons, servant’s sons, and Indigenous boys from the area. They ranged from age four to fourteen. Later it would serve girls as well. The school had a chimney and a watchtower added.

Drawing of Dedham, MA first schoolhouse by Frank Smith

The Old Village Burial Place

At the rear of the meetinghouse and school land, take Bullard Street left. This street was known as Beare street in the 17th century, because this was the path the mourners carried the casket on biers- poles or frames -while other men carried a cloth or pall, over the casket. The body was taken from the deceased’s home directly to the cemetery. The common Puritans didn’t hold funerals or even stop at the church until after the mid to late 1600’s.

The burying place was donated and designated even before settlers came to Dedham. This is the only cemetery of Dedham during the original family’s time. Jonathan and Grace do not have markers in the cemetery. Puritans did not believe it important to place a symbol for the body that was divested of its soul. However, they buried their lost ones with their feet pointing east, so they could rise to meet their God when he came for them.

You will find the cemetery behind St. Paul’s Episcopal Church off Court Street. The main entrance is at Bullard Street and Village Avenue. There are markers for descendants of the original Fairbanks family in this cemetery. Many are close to the back of the church.

Lieutenant Joshua Fisher’s Tavern (Ames Tavern)

Return to the corner of Ames and High street at the church ground. At that corner (now across from the Norfolk County Courthouse, was a tavern. Michael Powell ran the first tavern in town. When he left in 1649, Lieutenant Joshua Fisher ran a tavern and an apothecary on the corner of High and Ames street. Through generations it became the Ames Tavern.

There is no tavern there now, but there is a historical marker. A tavern was an important meeting place in town. Joshua had a license for both wine and strong water (hard liquor), provided medicinal aids, and probably had an ordinary or inn for visitors in town.

Likely the men frequented the tavern after training days.

Training Fields

About a half mile west on High Street, you will find a grassy triangular area. This is Dedham Commons or the training field. There is a small building and a plaque that commemorates the training field of Dedham.

The people of the original coastal towns of Massachusetts Bay Colony, who settled as early as 1630, were forbidden by the Colony to leave the towns where they resided to establish new plantations (towns). The governing body was concerned about Indian unrest. The Colony felt its people were safer if they stayed close together. However, the towns were getting over-crowded by their standards.

Dedham was one of two new towns granted after the ban on resettlement was lifted in 1635. The next summer, a trader, John Oldham of Watertown, was killed while on a trading expedition with the Indians about 76 miles south of Watertown at Block Island. That was the beginning of the Pequot War.

Since most of the founders of Dedham were from Watertown, where John Oldham lived, they remained vigilant even though the actual sieges and fighting were far south at Fort Saybrook and Mistic and West in Werthersfield.

The whole Colony was on high alert. The General Court called for watch and ward, as well as, additional training in every town. Each town had their own militias. Every man 16-60 was required to train.

George Fairbanks and many others from Dedham also joined The Military Company of Massachusetts that met in Boston monthly for advanced training and experience with the newest weapons. It is now known as the ancient and honorable Military Company.

During the war between the Indigenous People and the Settlers in 1675/76, Dedham was used as a staging area for the Colony for the Settler’s forces. Jonathan Fairbanks Jr. took part in the cavalry that was sent to the first official battle of King’s Philips War and participated in the war various other times.

Bridge Street

While you are at the Dedham Commons (Training Field), you may consider going across the Charles River on Bridge Street. This was probably the site of the first cart bridge built across the Charles River in Dedham.

This part of the Charles River was low and used both as a swimming hole and an area to rot the flax which was spun into linen threads. The women made the treads on the spinning wheels that Jonathan Fairbanks made or repaired.

Big Island or Dedham Island

West of Bridge Street, the Charles River turns on itself to create a large Island. This is what I believe was called Big Island or Dedham Island. It is close to what is called Motley Pond now.

This is where the swine barn and yard were built in 1636 when Jonathan Fairbanks became a proprietor of Dedham. He and two other men were charged with procuring timber for the barn and fences.

The Ditch (Mother Brook)

Make your way to Bussey and Colburn Streets to the sit of the first mill. It is about a 28 minute walk from The Fairbanks House.

The Ditch or Mother Brook was the first English made canal dug in the New World. It was started in 1639 at the Charles River and dug 4000 feet to reach East Brook which flows into Neponset River. The men of Dedham called it, “The Ditch,” in the 1600’s, It was necessary to drain the flooded meadows as well as supply an adequate flow of water to run watermills.

The Ditch was dug between 1639 and 1641. At that time a gristmill was erected on the Ditch by a man called John Elderkin with the help of the townsmen. Perhaps Jonas Fairbanks, having learned about constructing spinning wheels from his father, helped to build the grist mill under the direction of John Elderkin. This would explain why he was hired to work for two years at Hammersmith in 1651 and 1652, the first successful integrated iron works in the New World.

Dedham Historical Society and Museum

612 High Street, Dedham, MA 02026

The Dedham Historical Society and Museum (DHSM) is a treasure of information, maps, and artifacts of 17th Century Dedham. They have copies of the Ye Olde Fairbanks Historical published by the early Fairbanks Family in America. DHSM or The Fairbanks House have the 1650 brass sundial made in London that sat on the well at The Fairbanks House. The Museum and The Fairbanks House alternate keeping the original and replica chest that John Houghton of Dedham made for the original family. Ask to see them. Look for the many artifacts from Indigenous People, Dedham Pottery , and a bell made by Paul Revere.

Summary

There is no better way to get to know your ancestors and foster the love of history than to learn about your family and walk the grounds they walked on. Enter their front door as if they invited you as family and friends. Feel the presence of the original house, essentially unchanged from the time they lived there. Walk the paths to the locations that were most important in their lives. Stand where they toiled to make a life for themselves and their family in the New World. This will help you appreciate your rich heritage.

What’s Up Next?

Wait! We aren’t finished exploring the important places in New England that impacted the original Fairbanks family’s lives. Part II: Tour of Dedham, MA & Surrounding Areas Based On The Original Fairbanks Family will be about some of the towns created out of Dedham. Saugus Iron Works NPS, Lancaster and Sterling, Massachusetts, and Boston.