The Westford Wardsman, July 19, 1919
Center. Mrs. A. H. Sutherland and Miss Lillian Sutherland are spending the week at Campton, N.H., visiting Mrs. L. H. Marden.
It was pleasant to have John A. Taylor, recently returned from service in France, in attendance at church on Sunday morning and exchanging mutual greetings with old friends after the service.
Mrs. Charles H. Bicknell is a busy woman with her houseful of boarders. One day recently there were twenty to provide meals for.
William L. Woods has recently bought of Mrs. Augusta B. Prescott a piece of land on Forge Village road.
Mrs. James B. Hartford, who has been so seriously ill with pneumonia at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Robinson, is now improving and able to sit up a little each day. The trained nurse is still in attendance.
Little Elizabeth Bosworth met with an accident one day last week. While sitting in her high chair she fell, hitting against the stove and making a deep cut in her chin. Miss Weir, the public health nurse, rendered first aid and later the doctor took some stitches and bandaged the little lady’s wound, which, while a deep cut, is now healing nicely.
Miss Bernice Parker was a patient at the Lowell General hospital last Friday and Saturday for the removal of tonsils and adenoids.
John P. Wright has exchanged his Studebaker car for a new Chandler touring car.
Oscar Anderson is out with a new Ford car.
Master George Bartlett of Brookline has been spending two weeks with his grandmother, Mrs. Helena M. Bartlett.
Mrs. Morin and her daughter, Miss Mary Morin, have returned from a pleasant sojourn at Nahant.
Charles O. Prescott hears from his long time friend Rev. Charles P. Marshall of the latter’s return to Plymouth from overseas Y.M.C.A. work in France.
Mrs. Maria Stone is reported as somewhat rallied from her serious ill turn of the first of the week.
Harold W. Hildreth has received his honorable discharge from Camp Mills after his long service overseas, and returned to his family Thursday. He wears three stipes on his sleeve denoting his year and a half of service and in all has been away from home about two years. With his brother Leon getting home last week it makes a very happy reunion in these two families.
The conveyance problem remains about the same for Westford center people each one providing their own conveyance by auto or team, although Mr. Balch while carrying the mails also carries quite a few passengers. The “ankle express” or just plain walking has been quite popular, although not so pleasant some of the very warm days.
The J. Herbert Fletchers, who have a camp at Forge pond for the month, have with other guests had a merry household. Mrs. A. W. Hartford has shared the camp this last week.
Mrs. Maria Day, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. S. B. Watson, met with an accident last week. She slipped and fell fracturing a rib and straining her right foot. Her physician did everything to make her comfortable after the accident and she is now much better and in spite of her eighty-six years and with characteristic energy and cheerfulness makes as little of her injuries as possible.
While the final papers have not been passed an interesting real estate transfer is the sale of Ernest C. Emerson of his farm to Allister MacDougall. This 100 acre farm on the Littleton-Chelmsford state road [Littleton Rd. near Providence Rd.] has a thoroughly improved barn and the house has been completely renovated of late years and has all modern improvements. The land also is under good cultivation.
At the Congregational church Sunday, which is next to the last before the August vacation, Rev. O. L. Brownsey will speak in the morning from the topic, “A challenge to faith” and at the evening meeting at seven o’clock, “Forces to be released.” The church voted last Sunday to purchase a new set of hymn books.
Annual Encampment. The Westford company of state guard, which is a part of the second battalion of the 11th regiment, left last Saturday for their annual encampment at East Boxford, Camp Robert Bacon, for a seven days’ tour of duty. The men gathered at the armory at the town hall at 1:30 Saturday afternoon and were conveyed to Boxford in automobiles. All who could of the company furnishing their machines and taking as many others as they could. As it was there was a shortage of conveyance and Perley E. Wright took his machine for a load of passengers. Mrs. Alice M. Wells also kindly conveyed a group.
When the men had assembled and before the start the buglers of the company played and the men lined up and sang one or two selections much to the enjoyment of Capt. Robinson’s daughter, Mrs. Hartford, and which could readily be heard from her sick room nearby. Mess Sergt. Hartford and his helpers, Charles Roby and James Harrington, had left earlier in the day.
The tour of duty was officially launched at 5:20 Saturday afternoon with formal guard mount; mess at 6:25 o’clock; tattoo, roll call, at 9:30; call to headquarters at 9:45 and taps at ten o’clock.
Sunday the drill periods were eliminated and there were two church calls, one at 9:15 a.m., and one at 10:55 a.m. Visitors were allowed all day Sunday, but on other days of the week from noon until nine p.m.
The routine of the days were first call at 5:30 a.m., reveille at 5:40, assembly at 5:45, 15 minute setting up drill, mess at 6:25, sick call at 7:15, fatigue at 7:25, inspection at 8 a.m., guard mount at 8:25, drill at 9:15, recall at 11, first sergeant’s call and officers’ call at 11:15, mess at 12:25, drill at 2:20, recall at 4:00, evening parade at 5:25, mess at 6:25, tattoo at 9:30, call to quarters at 9:45, taps at 10:00 p.m.
Forge Village. Mrs. Caroline E. B. Dedham and her brother, Santiago Butler, sailed for Bedford, England, Wednesday. During their stay here they made many warm friends.
Miss Eva Mae Lord has accepted the position as public health nurse for the town of Westford in place of Miss Agnes Weir, who resigned. Miss Lord is a graduate nurse of the Framingham hospital. She was district nurse in East Jaffrey and Westboro and also spent the past year with the A.E.F. in France. Miss Lord was also offered an excellent position as district nurse in New York city, but refused it to be at home with her parents.
Mrs. George Wyman of Camden, N.J., is visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Burnett.
Miss Mary B. Raynes and Miss Grace Litchfield motored to Ogunquit, where they will spend the next three weeks.
Mrs. A. W. Hartford is enjoying camp life at Forge pond. Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Fletcher and son of Westford, who are also in camp, are entertaining many of their friends.
Miss E. M. Lord is visiting friends in Westboro this week.
Mrs. John Carmichael is entertaining her little niece and nephew, Miss Olive and Master Richard Keefe of Townsend.
Graniteville. The mill and the shop teams played their fifth and deciding game of the series of twilight games here on last week Friday, the shop boys nosing out a victory in the last of the eleventh inning, after two were out, winning the game by a score of 8 to 7. Gagnon and Reeves did the battery work for the mill team, while Carbo and Carpentier were in the points for the shop team. Another series will be staged here shortly.
Jennie Mauslabause, the five-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Mauslabause, died after a brief illness here last week Friday. The funeral took place on Saturday morning. Burial was in St. Catherine’s cemetery.
Miss Margaret Tweed, of Lowell, has been the guest of Miss Alice Harrington for the past few days.
The berry season is now in full swing and many are returning from the fields with well filled baskets.
The G.A.C. played the Forge Village club at the latter village in a twilight game on last Tuesday evening and defeated the Forge Village team in a ten-inning game by the score of 5 to 3. Both pitchers twirled air-tight ball. Batteries—G.A.C., Guichard and Reeves; Forge Village, Douglas and Spinner. A third game will be played later.
Private Emile Milot of the Liberty [77th] Division, now stationed at Camp Upton, has been a recent visitor here.
Private William Peters, who has recently returned from overseas, received his honorable discharge at Camp Devens a few days ago and with his wife, who was formerly Miss Ann Rafferty, have gone to Mr. Peters’ home town, New Bedford.
Baseball. The Abbot Worsted Company team visited Townsend last Saturday and defeated the crack Townsend A.A. team by the score of 10 to 2. Mulno, the A.W.C. twirler, was in rare form, only six scattering hits being made off his delivery. He was well supported behind the bat by “Jimmy” Liston, who had ten put-outs to his credit. The A.W.C. fielders played a snappy game and showed excellent team work. Their fast work on the bases put Townsend “in the air” in the fifth inning when four runs were pushed across the pan. The result of the game was somewhat of a surprise to the Townsend fans, but a source of great joy to the large crowd of loyal rooters, including men and women who accompanied the team from here. The trip was made in several autos, while the Glee club went up in a big auto truck and before and during the game kept things lively by singing all the popular songs. Before leaving Townsend, by invitation of the A.W.C. management, they all “wet their whistle” at the local drug store, after which they started on the homeward trip to the tuneful strains of “Till we meet again.” Townsend A.A. plays a return game in Graniteville on July 26.
This week Saturday the A.W.C. team will play the Lamson Company team at the big outing to be held at Canobie Lake park. Both clubs are now going fast and the game should be a hummer.
About Town. The Read-Drew farm has a large acreage of currants which are being harvested by children from Graniteville and other places. They are transported by auto.
The Heywood heirs have sold the three-acre lot of land near Westford station, adjoining the Whidden estate, to J. Willard Fletcher and Wallace Johnson.
Graham Whidden is transporting by auto truck to Lowell the lumber sawed from his lot last winter. He is able to make three trips daily, carrying 1000 feet at a haul.
William L. Woods has bought of Mrs. Edward Prescott a lot of land on the Forge Village road, near the Coolidge farm. It is surmised he intends to build.
Guy R. Decatur turned his old white horse to pasture Monday evening and the horse has not been seen since. Circumstances make it look like a case of theft.
Amos Polley, on the Prairie farm, has harvested a field of oats. One-half the field was limed; the unlimed gave the best results and yet the land is sour and lime is good for the sours; also good for oats. How is this?
Fred Emerson is reported to have sold his farm on the state road, near the intersection of the South Chelmsford road, to Alister McDougal.
Nabnassett lake is now in its summer glory as regards camp life. The Y.M.C.A. of Lowell were first to arrive and get into land and water sport life. Next arrives the Y.W.C.A. of Lowell, with the same reception spirit for camp life. Besides these there are numerous individual camps.
Ayer
Clipping. The following is taken from the editorial columns of the Boston Herald of July 15, under the caption “Cruel Transfers from Camp Devens Hospital”:
The continuing removals from the base hospital at Camp Devens of New England boys who are near their homes to Plattsburg and other points is occasioning an unbelievable amount of suffering.
Local pressure to hasten demobilization has brought about an unfortunate situation in the base hospital at Camp Devens. Few persons of consequence in New England have failed to bring pressure to bear on the authorities to release the hospital’s personnel, with the result that it is being rapidly scattered, and the patients—the wounded men from the western front—are suffering the consequences. The sick and wounded are being transferred to other hospitals, all of them outside New England, with the exception of a small one for the tubercular at New Haven.
There are about 1500 New England patients. Counting out those who need treatment at specially equipped institutions for unusual conditions—such as amputations at Walter Reed, empyema in North Carolina—they can be cared for in what might be called a general hospital, at Camp Devens as well as in Plattsburg. Camp Devens’ capacity is 2000, Plattsburg’s 900. Plattsburg already has several hundred more than the listed capacity.
The boys from the battle front, many of them very young, are ill, wounded and more or less shattered from the terrible experiences through which they have passed. They cannot yet realize they are in America. One boy wakens in terror in the night, reaching for his gas mask, and cannot find it. One dreams he is going over the top, alone; one that German soldiers have him by the throat and he wakens as if choking. One convalescent, using the trowel in a peaceful garden, all at once turns white and the big drops on his forehead testify to a bad time. “My,” he said, “the last time I was digging in the ground, I was digging for my life like a frightened rabbit.” This man had been up so near the front for weeks that no conveyance could get there, and he had to shoulder his tools and supplies to give first aid to the wounded.
Like other sick people, who have come through terrible experiences, they are adversely affected by changes. A nurse who is a “good scout” is transferred to another ward; a surgeon who has “just got hold of his case” is discharged. Transfers of nurses, surgeons and wards are of daily occurrence at Devens in what appears to be an unseemly haste to clear out the hospital at any cost. “Orders from Washington,” explain everything.
What these boys want is to recover as quickly as possible and to be near home while they are doing it. One man who was sent away from Devens recently went to his twelfth hospital in twelve months. One said the other day he would rather be shot than leave Devens, with its home ties. One has spent ten months in hospitals trying to save a limb. It is now healed but is useless, and will have to come off. One man’s wife is very ill. He has been one year in hospitals. He is being sent to Plattsburg, where he cannot in a long time see her. Instances of reasons why they want to be near home could be multiplied indefinitely. But, with or without reason, they want to be here.
Home has become something very valuable in the long absence, in the constant presence of horror and death. Removal from New England makes it a long, expensive journey for the family to pay a visit, and postpones the time when the patient can get home on pass. They are all alike. Boys with citations and croix de guerre fall for the home pull. “How are you today?” “Fine” is the invariable reply, almost too quickly made, sometimes, to be literally true. They show the same splendid spirit in the hospital that prevailed at the front. “They were wonderful, wonderful” was all that one sober-minded surgeon could say about these men.
Why should these boys suffer any more privations? Here is a thing they are unanimous in desiring. Let them have a chance to rest quietly for a while in “their ain countree,” to allow these great gashes in their bodies to heal, and to have the comfort of the presence of their own people.
Another train load leaves early this week. Let it be the last, and since the boys who have recently been transferred to hospitals outside New England homes eventually, why not bring them back now to recuperate where the recuperating is good? They have all been moved away from Camp Devens hospital, and we must assume, without physical injury. They can, therefore, be moved back.
Some surgeons and nurses have been transferred from this hospital. Can we not get them back, and can we not secure transfers of other nurses and surgeons sufficient to man the Devens hospital? If the wounded men returned from the horrors of the western front do not deserve this much at our hands, then nobody deserves anything in this world.
It requires “orders from Washington.”
Camp Notes. With the arrival of 5000 overseas veterans the regular army recruiting station at the camp was swamped with men seeking to re-enlist this week. Others wanted information with the idea of enlisting in the near future. The one-year period with no reserve attachment is still open to both civilians and men with prior service. Practically every branch of the regular establishment is drawing men from eighteen to forty-five years of age. One of the most interesting corps of the service is the Motor Transport.
Recruiting Officer Capt. John C. Macdonald states that young men may enlist for the Motor Transport schools and elect to go to school at Camp Holabird, Baltimore, Md.; Camp Jessup, Atlanta, Ga.; Camp Normoyle, San Antonio, Texas, or to Camp Boyd, El Paso, Texas.
These schools are under war department regulations and were established to supply the demand of the manufacturing world for skilled men. Sixty-eight trade specialties will be taught.
The young man will have college teachers. Incidentally the young man will have the opportunity to take a post college course of one year if he so desires.
While undergoing the training at the Motor Transport schools the men will be supplied with food, quarters, clothing, all equipment to work with, medical and dental attention and then paid the soldier’s wages of from $30 to $105 monthly.
At the completion of his training and on his return to civil life the young man will be an expert in his trade and will draw the skilled expert’s salary. This is only one incident of what Uncle Sam is doing today for his soldier men and is one of the many practical reasons why more than 75,000 men have enlisted in the new army thus far.
It is understood that plain clothes men have been stationed at Whalom Park to keep watch of the officers and soldiers who go there, some of whom are said to have acted contrary to military regulations.