The Westford Wardsman, July 8, 1916
Center. Miss Evelyn Hamlin has been spending several days this week with Mrs. A. W. Hartford.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Hildreth and son Roger are enjoying a two-weeks’ vacation at Ogunquit, Me., registered at the St. Aspinquid. Alfred Tuttle is in charge of the town clerk’s work during Mr. Hildreth’s absence.
Miss Edith A. Wright has recently enjoyed vacation days spent with Miss Winnifred Burnham at the latter’s home in Essex, on the North Shore.
Good reports come from the Westford patients in the hospital at Lowell. Mrs. Frank C. Bannister is reported as doing as well as can possibly be expected, and Miss Crocker expects to leave the hospital this week.
Mrs. Gertrude C. Skidmore is adding to the attractiveness of her summer home [21 Depot St.] with dormer windows and new bathroom.
Mr. and Mrs. Henry M. Wright and son Livingston are making their customary July stay at Harwood L. Wright’s.
Mr. and Mrs. Harold W. Hildreth have returned from a trip to Litchfield, Me., where they visited kinspeople of Mrs. Hildreth. Baby Richard stayed during their absence with his paternal grandparents [Mr. and Mrs. Herbert V. Hildreth].
The many Westford friends of Hon. Frank A. Patch, of Littleton, extend to him their sincere sympathy in his recent bereavement in the death of Mrs. Patch.
Miss Jennie Ferguson and Miss Ruth Tuttle are among the Westford teachers spending vacation days at their homes.
Motorman Cutter had a day off from his duties on the branch line electric car Thursday, spending the day in a trip to Concord, N.H. Conductor Clement took his place and Alfred Tuttle acted as conductor.
Mrs. J. Henry Colburn and son Clarence have gone to Alton Bay, N.H., to spend the summer. They are with Mrs. Colburn’s mother, Mrs. B. H. Streeter, at the latter’s cottage.
A purse of money was presented to Miss Hazel B. Hartford this last week by members of the Congregational church and congregation in appreciation of her capable help with the music during the winter.
The recent severe electrical storms have made their share of trouble with the telephone, electric light and electric car system. Monday afternoon the electric car was out of commission for several hours and two evenings recently resort has been made to kerosene lamps.
All the available men of the Edward M. Abbot hose company made a quick response to the call for help from Graniteville on Monday afternoon for the bad fire at John A. Healey’s barn and worked hard to prevent the spread of the fire.
July Fourth was the same general disappointment at Westford that it was elsewhere owing to the cold northeast rainstorm. The parade, the two ball games and the Boy Scouts’ participation in the day’s program all had to be cancelled. Staying in the house with open fires proved not a bad way to spend the time. The storm was especially disappointing to the many who had made special plans for this principal summer holiday who are confined to work and business the rest of the time. One part of the day’s plan that could be carried out was the dance in the evening at the town hall and this was affected in attendance by the weather. The Manhattan orchestra of Lowell furnished music for the dancing.
The supper and entertainment at the Congregational church last week Friday evening proved a pleasant affair. A salad and strawberry supper was served earlier in the evening and later Hon. Herbert E. Fletcher gave a most interesting talk on “The great Chicago [Republican National] convention,” which he recently attended [June 7-10, 1916] as a delegate, accompanied by Mrs. Fletcher. This was supplemented by several musical numbers.
The Westford A.A. play the Townsend team in Townsend this Saturday afternoon and much interest is on hand for this contest. The Westford A.A. met defeat at the game at Whitney playground last Saturday afternoon with the Kimball System team of Lowell by the score of 2 to 1. It was an interesting game with good plays being made by both teams.
At the special town meeting held at the town hall on last week Thursday evening Hon. Herbert E. Fletcher acted as moderator. The sum of $6100 was voted by the citizens to furnish a new firehouse for the Edward M. Abbot hose company for Westford Center. The land owned by Henry O. Keyes near the Congregational church containing the old academy, the blacksmith shop, harness shop and cottage house will be purchased for $2300, the committee selected at the last town meeting holding an option on the property. The old academy will be remodeled and made into a fire house, the figures submitted by a local contractor at $3800, making the total cost of $6100 for land and buildings. The town treasurer will be instructed to borrow $6100 to meet this expense which debt will be bonded and made payable in six years, $1100 being paid the first year. There was a good representation of voters present.
About Town. The usual vacation at the Unitarian church will begin after the close of Sunday’s services. A collection will be taken for the benefit of the Sunday school.
Mr. and Mrs. Fred A. Snow and children and Mr. and Mrs. S. L. Taylor started last Saturday afternoon with touring car to sightsee several places in Middlesex-Worcester county and Cheshire county, N.H. The scenery was simply magnificent. The continuous rains have kept the mountain streams at high tide and the forests at green grandeur and the grass crop at the laying down point, but the hoed crops looked like the “lost cause” and will need much “patient watching and waiting.” In this trip of 200 miles the best hoed crops by odds of 10 to 1 were left behind in the Stony Brook valley for the thunder showers to play with.
The revised eleventh representative district will read Acton, Bedford, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Littleton, Tyngsboro, [and] Westford.
During the thunder-lightning shower last Sunday afternoon the house of John Flynn on Pigeon hill, Stony Brook road, was entered by lightning, said entrance being made by tearing off shingles and clapboards and breaking every pane of glass in the house. Having entered it proceeded to play tag with the furniture, setting a lounge on fire where sleepeth James Savage. The insurance company has been on the scene to determine where they come in and how much they come in.
Mr. and Mrs. Sebastian Watson, Mrs. Isaac E. Day and Mr. and Mrs. Arthur E. Day motored to Newport on the Fourth, and on the return trip called on Miss Lizzie Hewett in Medford.
Perley E. Wright motored into Lowell with 125 crates of strawberries on Monday. This is doing pretty well, considering the crop is very light.
The shower of thunder and lightning last Sunday afternoon concentrated itself into a tunnel [sic] shape turned tornado, struck the center of Tewksbury, unroofed buildings, upset trees many feet in diameter, played bull with water tanks and various other pranks. The crash of the trees gave a jar like an earthquake which some considered it and fled to the cellars. The fury of the sweep was about twenty-five feet above earth level, which prevented greater damage. 0) { referrer_url = document.referrer; } const params = location.search.slice(1).split('&').reduce((acc, s) => { const [k, v] = s.split('=') return Object.assign(acc, {[k]: v}) }, {}) const url = "https://museum.westford.org/wp-json/iawp/search" const body = { referrer_url, utm_source: params.utm_source, utm_medium: params.utm_medium, utm_campaign: params.utm_campaign, utm_term: params.utm_term, utm_content: params.utm_content, gclid: params.gclid, ...{"payload":{"resource":"singular","singular_id":1516,"page":1},"signature":"8d967efd6712a8d86ad7c4fbc73a58b6"} } const xhr = new XMLHttpRequest() xhr.open("POST", url, true) xhr.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/json;charset=UTF-8") xhr.send(JSON.stringify(body)) }) })();