Blueberry Crates
New Ipswich Historical Society
Marion Davis Audio-Tape Transcriptions
Sometime before her death in 1986, Marion Davis recorded her memories at the encouragement of her brother, Walter Buck. The recordings were transcribed by a secretary.
The Friends of Wapack have made these available to the Historical Society. Marion was born on February 8, 1894 in Fitchburg, MA.
Crates, Boxes and Grist Mill
We made blueberry crates down there. We'd get our own lumber out and stick it up for perhaps a year then the next year we'd start in down there to saw, split up stuff to make blueberry crates. We did quite a lot of that and sold them, blueberry crates and even apple boxes. We made quite a number of those and sold them. We were sawing down there one day when there was an extra pulley on one part of the shaft and all of a sudden that thing blew up. The speed that it was going --it was running idle, no belt on it at all--it blew up and oh boy, did that scare us. One piece of it went across the mill and drove right into the wall. A few minutes after that my brother Russell who was visiting the farm at the time, came walking into the mill and were we thankful he hadn't shown up sooner.
Another thing we did down there at the mill; Frank had what they called a cob and corn crusher. We always raised a lot of field corn also winter wheat, spring wheat. W He had a little grist mill that would grind up the wheat. I know that one winter we had so much nice corn that and cob that he fed some of it to the horses and the cattle. And Mable made bread from that wheat. Oh, it was delicious. She didn't sift it too much to take out the bran so it was a wheat bran bread, and it was good. For the pastry flour (that was the spring wheat) she used to sift that pretty well to make her pie crusts and cakes. got the all-purpose flour; we don't have the bread and pastry separate.
Photo Archives
Photo of a young woman from the Society Archives, unidentified and undated
James Roger diary entry
5th December 1912
Frosty and fair, sunny; wind variable West to N. East. David and Daniel taking down the barn at Jenny Fox’s. I lit fires in Church and went to mail; stayed in house the rest of the day. David got postcard from H. Royce from E. Jaffrey.
Good background on the mill again and on the production of flour. Must have been good bread and pastry made at the farm as their flour was so fresh. And no hideous processing or chemicals to interfere with nutrition and taste. The real deal.
And what of the photo of the unknown young woman? I wonder if today’s hairstyles will look as severe and ungainly to our descendants as this one does to us. This style does nothing to flatter a sweet face and a poised bearing.
Blueberries were a significant item for many Finns. My grandfather had a 'blueberry house' near the sawmill. The blueberries were in qt boxes which were in crates. He made trips to the coop in Fitchburg. For fun reading I recommend: https://www.amazon.com/Blueberry-God-Education-Finnish-American/dp/0960504427d .
On sawmills, Walter Maki's brother (whose name escapes me) operated a sawmill in Bank Village with one arm. He also drove a tractor and farmed after losing that arm.
On the women photos, they look beautiful to me, the lack of make-up lets their natural beauty come through.