Annual
Meeting
The Cavendish Historical Society’s
(CHS) Annual Meeting will be on Feb. 24, 5 pm at the newly restored Episcopal
Church Parish Hall on Depot Street in Proctorsville. There will be a potluck
supper, short meeting, and the film “The Homecoming” will be shown.
As part of establishing the
permanent exhibit “I Wrote and Waited,” (see article below) which covers the 18
years Aleksandre Solzhenitsyn lived in Cavendish, CHS selected this film as it
begins in Cavendish. Produced by the BBC, the film documents the two-month
train journey across Russia as Solzhenitsyn returns home with his family after
twenty years of enforced exile. Solzhenitsyn, the man who experienced and
revealed to the world the full horror of the Soviet gulag, is recognized
throughout Russia as 'the conscience of the nation'. But despite the triumphant
and emotional homecoming, this is no easy ride for Solzhenitsyn, his wife and
American sons. Instead, they abandon their refuge in America to find their
trans-Siberian trip from Vladivostok to Moscow dogged by the KGB, the Russian
Mafia, old-style communist bosses, the tragic plight of ordinary Russians and
the echoes of its even more terrible past.
Interested
in Being a Board Member or Volunteer?
CHS
is currently looking for new board members, as well as volunteers. If you have
an interest in Cavendish history, or would like to be involved in the various
programs of CHS, please e-mail margoc@tds.net
or call 802-226-7807. You do not have to be a resident of Cavendish to serve on
the board. We are also in need of volunteers who have experience or interest in
archival work, exhibits, displays, web design, fundraising, maintenance and
public speaking
“I Wrote and Waited”
From
September 1976 until May 1995, Aleksandre Solzhenitsyn, the 1970 Nobel Prize
winner for literature and Soviet dissident, lived in Cavendish. CHS is working
with the Solzhenitsyn family to establish a permanent exhibit to document those
eighteen years. The title of the exhibit, “I Wrote and Waited,” is taken from
the film “The Homecoming,” which is how Solzhenitsyn described his time here.
While
in Cavendish, he wrote the “The Red Wheel,” which is a series of Russian historical
novels beginning with World War I. Solzhenitsyn explained that living in Cavendish
allowed him to write uninterrupted. “I could work all my waking hours. When
you are absorbed in your work, there’s no room for other thoughts. Here I’ve
been able to immerse myself fully in the year 1917, I’ve been living with the
characters in my book so much so that they seemed more alive than many of my
contemporaries. I really got to know them and no one disturbed me.” From “The Homecoming.”
For
those who have materials-pictures, stories etc.- relating to the eighteen years
he lived here, and would like to contribute them to the exhibit or Solzhenitsyn
archives, please contact CHS by e-mailing margoc@tds.net, calling 802-226-7807
or by post, PO Box 472, Cavendish, VT 05142.
The Future of the Cavendish Universalist Church
A much loved building, and one of the oldest in town, the
Cavendish Universalist Church (Main Street across from the Baptist Church) was
built in 1844. While many of the early settlers were Baptists, and used the
Union Meeting House (Davis and Center Roads), the first settler in Cavendish,
John Coffeen, was a Universalist as were several others.
Under
the leadership of Rev. Warren Skinner, a committee (Sam Adams, Otis Robbins and
David Ordway) arranged for the snecked ashlar stone church to be constructed
Rev. Skinner was an avid abolitionist and was part of the “above ground”
railroad in Vermont.
Decommissioned
as a church in the 1960’s, it was leased to CHS by the Canadian Universalist
Church. While used for art exhibits in most recent years, the building needs
considerable work.
Because
of the literary and historical significance of Solzhenitsyn, as well as the
volume of material already gathered, to say nothing of how important religion
was to him, CHS began to think about using the building as a permanent exhibit
space. After conferring with Vermont Historic Preservation, CHS learned that it
was important for fundraising purposes, that the town holds the deed to the
building.
The
VT Quebec Universalist Unitarian Convention has agreed to transfer ownership of
the Universalist Church to the town. In preparation for the transfer of the
deed on May 11, an article will go before the voters at Town Meeting in March.
The voters will be asked if they are willing to accept the transfer of the
church deed to the town, who in turn would lease the building to CHS.
Summer
Fest 2013
While
it may feel like months away, CHS has set the date for this coming year’s
Summer Fest. It will be on Saturday July 6 on the Museum grounds.
Cavendish Historical Society Board
Dan Churchill
Jen Harper
Gloria Leven
Marc Miele
Bruce McEnaney
Joseph
Pasquerello
Mike Pember
Gail Woods
BECOME
A MEMBER, RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP, DONATE
If
you have not joined the Cavendish Historical Society, need to renew your
membership, and/or would like to be a volunteer, please complete the form below
and sending a check, payable to CHS, to CHS, PO Box 472, Cavendish, VT 05142.
All contributions are tax deductible.
Name:
_______________________________________
Address:
_______________________________________________
Phone
Number:
_____________________ E-Mail: ____________________________
Membership Level
__
Individual Member $10 ___
Senior Member 65+ $5 ___
Sustaining Member $500
__ Household Member $15 ___
Contributing Member $250
Volunteer
___
I would be interested in serving, as a volunteer .I would be interested in
serving on the following committee(s):
__
Program Planning __
Fundraising __ Building (Museum)
__Archives _ Budget –– Cemetery __ Hands on History
Donations
are always welcome and can be designated as follows:
__ For general purposes
__ Educational Programs __Publications
__
Archeological Activities
__ Museum & Archival __
Special Events
__
Rankin Fund
__ Williams Fund
__ Hands on History
__
Other (please specify)
__ Cemetery Restoration
President’s
Report 2012
Looking back at
2012, the town of Cavendish can take great pride in the job they have done in
restoring the town from Irene. The Cavendish Historical Society (CHS) has been
recording this effort so future generations will be inspired, much as we were
by the records and history of the people from the 1927 flood.
This year’s
Museum visitors have come from all over the globe including Chile and Russia.
As a result of these visits, we are not only gaining new information about our
history, but we have been inspired to work on two new permanent exhibits.
Phineas Gage has
been a fascinating curiosity since he was first injured in Cavendish in 1848.
Many schools, as well as the general public, contact the Society about his
remarkable recovery from the tamping rod that went through his brain. For the
last two years, we’ve had special programs about Gage as well as a guided
walking tour. This winter, we are working with the 4th grade class
at Cavendish Town Elementary School, who are created a Phineas Gage website, as
well as mounting a permanent exhibit about him. We are in contact with the
Harvard Medical Museum, which displays his skull and tamping rod. In addition,
we are communicating with a reporter in Chile, who is trying to find any information
about Gage’s life in Santiago, where he lived just prior to his death.
The other
person, about whom we receive frequent requests for information, is Aleksandr
Solzhenitsyn, the Nobel Laureate in literature. While exiled from Russia, he
spent 18 years living in Cavendish. As he noted in the film, “The Homecoming,”
“I wrote and I waited.” Consequently, this will be the name of the permanent
exhibit being planned by CHS and his family.
As we began to
discuss the Solzhenitsyn exhibit, it became clear that we needed a separate
space for it. Consequently, we thought of the Cavendish Universalist “Stone”
Church. Our current lease agreement with the Universalist Church makes it hard
to obtain the funds needed for renovation and preservation of this building.
Fortunately, the Executive Committee of the Vermont
Quebec Universalist Unitarian Convention has agreed to give the building to the
town in a transfer ceremony planned for May 11. In the interim, there will be
an article at the March Town Meeting about the voters desire to accept this
donation.
CHS
will be working with the Vermont Historic Preservation Trust to help with
funding as well as ensure that the work on the Stone Church is done properly so
that it is both an historic gem for Cavendish as well as for Vermont.
The
coming year seems to be about buildings. In addition to the Stone Church
project, we will be having the outside of the Museum painted in May.
Our
web presence, which includes posting historic pictures on the Cavendish
Facebook page, and our Hands on History program, offers workshops in the school
and community. We are a historical society that operates year round and reaches
thousands of people all over the world.
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