Eleanor Small
Tales of Cape Cod
The Tales of Cape Cod Oral History Collection consists of interviews of life long residents of all the towns in Barnstable County conducted between ca. 1972-1978. Louis Cataldo, then president of the Tales of Cape Cod board, oversaw the project, staff included Franklin S. Klausner, Roland Barabe, David J. Boudreau, Charles H. Hodgson and Renee Magriel, and interviewers included Betty W. Richards, Lee Anne Sullivan and William Pride. Interviewers asked older Cape Residents about changes in transportation, the arrival of electricity and telephones, their memories of school, holiday celebrations, foodways, family histories and more. Residents shared stories and anecdotes about summer people, the fishing and cranberry industries, agriculture, local businesses, the Great Depression, World Wars I and II, Prohibition, race relations, economic change, major storms and much more. For more information, contact the William Brewster Nickerson Archives in the Wilkens Library at Cape Cod Community College: http://www.nickersonarchives.org/
National Capital Contracting
Eleanor Small interview with Tales of Cape Cod, November 17, 1977. Born in 1909, Ms. Small describes her ancestors from Harwich. Her grandmother was related to Jonathon Walker, of "the branded hand" who married an Indian woman and went down south to help the slaves. He was captured and branded for helping slaves escape. She lived on the Cape with her grandmother and recalls several stories of local residents. She recalls the great Dennisport fire and Dr. Ginns block burned. Also remembers Ernie Cole, the blacksmith in Harwich Port and the Catholic church in Harwich Center burning. Remembers the J. Oscar Holtz grocery store and a local character Lonzo Jordan who was a faith healer. She has several stories of the conflicts between Harwich and Chatham.
Notes: The Tales of Cape Cod Oral History Collection is housed at the William Brewster Nickerson Archives in the Wilkens Library at Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable, Massachusetts. For more information about the collection, please contact the Nickerson Archives, http://www.nickersonarchives.org/.
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