USA > Vermont > Bennington County > Manchester > Manchester, Vermont : a pleasant land among the mountains, 1761-1961 > Part 8
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
During the 186os a number of "select schools" operated in Man- chester. One was run by Burnham's sister on the second floor of the schoolhouse which then was located next to the Court House. An- other was taught by a Mrs. Hinchman in the Music Hall. In the ballroom, on the entire upper floor of the Roach (Burnham) house, a Miss Bacon from Massachusetts taught some forty or fifty young ladies. Susan Miner remembered that some six of her companions at the school were from Factory Point. They walked the distance both ways and pupils provided their own chairs and tables.1
Two other Village schools were Miss Ann Wheaton's in the old Raymond house (now gone) and one in the Germain cottage with three pupils taught by "a lady from Thetford." On November 11,
1. Manchester Journal, September 1923. Recollections of Susan S. Miner.
79
EDUCATION
1862 Miss L. E. Frost, formerly of the Seminary faculty, opened a girls' school in the office of the Rev. James Anderson. Promising that "no pains will be spared to make the school both profitable and pleasant," Miss Frost planned to receive primary scholars at re- duced rates. She was agreeable to finding board in the Village for ""students from abroad." Tuition for the twelve-week term was as follows :
Common English branches
$4,00
Higher English
$4,50
French lessons and class in
pronunciation
2,00
French (extra)
1,00
Crayoning and pastile
3,50
Penciling
2,50
A singing school was opened in October 1863 by Dr. R. Button, a Factory Point dentist. The evening meetings were held in the Village at the schoolhouse "for the instruction of the young of both sexes in the rudiments of sacred music." The cost was $1 for twelve lessons (provided twenty-four signed up) and "incidental expenses of light and fire" were defrayed by the scholars.
At Factory Point, a Miss Leverett of Windsor kept a "select school" in the east room of the old schoolhouse.
Burr and Burton Seminary was the only private school operating in Manchester from 1870 until September 1938, when the "Out- of-Door School" of Sarasota, Florida, leased the James Wilbur estate for its summer activities. Founded about 1924 by the Misses Catherine Gavin and Fanneal Harrison, this co-educational board- ing school was fitted to the individual needs of its children, who ranged from nursery age to the tenth grade. While in Manchester, the faculty and staff of twelve were directed by Harrison Raoul, a nephew of Miss Harrison and one of the school's original pupils. Needing more room in which to expand, the school moved to Mas- sachusetts in the fall of 1940.
It was immediately succeeded by the Windsor Mountain School, which had been established in Windsor, Vermont, in 1939 by Dr. Max Bondy and Mrs. Gertrude Bondy. George A. Roeper was headmaster. The school was founded as an exchange institution for one under the same direction in Gland, Switzerland. Thus it was called "an educational institution of broad international connec- tion." It had a faculty of six and a student body numbering about
80
MANCHESTER, VERMONT
thirty-five with an even larger group attending the school's sum- mer camp. The Windsor Mountain School left Manchester in Sep- tember 1944 upon expiration of its lease.
The most recently organized of Manchester's private schools is the Mount Laurel School, Incorporated. It is located in special quarters in the Manchester Elementary School. The purpose of this school is to enable, by extensive drill and intensive teaching, children in the 51 to 70 I.Q. group to become self-supporting and self-respecting citizens. The first tentative formation of the organi- zation, then called the "Manchester School for the Mentally Re- tarded," was in March 1958. The women's group of Zion Episcopal church, the Manchester Parent-Teacher Association, and elemen- tary school teachers were chiefly responsible. The school was incor - porated July 1958.
The first classroom opened in September 1959 with fifteen chil- dren under Mrs. Evelyn Beattie, teacher. The expenses of the school are only partially underwritten by the Department of Special Edu- cation, State of Vermont, and thus the school has become a real community project with many local organizations and individuals donating most generously to its support. The Manchester Welfare and Nursing Association has assumed responsibility for the chil- dren's health.
§ Burr and Burton Seminary
ABOUT 1793 Joseph Burr arrived in Manchester from Hempstead, Long Island. By virtue of a forceful personality and systematic busi- ness methods as a merchant and toll gate custodian, he accumu- lated before his death in 1828 an estate of $150,000. Dr. William Jackson of Dorset is credited with having suggested that Burr leave his money for a seminary in which young men preparing to enter the ministry could be educated. However, Samuel Canfield of Ar- lington, also feeling a school in Manchester would benefit the sur- rounding area, is said to have told Burr, "You made your money off Vermonters, and by gum, you ought to leave it here."
Whereupon Joseph Burr decided to test the mettle of Manches- ter. He left $10,000 for the institution provided the legacy could be matched within five years by $10,000 more through public sub-
81
EDUCATION
scription. Otherwise, his money was to go to the American Educa- tion Society. The will was hotly contested by many other benefici- aries including Middlebury, Dartmouth, and Williams Colleges, but the Supreme Court sustained the legacies in full.
The first Board of Trustees, faced with collecting the money, were Alexander Proudfit, William Jackson, Charles Walker, John Whiton, James Anderson, William Page, Josiah Burton, Milo Ben- nett, Cyrus Munson, John Aiken, Nathan Burton, Myron Clark, and Nathan Bottom. Governor Richard Skinner was the first to sign the list of pledges which, through the unceasing labor of the trustees, eventually grew to the required amount.
Contributions came from as far away as Middlebury. Money- collecting agents went from church to church and community to community in search of additional funds. One, in a mild state of despair, wrote the trustees :
I find that the only way to make the people do anything at all is to go to their doors and hammer it into them. Most of them are grossly ignorant of the subject. They scarcely know there is such a place as Manchester in Vermont. I find that it is very slow hard work but the only way is to take it patiently and persevere.2
The school was incorporated by an act of the General Assembly in 1829, but it was not until March 1831 that the trustees, with suc- cess in sight, unanimously voted to go ahead and purchase the land and erect buildings. The problems of construction were many and they began immediately. When the firing of the bricks was a disas- trous failure, the trustees decided to build the school of limestone taken from a quarry northwest of the seminary land.
On November 28, 1832, four months before the expiration of the five years stipulated in Burr's will, an appraiser inspected the build- ings and valued them at $11,250, thus securing the bequest. The in- terest of the permanent fund was to be used in providing education for "poor, needy, and pious youth preparatory to their entering theological studies or to their being received under the charge of the American or other Education Society."
The school was named "Burr Seminary" in honor of the bene-
2. Letter written by C. Shumway, March 1831. Property of Burr and Burton Semi- nary.
82
MANCHESTER, VERMONT
factor and thus became Vermont's first privately endowed academy. The Rev. Lyman Coleman, first principal, was largely responsible for preparing the school for its opening, May 15, 1833. He came here from Belchertown, Massachusetts, in July 1832 for an annual salary of $600.
During its first twenty years, Burr Seminary was exclusively a boys' school. But by the middle of the century, an insistent and in- creasing demand in Manchester and neighboring towns for some provision for the education of girls had grown. William A. Burn- ham, foresighted Seminary teacher, was responsible for the admis- sion of the first girls to class after having presented the matter to the trustees. Sixteen attended the Seminary in 1849, making it the first co-educational school above the elementary level in Vermont. Fifty-six attended the following year, so large a number that the first preceptress, Miss Cornelia Orvis, was hired.
Josiah K. Burton of the first Board of Trustees believed that girls were entitled to the same educational opportunities as boys. Though a man of little schooling, Burton understood the value of a thorough education and he was the largest contributor to the fund earlier raised to secure Burr's bequest. By the terms of Burton's will on his death in 1853, Burr Seminary was left $5,000. Additionally, $6,000 was left to be used in establishing separately a girls' semi- nary in Manchester provided certain conditions were met. In de- fault of these, both sums were to go to Burr Seminary and that is what ultimately happened.
In 1855, however, in recognition of Burton's generosity and of his wish to encourage the education of girls, the trustees admitted girls on terms of equality with boys, at the same time changing the corporate name to Burr and Burton Seminary. Of the money re- ceived from Burton's estate, $5,000 was added to the permanent fund and the rest was used to pay off indebtedness and the cost of additions and alterations required by "a ladies' department."
Feminine additions to the curriculum-instrumental and vocal music, drawing, and painting-were made in 1856. Tuition for girls under twelve was a dollar less. Before they roomed in their own separate hall at the Seminary, girls were quartered in the head- master's house, with Village families, or in their own homes.
The old catalogues advertised the Seminary's virtues well:
--
The Rev. Dr. Joseph Dressler Wickham (1797-1891), highly esteemed headmaster of Burr and Burton Seminary, 1837-1853, 1856-1862.
-
MANCHESTER DORSET
A GRANVILLE R R
180
The Manchester, Dorset, and Granville Railroad ("Mud, Dirt, and Gravel"), 1902- 1918.
-
-
-
The Village green (1861) showing the brick church, Court House, and schoolhouse before it was moved to the West Road location.
83
EDUCATION
The apparent seclusion of Manchester in a picturesque valley with fine mountain scenery and a healthy moral atmosphere, makes it a desirable place for the education of youth. The town has been noted for the intelli- gence, culture, and high-toned character of its people and its freedom froin the usual temptations to vice found in most places its size. The Seminary is located near enough to enjoy town privileges while still be- ing far enough removed from its temptations. It is a settled principle with the trustees and officers of this Seminary that its success under God will depend upon the character of the instruction and discipline . . . and the reputation which it shall acquire before the public.
Until 1834 students rose at 4:30 a.m. for prayers; in 1835, 5:00 a.m. Largely responsible for setting the early high standards of the school was Dr. Joseph Dressler Wickham, twenty-two years head- master and twenty-five years trustee. Wickham was eminently in- tellectual and able with adolescent boys. A minister, author, and professor, he retired as headmaster in 1862 but never lost his in- terest in the school. He was deeply admired by two generations of alumni.
His celebrated assistant principal, English teacher William A. Burnham, came to Manchester in 1835 with little formal education. Twenty-five years later, Burnham was not only superintendent of Manchester schools, but also a holder of honorary degrees from Middlebury and Dartmouth. Upon his untimely death in 1860, he became the first and only Seminary teacher to have a monument erected to his memory by his students. This is at Dellwood Ceme- tery.
One of the Seminary's many student organizations, the "Philo- mathic Fraternity," which was in existence about sixty years, was incorporated under "An Act Incorporating Literary and Scientific Organizations" May 5, 1837.
The gray stone Seminary with its old belfry reflecting early nineteenth-century ecclesiastical architecture imparts a feeling of security and endurance. Yet many are the physical changes which have occurred during its 132 years :
1862 wooden addition at southwest corner of building.
1873 small lighted windows exchanged for present larger ones.
1885 louvered windows and blinds installed; steam heat and water piped in.
84
MANCHESTER, VERMONT
1908 electric lights installed.
1913 dedication of gymnasium building designed by ex-Seminary stu- dent, Phelps Wyman, and built from subscribed funds.
1916 fire escapes added.
1926 dedication of Snyder room in headmaster's house in memory of Frances Snyder, preceptress, and Marcia Snyder, teacher; ground broken for athletic field following gift of $10,000 by W. B. Petti- bone, alumnus and trustee; second tennis court given by family of Edward S. Isham; landscaping and planting done.
1928 presentation and dedication of eight-foot Warner and Swasey telescope belonging to Robert Todd Lincoln by his widow; also a duplicate of the small observatory that housed the telescope at "Hildene."
1940
throughout this decade additional dormitories and a building for home economics were acquired on Seminary Avenue-Cross Cottage, Swift House, and Towsley House. Since home econom- ics has been discontinued, Towsley House is used for faculty housing. Swift House has been sold.
1955 dormitory rooms on third floor of the Seminary building re- placed by the Frank C. Osborn Memorial Laboratory for chemis- try and physics, and by new quarters for commercial subjects.
1959
as the result of a major improvement and expansion fund cam- paign, new heating plant and sprinkler system installed; fire- tower added to rear of building; renovation of office, classroom, and kitchen space to enlarge and improve facilities; addition of library space, lavatories, acoustical ceilings, etc.
In 1874 Loveland Munson was instrumental in founding the Alumni Association which still meets annually during Commence- ment. The group was once exceedingly active and strong due to the efforts of Mrs. Loveland Munson and Mrs. Edward H. Swift, who for many years was secretary-treasurer of the group. Dr. L. H. Hemenway also was a leading spirit in keeping the Seminary's proud position in the community. Paul H. Bullock, teacher of com- mercial subjects, in 1961 is completing his fortieth year of service, undoubtedly a record in Manchester schools.
In 1900, shortly after the advent of football at Burr and Burton, the Athletic Association was formed. Physical education had al- ready entered the curriculum.
In 1929 the centennial of the Seminary was celebrated with an
85
EDUCATION
historical pageant written by a distinguished alumna, Sarah N. Cleghorn. It was performed by a score of students and alumni.
As the Seminary functions as both a private school and the town high school, the matter of tuition has sometimes been a thorny one. In 1905 the amendment to school law requiring towns to furnish advanced pupils with high school instruction to the amount of $24 for tuition per year caused considerable discussion. In Manchester, the Seminary was able to furnish such instruction, while the higher grades at the Center elementary school (at that time, sometimes referred to as the Manchester Center High School) did not come up to proper standards. The town had to decide whether it was better to bring that school up to standard "or to furnish such instruction to all pupils beyond a certain grade at the Seminary."3 Many of the pupils already attended the Seminary because they preferred to do so despite the fact that they were obliged to pay their own tuition. Thus 1905 became the first year the town paid the three-term tui- tion, which was $32. Students were required to take an entrance examination.
In 1921 a special meeting was called to see if the town would pay the Seminary $90 per pupil. This was voted down by ten votes. The same argument occurred in 1923 when the Seminary again charged $90, still thirty more than had been previously voted. The voters were forced to decide if the town should continue to give Manches- ter students the benefit of a free high school education as had been the custom or if parents or pupils should be required to pay the balance. It was argued that such a course as the latter might deny some child the privilege accorded by nearly every other American town. Two votes were taken. The first lost 120-105. The second voted 99-90 to pay the extra $30 per pupil. In 1959 Manchester voted to pay $370 tuition per pupil as against the $325 required by law.
In February 1951 Burr and Burton Seminary was elected to in- stitutional membership of the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools because it fulfilled specifications, scholastic and otherwise, of "a very high standard." Classes are kept small so each student may receive a maximum amount of attention. From
3. Manchester Journal, February 23, 1905.
86
MANCHESTER, VERMONT
forty-two to fifty-five per cent of each graduating class enrolls in higher institutions of learning. Through its solid curriculum, high educational standards, and excellent faculty, Burr and Burton holds a respected place among Vermont's secondary schools.
Leale Towsley, artist and alumnus of the class of 1907, designed the school seal-"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills."
Bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, founded by our own merchants, sus- tained for a hundred years chiefly by the self-denying devotion of our own citizens, the Seminary is a symbol of our success. Here is what our town can do: this glorious old school. We have maintained it against changing educational fashions; against the cost of living; against the universal vicissitudes of all experience, for a hundred years as it was founded to serve the children of this valley ... coming as they have done and still do, from families of small means. .. . Here is the Seminary, 99 years old, still strong, still flourishing, promising, full of life and hope ... . 4
HEADMASTERS
Rev. Lyman Coleman 1832-1837
Rev. Dr. Joseph Wickham 1837-1854
1857-1862
Rev. Joseph Steele
William A. Burnham 1854-1857
School suspended 1863
William F. Bascom 1864-1865
Rev. Franklin Olmstead 1866-1867
Rev. Roswell Harris 1868-1869
Rev. L. A. Austin 1869-1873
H. H. Shaw 1873-1878
Rev. James Fletcher 1879-1881
Rev. Milton Severance 1882-1887
Allan C. Ferrin 1887-1893
Frank K. Graves 1893-1894
Eli Herbert Botsford 1894-1900
Bradley C. Rodgers 1900-1903
John E. Colburn 1903-1909
James Brooks 1910-1919
4. Burr and Burton Seminary Alumni News, 1928. Sarah N. Cleghorn, editorial.
87
EDUCATION
William W. Lee 1920-1923 Madison C. Bates 1923-1927 Beacom Rich 1928-1931 Ralph Howes 1931-1943 Elbert H. Henry 1943-
CHAPTER X
Transportation
B EFORE the railroad was built through Manchester in 1852, the major mode of public conveyance was the stagecoach. One early line ran from Manchester to West Townshend via Winhall, Bondville, and Jamaica. The stage left Factory Point Tues- days, Thursdays, and Saturdays upon arrival of the 10:00 a.m. train and returned Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to connect with the train at "11/2 o'clock." G. W. Cotton was proprietor of the line in 1862, followed by P. H. Kelly four years later "with a new coach and four horses to accommodate the public." This line was in use as early as 1839 and probably earlier.
One stage ran daily to Dorset, Rupert, Pawlet, and Granville, while another ran to Peru, Landgrove, Londonderry, Weston, and Chester. The Troy Sunday Budget was quoted in the Manchester Journal: "Women prove themselves efficient for almost any occu- pation nowadays. A Factory Point, Vermont woman occupies the position as stage driver between Pawlet and Manchester. . . . "1
Probably the best-known stops for stages in Manchester were in Barnumville at the Brick Tavern at the foot of the Peru Turnpike and in Robertsville, a small community then located in the area of the Old Homestead. Robertsville was headquarters of Martin Rob- erts, owner of a Boston to Saratoga stage line that eventually failed financially.
Manchester's most popular stage driver was John Stockwell, who,
1. September 20, 1883.
88
8g
TRANSPORTATION
at the age of nine, drove a yoke of oxen to Troy. In the 1870s he hauled marble from Mount Aeolus in East Dorset to Factory Point with teams of four to six horses. For nearly half a century, Stock- well carried mail and passengers from the Depot to the Village. During the summer, he also drove a coach-and-four up Mount Equinox several times a week. O. G. Felt, Manchester shoemaker, also drove parties along the same mountain route. He tied a log to the rear axle of his wagon to brake it on the way down.
During the first Ekwanok Country Club days, golfers rode to and from the grounds on long buckboards drawn by four horses. By 1902 the first "horseless carriage" made its appearance in Man- chester. One guest described the effect of these machines :
In the height of the season, a party renting a house opposite us arrived in a bright red automobile with shining brass lamps. This apparition was too much for the nerves of some horses, so one morning all from the Equinox stables were lined up on the sides of the street and the red car was paraded up and down in front of them, forerunner of the hundreds that were to follow. It was pitiful to see the terror of some of the poor animals .. . how soon their day would pass.
In 1902 Manchester had a transportation crisis. On November 6 a mass meeting was called at the Court House by Charles F. Orvis, Theodore Swift, and George Smith to consider and take action on a legislative bill which had been introduced in the Legislature by J. W. Fowler of Manchester. It was called "An Act to Incorporate the Bennington County Traction Company." This was to be an electric railroad running from Manchester to Granville. Its charter had been petitioned for by a large group of citizens who felt that such transportation would be more beneficial to the people than a steam road. The thought of Manchester's beautiful drives and streets ruined by car tracks and trolley and telegraph poles was more than the innkeepers and summer people would stand. They protested with a volley of letters to the Manchester Journal, which, in its next issue on November 13, urged the town to regain its senses: "The summer business has a good start here now and is rapidly growing and it would be extremely foolish to do anything that will have a tendency to keep people away."
A unanimous vote was thereby passed opposing the granting of
90
MANCHESTER, VERMONT
the charter unless the bill was amended to exclude all highways, streets, and land of the Village from its provisions. This was essen- tial for the future of Manchester even if the company had no imme- diate plans for laying tracks there. D. K. Simonds, Theodore Swift, and Charles Orvis were appointed to remonstrate in Montpelier and instruct Fowler to oppose the bill as it stood. On November 20 the announcement came that Manchester would have no trolley road. The town, with a sigh of relief, settled for steam and the "Manchester, Dorset, and Granville Railroad."
An auto-bus began operating July 1916 between Dorset and Ben- nington, leaving each town four times daily. In Manchester the stops were at Hard's drugstore and the Colburn House. Sometime before 1935, Ward's Bus Lines, Inc., ran a daily trip from Rutland to Bennington. This company sold out to the Vermont Transit Company of Burlington in February 1936. Two trips daily each way passed through Manchester and as passenger trains were re- moved from service on the Rutland Railroad, new buses were add- ed. The Vermont Transit Lines' schedule today offers five depar- tures south from Manchester to Albany, New York City, and con- necting points, and five north to Burlington with three going even further north to Montreal.
§ The Railroad
THE principal railroad which has run through Manchester is the Rutland. Originally the line was the Western Vermont Railroad Company incorporated November 5, 1845. Myron Clark of Man- chester was the first president of the board of directors. Built be- tween 1850 and 1853, the section between Rutland and Manchester was completed in December 1851, and the first regular train to Rutland ran in January 1852. By 1861 the Western Vermont had fifty-nine miles of track, having been successful in building south to the Vermont-New York line where it connected with the Troy and Boston Railroad. A branch between North Bennington and Ben- nington opened in 1854.
The Western Vermont reorganized in 1867 and changed its name to the Bennington and Rutland Railroad. It was consolidated with the Lebanon Springs Railroad (Bennington to Chatham, New
91
TRANSPORTATION
York) in 1870 to form the Harlem Extension Railroad. The Central Vermont took the Harlem Extension under lease from 1873 to 1877 when the lease was abandoned and the properties went to the mort- gage trustees of the two original companies. A reorganized Ben- nington and Rutland Railroad took over the Vermont road only, operating it until its lease to the Rutland Railroad in 1900.
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.