Book Delivery Box, 1895-1907
Elijah H. Atwood was hired to haul books between Wayland Village and Cochituate. Evidence from library trustee records show that the library bought a box in 1895 for $3.50. The committee paid first Elijah Atwood and then American Express [Atwood expressed books and then was hired as an American Express agent to deliver books to Cochituate, an arrangement that lasted until about 1907.
A label on the top of the box says “Public Library Wayland Mass.”, and a sticker on the side of the box reads American Express. The Wayland Museum and Historical Society owns a photograph of the railroad station in Wayland that includes a horse-drawn carriage with “Atwood” written on the carriage. This carriage likely transported the box of books to Cochituate.
Clock on Mantelpiece in Round Room
On April 3, 1902, the Library Committee voted that the clerk write to Mrs.
Warren G. Roby [Cynthia Coggeswell Wood Roby], expressing the Boards’
thanks and appreciation of her gift of a bronze and marble clock for the reading room.
Draper Grandfather Clock in Balcony
In around 1969, a centuries old, English , tall-case timepiece called the Draper Clock was bequeathed to the Wayland Historical Society. It seems that the clock was too tall for the society’s home, the Grout-Heard House, so it was sent to the library, one of whose founders was James Sumner Draper. However, the library already had a fine clock, so the Draper clock was sold at auction. A few years later, in 1975, someone stole the library’s clock when the library was closed. Enter Jeffrey Leavitt of Cambridge, who in the 1970s bought an antique grandfather clock advertised in the Want Advertiser as the Draper Clock. In 1999, Leavitt learned of the clock’s connection to Wayland and donated it to the library. Local horologist, Michael G. Poisson restored the clock, and it has been ticking off the minutes at the library since that time.
Source: Boston Globe, March 21, 1999
