Nineteenth-century Harvard residents Mercy Maynard and Edward Lawrence may be long forgotten, but their names have lived on for more than a century in Harvard’s annual reports. Maynard and Lawrence, along with 20 other charitable souls, left money in trust to the town for purposes such as buying books for the library, helping the poor, and even for Fourth of July activities.
The trust funds are currently the subject of an investigation by the selectmen to determine if trust fund interest could be used to fund some department budgets in the next fiscal year, possibly freeing up hundreds of thousands of dollars for an extra payment toward the town’s OPEB (other post-employment benefits) liability. With trust fund names and dollars being bandied about and thoughts turning to giving thanks, it seemed fitting to look into the history of the men and women behind the fund names. Some were rich; many were not. Some lived in Harvard all their lives; some never lived here. But by giving the town a gift in the form of a trust, they all hoped that the income from their gifts would continue to benefit the town for many years to come. In this article and a second that will follow next week, the Press remembers them.
The first trust fund
Edward Lawrence, born in Harvard in 1810, moved to Charlestown when he was 15. He worked for a cabinetmaker there, and he eventually became involved in politics as a selectman. In later years he served in the state Legislature as both a representative and a senator. At the time of his death in 1885, he was president of the Bunker Hill Bank. Although Lawrence never lived in Harvard after his youth, he gave the town $5,000 in trust to be used by the library for the purchase of books. At that time, the annual library budget was only $200, and the entire town budget was not much more than the amount of Lawrence’s gift.
Well-known benefactors
A few of the town’s trust funds were given by men and women who contributed in many other ways to the town. Warren Hapgood, who donated the money for an addition to the old library, left more than $20,000 in a trust fund for the library. Clara Sears, the founder of Fruitlands Museum, left the town $1,000 for the care and preservation of the Shaker Cemetery. Stanley Hildreth, whose family donated, among other things, the land that the elementary school is built on, left two trusts to the town. One was $1,000 for care and maintenance of the Common, “especially in keeping the lawn well mown and the adjacent sidewalks in good order,” and the other was $500 for maintenance of the town clock on the Unitarian Church on the Common.
Mercy Maynard
Although not a well-known name, Mercy Maynard was Warren Hapgood’s first cousin. Her mother, Mercy Hapgood Goldsmith, was the sister of Joel Hapgood, who was Warren’s father. Mercy was married and had a son, but he died at the age of 20 of diabetes. Mercy died a widow in 1889, and according to an article in The Harvard Post from 1987, her gift of $500 for the purchase and maintenance of a town clock amounted to one-third of her estate.
Warren Harrod, lifelong teacher
Many of the people who left trusts to the town were never married and had no immediate family when they died. Such was the case with Warren Harrod. Warren was born in 1873 and lived at 10 Still River Depot Road. He taught at a grammar school in Worcester and later became a principal. He lodged at a house in Worcester during his employment there, and his sister, Alice, who also never married, remained in the Still River house. Warren returned to live there when he retired. Alice died in 1942, and Warren died the following year. He left a $1,500 trust to the town of Harvard for Fourth of July celebrations “consisting of an afternoon entertainment suitable for children.” According to the current resident of the house, also named Warren Harrod, the Harrod whose name is on the trust was a distant uncle of his. He added that the house at 10 Still River Depot Road was left to his family, and that they’ve lived there since 1943.
John Maynard, selectman
John Edward Maynard was born in Harvard in 1865. He taught school here for five years, and he served on the School Committee for more than 20 years. He was then elected to the Board of Selectmen in 1914, served for three years, and was elected again in 1919. He remained a selectman until his death in 1947. He also served on the Cemetery Commission from 1903 until he died. A tribute in the 1947 Harvard Annual Report stated, “His duties were faithfully and efficiently performed, and he will be greatly missed by a wide circle of friends.” Maynard left the town more than $8,000 for the general care of the town cemeteries.
Albert Rantoul, chicken farmer
One of the largest amounts of money ever given to the town was a bequest from Albert Rantoul Jr. Born in Cambridge in 1909, Rantoul graduated from the University of Massachusetts Stockbridge School of Agriculture. He moved to Harvard in 1945 to run a chicken farm on Stow Road, where he lived with his mother and brother, Bob. Albert cared for his brother during the illness that led to Bob’s death in 1979. Albert devoted much of his time in his later years to helping the town’s elderly, and he served on the Housing for the Elderly Committee in the early 1980s. He was one of the founders of Harvard Help and was active in that organization until just before his death in 1989. He was also a member of the Council on Aging until the time of his death. In Albert’s obituary, a friend was quoted as saying, “He was a gentlemanly, sweet, kind person. He was quiet and reserved, but with a sense of humor that he maintained to the end.” Albert never married and had no immediate family when he died. He left the town about $187,000 in an unrestricted trust overseen by the selectmen. He also left about $16,000 in a separate trust to be used for the elderly of the town, preferably for housing.
Emily Sibley, high school teacher
Emily Sibley, born in 1888 in Boston, never lived in Harvard. Her father, Henry Clark Sibley, was born here, and Henry’s father, Clark Sibley, was a minister at Still River Baptist Church. Emily graduated from Radcliffe and Simmons College. She lived in Cambridge, never married, and taught high school all of her life. When Emily died in 1979, she bequeathed about $6,000 for care of the old cemetery in Harvard center, where both she and her father are buried. The terms of her bequest included a wish that the name on her father’s stone might be recut if it became too weatherworn.
Thomas Ford, cutlery grinder
Thomas P. Ford was born in Sheffield, England, in 1840, and he immigrated to the United States when he was 45 years old. Thomas was divorced, and he and his brother John, a widower, settled in Harvard. A 1900 census report lists Thomas’ occupation as “cutlery grinder.” His hometown, Sheffield, was a major producer of cutlery in the 1800s. Cutlery grinding was a hazardous job, according to an account from “The Condition of the Working Class in England” by Friedrich Engels. Engels said that sharp-edged metal dust particles floated in the air and were inhaled by the grinders, eventually causing fatal lesions in the lungs. In 1907, Thomas died in Harvard of “grinder’s consumption,” the name given to the condition. At that time, Harvard had no public health nurse, and it was not until 1919 that the town appropriated money for that position, coincidentally the year after Thomas’ brother John died of bronchitis. The Thomas P. Ford District Nurse Fund was created soon after John’s death, but no records of the fund’s source are available in Harvard’s annual reports. While the term “district nurse” was not typically used in the U.S., town nurses were referred to as district nurses in England, where the Fords were born. A record of interest from the fund appeared yearly beginning in 1929, when the first expenditure of $72.75 was made to pay for a portion of the salary of the town nurse, Ethel Schofield.
Editor’s note: The information compiled for this article was drawn from U.S. Census records, Massachusetts birth and death records, town of Harvard Annual Reports and Warrants, “History of the Town of Harvard, Massachusetts, 1732–1893” by Henry S. Nourse, “History of District Nursing” at http://www.districtnursing150.org.uk, information supplied by the Harvard Historical Society, and articles and obituaries from The Harvard Post and The Harvard Press newspapers. The Press would like to thank the Harvard Historical Society and the Harvard Public Library for their help. A second installment with the history of others who gave trusts to the town will appear next week.
