GRANBY — To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the town’s founding, one Granby resident is working to document the last 50 years of local history for a book to be published this summer.
“I’ve always been in to history because my grandmother, who basically raised me and my sister, would never talk about her family unless I asked her,” said George Randall, a 67-year-old Granby native compiling the updated book. “It was interesting to me.”
Working from an office space in the furnished basement of his grandfather’s old barn on Taylor Street, Randall has volunteered hundreds of hours to research and writing. Sifting through old photographs, photocopies and hand-written notes Randall remembered growing up on the farm, playing in the adjacent woods, and the gentle rhythm of life in Granby.
“The corn was just so tall,” Randall said. “It was amazing.”
He also remembers his grandmother selling parcels to makes ends meet after his grandfather passed away. Today Randall lives on Taylor Street with his wife, Linda, near the property where he grew up and now keeps his office.
“I’m finding how our town has changed,” Randall said. “Farmers realized they could sell their property and make better money than farming. So as the farmers got old the farms closed.”
The Granby Historical Association started planning the 250th anniversary celebration four years ago during their monthly meetings. Now they meet every week with less than three months to go before the June 10 parade, which concludes Charter Day weekend. The weekend will also include live entertainment at Dufresne Park; truck, oxen and tractor pull competitions; and local artists and vendors selling their work on the common.
“It’s just consuming me, being part of the 250th and a member of the historical association,” Randall said. “All the history stuff is just starting to jive.”
Randall plans to participate in the tractor pull with his vintage 1958 Friday tractor, one of 143 ever built, he says.
Granby celebrated its 200th anniversary in 1968, the same year Randall graduated from high school. A history book by on the town accompanied the celebration. Randall took it upon himself to create an updated version of the book after raising the idea at a 250th anniversary planning meeting.
“I’m including the corrections that were errors in the original book,” Randall said.
Randall said most of the original documents have been destroyed, but with the help of Terry Johnson, president of the Historical Association, and her sister, Belinda Johnson, the association’s clerk, he has been able to fact-check past errors.
“All the people who had anything to do with this book are all dead,” Randall said.
The updated history book will include chapters on the West Street School, Westover Air Reserve Base and local artists and writers. Also included will be updated rosters documenting members of various clubs and associations, like the Lion’s Club, Boy Scouts, veterans’ groups and government officials.
“Westover really blew up in the ‘50s,” Randall said. “The airmen could live off post, so they came into Granby, bought property, built homes and we all went to school together.”
He also recruited a photographer, Marynn Fortier, to take photos of Granby relics like the Barn Quilt Tour paintings, old buildings, and unique nature shots. Her photograph of a resilient tree in town that grew over a boulder could grace the cover, he says.
“We have walked most all of the woods here in Granby for nature shots,” Randall said. “We found stuff I had forgotten about because I had played there as a kid.”
Randall expects to publish the book in August, when it will be available for purchase for about $20, he said, with proceeds going to the historical association.
Randall is also compiling short stories about life in Granby for a separate book he plans to self-publish. The book will be filled with short submitted stories, hand-drawn pictures and excerpts from other books about Granby.
“I rode in a snow plow and I loved it!” read one account shared by 6-year-old Isaac Simpson next to a hand-drawn snowplow. This self-contained story will fill one page of the book.
He solicited stories and artwork for the book on Facebook and through friends with the Historical Association. Stacey Theriault, a 26-year-old artist, responded to the post, recognizing Randall as the benefactor of a scholarship she received in 2008. She has a bachelor’s degree in art from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and currently lives in Hadley.
“I’m a Granby native and have so many good memories in that town,” Theriault wrote in an email. “I just love Granby, and I was really excited for the opportunity to help him out with this project. I get to put my mark on the town forever, and it’s a true honor.”
Two high school students, senior Tia Dwinell, 18, and sophomore Olivia Hinkly, 16, also volunteered to help illustrated the storybook.
In 1942, Maurice Browning Cramer wrote an intimate book on Granby’s social history titled “The Phoenix at East Hadley,” based heavily on interviews with the Kellogg sisters, Edith and Cora. Names were changed to protect the identities of Granby residents mentioned in the book, and for years it was kept out of sight in the Granby Public Library until all those mentioned had passed. Randall’s book will include excerpts from Cramer’s book, among others like “Nature Notes at Netop” by William Elmer Towne.
Sarah Robertson can be reached at srobertson@gazettenet.com.