Background on Mira A. Gallond
Born in Petersham, Mass., on Oct. 27, 1849, Almira Adaline Gallond was the eldest of five children born to George Babbitt Gallond (1824-1888) and Adeline. Although originally from Petersham, Myra's father had settled in Amherst prior to 1860 and found great success as a butcher, becoming proprietor of a successful boarding house and livery stable on South Prospect Street in the center of town by the end of the decade, earning appointment as Deputy Sheriff.
In August 1874, Myra married Henry Elisha Paige (1853-1923), originally of Prescott, but then employed at the Paige Brothers Livery stable and feed store on South Prospect Street. Although listed as a "keeper" at the Agricultural College in 1880, Myra and Henry followed her father in running a boarding house, as Henry's career as a veterinary surgeon took off. Henry's younger brother James B. Paige (1861-1922) was a professor of veterinary science at Massachusetts Agricultural College and is the man after whom two buildings on campus are named: Paige Laboratory and the building now known as Munson Hall. Myra and Henry lived for many years at 17 South Prospect and continued to take boarders until after the turn of the century. Henry died in 1923 with Myra following on July 4, 1924. Both are buried in Wildwood Cemetery.
