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.
The subject of SUDBURY HISTORY has become HOT in the last year!
Due to the efforts of the Sudbury Historical Society, Inc. (SHS) and other community groups, it has been determined that SUDBURY HISTORY needs attention and is long overdue for that attention. Sudbury History is alive and well by all tests on my part. The newspapers seek me out looking for accurate information and interesting stories, and all of history is just interesting stories with facts.
The Historical Society's programs are now extremely well attended here in the Town Hall. With my dual hats as Town Historian and SHS Curator/Archivist, I can enrich all of our 10 or more original programs a year.
Via historian@sudbury.ma.us I receive a few inquiries a year but many inquiries (20) came in person to the 2nd floor of the Sudbury Town Hall, where the office and Museum for the Sudbury Historical Society are located.
Compare those numbers to the internet inquiries addressed to sudburyhist01776@verizon.net. Over 100 requests were received on many subjects, including ancient roads, but most involved genealogical questions. This last year, we had founding family members or Sudbury families of the How, Stanhope, Reed, Loring, Mosman, Treadway, Hapgood, Balcom, Haynes, Browne, Rice, Noyes visit and make requests. There were also inquiries for information on Babe Ruth and Henry Ford, as well as the history of buildings and Native American sites.
For your own research on Sudbury History, go to: www.sudbury.ma.us/ for the Sudbury Archives, or Google "The History of Sudbury by A. S. Hudson."
As a Sudbury volunteer, the cost to the Town for my services was: $0
The value to the Town for this hospitality was: Priceless
Respectfully submitted, Lee Swanson, Town Historian
With my dual hats of Town Historian, and Curator & Archivist for the Sudbury Historical Society, Inc., I meet a lot of nice people, and am asked no end of questions about the history of Sudbury.
The Historical Society is slowly waking up to its true potential with new members and trustees. I have helped it along since 1986, when I was President of the SHS, first in asking permission for the use of the 2nd floor of the Sudbury Town Hall, as it was empty after the Goodnow Library had moved back to its newly enlarged building in 1999. We moved our Collection from a large bedroom in the Loring Parsonage to the former Auditorium for the Town, now 16 years later, the SHS is considering moving into the Loring Parsonage, and building an attached barn. `Everything that comes around goes around!'
You can reach me at historian@sudbury.ma.us as local Geo-cache people have, to ask about historic sites and the hiding of their little boxes. It does get people outside, and enjoying the environment.
I have been asked by the Sudbury Town Crier to write weekly short stories about objects, buildings, etc. that are on public view, and have interesting stories. Watch for them, and support your local newspaper.
Respectfully submitted, Lee Swanson
The proposed Sudbury History Center & Museum in the Loring Parsonage is moving along with recognition by the Town and State. There is something about the Sudbury Historical Society in the newspapers at least weekly now that it has an Executive Director (Sally Hild) and a very active Board and membership. The ground is fertile now for the expansion of interest in History.
We have so much to be thankful for in Sudbury for those who came before us and saved Historical material or inspired others to preserve historic material. Those I have had the good fortune to know were or are: Leona Johnson, Forrest Bradshaw, Alison Ridley Evans Garfield, Curt Garfield, Royce Kahler, Paul Gardescu, Tonya Largy, Joan Meenan, Burchill Johnson, Betsey & John Powers, Al (Dutchie) Dinsmore, Paul Boothroyd, George Lewis, Brian Donahue, Dr. David Hackett Fischer, Shirley Blancke, Dr. Anthony Howes, Debbie & Terry Keeney, Patricia Jean, Clay & June Allen, Bob Gottberg, Kevin Kennedy, Ken & Harriet Ritchie, Virginia Perkins, Shelia McKinnon, Ursula Lyons, Burt Tighe, Francis Koppeis, Edward Kreitsek, Alan Kattelle, and hundreds of others!
Some of the families that have dropped in to research their past are: Blandford, Wright, Keys, Maynard, Noyes, John Freeman, Gates, Gleason, Parker, Hunt, Rice, Smith, Parker, Newton, Robinson, Haynes, Chamberlain, Grout, Poole, Fiske, Bent, Gosling, Blanchard, Bourne, Goodnow & the many ways of spelling it or pronouncing it! (Goodnow, Goodenoh, Goodenuth, Goodno, Goodenough, Goodnough, Goodknow, etc.) Along with Wood, Axtell, Moore, Hayden, Locker, Jennison, Ward, How, Brigham, Stone, Walker, Stanhope, Nixon, Cutler, Stone, Cakebread, Stearns, Brown, Curtis, and Willis.
It has been a busy year. Even a Potential Developer and former Sudbury boy (Chris Claussen) dropped in to inquire about the history of an area.
Respectfully submitted, Lee Swanson
The surviving population said NO they would not capitulate to the easy way out, and get in their boats and go back to England!
Many battles have occurred since, not with arrows, muskets, and tomahawks, but with the spoken and written word and the strength of the voters standing together.
We will jump ahead in history and visit the proposed Trolley line to go through Sudbury as the Map below shows in one of two routes as of 1907. We already had two Railroad lines that bisected the Town and a Trolley line as proposed by the Boston, Waltham & Western Electric R. R. got short shift from the townspeople. As it appears, it was a trial balloon floated by this company that disappeared from the records after a negative response.
Now history is repeating itself with a different threat with the Threat of a Power Line coming through Sudbury as was proposed back in 1960, and the Townspeople of Sudbury fought it until 1969 at a great cost of time and treasure. At that time Governor Sargent (who used to live in Sudbury) signed a bill allowing towns to require utility wires be buried underground. To read the whole story, go to "Sudbury 1890-1989 100 years in the Life of a Town" by Curtis F. Garfield, available online or at the Goodnow Library.
Eversource wishes to revisit the idea of a power line going through Sudbury, and a battle has started anew, with the Townspeople forming an opposition group called Protect Sudbury.
Respectfully submitted, Lee Swanson, Town Historian