Tag Archives: Hitchcock

Tuesday, Februart 25, 1913 “Lest We Forget”

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"Lest We Forget" Tuesday, February 25, 1913

“Lest We Forget” Tuesday, February 25, 1913

Weather much the same I did a little work Carried water and filled the barrells

In the afternoon I went to the drafting room stay about 3 hr while Steve and Cullerne were working in the car. Stene went to the big Caldy [?] in the morning

Not much “construction” going on today…maybe too cold? If you can enlarge the photo, can you figure out what the “big Caldy” might be?

I’m getting caught up this morning on the past couple of days of diary entries in order to get ready for the next BU module. So far, everything seems to be going well with the course. But I’m also scheduled to be in Brimfield this afternoon to teach session 3 at the Hitchcock Free Academy. That’ll be 3 down, 1 to go!

Intro to Genealogy and Family Research: Classes, Lectures and More!

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large-family-tree-md

Plenty of classes, lectures and series coming up:

1) Tonight I’m beginning another 5-week course at First Church in Ludlow with up to 12 participants. We’ll meet once a week for 5 weeks. That’s a good number so that I can dig into any interesting cases that come up.

2) I’m halfway through a lecture series at Hitchcock Free Academy.

3) The Western Mass Genealogical Society is sponsoring an open house in April celebrating the 40th anniversary of their founding. I’m been a member to a few years there but I’ll also be speaking at the event.

4) The first series of classes are now over at the Yellow House Center for Community Learning in Palmer. Apparently it was well received as they’ve booked me for 2 more series’. One will start in early June and the other in late July.

5) The weekly meetings at Chicopee Public Library will continue. March will bring an open house on the subject of genealogy with a number of speakers, myself including!

Please get in touch with me if you’re interested in attending any of these genealogical events! Comment here on the blog, call me at (413) 233-4866, or you can always check the web site: Old Bones Genealogy and Family Research. I’ll try to get everything updated on the site in the next day or so!

More “Clem” news on the Grand Trunk Pacific—January 4, 1913

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From “Lest We Forget”, here’s my grandfather’s entry in his diary from Tuesday, January 4, 1913:

The weather is about the same 20 [degrees] below. We did not go out to work today because we had run out of coal and Steve and I had to look around for wood. Cullerne went to Carval and told us to get some wood. We asked he sec. man where we could get some and he told us he had some already cut. We went over and got it and told Cullerne that we had a hard time getting the wood.

First, telling his boss he had a hard time getting the wood strikes me as my grandfather’s wry sense of humor. Instead of being tasked with chopping down trees with Steve, they just had to walk a little and pick it up from a pile of wood ready to burn!

Second, I have to tell you that I couldn’t find the HDMI cable to hook up Karen’s laptop to the flat screen. I was a little cranked about that. I finally tracked it down. Someone (me) had wrapped it up and put it in my carrying case to take with me to the next class at the Hitchcock Free Academy in Brimfield, MA. More on that later…I’ll only have 4 or 5 students this go-around… No problem with that, I like small “cozy” classes! But when I read that my grandfather couldn’t work because they didn’t have any coal, it was too cold to work and their boss told them to go out and “get some wood”…kinda put things into perspective for me!

At least I haven’t lost the remote in the past few days…

This old wagon at the Carvel General Store in Carvel may have been around when Clem was up there 100 years ago!

This old wagon may have been around at the Carvel General Store when Clem was up there 100 years ago!

Here’s a link to the Carvel General Store: http://www.carvelgeneralstore.ca/about-us.html

Hitchcock Free Academy

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This starts out with some friends of ours asking us to head up to Brimfield, MA to a concert on the village green. The “FLAMINGOS” were playing music from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. The Flamingos, you should know, is a band of women…about 14, I think… who mostly play horns: clarinet, trombone, sax… Great show! The weather was perfect and we all had a great time.

During the intermission, a woman with a very official look about her, took the mike and thanked everyone for coming and spoke of other programs that were coming to Brimfield.  And that got me thinking: “I’ve got a program I could bring to Brimfield!”

So when the show got started again and she returned to her seat, I decided to approach her and introduce myself.   As it turns out, she’s the Executive Director of the Hitchcock Free Academy!  I asked her, “Would you have any interest in having me conduct a class on genealogy and family research?”  I was pleasantly surprised at her reaction which was basically “Yes”….

So, we talked about what I had been doing in Springfield, Chicopee and Ludlow which, I explained could be tailored for whatever the folks in the Brimfield area might enjoy.  She explained what the academy was all about.  Here’s their mission statement directly from their web site: Mission: Hitchcock Free Academy is working to enrich the lives of our community members by providing educational, recreational, and cultural programs to residents of all ages from Brimfield, Holland, Sturbridge, Wales, and the surrounding communities.

After that conversation and another on the phone a day or so later, we decided that a program consisting of 4 classes could be run in October.  We’re shooting for a late afternoon session and another early in the evening.   Whether we run 1 a day or 2 would depend entirely on the response from the community.

But here’s the part that I find most interesting: I visited their web site and learned that the Academy had been originally established by a local businessman named Samuel Austin Hitchcock in 1855.  Well, I have plenty of HITCHCOCKs in my ancestry which intrigued me.  After a little research, it turns out that Samuel Austin Hitchcock (1794-1873) is a 4th cousin 4 times removed.  Our common ancestor is John Calvin Hitchcock (1642-1711).   Who knows who else I’ll find in Brimfield!  I just may end up with more cousins right there in one of the classes!

Almost forgot…Here’s a link to a video that will tell you all about the Academy and what they do….it’s really nothing short of incredible for a small New England town in central Massachusetts! Click here for the video of Hitchcock Free Academy.