The Maynard News, 1914

Florida Road Bridge, showing its age.

One hundred years ago the weekly local newspaper The Maynard News served the towns of Maynard, Hudson, South Acton, Stow and Concord Junction (West Concord). An annual subscription cost one dollar. Selections from newsworthy items:

A mention that on the morning of February 13th the temperature had been -22F. Shades of our winter this year.

The town approved construction of a concrete bridge over the Assabet River for Florida Road, with a budget of $6,500. The bridge was completed by the following year (making it, at 99 years old in 2014, the oldest bridge in Maynard) for an actual cost of $6,011. There was also extended debate on where to locate a new high school, which ended up being built on Summer Street in time to open for the 1916-17 school year (now ArtSpace).   

At the March town meeting the voting men of Maynard chose to keep the town "wet," meaning that licenses to sell liquor, wine and beer would continue to be issued. The vote was 449 to 431. One week earlier Hudson had voted itself dry. This did not prevent men from taking the trolley to Maynard and then bringing their purchases home. Next year, Maynard voted itself dry by 521 to 519. Those seeking to sake their thirst had to travel to Marlborough. All of this was preamble to national prohibition starting in 1919.

Maynard was years away from having regularly scheduled movies in a purpose-built cinema, but local impresarios George Creighton and 'BJ' Coughlin arranged for occasional weekend showings of features, shorts and newsreels in the Colonial Hall meeting room (above where Roasted Peppers restaurant is now). Admission was ten cents.

"You'll shoot your eye out" is a well-known punch line from the movie A Christmas Story, but something akin to that was reported on June 12th. Children were playing at being Indians. Helmi, age 13, hit Tyyne, age 10, in the right eye with a toy arrow. Tyyne was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital, but her eyesight in that eye could not be saved. 

Fred "Brick" Wilder, former Maynard High School baseball star, was signed at age 19 by the Red Sox as a catcher, and assigned to a minor league team in Buffalo. Wilder was in spring training with the Sox in 1917 - which would have had him catching for Babe Ruth and the other pitchers - but injured his throwing arm. Wilder never made it into a Red Sox game. He was among the many players in the Red Sox organization who were either drafted or volunteered for military service during World War I, in his case into the U.S. Army. After the war he had an eight year career in the minors out west, playing first base or outfield, retired from the sport in his 30s and returned to Maynard.

A battle of the bands made the news in June. In 1905, Abel T. Haynes had paid for the construction of a bandstand erected in the public square at the intersection of Main and Walnut Streets. This was across the street from his general store (now site of Gruber Bros. Furniture). The Maynard Brass Band held the position that Mr. Haynes had donated the bandstand to the Band, for its exclusive use. The Finnish Imatra Band and Finnish National Band wanted to use the bandstand for their concerts, too. Their argument was that their members paid property taxes in Maynard and should have access to the bandstand, as it was on town property. The bandstand was moved to storage until the issue could be resolved. It never returned to that site or any other. Only in Maynard.

Features of the Studebaker were a six-cylinder, in-line engine,
electric starter, electric lights, available in 5- or 7-seat models.
The engine provided about 30 horsepower. (Internet download)

Maynard's population was 6,700. Far fewer students completed high school then than now. The town's Annual Report showed 101 students registered for high school: 43 freshmen, 24 sophomores, 26 juniors and only 8 seniors. At all grade levels, children of foreign-born parents outnumbered those whose parents had been born in the United States.  

Advertisements in the newspaper help put life of a century ago into perspective: eggs were thirty-five cents a dozen. A new Studebaker Six automobile cost $1,385. A Ford Model T could be had for $500. The newest models of kitchen stoves offered choice of coal or gas. The Florida Road Bath House advertised that it was open Friday evenings and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Baths cost fifteen cents, including use of a clean towel.  

Funeral Homes

Until the beginnings of the twentieth century embalming was a relatively rare practice. People tended to die where they lived, and be buried - fairly quickly - in the town where they died. There was a spate of embalmings during the Civil War, primarily conducted by military surgeons, on officers who died in battle or from wounds or illness behind the battle lines, and whose families wanted them returned for burial in the local cemetery. This practice fell out of favor after the war. 

Advertisement in town business directory, 1887. In addition to Fowler,
W.A .Hanna was advertising in the Maynard News as undertaker. 

Instead, the undertaker - a man whose business was to 'under take' all arrangements for funerals - would come to the family home to prepare the body. Burials were attended by immediate family and local community. Over time, customs changed; what with telegraph and trains, distantly located relatives would expect to learn of a death in the family and would be expected to attend. Embalming allowed for more time between death and interment. By the early to mid-1920s the funeral home business as we know it was beginning to emerge - with back rooms for the preparation of bodies according to the most modern scientific principles - and front rooms for gatherings of family and friends to pay their last respects to the guest of honor.

Henry Fowler - first signer of the petition to create the town of Maynard - was an undertaker. His son Orrin S. Fowler followed into the family business. Orrin and his wife Nellie were a power couple. He was on the founding boards of local banks and held many town government offices. She was DAR and first president of the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary. She was also the first woman to be elected to the town's School Committee, in 1899. Mr. and Mrs. Fowler were among the honorables on the very first electric trolley ride, in 1901.

On Concord Street, at end of Maple Street. Click on photo to enlarge.

Their son, Guyer Fowler (Harvard graduate, class of 1915, and World War I veteran who saw action in France), followed the family business, too. Fowler-Kennedy Funeral Service, Inc., on Concord Street, was started by Guyer and his business partner at that location in 1941. Today, this is the sole representative of the funeral business in Maynard.

At one time there were four. Herbert Martin started in 1927. Year's later his son-in-law, John Doran, joined the business, making it Martin & Doran Funeral Home, later moved to Acton. Sheehan and White Funeral Home operated on Bancroft Street into the 1970s. The W.A. Twombly Funeral Home was on Main Street, near the Methodist Church, before relocating to 42 Summer Street and then closing in the 1950s. The Fowler family business had also relocated, having once been in a building next to the Congregational Church.   

In the current era, cremation is becoming an increasingly popular choice, with a national average at 45% and in some states exceeding 65%. The trend exacerbates a problem - what is a funeral home to do if the family delays picking up the cremation remains? Per Massachusetts state law: "...a funeral establishment in possession of the cremated remains of a human body which is not claimed by a next-of-kin or duly authorized representative within 12 months after the date of cremation may have the remains interred or placed in a common grave, niche, or crypt in a cemetery, or scattered in an area of the cemetery designated for that purpose."

For some states the time limit is as short as 60 days, and the scattering does not necessarily need to be within a cemetery (!). Funeral home directors may choose to hold on to unclaimed remains longer than legally required, but sooner or later those shelves in the basement are filling up, and attempts to contact the families are coming back "Forwarding address unknown." So please take steps to avoid a situation wherein the emotional tenor of a family holiday gathering is severely dampened after someone remarks, "I thought YOU had Aunt Emilia's ashes." 

David Mark intends to be cremated, and hopes that his remains will be picked up in a timely manner.

150th Column

Painted traffic signal box, gone.
Painted with image of MapleBrook Park

This week's column - the 150th written for the Beacon-Villager since LIFE OUTDOORS started in November 2009 - is a hodgepodge of requests for information and updates on past stories. If you have any information or photos of interest, please mail to 10 Maple Street, with a return address. Photos will be scanned and returned.

Waltham Street Bridge: Cold weather shut down this job before it could be completed. Come spring, construction crews will be back to finish sidewalks and landscaping. Next scheduled bridge project is the Main Street Bridge, starting in 2017.

Fleepo the Clown, in parade.
Anyone else have a photo?

Fleepo the Clown:  November will be the 10th anniversary of Philip Bohunicky's death. While there is enough information for a memorial article, what is sorely lacking from the Historical Society collection is any photograph of Phil in his Fleepo the Clown costume. Given that he originated the Christmas parade and participated in so many goings-on about town, this lack of photographic proof of his existence is an oddity.

Gunpowder mills: A column on this topic was published in January, but some information was missing. One account has the business ending in 1940, after a series of explosions. However, there are documents showing the awarding of an E-for-Excellence award from the Army/Navy in 1943. The latter does not make much sense unless gunpowder production continued into the war years. Also, while researching this topic, I did not gather any first-hand memories of people who either worked there or were affected by any of those 1940 explosions. Anyone remember hearing a ka-boom?

Town Dump: Now an array of solar energy panels, but what was it like back in the day? Smelly? Smoky? Was the dump adequately fenced and secured? Or was it possible to sneak in and get stuff? Was one local pastime going to the dump on moonlight Friday nights to shoot rats?

Gods of rock and roll: A column on this topic was published in January, naming names of bands that had recorded at Northern Studio in the 1970s. Are there any stories of these or other musicians showing up to sing, play, or perhaps just hang out at any of Maynard's live music scenes of the time?  

Babe Ruth update: After the second article appeared in December, Bob Merriam, Maynard High School Class of 1962, contacted me to confirm the suspicion that Babe Ruth drank in Maynard when he and his wife were living in Sudbury for the 1917-18 off-season (during his Red Sox years). Bob knew this because his grandfather had been Babe's drinking buddy. Ruth would show up at a local bar and buy drinks for everyone. And if too drunk to drive home, sleep it off at Merriam's grandfather's apartment. All of the Babe Ruth content is now posted in one November 2013 entry at www.maynardlifeoutdoors.com.

Assabet River Rail Trail update: a contract has been let to Francesco Demolition to remove the remaining railroad rails from the railroad right-of-way in Maynard and Acton. The work will commence as soon as weather permits. Plan is for all of the rails to be removed but the ties (wooden cross pieces) left in place. Scrap steel is valued at about ten cents per pound. Given that each 39-foot section of rail weighs a bit over 1,100 pounds, that adds up! Figure a mile of track means two miles of rail - converts to roughly 150 tons worth $30,000. The towns are actually getting paid for the removal of the rails. Removal of the ties and creation of the paved path, funded by federal, state and local money, will start in 2015.  

MayDOG update: The Maynard Dog Owners Group is described on the website as "A non-profit 501c3 corporation founded in September 2008 to promote responsible dog ownership and build community through safe, legal off-leash recreation in Maynard, MA and the surrounding areas." MayDOG expects that the official opening of a fenced off-leash recreational area will occur this spring. The site is on Waltham Street, near the solar panel array.

Same location 2014 -
And it's not like they replaced
it with a new one. Instead
we got someone else's reject.

2007-2014

Decorated traffic signal boxes: In 2007 the Maynard Cultural Council awarded grants to local artists to paint Maynard scenes on four traffic control boxes. Sadly, these have been disappearing: a few years back the one by the Fire Station; now the corner of Summer and Nason Streets, on the edge of Memorial Park. This is the opposite of town beautification.     

"Notable residents" of Stow and Maynard

Update at bottom of article. Originally posted July 2013.

A visit to the Wikipedia entries for Stow, Acton, Sudbury or Concord (neighboring towns in Massachusetts) will in each instance find a list of Notable residents. Notable in this usage is not synonymous with famous – perhaps closer to 'at least slightly famous.'

Names listed by town typically also have links to Wikipedia entries on the persons themselves. But before you start crafting your own autobiographical claim to fame, or decide that a family member or friend needs to honored, entries are supposed to be based on published content about a person, not memoirs and memories.

Stow lists six notable residents: M.T. Anderson – author; Tom Barrasso – NHL Hall of Fame goaltender; Dan Duquette – Red Sox General Manager; Grace Metalious – author of 1950s best-selling novel “Peyton Place”; Lee H. Pappas – publisher of several computer-related magazines; and George P. Shultz – U.S. Secretary of State.

A person who became famous in adult life may be honored at the site of their childhood – think Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood log cabin. Or became famous in place: Alcott, Emerson, Hawthorne and Thoreau are all in Concord’s tally. Finally, those already famous can relocate. These moves typically align with availability of luxury housing and convenience to work. When Shaquille O’Neal rented a mansion in Sudbury his one year in residence matched his brief employment by the Boston Celtics - yet Sudbury claims him as a notable resident.

Reviewing Stow’s notable six, there are three who left before they became famous (Anderson, Barrasso, Shultz) and two who lived in Stow during or after their careers (Duquette, Pappas). The sixth, Metalious, barely qualifies as a resident - her husband accepted a teaching job in Stow just before her book was published, but she did not make the move with him and they separated soon after.

When this was originallywritten there were no entries for notable residents for Maynard. Zero. Zilch. Zip. Was this only an oversight? Can't history can be dredged to find those who were famous later, famous here or arrived already famous?

Let's start with the town's founder. Amory Maynard was so central to the town’s formation that it was named after him while he was still alive. There are hints that this was his idea, although one history book claims that it was by unanimous vote of the residents (Ha). Prior to the town's formal birth all those south of the Assabet River were residents of Sudbury and those north of the river, Stow. Amory Maynard's fame did not extend beyond the town’s borders. He lacks a Wikipedia entry of his own, and anyway, he is adequately covered in Wikipedia's entry about the town [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maynard,_Massachusetts]. 

Ken Olsen you say? Olsen put Maynard on the map as the “mini-computer capital of the world,” but while this was the site of Digital Equipment Corporation’s headquarters, he never lived in town, only worked here.

Scanning the various history books about Maynard turned up one candidate. Waino Kauppi (1899-1932), an immigrant from Finland, was a child-prodigy musician on the cornet, who by age 14 was touring with big-name bands. According to authors Paul Boothroyd and Lewis Halprin, Kauppi was considered the best cornet player in the country. In Massachusetts he was featured soloist with the Edwin J. McEnelly's Orchestra. Although not identified, Kauppi is probably one of the Orchestra members in the Victor Recording tracks that can be listened to at http://www.rivermontrecords.com/1140.html.  In New York, he was billed as "Wizard of the Cornet" in the well-known, radio broadcasting, Goldman Band (see link, below). All that is needed to qualify Kauppi as notable is a concise Wikipedia write-up.        

The alternative to being home of notables is to remain a place of no one notable. Yes, Maynard has a few people-named buildings and parks, but who remembers for whom? Fowler School? Crowe Park?

In truth, Stow is no better and Maynard no worse for borrowed glory or the lack thereof, respectively. Tourists do not flock to one and avoid the other. (Actually, tourists never wander far from Concord.) There are no souvenir shops selling T-shirts and coffee mugs emblazoned with STOW or MAYNARD followed by some pithy epigram. And that’s just fine.

Julie Berry, author

After drafting this column other plausible Maynard-linked names have surfaced. Four even have their own Wikipedia entries. In alphabetical order: Julie Berry - author; John "Red" Flaherty - baseball umpire; Waino Kauppi - cornet player; Jack Mendelsohn - Unitarian minister and author;  Leo Mullin - CEO of Delta Airlines; Frank Murray - college football coach; Jarrod Shoemaker - Olympic triathlete; William Tapply - author; and Stephen Weiner - author and graphic novels expert. Links to mentions of Maynard's potential notables:





Julie Berry: http://www.julieberrybooks.com/
John "Red" Flaherty: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Flaherty
Waino Kauppi: http://mtr.arcade-museum.com/MTR-1925-81-13/MTR-1925-81-13-42.pdf
Jack Mendelsohn: http://www.uuworld.org/life/articles/279161.shtml
Leo Mullin: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/biography/M-R/Mullin-Leo-F-1943.html
Frank Murray: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Murray
Jarrod Shoemaker: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarrod_Shoemaker
William Tapply: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_G._Tapply
Stephen Weiner: http://graphicnovelreporter.com/content/bullet-stephen-weiner-last-decade-comics-growth-interview

NOTE: After this article was published in the newspaper and posted to this blog, someone (not me) used this list to revise Maynard's Wikipedia entry. And then someone else delisted a few - the criteria appearing to be a lack of a separate Wikipedia entry on those persons or independent confirmation they they did or do live in Maynard. So as of December 2013, Maynard officially has six "Notable residents." Stow's count was increased to seven: Henry Gardner (1731-1782), who was born and lived most of his life in Stow, was the first Receiver General-Treasurer for Massachusetts when it joined the other colonies in separating from England. Henry was the son of Reverend John Gardner, the second minister at Stow. Henry's grandson, Henry J. Gardner, was Governor of Massachusetts 1855-1858.

Big Fires, Maynard MA

From Burning Man 2013 (NOT in Maynard)
The Burning Man festival is an annual event.
It includes a lot of burning. Click on photo to enlarge view.

There are more than a handful of historic fires that changed Maynard, or at least the architecture of Maynard. These can be roughly divided into businesses and schools. All are well documented in the collection of the Maynard Historical Society, including many photographs.

Mill Fires: The paper mill fire was reputed to be arson. At the gunpowder mill, fires caused explosions and explosions caused fires so frequently that the company had its own fire-fighting equipment. A compilation of various records show 24 explosions and 29 fatalities. The wool mill fire of 1920 meant the end of original wooden buildings from 1846.

MAJOR FIRES

DATE        WHAT BURNED              BUILT AFTER                  THERE NOW

1835-1940 Gunpowder mill                  gunpowder mill                Stop & Shop; car dealers

5/14/1894  Paper mill                           ?????                              Tedeschi's/Dunkin Donuts

11/26/12    Music Hall                         Tutto's Bowling Alley        recently torn down buildings

9/20/16      Nason St. School               Roosevelt School             Maynard Public Library

2/11/17      Naylor Block                     one-story storefronts        Gallery Seven, Serendipity

1/25/18      Trolley building                   rebuilt                              office building

2/1/19        Bent Ice House                   another ice house             that one burned in 1950

8/17/20      Wool mill                            more mill buildings           Clocktower buildings

1/29/21      Maynard Hotel                   Memorial Park                Memorial Park

7/14/34      Riverside Block                  same building, fixed          Gruber Bros. Furniture

1/30/36      Riverside CO-OP               brick building                   Knights of Columbus

12/17/52    Woodrow Wilson School   Town hall and library       Town hall and police station

3/13/55      Fraternal Order Eagles        two story building            Masciarelli Jewelry

6/31/64      Twin Trees Restaurant        Elks Lodge                      Elks Lodge
7/29/65      Amory Maynard's house     apartment building            apartment building

Not listed above, but Booth's Bowling Alley burned in July 6, 1906. Suspicions at the time were that a pet monkey, which had the run of the place at night and knew how to strike matches, was responsible for the fire (the monkey suffered burns, but survived). 

Maynard Hotel fire of 1921 started in the kitchen. Although the fire
department was on the scene early, the building burned to the ground.

After the trolley's building and rolling stock went up in flames the brick building was rebuilt and replacement cars purchased, but the line was already in financial decline. Trolley service ended with a last run on January 16, 1923. Today, the building houses offices. The back of the parking lot provides access to the Assabet River downstream of the Ben Smith Dam.



Amory Maynard's mansion is the only private dwelling listed here. It was built on the hill south of the mill in 1873, went up in flames in an early morning fire on July 29, 1965. The Maynard family was long-gone from town and the building divided into apartments. His son's former house still stands at 5-7 Dartmouth Street. It, too, was divided into apartments, but still provides semblance to Amory's even larger mansion. Both were capped with a Mansard roof. Copying this style became quite the vogue for well-to-do Maynard residents. See south end of Maple Street for examples.

The Naylor Block fire started at 4:40 AM on February 4, 1917.
Damaged buildings on the left are where Dr. Jackson (dentist)
has his offices now. Building on the far right houses Art & Soul
and Roasted Peppers Restaurant. Everything in between burned.

In the modern era, the two-story building on Main Street that housed Salsalito's Restaurant and T.C. Lando's Sub & Pizzeria was consumed by flames in 1998, NAPA Auto Parts ditto in 2001, and Gruber Bros. Furniture suffered a smoky fire a handful of years ago.    

School Fires: To paraphrase Robert Frost, someone there is that doesn't love a school. Often a student. This is not to believe that school fires do not happen by accident. But history records five school fires (two in the table plus Nason Street School in 1879, Emerson-Fowler School in 1977 and Maynard High School in 1992) - and no record of any major church fires.