Master Plan for the Meadow and Pond

The Master Plan for

Restoring Millbrook Meadow

and Pond

Rockport’s Mill Pond is still popular! (Photo by Becca Morris Campbell)

           

            Millbrook Meadow Committee, since 2012, has been devoted to a massive project for the Town—the restoration of the four-acre parcel in downtown Rockport, adjacent to King and Beach Streets and Mill Lane.

            The family of George Tarr donated the Mill Pond to the Town in 1936.

Rockport’s Garden Club gave the property now known as the Meadow to the Town in 1938.

Lura Phillips (1900-1994)

            In 1951 Lura Hall Phillips began efforts to save the Meadow from becoming a town parking lot, and over the next 40 years worked to protect and preserve this beautiful parkland.  When she died in 1994 she left money in trust for the Meadow.

            Over many decades Rockporters have enjoyed the Meadow for festivals, fairs, picnics, weddings, games and just fun.  For over a century Rockporters have skated on the Mill Pond, and it was once a good place to catch small fish. 

            The dam between the Pond and Meadow, originally built in 1702, blew out in 2006, and was finally replaced in 2012, and it was then that the Committee, led by John Sparks, began a very comprehensive project to restore the area. 

            Construction of the new dam dramatized the poor condition of the Pond and the Meadow. The Pond was filled with silt, its original eight-foot depth now reduced to four feet or less and badly clogged with aquatic plants.

            The Meadow was often soggy, the Brook was clogged with loose stones and debris, and several large trees were dead or dying.

            Barbara and John Sparks led the Committee’s drive to obtain funding from Town Meeting and from the Community Preservation fund. The Committee obtained $162,000 from the Lura Hall Phillips Trust, and went to Town Meeting and townspeople voted $60,000 in regular Town funds and $100,000 in Community Preservation Funds (total of $322,000) to begin the restoration. We plan to request additional funds at Fall Town Meeting in 2015.

          The year 2014 began with a contractor hired to begin the long-awaited restoration. Milone & MacBroom began with a complete program of soil testing, sampling of the Pond bottom, and a complete study of the four-acre parcel. 

            Membership:  Members of Millbrook Meadow are Charmaine Blanchard, Shannon Mason, Barbara Sparks, Ted Tarr, Marcia Lombardo, Aileen Morrissey, Stephanie Woolf and Sam Coulbourn. Shannon continued as vice-chair, Sam chair, and Marcia treasurer. 

Lisa Glover and Shannon Mason tell Rockporters about Meadow Plans at HarvestFest.

            Fund-Raising Committee. In January Shannon Mason organized a Fund Raising subcommittee, with Charmaine Blanchard and Sam Coulbourn as members and with Susan Gray and Betsy Giannoccaro as advisors.  The subcommittee initiated an application for membership in Essex County Community Foundation (ECCF) in order to create a structure for providing a tax-exempt organization, qualified to accept tax deductible contributions.  We have raised $23,000 in private donations to date.

            Conservancy Formed. Since Millbrook Meadow Committee, as a town government entity, could not serve as fund raiser, the Committee began creating a board for the Rockport Millbrook Meadow Conservancy.  This Conservancy is an independent organization, qualified to solicit donations to be collected by ECCF.  The Conservancy Board works closely with Millbrook Meadow Committee and provides their individual experience and expertise in the Restoration project, associated fund raising, and stewardship of the park into the future.

            Named to the Board were Dianne Anderson, Tim Corrigan, Linda Cote, Chester Clark, Martha Jane Coulbourn, Deborah Cowan, Karl Norwood, Maura Wadlinger, Barbara Sparks, and Sam Coulbourn. Because of pressing duties, Linda resigned at the end of the year.

            Web Site: Also in January with help of Laurie Ann Condon LePine, the Conservancy initiated a website at www.millbrookmeadow.org

            Fighting Knotweed.  During the year the Rockport Garden Club, aided by Millbrook Meadow Committee, conducted several cutting sessions along the Mill Brook bank and on the shore of the Pond.  The Knotweed team collects the cut stalks and they are gathered up and taken to Franklin Park Zoo, where the giraffes, zebras and gorillas enjoy them.  Control of invasive plant life is a key item that will be carried forth in plans for restoration of the Meadow and Pond.

Volunteer Gil McCarthy assists “Knotweed Team”, Holly Yasaitis and Laura Hallowell.

            Eagle Scout Trail.  When Sayles Kasten approached the Committee to plan a project for his Eagle Scout badge, John Sparks worked with him to plan a trail around part of Mill Pond.  Sayles worked with boards and committees to obtain permission and in March, led a group of fellow Boy Scouts to cut a path through dense growth which would enable people to enjoy more of the flora and fauna of the Pond.

Boy Scout Sayles Kasten leads Eagle Scout Project at Pond

            Liaison Group. The Committee formed a special liaison group to work with the Contractor and DPW. John Sparks headed this effort, with Sam Coulbourn and Eric Hutchins, as Environmental Advisor.

John Sparks (1941-2014)

            Death of John Sparks. In May, as the contractor prepared to deliver a comprehensive briefing of its findings, John Sparks fell ill of meningitis, and died on May 22, 2014.

            After John died, his wife Barbara took over his role as liaison.  She added new advisors:  Gunilla Caulfield, Frank Hassler, John P. Campbell, AIA, and Laura Hallowell. 

             

Charmaine Blanchard, Barbara Sparks and Frank Hassler at HarvestFest 2014

            Getting out the Message.  All year Millbrook Meadow Committee and Conservancy members worked hard to get the message about Restoration out to the public. Members manned booths at Motif No. 1 Day, Harvest Fest, the Acoustic Festival and the Garden Club’s two-day Garden Tour. We held numerous public meetings, a visioning session, and provide detailed information on our website, www.millbrookmeadow.org

Rockporters hear plans for for Meadow from Jason Williams of MMI

            Master Plan.  In December the Committee agreed with the Master Plan proposed by Milone & MacBroom, and now the contractor is hard at work designing the plans for actual construction, to begin in spring 2016.

            Restoration Plan. The plan for the Meadow and Pond will include these items:

1.  Dredging of the Mill Pond, removing tons of sediment deposited over many years, and also much of the invasive aquatic plants on the part of the Pond near the dam. The granite stones along the bank will be re-set.

2.  Rebuilding of the watercourse that carries water in Mill Brook to the sea.  It will be widened to reduce the chances of its flooding its banks, and the course will be slightly sinuous, to make it more favorable for fish, eels and aquatic plants. The new design will make the Brook more accessible to children, as well. 

Mill Brook will be widened with more of a sinuous path through Meadow.

3.  Willows. Replacing the old, dying willow trees with new, vibrant willow trees and other species.

4.  The Meadow will be graded and re-shaped, its drainage improved to reduce the chance of flooding. 

5.  Rain gardens, designed to absorb water runoff from the adjacent parking lot, will be located along the Meadow path.

6.  The Meadow path will be rebuilt using pervious paving, and low-intensity path lighting will be installed.

7.  Planting throughout the Meadow will be restored, using primarily native species, with special steps taken to eliminate invasive, alien species, like Japanese Knotweed.

8.  The playground will be refurbished with new equipment.

9.  The Frog Pond will be dredged and made more accessible. 

Future plan includes Boardwalk across Pond

10.  Boardwalk. As the dredging in the Pond is completed footings will be installed for a future boardwalk that will allow people to walk along both sides of the Pond and then cross over in the area between the Union Cemetery and Holbrook Court, where they can view the ducks, frogs, turtles, birds and aquatic plant life.

11.  Water and Electricity. For the first time since the park has existed, a water supply will be provided.  Likewise, electrical receptacles will be provided for use during special events in the Meadow, and for low-level, night-sky friendly overhead lighting.

            Plan for 2015. Millbrook Meadow Committee, our Conservancy and Advisors are working closely with the Department of Public Works and Milone & MacBroom toward making the Restoration a reality.  Losing John Sparks was a blow for us, but we have gained some tremendous volunteer talent, and we are resolved to produce a restored Meadow and Pond that Rockporters will treasure for generations to come.

            We welcome volunteers who would like to join our Conservancy!

Respectfully Submitted,

Samuel W. Coulbourn,

Chairman

Reimagining Education--The One World School House

ROCKPORT HISTORY BOOK CLUB

Rockport Public Library

Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014

History of Public Education

Palestinian children in Jenin school

Salman Khan, The One World School House: Education Reimagined, 2012; New York: Hachette Book Group.

            “Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion has no hold on the mind. Therefore do not use compulsion, but let early education be a sort of amusement; you will then be better able to discover the child's natural bent.” Plato (427-347 B.C.)

            Salman Khan (1976- ), founder of the Khan Academy, wants to revolutionize education, and he shows us how we have become enslaved by a system which has long outlived its effectiveness.

            Today’s basic classroom model was first put in place in 18^th century Prussia. Compulsory, tax-supported public education was seen as a political at least as much as a pedagogical tool, and no apology was made for this, Khan writes. “The idea was not to produce independent thinkers, but to churn out loyal and tractable citizens who would learn the value of submitting to the authority of parents, teachers, church, and ultimately, king.”

            Horace Mann (1796-1859), then the Secretary of Education for the State of Massachusetts, put the Prussian model, with modifications, to practice in the United States starting about 1837. 

            By 1870, all 37 states in the Union had public schools, and the United States had become one of the most literate countries in the world.

            Khan shows, piece by piece, how schools today chop learning into unconnected parts, yet it all needs to become connected in the mind of the student.  Without solid grounding in arithmetic, you will have trouble with algebra. Trigonometry flows from geometry. Calculus and physics both depend upon all the rest. Testing gives passing grades to students who have not mastered concepts, and will have trouble proceeding to higher learning.

            He shows an orderly school setting of perhaps 30 students, all listening to the teacher, all regulated by periods, bells to mark each period.  Much waste, no innovation, hard for kids to get into their learning.  Then he compares it to a room which looks like chaos.  Maybe 100 kids of various ages, with mentors. Perhaps 20 are on computers, learning deep and durable core concepts, 20 working on an economics problem using board games, 20 building robots or designing mobile apps.  Another 20 might be in a quiet corner, working on art or creative writing projects, and the final 20 working in another corner developing original music. This would recognize that children learn at different rates, and their learning may proceed in different directions. Older students may help younger.  Teachers in various areas of expertise may be all over the room, helping where it is needed. This model helps “average” students, and it also scoops up the “different thinking” students who might be lost in the standard setting.

            Next, Khan shows how the summer vacation is an anachronism, required when both boys and girls were needed to work in the fields.  Now, however, time away from school causes students to “un-learn” as neural pathways atrophy over the summer. Only a fortunate few kids actually enjoy character-building and learning experiences over the summer.  It’s a waste of children’s time, as well as a waste of schools and the whole education establishment. Why not arrange vacations that correspond to those of the parents, at any time of the year?

            Khan tells about developing a new computer-based learning process, and struggling to get a few thousand dollars of funding, money trickling in via PayPal.  Then, one day things started opening up for him. Ann Doerr, wife of a venture capitalist, learned about him and donated $10,000.  Khan met her and talked. A few months later she texted him that Bill Gates mentioned at a meeting that he and his kids had become fascinated with Khan’s You-tube lessons. She was sending him $100,000 right then.  Soon Gates flew Khan out to talk, and gave him $1.5 million to get started. 

            This funding freed Khan to get back to education, and he met a Silicon Valley investor and was soon developing a system to teach fifth and seventh grade mathematics for the Los Altos School District. Now, Salman, or Sal, as he calls himself, from Metairie, Louisiana, son of parents from India and Bangla Desh, is not just teaching above-average kids from wealthy families, who have an above-average appetite for learning.  Now, in classes where 95 percent of the students are African-American or Latino, who in previous years had “failed to engage with coursework and had spent little to no time studying” kids were catching fire with learning.

            In “The Spirit of the One World Schoolhouse” Khan spills out his ideas for a truly effective learning environment. 

            Get rid of age stratification, another vestige of the Prussian model. Kids can reproduce at 12, so they are probably wired to teach at that age.  We fail to entrust adolescents with real responsibility. We deny them the chance to mentor or to help others, and we conspire in their isolation and self-involvement. With self-paced learning, older kids become allies of the teacher, mentoring and tutoring younger kids who are behind. 

            Teach as a Team Sport. Merge classrooms, and let students learn at their own pace. Teachers, and older students, are free to float, to help with projects, or to mentor kids who need it.

            Ordered Chaos is a Good Thing. Remember the 100-student classroom mentioned above.

            Redefine Summer. Re-think summer vacation. Schools left empty for several months a year is a waste of resources. In a self-paced learning environment, kids take vacation when it is needed, at various times in the year.

 

            In his Conclusion, Khan writes: “As I hope is clear by now, I’m a big believer that almost anyone can obtain an intuitive understanding of almost any concept if he or she approaches it with a deep understanding of the fundamentals.”

            Can creativity be taught?  Maybe yes, maybe no, but it can certainly be squelched.

            Rigid, lockstep education—the Austrian model, brought to America by Horace Mann, is still very much in practice in our schools today.  Rewarding passivity and conformity, minimizing risk, balkanized curricula aimed at fulfilling government mandates.

            One World School House is a revolutionary book about the creation of a revolutionary man. I hope that it is time to put it to the test. 

Postscript:

            We have just seen a drama played out in Ferguson, Missouri.  Whatever you think about white vs. black, or the judicial system, or the police, one thing is clear:  Far too many young people are growing up like Michael Brown, and all too likely to get into trouble, and too many will lose their lives.

             What if we had an educational system that gathered up young people, especially those left adrift by the present system, and gave them all the tools to become energetic, enthusiastic and productive members of society? 

            What if some of those young people became part of the system of law enforcement, and leadership in the community? 

-end-

HISTORY BOOK CLUB TOPICS

Wed. Dec. 3:  History of public education

How crucial is it for a country to have an educated public? How did the concept of providing schooling for all develop?

Wed. Jan. 28, 2015:  History of the Future; how the future was imagined in the past. The Guggenheim's "Italian Futurism 1909-1941" paintings exhibit gives the idea.

Not many history books may exist, I can only think of Morus' Utopia, but perhaps

some fiction will qualify.  

Wed. Feb. 25, 2015:    - Spies and spy agencies

Intriguing topic, plenty of connections to recent developments (Putin's rise,

WikiLeaks, Snowden).  Read a book and tell us about any part of the intriguing world of spies, spy agencies or espionage.  Think MI-5, KGB, Stasi, Mossad, Mata Hari, Kim Philby, National Security Agency, CIA….

About the first Armistice Day, 1918

PRIVATE DIXON LONG COULBOURN, Army of the United States

  

Young Private Coulbourn on bivouac with Co. E, 124^th Infantry Rgt., 1917

(In third tent on right.)

           On Veterans' Day, 2014, my thoughts go back to my Dad's account of that day in 1918, when he was a young soldier, fighting in France....

 My Dad, Dixon Long Coulbourn, was busy all his life, always in a hurry, and yet he lived to be 98 years old.

            He was born in a little Virginia town on Chesapeake Bay on January 27, 1899.  His dad ran an oyster business.  The employees were all African-Americans, and I am sure some of the older ones had been slaves at one time. 

            Watermen raked up tons of oysters and brought them back to Morattico to be processed.  Black oyster shuckers worked all day, filling barrels with fresh shucked oysters, which were iced down and rushed to customers all over the eastern United States.

It was hard work, and a typical shucker made $6 a week.  They piled up mountains of oyster shells. 

            America was going to war in France to fight the Germans in 1917, and young Dixon was in a hurry to join.  He enlisted in the 124^th Infantry Regiment (First Florida), and was shipped up to Camp Devens in Massachusetts, to join the Yankee Division.

            1,500,000 young men boarded troop transports and were soon fighting in France. Dixon was among them. The shells exploding near him permanently damaged his hearing, so he spent the rest of his life with very poor hearing.

            On November 11, 1918, Armistice was declared. People went from unit to unit, announcing the news.  Dixon remembered that vividly, especially because a cook wagon came to the front lines and started cooking pancakes for the soldiers.  “Man, that was the most wonderful thing!” Dixon used to say. 

            As it has done for most men, and now women as well, combat made a lasting impression on Dixon.  He was proud of his service.

            When the war was over, all the soldiers returned to America, and suddenly all those young men were looking for jobs at the same time.  Dixon and his brothers went to work in central Florida, packing strawberries and trying all kinds of schemes to make a living.   Texas was gaining notice all over the country because oil wells were popping up, new refineries were being built, and workers were needed. In 1927, Dixon got himself on a freight train headed for Texas.  He made his way to Port Arthur, in the southeastern corner of Texas.  Real estate developers financed with money from the Netherlands had begun building a town here to handle shipments of locally grown rice. They located the Kansas City Southern Railways terminus here, and Dutch settlers came to live, followed by Americans. Then a huge oil discovery at Spindletop, right where all the Dutchmen were living, led to creation of several refineries here. Texaco and Gulf Oil companies were created. Families began streaming here to make their fortune in this oil boom town. 

Gusher at Spindletop, Jan. 10, 1901

Courtesy of American Petroleum Institute

            For a young man, veteran of The Great War, looking for work, this looked to be the place, and Dixon landed here.  Dixon found a job as a bookkeeper at a local grocery store. Dixon, who enlisted in the Army before he had graduated from high school, now enrolled in correspondence courses to learn to be an accountant.  He earned his certificate.

He met a young woman at a Methodist Church social event. Katherine was the daughter of a doctor and a strong supporter of the local Methodist Church and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.  Dixon and Katherine were soon married. 

            I was born a couple of years later, in 1934, and my brother Dixon Wall Coulbourn was born two years later, in 1936.

            Dixon then began taking the test to become a Certified Public Accountant, but didn’t make it.  He took it again.  All through World War II, every year he took the test, and finally, in about 1945, he earned the “CPA” designation. We were all so proud of him!

            In 1944 my sister, Martha Louise, was born, and our parents looked at the neighborhood where we lived, just over a mile from downtown, and decided that now, with a little girl, it was time to move to more idyllic surroundings. So, in 1945 we moved to Griffing Park.  Here we had a cow pasture beyond our back door. Dixon ordered a flock of Plymouth Rock chickens from a supplier in Massachusetts, and soon we were in the chicken business. 

Dixon’s family, 1946

L to R: Dixon, young Dixon, Martha, Sam, Katherine.

            We collected the eggs each morning, and cleaned all the chicken mess up, and fed the chickens.  Dixon started his own accounting firm, leaving for work after he had made sure that we were doing our chicken chores.

            Dixon was always in a hurry.  He hurried to work, and he hurried home.  He ate each meal like there’d not be another.  The only thing he slowed down for was church. We all went to the Methodist Temple downtown every Sunday, but as soon as the sermon started, Dad would turn off his hearing aid and drift off to sleep. 

            Dixon loved gadgets.  All during World War II, Army surplus items were finding their way to market, and when war ended, there was a flood of interesting gadgets, and Dad wanted to buy as many as he could find. 

            He had a friend who owned a store that sold outboard motors for boats and all kinds of appliances, from washing machines to record players. 

            Dixon bought an electric deep freezer, and then one of the new Bendix washing machines, with the window, so you could see the clothes swirling around inside.  He bought my mother an electric ironing machine (mangle), which turned out to be a total waste of money.

            When a new voice recorder came out, that you could record on a paper disk, he brought one home to try out, and took it back.  Then a wire recorder came out that made a recording on a slim silver wire on a spool.  He brought that home, and then took it back. 

            However, we were one of the last families in the neighborhood to buy a television. 

            Even though he loved gadgets, Dad was no spendthrift!

            Dad kept his accounting business until he was 73 years old, then with all of us kids with families of our own, he and mother moved to Georgetown, Texas, where he opened up another accounting business, and wrote a book, “Control Your Finances”.

            All his adult life, Dad was a loyal member of the Kiwanis Club and the American Legion.  On his 90^th birthday the local newspaper ran a front-page story of this crusty old World War I veteran.  Dad wasn’t pleased about the publicity, because he thought the fact that he was 90 years old might turn away some of his accounting business.

            Thank you for your service to our Country, Dad!

Rockport Art Association by Cooley

History Book Club

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

History of Art in America

Busy Harbor by William Lester Stephens (1888-1969)

(Courtesy of Skinner)

Cooley, John L., Rockport Sketch Book: Stories of Early Art and Artists; Rockport, MA: Rockport Art Association. 1965, Paperback, 122 pp.

            Since my wife and I came to Rockport to live in 1989, one very formidable woman has cast her shadow over our lives. 

            If you ever met Lura Hall Phillips, you’d remember her.  She was a smart and determined woman who enlisted Marty and me in working with Millbrook Meadow Committee, and we’ve been in it ever since, for 25 years.  Lura was the wife of Stanley N. Phillips, a noted artist.

            Now, just as I began to read John Cooley’s delightful Rockport Sketch Book, on the introduction page by the head of the Rockport Art Association back in 1965, it all starts when a woman visitor walks in the Rockport Art Association and asks the assistant curator if there is a brochure, booklet or other material about the early days of art in Rockport. 

            The assistant curator was Lura, and she knew of no such brochure, but added, “But there should be something.”  John Cooley overheard the conversation, and set about to write this book.  However, knowing Lura, if he had not volunteered, sooner or later he would find himself writing it.   Lura got things done, one way or another.

Rockport has achieved the status of one of the finest art colonies in the world. 

            John Cooley’s little book will explain that with a string of memories and vignettes about the early artists who came here, set up easels, painted, and then stayed, many for the rest of their lives.

Cooley begins with a lengthy list of artists, writers and sculptors who visited Cape Ann in the nineteenth century, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Winslow Homer, Henry David Thoreau, Alexander Graham Bell, and Rudyard Kipling. 

Gilbert Tucker Margeson (1852-1949) operated the telegraph key in Gloucester for Western Union, ran a stationery story on Main Street in Rockport, and collected taxes for the Town.  Oh, and he was also an accomplished painter of the sea and ships. He opened his studio here in 1873.

Parker S. Perkins, (1862-1942) famed for his white suit with a flower in the lapel and a straw hat with red band. He kept at least 20 cats.  Other artists said, “Nobody painted the sea just as Parker Perkins painted it.” He came to town a little after Margeson. 

William Harrison Cady (1872-1933) came to Rockport before 1900, and worked closely with Margeson and admired Perkins.  He is most famous for the some 15,000 drawings he did for Thornton Burgess’ animal stories about Johnny Chuck, Reddy Fox and Peter Rabbit.

William Lester Stephens (1886-1969) was the first native son of Rockport. Parker Perkins recognized his talent, and gave him lessons. Stephens went away to study at the Boston Museum School, wrote for a Boston weekly newspaper and worked in an antique store.  Soon he returned to Rockport and built a studio in Holbrook Court.

Stephens spent a year in the Army in World War I, and was discharged in France.  Then he remained in Europe for a while, painting.  He painted enough for two shows back in Boston.

Hibbard at work, ca. 1938

Aldro T. Hibbard (1886-1972) came to town in 1920, a packet of paints in one hip pocket, and a baseball glove in the other.  He was pleased to see Stephens here; the two had attended art school together.  He set up work in an old harness shop and livery stable back of what is now Tom Nicholas’ Gallery. He organized the Rockport Summer School of Painting, and it operated until 1950. He was a major influence for artists who followed, such as Paul Strisik and Nicholas.

In 1921 local artists decided to hold their first local exhibition.  To plan it, and also to form an artists’ association, they met in Hibbard’s school.  By now there were about 50 artists—year-round and summer—painting in Rockport.  Harry Vincent was elected president, Hibbard secretary, and an executive committee included Stephens. The treasurer was Howard E. Smith, a nationally known portrait painter. The exhibition they planned soon took place, in the Congregational Church.

The Rockport Art Association (RAA) was born.

Rockport Motif No. 1 by Aldro T. Hibbard (1886-1972)

As soon as the artists formed their association, they began looking for a home.  Finally, in 1929 they were able to buy the old tavern on Main Street. The price was $6000. The house, built before 1878, was converted by Captain Josiah Haskell into a tavern, and then Caleb Norwood used it as an inn, and established a dance hall on the second floor.  This had been an inn, and a stage coach stop at various times. 

Rockport Art Association, 1973

Cooley writes happily about the vibrant social life of these artists.  It was simple, but they seem to have kept themselves entertained with teas, games of charades, and chowder parties at each other’s homes.  There were Saturday night suppers and dances at Murray Hall and Haskins Hall.  There were scavenger hunts in Dogtown and in the South Woods, and some enjoyed sailing. Hibbard, of course, was thoroughly involved with baseball at Evans Field. Each year they held a costume ball as a major fund raiser, working to pay off the mortgage on the RAA’s Old Tavern.

Rockport was becoming better known to anyone who looked at the thousands of paintings that made their way across America and the world, and also articles in magazines about this quaint village with the granite quarries, the fishermen and the beautiful scenery.

About 1940 Hibbard noted that the expanding art colony “realized the necessity of appealing to the townspeople to preserve as far as possible the quaintness and antiquity of the town.” Rockport, he said, “still had enough of its original character to be worth saving,” and he quoted one artist: “’the town’s all right; leave it alone.’”

Hibbard’s advice still holds.  While towns all around have filled up with fast-food chain stores, and other efforts toward homogeneity and so-called modernity, Rockport has resisted the temptation to “look like every other town”. 

-end-

We in the History Book Club of Rockport are indebted to Dr. Janos Posfai for recommending this topic for the month of October, 2014. 

The short, sad life of Midshipman Elder

Five Deadly Shots

The short, sad life of Ned Elder

Midshipman E.A. Elder, Class of 1893

            Frederick Sullivan was playing golf at the Bass Rocks golf course in Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1974 when he came across a gold ring in the grass.  It was the 1893 Naval Academy class ring of Edwin Avery Elder of Newton, Massachusetts.  

Class ring, USNA 1893

            Sullivan showed it to his wife, Drue, and they put it in a safe place.  Sullivan died in 1984, and the ring stayed in the back of his chest of drawers.  Then, one day in 1999 Drue pulled the ring out and began a search to find out about Mr. Elder.  What ever became of him? How did his ring end up in a golf course in Gloucester?

            

            Through friends, she obtained information from the Naval Academy, and found an article in the New York Times which told this story:

            Elder was born in Newton, MA, the son of a bank teller. He went through the Newton schools with honor. He was appointed to Annapolis by Congressman John W. Candler of Boston.  He passed the Academy entrance exams with ease, entering in 1889. He completed four years at the Academy, graduating fourth of the 44 men in his class in 1893. 

Midshipman Elder

US Bennington ca. 1890

            Shortly after graduation he joined USS Bennington (PG-4), a 17,000-ton steam-powered gunboat. The ship was still new when Naval Cadet Elder boarded her, commissioned in 1891. The ship sailed from New York on August 6, 1893. Elder and his shipmates visited many ports and operated all over the Mediterranean Sea until July 18, 1894 when Bennington sailed past the Rock of Gibraltar headed west. They began a long cruise on their way to the Pacific Station.  They visited various ports along the Atlantic coast of South America, then rounded Cape Horn. Bennington then visited Valparaiso, Chile in April, 1895, then on to at Mare Island Navy Yard in San Francisco Bay, arriving on April 30, 1895.

After arrival at the shipyard, Elder was given a physical examination for commissioning in the Navy, and found to have a heart irregularity, which was cause for discharge. He was discharged in June, 1895 and returned home to Boston.  He was apparently quite distressed by not being able to continue in the Navy, but he enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Five Deadly Shots.  A New York Times dispatch datelined Portland, ME on December 4, 1895 reported that Elder had apparently committed suicide in that city.

On Saturday, November 30 Elder left home in East Newton, taking the train to Boston.  He later boarded the Boston & Maine train in North Station headed for Portland.  

The Times article related: This young man, neatly dressed, smooth shaven and of good appearance, arrived at Hotel Preble early Sunday, December 1, and registered as “John H. Vose, of New York.” He arrived without baggage.  By Tuesday, since he had made no payment, the proprietor asked the clerk to notify him that his bill needed to be paid. The clerk notified Elder.

When Elder finished his supper, instead of going out through the office he went through the ladies’ parlor and then up to his room.  The door had been locked so he called a chambermaid, who let him in.  A few minutes later a bellboy went to the room with the message that the proprietor wished to see him. Starting to leave the room, Elder said to the bellboy, “I’ve forgotten something – I’ll be down in a moment.”

Ten minutes elapsed and when Elder did not come down, the proprietor went up to the room.  He found the door bolted, and heard groans.  He returned to the office and called the police. Then the hotel clerk went up to the room and climbed on a chair and looked over the transom.  He saw the body of a man, half on the bed and half on the floor.  He climbed through the transom and, once inside, discovered a man with a pistol in his hand, lying there, groaning and bleeding, and breathing heavily.  He had several bullet holes in his head, at the back of his ear.

Elder had planned to deaden the sound of the gun by wrapping bed clothes tightly around his head.  Two domestics sitting in the room next door had heard no sound. The ambulance came and took the man to Maine General Hospital where he soon died.

In Elder’s clothing police found a note, written in pencil:

“Dear Father,

If you ever get this, I suppose it will find you much mystified as to what has become of me, but don’t let it trouble you.  You have done without me for six years, and you’ll get used to it again. Don’t any of you think anything you have said or done has to do with my going.  My mind was made up some time ago. What money I had and the traveling expenses will partly square my account. I appreciate all you have done for me and I am sorry to make so poor a return for it.  I enclose a pawn ticket.

Love to all,

Ned”

Did the pawn ticket belong to the gold Naval Academy ring?  How did the ring get from the family in Newton to a golf course in Gloucester? 

Drue (who is my neighbor in Rockport) brought all the information she had gathered and showed me, since I had also graduated from the Naval Academy, 64 years after Ned.  I could imagine his life at the Academy, because there are so many things at that place that change very slowly. 

The white jumper with name stenciled across the front chest was the same.  The “Dixie cup” hat had gotten smaller, though. Midshipmen still marched to class.  Plebes (freshmen) marched in the corridors of Bancroft Hall, squaring corners, clicking heels, saluting at officers.  At meals, plebes ate a “square meal” bringing their fork or spoon up vertically to mouth level, then bringing it mouthward, like a steam shovel (excavating machine). 

Even in 2014 at the Academy, 121 years after Ned graduated, many things are still the same.  Of course, when Ned was studying naval boilers they were fired with coal, and now we use gas turbines and nuclear power.  By the way, on USS Bennington, the ship Ned sailed in for two years, blew up with a tremendous boiler explosion in 1905.  Sixty-two men died then.

Ned studied how to fire the big guns being built onto warships in the 1890s, and 64 years later we were still learning how to operate and fire the 16-inch guns aboard our battleships.  Today, Midshipmen, male and female, learn about laser-guided bombs, Tomahawk missiles, directed energy weapons, and all manner of sophisticated detection, communication and warfighting equipment.

If Ned would have been able to stay in the Navy, he would probably have fought Spain in the Spanish-American War of 1898, either in the Philippine Islands or in Cuba. 

            It’s not known if Ned had a girlfriend, but when he graduated in 1893 he would not have been allowed to marry.  Naval leaders in those days wisely prevented young men from marrying before the long cruises they took.  Only after he had returned from his two-year cruise to the Mediterranean and around South America to California would he have been able to marry.  Had he passed that physical, he would then have received his commission as an Ensign.

But that was not to happen.  It’s hard to understand any time a young person takes his or her life.  Then, or today.

Ned had obtained a magnificent education, and he’d topped it off with two years at sea on a Navy gunboat, covering a lot of land and water. 

Of course it is discouraging when the medics tell you that you won’t be able to continue in the naval service, but it does not appear that his disability was life-threatening.  Whatever they detected meant that he should not be subjected to the harsh life at sea.  At any rate, those around Ned related that he was very depressed. 

Perhaps if Ned had lived in this century, he might have found a way to a new life.

                                                                                    ---Samuel W. Coulbourn

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