My Memories of the Town Archives
- Kaethe Maguire
- Apr 18
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 28
Many years ago, in the fall of 1993 to be exact, I left my job at Boston College Library and returned home to Sandwich where we had lived since 1977. Daughter had left for college and husband was working in Boston and living weekdays at our condo near his work. I immediately went to volunteer at our Sandwich Public Library. (And typical of me, I joined a couple of boards in town associated with things historic.)
At first I was doing mindless chores like covering books. Then long-time reference librarian Beth Ellis designated me to work on the town archives files located in a back room of the library and my life changed. I was in heaven!
I somehow easily persuaded Richard Connor, Sandwich Public Library Director at the time, to move all the Sandwich historical files from that back room to the Library’s Dodge MacKnight Room. This gave the Archives a proper home! Barbara Gill, who served as our archivist for 28 years, an all-knowing and beloved woman, worked in this room. Poor Barbara. I practically lived there peppering her with questions all day long.
It was during one of these sessions that I happened to bring up Benjamin Percival and the Percival family. I am sure it happened after frequent drives past the Percival Burial Site at the corner of Route 6A and Route 149 in West Barnstable. This burial site has an outstanding headstone that you can’t help noticing.
ABOVE: Burial stones of Benjamin Percival (1752-1817) and Lydia Goodspeed Percival (1754-1843), Tobey Cemetery, Forestdale. Source: Find a Grave.
I learned that Benjamin decided to move his family from Barnstable to South Sandwich in 1750 as it had been opened for settlement.
One question led to hundreds of others and eventually I found the Benjamin Percival home down a long dirt road called Percival Lane in South Sandwich. It is beautifully set on the Hog Ponds. It is a picture-perfect home reflecting a commitment to restoration and maintenance. I have read a couple different opinions as to the origin of this house, but most historians date its initial structure to 1675. We are certainly fortunate to have it preserved in such an excellent state.
I’ve included a photo of the home taken in 1971 by Sandwich native and photographer Barbara Russell. For me, this is the ultimate photo of the Percival house.
Now a bit about the Percival family who lived in this house. Benjamin Persival was born in 1752 and lived until 1817. He was married to Lydia Goodspeed. They had ten children. Goodspeed was a common name back then. Matter of fact, there is a burial ground in South Sandwich named for the Goodspeed family.
The Percival Farm was the largest in the area and provided employment for many. Benjamin grew a large array of crops including wheat, rye, flax, corn, tobacco, and vegetables. The farm also included chickens, sheep, and cows. The farmers of this era helped each other out with the hard work involved in running a farm, but it was said that the farmer who asked for help and received no response never forgot it!
The trio of Russell Lovell, Barbara Gill and a man named Frank Barrow, fourth great-grandson of Benjamin Percival, worked tirelessly to transcribe the diary so that today’s readers can understand it. I picture them bending over the pages with magnifying glasses in hand, trying to decipher the early writing style – no easy task!
LEFT: Russell Lovell, Sandwich historian and Town Archivist from 1976 to 1989;
RIGHT: Barbara Luskanen Gill, Town Archivist from 1989-2016.
In my opinion Russell Lovell has been undervalued by some Sandwich citizens. As Mr. Barrow said of Lovell’s work, “I never would have started it [transcribing the diary] without him. The work this man has done on this…is unbelievable. What a jewel this town has in this man.”
Our Town Archives are still going strong after all these years. They're located in the Sandwich Public Library and are ably headed by Archivist Jen Ratliff. The transcribed Percival Diary I speak of is housed in our Archives for all to view. Email Jen at jratliff@sandwich.ocln.org to make an appointment to see this historical treasure.
Kaethe Maguire is a member of the Friends of the Sandwich Town Archives, a dedicated, all-volunteer, 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to supporting and promoting the archives’ collections and the rich, diverse history of the town of Sandwich.
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