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 33
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TOBOGGANING
In the early winter of 1886, the town was struck by a tobog- gan craze from Canada. Visitors to the winter sports carnival at Montreal brought back such enthusiasm for these out-door di- versions that a Toboggan Club was formed with stock of $200, afterward increased to $300 at $5 a share. In January, 1887, a chute was erected, the base resting on Mt. Pleasant street, the track running westerly between the buildings of Main and Sum- mer streets. The chute was 40 feet high, 100 feet long, "stand- ing on the only level spot in a town made up of hills." It was for- mally opened February 1, and frequented thereafter day and even- ing, by throngs of sliders, many of them in picturesque toboggan suits. Tickets for the season were $1.50. After two seasons of tobogganing the structure was taken down, and not re-erected.
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Every now and then one will see in the homes a superannuated toboggan fitted up as a book case.
At one of the Y. M. C. A. functions the following lines by James Ritchie were read :-
"Toboggan slides as we all know Are only built when there's plenty of snow ; Some are made by kind Nature's hand, But ours is built on Carpenter's land.
It stands erected forty feet high, Down which the tobogganists swiftly fly ! Some with suits of blue and gold,
Others whose suits are rusty and old.
To slide on a toboggan-O what fun ! Come, let's get on, both old and young ; In behalf of the members I wish to extend A cordial invitation to all to attend ; It's the latest popular amusement of the day And surely ought to be liked by the Y. M. C. A,"
SNOW SHOEING
It was not till about 1900 that snow shoes began to be seen here very much. Interest in this winter exercise began quietly, but it had the steady increase which it merited and became widely popu- lar ; clubs were formed and long evening tramps were taken over fields and fences, hills and forests, winding up with very substan- tial refreshments about the midnight hour. At the present time there are many hundreds of snow shoers traversing the winter hillsides and valleys ; during one season a local dealer sold 117 pairs. An occasional tramper may be seen pursuing his solitary way on the more elongated foot gear of the ski.
FIELD SPORTS
ARCHERY "He could shoot ten arrows upward, Shoot them with such strength and swiftness That the tenth had left the bow-string Ere the first to earth had fallen."
It is not recorded that the experts of the Robin Hood and the Idlewild Archery Clubs ever out-did Hiawatha in bow and arrow
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work. But they successfully practiced the art of archery on the lawns and open places during the later seventies, and no reason is given why so graceful a pastime under names so romantic should have suffered a decline. Archery as a serious matter was set forth entertainingly at the Pageant when the arrows of the Indians after felling the moose were trained on the rangers led by Scouts Nash and Stark.
ATHLETICS. The old-time wrestling matches were left far in the background by the more varied feats of strength and skill which held the field in later years. These were not however upon the village streets but down on the Fair Grounds. For several years a regular feature of the annual Odd Fellow functions was the athletic tournament held there. All the regular out-door stunts were adroitly done with accompanying applause from en- thusiastic crowds of spectators.
BALL GAMES. As to location the Academy Campus is not right in the center of things, but when a ball game is on, it is the center of attraction for hundreds of people. The sheltered seats of the balcony and the open ones of the bleachers are filled by those who have safely crossed the railroad track and made entries with ticket ; the dry bridge and slopes adjoining offer advantage- ous standing ground for a fringe of satisfied spectators whose ap- parent investment in the game is not very large. Among them however quite likely are some who, with other citizens, have con- tributed generously to the up-keep and suitable condition of the Campus. For on this meadow are played most of the games of the village clubs as well as those of the Academy and of clubs that come in from other towns to contest for championships.
GOLF AND TENNIS. In 1899 the high pasture lands north- west of the Plain belonging to Underclyffe, including about twenty acres, were set apart and converted into golf grounds. No better spot could have been found for the purpose, being readily accessible and sufficiently uneven in surface to give scope for either easy or difficult playing, and commanding fine views of the village and its environment. The links were laid out by Alex H. Findley of Boston ; he was born and bred to the game, as it were, in Scotland, and was accounted the champion golf player of the
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world. He laid a course of nine holes ranging from 100 to 260 feet apart, and remarked that this was one of the finest golf grounds in the country, combining so many hazards with long drives up and down the hillside.
Golf at once became the most popular of all field sports, the links were thronged with eager and expert players. At the south- west corner of the grounds, adjoining the Club House, a tennis court was constructed, and thereafter a tennis club was formed. Here annual tournaments have been held, sometimes for the championship of Vermont or of New England; occasionally among participants in these field sports have been seen accom- plished players from distant states of the Union.
The Old Pine Golf Club taking its name from the patriarchal pine at the summit of the grounds, was organized September 1899 ; after fourteen years of vigorous activities and accomplish- ments its scope was broadened and the name adopted was the Old Pine Country Club. The grounds were ornamented in 1902 with an attractive Club House of 16 by 30 feet dimensions with broad verandas; a popular resort for unconventional social events and accompanying festivities.
CHIMNEY AND WHEEL
Asa Lee made the first brick in this town during the summer of 1791. The centennial of that event was commemorated, tho without intention, in the summer of 1891, when 192,000 brick were built into the new chimney of the scale works. This carried brick higher up in the air than any other structure in the state at that time, namely 151 feet from the rock [bed. Standing as it does on a low level its dimensions are not readily estimated. The diameter is 13 feet ; the circular wall 38 inches thick encloses a 67/2 inch flue. The last brick was laid on the Fourth of July, and as part of the ceremony the head of J. Allen Dexter, master mason, was decorated with a high silk hat.
This chimney was put up to serve the new engine, the fifth in succession of steam engines at the factory. The first one, in- stalled during the early thirties was an eight-horse-power engine ; this was replaced by a second, and that by a third of larger di-
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mensions. In 1880, the fourth, which was a 250 horse-power engine began its work and ran the machinery for 21 years, till in 1891 a double compound condensing engine 500 horse-power was installed, having four steel boilers 17 feet in length, and a weight of 80,000 1bs. The fly wheel is 24 feet diameter with a 42 inch face. The belt, 1200 pounds weight and 36 inches wide, travels about a mile a minute.
The fly wheel of the old engine, 16 feet diameter, has been attached to the main shaft as a driving pulley. It makes 100 rev- olutions a minute to 67 revolutions of the big wheel. The ques- tion was put out how many miles did that old sixteen-foot wheel travel during the 21 years of its going, reckoning ten hours a day, 300 days a year? The solution was worked out by two school girls of ten and thirteen years of age :-
16 feet diameter x by 3.1416 equals 50.2656 feet, circumference of wheel. 10 years x by 60 x 60 equals 36,000 seconds; also number of revolutions in one day.
36,000 seconds x 300 equals 10,800,000 seconds ; also no. of revolutions in one year.
10,800,000 x 21 equals 226,800,000 seconds and revolutions in 21 years.
226,800,000 x 50.2656 equals 11,400,238,080 feet.
11,400,238,080 divided by 5280 feet in a mile equals 2,159,136 miles trav- eled in 21 years.
MYSTERY OF THE COIN
Treasure-trove would be the last thing to look for in a place so barren as this is of anything out of the ordinary. Yet once in a while the spade has yielded something more than a hole in the ground.
Some thirty-six years ago men were digging foundations for a new locomotive round-house. A shovel full of gravel came up in which Alanson Burt caught sight of a small round thing which did not look to him like a pebble. He picked it up, rubbed it clean, and found it was a coin, which however would not classify with specie then in current circulation. An expert in numismatics presently identified it as a votive Roman coin of the fourth cen- tury, bearing the image and superscription of the Emperor Con- stantine.
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This answered the what, but not the how. How came this antique coin down here, buried six feet deep in a Vermont gravel bed ? a place presumably never before pricked by the point of a spade. This was not the site of a military camp of either Romans, Gauls or Visigoths. Neither Iroquois nor Algonquin aborigines carried Roman coin in their wampum belts. The early scouts and pioneers were not making coin collections other than shillings and pence. Shall we entertain the conjecture then that the coin of Constantine was buried here by some one contriving a wonder-find like the Cardiff giant ? The mystery is no nearer so- lution now than on the day that Alanson Burt interrogated Charles H. Horton and left the coin with him for safe keeping.
That same year interrogations arose over another buried coin discovered in that vicinity. This was a Spanish silver dollar thrown up in the process of digging a post hole on the neighbor- ing island in Passumpsic river. It bore the date of 1728. And how did it ever find its way into the bosom of Upper Grape Island ? Had it been found half a mile farther up the stream we would credit it to Stephen Nash who camped there for a night when scouting for Indians in 1755. Thirty-five years later Jona- than Arnold made his way up this river in a dug-out, and may have moored at this island, may have camped over night here, may have accidentally dropped a silver dollar here, which the floods of a century may have buried under four feet of river sand. On the other hand the Doctor may not have had a Spanish dollar to leave on that island ; most of his funds at that time were in de- preciated continental currency. What may have been, is, up to this date, the only answer to the mystery of our buried coins.
VILLAGE RHYMES OF OLD TIMES
THE BOOT AND SHOE MAN, 1830
"Blow, O blow ! ye gentle breezes! All among the leaves and treeses! Sing, O sing! ye heavenly muses And I will mend your boots and shoeses."
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J. M. HILL, FASHIONABLE TAILOR, 1849
"Four doors north of the South Bridge, St. Johnsbury Centre Invites the gents both great and small Of every name to make a call. He with ready goose and shears Has proved his skill for many years And in the mastery of his art Has ever cut a noble part. And if you wish a short delay He'll always wait awhile for pay ; And what was nature's oversight In form or make, he'll set right."
(Fashions Received Quarterly)
THE OLD VILLAGE PUMP, 1851
"Walking in darkness last night I ran k'-thump Against the handle of the old village pump That stands round the corner of Gilson's new building. The pump didn't fall, but that is no matter ; I found myself flat as a pancake or flatter. Since then a question has been propounded, A question on law and on justice founded ; To our city fathers I wish to show it ; Which was out of its place-the pump or the poet?
Now a pump that won't pump when it stands in the highway Might be easily moved in some roguish or sly way ;
But that would not meet with an honest approval, So if the pump's out of place and not the poet Let our city fathers speedily show it By openly voting a public removal."
Note. The old pump was removed.
SIGN CARRIED OFF, 1853
"The ancient sign of the Old Daguerreen No more over E. Hall's store may be seen ; For some rascally rogues the other night Took it down and carried it out of sight.
Perhaps it was done from spite or from spleen, Or perhaps to plague the Old Daguerreen ; But the Old Daguerreen he'll pocket the wrong And laugh at the rogues this time in his song.
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Their labor of love it was all in vain, For the Old Daguerreen still works on the Plain ; And the people will come as they came before To the Daguerreen's rooms over E. Hall's Store.
And the crowds that come in and the crowds that go out Tell the world what the Old Daguerreen is about ; And the pictures he takes they will plainly attest That the Old Daguerreen is ahead of the rest." F. B. GAGE.
GOOD BYE : ST. JOHNSBURY, 1856
1. "Fare thee well, sweet village- I must hence away ; Sterner duties call me, Haste I to obey.
2. But, sweet mountain village, I would linger still- Linger by the brooklet, Linger on the hill.
3. Sad of heart I leave thee, Leave the hallowed spot, With the mountains swelling Round my father's cot.
4. With the mists of morning, Creeping up thy hills ; With the gladsome music Of thy laughing rills.
5. Fare thee well, sweet village, Mountains, dells and rills ; Farewell, but ne'er forgotten, The vill among the hills." F. L.
4
ERASTUS FAIRBANKS
THADDEUS FAIRBANKS
JOSEPH PADDOCK FAIRBANKS
HORACE FAIRBANKS
FRANKLIN FAIRBANKS
XXXI
THE PLATFORM SCALE
"Then the inquiring mind of a man was led on from one device to an- other; along imaginary queer-shaped levers, over knife-edges, up perpen- dicular rods, amongst poises and beams and loops ; till at length, gradually outlining itself through the obscurity came the combination of levers that makes the platform scale of today." The Wrought Brim
"Jonathun ffayerbancke" of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, migrated to Massachusetts in 1633, and built in Dedham the now quaint and famous structure known as the Old Fairbanks House, of which his descendants in America are the present owners and custodians. In the sixth generation from Jonathan was Major Joseph Fairbanks of Brimfield, who came to St. Johns- bury in the spring of 1815, and set up a grist and saw mill on Sleepers River. His sons having a practical and mechanical turn of mind, employed themselves in a small wheelwright and foun- dry business, which in time developed into a manufactory of hoes, pitchforks, cast-iron plows and stoves.
In 1830, having gained a reputation for skill and reliability, they were awarded a contract for making hemp-dressing machines, required by a new industry then springing up. This presently ne- cessitated some means of weighing rough hemp by wagon loads. A rude apparatus was therefore contrived by Thaddeus Fairbanks, second son of Joseph, by which chains dropping from a steelyard beam suspended on a high frame could grapple the wheel axles, lift the load and get its weight approximately. This arrangement answered the purpose fairly well, but it was too awkward and in- efficient to suit the mind of the man ; he thought something better
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might be devised, and while exercising his ingenuity upon it, he caught the idea, wholly novel to him, of a platform resting on levers, which embodied the principle of what is now known as the platform scale. Indeed, though not suspected, a new age had dawned. The ancient reign of Astræa was disturbed, the steel- yard of old Rome was taking its departure. The new scale was at hand, getting ready to lift the loaded train from the track as a very little thing ; to bear on its platform the light or ponderous traffic of the world.
In making the first scale a pit was dug in which was placed a triangular lever, suspended at its point from a steelyard beam ; on this was balanced a platform level with the ground, held in position by chains attached to posts. A team could then be driven on and the weight determined. This was a clumsy affair, but for practical use it was so much better than anything then existing, that a patent was applied for. Some machines were made and an agent was engaged to try and sell them. "He was to take the stage at three o'clock in the morning, and Mr. Fairbanks sat up to call him and to start a fire for breakfast. He was think- ing how to build and improve his scales, when it occurred to him that with two A-shaped levers, or four straight levers meeting at. the steelyard rod, or hanging from one that hung upon the steel- yard rod, he could secure four knife-edge supports for his plat- form, from all of which the leverage as related to the steelyard beam might be the same. As a practical weighing machine that was the birth of the modern scale."
"Mr. Fairbanks quietly woke the agent, saying that he need not go for a few days, told his wife there would be no early breakfast to get, as he had a plan that he thought was very val- uable, and rested-from that hour the leading scale-maker of the world." . It is worthy of remark, that as early as 1826 Thaddeus Fairbanks had patented the cast-iron plow, regarded at that time with suspicion by farmers; also the Fairbanks cook stove. He was also the original inventor of the method now universally adopted in construction of refrigerators, but having neither time nor capital to give to this, he relinquished his rights in it, which subsequently were valued at a million dollars. From some notes
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made by him half a century after the first scales were made the following reminiscence is taken :-
"My plans were all made in the night, frequently working nearly all night. For lack of tools the scale work all had to be finished by hand, and this with work on patterns, etc., required all my time during the day in the shops. Faulty work was sure to be sent out unless I was watching all the time ; men had to be educated to do the simplest things ; there was no uni- form machine-work as now; it was 15 years before we had a planer in the shop. In the south end of the old red shop Mr. Levi Fuller and I made the platform scale patterns from number 1 to 10, also in the west end of the grist mill chamber the number one and two iron lever hay scales. Our casting was done in a shed annexed to the old forge; we were still in want of funds but a larger building was finally put up; it devolved on me to put in the cupola and fixtures, blast, etc., and start operations. I moulded and took the melting often ; there was no other way to learn what made the unsound stogy places and air blisters ; in order to teach the men how to make sound castings I had to work several months mixing metals and testing their com- position.
"In making plans for scales I found three things to be considered-the strength of material, the best shape to secure greatest strength with least material, and the beauty and symmetry of outside appearance. To imagine what the tastes and notions of men in reference to the right proportioning and beauty of this then new article would be, was difficult ; but now after the lapse of fifty years our platform scales are made precisely after the orig- inal design, and all other makers follow the same."
The original platform scales of 1830 were built of wood, and were soon introduced as town hay scales among the villages of Vermont. Nothing further than this was at the time contem- plated. But it appeared that the principle was capable of much wider application. New styles and sorts were gradually invented, including at first portable platform, warehouse and counter scales, and later, railroad-track, canal, elevator and live-stock scales ; also postal and druggist balances; comprising many hundred varieties, and ranging from one-tenth of a grain to five hundred tons. One result of the introduction of these weighing machines was an entire change in methods of trade transactions, the old fashion of measure and count giving way to that of weight, + whether of hay, coal, grain, or live stock. It is on record at the United States Patent Office that the track scale has effected a complete revolution in railway transportation.
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A serious difficulty in the early days of scale-making was that of construction. Plans, machinery and scales had to be made by the inventor, till men could be trained to the work. This was done in two or three inadequate shops or sheds. "There were no tools except for half a dozen blacksmiths, and one old wooden bed- lathe, and later, a few vises and anvils found in a Boston junk shop." Neither was there any capital to speak of. As Mr. Fair- banks once remarked, to make everything out of nothing was a difficult task; a task withal that might never have been achieved had not his ingenuity, tenacity and mechanical skill been supple- mented by the remarkable business and executive abilities of his brothers.
In 1834, the three brothers, Erastus, Thaddeus and Joseph P., founded the firm of E. and T. Fairbanks and Co. They were men of strong individuality, serious-minded, plain in habit, pro- foundly conscientious, most happily adapted to each other in the partnership.
Joseph, fifteen years younger than Erastus, had a quick, strong, capacious mind, remarkably well balanced, and made bril- liant attainments in law, business, science, history, literature and practical life in all its phases. In finance, in details of the count- ing-room, in all delicate dealings with men and corporations, his sagacity, alertness of thought and sound judgment won the public confidence and gave steadiness and solid quality to the business. But his intensity of application proved fatal; he died in 1855 at the age of forty-eight, universally beloved for the worth and beauty of his character.
Erastus, the elder brother, was for thirty years, i. e., till his death, the head of the firm. He was a born leader, well trained in the early school of adversity, a man of indomitable purpose,. large views, solidity of personal character and fine presence. He became prominent in public life and a trusted leader in civil af- fairs ; he secured the construction of the Passumpsic River Rail- road of which he was first president ; was made governor of Ver- mont in 1852; again in 1860, when on the breaking out of the civil war the state placed a million of dollars at his disposal, rely- ing entirely on his judgment as to its use-a mark of confidence
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amply justified, for his administration of state was, like that of his private business, energetic, true, firm, successful. He died in 1864, aged seventy-two years.
Thaddeus, entirely averse to public life, gave his undivided work of brains and hand for fifty-five years to the mechanical de- partment of the business, continuously advancing on his original invention, constructing special machinery, devising new applica- tions for which he secured a series of patents, thirty-two in number. He died at the age of ninety in 1886.
With three such men, of different gifts, yet of one mind; of strong character, of tenacious purposes and generous ideals, it is not difficult to account for the fine issue of their joint enterprise. The public soon learned that whatever bore the name of Fairbanks had on it the stamp of reliability. Sternest integrity presided over the business, truth guided its affairs, honor entered into every detail of construction-as befitted an industry that was furnishing the world with standards of weight for business accuracy. From the first, every instrument constructed in these works embodied an ideal ; it was more than a handy contrivance, it was a symbol of equity in trade ; on its delicate pivots were revealed the eter- nal principles of right, precision, equipoise ; qualities for char- acter as well as necessities in traffic. The final touch upon each machine has always been given by the sealer, who, by affixing to it his name and the number, is made responsible for that scale. Rarely has such a thing been known as the return of a scale ; the durability as well as accuracy of material and work appears in the continuous use of the scales made in the earlier years. Scale number thirty, for example, portable platform, made about 1833 and subjected to almost daily use ever since, is still in every day service in the store to which it was originally shipped; this is mentioned as an illustrative case, which recently fell under the eye of the writer.
The matter of accuracy was of course a supreme considera- tion, and from the first has received most scrutinizing attention. Not only must the trip scale for weighing silk be sensitive to the one-hundredth part of an ounce, but the canal scale of hundreds of tons must respond to the fraction of a pound. After the regis-
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tering of the weight of a boat on the weighlock scale at Albany, 1856, the captain stepped on board, at which the beam indicated an addition of one hundred and seventy-five pounds. Being a portly man the captain claimed more than this for himself, and immediately went to a smaller platform scale known for its accu- racy. To his surprise the beam tipped to a fraction on the figures indicated by the 840,000-pound scale. Of this Albany scale, then the largest in the world, one of the New York dailies remarked : "It is a structure of consummate skill, ingenuity and mechanical truth ; continually in use, subjected to most severe tests, doing its work quickly and with scrupulous nicety, settling by its unerring register on the beam all conflicting questions of weight and toll."
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