USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Westminster > A History of Westminster, Massachusetts, 1893-1958 > Part 6
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Extension Service
Farmers' and Mechanics' Association
Farmers' Co-operative
Firemen's Auxiliary
4H Club
Girl Scouts Grand Army of the Republic
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HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER
Grange Great Books Discussion Club
Historical Society
Improvement Society
Lions Club
Men's Club
Mineral Club
P.T.A.
Rice Meadow Fly-Fishing Club Rotary Club
Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War
Square and Compass Club
Tophet Fish & Game Club
V.F.W. and Auxiliary
Westminster Sportsmen's Club
Woman's Club
Woman's Relief Corps
Westminster Academy and H.S. Alumni Ass'n Youth Center
Before the last annual Westminster Cattle Show and Fair was held in 1927, it had long been the big event of the year for many resi- dents. It was supported largely by a local club, formed in 1878, called the Farmers' and Mechanics' Association. This group, in its heyday, met at least once a month and put on annual "farmers' suppers" and other entertainments. After a long period of increas- ing inactivity, the club was liquidated in 1934. Its capital (some three hundred dollars) and all its equipment was donated to local Grange 203.
Another group flourishing over the same general period, but not formally disbanded until 1949, was the Westminster Improvement Society. One of its major projects for the betterment of the town was the building of sidewalks. For many years the ladies of this club served a dinner on Town Meeting Day. Before there was easy access to larger towns and radio, movies, and other distractions, the club provided valuable evenings of music and entertainment. On its disbanding, twenty-five dollars were given to the V.F.W. post. The day of the new veterans' organizations, P. T. A., Boy and
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CLUBS AND ASSOCIATIONS
Girl Scouts, and the "service clubs" had dawned; the old-time social club had become only a memory.
There have long been many active lodge members in Westmin- ster, but these until recently were all dependent upon one or another lodge in Gardner or Fitchburg. In 1955 the Masons set up their own Square and Compass Club. Erick Westerfors was the first president.
Perhaps no organization has played a greater part in New Eng- land rural history than the Grange. In 1894, Westminster Grange No. 203 was formed by state deputy Elmer D. Howe with thirty- three charter members. The practical co-operative measures which were part of its program failed to develop to any extent, but social betterment and entertainment have continued actively. During the last World War the group sold bonds and stamps amounting to some seven thousand, six hundred and twenty-five dollars and did much other valuable work. (Details of the many Grange contributions to the war effort can be found in notes of Florence B. Rice, Master.)
According to an account of the Grange written in 1954 by Fred G. Parcher (then a member for over fifty years), peak membership was reached in 1925, with more than two hundred belonging.
MASTERS FROM 1894 TO 1954
Arno E. Hurd, Wickliffe H. Waterhouse, John Minott, William W. Sterlin, Fred G. Parcher, Sherman G. Rice, Frank W. Derby, Hervey W. Bell, Robert O. Hurd, Lucius W. French, Arthur W. Nye, Harold Towle, S. Edwin Story, Kirwan J. Bilson, Allen Holmes, Everett Lacey, Charles Warner, Edwin Bilson, Robert Luoma, Thayer H. French, Albert Holmes
LADIES
Mildred L. Nye, Clara Eaton, Anna B. Terrill, Mabel W. Story, Florence B. Rice
P.T.A.
A Parent-Teachers Association was first formed in 1938, Mrs. Kirwan Bilson, Sr., President. Because of the war and other factors, it was discontinued. In 1947 it was re-activated with Mrs. John
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HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER
Hobbs as President; Mrs. Porter W. Dawley, Vice-President; Miss Barbara Tomolonius, Secretary; Parker Kemp, Treasurer. The im- pressive list of its main achievements in one decade follows:
Soup program, 1946 Annual Halloween Parties, 1948 Year-end parties, 1949 Awards, 1950 Gymnasium mats, 1950
Athletic Letters, 195 1
Microphones
Refreshments, volunteer workers on school addition Museum of Science donation
Youth Center
Extension courses
Coffee urn, cups and saucers, etc.
Projectors and screens
School band uniforms
Mirrors, teacher's rooms, 1952
Playground Fund-Merry-go-rounds, swings, skating rink, 1953 School Library started, 1954
Scholarship awards, home economics industrial arts, 1957 Dancing classes, 1958
SCOUTS
The first Girl Scout Troop was formed in 1923, led by Captain Barbara Fenno, Lieutenant Harriet Smith, Lieutenant Doris Gilson, 2nd Lieutenant Helen Dawley. A recent account lists two hundred members with sixteen leaders and twenty-one troop committee members; this includes three Brownie troops.
The Boy Scouts are believed to have started here about 1915. No records were kept, however, until 1922, when the troop came under
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CLUBS AND ASSOCIATIONS
the sponsorship of the Congregational Church and a group of in- terested citizens. The William S. Miller Post, American Legion became the sponsors in 1941. In 1943 Cub Scout and Explorer troops were organized. Today the Boy Scouts are active and well-staffed, and the boys themselves have developed an excellent camping ground at Hager Park.
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The Westminster Historical Society, under whose auspices this book appears, was founded on October 25, 1921. Its founding brought into being the town's first organized program of local his- torical study. Among those instrumental in its organization were Frank W. Fenno, Mrs. Edward R. Miller and Miss Sarah F. Greene, town librarian, who had urged that an agency be formed to as- semble and preserve records and objects of historical value. The Society's first officers were Charles F. Giles, president; Frank W. Derby, vice-president; Mrs. Miller, secretary; and Miss Sarah Jane Wyman, treasurer. Meetings were held in the Library, with papers read by various members and occasional guest speakers.
In 1952, after a few years of little activity (several of the founders had died), the Society was roused to renewed action under the leadership of Mrs. Florence B. Rice. Following her as president were Mrs. Irene F. Rice, Harry N. Howard, Miss Doris M. Fenno and Mrs. Mabel W. Story. The Historical Society has maintained a membership of about thirty, and was very active in the events of the 200th Anniversary year.
THE COUNTRY CLUB
The Westminster Country Club was started in June 1955 by three men: Dr. John C. Mercer of Westminster, Albert Leblanc and Clarence Gagne of Fitchburg.
A few of the older country clubs of New England are still ex- clusive, wealthy affairs which bring to mind terms such as "the country-club set." In recent years a greater number of them have become more or less commercially operated. Membership is drawn
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HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER
not from any particular social group, but from those sharing some common interest, such as golf. This seems to be the case with the Westminster club. Daytime activity centers around an excellent nine-hole golf course. Evening parties, reunions and dances can be held by various organizations, on making arrangements with the manager. There is a modern kitchen and a large room for dining and dancing, attached to the original farmhouse now converted into locker rooms with showers.
Recently Dr. Mercer and Mr. Gagne sold out their interests to Mr. Leblanc, who with his family now operates the whole project. The club is beautifully situated a short distance outside the town on Ellis Road.
VETERANS' ORGANIZATIONS
The first of Westminster's two present-day veterans' organiza- tions came into being soon after World War I. Westminster Post 174 of the American Legion was chartered August 16, 1919. Its charter members were Dr. George Mossman (Commander), Henry L. Curtis, Roger Battles, Guy L. Miller, Arthur K. Rice, Harold A. Towle, Roland C. Houghton, Ray Durling, Henry H. Miller, Ray- mond Stockwell, Emory J. Raymond, and Benjamin H. Page.
A unit auxiliary was formed on September 1, 1920, with Mrs. Mary E. Miller as president and with thirty-five charter members. The aims of the auxiliary have been to "assist the American Legion in all its projects, rehabilitation for veterans in homes and hospitals, and all measures for community betterment."
In 1933 the local unit was renamed the "William S. Miller Post 174" in honor of a Westminster boy who gave his life overseas. In that same year the Universalist Society gave the Post a ninety-nine year lease on its old church building on Main Street. In 1945 the two remaining members of the Universalist Society, the Reverend Lucy Milton Giles and Mrs. Laura M. Miller, presented the building to the Legion outright.
The Legion has always been active in matters of civic interest. It manned an air-raid station on Academy Hill during World War II, and has done much to assist the Boy Scouts.
The town's other veterans' organization of today, the Douglas E.
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CLUBS AND ASSOCIATIONS
Hicks Post No. 7389, Veterans of Foreign Wars, was founded in 1946; it is also very active and has sponsored many projects of bene- fit to the town. A building was acquired and renovated by the members in 1953, providing a comfortable meeting hall for the activities of the post. Membership is nearly 100. The Douglas E. Hicks Auxiliary was formed in May 1947 with eighteen charter members, nine of whom are still active. Its first president was Alice Howe.
Veterans' organizations stemming from the Civil War were an active part of the social structure of Westminster for some years after 1893. William S. Heywood gives an account of the Joseph P. Rice Post 69, Grand Army of the Republic, and detailed records of its activities have been preserved in the files of the Historical So- ciety. It was not dissolved until September 8, 1928, when there were still two members remaining, Hobart Raymond and Alonzo Wheeler.
An adjunct to the G.A.R. was the Joseph P. Rice Post 113 of the Woman's Relief Corps, founded in 1890 with sixty-four members. Objectives were the assistance of Union veterans and their de- pendents. The Relief Corps also did a great deal of active work in Memorial Day exercises and in the care of veterans' graves. It dis- banded in 1943, all Union veterans having died, and the newer organizations of the town having taken over most of the functions that the Relief Corps once performed.
Also mentioned in the Heywood History was Cyrus K. Miller Camp 101, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, which at one time had a membership of fifty. Organized in 1889 with Frank E. Miller as Captain, the Camp has continued to support patriotic and civic projects. Although not so active today, it is still in possession of its charter and has twenty-one members.
The Priscilla Alden Tent 5 1 of the Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War was formed on September 1, 1911, with Mrs. Viola N. Burpee as president. The group supported the work of other patriotic organizations until its disbandment in 1947.
OTHER GROUPS
A Youth Center was begun in 1949, primarily as an agency aimed at reducing teen-age delinquency. Its original membership of forty
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HISTORY OF WESTMINSTER
has grown to two hundred and sixty-two, with a paid director. The effectiveness of this work is shown by a relatively low incidence of youthful crime and misconduct.
The Worcester County Extension Service has brought the house- wives of the town helpful and practical ideas in homemaking. It was begun in 1938, under the direction of the Reverend Lucy Milton Giles.
Westminster has always had occasional small musical groups, both instrumental and vocal. But in comparatively recent times there was no lasting organized group until 1933, when the West- minster Boys' Band was formed. George Talcott of Fitchburg con- ducted it and also gave lessions. He is well known in the region as a tireless and talented musician. This band became a featured town institution, and often performed for neighboring communities. Later the present Westminster School Band was started, consisting of some twenty-five members and led by Mrs. Gertrude Sullivan. A popular singing group was organized in 1954 by members of the Women's Club-Mrs. Florence Grimes, Mrs. Gardner Bent, Mrs. Charlotte Sunne, and Mrs. Bertha Ahlin. The singers are called the Choraliers and have continued to provide programs for various gatherings, both locally and in nearby towns.
Sportsmen's clubs have long been a part of Westminster life, and today there are no less than three separate groups helping to pro- mote conservation and sport in the town-the Tophet Fish and Game Club, Rice Meadow Fly-fishing Club, and the Westminster Sportsmen's Club.
The Woman's Club, formed here in 1953 with Mrs. Frank Onischuk as president, soon became accepted by the National Fed- eration of Women's Clubs, and has continued to flourish in the promotion of worthy and cultural projects. Its first project was the water question of 1954 in which the club took an active inter- est. Presidents have been Mrs. Erick Westerfors, Mrs. John A. Gardner, and Mrs. Herbert B. Seeley.
The Firemen's Auxiliary is also active both as a social group and an aid to the fire department.
Recent years have seen the development in Westminster of an organization which grew out of the international situation. Civil Defense began in 1951 under Walter Wintturi and has been led
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CLUBS AND ASSOCIATIONS
since 1957 by Arthur Hunt. There are thirteen auxiliary police, a radio communications class of twenty-five has received certificates, and thirty-five persons participated in a radioactivity class. A nurses' corps and a hospital have also been created.
The group long known as the "Finnish Co-operative" is an important economic factor of the town. Actually its proper name is the Westminster Co-operative Farmers Inc., and its member- ship is not limited to Finnish people, though they predominate and were instrumental in founding it.
For some twenty-five years the Co-operative bought and oper- ated farm machinery, bought farm supplies at low prices for its members, and otherwise promoted the business of agriculture. While it is still active, it has in recent years become more a social entity than an economic force.
Another organization, which is no longer in existence but was prominent in the early years of the century, was the Westminster Academy and High School Alumni Association. This was a large and active group which promoted yearly reunions from 1884 until the late 1920's.
Taken altogether, the many organizations of Westminster reflect a very high degree of awareness on the part of the citizens of their civic and cultural responsibilities. And in closing this chapter, it seems important to stress the significance of the large number of organizations and clubs as a whole, rather than the details of any one. For it is to the credit of all of these groups that Westminster has so successfully welded many people of differing racial back- grounds into a unified society, and, in spite of recent rapid growth, has preserved very largely its pleasant original atmosphere and town spirit.
ES Chapter Twelve
A PROFILE OF GENERAL NELSON A. MILES
THE TOWN'S MOST FAMOUS NATIVE SON-this description in the earlier History statement concerning General Nelson A. Miles. Though in 1893 the Spanish War and other activities wherein this unique man was to play a major role were still in the future, he was already the best-known general on active duty in the United States Army.
When he died in 1925, at eighty-six, the Washington, D.C., May 15 AP dispatch began: "Lieut. Gen. Nelson A. Miles, nestor of American Army leaders, premier Indian Fighter, diplomat and author, has taken up the Long Trail. . . . " The impressive obituary, printed throughout the country, recounted his life in considerable detail. Only a President would have been accorded more space.
‘. . One of the most distinguished and picturesque leaders in American military history ... was one of the 'boy generals' of the Civil War. At the age of 25 he had risen from the rank of Ist. Lieutenant of volunteers to that of Major General, and was commanding an entire army division of 25,000 men.
"Gen. Miles, who at the peak of his career was commanding General of the Army, was one of the few high-ranking officers of the regular establishment to attain his position without West Point training and ... of the still smaller group ... with rank of Lieut. General."
Today, ask a student of the Civil War about General Miles, and you will get one story; ask a student of the Indian Campaigns, and you will get another. Anyone who remembers much about the war with Spain will give you still a third version. But few people, even in his native region, can place the General correctly in the long segment of history in which he played so many roles.
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A PROFILE OF GENERAL NELSON A. MILES
And so, though not strictly within the scope of this book, it is interesting to review briefly General Miles's life before 1893.
Born in Westminster April 8, 1839, and educated for the most part in the local schools, he went to Boston at eighteen, intending to continue his studies. Probably because of lack of money, he soon gave up school for a clerical job.
At the outbreak of the Civil War young Miles was just twenty- two and a member of a Roxbury, Massachusetts, militia outfit. He came by his military interest naturally-his father had served in the army, grandfather and great-grandfather both fought in the Revolu- tion. The family was descended from Rev. John Myles, "fighting parson" of King Philip's War, 1675.
After a brief training with a French officer then in Boston, Miles was commissioned a lieutenant and was sent with his unit to the front. He had taken his savings of one thousand dollars and bor- rowed some two thousand more, to pay the militiamen under his command-because of the unsettled politics of the day, no funds had been provided-and it is said he was never reimbursed.
Throughout the war the young officer was in the thick of the fighting in some thirty battles. He was promoted rapidly until he reached the acting rank of Major General. Quite seriously wounded on four different occasions, he received many citations for bravery and leadership.
Just after the assassination of Lincoln, Miles ran into the first of the political embroilments which were to become frequent during the rest of his life. Ordered to arrest Jefferson Davis, the former Confederate president, Miles was accused of cruelty by Southern statesmen. It was said Davis was being "kept in irons" and badly mistreated. Miles was not intimidated by the charges. President Johnson had given orders to take no chances with Davis; it was be- lieved there was a vast plot to wipe out several Union leaders, and the shooting of Lincoln had been only the first step. Davis was later released, unharmed apparently, and died of old age twenty-two years afterward.
Recommissioned a colonel in the regular army, Miles for a time was engaged in reconstruction in the North Carolina area. Here he became known as an able administrator. He made something of a name for himself as an outspoken and determined foe of the many corrupt politicians of the period.
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In 1870 Miles was sent into the wilderness of the West to begin service in the Indian campaigns which were to occupy his next twenty years. Again he rose rapidly; he soon became Brigadier and then Major General.
Periodicals of the day were kept well supplied with the exploits of "the great Indian Fighter," as Miles became known throughout the world. His adversaries included Crazy Horse, Lame Deer, Spotted Eagle, Elk Horn, Broad Road, Natchez, Gerónimo, and Sitting Bull. Two young officers under his command were later to become famous generals also-Anson Mills and Leonard Wood.
Millions of words were written about just one of Miles's more colorful expeditions. Four small girls, known as "the Germain sisters," were taken captive by a warring tribe after the massacre of their parents. After a long chase-the Hollywood of a later world would never outdo it for thrills and action-two of the children were rescued.
The little girls were given every attention by officers' wives at an army post. A photograph was taken showing the girls primly posed in formal dresses. General Miles wrote a note on the back of the photograph reassuring the two sisters still held by the Indians, and an Indian scout managed to deliver it to them. Sometime later they too were rescued, and the four orphans became the wards of Miles until they were of age.
Another famed exploit involved a forced march in weather that was said to have reached forty below zero. This ended with the capture of Chief Joseph and the finish of the war with the Nez Percés.
During the opening of the West, Miles found time, on lonely army outposts, to develop a lucid and finished style of writing. He became passionately concerned with the future welfare of the tribes he had been forced to defeat in battle, and began to publish articles on the subject. It has been said that these writings, in some measure, led to the founding of the Carlisle School for American Indians.
Miles also became greatly interested in land development in the Great Plains. Sometimes called "Father of Irrigation and Reclama- tion," his essays on the subject were intelligent spadework for the vast government projects of later years.
He had also somehow managed to find time to become a family man. In 1868 he was married to Mary Hoyt Sherman, niece of Gen-
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A PROFILE OF GENERAL NELSON A. MILES
eral Sherman. The children of this union were both destined to follow the Miles tradition-the daughter as wife of an army officer, the son as a Major General.
In 1894 the Chicago railroad strike aroused and alarmed the whole nation. Miles was sent to settle the strike. In a sense, it was a situa- tion impossible to conquer: on the one hand there was a revolt of considerable violence, on the other hand inadequate legislation and corrupt politics. Yet General Miles managed to restore order, and if he made new enemies, he also made powerful friends. The following year President Cleveland made him commanding general of the United States Army.
In this position the General soon showed he had no intention of remaining a figurehead. He was outspoken, much in the manner of a Billy Mitchell, in his published criticisms of interference in army matters by Congress and the administration. And as a result, he was sent abroad where he could not follow up his desired reforms. He was observer at the Turko-Grecian war, and was a representative of the United States at Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1897.
At the outset of war with Spain, Miles's political enemies could not dislodge him from his position; perhaps they did not quite dare. But they did succeed in keeping him in Washington, which was not to his liking.
Finally, at the close of the war, Miles was sent to Santiago, and later to Puerto Rico, in direct command of the army of occupation. At the occasion of the formal ceremony of surrender, Nelson A. Miles, by one small act, revealed a trait of character perhaps more impressive now than at the time. We may think of several similar surrender scenes of later wars, complete with newsreel camera- crews. We may think, without much difficulty, of several generals who did not hesitate to play the lead in these tableaux. But Com- mander-in-Chief Miles stepped back and allowed another general- who had been longer at the front-to accept the surrender.
When, at sixty, Miles was given the permanent rank of Lieu- tenant General, only six men in our army-during the century and a quarter of its existence-had been given this honor. Still, when he was retired because of age (sixty-four) in 1903, he had again quarreled with the administration, and he was given no commenda- tions nor any of the usual honors of retirement.
This seems an incredible insult to have received at the hands of
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Theodore Roosevelt, as seen from the vantage point of today. For Miles had practiced, throughout the Civil War, the Indian Cam- paigns and the Spanish War, perhaps more than any other officer in history, exactly the precise hard-hitting tactics so loudly em- bodied in the Rough Rider's own philosophy.
Yet Roosevelt had sent Miles abroad on extended surveys of foreign armies in order to keep him away from Washington. (Miles had been reprimanded for taking the side of the Dewey report in the Schley case.)
Ironically, both Miles and Roosevelt were later to be completely frustrated in parallel ambitions. Both importuned Wilson, in World War I, to be allowed to take an active part. Both were broken- hearted when all their pleas were of no avail.
After the Spanish War, it was Admiral Dewey who came in for the major share of hero-worship. Admiral Dewey made the ideal popular figure, as revealed by the many books and popular articles of the day written about him. His easy-going manner and ready sociability were in direct contrast to the personality of General Miles. The General's letters and published speeches all are stamped with his immense reserve, his rigid formality and dignity, and above all, his modesty. But Miles was dedicated to the army, and in its defense he was often belligerently outspoken. He excoriated politi- cians and grafters, and he possessed a weapon many feared-his ability to write.
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