USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Sutton > History of the town of Sutton, Massachusetts, from 1876 to 1950, Volume II > Part 55
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After 1895, the number of trustees was reduced to three and continues with that number.
The building of the Town Hall provided a home for the Center Library and the report for 1885 says, "The dawn of 1885 sees the Library established in a pleasant and commodious home, its friends and patrons rejoicing in its removal to a suitable place in the new Town Hall."
Miss Mills kept her position as librarian nearly thirty years. Words cannot adequately express the influence the work of Miss Mills has had upon the town. A woman of culture and refinement with a fine sense of values, she built up through the years a well-rounded library, unusual in a small town. In the March 1913 report her two co-trustees, Mr. Arthur Merrill and Mr. Benjamin Townley, expressed the feeling of the townspeople in the following :-
"The Trustees wish to note that this year completes the thirtieth year of Miss Mills' service as librarian at the Center Library during which that library has been maintained at a high standard, not excelled, we believe, by any having its re- sources and we feel that we voice the sentiments of the patrons of the library in expressing appreciation for these years of faithful and efficient service."
Because of Miss Mills' failing health, Mrs Harriet Balcome was chosen as- sistant librarian in September 1913, but Miss Mills kept the position she had held so long and faithfully until September 1915, when Mrs. Gertrude Luther was appointed Center Librarian.
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Edwin T. Marble of Worcester, but of Sutton ancestry, remembered the town library in his will, leaving the sum of $1000 to the Center library, the income to be spent for the purchase of books. This became available in 1913. Miss Mills wrote in the town report of that year, "The income of this bequest is left as a sacred trust to the trustees of said library, to be expended for books that shall be of permanent value in place of the light literature of the present day."
Mrs. Ellen Woodbury left the sum of five hundred dollars to the Center library in memory of her father to be known as the "George Hastings" fund, the income to be spent for books. This became available in 1935.
The Wilkinsonville Branch has received two bequests. Five hundred dollars left by Daniel L. Chase in 1922 "in memory of his parents and other kin." (This was later increased to $559.50.) Also $500, left by Richard D. Chase, available in 1934.
The interest from these funds has been of great value to the libraries. It is a worthwhile way of remembering one's native town.
In 1914 and 1915 with help of the State Free Library Commission (now the Division of Public Libraries) and local young women directed by Miss Alice M. Holbrook, the Center Library was classified and catalogued by the Dewey System, a great advantage.
The Division of Public Libraries has been of the greatest help through the years, furnishing training for the librarian at the Institutes held each year, being ready to give valuable advice at all times when asked, lending many collections of books for both children and adults and furnishing help in repairing of books.
Mrs. Gertrude Luther resigned in 1916 after giving good service, and Mrs. E. Florence Freeland was appointed librarian January 1, 1917. Miss Mills passed away in September 1920, leaving as a lasting Memorial, the library she built so carefully.
The Center library was renovated in 1921 and new shelving installed. The library was fortunate in having help from a C. W. A. project in 1934 and under the librarian's supervision with a capable corps of assistants all the books were put in order and the catalog revised. The room was painted and more shelving added.
The library was active in collecting money and books for the Soldiers' War Fund in the 1st World War and for the Victory Campaign in World War II.
In 1947 it was found possible to open the library regularly two days a week in order that the pupils of the schools might use the library to better advantage. It was therefore opened all day each Tuesday in addition to Saturday afternoon and evening.
The closing of the old High School and the opening of the Memorial School with its own library somewhat lessened the library circulation in the schools, but the public library has facilities to supplement the school supply.
Mrs. Freeland resigned as librarian in March 1949 after more than thirty-two years of service during which the library has grown in volume and interest.
Mrs. Janice Shaw was appointed librarian in Mrs. Freeland's place and is giv- ing fine service and carrying on the library traditions efficiently.
The aim of trustees and librarians is to aid both schools and homes in obtain- ing knowledge and pleasure from the acquaintance with worthwhile books of both reference and literature.
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Space will not allow the mention of all the names of those who have given their loyal support to the library and its branches. Through the years, many friends have given books, sometimes collections, which are listed in the yearly reports.
To the loyal support of the townspeople the library owes its success.
MANCHAUG BRANCH LIBRARY
The residents of Manchaug were fortunate to have as their first librarian, Mr. Samuel Truscott. He served the library faithfully until his death from a fall in May 1898. His son, Francis Truscott, took his place and kept the library until December 1908 when he moved from town. Altogether father and son served the library for a long period of years, an unusual record.
The first trustee for this part of the town was George H. Clark. His death in 1890 caused a vacancy filled by John Holt. Mr. Holt removed from town in 1899 and Francis Truscott was elected to succeed him. After his removal from town, Mr. Benjamin Townley became trustee and acting librarian for a time.
Several persons served as librarians for short periods of time until September 1916 when Mr. Edward Deome was appointed librarian, a position he still holds after 35 years of loyal devotion to the library. Mr. Townley died in 1926 and Mr. Dcome was elected trustee in 1927.
The library has had several homes. For a number of years it was kept in Music Hall Building where it was cramped for room. Afterward it was placed in a corner room of the store building. It was moved to a vacant room in the school- house 1908-1909 where it was pleasantly located for many years. In 1933 through a C. W. A. project the library was thoroughly renovated and the books cataloged.
The increasing school population made it necessary for the school authorities to use the room and the library was located on Main Street in a room hired in 1934 from Lewis Sherman. It was again found necessary to make a change in 1946 and the library was moved to the lower floor of the former Mill office building. In 1950, the building changed hands, the post office was moved to this room and the library was moved to the upper floor where it is now established.
This library serves a busy part of the town and has a good collection of books to supply both schools and homes.
LIBRARIANS
Samuel Truscott, to May 1898
Francis Truscott, to Dec. 1908
Benjamin Townley, (acting), 1909-1910
Marion Lee, 1910-1911
Viola Knight, 1911-1913 Howard Knight, 1913 to Dec. 1915
Charles Heathcote, Dec. 1915 to Sept. 1916
Edward Deome, Sept. 1916 to present time
WEST SUTTON BRANCH LIBRARY
The Branch Library in West Sutton probably started in 1882. The actual rec- ord is lost.
Miss S. Jennie Sibley was the earliest librarian on record, serving while the library was kept in a private home. It was moved into a room in the Hotel Build-
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ing in 1887 which was furnished and equipped largely through the efforts of Jason Waters, the first trustee and librarian for twenty-two years until his death in 1908.
In 1890 the library was open nearly every day through the fall and winter, and in every way possible Mr. Waters increased the usefulness of the library. He was a valuable citizen and used his ability and money freely to establish a worthwhile library in the village.
The burning of the hotel on April 3, 1915 destroyed about half of the library. One sectional bookcase was saved with the books but all the books of reference which Mr. Waters had selected with such care were burned.
The books saved where placed in the West Sutton schoolhouse where the teacher, Miss Lucy Phelps, reopened the library on April 28th. After the close of school in June, new shelving was built and new books added and the library well settled in its new quarters. Miss Phelps acted as librarian until she resigned in September 1919.
The library has had many faithful librarians. Special mention should be made of Mrs. Evelyn Plummer, who served faithfully for more than ten years alto- gether, and her daughter, Miss Louise Plummer, afterward Mrs. Russell Putnam, who gave more than seven years of efficient service.
Several of the later teachers gave their time and ability to care for the library, often without pay.
It was thought advisable to close the school because of changing conditions and with the closing of the school in June 1943, the library was also closed and the books transferred to the other libraries.
LIBRARIANS
S. Jennie Sibley, first on record
Jason Waters, 1886-1908
Carrie Averill, 1909
E. Florence Freeland, July 1910-March 1911
Mrs. Louisa Plummer and Mrs. Evelyn Plummer 1911-
Mrs. Evelyn Plummer, 1912-1913
Louise Sherwood, 1914
Napoleon Benoit, to April 1915
Lucy Phelps, April 1915- Sept. 1919
Mrs. Evelyn Plummer, 1919-1924
Dorothy Courtney, Sept. 1924-Feb. 1925
Harriet Moreland, Feb. 1925- June 1928
Louise Plummer (Mrs. Russell Putnam), Sept. 1928-June 1936
Mrs. Evelyn Plummer, June 1936-June 1940
Burton Clark, Sept. 1940-June 1941 Elizabeth Milne, Sept. 1941-June 1942
Mary O'Neil, Sept. 1942-June 1943 Library closed.
SOUTH SUTTON BRANCH LIBRARY
The South Sutton Branch was located in a home when established. The records of earliest place and librarian are not available.
The first librarian on record was Mrs. George Hewitt who was librarian as early as 1885, the library probably in her home.
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Mr. George Albee was the first trustee and all reports were signed by him as trustee. At one time the library was in a store building, rented from P. F. John- son. Mr. Edward J. Barnes was librarian from 1887, or before, until about 1901.
The report of 1890 says, "The library is open every day in the week," and there seems to have been much interest. The report of March 1901 says, "The library is being removed to a room more central than the one it has occupied for the past few years." This was in the home of Mrs. Mary Littlefield, who was the librarian from 1901 to October 1918, when she sold her home and moved away. New sectional bookcases were installed and the library was well cared for in her home. Mrs. Auria LaFlamme, who lived in the house after Mrs. Littlefield, kept the library until October 1919 when she gave it up.
It was moved to the corner building, now razed, owned by Mrs. A. C. Taylor and she became the librarian in 1920. This building became unsuitable and a small building next to it was put in order and made into a suitable room for the library in 1931.
The hurricane of 1938 badly damaged both building and books. Mrs. Taylor died early in 1940 and the books were moved to the gallery of the South Sutton Baptist Church where the library was established and the books put in order. Miss Etta Johnson became the librarian and this arrangement continues.
LIBRARIANS
Mrs. George Hewitt, 1885 or before Mr. Edward J. Barnes, 1887-1901 Mrs. Mary Littlefield, 1901-Oct. 1918 Mrs. Auria LaFlamme, 1918-Oct. 1919 Mrs. A. C. Taylor, 1920-1940 Miss Etta Johnson, 1940-
WILKINSONVILLE BRANCH LIBRARY
The branch library at Wilkinsonville was established a little later than the other branches. According to records it was opened in 1883 when the citizens of Wilkinsonville and vicinity furnished a room and heated it for a library. There seem to be no complete records of the various early homes of the library but it was housed for some time in the schoolhouse before its enlargement, then re- moved from there in 1898-1899 to "the store of Mr. Dyer occupied by Mr. L. Hall." In 1900 the town report says the library "is now occupying a commodious room in the central part of the village, next door to the post office."
This room was given rent-free by the Manager of the Slater estate. No suitable person could be found who would take the librarianship at the salary paid and it was closed 1901-1903. Mr. F. M. Barton, principal of the school 1903-1904, was interested in the library and opened it while here, giving his services. It was moved early in 1905 to a vacant room opposite the schoolhouse thus securing, ac- cording to the annual report, "safer and more convenient quarters."
Sometime after the enlarging of the schoolhouse in 1916-1917 the library was moved into the room it now occupies in the school building. The bequests of Daniel L. Chase and Richard D. Chase have been most helpful to the library, the interest being used for the purchase of books. There have been many faithful librarians through the years, several giving long terms of service. Miss Ida Lud- wick served the longest period, giving twenty years of splendid work. When in
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1947, no one could be found to take the librarianship, Mrs. Gertrude D. Chase, the trustee for this part of the town, acted as librarian for a year. Afterward for a time the pupils of the school under supervision of the principal, Mr. William Flanagan, attended to the checking of books.
Since September 1950 Mrs. Evelyn Gendron has been librarian, giving excel- lent service. The list of librarians follows. The dates at the close of the town year (March) show the person in charge when the year closed and are as correct as possible.
LIBRARIANS AT WILKINSONVILLE
John Arnold, first librarian
Mr. E. B. W. Rinis
Miss M. Hutchins, March 1888-
Robert J. Gould, March 1889 to -
Mrs. Jennie Hall, March 1895 to -
Miss Augusta Houghton, March 1900
Closed 1901-1903
F. M. Barton, fall of 1903-1904 (probably)
From 1904-1907 (probably) Mr. Merrill the trustee took charge
Wellington Chase, March 1907 to -
Irene Piper, March 1910 to
Ralph Piper, March 1917-
Mr. J. J. Bruton from near end of 1920 to May 1922
Ida Ludwick, May 1922 to January 1942
Mrs. Evelyn Smith, January 1942 to January 1946
Mrs. Statia Chase, January 1946 to May 1946
Mrs. Eleanor Small Pierce, May 1946-March 1947
Mrs. Walter Emerson, March 1947-November 1947
Mrs. Gertrude Chase, acting librarian, to October 1948
Pupils of school (acting) November 1948 through the school years to June 1950. (Under Mr. William Flanagan's supervision.) Mrs. Evelyn Gendron, September 1950-
LIBRARY TRUSTEES
1887-1890 Jason Waters, Chairman John Gregson, res. 1890 S. M. Mills George W. Albee George H. Clark, dec. 1890
1891 Jason Waters S. M. Mills Benjamin Townley George W. Albee C. H. Arnold
1892-1893 Jason Waters Benjamin Townley S. M. Mills George W. Albee
1894 Jason Waters S. M. Mills John Holt George W. Albee
1895-1899 Jason Waters John Holt, (moved 1899) S. M. Mills
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CHURCHES and SCHOOLS
1899-1904 Jason Waters S. M. Mills Francis Truscott
1905-1909 S. M. Mills Francis Truscott (moved Dec. 1908) Arthur Merrill
1909-1919 S. M. Mills, dec. 1920 Arthur Merrill Benjamin Townley
1920-1926 Arthur Merrill Benjamin Townley, dec. 1926 E. Florence Freeland
1927-1931 E. Florence Freeland Arthur Merrill, res. 1931 Edward Deome
1931-1935 E. Florence Freeland Gertrude Chase Edward Deome
History of Sutton
PART IV-INDUSTRIES and RESERVATIONS
G REAT changes have taken place in the Industries of Sutton, since 1870. The Town suffered a great loss in the abandonment of the cotton and wool manufactures in Wilkinsonville and Manchaug after 1920. Agri- culture, also, is now maintained along different lines. The recent developments of the Reservations, Purgatory and The Merrill Pond System, have proven to be of importance to the Town and the State.
We are indebted to Mr. Chauncy C. Ferguson, former Superintendent of Schools in Millbury, for the first record of industries in Sutton. Mr. Ferguson has been interested in the arts and craftsmanship of the Indians, their occupa- tions, customs and domestic living and has done much research on the subject.
He has collected some 10,000 Indian relics, including arrowheads, gouges, knives, plummets, sinkers, spearheads, scrapers, banner stones, axes, celts, ulus, soapstone and clay sherds and whetstones. Twenty-five hundred specimens have been given to the Massachusetts Archæological Society. His present collection of 3000 pieces consists principally of local material.
EARLY INDIAN CAMPSITES INDUSTRIES
By Chauncy Ferguson
Little is known of the first Indian inhabitants of Sutton. They are called Pre- Algonquians to distinguish them from the later agricultural Algonquians. We do not know whence they came nor how long ago. They were probably some branch of the great Algonquian family, pioneering eastward from some western habi- tat. Estimates of the time of the immigration vary by thousands of years. Some
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would make it soon after the last New England glacial age and others but two or three thousand years ago.
They left no written records, no rock nor cave pictures, no mounds nor cliff dwellings, no monuments nor temples whereby we might learn their history. We are dependent for our knowledge of them upon what can be learned from their campsites, from their artifacts that have been preserved and from their graves in which the cherished possessions of the dead were placed with the body. Some information has been gleaned from a comparison with other more recent north- eastern Indians like the Beothuk of Newfoundland who were in the same or a similar cultural stage.
It is agreed that they were woods Indians, getting their living almost entirely by hunting and fishing. Agriculture and pottery making were unknown. They were in the stone age as all primitive peoples have been, but before they came to Massachusetts, their skill in chipping and making stone implements had been perfected and was, never afterward improved. They produced fire by striking sparks from flint or iron pyrites into tinder. Copper, a little of which had come in from the central west, was their only metal. This they used for beads, for arrowheads, spearheads and knives. A large knife and an arrowhead of this ma- terial were found by Rev. J. C. Crane of West Millbury somewhere near Rams- horn and Singletary Ponds respectively.
At the time of their coming, Sutton was covered with the primeval forests. The open places found by the first settlers, made by annually or semiannually burning over the land for corn fields, were still an unbroken wilderness of trees. The land with its forests abounding in many kinds of game and its streams and ponds teeming with fish, especially in the spring when the shad and the salmon were running, was ideal for such a people as these newcomers. Their chief re- quisite for a place of habitation was nearness to good fishing. The great number of their camping sites around Manchaug, Ramshorn, Singletary, Stevens, Stumpy and Mumford Ponds show they found many of these. The many reddened fire- stones, broken and whole implements, spalls broken off in chipping, these are still to be found on all of them, as proof of their former encampments. The Indian, wherever he stopped for any length of time, replenished his store of arrowheads and other chipped implements, thus leaving signs of his former stop- ping places.
Their larger implements of stone were the adz or gouge, the knobbed sinker or plummet, the semilunar woman's knife or ulu, the ceremonial whale tail banner stone. All of these have been found by the writer on Sutton Indian camp- sites. The fact that these implements are very similar to those used by the Eski- mos has led to the belief that sometime far back these peoples must have lived near together.
They never discovered the use of the wheel and so had no wheeled vehicles of any kind in which to carry things. The dog was the only domestic animal. Thus they were without the aid of the horse and the ox to act as burden carriers or to assist them in their work. All labor was done by hand consequently. For water transportation they used the birch bark canoe and dugout. The latter, it is said, twenty to thirty feet long, could be made by alternate use of fire and a stone- cutting tool by a single Indian in three weeks. This time included felling the tree.
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Their roads were the narrow, winding trails where they traveled in single file over frequented routes for hunting, fishing and other purposes. These were also used by wild animals as well as by Indians.
After hundreds if not thousands of years of this primitive hunting and fishing mode of life, a great change took place, either gradually or suddenly, that revolu- tionized Indian existence in Sutton. Whether the woods Indians learned of corn culture and pottery making from their neighbors to the westward or they were conquered by these and their lands seized is a matter of conjecture. At any rate the culture of corn, beans, pumpkins and tobacco and the making of soapstone and clay pottery were introduced.
They now required because of this corn culture a different type of place for abodes, land free from rocks, with light, easily tillable soil for the crude hoes of the Indian women. These fields near water, covering several acres in extent, were generally on level ground or on the sunny sides of hills. There each Indian woman had her own plot of ground for corn, beans and pumpkins where she is said to have raised from forty-five to sixty bushels of corn alone, sometimes forty bushels to the acre. This large addition of garden food reduced the neces- sity of so much hunting and fishing by the men and made the people less no- madic because the care of the crops necessitated remaining near them.
The introduction of agriculture and clay pottery-making increased the labor of the women, for they took entire charge of both of these. As the men no longer needed to bring in so much game and fish for the family larder, they had more time for other occupations. They took entire charge of the soapstone quarrying and of the cultivation and curing of the tobacco. Each Indian appears to have had his small plot of this upon which he raised enough for his own use. With the introduction of tobacco came also its use in smoking. For this purpose pipes often elaborately made from stone were employed. For some reason few of these old pipes have been found in this locality. One only has been recently picked up and that by William T. White of Millbury on Bluberry Island at Manchaug Pond.
Along with corn, beans, pumpkins, clay and soapstone pottery came also other implements, replacing the older Eskimo-like ones with those better adapted to the newer, more progressive activities. The making of specialized adzes, plum- mets, ulus and banner stones was gradually or almost at once discontinued, de- pending upon whether the earliest Indians progressed or were displaced. In their places came grooved and ungrooved axes, grooved sinkers, gorgets, chipped knives, pipes and such digging, grinding and quarrying tools as pestles, mortars, picks and hoes. These all were continued in use until they were displaced by European tools and weapons.
Clay for pots seems to have been available almost everywhere. It was mixed with sand or broken shell and water, moulded into shape and hardened in fire. The shaping was done without a potter's wheel by hand. The resulting pots would stand any amount of heating, and were unaffected by time or weather. They represented a great advancement over the birch bark dishes of the Pre- Algonquians. The Indian women displayed their artistic sense by the more or less pretentious indented and colored designs made on the pottery surfaces. Many fragments of this pottery have been found in Sutton but there is no record of a whole pot being discovered. In 1939, the sherds of almost a whole one
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were dug up in an Indian rock shelter under an overhanging rock near the "Dolly Bond" Soapstone Quarry by Ripley Dodge of Worcester.
For the making of soapstone pots, the Sutton Indians were fortunate in having nearby an abundant supply of soapstone. There were many outcroppings of this material in the nearby ledges where it appears in relatively large pockets. These the Indians quarried for the material for their pots. The most notable of these quarries were those at Bramanville, back of the W. E. Horne House, at the G. Lewis Stockwell place on the Eight Lots Road to Oxford and the Dolly Bond near Hathaway Pond. There were also others less well known. The Bramanville and Stockwell quarries were of enough significance so that archaeologists from the Peabody Museum of Harvard University came and carefully explored them. Many whole and broken pots have been found. These have gone not only into many private collections but to some large museums, such as the Worcester His- torical Society, the Peabody Museum at Cambridge and the Smithsonian Institu- tion at Washington.
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