Embedded Files
Feature Article: James V. Roy shares his “then and now” photographs of Georgetown's railroads.
Feature Article: Patriot and Tory Taverns of 1775 — Brocklebank Museum tavern history, colonial artifacts, New England examples.
Feature Article The History of C. S. Marston Shoe Company, with a description of the local shoe industry, a factory steam whistle, donated memorabilia, and celebrity endorsements by Sonja Henie.
President’s Message spring greetings, member appreciation, invitation to visit museum and gardens; upcoming C. S. Marston factory exhibit.
Feature Story James Gage’s milestone presentation—colonial road markers, designs, preservation, myths about Benjamin Franklin; Museum & Library Displays George Peabody 229th birthday exhibit, upcoming Easter Parade hats and accessories.
Feature Article General Wolfe Tavern sign history, musket-ball holes, provenance; Celebration Charlotte Nichols Saunders Horner 200th birthday, cake and botanist research; Walk by Moonlight evening open house, colonial jumbles, micro-grant support; Trails & Sails two busy weekends, house/schoolhouse/shoe shop/gardens tours; Gardens dahlias, castor bean pods, New England asters, mums; In Memoriam Jim Saunders.
Feature Article honors Charlotte Nichols Saunders Horner, Georgetown botanist and educator; highlights her teaching, women’s rights advocacy, botanical specimen business, and scientific contributions; over 1,300 preserved specimens in 13 herbaria and use in 78 research papers; later life travels in Colorado; buried at Union Cemetery.
Feature: Erie 4 Fire Station History—presentation by Chief Matt McKay at the GHS annual meeting highlighting Erie 4’s founding in 1854, status as the oldest privately owned volunteer fire company in the U.S., and its role in protecting Georgetown and Newbury. Operated entirely by community volunteers, Erie 4 relies on fundraisers, Friends of Erie, and event rentals for support.
Museum Sundays; Penn Brook visit June 8; Cataloging efforts; Tapin scholarship; "Roving Archivist" grant; Broom Brigade mystery; USS Constitution oak; botanist Charlotte Horner.
Feature Article: The History Beneath Our Feet by Nicholas Niedzielski highlights Georgetown’s hidden past revealed through metal detecting, LIDAR, and old maps, as demonstrated by Max Cane at the Historical Society meeting. Discoveries include Revolutionary War artifacts, buttons, and household items dating local sites.
Looking for old newspapers - the Georgetown Peabody Library seeks old Georgetown newspapers—including The Evangelist, Star, Granger, Advocate, Blunderbus, Enterprise, News (1962–66), Weekly (1966–83), and Record (from 1982)—to digitize and preserve. Lenders will have originals safely returned after copying.
Feature: Georgetown “Shoe Shops” by Jim Boynton recounts the town’s 22 small 19th-century shoemaker workshops, known as “Ten-footers”, once scattered across Georgetown. Only one survives today, originally from 124 North Street, donated in 1969 by Sue and Byron Merrill to the Georgetown Historical Society. Now located at the Brockelbank Museum, it has been restored with new shingles, siding, and window repairs, preserving a rare piece of Georgetown’s shoemaking heritage.
Feature Article: Georgetown’s Own Major League Baseball Star! Fred Tenney, born in Georgetown in 1871, played nearly 20 years for the Boston Beaneaters and New York Giants, earning fame as one of baseball’s best first basemen and co-creator of the 3-6-3 double play.
19th Amendment Centennial Celebration (Part 2), with profile of Apphia Winter Horner Howard , Georgetown’s Suffragette.
The 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, tracing the long struggle for women’s right to vote in the U.S. and its early roots in Massachusetts. It highlights Georgetown’s connection to the movement, noting local activism before the famed 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, with a profile of Lucy Stone.
Feature Article: Local legends of Lake Monsters and Sea Serpents with 19th-century eyewitness accounts in Georgetown and nearby waters by Chris Comiskey; Georgetown Remembered: Andrew LeBlanc’s nostalgic tour of past stores and ice cream stands from Kelloway’s and Perkins’ Variety to Cozy Corner and Riverside Dairy.
The Daniel E. Moulton House at 51 West Main Street, once part of Georgetown’s shoe industry legacy, has been sold to developers who plan to replace its historic carriage house with condos while preserving the main structure. Built around 1857 by shoemaker and businessman Daniel Moulton, the home reflected his growing success and family life before his tragic death in 1888. Moulton co-founded one of Georgetown’s largest boot and shoe firms, became a major landowner, and played an active role in town affairs.
1894 Murder on the Rail Trail — an unidentified well-dressed man with patriotic tattoo found drowned, case remains unsolved after 125 years.
In 1918, the Spanish Flu swept through Boston and quickly reached Georgetown, closing schools and the library as illness spread. The pandemic’s toll was severe but not the town’s worst— an earlier epidemic had claimed forty-six local children in just eight months.
In 1930, twelve years after losing her son Joseph in World War I, Georgetown’s Jennie Hoyt Tidd joined a group of Gold Star Mothers traveling to France to visit their sons’ graves. At age 66, Jennie kept a detailed journal of her ocean voyage, travels through Paris, and emotional visit to the Meuse-Argonne Cemetery, where she finally placed flowers on Joseph’s grave. Her writings capture both the sorrow and solace of a mother’s pilgrimage to honor her fallen son.
Georgetown marks the 100th anniversary of World War I by remembering five local servicemen—Rene Gagnon, Harry Murch, Edward Nolin, Joseph Tidd, and Bryant Browne—who died during the war and are named on the town’s monument. Their stories reflect the impact of the war on the community. Letters from Private Harry Murch, published by his mother shortly before his death, give a firsthand look at the experiences of Georgetown soldiers overseas.
Georgetown’s early Black residents and their contributions - While Cuffee Dole, a former slave and Revolutionary War soldier, is well known, records show more than a dozen enslaved people lived in the area during the 1700s. Georgetown also played a role in the abolitionist movement, with residents such as Moses Wright and Theodore Elliott aiding the Underground Railroad and hosting Frederick Douglass for local lectures in the 1840s.
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