Since our annual meetings are the nucleus of our John Clough Genealogical Society, our custom is to tell the story of each reunion on the first page of the fall Bulletins. We have been most fortunate with pleasant weather every year and July 14, 1956 was a sunny day as fifty members gathered on the wide lawn at the Buttonwoods for the noon picnic. Surrounded by tall trees, this brick mansion faces the broad Merrimac River, its spacious estate once the property of the Saltonstall Family, now the home of the Haverhill Historical Society.
A museum of rare heirlooms fills the former parlors. Among these are the pieces of the “Scalp Cloth” that Hannah Dustin carried with her into captivity. Tied within its folds were the scalps that she took to prove her escape at Penacook, N. H. Hannah gave this cloth to her daughter Mary, and it descended to Mary Dustin Clough, to Hannah Clough Ladd, to Delia Ladd Carter, to Ruth Carter Rowell who sold it to H. E. Ladd, a relative.
President Vivian Sutherland Lord and her husband Erskine planned every detail of this meeting and were early arrivals to welcome all corners. When a telephone message informed Erskine that Mrs. Herridge, Nell Swain, and James Clough were stranded in Lawrence, Erskine directed them about how to find him in Haverhill at the station and they arrived in time for the picnic with happy greetings after their weary round-about trip by trains. Also Clarence and Ethel were present from Storm Lake, Iowa, both seeming well after their illness of last winter.
At two p. m. the President called the meeting to order. Reports were given by the officers including Percy R. Cluff, Jr., substituting for his father who decided not to attend although he is steadily improving in health. Mr. and Mrs. (Martha Clough) Stewart I. Tibbits from Columbia, Conn., represented the Connecticut Branch and Cousin Martha was elected on the Board of Governors of the Society.
Most informing was the talk by Mrs. Harold G. Look, Secretary of the Haverhill Historical Society. She described the exhibits in the museum, told about the Dustin Family and added many facts about our Family in early Haverhill.
Mrs. Speare explained that the present airport was the Gile Farm where the sons of John-1 found their brides. The Page Farm or the acres that John willed to the children of his daughter, Martha Clough Page, cannot be located. Our connection with the Dustins was by the marriage of Jethro-3 to Mary Dustin, granddaughter of Hannah. Thus in this locality Cloughs were united with the earliest settlers.
About 1850, Daniel Brooks Cluff came from his native Salem, N. H., to establish a shoe manufactory on Washington Street and his home on Orchard Street, now in the commercial section. There his son, Milan Oscar was born, whose handwritten lineage facts made possible our genealogy. Milon’s daughter, Mrs. Helena Cluff Walker, now of Melrose, Mass., and her son and daughter attended this session. She described how her brother, Clarence Brooks Cluff, typed his father’s lineage sheets, now loaned by her to our genealogist. Mrs. Walker lived for 46 years on Buttonwoods Avenue, not far from our meeting place. Proudly, she related her story about the business of her father, the public offices that Cluffs had filled in the city, and the research that Milon Cluff accomplished.
Most efficient assistants in arrangements for this reunion were Mr. and Mrs. Austin E. Lewis of 46 Chandler Street, Bradford, Mass., he with Clough ancestors. Long an employee of the U. S. Post Office, Mr. Lewis knows every inch of historical Haverhill. After the session, he conducted a tour through Dustin and Whittier pathways. Over the Sawmill River, a mill site for 200 years, past the site of the birthplace of Hannah Emerson Webster Dustin, (1657) we drove, to the site of the garrison where Thomas Dustin fled with his seven children and for a mile and a half to the site of the Dustin home that was pillaged (1697.) At that time, Thomas was building a new home, from bricks in his own brick yard, now standing, yet damaged by fire in 1938. The Duston-Dustin Garrison House Association is restoring this interior. Lastly, we saw the huge boulder that marks the site of the home of Son Jonathan Dustin where Hannah died in 1736. Mr. Austin frequently stepped from the lead car to point out every landmark to the procession following as closely as possible through the city traffic.
Leaving the Dustin trail we drove toward Amesbury to the birthplace of John Greenleaf Whittier, built in 1688 by Thomas Whittier, setting for the poem, Snow-Bound. The barn was built by John and Moses Whittier, Father and Uncle of the poet. It stands at the foot of Corliss Hill where, after his father died in 1852, the father of the Editor lived with his Aunt Harriet Clough Ela, neighbors of the Whittier Family, who rented a room for the winter school to selectman John Whittier over a century ago.
Hurriedly we visited the old kitchen and the well-sweep and then returned to join the dinner group at the Congregational church in Bradford, Mass., across the river from the Buttonwoods. A turkey dinner was served by the ladies’ Society of the church. Between the courses, we were entertained by an excellent acrobatic exhibition by a small girl, Bonnie H. Lord of Peabody, Mass. The usual personal introductions by the 72 diners were enjoyed because of their special bits of individual experiences. Mrs. George R. Locke of Warner, N. H., although long confined to her wheel chair because of a fractured hip, who always attends these meetings, was the oldest member present accompanied by her son and daughter. Little Benjamin Webster Lord, son of Robert and Martha, was the youngest. Others of the younger group were Allan Tenney and Roger Dustin Clough, sons of Mr. and Mrs. F. Tenney Clough of Amherst, N. H. and Robert and David Lewis of Bradford. Clarence and Ethel traveled the longest distance, but Nell E. Swain came from DeKalb, Ill.; Edith G. Frederick from Wilmington, Del.; Mrs. Leonora Herridge from Palmyra, N. J.; and Cousin James from Cassayuna, N. Y.
We adjourned to the auditorium of the church, hallowed by our ancestors and listened to Brahms by Robert S. Lord and several selections by Prof. Irving D. Bartley, Director of the Department of Music at the University of New Hampshire at Durham, on the pipe organ. Our family is fortunate to claim two members with this excellent musical ability.
A short but most informative address about the early history of the church was given by Rev. George Emerson Carey, Pastor-Emeritus, who is a kin of the family. He mentioned the plaque on the village green opposite the church that commemorates the founding of the American Board of Foreign Missions about 100 years ago by this church organization.
On Sunday, we again gathered at the Isaac-3 Clough homestead in Salem, N. H. summer home of Erskine and Vivian. They served breakfast to fifteen guests who slept in nearby motels. Their new rumpus room, the transformed wood shed, had tables for the Scrap Books and the Colonial cupboard held heirlooms and family pictures. Cousin Edith Frederick again brought her homespun linens and the white satin wedding bonnet to present to the Clough museum since Vivian has consented to supply a room for our accumulating collections.
Cousin Dan gave pleasure to the young and some of the elders by driving his jeep up the hill, over the old pathway to the cellar holes of former homesteads on the farm. Tables were spread among the orchard trees behind the house, also on the lawn and inside the rumpus room while caterers served lunch. This was the visiting day that means the cementing of friendships that are the vital links of the seventeen years of this Society.
Charles and Georgiana Seaver of Chicopee Falls, Mass., the sisters of past president, William J., Miss Kate and Nell and Martha Chamberlain; the Scotts of Hampton, N. H. with the Scrap Books; Dr. and Mrs. Franklin N. Rogers and Doris Dixon of Manchester; Mrs. Esther Mackey of Canaan, N. H.; Mr. and Mrs. Harl Pease of Plymouth, N. H.; and Mr. and Mrs. Richard S. Linley of Arlington, Mass., indicate how New England was represented among us. Near the close of the afternoon, Helen M. Fogg and her father, 95 years of age, drove from Methuen, Mass., he a native of Moultonboro, N. H.
As three p. m. brought the leave-taking hour, we scattered toward our homes realizing that another successful, worthwhile reunion had increased our knowledge of our heritage and our pride in the Family of John Clough of Salisbury.
Missed at the Reunion were Dr. and Mrs. William Clough of New London. Also, Elizabeth M. Hannon of New Milford, Conn., and New York who was detained by the illness of her Mother. Gertrude J. Clough of Meriden, Conn., had recently accepted a new position with the Y. W. C. A. and could not be away as a result.
Should any of our members pass through Bradford, Mass., please take a long look at the tallest spire, it is said, in New England on the Congregational Church. During his address before our Society, Rev. George E. Carey paid the tribute to our deceased member, Leroy H. Clough. After the hurricane of 1938, we believe, this steeple was severely damaged. For a time it was considered impossible to repair it. Cousin Leroy restored the structure to its original condition, a feat that should not be forgotten, said his minister, it stands, as a monument to the skill of this master builder. His son, Herbert, Jr. and family from Hampton, N. H. were present and listened to these words of praise.
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