I lived in the Pest House until 1957. My grandmother, Delia Merrill, inherited both Elmhurst Farm and the Pest House when Williams died in 1956. She gave Elmhurst Farm to my parents. She kept the Pest House and moved to it from the Madden farm. Prior to that, the only 20th century convenience both the Pest House and the Madden farm had was electricity and Albert Williams didn’t even have that at Elmhurst farm.
The Pest House just had a dug well right outside the front windows that went dry every summer. When that happened, we had to get water from the pond on the other side of Route 140, until my wife Annette and I had a deep well drilled in 1977.
Elmhurst Farm had the same until after we moved in, in 1957. The dug well there was about 15 feet deep, and was within the triangle I now own. That well made it through the summers but it was a bit tight. I still remember the fellow my parents hired to find where to dig, fashioning a rod from a branch on one of our apple trees and seeing the rod (supposedly) being pulled down. Probably a good act since he picked the lowest, wettest spot.
Both the Pest House and the Madden Farm were heated by kerosene stoves and space heaters. The cooking was done on the stoves. I believe it was the same for Elmhurst Farm. I do not remember any working fireplaces or wood stoves in any of the houses. The wood that my grandfather cut fueled the wood stove in his workshop in the Madden barn.
My father’s name was John Alden Lawson. He was known as Alden to family and friends. His job was a railyard and maintenance worker at Drapers. In the street listing books he was listed as a woodworker. He liked working with wood and might have preferred being seen that way. His greatest passion was gardening.
My mother, Pearl, was originally from Hopkinton, a child of the large Proctor family. She came to live with Delia and Fred in 1930 in a foster arrangement. I do not know much about her birth family other than the Proctor genealogy stretched back to the 1500’s in England. I only met one her sisters on one occasion.
Pearl flourished and graduated from Hopedale High School in 1935 as valedictorian and was the first recipient of a HHS Alumni Association scholarship which allowed her to attend Becker Junior College in Worcester. She wanted to go to BU but that was out of the question financially. She returned the HHSAA’s favor by being its secretary for many many years and had a scholarship named in her honor.
After Becker, she worked in the business office of the Thomas Smith Co. and later for Patrick’s Store where she met my dad while he was a delivery driver and living in Mendon with his Aunt and husband, Elenor and Frank Hersey and other Aunt, Marie Lawson, a draftsman (no gender distinctions then) at Drapers. Her one sojourn beyond Hopedale during this time was a summer or two on Nantucket as a family aide; a time she always spoke of fondly.
In 1952 she went back to work part time as the Union Church’s secretary, not retiring until well into her seventies. She also taught the youngest Sunday School class for many years. Needless to say, the Union Church was my third home growing up. Good memories, especially of summer Vacation Bible Schools, the Fall Fair, the youth group, and playing trumpet in Rev James Hutchinson’s church band, modeled after those in his native Scotland.
My mom was the rock of the family, looking after us and many others. Her Depression era upbringing and war time early adulthood served her well. She knew and acted on what was important, negotiated significant difficulties, encouraged our education, and supported our hobbies, often making personal sacrifices. And Grammie provided the same all day environment for our children, Liliana, Aaron, and Allicia, as my grandmother did for Russ and me. Pearl had much support in town, including enough to not label Annette as a newcomer when she ran for and was elected Hopedale’s first woman selecman.