Pages

Sunday, September 29, 2019

George Williamson Kingsbury and Medfield Massachusetts

These Photographs are from my grandmother Mildred Mabel Phelps (1909-1995) d. of Frederick Winsor Phelps (1877-1947) and Melissa Cross Davenport (1847-1910). Mildred married Robert Levi Berry (1907-1988). 
Mildred grew up on Spring Street Medfield, Massachusetts in the Kingsbury homestead. She came to live them with when at 9 months of age after her mother died.  
Her Uncle Allan Alanzo Kingsbury (son of George Williamson Kingsbury) and his wife, Lillian Phelps. The photo of Mildred and one of the Kingsbury relatives was in Medfield, MA. Please contact me if you have any ancestors connected to these family lines and photos. Thank you! 

George Williamson Kingsbury (1838-1912) son of Amos Plympton Kingsbury and Almira Williamson. He married Olive Atra Smith (1839-1925) daughter of Clark Smith and Carolina Morse. Children: Alan Alanzo Kingsbury (1865-1952) married Lillian Lord Phelps (1861-1951), 2. Waldo Emerson Kingsbury (1869-1917) married Chilla Murtin Byrd (11873-1900) and 2nd Wilma Eva Bowden (1872-1957) 




Alan Alanzo Kingsbury (1865-1952) s. of George Williamson Kingsbury and his wife Lillian Lord Phelps (1861-1951) daughter of Francis Henry Phelps and Esther Antoinette Hall  Children: Captain Francis Henry Kingsbury (1889-1969) married Effie Louis Holder (1892-1984), 2. Amos Clark Kingsbury (1897-1955) married Blanche Louise Marcionette (1896-1987), 3. Carlton Winsor Kingsbury (1893-1963) married Mildred Florence Atwood (1893-1967), 4. Margaret Pearl Kingsbury (1891-1979) married Harry Mirick Rowell (1881-1968)

Kingsbury Homestead Medfield, Massachusetts
Kingsbury Homestead Medfield, MA 1931

Photo of Carlton Winsor Kingsbury (1893-1963), Priscilla Kingsbury (1917-2002), George Kingsbury, Allan Alanzo Kingsbury (1926-2013), Lillian Phelps Kingsbury (1861-1951), and Esther A Hall Phelps (1846-1938)
Priscilla Kingsbury with Robert Levi Berry, JR Medfield MA
Robert Levi Berry SR and son Robert Levi Berry JR in Medfield MA Kingsbury homestead
Jean Berry and Robert Levi Berry at the Kingsbury homestead in Medfield, MA

Jean, Robert, and Carlton Berry in Medfield, Ma at Kingsbury homestead
Priscilla Kingsbury with Robert Berry JR 1932
Esther A Hall Phelps in Medfield, MA

Photo from The Mystery of Medfield's 'Lady of Route 27' by Richard DeSorgher: For 61 years she has stood guard over Spring Street and Route 27. Except for a brief move to the property behind the Sewer Treatment Plant off Bridge Street in 1990-1991, she has constantly observed the travelers heading north on Route 27.
She has no official name, she is uniquely Medfield and she remains a mystery in the conversations people have while driving by; “Who is that a statue of?”  “Is she a famous Medfield person?"  “Why is she located there on the former Kingsbury Homestead property?”  “Was she a Kingsbury?” 
She clearly remains the most visible Medfield mystery. The above description is, of course, referring to the statue that sits on the knoll above Preservation Way, on the side of Spring Street and Route 27 and across from Kingsbury Pond. What is the story behind the majestic lady that looks out inquisitively from her stone perch, always watching and waiting year after year?
The story begins in 1950 when Amos Clark Kingsbury, owner of the Kingsbury Homestead and antique shop on 145 Spring St., notices the statue sitting high above a granite quarry while visiting the town of Addison, Maine.
Addison, Maine is located in Down East Maine’s Washington County. Addison was known for shipbuilding and quarrying. There were 83 vessels built there between 1800 and 1900 and four major granite quarries in operation. By 1958 both industries had disappeared and with the closing of the last quarry, the population reached a low point of 744. Right away Amos took a liking to the statue.
“It resembles my mother (Lillian Phelps Kingsbury),” he exclaimed. Purchasing the statue, he had it moved from high above the Addison Quarry to his property in Medfield. Who was the lady turned statue? Why was she placed overlooking the quarry in Addison, Maine? This we will never know. Once she arrived in Medfield, she was placed outside the antique shop, which in earlier times, was the homestead’s slaughter house.
Amos Clark Kingsbury was a Medfield native and graduate of the Medfield High School Class of 1916. During WWI he served in the U.S. Marines, American Expeditionary Force, and fought in literally all the major battles in France. Returning home after the war, he became a charter member of Beckwith Post 110, American Legion.
After the death of his parents he inherited the family 75-acre Homestead on 145 Spring St. Here he founded the Medfield School of Art, which was located in the main barn. The School later became the Medfield Art Galleries, an early forerunner resembling today’s Zullo Gallery. It attracted artists and crowds from throughout New England. Kingsbury also served the Town of Medfield for 35 years as our tax collector. He married Blanche Marcionette on June 25, 1955. Diagnosed with cancer, he died on Dec. 15, 1955. Blanche continued to run the homestead and now antique shop until her death on March 15, 1987.
With the marriage to Blanche Marcionette, the property left the hands of the Kingsbury family and having no children, her nephew Phil Ford inherited the homestead. The property was subdivided, with the Town of Medfield buying Kingsbury Pond and developer Ralph Costello the land and homestead across from the pond.
In 1990 Ford then donated the statue to the Town of Medfield and it was moved to the rear of the Sewer Treatment Plant waiting the town’s decision as to its next location. However, developer Costello told the town that he would welcome the statue back on the land and would donate the land the statue stands on to the town so that it would remain public property. It is today the only statue owned by the citizens of Medfield and it continues to look out over Rt. 27, watching and waiting, as it has for the past 61 years.


No comments:

Post a Comment