Helene Morgan Babcock and the Morgan Family

Helene Morgan was born in Dunstable, Massachusetts on January 27, 1927 to William Rice Morgan, Jr, and Frances Lillian Symington Morgan. She was the twelfth child of seventeen children. (Most of us can only imagine what it must have been like to grow up in a family with seventeen children.) The family joked that the first to get up in the morning would be the best dressed for school. These children knew that to survive they had to be "go-getters". With so many little ones to feed and living on a truck farm, they all grew up knowing the value of a dollar and the importance of hard work.

One of Dunstable’s current residents, Edna Hersey Stevens, grew up just down the street from the Morgans and remembers them as very hard-working people. Edna’s mother, a Nurse’s Aide, often helped Lillian Morgan after she gave birth to a child. (As one of 19 children in the Drew family, Edna’s mother well understood the hardships of a large family.) Edna said she has very fond memories of the Morgan family.

The Morgans can be traced back to the 1600's, with roots that run deep in New England soil. William Morgan. (a sixth generation Morgan) was born in Beverly, Massachusetts on January 18, 1761. He served in the Battle of Stillwater in the Revolutionary War. The family’s involvement with the town of Dunstable began in the early 1900's, when William Morgan, Jr. moved with his wife, Lillian, and their six children to Dunstable from Rowley, Massachusetts some time between 1917 and 1919. The first Morgan child to be born in Dunstable was George Elden Morgan (known as Jack), born on March 18, 1919.

William Morgan was a hard working truck farmer who worked at any endeavor that would earn him a few dollars. He sold ice blocks, which he cut from the pond on Oak Street. He is also believed to have had a logging business where the new housing addition is on Main Street. Some referred to him as “land rich and cash poor”. And when he died in 1947, his legacy to his children was his land. The Morgans have since sold the land and moved out of town, but the legacy gave them a good start.

By today's standards, the Morgans would be considered economically disadvantaged and would be eligible for all kinds of financial assistance. However, William Morgan was not the sort of man who would have accepted much help, even if entitlements were available. Everyone in the family had to work for the family to survive. He was known as a hard task master. The children worked as hard as their parents and were always obedient. The boys helped on the farm and the girls did canning and sewing.

In the winter of 1923, the Morgan family’s Dunstable home, which stood on the corner of Oak and Main, was burned to the ground. Neighbors and friends took them in so they would have a roof over their heads while their home was rebuilt. Lillian Morgan told her children to never forget the people of Dunstable for their kindness. Although the fire had done its damage four years before Helene was born, Lillian Morgan’s gratitude to the community made a deep impression on Helene.

Although William Morgan was known as a strong and forceful man, it is generally recognized that the driving force of the family was Lillian Morgan. Many of her friends and relatives speak of her grace and beauty, her love of nature and flowers, and her keen desire to teach her children to be all they could be. It was she who instilled in the Morgan children a great appreciation for the value of an education. She was the one who saw to it that each child was nurtured and prepared for school and eager to learn. She truly helped her children be all that they could be. It was a devastating loss to the family when Lillian Morgan died from colon cancer at Tewksbury State Hospital on December 15, 1941. Her youngest child was only 8 years old at the time of her death.

Helene Morgan attended the Union School in the town center, and was a member of the Dunstable 4-H club. Like many young girls today, she and some of her sisters belonged to Dunstable Girl Scout Troop 27, where they earned badges in homemaking, games, home nursing, and dramatics. After graduating from the Union School and the death of her mother, Helene Morgan moved to Rowley, the town where her parents had lived before moving to Dunstable. It was there that she met and married Alfred L. Babcock. Helene Morgan Babcock died on August 10, 1997.

In making out her will, Helene Morgan Babcock remembered her mother’s message of gratitude for the kindness that had been shown to her family by the people of Dunstable and chose to return that kindness in the form of a scholarship trust fund that will provide significant benefit to Dunstable children for many years to come.

As they say, “Kindness begets kindness.”