Land Acknowledgement: The City of Framingham is part of the ancestral homelands of the Nipmuc, the Fresh Water People. The identifier “Nipmuc” embeds the Indigenous people of this region in the natural landscape. As “freshwater people,” the Nipmuc nation is inalienable from the lands that birthed and sustained them. We likewise acknowledge and honor the traditions of all people indigenous to what is currently known as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Nipmuc as well as the Pennacook, Pocumtuck, Mahican, Massachusett, Nauset, and Wampanoag.
Long before the land that we know as Harmony Grove was named, it was a thickly wooded area along the eastern banks of Farm Pond in South Framingham. To the indigenous Nipmuc people this land was a village called Washakamaug, or “eel fishing place” (Legends & Lore, pp. 12). The land was fertile and the water sustained an abundance of fish. Nipmuc peoples maintained homes here for thousands of years – going as far back as 10,000 BCE (Legends & Lore, pp. 11). By the early 1600s when English settlers came to what we now know as Framingham, disease outbreaks were greatly affecting the Nipmuc population. (Legends & Lore, pp. 12). The English began to take advantage of the depleted population and established farms on former Nipmuc planting fields. (Legends & Lore, pp. 14).
It wasn’t long before the Massachusetts Bay Colony started assigning land to English men of power. The largest landowner in the area became politician Thomas Danforth after a generous land grant of 14,000 acres (Herring, pp. 13). Danforth then leased land surrounding Farm Pond to the one of the first recorded families in Framingham, the Eames (Temple, pp. 1). In 1846, Edwin Eames purchased a final strip of land near the railroad which included a house with a piazza and platform (Temple, pp. 4).
“He cleared lawn areas for games, set up swings, built a dancing pavilion and a boathouse, and called it Harmony Grove. He also cleared a natural depression in the ground [which formed an amphitheater] and put in a platform and benches to seat a thousand [plus] people for public rallies and meetings” (Herring, pp. 146).
The area was perfect for picnics and the first large gathering held on the grounds was a meeting of the Universalist Society in 1848 (Potter, pp. 7). Eames did not own the Grove very long – in 1851 it became too much for him and he sold it to Lothrop Wight who “expanded its borders” and began advertising for events (Herring, pp. 160). Wight only owned the picturesque land for three years before his death but in that time more and more groups were holding large-scale gatherings at the grove (Potter, pp. 8).
Another group that used Harmony Grove for a gathering place was the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. They held annual 4th of July rallies for thousands of people beginning in the 1850s. The most controversial event took place in 1854. Important speakers in attendance were Henry David Thoreau, Sojourner Truth, Wendell Phillips, Lucy Stone and William Lloyd Garrison (Herring, pp. 162). Garrison, owner of The Liberator (an anti-slavery newspaper), was the first to speak and he concluded by burning a copy of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law and the US Constitution in front of 2,000 people (ibid). Garrison proclaimed that the Constitution (which had language acknowledging the institution of slavery) should be condemned as it was a “covenant with death, and an agreement with hell” (ibid). The Grove erupted with both cheers and boos for this was very disrespectful towards the US Government as well as a powerful call for change. Garrison and the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society finally saw the beginnings of change 9 years later on January 1, 1863 when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Lincoln.
Meetings at the Grove lasted for 10 more years after the end of the Civil War but their focus shifted from Black rights to temperance and women’s suffrage. One of the last large gatherings to take place at Harmony Grove was the Howe family reunion in 1871 in which 3,500 people attended (Potter, pp.7).
The Grove’s popularity dipped in the 1870s with the expansion of the railroad to more exciting destinations (The Halcyon Days, pp. 2). By the 1890s the “land was sub-divided for dozens of house lots” (ibid) and the railroad yard grew larger (Potter, pp. 9).
Harmony Grove is no longer a place you can find on a map. There is virtually no trace of the area aside from a very small plaque in a tiny front yard on the corner of Franklin and Henry Streets. It reads,
1850 – 1875
Harmony Grove
Anti-Slavery Rostrum
Gatherings here led the agitation which resulted in the abolition of slavery in America.
You will also not find Harmony Grove in our school’s history books as it has been passed over for other critical moments that led to the outbreak of the Civil War such as John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry and the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision. However, Framingham Public Schools have reestablished the significance of the name by renaming Woodrow Wilson Elementary School (1925) at 169 Leland Street to Harmony Grove Elementary School: A Global Academy (2021).
Bibliography
Herring, S. W. (2000). Framingham: An American Town. Framingham Historical Society.
Herring, S. (1995). The Halcyon Days. Framingham Historical Society.
Parr, J., & Swope, K. A. (2009). Framingham Legends & Lore. History Press.
Potter, C. (1897). Harmony Grove. Framingham Historical and Natural History Society.
Temple. J. (1932). Harmony Grove. Framingham Historical Society.