News release from The Milton Historical Society
On March 20th, the Milton Historical Society begins coring the ancient oak timbers of the Suffolk Resolves House to resolve a mystery, which 100 years ago divided members of the Society and the Town of Milton.
Dr. Dan Miles of the Oxford Dendrochronology Lab will match the tree rings of the timbers to those in a database of historic New England houses, sampled over the last decade. Before the end of this — Milton’s 350th — year, his analysis should determine if the Suffolk Resolves could indeed have been signed in the house’s parlor. Adopted by the First Continental Congress in 1774, the Resolves were the precursor to the Declaration of Independence.
“For most Milton residents, there’s never been a question about the house’s authenticity,” explained Steve Kluskens, the Society’s curator, “but if you were reading the papers in 1924, you couldn’t have missed the contretemps.” Though the question was first raised by two members of the Society in 1912, the controversy reached its climax in 1924, with an emotional town meeting pitting memory against a lack of historic documents.
“At issue was whether the town should take the house by eminent domain to preserve it as ‘the Birthplace of Liberty,’ as it had become known. The memories of people’s parents and grandparents were impugned, interpreted, and eventually dismissed,” Kluskens described. The eminent Worthington C. Ford of the Massachusetts Historical Society was consulted, and he concluded that the Resolves were signed in a different house, also once owned by Daniel Vose, which had burned in 1861.
The consequences were dire. “Since the town declined to claim the house for preservation, the old structure was used and abused until it was condemned in 1949.” Photos taken that year by Clifton Fasch illustrate this. Only private hands and a clause in the deed saved it from being torn down.
The dating of the Suffolk Resolves House is the most ambitious dendrochronology project yet in New England, coordinated by Anne Grady, who with Historic New England was integral in creating the tree-ring database. The house has up to four phases of construction. “That’s the most exciting part to me, we can learn what the house looked like during the Revolution, and find out how far back it goes”, explains Kluskens. “Some have suggested it began life as a 17th-century warehouse. At its heart, it could be the oldest structure in Milton. We just don’t know.”
Asked whether he thought the Resolves were signed there, Kluskens said there was little question in his mind. “The men who commemorated the house in 1874 knew the answer — both sides agree on that — and for them to have conspired so successfully defies the enmities among them, and that irresistible force: gossip. The question arises only after those with firsthand knowledge died, and that is natural.”
So why sample? “It is valuable to have some hard data. Historians have tackled this several times in the last century. Each comes up with a different chronology; I too have my own theory, but no new data. People have put their hearts into this question. That we can now resolve it is breathtaking.”