Friends of the Library - Alright, we're going to go ahead and get started now. I want to welcome all of you this evening. This is the Friends of the Library's annual meeting, and we had this meeting a little bit earlier.

And I just want to take this opportunity to say that the Friends of the Library provides quite a few of the programs, most of the programs, that you see at the library. So if you're not a member of the Friends, we invite you to join us. We have one of the largest Friends organizations in Massachusetts.

And we think that says a great deal about Charles Spurgeon and what matters. And so if you are not a member, please take a minute, think about it. It's not a great deal of money to not join.

And consider becoming a member. Or consider helping us with our book sale. But having members is equally important.

So we just want to invite you to do that. We're really pleased that for this meeting this evening, Becky Warren is going to give a presentation about history. And Kathy is going to come up and she's going to introduce herself.

Thank you all for coming. Thank you, Kathy.

Kathy Cryan-Hicks - I'm just going to take advantage of having you all here to tell you about something in the future that you need to know about.

Tonight's program has inspired a series. Becky doesn't know about that. But she wanted to do a series.

That's a whole piece of it. So we're thinking about doing a local history series. And we're kicking it off tonight.

You all are here for history. And always someone. And in January, we have a fellow coming in to talk about New England's Stonewall.

His name is Kevin Gardner. And that's January 17th. And I am trying to take advantage of an offer that Mr. Gerber made a while ago to do a talk on canals. So I'm seeing that as part of the series. And so I wrote this idea out to anyone who's a local history buff, that I'm looking for another program for March. And we'll go as long as we can.

So we have the interest. We know that because when Bernie Reddy was here to do his program on Chelmsford and the Civil War, how many were here for that? We were seeing people in the lobby.

So anyway, I am very honored to be able to introduce our speaker tonight. Becky has been, and Becky Warren has been involved in the Chelmsford Historical Society for 26 years. Thanks to her great-aunt, Julia Fogg, urging and passion for the history of this town.

Becky is honored to serve as the president of the Historical Society and is committed to preserving Chelmsford's heritage, whether by the sharing of stories, procuring artifacts, or looking forward to the next generation of stewards. Becky has been employed at the National Park Service in Lowell as a park ranger for 28 years. She currently manages the education programs at the Saugus Industrial History Center for 55,000 students per year.

And tonight she's going to share the history of some interesting historical stories of Chelmsford over the years to another group of people, students and fans of Chelmsford history this evening. So I am very proud to welcome Becky Warren. Thank you.

Becky Warren - Lots of very familiar faces in the crowd, thank you for coming. And this is going to be interactive. I'm not saying everything I want you to share.

But there's no quiz. So when I was asked to prepare this talk, I had to come up with a title. And, of course, when you're talking about Chelmsford history, well, here's 262 years of it right here.

So here we go. I did not want to do that.

I did not want to make history boring, which working with the National Park Service has allowed me to see that history can come alive and it can be inspiring. And when I was thinking about this talk, I thought about the past and how to illuminate it, illuminating Chelmsford's past, thinking about it and then bringing it to us to remind us of that past. So every person in this room has their own connection to the town of Chelmsford.

Whether you think about the schools, you think about the traffic, you think about the businesses, you think about the libraries, you think about your home. Whether you've been in town for one day, you already have a story because you got here, or if you've been here for many, many generations, you already have stories about Chelmsford that I hope you're sharing with others. And that's part of that connection.

My connection, a lot of you know, goes back just a few years. We celebrated our 300th anniversary of owning our family farm way back in 1999. So we've got over 300 years in town.

And I used to listen to my grandparents, my great-grandparents, my great-aunts, great-uncles tell stories about Chelmsford. And if only I had taken notes back then. But I do remember quite a bit of some of the stories, especially the ones that related to where I was living or on the property, on the farm.

So that tree is where Grandpa and Grandma got married. The tree's not there anymore, but that site is on the farm. And so those were some of the stories that I learned about growing up.

But then I got on to that next step of artifacts, things. Kathy mentioned my great-aunt Julia Fogg. She's the one that inspired, she ignited that spark, illuminated Chelmsford's history for me by bringing me to the Historical Society.

And I got to see the real things, the pieces that were parts of people's families or part of the history of Chelmsford. And it intrigued me, got me a little bit more excited to learn more. So I wondered how all of these, or all of this, could come to life.

And so I thought I would think about the illuminating past. So let's start with early, early Chelmsford. And they have built their home.

We won't go through the whole, cut down the trees, getting here from, where'd they come from? Concord, Concord. Concord, Woburn, right?

They made their way here.

What was that year that they incorporated? 1653. Oh, yes, yes, yes.

Okay, good, good, good. They were here in 1653, cutting down those trees, starting to build their homes, starting to establish their community, which then became a town of Chelmsford in 1655. So they're building their homes.

However, you know, what we have today at Lowe's and Home Depot would not have been available to them back then. And I was always fascinated by the fact that they would use oiled skins to put in their window openings to allow light into their house.

So you think about building a house, you make out of wood, you're going to put some windows in, no glass.

So you're going to put oiled skins in there. So that changed, though. Who knows why that changed?

That they didn't have to use oiled skins for their windows.

Audience - Wait, that glass works.

Becky Warren - Oh, we had the Chelmsford glass works. You knew this, Peggy. Sorry.

And if you know, one check for you. It started in 1802, and it was located on Baldwin Street, which is today Lowell. But they had a glass works, they had housing, and they started making window glass in that area.

Now, Bill, you have to tell us what that glass works was built next to that made it a success. There's a little waterway that went through there.

Audience - Oh, yeah. You're thinking of the Middlesex Canal.

Becky Warren - I'm thinking of the Middlesex Canal, yes. The Middlesex Canal, the Merrimack River's very close to where this glass works, was located. And the Middlesex Canal went right by this door.

So once they made their glass, Chelmsford didn't get it all. They had a way to bring that glass down to Boston and sell it there. Now, exactly what does it take to make glass?

It takes a skilled craftsman. And while Chelmsford folks were very skilled, making glass wasn't one of the high skills for a lot of folks. So German glassblowers were recruited to come in and work in this Chelmsford glass works.

And if you are interested in that, there is a whole book about the Chelmsford glass making process for sale at the Chelmsford Historical Society, but it is also in the library for you to take a look at. And I'm fascinated by the fact of how these gentlemen were skilled. So you're heating up this molten glass.

You're blowing it through a pipe. So you have a blob of glass on the end. And you blow it.

And then you twist that rod around and around. You're circling it faster and faster. Just like that.

You got it.

Audience - All right.

Becky Warren - Until the glass, because it's hot and pliable, it expands. So it goes wider. And it becomes windowpanes once they blow it up.

And twirling. Now, where that rod attaches to the molten piece, Peggy knows this. Bullseye.

Audience - Bullseye. Yes. It's called a bullseye.

Becky Warren - And what did they use that for? I thought this was pretty neat. Privacy glass.

You put it in your front door windows. The bullseye piece, so it's blurry, but you can kind of see through it. So it's like your little peephole to see who's knocking on your door.

But they can't look in. It isn't as clear. So they used the bullseye for the front door.

And then they used the rest of the glass for windowpanes. So now our Chelmsford residents don't have to have these oil skins up in their windows. They can start using glass.

And, of course, working in mold, factories have lots of windows. So Chelmsford Glass Works did provide quite a bit of glass, excuse me, for those earlier factories in Lowell. It didn't stay in Lowell for a long time.

It stayed until 1839 and then moved to New Hampshire. New Hampshire. Maybe there were no taxes.

And that's why they used it.

Audience - So these skilled workers made window glass.

Becky Warren - But they also made other things. You saw on the cover of this book is a glass pitcher. They made pitchers, decanters, vases, walking canes.

Wait, that's a whimsy. So if the glassblowers, hey, look, there's the bullseye right at the bottom. Come up and take a look at it and see the bullseye.

If there was a little bit of glass left over at the end of the day, they could blow it and not do the twirling but blow it out and form creative pieces of art, like a rolling pin. We have one up at the museum that's made out of glass. We have walking sticks that are made out of glass.

Do you think they use those? I think they made them as decorations. There's a derby, a hat, made out of glass.

But I think it was a way, kind of like, look what I can make. And there was a little competition, perhaps, going on among the glassblowers. But really, really beautiful examples.

Now, you saw this, the greenish tint to this vase is because the Chelmsford glass always had a greenish tint because the color comes from the sand, the makeup of the sand, when you make glass. So to make glass, you need sand, potash, and lime. You put it in a big crucible and you heat it up to really, really hot until those physical pieces turn into glass, turn into molten.

So sand, we know that there was enough sand in Chelmsford. Now, the window panes were not this green. They were a lighter color, but it was noted that those window panes that came from Chelmsford had always a greenish tinge to them.

So they got their sand and potash. Where do you suppose they got their lime? From the lime quarry.

There is a lime quarry. It's a conservation commission piece of property. It's a protected open space.

It's still in town. But that lime quarry provided a lot of the lime for making the glass that the Chelmsford glass works. So now our early residents of Chelmsford have windows.

But at night, they still need candles to illuminate their house. So they've got their windows, but when the sun goes down, the windows don't really help you. You still need something to illuminate the inside of your house.

So prior to matches, how did you light one of these candles? Flint. Flint and steel.

So when you hit those together, what happens?

Audience - Sparks.

Becky Warren - Now, are you going to stand over a candle and make sparks and try to light it?

Audience - You're laughing.

Becky Warren - They had something, I don't know if you've heard of a tinderbox, a little metal box. And, of course, they didn't throw anything away, so if you had small scraps of paper or cloth, you kept them in that tinderbox. When you needed to light something, especially in the summertime, if your fireplace had gone out so you didn't have any hot coals to use, you would use your tinderbox.

So you'd open your tinderbox, and you'd take your flint and your steel, and you'd do it over the tinderbox until you ignited the cloth inside. Then you'd just let it burn. They were really stingy, so they would get their candle quick, light it, and then cover the tinderbox because they wanted to save over those scraps of cloth for the next time they needed it.

Now you have your candle lit, and you've got your house, and you can start lighting candles in your house. But, boy, just to get your candle lit is kind of time-consuming and boring to have to keep doing that. So, 1835, in a little shop in South Chelmsford, there's a gentleman tinkering away at a new invention.

You know this. Matches. Yes.

And who do you know who's the gentleman? That. Oh, you're going to know this, Pam.

What was his name? I believe his name was Ezekiel Byam. Yes, Ezekiel Byam is in South Chelmsford, right on the corner of what is Abbey Road and Robin Hill Road.

There's a house, well, there's a marker still there, where the first match factory was located.

Now, it wasn't that he invented the matches. Matches were being invented in England, and he was a smart man because he heard what was happening in England, and he quickly got the patent for that Lucifer match before anybody else in the United States.

So he didn't invent it, but he got the patent, and he started making it himself. Don't tell Judy I told you this. These are Byam matches that were made in South Chelmsford.

Dance in time. But that's better than the tinderbox. It's definitely better than the tinderbox.

Does that still work?

Audience - There we go. Match.

Becky Warren - Boy. No, no, no. All right.

I will leave that out. It's a good question. Now, his Lucifer match that he first made weren't like our matches where you just strike something.

You had to use folded-over sandpaper and take your match and pull the sandpaper. So that's kind of like striking the match, but you use sandpaper to get it going. There were gentlemen that had made this Lucifer match that had a warning on the label that says toxic.

Well, I didn't say quite that. Basically, toxic fumes do not inhale. If you do, go to the doctor.

So not healthy just to light a match. Later, Ezekiel Bayou created friction matches, which you don't need the sandpaper. You can light them.

I'll try that. But I'll leave those out for us to look at. OK.

So our early residents, oh, I have to read. They now have light in their house, which is a lot easier. So a package of 100 Bayou matches would cost $0.25. And on every package was a saying, a little saying. You don't remember it, do you? I couldn't remember. You'll say, yeah, yeah, that's true, but I can't remember it either.

For quickness and sureness, the public will find these matches will leave all others behind. Without further remarks, we invite you to try them. Remember all good that are signed by E Bayou.

So that would have been on the label of every match that he sold. Pretty cool. His operation left that little corner in South Chelmsford, known for a long time as Brimstone Corner, and moved to Boston.

So the Bayou's continued to make matches in Boston. And in 1880, they were sold out by the Diamond Match Company. So when you buy some diamond matches, there's a little Ezekiel Bayou in that container right there.

OK. We can illuminate our homes, which is good. Chelmsford is growing, though.

And not staying inside at night anymore. You want to go out at night. So your house is lit, but how do you see your way around the town?

With just a candle? Probably not. There was an association called the Village Improvement Association, VIA.

And they placed a number of kerosene lanterns around Chelmsford Center. And that was one way to help residents find their way at night. And in one of the oral histories, it says, a citizen records the fact that he sat up all night to enjoy seeing the lights shine.

So probably think about how new that would be. It was always dark, and now your streets are starting to be lit. That's fascinating, believe it or not, back then.

So then from Wilson Waters' History of Chelmsford, I find this. In 1907, a surplus in the treasurer's hands after the Fourth of July celebration, let's keep that in mind for this year, was devoted to the introduction of gas lights in the center village, and a few years later, the town was lighted by electricity. For 20 years, the VIA met the expense of maintaining these and raised altogether about $6,000.

Pretty impressive for a private organization to illuminate the streets of Chelmsford to start out with. It started in the center and then moved into the north and west and east Chelmsford and south. So, speaking of illuminating and finding your way around, I brought this from the Chelmsford Historical Society.

What is it? It's a lantern. It's got a candle in it.

It was used in a very special vehicle for the town of Chelmsford. A hearse. The town hearse had this as its lantern in order for it to be able to go, well, not in the pitch dark, but it certainly would illuminate the way a little bit and also because it has a handle, it can be on your vehicle and then you can take it off your vehicle and walk to where you need to go.

So this is from the old town hearse. Okay, where was the old town hearse stored for many years? In the 1802 schoolhouse.

Yep, there's quite a few pictures of showing it parked right there and you can see the lantern in those pictures. It's kind of neat. Okay, so I'm thinking illuminating and we've talked about to supply or brighten with light.

We've kind of talked about that. But illuminating is also to enlighten spiritually or intellectually. So I thought we'd go down that path for a little bit about Chelmsford's history.

And intellectually, what comes to mind for you? First thing? Library.

Library, yes. You're absolutely right and that's on page four. So we're going to talk about the library.

We're going to talk about schools first. So we have a lot of schools in town now but there was a particular, well several famous schools in Chelmsford and one of them I thought I would talk about and that is the Chelmsford School for the Deaf which was established in 1866 on June 1st. Harriet B.

Rogers was the principal and Mary S. Byam was her assistant. That heme of Byam is on there.

The school is located in the upper room of Deacon Otis Adams' house. So here was a gentleman that was well known in town. They wanted to start a school and he offered a room in his house to start the school for the deaf.

And this school was the first in the country to use the verbal or oral method to teach the deaf. And the school had great success in teaching students to speak, to literally speak and to read lips. So not the sign language that we are accustomed to. This was verbal and learning to read lips. One of the students at the Chelmsford School for the Deaf was Mabel Hubbard who married somebody that we all know. The man who invented the telephone.

The man who invented the telephone. Who is that? Alexander Granville.

So she married Alexander Granville. And had he invented the telephone yet? No.

So for the things that they were learning, he was watching his wife be able to communicate. He was looking and very interested in how a deaf person can speak and using the intonations and understanding the vibrations in your voice box when you're making sounds. He used what he learned to invent the telephone.

Which is pretty interesting. Don't hear about that part of the story when you learn about Alexander Granville. So it was the speech patterns and the vibrations that he started to think about and knew that there were other ways of conveying that.

So on October 1st, 1867, the school moved to Northampton. So it was only here for a couple of years. It started in Otis Adams' house.

It went to the classical academy right next door. And then folks in Northampton had funds and money and they were interested in the school and they wanted it moved to Northampton. So it did move and it still is in existence today as a school for the deaf.

But it got its start right here in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. So Deacon Otis Adams donated the space for this school and I started to wonder what else was he known for because I heard his name for one particular thing. But I found out he was a school teacher.

He was a farmer. He was a leader in the Unitarian Church. He was a selectman for many, many years in town.

And he was a member of the Revolutionary Monument Committee. And he is the one that we believe penned the town motto. And we have to know what that is here.

Right?

Audience - What society was kind of like.

Becky Warren - We can't prove. We haven't found documentation. Unless you've found it, Frank, in any of your research.

But pretty much everyone agrees because he was on the committee they do believe he is the gentleman that penned the town motto which stays with us today. So intellectually, now we'll get to the library.

Audience - Yes. Okay. The best for last.

Right? Becky Warren - So let's back up. Adams' library hasn't been here forever. Prior to that, and starting out, was the Social Library, which was organized in January of 1794 by Reverend Hezekiah Packard.

Now, according to Wilson Waters, who wrote The History of Chelmsford, this is what he said. Mr. Packard loved good books and delighted in their refining and improving companionship. And himself embodied the grace and culture created and fostered by good literature.

And Reverend Packard was the fifth pastor of the First Parish Church, the first church in Chelmsford. So he starts the Social Library. There was a $2 membership fee, and annual fees were 25 cents to be a part of the library.

The library contained 350 books, and these books were kept at the homes of the librarians. Hmm. You're laughing now.

I don't think they'll fit. When no one, when the future librarians of the Social Library ran out of room in their homes, the Social Library moved to the town hall. So there it sat in the town hall, and people started to realize, maybe we, if we want to enlighten our population, we probably shouldn't have it as a paying library.

We probably should have the free library. So in 1893, the free public library was voted in at the town meeting. Now, accommodations for the free library at the town hall soon became a troublesome item.

There just wasn't enough room. Gee, town hall has a few other things that it's supposed to be doing, and housing all of these books wasn't working out. So their next plan was to, believe it or not, expand the 1802 schoolhouse, make it bigger to house all of those books for the free library.

They decided not to do that, but that's because the Bartlett's and the Adams' came to the rescue. J. Adams Bartlett donated this land that we're on right now to build a library, and Amos F. Adams paid to have this original library built. $30,000 out of his own money to build the first library in town. The town accepted this gift, which I hope they did, in 1895, and on May 8th of that year, the building was dedicated.

Is this sound right so far? Yes. Okay, good.

And I think Amos was working in Boston at the time. That is correct, he was. He was in Boston at the time.

How did he make his money? I don't know. He must have been in there.

Yeah, I'm not sure how he made his money. He sold things. He did.

I'll just look that up and see how he got that $30,000. Well, on top of his $30,000, one year after the library came to be, Mr. Adams gave 100 volumes of books to the library for the new building. And in 1896, by the Board of the Town, the name was officially changed to the Adams Library.

I should hope so, after all that. Mr. Adams turned over the keys to the new library to Mr. Joseph E. Warren, who happened to be the chairman of the Board of Selectmen at that time in Chalksford's history.

And I thought I would read a little bit. You asked me about Mr. Adams. And this great book by George Parkhurst came out of the Waters history.

But it does say here, Mr. Chairman, so this is Mr. Adams speaking. Permit me to present through you to the Town of Chelmsford the keys to this public library building. I ask you to accept the gift of this building as a token of my respect and love for my native town.

I ask you to guard it well and permit it to serve its purposes for all at all times under proper management and without restriction of thought or subject in the field of knowledge. I remember well the days that I spent here while a boy upon my father's farm. The limited opportunities for reading that I had and the meager facilities for instruction that the common schools afforded in those days.

I have watched with a great deal of interest the boys and girls of those days grow to manhood and womanhood and measure of successes that has attended their efforts in later years. If in those days there had been a public library in this town, I believe many of us might have been better and stronger men and women of today. As I present this building to you today, that in the future no child shall be permitted to grow up here without full and proper facilities to read and learn the history and the events that have transpired not only in our own beloved country but in this great world around us.

Education and knowledge are the foundation stones upon which our republic rests for future safety and prosperity. And today I am willing in my humble way to make that foundation stronger and more secure by the erection of this building. I have come back here to Chelmsford, my native town, to perform that labor where I know the citizens will enjoy it and value its worth.

Mr. Chairman, I still hold a deep feeling of love and respect for this town and its people. The record is a worthy one. I am proud of the town's history and proud of the fact that here I was born and here I grew to manhood.

I have often thought of this place where my ancestors lie buried and the beautiful hills and valleys about which cluster all the bright and pleasant memories of my youth. With these feelings, I have also desired to do something for this town and now I present the keys of this building to you not for any hopes of praise but rather with true feelings of gratitude and respect that the obedient has for his parent. That was his speech.

Pretty powerful for that time. Manhood and womanhood!

Audience - Wow!

Becky Warren - That's pretty good for the 1800s. I like that. So, many generations of Chelmsford residents have benefited from the generosity, craftsmanship, and Yankee ingenuity of our early residents who worked to improve life for all.

It's my hope that we have illuminated some of Chelmsford's past tonight and that this conversation might have ignited a spark to learn more about the town we live in. Now, what illuminating examples do you have about Chelmsford? So, audience participation.

I have a couple more that I can add. I don't have an example, but I have a question. Sure.

Audience - Before the people came here I mean, was it like a royal grant that came back from the kings in England?

Becky Warren - Well, the kings in England had decided that this was all of their territory, so yes, the king's grant, it was a part of the king's grant. Now, prior to any of the Europeans coming over and the English saying, wait, you're coming from England and you're stepping on that's ours, that's English property, it was all Native Americans and the Pinnacle Confederacy was a very strong confederacy. They were mobile.

They didn't live here year round, but we do know they had wonderful gardens at the base of Robin Hill, vegetable gardens, and the early settlers of Chelmsford learned how to grow some of the produce from, what was the name of that Native American? Robin. Or the American name?

Robin. Robin, yeah. So the king's grant, it wasn't owned by anybody until European settlers set foot here and then once England said, oh, you're there, well, this is the king's grant and you have to ask permission to do anything.

That isn't a complete answer, but I do know it was king's grant.

Audience - I have a friend just talking about things like that.

Becky Warren - Yes.

Audience - And the whole idea of manifest destiny and stuff. The Indians didn't have deeds, so it wasn't there.

Becky Warren - Oh, interesting. However, up at the Historical Society, we have a deed which has a Native American's initial on it. Now, did you know what he was signing?

He was giving up his use of land up on basically where the fire house is, on Forty Bottom Road. He was signing over that use. But you're right.

They didn't have deeds. They didn't need them.

Audience - That's how we push them along.

Becky Warren - It is. It is.

Audience - Are you going to tell us about that little land?

Becky Warren - Oh, that's, yes. I was hoping someone would ask. So, Illuminate.

This is just a little lantern. You put oil in it, and the wick has fallen out, but the wick is inside. And in a lot of circles, it was known as a sparking lamp or a courting lamp.

Not too bright. Not too bright. I like that.

Well, if Dad thought his daughter's boyfriend wasn't too bright, he would put a tiny bit of oil in the lantern, the little lamp, and set it on the porch, and the boyfriend could visit with his girlfriend until the light went out. So, if Dad liked the boyfriend, he put a lot of oil in the lantern. If he didn't, it went out pretty quick.

So, a courting lamp. No social networking. No microphones.

Audience - No Facebook.

Becky Warren - You're looking at Facebook. Back then.

Audience - Is that a product of a chance for the last moment?

Becky Warren - That is not, but I wish it was. It's got a great story. I like the human interest part of the story of that.

I also have another one that sparks. Sparks. Martha Sparks.

Martha Barrett Sparks. Martha Barrett was of the Barretts, of the Barrett-Byam Homestead up on Byam Road. And she was accused of being a witch.

A poor woman was milking her cow, and the cow's horn hit her on the head. Now, having milked a cow in my life, that can happen. Well, I didn't have blood running down my forehead, but Martha Sparks did.

And she was kind of dazed. And when somebody spoke to her, she wasn't exactly coherent when she spoke to them. And, of course, it was in 1692, in the hysteria of the sale of witch trials.

So she was never charged with being a witch, but she was brought to Boston and had to stay in jail for a year, over a year. Her husband was in the army. So here she is with four kids.

She's trying to support her four kids. They haul her off, bring her to Boston. Dad's in the army.

Grandparents had to take care of the children. And Chelmsford is paying her room and board in the Boston jail, where she hadn't been charged with anything. And after a year, she is finally released and came back home.

So we did have a witch, so to speak. And her name was Martha Sparks. How convenient for this talk.

I like telling that story. She's got a good name for illuminating. What else?

Audience - You talked earlier about gas lights in the center. When did electricity come through?

Becky Warren - Well, electricity, I know, comes in around the turn of the century. So by 19... pictures I have seen of Boston Road, still in like the 19-teens and 1920s, we still have gas lanterns at that time.

So electricity is around in 1901. But it's expensive and it's new. They didn't know if it was going to really work.

By the later 1920s, 1930s, electricity is coming in. Where? I don't know.

It could be in... 1917, so... Fred, does your book have that? It's in there. Okay.

Audience - And the transition from electricity to gas to electricity. You can actually see the numbers change over the years. Some of the first electric were arc lights.

Becky Warren - Oh, gas.

Audience - That's right. What's the electricity, Edison's DC system? Or the AC system?

Becky Warren - Well, when the trolleys were still coming down Boston Road to a little bit beyond Warren Avenue, well, they were horse-drawn at first. There are pictures of horse-drawn. But trolleys generally ran on DC.

So I would say there was probably more DC around before there was an AC. But Fred's book, this one right here, newly published from, really by Eleanor Parkhurst, but Fred put together her articles and her work on getting the next history of Chelmsford together. So this history of Chelmsford was done by Wilson Waters, and it was published in 1917.

Inside this book is part of... Wilkes Allen, he wrote a history of Chelmsford in 1810, right?

Audience - 1820, he published it.

Becky Warren - He published, right, in 1820. First history of a town in Massachusetts that was published. First one.

That wasn't illuminating, so I didn't include that. But a lot of his story is in this one. And Eleanor Parkhurst, who lived in town, was trying to work on the update of the town, wanted a new history of Chelmsford.

And she started working on it but passed away before it could be completed. Fred was able to get all those records and files and work with a crew to assemble that information and have this new book, which was just published last year.

Audience - So... There's a paper file, so they're not electronic files.

Becky Warren - They are now electronic. So when this is done, come on up and look at the chapter on power, electricity. You're welcome to take a look at that.

All right. Anything else?

Audience - We're relatively newcomers here. We've only been here since our second year.

Becky Warren - Welcome!

Audience - We love the town.

Becky Warren - Great.

Audience - Every time I see the plaque that tells about the people that came here in 1635, is it from Woburn?

Becky Warren - Yeah.

Audience - And Concord? Yes. What brought them here?

Is it simply because they own the land or is there something else that drove them to come here? Was it a religious thing?

Becky Warren - You know what? It was getting crowded, believe me, in their minds. The Concord and Woburn area.

The establishment of communities in Massachusetts usually started at the coast because of coming in by boat. And so then, eventually, towns get established as you move further west. I have read that they felt like they were crowded and they wanted to have their own community and their own church and their own system.

Now, Chelmsford, as you know it today, it was much larger in land area when in 1655. But it was crowded here. Yeah, it's a lot of Westford.

Westford, part of Carlisle. Lowell, there was no Lowell at that time. So it was a much larger town.

And one of the reasons it got divided was that what's now Westford was so far to come to church. It took a long time to take a horse and wagon from Westford, as we know it, to here to the town center to do your services because they weren't an hour. They were much longer.

So you'll find in the readings that it was necessitated by where they could have their church, which was the center of their community, and then town meeting. And then they became kind of their own village and then wanted to be their own entity. Good question.

I'm not a historian, but I remember reading in my uncle's book, The Genealogy, that my family, the Bynum's, came with Reverend Fiss from Winnipeg. Yes. And he gathered the families he brought here under pressure because they needed to populate the wilderness or they stood in danger of losing their land grant.

So that's why he gathered his souls to come to the church and pop them. And they did. Thank you.

Religiously. And they did religiously, yes. That's true.

I have read that too. Was Chelmsford impacted by King Philip's War? Well, I'd say on the not direct.

It was. There were incidents that are in Waters' history of King Philip's War. It was kind of an uneasy time.

And mostly because the early settlers of Chelmsford got along well with the Native Americans that were in the area. The Native Americans taught them how to grow different kinds of vegetables that they were unaware of. They told them how to fertilize, what things to use to fertilize the ground.

So they were friendly with this particular area of Native Americans. And when King Philip's War happened, I've read in Waters' history that there was an uneasiness because we're supposed to be friends with them, but oh, we're supposed to be at war. We're not supposed to associate ourselves with them. And there were some physical altercations in the area. Generally not by the people that lived in this, the Native Americans that frequented this area. They were from other areas in Massachusetts and New England that came through.

My understanding is a lot of the Native Americans that were friendly here sort of disappeared, went away, while this turmoil was happening. But there is an account in here of a woman getting kidnapped and how much money you would get for scalps, for white settlers. So that was real at the time.

You go out to western Massachusetts, different Native American confederacies out there and very different people. Good question. You keep talking about Waters, and I don't know if everyone knows that it's full text available online.

And where is it? Is there a link from the Historical Society or? I don't know.

It's available on Google because it's over 75 years old. You can scan it and it's searchable. There's a link from the library.

Audience - And also the library has a copy that was reprinted. It's in two lines because it's built and picked and handled.

Becky Warren - You know, they're still around. You were talking to me about seeing them on eBay and how much they were years ago. We just had somebody donate one to the Historical Society just recently.

So it was in somebody's family. They didn't feel a kinship to it, so they sent it off and donated it to us. So we're lucky to have several copies of it.

All right, well, I want to... Oh, I just wanted to make sure that we mentioned Nettie Stevens. I just find her fascinating.

She is a scientist. She didn't live in Trumpsburg for too long, but it is believed she would have won the Nobel Prize in science if she had not died of breast cancer. So she died fairly young.

Yeah, but when men, you know... It's in this book. George Parkhurst wrote about her.

She is an amazing woman. At her time, there weren't an awful lot of women that were in medicine, and she was in medicine and was well thought of, but... She had to work at the library.

Audience - That's right. Yes, she did. For a little while.

Becky Warren - She was at the First Parish Church. I forgot about that. Yes.

Worked here, went on to great things, and just didn't quite get there because of cancer. That's true. Thank you.

Audience - Thank you. She had a connection with the Friends of the Library, too. I've heard of Choquette, who was one of the Friends.

He got her in the Hall of Fame or Women's Hall of Fame.

Becky Warren - Women's Hall of Fame at Seneca Falls in New York. Right.

Audience - Yeah.

Becky Warren - That's right. Neat. Well, it just means there are so many more things other than illuminating chunks of the past that we can talk about.

You've been a very patient audience, so I don't want to go on any longer. I brought some of the books. Help yourself.

Come take a look at them. Take a look at some of the artifacts. Do come and visit us at the Historical Society.

If you have a spark that's ignited with you, come see us on Friday, December 7th, 630 and 9. We have a holiday open house, so the museum will be open. It's free of charge.

We will have these items for sale if you're interested in getting yourself them, not the history of Chelmsford. Sorry. But these other publications are for sale.

And we'd love to have you see some of the other artifacts that are a part of Chelmsford's past. Thank you so much for your time, and I appreciate your interaction and your passion about learning about Chelmsford. I'm still learning, for sure.

Thank you very much. And thank you all for coming. We hope to see you at the principal library meeting as well.