Turner's Public Spirit, January 27, 1923

A look back in time to a century ago

By Bob Oliphant

Center.  Master Raymond Desmond, the young son of Mr. and Mrs. David Desmond, observed his tenth birthday on Wednesday.  Fourteen of his young friends were in attendance and thoroughly enjoyed themselves with games and out-door sports.  During the afternoon refreshments were served by Mrs. Desmond, and Master Desmond was the recipient of a number of gifts.

Margaret, the nine-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Davis, was operated upon for appendicitis at the Lowell General hospital on Monday.  Her many friends will be pleased to learn that she is doing nicely.

The Alliance of the Unitarian church will hold an all-day session at the home of Mrs. William R. Carver on Thursday, February 1.  It is hoped that there will be a good attendance.

It was with great regret that the news of the death of Mrs. Anna Barnard, in Brookline, was received in town.  Burial was in Manchester, N.H.  Mrs. Barnard was the mother of Miss Florence Barnard, a former teacher, and during her residence here made a host of friends.  Death was due to pneumonia.  Mrs. Barnard and daughter spent last summer in town at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Willis Hildreth.

Mrs. Alma Richardson will spend the rest of the winter at the home of her friend, Mrs. Jenkins, in Marblehead.

Mrs. George Lawrence was in town over the weekend at the home of H. V. Hildreth.

Prayer meetings are held regularly on Friday evenings at the Congregational church at eight o’clock.  The sermon theme for Sunday morning will be the fourth in the present series, “The ring.”  Sunday school at noon. Junior C.E. at 4:30. Young People’s league (missionary meeting) at 6:30.  Evening service at 7:15; subject, “Too busy.”

The Tadmuck club observed dollar day at their meeting on Tuesday afternoon.  The members present donated a dollar and told how they had earned it.  The musical program consisted of a piano duet, Miss Julia Fletcher and Mrs. Edith Pond Blaney; vocal duet, Mrs. Blaney and Miss Lillian Sutherland, after which there was a club tea in charge of Mrs. Charles L. Hildreth and Mrs. Clarence Hildreth.

Owing to the bad traveling the attendance at the meeting of the Legion Auxiliary on Monday evening was so small, there not being a quorum present, they were unable to hold their regular business meeting, but those present enjoyed a social time.

Miss Nancy Paterson, the new president of the Legion Auxiliary, has had a telephone installed recently—64-23.

The Legion and Auxiliary are planning to hold a sleighride and theatre party to Lowell on Thursday evening, February 1.

Mrs. John Sears and Miss Karen G. Grant were the guests of the latter’s aunt, Mrs. Henry Whiting, over the weekend.

Notices are posted for a citizens’ caucus to be held in the town hall on January 30 to nominate officers to be voted upon at the annual town meeting.  The articles for the town warrant will be posted within a few days.

About Town.  Word has come to town that Mr. and Mrs. Lester Mann, of Randolph, announce the engagement of their daughter, Judith E., to Charles M. Griffin, Jr., of this town.

Pussy willows are proclaiming that spring is here, and they know more about it than a lot of other side-stepping unreliable fallibilities.  At any rate Mrs. Fred L. Fletcher, of Chelmsford, who lives about a mile over the town line from Chamberlain’s Corner, picked a large bunch of pussy willows last Sunday.

William Naylor died at his home in Philadelphia last week Wednesday, aged sixty-five years.  He was a brother of Mrs. Thomas H. Elliott, of Lowell, and the late Samuel Naylor, of West Chelmsford.  The funeral services were held last Saturday afternoon from the funeral church on Westford street, Lowell.  Rev. E. E. Jackman of the village church of West Chelmsford conducted the services.  The body was placed in the receiving tomb at Edson cemetery, Lowell, preparatory to removal in the spring to the cemetery in West Chelmsford.

“Grizzly Giant,” the big redwood tree in Yosemite Valley, is estimated to be 1000 years old.  It comes close to being next oldest inhabitant to Darwin’s early cave man.

The next meeting of the Grange will be held on Thursday evening, February 1, and will be known in history as valentine night.  Mr. and Mrs. Fred Myers and Mr. and Mrs. Carl Lydiard will have charge.

The next meeting of Middlesex-North Pomona Grange will be held on Friday, February 2, at Odd Fellow’s hall, Bridge street, Lowell.  At the last meeting it was voted to have a printed program as literary rudder as a guide to know where and what next.  It is close to time to come to ourselves, being the only Pomona Grange in Massachusetts without a rudder as a compass to guide its future lecturer’s hours.  Questions of importance come up for discussion with a minute to prepare.  The wisest, single step that this Pomona has taken since its organization was to step out into the open with a printed program.  The argument that the program may break down some of the time is true and unavoidable.

The Christian Register of January 18 has an article in it by Mrs. Jennie A. Scudder, “The church in a nation’s capitol.”  It tells of the centenary of this splendid Unitarian church there and in the course of the article speaks of Noah Fletcher among the former distinguished members there.  He was a great-uncle of Sherman H. Fletcher and Miss Emily F. Fletcher.

A short time ago Robert Elliott sailed with Charles Breene, Paul Green and Millage Feindel on a European trip for two months.  Word has now been received from Gibraltar they are now in Morocco.

Nabnassett school already has a good cradle pool in the Brookside district.  The latest addition is the young daughter [Inez Joyce Whitney] of Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Barton Whitney, born January 14.

A very large assemblage was present at the Copley-Plaza, Boston, last week Friday evening for the ball given by those associated with the Repertory theatre, where the Francis Jewett Players give their productions.  First in the receiving line was Mrs. John C. Abbot in a gray gown trimmed with gray ostrich and a gray fan of ostrich.  Many other distinguished matrons were in the line including Mrs. Edward Gray, wife of the new British consul [Edward Gray served as British consul to Boston from 1922 to 1931], Mrs. Louis A. Coolidge, Mrs. J. Weston Allen and others.

The school committee and the finance committee are to be commended for their plan of having a forum in Forge Village, where the voters met and discussed the school situation and again on Monday night they had an open forum in Graniteville.  This gave a chance for expression of opinion before the making out of the town warrant for the February town meeting.  In the Sargent school at Graniteville, the platoon system is now in force.  Grade two starts in the morning and closes its session at twelve o’clock.  Grade three starts its session at twelve o’clock and continues until four in the afternoon.  It is no wonder that the Graniteville people feel that they need more school facilities.

Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Spalding left the latter part of this week for West Palm Beach, Fla.

Miss Anna Shaddick is seriously ill in a hospital in Boston.  She is well known in town, where she lived for several years and attended Westford academy.  With her parents she lived in the Nashoba district on the farm formerly owned by Benjamin F. Day and former superintendent of roads.

Last week we gave the opinion of a college professor, whose name is withheld, why corn pops.  Now there seems to be some people yet who don’t understand why corn pops.  As assistant instructor in “why corn pops” and “how to pop corn,” we volunteer our own personal experience and waive all claims for an increase in salary for this extra instruction.  Before we read the professor’s lecture on “Why corn pops,” our corn would not pop at all.  After reading that lecture we made a post mortem chemical analysis of each kernel to see what was the trouble with the colloidal matrix or the hydrolysis cellular endosperm and rejected all kernels that did not stand up to a high pressure post mortem, and then just as we got ready to shake the corn over the fire we said “Presto changeo; pop-o, go-o” and the result was that we had the fullest popperful of the whitest and tenderest corn that you ever saw or ate.  In doing the presto act you must be sure and have the cover to the popper well weighed down, for if you don’t there will be an overflow into the fire.

A large amount of snow on the ground has its advantage to the farmer, for scientists inform us that it is cheap and easy assimilated fertilizer for the land and it conserves moisture for next year’s crops.  As a fertilizer it has this advantage—it solves the question of “cheaper freight rates.”

Thomas Elliott, of Lowell and Westford, celebrated the eightieth anniversary of his birth on last week Friday at the home of his daughter, Mrs. John Legg [sic, Leggat is meant per her obituary, Lowell Sun, Mar. 26, 1973, p. 2], in Lowell.  Mr. Elliott is a wisely, well-balanced, conservative, progressive man of health and wealth, who knows how to wisely use both without wreckage.  He does not believe because a man has wealth that it is the only idol that we ought to take our hats off to, and does not believe that because a man hasn’t any wealth that it is an infallible evidence of ideal wisdom and honesty or that a man who has got any money is clear evidence that there is something wrong with him or he wouldn’t have any.  We wish him many more healthy, wisely balanced years to come out to Westford and trim apple trees and teach some of our younger set how to regain the use of our legs as the result of excess use of the automobile.

And so the Pacific mills in Lawrence are going to build cotton mills in the south and the cotton mills in Rhode Island are strongly squinting that way so much so that a committee of citizens has been chosen to try and head off the squint.  We never believed that we should ever come to agreeing with labor leaders, but we find ourselves chanting in their chorus, “All this talk about southern competition is all bosh.”  We go further and believe it contrary to the proven evidence to the contrary.  There are those who figure out nearer than the Adventists can figure out the end of the world, just how long it will be before our New England cotton mills will all be doing business in the southern states.  Nonsense, brother, nonsense.

There was a large attendance on last week Thursday evening at Abbot’s hall, Forge Village, to see what the sentiment of the village was in regard to the proposed new schoolhouse.  W. R. Taylor, chairman of the school committee, presided.  There was a unanimous sentiment for the new schoolhouse and a unanimous sentiment to locate it on the proposed Abbot Worsted Company lot.  After we heard of this unanimous unanimity we immediately took an analysis of our thoughts on this subject and agreed to be unanimous also.  If the people of Forge Village, who are most interested in this school, are a unit for this schoolhouse and a unit for location, we waive all claim to any personal legal rights to oppose a unanimous desire.  We are for the new schoolhouse.

We read with unusual interest the last communication of V. T. E., entitled “Judge Not.”  He fairly undid himself in unanswerable logical reasoning and he covered the whole situation, and we will simply add our Hosannah, Amen of approval of it, except to quote, “One does not need to wonder very much what Judge Brewster’s sentiments are on the matter of prohibition.”  No, certainly not.  If we were in the habit of drinking rum and had only one glassful and wanted it for our own personal use as bad as most people do who drink, we should think that we displayed the poorest of all poor judgment if we offered it to Judge Brewster with the expectation that he would say no.

The statistics show that since the Volstead national prohibition about 1000 died yearly from intoxication, and about 500 more die before they have time to get intoxicated from drinking wood alcohol and similar tributaries, while before national prohibition the average was 150,000 deaths annually [methanol] from liquid rum [ethanol] habits.  Yet there are an over-abundance of Judge Brewsters, who are working their heads seven days in the week, nights and Sundays to contrive some way to construe the law to get us back to the good old days of 150,000.

The state of Vermont, by its state forester, is waging a lively effort in a come-back of forests with much emphasis on sugar maples to increase the supply of maple sugar.  As one illustration of what is going on all over the state 18,000 sugar maples will be set out at Saxton’s River, near Bellows Falls, in the spring.  Those of us who have maple sugar to buy can but hurrah and hurrah!  Go to it boys, and women too!  We do love to sit in the shade and see you work for us.  But what is the matter with Westford with its 18,000 acres of land with more than 6,000 acres of waste land with brambles too small for board logs and briars too large for shoe strings?  Why not set out the sugar maples if for nothing more than to cover up the folly of the days when we wastefully stripped it of its aesthetic beauty.

Representative Victor F. Jewett of Lowell has filed a bill on petition of D. Harold Walker providing that the state department of education may expend $10,000 in establishing classes in lip reading in the public schools.  The bill provides that the children to be accepted in the classes would have to be verified by a reputable aurist [sic] as fit subjects of instruction.  The classes would be organized and conducted with the approval of the commissioner of education and local school committee.  We believe it is progressively right, but we would go further and appropriate $10,000 to reduce the lip service of all adults who have too much of said lip service.  They would not need to be examined by an aurist or any other authority.  They would all be self-confessed competent to join the class which would be the largest class in the history of civilization and ought to have been started with Darwin’s Origin of Man.

No one but those who have bad experience in getting out into the open again after several weeks of confinement by illness can appreciate at this time of the year the wild flowers as they nod their welcome greeting and song of the frog and the whippoorwill as they serenade you.

First Parish church (Unitarian) Sunday service at four p.m.  Preacher Rev. Frank B. Crandall, the minister.  Subject, “The veil.”

Threatened Strike.  We are threatened in the spring with a textile strike covering all New England unless the demands for an increase in wages are acceded to.  Many of the cotton mills have already given out an emphatic “No or close.”  An attempt is being made in New Hampshire by the legislature to pass a 48 hour law.  The appeal to labor is inevitably this: “Is it better financially to work for a few more hours a week and thus enlarge the contents of your weekly pay envelope or work less hours a week with a corresponding decrease in the weekly pay envelope.”  Judging the future by the past there isn’t much doubt but what reduced wages will win.  Solomon of old said, “With all thy getting get wisdom” [from Proverbs 4:7]. His advice ought to be seriously considered for he had considerable experience playing with folly.  The modern Solomon says, “With all thy getting get folly” and stick to it even if it severely punishes you both socially and physically clear into charity and the bread line and the soup have stuck right to its darlings in the face of proven facts of its unwisdom.  “Wisdom is justified of her children,” but where do folly’s children come in.  For a bill of particulars on this point inquire of labor leaders but let us not be too severe and uncharitable for there is a class of people who never had wisdom and wouldn’t know if they saw it even if you handed them a gold brass kettle full of it.

A Musical Series.  A very attractive book has recently come from the press of Ginn & Co.  It is called “Songs of childhood” and is the first book to appear in their musical education series.  Others will soon follow, all of which are to be used in public schools.  A special interest attaches to the book for Westford people since the words for a number of the songs were written by Mrs. William R. Taylor, who has a gift in writing poems for children.  Some of the songs appear under the name of Elizabeth Taylor and some under a nom de plume.  Mrs. Taylor was especially commended for her contributions by Miss Helen S. Leavitt, the musical critic for Ginn & Co.  Westford and Littleton people will remember Miss Leavitt, as she lived in each town for a while.  The book is edited by four supervisors of music in big cities and in the preface they give “grateful acknowledgement to Helen S. Leavitt for valuable service in musical and editorial contributions.”

Some of the poems written by Mrs. Taylor were set to music by Miss Leavitt and in some instances Mrs. Taylor wrote the words for melodies composed and sent to her by Miss Leavitt, so there was a pleasant bit of collaboration between the two.  In the other books of the series more poems by Mrs. Taylor will appear.  Miss Leavitt, in sending a complimentary copy to Mrs. Taylor, wrote, “Your contributions will, I am sure, bring as much pleasure to the children as any and we feel that the wide variety of contributors to this book has made it what it is, namely, one of the most attractive collections of beautiful songs for children that has ever been issued.  The beautiful songs are further enhanced by the illustrations and the manufacture and the binding of the books.”

Animal Rights.  In continuation of Dr. Harnady’s “Wild animal bill of rights,” we quote:

“Extermination is a crime.  The extermination of a harmless wild animal species is a crime, but the regulated destruction of wild pests that have proven guilty is sometimes necessary and justifiable.  No group or species of birds or mammals that is accused of offences sufficiently grave to merit destruction shall be condemned undefended and unheard, nor without adequate evidence of a character which would be acceptable in court of law.  The common assumption that every bird or mammal that offends or injures the property of any man is necessarily deserving of death is absurd and intolerable. The death penalty should be the last resort, not the first one.  Any nation that fails adequately to protect its crop-and-tree-protecting birds deserves to have its fields and forests devastated by predatory insects.

“No person has any moral right to keep a wild mammal, bird, reptile or fish in a state of uncomfortable, unhappy or miserable captivity, and all such practices should be prevented by law under penalty.  It is entirely feasible for a judge to designate a competent person as a referee to examine and decide upon each case. A wild creature that cannot be kept in a comfortable captivity should not be kept at all, and the evils to be guarded against [are] the cruelly small quarters, too much darkness, too much light, uncleanliness, bad odors and bad food.  A fish in a glass globe or a live bird in a cage the size of a collar box is a case of cruelty.”

A Gift.  We are glad to quote the following: “Lawrence Park of Groton has given to the society for the preservation of New England Antiquities 11 photographic films depicting the following old houses, some of which are in this town: Faulkner house, South Acton; Peaslee Garrison house, East Haverhill; Currier house, Haverhill; Wright house, Westford; “Scottome,” Groton. As regards the Wright house there are so many Wrights in Westford that it is difficult to pick out the right Wright from the wrong Wright, but we will venture to give a toast and run the risk of its being the wrong Wright.  Here’s to the Caleb Wright [probably Deacon Caleb Wight (1788-1864)] house on the Groton road close to the intersection with North street that leads to Graniteville and a few rods east of the Wright schoolhouse on the Groton road.  At this antique old house lived Deacon Caleb Wright, for many years and after selling the farm to Bradley V. Lyon he moved to Westford [Center].  Now to confirm that there is a mix-up of Wright with Wright and Wright with Wright we have asked to show visitors the “Wright house in Westford,” but as there are so many Wrights in Westford, sometimes several to an acre, and there are 18,000 acres, can’t you give us a clue to save traveling over such a vast acreage, and always we would get the unvarying answer, “It is located somewhere on the Groton road,” and this Wright house was what they were looking for.  Now if this is thus, let us remember that it is not the Wright house near the White house, D.C., but the Wright house of ancient and antique antiquity.  But like some individuals it is “Not all there,” for several years ago much that set it out as a unique antique was torn down and we suspect Mr. Park’s photograph was taken after this unique antique was removed to the extent of interfering with the law of symmetry.  We admit that we have done much guessing, and are not sure as we know what ones to come to our rescue and enlighten our civilization on this Wright, White, Wright house.  Phone up loud so as not to mix the present mix-up.

One Hundredth Anniversary.  Wednesday, January 17, was the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mrs. Mary A. Tyler of 1589 Middlesex street, Lowell, and this memorable event was marked by a reception held at her home during the afternoon.  She was glad to meet all of her friends and a special invitation was extended to the members of the First Universalist church of which she has long been a member.

Mrs. Tyler was born in 1823, before Lowell was a city, and her reminiscences of those early days are most interesting.  Mrs. Tyler is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, resident of Lowell and is still in possession of all of her faculties to a remarkable degree.

To those who are not familiar as to where her residence is we will add that it is in that part of Lowell known as Middlesex village at the corner of Middlesex and Baldwin streets, at the left hand corner going towards Lowell on a ledge elevation overlooking the surrounding landscape.

Many friends called to congratulate her on this anniversary day.  For a lady of whom it may truly be said that she is “going on 200,” Mrs. Tyler is remarkably bright and cheery.  She had a pleasant word for all and declared that she was feeling fine.  A large bouquet in the reception room, containing 100 carnations, was a gift from the First Universalist church of which Mrs. Tyler is an honored member, though she has not been able to attend the church services since the death of her daughter in 1918.  A splendid tribute was paid to Mrs. Tyler by the driver of the one-man car that conveyed many of her friends to the reception.  After guiding his car with great care to the exact position to make it easy alighting to the path leading to the house and the passengers voiced their appreciation of his kindness he said: “That good woman used to ride to church with me every Sunday.  She’s a grand old lady.”

Mrs. Tyler was born in Cambridgeport, January 17, 1823, and is of English ancestry.  Her father, Richard Sanders, was a native of Ebbington, England.  Her mother, who was Sally Neeland, was born in Boston.  Mrs. Tyler was aunt to the late Dr. C. B. Sanders of Lowell, well remembered as having married a daughter of Moses Taylor of Acton.  Mrs. Tyler’s husband, Samuel Tyler, died April 1874, and their only child, Susan Tyler, died in 1918, aged 65 years.  Mr. Tyler was the owner of vast areas of land, owning all the land of what is now known as Middlesex village, extending clear up to what is now Westford street, and what is now Tyler park on Westford street was pasture land.

After the death of Mr. Tyler this pasture land was given to the city of Lowell for park purposes.  The fountain of rustic stonework bears the name of Tyler park.  It is a splendid natural oasis in the midst of a territory fast closing in with dwelling houses.  The fine old house which Mrs. Tyler occupies is 107 years old and contains many fine old heirlooms.  Among these is a wonderful piece of tapestry that was woven by Mrs. Tyler’s cousin, Mrs. Harriet Rice, when she was a young girl and is a copy of a famous picture, the subject being “By the waters of Babylon.”  It is valuable for its beauty and antiquity.  A smaller framed piece of needlework of exquisite design bears the date in which it was worked, 1811.

Mrs. Tyler has interesting recollections of many of the older resident of the city who not reaching the century mark have passed on.  The old mansion on the hill top at the 100th anniversary was open to all comers and hospitality of the old-fashioned kind was dispensed in the dining room.  Mrs. Tyler in her comfortable armchair in a warm corner of the living room greeted all comers with a cordial handshake and gentle words of welcome.

The Largest Dam in the World.  Here is something that our dearly beloved Uncle Sam is doing.  The United States Reclamation service has been spending the past five years in making plans for building the largest dam in the world—a dam at least 400 feet high and the reservoir will hold at least 7,500,000 acre feet of water.  When completed it will transform 50 miles of the arrowhead automobile highway from Salt Lake to Los Angeles from a dreary desert into a lake shore boulevard and will also start developing the greatest economic asset of the west, because the dam will furnish a storage basin for flood waters, irrigation and electrical power.  Seven states are not only interested in building this dam but the consent of these states to build this dam had to be secured by their several legislatures before the U.S. could build the dam.  The states involved are Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Nevada, California, Arizona and New Mexico.  These states by their legislature met in committee of the whole last November and agreed to pool all their individual rights in the Colorado river and give the U.S. full control to build the dam.  This was necessary as the result of a treaty in 1847 between the United States and Mexico, which settled the fact that the Colorado river is navigable and that the states along its shore have full control up to the point of overflow and that no state can obstruct navigation.  (We wonder right here if the United States in 1847 hadn’t heard of the “right of eminent domain.”)  Probably not for it was the age of the doctrine of state rights at their height, which held supreme sway until the civil war taught us that there is no such principle as state rights against the public good.  As long as we have wandered off from national dam building to state rights we may as well continue wandering and declare that we are willing to sign up with the Towner-Sterling national education bill or any other name it has had, now has, or will have, and feel that there is no more sense in opposing it than there was in opposing the elimination of the little red schoolhouse and the one-horse school district, which were state rights reduced in size and demonstrated by home rule.

Graniteville.  Both masses in St. Catherine’s church last Sunday were celebrated by the pastor, Rev. A. S. Malone, who delivered excellent sermons.  Both services were largely attended.

A public meeting was held here on Monday evening for the purpose of discussing the need of additional room at the Sargent school.  The meeting was called to order by W. R. Taylor of the school committee.  Several people spoke on the subject, but no formal vote was taken.

The M.E. church choir held a rehearsal at the home of Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Carr on Wednesday evening.

The M.E. church cottage prayer meeting will be held at the home of Mrs. Lucy A. Blood on Friday evening at seven o’clock.

The social club will meet in the vestry of the M.E. church on Saturday evening at 7:30 o’clock.

The sewing class met at the Abbot hall, Forge Village, on Wednesday evening with a large number in attendance.

Ice cutting in this vicinity is being delayed owing to the large amount of snow on the ponds.  Only rain, followed by a January thaw and then colder weather, will clear the ice situation.  The summer prices for ice will probably remain at the high mark as usual, owing to the extra expense in harvesting the crop.  This is an annual prediction.  The ice of course will be of the best quality.

The members of Court Graniteville 179, F. of A., held their regular meeting on Thursday night with a good attendance.

The Westford Board of Registrars will hold the following meetings before the annual town meeting: at Graniteville Monday, January 29, from seven to nine; at Forge Village Tuesday evening, January 30; at Brookside Wednesday, January 31, and in the town hall, Westford, on Saturday, February 3, from one p.m. to ten.

The Abbot Worsted soccer club is expected to play the Fore River club at Quincy on next Saturday in the fourth round of the national cup series.  The Fore River club has been ordered to have the field cleared and in shape for this game.  Much will depend on the good graces of the weather man.  This game has been postponed several times.

Ayer

News Items.  Mr. and Mrs. Elbert H. Flagg of Westford have been spending the week at the home of their daughter, Mrs. Benjamin Taft.