Pretty Words on Building Roads

From 1889-1990:

In order to sustain the reputation of the town as a desirable place for residence and business, heavy expenditure of money is necessary. The people have been very liberal in voting supplies, and great care should be taken that the line be not crossed between expenditure which is necessary and right and that which is unnecessary, extravagant and useless.

At the last annual meeting the town voted to complete macadamizing Main street and a little over 5000 square yards was laid, averaging ten inches in thickness, completely underdrained by two lines of blind ditches, laid with porous tile, at an expense of $5,145 including the expense of crushing.

The excellence of this street has attracted the attention of people who are interested in road repairs, and many visitors from cities and towns intending to adopt some system of macadamizing their streets, have examined it and all report themselves as much pleased with our success.

Gleaned from the Greenfield Annual Reports

New England towns publish reports annually, generally at the time of the Spring Town Meeting. A variety of genealogical information can be found, and is not necessarily consistent from year to year. The following was taken from the "Annual Reports of the Selectmen and Overseers of the Poor and Town Clerk of the Town of Greenfield, 1880-1881"

Although the winter has been an unusually severe one for the poor people, not as many new cases of application for help have occurred as might have been expected; in fact, but comparatively few new cases of want of help have been made. A large part of the expenditure has been for persons or families who have long been in the habit of looking to the town for a large part of their maintenance. Two persons are still maintained at the insane asylum at Northampton – John Hartney and Mary Harrington-at an expense of over one hundred and sixty-six dollars each. Since the tramp law came into operation, (the first of May) we have had no tramps to speak of. Four who have tried to beg their way along were promptly arrested and sent to Bridgewater. Occasionally one gets short in traveling, and is furnished with a ticket on the cars to the next station, and so disposed of.

The Treasurer estimates that the town has paid about $400 interest for money borrowed during the year, to take the place of money due from delinquent tax payers. Simple justice to prompt payers would require all unpaid taxes to draw interest, that they be not again taxed to pay the interest on the money withheld by delinquents.

Pauper Account (with amounts listed, annotated when I found them in the census)
Mrs Richardson
Joseph Newton
Mrs. Tobin
Isaac Newton’s children
Charles Taylor (1880 census, black, born Mass, basketmaker, aged 65, wife Jane, 70)
Mrs. Darnley
Calvin Newton (1880 census, age 74, farm laborer, wife Anna, 66, inflammation of the stomach)
Mrs Daniel Murray
Mrs Slattery
Mrs. Putnam
Miss Alice Moore (1880 census, age 80, living with sister Susan Root)
Wm. Grogan
Mrs. Ryan
John Hartney, in Insane Asylum
Mary Harrington “
Charles McCloud (? Age 30, wife and child on Chapman st)
Fred Cadett
Mrs. Forrestall
Mrs. A. Newton
Mrs. Ryan, Hope Street
Mrs. Lehey
Richard Smith
James Welch
Railroad fare for tramps
George F. Potter
Mrs. John Glassett
Same
Horace M. Powers
Mrs. Frost
Mrs. Henry Wells
Mrs Donahoe
Mrs Riley
Wm Walt
Mrs. Abby Smith
Edward Stark
James Bowers
Reardon Family, Northampton
Herbert Bowers
James Connor
John Commons
Nancy Bissell (1880 age 84 in schedule of defective and dependent at the poor farm)
Hanflin Family
Fliny Earle estate for individual who will pay back
J.C. Thorn
Mrs. B. Clark
Keeping tramps
Ann Jarvis, fare to Boston
L. Nims for teams
J.L. Lyons, for R. Riley’s coffin
Same, C. Newton’s coffin
Wm. Brigham (homeless child in Sterling institution)
Geo. Bingham

Societe St. Jean-Baptiste Update

We are working to publish the inventory of the records of the Turners Falls Societe St. Jean-Baptiste which were found in the Rendezvous on Third Street. The goal of the club was to preserve the French language and culture, and to serve as a mutual aid society for members who needed assistance.

We photographed two of the record books to create digital images. The proceedings of the Naturalization Club are viewable here. There are lots of names, but not much other information. They loved their Parliamentary Procedure! The roster for the society from the first membership will be posted as soon as I clean up the images.

Get the (Old) News Firsthand

Shari found this great local resource on Google. Newspapers are such a valuable historic resource. Read the Turners Falls Reporter 1872 - 1922 here.

Cemetery Mystery in Greenfield

They knew right away that this mystery was right up my alley.

Greenfield's DPW found what appeared to be a grave stone while excavating for a new sidewalk on Pond Street. After assuring them there was very little chance that this baby was buried there, or that the stone had washed across the street from Federal St. I sent out a call to my Facebook network. We didn't find Horace Eugene Roberts in Greenfield Deaths, but there were several trees posted on Ancestry.com that had information on this family.

I found a Hart family organization web site and made contact with the owner - Mrs. Roberts was a Hart. Betty Patterson in California was very interested in finding out more. She had information that they were buried in Green River Cemetery, and sure enough, a call to Snow & Sons confirmed that there is a family plot there.

I was able to photograph their grave stones at Green River and post them at Findagrave.com for all to see. This stone was likely a carver's mistake. The stone in the cemetery has a rectangular block on a carved base, with an oblesk top. Horace was the first burial, and the other family members were added, with individual markers for each of them also placed in the plot.

It seems Horace's mother, Mary died a few years later. His father remarried, and is also in this plot, along with Horace's two sisters, Mary Cordelia and Charlotte. Census records find the family in New York City in 1860 and 1870, but the girls were with family in Greenfield after their father remarried. They lived with Frank Thompson, and later their aunt, Susan Nims. Mary was a teacher, and Charlotte attended Wellsley and also taught there.

Local French Findings

Thanks to the Montague Cultural Council, we have received a grant to aid in preservation of the records of the Societe St. Jean Baptiste in Turners Falls!
Shari Strahan will lead the effort to catalog the ledgers and historic material that was found during the renovation of the Rendezvous. We will select some documents to scan and place the digital records at the library for reference. Look for more information to be presented as we begin to dig into the records.

Piecework: When We Were French Celebrates All of our Ancestors

Don't wait to get your tickets to see Abby Paige at the Shea Theater on Sunday, January 30 at 2 pm for a single performance in Massachusetts. Abby's one-woman show personifies a wide variety of characters who personalize the immigrant experience, and what it means to treasure your ethnic heritage.

Listen to WHAI or WIZZ for the chance to win a free pair of tickets! Purchase tickets on-line at www.countryplayers.org or call the Shea at 413.863.2281 ext. 1 to reserve your seats. All tickets are $10.

Ronald and Adrian Meck will provide a musical introduction.

We have collected some historic memorabilia for the lobby, including a historic map of Quebec and census data from 1900 Turners Falls.

Come and share this heart-warming afternoon with us!