Turner's Public Spirit, June 13, 1925

A look back in time to a century ago

By Bob Oliphant

Center. Mrs. Eben Prescott and Mrs. Benjamin Prescott attended the sixth annual commencement exercises of the Bentley School of Accounting and Finance held at the Boston Opera House on Wednesday evening. Raymond Prescott, son of Mrs. Eben Prescott, was one of the graduates.

Mrs. J. Edward Clements has been on a business and pleasure trip to New York city. She was accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Percy Kittredge, of North Adams.

The date of the dance to be given under the auspices of the Legion post has been changed from June 19, as first planned, to June 17. Leo Daley’s orchestra will furnish music, and dancing will be enjoyed from eight until one o’clock. It is hoped that there will be a large attendance, as the proceeds of both dance and refreshments will help make up the $500 of Westford’s quota, of the American Legion endowment fund.

Mrs. Lillian Snow, of Tyngsboro, master of the Middlesex-North Pomona Grange, entertained the other officers at tea on Tuesday. Clyde Prescott, of the executive committee, and Mrs. Josephine Prescott, chaplain of the Pomona, were among those who attended.

The annual prize-speaking contest of Westford academy will be held at the town hall on Monday. The prizes of $10 and $5 are given by the Alumni association. The program of the evening will be as follows: “Kate Shelly,” Angie Parfitt; “The cremation of Sam McGee,” Betty Prescott; piano solo, Marjorie Baker; “The switchman’s story,” Lillian Hosmer; “The leak in the dike,” Helen Gallagher; “Paul Revere’s ride,” Edna Edwards; cornet solo, George Kimball; “Lady Shalot,” Mary Dureault; “Loch Invar,” Blanche Pickup; “How they part of the morning service. There saved St. Michaels,” Alma Warren; “The gentleman king,” Dorothy McEnaney; violin solo, Betty Prescott; “Hiawatha’s childhood,” Charlotte Wilson; “Bobby Shaftoe,” Viola Day; piano selection, Marjorie Baker; decision of judges.

In a recent game of baseball between Westford academy and Groton high school, the former won by the score of 14 to 7.

The Westford academy graduation will be held in the town hall on Wednesday morning, June 24, at ten o’clock.

Miss Maud Robinson, who teaches in Washington, D. C., is spending her vacation at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Robinson.

The grade schools, with the exception of the Sargent school, closed on June 12 for the summer vacation. The academy will close on June 24.

The new fire apparatus has arrived and has been accepted by the fire engineers.

Work has started on the state road in Littleton and will be completed in a few weeks.

At the Unitarian church services on last Sunday two children were baptized, Austin Dana Fletcher, Jr., son of Austin D. and Ethel (Ripley) Fletcher, and Grace Etta Fletcher, daughter of Frederick and Mildred (Fletcher) Robinson. Harry Needham, of Lowell, was the soloist at the services, and the sermon was given by Rev. Frank B. Crandall.

The North Middlesex conference was held at the Unitarian church on Wednesday, the general subject of the day being “The church at work.” The speakers of the morning were Carl B. Wetherell, who spoke on “Churches of the Pacific coast at work;” Florence Buck on “The church at work in the Sunday school.” There was a box luncheon at noon and the ladies of the local parish sold ice cream and coffee. At the afternoon session the soloist was Miss Leolyn Annis, of Nashua, N. H., with Mrs. Anna Sanderson, of Nashua, as organist. Miss Gilbert S. Reldon, president of the New England Alliance, spoke on “The church at work in the Alliance,” and Miss Sarah Comins on “The church at work with the young people.” Rev. E. S. Hodgin, D.D., of New Bedford, spoke on “The church at work spiritually.”

Mrs. A. A. Cameron has the sympathy of a wide circle of friends in the loss of her mother, Mrs. Henry H. Braley, who passed away at her home in Concord last week. Mrs. Braley will be remembered as one of the interesting speakers at the Tadmuck club last season.

Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Whiting and family spent the weekend in Gloucester.

Church Notes. Congregational—Sunday will be children’s day and the regular children’s concert will be part of the morning service. There will also be a christening service.

Ladies’ night was observed by the Men’s club on Tuesday evening. Rev. George Cary, of Bradford, gave an interesting talk on Japan, illustrated with hand-painted slides. Edison G. Boynton rendered vocal solos with instrumental music by Mr. Lehman. Following is a list of the officers for the ensuing year: W. R. Taylor, pres.; Rev. E. S. Disbrow, Frederick Hanscom, vice pres.; Ralph Joselyn, sec.; Harry Ingalls, treas.; William C. Roudenbush, forester; Perley E. Wright, steward. During the evening refreshments of strawberries, cream, cake and coffee were served.

A lawn party is being planned for July first with a thirty-piece band from the Grace Baptist church of Somerville. A piggly wiggly sale on a larger scale than last year promises to be one of the attractions.

Unitarian—Sunday service at 4 p.m. Preacher, Rev. Frank B. Crandall. Subject: “The secret of success.” The church school closed last Sunday until fall.

Sixteen of the young people attended the conference and picnic of the North Middlesex Federation of Y.P.R.U. which met at Silver lake, Hollis, Saturday. June 6. This was the largest delegation coming from a distance.

The Westford chapter, Y.P.R.U., met Sunday following the service. This is the last meeting until fall.

Fisher Buckshorn and Gordon B. Seavey will attend Young People’s week at Star island, Isles of Shoals, as delegates from the local Y.P.R.U. chapter July 4-10.

About Town. Mrs. Ellen S. (McGlinchey) Donnelly, a prominent resident of Brookside section of Westford, where she had resided many years, died on Monday at her home, the Donnelly store tenement, Brookside road. She was a member of St. John’s church, North Chelmsford, and a member of the Ladies’ Sodality of St. John’s church. She was born at Westford Corner, the daughter of the late James and Ellen Eagan McGlinchey. She leaves, besides her husband, three daughters, Miss Mary Donnelly, postmistress at Nabnasset (Brookside) postoffice, and Misses Julia and Gertrude Donnelly; and one son, William J. Donnelly, of Brookside. [Four brothers] Peter, of West Chelmsford, James, of Middleboro, Vt., Frank and Michael McGlinchey, of Westford Corner; four sisters, the Misses Margaret, Susan and Bridget McGlinchey and Mrs. Mary J. Mooney, the latter of Providence, R. I. A woman of christian ideals, she was devoted to her family and home.

The next meeting of the Grange will be held on Thursday evening, June 18, and will be observed as children’s night. Refreshments.

A notice on the bill of fare for dinner at the Old Oaken Bucket farm for the 17th of June: “homegrown new potatoes.” Now isn’t this nice to plant potatoes when some folks are thawing out their water pipes and have them in season for Fourth of July folks to plant?

On Wednesday evening we had sunshine, lightning and hail, with thunder for music and rain as an accompaniment. It was a much-needed and timely prescription for hoed crops suffering for something to drink.

Mr. and Mrs. Carlos D. Cushing, of Miami, Fla., have arrived at the home of their daughter, Mrs. W. R. Taylor, where they will spend the summer at their summer camp and farm at Framingham.

Miss Eliza T. Wright, of Cleveland, Ohio, has arrived at her summer home, “The Elms,” on the Lowell road [now #120] at Brookside.

Amos Polley, Guy R. Decatur, Harmon Whitten and Frank W. Banister are all recent contributors to the milk supply of Graniteville.

With congress not meeting until cool December, what is the rush and gush of wisdom in forcing an election in the fifth congressional district these heated-up, thunder-lightning, dry days? Do not lay it to Governor Fuller, for there was a widespread and insuppressible clamor for dog­day election. The primaries will be held on June 16.

There was a supper and entertainment on Wednesday evening by the Ladies’ Benevolent society of West Chelmsford and Westford Corner at the [West Chelmsford] M. E. church vestry, under the direction of Mrs. Safford and Mrs. Lupin. Mrs. Stone, of Tyngsboro, gave violin selections; Mrs. Symonds, of Tyngsboro, solo; Misses Margaret Robins and Thelma Shattuck, of Chelmsford, in readings, and Misses Edna and Gladys Davis, of Brookside, in piano duets, made up the program.

All Souls’ church, Lowell, will picnic and otherwise enjoy life at Nabnassett lake, Westford, this Saturday.

For several years Amos Polley, on the Morning Glory farm, has been trying to develop a new bean. He planted it last year for the first time as a pole bean, set the poles and everything else was set in readiness for the beans to climb, but they re­fused to climb and acted the part of bush beans. This year he planted it as a bush bean and set no poles for it as a pole bean. There being no poles to climb it is running all over his “Morning Glories” and acting as a parasite on them. It feel quite sorry for him and the “Glories.” Very appropriately he has named it the “contrary bean.”

The funeral of John B. Perkins, for many years a resident of this town, took place on last week Wednesday afternoon from his residence, Highland avenue, North Chelmsford, where services were conducted by Rev. Thomas P. Gales, of St. Albans’ Episcopal church of North Chelmsford, and Rev. Alfred E. O’Brien of the M.E. church of Graniteville. Mrs. Nellie M. Roberts, of Lowell, sang “Lead, kindly light,” “Abide with me” and “The christian’s goodnight.” The bearers were Joseph, Fred and George Perkins, William Birchall and John Ellison. Interment was in the family lot in Fairview cemetery, Westford, where the committal prayers were read by Rev. Alfred E. O’Brien.

Prof. Richard M. Elliott, son of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Elliott, of Lowell and Westford, is to sail June 18 from Quebec for England. He will spend the summer in England, Scotland and France. Prof. Elliott is a member of the faculty of the department of psychology at the University of Minnesota. It is a strange coincidence that Prof. Elliott is to sail on the [S.S.] Montroyal of the Canadian-Pacific line, the ship on which his brother, Hereford, of Lowell, recently made a trip to South America.

Just as it began to look as though we were going to be promoted to the head of the column in having homegrown green peas for dinner on June 1, the Pitkin family living on the Lowell road submitted a testimonial which read: “We had home-grown string beans for dinner Sunday, May 31,” and all this from a family who do not pretend to be farmers. Mr. Pitkin is a machinist, working for the Boston and Maine railroad in Ayer. What is the matter with us cowhide boots hayseeds that we get beaten so often by non-farming people? String beans, May 31—a lot of us have not got our beans planted by that time and some haven’t even heard at that date that spring has arrived—if they have they do not act it. Oh, by the way, sister, you who planted beans in March or possibly February; I guess it was February—how are you for string beans in comparison with May 31?

The Watch Dog. Some of us who are on the outside and away from the danger do just enjoy the “barking of the watch dog” under the Groton news. It’s just sassy enough and to some extent just true enough not only of Groton but other towns to “give us to see ourselves as others see us.” For all this, Groton is a lovely old town. Its natural beauties of hills, forests, trout brooks, ponds, its shaded streets, its churches, schools and people, including “Watch Dog” make it one of the inspirational places I love to go to, and Watch Dog is only trying to make it more lovely and inspirational. Some of us have been trying to pick out Watch Dog from the rest of the inhabitants. His barking sounds very much like the barking of one who massed and mixed and dared just prior to Groton’s last annual town meeting. It bears that type of originality, that courage to dare to see and hear and report. Of course, the objection is in the fact as no other town has a Watch Dog, which every town ought to have, it leaves the impression to those who do not know of the town that Groton is not the lovely, old, inspirational town we love to know it to be. But for all this I hope that you will not kick the Watch Dog into his kennel or muzzle the brute. As a change from our quiet, old, transcendentalist friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson, it is just a splendid, helpful diversion. Bark away, dear sir.

Fossilized Trustees. We read with universal interest and approval all that was written and much that was not written in regard to the resignation of Dr. Bridgman from Lawrence academy. As one who has a grandson there I feel that the wrong party resigned. It should have been some of the fossilized trustees who voted blank ballots on important questions for fear if they voted for something it might prove to be too modern and too useful for their straight-jacketed orbit. They are unable or unwilling to bring themselves to say with our beloved whether “Our fathers hath not all of God. Revelation is not sealed.” They represent “the old wine in the old bottles,” [Matthew 9:17] and as such they managed to bottle Lawrence academy up into a dreamless silence, all except its name.

Dr. Bridgman was called to unbottle it and he resurrected it from a corpse into the realm of an inspirational utility that keeps step with the best in the new day of the living present and cut the tether that bound it too much to a dead and fossilized past. Dr. Bridgman represents “the new wine in the new bottles.” The vision that sees the “burning bush” of the day in which we live, as a reality to be interpreted into the needs of modern life. The ancient days did not have a monopoly of all the values of the ancient “burning bush.” [Exodus 3:2] Lawrence academy was being lighted up by it by a large, broad and tolerant interpretation of all that is involved in the much needed “burning bush” of our modern life. Hence, by the law of natural affinities a “burning bush” and a fossil that draws its life mostly from the embers and ashes of an ancient and antiquated past, cannot expect any different terminal than the forced terminal at Lawrence academy.

Graniteville. A miscellaneous shower was tendered to Miss Hilma Hanson in the vestry of the M.E. church on last Saturday evening in honor of her approaching marriage. The event came as a pleasant surprise to Miss Hanson, who visited the church with the intention of attending a choir rehearsal. The vestry had been transformed into a bower of beauty by the arrangement of roses and ferns and a large number of her friends were present. Miss Hanson was the recipient of many gifts of linen, silver and cut glass. A short entertainment was given that consisted of songs by Malcolm Weaver, and readings by Miss Ruth Defoe. Dainty refreshments were served.

Death. Levi Sidney Gilson, a well known and highly respected resident of this village, died at his home here on Saturday, June 6, after a long illness, aged 74 yrs., 4 mos. and 16 days. He leaves to mourn his loss one daughter, Mrs. Fred Provost, with whom he made his home and who with her husband were untiring in their attendance to him during his illness. He also leaves five brothers, William W. of New York city, Freeland of Tyngsboro, Edwin of Boston, Augustus of Reeds Ferry, N.H., and George Gilson of Graniteville. He was a member of the Highland council, R. A. of Lowell, Oberlin lodge, I.O.O.F. of Lowell and a charter member of Court Graniteville, F. of A. of Graniteville.

He was formerly employed as engineer with the Abbot Worsted Co. here, but retired from active duty some few years ago. “Sid,” as he was familiarly called by his many friends, was a good neighbor and friend. Endowed with a charitable disposition and a pleasing personality he endeared himself to all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance. Always ready to assist in sickness or distress, he took a deep interest in the community life of the town and was always the first to help in any worthy cause. He had lived here practically all of his life and his passing is mourned deeply by a large circle of friends.

The funeral on Monday afternoon at his home was attended by many local and out of town friends as well as delegations from several of the fraternal societies with which he was affiliated. Rev. A. L. O’Brien, pastor of the M.E. church, assisted by Rev. Percy Kilminster of Concord, N. H., officiated. Mrs. F. L. Roberts of Lowell sang, “Some day we’ll understand” and “Christian’s goodnight.” There were numerous floral tributes. The bearers were William W., Freeland, Edwin and Augustus Gilson, brothers of deceased. The burial was in Fairview cemetery, Westford, where the I.O.O.F. services was read by E. T. Adams and the ritual of the F. of A. were read by R. J. McCarthy. The committal prayers were read by Rev. Mr. O’Brien and Rev. Mr. Kilminster.

About Town. In the death of Thomas Riley Marshall, former vice president[1], we have lost an outstanding personality. Born to and cultivating the gift of geniality, a speaker of rare wit and charm in holding an audience, this rareness makes it all the more regrettable that his passing from visibility was so comparatively youthful and useful. Like all charming individualities he had his limits in correct thinking, as illustrated by the thought, when he was vice president, “What this country needs is a good five-cent cigar.”

In the death of Louis A. Coolidge[2] we have lost another unique personality of gifted and varied talents of which were so few that it seems all the more regrettable that such should worry themselves into a premature grave over the possibility that we are on the verge of losing our personal liberty, the Volstead act being a sample copy of what threatens us.

We confess surprise that our telephones do not ring “higher rates” when it was generally conceded that it was a case of higher rates or curtailed and decreased efficiency, all of which some of us have not signed our names to yet. But it is so plain that even Mayor Curley has called off his opposition and admits that a 10% raise may be necessary, why in the name of rescuing this financially suffering public service corporation whose motto seems to be “Love, not money,” the authority before whom this hearing is being held doesn’t tax us all an upward rise in rates to cover what money they do want to increase this service of love and also include more than a million dollars that it has cost to prove their case.

What seems to be a well-founded rumor has it that two young men, brothers, from Dracut, will soon re-open the O’Brien blacksmith shop near Westford station.

Groton

News Items. Representatives of the Unitarian church at the North Middlesex conference of Unitarian churches in Westford on Wednesday were Mr. and Mrs. Fred G. May, Mrs. Lawrence E. Blood, Mrs. Fred Porter, Mrs. George Woods, Mrs. John Gilson and Rev. and Mrs. Charles B. Ames.

The Lawrence W. Gay post, A.L., and its Auxiliary entertained the members of both orders from surrounding towns, as well as the members of the E. S. Clark W.R.C., in Odd Fellows’ hall on Thursday evening, June 4. The audience had the pleasure of listening to an address by General Mulvern-Hill Barnum, of Camp Devens. Readings by Mrs. Frank A. Torrey, vocal solos by Mrs. Charles B. Ames and selections by the entire Groton Ladies’ quintet also added to the pleasure of the evening. A fine supper was served, the menu including chicken salad, rolls, punch, olives, pickles, ice cream and cake. Guests from Ayer, Pepperell, Shirley, Townsend and Westford were present.

Shirley

News Items. Mrs. Georgia Farnsworth, Miss Angie Farnsworth, Mrs. Kate E. Hazen and Miss Agnes Holden attended the Unitarian conference held in Westford on Wednesday.

Ayer

News Items. The following represented the Unitarian church at the North Middlesex conference Wednesday at Westford: Mr. and Mrs. George H. Hill, Mr. and [Mrs.] Herbert H. Proctor, Dr. and Mrs. E. B. Butterfield, Rev. Frank B. Crandall, Walter B. Hayden, Mrs. Susan M. Barker, Mrs. Howard M. Beverly, Mrs. Elson H. Bigelow, Miss Emma Butterfield, Mrs. Elmer E. Duncklee, Mrs. Harriet W. LaPointe and Miss Isabelle Murphy.

Real Estate Transfers.  The following real estate transfers have been recorded from this vicinity:

Westford, Alek Dubinski to Mary E. Whitney land on Dunstable road.

[1] Thomas Riley Marshall (1854-1925) was the 28th vice president of the United States from 1913 to 1921 under President Woodrow Wilson. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_R._Marshall.

[2] Louis Arthur Coolidge (1861-1925) was an American journalist and Treasury official who served under Treasury Secretaries George B. Cortelyou and Franklin MacVeagh during the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, 1908 to 1909. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_A._Coolidge.