In honor of Independence Day, we looked back at how the people of Acton celebrated the Fourth in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  The Concord Enterprise, a local newspaper, regularly reported on the celebration.  It was a day for gathering with family and friends.  Many businesses were closed, and most people were able to enjoy a day of leisure.  The morning might start with a “horribles” parade with outlandish or comic costumes.  Picnics were popular; people liked to gather at Lake Nagog, and some took the opportunity to fish there.  Other people would head to Concord to picnic at Lake Walden.  Some might host family reunions.  None was likely to top the 1896 gala hosted by Adelbert and O.W. Mead who had a railroad car added to the local train to bring in 55 members of their family from Fitchburg to join the 60 who gathered at the Meads’ homes in West Acton.

Those craving a little more action had plenty of choices.  Some entered their horses in races at Ayer or elsewhere; friends and neighbors would go to cheer them on.  Baseball was a popular activity, either to play or to watch.  The Acton team would often play neighboring towns on the 4th.  In 1896, for example, the team played a double-header against Marlborough that drew five hundred spectators to the afternoon game.  As bicycles became popular in the mid-1890s, road races were held either in Acton or neighboring towns.  

Unlikely though it may seem today, in 1900, there was a local yacht club that arranged a July 4th race on Lake Nagog.  It may have been a one-off event.  The newspaper reported, “The yacht race seems to have been more of a failure than a success as the boats broke down or met with some mishap near the start, D. H. Hall’s being the only one making a successful run.”

On the evening of the Fourth, private citizens would often provide a fireworks display.  For several years in the 1890s, South Acton was treated to fireworks by the Lothrop family.  Cyrus Dole provided fireworks for a large crowd on the common in 1897 followed by cold drinks and an open house at his newly renovated summer home across from the library.  Another place to view fireworks during the 1890s was Wright's Hill in West Acton.  An article from 1892 mentioned people on Wright's Hill watching a hot air balloon going up and down miles away and, in the evening, seeing fireworks being set off all around the horizon.

Acton’s former residents' activities on the day of the Fourth do not sound radically different from today’s.  However, most people’s experiences of the night before the 4th were quite different.  Year after year, “Young America” or “the small boy” would, in the name of “patriotism,” make noise throughout the evening of the July 3rd and create a ruckus at midnight.  Tin horns were blown, and fireworks were set off.  (“Crackers,” “cannons” and “torpedoes” were common.)  As described in 1890, “pandemonium reigned supreme on the street until after midnight.”  At midnight, the “boys” would often ring church bells, usually without permission.  In 1897, a report in Acton Center said, “The selectmen had no special police on duty this year and the irrepressible youth took the gladsome opportunity of ringing the bells at midnight unmolested.”  In 1895, the boys’ entertainment was repeatedly ringing the bell of the South Acton church and disappearing before the constable could catch them.  In West Acton in 1900, the whistle at Hall Brothers’ pail factory was added to the din.  It was such a long-standing custom that most people were resigned to the noise up until midnight.  As one writer put it in 1892, “Well, we were all boys once, consequently were in full sympathy with the occasion.”  (The writer was quite unconcerned about the sleep of the half of the population who were never boys and would not have been nostalgically remembering their days in the noisy throng.)

Unfortunately, Young America was not always content to stop the noise at midnight.  Writers mentioned them “making night hideous and sleep impossible” (1890) and ringing the bell “at intervals in an almost vain attempt we suppose to make the sun rise” (1891).  In Acton Center, for at least two years, an impromptu “fife and drum corps” decided to stage a concert of patriotic songs after midnight.  A few people spoke out about the rights of nonparticipants.  One writer called the carousals disgraceful (1898), while another (1894) pointed out that “there are rights for all in this land of ours, and one may not encroach upon the other, though there be but one day in the year that calls forth such uproarious demonstration and general jubilee by the boys or the exercise of authority by law-abiding citizens.  Let each respect the others’ privileges, and remember, boys, that though all gentlemen are not Americans the true American citizen is a gentleman under all circumstances.”  Judging from the newspapers, gentlemanliness was not everyone's top priority on the night before the 4th.

The townspeople were much more united in opposition to destruction of property.  The expectation was that if the “boys” caused damage, they would fix it.  In 1889, the South Acton correspondent reported “no serious damage excepting that the waves of sound created by the cannon were too much for the window glass in some residences, but the boys enjoyed the fun and no doubt everything will be made satisfactory.”  In 1895, a group of young men egged Ed Banks’ house in South Acton.  Mr. Banks informed them that they needed to clean it up.  “It was a rather hard job, but a coat of paint will finish the work.”  1895 seems to have been a busy year; gates and other items were disarranged and an effigy was hung from the telegraph wire multiple times.  In 1897, “the natives found a great display in the square in the morning, the most conspicuous object being South Acton’s ancient fire engine....  A number of wagons, single wheels and outhouses were also on exhibition.”  The young men also cut the rope used to ring the bell at Tuttles, Jones & Wetherbee’s store.  South Acton’s hook and ladder truck was taken in 1898, eliciting a threat from a Selectman that if the known leaders did not return it, they would suffer.  (It was returned.)  Even less acceptable was trouble from other towns, prompting the comment in 1893 that “when a party of men from another town come here and go to pulling down flags and demolishing chimneys, they should be severely dealt with.”   

A feature of old Acton’s celebrations was the prevalence of fireworks.  In 1894, an enterprising South Acton postmaster decided to sell fireworks, which elicited an objection from the newspaper correspondent: “Fireworks in our post office?  It would do well for the postmaster of this village to read up the law on this subject.  The selectmen of a town have no right to license them to be sold in a post office.  Please read what Uncle Sam says about it.”

With many incendiaries going off, fire was a real concern.  In 1895, a “suspicious” fire occurred on the Fourth in South Acton.  This would have brought back memories of the previous July 4th when Hudson experienced a devastating fire started by boys with firecrackers.  The fire wiped out 40 buildings over at least five acres in the heart of Hudson, including factories, shops, stables, five large halls, Y.M.C.A. rooms, a well-known photographic studio, the telephone station, and the post office.  No one would have wanted a similar occurrence in Acton.

The other major issue with fireworks was the possibility of injury.  In 1889, Acton news reported that Herbert Clark, age 9, had mixed powder with dirt in a tin can and set it off; it exploded in his face.  In 1895, Robert Randall lost his left hand firing a ”cannon.”  An 1898 article mentioned that the year’s revelries had resulted in a few lost eyebrows.  In 1899, Sheldon Littlefield was quite severely burned on his hand and face by the explosion of powder in a can.  These injuries were not unique to Acton.  In 1893, the local paper published a listing of the numerous “Patriotic Patients Treated at the Emergency Hospital” in Boston that year, most from careless handling of fireworks that included burns to hands and faces, lacerations, several missing fingers, and possible permanent loss of sight.

In 1915, Acton celebrated differently.  A South Acton committee planned a large-scale, organized 24 hours of events.  Because the 4th fell on a Sunday, the celebration took place the next day.  On the night of July 4th, a large bonfire of railroad ties that had been dragged to the top of a hill burned for nearly two hours.  There was also a well-attended but orderly dance at the Exchange Hall.  (A couple of individuals who drank or used obscene language found themselves in the lockup.)  Though firecrackers seem to have been accepted in the evening (“the sound of exploding crackers made it appear like a miniature battle”), the "pandemonium" of former years was discouraged.  In the early morning hours on Sunday, there was “the discharge of a few isolated fire crackers.  As that was not as the plans had been arranged, the newly uniformed policeman called the patriotic spirited boys’ attention to the fact.” 

A big parade in the morning drew hundreds of spectators from neighboring towns.  Of special note in the paper were the floats by Acton businesses; A. Merriam Co. (piano stools) showing the history of their products, Finney & Hoit (merchants) displaying a summer kitchen, and South Acton Woolen Company, showing off a large float with sections, one for live sheep, then wool, then rags, then shoddy, and finally cloth with a sign “Made from Shoddy,” a South Acton product.  Grocer J. S. Moore displayed live animals and a sausage machine.  A number of businesses were represented by their delivery wagons.  Acton’s Road Commissioner and firemen displayed town vehicles.   Other participants were the Boy Scouts, the “famous old Acton band,” and a twelve-member drum corps.  A school float carried many of the young schoolchildren.  A large number of Camp Fire Girls appeared with a tepee on an auto.  There was a Peace Float with about 20 young ladies in white dresses.  According to the paper, the suffrage auto carried several young women displaying sentiments of "Down with liquor.  Don’t be a pinhead.  Give woman a vote.  Give women the vote and they will clean the town.”  (Women apparently had finally found a way to make themselves heard on the Fourth.)  Later, games and track-and-field competitions were held, and fireworks completed the day.

If one stopped reading in 1915, one might think that Acton’s celebration had become completely sedate.  However, the South Acton Enterprise correspondent in 1920 reported on “cannon" that were "fired off in several places in the village causing much damage by breaking glass.  At the home of George Ames, School st., two windows were blown out and one at the house on the opposite side of the street.  The glass in several windows at George Worster’s was cracked.  It seems a great wonder that the beautiful windows of the Congregational church nearby did not suffer damage.  Several windows at Acton Centre were also broken in the same way.  The newly appointed policeman was right on his job and it is due to him and assistants that things were not much worse and the night made hideous.”  Old habits die hard.

A previous blog post discussed the furor that erupted in Acton in 1936 over placing a cannon from World War I on the town common.  After much contention, it was installed near the town hall.  Unfortunately, the Society does not have a picture of it, and the cannon is no longer there.  Until last week, we had not found anyone who knew where it went.

One of our volunteers has been cataloguing a large number of newspaper clippings that came to the Society with records of the local American Legion. It turns out that among the clippings was the story of the fate of the World War I cannon.

The American Legion materials include an article and two letters that were printed in an unknown newspaper, one dated December 19, 1942.  Thanks to these clippings, we now know that the cannon was taken as part of the nationwide scrap metal drive in 1942.  War production was gearing up, and citizens were urged to contribute not only metal but paper, rags, rubber, phonograph records, and even used fat to counteract shortages in military supplies.  Along with school, church, and veterans’ groups, an Acton Scrappers Club was formed to collect material.  Acton had a “scrap heap” at Kelley’s Corner.  However, the World War I cannon went farther away.  The article entitled “ACTON DONATES WORLD WAR GUN,” announced on November 12 (no year) that the nearby town of Acton had contributed a 7,420 pound cannon to the salvage drive conducted at Fort Devens.  Fort supply officer Colonel Thomas Mahoney sent a “powerful ordnance wrecker” to Acton to pick up the gun which was dismantled and added to the Fort’s “immense scrap stockpile.”

The writers of the letters in our collection were veterans and were certainly in favor of aiding the war effort.  One of the writers was Herbert Leusher, Commander of the American Legion.  He wrote that members of the Legion were busy gathering scrap metal themselves.  However, they were upset that they had not been informed about plans to scrap the cannon that was, to them, a memorial.  Legion members had been instrumental in bringing it to the town.  Leusher said that “gladly would my organization have given its consent for the removal of the cannon but I would have called it a common decency to have been notified.”  Someone in the town must have been involved in arranging the removal; it was presumably that person or people with whom the American Legion members were unhappy.

The Legion members were not the only group dealing with these issues.  In 1942, many metal items of historical, sentimental or aesthetic interest were claimed for the national salvage campaign.  Railings, grates, and fences were torn down, including the iron fence around the State House in Boston.  In August, Franklin Roosevelt called for the donation of old cannons and bronze statues that resided in parks and suggested that they could be replaced after the war with newer items.  In the resulting patriotic fervor, the conflict between the tug of history and the need of the present was felt all over the country.  A historic cannon was sometimes used as the impetus for local scrap drives.  Though obviously the needs of the troops were paramount, opposition arose from people who wanted to make sure that the supply of “junk” was exhausted before historical artifacts were sacrificed.  Such objections were not always appreciated; newspapers carried the story of St. Louis citizens who tried (unsuccessfully) to conduct a midnight mission to force the “donation” of a cannon on the capitol grounds to a salvage drive.  Locally, newspapers reported debates about the fate of memorial cannons in other Massachusetts cities and towns, including Billerica, Burlington, Cambridge, and Townsend.  Pittsfield in Western Massachusetts had collected cannons earlier in the year and, with ceremony, sent them in a “cannon caravan” over the route by which Henry Knox delivered artillery captured at Ticonderoga to help liberate Boston in 1776.

Reading about the widespread scrapping of old cannon and other cherished items in 1942 makes the second letter in the Society’s collection more understandable.  Major Charles Coulter’s letter talked about the Civil War cannons on the Town Common, with a colorful description of his views on Acton’s Civil War memorials.  (His cynical assessment may have been shaped by the fight over bringing the World War I gun to the town in the first place.)  Usefully, he described the cannons; they were rifled Civil War Parrotts, obtained for the town of Acton by Congressman John F. Fitzgerald, shipped to South Acton at government expense, and then brought to Acton Center by Nelson Tenney, who made the mounts and placed them on the Common. In Coulter’s view, they had no historic or sentimental value and no connection to Acton.  “The scrap heap is the place for them.”

Taken by itself, Major Coulter’s letter seemed surprisingly strong.  However, reading about similar debates in cities and towns across the county allowed us to understand the context in which it was written.  The Acton Legion’s World War I veterans were upset, not only that their memorial cannon was removed without notice, but that the big Civil War guns on Acton’s Town Common were left behind.  Perhaps emotions were particularly high because the fight over obtaining the World War I cannon was still quite fresh in the memory of the Acton’s veterans, but they would naturally wonder why their cannon was considered less worthy of preservation than those from the Civil War. 

So Acton’s cannon controversy continued.  In the end, despite Major Coulter’s views, the Civil War cannons stayed.  Clearly someone decided that it wasn’t worth the cost, whether monetary or political, to send the old cannons to the scrap heap.  The World War I veterans were memorialized in a bronze plaque across the street; fortunately, despite concerns of some of the veterans, the salvage drive never went so far as to claim it.

In former times, one of the difficulties of traveling was finding water for one’s animals.  In the mid- to late 1800s, animal welfare advocates and civic-minded individuals worked to make water easily available.  Individuals or groups would donate a watering trough to their towns, preferably with a well and a pump.  Acton had several watering troughs.  Researching their history gave us insights into the practicalities of traveling in the pre-automobile era and the evolution of attitudes during the transition years as horse-drawn vehicles were replaced by autos.

In South Acton, a stone watering trough was erected in the square in the summer of 1896 using money left over from the defunct Reform Club.  It was a great improvement over the former trough according to the Concord Enterprise.  How  it was supposed to be kept filled with water, however, was unclear.  In October, 1897, the newspaper complained that the trough was dry most of the time.  In June, 1898, it revealed that the selectmen had taken three months to fix the watering trough.  A few weeks later, the South Acton correspondent reported “A little patience is needed.  The selectmen are considering plans for furnishing water to the trough here,” and “The town fathers are thinking of digging a well near the watering trough and supply it with a pump.  Anything will do, but please give us something soon.”  Hopefully, the people were very patient; the well was finally dug over a year later.

West Acton village’s provision of water for animals was also a long process.  The village received a stone watering trough in 1905, probably partially funded by the donation that Acton received from the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for that purpose.   There must have been problems, because by 1908, the town needed to vote on securing “if possible, a supply of good water for the watering trough at West Acton.”  In 1912, the town voted to extend the new public water service to the village troughs. The problems weren’t over; in 1914, the West Acton trough had to be enlarged because, as the Enterprise reported, “It could not hold enough water for the many horses on the milk teams, who gather here in the morning.  The trough, which is in Central sq. is a great convenience to all concerned.”

Progress, unfortunately, did not guarantee good water for animals.  In October 1908, the Enterprise’s South Acton news reported that “There was a filthy act by a beastly, or dirty fellow rather, noticed the other day when a big burly hulk stepped up to the pump for a drink.  He took a mouthful of water and rinsing his dirty tobacco mouth spit the foul stuff into the horse trough.  It was too bad that Wisewinkers, the Sunday Post horse, could not have happened along and ducked the fellow in the water he had polluted.”

Sometimes, the sight at the trough was more entertaining.  The West Acton news on June 18, 1919 reported: “FOUR ELEPHANTS HERE  -- It was a novel sight Sunday when four elephants with attendants appeared at Central sq. on their way to Maynard to join a circus company.  The elephants were very dry and soon took all the water from the trough in the square.”

The advent of the automobile changed perceptions of the watering troughs from a public good to, in some cases, a public nuisance.  Their locations were originally chosen for animals’ use, but in later years, people wanted them moved in order to widen streets.  There was not much concern about historical significance or sentimentality.  With the exception of the Grange watering trough on the Town Common, the town’s watering troughs came to rest in places where they were not in the way of drivers.  An October 1917 article in the Concord Enterprise reported that in Acton center, a committee had “succeeded in getting rid of the old pump and trough which makes the street at that point look much wider and is certainly a great improvement.”  That trough, donated to the town by Harriet (Cowdrey) Little, was assigned a place so out-of-the-way that its location was a mystery for decades.  It now resides in the Acton Arboretum.   The West Acton watering trough was moved to Central Street in 1927 to make more room on Massachusetts Avenue and to improve sight-lines.  The old South Acton stone watering trough, seemingly made superfluous by a more decorative iron replacement in 1913, was given another chance at relevance when the town connected water to it in 1930, creating a bubbler “for thirsty humans.”  At the same time, the iron fountain was removed from Quimby Square.  The Enterprise in February of that year reported that the fountain had “long been considered a menace to the school children as they gather to use it while autos are passing from all directions.”  During the iron fountain’s removal, it was discovered that its base had been broken by collisions with the poles of horse-drawn vehicles.  (The old stone troughs apparently had some advantages.)  The iron fountain was moved to private property on High Street at some point and for the past several years has resided in front of the Senior Center on Audubon Drive.

Today, most of the town’s watering troughs would be passed by without a glance if it weren’t for the efforts of members of the Acton Garden Club.  They have converted the troughs to planters and faithfully fill them with seasonal flowers and greens.  For more information on the individual troughs, see their pages in the Markers and Monuments section of our website.

One of the pleasures of volunteering at Jenks Library is finding unexpected connections.  Recently, a volunteer was going through a ledger that wasn’t very old.  Inside, she found a ribbon printed with a picture of Acton’s Davis Monument and the dates 1775, APRIL 19th, and 1895.  In another setting, it might have been taken for a meaningless piece of junk.  But not at Jenks.

While doing research earlier that morning, one of our other volunteers had been reading an article about Acton’s big Patriots’ Day celebration on April 19, 1895 and realized that the ribbon stuck in the ledger must have been a souvenir of that day. It was quite a coincidence to have discovered something tangible from the event while the newspaper description was so fresh in memory.

In early 1895, a planning committee put together an ambitious program to commemorate Acton’s involvement in the events of April 19, 1775.  The plan for the day included dedicating three historical monuments and placing markers at Revolutionary War veterans’ graves.  The Sixth Massachusetts (Civil War) Regiment was to hold a reunion.  Dignitaries were invited, and crowds were anticipated.

Massachusetts Governor Greenhalge was invited to the celebration.  He undoubtedly had a particular interest in the proceedings as he had proclaimed Patriots’ Day (April 19th) a public holiday the year before.  Speaking at the Sons of the Revolution banquet that evening, he joked that he had swallowed so much dust during his afternoon in Acton that he felt as though he had a claim to a birthplace there.  [Boston Post, April 20, 1895, page 4)

The April 25th Concord Enterprise put a different spin on the day, stating that there was “no dust, no mud, a warm sun, a refreshing breeze.”  The same Enterprise also reported that the Sixth Regiment had spent the morning of the 19th marching.  When the governor arrived in the middle of their reunion meeting, the veterans declined to march out to meet him “on the ground that they had done about all the marching they wished or proposed to do.” [page 4]

The April 20th Boston Post captured an outsider’s view of Acton at the time, calling it a “dreamy, tiny, one-streeted town, bejeweled in dark hills” and continuing, “Strange were the sights in ... all the Actons, Centre, South, East and West.  Thronged trains flooded the little railroad stations, from morning until noon.  All turned toward Acton Centre, where the big celebration was held. ALONG DUSTY LANES...”  The writer described houses and public buildings festooned with patriotic decorations.  The grounds of the Town Hall and the Common were filled with booths and stands set up by traveling (and apparently very noisy) barkers.  Transportation was offered (for a fee) to city folks by “young hustlers, who ransacked barns and stables for spacious vehicles to transport the unwonted horde of patrons, bringing out weird things of conveyance, ramshackle some, possibly a few, apologetic all.  And all through the day these wonders of contrivances following along after enthusiastic but antiquated nags, came to the Centre and went to the depots creaking under human burdens.” [page 1]

John F. Fitzgerald (“Honey Fitz”), a Congressman at the time, arrived late in the day.  He had married Mary J. Hannon of South Acton, and in his speech said that he “had deprived Acton of one of her fairest daughters, but she had showed her patriotism by presenting to the country this April 19, 1895, a bouncing ten-pound boy.” [page 5] He claimed himself an adopted son of Acton, as he had spent summers there for the past 20 years.  A more lasting tribute to the town is that the parents named their bouncing newborn Thomas Acton Fitzgerald.

After the event, the April 25th Concord Enterprise aired various views on Patriots’ Day 1895.  Some had evidently hoped for even bigger crowds in Acton and blamed Boston papers for drawing away participants by “booming” about the celebrations in Lexington and Concord, “places which Acton had done much to make historic.” [page 4]  A Concord writer clearly disagreed with that assessment, saying that even through the Concord event was well-planned, the event was lackluster, the townspeople were bored, and the crowd that did come was “undesirable.” [page 8]

Other writers were much more positive about the day.  The Acton Centre correspondent called the event a “great gala” with an orderly crowd.  The West Acton correspondent noted that the whole town had pulled together, “each village and hamlet contributing a share to the glorious event.” [page 8] Even the writer disappointed by the size of the crowd finished on a positive note, saying that “Those however who took the trouble to come to Acton must have been impressed with the rural beauty of the place.  Hundreds who were here on that day realized for the first time that among the Middlesex hills was a delightful little village removed far enough from the noise of the city and the rush of the steam cars to give one that quiet and rest so often sought in the summer months and no doubt many will find their way hither in consequence of this visit.”  [page 4] Hopefully, the potential tourists didn’t mind the dust.

Periodically, we are asked questions about the Morocco factory in South Acton.  Aside from a couple of pictures in the Society’s collection, our information on it is fairly limited, so we decided to do some research into its history.

Our first question was what exactly was manufactured in a “Morocco factory.”  Though the product is unfamiliar to many of us today, when the South Acton plant was built in 1892, “morocco” would have been recognized widely as a type of leather.  According to Cole’s Dictionary of Dry Goods published in that year, true Morocco was made from goatskins, a firm-but-flexible leather product with a grained surface.  It was a durable material that was used for high-end book bindings, seat upholstery, and boot-tops.  Over time, “morocco” also came to describe an imitation product, lightweight leather made from sheep, lamb, kid, and goatskins, primarily used in manufacturing light shoes.

According to Phalen’s History of the Town of Acton, the local morocco factory (or “skin shop”) was built by Elnathan Jones and was run by his son-in-law Charles Kimball.  Charles Milton Kimball (1863-1823) was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts to Benjamin Milton and Margie (Johns) Kimball.  He married Carrie Evelyn Jones, daughter of Elnathan and Elizabeth (Tuttle) Jones, in South Acton on Sept. 5, 1888.  Elnathan Jones was one of the owners of the prosperous and dominant Tuttles, Jones, and Wetherbee enterprise in South Acton.  As Charles Kimball’s father-in-law, he may well have influenced the decision to locate in Acton, and the factory was built on Jones's land.  What was not apparent from reading Phalen’s history, however, was that South Acton’s morocco business was actually a transplanted family firm from Haverhill.
 
Haverhill had a large concentration of shoe and boot manufacturers and associated leather businesses, among them morocco.  Charles M. Kimball’s grandfather Benjamin (c. 1815-1870) was listed as a morocco manufacturer there in the 1850 census.  Later, with Charles’ father Benjamin Milton Kimball (1838-1910), he formed B. & B. M. Kimball & Co., morocco manufacturers with a plant in Haverhill and an office in Boston.  Charles was eventually brought into the business.  In 1888, Charles received a patent for an improvement in the treating of “morocco and other finished skins” that he assigned to his father and himself.  As far as we can tell, the Kimballs’ morocco enterprise was large-scale and successful.  A glowing report on Kimball and Son was included in a book on Haverhill by its Board of Trade in 1889.  According to the write-up, the company occupied three three-story buildings on Fleet Street and one on Pleasant Street, employing 130 people and processing 750,000 skins worth $500,000 yearly.  The morocco produced was of a superior grade that would hold color.  The company supplied both the local and the Boston markets.  Demand was so high that it had just enlarged its plant (as had its competitor Lennox and Briggs).
 
The business was not without bumps, however.  In August 1889, the company announced that, breaking with its own tradition but trying to keep up with its competitors, it would no longer pay its employees “by the piece” but would pay weekly wages instead.  The company’s morocco dressers objected and about a hundred went on strike.  We found news of the strike reported as far away as Shreveport, Louisiana.  The strike does not seem to have ruined the company, but there was an incident of sabotage.  Haverhill’s Daily Evening Bulletin (September 16, 1889, page 2) reported on “Midnight Scoundrelism.”  The previous Saturday night, the main belt that powered the factory was cut into pieces and ruined, necessitating a brief shutdown while it was repaired.

Whether labor unrest in Haverhill contributed to the decision to move, we don’t know.  So far, the only mention that we have found of a motivation for the move was in Charles’ 1923 obituary, mentioning “the business in Haverhill being incorporated into a larger concern,” implying that they sold out and started again.  Whatever inspired the decision, by 1892, they were on the move.  On September 16, it was reported in the Concord Enterprise that “Messrs. Kimball & Son of Haverhill will move their morocco manufactory from that city to South Acton as soon as a building can be erected for them.  A building seventy-five feet long, three stories high, with an addition sixty [feet] long and one story high has been staked out and the work will be pushed forward as speedily as possible.  About fifty hands will be employed in the factory.”  By January 5, 1893, the factory was running.  The Enterprise reported that those employed so far had come with the business from Haverhill and that the company had “bright prospects and a large number of orders.”  A factory inspection report published in January 1894 by the Secretary of the Commonwealth showed that the business was at that point employing 58 men, by far the largest manufacturing enterprise in town.

By current standards, leather work was apparently smelly, hazardous, and polluting.  No complaints about that appeared in the local paper.  On the contrary, a drought in late August of 1894 that necessitated digging a new well at the morocco factory inspired the news that there was “A big haul of fish near the morocco factory.  Low water, fish in a hole, scooped out with a rake.  Result – eat fish one week.” (Concord Enterprise Aug. 30, 1894, page 8)  One has to wonder about the health of the fish.

Business was still doing well in 1895 according to the Enterprise, and a week’s stoppage in 1897 was attributed to the company running out of stock due to a delay in a tariff bill, presumably the protectionist Dingley Tariff passed under President McKinley.  The first indication that the business might be contracting was found in the Commonwealth’s inspection report published in January 1899 for the previous year.  By that time, there only 26 men employed in the morocco business, and the sanitary conditions were graded “fair.”  (It was still, however, the largest manufacturer listed in Acton at the time.)

In 1900, the company established a new time schedule.  From then on, the working hours were 6:30 a.m. to noon and 12:45 p.m. to 6 p.m., with a Saturday closing-time at noon.  The schedule was popular with employees for its generous half-holiday on Saturdays according to the Enterprise.  The possibility that the change might have resulted from financial concerns was not mentioned.  Phalen stated that as public tastes changed, the market for morocco declined.  The Boot & Shoe Recorder of August 7, 1901 indicated that there was great uncertainty about what styles would be fashionable in the coming spring season, with some indications that patent leather and canvas were taking over from colored morocco.  Perhaps relatedly, the Acton Concord Enterprise reported strikes in four morocco factories in Lynn, MA in November 1901.  We found no explicit mention of financial strain in the Kimballs’ business, but an Enterprise article on May 21, 1902 reported that B. M. Kimball & Son, proprietors of the morocco factory, would soon retire.  “During the past ten years since their business has been established in town they have done much for its improvement not only from a business standpoint but have also proved themselves true public spirited men.  This change only adds to the already unsettled condition of affairs in the village and the future appears anything but clear.”

The unsettled condition of the factory continued for several years.  Reports would surface in the Concord Enterprise of firms that were taking over or were looking at the factory, including The McLean Mfg. Co. of Boston (August 5, 1903), C. Brandt & Co. leather dressers (April 13, 1904), and several unnamed firms including an aluminum manufacturer (January 23, 1907).  At some point, ice cream pails evidently were produced there.  Finally, a viable business moved in, Moore and Burgess, (originally named the South Acton Webbing Company, later Moore and Cram), a producer of narrow woven fabrics in cotton and silk (Enterprise, January 22, 1908).  It was so successful that it moved to new quarters in West Concord in 1916-17.  The South Acton morocco factory eventually was torn down, and, according to Phalen, lumber, bricks and windows were taken by townspeople to incorporate into other buildings, spreading around the town a unique part of Acton’s history. 

The in-progress Assabet River Rail Trail is expected to go past the factory site.  A portion of the Jones land abutting the mill pond has been preserved in the past few years and is known as the Caouette Simeone Farmland.

One of the tricky aspects of researching early Acton people is the fact that names were often repeated.  Children were named for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and deceased siblings.  Trying to disentangle identities with the sparse information in early records can be frustrating.

An example is John Swift.  Reverend John Swift’s identity is clear.  He appears in Acton Town Meeting records, chosen in 1738 to be the first pastor of the town’s new church.  (The formation of the church was a requirement for Acton to become an independent town.)   Reverend John Swift, (son of Reverend John Swift, the first minister of Framingham), graduated from Harvard in 1733, was living in Framingham when he was called to Acton, and married Abigail Adams of Medway.  He served as Acton’s minister for 37 years.  According to Fletcher’s 1890 Acton in History, as Isaac Davis’s Company passed Reverend Swift’s home on the way to Concord on April 19, 1775, he “waved his benedictions over them.”  It fell upon him to conduct the funeral of Isaac Davis, James Hayward and Abner Hosmer who were killed that day.  Unfortunately, Reverend Swift contracted smallpox and died In November, 1775.  He was buried in Woodlawn cemetery.

There seems to be agreement on those facts of Reverend Swift's life.  However, over time, some stories have become muddled because he named his son… John Swift.  Son John was born on November 18, 1841.  He graduated from Harvard in 1762 and became Acton’s first physician.  In 1767, Doctor John Swift married Catharine Davies of Acton.  On the morning of April 19, 1775, he saw that Thomas Thorp was heading to join Isaac Davis's Company without a cartridge box and gave him one that 60 years later, Thorp recalled in a deposition "had on the outside a piece of red cloth in the shape of a heart."  In the midst of the excitement and tragedy that unfolded, Doctor John was also dealing with family matters; his son Luther was born the following day.   Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution shows that John Swift of Acton marched as a private with Capt. Simon Hunt’s Company to help fortify Dorchester Heights, March 4, 1776, a service of 6 days.  Because the only documented Revolutionary military service of an Acton John Swift took place in 1776 after the death of the Reverend and we have found no indication of other John Swifts in town, this must have been John the physician.  Doctor John died in 1781, leaving wife Catherine and two young sons John Hollis and Luther.

Up to this point, we were confident that we had identified two John Swifts in Acton, one a Reverend who died in November 1775 of smallpox, and another, his son the doctor who marched on Dorchester Heights in 1776 and died in 1781.  Probate records available through AmericanAncestors.org confirm the family relationship and their death years.  However, along with the online availability of records that help us to answer questions has come the availability of sources that can raise more issues.

A 1913 Concord Enterprise article (“Historical Sermon,” October 22, page 10) stated that Reverend John Swift “labored for the soldiers who were in camp at Cambridge and died from small pox.”  This may well have been true, but documenting Reverend Smith’s service in Cambridge has proved difficult.  The article seems to imply that his service to soldiers is how he contracted smallpox.  Smallpox in the crowded camps and in Boston at the time was a well-known problem, but Fletcher says that smallpox was also in Acton.  Where the Enterprise writer got information about service in Cambridge, we don’t know.  Because this story did not appear in any other source that we could find about Reverend Swift, we couldn’t help wondering if the person who was in the camps was actually the son Doctor John Swift.  We have no way of knowing.

We were not the only ones confused.  Shattuck’s 1835 history of Concord mentions college graduate “John Swift, only child of the Rev. John Swift, born Nov. 18, 1741, grad. 1762; settled as a physician in Acton where he died of the small-pox, about 1775.”   Thomas Harrington’s 1905 history of Harvard Medical School discussed the six members of Harvard’s class of 1762 who entered the medical profession, including John Swift who “was in practice at Acton, where he died of smallpox during the epidemic of 1775.”  In the 1859 New England Historical & Genealogical Register, (Vol. 13, page 308), a footnote about the first Reverend John Swift (of Framingham) said: “His only son, John, b. Jan. 14, 1713-14, (H.C. 1733) was ord. at Acton, 1738, m. Abigail Adams of Medway, had son, John, H.C. 1762, who was a physician and d. of small-pox in 1775.”  If we had not been puzzled before reading that sentence, we certainly were afterwards.  A church history of the Worcester Association and its Antecedents written by Joseph Allen in 1868 acknowledged both John Swifts, saying that Reverend Swift died in 1775 “of the small-pox as did also, the same year, his son John, who was a practicing physician in Acton.”

The two John Swifts of Acton are obviously a challenge to differentiate.  Both of their professions could have led them to Cambridge to serve the soldiers stationed there, and it would have been logical to assume that it was the doctor who died of smallpox in 1775.  Separate gravestones would have helped to separate the two Johns and their death dates, but there is no individual stone for Doctor John Swift, apparently no death record, and no burial record to prove that he was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.  Doctor John’s wife remarried and was buried in Stow, MA, and their surviving sons moved away.  Records of the Massachusetts Sons of the American Revolution show that they had marked the Acton grave of John Swift by 1901.  Presumably, the marker was placed by the burial mound with a single gravestone for “Reverend John Swift and his Family,” but there is no SAR marker there today, and exactly which family members are buried in the plot is unknown. 

The moral of this particular story is that just because a source is old or a “fact” has been repeated many times, it is not necessarily accurate.  Today’s family historians know to double-check modern family trees found online, but it is easy to assume that writers of older histories and genealogies had access to people’s memories, Family Bibles, and other lost sources that gave them better information than we have.  That can be true, but in the case of our John Swifts, it was not.  In this particular case, we were fortunate to find probate records for both men and for Doctor John’s children; the dates and relationships in those records allowed us to recognize confusion and errors in the other sources we came across. 

The Society is collaborating on a project documenting all historical markers and memorials in the town of Acton.  While researching the 1903 dedication of a memorial to Francis Barker, the drummer who marched to Concord's North Bridge with Isaac Davis’s company, we discovered that a stone was dedicated the same day in memory of Captain Joseph Brown, “one of Acton’s soldiers of the Revolution.”  Following up, we found a Boston Daily Globe article (April 20, 1903) that called Captain Joseph “a prominent man in his time both in business circles and in town affairs.”  Fletcher’s Acton in History lists Joseph Brown as an Acton man who “fought at Bunker Hill and Saratoga, and received a ball at Bunker Hill, which lodged in his body and was afterwards skillfully extracted and Brown shot it back at Saratoga.” (page 263)  Fletcher also stated that Joseph Brown moved onto Captain Isaac Davis’s farm.  Relatively little attention today seems to be given to the Acton men who served in the Revolution after the North Bridge Battle.  We decided to learn more about Captain Joseph Brown, starting with the information on the memorial stone.

Captain Joseph apparently was born in 1752.  He was not born in Acton, and Brown was a common name, making research conclusions difficult.  Fortunately, a great-great grandson Charles Leonard Brown's Sons of the American Revolution application stated that Joseph's parents were Joseph Brown and Grace Fairbanks. Joseph and Grace Brown lived in Stow, Massachusetts, and many of their children’s births were recorded in the 1733-1750 period. We have not been able to locate a birth or baptism record for Joseph, but his place in the family was confirmed in a probate record.  Joseph Sr.’s will left to his son Joseph a colt, a saddle, and thirteen pounds, five shillings and eight pence to be paid out when Joseph reached the age of twenty-one (Middlesex County Probate file #3104).  A guardianship paper (file #3105) stated that on 11 April 1769, Joseph’s son Joseph was in his 17th year, corroborating the 1752 birth date on Captain Brown’s stone.

Joseph grew up in a large family in which military service and leadership seem to have been the norm.  His brothers Jabez (Ensign) and Joshua both participated in the French and Indian War, and starting April 19, 1775, at least four of the family’s sons served in the American Revolution, three as officers.  We did not find Joseph in a list of Stow soldiers who were in the Concord fight on April 19, 1775.  (See Crowells’ Stow, Massachusetts, 1683-1933.) However, Joseph did sign up to serve in Captain Samuel Patch of Stow’s company, part of William Prescott’s Regiment that was heavily involved in the action at Battle of Bunker Hill.  His brother Joshua was the Lieutenant of the company.  According to the Crowells’ history, the men of the company “contested their ground inch by inch with the red coats and when powder and bullets failed, emulating the example of Lieut. Brown, the Stow men gave them stones.” (page 73)  Joseph was wounded and, fortunately, recovered.  In the company roster of October 1775, Joseph’s rank was given as sergeant.  The next recorded service of Joseph Brown was in March 1776 when he marched from Acton to Roxbury with Israel Heald’s Company to help end the siege of Boston.

Joseph Brown married Dorothy Barker.  Dorothy’s brother was Francis Barker, whose similar and nearby memorial stone was dedicated on the same day as Joseph’s.  The marriage is not in Acton’s records or any Massachusetts records that we could find, although a June, 1776 New Hampshire record shows a marriage of Joseph Browne and Dorothy Barker by Reverend Samuel Cotton of Litchfield.  (According to Hurd’s History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Rev. Cotton was chaplain of the First New Hampshire Regiment for a time; perhaps there was a family or military connection.)  Joseph and Dorothy’s first child Joseph was born in Acton in October, 1776.  At some point, they moved onto the farm that had been owned by Isaac Davis when he led his company to Concord.  Joseph Brown and his family lived there for many years.  Nowadays, the property is associated with Isaac Davis; most people do not realize that another Revolutionary War soldier lived there as well.

On January 1, 1777, Joseph Brown became an Ensign in his brother (Captain) Joshua Brown’s company in the Massachusetts 15th Regiment under Colonel Timothy Bigelow.  Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the War of the Revolution says that he served 27 months at that rank.  The Company was apparently stationed January-August at Van Schaik’s Island.  In the early fall 1777, they participated in the Battle of Saratoga.  We have few details of Joseph’s service, but the story of his shooting back the ball with which he was wounded at Bunker Hill obviously survived in Acton lore.  That winter, the Regiment was at Valley Forge, although online muster rolls indicate that Joseph Brown was on furlough January-May 1778.  The 15th Massachusetts was involved in the Battle at Monmouth Courthouse on June 28, 1778.  We were not able to discover whether Joseph Brown was back with his company by that time.  Later that summer, the regiment participated in the Battle of Rhode Island.
Joseph Brown was made first Lieutenant in April, 1779.  His son Francis Barker Brown was born in May, 1779.  One can imagine that Joseph’s military service caused hardship for wife Dorothy and his young children.  In July, the warrant for Acton’s town meeting included Article 7, “To see if the Town will agree to Do Something Toward the Support of Lieut. Joseph Browns family while he is in the Publick Service.”  (The town voted against helping his family.)  Joseph Brown was made Captain in 1780 (different sources give somewhat different dates for that event).  Muster rolls place Captain Joseph Brown’s company in Camp “Tenack” (presumably Teaneck, New Jersey) in July.  He resigned his commission on November 15, 1780.

After Captain Brown returned to Acton, more children followed: Nathaniel Greene (1781), Dorothy (1783) and Abigail (Oct. 12, 1784).  Sadly, Captain Joseph’s wife Dorothy died October 19, 1784.  Presumably, widower Joseph found help with caring for his young children during the 1780s.  Town treasurer’s records during this period document payment to him for boarding a woman, almost surely someone poor, and for “Keeping School in his Society.”  Unfortunately, we have no more information about either his School or his Society.

Joseph Brown married Betsy Putnam of Stow in 1790.  Acton records showed births to the couple of a second daughter Abigail (1790, died 1792), Samuel Putnam (1792), Betsey (1794), Luke (1796), Thomas (1798, died 1801), James (1800), Eunice (baptized 1803), and a second Thomas (1805).

By the 1790s, town reports show that Captain Brown was very involved in town affairs.  In addition to occasionally providing labor for the town, (such as digging a well or “transporting State arms to Boston”), he was chosen in various years to serve as town meeting moderator, highway surveyor, or fish warden.  He boarded or provided wood for poor town residents.  He was obviously held in high esteem in the community; he was appointed to many committees, often dealing with potentially (or actually) contentious issues such as overseeing and reconciling settlements and abatements for the town treasurer, settling on juror and voter lists, overseeing “cow pox” vaccinations, inspecting, redistricting, or selling off the town’s schools, and finding a site for a new meetinghouse (a political quagmire at the time).  He was a member of the very early Social Library in Acton as evidenced by his being fined 4 cents in 1801 for two soiled pages in Pilgrim’s Progress.  In 1803, Captain Brown was appointed tax collector and constable.  He was paid one cent on the dollars he collected and was expected to serve as constable for free.  He served in that capacity (in one year apparently “free from any expence to the Town”) until 1810 when he requested a replacement be found. 

It is not clear from town records why Captain Brown stepped down, but in the 1810-1811 period, he seems to have asked to be repaid for poll taxes that he had paid “a number of year back” and for some tax collection work that he had done, presumably for free.  The town voted no.  In April 1812, the town meeting warrant included an article about purchasing Captain Joseph Brown’s pew No. 30 in the meeting house.  The article was dismissed.  We have no way of knowing the circumstances.  He had been relatively well-off, but he may have been land-rich and cash poor at the time.  He may have been sick.  We do know that he died August 9, 1813 in Acton.  He died intestate; his affairs were handled by son Nathaniel Greene, yielding a 54-page probate file.  Along with his personal possessions that included clothing, household goods, and furniture, he owned his farm (house, barn, well, fields, an orchard, livestock and farm implements), wood lots and unimproved land, meadow land, his pew #30 in the meetinghouse, and a horse stable on the Common near the meetinghouse.  He also left debts totaling $1,091 that necessitated selling pieces of real estate to raise cash.  It must have been a difficult period for his family.  Captain Joseph’s son Samuel Putnam Brown, serving in the War of 1812, died in July, 1814.  Joseph, Jr. died in February, 1815, leaving a widow and young children.  Nathaniel seems to have taken care of the farm while wrapping up the estate’s affairs and providing for his own young family.   
   
When we starting researching Captain Joseph Brown, we had no idea where he came from, who his family was, or anything about his life other than the few mentions of him in Fletcher’s History.  We were not confident that we would find records to flesh out his story.  As it turns out, available records showed that Captain Joseph Brown lived quite a life of service.  Though he was injured at Bunker Hill and had young children to provide for, he continued to serve in the military, a commitment that produced financial strain for his family.  Once home, he served the town of Acton in a surprising variety of ways.  Ninety years after his death, his grandson John M. Brown funded the erection of a memorial stone.  On April 20, 1903, townspeople gathered for a dedication ceremony at Woodlawn Cemetery.  A band played the “Star Spangled Banner” while a representative from the Bunker Hill Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, unveiled the Joseph Brown monument.

For anyone interested in Acton sites with Joseph Brown connections, one can start at his memorial stone located in the “Revolutionary War” section of Woodlawn Cemetery to the left of the main gate.  Acton Memorial Library's “Not Afraid to Go” exhibit has on display an epaulet that he wore during his military service, remarkably well-preserved.  At 39 Hayward Road, one can see the Isaac Davis farm memorial stone that marks the farm where Isaac Davis and later Joseph Brown lived with their families.  Farther down Hayward Road, one comes to the Minuteman Ridge Neighborhood.  When it was developed in the 1960s, one of the streets was named  “Captain Brown’s Lane.”

A short news item from South Acton in the Oct. 31, 1895 Concord Enterprise caught our attention: “Five brave ladies of this village faced the registrars last Tuesday night, answered the usual questions and are now qualified to vote on election day on the question of woman suffrage.”  (page 4)  Knowing that women did not get the right to vote until years later, we looked into how this vote came about.

In the long movement toward women’s suffrage in Massachusetts, there were a few moments when progress seemed to be made.  One of them was in 1879, when Massachusetts women were granted to right to vote for their local school committee.  Those who wanted full suffrage for women thought that school committee suffrage would be followed by voting rights in municipal, state and national elections.  It was a long wait.

After years of agitation, in May 1895, the Massachusetts legislature voted to allow a non-binding referendum to appear on the November 1895 ballot.  “All persons qualified to vote for school committee shall at the next state election have an opportunity to express their opinion by voting ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ in answer to the question, ‘Is it expedient that municipal suffrage be granted to women?’”  (quoted in the July 25, 1895 Concord Enterprise, page 3; see also Massachusetts Acts and Resolves of the General Court, 1895, chapter 436) 

The referendum caused divisions on both sides of the issue.  Supporters of women’s suffrage felt that nothing helpful could come out of a non-binding referendum; some advocated boycotting it.  Female opponents of suffrage had to face the dilemma of needing to register to vote in order to cast a ballot against voting.  Opinion pieces on both sides showed up with the Enterprise’s South Acton news in the weeks preceding the election, and one writer helpfully listed all the privileges that accrued to women because they were not considered fully independent apart from their husbands. (They were not, for example, held responsible for selling liquors illegally or for committing a misdemeanor in their husbands’ presence, because they were “presumed to have been coerced and are prima facie excused.” Concord Enterprise, Oct. 31, 1895, page 4)

The referendum took place on November 5, 1895.  The vote went against women’s municipal suffrage.  In Acton, the November 7 Concord Enterprise (page 5) gave the local results:
Acton Centre (Precinct 1) 13 Yes, 73 No
South Acton (Precinct 2) 28 Yes and 60 No
West Acton (Precinct 3) 29 Yes and 50 No 
 
In the same Enterprise, South Acton’s news column said that because the issue had been decided, no more opinion pieces on women’s suffrage would be published.  The newspaper did not report the number of women who voted in Acton, but the state later published breakdowns by town.  In Acton, two women from Precinct 1, five women from Precinct 2 (the “five brave ladies” from South Acton), and 14 from Precinct 3 were registered, and all but one from West Acton actually voted.  One would assume that the Acton women who voted would have been in favor of suffrage, as the vast majority of Massachusetts’ voting women were, but Concord’s news reported some of its women registered only “to be able to vote against it.” 

Both sides of the 1895 referendum claimed a victory, of sorts.  The fact that the “No” side won and that only a very small percentage of eligible women actually voted led the anti-suffrage groups to claim that women did not want the vote.  Suffrage supporters argued that because over 96% of women who voted were on the “yes” side, women did indeed want the vote.  The campaign for women’s suffrage was a drawn-out, draining process.  It was twenty years before another referendum on women’s suffrage came up in Massachusetts, and the voters, only men that time, voted it down again.  Massachusetts women finally gained the full right to vote in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th amendment.  Hopefully, Acton's "brave ladies" who wanted to vote lived long enough to see it happen.

We recently found a copy of an envelope advertising Littlefield’s ANTI-FLY, manufactured by H. A. Littlefield in West Acton, Mass.  That name was too enticing to ignore, so we set out to learn more about the business.

The envelope stated that Anti-Fly was a liquid concoction harmless to people and animals but discouraging to flies, roaches, ants, bed bugs and more.  The enterprising Mr. Littlefield also stated that if there were insufficient postage on the envelope, it should be given to a Cattle Owner.

An ad for the product appeared in the August 25, 1898 Concord Enterprise: “Stop the flies tormenting your horses and cows.  Make $10.00 extra profit on each cow by using Littlefield’s Anti-Fly.  Sold at all stores.  If not send to H. A. Littlefield, Manfr, West Acton.  1 qt can, 50c; ½ gal, $1.00; 1 gal, $1.50; 5 gals, $5.00.  Sprayer free with every can.”   August 10, 1899 ads expanded: “Don’t Let Your Cows dry up during fly time.  Anti-Fly keeps up full flow of milk.” and “Lice On Hens.  Get rid of them.  Use Anti-Fly freely about the roosts and in the nests.”  By July 26, 1900, an ad cautioned "Anti-Fly is well known, sure, safe and economical. Don't be imposed upon with any cheap substitute, which in the end costs more and only results in disappointment."

As it turns out, the Anti-Fly business had a lot of competition.  Online newspapers show ads for other “anti-fly” products all over the country, at least back into the 1880s and on into the early twentieth century.  How successful Littlefield’s product was, we aren’t sure.  Phalen’s History of the Town of Acton says that the product had an “extensive market both in this country and abroad.”  That may have been the case, but we found no newspaper mention of his product outside of the local area, or even locally beyond the 1898-1900 period.  We did learn, however, that H. A. Littlefield was a very busy man.  Anti-Fly seems only to have been a small part of his business life.

Hanson A. Littlefield was born in Boxborough in 1848 to Jacob and Ann Brooks (Raymond) Littlefield.  After his marriage in 1869 to Florence M. Preston, he moved to West Acton.  His occupation was given as a carpenter in the 1870 Census, a wheelwright in his son Sheldon’s 1878 birth record, and a real estate agent in the 1880 Census.  Concord Enterprise ads show that he also worked as an auctioneer.

According to Phalen’s History, Hanson Littlefield invented cider jelly and had a business called the Littlefield and Robinson Cider Jelly Manufacturing Company that he sold to his partner in roughly 1884.  The Cider Jelly Mill owned by Charles Robinson is documented (on a Walker’s Middlesex County Land Ownership map from 1889 and in Boston Globe and Concord Enterprise newspaper articles), but it seems unlikely that Mr. Littlefield was the inventor of cider jelly.  Various unsourced websites indicate that boiled cider (thickened to a syrup) and cider jelly were commonplace in New England.  Online searching led to an article in an 1865 journal complaining about an attempt to patent the process of evaporation to make cider jelly.  “… we received from Messrs. Corey & Sons, Lima Ind., a very fine sample of cider jelly.   It had been made on Cook’s Sorgo Evaporator with Corey’s improvements.  …  these gentlemen are not the inventors of cider jelly by evaporation.  We ate it years before they obtained their patent.”  (Sorgo Journal and Farm Machinist, Volume III. Cincinnati, Ohio: Clark Sorgo Machine Company, 1865, page 86).  Gail Borden (of New York, inventor of condensed milk) also mentioned the concentration of cider down to a jelly in applying for a patent on his process (#35,919, July 22, 1862).   During the time period when Hanson Littlefield’s jelly business might have been in operation, references to cider jelly appeared in newspapers as far away as Iowa.   Clearly, Hanson Littlefield did not invent cider jelly, and we did not find any indication that he received a patent for improving the cider jelly-making process.  He seems to have moved on to other ventures.

The Society has a collection of business records that belonged to Hanson Littlefield that do not even touch on his Anti-Fly and Cider Jelly businesses.  Among the records is a promissory note for a billiard table that he purchased on February 21, 1876 and an account book relating to expenses and revenues for a “room.”  Entries in the book for various customers detailing billiards, pool, and tobacco indicate that one of his early commercial ventures was running a pool hall.  (Cards and dice occasionally appear as well.)

The most well-documented of H. A. Littlefield’s enterprises was his store in West Acton.   The Society has some of his account books, mostly from the 1880s and 1890s.  Those books, Acton town reports, and ads in the Enterprise show that he sold a broad array of items; coffee, tea, baking supplies, spices, fish, fruit, tubs of Vermont butter, canned goods, tobacco, screens, lamp parts and oil, tinware, paints, shellacs, seeds, farming tools, carpets, brooms, horse halters and reins, shirt waists, overalls, corsets, pantaloons, shoes, boots, baseballs and bats, toys, cloth, bluine powder for laundry, dyes, diaries, witch hazel salve, a “One minute Cough Cure”, and even a lot of 300 empty barrels.

One of Littlefield's many ads (Concord Enterprise, May 27, 1892) told potential customers that “We have a fresh, clean lot of groceries and other goods neither flavored with smoke or dirty water, at the lowest possible prices.  Buy at home and get good goods, save time and money.”  (One has to wonder which competitor’s merchandise he was comparing his own against.)  Business was presumably good.  Around 1893, Littlefield built a large hall in West Acton where meetings, dances, lectures, and basketball games were held.  The store was evidently on the bottom floor, a large community meeting space was above that, and the top floor was the home of the Odd Fellows, of which Littlefield was a member.

Hanson Littlefield was elected as an Acton selectman in 1893 and 1903.  He was a notary and a justice of the peace, served as animal inspector according to a Concord Enterprise article (May 27, 1892), and was a member of a committee that looked into the town water supply in 1895.  He was an active Democrat repeatedly elected to Democratic committee positions.  He was appointed as postmaster in West Acton twice, first in 1886 and again in 1893, both times under Democratic president Grover Cleveland.  At the time, the position was granted politically and often involved moving the post office to the place of business of the postmaster, undoubtedly bringing more customers into the store.

Littlefield was also active in various local organizations, among them the Odd Fellows and the Grange.  He and his wife raised a family of seven children.  Given his obvious abundant energy and activity, it is amazing to read in his Boston Sunday Globe obituary (Aug 3, 1903, page 2) that Littlefield had been “an invalid for a long time, and had been a great sufferer.”  He died on July 28, 1903, his doctor stating that the cause was cancer of a year’s duration.  According to the Concord Enterprise (August 5, 1903), business was suspended in West Acton to allow townspeople to attend his funeral.  He was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.

Hanson Littlefield was spared having to see his Hall completely destroyed by fire the next year, taking with it the grocery of his successor and all of the Acton Odd Fellows’ records, furnishings, and fraternal items.  Given the proximity of the Hall to other buildings, the fire was expected to spread.  Other towns’ firefighters had been summoned and were preparing to come to help when news was sent out that the blaze had been brought under control by the Acton firefighters.  (The October 29, 1904 Fitchburg Sentinel mentioned that its local firefighters were a bit disappointed not to be able to take their “wild morning ride” by train to join in the fight.)  The Odd Fellows Hall was rebuilt in the same location where it can still be seen at the corner of Central and Arlington Streets.  Pictures of Littlefield’s Hall seem to be very rare, but we were delighted to find that Eugene L. Hall, whose photographic glass plates were donated to the Society, took two pictures of Littlefield Hall before it burned.