4. This Was Hinsdale (Cora)

She moved to Hinsdale newly widowed to find the quiet life, but wound up doing many of the town’s jobs including tax collector, town librarian, Justice of the Peace, school teacher, and is Massachusetts’ first female town clerk.  She took the town census on foot.

Of course this is Cora Lovell, dynamo and the subject of “The Ballad of Cora Couch Lovell”. This Hinsdale public servant golfed (nothing new there!) --  yet one who suspended play mid-match to marry a Pittsfield couple. She was a reporter for a Springfield daily newspaper. She’d fished all over North America. 

All those jobs? “They (town fathers) just came to me (and asked).” As town tax collector she collected “every cent” due Hinsdale. “I found out when payday was at the mill or where ever they worked and would then go to their house  on the (pay) day.” It’s believed no one since performed at the 100% collected level. Of course that was then. The tax collector sitting on slow payers’  front porches...

Cora! -- Boarding house operator. Card player. Traveler. Socialite. Cook. Marrying justice. Farmer. Expert with sewing needles. 

She passed away at home (on Church Street) in 1945 and is buried in the Maple Street Cemetery  (section 5, lot 31). Her last official act? She wrote out her own Death Certificate leaving nothing but the date of death to be filled in.