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 45
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CANNON The Parrot guns on Monument Square were ob- tained of the War Department by Congressman Grout and pre- sented to the veterans of Chamberlin Post, who raised $100 for setting them properly in position on the strategic point that com- mands our eastern thoroughfare. This was in August, 1899. The guns are thirty-pounders, nine feet long, two tons weight each. The one planted west of the monument is Parrot 126, of the arma- ment of the warship Magnolia. The other is Parrot 107 which sent out salutes to the enemy from the deck of the Kanawah. In August, 1904, Ensign C. S. Thurston of Winchester paid a visit to an old acquaintance of his located the past five years in St. Johnsbury-Parrot Number 107 by name, which he had helped to man in war time. Itwas an interesting reunion, which gave oc- casion for recounting thrilling events in which they had partici- pated in the days when the Merrimac and Monitor were making history.
MERIDIAN POSTS These low peaked granite blocks were set in the Academy lawn by the Class of 1888 to mark the termini of a true meridian line. Their exact position was determined by the observations of S. H. Brackett, instructor in physics. A brass pin is countersunk in the apex of each stone; the needle of the
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FRAGMENTS
compass when placed over the south one should point directly over the other toward the north pole of the earth; its deflection either way will indicate a variation from the true meridian line. Slightly east of this line and near the north flight of granite steps is the round pillar of the sun-dial placed here by Rector F. S. Fisher in memory of his daughter of the Class of 1885. The fountain on the west side of the street was presented to the Acad- emy by the Class of 1890.
STREET AND BRIDGE To the steady old family horse the steam roller of 1889 became an unwelcome intruder demanding right of way on the street, which was promptly and discreetly granted. Its more powerful and noisy successor of 1899 did not mend matters with the horse, but it did more satisfactory mac- adam work, the first trial strip of which had been 100 yards at the half-way point of Eastern avenue. At the present time all the principal streets have macadam surface and the village owns its quarry and crushing plant. Railroad street was concreted ten inches thick in 1891 at a cost of $3500. The next year a petition to change the name of this street to Columbia avenue did not meet with success. In 1850 plank and gravel walks had oblitera- ted most of the old foot paths thro the grass; these in turn gave way some forty years later to the Tilton concrete which every- body appreciated; now even that superior surfacing has lost its good standing since the advent of the granilithic pavement.
In the winter of 1890 the huge snow-roller began to roll and soon drove its predecessor, the peaked snow-plow, from the street. Kelley's village hack, regular pattern, began its trips in August, 1893, and in the summer of 1895 the plague of road dust began to be abated somewhat by the street sprinkler, more effectually in 1914 by the distribution of oil on the main thoroughfares.
The road mileage of St. Johnsbury Village is recorded as 21 miles ; beyond the village limits there are 78 miles, a total of 99 miles for the town. Possibly this is an understatement. In 1889 nineteen new guide posts were planted at the cross-roads. By the provisions of the legislative act of 1907, there was distributed that year to the credit of the village, a rebate from the state of $177.48 and of $473.29 to the town, on highway expenditures.
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
There are fourteen covered bridges and three open ones be- sides an unreported number of smaller ones, a total of bridges above the average in other towns of the state; this agrees with the statement of our first selectmen in 1790 as recorded on page 49. The most important one is the steel bridge connecting Rail- road street and Summerville, built by the Albany Construction Company in 1905, at a cost of $12,000. This bridge of 108 feet span has a twenty-foot driveway and a six-foot side-walk ; it spans the mill-pond which was first created by the old steam mill dam of 1850, replaced in 1900 by a roll-dam 196 feet long con- taining 2000 feet of lumber and 200 cords of stone; cost $6000. The project for a viaduct spanning the entire depression between the Railroad and Portland street levels at a cost of about $50,000, came within one vote of being consummated July 1, 1899; of the 304 ballots cast, 152 were aye, 152 were nay. Alexander Dunnett, the moderator, cast the deciding vote and declared the motion lost. There is no special attention to be paid to the Moose River bridge near the town farm except the curious circumstance that this is one-half of a bridge washed by high water from its moor- ings at the Center Village; Ephraim Stone, who for many years was pontifex maximus of Caledonia County, recovered and recon- structed it on its present abutments ; the other half was similarly. utilized in another part of the town.
OBSERVATORY KNOB The height of land between Passumpsic and Sleeper's rivers known as the Knob commands a clear view of surrounding towns and summits including on the far horizon the peaks of Willoughby and Moosilauke, Lafayette and the en- tire presidential range. A lookout on this point erected in 1887 was destroyed by high winds in October 1894. The next year C. S. Hastings and associates secured subscriptions amounting to $182 for the new Observatory, an open structure standing 15 feet square and flying a flag 42 feet from the ground which at this point is 1091 feet above sea level. The place became a resort for hill climbers and junketing parties, and for nearly 20 years reso- lutely clung to its high perch withstanding assaults of the ele- ments, a conspicuous and ornamental feature of the landscape till, to everyone's regret, the fury of a storm in January 1914 swept it from view.
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FRAGMENTS
FRAGMENTARY ITEMS
A CALL TO AFRICA
Henry M. Stanley's first visit to this town was December 10, 1886, when he gave his lecture on The Dark Continent. While sitting that evening in the parlors of Pinehurst a cablegram from London was handed him containing a call to take command of a relief expedition for Emin Pasha, in response to which he sailed for England four days later. On the 14th of February 1890, having just emerged from Darkest Africa, he wrote from Cairo :- "I remember the warm reception I received at St. Johnsbury, and there too I received the summons to enter Africa again.
* The end crowns the work, which is now accomplished; true I am blanched and white but what matters it? If any mission of a like nature presented itself I should still wish to do it." He accepted the invitation to revisit St. Johnsbury and gave his lecture on Darkest Africa in Music Hall January 13, 1891, before a crowded house. Dr. Lamson in presenting him said: "By his energy this man has given a continent to the world, and the continent has been more than just in giving this man to the world; Africa uncovered, if it did not discover, the man whose genius is the genius of duty."
The ends of the earth have at different times been well rep- resented on the Y. M. C. A. lecture course in Music Hall by three distinguished explorers whom we may designate as Stanley Africanus, Kennan Siberiensis, Peary Arcticus. At the reception given to Stanley in the Athenæum 1886, he was surprised to meet a man whom he had last seen in Mozambique and to be greeted by two young persons, natives of Africa, in the Zulu tongue.
There was even more variety of tongues at Principal Fuller's Thanksgiving dinner table in South Hall, 1878, where conversa- tion by twelve persons was held in thirteen different languages ; there were at that time pupils in the Academy from widely sepa- rated mission fields of several continents.
The town has not succeeded in keeping its name constant; variants have ranged from de Crevecœur's original contrivance of
-
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
St. Johnsbury, to St. Johnsborough, St. Johnsville, St. Jones- burgh, St. Johnstown, Saint Scaleville, and F. Hopkinson Smith's pseudonymous "West Norrington, Vt., built on a high plateau where you may get five meals for a dollar."
The town may be reached by any one of a number of trains. In 1850 there was one passenger train a day and one for freight; in 1880 the number had multiplied to 28 trains a day on the two lines, and the number has not varied much since that time. In 1900 the yearly tonnage received at the freight station was 156,829,000 pounds ; in 1912 it was 161,587,452 pounds, of which 9,214,338 pounds were from the Passumpsic road and 4,251,283 from the Lake line monthly. An average of 500 carloads a week are received and dispatched.
SCIENTIFIC BALLOTING The Australian ballot system was in- troduced for municipal elections of the village January, 1900; four years later it was adopted by the town at the freemen's meeting of 1894. There was no haste on the part of some for exchanging the simple usage born in the Mayflower for a cumberous system imported from the other side of the globe, but experience has justified its adoption and the voluminous sheets of candidates for office continue to be carefully checked up by the voter in his soli- tary booth with the town pencil tied to a string on the wall. The ballots for freemen's meeting November 3, 1914, carried 131 printed names, some duplicated ; at the first voting 1609 ballots were cast, a bunch as we might say of 210,779 names in all, that went into the ballot boxes in the endeavor to express the sove- reign will of the town.
TABLE OF POPULATION ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS
DECADES
1790
143
1830
1592
1870
4665
1800
663
1840
1887
1880
5801
1810
1334
1850
2758
1890
6567
1820
1404
1860
3470
1900
7010
1910
8098
The grand list of 1790 was $408.10 ; in 1910 it was $41,333.58 and in 1914 it was $74,792.90.
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FRAGMENTS
LONGEVITY The town has had no remarkable record of longevity. One or two items however may be mentioned. Of the 19 charter members of the Second Congregational Church of 1825, two attained 93 years, two 92 years, one and perhaps two 90 years, three 80-85 years, three over 70 years, and the youngest died in her 60th year. In 1870 there were six nonagenarians, one of whom was 95, and 27 octogenarians, one of whom was 89-the average age of these 33 was 84 years. Of the few centenarians, Mrs. Betsy Stevens reached 101 years, Mrs. Abel Butler 102 years ; Mrs. Mary Brodie Clement of Goss Hollow died Sept. 25, 1889 at the age of 114 years, 4 months, 20 days according to records filed at the town clerk's office ; her husband died 14 years earlier having attained only 100 years.
Arrivals during the seventies for permanent residence- Abraxa Ribearia Currant Worm 1871; Doryphora Decemlineata Potato Beetle 1874 ; Passer Domesticus English Sparrow, 1876.
XLI
THE PAGEANT OF ST. JOHNSBURY
Commemoration of the one hundred twenty-fifth anniversary of the town was held August 15-17, 1912. No single event in its history ever engaged the eager attention of so many people of all ages and classes ; it was quaint and fittingly spectacular, dignified and impressive; it evoked patriotic town sentiment and inspira- tions to good citizenship. The Commercial Club thro its com- mittees took the initiative and individuals guaranteed the neces- sary funds which approximated $7000. The text of the drama, a pamphlet of 86 pages, was prepared by William Chauncey Lang- don of New York, a master in pageantry, whose imaginative genius created the interludes with dances of the Nature Spirits, and wove into the episodes historic incidents and personages. taken from the first manuscript pages of this book. Miss Madeline Randall was director of the dances and B. C. Peters of the music, much of which was composed for the occasion and rendered by a chorus of a hundred voices and fifty orchestral instruments. Nearly 700 actors appropriately costumed had part in the scenes and ten thousand spectators looked down upon them from the grand stand.
The theatre was felicitously chosen on one of the high levels of the golf course near the Old Pine tree and overlooking St. Johnsbury Plain. The entire setting was ideal; it was as if Nature foreseeing the event, had planned her construction work expressly for it-laying out a greensward floor flanked on the rear by the forest and opening frontwise down the pasture slope upon the village nestled amongst the trees, beyond which the river valleys stretch miles away toward the far horizon. To
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spectators of the Pageant the effect of the play was heightened by the historic spots in full view and the picturesque scenery beyond-as, on a more imposing scale spectators from the seats of the Dionysiac theatre of Athens witnessed the dramas of their great tragedians and at the same time had before their eyes the marble temples of their beautiful city, the stream of Ilissus, the heights of Hymettus and the blue waters of the sea.
The Pageant opened with a dramatic scene representing the ancient wilderness. Down from under the Old Pine Tree stalks the primeval Power of the Wilderness, a gigantic figure, shaggy- haired, girt about the loins with bear skins, brandishing his huge club, breaking the stillness of the forest with weird howls. Be- hind him and subject to him flock the Spirits of the Mountains and Forests with flying hair and fluttering scarfs, waving green boughs of pine and maple. Up from the lower level come the graceful Spirits of the Rivers and the Valleys in three streams (Passumpsic, Moose and Sleeper) garlanded with wild flowers, draped in shimmering white and blue, their rippling veils sugges- tive of rapids and waterfalls. All alike are subject and submis- sive to the stern Power of the Wilderness till at a clear trumpet call from the orchestra the Spirit of Civilization enters with stately step. She is robed in white with a golden girdle, a sheaf of wheat on her arm and in her hand a sickle. At the sight of her the Wilderness becomes defiant and angrily brandishes his club. She advances confidently and sweeps across the arena with the air of one born to command. In the dramatic dances that follow she brings the wild Nature Spirits under the spell of her queenly dignity and refinement, and the scowling Giant of the Wilderness, defeated, slowly retreats backward up the hills into the gloom of the forest. The Spirit of Civilization moving to the music of her motif from the orchestra, leads the wild romp- ing Spirits of the Rivers and Valleys in triumphant march down toward the meadows.
+ Episode 1 The red Indians skulking along the edge of the forest spy a moose ; they bring him down with their arrows and after a hunt-dance around him lug him off behind the hemlocks.
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
Enter at this point the Rangers led by scouts Nash and Stark in their buckskin breeches and coonskin caps; there are shots and shouts and war-whoops amongst the hemlocks, and a young Indian emerging falls dead where the moose fell just before. The Rangers carry off the moose, the dead Indian gets up and sings a plaintive death song, he is then picked up by his tribesmen and carried off into the forest. It is a second prefiguring of the passing of the Wilderness and the Savage.
"The old order changeth, yielding place to new."
NOTE. At this point a cablegram just received from Dr. Lionel de Crevecœur representing the present day family of the town god-father, is read-conveying thanks for invitation to the hospitalities of the town, and congratulations on the Pageant in which he had been invited to personate his distinguished ances- tor. The text of the cablegram is here given :-
Paris, France, August 15, 1912.
L' Co Edward T. Fairbanks,
Famille St. Jean Crevecœur reconnaissante invitation recemment recue vous adresse sinceres remerciements compliments bien cordiaux.
Episode 2. Jonathan Arnold appears with Surveyor General Whitelaw and Martin Adams carrying compass and chain; they are laying out proprietors' lots, sighting from the Old Pine Tree which Dr. Arnold thinks will last at least 125 years, even tho struck by lightning. Plans and prospects for the new town are talked over. Presently around the shoulder of the hill comes Gen. Joel Roberts with the bag of potatoes and jug of rum that he has brought up on foot from Barnet, and Tom Todd comes along kicking his one big potato up home. They discuss the old Dunmore grant, Arnold's fight for Vermont in Continental Con- gress, and all sing "Down with the Yorkers." Mrs. Arnold joins the circle with her children and Aunt Ruth the negress who was given to the family as a slave in Rhode Island. The Doctor points out the beauty of the situation, the spot at the head of the Plain where the family home shall be with lilacs growing around it-"lilacs that will spread like my new town, a beautiful, clean,
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THE PAGEANT OF ST. JOHNSBURY
upright free city extending down into the valley and even beyond, climbing up on to the hills across the river."
Episode 3 Pioneer sociability and business, 1790-1800. Ox teams are driven up by Roberts, Lord, Hawkins, Spaulding and others, wives and children, on the way to Eleazar Sanger's at Center Village on Town Meeting day. They bring spinning wheels and whatever else in the way of pies, cheese and liquid refreshment will contribute to the annual town-meeting-day- junket. Spinning begins and town affairs are discussed; it is agreed that there must be a bounty on wolves and a set of town weights and measures purchased. A girl on horseback appears, it is Elathan Ide who lays down hard cash to pay for her father's land right; haymakers come along with their scythes, they are thirsty and Charlotte Lovell is mounted on a horse and sent down to the Plain to get them a jug of rum; the lad Stephen Hawkins is promised a nice girl if he will go and get Mrs. Brown to witness the Shorey-Hawkins deed; the Post-Rider's horn is heard and Bill Trescott delivers the scanty mail from his saddle bags and is persuaded to recite some of his famous poetry. Jonathan Sanger blows the dinner horn and all move happily together to the festal board.
Interlude The Fields and the Streams. From either side come dancing into view the Spirits of the Fields and Spirits of the Rivers. Their forceful whirls and the spirited toss of their veils indicate rivalry as to which shall have the lead in the future of the town, the farms or the factories. Sud- denly the Spirit of the Future appears ; her manner at first is expressive of uncertainty and doubt ; she peers wonderingly thro the ripples of her streaming hair, scans the horizon, seems to catch a vision then to lose it; glides away but quickly returns. The Fields and the Streams each beckon her to their side, appeal- ing to her with winsome ways, the orchestra in like manner changing the motif from one to the other. At last the vista of the Future seems to open to her, the Rivers will have preemi- nence ; advancing to their side she stands like a goddess awarding to them the decrees of destiny; hereafter at this junction of
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streams the water-wheels of the Rivers shall rank above the harvests of the Fields.
Episode 4 The Old First Church 1809. Hubbard Lawrence leads up the nineteen men and women, who have come hither on foot or on horseback to be united into a church. Dr. Leonard Worcester has come over from Peacham to preside at the Council. Nineteen out of twelve hundred population seems to him a feeble flock, too small to meet the tides of ungodliness around them ; Lawrence replies : "Sirs, this business must go on ; we are too poor to live longer without the ordinances of the gospel." The Council realizes that the Spirit of God animates them; they are immediately organized as the Congregational Church of St. Johns- bury, and all join together praising God by singing "Hark from the tombs a doleful sound." Rev. Pearson Thurston is introduced as the minister ; the men greet him with low bows and the women with respectful curtsies and all give a handshake greeting; no sooner done than, according to usage, he is accosted by the con- stable and ordered to depart from the town lest he some time might become a town charge. The nest full of the Wing family, nine little Wings, are presented one by one for baptism, after which the entire congregation led by clarinet, flute and bass viol retire, singing
"The New Jerusalem comes down
Adorned with shining grace."
Episode 5 The Invention of the Scale 1830. A clumsy old wooden steelyard beam is set up, and a man from Danville drives his load of hemp under it to be weighed; the cart is lifted by chains that grapple the axles and Francis Bingham figures the weight at about three-quarters of a ton. Thaddeus Fairbanks tells Bingham he thinks an apparatus that can only get some- where near the weight isn't good for much ; if it is only pretty nearly right it is all wrong. He has been studying on a new device just finished which has a platform set on four knife-edge bearings which he would call a platform scale; it is brought up, the load is put on the platform and the true weight is found to be 1482 pounds exactly. The farmer is better satisfied with this figure than with the one that Bingham got, and says that Danville
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THE PAGEANT OF ST. JOHNSBURY
will want one of those scales ; he thinks there ought to be money in that device, to which the inventor replies that he wouldn't care to take $1000 for it right now. He is going to start on horse- back for Washington in a few days to get a patent on the new Fairbanks scale. The man from Danville thinks it will surely make a big industry for St. Johnsbury one of these days. (Thad- deus Fairbanks was personated by his son Henry, himself an in- ventor and an octogenarian, who came driving on to the field cor- rectly costumed, in the antiquated chaise of four-score years agone.)
Episode 6 The Railroad 1850. Citizens who have been for years trying to secure railway communication are exchanging congratulations on the twenty-eighth of November-Fairbanks, Jewett, Paddock, Ramsey, Ely, Chadwick and others. The new order of things and new prospects for business are talked over. A stage coach passes by, a whistle is heard, and down on the lower level of the pasture is seen a moving train of cars pulled along by the CALEDONIA, the first locomotive that brought pas- sengers into the town. Everybody is moving forward to catch a view of this novel sight; Erastus Fairbanks, president of the road, hastens with them leaving his cane sticking in the ground; Willard Brockway of Sutton has a round yellow thing in his hand, his boy wonders what it is ? and he is told to carry it home as the first orange ever seen in Sutton, but now that the railroad is here there'll be oranges and plenty of other good things coming up that way. All agree that this is a great day for St. Johnsbury and announcement is made by the President that within three months last past the stock of this road has advanced from $83 to $91 on the Boston exchange.
Interlude Trade of the World. Uncle Sam (ever Young) appears in his striped trousers and big hat, and with him youthful Rollo in green representing Vermont. Some men disputing over a matter in trade appeal to him. Uncle not being able to settle the case satisfactorily sends Vermont out to bring up one of those newly invented scales. This results in a clear and ready adjust- ment of the difficulty. Fourteen different world nations in their · varied costumes begin coming up in long line to the benignant
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TOWN OF ST. JOHNSBURY
Uncle of the World desiring his aid in arbitrating their commer- cial disputes. His good offices are graciously given and their trade transactions are all equitably adjusted on the St. Johnsbury scale. This done the nations are marshaled in double line and execute a quick-step recessional to the strains of Yankee Doodle.
Episode 7 The County Seat 1856. A series of coffins leis- urely carried across the green represents the removal of bodies from the old burial ground to make way for the county building soon to be erected. Bystanders interject suitable remarks, in- cluding a reference to Yorick whom the foreman is quite sure was never buried here. A Danville man strongly disapproves this transfer of the county-shire from his town, but the timely and realistic appearance of Judge Poland on the scene gives opportu- nity for setting forth conclusively why St. Johnsbury is now the only suitable place for the Court House, and moreover the town itself is contributing $5770 toward the building expense of it. It is finally agreed that the spot where the dead were awaiting judg- ment is an appropriate place for the living now to be receiving judgment.
Episode 8 The Civil War 1861. Veterans of the Grand Army bearing their battle flag pace across the field, greeted with rising applause. Boys in blue of the younger generation person- ate the scenes which the soldiers of the Third Regiment were actors in half a century ago. They are reviewed by Governor Fairbanks who reads a requisition just received by telegraph from the Secretary of War to forward the regiment at once. A group of women appear with the regimental flag which they have hastily made; it is formally presented by the Governor, and Captain Allen replies "we will bear it on to victory, or sleep in honorable graves beneath its folds." Farewells follow and all march for- ward to the strains of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
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