Turner's Public Spirit, May 31, 1924

A look back in time to a century ago

By Bob Oliphant

Center.  Mrs. Gertrude Skidmore and family, who have been spending the winter in Florida, have arrived at their summer home in town.

Arthur G. Hildreth has purchased a new Nash four touring car.

The union memorial services were held at the Unitarian church on last Sunday morning and were largely attended.  Members of the Grand Army [of the Republic] and sons and daughters; also, the [American] Legion and Auxiliary, attended in a body.  The whole service was very fine and the sermon by Rev. Frank B. Crandall was especially interesting.  At noon a luncheon was served by the ladies after which the veterans visited the cemeteries, decorated the graves of the soldier dead and conducted the military services.  The four veterans of the civil war are Wesley Hawkes, Wayland Balch, Everett Woods and Joseph E. Knight.  A pleasant feature of the day was the presentation to each of these veterans of a box of confectionery and two pinks, the same being the gift of the ladies’ societies of the three churches.

The graduation exercises of the William E. Frost school will be held at the town hall on Friday evening, June 6.

Children’s Sunday will be observed at the Congregational church on Sunday, June 8.

The field day for the William E. Frost school will be held on next Tuesday afternoon at two o’clock on the playground.  There will be drills, calisthenics and a ball game.  The affair will probably bring out a large attendance of parents and friends.

The results of recent ball games were William E. Frost school 13, Cameron school 14; Bedford 5, William E. Frost 3.

The high school presented their play on Friday evening of last week.  The parts were well taken by Nathaniel Phillips, Olive Hanson, Frank Jarvis, Veronica Payne, Alice Socorelis, Ethel Ingalls, Gerald Desmond, Martin Sinclair, Richard Wall, Ada Eaton and Emma Goucher.

The Westford academy prize declamation contest was held at the town hall on Wednesday evening with the following program: Selection, orchestra; “The curfew bell,” Emma Goucher; “Grandmother’s story of the battle of Bunker Hill,” Hazel Sweetser; “The baron’s last banquet,” Frank Jarvis; “The women of Mumbles Head,” Charlotte Wilson; selections, Girls’ Glee club; “The widow’s light,” Doris York; selection from “The courtship of Miles Standish,” Lillian Hosmer; “The revolutionary rising, “ Roger Hildreth; “The highwayman,” Alice Socorelis; “Winning cup’s race,” Ethel Ingalls; selection, school orchestra; decision of judges.  The judges were Supt. Vining of Billerica, Principal Ernest M. Gleason of Ayer, and Principal Alfred L. Saben of Littleton.  The first prize of $10 was awarded to Doris York, and the second prize of $5 to Roger Hildreth.  The program was much enjoyed and all the speakers are to be congratulated for their painstaking efforts.

The special town meeting held on Monday evening brought out a large attendance of voters and spectators.  All the articles were acted upon favorably except the one calling for the borrowing of $85,000 to build a new six-room building which was voted down, it requiring a two-thirds vote to carry the article.

A Ford coupe overturned on the Boston road last Saturday evening.  The car was quite badly damaged, but fortunately no one was injured.

Olive Hanscom, Ruth Hanscom and Inez Blaney of the Center were among those taking part in amateur night at Abbot’s hall, Forge Village, last Saturday evening.  The first-named secured one of the first prizes, while the last named secured a second prize.

Frosts were reported in the lower land sections on Monday, which nipped some of the apple blossoms.

Carl Anderson is at present playing in an orchestra at an Ithaca, N.Y., theatre.

About Town.  Yes, thank you, for a change of thoughts in weather, from wind, rain, cloud and cold mud, we of the Stony Brook valley were treated to a frost on Monday morning.  This is the first frost that we recall since early April.

Some of us regret very much the defeat of the plans for a new schoolhouse at Forge Village.  What next—keep school in the open?  Are we so poor that we cannot afford a suitable building for modern school purposes for thriving and growing Forge Village, and was it the same poverty that slam banged all reference to band concerts onto the floor with a roaring yell like an on-coming band of tomahawk scalping Indians?  Say, dearly beloved of the sacred or scared guard of the treasury and tax department of the town, if you are as frightened as those two voters, come to pass around for a charity collection and I will contribute something, if it be not but a few hundred dollars to help relieve your poverty, but do not forget to pass around the headache pills at the same time.

Mrs. Mary A. S. Tyler [nee Sanders, widow of Samuel Tyler], a descendant of the old New England family of Tylers, died last Saturday at her home in Middlesex Village, Lowell, aged 101 years, 4 months and 17 [sic, 7 per her death certificate] days.  She was the oldest woman in Lowell at the time of her death.  Mrs. Tyler is best remembered for her family connections with Tyler park, which was remembered as once being a pasture where her father’s [Richard Sanders] cattle once pastured.  Mr. Tyler gave this tract of land to the city of Lowell in 1893, and it is now a part of the municipal park system.  Mrs. Tyler was the oldest member of the First Universalist Church.

The scarcity of apple blow blossoms this May month seems to prove the contention of more than a century of fright that “the partridges are budding the apple trees to such an extent that they threaten to ruin the business.”  Say, brethren, I take this opportunity of announcing that I am a very large stockholder in the fright theory and have been all of the unmortal days of my mortal life of more than 28,620 days, and if it would not depress the sale of stock too badly I would like to exchange several million shares of this stock for a few taps from the drumming of ye old-time partridge in the woods on Francis [sic] hill in front of the Old Oaken Bucket farm buildings, or get a glimpse of the mother partridge as she flees to shelter with her offspring.  Alas and most sadly alas, that the question that the immortal Emerson asked, “Canst thou name all the birds without the gun?” should find its correct answer in the fast disappearing, innocent and romantic old-time New England partridge.

The next meeting of the Grange will be held at the town hall next week Thursday evening and will be known as “Pomona night.”  The officers of Middlesex-North Pomona Grange will make an official visit and furnish the entertainment.  Line up all in a receptive mood for food, the program says refreshments.

The regular meeting of the West Chelmsford Grange was held in Historical hall on last week Thursday evening.  The report of Deputy Forbes of Worcester, who recently inspected the Grange, was read.  He reported very favorably for the officers and 100% for the ladies’ degree team.  For entertainment there was a piano duet by Grace Ellinwood and Madeline Lupien; song, Elizabeth Dixon; reading, Miss Davis; song, Frank Lupien.  Louis Herbert, a coming acrobat, entertained with a few stunts.  Plans were made for a lawn party in the near future.

Among the veterans of the civil war at the Memorial Sunday services we were glad to see our old friend and former townsman, Hiram Dane, of California, now youthful and useful, training well into the eighties [he was 84].

The Old Oaken Bucket farm folks had an intellectually delightful reminiscent visit on last Sunday afternoon from Mr. and Mrs. Daniel W. Mason and his father, Charles Mason, of Ayer.  Call again when strawberries are ripe.

For budding the fruit trees and trimming them give us the tornado winds of last Saturday.  It seemed to be like a left over encore from Palm Sunday.  Where do the partridges come in?  Well, they don’t come in, thank you, for there are none to come in.  Charge this up to the powder mills, Acton or Dupont.

Amos Polley, on the Morning Glory farm, has planted four acres of sweet corn and nothing stands between him and four acres more but the waters of Stony Brook and the rails of the Stony Brook railroad.

Seventieth Anniversary.  After seventy years of service to the church and community the West Chelmsford Benevolent society celebrated the anniversary of its foundation last week Wednesday afternoon in the church parlors.  It proved to be one of the best gatherings in seventy years.  Friends and members from many localities responded “present.”  The parlors were attractively decorated with wild flowers and tables arranged in a most noticeable manner.  Besides the artistic setting of the tables two were used for the display of pictures of older members and residents; two were for the birthday cakes, one of which was surrounded by seventy candles, both of which were made and decorated by Mrs. F. E. Bickford and Mrs. John J. Quessey.  On the other tables were large bouquets of red tulips from the gardens of E. F. Humiston.  For entertainment there were piano duets by Edna and Gladys Whitney; readings, Warren Dean; soprano solos, Mrs. Elizabeth Smith; piano solo, Miss Edna Whitney; a well written paper, reminiscent of the doings of the Benevolent society from its formation in 1854 until the present time, was arranged and read by Miss Lottie L. Snow.  As the list of charter members was read it was noticed that several of their descendants were present.  Refreshments were served, the two oldest members present, Mrs. A. M. Naylor and Mrs. John A. Toye, cutting the birthday cakes.

The committee that so efficiently conducted this anniversary consisted of Miss Lottie L. Snow, Miss Margaret Reil, Mrs. Luzerne Safford, Mrs. Thomas Brown and Mrs. F. A. Snow.

Infringement of Liberty.  A bill is pending in the Massachusetts legislature making insurance on automobiles compulsory in the interest of public safety.  It is just one selfish, cross-eyed view the way some editorials view this bill as it stands related to “an infringement of personal liberty.”  In one and the same mouthful that there is no infringement of personal liberty to compel a person to insure their automobile as it is in the interest of public safety, and before they have emptied their mouth of this thought they neutralize their own logic by declaring that it is an infringement of personal liberty to prohibit a driver of an automobile from using intoxicating liquors whereby he, she or it endangers the lives of the traveling public and all this in one breath in the same paper from the same editors.  All such editors and others who shout themselves into a red face in their fury against national prohibition ought to go to an idiotic institution and let some of the inmates there give them lessons in honest logic and not in a bow-bow logic that is fed and dictated to animal appetites.  Compelling a person to insure property to make property and life safer is not infringement of personal liberty, but to prohibit the same individual from using intoxicating liquors in the interest of safety first is a clear violation of individual liberty.  Say, mister, if I could not evolve anything more logically consistent and sensible than that I would padlock my mouth until my brain caught up with the ability of my tongue.  “Strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.” [Matthew 23:24]

Engagement Announced.  Mr. and Mrs. Victor Cumnock, of the Homestead, Oyster Bay, L.I., announce the engagement of their niece, Miss Grace Helen Talbot[1], to Robert G. Ingersoll Brown[2], of New York city.  Miss Talbot is a young woman of great talent and her work in sculpture has attracted the attention of the artistic world here and abroad.  She has exhibited frequently in New York.  Miss Talbot is a granddaughter of the late ex-Governor Thomas Talbot, of Billerica, the one-time popular governor of Massachusetts and proprietor of the well-known Talbot mills in that town.  Since the death of her parents she has lived with Mr. and Mrs. Victor (Talbot) Cumnock in New York and Oyster Bay.  Last autumn Miss Talbot went to Paris to study and while there she worked in her own studio, returning to New York a fortnight ago with her aunt, Mrs. Cumnock.  Mr. Brown is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Walston Hill (Ingersoll) Brown.  He is a grandson and namesake of the late Robert G. Ingersoll [for his biography see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_G._Ingersoll], the widely known lecturer and agnostic and is a member of various clubs and patriotic organizations of New York.  He saw service in the world war.  Mr. Brown will be one of the ushers at the marriage of Miss Eleanor Margaret Green to Prince Viggo of Denmark, which will be celebrated on June 10.  No date has been mentioned for Miss Talbot’s wedding.

Church Notes.  First church—Sunday service at 4 p.m.  Special music by chorus choir: “The land beyond,” Pinsutti, Miss Eleanor Colburn, soprano.  Preacher, Rev. Eugene Rodman Shippen.

The union memorial service on Sunday was marked by a congregation that taxed the capacity of the church.  Members of the G.A.R., W.R.C., Spanish War veterans, A.L. and Legion Auxiliary attended in a body.  The chancel was adorned with beautiful flowers and the colors of Westford post, A.L., and the American flag stood at the right and left sides of the pulpit.

Rev. Alfred L. O’Brien and Rev. Edward Disbrow took part in the service.  Rev. Frank B. Crandall, minister of the church, preached the sermon.  A dinner was served in the vestry following the service to the members of the patriotic orders by the Auxiliary bodies.  Graves were decorated in the five cemeteries of the township after the dinner by Westford post, A.L., in charge of Harold Hildreth, commander, assisted by Rev. Frank B. Crandall, who acted as chaplain.

The preacher on Sunday is minister of the Second church in Boston founded in 1649.  The minister hopes that the visitor will be shown the honor of a record attendance.

Graniteville.  St. Andrew’s of Forest Hills defeated the Abbot Worsted [baseball] team in a Greater Boston Twilight league game at Abbot park on Wednesday evening by the score of 4 to 2.  The game went ten innings, St. Andrew’s pushing over two runs in the tenth.  The batteries were Evans and Dee for Abbots, Mulrenan and Brooks for St. Andrew’s.  The Abbots and North Cambridge played a tie game, 2 to 2, at North Cambridge on Tuesday evening.  Boyce and Dee composed the battery for the Abbots.

The funeral of Ludger Guichard took place from his home at 8:30 last Saturday morning and was largely attended.  At nine o’clock a funeral mass was celebrated in St. Catherine’s church by Rev. J. Emile Dupont, of North Chelmsford.  There were many floral tributes.  The regular choir was in attendance, and under the direction of Miss Mary F. Hanley sang the Gregorian chant.  The bearers were Joseph Carpentier, Napoleon Lanctot, Omer Benoit, Herminigile Brule [sic, Herménégilde Brûlé per his findagrave.com site], Henry Record and Joseph Landry.  Interment took place in St. Catherine’s cemetery, where the committal prayers were read by Rev. Fr. Dupont.

The fifth grade of the Sargent school gave a pleasing concert on last week Friday afternoon.  The program was in charge of the children.  Besides several songs by the class and groups of children, the following sang alone: “The dreamer,” Arline Dumont; “Peace,” Evelyn Remis and Jeanne Dumont; “Good-bye, my lover, good-bye,” and “Good night, ladies,” Beatrice Hall and Virginia Gower.

Ayer

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

Westford, Edith F. Wilson, et al. to J. Herbert Fletcher, land on Lincoln street.

Veterans’ Night.  The annual veterans’ night at the Grange on Wednesday evening was fully up to the standard of previous years.  The supper committee was Frank C. Harmon, Mrs. William Leahy, Clayton B. Hart and George H. Fenner.  Their choice of caterer was shown to be a wise one, as Caterer Harvey of Lowell provided delicious food, good service and goodwill in the bargain.  About 250 were in attendance from the patriotic orders—the G.A.R., Spanish War Veterans, the Legion—the Grange and clergy of the town.  Comrades Wesley W. Hawkes and J. Everett Woods of Westford, Hiram S. Clark, Samuel H. Proctor and Capt. Charles H. Crocker were the civil war veterans present.  Past Master Clarence M. Chase was master of ceremonies in the absence of the master of the Grange, Frank C. Harmon, who was ill.  The menu included individual chicken pies, mashed potatoes, vegetable salads, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, creamed asparagus patties, rolls, assorted cakes, harlequin ices and coffee.

Among the post-prandial speakers were … Rev. Frank B. Crandall, …

News Items.  Walter Miller of Westford has moved into the house owned by J. Howard Pillman on the Littleton road.  Mr. Miller is employed by the Vesper Preserve Co.

The various patriotic orders attended divine services at the Federated church on last Sunday morning at 10:45.  There were eight veterans of the civil war present, Westford and Dorchester being represented as well as Ayer.  The church was decorated in the national colors, flowers of the season and flags carrying out the patriotic effect.  Rev. Earl R. Steeves, pastor, preached an inspiring sermon on the theme of the day, Memorial Sunday. …

Littleton

News Items.  About 35 Oddfellows marched from the town hall to the Congregational church last Sunday afternoon and listened to Rev. C. A. Wheeler preach a very able and appropriate sermon on the occasion of their annual memorial services.  Mrs. Gardner presided at the organ and the male quartet sang several selections.  The drum corps was the Sons of Veterans of Ayer and after the services at the monument, where Rev. D. Thompson officiated as chaplain.  The return march to the hall was made and refreshments provided for all.  Visiting brothers were present from Groton and Westford.

The high school nine played Westford academy in Westford on last week Friday and won by the score of 13 to 7.  Littleton also came out victorious on Monday in the contest with Lunenburg on the home diamond, the score being 7 to 1.

[1] Her obituary appeared in The New York Times of March 24, 1971, p. 46:

Mrs. Darley Randall

SYOSSET, L. I., March 23— Mrs. Grace Helen Talbot Randall, of Woodbury Road, wife of Parley Randall, a retired banker, died yesterday in Huntington Hospital after a brief illness, She was 69 years old, and with her husband lived also in St. Jean‐de Luz France, before and after World War II.

Mrs. Randall, a granddaughter of Governor Thomas Talbot of Massachusetts, won a prize in sculpture in 1922 from the Architectural League of New York and a medal in 1926 from the National Association of Women Artists. She was a member also of [the] National Sculpture Society.

Surviving also are a son, Darley T., two daughters, Mrs. James F. McAndrew and Mrs. Gary T. Andrews, and nine grandchildren.

[2] Robert’s obituary appeared in The New York Times of May 2, 1968, p. 47.