Researching the life of Sarah (Faulkner) Skinner for a recent blog post, we discovered that all of her sons left Acton to build businesses elsewhere.  Abraham, the eldest, moved to Brookfield, Massachusetts and became a trader. By the census of 1870, he had amassed personal possessions worth $30,000, an unusually large amount in those days. Second son Henry moved to Andover and opened a store with a partner. Henry died young, and his probate file contained an extensive inventory. Francis, the youngest son, reportedly went to Boston and became a successful merchant. Fletcher’s Acton in History noted that he was generous to Henry’s widow, and probate records show that Francis became guardian to Henry’s son.
 
We set out to find Acton’s Francis Skinner, merchant of Boston. We had a surprising amount of difficulty at first.  We did find a Francis Skinner who was fabulously wealthy for the time. His son and grandson were mentioned in Boston newspapers as members of a “prominent” family in the top tier of Boston society. Acton’s Francis Skinner grew up relatively secure, but not rich, the son of a doctor and descendant of a respected family in a small country town. He was only thirteen when his father died and would have started out with almost nothing. We were convinced that the Francis we found in Boston could not possibly be “our” Francis. But we were wrong.
 
Acton’s records and histories did not help us to connect the Boston merchant Francis Skinner to Acton, but fortunately, Boston’s newspapers provided a great deal of information. Commerce, wealth, connections, gossip, and a touch of “scandal” gave reporters plenty to work with, and we were able to put together a story of three generations of Francis Skinners who were unknown to us.

The Society recently was given an 1834 letter that had been sold as a postage collector’s item, a “cover” that pre-dated the use of stamps. Folded, it was addressed to Abraham Skinner, Esq. of Brookfield, Massachusetts.

Inside, the letter was preserved:
                                                                                     Acton Feb. 8, 1834,
Mr. Skinner,
                I have neglected, longer than I intended to do, to inform you of your mother’s health.  She is pretty comfortable this winter, would be very, were it not for the continued pain in her eyes.  She has not had the least perception of light for several months.  Her situation is in many respects less uncomfortable since she has become more accustomed to perfect darkness.  She grows familiar with the house, and walks with much less confusion, is some part of the time, able to busy herself with knitting, which she considers quite a privilege.
She wishes to be affectionately remembered to you.
I am much oblidged to you for the papers, which you had the goodness to send me.
                                                                                  Respectfully yr Cousin,
                                                                                                                M. Faulkner

One cannnot help being touched by the letter and feeling admiration for Mrs. Skinner who, while dealing with pain and disruption, felt privileged to be able to knit.  We set out to learn more about Mrs. Skinner, her son Abraham, and the writer of the letter.

Mrs. Skinner and Her Family

Abraham Skinner, Esq. of Brookfield, Mass. was born in Acton on July 25, 1789 to Dr. Abraham and Sarah (Faulkner) Skinner.  According to Phalen’s History of the town of Acton (page 98), the father, Dr. Abraham Skinner, was Acton’s third physician.  He had come from Woodstock, CT, for reasons we have not yet been able to discover, and started his Acton practice in 1781.  He married Sarah Faulkner in March 1788.
 
Sarah (or Sally) Faulkner was the daughter of Francis Faulkner and Rebecca Keyes whose large family lived in the landmark Faulkner House in South Acton.  Francis was prominent in Acton.  He ran the Faulkner mills, represented the people in the Provincial Congress of 1774 and the Committee of Safety, attained the rank of Lt. Colonel in the Revolutionary War, and served the town in numerous roles, including a 35-year stint as town clerk.  According to Shattuck’s history of Concord and surrounding towns (pages 292-293), Francis and Rebecca Faulkner had eleven children.  (We were able to confirm ten of the births through Acton vital records; one is harder to pin down.)  Sarah was the third child.

Dr. Abraham and Sarah Skinner had four children, Abraham (born 1789), Henry (born 1792), Maria (born 1794), and Francis (born 1797).  Fletcher’s Acton in History gives two different identities for Dr. Abraham’s wife, an odd mistake given that Fletcher seems to have known Henry’s aged widow.  Perhaps the doctor was married earlier elsewhere, but we found no record of it.  All Acton records show that the wife and mother of Dr. Abraham’s family was Sarah Faulkner.
 
We did not find any documentary evidence of Sarah’s life while she was raising her children during the 1790s and earliest years of the 1800s.  Her husband does show up in local records.  He received payments periodically for “doctering” the town’s poor, and in September 1792, the town voted upon temporarily opening a quarantine “house” for inoculating residents against smallpox under the direction of Dr. Skinner, provided that it could be done ”with Safty” for the townspeople.
 
Dr. Abraham Skinner was apparently one of the contributors to the cost of a winning ticket from the Harvard College lottery in 1794.  His share of the prize money has been said to have gone into building or improving a house for the Skinners’ growing family at what is now 140 Nagog Hill Road.  Land records show that Abraham paid David Barnard on Sept. 5, 1786 for a 60 acre farm and the east half of the existing house on the property, plus a half interest in the barn, garden, yard, wells, and a “cyder mill” behind the house.  On Sept 27, 1788, Dr. Skinner paid Reuben Brown for 18 acres of land and the other half of the house, barn and barnyard.  Specifically excluded from the sale was a school house standing on the premises.
 
Dr. Abraham Skinner became a charter member of Concord’s Corinthian Masonic Lodge in 1797 along with Sarah’s brother Winthrop Faulkner.  [See Surette’s history of the Lodge.]  Abraham was appointed to Acton’s school committee in 1799 and 1809 and to the large committee formed in 1805 to deal with the contentious issue of where to locate the new meeting house.  He died in 1810.  Records of the time did not mention the cause.

Dr. Abraham’s estate inventory gives us an idea of the life of the household.  The home farm was valued at $2,500, and there were fifteen additional acres of pasture land in Littleton and a pew in the Acton meeting house.  The Skinners owned clothing, furniture, (a variety of beds, tables, chairs, and a bookcase), bedding and table linens, a woolen carpet, several looking glasses, a day clock worth about $30, spinning wheels, dishes, utensils, towels, table cloths, tools, chaises, a sleigh, a horse, harnesses, a saddle, cows, sheep, a cart and a plow.  There is little evidence of a medical practice, not surprising given the state of medicine at the time.  Dr Skinner did own a medical library.  In addition, there were numerous debts to Dr. Skinner from townspeople.  The estate was originally administered by Sarah’s brother Winthrop, but Henry took over by September 1814.
 
Sarah Skinner was listed as the head of household in the 1810 census with two males between 10 and 25, one female between 16 and 25, and one other “free white person”.  In May, 1811, children Henry and Maria (minors above the age of fourteen) petitioned the probate court to allow “Widow Sarah Skinner” to be their guardian.  Son Francis made the same petition in April, 1812.  Son Abraham had already left his parents’ household by 1810.
 
According to Fletcher’s History (Biographical Sketches, page 1), Sarah’s sons Henry and Francis helped to run the farm for a while.  Henry appears in Acton militia lists in the 1810-15 period, and Francis appears in 1815.  In Feb. 1816, the town paid Henry Skinner for boarding John Faulkner for 8 weeks.  During that year, Francis left to work in Boston.  Henry eventually moved to Andover and opened a store there.  No Skinner is listed as head of household in the 1820 Acton census, so we have to assume that Sarah was living with relatives by then.  The actual sale of the Skinner farm to Charles Tuttle was not completed until 1827.  Acton’s history books made no more mention of Sarah (Faulkner) Skinner.

Skinner Voices, from Indiana

Because Sarah Skinner disappears from Acton’s history books in the 1810s, the letter describing her later life is a wonderful addition to our Society’s archives.  However, it turns out that ours was not the only letter from the Skinner family that survived.  The University of Notre Dame Special Collections’ Manuscripts of Early National And Antebellum America contains a collection of letters to and from Abraham Skinner of Brookfield.  A few of the letters were written by his mother Sarah.  Given how seldom women's thoughts and actions were recorded in our histories, finding this collection was a wonderful surprise.  Sarah's letters start in about 1806 and continue after she lost her husband.  Sarah mentioned some news of family members, but what stands out most from her letters is how much she missed her son and wanted him to write and to visit more often.  Her letters are a reminder of how difficult separation was for families of the time and how completely cut-off they must have felt when letters failed to arrive, sometimes for very long periods.
 
We also learned from the Skinner correspondence that Henry was in Brookfield for a while in 1811 but then returned to Acton by early 1812.  His letters show that he was trying to find work in a store in either location, clearly ready to move on from the farm.  The Skinner collection also includes a March 1817 letter from daughter Maria Skinner, the only record that we have seen of her beyond the mention of her birth and death in Acton's vital records.  Maria echoed her mother's yearning to hear from the men of the family, including Francis who had not been in Acton since the summer before.  Maria, left at home, was feeling "allmost forsaken."  She also mentioned that Sarah had provided lodging for "Mr. Potter" followed by another family, so we now know that Sarah had others in her household during the years after losing her husband.

Who wrote the 1834 letter about Sarah Skinner?

After researching Sarah's life, our next question was who, exactly, wrote the letter donated to our Society.  “M. Faulkner” signed the letter to Sarah’s son Abraham as “yr Cousin.”  On the reverse of the letter, in a very different hand, there is a notation: “Mary Faulkners Letter Feby 8, 1834”.  Allowing for the possibility that the term “cousin” might have been used somewhat loosely, we could still narrow down the potential writers. 
 
We searched Acton’s Vital Records for “M” Faulkner births.  Of the six births we found, five were Marys. Omitting details of our research here, we concluded that the most likely candidate was Mary, born Sept. 11, 1801 to Winthrop (Sarah’s brother) and Mary (Wright) Faulkner.  This Mary actually would have been Abraham Skinner, Esq.’s first cousin.  She lived to 1871 and never married, so she still would have had her Faulkner surname in 1834.  We thought that our research would stop there, but our theory received a boost from a rich source that we did not expect to find.

Sarah Skinner, a Woman of Note

Researching Acton in the early years of the nineteenth century is made more difficult by a lack of available newspapers and very few surviving letters and diaries.  However, sometimes one gets lucky.  Not only did we come across the Skinner Family Correspondence at Notre Dame, but we found Sarah mentioned in two Boston newspapers after she died in 1846.  Her death was briefly noted in Boston’s Emancipator and Republican (March 25, 1846), and the Boston Recorder (March 26, 1846) published a memorial tribute.  Signed “W,” it was dated Acton, Mass., March 19th, 1846 and included a request that it be reprinted in other religiously-oriented newspapers in the Northeast.  The writer felt compelled to write about Mrs. Sarah Skinner, described as “always polite, well informed, kind, lovely,” interesting, unwavering in her faith, and happy.  When younger, she had liked to read, but having suffered greatly during the "complete destruction of her eyes," at the end of her life she was “stone blind.”  Her hearing, fortunately, continued to be acute.  She still enjoyed conversing, and her interest in life and her friends was undiminished.  As we surmised from the 1834 letter, she did not complain about her life but found much to be grateful for.  “Her only daughter was long since dead, but she had left grandsons, able loving and true; and she had a pious unmarried niece, who was altogether a daughter unto her, to the last.”  The cousin of Abraham Skinner who wrote our letter, Mary Faulkner, was presumably this unmarried niece, daughter of Sarah’s brother Winthrop.
 
We thought, when we started this research, that Sarah (Faulkner) Skinner had been neglected by history.  We were delighted to discover that it was possible to learn something about her, a woman clearly remarkable for her fortitude.  We also know from her own letters that she was human, sometimes lonely and sometimes anxious about her absent children.
 
Many of Acton’s stories have been lost, but we are grateful to have found this one.  As we begin the new year, we take this opportunity to express appreciation for people who donate items to archives and for organizations that work to preserve and share them so that others can learn about the past.  In the context of Sarah Skinner’s story, we especially would like to thank the University of Notre Dame’s Rare Books and Special Collections for their assistance with our research.

The Society is lucky to have a collection of dance cards that were obviously kept as mementos.  They give us a glimpse of Acton's community life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  Despite the fact that people lacked today's conveniences, they clearly were able to enjoy social occasions. 

As far back as we have newspaper records, we find that dances were held in town.  Venues included the Town Hall in Acton “Centre”, Exchange Hall in South Acton (both built in the 1860s), and Littlefield’s Hall in West Acton (built about 1893 and burned down in 1904; see our blog post for further information).  Our earliest dance card was created for the "Eighth Annual Bal Masque" held at Exchange Hall on January 21, 1875, confirming that dances were being held as far back as the 1860s.  Holidays were favorite occasions for formal balls, but dances seem to have been held quite often.  Some were fundraisers for local groups, some were either public or private celebrations, and others may have been private profit-making ventures.

Dance cards were printed in advance with the details of the event, usually including the committee in charge and the group who would provide the music.  The inside of the card listed the dances that would be performed.  Blank lines were provided for filling in the name of the partner to whom each dance was promised.  The card would have a decorative cover, making it an attractive souvenir of the evening.  Held together by a string or ribbon, the card sometimes had a pencil attached for convenience.

One of our earliest dance cards was created for the Royal Arcanum Grand Ball held in Exchange Hall on January 13, 1885.  The dances and musical selections were specified, mostly quadrilles, (danced in squares of four couples), with a few partner dances interspersed.  In the middle of the Ball, there was an intermission and a supper.

According to newspaper reports, the local baseball club held fundraising dances as far back as 1884.  Several of our dance cards made it very clear that patrons were supporting the team.

Researching the use of dance cards, we found that many sources indicate that dance cards were carried by women and were filled in by male dance partners.  In our collection, however, we find dance cards used by a man. 

In keeping with the customs of the time, the owner of this 1892 card danced with more than one partner, but he blocked out his time carefully with “M.I.S.,” including the Grand March and the first and final dances.  We also note that a wide variety of dances were offered, with a mix of group dances such as the Quadrille and the Contra and partner dances such as the Waltz, Polka, Schottische, Galop and the relatively uncommon Newport. 

Attendees were not all dancers.  According to newspaper reports, spectators could buy tickets for the platform or the gallery.  The Society has an invitation to a 1904 South Acton dance which cost $1 for a “subscription” and only 25 cents for an orchestra or balcony chair.  In the Town Hall, in 1896, non-dancers at the Christmas dance were given an adjoining room at which to play whist (Concord Enterprise, Dec. 24, page 8).

The events, at least for the more formal occasions, would include a meal.  An advertisement in the November 23, 1899 Concord Enterprise (page 8) told dancers what they could expect at the Thanksgiving Ball at Littlefield’s Hall; a “hostler” to take care of horses at the door of the Hall, a coat check and convenient toilet rooms, an excellent dance floor, good music, and a supper for 35 cents consisting of various oyster dishes, pickles, olives, ice creams, cakes, fruit,  and coffee.  The ad made the claim that “No where in this vicinity is offered so many advantages for comfort and facilities for enjoyment at a ball, as at West Acton.”

The competition for dancers evidently was becoming fierce.  Organizers of a Concord Junction dance advertised in the South Acton and West Acton locals on November 16.  South Acton’s Thanksgiving Ball organizers offered anyone who bought Ball tickets free admission to a dance the week before.  A report on the complimentary dance mentioned that “best of all there was no dust in the hall."  (Nov. 30, 1899, page 8).  The December 7 issue of the Enterprise (page 8) reported that the South Acton Thanksgiving Ball was “great success” with 80 couples who had “tripped the light fantastic toe” and every spectator seat filled.  In contrast, the West Acton news included a letter from H. A. Littlefield denouncing “as false the malicious story started Thanksgiving day or the day before that my family was sick with diphtheria and that I was not allowed to be out” so that “it would be imprudent to attend the ball in Littlefield’s hall.  The story had its effect; there was no time to refute it and it spread with a rapidity that leads to the conclusion that it was pre-arranged.”  Stories, true or not, spread quickly in a small town.

One other item of note struck us as we looked at the old dance cards; the affairs could be long.  Starting around 8 pm and including a dinner, they went as late as 2:30 am.  Getting home, for those who lived beyond easy walking distance, would have involved using and then caring for horses after a long night.  One has to be a bit awed by former Actonians’ energy.

One of the almost-forgotten aspects of warfare in World War I was the dependence of the military on wood supplies.  The Allies’ war effort required a tremendous amount of lumber for their operations.  It was used for shoring up trenches and mines, lining roads to make them passable after destruction by shelling and overuse, building structures such as hospitals, ordnance depots and bridges, supporting barbed wire barriers, and manufacturing smaller but necessary items such as boxes for shells.

There were still forests in Britain, many on private lands, but the manpower needs of the war had created a shortage of labor to cut them down.  In April 1917, a colonel attached to the British War Office sent a cable to an American colonel in Boston mentioning this critical need.  Lumbering was something at which Americans had experience to offer.  Government and industry leaders in New England decided to recruit and equip ten units of skilled men and send them to the Allies’ aid.  Getting approval from both sides of the Atlantic took a month, so the practical work started in mid-May.

Part of the committee that got the process going was Arthur F. Blanchard of West Acton.  Each New England state pledged to equip a sawmill unit at an estimated cost of $12,000-$14,000 each, including the cost of food, lodging, medical care, and the issue of “hat, shoes, mackinaw and oilskins” (Boston Daily Globe, May 23, 1917, page 10).  Private lumbering companies, including Blanchard’s, pledged money to pay for four additional companies.  The British government would provide transportation to and from England and would pay the men’s salaries from the time of sailing, for a term of up to a year’s service.

According to the Boston Daily Globe (June 12, 1917, page 4), some people predicted that the venture would fail because of scarce labor in lumbering in the United States.  This concern was unfounded.  The committee advertised and within two days had enough men for three units.  Many applications were reviewed and eventually whittled down to about 35 men per unit plus support staff.  One of the units was composed mostly of men from Acton and surrounding towns under the leadership of Arthur Blanchard’s son Webster.  Locally, it was thought of as the Blanchard & Gould company, but its title was New England Sawmill Unit No. 3.

The logistics were daunting.  Each unit was to have a portable sawmill and everything it needed to function independently for a year, including an engine and boiler, wagons, axes, saws, blacksmiths’ and carpenters’ tools, harnesses, lamps, cooking utensils, bedding, and other camp equipment.  Over two thousand different items were procured, carefully accounted for so that each would go to the proper unit, and delivered to Boston.  One-hundred and twenty work-ready horses were bought and kept in Watertown until it was time to ship out.  On the personnel side, men had to be found who were experienced, “of good character,” and willing to sail on two days’ notice.  Each man needed to be approved for a passport and to sign an individual contract with the British government.  Not only were men needed to deal with cutting, transporting and milling the lumber, (in roles such as the interestingly named “head chopper” and “swamper”), but there was also need of cooks, bookkeepers, blacksmiths and veterinary support.  In an amazing feat of cooperation and organization, the ten units were created, equipped, and ready to go in a month.  America’s military was just gearing up at the time, and New Englanders were proud of getting help to their allies so quickly.  A self-congratulatory note appeared in an industry publication: “There was not an amateur or an epaulette connected with the affair.  It was worked out practically – hence its success.” (Lumber World Review, Nov. 10, 1917, p. 54)

When organized, the lumbermen convened in Boston where they stayed at the South Armory.  The committee had organized a welcome for them, arranging for them to see a baseball game and be eligible for free motion picture and vaudeville performances.  At least some of the men also participated in the Elks’ Flag Day parade, accompanied by their mascot, a black bear cub.  The Saw Mill Unit’s send-off seems surprisingly generous, but they were in the vanguard.  There may also have been a less generous motivation; the organizers seem to have been nervous about lumberjacks running amok.  “The Ten Mill Units are a civilian, not a military organization, so it was impossible to impose military discipline on the men, many of them loose in a large city for the first time in their lives.  However, it must be said, that the men behaved a lot better than anticipated.” (Lumber World Review, November 10, 1917 p. 54)  On the evening of June 14, they were feted at a banquet at the Boston City Club.  The Christian Science Monitor noted the next day the unusual nature of the dinner as members of the club and the Public Safety Committee in dress suits mingled with lumberjacks, “some in overalls, moccasins, flannel shirts and bared arms, the type of men who fought in the American Revolution.” (June 15, 1917, p 7)  Despite concerns over attire, it was reported to have been a successful event.

For the organizers, there was some stress as departure-time approached, because some of the expected men did not show up.  According to the Lumber World Review article, as late as the morning of the day of departure, they were missing three cooks and a couple of blacksmiths.  Somehow they were able to fill the slots, “although the last cook got over the gang plank just as it was being raised.” (p. 54)  

The Sawmill Unit sailed to New York, arriving on June 16th.  On the 18th, they sailed on the troopship Justicia to Halifax, staying in port until June 25th, when they were joined by 4,000-5,000 Canadian troops and headed across the Atlantic.  A letter written at sea by Whitney Bent described the trip. (Concord Enterprise, July 25, 1917, p. 7)  Two ships accompanied them at a distance of about ¾ of a mile, one with the horses and wheat and one that carried nitroglycerine.  The Justicia apparently also carried wheat and lumber.  The letter did not mention where all the equipment was, perhaps with the horses.  It was, fortunately, a relatively smooth sail.  The men were required to wear life preservers at all times.  They slept in tightly-arranged hammocks, alternating in direction of head and feet.  For most of the journey, there was not much to see except the other ships and occasional whales, although the men kept busy with “church, boxing, cards and reading” and received news and baseball scores by wireless.  A dog fight between different groups’ pets interrupted the monotony.  On July 3, Bent added to his letter that they had been joined by “submarine chasers” and there were possible submarine sightings that day and the night before.  The Boston Daily Globe, (Aug. 19, 1917, p. 36), printed a letter from Hugh Connors of Maynard who also described the trip.  “We arrived, as you probably know, July 5, [in Scotland], after a long tiresome trip.  The last two days we were in the war zone.  We had been on the boat so long that some of the boys didn’t care whether we were torpedoed or not.”  According to Mr. Connors, at the end of the trip, the boat was fired upon by two German submarines.  Two torpedoes were fired, but missed by 12 feet or less.  A contrasting letter, written to the head of the organizing committee back in Massachusetts by Downing P. Brown, general manager of the ten mill units, said that “For a time there was considerable conjecture about the possibility of submarines, etc., but as soon as the fleet of destroyers arrived, the tension relaxed and everyone felt safe.” (Lumber World Review, Nov. 10, 1917, p. 56)  The different tone may have been because of censors.  The Boston Sunday Globe (Aug. 26, 1917, a.m. edition,  p. 10) quoted a letter from Hap Reed to his parents that the Atlantic crossing was “a most bitter experience – more than I can write about” and that British censors were keeping the men from revealing details of the trip.  Whatever actually happened, it was a dangerous time to cross the Atlantic.

After landing in Liverpool, the “lumberjack unit” took a train to northern Scotland where they were to work in forests on private estates, including that of Andrew Carnegie.  Unit No. 3 worked at Ardgay.  They had to wait for their equipment to arrive by boat.   The Concord Enterprise (Aug. 22, 1917, p. 3) reported that the “Blanchard & Gould mill known officially as Unit No. 3. had the distinction of cutting and sawing the first lumber on foreign soil for the cause of the Allies, by an organized body of men and complete equipment from the United States.”  The first work was done by Burpee Steele of Boxboro and G. Howard Reed of Acton.  Three officers from the general staff were present and inscribed a piece of wood with “First Lumber Sawed by American Lumbermen in this Country, July 28, 1917 at 3:20 p m.”  A portion was inscribed by Reed and Steele and given as a gift to Arthur Blanchard for Christmas, 1917.  The Society has a picture of the inscription.

Once the mills were up and running, the men worked hard.  Friendly rivalry seems to have boosted their productivity; letters home periodically mentioned units’ records relative to the others.  An unsourced newspaper clipping in the Society’s collection (from sometime after March 23, 1918) reported that Unit No. 3 was proud to have been the first to reach the million-foot mark.  They were also pleased that they increased their productivity enough in December, 1917 to maintain their weekly average output despite Scotland’s low sunlight at that time of year and a week off at the end of the month.

The men of the whole Sawmill Unit were treated well by the local inhabitants of the region and seem to have caused little trouble, though a retrospective article in the Northern Times mentioned occasional rowdiness, attributed to the locals being a bit too generous in supplying alcohol.  (It also mentioned one serious accident that we did not find in our local newspapers.)  Published reports of the time generally focused on lumber production, not leisure activities, but we do know Unit 3’s clerk Glenn Gould was considered the unit’s musician and seems somehow to have had access to a phonograph.  We also know that about half of the sawmill men took the train to London for their December break to see the sights.  There must have been some time for mingling, because according to the Boston Sunday Herald, “more than a dozen Scotch wives” would head to America when the Sawmill Unit returned (June 30, 1918, p. B2) 

By all reports, the Sawmill Unit was a success.  The men produced more than 20,000,000 feet of lumber for the Allies.  Though they were exempt from the draft during the term of their contract with the British government, they worked long hours and completed the job early.  According to a Boston Globe article, the New England Sawmill Unit was commended by the British government for doing “twice the work at half the cost of any organization producing lumber for war service.” (Dec. 1, 1918, p. 16)  Their efforts were also noticed by soldiers in the trenches. The same article quoted a soldier’s letter that having boards lining the trenches “was particularly appreciated in wet weather, when we were protected from the mud and water which otherwise would have been around on all sides.”

Though the Sawmill Unit fulfilled their contract, the war continued.  Most of the men of the unit, as soon as their work was completed, enlisted in the military.  Apparently, their status had been subject to much “diplomatic correspondence” between the British and American authorities.  “Many of the young men resented the fact that they were published in their districts as delinquents [from registering for the draft], though their records were ultimately cleared.” (Boston Globe, June 16, 1918, page 7)  Over a hundred of them joined the U.S. Army’s 20th Engineers who dealt with overseas forestry activities.  Six Acton men from Sawmill Unit No. 3 were among them.  A large number of the sawmill men, including Webster Blanchard, went into the Navy.  That sounds surprising, but there were significant naval operations near northern Scotland.

We did not find any mention in newspapers on this side of the Atlantic of what happened to the animals and equipment after the sawmill unit disbanded.  However, we did find a June, 1919 ad in the Aberdeen Press and Journal stating that the Timber Supply Department of Scotland was selling ten portable New England Sawmills, complete with spare parts.  That September, the first reunion of the New England Saw Mill Unit was held in Boston.  Twelve local men attended, and “Webb” Blanchard presided.

The Society is lucky to have a collection of Webster Blanchard’s photographs showing Unit 3’s and other sawmills in operation, the Unit 3 crew, the horses, and even the pets that they brought over with them.  You can view the photographs at Jenks Library during our open hours. We would like to add to our collection; if anyone has photographs with members of Unit No. 3 identified, letters written by them from Scotland, or any other Acton-related World War 1 pictures and materials, we would be grateful for donations, copies, or scans.

A reader of our blog post on Acton's early baseball kindly sent us a studio picture of another local baseball team.  One of the players is identified; the man seated at the far right is Jim O’Neil, born in Acton in 1878.  The picture was estimated to have been taken sometime around 1898.

It is possible that the photograph may have been an East Acton baseball team.  We found a July, 1897 article that listed the team at that time:

M. Hayes, catcher
F. O’Neil, pitcher
S. D. Taylor, shortstop
H. Holt, 2nd base
S. Guilford, Left field
C. Smith, 1st base
J. O’Neal, centerfield
F. Davis, right field
T. Hayes, 3rd base

Players moved around, so it is also possible that Jim O'Neil played for another team.  Trying to research the 1897 East Acton team's players, we found players M. Hayes and T. Hayes on a Concord Junction team in 1902. 

Can anyone help us to identify this team or any of its players?  Please contact us.

As students and teachers head back to school, it seems a good time to turn our attention back to Acton school history.  Reading the School Committee’s annual reports can be eye-opening.  Conditions and attitudes could be quite different from today’s.  For example, the 1911 report (pages 7-9) revealed that a state inspector had ordered fire escapes for the South and West two-story schoolhouses in September, 1909, but nothing was done about it.  In July, 1910, the next inspector repeated the order and additionally called for improved ventilation in the West and Center schoolhouses after “a chemical analysis of the air showed ‘bad contamination.’”  To deal with air quality, the school committee had the heating systems repaired.  However, “upon the request of the committee the state police did not press the matter of the construction of the fire escapes on the South and West schoolhouses and the matter has gone over until summer (of 1911).”  The actual building of both fire escapes was finally noted to be complete in the January, 1913 report (page 22).

Postponing investment in school buildings seems to have been a recurring theme.  The 1891-92 annual report mentioned that the School Committee and the state inspector had disagreed before: “A contemplated heavy expense upon a change in our school structures for a more satisfactory ventilation, ordered by the State Inspector of Public Buildings, has been deferred for the present... the Board of Health finally decided to annul the order, leaving the whole subject for future deliberation and action.” (page 45)   The School Committee suggested that the the issue of bad air in classrooms could be solved by using the “magnificent system of ventilation” available for free; teachers could simply open a window.
 
The 1891-92 Committee was fighting an old battle. As far back as 1846-47, the School Committee reported on air and ventilation problems in the classrooms, especially in winter.  To keep a reasonable temperature, the fire in the stove would be stoked, eventually raising the air temperature to uncomfortable levels.  Then the upper sash of the windows would be lowered, and cold winter air would pour down on the students nearby.  Soon the room would get too cold, the fire would be renewed, and the cycle would begin again.  “Thus as though our climate were not changeable enough, the scholars are made to pass from summer to winter and winter to summer, twenty times a day.” (page 11)  Stoves used up oxygen needed in crowded classrooms and produced pollutants.  In an attempt to improve air quality, ventilators were installed on some of the schoolhouses by 1852, but both the 1851-52 and the 1861-62 reports mentioned that the needed (and relatively inexpensive) adjustable air-intake vents had been omitted, making the system less effective. (page 8 and 21) 
 
Air and temperature in the classrooms were not the only problems.  In early days, of course, the schools had no running water and no indoor plumbing.  The 1846-47 school report mentioned that every school house should be supplied with drinking vessels and, whenever possible, a good well of water. (page 12)  Obtaining water was an ongoing issue.  The 1911 report (page 9) mentioned that “We have been obliged to make some repairs upon the well at West Acton school and to dig an entirely new well at the South school to avoid sewage contamination.”  In the January 1912 report, the school committee noted that “The problem of furnishing drinking water for the West and Center schools is still a perplexing one. There seems no other way at present than to hire it carried.” (page 10)  This issue was resolved when town water was finally piped to the West and Center Schools.  (Jan. 1913 report, page 22)  A teacher’s January 6, 1913 entry in a diary held by the Society told us that “The water-pipe was laid through the pines to [the Center] schoolhouse cellar this vacation.”  Water systems were installed in the Center and West schools that summer.  However, “It was the opinion of the committeeman from South Acton that this expense was not necessary for the South school.” (Feb. 1914 report, page 7).
 
Before the days of indoor plumbing and septic systems, the schools had to provide other accommodations for comfort and public health.  In 1802 town meeting explicitly provided for building and painting “necesary houses” to accompany each schoolhouse.  Deferral of costs may also have extended to outhouses, occasionally leading to unappealing recommendations in school reports.  In 1881, the school committee emphasized “We consider it very important that the out-buildings of our school-houses shall be properly cleansed every spring.” (page 8)  In 1892-93, the added suggestion was that: “the out-houses at the South and West should be provided with better means of ventilation, and those in the other districts be repaired.” (Page 58)  Outhouses attracted graffiti.  In 1881, the School Committee noted that the outhouses needed to be whitewashed so that “every mark which might make an injurious impression upon the minds of the young shall be obliterated....  Unless constant vigilance is used, in this direction, some of the objections which have been made to our system of common schools, on moral grounds, will prove to be well founded.” (page 8)  At least the schools actually had outhouses at that point.  In 1899, the town’s inaction had led to such acute crowding in the South Acton school that the town had to rent space in a building near the railway tracks fronting ”a public and much used business square, without grounds and consequently without proper sanitary arrangements.”  (1903-04 report, page 12) 
 
In the 1920s, costs for indoor plumbing and “sewerage” systems started showing up in school reports, though there were still some problems.  The new high school’s septic system did not work properly at first, necessitating more digging.  (1927 report, page 24)  In 1928, the “unwholesome odors and condition” of the South Acton School’s toilets were finally fixed after having been a problem for years. (page 18)  “Flush closets” were voted for the Center and West schools in March, 1922, but the town did not appropriate enough money to complete the job.  The Center School got them in 1925.  For some reason, West Acton lagged behind the rest of the town.  The 1926 report recommended “that toilets be installed in the West School to improve sanitary conditions,” (page 6) and an attempt at funding its “flush closets” was made at the March 1927 town meeting.  Nothing was done.  In the 1930 report, the School Committee finally reported being “able to install flush closets in the West Acton School. While some other repairs that seemed quite necessary were postponed the condition of the toilets at the West Acton School was such that all other repairs were put aside to meet the conditions there.”  (page 5)  One does not want to dwell too long on what those conditions were.
 
As a final note, landscaping was another item that might or might not be in the town’s budget.  In the 1846-47 report, the school committee suggested that the ground around the schoolhouses be banked up and smoothed “so that the little ones may get in at the doors without a ladder, and may play about the premises without risk of neck or limbs in tumbling over stones that do congregate there.” (Page 12)  Playgrounds were urged so that students would not trespass on neighbors’ property.  (1848-1849 report, page 5)  Eighty years later, creating decent recreational space among Acton’s rocks, ledges, and roots was still a problem.  Landscaping and the creation of decent athletic facilities around the new high school took years and substantially more money than anticipated.  The original plan had been to blast the nearby ledge, but the cost was too great, so fill was brought in to cover it instead.  The 1929 report noted that (page 18) “During the operation most of the huge stones that formerly lined the field were buried in the fill. A bit of the ledge was also removed, but the greater part still remains.”  That was a problem left to a later School Committee.

In every era, there are school maintenance and safety issues that need to be addressed.  Reflecting on conditions in early years, we cannot help being grateful for those in each generation who have maintained Acton’s schools and worked for their improvement.

The Society has in its collection a picture of an Acton baseball team.  Unlabeled, its only clues are the team uniforms, most of which say Acton, and a sweater with a date that indicates that the picture was taken in the first decade of the twentieth century.  Trying to find out more about the history of Acton baseball in the Society’s archives, we were surprised to find that our collections do not have a lot of detail about the sport or early players in town.  Perhaps baseball was so commonplace that most people did not think to record its history or to save souvenirs. 
 
There is disagreement about when “base ball” actually started, but we know that the game goes back to 1840 or before.  The earliest mention that we found of the sport in Acton was a comment in the School Committee report of 1861-1862 that in the school yard, the “bat and ball and every other boyish play” had been replaced by military exercises deemed better physical training in the Civil War years. (page 11)  We do not know exactly when adult teams were organized in Acton.  Newspapers covering Acton news before the late 1880s are hard to locate.  The earliest local team that we could find was mentioned in the Boston Journal, August 23, 1875 (page 4), playing the Edens of Charlestown.  The Boston Daily Globe (Jan. 15 1917, page 15) reported that a reunion was being planned of the New England players of 1873-1875 who played against the Bartlett Club of Lowell.  Among them were the Actons.  We also found an entertaining report on West Acton’s 11-inning outing against Fitchburg in 1876.  The article detailed the exploits and occasional errors of Acton’s players Campbell, Conant, Driscoll, Gardner, Marshall, Mead, Taylor, A. Tuttle and J. Tuttle.  (Fitchburg Sentinel, July 31, 1876, page 3) 
 
Phalen’s 1954 History of the town of Acton mentions “Mr. Hoar’s” recollection of “Acton’s first knights of the diamond,” which probably overlaps with the Fitchburg game list, (though he dated the first team at 1877): James B. Tuttle, Frank Marshall, George Reed, Edward F. Conant, Charles Day, Arthur Tuttle, Simon Taylor, John Hoar, William Puffer, Lyman Taylor, and Dennis Sullivan. (page 225)
 
One would assume that in the earliest days, local teams were organized with local players.  A manager handled arranging games and finances; he would have had to find equipment and (eventually) uniforms for the team, locations at which to play, and a way to travel to games.  By the time we find Acton teams in local newspapers, team composition was not necessarily all native.  Small towns might not have had adequate “talent” to cover all positions.  In May of 1888, the Concord Enterprise reported that the Acton team had procured a baseman named Baker who previously had been captain of the Marlboro team; “He is just the man Actons want, and we are glad the managers were able to secure his services for the coming season.” (May 12, page 2)  In turn, Acton’s previous second baseman transferred to the Nashua team.  Concord apparently managed to field its own team that year.  A very pleased reporter from Concord reported on a June 1888 victory over Acton.  Piling on insults, he turned around the often-repeated assertion that it was Acton men who had done the fighting at Concord in April 1775 and then made sure to mention that Concord’s baseball team was made up of Concord residents:
 
“They came, they saw, but alas! They were conquered.....  How true it is that history oft repeats itself.  It is only a little over one hundred and thirteen years ago that Concord furnished the field for Acton corpses, and Saturday afternoon she repeated the operation...  There seems to be some doubt, however, as to the entire remains belonging to the town of Acton, it having been whispered that certain other towns contributed their quota to aid Acton in its endeavor.  If this rumor be true, then all the more glory for the boys of old Concord.”  (Enterprise, June 30, 1888, page 3)
 
The author also had opinions on the behavior of some of the 200 people at the game: “A large delegation from Maynard, Acton and Westvale came down to see the fun and cheer the Actons to victory.  They were anxious to bet, even as high as 2 to 1 on their favorite nine, but fortunately for them they struck a town where such a use of money is not countenanced.”  The author made some suggestions to the public, urging them to support the team and “above all things don’t guy [ridicule], or give advice to the players; it is neither witty or wise, and is very annoying to both the public and the players.”
 
Despite the Concord reporter’s gloating over the victory of a purely “Concord” team, it was clear from news reports that teams paid to get good players, either for a season or on a temporary basis to fill holes in the roster.  On May 31, 1889, the Concord Enterprise explicitly reported that the West Acton club would need to pass the hat around “owing to the large salaries paid to new players.” (page 2)  The Boxboro base ball club in 1892 “intent upon defeating their ever victorious rivals... procured, at considerable expense” players from Boston to help them defeat the strong West Acton team.  The result was a classic game of neighborly rivalry.  Boxboro led 6-0 after eight innings, to the elation of “the large delegation among the spectators of Boxboro farmers who had left the hay field and taken their families to the game...”  Unfortunately for the Boxboro crowd, in the ninth inning, West Acton managed to score three runs.  With two outs, Conant, a noted member of the “old Actons,” hit a grand slam into the woods,  clinching the game for West Acton. (Enterprise, July 29, 1892, page 4)  One can only imagine the reaction from fans on both sides of the contest.
 
Venues varied.  In the early days, the town did not provide athletic fields; teams had to find owners of land who would allow them to play.  (We did not find any mention of rental fees paid until much later, so we do not know whether it was a business decision or pure generosity on the part of the owners.)  The August 18, 1888 Enterprise (page 2) mentioned that “The Actons can boast of one of the finest ball grounds in the state, and all through the kindness of Mr. Barker who gives them the use of the ground and also keeps it in first-class shape.  But it must be distinctly understood that his apples are not free, and the acts of last Saturday must not be repeated.”  Presumably, the generous field owner whose orchard was raided was Henry Barker; he owned the South Acton cider mill.  In South Acton, we also found mentions of games played at the Prospect Street and School Street grounds, Fletcher Corner, and at the back of Warren Jones’ place.  West Acton teams played at various times at the cemetery (Mount Hope) grounds as well as fields described as Hapgood’s, Blanchard’s, and “opposite the Aldrich farm.”
 
The teams played near-by rivals most often, of course, allowing for cheaper travel and easy attendance by friends and family.  They also played teams from farther afield, including, among other places, Pepperell, Clinton, East Cambridge, and Boston’s Custom House.  In the particularly ambitious season of 1897, the Acton team did a tour that included Hinsdale, NH and Rutland, VT. (Fitchburg Sentinel, September 2, 1897, page 2 and September 7, page 6)
 
Inevitably, umpires were the source of complaints.  (“Mr Hoar’s” recollections in Phalen’s History indicated that originally, there were no called strikes or ground rules and that hits were common.  However, players and fans still found things to complain about.)  In 1876, the Fitchburg Sentinel reported that despite inadequate umpiring, all of the players kept quiet except for Acton’s second baseman, “who, to say the least, was at times a little ‘emphatic.’”  (July 31, 1876, page 3)  In August of 1888, the Concord Enterprise reported that in a home game against Chelmsford, the umpiring was so bad that the Acton team forfeited the game in the sixth inning, walking off the field in protest. (August 25, 1888 page 2) 
 
More baseball drama occurred the next year; the Acton team disbanded in July, 1889.  As reported in the Concord Enterprise, “The game at Lexington was the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back.’ Some of the ex-members we are informed will seek consolation in another enterprise where there is less danger from flies and foul tips.”  The Maynard reporter helpfully added, “We hear the Actons have disbanded.  We reckoned they would after their remarkable record at Lexington.” (July 26, 1889, page 2)   Investigation showed that Lexington had won the game 29 to 1, stealing 17 bases in the process. (Enterprise, July 19, 1889, page 2)  Tempers cooled eventually, and the team was back in business in the 1890s.
 
Funding was an issue for all teams.  Evidently, admission fees were charged in Boston.  Fitchburg tried that, but the local newspaper complained that people were finding holes in the fence and other means to avoid paying the small price of admission. (Fitchburg Sentinel, July 31, 1876, page 3)  The alternative, as in Acton, was to pass a hat at games for voluntary donations.  Newspapers encouraged townsfolk to attend the games and to be generous when the hat came around.  The teams also did fundraising in the off-season.  Dances seem to have been a good source of revenue.  For example, in December, 1888, the Enterprise noted that the Acton Base Ball Club’s fundraising ball had brought in 100 couples.  One reporter called it a grand affair. (January 4, 1889, page 2)  Another noted that “All had a good time, barring the dust.”  (December 28, 1888, page 2).   Branching out, in the winter of 1904, a benefit production of the Lothrop dramatic company was staged to aid the Acton baseball team (Boston Daily Globe, March 26, 1904, different editions pages 2 and 5).  The crowd was described as “One of the largest audiences on record,” presumably meaning at South Acton’s Exchange Hall.
 
Aside from teams that represented “Acton” or its villages, there were games between other groups.  There was, for example, the very popular tradition of the Married versus Singles game.  (Concord Enterprise, August 2, 1900, page 8)  In June, 1911, the Enterprise announced: “This is the time of the year when the old men feel young again and the young men feel their importance.  So to give expression to these pent up feelings they are arranging to crush the exuberance of each other and on the morning of July 4th they will meet in a game of baseball, the great event of the season – Married vs. Single Men – on the School st. grounds.” (June 28, 1911 page 8)  Sometimes teams were created for workplace rivalries, for example pitting “the morocco shop” against “the piano stool shop players.”  (Enterprise, August 2, 1900, page 8)  The Acton team played a game against the Boston & Maine/ Boston YMCA team in 1907. (Concord Enterprise, July 10, 1907, page 8)  By that era, there was even enough organization to have an inter-grammar school competition between the schools at Acton Centre and South Acton. (Concord Enterprise, May 15, 1906, page 8).
 
For a while, Acton had a high school that was able to produce a team.  In 1892, the Acton High School team, formerly having been known as the West Acton Stars, was looking for opponents.  The manager C. B. Clark advertised that the average age of the players was 17. (Concord Enterprise, June 10, 1892, page 5)  Presumably, during the period in which Acton exported its high school students to Concord, there was no longer an Acton High School team.  A news item from 1911 mentioned the Acton Centre team was mostly made up of Concord High School players. (Enterprise, June 28, page 8)  It is likely that the majority of them actually lived in Acton.  After the new high school was built, according to Phalen, an athletic field was cleared of ledges and boulders, and a school team was again in operation in 1929. (page 336) 
 
Phalen also mentioned pictures of early teams.  One, once in the possession of James B. Tuttle, showed Acton’s team wearing white caps with a blue A and wool shirts with a shield featuring buttons and a navy blue “old English A.”  The Society has no photograph of that team or uniform.  Another photograph that Phalen mentioned, at the time owned by Mrs. Charles Smith, was of the high school team of 1903 in navy uniforms with striped socks.  (It included Harold Norris, George Stillman, Carl Hoar, Edward Bixby, Ralph Piper, William Edward, Richard Kinsley, Clayton Beach and Harold Littlefield who became a professional baseball player.)  Though our baseball photograph seems to be of the same era, it must not have been of the same team.  (Our picture features people of the mixed ages and different uniforms.)  If anyone can help us to identify our picture, give us more information about Acton baseball, or find us copies of pictures of early Acton teams, we would love to hear from you.  Please contact us.

In discussions of notable citizens in a town’s history, women, whose roles in the community were usually less publicized, are often overlooked.  Researching Acton women who stood out despite their limited opportunities led us to Clara (Hapgood) Nash, the first woman admitted to the bar in New England.

Clara (born Clarissa) Hosmer Hapgood was the fifth child of John Hapgood and Mary Ann Hosmer, both Acton natives who lived for a time in Fitchburg where Clara was born on January 15, 1839.  The young family returned to Acton in 1846.  Clara and her surviving siblings David, Henry, Ephraim and Luke grew up on John’s farm on Central Street with many cousins living nearby.  Clara attended Acton public schools and later studied at college-preparatory Peirce Academy in Middleboro. 

Clara started teaching in the Acton schools in the spring term of 1862.  In the fall of that year, Clara’s brother Henry left with Acton’s Company E, Sixth Regiment to serve the Union cause.  The Society is extremely fortunate to have been given letters between Henry and his family, including Clara.  From them, we learn something about her life and personality.  She was a busy young woman.  She wrote to Henry about her school, her class of 49 students (or more), and the pressure of end-of-term oral examinations that were open to the public.  In addition to teaching, she supported the temperance cause and became editor of the pro-temperance publication “The Crystal Font.”  In her free time, she attended lectures and at least one teachers’ conference and visited with friends and family. 

The letters show that Clara’s family was close-knit and caring.  Clara wrote to Henry about their parting (September 27, 1862):

“Do you remember our last meeting at the school house?  Well when I went back into school I had a little cry and before I got over it in came Mr. Norten to visit the school and soon after I called the school to order some one rapped and who should appear at the door but Mr. Richardson [the superintendent]. .... So you see I had to muster all the dignity I was capable of notwithstanding my sadness.”

Clara also wrote about having to teach her school after a cousin brought her a letter from Henry in September 1862.  She was impatient to read his letter, because “we are so anxious constantly.”  Later letters mention sending foodstuff and supplies to Henry, with Clara reminiscing about her own pleasure in receiving items from home when she was studying in Middleboro (October 30, 1862). 

Clara taught in the West Acton school, teaching the higher department in the 1862 spring and fall terms (that evidently included her younger brothers) and the primary department in the winter.  She was paid $18 per month (School Report 1862-1863, page 33).  As was customary at the time, male scholars were brought in to teach in the winter term when “big boys,” otherwise needed for farm work, joined the classes.  Mr. W. E. Eaton took over the higher department at West Acton.  Frederick C. Nash, from Tufts College, taught the higher department of the South Acton School for two winter terms (1861-1862 and 1862-1863).  The winter-term men were paid $40 monthly.  Pay inequality was rampant at the time, but the men were also paid a premium for handling what was considered a harder assignment.

Clara and Frederick C. Nash met and obviously found that they had common interests.  Her brother Luke commented in a letter (December 21, 1862):

“Henry who do you suppose is in the parlor?  I will tell you it is Mr. F. C. Nash teacher of So. Acton School.  He was here last Sunday night and several other nights has been home with Clara from the Lyceum & Sons of Temperance she went with him to Concord last Wednesday night to hear H. W. Beecher, Lecture before the Lyceum.... dont tell Clara that I told about Mr Nash for if you do perhaps I would get an old fashioned Scotch blessing [a tongue lashing].”

Clara’s teaching was reported on favorably in the 1862-1863 report (page 27).  Her students did well in their final examinations, despite the fact, (disappointing to Clara), that in the winter term, some of her “best” pupils had the mumps at the time of the examination (Letter from David Hapgood, March 8, 1863).  Clara taught the West Acton higher department again in the spring and fall of 1863.  The fall term of 1863 must have been extremely difficult for the family; Henry was home from war in a very debilitated state.  He wrote to his cousin Delette Hall in September 1863 that it was doubtful that he would recover, despite the best efforts of “Mother and a kind physician.”  Clara’s health weakened as well.  In the 1863-64 town report, George C. Wright of the local school committee wrote that:

“Miss Hapgood commenced her labors with her accustomed zeal, and had it not been for her failing health, owing to too much care and anxiety on account of sickness at home, would have merited that approbation which she has always won....  We hope, after a rest to recruit mind and body, Miss Hapgood will again engage in the work of teaching, for which she is well fitted.” (page 30)

Henry, unfortunately, did not survive his illness.  One can only imagine how hard it was for the family.   Eventually, Clara regained her health.  Her father mentioned in an April 1864 letter that she was at school in New Ipswich, NH (apparently Appleton Academy).  She was called to teach the upper department of the South Acton school in the winter of 1865-66.  The school committee’s comment after that term was that “the school had flourished under her management.” (page 11)  According to various biographical sketches (for example Who’s Who in New England, Vol. 1, 1909, page 679), Clara attended the State Normal School at Framingham, graduating from the advanced class, and later taught in high schools in Marlborough and Danvers. 

So far, Clara seemed like a typical woman of her time.  Obviously intelligent, she followed the path available to her, going to a teacher’s college and teaching in local schools.  She married Frederick Nash on January 1, 1869 in Acton.  They moved to Columbia Falls, Maine where Frederick had grown up and established a law practice.

For most women of Clara’s time, marriage would have been the end of her career.  However, in Columbia Falls, Clara studied law in the office of her husband.  (Law training was typically done with a practicing lawyer.)  Starting in January, 1871, newspapers started reporting that Mrs. Clara Nash had become a justice of the peace after completing her law studies in her husband’s office.  (At some point over the next few months, someone mistakenly changed her location to Columbia, NH, and that “news” spread across the country.)  In 1872, Clara was examined by a committee in Machias, Maine.  They unanimously agreed that she was qualified and formally admitted her to the Bar of the Supreme Judicial Court in Maine in October 1872, giving her full standing in the legal profession, a first for New England.  Clara’s feat was widely reported in newspapers throughout the country.  Clara and Frederick became partners in a law practice, first in Columbia Falls, then in Portland.  According to the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier (1 November 1873), Clara made a stir by actually appearing in court in the case of John D. Allen v. Town of Jonesboro, presenting legal arguments with references from previous legal decisions and examining witnesses.

Son Frederick was born in Portland, Maine on January 3, 1874.  We do not have much specific information about Clara during the early years of his life, but she apparently juggled motherhood and legal work.  She was listed as an attorney at law in the 1879 Portland, Maine directory with the firm of F. C. & C. H. Nash at 119 ½ Exchange.  Surprisingly, the 1880 census reported that on June 9, Frederick and Clara Nash, both listed as lawyers, were with son Fred in Minneapolis.  So far, we do not know why they were in the Midwest on that date.  Shortly thereafter, the Nash family returned to Acton, taking up residence in the Hapgood farmhouse (at today’s address 149 Central Street).  Frederick established a law practice in Boston and also was available for consultation at home in the evening and at South Acton before taking the train to the city.  He also served as Acton’s Superintendent of Schools in the 1880s and was involved in other town matters including the formation of West Acton's Citizens' Library. 

Clara may have helped Frederick privately with his legal business, but she did not formally practice law in Massachusetts.  (Her home state had not yet admitted a woman to the bar at the time the Nash family returned.)  Clara used her energies in other ways and quickly found her place back in the community.  She served as the first librarian of the Citizens’ Library in West Acton (for about two years starting in 1883, apparently without pay).  Clara was also a temperance supporter as her family had been for many years.  A copy of a broadside sent to the Historical Society shows that in 1885, she was the Secretary of the Middlesex North-West Temperance Union.  She was very active in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, (a group that coalesced over the issue of temperance and became a leading organization in the struggle for women’s and children’s rights).  Clara served as the local Union’s president for 24 years and eventually was honored with a life membership in appreciation of her years of service.

Clara was also noted as a poet.  The poems were interspersed with bits of family and local history that we might otherwise have missed.  Her style was of her time, but the emotions underlying her poems were universal.  Clara put her feelings about parting with her soldier brother Henry into a poem that was later published as “Sister I Must Go.”   “Song in Death” was written about the way he dealt with his final sickness.  Many of her poems were written for the birthdays, anniversaries and funerals of family members and friends.  At the dedication of Acton’s Memorial Library, Clara read a poem about Acton’s history that she had written for the occasion.  Some of Clara’s poems were published in the Magazine of Poetry and Literary Review in 1894, and in 1909, a collection of her poetry was published as Verses by Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, MA).  In 1917, her poem “Mother” was set to the music of E. S. Hosmer and turned into a four-part song.

Sometime around early 1915, Frederick and Clara moved from the old Hapgood farmhouse in Acton.  In 1920, Frederick and Clara were living at 10 Oak Terrace in Newton.  On February 18, 1921, Frederick C. Nash passed away.  Clara followed him on March 5.  They had both recently turned 82 years old and spent over fifty years together.  They were buried in Mount Hope Cemetery with Clara’s parents and most of her siblings, not far from the home in which she was raised and where she and Frederick spent most of their adult lives.

One of Clara’s poems was entitled “Woman’s Work,” the theme of which was women’s evolving and expanding roles, from women mentioned in the Bible to pioneers whom Clara clearly admired.  Clara wrote (in part):

She (Caroline Herschel, astronomer) solves the problem of the stars,
And woman’s narrow bound unbars. 
 
By constant care and skill
Through prejudicial woes,
By woman’s strong, undaunted will
The woman’s college rose.  ...
 
A voice breaks like a spell,
To woman it rings clear:
“Do what you can and do it well!
Through out the so-called ‘sphere.’” ...
 
Thus women stand to-day
In pulpit, at the bar,
In medicine with tender sway,
Their influence widening far ...
 
Clara wound up the poem by writing of women’s roles as caregivers from the birth of their children to the end of the lives of their loved-ones.  She concluded with a call to women:

Heaven’s high behest to heed,
With ready sympathy to see
Humanity’s sore need.
And, seeing, haste to give redress,
To right its wrongs, to cheer and bless.
 
We would love to find out more about Clara (Hapgood) Nash and her family.  If you know of any sources of information, documents, or photographs, we would be delighted to learn more.  We are also looking for a full copy of E. S. Hosmer’s song “Mother” from 1917.  Please contact us if you can help.

Acton has utilized many school buildings throughout its history, most of which are long-gone or unrecognizable.  The most recent to disappear was the red brick schoolhouse on Harris Street that was torn down earlier this spring.  We thought it an appropriate time to review the history of Acton’s school buildings. 

The Society has documents and maps that have tried to pinpoint the location of Acton’s early schools, the result of much work by local historians including James Fletcher, Horace Tuttle, Ida Hapgood Harris, Harold Phalen, Florence Merriam, Elizabeth Conant and others. In addition, Acton Memorial Library has made early town meeting records easily accessible online.  But even with those resources, it is still a very confusing subject.  Early schools were temporary and seasonal.  Historical documents refer to people, structures, and areas that are unfamiliar today.  (Where were “Deacon Brookses Squadron” and “Capt Haywards Corner”?)  Seemingly logical labels (“north”, “southwest, “east”) referred to various divisions of town at different times.  We have some payment records from early years, but it is not clear whether the payments to individuals “for schools” were for their own teaching and whether a school was actually kept on their own property.  As time went on, schoolhouses were built, used for a time and then abandoned, moved or creatively reused.  Town meeting records give us clues, but one has to be careful about making assumptions based on a favorable vote at a town meeting.  Acton had a habit of voting on an issue and later voting to reconsider the same issue, sometimes multiple times.  On school matters, there was a high probability that a vote would be overturned within the next few months or years.  Stepping bravely (or foolishly) into the quagmire, we begin our survey of Acton’s schools.

After a vote on March 3, 1739/40 not to “erect” schools, apparently the town voted to have a “reading, riteing and moveing Scool” in March 1740/41 (its funding was not clear).  Acton’s public education was more definitely organized by a vote in December 1743 to divide the town into three parts, holding a school in each section.  In the earliest years of Acton’s history, classes were held on private property by individuals who were willing to teach.  Exactly how the students were accommodated was not specified in town reports.  The individuals who kept the schools generally farmed, so presumably classes were held at times of the year when teachers and students were not needed for agricultural labor.  As time went on, expenditures for a “schoolmaster” began to appear in town reports.  Very early, the issue of equity arose; there had to be enough schools in town that all families had access to education for their children within a reasonable distance.  The number of school districts, (sometimes known as societies or squadrons), was a recurring issue at town meetings.  After the initial three districts in 1743, the number of divisions varied from four to seven. 

The first mention of town-owned school buildings appeared in town meeting records in 1771.  On May 27, the town voted that Acton should have seven school houses in the center of each division of the town.  Four had already been built privately and were to be purchased and repaired by the town.  Three new Schoolhouses were to be built, “Eighteen feet in Length and Sixteen feet wide” but the districts could, at their own expense, upgrade them to twenty by eighteen feet.   They apparently were to have four windows, plaster ceilings and at least partial plaster walls.

Locating North Acton's Schools

Starting our survey of Acton’s schools with the schoolhouse(s) in the vicinity of Harris street, we find that the 1771 list of proposed school locations did not include that area.  There was already a schoolhouse near the Healds’ residence on present-day Carlisle Road and apparently another near Josiah Piper's on “Procter’s” Road (now Nagog Hill Road) that could have served families in the northern part of Acton.  After some deliberation, on March 2, 1772, it was decided to leave the schoolhouse where it stood near Josiah Piper's.

After the schoolhouse vote, complaints started and a series of re-votes followed.  In particular, “Samuel Fitch and a Number of His Neighbours” thought themselves injured by being "to[o] Remote from Any School.”  (March 1774).  The town's response was that Mr. Fitch and his neighbors could have their school tax money to be used for alternative schooling.  Existing town maps do not show the location of Samuel Fitch’s house in Acton, but we know from the Tuttle/Scarlett maps that at least some of the neighbors mentioned, (David Lamson and the widow Temple), lived in the Nagog Pond/North Acton area.  (It was the same area that included John Oliver’s farm, the subject of another blog post.)  On January 4, 1775, the town voted to build a schoolhouse “to accomidate Samuel Fitch and others.”  One might think that was the end of the story, but on May 14, 1776, the town again voted that the Selectmen should build a School House in “Samuel Fitchs Society.”  Probably based on that vote, Horace Tuttle’s 1890 map dated the first Harris Street North Acton schoolhouse at 1776.  That may have been optimistic.  On January 31, 1780, the town was again asked to vote on building the same schoolhouse and postponed the vote.  In May, 1780, the town “voted that the Committe that was Imployed to Build a School House in mr Samuel Fitchs Society Do hire money in Behalf of the Town to Pay Said mr Samuel Fitch for what he has Don.”  Clearly, Mr. Fitch had taken matters into his own hands.  Unfortunately, the exact location and whether a schoolhouse was fully built at that point is not clear from the town meeting records.  Around that time, the redistricting of families that were set off to the District of Carlisle necessitated another vote on the location of a schoolhouse, combining the families in the Fitch area with those who had been in Lieut. John Heald’s district (the “northest part of this town”, November 20, 1780).  Money was voted toward building the schoolhouse at that time.

The next period in which school buildings were discussed was the 1790s.  On November 2, 1792, the town voted to reduce its school districts from seven to four.  That was a short-lived plan.  After proposals and counterproposals, on May 6, 1795, the town settled on five school districts and decided that “every Person Shall have the Liberty to Join the District to which he Chuses to belong and his Scholl [school] Rate Shall be expended in the School”. (Acton’s policy of school choice started early.  It was also subject to many later votes.)  Five schoolhouses were to be built including one “where the School House Stands near John Harris’.”  This is the first direct mention that there had been a school near the location of the (later) brick school house.  That was a welcome moment of clarity for us.  It was temporary. 

In the 1796-1797 period, there were numerous town meetings in which the town was asked to reconsider, repeatedly, previous votes on school districts and schoolhouses.  The warrant for the May 1796 meeting asked the town to “Reconsider all the votes that have been passed in the town meetings Respecting the Districting the town for Schools and building School houses for Seven years past” and in January 1797, the town was asked to reconsider all of their former votes on the issue.  On May 1, 1797, the town voted not to fund the building of the five schools.  Clearly, the decision-making process was not going well.  In October 1797, a committee was formed to “fix a place for a School house north District”.  

Based on the voting chaos, it seems unlikely that a new school was actually built before the town’s school districts were consolidated around 1800.  Town records discussed selling old school house(s) in the “east” part of town, and the Schoolhouse “near John Harris” was sold to David Barnard for $31.25 (Dec. 3, 1800).  The neighboring residents were clearly not happy, because the town was asked to vote on building a schoolhouse in the Northwest part of town in December 1801.  The town voted it down.

According to town histories, for a period of about thirty years, the north and east districts were combined.  There is no mention of a “North” school district in the records of those years and the sale of the schoolhouse indicates that the Harris Street site was not in use at the time.  Instead, a schoolhouse was built approximately at the current intersection of Davis and Great Road.  An 1830-1831 survey map shows a school at that location (and not at Harris Street).  According to Ida Hapgood Harris’s 1937 school history, “Old residents relate that 80 pupils were there at one time.  This was probably built around 1796.” (The document is at Jenks Library.)   

Leaving out occasional indecision during the early decades of the nineteenth century, on May 13, 1839, the town voted to split the “east” district again and build a brick schoolhouse in its "northern part" by November 1, 1840.  Given the uncertainty of any vote being realized, we were dubious about claiming that the schoolhouse actually was built at that time.  However, it must have been built then or soon thereafter, because in April 1844, the town voted that the North Acton district could put seats into their schoolhouse, as long as the town did not incur the expense.  The residents must have refused to pay for the seating, because in April, 1845, the town provided $12 to “put seats into the North School house in the place of stools which are now broken”.  (The students must have had an uncomfortable year.)

By 1847, the town started printing the school committee’s annual reports, so we have a much more complete (and colorful) picture of what was going on with the schools after that time.  From the 1849 report, we find that by then, the whole town had new schoolhouses.  The school committee took a look back at the schoolhouses they replaced:
“...now entirely vanished from our view – the old, square, four-roofed, one-storied, red school-houses.... with their little porticoes made to store wood and to trample clothes in... the strange and uncouth carvings, etchings and engravings which enriched them within and without.  We remember too, the broken floors, the rickety and disfigured seats and benches, the blackened and dilapidated walls, and above all the ventilating apparatus, called windows.  Yet they were cheerful places... But they have passed away, and other houses of a very different model stand in their stead.”
 
Confirming that the brick school house had indeed been built, the committee wrote:
 
“In the place of the old house on the great road are built two substantial and convenient brick houses, capable of accommodating fifty scholars each.  They have good woodrooms and clothes rooms, and are furnished with black boards and Mitchell’s large map of the world; these last were purchased by subscriptions of the friends of progress in the district.  These houses were built at a cost of $525 each, exclusive of the land and its preparation.”

Despite the optimistic tone of the 1849 school committee, reading later town reports, one has to think that upkeep of the schoolhouses was a constant struggle.  By 1851, the school committee was admonishing all of the school districts to attend to repairs so that “there is nothing to excite the evil propensities of the young destructives.”  Vandalism seems to have been a perpetual problem.  The 1858-1859 School Committee reported about the winter term:
“Of this term for obvious reasons we shall say but little.  (Sadly, that story is lost to history.)  If the advancement in this, and preceding winter terms has fallen below the expectations of the parents, they should remember that such a miserable, dilapidated, cold, cheerless, uncomfortable and lonely old school house is not the place to look for anything remarkable.  The pupils one day the past winter, found a large supply of shavings, in consequence of one of their number falling through a defective part of the floor.  Occasionally the boys, out of school hours, amuse themselves by jumping from the floor and touching the ceiling, a feat that most of them can easily accomplish....  The location of the stove is such that [heat] is very unequally distributed.... Indeed the house may be comprehensively described as almost a perfect model of what a school house ought not to be."

By the 1863-1864 report, we read:

”...we wish to speak of our school-houses; and in no very flattering term either.  We know there are a plenty ready to say, they are good enough; what would be the use to build better ones, for the scholars to tear in pieces....  Why, they exclaim, “some of our school-houses have not been built comparatively but a short time, and just look at them.”  That is what we say, LOOK at them, and carefully too; and we think you will come to the sage conclusion, that they are ill planned, poorly built, shammy things....  We do not believe the children and youth in this town are so much worse than they are in others; and we know they have large, convenient, and even ornamental school-houses in other towns, and they are kept well too.  We believe if this town would build some good school-houses, convenient and well finished, that our scholars would take pride in keeping them so.  We do not think it a good way to cultivate feelings of respect for public property, by having constantly before the eyes of our children defaced benches, dingy walls, and plastering hanging from the ceiling here and there, in a manner to tempt even those not inclined to mischief, to hit it a poke and tumble it down....  We think all should be as willing to be taxed to raise money to build good school-houses for their children to attend school in, as they would be to raise money to build a good town house to attend town meeting in, and we think if the town is able to have a town house worth some eight thousand dollars, it is able to have school-houses worth as much.”

Ten years later, the town agreed that the brick building on Harris Street had reached the end of its useful life as a school.  Charles I. Miller’s reminiscences of North Acton (at Jenks Library) stated that a wooden replacement was built during the fall and winter of 1873 while school was still being held in the old brick schoolhouse nearby.  It was a time of change; the North Acton railroad depot had just been built at the end of Harris Street.  At that time, only one house and barn were visible from the station, but the area soon grew.

After the brick schoolhouse was taken out of service, it became a private dwelling.  The wooden schoolhouse served for 26 years.  The conflict between those who wanted schoolhouses close to home and those who wanted to achieve the efficiency of having larger, “graded” schools went on for decades.  By the 1890s, small, ungraded schoolhouses were falling out of favor.  It had become inefficient for one teacher to try to teach a broad range of subjects in one classroom that held up to seven grades’ students.  The East district was merged into the Center school, but the North Acton district held out longer.  Clearly frustrated, the Superintendent wrote in his 1897-1898 report that students in “out-lying districts” had:

a tendency to insubordination, which seemed to have its foundation in the idea that parental influence was paramount in all school matters pertaining to their district.... it prevails in out-lying districts generally, and is quite well developed at North Acton.” [page 59-60]
 
Eventually, even the North Acton school was closed.  In September 1899, its former students were transported to the Center school which then was divided into primary, intermediate and grammar “schools,” each with three grades apiece.  The former North Acton teacher, the long-serving Ella Miller, came with them.  The wooden school house at 52 Harris Street was sold off and became a dwelling.  That piece of Acton school history still stands.