#35: “The History of Datchet”, Excerpt #3
The Datchet Aldermen
In early 1900’s, local business owners and close friends, Fredrick Hayward, Sr. and William Hunter, regularly met at the AC Cafe to discuss local news. Both men had been afforded a modicum of success in Datchet and found that they were in a position to help the less fortunate around them.
The friends believed they had a responsibility to the town and made it their sacred duty to protect their home. Hayward and Hunter approached other Datchet business leaders with the goal to create an organization to provide civic and humanitarian aid to the area. On November 17, 1910 the Datchet Aldermen held their inaugural meeting.
Along with Hayward and Hunter, the original Aldermen included Robert Fletcher, Charles Lockwood, Henry Evans, Walter Page, and John Rugby. Initially the group met at the Hayward farmhouse until the early 1920’s when they moved into a more permanent location just off of Main Street.
Within the first few years, the Aldermen helped establish the annual Founder’s Day parade as well as the construction of a new schoolhouse. However, with the United States’ entry into World War I, the groups services expanded into support for returning soldiers and aid for war widows and orphans.
Growth of the organization took off in the following years. Hayward’s son, Fredrick, Jr., took over the chairmanship of the Alderman and helped expand the group’s activities. Remaining surprisingly unscathed from the effects of the Great Depression, the Aldermen were able to help feed and find work for town-folk who were effected by the economic downturn. In comparison to the surrounding areas, Datchet remained fairly prosperous.
When many of the town’s young men were deployed to Europe and the Pacific during World War II, the Aldermen fought the war at home. They conducted scrap metal and war bond drives as well as establishing educational programs for locals to cultivate their own victory gardens. This original program eventually expanded into what is know known as the Central Massachusetts Garden Association.
Although the Aldermen created many long lasting events and programs in Datchet, interest in the group began to wane and membership began falling off in the early 1960’s. Over the next decade, many of the young men who usually constituted the main group of Aldermen either moved away from Datchet or were casualties of the war in Vietnam. On August 24, 1980, the last 7 committee members of the organization met for the last time and the group was disbanded.
Although no longer active, in it’s 70 years the Datchet Aldermen helped establish many civic and humanitarian programs which are still in existence to this very day.
