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In Their Words

A Tour of Memorial Hall

Read Aloud

Memorial Hall was more than a century ago an "academy" wherein the "young ideas" of Deerfield were taught to "shoot." As one climbs up the steep winding stairs to look at the colonial furniture, china, pictures, embroideries, and Indian relics, one fancies how long ago little Puritan boys demurely ascended these worn steps when the dominie's gong sounded. Among these historic relics there are some of more than ordinary interest. In one room stands a cupboard that belonged to Parson Williams, who was one of the hundred prisoners marched off to Canada on the night of the massacre. A pair of small worn shoes, labeled "Shoes in which little Mary Hawks walked home from Canada" are full of a pathetic interest....There, too, stands a beautifully carved Bride's Chest that was once a part of the old Indian House's furnishings. None knows its history, but there it stands....Through glass covers one looks at old-fashioned bits of embroidery. "These," says the feminine curator proudly, "have furnished a good many designs and ideas to the Blue and White Society."

Pauline Carrington Bouve, "The Deerfield Renaissance", New England Magazine, October 1905, page 171.