One of the last articles to come from the pen of the beloved Joe
Lincoln before death beckoned him from the Cape Cod he loved so deeply,
appeared in the Boston Herald on April 2, 1944. In his article, which
was written during war time, Lincoln paid glowing tribute to the
Chatham “Victory Market,” one of the Cape town’s patriotic war efforts.
The article by Lincoln was as follows:
“A Cape Cod Woman Had An Idea.
“There is nothing extraordinary in this statement as it stands. Most
Cape Cod women have ideas and as any Cape Codder, male or female native
or adopted, will take pride in telling you, the majority of these ideas
are good ones. So the fact that Mrs. Francis G. Shaw of Chatham, the
town at the elbow of the Cape, had an idea, and a good idea, is only
what might have been expected.
“But this particular idea, and its development during the past two
years, has tucked a new feather in Chatham’s hatband and Chatham
residents are strutting a bit in consequence.
“The feather is the Chatham ‘Victory Market’. Mrs. Shaw, like every
patriotic American, was eager to do whatever she could to aid her
country in its struggle to preserve the American way of thinking and
living. She wanted to do her part. She wanted to help.
“There were various ways in which that help might be given. Many
ways and all good ones. The purchase of war bonds, of course, and
contributions to the Red Cross and to the various organizations formed
to make easier the lot of our sons and daughters serving in or with the
armed forces at home or overseas. (Lincoln’s only son himself a major
in the Army was at this time serving overseas). All these were worthy
of help and each needed help. Mrs. Shaw wanted to do her part to aid
these and intended to do it.
“It did, however, occur to her that, aside from these demands of
wartime, there were other causes, equally deserving, which, she felt,
were in danger of being more or less neglected because of the strain
put upon the average pocket-book by louder calls. For example: each
year, since its establishment, there has been a ‘drive’ for the Cape
Cod Hospital at Hyannis. The Hospital drives have met with encouraging
response from the people of the Cape, who fully realize the fine work
done by the institution. There are, also, drives for the Boy Scouts,
and other philanthropic and public-spirited agencies.
“These appeals would continue to be made, they must be; but every
such drive, no matter how deserving its intent, would be just another
‘drive’, and with the pressure of taxes and bond purchases and calls
for wartime aid, it was certain to be more difficult to keep up public
interest in them. Mrs. Shaw wondered if there was any way in which she
could coax even a little extra money from the purses of her fellow
townspeople and their visitors without those coaxed being aware of
the coaxing. She wondered if she could devise some plan which was not
a drive, nor a request for a contribution, but where the individual
parting with his or her money got a return for the outlay. If she
could do that the sum resulting might be distributed among the various
philanthropic organizations, those active in times of peace as well as
during the war. It might--probably would--be a small sum, but it would
be something--and every something helped.
“From Mrs. Shaw’s thinking and wondering was born the VICTORY MARKET,
located on Main Street in Chatham. She calls it a ‘Glorified Rummage
Sale.’ Not by any means a brand-new idea, she says, but just an
elaboration of an old one.
“Every well-regulated and thrifty New England home has an attic and
practically every attic is a storage receptacle for articles discarded
by the family as of no present use, but too good to be thrown away. The
fact that these articles were discarded by the family owning them did
not, of course, necessarily imply that some of them might not be found
desirable by other families, if they--the articles--could be displayed
for sale at low prices in some sort of central shop or market.
“‘Well,’ thought Mrs. Shaw, ‘why not?’
“The use of a vacant building was obtained without cost. A call for
‘discards’ was issued and the response was prompt and gratifying. In
they came: clothing, kitchen utensils, andirons, vases, pictures,
‘genuine antiques,’ Currier and Ives prints for the walls, shoes and
galoshes for the feet, caps for the head, umbrellas, music-boxes, eel
spears, fishing tackle, plaster statuettes, rat traps.
“An assortment as varied as the list of gifts which the ‘Pale Pilgrims
from across the sea’ brought to Pasha Bailey Ben in Gilbert’s ‘Bab
Ballad’:”
‘They brought him onions strung on ropes,
And cold boiled beef and telescopes,
And balls of string and shrimps and guns,
And chops and tacks and hats and buns.’
“Mrs. Shaw was on hand when the Victory Market opened and she has been
on hand, with very few exceptions, at least part of each day since. One
of the town ladies takes her place to sell when she is absent. Some
generous soul donated a second-hand stove and someone else agreed to
keep it supplied with fuel. As the market is open in the winter, as
well as in the summer, these donations are highly appreciated. A sample
of almost everything comes to the Victory Market to be sold and, as a
matter of fact is sold, for some price, sooner or later.
“The Victory Market opened in Chatham on March 2, 1942. During these
two years it has taken, in cash, about $5,842.10.
“A pretty fair sum. And this, remember, without asking for a single
cent. The articles sold were contributed, of course; but, as has been
said, they were, almost without exception, of no value to the person or
persons contributing. ‘Discards,’ that is all.
“There may be other victory markets. Certainly there are other rummage
sales and gift shops operated for charitable purposes. The cities
have theirs, of course. Chatham, however, is not a city, but a town
of approximately 2000 permanent residents and an indefinite number of
summer visitors. And the Chatham experiment has proved that Mrs. Shaw’s
idea was a good one and that she and her backers and helpers are doing
their part as Americans.
“The Chatham Victory Market, we think, deserves appreciation,
encouragement and applause. Also--and why not?--imitation in other
communities.”
According to a newspaper report in the Boston Herald on February, 15
1948, a drive was being conducted by the Chatham Historical Society to
raise funds to build a Joseph C. Lincoln Memorial wing on the society’s
present home, the Atwood cottage on Sage Harbor Road. At this writing
this memorial is expected to be completed during the early summer of
1949.
Initial plans for the memorial to this author who immortalized Cape Cod
and its people in his works were for a general meeting room at the rear
of the society’s building, the oldest home built in Chatham. Plans were
for a room of twenty-four by eighteen feet with a one-story attic. The
room will accommodate about seventy-two persons.
The plans provided wall space for many fine old paintings and prints
that were here-to-fore unable to be displayed and also a portrait of
Lincoln that was contributed by the noted artist, Harold Brett.
Mrs. Lincoln and her son, Freeman Lincoln, have contributed a number
of complete hand written manuscripts of Lincoln’s books, including
“Shavings.” A collection of all the author’s first editions, a total of
52, including all the novels, poems and plays, have also been donated.
When completed this memorial should be one of the major points of
attraction for visitors to Lincoln’s home town--Chatham.