Mary A. Cook

Mary A. Cook moved to West Boylston in 1893 from New York following the death of her husband and one of her sons. Her other son, Carleton, moved with her. They both worked for the Telegram & Gazette. Starting in 1897, Mary A. Cook wrote daily columns on news in West Boylston, Boylston, and the village of Oakdale. She wrote these columns for 30 years. She used to bike from West Boylston to Boylston and Oakdale to collect the day’s news.

The Beaman Memorial Public Library has Mary Cook to thank for the scrapbooks which she compiled throughout her life. These scrapbooks contained clippings of her news columns. She willed these scrapbooks to the library, and we still have them in the West Boylston Room. We have these scrapbooks to thank for the preservation of West Boylston’s history. Many of Mary’s write-ups have served as the basis of our historical Facebook posts.

Below are a photo of Mary Cook and a cartoon depicting her career from an issue of the Worcester Daily Telegram.