USA > Vermont > Windham County > Rockingham > History of the town of Rockingham, Vermont, including the villages of Bellows Falls, Saxtons River, Rockingham, Cambridgeport and Bartonsville, 1753-1907, with family genealogies > Part 29
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In 1822, advertisements of the stage lines showed the fare from Boston to Keene to be $4, Walpole $4.75, Windsor $6, Rutland $7, Middlebury $8. The advertisements were signed "Daniel Brooks, agent for proprietors." In 1838, the regular fare from Boston to Keene had been reduced to $2.50 and to Bellows Falls it was $3. About this time competion was so sharp that the fare between Boston and Bellows Falls was for a little time forced down to twenty-five cents each way.
In the days of the old lumbering stage coach the driver was the most important personage in the whole region. He was not exceeded even by the conductor of the first railroad trains in after years in his popularity. Among the local stage drivers best known on these through routes between 1840 and 1850 were Daniel Arms, Josiah Bowtell, John and Cabot Rogers, Daniel Pingree and Ambrose Arnold. Some of those living at Walpole and noted far and wide were Lovell Farr, Otis Bardwell, Thomas Bardwell. William Huntington and Ira Hodgkins. Other drivers were Jerome Armstrong, "Deacon" Green, John F. Sparhawk, Moses Downer, Gardner Hall, Oren Hall, Henry O. Clark, John F. Perry, James Moody, John McCormick, Dean Butterfield, Thomas Miner, Oliver Huntington and Hiram Hodgkins.
The History of Springfield, Vt. (by Hubbard and Dartt, 1895), p. 61, says :- "In 1836, Samuel W. Porter, James Whipple, Nomlas Cobb, Simson Leland, and Luke Williams were engaged in running stages from Walpole. N. H., towards Hanover, on the Connecticut river, and from Drewsville, N. H., to Perkinsville, Vt., and had twenty-six horses in the business.
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History of Rockingham
James Whipple afterward bought out the others, and in 1845 sold the staging to George M. Dickinson of Charlestown, N. H., who carried it on until the Sullivan County railroad was built, when he sold the route to Saunderson & Putnam."
During a portion of the early times of staging the coaches passed up and down the river on the New Hampshire side without coming across the toll bridge at Bellows Falls, on account of the expense of toll. The drivers as they approached the falls going either north or south, would blow their horns, thus notfying prospective passengers in this vil- lage of the coming of the stage, and they would take pas- sage from the east end of the toll bridge. They then paid the fee of three cents for walking across the bridge, instead of the much higher toll charged for the passage of the coach. In later years this practice was discontinued and the coaches came into the village, making headquarters at the old "Bel- lows Falls Stage House," that stood upon the site of the pres- ent Hotel Windham.
The taverns at small villages along these through stage routes were always important places, and the arrival and departure of the coaches were events of great importance. The post office of each country village was usually located near the tavern, or in it, and the passengers embraced the oppor- tunity to frequent the bar while the mail was being sorted by the postmaster. The stage carried but one mail bag, which the postmaster opened at each post office, looking over its contents and retaining what belonged to his office. He added his out going mail, and locking the bag, the stage was ready for its onward trip.
Reminiscences of these old "stage and tavern days," related to the writer by various aged people in former years are interesting. Among them the late late Richard Robert- son of Charlestown, who died in 1905, at the age of 96, and who spent his boyhood days from 1821 to 1832 in the Bellows Falls Stage House owned by his father said :
" In 1821 we had a mail to and from Rutland three times a week, carried by a Mr. Clark with one horse. Up and down the Connecticut valley the mail also went three times a week, carried by a man named Marsh of Charles-
SAXTON'S RIVER HOTEL. 1859
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SAXTONS RIVER HOTEL, ERECTED IS17, TAKEN DOWN 1903.
Reminiscences of Richardson Robertson 321
town. This stage passed on the New Hampshire side of the river, and if there was any traveler at father's hotel who wished to take the stage we went out and blew a horn to notify the driver. We would then take a wheelbarrow to carry the trunk over or back and the passenger walked. The coach would not come across the bridge because of the high toil. Toll was also charged for foot passengers, but it was not as excessive as for coaches. Mr. Marsh ran the stage to Walpole and Mr. Skinner to Windsor. Marsh found the new coach too heavy for two horses, and he later put on four, and then made a practice of coming across the bridge. He would drive with a great flourish around the Square in front of both the Stage House and the Mansion House, the last being located on the west side of the Square at the end of Westminster street. One day he had a driver named Frink driving for him and he made too great a flourish tipping the heavy coach over in the Square as it came around.
Patronage increased rapidly in both the hotel and stage business. Father and S. R. B. Wales, who kept the Mansion House, were sharp compet- itors, and each strove to get some advantage over the other.
Soon a new and important stage route between Boston and Saratoga Springs was inaugurated, passengers taking the regular stage from Boston to Bellows Falls and an additional line was put on here driving through Chester, Manchester and Bennington. Davis Bates of Springfield, Vt., was a big stage man and used to go to Saratoga summers in charge of the Boston line through Bellows Falls. If parties of eight or more passengers could be made up for the trip, a special stage would be put on running through the whole distance with change of horses. When this line was first inaugurated, father was notified that a party of eight would take dinner at his house a certain day. He got up a fine dinner for them and they ate a whole quarter of lamb. When the man conducting the party went to pay the bill, father charged him $2 as the bill for the eight dinners. The man looked surprised and said he ' wanted to pay the whole bill,' thinking father had made a mistake and charged for only one dinner. He insisted in paying more and father offered to accept thirty-seven and one-half cents each, instead of the regular twenty- five cents, but the man objected and at last paid father $4. We always charged Boston people fifty cents for each meal after that.
Davis Bates induced Joseph Willard of Westminster, and later his brother, Henry Willard, to go to Saratoga, starting them in a hotel career in which they afterwards became famous the country over. Later he got one of the Leland's from Chester a place in Saratoga. Leland had previously driven stage through here. One day I refused to trust him for a feed at our hotel and some years after I went to Leland's big hotel in Saratoga and stayed one day for which he charged me $5. 1 paid without a murmur and went to the other hotel at $1.50 per day. I always thought that he remembered that I would not trust him.
One day rival stages raced the other side of the river and driver Brooks came across the bridge at full speed. Nathaniel Tucker followed him into the barn and said, 'Brooks, you have run my bridge, $2 fine.' Brooks drew his pocket-book and handed Tucker the money, but Tucker refused it, saying. ' Don't do it again.' "
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History of Rockingham
Newman Weeks, an aged man now living in Rutland, Vt., writes :
" In regard to my trips by stage in my younger days, some peculiar incidents came under my observation and they still cling to my memory. The people of Bellows Falls and Brattleboro I knew about, especially the old stage, railroad and military men.
The old Cheshire Hotel in Keene was the noted ' Stage Lodging House ' from which the four and sometimes six horse, sixteen passenger coaches left in the morning for Fitchburg and Boston. The stage agent, located at the Cheshire House, was a very large man and as stern and savage as he was large. One very popular stage driver was 'Bill Hodgkins.' He always wanted the seats on the box outside to be reserved for the good looking ladies. The stages in those early days landed at the 'Old Stage Tavern,' on the narrow Elm street in Boston, Mass. Time from Rutland, Vt., to Boston was three days, and the fare was $8. The driver expected the cigars and drinks would be free at all the points where horses were exchanged.
Now for two incidents : In 1848, I was in trade in Clarendon, Vt., with a nephew, D. W. C. Gaskill. He was going to Boston to buy a stock of goods. The cashier of the bank in Rutland asked him to take a package of $5,000 to be left at the Suffolk Bank, Boston. To send by express was quite expensive, and they would take the risk. Ile took a peculiar way that proved safe. He used an old, badly worn, sheep-skin valise ; put the money package in a stocking-leg with other stockings, shirts, etc. ; put in some old news- papers ; had no lock but fastened it with straps. The old valise was put with many others on the top of the stage coach and at hotel stopping places over night it was thrown off and piled with the other baggage in the wide front hall of the hotels. There was no special care taken of the old worn valise and the cash reached the old Boston bank all right.
On one of my return trips from Boston, Otis Bardwell was keeping a stage tavern at Walpole. Horses and drivers were changed there. The four- horse coach was driven to the door and little Dan Arms took the reins and was waiting for the word 'all aboard.' One large, dignified, gray-headed passenger was walking back and forth on the piazza. Mr. Bardwell very politely informed him that the coach was waiting for him. He said 'Where is the driver?' He was informed that the man on the coach was the driver. 'What ! that boy to drive us over the Vermont mountains to Rutland?' .Yes,' said Mr. Bardwell, 'and if he don't get you there all right I will pay all dam- age on demand.' Little Dan, as a young, single man, was popular because he was so very accommodating. The stage leaving Rutland in the morning would reach Clarendon about 8 o'clock ; and if a good looking school teacher had a long way to walk, the stage would wait for her to fix her curls, and get all ready to sit on the box and watch the horses. Little Dan Arms had lots of friends, as stage driver and conductor on the railroad, later."
The Daniel Arms referred to by Mr. Weeks as so popu- lar a stage driver lived at Bellows Falls and was one of the
The " Forest Line" of Stages 323
first passenger conductors of the Rutland railroad. Later for some years he was ticket agent at the Bellows Falls station.
Dean Butterfield, a well known driver over the "Forest Line," used to relate the following anecdote to the "outside passengers," who rode with him. On those old coaches it was always considered the most desirable place to ride on the outside, and there were often as many as six on the top of the coach with the driver. Two or three sat on the driver's seat, and three or four on the stage roof, with their feet hang- ing down back of those who were with the driver. There was always an iron railing around the sides and rear of the coach that extended to the front edge of the driver's seat, so there was little danger of any person, or thing, falling off that was once placed on the roof. It was possible to enjoy the scenery better here, and, not the least appreciated part, were the entertaining stories told by most of the drivers. Mr. Butterfield would inform any passengers who were timid at the coach being overcrowded, that :
"I once took twenty-two passengers safely from Bellows Falls into Boston, including one man who weighed two hundred and eighty pounds, and he rode all the way on a trunk placed for him on the top of this very stage. It hap- pened on that trip that John Quincy Adams and his wife were among the inside passengers. They had been visiting Saratoga Springs. Mr. Adams asked me on arriving at Nashua, the end of my route, to continue on to Bos- ton, because he ' felt perfectly safe with such a driver.' So I changed with the Lowell driver, and went into Boston with my stage and the twenty-two people all right. There was on the Forest road at that time a very large amount of travel in the spring, summer and fall,-'people went to the Springs in summer and to the Falls in the spring,' as the great Dodge used to say at his concerts. There were few mammoth trunks in those days, and all baggage paid extra charges. In the winter the passengers were mostly business men going to and from the Boston markets.
An advertisement in the Bellows Falls Gazette in 1839 gives information regarding the facilities of staging and rail- road transportation between Bellows Falls and Boston in that year. The advertisement was surmounted by a large cut of an old-fashioned stage coach drawn by six prancing horses and was as follows :
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History of Rockingham
NEW ARRANGEMENTS
FOREST LINE OF STAGES
LEAVES Bellows Falls, Vermont, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 4 A. M. via Drewsville, N. H .. Alstead, Marlow, Stoddard, Hancock, Green- field, Lyndeboro, Wilton, Milford and arrives in Nashua in season for the 44 o'clock Train of Cars for Boston the same day.
RETURNING, leaves Nashua on the arrival of the Morning Train of Cars from Boston Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and arrives at Bellows Falls at 9 o'clock P. M.
STAGES LEAVE BELLOWS FALLS the next morning for Troy, Albany, and Saratoga via Townshend and Stratton.
For Montpelier via Charlestown and Woodstock-for Middlebury and Burlington, Chester and Rutland.
This is considered the best route from the Connecticut river to Boston.
BUSS, MORRISON & CO., Proprietors. Bellows Falls, June 1, 1839.
During the panic year of 1837, an accident occurred a mile south of here on the old stage road to Keene that thoroughly startled the citizens of this village and all the surrounding territory, the mail stage being precipitated into Cold river. Three ladies lost their lives.
It was March 14th of that year, and both the Connecticut and Cold rivers were swollen and filled with floating ice, the weather having been warm for a week preceding. The regular mail coach which then ran three times a week between Boston and Hanover, by way of Bellows Falls, left Walpole in the morning. The driver's name was William Simonds, and he had four passengers, the three ladies and a man named Swain, who was acting as a messenger convey- ing $5,000 in currency from Boston to the old state bank here which was then doing business under the name of the "Bel- lows Falls Bank." This was the original method of trans- ferring funds from one bank to another.
When the bridge across Cold river was reached, located below the present one and a little above the location of the present railroad bridge, it was found the water and ice in the Connecticut had backed up so much as to raise the bridge somewhat from its foundations, but the driver determined to hazard the experiment of crossing. He had four horses, and just as his leaders reached the north side of the river, and were already upon the bank, the bridge floated away taking
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Two Stage Accidents
the coach and all its occupants with it. This drew the horses back into the stream.
Mr. Swain clung tenaciously to his tin trunk containing his treasure, and also to one of the ladies until she was crushed by the ice, when he made his way rapidly to the west bank of the Connecticut as best he could on the floating cakes of ice. He reached the Vermont side in safety and delivered his trunk to the bank officials.
The ladies and the team were lost, but when assistance arrived from Walpole the driver was found clinging to the bushes near the mouth of Cold river and was rescued. The body of one woman was found at the time, but the other two were not recovered until the following summer. One was found two miles south, opposite the Copley Amory place, and the other near Boggy meadow some distance south. They were a Mrs. Dunham with a Mrs. Chesley and her sister. The coach and three of the horses were lost, and the town of Walpole in consequence of the disaster suffered heavy damages.
The exciting experiences and narrow escapes of travel by stage coach were illustrated October 18, 1866 when the three horses attached to a heavy stage coach well filled with passengers became frightened while standing at the Bellows Falls railroad station. It was the coach, that until the com- pletion of the electric railroad, ran daily between Bellows Falls, Saxtons River, Grafton and Townshend. The horses, without a driver, dashed around by the Island House, through Bridge street and the Square. The driver, when he saw his horses disappearing ran quickly by the way of Canal street and met them in front of the present opera house. By a hazardous leap at their heads he succeeded in throwing the leader, and the coach was thrown violently upon its side. The passengers were each more or less injured but, by a miracle, none seriously. The pair of horses cleared from the coach with the front wheels, when it went over, and were not caught until they had run more than a mile on the Rockingham road.
CHAPTER XXIII.
RAILROADS-TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE
One of the earliest efforts to create public sentiment in Vermont favorable to the building of railroads originated in Bellows Falls in the summer of 1843. Dr. S. M. Blake, then editor of the Bellows Falls Gazette, was very enthusi- astic and devoted much space in his paper to the subject. The result was a largely attended railroad meeting held here early in 1844. Hon. Alvah Crocker of Fitchburg, Mass., had just returned from Europe and was full of enthusiasm and railroad enterprise. He was present and greatly assisted in explaining the operation and results of railroads already built in other states and countries. At this meeting all the railroads now running in this part of the state, including the West River railroad which was not built for some years after- ward, were projected and discussed.
The first charter of the Vermont Central Railroad com- pany was granted by the legislature November 15, 1835, and the revised charter under which the road was built was passed October 31, 1843. January 8, 1844, a largely attended railroad convention was held at Montpelier that resulted in the raising of money for surveys, and later in raising the required capital stock for the first railroad to be built in Ver- mont. The contract to build the entire road from Windsor to Burlington, one hundred and fourteen miles, was let to Sewal F. Belknap. The first rail was laid at White River Junction on the farm of Col. Samuel Nutt early in 1847 and Isaac B. Culver, assistant engineer of that division, was accorded the honor of driving the first spike in the track of this road.
Regular passenger trains first passed over the road from White River Junction to Bethel, June 26, 1848, and this was the first railroad train run in Vermont.
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The First Railroad Train
The first railroad to reach Bellows Falls was the Cheshire, now part of the Fitchburg division of the Boston & Maine. This corporation was chartered by the New Hampshire legis- lature December 27, 1844, and the Sullivan County railroad July 10, 1846.
The first train of excursionists from Boston, Fitchburg, Keene and other points, reached here January 1, 1849, and went as far north as Charlestown on the line of the Sullivan, not crossing into Vermont as no railroad bridges had been built across the Connecticut. There were many demonstra- tions of joy all along its route.
Following is the quaint account of the event contained in the Bellows Falls Gazette of January 4, 1849 :
THE CARS HAVE COME !
"On Monday, January I, much to the astonishment of some, and gratifica- tion of all, the first train of cars ever seen in this vicinity, passed over the Cheshire road and Sullivan to Charlestown, No. 4. The day was fine and a great assembly of people had collected here to witness the grand entree of the Iron Horse. The engine came up in grand style and when opposite our village, the monster gave one of its most savage yells, frightening men, women and children considerable, and bringing forth the most deafening howls from all the dogs in the neighborhood. This day, Thursday, the Sullivan road is to be opened with the usual ceremonies, to Charlestown, and then the arrival of the cars will be a common everyday business affair."
The road was opened through from Charlestown to Windsor, March 31, of that year. The first passenger con- ductors on the Sullivan road were O. J. Brown of Claremont, and Ambrose Arnold of Windsor, later of Westminster.
The facilities for travel in this section of New England immediately following this opening are shown in the follow- ing advertisement which appeared in the Boston papers for some months :
CHESHIRE RAILROAD
OPEN TO BELLOWS FALLS
On and after Monday, January 8, 1849, passenger trains will leave Boston in connection with the Fitchburg trains, daily at 7 o'clock A. M., and at 3.45 P. M.
Leave Bellows Falls at 1.30 and 4.30 P. M.
Leave Keene for Boston at 6 A. M. and 2.45 P. M.
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History of Rockingham
Leave Keene for Bellows Falls and Charlestown, at 7 and 11.20 A. M.
Passengers by the first train from Boston will proceed directly through to Bellows Falls and by first train down, directly through to Boston.
Passengers by the last train up and the last train down will remain at Keene over night and will arrive at Boston at 10 o'clock and Bellows Falls at S3 o'clock the following morning.
All the above trains connect with the trains over the Sullivan railroad, now open to Charlestown, N. H., making a continuous railroad line from Boston to that place. Also at Groton with the trains of the Nashua and Worcester and Stony Brook railroads. by which a direct communication both ways, without delay at Groton, is established between Concord, Manchester, Nashua, Lowell, Lawrence and the state of Maine; Worcester, Providence, New York city and Albany ; and Keene, Walpole, Bellows Falls ; Rutland, all western Vermont, Charlestown, Windsor, and the entire lines of the Vermont Central and Passumpsic railroad.
Stages run in connection with this line from Winchendon to Rindge, and Jaffrey; from Fitzwilliam to Richmond, Winchester, Hinsdale and Brattleboro.
From Keene to Chesterfield and Brattleboro ; from Bellows Falls to Rut- land, White Hall and Burlington.
From the Sullivan railroad at Charlestown to Claremont, Newport, Springfield, Weathersfield, and Windsor, Woodstock and Hanover.
Passengers leaving Bellows Falls at 1.30 P. M., can reach New York city via Worcester and Norwich, the next morning at 5 o'clock.
Freight trains will run in connection with the usual Fitchburg trains. L. TILTON, Engineer.
Keene, January 5, 1849.
The first blow in the construction of the line of the "Champlain & Connecticut Railroad company " chartered November 1, 1843. now the Rutland railroad, was struck in Bellows Falls during the month of February, 1847. They began laying rails from Bellows Falls April 15, 1849 and the road was opened through to Burlington, December 18, of that year. A. P. Crossett, still a resident of Bellows Falls, says that he moved the first three wheelbarrow loads of dirt in its construction, on the island at this place. Ile was then working for Judge Baxter, who lived where the Island House now stands and whose son, H. Henry Baxter, had the contract for grading the rocky and uneven surface of the island, and building the first three miles of the line.
There was much rivalry between the Rutland line and the Vermont Central line via Montpelier, to see which road would get trains into Burlington first.
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Vermont Valley Railroad Built
The Central line was successful, being opened through for business June 20, 1849.
Although the Vermont Valley Railroad company was chartered November 8, 1841, it was not opened for business between Bellows Falls and Brattleboro until 1851. The most important undertaking, locally, in the construction of this road was the building of the tunnel that runs under the Square and principal business part of the village. It is about four hun- dred feet in length and extends under a number of the most substantial mercantile structures of the place. For many years the general offices of this company, as well as the only machine shop on its line, were in Bellows Falls. The machine shop was located on the canal near where the Wyman Flint & Sons Co., paper-mill is, and the car and engine houses were below Westminster street, in front of the present residences of Wyman Flint and A. N. Swain. Super- intendent Peyton R. Chandler and later Superintendent Madi- son Sloat, had their headquarters here. In 1854 only one passenger conductor, named Deming, was running between here and Brattleboro.
For some months after regular trains began running from Fitchburg to Windsor, there was no bridge across the Connecticut at this point, and the station for Bellows Falls was at the New Hampshire end of the toll bridge. The late Alfred Kemp carried passengers, mail and express to and from that station. After the old Cheshire and the Sullivan bridges were built, the station was located where the present one is. The first building was that now standing on the east bank of the canal next north of Depot street and occupied as a dwelling. This was used only a few years, and was replaced by the present brick structure, made out of bricks from the brickyard of Sanford Granger located on the south side of the Saxtons river, just above Gageville.
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