Family Matters Part 4

 Letters from my grandmother describe a family farm in Oak Bluffs not far from Fall River where Charles and Isabel McCreery resided.  It was not until I searched for Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts that I realized it was on Martha’s Vineyard.  The family owned farm was the summer vacation home for the brothers and their families.  In old letters my grandmother describes the property as a large orchard located on the northern part of the island.  My grandmother, Isabel Long describes the orchard with over two hundred and fifty trees.  The apple orchard was the largest; the small pear orchard was to the rear of the big house and in the front about a dozen dark cherry trees.  Behind the outhouse was a small peach orchard and beyond that is what she describes as a farm with chickens, cows, and even a large garden.  Isabel Long’s grandfather, Joseph McCreery collected the trees and shrubs on his travels and planted them in his gardens.  The barn and shed were covered in grapevines.  Many people would come and visit the vineyard and leave with sacks of fresh fruit.  The summers must have been heavenly as a child playing among the trees in the orchard until the sun went down.  Grandpa Joseph McCreery was very protective of his gardens and did not want the children to climb the trees but my grandmother confesses that they did.  On occasion the adults must have taken the children to the Flying Horses Carousel located on Circuit Avenue.  The Carousel was brought to Martha’s Vineyard in 1884 and still is in operation today.  My grandmother’s father, Charles John McCreery died as a result of injuries sustained from an automobile accident while vacationing in Oak Bluffs in July 1933.  His wife Isabel died two years later on her sixty-seventh birthday after an appendectomy.  The notes said she was so sad after Charles death that she had no desire to get well.  They are buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Fall River, Massachusetts.