Sunday, March 15, 2015

William B Peach 3.15.15

William B. Peach


The following is part of an interview by Carin Gordon for Marblehead magazine with  brothers Bill and Ben Hawkes.

William Peach was a mason and was the third generation of Peaches to carry on the family masonry business in town. His grandsons, William Peach and the Hawkes' brother Ben, William and Lincoln, and their descendants speak glowingly of this man whose favorite expression was "bully." William Peach's grandfather Richard founded the business, and his grandson William and great grandsons David and Edward carry on the family tradition today. This family built stone and brickwork all over town. Grandfather William, while building the stone walls at Redd's Pond began to carve steps out of the rocks there.

"Grandfather William was a man of great strength."  Ben Hawkes remembered "him shovelling a path from Orne Street over Burial Hill to Norman Street, even as an old man, during every snow storm so he could reach his family who had scattered throughout downtown, and then he would continue around Redd's Pond up to Russel Street."

"He loved children," stated Bill Hawkes about his grandfather. "He would keep General Glover's tomb in repair. He did it on his own, probably never saw a dime from the town for doing it. One year while repairing it, he had his four grandchildren around the tomb watching. He had to take off the lid of the tomb in order to repair the brickwork beneath it. He looked in the tomb to see what was left of Glover, reaching in, he picked up a brass button that had been on Glover's uniform. He placed it in each of our hands, explaining to us about General Glover. After we had all seen it, he put it back in the tomb. He could have kept it, but that was the kind of man he was."

William B. Peach with his four grandsons, Ben Hawkes, Bill Hawkes, Lincoln Hawkes and William F. Peach repairing General Glovers tomb. Old Burial Hill about 1930.

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