Ringing in the Fourth

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of July, 1983:

Church bells rang at midnight on the Fourth of July when Gratia Harrington was a little girl.

It was the Methodist Church in the village of Vineyard Haven that rang the bells, she remembers. She knows it wasn’t the Catholic Church, for those bells had a different tone. And it couldn’t have been the Episcopal Church, she says. “The Episcopalians weren’t that well organized in those days.”

Taking the A Train

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of June, 1958:

Continued train service between Boston and Woods Hole until June 23 became assured last weekend when Judge Robert P. Anderson, in federal court at New Haven, ordered the present scale of operation continued until a further hearing which he set for that date.

Under the court order, neither the New Haven railroad nor the state of Massachusetts may disturb the existing situation until the hearing.

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of June, 1933:

For many Island visitors. the greatest charm lies in the search for Indian relics and prospecting about the tribal places in search of traces of habitations, graves and other signs of ancient Indian life. Christiantown and Indian Hill offer much of this variety of interest, as the last Indian holding in the down-Island section of the Vineyard.

All the Social News

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of June, 1908:

Those from Edgartown, in all numbering twenty-three, who attended the Neighborhood Convention at Gay Head on Tuesday, report a most delightful day. The start was made, five teams in all, at the early hour of six in the morning, and the arrival home was about eight in the evening, four hours on the road each way.

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of June, 1983

The three Steamship Authority governors, facing a battle with Vineyard commuters that may cost the boat line $25,000 in legal fees, are digging in for the fight.

The last hope for compromise died this week when commuters rejected an offer by the authority to reduce the number of tickets in each commuter book. Thus, the flap over increased commuter ticket prices entered its sixth month and both sides are preparing for a second Department of Public Utilities hearing.

Vis i tors Return

From the Vineyard Gazette editions of May, 1908: