Images of America: Hubbardston

Images of America: Hubbardston

Arcadia Publishing recently released another in its series of local history stories, this time featuring the town of Hubbardston. Hubbardston began as a rural farming community, producing crops, livestock, and dairy products. Its millponds even generated enough power to run small millworks. For a time, inns and hotels also flourished as Hubbardston was on the north-south stage route, but the arrival of railroad in 1871 changed that. Later, a great influx of Finnish immigrants settled in the area. The book acknowledges the contributions of noted residents Adam Wheeler, second in command at Shay's Rebellion; Jonas Clark, founder of Clark University; and Waino Holopainen and Roy Handy, inventors of the first hydraulic backhoe. The author, Gary W. Kangas, is a member of the Hubbardston Historical Society. He grew up on a farm that was in his family from 1894 to 1998.

For those GHS classmates that grew up in Hubbardston, the Arcadia publication ($21.99, ISBN 9780738565156) may be ordered at http://www.arcadiapublishing.com or Barnes & Noble bookstores in the greater Gardner area.

The cover of the Hubbardston volume features a photograph of the 1933 Boy Scout troop. Classmate Robert Hunter Coffin, Jr. was quick to identify his father standing in the front row.