Plimpton Pond
Each of the dams in the Neponset Basin comes with its own
small piece of history, and Plimpton Pond is no exception. At the
age of 16, young Henry Plimpton was apprenticed to Joshua Stetson
to learn the business of making farm implements. Mr. Stetson had
begun manufacturing farm implements a little upstream at the
Stetson privilege in 1796, which can be found today behind the
blacksmith shop in Walpole Center. Stetson's reputation grew and
by the early 1800's the Stetson hoe was famous for its high
quality (DeLue, 1925).
Duly trained, Henry Plimpton bought the upper privilege at
Plimpton pond from Roland Willett in 1816 and began to
manufacture his own hoes. A few years later he acquired the lower
privilege at Plimpton Pond, expanding the operation and branching
out into the manufacture of axle springs. Eventually Henry's sons
Calvin and H.M. Plimpton took over the mill. Calvin was the
driving force behind the operation, shipping its products as far
as California, but in 1864, while showing a group of visitors
around the mill, his leg was caught in the machinery and broken.
He died ten days later of blood infection. His widow had no
choice but to sell the mill and the business, though she remained
on Lewis Farm. The Linden Spring and Axle Co. was a willing
buyer. The new owners continued operations, but business declined
over the years and slowly but surely the buildings were lost to
fire and decay (DeLuc, 1925).
Years later, Calvin's son, George Plimpton, reassembled and
extended the family's former properties, even restoring the
ruined dam and Plimpton Pond. At the close of the 19th century,
George Plimpton established a working farm which revived some of
the traditional practices of his Colonial American forebears. A
large force of laborers tilled the land using traditional tools,
raising cattle, sheep and selling its products: milk, homespun
wool, and handicrafts. Family members spun and carded, and George
Plimpton himself wore a suit woven of cloth from his own sheep.
He was also fascinated by native American history and was an avid
collector of Indian artifacts, Colonial documents, paintings,
rare volumes and artifacts of early education like horn books.
Throughout his life, George Plimpton commuted between his
business in New York and the farm in Walpole, becoming one of the
town's major benefactors, endowing schools and public spaces.
George's younger son, Calvin H. Plimpton Jr. who inherited Lewis
Farm, spent his summers there as a child. Calvin became a doctor
and went on to have a distinguished medical career, eventually
becoming the president of the American University in Beirut and
then president of Amherst College. In 1951, while working
"full time as a doctor in New York City," Calvin was
forced to sell the family house, Lewis Farm, and the property
immediately surrounding. A doctor with fifteen children bought
it, but sold off the tennis courts and other parts of the
property piecemeal. The handsome barn which had served as a
center for community theatricals was burned down by the doctor's
children. The rest of the Plimpton holdings, the backland and the
twelve houses were sold off in the late 1970's. The Plimpton
tract along the pond which bears the name, still a relatively
bucolic and "unspoiled" spot along the Neponset, is now
slated for residential development. (Special thanks to Mark Jayh
Mirsky for the research, and Calvin H. Plimpton for the
recollections that went into this segment.)
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References
DeLue, Willard. The Story of Walpole: 1724 to 1924,
Ambrose Press, Norwood, 1925.
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Taken from The Explorers Guide to the Neponset River
Watershed, Neponset River Watershed Association, Canton, MA,
1995.