The subject of this month's PEOPLE IN BLANDFORD WAS BORN IN Westfield in 1902. On her mother's side of the family she is a descendant of George Phelps, one of the original settlers of that city.
Mrs. Hayden came to Blandford in 1909, when the Harry L. Wyman family bought the house on Birch Hill Rd. which is now owned by the Fiorellis. She attended the Center School, and recalls taking a sled to school on snowy days so they could coast home down the main street.
Graduating from Westfield High in 1919, Mrs. Hayden took a job in the office at H.B. Smith where she worked until marrying Ralph W. Hayden in 1922. As a young couple, they moved into his family's house, which was built in 1793. It is the only house in Blandford still owned and lived in by the family of the descendants of the original owner.
As a farmer's wife, Mrs. Hayden raised two children, cooked, canned and did all those chores farmer's wives have always been called on to do. "I've probably worked over enough butter to make a mound as big as Monadnock," she laughs.
Mrs. Hayden has always been interested in craftwork. "I like to use my hands," she told us. Her book of knitting samples is a work of art; she crocheted a bicentennial afghan of her own original design, which was displayed and sold at a recent craft fair; she taught herself to weave on an old fashioned loom; she has done tinsel painting, candlemaking, wall stenciling, and her stenciled trays are prized by those fortunate enough to own them; she canes chairs on request.
Blandford genealogical studies have probably been Mrs. Hayden's most absorbing hobby. She has spent many hours at the Hampden County Registry of Deeds searching the records of early land owners of our community. Twenty notebooks crammed with material on old town families attest to this fact.
In 1930, the town of Blandford hired Mrs. Hayden to copy the first three books of Blandford records in an orderly manner. At the time she made the first card index for the Town Clerk. Tramping through all the local cemeteries, she made a list of all the headstones.
Over the past few years, Mrs. Hayden has become interested in the ancient art of dowsing. In the above picture she is holding her modern day water-finding "wands", fabricated from a coat hangers and two Bic ballpoint pen cases. She has amazed herself with her own success in locating ancient building sites, the accuracy of which other evidence bears out. A movie has been made of her work in locating one such site.
From 1947 until her retirement in 1971, Mrs. Hayden served Blandford as Librarian of the Porter Memorial Library. She was responsible for its reorganization, and helped plan the addition of the children's room.
Mrs. Hayden is an amazing, vital, energetic, innovative and creative person. She still plays the organ, occasionally substituting for regular church organists, a position which she held in the Blandford Congregational Church for approximately 30 years, until her 1969 retirement. She mows a large lawn, takes care of a vegetable garden and still does most of her own house repairs. "I guess you can call me a 'Jill of all trades'." she says jokingly.
The telephone in Mrs. Hayden's home brings daily requests for bits and pieces of information that she has accumulated over the years.
To students she is a mine of knowledge for local history projects. Retirement has brought her, perhaps, time to enjoy her own creativity.
Of necessity, this must be written in the first person since it is an account of my own experiences.
Some time before 1970, my daughter showed me how to make a pair of metal divining rods. Mine are made of a pair of wire coat hangers with the hook end cut off. Two empty ball point pen handles make the tubing in which the wire turns. When made, they look like this:-
Mrs. Hayden came to Blandford in 1909, when the Harry L. Wyman family bought the house on Birch Hill Rd. which is now owned by the Fiorellis. She attended the Center School, and recalls taking a sled to school on snowy days so they could coast home down the main street.
Graduating from Westfield High in 1919, Mrs. Hayden took a job in the office at H.B. Smith where she worked until marrying Ralph W. Hayden in 1922. As a young couple, they moved into his family's house, which was built in 1793. It is the only house in Blandford still owned and lived in by the family of the descendants of the original owner.
As a farmer's wife, Mrs. Hayden raised two children, cooked, canned and did all those chores farmer's wives have always been called on to do. "I've probably worked over enough butter to make a mound as big as Monadnock," she laughs.
Mrs. Hayden has always been interested in craftwork. "I like to use my hands," she told us. Her book of knitting samples is a work of art; she crocheted a bicentennial afghan of her own original design, which was displayed and sold at a recent craft fair; she taught herself to weave on an old fashioned loom; she has done tinsel painting, candlemaking, wall stenciling, and her stenciled trays are prized by those fortunate enough to own them; she canes chairs on request.
Blandford genealogical studies have probably been Mrs. Hayden's most absorbing hobby. She has spent many hours at the Hampden County Registry of Deeds searching the records of early land owners of our community. Twenty notebooks crammed with material on old town families attest to this fact.
In 1930, the town of Blandford hired Mrs. Hayden to copy the first three books of Blandford records in an orderly manner. At the time she made the first card index for the Town Clerk. Tramping through all the local cemeteries, she made a list of all the headstones.
Over the past few years, Mrs. Hayden has become interested in the ancient art of dowsing. In the above picture she is holding her modern day water-finding "wands", fabricated from a coat hangers and two Bic ballpoint pen cases. She has amazed herself with her own success in locating ancient building sites, the accuracy of which other evidence bears out. A movie has been made of her work in locating one such site.
From 1947 until her retirement in 1971, Mrs. Hayden served Blandford as Librarian of the Porter Memorial Library. She was responsible for its reorganization, and helped plan the addition of the children's room.
Mrs. Hayden is an amazing, vital, energetic, innovative and creative person. She still plays the organ, occasionally substituting for regular church organists, a position which she held in the Blandford Congregational Church for approximately 30 years, until her 1969 retirement. She mows a large lawn, takes care of a vegetable garden and still does most of her own house repairs. "I guess you can call me a 'Jill of all trades'." she says jokingly.
The telephone in Mrs. Hayden's home brings daily requests for bits and pieces of information that she has accumulated over the years.
To students she is a mine of knowledge for local history projects. Retirement has brought her, perhaps, time to enjoy her own creativity.
Of necessity, this must be written in the first person since it is an account of my own experiences.
Some time before 1970, my daughter showed me how to make a pair of metal divining rods. Mine are made of a pair of wire coat hangers with the hook end cut off. Two empty ball point pen handles make the tubing in which the wire turns. When made, they look like this:-

As one walks rather slowly along, they may turn inward and cross one over the other, indicating that something to which they respond is under the crossing. Occasionally both will point sideways in one direction. This seems to be when the dowser is to one side of whatever is causing the reaction. However, this is not usual.
Occasionally I amused myself by wander- ing around the place checking where they turned. My daughter and I agreed on ap- parent runs of underground water; also buried water pipes.
One day I was using the "wands" south of the house in which I live. At a certain place the rods turned, or crossed, like this:
One day I was using the "wands" south of the house in which I live. At a certain place the rods turned, or crossed, like this:
As far as I was concerned at that time, it could have been another underground stream of water. I straightened out the rods and continued on in the same direction for about twenty feet, when they again crossed. Then I began going back and forth over the area, moving up about 2 feet each time. each time. What I came up with was parallel lines, running east and west. Intrigued, I did the same thing in the opposite direction and again found parallel lines going north and south which connected with the other two lines. Water never runs in a straight line for long and certainly does not form rectangles in nature. So what had I found?
In the Hayden family, the story has been handed down that John Brockett, an early ancestor, purchased eighty acres of the farm in 1793, built a log cabin and lived in it for a time. My husband had heard that it was south of the present house but knew nothing more. Nor did his father, I think.
I became quite excited at finding the rectangle with the wands, thinking I had perhaps located the site of the log cabin. To test the rods, I went to a spot where an old barn had stood which my husband had torn down years before. Sure enough, the rods responded to the barn outline.
Later on I decided to check the accuracy of the placement of a large boulder marking the site of Blandford's first meeting house, directly opposite the present White Church. I was "told by the rods" that it is in the right place.
Jerrilee Bunce, then art instructor at Gateway High School, came here to see me about another matter, but in talking with her, I said I was thrilled at the possibility of locating old building sites - especially those of historical interest. She, in turn, told Josh Greenwood, who at that time was doing supplementary teaching in the Regional Schools. He found he also had the ability to dowse. One day he said he would like to make a documentary film of me while dowsing the old meeting house site. I agreed and this was done in October 1972. The film is on file at the Gateway High School.
A certain clue in the early town records led me to believe the first schoolhouse on the Blandford town common was in the triangle between the Otis Road and North Blandford Road, where the original First Division Road crossed. The road is not now used, but it made sense to me that the school house should be situated on a road and not any distance away from it. Using the clue, my daughter and I tested a possible area and found another rectangle not large, but still big enough for a district school of the mid-1700's. This is directly east of the General Knox marker.
I checked another area in the triangle, looking for the possible site of a hearse house which once stood near the Old Cemetery. I think I found it also. The rectangle was of such a size that a horse-drawn hearse, such as I remember seeing as a child, could have been housed there.
The next summer, after finding the log cabin site, I decided to lay out the plan on graph paper. In the meantime, I had found more to the original building on the upper side. It was narrow and extended beyond the main part some five or six feet. Perhaps it was a woodshed with an outside door in the extended portion. My daughter helped me with the measurements and this is the result.
Farther south, in the same lot were several low lying stones in a row-about three feet long. They bothered a bit when mowing the lawn. Thinking they might possibly be a part of a foundation, we both checked this area and again found a large rectangle which went nearly to the edge of Hayden Road. This could very well have been the location of an old, old barn, with easy access from the road.
I have also found a long, narrow rectangle on the opposite side of the road and have wondered if a sheep barn was once there.
Now comes the eerie part of my tale. I don't know what possessed me to think of it, but I went into the Hill Cemetery one day and walked back of some of the old headstones. Behind each one the wands turned except in a few instances. Wondering about this, I decided that the particular stones were not erected immediately and so could very well be eight or ten inches off center.
Again I was excited to find such an action over burials for I had spent many hours trying to update the chart of that cemetery. In my research of Blandford families I knew that "John Doe" had a headstone, but his wife had none although the town records said she was "buried in Blandford". Where would she be if not beside her husband? I believe the divining rods tell truly the number of burials in each lot.
For instance, the chart has a certain lot assigned to James Crooks. There are no stone markers of any kind on the lot. However, town records show five in the family were buried in Blandford. My rods agree with this perfectly and the cemetery commissioners would not use what appears to be a vacant lot.
Not only can the burial spot be determined, but the length of the grave also. In the case of a baby, or a young child, the turning will not occur beyond the foot of the grave.
There is a certain private cemetery in Blandford where some of the stones appear to be misplaced. The headstone of an adult is flat on the ground near a short hollowed spot and a child's stone is where there is a long depression. I think the wands could easily clear this up.
Why do the divining rods work over old building sites and over burials? I wish I knew, but I am satisfied that they are telling the truth for I have tried to test them in various ways. Once or twice when I thought they were wrong, I discovered on other evidence they were not.
To prove that a burial could be detected seemed for a a time impossible until I remembered that my husband had said he buried a dog in our garden. He never told me just where it was, nor did I ask. So I took the rods there and after a time found they turned in a certain place over a length of about three feet. This seemed a likely spot. Three friends, who were also interested in the experiment, came here and the son dug where I indicated.. What happened? We found the skull, ball and socket joints, some rib bones and vertebrae. Probably a skilled archeologist would have recovered the whole skeleton. At least I proved my point.
I have enjoyed seeing the astonished looks which appear on faces of those who have never before tried using divining rods. Invariably the response is, "But I didn't do anything!" Most people seem able to dowse with these rods but some cannot. If you can, perhaps you will have fun, too, locating more than water.
From Stone Walls Magazine, Fall, 1976