Turner's Public Spirit, June 22, 1923
A look back in time to a century ago
By Bob Oliphant
An Interesting Paper. The following paper, “Woodland notes,” by Nimrod (Henry A. Fletcher, a brother of Hon. Herbert E. Fletcher), was read before the meeting of the Tadmuck club on May 8, and by urgent request from many sources is published in this week’s issue.
Chief among the self-appointed watchmen of the woods is the crow. Always on the alert and possessed of a very keen eye he is quick to spot any intruder and by various calls broadcasts the news of its approach. All the inhabitants of the woods understand the meaning of these calls and are instantly on the lookout. For a man he has a certain call; for a man with a gun, another, and a very special one. Continued and excited cawing announce the discovery of a horned owl, a large hawk or a fox.
The great horned owl is the crow’s chief enemy as this bird does its hunting at night and catches the sleeping crows on their roosts. This owl will also take the young crows from the nests. Perhaps it is worth while stating here that contrary to usual belief, the great horned owl can see equally well, day or night. When an owl is found all the crows for miles around are summoned, and by force of numbers and noise they try to drive away the owl. Crows will also follow a fox, circling and driving him and keeping up all the time a great cawing. Knowledge of this fact is of value to the fox hunter for hearing the crows he knows the course the fox is taking and places himself in a position for a successful shot.
The blue jay is a most efficient detective of the woods, keen of eye, always on the move and with an inquisitive and prying disposition. Little goes on in his chosen range that he is not aware of. The presence of any small owl or hawk, mink or house cat is quickly noted and his shrill alarm cry brings all the jays and small birds in the vicinity to drive away the undesirables.
The jay has a vast number of calls and is an excellent mimic. He is also a great practical joker and dearly loves to fool the public. His favorite trick is to mimic the notes of a hawk and send out an S.O.S. call. Then in hiding he will enjoy the panic he has caused. In one instance that I noticed the call was genuine for a hawk had caught the jay and he was in a very bad way when a shot put out the misery of the jay and also accounted for the hawk.
As the inhabitants of the woods understand the calls of the birds, so also does the woodsman, and he is quick to detect any unusual happening in the woods and by investigating such out of the ordinary bird call will witness some strange and interesting sights, one of which I will relate.
One day, while in the woods, my attention was called to peculiar notes coming from a large flock of crows in a pine tree. I carefully made my way to a point where I could get a good view and watched the proceedings. The crows were perched in orderly rows on the limbs of the tree, all facing the same way and in attitudes of great dignity, as though the occasion was a very serious one. Some were talking in low tones as though discussing matters of grave importance. Some had notes of protest; others uttering angry cries. This went on for perhaps ten minutes when there followed a slight commotion on the side of the tree which I could not see. A few excited caws followed and the crows dispersed without their usual noise, almost silently.
Curious to see what all this was about I examined the ground under the tree and found a crow breathing his last. No mark was on his body, but on the top of his head, and penetrating to the brain, was a wound made by the dagger like beak of a crow. This crow had evidently broken some law of Crowdom, had been tried and found guilty and apparently without any effort on his part to escape had been executed.
Center. Mrs. Leon Calvert and young sons, Edward and Robert, of Erie, Pa., and Miss Blanche Craven, of Lowell, are the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Elliott.
Morton Seavey will act as a councillor [sic] for a Boy Scout troop at a camp near Andover during the summer vacation and expects to take up his duties in two weeks’ time.
Robert Simpson, of Lowell, was the weekend guest of John G. Fletcher. During the summer he will act as a councillor at a Boy Scout camp in Becket.
Rev. T. C. Craig, of Wenham, will occupy the pulpit of the Congregational church on Sunday and comes well recommended.
The last service of the season will be held at the Unitarian church on Sunday. Services will be resumed about the first of September.
Miss Mabel Drew, Mrs. Sarah Drew and Miss May Balch attended the spring Unitarian conference in Ashby on last week Thursday.
Mrs. Warren Hanscom has returned home from the Lowell General hospital and is getting along nicely after her recent operation.
Arthur Burnham was taken with an ill turn on Wednesday while working on Robert Elliot’s garage and was removed to his home.
Mrs. Clarence Hildreth and daughters, Grace and Vivian, are visiting relatives in Rutherford, N.J.
Mrs. A. S. Wells of Moors, N.Y., has been the guest of her sister.
Wilfrid [sic, Wilfred] Cornellier, of Ayer, employed at work on the state highway, aged nineteen years of age, while alighting from the side of a Ford car on the Littleton road last week Thursday afternoon, stepped directly in front of a Pierce-Arrow sedan owned by Fred K. Priest, of Nashua, N.H., and driven by his chauffeur, Theodore G. Jeannotte, and the heavy car struck him in such a manner that his skull was fractured. He was removed to the Lowell General hospital by Dr. C. A. Blaney, but did not regain consciousness and passed away at about 12:15. The owner and driver of the car reported the affair immediately to the police, who have investigated the matter. Eye witnesses attach no blame to the driver of the car and claim the accident to have been unavoidable on his part. An inquest was held at the district court in Ayer on Thursday.
John G. Fletcher and Forrest G. White are attending the M.I.T. summer school.
Graduation Exercises. The graduation exercises of Westford academy were held in the town hall on Wednesday morning at ten o’clock. The program was as follows: March, with overture, Amphion Trio; invocation, Rev. F. E. Webster; Salutatory, Herbert J. Shea; chorus, “Morning Invitation,” school; salutatory essay, “Ancient Mexico,” Herbert J. Shea; class will, Charlotte Perry; “Dry yo’ eyes,” girls’ glee club; class prophecy, Alfred R. Prescott; presentation of class gift, Edward C. Hunt; acceptance of class gift, Ada Eaton, class of 1924; Schubert’s “Serenade,” girls’ glee club; address, Rev. F. E. Webster, of Waltham; chorus, “Hiawatha’s journey,” school; essay, with valedictory, “Voices of the field,” Alice V. Swenson; presentation of prizes, Hon. H. E. Fletcher; presentation of diplomas, Principal W. C. Roudenbush; selection, Amphion Trio; singing of the class ode, written by Miss Persis Ormsby. Judge Frederick Fisher and Hon. John Jacob Rogers, of Lowell, both of whom are trustees of the academy, gave interesting talks. Class motto, “Keep climbing,” class colors, blue and silver. Class flower arbutus.
The graduates were Fisher Buckshorn, Genevieve A. Healy, Edward C. Hunt, Persis Ormsby, Charlotte Perry, Alfred R. Prescott, Herbert J. Shea, Walter R. Shea, Alice V. Swenson; academic course. Persis Ormsby elected to Pro Merito society of secondary schools, Persis Ormsby; Alfred R. Prescott, Herbert J. Shea and Alice V. Swenson. [Confusing paragraph but punctuation is as given in newspaper.]
Winners of prizes for year: Public speaking, given by alumni, Regina McLennan ’26, 1st $10, Frank Jarvis ’24 2nd, $5; honorable mention, Roger Hildreth ’26; scholarship given by trustees, highest general average for second, third and fourth year students, Veronica Payne ’24, $5; highest general average for first year students, Alice Remis ’26, $5; second rank in general average, Roger Hildreth ’26, $3; third rank in general average, Alice Swenson ’23, $2; highest percentage of improvement over year 1922, first and second prizes divided equally between Alice Socorelis ’24, $4, and Mary Wall ’23, $4; third prize, Olive Hanson ’24, $2.
About Town. Perley E. Wright is carrying strawberries to Lowell market in his covered automobile truck. Among the raisers and contributors are Harlan P. Knowlton, Mark Jenkins, Eben Prescott, Frank C. Miller, Frank W. Banister, S. L. Taylor and others. As an indication of the size of the crop, Wednesday morning when he called at the Old Oaken Bucket farm, it being the last call, his auto truck was packed clear to the ridge pole, and an extension at the rear packed on and tied on and wedged on and it took some planning to find room for even one berry more unless you swallowed it. The dry, hot weather is fast making the large berries smaller and the small berries invisible, and it is doubtful if you touch ridge pole heights again.
Amos Polley, on the Morning Glory farm, has potatoes in blossom.
Rosebugs have arrived and are eating up the pole beans at the Old Oaken Bucket farm. We wish they would try the witch grass for a change.
Alister [sic, Allister] McDougal [sic, McDougall] has accepted an important position with the Middlesex County Farm Bureau with headquarters in Waltham. He has had large experience with the Farm Bureau of Hampshire county with headquarters in Northampton. Aside from these important experiences he is a graduate of Amherst Agricultural college [now UMass Amherst] and our own beloved Westford academy and has lectured before many of the farmers’ institutions in various parts of the state. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander McDougal of Boston road, is a native of the town, married and has three children. We are all glad and proud to have him “come to his own.”
Last week Monday was bootleggers’ day for Westford in the district court in Ayer, as per the number of cases tried from town. We are so thankful that their names are so long and crooked that they couldn’t be pronounced without bringing on an attack of the rickets or St. Vitus dance. That clears the rest of us with shorter names and longer residence, arriving here long before the rush of long, crooked names.
We read and re-read with much interest the “Cross country trip.” Most of that far distant land was not on the map as civilization when geography was taught at the old Stony Brook school, and certainly the trip by automobile was not even far enough developed in any man’s brains to become even a dream; if so no one ever related it. When this mountainous western land was tethered to wild animals and wild Indians we of the civilized east were tethered to the ox cart and Oliver Wendell Holmes’ “One hoss shay” as a means of transportation—and now see us going to Pike’s Peak in an automobile. Who says the world is not progressing better?
Mrs. Charles E. Crosby and family of Somerville, formerly of Arlington, were Sunday visitors at the home of her sister, Mrs. Frank W. Banister.
In behalf of the complainants I take this early opportunity, Mr. Superintendent [of Roads], to express appreciation for your nobleness of spirit in doing so good a job in grading up the Lowell road, lowering the hills and elevating the valleys.
The Davis family, who have been living in the John H. Decatur house on the Lowell road, have moved to Tyngsboro, where Mrs. Davis has a position in the telephone office.
John A. Taylor has started from North Dakota on his automobile trip east to the Old Oaken Bucket farm, where he will pasture for the summer. His first stop was at Itaska lake in Minnesota, where the Mississippi river flows, and thence following the trail of the river to LaCrosse, Wis.
The graduation exercises of Westford academy on Wednesday was one glorious inspiration, as it relates to a large responsive audience, the essays and music and the addresses of the speakers, Hon. John Jacob Rogers of Lowell, Rev. Francis E. Webster, of Waltham, Judge Frederic A. Fisher, of Lowell, a native of the town and graduate of the academy, and Hon. Herbert E. Fletcher, of this town, a graduate of the academy. The exercises were among the best ever as recognizing and emphasizing what world we are in yet, and the principal of the academy, W. C. Roudenbush and his assistants and the superintendent of schools, Herman C. Knight, are to be congratulated upon providing this feast of the mind and spirit.
Special Town Meeting. The foundation for a special town meeting has been under consideration for several weeks and one or two months. At present it looks as though the cornerstone would be laid on Monday evening, July 9. Although this is some ways off and the warrant has not yet been posted, it is well to become posted, as some of us have an inside tip as to something that will be in the warrant. To hear the report of the committee on best method of heating the town hall; to appropriate more money to have less snow on the roads; to see what the town will do in regard to draining the town house cellar of the surplus water that interferes with the fires in the furnace; to see if the town will authorize the selectmen to appoint a committee of two persons from each precinct of the town to consider the question of a town forest, said committee to serve without financial compensation from the town, and report their findings in the next annual town report; to see if the town will hold the annual town meeting for the election of town officers the first Saturday in February and vote in precincts, and the meeting to transact the balance of the annual town business to be held the second Saturday of February.
“We Can and So We Will.” Under Ayer news, “The Man About Town” asks: “Can anyone explain why potatoes should be selling for five dollars per bushel?” Look this way, please, kind sir, while we play parrot, no attempt at anything original, or to use a slang phrase, “I have thrown my hat into the ring and you can do what you will with [it] while I remain a humble scholar at the feet of experience and observation.” Potatoes have been selling for five dollars per bushel almost wholly by the modern law of “We can and so we will,” and the old-fashioned safe law and regulation of supply and demand is largely side-tracked and the law of “we can and so we will” runs through all business. Now the law of “we can and so we will” is not the sole cause of why new potatoes have been selling for five dollars per bushel, for old potatoes and good ones are abundant enough to be a drug on the market, unless our agricultural papers, who represent it, ought to join the Ananias club. The crop is much smaller than last year and injured by late frosts, but there is a class of people who are for the new even if it is inferior to the glutted old. But for all this the law of “we can and so we will” is largely responsible for five-dollar potatoes from the south. They are not in the hands of the producer, who hasn’t capital to hold them, they are in the hands of the capitalists who control the law of “we can and so we will.”
We see this law exemplified in its griphold [sic] during the Lenten season when 15,000,000 people suddenly refrain from eating meat forty days and nights. Does this sudden slump in consumption lower the price as the old-fashioned law of supply and demand would force the price down? No; we have a new law just in proportion as demand diminishes in similar ratio shall the supply diminish and we will not let meat upon the market any faster than we can head those who handle it toward the millionaire’s haven, and the farmers can hold their cattle at their own expense until we, the self-ordained originator and controller of this new modern robbing law, make it possible for you to sell at your loss and our gain.
We see this new law illustrated close at home. The electric lighting companies would force a higher rate, not that they could not live at the old rate, but “we think we can and so we will,” but it being a question of diamond cut diamond, they did not dare force the issue. This class of get right by the law of “we can and so we will” (for all wealth is not built up in this poverty developing manner), had better be called off and the parties supported at some public charitable institution.
Grist Mill Farming. An Indiana farmer writes: “I have read somewhere that the average yield of corn per acre is greater in the eastern states than in the famous corn belts of the west. How does such nonsense ever get into print?”
To the above the Rural New Yorker replies: “It is true that considerable nonsense gets into print, but now and then the truth gets there too. In the case of these corn yields you have got truth and nonsense quite badly mixed, as the following figures, taken from the reports of the U.S. Department of Agriculture of a ten-years’ average will show, taken as they are from eight eastern states and eight states in the corn belt of the west: Maine 47 bushels per acre, New Hampshire 46, Vermont 45, Massachusetts 46, Rhode Island 43, Connecticut 47, New York 40, New Jersey 42; the corn belt states, Ohio 40, Indiana 36, Illinois 35, Michigan 36, Iowa 42, Missouri 27, Nebraska 26, Kansas 18.
The average price per bushel was $1.22 for the eight eastern states and 56 cents per bushel for the corn belt states, and what is true of corn is true of wheat. The greatest yield of wheat per acre in the above group of states is with the eastern states with the Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts in the lead with fifty bushels per acre. Where we hopelessly fall down in the east is in our small acreage. Once we supported several grist mills, as they were called, right here in beloved Westford, and the farmer who did not raise corn to be ground at these mills was the rare exception. Equally rare is it now to find a farmer whose does raise old-fashioned New England Indian corn, and the grist mills were starved out. It is debatable if in starving the grist mills out we haven’t financially partly starved ourselves out. One thing is certain, there is more “wailing and gnashing of teeth” over farming conditions than in the prosperous days of our Zacharus [sic, Zaccheus] Reads when the rocky land of Frances hill was covered with waving corn that towered above rocks, and the valley lands waved with wheat, rye, oats and barley. As long as we are content to raise a few hundred pounds of hay to the acre because it is easier than to raise forty-six bushels of shelled corn to the acre, why of course grist-mill farming will stay starved out while we go to market with a lot of hard-selling vegetables to buy the grain we could have raised much cheaper, more of it and better on the land of a few hundred pounds of hay.
But thank goodness there are a few old-fashioned, grist-mill, hayseed farmers who are still harnessed in as our fathers were, but who have added enough of the modern to offset and balance the old hayseed style, but not abandon it. It still is useful as an emergency brake when apple sass does not pay for raising.
Library Notes. During July and August the library will be closed on Sundays and will close at eight o’clock on all nights for the two months. The library will not be open Sunday, June 24.
“Everyland,” a monthly magazine of world friendship for boys and girls, has been recently given for the use of the children.
“The unfolding marvels of wireless,” by French Strother, an article contained in “Essays of current themes,” should be of interest to the owners of wireless apparatus and to all others interested in the subject.
[Advertisements:]
Food Sale
By the
Ladies’ Aid
Congregational Church Vestry
Westford
Thursday Afternoon
June 28, at 2:30
The New
Gray
The Quality Small Car
will be sold in Littleton, Westford and surrounding towns by a number of stores and filling stations.
Grays hold the world’s economy record for gas. A Gray ran from San Francisco to New York, averaging 33.8 miles to a gallon, official. Grays have run 8000 miles without removing a spark plug, still making 30 miles to a gallon of gas. Grays have run 5000 miles with sole expense the cost of gas and oil. A gray at Littleton Depot is making 33 miles to the gallon.
They are manufactured under the supervision of Mr. [Frank F.] Beall, former vice president of the Packard Co. The president is Mr. [Frank L.] Klingensmith, former vice president of Ford Motor Co.
30,000 have been sold in the United States in 21 months, 3000 in Massachusetts in 15 months. Service stations are being rapidly and widely established. Prices on parts are very reasonable. There will be a storeroom for parts in a front room and basement of Conant & Company’s store building.
Cars may be bought of Conant & Co., Irving Smith, Giles Barber and Walter Smith, Littleton. They will be delivered direct from 890 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston generally on a day’s notice.
Delivered Prices
Chassis $482 Roadster $582
Touring $593
Two-passenger Coupe $764
Four-passenger Coupe $794
Coach $868 Sedan $920
Commercial $600 up
JOHN H. HOWARD
Distributor
Littleton Common, Mass.
Telephone 59-13
Look for the Banjo Rear End
Ayer
News Items. Harbinger lodge, K. of P. [Knights of Pythias], met on Monday evening conferring the first and second ranks on a class of candidates from Ayer, Camp Devens, Littleton and Westford. The lodge is planning to decorate a float for the Fourth of July parade.
The funeral of Wilfrid [Wilfred] J. W. Cornellier, who died in the Lowell General hospital last week Friday as the result of an accident in Westford on last week Thursday, was held Monday morning at nine o’clock in St. Mary’s church, where a solemn high mass of requiem was celebrated by Rev. George A. Reardon assisted by Rev. Charles A. Cordier, of Shirley, as deacon, and Rev. Cornelius O’Brien as sub-deacon. Interment was in St. Mary’s cemetery. The bearers were Francis Bird, Roland Bird, Charles H. Cornellier, William N. Cornellier, Cornelius Regan and Gaston Tellier.
Real Estate Transfers. The following real estate transfers have been recorded from this vicinity recently: …
Westford—Ralph T. Cutting et ux. to George Babcock, land on Griffin road; George Allen Kimball to Henry E. Wilder, land on Boston road; Frederick E. Reed to John A. Healy, land on Main street. …
District Court. On Thursday morning an inquest was held on the death of William J. W. Cornellier, of this town, who was struck by an automobile and killed at Westford last week. The evidence showed that the young man, with several others, was employed on state road work under Douglas C. Smith, foreman. He was riding on the running board of a Ford touring car and jumped from the running board as the car came to a stop. As he jumped he was struck by a Pierce-Arrow car owned by Fred K. Priest of Nashua, N.H., and driven by Theodore Jeanotte, of Nashua, his chauffeur. The Priest car was directly behind the Ford touring car and had started to pass as Cornellier jumped. He was struck by the bumper and the fender of the Priest car and as a result of his injuries died a few hours later. All of the members of the road gang testified to about the same story. Mr. Priest and his chauffeur took the stand and testified to similar facts. They both stated that their machine was traveling less than twenty miles an hour at the time the accident happened. At the close of the inquest Judge Atwood stated that he found nothing in the testimony which would warrant any criminal charges being made.
Additional notes by Bob Oliphant
Amphion, with his twin brother, Zethus, sons of Zeus by Antiope, are most famous in Greek mythology for building Thebes by magic. Amphion became a great singer and musician, playing a golden lyre that was a gift of Hermes. A 1665 engraving shows Amphion playing a violin (anachronistically) while buildings and columns are magically forming behind him. Perhaps the Westford Academy Amphion Trio was a violin, or string, trio.
Oliver Wendell Holmes’ satirical poem The Wonderful “One-Hoss-Shay” first appeared in the Atlantic Monthly magazine of Sept. 1858.
The Gray automobile was made in Detroit from 1921 to 1926. You can read more about it and these officers at: https://thejewishnews.com/2020/06/12/looking-back-the-jewish-automaker-you-never-heard-of/.