Health & Fitness
Vine Lake Cemetery is Burial Location of Noteworthy Person Who Named Nearby Town
This noted builder of homes and businesses in the late 1800's also chose the name of a nearby town and is buried in Medfield's Vine Lake Cemetery.
This article, composed by Rob Gregg, was first posted in the February 2013 edition of 'Quiet Voices,' the free monthly newsletter of Vine Lake Preservation Trust, a non-profit charitable organization designed to preserve, enhance, interpret, and celebrate Medfield's historic Vine Lake Cemetery founded in 1651.
Tyler Thayer, the second of six children of Otis Wales and Sena (Thayer) Thayer, was born 2 October 1822 in Mendon, Massachusetts. He received his early education in Medfield and later his trade as a carpenter in Boston. His success as a contractor and builder continued in West Dedham and later South Dedham, where in the 1860's his construction monopoly knew no end.
In 1872 Tyler Thayer was to have a signature moment in his illustrious career. Up to that time, South Dedham, where he resided and worked, was known as 'Tiot,' an Indian name. In that year a new name was to be chosen for the town.
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Everyone was invited to send their pet-names for a town-wide consideration. These names became the candidates: Ames, Balch, Cedarville, Day, Elgin, Fairfax, Glenwood, Hook, Irving, Judea, Kingsbury, Lyman, Montrose, Nahatan, Norwood, Olney, Prescott, Queertown, Rumford, Seneca, Tiot, Unadilla, Vernon, and Winslow.
Tyler Thayer became the propagandist for 'Norwood.' He located only one other Norwood, that in Stanly County, North Carolina. (Today there is a Norwood in 15 states.) He said the name looked well in print (no i's to dot or t's to cross), had a pretty sound, and he strongly favored it. So, because he had built over half the homes and factories in town, he was allowed to choose the town's name. In reality, his choice of Norwood had nothing to do with any geographic, commercial, or historic feature in that town.
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In 1854, he had married Lucy Elizabeth Adams, and they became parents of four daughters and twin sons. At age 87, Tyler Thayer died in Norwood on 5 October 1909 from valvular disease of the heart. He was buried three days later in Medfield's Vine Lake Cemetery [Section A-3 Lot 280 Grave 12]. His wife and four of their children are also buried here in what is known today as the Thayer Lot.
Note: Tyler did not also choose the name of this lot! It derived from his grandfather, Amos Thayer (1774-1846).
