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By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | December 26, 2019

In this year, we encounter wasted lumber, book drive suggestions, hiring at Spaulding Fibre Company, a clubwomen’s convention, a camp for sale, the Silver Slipper dance hall, bean advice, a camp counselor, a fire at the Lebanon Academy, West Milton activities, and clubwomen at Fort Devens.

This was also the year in which the tide of war turned against the Axis powers. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) relieved the 872-day siege of Leningrad (in which a million people starved to death). The Allies invaded France (June), while at the same time (June) the U.S.S.R. destroyed its nemesis, the National Socialist (Nazi) German Army Group Centre. The US invaded the Japanese-held Marianas and Palau (June-November), Saipan (June), Peleliu (September), and the Philippines (October). The year closed with a Nazi German counterattack on the western Allies at the Battle of the Bulge (December).

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West Milton farmer Horatio Butters wrote a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe opposing the use of spruce trees rather than balsam trees for Christmas trees.

What People Talk About. Letters from the Editor’s Mail. Wasted Lumber for 1000 Homes. To the Editor – I visited Boston’s market district two days before Christmas and found, to my surprise, massive piles of evergreen trees brought in for the Christmas trade promiscuously thrown into the street just as though no one cared. But the greatest shock came when, upon closer inspection, it developed that a great preponderance of those trees were baby spruce. For many years the balsam fir has been the standard Christmas tree. Why are these young spruce trees being slaughtered? When there is such a demand from our government for more and more timber, why not preserve these baby spruces and let them grow into sawable timber? It is safe to say that the greater part of these trees came from our own New England states, and that the farmer received the prodigious sum of 10 or 15 cents each. Wrapped up in those spruce trees were a potential million feet of timber enough to keep a large woodworking mill busy for three months or enough finished lumber to build approximately 1000 pretty homes. It is a well-known fact that while a few of the early speculators in Christmas trees gouged plenty out of defenseless citizens, many of them lost heavily. Let’s not have our forests denuded by speculators. May I suggest that the six New England Commissioners of Agriculture, especially Commissioners Webster of my own Massachusetts and Felker of New Hampshire, where my farming operations are carried on, contact their Legislatures and have laws enacted to prohibit the cutting of spruce trees until they are ready for the saw. HORATIO BUTTERS. Watertown and Milton, N.H. (Boston Globe, January 17, 1944).

Horatio Butters, a farmer, aged seventy-one years (b. ME), headed a Milton household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. He owned his farm on the Nute Ridge road, which was valued at $2,900.

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Mrs. Myrtle McLellan of Milton Mills had some suggestions to improve book drives for service men.

What People Talk About. Books for Service Men. To the Editor – I have been reading of the discouraging results of the drive to get books for our boys. It seems to me it is too impersonal, this asking for books and the donor knowing not where they are going or who will read them. Why not ask each parent, wife, relative or friend of a service man to give him a book. They know or should know the type of book he likes to read. In the books they select they may write the name and address of the man it is for, and all books will then be left at stated places, as in the past book drive. Books can then be forwarded to the proper addresses. If a man’s name is on the flyleaf I doubt if many “Alice in Wonderlands” are found among the gifts. The books would become the property of the camps to which they are sent, not of the individual. After the war they could be turned over to service hospitals. Why not a campaign to buy books for this purpose? And I feel sure a personal book drive would be a success. To do for one we love sends us out on winged feet. MRS. J.T. McLELLAN, Milton Mills, N.H. (Boston Globe, February 2, 1944).

Myrtle McLellan, aged forty-three years (b. ME), headed a Wrentham, MA, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. Her household included her husband, John T. McLellan, a restaurant manager, aged forty-five years (b. MA), and her son, John T. McLellan, Jr., aged fourteen years (b. MA). Myrtle McLellan rented their house at 243 East Street, for $25 per month. (They had resided in Belmont, MA, in 1935).

John Theodore McLellan of Milton Mills registered for the WW II military draft, August 4, 1943. He was aged eighteen years (born in Belmont, MA, August 4, 1925), and was employed by the South Portland Shipbuilding Company. He was 6′ tall, weighed 170 pounds, with a light complexion, blonde hair, and blue eyes.

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Spaulding Fibre Company sought to hire workers not engaged in essential or locally needed activities at their highest war useful skill level. It expected to continue its activities after the “present emergency.”

EMPLOYEES NEEDED. MEN AND WOMEN. We need additional employees to maintain our production of War and Essential Civilian Products. We have been in business for many years and expect to continue operating after the present emergency is over. SPAULDING FIBRE CO., INC., NORTH ROCHESTER, N.H. Apply at our plants at North Rochester or Milton. (Workers now engaged in essential or locally needed activities at their highest war useful skill will NOT be considered) (Farmington News, March 31, 1944).

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Mrs. Grace C. (Fletcher) Willey, president of the NH Federation of Women’s Clubs, represented New Hampshire at the triennial national convention of the Federation of Women’s Clubs.

N.E. Clubwomen Leave for Parley. A group of New England clubwomen, delegates to the national convention of the Federation of Women’s Clubs, holding its triennial conclave this week at St. Louis, left here yesterday. The transportation chairman, Mrs. William R. Walsh, of Bridgewater, was in charge. Mrs. Herbert F. French of Braintree, president of the Massachusetts State Federation, and General Federation director for Massachusetts, was accompanied by Mrs. Edwin Troland of Malden, dean of directors, and vice president; Mrs. Lewis C. Stevens, of Worcester, vice president; Mrs. Ralph G. Swain, of Brockton, secretary: Miss Vera F. Gould, of Swampscott, director, and Mrs. William A. Robb of Wollaston, senior sponsor; Mrs. J. Herbert Willey, of Milton, N.H., president of the New Hampshire Federation, and a group of delegates and alternates from all sections of the New England area. Miss Marjorie A. Burns of Roslindale. chairman of junior membership, and her staff were on hand to bid bon voyage to Elizabeth Powers of Stoughton and Marion Fillmore of Arlington, winners in the junior scholarship travel contest, who are to be guests at St. Louis (Boston Globe, April 24, 1944).

James H. Willey, a drug store druggist, aged sixty-five years (b. NH), headed a Milton household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Grace F. [(Fletcher)] Willey, aged forty-four years (b. ME), and his children, Herbert F. Willey, aged nineteen years (b. NH), and Frances Willey, aged fourteen years (b. NH). James H. Willey owned their house in the “Milton Community,” which was valued at $2,000. They had all resided in the “same house” in 1935.

(For further details of J. Herbert Willey’s drugstore, see Milton in the News – 1913).

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REAL ESTATE FOR SALE. Houses for Sale. 120. FOR SALE – Camp at Milton, N.H., location on the waterfront. Phone 815. 3t a25 (Portsmouth Herald, April 25, 1944).

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Red’s Music Makers had reopened the Silver Slipper dance hall in Milton in November 1943. Their tenure would seem to have been brief, as Jack Howard is here reported to have opened it for the 1944 season.

JACK HOWARD OPENING SILVER SLIPPER AT MILTON. The dance fans of this vicinity will follow Jack Howard to Milton this Friday night, May 5, when he will open the Silver Slipper ballroom for weekly dances. His famous All Ace band will be the musical feature and it is expected that the hall will be packed. The well known Silver Slipper always has been a popular amusement resort and Jack Howard has the biggest dance following of any amusement promoter over a wide area. These attractions without question will overflow the house on every open date (Farming News, May 5, 1944).

Jack Howard of Farmington, NH, had been a proprietor of the Frolic Haven dance pavilion in its later years, as well as a restaurateur and dance promoter in Farmington, NH, and other locales.

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Horatio Butters here offered his advice on the relative merits of pole beans versus bush beans.

Pole Vs. Bush Beans. To the Editor – A Globe reader inquires about the comparative production of pole and bush beans. As an experienced farmer I submit the following calculation. To acquire the highest production of quality beans, poles for same should be set four feet apart each way., to admit sun and air, thus requiring 16 square feet for each hill of four beans. With plenty to eat and thorough cultivation that hill will produce one quart of dry beans. In the same space you would have 1 1-3 rows three feet long with eight stalks of bush beans, which’ under good treatment will produce one pint of dry beans. In a nutshell, on 16 square feet of land planted to pole beans one would expect one quart of dry beans, but on the same area the bush beans will return one pint of dry beans. On a small lot this difference seems trivial but on a larger space the difference is astounding. For instance, on one acre there would be 2722 hills of pole beans, consequently that number of extra pints, which amounts to 45 bushels of dry beans. The current price of 13 cents per pound shows a gain of $403 of pole beans over the bush variety. The great drawback in planting pole beans is the high price of the poles, which are hard to procure, and the labor required to set them in the ground. HORATIO BUTTERS. Milton, N.H. (Boston Globe, June 17, 1944).

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Miss Werna Ross of New York, NY, took a summer job as a counselor at Camp Colonies in Milton.

CAMP INSTRUCTOR. WARRENSBURG. Miss Werna Ross, who has been spending two weeks with her mother, Mrs. Nina Ross, has left for Camp Colonies, Milton, N.H., where she will be a councillor. Miss Ross has completed her second year in the Brooklyn College. At Camp Colonies she will act as tutor and give swimming instruction (Post Star (Glen Falls, NY), June 30, 1944).

Anne Kirwin, a telephone operator, aged thirty-seven years (b. NY), headed a New York, NY, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. Her household included her children, Clinton Kirwin, aged thirteen years (b. NY), and Anne Kirwin, aged ten years (b. NY). It also included her lodgers, apparently in a separate unit. They were lodger Nina Ross, aged forty-seven years (b. NY), and her lodger’s children, Lionel E. Ross, a NYA student, aged twenty-four years (b. NY), Ryburn Ross, aged nineteen years (b. NY), and Werna Ross, aged eighteen years (b. NY). Anne Kirwin rented their house at 552 Dean Street, for $45 per month.

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The Sanford, ME, Rochester, and Milton, NH, fire departments helped put out a fire near the Lebanon Academy in West Lebanon, ME.

WATER CARRIED TO FIRE. 900 Gallons Trucked 14 Miles to Fight Blaze In Maine. WEST LEBANON, Me. (AP) Nine hundred gallons of water were rushed 14 miles over the road yesterday to help battle a blaze which damaged historic Lebanon Academy. West Lebanon has no fire protection and the water had to be brought from Sanford, Me. Booster pumps came from Rochester and Milton, N.H., as townsfolk fought the fire with water in washtubs and boilers. The amount of the damage was not determined Immediately (Brattleboro Reformer, July 15, 1944).

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Here we find war news of several West Milton residents and the activities of the Nute Ridge Grange.

WEST MILTON. Fred McGregor. Sgt. George Bigelow, U.S.M.C., who is having a furlough after two years service in the various battle areas of the Pacific, has been visiting his uncle, Rev. E.L. Bigelow. Norma Nute, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Nute, will soon qualify as a cadet nurse. Horace Wentworth has been on the sick list and in care of a physician. Norris Anderson was recently inducted into the U.S. Army and assigned to Camp Devens. At the regular meeting of Nute Ridge Grange, Friday, July 28, plans were announced for an open meeting in the near future to be in the form of a “Community Servicemen’s Night.” The highlights of the literary program consisted of an essay, “Agriculture,” by Mrs. Florence Gerrish, and as a thought stimulant for our boys in Normandy, singing of the National Anthem of France (Farmington News, August 4, 1944).

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Mrs. Grace C. (Fletcher) Willey of Milton, and other clubwomen, lived as WACs (Women’s Army Corps) for a day at Fort Devens, in Ayer, MA.

New England Clubwomen Have Day as WACs at Ft. Devens. By RUTH LYONS. Special Dispatch to the Globe. FORT DEVENS. Sept. 9 – They were the adopted children of a WAC detachment at Fort Devens for a day of military life . . . the first group of women from the New England Council of the Federation of Women’s Clubs to be guests of the Army. They stood reveille at 5:30 in the morning, learned how to make a GI bed, ate in the mess hall, inspected barracks, slept in Army bunks, rode in jeeps, changed tires, learned how and when to salute ranking officers . . . all the things that make a good WAC. The group making the tour, in the interests of WAC recruiting, comprised: Mrs. James C. Calmark, Providence, R.I., president of the New England Council; Mrs. Edward Troland of Malden, president of the Massachusetts Federation of Women’s Clubs; Mrs. Wilfred Bodine, Bellows Falls, Vt,; Mrs. J. Herbert Willey, Milton, N.H.; Mrs. Leroy Folsom, Augusta, Me.; Mrs. Charles F. Towne, Providence, R.I., and Mrs. Raymond Andrews, Hamden, Conn. WAC officers accompanied the group, with the Boston Globe reporter, to the fort, where they were greeted by Maj. Anne Cowan, chief of WAC recruiting for the 1st Service Command, and Maj. Elizabeth W. Stearns, WAC director of New England. We were taken to the barracks, assigned to our bunks, given toilet articles and an extra blanket. At the officers’ day room, we were greeted by Col. Howard M. Estes, commanding officer of Fort Devens, who sketched the program of activity. WAC enlisted officers took us to the mess hall for our first meal. At the post chapel, Maj. James Kenealy, a Catholic chaplain, explained the religious activities of the men and women. At the post exchange we enjoyed soft drinks and went to the motor pool where the Army cars are kept. Then followed a tour of the reception center where the overseas boys are processed and back to the mess hall for supper. In the evening we were taken to a movie and to the service club where a variety show was in progress. Eleven o’clock found us in our bunks after a strenuous day as skirted soldiers of the Army. Reveille sounded at 5:30, but no one heard it so five minutes later we were awakened by a WAC sergeant. We were a sad-looking bunch of women that half-slid down the stairs and outdoors for roll call. After breakfast we were taken to Lovell General Hospital and spent the entire morning walking through corridors, through the laboratory, the clinics, X-ray department and then into the wards where Mrs. Troland talked with several Boston boys. Pfc. Orland L. Giannatonio of 56 Dean st., Everett told us about the birthday party that the hospital staff gave him Friday. Then there was Pvt. Murray Ward of 113 Lanark road, Boston, who wore several decorations including the Purple Heart. He was being discharged later in the day. They were all cheerful, glad to be home and alive. Speaking for the visiting club women, Mrs. Calmark remarked that “now we have been WACs for a day . . . and are convinced that there is a great need for more young women in the medical detachment. These boys need our help, and so every possible aid must be given in obtaining WAC recruits to help in this great work.” (Boston Globe, September 10, 1944).

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Previous in sequence: Milton in the News – 1943; next in sequence: Milton in the News – 1945

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References:

Find a Grave. (2013, August 9). Grace Fletcher Willey. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/115184125/grace-willey

Find a Grave. (2015, March 17). Horatio Butters. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/143830999/horatio-butters

Find a Grave. (2016, May 9). Werna A. Ross. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/162410862

By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | December 23, 2019

In this year, we encounter Rev. Maxfield on the road, Red Cross fundraising, a South Milton fire, a camp for sale, camps for rent, a cottage for sale, Rev. Patterson on the road, and the reopening of the Silver Slipper dance hall.

It was in this year that the tide began to turn against National Socialist (Nazi) Germany and the Japanese empire. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R) held and then defeated German forces at the Battle of Kursk (July-August). The western allies defeated Axis forces in North Africa (May), began their strategic bombing of Germany (June), and invaded the Italian Social Republic, first at Sicily (July) and then the Italian mainland (September). In the Pacific, the allies began their assault on Japanese forces in the Gilbert and Marshall islands (November).

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Rev. Leland L. Maxfield was the guest pastor at the Baptist church in Glenville, NY, in March.

GUEST CLERIC FOR BAPTISTS. The Rev. Leland L. Maxfield of Milton, N.H., will supply the Baptist pulpit Sunday at the 11 A.M. worship service. The Rev. Maxfield, who has served five years as pastor of the Baptist Church in Milton, holds a degree of Bachelor of Divinity from Gordon College of Theology and Missions in addition to the regular bachelor’s degree. Sunday school will be conducted at 10 A.M. Sunday with E.E. Griffith, superintendent, in charge. The union service at 7:30 will be in the Methodist Church. Union mid-week prayer service will be conducted at 7:30 P.M. Wednesday in the church. Classes in religious education will be conducted Wednesday afternoon and high school classes Friday afternoon (Post Star (Glenville, NY), March 6, 1943).

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Kennett R. Kendall of Rochester, NH, reported that the local Red Cross chapter, which included Milton, had achieved its fund-raising quota.

Rochester Tops Red Cross Quota. The Rochester Chapter of the American Red Cross, which includes the towns of Strafford, Farmington, New Durham, Middleton, Milton Mills, Milton, N.H., and Lebanon, Me., has met its quota of $18,500 for the 1943 Red Cross War Fund drive, it was announced last night by Kennett R. Kendall, chairman of the drive (Portsmouth Herald, April 1, 1943).

Kennett R. Kendall, an insurance agent, aged thirty years (b. NH), headed a Rochester, NH, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Mary N. Kendall, aged twenty-seven years (b. ME), his son, Kennett Kendall, Jr., aged two years (b. NH), and his housekeeper, Sara Berry, a private family housekeeper, aged twenty-one years (b. NH). Kennett R. Kendall owned their house at 82 Charles Street, which was valued ay $4,000.

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Laura M. McKeagney lost her Milton house to a fire. Her son, George A. McKeagney, a garage proprietor, had become Milton police chief in 1939 (in the aftermath of Milton and the Horne Murder – 1939). He appears to have become a NH State Trooper in the intervening years.

SOUTH MILTON, N.H. (AP). The home of Mrs. Laure McKeagney, mother of State Trooper George A. McKeagney, was destroyed by fire yesterday with damage estimated at $5,000 (Brattleboro Reformer, May 18, 1943).

Laura M. [(Gibson)] McKeagney, a fibreboard mill office clerk, aged fifty years (b. MA), headed a Milton household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. Her household included her children, George A. McKeagney, a garage proprietor, aged thirty-one years (b. MA), Robert B. McKeagney, an N.Y.A. project foreman, aged nineteen years (b. MA), and her brother, Edwin J. Gibson, a she shop shoe repairer, aged sixty-one years (b. MA). Laura M. McKeagney owned their house on the Old Road, which was valued at $4,500.

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REAL ESTATE FOR SALE. Houses for Sale 120. THREE APARTMENT HOUSE, two apartments furnished. Near yard, $4,200. Small camp, all furnished, at Milton, N.H., $1,000. Also 1941 Chevrolet Sedan, $700. Must be sold at once. Apply 26 Otis Ave., Kittery, Maine. Tel. 3657-R, between 6:30 to 7 pm. 3t m20 (Portsmouth Herald, May 20, 1943).

REAL ESTATE FOR RENT. Vacation Places. 113. STEVENS COTTAGES. Northeast pond, Milton. N.H., $14-$21. 12t j1 (Portsmouth Herald, July 8, 1943).

THE REAL ESTATE MARKET. MILTON, N.H. For sale, 7 rm. single cottage house, town water, electricity, near schools, churches, stores, depot and buses: sold on account of sickness, rents for $180 a year: pays 10% on the investment. Call Par. 1205. John S. Genter (Boston Globe, August 22, 1943).

George S. Genter, a restaurant manager, aged sixty-seven years (b. MA), headed a Boston, MA, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Mary E. Genter, aged sixty-five years (b. MA), and his brother, John S. Genter, aged sixty-nine years (b. MA). George S. Genter rented their house at 30 Penfield street, for $40 per month. (John S. Genter was a retired real estate salesman; he died in 1949).

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Rev. Leroy Patterson of the Milton Mills Baptist church is here remembered in his hometown paper as a former high school football and track star.

Sunday Church Services. Undenominational. East Altoona Undenominational, services to be held Sunday, August 22, through Sunday, August 29, at 7:30 p.m. Rev. Leroy Patterson, speaker. Rev. Patterson is a former High school football and track star, later star fullback for Wheaton college. He is pastor of Milton Mills, N.H., Baptist church. The subjects for the week are: Sunday, “Beauty for Ashes.” Monday, “is One Religion as Good as Another ” Tuesday, “The Preacher Who Tried to Run Away From God.” Wednesday, “And After That … The Spokesman in This Age.” Friday, “What Wilt Thou Do at the Swelling of the Jordan?” Sunday, “It’s Later Than You Think.’ (Altoona Tribune (Altoona, PA), August 21, 1943).

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The Silver Slipper dance pavilion reopened in Milton under new management after having been closed for several years.

RED’S MUSIC MAKERS OPEN SILVER SLIPPER AT MILTON. On Thanksgiving night, this Thursday, November 25, Red’s Music Makers will hold a grand opening dance at the Silver Slipper in Milton and will feature their sax team which composes one of the best dance bands in New England. This dance will be followed by a series of Saturday night dates at this well known dance hall. The Silver Slipper formerly was one of the most popular recreation centers in this vicinity and the dance fans will hail with enthusiasm its reopening under the management of Red’s Music Makers. Remember that every Saturday night you have a date at the Silver Slipper (Farmington News, November 26, 1943).

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Previous in sequence: Milton in the News – 1942; next in sequence: Milton in the News – 1944

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References:

Find a Grave. (2015, August 27). Mary Laura Gibson McKeagney. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/151311913

 

By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | December 19, 2019

In this year, we encounter a fire at the Milton Grammar School, the youngest grange master, a job application, the death of a former minister, a blackout vote in Lebanon, ME, a missing Milton girl, cottages for rent and for sale, a delayed death, help wanted at the Milton Hotel, homegrown coffee, a Nute High teacher, and the Nute High headmaster.

In this year the initial Axis run of successes stalled. General Doolittle bombed Tokyo (April). The Allies fought the Japanese empire to a draw at the Battle of the Coral Sea (May), the Japanese lost four carriers at the Battle of Midway (June), and the U.S. invaded Guadalcanal (August). After early successes in southern Russia, a major part of a National Socialist (Nazi) German army group was encircled at Stalingrad (November) (and would be utterly destroyed early in the following year). The Allies occupied French Morocco and Madagascar.

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Save This Newspaper. Uncle Sam needs waste paper – including this newspaper – to make boxes for defense. Call your dealer or the Salvation Army when you have accumulated 100 pounds or more (Portsmouth Herald, January 7, 1942).

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The Milton Grammar school building took fire in the early hours of Tuesday, January 6, 1942.

Late Blaze Causes Costly Damage to Milton School. Damage amounting to several thousand dollars resulted early Tuesday morning from a fire at the grammar school in nearby Milton. A young man named Cleveland, returning to his home from work at the navy yard in Portsmouth discovered the blaze and sounded the fire alarm just at 1 o’clock. Sleepy-eyed residents of the town rushed to the streets thinking it was a blackout. When they discovered the lights did not go out, they realized it was a fire and not an air raid. Chief Charles Wilson said that the blaze started in a supply room in the basement where a quantity of paper towels and janitor’s supplies were stored, and spread to the airshaft and third floor. When Milton firemen arrived there was fire on all three floors the chief stated and it had broken out in the two rooms on the north side of the building. Two lines of hose were hooked onto a hydrant near the school and the blaze was under control in about a half hour despite the fact that the firemen were handicapped by zero weather. There was no damage on the south side of the building which is of brick construction with a wooden roof and contains eight rooms and an office. Chief Wilson said last night it was expected that repairs would be made this week so that it would possible to use the building for school purposes next week. Most of the damage was caused by water, although there was damage to the air shaft and one ceiling will have to be replaced (Portsmouth Herald, [Wednesday,] January 7, 1942).

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Miss Elsie M. Bigelow succeeded her mother, Rev. Marian S. (Turner) Bigelow, as Nute Ridge Grange master. Her parents were joint pastors of the Nute Ridge Chapel.

Youngest Grange Head. WEST MILTON, N.H., Jan. 10 (AP) – The Nute Ridge Grange claims to have the youngest grange master in the nation. She is Elsie May Bigelow, 17, installed last night. A high school senior, she succeeded her mother, the Rev. Marian Bigelow (Fitchburg Sentinel, January 10, 1942).

E. Lincoln Bigelow, aged fifty-two years (b. MA), headed a Milton household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Marian Bigelow, aged forty-one years (b. MA), and his children, John Bigelow, aged twenty years (b. VT), William Bigelow, aged eighteen years (b. VT), Florence Bigelow, aged sixteen years (b. VT), Elsie Bigelow, aged fifteen years (b. VT), and Gerald Bigelow, aged twelve years (b. ME). E. Lincoln Bigelow rented their house on Nute Ridge, which was valued at $1,000.

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The Portsmouth Herald put forward the example of a Milton man’s rapid response to a help wanted ad to demonstrate the efficacy and reach of its advertising.

It Pays – In yesterday afternoon’s Portsmouth Herald was a story that the Board of Street Commissioners were meeting last night to decide on an engineer for the new water project. Within two hours after the delivery of the edition had been completed, the Board of Street Commissioners received a telegram from Engineer Harold M. Bryant of Milton, N.H., applying for the job. “The Portsmouth Herald certainly gets around,” observed Clerk Americo J. Fransoso of the board (Portsmouth Herald, January 24, 1942).

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Rev. Scott Foster Cooley died in Hinesburg, VT. Other sources identify him as having been a Milton Methodist minister in 1912-1913.

Obituary. Rev. Scott F. Cooley. Special to the Free Press. HINESBURG, Jan. 28. Rev. Scott F. Cooley, 53 years of age, died at his home in this village late this evening. He was born in Landaff, N.H., a son of Hiram K. and Julia (Foster) Cooley. In his immediate family Rev. Mr. Cooley is survived by his widow, Mrs. Amelia (Allen) Cooley; one daughter, Mrs. Evelyn Ryan of Burlington; one brother, Earl D. Cooley of Peacham and by four nephews and two nieces. Rev. Mr. Cooley was a graduate of Lisbon high school in 1901, was graduated from Montpelier seminary in 1904, and from Drew Theological seminary at Madrum, N.J. He served in several parishes in the Vermont conference and the Troy conference since 1920. He retired from active work last April. Funeral arrangements are not as yet completed. H.P. Brown Funeral Services of Richmond in charge (Burlington Free Press, January 29, 1942).

Scott S. Cooley, a Methodist minister, aged fifty-six years (b. NH), headed a Hinesburg, VT, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Amelia Cooley, aged fifty-three years (b. VT), and his foster child, William Cooley, aged fourteen years (b. VT). Scott S. Cooley owned their house, which was valued at $4,000.

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The Budget Committee of Lebanon, ME, sought to blackout the entire town for the duration of the war. (See also the NH state-level requirements at the close of 1941).

Permanent Blackout for Lebanon? Will the entire town of Lebanon, Me., which stretches from the Rochester bridge to the Sanford, Me., line and up to North Rochester and Milton, N.H., be permanently blacked out at night for the duration of the war? Article 28 in the warrant for the meeting reads as follows: “To see if the town will vote to discontinue all street and road electric lights for the duration of the war.” Underneath the article the budget committee recommends “Yes.” Article 29 is to see what sum of money, if any, the town will raise for street and electric lights in the town and the recommendation of the budget committee is “None.” Proponents of the “all out” measure argue that with no street lights burning at night town will always be ready for a blackout and at the same time will be saving money. Those who oppose the putting out of the lights contend that it will be an unwise economy and could easily result in accidents, holdups, and similar incidents. Lights can be out quickly enough in the event an alert. Stygian blackness is also bad for the morale of the townspeople they contend. The town warrant also contains two civilian defense measures, one being a proposal to raise money for digging and cleaning out water holes to supply water for use in house fires or grass and wood fires. The other asks for money to purchase additional fire fighting equipment for the fire company and fire wardens. Both articles have been acted upon favorably by the town budget committee. Lebanon is without ample protection and if a bad fire occurs it is necessary to call for help from either East Rochester or Sanford, Me. (Portsmouth Herald, March 10, 1942).

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Three Nute High girls were sent home for skipping classes and they went instead to Boston, MA. Two of them returned home, but the third stayed away for three months.

Boston Police Asked to Find Girl Missing From Milton, N.H. MILTON, N.H., May 7. Police of this town asked aid of Boston authorities tonight in locating a 16-year-old girl, Lena Anderson, missing from her home two days and last reported in the Massachusetts city. Two companions of the girl, Pauline Dupuis, 15, and Charlotte Weare, 16, returned today and said Miss Anderson had remained in Boston (Boston Globe, May 8, 1942).

Wilfred L. Dupuis, a fibreboard mill machine tender, aged thirty-five years (b. NH), headed a Milton household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Gertrude T. Dupuis, aged thirty-five years (b. NH), and his children, Pauline J. Dupuis, aged thirteen years (b. NH), Lorette B. Dupuis, aged twelve years (b. NH), Robert R. Dupuis, aged eleven years (b. NH), Louise T. Dupuis, aged nine years (b. NH), Roland J. Dupuis, aged seven years (b. NH), Norman B. Dupuis, aged five years (b. NH), and Franklin R. Dupuis, aged three years (b. NH). William L. Dupuis rented their house on the Old Road (near Spaulding Ave.), for $9 per month.

Charles E. Weare, a fibreboard mill machinist, aged fifty-one years (b. ME), headed a Milton household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Bertha M. Weare, a fibreboard mill counts clerk, aged fifty years, and his children, Donald E. Weare, a fibreboard mill scaler, aged nineteen years, Charlotte Weare, aged fourteen years, and Ruth E. Weare, aged ten years. Charles E. Weare rented their house on Spaulding Ave., for $10 per month.

Rochester. Missing Milton Girl For Whom Search Made Here, Found. (Correspondent: Basil Blake; 806-J). Lena Anderson, 16, missing since May 5, has been located in Providence, R.I., where she has been working in a defense plant. Search was made for her with two other girls here and in Portsmouth at the time of their disappearance. The Milton girl, for whom a New England-wide search had been instituted, will return home Sunday, according to Patrolman John P. Kimball of the Milton police, who was in charge of the search and who has been working on the case since May.

Leslie W. Anderson, a wood heeler, aged forty-four years (b. MA), headed a Milton household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Hazel M. Anderson, aged forty-two years (b. NH), and his children, Elaine A. Anderson, aged sixteen years (b. NH), and Lena E. Anderson, aged fifteen years (b. NH). Leslie W. Anderson owned their house on Nute Ridge, which was valued at $1,200.

Claim Skipped Classes. On the afternoon of May 5, Lena and two companions, Charlotte Weare, 16, and Pauline Dupuis, 15, were allegedly sent home from the Nute High school and told to tell their parents that they had skipped classes in the morning. Instead they all hitch-hiked to Rochester, according to the other two girls who returned home a few days after their disappearance. Instead of going home the girls went to the Boston and Maine station in Milton and from the funds of the three which had been pooled, bought tickets for Rochester. They were seen in Rochester that night and then hitch-hiked to Boston. Patrolman Kimball and Patrolman Pierce Butler of Milton went to Boston after two of the girls returned home voluntarily and said they left the Anderson girl in Boston. They told how the three girls and three sailors met outside at Boston theater and the Anderson girl, learning the others were going home, said she was going to remain as she was afraid to return. Since then she had not been heard from until yesterday (Portsmouth Herald, August 8, 1942).

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Here are offered for rent vacation cottages on Northeast Pond, and for sale a five-room camp in a pine grove of Tri-Echo Lake.

REAL ESTATE FOR RENT. Shore, Mountain, Lake, Country 112. WRITE OR SEE Stevens’ Cottages, Northeast Pond, Milton, N.H., $15-$25 (Boston Globe, June 24, 1942).

REAL ESTATE MARKET. SUMMER CAMP. WAKEFIELD, N.H. For Sale: Camp, 5 rooms, porch, bath, fireplace, furniture. garage, sandy beach, in pine grove of Tri Echo Lake at Milton, N.H.; price $1500. For further information on camps, farms, or shore lots in vicinity, write PALMER of Wakefield, N.H. (Boston Globe, September 4, 1942).

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Rev. Leland L. Maxfield conducted funeral services for Mrs. Alberta G. (Shorey) Large. Mrs. Elizabeth (Bronson) Maxfield had been driving the Red Cross automobile in which she and Mrs. Large had been injured in July 1939.

Victim Of Train Collision Dies. Rev. Leland L. Maxfield, pastor of the Community church at Milton, conducted funeral services yesterday afternoon at the Edgerly Home for Mrs. Alberta S. Large, 64, of Lebanon, Me., who died Monday. Mrs. Large, who was the wife of Henry Large, had been ill for some time as the result of an accident at the crossing in Milton when the machine in which she was riding was struck by a train. She was a native of Rochester and was the daughter of the late Stephen F. and Catherine (Lynch) Shorey. Burial was in the family lot in Rochester cemetery (Portsmouth Herald, [Thursday,] July 30, 1942).

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Mrs. Anna Shaw sought a woman to work in her Milton Hotel. She advertised her hotel, which was situated on Route 16, between at least the years 1942-45.

HELP WANTED. Woman for general hotel work, one with some knowledge of cooking. Preferably someone to live at hotel. Inquire of Mrs. Anna Shaw, Milton Hotel, Milton, N.H. (Farmington News, September 4, 1942).

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Wilfred J. Poisson sought to augment his coffee ration by growing his own beans.

ODD ITEMS from EVERYWHERE. In Milton, N.H., Wilfred J. Poisson has just harvested his first crop of coffee beans. The yield was small this year, but the new coffee farmer thinks he knows just what to do next year to be sure of producing much more, and feels that he has proved to his doubting neighbors that coffee is not necessarily a tropical crop. (Boston Globe, October 6, 1942).

The Twin State Gas & Electric Company advised customers on coffee-making conservation, under the heading ConserVation, Chief Weapon of the Home Front:

How Best to Use Your Coffee Maker. 1. Be sure to keep it very clean. 2. If you use a cloth filter, rinse it thoroughly with cold water after each using. 3. To clean metal coffee maker, use one tablespoon of baking soda, add water, and proceed as though making coffee (Farmington News, June 5, 1942).

Cloth coffee filters, interesting. The capital “V” in the middle of ConserVation symbolized or signified “Victory.”

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Harvey Perkins is here identified as a faculty member at the Nute High School.

ALTON AND ALTON BAY. Mrs. Harvey Perkins has joined her husband in Milton, where he is a faculty member of Nute high school (Farmington News, December 4, 1942).

Mildred A. [((Trask) Perkins)] Emerson, aged fifty-eight years (b. MA), headed an Alton, NH, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. Her household included her son, S. Harvey Perkins, a building trade carpenter, aged thirty-five years (b. MA), her son’s wife, Hilda A. [(Berg)] Perkins, aged thirty years (b. MA), her grandson, Lloyd A. Perkins, aged seven years (b. NH), her son’s [Lloyd A. Perkins’] wife, Harriet S. [(Seavey)] Perkins, a grade school teacher, aged twenty-six years (b. MA), and her granddaughter, Patricia Mae Perkins, aged ten years (b. NH). Mildred A. Emerson owned their house on the Main Road [from] Alton Bay to Alton, which was valued at $3,000.

Stephen Harvey Perkins, of Alton, NH, registered for the WW II draft in Alton, February 16, 1942. He was thirty-seven years old (b. Marblehead, MA, June 10, 1904), and was employed by the William Colby. His next of kin was Hilda Perkins. He was 5’6″ tall, weighed 130 pounds, and had  a light brown complexion, brown hair and hazel eyes.

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Nute High School headmaster Robert R. Anderson gave a talk on aeronautics at the Kiwanis club in Farmington, NH. (He had been headmaster since at least 1938).

Robert R. Anderson, a public school teacher, aged thirty-one years (b. MA), headed a Milton Mills household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Lalue B. [(Zappa)] Anderson, aged thirty years (b. LA). Robert R. Anderson owned their house on [Milton Mills’] Main Street, which was valued at $1,000.

Robert Rettig Anderson, of Milton Mills, registered for the peacetime draft in Milton, October 10, 1940. He was thirty-two years old (b. Boston, MA, June 11, 1908), and was employed by the Trustees of Nute High School. His next of kin was Lalue B. Anderson. He was 5’8″ tall, weighed 150 pounds, and had  a light complexion, blonde hair and blue eyes.

(Note that at this point, October 1940, the Nute High School was still a private organization, whose officers are responsible to its trustees (rather than a Town board). The headmaster is still the principal “master,” i.e., teacher, rather than solely an administrator).

KIWANIS CLUB SPEAKER THIS WEEK WILL BE ROBERT ANDERSON, MILTON. Headmaster Robert Anderson of Nute high school will be the speaker at the Kiwanis club meeting this Thursday evening. He will talk about “Aeronautics,” a course which is being given in many high school, including Nute. Election of officers will take place at this meeting and it is hoped that all members will be present (Farmington News, December 11, 1942).

By the end of this same month, Robert R. Anderson had been commissioned as a Lieutenant (Junior Grade) in the U.S. Naval Reserve (he had three days service as of January 1, 1943). He was classed as a Deck Officer, who was qualified for specialist duties (Volunteer Reserve (Special Service)). He would eventually become a Lieutenant Commander in the Pacific Theater of Operations.

Robert R. (Lalue B.) Anderson appeared in the Portland (ME) directory of 1949 as an advisor to the Portland VA (Veterans’ Administration), with a house at 3 Longfellow drive (South Portland P.O.). By the time of the Portland directory of 1950, they had removed to Togus, i.e., the Togus Veterans Administration Medical Center at Chelsea, ME.

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Previous in sequence: Milton in the News – 1941; next in sequence: Milton in the News – 1943

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References:

Find a Grave. (2013, August 4). Stephen H. Perkins. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/114911888

Wikipedia. (2019, November 11). Togus, Maine. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Togus,_Maine

By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | December 15, 2019

In this year, we encounter a Wolfeboro carnival queen, a Milton winter carnival, a chain grocery store, a union election, a former Nute Ridge schoolteacher, the Ice Box again, the death of Fred P. Jones, a Milton Mills house fire, a problematic Acton auto registration, and state air raid instructions.

This was also the year in which National Socialist (Nazi) Germany invaded Yugoslavia, Greece, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). The Japanese empire attacked the United States on December 7, 1941. It invaded French Indochina, Thailand, Sarawak, Borneo, Hong King, Malaya, Guam, Wake Island, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies.

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The younger Milton Mills cousin of several matrons of Farmington, NH, was elected carnival queen of the Wolfeboro, NH, winter carnival.

LOCAL. Miss Peggy Fletcher of Milton Mills was unanimously elected the carnival queen at the Abenaki Outing club winter carnival, which was held in Wolfeboro last Saturday night. Miss Fletcher is a cousin of Mrs. Leslie French and Mrs. Granville Tozer of this [Farmington] town (Farmington News, January 31, 1941).

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This description of this Teneriffe Sports Club’s Sixth Annual Winter Carnival permits us to date its first event to 1936. (A description of the Fifth Annual Winter Carnival followed the event in 1940 and a bare notice of the Fourth Annual Winter Carnival appeared in 1939).

SIXTH ANNUAL CARNIVAL AT MILTON. The Teneriffe Sports Club has completed plans for its sixth annual winter carnival, which for two days, Saturday and Sunday, February 8 and 9, will attract carnival sportsters from at least three states. On Saturday morning and afternoon, there will be intra-school sports, while in the evening snowsuits will [be] doffed and replaced with evening dress for the carnival ball. Every section of Milton is represented by a contestant for the honor of carnival queen, and this is not the least in the exciting events of anticipation. On Sunday there will be representative teams from the Associated Outing Clubs, which includes several towns and cities, and swarms of winter sports fans and spectators will fill the town to overflowing. The terrain of Milton is naturally adaptive to carnival purposes, for the slopes range from a very slight incline to an almost perpendicular descent, for the pleasure of skiers, a lake is right in the center of activity, and the whole playground is within easy motoring distance of many localities (Farmington News, February 7, 1941).

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Milton had a First National Store (Finast), i.e., a chain grocery store, as early as September 1934. First National Stores had branches also in Alton, Farmington, Rochester, and Sanbornville, NH.

PERSONAL. Gideon Marcoux was employed at the First National Store in Milton for a few days this week (Farmington News, February 14, 1941).

Gideon T. Marcoux of Farmington, NH, aged twenty-three years (b. NH), worked a few days at the Milton store. (He married Miss Helen M. Gilbert in Somersworth, NH, November 22, 1944).

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Milton Leatherboard Company employees opposed forming a union by a 31 (54.4%) to 25 (45.6%) vote.

Milton, N.H., Workers Against Unionization. MILTON, N.H., June 13. Employees of the Milton Leatherboard Company here do not favor joining a union affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, it became known today when the result of a special election to decide the issue was made public. A Labor Board election held at Town Hall Tuesday showed 31 employees opposed to joining the union and 25 in favor (Boston Globe, June 14, 1941).

At least forty-two leather and fibreboard mill employees – although not their union preferences – may be identified in the census of the prior year: Alta M. Belleman, Louise Belleman, Raymond Belleman, William Belleman, Carl M. Burrows, Edwin Burrows, Edward V. Butler, Martin Davis, Willard R. Davis, Charles L. Dickson, Ernest F. Dickson, William W. Dorr, Roy M. Downs, Fred Eldridge, Everett E. Goodson, Albert A. Gosselin, James J. Ham, Rex W. Harris, Donald A. Hopkins, Raymond F. Horne, Herbert N. Kenney, Roy P. Leavitt, Ludger J. Labrie, Fred J. Lavoie, Leslie S. Libby, Peter J. Lover, Wilbur C. Lover, George C. McIntire, John Pearson, Alfred V. Pippin, Ralph W. Pugh, Earl L. Rand, Lauren V. Ramsey, Jerome J. Regan, Raymond Regan, Clara M. Smith, Elmer O. Stillings, John Sullivan, Charles E. Weare, Ralph J. Williams, Ernest F. Witham, and Samuel Young.

Mary Davis, secretary; Christine Libby, office clerk; Ernest A. Lord, clerk; Harold A. Stillings, clerk; and Earl Wentworth, bookkeeper, worked in the mill’s offices.

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Mrs. Elizabeth Burrows McCorrison is here identified as having been a Nute Ridge school teacher of the late 1860s. (It appears that she would have done so under the name Lizzie Ricker).

WEST MILTON. Mrs. Elizabeth Burrows McCorrison of Union, Me., was a Sunday caller at the home of friends and former neighbors. “Aunt Lizzie,” as she is affectionally known, is in her 92nd year, and with the exception of a bothersome lameness, enjoys the best of health. Until within a short time she has managed her farm, with blueberries a specialty. Her childhood days were spent in the Nute Ridge sector of West Milton, where she attended the Nute Ridge school and later served as teacher (Farmington News, June 27, 1941).

Annie Ripley, a farmer, aged sixty-four years (b. ME), headed an Appleton, ME, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. Her household included her boarder, Lizzie B. McCorrison, a widow [of Addison McCorrison], aged ninety years (b. NH). Annie Ripley owned their farmstead on the Appleton Ridge, which was valued at $1,000. Mrs. McCorrison had finished the eighth grade.

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The Ice Box mentioned in 1939 is here described as being the Ice Box Grill. Other mentions have it associated with a campground along Route 16. Some number of free meals were a benefit for campers, while other customers paid for their meals.

Saxtons River. Miss Ida Hall and Miss Mary Bissell, who have worked at the Ice Box Grill in Milton, N.H., for the past month, are spending a few days at their respective homes before returning to the University of Vermont (Brattleboro Reformer, September 11, 1941).

Valerie Hall, a widow, aged fifty-one years (b. VT), headed a Saxtons River, Rockingham, VT, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. Her household included her children, Ida Hall, aged twenty years (b. VT), Warren Hall, aged eighteen years (b. VT), Evelyn Hall, aged sixteen years (b. VT), and Benjamin Hall, aged twelve years (b. VT), and her boarders, Yvonne Simonds, aged nine years (b. VT), Gloria Simonds, aged eight years (b. VT), Stanley Hill, aged two years (b. VT), and Harold Hill, aged two years (b. VT). Valerie Hall rented their house on Pleasant Street, for $18 per month.

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Here we bid farewell to Fred P. Jones, who among other things had been father to famous theatrical designer, Robert E. Jones. (His wife, Emma J. (Cowell) Jones, had died in Milton, April 13, 1941).

Rochester Locals. Private services were held yesterday afternoon at the home on Plummer’s Ridge in Milton for Fred P. Jones, 82, who died at ancestral home late Monday night. He was born in Milton, the son Charles and Betsy (Varney) Jones and was a lifelong resident of that community. He leaves three sons, Charles, Robert Edmund and Philip Cowell Jones and two daughters, Mrs. Alice M. Varney and Miss Elizabeth Jones. Burial was in the family lot on the Jones property (Portsmouth Herald, [Thursday,] November 13, 1941).

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Harold Johnson lost to fire his historic eight-room house in Milton Mills, known variously as the Daniel Philbrick house or as “Milton Acres.” Milton Mills and Union firemen were hampered in their efforts by the lack of a fire pond from which to pump. They managed to save the barn and the adjoining properties of his neighbors, after laying hose to a more distant brook.

Rochester. Milton Mills Landmark Destroyed by Flames. Correspondent Basil Blake; 806J. Fire yesterday morning destroyed an eight-room house, a long ell and house on the Daniel Philbrick property in Milton Mills. The buildings, one of the old landmarks of the town, were originally owned by Mr. Philbrick, but of late have passed through several hands. The driver of a bakery truck noticed flames coming from two sections of the house as he was passing his route yesterday morning. Members of the household were not home so he notified a neighbor who gave the alarm. The Milton Fire department answered an alarm but when they arrived Chief Charles Wilson discovered that the water hole near the property had gone dry. More than 2,000 feet of hose was laid to pump water from a brook on the property of M.G. Chamberlain, but the flames had made so much headway before discovery that it was impossible to save the house. Firemen concentrated their efforts on the barn and although a corner of that structure was damaged, the barn was saved. The loss was estimated at about $5,000, with some insurance. Homes of Miriam Paschal and Victor Evans were in danger several times, but firemen prevented the spread of the flames to these nearby structures (Portsmouth Herald, December 6, 1941).

To add insult to injury, investigators discovered that Johnson’s surviving automobile had been registered in neighboring Acton, ME, rather than in Milton. In point of fact, Johnson had lived in Acton, ME, in the prior year.

Florence A. Benson, a widow, aged sixty-three years (b. MA), headed an Acton, ME, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. Her household included her lodger, Harold F. Johnson, a hardware salesman, aged forty-three years (b. MA). [And, presumably, his Acton-registered automobile]. Florence A. Benson owned their house on Hubbard’s Ridge, which was valued at $3,600.

Rochester. Basil Blake; Correspondent: 806-J. Fire Investigation Results In Auto Charge. Old Man Jinx still is camping on the trail of Harold Johnson of nearby Milton Mills. Over a week ago the large, eight-room house owned by Mr. Johnson, known as “Milton Acres,” in the town of Milton Mills was destroyed by fire in the absence of Mr. Johnson. Firemen of Milton Mills and Union, handicapped by lack of  water, saved the large barn and its contents. State Police and investigators from the sheriff’s department spent several days investigating the fire but were unable to tell how it started. During this investigation it was found out that Johnson, while living Milton Mills, had registered his car just over the town line in Acton, Me. He was brought to the police station by State Trooper Frank D. Manning and released over the weekend in bail of $25. Arraigned Monday morning before Special Justice Leonard C. Harwick, through his counsel, Atty. Kenneth F. Graft of Manchester, pleaded nolo to a charge of operating an improperly registered car and was fined $10 and costs of $6.40 (Portsmouth Herald, December 16, 1941).

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In the week after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the NH State Council of Defense issued air raid instructions.

ISSUE AIR RAID INSTRUCTION. The following instructions were issued by the State Council of Defense, Tuesday, in the event of an air raid alarm. The principal thing to remember if an air raid should occur is to keep cool. Everyone should stay in their houses, do not crowd in the streets. If you are in the street, walk. Do not run to your home. Do not shout or make any unnecessary commotion. If a blackout should be ordered simply turn out all the lights in your house until proper measures can be taken. It is suggested that all unnecessary light bulbs be taken out now. The New Hampshire Air Raid Precaution is organized and will aid you to protect your home. There will be an opportunity for everyone in the state to attend air raid classes, the first one in Farmington to be held this Friday evening at 7.30 in the town hall. Use your common sense. Keep cool and you will be helping the United States in its war efforts. Beulah Thayer, Vice Chairman (Farmington News, December 12, 1941).

These blackout measures had an element of “security theater” in them, as neither the Japanese nor the Germans possessed any bomber airplanes capable of reaching New Hampshire. (General Doolittle’s 1942 bombing of Japan was an only barely possible one-way trip because it was launched from an aircraft carrier, of which the Germans had none). Nor would any Farmington or Milton lights have been visible to any enemy ship or submarine offshore.

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Previous in sequence: Milton in the News – 1940; next in sequence: Milton in the News – 1942

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References:

Wikipedia. (2019, October 25). Finast. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finast

By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | December 12, 2019

In this year, we encounter the death of a former Nute High principal, a housekeeper situation wanted, the Teneriffe Sports Club’s winter carnival, the Wolfeboro winter carnival, the death of the Milton station agent, the collapse of the Pineland Park pavilion, the Spinney Farm for sale, an Eliot versus Nute baseball game, vacationing principals, Miss Carmichael goes to the World’s Fair, President Roosevelt signed a Federal conscription act, a Mrs. DeMerritt visits Kittery, and a stolen grocery truck.

This was also the year in which National Socialist (Nazi) Germany invaded and occupied Denmark and Norway, invaded and occupied the Netherlands and Belgium, and defeated and partially occupied France, but failed to gain air superiority in the Battle of Britain. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R) occupied Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

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At the beginning of the year, we bid farewell to Arthur Thaddeus Smith, who collapsed suddenly in Boston’s South Station and died en route to Boston City hospital.

Lawyer Expires in Railway Terminal. Winchester, Mass., Jan. 2 (AP). Services for Arthur T. Smith, 64, Boston lawyer and corporation official, who collapsed and died last night, will be at his (235 Mystic Valley Parkway) home Thursday afternoon. Smith, Dartmouth honor graduate and former principal of the Nute High school, Milton, N.H., died in Boston’s south terminal a few minutes after seeing his daughter, Jeanette, off for New York (Boston Globe, January 4, 1940).

Smith had been the Nute High School’s second principal before taking up a law practice in Boston.

IN MEMORIAM. Arthur Thad Smith. While bidding goodbye to his daughter on New Year’s morning, Arthur Thad Smith, prominent Massachusetts barrister, collapsed at the South Station and expired before reaching Boston City hospital. This death reaches deeply the communities of Farmington and Milton and rekindles enduring affections that are shared universally in these quarters where he began an illustrious career before the ink was hardly dry on his college diploma. Mr. Smith was born at Silver City, Idaho, May 1, 1875, the son of Dr. Arthur Noel and Mary Hattie (McCann) Smith. As a lad he came to Dover, where his father engaged in a medical practice for a number of years. The deceased graduated from Dover high school and from Dartmouth college with a degree of A.B. and highest honors in 1896. The same year he was elected principal of Nute high school in Milton, and served that post for five years. He resigned his post as teacher in 1901, having entered Harvard Law school and was graduated in 1904 with a bachelor of laws degree. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar the same year and immediately joined the law firm of Bartlett & Anderson. Soon after he married one of his former high school pupils, Miss Ora S. Dickie. Of this union two children were born, a son, Arthur T. Smith, Jr., who was associated with him in a Boston law practice, and a daughter, Miss Ora Jeanette Smith, now a student in New York City. It was while he was located at Milton that he formed deep attachments with the late Elmer F. Thayer, prominent New Hampshire shoe manufacturer and financier, who later settled both manufacturing and residential interests in Farmington. Mr. Smith became treasurer and director of the Thayer-Osborne Shoe Cp., continuing this capacity and extending his connections to the Farmington National bank. Mr. Smith renewed associations with this locality not infrequently and always with the warm-hearted fellowship which his affections embraced (Farmington News, January 5, 1940).

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Mrs. Margaret O. (Newell) Corbett sought again a housekeeper position as she had in 1934.

Situations Wanted – Female. 36. MIDDLE AGED WOMAN desires house-keeper position. References furnished. Mrs. Margaret Corbett, Box 53, Milton, N.H. 3t j11 (Portsmouth Herald, January 11, 1940).

Charles O. Stillings, a fibreboard mill oiler, aged sixty-seven years (b. NH), headed a Milton household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Susie [(Newell)] Stillings, aged sixty-four years (b. Nova Scotia), his children, Harold A. Stillings, a fiberboard mill sample clerk, aged twenty-seven years (b. NH), and Elmer E. Stillings, a machine tender, aged twenty-seven years (b. NH), and his sister-in-law, Margaret O. Corbett, a private home house maid, aged fifty-seven years (b. Canada). Charles O. Stillings rented their house, for $13 per month.

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Milton’s Teneriffe Sports Club held a winter carnival in late January 1940. (Likely they sponsored also the winter carnival of the prior year).

Wilbur Lover Is Ski Star at Milton, N.H., Carnival. MILTON, N.H., Jan. 28. Wilbur Lover, with victories in the downhill and slalom races, was the individual star in the final day’s events of the annual Winter carnival of the Teneriffe Sports Club today. Miss Myrtle Durkee was elected Queen of the carnival last night and presided over all festivities today. The summary: Downhill Ski Race Won by Wilbur Lover, Teneriffe Sports Club; second, Ed Senechal, Pow-Wow Club, Amesbury, Mass. Time. 59.6s. Slalom Race Won by Lover; second, Elmer Skillings, Teneriffe Club; third, William Warneke, Teneriffe Club. Time, 1m. 4s. Ski Jump Won by Guy Smith; second, Everett MacIntyre; third, Wilbur Lover. Distance. 68ft. 9in. (Boston Globe, January 29, 1940).

Peter J. Lover, a leather-board mill machine tender, aged fifty-two years (b. NH), headed a Milton household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Alice M. [(Downs)] Lover, aged fifty-one years (b. NH), his son, Wilbur C. Lover, a leather-board mill finisher, aged twenty-five years (b. NH), and his boarder, Marion Atwood, a public school teacher, aged thirty years (b. NH). Peter J. Lover owned their house on Church Street, which was valued at $1,150.

Porter J. Durkee, a grocery store storekeeper, aged thirty-nine years (b. MA), headed a Milton household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife Estella [(Swinerton)] Durkee, a grocery store clerk, aged thirty-four years (b. NH), and his children, Myrtle T. Durkee, aged sixteen years (b. MA), and Edward A. Durkee, aged eleven years (b. NH). Porter J. Durkee rented their house in the Milton “Community,” i.e., Milton Three Ponds, for $15 per month.

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Milton schoolboy skiers Leeman and Leavitt placed first and second in the Wolfeboro Winter Carnival slalom race. Leavitt came second in the downhill race. (Their first names were not given).

Rochester, N.H., Ski Club Takes Wolfeboro Team Prize. WOLFEBCRO, N.H., Feb. 4. – Handicapped by adverse snow conditions. the Wolfeboro Winter Carnival skiing events were held today, with a large group of spectators in attendance. In the hockey game last night, the Sacred Hearts of Concord administered a crushing defeat to the Abernaki Indians of Wolfeboro, winning by a 17-to-6 score. The summary: Team prize won by Greenwich State Outing Club (Rochester), combined time 11m. 29 2-10s.; second, Abernaki Outing Club (Wolfeboro). 11m. 40 4-10s. Downhill Race Won by Pouliot (Greenwich). 1m. 15s.; second, L. Couture (Greenwich), 1m. 17s. Slalom Race Won by R. Marden (Abernaki), 43s.; second, L. McHugh, 46 2-10s. Open Downhill Won by N. Davis (Abernaki). 23 6-10s.; second, L. McHugh. 25s. Junior races, children under high school age, slalom for boys, won by Leeman (Milton, N.H.), 1m. 6 5-10s; second, Leavitt (Milton, N.H.) lm. 19 3-10s. Downhill Won by B. McHugh (Wolfeboro), 33 1-10s,; second, Leavitt (Milton, N.H.). 33 3-10s (February 5, 1940).

It would seem, by a process of elimination, that the Milton junior race champions were George H. Leeman, aged fifteen years, and Roland R. Leavitt, aged fourteen years.

Edgar J. Wyatt, no occupation listed, aged sixty-seven years (b. NH), headed a Milton household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Hattie E. [((Hayes) Dewolfe)] Wyatt, aged seventy-one years (b. NH), his son, Luther A. Wyatt, a sample room clerk at a leather-board mill, aged twenty-nine years (b. NH), his step-daughter, Helen M. [(DeWolfe)] Leeman, aged forty-nine years (b. NH), and his grandson, George H. Leeman, aged fifteen years (b. NH). Edgar J. Wyatt owned their house on Old Road, which was valued at $1,500.

Roy P. Leavitt, a leather-board mill operator, aged forty-eight years (b. NH), headed a Milton household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Bertha E. [(Baker)] Leavitt, aged forty-seven years (b. NH), his children Pauline B.W. Leavitt, a shoe shop operator, aged twenty-six years (b. NH), and Roland R. Leavitt, aged fourteen years (b. NH), his grandchild, Daniel H. Whitehouse, aged two years (b. NH), and his lodger, Raymond Cleveland, a repair shop welder, aged nineteen years (b. NH). Roy P. Leavitt owned their house on Remick Street (near its intersection with Church Street), which was valued at $1,000.

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Here we bid farewell to Milton’s long-term B&M railroad station agent Hugh A. Beaton. He dropped dead while working at the Milton train station.

H.A. Beaton appeared in the Milton directory of 1905 as Milton’s American Express Co. agent.

IN MEMORAM. Hugh A. Beaton. Announcement of the sudden death of Station Agent Hugh A. Beaton at Milton on February 12 brings sorrow to many friends and acquaintances in this locality. Mr. Beaton dropped dead while he was about his duties in the B&M railroad yard at Milton, Monday afternoon. The deceased was 67 years of age and had been in the employ of the B&M for about 45 years. For nearly 40 years he had held the position of station agent, freight agent and telegraph agent, and was widely known among his townsmen and to the traveling public. He is survived by his wife, two daughters, a brother Charles Beaton, also a railroad man of Portsmouth, and one sister, for all of whom much sympathy is expressed. Funeral was held Wednesday morning at the Baptist church in Milton, with services in charge of Fraternal Chapter, No. 71, A.F.&A.M., of which he was a member (Farmington News, February 16, 1940).

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Milton had a popular dance pavilion at Pineland Park, at Milton Three Ponds, which was active from about 1924 through at least 1937. (See Milton and Frolic Haven – 1925-37).

Here we learn that the pavilion’s structure was damaged by the heavy gale winds of Saturday and Sunday, April 6-7. The pavilion collapsed on Sunday afternoon, April 7, 1940.

LOCAL. While no local reports of damage to property have come in since the gales of Saturday and Sunday, there was a total collapse of Pineland Park Pavilion at Milton Three Ponds on Sunday afternoon. For a number of years this has been among the chief summer amusement resorts of this region and its destruction inflicts a heavy property loss on its owner, Albert Green of East Rochester (Farmington News, [Friday,] April 12, 1940).

Grace L. Mills, a widow, aged sixty-four years (b. NH), headed a Rochester, NH, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. Her household included her lodgers, Albert L. Green, second hand in the weaving room of a woolen mill, aged fifty-four years (b. MA) and [his second wife,] Lena M. [(Companion)] Green, a weaver at a woolen mill, aged forty-six years (b. NH). Grace L. Mills owned their house at 2 Green Street, which was valued at $2,000.

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The Spinney Farm on Milton Mills road, i.e., Applebee Road, in Milton Mills, went on the market.

Summer Cottages & Houses. FOR RENT FOR SEASON – Furnished 8-rm, old colonial, beautiful setting, modern, bathing, fishing, near White Mountains. Spinney farm, Milton Mills rd., Milton Mills, N.H. May be seen the week-end or call Bel. 3569, Thursday. 2t my 30 (Boston Globe, May 30, 1940).

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Eliot (ME) High school won a baseball game against Milton’s Nute High school in the last two innings of the game.

Eliot High Pins Defeat On Nute At Milton, 3-0. Milton, N.H., June 5 – Eliot, Me., high tallied three runs in the last two innings here yesterday to win over Nute High 3 to 0. The locals were held to two hits by Lapointe in the seven-inning affair.

Eliot 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 – 3; Nute 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 0

Runs – Bourgiois, Spencer, Lapointe. Errors – Bourgiois, Richardson, Lord, Davis, Craig. Two-base hits – Bourgiois. Three-base hits – Morin. Stolen bases — Bourgiois, Morin, Spencer. Sacrifices – Dyer, Lapointe. Double plays — Bourgiois, to Spencer to Sylvester. Left on bases – Eliot 4, Nute 3. Base on balls – off Warneke. Struck out, by Warneke 9. Lapointe 13. Hit by pitcher – by Warneke, (Spencer). Umpire – O’Brien. Time of game -1:45 (Portsmouth Herald, June 5, 1940).

The Nute High School team would appear to have been third baseman James L. Ramsey (aged 16 years), shortstop Kenneth R. Stowe (aged seventeen years), pitcher Donald S. Warneke (aged sixteen years), left-fielder Phillip E. Lord (aged seventeen years), center-fielder Frederick W. Comfort (aged fifteen years), right-fielder Fred E. Clough (aged fifteen years), catcher Charles H. Logan (aged seventeen), and second baseman Charles F. Husser (aged eighteen years). First baseman Craig remains somewhat elusive; he might have been an out-of-town tuition student.

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Two Cambridge, MA, grammar school principals, daughters of Patrick and Julia (Coleman) O’Keefe, were vacationing at their Milton summer home.

CAMBRIDGE. The Misses Ellen and Elizabeth O’Keefe, Rindge av., North Cambridge, principals of the Wyman and Abraham Lincoln Grammar Schools, respectively, are vacationing at their Summer home at Milton, N.H. (Boston Globe, June 29, 1940).

Mary O’Keefe. a public school matron, aged sixty-four years (b. MA), headed a Cambridge, MA, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. Her household included her sisters, Elizabeth J. O’Keefe, a public school principal, aged sixty-three years (b. MA), and Ellen T. O’Keefe, a public school acting principal, aged sixty years (b. MA). Mary E. O’Keefe owned their house at 184 Rindge Avenue, which was valued at $4,500. They had all resided in the “same house” in April 1935.

Principal Elizabeth J. O’Keefe had attended four years of college, while her sister, acting principal Ellen T. O’Keefe, had attended two years of college, and her other sister, matron Mary E. O’Keefe, had attended two years of high school.

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Margaret Carmichael of Foxcroft, Milton Mills, accompanied Mary E. Clapp of Brattleboro, VT, to the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

Just prior to taking up residence at Foxcroft, Margaret Carmichael, a private nursing school teacher, aged twenty-six years (b. ME), had shared an apartment with Martha Martin, a public school school nurse, aged twenty-eight years (b. VT), in Wolfeboro, NH, at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. Their apartment on Waumbeck Street cost them $25 per month.

Personal. Miss Mary Elizabeth Clapp and guest, Miss Margaret Carmichael of Foxcroft, Milton Mills, N.H., have gone to New York on business. They also will attend the World’s Fair (Brattleboro Reformer (Brattleboro, VT), July 18, 1940).

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President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the first-ever peacetime conscription act, September 16, 1940. All men aged 21 to 45 years of age were required to register for the draft. Draft boards established themselves in October and some registrants were being called up as early as November 1940.

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Mrs. Carrie S. (Tobey) DeMerritt, wife of Delphin G. DeMerritt, and her children here visited with her sister-in-law in Kittery, ME.

Kittery Point. Mrs. Delwin DeMerritt and children of Milton, N.H., are visiting her sister, Mrs. Schyler Tobey of Haley road (Portsmouth Herald, September 30, 1940).

She was a daughter-in-law to Mrs. Musetta A. (Dorr) DeMerritt, who one may remember and admire for her gift to ailing patients in 1918,

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Jack Howard of Farmington, NH, who formerly managed Frolic Haven at the Pineland Park pavilion, in Milton Three Ponds, as late as 1937, commenced a winter dance series at Central Hall in Milton Mills.

DANCE AT MILTON MILLS. Jack Howard will have a grand opening dance at Central hall, Milton Mills, on Saturday evening, October 1. Music will be furnished by the Four Aces. For those who love to sway to romantic tunes or jump to jitterbug music, this should be as ideal way to spend the holiday evening. Columbus would have liked it no doubt (Farmington News, October 4, 1940).

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Some culprit stole a delivery truck from the Furber & Sons grocery store in Farmington, NH. The grocery store partners were Leon F. Furber and his two sons, Otto J. Furber and Myron F. Furber.

Leon F. Furber, a grocery store owner, aged fifty-five years (b. NH), headed a Farmington, NH, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Flora [A. (Jones)] Furber, a packer, aged fifty-three years (b. NH), and his boarder, Clyde Nutter, a public school student, aged twelve years (b. NH). Leon F. Furber owned their house on Mechanic Street, which was valued at $2,000.

The truck thief jammed it between two trees on the West Milton road, i.e., on Milton Road in Farmington, or its continuation as Park Place in Milton.

DELIVERY TRUCK STOLEN. A delivery truck used in the business of Furber and Sons was stolen last Saturday night and was found wedged between two trees on the West Milton road. As yet, it has not been determined who is directly responsible for the theft but it is still being investigated and it is hoped that the culprit or culprits will soon be brought to justice, for the business has been somewhat handicapped this week by the loss (Farmington News, November 15, 1940).

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Previous in sequence: Milton in the News – 1939; next in sequence: Milton in the News – 1941

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References:

Find a Grave. (2013, July 25). Hugh A. Beaton. Retrieved from www.findagrave.com/memorial/114383726

Wikipedia. (2019, November 10). Jitterbug. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jitterbug

Wikipedia. (2019, December 8. 1939 New York World’s Fair. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_New_York_World%27s_Fair

Wikipedia. (2019). Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_Training_and_Service_Act_of_1940

By Muriel Bristol (Transcriber) | December 8, 2019

In this year, we encounter volunteer woodsmen, a police investigation, a winter carnival, a cottage for rent, an auto stalled on the tracks, a possible ice cream venue, mice in the radiator, a two-family house for sale, a fatal fire, a coed colonel, a Milton Mills lodge for ski travelers, and Christmas bonuses.

This was the year of the Horne murder, in which John H. Howland murdered Milton-native Maude F. Horne, on Friday, February 3, 1939.

This was also the year in which the Second World War began, when National Socialist (Nazi) Germany invaded Poland, on September 1, 1939. (Let us not forget the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.), which invaded Poland from the other side, and murdered 22,000 Polish officer prisoners and civilians in or near the Katyn forest).

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Eighteen men and four horses gathered at the Nute Chapel woodlot in West Milton to clear away wind-blown timber. It might have been freshly damaged timber, but more likely it had been brought down in September by the Hurricane of ’38.

ODD ITEMS from EVERYWHERE. Eighteen men recently gathered at the parsonage woodlot of Nute Chapel, West Milton, N.H., and worked with four horses to salvage the blown-down timber, while the women of the community did their part in the kitchen, preparing winner for the toilers (Boston Globe, January 11, 1939).

HERE and THERE. Eighteen men gathered a short time ago at the parsonage woodlot of Nute Chapel at West Milton and worked with four horses to salvage the blown-down timber, while the women of the community did their part in the kitchen, preparing a dinner for the workers (Portsmouth Herald, January 11, 1939).

One wonders what the dinner might have been. Something both wholesome and toothsome, no doubt.

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Here follows some additional details regarding John H. Howland’s February murder of Miss Maude F. Horne (beyond those set out already in Milton and the Horne Murder – 1939).

Milton’s then Police Chief Downs had appointed the felon Howland as a special or reserve police officer during the Hurricane of ’38. The Chief had supplied him at that time with a coat and a heavy flashlight. The same flashlight is discussed here as possibly having been the murder weapon. George McKeagney replaced Chief Downs at the March election.

Seek to Question Pal. MILTON, N.H., Feb. 6. After questioning scores of townspeople in the new Nute High School at Milton, N.H., during the day, Strafford County Solicitor John F. Beamis announced tonight that an appeal would be broadcast for information on Edwin (Buddy) Howard, pal of John N. Howland, missing suspect in the case, who assisted the suspect in writing several pieces of music. Beamis appealed to Howard to come forward and submit voluntarily to questioning. The solicitor said that the state officials were seeking additional information about Howland. Beamis also said that the state officers now have corroborative testimony that Howland and his 15-year-old girl friend were seen near the home of the murdered woman, at about the time the murder occurred. Last Saturday, a neighbor, Mrs. Charlotte Garyait, placed the young man and girl in Miss Horne’s home at the approximate time of the crime. The latest evidence, Beamis said, places the pair on the Farmington road [now Elm Street], a few hundred feet away from the Horne residence. He would not reveal the identity of his informants.

Kept Little Cash in House. To assure full cooperation from the 1200 farmers and mill workers who live in Milton, Atty. Gen. Thomas P. Cheney issued a circular today which was distributed to every home, calling upon anybody with information to get in touch with investigating officials. The townspeople were also asked if they had any recent conversations with any of the three. That the murderer obtained less than $35 from Miss Horne’s purses was ventured by Beamis. He said that the murdered woman was not in the habit of having much money in the house despite the fact that her uncle, who died four months ago, left her $3322 in cash as part of his estate. The uncle’s estate was valued at more than $10,000. Mrs. Ina Shaw of West Lebanon, Me., a former resident of East Rochester, told the authorities that she called on Miss Horne Friday and she was in good spirits. She said she showed her around the house and even went to the garage where the car, which is now missing, was located. The mother of Howland, Mrs. Rose Abrams of Reading, Mass., who has been residing in a one-story house on Main st., went to Boston last Wednesday, Beamis stated. She did not know where her son was while in the city. She returned here after the crime. Howland is a parolee from an Ohio prison to which he had been sentenced from one to 20 years for the larceny of an automobile. He served as a special police officer in Milton, during the weeks immediately after the hurricane last September, Chief Downs asserted. At that time he borrowed one of the Chief’s police coats and also five-call flashlight, neither of which were ever returned. The medical examiner has been asked to report whether or not a heavy flashlight could have caused the wound to the murdered woman’s head (Boston Globe, February 7, 1939).

John W. Shaw, a private shop barber, aged seventy-three years (b. England), headed a Lebanon, ME, household at the time o the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Ina M. [(Blaisdell)] Shaw, aged sixty-three years (b. ME). John M. Shaw rented their West Lebanon house, for $5 per month. (They had lived in Rochester, NH, as late as April 1, 1935).

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Milton held a winter carnival Friday and Saturday, February 11-12.

Week-End Events. SATURDAY AND SUNDAY. Milton, N.H. – Carnival (Boston Globe, [Friday,] February 10, 1939).

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The Portsmouth owner of a Milton beach-front cottage offered it for rent. It had several attractive amenities.

FOR RENT. FOR RENT – Furnished cottage Milton, N.H. Fireplace, sleeping porch, conveniences. Sandy beach with boat. Tel. Ports. 2732-14. 3t J5 (Portsmouth Herald, June 6, 1939).

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An automobile driven by Mrs. Elizabeth (Bronson) Maxfield, wife (since July 1938) of Rev. Leland Maxfield, stalled on the railroad tracks, at Porter’s crossing in Milton. She and one of her two passengers were seriously injured when the automobile was struck by a northbound train.

Two Women Hurt as Train Hits Car at Milton, N.H. MILTON, N.H., July 8 (A. P.) – Two women were injured critically and a man escaped with cuts and bruises today when a Boston to North Conway railroad train struck an automobile stalled across the tracks a mile beyond Milton. The injured were listed as Mrs. Elizabeth Maxfield of Milton, driving a car owned by the Milton Red Cross Chapter, and two passengers, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Large of Lebanon, N.H. Names of the two women were placed on the danger list at Rochester Hospital. Doctors said Mrs. Maxfield had several broken ribs and internal injuries and Mrs. Large suffered a fractured leg and probable internal injuries (Boston Globe, July 8, 1939).

Mrs. Large never fully recovered from her injuries. She died three years later in July 1942.

Harry D. Large, no occupation given, aged sixty-six years (b. NH), headed a Lebanon, ME, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife [of thirty-six years], Alberta G. [(Shorey)] Large, aged sixty-four years (b. NH). Harry D. Large owned their house, which was valued at $1,500. They were said to have lived in the “same house” in 1935. (They had resided in Malden, MA, in 1930).

Prior to this accident, trains struck motorcars at Milton level crossings in June 1917, August 1920, and December 1927.

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Miss Meredith E. Corkins, aged about twenty-six years, put aside her apron at her brother’s Green Shutters ice cream parlor in Wilmington, VT, in order to put on another at The Ice Box in Milton, NH.

Wilmington. Miss Meredith Corkins, who has been assisting at the Green Shutters for several weeks, has left for Milton, N.H., where she will be employed for two or three weeks at The Ice Box (Brattleboro Reformer, September 9, 1939).

When it opened in May 1935, the Green Shutters was described in the Bennington, VT, newspaper. The paper provided few details of the parlor’s menu, but its description of the color scheme was quite complete.

WILMINGTON. The “Green Shutters” opened last Saturday under the management of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Corkins. The outside has been newly painted white with green shutters. The interior is attractive in red and cream. A modern soda fountain has been installed with novel lighting effects. The booths are finished in mahogany. The waitresses, Louise Ray and Lilla Shultz, are dressed in green and white (Bennington Banner, May 10, 1935).

Milton’s “The Ice Box” ice cream parlor has proven somewhat elusive, assuming it existed in Milton at all. Editors, reporters and typesetters sometimes mistook Milton for Wilton. In looking for it, one finds that the newspapers were overflowing with offers to take one’s old ice box in partial trade for a new electric one, and overflowing too with many, many recipes for ice box cakes and cookies. Both of which made searching for “Ice Box” like looking for a needle in a haystack.

One remembers Charles L. Morrison, the Boston & Maine Railroad gate tender mentioned in 1929 as having a large appetite for ice cream.

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Mice fled the radiator of a wood-sawing machine when it was filled with water. It might have been their mousey descendants that built a nest in the air duct of my automobile.

Probably it was the same instinct which causes rats to leave a sinking ship that made mice leave the radiator of a wood-sawing machine at Milton, N.H., when the owner began to pour in water preparatory to starting operations. The mice had built a nest inside the radiator and it blocked passages in the cooling system so that nearly a full day was required to make repairs on the system. That’s something for Ripley to work on (Burlington Free Press, October 6, 1939).

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Here we find advertised an offer of a seller-financed mortgage. The owner wanted 25% down, and would apparently negotiate payment terms for the other 75%. (Other sellers on the same page offered to finance fifteen or twenty-year mortgages).

THE REAL ESTATE MARKET. BARGAIN! – $1500 buys my Milton, N.H., 2-family; fully rented, $26 monthly; cost $6000. OWNER, P 414. Globe (Boston Globe, October 25, 1939).

The $6,000 price would have today the spending power of $109,757. Few would consider that to be much spending power when buying current two-family houses.

One might almost suppose that government guarantees of mortgages, like its guarantees of student loans, and guarantees of other things, actually causes a greater rate of inflation in those “guaranteed” markets.

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David Knight Pinkham, also known as David Knight, died when the “one-room board camp” in which he was sleeping “burned to the ground.”

NEW HAMPSHIRE MAN DIES IN FIRE AT CAMP. MILTON, N.H., Nov. 20 (AP). David Knight, 52, perished in a fire which during the night destroyed a woods camp on Jones river, five miles from Milton. Medical Referee Forrest L. Keay reported death was accidental. Knight formerly lived at South Berwick, Me., and at Dover and had served in the navy (Rutland Herald, November 21, 1939).

His Milton death record explained that “His charred remains [were] found in camp of Bard B. Plummer near Jones River at northeastern part of Teneriffe Mt., Milton, N.H.” The camp was described also as a “wood chopper’s camp.” The unfortunate Mr. Knight was buried on the Milton Town Farm.

Identify Victim of Milton Fire. Milton, Nov. 24 – The body of a man tentatively identified as that of David “Knight,” aged about 53, discovered as the victim of death by burning Sunday evening, Nov. 19, at a lumberman’s camp on the northeast side of Teneriffe Mountain in this town, has been identified as that of David Pinkham, Both names belong to the same man. From investigation by Deputy Sheriff Lyman Plummer, whose father owns the land on which camp is located, it was learned that the name “Knight” was that of man’s step-father, Fred Knight. He has a daughter by the name Beatrice J. Pinkham, born May 1922, in Dover, but her whereabouts is unknown. Unable to locate any relatives, Deputy Plummer and Chief of Police George McKeagney of Milton buried the remains in the town cemetery here (Portsmouth Herald, November 24, 1939).

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Ruth Phyllis “Phyllis” Iovine of Milton, a Boston University student in the Class of 1940, was a leading candidate for coed colonel of the annual B.U. military ball.

B.U. Co-Ed Colonel Candidates. Phyllis Iovine, Milton, N.H., at left, and Georgianna Harris, Carlisle, Penn., are leading candidates for coed colonel at the annual Boston University Military Ball, Friday night, in the main ballroom of the Hotel Statler. The affair is sponsored by the university chapter of Scabbard and Blade (Boston Globe, December 14, 1939).

Ruth Phyllis Iovine, of Milton, NH, a schoolteacher, married in St. Thomas (Episcopal) Church in Dover, NH, October 27, 1946, Robert Samuel Boak, Jr., of Portsmouth, NH, a radio announcer.

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Boston doctor and pharmacist Fred M. Drake opened a vacation lodge at Milton Mills.

Fred M. Drake appeared in Boston directory of 1939, as running a retail drug store at 54 Fairmount av. in the Hyde Park district of Boston, MA. He and his wife, Marjorie F. [(Folger)] Drake, resided in the Squantum district of Quincy, MA.

WINTER SPORTS. Dr. Fred M. Drake, formerly of Hyde Park, has opened a vacation lodge at Milton Mills, N.H., and is recommending it as a stop-over for snow parties en route further north. It’s 100 miles from Boston, north of Rochester off Route 16 (Boston Globe, December 15, 1939).

Dr. and Mrs. Drake do not appear in the Boston directory of 1940, nor in the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. One supposes they were in Milton Mills. However, Fred M. Drake appeared in the Boston directory of 1941, as an osteopathic physician, at 15 Fairmount av. in the Hyde Park district of Boston, MA. He and his wife, Marjorie F. Drake, resided at 475 Washington street in Dedham, MA.

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The Spaulding Fibre company, having considered its financial situation, chose to give out Christmas bonuses to its employees ten days before Christmas.

The $2.50 rate it gifted to someone having worked in any month would have today the spending power of about $45.75. (The six-month bonus would have the modern spending value of $274.50, and the full-year bonus would be worth $549.00). Ho, ho, ho.

Rochester, N.H., Dec. 15 (AP) Employes of the five mills of the Spaulding Fibre company, owned and operated by the former New Hampshire governors, Huntley N. and Rolland H. Spaulding, received Christmas bonuses today. All employes of record last December, who worked part of each month in 1939, received $30; those who worked in six months received $15, and others received $2.50 for each month. The mills are in Townsend Harbor, Mass., Rochester, North Rochester and Milton, N.H. (Bennington Evening Banner (Bennington, VT), December 15, 1939).

Rolland Spaulding, a fibre manufacturer, aged sixty-seven years (b. MA), headed a Rochester, NH, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Vera G. [(Going)] Spaulding, aged fifty-seven years (b. MA), his children, Virginia Spaulding, aged nineteen years (b. MA), and Betty Spaulding, aged seventeen years (b. MA), and his servants, Alice Beckingham, a private family maid, aged thirty-one years (b. NH), and Eleanor Higgins, a private family cook, aged thirty-eight years (b. NH). Rolland Spaulding owned their house at 76 Wakefield Street, which was valued at $45,000.

Huntley Spaulding, a fibre manufacturer, aged seventy years (b. MA), headed a Rochester, NH, household at the time of the Sixteenth (1940) Federal Census. His household included his wife, Harriet [(Mason)] Spaulding, aged sixty-three years (b. MA), his servants, Ina [(Brown)] Wood, a private family cook, aged thirty-eight years (b. NH), and Wendell Wood, a private family chauffeur, aged forty-five years (b. MA). Rolland Spaulding owned their house at 78 Wakefield Street, which was valued at $35,000. (Joshua Studley, a greenhouse proprietor, aged forty-two years (b. MA), resided at 82 Wakefield Street).

Those interested in orthography may note that the news article used still the original French spelling of employé or employe, with a single trailing “e.” Also that the company name features the British spelling “Fibre,” rather than the more American “Fiber.”

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Previous in sequence: Milton in the News – 1938; next in sequence: Milton in the News – 1940

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References:

Wikipedia. (2019, December 1). Hyde Park, Boston. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Park,_Boston

Wikipedia. (2019, December 7). Katyn Massacre. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre

Wikipedia. (2019, November 2). Orthography. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthography

Wikipedia. (2019, December 2). Robert Ripley. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ripley