Oral Histories of Old North Reading
In 2025, the Society will kickstart a new program that seeks to record and preserve the memories of North Reading’s oldest residents—especially those that have lived here most of their lives. If you know someone who we should interview as part of our Oral History Project, email us!
The Society was inspired by the oral history project Gordon Hall and others undertook roughly fifty years ago. Here are some excerpts of Gordon’s 1976 interview with William H. Ryer Sr. It was transcribed in 1993 by Jennifer Salisbury of the North Reading Historical Commission and recently digitized by the Society so it can be accessed—along with several other oral history interviews—via our website.
Gordon Hall: "This is Gordon Hall and we are here to interview Mr. William Ryer, Sr. on March 8, 1976. Mr. Ryer, were you born in North Reading?"
Mr. Ryer: "Yes, I was born in North Reading."
Gordon Hall: "What year was that?”
Mr. Ryer: "In 1900. April 26, 1900." (Mr. Ryer then talks a little bit about his childhood memories - Ed.)
A 19th century photograph taken from Tower Hill looking east toward the Ipswich River. Mr Ryer grew up in 157 Haverhill St (the house in the front right of the photo) and talks about a fire at Beckett’s barn, which can be seen in the center middle ground.
Mr. Ryer: “And then I was a little bit older and got into more of the grown-up things, and allowed to roam a little bit and get more familiar with things around. There are little items that stick in your mind as you go through life.
I can remember the first fire I saw. It was Beckett's barn which is just down Elm Street about a half-mile from Haverhill Street. The big barn on the right-hand side that caught fire one night, early in the evening and I can remember my father and all the neighbors around, some with pitch forks, some with rakes, everything, and running down there. I couldn't quite picture in my mind what they were going to do with a rake or fork fighting a fire. To this day I never made out, or never got a good answer. But evidently, it was just the spirit of the people of those days to help; help somehow anybody that was in trouble.
And everybody shared things in those days. I can remember as I got a little bit older that holidays were quite celebrated. And I can remember Mr. [Jared B.] McLane, he was one of the more fortunate citizens of the town, a little bit on the wealthy side, ran the big wagon factory. On Fourth of July night he would always bring over these fireworks and the people would gather around and sit upon top of the common by the flag pole and he would shoot of al this fireworks over across towards the river. Everybody enjoyed it. I admired the man for that.
Jared B. McLane—President of the McLane Wagon Company—a successful manufacturer of specialty wagons who factory dominated the North Reading economy between 1887 and 1918. As Ryer remembers, McLane was a popular figure known for his generosity and community spirit.
Mr. Ryer: “Next as I got a little bit older, trained army men come to mind and Memorial Day. It seems as though in those times that Memorial Day was a day that meant something to everybody. The day that they seemed to breath a prayer of relief from some sort of a tension that had prevailed over them. They gathered together to celebrate Memorial Day. They came from all around the town, everywhere in town, everybody came. They used to have the parade and visit all the cemeteries. It was the Grand Army - I can remember the Grand Army Veterans, when I was young, they'd come around the school and talk to us and tell us things about the war, and it was interesting to us. And they would meet, have their parade and return to the Common. The parades were held in the afternoon and they would return to the Common. They'd usually get back around five o'clock.”
A 1950s photograph of North Reading’s Memorial Day parade. In the background is the Rexall Drug Store (now Center Cut Barber Shop & the Hornet’s Nest).
Mr. Ryer: “Then everybody in the whole town would join in for an evening dedicated to the celebration of Memorial Day. First there would be a big supper on the third floor of the Town Hall [aka Flint Memorial Hall]. Anybody who had carried food from the street up to the top of the town hall, you have to realize how dedicated they were to the day. And everybody came in and they were fed. Then a short while afterwards there would be a concert, then they would all gather in the Town Hall again and they would have an evening exercise that would last until after nine o'clock. The day was really a day of get-together for the people, at the same time celebrating the spirit of Memorial Day.”
An undated photo of a North Reading town banquet like the one Mr Ryer talks about.
Mr. Ryer: “People in those days did not have the chance to congregate or get together as often as they do today. Their main big affairs were like the Fireman's Ball or they'd even have monthly dances that they used to have in town early where everyone would make out a program. They were really a ball more than they were a dance. Election day, Town Meeting day and Sunday in a church, that was about the only chance that people could get together in a group as townspeople because Dennis Batchelder lived way on the other side of the town on North Street, and for him to come over and visit somebody here for an evening it was an impossible thing. You consider a horse and buggy would take him an hour or more to get over here and by the time he got back it was real late. People didn't do that in those days that way. They visited neighbor to neighbor, family to family. And evening was relatively short because people went to bed early. You worked hard and you got up early.”
To read more of this interview with Mr. Ryer or to read other oral history interviews preserved by the Society, visit our digital archive.
