On May 26, the Mattapoisett Museum hosted a presentation featuring two dedicated researchers who have studied the lives of several important persons who had lived in Mattapoisett. The lecture title was “Notable Women of Mattapoisett.”

            It is the second time Carole Clifford and Jennifer McIntire have offered the presentation focused on Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard (1823-1902), Huybertie Lansing Pruyn Hamlin (1873-1964), Minerva Miller Sparrow (1882-1968) and Florence Eastman (1894-1918.) Different this time was the deeper dive they have taken in researching their lives.

            Returning to documents of every conceivable variety, most of which has been found in papers gifted to the museum, Clifford and McIntire have found those sometimes-rare bits of data that help to breathe new life into the stories and histories of four women who once called Mattapoisett home.

            McIntire began her introductions by setting the stage from the perspective of women who lived prior to the modern era, some of whom could not vote and were not expected to be educated or have careers outside the home. Yet these were women who managed to use their intelligence and talents in spite of societal norms during the eras in which they lived. These women were far ahead of their time and wholly unique – Clifford and McIntire made that perfectly clear this time.

            Stoddard comes through in McIntire’s presentation as a strong, rather single-minded woman who believed herself to be “an author” and therefore, shunned doing housework. Her writings were compared to Balsac and the Bronte sisters.

            Her novel “The Morgansons” sets Stoddard apart from many of her contemporaries in that not only did she write in a less cumbersome Victorian manner, her female lead is not a victim but a victor. The story allows the character to explore social norms of the time including sexuality, and she is successful in breaking economic chains. The leading lady gets to keep her family property. The story is centered in a New England seaside town believed to be Mattapoisett. It is also believed the story is largely autobiographical.

            Although she possessed what we would call today strong feminist views, Stoddard did not subscribe nor was she sympathetic to the suffrage movement. McIntire said, “Stoddard was ambitious, not a demure Victorian woman, direct and opinionated.” One could say Stoddard was an enigma, especially given that “motherhood was central to her life.” At a time when women’s roles were almost exclusively domestic, Stoddard gave her female characters multi-faceted personalities.

            McIntire also explored the life of Minerva Miller Sparrow, who grew up on Church Street. Sparrow received an education at Mt. Holyoke College and other universities and later earned a master’s degree in English. In her later years, she was instrumental in the development of the Mattapoisett Historical Society and the society’s acquisition of the former Baptist Church, which is today that jewel in the crown, the Mattapoisett Museum. She was involved with the society throughout her retirement until her passing. In addition, speaking of her retirement from education, McIntire reported that nearly all of her work on behalf of the society and the greater community took place when she was in her 70s and 80s.

            But it was her early years that one could say through the lens of time sets Sparrow apart. She spent many years as an educator to the underserved, former slaves and the poor. She began her career teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in Acushnet, then for reasons lost to time, she taught in Jacksonville, Florida. Sparrow then surfaces as a teacher at Rust College (1909-1920), a black institution of higher education followed by 15 years teaching at Straight College, founded by freed slaves, in New Orleans. The children of Eastern Kentucky and the southern Appalachians also received instruction from Sparrow between 1943 and 1949.

            “She was described as the best teacher by her students,” McIntire said of Sparrow. “She took great interest in the whole student, setting high standards for them.”

            Clifford explored the long life and achievements of Huybertie Lansing Pruyn Hamlin. Unlike the other women’s background, Hamlin’s pedigree is that of rich Dutch founders and long political connections. She married Charles Hamlin, who summered in Marion, and later the couple purchased many acres of a former farm in what is now known as Ned’s Point. Mr. Hamlin was the first chairman of the Federal Reserve, bringing his wife into political and social contact with such American royalty as the Roosevelts.

            Hamlin documented her 50 years of life in Mattapoisett in layered detail through letters and diaries by the droves. She would also produce short stories, primarily of her experiences in the seaside town. Clifford said that the Hamlins were lifelong members of the Grange and that Mrs. Hamlin was instrumental in leading the charge for improvement projects throughout the town.

            In 1904, Hamlin became a founding member of the Mattapoisett Improvement Association, a group of like-minded people, mostly women, whose works included rubbish collection, beach bathhouses, tree plantings, cemetery care, bringing entertainment to town, establishment of the visiting nurse, dental treatment and through the group’s garden committee held annual contests for the best vegetables and flowers grown from seed packets distributed to children.

            One of Hamlin’s more ambitious efforts was raising money to save Shipyard Park. At the time, the property had seen many decades of commercial use from shipbuilding to various shops of commerce. Today that space commands an unobstructed spectacular view of the harbor. All who enjoy the seaside park have Hamlin to thank.

            Hamlin lived a long and very productive life, and her writings capture bygone moments in time such as the hurricane of 1938 in which she wrote the seas were “…an angry mountain range coming towards our home.” So close were the Hamlins to the Roosevelts that F.D.R. dispatched the Coast Guard to see if they were safe during the aftermath of the storm.

            Hamlin enjoyed having company, was known not only for her civic-minded pursuits but for having fun by way of practical joke, and hosting lavish parties in her seaside home. On the civic-side of things, Hamlin was a lifelong Democrat and member of the Democratic Women of New Bedford.

            Clifford concluded, “She was a driving force in the town.”

            It is sad to note that at the end of her life, in spite of all the wealth she once possessed through her family and her husband, her generosity would prove her downfall, she was basically impoverished, Clifford noted.

            Possibly one of the more famous woman to have come from or been associated with Mattapoisett is Florence Eastman. While her life was brief, she has lived on in the hearts and minds of the community in no small part due to the recognition she received from the American Legion Post.

            Clifford said Eastman clearly had a humble beginning compared to the others; her father was the last lighthouse keeper at Ned’s Point light. Clifford said that Eastman was known for her deep convictions and self-discipline. She wanted to be useful to help others and so embarked on a career as a nurse. Eastman joined the Red Cross in 1918. “All she ever wanted was to become a Red Cross nurse,” Clifford said.

            When WWI broke out, Eastman was the only woman in Mattapoisett and possibly the surrounding area to volunteer and soon found herself in charge of a military hospital in Long Island, taking care of men who had contracted what was then called the Spanish Flu.

            The end of her story is abrupt; Eastman came down with the illness and died. She would be one of 500,000,000 souls who would succumb to this flu. She was buried with full military honors in Pine Island Cemetery. She was only 24 years of age.

            Eastman’s drive and desire to make a difference lives on; her cheerful and complete devotion to caring for others has earned her a permanent place in Mattapoisett’s history – the American Legion Post is named after this brave young soul.

            Hamlin was living in Mattapoisett when the burial took place and chronicled the moment, writing that only approximately 20 people were in attendance. Clifford said that when Eastman’s body arrived for burial it was Hamlin who provided their transportation to the cemetery.

            McIntire and Clifford touched on the fact that each of the featured women lived at a time when many women were lobbying for the right to vote. However, with the exception of Stoddard, very little if anything at all defines where this group stood on the topic.

            The full presentation can be viewed at mattapoisettmuseum.org.

Mattapoisett Museum

By Marilou Newell

The 5-mile version of the July 4 Mattapoisett Road Race is back for its 50th running after a two-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. A 5k race was held last year and the year before a virtual running.

            In honor of the anniversary race that has waited two years to properly commemorate its half century as a cultural staple in Mattapoisett, Road Race Committee member Pam Mello has an assignment.

            Runners, community members and anyone whose life has been impacted by the Mattapoisett Road Race is invited to write an essay of no more than 500 words and submit it to, first of all, share memories and add to the event’s recorded history and for a potential prize.

            “It means a lot of things to a lot of people,” said Mello, whose summers in Mattapoisett have been extra special in large part due to the race and the many kinds of community participation.

            Thus her question, “What does it mean to you?”

            Thanks to the outstanding athletes who compete, the race itself doesn’t take a long time to run, but the pageantry of the event, how families and friends come together for cookouts, how residents decorate their homes and/or volunteer at water stations to encourage the runners, how students’ lives are changed by scholarships, all of those things and then some make the event much more than a 5-mile run.

            “We were away for so many years. We would always come back here with our kids,” said Mello. “The spectators are fantastic.”

            The essay contest will add many voices to the retrospective of all the years of the race, their family’s traditions and those who help the runners with hoses on a warm day or just provide music, often patriotic, along the course.

            “It’s such a good, small-town thing, I love it,” said Mello.

            Writers’ 500 (or fewer) words are due no later than 6:00 pm on Saturday, July 2. Mello is hoping essay winners can be announced at the race. To participate, email your memories of the Mattapoisett Road Race to pam.mello64@gmail.com.

            Registration for the July 4 Mattapoisett Road Race will be done entirely online by visiting RaceWire via MattapoisettRoadRace.com.

Mattapoisett Road Race

By Mick Colageo

            Jack McLean played trumpet at Phillips Andover, and because of his participation in the prep school band at age 14, he was around ceremonies that in various forms paid respect to the service of people who dedicated their lives to the defense of the United States.

            The impression that those encounters made on him were only part of the point of the story he told as keynote speaker to Marion’s Memorial Day Remembrance gathering at Old Landing. The actual point was that in having served years later in Vietnam and lost dear friends, his words were addressing future members of the armed services who are years away from a decision and an oath that will define their future.

            That realization brought a sobering dimension to McLean’s words on an idyllic morning in Marion amidst blue skies, sunshine glistening on the sea, the picture-perfect backdrop to an event serving as a platform for Americans to acknowledge how good we have it.

            McLean shared his speech with The Wanderer, and his words seemed to have foreknowledge of the children in attendance on Monday morning whose lives look like his did in 1961.

            “Like many of you here today, I enjoyed playing in the marching band. I liked the uniforms (blue blazers and white slacks) and the paramilitary discipline of learning to march in step with several dozen other boys. I also liked playing marches, particularly college fight songs, and always shivered with pride as we entered the football field before a game while playing our school fight song, The Royal Blue. Having struggled in class during the week, those fall football Saturdays provided me with needed structure and made me feel as though I was part of something bigger. I liked the feeling,” wrote McLean.

            While his selection to play Taps “was an unimaginable honor” that instilled “patriotic pride,” enlisting wasn’t a dream as much as the answer to a logistical quandary. “As graduation neared, unlike my classmates, I wasn’t eager to attend college right away. I felt that doing something else first for a year or two might be more beneficial.”

            Limited in his options during the era of the Vietnam draft, McLean contemplated the honor of military service and was cognizant of his father’s service and that of respected members of the Andover faculty.

            “The extraordinary achievements of recent military heroes like Eisenhower, Bradley and Marshall still resonated. There was honor in military service. My parents had instilled this in me. Andover had reinforced it. Still, I didn’t want to join the military, but I also didn’t want to go to college for the sole purpose of avoiding the draft,” he told the audience on Monday. “While home on spring break, I decided to depart from the long-established Andover norm and get my military obligation out of the way before starting college.”

            Little did he realize as the Vietnam War was heating up but that it, in fact, would last more than a year or two. “I was more concerned about surviving the looming reality of the Marine Corps’ infamous Parris Island boot camp,” he said.

            McLean’s outfit got more than it bargained for.

            He was among 225 United States Marines from Charlie and Delta Companies, 1st Battalion, 4th Regiment, who 54 years ago this week were dropped onto a remote hilltop near the Laotian border with the goal of halting enemy traffic on the Ho Chi Minh Trail from North Vietnam through Laos into South Vietnam. Because new fire bases were being code-named for American birds, the Marines code-named the hilltop LZ Loon.

            “Our assault was considered a success,” said McLean. “Over the next two days, it was estimated that over 400 of the enemy had been killed and the supply line was at least temporarily interrupted. The cost, however, was severe. Forty of my fellow Marines were killed and another 100 of us were injured, some gravely.”

            McLean still deals with the pain of knowing some of those who were lost. Whether they were from big cities or small towns, they had become friends and he had to grieve. “Some of them were heroes and I knew a few of them. Most, however, were just doing what they were trained to do and had the great misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said.

            In the preparation of his speech, McLean planned to recognize Thomas J. Morrissey III and his family. Thomas III was only 14 months old when his father Thomas J. Morrissey Jr. of Dover, New Hampshire, was killed while carrying a severely wounded soldier to safety. McLean was also mindful of Glen and Kathy Benjaminsen, Glen being the cousin of Virginia native Sidney B. MacLeod, Jr., whom McLean knew before he, too, was lost in battle.

            Memorial Day, pointed out McLean, is not a celebration.

            “When the war was over, all that Tom’s dad … and the others wanted to do was come home to their families and be honored on Veterans Day. Not a single one of them wanted to be remembered on Memorial Day,” he said. “While we may try to direct our words and our actions in a manner worthy of their sacrifice, we will never succeed. Their sacrifice was too great. But we must continue to try, in our own ways, to give grateful recognition to the lives of the dead and pay homage to their sacrifice.”

            McLean did not escape unscathed, and it was not until 2002 (34 years after his return home) that he took steps in his own recovery process from the trauma.

            “I was still haunted by the war and my role in it,” he said. “To help in my long recovery from the experience, I decided, for the first time, to tell my story to my three daughters. … I began by transcribing the 102 letters home that I had written while I was in the Marine Corps. Over the next six years, my small project took on a life of its own and the story turned into a book.”

            “Loon: A Marine Story” was published in 2009 by Random House.

            “The boys who were killed on LZ Loon were kids that I never would have known had I not joined the Marine Corps,” said McLean. “Most came from places that I had never been to – or even heard of – that were as diverse as our country. When, during my quiet moments, I read their names and their hometowns to myself, the memories of those grand young sons flood back. I am richer for having had them in my life.”

Marion Memorial Day Remembrance

By Mick Colageo