Haverhill Heritage Series

How Haverhill Was Really Founded

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Part one of a series, “A Town Named Haverhill”
Editor’s Note: Families can be complicated. The true story of the founding of Haverhill, Mass., is a testament to this fact with the founding minister’s father and brother-in-law being shown to be real estate schemers and his brother being a burglar expelled from Harvard. Much of the story of Haverhill’s founding has been steeped in fanciful folklore, but David Goudsward reveals the truth is much more colorful. The key date in the founding of Haverhill is 1639, a year before the first 12 settlers arrived at the banks of the Merrimack River near today’s Mill Street. The year 1639 is when John Ward arrived in Ipswich, joining his father, the Rev. Nathaniel Ward.

Haverhill Heritage Series

Whittier and the Rude Birthday Guest

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Boston’s fashionable Hotel Brunswick, Boylston Street at the corner of Clarendon, was the setting of John Greenleaf Whittier’s 70th birthday party. There’s always one. That party guest who—because of the free flow of liquor, poor upbringing or owing to some kind of personality defect—humiliates the host and ruins the party. It’s even more embarrassing when it’s an expensive, highbrow affair at a posh venue with a guest list that would be the envy even of the White House. Well, it happened to Haverhill’s favorite son, John Greenleaf Whittier on the occasion of the famous poet’s 70th birthday party Dec.

Haverhill Heritage Series

Henry Ford Buys a Piece of Whittierland During 1928 City Visit

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Built by the Proprietors of the Merrimack River Bridge in Rocks Village, Haverhill, the Rocks Village Toll House was purchased by Henry Ford in 1928. It is now known as “The Whittier Tollhouse & Shoeshop” and stands at near the entrance of Ackley Covered Bridge, Christie Street, Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Mich. (From the Collections of The Henry Ford.)

By David Goudsward
Special to Wavelengths

On Oct. 18, 1927, Whittier Birthplace received a visitor. This, by itself, was not a particularly momentous event—the Birthplace had been open to the public since 1893 after former Haverhill Mayor James H. Carleton purchased the house and land and presented it to the Haverhill Whittier Club.

Haverhill Heritage Series

Haverhill’s Very Own Disease: ‘Haverhill Fever’

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A typical river rat. By David Goudsward
Special to Wavelengths

Dr. Carl Mindlin, a Russian Jewish immigrant, had been growing his medical practice in Currier Square (Washington Street at High) for five years. His fluency in Yiddish and the location, a block west of the predominantly Russian-Jewish congregation of Temple Ahavas Achim, provided a steady stream of patients. So successful was his practice that he had moved his wife and 5-year-old daughter from above the office to a new home on Commonwealth Avenue. When Mindlin arrived at the office Jan.

Haverhill Heritage Series

Was America’s First Circus Elephant in Haverhill?

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Old Bess’ monument and the Elephant Hotel still stand. The first two floors serve as the Somers Town Hall and third floor is home to the Somers Historical Society and the Museum of the Early American Circus. (Daniel Case photograph.)

By David Goudsward
Special to Wavelengths

Did the first circus elephant in America make its way to Haverhill? In Alfred, Maine, along route 4 in southern Maine, there is a memorial erected in 1963 by the Sanford-Alfred Historical Society and Circus Fans America. The reason for the great public interest in the killing of this elephant is because it was purported at the time “the” elephant was the first elephant in America.

Haverhill Heritage Series

Haverhill’s Former Chicken Farmer Drove Robert Frost to Poetry

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By David Goudsward
Special to Wavelengths

When veterinarian Charlemagne C. Bricault died Jan. 10, 1949 at age 82, the obituary in the Haverhill Evening Gazette noted Dr. Bricault’s successful animal practice and his quarter century of work with the city’s health department—first as the inspector of dairies, then as health inspector and finally as a member of the board itself. While Bricault’s prominence as a breeder of Boston terriers was undoubtedly of interest to readers in 1949, the obit did not mention that the good doctor was also a nationally recognized poultryman in his younger days. In fact, Bricault and his chickens almost single-handedly forced Robert Frost onto the path of becoming an internationally recognized poet. By the time Bricault moved to Haverhill in 1910, he and Robert Frost had already crossed paths, and each had taken a road less traveled.

Haverhill Heritage Series

Part 3: WHAV’s Historic and Rocky Road to FM

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With the Federal Communications Commission’s tentative selection of WHAV to receive a new FM license, the Haverhill Heritage Series reviews the difficult path FM has had to circumnavigate in Haverhill.  Third in a Series
By Tim Coco
President & General Manager

The first incarnation of WHAV-FM was dead, along with its most zealous advocate, John T. “Jack” Russ. WHAV-FM lasted just under four years—1948 to 1952, but the fight for FM would also bring other casualties. Major Edwin Howard Armstrong, the inventor of FM, became despondent over his legal battles to force RCA to pay FM royalties. “On the night of January 31, 1954, Armstrong put on his overcoat, scarf, gloves, and hat, opened his window, and jumped out, falling ten stories to his death,” wrote Yannis Tsividis in Columbia University’s “Columbia Magazine.” Along with Armstrong went the Continental (FM) Network—of which WHAV was an affiliate.

Haverhill Heritage Series

Part 2: WHAV’s Historic and Rocky Road to FM

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With the Federal Communications Commission’s tentative selection of WHAV to receive a new FM license at 98.1 MHz, the Haverhill Heritage Series reviews the difficult path FM has had to circumnavigate in Haverhill.  WHAV Prepares Residents for FM
Second in a Series

 By Tim Coco
President & General Manager

The Haverhill public knew very little about frequency modulation (FM) in 1947. Its high fidelity sound and static free presentation were advantages Haverhill Gazette Publisher John T. “Jack” Russ sought to exhort. Only a handful of FM radio stations were licensed before the outbreak of World War II and production of consumer receiving sets was banned by wartime controls. Corporate fighting and suppression by regulators further delayed FM’s development.