Take a Hike: Boyden Farm, with a Tribute to Benjamin Percival
by John Nye Cullity
The Sandwich Conservation Trust will host its
March walk at Boyden Farm Conservation Lands Sunday, March 10, at 2 P.M.
This is an easy, level walk of 45 minutes or so, out to the edge of Peter’s
Pond and back. To spice up this straightforward walk, it occurred to me
to add a feature: a tribute to Benjamin Percival.
It is
impossible for me to separate my love of local history from conservation land
work. When I’m outdoors, I often think of or visualize what the land used
to look like, and how it was used, and the generations of people who trod the
land before me. On our Sunday walk, we will honor a special figure from
local history – Benjamin Percival. He was a South Sandwich farmer,
selectman, state representative, and most importantly, diarist. In the
course of our walk we will visit the graves of Benjamin and his wife Lydia at
Tobey Cemetery.
Benjamin
kept a fascinating diary from 1777 – Revolutionary War days – through
1817. He was born in 1752. The original document, kept at the
Sandwich Archives, was painstakingly transcribed by his descendent Frank Barrow
of Denton, Texas during the 1990s. I believe only 60 copies were
privately published. Our tribute Sunday will consist of us reading
several interesting excerpts, with a bit of interpretation by myself.
If this interests
you, please join us Sunday at the Boyden Farm parking lot off of Cotuit
Road. The walk will be cancelled if it is raining. Call me with
questions at (508) 888-7629.