Turner's Public Spirit, June 20, 1925
A look back in time to a century ago
By Bob Oliphant
Center. Children’s day was observed last Sunday morning at the Congregational church, the children furnishing the program, which consisted of recitations and singing. The pastor, Rev. Edward D. Disbrow, administered the rite of baptism to the following children: David Goddard [sic, David Scott is meant], son of David and Agnes (Chelwick) Scott; Walter Lewis [Foster], son of Lewis and Myrtle (Balzer) Foster, and Anna Mary and Jean Grant [Whiting], daughters of Harry E. and Martha (Grant) Whiting.
The Booster club has been having a room furnished over the vestibule in the church. The class, or club, is made up of boys from fourteen years upward. The class is in charge of the pastor, Rev. Edward D. Disbrow, and some pleasant outings are being planned for the near future, one of which is a trip to Mt. Monadnock. The officers of the club are Norman Day, pres.; Roger Hildreth, vice pres.; Arnold Wilder, sec.; Linwood Nesmith, treas.
Mr. and Mrs. Carl W. Swanson [sic, Swensen]have issued cards announcing the coming marriage of their daughter Alice Viola to Walter Otis Day at the Congregational church on Wednesday afternoon, June 24, at four o’clock.
Mrs. Gertrude Skidmore and daughter Elaine have returned from Florida and are at their summer home on Depot street.
Mrs. Atwood and daughter Evelyn, of Dayton, Fla., are the guests of the Misses Atwood.
A daughter, Lillian, was born to Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Hildreth on Thursday [June 11] of last week at the New England Baptist hospital, Boston.
Miss Ruth E. McCoy left on Monday for Moncton, N.B., where she will be the guest of relatives for a few weeks.
The annual prize-speaking contest of Westford academy was held on Monday evening, and the following program was presented: “Kate Shelly,” Angie Parfitt; “The cremation of Sam McGee,” Bettie 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; “The lady of Shalott,” Mary Dureault; “Lochinvar,” Blanche Pickup; “How they saved St. Michael’s,” Alma Warren; “Gentlemen, the king,” Dorothy McEnaney; violin solo, Bettie Prescott; “Hiawatha’s childhood,” Charlotte Wilson; “Bobby Shaftoe,” Viola Day; piano selections, Marjorie Baker. Two speakers on the program, Lillian Hosmer and Dorothy McEnaney, having secured an equal number of points, the judges decided to divide between them equally the first prize of $10 and the second of $5. Honorable mention was awarded to Charlotte Wilson. All the pupils did well and showed that much time had been spent in careful training. The judges were Mrs. J. M. Hartwell, Mrs. Lena Gillette and Miss Margaret Brown, all of Littleton.
Graduation Exercises. The graduation exercises of the eighth grade of the William E. Frost school were held at the town hall on Friday evening, June 12, at eight o’clock, and were as follows: Entrance of class; song, “Noon”; play, “Twenty years hence”; class song, words by Dorothy Hanahan; presentation of diplomas. The graduates were Alan W. Bell, Walter E. Belville, Genevieve L. Blaney, Marion G. Day, Evelyn M. Green, Alice C. Griffin, Edna M. Hamlin, Dorothy F. [paper torn, words missing] F. Healey, Helen [paper torn, words missing] E. Lundberg, Alva L. Peterson, Hazel L. R. Nutting, Lawrence R. Shaughnessy, John J. O’Connell, Leslie G. Sherman, Andrew W. Parfitt, Edward T. Sullivan, Gladys E. Whitney, [and] Freda E. Wilson. The class prophecy was in three acts and the characters were Governor invited to lay the cornerstone, John O’Connell; Mayor, who presides at city council, Walter Belville; commissioner of lights, Greta Lundberg; commissioner of health, Mildred Mealey; commissioner of finances, Marion Day; commissioner of lights, Alice Griffin; city clerk, Andrew Parfitt; chief of police, Edward Sullivan; city librarian, Alan Bell; editor, John O’Connell; captain, Andrew Parfitt; inspector of jails, Lawrence Shaughnessey; movie actress, Dorothy Hanahan; Mrs. Benson, mother of seven children, Freda Wilson; Madame Kuncinski, Edna Hamlin; city nurse, Genevieve Blaney; saleswoman, Hazel Nutting; pianist, Gladys Whitney; Mrs. Lee, Alva Peterson; Mrs. Lottamoney, Leslie Sherman; novelist, Helen Hildreth; U. S. inspector of schools, Alice Griffin; principal of grade school, Alan Bell. Time, twenty years from now. Place, our town. Act 1, council room in city hall. Act 2, street scene. Act 3, reception room in the home of Mrs. Lottamoney.
The graduation exercises of the Cameron school were held in Abbot hall, Forge Village, Thursday evening, June 11, at 7.30 o’clock with the following program: Entrance of class; salutatory, Herbert E. Hunt; chorus, “Bobolink”; recitation, “Try again,” Jeannette Ricard; chorus, “The heavens are telling”; class history, Mary Cosgrove; class prophecy, Irene C. Milot; class doctor, Fred A. Morton; class will, Hazel V. Haskell and Leokady M. Woitowicz; piano duet, Dorothy De La Haye and Irene M. Leclerc; essay, Leo J. Milot; valedictory, James T. Molloy; presentation of diplomas; march. The graduates were Herbert E. Hunt, president of the class; Jeannette Ricard, vice pres.; Fred A. Morton, sec.; Mary M. Cosgrove, treas.; Hazel V. Haskell, James T. Molloy, Leo J. Milot, Irene C. Milot, Leokady M. Woitowicz.
About Town. The prospect for apples which have been growing less and less, and never were good except in the blossom stage, were badly smashed on Tuesday by the blow that blew them. Many limbs were blown off that had no apples, and many, many apples were blown off limbless, and the ground is covered with the wreckage of next winter’s apples. About all the apples that clung to the rigging were the Ben Davis.
As foretold and prophesied the Old Oaken Bucket farm had new, homegrown potatoes for dinner on Wednesday, June 17, and got beat at that, as the adjoining Morning Glory farm [of Amos B. Polley] had new potatoes on June 16 and claims he could have had them earlier if he had not been hindered in fussing with those contrary pole beans.
Within a few days a farmer living on the north side of Stony Brook has been inquiring, “Where can I get some good seed potatoes?” Say, you folks that are eating new, homegrown potatoes June 16, can’t you see that this man is rapidly heading toward Fourth of July for potato planting time, and take pity on him and let him have some of your June 16th new potatoes.
The Old Oaken Bucket farm had a very helpful visit from Rev. Frank B. Crandall and George H. B. Turner, of Ayer, Monday afternoon. We were all loaded with questionnaire ammunition and although the firing was rapid and automatically self-loading it would take several such meetings to discharge all of the questionnaires.
Mrs. Lucy Cook, Lowell’s oldest inhabitant, observed her 103d birthday on June 5 at the Old Ladies’ Home, where she has been staying for the past thirty-four years. She was the recipient of many remembrances, enjoyed the day and enjoys general good health. Right here let us not forget that our own fellow townsman and citizen, Matthew F. Downs, who lives at the old, historic brick tavern on the Groton road, will observe his 106th birthday the last of August [29th]. He was born in Vassalboro, Me., but has lived in Westford fifty or more years.
Last Sunday noon Leo Ouellette, of Lowell, was drowned in Lake Nabnasset, when only about fifty feet from shore. His cries for help were heard on the opposite shore, but as there is much make-believe fooling drowning the cries for help were unheeded. This is not the first case where cries for help have been unheeded by supposing it was a play-drowning affair. Two unfortunate lessons come home to roost—never play drowning and willing would-be rescuers should heed all alarms, whether it is play-drowning or real drowning. Elliott Knapp, Bruce Douglass and Edward H. Hood, of the Lowell Y.M.C.A. camp on the opposite shore, took a boat and rowed to the spot where the drowning occurred. After an hour’s work young Knapp dove to the bottom, about fifty feet, and brought the body up. Two hours were spent in an effort at resuscitation by modern methods, but life was extinct.
If the testimonials of the pear trees at the Old Oaken Bucket farm are a reliable criterion for pears in the region of this vicinity the crop, as compared with the blossoms, will be as near nothing as anything you can get and not get annihilation loaded onto you. We expected four bushels of pears and now we expect four pears, but cannot find only two of them.
Let us remember that next Wednesday the academy graduation exercises will be held in the town hall in the morning. Let us drop off our cow-yard uniforms, shed our hayseed and get a shift in scenery in friendship, and most important of all a shift in thought action.
This spring the Old Oaken Bucket farm set out a piece of strawberries. Ninety percent responded to dying rather than living. The piece was harrowed over and planted to sweet corn, cucumbers, watermelons, muskmelons, squash and punkins [sic], and they did not show any signs of minding their business and come up. The field was harrowed again and sowed to Hungarian grass seed, but owing to a misunderstanding of misinformation the wrong harrow was hitched onto and the punkins, cucumbers, etc., had started to sprout, and the harrow broadcasted all of the vine family all over the field, including with some live strawberries, and it is one grand tangle for the survival of the fittest. All it lacks is William Jennings Bryan to complete the tangle and dish out illogical logic.
And now we are informed that a new pest has appeared to pester the apple, eating a hole in the green, half-grown apples. This animal, if it is an animal, like the mosquito, has never been discovered boring. Some appleite [sic] farmers claim it is spraying too much lime and too often. I second the motion. It does not bore the Ben Davis apple. Hurrah for Mr. Davis again.
The William P. Proctor Lumber Company, North Chelmsford, has shut down tight for lack of business. Why not pay carpenters five dollars an hour and double the price of lumber? Perhaps some of us could then raise enough money on potatoes at fifteen cents per bushel to build a henhouse large enough to hold one hen. There is an excuse for lumber being high for it is scarce as the result of our reckless and wasteful disregard of our future wants. But there is no scarcity of labor [paper torn, 2 lines missing] people weekly. Of this number is there not anyone that could hit the head of a nail, including finger nail, or handle a saw and saw as straight as a circle? Surely we have fallen upon unbalanced ways and days when the law of supply and demand produces food, shuts down a mill, but does not drive a nail or saw wood, and idleness that could do it and ought to be at it walk the streets while the public feeds them. What have you got to say to this, Mr. Watchdog or Grotonian?
We are still far from obeying the law of safety first; our preaching is good and continuous, but our practice squints in the direction of easy-going made in the rule of life—“go as you please,” which requires none of the self-sacrificing principles involved in the law of self-control. To prove this I wish to quote a condensed statement made by the state department of public safety: “The total fire loss in the state, exclusive of Boston, for the month of May was $1,126,341.50. Careless smoking produced the largest number of fires, 105, with a loss of $411,494.46. Careless use of matches caused 41 fires with a loss of $129,424.49.” I am content to give the two leading items as both of them are a constant menace. How oft have we seen a person light his T. D. pipe[1] and throw the lighted match back of him and go off, not knowing whether it had landed on a lot of shavings or not.
The Y.M.C.A. of Lowell will open camp at Long-Sought lake, Westford, July first. “The association has conducted the camp with much success during the past two years, and the pleasure afforded is far beyond the amount charged for the great privilege of living in the open for several weeks during the summer months. The camp is ideally located, having a shore-line of 1200 feet and 37 acres of wooded land. It is reached by trolley by the North Chelmsford and Ayer line, which passes the camp near the Groton road. The camp offers swimming, boating, hiking, volleyball, baseball, basketball, dramatics, handicraft, nature acquaintance, campfires, sleep and rest.”
And here it is again. On last week Thursday, just as we had got our face all set up, shoved up for a smile and our mouth arrangements ready to find out what the Old Oaken Bucket farm had their visitor out [for] strawberries for dinner, we were introduced to this: “The Nabnasset Lake farm, one mile to [the] northeast of the Old Oaken Bucket farm, picked four crates of strawberries last week Thursday to your one quart.” I was so repulsed at this sudden strawberry collapse that all I could think of was the familiar thought, “Somebody’s always taking the joy out of life.” The spring wheat at the Old Oaken Bucket farm is starting to head. I expect to win out on this wheat for there is no one in town or surrounding towns so tethered to such old-fashioned hayseed cowhide boots farming as to be caught in these progressive days sowing wheat.
Since writing about “fossilized trustees” I have read an article in a local paper in which it is claimed that an effort will be made by community effort to induce the trustees of Lawrence academy to reinstate Dr. Bridgman. Much as we should like to see the tolerant and progressive Dr. Bridgman reinstated, it looks as though it was too late for a majority of the trustees not only turned Dr. Bridgman out but they locked the door so that he could not get back by engaging another teacher. They evidently were afraid to leave the door open long for fear pressure would bring over resistance, and besides this it might leave the trustees open to serving in the role of adding folly to foolishness, which would not be their first time appearing in this role. Good authority states that Dr. Bridgman is soon to appear in print with the itemized statements and facts that led to his compulsory resignation. I feel confident that it will prove that some of the trustees should have resigned to make vacancies filled with those who can keep step to the soul and spirit music of the inspirational day in which we live, and stay tethered exclusively to the yesterdays of life, good and helpful as they have been. We neither ignore nor despise the yesterdays; we press forward.
I was glad to hear so much of an explanatory explanation in regard to Groton’s Watchdog as set forth by William A. Goble and One of the Fair Sex. Apparently they were both telling something which ought to be taken in serious good nature and made into a workable reform, not only in Groton but in other towns. But the moment you open fire the echo comes back, “Kick the brute into his kennel or muzzle him.” As a Scotch Yankee I had all the time suspected John H. Trayne. I glory in his originality, spunk and wit.
Unitarian—Sunday service at 4 p. m. Preacher, Rev. Frank B. Crandall, the minister. Subject, “The parable of the plant.”
A public informal reception to Dr. and Mrs. H. A. Bridgman and members of Lawrence academy faculty will be held in the Congregational church, Groton, Friday evening, June 26, at 7.30. All friends who see this notice are asked to give this information to others in their community. Let all improve this opportunity to show their appreciation of these good people who are so soon to go from Groton.
Funeral. The funeral of Mrs. Ellen S. (McGlinchey) Donnelly, wife of Michael H. Donnelly, and a life-long resident of West Chelmsford and the Brookside section of Westford, took place from her home in Brookside on last week Wednesday morning at nine o’clock. At St. John’s church, North Chelmsford, where the deceased had worshipped, at 9.30 o’clock, a solemn high funeral mass was sung by the pastor, Rev. John J. Crane, assisted by Rev. Emile Dupont as deacon and Rev. John J. Linnahan as sub-deacon. The choir, under the direction of Miss Marie J. C. O’Donnell, sang the Gregorian mass, and the solos were sustained by Miss Margaret Griffin. At the offertory “Domini Jesu Christi” was sung by Fred L. Cummings, and after the elevation James S. King sang the “Miserere Mei,” Miss O’Donnell presiding at the organ. The bearers were Dennis Sullivan, Bernard and Patrick Flynn, Charles Martin, Edward Riney and James Savage. Burial was in St. Catherine’s cemetery, Graniteville, where Rev. J. J. Linnahan, assisted by Rev. Emile Dupont, read the committal prayers.
Graniteville. The Abbot Junior Baseball club held a whist party and dance in Abbot hall here on last week Friday evening. Whist was enjoyed from 7.30 until 9, after which dancing was enjoyed to music by a Forge Village orchestra. Refreshments were served.
Mr. and Mrs. Owen McNiff, with their two children, Lorraine and Walter, have recently returned from Florida and are stopping with Mr. and Mrs. F. L. Furbush. [Mrs. Owen McNiff, nee Helen Marie Furbush, was the daughter of Frank L. & Margaret C. (Murphy) Furbush.
The Abbots will play Nashua in Nashua on Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday afternoon, at three o’clock the fast Manchester, N. H., team will be the attraction here. The Abbot band will accompany the team to Nashua on Saturday.
Many Graniteville people attended the prize-speaking contest given by the students of Westford academy that was held in the town hall on Monday evening. The program was interrupted for a brief time when the lights went out, due to the severe thunderstorm.
The Abbot Worsted Company band will give three open-air concerts here during the summer season at Abbot park—July 10, 17 and 24.
About Town. Someone in the Rural New Yorker writes: “The Ben Davis apple in passing cold storage has solved the keeping qualities of better apples.” Well, we are glad to learn that much, as we are in a notion mood to set out the Ben Davis. It furnishes its own cold storage, will bear a heavy crop every year, will keep, picked or on the tree a year from the time of blossoming, and is much better flavored than prejudiced talk allows.
Cut Worms and the Crow. Under Harvard news I read: “This seems to be great weather for cut worms. We wonder if our old friend, Edson Boynton, is finding any these days. Perhaps the pupil of Teacher No. 1 and also proprietor of the Old Oaken Bucket farm can find out for us and report.”
Dear teacher. I have been so busy finishing planting, hoeing and eating green peas June first, and commencing haying that I have had no time to even visit the Boyntons, although by airship transportation they are not more than a half mile off. But I have promised to visit them before the cut worms eat them up, and I will report what is left of them.
On general information the cut worms are making the crops look as though haying had begun. At the Old Oaken Bucket farm we have no complaint for you know we plant in March, before the cut worms, like a whole lot of farmers, are aware that spring has come and before the cut worms find out that spring has come, with a story attachment our hoed crops are so far advanced that they are too tough for teeth, so they go to the neighbors for the tender juices of Fourth of July plantings. My only complaint is that the cut worms cut down my cucumbers and that is a big personal loss from the standpoint of eating them. At this time of the year I would rather have ten pounds of cucumbers than ten hundred pounds of meat. So you see, dear teacher, what a loss I have met with, and shut off your cucumber appetite.
A Stony Brook farmer reports that the cut worms have nearly annihilated an acre of sweet corn, and another reports that the wire worms are baring the hills out of much of his sweet corn, so that it has no life for germination.
Well, to be solemnly serious, I have been tutored by the papers to believe that the New England crow was the only sinner to disturb the happy balance of the harmonies of farm life, and we have been advised to buy Dupont powder and shoot the crow to extermination and thus help the cause of powder and the cause of wire worms, etc., generally. If we shot the crow to extermination our pest troubles would increase in proportion to the size of the extermination.
Let us see how the crow as a sinner audits up as a contributor to farm poverty. Here is an acre of land that the grasshoppers have abandoned for want of grass. We let it remain idle and get nothing, and how happy we are in auditing “nothing equals nothing,” and of course our outgo and ingo is a perfect balance blending. But we tire of this balance blending, so we plough the ground and plant it to corn. A crow alights on the field and we reach for our gun, and we want the whole farming fraternity to reach for their guns to exterminate the crow, who at his worst has left corn enough to make a financial audit “so many bushels of corn and so many dollars” as against idle land that does not audit up even a grasshopper. This is the crow at his worst. Use a repellent on the corn before planting and you have an infallible insurance against the crow. This negative poverty on the farm is far more damaging than our pests and more obstinate to cure.
Littleton
Fire. The barn belonging to E. H. Flagg’s set of buildings on his Dea. Manning place was destroyed by fire early Wednesday morning. The fire was discovered by a neighbor who gave the alarm shortly before one o’clock. Littleton, Ayer and Westford departments were soon at hand to check the progress of the fire, which had made great headway before their arrival. To save the barn and its contents was out of the question. Nine cows, three horses, hay, farming implements, etc., were lost, so the three departments spent their energies on the house, which was saved, but much injured by water. A good deal of the furniture was moved out to the roadside and as usual in such cases, was more or less damaged.
Mr. Flagg, who is not in very good health, was sleeping soundly when the fire broke out and some of the neighbors, in order to arouse him forced an entrance by breaking a door of the house. The apartment that he and his daughter occupy was not damaged, but the part in which the Holden family lived was thoroughly soaked by the streams of water played by the hose.
The origin of the fire has not been ascertained.
Ayer
News Items. Mrs. Ida Whitney of Westford, who has been visiting her niece, Mrs. George H. Chandler, returned home last Saturday.
Real Estate Transfers. The following real estate transfers have been recorded from this vicinity recently:
Westford—Harry R. Sloat et al. to Irene E. O’Brien.
[1] A TD pipe was an English clay smoking pipe with the initials TD on the bowl in use from the 18th to the 20th centuries. TD may be the original maker’s initials but there were at least three 18th Century English clay pipe makers with those initials. See https://livesandlegaciesblog.org/2024/03/20/you-down-with-old-td-yeah-you-know-me/.