USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Westminster > A History of Westminster, Massachusetts, 1893-1958 > Part 8
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1946 found Colonel Sargent in command of the separation center at Fort Devens. There followed a number of important posts in the New England area, until his voluntary retirement in 1953 after a total of thirty-four years of service. Among his many decorations is a high award from the Netherlands: Order of Orange-Nassau, Knight Commander, for "outstanding achievement in the liberation of Holland." Colonel Sargent has lived at his Westminster home since retirement.
MAJOR CHESTER CRAIG SARGENT
Major Chester Craig Sargent, known in Westminster as Craig Sargent, Colonel Sargent's son, was born in Newton in 1922; West- minster has always been his legal residence. A career army man, Major Sargent graduated from West Point in 1945 and began his active service in World War II. He served with distinction in the Korean War and was rapidly advanced in rank. Badly wounded in Korea, he was rescued from the front lines in a thrilling heli- copter flight. He is presently serving with an armored division of the army, is married and has one son.
Chapter Fourteen
FINNISH PEOPLE DISCOVER WESTMINSTER
IN THE PAST FIFTY YEARS a very large percentage of the newcomers to the town has been of Finnish stock. It therefore seems appro- priate to devote a chapter to the activities of this group, though it is not intended to minimize the contributions to Westminster made by those of French, Italian or other European ancestry.
A paper by Eino Friberg in the Historical Society files describing the Westminster Co-operative Farmers Association throws some light on the early Finnish immigrants. According to Friberg, "the first Finns to settle on farms here came shortly after 1900. Before the war [presumably World War I], there were some fifteen immi- grant families, but during and more especially after the war over a hundred families took up residence on the farms . .. The aver- age age of the new arrival was . .. about thirty-five. To take a run-down farm, mortgaged heavily, without stock or equipment, and to develop it [by means of wages earned in Gardner or Fitch- burg factories until it could be self-supporting] seems to have taken between ten and fifteen years. . . . "
The organization officially titled the Westminster Co-operative Farmers Association has so few non-Finnish members it has long been familiarly called the "Finnish Co-op." As Mr. Friberg has it, the idea of the Co-op was born in the winter of 1918, out of a discussion between two farmers chopping wood together.
Antti Hamalainen and Matti Cedar were finding that wood-cut- ting, at two dollars a cord, was not quite up to what they had expected of America, land of opportunity. Friberg saw them ". . . in a setting and with a spirit to please Emerson and Thoreau. The shades of the Concord sages must have chuckled with pleasure at the independence and simplicity and self-reliance and unconscious courage implied. Like the trees they chopped, these men were rooted in the soil, whether of Finland or New England mattered little . . . "
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A first meeting was held by just five men-besides Antti Hama- lainen and Matti Cedar there were Otto Leino, Peter Kahkola, and A. Laitinen. The Co-op was founded in 1922 and grew in a few years to become "the largest and richest secular organization in town." It was incorporated on April 15, 1929.
In addition to collective buying of seed, fertilizer and equipment, an early function of the Co-op was its formation of a real estate brokerage committee.
The idea was to prevent unfair prices and excessive commissions on farm sales. The agency made a fixed charge of four percent on sales up to two thousand dollars and above that amount, three percent. (This was later changed to four percent for all sales.) The agents could keep half their commissions, turning over half to the association. The real estate committee in its early years included Otto Leino, Anton Tani, Antti Hamalainen, and John Karvonen.
The regular dues were a dollar a year, and more money was added to the treasury from such activities as dances and picnics. Modern farm equipment was purchased for the collective use of members, many of whom could not have afforded their own individual machinery at the time. This enabled them to speed up reclamation of their farms toward the day when they would be able to support their own equipment.
In recent years the Co-op has continued to play an active part in the town, but its services have changed with the times. Social interests and community affairs now occupy its members to a large extent. In concluding his account Friberg writes, "The Westminster Co-operative Farmers Association has now over a hundred members and possesses thousands of dollars of investment in equipment, a bank account, and real estate."
After World War II one could no longer associate the Finnish names of Westminster primarily with an agricultural background. Like the English colonists who preceded them, all but a few farmed only long enough to get established. The children of people from the country that gave us the symphonies of Sibelius and the architecture of Saarinen took full advantage of New England's educational benefits. Today finds them in teaching and the other professions, in industry and in business. To town government, to civic and cultural interests, they bring a heritage of hard work and integrity.
Ǥ Chapter Fifteen
EVENTS AND OCCASIONS
THE TRADITIONALLY KEEN and active interest of Westminster people in their past is shown by a mass of material in Historical Society files and in the Westminster Public Library. For example, there is the 128-page volume recording "proceedings and exercises con- nected with the occasion" of the 100th Anniversary of incorpora- tion, published in 1859. This book includes a very long poem by the same Rev. William S. Heywood who wrote the earlier history.
No Nero, full of lies and sin, debauchery and shame, Who might not for himself have won the heavenly meed of fame; No Caesar, full of war, driven by ambition's mad behest,
But might have won, in holier strife, the victories of the blest.
Twenty-one pages of such lines as these may not give us a very clear picture of Westminster in 1859. But this unusual book, with its poetry and oratory and infinite detail of genealogy and early history reveals a fondness for historic celebrations which today is keener than ever.
The first occasion for general celebration after 1893-the close of the Spanish War in 1899-seems to have been marked in West- minster with no great fanfare. This may have been due in part to the innate modesty of General Miles, who was himself a principal figure in that war, indeed perhaps the most significant figure. But on all subsequent public occasions in Westminster, up to his death in 1925, the General was usually the featured speaker.
In the files of the Historical Society we find a description of the 150th Anniversary of incorporation:
"Wednesday morning Aug. 25, 1909, the GREAT DAY, dawned bright and clear and the citizens of the town and their numerous guests were aroused at sunrise when a salute of 46 guns
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was fired. ... Answering bugle calls came from the belfries . . public buildings and many of the houses had been decorated .. . A welcoming arch had been erected at the corner of Main Street and Worcester Road ... The street parade began at ten o'clock ... led by Chief Marshal F. W. Fenno and his nine aides on horseback. . . Mr. Frederick W. Mossman presided at the open air exer- cises. . . .
Further details may be found in a book published and donated to the town by Wilbur F. Whitney, entitled:
An Account of the Exercises Connected with the 150th Anniversary Celebration of the Town of West- minster, Massachusetts, 1909, together with Historical and Legendary Reminiscences Connected with the Town
It contains many lengthy addresses by well-known personages of town and state, good photos of floats in the parade, of old houses and of other buildings of interest.
On May 7, 1919, a "Welcome Home" evening was held in the Town Hall to honor the twenty servicemen who had returned from World War I. This affair was but a preliminary to the Wel- come Home Day of September 19th, in which the whole town took part, with most of the sixty-two Honor Roll men present.
Invitations called attention to a parade and band concert in the afternoon; then a banquet, followed by speeches and exercises; and finally, a dance. Speaker of the day was General Miles, followed by ex-Senator Marcus Coolidge and others. A memorial tribute was paid to the two boys who did not return, Rollin M. Cannon and William S. Miller.
One unscheduled but exciting event of the day points up the great change in aviation between that time and World War II. An army airplane had landed on a field close by the village, after an exhibition flight around the town-in 1919 a considerable nov- elty. On taking off, besides the pilot, the plane carried State Repre- sentative George L. Dawley as passenger. Engine trouble de- veloped, and the plane crashed into an apple tree. Such was the fragile construction, however, together with the slow speed, that the impact only resulted in minor bruises for the two men.
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A Massachusetts Tercentenary Celebration was held September 6-7, 1930, in which again most of the town took part. Plays, pag- eants, parades, evening entertainments and special Sunday services were all well attended, according to the records. Nelson S. Greely, always an enthusiastic participant in such affairs, was described in newspaper accounts as a prominent feature of the parade. The Westminster man, dressed in Revolutionary uniform, drove a horse and 150-year-old chaise. Many of the townspeople appeared in early Colonial costumes, and several old homes were opened to the public.
Next important occasion recorded by the Historical Society, "Fenno Day," took place August 1, 1943, to honor Commander (now Rear Admiral) Frank W. Fenno, Jr. The Westminster man had recently attracted national attention by a daring escape from the Philippines in the submarine he commanded. The craft was carrying a cargo of Philippine gold reserves, making it a coveted target for the Japanese. The exploit is related in the book by Lowell Thomas, These Men Shall Never Die,* accompanied by a photo of Commander Fenno.
One newspaper account of the day begins: "More than 2000 residents of Westminster and surrounding communities, members of veterans' organizations, including state officers of the Legion of Valor, national, state and city officials, paid tribute yesterday after- noon to Commander Frank W. Fenno, hero of many submarine en- gagements in the Pacific War theater and holder of the Distin- guished Service Cross and three Navy Crosses, at impressive and colorful ceremonies at which he was presented a life membership in the Legion of Valor .. . "
Selectman Judson R. Foster was master of ceremonies. The outdoor gathering, on the school grounds, was followed by a dinner with an address by United States Senator David I. Walsh. The news account characterized the event as "one of the biggest days in the history of the town."
At the close of World War II, a "Welcome Home Day" was held October 12, 1946. Approximately one hundred and twenty- five veterans attended with families and friends. The program followed the usual Westminster standard for such occasions: band concert, banquet, a dance, and special church services on Sunday
* John C. Winston Co., Philadelphia, 1943.
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morning. Eight families of men who lost their lives in the services were presented with flowers and appropriate memorial tributes.
The most recent and most elaborate of all Westminster celebra- tions occurred outside the planned scope of this book-in the year 1959-but will be dealt with here briefly. It was the year of the 200th Anniversary of the incorporation of the town. The extensive planning by the townsfolk for its pageants and parades was adver- tised in many ways throughout the spring and summer. In connec- tion with the event a handsome, forty-page booklet of photographs of Westminster scenes and buildings was published by the His- torical Society: 200th Anniversary of the Town of Westminster, Massachusetts-1759-1959.
The hour before midnight on December 31, 1958, found numer- ous townspeople gathered near the Civil War monument to watch the lighting of the symbol of the Bi-centennial. This was a mam- moth replica of a birthday cake and candles. The light switch was thrown at midnight by George L. Dawley, and the cake remained in place throughout the year.
Events in coming months were to be, in the words of an His- torical Society paper, "too numerous to be listed." Almost weekly there were formal dances, sporting events, firemen's musters, an- tique auto shows, events for children, open-house days-even a "beard contest." The paper concludes:
"The most important and long to be remembered event was held on August 8-Parade and Children's Day. The weather was clear and warm and the morning parade, lasting almost two hours, was an outstanding spectacle with an estimated 30,000 viewers. Bands, floats, marching and motorized units, and all the extras a proud, co-operative community spirit could create resulted in an unusually successful and beautiful presentation. The afternoon was given to entertainment for children. Various athletic contests were held on the school grounds where amusement devices were in operation as well as refreshment stands. While the young people participated, the older residents and visitors renewed friendships and enjoyed the carefree day that only such a gala occasion can offer. The day closed with a band concert and a gigantic display of fireworks.
"The Committee, Mr. Frank Onischuk, Chairman, Mrs. Eino
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A. Haynes, Clerk, Mrs. Toivo A. Wilen, Treasurer, Mr. Eino N. Salo and Mr. Walter D. Vieweg, is to be commended for its organization and inspiration that made it possible for everyone within the Town to participate in some way in making this year a memorable one for all.
"An unusual feature-an Appreciation Night-was held at the Fenno Auditorium on February 28, 1960, when the Com- mittee presented parchment scrolls to all individuals, business firms, and organizations who had helped in any way during the Celebration affairs. At this time colored slides and movies were shown, refreshments served, and a most pleasant social evening enjoyed by all who attended."
In summing up, it might be said that the great amount of hard work, enthusiasm, and talent-not to mention expense-which has been contributed to Westminster's special occasions shows the unusual civic pride of the town as a whole. By encouraging interest in the town's history and in the contemporary events which become the history of the future, the Historical Society has been a major contributor since its founding in 1921.
Chapter Sixteen
MEMORIES OF WESTMINSTER
ABOUT ANY TOWN there are certain items of information which are not readily classifiable; and in this chapter we have gathered as much of this material as space would permit.
SETTLEMENTS
Outside of the center of Westminster itself other settlements have sprung up within the town over the years, some still thriving today and some no longer in existence. In the 1890's South West- minster was a flourishing community of many houses, with a large chair factory, paint and blacksmith shops, a fire station and even a post office. It reached its peak of prosperity in 1897-then disaster struck. In October of that year the chair factory burned down, and that same winter its owner, Artemas Merriam, died. The property was sold and most of the houses were moved away. The land and watershed were bought by the city of Fitchburg. Today even the road has been changed, so it is difficult to visualize the bustling community of sixty years ago.
Whitmanville, sometimes known as Scrag Hollow or Scrabble Hollow, is three miles northeast of the center and was in early times the site of a mill and tavern owned by the Whitman family. In the early 1900's Franklin Lombard and others ran a chair factory there. In fifty years Whitmanville has grown and is today a village of some fifty families.
The Narrows was a prosperous settlement with its own school, stores, post office and mills until about 1893, when Mr. Wyman, owner of the mills, was sued for infringement of water rights by the town of Princeton. When the town of Westminster refused
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to aid him, he sold out to the city of Fitchburg and the mills were torn down. Today only a few of the old dwellings remain, but many new houses have sprung up and the Narrows is a growing community.
Westminster Depot was also a busy place both before and after the turn of the century. In addition to passenger traffic, it served as a shipping and receiving point for the many local industries and farms. Edward Miller ran the old stage coach which carried passen- gers and mail to and from Westminster Center two miles away. In those days the settlement at the Depot had its own post office, located in the house known as the Valley Hotel. Westminster Depot was also the site of Eli H. Merriam's grain store and lumber mill which did a flourishing business for many years. Mr. Burns, the stationmaster, and his family lived over the station, and when the depot burned in March 1908 they lost all their belongings. Mr. Burns remained as agent, and was later succeeded by his daughter, Mrs. Pearl Cousins. Rail traffic gradually dwindled, however, and the depot was closed in 1930.
Wachusett Park began as a resort about 1873 when Simeon Bolton opened a pavilion and park there, and later built The North Side House, a two-story hotel, as well as a skating rink, bowling alley, stable and private fish pond. Another similar park was opened later on the north side of the lake by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Griswold, with the added attraction of a steamer which made trips around the lake. (Today the highway goes through the site of the Griswold stable.) The advent of the trolley in 1899 brought crowds of people on Sundays and holidays. After the trolleys were discon- tinued the park closed-about 1920. This park was the forerunner of many around Wyman's Pond, all of which started as summer picnic groves and are now the sites of year-round residences. A large percentage of Westminster's growing population now live in this area.
WANDERING HOUSES
There was a curious phase of Westminster history when a sur- prising number of buildings were moved intact over considerable
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distances. We tend to think it is only in this age of heavy tractors that a large house can be trundled overland for half a mile or so. But it was early in the century when all this moving took place, accomplished with horses and rope tackle and hand tools.
Probably the largest to be moved was the Reed House (later to become the Westminster Tavern), which in 1900 took two weeks to roll slowly from the corner of Main and Bacon Streets to the present site of the Cape Ann Diner. This house was also unique because its occupants at the time, Mrs. Abbie Bell and her family, lived in it during the long progress up Main Street. Her daughter sometimes sat in the doorway, rocking her baby brother and chat- ting with friends who walked along beside her. Mrs. Bell boasted that her clock never gained or lost a second during the whole journey.
This large house, which opened in 1906 as the tavern, had orig- inally stood across the street from the Laura M. (Eaton) Miller home. These two houses, according to local legend, were very similar because their builders tried to rival each other; whenever one added columns or some other feature, his neighbor immediately copied it. When the Reed house was moved it was to make way for the Forbush Memorial Library building.
In 1883 the Universalist Church was moved from North Com- mon, near the present site of the Walkonen home, to the Center. But on the site chosen for it there was already another building, with an office and cobbler shop, which also had to be moved. This is now owned by James Adams and occupied by Mrs. Mabel Story.
The home of Harry Black on Brooks Avenue was moved from the site of the present Onischuk home. The latter was built by Deacon David Hill, a handsome, large house said to have been too expensive for the approval of his thrifty wife. In any case, the Deacon moved the original house solely in order to clear the loca- tion he wanted for his new home.
Dr. Perkins's home on Bacon Street was another "restless" house. It once stood next to the house of Mrs. Laura Miller, who has converted its cellar hole into a garden. Story has it that Jerome Whitman, the owner, wanted to move the house to Whitmanville, but when he began operations the building kept slipping off its rollers. Finally Whitman lost his patience and his temper when the house got stalled in front of its present location. Then Israel
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Dickinson came out (from what is now the Strom home) and suggested the house could be set on his land without moving farther, and Whitman accepted with alacrity.
The burning of the Merriam chair factory, and later the con- demning of buildings in order to protect the Fitchburg water supply, started a wholesale moving of houses from South West- minster. Most of them went all the way to Westminster's Center. In many cases families kept house as usual during their slow over- land voyage. Among the houses moved were those now occupied by Mrs. Mabel Ray Fenno, Mrs. Maude McGee Ralph, Charles Wuth, Kenneth Hobbs, Carl Black, Arnold Carll, and others.
The Paul Smith home on Main Street was once a schoolhouse that in 1800 stood halfway down Academy Hill.
FOX FARM
An interesting paper in the Historical Society files, Ten Years of the Wachusett Silver Black Fox Company, describes in detail an enterprise begun in the mid-twenties which flourished until fox fur went out of fashion around 1937. Mrs. Eva L. Steven- son gives an account of how her husband managed the fox ranch on Knower Road, caring for some two hundred pairs of foxes. One pelt was said to have been sold to a Swedish firm for one thousand dollars.
SPITE WALL
A town legend, featured in the Worcester Telegram, September 28, 1958, concerns an eleven-foot-high wall of roughly piled field stones. The wall was built by Edmund Proctor (a farmer who settled on what is now the Poikonen property in 1852) and is thought to have been a "spite wall" to screen his house from the view of another farmer named Morse who lived across the road.
Proctor was an eccentric who named all his eight children so that they would have the initials A. H. His last surviving son, Amboy Harlem Proctor, died in 1946 at eighty-two. A spinster sister who kept house for him died soon after. The Poikonens built a modern
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home on the site of the original Proctor house, which had burned about 1898 and been replaced by Proctor with another structure. The original huge wall remains, however, one of the historical curiosities of Westminster. (See illustration.)
JAIL
There was once a jail in the old Main Street firehouse building, but a 1901 reference would indicate it was seldom used even then. And it speaks well for the law and order of the town that the iron- barred room was demolished entirely in 1919 when the building was renovated to make room for new equipment.
WEATHER
Unusual weather events over the years include a tornado in 1924, when the C. L. Smith barn was demolished, the roof blown off the Cracker Bakery, and the Universalist church spire tumbled into the street. There was also much chimney damage, but no record of any persons injured.
In 1936 a flood, said to be the worst in the town's history, caused very severe road damage. And the hurricane of 1938 caused West- minster about the same trouble and loss which occurred generally throughout the region, though no single result of the storm seems important enough to warrant mention here.
It is said that the town's worst experience from heavy snows occurred in 1920. At that time travel depended largely on the electric railway which was closed down for a period of some six weeks. The town was virtually isolated except for horse-drawn sleighs.
BRADBURY HOUSE
On the site of the World War I boulder monument, there once stood an imposing house known as the Bradbury house built by Jerome Whitman. Later the Post Office, a meat market and various
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stores and shops were located there. By 1918 it had become greatly out of repair and was torn down.
GARDNER STATE HOSPITAL
While the Gardner State Hospital is outside the town boundaries and thus does not come within our province, some thousand acres of the hospital land does lie within the town of Westminster. On this land there are also several buildings, formerly farmhouses, which are used by the hospital. Thus the institution's holdings play an important part in the structure of the town; and there is an economic factor in that many citizens of Westminster, past and present, have found employment connected with the hospital.
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