Cottage on the Hill
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.
Ed Hunt’s Cottage
Along about 1931 Frank's cousin, a Ed Hunt, wanted to come up into this part of the country. He was down in Amesbury, Mass.; he didn't like it down there so we went down to see him. Frank said, "We'll start a cottage up on the hill, and you folks can come up there We need some help, Marion needs some help in the house, and I need some help on the garden work" So we started work on the cottage on the hill, and they came up and stayed in the Annex. I think it was in the spring, and we got the cottage going pretty quick so they could go up along in the middle of the summer. We had some job getting material up onto that hill to build a house. We had to go round thru the woods with a 2-horse wagon. We hauled the lumber over before Ed really showed up. We had a pair of horses--Dixie and Big Jack (a big white horse we had bought of Pearly Jones).
Photo Archives
A reader left a comment that he lived in the “Annex” of the Wapack Lodge which was a second story. This undated photo was taken during construction of the second story.
James Roger diary entry - Pullets 23
8th January 1913
Raw, sleety day; wind NE to NW. David choring round; fixed window at Prestons’; also chair for Lena Preston. We packed 2 boxes of butternuts—one for May Mair and one for Johnnie. Mr. Lord has got a cold. A little snow fell during the night but not enough for good sleighing. Old Judy the cat is dying and Billy has not been home for some days. Pullets 23.
What they referred to as the "Annex" is separate building. See the next post for a photo.
I found it interesting that James noted that Judym his cat was dying. How many people today know when their cat is dying. I just went through the same in December. Lona, appeared as a stray 15 yrs ago. We had daily routine. At 5PM she would seek me out to remind me it was supper time. In mid Dec she sought me out ag 5PM, but didn't eat the cat food I presented. I noticed she had lost weight and thought she may be dying. The next day she didn't appear, never saw her again. No body to be found. She just disappeared.