Granville History

Granville History Granville History is an online museum sponsored by non-profits: Noble & Cooley Center for Historic Preservation and the Granville Library Club.

This page is a volunteer effort generating no financial proceeds.

Living History Event featuring Dennis Picard, at Noble & Cooley Center For Historic Preservation this Thursday, August 2...
08/18/2026

Living History Event featuring Dennis Picard, at Noble & Cooley Center For Historic Preservation this Thursday, August 20, 2026, at 6:30 PM. Don't miss it!

On August 12 the West Granville Congregational Church hired a locksmith to open an old abandoned safe beneath the church...
08/14/2026

On August 12 the West Granville Congregational Church hired a locksmith to open an old abandoned safe beneath the church floor, hoping to find the original church charter and record book. It was a last resort, after looking everywhere else. To everyone's amazement, there it was, along with other old records that they are going through now. The book dates back to the 1780's when the church was founded.
The original record book had been transcribed by someone back in the days of old manual typewriters and, apparently, the original was then locked away in the safe with the other contents. A page from the transcript is with this post.
That leads us to the next mystery. The transcript is a photocopy of the original typed document. Who typed the original, and does it still exist? The photocopy was bound into a volume that is kept at the Mabel Root Henry Historical Museum (the Historical Room) at the Granville Library.
The transcript alone is over 200 pages, followed by a 24 page index. Whoever undertook this massive task deserves to be recognized, even if posthumously. Could it have been Helena Duris, who was a church member and long-time curator of the Historical Room at the library?
The church plans to scan the original hand-written record book and the transcript, which will then be available on the Granville History web site. The scanned transcript will be a searchable PDF to make research easy. If the original typed transcript could be located that would produce a higher quality scanned result.
Congratulations to the West Granville Congregational Church on their amazing find!

An amazing, very significant historical find at the West Granville Congregational Church !! If you ever visited the chur...
08/14/2026

An amazing, very significant historical find at the West Granville Congregational Church !! If you ever visited the church you literally walked over the old safe under the entryway.

Saturday Lookback at some of Granville's baseball teams. The first, oldest photo is a clipping with no date or names, bu...
07/25/2026

Saturday Lookback at some of Granville's baseball teams.
The first, oldest photo is a clipping with no date or names, but likely very late 1800's. Note the spelling of "base ball" as two words.
Second is a photo taken by Ellis R. Goodrich around 1900. No list of identities however the following are either known or educated guesses: Front row left: Harry Holcomb (b. 1886), Front row holding baseball: Alfred Goodrich. Sadly, in August 1909 Harry Holcomb was one of the first fatalities at the Indianapolis Speedway while racing a Knox car built in Springfield.
Third is a photo with names written on it. No date.
Finally, a photo of the 1919 team along with a card providing identities. This was the first team after the end of World War I. Coming home to play baseball with old friends must have felt like heaven to the veterans.
Digitized as part of a community history preservation effort co-sponsored by the Noble & Cooley Center For Historic Preservation, the Granville Library Club, and generous donations to these non-profit organizations from people like you.

Independence Day Flashbacks: 1. Granville Independence Day customs according to an 1896 article in the North Star newspa...
07/04/2026

Independence Day Flashbacks:
1. Granville Independence Day customs according to an 1896 article in the North Star newspaper written by Alfred Goodrich.
2. Independence Day Beauty Contest, 1959
3. Five year flashback to 2021 Granville parade.
Here's to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness!
Images collected as part of a community history preservation project co-sponsored by the Noble & Cooley Center For Historic Preservation, the Granville Library Club, and generous donations to these local non-profit organizations from people like you.

07/03/2026

Bicentennial Voices: An audio recording of Leona Ruth (Aldrich) Clifford (1912-1990) made during the Bicentennial year of 1976. Leona Clifford was the daughter of George Aldrich and Ruth (Nelson) Aldrich. George Aldrich was an amateur photographer who came to Granville in 1909 and took many of the photos now preserved in the Mabel Root Henry Historical Museum at the Granville Public Library collection, as well as many of the images used for the Granville postcards he made and sold.
The recording was made by Doug Roberts. Also present: Joey Perella, Dorrie Demaris, Jill Abel, Ruth McGorty and Lauri Schlosser.
Facebook doesn't seem to want to attach the file here but you can listen at this link:
https://granvillehistory.omeka.net/items/show/654
Recording digitized as part of a community history preservation effort co-sponsored by the Granville Library Club, the Noble & Cooley Center For Historic Preservation, and generous donors like you.

More great photos of the concert and Civil War exhibit.
07/03/2026

More great photos of the concert and Civil War exhibit.

It's history now! What a great exhibit for the Civil War drums, all authentic 1860's drums that have seen battle, and al...
06/28/2026

It's history now! What a great exhibit for the Civil War drums, all authentic 1860's drums that have seen battle, and all made by Noble & Cooley in Granville, Massachusetts. This was probably the largest gathering of N&C Civil War drums since the Civil War although possibly exceeded at National Encampments of the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) Union Army Civil War Veterans. The last gathering of the GAR was in 1949. The organization disbanded in 1956 with the death of Albert Woolson, the last known surviving Civil War veteran. The peak enrollment of the GAR was in 1890, with 490,000 members.
Granville's last Civil War veteran is said to have been Edwin Hartley, who lived at 722 Main Road. He enlisted in Company A, 7th Connecticut. Seriously wounded during the war, he was taken prisoner and spent time in a prison camp before being part of a prisoner exchange. He died in 1930. More about him is at https://granvillehistory.omeka.net/items/show/567

06/27/2026

Don't miss this great event THIS EVENING!!! (June 27)

Granville's Memorial Day ceremony was held on May 24, 2026 at the Federated Church and on the Green. It was a very movin...
05/26/2026

Granville's Memorial Day ceremony was held on May 24, 2026 at the Federated Church and on the Green. It was a very moving and dignified event for all who attended. The cold and rain failed to diminish the turnout.
A most sincere thanks to everyone who worked tirelessly to bring about this very important memorial event for Granville's fallen patriots.
The ceremony included an unexpected speaker who happened to be in Granville. Bill Paine, a descendant of Lemuel Haynes, was visiting the West Granville Congregational Church where his ancestor first preached. He and his wife Liz were hosted by Deborah Boulanger and Sue Beckman in West Granville, then they made their way to the Green where Bill delivered his remarks.
A copy of those remarks are provided here. Thank you, Bill.

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Granville, MA
01034

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