Lowell Sun, MA
June 9 2005

Lowell native donates `gold mine’ to city

Document he found as a child was written by future U.S. official
By ELISE COMTOIS, Sun Staff

LOWELL — It was just a piece of paper, but Lowell native Ahron
Ahronian believes the document he handed to historic officials
Tuesday will bring a new wave of prosperity Lowell.

It chronicles a childhood event of Gustavius V. Fox, who grew up in
Lowell and became assistant secretary to the Navy during the Civil
War.

`I think this document will prove to be a gold mine for the city of
Lowell,’ Ahronian said, `a gold mine of potential to draw people to
the city.’

Martha Mayo, director of the Center for Lowell History, said she
hopes Ahronian’s aspirations for the document are realized, but she
thinks his personal story, that of being a young, Armenian boy in
Lowell who came across it, might be just as valuable.

`In some ways, that part of the story is equally important and
poignant,’ Mayo said.

As he was roaming the banks of the Merrimack River in 1936,
13-year-old Ahronian found a time capsule containing a document
written by 13-year-old Fox that was left there 101 years earlier.
Ahronian kept it for over 50 years, until he ran into a local
historian who explained Fox’s historical significance.

Fox is not only credited for his position as assistant secretary of
the Navy but also for coming up with a plan some say could have
prevented the Civil War. When Union troops were under siege at Fort
Sumter, Fox proposed a plan using sea steamers and tugboats to get
reinforcements to the troops. President Lincoln approved the plan,
but a horrible storm at sea delayed the reinforcements, and war
commenced before they could get there.

Ahronian shared his story with a captivated audience of a dozen in
the basement of Pollard Memorial Library on Tuesday, when he gave the
document to the Center for Lowell History.

Ahronian, now 80, described how, as a boy, he spotted a
foreign-looking object that looked like a stick of dynamite on the
banks of the Merrimack River. Upon closer inspection, Ahronian
realized it was actually a scroll of papers, the contents of the time
capsule.

The scroll included a green paper imprint of a woman leaning against
a Grecian column, a copy of the Lowell Gazette from 1835, and a small
yellow document relating an important event from Fox’s childhood.

Ahronian’s mother threw the first two objects away, but he held on to
the last.

The small, yellowed paper Ahronian kept appears to be written by Fox
and his 16-year-old friend from England, William Dalton Dauncy, and
describes how they found a rock on the banks of the Merrimack River
that intrigued them. They named the rock `the Rialto,’ fortified it
with thorns and sticks, and supposedly fended off 20 schoolmates who
were trying to get to the rock.

Soon after, it seems the boys put together the time capsule and left
it in a cleft in the rock.

Ahronian said he can only recall one rock on the southern bank of the
Merrimack River, the one he and many other local children used to
play on as children, and believes that rock is the same one Fox and
his friend left the time capsule in.

Although Ahronian did not find the capsule in a rock, he thinks the
flooding of the Merrimack River in 1936 dislodged the capsule from
the rock. Unfortunately, in more recent years most of the rocks on
the Merrimack have been destroyed and removed for sewage treatment
purposes, Ahronian said, and he thinks the rock in question was
destroyed with the rest.

Ahronian said with time he thinks there will be national interest in
the document, not only because it involves an important historical
figure, but also because it chronicles a unique and distinctive
event.

`I do believe the words `The Rialto’ will become household words far
and wide,’ Ahronian said.

While the document is unique, Ahronian thinks the city needs a new
Rialto to really attract greater tourism to Lowell.

`It’s up to the city to maxmimize the potential this rock carries
with it,’ Ahronian said.

Ahronian is trying to publish a book on the story and would like to
talk to other people who may remember playing on the same rock as
children. Anybody who would like to share such information may
contact Dora St. Martin at the Pollard Memorial Library at (978)
970-4128.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress