USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Newburyport > Waban, early days, 1681-1918 > Part 16
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Charles C. Blaney
Willis R. Fisher
Joseph W. Bartlett.
Charles A. Andrews
J. Earle Parker Lawrence Allen
Donald M. Hill
Of this group, Charlie Andrews was later chairman of the committee that raised the money for and built the Waban Library and gave it to the city. Will Fisher was the first treas- urer of the Club and Lawrence Allen the first secretary. Don Hill and Charlie Blaney were, respectively, the first and second presidents. (Earle Parker and Jo Bartlett were both Aldermen from this Ward, and Jo was and still is Newton City Solicitor.)
Early in June, soon after the committee started its work, an opportunity came to buy the old Strong estate, consisting of the house at the corner of Beacon Street and Windsor Road, now the Episcopal Rectory, and the land. surrounding this old house. Some 80,000 feet of land, having frontages of about 150 feet on Beacon Street and 275 feet on Windsor Road, comprising the whole of the estate except the dwelling house and about 35,000 feet of land, were purchased. The buildings and the surrounding land were set off to the church and the remainder, being sufficient for a club house, driveway, some land and four good tennis courts, was retained. Tom James, an architect, formerly of Waban, drew the plans for the Club House.
On the assumption that the whole project could be put through for $30,000, it was decided to finance it by a mortgage of $15,000 and the sale of a like amount of 5 per cent de- benture bonds of the denomination of $100 each. Waban
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residents have always given generously of their time and money to all local needs, and the work done by workers, especially the late Jack Marvin, in seeking subscriptions, and of Waban- ites in subscribing and making the Club possible, is a shining example of this trait. The mortgage and indebtedness have since been taken care of. .
The total cost of the Club was $42,481.98, distributed as follows:
Real Estate $ 4,500.00
Real Estate Improvement 4,137.62
Club House 26,303.52
Tennis Courts
1,964.53
Bowling Alleys
1,506.22
Furniture and Fixtures
3,465.09
Theatrical and Stage Fixtures
605.00
$42,481.98
In addition to the $1,603.39 turned over by the Tennis Club, the Waban Woman's Club raised and contributed $924.23 towards furnishing the Club House. After the Club became a reality, the Beacon and Tennis Clubs were dissolved. The insignia of the Tennis Club is now that of the Neighbor- hood Club.
When the by-laws were adopted, there was considerable feeling on the part of certain conscientious objectors that Sunday-play of all kinds should be prohibited. The committee was able to satisfy everybody by adopting a by-law which pro- hibited activities in the Club House or on the grounds "in violation of the laws of the Commonwealth." In this way, with the change in the laws, Sunday activities are now allowed.
The Neighborhood Club was officially opened on January 12, 1918. Opening for the first time in was times, its social activities were to a certain extent cut down, but it was used in many ways in connection with various war activities. It was also used by the Woman's Club for meetings and has since then fulfilled the purposes for which it was built. .
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The history of the Club since its organization has been the usual one of clubs of this sort. At first, everybody joined because he wanted to or felt it his duty. The Club member- ship continued large until the hard times came when many who were looking around for means of cutting down expenses resigned. After a few years of struggle, however, the Club is now in a most flourishing condition.
The annual dramatics of the Club are invariable sell- outs; people from the surrounding villages attend. Two-night stands are always necessary and the money realized is put to use in excellent fashion for benevolent enterprises as well as for the maintenance of this well-run and attractive Club, about which now centers so much of the community life of Waban.
THE PINE RIDGE ROADERS
From a letter from Herbert R. Lane:
"Many things come to my mind, but I know that most of them have already been sent forward, such as the Pine Ridge Roaders, started by your father (Lewis H. Bacon), with an anonymous placard posted on the old Village Hall block (now Fyfe) stating that a later announce- ment would disclose where the first meeting would be held. Every- body was agog, waiting for the second announcement and, much to their surprise and especially to 'yours truly,' the first meeting was at 69 Pine Ridge Road [H. R. Lane's]. Everyone came prepared with contributions of food, etc., and a royal time was had by all. Later, these meetings were held at various houses."
In the spring of 1944 a group of Wabanites who lived in our village in 1907 or prior thereto organized an Old Timers' Club, which has proved to be the source of much interesting material which is incorporated in this volume.
A BASEBALL GAME
From The Town Crier of July 7, 1905.
(Published in Newton Center) Waybans 22 - Warbans 9
The chief athletic attraction on the 4th was the great ball game in the morning between two nines of married men, the Waybans vs. the Warbans. The men showed that they could still teach the youngsters some points on the game, and in spite of hilly grounds and some ten years' lack of practise the win- ning combinations played mighty good ball. The gallery was large and wildly enthusiastic and thought that it was a hot game; the players were sure of it.
For the Waybans, "Cy Young" Parker pitched a steady and heady game. Five of the others played errorless games. Hill at shortstop and Wendell at second being the particular stars and Oakes accepted sixteen chances. Knott could not field a balloon but his base running was great. Second base had to be excavated after he had slid to it once. The whole team hit the ball in great style.
For the losers, "Fardy" Angier had the cleanest record with nothing doing. "Rube Waddell" Bosson pitched bril- liantly but erratically, and had difficulty in twisting himself down to the ground for bunts. Crain in left field made some great catches. At the bat Bosson did the best all-round work and got around four times. Lane only made one hit but it was a beauty for three bases.
The players: Waybans - Parker, p; Sharp, If, 3b; Hill, ss; Oakes, 1b; Walker, 3b, If; Spencer, c; Wendell, 2b; Knott, cf; Whittaker, rf. For the Warbans: Bosson, p; Blaney, 1b;
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Dana, ss; Angier, cf; Crain, If; Comer, c; James, rf; Lane, 3b; LeClear, 2b.
Two base hits: Hill, Oakes 2, Spencer, Whittaker 2, Crain. Three base hit: Lane.
Double plays: Hill, Wendell and Oakes, Crain and Blaney.
Bases on balls: Dana 2, Angier and Spencer.
Hit by pitched ball: Knott.
Struck out, by Parker 4, by Bosson, 5.
Passed balls, Comer 3, Spencer 2.
Stolen bases: Knott 7, Crain 5, Sharp 4, Walker 4.
Time of game, 2 hours.
Umpire, Edmund Winchester.
Scorer, Harris Murdock.
(The game was played on Plainfield Street on the then vacant farm land between Plainfield and Woodward Streets.)
A BASEBALL TEAM OF 1905. PLAYED IN LOT ON PLAINFIELD ST. Back row: Mr. Knott, Mr. Blaney, Mr. Spencer, Mr. Oakes, Mr. Crain, Dr. Parker, Harry Walker (with hat), Mr. James and Stewart Bosson. Kneeling: Donald Hill. Front row: (Rev.) Jimmie Sharp, Arthur Comer, Mr. Murdock, Edmund Win- chester (Umpire), George Angier, George Dana, Herbert Lane and Gifford LeClear.
Courtesy of Mr. William H. Oakes
THE DEER PARK
Everyone who was brought up in Waban, or anywhere else in Newton for that matter, has hidden away a memory of some favorite haunt of young days - a certain stretch of woods or curve of river or blowing field; a windy hill-top or a brook. (There is something very complete in life when one can re- member playing by a brook!) The Deer Park, now vanished as if it had never been, was such a favorite spot to all the young ones on the Hill, - the Childs, Websters, Savilles, as well as all the rest of us in that section of town. The land on the curve of Moffat Road, now part of Brae Burn was, around thirty- five or forty years ago, a Deer Park, owned then by Henry B. Day of West Newton. It was a fenced-in section of woods with a gate and Cheesecake Brook winding through, a happy play- ground where fresh breezes blew the grasses and bellwort and there were mounds of soft green moss, so very neat, and Solomon's seal with much Jack-in-the-pulpit, very dignified. On hot summer days there was always coolness beneath the trees. We ate sandwiches on top of "Picnic Rock" and lost hard-boiled eggs overboard into the grasses on the slope be- neath. There was wild columbine and anemone, "Wind Flower," blowing in the summer breeze and Indian pipes like wax, erect in the pine-needles. (Somehow, Debussy's "After- noon of a Faun" reminds one of the Deer Park.) Always there was the sound of the brook - "That same sound is in my ears that in those days I heard." We played for hours by that brook, wading and sailing boats. There were tall-stemmed swamp violets and white ones too, in the dampness, and pungent skunk cabbage. The coolness of maiden-hair fern swaying gently in the glistening water and the restfulness of lying beside the
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brook and looking up at the sky are doubtless childhood memories of many a Wabanite of those days, as well as the never-failing, refreshing fall into that darling brook. We tore through the tall ferns and brakes at the water's edge and knew every curve, every deep place in the brook, where the water gurgled around such clean stones. We went blueberrying and blackberrying in the Deer Park with chattering squirrels, red and gray, racing happily about, and chestnuting in the fall with crisp deep leaves underfoot and soft pine-needles; overhead the great trees were a blaze of gold and scarlet transparency against deep blue sky soon to fade. Over all the music of the sound of the brook. All this is the old Deer Park of beloved memory.
GYPSIES
Mark Twain once stated that he had seen a buffalo climb a tree and he could prove it - he could show you the tree. So when we say that in Waban there were once gypsies camping, we can prove it by pointing out the sites of their camps. Nat Seaver says that a tribe of gypsies made their headquarters at Thompsonville. Baskets were sold at our doors by gypsies with pointed brown faces and gorgeous dark eyes. We were afraid of them. "Run! Here comes a gypsy!" We have it on the authority of Esmond Rice that they camped in the woods adjacent to Collins Road. The Misses Cassidy well remember three or four cart- loads of them camping on Chestnut Street near the Pine Farm; Chester Childs remembers them, too. And the editor remembers seeing a caravan pausing on Beacon Street in the woods about where Ashmont Road now lies (and the editor hopes that she also does not lie !) . Lewis Bacon says that they also camped on Beacon Street near Lower Falls. Norma Hunt was told by an old resident of Newton Highlands that they used to set up their tents near Quinobequin and the present Larkspur Road by a brook now damned up. Miss Strong says, "Father bought horses from them occasionally. One was a race horse, Modock, who refused to do anything but walk. Sometimes he would suddenly run for a couple of miles and then as suddenly stop."
WABAN WARBLER
1903
The W aban Warbler was a tiny newspaper "Issued at Waban, Mass., when necessary. Just at present it seems neces- sary." As far as can be ascertained, only two issues were printed, for which the townspeople were doubtless thankful; one never knew what the Waban Warbler would say. The one respon- sible was never found, but suspicion pointed to Mr. Harry Cragin Walker. The two issues are dated December 23, 1903 (Christmas Number) and May, 1904 (Night Edition).
The following items are samples of the content of this terrific publication:
In the December number, under "Village Items": "Our genial station master has invented a new device whereby he can sell you a ticket and make change just in time for you to miss the train. This is certainly an improvement. Up to now he couldn't make change."
"We notice that Arthur Comer of Beacon Street has taken off his screens." (This in the Christmas number.)
"A number of our wealthy residents saw the 'Wizard of Oz' last Saturday."
"We noticed four citizens coming from the voting booth at the hall this morning. This looks as if Waban would poll a big vote this year."
Under "General News": "Last week was a fairly lively one for the 'Warbler.' One new subscription from Mr. Cum- mings. Mr. Cummings brought in some celery in payment of same, and, incidentally, on his way out, borrowed our hatchet. Our name was not on it, so we have decided to order a new one."
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"All persons interested in flooding the tennis courts and forming a skating club will please confer with Dr. Strong. We should get this started by the middle of March at the latest."
"Items for the 'Warbler' may be dropped in the barrel in front of the post-office."
Under "Pickings from Pine Ridge Road": "Bob Brigham went to the matinee last Saturday. We understand this is the first time he has attended a theatrical performance since last Friday."
"Miss Wood, our Pine Ridge Road songstress, sang in Upper Falls last week. We understand the river is low this year."
Under "Lost and Found Column": "Lost. - A wheel- barrow with initials 'G.M.A.' Finder please return to Michael Cummings." (Michael was the local gardener who took care of everybody's yard - with everybody else's garden tools! G.M.A. meant George M. Angier.)
"Found - A pocketbook in the station; contains addresses of twenty servant girls who want work in Waban. Will sell same for $5."
The May Issue (Night Edition) started off with an ad:
"Conant's Groceries. Work While You Sleep. Oranges, Ink, Coffins. Everything fresh but the Clerks. Telephone, 4-11-44."
In the "Personal" column: "The church is the first stone building on the right after passing the drug store going west."
"Mr. Bosson will allow breathing at the Tennis Courts if the air is returned to him promptly at eight."
"The report that in the rush for seats at church last Sun- day Col. Hovey was badly injured lacks confirmation at the hour of going to press."
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"Doctor Parker is just in receipt from Mr. Holden the ticket agent of 3 cents said to be the change from the purchase of a Herald made of Mr. Holden by the doctor's father in 1866. Train's coming."
Under "Inquiries and Answers": "Yes, Mr. Blaney was the handsomest man at the minstrel show; however, Mr. Bosson has the larger feet. - Editor."
No wonder the Wabanites of the winter of 1903-4 lived in horror!
There were three issues of The Waban Warbler. Son Dana got out the first one and I'll confess I was responsible for the other two. George Angier tried his best to discover the author of that immortal sheet, and instructed his secretary to ring up around fifty printers in Boston to see if any of them had a hand in printing it.
Here are a few items I recall of the old days: Mrs. Charles Comer's tame talking crow, that stole Vesta Brigham's jewelry and lighted on children's heads while on the way to school, scaring them half to death. Mrs. Comer employed an old colored man named Jeff. She would often pass our home with Jeff a few paces behind, and adjusting her skirt would ask him if it was all right. One day I heard him reply, "A little high, Missy."
HARRY CRAGIN WALKER
Mike Cummings, at nine one morning, stood crimson-faced with laughter at my door with my three-year-old daughter by the hand. He bellowed, "Jennie, I found her sittin' on the fence down by the square, waitin' for her daddy to come home, she said she was! She's comic! She's comic! She's just like you !"
J. B. MACINTIRE
Julia Buffum to Mike Cummings: "Why haven't you put the stripes on the tennis court?"
Mike: "I don't have my barl o' lime."
Julia: "Mike, how do you spell 'barrel' ?" Mike: "B. B. L."
YOUNG DAYS in OLD WABAN
( As it was around 1905 or so.)
JANE BACON MACINTIRE
Spring in Old Waban meant mud, deep mud; ruts and puddles in the dirt roads after the spring rains and children falling backwards into that mud from the packed "depot car- riage" which brought us home from school in bad weather; Pat's door never would latch well. It meant peep-frogs chorus- ing in the swamp down by the corner of Beacon Street and Pine Ridge Road, and mud turtles crossing the roads in stately pro- cession. Waban smelled in those days and this is the way she smelled - the sickish-sweet smell of chestnut blossoms filled the air, the locust blossoms festooned, sweet, so sweet, over the boardwalk on Woodward Street; there were lilacs every- where and wild apple trees (really the remains of ancient orchards of long-forgotten farms), and there was always the Saturday morning skunk smell. Why Saturday morning? I don't know, but there it was, the Saturday morning skunk smell. Spring meant the race to find the first violet on a sandy bank, stem one-fourth inch long; horse-shoe violets and ladies' slip- pers stately in the pine woods.
Spring in Waban meant going down to "the boulevard" on "Marathon Day," walking almost the entire distance on the stone walls. We stood awed to watch Tom Longboat, a real American Indian, go loping through, tireless and magnificent. And the horse-drawn fire engine, belching black smoke, always plowed through the crowd at the height of the race, galloping to someone's grass fire with a heavy but dashing progress of
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one foot per gallop. And spring meant that wonderful annual invitation from Charlie Crain's father, and being excused from school in droves to watch the circus parade, hanging from Mr. Crain's office window, and his lavish treating, passing us candy while he clutched us lest we go out headlong. And spring meant lugging dolls and dolls' trunks high up into Clitheroe Parker's apple tree, laden with pink and white blossoms; and organ grinders making the rounds with balloons - a sure sign of spring; always a monkey on a string, an anxious little beast with tiny ancient hands, tipping a filthy red cap. Then there was Mrs. Saville's bulb bed and being taken into the house to hear her music box with its far-away Alpine tinkle, and rides with Bella, the Saville donkey. And in spring in Waban there was always the horrible noise of tree-felling to clear a lovely patch of woods for another and yet another hotly resented "new house."
Then we drifted into summer and Waban became a sleepy, leafy little town by the curve of the shining river, with huge summer clouds towering over the old swimming hole - a deeply sheltered little village where everyone knew everyone else; a village full of peace, where the summer stillness was disturbed only by "the twelve o'clock whistle"; where the dust rose in clouds when Conant's grocery team went clop, clop over the dirt roads, - after which the village resumed its slumber. The woods were cool and deep then, the houses far apart, and the fields white with daisies - "he loves me; he loves me not" - and the meadows were swept by soft summer breezes, sweet, sweet with the smell of, not a clump, but a whole field of clover.
The crisp autumn days and the town woke up. Clear air, bluer skies, "land-looming" days. We went to school on the first day, disgusted because we had to draw sedges. There was the lovely smell of bonfires and grand grass fires to go to - when the "Chemical" and "Hook and Eye" went through the
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CHESTNUT BLOSSOMS AND BURRS
village, and the grocery wagon also went bounding in clouds of dust to the fires; all orders late on those days and people blaming Dick Whight. Scarlet and gold fire engines; bell alarms - we all knew the numbers of every box in town. It was lovely when the sparks from the railroad engine set the old wooden bridge afire, which they did every year. Out be- fore breakfast on frosty mornings to skuff chestnut burrs - strangers to our young - and open the velvet-lined spiney balls to pry out the glossy sienna nuts anl peel them to get the crisp white meat. We went beech-nutting, too, and made but- ternut fudge when our mothers would let us have the kitchen. And every fall, waist deep in dead leaves, we stormed the "Fort" on Beacon Street, high up on a rock no longer there. Crows at dawn and "Bob Whites" on frosty mornings; a rabbit on a rock, its fur ruffled by the wind, a lonesome little rabbit, one autumn dusk. Indian summer in Waban - one could almost see the quick soft-treading Indians gliding through the
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woods on their way to fish the Quinobequin. Our river, with pickerel weed, "lucky bugs," zipping with dragon flies - "Jolly Boating Weather, Jolly Sweet Harvest Breeze."
Wintertime in Waban - at night we heard the jingling of sleigh bells, sleighing parties singing as they went through the town; in the morning the wagon wheels squeaked and horses went over the frozen ruts with a staccato clop and Wau- winet Farm milk was delivered frozen into a minaret; groceries came from Conant's by pung and the boys of the village were restrained to no avail from "going punging." And at Christmas- time, congestion in the post office with the packages over- flowing into the store and Mr. and Mrs. Conant, plus Dick Whight, highly flustered and no wonder. There were molasses cookie elephants at the store at Christmas, each with "Jumbo" stamped on his back, and tangerines only at Christmas. Sunday school days and "Parson Jimmie" Sharp's great soft brown eyes watchful of the squirmers as he sang "Onward Christian Soldiers"; Mrs. Burnett fascinating her Sunday school class; Charlie Crain lying prone on a footstool which always over- turned with a terrific clatter. How hard Jimmie Sharp tried to make us listen when he told us about the gentle young Carpenter whose stately example has never been equalled by man and to remember the Golden Rule. By his own life he brought that lesson home. Sunday school Christmas trees - cold, bitter wind whistling through the tamaracks and bright stars, millions of them, more, it seems, than we have today. Mr. Angier was always the Santa Claus, always recognized and treated without awe and with little respect. We brought home boxes of hard candy, boxes shaped like chimneys and the string invariably broke. Christmas in Waban and Jimmie Sharp standing lovingly over us saying, "The peace of God which passeth all understanding" . . . . If this picture of Waban as it used to be seems an imaginary fabrication - just ask the Old-Timers.
AVIATION
1910
In September, 1910, all Waban journeyed to Squantum, Massachusetts, to witness our first Aviation Meet. This was won by Claude Grahame-White, who captured the $10,000 prize offered by the Boston Globe for the best flight out over Boston Harbor, circling Boston Light, returning to Boston and then repeating the circuit. He made the double flight of thirty-three miles each way, flying it the second lap in thirty- four minutes, one and one-fifth seconds - "almost a mile a minute," exclaimed the newspapers.
"In this most successful of flying-machine contests not one aviator was seriously hurt. It is plain that there has been steady and rapid progress in the art of flying, and it begins to seem more probable that the flying-machine will be an im- portant means of travel in future years." (Quoted from a Boston newspaper.)
Further notes on the meet: "A Boston reporter was about to ask the Englishman (Grahame-White) what he thought of the fog. 'Are you interviewing me?' the flying-machine man asked sternly. He was told that that was the general idea. "Then I must inform you that it is my custom to charge for interviews with press men.' "
A Boston reporter asked to go up and was told that it would cost him $1000. It was noted that the birds in Squantum were terrified by the machines. Wilbur Wright and Glenn Curtis both flew in the meet. A newspaper headline: "4,000 Feet in the Air." Wilbur Wright, with a great deal of secrecy, was the first aviator in the air. He went up in a biplane. Upon
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alighting, he was asked his sensations, "a question every news- paperman at the meet asks in his sleep. Wright said, 'Fine,' and looking sheepish at his loquacity, shot for the hangar."
From the ground, one could see the landing wheels vibrate. The machines made a noise resembling nothing so much as a hay-cutter; a loud clattering whir came from the engines. The Curtis machines carried eight cylinder gasoline engines. Our first local aviator, very famous in his day, was Harry Atwood. He lectured at a meeting of the C. C. C. Club at Don Hill's about this time and was kept busy autographing cards.
A FLYING MACHINE OF 1910; CURTIS BIPLANE Courtesy of Mr. Lewis H. Bacon, Jr.
MEN from this COUNTRYSIDE in the AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Men from what is now Waban went to Bunker Hill to fight for liberty and to the Battles of Concord and Lexington. At Bunker Hill that June day in 1775 there were Segers, Lockes, and Murdocks; Moses Craft was there and Captain Nathan Fuller, who ran the tavern on the site of the Hawkes farm on the plain. Deacon John Woodward fought at Concord and loaned £100 to help pay the soldiers. Alexander Shepard, Jr., who lived on Moffatt Hill, was engaged in the manufacture of saltpetre.
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