Turner's Public Spirit, July 11, 1925
A look back in time to a century ago
By Bob Oliphant
Center. Rev. and Mrs. Edward D. Disbrow entertained their niece, Miss Miriam Manning, of Manchester, last week.
William C. Roudenbush, supervising principal of Westford academy, accompanied by Mrs. Roudenbush and Miss Ruby Stoutenborg, of New York city, left Wednesday on an auto trip through New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. They expect to be gone about a month, and during their absence Mrs. Anna C. Roudenbush and Mrs. Addie Spear, of Greenfield, mother and sister of Mr. Roudenbush, will stay at the Roudenbush home.
The boys of the town were busily engaged the night before the Fourth removing blinds, placing placards and removing the large cement setters at the Whitney playground. The next day, by order of the selectmen, they were more busily engaged in replacing. In all probability many of the smaller acts would have been passed unnoticed, if they had not carried things too far by removing the setters.
A party of ten young people from the Union Congregational church spent last week Friday night upon Mt. Monadnock and enjoyed the splendid sunset and sunrise.
The Men’s club was well pleased with the results of the lawn party held on last week Wednesday evening. The thirty-nine piece band from the Grace Baptist church of Somerville was much appreciated. It is estimated that there were 500 present, and all had an enjoyable time.
The Westford and Boxford Oratorio societies, assisted by the Philharmonic society of Haverhill, with a chorus of eighty-five voices, will present “The Bohemian girl” in concert form, with pageantry at the Abbot soccer field in Forge Village on Saturday afternoon at 3:30. In the list of soloists are Mrs. Rebecca A. Lambert, soprano; John K. Hill, tenor, and H. Wilfred Zine, bass. The pianists will be Miss Daisy Precious and Mrs. Gladys McPherson. The conductor will be Horace W. Killam. The pageantry will be in charge of Mrs. Bertha Lane, Mrs. Marjorie Prescott and Miss Lucretia Perkins. This is the biggest outdoor musical held in town and it is hoped that the affair will be well patronized. Any who wish to secure transportation from the Center to the field can do so by consulting Perley Wright, who will leave the Congregational church at three o’clock.
Mr. and Mrs. Bertram Cass and family, of Arlington, and Mrs. Florence Cameron, of West Somerville, were Sunday guests of Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Sutherland.
Alfred Sutherland, of Boston, was the holiday guest of his parents.
Mrs. G. E. Knight, of Hudson, N.H., has been a recent visitor in town.
Miss Billings, of the Middlesex Extension, gave a canning demonstration at the town hall on Wednesday [paper torn, line missing].
Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Gibbs and young son, of Cuba, were in town on last week Wednesday evening and attended the lawn party. Mrs. Gibbs is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Whitney, former residents.
Mrs. Clarence Hildreth and infant daughter returned to their home from a Boston hospital on last week Thursday. Mrs. Hildreth’s mother, Mrs. Doolittle, of Rutherford, N.J., is the guest of the family.
Mr. and Mrs. Harry Gumb left Tuesday morning for Portland, Me., where they will stay for two months before returning to Florida.
- J. Whitney has moved from the G. H. White cottage to his newly purchased home on the Boston road.
Mr. and Mrs. John Feeney, Jr., are on an auto trip to Niagara Falls, N.Y.
Mrs. William E. Wright, Mrs. Eliza Carter and Miss Phyllis Wright have recently returned from a visit with relatives in Providence, R.I.
Mrs. Elva Wright, town nurse, and mother, Mrs. Lawrence, are on a trip to Canada.
About Town. Edwards & Monahan, of Westford Corner and West Chelmsford, have been awarded the contract for building the new grammar school at Chelmsford Center.
Where is the youth that gushed so gushingly and continuously in the early spring about going to have the driest season yet and 1924 would be considered floods compared to 1925—and now just look at this raining so often and easy that there is no time to hay between rains. If anyone knows where that fellow lives send him along and I will hand him a more solemn opinion of himself than ever the supreme court ever handed out or down.
We ate our first ripe apple of the season, the Red Astrakan [sic, Astrachan], at the Old Oaken Bucket farm, last week Wednesday. In the words of another we can truthfully say, “It wasn’t so dreadful large but it was awful juicy and sweet. I don’t like these great big apples, they are all puff.”
Mrs. Carlos D. Cushing spent Sunday and Monday at the home of her daughter, Mrs. W. R. Taylor.
When a minority of the United States senate consume weeks reading irrelevant literature on public questions that need discussion[1], how much does it add to the enlightenment needed on such questions?
Dunstable was the banner town in the fifth congressional district for casting the fewest votes for Eugene N. Foss. The vote, as reported, was Rogers 70, Foss 3.
Some of the pea vines at the Old Oaken Bucket farm are five feet high and some of the spring wheat three feet high.
Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Cobb and little son are recent guests of the H. N. Caldwell family, motoring from their home in Arlington, N.J., the first of the week.
Mrs. F. C. Hartwell spent two days this week with Mr. and Mrs. Warren Hartwell in Medford, and then went to Gloucester for the weekend with the H. J. Smiths.
West Chelmsford Grange entered a float in the Fourth of July Parade in Chelmsford Center. The float was at Cameron park the Friday evening before the Fourth. The float was representative of farm life. The men wore overalls, farmers’ hats and carried rakes, hoes and other implements for tilling the soil, while the women wore bungalow aprons and sunbonnets. They made a helpful hit in the parade, which was one of the best Chelmsford ever had.
The Old Oaken Bucket farm celebrated the Fourth by eating some new, sizeable, marketable potatoes dug from one hill, planted when the farmers were waiting for the frost to vacate the ground.
Have received an illustrated postal from our old live wire and enthusiastic believer in life, F. S. Savage, Sr., of dear old Harvard, but now (June 28) roosting, resting, recuperating and rejoicing at Long Beach, Cal. He signs himself up “F. S. S., Sr., Teacher No. 1,” and adds, “You named me that.” Certainly I named him that, for he was the first teacher to give me special lessons about and around dear old Harvard. Since then nine other Harvard teachers have came [sic, come] to my stupid rescue, so that I have to number them to prevent getting them and the lessons mixed.
As an inquiry has been made in regard to the vote for congress by precincts in Westford, the following will inform all such: Precinct 1, Westford Center, Rogers 204, Foss 8; Precinct 2: Graniteville, Rogers 55, Foss 18; Precinct 3, Brookside, Rogers 42, Foss 2; Precinct 4, Forge Village, Rogers 104, Foss 10—total, Rogers 405, Foss 38. We do not know which was the banner precinct for Rogers, but the banner precinct against Foss seems to be Brookside. With only about 65 registered voters in this precinct we made a very good showing for somebody and against somebody.
In the death of Prof. George B. Churchill, of Amherst, a vacancy was caused in the second congressional district before he had even taken his seat. It not only makes a vacancy, but it makes a vacancy of another John Jacob Rogers. I know whereof I speak, having served with him in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 1913. He was always seriously and studiously considering what he was elected for. Will Eugene N. Foss seriously and studiously consider whether he had better try and fill the vacancy and ignore his recent defeat in the fifth congressional district that piled a majority vote against him in every city and town in the district, leaving Boxborough, the smallest town in the district, as the banner town in coming the nearest to giving him a majority, the vote being Rogers 20, Foss 19?
The Lowell Y.M.C.A. camp at Lake Nabnassett is now in full swing. One of the innovations at the camp this year is the installing of a natural gas plant, which gives to the dining room, the kitchen, the lodge, the hospital and offices a gas lighting arrangement which has proved most satisfactory to date. On last Saturday evening the first vaudeville show of the season was held with T. R. Williams, camp director, in charge. Part of the program consisted in the taking off of national characters. Here is certainly quite a wide field for humorous take-offs, especially the senate rules, whereby a senator can read from the Old Farmers’ Almanac or a dime novel for several weeks while the senate looks helplessly on because the senate rules state that they must look on while the business of the country confided to their keeping is left in an unused, used condition under or on the table.
James J. McManmon, one of the trustees of Middlesex-North Agricultural society, and the well-known nurseryman of Dracut, has just returned from a week spent at the nurserymen’s convention in Rochester, N.Y., at which 1000 delegates were present from all parts of the United States, whose combined nursery stock represented $150,000,000. Mr. McManmon states that few people realize the enormous amount of business done by nurseries and that in the east the nursery business is small compared with the west. He gives it as his opinion that Rochester has either the second best system of parks in this country, if not in the world. They are fifteen miles long, and given the city by George Eastman of Kodak fame. The Kodak plants are situated in Rochester and employ 16,000 people. Mr. McManmon had the pleasure of going [paper torn, line or two missing] they meet in Kentucky.
Plan Big Celebration. A celebration at American Falls, Idaho, on July 13, will mark the dedication of one of the largest storage reservoirs in the world, constituting one of the most unusual arrangements in the history of irrigation. The reservoir will cause the submergence of an entire township, the buildings of which have been moved to a new location. A lake will be formed of water impounded from the Snake river. The reservoir will contain a floor of more than 61,000 acres, breasted by a dam seventy-five feet high and a mile long.
The capacity under the original construction now completed is 1,700,000 acre feet or sufficient water to cover that many acres to the depth of one foot. While most of this storage water is to be used for supplemental purposes on tracts under cultivation, the government has 120,000 acres known as the Minidoka Extension that will be brought under the reservoir.
So important is the undertaking regarded by the people of Idaho in point of stabilizing values and bringing water in the great Snake river valley its leading citizens and publication hail the development as overshadowing all previous construction in the state. An elaborate celebration has been planned. The committee in charge anticipate an attendance of 40,000. A monster jubilee has been arranged in which hundreds of Indians, cowboys and pioneers will appear. As a Westford cowboy I am there in enthusiastic approval of this and all other reservoirs.
Looking Backward. In looking over some papers given me by Miss Grace Lawrence of Forge Village there is an interesting account of the Excelsior Grove that was on the land now occupied by the Gage Icehouses at Forge Village. This grove being on the line of the Stony Brook railroad was patronized by religious and other societies from Lowell as well as Westford and the surrounding towns for their picnics. The grove was on sloping ground on the shore of Forge pond, covered with hickory trees. In 1845 the following description was given:
EXCELSIOR GROVE
That beautiful and well known Hickory grove in Forge Village with all the usual desirable appurtenances are now in complete order for occupation. Picnic, Sabbath school and pleasure parties desiring to enjoy a social time in a delightful place can do so by taking passage in the cars of the Stony Brook Railroad Co. for Forge Village. In thirty minutes you will alight within twenty rods of Excelsior Grove on the margin of a large and beautiful pond, where such innocent amusements and exercises as water excursions, swinging, dancing, music, etc., may be fully enjoyed. No intoxicating liquor allowed on the grounds. Committees or societies and parties are respectfully invited to examine the premises and decide for themselves whether there is a more desirable resort for excursion parties in this section of the country.
Application may be made to I. [probably Imla] Lawrence near the railroad depot, Forge Village.
For the purpose of providing a large boat to be used at these premises or at any other time, a number of the citizens of Forge Village met on August 11, 1845, at the store of Jonathan Prescott and organized the Forge Village Boat Corporation. David P. Lawrence was chairman of the meeting and Abel Prescott, secretary. Seven directors were chosen, namely: Timothy P. Wright, David P. Lawrence, Imla Lawrence, Abel Prescott, Luther Prescott, Silas Lawrence and Levi Prescott. Luther Prescott was chosen president, Silas Lawrence, secretary, and Timothy P. Wright, treasurer. The directors were instructed to procure a boat as soon as possible and prepare a code of by-laws. The boat they procured was a side wheeler called a crank boat, which would seat 20 or more passengers and was operated by two men to turn the cranks to make the paddle wheels go around and one man to steer. The charge for the use of the boat for any time not exceeding half a day was 6¼ cents per hour for each individual, for a company not exceeding 20 in number. Any number over 20 was 4 cts. per hour. The stock was sold for $1.00 per share. The largest stockholders were the Lawrences, Wrights and Prescotts of Forge Village. Other stockholders were scattered throughout the town.
The list of the first stockholders is as follows with number of shares:
Luther Prescott 7
David P. Lawrence 5
Silas Lawrence 5
Abel Prescott 5
Edward Prescott 5
Timothy P. Wright 5
Jonas Prescott 4
Henry P. Herrick 3
John W. P. Abbot 2
Elnathan Brown 2
Elias Clark 2
William S. Comey 2
Sherman D. Fletcher 2
Daniel Hayden 2
Imla Lawrence 2
Micah Parmenter 2
Levi Prescott 2
Samuel Prescott 2
A. N. Swallow 2
George Wright 2
David C. Butterfield 1
John W. Cummings 1
Joseph H. Cummings 1
John Davis 1
Sidney Drinkwater 1
Abijah Fletcher 1
John B. Fletcher 1
Levi T. Flint 1
William W. Goodhue 1
Nathan S. Hamblin 1
Henry A. Hildreth 1
Calvin Howard 1
Charles A. Hudson 1
Albert Leighton 1
George R. Moore 1
Asa Prescott 1
Charles A. Prescott 1
Simeon Prescott 1
Jonas K. Putney 1
Jacob Smith 1
James Woods 1
The corporation must have been financially a success for dividends from 1849 to 1864 were declared yearly, ranging from 4 to 15%. When the land was sold to the Hittingers, who built the first icehouses on it, the grove was destroyed and presume the boat corporation was dissolved.
Here in one corner of the town lived a group of good old New England stock, families consisting of the Prescotts, Lawrences and Wrights, who were prominent in the affairs of the town. Many of them held town offices, such as selectmen, assessor, overseer of the poor, tax collector, school committee, road commissioner and minor offices.
Luther Prescott was the first postmaster and was a member of the Massachusetts legislature in 1854 and 1856. Was also trial justice for many years and dealt out equal justice to the plaintiff or defendant as the evidence in the case was given. He was also quite a musician and played the violin in the Unitarian church choir for over 20 years, as well as at the old-fashioned tea parties for dancing or singing.
Then there was Olive Ann Prescott, now deceased, and Hannah Prescott, now Mrs. [Wilbert Enock] Parsons living in Vancouver, Wash., over 80 years old, both most excellent and lovable school teachers. They taught the children who are now men and women. But with the changes going on Forge Village today is one of the best mill villages in the state, through the liberality of the Abbot Worsted Co. in providing good and attractive houses, good sidewalks and streets, electric lights and water, entertainments, club house, ball teams and playgrounds.
New names appear, old ones disappear.
It would be a fine thing if the names, Lawrence, Prescott and Wright could be seen on something that the coming generation could take notice of. S. H. F. [Capt. Sherman Heywood Fletcher]
Camping Trip. Mr. and Mrs. L. W. Wheeler have recently enjoyed a three-days’ auto-camping trip with E. J. Whitney and Mrs. Bartlett as guests. Going through Franklin, N.H., their first camp was on the shore of Paugus Bay or lake, just out of Lakeport. Circling the north end of Lake Winnipesaukee they visited the very fine museum in Tuftonboro on the shore of the lake. Abenaki Tower, about three miles away, gave a fine view of the lake and surrounding mountains. Several splendid views of the lakes were enjoyed on the road toward Alton Bay and camp was made at one such point, ending July 4. Rain overnight made roads slippery until improved road was reached at Alton Bay. Clouds lifted enough for enjoyment of the Suncook and Merrimack valleys.
Another trip enjoyed by the Wheelers took them to Bennington, Vt., and Troy, N.Y. They then turned southward between the Hudson valley and the Taconic Mountains, having splendid views of the Catskills. Much fine farming land was seen, though not all of it was finely farmed. Orange hawkweed and a yellow cousin thereof infested many fields badly. These, with daisies being in full bloom, made a natural flower garden which was wonderfully beautiful. Large fields perfectly white with daisies were seen. Here is good land near markets lying in waste or nearly so. Why go out west a thousand or two thousand miles from markets and almost as far from rain?
Following the Boston Post road through Southern Connecticut they were surprised to find laurel in abundance and disgusted to find somebody’s stupid carelessness had run a fire through the best of the laurel. A heavy thunder shower enlivened the night of their last camp.
A third trip of the Wheelers this season extended through Brattleboro to Manchester, Vt., and northward to Burlington. Being an extra clear day several beautiful panoramas of the Adirondacks were seen. Close by their second camp the Adirondacks, Lake Champlain, Mt. Mansfield and Camel’s Hump were visible. The Hero Islands were crossed and ferry taken to Swanton, Vt. They then turned southward through St. Albans and Montpelier. Expeditious courses were taken through Middlebury college and the University of Vermont. Champlain Valley land had a look such that it was no wonder that farm buildings indicated prosperity. Arbor vitae growing wild in abundance was new to them. The ride through Smugglers’ Notch beside Mt. Mansfield, was the most impressive incident of the trip. This has only been possible within the last three years. The Northfield-Randolph Gulph or Gulf was scenic.
They passed through Plymouth the day that Col. [John C.] Coolidge [father of President Coolidge] was taken sick [about July 1, 1925]. The three Tyson ponds were as beautiful as ever. They paid toll at the Charlestown bridge at the same rates as the president.
The last camp of this trip was at Otter Lake, near Sunapee Lake. Three heavy thunder showers enlivened the night. Rain and fog hid the scenery from there to Franklin. After a church service in Concord a fair-weather ride with more than plenty automobile company down the Merrimack valley closed the outing.
Ayer
News Items. The lawn party of Ida McKinley chapter, O.E.S., on this Friday evening at the town hall grounds will be preceded by a food sale there at 3:30 in charge of Mrs. Clara C. Chase and Mrs. Ella H. Parkinson of Harvard. Mrs. Winifred D. Leavitt, matron of the chapter, is general chairman of the lawn party. The various committees are as follows: Candy, Mrs. Mabel D. Nye, Mrs. Atha M. Estes; frankfurters, Mrs. Nellie E. Heller, Mrs. Clara A. Greig, Westford, Mrs. Ella H. Parkinson, Harvard; children’s table, Mrs. Esther Coleman, Mrs. Eva W. Harlow, Mrs. Bertha C. Martin; ice cream, Mrs. Clara C. Chase, Mrs. Stella R. Proctor, Mrs. Wilhelmina A. Palmer, Westford; popcorn, Mrs. Mabel N. Puffer; tonics, Mrs. Eileen G. Sawyer, Mrs. Anna P. Cleary. The 13th Infantry band from Camp Devens will play at 7:30. All augurs well for an enjoyable evening for vendors and patrons.
District Court. On Thursday morning Henry Cote of Westford pleaded guilty to a charge of exposing and keeping liquor for sale in that town and to three sales of liquor in that town. He was fined $100 on the first charge, the others being placed on file.
Real Estate. The following real estate transfers have been recorded from this vicinity recently:
Westford—Josephine Murphy to Joseph Thomas Mailhot, land on Groton road.
Shirley
News Items. Shirley A.A. defeated Westford A.A. on last Saturday afternoon on the local grounds. The score was 4 to 3. Hank Moore got a home run and Walter Westover got three hits. It was the best game of the season.
[1] When Vice President Charles G. Dawes (1865-1951) took his oath of office on March 4, 1925, he spoke out vehemently against the Senate’s filibuster rule. This resulted in a continued debate in the Senate on this rule into the summer, but no changes were made. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_G._Dawes.