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 19
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Before 1910 the Health Department of the General Federa- tion sold Christmas Stamps to raise money to fight tuberculosis, part of that movement which was getting under way in America, originating in Denmark in 1904. Tuberculosis was then the No. 1 killer and in 1910 the word "stamps" was dropped as the National Tuberculosis Assn. took over from the Red Cross and which each year sells the familiar Christmas Seals.
As previously stated, it was the Woman's Club who pushed the Hospital into being in spite of the fact that they had a "district" nurse. In 1905 they were talking hospital and five years later Mrs. J. C. Day suggested a cookbook, compiled by members, the proceeds to start a Hospital Fund. Thirty years later a second cookbook was issued. Things moved right along and the next year the club was officially accepting gifts and donations. The town rubbed its eyes and woke up. Organi- zations, merchants and individuals contributed. The cook- book brought in $350 and Mrs. M. J. Butler collected $88.70 from school children toward a children's free bed. W. C. Belknap turned over the June 12, 1912 issue of the TIMES to the club which did all the work on it. In 1920 the club again took over the paper, this time for the Visitng Nurse.
The annual influx of Fresh Air Children to Bellows Falls is also due to the club whose Civic Committee met a roving Herald-Tribune representative looking for new fields to conquer. It ended by the club's finding places for 40 children to stay including an empty building at Vermont Academy which took half of them and a bungalow in Walpole where Mrs. Gilbert agreed to take 10 and the rest by various families. Each year since, an eager group of "Fresh Air" children is met at the train by local hostesses for a two-week vacation. The club worked with the P.T.A. in 1912-1913 to make this organization a success through its Social Service Department. It always had a Home Garden Committee until, as the Bellows Falls Garden Club, it became an entity in its own right. Forty years ago it created interest in home beautification and village clean-ups 10 See Addendum
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through the school children. During W. W. I they arranged for gardens at the Basin Farm in charge of Dr. Bert Merriam. Beautification began in 1912 when the Woman's Club "for the first time turned their attention to civics" and a one-page spread in the Times included articles by various towns people. Dr. E. S. Allbee begged people to fight flies and Mrs. George Welch authored an article to protect trees, eliminate dumps and unsightly vacant lots and give seeds to school children. Mrs. Mary Kirkland spoke ardently for the Playground which was to ma- terialize in another two years and Addie J. Baker wrote on garbage disposal, clean homes and streets. Eva Mary Daye advocated Junior Civics, interesting youth in keeping their village clean.
It was through the initiative of the club that, shortly after W. W. I, an Americanization movement was started in town and it was also the club, represented by Mrs. Edward Kirkland together with Rev. Johonnot of the Citizens'No-License Com- mittee who appeared before the trustees in 1919 to protect the morals of the town which appeared to be slipping in the direction of gambling and drinking in the poolrooms. But their biggest worry was the Hooche-kooche dance, the "shimmy" of the post war period. In the era of hobble skirts the club went on record as setting an example of "simple, sane dressing." The next year they opened their rooms in Banquet Hall for a restroom and Exchange and three days before Christmas, opened them for weary shoppers as well as Saturday afternoons and evenings, serving tea and chocolate and sandwiches for a small price.
The Girl Scouts have always been sponsored by the club and since 1910 some deserving girl has gone to normal school through a club scholarship. During the last war, it helped a girl to study nurses' training. It annually takes charge of the fund-raising for the Vermont Children's Aid. It instigated the Stamp Saving System in the schools early in its career which lasted into the 1920's. As a member of the State Federation, the club did its part in obtaining an appropriation from the Legislature which resulted in the Home Demonstration of Vermont.
The biggest handicap which the club had for many years was the lack of a permanent meeting place as it was soon diffi- cult to find a home large enough. In 1908 the club was urged by the owners of the Wyman Flint lot, now the Rockingham Library, to purchase it including the stable behind it, to be used as a clubhouse. The Flint home became the Masonic Temple. Mrs. Flint's idea was to sell bonds to pay for it but it looked like too big a job and all energies were put toward the new hospital instead as they continued to meet in Odd Fellows Hall. Several organizations offered the use of their rooms and in 1918 meetings were being held in the High School auditorium.
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When Banquet Hall burned in the Town Hall fire of '25, the old system of halls and churches was fallen back upon, generously offered to it. In 1927 the club moved into its present quarters in the new building. But even this was not accomplished with- out a struggle to persuade the architects that it WAS possible to have a stage and that the ceiling would NOT fall down if supports were in the guise of posts which, while inconvenient, meant the difference between a stage and not a stage.
In October, 1936, Mrs. A. I. Bolles, to celebrate the club's 35th anniversary, wrote a poetical pageant depicting the events and projects over the years. Those taking part were Mrs. E. S. Whitcomb, Mrs. E. E. Trask, Mrs. Kenneth Kent, Mrs. A. C Liston, Mrs. George Thompson, Mrs. M. F. Downing, Mrs. Hardy Merrill, Mrs. Ernest Dean and Mrs. Leverett Lovell. In October, 1951, the 50th birthday of the club was celebrated with another pageant written by Mrs. Lovell covering 50 years of club work in a Parade of the Years, opening with a short skit showing a sewing society discussing the possibility of a new club in town and ending with a skit showing a modern board meeting of the club with the actual officers of the club. In 1910, six committees filled all club needs. In 1920 there were 13, one of them the Rural Needs Committee. Today there are 15 and today there are three charter members of the club still present at almost every meeting, Miss Anna Alexander of Saxtons River, Miss Lucy Barker and Mrs. Blanche Mac- Donald. In December, 1955, the club sponsored 12 Mexican young people who lived for a month with local families under the Experiment in International Living whose U. S. Head- quarters is only a few miles away, in Putney, Vt. Mrs. Richard Sprague of Alstead, N. H. was in charge of the project. In 1922, dues were raised from two to three dollars.
From 1940 to 1953, when the books were closed, a Junior Woman's Club for high school and older girls, functioned but the pressure of high school activities caused its discontinuance. Thirty years before, the Bellows Falls Business Girls' Club was organized with 52 members which soon swelled to 60 and this also was connected with the Woman's Club, meeting evenings in the clubrooms and members eligible to attend any club meet- ings possible. Regular dues were paid and they had a supper once a month which usually cost them about a quarter. Past Presidents of the Bellows Falls Woman's Club are *Mrs. Jose- phine H. Arms, 1902-1903; * Mrs. Francis G. Flint, 1903-1905; *Mrs. George E. Welch, 1905-1907; * Miss Olive S. Prentice, 1907-1909; * Mrs. Allison E. Tuttle, 1909-1911; * Mrs. Myron H. Ray, 1911-1913; * Mrs. Edward Kirkland, 1913-1915; * Mrs. Willis C. Belknap, 1915-1917; * Mrs. Allison E. Tuttle, 1917- 1918; * Mrs. Bert E. Merriam, 1918-1920 ;* Mrs. Herman J. Searles, 1920-1922; Mrs. Perley W. Walker, 1922-1923; * Mrs. John S. Burnett, 1923-1925; * Mrs. Rema E. Murray, 1925-1927;
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Mrs. Claude M. Sweet, 1927-1929; Mrs. Chester Ferguson, 1929-1931; Mrs. Almon I. Bolles, 1931-1933; Mrs. Natt L. Divoll, Sr, 1933-1935; Mrs. Anne B. Coolidge, 1935-1937; * Mrs. Helen C. Merrill, 1937-1939; * Mrs. Winnifred H. Whitcomb, 1939-1940; Mrs, Preston H. Hadley, 1940-1942; Mrs. George H. Thompson, 1942-1943; Mrs. Wilfred G. Bodine, 1943-1945; Mrs. Wilfred E. Leach, 1945-1947; Mrs. Richard G. Bath, 1947-1948; Mrs. Howe C. Davis, 1948-1949; Mrs. Richard G Bath, 1949-1950; Mrs. William J. Frey, Jr., 1950-1952; Mrs. Max D. Bliss, 1952-1954; Mrs. John A. Stewart, 1954-1956; Mrs. Francis A. Bolles, 1956 -. * Deceased.
THE SOROPTIMIST CLUB. Organized in 1945, for six years the Soroptimist Club was very active in town. A member of the international professional women's organization of that name, its activities were based on rules and regulations similar to those of the Rotary Club and included women from all walks of life in business for themselves or others. Its na- tional endeavors included funds for cancer research and fellow- ships for research and study for women all over the world. Organized with 28 members, its local community projects pro- vided easy chairs for the library, a dressing carrier for the hospital and financial assistance for a crippled boy. Presi- dents of the club, in order, were, Miss Imogene Parker, Town clerk; Miss Margaret Neyland, insurance; Mrs. Ora Campbell, bookkeeper; Mrs. Frances Lovell, writer; Miss Marie Lawlor, law secretary; Mrs. Helene Jakway, trucking and newspaper; Miss Etta Norton, dental nurse.
THE BELLOWS FALLS GARDEN CLUB. This group of garden-minded women was an off-shoot of the Garden Com- mittee in the Woman's Club and joined the Federated Garden Clubs of Vermont and the National Federation with 26 charter members in 1937 under the leadership of Mrs. Walter Hadley. Dedicated to community service it has landscaped entirely the library and helped with the landscaping of the Rockingham Memorial Hospital, the new Elementary School and the Hetty Green parking lot. Trees have been planted in Bellows Falls to replace those removed by time and progress including a row of maples set out along the river where once tall pine trees grew. These were donated by Mrs. Herman Weston from her farm in Saxtons River. The nurseryman who planted the trees received a bad case of poison ivy from the rank growth on the bank. These trees have not matured as well as expected, perhaps from too judicious pruning by the town. During W. W. II this club sponsored Victory Gardens, providing the seeds for school children and overseeing the gardens all summer, working with the Farm Bureau and ending with a Harvest and Flower Show in the Woman's Club rooms in August. One of its chief pro- jects is plants for the Veterans' Hospital in White River, Vt. The Garden Club was the first local group to raise money toward
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a swimming pool which it did in 1947 with a flower show and musicale at the home of Mrs. Otto Hoelzel. Presidents of the club are Mrs. Walter Hadley, 1937; Mrs Ernest Holmes, 1938; Mrs. Frances Rice (Weston), 1939; Mrs. E. S. Whitcomb (occu- pied the chair), 1940; Mrs. N. L. Divoll, 1940-1942; Mrs. Leverett Lovell, 1943-1947; Mrs. Earl Cooke, 1947-1948; Mrs. Otto Hoelzel, 1948-1955; Mrs. Russell Black, 1955-1957; Mrs. William Kratky, 1957-1958.
THE WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION. This organization was strong in New England in 1924 when the Rev. Helen Carison of Greene, Me., lectured to a small audience in the Baptist Church in Bellows Falls, urging them to greater activity in spite of the passage of the 18th Amendment. The W.C.T.U. was not strong locally and the speaker reminded her listeners that they must "keep armed and equipped for aggressive action against a foe as sub le and tireless as the evil one himself." But the local women evidently could not compete with the boot- leggers who also moved into combat the 18th Amendment for little is heard from the society in later years. One of the so- ciety's most avid workers was Mrs. E. Carson Mason who addressed audiences in Rockingham in 1910 when, notoriously. dry, it was threatened with license in which event North Wal- pole, just across the river, suggested that it would be glad to come over and open a few saloons. This spurred the W.C.T.U.'s to greater activity and Mrs. Mason told her audiences that she doubted if "Christ ever turned water into wine."
THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA was started in 1910 by Daniel Beard, author, naturalist and illustrator. For a number of years there was a community troop in Bellows Falls under the leadership of, among others, Rev. Wallace Chesbro, Rev. A. P. Pratt and W. E. Stockwell. The first first-class Boy Scout in town was Daniel F. Ryder and in 1948 Philip Gould became the third boy in town to become an Eagle Scout. The Windham-Windsor Council was formed in 1926 under Leon Gay of Cavendish with John P Lawrence chairman of the first troop committee and Herman James, secretary. Lawrence A. Bevan, manager of the Dimmock Orchards, was Scoutmaster .. Members of the old Community Troops, No. 1 and 2, were given the first chance to re-register under the new Council. The first officers and patrol leaders were Kelton Sweet, Roy New- comb, Lawrence Blanchard, Frank Whitcomb, Robert Howe, Julius Church and Norman Faulkner. The Windham-Windsor Council became the Calvin Coolidge Council because two towns in Orange County were also members of the council. The Pollard farm in Plymouth, Vermont, became Camp Plymouth at this time, purchased for the boys by a group of interested. men. The first Council office was in Bellows Falls and John Dizer and Edward Knapp were among the early directors. In' 1929, Henry "Chick" Fowler, a former Secret Service Man,
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was working with the Scouts. The Hartford, Conn. Times, which he said misquoted him, accused him of calling Vermont, "unwashed, ungodly and poverty-stricken." He catapulted into almost a national fray with every paper in Vermont picking up the challenge. It ended when the Bellows Falls Times ran a feature story in favor of Vermont and everyone decided that "every knock was a boost"-for Vermont.
11 In 1950 Arlon Cota took over the duties of director with an office in the Square and the Council has grown from four or five units in Bellows Falls, Springfield and Brattleboro to 117 units and 3,000 members. The 1953 goal was an enroll- ment of 2,650 against 2,100 the preceding year which had 650 Cub Scouts, 630 Scouts, 215 Explorers and 480 adult leaders. The Cubs started in 1937 in Clarence Bodine's gameroom which the 20 members soon outgrew. George Page was Scoutmaster followed by William Fowler. The Catholic Boy Scouts started in 1939 with Directors, John C. Hennessey, P. F. Slattery, Dr. R. S. Elmer, Maurice Stack, T. F. Fitzgerald and R. S. Kiniry. One of the oustanding leaders in Scout work is John Bronk who became a Scout in 1927 and who received the Award of Merit from the local D.A.R. in January, 1955. He was junior assistant Scoutmaster at the age of 17 in West Carthage, N. Y. and held the same position in Bellows Falls from 1940 to. 1942. After his discharge from the Army he was Scoutmaster of Troop I until he resigned in 1949. In 1950 he was chairman of three districts in the Calvin Coolidge Council and still serves as a member of the Executive Board of the Council. For two years he has been training Scoutmasters in the three districts of the Council and in 1952, received the Silver Beaver Award, highest recognition given by the Council to an adult Scout worker. This award was also received by John C. Hennessey, Sr.
THE GIRL SCOUTS OF GREATER BELLOWS FALLS, VT., INC. The Girl Scouts is a national organization, non- sectarian and non-partisan, its purpose to help girls realize the responsibilities in the home and service to the community. The program is planned on broad educational lines, giving girls experience in outdoor living, a practical knowledge of health, homemaking and arts and crafts. The activities are aimed to develop initiative, self control, self-reliance and unselfish service. Girl Scouting was introduced in 1912 in Savannah, Georgia by Mrs. Juliette Low and in 1918 a troop was formed in Bellows Falls which functioned under the sponsorship of the Congre- gational Church with Mrs. Warner Graham and Miss Marion French as Leaders. Another troop was started in 1919 under Miss Anna Richardson and Mrs. Merrill Powers. Neither of these troops seem to have lasted and in January, 1930, at the Baptist Church, the Scouts were reorganized under Mrs. Curry Spidell, Captain and Miss Thelma E. Reed, Lieutenant and joining the national organization. Early members of this troop 11 See Addendum
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were Alma Crommett, Beatrice Russell, Lena Bussey, Alta and Avis Reed, Alvia and Ruth Garland, Esther Richards, Hilda Mark, Madeline McCarthy, Ruth Bartlett, Anne Lovell, Ruth Taylor, June Somers, Elizabeth O'Brien, Ruth Mayo, Gwendolyn Murray, Florence Stanford, Rita Goulet, Thelma Frederick, Elsie Miner and Eleanor Barwick. A second troop was regis- tered March, 1930, with eight girls, meeting in the United Church. Other Leaders were Mrs. Eleanore Aldrich and Mrs. Winifred Whitcomb. A Brownie Troop under Mrs. Reginald Cleary and Mrs. Donald Kellogg was first registered in 1933.
The Bellows Falls Girl Scout Community Committee was formed in 1932 with Mrs. E. Gerald Adams, Mrs. Eleanore Aldrich, Miss Elizabeth Parsons and Mrs. H. Bert Underhill. In 1935 the Bellows Falls Girl Scout Council was formed and enlarged to include Saxtons River, North Westminster and North Walpole, N. H. and was incorpored in 1949 as the Bellows Falls, Vermont, Girl Scout Council, Inc. At the annual meet- ing in January, 1955, it was voted to change from the traditional type of Council to the Association, to be called the Girl Scout Council of Greater Bellows Falls, Vermont, Inc. At this time Alstead, N. H. was added to the Council. Present officers are President, Mrs. Richard Sprague; First Vice President, Mrs. Morton F. Downing, Jr .; Second Vice President, Mrs. Wilbur: F. Chamberlain; Recording Secretary, Mrs. H. Booth Wood; Corresponding Secretary, Miss Charlotte Blood; Treasurer, Mrs. Nelson Faught.
An intensive Girl Scout program is conducted through the year including weekly troop meetings, a two-week Day Camp and a month of established camping at Camp Plymouth each August. On January 1, 1955, there were 14 registered troops, 59 registered adults and 187 registered Girl Scouts and Brownies. Among Scouts receiving the highest scouting award, the Curved Bar, were Susan Lillie and Sally Buxton. Before her associa- tion with Scout Work in Bellows Falls, Mrs. E. Gerald Adams was Director of Girl Scout work in Lynn, Mass. since 1925 with about 20 troops under her guidance. In 1956 she was presented an award by the local D.A.R. for her outstanding work in this organization.
Soon after 1910 a Campfire Group of girls was organized with Miss Ethel Hill as Leader which carried on for several years. It was reorganized in 1941 with Mrs. William Waite as Leader but it has not functioned for a number of years.
THE ROCKINGHAM TEACHERS' CLUB began in 1912 as a social group through the interests of Miss Katharine Collins. It continued to function informally until January 14, 1919. when the club adopted a constitution setting forth its ob- jects as "social culture and professional improvement" which remain the same today. All teachers in the Rockingham schools are eligible for membership besides the principal and superin-
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tendent. Husbands and wives and ex-teachers may become associate members and school board members are honorary members. The club meets several times a year now instead of monthly. Vilas Pool and Barber Park were gathering places for many years for the final picnic which now takes the form of a banquet. Several plays were put on by the club at one time as well as other enterprises which enabled it to buy a projector for the high school, dishes for the Home Economics Department and to support many worthwhile projects such as the McConnell Home for Aged Teachers and in 1930 it established a dental clinic for elementary children. In 1948 the teachers from the Westminster school district were included in the club which is now known as the Rockingham-Westminster Education Associ- ation. It has sent two delegates to the Vermont Education Association since 1946. In 1953 the teachers at Kurn Hattin Homes were invited to become members. Officers for 1954- 1955 were President, Mrs. Thelma Quinn; Vice President, Mrs. Hazel Chamberlain; Secretary, Mr. Richard Jillson; Treasurer, Mrs. Dora Lyon.
THE ROCKINGHAM PLAYERS were organized in the fall of 1941 by a group of interested people who had staged several plays for the Woman's Club, coached by Donald Kellogg. As a result of these successful endeavors they banded together to form the Players which put on one or two plays a season for many years until 1953 when, after staging the Centennial play, Enoch Hale's Bridge, enthusiasm waned. The first President was John Wisell and President today is Dr. William Collins. Among other actively engaged with the Players were Billigene Hosmer, Margaret McDonald Veitch, Prentiss Haines, Mary Howard, Ruth Lenahan, Mr. and Mrs. Fenwick Leonard, Regis Massucco, Mary Regan, Ruth Trask, Max Miller and John Healey.
The DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLU- TION. The local chapter of the D.A.R. was organized Novem- ber 13, 1907 by Mrs. Susan W. Putnam Swain, wife of the former editor of the Bellows Falls Times. It was named for William French, the youth killed at the Westminster Massacre in 1775, said to have been the first man who died in the Revolution and the ancestor of Miss Marion French of this town. Mrs. Bert Halladay, another direct descendant, was a member of the chapter at one time. The gavel used by this chapter, pre- sented by James F. MacLennon, husband of Mrs. Gertrude King MacLennon, a charter member, was fashioned from three pieces of wood taken from the Court House, the old Tavern and the first Westminster Meetinghouse.
With membership limited to fifty in the beginning, there was always a waiting list and through the years the organization has held many outstanding social events which, however, con- stitute only a minor part of the club's activities. As far as
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financially possible, the chapter has always tried to take part in all philanthropic and religious matters as well as those of a patriotic and social nature. All important events in Rocking- ham have been marked by these women for the benefit of future generations.
One of the first sites to be marked was the spot at the mouth of the Williams River where John Williams and 112 others including his wife and family, halted enroute to Canada at this point to hold, among his savage captors, the first Protes- tant sermon in Vermont. Captured by a band of French and Indians at Deerfield, Mass., on February 29, 1704, when their village was burned, they stopped to rest and hold divine service on that Sunday, the fifth of March. During the regency of Mrs. Herbert Mitchell, this marker was dedicated with appro- priate ceremonies. Upon the building of the new road to Springfield in 1932, this marker was moved up to junction of Routes 103 and 5.
The chapter has always been interested in keeping intact the ancient Indian picture-writing on the rocks below the Vilas Bridge. In 1917, when this was the old Tucker Toll Bridge, Fred Spicer, house painter, was hired to outline these carvings with paint that visitors might more easily see them, eradicated by time and floods as they were. When his work was done, to these historic pictures, carved by the red men 300 years ago, he added a little advertisement of his own, "Fred Spicer, 1917." During the regency of Mrs. Moseley, she was instrumental in having the old figures re-cut after being outlined in paint by Albert Bolles.
The marking of All Revolutionary soldiers' graves in the various town cemeteries was accomplished during the regency of Miss Ethel Hill and an impressive service was held in the Rockingham Meetinghouse to mark the event. Following historical sketches by Lyman S. Hayes, Historian and others, the address of the day was delivered by the Hon. John Barrett of Grafton, Minister to Siam and founder of the Pan-American Union.
Dedications of markers of soldiers in adjoining towns have been held at various times including the graves of Col. Enoch Hale in Grafton, the builder of the first bridge across the Connecticut River at any point, in 1784; Col. Azariah Webb in Lunenburg and Benjamin Pierce in Londonderry, one of Washington's first aides. In Westminster West and Grafton, descendants were present for the ceremonies.
The home of the first settled pastor in town, Rev. Samuel "Priest" Whiting, was marked on August 2, 1936. On April 16, 1931, the bronze tablet marking the building of the first bridge by Col. Hale and the second bridge by Nathaniel Tucker in 1840 were presented to the town by the D.A.R. A tablet was also later placed on the canal bridge to mark the spot where
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