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 37
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
LYMAN SIMPSON HAYES. L. S. Hayes, author of the History of Rockingham, 1753-1907, was also, for many years, local correspondent for the AP and during the Spanish-American War, started a series of historical sketches in the Brattleboro, Vt. Phoenix. These were discontinued when the Phoenix be- came a weekly instead of a daily paper and Mr. Hayes arranged with the editor of the Bellows Falls Times to run a similar series in his paper which ran for 111 weeks and up to a few years before he died. Without his painstaking research, much infor- mation concerning the early history of Rockingham would be unkown today. In 1905 a Town History Committee consisting
325
HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
of N. L. Divoll, A. N. Swain and E. R. Campbell arranged with Mr. Hayes to write and handle for the town a publication of a History of Rockingham in which he was assisted by his daughter Gertrude and son William D. He made the study of local history his chief interest, building up, over the years, a valuable file of historical data including newspaper and magazine items and covered by a complete index. This material was turned over, after his death, to the Old Rockingham Meetinghouse Assn., to be preserved in the vaults of the town clerk's office and has been of much assistance to the author of this book. The Lyman S. Hayes Memorial Committee was formed at that time consisting of Rev. John Currier, Miss Imogene Parker and Roland Belknap. His extensive library was presented to Dartmouth College. In 1915 he also published THE OLD ROCKINGHAM MEET- INGHOUSE and THE FIRST CHURCH IN ROCKINGHAM, of which much of the detail work was handled by his son. In 1929 he published THE CONNECTICUT RIVER VALLEY IN SOUTHERN VERMONT AND NEW HAMPSHIRE, sketches of the early history of the river, its navigation and surrounding towns and villages. He was instrumental in the restoration of the old meetinghouse in 1906 and in the formation of the meet- inghouse association of which he was librarian until his death.
As a young man, before coming to Bellows Falls, Mr. Hayes was connected with the railroads, at one time running what is genteely known as the Ladies' Cars, today known as parlor cars and was conductor of the first such cars ever run on the Vermont Central Railroad. He was also vitally connected with the early days of the telephone and telegraph in town, local express agent, school teacher and in the insurance business. An interesting anecdote of his life was that, as a member of the Vermont State Republican League, he was present at the banquet of the State Fish & Game League at Isle La Motte when the speaker, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, was notified of the death of President Mckinley and of his own election to the Presidency. Fourteen years before his death, Mr. Hayes suffered the amputation of one leg to prevent the spread of cancer which curtailed many of his physical activities but never those of the mind and his interest in people never flagged. Although he had to be carried up the stairs to his work as town clerk, he was still able to drive his car which was adapted to his infirmity. He was a strict temperance man and with only a brief district school education, became well-known for his many works. Since his death in 1934 his assistant, Mrs. Imogene Parker Downing, has held the position of Town Clerk.
ALICE TOTMAN HAWKS: ARTIST. Mrs. Hawks is an acclaimed artist. Graduating from Greenfield, Mass. High School in 1927, she took her first lessons in that city from Leo Pennagar, high school art teacher and from Mrs. Marie Day Alexander, a noted artist of that area. In Greenfield, appro-
326
HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
priately, in 1957, she had her first one-man show of paintings and drawings at the WHAI Art Gallery which is sponsored by that radio station and which exhibits the work of noted artists in individual showings throughout each year. In addition to her work, Mrs. Hawks arranged pencil studies and photographic material showing how an artist prepares for portrait and figure work. In 1957 Mrs. Hawks also won first prize with her oil, Hunter's Dream, in the Southern Vermont Federation of Wo- man's Clubs contest and has exhibited at the Rutland Fair and the Southern Vermont Artists' Show in Manchester.
DORIS ADAMS HUNN. Another local girl who made an outstanding place in musical circles was Mrs. Doris Adams Hunn, daughter of Frank and Stella Allis Adams, who began her lifelong study of music at the age of seven in Bellows Falls under Mrs. Nettie Lovell Wheeler and went on to study privately while attending Wellesley College, traveled for a year with Tony Sarg and his famous marionettes and for fifteen years gave symphonic previews. She also gave radio lectures under the title "Adventures in Listening" and was music instructor at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa where she lived after marrying Hiram Hunn in 1925. She was an officer in the National Federation of Music Clubs and a graduate of B.F.H.S. in 1915, being valedictorian of the class. A scholarship in her memory known as the Doris Adams Hunn Fund was set up at Wellesley College after her death in 1950, to aid students there who are seriously concerned with im- proving their own and others' capacity for musical understanding.
EDWARD C. KIRKLAND. Edward Kirkland is the son of the late Dr. and Mrs. Edward Kirkland of Bellows Falls and insists that he is more scholar than author but he classifies as both, having written a number of academical books. These include PEACEMAKERS OF 1864, A HISTORY OF AMERICAN ECONOMIC LIFE, BRUNSWICK'S GOLDEN AGE, A STUDY IN NEW ENGLAND HISTORY and THE GILDED AGE. In addition he has contributed to the ency- clopedia Britannica and the Dictionary of American Biography besides many book reviews for learned journals. Since 1930 he has been a teacher at Bowdoin College and previous to that at the Dartmouth, Mass. Institute of Technology and Brown University. He was visiting professor of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association in 1955 and has served long on the Com- mittee in Research in Economic History and briefly on a com- mittee supervising a history of the relations of the national government and science for the Natural Science Foundation.
CHARLES W. LADD. Probably one of the most "cre- ative" men in town was Charles Ladd who died in 1946 at the age of ninety after a full and interesting life and whose memories drifted in his keen mind to the first airplanes, electric lights and radios, the latter made by him in his shop. His recollections covered a great part of the life of Americana from the Civil
327
HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
War to W. W. I with all the Myriad things in between, the greatest period of physical growth in the country's history. At 86, this man with the gentle face, reminisced of the first uncertain attempts of the Wright Brothers over New York Bay where he was living as a young man and where he produced some of the first incandescent lights with the Brady Manufac- turing Co. of Brooklyn. He saw one of the first gasoline engines in this country, brought from Belgium and he crossed Brooklyn Bridge the day it opened and went through the East River Tunnel when that opened, too. He helped develop a metal and cement testing machine which made skyscrapers, still far in the future, possible. He was in the bicycle business for ten years in Brooklyn where he had his own shop on Bedford Ave. between two popular bicycle clubs, definitely a wise choice! Bicycle clubs then produced men with long stockings and short pants and women in the new "bicycle bloomers." And all his life Mr. Ladd corresponded with the famous "mile a minute Murphy," the speed cyclist who made world records. Mr. Ladd, in his shop sandwiched between two popular clubs, made bikes to order for leading men such as ministers, doctors, teachers and merchants with most of the fittings and bearings coming from England. This ingenious man who lived so quietly for many years on the corner of Henry and Atkinson Streets where he came to live in 1930, also invented an instrument called a "smiling jimmy" to take dentists' drills to pieces quickly and made 500 of them by hand. At the height of the radio furor, he made one of the first instruments and took orders for 25 more. In his later years, in his shop behind the house, he repaired clocks and lawn mowers and became a wood carver of no little fame and anyone today owning one of his handmade ladder-back chairs, copy of antiques, is fortunate indeed. His covered bridge models, weather-beaten and grey as the original, sold at souvenir stands in the White Mountains. His carvings of New England characters, horse-drawn street cars, horse and buggies, have been exhibited at the annual shows of Vermont artists and his water colors, oils and etchings decorated his home and shop.
GLEN LAWRENCE. The son of John Lawrence of Bellows Falls, Glen Lawrence was named senior representa- tive in 1945 of Pan American Airways at Port of Spain, Trinidad as well as district traffic manager there. This was one of the focal points in Pan American's globe circling coverage of key cities in Latin America in the war as from Trinidad businessmen and high priority passengers traveled across northern parts of South America to Colombia for connections with Mexico, Central America, Chile and Peru. This airline linked more than 300 trade centers and capitals through Latin America down the eastern coast of South America. Lawrence joined the company in 1935 at Miami, Florida with the 55-passenger, four-engined clipper planes.
328
HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
MARTIN J. LAWRENCE. The son of Mrs. Lena Law- rence of Bellows Falls and the late Jay Lawrence, Martin Lawrence, cousin of Glenn, became a Rear Admiral, U.S.N. in 1956 and is now commanding officer of Mare Island Naval Base. On July 2, 1957, he was officer in charge of the launching of the Navy's new submarine, Greylock, the 27th submarine designed to carry guided missles. Rear Admiral Lawrence graduated from B.F.H.S. in 1921, attended the University of Vermont and graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy in 1937. He has two children.
MARJORIE WINNEWISSER LEE: GRAND OPERA. Marjorie, daughter of Fred and Marie Winnewisser of Bellows Falls, began studying piano at the age of five and continued with voice and piano in Boston, Copenhagen, Denmark and Germany which latter place she went in 1913, remaining for five years during W. W. I and although much concern was felt for her at that time, she became successful in grand opera, return- ing home in May, 1918. After the war she returned to Europe, receiving great acclaim in Scandinavia. In 1918 she married Carl L. Loewe of Copenhagen, Denmark, consular agent for the United States at Archangel, Russia and also a lieutenant in the Royal Danish Reserve. She returned to Denmark in 1921 where Copenhagen papers said that her voice "was like a sun- shiny day in June." She sang in English, French, Italian, German and Norwegian. At one performance in New York she was accompanied by Doris Adams Hunn who was studying piano there and once in Bellows Falls by Hannah Gove Jenkins, a local girl who traveled extensively as a Chautauqua violin artist. In 1931, WHO'S WHO IN MUSIC said of her, "So- prano, Washington, D. C., studied in Boston, Berlin and Copen- hagen, Philadelphia and Washington. Sang at Danzig, Stadt Theater, Germany, 1917-1918; Director of Music at Gunston Hall, Washington, D. C .; member Philadelphia Art Alliance and Arts Club of Washington, D. C." With John Wiggins, also of Bellows Falls, she gave a concert in 1931 before the University Club of Washington. She married Ellison Lee in 1937, a descendant of Gen. Robert E. Lee and opened a music studio in her home in Bellows Falls. She began work with Columbia Artists Management of New York in 1944, becoming field manager in 1951. She is now with the National Concert and Artists Corporation of New York.
WILL D. LOCKWOOD: CAMERA. Another local man who made good many years ago, starting out in a new business in 1889 and who in 1950, with his wife, was still hale and hearty although almost 80 years old, was Will Lockwood of Hartford, Conn. It was the newfangled camera which carried him over the country in the days when cameras were nothing to fool around with and to many people on hill farms, an uncanny and strange machine. Will used to play the snare drums in the old
329
HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
Bellows Falls Band and he sat beside a young man, P. W. Taft of Saxtons River, a photographer. Will became enthused with the picture business but instead of operating a studio like his friend, he went "on the road." He trained for six months with Taft, then sent to New York for a 5 x 7 Rochester Optical Ideal Plate Camera with a bulb operated shutter and two inter- changeable metal apertures. With the studio doing his process- ing, he started out with his horse and buggy and was immedi- ately swamped with orders by picture-hungry people whom he charged 75c a print, 3 for $1.50 and 6 for $2.50. It cost him 17c to have the glass plate developed and three prints made and he shipped back a gross at a time. In 1905 and 1906 there were people who had never heard of or seen the machine which made pictures and Will often made as much as a hundred dollars a day. And when New England winters brought deep snow and impassable roads, the ingenious youth hit upon another idea and drew 16 x 20 crayon portraits from his prints or from any pic- ture which the customer desired. It was a cinch to sell the idea and ship the print to Somerville, Mass. where a concern made crayon portraits for $3 each-and for which Will got $10 per. Even lumber camps appreciated art, he learned, when, upon a skeptical visit to one near Rutland, upon the insistence of a Bellows Falls friend, he pocketed over $250 in a few hours, all of it in gold coins. But competition caught up with him after six years and he went to work in a store, taking pictures after hours, especially evenings when he used the new flash powder, covering everyone with ashes as if they had been in a fire. He was in the antique business for many years, perhaps centered around his first camera, also the only one he ever had.
GEORGE MARK: ARTIST. A kindly, white-haired man of 82, George Mark lives in Saxtons River as he always has and still paints, a self-taught artist. He has always been very active, walking several miles a day. Always an artist, he formerly worked as an interior decorator for private families and doing much work for Vermont Academy. A familiar figure in the village, for many years he has found his field in landscape draw- ing, painting and etching of covered bridges, country brooks, hillsides and valleys. He has exhibited at art shows with the Southern Vermont Artists at Manchester. He works entirely outdoors, "capturing the scenic natural beauty of the country- side with the brush," for he believes that God's colors are the best colors. He says that he does not advocate academic formulas for successful painting but admits the necessity of school art study for the basic fundamentals and principles. He enjoys portraying old colonial homesteads and typical New England churches and inns of 200 years ago and his painting done in 1902, of the old Saxtons River Inn built in 1859, is one of his best as well as that of the covered bridge in his village, razed several years ago. He has sold many of his oils and etch-
330
HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
ings and in his home, where he lives with his daughter, Mrs. Hazel Burgess and her husband, hang many of his framed works.
WILLIAM MASON: ARTIST. In the little village of Cambridgeport, William Mason, aged 80, paints in oils and originates his own scenes. His daughter, Mrs. Mildred Cushing, besides being an ardent camera fan, has inherited his skill, working in pastels and oils. And in the same village, Raymond Jondro, paints besides carving wooden dolls.
GEORGE MERKLE: ARTIST. Born in New Rochelle, N. Y. and now living in Bartonsville, George Merkle attended the Art Students' League in New York and among other free lance work, authored and illustrated an adventure series for the Chicago Tribune, New York Herald-Tribune and the New York Daily News. With his wife and two sons, he came to Vermont in 1948 and his first thought, when he became accus- tomed to this new way of life in a country town, was to illustrate and interpret in simple terms the rich historical heritage of Vermont, blended with the unusual and not-too-well-known facts, an idea on which he was backed by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Thus was born the delightful series of drawings called This is Vermont which first appeared in the state's daily paper and which have since been published in book form. This seems to typify what an outlander can do to acclimate himself to the atmosphere of our state.
GILBERT MILLER: PIANIST. Gilbert Miller is a son of Hugh and Daisy Miller, formerly of Bellows Falls, now of Bartonsville and he has done noteworthy things in the music world. Starting piano when he was ten, he became the pupil of Miss Helen Guild and organist at the Episcopal Church for five years, beginning when he was twelve. Active in high school music, with the help of Father Currier, he left in September, 1932, for study at the London Academy of Music, in Musician- ship and piano. After his second year there he was awarded the Gold Medal and became assistant at the Academy in 1934, using the initials A.L.A.M. after his name. In 1936 he direc- ted the WPA music project in this area, training anyone over twelve years of age in piano, musicianship and music apprecia- tion. In 1938 he played the organ in Convention Hall in Phila- delphia before 10,000 people and that year and the next became organist for the Temple University Commencement held in the same hall. He studied under Agi Jambor, Hungarian pianist who was then teaching in Philadelphia where Miller was later coach at the Academy of Vocal Arts. After serving in W. W. II, he returned to serve on the staff of the Delaware School of Music in 1951 in Wilmington, Del. and today continues his work at his own studio in his home in that city with 73 students of the piano. He is also organist and choir director at Hillcrest Methodist Church in Wilmington where he lives with his wife and small daughter.
331
HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
EDWIN MINER: EDUCATOR. Son of the late Dr. and Mrs. A. L. Miner, Edwin was graduated from Dartmouth in 1927, received his M.A. at Columbia's Teachers' College, studied and taught at the University of Pennsylvania as well as several other schools and became superintendent of Wellesley public schools in 1936. Wellesley papers said of him "while a New Englander by birth, steeped in New England traditions, he is possessed of a perspicacity of national scope in educational matters gained from training to which he has most diligently applied himself." He was ranked as one of the younger public school educators and administrators of national scope.
HUMPHREY BANCROFT NEILL : BUSINESS WRITER Humphrey Neill, a fourth generation resident of Saxtons River, is well-known as a non-fiction writer on business subjects. In addition to books, pamphlets and articles, he is the author of a weekly newspaper column that appeared for many years in the Bellows Falls Times and other papers in Vermont, New Hampshire and New York. From time to time his columns have been syndicated by one of the prominent news bureaus. He also writes and publishes the "Neill Letters of Contrary Opinion," pertaining to business and economic subjects and which are mailed to subscribers throughout this nation and abroad. Because of the unusual nature of his writings, where- in he advocates "clearer thinking through a contrary approach," Mr. Neill has received wide recognition for his unique views and interpretations on socio-economic questions. As he has stated in his writings, "there is nothing new in the theory of contrary opinions. It is only that the average observer is so absorbed in surface details and statistical data that he over- looks the human equation-it is people-who formulate our trends." Books by Humphrey Neill include the History of the New York Stock Exchange and American speculation, a text- book entitled "Understanding American Business" and similar business publications. His latest book, "The Art of Contrary Thinking" is being re-issued in a second edition as this book goes to press. He has been active in civic affairs and has served the community in various activities through the years. He was in business in New York for sometime but Saxtons River has been his editorial headquarters since 1940.
FLORENCE FARNHAM OSGOOD: ARTIST. Among the sons and daughters who have called this town home, is Flor- ence Osgood, wife of the late Col. Edward Osgood, residents of Bellows Falls for many years where Col. Osgood was in business with his father, the late C. W. Osgood, in the City Plumbing and Heating Co., formerly Osgood & Barker. He was also on the staff of Gov. Grout. Florence Mary (Farnham) Osgood is the daughter of Ex-Gov. Roswell Farnham of Bradford, Vt. where she was born in 1866. In 1891 she married Edward Gardner Osgood. Now 91 years of age, she has painted in
332
HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
both water color and oils for many years, graduating from the College of Fine Arts at Syracuse University in 1888. Until recently she was a member of many organizations including the Florida Federation of Art, the Art Club of St. Petersburg, Florida, the Northern Artists' Group of Vermont, the Wellesley College Club of St. Petersburg and the National League of American Pen Women. She studied under such well-known artists as Mr. Wagner of St. Petersburg and Mr. Peters of Gloucester, Mass. An artist of wide experience, Mrs. Osgood has exhibited her work in many places and in St. Petersburg where she spent her winters for some years, she was given several one-man shows. In 1950 she showed 16 paintings of Florida, Vermont and Canada in the American Room of the Detroit Hotel. In 1952 she showed a collection of water colors also at the Detroit, portraying the New England coast north of Bos- ton, all recent accomplishments. She has had private showings in Scarsdale, N. Y., Bradford, Vt. and exhibited at the Mid- Vermont Show at the Rutland, Vt. library and also at the library in Nashua, N. H. In the summer of 1951 she held a one-man show at the Fleming Museum in Burlington, Vt. with 35 water collors. Illness and infirmity today prevents this well-known artist from carrying on her work but her spirit remains undaunted.
JOHN RILEY: ENGINEER. John J. Riley is the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Riley and his father was connected with the International Paper Mills in Bellows Falls for many years. John graduated from Cornell in 1922 with the degree of Civil Engineer, starting out in life as a construction engineer ranging from Mississippi to Quebec. He married the former Barbara Rudden of Bellows Falls in New York in 1931. In 1939 he was in charge of construction with the New York City Housing Authority, becoming progressively, chief engineer and director of development and has had approximately $750,000 worth of housing. In 1951 he was loaned to the Board of Edu- cation at the request of the Governor's Commission on School Buildings and the mayor of New York City, to overhaul and expedite the school building program of the city which had fallen so far behind the needs of its 900,000 school children that a special commission was named to investigate. John became the Special Co-ordinator of School Construction and doubled the school building program the first year and in two years put about $100,000,000 worth of schools into actual construction. Since 1952, at the request of the Secretary of the Air Force, he has served as civil engineer member of construction air bases and to advise the Secretary on better, faster and more economical methods of building for the needs of the air force here and abroad. He was one of two men chosen in 1952 from the whole United States for honorary membership in the American Institute of Architects, one of the few engineers every chosen for that honor.
333
HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
He serves as vice president of the New York City section of the American Society of Civil Engineers and is also a member of the Cardinal's Committee of the Laity. He has a summer home in Walpole N. H.
FLORENCE R. SABIN: RESEARCH SCIENTIST. The name of Florence Rena Sabin of the class of 1889, stands at the head of the Cum Laude Society on a scroll at Vermont Academy. One of the most famous women to which Vermont can lay claim, Florence Sabin of Columbus, Colorado, grew up just over the line in Westminster but went to school in Saxtons River, enter- ing the Academy at an unusually early age. But the mature mind of this future scientist enabled her to grasp a curriculum far beyond her years. The first woman to graduate from John Hopkins Medical School and at the early age of 21, she was also the first female to teach there, ranking full professorship. In 1925, as a tireless fighter and investigator, she joined the Rocke- feller Institute as research scientist where, until her retirement about 1940 at the age of 60 years, she studied the cause and cure of tuberculosis. Here, internationally famous, she discovered the origin and process of the lympathic system. She could not retire from life and returned to Colorado to become chairman of that state's post-war health committee. Chosen as one of America's greatest women by the National League of Women Voters, she graduated from Smith College A.B., 1893; was a teacher at Denver, Colorado, 1893-1895; assistant in Zoology at Smith College, 1895-1896; an interne at John Hopkins, 1900- 1901; Fellow of the Baltimore Association for the Advancement of University Women at John Hopkins, 1901-1902; assistant in Anatomy there, 1902-1905; assistant professor of Anatomy 1905 and elected to the National Academy of Science of America, 1925.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.