Second Congregational Church of Boxford, Massachusetts

Wikipedia information on Boxford. Photos taken Memorial Day weekend.

Second Congregational Church of Boxford, MA

United Church of Christ

Founded 1736

Taken in August 2013

Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts -- The Town, The Monuments and The Bridge

Shelburne Falls is the home to the World Famous "Bridge of Flowers," a bridge over the Deerfield River.
 

 In Honor of

The Citizens of the

Towns of Buckland and Shelburne

Who Served in the Armed Forces of

Our Country in World Wars I and II

And in Loving Memory of the

Following Who Made the Supreme Sacrifice

WORLD WAR I

Ernest Winford Goodnow

Roy Farrell Shirtcliff

 WORLD WAR II

Gilbert Irving Allis	Thomas Joseph Neary, Jr.
Hollis Elwin Andrews	Homer James Richmond
Herman Austin Burdick	Robert Wilder Swan
Russell Delano Chamberlain	George Roland Trumble
Albert Henry Farrell	Oliver Joseph Turner
Stanley Gadomski	Robert Earl Whitbeck
William Francis Hourahan, Jr.	Robert Bardwell Williams
John Hames Kennedy

One of the unique houses in town.

In Honor of

The Citizens of the

Towns of Buckland and Shelburne

Who Served in the Armed Forces of

Our Country in Korea and Vietnam Wars

And in Loving Memory of the

Following Who Made  the Supreme Sacrifice

KOREA

Walter Harold Billiel

VIETNAM

William Kimball Batchelder

Paul Thomas Looney

James Edward Palmeri

Ernest Ray Taylor, Jr.

Ronald Edward Wissman

1890

Bridge Committee

George G. Merrill	Emerson J. Griswold
David W. Temple	Michael Atkins
George E. Taylor	George Rowland

Edward S. Shaw, Engineer

Vermont Construction Co. Contractors

R. F. Hawkins, President

  

Remembering John Ogonowski -- American Airlines Flight 11 Pilot and Farmer

Taken Sept. 8, 2011

Captain John A. Ogonowski

Memorial Square

Dracut, Massachusetts

The first name I heard regarding the disaster at the World Trade Center came across our local news station around noon. It was that of a local man, John Ogonowski, and he was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to hit the World Trade Center. John went to school in my city and lived in a neighboring town. I had never heard of him, nor had my mailman, but by the end of the day, everybody in my area knew all about him.

Like so many others, I was going about my daily business on that perfect New England day. I had a dental appointment at 9:15 and heard on my golden oldies radio station that a plane had hit a World Trade Tower, but I didn't think much of it. I didn't go right home, but went to a grocery store at 10:30 and knew something was terribly wrong. I over heard somebody say the schools and the Registry of Motor Vehicles were closing. Of course, I asked what was going on, and couldn't believe what the reply was. Immediately, I ran around picking up all the junk food l never buy. Once home, I sat at the TV all day, and talked to a few people on the phone. I even rearranged my living room furniture. The following two days, I went to the Concord Free Library in Concord, MA to get away from the TV.

Below, I'm sharing a few lines from Wikipedia and from the American Flight 11 site. Several years later, I discovered that one of my good friends, was also a Ogonowski (her middle name) and was related to Capt. John Ogonowski. We never discussed anything about 9/11. A few years later, she and her husband sold their Dracut, MA farm, and moved to Cape Cod. We've seen them once her move.

CAPTAIN JOHN OGONOWSKI

American Flight 11  (both articles from this site.)

CAPTAIN ON THE FARM

"John Ogonowski wore two uniforms: his navy blue senior captain's uniform for American Airlines and the blue jeans and denim shirt he wore while working on his 150- acre farm in Dracut, Mass., where he lived with his wife and three daughters.

Twelve days a month, Mr. Ogonowski, 50, flew transcontinental flights. On off days, he tended the farm's peach orchard, with acres set aside for corn, pumpkins and hay. After supper he often sat in his favorite chair, reading agricultural journals late into the evening.

Mr. Ogonowski joined the Air Force at the height of the Vietnam War. He flew C-141 transport planes, taking equipment to Asia, and sometimes flying back to the States carrying the bodies of American soldiers. He became a commercial pilot in 1979, and met a pretty flight attendant named Peggy, whom he later married.

The morning of Sept. 11, he left his wife at home, still in bed. It was already dawn as he turned down the road in his dusty green Chevy truck, to start his drive to Boston and to Logan International Airport. As he passed his uncle's nearby house, he tooted his horn. Mr. Ogonowski was the captain of Flight 11, the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center."

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 3, 2001.

John Ogonowski, of Dracut, pilot for American Airlines

By Globe Staff, 9/16/2001

"John A. Ogonowski of Dracut, a pilot for American Airlines, was killed Tuesday in the crash of Flight 11 in New York. He was 50.

Mr. Ogonowski was born, raised, and educated in Lowell. He graduated from St. Stanislaus School, Keith Academy, and Lowell Technical Institute, class of 1972, with a bachelor of science degree in nuclear engineering. He was a member of the Pi Lambda Phi fraternity.

Mr. Ogonowski flew as a pilot in the Vietnam War, assigned to the Air Force base in Charleston, S.C. He left the military with the rank of captain.

He flew for American Airlines for 23 years, and was a member of the Allied Pilot Association.

Mr. Ogonowski was an active member of the Dracut Grange, the Polish American Veterans Association, the American Legion, the Merrimack Valley Vietnam Veterans, and the Dracut Historical Society. He belonged to the board of directors for the Massachusetts Farm Bureau, and the board of directors for the Dracut Land Trust Inc.

An avid farmer, he worked to secure 150 acres of farmland on Marsh Hill Rd. in Dracut through the federal Agriculture Preservation Restriction program. He raised hay, corn, pumpkins, blueberries, and peaches, and worked actively to preserve open space in Dracut for future generations.

He leaves his wife, Margaret (La Valle), his parents, Alexander and Theresa, and three daughters, Laura, Caroline, and Mary Katherine, all of Dracut; two brothers, Lieutenant Colonel James of Dracut, and Joseph of Newport, Mich.; and two sisters, Dolores Quigley of Pensacola, Fla., and Carol of Dracut. A memorial Mass will be said tomorrow at 11 a.m. in St. Francis Church in Dracut.

From the Boston Globe newspaper, of Sept. 15, 2001."


Personal note, my sister and I toured the World Trade Center in the summer of 1985, going to the top on a windy day was scary, and I absolutely hated the height. In May of 2001, my husband and I went to DC for vacation, and drove past the Pentagon several times, plus I drove by it daily for 12 years when I lived in the area.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AS OF 09/11/2014

From the website of Mass Moments: http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=264

Orr's Island, Maine -- Tombstone Tuesday

While here, I took quite a few cemetery stone photos, only to discover later that they were already posted to FindAGrave. The site for this cemetery (see link) shows additional photos and a map.

Obituary of Harriet Ford Westover

Westover--Harriet, wife of John

F. Westover, died at the family home

801 Joslin Street, Tuesday from a

complication of diseases, age 62

years. Harriet Ford was born in Port

Burbal, Ont., Sept. 25, 1849, and was

married to Mr. Westover in 1866. After

their marriage they lived in Port Bur-

bal until 1876, when they came to

Saginaw. Mrs. Westover was a mem-

ber of the Episcopal church. She

leaves her husband, two sons and five

daughters, Harry Westover and Mrs.

Henry Ryder of Saginaw; William of

Toledo, O.; Mrs. Thomas Glenn of

Ashtabula, O.; Mrs. Benjamin G.

Watkins and Mrs. Roy Davidson of

Battle Creek, and Mrs. Carl Watz of

Portland, Ore. The funeral will take

place at 2 o'clock Friday afternoon from

the family residence. Interment in

Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Information from Mary Virginia Swisher (Sept. 2012). The above Harriet Ford Westover was the wife of my third cousin 4x removed.

Tower Hill Botanical Garden, Worcester, MA and a Little History

Dr. John Green (1784 - 1865)

Dr. John Green, the first president of the Worcester County

Horticultural Society (1840 - 44), was born in Worcester.

He studied medicine under his father, later earning degrees

from both Harvard and Brown Universities. He began his own

practice in Worcester in 1807, the fourth generation of Greens

to treat the illnesses of Worcester.

This portrait was painted in 1858 by Edwin T. Billings.

Tower Hill Botanic Garden

Boylston, Massachusetts

Nevins Memorial Library, Methuen, Massachusetts -- Genealogy and History Section

Nevins Library, Methuen, Massachusetts

Built 1883, another library that expanded.

I love the older section of the library, the beautiful stained glass and oak everywhere. You can see how beautiful it is. The only problem with taking pictures in a library is, I have to rely on their lighting, sometimes there is too much (as with the sun through the windows), and sometimes not enough.

  

New section of the library, and below are the genealogy books.

General collection of genealogy books and below are some that pertain just to Methuen.

New England Church, Ipswich, MA

The Methodist Church, 1859

Ipswich, Massachusetts

This is an unplanned post, but because Heather Rojo wrote a nice piece at Nutfield Genealogy blog, on Planning a Genealogy Photo Trip to Ipswich, Massachusetts, I thought it would be perfect to put her link with this photo.

Advertising for Prince Spaghetti

Above is a paper place-mat.

They were given out when large groups were having spaghetti meals for a fund raising event.

Here is an iconic ad: Prince Spaghetti commercial, starring Anthony

UPDATE for February 3, 2016: The mother from the classic Prince pasta commercial has died (click on the link to read the article about her death. "Mary Fiumara, the woman who shouted “Anthony! Anthony!” in an iconic Prince pasta commercial, died on February 2 at 88 years old.

Prince Spaghetti began 100 years ago in Boston, MA, this week, and later moved to Lowell, MA. I was lucky to have a great job working directly under the Plant Manager and was able to have all the spaghetti I wanted.

 The small book, Prince Treasury of Italian Recipes has 305 pages.

The above items were used for advertising the Prince Spaghetti Company and Restaurant in Lowell, Massachusetts. The large paper place mats were still given away at the time the plant closed in 1997, 10 years after Borden, Inc. bought them out (my check came from Borden, employees always called it Prince). The bottom two items are much older things from Prince's past. I have a few other items, taken at the time the company closed, which I'll have to dig out and post some day.

UPDATE:  I located a pen with Prince advertising, and decided to post here on this page for Prince products.

Originally posted January 12, 2012.

An Ancestor, FB friend Pam, and the Cincinnati Library, 1874

On June 5th, I wrote Facebook and blogger friend, Pam Seavey Schaffner (blogger of Digging Down East, who currently lives in Cincinnati to see if she could help me out. Earlier that day, I discovered on a google search, a historical marker is in front of the Cincinnati Library, and it mentioned my 2nd great-grandfather! I wondered if Pam would be able to take a photo of the marker. The next day, she did as well as other photos, which are below. Thanks, Pam.

Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County's new Main Library that opened in 1955 at the corner of Eighth and Vine was post-war America's first major central public library. It was dedicated as a memorial to the servicemen and women from Hamilton County killed while in the Armed Forces. Its boldly modern "International Style" exterior was the work of local architect Woodie Garber, and its consumer-oriented "department store of knowledge" layout was the creation of Librarian Carl Vitz. The 1955 "New Main" garnered national attention and architectural praise for its sidewalk "store" entrance, generous use of glass, bright colors, rooftop terraces, and serpentine brick garden wall. Additions in 1982 and 1997 quadrupled the size of the Main Library. 

 Books in the park, located in front of the Library.

Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
Among the first in America, Cincinnati's public library dates from March 14, 1853. A public reading room opened in 1856, but funding remained a problem until 1867 when local school board president Rufus King II secured legislation for a renamed Cincinnati Public Library. In 1869, King lured leading librarian William Frederick Poole to organize Cincinnati as a national model for the growing public library movement. Poole designed 19th century America's most advanced library at 629 Vine Street, which fully opened in 1874. Becoming a countywide system in 1898, the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County was a pioneer in the 20th century with special services for the blind and for children, bookmobile services, and circulation of audiovisual materials. (continued on other side)

Above photos taken by Pam Seavey Schaffner

In addition, I ordered the book, "Free and Public: One Hundred and Fifty Years at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, 1853-2003" by John Fleichman. Thanks, Pam for suggesting this.

Speaking of books, my above ancestor wrote, "The Construction of Library Buildings" now a Google book, for free.

Regarding the book cover picture, Mr. Poole wrote, "3. I object, in the third place, to the shelving of books in galleries under any circumstances, and especially in this instance, where the alcoves are piled one upon another six stories high. I may group my objections under three heads:

(a) Because galleries are a wasteful expenditure of the physical strength of attendants in climbing stairs and of the time of readers in waiting for their books." Thank goodness people listened to him." And, on Page 23, "Mr. Poole's plan of a fireproof library is highly original and deserving of serious consideration by those who have occasion to erect new library buildings.

Update: In June 2014, my above mentioned Pam sent me an online article about the Library, called, "Seriously though, how did the most Beautiful Library in America get Demolished" by MessyNessy, June 17, 2014.