Francis J. Dolan

Francis J. Dolan, often called Frank, was Billerica's tree warden and local moth superintendent for most of the years from 1906 to his death in 1942. The Dolan family lived on the Middlesex Turnpike, and the highway reports of the 1930s measure the road work there to the Dolan residence. His first report as moth superintendent describes a town "badly infested with gypsy and brown-tail moths," with about twenty-five colonies in the woods around Nutting's Pond; he had scouted the whole town, given work to twenty-seven men, treated nests with seventy-five gallons of creosote and cut the brush along the roads so that the moths would not spread from the overhanging limbs.

The moth work soon drew him into a long dispute with the selectmen over who should direct it and pay its bills. At a special town meeting in June 1908 the voters tabled the selectmen's article to put the work under their own direction, carried a resolution moved by Forrest F. Collier that the selectmen "be ordered to approve all reasonable and current bills" of the Tree Warden for suppressing the moths, and designated the Tree Warden to do the work. Dolan then went to the Supreme Judicial Court to maintain "his legal rights as said Tree Warden," and the town reimbursed his costs of $128.70. In June 1910 Collier, who was his attorney, called another special meeting as justice of the peace to fund the moth work done by Dolan and to order the selectmen to approve his payroll. Selectman Francis A. D. Singhi protested that the meeting was illegal, the main article was dismissed, and the meeting adjourned by 53 votes to 51.

His reports are a record of the long fight against the moths. Early in 1910 he wrote that for lack of money "three months of valuable time" had been lost, that about 1,500 acres of woodland had been stripped the previous July, and that it was "impossible for five or six men to take care of the whole town." In his report for 1921 he complained that property owners "have simply sat back and waited for the town to do their work," and as tree warden he faced the damage of the ice storm of November 1921, when the Park Commission also let him spend the balance of its money pruning the trees on the town's public spaces. When the selectmen became a Board of Public Works in 1932 and the elected office of tree warden was abolished, he continued as foreman of the Tree Department and moth superintendent under them. In 1934 the town voted money to pay land damages and move the Dolan buildings back, and reimbursed him for his expenses in the land taking.

Francis J. Dolan died on January 20, 1942, at the age of 63. The town report printed an In Memoriam notice for him as "Foreman of Tree Department" and "Moth Superintendent," and the selectmen mourned "Francis Dolan, Tree Warden and Moth Superintendent for many years, and recognized widely as an authority on forestry and suppression of tree diseases." His assistant of many years, Alfred Lyons, took over the Tree and Moth Departments.

References

1. Report of the Local Superintendent of Gypsy and Brown-tail Moths, 1906 to 1907 (Nutting's Pond colonies; signed Francis J. Dolan)
2. Special town meeting, June 1908 (Collier resolution ordering the selectmen to approve the Tree Warden's moth bills)
3. Warrant, Article 21 (reimbursing Francis J. Dolan for legal expenses as Tree Warden in the Supreme Judicial Court)
4. Report of the Local Moth Superintendent, 1909 to 1910 (1500 acres stripped; signed Francis J. Dolan)
5. Special town meeting, June 30, 1910 (moth work of Francis J. Dolan as Tree Warden; protest; adjournment)
6. Reports of the Moth Superintendent and Tree Warden, 1921 (ice storm; signed Francis J. Dolan)
7. Special town meeting, 1934 (reimbursement of $161.10 to Frank Dolan for expenses of a land taking)
8. In Memoriam, 1942 (Francis J. Dolan, Foreman of Tree Department, Moth Superintendent, died Jan. 20, 1942)
9. Report of the Board of Selectmen, 1942 (death of Francis Dolan, an authority on forestry and tree diseases)