USA > Vermont > Orange County > Bradford > Stories of old Bradford > Part 12
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Tommy turned to thank Captain Clark for letting him take part in one of the most exciting battles of history. But Captain Clark had vanished. Tommy ran to find him. Just then Tommy's feet skidded on the wet, slippery deck. He slipped and fell overboard. He clutched frantically at ropes to save himself. Vainly his fingernails scraped the smooth hull. He could see the dark, angry water hurrying up to meet him. He shuddered as he looked down at those snowy crested wave mountains, into the dark, cavernous valleys between them. What was below the dark, restless surface? Were shark's with cruel, saw-like jaws, waiting just below the surface to tear him limb from limb? Or would he sink for a thousand miles be- fore stopping? How long did it take to drown? Would people always wonder what had become of Tommy Briars while his skeleton lay at the bottom of the ocean? He didn't want to die ! Not yet ! The cold, dark waters closed over him.
Just then he heard his mother's voice. "Tommy, for good- ness sake, wake up! You'll be late for school."
Tommy found himself on the floor of his room. He had fallen out of bed, dragging the bedding down over him as he fell.
"Oh, Mother, I've just had the most exciting dream !" gasped Tommy, as he stumbled sleepily downstairs. "You know I told you about stopping to look at the statue last night ?
** Quote from Robbins School History of the American People.
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Well, I dreamed I was helping Admiral Clark fight the battle of Santiago !"
Tommy's mother looked worried. "Dear me! I'm afraid you study too hard, Tommy. It was ten-thirty when your light went off last night. I can't have you reading so late."
Tommy slipped into his chair at the breakfast table. His father was eyeing him questioningly.
"Well, I got to reading about Admiral Clark and I wanted to finish it. I have to give a report today on the battle of San- tiago. Our teacher told us that Admiral Clark was born right here in Bradford, Vermont."
"Yes, he lived here as a boy. Later he lived in Montpelier. So Bradford was his birthplace and Montpelier became his adopted town. Montpelier was first to honor him."
"Our teacher said that Cap-I mean Admiral Clark-was so modest about his part in the battle that he didn't get all the credit he deserved for it. Most of the history books don't tell us that Admiral Sampson and Commodore Schley left him to fight without giving him any definite orders, and that the Oregon really led the fight."
"That's because he didn't want to seem to criticize his su- perior officers," explained his father. "He refused all promo- tions and honors offered him for fear of offending or hurting the feelings of other officers. Some of these officers were his superiors, and if he had been promoted it would have been right over their heads. He said that they were as deserving as he was."
"In my dream he was called Captain."
"Yes. Well, he would have been then. He was promoted six numbers after the Spanish War. That made him a rear admiral. Commodore Schley thought that he received too much credit. When the court decided that Clark deserved as much credit as Schley, Schley was so angry that he went to President Theodore Roosevelt about it."
"The same Roosevelt who led the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War?"
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"Yes. He was elected President after the war."
"What did President Roosevelt say ?"
"After Roosevelt had heard the story about the battle of Santiago, he used some strong words about people like Clark who refused to accept the honors they deserved. He tried to give Clark several other honors. He wanted to send him to England to see the new English king crowned. He wanted to make him commander of all the American ships in the Atlantic. But Clark refused."*
"What did Admiral Clark do after that?'
"He was so tired from the war that he was ill for awhile. After that he became second in command at the League Island Navy Yard. Later he was made Governor of the Naval Home."
"He lived a long time ago, didn't he?" Tommy reflected.
"I never knew before that Bradford had such a famous man living in it once. The people here must have been very proud of him !"
His father scraped back his chair and picked up his hat, "Well, people seldom realize that a man is great while he is alive. I don't suppose they thought much about him them. He did receive one great honor from his State while he was alive, though. His portrait was painted and placed in the State House. We'll have to take a run over to Montpelier some day so you can see it."
As he was leaving for school his mother said, "You will go right by the house that Admiral Clark was born in on your way to school. It is that little old wood-colored house called the 'Everett house' now .* It is nearly across the road that goes up to the south end of Pleasant Street."
"You mean that old wood-colored house that stands be- tween Wakefield's store and the cross street that goes down to the old creamery ?"
* Although this is Admiral Clark's birthplace according to history books, this fact is denied by older residents of Bradford who lived here when Clark was a boy. According to them, this was his boyhood home, but his birth- place was the house at the foot of the hill leading to South Pleasant Street, almost across the road from the other house. This is now the Thomas house.
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"That's the one. It didn't have any porch on it when Ad- miral Clark lived there. He used to go to Bradford Academy, too. But that was before the brick high school was built. The old Academy was a white wooden building."
Although he was late, Tommy stopped to stare at the lit- tle, low, wood-colored house. It was exciting to think that the boy Charles Clark had once lived here.
The Boyhood Home of Admiral Clark
As Tommy looked at the weather-beaten little house he could almost see a boy of his own age hurrying in and out of it. The boy was large for his age, stockily built, with a round face, brown wavy hair, and mild, friendly blue eyes that could become stern and hard when he had cause to be angry.
"I'll bet he had lots of fun playing with the other boys on Waits River," thought Tommy as he hurried on to school. "Probably he swam in our swimming hole! Maybe he and the other fellows made rafts and boats out of boxes and paddled up and down the rivers. Probably they had mock battles and rammed each other's boats with poles the way Charles had read about in books. And the winners tipped the other boat over and dunked the losers. But I'll bet that Charles Clark was always the leader and told the other fellows what to do, and I'll bet that whether his side won or lost he was always a good sport about it."
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When Tommy came to the American Legion Hall, he took another long look. His father always referred to this old brick building as the "old bakery." Before his father was born, there had been other stores in it. When Admiral Clark was a boy, his father had had a book-binding business there. Tommy remembered that Charles had wanted to go to college, but that Mr. Clark had lost money on a book that hadn't sold well so he couldn't afford to send him. This was a bitter disappointment to the sixteen-year-old boy who had just graduated from high school. Charles had always liked to read and study. He liked especially stories about the sea and sailors. He was such a fast reader that he had managed to read many of the books his father bound before he got around to bind them. Charles thought that if he couldn't go to college he might like to be a sailor. He tried first to get into West Point, but West Point had all the boys it could take for that year. Then Senator Morrill helped the boy to get a chance to take the entrance exams for Annapolis Naval Academy. Charles passed the ex- amination and entered Annapolis.
Charles' two room-mates at Annapolis became two of his best, life-long friends. He met the sister of one of these boys. and later she became Mrs. Charles Clark.
"If he hadn't been disappointed about going to college," thought Tommy, "he probably never would have become a captain or fought the battle of Santiago. It was that battle that really finished winning the Spanish-American War!"
As Tommy ran past the bronze statue, he winked at it. They shared a secret !
Tommy's class was wide-awake and full of pep. The dis- cussion which followed the oral reports on Clark's life was lively.
"What is one of the most important things we want to remember about Admiral Clark?" asked the pupil chairman.
"That Admiral Clark was the first man to take a modern, steam battle-ship half-way around the globe," answered a lively-looking boy in the front seat.
"Where was he taking the battle-ship?"
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A pupil traced the route on the map. "From the western coast of California down around Cape Horn at the tip of South America and up the South American coast to Key West, south of Florida."
"Why was he taking it there?" someone wanted to know.
"He was joining the American fleet in the Atlantic," a girl in the back seat contributed.
"Why did he go half-way around the world to do that?" an interested pupil enquired. "Why didn't he go through the Panama Canal; he could have cut off about 8,000 miles. Our geography book says so."
"That's a good question," answered the the pupil chair- man. "Why didn't he?"
"Because the Panama Canal wasn't built then."
The class laughed.
"Oh, now I see why the Canal was built."
"That was one of the good results of the Spanish-Ameri- can War," the teacher put in. "It made people see that they needed this shorter route. It saves time and money and it increases trade."
"Any more discussion ?" asked the pupil chairman. "Okay, Tommy. Your report next."
Tommy gave such a glowing account of the battle of Santiago that his classmates listened breathlessly.
This teacher was astonished. Tommy had never done so well before. "That was spendid, Tommy! It was such a vivid picture of the battle that one would think you had actually taken part in it."
Tommy smiled, but he kept his secret. He didn't care what the teacher thought of his report, but he was glad that, even if only for a few minutes, he had made this great Brad- ford man live again for the other Bradford boys and girls as he had lived for Tommy.
INTERESTING PEOPLE OF BRADFORD
"Mom, our teacher told us to find out the names of some famous Bradford characters. I know about Admiral Clark, of course --- "
"There was a Captain Trotter and James Wilson who made the first globes and there was Colonel Farnham, a Civil War veteran who became Governor of Vermont. He is an ex- ample of what an ambitious boy can do," answered Mother.
Another Bradford boy, Burton Sleeper, became Governor of Michigan. Then there was Ella Wheeler Wilcox who, al- though not a Bradford girl herself, made her Bradford rela- tives locally famous."
"Who was Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Mom?"
"She was a poet. You can find her name in Who's Who, Information Please or in your encyclopedia. Her mother was a Pratt before she was married. The Pratts lived in Goshen long ago. I have been told that one can still find the cellar hole of their house southwest of the old Samuel Grow farm. Mrs. Wheeler once brought her famous daughter, Mrs. Wilcox, to Bradford to show her where her mother had lived as a girl. This was long before my time, but I remember hearing about it."
"Any others?"
"I can't think of any right now, but perhaps your grand- mother can help you."*
"Well, let's see," Grandmother began brightly. "My grandmother-your great, great grandmother-used to tell me about a man name Slafter. He became a well-known artist- painted portraits of people. He lived all alone on the Avery place on the South Goshen road. Had a fine orchard and vine- yard there. Winters he'd come down and live in the hotel."
"You mean the Bradford Inn ?"
* Grandmother was really a great grandmother to the boy, and grand- father his great grandfather although he didn't call them by that long name.
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"Oh no! That wasn't there then. Instead there was a hotel with a porch and white columns called the Trotter House, but the hotel this artist stayed at was the Bliss Hotel.
'You mean the store Mr. Edmund Badnarski has now?"
"Yes. If you go upstairs in it, you will find the doors to the rooms numbered just as they were when they were the doors to the hotel bedrooms.
My mother used to tell how Mr. Slafter used to go down on the meadow behind the hotel and catch bullfrogs for the hotel dinner.
"Next time you go to the library, ask Miss Dickey to show you the two Slafter paintings that are there. One called "Still Life," is the picture of a rabbit. The other is of a family group -- Mother, Father, and Little Girl. I think it was the Strickland family.
Bradford Inventors
"There was an inventor named Alvin Norcross. He in- vented a master key that would unlock any lock.
"Mr. L. L. Rowe, an uncle of Mr. Leon Norcross, in- vented washers used on drinking fountains and also a regula- tor for hot-air steam furnaces.
"There is also a story about another young man who went to school only two days in his life. Then he applied for a teaching position. The superintendent and trustees refused to hire a teacher with so little education. That made the young man so angry that he left school. He left town and later in- vented sulphur matches.
Representatives and Military Officers
Many other Bradford people have made good. All down through the years there have been doctors, lawyers, preach- ers, professors and artists. In early times there was a Dr. Au- brey who was said to have dressed the wounds of General Wolfe in the French and Indian War. People told that this
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man could strike a pin from a man's shirt collar with a sword without injuring the man's throat. And there was Colonel John Barron, Captain Bliss, and other heroes of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, some of whom became leaders in the town.
Some Old Bradford Officers in the Spanish American War
Back in 1777 the town sent Bildad Andross and Benja- min Baldwin to the Convention at Windsor which met to or- ganize the new State of Vermont. Colonel John Barron and Esquire Chamberlin were sent to the Vermont Convention of 1790 that discussed the adoption of the Constitution of the United States.
In the Civil War, besides Colonel Farnham whom your mother has already mentioned, there was a Colonel Worthen and a Colonel Stearns. Colonel Dudley K. Andross, as Captain Andross, led the first company of Bradford volunteers which fought in the battles of Big Bethel and Harper's Ferry. Brad-
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ford sent 258 men to the Civil War. All the first men to go had received some training in the Bradford Guards. When I was a young girl Judge Watson was Captain of the Guards. Frank Davis, Calvin Clark and Herbert Johnson were all captains who later became colonels. Colonel Clark was on the Govern- or's staff. Colonel Johnson became Adjustant General of the Vermont State Guard. You can find the names of more cap- tains by reading the history of the Bradford Guards.
"All these old people you tell about sound so serious ! Dad is always telling Patsy and me how spoiled children are today and how much work he did when he was a boy. Was he always perfect, Grandma ?"
Grandma's eyes twinkled, but she only said, "Perhaps he's forgotten some things. He only wants you to grow up to be a good and useful citizen."
"But were people always serious and sensible back in those days," persisted Junior.
"Not by a long shot !" chuckled Grandfather who had just entered the room. "There were certain people around town who used to give us quite a laugh."
"Now, Grandfather," warned Grandmother. "You be care- ful what you tell that child."
"Well, we need that kind of people to jolly us up a bit and keep us from taking ourselves too seriously," Grandfather defended himself. "They're like salt on our potatoes, like sugar on our oatmeal. They help us to get down the hard things of life.
"I remember there used to be a funny French Canadian fellow lived out at Bradford Center. When he used to come along to Eastman's mill, we boys liked to be on hand to hear him talk. I don't suppose he was really funny. It was just that he couldn't speak English very well. One day he pointed to his horse and said, 'I own that team right straight through. That horse him fast one. You put a peck of oats on him and a new harness in him, he'll go a mile in t'ree minutes. I'll give you to him.'
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"Another time in speaking of his wife, he said, 'My Jane, him neat ! But him like cider too well. I put a barrel cider down cellar. I come home. My Jane him's in bed-had too much ci- der. I drive that tap in and cut off smooth so he no can get. Next day I com home. Hear gurgling noise like someone dy- ing. From down cellar it come, gurgle, gurgle! My Jane him had chopped hole in barrel and cider gurgling into pan.' "
"There was a bright little girl in town who used to give us a laugh now and then. She lived in Goshen, and her name was Bertha Norcross. Every Sunday after they had had Sun- day school down in the village, Joe Warden, the superinten- dent of the Sunday School, used to come to Goshen and con- duct Sunday school for us in the Goshen Meeting House. Mr. Warden had a shiny nearly bald head with a fringe of bright red hair. One Sunday Bertha piped up in Sunday school and said, 'Who is that fellow with his head growing up through his hair?'
"Another time little Bertha looked at Del Osborne, who was the biggest, tallest man in town and asked her father Dea- con Norcross, if God was any bigger man than Mr. Osborne.
"There used to be a fellow around town at that time named John Blood. He lived on Back Street, where Super- intendent Whitcomb now lives. He had a lean-to up on the hill behind the house in which he kept his carts and things. One night he left a wagon full of potatoes up there. Whether or not the cart had any help or not, no one knows, but it got loose in the middle of the night and rolled down the hill. It struck the house with such force that the tongue went through the wall and right under the bed in which John lay asleep. John was pretty excited when he saw what had happened.
"At that time 'Cy' Curtis kept a restaurant underneath his wife's millinery or hat shop, which was where Milady's Shoppe is now. John Blood had been working hard and de- cided to go into Curtis' restaurant for a bowl of oyster stew. We boys were standing around looking for a little excitement, so we thought we would have some fun with him. When he came out, we said, 'Why, John, you didn't eat those oysters, did you? Oh no, you didn't! Why those oysters weren't dressed. No knowing what they will do to you. Besides he
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shouldn't have given them to you not dressed. I wouldn't stand for it if I were you!' So John went back into the restaurant and pitched into Mr. Curtis for giving him oysters that weren't dressed !
Long ago, about where the Sisco house is now, there stood a long old house with a livery stable behind it owned by "Ja- min" Baldwin. At the time these old buildings were being torn down to make way for newer houses, two of the workmen found a bottle, and one of them drank the contents of it. The bottle contained not what the man supposed, but horse lini- ment. In a short time he was dead.
His son mourning him at his funeral said, as he wiped away his tears, "Well, you old fool, you'll know better next time."
"There was a woman named Mary Rudder Dolloff1 lived out in Bradford Center whom we called 'the News Exchange' because she was a great hand to get all the news about all the people in town. People would go up and call on her just to find out what was going on. She was a fortune teller too. She seemed to have a gift for looking into the future and telling people what was going to happen. She looked just like every- one's idea of what a fortune teller should look like-thin and white with a hooked nose. She was part Indian and could always trace a missing person. She had a son who looked well and healthy. People were always asking him how he was because he always answered with the same whine, 'I'm not very well, I ain't. I don't feel very well, I don't.'
"There was another man named Albert Williams who was a great favorite with us boys. He surely knew how to win a small boy's heart and will never be forgotten by any of the el- derly gentlemen who were little boys then. He always used to take us with him when he went over to Haverhill Corner to pasture his cows. That was a great treat for us boys in those days when boys didn't have a chance to go much.
'When the railroad was built up through here in the middle 1800's, folks paid for its building by investing money in it. They were given pieces of paper called 'shares' to show
1. Mrs. Dolloff was Mrs. Albert Bailey's great-grandmother.
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that they owned part of the railroad. They were then called stockholders. Every so often there would be a railroad meet- ing at Newport. Only stockholders were allowed to attend, and they were given a free ride to Newport on the railroad. Most of the boys would never have had a chance to ride on a train had it not been for Albert Williams. He would take a crowd of us to every meeting. In order to get us a free ride and a pass into the meeting, he would give each of us, for the time being, one of his shares to show to the conductor.
"One time Albert Williams, who was an 'old bach' and lived in Goshen, was sick. The doctor left him some medicine to be taken every half an hour. Next time the doctor came, he couldn't see that any of the medicine was missing. 'Haven't taken much of your medicine, have you, Williams?' 'No, I haven't,' admitted Albert Williams. 'Thought I'd wait until I got well enough to stand it.'
"Near the Goshen Meeting House lived a young couple who couldn't seem to get along together, so they decided to get a divorce. After they had parted for a month, they decided that the divorce had been a mistake and that they would go back together again. At that time whenever there was a wed- ding in town, we boys would take some tin pans and go and serenade the newly-weds. So the night this couple went back to living together, we boys went up. Phonze Clough had a cir- cular saw strung onto an iron bar which he pounded with a hammer and got a lot of noise out of. When Moses heard our concert, he came to the door. 'What do you kids want?' he asked in a frightened voice. 'We want to see the new bride !' we yelled back, and the frightened 'bridegroom' invited us in. Later, after Mr. Gaffield's death, Mrs. Gaffield married a Mr. Johnson. When she died, she left several thousand dollars to the town for the care of lots in the cemetery belonging to poor widows.
"Another time when we serenaded a man named Green- leaf, we weren't so lucky. He told us to clear out or he'd shoot. We kept on serenading. Greenleaf came to the door and fired a lot of birdshot into our midst. One boy was peppered with it, and it raised quite a rumpus in the town.
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"There was a nice old doctor named Doty. He used to tell this story on himself. 'An old lady whom I was doctoring had stomach trouble. I kept changing her medicine, but I couldn't seem to cure her or find anything that agreed with her. I was at my wit's end. One morning my wife was making brown- bread. Suddenly I had an idea. I broke off pieces of the brown- bread, rolled them into little pellets, and dipped them into some chocolate frosting she was making. These I carried to the old lady and told her they were another kind of pill. Next time I went to see her, she was well.' 'Doctor,' she said, 'I guess you've hit the right kind of medicine at last. Those pills seem to agree with me best of any medicine you've ever given me !'
"There was another man in Goshen named Charles Wil- son who was very full of fun. Mr. Wilson used to tell some funny stories of things that happened at nearby places where he went to work.
"On one farm they often served spare ribs for dinner. Mr. Wilson didn't care for spare ribs because they were more bones than meat. After working hard all the morning, he could not get enough to eat to satisfy his hunger. Finally after he had been given no meat but spare ribs for several days, he told the farmer that he did not care for spare ribs. 'I don't like to pick bones all the time.' he said.
" 'The nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat !' his employ- er replied.
"Later on in the day when they had finished cultivat- ing a field, the farmer told him to hitch the horse in a field where it could feed while the men were working at something else. Mr. Wilson tied the horses near a ledge where there was nothing in the way of grass. His employer scolded him, saying there was nothing there for the horse to eat.
"Mr. Wilson looked at the rocks and said with a twinkle in his eye, 'The nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat !"
"At another place where Mr. Wilson worked, his hostess served the same pie day after day for dessert. Her pie was never cut, and so the hired men passed the pie around the table from man to man without ever eating any. This went on
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