Racial Bullying

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Dear Editor,

            I have lived in this nice little town of Mattapoisett for a little over 24 years. Recently I was very disappointed in hearing about certain issues that are going on in our schools, and what this is doing to certain students.

            First Issue being racial bullying in our schools.

            Second issue is the banning of junior and senior high school library books, those having to do with LGBTQ individuals and those of color. Library book removals are often not always contrary to an appropriate educational mission, they raise serious legal issues of discrimination in education and violation of the right to receive information which is protected by constitutional and statutory free speech guarantees.

            While respecting the right of opponents to speak and be heard, schools must take steps to affirm and protect the equality of the experiences of their students and to fulfill their legal duties to ensure a safe, and equitable educational experience.

            Diana Harlfinger, Mattapoisett

The views expressed in the “Letters to the Editor” column are not necessarily those of The Wanderer, its staff or advertisers. The Wanderer will gladly accept any and all correspondence relating to timely and pertinent issues in the great Marion, Mattapoisett and Rochester area, provided they include the author’s name, address and phone number for verification. We cannot publish anonymous, unsigned or unconfirmed submissions. The Wanderer reserves the right to edit, condense and otherwise alter submissions for purposes of clarity and/or spacing considerations. The Wanderer may choose to not run letters that thank businesses, and The Wanderer has the right to edit letters to omit business names. The Wanderer also reserves the right to deny publication of any submitted correspondence.

Budget Brings Teacher Cuts

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            In the minutes preceding its March 15 regular public meeting, the Old Rochester Regional School Committee unanimously voted to approve a FY24 school budget of $20,970,296, as presented by ORR Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Howie Barber.

            The total addressing the needs of ORR High School and ORR Junior High was broken down into three segments of $20,182,170 (general operating), $688,156 (capital and debt service) and $100,000 (capital stabilization.)

            Early in a presentation lasting roughly 50 minutes, Barber told the committee that when compared to the FY23 budget, the FY24 is $31,000 less.

            The implications of teacher cuts did not sit well with committee member Margaret McSweeny.

            “It is crushing as a teacher to lose a job … I know that we are voting on a budget today that will eliminate jobs,” said McSweeny, who asked for transparency from the administration in dealing with the teachers affected. Further, she said that towns should invest in education and strongly suggested that families will not settle in the Tri-Towns as a result.

            Committee member Matt Monteiro sought clarification on why Rochester’s assessment increased more than Marion and Mattapoisett. Barber said that the tax assessment on properties, enrollment and alluded to other circumstances.

            Committee member Joe Pires said that while he understands the business end of the budget, he would like the committee going forward to think about programming that can be considered expendable rather than losing teachers from the staff.

            “It does sadden us to have to cut teachers,” said ORR School Committee Chairperson Michelle Smith, expressing hope that moving forward, the Tri-Towns will prioritize education.

            Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson, who guided the process, reiterated the diligence it took to achieve a budget he believes can become acceptable in the Tri-Towns. At the same time, he thanked McSweeny for her comments.

            The next meeting of the Old Rochester Regional School Committee is scheduled for Wednesday, April 26, at 6:30 pm.

ORR School Committee

By Mick Colageo

Howard C. Tinkham

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Howard C. Tinkham, age 100, of Mattapoisett, died peacefully on Thursday, March 23, 2023.

            Born in New Bedford on November 20, 1922, the son of the late Earl H. and Minnie D. (Gamans) Tinkham, he lived in Mattapoisett all of his life. The Tinkham history runs deep in the area and Howard could trace his Mattapoisett roots to the eighth generation. He was the brother of the late Marion T. Roberts, and the late Ethel T. Apperson.

            He was a second generation Ocean Spray cranberry grower, and became interested in water conservation. As a result, the Tri-Town Water District protected watershed grew by approximately 500 acres of property that was once in the Tinkham family.

            Mr. Tinkham served in World War II in the Army Air Force for three years and was discharged as a Technical Sergeant. He graduated from Fairhaven High School in 1940, then, after the war, attended Worcester Polytechnical Institute, and received a Master’s degree from Northeastern University. He joined the faculty at New Bedford Technical Institution in 1950 and participated in its advancement to become the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. He retired after 37 years, becoming a Professor Emeritus. He really enjoyed his time in the classroom. He served the Town of Mattapoisett briefly on the Finance Committee and the Conservation Commission. He donated land to the local Boy Scouts to create Camp Tinkham, and was always happy to meet a new Scout.

            He is survived by his wife, Nancy Briggs Tinkham, and by their daughter, Cheryl Tinkham Baum, her husband David Baum, and their children, Jessica, Jason, and Jacob Baum, all of Lake Zurich, IL. He is also survived by many nieces and nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, great-great nieces and nephews, and many many friends.

            His Memorial Visitation will be held Saturday, April 1, 2023 from 11 AM – 12 Noon at the Saunders-Dwyer Mattapoisett Home for Funerals, 50 County Rd., Mattapoisett, followed by his Funeral Service at 12 Noon. Burial with Military Honors will follow in Cushing Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please send memorial donations to either the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, https://www.cff.org/donate; the Tinkhamtown Chapel, 8 Long Plain Rd., Mattapoisett, MA 02739; Mattapoisett Troop 53, P.O. Box 1612, Mattapoisett, MA 02739; or the Mattapoisett Historical Society, P.O. Box 535, Mattapoisett, MA 02739. For directions and guestbook, visit www.saundersdwyer.com.

From the Files of the Rochester Historical Society

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As many of us know, Rochester once had an airport located on Marion Road (now Dogget Brook Farm.) It was closed at the beginning of World War II, and to my knowledge, no plane crashes occurred there. However, Rochester has been the site of airplane crashes on more than one occasion. In an earlier article, I wrote of two military planes crashing on the side of Mary’s Pond killing both pilots.

            In our archives at the museum, I found a report of another less deadly crash that happened on March 20, 1982. A Hyannis couple was heading to Hartford, Connecticut in their six-seater Cherokee single-engine plane when they began to experience engine trouble. They were seven miles east of New Bedford when the pilot sent out a call for help that was picked up by the Otis Air National Guard Base radar.The call was recorded at 9:57 am, and a Coast Guard helicopter flying over Cape Cod was notified one minute later and reached the scene of the crash by 10:11 am.

            The helicopter located the crashed plane helped by its emergency locator transmitter. Rochester Police and Fire were soon on the scene in the woods near the cranberry bog off of Dexter Road and began rendering aid. While both of the plane’s occupants suffered broken bones and other injuries, they were conscious when emergency services arrived.

            A State Trooper from the Bourne barracks who interviewed the pilot later at Tobey Hospital credited the man with, “great presence of mind which probably saved his life”. The pilot, realizing the engine was failing, first thought about landing on Rte. 195, but traffic was too heavy to make that a viable option, so he headed for a cranberry bog that he could see. He almost made it, landing 150 yards short in dense trees.

            Coming in at 80 miles an hour, the plane sheared off the top of a tree before crashing. The plane landed on its side, and as you can see in the picture, was pretty much destroyed. It lost the top of the fuselage and both wings. The pilot’s leg was pinned under the dashboard, and his biggest concern was the possibility of a fire. He was able to push his wife away from the wreckage and to shut off the control panel.

            The couple was treated at the scene by Rochester Police and Fire. It took them more than 15 minutes to free the pilot’s leg from under the plane. They were both taken to Tobey Hospital with non- life- threatening injuries. Thanks to the pilot’s actions, no one on land was injured.

            State Police helped to collect cargo and recover personal items at the scene, and according to the public affairs officer for the Federal Aviation Bureau, inspectors from Norwood began an immediate investigation of the crash.

By Connie Eshbach

FCCR Holy Week Worship Opportunities

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First Congregational Church of Rochester, 11 Constitution Way in Rochester, is pleased to announce its Holy Week schedule. We invite you to come and worship with us. All gatherings will also be live streamed on our website, www.rochestercongregational.com.

            April 2 at 10:00 am – Palm Sunday. Our pastor, Rev. Colby Olson, will challenge us to “Taste and See” that the Lord is good. Palms will be distributed after the worship gathering.

            April 6 at 7:00 pm – Maundy Thursday. This somber service includes Communion, Scripture reading and the gradual extinguishing of lights in the Sanctuary to impress upon the hearts of believers the awful consequences of sin and the magnitude of the Savior’s sacrifice. Since this is such a solemn service, we ask that attendees enter and exit in silence.

            April 7 at 7:00 pm – Good Friday. This Good Friday gathering will include Communion and a special message called “The Tombs Broke Open.”

            April 9 – Resurrection Sunday. Our sunrise gathering begins at 7:30 am on the Church Green and will be followed by a free Easter breakfast in our Fellowship Hall. An Easter worship gathering will be held in the Sanctuary at 10:00 am during which we will celebrate that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is alive. So that we can adequately prepare for the free breakfast, we ask that you call the church office at 508-763-4314 by April 2 to let us know you’re coming.

Academic Achievements

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            Liza Appleby was awarded a Bachelors of Arts Degree with Honors from Southern New Hampshire University.

            Daniela Gil of Marion, Allison Paim of Marion, Felicia Aguiar of Mattapoisett, Maya Dube of Mattapoisett, Lilah Gendreau of Mattapoisett and Chelsea Peterson of Mattapoisett were named to the 2022 Fall semester Dean’s List at Simmons University in Boston. To qualify for Dean’s List status, undergraduate students must obtain a grade point average of 3.5 or higher, based on 12 or more credit hours of work in classes using the letter grade system.

Amendments Approved for Historic Inn

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            Nils Johnson, owner/operator of the Inn at Shipyard Park, 13 Water Street, has been repairing and renovating the front façade and porch of the historic inn. Work has been ongoing through the winter until issues recently arose when it was discovered that water and gas lines would need to be slightly relocated to meet the building permit.

            On March 16, Johnson came before the ZBA to request amendments to the Special Permit he was granted for the porch reconstruction. He explained that once the old porch was removed, it became apparent that to build out the porch and meet code for the placement of the utilities, he needed to add approximately 8 inches beyond the filed plan of record. Johnson also said that the pitch of the first-floor roof needed to be modified to conform uniformly with the second-floor pitch and egress structures for the second floor. “It will be a vast improvement over what was there,” he asserted.

            Johnson said in a follow-up that the goal is to have a structure that is visually appealing as well as safe. The board members agreed. Chairman Sue Akin commented that once finished, the building would look nice. “I think it’s great,” said member Ken Pacheco. Member Colby Rottler stated, “This way it won’t look patchy, and it’ll be good for another 200 years.”

            Amendments were unanimously approved.

            Also coming before the ZBA was Steven Kelleher for Mary Kelleher, 0 Fairhaven Road, for a Variance to construct a new, single-family home on a deeded lot. Representative David Davignon of Schneider, Davignon & Leone Inc., detailed that the lot is currently zoned “general business,” thus the Variance request. He went on to say the lot measures 100×75 feet and would be a two-story, three-bed structure.

            Davignon said the lot would not meet current zoning setbacks but had become a deeded, buildable lot in 1963. He said lot coverage would be a mere 22.2 percent and does not require Conservation Commission review as it was non-jurisdictional. The Variance was unanimously approved.

            Also approved was a Special Permit for 4 Grove Avenue owned by Kenneth and Elizabeth Ackerman for the construction of a garage with a second-story, living unit. Also represented by Davignon he told the board that the garage was planned to be 28×34 feet, 952 square feet, with a single-bed living space on the second floor. The structure will reach a height of 23 feet and have lot coverage of only 3.67%. The Special Permit was unanimously approved.

            The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Zoning Board of Appeals is planned for Thursday, April 13, at 6:00 pm.

Mattapoisett Zoning Board of Appeals

By Marilou Newell

Sarah Kidd, The Pirate’s Wife

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            On March 16, the Mattapoisett Museum with support from the Mattapoisett Cultural Council hosted Dr. Daphne Geanacopoulos, historian and author of “The Pirate’s Wife: The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd.”

            Geanacopoulos brought to light a woman who has not been forgotten but more likely overshadowed by her husband William Kidd. She was dubbed a female pirate, but her truth is much more complex. Now Geanacopoulos takes her readers on Sarah’s journey through high-seas booty hunting with her privateer turned pirate husband, to struggling widow four times over and a member of New York’s early high-society circles.

            Sarah’s life is the stuff legends are made of. Yet documentation or even casual mention of this high-status woman was hard to uncover, Geanacopoulos explained. “There aren’t any images of Sarah.” What is known is drawn from her marriages for the most part. There would be four husbands with William Kidd clearly the most notorious.

            Sarah’s family name was Bradley. She came from England at a young age and as was the custom at that time, married by the age of 15 to the wealthy New York merchant William Cox. Upon his passing, she married her second husband, John Oort, a Dutch merchant who suffered an untimely and somewhat suspicious death, clearing the way for our fine lady to marry Kidd, presumably this time for love a mere two days after Oort had died. “They were the power couple of their day,” explained Geanacopoulos.

            They married in 1691 when Kidd returned from plundering trips throughout the Caribbean. To give us a stunning idea of what constituted normal in the 1600s, the Kidds’ wedding day included watching a public hanging.

            As for Sarah, she had already reestablished herself and her children into a position of financial comfort so marrying for money this time wasn’t a necessary evil. But we don’t know for sure. What Geanacopoulos deduces for us in her extensively researched pages is that Sarah was primarily a survivor, a woman whose options for financial security lay in the hands of a patriarchal society. Men had the money, thus the power.

            At this point in their story, Captain Kidd was a privateer not to be confused with a pirate. A privateer’s job description could be simply put as a legal pirate. Privateers were business owners with investors who raided enemy ships for their cargo, splitting the booty with the sovereigns, investors and shipmates. The Oxford Dictionary defines a privateer as, “an armed ship owned, offered by private individuals holding a government commission and authorized for use in war, especially in the capture of enemy merchant shipping.”

            Geanacopoulos explained the privateers, unlike pirates, served as an auxiliary unit of the English Navy. In contrast, pirates operated under “articles,” structured as a democratic society with the right to vote on such matters related to postemployment benefits and sharing in the wealth of goods secured from marine raids.

            Kidd, while receiving a commission from the King of England to hunt French enemy ships for their cargo, was not successful. Yet there is the legend of Kidd’s buried treasure. Legend it remains, as he told no one of its whereabouts with the possible exception of Sarah.

            To secure finances, Kidd turned to pirating with Sarah on board his ship. They would be captured and arrested. It is unclear what punishment, if any, Sarah suffered, but Kidd would eventually be executed (1701) and his body put on public display for several years as a warning to others. Sarah would live another 40 years.

            Sarah’s fourth marriage after Kidd’s hanging produced more children and a comfortable existence. As a woman living at a time when being female generally meant someone owned your body and your soul, Sarah found a way to thrive.

            Geanacopoulos imagines her death bed as once filled with soft pillows, a feather mattress and expensive linens, material goods she sought throughout her life. Sarah died in 1744 from what is believed to be diphtheria. If she knew the treasure’s location, she was unable to articulate the secret as disease robbed her ability to speak clearly. She took that bit of history with her to the grave. The Kidds’ treasure has never been found.

            To learn more, visit masshist.org/events/pirates-wife-remarkable-true-story-sarah-kidd.

By Marilou Newell

Seed Library Ready for Checkouts

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The days are getting longer and the air is getting warmer. Have you started planting yet? Just restocked, the Mattapoisett Free Public Library’s Seed Library is ready for you. Our seed collection has a wide variety of plant options. Our most popular include flowers, herbs, tomatoes, peppers, beans, lettuce and greens. New this year, we have parsnips, turnips and brussel sprouts. To participate, all you need to do is visit the library and pick out your seeds. Once chosen, you will “check them out.” Seeds do not need to be returned. Must be a SAILS library patron.

            No library card? All you need is an ID and 15 minutes to get your very own. Library cards are free and provide you with access to everything the Mattapoisett Free Public Library and the other 70 SAILS libraries have to offer including but not limited to books, eBooks, magazines, movies, hotspots, museum passes, video games and so much more. To learn more, call the library at 508-758-4171 or email us at mfpl@sailsinc.org.

Upcoming Events at the Elizabeth Taber Library

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The second Annual Lizzy T Trivia Night Fundraiser. Friday March 24 at 7 pm – Gather a team of 5-6 members and compete in a battle of wits to benefit the library. Topics include local history, sports, pop culture and more. Find registration forms at the library or on our website. Event will be held at the Marion Music all, refreshments including beer and wine will be available. $200 team entry fee.

            Tables of Content Fundraising event May 7 & 19 at 6 pm – A fundraising event that pairs a delicious dinner in a Marion neighbor’s home with a lively book discussion. Find registration forms including available titles at the library or on our website. Tickets are $75 per person.

            Grow your first plant program Wednesday, March 29, 4 pm – Celebrate the reopening of our seed library by decorating a flower pot with a funny face and planting your own quick growing plant.

            Paint by Numbers relaxation studio – April 4, 6-8 pm – Start the month out with some self care. Unwind in our paint by numbers relaxation studio. Each participant will receive one paint by number canvas and paint. Bring your friends, grab some refreshments and get painting. Limit 10 participants, register at the library. For teens and adults.

            Eat Your Weeds with Liz Barbour, Tuesday, April 11, 6:30 – Join cookbook author Liz Barbour to learn about the art of backyard foraging. Register for this free program at the library, or by phone.

            Our seed library is now open – Check out fruit, vegetable, herb, and flower seeds with your library card. Share seeds with the library and help grow community gardens.

            Join us for story times every Wednesday (baby lap sit) and Friday (all ages) from 10:30-11:30.

            For more information on the Elizabeth Taber Library, visit us at www.ElizabethTaberLibrary.org or call us at 508-748-1252.