While working as a newspaper reporter for the Walpole Times Newspaper in the early 2000s, we were often challenged to find stories during the slow summer months.
Fortunately, the Walpole Public Library had a vast archive of past issues of the Walpole Times on microfilm, so I was able to do a series of feature stories chronicling life in the town at various points in the 20th century.
A look back at the pages of the Walpole Times newspaper from the summer of 1952 shows a town in the midst of transition from a rural past to a suburban future.
For every article about a prize-winning cow or real estate listing for a home with two henhouses, there were dozens of advertisements seeking to drum up interest in the ’52 Ford or the latest Jantzen bathing suit.
But along with the modernization and prosperity that came with the post World War II era, Walpole also experienced its share of crime, tragedy and strange occurrences.
Society and Sports Take Center Stage
In 1952 the Times was published by Garrett Dalton Sr. and edited by John H. White. Each edition cost five cents and was about six pages in length.
While the paper contained detailed accounts of selectmen’s meetings and weekly updates from the town’s water, parks and highway departments, community events and baseball scores were the main focus of public interest.
The front page almost always began with wedding announcements, which were published in much greater numbers and with much more detail than today.
This description of former East Walpole resident Eleanor May Reynolds’ wedding attire is a good example of the level of detail the postings typically included:
“Her fingertip veil of blush illusion was caught to a pearl trimmed lace tiara, and she carried a cascade bouquet of white pom-poms, stephanotis and pale pink sweetheart roses centering a wild orchid.”
Personal announcements took up another big chunk of each week’s paper. While there were plenty of the requisite graduation lists and birth notices, Walpole residents also submitted announcements for more everyday activities:
“Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Jeffery and family of Neponset Street are spending their vacation on a trip by car to Florida.”
“Mrs. Elizabeth C. Winn of Winter Street is confined to the Norwood Hospital, where she is undergoing treatment.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Ellis Bacon, former residents, visited South Walpole recently, renewing old acquaintances.”
The Times also listed all of the residents who had been taken to the hospital in the past week, as well as those who returned home from hospital stays.
Talking Little League Baseball and Scrap Metal
As one of the most active and vocal organizations in town, Walpole Little League had an update, letter or announcement on the front page each week in addition to the paper’s regular sports coverage.
League organizers often this forum to plead for increased attendance at their games. They were especially determined to bring increase attendance for a newly formed division for 13 to16 year old players.
“Let’s get out and get behind these lads of ours. Lack of enthusiasm on the part of ‘Mr. Fan’ can very easily lead to an indifferent attitude by our youth toward the national past-time, which is something we hope never to see,” League organizers pleaded.
The League was also behind one of the biggest events of the summer—a townwide scrap metal drive to raise money for the 1953 season.
Organizers asked residents to bring all of their unwanted metal to a designated drop off area at the intersection of Washington Street and Route 27, where it would be sorted and sold off.
Those who were unable to transport the metal by themselves could put a sticker in their windows so volunteers would know to stop by to pick it up.
League organizers held a bonfire at the drop-off site on July 3 to burn off all the combustible material inside the 30 junk automobiles collected during the drive.
In the week preceding the bonfire, all 30 cars were stacked into a pile at the drop-off area. Each night, residents stopped by to help pack the pile with paper, cartons and other combustible material.
Crime, Punishment and Accidents
Tragedy struck Walpole in June of 1952 when a 7-year-old East Bridgewater girl drowned in the shallow end of the pool at Francis William (Bird) Park.
Rae Belcher, who was visiting in Walpole at the time, was found in “two or three feet of water,” the Times reported.
Several local teenagers removed Belcher’s body from the water, and a police officer immediately began administering artificial respiration, but it was to no avail.
In the aftermath of Belcher’s death, a group of 200 residents and 15 local businesses donated enough funds to hire two lifeguards to watch over the pool for the rest of the summer.
August 2 proved to be a particularly busy day for the Walpole Police Department, as officers were first called to the Aho Picnic Grounds on Bullard Street after a riot broke out among 125 Boston men.
The rioters eventually calmed down and headed back to Boston with a “few broken noses, cut eyes and faces,” the Times reported.
Later that night, a dramatic high-speed chase on Route 1 led to the apprehension of two Hyde Park men on stolen vehicle charges.
According to the Times, two Walpole police officers were driving north on Route 1 at about 10:30 p.m. when a car passed them in the opposite direction going “at a terrific rate of speed.”
The officers immediately turned around to pursue the car, chasing it at 80-85 miles per hour. They finally caught up to it at the Foxboro–Walpole line.
As the officers got out to apprehend the suspects, however, the car turned around and headed toward back towards Boston.
A second high-speed chase ensued, this time at 90-95 miles an hour.
As the officers closed in on the car near the Norwood line, the vehicle suddenly swerved onto a side road and came to a stop. The driver and his passenger leapt out and fled into the woods.
The suspects were eventually apprehended by the Norwood police department, and both were sentenced to six months in jail.
Have You Seen My Mother?
In June, the Times reported on the interesting case of George F. Cummings, a 40-year-old disabled U.S. Army veteran from Worcester who came to Walpole to check the town records for any trace of his mother, a Mrs. Kate Noonan.
Cummings, who was born Frederick Peter Noonan, had not seen his mother since she vanished when he was six years old.
Determined to reunite with her, he had spent all of his free time “since early manhood” searching for some evidence of her whereabouts.
“Noonan checked Walpole town records here today and plans to do the same in other communities. He is convinced his mother is still living and someday, somewhere, somehow, he will find her if he keeps up the search.”
“Sure I get lonesome,” he said. “But when I do, I try to think of some new angle to work on. That gets me going again, and I don’t have time to be lonesome any more.”
Brian Burns 