What Ever Became of Lexington’s Boston Post Cane?

Sam Doran was barely a teenager in 2008 when he developed a reputation as one of Lexington’s better historical sleuths.

A regular afternoon companion and colleague to his mother, Elaine, the collections manager for the Lexington Historical Society, Doran often spent his out-of-school time snooping through the many artifacts and documents in the organization’s archives.

One discovery especially piqued his interest: the whereabouts of the town’s Boston Post Cane, a 14-carat gold domed walking stick awarded to the town’s oldest (male) citizen in 1909, part of a marketing program by Post owner Edwin Grozier to boost sales.

Canes were offered to over 700 towns (not cities) around New England, except Connecticut and Vermont which, inexplicably, were not included. The canes were intended to be passed along each year to the eldest man in town (women were not included until decades later). Doran discovered that a very distant relative had once been the recipient of the award but couldn’t find much more on its whereabouts or its lineage.

With the help of his hands-on mother, Doran was able to begin to piece together some basic facts. The cane, which was held by the society for safekeeping when not in the hands of the awardee, was accounted for in the collections in 1965. The cane had last been passed on to an actual resident thirty-four years prior, in 1931. Not satisfied, Doran foraged through some more artifacts and more paperwork. To his great and pleasant surprise – and that of his mother – he came upon a box of random canes, some in pieces. Among them, a gold knob and separately, a stem that easily reattached. Could it be the missing cane?  

Today, fifteen years later, a definitive answer to that question remains elusive. In a recent conversation with the now adult Doran, a reporter-photographer for State House News Service and still an amateur historian (former member of Lexington Historical Society’s Whipple Award Committee and former Executive Officer of the Lexington Minute Men), he says that while he was able to confirm some additional facts, the fate of the original Post case is still not clear. 

Doran sent along clippings from the Minuteman paper archives unearthed in the Cary Library that show that the last formal presentation ceremony for the original cane likely took place on May 15, 1937, when it was awarded to Dr. Ezra Taft of 4 Upland Road. Dr. Taft was 91 at the time. When he died seven years later, he was the oldest living graduate of Amherst College (Class of 1867), Harvard Dental School, and the second oldest graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As to his cane, one of the few things that Doran could determine – that might be a lead – was that Margot Shaw, the woman who moved into Dr. Taft’s former home.

Shaw was still living on Upland Road in the early 1980’s when there was renewed interest in the cane among local historians. Unable to verify “the real thing,” Lexington, in true independent fashion, struck out on its own, creating the Minuteman Cane to honor Lexington’s senior citizens. Shaw was part of that effort. Doran says she gave her own cane to the town around that date to serve as a model for the award, an event confirmed in town documents).  The same reference notes that “Shaw’s walking stick bears the same date as the Post Cane….the new award is on display at the Lexington Senior Center, accompanied by a plaque with the names of the winners.”

Unlike the Boston Post Cane, the “new” Minuteman version was to be awarded to an outstanding civic-minded resident age 80 or older – male or female — who lived in town for at least 15 years. A new replica continues to be presented on Patriots Day.

Among some of the more recent recipients:

Aurio Pierro – 2012, then aged 95, a well-decorated tank commander in WWII. According to an obituary in the Boston Globe (Aurio Pierro, 100, a Silver Star recipient, lawyer, April 7, 2017), “except for his time in the Army lived nearly his entire life in the Lexington house where he was born.” He died in a Lexington health care center, as well, where he moved days before turning 100 on March 1, 2017.

Shirley Tufts Lane – 2014, then aged 95, genealogist and town resident as of 1979, called in an online obituary “the heart and soul of the Lexington Chapter of the Daughters of the American Republic.”

Leona Martin – 2022, then 86, founding Board Member of the Association of Black Citizens of Lexington and long-time community relations worker and volunteer. Among Martin’s many distinctions (according to ABCL), she was also the founder of the Cary Memorial Library Foundation and the first Black citizen elected to a town-wide position.

Fran Ludwig – 2023, then 80, retired as K-5 science coordinator for Lexington Public Schools. Ludwig received press attention in 2011 for her arrest during a White House protest over possible permitting for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. The event had been organized by Lexington native and well-known environmentalist, Bill McKibben who had been a student of Ludwig’s at one time. 

Doran continues to think about the 1909 Post Cane but has been unable to dedicate any time to further investigation given the demands of his day job. “It’s still kind of an unsolved mystery in a way. And not one that I’ve returned to since then,” he admits. The Historical Society has photos of an old cane that staff members suggest might be a replacement given its inscription-less knob. “It’s possible that the Cane’s head had been damaged or replaced,” Doran adds. 

Lexington is not the only town to have misplaced its legendary walking device. According to a recent New York Times piece, the canes’ whereabouts are a mystery in many towns, little surprise since the Boston Post itself disappeared in 1956. Notes Doran, “it’s entirely possible in those hundred or whatever towns, the recipient might’ve died and whoever handled their estate might’ve just thought, oh, this is a cane. I’ll put it in the rummage sale, or I’ll walk around with it.” But recently, a loose corps of amateur historians – led by volunteers with the historical association in the town of Maynard, Massachusetts – have done their part to remedy the situation, creating a website, most recently updated in 2021, with 546 towns reporting. Lexington’s entry will be updated in the next several weeks in large part thanks to the dedication of locals like Doran who continue to bring history alive.

“I’m always working on some local history projects,” he says with a laugh.

If you have any additional information to add to Boston Post Cane lore, visit the Boston Post Cane info center or contact the Lexington Historical Society at 781.862.1703.