Hometown History #75: Brothers of the Brush Provided Hijinks and Color for Town’s 200th

The Brother’s of the Brush – loosely associated ‘clubs’ that date back at least to the mid-20th century – seem to regularly revive across the United States whenever and wherever an important civic milestone was being celebrated.

For instance, in Cumberland Maryland, The Brothers of the Brush began in May 1955 when about 1,800 men scorned their razors and banded together into chapters with names like Kasey Clippers or Down in the Valley – though they reportedly drew inspiration from a “Brothers” movement in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1953.
Franklin got the fever around 1977 (with the 1978 town bicentennial on the horizon) and had two chapters of bearded males and an associated collection of Bicentennial Belles, women reportedly fond of wearing colonial garb – bonnets in particular – as they went about their daily business.

And the mock seriousness could get quite elaborate. In addition to prepping parade floats for their hirsute members, in December of 1977, the group (actually two separate town chapters) staged a parade down Route 140, ending at the Town Hall (now the Town Historical Museum), joined by the Belles, where (with permission) they solemnly buried their razors in a coffin, never to emerge until the town celebration was over.

An even crazier stunt was the Brother’s “Stove Roll,” which involved a multi-day trek, with a hand-drawn wagon topped by a lighted wood stove. The stove provided heat to produce “freedom juice” – a toddy likely containing alcohol – which fortified the intrepid locals as they dragged the assemblage from Franklin to the State House!

And despite broad camaraderie between Brush groups from other towns, the Brothers of Foxboro, also prepping for a 1978 town bicentennial, felt compelled to post a guard at the town cemetery where they had interred their razors, lest the rambunctious (and more numerous) men of Franklin attempt to steal the sacred collection. And were the Foxboro boys to launch a preemptive strike on Franklin, they might have come to regret it. The Patriot Ledger article about Foxboro’s concerns noted that the Franklin men were often members of the police department and had been known to `arrest’ and hold their victims for days or longer in cells reserved for the purpose at the police station.

Of course, in each instance, the silliness was intended to raise awareness about town history and usually raised funds or accomplished other civic purposes. But sometimes it could be hard to discern the purposefulness midst the pranks.

And, while seemingly less prone to such colorful antics in the 21st century, the Brothers movement lives on. Nearby Mendon’s 350th anniversary in 2017 was aided and abetted by a “Mendham” Brothers of the Brush and Daughters of the Pioneers group originally launched in 1967 for the town’s 300th birthday and revived half a century later.