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FACTS, HEARSAY AND MEMORIES - Page 7 In the spring of 1874, John A. Macomber married Esther A. Allen. They lived at the original John Macomber farm in the family of James and Mary Gifford and Grandmother Allen for a little more than two years. It was there that my oldest sister, Hattie, as born. Quite a considerable amount of building had been going on on parts of the original farm. The three sisters, Lydia, Mary S. and Olive had built a home for themselves, the house now belonging to Dr. Kirkaldy. Grandmother Macomber called by her grandchildren Grandmother Mac, her two daughters Elizabeth (Aunt Lib) and Aunt Hannah left the home place which had been Leonard's to my father and mother who came there before the birth of Edward Jan. 26, 1877. The house built by my grandmother and aunts is the one now owned by Albert Wood. Next to that and about the same time the one now owned by Luther Bowman was built by a widow, Phoebe Slade and her daughter "Lizzie Ann." Phoebe was the widow of Nathan Slade and had lived on Main Road. The brook called Slade's Brook in my day ran at the foot of Hick's Hill. Later Lizzie Ann married John Taylor who came from Maine to teach school at Westport Point. He brought his young daughter, May. Another member of that household was Daniel Macomber, Phoebe's brother. He was not related to our branch of Macombers. The community was building up and the type of architecture was changing. The builder of these three houses was a man named Dillingham, I believe from Acushnet. Perhaps his Quaker affiliation was responsible for the business. I have been told that each of the houses was built for $2000. My two aunts felt that their old home then had become very old fashioned. One of the new features they most desired in the new house were rooms high enough to stand up in straight in every part. They achieved their desire and some later occupants found them a heating problem. They were all houses of from ten to fourteen rooms each built for three people. The tendency then being for large houses with several rooms only intended for use on special occasions, bedrooms with beds made ready and immaculate, parlors all with drawn shades and all air tight against dust or a marauding fly. The home of Grandmother Mac, and after her death also was always spoken of by my brother, sisters and myself, as "the other house." I return now to the home established by John A. and Esther at the Leonard Macomber place. As I have said Edward was born there in 1877, Alice in 1878, Benjamin, who died in infancy, in 1881, Sophia in 1882, Stephen who died at nine mothers in 1886, Mabel in 1887, and I in 1889. A picture of the house just prior to my grandmother's leaving shows the now huge linden tree in the corner of the yard as a very young specimen. Great grandfather John must have been a little over generous when planting trees for Leonard's front yard. An arborvitae, one maple, and a small Norway spruce were crowded out. Another Norway spruce grew to great height and when returning from New Bedford the tip of it could be seen from the hill near Capt. Chase place on Drift Road. It was broken in half by the 1938 hurricane. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
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