USA > Vermont > Windham County > Rockingham > History of the town of Rockingham, Vermont, including the villages of Bellows Falls, Saxtons River, Rockingham, Cambridgeport and Bartonsville, 1907-1957 with family genealogies > Part 12
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The Brown Fashion Shoppe, owned by Mrs. Eva Brown Wienstein of Worcester, Mass. and opened by her in 1932, was sold in 1948 and is now Colleen's run by Mrs. Wallace Whitcomb. Mrs. Whitcomb moved her shop from Tuttle Street in 1940, into the former Beef Shop, calling it the Add-Tu. The Beef Shop was opened in 1934 by Harry Cohen of Greenfield, Mass. The Style Center opened in 1941.
Forty-five years ago Jack Pickett ran bowling alleys for the Elks on Rockingham Street. In 1937 Mrs. Marion Carpenter opened a Children's Tog Shop in the same place and sold it to Mrs. Geraldine Baker ten years later. Mrs. Baker moved into the Faught building where she remained until the space was leased by the state of Vermont in 1948 as municipal courtroom. Franklyn Shop moved into the Tog Shop space on Rockingham Street.5
By 1915 local stores were beginning to worry about the competition of the mail order houses, just coming into their own. The same stores probably worry about the same thing today but most people now prefer to see what they are buying. The co-operation of friendly sales people, like those who have spent their whole lives serving you and your fathers and mothers before you, is something which cannot be duplicated by C. O. D's from Boston or Albany. The term "on the Square" is no misnomer. Perhaps the worry of people "shopping by mail" was partly responsible for the many changes made in local stores that year.
It was in 1915, too, that Henry Spitzenberger of the Model Press, took into partnership his brother George. The Model Press had opened in Bellows Falls, Nov. 10, 1906 in the Gray block, now the Star Hotel, with Mr. Spitzenberger and H. R. Gaul of Greenfield, Mass., proprietors. The next year Mr. Spitzen- berger who had learned his trade with the TIMES and later with the printing department of the Casein Co., bought out his partner and moved his business to 46 Westminster Street in the Gates block. He died in 1940 and the business was sold to 5 See Addendum
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Nelson W. Lesure who sold it in 1949 to David White, present owner.
The oldest business in the Square today, under the same name, is the Howard Hardware Co., established in 1877. It opened under L. G. and C. E. Howard and was incorporated under its present name January 1900 with L. G. Howard, presi- dent; F. B. Lyon, vice president; Charles Howard, treasurer and John C. Dennison, secretary. Gustavus D. Parker, "Gus" was a valued member of the firm for many years until his death in 1944. Mr. Dennison died February 3, 1943. Mr. Lyon died in 1907 and W. P. Abbott succeeded him as a member of the firm and stockholder and was followed by Raymond Hadley. Charles Howard died in 1919 and left $10,000 to the Rockingham Hospi- tal and $5,000 to Kurn Hattin Homes. Today's officers are Charles Howard, nephew of Charles E. Howard, president; Norman Faulkner, vice president and clerk of the corporation and Charles Ford, treasurer.
In the Arms block for many years, was the Dean & Dean crockery store operated by Nellie and Percy Dean, brother and sister. The fire of December, 1940, put them out of business. Percy died in 1933 when he was 62 and after 35 years in the store. Nellie carried on after his death and died in 1951, having lived with her sister in Northampton, Mass. She had been in business here for 42 years for she was also employed by the Chase Fur- niture Store before she ran her own shop.
The Phelps Furniture Store and Auction Rooms were at 10 School Street where Frank Phelps also dealt in secondhand goods, wood and kindling. It was the scene of many auctions including sheriffs' sales and evening sales. Green flyers were distributed around town before an auction and Mr. Phelps' auction bell jingled up and down the streets. At one time S. H. Thompson, chief of police and deputy sheriff, was auctioneer and the list of goods offered seems not unlike that of today. Other auctioneers about this time fifty years ago were D. L. Snow, L. T. Lovell, John Buemond in Rockingham and Walter Glynn in Saxtons River. Phelps sold his business to Fred Perry in 1917 who sold it to the Abbott & Kiniry Coal Company known as the A. & K., in North Walpole where Jerry Keefe bought them out as well as the coal business of P. N. Leene, horses, wagons, scales and all. It was taken over in 1946 by John Connelly as the Connelly Fuel Co., having been run for five years by an administrator. For many years the new firm was in the Arms block, in space formerly used by Will Eaton, oculist. Today it is in the old Times block, now owned by Carl Parker. Miss Ruth Brown has been with the firm as bookkeeper for thirty years.
Fletcher's Newsstand is operated by John T. Fletcher, Jr. It was opened by Mr. Fletcher, Sr., who came here from Somer- ville, Mass. and bought the business of F. C. Winnewisser, taking
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possession April 1, 1929. In connection with it, he opened a luncheonette the next year when he moved into the Town Hall building. It also operates a bus service and has recently become an office for Western Union. Mr. Fletcher, Sr., died March 21, 1950, at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at his winter home.
In 1894 Edwin C. and Walter Barnard opened a jewelry store near the stairs in the Square, buying out the Frank Hadley store. The next year they moved to the location south of the foot of the stairs which they occupied for 42 years. When they decided to sell out their stock and take it easy, they were the oldest shop in Bellows Falls with the same personnel. Walter died in 1950. Another jewelry store was that of C. C. Collins who bought the shop of Will Eaton & Co. in 1900 together with H. E. Floyd of Glens Falls, N. Y. In 1919 he bought out his partner and ran the store successfully until he sold to N. O. Cote in 1935 because of ill health. He died in 1936. Eaton studied optometry in Boston and ran that business from 1912 until he died in 1947. For many years Fred Lewis worked for Will Eaton and C. C. Collins before going into business for him- self, repairing and selling watches and he was for many years the official inspector for the B. & M. and the Rutland Railroad watches. He sold out in 1937 to George Eno. Henry Amidon ran a jewelry store on the west side of the Square for a long time. He lost both legs in a trolley accident in Connecticut in 1917.
When Dorr Moses Thayer died in May, 1936, he was the oldest business man in the Square. He started the marble and granite business here in 1882 and carried it on for over fifty years. His first office was in the old Central House after which he moved over Barnard Bros. and in 1914 to the King block, now belonging to the Elks. He erected the archway into Oak Hill Cemetery and when he set his first monument there, there were only six others in that cemetery. His first stone in Restland Cemetery was the second stone erected there. He was also in the insurance business with Wilbur Ferguson at one time and later, for sixteen years, his son Ruel was in business with him. Today his daughter, Mrs. Ruth T. Hay, has the monument agency in the secondhand shop which she runs in the same office space of her father and where she has been since 1942. Hiram King was also in the monument business in 1910 on Rockingham Street, in the old Morgan Tavern.
Mason Bros. Music Store was run by Bert and E. Carson Mason and for many years was in the space now occupied by the Gofkauff store. They sold "pianos, organs, sheet music, band instruments and talking machines." They sold out in 1923 and were in business before 1910. Frank Olbrych opened the New Gofkauff in the Maynard block on Rockingham Street, selling automobile accessories in 1937 and although there is no connection, Checkerboard Feed came to town the same year. Recently Gofkauff's was moved into the Elks block and the
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Franklyn Shop enlarged to take over their space next to them. Western Auto opened in May, 1940 on Rockingham Street by E. R. Fabian of Proctor. He left in 1948 and today it is owned by Joe Murray.
J. J. Newberry opened a store in the Blakeley block in 1929 and in 1938 moved into the new Odd Fellows' block. It was orig- inally one of 48 stores located in 46 states. In 1955 it became self-service, the first such store in this vicinity. It was also completely renovated that year under Paul Salstead, manager. James Capron opened a paint and wallpaper store in 1941 in the Crayco building and moved into the newly remodeled space in the Cray block across the street in 1947.
In 1929 Charles F. Wright sold his grain stores to L. E. Whitaker Stores Co. of East Longmeadow, Mass., including one near the B. & M. freight office at the depot purchased from F. M. Wilson and which he had run for 22 years, buying it in April, 1907. He also had one at Westminster Station which he had purchased with his father. In 1914 he bought out his father's rights and ran both stores under one management. Employees in 1929 were Miss Lena Howard, Robert A. Lee and E. T. Fenton of Westminster. Mr. Wright died in July, 1958.
W. H. Bodine, in 1939, celebrated 50 years of business in the Square as well as his 80th birthday and had, at that time, the longest record of any business man in Bellows Falls. Coming here in 1889 from Monroe, N. Y., he started his plumbing career in the old firm of Miller, Eaton & Allbee. Buying out Eaton's share, the firm became Allbee & Bodine (Mr. Eaton was the father of Will Eaton, optician and jeweler. Mr. Miller was the father of Hugh Miller who became a plumber with George B. Allbee & Co.) Three years later Mr. Bodine sold his interest to Fred Babbitt and bought the firm of Larabee & Son which became Bodine & Davis, Mr. Davis having no relatives in this town. When Mr. Davis sold out his share, the firm was known as Bodine & Co. until about 1930 when both Clarence and Wilfred sons of Mr. Bodine, came into the firm whose name was changed to W. H. Bodine & Sons as of today. Mr. Bodine died in 1949. For many years Henry D. Sparrow and Edward J. Lynch were connected with the business.
Bertrand E. Haines opened a plumbing business on July 1, 1910 in a shop connected with his home at 79 Atkinson Street. In 1922 it became the B. E. Haines & Son firm with Prentiss W. Haines in partnership with his father. Mr. Haines died in 1935 and in 1954 the shop was moved to Bridge Street where a third generation, Prentiss Jr. is now in business with his father. Other plumbing firms were, in 1910, George B. Allbee & Co. on Bridge Street, and Peter Marsh at 14 Westminster Street.
In 1921, Selah Harriman, barber, the oldest businessman in the Square had been in the same business since 1871 when he was apprenticed to the Joel Jillson shop on the second floor of
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the Union block. After two years he opened his own shop in the Gray block where he remained for twenty years. In 1893 he moved into the ground floor of his shop in the Howard block. He was 76 years old when he passed away October 12, 1925, the only barber in town who had ever worked at his profession' for over 50 years. But Napoleon "Poley" Page had been barbering for 30 years when he retired in 1944. He belonged to the era of "journeyman" barbers (or those who had learned their trade) before it was agreed to close all barber shops at 10 o'clock at night instead of eleven which went into effect in 1919. His first shop in Bellows Falls was in the Cray block where Whelan Drug is today. After the fire there in 1931, he located at 20 West- minster Street. His son Louis was in business with him until the war. Clifford Burns, a veteran of 15 years of barbering in Bellows Falls, bought the Page shop and in 1949, he sold it to John Hollar. Mr. and Mrs. Leroy Bigelow ran a barber shop together for many years in the Square where Mrs. Bigelow was the first woman barber in town. They sold to Wilfred Porter of Saxtons River in 1918 the space later becoming part of the Army & Navy Store. Forty-five years ago the following barbers were also in town-H. N. Bulger, in the Central House; Michael Andosca on Vine Street; James Dinan, 56 Square; Paul Exner, Rockingham Street; John Flavin, Vine Street. Tony Andosca ran a shop in the Rockingham Hotel building from 1924 until he moved into the Square and when he died in 1951, George Whitehill took over his shop which was bought when Whitehill died by Leo Michniewicz who had been with the shop for a number of years.
In 1940 Nelson Faught bought out the company of J. H. Faught & Son, a business machine company established for 15 years, from the estate of his father, who had passed away the previous month in South Acworth, N. H. and moved it to Bellows Falls on Canal Street. This is the agency for Royal typewriters and conducts a repair and shipping service. In 1945 Mr. Faught bought the Brown block including his store and the state liquor store. In 1949 this company was selected by Royal Typewriters Co. Inc., as their outstanding distributor in the Springfield, Mass., district which includes western Massachusetts, Vermont and part of New Hampshire with seven distributors. The Faught territory includes Windham and Windsor counties in Vermont, Sullivan and Cheshire in New Hampshire.
The Esquire Outlet store opened in 1948 on Rockingham Street, selling men's sport shirts, coats and mackinaws made by the E. J. Lecuyer Company which occupies the upper floor in the Rockingham Press building. During the war they made a reputation for furnishing jungle hammocks to the government. Also in 1948 the Sears, Roebuck store opened an order office on Westminster Street with Melvin Thomas, manager, but it closed after 18 months.
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From the days of the tintypes of a hundred years ago to the "candid camera shots" of today, is a long jump as the two had little in common with each other. The former clamped their victims' into head rests and tied them into unconsciousness. Black sashes securely confined infants to a hidden torture post behind them. The best pictures of today are maneuvered when the subject is happily unaware of the imminence of a camera. And while photographers of this century did not have recourse to such lethal tricks nor hide their heads like an ostrich under a black cloth while they exposed the glass plates, their work is of another era and as interesting to us today as were the daguerro- types of Monsieur Daguerre to our mothers. Among local men who mounted family groups on the hard boards which have withstood the wear and tear of time, was Frederick Blake who lived in Saxtons River and who had a studio for many years in Bellows Falls. Today's grandmothers had their own baby pictures, high school graduation, wedding and THEIR babies' pictures taken by Mr. Blake. At his death, an auction was held in his studio of the various effects and pictures and local people acquired many valuable reproductions of people and scenes which even then had become history. Among these was the Four Pines, the group of tall trees along the river a little north of Elm Street and which held in their shade an accommodating bench, a popular rendezvous for everyone in town. There was the old Morgan house on the corner of Tuttle Street with the last Miss Morgan sitting by the lilacs in the doorway, clad in an old fashioned gown and holding a poke bonnet, an irreplacable scene of the days when a fine old family dwelt on the corner where now a gas station has smothered the lilacs with asphalt. There was the prized picture of Hetty Green sitting on the front porch of her house, still another historic edifice, built solidly foursquare and of brick, looking down the river, where the muni- cipal parking lot is today. These are the things which the old picture takers left for us, portions and bits of a town which our descendants will never know except for them, the sites and scenes which are already memories.
After his death, Fred Blake's studio, once on Westminster Street, then on School Street near the stairs, was purchased by G. E. Freeman who sold it to Herman James who came here from Saranac Lake, N. Y. James was killed in an automobile acci- dent in 1935 and the studio was briefly occupied by Carl Waldron then sold to Francis Ransford of Pittsfield, Mass. that same year who sold it to John Holzinger in 1937. Holzinger moved the studio to the top floor of the Gast block but customers com- plained so much about climbing two flights of stairs that he moved into the space once occupied by Mason Bros. Music Store, later by World Radio, but the well-known name of James' Studio remained the same. Paul Wilson opened a color photog- raphy business there in 1947 also, but the next year Holzinger
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sold to David McLam who closed up in 1953 when Frank Ol- brych moved his automotive shop in there. Arthur Smith now runs the only photography shop in town, at his home on West Street. For many years R. C. Bristol had offices in Fuller's Drug Store, advertising as a commercial photographer for "post cards, flashlights and groups."
One of the first beauty shops in Bellows Falls was run by Madam Knight, mother of Dr. Eugene Knight, dentist. She retired in 1917 after spending 26 years in business in the Arms block, opening her shop there when the block was built. She probably called her shop a "hair dressing establishment." Permanent waves and boyish hairdos did not predominate there. Beauty parlors were still few and far between. Madam Knight advertised "hairdressing and manicuring," probably the only such "establishment" in town.
It was in 1919 that people were all upset about the HCL. People have been upset about it since Adam had to get out and make his own living but in the light of 1955 prices, someone might remark that in 1919 "they never had it so good." Yet the papers that year were filled with wailing as to when prices would go down. Turkish towels were selling for 17c a piece, real kid gloves were a dollar a pair. In 1915 you could buy your Easter hat, untrimmed for 69c and school shoes for a dollar and a half. Butterine-they didn't call it oleo but it probably made the farmers just as mad-was 25c a pound, eggs were 22c and the butcher advertised three pounds of pig's liver and bacon to go with it, all for a quarter. Milk was 31c for 812 quarts and maple syrup, ungraded, sold for $1.10 a gallon. In 1952 maple syrup was $7.00, eggs 69c, sirloin steak was $1.08 against 25c in 1915 and margarine was 27c.
But the HCL had begun to soar in 1916 when rib roasts and smoked shoulders went up in price and you could no longer get 18 small oranges for a quarter. The Saturday night baked beans at Zeno's leaped from 10c to the unheard of price of 15c a quart. They may have staged a strike against bean eating for the baker promptly announced no more baked beans at any price-unless ordered in advance-and then they would be a quarter. Even when new money appeared in 1929, smaller bills to replace the old ones so long in use, it probably didn't affect the local pocketbooks unless it was the wrong way for by then the depression years were upon the country. Mr. Hayes, historian, kept a careful tabulation of food prices for six years as follows:
1914 .35
.35 .15 .10 1920 .60
1921 .40 .40 .90 .17 . 121/2 .08
1922 .35
1955 .65
Eggs
Flour
$7.75 $12.00 $16.00 $12.00 .40 .70 .60
.65
Potatoes
.90 $ 1.30 $ 5.00
Lard
Bread
Sugar
.17 .10 .06 1918 .48
.32 .15 .22
$10.55 .45 .75 .16 .121/2 . 06
$1.75 $ 2.00 .12 1923 .35 $9.50 $18.00 .55 .20 .30
.18 .10
Butter
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Rents were up too in 1919, but what could you expect, folks cried, when plumbers, carpenters and even masons demanded- and got-sixty, seventy-five and even a dollar an hour! What was the world coming to! It probably was just as well for their peace of mind that they didn't know!
Probably the two oldest grocery firms still in business in Bellows Falls are those of E. C. Gould & Son and F. S. Clark. The former, for many years the firm of Gould & Marble, changed its name when Leon Marble died and the store was seventeen years old. Mr. Gould's son Harold, came into the firm at that time and in 1942, Ernest Gould counted 33 years in his own store at the south end of town. This store was previously owned by Charles and Elmer Underhill who, before that, had opened a store on Canal Street. Mr. Gould started his career in 1890 as an apprentice clerk in a general store receiving $50 a year plus board and working six days a week until 9 o'clock and on Satur- day nights, when the farmers came to town to do their trading, he was on his feet until eleven at night, selling everything from winter underwear to ladies' shoes, straw hats, kerosene, salt pork and harnesses. It was in the days when most people bought their supplies by the barrel and sack, not by the bag, pound or pint.
Mr. Gould also worked for four years in Townshend and in the George Walker general store in Westminster, coming to Bellows Falls in 1897 to work in the F. B. F. grocery. He took orders with a horse and buggy each morning at seven o'clock, was in the store by ten and had his orders made up and delivered before dinner for no one telephoned their orders into a store until after the War. Mr. Gould boasts that some of his cus- tomers went with him when he opened his own store and some he still had in 1942, including families in both Westminster and Bellows Falls. All grocery stores stocked meat then and regular meat markets peddled their wares from door to door. Modern stores also carry meat but the slow paced, neighborly atmosphere of the old general store, he says is lost in today's self service system, wire push carts and jostling of the checkout counter. Only in the smaller, informal stores is the air of the old stores approached and even these carry signs, as does Gould's of the Red and White Store. 6
Frederick S. Clark, whose store is now one of the IGA chain, has been in business here for 58 years and is still in the store every day. First owned by C. H. Shepardson where Fred Clark came to work, then the firm of Clark & Marble then in 1904 Clark & Durkee; since 1915 Mr. Clark has been the sole owner. Back in 1913 his store decided to keep up with the timesand cater to the cars which became more numerous every day. So along with Bridal Veil flour, it advertised gasoline for "autos," no brand name, just "gasoline." The fact was carefully stressed that it was a perfectly safe operation, that the fluid was kept in 6 See Addendum
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a steel tank in the ground and pumped into the "autos," im- plying no risk, probably, of fire or explosion to either car or owner. (Frederick Sidney Clark died March 19, 1957, aged 86, the oldest businessman in town.)
.. The Handy Store on Russell Street was the mecca for north end children and their mothers for 24 years, under Dennis M. Damon and John and Will Putnam, Will going into the store when John died. Will, a bachelor, not only took over his brother's share of the store but also his family, helping with the upbringing of the children for many years. The building on Russell Street was built by Joshua Webb about 1889 and the store was first run by a Mr. Armstrong, later by the father of the late Byron Robinson. Another Armstrong, Robert, sold milk in a building behind the store at one time, a round-faced man with a mustache to whom many a child was sent for the day's milk, a tin pail banging at their heels. The store was always known as the Handy Store until it closed in 1929, Mr. Damon dying the next year of a heart attack in the Grafton home of his friend and business associate, Will Putnam, who outlived him by only a few years. Will had started to compile material for a Grafton History which he never finished but which was com- pleted by Francis Palmer and published by Abbie Palmer in 1954. In 1923, Will, long and lean and with a heart of gold, had his delivery wagon struck by a car, breaking his leg, probably causing him to feel no kinder towards this new method of loco- motion. But for a few years more, children could still push pennies onto the big glass showcase which housed such delicacies as licorice strings and long sticks of white waxy gum, wrapped in red and white paper, a good chunk of which gave the chewer all the appearance of enjoying the mumps. In the early days, a pond existed beside the store, reaching almost down to the Methodist church where the frogs made orchestras on summer nights, boys sailed rafts and skated in winter. It came from the little brook which still leaps brightly down the hill only to be caught in a sewer pipe now for its hidden journey to the river.
Patrick Keane, with one of the early stores on Canal Street, is still patrolling the town on pleasant days, finding a welcome chair in many a shop whose owner he has known for many years or for few. At 87 he takes the air along the river and finds a quiet bench near where the old Four Pines once stood. In 1926, after thirty years in the grocery business, he closed his Boston Cash Grocery at 101 Atkinson street "to take it easy" and the store is now the Cash Store owned by Charles Jurkiewicz. In his first store in the Zeno building, without any training, he says that he increased his sales that first year by $3,800 "because he always had what the customer wanted." He bought his goods by the carload to save money and always kept his credit "A No. 1." He built several houses about town and educated his children well. Born in County Kerry, Ireland, he came here
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