As I drove south from Boston on Interstate 95 that fall morning, I thought how remote this section of southern Massachusetts appears. It is not far from the Rhode Island line. My goal was the small southeast town of Wrentham, Massachusetts.
On the main road of Wrentham all I could see was how rural this area was, even for today. How isolated this must have been in the nineteenth century. There must have been many farms here at one time.
As I approached the center of town on Route 1, the main road, I could see a few businesses, stores and gas stations. The sign for the public library caught my attention. The Wrentham town library would certainly be a place to start for my search for information on A. Cressy Morrison who was born in this town in 1864.
A. Cressy Morrison (1864-1951) the Pabst Adman for Best Tonic
The library had a few patrons checking books in and a couple checking theirs out as I waited for someone to help me. It was fortunate for me that the Wrentham Historical Society had a room at the Library to which the librarian escorted me. Many volumes of Wrentham’s history filled the shelves. The librarian pointed out some material that might prove helpful in my search for Cressy.
A mention of the name ‘Morrison’ appeared in one of the mid-nineteenth century indices for the local newspaper. It turned out to be a death notice of Alice Morrison in 1880. I wondered if she was related to Cressy.
The librarian also mentioned a local cemetery where there might be a reference to a Morrison among the records held there. I drove a mile or so to the cemetery. The caretaker, Joe, opened his metal index file of people who are buried in the cemetery. We found the same Morrison mentioned in the notice at the library. No sight of A. Cressy Morrison, however.
So that first day I found I had to continue my search for Wrentham’s famous son, Cressy.