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 23
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In 1905 Lovell Park on the Rockingham Road was one of the big amusement places in town. On the Fourth of July the Bellows Falls Driving Club opened the season with a big day of racing on the field always known afterward as the Lovell Track Farm. For racing fans, it was always the favorite attraction of the season, vying with Barber Park on every holiday. Among the old names of the popular Driving Club were Charlie O'Neil, Charlie Frost, Patrick Griffin, Tom Bush- way, Matt Abbott, Patrick O'Brien and Fred LeBourveau of Walpole. On that first big day, special trains were run up from the Falls to a point on the river below the Track on a sid- ing which wore the sign Riverside, the potential site of a station which never materialized. Each train had three cars and 420 tickets were sold at the railroad station in Bellows Falls. Many people drove up in their own conveyances and a steady stream of the "carriage trade" stirred up the dusts of the road with their buggies, surreys and buckboards. The total attendance®
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ranged from 700 to 1,600 "depending on who did the talking" the paper said.
Among the many races held that day, cart races and saddle races, were three youthful entrants in the pony races, both saddle and wagon. Young Lev Lovell won both with his pony Betsey who "could out-run any pony that ever was." he said. Runner-up was Starlight ridden and driven by Charlie Cray and Major Kelton with Kelton, owner. Lewis C. Lovell bred race horses on the Track Farm until into the '20's and the old judges' stand stood in the center of the field which was sur- rounded by a high board fence. Behind the race track, at long tables in a grove of white pines over the river, clam bakes were held and dances in a rude pavilion. On the meadow below the Track, was a field called the Steam Mill lot from the mill later built on the old cellar hole, once the rude cabin of Michael Lovell, one of the first settlers in town and where some of the first proprietors' meetings were held. The land was owned and farmed for many years by Leverett C. Lovell and now belongs to his sister and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Otto Hoel- zel. To the north, on the edge of the bluff, until it was swallowed by the lumber mill of Thomas Hannifin, was the cellar hole of Enos Lovell, the second child born in the town, who built there a home for his bride. So time moves on and the old days are gone, the home sites of our fathers destroyed by progress and the old race track has become a corn field.
But while horses no longer run neck and neck on local tracks, there are those who carry on the tradition. Eugene "Genie" Cray, although now living in North Walpole, is a part of Bellows Falls as he grew up and owns real estate here. He is famous for his string of harness horses which led the nation in 1937 and which has made him famous many times since. In the Harness Horse, official magazine of harness men, he is called "the busiest man in the state of Vermont" with his horses scattered all over New England race tracks. It calls him the Fire Chief horseman and the Gasoline King from his Texaco gas business of which he is the distributor in the Connecticut Valley. One horse which Cray and Charlie Frost sold in 1927 went to Mayor Jimmy Walker of New York. In 1945 his Royal Windsor set the world record for trotting. His White Mountain Boy won $14,921 in one season. Another horseman is N. O. Cote of Westminster whose horses have won many prizes and in 1947 added eleven more ribbons to their winnings in New Hampshire. Mr. Cote operates a jewelry shop in the Square.
Another Cray venture which drew wide attention through an article in TIME magazine in 1950 concerned his finding a place for the Murray Heel Company in North Walpole as it decided to move from its antiquated quarters in Brattleboro. So "Genie" went into a huddle with local bankers and built a
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new plant himself across the river. The TIME story humor- ously called Mr. Cray a "real-life cross between David Harum and Scattergood Baines," as he never puts on airs and you might not know him from one of his own stable men. He said it was the first time he had ever built a heel factory although in four decades of Yankee trading, he had built or bought just about everything else. His "hodge-podge" of business includes such items as an oil company and 77 filling stations; harness horses, four drug stores, a hotel, wholesale liquor, an auto agency and a theater. TIME called the heel business "a Yankee horse trade" but Cray said he wanted to keep it around here because it employed 125 workers, had a payroll of $4,500 and produced annually, seven million rock maple heels for women's shoes. He once considered putting up an inde- pendent generating plant on the Connecticut and more build- ings to house more industries. He might just do it, too. When he burned the last village mortgage in 1937, our sister village across the river, became the only New Hampshire village free from debt.
WHEELER'S BAND AND EXNER'S ORCHESTRA 13
Each week through the summer for many years, the village band presented public concerts from the portable bandstand usually set up in front of the high school. Beginning promptly at eight o'clock, everyone was on their way home by ten-or should have been. It was two hours of a warm evening when everyone in town either strolled up and down School Street in pairs, groups or families, sat on the high school lawn or rocked on front porches and burned punk sticks against the mosquitoes in the flickering shadows of the maples and the street lights. Mr. Patch, the popcorn man and later, Lovell Whittaker, set up his cart with the stuttering gas light across the road from the bandstand. He popped his corn with fuel which, he pumped from a tank and handed out striped, buttery bags as fast as he could scoop them up. A band concert without popcorn was no concert at all. Later the ice cream cone made its effete appearance.
The outstanding figure of the concerts for half a century was George B. Wheeler who became a member of the band when he came to town in 1870 and who gave his whole interest, life and energy to it for more than fifty years. The band which was only two years old then and which became the oldest band in Vermont, was under the leadership of P. W. Taft of Saxtons River, photographer, but Mr. Wheeler was soon given the baton which he did not lay down for 60 years when he handed it on E. P. Taft, son of P. W. who handed it to Fred Exner in 1927. In 1917, George Exner brother of Fred, was manager and treas- urer of the band, a position which he held for 35 years. 13 See Addendum
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It was always known as Wheeler's Band, one of the best in the state and when Mr. Wheeler, the oldest bandleader in Ver- mont and probably New England, was laid to rest in October, 1930, he was accompanied on the long march to the cemetery at his own request, by his band, playing the last time for him.
When Mr. Wheeler first came to town, there was little music being written for bands and no money for a local band but so deeply did he believe that the town needed a band that he often footed the bills himself. Finally the town fathers were persuaded to appropriate $400 a year until 1928 when it voted to give the men $700 or 1% of the village tax rate. This stipend had to take care of all expenses including lights, music and putting up the bandstand which always cost six dollars and which was, by that time so ricketty that each concert might well have been the last-as well as the last of the players. If, on rare occasions, there was some money left over, it was divided among the home players, the lion's share going to those most faithful at rehearsals.
Older people remember that you could almost tell the turn of the weather by the set of Mr. Wheeler's hat. They say that when you saw him coming up from the depot with his hat on the side of his head and a whistle on his mouth, it meant that some- one had come in on the train who could play in the band. But when he marched soberly up Canal Street, his hat set squarely on his head, they knew that no one but a Chinaman, like his own faithful Sam Wo, had arrived that day for Chinamen were essential to Mr. Wheeler's laundry business but not nearly as exci- ting as trombone players. They also say that no matter how ill he might be, the band always came first and that the summer when he was in bed with asthma, he got up to play with the boys on the Fourth of July.
Arthur J. Abbott, supervisor of music in the Buffalo, N. Y. schools until his retirement in 1930, must have received his start in a career in the band as he wrote that he played FOR Mr. Wheeler in the band and WITH him in the orchestra. As a boy, he lived in Westminster with relatives and had one of the biggest thrills of his life when Mr. Wheeler let him "sit in" at rehearsals and later play third cornet in the band. When he later studied music in Boston, his cornet teacher was the first trumpeter of what is now the Boston Symphony Orchestra and brother of Ed Bagley of Keene, N. H. of the Wheeler Band, and who wrote the famous National Emblem March, first played by the Wheeler Band and since by bands everywhere and con- sidered on a level with the work of Sousa. The widow of the author, it is claimed, received only ten dollars for the sale of the music. Mr. Abbott recalled playing a cornet duet with Elmer Eddy, who doubled as a dentist and whose father was the well-known lawyer. To prove that it is a small world, Mr. Eddy moved to Gardner, Mass. and played in the Gardner
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Band which Mr. Abbott directed. In his letter he mentioned the fine Besson instruments from England, used by the local band, paid for mostly by Mr. Wheeler.
Alfred K. Wright of Short Hills, N. J. also wrote that his father, the late D. P. Wright of Westminster, played the bari- tone horn in the band from 1900 for many years. Working at the Abenaqui Machine Shop, he would bicycle to the "lower street" for supper then pedal up to Bellows Falls for rehearsals and concerts. Mr. Wright himself started playing in the band about 1924, playing solo cornet under George Exner until 1935 when he left town. He remembers the out-of-town concerts in Claremont, Keene, Brattleboro, Charlestown, Springfield and other places as well as the Sunday concerts at Vilas Pool in Alstead, N. H. Arthur Thompson of Saxtons River, another of the few remaining members of the original band, gave much interesting information and added that he would never forget the time they were playing in Brattleboro and an old Motel-T Ford snorted past, tooting its "squeeze horn" whereupon Ed Bagley immediately struck the same note on his baritone horn to the great glee of the band. He says that E. P. Taft was a top music student being well informed on musical history, theory and harmony with a sure knowledge of the fundamentals of every instrument in the band which always played the best of the old composers as well as modern pieces.
Among the many men who belonged to the band over the years who played Sousa's marches, Down By the Old Mill Stream and always closed at ten o'clock with Home, Sweet Home, were also Oliver Fredette, Fred Blake, Perley Washburn, faithful members for over 20 years; Perley Huntoon and his father Harley, Nelson Howard, Ernest and Carl Bowen, Jim McGuin- ess, Fred Winnewisser and Chris Lovell, both of whom also sang; Will Lockwood, Leon Swift and his father Gilbert who introduced the first drum corps into town; Selah Harriman and Dr. Spaulding of Keene; Fred G. Edson who, with Harley Huntoon were among the oldest members. When Mr. Huntoon died, in 1931 at the age of 75, he was buried in his uniform which he had worn for half a century. There were also Ned Pierce, Herbert Johnson, John Brown and Oscar Hart who manufac- tured special clothespins to hold the music on the racks when the wind blew; Herbert Williams, clarinet player and director of the Windsor band and Sewall Morse of Brattleboro, cornet teacher who did duets with E. P. Taft; Fred Williams of Wind- sor, Alan Woods and Charlie Hutchins of Charlestown, N. H. and Allie Smith, some belonging to the younger generation before the high school band took over in parades and concerts. There was no Vermont Philharmonic then but men who had music in them, found an outlet in the band, coming from near and far to practice, by train and trolley, bicycle and horse and buggy and finally, automobile. Wheeler's Band is only a
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memory but a band still plays occasionally on summer nights at the park on the Hetty Green Parking Lot. They are still both young and old and they are still lovers of music and listen- ing to them above the river, if you have lived half a century or more, you can almost think that George B. Wheeler is again raising his baton for the down beat.
Another musical group in town for many years which played on almost every occasion which demanded music, was Exner's Orchestra, a family group which included band members Fred and George and which was on hand for every high school graduation with Pomp and Circumstance. It played for every traveling show around 1910 and consisted orginally of Emil Exner, the father who played the bass viol and his children, Fred, George, Paul, Elizabeth and Felix, the latter so young that he sat at his father's knee with a miniature violin made expressly for him. They practised every Sunday after- noon at their home in North Walpole while the neighbors gath- ered outside to listen to this free concert. It was later that Felix of the class of 1905, B.F.H.S. and Marjorie Winnewisser instigated the high school orchestra which rates so highly today.
Many of the famous shows of fifty years ago appeared at the local Opera House before going to New York or Montreal such as The Girl of the Golden West, The Mummy and the Hummingbird and The Devil's Auction. Many of them were David Belasco productions and Exner's Orchestra always pro- vided the music, seldom with any chance of a rehearsal. Long train trips in those days were often broken by one-night stands along the way and wagon loads of scenery had to be carted from the depot to the Opera House. There was never any lack of help for every lad in town was on hand for the job of selling tickets, peddling "flyers," ushering, helping backstage or any other jobs connected with the show in the days when John Brosnahan managed the Opera House and William Bowtell was head usher.
Fred Exner was born in Germany and came here with his family when he was 12 years old. He founded the B.F.H.S. Band which he led for many years, taking it over upon the death of Fred Leitsinger of Brattleboro in 1938. He was also leader of Wheeler's Band until it was disbanded through lack of village appropriations. Mr. Exner's versatility was unlimited and he was proficient in many types of string and wind instruments besides having a rich baritone voice and a rare talent for whist- ling. His musical works also included his own dance orchestra which was known for miles around and which played for dances at the Pavilion in Barber Park as well as for stock companies in the Rustic Theater there. Of that famous musical family there are in town today only Paul and Hazel, daughter of Fred.
Still another family orchestra which also played for dances for 30 years was one organized by Jay Mandigo who lived in
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Gageville and under whose tutelage many pupils studied the violin. He died in 1943, aged 69. Henry Weeden had his own small orchestra in Rockingham in which he played the "fiddle" as he liked to call it and his wife the piano. Around the year 1910 a number of people were well-known for their talent on some instrument including Nellie Brown, Harry Carson (violin), Alice Chapin in Saxtons River, Mrs. Harry Elliot (piano and organ), Stanley Griswold (mandolin), Helen Guild (for many years teacher of the piano), Alice Jack- son, Mrs. Lula Parker (teacher of piano, organ and mandolin), Hannah Gove (violin). The children of Lewis C. Lovell had their own home orchestra at one time also.
For many years, before 1900, Saxtons River also had its own band which few remember today. Until about 45 years ago, the old bandstand stood in the center of the main street near what is Christ Church today. Later the village boasted a unique trio of musicians who appeared in public frequently when a parade demanded some old-time music. They were Fred J. Blake, snare drummer; Henry A. Reynolds, fifer and Charles E. Farr, bass drummer. They called themselves The Spirit of '76 and they marched in colonial uniforms to the reedy piping of such tunes as Yankee Doodle. The old style, long- barreled drum used by Mr. Blake, also a photographer, be- longed to Colin Lake and had been in the Lake family for over 100 years when Blake, at the Thanksgiving parade in 1918, made what he declared, was his last public appearance. He said he had been a snare drummer in campaign and martial music for over 50 years besides belonging to Wheeler's Band for over 20 years and that was long enough.
Another musical interlude remembered by many, was the appearance of John Philip Sousa and his band of 75 men which played to a jammed Opera House on November 15, 1910 in- cluding a soprano "violiniste" and a cornetist. He came to Bellows Falls again in 1912 and once more in August 1928. In 1946 a new musical feature was started in town, the popular Community Concerts whose representative was Mrs. Marjorie Winnewisser Lee and which featured many big artists in the world of ballet and instrumental and vocal music. It brought the metropolitan stage to the small towns, reminiscent of the old Chautauqua days but on a higher level and devoted entirely to music. This lasted until 1956 when it was replaced by the Friends of Music, offering similar concerts but many by local artists. The same year a new choral group was formed in Saxtons River, directed by Mrs. Jantje Pruden of that village, a well-known musician.
STREET FAIRS
Each October, for many years, Bellows Falls was famous for its annual street fair. Called the Father of Street Fairs, it
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was widely copied all over the country as an example of what a small town can do. It began with a two-day affair but later diminished into a one-day event.
The first Fair was originated by Dallas Pollard, Arthur Fuller and John Dennison, the latter becoming the first president of the Fair Association. Mr. Pollard took over the advertising, going from town to town with flyers to be tacked to trees, stores and barns. Programs were printed, listing the other officers as Secretary-Treasurer, James Williams and Directors, D. F. Pollard, T. E. O'Brien, John C. Hennessey, Harry H. Abbott and A. H. Fuller.
Through the efforts of these men, the first Fair was a huge success in 1910 with a long parade of decorated automobiles and exhibits reaching down Henry Street from the Square. There was dancing in the streets at night and every organization in town had a booth where they sold everthing from three-layer cakes to hand-braided rugs and crocheted tidies. Every store ran "specials" and gave away souvenirs. The crowd was modestly estimated at 10,000 and it was without doubt, the largest mass of people that had ever jammed itself into Bellows Falls. Flags and bunting festooned the Square and a picture taken at noon showed the business section swarming with buggies, surreys, plenty of horses and not many cars. In the parade were thirty-one cars adorned with everything from Teddy Bears-their namesake had recently visited Bellows Falls on
his Bull Moose campaign-on Fred Perry's car to a tasteful arrangement of hydrangeas on that of George Babbitt. Farmers came to town en masse, bringing with them ducks, chickens, sheep and swine, prize heifers and horses, all of which were exhibited along the streets. As the TIMES said, "the outside world now knows that there is a Bellows Falls." In other words, the Fair had put us on the map.
Equipages of every kind followed the cars. The B.F.H.S. football team caroused in the old Walpole stage coach and twenty-five older folks rode leisurely in a barge. Moxie was the popular drink, advertised as a nerve food and Fred "Shorty" Smith, did the advertising on a bottle-shaped rig. Shorty was a prime feature of every parade for fifty years, towering, in his Uncle Sam costume, far above the heads of the populace. Chil- dren knew him only as "Uncle Sam." For many years he headed a delegation of young ladies of high school age who carried a huge American flag between them in this parade. It was also the day of the Ineeda Biscuit and at least two grocery firms made the most of it with their wagons, namely F. S. Clark and J. H. Savage. Every parade in town always in- cluded several divisions of papermakers, walking in their white shirts and hats. In 1913 the fourth Fair broke all records with between 12,000 and 15,000 people thronging the streets. Church dinners and suppers became the rule and each denomination
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and organization fed hundreds at noon and night with baked beans or chicken pie. Many a mortgage was lifted and church carpets bought from the proceeds of Fair Day.
But the imminence of war loomed on the horizon and 1914 saw the last Fair until 1919 when it was revived with tents behind the Armory for poultry and livestock. There was renewed interest and more entries than ever before as horse- drawn vehicles gave way almost entirely to cars. It was now becoming an experience to ride in a surrey or hay wagon in the parade. The War was over and the day ended with dancing in Jnion Hall while young folks threw confetti and blew horns in the Square. But Fairs entail much work and work is likely to be shared by the same busy people each year and 1920 saw the last one until 1933 although there was some effort made to revive it in 1926. While interest in the old street fairs has been apparent from time to time, they seem to have died a natural death in the streamlined world of today.
In 1930 Pee Wee Golf clubs, those miniature links started in Chattanooga, Tenn., were all the rage and Bellows Falls, catching the fever, set out baby pines and spruces at the upper end of Morgan's Field as part of a course. This was a private enterprise run by several local men. For a few years it proved popular then the interest died out. But the trees did not die and today constitute a small forest among the tourist cabins which have replaced the golf course.
While amusements and events occurring a hundred years ago are outside the scope of this work, it is interesting to note that the familiar trail leading from North Walpole up to Table Rock on Fall Mountain or Mt. Kilbourne, had its inception that long ago. In fact enterprising youth of 1864 erected there what was fondly called the Mountain House. Perhaps it was to take their minds from the war between the states and perhaps to test the virility of both young ladies and gentlemen as they trekked up that narrow path, so familiar to young folks of today, in their hoop skirts and tight pants. Without these encumbrances, some of the present generation have found it hard going! But the new edifice did not stand up to the winds for long and it blew down that same year. There is also an account of a "Grecian Temple" built up there as early as 1849, also blown down the mountainside in 1861 and the first path carved from the woods was ready for a celebration up there in 1842.
CIRCUSES, TRAVELING SHOWS, CHAUTAUQUA
There were, for the delectation of the young fry plus the fathers who, at great personal sacrifice, felt obliged to take their progeny inside the Big Top or the small one, fifty years ago, the traveling shows such as Uncle Tom's Cabin, Hi-Henry's
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Minstrels, Gentry Bros., a Dog and Pony Show, the 101 Ranch Rodeo and the regular circuses of Barnum and Bailey, Sells- Floto, Walter L. Main and others. In 1903 Sautelle's Three- ring Circus drew crowds to Chester to see the famous 63-horse act, Earth's Only Riding Lioness and Baby Belle, the Most Diminutive Elephant in the World.
A reminiscence of circus day on Drislane's field about that time, was given by editor Belknap in the TIMES who, with tongue in cheek, wrote that "people who haven't been able to attend church for years on account of the feebleness which prevents them from walking so far, footed it briskly a mile and a half to the circus grounds-never was the thoughtful care of parents so noticeable-kids that ordinarily ran wild had a body guard of three or four adults and then came near being swallowed by the hippopotamus because none of thier anxious guardians seemed to be paying any attention to them." With 4,000 to 5,000 people packed into the big tent, he once remarked that "only two drunks were arrested."
Usually the big grey or brown tents went up on Morgan's Field and almost every small boy in town who could sneak away from home, vied for the privilege of watering the ele- phants and ponies, thereby gaining the right to slip under the back flap when the Grand Parade entered the sawdust ring. The parade started through town from the field at ten o'clock, was always late and got going by eleven with the steam calliope screaming, the band tootling and banging, lions pacing back and forth in their cages, elephants hooked tail to trunk and clowns squirting water in your face. For years the circus made an occasional appearance during the summer but they have been banned since 1926 and half the glamour of the circus went with them. For a number of years, Springfield, Vt. has refused a license to any circus or carnival in its town. And now the Big Top has folded for good when in 1956, Barnum and Bailey left the circuit to perform hereafter only under such roofs as Madison Square Garden. Maybe the circus took a lot of money out of town. Maybe it didn't make any money lately but with the circus goes a slice of the old days that we would gladly relive again. But a few smaller circuses have appeared in town from time to time to keep the tradition alive.
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