Before we go Forward, look from where we've come

 

William Hemenway, (Hardin Hemenway m Mary Henry (Samuel Henry Jr 1788-1862m Cynthia Ingrahm) (Samuel Henry m  Lurana Cady) of Shutesbury was the first Chairman of the Library Board of Trustees when it was established in 1894. He took over as Shutesbury Town Clerk when his father Hardin Hemenway died and served the town until his death on April 5, 1911.  He was chairman of the library building committee which oversaw the construction of the MN Spear Memorial Library in 1902 at a cost of $1547.61. 

Script excerpt from "The Tavern of Time"

Miss Mary Clark (dryly):  Mr. Hemenway “was deeply interested in the work of the library, and contributed freely and generously to its support. The modern bookshelves that adorn the library were a gift from him and he was also contemplating more extensive work in the near future.”

Lura: ‘William Hemenway…was one of the finest men that ever lived.   He would do everything that was in his power for everybody, and charge little or nothing for his services.’”

Eliza: I’ll never forget how he forgave my father’s loan.

Miss Mary Clark:  He said “The companionship of books unites us in sympathy with the whole human race.” 
Lura:  He was generally considered an exceptionally well posted man… he took at least 3 daily papers and never destroyed but he kept them in his house until there was no longer room for them there; then he stored them in a little old house north of his residence.

Kaya: He lived Fiona Rogers house! (pointing to the house)

Miss Mary Clark. I wonder what the young town clerk Nathan Hunting is like.

Hattie: I heard he takes after Mr. Hemenway in his meticulous recordkeeping, and he value[s] education, honesty and quiet diplomacy.

Eliza: Miss Clark, what will you be doing since you resigned as Librarian?

Miss Mary Clark: Well, Miss Moody and I are moving to Amherst and we are the executors of Mr. Hemenway’s estate… such as it is.

Lura: What do you mean?

Miss Mary Clark: Well, everyone thought Mr. Hemenway was a millionaire but the disclosure which came as a thunderbolt from a clear sky soon after his death… revealed that for a number of years he had been a poor man.

He will be buried in the West Cemetery, right down the road, with no headstone.

Kaya: No headstone?!

Eliza: No headstone.  He was the last of his family.

Hattie: But how will he be remembered?

Lura:  After Mr. Spear’s will left money for a new library Mr.  Hemenway said it was “a more impressive monument to his memory than costly granite’s voiceless woe which tells only of the hours which never can return, this holds the lettered wisdom of the past in a form that will recreate itself in the lives of future generations”

Hattie: Oh, Lura, you always were such a fan of Mr. Hemenway!

Harp glissando

                                                                                                  Nathan Hunting replaced William Hemenway and served the town until his death in 1961. 

Right around the first time I went to the library 

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George Berry was a wealthy and prominent Shutesbury resident. The Berry house in Shutesbury was removed and the land taken by what is now the DCR for Quabbin Resevoir. 

Town Clerk Leslie Bracebridge took me to what we believe to be the site of the Berry house where George lived with his first wife Rebecca Vaughan (Their children are Elmer, Bessie, Lura) and his second wife Abbie Sophia Crossman Cowls.   

(Earl Berry)(Elmer Albert Berry)  (George Albert Berry)

1910 Census shows Elmer A. Berry, 46, farmer, living in New Salem with wife Annie L., 42, married 24 years, two children born, both living, daughter Florence A., 23, single, public school teacher, and son Earl H., 17. Also in household is sister-in-law  Jennie M. Horr, 37, public school teacher. All show self and parents born Mass.24

Elmer A. Berry is shown on a list of those owning plots in Pine Grove Cemetery, Prescott, next to the name of likely brother-in-law Herbert W. Barnes.25

Spouse: Annie Lucy Horr21

Birth: 16 Feb 1868, New Salem, Mass.26

Death: 17 Jul 193923

Father: Henry Franklin Horr  (1836-)

Mother: Lutheria S. Upton

Domestic, res. New Salem, at time of 1885 marriage.21

1920 Census shows Annie L. Berry, 51, widowed, no occupation, living in New Salem with son Earl (middle initial illegible), 27, single, automobile mechanic, and sister Jennie M. Horr, 47, single, no occupation. All show self and parents born Mass.27

Elmer Berry and The Upton, Horr-Berry House  

 Although the main part of this 

house is new, compared with other  houses in town,

 and no interesting stories 

connected with it have been  handed down, it has been the 

home of four

 generations, the main part  having been built by John Upton, in 1841. The ell is much older, probably at least two hundred years old, being part of the old house that they  had lived in. The side walls are of hand-planed boards and the 

windows  are of small panes of glass, 9 by 7 inches. 

The old-fashioned door 

latches  are used throughout the whole house, only two having been broken. 

It is  a ten-room house. Originally there were six fireplaces, one of which is a 

 large one connected

 with the large brick oven, but, as they have been  either torn out or bricked up 

at various times and modern equipment installed, not many can be used now. 

There were originally four outside  doors, the front one being a Christian door. 

  I have been told that at one time while the family lived in the old  house they brought water from the brook at the foot of this steep hill for  the family use. Later a well was dug, which is now in the dooryard cov-  ered by a large flat rock. After this house was built, grandfather decided  to have running water from a spring beyond the first hill, northwest of  the house. After having dug a ditch so that the water would run from the  spring to the house, a pipe was laid and a never-failing supply of water  is still running to the house and barn.  

 The house is at the end of the road, but was not facing the road.   

Before the house was built there was a survey for a road running north  

 and south toward New 

Salem Hill, but this project was given up for some  reason.

http://www.archive.org/stream/historyofnewsale00coxf/historyofnewsale00coxf_djvu.txt

 

Shutesbury resident Susan Rice portrayed Eliza Stowell in "The Tavern of Time".

Scene Four: 1930- 2011

(Lura, Eliza, Jarod and Kaya)

Eliza:  Jarod and Kaya you think you’ve got it bad, did you know we only got electricity in 1930?

Lura:  Yes, people gathered on the town common waiting and waiting for the lights to go on until finally gave up and went home and the electricity came on unceremoniously sometime during the night.

Jarod: I feel your pain, WE don’t even have cable TV.

Kaya: Some people in Shutesbury still have dialup.

 Lura and/or Eliza: What’s dialup?

 Eliza:  And wasn’t it a shame when they flooded those towns all those people lost their home!? Just to build that reservoir for Boston.  We felt so bad for them.

 Town Crier reads:  1926 Shutesbury Town Meeting Article 20:  Vote of sympathy to the Swift River Towns for them in their compulsory abandonment of their homes because of proposed flooding.  Extend invitation to establish new homes in our community.

Eliza (to Lura): Your husband’s remains were moved weren’t they?

Lura: Yes, Poor Herbert and I were only married for 3 years when he got sick and died.  We buried him in Prescott with his family but they were all moved to the Quabbin Cemetery.

Back then in the early 1900’s I was teaching school in Shutesbury and I was a library trustee.

Eliza: As you remember, I was also a schoolteacher and a library trustee. 

 I have had a long life and all but 2 years of it were spent right here in this town.  I am the fourth generation…My great grandfather came to this town in 1805.  It was my grandfather who built that fancy home on Stowell Road.  I was born there.  I have some bad feelings about that house.  You see, I was the oldest daughter, and the only unmarried one when my mother took sick.  I had to come back to Shutesbury from studying to be a nurse to take care of her and the younger children.  My mother died when I was 19, and I had to take care of my father until he died.  After his death, I just left it.  I didn’t empty a single cupboard…I just locked up the house and left!!!And never returned!

I owned some other property and land in Shutesbury…. actually, I owned the very house that you live in, Jarod.  I enjoyed living there…I was famous for all my berry patches.  Folks said that I grew the best berries in the county…and I believe I did.  I took good care of the berries….and I protected them with a shotgun!  I did let some folks pick as much as they wanted, but they had to be respectful of my plantings or else I’d chase them off the property and never let them come back.

I lived to 87 years old, and every single day I walked all the way to Dihlmann’s store…that’s a 2 mile walk one way.  This here walking stick served me well.  Now the Dihlmanns were always kind to me.  They gave me a special chair to sit in and milk for my cats.  I had a lot of cats, you know.  You see animals were important to me.  I mostly lived alone, and my animals kept me company…particularly my horse.  One day that old horse got really sick, so I brought him into the house, Jarod.  I pulled out the couch from the wall and let him lie down there.  I nursed that horse the best I could…but I wasn’t able to save him.  He died right there…and I couldn’t get my dead horse out the door….ohhh…my heart is heavy with that memory.

Now I do remember when folks like Hattie Ames started buying those fancy automobiles…What a waste of money they were!  So to spite that, I would just walk down the middle of Wendell Road real slow.  Those folks would honk their silly horns, but I just kept on going.

Did you know Jarod that in 1895 there were 6 courageous women that asked for Municipal Suffrage?   Do you know what that is?  Well, it means that we women wanted to be able to vote in local elections. I was one of those 6 women.  We got ten men to vote for us….unfortunately, 47 men voted against us.  We had to wait 25 years before we could even vote….Now that really twisted me in a knot.  Why I was a landowner, a taxpayer, and an upright citizen, BUT because I wasn’t a MAN, I couldn’t have an opinion….but folks know that I had lots of opinions.

A couple of years before I died, I was attacked by these 2 men who thought I had a lot of money.  Little did they know that I was house-poor.  Yes, I owned 4 house and lots of land, but I had little else.  So they attacked me and I screamed so loud that Minor Haskell heard me all the way down to his place.  Now that story made the papers!

I cared deeply about this town…and the many good and kind folks that cared for me as I got older.  People like the Plazas, the Haskells and the Dihlmanns , who fed me when I came to their doors.  Now I know folks said I smelled like onions, and I didn’t take to bathing too much. But goodness me, this town has always been about helping each other out.

  Leslie and I visited the site of the old Shutesbury poor farm located on the discontinued Town Farm Rd that leads into land taken for the Quabbin Resevoir.

 
E. Colfax Johnson, turn of the century "all-around man" in Shutesbury- Wagon maker, blacksmith, gunsmith, inventor of the measured faucet barber and amateur doctor.

 Reading the Library Annual Report as Lura Berry

William Hemenway lies buried in a corner of the Samuel Henry lot, the southeast corner with no stone.  He was the last of his family. 

 Aug 27, 1955  Luther Henry Tomb Yard.Written by Katharine Clark

Treasure Hunting with Shutesbury town clerk Leslie Bracebridge near old mill site off Old Boston Rd not far from where the 2 branches of the river meet up.

Source:  A Study of Community Transition

Phases of a Town’s History with Psychological and Sociological Interpretations

by RF Lund-Thesis for the Degree of Master of Science Mass Ag College 1916

“There was a social group in the town which tended to give the entire community an unsavory reputation.  The Pratt group composed of 8 families descended from Ephriam Pratt who lived to be 116 years of age. On his tombstone on can read that he was “Cheerful in his disposition and temperate in his habits…

…  Of Ephriam Pratt’s descendants, however, it could not be said that as a whole they were either cheerful or temperate.  On the contrary, they were constantly quarreling amongst themselves, and with outsiders upon the slightest provocation.’…

Lura L. Barnes

Mrs. Lura L Barnes, 93, of Shutesbury, died this morning a the Ducharme Rest Home, Athol.

She was born in Shutesbury the daughter of George A and Rebecca (Vaughn) Berry and was married to Herbert L Barnes of Prescott, who died in 1916.

She retired as a school teacher in the Springfield area 37 years ago.

She is survived by a niece, Mrs Harold Ballard of Akron, Ohio, and a grand niece, Mrs Albert Dunn of Manila, Philippines.

Funeral services will be Monday at 2 pm at the Witty Funeral Home, Orange, with burial in the Quabbin Park Cemetery. The REv Paul C Clayton of the Central Congregational Church, Orange, will officiate.

Calling hours at the funeral home will be tomorrow night from 7 to 9.

Johanna  and Tisdale Crossman(1.father Asa (b 1769 in Norton Ana Simmons 1794, 2.g.father-Theophitis) are parents of Newton, Abbie and Charles.

Newton Daniel Crossman was born in 1848  Crossman was educated in Shutesbury and appointed the town's postmaster in 1892.    He was a farmer and manufacturer (he made chopping trays by hand) and took care of his father (Tisdale 1803-1890) and mother (Joannah Thurber of Mendon 1808-1888). 



Crossman married Susannah Elizabeth Wood  of Shutesbury in April of 1872 and their chldren were Frank Newton(married first Hattie Wood of Shutesbury and after they separated m May Nutting of Cushman,MA) and Allie Cowls Crossman who married Edwin Colfax Johnson of Shutesbury. Allie and Edwin were the parents of Lydia McDermott Johnson (b. April 14, 1908) 





Newton's sister Abbie Sophia Crossman Cowles-(her first husband Rollin Cowles died in the Civil War) was the 2nd wife of George Berry.  

Add caption

3. Fred Crossman m Nancy Elizabeth Rogers (Samantha Spear and Cyrus Rogers)(Charles Crossman (m Rachel Spear)(Johanna  and Tisdale Crossman(1.father Asa (b 1769 in Norton Ana Simmons 1794, 2.g.father-Theophitis)

N.E. Crossman was Shutesbury librarian and Trustee from 1916-1939

1905 Herman Dihlmann, born in Tuttlingen, Germany emigrated to the US to find opportunity, leaving his wife Anna and son Fred behind in Norway. After they moved to Shutesbury, Anna  died  after becoming ill after a fall from roping a steer.  Fannia and Hermann Dihlman are the parents of Herman Jr, Gustave, Emil, Karl, Rudolph and Pauline.

  

Miss Mary Clark, Shutesbury's first Librarian and housekeeper for William Hemenway. 

Librarian Jane Urban from Shutesbury portrays Miss Clark at 2011 Town Meeting.

Harp glissando

ACT III:  1890-2011

 With continued hard times, people in Shutesbury pulled together. The community was small after many people moved west, and it grew closer. At the turn of the century, Shutesbury’s population was about 300, while today it is about 1,800.

Eliza Stowell (1857-1945)                                                                                        -Susan Rice

    Fourth generation Shutesbury resident; born into a prominent family but died in poverty

Lura Berry (1866-1959)                                                                                            -Karen Traub

                A Shutesbury schoolteacher and Library Trustee

Hattie Ames (1883-1950’s)                                                                                      -Susan Loring-Wells

            A fiercely independent woman who ran her family’s sawmill and drove fancy automobiles           

Mirick Spear (1836-1899)                                                                                        -Clif Read

            A prosperous Amherst merchant; descendant of Shutesbury’s Deacon Moses Spear

William Hemenway (1846-1911)                                                                            -Glenn Warren

            Town Clerk after his father’s death; grandson of Samuel Henry, Jr.

Miss Mary Clark (1850-1936)                                                                                 -Jane Urban

            Shutesbury’s first librarian and longtime housekeeper to Mr. Hemenway

Emma Montague Clark (1800-1886)                                                                      -Mary Anne Antonellis

            Widowed mother of Mary Clark and a boarder in the Hemenway household

Scene One

(Eliza, Lura, Miss Mary Clark, Jarod, Kaya)

Eliza: Jarod, you’re not the only one who doesn’t think highly of Shutesbury. A study from a racist pseudoscience called eugenics said “The sentiment prevails that the people of the community are idle, ignorant and licentious” and called us uniformly decadent”:

Lura:  Well, there was that hotel in Shutesbury. That didn’t help the town’s reputation any…!?

Miss Mary Clark: You mean Mt Mineral where they came from all around for the healing waters?

Eliza:  No, the town tavern. When people asked for the healing water there, at first the proprietor had the spring water carted the 6 miles up the hill but “the trips soon grew . . . more infrequent, yet the supply of mineral water never failed.” Moreover, “people from Hadley, Northampton, Deerfield and Sunderland used the hotel for immoral purposes.” Emily Dickenson’s brother Austin and his “friend” Mabel (raises eyebrows) used to spend time in Shutesbury, you know.

 Kaya: Do you think Ephraim Pratt really lived to be 116 from drinking Shutesbury’s healing water?

Lura: Maybe; they said he was “Cheerful in his disposition and temperate in his habits.”

Eliza: Too bad the same can’t be said for many of his descendants. “They were constantly quarreling amongst themselves, and with outsiders upon the slightest provocation.” They were part of what gave the town its bad name.

Lura:  Now Eliza….No-one can say Shutesbury lacks characters. Every family and every community has its black sheep and its heroes. And sometimes people surprise you. Why remember how in 1890, people got together and planted potatoes right here on the town common.  Some were surprised when the men who usually sat around the tavern came and hoed potatoes.

 Harp glissando

Scene Two: 1894

Setting: Shutesbury Center.  Mary and Emma Clark

Miss Mary Clark:   I Just finished polishing Mr. Hemenway’s boots and now I’m off to tend the library, for it is Saturday and the Free Library will be open one hour this week. Mother, I don’t know where I’ll put the new books Mr. Spear donated.

Emma Clark:  I’ll see you over there, dear. I’ll be making some more book covers and need to take some measurements. (To herself): We need a new library.

(Enter Spear and Hemenway in front of the Hemenway store.)

 Mirick Spear: Salutations, Mr. Hemenway, how fare things in my ancestral town of Shutesbury?

William Henry Hemenway: Well, times are hard.  All we can do is try to help one another.   I trust business is prosperous down at your book and news-dealers store in Amherst?

Kaya:   I’ve been to that store.  It’s called Hastings nowadays.

Mirick Spear:   Yes, business is brisk.  In fact, now that you have established a Free Library in Shutesbury, I have some more books I would like to donate.

William Henry Hemenway:  Why thank you, Mr. Spear.  Due to your generosity we are quickly running out of room at the Town House where the books are stored.

Mirick Spear: Mark my words Mr. Hemenway.  One day there will be a new library built in Shutesbury,

 William Henry Hemenway: Do you really think so, Mr. Spear?

Mirick Spear: I can see it now.

 From the 250th commemorative album preface

Maureen Little of Post Falls, Idaho, had written to tell us that she had in her possession a souvenir pamphlet celebrating the 150th Anniversary of Shutesbury in 1911. A friend of her daughter’s had found it tucked inside an old book, and had given it to the daughter to research. A couple of handwritten notes indi- cated that it had belonged to a James and Flora A. Moat. Curious—for she had never heard of Shutesbury— Maureen logged onto the Internet to find information about our town. She discovered we were about to cele- brate our anniversary again! She also found on the Internet the federal census of 1910, which listed the Moats as residing in Shutesbury.

She kindly asked if our committee would be interested in receiving her copy of the 1911 anniversary pamphlet. We were delighted by her offer. We had already been researching earlier celebrations of our town, such those that took place in 1937 (the 200th anniversary of settlement), 1961 and 2000 (the start of the new millennium), but we had not been aware of this pamphlet’s existence. (We later learned that a copy was in the town archives.)

To Be Continued....