Billerica Historical Society

The Billerica Historical Society is the town's private historical society, an incorporated body independent of the town government, organized by the townspeople on October 16, 1894 and incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth on February 20, 1896, "its object being the collection and preservation of objects and facts of local and general historical interest." Since 1936 its home and museum has been the Clara E. Sexton House at 36 Concord Road, the Clara E. Sexton Memorial, which its longtime secretary Clara E. Sexton left to it by her will.

Founding and early years

The society was organized at a meeting of citizens called for the purpose at Gardner Parker Hall, then the town's meeting place. About thirty people enrolled at the first meeting, "the general feeling" being that the town, "among the older Towns in the Commonwealth, was a good field for the objects of the Society." Its first president was the Centre merchant Frederic A. Morey, and its first steps were to seek incorporation "enabling it to legally hold and control any gifts or property that may come to it." Mrs. William W. Warren and Mrs. George Holden had the Bennett Library building on Concord Road enlarged "so as to furnish suitable accommodations for the use of the Society and a safe receptacle for the preservation of articles and objects of interest that may be donated," and for some forty years the society kept its collections in its room there and held its meetings in the library's directors' room. The incorporation papers were received on February 21, 1896.

From the start the society worked closely with the town. In the town report printed early in 1896 its historian, Dr. Charles E. Hosmer, printed "by the courtesy of the Selectmen" a record of the year's events, among them the raising of a new liberty pole on the Common, the arrival of the electric cars and the dedication of the new Town Hall. In 1899, after a citizens' meeting at the society's room proposed changes in the report of the committee chosen to name the town's streets, the annual town meeting voted on the motion of C. H. Kohlrausch to refer the street names to the Historical Society, and the society's revised list of names for the roads and streets of the town, presented under Morey's presidency, came before the town meeting of 1900 (see Street Naming of 1899). In 1901 the selectmen acknowledged "the efforts of the Historical Society to preserve the ancient history of our town" and had the "Great Deed," the parchment by which the Cambridge proprietors conveyed large grants of land to the Billerica promoters, "preserved from future deterioration". The next year the town meeting voted, on the motion of T. F. Lyons, $250 to aid the society "in erecting a suitable memorial to mark the site of the first meeting-house" of 1660 on the Common, and the money was paid to the society that year; the bronze tablet is the Meeting House Site Memorial.

In 1912 the society had thirty members, held its annual meeting on the second Wednesday in October in the Bennett Library, and had as officers Rev. J. Harold Dale, president; Edward F. Dickinson, vice-president; Mrs. Clara E. Sexton, secretary; and T. Frank Lyons, treasurer, with directors who included Warren H. Manning, Dr. Hosmer, Franklin Jaquith and Sidney A. Bull. The town's magazine Billerica, listing old relics kept in private houses, argued that they "should be properly cared for in a fireproof building" and that "if a suitable building were provided many articles here listed ... would find their way to it." By 1919 the president was Dr. A. Warren Stearns, with Lyons still treasurer.

In the autumn of 1923 the society sealed a "Historical Memorial" in a metal chest in its room in the Bennett Library: material "touching the past and present story of the town," with eight savings bank books in Lowell banks, each with directions for the use of its accumulated fund, to be kept for one hundred years and opened "for the benefit of the then citizens of the town, October 27, 2023." Its secretary, Clara E. Sexton, asked the selectmen to record the plan in the town's books, asked that the Bennett Public Library Association take custody of the chest if the society ceased to exist, and directed that any fund whose beneficiary no longer existed in 2023 go to "the educational interest of the school children of the town."

The Sexton house and other property

Clara E. Sexton and her husband, the blacksmith William H. Sexton, had bought the old house at 36 Concord Road, the minister Henry Cumings's house of the Revolutionary years, in 1920. Her will, dated September 30, 1929 and filed in 1936, left it to the society, and the society moved out of the library: in 1939 the trustees began fitting up "a Children's Room formerly occupied by the Billerica Historical Society," which opened, renovated, in 1940. In the assessors' lists of property exempted from taxation the society's real estate was valued at $2,650 in 1948 and 1949.

The society also took charge of other historic places. On November 10, 1950 the owners of the land around the old District No. 3 schoolhouse on Wyman Road gave it "the land ... with the old School House thereon" on condition that it keep and maintain the building, the Little Red Schoolhouse. The society could not keep it up, and on May 14, 1970 its directors voted that, "having ceased to maintain the Old schoolhouse on Wyman Road," it would confirm the donors' title; its president, Dr. Charles E. Stearns, signed the deed in June 1971. The town's list of historic sites printed in the 1970 report names as the society's property the "Historical Society House, 1723, 36 Concord Road," the Amos Wyman house site in the Hancock and Adams sanctuary, the Little Red School House, part of the north bank of the Middlesex Canal between Rogers Street and the Concord River, and the Shawsheen Aqueduct, which "has been accepted by the Billerica Historical Society."

Later years

The society sponsored a high school essay contest in 1937, and during the town's tercentenary week in May 1955 the Tuesday was "Historical Society Day," with an open house and exhibits. In the later 1960s the selectmen appointed a separate committee, listed in the town reports as the Billerica Historical Society Commission, under Robert E. Valyou, who helped revise the list of historic sites printed in the 1969 and 1970 reports; it was followed in 1972 by the town's Historical Commission. For the 1972 town report Mabel F. Buker, writing as a member of the society, contributed a short history of the town, "Billerica 1655-1971," illustrated with a photograph of the society's house on Concord Road. In January 1982 the Historical Commission gave its illustrated lecture on the town's historic places to an open meeting of the society.

The historic district by-law adopted in 1990 gave the society a voice in the town's preservation work: one regular member of the Historic Districts Commission is chosen from two nominees submitted by the Billerica Historical Society, a seat held by Debra Wolf from 1990 to 2013. The society likewise named a member of the Billerica Museum Committee, which worked to restore the Howe School on Boston Road, a seat held by Helen L. Potter from 2000 to 2012; in April 2002 the society, the Museum Committee and the Beautification Committee dedicated the Washington Oak and Solomon Pollard Tavern memorial on the south lawn of the Howe School. In 1995 the Historical Commission sponsored an application for a state preservation grant to restore the "Clara E. Sexton Memorial Historical Society Headquarters," which was not funded. A later secretary of the society was Brion M. Cangiamila, a Republican candidate for the state senate in 2007 and 2008.

In 2003 the society published Billerica, a book of historic photographs, many printed from glass-plate negatives, with Arcadia Publishing, and the town's Arts Council made it grants that year for a Native American display and a historic sites map; the Historical Commission also assisted the society's historic marker projects. In September 2008 the town leased the Howe School to the society for 99 years for use as a museum. A later Arts Council grant paid for a Yankee Doodle coloring book. In 2020 the society placed a preservation restriction on the Sexton house and its outbuildings in favor of the town, enforced by the Historical Commission, and the town's Community Preservation Fund granted $101,000 for the "Clara Sexton Memorial Museum."

The society holds collections of ceramics, glassware, pottery, silver and pewter, genealogical materials and documents on the town's history, among them papers relating to Thomas Ditson, Asa Pollard, the Rev. Henry Cumings and the Amos Wyman homestead; about half of the collection had been processed, with printed finding aids, and the society does not normally lend from it. It is a nonprofit organization with a post office box in Billerica, and it describes its work as preserving properties, papers and artifacts, public education and tours, and the upkeep of historical monuments and markers and the printing of publications. It opens the Sexton house for events such as a Victorian holiday open house at the time of the town's tree lighting.

References

1. Town Report 1895: Billerica Historical Society organized Oct. 16, 1894 at Gardner Parker Hall; about thirty members; room in the enlarged Bennett Library; Frederic A. Morey, President
2. Town Report 1896: the Historical Society incorporated, documents received Friday, February 21
3. Town Report 1896: notes on the events of the year inserted by the Historical Society, signed Charles E. Hosmer, Historian
4. Town Report 1899: Art. 8, citizens' meeting at the room of the Historical Society; street names referred to the Society on motion of C. H. Kohlrausch
5. Town Report 1899: list of street names presented by the Billerica Historical Society under the vote of the town
6. Town Report 1900: the Billerica Historical Society (Frederic A. Morey, President) presented a revised list of names for the roads and streets
7. Town Report 1901, selectmen: efforts of the Historical Society acknowledged; the "Great Deed" preserved
8. Town Report 1901, warrant Art. 21: $250 to aid the Historical Society in placing a memorial on the site of the first meeting house
9. Town Report 1902: Art. 21 voted on motion of T. F. Lyons, $250 to aid the Society in erecting a memorial to mark the site of the first meeting-house
10. Town Report 1902, expenditures: Billerica Historical Society, appropriation $250, paid to the Historical Society
11. Billerica magazine, 1912, Societies and Clubs: Billerica Historical Society, 1894; President J. H. Dale, Secretary Mrs. W. H. Sexton, Treasurer T. Frank Lyons; Members, 30
12. Billerica magazine, 1912: annual meeting of the Historical Society; officers and directors elected
13. Billerica magazine, 1912: "Interesting Relics" and the need of a fireproof building for the Historical Society
14. Lowell Suburban Directory 1919, Billerica societies: Billerica Historical Society, Dr. A. Warren Stearns Pres., T. Frank Lyons Treas.
15. Town Report 1923: the Historical Society's memorial chest sealed in its room in the Bennett Library, to be opened October 27, 2023; signed Clara E. Sexton, Sec'y
16. Town Report 1939, library: a Children's Room to open in the room formerly occupied by the Billerica Historical Society
17. Town Report 1940, library: the room formerly occupied by the Historical Society renovated as a children's room
18. Town Report 1948, assessors: property exempted, Billerica Historical Society $2,650
19. Town Report 1937, schools: High School Essay Contest sponsored by Billerica Historical Society
20. Town Report 1955: Tercentennial week, May 22-29, with Historical Society Day and Open House and Exhibits on Tuesday
21. Town Report 1965: Members of Billerica Historical Society Commission, Robert E. Valyou, Chairman
22. Town Report 1969: list of historic sites, including Historical Society House 1723
23. Town Report 1970: historic sites; Historical Society House, 36 Concord Road; canal bank, Amos Wyman site and Little Red School House owned by Historical Society
24. Town Report 1970: the Billerica Aqueduct on route 129 accepted by the Billerica Historical Society
25. Town Report 1972: Report of Historical Society, "Billerica 1655-1971," with photograph of the Historical Society house, Concord Road
26. Town Report 1981, Historical Commission: illustrated lecture to an open meeting of the Billerica Historical Society, January 30, 1982
27. Town Report 1990: historic district by-law, one Commission member chosen from two nominees submitted by the Billerica Historical Society
28. Town Report 1995, Historical Commission: preservation grant for the Clara E. Sexton Memorial Historical Society Headquarters, not funded
29. Town Report 2002, Museum Committee: with the Historical Society and Beautification Committee, dedication of the Washington Oak/Solomon Pollard Tavern memorial
30. Town Report 2003, Arts Council grants: Billerica Historical Society, Native American Display $500; Historic Sites Map $900
31. Town Report 2003, Historical Commission: assisted the Historical Society with its historic marker projects
32. Town Report 2013, Arts Council grants: Billerica Historical Society, Yankee Doodle coloring book
33. Billerica Annual Report FY2020, Community Preservation Fund: Billerica Historical Society, Clara Sexton Memorial Museum, $101,000
34. Billerica, by the Billerica Historical Society (Arcadia Publishing, June 10, 2003): photographs from glass-plate negative collections
35. History Cambridge, archival resources: Billerica Historical Society collections, Revolutionary materials, finding aids, loan policy
36. GuideStar profile, Billerica Historical Society: PO Box 381, Billerica; programs; website billericahistory.org
37. Victorian Open House at the Clara Sexton House, 36 Concord Road, by the Billerica Historical Society, with the town tree lighting

Deed References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.