Black History

Today is the last day of February, thus the closing of "Black History Month."

For me, it feels more like an opening. This evening I attended a Zoom session with people interested in  researching Black history in New England. When I introduced myself as a Danvers native and mentioned my recent discovery of an ancestor who had African slaves, another participant reached out to me. She is already in touch with people who are researching people of color who were enslaved in Danvers. We've exchanged email addresses. I don't know where this will lead, but it feels like an important opening... an invitation for me to learn more. 

The Zoom meeting was hosted by Atlantic Black Box, an organization that has been offering many good educational programs. "What Happened Here" is the title of their speaker series. Out of curiosity, I tend to listen in. I've enjoyed several of their programs this winter – without officially joining them.

Last week's program pulled me in. I'd already heard a bit about Phillis Wheatley, a young African slave who wrote poetry and managed to get her poetry published. I was curious to learn more, so signed up for the February 24 Atlantic Black Box program with Dr. Cornelia Dayton, who would speak of "Lost Years Recovered" – her research into a puzzling gap in the story of Phillis's life. Where did Phillis and her husband go when freed from slavery?  Here's an excerpt from the promotion for Feb 24:

Phillis Wheatley Peters (1753 – 1784) was enslaved and educated in the household of prominent Boston merchant John Wheatley. Her poetry brought her unprecedented international fame. Phillis's name was regularly invoked by colonists and her achievements were a catalyst for the fledgling antislavery movement.

Yet in the years when slavery was ending in Massachusetts, Phillis and her husband, now a free Black couple, moved to an interior town north of Boston. Concerted opposition from many neighbors made it impossible for them to stay.

What do the extensive court papers in this case tell us about town politics, race-based hierarchies, access to the law and citizenship, and the final four years of the African-born poet Phillis Wheatley Peters’s life?

I did NOT expect this program to have any connection to Danvers. It isn't really a Danvers story, but... 

The "lost years" were spent in Middleton, right next door. The name of a Danvers official was mentioned, and I began to reflect on how very, very close this was to where an early Nichols ancestor first had property (in the Ferncroft area, where today Danvers and Middleton meet).

At the conclusion of that February 24 program, participants were invited to attend a members-only followup discussion Monday, February 28, about doing research re Essex County history. I wanted to be there. So I went to the Atlantic Black Box Project website and paid for a membership. 

Here's the description of what I have joined:

Atlantic Black Box is a grassroots historical recovery project that empowers communities throughout New England to research, reveal, and begin reckoning with the region's complicity in the slave trade and the global economy of enslavement while recentering the stories of its racially marginalized groups.  

As a retired librarian I'm delighted to meet with these people who are eagerly using libraries, museum archives, and online databases to discover parts of history that had previously been hidden or hard to find. I'm inspired by their willingness to share what they learn, and to seek advice from each other about where to search next.

1948 photo

Granddaddy & Nana, Jean & Sandy, dog Heidi

December 28, 1948

Click on photo to enlarge it.

Today while sorting a pile of miscellaneous papers, this photo surfaced. It's a familiar image; I've had a copy of it before, but this print is in better condition and has a date clearly written on the back: 12/28/48.  The paper pile from which it emerged provided more clues of its provenance. These came to me in fall 2017 during a visit to a relative in Modesto, California. She passed to me many items related to our Nichols family, including this old photo of her husband's grandfather and grandmother, William Stanley Nichols and Nellie (Johnson) Nichols in Danvers.

Nichols Street is visible behind us. We were standing on the front lawn of my childhood home at 120 Nichols Street.

The woods across the street were in the Locust Lawn property.

The stone wall along Nichols Street looks in very good shape then. Over the years my mother fussed that some stones were falling down, and hard to replace. She liked that wall and wanted it preserved.

Nichols St. houses

On Sunday January 30, 2022, I drove to Danvers and briefly visited the neighborhood where my childhood friends and classmates (Janet, Ray, Gordon...) had lived.  It was a beautiful sunny morning, the day after the huge snowstorm that had dropped two feet of snow on Danvers.

Here are a few photos I took from my car window as I reminisced about who used to live where...

My best friend Janet Hoberg had lived here, in this one, with her parents and 3 sisters:

Mr. & Mrs. Charles Poirier had lived just down the street, by the corner of Durkee Circle. Pat and Chuck did not yet have children, but welcomed neighborhood kids. We especially loved to gather there on Saturday mornings for Pat's puppet-making sessions. Week after week, our creations took shape under her patient and skillful guidance.  Here's the Poirier house, as seen in 2022:

Further down the street is the Lindroth home, where Gordon lived.  I never was inside their home, but Gordon was a frequent companion for activities in the neighborhood. We, with Ray Dirks and Janet Hoberg, climbed trees, played at the pond by my house, roamed acres of woods and pastures in the Locust Lawn property adjacent to Nichols Street. So many adventures!

Years later, when the family-owned Locust Lawn property was divided into segments, our cousin Betty Nichols Clay and her husband Earl Clay (who was our Geography teacher at Richmond Jr. High School), built a home at the southern end of Locust lawn.  Here is that Clay home as seen the morning after the January 2022 storm:

I'm struck by the familiarity of these scenes and the continuing connections here. This segment  of Nichols street (south of the break caused by construction of Rte 95) has hardly changed. Yes, there are a few new houses, especially the added Clay family homes, but overall, it remains so familiar.

Not so, north of 95. The northern segment of Nichols Street has been drastically modified. None of the homes I remember still exist. On this trip I didn't bother to explore up that way. I prefer to envision my first home as it looked when I lived there: 

For another snowy photo of that old home on Nichols Street, and my memories of childhood there, see my posting, 120 Nichols St. 

On January 30, 2022, after this quick detour into the old neighborhood, I drove down Maple Street to the O'Donnell funeral home to pay my respects to Tage Gordon Lindroth and convey condolences to his family members. During that funeral service I happened to sit beside Gordon's eldest nephew. I learned that he now owns and lives in the Lindroth home on Nichols Street. He has lived there for decades and he DOES REMEMBER the little house at 120 Nichols Street. He recalls walking by it with his mother (or grandmother?) en route to Almy's store up by Rte 1.  Ah, so many memories!

"Oswald" running a ski tow!

This photo astonished me when I first saw it. Our old car, which we fondly called "Oswald," was running a ski tow at Russell's in Kearsage, N.H.  How did that happen?

My father's friend John "Ace" Nutter had taken these photos. As he gave photos to me in 1996, he explained the circumstances. He and Nick had promised to provide a portable tow to Russell's for a specific weekend. But snow conditions were unexpectedly good at the previous location of their portable tow and they decided they couldn't remove it. Instead, they needed another engine, so used this car, which Ace called "Cut's car."

That was another surprise. I knew the car as Oswald; I hadn't heard it called "Cut's car" but that made sense, as my mother (Janet Cutler, nicknamed "Cut" ever since her college days) probably drove this old second-hand car for her errands.

That 1932 Model AB Ford had belonged originally to my great Aunt May (Mary Eliot Nichols), of 98 Preston St, Danvers. In 1940 she presented this car to my parents as a wedding present. Aunt May declared that her old car was still usable, worth more than the $18 trade-in value offered by a car dealer!  Indeed it was. That car became a handy extra car for my family. In the early 1950's we sometimes hauled our pet sheep in it!  It was roadworthy and officially registered/licensed in MASS from 1932 through 1955. Then it was retired to the old barn at Locust Lawn. Here's how Oswald looked in 1961 when brought out of storage for my driving lessons:

  

My father said, "If you can learn to drive Oswald, you can drive anything."  I drove around the cow pasture at Locust Lawn, practicing my driving skills.  In 1965 this car served as a fun "get-away car" from a wedding reception at Locust Lawn, driving down the back avenue of the private property and disappearing into the woods near Earl & Betty Clay's home (where a properly registered car awaited, ready for road travel).  In 1969, when the old barn and hill were about to be destroyed for construction of Rte 95, I purchased "Oswald" for $1.00. Nick towed the old car to my then home in Sparkill, NY on a trailer behind his station wagon. (He said it only fell off once!)  Unfortunately Oswald could not be registered in N.Y. state because we lacked proper ownership records; Massachusetts had not retained the records from 1955 or before. We had no proof of ownership of a car that had been owned by my family continuously since 1932! A sad end. Eventually an antique car dealer bought the un-registratable (is that a word?) car as a source of parts useful in restoring other antique Fords.

I do so wish that Ace Nutter could tell us more about this ski-tow adventure in NH. I don't recall many of the details. Unfortunately, Ace died in 2001.  At least we have these photographs to document Oswald's important role in helping the skiers one weekend at Russell's.

Perhaps someone else viewing these photos can provide more information about this history.

Nick skiing

 Today I found some old photos of my father skiing. It seems appropriate to post them now, in this week of fresh snow.  I think these photos were taken in the 1940's.

Nick skiing at Locust Lawn ski hill in Danvers

Nick making a fast turn

The following photos were given to me (Sandy Nichols Ward) by John Nutter ("Ace") in 1996. Ace was close friend of my parents, Nathan P. Nichols ("Nick") and Janet Cutler Nichols ("Cut"):

See the New England Lost Ski Areas Project (NELSAP) website for information about Russell's in Kearsarge, N.H. 

See my next post for a story about how a car from Danvers helped run the rope tow at Russells one day.