The Westford Wardsman, August 2, 1919
Center. Mrs. J. R. Draper, of Auburndale, has been the guest of Mrs. L. H. Buckshorn and of Mrs. H. V. Hildreth this week.
Mr. and Mrs. Preston H. Skidmore are at their Westford home for the remainder of the summer. They have recently exchanged automobiles and are driving a new Hudson closed car.
Mr. and Mrs. Harry Whiting were at Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Knight’s over Sunday; also, the latter’s grandson, Oscar Campbell, of Nashua, N.H.
Mr. and Mrs. William C. Roudenbush entertained this week an auto party of old friends from their former home in Rochester, N.Y. Their friends were driving through to Maine to spend the month of August and were Mrs. Mary E. Chapman and son Robert, and Miss Emma Corson, of Rochester, and Miss Doris Cater, of Palmyra, N.Y.
Two additional circuits, one through Lowell and one through Ayer, have been added at the local telephone exchange to take care of the increased business.
Some spirited games of tennis are enjoyed at the tennis court at Whitney playground these summer days.
The Congregational church closed last Sunday for the summer vacation through the month of August, but there will be an evening service each Sunday. Mr. Brownsey, who has been in Boston during the week, will be at the parsonage over Sunday and will kindly give this Sunday evening of his vacation and conduct the meeting. His subject will be “Looking forward and backward.” The first of the week he joins Mrs. Brownsey in Dunbarton, N.H.
Mr. and Mrs. Harold W. Hildreth are absent on a vacation trip to Maine.
At the local telephone exchange lives a rather unusual pet cat named “Mischief.” He is all white and has one eye that is very blue and the other eye of an entirely different color—a sort of gray color.
Mr. and Mrs. Perley J. Buchanan, of North Weymouth, were weekend guests of Mr. and Mrs. George F. White last Saturday and Sunday.
Alfred Tuttle, while driving his Ford, collided with a swift coming motorcycle at Minot’s corner one day this week. He gave the motorcycle all the room possible, but it was going at such a rate of speed it could not turn out enough to avoid colliding. The passenger riding in the sidecar of the motorcycle was thrown out, and while there was a general shaking up no serious results were reported.
Mr. and Mrs. William R. Carver enjoyed a weekend motor trip to Maine this last week.
J. Herbert Fletcher, Dr. C. A. Blaney and John B. Gray go the last of this week for a two-weeks’ vacation in Maine.
We note in a recent number of the Congregationalist the call of Dr. and Mrs. A. D. Leavitt to Harvard church, Brookline, from Portland. Dr. Leavitt is a Yale university man and the record given, in his chosen work is a fine one. He is the son of Rev. B. F. Leavitt, now pastor of Baker Memorial, East Boston, and the family at one time lived in Westford, occupying the house now owned by Charles H. Bicknell.
Forge Village. The superintendents, overseers and their wives of the Abbot Worsted Co. are to be the guests of the members of the firm Saturday. The outing will be held at Hampton Beach. The trip will be made by autos, leaving here at eleven o’clock. Dinner will be served at 2:30. The large party is composed of the overseers of this village, Graniteville and the Brookside mills and the office force. After dinner the party will proceed to Salisbury beach, where the remainder of the day will be spent. About eighty expect to be present.
The large strip of land between the railroad crossing and canal has been graded and is being laid out by a landscape artist. When completed it will be an attractive cool spot.
The large block opposite the mill is to be torn down to make room for a group of buildings that will take care of the office force and provide a suitable place for the nurse, who looks after the welfare of the employees of the Abbot Worsted Co. The tenants are moving out this week into the modern houses just completed for the employees.
The Graniteville A. C. won the fourth game of the series from the F.V. A.C. Wednesday evening before one of the largest crowds ever on the field. The score now is even, each side having won two games. The fifth game will be played next week.
The F.V.A.C. defeated the Townsend Independents on the home grounds Saturday afternoon by a score of 7 to 3. They will play a return game in Townsend Saturday.
Mrs. A. H. Comey and two daughters, Blanche and Irene, have returned from their vacation spent at Nantasket beach.
Miss Eva F. Pyne and William Cushing were married July 24 by Rev. Charles P. Heaney at his residence in North Chelmsford. Mr. Cushing recently returned from overseas.
Elizabeth Palermo, the young daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Palermo, was kicked in the face by one of their horses last week Thursday. Her jaw bone was fractured and she received a deep cut across the chin, which caused much pain. Miss Agnes Weir, the public health nurse is attending her.
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Keefe and little daughter June, and Mrs. Michael Keefe, of Townsend, were the guests last Saturday of Mr. and Mrs. John Carmichael.
Mr. and Mrs. Albert E. Jones and two children and Miss Ethel Jones, of Worcester, are visiting Mrs. William Blodgett of the Ridges. They spent Sunday here visiting their grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. William Burnett.
Graniteville. Owing to the cancellation of the game by the Townsend A.A., the Abbot Worsted Co. team did not play last Saturday, which proved a great disappointment to the many fans here. Next Saturday the strong Saco-Lowell club will visit here for a game with the Abbot Worsted Co. team and a good game is expected. The local club will present its regular lineup. It is expected that Merritt, who had a try out with the Lowell N.E. league team, will twirl for the Sano-Lowell club.
Carl Doneghy, who has been telegraph operator here at the Boston and Maine station for the past few years, has recently accepted a position in Marlboro and will move his family to that city in a few days.
Mr. and Mrs. J. Fred Wall of Detroit, Mich., who have been visiting relatives here for the past ten days, left for their western home last Monday.
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Dion with their son John of Lowell have been recent visitors.
Blueberries are very plentiful this season and the local pickers are reaping a harvest.
Mrs. Le [sic] Lorenzo, who has been visiting with her son Edward here for the past few weeks, left for her home in New Jersey last Saturday.
Alfred Prinn has been spending the past few days with relatives in Portland, Me.
Edward Defoe injured his leg while helping to unload machinery here a few days ago, and will be laid up for awhile.
The Graniteville A.C. played a twilight game in Forge Village Wednesday at 6:15 P.M.
About Town. Amos B. Polley has been ill with indigestion and a slight kidney trouble. Dr. Blaney was called and soon had the trouble under control. During his illness Guy R. Decatur and W. J. Parfit have been executors of milking and Joseph Quinn has added his strong arm to haying.
John D. McAlpine, of Cleveland, Ohio, after visiting in Vermont, made a second visit to his cousin, S. L. Taylor, at the Old Oaken Bucket farm. He is making his headquarters in Lowell, where he was born seventy-two years ago. Of his classmates, of whom there was a large class, only three [others] are living, Dudley L. Page, Harry Raynes and Frank P. Putnam. It was a delightful reunion of reminiscences of ye old-fashioned teaching days at the Colburn school on Lawrence street. It may be interesting to relatives to know that his brother, Hon. William Taylor McAlpine, who performed gallant service in the civil war, has reached the time mark of four score years at his home in South Lawrence and still maintains all the early evidences of youth.
The Charles S. Edwards family, who have been living in the Moore cottage close by the mill at Brookside, have been legally warned to vacate for the use of the Abbot Worsted Company, the new proprietors. The Edwards’ family have moved to the Naylor cottage and store in West Chelmsford.
The improvements connected with double tracking the Stony Brook [rail]road have come to a sudden stringent financial standstill, nearly as sudden as leaving your shovel in the air when the whistle sounds, for after spending immense sums to straighten the sharp and dangerous curves they remain where they were seventy-five years ago, when the road was built, although the expensive bank excavations have been completed and the new 19,000-acre railroad yard at Middlesex Village has a sort of after-effect appearance of the everything begun and nothing finished.
Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Taylor, Mr. and Mrs. Fred A. Snow and family and John A. Taylor are at their usual sports at York Beach.
The Abbot Worsted Company, the new owners of the Brookside mills, are making extensive repairs and changes on the property.
The town teams are hauling stone cinders from the stone quarry of the H. E. Fletcher Company to the Groton road.
Edward M. and Joseph M. Abbot have bought the Park Worsted mills in Lowell.
Ayer
Punish Guilty Officer. Capt. Harry J. Harris, Q.M.C, U.S.A., of Brookline, who appeared before a general court-martial last winter, charged with fraud against the government and whose trial was a sensational advent in the peaceful routine of Camp Devens, is to be confined to the limits of the camp and forfeit $50 of his pay each month, according to the “pleasure of the President,” expressed in telegram to the cantonment following the findings of the board of local officers.
Charged with violation of two articles of war, that he stole twenty tons of coal, the property of the United States; that he purchased two tons of coal, the property of the United States, for the use of a public garage on his false written statement that the coal was for his own personal benefit at his private residence in Brookline, the former salvage officer was tried, found guilty and sentenced to be dismissed from the service by the court-martial, the execution of the sentence which was approved by the post commander, General McCain, being suspended until “the pleasure of the President” could be obtained.
The sentence was confirmed by the President and commuted to a reprimand by the commanding general, and the above confinement and pay-forfeiture unless Capt. Harris be discharged before the expiration of the period of six months, at which time such portion of the sentence which remains unexecuted will stand remitted.
District Court. On Saturday morning a large quantity of beer, seized by the police in Westford, which an analysis showed between two and three percent of alcohol, was ordered forfeited.
Officer Sentenced. Samuel H. Stone, formerly a second lieutenant in H Company, 101st Infantry, began a ten-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Tuesday, for deserting his men while under fire, resulting in a needless loss of life. He was convicted by court martial at Eccomoy, France, in January, of abandoning night patrols at the edge of No Man’s Land four times, and with deserting his platoon as his company was going into action at Chateau-Thierry, St. Mihiel and Verdun.
Prior to his conviction he was beaten insensible at least four times by privates in his platoon for his cowardice. Twice he was threatened with death by men under him. Desertion is punishable by death. Soldiers in the American Expeditionary Forces guilty of lesser offenses were sentenced to much more severe sentences than Stone’s on numerous occasions. There have been several instances at Camp Devens where men have been sent to prison for as high as twenty-five years for assault and battery on a non-commissioned officer and insulting a commissioned officer.
Stone is said to have enlisted in H Company just prior to the departure for the Mexican border. Through application to drilling and study he worked up to a commission. Until the company went into action at Chateau-Thierry his record was good. H Company was in the first wave at Chateau-Thierry on the second day. Stone’s platoon was on the right flank. Shortly after the attack started he was seen to run to the rear. A guard in A Company in the supporting line halted him. The lieutenant gave as excuse that he was returning for sector maps and was allowed to proceed. Bewildered by the sudden disappearance of their leader the platoon tried to save the situation. In carrying out instructions to the best of their ability the men exposed themselves needlessly. At least two were killed as a result, several present declare. A dozen or more were wounded.
Ashamed to have it known that their commander had deserted, the men of the platoon kept silent. Again at St. Mihiel Stone repeated, running to the rear almost at the opening of hostilities. At Verdun it was the same. Later, charges were preferred against him.
In some unknown manner the lieutenant managed to get to Paris after the armistice. A group of his own men found him promenading the streets wearing the croix de guerre and one other decoration. They set upon him. While engaged in striking him they were arrested. Later they were released when explanations were made.
He returned here with the division. Through mistake the charge papers were not brought to Devens. So, for a time he was allowed the liberty of camp. The afternoon of July 21 a cablegram was received setting forth the action of the court-martial board. He was stripped of all insignia, placed in solitary confinement, shunned by everyone and kept under armed guard. Accompanied by three sentries he started for the federal prison on Friday.