Westford Recollections of Days Gone By

Westford Recollections of Days Gone By offers its readers authentic tales about plain, everyday living at the turn of the 20th century in the villages of Westford, Massachusetts.



This informal collection of interviews-tape-recorded in the mid-70s, though stretching to the millennium-echoes the voices of local folk, born in the late 1800s and early 1900s, who lived those times. It was horse-and-buggy days-the era of self-sustaining farms, one-room schoolhouses, country stores and doctors, Fourth of July pranksters, and a true sense of community. It was the era of the village blacksmith, the wainwright, the peddler, and the teamster hauling his produce to Faneuil Hall Marketplace. And it was a time when a wave of immigration added workers to the town's woolen mills, granite, and ice-harvesting industries-and when Westford boasted eight railroad stations. Indeed, it was a period when progress came to town with the arrival of new-fangled telephones, silent movies, autos, and electric trolleys!



So journey down Westford roads into those villages of yesteryear. Yes, do come meet the folk. Westford's way is friendly and down to earth. You will feel at home with the people who have lived its story.



Westford Recollections of Days Gone By features 49 folksy interviews prefaced by short biographies, 188 vintage photos, a selected bibliography, geographical data, and a millennium update of new occupants and the many changes that time has wrought within the Westford community.