Lee Ford Swanson

Memorial Service video

Following the service, Lee's ashes were buried in the Memorial Garden

everloved

Most of this page is available as a Booklet with low-res images

Sections

Early Years and Wayside Country Store
WBZ-TV and Rex Trailer
Together, Inc.
Wayside Industries
Williams Stove Polish
Longfellow’s Wayside Inn
Sudbury Historical Society
First Parish of Sudbury, Unitarian Universalist
Sudbury Grange #121
Lee Ford Swanson, Appraiser
Sudbury Companies of Militia and Minute
Service to the Town of Sudbury
Tour Guide

Obituary ran in the Sudbury Town Crier on February 17, 2022

Lee Ford Swanson, age 83, passed away on January 22, 2022 in Emerson Hospital, Concord, Mass.

Lee was born in Malden on May 26,1938 to Milton and Olive Edna Swanson. He is survived by his two adopted sisters: Mo Ching Yip and Jean Soda, her husband, his nephew Eric Swanson and many descendants of his late brother Ray.

Lee was active in all things related to history, including the Sudbury Historical Society, the Wayside Inn, the Historic Districts Commission. He served as Town Historian from 2012 to 2019.

A memorial service will be held at First Parish of Sudbury, Unitarian Universalist on April 2nd.

Donations in his name may be made to First Parish of Sudbury, 327 Concord Rd, or the Sudbury Historical Society, 288 Old Sudbury Rd, both in Sudbury, MA 01776.

To the right is a picture of Lee tolling for the 9/11 memorial in 2015. He never missed tolling the bell on at 8:46. Video of Lee Tolling Bell

Lee spent his younger years in the Wayside Country Store in Marlboro after moving from Malden, where he was born in 1938. The store was run by his parents Milton and Edna Swanson, pictured on right. They had purchased it from the widow of Henry Ford in 1947. The structure was moved from the Sudbury Town center to Hager Pond on Route 20 near the Wayside Inn. While working side by side with his father in the Wayside Country store business, he amassed a deep knowledge and history of antiquities and novelty items, especially of all things related to the Colonial era. Indeed, he learned to appraise antiquities and esoteric items that only a mind like his could appreciate.

Lee Swanson upstairs in Town Hall, home of the Sudbury Historical Society until the Sudbury History Center opened in the Loring Parsonage in 2021.

MiltonAndEdna Milton

Lee And Edna Swanson April 1977

2017 Sudbury Through Time, with Lee as Rev. Israel Loring

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Together, Inc. In 1971, Lee was a principle in Together, Inc in Hudson, serving on the Board and as Treasurer. The non-profit organization helped young people with drug or any other problems with a hot-line, group sessions and activities.

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Wayside Industries

After his father’s retirement and sale of the Wayside Country Store in 1971, he took some part of the business on as Wayside Industries until about 1976. This was wholesale operation and also food service with one order sheet featuring Yankee Clam Chowder, Yankee Injun Pudding and Yankee Saturday night dinner for Four.

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CarollingTownHall.jpg - 2048x1536

Lee, Milt and Edna Swanson hand over the Marlboro Flintlock to Innkeeper Frank Koppeis, 1973 writing on back

Lee played Arnold Windbag in the 1989 play Town Meeting Tonight

Welcoming travelers to Longfellow's Wayside Inn

Lee in Colonial Garb in 1990

1985 SHS Program: Memories of a Country Store from Sudbury Town Crier and Fence Viewer, October 3rd, 1985 The Sudbury Historical Society opens its 30th Anniversary Program on Monday, Oct. 7 at 8 p.m. at a meeting in the Ford Room at the Wayside Inn. The speaker will be Lee Swanson a Sudbury resident whose father bought the Wayside Country Store from Henry Ford and operated it from 1947 through 1971. Swanson is a film editor by trade and a personal property appraiser. He is a former trustee of the Marlboro Historical Society, WBZ children's program producer, director of Boston's International Film Festival, a partner in the firm of Warehouse Antiques of Marlboro for nine years, as well as past vice-president and president of Suburban Antiques Dealers Association. This is the first of a series of historical events during a year which will be devoted to authoritative lectures on Sudbury people and topics, and on Colonial life in New England.

Lee took a job at Longfellow’s Wayside Inn on weekend evenings. He role expanded from there. He was the curator in 1989 and in 1998 he cited as the historical coordinator of the Wayside Inn in a Baltimore Sun articles about the origins of Mary Had a Little Lamb. Lee loved the Inn and he emphasized the value of the Inn’s colonial identity, including donning traditional colonial garb at various local events and festivals, some featured in local news.

Lee had a gift for story telling and liked to portray Israel Loring in his Sudbury Through Time program for 3rd graders and for the April 19th muster of the troops at Town Hall, which in 1776, would have been the West Side Meetinghouse.

2015 Colonial Faire

2012 Colonial Fair

2015 Check Presentation for History Center

Marines, Lee and Toys for Tots

First Parish of Sudbury, Unitarian Universalist

Architect, Bruce Langmuir, Lee and rep from the Mass Historical Commission. (color)

Tolling the bell was most important to him every September 11th and for memorial services. On happier occasions, he would peal the bell, especially on the day of April 19th, when the ringing bell would “gather the troops” to march to Concord.

Sudbury Grange #121

Lee joined the Grange sometime in the 1990s and served as its treasurer for several years. The Grange occupied the building next to Town Hall until the building was sold to the Sudbury Foundation and the Grange disbanded. He arranged for the last possessions of the Grange to be given to the Sudbury Historical Society.

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Sudbury Through Time

Starting the tour for 3rd graders Lee as Reverend Loring video

Waking the sleeping parishioners

History coming alive

Israel Loring lived in the parsonage.

1971-1978 President and owner of Right Stove Polish Company, Inc., producer of the oldest (90 years) black iron stove polish on the market "Williams Stove Polish."
1971-Present, President and owner of Wayside Industries. Packer and distributor of 18th century natural foods and botanicals and reproductions.
1976-Present, Warehouse Antiques, general line of antiques, collectibles, and used furniture.
1977-Present, Appraiser of personal property ( antiques, fine arts, residential contents)
1980-present Trustee Marlborough Historical Society.
1982 Vice-President, SUBURBAN ANTIQUE DEALERS ASSOCIATION, serving, Eastern Mass.

Sudbury Companies of Militia and Minute

The group has been critically supported by the Wayside Inn since its inception and Lee’s association with the Inn gave him an important role as a facilitator and liaison. Having given the Wayside Store’s flintlock musket to the Inn, he would carry a pitchfork at many of the re-enactments and parades - always in 18th century clothing.

He provided accurate information related to the history of the re-enactments and the people involved. He would know historic people’s names, occupations and any military activity during the Revolution. He would give slide presentations to the group which were popular for their historic detail and dramatic overtones.

He originated the tradition of ringing the bell of the First Parish Church early in the morning of April 19th. This helps to produce a colonial era atmosphere in the pre-dawn light which accompanies the sound of musket volleys and drums. In later years he would also portray the role of a minister who gives a benediction to the departing troops to prepare them for their fate at the North Bridge.

Lee served the Town of Sudbury as Town Historian from 2012-2019 and served on the 375th anniversary planning committee in 2013 and 2014.
Lee’s first posting to a Town committee was on the Committee for the Preservation and Management of Town Documents starting in 1994. He became the committee chair in 1996 and served until the committee was disbanded in 2007. He then served on the Historic Districts Commission from 2007 until 2019.
Lee worked on the 2006 Sudbury Reconnaissance Report and he appears in Town records as an Emergency Inspector. Lee was well known and well liked in the Town Clerk’s office.

Town Historian Annual Report 2012

My name is Lee Swanson, and I was appointed last year by the Selectmen. I have a unique perspective on Sudbury's History, recent and ancient. My parents, Edna and Milton Swanson, purchased the closed empty 'General Store' from the heirs of Henry Ford in 1947. The store was just over the Sudbury line in Marlborough on Route 20, and was closed by Mr. Ford in 1938. My parents reopened it as the Wayside Country Store in September 1947 and stocked it with everything a country store needed as of 1910. It was an almost immediate success, and still survives today, although my parents sold it in 1971.

The reopened Country Store attracted people from all walks of life, and our first customer was Jimmy Cagney! We sold real penny candy, and some items were even 3 for a penny! Vermont cheddar cheese was two years old, and only 79 cents a pound. In a couple of years we aged it ourselves, and kept an inventory of two tons of different kinds of cheeses. On most Sundays, the closest a customer could get to the store was parking a quarter mile away.

I was nine years old, and worked on opening day, and every available non-school day. It was a great education as I served the public, and met the people who turned out to be Sudbury residents who were big supporters of the store. I talked with Sudbury people who helped make Sudbury history over the past 100 years; or as we would say, I heard it from the "Horse's Mouth."

Longfellow's Wayside Inn used to send down interesting guests to the store. I met them, and heard their stories. You never knew who you were waiting on. Later I worked at the Wayside Inn, and became Curator, then Archivist, and was the spokesman for the Inn.

Regarding current Sudbury history, this is a reminder that the 375th Anniversary of the founding and incorporation of the Town of Sudbury starts this year in Wayland in June (the original Sudbury). The Sudbury Celebrates 375/Sudbury Day Committee is working with them, however, we're celebrating the anniversary in 2014. Go to http://sudbury.ma.us/ departments/Sudbury375/ to find out more.

The Town Historian can be reached by email at: Historian@sudbury.ma.us.

All of Lee's Town Historian Annual Reports 2012-2015

Tour Guide

2006 SHS at Fords Folley	Off To Billerica Dam	Lee at Piper Farm
Battle Of Green Hill	He really came alive showing Nobscot History Sudbury Town Crier Article	Ghost Tour 2017

Lee loved bringing people to the Native American sites in Sudbury, such as the grinding bowls and Tantamous’s collapsed cave. He also would guide some to sacred sites with the promise that they would not publicize the information.

Musketahquid Neighbor

Lee lived at Musketahquid from 2007 until the time of his death. He was a good neighbor and well liked. He served on the Board there and organized activities, for example renting movies and making popcorn for Movie Night. He would bring the movie and the popcorn. He helped many of his neighbors and they certainly helped him in the later years. Thank you!

Fun fact: Lee applied to be a rancher in Wyaoming with many letters following up on an ad he placed in Western Horseman in 1958
Fun fact: Lee was assistant director of the 2nd International Boston Film Festival in 1962.
Fun fact: he researched buying a horse drawn carriage.

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All Pictures in Slide Show

Timeline (sorely incomplete) Born - May 26, 1938 1947 - Move to Marlboro 1956 - Graduate High School 1958 - Graduate Boston University Junior College 1959 - Study at Harvard 1962 Assistant Director, Boston International Film Festival 1971 - Wayside Country Store sold by Milt & Edna 1971 - Together, Inc. for troubled youth 1984 Greeter and raconteur at Longfellow’s Wayside Inn 1985-10-07 Memories of a Country Store - lee gives an SHS talk at the Wayside Inn. 1989-2000 Archivist at Longfellow’s Wayside Inn 1994-1997 Trustee, First Parish of Sudbury, Unitarian Universalist 1994-2007 Committee for the Preservation and Management of Town Documents (chair from 1996-2007) 2000-2018 Curator/Archivist, Sudbury Historical Society, 2008-2019 Sudbury Historic Districts Commission 2012-2019 Sudbury Town Historian 2013-2014 Sudbury 375 Planning committee Died - January 22, 2022

Lee's Town Historian Annual Reports 2012-2015

Initial Notice from First Parish.

Lee As Loring Bell	Lee with his sister, Mo-ching	Colonial Fair	2002 Colonial Fair
Lee And Beth	Colonial Faire 2015	Colonial Fair 2010	Lee And Terry
LeeAtThanksgiving.jpg - 2242x1494	Lee_RevDPL_FPSArhive.jpg - 2408x1686	LeeInTownCrier.jpg - 1876x1218	OliveEdnaSwanson_youngGirl OliveEdnaSwanson_back
In his apartment in 2021	LeeAndSparky.jpg - 1048x1398	LeeSwansonMapLauraHayden LeeSwansonMapLauraHaydenBack	LeeTollingBell_20210911.jpg - 4032x3024

Lee's story - version 1

Lee was born in Malden on May 26,1938 to Milton Reed Swanson and Olive Edna (Ford) Swanson. He is survived by his two adopted sisters: Mo Ching Yip residing in northern California and Jean Soda residing in Poland with her husband, and several descendants of his late brother Ray Swanson.

Lee moved with his family to Marlboro at a young age. His father took up the business of the Wayside Country Store in Marlboro, then purchased the store from the widow of Henry Ford in 1947. The structure was moved from the Sudbury Town center to Hager Pond on Route 20 near the Wayside Inn. Lee worked side by side with his father in the Wayside Country store business, and amassed a deep knowledge and history of antiquities and novelty items, especially of all things related to the Colonial era. Indeed, he learned to appraise antiquities and esoteric items that only a mind like his could appreciate. He shared his talent openly and was a wonderful storyteller.

After his father’s retirement and sale of the Wayside Country Store in 1971, Lee was instrumental in gathering and curating the collections and sharing his deep knowledge and expertise with the Sudbury Historical Society where he took on the role of Curator and Archivist. The Society honored him with an Honorary Lifetime Membership for his contributions At the same time, he was employed as the Archivist at Longfellow’s Wayside Inn where he emphasized the value of the Inn’s colonial identity, including donning traditional colonial garb at various local events and festivals, some featured in local news. Lee was Sudbury’s Town Historian from 2012-2019 when his health issues made it difficult to manage his work

Anyone who was acquainted with Lee also knew that he loved his community and he especially loved Sudbury where he lived and breathed the history of the area and had a gift for story telling. He was also active in the Sudbury Senior Center and especially the First Parish of Sudbury, Unitarian Universalist where he was a long time and devoted member, contributing ideas and leading fundraising tours. He served as a Trustee from 1994 to1997 and also served as liaison to the Massachusetts Historical Commission during the 1997 Meetinghouse Preservation Project. Tolling the bell was most important to him every September 11th and for memorial services. On happier occasions, he would peal the bell, especially on the day of April 19th, when the ringing bell would “gather the troops” to march to Concord

Lee was loyal to his friends, and kept life long friendships with various friends, regardless how far away they had moved from his home town.

A memorial service will be held at First Parish of Sudbury, Unitarian Universalist in early April. Notice of the memorial will be published in the First Parish Newsletter and the Sudbury Town Crier

Donations in his name may be made to First Parish of Sudbury, 327 Concord Rd, or the Sudbury Historical Society, 288 Old Sudbury Rd, both in Sudbury, MA 01776.

Lee's note for bio for talk in 2017