USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Westminster > A History of Westminster, Massachusetts, 1893-1958 > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22
Completion by mid-1959 of these new modern facilities should continue to assure adequate facilities capable of serving the electri- cal needs of the people of Westminster for the future.
THE TELEPHONE
Many Westminster residents still remember a day when the telephone was not a part of everyday life as it has always been for the present younger population. On September 10, 1904, the first central office was established in the kitchen of Mrs. Sarah E. Drury in the house on Leominster Street now owned by Mr. Albert Arcangeli. Mrs. Drury and her daughter were the operators.
At first there was no regular night or Sunday service. But after a time, subscribers learned that if enough demands were made on a Sunday the service would be extended; and later, night service was also recognized as important.
The second central office was run by Mrs. Charles R. Dutton, in the house where Mr. Alfred P. Jones now lives. Here a special switchboard room was built.
A third transfer of "Central" was made around 1925, when Mrs. Arthur Bascom became the operator, and the office was moved into the Urban house just below the drugstore. Here it remained until the dial system was introduced on March 17, 1955. The dial phone building erected on Elliott Street then took over, in its mechanical fashion, the friendly and faithful duties so long performed by Westminster "Centrals."
It is the same story here as in most other small towns and rural areas. People accept the improvements of technology, but still miss the human service-"They say the fire is out at the Jones place." ... "All right, if you're going to rest awhile, I won't put any calls through for an hour unless it's something urgent." ... "They don't seem to answer-probably they're all over at the school, it's Johnny's graduation night, you know."
53
PUBLIC SERVICES
A brief account of the first private telephone in Westminster appears in Chapter Sixteen.
TOWN CLOCK
What is a town clock? It might be called part of a public building, or an accessory of town government; but we may as well list it here as a public service, which it surely is. And as such the clock in the belfry of the Baptist church has faithfully proclaimed the hours since its purchase, in 1873, for thirteen hundred dollars, from E. Howard and Company of Boston. Four hundred dollars were raised by the town, the rest by private means; then later the same year the town's interest was deeded to the church, which repaid the town for its share. However, the town has continued to raise twenty dollars annually for the care of the town clock. Main- tenance of that venerable timepiece has long since become a West- minster tradition.
INNS
Westminster has always been known as a hospitable town from the traveler's standpoint. According to the Heywood History the wayfarer looking for a night's lodging could choose from among several hostelries, some fourteen having operated before 1892. At that time the Old Westminster House was most popular, across from the present Adams Street. In the 1890's and early 1900's, catering to vacationists, it constituted a fairly important, though not large, part of town life.
In a bad fire, started from efforts at thawing a frozen water pipe, on November 28, 1903, the hotel was destroyed. Gardner and Fitchburg fire units that were called to assist local firemen fought desperately, and succeeded in preventing the fire from spreading to other buildings in the area.
In 1906 the Westminster Tavern opened at the corner of Main and Eaton Streets. Once the imposing private residence of the Phineas Reed family, it had been used as tenements before opening
54
HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER
as a hotel. In 1900 the building was moved some distance along Main Street to make room for the library. (See Chapter Sixteen for further reference to this building.)
This inn, also, burned-on March 13, 1948-fire having spread late at night from a nearby small house. It was one of Westminster's worst tragedies; two little girls lost their lives in the small house, which was totally destroyed.
There appears to have been some business also in the taking of paying guests by some of the larger farms, especially in summer. Maple Heights Farm was particularly well known for the first fifteen to twenty years of the century. It contained about ten bed- rooms, and was operated by Mr. Albert Howard. The place was sold by his son, Nathan Howard, in 1948.
In general, however, catering to the tourist and transient trade -the restaurant and inn business-cannot be said to have played a very significant part in the town's economy between 1893 and 1930. Then, when improved roads and vastly stepped-up motorist travel appeared, many "tourist homes" and several small eating establishments began to flourish. This period was followed by the advent of the motel and the super-restaurant, with the result that the Old Mill, described in Chapter Ten, soon became a leading town industry.
Chapter Ten
INDUSTRIES, BUSINESS AND AGRICULTURE
FREDERICK W. MOSSMAN, chairman of the 1909 Anniversary cele- bration, said in his introductory speech on that occasion, "The forty or more chair shops . . . have one by one been removed, until today only one remains." That one factory, the Mather and Pierce Company in Whitmanville, together with almost all the other little mills and shops around Westminster, went out of busi- ness in the next few years.
Even in 1890, though agriculture was still prosperous on many of the original farms, the town was well on the way toward becom- ing the largely residential area we find today. This trend was recog- nized in speeches and writings of the period. Today only a small fraction of local revenue (see Valuation & Taxes books published by the town) comes from local industries.
Active farms have become so few, in fact, that the total tax from livestock-mostly poultry-is only about five hundred dollars per year. The historically celebrated bakery of "Westminster Crackers" yields under a thousand; the new industry of motel operation is taxed for considerably more.
By far the largest tax from private industry-over $11,500- comes from the Crocker-Burbank and Company, Assn. paper man- ufacturing concern of Fitchburg. This company has long been intimately associated with Westminster. It retains a large amount of property in the town, mostly connected with its dams and water- rights .* Thirty-one separate property holdings are currently listed, and the Fitchburg firm gives employment to many Westminster residents.
Industries which cater primarily to the needs of a residential area with the demands of through-traffic now make up the chief local
* (Crocker-Burbank reservoirs are mentioned in Chapter 13 of The Lengthen- ing Shadow of One Man, by Wm. B. Wheelwright and Sumner Kean, a company history privately published in 1957.)
55
56
HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER
businesses-eating places, gas stations, garages, stores, poultry-rais- ing, house-building, and various "services." An exception is one relatively new small manufacturing concern, the Advance Coatings Company, which is described later in this chapter.
Having thus briefly established the connection between West- minster's industrial present and past, we will continue with a de- scription of individual industries now operating. Then we will take up some of those which ceased to exist at some time between 1893 and 1958.
WESTMINSTER CRACKERS
Prominent in the town's center is a picturesque old two-story frame building, the large letters WESTMINSTER CRACK- ERS painted across its clapboard front. (The thrifty management of Dawley and Shepard still dispenses with more costly signs.) Until four or five years ago the long wing in the back was conspicu- ous for an amazing number of brick chimneys, as though some ancient brick mason had gone mad. But today the chimneys are no longer there, and the familiar fragrant odor of fresh-baked crackers comes from ultra-modern gas-fired ovens.
The bakery's early existence is described in the Heywood His- tory (page 319) up to the time of its sale, in about 1893, to J. Board- man. The business was started by Alfred Wyman in 1845, who according to Heywood "offered to the community an article of consumption which rose at once to almost universal favor, being in great demand not only at home but in the surrounding country for a dozen or twenty miles away-in all localities, indeed, where it was known."
There had been several changes of ownership in the bakery before 1895, and one would have thought that the old-fashioned crackers-long its staple product-would also have changed in character. But they seem to have enjoyed a steady popularity, and when Charles C. Dawley and Frank H. Battles took over in the early 1890's these crackers were well known within a fifty-mile radius.
In 1905 Dawley and his sons, Charles B. and George L., bought out Battles. Then in 1918 George L. Dawley was joined by Herman
57
INDUSTRIES, BUSINESS AND AGRICULTURE
A. Shepard, and the firm became Dawley and Shepard. This firm name continues, though the Dawleys acquired the Shepard interest in 1941, three years after the business had been incorporated.
Porter W. Dawley, grandson of the first Dawley to enter the business, is now president, and his wife clerk of the corporation. Dawley is a University of Michigan graduate. The family home is a stately Colonial eighteenth-century house near the bakery.
Four types of crackers are now produced, together with pack- aged cracker-meal. Sales are said to have increased some two hun- dred and fifty percent in the past decade, and distribution is greatly expanded. Employing some sixteen persons, this unique business now seems even more solidly established in the town's economy than at any time during its more-than-a-century of operation.
C. L. SMITH BOX CORPORATION
When the nineteenth century saw so many communities in north- ern Massachusetts swing from agriculture to industry, Westminster was for a time on a par with its neighbors in this respect. Many woodenware factories, paper mills, and other small industries flourished.
Then, largely because of the railroad situation-Westminster's high elevation precluded central railroad terminals-industry began to move from Westminster into the nearby cities. One such indus- try, however, took advantage of the situation. At a time when motor transport began to free the town from dependence on rail- roads-1917-the C. L. Smith Box Corporation was formed.
While the wooden box industry was steadily declining in New England, (cardboard becoming the standard crate material), C. L. Smith managed to hold his own. In spite of three disastrous fires- one in 1937, another five years later, and then in two years still an- other-each time the plant was rebuilt on a larger scale, taking advantage of more automatic machinery with each re-building.
The company owns a second mill in Weare, New Hampshire, and owns and leases its own timber land, doing a side-line business in lumber. It employs about twelve men permanently; the seasonal business of apple and vegetable boxes may run the number up to twenty-five or thirty at times.
58
HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER
Mr. Smith started his firm in partnership with a nephew, Edward Withington, who died soon after. After Mr. Withington's death, Mr. Smith ran the business alone until joined by his son, Byron C. Smith, in 1933. The senior Smith still remains in active control, as- sisted by his son who acts as treasurer. Modernization of machinery is still going forward, and the management feels the present outlook for the Eaton Street plant is optimistic.
YOUNG BROTHERS BOX COMPANY
Young Brothers, another lumber and wooden-box firm, was formed during World War II-in April 1943-by Ralph W. and Willis L. Young. Besides trucking lumber, they set up machinery in the elder brother's garage on Route 2 and began making boxes for gun barrels. The Youngs bought a portable sawmill in 1947, and in September 1952 built a permanent mill on Overlook Road, where today they produce all kinds of wooden boxes and saw lumber for building materials.
The Young Brothers' plant overlooks and is an indirect out- growth of the old Goodridge mill at the foot of Bacon Street, in which their father, Wesley W. Young, was once a partner. This mill was built in 1894 by John C. Goodridge and Frank H. Battles. Three years later Goodridge bought out his partner and in 1898 added box manufacturing to the lumber business. After the death of his father in 1915, Fred A. Goodridge continued the business until a fire destroyed the mill in 1919.
In that same year Wesley W. Young and Clinton C. Houghton formed a partnership under the name of Goodridge Box Company and built a new shop on the site of the old one-using the same chimney, which stood intact after the fire. Fred A. Goodridge re- turned to the business in 1925, when he bought out Houghton's share. The mill continued to operate until 1943 when the senior Young retired.
ADVANCE COATINGS COMPANY
Recent years, with the diversification of industry and technology, have seen a great swing back to the small towns in the case of cer-
59
INDUSTRIES, BUSINESS AND AGRICULTURE
tain types of factory. How much this will affect Westminster is still unpredictable. But one such factory, albeit a small enterprise, is presently flourishing-the Advance Coatings Company.
This firm began with a traditional product: varnish for the furni- ture industry. Now it turns out a material unknown a few years ago, a coating designed for application to various papers and plastics.
The field was discovered when the plant, during the war, became engaged in coatings for wrappings on weapons and other military equipment. Peacetime expansion of new food-wrapping and simi- lar materials led to the need for synthetic printing materials which could be applied to the wrappings.
The firm was established in 1935 by Russell P. Cook, a chemist. He was joined by Frederick W. Parks soon after, who retired in 1952. Mr. Cook died in 1954, leaving the business in the hands of his son, Benjamin A. Cook, present head of the firm. Other officials are Sidney R. Swift, Mrs. Rachel C. Lowe, Paul Woolacott, and Charles Page. Total personnel is now about twelve persons. The plant is a modern, one-story brick structure on Depot Road. Man- agement is hopeful of a continued expansion.
GARDNER TRUST COMPANY
While this book is generally restricted to a period ending with the year 1958, mention must be made of certain important events overreaching that date. Of great significance to the town was the opening of the Westminster branch of the Gardner Trust Com- pany, May 25, 1959.
The Gardner bank, which now has three other branches besides the Westminster one, began its history in Westminster, having been founded by Daniel C. Miles (brother of General Miles) in 1875. In 1894 John A. Dunn became president and the bank was moved to Gardner. There it continued to grow, and on the death of Mr. Dunn in 1919, Frank W. Fenno was advanced from cashier to president. Later he became chairman of the board of directors. Meanwhile the name had been changed from Westminster Na- tional Bank to Gardner Trust Company.
The new Westminster branch is located in the old Brick Store, where the original bank was first established. The building has
60
HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER
been elaborately modernized, but with traditional appearance, by Westminster contractor Victor Arcangeli's firm. In charge is War- ren D. Ferguson, assisted by Mrs. Lydia Hawes. Businessmen of the area feel that the re-establishment of banking facilities in West- minster is another important step in the renaissance of small indus- try.
THE OLD MILL
Of Westminster's nine eating establishments, all except one are relatively modest in size. The Old Mill restaurant and cocktail lounge, together with its gift shop and terraces, would be an impres- sive venture in any part of the country. Built along a beautiful stream and overlooking a millpond, it is on Route 2A between Fitchburg and Gardner, about a mile from the center of West- minster.
While it maintains the highest standards in foods and service, it is said to have served no less than 238,607 meals in 1958. Nine sep- arate dining rooms are operated, with a total employment of some hundred and seventy-five persons.
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Foster, bought the Old Mill in 1946 from Miss Mary Keough who had operated it as a small teahouse for twenty-two summers. The Fosters opened it as a small res- taurant with a staff of three. Fire demolished the building in 1947. Rebuilding began the same winter, the new building being a fine reproduction of the type of architecture employed in the original Raymond mill building built in 1761 by Phillip Bemis, Westmin- ster's third settler.
Besides serving many local groups as an ideal setting for banquets and parties, clientele is drawn from all parts of the country. An immense tourist attraction, the restaurant might well be called, in certain respects, Westminster's most important industry.
Another institution which might properly be classified as an in- dustry, since it is now commercially operated, is the Westminster Country Club. But as this began more as a club than a business, it is dealt with in Chapter Eleven.
WESTMINSTER CRACKERS
THE CRACKER BAKERY
THE "OLD MILL"
19L
61
INDUSTRIES, BUSINESS AND AGRICULTURE
OTHER ENTERPRISES
The Heywood History, Chapter XVI ("Industrial Pursuits and Enterprises"), describes three major industries operating when the book was written-two chair factories and a paper mill. But in a footnote, added just before going to press, the Nichols Brothers' chair concern is described as being moved to Gardner, and the Wyman paper mill as demolished to make way for the Fitchburg water-supply reservoir-leaving only the South Westminster chair plant of Artemas Merriam. (Merriam was then employing some seventy to eighty men.) Heywood foresees the end of chair manu- facturing as the town's chief business.
Before the turn of the century, Heywood's fears had come true. The Merriam plant burned on October 8, 1897, and until the C. L. Smith box factory was built in 1917, there was no new industry of significance in the township. Throughout this period there were usually about half a dozen sawmills operating in various areas, Goodridge and Mather & Pierce being two of the larger ones. There were many small cider mills, a grist mill, and two or three blacksmith shops.
With the virtually complete decline of industry, the extensive water reserves of the township were acquired by outside interests. This was to have a major long-range effect on the town economy. The valuation book for 1912 shows the Nashua Reservoir Com- pany assessed at over $54,000; Wachusett Realty Trust at $20,000; City of Fitchburg, just under $20,000. The total, some $94,000, was a little more than one eighth of the town's total assessed real estate.
The next-largest assessment of 1912 was levied on the street railway company owners-about $70,000. Very few other real estate holdings of the period exceeded $5000. An exception was Eli H. Merriam, whose gristmill, sawmill and other properties came to some $ 13,000.
AGRICULTURE
The first quarter of the century was a time of small farming, to- gether with general employment of many residents in the nearby
62
HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER
centers of Gardner and Fitchburg. Nearly every homestead kept a few animals, total number of cattle listed for 1912 being about 650 head. (Today's figure is about 350 head.)
As of 1958, the agriculture of the town would seem to have no prospects for future expansion. It is likely that more and more of the remaining suitable land will be subdivided for residential devel- opment. For a brief survey of farming in Westminster, we turn to a paper by Toivo W. Lamsa in the Historical Society files. A somewhat condensed version of his report follows:
Although the basic factors of farming, in Westminster, as else- where, remain constant, the methods employed have seen and will continue to see change. The earliest settlers were complete in their environment; food and clothing were furnished by the land and the surplus was bartered for other needed items. But the nineteenth century changed this, and while farms decreased in number they became more efficient and productive through mechanization.
Westminster, surrounded by Fitchburg and Gardner, responded to the industrial growth of these centers, and gradually became a residential town. Today the town's few operating farms are spe- cialized units, in contrast to the diversified family farm of the past. Where once land was cleared by men, horses and oxen, the bull- dozer and tractor now ready the soil for intensive machine tillage and harvest. Greater production requires chemical fertilizers, certi- fied seeds, new buildings for machinery and livestock, provision for power and light. The farmer must spend more and more time in the management of his business, in marketing, and even in political life.
Westminster farms have accepted the change. The cider mill at the Minott homestead, later the Kurikka farm, built to process local apples, is no more: cider mills and apples are no longer significant in today's farm picture. The once numerous farms in southern West- minster are now growing new houses and trees. The last operating dairy farm in that section, dating to Colonial times and later settled by Westminster's third Finnish farmer, Peter Kahkola, has suc- cumbed to the change. Where once cows grazed golfers now find pleasure and exercise at the Westminster Country Club. The Roper farm, on Route 2 A in the northeastern section, has been actively en-
63
INDUSTRIES, BUSINESS AND AGRICULTURE
gaged in farming for the greatest number of years. Other remaining farms are relative newcomers.
Yet those who have stayed in farming, augmented by new settlers of northern European extraction, have been important in Massa- chusetts agriculture. The Milk Control Act of 1934, which stabi- lized the dairy industry, received the support and aid of Westmin- ster farmers. Finnish farmers established the United Co-operative Farmers, Inc., which developed out of their blueberry produc- tion. It has since numbered many firsts in its record in the organiza- tion of poultry operations and bulk feed distribution.
The late Ernest Vieweg played a prominent part in the growth of the farmers' legislative arm-the Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation. He also helped establish the now-defunct Tri-City Dairy Corporation in Fitchburg, which centralized milk processing when the pasteurization law was passed in the 1930's. The North Worcester County Dairyman's Association, Inc., of 1956 grew out of a meeting in Westminster Town Hall, and has become part of the influential state-wide association to further the aim and needs of dairy farmers. And all this has taken place within the last half century.
Local manufacturing still employs some sixty-five to seventy Westminsterites; not such a small number when one considers the gloomy forecasts of fifty years ago. Agriculture still employs forty- five to fifty, counting only those farms large enough to be con- sidered self-contained and healthy enterprises.
But the greatest local employment by far, probably totaling some four hundred persons, comes from services and enterprises of recent origin in two major fields-those filling the needs of a largely suburban dwelling area, and those meeting demands of heavy through-traffic on the highways.
This diversity of activity, together with the employment of so many citizens in the nearby cities to which they commute, presents a healthy and well-balanced aspect. One gets the impression that the town is a busy place, and a place of rapid growth and development, at this period in its history. But the growth is diversified-not to be
64
HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER
compared with the sudden expansions seen in communities where very large industrial plants suddenly appear.
A directory of Westminster business enterprises and professional people is to be found in the Appendix.
Chapter Eleven
CLUBS AND ASSOCIATIONS
THE VARIOUS CLUBS of the town must have pleased William S. Hey- wood at the time he was compiling his massive history in the 1890's. He wrote, "Almost every human interest, not strictly personal and private, has been represented here in some organized form."
His was a day when the small town still relied almost entirely on its own resources for entertainment. Not until after World War I did the clubs of a chiefly social nature give way to those of the more "civic" type.
The sociably inclined of Westminster, it would seem, need sel- dom spend an evening at home whiling away the time with a game of solitaire. Even the following impressive list of alternatives is probably not entirely complete; to describe those organizations in any detail would require a separate volume.
ORGANIZATIONS, 1893-1959
American Legion and Auxiliary
Bands
Boy Scouts
Choraliers
Civil Defense
Country Club
Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.