When Eastern Massachusetts was the Frontier, 1695

March 16, 2012.Reading time 8 minutes.

Maybe you’ve come through Billerica. On the northern approach, near the North Billerica commuter rail station, lies the site of the John Rogers homestead, marked by a sign erected by the Massachusetts Tercentenary Commission in 1930. The sign memorializes an event that happened even longer ago on today’s Billerica Avenue. Early in Billerica’s history, during the […]

The Immigrant Experience in 1892: New York’s Cholera Scare and its Effect on Boston

March 3, 2012.Reading time 10 minutes.

The emigrant ship Moravia crept into its dock in New York late on the night of August 30, 1892. The ship was sent straight to quarantine. On its ten-day voyage from Hamburg, Germany, 22 of its 358 passengers had been buried at sea, victims of Asiatic Cholera. Two more passengers convalesced in the ship’s hospital, […]

Fires of Lowell, Massachusetts – Sacred Heart School, 1967

February 12, 2012.Reading time 13 minutes.

On a cool, cloudy Saturday afternoon in early May 1967, two men simultaneously spotted the billowing smoke escaping from the first-story windows of Sacred Heart School’s “new building” on its Moore Street campus in Lowell, Massachusetts. John J. McWilliams, an off-duty police officer, ran and activated the fire alarm at a nearby fire-box. John Sickles, […]

1918: Spanish Flu, Attitudes toward Housekeeping, and a Little Bit about Linguistic History

February 8, 2012.Reading time 8 minutes.

One of the more interesting aspects of writing a blog is seeing which topics attract the most interest. In mid-December, I wrote a post about the Spanish flu (link below) and its spread across Massachusetts in 1918 and 1919. Since then, it’s been one of my most popular posts (placing fourth most popular of the […]

The Great White Hurricane – New England’s Blizzard of 1888

February 5, 2012.Reading time 9 minutes.

During New England‘s Blizzard of 1888, also known as the Great White Hurricane, over four feet of snow fell in Connecticut and Massachusetts. The storm dumped as much as 40 inches of snow in New York and New Jersey. In a world before road salt and snowblowers, the Great White Hurricane suspended communication and travel […]

Worries of the Past: Smallpox and Boston’s Epidemic of 1872

January 13, 2012.Reading time 7 minutes.

First, flu-like symptoms emerge -fever, aches, pains, nausea. Exhaustion soon follows. It’s not until a few days later when the telltale, flat, red spots appear about the face, hands, and arms. The spots evolve into pus-filled blisters that scab first and then fall off, to reveal deep, pitted scars. Smallpox was one of history’s most […]

Forgotten New England

Category: Disasters