Happy Hallowe'en

Illustration:
Denison's Bogie Book (Framingham, MA: Denison Manufacturing Co., 1925).

Haunted Church or Sacrilegious Hoax, 1858

For a community with so rich and varied a history, Middleborough has little recorded lore concerning ghosts or spirits. This is, perhaps, all the more surprising given the mid-19th century local fascination with Spiritualism - a fad which culminated in a spurious claim that the Central Congregational Church was haunted.

During the mid 1850s, Middleborough was experiencing a religious revival. In May, 1857, thirty-six new members were admitted to the Central Congregational Church under the direction of Reverend Isaiah C. Thatcher, the largest such increase since its organization ten years earlier in 1847. Similar additions occurred at the Central Baptist and First Congregational Churches, as well.

Counter to this movement towards the organized churches, but part of the same spiritual reawakening, was the growing interest by some members of the community in Spiritualism, the belief that spirits could and did communicate with mortals. Beginning in the late 1840s when Spiritualism began to become widely popular following the notoriety of the Fox sisters in the burned-over district of New York, numerous residents were attracted to the movement. Lectures held in local venues on the topic of Spiritualism became a monthly staple, and The New England Spiritualist, the region's largest Spiritualist newspaper, advertised for subscribers locally.

Initially, Spiritualism little troubled Middleborough, and most residents could find mystery in such tales as the "Spirit Whistle" which in 1855 recounted the story of the spirit of a worker accidentally killed at the Middleboro' Steam Mill on the West Side who would return nightly to sound the mill's whistle in hopes of summoning his fellow workers to help him search for the missing tip of his finger, lost in another accident at the mill.

Just months later, another tale of local spirits would have a much more gruesome outcome and would ultimately turn the community against the Spiritualists. During the winter of 1855-56, Otis Bent of East Middleborough lost his son through drowning in Savery's Pond at Waterville. The following May, an unnamed Middleborough Spiritualist claimed to have received a communication from the spirits "that Mr. Bent's son had been dug up by a man living near Carver and the body was in the hands of a physician to be dissected." Such reports naturally reached the aggrieved family, and Mr. Bent was so troubled by them that he had his son's corpse disinterred, only to find that it had not been disturbed.

The exhumation only added to the growing distaste for Spiritualism locally, and following this event, the full weight of the religious community seems to have turned against the Spiritualists. Stillman Pratt, editor of the local Gazette, and himself an ordained pastor, published a number of items countering the claims of Spiritualists. "Modern Spiritualism presents many mysterious things; but certainly if one part is mystery, two equal parts are deception and hallucination. Spiritualism is a problem ... ."

In July, 1857, Pratt's account of a Middleborough lecture by trance speaking medium Mr. Coonley who claimed to speak as Martin Luther, indicated that Pratt "saw not the first particle of evidence that he spoke in a trance state, more than in case of any school boy who goes on to the stage to perform the part assigned him." Reverend Pratt left Coonley with the parting shot, "We cannot imagine on what grounds he claims to be a trance speaker."

Lectures on Spiritualism continued to be given in town, but many of them were critical of Spiritualist claims. For several evenings during the week of July 18, 1858, Professor J. Stanley Grimes, an "itinerant mesmerist", lectured in Middleborough, revealing spirit communications as Spiritualist trickery. "His object is to show that all which is claimed by spiritualism, not attributable to deception, is perfectly explicable." In this effort, Grimes undoubtedly had the support of both Pratt and Reverend Thatcher of the Central Congregational Church, an alliance that prompted what would become the most notorious incident of "haunting" in the town when loud rappings by "spirits" disrupted the following Sunday morning's service at Thatcher's church.

Later reports in more unsuspecting newspapers would claim that the "mysterious rappings were heard from all parts of the house, even from the precincts of the sacred pulpit", with "many of the congregation becoming so frightened as to leave the house, and the minister turning pale."
Though Reverend Thatcher did not become pale or frightened, as reported, he certainly seemed disoriented by the unprecedented disruption, stopping several times during his sermon and, once, muttering, "I don't know what is the matter here today."

Editor Pratt, however, did learn what the matter was and exposed the entire incident as a hoax, blaming the disruptive rappings on Mrs. J. W. Currier, a Spiritualist in attendance that morning. Despite reports to the contrary, the rappings were truly heard by witnesses in the church as emenating from one area only. As Reverend Thatcher attempted to maintain some semblance of propriety and order during the delivery of his sermon, a number of "members of the congregation went into the basement, and finding all the sounds to come from one place, marked it, and going above found Mrs. Currier sitting over it, and those sitting near her, on either side, testify that the sounds came from her."

Pratt expounded: "There was nothing mysterious about the rappings any more than when one brings down his heel upon the floor, or kicks over a table, or when a medium makes her raps with a pencil, with the handle of her parasol, or with a small cane fastened into her skirt, or on a tin box embedded in the cotton of her bosom."

Reverend Pratt was irate and sharp in his criticism of Mrs. Currier - "the glory or shame of the transaction belongs to her exclusively" - and went so far as to label her a "rogue." Pratt's disgust at the sacrilegious manner in which solemn worship had been disrupted was barely disguised. "Comment on such transactions, during the light of the nineteenth century, is unneccessary," he fumed.

Mrs. Currier's behavior was attributed to "her wrath against Grimes and the churches" for their local hostility towards Spiritualist claims, and, not surprisingly, with Mrs. Currier's departure, no further disturbances occurred at the church.

Such episodes ultimately cast Spiritualism into an unfavorable light, and its popularity began to wane. But not for everyone. In October, 1872, respected Middleborough auctioneer Sylvanus Hinckley reported that he had received a communication from his daughter, Julia. She had been dead for nearly four years.

Illustrations:

Central Congregational Church, Middleborough, cabinet card, late 19th century

For a fleeting moment, Middleborough's Central Congregational Church was believed to have been haunted. Loud rappings which disrupted Sunday morning services here on July 25, 1858, were attributed to ghosts by local Spiritualists, but soon afterwards revealed by the local press and religious establishment to have been a cruel and indecent hoax perpetrated solely by one particular disgruntled Spiritualist.

"Henri Robin and a Specter", photograph by Eugène Thiébault, albumen silver print, 1863. Collection Gérard Lévy, Paris.

Similar trick photographs were popular throughout the mid-Victorian era. Less obvious photographs were faked in order to substantiate claims of a spirit world which communicated with the living.

Great Discussion of Modern Sprirtualism (Boston: Berry, Colby & Company), cover page, 1860

In 1860, two years after visiting Middleborough, Grimes continued to dispute the legitimacy of spiritualism. Though an earlier investigation into spiritualism by a panel of Harvard experts proved inconclusive, the growing fraud surrounding the field ultimately led many to lose interest and the fad waned, though interest was renewed in the 1920s.

A Haunting at Muttock, 1902

In 1902, a "ghost" was reported to be if not quite terrorizing Muttock, certainly entertaining it. James Creedon, the Middleborough correspondent for the Brockton Times in late 1902 recorded the story for his employer's newspaper as well as posterity:

Veiled Ghost Leads Crowd a Hot Chase

Pelts Apples at Middleboro Posse, and Outlegs It Up and Down Hill and Into Darkness of Woods

The town is in the grasp of a decided sensation. It is said that there are ghosts operating here.

One night last week a young woman living in the northern part of town was accosted and chased by a figure robed in white, but she was not harmed. Several other people have been chased in the district on North street, between North Main and Oak streets. Another rendezvous is at the top of Muttock Hill.

Stories have circulated the last few days that there was a ghost in that neighborhood, but little credence was given to them. Most everyone thought some boys were out for fun. It now appears, however, that there is some foundation to the reports.

Saturday evening Ralph Caswell was down toward North street and was chased a considerable distance. Last night a crowd went to North street and saw this figure, robed in white, with a flowing veil on its head. It was in the orchard at the Crossen place. When it saw the fellows coming it threw apples at them and they gave chase. It led them the quickest they ever traveled, up and down hill and over a high fence into the woods. It escaped.

It is generally believed that it is some man dressed up to have some fun. The fun will turn if he gets in the way of those after him.

[Brockton Times, October 13, 1902]

Hunting the Ghost

Middleboro Party Not Rewarded by a Glimpse Last Night

The ghost is still the whole thing among the young and adventurous element of Middleboro. The young men say they are going to catch him. A crowd organized last evening, and shortly after 7 went to the scene of the ghost's hilarity. It broke up into parties of two and waited in the woods. The ghost did not show up. After waiting till about 10 the searching party gave up its job.

Whoever or whatever is making this trouble is sure to come to grief if it continues. The matter has gone almost far enough in the minds of many, and they are determined to know who is responsible.

This is not the first occasion of ghosts in the Muttock neighborhood, one of the residents says. On previous occasions there have been seen figures dressed all in black and traveling on all fours. At other times it was erect and dressed in white. It was not an animal, and what it can be, if not a man, is a question.

Although most of the people living in Muttock sincerely believe there is something prowling around in the garb of a ghost, they fear nothing, claiming that no harm will come from it. The searchers are determined, and will keep up their work until they find out who is playing ghost or until the disturbance stops.

[Brockton Times, October 14, 1902]

Muttock Ghost Wary

Middleboro Youths Are Out in Force, and Are Not Rewarded

After spending two nights in an unsuccessful attempt to locate the Muttock ghost, a band of young men started out again last evening, but the did not have better luck. There were two parties composed of youths from the center of town and others were from Everett street. The Everett street crowd started at the lower end of that street and the boys from the center entered the woods just behind the Crossen place [on North Street at the top of Nemasket Street]. They split into parties of two, each armed with a four-foot oak club, and prowled around the woods. After two and a half hours' search they went home unrewarded.

The clubs last evening supplanted the revolvers and hounds the searchers had Monday evening. When they got through hunting the ghost they could take home the precious pieces of wood and be assured of a few minutes' warm, cheerful fire.

The party from the center was passing through a yard on North street and was stopped by a woman who said the spook was out Monday evening, although it kept out of the way of the searchers. The residents of that section seem to be divided on the question of ghosts. One young man, Bert Amsden, says that as he was going home the other evening he saw a white thing out in the field. He fired four shots at it and his brother fired once. Apparently they hit something, as there was a scream and then the figure got away in pots haste.

Miss Lizzie Landgrebe, who lives near Amsden, discredits the statements regarding ghosts, and does not believe there is any such thing there. It was stated last week that she and her sister were chased. And she strenuously denied it.

The searchers last evening included: William Murray, William Scanlon, Bolles Dustin, John Harrington, Eugene McCarthy, Leo Allen, William Brawdrex, Barney Chandler, John Macomber, Samuel Osgood, Eugene Curley, Thomas McManus, Frank Elliott, Mark Snow and Ralph Caswell.

[Brockton Times, October 15, 1902]

Spook Takes a Rest

Middleboro Flurry Wanes While It Keeps Undercover

The ghost sensation is at a low ebb. The spook has not been seen for two days. Even though it has not been around lately, it is not thought it is out of business.

[Brockton Times, October 16, 1902]

The ghost, in fact, was "out of business". No further sighting of the figure, nor who was ultimately responsible for the diversion in 1902, was ever recorded.

Illustration:

Muttock, c. 1900, composite photograph, 2009.

During October, 1902, an apparition in white was seen by several witnesses about Muttock frequenting the wooded area about North and Everett Streets. While residents remained both skeptical of and unperturbed by the suggestion of spirits, they were unable to capture the perpetrator of the "ghostly" visits.

Muttock, photographic negative, late 19th century.

Sources:

Brockton Times, October 13-16, 1902

The Spirit Whistle, 1855

One of the earliest local ghost stories dates from 1855 and concerns the Middleboro' Steam Mill on Vine Street. Built in early 1855, the steam mill was a large four-story lumber mill which also produced boxes, nail kegs and building materials including lath, clapboards, shingles, doors, sash and blinds.

In late 1855, residents of Middleborough and Lakeville were disturbed by the late night sounding of the mill's steam whistle, the shriek of which carried far in the crisp winter air, awaking and alarming the immediate West Side neighborhood.

The people in the vicinity of the Steam Mill have repeatedly been startled from their slumbers, at the dead of night, by the shrieks of the steam whistle, and the owners of the mill have hastened to the spot to learn the cause, but ere they arrived, all was quiet and safe, the engine having apparently set up its whistle spontaneously.

On Christmas night, "a new aspect [was] given to this strange affair."

At 2 o'clock, the whistle began to offer its alarm in low murmers, which continued to grow louder and shriller, and fuller and deeper, till half past two, rousing from sleep, the inhabitants for miles around.

According to the tale, the whistle was sounded by an Irish-born worker who had lost the tip of his finger presumably while working one of the mill's saws. Some time later this same worker was accidentally killed while at work at the mill. Each evening the spirit of this worker was said to sound the mill whistle in hopes of summoning his fellow coworkers to help him in finding his missing finger tip.

The tale is founded upon the type of industrial accident unfortunately so common in the 19th and early 20th centuries which resulted in the permanent maiming of a worker. Not only were lumber mill workers subject to such dangers, but operatives in the local shoe manufactories, the Star Mill, the Bay State Straw Works, and other industrial employers were all recorded as having met with unfortunate accidents - some even fatal - during this period. It is no wonder, then, that such a tale would arise.

Illustration:

"Silent Whistle" by Leonard John Matthews, September 30, 2008. Adapted by Michael J. Maddigan under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

Source:

Namasket Gazette, "The Spirit Whistle", December 28, 1855, p. 2.

Images of America: Middleborough

Today, Arcadia Publishing releases Images of America: Middleborough a new pictorial history of Middleborough written by Michael J. Maddigan. Using historical images from the extensive collections of the Middleborough Historical Association, as well as from town residents, Middleborough explores the town's evolution from its earliest foundation through its mid-19th-century transition from one of southeastern Massachusetts's largest agricultural communities to one of its most industrially productive.

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Featured as the cover image of Middleborough is a typically American view of a family engaged in watering the lawn and enjoying their yard on what appears to be a spring day. While the image of families in similar situations today have come to epitomize the essence of American suburban family living, such was not the case a century ago when the photograph was taken. Yet the cover image is nonetheless particularly representative of Middleborough’s history for several trends which it depicts which were important in the town's evolution: the development of an emerging suburban middle class, the assimilation of new ethnic groups, and the transition from an agricultural to an industrial (and later service-based) economy. Not only does the cover image represent those historical trends from Middleborough’s 19th century history, but it anticipates the 20th century when these trends would reach fruition.

The structure depicted in the cover image is the Sullivan-Moles House which stands at 791 Center Street on the West Side at Lovell Street. The image clearly shows the newly-built house with what are believed to be members of the Sullivan family posing for the photographer and enjoying the day sometime shortly after 1906.

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The Sullvan-Moles House was constructed at a time when the West Side was rapidly expanding and developing as a neighborhood of single-family working class homes. The industries located along Vine and Cambridge Streets, as well as the George E. Keith shoe manufactory on Sumner Avenue required large numbers of workers. Because transportation was limited at the time, workers needed to reside close by their place of employment, a practice which fostered the growth of middle-class neighborhoods like the West Side.

On April 5, 1886, Jeremiah Doane of Middleborough acquired the lot of land at the corner of Center Street and “a proposed street to be called Lovell street”, from Eugene P. LeBaron. For years, the LeBaron family had owned a substantial portion of West Side property. On his newly-acquired lot, Doane erected a distinctive “four-square” house with a recessed porch which notably was set back on the lot, leaving a broad front lawn which sloped down towards Center Street. Clearly, the house was intended to have a markedly different appearance than the gable-end workers’ houses which dominated much of the immediate neighborhood.

Doane owned the home for only a brief time. In April, 1890, he sold the property to Margaret Sullivan. The Sullivans were Irish immigrants who overcame the prejuidce typically encountered by immigrant groups throughout the period to achieve a high level of commercial and professional success. Coming from the late-19th Irish working-class milieu of the West Side, John J. Sullivan (believed to be the man in the photograph with the hose), became a prominent newsdealer in Middleborough, for years operating a small news stand on Center Street immediately adjacent to the Middleborough Savings Bank Building. Even more successful was his brother, Dennis (likely the young man sitting on the lawn) who trained as a lawyer and ultimately served as Associate Justice of the Plymouth Fourth District Court. (His own son, John V. Sullivan, would also serve as a judge, being named to the Massachusetts Superior Court in 1944).

In 1919, the Sullivans sold the house which has been subsequently owned by Fannie L. Andrews and later her son, Chester S, Mendell (1919-39), and since 1940 by the Moles family. The well-kept house still stands on the corner of Center and Lovell Streets as a reminder of Middleborough in a time of historical transition, when the community was rapidly being remade.

(While the foregoing might appear as a bit of shameless self promotion, please know that all author royalties from the book are donated to the Middleborough Historical Association for the benefit of its programs). Images of America: Middleborough may be purchased at local outlets. Arcadia Publishing is the leading local history publisher in the United States, with a catalog of more than 5,000 titles in print and hundreds of new titles released every year.

Illustration:

Sullivan House with Sullivan Family Members, cabinet view, c. 1906. Middleborough Historical Association.

The view depicts what are believed to be John J. Sullivan, his sisters Nora and Mary E. Sullivan, mother Margaret Sullivan, and brother Dennis D. Sullivan.

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.

Meadowbrook Drive-In, 1956

During the hot summer of 1956, proposed construction of the Meadowbrook Drive-In on Route 44 in Middleborough touched off a heated war of words between Meadowbrook developers and owners of Middleborough’s sole in-town movie theater, the Middleboro Theatre, located on Nickerson Avenue across from Middleborough Town Hall. The result of the battle would ultimately be the closure of Middleborough’s only cinema and the local birth of the drive-in culture which had emerged rapidly following World War II.

Meadowbrook developers John J. Abberley and Wilbur S. Edwards first proposed construction of a drive-in theater with an ultimate capacity of 1,000 cars on a 183 acre tract acquired from George Lovell situated between Route 44 and Clay Street in early 1956. The proposed drive-in, named for its proximity to Poquoy Brook, was to include a children’s playground, snack counter and other amenities. In a now-dated bit of fifties advertising, it was noted at the time that "drive-ins are popular with young people who cannot afford a baby sitter, with old folks who can watch the show right from their car, and with those who find difficulty in parking their cars at an intown theater."

Middleborough Selectmen voted 4-1 to grant Abberley and Edwards a permit to operate, with only Manuel J. Silva dissenting, concerned about the adverse effect the resultant competition would have upon the Middleboro Theatre, whose business had been characterized as being "barely sufficient to continue its operation there." David Hodgdon, owner of the Princess Amusement Company which had operated the 42-year-old Middleboro Theatre since 1917 naturally was opposed the granting of the permit. Hodgdon characterized Meadowbrook as "a seasonal ‘fast-dollar- Drive-in" as contrasted with his "movie theatre operating the year round offering a definite high-quality service to the public." Hodgdon noted that his theater had been "extensively remodeled in 1948, cinemascope added in 1954 and with air-conditioning contracted for this spring." Hodgdon believed (ultimately rightly) that the construction of Meadowbrook would mean the demise of the Middleboro Theatre, noting that "a community without a conventional theatre in its business center is not a pleasant prospect for any town." Despite Hodgdon’s somewhat frenzied plea, Selectmen refused to budge.

Meanwhile, Meadowbrook’s developers took umbrage at what they considered to be a gross misrepresentation of their business upon the part of Hodgdon. "The owners and operators of the Meadowbrook Drive-In Theatre intend to bring to Middleboro a community center in which all the people of Middleboro can participate and of which they will be proud … We intend to show the finest in motion pictures, to have an attractive concession building with an outdoor patio, and a play ground for the youngsters. Our one desire is to make the Meadowbrook a neat, clean, attractive, wholesome family gathering place." Additionally, Abberley promised to make the drive-in available to community, civic, and church groups. During the succeeding years, Meadowbrook, in fact, would be utilized for fund-raising activities and during the summer of 1962 was even put to use for drive-in church services.

Adding insult to injury for Hodgdon, however, was the fact that not only was construction of Meadowbrook moving rapidly ahead for an anticipated June opening (it, in fact, did not open until May, 1957), but Lakeville Selectmen on May 25, 1956, had approved a second local drive-in to be located on Route 44 across Poquoy Brook from – of all places –Meadowbrook Drive-In, a curiosity noted at the time. "Many people have expressed the opinion that two drive-in theaters, side-by-side is enough of a rarity as to be considered odd." Odd or not, Middleborough and Lakeville were poised to have adjoining drive-in theaters by the summer of 1956.

While David Hogdon continued to oppose the Meadowbrook operation throughout 1956, developers of the proposed Lakeville drive-in (Grossman Industrial Properties, Inc., of Quincy which operated drive-ins at Brockton, Wareham and Quincy-Braintree) continued to forge ahead with their own plans for a second area drive-in, believing that Middleborough was large enough to support two such theaters. They remained unfazed by both the Meadowbrook project as well as the less than pleasant odors wafting over on certain days from the nearby Hotz Brothers mink farm which the farm’s owners believed might be detrimental to the operation of an outdoor theater.

With the prospect of two drive-in theaters on the horizon, Hodgdon had had enough. Later that summer, Hodgdon, after several newspaper battles with Meadowbrook’s developers, sold his interest in the Middleboro Theatre (which still remained without air conditioning). Attempts by local parties to revitalize the Middleboro Theatre – which urged potential patrons in 1958 "For the Best Enjoyment Go to a Conventional Theatre" – were unsuccessful. The theater was closed and the property sold in 1962.

Meadowbrook Drive-in opened on May 8, 1957, with a double bill featuring Friendly Persuasion and Wichita on its 44 by 100 foot screen, and operated as the sole drive-in in the vicinity, the Grossman project in Lakeville never getting off the ground despite much initial enthusiasm. "Watching the picture, viewers were convinced that television cannot generate the emotion created by the wide screen. Whole families sat comfortably in the privacy of their cars, tuned their individual receiver as high or low as they wished, and occasionally glanced around to enjoy the clear country air, the panorama of passing motorists on the highway and the colored lights in the theater area." (This last bit assuredly penned by Meadowbrook’s marketing man).

In retrospect, the Middleboro Theatre had had little hope of survival regardless of the arrival of Meadowbrook. During this period, the community was rapidly reorienting itself to an automobile-dominated culture and the year 1956 marked the dawn of the drive-in culture and the end of downtown as Middleborough’s sole commercial and entertainment center. Notably that year, the First National Supermarket opened its self-described "palace of foods" at the corner of South Main and East Grove Streets and touted its many features, conspicuously among which was the "spacious free parking," signaling a move by business away from downtown Middleborough to so-called more conveniently located sites situated elsewhere, leaving in its wake a number of casualties including the Middleboro Theatre.

Illustrations:
Vintage drive-in theater advertisements appear under a Creative Commons license. No rights reserved. For more vintage drive-in theater advertisements from the Meadowbrook Drive-In era , click here.