Day, Hall & Crocker: Forge Village, A History
$25.50
On September 25, 2021, Geoff Hall led a walking tour of Forge Village and at that time we promised there would be a companion booklet to the tour. That booklet, thanks to Marilyn Day, Geoff Hall and Mickey Crocker, is now available.
Description
With photographs and accompanying text you will travel from Abbot Street to West Prescott Street, from Hose Company #3 to the George P. Rogers fire station; from Excelsior Shore to Daniel Gage’s ice houses, from Sullivan’s Shore to the G.I. Bill of Rights, from the Abbot Worsted Company to Abbot Mills Apartments, to train wrecks and demolitions, the story of Forge Village has been gathered up and presented street by street.
Meet the Authors and contributors of Forge Village, A History
Helena ”Mickey” Crocker born and raised in Forge Village!!!
Helena (McKniff) Crocker, aka Mickey. I was born at home at 12 Palermo Street in Forge Village and raised there until I married Leonard Eaton Crocker, from Concord, Mass. in 1952, Graduated from Cameron School in 1942 and from Westford Academy in 1946, attended Lowell Commercial College for two years. Teenage years worked every summer in the Abbot Worsted Mill in Forge Village and following graduations, worked in the Fiscal office at Abbot Worsted until leaving to get married.
Leonard and I had eight children: Robert, Richard, Thomas, Keith, Bernard, David, and twins, Marea and Michael. Now have twelve grandchildren: James and William Crocker, Bryan and Sarah Beth Crocker, Jennifer and Sean Crocker, Keith Michael, Thomas and Hannah, Alexa and Luke Crocker, and Jacklyn Joncas and ten great grandchildren!
Worked for thirty years in Westford Town Hall as the Town Aide/Veterans agent until retirement. Started the Council on Aging, Westford Housing Authority, Cameron Senior Center and Westford Food Pantry. and Westford Golden Age club, served on many Boards of Directors Community Teamwork, Inc. Merrimack Valley Elder Services, Mystery Springs Housing. And Westford Academy Alumni Assoc. and Westford Academy Trustees. for a few!
Geoff Hall, a third generation Westfordite
Geoff Hall is a third generation Westfordite. Upon his retirement as a teacher/State representative in 2008 he had been active with the Westford Historical Society serving as President from 2014-2016. He is past president of the Westford academy Alumni Association having been a graduate of WA in 1966. Presently Geoff is serving as president of the Westford Academy Board of Trustees.
His love of history and Westford has drawn him to produce several documentaries involving the town’s history. He says that without the guidance of the many volunteers he has worked with none of these would have been possible.
Marilyn, always an interest in local history
Marilyn (Green) Day is a New Hampshire native, growing up in Amherst and graduating from Milford High School over sixty years ago. After her marriage to Roger in 1961, they hopped around New England with his job, but in 1972, settled down for 25 years in the Day family homestead at 47 Graniteville Road.
She and Roger, have four children – the eldest a daughter – and three sons. Marilyn returned to the work force and college during the 1980s, obtaining her BS degree in Business Management/Computer Science from Rivier College in Nashua, N.H. while working for Siemens Components right here in Westford. Marilyn says she credits, or blames, her eighth-grade history teacher, Miss Bertha Piper, for fostering her interest in local history. Later it would be those intriguing pages in the middle of the big, old family bibles from her Stearns and Davis maternal side with their handwritten records of past generations that really ignited her genealogical interest, and later still, Day family memorabilia. She says, I have been so fortunate to have had access to so much family history and to have been able to share it with others.
