Ware High School - Limelight Yearbook (Ware, MA)

Page 16 text:

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Q7 pew We Seann Know All Men by These Presents that We, J. H. Grenville Gilbert and Grace B. Gilbert, both of Ware, County of Ilaznpsliire, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in consideration of one dollar and other valuable considerations paid by the inhabi- tants of the Town of Ware, do hereby renzise, release, and forever qnitclaiin nnto tl1e said inhabitants of the Town of lllare, a certain tract of land in said Ware . . . Futhernzore said premises are hereby conveyed by the grantors as a rneinorial to their deceased son, Grenvilleg and this conveyance is inade npon the strict condi- tions finvolving forfeiture in case of breachj: first, that the preniises hereby granted shall be forever used and at all times lcept and niaintained available for use as a public parkg . . . and third, that the same shall always be called Grenville Park. . . In witness whereof, we, the said f. H. Grenville Gilbert and Grace B. Gilbert, hereunto set our hands and seals this eighth clay of Mareli, in the year one thousand nine hundred and nine. Through the document from which the above quotation was taken beautiful Grenville Park came into our possession. Stretching a half mile from north to south between Church Street and the -Wlare River, the park may be entered by four massive but simple stone gateways, the most imposing of which is directly opposite the high school. Not a clay in the year passes, but some of the high school students enter one of these familiar gateways to while away a leisure hour or two. In the winter we may be carrying our skis or dragging a toboggan on our way to the hill near the old stove. In spring or summer we may be swinging a baseball bat or a tennis racquet, carrying a fish pole or walking with nothing else to do but admire the beautiful trees, the restful hills, and the river slipping,placidly past. However, if we could have stood on the site of the park two hundred fifty years ago, we should have been looking at a very different pictureg for then we might have seen a band of Indians crossing the river at the Narrows and proceeding through the park across what is now Highland Street. This marked the Hadley Trail, an Indian route which later became one of the main highways of travel, from east to west, through the Province of Massachusetts.

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In lZZ9 Jabez Omstead, VVare's first settler, who had received a grant of land, which probably covered a good part of the Township of NVare, traveling the Hadley Trail from Brookfield, crossed the river and located his farm just west of the Nenameseck. Not many years ago the cellar-hole of his home, long an object of interest and curiosity, was filled in during the process of grading the read through Grenville Park. To Jabez Omstead is due the credit of establishing the first mills in our town. VVhen the new settlers came to live in VVare, Jabez, from time to time, sold pieces of his land. These, in turn, were sold and resold until the present site of the park came into possession of the Gilberts through a succession of purchases in 1907. Mr. Gilbert was then one of the leading manufacturers in Ware, being the .rwner of the famous Gilbert mills. In 1901 the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert were saddened by the loss of their only son, Grenville Brown Gilbert, who died at the age of sixteen. Feeling that they could in no better way keep his memory alive than by linking it with a living monument of everlasting beauty which would be a continuous factor in the life of the community, Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert donated this land for use as a public park. Up to this time the Pumping Station Grounds and Aspen Grove Cemetery had been used for pleasure strolling and driving by the people of WV are. At the time of its acquisition the park was nothing more than unattractive and uncultivated pasture land. It was made to look as we know it today through the efiforts of Arthur A. Shurtlefif of Boston, who was chosen landscape architect. As can be readily seen, Mr. Shurtleff 'was an excellent choice for the position. His idea was to keep the land in a natural state like the rugged, hilly country across the river and yet develop it so that it would serve theldaily life of the busy inhabitants of our town. His work was so successful that today it looks like a threshhold for the wilderness of the hills beyond. Q The first work in the development of the park was the improvement of boundaries. This was accomplished by the acquisition of additional tracts of land bordering that already acquired, thus making the lines more continuous and .eliminating jogs and elbows. The boundaries are marked by a stone Wall, which was built from the rocks taken from the land.