In 1716, Harvard-educated minister John Read purchased the larger part of what was to become the town of Ware, Massachusetts, and named it "The Manour of Peace." The manour's greatest asset was its river, which first provided fish for Indians and other early settlers and later fueled the town's great nineteenthcentury mills. Ware, compiled by Warren Bacon and Claudia Chicklas, chronicles the history of the town from the latter half of the nineteenth century to the 1970s, focusing on the people of the community and the contributions they made to its development. From leaders of industry and society to barefoot children in a rural school; from clergymen to high school athletes and the major-league Ware native who invented the curve ball, Ware offers vintage images and important historical information about the town's past.