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 3
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The next milestone in the huge birthday party occurred on August 2nd when the annual Rockingham Meetinghouse Pilgrimage was held, this year as a special occasion under the chairmanship of Mrs. Louie Divoll Reisner, Secretary of the Meetinghouse Association. Here people flocked dressed in the colonial costumes of their forefathers, to sit in the square wooden pews and sing the old hymns, minus music, as did those who built the Meetinghouse. Dressed in Revolutionary garb, the deacons marched up the aisle to their places in the front row, all of them descendants of those first men and women who brought the town into being. Those wearing the lace ruffles and knee buckles were Francis Bolles, descendant of Levi Chapin; Paul Roundy of the Roundy and Wiley families; Judge Natt L. Divoll of the Olcotts; L. C. Lovell descendant of Elijah Lovell one of the first settlers in the valley and Morton Downing, also of the Roundy family line.
The youthful ushers, some of whom also had the blood line of the early settlers, also wore colonial costumes and their heavy coats, augmented by woolen vests, made them glad, that warm August day, that they were years away from their ancestors' attire. These were Alcott and Avery Smith, Lincoln Divoll, Frank Bolles and John Berg. Rev. Charles Blakney of Saxtons River as minister, presided beneath the high sounding board, dressed in a periwig and colonial chaplain's clothes.
As part of this day, eight old square, hip-roofed houses in Old Town built around 1800, were opened to the public under a committee consisting of several Old Town people, Mr. and Mrs. L. C. Lovell, Paul Roundy, Gertrude Stoddard, Mrs. William Kratky, Mrs. Francis Bolles and Miss Dorothy Schumann. More than 150 people purchased tickets to these old homes with their huge fireplaces, original pine paneling and wide board floors and stenciled walls, the money being donated to the Rock- ingham Free Public Library to purchase needed items for its museum. The old houses consisted of the Smith Antique Shop, built by Jehiel Webb and once a tavern; the old Olcott house built in the same pattern as the Meetinghouse and now owned by Rodney W. and Paul C. Roundy on the Upper Meadows; the Calvin Brown house on Parker Hill, renovated in the best tradi-
JUSTICE WARNER A. GRAHAM Vermont Supreme Court
JUDGE T. E. O'BRIEN
P. B. LEEN
CHARLES N. VILAS Donor of Vilas Memorial Bridge at Bellows Falls
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tions by its present owner, Dorothy Schumann; the Haselton house owned by the Welcome Bloods, once the home of Timothy Lovell, Tory and which boasts an upstairs ballroom; the Mark Adams house, renovated by Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Tarbell; the Lewis Albee house also on Parker Hill and owned by Mrs. Lucia MacBeth; the Campbell house built by the Hon. Alexander Campbell in 1804, now owned by Mrs. Flora Divoll Sampson and the old Manse, original home of Rev. Samuel Whiting.
A buffet lunch was served by the Pleasant Valley Grange at noon which was so popular that no food was left for the ad- vertised evening meal but in spite of this, 500 people came to take in the festivities, many families re-uning on the hill beneath the old maples beside the Meetinghouse. This Sunday marked the opening of the August centennial with church-going in the manner of the early settlers, combining food for the soul and body with the old homes of the pioneers thrown open to the public.
After a few weeks of stepped-up energy on the part of the many committees, arrived the FINALE, on August 20, 21 and 22., Thursday, Friday and Saturday during which the weather man collaborated with the town to provide three days of sun- shine, although the careful committee had taken the precaution of investing in rain insurance during the parade on Saturday. This hard working committee consisted of Harold Tidd, chair- man of the parade committee; Charles Ford who arranged for horse drawn vehicles in the parade; Thomas Fitzgerald, old cars; Cecil Bissonnette, finance manager; Dr. N. Richard Butler, publicity and secretary; Bertha and George Lanou of the Twin- State Horse Club, horse show; Miss Ethel Hill of the D. A. R., William French Chapter, open houses in Bellows Falls; W. Russell Sargent of the Merchants Association, decorations, street dance and band concert; L. C. Lovell, listing subjects available for floats and chairman of the First Settlers Descendants; Mrs. L. C. Lovell, Garden Club float; Mrs. Max Bliss and Edward Vayo, antique show and Carl Parker, Beauty Contest.
During the summer an exhibit of ancient historical objects of the town was collected by Mr. and Mrs. Lovell and used in the museum of the Vermont Historical Association in Montpelier and later in the Rockingham library. This included the original communion service of the old church which was also on view during Pilgrimage Day that year.
During the preceding weeks of the Centennial, a Kangaroo Court was set up in the Square and although frowned upon by some, attracted much attention with its oldtime stocks as well as two antique bath tubs in which to douse offenders each Friday evening. This was set up by Herbert R. Pitts of Northampton, Mass., a professional entertainer and promoter and Rex Clark, former Hollywood star. There was later some doubt as to his
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authenticity but he put on a good show with his horsemanship and shooting, particularly enjoyed by the children.
The whole town, during the summer, took on the aspect of a hundred years and more ago with the "Brothers of the Brush" devoting their spare time to the raising of beards, goatees, mutton-chop whiskers and just plain mustaches where none had ever been seen before. If it was difficult for ladies to recognize their spouses, it was hilarious, if disconcerting, for strangers to be waved on in traffic by a bearded police force and waited on in the shops by sideburns and handle-bar mus- taches! While the majority of gentlemen were either too bashful to grow hirsute adornment or their wives too averse to the idea, Natt Morrison gathered together 112 brave souls for a banquet at Brattleboro on August 18, as a reward for their valor. If you didn't grow a beard, you were provided im- munization by way of a badge, eliminating the danger of a fine.
The promotors of the bi-centennial, Messers Pitts and Clark, did a land office business selling gay red and yellow top hats during the summer, badges and stickers, their remuneration for their work. During the last week, souvenir ribbon badges were sold on the streets as a source of revenue to meet incidental expenses. At a special village meeting held on June 25th in the Armory, at which only twelve people showed up, it was voted to appropriate $3,000 to defray the expenses of the centennial, the matter being decided in four minutes, before most of the voters, who never believed that such meetings ever began on time, had arrived. The same evening, the village trustees voted to rescind their former decision and allowed booths to be set up in the Square during the three day celebration, pro- vided such booths were to be used to raise money for charitable purposes and not for personal gain. The Rotary booth occupied the space in front of the Windham National Bank, dispensing coffee, hot dogs, sandwiches and soft drinks successfully until the fire hydrant, washing down the Square, went beserk and washed out the booth. Another popular booth was that of the Saxtons River P. T. A., specializing in popcorn and soft drinks.
Various church and fraternal organizations served suppers and dinners during the last two days including the Baptist church which featured an old-fashioned bean supper complete with kerosene lamps-unlit and waitresses in the costumes of the gay nineties. The unprecedented crowds which overflowed the town for three days utilized all the resources of every organization.
Much publicity was gained the town by Dr. Butler, super- intendent of schools, who contacted every radio station in the east, LOOK and LIFE magazines and all newspapers from Boston to Canada. The Keene station, WKNE, did weekly broadcasts and recordings of events as they transpired. One of
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the biggest events of the occasion and the most publicized, was the deeding of a piece of land in Saxtons River to the much- maligned Iroquois Indians of Canada who had, unsuccessfully, for many years, besieged the Vermont Legislature to return to them the northern part of Vermont, theirs by right of an ancient treaty, they said, or to pay the equivalent in American dollars which they doubtless preferred. Rockingham decided, as a publicity gesture, to assuage the ill-treated red men and at an- other special town meeting, in the high school on the night of August 19th, attended by 43 interested people, many in costume, it was voted to deliver a parcel of land, recently deeded to the town by Elisha and Doris Camp of Saxtons River, to the put-upon Iroquois. The land, a subject of much mystery and conjecture by the town for some weeks, consisted of a piece of sidehill 150' by 60'. This meeting was almost as brief as the previous one in June, the two probably being the shortest such meetings ever held in the town. Immediately residents of the town and es- pecially, Saxtons River, began to wonder just how soon their red brothers would be setting up tepees on the steep incline in their vicinity and if war dances would keep them awake at night. The Indians themselves were slated to arrive by bus from Montreal on Friday night, to take up their new holdings in Vermont. In the meantime, the festivities continued and each Friday night was pandemonium in the Square as amiable "stooges" were pilloried, doused in bath tubs or commanded to wear their hats backward in penance for their sins. Elisha "Caesar" Camp's paddy wagon jeep, manned by burlesque police in antiquated uniforms, carried loads of hilarious youngsters who made the welkin ring.
Then came the three Big Days, culmination of months of planning and work. The town teemed with folks in costumes from the attic, hoop skirts and tight pantaloons, they went about their work in stores and offices. Three-cornered hats appeared on the street along with Revolutionary, brass-buttoned coats and high boots. Time moved backward 200 years.
The festivities opened officially on Thursday afternoon at 2 o'clock when Town Crier Francis Bolles rang his bell to call people to attention in the Square. After a short welcoming speech, Rev. Richard B. Painchaud of the Baptist church delivered the invocation, Judge Natt Divoll, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, spoke briefly and Town Manager Cecil Bissonnette read a letter of congratulation to the town of Rock- ingham from President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the United States.
Miss Mary Tidd was elected Bi-centennial Queen and her Court of Honor consisted of Joanne May, Joyce Wilson and Nancy Center. About 2,000 people gathered for the opening which included a Children's Parade led by Miss Loretta Lanou
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of Saxtons River on her horse Chief followed by the Kurn Hattin Band which, in turn, led the bicycles, tricycles, doll carriages all of which were in line for prizes.
Thursday evening the park on the Hetty Green lot was filled with a large crowd which milled around the grass or sat on the benches under a bright and chilly moon, listening to the competing barber shop quartets under the auspices of Russell Sargent. Most people were garbed in old costumes as were the members of the Rotary Club quartet, Francis Bolles, Natt Morrison, Clarence Coleman and Edward Johnson who sang oldtime songs, in garb strongly reminiscent of Yankee Doodle. The American Legion and Masonic Temple groups tied for second place and the Keene "Old Songsters" came up to help but did not try to carry away any of the honors. The Grafton Band of 40 pieces, including some members of the local high school band, rendered music which set toes to tapping and there was dancing on the green and community singing led by Cole- man and accompanied by Mrs. Bertha Swift on a field organ loaned by the Immanuel church. She also played, in her old capacity as pianist at the silent films, during a showing of these old pictures in the Opera House.
On Friday afternoon, nine homes in Bellows Falls were opened to the public. These dated from the period of 1800 to 1954 and included the Charles Ford home, one of the oldest in town, with its valuable antiques; the Guild home on West- minster Terrace containing articles from the Hetty Green house; the Robertson home on Hapgood St., which displayed collections of Bristol, Staffordshire and Bennington ware and dishes from the old Tory Tavern in Westminster; the Dr. Hill home furnished from the home of Henry Wiley who lived in Saxtons River a hundred years before; the Annie Willson home with an English hand-carved chest two hundred and thirty-one years old; the Frederick Babbitt house with its silver and Oriental rugs and the Immanuel Parish House and church with its Paul Revere bell. A silver tea was served on the lawn of the Dr. Hill house by the D. A. R.
Friday evening saw the horse show at the Playground, arranged by the Lanous, with many local entries, the only catastrophe occuring when the grandstand lights went out suddenly but briefly. The next night, the same family staged a horse drawing contest at the same place. Friday night also saw a close packed mob in the Square, waiting the arrival of the Indians, dancing while they waited, on corn meal sprinkled in the Square, to Herb Reed's five piece orchestra. It was almost midnight when the redskins disembarked in the Square from the local school bus which had gone to Montreal after them, driven by Alfred Kelton of Athens. Chief Pokin' Fire and his wife, old people and children, gaudy in paint and feathers, did various
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dances as space was cleared in the center of the Square after which they repaired to the very un-Indian atmosphere of the Hotel Windham for the night. Said Mrs, Pokin' Fire, "whether we come to visit you or you to visit us, it is a custom of the Iroquois to give a welcome dance." Someone facetiously re- marked that it wouldn't be anytime now before the red men would be hunting deer in the Square. It was when the visiting red men-who probably did not belong to that organization- were safely bedded down for the night that the firemen's hose, in swishing away the corn meal, developed a loose coupling, cleaned up the Rotary booth instead which was being cleaned up by its members, smashed a window in the A & P store and soaked one pedestrian who put up a heated altercation with the police. All in all, it was a damp ending to a long, hectic day.
Saturday saw the climax of the bi-centennial, the apex of many months of toil on the part of a devoted few chairmen and a host of workers. The largest parade which Rockingham had ever seen in its two hundred years, started promptly at 2 o'clock under dazzling skies. Beginning at Morgan's Field, picking up sections as its progressed, it passed through the Square where Dr. Butler on the reviewing stand, commented on each float as it passed. Twelve divisions, each division with ten units, made it the largest of its kind ever seen in this town or village. Among the outstanding floats was one depicting the old Indian attack on John Kilbourne's cabin, staged by descendants of the original families who took part; several covered wagons including one sponsored by the Garden Club, portraying Hiram Luther Webb his wife and five children, starting their long trek to Illinois in 1834, with some Webb costumes used; the Beaver Brook School in Saxtons River, the first school in Rockingham, in charge of the Nature Club of that village; sugar making 200 years ago with early citizens in knee britches and three-cornered hats, boiling sap over a real fire, staged by the Rotary Club; Indians salmon fishing in the Connecticut, by the Moose; the raising of the Meetinghouse in Rockingham by the Pleasant Valley Grange and square dancing with Jim Bradshaw fiddling by the Fall Mountain Grange. With these and many more passing slowly through the sunshine of a perfect August day, the history of Rockingham for the 200 years, came alive again. More than 12,000 people massed along streets and on house tops during the hour and thirty-five minutes of the parade. The prize- winning float was erected by Fenton & Hennessey's store which stands today on the site of the Old Mansion House from whose balcony Daniel Webster in 1840 addressed 300 people. He addressed thousands in 1955 albeit silently, as, in the guise of young Arthur Bolles, he stood again on the balcony, in top hat and tail coat.
A luncheon was given by John "Jack" Hennessey preceding
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the parade, for visiting celebrities including Representative Winston Prouty, the parade guests and others. As a grand. finale, L. C. Lovell and Edward Vayo were designated a com- mittee to gather programs, badges, hats, papers and all records of the event, to be preserved in a wooden chest and presented to the Rockingham Library to be kept there for posterity. This included a' colored movie film taken of the parade. Among these were not included the usual misadventures which befall every such event, such as the Descendants of the First Settlers, carefully collected by L. C. Lovell in their costumes of the pioneers, ready to ride in the stagecoach with a four horse hitch, belonging to the Trail Riders of Woodstock, which, through some misunderstanding, failed to pick them up and left them to ride ingloriously in a plain car. The Hiram Webbs almost didn't get to Illinois in their sunbonnets and pantalettes when the handsome team of big chestnut horses were hitched to the prairie schooner, whose owner had brought along a party to fill the, as he supposed, empty wagon. It took a lot of arguing to convince them that the ancient vehicle would only carry safely the Webbs and their numerous progeny, household wares and lilac bushes. One of the oxen hitched behind the maple sugar. float, with the sap kettle vigorously boiling, got tired of waiting and decided to lie down on the job which impeded the footwork of his mate and there was much gee-ing and haw-ing before things got under way in the parade. Hardy Merrill arranged an old treadmill, once widely used to make butter and perform other farm chores by the monotonous foot work of a sheep. But such steady and unaccustomed exercise in the hot sun was too much for the sheep who was removed before the S. P. C. A. were aware of its plight. But the horse mill fared better and functioned steadily along the line of march. And the D. A. R.'s almost didn't get to ride in their stagecoach, either; their horses didn't show up until the last hectic moment. So did Rock- ingham, after a long year of work and fun, bring to pass an unprecedented year of observance of its 200 years of life in this valley.
MEMORIAL DAY
We used to call it Decoration Day and it is still celebrated each year, although the war from which it originated was almost a hundred years ago. It is still Decoration Day to those who carry flowers each May to graves known and unknown, but the impressive rites of fifty years ago are curtailed today, like the line of march, to a brief ceremony of chaplain and orator, band music and taps, at the foot of the War Memorial dedicated in 1928, replacing the old Fountain. Before that, the Memorial Day parade always toiled up the steep, dusty road to Oak Hill
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Cemetery where the Civil War Yankee, in flowing cape and mustache, still leans on his stone musket-and waits. School children carried armfuls of tired lilacs to their teachers and in white dresses and big sashes or Russian blouses which effectually hid their trousers, spoke "pieces" in the schoolyard, if the day was sunny.
The old cannon which once kept the soldier company in his lonely vigil is gone forever. More recently gracing the lawn of the Armory, it was, during W. W. II, contributed by Co. D to the scrap drive with a special honorable mention for donating the weightiest piece of scrap in town. In its final act it is hoped that it made as worthwhile a charge against its new enemy as did the old. It was placed there by the E. H. Stough- ton Post, G. A. R., and was secured for them by the late Congress- man W. W. Grout. The Soldier's Monument was erected by Matthew Lillie, an eccentric who worked as a laborer when the first 20 inch water pipe was laid from Minard's Pond. After his death in Burlington 1922, his estate was figured by his administrator, M. H. Ray, as netting the town $16,000.
Started in 1868 by Gen. John Logan, Commander in Chief of the G. A. R. as Decoration Day for the graves of the Union dead on May 30th, the idea spread from state to state, north and south. Actually the idea originated with the women of the Confederacy who carried flowers to their soldier dead and in the south the date still varies with blossoming time, on April 26th in Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Mississippi to May 10th in the Carolinas to June 3 in other places. (Book of Knowledge, 1934; Columbia Encyclopedia, 1950.)
Rockingham celebrated its first Memorial Day in 1869 and there has probably never been a May 30th since that our soldiers and sailors have not been remembered with flowers and flags, speeches and parades. Hoop skirts and pantaloons have gone, the war between the states is almost forgotten in the sharper picture of all the wars since, each one a war "to end all wars."
The first Memorial Day after W. W. I, was an occasion of much celebrating and a salute to the flag on the lawn of the Baptist church. Judge "Tom" O'Brien was orator of the day at the Opera House at 1:30 before a large audience and the huge parade included the regulars, the Home Guard and High School Cadets who dutifully marched up the hill to the Soldier's Monument. Here Father Shannon read Lincoln's Gettysburg Address as was done each year.
The next year the usual parade and services were held at Saxtons River at 9 a. m., and at Bellows Falls at 2 p. m., perhaps to be sure that the Bellows Falls Band would officiate at both occasions. In Saxtons River the Marshal was P. H. Harty and the parade marched to the village cemetery where services were held by the E. H. Stoughton Post, assisted by the Sons
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and Daughters of Veterans and children of the local schools "concluding with a short address by a Son of a Veteran, the Rev. W. R. Curtis of Westminster West." To the hot and leg tired children, the addresses were never short. Principal Frank Varney read the Lincoln Address and a quartet "rendered a couple of songs." As ever, the children carried flowers in the parade and the Green Mountain Club was followed by carriages carrying disabled veterans.
In Bellows Falls the procedure was about the same. J. J. Fenton was President of the Day and Marshal T. J. Brickley had as his aids, Lt. T. H. O'Donnell, Sgt. Charles MacDonald and Sgt. Melvin Fontaine. Rev. John C. Prince was chaplain and Speaker of the Day was Rev. S. H. Smith. The line of march formed in the Square sharply at 2 p. m. and wended its way to Oak Hill where exercises were conducted by the G. A. R. and the Women's Relief Corps with the Gettysburg Address given by Rev. Prince. If the reverend slipped up on any of it, there were a dozen school children able and willing to prompt him! In the parade that year were the Bellows Falls Band which must have had a full day; the Marshal and his Aids; Co. M. V. V. M. with C. C. Collins, Captain Commanding; returned soldiers and sailors, Stoughton Post, Knights of Pythias, Boy Scouts, Sons of Veterans, school children, probably hot and dusty and carrying lilacs and wild columbines, also hot and dusty and the carryalls and surreys with the veterans who wore the Blue and the more recent disabled veterans. It was still a few years before they trusted the Fords, Reos and Dorts to the steep incline of the cemetery hill. Among the G. A. R. members was always Henry A. Wheeler with his white hair and goatee, and who was 80 in 1914 and who soon after suffered a shock from which he died the next year in the Old Soldiers' Home in Bennington. In 1927 there were seven surviving members of the G. A. R. to ride on Memorial Day. In 1932 William Mandigo the last member, died.
The new Soldiers' Memorial was dedicated with impressive rites by the American Legion. Erected in the fall of 1927 when the big flood washed about everything else away, it was un- veiled by six Gold Star Mothers. As the combined choirs of the Protestant churches sang, the Fountain became officially Memorial Square where each May the parade now stops and the long echo of taps beats against the stone soldier on the hill.
In 1932 the Legion staged a beautiful and moving pageant, Flanders' Fields, in the Opera House at night, with singing by Edward Barrett and the Choral Union doing the Hallelujah Chorus. By 1944, still another war had added its red toll and the impressive ceremony of Memorial Day was held for the next. of kin of thirty-one men who had not returned from this last struggle. Since then a "cold war" has taken its toll also and.
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