USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Boxborough > Boxborough: a New England town and its people > Part 5
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Fauna.
Of Cryptogamous plants the Horse-tail family ( Equiseta- cec) is represented by several species ; and of the Ferns ( Filices) a large family, with their delicate or coarser fronds, the following species may be mentioned : Common Polypody, Maiden-hair, Common Brake, Spleenwort, Beech, Shield, Ostrich, Sensitive, Cinnamon and Royal or Buck's Horn Fern.
Club-moss ( Lycopodium) flourishes in the trailing ever- greens of our damp woods and hillsides.
Mosses and lichens of many varieties are abundant.
While the surface of the town is hilly and rocky, and the soil not deep, yet her sunny slopes are very productive. The hills are crowned with luxuriant orchards, and the pastures and roadsides abound in grapes and berries. Apples, pears, peaches, grapes, berries and vegetables are extensively culti- vated for the Boston markets. Being only about twenty-seven miles distant from that city, these products can be shipped there, fresh, daily.
FAUNA.
Probably the Fauna of Boxborough is much the same as it was a hundred years ago. We find at the present time : musk- rat, with its cone-shaped meadow house; mink, which inhabits the streams and ponds ; the gray rabbit of the woods ; the gray fox, and the sly, red fox, pest of our chicken yards ; the skunk ; the wood-chuck, our burrowing friend, lover of green peas and lettuce ; weasels, slender and agile ; squirrels, gray, red, (the Indian chickaree), flying, striped or chip-munk; the nimble far-leaping deer-mouse ; shrew-mole and little, brown, star-nose mole ; the bat, one species ; wharf-rat, which causes the common black rat to disappear; the cunning field-mouse, and small mouse ; and raccoon with its baby's foot-print.
The shooting of an eagle is a feat said to have been accom- plished by one of the citizens in earlier days.
The following birds remain with us through the winter : crow, chickadee, snow-bunting, blue jay, English sparrow, black and white wood-pecker, quail and partridge.
In early spring, often in March, the blue-bird, robin, song- sparrow, and blue snow-bird return from the South. Later the
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Borborough : a New England Town and its People.
red-winged blackbird, gold-finch, purple finch, phebe and bobo- link make their appearance. Soon after. usually coming under cover of night, appears a host, and then, some fine morning we are fairly awakened from our slumbers by " Nature's Hallelujah " going on just outside our windows. Brown thrushes, black- birds, cuckoos. brilliant plumaged orioles, swallows, - barn, chimney and martin, - warblers, - yellow, black, and white. - wrens, cat-birds, vireos, wood-cock, cedar or cherry birds, whippoorwills, red-headed and downy wood-peckers. mourning doves, herons, king-fishers, fire-birds, ducks, king-birds and tiny. ruby-throated, humming birds, all conspire to make vocal the passing hours. Hawks and owls, bringing destruction in their path, make their appearance with the others, and northward in spring, southward in autumn, with their peculiar note, flocks of wild geese take their flight.
Among reptiles may be mentioned the tortoise ; black, brown, green and striped snakes ; spotted adders ; lizards, and toads and frogs of many varieties.
In the mid-summer and autumn, when the songs of the birds are hushed, the cricket and katy-did make field and woody copse resound with their weird music.
Trout, pickerel, horn-pouts and minnows inhabit the streams and ponds.
Spiders and insects *. too numerous to mention, abound. Some of them are pests and nuisances like the Colorado beetle, while others, as the honey bee and butterfly, combine usefulness and beauty.
To these may be added the vibriones, bacteria, bacillii, animalculae, and possibly that other microscopic family, the protista, if these may be called animals.
*Some of the insects : Beetles,- long-horned, water, whirling, flat-boring, snapping, death- watch or ticking ; fire flies, Dorr bugs, rose bugs, weevils, cucumber bugs, squash bugs, grass- hoppers and locusts or harvest flies, house and horse flies, dragon flies or devil's needles, saw flies, mosquitos, aphides, ants, wasps, hornets, bees of various kinds, butterflies, moths, caterpillars, cut-worms, canker worms, apple and meal worms.
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Industries and Shoemakers' Shops.
CHAPTER VII.
MISCELLANEOUS.
INDUSTRIES.
SIXTY years ago or more coopering was quite an important business. Lumber was plenty, and beef, pork, fish and cider barrels were manufactured in large quantities.
Cider-making was also extensively carried on in those days, and almost every farmer was careful to store in the autumn a goodly number of barrels of the enlivening beverage in his cellar. It was customary not only to use it freely in the family but also to " treat " with it at that time, and that one who was dilatory enough to be the last of the family to appear in the morning was doomed to be tapster. Something of the exces- sive use of cider may be gleaned from the remark of a farmer of this period who said, "I put eighty barrels into my cellar last fall, and I had them all washed out by the first of March." Times have changed, and now there are very few who keep it even for their own use.
After coopering came the hop-raising epoch, then the fruit and dairy business flourished for a time, followed by the milk and fruit business which engrosses the attention of the farmers at the present time. Small fruits have very recently become important. Most of the farmers are engaged in the production of milk for the Boston market.
SHOEMAKERS' SHOPS.
Fifty or sixty years ago shoemakers' shops might have been found in Boxborough where the business was carried on to
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Boxborough : a New England Town and its People.
some extent. At Reuben Houghton's shoes were manufactured and five or six hands were employed; also at Samuel and Nathaniel Mead's help was employed.
MILLS, SHOPS, MANUFACTORIES, ETC.
In the early days before the railroad there was an oil mill, Phinehas Stone, afterwards Benjamin Draper, proprietor, situated on Maurice Griffin's place. Later Reuben Draper owned a wheelwright and blacksmith's shop, and Ephraim Robbins, a grist mill, which he had built, -on the John Griffin farm. The mill was afterwards owned by Stillman Whitcomb, a brother of Peter Whitcomb who subsequently came in possession of it. The mill interest was probably given up about that time. There was also a wheelwright and black- smith's shop on the hill for many years, occupied by Geo. L. Peters, - who was living then in Mr. Crouch's house which he built, - and a blacksmith's shop on the spot where the Orthodox parsonage now stands, in which Mr. Wheeler did business.
. A saw mill and a shingle mill once flourished above John. Sherry's, on the brook flowing from the mill-pond situated where now are the smooth green acres of Horse Meadow.
A comb factory existed at the Silas Hoar place for a good many years, and at Charles Veasie's, William Emmons had a piano manufactory. Simon Draper had a shop for getting out piano stuff on the hill. It stood on a spot between where Mr. Lyman Mead's house and barn now stand.
Mr. Edmund Fletcher, living on the Littlefield farm, was a pork-packer, and carried on his business at that place.
STORES.
Somewhere about 1830, before West Acton was, and when the neighboring villages were in their infancy, Captain Lyman Bigelow was proprietor of an old store on the hill, situated where Mr. William Moore's carriage house now stands. It was the largest one for miles around and was patronized from far and near, citizens of Acton, Littleton and Harvard coming to it to do their trading. In those days it
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Stores.
was the custom - and Captain Bigelow's was no exception to the rule -- for first class country stores to keep, in addition to a large variety of other articles, a goodly stock of liquors, thus doubtless increasing the number of their patrons.
Sometime before Captain Bigelow's proprietorship, Mr. Goodenough kept store, and also Mr. Hapgood ; Mr. Hapgood was killed by the accidental discharge of a gun in his doorway, and Captain Bigelow purchased the business. probably keeping the old stand for a short time. He afterwards built a new store. Captain Bigelow was succeeded in the mercantile business by George B. Talbot, Lyman Waldo Bigelow, William Pitt Brigham, E. B. Cobleigh, Lyman Mead (about 1854), and others, but the store was finally given up about thirty-five years ago. The new store building situated on the original site is now Mr. Moore's barn. The upper floor of the building in former days was used as a hall, and the old people of today - the younger generation then -smile as they tell you of the many dances they have attended in it.
There was also a store for a short time, where Mr. Braman now lives, kept by Mr. Solomon Hager; and another situated in the corner of the pasture opposite the house where the Steele Brothers now reside, of which Samuel Hayward was proprietor. These were both grocery stores simply, the latter one doing business many years. Mr. Hayward's store building was finally removed to West Acton in 1845, where it became Mr. Faulkner's house.
WOMAN'S WORK AND DUTIES NOW AND FIFTY YEARS AGO.
" Forenoon and afternoon and night. Forenoon and afternoon and night. Forenoon and afternoon and - What ! The empty song repeats itself. No more? Yea, this is life. Make this forenoon sublime ; This afternoon a psalm ; this night a prayer, And time is conquered and thy crown is won."
If the idea advanced by the poet is correct then there is no material difference between woman's work and duties now and fifty or a hundred years ago. We fill the whole time with work
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Boxborough : a New England Town and its People.
or duty of some kind, and as the poem has it, the hours and days, and years, repeat themselves, -and this is life. And yet there are differences in some departments of woman's work and duties of which we may speak. Fifty years ago our mothers did not have as much sewing to do as do we, or at least they were sufficiently sensible not to do so much. Said a lady - one of our older citizens - in speaking upon this subject, " Fifty years ago my mother hired a dress-maker for the day,- and I think the remuneration at that time was about seventy- five cents, - and she cut and basted four dresses such as were then worn, within that time, and did it all by hand, having no help whatever in her work except what aid was rendered by one member of the family in the way of basting on piping cord." In this wonderful last decade of the nineteenth century, the average dress-maker requires the whole day, at the expense of one dollar and a quarter or more, to cut and plan one dress. and she inveigles all the ladies of the household into her work- room, and keeps them supplied with folds, puffs, tucks, cuffs. collars, etc., etc., besides calling to her assistance a New Home. Hartford, or Wheeler and Wilson sewing-machine. Now we do not wish to acknowledge that we are less active or energetic - in other words, less smart -than our fore-mothers, and so unable to do as much work in the same time, and therefore we conclude and say they did not put as much work into a dress. ordinarily, fifty years ago as they do today.
Half a century ago the women of the household were up betimes setting and skimming milk, churning the cream, work- ing and putting up butter, making cheese, washing pans and pails, etc. Nowadays, a certain number of milk-cans are left at the housewife's door each day to be washed and placed on the rack to dry, and that is about all that most of us know of the dairy business. Fifty years ago, all the knitting for the household was done by the women's active fingers. Now the greater part of our family hosiery is obtained from the machine-knit products of the dry-goods counter.
There was some weaving performed by the housewife fifty years ago ; coarse fabrics, such as frocking, cheese and strainer-
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Woman's Work Fifty Years Ago.
cloth, were woven in the household. Even these are now, - as well as all other stuffs. - obtained from the factory looms.
At the beginning of the last half century, the washer- woman wearily turned and twisted and wrung the clothing from tub to tub, until hands and wrists ached with the opera- tion ; now, she quietly places the Eureka, or Universal. clothes- wringer on the side of her tub, presses her liege lord into service, finishes her washing betimes, and, comparatively unwearied, goes out and plays a game of croquet or lawn-tennis before dinner.
Fifty years ago the kitchen stove of a warm summer's day, or any other day for that matter, might be seen covered with kettles, - kettles for meats, kettles for vegetables, kettles for puddings, kettles for water; in short, no end of kettles to be lifted, cleaned and carried away, exhausting woman's time and strength ; now, a three-story steamer on one corner of the range and a water-tank upon the back part of the same take the place of all these inconveniences. Outdoor farming imple- ments have improved in even greater ratio.
When the Lyceum first began in Boxborough, the gentle- men. for the most part, took whatever active parts were taken in it. One of the first questions for discussion was this: " Resolved, that the rich man is more independent than the poor man." Mr. Solomon Hager took the affirmative, and Mr. Samuel Mead the negative side of the question. Mr. Hager won the argument. This little incident would show that although woman's work and duties have changed somewhat within the last fifty years, men's ideas have not, altogether, for that question would doubtless be decided in just the same way today. Beside the Lyceum, a half century ago. there were a few balls, two or three spelling-schools, and perhaps a singing- school to be attended. The programme for 1891 is something like this : Eighteen or twenty regular Grange meetings, twelve or fifteen sociables. two or three Y. P. S. C. E. entertainments. a dozen or so District Grange meetings, half a dozen Mission- ary meetings, besides occasional gatherings of other kinds ; and
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Boxborough : a New England Town and its People.
for these must be prepared, - a reading for the Grange evening, a recitation for the sociable. music for the Y. P. S. C. E .. a report for the Missionary meeting, an essay for the District Grange, etc., etc. These duties, - or shall we call them simply works ?- take the time and the strength of the women of today, whereas fifty years ago they scarcely were called upon for such work at all. These things, together with the duties of the home circle, at the present time, make the life of woman
a very busy one. Today there is hardly any occupation .or profession of importance to which man aspires that woman may not attain. if she be only willing to work for it. And those women who are at liberty to take such positions, no doubt consider that in accepting them they are not only doing their work but their duty as well. But any position worth achieving, any work worth accomplishing, requires steady, persistent effort on the part of the one who would win the race.
" No temple ever rose from base to dome, A dream embalmed in stone, without slow toil And patient hand ; * * * Divinity Has set its seal upon brave souls, 'free will,' That means they may achieve, create, subdue, And stand preeminent, the arbiters Of Fate and not her slave."
POST-OFFICE.
Sometime in the early part of the present century, through the efforts of Rev. Nathaniel Fletcher, - who formerly resided upon the D. W. Cobleigh place, and who died in 1834 while filling the position of selectman, - the benefits of a post-office were conferred upon the people of Boxborough. At first it was established in Captain Lyman Bigelow's store and Captain Bigelow was postmaster. He was succeeded in this position by his son-in-law, George B. Talbot, his son Lyman Waldo Bigelow, then by a nephew of Mr. Talbot, and William Pitt Brigham. Afterwards the post-office was removed to Mr. Jerome Priest's, with Oliver Wetherbee postmaster, who retained the position until the office was given up. After a time by a union of forces the Boxborough office was removed
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Lyceums.
to the village of West Acton, and thus was made to serve for both places, the Boxborough mail, for some slight consideration, being sent on to that place by some one of her citizens. The branch office at different times was stationed at James R. Hayden's, Mr. Jackson's, (Peter Whitcomb place ), Mr. Felch's and Mr. Walter Mead's.
Fifty or sixty years ago Mr. Haradon drove the old stage- coach from Concord to Harvard, and bringing the mail-bag deposited it at the house of Nathaniel Mead, whence it was taken by Captain Bigelow to the office in his store. Later Mr. Bridge of Harvard carried it with his four-horse stage, which afterwards degenerated to a two-horse one, and finally was discontinued altogether as the railroad made its appearance. At last, no one wishing to be troubled with the care of the mail, it was no longer sent to Boxborough, but West Acton became the office for both places.
LYCEUMS.
Between fifty and sixty years ago, the old Lyceum held its meetings in the town hall. Captain Lyman Bigelow was president, Samuel Mead, vice-president, and Mr. Wood, secretary. Here the town's people met together. Here the citizens made their maiden speeches or gave utterance to their more finished flights of oratory. Later a young people's Lyceum was organized which held its meetings at No. 1 school-house, but this was neither so well attended nor so far-reaching in its influence as the other.
Nov. 27, 1852, a Debating Club was organized with the following officers : Oliver Wetherbee, president; Granville Whitcomb, vice-president; S. W. Draper, secretary; Eliab G. Reed, treasurer; Luke Blanchard, Reuben M. Draper and Lyman Mead, directors. Ladies were admitted to the Club as honorary members. Thirty-seven names appear upon the records of this society, which held its meetings only until Jan. 1855. Questions of world-wide interest were freely discussed by disputants appointed at a previous meeting ; among them we notice the names of many of the older citizens of today.
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Boxborough : a New England Town and its People.
An interesting occurrence in connection with this short- lived organization was a Tea Party which was given in 1853. E. G. Reed. Luke Blanchard, Mrs. A. A. Reed and Miss Caroline Blanchard were chosen a committee to superintend the affair. The committee reported a balance in their hand, over and above all expenses, of $109.93, and it was forthwith voted to have a singing-school ; also. a committee was chosen to hire a master and superintend the opening of said school the following November.
During the time that Rev. N. Thompson was pastor of the Congregational church (1876-1881), another Lyceum was organized. It was the outcome of the Historical Society which had previously been formed through the influence of Mr. Thompson and his wife. The meetings of this society were held at the parsonage. The following names were on its membership list : Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, Mr. and Mrs. G. F. Conant, Mr. and Mrs. Willard Blanchard, Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Orendorff, Mr. and Mrs. R. Y. Nelson, Cornelia Hayward, Clara Hamilton, Mary E. Hager, and Clara and Quincy Hay- ward. With the thought in mind that perhaps an organization like the Lyceum would benefit a larger number, it was decided to merge the society in the Lyceum and the change was effected one evening at the vestry at a meeting of the Ladies' Circle. This last Lyceum flourished for a few years and then the interest flagged and the meetings finally ceased. Its place is very well supplied at present by the Grange.
MILITARY COMPANIES.
Many years ago the "Slam Bang Company " was an insti- tution in Boxborough. Mr. James Hayward of West Acton was a captain in this company, also Oliver Taylor, Sr., and Oliver Taylor, Jr. The official titles of many of the older residents indicate their probable connection with it. In later times the " Boxborough Light Infantry Company " absorbed the interest of her patriotie young men. It was organized about 1838 or '40, with the following commissioned officers : captain, Varnum Taylor; 1st lieutenant. Wm. Pitt Brigham ;
Public Library.
2d lieutenant, John Wetherbee: 3d lieutenant. Solomon Hager; and 1st sergeant, Levi Stevens. Gayly equipped in their blue broadcloth uniforms and white epaulets. they pre- sented a pleasing sight as they met annually for their three days' training.
An amusing anecdote is related of this company. Captain Taylor having resigned, the captainey was tendered Mr. Brig- ham. the 1st lieutenant. He having declined the honor, the remaining officers were passed by and the position offered to Corporal Dustin, a non-commissioned officer, who accepted it. One day, having promised to parade with his company on Harvard Common, Captain Dustin started out with them: but upon arriving at Harvard line they refused to stir a step farther. Enraged at this behavior he marched them over every road in town as far as the boundary line before he dismissed them.
PUBLIC LIBRARY.
March 16, 1891, the town passed a vote availing them- selves of the provisions of the Acts of the Legislature of 1890. Chapter 347, for promoting the establishment of a Free Public Library. They appointed Mr. A. W. Wetherbee and Miss Mabel B. Priest trustees for one year. Mr. J. HI. Orendorff and Mrs. Charles H. Burroughs for two years, and Mr. Albert Littlefield and Mrs. Simon B. Hager, for three years, and appropriated a sum of money sufficient to meet the State requirement, also one hundred dollars for general library purposes. At a meeting of the trustees, Mr. Littlefield was chosen chairman, Mrs. Hager, secretary, JJ. II. Orendorff, Mrs. C. HI. Burroughs and Miss M. B. Priest, finance committee. J. H. Orendorff. A. W. Wetherbee and A. Littlefield, library committee, and Mrs. J. H. Orendorff, librarian. One hundred and eighty-six volumes have been placed in the Library Room at J. H. Orendorff's in charge of the librarian, and there is a sum of money - about seventy dollars, a part of it the contribution of the Grange - in finance committee's hands for the purchase of more books.
NAA DARTA
it's wor st, but the deathsions because ofle of wearingon for the pupils and Triviaings of the school. May 1. 1891. They held theft Not only the finer pupils with thews families and friends, This gnosis from all parts of the Youn work present and paytm ipated in the bonntiful collations at noon.
חוזהאין לגנואה
I ntim ars bage the heages of Them
And binds were brok athons with
Aral Nature's voice was furstays and sian
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Magazine 'luke.
This gladsome day its fulness yields We list the music of the rill ; The sweet May blooms are in the helds, We've but to stoop our hands to fill The twentieth year ! and sunny days Have been, as are the flowers of spring, As freely given along out ways With hope and gladness blossoming
Today, from homes afar and neat, The books and states all left behind, We come to join this May day cheer, Assured we shall a welcome and. Around the well-filled board we meet, Glad reminiscentes prolong, Take once again the pupil's seat, While well known voices blend in song
But through the branches of the trees, The leafy grove our hands have set, Is borne upon the quiet breeze, A whisper we may not forget;
" We're not all here! We're not all here!" Ay, broken is our merry band ; This is, indeed, the twentieth year, And two have passed them o'er the strand.
They've entered in a higher class, While parents, teachers, scholars, wait , No more we'll meet them, till we pass The ever inward turning gate. Again the zephyrs call anon ; "The Twentieth Year lifts up her voice : Learn well thy task ; the victory won, Within thy Father's house, rejoice."
MAGAZINE ( HORS,
A Magazine Club was organized September 1879, which has been in successful operation down to the present time. Mr. 1. W. Wetherbee is president, and Mrs. J. H. Orendorf, secretary. Their periodicals, Atlantic, Scribner's, Century, SI. Nicholas, Harper's, Forum and Independent, are each passed to some one member to be kept for a specified time and then passed on to another for the same length of time until all have had the reading of them. Each citizen pays one dollar and a half a year for the privilege of becoming a member.
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Borborough : a New England Town and its People.
Through the influence of Mrs. N. Thompson and Miss Minnie Burroughs, a Juvenile Club was organized a year ago, which has a membership of eighteen young people and is doing a good work. The fee is only twenty-five cents a year and the very best juvenile literature is taken. Miss Burroughs has charge of it.
GRANGE.
Order Patrons of Husbandry. Hon. O. HI. Kelley now of Florida originated it Dee. 4, 1867, in Washington, D. C. The order rapidly increasing spread throughout our country and even into the British provinces, gathering a large membership.
Boxborough Grange No. 131 was organized in March 1886, and held its first regular meeting March 11, of that year. Mr. A. Littlefield was chosen master, Mr. J. H. Orendorff, over- seer, Miss Mabel B. Priest, lecturer, and Mrs. J. H. Orendorff, secretary. Mr. Littlefield was followed by S. B. Hager and A. M. Whitcomb in the master's chair; Messrs. C. T. Wether- bee, S. B. Hager, W. H. Furbush and A. M. Whitcomb have served as overseers ; Miss M. E. Hager, Mr. C. T. Wetherbee and Mr. A. Littlefield have filled the lecturer's position and Mr. J. H. Orendorff, Miss M. E. Hager, Miss M. B. Priest, A. M. Whitcomb and Miss N. S. Loring, have held the office of secretary.
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