USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Athol > History of Athol, Massachusetts > Part 40
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The Silver Lake Cemetery
In the season of prosperity following the Civil War the need
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of more burial ground for Athol became apparent. After con- sidering many locations the town came to mutual agreement that the tract of wood land west of Pinedale Road belonging largely to Mersylvia Twichell, with some five acres held by Asa Hill, was the most desirable spot.
Evidently Memorial Day was not generally observed in 1870 for at one o'clock in the afternoon of May 30 of that year, a town meeting was held and a committee of six appointed to negotiate for this land. The membership of this committee was Charles Field, Esq., Washington H. Amsden, John C. Hill, Lyman W. Hapgood, Lewis Thorpe, Enoch T. Lewis, and Lewis J. Whitney.
At the 1870 November election $2550 was appropriated and the Selectmen were authorized to take the deed for the town. A committee of six was chosen on April 3, 1871 to take full charge of developing the tract. So chosen were Thomas H. Goodspeed, Walter Thorpe, George T. Johnson, Lyman W. Hapgood, Nathaniel Y. Lord, and Charles L. Lord. By 1873 the committee had selected a landscape artist, Mr. Amasa Farrier, and in due time engaged Baldwin & Caswell as Civil engineers.
On March 6, 1876 the committee asked the town to make provision for a fence along the roadside and on motion of John C. Hill, $1500 was appropriated and the committee in- structed to build a good picket fence, well painted, with stone posts and a suitable gate. The wooden material for this fence was prepared at the James Monroe Cheney mill where the Union Twist Drill factory now stands and the workman doing most of the work was Mr. Charles H. Tyler, later a successful grocery merchant here. The labor of grading and landscaping was done under the supervision of Mr. Edmund J. Gage who was sexton in charge of the yard until his death.
The first body to be interred there was that of Mr. Elias Walker who died on May 5, 1875. At the dedicatory exercises allusion was made to another burial before the ground was completely prepared.
Dedicatory exercises were planned for May 10, 1877, but very inclement weather prevented any out-door exercises that day. The following day a considerable gathering of citizens assembled in the new cemetery where a well planned program was carried out as follows:
INVOCATION - Rev. A. F. Herrick Methodist SCRIPTURE READING - Rev. H. A. Blake Congregationalist HYMN - Athol Chorus led by W. S. Wiggins
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ADDRESS - Charles Field, Esq.
POEM - Rev. E. M. Bartlett
Baptist
PRAYER - Rev. L. Fay Baptist
BENEDICTION - Rev. E. P. Gibbs Unitarian
I well remember this occasion and the most pleasing im- pression made upon all present. In preparation of this page I have re-read the address of Esq. Field and have been as thrilled again as I was on that long ago day. In his remarks Mr. Field paid a fine tribute to two of the Committee who had died since the project was begun, Lyman W. Hapgood and Nathaniel Y. Lord.
After the dedication there was an auction sale of lots to any purchaser who would pay a premium for a special choice. At this sale lots were bought by T. H. Goodspeed, I. Y. Kendall, O. Kendall and son, Lucien Lord, J. S. Parmenter, F. C. Par- menter, Ethan Lord, L. K. Sprague, and the family of David Smith, the last named having already contracted for the monu- ment on their lot.
In 1909 the Cemetery Commissioners decreed that several acres of pine timber on the southerly side of this tract should be disposed of but an aroused citizenry decreed otherwise and that area was set off from the control of the Cemetery Depart- ment into the town's park system, it having previously acquired all the land bordering on Silver Lake not included in the cem- etery purchase.
When the town bought this land in 1870 it might well have put a sign on the road to Pinedale just north of the cemetery gate, "Ne Plus Ultra." Save for the Joel Young buildings there was nothing beyond until Fryville was reached. Gradually homes were built along that roadside until by the beginning of the second decade of this twentieth century, no stretch of the imagination was required to see the whole area north of the cemetery utilized for home sites. Then a far seeing citizenry reached out and took in 1921 by eminent domain a two story dwelling house and some twenty-two acres of land immediately north of the cemetery. The house was sold at auction and soon removed, surveys were made, and the whole area plotted. Ex- cept for the terrace northwest of the high land of the yard, no burial use has been made of it as yet.
In 1943 Mrs. Nellie H. Byron died and by her will she pro- vided a substantial sum for a memorial fountain in the cem- etery. Opinion was divided as to the advisability of accepting this but her wishes were complied with and in due time $10,687.22 was paid over to the town treasurer from her es-
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tate. A substantial portion of this was expended in building the elaborate fountain west of the main entrance while the re- mainder is held in trust to provide for its maintenance.
Throughout the eighty years since this cemetery was opened for general use the town has been most fortunate in the men chosen to care for the grounds. These men have been Edmund J. Gage, his son Monroe F. Gage, Henry W. Ashford, Minor D. Brown, and Ernest E. Litchfield. The last named received many compliments on Memorial Day, 1949 for the excellent appear- ance of the entire area.
The tomb in this cemetery was a gift by Mr. Daniel Bullard with the full approval of his wife, Polly (Bragg) Bullard. This couple resided on their little farm on Chestnut Hill where the pioneer Capt. John Haven first settled. To this couple were born two children, Mary Ann and Franklin Daniel, neither of whom ever married. Mary Ann resided with her parents until her death, but Franklin Daniel went afar in search of I know not what. He spent some years in Colorado and other parts of the then wild west. Eventually he returned to the old home- stead, broken in health, and soon died. Before his death he talked with his father telling him that he would make no will, thus leaving his entire estate under the law to his sire, but as the family exchecquer was not in need of any replenishment by him he desired that his father take his little estate and with it make some suitable gift to this his native town, "where it will do the most good."
The senior Mr. Bullard sought the advice of Charles Field, Esq. in all affairs incident to the closing of his son's estate, and was advised by Mr. Field that a modern receiving tomb in the then new cemetery would be a most useful and acceptable gift to the town. Thus it was soon arranged that the tomb was built, paid for by Mr. Daniel Bullard, and inscribed-
"Erected by Daniel and Polly Bullard in memory of Frank D. Bullard 1884"
Once or twice at the end of long and severe winters the vault has been taxed to capacity as it is the only available re- ceiving tomb under the town's control. As modern machinery makes digging in frozen ground a procedure no longer to be dreaded, there are more and more winter burials.
In a general way the foregoing lists all the burial places in town. Long ago the little cemetery in South Royalston was acquired by citizens of that area then in Athol, but a legisla- tive act of 1803 took this area from it and annexed it to Royal- ston.
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On the portion of Thrower Road running westerly towards White Pond Road is a small tract with some stone posts about it that was apparently once a burial place, but inquiry many years ago of Mr. Adoniram J. Fay, who was born a short half mile northwest of this place, brought to me the information that all bodies once interred there have been long since re- moved.
By the roadside less than a quarter of a mile east of the above named spot are two small graves which I was once told were the burial place of two Cummings' children but I have no more data. On the old Sprague farm at the corner of New Sherborn and Riceville Roads long ago lived a numerous fam- ily of that name. When one of the aged men of this family died around 1840 he was buried on that farm. When the fam- ily had all left town, they considered selling the old farm but first wanted to remove their dead. Mr. Henry Gray was at that burial and thought he could identify the spot but failed to do so. Because of this sentiment the family for two generations at least held title to the old farm but a later generation failed to agree among themselves and lacking much sentiment in the matter allowed the farm to be sold at tax sale. On that tax deed the present owners rely for a title.
On an isolated knoll on the farm of the Welfare Home are lonely unmarked graves of two who died in the almshouse dur- ing a small pox epidemic of 1870. In a fenced enclosure just off South Athol Road and not far from Flat Rock Road was buried William T. Oliver, who died in the small pox epidemic of 1902.
Undoubtedly through the years other isolated burials have been made but their identity is now unknown.
Management of Cemeteries
Soon after Silver Lake Cemetery was opened the town adopted a code of by-laws covering the management of all its cemeteries. Statute law seemed to decree three commission- ers, each elected for the term of three years. Athol did not adopt that statute but rather provided for five commissioners, each elected for the term of five years. Under that system the town is still operating. We will not attempt to enumerate the many faithful men who have served on this commission. True it is that they have functioned in a general way efficiently and have records that are of much value to all.
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An appropriation of $300 was made in 1895 to make plans of all the outlying cemeteries with the names of the burials so far as known. The bulk of that work was assigned to the author of these pages, who made complete plans of Chestnut Hill, Old Pleasant Street, Doe Valley, Stratton, and Fay Cemeteries. Exhaustive researches as to the identity of unmarked graves were made, and plans of each yard with a separate list of the graves so far as known were filed with the commission. Though the plans are still in existence they are all but useless for the lists of names are lost as is the notebook from which they were made.
Trust Funds
The Legislature of 1870 passed an enabling act whereby municipalities may accept Trust Funds to be invested and the income applied to the care of such burial lots as may be des- ignated in the act of donation.
No one seems to have availed himself of this privilege in Athol for some thirteen years after the enactment of this statute. In 1884 amending legislation was enacted which may have brought public attention to the provisions of the law.
On October 10, 1884 relatives of the Sylvanus and Mersylvia Twichell family tendered to the town a deposit of one hundred dollars, the income of which is to be perpetually applied to the care of the burial lot of that couple in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. At the next annual town meeting the town accepted the pro- visions of the statute.
From this beginning various funds have been deposited with our treasurer until at the last accounting on January 1, 1953, these trust funds aggregated $136,376. Decreasing interest rates on investments have materially reduced the annual in- come from these funds yet they seem to be annually applied to the care designated and thus contribute to the beauty of our burial grounds.
Customs of Burials
The father of this author, Gardiner Lord, Jr., has repeated- ly told of his experiences regarding funerals in his youth. In the attics of several homes in town were stored laying out boards about the size and shape of the bottom of an old fash- ioned coffin. When there was a death in the family, a boy was sent to borrow this board and kind neighbors did the lay- ing out. Then measurements were taken and the same boy or another was sent to Alden Spooner's Cabinet Shop at No.
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1665 Main Street to have a coffin made. Mr. Spooner pre- pared the lumber of necessary dimensions, bent the sides to conform to the usual coffin shape, built the coffin, stained it with linseed oil and lamp black, and in a few hours loaded it onto the wagon or sled by which the boy had come and sent him on his way. His charge of three dollars for a coffin was all the funeral expense as usually kind neighbors dug the grave without charge. If the official sexton was employed, another two dollars were added to the bill. In those days no outside boxes or cases were used.
Evidently in the later years of the eighteenth century some abuses crept into the procedure for on May 8, 1797 the town appointed a committee to "regulate funeral processions."
In the earlier days of the town a home made bier was the means of conveyance at funerals, except for long trips when a private wagon was used. But at length more formality was demanded and the town provided seventy-five dollars to buy a hearse and build a house for the same.
This vehicle has been described to me as having the form of an ordinary express wagon with a blacked canvas cover just high enough to admit of the coffin beneath it. Later the same year it was decreed that the hearse house be built on the cemetery south of the meeting house. This house was "also to contain a stock of ammunition." In 1821 it was voted to provide a seat on the hearse for the sexton "also to paint said hearse."
Nearly a half century later public sentiment demanded a more ornate vehicle for its dead. In 1867 the proposition was made to buy two hearses but the town decreed only one at an expense of "not over five hundred dollars," and in 1869 run- ners were provided for this vehicle.
In 1848, after the opening of Highland Cemetery, it was voted "if Calvin Kelton will move the Hearse house to the new burying ground, the town will release to him all right in the land where it now stands."
My information is that this was done and the hearse was for twenty years housed in a building just inside the entrance to Highland Cemetery, but at length the growing Lower Village demanded some consideration in this regard and arrangements were made to place the building on a small part of the present High School lot adjoining Main Street. There the new hearse was installed and there it was stored for thirty-five years. As this was the only vehicle in town clevoted exclusively to trans-
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porting the dead, the town officials made the rule that should there be a conflict of dates upon which the vehicle was desired, the use for the older deceased person should have priority. Occasionally the hearse at Royalston was borrowed but rarely was there demand which made it necessary to borrow from neighboring towns.
Changing customs were eventually felt here and in mid- summer of 1889 Mr. Willard Hager, the undertaker at the Center, purchased a new vehicle for use at funerals under his direction. One reason for this move was that the old hearse was too low under the driver's seat to admit of the modern casket. The town did not speedily dispose of its old vehicle but allowed it to remain in its house, available for any required use.
In the local celebrations following the democratic victory in 1892 and the second election of Grover Cleveland, some over zealous celebrators took the old vehicle from its house and placed in it an improvised coffin which they labelled William Mckinley, the author of a very controversial tariff law that was a campaign issue.
Justin W. Clayton, one of these celebrators then employed at the piano case factory, was appointed our Postmaster by Cleveland, and upon the election of Maj. Mckinley to the Presidency naturally much desired a re-appointment. Antag- onistic partisans saw to it that Mr. Mckinley was informed of the ride in effigy which he had taken in our 1892 celebration. Thereupon he emphatically stated that Justin W. Clayton could not be Athol's Postmaster after his then current term expired.
In 1903 as the vehicle had not been used for some years, the town gave the Selectmen permission to dispose of it and it was quickly sold. While the running parts became the mobile part of an express wagon, the body of the hearse was demol- ished. Following this sale the hearse house was quickly razed and the land allowed to revert to the High School lot.
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CHAPTER XXXI PUBLIC SERVICES
Athol Gas Light Company
1ALLOW candles and the sperm oil lamp were the only T means of artificial interior lighting for a century after Athol was first settled. Occasionally for large or more brilliant lights the pitch pine knot was resorted to.
The Civil War period saw the innovation of the coal oil lamp, but it was not until 1874 that any attempt was made to furnish a general supply for public use. In that year, Solon L. Wiley of Greenfield, with a natural interest in promotions, came on to the scene. Interesting a few local people in his enterprise he organized Athol Gas Light Company, with Adin H. Smith as President and himself as Secretary and Treasurer. A tract of land was acquired south of the lower end of South Street and a circular gas house erected. Gas mains were laid in the principal streets of the town and on November 12, 1874 gas was turned into them for the first time, supplying several public buildings and a few private residences with gas for lighting.
As the years went on the use of illuminating gas became in- creasingly popular. Mains were extended into other streets and most public buildings and many residences were lighted with gas. At length electric lighting was becoming a possibil- ity and the gas company quickly began to consider this devel- opment. There was talk pro and con. Augustus Coolidge, a forceful character here, said, "You install this as a permanent thing and you will soon have your streets as light as day." Adin H. Smith, President of the Gas Company, felt that every- thing should be done to encourage the company for "In a very few years you will have a light on Swan's Hill that will give light to the whole village as bright as the sun."
In the end a dynamo was set up in the C. M. Lee plant and several arc lights installed on a few of the main streets in town. Thus after a period of fourteen years since the beginning of gas light here, electric current was turned on for Athol's first electric street light on August 27, 1888.
Two years later, at the time of the "Water Suit" settlement, Mr. Willey sold his interests in his Gas Company to outside in-
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HISTORY OF ATHOL
vestors, who installed Fred R. Davis here as a local manager. About this time the company name was changed to Athol Gas & Electric Company.
There was disagreement then as to whether the town should turn to outside interests to furnish this utility or whether a municipal enterprise should be entered into. A committee consisting of Thomas H. Goodspeed, C. Fred Richardson, and Leroy C. Parmenter was appointed on October 31, 1890 to investigate the matter thoroughly. It was the opinion of this committee that the town be served by private interests and no municipal lighting plant was further seriously considered.
W. D. Lucy, George D. Bates, W. D. Smith, and Hollis M. Slate on January 1, 1899 purchased the Athol Gas & Electric Company. This they continued to operate under the same general policy for ten years adding to its facilities so that power was furnished to the new electric railway which they also owned.
On February 20, 1909 Wallace J. Webber acquired con- trolling interest in the Company. Mr. Webber installed his son, Paul Webber, as General Manager here and continued in control for some time. Previous to this there had been prac- tically no use made of electricity for interior lighting. The electric railway taxed the facilities of the plant to such an ex- tent that when a loaded car pulled up School Street Hill the lights were dimmed so as to be of little value, suddenly flar- ing up when the car stopped a moment. After Wr. Webber purchased the plant this condition was very speedily eliminated.
One of his activities was to purchase the water power at Wendell Depot and install his hydroelectric plant there which went into operation in June, 1910. This plant, completed at a reported cost of $200,000, continued to furnish power for the local needs until both the plant and the dam were swept away in the flood of 1938 since which time it has not been restored.
Preceding 1910 the street lights were operated on the so- called moon schedule. That is, they were only on when the moon did not give a reasonable amount of light over the town. But on December 3, 1909 Athol Post Office was visited by a group of gangsters and its contents stolen. To accomplish this the mobsters kidnapped the night street watchman-Frank W. Bannon, took him to the lockup, opened it with the police- man's key, and leaving him securely locked in the jail went resolutely on their way cleaning out the post office. Having had enough of dark streets, we promptly arranged for all night service. On December 4, 1909 the street lights were for the
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first time run on full night schedule which has continued ever since.
In the period succeeding 1910 high tension lines were quiet- ly installed bringing power in from Gardner to augment the local power and to prevent the fluctuation mentioned above. The final achievement of the company was in June, 1931 when a connection was made east of Royalston town with the hydro- electric power line which brings power from South Vernon, Vermont, into southern New England with transformers and distributors located at Chestnut Hill Avenue near Main Street. With this supply the town has been assured of adequate elec- tricity for all its needs.
The ownership of this local company passed to C. D. Parker and Company, investment bankers, and from them in mid- year 1930 the ownership was sold to the New England Power Company.
Succeeding Paul Webber as Superintendent of the Company, A. Abbott Laughton came here and was for some years the local representative. Subsequent to a period of considerable agi- tation as to the reduction of rates Mr. Laughton was removed by the Company to another location, and Mr. Edmond F. Leach installed as his successor in 1940. Mr. Leach continues to represent the company here in a most satisfactory manner.
On February 9, 1951, a merger was effected whereby the electric department of this company became a branch of Worcester County Electric Company and the gas department again incorporated into a separate unit named Athol Gas Com- pany. Except for these organization details no change is ap- parent in the conducting of these utilities.
Rumors persist that plans are laid for the introduction of natural gas here and to that end in 1950 before Main Street was resurfaced joints of the old mains were recalked.
The development of the gas company has not been marked. Electricity gradually curtailed its use for illumination, but in later years as a fuel it has been much more generally used.
Water Supply
In most sections of our town there was opportunity to go back into the hills to secure for individual homes a gravity supply of spring water. But in the entire Lower Village area around Main Street no such supply was readily available. The ground wells in this area were contaminated by human occu-
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pancy of the land and some method had to be found to supply the village with water.
We have but little data as to the early water supply but we do find references to the Mt. Hope Water Company which on May 1, 1867 installed a watering trough at the junction of Main and Exchange Streets. This company secured some spring or well rights on the so-called Partridge Lot west of Mt. Pleasant Cemetery and laid its pipes through Mt. Pleasant Street and Main Street, extending as far east as Exchange Street and southerly on that street to the Swan Market, which was for years at No. 91 Exchange Street.
Eventually the name of this company was changed or merged into the Mt. Pleasant Water Company, and the ownership was divided into twenty-five shares.
For years, even after the installation of the town water sys- tem, these rights were at a premium along the lower section of Main Street. Eventually the system proved inadequate for the increased needs of shareholders. The quality of the water supplied by the town's system was improved and the owners gradually lost their great enthusiasm for this private system. The pipes were becoming obsolete and the owners did not feel it advisable to rebuild the system. The result was that the service was abandoned in 1929. To John M. Swan the Par- tridge Lot was sold at auction, and the former owners relied entirely upon the municipal supply for their water service.
In 1876, two years after he promoted the organization of the Athol Gas Light Company, Mr. Solon L. Wiley had formed the Athol Water Company and entered into contract with our town. On June thirteenth a water system here was assured, the source of supply being the so-called Phillipston Reservoir east of Athol Almshouse. Four months later water was turned into the mains for the first time, thus inaugurating our munici- pal. water system on October 25, 1876. This event was cele- brated in November. The hydrants uptown were tested but their performance was somewhat of a disappointment as they did not throw water to any great height. In the afternoon those downtown were tested and proved satisfactory as they threw water higher than the steamers could. Orange Band furnished music throughout the day.
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