By Linda Ibbitson Hurd
Special to The Express
My children are now grown but in 1974 when my son Brian was 7 and my daughter Heidi was 3 I experienced a Halloween with them I’ll always remember.
Heidi was born with a severe hearing loss and although she would be getting hearing aids soon after her fourth Birthday, she didn’t have them, yet.She was in a preschool program with other deaf children in Duxbury and was transported to and from school by a special cab company. She became very good at lip reading and sign language. Sometimes I drew her pictures if she didn’t understand something which worked very well for both of us. She had no understanding of Trick or Treating so taking her to see what it was all about was best.
The week before Halloween my son and the neighborhood kids were all trying to decide what costumes they would wear on the big night. By the 70’s kids were more interested in store bought costumes than home made ones but in our little group most of them put together their own with a little help from us parents. Disappointed because he had outgrown his Lancelot Link costume, Brian let Heidi wear it and settled for a beard and mustache put on with makeup.
It’s always a plus when the weather is perfect for Halloween. Brian came home excited and we put newspapers on the floor and table to make jack-o’-lanterns out of the pumpkins we had so we could put them outside with some candy and a sign ‘ONE BAG ONLY !’ I learned long ago that making anything but something simple for supper on Halloween is useless. After some grilled cheese sandwiches and roasted pumpkin seeds from the oven, the little group of kids that were coming with us arrived and off we went!
My grandmother and parents lived in Hanson and were expecting us but we did stop at a couple of friend’s houses in Halifax first. Jack-o’-lanterns on steps and porches flickered their lights as we drove by. Eerie sounds, witches, skeletons and huge spiders lurked at lamp posts and graveyards in people’s yards. A fat overstuffed scarecrow was propped up against a fence at the first house we stopped at. The kids got out of the car with their bags and went up to the house. Heidi was holding my hand and seemed undaunted by some of the sights and more interested in watching intently as candy was put in each bag. As I walked forward with Heidi to the door she stopped, shook her head no, so we left.
At the last stop in Halifax Heidi didn’t want to take the bag with her, she didn’t wait for me, she ran ahead with the kids to stand and watch, looking up at the people who were passing out the candy and then looked back at the kids and then got in the car. I didn’t think too much of it, I knew she was processing what was happening.
My grandmother lived in a big blue house near my parents. I parked the car and we walked down the well lit path beside the peony bed to the two spacious cement steps that led to the open door where Gram was waiting and smiling under the big overhead lights. She wanted to know who was who under the make up and behind the masks and when she saw Brian, she called him her pet name for her great grandchildren which was pollywog. The kids giggled at that and I was pleased at their politeness as they answered all her questions. Gram spotted Heidi and bent over to say hi to her and Heidi smiled back, smiled at me and pointed to Gram. I knew that meant she remembered going there during the Summer. The kids were just about wiggling out of their costumes as Gram asked if they were ready for candy. She started passing it out and all of a sudden Heidi ran off the bottom step with a determined look on her face. She picked up a nice smooth rock that was on the ground, then she stepped towards me wanting her bag. The other kids had come down off the steps and Heidi ran up to them and when Gram put the candy in her bag, Heidi smiled up at her, her eyes shining, and gave Gramma the rock. Gram had a laugh like musical notes that rang out at her delight with Heidi’s gift. She lifted her up in her arms, walked to the big mantle in the dining room and put the rock in a special place telling Heidi she loved it and thanked her. Heidi’s face glowed as she hugged Gram and smiled at me with a look of complete satisfaction.
Gramma kept the rock on the mantle and loved telling people the story about Heidi and the lovely gift she got for Halloween. Years later when Gram fell ill she asked my dad to give Heidi the rock to remember her by.

The 70th Annual Tri-Town Veterans Day Parade (Rockland, Abington and Whitman), hosted this year by the Town of Rockland, will take place at 10 a.m., Saturday, Nov. 11.
Participants will stage on North Union Street by Summit Street and Larry’s Auto and will march down Union St., crossing Market Street and ending in the parking area of tire old Rockland Plaza.
For more information or if you have any questions, please contact Jeff Najarian at 781-985-4721

HANSON – The Select Board voted on Tuesday, Sept. 26 to appoint Lianna Gagnon to the new position of assistant program coordinator at the Hanson Multi-Service Senior Center, effective Wednesday, Sept. 27.
Gagnon has been volunteering at the center for more than a year helping with some of the frailer elders in the day program, Director Mary Collins said.
“We have seen her growth over the year,” Collins said. “It’s wonderful that we have this opportunity. Our formula grant increased this year and that’s what we’re using for funding for this.”
That increase is due to the fact that Hanson’s population of residents over age 60 has jumped by “well over 1,000 people” in the last decade, according to Collins.
“I couldn’t think of a better use of the money than to bring in somebody like Lianna, who is presently in college. She plans to go into the food services industry.
A longtime Hanson resident, Gagnon has grandparents who live in town.
Gagnon said she is excited to start working at the Senior Center and everyone there.

WHITMAN – Every good story needs to touch on the five W’s – and an H, when possible; the old Who, What, Where, When and Why, with How tossed in for good measure – that we all learned about in school.
But a story can be improved by canceling at least one out, usually the Why, and when the How and Who get fuzzed out, you’ve really got a yarn that stands the test of time, especially when the mystery is real.
All three of those questions come into play in the tale of Bathsheba Spooner.
Her involvement in the murder of her husband is one of those real-life mysteries historians love to delve into, and independent scholar Andrew Noone is no exception.
“It’s not just infamous for the sensationalism of it,” Noone said of the case. “But she was the first woman executed in the United States, it was the first capital case in the United States, the court transcripts are the most complete of the American 18th century. It was the first mass hanging in the United States and Prudence, an enslaved tavern maid, gave what’s likely the first [court] testimony of an African-American in the United States.”
Noone, who holds graduate degrees in musicology and art history as a Florence Fellow at Syracuse University, has also completed the U.S. Department of Education’s three-year Keepers of the Republic history program, which is hosted by the American Antiquarian Society. He has taught humanities at colleges throughout Massachusetts, is a former member of the Worcester Historical Commission and is a docent for Preservation Worcester.
He brought the tale, and his self-published book, “Bathsheba Spooner: A Revolutionary Murder Conspiracy” to the Whitman Public Library on the eve of October – Saturday, Sept. 30, to be exact.
The defendant’s name alone, Bathsheba, draws one in. But add the fact that her father was loyalist colonist Timothy Ruggles (those familiar with the MBTA stop in Boston might recognize the name); her defense attorney named Levi Lincoln (yes, a distant forebear of Abe’s); who went on to become a governor and attorney general in the Bay State – and acting Gov. John Hancock had organized the trial. Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Robert Treat Paine, prosecuted the case.
But it was a twist of justice in the end, and one may wonder why all this hasn’t been made into a movie by now.
A small crowd of history and mystery buffs attended the talk in the Library’s Community room for an overview of the history, a slide presentation on the players and the mystery and the chance to ask some questions about this fascinating case with more questions than answers hovering over it, even after nearly 250 years.
Bathsheba (Ruggles) Spooner was sixth of seven children born to Ruggles and his wife Bathsheba Newcombe, who had given birth to eight children in her first marriage. Ruggles was born in 1711 to a family long-steeped in the colony’s politics. He had been a brigadier general in the French and Indian War and was Speaker of the House in Massachusetts but became a pariah when he refused join the protest movement while a delegate to the 1765 Stamp Act Congress in New York, becoming a loyalist to the Crown.
“Few men were as detested in Massachusetts in the year 1774,” Noone said. That year, Ruggles was banished from Hardwick, the town his ancestors had founded, remaining in British-controlled Boston until Evacuation Day, March 17, 1776 when he and most other Tories were removed to Staten Island.
Bathsheba had married businessman/land speculator and lumberman Joshua Spooner of Boston, before settling in Brookfield where the couple raised four children.
Others involved in her husband’s murder – or at least executed for it were militiaman Ezra Ross of Topsfield, who was 16 in 1777, when he had been nursed back to health by Bathsheba after being wounded action in Peekskill, N.Y. and had been on his way home to Topsfield. He returned to serve in the Battle of Saratoga.
Sgt. James Buchanan and Pvt. William Brooks were escaped British prisoners of war who were being marched to Boston when they gave their American captors the slip and met in Worcester.
On Feb. 17, 1778 the three men ended up seeking shelter from a fierce storm in the Spooner home – which led to the murder of Mr. Spooner, whose body was stuffed down a well on March 1.
“It’s a Keystone Cops in reverse,” Noone said of the farcical case which involved a very dramatic and free-living main defendant. “She had a sharp temper, was involved sexually with at least two men, more likely five men, none of whom were her husband,” he said. “She willingly admitted two enemy POWs into her home – and a handsome teenager – in her husband’s presence.”
But then, that could have just been a sign of the times, Noone argued.
“We think the 18th Century is prim and proper,” he said. “No, that’s the 17th Century. The 18th Century was a whole other game. Puritanism was long gone.”
There are doubts as to whether Ross was involved at all, though he had tried to poison Mr. Spooner in the past.
Joshua Spooner, who had dined with a friend and his wife at a tavern, returned home alone through the snow, was assaulted near his well, beaten to death and thrown in (through a seemingly too-small wellhead) – while his wife at home was finishing her own dinner. The clothes he wore and all those he owned, along with his cash were distributed among the three men, who fled the area.
All four defendants, including Mrs. Spooner, were arrested the next day and the trial was held in late April in Worcester. After a trial lasting little more than a day all four defendants, including Bathsheba Spooner, were convicted and sentenced to hang.
Bathsheba claimed pregnancy and asked for enough time to bear her child, but an examination was permitted by the court, proving she was not pregnant. However, an unsanctioned examination proved she was, but the first exams results were accepted, and she was executed on July 2, along with the male conspirators.
An autopsy she had requested before her sentence was carried out, proved she had, indeed, been five months pregnant with a male child. To this day her grave in Worcester’s Green Hill Park, where she had supposedly been buried has never been found. Her case was referenced as one argument why Lizzie Borden was acquitted, Noone said. There was concern even before Borden’s trial that a jury would not convict her because Spooner had been discovered to be pregnant during her autopsy.
Spooner’s family had a checkered history after her trial. Her father had been given exile and a large farming estate in Nova Scotia. He died there in 1795.
Of Bathsheba’s surviving children, one son became a successful Boston businessman, the other died in a shipwreck off England and her daughter died “hopelessly insane” as an elderly woman, but Noone said that could mean anything from genuine bi-polarity to Alzheimer’s or dementia related to old age.

Whitman & Hanson Dollars for Scholars will host its fifth Annual Great Pumpkin Classic Car Show from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 8 at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School followed by a trophy ceremony at 2 p.m. The rain date will be Sunday, Oct. 15. Proceeds from the event will benefit Whitman & Hanson Dollars for Scholars.
Admission fee is $5 per person or $15 per family for the event which will include a kids costume contest (beginning at noon), music, raffles, food trucks and Halloween candy. The entry fee for vehicles in the show is $10 per show car. Dash plaques will be issued for the first 50 cars registered. Show car entry begins at 8:00 AM. Awards will be given in the following categories: Best of Show; Best in Decade—pre-’40s; Best in Decade —’40s; Best in Decade — ’50s; Best in Decade —’60s; Best in Decade — ’70s; Best in Decade — ’80s; Best in Decade — ’90s; Best Special Interest Car; and Best Decorated Car.
The event is being sponsored by Platinum Auto-Abington, Sparky’s Automotive, and Trillium Fuel.
For more information, please contact Lisa Green at 781-293-2131 or email [email protected].

The Hanson Public Library welcomes back former Hanson resident and New York Times bestselling author Martha Hall Kelly for an author talk about her most recent book, The Golden Doves, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 21 at the Camp Kiwanee Needles Lodge. Inspired by true events, The Golden Doves tells the story of two former Allied spies who reunite following World War II in a mission against ongoing Nazi activity in Europe and French Guiana. We hope you’ll join us for this informative presentation! The event it free, but signups are required.
This program is co-sponsored by the Hanson Public Library Foundation and Hanson Recreation Commission. There will be a book signing following the author talk talk. Storybook Cove will have copies of Martha’s books available for purchase.
Martha Hall Kelly is a former Hanson resident and the New York Times bestselling author of Lilac Girls, Lost Roses, and Sunflower Sisters. With more than two million copies of her books sold and her books translated in fifty countries, she lives in Connecticut and New York City.

HANSON – It may take a bit longer to complete plans, but members of the High Street Park Committee want residents to know they will have a chance to spend a Saturday in the park before too much time passes.
The Select Board helped the process along a bit more by voting to conceptually approve its plan layout.
High Street Park Committee members gave its presentation to the Select Board on Tuesday, Aug. 29 on plans for recreational facilities at the former Plymouth County Hospital property.
“We get lots of questions [about] ‘What’s going on up at High Street?’ and we know you guys are meeting fast and furiously and frequently,” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “It’s just that progress is not necessarily visible to people, but that doesn’t mean there’s no progress.”
High Street Park Committee member Marianne DiMascio said she had been thinking the same thing, before presenting an update to the Select Board.
“It wanted to start by saying it’s a beautiful spot and a great place to visit,” she said. “We have an agenda here to look at yesterday, today and tomorrow for people who are not familiar with this spot.”
Infrastructure is being worked on as the first step in plans as well as for traffic flow and parking. They are also looking at where sidewalks, crosswalks and foot traffic would go, as well as where there would and wouldn’t be tree cover, vegetation, wooded area and an initial clearing for play areas.
Committee Vice Chair Don Ellis has been working a lot on utility plans in coordination with town departments which encompass plumbing, irrigation, septic, drainage and electrical services.
“This really is the piece that has taken a while to do,” DiMascio said. “You can’t keep doing things unless you know where the roads are, where the parking is, and so this has slowed us down, but I think we’re in a good spot now to move forward when some of these plans are done.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett asked if there was anything the Select Board could do to help the Committee’s work.
Ellis mentioned the old hospital well flushing and inspection, noting they have been having trouble getting call-backs because it is a commercial-sized well. The Committee is trying to determine if the well is still usable.
An issue raised was the cost of requests for proposals, he said.
One firm was also concerned with prevailing wage law, which does not apply to a survey, according to Town Administrator Lisa Green, but it would apply if any repair or construction work is done.
The Highway Department has cleared trees to enable inspection of the septic field and also took off the well head several times and reinstalled it. Health Agent Gil Amado helped with the Title 5 requirements for the septic system.
FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested the Committee meet with the Food Pantry Board, which was having concerns about placement of public restrooms near the pantry building, out of a desire to protect the privacy of its clients or to make that building an attractive nuisance.
Select Board member Joe Weeks, who also serves on the High Street Committee, said the town is lucky to even possibly have an irrigation source there, which would be crucial for much of what is planned for the site.
“It might feel slow and it might feel like it’s taking forever, but these things are meticulous and we want to make sure we’re doing it right,” he said.
The playground is the next consideration, but Weeks said there, too, they don’t want to “overpromise and under-deliver.”
“We want to do a ground-clearing and focus on that playground area,” he said. If they find the funding and get a playground done, Weeks said the Committee feels they will get a lot of use out of the park.
The former Plymouth County Hospital was razed in 2017. The facility had opened in 1917 as the Hanson Tuberculosis Hospital and was closed for good in 1992. It had changed its mission to that of a general hospital and the name was changed to Plymouth County Hospital when the tuberculosis died out with advances in medicine and, in 1982 its mission changed again to that of a long-term specialty care facility for patients with chronic and terminal illness, such as muscular dystrophy.
The Final Plymouth County Hospital Reuse Committee had been budgeted $1 million for the tear-down and returned $200,000 to the town.
“We did a lot of research about ‘could we keep it,’ but it was in quite a state of disrepair,” DiMascio said of the hospital building. It had also become an “attractive nuisance” to vandals and would-be ghost hunters over the years since it closed.
The site now hosts the Community Garden and lawn area behind the Food Pantry and a meadow with an 8/10 mile perimeter walking trail, part of the 218-mile Bay Circuit Trail that also stretches from Kingston to Newport, R.I. Entrances are located on Pierce Avenue and Bonney Hill Lane near the boardwalk.
The trail was funded by the state Division of Conservation Services as well as the town’s Community Preservation and Conservation committees.
“We’re hoping to have a grand opening in mid-October,” DiMAscio said.
A parking lot on Pierce Avenue can accommodate 10 to 12 cars and additional parking is available at 252 High St. There is no parking on Bonney Hill Lane.
The remaining goals are: building infrastructure, prioritizing features and projects, creating a phased plan, apply for the funding, build it and enjoy.
The playground will be the main project on the “tomorrow” list.
“We’ve been doing the research,” DiMascio said. “We really want to make sure that it’s designed for different ages, different abilities, different development levels and has interaction between people of different ages.”
While playgrounds are designed with children in mind, the Committee is also keeping parents in mind as well as the elderly.
“We’re thinking more broadly about it than 2 to 3-year-olds only,” she said.
An event area for events such as farmer’s markets, community events and gatherings and picnics and a stage area for concerts and performances as well as a pavilion or covered area could be included. Additional features in the thinking states are additional walking trails, a veteran’s memorial, a picnic area near the Bonney House, an orchard, avenue for picture-taking for events such as proms, weddings and family reunions. A Native American history and acknowledgment space is also being discussed.
In other business, Green announced the board is looking for volunteers to serve on a Master Plan Steering Subcommittee.
The town received a $60,000 grant through the Massachusetts One Stop for Growth Program to update the town’s master plan. The Steering Subcommittee will represent Hanson while Old Colony Planning helps guide officials through the process.
The number of volunteers needed is unclear at the moment, Green said, noting they “just want to get it out there” that they are looking for volunteers.
“Does anybody feel passionate – well, maybe not passionate, maybe just inclined – to be a [Select Board] member of the Master Plan Steering Subcommittee?” FitzGerald-Kemmett asked.
Select Board member Ann Rein said she would give the post a try.