Turner's Public Spirit, February 7, 1925
A look back in time to a century ago
By Bob Oliphant
Center. A son, Byron H. Brow, Jr., was born on January 27 to Mr. and Mrs. Byron H. Brow (Amelia Lambert), Green Cove Springs, Fla.
The W.C.T.U. held an interesting meeting at the home of Mrs. Hugh Ferguson on Wednesday afternoon. Miss May Day read a paper in memory of Mrs. Frances Willard[1], and Mrs. Janet Wright read a health paper. Refreshments were served by the hostess, Mrs. Ferguson.
The Alliance of the Unitarian church will hold a military whist party at the church parlors on Wednesday evening, February 11, at eight o’clock. Refreshments will be served and there will be tables for all. It is hoped that there will be a large attendance.
The Ladies’ Aid of the Congregational church will hold an all-day meeting at the home of Mrs. David L. Greig on Thursday of next week.
Mrs. Ella Pyne [nee Ella Frances Moses, widow of James William Pyne (1856-1922)], of Nashua, a former resident of this town, suffered a slight shock at her home recently. Her friends in town will be pleased to learn that she is recovering and is now able to sit up.
Westford post, A.L., will conduct a dance in the town hall on Wednesday evening, February 18.
At a recent meeting of the A.L. Auxiliary Mrs. Elva Wright was elected secretary for 1925.
The next regular meeting of the Auxiliary will be held on Monday evening at eight o’clock. The officers for 1925 will be installed by a deputy sent from state headquarters. Refreshments will be served. All 1924 and 1925 officers are especially requested to be present.
The military whist party given by the Y.P.R.U. of the Unitarian church on last Wednesday evening was well attended, there being fifteen tables in play. The first prizes were won by Mrs. John Feeney, Sr., Willard Fletcher and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Robinson. The consolation prizes went to Masters Kenneth Wright, William Carver, Andrew Parfitt and Walter Wright. Refreshments were served and the affair proved to be a great success. The committee in charge was composed of Leon Hildreth, Frederick Robinson, Charles Colburn and Mrs. Charles G. Carter.
The Alliance of the Unitarian church will hold an all-day meeting in the vestry on Thursday, February 10. At the afternoon session Miss Mabel Drew will read a paper on the “Study of the Alliance manual.” Mrs. Annie Hamlin will be the hostess of the day and a large attendance is desired.
The annual meeting of the Unitarian church was held on Friday evening January 30, at which the following officers were elected: Edward M. Abbot, clerk; Mrs. Alexina Prescott, treas.; Miss Mabel Drew [page torn, line missing] Seavey and Edward M. Abbot parish com.; H. V. Hildreth, auditor; Capt. Sherman H. Fletcher, J. Herbert Fletcher and H. V. Hildreth, assessors. The financial condition was found to be very good.
Precinct voting for the various town officers will be held on Monday. On the following Monday, February 16, the annual town meeting will be held in the town hall. There are fifty-seven articles in the warrant to be acted upon.
Mrs. Eben Prescott, who has been ill, is reported as improving.
The next meeting of the Grange to be held on Thursday evening, February 19, will be open to the public. The Legion and Auxiliary and veterans of all wars will be the special guests of the evening. Charles M. Gardner will be the speaker of the evening.
Thomas A. Welch passed away at the home of Sidney B. Wright on Monday. He is survived by a sister, Mrs. Mary Bosworth, of Dorchester; two brothers, William, of Carlisle, and John, of this town; also, several nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.
At the annual meeting of the Westford Water Company the following officers were elected: John C. Abbot, pres.; Capt. Sherman H. Fletcher, manager; Charles O. Prescott, of Boston, sec. and treas.; Hugh Dysart, of Boston, auditor; J. C. Abbot, Julian Cameron, Capt. Sherman H. Fletcher, C. O. Prescott and H. W. Tarbell of Lowell, directors.
The senior class of the academy conducted a dancing party in the town hall on Wednesday evening.
Philip W. Kimball, of Salem, and Miss Mary A. Grant, of Rockport, were the guests or Mrs. Harry Whiting on last Sunday.
Miss Elizabeth Wells has entered Westbrook seminary in Deering, Me[2].
About Town. Among the real estate transactions in Westford I read: “Frederic S. Harvey, commissioner, to Cornelia A. Boynton, highway to Lowell.” All seems quite plain to locate except Frederic S. Harvey. I am not able to locate his residence in town, if [it] is not too precocious I would like to ask who he is. [Frederic Sabin Harvey (1889-1957) was born and died in Lowell and lived there in 1920 and 1930, occupation lawyer.]
The F. A. Snows have received a postal card from the H. E. Fletchers, who started for Florida by automobile, informing them that they had arrived in Florida, and that everything was just splendily [sic] sunshine. Here everything is splendidly icicle.
Let us warm up. March will soon be here, and that’s the month some of us plant potatoes. Just think of that—right close onto potato planting time! That thought ought to warm up enough to save a little on the coal bill and make the icicles unpack their grip.
Henry A. Bunce, of Chelmsford, has been remodeling the William E. Green house on the Providence road for the present owner, W. W. Blackadar, of Chelmsford Center, who is planning in the spring to move.
Congratulations from the Old Oaken Bucket farm to Mrs. Wesley O. Hawkes [nee Abba Frances “Abbie” Hill of Westford], who observed her eighty-fourth birthday anniversary last Saturday. Some more congratulations to Wesley O. Hawkes, he of the never-come-sunny-smile for the poor of the town. Don’t let it come off, Wesley, until I see you about that nice sunny room. Mark it “engaged.”
William Gilson, who operates the store and ice cream restaurant at Westford Corner, has built a nice ice house to keep cool with.
Charles M. Trull, of Detroit, Mich., recently visited his mother, Mrs. Margaret J. McGregory [sic, MacGregor], at Westford Corner.
The Parent-Teacher association of the Quessey school, West Chelmsford, invited the public to an entertainment at Historical hall on Tuesday afternoon. The following program was given by the children: Exercise, primary room; singing, intermediate room; playlet, grammar room; address, Miss Ann Johnson, of Boston, on “Child health.” It was a well organized and inspiring effort before an appreciative gathering. This gathering and others clearly demonstrates that West Chelmsford needs a larger and better hall.
By the generous invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Regnier, Plain road, West Chelmsford Grange held a social party at their home on last Saturday evening. It was liberally attended on the part of the Grange and most generously responded to by the Regniers in making the occasion an affair of rare “Make yourself at home” hospitality.
Northern Maine, in the direction of Greenville, is suffering from one of the severest winter droughts in the history of the state. With no rain and small amount of snow, and no thawing, the situation is becoming serious. One of the largest reservoirs in the United States, if not in the world, is down to shallow running stream, and other smaller reservoirs are fast tending the same way. Rivers, brooks, lakes and ponds are in the same class, and manufacturing is threatened with a shut-down.
And now comes forth with his own self-sacrificing volition the Hon. Thomas Riley Marshall[3], ex-vice president of the United States, who says “National prohibition should be immediately repealed.” I feel like asking of old, “Whence hath this man this wisdom,” or in other words, “What newly-discovered facts has he discovered that he is going to spring at the most favorable time and convert us all?”
There are fifty-eight articles in the annual warrant of the annual business of the town, which gathering will convene in the town hall on Monday, February 16. There seem to be articles enough to keep us going until the electric lights come to our assistance in showing us how to do. Remember, prior to the annual show we have precinct side-shows to be exhibited on Monday, February 9, at which time and places we will choose our annual guardians.
We acknowledge with many left [paper torn, line or two missing] of several illustrated booklets from Emory J. Whitney of this town and Florida, giving first-hand insight into Florida as an agricultural state and a residential state, and a strawberry and potato state. Nothing is said about a state of coma; they got rid of the coma state when Lincoln woke them out of their slavery coma. I am loaning these magazine booklets to the neighbors. I am acting as an unpaid missionary in behalf of starting something in Florida next winter.
We read with much interest the article in last week’s issue, under “Middlesex County Extension News,” the account of poultry raising of Warren Otis Day, of this town. I was pleased to read it as an infallible confirmation of what must be apparent to all unprejudiced people that successful farming is determined by individual capacity.
We are advised to feed the birds by the chairman of the fish and game commission. Well, now, see here, Mr. Chairman, I am with you in the humaneness of this appeal, and if you will furnish the birds I will furnish the victuals sometimes called food. I am all out of birds; do not know where they are; probably shot to their death by the humane law of the open season. Have seen only one crow and he or she was heading toward the cornfields where I left corn out to feed the crows and birds. This crow was out after victuals on one of the roughest, bleakest days of the winter. Bleak and all as it was I lifted my hat to this beloved child of picturesque, romantic nature, and this is more than I ever have or will do to the Dupont Powder Company, or those who use it for extermination purposes.
The food selection project will be held in the town hall on Tuesday, February 10, at 9:30, under the auspices of the Middlesex County Extension Service. At this meeting the essentials of good nutrition will be taken up.
The Y.P.R.U. held a very successful military whist party last week Wednesday evening at the vestry. Fifteen tables engaged in play. The highest score, 69 points, was made by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Robinson, Mrs. John Feeney and J. Willard Fletcher. The winners’ souvenirs were salt shakers and hat-pin receivers. The lowest score, 8 points, was piled up by William Carver, Ernest Peterson, Donald Wright and Kenneth Wright. The consolation souvenirs were lollipops. Refreshments were served. The committee included Charles Colburn, Leon Hildreth, Miss Elizabeth Wells and Mrs. Charles G. Carter.
Embargoes. The embargo on potatoes raised in the United States as enforced by the English government and Irish republic is well up to a peaceable crisis. United States Senators Hale and Fernald, of Maine, Governor [Ralph Owen] Brewster, President Todd of the Bangor and Aroostook railroad, and other high-ups of Maine have appeared before President Coolidge in an effort to have this embargo lifted. Ambassador [Frank Billings] Kellogg to the Court of St. James [and in March 1925 to become Secretary of State] is also whistling the same tune, and some of the American farmers who are specializing in the raising of fruit are whistling to have the United States embargo on nursery stock lifted and perhaps the whistling on both sides of the Atlantic-Pacific ocean may lead to a tune we may all be happy to join in the chorus.
Now, what are the facts as guessed at by your correspondent? The United States leads off with the first blow with an embargo on nursery stock. Some folks no bigger than the foot-of-the-class schoolboy at the old Stony Brook school think there was no need of this embargo; that these nursery stock diseases and fungus in European nurseries we already had here in the United States, and that they had nothing new to deliver us; that nursery stock raised in the United States couldn’t leave the nurseries until fumigated and sterilized; that instead of an embargo all this foreign stock could have likewise been compelled to be treat and furthermore, Mr. Moderator, from all of the evidence of damage actually done or prospective to be done, it was a clear case of more mousehill than mountain, although we labeled it mountain to fit the unjustifiable greed of the United States nursery “special interests” who have thus been enabled to send their woodenwares kiting higher than the airplanes when you cannot just quite reach them.
Some of us recall buying trees of the late Harrison D. Evans, of Ayer, for twenty-five cents per tree, and under the embargo multiplied by six and eight. Oh, don’t waste words replying about the higher cost of living all around in all directions, for we are not so far advanced in the hog kingdom as to expect to buy apple trees for twenty-five cents. If there is any industry in the United States that cannot live, backed up by a high tariff without embargo advantages, they should have a world all to themselves and be buried in the center of a ten-acre lot all by their lonesome and without tears or flowers.
And say, your honor, what has become of the mousehill mountain that had to be fumigated? Got the embargo on and it quit? “Potato beetle,” recites the parrot, and it adds, “They cannot be carried in cold weather for nature fixes the terms of an embargo.” Is it not a well-known fact that there are more than eleventeen other troubles that threaten the potatoes, all of whom can be carried in the potato, and we are advised to “treat the seed” to something other than anti-Volsteadism? Is it not clearly observable that the English embargo, like the American, is not so much of safety first as Canada is a province of England and potatoes worth twenty cents per bushel in some of this province and that as a relative England is within the rights of natural law to help out relations, although the relatives have the same potato troubles as the non-relatives?
Under these circumstances how thin the embargo excuse looks. With very poor eyesight you can see right through to the American embargo. They are twins.
Death. Mrs. Helen L. Taylor, well known as an organist and music teacher in Lowell, died last week Tuesday at her home on Warwick street, Lowell, after a long and painful illness, at the age of 60 years and 24 days. She was born in Lowell on January 3, 1865, the daughter of Thomas and Helen Mary (Taylor) Hamilton, and was educated in the public schools of Lowell. She received her musical training from her mother, who was organist of Worthen Street Methodist church for many years, where she succeeded her mother. Later she became the organist of the Paige Street Baptist and Eliot Congregational churches, and for seventeen years at the First Universalist church. When the High Street Congregational and the First Unitarian churches united as All Souls church [in 1921] she became the organist and has held the position ever since.
She was not only an excellent organist, but one of the best known music teachers in Lowell.
She married Arthur W. Taylor, of Acton, son of Hon. Moses and Mrs. Taylor, of Acton. He died in 1895. Her nearest relatives are cousins, among whom are Mrs. Ella Howard and Mrs. Jean Irwin, both of Springfield; Thomas E. Taylor, of Woodsville, N.H.; Samuel L. Taylor, of this town and an uncle, James Hamilton, of East Northfield.
We shall miss her cheery smile and words and musical inspiration as an occasional visitor at the Old Oaken Bucket farm [of Samuel L. Taylor].
The deceased was a member of All Souls church and the Middlesex Woman’s club.
The funeral was held on last week Thursday afternoon from her home, 48 Warwick street, Lowell. Rev. Arthur Cushman McGiffert, pastor of All Souls church, conducted the service. Appropriate selections were sung by the church choir, Mrs. Harriet C. Spalding, Mrs. N. M. Leahey, Harry H. Prescott and Henry J. Warren. The floral offerings were more than abundant and appropriate. The bearers were all members of All Souls church, William A. Lawson, Edward T. Wilder, Albert French and Cyrus W. Russell. Interment was in the family lot in the Edson cemetery, where the committal service was read by the officiating clergyman. There was a large attendance of relatives and friends from Lowell, Westford Acton, West Chelmsford, East Northfield and Springfield.
Vandalism. Alfred L. Cutting, chairman of the Middlesex county commissioners, recently appeared before the legislative committee on counties for legislation to stop vandalism at the state reservation at Lake Walden. There was quite a little of it there last summer. I would suggest that the state send some of the disarmament holy folks as missionaries to talk with these unfortunates and buy some flowers to soothe them with. But of course, be firm in talk and tell them that we are sorry to say that they must not do so any more. If they do, the state will feel sad to arrest them, but they will be liberated on parole. During the meantime betwixt vandalism and parole, etc., everything is so flowery lovely that the state feels that it is quite safe to seal its electric chair. This line of reasoning is more sensible than much of the talk about world disarmament. We shall get safely rid of disarmament as a troublesome question when we get an ideal control of individual lives. “War thee not in your members.”[4] We will eliminate that out of our lives by daily increasing the power and influence of self-control before we can “beat our swords into pruning hooks and our shield into ploughshares and safely say bye-bye to war.”
Called to Tennessee. Rev. Thomas J. Horner, minister of the First Unitarian church in Manchester, N.H., and general secretary and treasurer of the New Hampshire association, has been called to the pastorate of the First Unitarian church in Nashville, Tenn., where, under the auspices of the American Unitarian association, he worked for several months last autumn. Mr. Horner’s resignation is effective in Manchester, February 1. During his ministry in Manchester the budget of the church was been largely increased, the church building has been renovated and redecorated, historical tablets erected in memory of some of the founders of the society, a history of the Unitarian movement in Manchester written and published, and a parish assistant added to the staff. This will very much interest his friends in Westford, where at one time he was minister of the old First Parish church [1890-1892] and is still remembered as an energetic and forceful preacher. His wife will be remembered as a graceful and cultivated lady, the daughter of Hon. Halsey J. Boardman, of Boston, for a long time prominent in Massachusetts and Boston politics, and member of the Massachusetts legislature, and president of the Massachusetts senate. Mr. and Mrs. Horner have five children.
A Trip. “All the world’s a stage,” wrote Shakespeare [As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII], but I have seen a drama where the stage was a bit of infinite space. The performers were three different sized balls with three others as a sideshow. The first ball, a great one of fire, around which the second was carrying the audience, around which the third and smallest was rolling. To one side were the three others which we call Mercury, Venus and Jupiter, making a pretty group only visible a few minutes.[5]
Five below zero on Friday morning, January 23, was not allowed to prevent our hundred mile drive to see the moon eat the sun, completely blotting it out for a time. By the way I use a route for reaching southeastern Massachusetts which avoids all the traffic congestion near Boston, where everyone I meet seems to think it necessary to go to reach these points [torn, word missing] get hard-surfaced roads all the [torn, word or two missing] this time found [torn, line missing] which is a new thing under the sun. I go through Concord to Weston, Wellesley, Needham, Dedham, East Dedham, Readville to Blue Hill avenue. In summer-time, from Dedham, I usually go by Green Lodge road to Ponkapoag or by Canton Corner to Stoughton, at either of which I reach the same road, once the Taunton Turnpike, going through Taunton and Fall River to Newport.
Saturday morning a clear sky with a northwest wind below zero greeted us, but we went to high land near Purgatory [Middletown, RI], where we had unimpeded views over sea and land, with the Los Angeles[6] (or Shenandoah) hovering over the sea to the south, on the same errand as we.
When the moon had nearly effaced the sun we saw the shadow bands chasing each other in an elfin dance across the snow and also just after the sun began to be visible again. The three planets were now visible and at the last sight of the sun the “engagement ring” was to be seen again at the first reappearance of the sun. The corona was excellently visible. The darkness was only sufficient to render a very few first magnitude stars visible. “Look in the west,” said one, and there was what was not expected—an appearance as of much more than the most beautiful sunset I ever saw with a weird strangeness about it because of the light being from above giving it an inverted effect, such that I was reminded of reading in one of the poets of “The light that never was on sea or land.”
A sudden brilliant point of light brought the reappearance of the “engagement ring” the shadow bands danced with joy over the snow at the sight of the sun and disappeared; the moon slowly slid out of sight, and the drama was gone for more than a hundred years. We returned to the home of relatives feeling well repaid for our mid-winter trip. [Leonard] Wheeler
Why Not? The heavy rain of last week Thursday evening helped the growing crops with such as icicles and their affinities, but the open well at the Old Oaken Bucket farm is still as dry as the Dupont powder that shoots the beloved crow to its last nesting resting place.
Sunday was the warmest of the season with 40 above on the north side of the house at the Old Oaken Bucket farm. Icicles took a tumble.
The W. R Taylors, the S. L. Taylors and the F. A. Snows attended the funeral of their cousin, Mrs. Helen C. Taylor, in Lowell, last week Friday. The descendants of Hon. Moses Taylor, of Acton, were also well and numerously represented.
The following is clipped from a Boston paper: “Mrs. Margaret Cecil, of Dunbar, Penn., has a strange taste in pets. In a warm corner of her house lives a boa constrictor eighteen feet long and more than a foot in diameter. It inhabits a stout trunk of a large size and Mrs. Cecil keeps the reptile wrapped in a warm blanket, for it does not like cold weather. Sixteen years ago Mrs. Cecil toured Brazil with a circus. Someone presented her with a young constrictor two weeks old. Faithful to her charge she brought the snake home and raised it.” Let us remember that unlike the rattlesnake the bite of a boa constrictor is not poisonous or fatal, but its coiling gripping hug is fatal. The thought occurred to your correspondent that as so many people are shocked at the thought of using an electric shock for the death penalty to substitute the coiling hug to death of the boa constrictor. Of course the difficulty would be to control the number he would hug once he got started, and perhaps it would be well as a safety first precaution against the hugging of innocent people to park and pad the scene of execution with a lot of these bank robbers and highway robbers and goldbrick people generally, and if the boa did bore into some of them with his hug bore, why the gap would be easily filled, for we have sold our jails as a testimonial of what we will not do. I second the motion for the boa constrictor amendment and experiment.
Church Notes. First church (Unitarian)—Sunday service at 4 p.m. Preacher, Rev. Frank B Crandall, the minister. Subject, “God, the sole judge.” Church school at three.
The Y.P.R.U. met Sunday evening following the service. Plans were discussed for entering the national efficiency contest of the Y.P.R.U., thereby making the local society of more service to the church and community. It was voted to hold a military whist party toward the end of the month and a play next month. Refreshments were served by the hosts. Members of the Y.P.R.U. will observe Young People’s Sunday on Sunday, February 15, taking entire charge of the service.
The chapter of the Laymen’s league will meet on Sunday evening. Supper will be served.
Graniteville. Many from here attended the dancing party given by the senior class of Westford academy at the town hall on Wednesday evening. The senior class also held a cake sale at the store of Miss Laura McCarthy on Friday afternoon.
Full service is now being given on the Lowell and Fitchburg line between North Chelmsford and Ayer, the tracks being entirely cleared after the recent snowstorm.
Mrs. W. O. Hawkes, one of Graniteville’s oldest residents, celebrated her eighty-fourth birthday anniversary in a quiet manner on last Saturday. She was the recipient of many gifts of flowers, cards and confectionery, as well as the warm congratulations of her many friends during the day. Mrs. Hawkes was born here and has always resided here.
In the guessing contest held by the Ladies’ Aid society at the calendar bazaar recently, it was found that there were just 596 seeds in the pumpkin. As Mrs. Bertha Whitney and Mr. Plunkett both guessed 500, the prize will be divided between them.
John Ellison [sic, probably Eliason] has been laid up with a crushed finger for the past few weeks. [Per the 1920 and 1930 censuses, John was a teamster/truck driver for a machine shop, probably C. G. Sargent’s Sons.]
The jitneys did a great business on last week Friday and Saturday while the employees of the Lowell and Fitchburg street railway company were digging out their tracks that were icebound, owing to the big storm.
The members of Court Graniteville, F. of A., held their regular meeting on Thursday evening. After the business session a smoker and entertainment was held.
The bazaar held at the M.E. church on last week Wednesday and Thursday was a successful affair. A sum of $190 was cleared, it has been announced. The committee in charge of the event included Mrs. A L. O’Brien, chairman; Mrs. J. Wall, assistant chairman; Mrs. E. Turner, Mrs. E. Deeming, Mrs. Delahay and Mrs. A. Downing.
William J. Madigan, of Harvard has been appointed trustee under the will of Thomas F. Ward after two petitions.
Ayer
Deaths. Benjamin Taft, one of the most prominent business men of the town, died last week Friday afternoon at his home, 41 East Main street, following a short illness with pneumonia. His death came as a great shock to the people of the community, many of whom had not learned he was ill.
Mr. Taft was born in Northbridge on April 29, 1853, son of Benjamin F. and Caroline E. (Whitney) Taft. His parents moved to Ayer before he was a year old and Ayer has since been his residence. He was educated in the Ayer schools and at Lawrence academy. He took also a business course at Waltham Business College.
In his early life he worked as a printer at the office of the late John H. Turner. Later he entered the employ of the Fitchburg railroad as a brakeman and afterwards became shipper for the Ames Plow Company. Forty-eight years ago he entered the insurance business with his father. For a number of years he has been secretary and treasurer of the Cotton and Woolen Manufacturers’ Mutual Insurance Co., the Rubber Manufacturers’ Mutual Insurance Co. and the Industrial Mutual Insurance Co. with offices at 185 Franklin street, Boston. He was twice married. His first wife was Miss Harriet W. Lawton, who died January 6, 1914, leaving no children. His second wife, who survives him, was Miss Cora May Flagg of Westford [who he married August 5, 1914].
Mr. Taft was a member of the First Unitarian church and of the Ayer chapter of the Unitarian Laymen’s League. He was also prominent in fraternal circles. He was a life member of Caleb Butler lodge of Masons. He was a past master of the lodge and for several years its treasurer. He was an honorary member of St. Paul lodge. He was also a life member and the first high priest of Bancroft Royal Arch chapter. He was a life member of Boston Council, Royal and Select Masters of Jerusalem Commandery, Knights Templars, of Fitchburg, of Boston Lafayette lodge of Perfection, of Giles Fonda Yates Council, Princes of Jerusalem, of Mount Olivet chapter of Rose Croix (paper torn, line missing) Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, all of Boston. He was also a past sovereign prince of Giles Fonda Yates council. He had also been a noble grand of Robert Burns lodge of Odd Fellows. He was a former selectman and a trustee of the North Middlesex Savings Bank.
In business and fraternal circles Mr. Taft by his generous disposition and spirit of friendliness had won a wide circle of friends. In his home town, where he had lived for over seventy years, there are a host who testify to his notable generosity and kindness of heart and who unite in mourning his loss.
Besides his widow he leaves a son, Benjamin Flagg Taft, and four sisters, Mrs. Ellen F. Kittredge of Ayer, Mrs. Carrie Fletcher of Belmont, Mrs. Anna Moses of Providence, R.I., and Mrs. Syrena Bulkeley of Shirley.
The funeral was held Monday afternoon at two o’clock at his home on East Main street. A great company of neighbors, fellow-citizens and business associates from Boston attended. Members of Caleb Butler lodge of Masons and a delegation for Jerusalem Commandery, Knights Templars, of Fitchburg, attended in a body. The floral tributes entirely screened the walls on two sides of the room. The service of the church was conducted by Rev. Frank B. Crandall. The Masonic funeral rite followed and was conducted by Rev. Mr. Crandall, master of Caleb Butler lodge, assisted by Philip R. Andrew, chaplain.
Interment was in the family lot at Woodlawn cemetery, where Mr. Crandall read the church committal service and conducted the Masonic burial rite. Members of Jerusalem Commandery, Knights Templars, formed the traditional arch of steel with their swords, as [the] casket was slowly lowered to the grave. The bearers were Dr. Bertrand H. Hopkins, representing the professional men, and Herbert H. Proctor, representing the business men of Ayer, and Henry Clough, Howard Fowler, Herbert Sullivan and William Switzer of Boston, representing the business firms of which the deceased was secretary and treasurer.
Real Estate Transfers. The following real estate transfers have been recorded from this vicinity recently.
Westford—Carrie A. Dickson et al. to Oscar R. Spalding, Puffer lot.
District Court. Arthur Cayer of Westford was found guilty of drunkenness in that town and his case was placed on file.
News Items. The Ayer chapter of the Unitarian Laymen’s League will hold a postponed meeting at the vestry Tuesday evening. The speaker will be Arthur G. Hildreth, head of the department of science in the Newton Technical High school, one of the board of selectmen of Westford and president of the Westford chapter of the league. Supper will be served to members and guests at 6:30.
Littleton
News Items. Next week Tuesday evening there will be a basketball game in the town hall between the Athletic association team and a Westford team and probably a second game will be played between the Scouts and some out of town team.
[1] “Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard (1839-1898) was an American educator, temperance reformer, and women’s suffragist. Willard became the national president of Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1879 and remained president until her death in 1898.” See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Willard.
[2] “Westbrook College was a liberal arts college in Portland, Maine, founded in 1831 as Westbrook Seminary in Westbrook, Maine. It closed in 1996 and merged with the University of New England, which uses its old campus.” See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westbrook_College.
[3] “Thomas Riley Marshall (1854-1925) was an American politician who served as the 28th vice president of the United States from 1913 to 1921 under President Woodrow Wilson. A prominent lawyer in Indiana, he became an active and well known member of the Democratic Party.” See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_R._Marshall
[4] This quote is probably a corruption of James 4:1. “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?” KJV
[5] Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are the five planets visible to the unaided. In January, 1925, the moon would be at first quarter on the 1st and 31st, full on the 10th, last quarter on the 17th, and new on the 24th when there would be a total solar eclipse in the northeast US. The moon would be near Mars on the 1st, Saturn on the 19th, Jupiter and Mercury on the 22nd, and Venus on the 23rd. See https://www.myhora.com/ephemeris/january-1925.aspx.
[6] “On 24 January 1925, U.S. Naval Observatory and U.S. Bureau of Standards gathered a group of astronomers [aboard the USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) rigid airship] to observe a total solar eclipse from the airship over New York City.” Quoted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Los_Angeles_(ZR-3). A video of this total solar eclipse taken from the USS Los Angeles is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bkq_ljkrUY.
The USS Shenandoah (ZR-1) was grounded at the time of this solar eclipse, and in fact its helium, being rare and expensive, was used to fill the USS Los Angeles. See https://www.airships.net/us-navy-rigid-airships/uss-shenandoah/.