Author: whs
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The Ruins of Ringville
By Dave and Cath Whitcomb, with photographs by Kate Ewald On September 28, 2014 – a glorious fall day – a contingent of amateur historians and interested residents followed David Whitcomb of Witt Hill Road on a tour through industrial ruins of the Ringville section of Worthington, Massachusetts, at the convergence of Watts Stream and…
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Night of the Living Dead at Center Cemetery
by Pat Kennedy and Diane Brenner On the evening of August 9, 2014, as the full moon rose, WHS vice president Pat Kennedy led about 30 onlookers around Worthington’s Center Cemetery on Sam Hill Road. As the group would shortly discover, several residents of the cemetery had taken a break from eternity to tell their…
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The Brown Family Bottles
by Diane Brenner, with photos by Kate Ewald Ben Brown grew up in Worthington and has been collecting old bottles since he was five. His enthusiasm encouraged his father, Harold (“Brownie”) Brown, to begin collecting as well. The photographs below show only a part of Ben’s collection, which was catalogued for a 2007 exhibit at…
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Shays’ Rebellion: Trouble in the Hills
by Richard Mansfield The Declaration of Independence stated, “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”…
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Postcards from South Worthington
by Evan Spring This is the second in a series of four postcard exhibits from the WHS archives. By the mid-19th century South Worthington was a distinct “mill hamlet,” with at least a dozen homes and various industries clustered around the local power supply: a rapid elevation drop in the Little River. The photographs of…
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Postcards from the Corners
by Evan Spring This is the first in a series of four posts featuring postcards of Worthington. Over the years Worthington has generated enough different postcards to fill a small shoebox in the Worthington Historical Society archive. If this sounds surprising, consider that Worthington has long been a summer refuge for northeastern urbanites separated from…
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Lyder Frederickson, Hilltown Artist
by Jim Dodge Frederick Lyder Frederickson was born in 1905 in Mandal, a harbor on the southern tip of Norway. When Lyder was a teenager he helped his uncles on a sailing ship transporting lumber south to England. He once told me about a beautiful day when the schooner was under full sail and how…
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18th-century Virginia Court Documents Found in Worthington Attic: Stolen by Union Troops in 1862?
by George H. Bresnick The countryside around Stafford, Virginia – bordering the Potomac River, and now part of the Washington metropolitan area – was devastated by the occupation forces of the Union Army in November, 1862. So severe was the physical damage and the loss of population that it is said that the land and…
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Recollections of Emerson Davis
Introduction by Diane Brenner Emerson Jewett Davis (“Emmy”) was born in North Adams, Massachusetts on February 17, 1888, the sixth child in the Davis family. His father, Raymond Harrison Davis, was a Vermont-born architect/carpenter; his mother, Harriet Emeline Wilson, was originally from Groton, Massachusetts. Emerson was preceded by Orrin (b. 1876), Ida (1878), Walter (1880),…
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Bandana Dan (1965–2013) Remembered
Daniel G. Steer, better known as “Bandana Dan,” was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, on October 1, 1965. He lived in several places around the state, including North Andover, Lawrence, and North Reading, before moving to Windsor in 2005 and Worthington in 2007. He died Thursday, March 7, 2013 at his home on 211 West Street…