Boggestow
Before it was called Sherborn, the area was known as Boggestow, a native place name that likely described the landscape, interpreted as “rocky” or “hilly” land. The region was inhabited by the Massachusett people, specifically bands connected to the Nipmuc and other Algonquian-speaking tribes of central Massachusetts.
The Massachusett were part of a larger network of Native communities living throughout eastern and central Massachusetts. They moved seasonally, fishing along rivers like Charles, planting corn and other crops, and hunting in wooded uplands. Place names such as Boggestow preserve traces of the earlier presence, even after English settlers incorporated the town as Sherborn in 1674.
In the mid-17th century, disease, land sales, missionary efforts, and increasing English settlement reshaped Native life in the region. Like many towns in Massachusetts, Sherborn’s colonial story rests on land that had been stewarded by Native peoples whose names remain embedded in its earliest identity.
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Nealon Vietnam Memorial
Driving through the roads of Sherborn, I came across something unexpected. At a busy rural intersection, far from the town center, a stone monument caught my attention. It is easy to drive past without noticing, yet the bronze plaque tells a personal story. The top of the plaque reads: “In MemoryJohn Michael NealonBorn March 22, 1945 […]
Emily the Cow
In Sherborn, this memorial stands for a cow whose life became a symbol of compassion in our time. Emily’s story belongs to the late twentieth century. After escaping from a slaughterhouse in 1995, she was taken in by the Peace Abbey, a sanctuary devoted to nonviolence, humanitarian causes and animal welfare. There she lived out the remainder of […]
War Memorial
The small town of Sherborn sits quietly beside my hometown of Natick and carries a depth of history that reaches back to the very beginnings of colonial Massachusetts. Settled in the 1670s, and incorporated in 1674, Sherborn developed as a farming community shaped by Puritan roots, and winding country roads. A visit into Sherborn brings you […]
