 |
| Looking west up Route 131. |
 |
| View of the Cavendish Cemetery |
 |
| Pieter Van Schaik standing next to church bell. |
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Pictures from the Stone Church
This morning, Thursday Oct. 24, members of the Stone Church Committee, crawled up into the belfry to check on conditions and to weatherize for winter. Below are some of the photographs taken by Bob Naess. Thank you to Bob, Pieter and Rolf van Schaik, and Rich Svec for showing up on such a cold day.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Scribbler II Fall 2013
Visit CHS at the Holiday Fair
The annual Cavendish
Holiday Fair will be held at the Cavendish Town Elementary School multi purpose
room on November 30. In addition to a variety of books and historical items,
the Cavendish Historical Society (CHS) will have a number of interesting ornaments
to reflect various aspects of Cavendish history. In addition, with the help of some of our
young historians, we will be offering a Duct Tape Gift workshop, where participants
can learn how to make Duct tape wallet, marshmallow blowpipe (we include the
marshmallows) and a beaded bracelet. The cost of the workshop is $5 per craft
or $10 for all three. We will also have the drawing of the CHS raffle that
afternoon.
Honoring Our Heritage: Dia de la Muertos
In her book “Chubb
Hill Farm and Cavendish Vermont: A Family and Town History, 1876-1960,” Barbara
Kingsbury’s wrote in the 1994 addendum, Cavendish
is not a closed society. Its history shows again and again that the town has
assimilated strangers with different backgrounds and that these “strangers”
have often proved asset to the community. Many who are now the “old-timers”
were actually born in other places. The composition of Cavendish population is
very different than it was a hundred years ago. It was more homogeneous then
with a majority being farm families with English roots. Now there are people
from many ethnic backgrounds, from different levels of education and income,
and with a great variety of occupational and artistic skills.”
CHS’s program “Honoring our Heritage” shares the customs and traditions
of the people who make up our community. This fall, we celebrate the people in
our town whose heritage is South American. On November 2, CHS will be offering
a free community wide Dia de la Muertos (Day of the Dead) workshop from, 3-5 pm at
the Parish Hall of the Gethsemane Episcopal Church in Proctorsville.
An ancient Aztec celebration in memory of deceased
ancestors, Dia de la Muertos (Day of the Dead) is celebrated on November 1 and
2. It is believed that on October 31, the gates of heaven are opened and the
spirits of all deceased children are allowed to be reunited with their families
for 24 hours. On November 2, the spirits of the adults come to enjoy the
festivities. While celebrated throughout Latin America, it is especially
popular in Mexico,
where it is a national holiday.
Customs very from town to town and by region and country. In
Brazil and El Salvador, on November 2, people go to church and visit cemeteries
where they clean their ancestors graves and leave flowers. On November 1 in
Guatemala the festival is a colorful
and lively celebration for which extravagant kites (barriletes gigantes) are
built and flown high above the cemeteries as a symbolic link between the living
and the dead.
The workshop will include
making papal picado (paper cuts), the banners that decorate many homes and
streets; paper flowers; sugar skulls and more. For more information, please
call 802-226-7807 or e-mail margoc@tds.net
What’s a Lime Kiln?
This is a common question whenever we talk about the location of
Phineas Gage’s accident. Close to where they were blasting for the railroad,
and the tamping rod went through Gage’s head, there is the remains of a lime
kiln that was built by Roswell Downer.
These kilns were
used to create quicklime. By heating rocks or stone containing calcium carbonate
limestone, to a temperature of 1000 C for hours up to several days, quicklime
was created. This has been a key ingredient for centuries for plaster, mortar,
and other types of construction materials. Watch a video of a lime kiln inaction.
When you walk
through the rotunda of the National Art Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C, did
you know you were walking on Cavendish? The Verde Antique marble in the floor
is from the Proctorsville Quarry. It was chosen because it was a match of the
columns of the rotunda, which are made of Italian Verde.
In 1836, the Black
River Marble and Soapstone Manufacturing company was established for extraction
of the green serpentine rock -Verde Antique. The original quarry was located on
the Black River, near Winery Road at a place formerly called Hart’s Bend. It
was moved to its present location, off of Twenty Mile Stream Road in 1931 when
Antonio Moriglioni operated the Quarry
Moriglioni was born
in France, on route to the United States from Italy. He came to Rutland, VT in
the early 1900’s and discovered the Verde Antique Marble. He owned and operated
the quarry until the local mill owners squeezed him out of the business during
World War II. With the mills, and other area businesses having military
contracts, they needed the power and viewed the quarry as a “luxury item,” and
not necessary for the war effort. Moriglioni never re opened the mill. Instead
he went to work in a quarry in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, where he died as a
result of injuries he sustained from an explosion.
In 1989 the Ruby
brothers, from Fair Haven, attempted to open the quarry but did not have the necessary
equipment. In late 1990’s Vermont Quarries (owned by an Italian company) bought
a 20-year lease to remove stone. The quarry was worked for 3-4 years and then
work ceased. During this time, stone was
shipped for cutting to Italy, Spain and Brazil.
Recently, members of the Moriglioni family-Lucille Moriglioni Evens, her
brother James and his wife Barbara-presented the Cavendish Historical Society
with pieces of the Verde Antique marble from their father's quarry. These are
currently on display at the Museum.
Cavendish
Mills Timeline
There have been a
number of questions about the Mills in the town of Cavendish. To help answer
these questions, below is a timeline.
1832: The Black River Canal and Manufacturing Company is constructed in
Cavendish. It was the first stone building in town. It burned in 1873. On the
Beers Atlas in 1969, it was listed as Frederick Fullerton & Co Woolen Mill.
1836: The Proctorsville Woolen Mill started. Failed in the panic of 1873-74
and was not used for three years. It was reopened with new owners in 1877 and
became known as the Crescent Woolen Mill. This Mill was to undergo a number of
different names and ownership as follows:
• 1890: Murdock’s
Mill-A large brick addition of four stories was built and the machinery was
increased to 12 sets of cards and sixty broad looms and employed 175 people
• 1927-Proctor Mill
• 1932- 1937-Black
Bear Woolen Mill
Proctorsville bought
the building in 1938. In the 1940’s this building was used by Proctor Reels to
make furniture as well as reels. The building eventually housed Acousti-Phase,
which burned in 1982. Part of the Mill area is now the Proctorsville Green.
1867: Spring Mill (known as Fitton Mill) started in 1867 and burned in 1875.
The fire was thought to be arson. However,
according to an article found in “The Chronicle: A Weekly Journal, Devoted to
the Interests of Insurance, Manufacturing and Real Estate, Vol 16 1875 there may have been another cause, “The destruction of Fitton’s Mill at Cavendish,
VT, September 6th, awakens attention to the value of woolen-mill
property, and what security there is in lighting rods. This mill was a four
story frame building...built in 1865...In the ten years’ service it had
depreciated 36 per cent, not withstanding repairs had been regularly kept up
and the structure was in profitable use. This building was flat roofed,
graveled and had an unusually large array of lightening rods, one every four
feet about the eaves. These were all in good order, all connecting, having been
thoroughly overhauled within a year , and yet the mill was struck during a
heavy storm, while the watchman was within. The flames seemed to flash instantaneously
throughout the spinning room.
1887: Gay Brothers Mill opens on the site of the Black River Canal and Manufacturing
Company. The Gay brothers operate the Mill until 1951 when it is sold to F.C.
Hyuck and Sons, and renamed Kenwood Mills. Operations were discontinued in 1957
and the building was sold to a Rutland firm. In 1962 Mac Molding purchased the
building and continues to use it for injection plastic moldings.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn:
Words of Truth Change History
During one of the
CHS “Hands on History” programs for students, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s
experience as a Captain in the Russian Army during WWII was included along with
the stories of the other Cavendish veterans. One of the students became
extremely upset about how Solzhenitsyn was arrested on the front lines and
imprisoned just because he wrote to a friend about his concerns with Stalin.
She kept on saying “this is unfair” and had a hard time understanding that he
eventually was released, wrote of his experiences and helped to free his
country from communism. By showing her pictures of Solzhenitsyn living in
Cavendish, his children and grand children, we were able to ease her angst.
This student’s
strong reaction to Solzhenitsyn’s story was the catalyst for the writing of a
children’s biography Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn:
Words of Truth Change History. Having a book she could read, might be a
better way for her and other students to understand that Solzhenitsyn’s
experience in war was literally just one chapter in a very amazing life.
The Solzhenitsyn
family has been involved in the development of the book, geared for students in
grades 4-7, and will include a number of new photographs. The anticipated
publication date is late spring/early summer. Several grants have been written
to help with the editing, layout, and marketing of the book. All proceeds will
go to CHS to help with the restoration of the Stone Church and the Solzhenitsyn
permanent exhibit-I Wrote and Waited.
Cavendish Historical Society Board
Dan Churchill
Jen
Harper
Gloria
Leven
Bruce
McEnaney
Mike
Pember
Gail
Woods
Coordinator: Margo Caulfield
Contact Information: margoc@tds.net 802-226-7807
www.cavendishhistoricalsocietynews.blogspot.com
Upcoming CHS Activity Dates
November 1 (Friday):
Dia de la Muertos Hands on History workshop for the 5th grade
students at Cavendish Town Elementary School (CTES).
November 2
(Saturday): Community wide Dia de la Muertos workshop from 3-5 at the Parish Hall of the
Gethsemane Episcopal Church in Proctorsville. This is free and open to
the public.
November 3 (Sunday):
85th anniversary of the 1927 Flood that caused considerable damage
to Cavendish.
November 6
(Wednesday): Early Settlers Hands on History workshop for students in
grades 1 and 2 at CTES
November 30
(Saturday): Cavendish Holiday Fair at CTES multi purpose room. Stop by the
CHS booth.
December 11
(Wednesday): 95th birthday of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
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
Friday, October 18, 2013
DIA DE LA MUERTOS WORKSHOP 11/2/13
An ancient Aztec celebration in memory of deceased
ancestors, Dia de la Muertos (Day of the Dead) is celebrated on November 1 and
2. It is believed that on October 31, the gates of heaven are opened and the
spirits of all deceased children are allowed to be reunited with their families
for 24 hours. On November 2, the spirits of the adults come to enjoy the
festivities. While celebrated throughout Latin America, it is especially
popular in Mexico,
where it is a national holiday.
Though the subject matter may be considered morbid from the
perspective of some other cultures, Mexicans celebrate the Day of the Dead
joyfully. Even with its proximity to Halloween,
the traditional mood is much brighter with an emphasis on celebrating and
honoring the lives of the deceased, and celebrating the continuation of life.
The belief is not that death is the end, but rather the beginning of a new
stage in life.
The origins of the Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico
can be traced back to the indigenous peoples of the area, such as the Aztec, Maya, P'urhépecha, Nahua, and Totonac. Rituals celebrating the
lives of ancestors have been observed by these civilizations for at least the
last 3000 years.
Plans for the festival are made throughout the year,
including gathering the goods to be offered to the dead. During the period of October 31 and November 2, families usually clean and
decorate the graves. Most visit the cemeteries where their loved ones are
buried and decorate their graves with ofrendas,
or offerings, which often include orange marigold called Flor de Muerto, or zempoalxochitl,
Nahuatl
for "twenty-flower.” Toys are brought for dead children (los angelitos, or little angels), and
bottles of tequila, mezcal, pulque or atole for adults. Families will also
offer trinkets or the deceased favorite candies on the grave. Ofrendas (altars) are also put in homes.
Customs very from town to town and by region and country. In
Brazil and El Salvador, on November 2, people go to church and visit cemeteries
where they clean their ancestors graves and leave flowers. On November 1 in
Guatemala the festival is a colorful
and lively celebration for which extravagant kites (barriletes gigantes) are
built and flown high above the cemeteries as a symbolic link between the living
and the dead.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)