AMHERST — Now that the town has held its last annual Town Meeting, what will happen to the historic gavel that town moderators have used to signal the opening and closing of these government sessions for more than 250 years?
Jim Pistrang, who has been moderator since 2013, has a simple idea: “My plan is to hand it over to the Amherst Historical Society in December.” He has kept the little mallet in his possession since succeeding Harrison Gregg, who retired in fall 2012.
Pistrang used it to signal the close of the annual Town Meeting for the final time Monday as the representative body is being replaced by a town council form of government in December. The gavel may be needed again before the change occurs if the Select Board requires a special Town Meeting session to take care of some last-minute business. But after that, it will be retired.
Pistrang says that some mystery surrounds the gavel’s origins. He suspects, but doesn’t know for sure, that the gavel dates to at least the mid-20th century, as it carries an inscription to a longtime moderator on a silver band that wraps around the middle part of its head. It reads: “Clarence W. Eastman, moderator, town of Amherst, 1926-1949.”
Eastman was a professor of German language and literature at Amherst College beginning in 1907. The 1948 annual town report, printed around election time the following year, paid tribute to Eastman as he left the moderator post. Eastman is credited with drafting the language for the Town Charter that created the representative form of Town Meeting adopted in 1938 to replace a conventional open Town Meeting where all residents could participate.
A March 6, 1949, newspaper clipping held in special collections at the Jones Library notes that then Select Board Chairman F. Civille Pray presented Eastman with the inscripted gavel.
Gregg then received it in 1994 from his immediate predecessor, Francesca Maltese, who succeeded William Field, moderator from 1971 to 1991.
Only three other residents have held the gavel after Eastman: Winthrop Dakin, who was elected to the position after Eastman and served until 1967; Paul Ford, who was moderator for three years in the late 1960s; and Harry Allan, who was moderator from 1970 to 1971.
During his tenure, Pistrang said he has banged the gavel on the wooden lectern at the beginning of each session when the constable informs him a quorum has been reached, and at the end of the evening when sessions are adjourned.
In between, the sound of the gavel striking the lectern can be heard often.
“I gentle gavel whenever I declare a vote. I always felt that indicates we’re done with this,” Pistrang said.
He also has used the gavel to get attention, rapping it several times in succession if trying to keep order in the auditorium.
Pistrang said use of the gavel had become second nature to him.
“It comes from practice and observing Harrison over the years,” he said.
There are instructions for its use in Town Meeting Time, which is similar to the parliamentary procedure outlined in Robert’s Rules of Order.
Though that handbook suggests that the town clerk keep the gavel, Pistrang said he has always held onto it, bringing it with him to each session in a large briefcase, which was more convenient given the number of sessions held each year. The Town Meeting that concluded Monday met for seven evenings.
Town Manager Paul Bockelman said he suggested Pistrang could hand the gavel to the Town Council at its first meeting as a symbolic gesture of continuity between the two forms of government.
If Pistrang goes ahead and donates the gavel to the Amherst History Museum, it would reside alongside other artifacts from the town’s past, including the famed white dress Emily Dickinson wore.
Bonnie Isman, clerk for the trustees who oversee the museum, said in an email that the historic gavel would be a generous gift, if Pistrang decides to bequeath it.
“The museum is interested in expanding collections into current events and the charter vote, for example,” Isman said.
Even though the gavel seems to be the moderator’s most vital tool, Pistrang observes that when Gregg stepped down and chose not to run for re-election, he joked that he was ready to turn in the most valuable asset the town had provided him: a municipal parking pass.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
