USA > Vermont > Bennington County > Manchester > Manchester, Vermont : a pleasant land among the mountains, 1761-1961 > Part 12
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
Other Manchester men found their way into other outfits. Charles F. Orvis, recruiting officer for Captain Streeter's third com- pany, Second Regiment, Sharp Shooters, supervised trials in town for those intending to enlist and wishing to test their skill with the rifle. George Swift and A. B. Straight were in the Regimental Band, Fourth Regiment, which organized in Bellows Falls. When the Seventh Regiment formed in Poultney, December 1861, free passes on the railroad were furnished to enlistees. George T. Roberts of Manchester was appointed colonel in that unit.
Local citizens met at the Court House July 17, 1862 to prepare a subscription paper for paying a $50 bounty to Manchester men en- listing in the Tenth Regiment under the second government call. Amidst spirited music and patriotic addresses, a Judge Miller of- fered extra inducement to recruits from his own pocket: $10 to the first man to enlist and be accepted; $9 to the second; $8 to the third, etc. When the Judge took his hat to leave, he received cheer upon cheer.
On August 13, 1862 President Lincoln issued a desperate third call for 300,000 more men to serve for nine months. As there were no recruiting officers for this call, town officers and patriotic citi- zens were expected to supervise the enlisting and form the com- panies of this second brigade. On August 21 a town meeting voted
13. Major W. R. Dunton, an address made June 29, 1898 at a reunion of Co. E, Fifth Regt., Vt. Vols.
14. Benedict, Vermont in the Civil War, I, p. 199.
127
MANCHESTER IN LATER WARS
that the Selectmen be instructed to raise on the town's credit any necessary sum, not exceeding $3,000, for the purpose of paying $100 to each accepted recruit required in Manchester's quota. It was also moved that Selectmen include a motion to raise the sum on the grand list in the warning of the next freemen's meeting.
This company, thereby recruited at Manchester, was Company C, color company of the Fourteenth Regiment. It was organized Au- gust 28, 1862 with men from Manchester, Rupert, Winhall, Sun- derland, Dorset, and Arlington. Josiah Munson was captain and Charles A. Pierce, editor-owner of the Manchester Journal, was or- derly. Harrison Prindle, another Journal editor, was adjutant of the regiment.
Apparently other towns were not pleased that Manchester had more than her share of officers in Company c. Though during the recruiting period most of the enlistees went home each night, one of the Rupert boys waited for the weekend before going home over Rupert Mountain. But the weather that fall suddenly turned cold. He asked Captain Munson to lend him an old coat for protection. Without hesitating a moment, Munson took off his own coat and gave it to the boy. His action promptly ended all the disagreement and folks no longer found fault with the officers of Company C.15
No one apparently has ever tried to describe the farewell given Company C. The memory of Savage's Station and the death of so many Manchester lads was still too fresh in the minds of the great crowd that assembled for the departure. The company adopted as their slogan-"No Rebel Force Can Rend Our Powers, The Whole United States Is Ours." It was mustered into the United States service at Brattleboro October 21, 1862. Of this group, two were killed in action and five were wounded.
The entire community threw itself into the war effort. Several public meetings were held at the Congregational church to plan soldiers' aid; to furnish necessities for the war wounded in Vermont hospitals; and to contribute money for the sick and wounded via the New England branch of the United States Sanitary Commission. The commission at that time was headed by Mark Skinner of Man- chester and Chicago. One of the hospitals receiving aid from Man-
15. E. L. Wyman, M.D., Memorial Day speech printed in the Manchester Journal, June 5, 1919.
128
MANCHESTER, VERMONT
chester was in Brattleboro. Delight S. Boudinot, sister of Lieutenant Governor Leonard Sargeant and widow of Cherokee chief Elias Boudinot, was one of the main supporters of this work.
Citizens were asked to grow more onions and cabbages to be sent to the army as a scurvy preventative. Pickled and dried vegetables, flannels, linens, cottons, and maple sugar were forwarded free by rail to a Boston clearing house. One box of chickens, turkeys, and holiday pies lovingly prepared by Manchester mothers and wives for the Thanksgiving dinner of Company E did not arrive in the south until January 17! After the Emancipation Proclamation, money collections were taken in Manchester churches, and barrels of clothing were sent south, both for "Freedmen." This was under - taken largely through the efforts of Mrs. Emma Wickham. In 1865, a Miss Miner from Manchester went to Savannah under the Ameri- can Missionary Association as a "Teacher in Colored Schools."
When the war reached a crisis in 1863, new men were sorely needed. In November the Selectmen were authorized by a town meeting to borrow $4,600 on the town's credit in order to pay a $400 bounty to any man enlisting under the new quota. These bounties, which continued to be raised by a tax on the grand list, were increased only a month later to $500. Though the speeches at the war meetings were loudly applauded and the greatest enthusi- asm prevailed, no one enlisted. Manchester, too, was slightly em- barrassed; tiny Sandgate had not only offered a bigger bounty, but had already filled its quota. In anticipation of another call, a town meeting, July 13, 1864, authorized the Selectmen to hire men to fill a quota. The size of the bounty and the number of recruits were left to their discretion.
A town's quota was controlled by the number of citizens available for draft. Thus any men enrolled in Manchester who were later found with disease or defect could be certificated by Dr. George L. Ames, the examining physician, and dropped from the rolls. On February 21, 1865, the Selectmen announced the newest quota filled. Seventeen men had been obtained at a cost of $13,250! Tax- payers were notified "that the Bounty tax voted January 9, 1865 [was] payable 1/2 the first of April and 1/2 the first of September."
Toward the end of the war, several regiments of Vermont militia were organized to be prepared for further emergency. The entire
129
MANCHESTER IN LATER WARS
division when completed totaled 6,999 men. Regiments Nine, Ten, Eleven, and Twelve composed the Third Brigade. The Eleventh Regiment, of which Mason S. Colburn of Manchester was colonel, mustered here September 28-30, 1865. Since tents for 350 men failed to arrive due to a transportation blunder, the regiment was quartered in their own and private homes, in the Court House, and at Vanderlip's hotel. The forty-seven men of Company A, Cyrus Munson, captain, had been raised by volunteer enlistment and by draft from Manchester and Winhall.
The news of Lee's surrender came by telegraph and its reception in Manchester was described by Mrs. Wickham:
The intense joy of the land uttered itself, now in praise, now in shouts. Our bells rang their loudest peals, banners were held up amid proces- sions formed in haste, and the echoes . .. of the cannon's roar from our stable mountains was ... a voice proclaiming the fulfillment of our hopes, the end of our fears. John had leave to ring his bell all day, and his ordinary wages trebled by patriot friends to permit him to continue an exertion in which he truly delighted. 16
Vermont's famed general, L. A. Grant, expressed the military opinion to Manchester lawyer Ahiman L. Miner in a letter written June 24, 1865 from Vermont Brigade headquarters :
I am happy to congratulate you and all loyal men upon the glorious ter- mination of the war. . . . The principles of Republicanism are forever established, the rights of man are vindicated, and our power as a nation is felt and acknowledged. .. .
P.S. I expect to be in Vermont in a few days !17
§ The Spanish-American War
MANCHESTER's two Spanish-American War veterans were Lezem Bovey and John B. Covey. Covey took part in the affair at Las Guasimas on June 24, 1898 and in the Battle of San Juan, Santiago, Cuba, July 1 and 2. Dr. Henry W. Eliot, later a resident of Man- chester, was also a participant in that war and active in local veter- ans' affairs.
16. Emma Wickham, A Lost Family Found (Manchester, 1869). "John" was Cyrus Branch, runaway slave-sexton of Congregational church.
17. Whipple Collection.
130
MANCHESTER, VERMONT
Among the local planners of a suitable demonstration in Mont- pelier to honor the gallantry and bravery of Admiral George Dewey on his return to Vermont were J. W. Fowler, A. C. Connor, A. L. Graves, F. H. Orvis, J. H. Whipple, and D. K. Simonds.
§ World War I
MANCHESTER men participating in the first World War numbered 134. Listers in the conscription of men eighteen to forty-six years of age were Edward Griffith, Paul W. Fowler, and James C. Dean, who worked in conjunction with the draft board which in 1917 was located in Bennington. Poll taxes of all servicemen from Manchester were abated by vote of the board of civil authority.
The principal relief unit was the Manchester branch, Benning- ton chapter, American Red Cross, which sometimes functioned in separate groups in the three villages. As early as June 1917 the Red Cross sought to outfit all Manchester soldiers prior to their call. Later, pajamas, sheets, hospital shirts, sweaters, scarfs, socks, and helmets were shipped from headquarters here to points over- seas.
A class in making surgical dressings was started early in the war also. During the desperate summer of 1918 the Manchester branch faced a quota of 750 front-line packets. Workrooms in the Village which had been given by Albert Reed became too small for so many volunteers, so the making of surgical dressings continued there and the seamstresses moved across the street to Miss Fowler's cottage. Many women took work home with them. By August some 15,190 dressings had been shipped from Manchester to division head- quarters. Clothing was sent later for postwar civilian relief.
Mrs. Claude Campbell headed the Red Cross Home Service com- mittee, which aided servicemen in making out proper allotments and insurances. It kept a detailed record on file for each man. It also handled applications for the $60 bonus and worked with the town clerk on the Manchester honor roll. The roll, a memorial tab- let which has since been removed, was erected east of the post office in December 1918.
Manchester's first casualty was Roger Conant Perkins, who was killed in flight training at Key West, Florida, on March 13, 1918.
131
MANCHESTER IN LATER WARS
He was the youngest son of the Rev. and Mrs. Sidney K. Perkins, pastor of the Congregational church.
At the 1918 town meeting the purchase of war savings and thrift stamps was encouraged more than ever and many were sold as a result. At the close of the meeting a motion was made that Walter Hard "form a letter to our soldier boys expressing the confidence and appreciation of the home town." Fourth of July exercises that year reached a new high in patriotic demonstrations, and in Octo- ber Manchester went well over the top in the Fourth Liberty Loan. The quota of $81,600 was not only reached, but $100,000 was sub- scribed and $128,300 was actually collected.
Burr and Burton Seminary's headmaster, James Brooks, partici- pated in educational work in France among American soldiers un- der the auspices of the overseas Y.M.C.A. service.
The Manchester Journal reported Armistice Day as the "noisiest, happiest day that Manchester ever saw." It was but a short time be- fore everyone with a car trimmed his machine with bunting and started from Walker's garage at the Depot. The schools were given a holiday and the teachers prepared the children for the march. Some fifty decorated cars filed past the soldiers' monument in the Village, stopping at the Court House for band numbers and the singing of the national anthem. The pealing of bells continued all afternoon and all evening and a huge bonfire lit up the golf course.
Perhaps the most unique distinction of Manchester's role in World War I was numbering among her residents one of the coun- try's leading pacifists. Sarah N. Cleghorn became a member of the Socialist party as early as 1913. Two years later, after reading a ser- mon by the Rev. Willard Sperry of Massachusetts urging "Not Americans first, but Christians first" and after rereading the Ser- mon on the Mount, Miss Cleghorn became a "complete, uncompro- mising pacifist."18 As chairman of the Committee on Christians in the Anti-Enlistment League, she participated in peace demonstra- tions on the Capitol steps in Washington, D. C. Though she utterly opposed war, Sarah Cleghorn, as an historian, vowed she would in- clude all war news in the journals she kept for the Manchester His- torical Society "just as a believer in religious toleration would have recorded the progress of the Inquisition."
18. October 20, 1917 entry, Vol. XI (1915-1918). Clippings and notes kept for the Manchester Historical Society, pp. 182-190.
132
MANCHESTER, VERMONT
S World War II
PRIOR to Pearl Harbor, Manchester people, like most in the United States, were concerned with America's role in the world conflict. As early as March 1938, a huge meeting was held at Burr and Bur- ton Seminary for a public discussion of "How the U. S. Can Best Prepare for Peace." In attendance were students, clergymen, busi- ness and professional people, and local peace leaders. A second discussion, arranged by the American Forum of Democracy, was held at the Seminary in December 1940 and the opinion was reached that America should not enter the war !
Already the first draft list of Manchester men had appeared in the Manchester Journal,19 Walter Rice Hard being the first to be called under the Selective Service Act.
By May 1941 three air raid warning stations for the detection of planes were established in Manchester-at Burr and Burton Seminary in the Village; the Union Opera House at the Center; and the Modern Theater building at the Depot.
Sponsors of a rally for "Bundles for Britain" gave away a car in September 1941, which was escorted from the soldiers' monument to the Seminary by the Manchester Band. The program, led by Robert C. Brewster, featured Senator Walter Hard as speaker.
On November 9 some 2,500 to 3,000 people flocked to the Man- chester airport to watch maneuvers between Bennington and Bel- lows Falls Home Guard units. The problem involved the landing of parachute troops by the "enemy" and the retaking of ground by Home Guard troops. Five airplanes were used and local people manned the canteen and ambulance service. First aid units were supervised by four registered nurses.
The Manchester branch, "Battenkill Valley Chapter," American Red Cross of the northern Bennington County Chapter was for- mally organized in April 1941 with I. N. Bartlett as president. For- merly it had functioned as a volunteer service office operated and financed by a group interested in promoting Red Cross work. Later the Manchester branch was to act as a clearinghouse for the entire chapter. It sponsored first aid and nutrition classes, the War Relief
19. October 31, 1940.
133
MANCHESTER IN LATER WARS
canvass, and a mobile canteen. Besides establishing a motor corps, it arranged a program to transport Manchester donors to the blood bank at Troy, New York. Between December 7, 1941 and June 1945, the Manchester Red Cross made 3,513,465 surgical dressings.
Immediately following the country's entrance into the war, Com- pany 16, Vermont State Guard Reserve, organized in Manchester with Fred P. Heinel, captain; William H. Miller, first lieutenant; Orrin H. Beattie, second lieutenant. The company was officially recognized December 8, 1941 and was mustered into the State Service with twelve noncommissioned officers and fifty-five privates. Many losses in personnel came when its members entered the regu- lar services or into defense work outside of town. However, in 1942 when it lost its reserve standing and became Company I, First Bat- talion, the group had a full company of three officers, fifty men, and seven reserves. Age limits had been increased to include men be- tween seventeen and sixty.
Company I drilled one night weekly for two hours in the Semi- nary gymnasium. Gasoline was made available for transportation and uniforms were furnished by the state. Some actual practice was provided during their training when a twenty-four-hour guard was placed on an aircraft forced down in this vicinity due to poor flying conditions.
During the next two years, Company I again lost some forty men but in 1944 had regained full strength and stood third highest in the battalion. Recruits had also been drawn from Arlington, Sun- derland, Rupert, and East Arlington. Clifford B. Graham succeeded Heinel as captain of the company. He was discharged a major at the mustering out ceremonies held in the Seminary gymnasium March 12, 1946.
Manchester citizens aided the military program of the war in many ways. They co-operated with several trial black-outs; they supported the Garden Club's Victory Garden program under the supervision of Clyde Bryant; they attended and supported war bond and stamp rallies; and they underwent the rigors of tire, gas, sugar, and fuel oil rationing. Henry H. Wehrhane was chairman of the Salvage Depot for scrap, which was located near the bandstand at the Center. Eight youngsters from the Richville section called the "Scrap Pilots" collected 15,840 pounds of scrap to receive a
134
MANCHESTER, VERMONT
state award. The 1942 Town Report was given the right to be in- scribed with "M" for Merit by Governor William H. Wills because of the town's outstanding job in salvage collection.
The Mark Skinner Library waged a Victory Book campaign. People were urged again and again to respond to fund drives which paid the cost of waging war. In 1943 Manchester was the first town in the United States to exceed its quota in the War Chest drive. During the Sixth and Seventh War Loan Drives, Manchester, un- der the chairmanship of Robert C. Brewster, greatly exceeded its quotas. In the Victory Loan Drive of December 1945 Manchester's quota was $95,000. Manchester responded with a subscription of $223,500 in a tangible show of patriotism.
The growing international crisis and the increasing menace to American security and freedom prompted the Special Session of the 1941 General Assembly on September 13, 1941 to give legisla- tive status to the Vermont Council of Safety. In No. 17 of the Acts of this session provision was made authorizing the preparation and supervision of plans for civilian defense. W. Robinson Martin, town manager, was appointed by the governor as the Manchester director and steps were immediately taken locally to create com- mittees to organize and direct the civilian effort for training the community to combat the results of enemy action.
On December 9, 1941 telegraphic instructions were received from the governor at 1:15 p.m. directing the Civilian Defense or- ganization to take posts immediately pursuant to the warning of the Boston Army Information Center. After the "All Clear" on Man- chester's first "air raid," telegrams were sent to the mayors of Bos- ton and New York offering the town as an evacuation center.
Ned Bryant was the first chief of the air raid warning service in Manchester. One air raid warning station was established at the Wilcox farm in the south part of the Village. This was Observer Post 38-c, Ground Observer System, Aircraft Warning Service. It was in part-time operation from the first activation order, April 22, 1942, until July, when it was furnished with around-the-clock duty by an extremely loyal group working in pairs for two or three hour stints. First in a tent, this post was later housed in a small building built by the observers, who reported to duty regardless of the hour and weather. Roscoe Wilcox was in charge of this station assisted
135
MANCHESTER IN LATER WARS
by Roger Wilcox. Miss Lois Wilcox was the first Manchester ob- server to receive an Army Air Corps merit badge for over 500 hours of duty.
Also rated "excellent" by the Army was the observer post located in East Manchester, first at L. G. Gaudette's and later on the school- house grounds. Christopher Swezey, Sr., Alfred Roberts, and Francis Smalley were successive chief observers at this post, which at its peak was manned twenty-four hours daily until October 1943, when airplane spotting was discontinued except for short periods weekly. Manchester's Civilian Defense and Red Cross Corps were looked upon as outstanding units in Vermont, receiving many com- pliments from both state and federal officials.
During the war, two new flags were given to Manchester Village, the "Stars and Stripes" by Robert W. Higbie and a gigantic service flag by Bartlett Arkell.
On November 29, 1942 an honor roll lettered by Leale H. Tows- ley and given in a glass case by the Manchester Rotary Club was dedicated in front of the Baptist church at the Center. Stanley B. Ineson was the chief speaker assisted by uniformed members of Company 16, Vermont State Guard; the American Legion Guard of Dorset; Manchester Boy Scouts; and the Manchester Band. This honor roll was replaced in June 1944 by a larger roll containing some 300 names which was located on the lawn of the Dyer home- stead (The Landmark-1960) at the Center where it remained until storm-damaged in 1950. It has never been replaced.20
Manchester's greatest loss were the lives sacrificed in defense of the country. Eric Allen, Jr., perished at Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941. James Harned died in a Japanese prison camp in the Philip- pines July 1, 1942, though his parents did not learn his fate until three years later. Lieutenant Carlton B. Overton, Jr., crashed April 22, 1943 in the plane of which he was co-pilot during an unscheduled landing at an Evansville, Indiana, airport. First Lieutenant Robert T. Lee, Jr., was killed June 20, 1943 in a plane crash in Albany, Texas. Corporal Harold T. Squires died accidentally at Camp Ed- wards, Massachusetts, July 4, 1943. In August 1944 Harvey K. Fowler was killed in action while serving with the Marine Corps in
20. See Appendix for names.
136
MANCHESTER, VERMONT
the South Pacific. Walter D. Elcox died on an unknown date in Eu- rope in the service of his country.
V-E Day in May 1945 was celebrated with a small spontaneous parade. The day was marked by special services at the Baptist and Episcopal churches.
V-J Day, August 14, 1945, was a day for great celebration in Manchester as in the rest of the world. Impromptu parades, horn blowing, and bell ringing started early and continued far into the night. On the following day, gas rationing was discontinued and most of the canned foods and fuel oils were removed from the ration list.
§ The Korean War
WHEN the United States became involved in the Korean conflict, members of the 43rd National Guard Division of Vermont were called to active duty August 1, 1950. Close to 100 men in Bennington County were affected by the order and immediately six Manchester men received their draft orders. By January 1952 some sixty-five local men had enlisted or been called into the service.21
The first fatality from the area was Pfc. Vernon R. King, who was taken prisoner January 7, 1951 while serving with the infantry in the vicinity of Wonju, South Korea. According to prisoners who returned home later, King became ill and died March 31, 1951. A second loss was Pvt. Reino Nousiainen, who was killed in action April 16, 1951.
The Korean War ended October 27, 1953.
§ Postwar Civilian Defense
IN July 1950 Robert C. Brewster, as co-ordinator of Manchester Civil Defense, called for two volunteer chief supervisors and twenty observers to man a central observation post here for the National Air Defense Command. By fall, the Civilian Defense program had been reactivated with Christopher Swezey, Sr., as chief observer with E. J. Markey, Margaret Knothe, and Barton C. Hilliard as sup-
21. See Appendix for Manchester men called into service during the period of the Korean War.
137
MANCHESTER IN LATER WARS
ervisors. The duty of the post was to spot and report airplanes to the filter station in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Ground Observer Corps, Bravo Papa 51 Red, was organized July 14, 1952, one of three Vermont posts to maintain a twenty- four-hour schedule. In 1953 it had a perfect record. The town had erected and winterized headquarters near the Manchester Elemen- tary School and furnished heat, electricity, and repairs.
In 1954 Manchester had 167 Ground Observers giving two or more hours weekly to the Air Force. Any types of aircraft spotted- nonmilitary, military, hostile, or distressed-were reported now to the Albany Filter Center. Also required was information on the ex- act time the plane was sighted or heard, the location, and the direc- tion of the flight.
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.