Turner's Public Spirit, September 27, 1924
A look back in time to a century ago
By Bob Oliphant
Center. A daughter, Grace May, was born to Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Robinson at the Lowell General hospital on Wednesday of last week.
A number of the friends of Miss Marjorie Seavey tendered her a surprise miscellaneous shower at the Unitarian church parlors on last Saturday evening. Games were enjoyed and the feature of the evening was the mock wedding, which afforded much merriment for those present. The bride (Mrs. Bertha Hildreth) was becomingly gowned in white with lace curtain veil caught up by a bandeau of peanuts, and wore high brown shoes. She carried a shower bouquet of cabbage, beets and corn tassels. The bridesmaid, Miss Gladys Ingalls, wore old cheesecloth and carried a bouquet of chicory. The flower girl, Miss Lucinda Prescott, was gowned in white and scattered rose petals in the path of the bridal couple. The groom, Mrs. Edith Blaney, was attended by Miss Mabel Drew as best man, and the bride was given in marriage by her father, Miss Lillian Sutherland, the ceremony being performed by Mrs. Eva Wright. The wedding march, “Just before the battle, mother,” was played by Miss Daisy Precious. During the evening refreshments were served and all extended to Miss Seavey their best wishes.
The Grange tendered a reception to the superintendent of schools, teachers and members of the school committee at their meeting on last week Thursday evening. Supt. Charles Carter, Principal William C. Roudenbush, Miss Gotberg and Mr. Taylor, of the academy, Principal Percy Rowe, Miss Ruth Tuttle and Miss Blanche Lawrence, of the W. E. Frost school and Principal Sterling of the Cameron school were the teachers who attended, and Mrs. Eva F. Wright and Mrs. Martha G. Whiting of the school committee. During the evening an excellent program was presented, consisting of piano solos, Miss Ruth McCoy; readings, Miss Doris York; vocal solos, Miss Elva Judd, with Mrs. Edith P. Blaney as accompanist, and an interesting talk on “The schools—past and present” by Mr. Lord of the state board of education. At the conclusion of the reception refreshments were served.
A benefit dance will be given under the auspices of the Legion at the Abbot’s hall, Forge Village, on the evening of October 10. It is hoped that the affair will be well patronized, as the proceeds will be for the wife and children of a recently departed comrade.
A daughter [Lillian Elsie Ewing] was born to Mr. and Mrs. [William] Henry Ewing, of Littleton, Monday [Sept. 22, 1924]. Mrs. Ewing was Miss Ruth Johnson, of this town.
Miss Maude Robinson was in North Adams on Monday, attending the wedding of a friend.
[paper torn, line or two missing] various clubs had exhibits at the Acton fair. There were 27 garden exhibits, 23 canning, and 11 winter club exhibits, which includes sewing and bread. Joseph Tondus, of Graniteville, had an exhibit of seven different vegetables and secured fourth prize. Charles Mann, turnips, 3rd; Clarence Mann, potatoes, 4th; George Mann, beets, 4th; Walter Wright, beets, 3rd; Everett Millis, potatoes, 2nd; canning, Alice Heywood, 3rd year exhibit, 1st; Helen Gallagher, 2nd year, 2nd; Angie Parfitt, 3rd, all prizes in canning coming to Westford; plums, Alice Heywood 1st, raspberries 2nd, beets and peas 3rd; sewing, two first prizes and one second to Helen Greig; darning, Grace Hildreth 3rd; making a dress, Helen Desmond 1st; bread, Donald Wright 1st; embroidery, Miss Ruth Tuttle 1st and 2nd. Westford has reason to be proud of her young club members and the fine result attained through the painstaking efforts of the club leader, Miss Ruth Tuttle.
On Saturday, October 5, there will be an exhibit of the children’s canned products, with ribbons won at recent fairs, at the town hall at 2:30. The girls will also give a canning demonstration. All are invited, and it is hoped that the townspeople will show an interest in this extension work.
The program of Legion Auxiliary on Monday evening was in charge of Mrs. Josie Prescott and consisted of piano duets by Mrs. Edith P. Blaney and Mrs. Freda Prescott; vocal solos by Mrs. Blaney and Miss Elva Judd, which were very much enjoyed by those present. A flag game with prizes was also enjoyed and refreshments were served. The Auxiliary will hold a supper and entertainment at the town hall some time in October, the date to be announced later.
- B. Varnum, daughter Rebecca and son Ross, of Monument Beach [on Buzzards Bay in Bourne], were guests of Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Knight last Sunday.
Mrs. Amelia E. Evans, of Lowell, and Cutler F. Winchester were united in marriage at the Congregational parsonage by Rev. Edward Disbrow on Tuesday.
Rev. Edward Disbrow officiated at the marriage of Miss Dorothy Moxley and Richard J. Pickman, of Laconia, N.H., last Saturday. The wedding took place at the home of the bride’s father, Charles Moxley, Great Pond road, North Andover.
About Town. George Harrison, of San Diego, Cal., was a visitor in town last Sunday, making his stay with Capt. Sherman H. Fletcher. Many of us older residents recall him as he passed his early boyhood days in town, living with his mother on the Providence road, in the house now owned by James O’Brien. Since going to California he has had wonderful success, financially and otherwise. I should have been more than delighted to have met him. Whether there would have been any delights coming to him at meeting we are not versed enough in sub-conscious contact to prophesy.
Capt. Sherman H. Fletcher, Alfred W. Hartford and Alonzo H. Sutherland attended the republican state convention held in Worcester on last Saturday and also attended the democratic state convention in the same city on the same day. Say, beloved dears of lifelong loyal faith to the grand old G.O.P., what is the political world of ours coming to when the likes of this happen? The delegates to the republican state convention were Mrs. Josephine Prescott and Alfred W. Hartford. There is no evidence that the lady delegate sinned as per above.
The next meeting of Middlesex-North Pomona Grange will be held on Friday, October 3. Morning session, “Apple program; exhibit of apples in charge of E. F. Dickinson, of Billerica; exhibit of cooked apples and apple products in charge of Eunice Austin, of Dunstable.” Discussion, “Shall we plant more orchards?” Paper, “How to cook and serve apples,” Philiste Flint, of Tyngsboro. Paper, “Food value of fruit,” Francena L. Sherburne, Tyngsboro. Afternoon session speaker, Leslie R. Smith, deputy commissioner Massachusetts Department of Agriculture.
The next meeting of Westford Grange will be held on Thursday evening, October 2. The first and second degrees will be conferred.
Here is an itemized statement of the stewardship of Joe Wall, our efficient fish and game warden: “During this season I have put out 108 cans of brook trout in the various brooks of Westford, Nashoba, Shaker Meadow, Town Farm, Tadmuck, Boutwell, Drew’s and O’Brien’s brooks. They were a healthy lot of fish, not a dead one in the lot. Next year there ought to be good fishing for everybody. I have got no bass or perch yet, but expect some soon.” Joseph advises a year’s rest for the brooks. I move, as an amendment, five years. Our brains ought to survive that time without fish.
The charity fair given by the Middlesex-North Agricultural society in Lowell last week Wednesday and Thursday was one of the largest and most appreciated in the history of the charity movement. The “fashion show” was an added feature this year. School children’s exhibits far exceeded last year’s. The floral display was mostly the contribution of Harvey B. Greene and John F. McManmon [sic], and was an elaborate and fragrant contribution. The contributors of fruits and vegetables were more elaborate than any previous year and crowds in free admission passed through the Auditorium to view the display. Everything, including the flowers, were given to the various hospitals and charity and orphanage homes, including the Old Men’s and Old Ladies’ Homes. It is the most useful agricultural exhibit ever set to the music of “Show me thy faith by the [sic] works; faith without works is dead.”[1]
A quiet wedding occurred at Schuyler Lake, N.Y., when Miss Elizabeth Balch and Ernest T. Wright, Schenectady, N.Y., were united in marriage by Rev. H. E. Weaver. Miss May R. Balch and Garrie Balch were the attendants. Mr. Wright will be remembered as a native of this town, the [paper torn, line and a half missing] (Fletcher) Wright, their home being on the Groton road, near the Wright schoolhouse.
- A. Overlock, who formerly owned the Osgood-Robbins farm in South Chelmsford, has bought the Andrew G. Anderson farm on the Lowell road, near Brookside.
The item in last week’s issue which read, “Guy R. Decatur and Fisher have been attending the Eastern States Exposition at Springfield” should have read Guy R. Decatur and Fisher Buckshorn.
In last week’s issue, under the introduction of “As misery loves company the large taxpayers of the town would like to know each other’s troubles, so here they are,” I assume that the line was drawn at $100 and over so that we of the outside small financial helpers are smiling a laugh that will last until the 1925 tax bill arrives, although some of us did our best to keep in the annual list by voting for the Forge Village schoolhouse and much else high finance. But as it broke down we may as well say that we are awfully glad that we are on the outside with that never come off smile. But say, Mr. Assessors & Co, with the rate dropped from $32 to $30 you ought to listen to some whose taxes are higher than last year on the same property, as they claim. They certainly are using emphatic language that is neither complimentary to the Lord nor the assessors. Having been there [i.e., as an assessor] fifteen years my sympathies are with the assessors.
Death. Mrs. Marion O. (Hartford) Cole, a resident of Lowell for the past twenty years, died last week Friday morning at her home, 28 Pleasant street, aged forty-three years. She leaves her mother, Mrs. George H. Hartford, of this town, a sister, Miss Ida F. Hartford, of Lowell; seven brothers, Alfred W. and LeRoy A., of Westford, George H., Jr., of Townsend, John L., of Waltham, James B., of Ayer, Archie A., of Freedom, Me., and Harry O. Hartford, of Lowell, and a niece and three nephews.
Mrs. Cole, born in Lowell, spent nearly all of her early school day life in this town, graduating with high rank from Westford academy. By nature she was unusually social and genial and was a favorite at school and in the social life of the town.
The funeral services were held on Monday afternoon and were largely attended, Rev. Percy E. Thomas, of the First Congregational church, conducting the services. Mrs. F. L. Roberts sang appropriate selections. The bearers were Clyde R. Aldrich, William Morse, Albert Boden and Mr. Courtland. Interment was in the Edson cemetery, [Lowell,] where the committal service was read by the officiating clergyman.
Bird Life. Here is a serious but not new charge against the red-breasted robin. Condensed, it reads, “I raise plums as large as any California ones and much better flavored. I find a ready sale for this fruit at better than $6 per bushel. This year the contemptible robins have destroyed 80% of them. My loss this year on the cherry crop was the worst ever, and I needed the money more than ever before. We have had them here (Pennsylvania) by the millions since March and they destroy all kinds of small fruit.”
On the surface of things this looks tough, for by the law of the state he is not allowed to shoot a robin, and I will add he ought not to be allowed, but there should be some public recompense devised. It’s queer that he has got millions of “robber robins” while some of us advocates of protection to birds have not been able to see more than less than a few. It’s also queer that the “robber robin” has ripped the inside out of the plum and cherry business in Pennsylvania while in California, where they have “robber robins” they are raising (or have done so) cherries and plums so abundant at prices ruled so low that several co-operation, well organized, selling concerns, were forced to quit and in a financial cloud.
Nor is this all of the bird-cherry-plum question. We can live if we do not have cherries and plums, but if I can believe scientists who have investigated the annihilation of bird life means the annihilation of mankind in a short time by insect pests so numerous as to interfere with the raising of sufficient food to sustain human life, then what will we do and what will the poor “robber robins” do for cherries and plums?
One wants to annihilate the crow, and someone else the robin redbreast, and someone else the starling and the pheasant, and all hands got the guns set for some bird because it has to have food to sustain life. Personally I am strenuously opposed to any squint even in the direction of decreasing bird life. In our dealing with our birds if we are going to allow free and unrestricted shooting of birds by everyone who thinks that they suffer a financial loss from the bird, it will only be a short time before we shall suffer an incompatible loss as the result of our shooting to annihilation. We have already annihilated several species and several more are fast traveling the same road or else John Burroughs, the naturalist, was very much in error in his statement.
Personally I am opposed to easement of the present restrictive laws unless we are foolish enough to encore Sodom and Gomorrah. Better by far for the government to recompense unbearable losses whence robins eat a strawberry.
Church Notes. First church (Unitarian)—Sunday service at four p.m. Preacher, Rev. Frank B. Crandall, the minister. Subject, “The great objectives of liberal religion.”
The church school will reopen on Sunday, October 5.
On Sunday the preacher will point out the great constructive task of the liberals in all churches, indicating why they should work together.
Graniteville. The Abbot Worsted soccer team played the Shawsheen club at Forge Village on last Saturday in a National league game, but both clubs were deadlocked with two goals each. The Abbots will play the Falcos at Holyoke this Saturday.
Mrs. A. R. Wall, with her two sisters, Mrs. Catherine George and Mrs. Margaret Horan, and her nephew, Charles George, are now on an automobile trip to New York, going by the Mohawk Trail.
Mrs. Emma Wright is seriously ill with pneumonia, a trained nurse being in attendance.
Motion pictures are now being shown here every Saturday evening.
The sixth grade pupils from Forge Village are now attending sessions at the Sargent school here.
Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Wood, with their little son, Clarence, Jr., of Milton, have been recent guests of Mrs. Mary Wood.
Mrs. Henry Charlton is spending a few days with relatives in Portland.
Ayer
News Items. The Ayer Branch Alliance will meet on Thursday, October 2, at the home of Mrs. D. W. Fletcher. Miss Mary G. Balch, authoress and reader of Westford, will be the speaker. The hostesses are Mrs. F. B. Crandall, Mrs. Fletcher, Mrs. Mary J. Harlow and Mrs. C. H. Ware.
District Court. Francis Dureault, of Westford, was before the court charged with being a stubborn child. After hearing the evidence the court found him not guilty.
[1] This quote is taken from James 2:20, 14 and 26: “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him?” … “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” … “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” KJV