Turner's Public Spirit, June 2, 1923
A look back in time to a century ago
By Bob Oliphant
Center. Mr. and Mrs. Frazier, of Groton, were Sunday guests of Mr. and Mrs. F. C. Wright.
Miss Hazel Hartford, of Boston, was in town over Sunday and the holiday.
Mr. and Mrs. John P. Wright and daughters, Frances and Alice, of Cambridge, were in town on Memorial day.
Mrs. Emma Mills, of Lowell, was in town on Wednesday.
Miss Marjorie Seavey, of Swampscott, was in town on the holiday.
Memorial day guests of Dr. and Mrs. C. A. Blaney were Winthrop, Miss Hazel and William Pond, of Framingham.
Frank Norris was the guest of his daughter, Mrs. Arthur G. Hildreth, Wednesday.
Miss Grace Hildreth is able to be about again after her recent operation.
Mrs. Charles L. Hildreth has returned home from the Lowell General hospital.
Andrew Johnson, of Framingham, was in town on Memorial day.
The Legion and Auxiliary are invited to be the guests of North Chelmsford post on Monday evening and of the Groton post the following Wednesday. It is hoped that there will be a large attendance from the local organizations.
The different military organizations met in [the] Cavalry building [20 Boston Road] on Wednesday morning and accompanied by the Abbot Worsted Company band proceeded to the soldiers’ monument, where the usual military exercises were conducted, after which all repaired to the town hall, where the following excellent program was presented: Call to order and word of welcome, Harold W. Hildreth, commander of the Legion post; “Tribute to the soldiers,” Westford academy Glee club; reading, Stanley Snow, “To thee, o country,” grammar school; “Talks with an old veteran,” Nathaniel H. Phillips; selection, band; “Lead, kindly light,” brass quartet; reading, Miss Hilma Hanson; “Sleep, peacefully sleep,” Westford academy Glee club; address, Capt. Raymond S. Wilkins, of Salem; roll call; “Star Spangled Banner,” audience and band; benediction, Rev. William E. Anderson. At noon an excellent dinner was served by D. L. Page Co., of Lowell, and in the afternoon the Abbot Worsted Company band gave a fine program of music.
The choir of the Methodist church on last Sunday was made up of singers from the various churches about town, as well as their own regular choir.
Friday evening meeting at the Congregational church at eight o’clock. Special prayer meetings at 7:30 on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday evenings. The Odd Fellows and Odd Ladies will hold their joint memorial service at the morning service on Sunday at 10:45. The Junior C.E. have adjourned their meetings to the fall. Other Sunday services regularly.
“Musical Review.” The “Musical review” held at the town hall last week Wednesday evening proved a very enjoyable affair. The review was divided into two periods, the first part including songs that were popular prior to 1890, while the second part included those popular between 1890 and 1900, twenty-eight taking part in the performance, which consisted of chorus work, duets, solos, etc. Miss Edith Pond Blaney opened the singing with “Long, long ago,” followed by a duet, “Sweet and low,” by Mrs. Lillian Meyer and Mrs. Elizabeth C. Taylor. Nine members of the chorus sang “Love’s old, sweet song.” Other special numbers were, solo, “Carry me back to old Virginny,” Mrs. Nora Colburn; solo, “In the gloaming,” Carl Lydiard, with violin accompaniment by Ellis Cram; solo, “Annie Laurie,” Mrs. Edith Blaney; solo, “I’ll make that black gal mine,” Albert Hildreth; “When the harvest days are over,” Lillian Meyer; saxophone solo, “Good-bye Dolly Gray,” Fred Meyer; solo, “Sweet Marse,” Mrs. Nora Colburn, with violin accompaniment by Eilis Cram; solo, “Sweet Rosie O’Grady,” Clifford Johnson; “Honey boy,” eight girls; solo, “By the watermelon vine,” Ellis Cram; “Sweet Adeline,” men’s chorus; solo, “Good-night, little girl, good-night,” Edith Blaney; solo, “Put on your old gray bonnet,” John Greig.
During the singing by the chorus Fred Meyer impersonated an organ grinder; the Fletcher twins, “Two little girls in blue,” and W. R. Taylor as Annie Rooney, who as a female impersonator, proved a second Julian Eltinge. Miss Daisy Precious was the accompanist of the evening. Between the numbers there were three delightful readings given by Miss Doris York, of Graniteville, in costume.
Following the review refreshments were served and informal dancing was enjoyed until midnight. Mrs. Harry Dawson acted as pianist for the dancing.
The affair was in charge of Mrs. W. R. Taylor, master of the ladies’ degree team of the Grange, and great credit is due her for her efforts to make it a success.
Memorial Service. Memorial services were held in the Graniteville Methodist church last Sunday morning and were largely attended. Large delegations from the various organizations were present and the order of service was as follows: “Military march,” George D. Wilson, organist; invocation, Rev. W. E. Anderson; anthem, “Low in the ground they are resting,” choir; apostles’ creed, congregation; prayer, Rev. John H. Blair; solo, “The Americans come,” Mrs. Ethel C. Irvin; responsive reading; anthem, “Rest in peace, ye Flanders dead,” choir; scripture lesson, Rev. John H. Blair; solo, “Just before the battle, mother,” Rev. John H. Blair; sermon, “Americanism,” Rev. W. E. Anderson; “America,” congregation standing; benediction, Rev. John H. Blair; organ recessional, George D. Wilson. At the close of the service a fine lunch was served by the ladies of the church, after which the veterans and friends visited all the cemeteries of the town to decorate the graves of the soldier dead.
Impressive services were conducted at each of the cemeteries by the Legion and Grand Army, with solo by Rev. John H. Blair, after which the firing squad, under Sergt.-at-Arms Harry E. Whiting of the local A. L. Post, fired a volley over the last resting place of the soldier dead.
About Town. Mr. and Mrs. Herbert E. Walkden, of Wichita, Kansas, inform Westford relatives of the birth of a baby boy, Robert Holden Walkden, born May 11. Mr. Walkden will be remembered as a veteran of the world war, and son of Mr. and Mrs. James A. Walkden, Chelmsford Corner, where he was born. He will also be remembered as a brother of Mrs. Henry A. Fletcher [nee Ida Mae Walkden], of Chamberlain’s Corner and Mrs. Jessie Bell [nee Jessie Agnes Walkden], of Westford Corner.
What next? Last Saturday an airplane was looping the loop and other maneuvering air contortions in spelling, as an advertisement, “Lucky Strike” cigarettes in mid-air a little east of the Old Oaken Bucket farm.
The Morning Glory farm is planting another acreage of late sweet corn. The early planting is up and blowing with the frosty March winds.
Rev. E. E. Jackman, of West Chelmsford, delivered the Memorial day address in the town hall at Chelmsford Center.
While there is such a chorus of wailing about the high cost of living, it is refreshing to get a line on facts as a truthful offset for wailing not founded on facts. More money is deposited in the banks than ever before in history. Combined bank deposits total 43 billion dollars, or $390 of every man, woman and child—a queer thing. No one seems to have as much money now as during the big boom of 1919, but bank deposits are nearly 6 billion dollars more than then. Money in the bank is not more than one-sixth of our national wealth. But keep right up the poverty chorus just the same, and contrary to fact-finding evidence. If the misery of feeling poverty that does not exist only as a nightmare that never comes true will make us happier to believe that it does exist; by all means keep up the wailing chorus and hurrah for it.
Hon. John Jacob Rogers met the citizens of the town in his annual tour of the fifth congressional district on Thursday at Graniteville, Forge Village and Westford. We shall refer to this feast of service and love for his constituents next week.
The next meeting of the Grange will be held on next Thursday evening. The lecturer’s program reads “Children’s night, in charge of the teachers of the Grange.”
Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Taylor and Mr. and Mrs. Carlos D. Cushing motored to Framingham last Sunday to the summer camp of the Cushings.
There was a heavy white frost on Wednesday and Thursday morning of last week, which shows that winter is still kicking against giving up to summer. I have yet to learn of any damage being done. Strawberries were in full bloom at the Old Oaken Bucket farm and were uninjured. They are a handsome sight and promise to be more handsome later on in June days.
Mr. and Mrs. Recent Superintendent of the Harvard town home [Mr. and Mrs. Edson G. Boynton] have accepted the position as managers of the Abbot Worsted Company farm at Brookside.
The Morning Glory farm commenced haying last week Friday and intends to follow it up with a K-O or haymaker, or both, on the rest of us Stony Brook valleyites who are not able to follow such premature haying. For one, I give it up and both hands up before any such K-O voltage is administered, for just as you think that you are going to make a first landing someone is inconsiderate enough of their neighbor’s feelings to start up the music of a mowing machine.
Arthur J. O’Brien, of Pigeon hill, having finished first hoeing, has been plowing for Dr. Coburn in Westford Center.
About ten o’clock Monday evening the [paper torn, line or two missing] for a fire at the George Spaulding place on Frances hill, just over the Westford town line, in Chelmsford. The Westford fire company responded with its usual speed and promptness, the Chelmsford fire company responding also. The two companies were able to confine the blaze to the ell of the house, which was badly damaged. For several generations the place was kept in the Spaulding line of ancestry, until a few years ago when it was sold to Peter Green, of Carlisle.
Miss Susan M. Hannaford, of Lowell, was a Memorial day visitor at the home of her uncle at the Old Oaken Bucket farm.
Hon. Herbert E. Fletcher has gone on a fishing excursion in Maine. What we would like to know most is whether he is fishing through the ice or not, for we read in modern history that they still have ice weather instead of nice weather in Harvard, as close to summer as last week. This being thus and more, what must it be in the land where the sleighing is poor two months in the year?
The Old Oaken Bucket farm has bought 500 strawberry boxes of the Morning Glory farm. They bought 5000 boxes last year to hold 250 quarts of berries. If we shrink as much from prospect to performance, how many strawberries shall we have, and whom shall we pay our tax on excess profits to?
Tuesday, May 29, was the 268th anniversary of the founding of the town of Chelmsford, and what is now Westford was a part of Chelmsford at that time, and continued to be a part of said town until September 23, 1729, when this territory was incorporated as a separate town and named Westford, and being known prior to this as the West precinct. Thus do we see that we are fast approaching our 200th anniversary, and it will not raise our tax rate to frequently keep this 200th anniversary in view, and whatever else we decide to do on that day let it be a Pentecostal home-day returning of all the sons and daughters of Westford without regard to whoever or wherever, even if our tax rate goes up the “widow’s two mites.”
- R. Taylor, having set out his Frances hill land to apple and peach trees, is now planting the land to squash, cucumbers and various other knickknacks and jimcracks.
The Old Oaken Bucket farm, having set out a white pine tree on the triangle green at the junction of Lowell and Stony Brook roads, so that the traveler could say “woodman, spare that tree; in youth it sheltered me,” is surprised to find that it will never shelter anyone or ornament the landscape, for someone with more muscle than brains, and apparently bankrupt of the intuitions of the aesthetic that is a part of the heritage of normal life, broke the branches all off of this handsome, promising pine. The pine can be replaced, but that does not regenerate the brutality of the individual who brutalizes himself by this act, for this is the third tree that has met the same fate at the same place. Phillips Brooks once said “Whoever willfully picks even one leaf off a tree, there is something wrong with him.”
Fiske Warren, of Boston and Harvard and all the world, has sold 1000 acres of the Shakers land in Harvard and Ayer to a land syndicate. It is proposed to lot this land into small farms, repair and remodel the buildings, and dedicate this movement to the disabled soldiers of the world war. If correctly informed, this sale includes a small part of Camp Devens, where the large house called the Homestead stands near Harvard and Ayer town line. This house was built many years ago by Elder Grosvenor of the Harvard Shakers, who was given a free hand to build, and cost $25,000, which was in excess of expectation or use, and for this financial folly Elder Grosvenor was unfrocked and reduced to the ranks by Shaker authority. This Shaker land has always been wisely and economically tilled. They were quite innocent and harmless in their industries and religious beliefs and ceremonies, but were shamefully and brutally treated in their settlements because they were an innovation. For a bill of particulars read Clara Endicott Sears’ “History of Harvard Shakers.”
A Road of Hills and Valleys. I dislike to appear in the role of a chronic complainant of the roads, but as others join in the chorus of “Ain’t they ever going to fix this piece of road?” Why, then I don’t feel that I am quite so much by my lonesome. I refer to the recently graveled Lowell road from Banister’s Corner to Tower’s brook, a distance of less than half a mile, and in riding over it recently with a friend we both went into the air 275 or more times and chucked back again from whence we started. We were told that the different times that we both went into the air represent the number of loads of gravel dumped on this road, there being a hill and valley between every load, and some of us think that is a sore, slow way of keeping an account of the number of loads of gravel the town uses. Well, now, see here, Mr. Superintendent, you were not Mr. Superintendent when this road was graveled; neither do we blame your predecessor, for it appeared all right at the time that it was put on, but as it is not all right now will you not as a preventative against making a lot of [us] sorer and sorer as we soar into the air in riding over it just go over it with a road drag and level off the hills into the valleys? The road scraper is not a suitable machine to do it with, for scraping the sides of the road only elevates the hills still more.
[advertisement] Auction Sale
Household Furniture Automobiles Farm Equipment
The furniture consists of the complete equipment of a seven-room cottage and comprises everything necessary for housekeeping.
The automobiles are in excellent condition—one seven-passenger touring car, one five-passenger convertible sedan, one Reo Speed Wagon with cab, one Reo Speed Wagon with panel body, and one 1500-pound truck.
The farm equipment consists of one wheel barrow, one Acme harrow, one seeder, one lime spreader, horse stall partitions, cow stanchions, window sash, and many article too numerous to mention; also, about fifty hens.
Sale at 1 P.M., June at
Farm of George F. White, Westford Center [62 Main St.]
- F. Fitzgerald, Auctioneer
Groton
News Items. The Legion Auxiliaries of Littleton and Westford will neighbor with the Laurence W. Gay post and Auxiliary on the evening of June 6, the meeting opening at eight o’clock.
Ayer
News Items. The Young People’s club of the First Unitarian church gave a hurdy-gurdy dancing party at Hardy’s hall on Tuesday evening. About 50 couples attended, including young people from Littleton, Harvard, West Acton, Westford and a party of 14 from Chelmsford. Stephen Carfaro of Concord Junction furnished music with his hurdy-gurdy. Punch and fancy wafers were served during the evening. The committee included Gladys Proctor, Russell Chase and John H. Turner.
Real Estate Transfers. The following real estate transfers have been recorded from this vicinity recently: …
Westford—Peter J. Healy to Laura Healy Mullin, land at Graniteville; Emma M. Wright et al. to Risimon Degagne, land on North street. …
Notes:
Julian Eltinge (1881-1941), born in Newtonville, Mass., was an American actor and female impersonator. He was nicknamed “Mr. Lillian Russell” for his popular impersonation of that famous musical comedy star. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Eltinge