Lynch to talk Quabbin history at Agawam LibraryDate: 3/18/2016 AGAWAM – Local author Jacqueline Lynch will discuss the history of the Quabbin Reservoir in relation to her historical fiction novel, “Beside the Still Waters,” as part of the Agawam Public Library’s Author Talk series on April 4 at 7 p.m.
Lynch, a Chicopee resident, told Reminder Publications her novel chronicles the saga of a family living in one of the communities that was flooded to create the Quabbin – which now provides water for the greater Boston area.
She explained nearly 30 years ago she was writing for a local history magazine and interviewed former residents of the towns that were flooded to create the Quabbin. This formed the inspiration basis for her novel.
“We got to interview a lot of the former residents and they were very helpful,” Lynch said. “A few of them became very dear friends. One of them made a very interesting remark to me. She said that when they were children – she was part of the last generation growing up there – they knew that their towns were going to die.”
She noted the Quabbin Reservoir project took almost two decades to reach the construction phase. Four towns were disincorporated to create the Quabbin, which included Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott.
“The towns were sort of allowed to decay inside until such time as the state would take away their charters, which happened in 1938,” Lynch said. “All through the 1920s and 1930s, these kids grew up knowing that their towns were dying and when it came time for them to leave home … they knew they’d never get to go home again and that struck me. It was a very difficult thing for their parents and grandparents. Some of them never got over it.”
Lynch was asked whether she believed in a local myth that the state moved just the headstones instead of bodies of the deceased in the communities during the reservoir’s creation.
“They did move the graves,” she explained. “Some of them were these old colonial graveyards. They had to scratch them up with hand trowels. They were very meticulous about that, partly because it was a huge issue. It wasn’t something that they could fluff off. They really had to do a proper job of it … To be frank, it would have polluted the water and they did an amazing job of getting rid of everything.”
She added residents of the four towns were invited to a farewell ball in April 1938 at the last building standing in the area in Enfield. Lynch was requested to speak at the Agawam Public Library in honor of the anniversary of this ball.
“The whole surrounding area, if you see photographs of it, it looks like the moon,” Lynch noted. “There’s nothing there. There’s just miles and miles of flat dirt.”
Lynch said her book starts with the first generation of the Vaughn family at the apex of the 20th century and ends with the third generation of family of children who grow up in the 1930s.
She added a great rift in the family is formed when the Vaughn patriarch – who owns farmland – decides to give his property to only one of his two sons.
“The one who didn’t get it is really mad about it,” Lynch said. “They have this terrific struggle – this resentment between them – because one of the sons is going to get the land and the other isn’t … In the meantime, this whole [issue] with the valley is brought up with the state and one of the sons wants to sell the property to the state and get as much money as he can. The other one doesn’t want to sell because it’s their family heritage, but of course it’s a pipe dream because they’re going to have to leave whether they want to or not.”
Lynch said the daughter of one of the sons ultimately decides to take charge of the situation.
She added she plans to bring large aerial photographs of the towns just before they were demolished to make way for the Quabbin during the Author Talk event.
“I’ll be talking principally not only about the novel, but about the Quabbin itself and how it was constructed and came to be,” Lynch said.
For more information about Lynch visit www.jacquelinetlynch.com.
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