The Marion Democratic Town Committee welcomes all residents to its monthly meeting at 5:30 pm January 15. The committee will meet at the Elizabeth Taber Library, 8 Spring Street. The agenda will cover plans for the coming year. We also will discuss possible questions that concern Marion residents which we will ask Rep. Mark Sylvia, who will be invited to a meeting with the group this spring.
Mary M. Schubert of Mattapoisett, MA died at home on January 1, 2026, surrounded by family.
Daughter of Robert and Natalie McIntosh, Mary grew up in Manchester, CT and graduated from Westbrook Jr. College in Portland, ME. Mary was a strong proponent of an active lifestyle. After cheerleading in high school, she enjoyed tennis, golf, skiing, running, hiking, dancing, and gardening. She was also an avid fan of the Red Sox, Patriots, and UCONN athletics.
A valued colleague in the Marketing Department at Pratt & Whitney, Key Productions, and at the Hartford office of Smith Barney, Mary loved learning and was a gifted teacher. She excelled at cooking and entertaining and pursued a Cordon Bleu certificate in New York City while teaching adult education cooking classes, catering, and eventually running her own cooking school in South Windsor, CT. Mary took art and basketry classes in retirement and created many beautiful watercolors and Nantucket baskets.
Mary was deeply engaged in volunteering in all the communities where she resided. Mary helped found the Manchester, CT Junior Women’s Club at a time when young women’s roles and opportunities were changing rapidly. Mary also contributed her organizational talents to the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Rotch-Jones-Duff House & Garden Museum, the Mattapoisett Library (where she and her husband Allan conceived the Taste of Mattapoisett event to raise funds for the library expansion), and the Garden Club of Buzzards Bay which she served as President. Mary also served the Garden Club of America (GCA) Scholarship Committee as Vice-President, reviewing, selecting, and mentoring young aspiring gardeners seeking scholarships. In 2016, Mary was awarded a GCA Medal of Merit for her artistic, culinary, horticultural and organizational talents and leadership.
Mary valued family above all. With her beloved husband Allan, who pre-deceased her in 2019, she raised three children. Mary leaves her daughter Molly Bernard and sons Andy and Christopher (Sharon) Schubert, three grandchildren, Nina Banks (Ray), Tom Schubert (Emily) and Joey Schubert, and her great-grandson Roman Banks. Mary leaves her sister Margaret McIntosh and was pre-deceased by her siblings Robert McIntosh and Ann Mello.
A memorial will be held on Saturday, January 17, 2026 from 12 Noon – 2:00 pm at the Saunders-Dwyer Funeral Home, 50 County Rd., Mattapoisett, MA.
Memorial donations may be made to “N.F.S. fbo The Joseph P. Schubert Special Needs Trust” and sent via Barnum Financial Group, 200 Crossings Boulevard, Suite 200, Warwick, RI 02886. For online guestbook, please visit www.saundersdwyer.com
This week in Revolutionary War history, let’s check up on what was going on 250 years ago in and around the colonial Province of Massachusetts Bay. Last week, Colonel Henry Knox began the trek back to Cambridge with artillery from Ticonderoga, 1200 Americans under Colonel Benedict Arnold and Brigadier General Richard Montgomery are outside Quebec, ready to strike the city, and the Continental Congress authorized General George Washington to assault Boston at his discretion.
On December 24, 1775, the issues with food and supplies faced by the army seem to never dissipate. The General Orders, issued by Washington, seek to further enforce food rationing by allowing the following to each soldier through the winter: corned beef and pork, four days in a week; salt fish; one day; fresh beef, two days; “as milk cannot be procured during the winter season, the men are to have one pound and a half of Beef, or eighteen ounces of pork per day.” They are also allowed rice, beer, butter, peas, beans, onions, and whatever else is available, though supplies dwindle, especially in the cold. Generally, it is not enough for any active soldier, though it is all they can spare.
Many soldier’s contracts are up on January 1, meaning a mass shortage of troops occurring at the beginning of the new year. This exit is to include Major General Philip Schuyler in Albany and General Richard Montgumery, currently outside Quebec City. Both Schuyler and Montgomery had written to the Continental Congress in recent days, expressing their desire to leave the army. Washington writes to Schuyler on December 24, saying, “I am very sorry to find by several paragraphs, that both you and General Montgomery incline to quit the service – let me ask you sir, when is the time for brave men to exert themselves in the cause of liberty and their country, if this is not?” In his pleading message, Washington states he too is facing great stresses, saying “but we must bear up against them, and make the best of mankind as they are.” He doesn’t have much to offer besides words, and concludes, “Let me therefore conjure you and Mr. Montgomery to lay aside such thoughts – thoughts injurious to yourselves and excessively so to your country which calls aloud for gentlemen of your abilities.” To lose these two men would imperil any operation in the north, Washington thinks. The next week will change things.
It’s Christmas, and Washington spends much of the day at his table, working and rampantly drafting letters. To John Hancock and Congress, he urgently requests the expedition of payments to troops as well as further highlighting the lack of gunpowder and ammunitions. He also warns of various plots by Loyalists to disrupt supply and postal shipments.
Speaking of Loyalist plots, on December 26, Washington writes to Virginia politician Richard Henry Lee, warning him of letters he has intercepted intended from Lord John Dunmore to General William Howe. Washington warns of “his diabolical schemes,” which would involve arming the enslaved to rise up in rebellion. This plan by the British is not of anti-slavery, as they are slavers themselves, but merely a way to disrupt the southern colonies.
On December 28, similarly to what he did to Schuyler and Montgomery, Washington makes an appeal to honor and patriotism. Referring to their tenure expiring in less than a Week, he says, “the General recommends to them to consider, what may be the consequence of their abrupt departure from the lines; should any accident happen to them, before the new army gets greater strength, they not only fix eternal disgrace upon themselves as soldiers, but inevitable ruin perhaps upon their country & families.” He also offers reenlisting troops to option to choose their company. The day prior, he ordered all new recruits to Cambridge to bolster numbers around Boston, fearing a potential collapse of the lines come January 1.
By December 30, it had been snowing on and off for a week. A blinding nor’easter had again blown over Quebec City. Supplies, moral, and temperatures are dangerously low, all while smallpox is rampant through the American camp. Time for the siege is running out, as the Americans have no ability to starve the city out before reinforcements can arrive once the Saint Lawrence River thaws. There is also the fact that much of the army’s contract was up in two days. Brigadier General Montgomery gives orders to move on the city. That night, the struggling army advances towards the city walls.
This Week in Revolutionary War History
By Sam Bishop
Frank Charles Robert Viera, 43, of Acushnet passed away unexpectedly at home Saturday, December 27, 2025. He was the beloved son of Frank C. and Mary Ellen (Coutinho) Viera.
Frank was a self-employed small engine mechanic and owned Frank’s Small Engine Repair. He was a lifelong resident of Acushnet and a 2000 graduate with Honors from the Agricultural Mechanics program at Bristol County Agricultural High School. He enjoyed working on diesel engines, chainsaws, really, anything with a motor. In recent year’s he got into cooking, planning, purchasing and executing day-to-day meals especially using his new smoker and grill to cook. The most recent hobby is fish tanks. Frank loved animals, his dog Koco would go everywhere with him. He had the most generous and kind heart; that is how he ended up with more cats than he really wanted. He never complained and loved each one. He adopted a stray that wandered onto the property; she had babies and kept one. One day he heard meows from the stonewall across the street and rescued four kittens, got three adopted out and one ended up coming back. The only one left now is Little Buddy and she was his little buddy!
Frank also had a quiet compassion for people; if he had not heard from an elderly customer in a while he would call and check on them. He would call his grandmother and ask if she wanted a pizza and would go by and share a pizza with her.
Frank is survived by his loving parents; his sister, Ruby Jean Nadeau and her husband Justin of Dartmouth and their children, Syrina and Madisyn; his paternal grandmother, Joanne Viera of Acushnet; his aunts and uncles, Steven and Cheryl Viera of Acushnet, Glen and Joanne Viera of Wareham, and Susan Donaldson of NV and several cousins. He was the nephew of the late Patrick A. and Tina L. (DeCotis) Viera.
Frank never liked being the center of attention. In lieu of being buried in the back yard with all his animals, a private family service will be held. We encourage you to honor Frank’s memory in your own way, share a story, plant a tree, donate to an animal organization or just take a moment and quietly reflect. Arrangements are by the Fairhaven Funeral Home, 117 Main St., Fairhaven. For memorial register please visit, www.hathawayfunerals.com.
Lucas Pothier of Rochester was named to the Dean’s List at Cedarville University for Fall 2025. This recognition requires the student to obtain a 3.50 GPA or higher for the semester and carry a minimum of 12 credit hours.
Jacob Pothier of Rochester was named to the Dean’s Honor List at Cedarville University for Fall 2025. This recognition requires the student to obtain a 3.75 GPA or higher for the semester and carry a minimum of 12 credit hours.
90% of Americans 65 and older take at least one prescription medication. Half take 4 or more and 15% take 8 or more. The number of medications taken rises with age.
Add to that the many over-the-counter (OTC) pills such as pain relievers, acid suppressors and supplements that people take, and we are talking about a lot of medications.
While most of these are probably needed, some are not and some are harmful to your health.
There are many reasons people take medication they should not be using. A common reason is that we see many doctors, and each may be unaware of what the others are prescribing. This can lead to duplication – two pills with very similar actions – or to harmful interactions between medications.
Many medications are particularly dangerous to older people. These include muscle relaxants, sedatives and antihistamines, which can lead to dizziness and falls and/or confusion. A very valuable resource in this area is the Beers list of medications that may be harmful to older individuals, maintained by the American Geriatrics Society. It is easily available on-line – just Google “Beers list.”
While medicine has very few “always” or “never” rules, if you find that you are taking medication(s) on the Beers list, ask your doctor about this. You may be healthier stopping them.
I often saw patients taking two different strengths of the same medication. Clearly the dose was changed but the person did not know they were to stop the original pill, and the pharmacy kept refilling both.
There are numerous drug-drug interactions, many dangerous. One pill may affect the way the body handles another, leading to higher than safe levels of one or both. When they are prescribed by the same practitioner, a good electronic record will pick this up, but this will not happen if the prescribers do not share a common record.
If you have a primary care doctor, a valuable visit is the “brown bag visit.” Put ALL your medications, including OTC pills, in a bag and let your doctor review what you are taking. You may be surprised to find how many should be stopped.
Edward Hoffer MD is Associate Professor of Medicine, part-time, at Harvard.
What Does The Doctor Say?
By Dr. Edward Hoffer
On Wednesday, January 7 at 6:30 pm, The Mattapoisett Democratic Town Committee will host its annual “So you want to run for Public Office” speaker forum. This meeting will take place in the downstairs public meeting room of the Mattapoisett Free Public Library.
The forum will be moderated by Matt Dems Chair Nicki Demakis, and Acting Vice-Chair Frances-Feliz Kearns, Mattapoisett Representative to the ORR School Committee. They will be joined by other local elected representatives who will share their insight about the process of running and winning a successful campaign for any local public office.
This forum is designed to demystify the process of running for local and state public office and encourage civic participation in government. We will provide a road map from pulling papers from your local Clerk in January to Election Day and offer the tools to encourage those who may have thought about running for public office but weren’t sure how to do it. We have many of the answers.
Local government works best when it reflects the people it serves. We hope this forum will empower residents with the information and confidence needed to step up and run. This event is open to everyone regardless of party affiliation. For more information, contact Nicki Demakis, Chair Matt Dems at ndemakis@tidhlaw.com or follow us at MattDems.org.
It is hard to get excited about gardening at this time of the year, when everything’s washed out. The view is limited to bare branches, lichen-covered stone walls and firs. The brown/green/gray palette is somber and, although it can move me, it’s just not as stimulating as a June bustin-out-all-over border.
Still, it’s hard to shut off the desire for gardening. I’m offering a dozen ways to endure the winter – a survival guide – if you will, for the gardener without a place to dig.
1. January is the ideal time to start a garden journal. Your gardening successes and failures of the previous season are still fresh for recording, and you can plan for the upcoming growing season. Jot down ideas, paste clippings you’ve been saving into a book, plain or fancy. Like the little notebook you kept in chemistry lab 101 this is where you will record your gardening experiments – your successes and failures. You might think you’ll remember how you got the apple tree to produce a good crop, or what brand of tomato tasted best, but you really won’t unless you write it down. This is the place to document, design and dream!
2. The ground is frozen – true, but you can still dress your borders with compost if you haven’t yet. Stoke up your compost pile with some seaweed, delivered daily to your local beach. If you want manure, call up a farm near you. Chances are they’ll be more than willing to put you on the receiving end!
3. Get exotic – attend the Cape and Islands Orchid Society’s (CAIOS) Orchid Show. The event will take place on January 24 and January 25 at the Emerald Resort & Hyport Conference Center in Hyannis. The displays are dazzling to say the least and includes a sale of orchid plants and supplies along with mini-workshops.
4. If you didn’t finish (or start) planting the bulbs you bought, put them in a fridge for a couple of months and force them in pots. Among the most popular spring flowering bulbs for indoor use are hyacinths, crocuses, daffodils and other narcissi, irises and tulips. Most require storage for 10 to 13 weeks or more at temperatures of 32-to-48 degrees before forcing.
5. Catch up on reading – all those articles saved, the new books received at Christmas or those you set aside. Acquaint yourself with the various websites devoted to gardening. It’s a good time to trash the old publications, saving any pertinent articles. If you don’t have a file, perhaps you should create one just for gardening. It will come in handy, you wait and see.
6. Can’t stay out of the garden? Learn to split wood. I did and if I can do it anyone can! It will help work off the holiday bulge – right away (Don’t try this alone but get an experienced chopper to supervise at first).
7. Plan your spring and summer gardening strategies. Or plan your new landscape. It’s the perfect time for viewing the bones of your landscape, without the distractions of color and multifarious fillers.
8. Refresh your houseplants. Time for repotting, pinching, trimming, fertilizing, tending, and in some cases, revamping. Use a small brush – a silky paintbrush to “polish” leaves or a soft-tooth brush to dust fuzzy-leafed plants. And when it’s time to recycle a plant, do so. No point keeping a limp, lifeless hunk of greenery around if it doesn’t do what you want it to. [I’m actually trying to revive an aloe that was subjected to a couple of freezing nights… we shall see!]
9. Try this experiment. Using three identical plants with identical light and watering schedules, expose them to different forms of music – one classical, one rock and one without music. See which fares better. Who does your plant prefer: Beethoven or Bad Bunny.
10. If you suffer from gardening hands, then it’s time for some TLC, as in a proper manicure and an effective treatment for those cracked, dried-out palms. Take the trouble to fuss a little over yourself, just as you would over your favorite rose bush.
11. Later in winter start seeds indoors under lights. My aerogarden – a hydroponic system for growing lettuce, herbs and other plants – will come out of storage soon for a place on the kitchen counter over winter. It’s a delight to have your own home-grown edibles handy.
12. Last but not least, start shopping for your spring and summer plants from the many catalogs. They are already beginning to trickle in.
“That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang…”
-Sonnet 73, William Shakespeare
The Seaside Gardener
By Laura McLean
The next meeting of the Rochester Republican Town Committee will be at 6:30 pm, on Monday, January 12, at the Ponderosa Sportsman Club in Acushnet. You do not have to be a member of RRTC to attend. Bring a friend and stay updated on the area’s current events.
Kick off 2026 with a visit to the Mattapoisett Free Public Library, located at 7 Barstow Street.
Teens ages 14 to 17 are invited to join us on Friday, January 2 at 2:00 pm for a Game Lounge at the library. Get out of the house and play some video games with your friends.
Gather your family and join us for Family Jeopardy on Saturday, January 3 at 1:00 pm. Enjoy some friendly competition as your family competes against others in a battle of wits. All ages are welcome. No registration is required.
Students in grades 9-12 are invited to our monthly Teen Advisory Board meeting on Tuesday, January 6, at 6:00 pm. The Teen Advisory Board (TAB) is an action-oriented group of students who work to integrate their youthful voices into MFPL’s services, programming, goals, and communications. Join us as we discuss ideas for winter reading and prepare to conclude our donation drive for Veterans. New members are always welcome.
The Teen Advisory Board continues collecting new hats, gloves, and scarves to benefit the Veterans Transition House in New Bedford. Donations may be left in the library bins until January 11. TAB appreciates your support of our veterans’ needs.
The Friends of the Mattapoisett Library’s monthly used Book Sale is on Saturday, January 10, from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. Book donations will be accepted on Thursday, January 8, and Friday, January 9, from 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm in the library’s meeting room.
Our Silent Book Club returns on Sunday, January 11, at 2:00 pm in the upstairs Reading Rooms. Participants will enjoy delicious treats, tea, and quiet time to read. Relax with friends, acquaintances, and strangers while learning about your next favorite book. The event is for patrons ages 16 and up – no registration required.
Emerging adults 20-and-up are invited to join us for our first Literary Society meeting on Tuesday, January 13, at 5:30 pm. Literary Society is a quarterly media mixer for young professionals in Mattapoisett and surrounding communities to discuss books, TV shows, movies, and podcasts, and to hear what other similarly-aged patrons are enjoying – no registration required.
The next meeting of the Friends of the Mattapoisett Library is scheduled for Wednesday, January 14, at 6:00 pm. All are welcome to attend. A Zoom link to the meeting is available upon request. If you have any questions, please contact the library at mfpl@sailsinc.org. We can pass along your message to the Friends.
Join Robert Ainsworth at the library on Sunday, January 18, at 2:00 pm to hear the story of history’s swindlers. From seagoing merchants in the Mediterranean to Charles Ponzi in the 1920s, to Bernie Madoff in the 1990s, and to bitcoin on the internet, people have wanted to get rich quick. They want easy money – the money others sweated to make and had the discipline to save. And they’ll stop at nothing to get it. No registration required.
Join our next Board Game Club on Tuesday, January 20, at 6:00 pm. This month’s pick is “Ticket to Ride,” a turn-based strategy game where players collect various types of train car cards to claim railway routes across North America. Recommended for 2 to 5 players, but teams can be formed to accommodate more players.*If you’ve never played before, please arrive 15 minutes early to review the rules. Space is limited. Register online to save your spot.
Join Cathy Karp, a former Montessori art school teacher, for another Visible Mending workshop* on Saturday, January 24, from 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm. Cathy’s workshop will introduce patrons to the art of mending textiles. Participants will learn to use embroidery, patching, and darning techniques to create unique, sustainable pieces that give new life to old clothing. Attendees are encouraged to bring a few items they want to mend; all other materials will be provided. This program is recommended for teens through seniors. Space is limited. Registration is required. *The workshop lasts three hours, so bring a light snack or a covered beverage.
The Well-Read Wednesdays Nonfiction Book Group meets on the Fourth Wednesday of every month at 6:00 pm in the Marine Room. The next meeting is scheduled for January 28. We will discuss “Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis” by Jonathan Blitzer. New members welcome. No registration required.
Please remember that a library card is required at checkout. If your card is missing, we can replace it. To avoid losing it again, download the SAILS mobile app. It’s an excellent alternative to carrying your physical library card. Please see a librarian if you need help or have questions. Your privacy is important to us. Let’s protect it together.
As always, our programs and events are free and open to everyone. For more information, please visit us at 7 Barstow Street, online at www.mattapoisettlibrary.org, or call the library at 508-758-4171.