Morse-Barber House - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

The house was built in 1814 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986

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HISTORICAL NARRATIVE
1981 Survey

This house probably has the strongest claim to the title "oldest structure in Sherborn"; It also has significant historical associations with the Wood and Morse families. In addition it served as Sherborn's first meeting house until the first church was built in 1685. It was built at a time when Southeast Sherborn and a portion of Medfield were known by the Indian name Boggestow. This farm originally belonged to "Sherborn's first settler", Nicholas Wood. Along with Thomas Holbrook he took possession of land on the west side of the Charles River granted by the General Court on May 8, 1652. Wood's daughter Mahitable was born on July 22, 1665, the first Anglo- American child to be born in Sherborn. She married Capt. Joseph Morse Oct. 17, 1671. Morse, formerly of Medfield and his 16 year old bride built a portion of this house on part of her father's farm "22 rods South of his house" (Nicholas Wood's house is no longer extant but it is said that the foundations are still visible amidst underbrush). Capt. Morse, in a will dated 1716 left his farm "where I now dwell" to his two sons David and Asa. The next owner was Richard Sanger who sold it to Jonathan Partridge in 1742. Partridge in turn sold to Elisha Barber "that parcel of land being my homestead where on my dwelling house and barn now standeth". From 1753 until the late 19th century Barbers owned this "ancient dwelling". Elisha Barber is remembered for his library "which consisted of a large Bible and nineteen volumes of different sizes." Elisha's wife Silence inherited the property upon his death in 1803 but outlived him by little over a year. It then passed to her sons Elisha and Oliver who both died in 1814. At their death it passed to Oliver's son Walter who lived here into the 1850's. By 1889 a J. W. Barber lived here.

1999 Update

Given its association with what may be the oldest house in Sherborn and the appearance in a historic photo of vertical flushboard siding, the barn of the Morse- Barber House may also be quite old, possibly pre-dating the turn of the 19th century. The 1798 Inventory of Land and Dwellings describes Elisha Barber's largest barn as 55'x33' which might be the existing building (Current assessor's information states 36'x60'). The inventory gives several clues as to the uses of this barn in naming a cider mill and a grist mill on the property, whose produce may have been stored here. Also, Mr. Barber owned a plot of land named Hop Vines Pasture, indicating the possible existence of this specialized crop, commonly grown in Middlesex County at that time. Two corn barns are also enumerated in the inventory but are no longer present.

The 1865 tax valuations indicate that the farm was in use by Joseph W. and Sarah Barber for production of cider and or vinegar, for which they owned $600 worth of casks. Two horses and a carriage as well as eleven cows were present, confirming the dairy aspect of the Barbers' varied operations. Two non-family residents appear in the 1865 census listed as a teamster and a farm servant. Cider production continued until at least 1885, by which time a carriage house, ice houses, a hen house, hog house, cottage and storehouse appear on Joseph Barber's tax list. These outbuildings are either gone or out of view of the street.

While it is not confirmed on the valuation lists, there may have been an early 20th century private water works with a pump on the property. This arrangement was common among affluent Sherborn farmers of the period and is suggested by the existence of a 1930s wood shingled building of appropriate size and age called a hand pump/milk cooling house in the current assessor records. On the 1939 W. P.A. map, the complex is described not as a farm but as a residence but the surrounding land was plowable pasture at that time.


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Date Logged Log User Rating   02/21/2009 nomadwillie visited it