A Resident of Smithville
New Ipswich Historical Society
A Resident of Smithville
Eventually we’ll have names for these people.
Newspaper Clippings
The Milford Cabinet:
Correspondent: Mrs. Bessie Cushing Tel. Greenville 58-12
John Preston Writes of Life in Texas.
Camp Hulen, Texas.
The Editor,
Dear Sir:
I wish to thank you for the Cabinet. It means a great deal, in this foreign land which is Texas, to receive the essence of Yankee life which the Cabinet certainly exhibits. To tell the truth, I never realized that such was the case with your paper until I read it today on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico! Distance lends perspective, it seems. That remark about the shores of the Gulf is very literally true, for Batteries B, C and D of the 211th Coast Artillery, First Corps Cadets, of which I am a member, are encamped right on the beach at Indianola, some 50 miles south of Camp Hulen. We shall be here for a full month, the last two weeks of which will be devoted to firing practice. Our tents are pitched not 50 feet from the edge of the water on a sandy beach where La Galle landed long ago on one of his voyages and built a fort. There is a large statue to his memory just south of our tents. Texas beaches are not like those in the north- they aren't pure sand, but a mixture of sand and partly rotted sea- shells, showing only too well how very recently this land rose out of the sea! There is, moreover, a long sand bar some miles off shore, barely visible, running all along the Texas coast, with only a few openings deep enough for boats. That bar prevents the coast from getting any tide of consequence. The water on our beach rises and falls only about six inches as far as we can see. After we leave, early in February, for muddy Camp Hulen again, the corresponding big-gun batteries from the 203rd and the 197th regiments will follow us for two weeks each. I suppose there are other Hillsboro county boys in some of those batteries. Perhaps they also will be able to explore the ruins of Indianola, a city of 30,000 people, destroyed by a tidal wave back in the 80's, and certainly they also will hope that history doesn't decide to repeat itself.
Sincerely, JOHN PRESTON.
Now a Word From Our Sponsors
I think this is Ed Wheeler in the above photo.
I recall Ted Karnis selling gas at his ESSO station on top of Town Hill for .23 cents/gallon in the early 1960’s. In those days it seemed like most everyone in New Ipswich made a once a week trip to Fitchburg to buy groceries and do their other shopping. That is where we were introduced to ‘fast food’ at McDonalds & Marchetti’s in Fitchburg as they were selling hamburgers for .17 cents each.