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 40
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Among Rockingham farmers who make syrup for sale today are Hugh O'Brien and Natt Divoll in Old Town; Robert Hitch- cock, Elisha Camp and Harlan Barnes in Saxtons River; Lee Willard in Cambridgeport; Burton Stickney, Arnold Fisher and the Ralph Andrews farm in Pleasant Valley. Until recently Henry Stoddard was one of the bigger sugar makers, handling about 650 buckets and employing one man to drive the sap wagon or sled from tree to tree. He said that 20 gallons of syrup was a good day's run but that temperature and weather have to be just right or it won't run, it's that temperamental. He used to boil down two and a half barrels of sap every hour, most of which went off in steam over the wood fire in the old grey sugar house near his home, where he sawed wood the rest of the year. Syrup was selling from $1.50 to $2.50 a gallon in 1935. Today you can't get a fancy grade for less that $7.00. When you think that it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup, it would seem that an awful lot of work goes off in water.
The modern technique is used by Judge Divoll with his oil burning rig that uses ten to twelve gallons of furnace oil an hour, making three and a half gallons of syrup in that time. He has 1,500 trees on his 640 acre farm. In 1955 only one sugar maker in Rutland County used on oil-firing rig. Much concern was felt in 1912 over the decline of Vermont sugar making and in
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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
1926, the Maple Sugar Special train left Bellows Falls on a tour to Chicago advertising the sweetness of the state which still: leads all others in maple products. (Excerpts on maple sugar story from Vermont, Maple Sguar and Syrup, Department of Agriculture Bulletin, 1938.)
One of the best farms in the town is that of John Abbott of Old Town. Agronomist and farmer, Mr. Abbott was connected with the National Fertilizer Co. for six years and the next twelve with the American Cyanamid Co. Today he lets the younger generation do the work but his farm is always in the limelight as an example of an outstanding combination of dairy and poultry farm. In 1952 he was host to the sixth International Grasslands Congress, a group from many foreign lands who saw Vermont farming methods for the first time. Sixty-eight students of the Animal Husbandry Division of the University of Massachusetts visited the farm in 1955 with its 60 head of registered Holstein cattle and 1,200 laying hens; 380,000 pounds of milk and 18,000 eggs. Mr. Abbott carries on an experiment in cattle feeding for he has not bought any hay for 30 years save for two drought years when he was forced to use grass silage in the summer. His first crop is ensiled with beet pulp as a pre- servative and his second crop cured for hay. He has received several rewards in the Progressive Breeders' Association, the highest recognition obtainable by a breeder of registered Holstein cattle. These are represented by bronze placques.
Another outstanding farm, the Homestead Farm, in the same village is that of Natt L. Divoll, Jr. In 1941 he was presented an award at the Springfield Dairy Herders' Associa- tion annual meeting for his herd of registered Holsteins which earned this honor by showing the highest gain in production for any herd on record in the association during the previous year. This herd was started in 1918 by Natt L. Divoll, Sr. and has been carried on since his death in 1943, by his son as a well- known Holstein breeding farm. This farm has also won several awards in the Progressive Breeders' Association. This is one of the top herds testing under the Dairy Herd Improvement Association and has won many prizes in Vermont and New England as well as first prize in the H. P. Hood Herd Improve- ment contest in 1943 also the New England prize in the same contest and the second in Vermont in 1941. Divoll, who is also a Superior Judge of the state of Vermont, aims to raise foundation sires for farmers at farmers' prices. The Home- stead Farm was awarded a placque in 1953 as being one of five of Vermont's century-old farms, having been in the family 145 years, a project instituted by the Vermont Historical Society. About 40 years ago, Lewis Lovell of the Lovell Track Farm was one of the biggest dealers in pure-bred Holsteins in the vicinity, having, at one time, 600 animals on seven farms in Rockingham accumulated by his father, L. T. Lovell. He sponsored many
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auctions in town and Brattleboro and after W. W. I he aided France in buying and shipping to that country, registered bulls to replace the herds slaughtered in the war, sending more than 1,000 animals to Newport News for shipment. His son later purchased the old Track Farm and specialized for many years unpedigreed Guernseys, maintaining a herd of 50 animals. The amusing story is told of L. T. Lovell who, when he was married, hitched up the only team he owned, a steer and a horse, to take his bride and their worldly possessions to Putney where he rented a farm. At his death in 1913, he was, outside of the paper mills, the largest individual tax payer in Rockingham.
Meadowhill Farm in Saxtons River has been one of the noteworthy farms in town with a valuable Hereford herd in- cluding the prize bull H. C. Zato Larry 25th, a four-year-old purchased for $21,500 in 1954 by Roland Aldrich. This magni- ficent animal that same year, won championships at the New York State Fair, Eastern States Exposition, the International Livestock Show in Chicago and the New England Hereford Show in Maine, again winning a trophy at the latter in 1957. The Aldriches bought the farm of 150 acres which now totals 700, in 1948 and acquired 100 head of registered stock. In 1957 Meadowhill also had the Grand Champion Female at the New York State Fair besides other honors. Mr. Aldrich is one of the incorporators of Vermont Beef Producers and a past president.
For many years Will Pierce ran a large dairy farm in the Basin and carried on an extensive milk route with his herd of 60 Holsteins. The Mandigo farm in Saxtons River, with only 16 Jerseys, had the reputation of producing 3 sets of twin calves in 6 years, twin males in 1944, male and female in 1947 and twin females in 1950. For a number of years the Herman Westons raised Brown Swiss in Saxtons River, the farm now owned by Stanley Furgat. In Cambridgeport is the large farm of Edwards & Brosnan with registered Jerseys and the Fred Smith place now owned by F. O. Coburn. Other farmers in Old Town are Edward Soboleski, George and Hugh O'Brien, George Kenyon, Frank Weeden, Frank Watson, Elbert Blodgett and Lucien Ufford. In Pleasant Valley are Burton S. Stickney, Arnold Fisher, Edward Cenate, Arthur Ballou and Scott Merrill and in Saxtons River are Robert Hitchcock, Harlan Barnes, Ray- mond Lockerby, Harry Barnes & Son, Webster Hall, Harley McBride, Edwin Torrey and Frank Mark. Bartonsville farmers include David Anderson, Kendall Beam, Worden Hale, Jr., Roy Douglas, Harry Reed and the Town Farm. Eva Rovetti, Fred Bussino and Nelson Smith are in Brockways Mills. Chic- ken raisers include Albert Doyle and Harold Taylor of Cam- bridgeport; Morton Downing in Old Town; Arthur Thompson, Hugh Hatfield, Jed Vancor and Clarence Coleman in Saxtons River.
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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM INSECT PESTS
:
For several years previous to 1940, men in CCC Camp No. P-54 in Westminster worked to control gypsy moths, de- stroying hundreds of thousands of egg clusters in Rockingham, Westminster, Putney, Athens and Grafton. During 1939, heavy infestation defoliated a hundred acres on the village water shed at Minard's Pond. Effective work had just begun there when the hurricane of '38 took the men for that emergency work. In 1940 they were again free to work on the gypsy moths. Three scouting crews were sent out to determine areas most heavily infested so that the remaining four crews could reach these effectively. The method of control was the Silvi-Cultural Control and test plots and records showed that by removing the favorite food of the moth from an infested area, gratifying results were obtained. This necessitated studying food habits of the moth and the Minard's Pond area was the seat of ex- tensive work as the watershed was seriously threatened with destruction if not checked at once. Several hundred trees were blown down here in the '38 hurricane which, together with a previous loss of trees, made work in this area imperative. An- other vital spot was near the Hit or Miss Gun Club where several white pines had been killed by the caterpillars whose favorite foods, however are oak, poplar, scrub apple, shad, grey birch, willow and a few other species. By removing these trees from threatened areas, work crews were able to lessen the deforestation.
The year of 1915 will be known as grasshopper year. That summer the hoppers descended in clouds on Rockingham and other parts of the state. Fields were stripped clean of their hay and other crops. Cars rolled over carpets of them in the road. It was unpleasantly reminiscent of the plague of locusts in the Bible. Practically every farm in town lost its crops that year. In Brookline, six bushels of dead insects were gathered in one day. The grasshoppers descended upon the oat fields and climbed the stalks, eating their way to the top which they chewed off but did not eat, leaving a field of leafless stems. County Agent Sweeton sent out a prescription of lethal bait to Windham County farmers, consisting of the juice of oranges and lemons mixed with Paris Green and bran. But it didn't get them all and they swept over the land, leaving denuded fields behind. At Lovell's Track Farm the oat field was cleaned out and Mr. Lovell and Agent Sweeton tried an experiment. There was a new crop called alfalfa which seemed worth trying, Mr. Sweeton thought; the soil and location seemed suitable. So they planted this new crop while nearby farmers watched with interest to see what happened. It was late in the season but in the first part of August, they put in two acres of alfalfa and in a week it was up. So one of our standard crops came into being, with necessity again the mother of invention.
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In August of 1918, the corn borer, a friend imported from Europe, made its appearance in Massachusetts and New York and Vermont trembled in its shoes. The Commissioner of Agriculture issued an edict that no "stalks or ears, green or dried, of the corn plant (Zea Mays)" should be permitted to enter Vermont. Cars were stopped at the Massachusetts and New York lines and investigated. But the borer sneaked in just the same and has never left. It seems to have appeared next in New Hampshire and after an automobile trip through that state, George Halladay, who had examined quantities. of the new pest, set himself up as an authority and announced that he could identify any found in this vicinity. He may have been quite busy. In 1938 army worms marched in battalions through the corn and oat fields in Westminster and Walpole but didn't get to Rockingham until 1954.
THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY POULTRY ASSOCIATION
Early in the century a thriving organization in Bellows Falls, calling themselves the Connecticut Valley Poultry Associ- ation, flourished for a number of years. The annual exhibition was in Union Hall and was open to poultry men far and wide, the first one being held for three days in December, 1910. These were gala occasions with many classes and prizes offered by local firms for high and low scorings. Outstanding was always the $500 silver Trophy Cup, an elaborate affair shaped like a longi- tudinal boat standing firmly on four cock's feet with a fowl perched proudly at each end. This is still kept in the vault at the Windham Bank. In 1912 the silver bird-boat was won by the famous Etwinana Farm of Poultney and the same year the newspaper account stated that among the entries were "Gertrude Bolles' bantams, as usual, the best." More than 1,000 birds were shown and score cards had 45 classes with 17 special classes. After the 1914 show which was poorly attended and a financial oss although 700 birds were on view, interest in the shows petered out. Yet the 1915 show was the largest ever held in southern Vermont. The club carried on for awhile with an exhibit in December, 1919 with 510 entries of pigeons, rabbits, turkeys and other fowl. But it soon faded into the limbo of forgotten things and local fanciers raised their birds "without benefit of clergy" especially as Rev. A. C. Wilson was its first and only President. Vice President was G. D. Clark, proprietor of the Brookside Poultry Farm in Bellows Falls; Secretary, G. H. Buxton; Assistant Secretary, A. I. Bolles and Treasurer, W. G. Freeman. Webster Hall is the only surviving member of the club today. Perhaps misfortune began in the low year of 1912 when W. F. Barnard got three lone chicks from 100 eggs; Ruel Thayer had one chick as the survivor of the fittest from 50 Black Orpington eggs and W. C. Belknap set 195 eggs and got 20 chickens.
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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM THE ROCKINGHAM CHINCHILLA FARM
In Bellows Falls is Josef DeMuzio's chinchilla farm. There isn't much of a farm look to this immaculate unit of cages in the pine-paneled basement of his home on Rockingham Street where the valuable little animals live. A graduate of New Hampshire State college where he studied the business, DeMuzio bought two pair as the basis of his venture. Since a pair costs from $1,000 to $1,500, it takes money to enter this business- but a chinchilla coat costs from $75,000 to $100,000, using 200 to 500 pelts. He built his stock up from two pair to twenty animals in less than a year. He is the first and only local breeder and one of the few in southern Vermont raising these rare little animals with the soft grey fur, a new facet of animal husbandry in Vermont. There are about 100,000 chinchillas in America now, all raised from an original eleven animals shipped into this country in 1920 from their native Andes mountains by a mining engineer. It evidently gets its name from the fact that it was trapped for many years by the Chincha Indians for use in the royal robes of the Incas of Peru and Bolivia, with the death penalty for any other use of the sacred fur.
AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS FOR TOWN OF ROCKINGHAM, VT.
OFFICIAL BULLETIN
Total number of
1914
1920
1930
1940
1950
1953
1955
Silos
Horses
598
418
186
Sheep
610
353
237
Milch Cows
674
805
Other Neat Stock
567
715
Registered Neat Stock
170
Pure Bred Bulls
58
Hogs or Swine
139
285
111
Oxen
20
2
4
Dairy Calves
123
408
161
187
203
Registered Dairy Cows and Heifers
187
Registered Bulls
18
Grade Cows and Heifers
966
Grade Bulls
28
Steers and Bulls
90
38
68
51
Heifers (1 to 2 yrs.)
376
197
260
211
Dairy Cows and Heifers
1,746
840
856
845
(2 yrs. and over)
Hens (over 3 mo.)
2,330
6,869
1,853
3,670
27
40
49
Cattle kept only for beef
32
34
3
CHAPTER XV
Two WORLD WARS AND A COLD WAR
WORLD WAR I
Before World War I lit its red flares across the world, there had been minor conflicts which touched the men of Rockingham. This was Co. E of which the town was proud. On June 19, 1916, Co. E was called out to go to Eagle Pass, Texas during the Mexican border trouble and did not return until October 10. That war proved disappointing to a couple of local eleven-year- olds, Reginald Clarey and Richard Lynch who, filled with the spirit of '76, tried to enlist as drummer boys. In the same conflict, Patrick Hartnett was on the Scout Ship Prairie and Clifton Kendall, yeoman on the Georgia.
Even before the United States had joined the war against the Kaiser, five Italians had left to help their mother country in 1915, having come to this country without serving their two years in the army and unless they returned to their duty when needed, could never have returned without danger of imprison- ment for a possible 15 years. These young men were Gerald Grippo of Bellows Falls and Michael Fornell, Louis Porat, Frank Colombo and Carmine Crampa from North Walpole. In 1912 several Greek residents had left to fight for their homeland.
But W. W. I became an actuality on a Monday night, April 2, 1917 while Co. E was at drill in the Armory. Lt. Walter Shaw received a telephone call from Gen. Lee S. Tillot- son that the Federal Government had called up for service the First Regiment of the Vermont National Guard. Just before they were dismissed, Capt. Harold Cady told them the news as they stood at attention. Soon the place was in an uproar as the men shouted and cheered. The next morning Fire Chief David Lawlor sounded ten blasts on the fire alarm calling Co. E together for active duty and until they left on Friday morning, they remained at the Armory. Many young men from town joined the colors and every small boy in Bellows Falls camped around the Armory, thrilling in reflected glory. When the company organized, it had only three officers and 67 men. It boarded the train Friday morning with three officers and 100 men. A large crowd was on hand to see them off for Fort Ethan Allen but they no longer shouted and cheered. War was a grim reality and faces were sad and eyes were wet. Some of these boys would not return. Some families said goodbye to
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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
more than one son like the Victor Fontaines who sent Herbert, Melvin and Amedee. There were 17 men from the I.P. paper mills and of the nine employees of the Express Company, five left for war.
During the long months across the sea. the 103rd Machine Gun Division which had absorbed Co. E, saw plenty of action with the 26th Division. For some time the boys lived in quarries in France and took part in the following engagements: 1918, Chemin des Dames Sector February 6-March 21; Toul Sector, April 3-June 28; Champagne-Marne Offensive, July 15-July 26; Aisne-Marne Offensive, July 18-July 25; St. Mihiel Offensive, September 12-September 16; Troyon Sector, September 17- October 8; Meuse-Argonne Offensive, October 18-November 11. Among all deaths of local boys, the majority were members of the 103rd. .
The first military funeral held in Bellows Falls for many years was for Joseph J. Fenton, Jr., one of the first casualties and the first body to come home. He was drowned when his plane came down during night flying at Pensacola, Florida, as it went over backwards, pinning him beneath it. The first local boy to lose his life was Private 1st Class William O'Brien who died of scarlet fever in France. Two Rockingham boys served with the French forces before the United States entered the War, Gerald King and Henry Stickney. King, grandson of Cornelius King, was well-known here and in New York for his theatrical work and joined the French ambulance service. His war record was exceptional and he was one of a chosen few to go. to Salonica where he was taken ill in May, 1917 and on shipboard, enroute for home, became paralysed in his lower limbs when only three days from port and died in a New York hospital. Stickney joined the Lafayette Esquadrille in 1915 as aviator, later joining the American Flying Corps until the end of the War and downed two German planes inside their own lines, winning the Croix de Guerre. In his "flying boxcar," he instilled interest in local flying after the War. By Novem- ber, 1917, there were 97 men enlisted from Rockingham in- cluding 34 graduates of B.F.H.S. and in March of the next year, 155 local boys were in the service. Private William G. Pierce, Co: A., 102 Machine Gun Battalion, one of the first local men to enlist, was reported killed in action on April 20 in the battle of Seicheprey. About the same time word was received of the death of Capt. Arthur Locke of Saxtons River on the same date and in the same battle. Frank Griffin, Jr. and Fred J. Hickey of the. 103rd Gun Battalion were killed in action, on July 23 and July 18, respectively. Paul and Fred Lawton were among the first local boys to lose their lives, both enlisting with Co. E and. dying in 1918 and buried in the American Cemetery at St. Mihiel:
On the home front, the town was a busy place as it swung
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into high gear. The whole community organized itself and a Committee of Safety was formed with Judge T. E. O'Brien, James Barrett, J. E. Piddock, George R. Wales and L. J. Royce as its first members. The Opera House was jammed with 1,000 people on April 9 for a patriotic meeting presided over by Rev. V. E. Blagbrough. Seats of honor were given the Civil War veterans who marched onto the stage to the tune of Marching Through Georgia with Fred Hobson leading them. Chaplain A. W. Stone of the U.S.S. Georgia spoke on the duties of the U. S. Navy and Judge Warner Graham told of the causes of the war-whose effects were yet to be seen. The Vermont Farm was working full time and soldiers guarded all bridges day and night as sabotage reared its ugly head. Guards were posted at Minard's Pond to protect the village water supply and on July 23, an intruder was shot at twice as he disappeared while help roared up in three police cars with members of the Home Guards. The Guards, Co. M of the 1st Vermont Volun- teer Militia, worked overtime, clad in their British-type uni- forms consisting of shoes, a sweater, two shirts and a rubber raincoat. Composed of unmarried men over 35 and married men over 30, it was formed in the Armory with A. I. Bolles as chairman of the Home Guard Committee and was divided into two squads at first which drilled with old Krags and Springfield rifles from Vermont Academy. By mid-summer there were 32 men enlisted at the Recruiting Station for the Vermont Ambulance Co. No. 25, one of the first such companies to see action overseas. Mrs. A. M. Richards was appointed a member of the Vermont Division of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense.
Five Liberty Bond Drives were held, Rockingham going over its first quota almost 50%. James H. Williams chair- manned the first three drives and A. I. Bolles the last two which were as follows: $282,000, $282,000, $293,000, $461,000 and $359,000. In 1917 a group of boys raised $5,300 and in the third drive, Troop No. 2 of the Boy Scouts raised $6,300, including Albert Bolles, Raymond Bradley, John Angell, Howard Illingworth and Verne Crosier, who received medals for having sold the most bonds. Everyone went to war and even the weather put on a sleet storm which turned red and yellow, a grim reminder of bloody fields in France, people thought. Every- one bought War Savings Stamps and at the close of the War it was announced that Vermont's contribution to the War through stamp bonds was exceeded by no other state east of the Ohio River. There were judged to be about 25 so-called aliens in town, two Austrian and one German but most of the Austrians were designated as Poles and all were obliged to register with the authorities. There was quite a fanfare about these people remaining in this country without becoming naturalized. News- papers took up the challenge and the Springfield Reporter
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HISTORY OF ROCKINGHAM
suggested that they either serve in Uncle Sam's Army-or go home. Probably the most intense feeling took place in Saxtons River where a German, Max Wolff, gardener for Dr. Bowen, was arrested for using words of "disloyalty" and abuse against the United States and for refusing to take out naturalization papers as advised. Wolff, when approached concerning his intentions of joining Co. E said, "To hell with the United States! I'm going to fight for a good country!" Suddenly he refused to continue his work, saying that he "would not feed England while Germany was starving." He was arrested and taken to Federal Court at St. Johnsbury where he was pardoned and returned under $1,000 bond for good conduct and obliged to report each week to the U. S. Marshall at Brattleboro. It was a time of unrest and worry. All strangers were under suspect and at least one visiting photographer was taken into custody untill he could prove that he had no subversive intentions and that the pony upon which he posed children, did not deliberatly harbor death-dealing germs. In 1917 someone cut the Western Union wires early one morning between Bellows Falls and New York, causing much consternation for awhile. One patriotic gentleman, Italian by birth, who could not speak English but who bought several Liberty Bonds, fell victim to the old "flim- flam" game. Michael Monobel, laborer in the ash pit of the Fitchburg Railroad yards, used his hard-earned money to help his adopted country, then met two of his countrymen, strangers in town, who convinced him that they could both increase his bonds plus $600 in cash besides paying him for taking care of their own $10,000 until they returned. Monobel trustingly tuned over his bonds and cash, accepted the shoe box of money- and that was the last he saw of anyone or anything except a box of old paper and three one-dollar bills.
To top it all, 1917 saw the big polio scare in Vermont and Dr. Hill quarantined everyone who had been to New York. Washington County was the trouble spot and rigidly quarantined that summer. The winter of 1918 was the flu year with twelve people dying in the week of October 12 of this new malady, a disease born, it was said, of the war. This very virulent disease raged almost unchecked over the land and was still on the rampage when the Armory was turned over to the town as a temporary hospital with Miss Josephine Loveland, R.N., in charge. Later the Red Cross reimbursed the town to the amount of $300 for this work. Dr. Hill, health officer, announced many deaths from flu-pneumonia each week, some- times several in a family. It was a period of fear for many and suffering and grief for others. Dr. A. L. Miner watched helplessly while his own son, Clement, passed away. On March 1, 1919, seven teachers and 75 pupils were absent. Schools and churches closed for a week and all minors were excluded
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