USA > Vermont > Caledonia County > St Johnsbury > 150th anniversary of the founding of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, 1937 > Part 5
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pointed by the general committee.
OUR CENTENNIAL YEAR
A typical edition of the present-day Cale- donian, a striking contrast to the Caledonian of 100 years ago.
1837
1937
100 YEARS OF SERVICE TO NORTHEASTERN VERMONT
The St. Johnsbury
CALEDONIAN-RECORD
The Only Daily Newspaper Covering Northeastern Vermont
CELEBRATES ITS 100th BIRTHDAY August 9, 1937
Complete Associated Press Wire Service Associated Press Daily Picture Service Correspondents in 40 towns of Northeastern Vermont Associated Press Page of Daily Comics One of the Best Sports pages in the State Staff of Six Local News Reporters Metro Cut Service free to Advertisers Largest Daily circulation in a town of less than 10,000 inhabitants in New England
Daily Net Paid Circulation Over 5000 Covering Caledonia Essex and Orleans Counties
MAKE RESERVATIONS
At Our Office For Extra Copies Of Our
SOUVENIR CENTENNIAL EDITION
A Complete Historical Record of the Leading Communities, Businesses, etc., of Northeastern Vermont at Our Regular Price of 2c Per Copy.
The Lowest Local Advertising Rate Per 1000 Papers Of Any Daily Newspaper In New England
1837
1937
JOHNSBURY,)
One Hundre Indred Fifty Years of Proq 19375
edit the paper while Editor C. M. Stone enjoyed a trip to Mexico. This was in 1885 and in the years that followed Col. Harvey was connected with the Springfield Republican, the Chicago News and then on the editorial staff of the New York World. He then devoted his talents to the magazines, was editor of Harper's Weekly, owner and editor of the North American Review and founder of Harvey's Weekly.
Two government officials in Washington are former reporters, Con- gressman Ira W. Drew of Philadelphia and Walter W. Husband, former Second Assistant Secretary of Labor and still in this branch of the govern- ment service.
Among those who later became editors of Vermont papers are H. B. Davis who founded the Lyndonville Journal; John B. Chase, editor of the Lyndonville paper; Carl M. Fletcher, editor of the Swanton Courier; Elery J. Lyndes, editor of the Springfield Reporter and J. W. Sault, editor of the Ludlow Tribune.
Two veterans of the Civil war "stuck" type in the Caledonian office before entering the service. William H. Orne after the war was one of the founders of the San Francisco Post. Col. Alexander G. Hawes, a native of Barnet, was the last survivor of the John Brown raid in Kansas and one of San Francisco's leading business men. Casper R. Kent went from the com- posing room of this office to become foreman of the Free Press Printing Company in Burlington, and Jesse Gage, long foreman of the office, in his later years had a responsible position with one of the largest printing estab- lishments in New England, Rand, Avery and Co. of Boston.
The Caledonian always has figured prominently in the romance of journalism in Vermont and is one of the oldest of the ten newspapers now publishing daily editions in the state. While it was founded in the interests of a political party, and has been strongly partisan through most of its career, under its present editorship its policies regarding politics are strictly inde- pendent.
As a daily publication it has advanced in public benefit and interest. With its modern conveniences it competes favorably with the largest nietro- politan dailies. Its independent policies opens its columns to everyone. As an advertising medium and an employer of skilled labor it ranks very high. It has a trained local plant staff of 22 members, has more than 40 town cor- respondents giving regular news coverage in its broad field, and maintains an office staffed by three in Newport.
Its Associated Press printer service gives it instantaneous news cover- age the world over, and by the same means important news from its field is sent to other cities and towns where newspapers subscribe to the service.
Whatever rank other St. Johnsbury papers failed to gain in the world of business and reader interest, the Caledonian-Record has filled to an over- whelming measure.
On August 8, 1937 it begins its second century of service to the com- munity and Northeastern Vermont. The town and the Caledonian mutually will progress in the century to come as they have co-operatively in the cen- tury now closing.
FORTY-FOUR
Education
--
In this little frame building St. Johnsbury Academy had its beginning.
Ninety-five years after its founding, the Academy as it ap- pears today. At the left is old North Hall, built in 1872. In the center is the new Colby Hall and at the right is Fuller Hall. From its portals have gone many men to world fame.
The Summer Street School which has served the community as a graded school for 73 years. For six years it also served as a high school. The high school was absorbed by the Academy.
JOHNSBURY.
S
undred Fifty Years of Pr 1937
E DUCATION has been a prime factor in the life of St. Johnsbury ever since the Fairbanks brothers founded St. Johnsbury Academy in 1842. As an educational center the town is enjoying a degree of fame. Its modern Academy, one of the finest in New England, is attracting students from many distant cities throughout the eastern part of the United States to both its regular classes during the school year and its special classes in Sum- mer School.
One district school and the St. Johnsbury Female Academy preceded the Academy in the town. Today the old district school idea has grown into a magnificent public school system of 13 institutions and nearly 1100 grammnar school pupils. The Academy registrations have increased to over 300 and two parochial schools boast a regular attendance of about 330.
Refining influences in the schools are a safeguard to youth. The con- tinual increase in registrations ever since schools were first founded in the town have forever offered major problems which the town always was ready and willing to meet.
Before the close of this Sesqui-Centennial year, a special school com- mittee is expected to complete plans for a magnificent new structure to re- place the old Union School, more commonly known today as the Summer Street School. Likewise in this memorable year the Academy is giving im- petus to its drive to have completed for its Centennial celebration in 1942 a new structure to replace North Hall which will give way to permit completion of the architectural group of which Fuller and Colby Halls form the southern half.
This project, hoped to be accomplished under its "ten year plan" end- ing in 1942, calls for an extension of Colby Hall and for a new gymnasium as the northern wing to balance the portal of Fuller Hall. The realization of this plan will provide wholly modern equipment adequate for a long way into the future. North Hall, doomed to go in face of this program, has been in continuous service since Thaddeus Fairbanks, inventor of the platform scale, built it with his own personal fortune in 1872 after his family had sustained the institution for thirty years. From 1866 to 1881 Thaddeus Fairbanks per- sonally defrayed all expenses of the Academy.
The first Academy was a small frame dwelling built over for the pur- pose. This structure housed the school only one year and the following fall classes were held in a new building specially made for school purposes. This was the first building to be erected on the present Academy site.
On the Plain when this building was constructed were less than thirty houses. Besides these dwellings were some important institutions of the day, such as a meeting house, a drug shop, a district school, a hotel, a post office which was quartered in a store, and a printing office where Dr. Luther Jewett was publishing the weekly "Farmers Herald," a Whig party journal.
Doubts arose as to patronage of the Academy. When it was first plan- ned only a dozen students could be counted on. Then there was a delay in getting someone to come to this section of the wilderness and take over the principalship and teaching duties. Finally in the late fall of 1842 a farmer's son of Derry, N. H., James K. Colby, was hired at a salary of $700 and the
FORTY-SIX
education which was to continue uninterrupted to the present day was begun. Prof. Colby was retained principal of the school for 23 years until his untimely death at the age of 54 years. He was universally honored and lamented. A tall granite shaft marks his resting place in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery.
The first Academy building served as a school for 25 years or more. Then Academy Hall and South Hall, a $110,000 group, were constructed as a personal gift of the inventor of the platform scale. Academy Hall, com- monly called North Hall, contained an office, a laboratory, class rooms and an assembly room. South Hall housed tenements for the instructors' families and 45 living rooms for students. This building was torn down to make way for the present Colby Hall, named in honor of the school's first teacher and principal.
Following Mr. Colby as master of the school, was Henry C. Ide, one of his own pupils. Mr. Ide later was United States Minister to Spain under President William Howard Taft. Elmer E. Phillips and Charles H. Chandler briefly held the principalship.
Then with the coming of the Rev. Homer T. Fuller in 1871, a new era at the Academy was begun. The confidence which his superior character and accomplishments inspired in the trustees led to the erection of the brick build- ing so generously given to the school by Thaddeus Fairbanks in 1872. It was during the ten years that Mr. Fuller served as principal that out-of-state pupils began to come to St. Johnsbury for higher education.
Mr. Fuller accepted a call to Worcester Polytecnic in 1882 and later became president of Drury College. His position at the Academy was filled by his able assistant, Charles E. Putney who was to shape the course of the school for the next fifteen years. Then David Y. Comstock was master until 1906. He liberalized the school to some extent but not beyond the limits of the Academy's first motto, "Order is Heaven's first law," which has well defined the atmosphere from the time the words were first emblazoned across the original Academy building's east wall when Prof. Colby was master.
At the turn of the century the Academy annexed the old Business College then doing specialized lines of teaching in quarters on Railroad street. This was the beginning of the school's commercial department. The Academy celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in June, 1892, at Music Hall, long since gone but formerly occupying the corner lot at Main and Church streets where the Colonial Apartment building now stands.
The influence and impressions the old school has made on its students is attested to every year in the great number of graduates who return to the scenes of their early school days. Some of these older people have become so attached to the remaining old building that they undoubtedly will mourn its proposed demise within a few years for sentimental reasons. But they may find solace and pride in the fact that the old school principles still live and make the present progress possible; an expansion which will make its con- tinued wholesome influence available to a larger percentage of the new gener- ations.
The Academy has absorbed three other schools in its career, the old St. Johnsbury Female Academy, the public High School started in the present
FORTY-SEVEN
JOHNSBURY.
5
One Hundr
Proq
ndred F 1937 Fifty Years of P
Summer Street School building, and the St. Johnsbury Business College which operated in rooms on Railroad street.
Among its graduates St. Johnsbury Academy has an unusually large percentage of men and women who have distinguished themselves in world affairs. In fear of omission, only one will be mentioned here, Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States from 1923 to 1929. The Class of 1934 secured two young elm trees from the home of Mr. Coolidge in Plymouth and planted them in front of Fuller Hall with a small commemorative tablet near them.
The majority of the school's present day enrollment is made up of local students. Outside communities are responsible for 100 students enrolled. The proportion of nonresident students has crept upward in recent years and this increase will doubtless be approved by many of the elder alumni who themselves had their first experience away from home under the watchful care of the old Academy.
The mingling of local students with those from away has distinct ad- vantages for both groups. It is not a cloistered retreat. It is in touch with the life of a vigorous New England community where its boys and girls can enjoy healthful and stimulating surroundings and good companionships.
The first public school in the town was built sometime just prior to 1800. From available facts it appears that more time was spent in moving the building from lot to lot up and down Main street than in the education of the children. While much was said at the time about finding pupils enough to warrant a school, it so happened that there were ample pupils to fill the building.
Originally it stood on Main street at the corner of Winter. For some unexplained reason it soon was moved southward several lots. Then a north- ward journey carried it way up to the foot of Mt. Pleasant street. Back it came on its next move to the corner of Main and Church streets. Back north- ward again it went, to a spot adjacent to Arnold Park. Then after all this moving about it finally came to rest on almost the spot originally intended for it.
A few years later a small school was erected on the south side of the Moose River, and was known as the Branch Ridge School. In this school a party of wounded soldiers returning from the war of 1812 stopped for the night, using the hemlock logs for pillows and the handkerchief of the school- teacher to bathe their injuries.
Although very few schools were built in the early days of the town, the people started a definite school program in 1795. They voted to make six school districts out of the town. Possibly it was two or three years later that the first school house was built. There seems to be no definite record on its construction. It was a district school in what the townspeople called "the city district," the city referred to evidently being the dozen homes on the Plain.
The border lines of these districts are difficult to define as the town is laid out today, but they went under the names, North West District, Corner District, South West District, City District, Middle District and North District. The North District extended to the Lyndon line. The Middle
FORTY-EIGHT
District evidently referred to St. Johnsbury Center. The City District includ- ed the Plain but beyond that its boundaries are not known today.
By 1884 the town had grown to such proportions and its population so substantially increased that there were 16 districts and 30 very small district schools. This system became so complicated that the Legislature did away with it in 1892 and committed the management of schools to the several towns and authorized School Boards organized to operate the system. This very satisfactory method is still in force today.
The present Union School on Summer street was completed and dedi- cated on August 31, 1864. It was to serve as a primary school, an intermediate school and a high school. The high school idea lived only six years and the 27 students attending the classes were transferred to the Academy.
The school was built on land donated by the Fairbanks Company and was one of the finest in its day, boasting at the time "improved methods of heating by furnace, ventilation, and ample room for 400 pupils."
Preceding the present brick structures was one of wood constructed in 1856 but altogether too small for the needs. It was situated across the street from the school of today, on the west end of the present Summer Street Com- mon. This structure, like the original school, went for a tour and came to its final resting place up Summer street where it was converted into an armory and later a dwelling house.
The Maple Street School was completed the same year as the brick Union School. The brick Portland Street School in Summerville was opened in April, 1900, to replace a smaller wooden two-story structure wholly in- adequate for the increasing school needs.
Prior to 1870 the school age was from four to eighteen years. Since then it has been from five to twenty years. Up until 1895 there were ten grades ; since that time pupils who have completed the required intermediate school work in good standing are given four years at the Academy. Since the beginning of the twentieth century Caledonia County has held priority over other counties in the state for literacy. This is explained to a great ex- tent by the practice of continuous adoption of improved new methods of teach- ing in the schools of St. Johnsbury.
The present school authorities and teachers feel that the salvation of the future welfare of growing young men and women rests with the teachers more today than ever before. The teachers are finding themselves in a rapid- ly changing world. They are asked and required to change their methods and to adjust and prepare their work in a way considered impossible in even so short a time as five years ago. They are asked to study the individual child, rather than take the class as a unit.
The community is cognizant of the great changes being made in the educational field and is leading the competition for the best available teachers.
St. Johnsbury boasts two parochial schools, St. Gabriel school for boys, and Mount St. Joseph for girls. Both are in Notre Dame parish. They are old, well-founded institutions of high rating. This year 326 pupils are regis- tered in the two schools.
St. Gabriel school has an interesting history. It was started by the
FORTY-NINE
Rev. S. Danielou, the first resident Catholic clergyman in town. Fr. Danielou came here in 1858 and near the close of his 16-year pastorate he started the school.
In 1874, the Rev. J. A. Boissonnault began his long and efficient minis- try. One of his early accomplishments was the completion of the school start- ed by Fr. Danielou, and it was given into the charge of the Brothers of St. Gabriel. Fr. Boissonnault went ahead with plans for a girls' school and by 1882 had added the convent Mount St. Joseph to the parish. The convent was placed in charge of the Sisters of Notre Dame. Registrations at the parochial schools this year show : Boys, 157; girls, 169.
The town takes a deep pride in its only trade school, the Fairbanks Vocational School, which has rendered a long and envious service to the in- dustrially inclined young men of the town. A great many of its graduates find work along specialized lines in the Fairbanks scale factory.
Although not a large school, its benefit to the community and to the young men of the community is inestimable. It is a part time trade school and depends upon co-operation with industry in order to be a useful educa- tional factor. Thirty boys are apprenticed in industry this year. The total school enrollment is 46; 13 freshmen, 10 sophomores, 14 juniors, 8 seniors, and one enrolled for special work. One-third of the school's graduates over a period covering the past 15 years have regular employment at the Fairbanks factory. Fifteen per cent have left town but are working at trades for which they were especially trained.
Saint Johnsbury Academy
Established in 1842 AN OLD NEW ENGLAND ACADEMY IN AN OLD NEW ENGLAND TOWN
Thorough preparation for college. Classical, scien- tific, general, home economics, agriculture and secre- tarial courses. Marked success in preparing students for college. On approved list of New England College Entrance Board. Well equipped to take care of a boy or girl who desires an extra year of preparation before entering college.
Football, basketball, track, baseball, soccer, ten- nis. Winter sports featured. Experienced coaches. Boys and girls glee club, orchestras, dramatic and de- bate clubs, and school paper. Vocational guidance. Student Government Association helps to maintain standards and traditions. Freedom with responsibility the watchwords.
Modern class rooms, good gymnasium, splendid new auditorium. Brantview, one of the finest girls' dormitories in New England, in an estate of twenty- five acres. Charlotte Fairbanks Cottage for boys. Athletic field, with football gridiron, field house and track.
Tuition of $550 covers all expenses. Aid for worthy boys and girls provided by a scholarship fund. For catalogue, terms and other information, address
STANLEY R. OLDHAM, Principal Saint Johnsbury, Vermont
Irving H. Ward
73 Railroad Street
Ward's CLOTHING
Clothing
Furnishings St. Johnsbury, Vermont
DR. DALE S. ATWOOD OSTEOPATHIC PHYSICIAN
Citizens Bank Bldg. St. Johnsbury, Vt.
"Compliments of a Friend"
Compliments of The St. Johnsbury Grain Store
Dealers in WIRTHMORE FEEDS FLOUR - FEED - GRAIN - GROCERIES
179-181 Railroad Street
St. Johnsbury, Vt.
Public Buildings
MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE
The Museum is one of the Fair- banks benevolences. Its 10,000 square feet of floor space is fill- ed with natural habitat group- ings almost entirely under glass. Its priceless collections came from all parts of the world. The Museum has been placed at the head of all museums of its class in the country.
T HE many public buildings which lend dignity and metropolitan atmos- phere to the town, are dominated, perhaps, by the Museum of Natural Science and the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, Fairbanks benevolences.
In recent years the Fairbanks Museum was placed, together with the Field Museum of Chicago, at the head of museums in the United States in their respective classes.
Dedicated on December 15, 1891, the redstone structure houses an herbarium, coin and stamp collections of great interest and value, a complete collection of bird life including the "birds of paradise," botanical specimens and a class room for visual study.
Henry C. Ide, who was governor general of the Philippines, brought home with him a priceless collection of things from those islands, which are housed on the upper floor ; and here, too, are other exhibits of special interest, miniature Japanese villages, and other exhibits of foreign climes.
Seeing things to advantage in natural habitat groupings under glass has made for national recognition of the Museum. These beautiful exhibits attracted 32,865 visitors the past year.
In building the Museum, the main thought of its founder, Col. Franklin Fairbanks, was to give to the town that which would be of practical use in
Out of a wilderness grew St. Johnsbury's business district within the last ninety years. Here at the hub of things was only a trail to the Passumpsic River down what is now Eastern Avenue, prior to 1850. Railroad Street at that time was still unmarked forest. The center of things was the village on the "Plain." The coming of the railroad in 1850 followed closely by industrial development along the river led to rapid development of the present-day business district. Today it is one of the largest and most important mercantile centers in Vermont.
A hotel blazed the way for downtown development -
the Passumpsic House in 1850.
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East St. Johnsbury on the Moose River is a typical little New England village.
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connection with the schools, as well as to increase the knowledge of nature. Hence we find the largest and most complete collections of those objects near at hand, as for example, all of the New England flora, New England birds, butterflies and beetles. The Museum is but the door through which we can enter the wide field of science and beauty about us.
When its cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1890, Col. Fairbanks said in giving the Museum to the town: "I shall feel amply repaid for all I am doing if it will create in you an interest for these things and a desire to know more regarding the natural sciences."
He then filled the cornerstone with articles of his choosing. They in- cluded a copy of the Holy Bible, a program of the day's proceedings, signed photographs of the trustees, an Academy catalog of 1890, copies of the North and South Church year books, silver and copper coins of 1890 date and copies of each of the village newspapers.
The building is of Longmeadow red sandstone, along the lines of the Romanesque style of architecture. Its loggia forms a most unusual and beautiful entrance. The main hall, wherein are displayed most of the exhibits, has a unique barrel type ceiling of highly polished oak. The room is 30 feet in height. The woodwork throughout the building is of quartered oak.
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