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 4
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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
sometimes you wonder how many more wars will be represented by that stone lady at the foot of the hill-while the soldier still waits at the top.
FOURTH OF JULY
It has been many years since we, as a state, enjoyed the Fourth to the glorious extent of burned fingers, singed hair and six inch cannon crackers called Salutes which could carry a well placed dish pan half a mile into the sky or the still bigger, ten inch ones, two inches thick which would-and did-heave a rock from Atkinson St. over onto Green.
Shortly before 1912, cannon crackers were banned every- where and for some years thereafter fireworks as a whole, were not sold and the sport of small boys-and some older ones-was squelched. But in 1924 the law was modified to allow the sale of paper torpedoes, sparklers, paper caps and cap pistols,some salutes and Roman candles with no more than 12 balls. But none might be displayed on counters or in store windows. A local campaigner for safer Fourths was Rev. Fenwick Leavitt who advocated laws to prevent those whom he called "foreigners" from tossing huge cannon crackers on the sidewalks to the peril of passerbys, people who, he said, did not know the meaning of the Fourth and were just out to make a lot of noise. He suggested noise and fun but that cannon crackers be put only into the hands of responsible persons.
This went blissfully on, gladdening the hearts of the small fry until 1941 when the Vermont Legislature passed enabling Act No. 185, authorizing the Attorney General of the state to set up certain rules and regulations pertaining to restrictions on the sale and use of explosives. This was done because of the imminence of war and not so much because of youngsters with burned fingers. It was repealed in September 1946 during a special session of the Legislature, but the ban was continued by the State Fire Marshal and it became Section 8588 of the Vermont Statutes when revised the next year. This was still in effect when the 1953 Legislature which had evidently upheld the small boy's point of view, enacted Act. No. 93 which is now in effect, banning the sale or possession of any kind of fireworks in the state of Vermont without a special license for display purposes. (letter from Deputy Fire Marshal, June 24, 1955). Today Vermont is one of the 33 states prohibiting fireworks and in 1955, for the first time, it became illegal to ship fire- works into the state which prohibits both their sale and use. (Rutland Herald, June 1955.)
But until the Attorney General put his foot down hard, everyone had a lovely time, shooting each other up, setting barns on fire with misplaced firecrackers and blowing off their
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thumbs. It was a grand, noisy and, from the youthful view point, wholly delightful affair although probably not one child in ten remembered why he was making so much noise or spend- ing so much money. There was no limit to the din which began long before dawn with church bells and fire whistles and lasting until the last Roman candle and sky rocket burned themselves out along with someone's eyebrows, until tired children were herded to bed by weary adults and the dog came out from under the stove.
It was a glorious day of burns and noises and worried mothers. There were cat-and-dog fights with the crackers that had not gone off. There were twists of colored paper hold- ing sawdust and caps called torpedoes, to throw at rocks with satisfying bangs. There were canes which swallowed dynamite pills and roared when smashed against the sidewalk and cap pistols for small boys who had never heard tell of Davy Crockett. There were pin wheels and red fire to stick in the lawn at night and rockets which left a trail across the sky and blossomed into hundreds of fiery flowers with distant bangs and explosions. There were things called Daygo bombs and toy cannons and guns and sparklers to hold in your hand in a rain of golden fire and sometimes a rocket went berserk and whooshed in a crazy, crooked pattern onto a porch full of people and set fire to some- one's summer dress. Today towns and cities have rockets and colored fire by special permits, but there are no permits for red tissue packages of crackers or paper bags of torpedoes.
The trolleys were loaded all day and half the night for it was a big day at the Park. Fireworks went along too and one year, at least, miniature paper balloons, floated by oil-soaked excelsior, were let off from the Park, like tiny dirigibles, to see which would travel the farthest. These landed in strange places, some inaccessible and inflammable such as the roof of one house on the New Terrace which required a ladder, wet gunny sacks and all the neighbors to put it out.
Some years, as in 1900, there were speeches, parades and cannon exploding on the village green which was probably Morgan's Field. Fifty-five years ago, there were, besides 5,000 citizens, almost 10,000 visitors arriving by train and team. Livery stables did a rushing business, trains were loaded to the last sooty inch of red plush seats. Vermont Academy sent over an artillery company with a cannon and the parade took half an hour to pass a given point, surely an outstanding performance. They had gun shoots and bicycle races and doubtless popcorn in striped paper bags, greasy with real butter but no mention is made of ice cream cones. Today the Fourth is just one more holiday, usually spent miles from home and the casualty lists the next day made you wonder how "safe and sane" it really is, after all. In 1955 there was only one death in the whole
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United States from fireworks-and none in Vermont-but from other causes, 804 deaths, with two drownings in Vermont. As our grandmothers might say, "You may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb."
VERMONT-NEW HAMPSHIRE BOUNDARY LINE
Not many years ago there was a controversy between Jermont and her sister state across the river which made na- tional headlines-and headaches. It was a controversy in which Bellows Falls was vitally interested, and one which lasted about 15 years, namely the old and much debated question of just where was located the imaginary boundary line between the two states. Sitting, as it does, on the very banks of the disputed Connecticut River, practically in the midst of the fracas and being the owner of various mills and property of much value under discussion, the town was intimately concerned in the outcome of this long-drawn-out argumentation. For suddenly it was not enough to declare that the river separated the two states; WHERE in the river, did you actually draw that invisible line?
As far back as 1908, C. J. O'Neill of North Walpole "Charley " as he was called, stirred up quite a breeze by declar- ing that part of the Boat Club and several paper mills on this side of the river were, after all, in New Hampshire! Indignantly the TIMES cried "Walpole claims our paper mills!" It was but the beginning of a "stately" feud which carried on for many years, drawing into its toils famous lawyers and statesmen from both states and going right on up to the Supreme Court. For the first time since Vermont resisted the boundaries of the New Hampshire Grants in 1777, the two states were not at peace with each other. They snapped across the placid and unperturbed Connecticut like two dogs over a bone.
Indeed the sister states of the Twin State Valley harked their differences to those ancient days when Vermont was part and parcel of the Grants and various towns on the New Hampshire side were annexed to it. Vermont now claimed that "the center of the Connecticut River as it ran in the period from 1750 to 1775 is the true boundary line" while New Hampshire declared that "the top of the west bank at high water mark is the true boundary." Vermont had paid taxes on one-third of the Arch Bridge. Did she still own any of it? It was a weighty question.
Much history was dragged out, aired and polished. Warren R. Austin of Burlington, since a delegate to the United Nations, in a talk to the Ethan Allen club of his city in 1927, drew a lengthy and tear-jerking picture of the old feud and said that the boundary fight was no longer a squabble between neighbors over a line but "a vital issue of importance touching the pride as well as the treasuries of the two states."
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He also brought out the fact that the issue was precipitated when a Walpole politician tried to collect taxes on Bellows Falls property which brought both states to their feet shouting "Where is the line?" Vermont, failing to keep her hold on the middle of the river, decided to settle for the ordinary water mark on the west bank. Before the case was settled, the Supreme Court heard many thrilling events in Vermont History including Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys when they resisted the Grants fixed in 1764 by the British Privy Council, Vermont's bold acts of independence in 1779 and existing as a separate nation for fourteen years as well as her admission into the union in 1791 which, New Hampshire declared, was only done after all danger of fighting in the Revolution was over! All of which, as the Rutland Herald said in 1931, had, like the flowers which bloom in the spring, nothing to do with the case. Not even the blighting intimation that Vermont had negotiated with the British after being refused statehood four times.
The dispute really concerned about 200 miles of river "with many large and valuable manufacturing plants and large amounts of other valuable taxable property," including 28 bridges on the Connecticut. The suit was originally approved by the authority of a joint resolution of Vermont's General Assembly on Nov. 22, 1912 as well as under another Assembly the next year. Preliminaries to settlement were undertaken by the Supreme Court in 1915 and 1916. Then things seem to have lain dormant until 1921 when it was vigorously rejuvenated with Hon. John Garibaldi Sargent of Ludlow, Vt., later Attorney General of the United States under President Coolidge and Hon. Joseph Matthews of New Hampshire appearing before the U. S. Supreme Court and taking legal steps to bring this long festering sore into activity and settlement. Gov. Allen Fletcher of Vermont appointed three commissioners in the suit, Hon. Porter H. Dale, Hon. Alexander Dunnett and Hon. Frederick H. Babbitt of Rockingham.
While the main concern of Vermont was the many bridges and properties on the river, local interest centered chiefly in local real estate. Arguments and recriminations ran rife on both sides of the water and it was at this time, in 1925, that it was again insinuated that Mr. O'Neill of Walpole had double interests in his activity as he was both anxious to claim the International Paper Mills for his state, also that North Walpole's saloons might be moved to this side of the river and still be in New Hampshire where they would be more available to local citizens. This contention was proven false and doubtless in- tended as a joke, but like many such jokes, received considerable publicity in many papers.
In 1926 things were going strong with Vermont submitting 1107 pages of typed material in two days, containing extracts
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from 2,000 deeds, 500 photographs and many maps made es- pecially for the case. Working in Bellows Falls before his death in 1928, was Franklin DeWart of Rutland, civil engineer em- ployed by the state who provided a comprehensive survey of the river with dams, bridge heads, highways, toll houses and what were called "perambulation points.'
A local lawyer who worked on the investigation for Warren Austin was A. I. Bolles. When he sent up the results of his labors, Mr. Austin remarked that he had never realized there was so much to that part of it. In 1925, the state treasurer gave to town clerk L. S. Hayes, figures to show that so far the litiga- tion had cost the state $55,402.77 which was not the end of it. Mr. Hayes died before the suit was settled which, instigated by Vermont, should settle once and for all, where she stood, but in 1927 the costs, Mr. Hayes showed, had run to more than $83,000 while New Hampshire demurely kept her bills down to a mere $23,900. The Burlington Free Press made a suggestion that friendly parleys might end the whole thing, that people of both states would welcome an early settlement on an amicable basis. But still the case ran on until 1934 when the Supreme Court decided that Vermont owned to the low water mark on the west side of the river. So New Hampshire got the river after all but Vermont gained her point and kept her mills. And, as some one remarked, New Hampshire has the river-also the bridges and their upkeep! Today both states let the dead past bury its dead and fishermen with licenses from either state may fish in the Connecticut. Once more it is the Twin State Valley.
GRETNA GREEN
The old smithy in Gretna Green, Scotland, where so many couples were hastily married after they had galloped on horse- back over the muddy roads of England, was passing away in 1916. A new motor road was going right through it. But it reappeared in Bellows Falls, the modern Gretna Green, the "Happy Island" of Vermont where, alone of all New England and New York state, Vermont had no five day marriage law. News of it suddenly got around and happy couples flooded the town and Town Clerk Hayes had to keep extra supplies of license blanks on hand for he sold more than 850 that year, an unprecedented quota! In fact, so well known did the town become that a letter addressed simply to "City Hall, Gretna Green, Vermont," came directly to Mr. Hayes' office!
This up-surge in marital ties was variously called "Vermont's New Industry " and "Married While You Wait." As the news spread, movie men and city reporters became as thick as frogs in a spring pond. The whole country was goggling and giggling as Bellows Falls made headline news from coast to coast. And
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some of the slogans dreamed up by excited reporters who were having a field day, were doubtless true for you could come up from Boston on the noon train and leave on the two o'clock, all knots tied in a double bow and everyone happy. Except possibly some parents of the elopers.
Boston called this up-train the Orange Blossom Express and bitterly denounced it as a demoralizing influence upon life in general. They said that Vermont laws were not recognized in Massachusetts. They said there must be a stop to it. They claimed that the hastily-marrieds were still not married when they got back to Boston. But still Fred Strong, the faithful cabbie, met the train each day with his taxi and hustled the blushing couples right up to Mr. Hayes' office, who, in turn, was happy to sell them a license and then walk out into the Square and point the way down to Dr. O. M. George's home on West- minster Street or, if they insisted, to the pastor of one of the local churches. Dr. George who had retired from the practice of denistry to the more lucrative business of justice of the peace, became known far and wide as the "marrying squire". His big, old-fashioned parlor saw forty-eight weddings in October of 1916 although the Boston Globe was begging the Vermont Legislature to "take the bells out of Bellows Falls."
And it had happened before. Back in the spring of 1868, out-of-town weddings were growing too common to satisfy local people who disliked the notoriety and parsons resented being dragged from their beds at eleven p. m. for fees of a quarter and up although they were probably considered bountiful enough. The same thing happened again in 1878 and the town began to think it was just too much for a respectable place to put up with.
But it wasn't until 1916 that things really began to happen. That year some newspapers in the state decided that it was another Shakesperian comedy called MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. They said that it was none of the legislature's business and that that august body should not be asked to use the tax payers' money or fiddle around with Bellows Falls and her personal problems which she should take care of herself. They said it was up to the clergymen to marry them or not to marry them-and those gentlemen all seemed willing enough! The Boston Post complained loudly that it "takes just eleven hours and forty minutes and costs $14.64 for a Boston couple to get married in the newest Gretna Green." Maybe it was good advertising for in March of 1917, there were 107 couples joined in wedlock and only three of them were local residents.
Brattleboro received its share of the business, too, for it was even nearer to the Massachusetts line. Both towns, on the railroad line, received more publicity and business than any other towns in the state at that gala time. In Brattleboro, they had it even better for Town Clerk Carl Hopkins was also a
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justice of the peace with marrying powers so he could do the whole business at once, issue the license and tie the knot in six minutes flat.
In Bellows Falls there were 1,060 licenses granted in 1916 besides several hundred couples sent home unmarried because they couldn't prove their ages to Mr. Hayes' satisfaction. And 1917 started out even better with 50 licenses granted in 16 days -- only three from Rockingham-and 107 in December. In 1914 there were only 155 marriages all told, 215 in 1915 against 75 in 1909. Couples came across the bridge from New Hampshire as well as on the Boston train and so great was the publicity that considerable honor seemed to attach to a marriage rite performed in this strange spot in Vermont that applicants arrived from states far distant and even from foreign countries.
But reports began to drift back of forged parental consents, of inaccurate ages. Boston grew madder by the minute and Vermonters were getting their dander up, too, especially resi- dents of Gretna Green who decided that things had gone far enough. The Woman's Club started the ball rolling with Mrs. Willis Belknap, president, taking the issue directly to the Legis- lature in 1917. Mr. Belknap rallied the TIMES to the cause and the clergy agreed that it was time to call a halt. Mr. Belknap named the whole thing a "stench" and demanded that the churches band together and insist on a five-day law in Vermont.
In spite of the fact that two legislatures had refused to pass a bill legalizing this law, the Woman's Club went to bat and was represented in Montpelier by Mrs. Fred Clark who told the embarrassed men that "they ought to be ashamed of them- selves." The churches got solidly behind the Club although some alien papers suggested that it probably hurt their pocket- books as it had been a most lucrative affair. Rev. Mr. Prince had a record of almost as many weddings as Dr. George in May of 1916.
To Town Clerk Hayes, however, it was a horse of another color. He sided firmly and romantically with the happy couples who wanted to get married so badly that they had to run away from home to do it. He said that statistics proved that the native-born population of New England was falling off and marriages decreasing at an alarming rate. He said that Vermont was the only state where young folks could get married without a lot of red tape and that we should have to answer to posterity for any curtailment of this right. It was also a lucrative business for the Town Clerk.
However the irate people of Rockingham saw to it that their legislators put through the Dunham Bill for a five-day law in 1917 and that was the end of Vermont's brief glory, her new but short-lived industry and widespread bid for fame which lay bitter in the mouth of her Gretna Green.
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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM CIVIL DEFENSE
After much concentrated activity during W. W. II, the Civil Defense in Rockingham fell into a state of lethargy until rallied by a government who believed in preparedness in peace time in the face of uncertain world affairs. In 1953 a number of Vermonters from press and radio flew to Syracuse, N. Y. to inspect the Air Defense centered there with the 32nd Air De- fense Command. These included Trustee Donald Thomas representing the Vermont Newspaper Corporation and Gov. and Mrs. Lee Emerson of Montpelier. At this conclave the serious need for more volunteers to man the ground observer posts in the country, as was done during the war, was stressed. Since then a concerted effort has been made to man these vital stations and in July, 1955, Postmaster Francis A. Bolles, was appointed co-ordinator for Civil Defense in District No. 8 which includes Andover, Athens, Baltimore, Cavendish, Chester, Ludlow, Rockingham, Westminster and Windham. Ten new officers received their appointments as auxiliary policemen. They were Lee Dart, Thurlow Ferguson, Clarence Knapp, Kenneth Whit- comb, Ralph Russell, Fred Spencer, Jr., Robert Ashcroft, Jr., Joseph Joy and Richard Halladay. Bolles was granted the right to purchase twenty blankets at reduced rates to be stored temporarily in the fire station and twelve litters from Army sur- plus in Cuttingsville. The Bellows Falls High School had two Civil Defense teams, junior and senior, forming First Aid Me- chanical Units. Air Raid sirens were put up again with three national tests planned for the summer of 1955.
The Ground Observer Station for Rockingham Civil De- fense is located on the Bolles farm on Parker Hill, forming a link in the chain of posts through the United States for defense of this country. It is manned by the Bolles family assisted by the families of Kenneth King and Victor Barber who live near by. Reports of every plane is phoned in to Manchester, N. H. which keeps a record of all planes in the vicinity. It is impor- tant to have Vermont posts well manned as planes flying over high mountains cannot be detected by radar stations which are blocked by the high hills. The Air Defense Control, by means of these posts, can know the whereabouts and identity of every plane off the ground at any time. The posts are also valuable in reporting extreme weather conditions which enable head- quarters to issue warnings. The ideal location of posts is eight miles apart in an unbroken network across the land.
During air raids, Bellows Falls Merchants agreed not to sell supplies in order to conserve stores for possible emergency although shops will not be closed. The state of Vermont is considered a support area for localities deemed potential targets in an enemy attack. Rockingham is advised to take all steps
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to prepare for any eventuality which might entail the handling of thousands of refugees fleeing devastated areas.
VERMONT CHILDREN'S AID
The great "flu" epidemic of 1918 started the ball rolling which resulted, the next year, in the birth of the Vermont Child- ren's Aid Society. It was when Miss Sybil Pease, trained social worker, at the suggestion of Miss Marjory Parry of the American Red Cross, took toll of the disaster in the hill country of Vermont and reported that there were not only victims of the epidemic who needed care but also many children in every part of the state who badly needed help and expert attention at once. Five thousand dollars was soon subscribed for a permanent organization and while Pres. A. Russell Gifford at first feared that "we shouldn't be able to spend this much money," the society has never had to worry about over-financing. Miss Berenice Tuttle of Rutland was among the charter members and Miss Leona Grignon of Bellows Falls was one of the earliest local workers.
The next year, 1920,demands upon the society were so great that a district office was opened in Bellows Falls in July with Miss Harriet Abbott as caseworker where she remained for four years although she was employed in the work for over 16 years in all, including much time spent in St. Johnsbury. The Bellows Falls office then covered Windham, Windsor and Orange counties.
In 1924 Miss Mable Abbott of Watertown, Mass., came to the local office as District Caseworker and remained until May 1, 1950. During the depression in 1930-'32, the Rutland and St. Johnsbury offices were closed and the local office became the only one besides the main office in Burlington to function. Shortly before 1939, Mrs. Frances Morrison Rice, now Mrs. Hermon Weston, of Saxtons River, came to the local office under Miss Abbott, carrying on the work in Rutland and Bennington counties formerly covered by the Rutland district. After Mrs. Rice's marriage, her work was taken over by Miss Signe Goran- son of Quincy, Mass., who remained about a year. The Rutland office re-opened in 1941. On September 1, 1950, Mrs. Alan Macneil of North Springfield became District Caseworker which office she still occupied. Miss Helen Hayes of Bellows Falls has held the position of secretary in this office since April, 1940.
This important work finds temporary foster homes for children at the request of parent or parents, places children for adoption, assists unmarried mothers who desire help in making plans for themselves and their babies and counsels with parents for children living in their own homes. It is a private, statewide and non-sectarian child service agency and receives no appropria-
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