USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Acton > History of the town of Acton > Part 34
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1 The old ball field at the rear of what was then the Universalist parsonage.
2 Precinct 1: Edwin A. Phalen, J. Sidney White; Precinct 2: Charles M. Kimball, William Rawitser; Precinct 3: Edgar H. Hall, William F. Kelley.
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count, found that the motion to borrow had prevailed by the narrow margin of 114 to 112. With everyone in a state of nervous exhaustion a motion to adjourn passed amid wild shouts of relief.
During the weeks that the controversy was in progress the school committee1 being between the upper and the nether millstones, held protracted meetings and considered at length various alternatives. One envisaged packing the forty pupils into the single room at West Acton - a debatable procedure; another plan was to build on to the South school but this had two major objections; the high school ought not to be in the same building with the lower grades, and moreover the town had for ten years refused to act favorably on such a scheme. Consequently the board began to dicker with the Concord authorities for the absorption of the three upper classes while the first year, upon the suggestion of the town counsel, was to be taught at West Acton.
In making these advances the committee was taking into careful consideration the fact that the political pot was still boiling and that unless they were foresighted another town meeting could so disrupt things that September might arrive with no haven for the high school.
Their premonitions were amply sustained when on the evening of August 8th the third and final battle was waged with plenty of political fireworks. The opposition party had written into the warrant an article relating to the borrowing of the ten thousand dollars for the building of the high school. When the voting took place the authorization to borrow was defeated by 96 to 68.
Having thus put a quietus upon any building program the next question was to see if the town would pay the cost of transportation to another town. On this issue a motion to dismiss the article pre- vailed.
Then came the queerest twist in the whole performance. Article four was to see if the town would rescind the vote whereby it decided to build a high school. In the light of the temper of the meeting it seemed a foregone conclusion that this would carry easily but - lo and behold - the fickle electorate refused to rescind and decided to lay the matter on the table.
As a result of all this jockeying Acton was in the position of having voted to erect a high school building at or near the Centre but refusing to raise or borrow the money to make it possible. Back of this lay the submerged fact that certain groups were opposed to any high school unless it was conveniently located for them.
Since the school committee, suspecting such a situation might arise, had already made a tentative agreement with Concord, it was moved by Samuel Guilford that the town sustain such action. The
1 Charles J. Williams, Dr. Samuel A. Christie, Arthur F. Blanchard.
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motion failed by 83 to 95. Thereupon F. C. Nash moved that the school committee be sustained in sending the two upper classes to Concord. This likewise failed by 95 to 115.
During this amazing performance a number of the interested youth of high school age sat in the gallery and wondered whether or not they would ever see a diploma from Acton or any other place. They were rescued from this dilemma when Mr. Luther Conant arose and made it clear that in his opinion the parliamentary shenanigins had become a disgrace. He thereupon moved that the town instruct the selectmen to procure able counsel to defend itself and the school committee in any suit that might be brought against it. The motion passed by an overwhelming viva voce vote.
Thus ended the hectic summer of 1907. Pressed by state action from above and unsupported by any actual vote from the town the school committee sent the thirty six scholars of the upper three classes to Concord and put the freshman class at West Acton in charge of Miss McIntyre.1
If one wished to divide the history of the Acton High School into epochs one could say that the first epoch, the period during which there was a three year school, covered the span from 1886 to 1894; the epoch of the four year curriculum extended from 1895 to 1907; the third epoch, the Concord era began in the autumn of 1907 and terminated with the building of the present High School at Kelley's Corner in 1925-26.
Of the thirty six scholars sent to Concord four were seniors, namely, Annie Kinsley, Ella Baker, Elmer Wetherbee and Harold Phalen. This group was graduated the following June along with as many other natives who never had attended the local school. It can be said to the credit of the little Acton school that had just been strangled that the four mentioned above made records in every respect com- parable to those who had been at Concord all four years. Miss Kinsley secured a summa cum laude.
In connection with this transfer to Concord there was one item which although of no historical significance seemed important to the Acton group and their families at the time. Mr. George S. Miller, later to become vice-president of Tufts College for many years, but then a teacher of Physics at Concord, offered cups for excellence in debating for two successive years. Another was put up by someone else a third year. All three were won by Acton boys, namely, Harold Phalen, Leonard White, and Aurin Payson.2
The above was interjected merely as a side remark. The main
1 Beginning with September of 1913 all four classes were sent to Concord. 2 Leonard White has been for many years a professor at Chicago Uni- versity. Aurin Payson is the president of the American Thermos Bottle Company of Norwich, Conn.
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stream of the high school question was still rather murky. After having apparently solved the problem an opinion came down from the Attorney General, Mr. Dana Malone, in January of 1908 asserting that the set up at West Acton was unlawful. In the face of this dilemma it is not surprising that the school committee, wearied and disgusted, vented a bit of spleen by inserting in the town report the following paragraph which shows all the earmarks of the literary style of the chairman, Charles J. Williams.1
"When the state Board of Education is not engaged in the serious labor of collecting statistics, it not infrequently oc- cupies itself in doing, or attempting to do, an injury to the public schools. Hence the fact that the town was, this year, very near to losing temporarily at least its proportion of the income of the Massachusetts school fund, amounting to about $1,100.00, and would have done so but for the good offices of the superintendent of schools."
This splurge was deleted by vote of the next annual town meeting but Mr. Williams had characteristically spoken his piece and the voters had had a year in which to enjoy it.
Apparently the school committee decided to let the state whistle for a while since the one year at the west school continued until 1913. In the meantime, however, since Concord had no ninth grade and permitted competent scholars to move directly from the eighth grade into high school Acton discontinued the ninth grades at the West and Centre and made consequent reallocations of rooms in all three villages.
The high school controversey diminished in intensity for a season but came to the fore again throughout the years from 1911 to 1914. Votes were taken and rescinded, locations chosen and repudiated, sums of money voted and then unvoted with amazing facility but no real solution was attained.2 Eventually the first World War thrust itself into the picture with such vigor that minor matters were allowed to remain in abeyance.
Actually the war served to hasten a change in civic thinking that was already on the way. The nature and the spirit of the population was changing under the impact of a national crisis compounded with the new transportation facilities offered by the automobile. When it became evident that in an emergency one could traverse Acton from end to end in fifteen minutes the old village rivalries began to appear silly. Furthermore Acton was becoming a town of commuters, un-
1 Town report of March 1908, p. 118.
2 Some of the locations chosen and repudiated were the following: The Moses Reed hill at the Centre (now the site of the Carl Olsen home) ; the Franklin lot in So. Acton; the Kimball lot also in South Acton; the Payson, Rouillard property at the Centre (now owned by Mrs. Washburn and Arthur Wayne).
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learned in the hory animosities, and anxious to like and be liked by the whole population. Under this influence the town began to be the social, political and aesthetic unit envisioned by the men of 1735 - a whole township in which every citizen could have a pride.
In 1908 Mr. George C. Wright, who had always had an active interest in the town and its well being, offered to build a chapel for Mt. Hope Cemetery. At its March meeting in 1909 the town passed the following resolution:
Whereas, our fellow townsman, George C. Wright of West Acton, has erected a chapel in Mt. Hope Cemetery and has presented it to the town, and it has been accepted in behalf of the town by its selectmen and the cemetery commissioners.
Resolved. That we, the citizens of Acton, in town meet- ing assembled, do hereby recognize the generosity and pub- lic spirit of Mr. Wright and express to him our thanks for his gift.
According to the best information attainable Mr. Wright had given orders to build a chapel at his expense. Due to a lack of under- standing or to the extremely modest ideas of the town officials a small building was erected which although quite different from what he had envisioned, Mr. Wright agreed to accept and present to the town for whatever purpose it might serve. At present it functions as an office and storehouse.
So deep was the sentiment held by Mr. Luke Blanchard for Acton that when he approached the end of his days it was his wish that the memorial erected by him to his heroic forebears Calvin and Luther should be owned by the town and cared for in perpetuity by funds left by him. This astute business man had a deep vein of sentimentality. He desired to go into the life beyond, feeling that he and the town of Acton would jointly share in the modest recogni- tion accorded the two youths of his family who went forth to battle at the onset of the Revolution.
Consequently, on March 29, 1909, the town unanimously passed the following two votes.
1. To accept the Calvin and Luther Blanchard memorial and the premises belonging thereto given to the town by the will of the late Luke Blanchard.
2. To accept from the trustees under the will of Luke Blanchard five hundred dollars, the income to be expended in the care of the burial lot of said Blanchard, also the sum of one hundred dollars, the income to be expended in the preservation and care of the Calvin and Luther Blanchard memorial, and the sum of one hundred dollars to be ex- pended in the preservation and care of the family tomb,
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formerly belonging to Simon Blanchard of Boxborough, to invest said funds and expend the income thereof in accord- ance with the provisions specified in the will of the said Blanchard.
It was during this period, the spring of 1910 to be exact, that one of Acton's former residents returned from heroic and world famous service in the mission field to lay down her weary body forever.
Corinna Shattuck, born in Kentucky on April 21, 1848, was a cousin of Mr. Anson Conant Piper and a direct descendant of the Rev. Benjamin Shattuck, the first minister to preach in Littleton. As a girl she lived in South Acton and later, while teaching at the Southest school during the winter and spring of 1869-70, boarded at the home of Mr. Joseph Wilde. One snowy winter Sunday she heard a mission- ary speak at the Centre church and then and there was born the un- quenchable interest in the calling in which she was to be phenomin- ally successful.
Pursuant of her aroused desire she attended the Framingham Normal. She was not a girl endowed with personal charm, foreign languages proved exceedingly difficult for her, and her family background was of such consumptive tendency that her teachers had small enthusiasm for her objectives. Despite these handicaps she could not be dissuaded from her choice of a life work. She was a friend and admirer of Myra Proctor, also a graduate of Framingham and the head of a mission school in Turkey. As a student she was very exemplary and painstaking, absolutely faithful, and always stood well in her classes.
She was graduated from Framingham in 1872 and went to Aintab, Turkey, in 1873. At first she travelled about and established schools; then she taught in Marash (1883) ; and finally settled at Oorfa (1893) not at that time a mission station. For a while she had the company of one other woman but shortly was left alone. In Oorfa her principal work was the training of Bible women until about 1893.
At that time her tubercular weakness had so far become evident that she returned to the United States and spent two years in Colorado Springs where she lived an open air life in a tent. Before her return to Turkey she was able to go on a speaking tour and address immense crowds and hold their avid interest.
She returned to Turkey in 1895 and arrived in time to be present during the colossal massacres of that year. When the Turks and the Kurds rode through the city she was the only foreigner there. All the Christians who could crowded into the missionary premises. She stood in the door and told the Turks they could enter only over her dead body.
After the massacre was over she went about dressing wounds with
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the aid of a strange man not associated with the mission. She found literally thousands of widows and orphans absolutely helpless. On their behalf she petitioned the Turkish government for bedding and other supplies with some success. She set the women to work on native embroidery and wrote to the United States and England for sales. A Belfast, Ireland, concern sent her thousands of handker- chiefs to adorn and that industry became self supporting. Some of these samples of handicraft together with rugs and handwrought silver were among the items sold at the churches in Acton. Carpenter- ing, iron working, shoemaking, farming and other occupations followed, carried on between classes and in the evening. For help in this work she secured an able young mechanic from Ireland, who remained on in Oorfa after her death.
The institutions at Oorfa which owe their origin directly to Miss Shattuck are the Boys' Industrial Institute, the Orphanage, the Women's Handkerchief Industries, and the School for the Blind. This latter was established partly through the agency of Mary Harootenian, a pupil of Miss Shattuck who was blind. Miss Shattuck sent her to the Royal Normal College for the Blind in London which was under the direction of Sir Francis Campbell, husband of Sophia Faulkner, also of Acton. Lady Campbell was a substantial donor to the school for the blind at Oorfa.
During her latter years she directed the immense Oorfa activities from her sick bed.
In an Easter message pamphlet entitled "To Little David of Smyrna" Rev. William Allen Knight of Framingham, who is still active in the office of the Framingham News although in his nineties, tells of Miss Shattuck's last days. It appears that he and his wife were on the same ship enroute to America. During the passage through the Mediterranean a pale and sickly old woman lying in a steamer chair, wrapped in blankets and showing signs of suffering, attracted their attention. After the ship cleared Gibraltar Mrs. Knight and other solicitous ladies sought her out and ministered to her so far as they were able. To them she was a stranger who kept her identity to herself. Nevertheless they were aware that she was some unusual person. The ship's surgeon had told them that he was doubtful that she would survive the passage.
One night when the sea was running high the women asked Rev. Knight to go down and talk with the stranger and read to her from the Bible. He was kindly received and after a time he suspected who she was and put her identity to the question. She admitted the fact and he read to her from the Twenty Third Psalm after which she thanked him for the peace he had brought to her.
Dr. Knight telegraphed by wireless for an ambulance to be at the
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dock. She was taken to the Cullis home and died within a fortnight, on May 22, 1910 and was interred on May 25th in the missionary lot in the Newton Cemetery.
Perhaps no better opportunity will present itself for comment con- cerning an Acton native who became locally prominent, namely Albert Francis Conant, also a cousin of Miss Shattuck.
The father, Francis Conant, a direct descendant of Roger Conant of Salem, lived on the farm now owned by Mr. John Enneguess on what is fittingly named Conant Street. Here he raised ten chil- dren (of which Albert, born 1843, was the eldest) in the best New England traditions of civic responsibility and thrift.
In 1850 the family moved to Boxborough but Albert continued to attend school in Acton and had Nora Faulkner as a teacher. Sub- sequently he studied at the Lawrence Academy in Groton and also in Pepperell and New Ipswich. Thereafter he taught school for a short time in Harvard and Littleton.
In 1868 he and his brother Nelson purchased a store at Littleton Common. In 1883 Nelson sold his interest and the firm became Conant & Co. and thrived under the direction of Albert to such an extent that it eventually embraced three disturbing points and sup- ported eleven countryside routes.
In 1869 he married Sarah Jane Patten of Westford.
A manuscript written by him in his later years which had for its theme the events that can be spanned by one lifetime contains several most interesting commentaries. Among these he recalls attending primary school in South Acton which made it necessary for him to cross the single track which at that time extended only to West Acton. He remembers the first mowing machine to come to Boxborough (in 1853), a wooden framed affair that was prone to shake itself apart. It was shortly followed by the wheel horserake, invented by a man from Harvard. In another place he records being in a group who were invited to the home of a Mrs. Preston in Boxborough, about 1850, to witness the demonstration of the first kerosene lamp in town. In 1852, upon the occasion of the death of Daniel Webster, a great event occurred. There being no telegraph the news was sent by a special engine without a car - and all this on a Sunday!
In another of his writings he tells how as a boy he was taken to see the last vestiges of the cabin supposed to have been the dwelling place of a man named Speen, presumably the last of the Nashoba Indians. Although this appears to contradict an earlier assertion that Sarah Dublet was the final survivor it is possible that the two statements can be reconciled. Among the Indian signers to the deed for the land for the town of Stow, executed May 9, 1684, appear the names John Speen and Tom Dublet. Since at that time Nashoba
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was near its end it may well be that Sarah Dublet was the last to die while Speen was the last of the men to survive.
Mr. Conant died in 1941 at the age of ninety eight after enjoying a surprisingly active season as a nonogenarian.
For many years the town had struggled along with inadequate kerosene street lights that were arranged to function only during the dark of the moon. New thinking and new travelling patterns arrived with the automobile. Traffic was using the roads twenty four hours a day. A person on the highway at two in the morning was no longer of necessity a drunk or a suspicious character.
It was natural therefore that in 1911 the town voted to enter into a contract with the American Woolen Company of Maynard to supply electric current. The selectmen were authorized to install one hun- dred electric lamps throughout the town with the proviso that eighteen additional could be added if necessary. Needless to say, as time went on, nearly every town warrant for years contained requests for additional service to keep pace with the change in the character of the town as it became increasingly suburban.
With the termination of the year Acton saw another of its long time servants lay down his duties. In recognition of his retirement the voters passed the following resolution respecting their town treasurer :
"Voted: Unanimously the following resolution: That the inhabitants of Acton, in town meeting assembled March 27, 1911, in recognition of the courtesy, ability, and faithful- ness of the retiring town treasurer, Mr. Jona. K. W. Wetherbee, who has served the town in that capacity for more than thirty years, hereby express their thanks to him and their best wishes for the present and the future."
It will be recalled that Mr. Wetherbee was the last surviving mem- ber of the closley knit company of Tuttle, Jones and Wetherbee that monopolized the trade of the countryside for a quarter of a century after the coming of the railroad. He was a kindly man who always wore a beard, was always carefully dressed, always reserved, and never idle.
In this same year the towns of the Commonwealth were asked to make appropriations to assemble and print the vital statistics for the use of the state archives and the New England Genealogical Society. Acton readily voted in favor of this important idea and hence we have in our library the records of births, marriages, and deaths for the Massachusetts towns up to 1850.
Only the research historian can fully appreciate what this means to the student of the past. To the casual reader it may seem routine but let it be made clear that in many towns throughout our land the
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important papers have been lost by burning, malicious mischief, or colossal carelessness. In certain localities the only records were in family Bibles or church minutes, which now and then fell into the custody of extremely nonchalant individuals. Cases have been cited where invaluable documents were used for wall paper or for musket wadding.
If this seems incredible the following certifiable instances are apropos. During the Civil War the records of Charles City County, Virginia, were used by the Union Army to kindle campfires and for less delicate personal needs; a French butcher once wrapped up a piece of meat for a customer in a handful of waste paper that turned out to be documents in the handwriting of the great English writer Boswell; and, most astounding, in 1889 the Constitution of the United States was found to be kept in an unmarked and commonplace box in an obscure niche in one of the government buildings. In the light of these facts the meticulous care exercised by Acton's public servants through past generations merits high regard.
It has previously been noted that Acton had for many years been jealous of Lake Nagog as a potential water supply, and had upon occasion appointed committees having the sole objective of staving off any attempts by the town of Concord to obtain state sanction for appropriating it. As time went on, however, particularly after care- ful surveys showed the water level was too low for any attempt at gravity service, the town looked foward to driven wells if and when the problem should be solved.
Accordingly Concord secured the rights to the lake and ran the pipe line down the valley of Nagog Brook, past the remains of the old dam of Daniel White's mill, and along the Great Road through East Acton. The head end of the pipe line, at the intake point, is five hun- dred feet behind the dam. The pipe was carried out on a raft and placed in position by divers.
There were several more or less direct results of this move on the part of Concord, most of them unpublicized and in some cases probably unnoticed. One was that the many summer cottages that had been built and the summer colony that had come to be identified with them disappeared except for a hardy few who chose to remain even though bathing privileges were at an end. The little summer store operated by Mr. J. Sidney White also was a natural casualty. In addition the move definitely put period to the use of Lamson's Point as a recreation place. Only those of the older generation can recall the eagerness with which they anticipated the annual Sunday school picnic among the towering white pines. Another result was that subsequently Acton voted to contract with Concord for eight hydrants in East Acton for a term of ten years at twenty three
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dollars per unit. The objectionable features seemed potent at the time but the turn of the years has brought out the fact that in taking the water Concord preserved Nagog to the town of Acton.
Furthermore, with the repairing of the dam the flow of Nagog Brook became only a fraction of its former volume. As one rode along Main St. toward what used to be called Jock Wheeler's Corner (the junction of routes 2 and 27) there was, just to the right of the bridge over the brook, an old fashioned drinking ford for cattle and horses. The diminution in the flow rendered this convenience useless but worked only a minor annoyance since the horse era was on the way out. Acton had two other such fords. The site of one, long since unused, was completely obliterated by the new super-highway at the point where it crosses under route 27. The evidences of the other may still be found a few rods downstream from the bridge over Fort Pond Brook near Mt. Hope Cemetery.
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