What would the Pilgrims have Thought?

This tidbit from the Brockton Enterprise of August 24, 1912 indicates that the cranberry truly was king in Middleborough, the harvest that year even postponing a traditional local meeting of churches.

   "There isn't going to be a meeting of the Plymouth County neighborhood convention of the churches next month because of cranberries.
   "That sounds rather strange, but Gen. Sec. A. H. Wardle of the [Middleborough] Y. M. C. A., who is secretary of the convention, announces this to be the reason for missing the September meeting.
   "Ordinarily the sessions are resumed in September after the vacation period, and it was expected the same custom would be in effect this year....
   "But it didn't happen. The active members of these churches are so busy gathering up cranberries, which literally translated means money, that they can't stop to entertain church delegates, Mr. Wardle states, so the meeting will go over till October.
   "It is said to be the first time the convention failed to resume its meetings in September, and the reason assigned is considered a very unusual one."

Source: Brockton Enterprise, "Cranberry is King, Religious Convention is Postponed", August 24, 1912.
  

"Recollecting Nemasket" Inspires Dutch Singer-Songwriter

      “Guess you never expected a Dutch singer/songwriter to write and record an album based on stories from Middleborough”. Frankly I would have said no to such a suggestion, but that was precisely the line that greeted me in last Friday morning’s email. Inspired by articles about Middleborough history posted on Recollecting Nemasket, Dutch independent singer-songwriter Wouter Broekman has released two songs, “101 in the Shade” and “Cranberry Swamp”, as a double A-side single and is currently at work completing a fourth album based upon historical Middleborough material.

     While the international appeal of Middleborough history seems at first remarkable, that Broekman has chosen to draw upon Middleborough history is unsurprising in the final analysis. Both historians and songwriters share a common desire to tell stories. And while local history is often perceived as narrow and very specific in regard to geographical location, like history in general it is about documenting and understanding the human condition over time. Localization of history simply makes the themes it explores more accessible, immediate and relatable to local audiences who can understand them better because they know the people and places involved. In the end these themes remain universal and transcend locality, having a potential appeal to a global community as demonstrated by Broekman.

     “101 in the Shade” draws its inspiration from a Recollecting Nemasket post regarding the summer of 1911 when one of the worst heatwaves and extended droughts in Middleborough’s history was recorded. The song’s title is taken from an item in the Middleboro Gazette that reported July 3 as the hottest day for many years with the temperature hitting “101 in the shade at the postoffice at noon.”

     In it Broekman writes:

Cause it’s close to 101 in the shade
The rising heat sets fire to the fallen hay
101 in the shade
Get off the land, this ain’t no workin’ day

    The second track on the single, “Cranberry Swamp” takes it lyrics from a poem simply entitled "Cranberry" that was originally published in the mid-19th century at a time when commercial cranberrying was in its infancy. It was republished by Recollecting Nemasket in 2009 where Broekman discovered it. As alluded to in the poem by the unknown author, children were involved in harvesting the berry and some local schools like that at South Middleborough were closed in September in order to free the children to work on the bogs or, as they were known in mid-19th century parlance, "swamps".

In Autumn, when weather is cool,

We'll join in a holiday romp;

Away from the school we will hie,

Away to the Cranberry swamp.

The Strawberry, Raspberry too,

And Blackberry, quickly gone;

The Blueberry cannot endure

When frost and the snow come on.

But Cranberries where they are grown,

Or put into family store,

Care nothing how cold it may be,

And last till the winter is o'er.

They last till the Strawberries spring

All lonely and ripe from the sod,

And berries thus circle the year

With proofs of the goodness of God.

To accompany the poem, Broekman has written a distinctly American-feeling folk tune that is beautiful in its simplicity and ideally suited to the lyric.

     Both songs are part of Broekman’s current project, “A Life in Song”, a CD of American folk-style songs drawn from Middleborough history. Broekman explained the origins of his lyrical inspiration in an email to me:  “Some time ago I stumbled upon the story of 6-year old Wallace Spooner, who died after jumping out of a window of Ocean House on the banks of the mill pond on Wareham Street - as featured on your blog. The story inspired me so much that I am currently writing and recording an Americana-style CD around this fact. The songs of the album tell the -partly fictitious/partly true- story of the Spooner family. I am incorporating several historic events from Middleborough, such as the burning down of the Alden shoe factory, the hottest day in years, the Cranberry Poem and more. I have written a song about the demolition of Ocean House as well.”

     The Ocean House was a ramshackle building located on the west shore of the mill pond at Wareham Street, its name a possibly satiric barb aimed at luxury hotels which were then in vogue at the seaside. For local Middleborough children without means, this was their ocean-side alternative. The Ocean House proved popular with neighborhood children who would dive from its open windows into the mill pond below. This activity ended, however, following the tragic 1905 death of six year old Wallace Spooner who while engaged in diving from the building struck his head upon a stone wall, fell into the river and drowned. Nothing, however, was done with the property until 1908 when the Middleborough Board of Health condemned the structure which was demolished two years later in spring of 1910.
     Broekman currently performs regularly in the Netherlands and always includes both “101 in the Shade” and “Cranberry Swamp” in his set, along with others he has written but yet to record. He describes his songs as having "clear influences of folk, country and Americana with a contemporary singer/songwriter sauce.... The acoustic guitar is my main support."
     Both songs may be heard on Bandcamp and Broekman's own site.

Heatwave and Drought, 1911

One hundred years ago, Middleborough experienced an extended heatwave and drought, then one of the most severe on record. 

July 3, 1911, was reported as the hottest day for many years with the temperature hitting “101 in the shade at the postoffice at noon.”

Masons who were at work on the stonework of cellars here had to give up.  Farmers in South Middleboro and the Green neighborhood quit the hayfields early [on the morning of the 4^th], the horses and men not being able to stand the rising heat from the newly mown hay…. The railroad sectionmen suffered greatly and finally had to give up work.

Local cranberry bogs were seared from the combination of excessive heat and a lack of rain, and cranberry growers held all water possible in reserve in their reservoirs.  Fears were widespread that much expensive crop and timberland would be destroyed were a fire to start. 

Fires, in fact, did start.  “During the intense noonday heat” on July 3, a fire was discovered in the woods between Plymouth and Plympton Streets east of the Nemasket railroad station at the Green.  “Available men in the village were summoned by the sectionmen.  They fought the fire for three hours, finally extinguishing it.”  The house of Edward Buchanan was threatened, but saved by a last minute change in the wind direction which pushed the fire into the Meetinghouse Swamp.

While men were busily engaged fighting the Green fire, elsewhere in Middleborough in possible in preparation for festivities on the fourth, Middleborough police cracked down upon the illicit sale of alcohol, which some may have sought as a relief from the heat.  Chief of Police Harry Swift and his men seized a number of packages containing illegal alcohol which were being shipped by the Eagle Express Company at Middleborough.  “The chief claims that there were several packages of liquor wrapped up and marked to the name of the owner but that the collection of packages was placed inside a large hamper which was locked and not marked on the outside as to the nature of the contents.”

The heat continued through the middle of the month, causing the death of 69-year-old Sarah W. Howes at her Center Street home.  “She was found on the floor and had expired about an hour before found.”

Without rain, local woodlands remained tinder dry.  A more serious woods fire was started near Tispaquin Pond July 15, and was attributed to a careless smoker who had been blueberrying.  The blaze, fueled by the dry woods, spread rapidly northeastwards towards Thomastown, “endangering the residences of Charles Taggard, Josiah Thomas, Joseph Thomas, Benjamin Hathaway and others.”  Though the fire was believed to have been brought under control on the afternoon of the 15^th, the following day a gang of firefighters was called out to fight the fire which was once more out of hand.  The men remained at work all through the night, and the fire was forced underground where it burned into the peat.  The potential for a long-burning fire was high, “unless there is a drenching rain to extinguish it”.  Watch was kept on the fire which continued to burn underground for a number of days, and though it failed to break out, it spread towards a valuable woodlot owned by Joseph Thomas near the intersection of Purchase and Chestnut Streets.  The fire was not brought fully under control until the end of the month.  Before it was extinguished, it destroyed some $5,000 worth of standing and cut timber with Charles Taggard and Josiah Thomas being the biggest losers

Given the cause of the fire, woodlot owners throughout Middleborough not surprisingly posted no trespassing signs on their properties. 

Especially is this true of the huckleberry patches, and some farmers threaten to prosecute anyone gathering berries on their land.  The reason is the prevalence of woodland fires.  The berry pickers, the land owners believe, smoke in the woods and swamps, and occasionally a fire starts from it.

Though heavy rains finally came towards mid-month, they had very little effect, and it was noted on July 25^th that “even the heavy rains do not appear to revive vegetation to any marked degree.”

Great fields of grass are burned brown, and it is improbable that there will be a second crop off the land this year.  Garden truck is short, and prices are accordingly high.

Based upon the failure of a large portion of the vegetable crop, the prospect for the fall’s cranberry crop was bleak.  Ironically, hopes for a high yield for 1911 had initially been high.  The cranberry crop had escaped the June frosts which in some years previous had plagued growers.  The drought and hot weather, however, dashed these prospects, and growers by July were estimating that half the crop would be lost.

Blossoms which were plentiful withered and came to naught, it is said, on account of the terrible heat, and some bogs look like a red blanket, where the sun burned them.  This was on “dry bogs,” which have no water flowage facilities.”

Such dry weather had not been recalled by most within living memory in either Middleborough or Lakeville.  Percy Robbins of Lakeville who formerly required rubber boots in order to mow his fresh meadow was able to do so in just a pair of sneakers, so dry had it become.  One local tradition in Lakeville held that “hay was never cut, made and gathered into the barns unless nature sent a rousing rainstorm to wet it.  The countryside says that for 20 years or more the hay has always got a wetting, but this year it was cut and harvested without a drenching.”

Finally, the heatwave and dry spell broke at the end of July, when a series of storms passed through the region.  One violent storm on July 28 carried high winds which blew off a portion of the tin roof of the Peirce Block at the corner of Center and North Main Streets.  Fortunately there was no one in the street below at the time, as the torrential rain had driven everyone indoors.

Illustration:

Original photograph courtesy of busymonster.  Republished under a Creative Commons license.

Sources:

Brockton Enterprise, "Fought Fire Three Hours", July 3, 1911; "Seize Liquor at Middleboro", July 3, 1911; "Quit Work at Middleboro", July 4, 1911; "Expires from the Heat", July 13, 1911; "Middleboro", July 17, 1911; ibid., July 19, 1911; ibid., July 20, 1911; ibid., July 23, 1911; ibid., July 25, 1911; "Half a Cranberry Crop", July 26, 1911; "Roof Off in Middleboro", July 29, 1911

Cranberry Harvest at South Middleborough, 1895



Cranberries 2, photograph by Shaw Girl, January 3, 2009,

republished under a Creative Commons license

South Middle-

borough was a relative late-

comer to cranberry culti-

vation, despite its suita-

bility for the crop. Cranberry bogs were noted in neighboring South Carver and North Rochester during the late 1870s, though it seems that it was another fifteen years before bogs were established at South Middleborough when there is a record of a force picking at South Middleborough in 1893. Certainly Nathaniel Shurtleff had bogs at nearby France (the area of Middleborough situated along France Street) contemporary with or predating those at South Middleborough; he was harvesting from them in the fall of 1897.

One of the earliest bogs in South Middleborough was that of Frank Short who purchased two adjoining tracts of land totaling forty-seven acres in 1894 and 1898 from John S. and John L. Benson, respectively located on the south side of Wareham Street at Houdlett’s Corner (the intersection of Wareham and Pine Streets). The latter twenty-five acre parcel of swampland was subsequently drained by Short and transformed into a cranberry bog.

At the time, though there were few bogs at South Middleborough, the community was active in the annual harvest. “The cranberry season will soon be here, and we hear of some of our neighbors who will move to the bog with their families to stop during the busy season”, noted the Middleboro Gazette’s South Middleborough correspondent in September, 1895. Ultimately, over 20 South Middleborough residents would engage in that fall’s harvest, as pickers, as screeners, and as overseers.

That same year, 21-year-old Boston University student Jennie Gammons, daughter of Ephraim H. Gammons of South Middleborough, who would later become a noted local correspondent and in the mid-20th century one of the oldest active newspaperwomen in the country, wrote the following evocative description of the cranberry harvest as known to South Middleborough pickers.

At this season of the year the cranberry industry is at its height and there is many a picturesque scene on the flat, low-lying meadow land, intersected by ditches, and surrounded by hilly woodland, rising higher and higher in the distance with its tall trees, blackened once by forest fires. A bit of dry, withered foliage is seen at the tops of the trees, and below, the bare, brownish trunk with a few leafless branches. All this serves as a foundation to the changing and lively picture which the cranberry bog presents to-day.

Just on the slightly raised edge is a roughly built screen house with no ornamentation, save a square many-paned window and a steep, back stairway, leading to a tiny doorway somewhere near the roof.

Down on the meadow, a motley crowd teeming with energy, men clad in patched, half worn unmentionables and neglige [sic] sweaters; women in fantastic attire, and crowned with immense sun hats; children with burned, freckled face, some times tear stained; infants are there, too, some seeming to enjoy the situation, while others are holding their mouths in position for a loud cry. Through all this there is a gleam of the six-quart tin pail, marked off with ridges, and known as the cranberry measure.

Down on the ground amid the green net-work of vines are the masses of deep red berried, oval in shape and slightly pointed at the end, and right here are the pickers with heads bent over, fingers flying, keeping time to the thump, thump, made by the berries falling into the empty pail, which, by means of handful after handful fills up at last.

Occasional shouts of laughter and loud voices are mingled with the hurried click, click of the scoopers, which compelled by human power, ply through the vines and quickly pull away the fruit. Section after section is lined out, crawled over, trampled down, and the contents carried away in medium sized barrels. The only resting time is at the noontide hour, and the dinner pail takes the place of the cranberry measure and the lunch, consisting of sandwiches, a good supply of pastry with a bit of fruit, as dessert, would seem a royal meal, but for the wasps, which come, uninvited, for their share of sweetmeats. In spite of the mid-day heat the laborers, with renewed vigor, begin the afternoon’s work, which wears away, and, as the sun sinks lower the shadows appear, while now and then a cool breeze fans the hot faces and brings fresh zeal, so that the very busiest time is toward nightfall. The more deft of the pickers “head down” the delinquent, lagging ones and the whole crowd comes together with a hurried scrambling and scrabbling, lest the sly ones skip away and leave behind a bountiful supply of underberries, visible through the torn away vines.

The sudden shout “Knock off’ re-echoes over the meadow and ends the daily toil. Then follows a scattering hither and thither, but the continued cramped position has rendered the limbs stiff, and almost all carry themselves in an ungraceful manner. While on the homeward way, the tired look of the faces gradually changes to a more serene expression and the eyes, blinded by the hot sun together with the steady downward gaze, become brighter, and the empty pails, swinging on their arms, as they go, bring that sense of relief which comes only when a day’s labor is finished. The harvest of dimes piles up into dollars, others making the necessary wherewithal for winter use, and compensates for the discomfort caused by the torn, sore fingers, aching limbs and weary bodies.

Source:
Middleboro Gazette, "South Middleboro", August 23, 1895, page 1; ibid., September 13, 1895, page 1; and "Cranberrying", October 4, 1895, page 1.

"A Place to Review the Progress of Cranberries and Cranberry People", 1954

"Dumping Fruit into Seperator at L. B. Barker's, Bournedale, Mass. 1938", photograph, 1938
Middleborough Public Library Cranberry Collection

On April 22, 1954, Walter E. Piper Marketing Specialist of the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture spoke on WEEI radio Boston on the topic of the Middleborough Public Library cranberry collection. Piper had earlier given these same remarks to the annual meeting of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association. Piper claimed that he held two special interests in cranberries outside his day to day work. One was Edaville Railroad in Carver, the other was the Middleborough cranberry collection.

In this frame of mind I recently dropped in at the Middleboro Public Library to visit the Cranberry Room, as I do on almost every occasion when I get down, that way. This is a small room on the lower floor of the Library, which has been set apart for the use of the industry in preserving its records and mementos. It is in line with many such similar endeavors in various branches of industry and agriculture. The aim is very admirable. Certainly it may be of untold value to cranberry growers of a century hence to have easy access to such records. It has been said that history is philosophy taught by examples. In any industry or business, much can be learned from the experiences of predecessors—much that can be of immense importance and value in preventing a repetition of earlier mistakes, and in capitalizing on earlier accomplishment and successors.

Pioneers Of The Industry

That Cranberry Room is indeed a place for the quiet reflection which I have just mentioned. It carries the atmosphere of the pioneers of the industry. Some of their pictures hang on the walls. There, for example, is A. D. Makepeace, a name to conjure with in cranberry lore and tradition. An attached card states that he was the first large grower in a "combination whose crop in 1887 totaled 16,000 barrels." Another picture is that of Cyrus Cahoon, typical rugged Cape Codder, looking for all the world like a character out of a Joe Lincoln book. It was he who is associated with the discovery of the Early Black variety in 1847. Other
photographs and other views tell graphically of those pioneer days, such as the one marking the location of one of the bogs where Eli Howes brought to light the Howes berry in 1843.

Such were the men in their respective times who laid the foundation of the cranberry industry. The spirit with which they surmounted their difficulties is typical of Cranberry-land. This same spirit still prevails among cranberry people, and will be a factor in bringing about new and further achievements in cranberry culture and marketing.

First Organization

In reference to today's meetings, it is well here to record the beginnings of organized activities of growers in the original Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association which are so carefully recorded there in the Library Room. Written in a bold hand in the first record book is a notice of the original call to discuss organization—February 15, 1866. It reads as follows:

Notice

Cranberry Growers' Convention

All persons interested in the cultivation of cranberries are invited to meet at the Exchange Hall in Harwich on Thursday the 15th day of February first at 1 o'clock to consider the best method of cultivation, and such other matters relating to the subject as may come before the meeting. It is signed by Zebina H. Small, Obed Brooks, Cyrus Cahoon and Nathaniel Robbins.

Those were all men who were prominent in the then infant industry. Zebina Small, an odd Christian name to be sure, is spoken of frequently in the old histories in connection with cranberries and with public affairs. The meeting adjourned on that date to March 1, when the constitution of the Cape Cod Cranberry Association was adopted with 67 signers.

In Our Time

Thinking of the organization as we know it in our time, I thumbed through the records, and as I frequently do, I looked for reports of meetings over ten-year periods, such as 10, 20, 30 or 40 years ago. The record for the meeting of 1914, for example, lists the president as John C. Makepeace of Wareham. Vice-presidents were Seth Finney of Carver and Dr. F. F. Marsh of Wareham. Treasurer was Z. H. Jenkins of West Barnstable, and Lemuel C. Hall of Wareham served as secretary, as he did for many years.

In later reports, nearer my time, more familiar names came into view, and I was impressed to an increasing extent with these records of these many fine people who put all they had in time, effort and energy in helping bring the cranberry business up to its present prominent position in New England and American agriculture.

Looking Ahead

This Room in the Library is acquiring a great deal of worthwhile material. It started back more than a decade ago. I noted, for instance, at the 1944 meeting an item of $25 was voted for the Library Committee. The Association has encouraged its development, and the Library has shown a continuing interest.

The atmosphere of the Room is certainly wholly detached from the uncertainties and the tension of the present time. To me it emphasizes the fact that there is a branch of our agriculture which has its high place in the economy of the Commonwealth. It seems to carry a message to present-day cranberry people that they can well take pride in what has been achieved so far, and that they can go forward from here to new destinies.

A New Chapter

The Cranberry Room in the Middleboro Library is, as I have said, a place for quiet reflection and contemplation, with ample opportunity to review the progress of cranberries and cranberry people. And today as the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association gets together at its annual spring meeting in the Town Hall at Wareham, it will be writing a new chapter in the continuing records of the organization — a chapter which will be recorded for those years ahead, maybe for some interested group in 2054 who will search into the recordings of the past for guidance in their day and age.

Sources:
Cranberries, May, 1954, “Cranberry Room”, p. 20; June, 1957, “Walter E. Piper, Mass. Marketing Specialist, Does Much for Cranberries”, p. 12

Middleborough Cranberry Collection Established, 1939

Magnolia Brand cranberry barrel

label, early 1900s

Colorful cranberry labels such as this

are highly collectable today.  As early

as the 1940s, however, cranberry

labels were being solicited for inclusion

in the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers'

Association collection housed at the

Middleborough Public Library.

Source: Middleborough Public Library

Cranberry Collection

One of the most historically important collections of the Middleborough Public Library is its Cranberry Collection, once termed “the outstanding cranberry literature collection anywhere”. Yet while the collection has been long archived at the library, it was established not by the town but rather through the agency of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association beginning in the late 1930s.



The driving force behind the establishment of the library was Russell Makepeace of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association and Dr. Henry J. Franklin, Director of the University of Massachusetts Cranberry Experiment Station at East Wareham.  Looking to place cranberry cultivation on a more scientific footing, the two men agreed that the foundation of a library, available as a resource to growers, would help advance this goal. The development of agricultural libraries at this time was not a unique phenomenon. In the 1930s, the United States Department of Agriculture under the leadership of Henry A. Wallace was likewise expanding its holdings to create what would become one of the largest agricultural libraries in the world, the National Agricultural Library. Though Makepeace and Franklin’s objective was naturally much smaller, their goal of establishing a library for the cranberry industry was no less visionary.

Accordingly, the two men persuaded the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association which had been organized in 1886 for the “promotion of cranberry culture” and which had been instrumental in the founding of the East Wareham Experiment Station to establish a library committee to investigate the matter with Makepeace at its head. “It is hoped to obtain a library of documents and old records of the cranberry industry in Massachusetts. [Makepeace] said an agreement had been made with the Middleboro Public Library to store any records or books which could be obtained.” With the promise of a home, at its meeting in May, 1938, the Association voted to form a permanent library committee.

The approach to the trustees of the Middleborough Public Library was later reported to have been warmly received, and in part this may have been due to the influence of Mertie E. Witbeck, the librarian at the time. The library agreed to set aside space the collection, making available a room on the lower floor. Though it has been stated that Middleborough was selected due to its central location, the presence of the New England Cranberry Sales Company in Middleborough may also have been a likely factor in the Association's decision to house the collection in town.

A year later in 1939 Makepeace announced the library as an accomplished fact with the library to “consist of all publications, letters, records, etc., pertaining to the cranberry industry which it is possible to obtain.”

Already a great amount of material has been placed there. These, he said, included the magazine “Cranberries,” a set of reports of the annual meetings of the American Cranberry Growers’ Association, this being obtained through the courtesy of Frank D. Underwood of Harwich, the book “Cranberry Culture,” by Eastwood, furnished by Mrs. Drake of Harwich, a number of papers, letters, state and government bulletins, relating to the industry.

He urged any member who knew of any old diaries of cranberry growers of the past, bog records or other material which might easily be considered as being of no value and might be thrown away, to have them placed in the library so that eventually there will be a complete reference room with cranberry material kept for the information of visitors and for reference upon every possible phase of the industry.

He gave Dr. Henry J. Franklin of the State Cranberry Experiment Station great credit for assembling much of the material already gathered.

The Growers’ Association was supported in this work by Clarence J. F. Hall (1898-1967), editor and publisher of Cranberries magazine who was a vocal advocate of the project and who editorialized in the May, 1939, edition of that magazine about the benefits that could be derived from such a library. “This should be of help to the cranberry industry, not only of Massachusetts but to the growers in the other cranberry states. For, here will be filed away in time all information about all the ramifications of our cranberry culture, which can possibly be obtained.”

The Middleborough collection in fact may have stimulated others in cranberry growing districts throughout the nation to consider establishing similar libraries as well. Bandon, Oregon, a noted center of cranberry cultivation which today styles itself as the “Cranberry Capital of Oregon” was reported as contemplating the establishment of a cranberry collection in the 1940s.  “Mrs. Ethel Kranick, always alert to West Coast cranberry interests, hopes to start a ‘Cranberry Library’ at the Bandon city library. Her first contribution was a subscription for the library to CRANBERRIES”.

Throughout its first decades, Makepeace continued to be the motive power behind the Middleborough cranberry library. In 1941, he provided the Growers’ Association with a listing of the library’s holdings which were being continually supplemented, and suggested in 1943 that this listing be updated and published every five years. In 1944 “a number of reports and three volumes of ancient date” were added to the collection, largely through the effort of Dr. Franklin. The Association provided a small budget to the library committee of $25 during these years which was typically spent on maintenance and binding.  Accession of items including early records of the Association, photographs, cranberry labels, technical papers, journals and other documents to the collection were largely made at no cost, these items being generously donated.

Dr. Henry J. Franklin, photograph,

1930s

Franklin served as the first

Director of the University of

Massachusetts Cranberry

Experiment Station at East Wareham,

Massachusetts, being named to the

position in 1910.  As a research

scientist, Franklin sought to

strengthen the scientific

foundation of cranberry

cultivation and believed that an

extensive library of cranberry

literature could help further this

goal.  Through his efforts, a large

portion of the materials ultimately

included in the Middleborogh

Public Library's Cranberry

Collection were first gathered.  The

collection was named in his honor in

1946.

In 1946, the library was named the “Henry J. Franklin Cranberry Library” in honor of the man who had done so much to assemble the materials which constituted the bulk of the collection. The Growers’ Association appropriated $550 to outfit the room in Middleborough Public Library where the collection was housed for the purchase of files, shelves, tables, chairs and for the completion of a card index to the collection.

Despite this expenditure for library furniture, the collection remained housed in rather rustic conditions.   “…The book cases and filing cabinets now are quarter barrel cranberry boxes, stacked atop of each other, to hold the valuable data. There are some metal filing cabinets, and when available it is planned to have metal stacks for the room, instead of cranberry boxes, but they sure do seem in keeping with the business to have them so used.” (Today, the collection is maintained in archivally-stable boxes in secure cases).

At the time the library was named for Franklin, “it was pointed out this is the outstanding cranberry literature collection anywhere, and it might be desirable later on that a bibliography be prepared for other libraries in the country, including the Department of Agriculture library at Washington.”  Much of the work, subsequent to Franklin, was carried out by Dr. Frederick B. Chandler of the East Wareham Experimental Station. Chandler solicited members to make donations of items to the collection, including cranberry labels, an item which prompted Cranberries to report in that “barrel labels have now become so rare as to be collected and deposited in the Middleboro Public Library.”

A review of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association in 1950 indicated the foundation of the library as among its most noteworthy achievements. At this time it was recognized as “undoubtedly the greatest collection of ‘Cranberryiana’ in the world”.  Yet despite the wealth of materials archived in the collection and the pride which the Growers’ Association clearly had in the collection, it was underused by growers, so much so that Cranberries urged “visits – frequent ones – to that ‘cranberry room.’ This is a project of Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association which is given too little attention. There is much of interest there to every grower.” To reinforce its case, the magazine reprinted remarks made by Walter A. Piper of the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture before the spring meeting of the Growers’ Association and on WEEI radio Boston supporting the library.

The Middleborough cranberry collection remained a tangible reminder of the Association’s presence and was regularly cited by officers of the organization throughout the period as an example of the group’s success. Outgoing president Arthur M. Handy of Cataumet pointed with pride to the work of the library in August, 1957.

Today, the cranberry collection remains an important resource to researchers. With photographs, barrel and box labels, early records of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association and other materials, the Middleborough Public Library Cranberry Collection likely remains the largest collection of historic cranberry-related materials in existence.

A small portion of the Middleborough Public Library’s Cranberry Collection may be viewed on-line.

Sources:
“Middleboro Library Has Novel Cranberry Room”, undated newspaper clipping

Cranberries, May, 1938, “Cape Growers’ Association has Annual Meeting”, p. 8; May, 1939, “Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association Holds It’s [sic] Spring Meeting at Wareham”, p. 6, and “Cranberry Library”, p. 9; September, 1943, “56th Annual Meeting of Cape Growers Association”, p. 12; September, 1944, “Mass. Crop Can Be Called ‘Poorest Ever.’ Considering Present Acreage Possibility”, 7; March, 1945, “Cranberry Scoops and Screenings”, p. 20; September, 1946, “Program of Cape Growers’ Association Exceptionally Interesting”, p. 6; December, 1946, “Some Random Thoughts”, p. 18; May, 1950, “Mass. Cranberry Station and Field Notes”, p. 3; September, 1951, “Marketing, main Topic of Annual Meeting, Cape Association ..”, p. 10; May, 1954, “Fifty Years Ago, and Now”, p. 15, and “Cranberry Room”, p. 20; August, 1957, “Massachusetts Growers Warned State is Slipping in National Production”, p. 13

"Honker" Brand Cranberries

Illustration:

New England Cranberry Sales Company, "Honker" Brand, cranberry shipping box label, early 20th cent.

Headquartered in Middleborough, the New England Cranberry Sales Company, under the direction of Arthur Chaney, established over 90 "brands" of cranberries for marketing purposes, each with a distinctive name and colorful label. The "Honker" brand consisted of the late Howes variety and were good for no more than twenty days travel when shipped fresh.

The Cranberry

A fine new addition to the local cranberry literature has just been published in the form of The Cranberry: Hard Work and Holiday Sauce by Stephen Cole and Lindy Gifford (paperback, 216 pp., Tilbury House Publishers, Gardiner, ME, $20.00). Similar in scope to the now out of print Cranberry Harvest, The Cranberry provides new insights into the industry while offering a comprehensive overview of the historical development of cranberrying from its mid-19th century roots on Cape Cod through the present day. Written by former Marion resident Stephen Cole, the new history is richly illustrated with both historic images and contemporary photographs by Lindy Gifford.

Cole writes in his introduction:

Driving back from Cape Cod into Plymouth County, taking nay exit will make its agricultural identity plain. Pickup trucks pass with license plates declaring this Cranberry Country.” The berry is so important to rural Carver that it appears on the town seal. A dirt road will inevitably lead to a bog, vast and rectangular or small and fitting the contours of the land. In this place, there were for years more acres of cranberry bogs than people. In the words of a Carver native, “Cranberries was all there was.”

In little more than a century, this diminutive fruit has forced those who would profit from it to become inventive and resourceful, to make for it a home, to protect it from wind and cold, and to fashion tools to tend and pick it. For some, the cranberry has provided a comfortable living for five generations, for others, only enough money to make it through each winter. When something so dominates the lives of people, it is worth knowing about.

And indeed Cole writes with much knowledge and skill, creating an intelligent and highly readable history. Chapters are devoted to the birth of the industry on Cape Cod and its expansion to Plymouth County, the early years of development, the wooden tools necessary for planting and harvesting, the Cape Verdean and Finnish immigrants who contributed to the evolution of cranberrying, the origin and growth of the cranberry cooperatives, the marketing of cranberries and the typical year of the cranberry grower. The work draws extensively upon archival sources (including the Middleborough Public Library’s Cranberry Collection) as well as interviews with individuals involved in cranberrying over the past decades.

The Cranberry which well documents a unique aspect of the region's agricultural and social history, will be a most welcome addition to all local history libraries.

Double Brook and France Street

This small pond viewed from a dam on France Street in Middleborough is part of the Rocky Gutter Wildlife Management Area. Created in the 1800s by the damming of Double Brook which drains a portion of Rocky Gutter before flowing eastward into the Weweantic River, this pond was originally intended as a mill pond to power the Shurtleff saw mill on the opposite side of the roadway which was long operated by Nathaniel A. Shurtleff. Later it was used as a resevoir for the cranberry bogs just north of it on the west side of France Street. While still used today for this purpose, it is now protected within the confines of the Mangement Area. Many small brooks such as this were similarly dammed during the boom in cranberry bog construction at the close of the 19th century in Middleborough where the close proximity of bogs, streams and sandy terrain combined to provide ideal conditions for the propogation of the little red berry.

The second photograph captures the cranberry bogs on France Street which draw their water from the France Street pond. An expansive landscape of cloud-studded blue skies, autumnal colors mixed with the dark evergreen of white pine trees, and a carpet of cranberry vines is one of the visual delights of autumn in southern Plymouth County.

Illustrations:

Photographs by Mike Maddigan, October 11, 2009.

Cranberry Memories

In celebration of its tenth anniversary, Rock Village Publishing of Middleborough has recently released Cranberry Memories: Voices from the Bogs, compiled and edited by Ed and Yolanda Lodi. Cranberry Memories is a delightfully evocative cultural history of cranberry growing in southeastern Massachusetts which captures how the small red berry has entered and influenced the consciousness of the region. As the Lodis ask in their introduction to the work, "what of the many ways that cranberry agronomy influences our lives - not only in respect to the physical environment, the ways the bogs with their swamps and uplands, their sand pits and reservoirs, sculpt the landscape that surrounds us, but in respect to our inner being as well, the ways that working on the bogs, or living near them and enjoying the natural world they promote, help mold our character and emotional health, our very outlook on life?" This compilation of personal recollections and photographs seeks to answer this question through a series of deeply personal, sometimes humorous and frequently touching reminiscences.

Earlier in 2009 the Lodis, owners of Rock Village Publishing, had solicited area residents to submit their tales relating to cranberry culture in southeastern Massachusetts. The result was the present anthology, among the highlights of which are the passages and photographs taken from an unpublished manuscript written in the 1930s by Middleborough grower John B. Howes whose daughter Betty (Howes) Johnson generously permitted the Lodis to excerpt. Other tales recount hand-picking on the bogs, the change to mechanized harvesting, and the processing and preparing the fruit (including recipes), and they are drawn from residents in Plymouth and Barnstable counties.

Copies of Cranberry Memories are available locally at Maria's Card & Gift Shop in Middleborough, Sedell's Pharmacy in Lakeville and Carver, Border's and the Tihonet Village Market in Wareham, and other outlets.

In 1999 Middleborough residents Yolanda and Edward Lodi started Rock Village Publishing with the motto, “Preserving Our New England Heritage.” Since then they have published more that fifty books by local authors: memoirs, cookbooks, history, folklore, poetry, novels, and short story collections, all with a firm connection to New England, and many with an emphasis on southeastern Massachusetts.

Illustrations:

Lodi, Edward and Yolanda. Cranberry Memories: Voices from the Bogs. Middleborough, MA: Rock Village Publishing, 2009.

Charlotte Howes packing cranberries, Woods Pond Cranberry Company, Middleborough, MA, 1960, from Edward and Yolanda Lodi, Cranberry Memories: Voices from the Bogs (Middleborough, MA: Rock Village Publishing, 2009), p. 1.

Cranberry is King

So important was the annual autumn cranberry harvest locally that it had the influence to disrupt Middleborough and Lakeville schools and postpone religious functions so that residents could lend themselves to the task of picking berries. During the 1912 harvest season, the pervasive demand for pickers throughout southeastern Massachusetts led to the cancellation of the Plymouth County Neighborhood Convention, a local gathering of Protestant churches, a development reported in the pages of the Brockton Times on August 24, 1912:

CRANBERRY IS KING.

Religious Convention is Postponed.

There isn't going to be a meeting of the Plymouth County neighborhood convention of the churches next month because of cranberries.

That sounds rather strange, but Gen. Sec. A. H. Wardle of the [Middleborough] Y. M. C. A., who is secretary of the convention, announces that to be the reason for missing the September meeting.

Ordinarily the sessions are resumed in September after the vacation period, and it was expected the same custom would be in effect this year ....

But it didn't happen. The active members of these churches are so busy gathering up cranberries, which literally translated means money, that they can't stop to entertain church delegates, Mr. Wardle states, so the meeting will go over till October.

It is said to be the first time the convention failed to resume its meetings in September, and the reason assigned is considered a very unusual one.

Illustration:
"Cranberry Picking on Cape Cod", postcard, early 20th century

Cranberry pickers at Middleborough (like those depicted on this postcard of nearby Cape Cod) were in high demand each September and October, so much so that in 1912, the Plymouth County Neighborhood Convention had to be postponed until the close of the harvest season. Here, the pickers are seen working in staked rows, the typical manner for hand-picking.

Source:

Brockton Times, "Cranberry is King", August 24, 1912.

Child Labor in the Cranberry Industry

While the image of smiling children on cranberry bogs, pails in hand with the September sunshine on their faces may present an idyllic picture of local rural childhood a century ago, in truth the employment of children on local cranberry bogs was an often overlooked aspect of tthe child labor problem in America.

In 1893 when the Plymouth Old Colony Memorial reprinted the following small news item from one of Middleborough's newspapers, few people probably showed little surprise when they read of the subject's age. "A little girl in South Middleboro five years old," ran the report, "picked 28 quarts of cranberries in one afternoon". While the item was published to bring attention to the young girl's remarkable achievement of picking so many berries in so short a period of time, the more troubling aspect of the report was the girl's age. In fact, children as young as three years old were regularly employed during the cranberry picking season in September and October, not only in Middleborough, but throughout the cranberry-growing regions of the nation.

Young children throughout the 19th century had assisted their families with agricultural chores, so it was not a radical step for parents to consider putting their children to work alongside themselves on local commercial cranberry bogs. This development was encouraged by the great need for pickers during the late summer when the berries were ripe for picking. To sate the demand for pickers, young children and older family members were all put to work. Meanwhile, many families were compelled through economic circumstance to put their children to work, so necessary were the wages which they were able to earn.

Children would be engaged in all manner of tasks on the local bogs, including picking by hand and toting. Conditions on the bogs could, at times, be inhospitable. Frequently damp in the morning, the bogs were also subjected to broiling sunshine in mid-afternoon as child pickers slowly made their way on their hands and knees over the vines. Further, sanitary facilities for workers were frequently lacking. Despite these conditions, child labor on the cranberry bogs typically garnered little attention from reformers or lawmakers as children were generally employed in the company of their parents who could therefore oversee their welfare directly.

Increasingly, however, child agricultural labor, like child industrial labor, was viewed as detrimental to the development and well-being of children, not only because of the physical conditions noted above but particularly when it interfered with their attendance at school. Local schools, in fact, like that at South Middleborough did, in several years, close for the harvest season so that children could assist with picking. The Middleboro Gazette in September, 1905, and again in 1909 reported that school attendance was adversely affected by the start of the harvest as children were absented from school in order to engage in picking.

In 1904, the National Child Labor Committee was established to promote "the rights, awareness, dignity, well-being and education of children and youth as they relate to work and working". As part of the committee's work, child labor conditions in a wide range of industries, including agriculture, were investigated and documented through both reports and photographs in an effort to strengthen federal child labor laws. One particular field of study was the cranberry industry, and noted photographer Lewis Wickes Hine (1874-1940) documented child workers on the Eldridge Bog in nearby Rochester, Massachusetts, as well as in New Jersey and Wisconsin. In his work, Hine found children as young as three years old being employed to harvest berries during the September and October picking seasons.

In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act was adopted with provisions governing child labor in agriculture. Children were prohibited from working during school hours, and restrictions were placed upon the employment of the youngest children such as the unidentified South Middleborough girl of 1893.

Illustrations:

Three Pickers Going Home from Work, photograph by Lewis W. Hine,

"Anne Benotte, said 7 years old. Brother Vincent said 11. Vincent picked last year. Inez, sister said 6 years old, "and picked last year wid me mudder." Smallest one not quite large enough to work. Father works in Parker Mills. Location: Parker Mills [vicinity], Massachusetts." [National Child Labor Committee Collection, U. S. Library of Congress].

Rosie Passeralla, photograph by Lewis W. Hine, September 28, 1910.
"5-year-old Rosie Passeralla, 1116 Annan Street, Philadelphia. Been picking here two years. Whites Bog, Browns Mills, N. J. Sept. 28, 1910. Witness E. F. Brown. Location: Browns Mills, New Jersey." [National Child Labor Committee Collection, U. S. Library of Congress].

Jennie Camillo, photograph by Lewis W. Hine, September 27, 1910.

"Eight-year-old, Jennie Camillo, lives in West Maniyunk, Pa. (near Philadelphia). For this summer she has picked cranberries. This summer is at Theodore Budd's Bog at Turkeytown, near Pemberton, N.J. This is the fourth week of school in Philadelphia and these people will stay here two weeks more. Her look of distress was caused by her father's impatience over her stopping in her tramp to the 'bushelman' at our photographer's request. Witness, E.F. Brown. Location: Pemberton, New Jersey." [National Child Labor Committee Collection, U. S. Library of Congress].

Smallest One Merilda, Picking with Her Sister, photograph by Lewis W. Hine, September, 1911.

The photograph was taken at the Eldridge Bog in neighboring Rochester, Massachusetts. [National Child Labor Committee Collection, U. S. Library of Congress].

Merilda Carrying Cranberries, photograph by Lewis W. Hine, September, 1911.

"Witness, Richard K. Conant. Location: Rochester [vicinity] - Eldridge Bog, Massachusetts." [National Child Labor Committee Collection, U. S. Library of Congress].

Sources:

National Child Labor Committee Collection, U. S. Library of Congress.

Old Colony Memorial, October 28, 1893, page 4.

Cranberry Harvest

Depicted in the photograph is Arad Thomas of the Thomastown section of Middleborough harvesting cranberries in the late 19th century. Prior to the early 20th century, the harvesting of cranberries was a labor intensive occupation. Though scoops of various sorts were employed to remove the berries from their vines, their effectiveness varied and picking by hand remained for many years the most practical method. Though the photograph captures Thomas as a solitary picker, the annual harvest in September, October and sometimes early November, was a communal activity, with residents working together to harvest cranberries from neighboring bogs, many of which would be sectioned off for the picking process.

Illustration:

Arad Thomas, newspaper halftone, Middleboro Gazette, "Old Middleborough", December 17, 1926, page 1.

Cranberry

The following poem entitled
"Cranberry" was originally published in the mid-19th century, and reflects a time when commercial cranberrying was in its infancy. As hinted at in the poem, children were involved in harvesting the berry and some local schools like that at South Middleborough were closed in September in order to free the children to work on the bogs or, as they were known in mid-19th century parlance, "swamps".

In Autumn, when weather is cool,

We'll join in a holiday romp;

Away from the school we will hie,

Away to the Cranberry swamp.

The Strawberry, Raspberry too,

And Blackberry, quickly gone;

The Blueberry cannot endure

When frost and the snow come on.

But Cranberries where they are grown,

Or put into family store,

Care nothing how cold it may be,

And last till the winter is o'er.

They last till the Strawberries spring

All lonely and ripe from the sod,

And berries thus circle the year

With proofs of the goodness of God.

Source:

Poem from untitled newspaper clipping, mid-19th century.

Illustration:

"Cranberry Harvest on Nantucket, MA", Rene S., photographer. October 6, 2007. Republished under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.