USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Melrose > Melrose, Massachusetts, 1900-1950; commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the town of Melrose and the fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the city of Melrose > Part 9
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Melrose organized one of the finest Air Raid Protection serv- ices in the State under the control of Harold W. Poole, an able leader. The general secretary of the safety committee, Ex- Mayor Charles H. Adams, headed the protective division of the auxiliary police, fire and air raid wardens. Theodore Boecker was chairman of the planning division, with the assistance of Com- mander Joseph A. Gainard of the United States Naval Reserve. Lieutenant William T. Fahy was chief of the auxiliary police of three hundred workers, who included among their number John Adams, Winston Churchill and Daniel Webster, and also one hundred seventy-five qualified marksmen. Fire Department Chief Sidney C. Field led two hundred forty volunteers drilling every Sunday afternoon. Frank B. Mclaughlin, chief air raid warden, graduated eighty and had two hundred in training in April 1942. A medical unit under the leadership of Dr. Ralph D. Leonard had an emergency hospital set up with fifty cots in the high school gymnasium. Dr. William H. Flanders was head of the public health unit. Three rescue units were under the direction of George
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A. Weeker and Henry N. Anderson. The Melrose Chapter of the Red Cross had eight hundred twenty first aid students under the leadership of Edward L. Kelly. Mrs. Albert E. Bolton was head of the women's war program, the executive council representing twenty-three clubs and eleven churches. By 1944 the casualty lists were increasing, and more women were going into the aux- iliary forces.
By 1945 Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Bushee of 40 Main Street had eight sons in military service, Mr. and Mrs. William N. Ritchie had six sons in service, and Mr. and Mrs. Frank J. Sherman also had six sons in the services, all officers. Two thousand nine hun- dred fifty-eight men and women from Melrose were in armed service in World War II.
On August 14, 1945, the crowds in the street cut loose with horns and bells celebrating the news of peace announced by Presi- dent Truman. On account of the bad weather it was decided to hold the dedication of the Melrose Roll of Honor on October 7, 1945 in Memorial Hall rather than in front of the Honor Roll itself, which had been set up in front of the Calvin Coolidge School on Main Street. About seven hundred persons were present. The ceremony began with an hour of concert by the 101st Engi- neers Band of theMassachusetts National Guard. When the tablets were reported unveiled, Dr. Kendig Brubaker Cully of the High- lands Congregational Church gave the dedicatory address, and Stanley G. Bunker, president of the Board of Aldermen, presented Mayor Carl A. Raymond with the keys of the Honor Roll.
A list of the service men killed in World War I, together with a list of those killed in World War II, are given in the Appendix, as they appear on the Memorial Tablet erected in their honor by the City of Melrose.
Following World War I, the 3d Battalion of the 182d Regi- ment of Infantry, Massachusetts National Guard was organized. This regiment was originally the 5th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War, but traces its history back to 1636 when it was first organized for the protection of villages in east- ern Massachusetts from Indian attack, and served under the Eng- lish flag until 1775, when the Revolutionary War began. The regiment has been in continuous existence for over three hundred years, and celebrated its Tercentenary in 1936. It served as the 5th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in the war with Spain in 1898 and as a part of the 26th Division in World War I. In World War II it was made a part of Task Force 6814 and on January 16,
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DEDICATED TO THE SOLDIERS AND SAILORS OF MELROSE WHO BY HITSDAM AND SELF-SACRIFICE AVE HONOURED THEIR CITY STATE AND NATION 1914 1919
PRESENTED TO THE CITY OF MELROSE BY JOHN C F SLAYTON
ORGAN PANEL, MEMORIAL HALL
OUR HONORED DEAD
OTIS W. BISHOP
ARTHUR S. HUNT
WILLIA ยท C N BOYLEN
JOHN W BRADLEY
'OHN I BROWN
IRVING KENNARD EDWARD F LLOYD
WILLIA , J BRON
NELSON E CORIALL:
ANGUS J. MACLEAN ARVID P. MASON JANEY INWES.
WILLIAM E SCHOFIELD EDWARD B. SHAW EARL SHEA WILL AM R TAYLOR
LAWRENCE D 1X
HAROLD PERDN
MAU ICE WESIES
LESLIE MC. HERSON
ARTHUR B GIBBO IS
STUART F. MESSENGER
ANGUS W THOMPSON WILFRED A VALLARD HAROLD O. YOUNG
CARL I GOODWIN
CHARLES F. UNT HOWARD B JACKSON
ROBERT C PEARSON EVERETT G PHILBRICK NATHANIEL W POPE PHILIP A. ROBINSON
GR -AT . UVE KATHI NO MAN T AN THIS
WORLD WAR I BRONZE TABLET IN GRAND ARMY HALL
1941, was shipped to Melbourne, Australia, organized as the Americal Division in May 1942, and fought in New Caledonia and other parts of the Pacific theater. The regiment returned to the United States in 1946, and was reorganized on a peace-time basis on March 17, 1947. The first man killed in World War II was Donald Mann at Guadalcanal in November 1942.
Headquarters Company has ten officers and fifty-eight mem- bers in Melrose under the command of Captain Kenneth A. Smith. Headquarters are in the City Hall in Melrose, but the Battalion also includes companies in Malden, Stoneham and Everett.
On January 30, 1900, between seventy and eighty young men met in City Hall to organize a militia company in the 8th Regi- ment to replace Company C disbanded in Marblehead, but the project was apparently abandoned
Of the veterans organizations in Melrose, the oldest of course was the Grand Army of the Republic, Ulysses Grant Post No. 4, Department of Massachusetts, organized on February 19, 1867 and in 1900 had a membership of eighty. This number dwindled from natural causes until on Memorial Day, 1934, only four could appear, and these in a car, Commander Charles L. Robinson, then eighty-nine years of age and Frank Field, with two other mem- bers of the G.A.R. Post in Athol. In March 1935, Commander Robinson was the sole survivor.
On December 22, 1940, the Charles L. Robinson Square at Porter and Main Streets was dedicated in a cold drizzle of rain. Commander Robinson, then ninety-five years old, sat in a cov- ered porch near by watching the proceedings. He was presented with a bouquet of roses by Commander Frank Symonds, repre- senting Camp 79, Sons of Union Veterans.
On December 5, 1943, Commander Robinson died at the Elmhurst where he had been living for several years. He would have been ninety-eight years old on December 23. His wife, the former Sarah Bazin, died several years earlier. He was survived by a son, Charles L. Robinson of Malden, and a daughter, Mrs. G. P. Rich of Melrose, besides several grandchildren and two great grandchildren. His body lay in state in Memorial Hall where Rev. John L. Cairns of the First Methodist Church offi- ciated, and the G.A.R. burial service was conducted by Leon Palmer of the Sons of Union Veterans. He was buried in Wyoming Cemetery.
The Ulysses S. Grant Woman's Relief Corps No. 16, Auxil- iary to Ulysses S. Grant Post No. 4, G.A.R., was organized in
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January 1881 and in 1900 had eighty-six members. It surrendered its charter in 1944 and no longer exists.
The William Francis Barry Camp No. 79, Sons of Union Veterans, was organized May 27, 1887 and in 1900 had forty- seven members. The present membership is forty with Elbridge G, Ford as commander.
The Ladies Aid Society No. 23, Auxiliary to the Sons of Union Veterans, was organized May 9, 1893 and in 1900 had twenty-one members. This organization has since become the Auxiliary to the Sons of Union Veterans and now has ninety- three members with Miss Agnes E. Burke as president.
The Daughters of Union Veterans, Tent No. 37, organized in 1908 with thirty-two charter members, is still active with fifty- five members and Mrs. Elsie Smart as president.
A number of Melrose men served in the Spanish-American war in 1898, but the veterans have no organization in Melrose.
Following World War I, American Legion Post No. 90 was organized in September 1919 and chartered August 10, 1920. George L. Goodridge was elected first commander, but was dis- qualified by some regulation, and Gardner B. Wardell was elected to replace him. They first occupied Allen Hall in the Odd Fellows building on Main Street, but in 1924 bought the clubhouse at 34 Crystal Street built in 1915 by the K.X. Club, which had dis- banded. On November 11, 1929, the clubhouse became known as the Legion Bungalow, after being enlarged and remodeled with funds contributed by the Melrose public. The original member- ship of five hundred twenty-three had become four hundred fifty in 1949, with Howell Baldwin as commander.
The American Legion Auxiliary was organized in 1919, and in 1949 had a membership of one hundred thirty-eight, with Mrs. Emma Burns as president.
The Marine Corps League, Melrose Detachment, was organ- ized during World War II and meets during the winter at 423 Main Street, with some twenty-five members and Laurence Scoboria as commander.
The Sergeant Harold O. Young Post, No. 2394, Veterans of Foreign Wars, was organized February 21, 1932 with Daniel H. Galvin as first commander and now has two hundred fifty mem- bers meeting at 14 Chipman Avenue in the former clubhouse of the Melrose Highlands Club, purchased in 1936, with Colonel James G. Brown as commander.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary, organized July 15,
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1932 with seventy-two members, now has sixty members, with Mrs. Mary Connolly as president in 1949.
The American Veterans Associations, with Louis Savarino as commander, was organized soon after World War II with some fifty members and quarters on Main Street.
The Disabled American Veterans, Melrose Chapter No. 75, was chartered in June 1946 with a membership of one hundred two and meets at 144 Grove Street with Richard S. Bullens as commander.
On September 22, 1939, Mayor Robert A. Perkins presented to Governor Dixon of Alabama the flag of the 33d Alabama Regi- ment captured during the Civil War. This regiment had been mustered into service in April 1862, and surrendered in North Carolina at the end of the war. The flag was captured at the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, in December 1864 and given by Captain J. H. Brown of the 12th Kentucky Cavalry to Augustus Heath, then of Charlestown and later of Melrose. The flag was discov- ered by an antique dealer in a purchase of family effects, and was obtained from him by Wesley H. Murray who conceived the idea of returning it to the State of Alabama with funds contributed by the people of Melrose. The Alabama Drum Corps added to the interest of the event.
THE BADGE OF MANY MEMORIES
MELROSE ATHLETIC FIELD, LYNN FELLS PARKWAY
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THE ATHLETES
Prior to 1924 there was no enclosed athletic field in Melrose where the High School teams could play and charge admission. But in 1923, through the initiative of the Melrose Rotary Club, the Massachusetts Legislature passed an Act permitting the City to lease the seven acres of land at the corner of the Fells Parkway and Tremont Street for ninety-nine years to a citizens' associa- tion. The organization of the Melrose Athletic Field Associa- tion followed, incorporated by charter dated February 13, 1924. A committee was formed and met on February 7, 1924, with Edward W. Libby as chairman. A thirty thousand dollar bond issue was sold, dated July 15, 1926, to mature in 1936, and in the spring of 1924 a canvass for membership was made and one thou- sand five hundred obtained, at five dollars a year. The land was leased for one dollar a year, exempt from taxes.
The field, which had been purchased by the City in 1912 for playground use, but left as a dumping ground, was laid out with a baseball diamond, a football gridiron, and a track was outlined. Work was sufficiently advanced to permit a football game on Thanksgiving Day, 1924.
The dedication of a flag and flag pole at the field was made an event of Boys' Week on November 12, 1924, with the Rotary Club in charge, aided by the G.A.R., American Legion, other patriotic societies and some three thousand boys and girls. Ex- Mayor Charles H. Adams presided, and Mayor Paul H. Provandie made the address.
In 1925 work was continued, bleachers for four thousand two hundred persons were installed, creosoted and painted, the land was graded and seeded, a quarter mile cinder track fourteen inches deep and twenty feet wide was completed, and a field- house with lockers and showers built. The field was dedicated at the Zim-Zam held there on September 19, 1925, with speeches by Charles H. Gilmore, president of the Association, and Mayor Albert M. Tibbetts.
On October 2, 1930, the Association voted to change the name of the field to the DeMar Field in honor of Clarence Harrison DeMar. This was done October 8, 1930, in connection with the celebration of the Tercentenary of the foundation of the Massa-
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MOUNT HOOD GOLF CLUB
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chusetts Bay Colony. Some ten thousand persons were reported present at the ceremony, which was sponsored by the DeMar Recognition Committee of which Joseph A. Milano was chair- man. In later years, however, the name lapsed again to the Melrose Athletic Field.
On Thanksgiving Day, 1932, previous to the football game with Arlington High School, hoodlums splashed red paint over the bleachers, benches and railings were overturned, and after the game a rush was made for the goal posts, but stopped by the police. Some two hundred dollars' worth of damage was done.
About this time the City Government ceased appropriating funds to cover the use of the Field by the School Department, which paid the interest on the charges, and in April 1932 the Association voted to turn the lease over to the Trustees, who tried to rent the Field to the High School Athletic Committee, incorporated in June 1932 as the Melrose High School Athletic Association, Inc. The income from school games was not enough to meet the requirements of the Trustees, so the School Associa- tion yielded the lease to the Trustees, but continued using the property. Attempts were made to interest the City in purchasing the Field equipment so that the WPA could improve the plant, but no interest could be found. A number of bondholders sur- rendered their bonds but about twenty-five thousand dollars remained in force in 1939.
The sole remaining Trustees, Dr. Ralph D. Leonard and Charles H. Adams, persuaded the Mayor to recommend to the Aldermen the payment of eight thousand dollars necessary to meet the interest overdue on the bonds, although the value of the equipment was considered greater. This was done in April 1939. A petition was then filed with the General Court for enabling legislation, which was signed May 18, 1939. An agreement was reached whereby the School Department had full use of the Field during school hours, and the public at other times.
On June 19, 1939, the eight thousand dollars was voted by the Aldermen and the Field came under the control of the Mel- rose Park Commission. Since then many improvements have been made, more draining and grading, a new fieldhouse built, seven thousand bleacher seats added, a score board erected and the football, baseball, practice field and track renovated.
In November 1883 five young men organized the Melrose Athletic Club. A room was rented at the corner of Main and Essex Streets, and occupied until December 1885, when they
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.
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BELLEVUE GOLF CLUB, PORTER STREET
moved to larger quarters in Eastman's Block on Main Street, where they established a gymnasium and baths. In 1894 the Club built and owned its own building on Main Street just south of West Foster, and by 1900 had a membership of one hundred ninety- two. Later the Club died down, and no longer exists, the club- house being sold to the Odd Fellows
About 1890 some members of the Bellevue Tennis Club were playing golf in a pasture on Upham Street, belonging to the Jones farm, but on September 18, 1898, under the active spirit of George P. Merrill, ten men organized the Bellevue Golf Club with mem- bership limited to two hundred, and built an attractive clubhouse of fieldstone in a pasture belonging to the Locke family. This was opened June 18, 1900. The officers of the Club of that time were Edward E. Babb, President; Thomas M. Gogin, Vice-President; Roland W. Harris, Secretary; and William S. Miller, Treasurer. On November 14, 1901, it was voted to lease from Martin L. Penny for three years about twenty acres in Saugus between Pine Hill and Howard Streets, and the same year the professional serv- ices of Launcelot Cresy Servos were engaged for two weeks. He returned for several seasons. The Club became a member of the Massachusetts Golf Association in 1903. Plans for the incorpora- tion of the Club were made on October 27, 1909 when a holding trust called the Bellevue Associates was formed. Up to that time the grounds used by the Club had been leased from Calvin Locke, about thirty-two acres in extent between Porter and Howard Streets. With sufficient funds available the Associates made a con- tract with the Locke estate for optional occupation, with entrance from Porter Street. The sale was ratified and the first incorporated meeting was held October 23, 1914. On March 3, 1919 it was voted to proceed with an addition to the clubhouse, which had been postponed by the war. This was done by Chester S. Patten, and a heating system was also installed. The Penny land in Saugus had been purchased, about eighteen acres, and negotiations for the purchase of the land of E. S. Page adjoining the Club to the north almost to Howard Street. With the acquisition of the Page land a new layout of the course was begun in 1924, but before completion a part of the land had been taken over by the Metro- politan District Commission for the Lynn Fells Parkway in Octo- ber 1927. In 1929 other changes were made. The depression of the 1930s was a difficult period for the Club, but successfully weath- ered, and the mortgage was eventually paid off. In 1949 the Club had two hundred fifty members, and was in a flourishing condi-
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tion, with Clarence Cochrane as president. Mr. Cochrane is also president of the Massachusetts Golf Association.
The Mount Hood Municipal Golf Course, operated as a part of the Mount Hood Recreational Center under the Park Com- mission, was started in 1933 as a Federal works project, and offi- cially opened April 26, 1936. The Center also includes a ski-jump, ski-tow and skating ponds, and was opened by a Winter Sports Carnival on January 25-26, 1936, with an attendance of over ten thousand, and a traffic jam that extended for two miles. In the winter of 1948-1949 a ski school was operated with Bob Culver and Dick Parant as directors, with nine hundred eighty boys and girls between the ages of eight and eighteen attending.
In 1908 the famous old Melrose Baseball Club was organized by semi-pro, ex-minor and ex-major league players, with Al Leach at third base, Elmer Wilson, Sam Dearborn, the Cassel brothers, Lee Coffin and others, and in 1909 won twenty straight games, then lost one, but won from the same team the following day. But active interest in baseball, football and hockey has been maintained chiefly by the High School teams, a number of these High School athletes later going into professional sports. Roger Buck and Sam Dearborn, who later pitched professionally, guided Melrose High to championship in the Interscholastic League in 1902. In 1903 Pat Diveen was a championship walker and world champion. Harry N. Farren and Miah Murray were managing the Boston Nationals in 1905 and the same year Ben Vaughan made forty-six baskets in one game, and fifty-seven baskets two seasons later. On September 1, 1906, in a double header at the Huntington Avenue Ball Park between Boston and Philadelphia, Joe Harris of Melrose pitched a twenty-four inning game, with a score of 1-1 when a perfect single brought in three runs, after he had chalked his fourteenth strikeout, just as the moon came over the grandstand after four hours play. Edward W. Frentz became
a nationally known archery champion. Grant Holt, High School third baseman in 1913-1914, became third baseman for the Cin- cinnati Reds. In 1917 there was a depression in Melrose Sports due to the war, but later Art Langley earned a reputation as a goalie and went to the Olympic games with the Boston hockey team. In 1919 George Carter became a successful fight manager. Myles Lane, later an assistant district attorney in New York, was captain of the 1920 hockey team. Leland "Hago" Harrington 1922 played in big league hockey and became coach-manager of the Boston Olympics. John Mansur, 1921, Loren Westhaver,
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Laurence Sanford, Peter Lloyd and Ripley, 1925, also made their name in hockey. The football team has been very successful, with Rexford Kidd outstanding in 1931 as a general athlete. Paul Gui- bord made a name in 1932 in tennis and hockey, while the Priestly brothers, Bob, Bernard, Warren and Gilbert, were notable in football and baseball between 1936 and 1944. Another athletic family included Frank Sheridan 1935, Bill Sheridan 1938, Walter Sheridan 1944, Peter Sheridan 1946 and Philip Sheridan 1949, all active in football. Robert Hatch, another High School football star, was captain of Boston University squad in 1948, and foot- ball coach for Bates College team in 1949. In 1935 Foster, DeCoste and Swain were known as the "blonde line" in hockey. Foster was later an outstanding athlete at Dartmouth College, became a Navy flier, and lost his life in 1949 while flying off the New England coast.
The High School football team won the Class A champion- ship in 1946 under Coach Gavin, and the Mystic Valley League championship on numerous occasions between 1926 and 1939 under Coach Poole. The hockey team was very successful and won the New England and Interscholastic championships between 1930 and 1941.
Mention should also be made of George A. McPheters who in 1949 had been coaching for thirty-two years. He was coach of freshman athletics in the High School from 1925 to 1945, besides his duties as teacher of civics and American history. He was also conductor of the school tours to Washington, D.C.
The Young Men's Christian Association has also sponsored a baseball league of boys under sixteen in three age groups, under physical director Don Purrington. There is also a junior league sponsored by the American Legion, High School and the Cath- olic Youth Organization, which has won some New England championships.
The most widely known Melrose athlete is Clarence Harrison DeMar, born in Madeira, Ohio, June 7, 1888, who began racing while attending the University of Vermont. In 1920 he took sec- ond place in the Marathon organized by the Boston Athletic Association, but the following year won the first of his eight victories, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1930, in all of which he ran as an amateur representing the American Legion Post No. 90 of Melrose, of which he was chaplain. He worked as a printer, lived on Union Street, was a Scoutmaster in Maplewood and also taught Sunday School in the First Baptist
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Church. On September 7, 1929, he married Margaret L. Ilsley of the Highlands, and then moved to Keene, New Hampshire, where he had been engaged as a teacher and coach in the Keene Normal School. They have one daughter.
On May 23, 1922, a banquet in honor of DeMar was held in the City Hall with Mayor Angier L. Goodwin giving the address and Carl E. Shumway acting as toastmaster. DeMar was pre- sented with a stop watch, and also a gold watch and chain.
On May 8, 1923 a banquet attended by some three hundred persons was held for DeMar in Memorial Hall by the American Legion Post and the City of Melrose. The toastmaster was Com- mander Robert J. W. Stone. Mayor Paul Provandie extended the greetings of the City. DeMar was presented with money to attend the Legion Convention in California, and a special medal from the Boston Athletic Association.
DeMar Day celebration was held on June 25, 1927, at the Melrose Athletic Field under the auspices of the Melrose Ath- letic Field Association, when Mayor Albert M. Tibbetts pre- sented DeMar with an album of names as a tribute from the people, and Commander Wesley H. Murray presented him with a gold life membership card in the American Legion.
When DeMar won the Marathon on April 19, 1930, against one hundred eighty-four competitors, he was escorted back to Melrose by Legion Post No. 90, and greeted with firebells and sirens for ten minutes, and a crowd of two thousand cheering people. He was greeted by Mayor Tibbetts at City Hall, and his wife and mother were presented with flowers.
DeMar also entered two Olympics, but failed of first place. In the 1949 Marathon he ran forty-ninth in a large field, but for a man of sixty this could hardly be called a great defeat.
Sidney D. Farrar, the father of Geraldine Farrar, the singer, was an active baseball player in his youth with "General Worth's Team" from Stoneham, and later in 1884 was captain and first baseman in the Philadelphia National League. He operated a men's clothing store during the winter in Melrose, and he and his wife sang in the Universalist Church choir. He was one of the original members of the Amphion Club. In 1899 he sold the store and with his wife accompanied their daughter Geraldine to Europe at the beginning of her career. He died in 1935 at the age of seventy-six at his daughter's home in Connecticut.
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