On October 8, 1633, the first Town Meeting in America was held in Dorchester. Today, each October 8 is celebrated as Town Meeting Day in Massachusetts. Dorchester is the birthplace of the first public elementary school in America, the Mather School, established in 1639. The school still stands as the oldest elementary school in America. In 1634 Israel Stoughton built one of the earliest grist mills in America on the Neponset River, and Richard Callicott founded a trading post nearby. In 1641, Dorcas ye blackmore, a servant to Israel Stoughton, was the first recorded African American to join a church in New England, and she served as an evangelist to Stoughton's Native American servants, and the First Parish Church of Dorchester attempted to help Dorcas gain her freedom.