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 30
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of dancing and found his amusements in the lyceums, lecture courses and spelling bees in old Derby Hall, long since burned. His father was a dry goods "drummer" who married and came to town in 1841. He set up storekeeping and bought the place now known as "the old Cushing house" and raised seven boys and two girls, Solon outliving them all and the only one who never married. He could remember vividly the big yellow stage coach that changed its four horses there for the trip from Town- shend to Bellows Falls, twenty-one miles and an all day trip. His father had to keep a record in the post office of all letters going in and out. Later postmasters were Isaac Glynn, Joel Ober and Anna Perham. It returned into the custody of the Cushing family and except for a few years when it was run by Warren Stevens of Saxtons River, remained there until Solon retired.
Mr. Cushing received his appointment March 31, 1886 when he was clerking in his father's store so the office was moved to that establishment. When the fire of August 11, 1950 wiped that out along with most of the village street, the post office and general store were moved into the Cushing house which had escaped the flames, into the same room, in fact, in which Solon was born in 1860. This post office was made a money order office on July 22, 1899 and the first order was issued to Harry Carr of Saxtons River. From that day until 1940, 2,500 money orders were issued from this office. Then came parcel post with a brisk business even when the weight limit jumped from 4 to 70 pounds. Air mail came in 1918 and then C.O.D. so that Mr. Cushing saw every phase of the post office department. He died July 1, 1951, after ten good years of rest and quiet. Today the rural free mail delivery goes through Cambridgeport and Houghtonville from Bartonsville. For 32 years Orrin Smith of Cambridgeport carried the R.F.D. mail after the close of the Athens office. When he became ill in 1939 his son Maynard took over the route until it was joined with Bartonsville. It is a long time since passengers rode thru the snow in three-seated sleighs and stopped at the Cambridgeport post office to get warm and pass along the news. Today they ride in cars of the two Star Routes out of Saxtons River which take care of both mail and passengers, going through Cambridgeport to Grafton and also Westminster West. Once a bakery truck bid off the Star Route to the latter place. Solon Cushing saw the beginning and end of an era.
Many amusing stories are told of the time the store burned. The old porch had wide spaced boards and after the fire, the favorite occupation for many weeks was to comb the ashes in that area. Quite an amount of silver and coppers was collected, some dating back to 1840 when the building was erected. Among the helpers at the fire was Warren Ball of Athens who ran up
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and down stairs waving a bureau scarf which had little effect upon the fire. After the excitement was over, one man, who had labored hard to save the contents of the store, helped him- self to a cigar from a boxful which he had saved; said he figured he had earned it. A few years after the store burned, another big fire took the farm of Henry Brosnan which was rebuilt.
ROCKINGHAM (OLD TOWN) VILLAGE
The little village of Rockingham where the town itself was born, called Rockingham Center in 1869 and known as Old Town ever since to differentiate it from the town, burned to the ground on April 13, 1909 and most of the village street disappeared in a brief three hours. Over a dozen buildings were consumed that spring night with a loss of over $20,000 including the old Josiah Divoll house, store and post office, run by George and Oscar Divoll, the Lovell hotel, the C. R. Proctor place, a house owned by W. H. Griswold, an empty house owned by N. L. Divoll and the Divoll house occupied by John Harris who discovered the fire in the store at 2 a. m. and who woke the residents on the one street of the little village.
Starting in the Divoll store, in a few moments the fire drove everyone into the street, fighting flames and a raging wind. Everything on the east side of the street was doomed from the start although there was valiant work with hand extinguishers and a bucket brigade. William Webb, singlehanded, saved one barn with a hand pump and water from the brook. The high wind carried sparks high and wide and many roofs caught fire which was put out. The store was the first to go and in its roaring furnace nothing was saved, account books or stock. One after the other, in a terrible display of fireworks, houses burst into flames and collapsed. The last to go was the hotel where Mrs. Ann Lovell, owner, and Mr. and Mrs. Hope Lovell, saved almost everything including antiques and even the Grange piano was removed from their hall. Men worked furiously until the last minute, carrying out furniture sometimes already on fire at one end.
John Harris and his housekeeper, Mrs. Daggett, later his wife, lost almost all their possessions for Mrs. Daggett was so busy helping her neighbors rescue their belongings that only when she turned around did she realize that her own home was doomed. Furniture from everywhere was piled in the road- and caught fire. Bedding was carried to Will Severance's barn across the road-and caught fire. The store was a complete loss and had been piled from cellar to attic with merchandise to the value of about $6,000, insured for $5,000. Excitement ran high when 25 gallons of kerosene blew up in the store. The loss to the tiny post office was small but the Grange lost most of their equipment. N. L. Divoll lost a $600 pile of lumber.
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The Meetinghouse on the hill nearby was saved by hard work although the grass around it was on fire several times.
The next day there was much heated discussion over the failure of the Bellows Falls Fire Department to answer a tele- phone call for help. But the department had decided it was useless to attempt the trip which would take four horses to draw the steamer to Rockingham where there was no water except in a brook. They figured the fire would be out when they had made the five mile run. The houses, store and hotel were never rebuilt. It was the end of an era. Eventually two or three new homes sprang up to cover the scars and Pleasant Valley Grange built their own hall on the site of what was once the old Pulsipher tavern. The hillside farms still look down on the little community whose heart disappeared forever on that April night.
The Lovell Hotel was a well-known hostelry since stage coach days with its dance hall which had a domed ceiling and spring floor, built over the stables. This was the only such floor of its kind at the time except a similar one in Cambridge- port where they say the men took off their shoes and danced in their stocking feet. In Rockingham, many dances were put on by the Grange with supper served at midnight and dancing continuing until daylight. A dance program of January 31, 1908, featuring a Leap Year dance, is evidence of probably one of the last such occasions in Lovell's Hall. Once this hostelry was the mecca of drovers on their long trip to Boston, hearding their pigs, turkeys, cattle or sheep over the road, on foot or wing as the case might be.
For a number of years the Rockingham Cheese Factory of New Haven, Conn. and run by two Greeks, operated across the road from the schoolhouse, absorbing most of the milk of the local farmers but when it closed in 1918, this milk began to go to Boston. In 1910 John Beumond, who lived on the south side of the Meetinghouse hill, drove a meat cart into Bellows Falls each week. In 1906 there were four blacksmith shops in Rockingham belonging to Dexter Benson, John Nolette, Will Severance and Frank Wheeler. Nolette, who had lived for many years in Bellows Falls, moved his shop into the Griswold barn on the main road below Old Town and later bought the Benson shop and house, now the home of Fred Spencer. The old smithy is now the home of Harry Spencer. Benson's first shop was on the Missing Link Road, this side of Herrick's corner.
Frank Wheeler ran a carriage shop along with his smithy and in 1912 he advertised "Piano top buggies, also known as a gentleman's road wagon, lap robes and everything that goes with a horse." When the Model-T's began to chug past his door, he also advertised to fix bicycles and Ford tires. He charged $1.75 to "set tires"-on buggies, not cars. When his
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old blacksmith shop burned which he had originally moved from land opposite the Meetinghouse to a site adjacent to his home and which was the nucleus of his carriage shop, he erected a larger building in which he painted and sold carriages and sleighs and later, cars as well. He carried on this business until a few years before he died in 1937. Henry Webb, who was lame, made and repaired harnesses for many years in his shop on Canal Street until his death in 1929. Will Severance's black- smith shop was replaced by the service station of Ernest Wright in 1923, equipped with hand pumps which delivered a gallon at a time. Then came the 2-gallon pumps, the 5-gallon and in 1932, electric pumps. Groceries were added to the little shop and since Mr. Wright's death in 1947, the shop has been run by his son and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Wright.
At one time the depot at Rockingham was a busy place at train time with passengers coming and going and milk shipped to Boston. Here the section boss lived with his family and ran the station. The waiting room had a stove in the middle and benches around the sides. If the boss was working on the tracks, you put up a red flag if you wanted the train to stop. It would even back up for you if you didn't get out in time. For many years the boss was Pat Garrapy. Today nothing remains of the station but the tool shed across the tracks which is still used by the railroad. With the completion of the new section of Route 103, Old Town will be left quietly alone.
THE ROCKINGHAM MEETINGHOUSE
The Rockingham Meetinghouse, built in 1787, is said to be one of the finest examples of the old town meetinghouse in New England and is maintained in good repair and in its original condition. For many years this building, once known as the Old North Meetinghouse to differentiate it from the Old South at Saxtons River, stood alone and deserted on its hill above the village where the town was first settled. Also known as the First Congregational Church of Christ in Rockingham, the old four-square building, from lack of settled pastors and resident parishioners, was not used after 1839 as a place of regular church worship, but until 1869 town meetings were still held there so that it retained its secular, if not religious, place in the com- munity.
Not only was the old building deserted but open to scaven- gers who denuded it of every possible object although the ex- terior continued to be kept in good repair. The town fathers diligently closed their eyes to the state of the interior where the old high pulpit had been removed to make room for a plat- form more conducive to town meetings as was the long deacons' bench in front of it. Vandals removed the rest until only two of the original spindles remained in the pew rails. The hand
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forged hinges went off in the pockets of collectors and even the hand whittled wooden nails disappeared with the curio seekers. The walls were scribbled with names and inept verse. The old church was but a shell where the ghosts of its builders and parishioners wandered sadly, the men and women who slept behind it under their grey slate stones.
Suddenly people began to realize that something precious, something from the past which could never be replaced, was slipping away. Instigated by Prof. Franklin H. Hooper of Walpole, great-great-grandson of David Pulsipher, innkeeper of Rockingham in 1773, a special town meeting was held in 1906 and $500 voted to restore the Meetinghouse to its original condition providing it could be matched by private subscriptions. This it did and more to the sum of about $1,200. Among other workers for the project were Mrs. Horace W. Thompson, great- granddaughter of Susannah Billings, member of the first church after its restoration in 1818. Myron H. Ray, first selectman of Rockingham, oversaw the work which included the founda- tions, a new slate roof, painting the outside and the entire res- toration of the interior to its original state as far as possible from old records and remembrances. This necessitated 1,400 new pew spindles, a new pulpit, 60 pew doors and reasonable facsimiles of the ancient hinges and long benches. Cali- fornia redwood was used which most nearly matched the old weathered pine. The old square pews in which, a hundred years before, one Abraham Byington had conducted a flourish- ing business of buying and selling to church goers, came into their own again the stoves which still inhabited the building were removed and the walls whitened.
The work was finished in the autumn of 1906 but re-dedica- tion services were not held until the next summer when, on August 17, the first Old Home Day and Pilgrimage to the Meetinghouse was held and almost 1,200 people traveled to Old Town, by buggy, train and even a few stout-hearted souls by car. The Pleasant Valley Grange were hosts at a picnic lunch and the afternoon services. An address of welcome was given by N. L. Divoll and the address of the day was delivered by Hon. Kittredge Haskins of Brattleboro. Several local men and descendants of early citizens spoke briefly including Rev. H. H. Shaw of Marlboro, direct descendant of Rev. Samuel Whiting, first established pastor of the Meetinghouse; Rev. L. O. Sherburn of Bellows Falls; Rev. Rodney Roundy of Lud- low, "a Rockingham boy;" W. C. Belknap, editor of the TIMES; Dr. E. R. Campbell and C. W. Osgood, all of Bellows Falls and Foster B. Locke of Saxtons River. An original poem was written and read for the occasion by Miss Mary Divoll. Mrs. Thompson was appointed, with a committee of five, to arrange for "an annual or biennial gathering at this place." How well she succeeded is shown by the fact that each year since has seen
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a Pilgrimage to the Meetinghouse, for many years now, held on the first Sunday of each August. At the services in 1912, the well-known poem, THE CANDLE IN THE CHOIR, was written for the occasion and read by poet Percy Mackaye. At this time a visitor's register was presented, especially de- signed by Frank Whitten of Lynn, Mass .; curtains for the circu- lar window behind the pulpit by Hope Lovell of Drewsville, N. H .; cushions for the pulpit seat and deacons' seats by Mr. Thompson and J. E. Keefe; a copy of the reprint of the records of the First Church by Thomas Bellows Peck of Walpole, N. H. and a copy of the Rockingham History by L. S. Hayes and presented by the selectmen. Also on exhibition were the key to the original lock on the building owned by T. R. McQuaide of Claremont, N. H. who also owned the lock; two pewter goblets and the linen which were part of the old communion service, now in the vault of the town clerk's office and the property of the Rockingham Meetinghouse Assn.
This Association was formed May 1, 1911 when 9 interested persons of Rockingham and vicinity met at the Hotel Windham and voted to "preserve the Old Rockingham Meetinghouse and other buildings or monuments of marked historical in- terest in Rockingham and neighboring towns and for the pur- pose of commemorating important historical events in the settlement and growth of Rockingham and adjacent territory; for providing an annual pilgrimage to the Meetinghouse and for further purpose of encouraging love for the civil, social and religious principles and institutions incorporated in our local state and national government." The first president was Prof. Hooper who, more than any other one man, was respon- sible for the restoration of the Meetinghouse and formation of the Association. At his death on August 1, 1914, the day before the annual Pilgrimage, an irreparable loss was felt. But other leaders have taken up the torch and now for half a century the children of the settlers of Rockingham, their families and friends have been coming back to worship each year in the house of their fathers.
A number of old families have had name plates placed on the pews once occupied by their forbears. At the first Pil- grimage, two plates were dedicated. One bears the inscription "In Memory of Nathaniel Davis, one of the first settlers of Rockingham who, with his family, occupied this pew for many years. Given by the children of John H. and Susan B. Davis." Nathaniel Davis was also the progenitor of Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States. The other plate was given by Mrs. Sarah Millard Rogers of Charlestown, N. H. in mem- ory of Caspar Shana Wolfe who came to Rockingham in 1784. Plates have also been placed on the Webb pew once owned by Joshua Webb who came to Rockingham in 1768; the Allbee pew for Ebenezer Allbee who settled here about 1770; the pew of
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William W. Pulsipher; John Wiley 2nd; Josiah White who arrived in 1773 and took an active part in town affairs and one placed by Cora Lovell Eastman in the old Lovell pew in memory of all of that name who once occupied it. At the Pilgrimage of 1912 a bronze tablet was placed on the wall to the left of the pulpit by Mrs. Frederick E. Wadhams of New York in honor of her great-grandfather, Dr. Reuben Jones, the first physician of Rockingham and one of the leaders of the formation of the state of Vermont.
Occasionally at pilgrimages, the ancient one-horse hearse with its tasselled curtains and glass windows, is pulled from the tool shed, once the hearse house. It evidently covered a wide scope of activity as Mrs. Mary Bolles recalls, as a child, peering from the windows at her grandfather's funeral in North Wal- pole, at this same hearse. In 1885 the new tomb and hearse house cost the town $739.93. Today many of the old stones with their odd and fascinating inscriptions are missing, victims of time, an insufficient survey and carelessness which tossed them in a heap behind the toolhouse. At one time there was a pile as high as a cord of wood. At least once the deceased was interred in the wrong lot and once a "new" lot was pur- chased-and found to have four bodies already in it! Local families, old and new, still buy lots in the old burying ground where members of old families, ten years ago, were only charged five dollars for a lot and, if such a family suddenly needed a lot, he was furnished one, gratis. That ruling is, however, no longer in force.
The first officers of the Old Rockingham Meetinghouse Association, incorporated June 28, 1911, were President, Prof. Hooper; First Vice President, N. G. Williams; Second Vice President, Mrs. Josiah Bellows; Third Vice President, Henry D. Holton; Fourth Vice President, Charles W. Osgood; Secretary, Rev. Arthur P. Pratt; Treasurer, W. C. Belknap and Librarian, L. S. Hayes. Present officers are President, N. L. Divoll, Jr .; First Vice President, Humphrey Neill, Saxtons River; Second Vice President, Maitland Lovell, Springfield; Third Vice Presi- dent, Paul Roundy, Hudson, Ohio and Rockingham; Fourth Vice President, Fred Prouty, Grafton; Secretary, Mrs. Louie Reisner; Treasurer, Roland Belknap; Librarian, Mrs. Imogene Parker Downing. Presidents from 1907 to 1956 are Prof. Franklin W. Hooper, 1907-1914; N. G. Williams, 1915-1931; Warner A. Graham, 1932; Rev. Henry Ballou, 1933-1935; H. H. Blanchard, 1936-1942; Paul Roundy, 1943-1950; Henry Stoddard 1950-1954; Judge N. L. Divoll, Jr., 1955 --.
PLEASANT VALLEY GRANGE
On December 11, 1895, in the schoolhouse in Pleasant Valley, deputy A. A. Edison organized the Pleasant Valley Grange with
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36 members and for five years meetings were held here until increased membership necessitated larger quarters. At that time they moved into the dance hall at Lovell's Hotel in Rock- ingham, Old Town where they remained until the fire of 1909 wiped out the hotel. The next week they met in the Rock- ingham schoolhouse as their records and regalia were saved. The records say that they "appointed a committee of five to investigate conditions and solicit subscriptions in the interests of a new hall." Meetings were held in the cheese factory on Parker Hill while members helped build the new hall on its pre- sent site. With only $450 in the treasury, it looked like a big job but land, labor and materials were donated and in six months, on the next November, the Grange held its first meeting in the new hall, celebrating with a supper. In the 50 years since that night, the rooms have been opened for many community ser- vices including fun and funerals, Red Cross, Sunday School, Farm Bureau, plays, dances, suppers, "bees" and card parties. The Grange mixes work with play and money earned has gone to many needy organizations and people. For many years the October Fair was an annual event, patterned after the Corn Shows which started in 1911. Before the new wood-burning furnace was installed on November 26, 1939, two stoves, one at each end of the hall provided heat in winter if you hovered close enough. The big hanging kerosene lamps were used until about 1930 when electricity came through the valley. Weeden's or- chestra provided music for dances for many years, many times following a local talent show. A program in 1910 featured an added attraction that winter, an oyster supper for a quarter. Conveyance was by sleigh or sled and occasionally the whole troupe of actors piled into the straw of someone's wood sled, to put on their show in a nearby town.
The Grange celebrated its 50th anniversary in December, 1945 although members, doubtful of weather conditions during a Vermont winter, were uncertain of the wisdom of the date. But the memory of those first intrepid members who braved snow and cold to meet in a one-room school in December, decided them to pay this tribute to the pioneers of 50 years ago and to Brother Edison who traveled so many miles with horse and buggy to sign up potential members as his old paper still shows although all other records were lost before 1904. It was a festive occasion in 1945 with 140 people present including one charter member, Mrs. Mae Buchanan of Saxtons River. George Stickney, a past master, received the golden sheaf certificate for 50 years membership. Other past masters present were Henry A. Stoddard, Burton Damon, Frank Weeden, Ralph Wright, Harold Hinds, Natt Divoll, Jr., Charles Keefe and Maurice Woodworth. There have been 22 masters in all in- cluding four women and thirteen masters were still living in 1945. There have been ten secretaries and for 40 years these
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records have been kept by one family, first by Henry Stoddard, then by his wife Katharine in 1923 and since her death in 1942 by her daughter, Mrs. Alice Haynam. About 700 people have been initiated into the order and the largest membership was 100 in 1904 and the low mark was 40. The largest attendance at any meeting was 56 members in December of 1911. A long- time member of this Grange is Henry Stoddard who was Master of the State Grange from 1934-1946. Mrs Mildred Stoddard (Henry) has also held the state office of chairman of the Home Economics Committee since 1943 and chairman of Community Service since 1948.
The past masters in order of service are:
George Buchanan Minnie Hadwen
Charles Keefe
Eugene Weston
Mary Divoll
Maurice Woodworth
William Mack
Oscar Divoll
George Kenyon
George Stickney Edmund Butterfield
Welcome Blood
Walter Stuart Louie Divoll
Howard Blodgett
Burton Damon Leslie Carey
Ruth Woodworth
Frank Weeden
Ralph Wright
Harry Hall
John Hadwen
Milton Cutler
Carl McAllister
Henry Stoddard
Harold Hinds
Robert Parker
Natt Divoll Natt Divoll, Jr.
Officers for the year 1957 are Master, Robert Parker; Over- seer, Lawrence Haynam; Lecturer, Josephine Divoll; Steward, Francis Bolles; Assistant Steward, Knox Divoll; Chaplain, Ellen Skelton; Treasurer, Mable Kenyon; Secretary, Alice Haynam; Gatekeeper, Edson Small; Ceres, Maryjane Githens; Pomona, Margaret Hall; Flora, Madelyn Adams; Lady Assis- tant Steward, Mary Bolles; Executive Committee, George Kenyon, Henry Stoddard, Carl McAllister.
4-H CLUB WORK IN THE TOWN OF ROCKINGHAM
Since 4-H Clubs originated for and with farm children, their story seems to belong to this chapter on the rural sections of the town. With more than 2 million youngsters today be- tween the ages of 10 and 21 and with over 6,500 of them in Vermont, in club work, it should have a whole chapter to itself for these farm children are the backbone of our country. The work is conducted under the Extension Service of the State College of Agriculture with the U. S. Department of Agricul- ture at its head and each county co-operating as a unit. 4-H work is a community's interest in its youth.
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