TOWN REPORT 100 YEARS AGO

With Town Meeting slated for Feb. 29 (Monday), the Cavendish Historical Society (CHS) thought it would be interesting to see what was being voted on 100 years ago. 

This year, there are six articles, which pertain to the passing of the town's budget and adoption of the Town Report, compared to March 6, 1917, where there were 16 articles. The 1917 report was a slim volume, compromised of columns of numbers pertaining income and expenditures. The 2015 report is 138 pages long, available on-line and in print,  and, while it contains lots of figures, there is considerable information about town activities, along with pictures and reports from the various community organizations that serve the town. 

Below is the warning of articles for the March 6, 1917 Town meeting.

The inhabitants of the Town of Cavendish, who are legal voters in town meeting, are hereby notified and warned to meet at the Town Hall [current CHS Museum building] in said town on Tuesday the sixth day of March, A.D. 1917 at ten o’clock in the forenoon, to act on the following articles, namely:

ARTICLE 1. To see if the Town will vote to grant fifth class liquor licenses in said Town.

ART. 2. To see if the Town will vote to grant license for the sale of intoxicating liquors for the year to come.

ART. 3. Will the Town vote to install a uniform system of public accounting as recommended by the officials as appointed by the Governor under the Act of 1915?

ART. 4. To see if the Town will vote to lay out and build a public highway from a point a little north of Charles Tole’s dwelling across his land and lands of B.A. Robbins and Ed. Morgan to the State road leading to the Parker schoolhouse. To elect an agent of the Town to lay out and build the same.

ART. 5. To act upon the report of the Auditors of said Town.

ART. 6. To see how much per day the Town will vote to pay its officers for the year to come.

ART. 7. To see if the Town will vote to pay its officers for the year to come.

ART.8. To choose all Town officers as the law directs to be chosen at the annual meeting.

ART. 9. To see if the Town will vote to raise money agreeably in Section 8 of No. 111 of the Acts of 1906, as amended by Acts of 1910.

ART 10. To see if the Town will vote to raise money for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the Town for the year to come.

ART 11. To see how much per year the Town will pay for the care of the Fletcher Town Library.

ART. 12. To see if the Town will appropriate money for Memorial Day.

ART. 13. To see if the Town will accept funds for the perpetual care of individual lots in the several cemeteries in Town as is provided by law.

ART. 14. To see if the Town will exempt from taxation for term of five years any new manufacturing establishment erected in said Town if the sum invested exceeds $1,000 as is provided by law.

ART. 15. To see if the Town will vote to pay for the bonding of town officers.

ART. 16. To do any other business proper to be done at said meeting.

Selectmen: G.W. Goodrich, C.C. Parker, F.V. Perkins