From Forge Village to France and Back Home Again
by James Van Bever,
Museum Volunteer
and
Westford Historical Society Board Member
Eva Mae Lord was born on March 25, 1889, in Boscawen, New Hampshire, to Davis Alphonso and Ada (Bishop) Elizabeth Lord. As a young girl, Eva Maye and her family moved to 50 Pleasant Street in the Forge Village section of Westford, where she would live for most of her life. Eva Mae attended Westford schools, and after finishing her education, began working at the Abbot Worsted Company in Forge Village.
However, in 1911, Miss Lord resigned her position with the Abbot Company to begin nursing training at the South Framingham Hospital. In September 1914, Eva Mae graduated from the South Framingham Hospital nursing school and became a registered nurse. Following her graduation, Eva Mae became the district nurse in Westboro, Massachusetts.
She would later hold similar positions in Springfield, Massachusetts, and East Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Miss Lord would work in these nursing positions until the United States entered World War I.
In February 1918, Eva “offered her services as a trained nurse to Uncle Sam” when she became a Red Cross nurse with the United States Army. Her first duty station was Camp Lee, Virginia. Miss Lord was the first nurse from Westford to serve in World War I. After completing training at Camp Lee, Eva Mae sailed to Europe to join the Allied Expeditionary Forces. The voyage was extremely dangerous since American ships faced constant threats from German submarines.
At the start of the War, “Allied military leaders wanted to keep (female) nurses far from danger, but they soon realized that many more combatants’ lives could be saved if men were first treated near the front rather than far-away hospitals. It was common for Red Cross nurses to work fourteen-to-eighteen-hour shifts at a time. At one hospital, seventy nurses cared for 5,000 soldiers.
Once in Europe, Eva was assigned to Base Hospital No. 66 in Neuchâtel, France, where she became a supervisor. Miss Lord’s hospital was on the front lines and faced constant danger from enemy attacks. On one occasion, she wrote home about one such raid, “The other night a Boche (slang for German) sent down his respects with nine bombs. A house was damaged, but no one was hurt.” Eva went on to say that “this is the second time we have been visited.”
On one occasion during her time in France, Eva Mae became “very ill with pneumonia and for a time things looked serious for her.” But her major concern was for the men she cared for. In a letter she sent home to her family, Miss Lord talked about a wounded soldier who was brought into her hospital, who had lost his left arm and was only sixteen years old.
After spending one year in France as a Red Cross nurse, Eva Mae Lord returned to the United States in June 1919. Upon her return home, Eva accepted a position as a public health nurse for the town of Westford. Miss Lord was “also offered an excellent position as a district nurse in New York City but refused the position to be at home with her parents.”
Aside from her duties as Westford’s public health nurse, Eva Mae became a member of the town of Westford’s first board of health. As a nurse for the board of health and the town of Westford, Miss Lord was involved with such maladies as influenza, chickenpox, and scarlet fever. She would also visit schools, conduct baby welfare visits, and take children to Lowell for dental visits.
Although Miss Lord was extremely busy with her nursing duties, she did find time to volunteer and engage in civic, social, and charitable activities. In one of her roles, Eva was the director of the Abbot Worsted Drama club that put on plays and shows that were held at the Abbot Hall in Forge Village. One newspaper critic wrote of one such play, “Much credit is due Miss Eva Mae Lord for the capable way she directs the Abbot Worsted Drama club. It was her skillful training and cheerful assistance that made the play the great success it was.”
Miss Lord was also the president and founder of the Girls Knickerbocker Club. The club was founded in 1922 when 20 young girls working at the Abbot Worsted Company decided that they needed a club for recreation and started the Knickerbocker Club with Eva Mae Lord as its leader. The Knickerbocker Club would later become the “Girls Club.”
Eva was also involved in such groups and organizations as Girl Scout Troop 34 where she became an organizer and mentor, and the American Red Cross, where she once helped raise funds for sufferers of a flood in Mississippi in 1927. She was also involved in the American Legion Women’s Auxiliary and an active member in St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.
After three years of service as Westford’s health nurse, Eva resigned her position and accepted a lucrative nursing position with the Abbot Worsted Company, a post she would hold until she retired in 1956. During these years Miss Lord continued to care for her fellow citizens, as long-time Forge Village resident Shirley (Kelly) Contreras recalled, “She played a big part in the health of the people in Forge Village and, from what I have been told, she did not want any recognition. Shirley went on to say that her Uncle Billy told of how the people in Forge threw a party for her, and she clearly didn’t like it.
Eva Mae Lord died on June 24, 1960, in Westford. Shortly after her death, one of the last things St. Mark’s Reverend Isaac said to his congregation before his retirement was, “that when a new church is built in Forge Village, that he would like to see the altar dedicated to Eva Mae Lord. Miss Lord is buried in Fairview Cemetery in Westford.
Sources:
Day, Marlyn, “Forge Village A History”, p. 69.
Sarnecky, Mary T. “A History of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 1999. pp. 82, 83, 98.
“St. Mark’s Episcopal Church”, p. 33.
Lowell Courier Citizen, January 17, 1922. p. 10.
Ibid. “Forge Village”, April 23, 1926, p. 22.
Ibid.” Forge Village”, May 21, 1927, p. 13.
Ibid. “Forge Village”, January 15, 1931. P. 6.
“Forge Village”, Lowell Sun, March 8, 1938, p. 18.
Ibid. “Forge Village”, November 6, 1951, p. 11.
“Forge Village”, Turner’s Public Spirit, July 19, 1919, p.2.
Ibid. “Westford”, July 29, 1922, p. 2.
“Lord Family Extracts from the Westford Wardsman”, March 25, 1911, September 19, 1914, October 17, 1914, October 9, 1915, August 4, 1917, February 2, 1918, July 27, 1918, November 2, 1918, July 19, 1919.