News & Features
April 2006

Lucy Stone Award winners announced
Luncheon to honor receipients April 30

The Quaboag Historical Society, in recognition of the Commonwealth’s designated “Lucy Stone Day,” March 8, 2006, has named Joseph Craig of New Braintree and John J. Murphy of West Brookfield recipients of the annual Lucy Stone Achievement Award.

Both winners received a number of nomination letters from local residents, listing their many dedicated community service activities for more than two decades:

Joseph Craig has worked tirelessly to share his knowledge and love of the history of the Quaboag Plantation area with current residents. He has donated his collection of Native American artifacts, found in and around New Braintree, to the Springfield Science Museum. The collection numbers over 10,000 pieces. By preserving these important and irreplaceable artifacts, and by ensuring the collection is available for public viewing at the Science Museum, he has more than met Lucy Stone’s established criteria to “make the world better.” Everyone interested in the history of south central Massachusetts is a beneficiary of Craig’s generosity. He is also known for his work organizing, sponsoring, and auctioneering a yearly fund raising event for St Jude’s Children's Hospital and for his devotion to helping animals at the Second Chance Animal Shelter in East Brookfield.

John Murphy has given unstintingly of his time and energies, as a member of the War Memorial Committee, to establish the attractive and lasting memorial placed on the West Brookfield Common to honor local veterans. As a library trustee, he has been committed to the effort, beginning in 1996, to improve the Merriam-Gilbert Library, and he was very involved in the long struggle to bring the building of the new West Brookfield Senior Center to a viable reality. He is, or has been, a Score volunteer, chairman of the West Brookfield Housing Authority, the SCM Elderbus, and is a Eucharistic minister, representing Sacred Heart Church in its outreach work.

The winners will be honored at the Historical Society’s Annual Meeting Luncheon, Sunday, April 30. The luncheon will be held at Ye Olde Tavern, Main Street, West Brookfield from 12:30 to 4 p.m. Cost is $20 per person, payable when the reservation is made. Each honoree will receive a personalized trophy and a $100 savings bond from the Quaboag Historical Society in recognition of his outstanding and selfless community service to the residents of the Quaboag Plantation area.

Lucy Stone was born in West Brookfield, Aug. 13, 1818. She was one of the first women in Massachusetts to receive a four-year college degree. After graduating from Qberlin College in Qhio, she returned to the Commonwealth to work as a lecturer for the abolitionist movement in the years prior to the Civil War. She expanded her field of endeavors to include being an active participant in the 19th century crusade for equal rights for all individuals, and establishing THE WOMAN'S JOURNAL (the foremost women’s suffrage newspaper of the time). When she died, in October 1893, her last words to her daughter, Alice, were “make the world better.” The Quaboag Historical Society has used those words as a guideline for recognizing and honoring a resident of the Quaboag Plantation area who has given outstanding voluntary services in the community.

The Quaboag Historical Society Annual Meeting Luncheon is open to the public. Anyone interested in attending the luncheon honoring Joseph Craig and John Murphy may call the Quaboag Historical Society President at 508-867-3541 for additional information.