Medfield Sportsman's Club

 

History of Medfield Sportsman's Club

By Roy Owen

The In the early 1930's Ted Spear of Medfield was the instigator of forming a Sportsman's Club. The charter members in part were Hardy Henderson, Harry and Newell Leighton, Ralph Baker, Arthur Wills, and Roy Owen.   Sportsmen soon joined from Millis and Medway, thereby becoming the "The Triple M."   Dues were one dollar per year and meetings held monthly. 

The Medway members were in the minority and soon dropped out.   Millis and Medfield carried on until after a roast beef supper was held at the old Medfield Grange Hall.  After the supper which was a huge success, an argument ensued as to who did all the work.   The Millis boys soon dropped out and formed their own Bogastow Club.   Having no clubhouse, one of our members, Amos Kingsbury gave us the use of his art studio on Spring Street.

One of our early presidents was Sid Cohen who lived over the Norfolk line.  He was training a German heavyweight hopeful by the name of Emil Shultz who hoped to dethrone Joe Louis. Emil was a member of our club.   Amos was also an antique dealer and he began to fill the building where we met with expensive pieces.

As our membership grew, we were running out of space and afraid of breaking something of value, so we moved out.  We found a room in the partially burned-out Medfield Inn on North Street.   We put on suppers on meeting night with a one dollar limit.   That meant a lot of beef stews.   These were depression years and it was a big treat for a member to get out, play cards, and socialize for a buck a year.   We finally decided to buy land and build our own clubhouse. Two sites were considered: the mill pond on West Mill Street or our current location.   What little money we had was accumulated from running clam bakes and suppers, also raffles.  We even had a raffle on meeting nights.   Arthur Wills and several others agreed to put up the money to purchase the land, to be paid back as we made money.

We cleared the lot and built the clubhouse the hard way, no power tools, no dozers — all hand work.  In the 1938 hurricane we lost a lot of pine and had work parties logging them out.  We had the logs sawed into lumber with the idea of enlarging the clubhouse, but when the war came and the price of lumber went up we sold it and banked the money.

The membership grew and we were crowded for room.   A heater we had in one corner took up a lot of space so we decided to dig a cellar under the building.  Like a bunch of ants we dug under and laid up the walls as we went.   That was used for the big heater, plus it gave us some storage space.  Work parties weren't too much of a problem.   These were still lean times and on a full Saturday or Sunday the club furnished hot dogs, hamburgers, and maybe a bushel of steamer clams, plus beer.    Bob McCarthy Sr. handled all of the food for suppers, etc.   He even put on a boiled bacon and sauerkraut supper.   Yes, believe it or not, we made money.

In 1938 the dam was washed out of Kingsbury Pond, and out of appreciation for the use of the first meeting place, the club rebuilt the dam for Amos Kingsbury.   Finally someone torched the old wooden building and it was a blessing in disguise.   That's how we got our present building.

© Medfield Sportsman's Club