USA > Vermont > Addison County > Bristol > History of Bristol, Vermont (1762-1940) > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
This building was the basis of the present High and Graded School building. The first change to take place in the building was sometime prior to 1871 when the building was moved from the corner of Maple and Pleasant Strects where the E. N. Dike house is now located to its present site, between the Baptist and Catholic Churches, facing the common. It was sometime after this that the District Number Four school building was moved from
[23]
24
HISTORY OF BRISTOL, VERMONT
its location which is now the site of the Catholie Reetory to Garfield Street where it has since been used for a private residenee.
We are indebted to Mrs. John Selden for the following account of the sehools from 1900 to 1939.
BRISTOL SCHOOLS 1900-1939
In the school catalog for 1907-08 the following interesting statements are found: "The first seven years of work is now accomplished in the main building. It was enlarged in 1898 by an addition which serves as the home of the Grammar School and the High School departments. The entire build- ing is well lighted, heated and ventilated. Every effort is made to secure the sanitary and hygienic conditions so essential to the proper working of a sehool." This same catalog states that "tuition is free to all pupils whose parents or guardians reside in the town of Bristol."
The town report for this year shows that extensive repairs had been made, for $939.74 was spent on the graded sehool building. The largest single item was for the furnace. Running water was also installed in this year.
April 2, 1907, the sehool directors of Bristol, Lineoln, Starksboro, Monkton and New Haven met and formed a union distriet for the purpose of employing a superintendent of sehools. Mr. A. W. Eddy of New Haven was ehosen for this position.
The eatalog already mentioned furnished quite a complete pieture of the schools at this time. Sup't. Eddy states that there were thirty-six pupils in the high school, with a total of two hundred sixty-two in the whole sehool. There were about one hundred twenty-five in the six rural sehools in Bristol this year. It is noteworthy that under the direction of the State Board of Health there was an examination of eyes, ears, nose and throat of all pupils. Among the rules for the pupils is this: "Students are to deport themselves as ladies and gentlemen, and cheerfully comply with necessary regulations."
In his report in the town report for 1907-08, Mr. Eddy writes: "There is now a definite line of division between elementary and high school, so no town ean evade the necessity of providing high school education in its true sense. The Bristol High School has received official approval as a high school of the first elass and is on the printed list of such sehools. To render the instruction in seienee effective, considerable addition has been made to the apparatus and facilities, so that elass demonstration is now made in physies, with opportunity for a limited amount of individual work."
The following eourses were offered: Latin, Seientifie to prepare for eollege ; English, to prepare for normal sehools, and to "meet the needs of those who desire solid English education"; Commereial, consisted of eom- mereial subjeets in the fourth year.
HISTORY OF BRISTOL, VERMONT
25
أكوب ٣ -
+ أحبها .
ى . .انظر
----
سعيد
جع : :شا: فيبالبصروف بمعية طبيب
بو مديكونع وجر.
-٠٠ :٥=+ + حيورز
---------
-----------
. بصيا we
٨٦٠٣٥
Advent Christian Church
ا+جيد سيـ
27
HISTORY OF BRISTOL, VERMONT
Latin, Freneh and German were the languages one might study. History was given in all four years.
The seicnee department offered courses in physiology, botany, zo- ology, physical geography, astronomy, physies and chemistry.
In all the grades, systematic instruetion in music and drawing was given. In a previous town report (1905) Sup't. E. A. Hasseltine mentions the music, saying that "the interest ereated in our eentral sehool by the intro- duction of music continues to grow and its effects are apparent."
Teachers moved frequently from one school to another, often after only one term in a sehool. In 1906 Mr. Hasseltine suggests that "the con- tracts with the teachers be all made for the entire sehool year. This might obviate somewhat the frequent ehange of teachers.
In 1906-07 there were three full time teachers in the high school, the prineipal, the preeeptress, and an instructor in science and pedagogy. There was also an instructor in stenography and typewriting and an instructor in drawing. In the ninc grades, divided into primary, intermediate, and gram- mar departments, there were six teachers. Of the teachers listed in the 1903 town report, Miss Amy Sumner is the only one teaching in 1939. Miss Sum- ner retired in June, 1939, after having given forty-three years of faithful service to the children of Bristol.
The items which follow were taken from town reports. In 1908 a steel fire escape was added and frequent fire drills were held. The building was also wired this year.
In 1910-11, "the horse sheds that until lately stood at the rear of the building have been torn down and the boundary line established between the grounds of the sehool and those of the Baptist Church. The ninth grade has been eliminated this year which results in the high school now having eighty-one pupils."
In 1910 Mr. Eddy reports that "each school not previously provided with a flag and pole has been so provided. About seven hundred square fect of slate blackboard was put into the village school. Some provisions need to be made for more room as the capacity of the present high school quarters is now taxed beyond what it should be. A course in agriculture is offered as an eleetive and is being pursued by a class giving one period a day to the work through the year."
The next year, "the bubbling fountain in the entrance supplies a sanitary drinking plaec. More slate blackboard was added this year, and more comfortable scats."
1912 was an important year in the sehool's expansion. The Bristol Herald for September 19, 1912, has the following article about the addition to the building.
"A new heating system has been put in, and hereafter steam will be used. A large addition, 33×54 ft., has been built on the north side of the building. The addition is two stories high, the lower floor being divided
28
HISTORY OF BRISTOL, VERMONT
into two rooms, each 26x27 ft. The upper floor is one room. In this room there are fourteen large windows making it especially light. There are also fifteen eleetrie lamps in this room. Hardwood floors, ceiled overhead and wainscoted is the way cach room is finished. Two stairways four feet wide, with doors swinging outward at the bottom, lead to the upper room. This addition will supply all the room needed for some years, and pupils are to be congratulated on having sueh fine quarters in which to study and reeite."
This addition, and the repairs in the lieating, ventilating, and lighting systems cost $8,879.41.
The superintendent reports also that "several changes have been made in the high school rooms and equipment. By taking out a partition, the old high school room has been restored to its original form and use. There are now two chemieal tables, two physical tables, a table for biology with convenient cabinets. For work in physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, and general science, the Bristol High School is as well supplied with prop- er and modern apparatus as any school of its size in Vermont and this has been done very economieally. (The financial statements show $100.12 spent for laboratory equipment.) A typewriter has been purchased and a small elass formed in business praetiee. A mimeograph ($28) has also been pur- chased. This has been very useful both in high school and in the grades."
This machine is still in use in 1939, although a new liquid process duplicator has been added.
There were now twenty students in the high school from outside Bristol. It was shortly after this that the high school expanded quite rapidly, both in the courses that were offered and in the number of pupils.
In the fall of 1913 courses in agriculture and domestic seienee were added to the eurrieulum. Miss Ruby Vosburgh was the first teacher in domestic seience, and Mr. John L. Selden eame from Northhampton, Mass. to teach the agricultural classes. He has since served as principal and supervising principal, and is now (1939) superintendent of the five towns forming this district. The towns are New Haven, Lincoln, Starksboro, Hinesburg and Bristol.
The catalog of 1914-15 states that "complete apparatus has been pur- chased for the domestic science and agricultural courses. The rooms devoted to these courses are newly equipped and are well adapted to the needs of the courses. A great improvement this year (1914) is the installation of a gas plant. We now manufacture our own gas for the three laboratories. The students in physics, chemistry, domestie seience and agriculture are now enabled to perform all experiments with greater facility than formerly."
The Teacher Training Course was added about this time, as Miss Jessie Ross is listed as teacher in this course in the 1914-15 catalog. This course was especially planned for those who expected to teach in rural schools and were unable to secure a longer and more thorough training. The students did practice teaching in the grades.
29
HISTORY OF BRISTOL, VERMONT
Catholic Church and Rectory
31
HISTORY OF BRISTOL, VERMONT
Athletics and musie were beginning to play an important part in the life of the school. The eatalog has pietures of a baseball and a football team coached by Mr. John O. Baxendale. There is also a pieture of the high school orehestra which was formed in 1913 under the leadership of Mr. Selden, who has continued to direet this activity until the present time. (1939)
The aeademie standing of the school may be judged by the fact that Bristol High School was listed as one of the schools approved by the New England College Entrance Board. This meant that "graduates from the academic eourses were admitted on eertificate without examination to the colleges which are members of the board." To be certified a student must maintain a grade of at least eighty.
The high school, especially, continued to grow as more and more pupils came from the surrounding towns to continue their education. In 1929, for instance, tuitions from other towns amounted to $3,520.57. At this time only four rural schools remained open, as pupils from the other sections of town eame to the graded school in the village. Transportation was beginning to be an important item in the eost of the schools.
About 1919 Bristol followed the example of many other high sehools, changing to a Junior-Senior High School. This meant that in place of eight grades and a four year high school, there would be now only six grades making up the graded sehool. In addition to this the seventh and eighth grades would form a Junior High School and would be taught in part by the regular high school teachers, some of whose subjeets would be introduced into these grades. This plan was adopted in order to make easier for the pupils the transition from the grades to the high school.
As the number of pupils increased, more class rooms were needed, making the building greatly overcrowded. An auditorium and gymnasium were also necessary for many of the school activities. June 2, 1930, a special town meeting was ealled to consider plans for a new building. The Bristol Herald of that week reports as follows: "Without a dissenting vote, the people of Bristol, assembled in Special Town Meeting at Holley Hall Mon- day evening, authorized the expenditure of $30,000 for the erection of a sup- plementary school building, to provide additional classrooms for the relief of the congested condition which prevails in the present building, and to in- elude a suitable hall for basketball and other athletic activities. The new building which will be of modern fireproof construction, will be located just north of the present structure, and connected with it by means of a passageway."
The school board at this time consisted of Mrs. B. E. Varney, A. E. Farr, and R. W. Shadriek.
The first basketball game was held in the new building February 27, 1931, before the last of the work was quite finished. This writer cannot resist including the following very enthusiastic report in the Bristol Herald of the same date: "With the finishing touches rapidly being complete, Bristol people may well gaze with pride and admiration at the new high
LI
32
HISTORY OF BRISTOL, VERMONT
sehool gymnasium and auditorium. Of modern, fire proof eonstruetion throughout, the building embodies nearly every imaginable convenienee and facility for the development of sehool activities of a varied nature. The gymnasium, which oceupies the first floor, is of regulation size for basketball, being forty feet wide and sixty-four feet long. Two rows of bleachers extending along each side and a baleony containing two rows of seats provide ample room for speetators."
The second floor is used as an auditorium and is equipped with a stage adequate for dramaties and other school purposes. This floor is also used as a elassroom and has a row of blackboards on the south wall.
The approximate eost of the new building and equipment was $34,000.
This addition has proved very valuable in the work of the sehool. It has also been used every summer since 1931 by the German Summer School of Middlebury College, which has become an important feature of our village life. Students in the high school have the privilege of attending demonstration elasses in the summer sehool and are given eredits for this work.
In preparing this sketeh of Bristol sehools, one is impressed by the many changes that have taken place in the last forty years. The grades and the high school are so much larger and the curriculum has been greatly changed and enlarged. At the opening of the school year in 1939, there are two hundred fifteen pupils in the Junior-Senior High School, with seven teachers besides the principal. This means that the cost of the sehools to the town is much greater. But it also means that the students are receiving many advantages that were not theirs in the earlier period, and that the schools are influeneing the lives of many more people.
In order to make the record more complete, it seems advisable to inelude this list of the men who have served the sehool as principal.
Charles S. Paige 1892-1902. Mr. Paige is considered by many to be the one who put the school on a firm foundation during this period. He also encouraged more of the students to complete their courses and to go to college.
W. H. Botsford-1902-1906
C. M. Hazen-1906-1907
F. H. Wallaee-1907-1909
B. E. Hieks-1909-1910
G. G. Newell-1910-1913
J. O. Baxendale-1913-1915
R. W. Hedges-1915-1917
J. L. Selden-1917-1935-From 1928-1935 Mr. Selden was super- vising principal of the town of Bristol.
L. R. Rowe-1935-1939 J. L. Gunn-1939-
Note: The first class graduated from the high school in 1888, and the first graduation exereises were held in 1889.
HISTORY OF BRISTOL, VERMONT
33
Hight Graded School
Bristol High and Graded School
"Gaige-Moore" Community House
-
35
HISTORY OF BRISTOL, VERMONT
The compilers of this book feel that the present high standing of the schools in Bristol is due to the efficient work of John Selden, who for twenty-seven years as teacher, principal and superintendent has given his best efforts to the school.
We wish also to pay tribute to Miss Amy Sumner, who taught in the first or second grade in the village school forty-three years. When Miss Sumner retired from teaching a year ago, her former pupils numbered about two thousand. She had taught the second, and in some cases the third generation in a family.
GERMAN SCHOOL
171814
The Middlebury College School of German is conducted in Bristol for six weeks during July and August, the classes being held in the Bristol High School building and out-of-doors on the common and the grounds of the Bristol Inn. The German School was established in Middlebury in 1915, the first of the Middlebury College language schools, but was discon- tinued in 1918 due to the World War. When it was reopened in 1931 it was removed to Bristol in accordance with the two leading principles of the Middlebury Idea-isolation from other educational projects and concen- tration on one subject. The students who are pledged to speak no language other than German throughout their six weeks coursc, arc housed in private homes and board at the Bristol Inn where all their social activities are held. Dr. Ernst Feiser, professor of German at Johns Hopkins Univer- sity, has been head of the school since its reorganization in 1931. A class for beginners, being a practical demonstration in teaching high school German, is available to high school students in Bristol.
BRISTOL POSTOFFICE
Wc are indebted to Munsill's "Early History of Bristol" for the account of the early postoffices in town. Mr. Munsill obtained his statistics from the Postoffice Department in Washington, but their first three books were burned in 1836 so that the first postmaster listed by them is Jacob Caldwell, 1804. Mr. Munsill states that he remembers that Thaddeus McLaughlin was postmaster previous to this time and that he kept the office in the house built by his father in 1800 at the four corners a mile and a quarter west of the village, the place now known as Daniels' Corner. This is evidence that the first postoffice was established in Bristol some- time between 1801 and 1803. Jacob Caldwell was succeeded in 1805 by his brother Isaac, but the office remained in the same place, in a log cabin kept as a public house by the two brothers, four miles northeast of Bristol village on the road to Starksboro. The postoffice was kept here for ten years, until 1815 when Joseph Otis was appointed postmaster and moved the office to his home in Bristol village. Since that time the office has never been outside of the village, although for many years it was kept in
36
HISTORY OF BRISTOL, VERMONT
the home or place of business of the current postmaster. In 1861 Winter Holley was postmaster and the office was kept in his store. The first sep- arate residence of the postoffice of which we have a record was on the north side of Main Street where the First National Store is now located. After the fire of 1898 the office was removed to the Drake-Farr block where it remained until fire destroyed the block in 1914. After being located for a short time in the Grange Hall on Garfield Strect it was moved to the Lathrop block which was built on the site which the Drake-Farr block had occupied. This is its present location.
In 1810 the mail was brought on horseback once a week from the Middlebury postoffice. Sometime between 1810 and 1849 the service was changed to a semi-weekly mail. The Burlington-Rutland Railroad was opened its entire distance in 1849, after which the delivery of mail to Bristol was daily. The date of change of delivery for the Bristol mail from Middlebury to New Haven depot is not definitely known, although it must have occurred sometime in the 1860's. After this the mail was brought by stage from the New Haven depot twice a day. The stage con- tinued to carry the mail for a few months after the Bristol Railroad was established in 1892, but it was soon brought by train. Since the Bristol Railroad stopped running in 1930 the mail is again brought by private carrier from New Haven depot but there arc now four daily deliveries to the Bristol postoffice instead of two.
After 1900 there was a marked progress in postal service in the town. In 1901 the first R. F. D. route was charted from the Bristol post- office through Bristol Flats, South Bristol and parts of New Haven and Middlebury. Loren Jacobs was the first carrier. Within a year two other routes were started, Number 2 with George Dike as carrier went north and covered part of Monkton while Route 3 covered parts of Lincoln and Starksboro and had Fred Manum for its first carrier. About 1905 a fourth route was established through Bristol Notch and into Lincoln. M. U. Ross was carrier for this route. In 1923 Bristol became a second class post- office. In 1939 Routes 2 and 4 were consolidated. Russell Lowell now covers both routes, Walter Sheldon is carrier for Route 1 and Roy Bick- nell for Number 3.
HOSTELRIES OF BRISTOL
One of the first public houses in Bristol was a log house built by . Henry Mclaughlin in 1788 at what is now known as Daniels' Corner. In 1800 he built a brick house near the log cabin and continued his work as host to the public. This was the house where the first postoffice was located. The log house of the Caldwell Brothers, four miles northeast of Bristol village, on the Starksboro road was also a public house and it was herc
37
HISTORY OF BRISTOL, VERMONT
BRISTOL HOUSE
Bristol House 1887
Church Street Looking West Methodist Church (Before Remodeling) At Right .
39
HISTORY OF BRISTOL, VERMONT
that the postoffice was located from 1804-15. Robert Holley opened a house in Bristol village in 1808 and, at a later date, a house on Bristol Flats built by Robert Dunshee and sold to V. Miller was kept as a tavern by Mr. Miller. It was the house north of the Welden Prime house which was torn down in the early 1900's. A cellar hole remains to mark the site of the tavern.
The public house of early times which is of most interest to us today was that of Abram Gaige which was burned in 1817 and rebuilt by Mr. Gaige in 1820. This was the beginning of the Bristol House or Bristol Inn as it is now known. Mr. Gaigc was landlord until 1835 and from that time until 1871 the place changed hands several times. In 1871 the hotel was bought by Mr. J. J. Ridley who continued as landlord until about 1896 except for a few months in 1893 between his sale of the house to Q. E. Grover and W. E. Frank and his repurchase of it. A rival hotel, the Com- mercial House, owned by Ryland Hatch made its appearance in the 80's. Each hotel had its coach and two (not four) to convey passengers to and from New Haven Depot. Mr. Ridley advertised his house in the Bristol Herald in this way (taken from an issue in 1888): "It is 51/2 miles from New Haven Depot. Stage connects with trains twice daily. Telegraph and livery connected with the house." Mr. Ridley was succeeded by Thomas Leonard, who in turn, was succeeded by Clement Burnham in 1906, who is the present proprietor. Mr. and Mrs. Burnham remodeled the house inside and out, redecorated the interior and planted shrubs, greatly increas- ing the attractiveness of the Inn. In 1930 they built the annex on the north side made necessary by their increasing trade. The fine service and excel- lent cooking which has brought people from surrounding towns for banquets and family parties has made the Inn well known in this section of the state and it is now one of Bristol's best assets. It is here that the students board during the six week's session of the German School.
Due to the importance of horses in the early days of the town the livery and sales stables formed almost as important a part in the town's de- velopment as the hostelries and were closely connected with them. The livery stables of the Commercial House, R. F. Hatch, Proprietor, of the Bristol House, the Park Livery and F. Landon & Son were landmarks. The Hier livery stable, situated on West Street was of short duration. W. A. Lawrence, who donated the Lawrence Memorial Library, sold wagons and harnesses and then added a sales stable which was located back of his home at the corner of North and Spring Street. This grew into a large busi- ness and carloads of western horses were brought to this stable and sold. Later Mr. Lawrence sold automobiles. F. Landon & Son also conducted a sales stable in connection with their livery service and later they, too, turned to the sales of automobiles as more profitable. The Hatch stables burned in 1896 and never were rebuilt. Beginning about 1910, with the increase in autos the livery business died out; the Bristol Inn maintained its livery service longer than any other establishment. The horse sheds
.
40
HISTORY OF BRISTOL, VERMONT
belonging to the churches were torn down and gradually the public watering troughs and hitching posts were removed. At present there is nothing to show what an important part the sales and livery stables played in the development of the town.
HISTORY OF BRISTOL, VERMONT
41
Bristol Inn
Bristol Inn Annex 1847
Bristol Inn Annex
Manufacturing in Bristol
Manufacturing in Bristol, as in any newly settled township, was first limited to the wants of the inhabitants so that the first mills to appear were sawmills, gristmills and forges. The first gristmill of which there is a record is a gristmill which was built in 1792 by three brothers, John, Wil- liam and James O'Brien. This mill was built in the southern part of town on the brook which now bears their name. The first sawmill was built by Amos Scott in 1791. Forges were built in various parts of town for the making of bar iron, the ore being brought from the Monkton ore bed and from Crown Point, New York, the latter being a heavier ore which was combined with the Monkton ore in smelting. The bar iron thus made was used in making plow shares, crow bars, cart and wagon tires and many other tools and necessities. Some of the forges made more bar iron than was used in Bristol and neighboring towns were supplied with the product.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.