Turner's Public Spirit, November 18, 1922

A look back in time to a century ago
By Bob Oliphant

Center. “A righteous man, but not a Christian” will be studied at the regular Friday evening
meeting at the Congregational church at eight o’clock. On Sunday morning the sermon theme
will be “Somebody else’s prayers.” Sunday school at noon. Junior C.E. at 4:30. Sunday evening
sermon theme, “A tale of four lepers.”
There was a quiet home wedding in Newport, R.I., at noon, Thursday, November 9, at the
home of Arthur Manchester, when Rev. Robert R. White of the First Presbyterian church of
Newport united in matrimony, Leonard W. Wheeler and Miss Alice Williams, both residents of
this village. Mrs. Manchester, sister of the bride, was bridesmaid, and her son, Arthur W.
Manchester, was best man. After a wedding lunch Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler returned to Westford by
automobile. [Mr. Wheeler’s first wife, Mary Houghton (Williams) Wheeler, died on Jan. 6, 1922.
Miss Alice Williams was Mary’s sister.]
The ball given by Westford post, A.L., in the town hall last week Friday evening, proved to be
one of the best dancing parties held here this season. The hall was beautifully decorated for the
occasion and much credit is due Miss Nancy Paterson, who had charge of the decorations.
Brigham & Poole’s orchestra furnished music, and several of the members of the Auxiliary had
charge of the refreshments.
Cards have been received from Mr. and Mrs. Harry Gumb from Washington who are en route
to Florida by auto. While in Washington Mr. and Mrs. Gumb had lunch with Miss Maud
Robinson, who is teaching there, and it proved enjoyable to all to meet again.
J. Herbert Fletcher and Dr. C. A. Blaney have been with the hunting club in Winchendon for a
few days.
The supper and entertainment to be given at the Unitarian church on Wednesday evening,
November 22, promises to be one of the best of the season. The supper, which is to be served at
6:30, will be followed by one of the very enjoyable entertainments given by the Misses Precious
of Forge Village. The committee consists of Mrs. Harry Prescott, Mrs. W. R. Carver, Mrs. John
Feeney, Mrs. Eben Prescott, Mrs. Charles Robinson and Miss Eva Fletcher. It is hoped that a
large number of the townspeople and those from the surrounding towns will attend.
Miss Pauline Larson, of the William E. Frost school, spent the weekend at her home in
Fitchburg.
The annual meeting of the Middlesex County Bureau of Agriculture and Home Economics is
to be held on Saturday, November 18, at the bureau headquarters in Waltham, beginning at ten in
the morning. Dinner will be served at noon, followed by a lecture. The motion pictures
presented by the bureau at the town hall on Tuesday evening were much enjoyed by those present
and brought out a good attendance.
The honor roll for the months of September and October at the William E. Frost school is as
follows: Grades 7 and 8, high honor list, Jardine Davis, Alice Heywood; honor list, Lillian Dane,
Angie Parfitt, Everett Millis, Murton Spellman, Viola Day, Ruth Nesmith, Elmer Bridgeford,
William Anderson, Ruth Nelson, Betty Prescott, Linwood Nesmith, Edna Whitney; grade 6,

Walter Belleville, Alice Strong; grade 5, Elaine Skidmore, Blanche Rockwell; grade 4, Dorothy
Strong; grade 3, Cyril Blaney, Ellen Connolly, William Wright; Parkerville school, Ronald
Anderson, Mildred Healey, Clarence Martin, Elizabeth Nesmith, Alma Thifault, Marjorie Wilson,
Zelnia Williamson, Linda Simo.
John Feeney, Jr. is driving a new Buick four.
The Grange held their election of officers on Thursday evening, a list of whom will appear in
next week’s edition.
Extracts from Letter. Following are some extracts from an interesting letter written by Mrs.
Perry Shupe, who with Mr. Shupe and Mr. and Mrs. Harry Gumb, is on her way to Florida by
auto:
“We went from home to Hartford, stopping there with relatives Monday night, then to New
York, across by the Dyckman ferry 1 , along the palisades and camped at the top on the New Jersey
side the second night.
“We went from there to Newark and camped the next night just outside of Philadelphia, near
Sears Roebuck’s place on the Roosevelt Boulevard, and then on towards Baltimore, through the
Susquehanna Valley, and were very comfortably quartered in a farm house in Belle Air, just
outside Baltimore. These are the places we like to find, although we are very comfortably
quartered on the camp grounds as most of them are fitted with electric lights, toilets and shower
baths.
“We arrived in Washington Friday noon and were surprised to find the roses all in bloom
along the boulevard on Pennsylvania avenue.
While in Washington we visited the capitol, White House, other buildings, the zoo, [and] the
national bureau of printing and engraving, where our stamps and paper money are made. It takes
thirty days to make a bill, and the daily output is 50,000,000 stamps of all denominations from
one cent to five dollars, and $18,000,000 in bills.
“There were 700 people quartered on the camp grounds in Washington, Sunday, most all
Florida bound. They were from all parts of the country and some had wonderful house cars.
“Tuesday night finds us in Fredericksburg, Va., the home of Mary Washington, George
Washington’s mother. We expect to leave in the morning for Petersburg. Have learned our
camping ground here in Fredericksburg is on the old battlefield 2 and on Mary’s Heights just
above us there are 15,243 union soldiers buried, 12,770 unknown.”
The letter was dated Fredericksburg, November 7, and at that writing all of the party were
well.
Death. Mary R. Fletcher, wife of Capt. Sherman H. Fletcher, died at her home on Monday in
her seventy-fifth year. She had been in poor health for some time, but bore her illness with
courage and patience. Up to the time of her illness she was active in the social and religious
affairs of the town, being connected with the Unitarian church of which she was organist for
many years. She was also a charter member of the Tadmuck club.

1 Inwood’s Dyckman Street Ferry made its inaugural run from Dyckman St. in northern Manhattan across
the Hudson River to the New Jersey Palisades. It was so popular that in 1923 the ferry service was
expanded to accommodate an additional 150 cars per hour. The construction of the George Washington
Bridge in 1931 followed by World War II brought an end to the Dyckman Street Ferry in 1942. See
https://myinwood.net/inwoods-dyckman-street-ferry/.
2 The Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg,
Virginia. The Union Army of the Potomac commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside attacked the
Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee in a futile charge uphill on December 13
against entrenched Confederate defenders along the Sunken Wall on Mary’s Heights behind the city. It was
one of the most one-sided battles of the war, with Union casualties more than twice as heavy as those
suffered by the Confederates. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fredericksburg.

The deceased was the daughter of Solomon and Sarah Richardson, and was a descendant of
the Vonhegans, her great-grandmother and great-grandfather, George and Elizabeth Vonhegan,
having been organists at the Old South church and King’s Chapel, Boston, for many years.
She married Capt. Fletcher on January 8, 1874, and he survives her with two daughters, the
Misses Gertrude D. and Julia H. Fletcher.
The funeral services, which were largely attended, were held from her late home on
Wednesday afternoon, services being conducted by Rev. F. B. Crandall, of Ayer. The floral
tributes were profuse, and interment was in the family lot at Fairview. The bearers were Rep.
Alfred W. Hartford, Alonzo Sutherland, Harwood L. Wright and Herbert V. Hildreth.
With the passing of Mrs. Fletcher another of the older residents has been called to the great
beyond, whose bright and optimistic presence will be greatly missed by those who knew and
loved her best.
Special Town Meeting. A special town meeting will be held in the town hall on Friday
evening, November 17, at which time the following articles of importance will be voted upon:
Article 1. To hear the report of the school committee in regard to the requirements for an
additional school in Graniteville.
Art. 2. To hear the report of the committee in charge of the erection of the schoolhouse at
Brookside and Forge Village.
Art. 3. To see if the town will vote to erect a schoolhouse on the land to be acquired at Forge
Village, equip and furnish the same.
Art. 4. To see if the town will vote to borrow $120,000 to meet the expense to be incurred in
erecting a schoolhouse in Forge Village, furnishing and equipping the same.
Art. 5. To hear the report of the committee appointed to investigate and report relative to
entering into a contract with the Lowell Electric Light Corporation for lighting the streets and fix
upon what terms the town will authorize the execution of such contract.
Art. 6. To see what action the town will take relative to paying the bill of the Lowell Electric
Light Corporation for the month of December 1921.
Art. 7. To see what action the town will take relative to the establishment of a proper
memorial for the civil, Spanish and world war veterans.
Art. 8. To see if the town will vote to transfer from Westford Home appropriation the sum of
$900 for outside aid and $200 towards the appropriation for erecting the town farm barn.
Art. 9. To see what action the town will take towards establishing a building line or other
restrictions relative to the erection of buildings.
About Town. First Parish church (Unitarian) Sunday service at four p.m. Preacher, Rev.
Frank B. Crandall, the minister. Subject, “Three thinks [sic, things?] that you have and what to
do with them.”
Edward F. Dickinson, of Billerica, committee on farmers’ institutes for Middlesex-North
Agricultural society, has sent us the following date for the first institute of the season and the fall
program: The first institute of the season will be held at the old yellow meeting-house, Dracut
Center, Wednesday, November 22. Farmers’ conference at ten o’clock. At 10:30 Wentworth
Stewart, of Groton, noted lecturer and writer, will speak upon “Industrial and economic problems
of today,” and in the afternoon upon “Political significance of the recent election,” with forum to
follow. An unusual program and deserving a large attendance. The open forum in the afternoon
is sure to develop some good-natured questions from the usually silent members.
To the question, “Is there any need of changing seed potatoes?” a farmer answers “No, I have
planted the same seed for forty-three years with good results.” Now see here, we don’t know
what part of the civilized potato land you live in, that part of your identity you withhold in your
statement in the agricultural papers, but we will inform you and all your duplicates that if you
lived in the Stony Brook valley you would leave forty years off your statement or else harvest
cranberry-sized potatoes. Even this year, the most favorable possible for not changing seed on
account of abundance of moisture, there was a most noticeable decline in yield, offset by

corresponding decrease in rot, which does not always help out in a balance. In giving advice on
agricultural points, it is not best to be so clean gone certain that it is an infallible recipe for all
time and all places.
Mrs. Lillian Dodge Haskell, of Lowell, was a visitor at the Old Oaken Bucket farm last
Sunday.
Mrs. Cheney and daughter, of Ayer, attended the services at the Unitarian church last Sunday.
Miss Cheney sang two solos.
The passing of Mrs. Sherman H. Fletcher takes from our midst a woman who had a wide
circle of friends in the Unitarian church and in the community life of the town she always took an
active part as long as her health permitted. We remember her in her younger days as active in the
singing schools which had a wide and popular influence at that time. She was a wise and helpful
influence for a wider public interest in music, instrumental and vocal. We recall her many years
as organist at the Unitarian church with a large, well-trained choir in inspiring music. We recall
those large choirs of those earlier years, most of whom are with us no more in visible form, but
we can say with the poet 3 , “More home-like seems the vast unknown since they have entered
there.” Mrs. Fletcher will be remembered in her younger days not only in the realm of music, but
in the realm of the social life of the town. We recall her in those earlier years, a tall, handsome
personality, whose smiling optimism and general cheer was inspiring.

3 The poet quoted here is John White Chadwick (1840-1904) of Marblehead, Mass., who graduated from
Harvard Divinity School in 1864. He served his entire pastoral career at the Second Unitarian Church in
Brooklyn, N.Y. He published many of his sermons and poems and became known as a radical teacher of
the Unitarian doctrine, often publishing in the Unitarian journals. The quoted line is from his poem “Auld
Lang Syne,” written in April, 1876, which reads in full:
It singeth low in every heart,
We hear it each and all,–
A song of those who answer not,
However we may call;
They throng the silence of the breast,
We see them as of yore,–
The kind, the brave, the true, the sweet,
Who walk with us no more.
‘Tis hard to take the burden up,
When these have laid it down;
They brightened all the joy of life,
They softened every frown;
But, oh, ‘tis good to think of them,
When we are troubled sore!
Thanks be to God that such have been,
Although they are no more!
More home-like seems the vast unknown,
Since they have entered there;
To follow them were not so hard,
Wherever they may fare;
They cannot be where God is not,
On any sea or shore;
Whate’er betides, Thy love abides,
Our God, for evermore.
The poem’s lyrics are used in the hymn “It Singeth Low in Every Heart” (using several different tunes,
notably “Auld Lang Syne,” Wollaston” and “St Leonard – Hiles”).

We are glad that some action is to be taken at the town meeting regarding a memorial for the
world war veterans. We think it time that Westford fell in line with other communities and had a
fitting memorial to those who served our country from our own town.
The Abbot Worsted Company band gave an inspiring concert at Abbot hall, Brookside, last
week Wednesday evening, followed by motion pictures.
Hon. Herbert E. Fletcher spoke on last week Friday evening at the annual banquet and
entertainment of the Tyngsboro Village Improvement association.
The Morning Glory farm is cutting off all the chestnuts on the Rocky hill lot on the Ricky hill
road. They are badly affected with the chestnut blight and show signs of loss affectation. Herbert
Mills is coming the axe act on them.
The Abbot Worsted Company are cutting out the hard pine wood and leaving the white pines
on their lot at the intersection of the Rocky Hill and Plain roads and opposite the Morning Glory
lot. We commend their economical sense as well as their sensible forethought for the future in
preserving these green white pines. It is time we either were self-disciplined in the law of self-
control so that we were a law unto ourselves in dealing with our forests as though there was a
future to be audited in our destructive dealings with forests or else legislate government
supervision and restrictions.
Here’s to “Babe” Ruth, who is to spend the winter in Sudbury cutting wood to develop muscle
for next season’s ball games. In so far as he cuts wood he is a much-needed benefactor. In so far
as he cuts wood to develop muscle for next season’s ball games, the best of human interests do
not stand in need of him. The game which in and of itself is innocent and happy and tends to
health, has long passed the bounds of beautiful usefulness and is infringing on the time of far
more important and urgent conditions not to mention financial waste while charity implores for
help. The amount of baseball on the brain is out of proportion to values received and has become
a sadly unbalanced social diet that we ought to refrain from dieting ourselves on the Sabbath day.
Tomorrow will be time enough to feel your harsh control. You shall not violate this day, the
Sabbath of the soul. We are open to be shown.
We report the notice given last week with no further particulars, but enough is known to call it
good for drawing a full attendance at the first farmers’ institute of the season under the
management of Middlesex-North Agricultural society, which will be held in the old yellow
meeting-house in Dracut Center next week Wednesday, opening with an address by Wentworth
Stewart, of Groton.
Word has been received of the death of Hubert Bearce at his home in Santa Clara, Cal. He
was in his sixty-sixth year. He was well known in musical circles in Lowell and Westford, where
at one time he sang in the Unitarian church. At one time he was actively connected with the
Chelmsford Foundry Co., North Chelmsford, where his father was the well-known superintendent
and member of the Spalding Light Cavalry. Hubert Bearce was a most genial man and previous
to his removal to California sixteen years ago he was with Mrs. Bearce connected with several
choirs in Lowell churches, and he had a fine tenor voice. He is survived by his wife, a son and a
daughter, Hubert Bearce and Mrs. Esther Mallalieu, both of California; two sisters, Mrs. Charles
F. Scribner of North Chelmsford, and Mrs. Preston L. Piggott, of Brattleboro, Vt., and several
grandchildren.
The entertainment given by the Milford-Hopedale League of Women Voters was a financial
and artistic success. Miss Mabel Arey, the talented young elocutionist, gave a perfect
impersonation of the modern society woman, who is kept busy from morning until night
attending committee meetings, teas and organizations for uplift and charity. Her perfect ease and
mastery of self added to natural grace and charm, and her clear enunciation and well modulated
voice won for her much praise. A most successful career is predicted for Miss Arey when she
enters upon the professional stage. Taken from the Milford News. 4

Infringement on Personal Liberty. The United States informs its inhabitants that the
American antelope [i.e., pronghorn] is threatened with extinction unless extensive protective
measures are taken to an animal widely admired for its coloring, delicate proportions and zephyr-
like movements, [it] soon will be seen only in museums. There are probably not more than 3000
antelopes in the United States [now about 500,000], and the total number in Yellowstone Park is
about 350 [508 in 2018]. In 1908 the number was estimated at 2000. The cause of the antelope
has been taken up by the American Bison society of New York.
Proposed measures include provisions for an adequate winter range for Yellowstone herds and
for herds remaining in Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and California. In the winter of
1921-22 nearly a third of the Yellowstone Park herd were lost as a result of heavy snows and the
depredations of coyotes, wolves and lions. The most serious menace to their preservation is the
absence of suitable winter range. Besides the risk of starvation, owing to scant forage if the
snows are deep, they are easy prey for predatory animals (and we will add predatory shotguns).
The possible winter range for the antelope in the park is about 3000 acres, which must be shared
with the deer, elk and other grazing animals. The summer range covers about 100,000 acres.
Mr. United States, we object to this protection. It is an infringement on personal liberty. We
sell drunkenness at wholesale and retail, and whoever objects is hailed by the chorus crowd as
“you are infringing personal liberty.” This, of course, must be so because the crowd in chorus say
so. Then how much more is it an infringement on personal liberty to tax us to protect animals
when we allow “a pestilence that walketh in darkness and wasteth at noonday” 5 to be endorsed in
the name of “hands off” personal liberty?
Oh, personal liberty, how you do cover a multitude of sins! Call and see us, Mr. United
States, on this subject of protection to the antelope; perhaps we are not so set against protection as
our words indicate. You know where we live. We want dreadfully bad to have a chat with you
on this subject and motion picture nonsense generally. Closed all day Sunday.
Letter of Appreciation. Someone has written us a personal letter of appreciation of the late
Elmer Shattuck, warden of the Charlestown prison. Considering that he was a member of the
Spalding Light Cavalry, we think his friends here will be interested in these further words:
“I wish you might have seen him about his work in Charlestown. Officers, prisoners,
tradespeople and children looked up to him, respected and loved him. He was wonderfully
patient with those in his charge and believed in giving everyone a square deal, and he almost
always got a square deal in return. He had the faculty of meeting of all classes of people easily
and putting them at their ease. He had a splendid memory, was familiar with all the poets, and
could sit down and ‘recite poetry’ to you most any time. He also had a great store of humorous
stories. I think the five hundred or more prisoners at Charlestown really loved him, and Mrs.
4 Miss Arey did not live in Westford but she visited her aunt, Miss Clara Ann Smith, who lived here. Miss
Smith was a school teacher at the William E. Frost school, was an officer of the Tadmuck women’s club,
and was active in the Unitarian Church serving as an officer of the church’s Ladies’ Sewing Circle and
Branch Alliance. She was the daughter of Capt. Jacob Smith (1812-1898) who lived in a large colonial
house that once stood at approximately 132 Concord Rd. (“just south of Phillips Drive”; see New Old
Houses of Westford “The Jacob Smith House”). An older daughter of Capt. Smith, Deborah Louisa Smith,
married Origen Bachelor Young, and they had a daughter Gertrude C. Young who married Freeman
Benjamin Arey of Hopedale, Mass. Mabel was one of their daughters, so Clara Smith was her great aunt.
See the following articles.
Centre. Mrs. Gertrude C. Arey and the children are at the Smith homestead. They will spend their vacation
with Mrs. Arey’s aunt, Miss C. A. Smith. There is no place better fitted for little ones to have a jolly
outdoor life than this grand old place. The Westford Wardsman, July 9, 1910.
Center. The Misses Persis and Mabel Arey are passing their vacation with their aunt, Miss Clara A. Smith,
at Westford. The Westford Wardsman, August 2, 1913.
5 This quote is a corruption of Psalm 91:6, “Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the
destruction that wasteth at noonday.” KJV

Shattuck came in for no small share of their regard. Although she came in contact with very few,
one tells another, and she was often through the prison with visitors. I have been in the gallery of
their chapel at church service and as the prisoners went out at the close of the service I have seen
many of them look up at Mrs. Shattuck and smile and there is no denying that they are a hard
looking set of men with faces that smiles do not come too often.”
Graniteville. The Abbot Worsted soccer club defeated the Arlington Mills team of Lawrence
in an Industrial league game in Lawrence on last Saturday, 5 to 1. This Saturday the Abbots will
play the General Electric club in Lynn in the second round of the American cup series.
Many from here attended the John McCormick song recital at the Memorial Auditorium in
Lowell on last Monday evening.
The M.E. church cottage prayer meeting this week was held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John
Ellison on Friday evening at seven o’clock.
The members of the Epworth league are planning to hold a box party in the vestry of the M.E.
church on Saturday evening at 7:30.
The board of registrars will recount the votes cast for Lodge and Gaston at the state election of
November 7 6 . It is expected that this recount will take place on Saturday afternoon.
The members of Cameron Circle, C. of F. of A., held a very enjoyable whist party in Abbot’s
hall here on Tuesday evening.
The members of Court Graniteville, F. of A., held their regular meeting on Thursday evening
with a good attendance.
The members of the Women’s Sodality of St. Catherine's church will hold a food sale in
Abbot’s hall, Forge Village, on Friday evening, November 17. This is for the benefit of the
building fund.
Death. Walter B. Shattuck, son of Mr. and Mrs. David H. Shattuck, died in Boston on
Thursday, November 9, after a brief illness, aged 28 years, 4 months, 24 days. Besides his
parents he leaves a wife, Virginia; three [sic, four] sisters, Mrs. Frank [Ella May] Caunter, Mrs.
Cora McEnaney, Mrs. Harry [Emma Florence] Bancroft, of Kansas City, and Miss Stella
Shattuck, of this village; also, a brother Arthur. The late Mr. Shattuck was employed as a
traveling salesman. The funeral took place from the home of his parents here on last Sunday
afternoon at two o’clock and was largely attended, many being present from out of town. The
services were conducted by Rev. William E. Anderson, pastor of the M.E. church. Mrs. F. L.
Roberts, of Lowell, sang “Beautiful isle of somewhere,” “Sometime we’ll understand” and “The
Christian’s goodnight.” There were many beautiful floral tributes. The bearers were Earl
Murphy, B. J. McDonald, J. H. Gillespie, Arthur Mallein, Frank Caunter and Victor Doucette.
Interment was in Fairview cemetery, Westford where the committal service was read by Rev. W.
E. Anderson.

6 In a very close election, the Republican incumbent, Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924), defeated the
Democratic challenger, William Alexander Gaston (1859-1927), by a little over 7,000 votes out of 870,000
cast, winning 47.59% to 46.75%, the remaining votes being split among four other candidates. Westford
gave Lodge 325 votes and Gaston 218, per the 1922 Annual Town Report.