I went to some of my most used sources to look for Rochester Christmas past. Abraham Holmes had nothing which is not a surprise given the Puritan influence in early New England. L.C. Humphrey made no mention of Christmas but that could be that no one asked him the right questions. Finally, I went to the Rochester Journals produced between 1999 and 2001 under the guidance of Librarian, Lucy Loomis.
The journals are the memories of some of the town’s older residents and even they were short on Christmas recollections. In fact, the first mention I found was in an excerpt from the memoirs of J. Augustus Johnson who was born in Boston in 1836 and spent most of his early years in his mother’s hometown of Rochester. He writes, “there were no Christmas trees or gifts at Christmas, except the simple things that Santa Claus put in our suspended stockings overnight”.
He goes on to write that Rochester, as a Congregational town steered clear of any Christmas observances that smacked of Roman Catholicism.
Moving forward through the years little mention is made of Christmas in the various journals. However, in the 4th and last journal, one contributor wrote that when she was a child in the 1940s, there was little going on in town for any holiday. In her recollection, anyone who wanted to see Christmas decorations would have had to drive to the Taunton Green to view them.
Fortunately for today’s residents, private home decorations abound and Rochester now celebrates with the lighting of the town tree in front of Town Hall and Santa’s tour of the town courtesy of the Rochester Fire Department.
By Connie Eshbach