USA > Vermont > Bennington County > Manchester > Manchester, Vermont : a pleasant land among the mountains, 1761-1961 > Part 13
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On July 5, 1954 the Air Force entertained twenty-five observers from Manchester who had given the greatest number of hours with an airplane ride to Otis Air Force Base, Falmouth, Massachusetts. Having given 300 or more hours of service at that date were Robert Anderson, Margaret Heinel, Fred P. Heinel, the Rev. Edgar John- son, J. Burton Powers, John Thompson, Lillian Thompson, Paul Totschinder, and Ellamae Wilcox. By February 1956 twenty-seven people had given 370 hours or more with John Thompson leading with a total of 472 hours. Lillian Thompson was second with 466 hours.
In November 1955 the name of the Manchester Ground Observer Corps was changed to Baker Peter 51 Red. However, due to ad- vances in electronic detecting devices and having fulfilled its mis- sion, the Corps was inactivated January 1, 1959 throughout the United States.
The Manchester Emergency Unit was incorporated in April 1955 as a nonprofit organization to provide Manchester with a trained and equipped group for Civil Defense or other disasters. The first trustees were F. Paul Gribbin, Howard C. Dailey, and Lois B. Barney. Under the direction of Dr. Mason B. Barney, the Emer- gency Unit co-operated with the Defense Command in conjunction with the Ground Observer Corps.
The unit attends fires, the annual Manchester Fair, and any of the local activities which might require first aid or emergency cov- erage. By 1957 it had acquired a truck and garage. Currently, Man-
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chester's Civilian Defense program, which is now supervised by Dr. Barney, works with the Emergency Unit and the Manchester auxiliary police. A radiological monitoring team has also been established and trained.
§ Postwar National Guard
ABOUT January 1, 1956 a contingent of the 172nd Infantry, Ver- mont National Guard, was organized in Manchester at Rod and Gun Club headquarters. This regiment belonged to the 43rd Divi- sion, the Green Mountain Boys of World War II fame. Twelve men filled the roster with Donald Johnson as platoon leader and Enver Cook, acting first sergeant.
The group disbanded as a unit in March 1959 at Manchester De- pot when the whole organization was transferred to Bennington and became part of the 102nd Armored Cavalry. Some of the Man- chester members continued to attend the weekly meetings in Ben- nington.
§ Lest We Forget
ON the village green of nearly every New England town is a memo- rial erected in gratitude to members of the community who fought in the country's defense. Manchester has two such monuments.
The first, erected by the Women's Relief Corps, Skinner Post, Grand Army of the Republic, was paid for by public subscription and commemorates all soldiers of the Union Army who are buried in Manchester. A solid block of granite, ten feet high and six feet at the base, this strikingly simple marker is located in the front section of Factory Point Cemetery. Unlike the gravestones, it faces south to Manchester Depot, a fact that was strongly criticized by those who preferred it to face Mount Equinox22 and the setting sun. The monument was built at the shop of W. H. Fullerton and was dedi- cated July 3, 1900.
A more familiar memorial, one which could almost be called Manchester's trademark, is located on the Village green. This area being public domain as laid out in the original plans of the town, it
22. Vermont Advance, June 1900.
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was Manchester Selectmen and not Village officials who gave per- mission to erect the marker on the site.
Made of fine Westerly granite, the memorial is surmounted by a majestic statue of a Continental soldier with drawn sword and de- termined expression. The directors of the Manchester Soldiers' Monument Association, in compliance with the wishes of Franklin H. Orvis, agreed on the heroic figure of a Revolutionary soldier to represent Ethan Allen (of whom no portrait or personal description remains). Orvis was not only a prime mover in forming the Associa- tion, but he also furnished most of the money.
Four bronze shields are affixed to the sides of the monument up- on which are, as completely as can be ascertained, the names of all Manchester men who served in any American wars prior to 1905.
On December 20, 1897 nine teams with eighteen horses hauled the base of the monument from Fullerton's shop at the Depot to the Village. Fullerton "had furnished the design and had charge of making the model and cutting the figure."23 It is said that while he was directing the placement of the statue upon the base, he ac- quired a small audience of "sidewalk superintendents," among whom was police officer James Hanley. When Fullerton couldn't decide in which direction to face the figure, Hanley suggested turning it toward New York State and the "Yorkers" so despised by Ethan Allen. Fullerton quickly complied.
Despite the fact that a plaque on the monument reads "May 30," the memorial was dedicated July 4, 1905 with full Grand Army cer - emonies performed by the Skinner Post before 2,000 people. On the decorated speakers' stand which stood in front of the Congre- gational church were D. K. Simonds, who presented the monument for the G.A.R .; Josiah Burton Hollister of Rutland; Congressional representative, David J. Foster of Burlington; the Hon. J. K. Batch- elder, Arlington lawyer; and the governor, Charles J. Bell. Train- loads of veterans from neighboring towns arrived at Manchester Depot and after a luncheon at the Battenkill Inn, marched to the Village. They were led by the marshal, Captain George H. Sessions. Nearly every house in Manchester was decorated for the occasion with flags and bunting.
23. Manchester Journal, October 27, 1904.
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Patriotic holidays in Manchester were celebrated with far more fervor in yesteryear despite the fact that in 1958 the town voted four times as much as in 1884 for the observance of Memorial Day. The sum, which has risen to $200, was first given to the G.A.R. post to administer; then to the G.A.R. post and the American Legion together; and now to the Legion. A regular harangue occurred in 1884 when a special town meeting was held to rescind the $50 ap- propriation for proper observance of the holiday. The attempt failed, but unfortunately the damage had been done. Skinner Post, G.A.R., publicly announced that they wanted no part of the voted money "obtained only from contention or wrung from the pocket of unwilling greed."24
Nevertheless, from 1876, when Memorial Day was first made a holiday by the State of Vermont, until "the thin blue line" of Civil War veterans was gone, local observance of the day was both lengthy and elaborate. Two parades have always taken place-one from the park at the Center to Factory Point Cemetery and one from the Village green to Dellwood Cemetery with services and grave- decorating at each.
In the old days, marchers were carried from one village to the other by carriages; today, by bus. Paraders included commanderies from Rutland and Bennington, the Rutland Band, Manchester fire companies, drum corps, post colors, veterans, Sons of Veterans, and school children. Among the latter was a "boys' brigade" which learned to drill by itself after school. One of its number recalls the second march at the Village:
It seemed like a much longer walk than from the park in Manchester Center to the Factory Point Cemetery. But probably by then we were somewhat worn out and our enthusiasm largely watered down.25
Following the parades, a free dinner for all veterans (and some- times, all marchers) was served at G.A.R. Hall or at the Baptist church by the Women's Relief Corps or the Legion auxiliary. Patri- otic addresses were heard at the Center Opera House or the Village Music Hall in the afternoon.
24. Manchester Journal, May 1884.
25. Major General John Watt Page, recollections and entry in personal diary for May 30, 1896.
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Sarah N. Cleghorn, in a book of clippings collected early in the century for the Manchester Historical Society, called Eleanor Bald- win "the unofficial manager" of Manchester's Memorial Days:
The townspeople met two or three afternoons before the holiday on her side porch to tie wreathes; and Memorial Day morning, Mrs. Baldwin could be seen placing bouquets in the children's hands as they formed to march with the veterans to the cemetery. When the speech on Me- morial Day afternoon was made in the Music Hall, Mrs. Baldwin deco- rated the stage and sometimes placed a vacant chair in the midst of the worthies who sat on the stage.
Mrs. Baldwin is said to have been so patriotic that when her hus- band, a Civil War veteran who resembled Uncle Sam, died, she buried him in a flag and directed that she be buried in another with "her hands among the stars." This flag during her last illness was kept draped over the head of her bed.
By 1919 the khaki of World War I veterans was added to the fast- fading blue of the remaining eight Civil War veterans in Manchester. Only two G.A.R. men were able to parade in 1921-Smith Jame- son, who still beat the drum in the Manchester Band, and Nathaniel Towsley. With the death of Horace J. Fuller on February 6, 1929, they were all gone.
Because of America's involvement in World War II, Memorial Day services in 1942 showed an upsurge of patriotic spirit. Senator Walter Hard was the special speaker. The holiday is now marked by short, quietly dignified services at both cemeteries. The enthusi- asm of old has been transferred to Manchester's somewhat unique observance of Loyalty Day.
After adoption by the national organization, Harned-Fowler Post #6471, Veterans of Foreign Wars, sponsored the first ob- servance of Loyalty Day in Manchester April 29, 1951. The day was designated by the Selectmen as an annual demonstration of allegiance to the United States government in rebuttal to the Com- munist May Day celebration in Soviet Russia. The 1958 town meeting voted its first allotment of $200 to the V.F.W. post for the observance. Until 1960 this long and largely attended parade, tra- ditionally held on the Sunday nearest the first of May, was the only such celebration in Vermont, but it is now being adopted elsewhere.
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Manchester has often marked the anniversary of the Battle of Bennington, as Manchester men not only participated in the action August 16, 1777, but the area south of the Ekwanok Country Club entrance is reputedly the site of Colonel Seth Warner's camping ground. Here in 1937 was found a soldier's hatchet completely em- bedded in a tree where it had been thrust and forgotten a century and a half earlier.
In 1795 Manchester, Sunderland, and Dorset united to celebrate the eighteenth anniversary of the battle. Participating were a bat- talion of Colonel Roberts' regiment of militia consisting of com- panies from those towns under the command of Major Martindale; a company of cavalry under Captain Bradley; and two companies of light infantry under Captain Towsley and Lieutenant Graves.
On the committee of arrangements for the sixty-second anniver- sary of the battle in August 1839 were three Manchester men: Dr. Ezra Edson, W. C. Watson, and Moses Harrington. In August 1861 the Manchester Journal reported a beautiful exhibition of fire- works, Chinese lanterns, Roman candles, and rockets given by John Vanderlip in front of his hotel in the Village. Quipped the Journal-"The spectators were almost stark mad with delight."
In 1927 Manchester celebrated the sesquicentennial of Vermont by the major production of a drama "The Pin Peddler," written especially for the occasion by Donald Guthrie, a summer visitor. The play revolved around incidents taking place in Manchester just prior to the Battle of Bennington. The large cast of actors was drawn from Arlington, Dorset, and Manchester. To match the colonial play as part of the celebration was a huge historical cos- tume ball attended by some 400 couples.
Today the only local observance of the Battle of Bennington is made by the Manchester Fire Department, which sends members and equipment to appear in the parade in Bennington.
Independence Day, lamented by Manchester for its loss of spark, was formerly celebrated with plenty of spirit. Though in 1864 no proper observance was planned because of the war, the gun com- monly used in the Village for celebrations came to an untimely end :
Some young gentlemen from Troy .. . got possession of it, and taking it a few rods back of the hotels, loaded it in a manner well calculated to se- cure its destruction. Whether they anticipated the result or not . ..
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pieces of iron weighing fromn five to fifty pounds were thrown all over the village. After settling . . . damages, the persons found it convenient to leave. .. . 26
Benjamin Eggleston, one of the last Revolutionary War veterans in the vicinity of Manchester, was nearly 100 years old when he died during Civil War times. He lived on an $8 monthly pension and was remembered by journalist Andrus Bowen as being pecul- iarly insistent on celebrating the Fourth alone. According to Bowen, the day before the holiday, Eggleston bought himself a jug of gin :
At the break of day he went into the front yard and fired off his old army gun, threw up his hat, and shouted, cheered, and yelled. Then he went in, sat down and took a drink . . . cleaned and loaded the old gun and in twenty minutes went out and fired it again. He kept it up all day, load- ing, firing, and cleaning the old musket every twenty minutes and taking a stiff horn of gin each time. He didn't want company (which he loved) that day for he didn't have time to visit but attended strictly to cele- brating Independence Day.
Fourth of July celebrations for that matter were a high point through the years for all Manchester people. World War I brought even greater enthusiasm. In 1915 Hiram Eggleston, who had taken charge of Village fireworks for some years, offered his pyrotechnic display to some 2,000 people in front of the Equinox House. Un- expectedly, the sparks from one of the set pieces were fanned by a brisk wind. This set off a chain reaction and for some minutes the air was filled with all sorts of fireworks including the fine kiln-dried platform upon which they had been arranged.
In 1916 speechınaking, Red Cross money collections, and patri- otic hymn singing were held inside the Congregational church be- cause of bad weather. As the sky cleared, townsfolk and the Man- chester Band adjourned to the Village green to enjoy fireworks given by Mr. and Mrs. George Orvis. The street was brilliantly il- luminated with red, white, and blue lights and on the south side of the soldiers' monument was hung a huge red cross of electric lights. An even more spirited demonstration took place the following year, when some 2,000 people sang patriotic airs and heard speakers at the Fair Grounds.
26. Manchester Journal, July 12, 1864.
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Armistice Day in Manchester has not been especially marked by public observance. In 1932 members of the Dorset and Manchester American Legion posts united in a torchlight parade.
Manchester had more than an average interest in Abraham Lincoln and his family, for Mrs. Lincoln vacationed at the Equinox House. Following the assassination of the president, the inner pages of the Manchester Journal were lined with heavy black, and the editors gave a detailed account of the tragedy. On April 19, 1865 Manches- ter people gathered at the Congregational church for funeral exer- cises. The procession from Factory Point was composed of Com- pany A, 11th Regiment, gentlemen on foot, and a long line of car- riages. They were met by villagers, also in line and on foot, and to- gether they entered the black-draped church. Ahiman L. Miner and the Rev. James Anderson gave addresses and the service ended with a singing of "America."
An out-of-town resident visiting Factory Point at the time is said to have tactlessly remarked that he was "d-d glad" of the assassi- nation and wished it had been done two years earlier. This caused plenty of excitement around town and preparations were made to send him about his business in a manner not consistent with his dignity. The unpopular one got wind of the matter, however, and when searched for, couldn't be found.
When President Mckinley died on September 14, 1901 all stores, houses, and even the Mark Skinner Library were draped in black. The Village trustees sent out black-edged mourning cards for the assassinated president. Special memorial services were held at the Congregational church and at St. Paul's church.
Manchester's 150th birthday was celebrated in 1914 with an old folks' reunion, tableaux, a display of relics, and an old-fashioned community sing. Preparations for the 200th anniversary were be- gun early in 1959 with the appointment by Selectmen of committees to consider an adequate celebration.
In a prelude to the bicentennial, a commemorative marker of Danby Imperial white marble was placed directly in front of the Court House on the Village green in August 1960. Dedication services were led by Governor Robert T. Stafford.
CHAPTER XV
Manchester Industries
T HE outstanding fact about Manchester industries is that most of them have been dependent upon natural resources such as timber, stone, the products of agriculture, and that particular bounty of nature exemplified in climate and scenic charm.
Timber was the raw material for sawmills and other wood- working enterprises. Stone provided the basic material for lime kilns and marble works. The products of agriculture were a source of raw materials that supported a tannery, woolen mills, cheese fac- tories, and finally, the Bennington County Co-operative Creamery, which made Manchester a shipping point for fluid milk from a con- siderable area. Tank trucking has brought another change so the Creamery is no longer an operating one, but has become a bulk transfer station (December 1960), one of the best in New England.
Most of Manchester's industries have been of a somewhat tran- sient nature. Aside from the recreation, summer homes, and hotel business, the lumber and woodworking industry is the only one to have survived from its beginnings in 1768 and that is on a small scale compared with the early 1900s. Since the Manchester town- site was probably a heavily wooded area except for a section now occupied by all or part of the Equinox golf course, it was natural that sawmills would be the forerunners in any industrial develop- ment. Lumber was needed for homes and it is said that one sawmill was in operation for this purpose in 1768.
One is inclined to wonder at the efficiency with which power was
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developed on the several brooks coursing through the town. It would seem that the smaller ones could never have carried enough water to provide power to saw marble and logs. But nearly all the brooks were used for power purposes at one point or another and the resulting small industrial opportunities may have been a factor in making Manchester a good place in which to settle. Big overshot wheels made efficient use of small volumes of water. Some of the sawmills may have been of the "up and down" variety similar to the one standing on the platform at the south end of the old mill in Weston.
One of the oldest mills in Manchester and in Vermont is said to have been the J. Henry Hicks sawmill, built originally by a Bourn on Bourn Brook in East Manchester. By the time Hicks operated it, chair stock was its important product. It was operated as late as 1902, but burned in October 1908. Timothy Mead, the original set- tler who owned some 200 acres in what is now Manchester Center, built a gristmill, sawmill, and a fulling mill in the 1790s to make use of the power available at the falls.
The Green Mountains east of Manchester supported one of the finest stands of timber, especially spruce, in the eastern United States. It was not until the early 1900s, however, that a concerted assault was made upon that natural resource by pulp and lumber operators, and several good-sized enterprises employing several hundred men were established in Manchester.
At present, much of the extensive forest is included in the Green Mountain National Forest, although only 3,716 acres are actually within the township. The forest land is now managed on a sustained yield basis by the United States Forest Service, which has an office for the southern division at Manchester Center. Towns having land in the National Forest receive a portion of the receipts, which must be divided between schools and highways.
Mills operating in town in 1869 as shown in Beers' Atlas were: J. R. & J. Burritt; Pettibone Bros. circular sawmill; and the Dobbin steam sawmill, all on Lye Brook and the latter well up on its head- waters. The Sessions and Bundy clothespin factory was on Bourn Brook in Hicksville and also the S. W. Bourn sawmill.
One who visits the Barnumville area in 1960 might find it diffi- cult to visualize the activity that prevailed there some seventy years
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ago. A post office, located north of the present highway from the Center and west of the north road, had been established in July 1871.
Barnumville was an important shipping point for lumber which came down the Peru road from the Green Mountain area to the east. The February 14, 1884 issue of the Manchester Journal stated that 40,000 feet of lumber was shipped from there in one day. A build- ing intended for a railroad station was erected on the east side of the track. It is now located west of the north road where it has been a dwelling house but is now used for storage. The second floor was a dance hall.
The American Realty Company's pulp logs were drawn to Bar- numville full length to be cut to standard size for shipment. The railroad had a ten-car siding to handle its business. Barnum and Richardson manufactured charcoal there for shipment to a steel mill in Connecticut. Charcoal kilns were located west of the rail- road track a short distance south of the south crossing. A lime kiln was operated on the north road opposite the house now occupied by Allie Hart.
It is interesting to note that "Barnumville" is the address on a billhead of McNaughton & Lawrence in 1872, while "Barnumsville" appears the same year on a letterhead of J. E. McNaughton, dealer in spruce and hemlock lumber. A petition was readied in 1885 for a public road direct from Barnumville to Manchester Depot, but one was never built. A private one was used for travel between those communities.
Lumbering in Manchester continued to develop. The Battenkill Lumber Company acquired 30,000 acres of land and started getting out pulp logs in 1901. It went bankrupt in 1907. In March 1901 it was reported that the Mohican Pulp Company would have more than a thousand cords of pulp to float down the Battenkill when the ice went out. There was a big pulp yard back of the present location of V.F.W. headquarters and another pulp yard in the Bushee pas- ture north of the Payne road reached by a spur track from the rail- road.
The Hadley Manufacturing Company, which moved here from Jaffrey, New Hampshire, employed about forty men manufacturing chair stock in a factory near the present Creamery. It was previ-
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ously occupied by the Vail Light and Lumber Company. The chair factory burned in September 1905.
There was a Dean & Taylor sawmill located on the Battenkill where the present recreation pond is. It became the Dufresne mill in 1911, which was discontinued in 1946. The Broun Cooperage Company operated a mill in 1910 and 1911 in the Payne neighbor- hood before moving to Sunderland. The foundation of the Man- chester mill can still be seen. They had secured the mill from O. P. Walker, the last of four owners. The earliest owners were Petti- bones followed by a May and later, the Fuller Lumber Company.
One of the largest lumbering operations in the Manchester area was that of the Rich Lumber Company. This concern moved to Manchester from Wanakena, New York, and in 1912 entered into contracts for the purchase of hard and soft timber stumpage on some 12,000 acres of land located in the Green Mountains in Man- chester, Winhall, and Sunderland townships. The 116-acre farm of F. M. Walker was bought for their operations. Rich & Andrews erected an office building, a store, and houses for the use of officers and employees of the company. In 1913 a sixteen-mile standard- gauge railroad was constructed up the mountain along the Lye Brook ravine and by late April 1915 the first logs were delivered at the mill.
Ford Bros. built and operated a double band sawmill. Ryan and Schlieder contracted for the slabs, which were debarked and chipped for shipment to a paper mill at Malone, New York. The Standard Wood Company of New York built loading docks in 1915. The two mills burned in October 1919, when all but some 40,000 feet of logs had been delivered. One life was lost in the daytime fire. The fol- lowing year the Rich Company went out of business after thirty years of operations in Pennsylvania, New York, and Manchester.
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