Hello Province Lake Community,
Paul Everberg has graciously shared this sad story about the loss of his father with the PLA and has agreed that it should be shared with our distribution. While it tells the story of tragic loss, it is also a rich historical story of something that happened on Province Lake.
Thanks so much for sharing this with us Paul,
Jim Aiken
Province Lake Association
Dear Association Chairman,
My name is Paul David Everberg – I believe I’m still a member in good standing – I appreciate your newsy & informative emails – most everything I receive from you is pleasant reading – unfortunately the lake has experienced some tragedy in the past – my family is one that experienced some of that.
My family has owned property on Pocket Mountain – Effingham, overlooking Province Lake since the late 1920’s – on property settled by Timothy Young back in 1797.My Dad, Paul Gustave Everberg and my Mother’s Dad, Carl Alfred Hakanson, were best fishing buddies and Province Lake was their favorite place to fish – they also liked trout fishing in the many area streams. The unfortunate part of my story is that my Dad drowned in Province Lake on Nov. 5th, 1939 while fishing with my Grandfather. I will attach a 3 part Newsclip from the Boston Globe Newspaper reporting on the drowning.
I was only 19 months old at the time and my Mother was pregnant with my brother Carl. After this tragedy, my family stayed away from Province Lake for a few years, but eventually the Family came back to enjoy the Lake. My brother and I became my Grandfather’s fishing buddies and we spent many early morning excursions trying to catch Pickerel and Bass – usually with great success.
When I was fifteen years old, I developed an interest in building a Racing Boat during the summer while working in my Grandfather’s Greenhouses. By mid August I had finished building the boat and needed a Motor – a 10 HP Mercury with Quicksilver Lower Unit was the Motor of choice – but I had not earned enough money to afford one. So – I settled for an affordable 7.5 HP Scott Atwater. The Home Built Boat and the Scott Atwater Motor provided plenty of pleasure cruising around the Lake.
I’ve attached a few photos taken at Province Lake – one circa 1945 showing my brother and me in an old row boat and another few showing my home built boat. Also a photo up on Pocket Mountain showing some proud fishermen and their “Catch of the Day”
I hope that my email is not totally out of place – I just thought that you might find my story just a little bit interesting – thanks for reading – Paul Everberg
![](https://provincelake.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Woburn-Florist-Drowns-1.jpg)
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![](https://provincelake.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Province-Lake-circa-1945.jpg)