Embedded Files
Abigail Adams reinactor event at Goats to Go. Featured article: "The Little Brothers" by Chris Comiskey
Featured articles “If This Ground Could Talk” History of the Town Dump by James H. Boynton Jr and A Volunteer Effort for Recycling in the 1970's by Joan Chatterton.
News from Sunday programs at the Museum including ice cream making. Beverly Knapp on the Flanders family in Georgetown, including GHS author Charlie Flanders. Excerpts from third grade students' thank you notes.
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 which was among the first to make ice skates that included the shoe (Viking Skating Outfits), the 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;
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 article: Andrew’s Excursions "#17 Baldpate - Quick Escape" By B&MRRHS Director Andrew Riedl (reprinted with permission from “Boston and Maine Railroad Historical Society Newsletter” January/February 2023.
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 Suffragist.
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.
The "Old Nancy" cannon rivalry between Rowley and Georgetown in the 19th and 20th Centuries. in great detail. Halloween tours of the Union Cemetery. Mead tasting at the annual meeting.
Dog ownership in Georgetown after the 1867 Massachusetts law requiring licenses. The story of Walter Kimball's St. Bernard, Carlo, who snubbed Stationmaster Wm. Horner's regular treats after Horner acquired a dog of his own. Plus samples of 3rd grade students' thank you notes after their class tour of the Brocklebank Museum.
The Spofford sawmill was a water-powered "up-and-down" style mill constructed in the 1740's on Lufkin's Brook. It was still in operation in 1875 when it was purchased and transported to become part of Henry Ford's Greenfield Village.
Trees of historical significance in Georgetown including: The Name Tree, which was a beech tree in Hampshire Woods near the Federal City settlement, The Pickett Elm, The Buttonwood Tree, and several attempts at a Liberty Tree. The Three Sisters was a boundary tree where the borders of Boxford, Rowley, and Georgetown meet.
Brief history of the donkey and elephant symbols for the two political parties. The Hickory Tree Wild Animal Farm, which operated in Georgetown from 1939 to 1942, had an elephant named Jewel. Local Republicans liked to pose for publicity photos with her at election time. Feeling left out, the local Democrats purchased a donkey which they donated to the farm. They named her Eleanor, after first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Account of attempts to preserve 45 Central St. and 2 Tenney St. from demolition. Union cemetery tours on four weekend days in October.
The Mighill mansion on Baldpate Hill was home to the family from 1733 to 1899. The first Mighills were slave owners. After one failed attempt by Paul Nelson Spofford to run the mansion as an inn, William and Eliza Bray turned it into the highly successful Baldpate Inn. It declined during the Great Depression when it was purchased by a group of doctors and became Baldpate Hospital.
History of the two local trolley lines that operated in the early part of the 20th Century: The Haverhill, Georgetown & Danvers Street Railway Company and The Georgetown, Rowley & Ipswich Street Railway Company. Annual Antiques Appraisal event with Dan Meader.
The strange history of how the Everett Peabody Post of the Grand Arm of the Republic (GAR) got its name. What was the GAR and the Women's Relief Corps which were both active in Georgetown until 1929? Who was Count Leo B. Schwabe?
Friendship or album quilts in the GHS collection. The Adams-Kimball tannery to be demolished. GHS has acquired the diaries of Henry M and Susan F. Nelson.
Descriptions of the two remaining camps in Georgetown: Camp Leslie, a 4H Camp, and Camp Denison which was once the property of a Boston settlement house. There were others on Pentucket Pond.
Some stories from Georgetown in the 20th Century. Hickory Tree Wild Animal Farm had circus style animal acts popular from 1939 to 1942. Their elephant, Jewel, visited Watson's Restaurant with her head and forelegs in the door. In 1949, the Church of Latter Day Saints had a sucessful Welfare Garden. For the Cold War, the US Air Force Ground Observer Corps had a watch tower.
George Peabody, father of modern philanthropy, had a sister, Judith Daniels, living in Georgetown. For her he had the Memorial Church build in honor of their mother and then on the same property, the first public library building stocking it with 2400 books.
Bitters, a popular herb and alcohol concoction sold as a cure-all medicine, were popular in the 1800's especially during the Temperance movement. Moses Atwood, Lewis Bateman, Moses Carter, and Luther F. Carter were all involved in the product in several forms. Paul "Peg" Pillsbury was the inventer of a corn sheller, a bark mill, and notably, a machine that made shoe pegs. And the Newburyport, Danvers, and Georgetown Railroad with its problem of cows on the tracks.
Pictures of the new Business and Industry room in the museum. The Georgetown Poorhouse or Almshouse shared with Rowley until 1841. The Massachusetts state report on it in 1885 and 1892. Closed in 1939.
The Richard and Mary Tenney house (1842) at 60 East Main Street. And the decaying Adams-Pearson-Larkin house built in the 1700's at 554 North Street.
Gun carriage for "Old Nancy" built by Spaulding Reproductions from drawings by Ed DesJardins. Now inTown Hall. Georgetown's ice industry.
Early funeral customs and momento mori. Gravestone patterns, cemetery tours, and the haunted meal chest. Report on Brocklebank foundation repairs.
The trial of the Reverend Charles Beecher and Beecher family tragedies. The incorporation of Rowley's West Parish as Georgetown in 1838. the Joseph and Mary (Nelson) Kimball house at 16 Elm Street.
The 1874 Civil War Monument dedication ceremony. A letter from Jeremiah Danforth, Civil War soldier, to his wife and a letter about him. The petition requesting the separation of Georgetown from Rowley in 1838. News of foundation collapse at the Brocklebank Museum.
Two buildings requiring preservation: Adams Hall at 5 Elm Street and the Dunbar Tavern at 34 E. Main Street. Radical abolitionists, called "come-outers", disrupted church services. Joseph L. Noyes, Isaac Newton Merrill, and Moses Wright were excommnicated. Excerpts from the diary of Susan Elizabeth Nelson with passages about President Lincoln.
Summer 2012
The Union Cemetery gravestone conservation project, phase 2. Cemetery tours. Brocklebank house connections to the Civil War - Benjamin McLaughlin, Charles Beecher, Frederick Beecher, George and John Spofford, and Nathanial Pierce.
About a painting by J. Harrie Tidd of the house at 95 Central Street. Mary Ruth Holt Brice was gifted the painting by the artist. It accompanied her as she lived in many different states in the US. Her daughter recently donated it to GHS. Opportunity to ring the Paul Revere bell at the First Congregational Church.
Description of the role of church bell ringer starting here in 1815 with the Paul Revere Bell. Work on the digital database by curator Steve Keene. Donated slave collar revealed to be fancy dog collar. The Adams-Kimball barn, once a tannery. History of the Boston Post Cane.
Michelle Prior, summer intern and the reorganization of the Curator's Room. Ryan Flynn Eagle Scout project - kiosk and trail. Georgetown in the Civil War exhibit. Barry Crawford, GHS treasurer, deployed to Afghanistan,
Remembering Homer Tapin. Account of the formation of a digital archive from the collection of photos of the Hickory Tree Wild Animal Farm. The photos are owned by descendents of the original owners and operators.
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