Eleanor W. Clark, Buckland, Mass.
Item Information
- Title:
- Eleanor W. Clark, Buckland, Mass.
- Description:
-
Miss Eleanor W. Clark lived in Buckland at the Wilder Homestead with her aunt, Hattie Bertha (Sanderson) Wilder, from about 1942 until Miss Clark's sudden death on 3 May 1958 as a result of a heart attack.Miss Clark gave up her teaching career in order to move in with her widowed aunt. There were antique looms, spinning wheels, and yarn winders at the Wilder Homestead. Both Hattie, known to most everyone as Aunt Bertha, and Eleanor soon discovered a love and talent for pattern design and weaving on treadle looms. In 1944, Eleanor was appointed the Postmaster of the Buckland Center Post Office, which was housed in a building she owned on Upper Street. The building had an apartment that Miss Clark converted into a two-room studio for teaching weaving. She gave lessons in setting up the loom and designing patterns for projects. Other weavers brought their looms and set them up to work together. The group became known as The Buckland Weavers, and they were very active. Eleanor also took on the task of teaching weaving to a group of 4-H girls known as the Buckland Busy Bees. There were seven or eight girls aged ten to sixteen who learned how to set up the loom, work a pattern, and weave a piece to proudly take home. Miss Clark was known as a very patient teacher, and the girls enjoyed their lessons.Miss Clark was born in Williamsburg, Mass. on 24 August 1902, daughter of Dwight and Harriet (Wilder) Clark. Miss Clark was a graduate of Williamsburg High School and Westfield Normal School. She was the postmaster of Buckland, Mass. from 1944 to 1958, and had previously been a school teacher in Greenfield, West Worthington, Ashfield, and Dalton. She was a member of the First Congregational Church of Buckland where she served for many years as the church's superintendent of the Sunday School. She was a member of the Buckland Grange No. 87, the Deerfield Valley Pomona Grange, the Buckland Historical Society, the Buckland Ladies Club, and the Shelburne Falls Women's Club. Miss Clark was a correspondent for the Greenfield, Mass. Recorder-Gazette daily newspaper, and was editor of Our Buckland, a weekly paper. According to her obituary, Miss Clark was survived by her aunt and several cousins. She was buried at the Worthington [Mass.] Center Cemetery after services were held at the First Congregational Church of Buckland.
- Name on Item:
-
Howard Udel, Pittsfield, photographer
- Date:
-
[1950?]
- Format:
-
Photographs
- Location:
- Buckland Historical Society
- Collection (local):
-
Wilder Homestead Collection
- Subjects:
-
Clark, Eleanor W. (1902-1958)
Postmasters--Massuchusetts--Buckland
Weaving
Handlooms
Looms
Weaving - Patterns
4-H clubs
Teachers and community)
Buckland (Mass.)
- Places:
-
Massachusetts > Franklin (county) > Buckland
- Permalink:
- https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/bk128r04x
- Terms of Use:
-
Rights status not evaluated.
Contact host institution for more information.
- Language:
-
English
- Notes:
-
From the collections of the Buckland Historical Society, Inc., P.O. Box 88, Buckland, MA, 01338, http://www.bucklandmasshistory.org/contact/
- Identifier:
-
2009-A011
eleasor_w_clark_buckland_mass
