Turner Public Spirit, July 21, 1923
A look back in time to a century ago
By Bob Oliphant
Center. Mrs. Charles Campbell and daughter Virginia, of Hudson, N.H., were in town on Wednesday, the guests of Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Knight.
Mrs. C. A. Blaney and children are spending a few days with Mrs. Blaney’s sister, Mrs. Frank Hemenway, of Needham.
George Walker has returned to Waltham after a two-weeks’ vacation spent at his home in town.
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Wright, of Quincy, are at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wright’s brother, Harwood L. Wright, for a month.
Master John Baker, of Hudson, has been the guest of Mrs. George Walker.
Mrs. Susan Pond, who resided in town for a time with her daughter, Mrs. C. A. Blaney, passed away early last week Thursday morning at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Frank Hemenway, of Needham. She had been in poor health for some time. She is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Myra Hemenway, of Needham, and Mrs. Edith Blaney, of this town; a son Winthrop Pond, of Framingham, and six grandchildren. Funeral services were held on Saturday and interment was in the family lot in Acton.
Alfred Sutherland, of Boston, spent the weekend at the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Sutherland.
Miss Rita Edwards, the young daughter of Mrs. Flora Edwards, entertained a number of her little friends at an outdoor party on last week Thursday afternoon, the occasion being her fifth birthday. The little miss was the recipient of many gifts, and a general good time was enjoyed, after which refreshments of ice cream, cake, cookies and punch were served. The children who attended the party were Barbara and Robert Hildreth, Elizabeth and Roger Bosworth, Olive and Ruth Hanscom, Addie and Wealthy Wright, Anna and Jean Whiting, Everett Miller, Frances Harris, William Prescott, Barbara Christensen and Eileen Keizer.
There will be a meeting of the Village Improvement society at the town hall on Thursday evening, July 26. It is hoped that there will be a large number present and that those who formerly belonged to the Board of Trade will be in attendance at the new organization.
William Pollock and family were Sunday visitors in town.
George F. White and family have gone to Otis Island, Me., for the remainder of the summer.
Mrs. James W. Pyne, of Nashua, is the guest of friends in town.
Miss [paper torn, name missing] Hamlin is spending part of her vacation as the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Bert Walker in Marblehead.
Mrs. Janet Wright has also been a recent visitor at Mrs. Walker’s in Marblehead.
Miss Florence Barnard is the guest of Mrs. Oscar R. Spalding.
Mrs. Christensen, of Arlington, has been a recent guest at the home of her son, Ernest Christensen.
Mrs. Reardon, of Lowell, is the guest of Mrs. Alma Richardson.
Registrar of Motor Vehicles Goodwin has issued an order to the effect that owners of motor vehicles who allow unlicensed drivers to operate their cars will have their registration revoked.
On Monday noon there was a collision between two cars at Minot’s Corner, as a result of which several persons were injured. A large Cadillac sedan, owned by Dr. Frederick B. Sweet of Springfield, and driven by his chauffeur, Peter Ward, collided with a car driven by Emile Paignon, of South Chelmsford. The driver of the Sweet car, realizing that there would be a collision, turned his car sharply to the right, but the left forward wheel of the Cadillac and the right forward mudguard of the other car struck and the former was turned over on its left side. Mr. and Mrs. James McKinnon, Peter Ward, H. B. Sweet and Elizabeth Sweet were bruised, and three of them suffered fractured clavicles. If the injuries were any more serious it could not be determined at the time. The Sweet car had seven passengers, while the Paignon car contained only Mr. Paignon. Neither car was seriously damaged.
Zachary Denisevich, of Forge Village, was fined $20 in the district court, Ayer, by Judge Atwood on Monday morning for an unlawful sale on the Lord’s day. Denisevich, up to a short time ago, had a Sunday license which permitted him to keep his store open on that day, but after his recent liquor conviction the license was revoked. After the revocation he made the sale for which he was fined.
Friday evening meeting at the Congregational church at eight o’clock. Prayer meetings Saturday and Monday evenings at 7:30. Parkerville meeting at 7:45. Sunday morning sermon “How to be a good church member.” Sunday school at noon. Open-air meeting on the common at seven o’clock; theme, “The innocent condemned.” Baptism by immersion at Baptist pond [now Heart Pond] on Sunday afternoon at four o’clock.
The field day of the Middlesex-North and Middlesex-Worcester Pomona Granges will be held at the Whitney playground on Wednesday, July 25. There will be sports for boys and girls as well as for men and women, and a ball game between teams from the two Pomonas. The principal speaker of the day will be Charles M. Gardner, high priest of demeter, and the community singing will be led by Past Master Chapman. Westford Grange will furnish coffee free of charge, but those attending are requested to bring their own drinking cups. Ice cream, tonics and “hot dogs” will be on sale. All persons are invited to attend, whether members of the Grange or not.
About Town. Hall Bros., of West Acton, are cutting off their large pine lumber lot on the Boston road [now Powers Road], closeby [sic] the shadow of Nashobah [sic] hill and near the Nashua & Acton railroad. This lot is known as the Parker lot and contains fifty acres.
The boys of the Lowell Y.M.C.A. are in the full swing and glory of camp life at Lake Nabnassett and the prospects are that there will be a larger attendance than previous years. Getting down close to nature in this wholesome, enjoyable way is to be encouraged.
Yes, we Old Oaken Bucket young fellows went over to the band concert by the Abbot Worsted Company band in Littleton on Friday evening. Music by the above band will fetch us some ways from home, when a baseball game would not stir us out of our rocking chair.
West Acton has cut in on the same day as the union Pomona outing at Westford on Wednesday, July 25. With 365 days in a year it would seem that there is time and space enough to prevent two adjoining towns to prevent a collision of dates and interests. More than several weeks ago notice was given of the union Pomona outing in Westford on July 25, and it would seem to be a far-ahead notice enough to prevent any cutting in by an equally good entertainment and so closeby as to divide the attendance. Some of us noticed that the date of the West Acton entertainment was undecided for the 24th or 25th. As one of us who noticed it I came close to having a mind to phone over and suggest the 24th, and then when I reflected that if I divided by mind up minding my own business and other people’s business I shouldn’t have mind enough in either lot to mind anybody’s business. So here we are stage struck for the same day (or is it stage set for the same day?). I shouldn’t wonder if it was both.
Charles M. Gardner, high priest of demeter, will be one of the after-dinner speakers; always interesting and entertaining. In this the union Pomona outing on next Wednesday is fortunate. There will be a variety of other speakers. Sports will be in charge of Fred L. Fletcher, of Chelmsford. Basket lunch and free Volstead drinks, not including ice cream and tonics, which will be in a booth in charge of Westford Grange.
- Arthur O’Brien is cutting the grass hay on the Tadmuck farm, owned by W. R. Taylor.
Amon E. Downing has finished cutting the grass on the Old Oaken Bucket farm.
Amos Polley, on the Morning Gory farm, finished haying on July Fourth. These three farms join, and such was the rush of dust some of the time that it was difficult some of the time during the rush planting, hoeing, haying season to tell whose farm you were on. Hope that there will be no suits for trespass.
A large frontage on Long Sought lake has been bought for a camp, sporting and recreation ground for the girls’ department of the Y.W.C.A., of Lowell, and they are already on the field. This lake and camp is about one mile northwest of Lake Nabnassett and covers an area of 167 acres and large frontage on the Groton road. Like closeby Nabnassett both have a brook outlet into the Stony brook and both are ideal for quiet camping and nature initiation.
The ladies of the Village church of West Chelmsford gave a lawn party and concert by the Chelmsford Cornet band on Cameron park, Tuesday evening. The Old Oaken Bucket farm folks all went for music hath the power to fetch however tired the body; the spirit always responds to the call of music. Besides there was the social aspect and that unruly member, the tongue, is never too tired to respond for another round. The event was a responsive one in attendance, weather, music and sociability.
Gilbert F. Wright, a native of this town and farmer of Chelmsford, announces a “second crop twilight at Alfalfa Gem farm, near the high school, Chelmsford Center, this Friday evening at seven o’clock. Come and bring your friends.” There will be a dozen other demonstrations. Mr. Wright is interested in novelties and experiments with them—rice, peanuts, almonds, zero-proof beans, sorghum, sweet potatoes, sunflowers and high-grade gem alfalfa. Better hoist the [illegible word] from the rounds or ordinary farm crops and take an outing among the new and novel crops.
Special Town Meeting Notes. I regret my inability not to be present at the annual special town meeting, but as everything went as it should it is less regretful. I had a special interest in the article on forestry, having handed it in to the selectmen for the warrant. Gov. Cox, in his Arbor day message, urges the towns to investigate the question of town forests and State Forester Bazeley also urges it, and got an article inserted into all the town warrants in the state two years ago. By a small majority Westford dismissed it. It was not even courteous towards the governor or the state forester. Let us at least find out what we can do, and what the state will do for us, how much waste land, if any, will be donated to the town for forestry purposes, then there is Kissacook hill that the town owns, worth more for forest than huckleberry bushes and grasshoppers are at present. As I recall from memory, Westford and Dunstable were the only towns in the vicinity who flatly refused to even investigate. Many congratulations Westford has now voted itself into a sensible attitude.
Then there was the article relating to regrading up the common. It is not creditable to the town that the state assesses for $5,000,000, or rather that is the basis upon which one state tax is assessed, to have the common look like the roosting place of gypsies and the abode of tramps. In many respects can it be said as of old, “Shake off the very dust off thy feet for the place where thou standest is holy ground.” The common at time looks as though it was the shaking off place of all that is unsightly. In many respects it is the measurement of the town’s ideas for the aesthetic; at present it is not complimentary to some of our ideals of the beautiful. There seems to be a feeling that the common belongs to the people in the center of the town and that they ought to trim it up. Nonsense, such a narrow view. It belongs to all of the people, including the family who live on the Makepiece [sic, Makepeace] road, eight miles from the center of the town, and whose place you cannot reach without going through two other towns. For one, I am glad that the special meeting voted to tax us all to beautify the property that belongs to us all. Some of us are not financially able to trim up our own personal estate as per our ideals but our tax contribution to an ideal town common can easily be met and without making us financially round-shouldered or bow-legged.
Some Garden. “Peas ready for market on June 12, sweet corn now over five feet high, tomatoes coloring and summer squash nearly ready for the table is the report of a Littleton garden seven miles farther west of the rising sun than the Old Oaken Bucket farm.” I read the above encouraging report more than eleventeen times to nearly all of the supposed-to-be-early Stony Brook farmers and am still reading it, for it has taken the smart out of some of us and substituted another kind of smart. Personally I have been on a fishing expedition for nearly five years, trying even to get a bite, let alone expecting to catch anything. Thanks, many thanks, for just a nibble. In other words I have been playing all kinds of honest tricks in stating the case for the Old Oaken Bucket farm, hoping to start some one to saying something. Personally I held the position at the foot of the class at school for nearly all of my school days, and it seems so like home to get back there. Figuratively speaking I am more than glad to give up the “gold-headed cane” that I presented myself with through the columns of this paper, and take off my hat to the Littleton gardener while presenting him with the “gold-headed cane” for first place in garden results.
I am not through yet. I have been circling the surrounding towns and the Morning Glory farm and the Old Oaken Bucket farm that join in the Stony Brook valley which have by far the largest acreage of hoed corn, and by far many times over the largest in size and best in color that I could see in this fifty-mile circuit, for the size of the crops indicated that altogether too many farmers were in the rocking chair this cold, backward spring, chanting “Too cold to plant; everything will rot,” while the frogs and birds were whistling “Spring has come, Spring has come.”—a case where the frogs knew more than the farmers and the crops show it. I am not boasting about the two above farms and it must not be so construed. I am stating a plain fact, same as I should if I got bit by a rattlesnake, that would not be called boasting. The acreage planted this year is the smallest ever since I was ordained with memory and a pair of eyesights.
I forgot to mention that I had sweet corn that measured four feet and eight inches on June 30, and that it measured on July 16 seven feet. Come on with your Littleton gardens, but look out that they do not get named Jess Willard.
Westford Common. As the town has appropriated $2500 for the purpose of regrading and making walks upon our common, and it is the first time in the memory of the oldest inhabitant that any expenditure of the town money has been appropriated for its permanent improvement, a few facts in regard to its history may be of interest to the present generation.
Prior to 1744 this land was owned by Joseph Underwood. It may have been called waste land as the public traveled over it in any direction, although according to tradition there was a highway through the center of it. On May 21, 1744, the town “Voted and chose Capt. Thomas Read, Lieut. Jonas Prescott, Jr., and John Abbot as a committee for to treat with Joseph Underwood about buying a piece of land for the convenancy [sic] of a training field around the meeting house half an acre more or less as they see fit.” On March 14, 1748, the town “Voted to pay Mr. Joseph Underwood the sum of Five pounds for the land which the committee bought of Mr. Underwood for a training field.” “This land so acquired is now the common in the central village” (Hodgman’s History of Westford).
As stated in the vote of the town March 14, 1748, Mr. Underwood was to receive five pounds, but in a copy of the deed published in the town report for the year ending March 1, 1893, he received twenty pounds. The deed was signed and witnessed December 7, 1748, in the reign of King George II. The witnesses were Willard Hall, the first minister in town, and Eph. Craft, and sworn to before Thomas Read, justice of the peace, on December 8, 1748.
In 1893, through the kindness of the late John M. Fletcher, who turned over to the selectmen the deed of the common which he found in some old papers that came into his hands, the selectmen found that there was no record of it in the registry of deeds office. It was then recorded in the Middlesex north district registry of deeds office on February 2, 1893, book 240, page 127.
On September 11, 1839, a number of public-spirited citizens of the town subscribed $102.25 to fence the common with stone posts and rails without expense to the town, and on March 2, 1840, the town “Voted that John Abbot and others may build a fence around the common provided the town be put to no expense on account of the same.” The trees were set out in 1839 and the fall of 1841 Eliakim Hutchins, Jr., on November 27, 1817, set out two rows of spruce and pine trees on the upper end of the common. Only a few remain today as the maples and elms have outgrown then.
As time went on and fences were being taken down in the village and lawns being well cared for, the town voted on June 1, 1895, to instruct the selectmen to remove the fence. This was done and added much to its improvement.
With the expenditure of the appropriation for regrading and walks, and with the town in the future having a proper caretaker, the common will add much to the Center and be in keeping with the well-kept lawns, the monument grounds and Whitney playground, and will compare favorably with the surrounding towns.
- H. F. [Sherman Heywood Fletcher]
Joseph Underwood, who deeded the common to the town, was not only prominent as a town officer in the early history of the town, but prominent in the history of the old First Parish church, when the church and town were one, and there was but one church. The First Parish is now known as the Unitarian church. The cellar to this early residence is in a fair state of preservation on the Leland road, nearly opposite the residence of the Whitney estate. If there are those who think of $2500 as a large sum to expend on the common, think of it as less than $14 a year since the town had had a deed of it and we will think on lower levels.
Graniteville. Abbot Worsted won a great game from the Salem town team here on Tuesday evening, shutting them out by the score of 3 to 0. The game was one of the fastest and best played games of the season, the full game only taking an hour and seven minutes. Purvere and Sullivan did the battery work for the Abbots; Davies and McLeod were on the firing line for the Salem team. Dunn and Hartford were the umpires.
Mr. and Mrs. F. L. Furbush, with Mr. and Mrs. F. Russell Furbush, are spending a few days at the Rangeley Lakes in Maine.
Miss Mary MacAfee is spending a few days at Lynn Beach.
The Methodist church Sunday school picnic that was held at Whalom Park on last Saturday proved to be a very enjoyable affair. Excellent weather prevailed and all had a very enjoyable time.
Misses Clara and Ella Kierstead, of Waltham, have been recent visitors here.
A dancing party in aid of St. Catherine’s church building fund will be held in Abbot’s hall, Forge Village, on Friday evening, July 20.
The regular meeting of Court Graniteville, F. of A., was held on Thursday evening.
The Abbot Worsted team will play a league game with Fall River at Abbot park on this Saturday. The game will be called at three o’clock.
Littleton
News Items. George E. Whall of Westford and for many years a resident of Littleton, connected with the Avery Chemical Co., died Monday [July 16, 1923] at the Lowell General hospital, aged 76 years, 3 months and 19 days. He leaves a daughter, Mrs. [Charles, “Hattie”] Bonnell of Westford; one son, Edward J. Whall of Medford; a sister, Mrs. Waterhouse of Wollaston, and one brother, William Whall of Braintree. The funeral services were held Wednesday afternoon at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Bonnell, in Westford. [Burial was in Mt. Wollaston Cemetery, Quincy, per his death certificate.]
Ayer
District Court. On Monday morning Zachary Denisievich, of Forge Village, was in court on a continued complaint for keeping open his store on the Lord’s day. It appeared that his wife sold a package of cigarettes to Officer Sullivan, of Westford, on the Lord’s day and while her husband was absent. The court found him guilty and fined him twenty dollars. Atty. John M. Maloney appeared for the defense.
“In 1903 [Boston Road] was defined as continuing “by Nashoba Hill, to Littleton line (State Road).” At that time Boston Rd. turned west at Minot’s Corner and continued down what are now Littleton and Powers Rds. to the Littleton line terminating on the Great Rd. (Rte. 2A) in Littleton. It is labeled as such on the 1966 (revised 1979) USGS Westford Quadrangle map, and was so called until 1970 when the east-west stretch became part of Littleton Rd.” Robert W. Oliphant, The Westford Gazetteer (2010).
Exodus 3:5: ‘And he [the Lord] said [to Moses], Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” KJV
“Makepeace Rd. runs roughly east & west through the very northeast corner of Westford from the Chelmsford line to the Tyngsboro line, as defined in 1922 & 1931. It is Westford’s name for Dunstable Rd., as it is called in both Chelmsford to the east and Tyngsboro to the west. …” Robert W. Oliphant, The Westford Gazetteer (2010).
The Westford Historical Society and Museum had this original deed preserved and framed at the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Mass., in the summer of 1999, and it is now on display in the Westford Museum. The paper on which the deed was written was found to have a watermark dated 1742 consisting of a crown
with two supporting lions. The paper was undoubtedly made in England and imported to the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The brownish ink used for the deed was probably made from iron oak gall. The seal was made of beeswax with vermilion coloring and sealed with shellac.