Laurence J. Greenwood

Laurence Jennison Greenwood (1894 to 1974) was a Billerica farmer who served on the Select Board in the year after the First World War and later sat on the Finance Committee and in Town Meeting. He was born on October 15, 1894, the son of George P. Greenwood and Alice (Harding) Greenwood, whose dairy farm on Dudley Road ran west to the Concord River near the Bedford line; the birth record gave his father's occupation as farmer.

In the war he served as a corporal in the Motor Transfer Corps at Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas, according to the town's 1918 roll of its men in service. In February 1919 he was elected a selectman with 265 votes, joining Thomas F. Sheridan and Thomas Talbot Clark on the board (the selectmen also served as fence viewers), and on July 4, 1919, he was chief marshal of the parade with which Billerica welcomed home its soldiers and sailors of the World War. The board's report for 1919 recommended a new bridge over the Concord River at the Red Bridge as a Federal Aid project, with the town paying $9,000 of an estimated $54,000; it described a year of emergency road repairs and complained of "the lack of harmony that has existed between the head of that department and the Board of Selectmen" in the highway department, and it reported thirteen new street lights and a fireproof roof for Union Hall. He ran fifth when he stood for re-election in February 1920 and left the board.

On April 14, 1920, he married Mildred E. Barber of Dorchester. He sat on the Finance Committee from 1921 to 1927. After his father died in December 1921 the farm was held in trust under his father's will, and Laurence took over its operation, turning it from dairying to market gardening; in 1930 it still had about ninety acres, along with the summer cottages of Greenwood's Grove on the river. In June 1966, as surviving trustee under his father's will, he joined the executrices of the will of Oliver P. Greenwood in conveying the eighty-acre farm "with the buildings thereon," first bought by his grandfather Moses P. Greenwood in 1850, to himself, and he lived in the old Captain John Stearns House at 96 Dudley Road for the rest of his life. Earlier he and Oliver P. Greenwood had owned the Greenwood Building at 462 Boston Road, which they sold to the Middlesex County National Bank in 1963.

He was a Town Meeting member for Precinct One from 1956 to 1972. He died on July 9, 1974, aged 79 years, 8 months and 24 days, and the town report for that year listed him among its memorials. He is buried in Fox Hill Cemetery with his parents; his wife Mildred died in 1976. After her death the family divided the farm, and the house was sold in 1978.

References

1. Billerica Town Report 1895, births recorded in 1894: Laurence Jennison Greenwood, Oct. 15, son of George P. and Alice (Harding)
2. Billerica Town Report 1918, roll of men in service: Greenwood, Lawrence, Corporal, Motor Transfer Corps, Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas
3. Billerica Town Report 1919, annual election: Laurence J. Greenwood elected selectman with 265 votes
4. Billerica Town Report 1919, Fourth of July welcome home celebration: Chief Marshal Laurence J. Greenwood
5. Billerica Town Report 1919, report of the Board of Selectmen signed by Thomas F. Sheridan, Thomas Talbot Clark and Laurence J. Greenwood
6. Billerica Town Report 1920, annual election returns for selectmen (Laurence J. Greenwood not re-elected)
7. Billerica Town Report 1920, marriages: Laurence J. Greenwood and Mildred E. Barber of Dorchester, April 14, 1920
8. National Register nomination, Two Brothers Rocks-Dudley Road Historic District: Greenwood Farm, Laurence J. Greenwood took over in 1921 and turned to market gardening
9. Billerica Town Report 1974, In Memoriams: Laurence J. Greenwood, died July 9, 1974; Finance Committee 1923-1927, Town Meeting 1956-1972
10. Find a Grave: Lawrence Jennison Greenwood, Oct. 15, 1894 to July 9, 1974, Fox Hill Cemetery, Billerica