USA > Vermont > Bennington County > Manchester > Manchester, Vermont : a pleasant land among the mountains, 1761-1961 > Part 22
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MASONIC ORDERS The earliest and most historic Masonic group Was NORTH STAR LODGE #2, which actively existed from the date of its charter, January 20, 1785, until about August 23, 1810, the date of its last formal meeting. Though technically referred to as the second lodge formed in Vermont, it had the honor of being the first Masonic body to hold meetings on true Vermont ground. (Because of the New Hampshire-New York boundary disputes, Vermont somewhat unwillingly annexed a small strip of New York and a wider one of New Hampshire, and thus it was that the first Vermont Masonic lodge had its meetings in Charlestown, New Hampshire.) Noah Smith, Worshipful Master of North Star (1792- 1793), a Yale graduate and one of the first two licensed lawyers in Vermont, went to Massachusetts for the charter from St. Andrew's Grand Lodge. The first signature on the charter was that of Paul Revere. (It is also historically significant that both the North Star
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and Vermont Lodge [1781] charters referred to the "State of Ver- mont" though they were issued several years before Vermont was admitted to the Union. This is proof that Vermont's claim to recog- nition as a separate state-as established by the 1777 Declaration of Independence-was apparently recognized by Massachusetts in 1781 and 1785 despite the fact that rival claims of New York and New Hampshire had kept and would keep Vermont from obtaining recognition from the federal government for several more years.)
North Star Lodge met at the home of Stephen Keys in Manches- ter and later at the tavern of Brother Allis, who furnished "Rum at 2-9 per bottle or quart and wine at 2-9 per bottle for what is drank in the chamber and what attendance is necessary with fire wood and candles for the use of the Lodge." The lodge was represented in the first "Convention forming a Grand Lodge for the State of Vermont" at Manchester August 6, 1794 by Nathan Brownson, who was also chosen chairman. Organization of the Grand Lodge was completed in Rutland October 10, 1794 with Noah Smith as first Grand Mas- ter. Tillotson, Vermont's Masonic historian, says that Smith lived in Bennington, but Judge Pettibone said that Smith "lived on a lot north of the Seminary lot. He belonged to the Masonic Society and set up an independent lodge which was called Smith's Lodge. Some members ... afterwards joined the regular lodge which was called the North Star and I heard some say Smith's lodge was the more orderly of the two." Whatever this may mean, Smith was a notable pioneer in Vermont Masonry, as were many members of the North Star Lodge. The group was suspended in 1812 and declared "ex- tinct" in 1814.
ADONIRAM LODGE # 46 of Dorset was chartered October 7, 1818 and its Manchester members were S. Purdy, M. Roberts, C. Roberts, and L. Dean. In 1820 this lodge was given permission to move to Manchester "not to be south of the residence of Christo- pher Roberts," which restriction was removed five years later. The group was suspended in 1831 by the Grand Lodge at the beginning of the anti-Masonic period.
ADONIRAM LODGE # 42, F. & A.M., the present fraternal or- der in Manchester, was chartered January 14, 1858 with twenty- four charter members. Its first officers were Leonard Sargeant, Fowler W. Hoyt, and Harvey K. Fowler.
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ADONIRAM CHAPTER # 18, R.A.M., was chartered October 2, 1867 with forty-nine members. The first officers were E. G. Tuttle, J. E. McNaughton, and G. W. Bennett.
ADONIRAM CHAPTER # 22, ORDER OF THE EASTERN STAR was formed December 4, 1885 in the Masonic rooms at Manchester Center in the Opera House. First officers were Harriet C. Young, D. K. Simonds, and Helen M. Blackmer. Membership has risen from thirty-one members to 150. Associated with the local Masonic order are the Taconic Chapter, Order of De Molay, and a chapter of Rainbow Girls.
PARENT-TEACHER ASSOCIATION Began in Manchester Decem- ber 14, 1932, when four units were formed in the elementary schools of the community; first presidents were Mrs. Gladys Besselievre, Village; Mrs. Helen Bigelow, Center; Mrs. Ethel Bennett, Depot; Mrs. Theodore Kilburn, East Manchester; following an eighteen- year existence and the construction of the new consolidated school at Manchester Center, the P.T.A. groups united May 10, 1950 and now number about 316 members; state convention of P.T.A. held in Manchester, 1937; local members have often been on state board; an effective force of parents and teachers for the good of all Man- chester school children, the group has been responsible for dental clinics, hot lunches, school band, pre-school examination and im- munization, eyeglasses for the needy, adult education, receptions for veteran teachers and administrators, beginnings of school li- brary, donation of playground equipment, sponsorship of eighth grade graduation, etc.
SHAKESPEARE CLUB A ladies' literary organization which num- bered some fourteen members. It existed in the 1890s.
TWENTIETH CENTURY CLUB Organized May 15, 1899 by Miss Julia F. Hawley, who was president until her death in November 1901; its purpose was the "study of Art, Belles-Lettres, and Ancient and Modern Social Customs and Functions"; other first officers were Hermione Canfield and Sarah N. Cleghorn; meeting in sum- mer only, the group held a great number of sessions, which were attended by Villagers, "Cottagers," and hotel guests; attendance
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sometimes exceeded 100 at a single meeting; in 1921 membership became limited to thirty-five; dues in later years used for "Julia Frances Hawley Scholarship" at Burr and Burton Seminary; at a 1912 meeting "Mrs. Fisher, who was in close touch with Dr. Mon- tessori in Rome last winter, read three or four chapters from her forthcoming book on the Montessori method of education for little children"; club became defunct in 1932.
CECILIAN OR CAECILIAN CLUB An exclusive women's musical group in existence from 1896 until at least 1906 "for profit and pleasure. To keep an interest in music, to keep in touch with the musical world, and to incite practice"; first officers, Mrs. Orvis, Mrs. Botsford, Mrs. Robbins, and Mrs. Bennett.
MONDAY CLUB Organized 1895, the idea first being discussed at the home of Mrs. E. C. Orvis upon the suggestion of Marcia Snyder, Burr and Burton Seminary teacher; Miss Snyder, her sister Fran- ces, Mrs. Orvis, and Mrs. Loveland Munson each chose three to join them as charter members-Julia F. Hawley, Jessie O. Hawley, Fanny S. Strong, Wilhelmina D. Hawley, Ellen C. Simonds, Angie Botsford, Maria Hemenway, and Mary Utley Robbins; first meeting in Miss Snyder's room at the Seminary; club has never had dues or regular officers; meets fortnightly, limiting itself to sixteen mem- bers; now in its sixty-sixth year, its afternoon programs begin at 3:00 p.m. with dessert followed by readings, reviews, and discus- sion on many topics such as "The Democratic Measures of the Gladstone Administration," various schools of art, "The Peasant Revolt of 1377," and lives of White House families.
MANCHESTER COMMUNITY CHORUS Organized in 1930 and made its first public appearance December 1931; numbered some thirty singers; chorus gave annual Christmas and spring concerts until 1942, when it disbanded because its director, Ralph Howes, Burr and Burton Seminary headmaster, left Manchester.
VILLAGE CHORUS Organized and incorporated December 8, 1952 by some thirty members to perform and encourage choral music of a high degree; directed by Theodore Cook; among its first
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officers were Thyra Stannard, Ruth Putnam, Paul Totschinder, Janet Wall, Alison Boright, and Margaret Meachem; following its first public appearance, December 6, 1953, chorus participated in Christmas and spring concerts, sacred vespers, and at the Southern Vermont Art Center; also appeared on television and in services at the Cathedral in the Pines, Rindge, New Hampshire; the group disbanded in 1958.
GARDEN CLUB OF MANCHESTER The earliest group was organ- ized about 1905 by a small group of women studying the planting of flowers, shrubs, and trees and first came into prominence in 1913, when it offered prizes for best locally grown flowers at the Manches- ter Fair; a second Garden Club was organized June 10, 1920 with Miss Alice B. Fox, president; until 1941 held annual flower shows in the Burr and Burton Seminary gymnasium which drew as many as 2,000 visitors and at the Equinox House, where the 1937 show was opened by Governor Aiken; 1951 show held at Southern Ver- mont Art Center; since 1935 group has sponsored an all-day in- spection tour of "Open Gardens"; other projects have been the landscaping of Manchester Elementary School grounds; front slope grading of bandstand area; planting and care of Munson's Corner triangle, Depot, and Center parks, and the Village green; ragweed eradication; work with Mount Laurel School children to stimulate interest in gardens, birds, and trees.
4-H CLUBS OF MANCHESTER About 1917 Marion Hardy and Barbara Hunt were the first two leaders in Bennington County, which was the first county to have a paid worker; "Battenkill Valley Club" organized first in Manchester in 1922 by I. N. Bartlett under Boys and Girls Clubs program of the state; by 1925 there were also the "Green Mountains Club," "Lye Brook Club," and "Hillside Workers Club," all given a new building in 1926 at the Manchester Fair; Camp Ondawa on the Battenkill in Sunderland established in 1923 as county 4-H camp; central building constructed in 1932 as result of much financial help from Manchester; the will of Mrs. Richard L. Makin stipulated that interest from her $1,000 gift be used in assisting clubs in sending children to camp and by careful management, fund has reached $1,500; in 1939 new building at
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Ondawa named "Bartlett Hall" in honor of I. N. Bartlett, who in 1946 received diamond 4-H pin in recognition of having led a club for over twenty years; in 1958 $1,000 was given by the Manchester Lions Club for erection of a crafts building; 250 4-H clubbers met at Burr and Burton Seminary in 1936 for Bennington County 4-H Round-Up and in 1937 Bartlett was president of the Bennington County 4-H Leaders Association; other early Manchester leaders were Mrs. Fred Wyman, Margaret Gillis, and Jessie Farnum.
HOME DEMONSTRATION GROUPS Were first organized in Ben- nington County under the state program in 1935; earliest groups in Manchester came shortly afterward with one in East Manchester that became defunct in 1941 and one in the Village, of which Mrs. Albert Smith and Mrs. Orrin Boynton were members; present groups are the Mt. Equinox Club, organized in 1945 largely through efforts of Mrs. Helen Pearson and Mrs. Alvanese Hubbard (Penn), and the Maple Leaf Club originally organized in Sunderland Febru- ary 1953; as most of the members were Manchester women, the name was changed from the "Sunderland Home Demonstration Group" February 13, 1956; first officers were Barbara Hill, Millicent Law- rence, Norma Dondero, and Betty Rowden.
CAMERA CLUB Existed in early 1900 for those in Manchester with a hobby of photography; meetings sometimes drew as many as fifty members and guests; George L. Towsley, president.
STAMP CLUB Organized in February 1939 with monthly meetings for those interested in stamp collecting; first officers were George H. Sheldon, Robert C. Brewster, Helen Bigelow, and Earle E. Storrs.
COLONIAL SOCIETY Existed winters from 1929 until 1931; com- posed of women interested in working out designs in hooked or braided rugs and patterns for quilts and comforters; JOLLY RUG CLUB succeeded this group in 1932, located at Manchester Depot.
FRIDAY CLUB A Manchester Depot group which met between 1917 and 1925 for monthly suppers, card-playing, and civic socia-
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bility; in 1918 club gave a service flag which was raised at Depot park with ceremonies at which Claude Rich was speaker; the 500 CLUB and the MANCHESTER CARD CLUB were only two of the many other card-playing organizations to exist in Manchester through the years.
MANCHESTER BRANCH, ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Organized in the summer of 1950.
CHAPTER XXVI
The Manchester Band
T HE Manchester Band as a tradition is not yet completely abandoned. In November 1959 Harry L. Adams, band mem- ber for fifty-seven years and still its treasurer, deposited a sum in that organization's account from the sale of one of its big instruments. Thus, in a sense, the Manchester Band is still doing business. Unfortunately, however, as a musical group which for some 116 years offered pleasure to its fellow citizens, the Manches- ter Band is only a bright, beloved memory.
Manchester's earliest band, as near as can be ascertained, existed about 1845. Little is known of its personnel-"Eli Hunter, ? Hunter, George Baldwin, bugler, and Dewey Barton, snare drum- mer, all of Dorset; Frank Johnson, French horn player from South Dorset; Orlando, a 'one-eyed bass drummer' from Sunderland; George W. Smith, George Straight, and Milo Wait, bugler, from Manchester."
The first "official" band organization was the uniformed Man- chester Band in 1861 led by cornetist Russel P. Hoyt, who has been described as "skillful, accomplished, and every inch a gentleman." Photographs still exist of this band on the Village green by the Congregational church. Playing in it were: Charles Sheldon, drum boy; Isaac Burton, bass drum; Silas Millett, snare drum; Henry Way, tenor; Loveland Munson, baritone; Josiah Munson, driver; Abe Straight, bass; Harrison Harrington; William Black; James Black, alto; George Burton; Joseph Leonard (or Lenard); Theodore Swift; George Swift; Douglas Dyer; Daniel Bennett, tenor; and Augustus Munson.
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Hoyt advertised his band weekly in the Manchester Journal- "Manchester Cornet Band Is Prepared to furnish Music for Cele- brations, Picnics, Parades, etc. All orders promptly attended to." Members of the band had new uniforms for the town's 1861 Fourth of July celebration when, according to the Journal, they "marched through this beautiful village and played exquisitely."
During the early part of the Civil War, the band played patriotic music every evening and frequently at rallies to enlist troops. One night it serenaded the Hon. Ahiman L. Miner, Village lawyer, playing "The Star Spangled Banner." He responded by giving the origin of that song and began to sing it. The band helped him and nearly everyone joined in. Later, Andrus L. Bowen, Journal col- umnist, wrote, "Since that time, I have heard that song ... many a time, but never did it stir me as then."
In 1862 the band was asked to accompany the Fourteenth Regi- ment, Vermont Volunteers, as far as New York City, and by 1863 many of its own members were in the service of the Union. Public support kept the band alive until November of that year when it was finally forced to disband.
A third Manchester band existed between 1879 and 1881 in the Village and practiced in the hall over Perkins store. Members of this group were: Thomas Hoyt, Theodore Swift, George Swift, George Burton, John H. Whipple, and Herbert Mattison, cornets; James Black, Del Haskins, Henry Allen, and Clement Cone, altos; George Smith and O. G. Felt, trombones; Willard Bennett, William Black, basses; Hiram Eggleston, baritone; Frank Wilson, B-flat bass; Fred Bentley, snare drum; Thomas Lugene and Emerson Esta- brook, bass drum.
About this time the "Factory Point Cornet Band" was organized at the Center, practicing in the old schoolhouse. Among its mem- bers were Charles Spring, leader, Emerson Estabrook, W. H. Bundy, Gus Wyman, H. Hicks, Robert Lyman, and William Bene- dict. Another band existed in the 1890s which included: Harry Adams, Herbert Coleman, Jim Bentley, and Will Sessions. There was also the Manchester Depot Drum Corps, members of which were: Waldo Williams, William Hicks, Clarence Curtis, James Bourne, Watson Curtis, Ned Pettibone, Heman Dyer, and Myron Pettibone. Both groups were short-lived.
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The turn of the century brought an upsurge of interest in organ- izing a really permanent Manchester band. Largely through the ef- forts of Clarence Sykes, the Manchester Union Band formed July 29, 1904 at Manchester Depot. It had the longest existence of any Manchester band. Local citizens gave their blessing by a town meet- ing vote of $100 for open air concerts in the three villages.
Making its first appearance Election Night, 1904, the Union Band was composed of George A. Woods, leader and solo cornet; Harry L. Adams, lieutenant, secretary-treasurer, and solo alto; C. A. Bourn, president and snare drummer; H. S. King and F. D. Street- er, solo cornets; L. C. Davis, first cornet; F. E. Brewster, cornet; L. F. Farnum, solo clarinet; David L. Bulkley, piccolo; L. E. Pierce, baritone; W. C. Stevens, second alto; William Woods, third alto; Clarence Sykes, first trombone; Harold E. Taylor, second trom- bone; F. H. Briggs, third trombone; C. W. Sykes, B. W. Davis, basses; R. L. Anderson, bass drum. Will Barrington-Sargent, who later directed the Old Colony Band of Boston, was the Manchester Band's first teacher.
Other instructors have been: George C. Woods, once with the Madison Square Garden Theater; Don Whitcomb, cornetist; Dr. James Lovejoy, Manchester physician who later played in the Plainfield (New Jersey) Symphony Orchestra; Herbert S. King and Wren Whitman, Detroit cornetist and trombonist; Frank Hurley, Bennington trombonist; Smith Jameson, the "old Army drummer"; and Napoleon Ianni, Rutland trumpeter.
In 1905 the newly uniformed Union Band began to appear regu- larly at various town functions. It played the dirge at Memorial Day services in the churches and cemeteries, serenaded at socials, per- formed in concerts and parades, and journeyed for the first time that year to the Bondville Fair. In 1907 it rented Couture's Hall at Manchester Depot. Often the band appeared at firemen's musters both in Manchester and out of town.
The Manchester Band was again revived after World War I. The musicians wore dark uniforms for cold weather performances and white uniforms for the summer concerts in Dorset, in Manchester Center on the Colburn House porch, and at the Depot's Battenkill Inn. They also played regularly during those golden years in the Village. The band became a fixture at the Manchester Fair. It also
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sponsored annual carnivals for its own support, played at church lawn parties, paraded on patriotic occasions, and gave formal con- certs sponsored by summer residents.
The band was mostly self-supporting through the years, but in the winter of 1926 it was forced to ask the town for money. The leader, Dr. Lovejoy, had gone and the band sought a new one. "We have been corresponding with a capable director in Rutland who will direct the band for $7.00 a week ... a very reasonable rate." The band promised nine concerts, three in each village, in return for the appropriation. Manchester voted $300, a sum it continued to vote until 1948, and the Manchester Band got its director. Na- poleon Ianni still comes to Manchester weekly to give musical in- struction, though now at the Elementary School.
In May 1929 the Manchester Band commissioned Herbert Smith, contractor, to build the hexagonal stone and concrete bandstand at the Center. Here evening concerts were played until 1951, when the Manchester Band and the school band joined ranks for the weekly affair and made too large a group for the little bandstand. Parking space, too, had become extremely limited and the safety of the audi- ence was questioned. The site was moved to the corner of the new elementary school lot opposite the Grange Hall, where a shell was erected in August 1952.
In the early 1930s, the Manchester Band, which then numbered about thirty, held minstrel-type shows and novelty programs which were long anticipated, much enjoyed (standing room only!), and long remembered.
The musician serving longest as president of the band (1926, 1931, 1936-1942) and best exemplifying its spirit was Nathaniel ("Nat") Malcolm Canfield (June 4, 1867-November 9, 1942). Can- field, much loved in Manchester, prized his association with the older bandsmen, but was always ready to help the newer or younger members. He began playing in the Sunderland Band in 1888 and in a Manchester band some ten years later. In 1940 at the age of 73, Canfield was still, more often than not, walking the long distance from his home south of the Village to band practice. He delighted in every moment spent with the band members and they in turn relished his ready wit.
Harry Adams still chuckles over the trip they made to an engage-
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ment in Wallingford in Paul Fowler's car. Late getting started, Fowler really put his foot on the gas. Nat Canfield rocked around in the back seat as long as he could. Then he tapped their driver on the shoulder. "If it's all the same to you, Paul," he said, "I'd rather be a little late in Wallingford than on time in hell."
Written into band records, too, is the notation that "twenty-two men played at the Bondville Fair Sept. 22, 1932 all sober. Nat Can- field says it's against the law to come home from Bondville in that condition."
In December 1941 Manchester first contemplated a juvenile or school band, and three years later the P.T.A. began earning money to sponsor such an organization. By 1945 the number of partici- pants had increased so greatly that the band moved from its head- quarters over the Center firehouse to the Grange Hall. Napoleon Ianni deserves the greatest share of credit for the type and quality of instruction given and the interest aroused among Manchester children.
Under his direction, the first indoor concert by the school band was May 23, 1945 in the Burr and Burton Seminary gymnasium. The first outdoor concert was June 14, 1945. In 1952 the Manches- ter School Band joined five other Ianni-directed school bands for a mass concert sponsored by the Manchester Rotary Club. These all-Ianni massed band concerts are performed annually.
In 1949 Manchester voted $400 to defray part of the costs of ad- ditional uniforms for the school band, which had grown to forty-six concert members with ninety-four under instruction. In 1951 and 1952, $275 was voted for uniforms, music, and equipment. This was increased to $485 in 1954 and 1955. During these years the older Manchester Union Band continued to function on its own, one of its final appearances being at the Manchester Fair in 1948. It is little wonder, however, that its thinning ranks began to waver in the face of this avid group of younger musicians who were attending state music festivals, giving several annual concerts, and participating in parades all over the state.
In 1934, on the band's thirtieth birthday, only three of the origi- nal eighteen members were still active in the Union Band. In 1961 these men reminisced with pride-Harry L. Adams, who ended up playing a baritone horn instead of an alto; Harold E. Taylor,
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who changed from trombone to cornet; and Rob L. Anderson, who was always the "hard-to-beat" bass drummer. Some of the oldest instruments are still in existence. Harold Taylor owned an old- fashioned E-flat alto horn which in the ancient photograph of the band of 1861 is held by Harrison Harrington, second man in the second row.
On summer evenings when the youngsters gather to give their concerts, townsfolk are strongly reminded that their band was once made of men, not boys. For there is Paul Fowler, last president of the Manchester Union Band and present assistant director of the school band, lending a supervisional hand when needed and some expert musical notes for old times' sake.
CHAPTER XXVII
"An Air of Rich and Cultured Living . . . "
ยง The Writers
D URING the 1920s an influential cultural group, the Poetry Society of Southern Vermont, flourished in this vicinity. Though meetings were not always held in Manchester, distinguished poets who read their work here included Amy Lowell, Vachel Lindsay, Carl Sandburg, Edwin Markham, Robert Frost, Arthur Guiterman, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Largely responsible for the increased interest in modern poets and their work was Jessie Rittenhouse, who resided in Manchester. She was editor of the Little Book of Modern Poetry and the Second Book of Modern Poetry. Madison C. Bates, headmaster of Burr and Burton Seminary, was president of the Poetry Society. He brought a "golden age" to the school and to Manchester. Later, he was awarded the Rutgers Medal for outstanding teaching at that uni- versity.
Manchester has been the home of several notable writers.
SARAH NORCLIFFE CLEGHORN (1876-1959) was probably Manchester's most versatile author. Following her mother's death in Wisconsin, she was raised in Manchester by her aunts, Jessie and Fanny Hawley. Valedictorian of Burr and Burton Seminary, class of 1895, Miss Cleghorn attended Radcliffe College and taught at the socialist labor schools, Brookwood and Manumit in Katonah and Pawling, New York. A pacifist, vegetarian, and anti-vivisectionist, she also fought to abolish the death penalty in Vermont. She was a founder of the Manchester chapter, S.P.C.A.
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