James Richardson was a lawyer, a business and civic leader, and a member of the Massachusetts Senate from Dedham, Massachusetts.
Richarson was the law partner of Fisher Ames. [1] He was also the president of the Dedham Mutual Fire Insurance Company [1] and a founder of the Norfolk and Bristol Turnpike. [2]
He served in the Massachusetts Senate. He once gave an address to a crowd that included President Andrew Jackson. [1]
He was an incorporation of St. Paul's Church [3] and a member of a number of Dedham's civic and social organizations. [1]
After a prayer service to celebrate Dedham's Bicentennial, 600 people then processed to a pavilion erected to host a dinner on the land of John Bullard a few rods to the west. [4] Richardson presided at this dinner, assisted by John Endicott, George Bird, Abner Ellis, Theron Metcalf, and Thomas Barrows as Vice Presidents. [4]
A blessing was asked by the Rev. John White of the West Parish and thanks returned by the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Homer of Newton. [4] After the cloth was removed, Richardson gave a number of toasts, interspersed with music from the band. [5]
Louisa May Alcott's mother, Abba, ran an "intelligence office" to help the destitute find employment. [6] When Richardson came to Abba seeking a companion for his frail sister who could also help out with some light housekeeping, Alcott volunteered to serve in the house filled with book, music, artwork, and good company on Highland Avenue. [1] Alcott imagined the experience as something akin to being a heroine in a Gothic novel as Richardson described their home in a letter as stately but decrepit. [1]
His sister, Elizabeth, was 40 years old and suffered from neuralgia. [1] Elizabeth was shy and did not seem to have much use for Alcott. [1] Instead, Richardson spent hours reading her poetry and treating her like his confidant and companion, sharing his personal thoughts and feelings with her. [1] Alcott reminded Richardson that she was supposed to be Elizabeth's companion, not his, and she was tired of listening to his "philosophical, metaphysical, and sentimental rubbish." [1] He responded by assigning her more laborious duties, including chopping wood and scrubbing the floors. [1]
She quit after seven weeks in the winter of 1851, when neither of two girls her mother sent to replace her decided to take the job. [1] As she walked from his home to Dedham station, she opened the envelope he handed her with her pay. [1] She was so unsatisfied with the four dollars she found inside that Alcott family tradition states that she mailed it back to him in contempt. [1]
Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). Raised in New England by her transcendentalist parents, Abigail May and Amos Bronson Alcott, she grew up among many well-known intellectuals of the day, including Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
The history of Dedham, Massachusetts, from 1800 to 1899 saw growth and change come to the town. In fact, the town changed as much during the first few decades of the 19th century as it did in all of its previous history.
Augustus Bradford Endicott was a Massachusetts state legislator and sheriff of Norfolk County.
The Dedham Community House is a house on the banks of the Charles River in Dedham, Massachusetts, owned and operated by the Dedham Community Association.
The Norfolk House also known as the Norfolk Hotel, was a tavern in Dedham, Massachusetts originally built in 1801 and located at 19 Court Street. It hosted John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, and the Marquis de Lafayette.
The First Church and Parish in Dedham is a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Dedham, Massachusetts. It was the 14th church established in Massachusetts. The current minister, Rev. Rali M. Weaver, was called in March 2007, settled in July, and is the first female minister to this congregation.
Nathaniel Ames represented Dedham, Massachusetts in the Great and General Court.
Jason Haven was the longest serving minister of the First Church and Parish in Dedham.
Robert Hinsdale was a colonial American Puritan cleric and a founder of Dedham, Medfield, and Deerfield, Massachusetts who died in the Battle of Bloody Brook.
St. Paul's Church is an Episcopal Church in Dedham, Massachusetts
Jabez Chickering was a lawyer and businessman from Dedham, Massachusetts.
The history of Dedham, Massachusetts in the 20th century saw great growth come to the town. It played host to the Sacco and Vanzetti trial, saw the Endicott Estate and a number of schools constructed, a great deal of economic development, and growth in the number of services provided by the Town.
This is a timeline of the history of the town of Dedham, Massachusetts.
Jeremiah Shuttleworth was a merchant and postmaster from Dedham, Massachusetts.
Memorial Hall served as both the town hall of Dedham, Massachusetts from 1868 until 1962 and as the Town's monument to the soldiers from the town who died in the Civil War.
The town of Dedham, Massachusetts, participated in the American Civil War primarily through the 630 men who served in the United States Armed Forces during the war. A total of 46 men would die in the war, including in battle, from disease, from wounds sustained in battle, and in prisoner of war camps. The Town of Dedham supported the soldiers and their families both through appropriations raised by taxes, and through donations of supplies sent to the front lines.
The Pillar of Liberty is a monument in Dedham, Massachusetts commemorating the repeal of the Stamp Act. Erected by the Sons of Liberty, it originally had a pillar with a bust of William Pitt on top.
The town of Dedham, Massachusetts, participated in the American Revolutionary War and the protests and actions that led up to it in a number of ways. The town protested the Stamp Act and then celebrated its repeal by erecting the Pillar of Liberty. Townsmen joined in the boycott of British goods following the Townshend Acts, and they supported the Boston Tea Party. Dedham's Woodward Tavern was the site where the Suffolk Resolves gathering was first convened.
Faith (née Trumbull) Huntington was an early American woman.
Sophia Foord (1802-1885) was an American schoolteacher and abolitionist from Dedham, Massachusetts.