Ruth Winship missing from home
New Ipswich Historical Society
January 6, 1926
January 6, 1926
A posse hunted over a wide area here for the missing girl, Ruth Winship, 22 years of age, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Noah Winship of West Rindge, N H., who has been gone. since last week Monday, when she left her home to go to Winchendon, Mass. Her mother formerly lived in this town, being a daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Charles Tarbell.
Photo Archives - Tarbell House
This large residence was built by Samuel Tarbell Ames (1810-1897),probably around 1890, as he is listed as owner on the 1892 Map. He was a Boston businessman who summered in New Ipswich, presumably before he built this house, as his wife was Mary Hartwell Barr, a daughter of Dr .James Barr, who lived at #33 across Appleton Common, and a sister of George Lyman Barr and Caroline Frances Barr, and whose cousin Elizabeth Keyser, lived at #30. The house then passed to Samuel's son, James Barr Ames (1846-1910), who was an Assistant Professor and Dean of the Harvard Law School. He was esteemed for his teaching and writing on legal matters. He took a great interest in Appleton Academy, serving as Trustee, and his widow donated this house to the Academy in 1912. It served as a boarding house for teachers and students until it reverted to private ownership. For a short time from 1969-74 it again served as a dormitory, when the Academy served as a private boarding school again, before passing into public ownership.
James Roger diary entry
25th March 1913
Muggy and windy, wind southwest, cloudy evening. David and Daniel picking browntail moths at Myron Taylor’s and Mr. Lowe’s. I filled lamps in Hall, picked up broken branches at Preston’s and went for mail. Got letter and Easter card from Hamish, who has not been very busy since New Year but does some business in the Express Office at Schenectady in his spare time. Frogs peeping in the meadow on 24th. Great floods and storms in West and middle West States: hundreds of lives lost, thousands injured, millions of property destroyed.
The Great Flood of 1913 occurred between March 23 and March 26, after major rivers in the central and eastern United States flooded from runoff and several days of heavy rain. Related deaths and damage in the United States were widespread and extensive. Wikipedia
Was the Tarbell House among ‘the mothers of all private homes’ in New Ipswich? It seemed that way to us as kids walking by on our way to school. But it looked rather unloved and empty in those days. So much interesting and historic architecture exists throughout the Town as well as family farms on the perimeter, blacksmith shop, old schoolhouses and businesses, etc. If I were a Rockefeller, I’d find a way to preserve it all and integrate it into the living, breathing, continuing story of New Ipswich.
Ruth's body was found in a pasture in Winchendon on Nov 1 the following year.