Joanne’s entire presentation can be viewed on HCAT ->https://hcat.viebit.com/player.php?hash=MPiqyYINC9Jy

Holliston Historian Joanne Hulbert (above) visited the Senior Center on Thursday, December 1, 2022, to provide a little town history and set the groundwork for a book to celebrate the town’s 300th anniversary in 2024. Joanne, author of Holliston, A Good Town (1999), spoke to a gathering of about 20 residents, explained what the anticipated anniversary book will contain.  Stories, poems, memories, and parts of memories from residents will comprise the content.  Residents—whether new or more recently moved to town, born in town, or formerly living in town—are invited to submit their creative works, creating a community of authors.  “As few as 50 words is fine,” said Joanne, “much like the Sunday Boston Globe 50-word limit feature,” she added.  The collecting editors will thread the recollections together and these will become a great compilation of information.

Sitting next to a table of “props,” Joanne revealed tidbits of some lesser-known history of Holliston with the clasp of each object.  The bowl of cranberries led to her stories of four distinct types of cranberries found in town— some of which can still be found.  But would you know the difference among these little red berries:  the Batchelder berry, the Middlesex berry, the Centennial berry, and (believe it or not) the Holliston berry?

The next object may be a bit more familiar to many because of a little memorial on School Street to someone particularly famous for its [local] use:  the baseball!  Hulbert held a reproduction of a lemon peel baseball while explaining rules of the early sport. Early baseball featured soaking — hitting a player with a thrown ball.  One 1850’s team was the Winthrop baseball club. Hulbert grew animated describing a particularly long tournament to be played to 100 runs or tallies.  This tournament continued for 6 days to a score of 50-47 only to be interrupted by changes of season and the Civil War in 1861.  The tournament never was completed. It is stories and snippets like these that Hulbert encouraged the audience to share with the community.  Little tidbits of information, situations, events, and even inventions that happened in Holliston.  Did you know that the waxed paper box-cutter was invented and patented by a Hollistonian?  Filed in 1939 and received in 1940, the patent for the waxed paper box cutter box quite improved the labor of tearing or using scissors. 

Hulbert displayed and spoke about a railroad spike, noting that the Mudville neighborhood was created for the Irish immigrant laborers who had created the rail lines and stayed around to became the factory workers in the boot and hat industry.  Throughout the hour-plus presentation, Hulbert mentioned historic and familiar names, streets, and places—many known to the audience.  Her knowledge is broad and deep, fascinating and entertaining. 

Lastly, Hulbert passed around a book by Abner Morris, published in 1856, and handset with a printing press.  This was the first published history book of Holliston (although the major part of the book was about Sherborn).  “Run your hand over the print.  Feel the words of the page,” said Hulbert.   The book planned for Holliston’s 300th anniversary will be assembled electronically, its print not precisely the raised ink of a printing press, but the contents will focus 100% on Holliston.  With your help, that is.  Won’t you write a little vignette?  a poem? a story?  Perhaps someday in the future, this book will be held aloft with the claim, “This book, a collection of your ancestors’ stories, gives us a glimpse into the people and times of Holliston’s 20th and 21st century.”

Send your vignettes, poems, and stories to:

• Joanne Hulbert -> jhulbert49@gmail.com
• Mary Greendale -> mmgreendale@gmail.com
• Bobby Blair -> mudvillemayor@gmail.com