Turner's Public Spirit, May 10, 1924

A look back in time to a century ago

By Bob Oliphant

Center.  The Laymen’s league of the Unitarian church will hold a meeting on Sunday evening at the vestry, at which time Hon. Edward Fisher, of Lowell, will address the members on “Labor.”

The firemen held a turkey supper at the firehouse on Tuesday evening with twenty-five members and guests present.  This was the last supper of the season, and like all previous ones proved very enjoyable.  Mrs. J. E. Knight has had charge of the suppers, assisted by a committee of firemen.  The committee of the last supper was Alec Fisher, Robert Prescott and William Wright.

The W.C.T.U. held a very successful food sale at the Congregational vestry on Thursday afternoon.  Mrs. George Walker was awarded first prize for candy.  The judges were Mrs. James Kimball and Mrs. Flora Edwards.

The concert to be given at the Congregational church on Monday evening, by the Oratorio society of forty-five voices, assisted by Miss Mildred Ridley, violoncellist, promises to be one of the musical treats of the season.  It is planned to have these concerts annual affairs, which will be very welcome news to all who enjoy music.  In order to make the affair a complete success it is hoped that the public will give the affair a large patronage.  The president of the society is Warren Hanscom; Mrs. Perry Shupe, sec. and treas., and Horace Killam, of Haverhill, has been acting as director.  For further particulars see advertisement in another column.

The Alliance will hold a neighborhood meeting in the vestry of the Unitarian church on Thursday afternoon, May 15, at 2:30.  The members of nine Alliances have been invited to attend.  Miss Mary G. Balch will read an original paper on “Nature” and Mrs. Nano G. Leahey and another soloist from Lowell will furnish the music of the afternoon.  Mrs. H. V. Hildreth will be the hostess of the afternoon and all members of the local organization are invited to attend.

Mrs. Robert Prescott and son Arnold spent several days last week in Boston and vicinity, Master Arnold having had an operation for the removal of his tonsils at a Boston hospital.

The March and April honor roll for the upper grades [at Frost School] is as follows: Grade 5, Inez Blaney, Harold Wright, Wallace Downing; grade 6, Varnum Swanson, Evangeline Dureault, Merl Foster, William Carver, Harold O’Connell, Blanche Rockwell, Dorothy Heywood, Donald Wright, Mary Zanchi, Clarence Mann; grade 7, Mildred Healy, Greta Lundberg, Marion Day, Gladys Whitney, Alan Bell; grade 8, Viola Day, Ruth Nelson, Betty Prescott, Elizabeth Carver, Angie Parfitt.

The young son[1] of Mr. and Mrs. F. Everett Miller returned to his home on Wednesday from a Nashua hospital, where he was operated upon recently, and is getting along nicely.

The special town meeting which was at first planned for May 19, will probably be held on the evening of May 26.  The most important article is that which calls for $85,000 to build a new school at Forge Village.

Master Harold Wright, the young son of Mr. and Mrs. Perley Wright, should have been mentioned as a third prize winner at the poultry exhibit, instead of George White, as reported last week.

The Grange will hold a “patriotic night” in the town hall on Thursday evening, May 15.  There will be a speaker from Camp Devens, a reader and musical numbers.  The invited guests of the evening will be G.A.R. veterans, Spanish war veterans, Legion and Auxiliary.  The meeting will be open to the public and a large attendance is expected.  At the last meeting Burton Morey, lecturer of the State Grange, of Raynham, gave an interesting talk and also two readings, and Miss Freda Johnson a piano solo.  Refreshments were served.

The annual prize-speaking contest of Westford academy will be held on Tuesday evening, May 27.  The high school play, “Getting acquainted with Madge,”[2] will be given on May 23.

Frank A. Wright, who is ill at his home on Main street, is reported as being more comfortable.

The supper at the Congregational church on Friday evening of this week promises to bring out a large attendance, as it will be followed by a short play, “Neighbors,” given by the ladies of the church.

The reading circle will hold its next meeting on Wednesday, May 14, at 2:30 o’clock in the J. V. Fletcher library.  “Campbell of Kilmhor,” by J. A. Ferguson, and “The captain of the gate,” by Beulah Marie Dix, will be the plays under consideration.

Death.  Julian A. Whitney, a prominent citizen of this town, died at his home in the south part of the town on Sunday, April 27, after a short illness.  He was born here on March 19, 1852, at the old family homestead, the son of Nathaniel and Susan (Edwards) Whitney.  He was educated in Westford.  On August 6, 1881, he married Miss Sarah Gray of Woodstock, N.B., bringing his bride to his home, where he carried on a prosperous farming business until his death.  Besides his wife he leaves three daughters, Mrs. Susan Phillips and Mrs. Minnie Perkins of this town, and Mrs. Stella Olson of West Chelmsford; three sons, Nathaniel and Hamilton, of this town, and Arthur B. Whitney, of Littleton; nine grandchildren; two sisters, Charlotte Taylor, of Lowell, and Mrs. Sarah Bicknell of Westford, and a brother, George Whitney, of Lowell.

The funeral took place from his home on last week Wednesday afternoon at two o’clock.  The pastor of the Baptist church in South Chelmsford, Rev. J. Nickerson, spoke words of comfort and inspiration in his tribute to the noble and upright life which so suddenly had closed.  There was a brief committal service at Fairview cemetery, Westford, at which Mr. Nickerson also officiated.  The bearers were Arthur Burnham, Edson Blaisdell, James Wilson and T. Arthur Wilson.  The many floral tributes bore mute testimony to the esteem in which the deceased was held.

Y.P.R.U. Meeting.  The local chapter of the Y.P.R.U. held its annual meeting in the vestry of the Unitarian church on last Sunday following the service.  The reports, particularly that of the treasurer, showed a successful year of activity.  The following officers were elected for the ensuing year; Fred Robinson, pres.; Fisher Buckshorn, vice pres.; Miss Elizabeth Carver, sec.-treas.

Plans were discussed for the meeting of the North Middlesex Federation of Y.P.R.U. chapters at Westford on Saturday, May 17.

It was voted to send Misses Marion Fletcher and Alice Johnson as delegates to young people’s week at Star Island, Isles of Shoals, June 28 to July 5, or July 5 to July 12, and the sum of $50 was voted to defray their expenses.  It was also voted to purchase for the church to be used in the Sunday school twenty-five copies of the church school hymnal.

The last meeting before the summer vacation will be held on Friday evening, June 27, when a supper will be served.

About Town.  The old Josiah Walker homestead on Main street [No 148] and all the personal property owned by Almon E. Downing was sold at public auction on Thursday afternoon.[3]

The Old Oaken Bucket farm folks slipped anchor on Monday afternoon and went to Groton, calling on George S. Knapp, first premium apple prize winner at the Groton annual fairs of the Groton Farmers’ and Mechanics’ club, and well he might win the prize for he has first premium trees and first premium up to the minute cared for.

The Old Oaken Bucket farm planted 200 hills of pole beans last Saturday and there are 200 more to plant.

On May day the village church in West Chelmsford entertained in the vestry with a May day breakfast which was patronized by Lowell and several of the surrounding towns.  The weather started off with umbrellas and finished up with parasols.  The vestry had been arranged with five small tables to accommodate four persons and two large ones for families or groups of friends, and all adorned with bouquets of Marguerites.  Mrs. Anthony Anderson had charge of this delightful affair, assisted by Mr. F. A. Snow, Mrs. Oscar Taylor, Mrs. Luzerne Safford, Mrs. William H. Herdman, Mrs. John Anderson, Miss Elsa Abrahamson, Mrs. Archibald Cooke, Miss Annabelle Carlson, Miss Lottie Snow and Mrs. Ralph E. Bickford.  The May basket table in charge of Mrs. Thomas Brown added greatly to the decorations and finances.

We are encouraged in reading that the selectmen of Littleton have adopted rules and regulations to curb dangerous speeding on the roads within the town, and best of all they mean what they say.

With friends I made a flying visit to Townsend Harbor last week.  Did not see the friend we were flying to see, so we are up against another fly.

The tenth annual conference of superintendents of schools in Massachusetts was held at the State Normal school in Framingham on last week Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  Among those present from town were Mr. and Mrs. William R. Taylor and Herman C. Knight.

In Defense of the Crow.  As we promised last week to write a “defense of the crow,” in reply to the indefensible attack for extermination of the crow by Dupont Powder Company (who has powder to sell for extermination purposes) I will proceed to the best of my ability of which I am very heavily laden.  Let us keep in view one fundamental principle; it will help us locate the true cause of the imagined crow cannibalism and apply the remedy.  If this is not so then such men as John Burroughs and all others, who have burrowed into nature with special reference to bird life, are all mistaken in their investigation, and the crow, as pictured by the Dupont Powder Company, is correct, and as a cannibal he is dangerously near extermination.  All our song birds include young rabbits.  (It’s the first time that I ever knew rabbits to be classified with the song birds, but if Mr. Dupont Powder says so it must be so, if it will help sell powder.)

“Nature preserves her balance.”  Now, then, we have a right to believe that bird life (including rabbits) appeared on earth at the same time.  That they have been here for thousands of years, and probably millions, is too true to need any argument.  Now, then, if the crow is the cannibal that your powder says he is, there would not be a song bird or a rabbit left in existence to advertise the necessity of using Dupont powder to exterminate the crow.  What are some of the facts about extermination?  John Burroughs, the expert naturalist, says “Twelve species of birds have already been exterminated and sixteen more are fast traveling the same road.  In my boyhood days on the farm, in the wilds of Northern New York, the carrier pigeons were so abundant and flew in such large droves that the noise was like the rushing of a tornado and when lighting on the trees frequently the limbs would break with their weight.  Today I know of but one carrier pigeon in the United States, and that is in a museum in New York, and all this by the unrestrained free use of the shotgun in the hands of man.”

I shall confirm this by quoting from the action of the Ohio legislature in 1852.  A bill was introduced to “protect the carrier pigeon from extermination.”  This bill was laughed and ridiculed out of the legislature on the ground of “the carrier pigeon is such a hardy and prolific bird that extermination is impossible.”  The old saying, “He laughs best who laughs last,” is clearly illustrated here for the laugh is all on Dupont powder, for it looks as if they had named the wrong animal as cannibal or else they do not know how to spell.  Listen, you powder man, this is the way to spell crow—m-a-n—for there is no one so silly and senseless in their head as to charge up this extermination up to the crow.

What are the facts that led to extermination?  Listen, Mr. Powder, they were shot to extermination by the millions and million times faster than they could reproduce, and sold in the markets for the dollars that they would bring for the powder, pleasure and profit invested, and I am courageous enough to add it is a worse and far more inexcusable form of cannibalism than the cannibalism of the cannibals’ practice on the Cannibal islands, for hunger drives them to it.  The dollar side of life exterminated the carrier pigeon and mostly cruel cannibal pleasure has exterminated two other species, and the crow is being tagged as the next in line under the cover that it is also a cannibal, but the cover is too thin for I can see the dollar there.  Do you catch this point, you who have powder to sell?  Well, hang onto it while I commit assault and battery on some of the rest of your powder reasons why the crow should be exterminated.  Before proceeding any farther let us be fair and admit that the crow does some damage, but will you name anything from man to money that does not do any damage?  I would like to have you make out a list and commit it to memory.

Here are a few of your comparatively unheard of specific charges against the crow: “They pick the eyes out of young lambs.”  Well, now, see here, Mr. Kindergarten Scholar, you must be hard up for an excuse to sell powder to trot out such an isolated reason as that and evidently willing to leave the impression that it is a universal habit.  Our agricultural papers are filled with the damage done by dogs to the sheep industry.  It’s too senseless for ink.

“Crows carry off young chickens.”  Here you are within the bounds of truth, for I have seen it illustrated at the Old Oaken Bucket farm once in seventy-eight years.  But say, I want to ask you a question before you sell extermination powder on that or will be precocious enough to name even one individual who has been driven out of the poultry business by the crow?  Speak right out loud so that we all can hear.  Numerous excuses have been named for quitting the poultry business, but naming the crow as a reason must be very fresh in their head.

“The crow is a menace to the farmer in pulling corn in the spring and stripping the husks in harvest time.”  Well, now, this [is] all true and New England has nearly quit raising corn for various reasons, but the crow does not appear in the list of reasons handed out to me.  With increased markets and an increased demand for other crops that are supposed to pay better, we have shifted from raising old fashioned field corn to modern “apple sass” generally.

“The crow pulls up the tender shoots of wheat.”  I have sown wheat for more than forty years and I have never seen a crow pulling it as aforesaid or found any pulled as aforesaid by Crow & Co.  I have suffered full as much from the bill of the dove as from the crow pulling peas and stripping open pods of peas and other similar corps and this not complaining.

Mr. Dupont Powder states that “crows pull up whole fields of corn so that it has to be all re-planted.”  Well, now, see here, what is to prevent its all being pulled up after the second planting, or won’t the crow pull up second plantings?

“The disturbance of the ‘balance of nature’ comes home to roost in many ways.  The destruction of our forests has greatly increased the opportunity for cannibalism on the part of the crow by decreasing the density of cover and retreat for our song birds.”  Why not charge the destruction of our forests up to the crow, for he is charged with about all of the evils of life and directly or indirectly “in Adam’s fall sinned we all,” and the crows pay their part successively in keeping this fall agoing [sic].  I would propose some of these Dupont witnesses for membership in the Ananias club, but they will not take in the notorious liars.

“I have seen the crows pick the eyes out of fifty lambs,” and here is one outside of Dupont: “I have had crows pull up my corn when it is a foot high.”  He explained, “There were six crows and one of the six caught hold the top of the stalk with his pulling apparatus and the next crow lined up and caught the first crow by the tail with his corn pulling apparatus, and in the same order six lined up.  When the first crow, who was boss and signal starter, said “Caw, Caw, Caw,” they all pulled together and up and out came the corn.”  This is just as near the truth as some of the powder-selling stories of Dupont.  That there are isolated instances where the crow does quite perceptible damage that is individually felt, I have no doubt, and so does most everything else do some isolated damage; but are you going to annihilate everything that does some damage?  If so, where will a lot of us human beings come in, who borrow peaches and watermelons and poultry on moonlight nights and forget to return them in the cash sunlight days?

Much of this ill-informed jabbering about the damage done by the crow is a true brother and sister to “the partridges are ruining all of our apple trees and our apple crop will be spoiled,” but nevertheless we are raising so many apples that we are running into debt.  No voice or vote of mine shall ever contribute to the annihilation of the crow.  As a wise part of ordained nature I love their caw, caw, caw in my neighbor’s corn field.  I love his songful friendship in our bleak New England winters when all other birds have closed the [paper torn several words missing] social life.  And right now I wish to mention especially the chatty music of the barn swallow, who used to build their mud nests on the rafters of the Old Oaken Bucket farm.  Here they raised their young birds and their long-silenced music, which so charmed and inspired me in youth, still comes back to cheer and inspire me in these mature years.  The crow, of course, is to blame for their extermination, for of course the crow would come right into the barn and steal the young swallows.

It’s enough to give anyone a headache to believe all the crow damages.  In closing I feel that what I have lacked in powder as compared with the other fellow, I have made up in a more deadly aim.

Church Notes.  First church (Unitarian)—Sunday service at 4 pm.  Music: “The day thou gavest,” Scholefield, chorus choir; “The land beyond,” Pinsuti, Miss Eleanor Colburn, soprano.  Preacher, Rev. Frank B. Crandall, the minister.  Subject, “The universal mother.”  Church school at 3.

The Westford chapter of the Laymen’s League will meet Sunday at seven p.m.  A collation will be served.  Edward Fisher of Lowell will be the speaker.

Curtains of artistic color and texture and new shades have been hung at the vestry windows through the efforts of the Alliance.

On Sunday the preacher’s discourse will be appropriate for the observance of Mother’s Sunday.

Graniteville.  Abbot Worsted defeated the Lawrence Independents in a Greater Boston Twilight league game at Abbot park on Tuesday evening by the score of 3 to 2.  Davidson and Dee did the battery work for the Abbots, with Donovan and Duncan on the firing line for Lawrence.

Mr. and Mrs. J. Omer LeDuc and family, of Salem, have been recent visitors here.

A daughter [Mary Milicent] was born to Mr. and Mrs. Harry Carbo on May first.

The Abbot Worsted baseball team will play Fitchburg at Fitchburg on this Saturday.

Mrs. A. W. Hartford, who has recently returned from the Lowell General hospital, is convalescing at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. O. Hawkes.

The funeral of Dennis Burke took place from his home on Tenney road, North Westford, on last Saturday morning at 8:30, and was largely attended.  At 9:30 a solemn high funeral mass was celebrated in St. Catherine’s church by the pastor, Rev. A. S. Malone, with Rev. J. Emile Dupont of North Chelmsford as deacon and Rev. Cornelius O’Brien of Ayer as sub-deacon.  The regular choir, under the direction of Miss Mary F. Hanley, sang the Gregorian chant.  The solos were sung by James May.  There were many beautiful floral offerings.  The bearers were John Seifer, William Sheehan, Ernest Dane, P. J Kelly, Frank Riney and A. R. Wall.  Interment was in St. Patrick’s cemetery, Lowell, where the committal service was read by Rev. A. S. Malone.

Mr. and Mrs. Earl V. Daggart, with their daughter Virginia and son Earl, Jr., of Lowell, have been recent guests of Miss Grace Swan at the home of Dr. Fabyan Packard.

Ayer

News Items.  The Alliance has received invitations to attend neighborhood meetings at Phillip’s chapel, Fitchburg, at three o’clock on Tuesday afternoon, and at Westford at 2:30 next Thursday afternoon.  Members intending to attend are requested to notify the corresponding secretary, Mrs. Howard M. Beverly, by Monday, May 12, at the latest.

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

Westford, Claude L. Allen to Willard E. Cherry, land at Long-Sought-for [sic] pond. …

Masonic Concert Big Success.  The concert given by the Lowell Masonic choir with Albert Edmund Brown, baritone, and conductor, at the town hall on Monday evening proved to be the most notable musical event ever given in the town within the memory of local music-lovers.  The concert was given as a compliment to the townspeople who have so well patronized the annual concerts given by the choir at the Lowell Auditorium the past two years and the proceeds go to the temple fund of Caleb Butler lodge.  Over 500 persons from Ayer and the surrounding towns attended. …

The following committee had charge of arrangements: Lucius C. Fairchild, Rev. Frank B. Crandall … ex. com.; … distribution of tickets, … Forge Village, George A. Wilson, …

District Court.  … W. E. James, of Westford, was before the court the same day [Monday], charged with assault and battery on John Mayo, of that town.  He was found not guilty.

[Advertisement]

First Annual Oratorio Concert

45 Voices

Assisted by Miss Mildred Ridley, Violoncellist

At the Union Congregational Church

Westford Center, May 12 At 8 o’clock

Admission Fifty Cents

[1] The son was Everett Ellsworth Miller (1918-1993) who in 1942 would marry Rita Hosmer Edwards (1918-2003), a long-time teacher and principal in Westford for whom Westford’s Rita Edwards Miller Elementary School is named.

[2] ”Getting Acquainted with Madge: A Comedy in Three Acts” was written by Joseph Carl McMullen and published by Walter H. Baker of Boston in 1923.

[3] About Town. Almon S. Downing, the recent arrival on the old Walker farm, is assisting David L. Greig with his work.  The Westford Wardsman, Jan. 31, 1920.

About Town. Fire. The farm house of Almon J. Downing, Main street, near the Drew farm, was burned Sunday evening. The furniture on the ground floor was nearly all saved, but the furniture in the upper story was burned; also, everything in the cellar, including an unusual amount of canned goods, potatoes and other vegetables. The origin of the fire was clearly a defective chimney or an old-fashioned defective way of building a chimney. Westford Wardsman, April 3, 1920.

About Town. Almon J. Downing has part of the lumber drawn for his new house on Main street to take the place of the one burned several months ago.  Westford Wardsman, July 17, 1920.

About Town. Almon J. Downing has commenced building his new house on the old Walker homestead. The lumber is from Camp Devens, being a part of the Y.M.C.A. building. Westford Wardsman, Aug. 7, 1920.

About Town. Almon J. Downing has his new house on the old Walker farm on Main street well covered in and the ell completed sufficiently for the family to move into. When all is completed the new farm house, modern in style, will add much to the thrifty appearance of the old farm.  Westford Wardsman, Sept. 18, 1920.