USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Winchester > History of Winchester, Massachusetts > Part 32
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Another matter in which the Fortnightly undertook the edu- cation of a negligent town was the danger offered by the pest of gypsy and browntail moths in 1904. It organized a house to house canvass of the town and saw to it that every citizen and every
1 Winchester Star, March 30, 1900.
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owner of unoccupied land was awakened to the seriousness of the situation. For its foresight and its active leadership in so many movements for the protection and improvement of the community, Winchester should always be grateful to the Fortnightly Club.
The Club has never possessed a house of its own. It has had rooms and meeting halls in various buildings of the town, and met for a time in the town hall itself. For a number of years its quarters have been in the Waterfield Building on Church Street.
The Winchester Country Club had its beginnings as early as 1897, when a number of young men interested in the then rather unfamiliar game of golf formed a club and hired for a golf course a tract of vacant land belonging to Edwin Ginn along Pond Street and Woodside Road in the neighborhood of Horn Pond. Rev. J. W. Suter was the president of this club, George G. Kellogg, William D. Sanborn, William D. Richards, Franklin L. Hunt and Edgar J. Rich were its executive committee. The little club pros- pered, its membership increased rapidly, as the charms of golf became understood, and in 1902 it was able to move to a more spacious and attractive location. The Winchester Country Club was incorporated with Mr. Suter still its president, and the new Club purchased the Stephen Swan estate on Cambridge Street at the Arlington-Winchester line. A course of nine holes was laid out and the Swan house, a substantial and soundly built country resi- dence, then some sixty years old, served as a clubhouse. During its formative years the Club owed a very great deal to Mr. Marshall W. Bouvé, its vice-president. He had the executive responsibility for the preparation of the original nine-hole course and the adapta- tion of the Swan house for the purposes of the Club, and the work was admirably done under his direction.
The story of the Club has been one of constant expansion and improvement. The old Swan house still remains the nucleus of its social accommodations, but so much has been added to it in the way of dining rooms, locker rooms and social rooms that it is now the smallest part of a rambling clubhouse, which for all its lack of compactness has managed, through the skill of the architect, Mr. F. Patterson Smith, to maintain a kind of harmony and a definite charm. The great barn of the estate, connected by various addi-
VIEW FROM THE COUNTRY CLUB GOLF COURSE
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tions with the house, has been converted into a delightfully unusual hall for dances and other festivities. The characteristic interior structure of an old New England barn has been preserved, but adapted with fine taste to the new purposes which the building serves.
Long ago the golf course was extended to eighteen holes over land purchased by the Club. Donald Ross was the architect, which is a guarantee of the high character of the course as a test of a golfer's skill. The holes pass over a rolling, rather hilly country, well, but not too well, wooded, and from the highest parts of the course there are lovely views of the Mystic Lakes and the Middle- sex Fells in the distance. The Winchester course is admitted to be one of the three or four finest about Boston.
Rev. Mr. Suter remained president of the Club till 1913, when Mr. Samuel J. Elder succeeded him for two years; then for twenty years the Club had the good luck to have the same president, Mr. John Abbott, and the same treasurer, Mr. Joseph L. S. Barton, and it is to the diligence and intelligent care of these two men above everything else that the Club owes its unusual character. Mr. Erastus B. Badger is now its president.
Boating has always been a popular pastime in Winchester, for the town possesses abundant opportunities for its enjoyment. In the earlier days - the fifties, sixties and seventies of the last cen- tury - Wedge Pond seems to have been the favorite scene for aquatic sports, but in later times, and especially since the intro- duction of the sailing canoe, the wider reaches of the Upper Mystic Lake have been preferred. In the late eighties the Shu-shu-ga Canoe Club was formed by a few enthusiasts, including H. Dudley Murphy, Robert and George C. Coit, Henry and William D. Richards and the brothers Shattuck, Appolonio, and Holt.
The Club built a small house on the bank of the Aberjona opposite the Wedgemere station, a little way above the entrance of the river into the lake, and laid the foundations for the enjoy- ment of one of the most delightful of summer sports by the young people of Winchester.
The interest in canoeing increased with the years, and the necessity for a larger and better equipped club became apparent.
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In the summer of 1900, therefore, the Winchester Boat Club was organized. A group of gentlemen, including George Adams Woods, J. Murray Marshall, Robert Coit, Herman Dudley Murphy, Sumner T. McCall and T. Price Wilson, took the necessary steps to secure land on Cambridge Street bordering the cove of the Upper Mystic Lake below the aqueduct, and to erect a clubhouse of which Mr. Coit was the architect. Mr. D. Nelson Skillings was the first president of the Club, Mr. Carl Siedhof the first secretary and Mr. Murphy the captain of the fleet. The house was finished and dedicated on May 30, 1901, on which date the first club regatta for canoes both with and without sails was held.
WINCHESTER BOAT CLUB
The Club was ambitious enough in its first year to challenge the Royal Canoe Club of England in the single sailing canoe races held at Langston Harbor on the South Coast, and Mr. Murphy was sent to England to represent the Club in the races of August 1901. He upheld the colors of the new club with credit, but returned without the Challenge Cup.
Ever since its inception the Boat Club has been a popular Winchester institution, especially among the young people, for canoeing, both with paddle and sail, upon the waters of the beautiful Upper Mystic Lake is one of the most delightful of summer sports.
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Every year there are at least three club regattas, on Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day, besides a succession of week-end races through the summer. The Club maintains cordial relations with the Medford Boat Club at the southern end of the lake and often meets its neighbors in friendly rivalry.
Float nights and water carnivals are picturesque social events that from time to time occur, dances at the clubhouse are frequent, and there are tennis courts for those who wish to pursue their athletic exercise on the land as well as the water.
Early in the life of the Club the Mystic Challenge Cup, a silver trophy procured by subscription among some of the citizens of Winchester, was put into competition. It is offered for single canoes under sail, and it was originally stipulated that it should always be sailed for on the waters of Upper Mystic Lake. A time came, however, when interest in that sport declined so far in Win- chester that there were no challengers from among the club mem- bers. It became the practice for holders of the cup to accept chal- lenges on other waters. The Mystic trophy has been raced for on the Charles River Basin in Boston, at a number of places among the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence and on Lake Pocotopaug in Connecticut. It is one of the most coveted and most hotly con- tested trophies in American canoeing.
In mentioning the social organizations that have given color to Winchester life the Winchester Orchestral Society which flour- ished between 1909 and 1917 must not be forgotten. Mr. W. H. W. Bicknell, the famous artist, was the begetter of this interesting organization, which for eight seasons entertained the Winchester public with a succession of concerts in which the best of music was very creditably performed by a band of amateur musicians, all or nearly all, residents of the town. The orchestra project was sup- ported by a local organization of which Mr. J. Herbert Dwinell was the president. The band numbered about thirty performers, and under the baton first of Mr. John Little and later of Mr. S. Henry Hadley and Mr. Henry Eichheim it brought home to its audiences the grandeurs and the charms of the music of Mozart, Handel, Beethoven, Schubert, Haydn, Wagner and a score of lesser geniuses. In 1917 it became necessary to bring the concerts
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to an end for financial reasons, the Society being unwilling to exist any longer on the generosity of a few public-spirited citizens who had been meeting the annually recurring deficits. The best music is still a luxury for which few American communities are willing to tax themselves.
Winchester is not without its flourishing musical organization, however, for in 1929 the Choral Society was formed, with Mr. J. Albert Wilson as its director. The Society, which numbers about one hundred voices, gives two or three concerts of high artistic quality every season to audiences which fill the town hall. Mr. Wilson still remains (1936) its very capable conductor.
The Winchester Art Association was formed in 1932 with the object of encouraging an appreciation of the beauties of art in the community. Mr. Marcus B. May was its first president; on his. death within a year, Mr. Henry S. Chapman succeeded him. The Association provides monthly exhibitions of paintings, sculpture, drawings or etchings in the excellent art gallery in the Public Library Building and occasional lectures on subjects connected with art. The most distinguished artists of Boston and its vicinity have shown their work in Winchester under the auspices of the Association. Mr. Charles H. Watkins is now (1936) its president.
In recent years the drama has attracted the talented young people of Winchester with excellent artistic and financial success. There are flourishing dramatic societies connected with both the Congregational and Unitarian churches, which give two or three plays every season in the parish house halls of those churches. The performances are well attended and uniformly excellent. More lately a Theatre Group has been organized which presents equally well-acted plays in the high school auditorium.
The A. D. Weld Post No. 148 of the Grand Army of the Republic was formed in 1872. Its charter bears the date of May 22. There were twenty-two charter members, led by the name of Dr. Frederick Winsor. The first commander was John T. Wilson. Its original hall was on the top floor of the Lyceum Building, but when the town hall was built, a room was planned for the Grand Army on the third floor of that building, and that room the Post occu- pied until its dissolution in 1932 at the death of its last member,
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James A. Dunnell. Daniel W. Kimball, a former member of the Post, was still living in Winchester in 1936, the last survivor of the Civil War in the town.
During the earlier years of its history the Post not infrequently promoted lectures by distinguished speakers. Many of them were on topics connected with the Civil War, delivered by officers who had acquired fame in the field; but once at least the G. A. R. went far afield and brought to Winchester Charles A. Bradlaugh, the famous English free-thinker and Member of Parliament.
The Post, so long as its membership was adequate, conducted the annual Memorial Day services, including the decoration of the graves of deceased veterans. There was always an impressive pro- cession to Wildwood Cemetery, and for many years a memorial address was delivered there by a speaker, often of wide reputation. Year by year, however, the ranks of the G. A. R. were thinned by death, and much of the responsibility for the Memorial Day observance was gradually taken over first by the Sons of Veterans and since 1920 by the American Legion Post which now conducts it. The last commander of the A. D. Weld Post was Henry Smalley who died in 1924.
The John T. Wilson Camp, Sons of Veterans, was organized in 1915 and for many years led a useful and sturdy existence. J. Irving Johnson was its first commander. The Camp is now dormant.
Post No. 97 of the American Legion was formed June 10, 1919 when one hundred and fifty service men met in the town hall, effected a temporary organization and voted to apply to the state headquarters of the Legion for a charter. At this meeting John O'Melia was elected commander, Charles N. Eaton vice-com- mander, Henry Donovan adjutant, Daniel F. Hanlon financial officer, James W. Blackham historian and Murray W. Dewart chaplain. These officers became permanent when the Post was officially constituted a few weeks later.
By the end of the year the membership of the Post was above three hundred, and it has always been one of the active and pros- perous Legion Posts in Massachusetts. For two years it maintained rooms in the Brown and Stanton Block and held its meetings in the town hall. At the town meeting of March 21, 1921 it was voted
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to give the use of the Cutting house, which stands on Washington Street between the town hall and the public library, and which had for several years been town property, to the Post as a Legion house; $1,200 was appropriated to make such alterations and repairs as were necessary to fit the building for that purpose. The house was ready for occupancy in late September 1921 and was dedicated on October 8. On this occasion there was a military and civic parade, to which a number of the merchants and community organ- izations contributed handsomely decorated floats. At the conclu- sion of the parade there were brief exercises at which Chairman Joseph A. Dolben of the Board of Selectmen turned the house over to the Legion, and Commander William E. Ramsdell accepted it for the Post. The day ended with an outdoor carnival on the grounds surrounding the house, with booths or tables presided over by rep- resentatives of the Legion Posts, the Fortnightly Club, the En Ka and Sigma Beta sororities, the Legion Auxiliary, the Winton Club and the Catholic Daughters of America.
The Post has continued to occupy this house ever since 1921, and finds it a cheerful and attractive home. On February 28 and March I the Legion, in association with the Fortnightly, held a very successful bazaar in the town hall to raise money for sick and dis- abled soldiers; and on September 29, 1923 it gave an equally suc- cessful lawn carnival to procure funds for furnishing a memorial room in the Legion house in recognition of the young men of Win- chester who gave their lives in the World War.
The Legion Auxiliary, composed of women who are closely related to members of the Post, was organized in 1923, and main- tains an active and useful existence. There is also a chapter of the World War Mothers of New England. It was organized in October 1934 by Mrs. A. Beatrice Thompson and installed December 17 of the same year by Mrs. John H. Gilbody.
The Winchester society of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union was organized May 23, 1876. That was a time, as noted in a previous chapter, when the temperance movement both among men and women was taking on new life and energy, and the Win- chester society was distinguished from the first by its devotion to the cause of total abstinence and its activity in the campaign
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against strong drink. The first president was Mrs. Mary A. Sharon. Among her ten successors two are to be especially mentioned for their long years of service, Mrs. Almira Rowe who was for nine- teen years the president, and Mrs. Grace M. Hamilton who occu- pied the same post for twenty-five years - from 1906 to 1931. The names of both these ladies are inscribed upon the Book of Remem- brance at Evanston, Illinois, which contains the names of the women who have done conspicuous service in the cause of tem- perance. Mrs. Hamilton was for many years president of the Mid- dlesex County W. C. T. U.
The Winchester W. C. T. U. has always been a vigorous and devoted organization. It has had a fluctuating membership, which at times has reached to between one hundred and fifty and two hundred. It carried on an active propaganda for total abstinence in the town and prohibition in the nation; its victory dinner after the adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment was held in the vestry of the Congregational Church and was attended by more than two hundred and fifty women. The Union has always paid especial attention to temperance education among the school children, believing earnestly that the foundation for a temperate and moral life cannot too early be laid.
Mrs. Alfred W. Friend is at present (1936) the president of the Union.
The Boy Scouts of America, a branch of the famous world- wide organization founded by Sir Robert Baden-Powell, was estab- lished in 1910. Four years later it found a foothold in Winchester, where a Scout troop was organized by Robert W. Fernald, who became its scoutmaster. Troop I has preserved its organization ever since. It enjoys a peculiar distinction among the troops in Massachusetts, for no less than four of its members, Philip Hight, Stanley McNeilly, Henry Newman and Albert Cutter, have received awards for the saving of life. Each of these boys rescued a drowning person. "I know of no other troop in New England," wrote the secretary of the National Court of Honor to Francis E. Smith, scoutmaster of the troop, "which has such a record as this."1
Several other troops were organized in 1915 and they were 1 Letter of August 14, 1930.
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attached to the Mystic Valley Council of Boy Scouts when that council was established. The boys were active not only in their scout duties but in giving what service they could in war work. After the war there was a period when interest waned, and the organization was kept alive mainly through the devotion of Robin- son Whitten, scoutmaster of Troop III. But that moment passed, and scouting enjoyed an enthusiastic revival in Winchester. At present (1936) there are four active troops in the town, sponsored by the Congregational, Episcopalian and Baptist churches and the American Legion. The Scouts have bought the old stone building off South Border Road which Edward A. Brackett built years ago for a fish hatchery, and they use it for gatherings both of Scouts and officials. The Winchester troops have been since 1930 attached to the Fellsland Council which includes also the troops from Med- ford, Stoneham and Woburn. The Council owns a well-equipped camp on the Powwow River in Amesbury. It is the old Coombs farm and in addition to the venerable brick house, now nearly two hundred years old, which is used for administration purposes, there are a number of cabins and dormitories, sufficient to accom- modate one hundred boys. The camp is well filled all summer long, and a great variety of outdoor sports and nature studies are carried on there.
The Scouts have more than once been helpful in the search for children lost in the Middlesex Fells, and they are proud of the work they did in assisting in setting out the evergreen plantations at the South and Middle Reservoirs.
The Girl Scouts Council was formed May 18, 1917 at a meet- ing at the home of Mrs. Addison R. Pike who was the first com- missioner. Four troops were quickly formed, and the work of the organization went forward with enthusiasm. Like the Boy Scouts the girls have been always ready to give what help they could in civic and community enterprises. The number of troops has increased to eight, and there are also several "Brownie Packs" as the troops of smaller girls are called. The commissioners have been Mrs. Pike, Mrs. Charles H. Eastwick, Mrs. J. F. Ryan, Mrs. Howard J. Chidley, Mrs. Louis K. Snyder, Mrs. Clifton S. Hall, Mrs. Jan Friis and Mrs. James O. Murray.
The Girl Scouts have built a very attractive cabin which
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stands near Brooks Street on the land of the Brooks estate at the edge of the town. It is in constant use for troop meetings, officers' conferences and social gatherings, and in the summer the Scout Council conducts a day camp there, which offers to the girls of Winchester many of the attractions and advantages of a summer camp without leaving their homes. Visits to the famous Cedar Hill estate, which Mrs. Storrow presented to the Girl Scouts of the Boston district, are frequent and always enjoyable.
As a means of raising money for the maintenance of the troops, the Girl Scouts have revived the June Breakfast, once so pleasant a function in support of the Winchester Hospital, and the town hall is well filled on the day chosen for the fete. There were in 1936 about two hundred and fifty girls actively connected with the Scouts.
Free Masonry in Winchester dates from the formation of the William Parkman Lodge in 1864. The first step was taken by Abijah Thompson, 3d, who invited several brother Masons living in the town to meet at his house one evening in January of that year. A. K. P. Joy, Dr. William Ingalls, David N. Skillings and Josiah F. Stone responded. A second meeting on February 13 enlisted the attendance of several others, and a third meeting, on March 4, appointed Mr. Joy, Mr. Thompson and Dr. Ingalls a committee to apply to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts for a dispensation under which a local lodge could be formed. In due time the dispensation was granted, and on May 10 the new lodge was organized with A. K. P. Joy as Master and Josiah F. Stone and Abijah Thompson, 3d as Wardens. These gentlemen together with Cephas Church, Edward P. Boon, William Pratt, A. H. Field, Albert G. Lane, Henry C. Whitten, Philip Nolan, Samuel P. Bartlett and Oliver L. Wellington were the charter members. The permanent constitution of the lodge was held June 22, 1865 at its rooms on the top floor of the Lyceum Building in the presence of the officers of the Grand Lodge and a "large assembly of ladies and gentlemen." The lodge derives its name from William Park- man, Esq., who was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the State at the time the charter was granted.
The Masonic rooms remained in the Lyceum Building until
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1877, when, on the completion of the Brown and Stanton Block, they were removed thither where they have ever since remained.
By 1920 the number of brother Masons in Winchester had become so large that a second lodge was deemed advisable. A petition for a dispensation was addressed to the Grand Lodge and granted; under it the Mystic Valley Lodge of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons was organized April 8, 1920 with William M. Belcher, a Past Master of the William Parkman Lodge, as Master, and Amasa Harrington and Harris M. Richmond as Wardens. The constitution of the lodge, according to the ancient usage, occurred on December 30, 1920.
The Mystic Valley Lodge shares the Masonic apartments in the Brown and Stanton Block with the William Parkman Lodge.
In 1921 a Royal Arch Chapter was formed in Winchester, and there is also a strong chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star in existence.
It was more than forty years ago that the Independent Order of Odd Fellows instituted Waterfield Lodge, No. 231, in Winchester. The date was November 4, 1894. Benjamin T. Morgan was the first Noble Grand, and the charter members included Edwin Robin- son, Thomas S. Hoyt, Fred S. Scales, Theodore P. Wilson, James Mclaughlin, Havelock Erskine, Albert J. Young, W. D. Erskine, George E. Pratt and Jonas A. Laraway. Meetings of the lodge were originally held in the Masonic rooms in Brown and Stanton Block, and later in Lyceum Hall. In October 1927 the Odd Fellows bought the house on Vine Street formerly occupied by the Knights of Columbus. This was the old home of Dr. Frederick Winsor, which had once stood at the corner of Main and Mt. Vernon streets in the center, and had been moved by Dr. Winsor to its present location. It had of course been much altered and covered with a coat of stucco. The building was dedicated to the uses of Water- field Lodge in January 1928.
The lodge has had an uneventful but prosperous history. It has initiated three hundred and twenty-five members, of whom about a hundred are still united with it. There is also a flourishing lodge of the Daughters of Rebekah connected with the order.
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The Winchester Lodge of Elks, No. 1445 of the Order, was instituted May 10, 1922. John McNally was the first Exalted Ruler of the lodge. This organization, which is one of the most flourish- ing of all the social and benevolent orders, has always been strong and popular in Winchester, and the Emblem Club, which is its women's auxiliary, is no less active and beneficent. Both lodge and club have their meetings in Lyceum Hall. Mr. Fred H. Scholl of the local lodge has been District Deputy Grand Exalted Ruler of the order in Massachusetts.
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