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 15
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Putting up his car long before Christmas, the R.F.D. man once started out in a sleigh with buffalo robes, a hot freestone at his feet, long fur coat and cap, bearskin gloves and a sturdy horse. It was quite a trick to carry the Christmas mail in a sleigh! He waded through waist-deep snow to reach the boxes and scrabbled in it for dropped pennies, with his bare hands. He rode in the wake of the snow roller and often used a relay of three horses, and wore out more than one sleigh and buggy- to say nothing of the horses! But a good steed, with a trace, perhaps, of Morgan blood, was good for many years of mud and snow.
After the flood of '27, the mail, like the show, had to go on and go on it did, by the pioneer method of pony express with the aid of boats where the covered bridge over Williams River went out. Someone rode another horse to the other side of the river, the mailman tied his horse on the bank, tossed the mail into a boat, rowed to the other side, loaded up the fresh horse whose rider jumped into the boat and reversed the trip. It was a sort of Paul Revere ride, a relay race. Water stood over the main road north of the Falls so that only the tops of the telephone posts stood up like bizarre milestones and the mailman went 14 miles through Saxtons River to get the two miles into the post office-at no extra remuneration. When the hurricane of '38 struck, the mail still went through, on foot when necessary, by-passing fallen trees and torn out roads. People waited for the mail! Today he is liable to have to take to the meadows when the road is under water, in low spots. And if an icy road sends him into a tailspin, he oftens walks with his mail bag on his shoulder. Someway, the sanding trucks never quite seem to make it ahead of him.
Dirt roads still prove disastrous to cars in mud and snow time, too. But farm folks are kindly and a heavy team of horses will extricate him from a mud hole or a snow bank. Once the road commissioner at North Westminster had to pull the mail carrier out of the snow because he hadn't ploughed there yet. The next day he changed his mind about charging him the regular fee! Lying on snow and ice, putting on and taking off tire chains on a winter day is no job for the faint-hearted. Farm boys make good carriers, for back roads or bad roads, hold
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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
no terrors for them. And through the year, the mailman even has time, as he drives over the hills, to appreciate the autumn colors, the spring flowers beside the road, a summer brook. Spring, summer, fall and winter, there is always something interesting, of people and places, along the route. His theme song should be, "come hell or high water," Kipling's poem "Make Way for the Empress, the Overland Mail!"
According to the Federal Records Center of the General Services administration, Rural Service at Bellows Falls was established on December 2, 1901 and the Carrier's Route was designated as Route No. 1. This makes three different dates for this same event, 1899, 1900 and 1901. From the same source as above is given a listing of the Regular and Temporary Carriers to date.
Frank H. Mark aptd.
Regular Carrier ,,
12/2/01 6/16/03
resigned
6/15/03
William B. D. Hayes
8/15/04
1/31/06
Archie L. Vose
2/1/06
7/15/06
Annie L. Benson
7/16/06
discontinued
1/31/09
Annie Benson Hunt
Temp.
2/1/09
5/15/09
Edwin A. Rowe
Regular
5/16/09
resigned 12/20/13
E. A. Pierce
Temp.
12/22/13
discontinued
1/31/14
Ernest E. Keefe
Regular
2/2/14
Removed
7/3/16
C. Gerald O'Neill
Temp.
7/5/16
discontinued
11/29/16
Robert W. O'Connor
Regular
12/1/16
Following these and of which no dates were given are Ray J. Rand (to July, 1925), Linus P. Cleveland, Edward B. Tole, Leverett C. Lovell (1926-1952), John G. Lawlor (1953). The following persons served as Substitutes for the Regular Carriers during the following periods, which information is not available for the earlier years of the Service:
F. S. Livermore 2/12/07 to 5/15/09
Inez H. Rowe
5/16/09 to ?
Annie B. Hunt 10/17/09 to 1/31/10
H. Guy Chandler 2/27/10 to 9/26/11 Clarence W. Bush 9/27/11 to 11/4/12 Oscar H. Blossom 9/24/15 to ?
Also Robert Mark, Arnold Noyes, Putnam Lovell and John Lawlor, Jr. Nelson Ober also substituted once, on a motorcycle-before parcel post came in!
THE ROCKINGHAM FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY: The new Rockingham Free Public Library was not acquired without a struggle as were most things in this or any town. By 1905 the library in the Town Hall building was proving inadequate for the books as people were doing more reading than when the first library card was issued in 1888 to Dr. C. F. Meacham! In 1905, Andrew Carnegie, that cocky little five-foot Scotsman who made his money in iron and steel and who was to spend it on 2,811 libraries, 1,846 of them in the United States, offered one of them to Rockingham. Carnegie believed that "the removal of ignorance could be accomplished by exposure to
8/14/04
Eugene W. Cray
,,
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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
books," an idea generally accepted as the years went on. His first libraries, which appeared as far back as 1881, were always required to have the words LET THERE BE LIGHT on the building accompanied by an open book in bronze or stone. (The Age of the Moguls, Stewart Holbrook.) This fanciful decoration had been dropped by the time Rockingham came into the picture.
The Town had appropriated enough money to buy the Walter Smith land on Henry St. and a building committee was chosen. The new library was assured. Then the next year, with the unpredictability which characterizes many town affairs, it was voted down. There was much confusion and many people did not understand the terms of the offer. To clarify things, the Board of Trade published a pamphlet in- forming the town of the terms and why it should accept Mr. Carnegie's kind offer before he died or changed his mind, the committee in charge disseminating this information, consisting of N. G. Williams, A. E. Tuttle and Dr. Edward Kirkland.
The terms of the offer, as set forth on the booklet were (1) that the town should provide a suitable lot and (2) appro- priate $1,500 a year for maintainance of the same, a sum based, as was the donor's custom, on the census reports. There were no other obligations and it was stated clearly that the donor did NOT expect 10% interest on his gift and that the terms expected were the usual ones attached to such gifts, to hold the recipients to good faith in the project. The committee and Board of Trade felt that the town should not turn down this opportunity for a much needed library and in case it was so short-sighted, that it would soon be compelled to provide a library without any help.
Pictures and accounts of similar libraries in other places were displayed to the public and J. H. Blakely, postmaster, announced that the post office, now situated in the same build- ing, would be glad to take over the present library quarters for storage. Other firms were also interested in renting the space so it seemed it would be no burden to the town. L. S. Hayes, town clerk, said in the booklet that the town badly needed a safe place for historical records and items in the form of a local museum which would be fireproof and that no library which he had visited in his work of writing the History of Rockingham, had such poor accommodations in that respect, as Rockingham.
At a meeting of the Board of Trade in Banquet Hall, an informal vote was taken with all but one in the affirmative and he erroneously understood that the money donated by Mr. Carnegie had to be matched dollar for dollar by the town and that the building must be called the Carnegie Library. Although the town had already bought the Smith land, several alter- native offers had been made, one of these the vacant lot on the Wyman Flint land on Westminster St. which was finally
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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
chosen as necessitating no removal of buildings. Since a library could be built for 10 to 15 per cent less than it could have been the preceeding year and the legacy of the widow of Charles Town, which was $1,000, although shrunk through litigation to $300 was available it was deemed a propitious time to build. Mary L. Bowers also left a trust fund of $5,000, the interest of which was to go for library purposes.
It was also brought to the attention of the voters that the Vermont law compels every town to provide a fireproof vault for the records of the town clerk's office, which Rockingham had failed to do and that such space was urgently needed in the rooms occupied by the present library.
Letters from many citizens were printed, urging the new library under the terms of Mr. Carnegie. The ultimatum was presented to the people of Rockingham; should they tax them- selves for a $15,000 library or accept the gift offered to them? Perhaps some were still afraid of looking a gift horse in the mouth but it was so voted, in 1908, to accept the gift and F. H. Babbitt headed a committee to buy a site not to exceed $8,000 and the Flint land, for $5,000, was decided upon. The Woman's Club, at the time, considered buying the Flint stable for a club- house but found it financially impracticable. To N. G. Williams is given much credit for keeping the library question alive after it seemed hopelessly defeated by large majorities.
On October 8, 1908, the cornerstone was laid before a large gathering including the clergy, Mrs. Nellie Plantier, librarian and many prominent and less prominent citizens. The formal dedication was held in the hall of the new library on November 23, 1909 with A. N. Swain, president of the Board of Trustees and editor of the Bellows Falls Times, presiding. The first books were circulated that day.
Today the library is one of the important factors in the life of the community and few remember the labor pains with which it was born. It has a modern reference room, periodical room with all the late magazines and papers, a pamphlet file, picture file of the town and historical places, donated by interested people. Recent gifts by organizations and grateful individuals, of comfortable lounge chairs, tables and lamps, make a modern and comfortable reading room. Wide-spread publicity work is carried on by Mrs. Thomas, librarian, with radio, newspapers, book reviews and movies as her mediums. In 1942 there were 1,223 books collected for service men by the library and at present it sponsors hospital book service by high school girls who visit the hospital each week. In 1957 the old bound copies of the Bellows Falls Times, were put on microfilm.
In 1929 the children's annex was built, giving the young fry a room of their own under the supervision of their own librarian, Miss Florence Bodine who conducts a reading contest each summer for the children and Story Hours all through the
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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
school year. Upstairs is a museum and lecture hall, housing historical articles and mounted photos developed from the old glass plates of Mr. Russell C. Bristol, photographer who, luckily, left pictures of outstanding events of his period in Rockingham. The tall hall clock in the library was presented by the Bellows Falls Woman's Club and many portraits and pictures have been given to the library by local people so that while modern in decor and comfort, it is still a delightful gallery of the history of the town.
The building itself, save for the annex, is the same as when first built, two stories and basement with a 55 foot frontage on Westminster St. and a large bay window on each side, 35 feet deep and a "porch with pillars." The trimmings are granite and limestone and the floor is mosaic. Mr. McClean, the architect, said that his firm, which had built 20 libraries in New England during the two preceeding years, had never found a location as fine as this. Certainly the view down the Connecticut and of the New Hampshire hills is as beautiful as a painting, perhaps the painting hanging on the library wall of these same hills when they backgrounded Enoch Hale's first topless bridge.
The first librarian was Helen Hibbard (Day.) She was followed by Miss Nellie Adams, later Mrs. Edward J. Plantier, in 1892. Mr. A. N. Swain, president of the Board of Trustees, filled in as librarian for seven months that year. Nellie Adams received $25 per month and her assistant, $25 a year. Assis- tants which served over a long period included Miss Hattie Hildreth and Miss Jessie Dowlin. Miss Iva Young was ap- pointed librarian in June, 1921 and she occupied the position until her retirement in April, 1948 after 28 years of continuous service. Mrs. Donald Thomas took her place with Miss Betty Fish as assistant. Under Mrs. Thomas, originally assistant, Miss Young became the assistant for a few years before she left, reversing their positions. Probably the man who was on the Board of Trustees longer than anyone else was Dr. James Sutcliffe Hill, who served for 58 years.
Originally the library had a stack room for 13,500 volumes When Miss Young came there, the circulation was 31,423 books a year and when she retired as librarian, it was 71,225. The circulation has steadily increased and is now around 87,000 yearly.
Miss Young reminesces with interest about the days when rules and regulations were strict and strictly adhered to, when the library in the Town Hall building had a railing to keep books away from people and the librarian paid her assistant ten cents an hour. Books were like sacred cows and no one browsed among them, especially children. Today children have their own room in which to read. To some youngsters who are now oldsters, Mrs. Plantier in her black sleeve protectors and
Dwelling at Lovell Park Bellows Falls Vt.
DWELLING AT LOVELL PARK, BELLOWS FALLS, VT.
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L. T. LOVELL & SON, Office
WINTER ST. RAILWAY SCENE, PINE STREET HILL
SKINISAn St Bellows Falle Yt
1909
LOOKING SOUTH ON ATKINSON STREET
1909
Bettors Falls VL
LOOKING WEST ON HENRY STREET AT ATKINSON STREET INTERSECTION
Hellows Falls Ha
BELLOWS FALLS FAIR, OCTOBER 4, 1910
BELLOWS FALLS FIRE FIGHTERS
--
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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
stiff shirt waists, was an ogre whom you fearfully asked for the Blue Fairy Book or The Little Lame Prince. And you couldn't have a library card until you were thirteen! Today the Rock- ingham Free Public Library has the reputation of being one of the most outstanding libraries in the state.
THE ROCKINGHAM |MEMORIAL HOSPITAL: The year 1954 saw the opening of a modern hospital, gift of Mrs. Sylvia Green Wilkes, daughter of Hetty Green. It was opened to the public in September of that year after a three-day Open House period when 3,700 people visited this fireproof, thoroughly up-to-date building, inspecting it from the big airy kitchens and the reception rooms to the operating, X-ray and delivery rooms. Under the tutelage of guided tours, nothing was missed by the people anxious to see the inside of their $1,000,000 gift.
It was a far cry from that first little cottage hospital which opened its doors in June, 1912, after abortive earlier attempts to provide a hospital, the nearest then being at Hanover, N. H. where several hours travel in a buggy or sleigh were required, before a seriously ill person could receive help. As far back as 1902 the Mt. Kilbourne Hospital was incorporated by 23 local business men. The first directors of this hospital were G. H. Babbitt, pres .; N. G. Williams, G. B. Wheeler, D. P. Higgins, G. R. Wales, J. J. Fenton, J. C. Day, W. C. Belknap and Frank Pierce. The last surviving member of this Board was Mr. Wales. Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Higgins were appointed as a committee to look for a possible site and they turned up with the idea of land on the Minard's Pond Road. About $15,000 was subscribed and an architect from Springfield, Mass. submitted plans that called for an $11,500 brick building with expenses probably amounting to $3,500 and a possible annual deficit of $2,000. When the town refused to raise a 5% annual tax to take care of the deficit, the whole thing was called off and mothers went on having babies at home and people traveled fifty miles for an operation.
But the women in town were not downed as easily as the men. They had heard that where there was a will there was usually a way and they rolled up their collective sleeves. It started in the Woman's Club where some members had seen the bad accidents in the paper mills and in the railroad yards and they persuaded the other members that Bellows Falls needed a hospital even if it had to be a more modest building than was conceived of ten years ago. So a new hospital com- mittee was appointed and they really made the dirt fly. Mrs. J. C. Day, Mrs. A. I. Bolles and Mrs. J. J. Fenton comprised that committee and Mrs. Bolles, the remaining member, re- members vividly of working to get that first small hospital.
It was hard work, for even the doctors had their tongues in their cheeks. They doubted if it would work. And some of the club members were afraid that a hospital and their visit-
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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
ing nurse project would not dovetail. But the interested women drove on and finding that the old charter of the Mt. Kilbourne Hospital was still active, reorganized under the Rockingham Hospital Association. The first meeting was February 20, 1912 when it was voted to lease for five years, with an option to purchase, the house of Mrs. Agnes Lockwood in King's Field, for a short time the hospital of Dr. A. C. Liston, some of whose equipment should be purchased.
But this deal was not consummated as Mrs. Lockwood failed to give a purchase price on her home and instead, the house belonging to Mrs. Mary O. Newman was bought, the necessary funds furnished by the Woman's Club. Immediately the women received the full co-operation of the doctors who offered to equip the operating room themselves. Every organi- zation in town rallied to the cause to help the new hospital get its start in life and phone service was furnished free as were lights. In fact, anyone who had anything to give, was asked to donate it. Only in that way, on limited funds, could it carry on. And this was in a day when the superintendent, Miss Harriet Morris, earned only $50 a month! A nurses' training course was instituted the next year and continued for many years, a two and a half year course of which Miss Grace Moore was one of the first graduates.
It was soon evident that the little 14-bed hospital was not large enough and in 1914 negotiations were started for the purchase of the Fairbanks house on Pine Street for $6,500, with room for 25 beds on three floors. They had been contemplat- ing the purchase of the Newman house for $8,000. Mr. Clar- ence Williams was hired to renovate the new building, his price not to exceed $9,000 which, with later changes, pushed the cost up to $10,000. All this meant more money and fast for the working capital had faded to a mere $100. The finance com- mittee went to work to raise some cash.
By 1915 the directors were really in hot water for costs of the new hospital had moved up to $20,000 with a $10,000 mort- gage. The Woman's Club, still backing the hospital, had $4,000 in a hospital fund, $500 coming from the Knights of Columbus and the Universalist Church put on The Passing Show, directed by Mrs. Nettie Lovell which netted another $600 for the cause. A Mr. T. W. Davies from New York was hired to conduct a campaign to raise funds with a goal of $20,000 in an eight-day drive. But even after a month spent organizing workers with all the proficiency of 1915, the sum of $15,000 was the limit of people's resources. But as if to show that they meant business, the hospital moved determinedly over to the Fairbanks house on the day that the drive started, in June 29, with Miss Mildred McKee replacing Miss Anna Richardson, who had been the second superintendent. But even in the new hospital, the
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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
operating room was also the delivery room and all patients were lumped together regardless of everything except sex.
Then W. W. I arrived which sent prices soaring and which didn't do a thing for the hospital budget. By 1920 rates had to be raised with private rooms zooming to as much as $35 a week, the same amount that nurses were paid and coal was still $17 a ton. People were desperate and that year a meet- ing was held at which the directors were asked to resign and new ones were elected to try their hand at balancing the budget. These consisted of George R. Wales, president; A. H. Chandler, vice president; J. P. Lawrence, Secretary; A. P. Williams, A. I. Bolles, J. J. Fenton, J. E. Myers, H. S. Bishop and W. J. King.
But the indebtedness grew every day, along with the hos- pital, in spite of all efforts. When Mrs. John Wyman Flint offered her beautiful home to the town as a hospital in 1921, in memory of her husband and daughter, Catherine Flint Bisbee, it was gratefully accepted and functioned until the present one was opened in 1954. This stately home with tall pillars in front was, so the story goes, built at the same time as its neigh- bor, now Oakley Hall, on what was then called the South Ter- race, one home belonging to Col. Cornelius King, the other to Henry Francis Green. Both were exactly alike and when finished, the two men gambled to see who would occupy which house. Mr. Green drew what became the hospital.
The old stable, later the garage, of the Flint home, was remodeled into a nurses' home the next year and the third floor of the hospital became the maternity ward. With the installa- tion of an Otis elevator in 1925, a sun porch and other changes, another drive for funds, this time for $25,000 was instigated. By 1940 the hospital was approved by the American College of Surgeons, the goal of the doctors and 1941 saw the new $6,000 wing completed.
Much of the hospital's efficiency is due to the many gifts by individuals and organizations. Mrs. Fred Babbitt gave a fund to be used as necessary which provided a delivery table and scrub sink in the maternity ward and a $2,000 endowment from Mr. Babbitt allowed for additional equipment. In 1949 Mrs. Babbitt also gave a new anesthetic machine for the operating room and a resuscitator for the delivery room. In 1919 the Mary J. Arms Fund of $20,000 became available for use. In 1929, Otto Meyers, in memory of his wife, gave $1,000 for the laboratory room. Many other gifts including a sterilizer, gas oxygen machine and diathermy equipment and an X-ray ma- chine in 1920 presented by Dr. Gorham, made the hospital a more and more valuable to the community. The Rotary has always been generous with gifts including a new fire alarm sys- tem and in 1938 a Westinghouse X-ray machine was given by the Elks. The Red Cross presented $2,000 for a signal system. Among others who have given generously to the hospital over
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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
the years were E. L. Walker, Charles Vilas, Hattie Barber, Mary Bowers, George Whitney, Alice Pierce, Lydia Blood, Alice Gilbert, Charles Howard, Mary Ella Shaw, Cynthia Finley, Lucy and Susan Daniels, The Holden Fund, C. H. Morse, Alice Stannard, Kate Williams, Helen Watkins, Abbie Huntingdon, Ella Stevens and Addie Gonyeau. The Saunders Free Bed has helped many people whose resources could not encompass hospital care.
In February, 1951, the whole picture changed. More than a million dollars was left to the hospital by the terms of the will of the late Mrs. Sylvia Wilkes, erst-while resident of Rockingham and Bellows Falls. A year later a committee started preliminary plans for a new hospital or, instead, to re- model the old one. The former was decided as the most feasible and the Flint family ceded the old hospital building and land to the town although a clause in the deed entitled the heirs to reclaim the same if they ever ceased to be used for hospital purposes.
The first shovelful of earth was turned over for the new hospital by John Flint of Stowe, grandson of Mrs. Katharine Flint. At an impressive ceremony the cornerstone of the new hospital was laid by Clarence Bodine, president of the Hospital Board and Arthur Flint of Bronxville, N. Y. Also present was John Flint of Stowe and Mrs. Wyman Flint of Walpole. Arthur Flint spread the first trowel of cement over the cornerstone which contains a copy of the Bellows Falls Times of 1912 edited by the Woman's Club to earn money towards their first hospital; a copy of the floor plan of the new hospital, a copy of the con- tract and of the by-laws and constitution of the Rockingham Hospital Assn., the trowel and shovel to be kept on display in the new building.
Also present at the ceremony were Mrs. A. I. Bolles, only living member of the Woman's Club committee who started the original project and George R. Wales, aged 94 the only living original incorporator, who watched from his hopital win- dow. Mrs. J. J. Fenton, also of the first Woman's Club commit- tee was represented by her daughter, Miss Elaine Fenton. Dr. Fred Osgood of Saxtons River and Dr. Oscar Young of Charles- town, N. H. and on the medical staff since the first hospital was started, were also present.
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