Storyteller takes historic walk between towns

LYNNFIELD – Lydia Parsons was taking a stroll from Lynn to Lynnfield in 1918 to visit her sister, so she invited some 21st century residents to come along for the stories.”I am not a gossip; I am just well-informed,” Parsons, alias storyteller Andrea Lovett, told the audience.Lovett is a professional storyteller and founder of Massmouth, a nonprofit storytelling organization.About 40 people joined her at the meeting house Sunday as Lovett – as Parsons, a Lynnfield schoolteacher and the wife of a local “respectable physician” – took the walk from Lynn into Lynnfield, pointing out the local sights, saying hello to local residents and divulging local knowledge she had gathered from being so “well-informed.”The presentation was part of a year-long celebration of the town’s tercentennial and was held in the building to which the community traces its founding: the 1714 Meeting House on the Town Common. The town of Lynnfield was officially incorporated in 1814.Parsons explained, however, that a meeting house was the first requirement in order to become a community, as each settlement had to provide a place for residents to gather. Indeed, Parsons was very knowledgeable about local accommodations – she viewed it as quite shocking that the original settlers of the area lived underground because “they brought no tools to fell the trees!”Wooden houses were not constructed until the tools arrived later on a boat from England, Parsons explained, pointing out several of these earlier notable homes as she walked to visit her sister.But Parsons’ stories from the Revolutionary War era focused on activities at another local gathering place – Joseph Gowing’s Tavern. It was there, Parsons recalled, where a colleague of Paul Revere warned of the advancing British troops and where the body of the settlement’s first Minuteman casualty was brought.Parsons credited teaching school in the 1890s with providing her with a great deal of information on the “murders, tragedies and ghosts” of the town.She recounted how you can hear screaming and calls for help when the mist forms every year on the anniversary of the June 1851 day when 13 women drowned when their boat overturned during a picnic on Humphrey Pond.And Parsons divulged more personal information, including the romantic prospects of the local “tall drink of water” who took her in his motor car for the final leg of her journey (alas, she said he did not have room for the audience to hop in).Lovett said after the 45-minute presentation that her preparations for the talk took about a year. During that time she worked with local historical groups to review the town archives, developed a character and devised a story that could tie all the information together.”It’s hard because I’m not from here,” Lovett said. But the Abington resident said she had loved history ever since her parents took her to local historical sites when she was a child, and she passed that knowledge onto her own children before becoming a professional storyteller and teacher in 1992.But even longtime Lynnfield residents admitted some of the stories Lovett told were news to them.”I feel bad, I should’ve known this earlier,” said Judy Valentine, 90, who said she has lived in town for 48 years ? and belongs to the historical society. “I’m so glad my friends dragged me out to this; it was all wonderful.”But Nan Hockenbury of the Tricentennial Committee said Valentine is not alone.”It’s very exciting to get this information out to other people,” Hockenbury said. “We want to have the collection available to the public.”And it’s not just the historical groups that have things to share for the tercentennial.”We’re looking for more mementoes,” Hockenbury said. “We’ve found some really terrific things from people’s attics.”