The Maynard News, 1915

One hundred years ago the weekly local newspaper, The Maynard News, editor and proprietor Robert S. Osterhout, served the towns of Maynard, Hudson, South Acton, Stow and Concord Junction (West Concord). An annual subscription had just increased from $1.00 to $1.50. Newsworthy items found via the Library microfilm collection:

The main function of the newspaper appears to have been akin to what we now think of social media - personal items people wanted to share with the community. To wit:

• C.C. Murray has a new ice wagon. 
• Mrs. Julia Lynch installed a telephone in her home last week. 
• William O'Brien attended the Auto Show in Boston. 
• E.R. Lemon is confined to the house with the grip. That last, also known as 'la grippe,' meant the flu, with symptoms that grabbed the body in a misery vortex of muscle ache, headache, fever, and cough.

In February, Oscar Jensen, age 11, was catching a ride on a freight train, fell onto the track, and had one leg crushed below the knee. Fast action by local doctors saved his life. He was transported to Deaconess Hospital for an amputation. As his name was not among deaths listed in the town's annual report we know he survived. The 1940 Census had him living in Wayland.  

March saw publication of a statement from the recently formed Hudson branch of the Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women, putting forth six reasons why women should not be able to vote. Selections: "The proportion of women actively or inactively supporting the suffrage movement is so small a minority of the adult female population to indicate that the great majority of women are either opposed or indifferent to the franchise." and "They believe that evolution and civilization have led steadily toward differentiation of functions between the sexes, not toward similarity."

Massachusetts was the first state to have an association of women opposed to the right to vote. These anti-suffrage efforts began in 1882, then organized at the state level in 1895; the Association published a newsletter "The Remonstrance," and at its peak had nearly 37,000 members. One argument was that women could achieve more for social issues by not being aligned with political parties, which were viewed as not sensitive to social uplift. A popular slogan was "Better citizens without the vote." In a non-binding 1915 referendum the state's voters (all male) voted 2-to-1 against women gaining the vote. The anti-suffrage movement's abrupt end came when the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in August 1920.

May: "It has been supposed that the Assabet River below the mill was so filthy that nothing could live in it, but such is not the case...two large turtles seen in that repulsive appearing and noxious smelling stream." After this lede the story went on to describe the turtles (my guess, snapping turtles) and an attempt to rope them before they slipped away. Children of that era did frolic in the river, but only upstream of the mill. 

Plaque for JOHN A. CROWE PARK, Maynard, MA

October: A ceremony dedicating John A. Crowe Park took place on October 1, 1915. Six acres of land had been purchased by the town in 1901 for use as a public park and sports ground. Reverend Crowe was pastor of St. Bridget's Church 1895-1905. He was responsible in getting the town to buy the land, and was the first superintendent of the park. Crowe was transferred away from Maynard in 1905, but he was a frequent visitor to his former church, and attended the dedication. He died in 1918, age 58 years.  

The trolley schedule, in the paper every week, showed that it took one hour to get from Hudson to Concord, with stops at Gleasondale, Stow, Maynard, Westvale (by the Damon Mill building), Concord Junction (West Concord) and Concord. Tracks ran alongside Route 62. The first and last rides were 6:00 AM and 11:00 PM. Inter-town trolleys were supplanted by privately owned bus companies. Locally, trolley operations ended in 1923. The Lovell Bus Line started in 1924.

One hundred years ago the term 'hybrid' could have been applied to the Triple Crawford kitchen stove. An advertisement for this top of the line model described a combination coal & gas stove. The cooktop had cooking space over the wood/coal burning chamber to the left and gas burners to the right. Above the cooktop was a gas oven/broiler. Optional was a gas water heater, piped to provide hot water to the kitchen sink.  

SNOW - a Record Year for Boston

There are winters wherein February sees the first snowdrops and crocuses of spring, but it is not this year. There are years wherein the first returning robins are already arriving, but it is not this year. There are years the snow blower goes untouched, the snowmobile trailered to Maine, but not this year. This year we struggle against the white, the ever recurring, ever piling higher snows of the winter of 2014-15. By all that you hold dear on this frozen earth, you must shovel, women and men of Massachusetts.   

WINTER 2015: Fence is six feet tall.   Click on any photo to enlarge

This winter's snow is rapidly closing in on setting a new record for Boston, for Worcester, and for points in between. These cities, each with 125 years of weather data, average 44 and 64 inches, respectively. The snowiest winter on record for both cities was 1995-96, at 107.6 and 132.9 inches. As of March 4rd, Boston is at 105.7 inches and Worcester 115.6 inches. This winter already ranks second for Boston, with every expectation that it will finish as the snowiest winter in recorded history. Worcester's winter is currently third snowiest. [Interestingly, 2011-12 was the 2nd least snowiest for Boston, with 9.3 inches.] 

Snowfall measurement methods are described in great detail in a 14 page document from the National Weather Service. Briefly, if snow is falling continuously, depth in the measuring device is measured every six hours, the device emptied and set out again. This maximizes measurement for large storms because it reduces the compression effect of late snow piling up on early snow.

One reason for the records being set this winter is that all snow is not created equal. Wet snow means 6-8 inches convert to one inch of water, but the northeasters that have been repeatedly sweeping through our area have been cold enough to generate powdery snow that is averaging 17-18 inches per inch of water. Telling here is that the thirty days of storms that put so much snow on the ground will in time melt to only five inches of water - above average for this time of year but in no way record setting.  

Other reasons are meteorological. Weather forecasting professionals toss about terms such as North Atlantic Oscillation, the "Ridiculously Resilient Ridge" and Polar Vortex.  The net result was that over a short period of time the storms were colder, larger, and every storm dumped on eastern Massachusetts, with little melting between storms. February 2015 was Boston's second coldest on record. For the entire month, an average of 18.8 (F) and only three days had a high temperature above freezing.       

ICICLE: Estimated at ten feet and 100-150 pounds

Whatever happened to global warming? The short answer is that New England is getting wetter faster than it is getting warmer. For Boston, over a 120 year period the average temperature has gotten one degree (F) warmer, but 10 percent wetter. As a result, winter is two weeks shorter, but six of the top ten snowiest winters have occurred in the last 22 years. As storms track up the east coast the warmer (and thus wetter) air over the ocean blows inland over/atop cold air, resulting in more snow.

At some point in the future this will mean more winters of wet snow, sleet, ice storms and rain. Portland, Maine has already experienced the crossover: weather records dating back to 1870 show two degrees of warming, a 15 percent increase in total precipitation, but a decrease in annual snowfall from 75 to 65 inches. When it comes, the crossover will affect Boston before it impacts the inland cities and towns.

The first paragraph of this column was a riff on the "But it is not this day" pre-battle speech in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Other fictional pre-battle speeches to outnumbered, underdog troops include those from movies Braveheart and Independence Day, and the progenitor of them all, the St. Crispin's Day speech from Shakespeare's play, Henry V. That speech gave us five repeats of "...this day..." and also the line "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers..."

The Lord of the Rings/The Return of the King (Lord Aragorn speaking)

Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers!
I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me.
A day may come when the courage of Men fails,
When we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship,
But it is not this day.
An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Man comes crashing down,
But it is not this day!
This day we fight!
By all that you hold dear on this good earth,
I bid you stand, Men of the West!

Henry V (King Henry V speaking)

    What's he that wishes so? 
    My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin; 
    If we are mark'd to die, we are enow 
    To do our country loss; and if to live, 
    The fewer men, the greater share of honour. 
    God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more. 
    By Jove, I am not covetous for gold, 
    Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost; 
    It yearns me not if men my garments wear; 
    Such outward things dwell not in my desires. 
    But if it be a sin to covet honour, 
    I am the most offending soul alive. 
    No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England. 
    God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour 
    As one man more methinks would share from me 
    For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more! 
    Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, 
    That he which hath no stomach to this fight, 
    Let him depart; his passport shall be made, 
    And crowns for convoy put into his purse; 
    We would not die in that man's company 
    That fears his fellowship to die with us. 
    This day is call'd the feast of Crispian. 
    He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, 
    Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd, 
    And rouse him at the name of Crispian. 
    He that shall live this day, and see old age, 
    Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, 
    And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.' 
    Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, 
    And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.' 
    Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, 
    But he'll remember, with advantages, 
    What feats he did that day. Then shall our names, 
    Familiar in his mouth as household words- 
    Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, 
    Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester- 
    Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red. 
    This story shall the good man teach his son; 
    And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, 
    From this day to the ending of the world, 
    But we in it shall be remembered- 
    We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; 
    For he to-day that sheds his blood with me 
    Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, 
    This day shall gentle his condition; 
    And gentlemen in England now-a-bed 
    Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, 
    And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks 
    That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Winter snow records posted at http://goldensnowglobe.com/current-top-10-snowiest-cities/ 

Snowshoeing - Hard Work and Slow

Snowshoeing on fresh powder. Note the
deep compression from each step and
also the pole marks on either side.

Start with the classic nightmare of running from danger in slow motion. Add winter cold and lots of snow and – Voila! You are snowshoeing. The conundrum of snowshoe ownership in this part of Massachusetts is that most winters it does not snow enough to justify owning snowshoes. When it does, as in this winter's storm after storm after storm, snowshoeing is slow work.

On dry land very good runners can maintain 10-12 mph for long distances. Cross-country ski racers are even faster. In contrast, snowshoe racing at 5-6 mph is considered a good speed. For the plodder who trailwalks at three miles per hour on a dry trail, a speed of half that is realistic for snowshoes. And it will require far more calories per hour than walking, especially if punching through deep snow with each step and thus needing to lift out before stepping forward.

So, why snowshoe? First, because it is engaging in a way that a gym’s treadmill is not. Nature is pared to the essentials. On the morning after a night storm the snow is a painter’s palette of whites. Plant life is all dark limbs draped in white. The sky is shades of gray. The only sound is your footsteps, and when you stop – silence, or perhaps the distant honking of a flock of geese out looking for breakfast.

Subsequent morning walks will find many signs of life. Deer, coyote, rabbit, squirrel and all the other non-hibernating mammals will be about, for food and water. One benefit of snowshoes is the ease of going off-trail to follow tracks or look for signs. In the evergreens, squirrels and birds feeding on buds and pine cone seeds will produce a shower of detritus under the trees. Berry-feeding birds with leave colorful markers under their roost trees. Field mice leave a trail of jump marks 4-8” apart with the faint mark of a dragging tail behind each hop.

Assabet River Rail Trail, Maynard, Winter

Snowshoes are designed for different types of intended use: recreational, hiking, back country, or racing. The science of snow dictates a burden of roughly three-quarter pounds per square inch of shoe surface for powdery snow, less for dense or packed snow. This translates to snowshoes 20’ to 36” long and 8” to 10” wide, depending on user weight and intended use.

Brands available locally include Tubbs, Atlas, MSR, and TSL. Prices for adult shoes will range from $100 to $300. Variables include ease of getting the snowshoes on/off, types of boots they will accommodate, grip, weight, and so on. Tubbs alone has ten adult models! So unless you are already an expert, shopping at a store with knowledgeable sales staff is a plus. Necessary accessories are adjustable length walking poles for $50 to $100. Assortments of layered and vented clothing will keep you warm when not moving but will not retain sweat moisture when you are trekking.   

Home again. Click on any photo to enlarge

Rail trails such as ARRT, Bruce Freedman, Nashua River or Minuteman offer wide paths, no steep climbs and no motorized vehicles mucking up the snow. Maps for these and more can be found by using the “find a trail” function at www.traillink.com. Towns may get around to snowplowing trail parking lots but will not plow the trails. Most town forests have miles of woodland trails, as does the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge. Do stay off golf courses and farm fields. As appealing as they look, trespassing is trespassing.

Keep in mind that if you come across a level area with no plant growth visible above the snow it is probably a pond, not a field. Yes, now you can walk on snow. No, you cannot walk on water. 

The Smith Family in Sudbury, MA

The inheritance laws of Great Britain, source of the majority of immigrants to the northern colonies during the "Great Migration" of 1620-1640, were based on primogeniture - inheritance of land by the oldest son. (In the absence of sons, daughters would inherit, but the practice of the day was to keep plugging away until a male heir and a spare were produced.) Younger sons joined the military, the Church, took up a trade, or sought their fortune elsewhere.

In Massachusetts Bay Colony and the other northern colonies the practice of multigeniture - dividing the family property among several children, took hold. Early landowners in expansion towns, such as Sudbury (established 1639) were granted more land than they could manage. As time passed, the land could be divvied amongst several sons, the oldest oft times getting the largest share. Economically, 30 acres was about as small as possible for a functional farmstead, so land was rarely divided into smaller bits unless a site also encompassed a trade - for example, a mill, smithy or tavern.

The colonies also saw the practice of ultimogeniture - whence the youngest child (son or married daughter) stayed to inherit the household, including care of the aging parents, while allowing older sons opportunity to succeed elsewhere. This practice thrived when there was a surplus of land and a system of official expansion. John Maynard, for example, was one of the early landowners in Sudbury, in the 1640s; his oldest son was one of the early settlers of the new town of Marlborough in 1660. Five generations later, Amory Maynard left Marlborough for Assabet Village, and was buying land from the Smiths.

THE MEN OF THE SMITH FAMILY (see below for wives' maiden names)

John Smith (1622-1687), another early settler in Sudbury, was a contemporary of John Maynard. [John was a very common first name - 21 of the 76 men who settled originally Sudbury went by it.] Smith came over in 1638. Sudbury History Society records have him swearing the Oath of Loyalty in 1645 and marrying Sarah Hunt in 1647. When Sudbury was extended north to the Assabet River, he was among the men getting a 130 acre lot.

There is an interesting note in A.S. Hudson's History of Sudbury 1638-1889 wherein Smith and four other men were granted the right to operate a saw mill on Hop Brook, with the caveat that they not retain water behind a dam or operate the mill between the middle of April and the first of September. The intent here was that whatever water was entering the brook should pass through for the use by downstream farmers.

Asa Smith, one of Haman's sons,
sold this house on Summer Hill Road
 to Amory Maynard in 1846

John Smith's land went to youngest son, Thomas, and in turn to his youngest son, Amos, and in turn to his two youngest sons, Benjamin and Jonathan. Benjamin left a farmstead to his youngest son, Haman. Haman broke the pattern by deeding farms to each of his four sons, but by then (circa 1850) all the nearby new land had been settled. 

As noted in last week's column on the oldest houses in Maynard, by the late 1700s, when this area was still part of Sudbury and Stow, the Smiths were buying more land and building substantial houses along Great Road (now Route 117). Two generations later the Smiths were still a major presence in what was becoming the fast growing Assabet Village, selling land to Amory Maynard and his partner William Knight, and signing one of the petitions to create the new town that came to be named Maynard in 1871. Glenwood cemetery holds graves of at least 60 Smiths, and there are dozens of people with last name Smith living in Maynard today. It's a good bet that some of them are direct descendants of the John Smith who crossed the Atlantic 377 years ago.

Trying to trace immigrant John Smith's genealogy upstream gets very murky very quickly. It appears that in Watertown, the parent town for Sudbury, there were two John Smiths, one at times going by the name John Bland. Both are mentioned as being the father of the John Smith who moved to Sudbury.

Using the Smith (not-Bland) genealogy, the ancestors are another John, another John, then William Smith, a resident of Stratford-on-Avon at about William Shakespeare's time, but apparently not the William Smith who was godfather to Shakespeare. ( I said it was murky.)

WIVES' MAIDEN NAMES

All the genealogy to this point is about men named Smith, as the bulk of records (and inheritances) are patrilineal. Here is what is available for the women they married:

WATERTOWN
John Smith (1599-1669) married Sarah Homan (1595-1629)

SUDBURY
John Smith (1622-1687) married Sarah Hunt (1627-????)
   Thomas Smith (1658-1718) married to Abigail Rice (1657-1735)

   Amos Smith (1699-1786) married Susanna Holman (1702-1778)

      Benjamin Smith (1741-1819) married Lucy Maynard (1741-1816) 
          Haman Smith married to Nancy Noyes
              Four sons: George, William, Dexter, Asa
      Jonathan Smith
          Two sons: Levi, Noah

The Lucy Maynard who married Benjamin Smith was not a known relative of Amory Maynard. One of the puzzlements here is there are better birth and death dates for the 1600s and 1700s than for those who were alive in the 1800s. 

Hidden History of Maynard

BUY THE BOOK!

Cover photo from 1910

HIDDEN HISTORY of MAYNARD (July 2014)

128 pages. 54 illustrations 

Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 978.1.62619.541.7

Price: $19.99 (e-book $9.99)

The book is available in Maynard at The Paper Store, as e-book at various venues, or directly from the author, who will be at the ArtSpace Holiday Sale, December 5-7, 2014.

Maynard resident David A. Mark brings his years of experience as a writer to create this fact-populated collection of fifty short essays gathered into seven theme-linked chapters. The contents were originally published 2012-14 as Mark’s column in Maynard’s newspaper, the Beacon-Villager.

I continue to write for the newspaper.

My more recent columns are posted at

www.maynardlifeoutdoors.com.

In this, his second book, the content is 100% history. Chapters again cover the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, plus a focus on the unusual people and unusual businesses that prospered here. So, from the question as to why there was a mink ranch in Maynard, to whether Babe Ruth came a-drinking here when he lived in Sudbury, here is David Mark with his well-researched and entertaining answers to those questions.  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Only in Maynard

Meet the Maynard Family

19th Century

20th Century

Unusual Businesses

Unusual People

21st Century

Click on photo to enlarge

AND BUY THE FIRST BOOK! 

MAYNARD: History and Life Outdoors (2011)
128 pages. 53 illustrations 

Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 978.1.60949.303.5

Price: $19.99

Maynard: History and LifeOutdoors mixes 2/3 local history with 1/3 observations on nature and local recreational activities as a means of exploring what Maynard, Massachusetts offers to anyone willing to get away from too much time looking at screens and not enough time spent seeing, hearing, touching and smelling the life going on outside. History starts with eighteenth century stone walls, then carries forward to twenty-first century river clean-ups and farmers’ markets. Nature spans skunks to skunk cabbage, deer to deer ticks, and birds to bird food. Recreational sports essays range from describing the slow-motion, nightmarish feel of snow shoeing to how to avoid overhydration – the potentially deadly opposite of dehydration.

Author selfie, one fine cold morning (5º F)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Maynard – Why “Outdoors”

Eighteenth Century

Birds and Bugs

Bicycling

Nineteenth Century

Assabet River 

Mammals

Twentieth Century

Plants

Striving

Marble/Whitney/Parmenter Farm

Twenty-first Century