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 41
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KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS
Apollo Lodge, No. 2, of this order was organized with 48 charter members. It was here that the Grand Lodge of Ver- mont was instituted in 1888. The Pythian Block on Eastern Avenue was erected in 1893 and the hall was dedicated February 27 of the year following. Twelve months and twelve days from that date the building and the records were destroyed by fire in- volving a loss to the owners and occupants of $35,000; it was im- mediately rebuilt. An interesting occasion was the State Con- vention and Field Day of 1899 when 350 visiting Knights were here, public buildings and blocks were decorated, the parade and review on the school common drew many spectators. Not only was St. Johnsbury the birth place of the Grand Lodge but the local uniform rank company was the first in the state and Apollo Lodge the second in order of subordinate lodges. As an as- sembly room for various public purposes the Pythian Hall has probably been more used than any other in the town.
PATRONS OF HUSBANDRY
The national order of this name was perfected in Washing- ton December 4, 1867, under direction of O. H. Kelley of the
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CLUBS AND ORDERS
Bureau of Agriculture, with a view to secure improved conditions among the agriculturists of the country. Jonathan Lawrence, son of David Lawrence, a pioneer who had pitched above Crow Hill in 1790, became interested in the movement and secured authority from Washington to establish granges in Vermont. The immediate result of his commission was the foundation, July 4, 1871, of the Green Mountain Grange, No. 1, in St. Johnsbury. This was literally number one, being the first grange formed in New England. It was organized in the old Armory on Summer street with thirty members ; they signed the articles on a drum head, Volney F. Powers, secretary. After about twenty years this grange was removed to the Center Village and occupied the new Green Mountain Hall. A second grange called the Wide Awake was formed here in 1876, and these two, with four others, in neighboring towns, constitute a group subordinate to the Po- mona Grange. The Vermont State Grange was organized in this town July 4, 1872. The State Grange Lecturer is our townsman, Erastus H. Hallett.
This order has revived the old English word grange, which signified a farming establishment attached to a feudal manor or monastery :-
"The broken sheds look'd sad and strange Upon the lonely moated grange."
Besides the orders above mentioned having longest record and buildings of their own, there are others of more recent date :
Knights of Honor, since 1885-Eureka Lodge 918.
New England Order of Protection, 1892-Green Mt. Lodge, 49 Red Clover Lodge, 540
Catholic Order of Foresters, 1893-St. Johnsbury Court, 300 Sherman Court, 627
Improved Order of Red Men, 1895-Algonquin Tribe, 9 Junior United American Mechanics, 1897-Gen. Logan Council, 22 Order of United Commercial Travelers, 1897-St. J. Council, 230 Knights of Columbus, 1899-Sheridan Council, 421
Modern Woodmen of America, 1901-Asisqua Camp, 8149
XXXVI
THE VILLAGE OF ST. JOHNSBURY
INCORPORATION
Under charter of October, 1852, the corporators met and or- ganized the Village of St. Johnsbury on the fifth of January, 1853, with the following officers : President, L. P. Poland; Clerk, B. O. Stephenson ; Treasurer, Horace Paddock ; Trustees, Asa L. French, J. P. Bancroft, Horace Fairbanks, Wm. D. Weeks, Joseph Boles. At the first Village Meeting after adoption of the by-laws, it was voted to raise $1000 for a new fire engine with fixtures, and to build large reservoirs on the Plain and near the Passump- sic House. The bounds of the village were drawn to include Paddock Village, the Depot, the Plain and Fairbanks Village, and in October, 1853, the streets were re-surveyed, approved and opened for travel as "public streets in the Village of St. Johns- bury."
The Village Corporation was empowered to elect fire war- dens and regulate operations of the fire companies ; to care for the streets, light the same and keep a watch; to provide for planting and preserving shade trees; to regulate markets, gro- ceries and victualing shops ; to restrain cattle, horses, sheep, swine and geese from going at large; to impose fines and levy necessary taxes. Additions to the Act of 1852 were made by the Legislature of 1856, 1859, 1888, 1890, 1896, 1906, relating to mat- ters arising from time to time, such as the appointment of police officers and chief engineer of the fire department; the mainte- nance of aqueducts and reservoirs ; suitable exits from public halls and theatres; the suppression of disorderly and gaming
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ST. JOHNSBURY VILLAGE
houses and nuisances ; the regulation of fast driving, of cruelty to animals, of pedlers and shows, of the use and sale of fire crackers, squibs, toy pistols ; control of parades and crowds on the streets. The first pamphlet containing the Acts and By-Laws was printed at Boston in 1853, the second at Concord 1870, the third at the Republican Press 1893, the fourth with amendments and additions in 1904, the fifth enlarged and revised in 1907.
Seven hundred citizens met February 20, 1907, at the special village meeting to take action on this revision of the By-Laws subject to the Act of 1906. The Town Hall being crowded, ad- journment was made to the armory building on Central street and the 37 Articles discussed and adopted seriatim. This was an im- portant meeting ; it conferred on the Trustees full control of the sale of beverages and the maintenance of good order and quiet in the village.
ANNEXATION OF SUMMERVILLE
The question of extending the boundaries of the Village east- ward occasioned much debate with diverse opinions, on both sides of the river. In March, 1890, a petition for annexation signed by eleven freeholders residing in Summerville was present- ed thro the Village trustees to the Judges of the County Court. This resulted in the appointment of P. K. Gleed of Morrisville, A. B. Carpenter of Waterford, L. W. Hubbard of Lyndon, Com- missioners to conduct negotiations. Preliminary meetings were held with full discussion ; the final vote of Summerville was taken May 17, resulting as follows : 67 voted no, with a grand list of $701.08, and 73 voted yes, with a grand list of 791.93. The Commissioners reported a majority of six votes and $90.85 favor- ing annexation. Their decision was contested on technicalities, but was finally accepted.
At a special meeting held August 29, at the Stanley Opera House, the question was taken up by residents of the Village. The result of balloting showed 147 in favor of the annexation, 144 opposed to it. . It will be noticed that on both sides of the river the vote was a close one ; the opposition was well defined, grounded on reasons that have since lost much of their force. It
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was soon apparent that the result arrived at was for the best interests of the entire community. The population of the Village was increased by about a thousand, and its rank now became third instead of fifth among the Villages of the State.
With the opening of the new century came up the proposition to reorganize from a Village to a City. In December, 1902, a City `Charter was granted by the Legislature, and on January 22, 1903, a meeting was held to take action upon it. The matter was discussed intelligently and ably, seriously and humorously. Be- coming a City seemed to some indicative of municipal progress ; whereat Marshall Montgomery wanted to know if a boy was any bigger for calling him Mister, instead of Bub? The question was decided on what was regarded as its real merits by a majority vote of 170 against city organization.
STREETS AND BUILDINGS
The track opened thro the forest on the Plain in 1787 by Dr. Arnold determined what is now known as Main street. For sixty- three years this was the only street on the Plain. As late as 1810 there were only about a dozen houses on the entire length of the street ; of these Joseph Lord's at the south end was two storied and painted red ; the only other painted house was the Willard Carle- ton tavern, advertised for sale that year in the North Star; this was the Cross bakery building taken down in 1897 to give a site for St. Aloysius Church. Exits northward were the road to Four Cor- ners, and down Sand Hill to the Arnold Falls, thence up the river toward Lyndon. In 1820 the street was dignified by the erection of the Paddock mansion, the first building of brick; and some- while later by Capt. Martin's house of similar style on the other side of the street. In 1830 the tavern stand at the Bend, Abel Rice proprietor, was a popular resort with a well furnished bar ; and a meeting house had recently been built where the stone church now is. In 1840 the street had about thirty houses, no new ones of importance. In 1850 the expansion began; that year Summer street was laid out. Frank Brown built his small house some distance back of the new St. Johnsbury House, and James M. Warner set his gothic cottage at the jumping off place
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STREETS AND BUILDINGS
where the steep descent of Summer street runs down to Fair- banks Village. It is on record that in 1832 Leonard Howard had gone back into the field and put up a house far away from any street; it was more than twenty years before a street got to it; now it is known as the Daniel Carpenter house, 15 Church street. Spring street was laid out in 1856, and the same year a driveway was opened up from Western avenue on to the table land of South Park, where A. P. Blunt was building his new square house on the northwest edge of the bluff, behind which in the field was the Harvlin Paddock house; Park street was not laid out till 1874. Cliff street was opened in 1870; within two years seven houses were put up on Cliff, five on Autumn, four on Church, fifteen on Spring street. By this time most of the avail- able building ground on the Plain was accessible through the new street lines, except Boynton Hill and Highland avenue. In 1872 Underclyffe was built ; in 1884 Brantview. Principal blocks at the business center date as follows : Brown's block, 1850; Union block and hall, 1854; Bank and Post Office block of five sections, 1869, built by E. and T. Fairbanks at cost of $50,000; the plan was drawn for six sections, one of which was taken off to allow fifteen feet additional width at the head of Eastern avenue; the length is now 134 feet on Main street, 60 feet on the Avenue. Passumpsic Savings Bank with the Town Offices, 1885, also during the eighties the Walker, Masonic and Roach blocks com- pleting the row ; Fairbanks block, now the Berry-Ball.
The road to Fairbanks Village along which used to run a plank foot walk, acquired the name Western Avenue when its new neighbor, Eastern Avenue, was built in 1850 ; two years later the Pinehurst residence was built by Horace Fairbanks on the site of the old tannery and slaughter house ; Elmwoode house took its present form in 1878, including in its walls the cottage built by Thaddeus Fairbanks in 1838. Among the village streets so called, are the Belvidere pitch into Western Avenue and the Spruce street pitch into upper Railroad street; people unaccus- tomed to the hill country are wont to be shy of Sand Hill descent into Paddock Village and the winding way exit off South Park.
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
Railroad street was newly opened and ready for business when the trains began to run in 1850, and that summer Eastern Avenue was built across the pastures ; the only building between the Plain and Passumpsic River was the small farm house, old even then, which now sits at the foot of Pearl street, disguised beyond recognition by roof windows and piazzas. Swamps, thickets and stumps held the ground now occupied by the business blocks. A pioneer on the street was the Passumpsic House, later known as the Avenue House ; this and nearly all the earlier buildings on the east side of the street were destroyed by the fires of 1870, 1892, 1906, including the Chamberlin and Fletcher wholesale block just north of the station. The first dwelling house on Railroad street was Amos Morrill's, built in 1850; Sias Randall the same year paid $200 for the Randall block lot. R B. Flint and L. C. Woodbury opened one of the first stores on Railroad street, a grocery store and market; William H. Horton soon had a tailoring business there ; Samuel Jewett, dry goods ; Aaron Farnham, furniture; W. T. Burnham, furs. A new road ran up alongside the railroad track to Paddock Village ; that road thirty years later was widened and elevated into upper Railroad street. This was made possible by the washing away of Bagley Hill by a stream of water from the Village Water Works under supervision of Beauman Butler ; where the old sand bank was, we see the line of well built dwelling houses fronting eastward.
In 1856 it was remarked that a traveler arriving at the upper end of the road from Paddock Village and looking southward, would see stretching a mile down the valley a beautiful street, which might with all propriety be called a village; with stores wholesale and retail, for hardware, dry goods, groceries, clothing, boots and shoes, drugs, paints and oils. At that time the new . bridge across Passumpsic River opened the way to many and de- sirable building lots along the broad fields and raspberry patches between Harris Hill and Moose River. "The New City" which finally developed into Portland street and Summerville was at its beginning ; the prospective growth in that direction made Rail- road street yet more important as a business quarter. Meantime the new city began taking on increasing importance of its own. It
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ST. JOHNSBURY VILLAGE
crept steadily eastward along Portland street and down toward the mouth of Moose River; took Elyville into its capacious em- brace ; climbed up the steep slopes of Harris Hill ; till, standing by itself alone, it ranked among the larger villages north and south, on the line of Passumpsic railroad. Whether by reason of its location or temperament or training or all of these combined, Summerville acquired a notable solidarity and civic consciousness; cared well for its community affairs, and was in no haste for the annexation to Greater St. Johnsbury Village, which came in 1890. The name originated with Capt. Edwin L. Hovey, who was for forty years an enthusiastic promoter of its interests and develop- ment.
Until 1840 nearly all the dwelling houses on the Plain were low-posted cottages, painted white with green blinds, rarely having anything like a porch or piazza, but securely defended from assault by a white picket fence. Quite a number of these old houses still retain a standing, either pushed back into some obscurity or so changed from their former aspect as to defy recognition-see Dr. Cramton's reconstructed cottage, 100 Main street. A sample of the original style, unchanged except as to color and windows pushed out on the roof, sits on the opposite side of the street, second above Maple, where it was planted by Luther Clark a century and more ago; its mate at the head of Clark Avenue built by John Clark about the same time has suffer- ed little from the imposition of alleged improvements and still retains the main features of former time. A variation of the pre- vailing type was brought in by Joseph P. Fairbanks in 1841, whose house fronting the south end of the street, introduced the novel features of a library room, parlor windows brought down to the floor, and a piazza resting on fluted columns ; also somewhile later the novelty of a conservatory for fruit and flower culture. Other similar houses were built soon after ; one was the cottage south of South Hall now quite disguised by red paint and expan- sions ; another was the house built by A. G. Chadwick in 1845 still standing unchanged on the corner of Main and Winter streets; this cottage if not interfered with, has the opportunity of preserv- ing for future generations, a type of village architecture quite admired in its day.
XXXVII
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PARKS AND TREES
"Not only in the city but in our rural villages the spirit of the age de- mands the most approved artisticeffects in the treatment of parks, trees and shrubbery."
ARNOLD PARK What used to be known as "The Green" at the head of Main street was for more than sixty years an open space without trees ; used as the men's ball ground, as the start- ing place for horse races, and for June training, as the rendezvous for public assemblies under a temporary bower or tent, and here was planted the first village band stand. In the spring of 1855 it was enclosed within a fence and trees were set out ; after this it received the name of Arnold Park, being situated front of the old Arnold house; it was part of his original homestead lot made over to the town.
Four hundred loads of dirt were dumped upon this Park for grading in 1891, and residents of the vicinity erected the fountain, the largest and most conspicuous one in the town, the basin being eleven feet and a half in diameter, the vase eleven feet and seven inches above it, surmounted by a bronze figure. The ex- pense of this fountain was $400; it was from the Mott Iron Works, N. Y. In 1898, the fencing was removed, the west end extended, and the street cut thro direct to Boynton Hill. The two oak trees on the north side of Arnold Park were planted there by Lieut. Col. Geo. E. Chamberlin before he went off to the war.
MONUMENT SQUARE : COURT HOUSE GROUNDS. Only those who recall the ragged and unsightly aspect of the old burial yard,
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PARKS AND TREES
can understand the transformation effected by converting that spot into ornamental grounds. Originally the surface jutted out on the north side and went down by a steep pitch into the pasture where Eastern Avenue now runs. The resident of seventy years ago could hardly have imagined a smooth sloping turf, a statue of America, twin cannon and a band stand on the ground then cover- ed with old fashioned grave stones and tangled bushes. This en- closure, after all removals had been made to Mt. Pleasant Ceme- tery, was quit-claimed to the Village Trustees, by William C. Arnold, representing the heirs of Dr. Jonathan Arnold, as a site for the Court House and Town Hall, "the residue of said land to be used as ornamental public grounds." The date of that instru- ment was January 24, 1856; in the spring of 1857, the grading, turfing, and planting of elm trees was completed ; the erection of the soldiers' memorial eleven years later gave added dignity to the grounds, and naturally suggested the name Monument Square. Hundreds of men and women cross it every day; other hundreds leisurely sit on the grassy slope summer evenings ; other hundreds stand fronting the Avenue every time the ponies and camels and elephants of the circus are parading ; other hundreds promenade to the evening music that sounds from the band stand ; other hundreds gather silently around the Monument while honors are paid to the heroes of the war on Memorial Day.
RAMSEY PARK Capt. James Ramsey and Hiram Jones in 1822 owned the mills at Arnold Falls, and also most of the level ground, now covered with buildings in Paddock Village, includ- ing the central square. This last they conveyed to the village for public ground; the square was called Ramsey Park and the road around it Jones street. It remained for a long time an open square used for sports and pleasure ground ; then it was fenced, and in 1891 trees were planted and the fountain set in by the Vil- lage Trustees.
CENTRAL PARK : SCHOOL COMMON The open grounds between Main and Summer streets, fronting the School House were deed- ed to School District No. 1, November 28, 1863, by Charles S. Dana, Esq., for a consideration of $1200, "to have and to hold, etc., on condition that no building be erected on any part of said
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
granted premises; that they be occupied, improved and orna- mented solely and exclusively for a public park and promenade, for public amusements, plays or meetings ; excluding from it cir- cuses, shows, menageries and similar exhibitions which are here- by prohibited." In June 1864, the ground was graded and called Central Park. Its ordinary designation is the school common, and being mainly used for play grounds, the walks and lawns are not as trimly kept as on the other village parks.
SOUTH PARK This tract was deeded as a gift to the Village, April 10, 1877 by the heirs of the estate of Joseph P. Fairbanks ; subject to the conditions that "no buildings shall ever be erected or placed on said described grounds ; that no tents or booths shall be placed on said land for exhibitions, circuses or shows of any kind; that said land shall never be used for ball playing, and that said land shall always be suitably enclosed and cared for as an ornamental Park, by said village." The conditions were ac- cepted; the rail guard that enclosed it from the first, stood until in later years the prevailing usage of doing away with fences and rails in the village led to its removal. The spacious area and level floor of South Park make its well trimmed lawn a noticeable feature among our public grounds.
ACADEMY PARK This little parcel which now belongs to the Academy by deed of Henry Fairbanks, April 16, 1894, was known forty years earlier as South Park. In those days there was no Woman's Club, but sundry women in that part of the Village con- stituted themselves a working body, got paint pots and brushes and with their own hands laid a coat of paint on the enclosing rail, to the great entertainment of the appreciative public. That painted rail disappeared long ago ; now the principal feature is the fountain with boy and dolphin, erected by the Academy class of 1890. Here was the bottomless well of 1829-see page 300.
THE TRIANGLE that pitches from the head of Summer street toward Hastings Hill was taken hold of in the spring of 1903 by the Woman's Club, and fitted with granite curbing at an expense of $100. In the fall of that year the Trustees erected a heavy rail. This was removed in 1912.
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PARKS AND TREES
THE DEPOT PARK is characterized by extreme narrowness and steepness, by the Music Stand, and by the lettering ST. JOHNSBURY, set by the Woman's Club in the turf that slopes toward the incoming trains.
In 1891, there was an expenditure of $1141 on the Village Parks for grading and improvements. The Trustees in 1898 placed settees on South and Arnold Parks, and the Woman's Club provided them the same year for Monument Square.
TREES
"He went up to the tree and put his arm around it, saying, as if some sacred association touched his memory-my dear old friend, how doyou do?"
The first thing to do for our village was to get rid of the trees ; the next was to get in some trees, the next is to thin out the trees. In the summer of 1787 Jonathan Arnold and his five men cleared off the trees from the street ; in the spring of 1841 a posse of men answering a popular call assembled on The Green at the head of the street, with spades and hoes for transplanting trees. No record of their doings is found. On the 24th of April, 1855, the Ornamental Tree Association was formed, with one dollar as the price of membership. A committee was appointed to direct the work; probably it was this Committee that placed the first trees on the Green, now Arnold Park; but already at that time other transplanted trees were making thrifty growth. The row of elms front of the Paddock homestead, were set there for the Judge by Ezra Davidson of Waterford some time before 1830; those on the opposite side of the street front and north of Capt. Martin's, were planted by William C. Arnold a little later.
The first trees known to have been transplanted into the vil- lage were the maples front of the old burial ground, and at inter- vals along the upper end of the street, east side. William A.
Palmer, afterwards Gov. Palmer, brought these maples in from the woods on his back when they were saplings, about the year 1821. In 1850, some twenty of them were standing; the last sur- vivor was wrecked by a storm, 1892, in Major Bowman's yard op- posite Arnold Park; the gavel of the Woman's Club, also of the Seventy Club, was made from wood of this old tree.
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
Fifty years or more after Gov. Palmer's maples were set, Cyrus Sargent began to bring in young elms which he planted on Spring and Cliff streets recently opened. This was the kind of recreation he indulged in mornings and evenings ; others in that neighborhood did the same. In the spring of 1877, the Village Trustees voted to procure a hundred more shade trees ; these must have been for new streets as the congestion of shade was already apparent elsewhere. On the older streets it is only when the leaves are off that the multitude of trees show to best advar- tage either en-masse or as individuals. Then one sees the per- sonality of the fine old elms on upper Main street, or, from the head of Summer street looks down the long line of outspreading tree tops that set their gothic arch against the western hills.
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