Jepson, Miriam

Interview date: 10-9-1990

TimeTopic
00:00 Limb from large tree fell on her roof and the house was saved by a solid post at the corner. The home on Main Street, formerly of Braniecki, was owned by Rebecca Parker, family member of a Lowell industrialist, and was called Four Pines.
04:30 Truck hit watering trough, Grover Farwell filled it with cement. Milford gardening club rescued it. George Farwell chiseled off the cement. It had been installed in 1892
06:30 There was competition about whether the Rideout Barn or the Hall Barn was bigger
08:30 There were claims that a stage coach stopped at the Saffords on Proctor Hill Road, but that is not so
10:00 Linda Holmes found old newspapers in the walls of her home about the murder in town
11:00 Miriam’s children have instructions not to turn her records over nor update town history to the Brookline Historical Society: “I would rather see the records burned.”
12:50 Church circles were organizations of ladies who would meet and make articles for the church fair
16:30 In the last election, there were 1,243 voters and 216 people voted
17:00 The ice house fire is discussed. Sonny Porter raised the alarm. Flaming tar paper set fires in South Brookline
19:00 When she was a kid, her family bought the Smith House (the brick ender on Old Milford Road) in 1904. As a child would walk from there to the pond to go swimming
20:00 They used to get burlap bags full of ice chips to make ice cream. There were the cellar holes of two boarding houses across the street from her home on Meetinghouse Hill Road
21:00 It is heresay that there were kids playing with matches who caused the ice house fire
22:20 There was a white horse who would draw empty freight cars to be filled
23:30 The Farwell children were not allowed to go downtown 300 to 400 men used to work at the ice house in the winter
24:00 There was a news reel on the ice house operation
24:30 She mentions the tree damage from the ’36 hurricane
25:30 Some of the fallen trees were put in Melendy Pond. The various school houses in town were discussed: Tomasso, the Legion Hall, North Mason Road at the corner with Route 13
27:30 Miriam mentions the house where her niece, Mabel Durrell Reed, was born on the day of the big Nashua fire
28:00 She believes that he Historical Society is just a two-family deal – not a historical society. It distresses her that things are said that are not true
29:00 She is not happy with the Captain Seaver road naming
29:30 Helen Rockwood on Milford Street had 20 to 30 fresh air children. One summer one of the children drowned. Helen was married to George Rockwood and her mother was Minnie Maxwell Fast Richards Saloon was bad for Brookline which was formerly a dry town
33:30 The town scales may still be in the ground in the triangle in front of town hall
34:00 The town was famous for its sidewalks. One of the forgotten people in town was Lewellyn Powers, a famous and highly regarded fiddler. He celebrated his 50th anniversary in the 1930s in a large town celebration
38:00 She goes through and speaks little of a number of photographs: ice house, Corey’s Store, speaks of burning old photos by someone’s surviving husband, photo of Willoughby House, Fusco House, house on corner that burned down
43:00 People thought that the cannon was in the lake or buried
44:00 Discussion of the Knudson house (Elmwood Inn) where you could stay for $2.50 a week
44:30 Photos of the flood in the area of the Village Store and the Peter Mourgis house, photo of Elwood Paren, Charlotte Wright and her three boys: Robbie, Robert and Alan
45:00 Photograph of the boy scouts, Ross Jensen
47:30 Photographs of the ice house, church, Pierce/Dennehy House, Main Street home, the Captain Seaver House, Parsonage, Saury house (formerly, Bartlett), ski tow, Brookline house, cabinet shop, Legion Hall, basket shop across from the Catholic Church, Smith house on Old Milford Road, cast iron fountain, joint houses across the brook from the Village Store, bugle corp, Jerry Phillips house (Willoughby). There was an ice cream parlor nearby.
55:30 A document or article is discussed on the 1899 roadhouse murder of William Parker
56:00 Main Street photo, Mourgis house
57:00 Reading article regarding murder. Murderer was Woby
59:00 Old Home Day program
1:01:00 She believed in cod liver oil and peanut butter to take the taste away
1:02:00 “Child starts village fire” article, apparently undated, fire started in shed behind house, three houses and a barn burned down. Fire chief was George Rockwood. It was fire year old boy
1:04:00 Photos of Bond Street, Shattuck boys, old baseball team, Phillips house, _____________________ road house, teacher – Ms. Barnaby
1:09:00 Newspaper articles on burning the ice house are examined and the year of the fire discussed
1:14:00 Money from the sale of the town history is supposed to go a special fund, and she sure that is not happened. The publishing house has many unbound copies of the history and the history is to bind those