Society presents a cooper's tale at Fruitlands Museum

The Townsend Historical Society is sponsoring a program "The Cooper's Tale: From Thriving Industry to Forgotten Art" at Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, on Sunday, Oct. 29.

In the early seventeen hundreds, a cooper named John Wallace arrived in the port of Boston from Britain. He was advised to go to Townsend where there were vast forests of white oak timber. In following that advice, he introduced coopering to the newly chartered town and the process became Townsend's major industry for over a hundred years. The Townsend Historical Society will offer hands-on coopering demonstrations and a talk on the rise and decline of this industry.

Plan to visit Fruitlands Museum, Sunday, Oct. 29 for the coopering program and other attractions which include Indian, Shaker and fine arts galleries, fine arts and the Alcott Farmhouse. The museum opens at 11 a.m.

"The Cooper's Tale" and demonstration will be presented at 4 p.m. For Fruitlands Museum information and directions please see www.fruitlands.org or call (978) 456- 3924.

All Townsend Historical Society (THS) members will have free admission to the Fruitlands on Sunday. This is a great time to check if your membership is current, or if you haven't joined yet, now is the time.

The THS office is located at the Reed Homestead, 72 Main Street, Townsend and hours are Tuesday through Friday 9AM-2PM. THS Web site is www.townsendhistoricalsociety. org and the phone number is (978) 597-2106.

-Submitted to The Journal