USA > Vermont > Caledonia County > St Johnsbury > The town of St. Johnsbury, Vt. ; a review of one hundred twenty-five years to the anniversary pageant 1912 > Part 27
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The management of the Home is committed to the board of Lady Visitors, usually twelve in number, representing different parishes; who appoint the Matron and supervise all matters of detail. They have also originated many devices for replenishing the treasury ; the literary course in Athenæum Hall, the Mer- chants' Carnival, the Mclaughlin ball games, food sales and festi-
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vals. By an act of Legislature in 1898, the alternate name and legal title of SUNSET HOME was granted to the institution; this felicitous designation was suggested by Miss Welthea Glines, a woman of bright intelligence and culture whose last days were happily spent in the Home.
ST. JOHNSBURY HOSPITAL 1895
Though the need of a hospital had long been agitated by physicians and others, our town was indebted to Rev. Father Boissonnault for the first actual accomplishment in this direction. With this in view he purchased the Dr. Perkins property, con- verted the buildings into a temporary housing for the sick; then moved it off and laid the foundation for the St. Johnsbury Hos- pital, the corner stone of which was laid Sunday, May 5, 1895. Two thousand spectators were present, among them four hundred children with banners, flags and emblems. There were addresses in French and English, and gifts amounting to $400 were taken on the spot. The work of construction was pushed to completion during the summer and fall; the building, a graceful structure of brick, stood forty by sixty feet on the ground, with capacity for fifteen patients, afterward increased to twenty-one. Its cost was $10,000.
On Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1895, the Sisters of Providence, from Montreal, took possession, and the formal open- ing was held. There were at that time no suitable furnishments ; young women of the parish brought in articles from their homes and fitted up a number of rooms for the occasion to give some idea of what would be needed. Cake and coffee were served gratuitously, and generous contributions were made by visitors, increased by very considerable gifts made later. The efforts made to establish this institution were fully justified by the pat- ronage it has ever since received. As time went on valuable ad- ditions were secured to the equipment, especially to the operating room and its adjuncts. The Sisters in charge, 1912, were nine in number, and with them six regular nurses; Sister John of Cal- vary being Supervisor. One of the well remembered incidents at the dedication of the new Brightlook Hospital in 1908, was the
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graceful message of good wishes from the Sisters of St. Johns- bury Hospital, which was cordially reciprocated.
BRIGHTLOOK HOSPITAL 1899
Twenty-three citizens, of whom fourteen were resident physi- cians, formed in January 1899, an Association to found, maintain and operate a Hospital in St. Johnsbury. The corporate name adopted was Brightlook. There was no money in sight, nor as yet any well defined plan, but a good deal of determination. In response to appeals setting forth the proposition, funds were raised by popular subscription, sufficient to make a beginning. The brick building that was formerly the executive mansion of Gov. Erastus Fairbanks was offered for temporary use on a favor- able lease; the offer was accepted, necessary alterations made, and furnishments secured. On a pleasant evening in June a thousand people assembled on the lawn under electric lights and flags for the dedicatory exercises. At this time it appeared that about $1400 had been contributed for equipments, and $1000 was being raised for maintenance the first year. The beginnings were hopeful under the inspiring leadership of Rev. Dr. Heath ; time and experience however proved that the location was unfa- vorable, the building inadequate, and funds for continuing the enterprise there not obtainable. A crisis was arrived at in Jan- uary 1905, when a deficit of $700 blocked further continuance.
A citizens' meeting was called at the Museum to determine the sentiment and desire of the people. The situation being ex- plained the deficit was immediately wiped out, and steps taken for a forward movement.
Then came from a woman a gift of $5000 for a new build- ing, on condition that $10,000 additional be raised on or be- fore January 1908. Already a nest-egg of one dollar for a new Hospital-building-fund had been deposited by a woman in Pas- sumpsic Savings Bank, followed up by her personal trips around the County to secure funds and friends for the project. This original one dollar had increased to one hundred and fifty, and the $5000 promised, in due time had the required $10,000 added to it. The old Reservoir Hill was then purchased and the noble building
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known as the New Brightlook, begun in 1907, was completed and dedicated March 14, 1908, throngs of interested spectators filling the corridors and stairways. Addresses were made by Frank H. Brooks, the President, by Dr. Gile of Hanover, Lieut. Gov. Prouty, Dr. E. H. Ross, Alexander Dunnett ; a statement from the Hos- pital Aid Association was made by the President, Mrs. Rebecca P. Fairbanks ; a reminiscence in verse by Mrs. Dr. Brooks. It ap- peared that $25,000 had been expended on this new plant, and two years later the total expenditure for construction and approved equipment had reached $35,051.90. At the shore dinner given by the Doctors on the Fair Ground October 1, 1909, an offer of $5000 from an adjoining town, started a vigorous canvass for the bal- ance needed to extinguish the existing debt of $8,500. This was quickly secured and the burden lifted.
The Hospital Aid Association was organized with sixty-five women in July 1899; the membership in later years rose to near- ly 300. This was from the first an important factor in the growth and success of the Hospital, not only rendering aid in many mis- cellaneous ways, but during the first ten years providing in money and equipment $7200; on the tenth year $1010 was passed into the treasury. The rooms of Brightlook were all furnished by in- dividuals or by societies ; the tall clock on the stair landing commemorates the name of Dr. Selim Newell, widely known in his day as one of the most eminent physicians of this region.
The Training School for Nurses gives a two year course for young women in anatomy, physiology, hygiene, massage, medi- cal and surgical dressing. The lecturers are our resident physi- cians and surgeons, whose services in this department are gratuitous ; a large number of nurses, well equipped and com- petent, have been graduated. During the year 1912 there were 447 patients treated; 324 of these were surgical cases ; an average number per day was twenty ; six nurses were graduated and four- teen remained in training.
Foundations for a large building to be used for a nurse's home with a central heating and power plant in the basement, were laid in 1912, toward which special gifts and bequests of $9240 were appropriated. This building, completed at a cost of
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$33,000 was dedicated March 14, 1914 ; by vote of the trustees it was that day named, from the principal donor-the Rebecca P. Fairbanks Home for Nurses. The total amount of gifts to the Brightlook buildings and equipments, is not far from $80,000.
THE DISTRICT NURSE
"And, with light in her looks, she entered the chambers of sickness."
Impressed with the importance of providing relief for needy families in times of sickness, the Woman's Club in 1905 appropri- ated $86 for the employment of a District Nurse. Her duties were to visit and render professional assistance to those who were most in need, irrespective of religious or other affiliations. The results were so gratifying and so much appreciated that this ar- rangement has been regularly continued by the Woman's Club and at the March meeting of 1911, the voters of the town signified their approval by an appropriation of $300, which has been renewed each succeeding year. This money is paid to the treasurer of the Woman's Club and administered by the Social Science Committee of that body. Mrs. Emma P. Houston-Bald- win has served from the beginning in this capacity with evident good will and tactfulness, and incalculable relief has been ren- dered among people in sickness and distress.
XXVI
MUSICAL
"As sweet and musical as bright Apollo's lute"
STORY OF THE BELLS-THIRTEEN CHURCH BELLS-MUSIC AND MUSICIANS-ORGAN BUILDING-A COPPER ON THE VIOL- FAMOUS CHOIR-THE CHORAL UNION-MUSICAL FESTIVALS- PUBLIC HALLS.
BELLS
"How soft the music of those evening bells"
"Bells have been sadly neglected by antiquarians." Haweis.
"There seems to be something satisfying to the soul in the sound of a Bell; it is a good ear-filling sound that is always dear to man."
"There is no Musick play'd or sung Is like good Belles if well Rung."
Forty-six years passed before the ear-filling sound of a bell was heard in this town. On the 14th of November, 1833, the pioneer bell was hung in the tower of the Meeting House on the Plain. Some letters of that period have been found which give entertaining particulars of the Bell Fair held at the tavern to raise funds for its purchase as recorded on page 210. About $127 were taken at this Fair, which amount was increased the next day to $200 and five days later an order for the bell was sent to Boston.
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It required ten days or more for the slow-going teams to get it here, and when at last they pulled it up Lord's Hill at the south end of the Plain, it was Sunday ! This was held by some to be an untoward circumstance, condoned however it may be, by the fact that the bell hereafter might make up for past irregularities by faithfully sounding the call to public worship.
It was carefully hoisted into the tower some days later, in the presence of an interested throng of young and old, for this was an event of considerable consequence. Its weight was 800 pounds. George Barney was appointed bell-ringer, and if at any time he didn't care to retain the honor, some of the Fair-women would put their hands to the rope. Disappointment was felt at Fair- banks Village that the stroke of the bell could not be heard in that low lying hamlet. After some further manipulation however the sound was gotten down there, but 'twas said that what they heard was not the direct report from the bell, but the echo reflect- ed back from Crow Hill.
The bell was promptly set at work, and had busy times during the first years. There were four stated bell-ringings each day ; the first announced the arrival of 6 o'clock in the morning, the second 9 o'clock, the third 12 o'clock, the fourth 9 o'clock evening. The occurrence of a death in the community was made known by "the passing bell;" thrice three strokes for a man, twice three strokes for a woman, three strokes for a child. This usage with the tolling at the burial, continued till after the middle of the century ; revived once in 1886, when the patriarch of the village, Sir Thaddeus Fairbanks, was borne past the South Church.
That first bell hung in its tower doing good service till 1847, when the meeting house under it was moved down the street to the old burial ground, to make way for a new building; the same that afterward was converted into Music Hall. At that time the bell was given to the Methodist Church in North Concord, where it continued ringing till its career as a bell was terminated in a striking manner while proclaiming the news of Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Its jubilant peals on that occasion proved too much for its metal, and thereafter it hung a disabled bell on its pivots
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till July 1896, when it was purchased by C. H. Horton for the Fairbanks foundry, and there converted into scale beams. In its original bell estate it summoned men to the place where stand- ards of just dealing were rigidly insisted on; now in its wider . world parish it holds men to the same standards set to the poise of a St. Johnsbury scale beam.
In 1842 a bell was mounted on the East Village meeting house, which had been built two years before. This bell, paid for by subscriptions amounting to $269.56, was selected by Calvin Morrill in Boston, brought up on horse teams, and hung by David Lee, who won repute thereby as a skillful bell-hanger. In length of activity this appears to be the dean of bells, no other in the town having rung so many years. "The dear old bell," said Mr. Morrill, among his last words, "keep it always ringing."
The vote of the Universalist Society in 1837 to build a meet- ing house at the Center Village, included the specification of "a belfry sufficient to carry a bell of the heft of 1000 1bs." The house was erected the following year, and it seems probable that the belfry aforesaid received its bell in 1843, for in January, 1844, Jonas Flint and Thomas Pierce were appointed "a committee to see to the ringing of the bell." This bell continued ringing for . 33 years, till the conflagration of 1876 put an end to its career.
Fifty one years after the raising of the Old Meeting House on the hill, and nine years after its re-erection on its present founda- tion in the Center Village, the people of the Congregational Church procured the bell which has now been ringing 57 years from its tower. It was hung in the summer of 1855 and such was the interest in the occasion that the village school was allowed an intermission for the privilege of seeing the bell lifted to its place. It is now the only church bell in the Center Village.
When the second North Church building was erected in 1847, a new bell was installed. Its weight was 2500 1bs., and the key was F. For some reason the ringing of this bell used to shake the steeple unreasonably ; moreover within five years a crack ap- peared on the rim which did not improve its resonance. In due
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time it went the way of a certain old bell in Britain of which the story says
"This Belle was broake and cast againe."
For in 1852 the South Church being then in process of erec- tion, it was determined to divide the bell, now that the congrega- tion had been divided. Accordingly it was sent to the Meneeley foundry and enough more metal added to make two new bells. One of these twin bells, 1500 lbs. weight, Key of G, was mounted in the South Church belfry where it still rings the stated appoint- ments and also tolls the hours on the village clock, which was installed in 1853. The other twin bell, 1300 1bs., Key of A, re- mained on the North Church till its conversion into Music Hall twenty-nine years later.
In September 1874, a bell was placed on the Methodist Church. Its weight was 1400 1bs., Key of E; the cost was met by a gen- eral subscription. This bell would have been satisfactory had it been the only one on the Plain. But it was constitutionally un- fitted to agree well with its neighbors. In April 1875, it was exchanged for a bell that would harmonize better with the tones of other bells which were ringing around it. "This exchange was effected by the efforts of a well known citizen who undoubt- edly shouldered the principal expense; and the result now is an audible token of the harmony prevailing among the churches of the village." The cost of this bell was $900 of which one hun- dred dollars was paid by the Village Trustees for the right of attaching to it the fire alarm. This bell is on the Key of F and weighs 2100 1bs.
In May 1876, Col. F. Fletcher presented a bell of 1000 lbs. weight to the Advent Church in Paddock Village.
On Sunday, July 2, 1876, three new bells were consecrated for the Church of Notre Dame. The service pertaining to that ceremony was chanted by the choir, after the bells had been wash- ed with water, anointed with oil, and perfumed with incense. The pastor, Rev. J. A. Boissonnault, was master of ceremonies. Bell No. 1, inscribed Notre Dame des Victories, was presented by the congregation. No. 2, inscribed Johannes Antonius, was given
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by Pastor Boissonnault. No. 3, inscribed Georgius W. (Washing- ton) was the gift of some "American friends," non-Catholic citi- zens. This was the first Catholic cluster of three bells in the State.
When the new stone edifice of the North Church was com- pleted in 1880, a bell of 3004 lbs. weight, Key of E flat, was mounted October 14 in the high Gothic tower. This bell was the gift of two of the members of the church; it is the heaviest church bell in northeastern Vermont; it bears the incription
"Unto you, O men, I call ; And my voice is To the sons of men"
a voice of deep and mellow tones, "ear-filling, satisfying to the soul."
At the present time there are seven bells in the village and nine in the town that regularly ring from the church belfries. The lines that follow are anonymous.
ST. JOHNSBURY SABBATH BELLS
How grandly the big bells open their throats,
On the blessed Sunday morning,
From Our Lady's tower the Angelus floats
To welcome the early dawning.
Then the North bell shouts "Praise,"
And the South replies "Peace,"
While the Wesleyan sings "Pardon." Oh ! Bells ! keep up your holy conversation, Some listening ear may gather inspiration.
St. Johnsbury, July 11, 1909
The Academy bell was hung in the fall of 1872 ; a special salute was given it by David J. Foster, afterward Congressman, in his Latin Salutatory, June 23, 1876. This marked the final stage of progress from the old dinner bell that Principal Colby used to shake at the open window in the early years of the Academy.
There are bells on the public schoolhouses of East, Center and Paddock villages, Goss Hollow and the Summer street building ; also on St. Gabriel's, the parochial school for boys.
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In September, 1895, the Village Trustees, with concurrence of the County Judges, placed the heavy fire alarm bell in the tower of the Court House.
The old bell that used to ring the men to their work in the Scale Factory, from six to six o'clock, long since gave way to the steam gong; it is sitting restfully now in the Museum, which building stands on the spot where bell-ringer Armington lived in the days when he used to pull the rope on it.
MUSIC AND MUSICIANS
"And Jubal was the father of all such as handle the harp and the organ."
Coming down from days before the flood to early times in our own town, it may be said that Ephraim Paddock was the father and promoter of music in this community. He was profi- cient with stringed instruments, and only six years after Jonas Chickering had made the first piano in America one of his pianos was installed in the Paddock Mansion; this instrument has sur- vived and is now owned by A. L. Bailey; a letter of instructions in Mr. Chickering's handwriting is also in the possession of Mrs. Emma Paddock Taylor. Charlotte Paddock, daughter of the Judge, and John H. Paddock his nephew, were highly accomplish- ed musicians ; the latter was the first and for many years the only organist in the town; also
"Full well the far-off echoes knew his bugle notes"
indeed no instrument could have escaped the witchery of his touch, whether it were "cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery and dulcimer" or any other. In a small room over what is now the Bundy store, John Paddock and T. J. Park in 1841 constructed an organ which was set up and used in the old meeting house till the new house was built six years later, after which it went to Lyndon; they also made an organ for the Old Brick Bethany Church in Montpelier.
The mother of John H. Paddock was Orris Fuller, also of a musical family. Gratton and Joseph Fuller were the original in- ventors of the screw head for bass viols. "I set myself to think-
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ing," said Gratton "how to improve the old peghead. I put a copper cent on the viol and imagined that to be a cog-wheel such as were in the old wooden clock reels. My brother Joseph made a pattern for the screw and turned it out down at the Paddock iron works, then we adjusted it to the viol, and found it a great im- provement." That viol was bought years afterward by Henry Lee and is preserved as a historic relic.
There was a famous choir that filled the gallery of the old meeting house of 1827 ; it included Levi Fuller and the Paddocks, T. J. Park, Selim Frost, Francis Bingham, George and Horace Fairbanks, H. K. Flint, John Barney, Maria Barney, Mrs. Curtis, Helen Martin, Jane Martin, Julia Fairbanks, Eliza Bingham, Sarah Jewett, and many more whose family names were long familiar in the town. The instruments in use before the organ came, were bass viol, cornet or clarionet, and the spectacle of so large a chorus spread along the west gallery was impressive to one coming in at the east door ; old fashioned turkey red curtains were strung on wires across the front.
At a later period Charles Martin, C. H. Clarke, S. A. Ellis, W. H. Herrick were music leaders ; the latter was both choir mas- ter and leader of the cornet band, and was in the regimental band of the Third Vermont. Mr. Clarke with John H. Paddock and John O. Worcester established the St. Johnsbury Academy of Music, where for some years opportunity was given for instruc- tion in music of the very highest order; this continued till the outbreak of the Civil War when Mr. Clarke entered the cavalry service as bugler and lost his life in Virginia. Alexander Thomp- son organized the Mechanics Musical Association in 1854; the same year a popular musical convention was held by Lowell Mason in the South Church; others were held in later years by B. F. Baker, C. W. Wyman and Geo. F. Root. Special attention was paid to the cultivation of congregational singing, and awak- ening interest in music among the young ; audiences of 1000 peo- ple were at these conventions.
Boston and other cities have drawn away some of St. Johns- bury's sweetest singers : Mrs. Jennie Ide Turner, Mrs. Homer Sawyer, Mrs. S. A. Ellis, Mrs. Annie Glines Porter, Mrs. Lizzie
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Curtis Chandler, more recently Mrs. Emma Shufelt Moore. Dr. George R. Clark of Boston, basso, was one of our well known singers ; others were A. O. Baker, David Morrison, N. P. Dodge, H. C. Kinney, N. P. Lovering, J. H. Humphrey, the Atwood brothers ; also Harry H. May, eighteen years musical director in the South Church and more than a quarter of a century conductor of singing schools. The Mahogany Quartette, formed in 1888, was justly famous in this and other towns for some fifteen years, W. C. Tyler, P. F. Hazen, E. A. Silsby, F. H. Brooks. A con- temporary that won much favor was the Cecilian Quartette- Misses Ellen Ely, Mabel Goodwin, Ida Penniman, Edith Hovey.
In 1878 was organized The Choral Union with a main design of providing annual musical conventions of a high order. The first one, held in the spring of that year, was conducted by Dr. Carl Zerrahn of Boston, with Mrs. Martha Dana Shepard accom- panist. The Town Hall was packed to overflowing during the sessions and great interest awakened. This was the first of a series of Choral Festivals of two or three days each, held inter- mittently for more than twenty years, which filled the Town Hall and Music Hall with enthusiastic audiences. At times the chorus numbered more than 200, and oratorios like the Elijah and the Creation were rendered with distinction, For some years Mrs. Shepard presided at the piano, and later our home born pianists, B. Frank Harris and Miss Margaret Gorham; solo parts were taken by singers of note from Boston or New York. On these occasions our community became familiar with the music of such masters as Mendelssohn, Hadyn, Handel, Mozart, Gounod, Sulli- van, Schubert, Rossini, Donizetti and others, under the leadership of accomplished directors like Zerrahn and Blaisdell. The capa- bilities of home talent, so called, were successfully demonstrated in the rendering of the Cantata Esther by 40 voices, W. H. Her- rick, director, 1883; also the Pirates of Penzance, 1886, and H. M. S. Pinafore in 1890.
There has rarely been a time when this town has not had a good instrumental band. In 1830 it was the Brass Band; in 1838 it was the St. Johnsbury Band; in 1855 it was the Serenade Band; in 1859 it was the Cornet Band ; in intermediate years it
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has been variously named as well as manned ; and in 1912, by the union of the St. Johnsbury and the Harmony, it became the Con- solidated Band of St. Johnsbury and was paid $1000 a year by the village, for services on public occasions and the series of summer evening concerts given from the out-door band stands.
PUBLIC HALLS
The south room of Dr. Arnold's house was the first place used for gatherings of any sort in the town. For seventeen years all town meetings were held in dwelling houses, barns or taverns. The old Meeting and Town House on the hill, erected in 1804, provided a more suitable place for political and patriotic as well as religious assemblies for the next twenty-five years. In 1827 the Meeting House on the Plain was built and much use was made of it for lectures and public addresses. After 1844, the old Academy was available for similar purposes to some extent. Singing schools, which were an important feature of the winter evenings, were usually conducted in the schoolhouses; fairs and festivals were gotten up in the tavern halls, the principal use of which was for dances.
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