USA > Vermont > Bennington County > Manchester > Manchester, Vermont : a pleasant land among the mountains, 1761-1961 > Part 9
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During the summer of 1871 one through train ran to Manchester daily from New York City. According to F. H. Orvis, it traveled at the rate of twenty miles per hour. The valley, so dependent on the summer guests coming from the city, was hardly satisfied with these accommodations. Orvis, editor of the Manchester Journal and owner of the Equinox House, wrote, "Nine hours and three-fourths from New York to Manchester is better than 'going afoot' but not exactly what we hoped for from the 'great northern' through route to Montreal."
He urged the Harlem Extension to extend more and faster trains north of Lebanon Springs and he threatened several alternatives. A branch of the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad, he said, could be built from Shushan, New York, to Arlington and Manchester. Even a line of stagecoaches over the eighteen miles between Shushan and Manchester could connect with steamboats or the fast New York trains of the Hudson River Railroad. This was no idle notion on the part of Orvis. In July 1871 he sent a well-patronized stage line of four-horse coaches into action from the doors of the Equinox House to the New York-bound trains at Shushan. The Harlem Ex- tension Railroad quickly put on another train to alleviate the situa- tion. Though service was still barely adequate, Orvis canceled his stage line.
Si Clone (Andrus L. Bowen), the local journalist, once remarked that in the early days of the railroad, it was expected that a station would be built at the foot of Union Street to be closer to the hotels. But "as the cars would not stop, and as there were no nets to catch the passengers when they jumped," the plan failed and the "almost endless job of filling in the mud flats" along the Battenkill began.
In the summer of 1887 new trains were added on Saturday after- noons and Sunday nights, making the traveling time between New York and Manchester six hours. These additions were a great con- venience for summer people and a big boost to the valley's economy.
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MANCHESTER, VERMONT
Despite fare reductions, ticket sales for August at the Depot came to $450 more than during the same month the previous year.
In April 1900 the Bennington and Rutland came under the Rut- land Railroad and plans followed to build up the line with fast pas- senger trains from New York through western Vermont to Canada. This could not be done until wooden bridges were replaced with steel and the balance of the track laid with heavy steel rails. A new station at Manchester Depot was also promised. On June 13, 1901 purchase of the Chatham and Lebanon Valley Railroad by the Rut- land gave the railroad an alternate route to New York City via the Harlem River Division of the New York Central System.
Si Clone took a dim view of the whole economic picture in the Vermont Advance, November 3, 1900:
The marble interests here have not done much this season and the pros- pects for the future are not very bright. Vermont, being so one-sided in politics, there is no chance . . . to compel the railroad to give us living rates. It seems Vermont must become a wild west of underbrush or be made into a game preserve and the inhabitants become game wardens for the rich summer guests and sportsmen.
By 1905 the "Green Mountain Flyer" via the Hudson River Railroad was bridging the distance between New York and Man- chester in less than six hours every day. The night sleeper was the "Mt. Royal." There were also four mail trains daily to and from Troy and Rutland except Sundays, when only one operated.
About this time, the Rutland Railroad surveyed parts of the east mountain with the thought of running a new line of road into the vast timberlands. In November 1912 an application was made to the Legislature for a charter for a railroad from Wilmington to Man- chester via Somerset, Stratton, and Sunderland. This would have been an extension of the existing railroad from Wilmington up the mountain to Somerset. Probably the only railroad ever to meet with much success on the east range of mountains was the Rich Lumber Company Railroad, which ran up Lye Brook Hollow from the Rich- ville section of Manchester to the top of the mountain. It continued across the top of the mountain past Bourn Pond to the Winhall River with spurs into various locations, a total distance of approxi- mately sixteen miles.
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Construction of this standard-gauge railroad was begun early in 1913 using largely imported Italian labor and company equipment from its preceding operation in Wanakena, New York, namely one Shay-geared Lima locomotive, ten flat cars, twenty-four special log- ging cars, a log loader, and a snow plow. In 1914 a second locomo- tive was shipped directly to Manchester by the Lima Locomotive Works of Lima, Ohio. Each locomotive was equipped with steam and air brakes and each car with hand and air brakes. The grade up the mountain was six per cent approximately. There was one long high trestle and several medium trestles with a number of small bridges and much crib work and fill.
The railroad was laid with sixty-pound rail purchased from the Delaware and Hudson, the Lehigh Valley, the New Haven, and the New York Central railroads. The ties were largely imported from Canada. A fully equipped machine shop was constructed and main- tained with a master mechanic, Henry Schoolmaster, in charge.
The railroad operated without accident from 1914 to 1919 when on completion of the lumbering operation, the Rich Lumber Com- pany began its retirement from business. In 1919 a disastrous fire destroyed both the saw and chip mills. By late 1920 the railroad had been dismantled and the locomotives, cars, rail, and other equipment had been sold in a favorable market. Claude A. Rich was treasurer and general manager of the company from 1912 to 1920.
Two other steam railroads in this vicinity were proposed. Before January 1911 a charter was granted to the Mettawee Railroad, which would run from Dorset to Lake St. Catherine. This road was supposedly backed by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Ground was broken in December 1911. During the same year, a charter was asked for the Taconic Valley Railroad Company. The incorporators of the proposed road, which would run from Bennington to Dorset via Glastenbury, Shaftsbury, Arlington, and Manchester, were presumably the same Bennington men behind the Mettawee line.
The Manchester Journal's reaction to these proposed railroads was cynical: "Governor Mead has signed the Taconic Valley Rail- road bill ... and now there are charters enough for roads through this valley to make Manchester as central a point as Chicago-if all the chartered roads are put through."
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MANCHESTER, VERMONT
The cynicism was justified. Nothing came of either road.
The flood of November 1927 swelled the Battenkill to several times its normal size. Though Manchester was on the edge of the storm, railroad tracks were undermined in many places within the town and even more greatly to the north and south. Train service was not resumed for nearly three weeks.
The first snow train, consisting of one baggage car, one coach, and five sleeping cars carrying 166 passengers, arrived at Manches- ter Depot January 22, 1938. An informal "Manchester Snow Train Bulletin" was issued on board :
You will arrive at Manchester Depot at 5 a.m. However, please do not get off at that early hour. It will be too dark and you will feel too com- fortable under your warm blankets. Anyway, your busses will not be at the Depot until 6:45 a.m. . . . Skiers who are guests of Houses #6, 7, 9, 10, 11 may .. . remain on the train until it reaches East Dorset. ...
By 1946 the Rutland Railroad Station at Manchester Depot was kept open for skiers and the public using the night trains through- out the winter. In 1948, in order to conserve fuel, the last two ac- commodation trains were removed from the schedule, leaving as the only passenger service, north and southbound trains in the mid- afternoon, and early morning sleepers. Though intended as tempo- rary, these changes very shortly became permanent. The Green Mountain Flyer and the Mt. Royal continued until 1953, when, be- cause of a strike, all passenger service was discontinued. Freight service alone remains available.
Late in 1950 the Rutland Railroad reorganized as the Rutland Railway Corporation with a new board of directors. The new cor- poration marked the termination of a long receivership which had begun in 1938.
§ The Manchester, Dorset, and Granville Railroad Company2
MANCHESTER'S own railroad, which existed fourteen years, was the single track "MD&G," affectionately known as the "Mud, Dirt, and Gravel." Extending 5.09 miles from Manchester Depot to the
2. All quotations in this section, unless otherwise indicated, are from "Manchester, Dorset, and Granville Railroad Company," G. Murray Campbell, August 1, 1951.
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South Dorset quarries, "it lured young and old for a round trip of cinders and marble dust. Its whistle was as much a part of town life as the village clock."
In 1908 the Manchester Journal said editorially :
No enterprise of any kind has given the people . . . better accommoda- tions, four trains a day each way by daylight. You may take for compari- son the Rutland R.R. You cannot get out of town southbound until noon. Over our "baby line" you can go to its terminus and have time for a little business twice in the forenoon. It is not a large crew but from Clarence Curtis, fireman, Henry Blanchard, engineer, and Charles Wil- liard, conductor, you have just as much attention as if you were a multi- millionaire in a Pullman palace car. A thousand tons of marble go down the MD&GRR some days worth a good many thousand dollars.
The MD&G was originated primarily to carry marble from the Norcross-West Marble Company's South Dorset quarries to a fin- ishing mill at Manchester Depot. It was incorporated "June 21, 1902 with Capital Stock of $350,000 of which $72,500 was issued, and a $260,000 Five Per cent bond issue, which was subsequently paid off in 1930." Work on the track began November 9, 1902, and the distance between the Depot and the quarries was quickly com- pleted. The first traffic went over the road in July 1904.
Never did it extend farther to reach Granville, New York, sixteen miles beyond, or even the one and a half miles farther to the Village of Dorset, although continuing rumors ran high. . . .
The largest number of cars owned were ten flat cars which shuttled between the quarry and the mill. The locomotive pushed the coach ahead to the quarries, and trailed the empty flat cars behind. Returning, the locomotive backed to Manchester, pulling the loaded cars, with the coach at the end. There was a small shelter shed station at Manchester Depot, one at South Dorset, and one at the quarry terminus.
There is little doubt that the MD&G was "important in the life of Manchester and Dorset." Its passenger service "drew excursion- ists, as well as riders who, when automobiles were more uncommon than now, were convenienced by the help of five miles in their jour- neys to Dorset. Life on the MD&G had its little dramas-fighting snows, unruly streams, and trespassing livestock." But the biggest drama, still recounted in Manchester homes, happened on the morning of July 6, 1906:
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MANCHESTER, VERMONT
Two empty Rutland Railroad flat cars, preceded by one M.D. and G. flat car, were placed on the 4,000 foot Plateau or Upper Quarry siding of which the grade was so steep that the locomotive was taxed to handle them. The two Rutland cars were placed under the quarry derrick. The M.D.G. car was ahead, and it was planned to use the hand brake and let this car down the grade a short ways to the woodpile, to load after the two cars of marble had been loaded. It was customary to hold the cars on the siding with a 3/4 " cable attached to the uppermost car and looped over a 3" holding pin on the ground. Two large blocks of marble, each weighing over 25 tons, had been loaded on the forward Rutland car, and one block of 30 tons had been loaded on the uppermost car. Another 20 ton block was being hoisted to load, and while it was about 45 feet in the air, the hoisting engineer noticed the cars moving. In the confusion which followed, no one attempted to set the hand brakes; so the hoisting engineer tried to drop the suspended block on the car to disable it, but was prevented from giving a full blow because he had to stop the drop to permit laborers on the car to scamper. He did allow the lowering block to hit the rear end of the last car hard enough to damage it, but the cars continued to move slowly forward. The hoisting cable was allowed to run out about 250 feet, but there was little more. The brake on the hoisting drum had to be applied, and the taut cable then pulled the marble block off the car to the ground. The runaway cars were on their way to Man- chester.
The regular 11:00 a.m. trip of the passenger coach southbound had left about 20 minutes earlier, and aboard were 40 school children with accompanying teachers, along with other passengers. When the loaded freight cars broke away, a telephone call was quickly made to Manchester Depot, where it was learned the passengers had arrived and unloaded about four minutes before. The engine had gone to the enginehouse, and the passenger coach was standing on the main line. Possible death and disaster had been averted. The runaway cars, with the empty M.D. and G. flat car ahead, hit the coach and tore it from its wheels, landing it atop the flat car. Only a window in the coach door was broken. .. .
The completion of the New York Public Library in May 1911 "stopped the principal traffic for which the railroad was built," though other notable buildings were constructed of the Norcross- West marble from South Dorset.
"The Vermont Marble Company acquired the Norcross-West Marble Company and with it the MD&G on May 20, 1913." Marble orders had dropped off and the new owner apportioned what re-
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mained "to more economical quarries." Operations at the Depot ceased and the South Dorset quarries closed in 1917. There were intermittent periods of considerable traffic before common carrier operations ceased June 1, 1918.
Long afterward, the tracks remained. In 1924 and 1925 Pat and Tom McCormick "operated a flanged wheeled motor truck over its rusted rails to haul marble from the Kent-Root Quarry at South Dorset for shipment from Manchester Depot to the Green Moun- tain Marble Company at West Rutland. Silence then again took over, and in 1934 Forrest Bros. of Bennington bought the rails for scrap. The last gasp came when certificate of dissolution was granted February 28, 1936."
§ Aviation
PROBABLY the first passenger plane to stay any length of time in Manchester belonged to Captain Stickney of Bellows Falls, who, as the representative of an airplane firm, came here to look over pos- sible sites for airfields. He felt the Fair Grounds could be fixed tem- porarily for a field, but the grounds were neither good nor large enough for a permanent port. This discovery was probably made in 1920 when he first carried passengers at the Manchester Fair and his plane made a forced landing in a swampy spot. The nose of the plane was run into the ground so badly that further flight was im- possible.
Stickney finally selected grounds north of the Carsden Inn on Union Street, which included land belonging to the Equinox Com- pany and to Mrs. Fannie Strong. These sites would have been suit- able had certain work been done on the land. However, apparently nothing was accomplished until 1928, when Mrs. George Orvis took the first steps toward a tangible field.
As head of the Equinox House, Mrs. Orvis was interested in a proper landing place for summer visitors as well as in making Man- chester an important link in the air route from New York to Mont- real. Her two advisors were Dean Ivan Lamb, one time British Royal Air Force ace; Beaureguard Sweeney; and Alexis Dawydoff of Air Associates, New York City. They chose a large acreage east of the Battenkill and the Equinox House and high enough so the
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MANCHESTER, VERMONT
hotel could be seen. In May, when workers began to level the land, Mrs. Orvis had a mammoth sign with letters ten feet high-MAN- CHESTER, VERMONT-painted on the roof of the Taconic sec- tion of the Equinox House with a large arrow pointing toward the proposed landing field.
Jack Fox, Equinox Links pro, was in charge of the great amount of work to be done to get the field in shape. Brush had to be cut, stones picked up, holes filled, and the surface hardened. Fortu- nately the land was situated on a vein of gravelly soil which by keep- ing constantly dry met an essential condition of airfields. The run- way was constructed upwards of 2,000 feet long and more than 100 feet wide with a second runway from the main one to the hangar. The latter was built sixty by eighty feet in order to house six planes. Gas tanks were also installed.
Officially opened July 4, 1928, the field became Vermont's elev- enth actual airport. The first plane to land was flown by W. C. Bill- ings, head of the Boston airport. The Manchester Journal quoted the St. Alban's Messenger July 5: "While other communities in Ver- mont are talking, haggling, and arguing over airports, their cost, their advantages, their drawbacks, the town of Manchester-in-the- Mountains is up and doing."
In the summer of 1931 the Equinox Company leased the airport to the Greenfield, Massachusetts, Flying School. There must have been a lull in operations, for two years later a special floor was laid in the hangar and the building was used as a dance hall. This situa- tion did not last, however, for the State Airport Supervisor of Ver- mont in February 1934 proposed that the Village of Manchester lease lands for an airport for five years with the privilege of pur- chase. The government would then consider the project as part of the C.W.A. program and allot funds for the purpose of constructing an airport. The Village then leased the Equinox Company's airport land for five years at a rental of $1 annually with an option to buy the land for $5,000 at the end of the lease period. This was exclu- sive of the hangar already built.
By June 1935 the Manchester Airport was approved by the Ver- mont Motor Vehicle Department for commercial work after one of the runways had been widened, a second built, and the field en- larged and graded. Harry P. Bingham, Jr., planned to use the air-
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DAVON. GEROniE DI ALAP JOHN
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CHARLES A. PIERCE, Orderly.
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PANAKK DAVID BINE
George H. Phillips, 2.
William Campbell, 3.
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KENYON HENRY 1.
SMITH JAMESON.
HENRY A WYMAN.
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FINGERTUN CHARLES H.
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WHOLE UNITED STATES
Shay locomotive on wooden trestle brought trainloads of logs down Rich Lumber Company railway from the top of the east mountain to mill in Richville, 1914-1919.
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Rich Lumber Company mill, 1912-1920.
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port during the summer as a base for North Eastern Air Service, and two planes, a second pilot, and a mechanic were added. In October 1940 the Manchester Airport was one of thirty-five in Ver- mont listed by the Civil Aeronautics Administration of New Eng- land airports that should be considered in a major program of ex- pansion for commercial and defense purposes.
In 1946 F. M. Greenwood leased the airport from the Equinox House for charter service as a branch of the Southern Vermont Flying Service of North Springfield, Vermont. Charles Hawkins was manager. In January 1949 the airport received the "Good Air- port Operating Practice Certificate" awarded by the National Aero- nautics Association. It was one of twelve public and private airfields in Vermont to be so honored. Also in 1949 Captain William Odom, holder of the world's record in flight from Honolulu to Oakland, landed at the Equinox Airport.
The twenty-fifth anniversary of the field was celebrated October 4, 1953. Hawkins, still manager, was master of ceremonies. Those present, who had also been at the first opening, were Charles H. Grant, a Pennsylvania aeronautical engineer and inventor, and Maynard Carlisle, Manchester flier and mechanic.
A group of men from the Manchester area interested in further- ing local aviation organized in 1959 as the Equinox Flying Club.
Two other known airfields have existed in Manchester. During the summer of 1930 Miss Mary L. Beckwith, whose hobby was fly- ing, constructed a private airport and hangar on her estate. In 1932 the farm of Arthur Hayes, north of the Center on U.S. Rte. 7, be- came the site of Hayes Field. The State Motor Vehicle Department inspected the grounds and approved them for passenger flying. Later approval was given for student flying and its use as an emer- gency field. Runways about 1,600 feet long extended in four direc- tions. Despite the lack of a hangar, three planes were at one time stationed there.
CHAPTER XI
Post Offices and Postmasters
I HE first post office in the township was at Manchester Vil- lage, though that section of the town was not an incorporated village when the office was established in 1793. The post- masters were:
Abel Allis, appointed shortly before March 20, 1793 Joel Pratt, Jr., appointed shortly before July 1, 1803 Nathan Burton August 17, 1803 Calvin Sheldon October 4, 1814 Leonard Sargeant January 1, 1819
Walter I. Shepherd January 16, 1826
Henry Robinson January 10, 1833 Levi C. Orvis November 19, 1833 Darwin Andrews July 1, 1841 Levi C. Orvis July 13, 1843 William H. Andrews May 23, 1849
Fowler W. Hoyt May 10, 1853
William B. Burton February 11, 1863
David K. Simonds June 16, 1875 Charles F. Orvis March 30, 1893 David K. Simonds April 17, 1897 Robert J. Orvis June 2, 1913 Otto R. Bennett March 7, 1922 Frank Regan April 15, 1934 Mary Malone October 27, 1936 Geo. F. Lawrence, Jr. December 31, 1950
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POST OFFICES AND POSTMASTERS
The office has been located at various points in the Village de- pending somewhat upon the business of the postmaster at the time. The first parcel post stamp was sold in December 1912 to Mrs. Ahi- man L. Miner, then ninety-one years old and probably the oldest resident of the Village.
Under the date of January 1, 1828 the following petition was made to the Honorable John Mclane, Postmaster General of the United States :
Your petitioners, citizens of Manchester in the County of Bennington & State of Verinont beg leave to represent :
That in said town on the post road leading from Manchester to Rutland in said state & from said Manchester to Charlestown, N. H. and more than a mile northeasterly of the post office now established in said town is a Village called "North Village in Manchester" containing more than thirty families, three retail stores, two tanneries, one Iron Blast Furnace, two woolen factories, and one distillery, all in actual operation besides shoemakers, cabinet and chair makers, blacksmiths and other merchants -and that the citizens of said Town living easterly and Northeasterly of said Village would find great convenience in the establishment of a Post- office in said Village.
The signers of the petition recommended Levi Church Orvis as a suitable person for the office of postmaster. Apparently the petition was well received, as the Factory Point post office was established June 25, 1828. However, Benjamin Roberts was the first postmaster instead of Orvis. Other postmasters in this second Manchester office were :
Lyman Harrington November 2, 1837 Moses Harrington August 31, 1840
Augustus G. Clark May 10, 1841
Lyman Harrington July 13, 1843 Cyrus A. Roberts June 7, 1845 Augustus G. Clark August 2, 1861 Robert Ames September 8, 1870 Charles K. Young July 17, 1885
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