NORWOOD

A short history of Norwood

The Town of Norwood, officially formed in 1872, was until that time part of Dedham, known as the "mother of towns", as fourteen of the present communities of eastern Massachusetts lay within its original borders. Long used as a hunting ground by Native Americans, Norwood was first settled by Ezra Morse in 1678. He set up a sawmill in what is now South Norwood, the part of town to which the first concentration of families, almost all of whom were farmers, migrated over the next half-century.

During the American Revolution, there was a Minuteman company organized in the area. Its captain, Aaron Guild, on learning of the British marching on Lexington and Concord to seize the munitions stored there, rode to join the fight and arrived in time to fire on the British at Concord Bridge and participate in the running battle that chased the Redcoats back to Boston.

The Oak View Mansion, located in Norwood, was built by Francis Olney Winslow. Construction began in 1868 and was completed in 1870. Oak View was the scene of almost constant socializing. Some of the most prominent figures hosted in Oak View were President and future Supreme Court Justice William Howard Taft and President Calvin Coolidge.

Famous Irish-language writer Máirtín Ó Cadhain spent some time in Norwood during the early-20th century. Ó Cadhain later references Norwood in his 1949 book Cré na Cille, in which one of the characters immigrates to Norwood.

In 1955, United Fruit Company purchased the Forbes estate in Norwood from Harvard University and soon constructed one of the largest banana research facilities in the Americas. It was at its Norwood facility that United Fruit Company designed and later patented freeze-dried fruits, vegetables, and seafood for companies like Kellogg's and Campbell's.

The town shares its name with a town in the borough of Croydon, South London, England. When Norwood separated from Dedham, they considered naming the new community Balch, after the Rev. Thomas Balch.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Norwood, Massachusetts, revision 1376939208 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.