Upcoming Events
The Museum is open
on Sundays from 2-4 pm and other times by appointment. The current exhibit is
on the history of the Cavendish Woolen Mills. There are a variety of hands on
activities to try including helping to make a woolen rag rug, potholders and
needle holders.
Sept. 10 (Saturday): Honey Festival at the Golden Stage Inn, off
Depot Street in Proctorsville. CHS will once again provide an opportunity for
visitors to make hand dipped beeswax candles.
Sept. 11 (Sunday): Annual Phineas Gage Walk and Talk. CHS
Museum, 2pm.
Oct. 9 (Sunday): Cavendish’s Ghosts and Eerie Stories. Over
the summer, CHS has been collecting stories and we have quite a collection to
tell. Story telling begins at 2 pm. We’d love to hear your stories.
CHS Briefs
To help members and
friends stay involved with CHS, we are now offering a monthly e-mail update on
what we’ve accomplished in the last month as well as what’s planned and how you
can be involved. You can read it on-line at the CHS blog-address above-or receive
it by sending an e-mail to margocaulfield@icloud.com with “subscribe CHS briefs” in the subject
heading.
Cavendish’s Woolen Mills Timeline: Part I
As part of the Woolen Mill exhibit, CHS is
providing a timeline of the mill history.
1830-1840: This time period marked the transition through
out Vermont, from hand-weaving and spinning at home to the mills, which could
be run by water power.
1832: The Black River
Canal & Manufacturing Company is constructed in Cavendish. It was the first
stone building in town. It burned in 1873. On the Beers Atlas in 1869, it was
listed as Frederick Fullerton & Co Woolen Mill.
1836: The Proctorsville Woolen Mill started on what is today the Proctorsville
Green.
1850: Peak of sheep
raising in Vermont. Barely perceptible at
first, it gathered momentum from the fact that the earlier spotting around of
the imported Merinos, in localities throughout the country that would naturally
encourage propagation, resulted in opening up the ranges of the West with their
great expanses of grazing lands, which had no need for fencing. Experimentation
has shown, too, that sheep raising in the West was cheaper than in the East; so
Vermont saw its peak in sheep-raising pass. (Neither Wealth Nor Poverty by
Janet Mabie)
1861-1865: The Civil War helped the American woolen business to a good start, But,
as is typical of war periods, there was great over-optimism, with wool prices
spectacularly inflated. Once the war was over, prices fell to disastrous
levels. (Neither Wealth Nor Poverty by Janet Mabie)
1867-1875: Spring Mill (known as Fitton Mill) started in 1867 and burned in 1875 causing some 125-130 employees of Cavendish
to be placed out of work. It was an economic disaster for the community. Many
former employees tried to find work in
the other mills in the area, but there were just so many positions
available. Some of the men who were heads of their families were forced to
travel to other communities on the train and board in rooming houses during the
week in the towns where they found some work, then travel back to Cavendish on
the Saturday train home, making this a weekly requirement. Numerous fires
occurred in Cavendish around this same time. Believing that the fires were
arson, Robert Fitton soon gained the name of “Fire Bug Fitton.” While the Fitton Mill
brought many new immigrants to the town, requiring a new school to be build,
they did employ child labor.
1873-4: Proctorsville Woolen Mill fails and is not
used for three years.
1877: New owners of the Proctorsville Woolen Mill
reopen it as the Crescent Woolen Mill
1880: The Crescent Woolen
Mill enlarged their operation by buying a chair factory one west of
Proctorsville and converted it into a shoddy and flock factory, as well as a
box shop.
1886: Herbert Murdock
bought into the firm of Hayward, Taft, and Burbank in December and took over
the management.
1887: Gay Brothers Mill opens on the site of the Black River Canal and
Manufacturing Company, which by this point was nothing more than walls.
Relocating from Tunbridge, VT, the town of Cavendish struck a deal with the
Gays to make it feasible for them to purchase and start the mill.
1890: H.T. Murdock now had
complete control over the Proctorsville Mill. He adds a large brick addition of
four stories and the machinery was increased to 12 sets of cards and sixty
broad looms, employing 175 people. The Proctorsville Mill was considered to “rank
second in the state.” (1899 Souvenir Edition of the Vermont Tribune). Both
mills depended on water power but had steam as an auxiliary source of power. The
expansion of these two mills was at least part of the reason that the
population of Cavendish rose by 180 people during this period.
World War I: Both Cavendish and Proctorsville village
mills were operating at full tilt, doing their best for the war effort.
Business was booming not only through the War years but also through 1920.
1927: The November flood
caused serious damage to the mill in Proctorsville. It’s finishing room was
under water, foundations of several of their tenement houses were badly damaged
and 400 tons of coal were washed away. Gay Brothers was not as severely
damaged, though muddy water had covered everything in the stock shed to a depth
of three feet. Despite the damage, the Gays went ahead and completed both a dye
house and a new shipping building, 60 by 64 feet, which had been started just
before the flood.
• The Murdock Mill becomes the Proctor Mill
1929: Due to financial
difficulties, Proctor Mill was sold to Mr. Pike of Hanover, NH. The sale
included the mill, the tenements, the Opera House, and woodland, all for a
total of $24,601, a fraction of the value.
1932: The Proctor Mill in
Proctorsville becomes Bear Woolen Mill
New Doors for the Museum
Under the guidance of
Proctorsville woodworker Dave Stern, volunteers have been stripping paint for
the new doors to the Museum. While the original doors were found in the
basement last summer, and wood was seasoned over the winter for replacement
parts, a close examination showed that they weren’t salvageable. Fortunately,
period appropriate doors were found but needed to be stripped, repaired and
painted.
Unlike the doors in this photo, the replacements will not have windows,
since churches of the 1830s would have used solid doors.
The goal is to install the doors once the Museum closes for the season.
Do You Have A
Cavendish Ghost Story?
Over the summer we’ve been collecting all kinds of ghost and other “eerie”
stories about various places in Cavendish. Who knew there were so many ghosts
in one town? “George visits the Golden Stage Inn” while the Proctorsville Fire
Department contends with “Homer” from time to time. Charlie frequents a house
on Depot St leaving his signature trademark-pennies. The old Duttonsville School
House still has children talking and playing in what was once the 4th
grade classroom.
Do you know of a house or property that has strange stories connected to
it, or have experience something out of the ordinary? If so, using the address,
e-mail and phone information on the cover of the newsletter, please send us you
stories by Sept. 20th so they can be included in our Oct. 9th
program.
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 __ Solzhenitsyn Project
__
Other (please specify) __ Cemetery Restoration __ Preservation Projects
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