Cavendish Women You Should Know-Overview

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As March is Women’s History Month, the Cavendish Historical Society’s (CHS) annual meeting on March 18, 2-4 at the Cavendish Baptist Church, will begin with the presentation Cavendish Women You Should Know. Throughout the month, CHS will be posting to their blog, biographies of  women who have made a difference in our town. When the Museum opens in May, there will be a special display Women in Cavendish History featuring Phyllis Bont, Ethel Roosevelt Derby, Natalia Solzhenitsyn, Mrs. Svetlova and Mary van Schaik.

It should be noted that this project is just the beginning and in future years, every March will see additions to CHS’s Women’s History Project.

 If you have information you would like to contribute to Cavendish Women’s History, please call (802) 226-7807, e-mail margocaulfield@icloud.com or send to CHS, PO Box 472, Cavendish, VT 05142

Today’s post is an overview of women in Cavendish history. We begin with the “keepers” of Cavendish history, which has been predominately women.

Mary Churchill spent a year documenting who was buried in Cavendish and was assisted by Harold Lawrence, Mrs. Thurston Owens, Mrs. Francis Ward and her son Dan Churchill. The resulting booklet, Cemeteries of Cavendish: 1776-1976 Bicentennial Project, is still used by many to locate their ancestor’s graves.

Sandra Stearns wrote Cavendish Hillside Farm 1939-1957 so that her grandchildren would know what life was like at one time in Cavendish. Called the Laura Ingalls Wilder of Cavendish, Stearns wrote, “During my growing up years on the farm I lived things that my children and grandchildren cannot even begin to imagine. Life was hard, conveniences were few and far between, but I was happy being outdoors and around animals. I appreciated school and church for they were my major chances to get away from the work and solitude. I was blessed to live and see and do so many things the old fashioned way! “

Barbara Kingsbury has written a comprehensive history of Cavendish, while at the same time telling the story of her husband’s family. In developing “Chubb Hill Farm and Cavendish, Vermont : A Family and Town History 1876-1960 (updated in 1994), Kingsbury spent countless hours reading town reports, family diaries as well as interviewing many residents. This is a very unique town history, which will be of interest for many generations to come.

Linda Welch, a descendant of the Farr family and CHS genealogist, continues to research and document Cavendish genealogy. To date she has written four volumes in the Families of Cavendish series.

• Volume I, 2nd Edition: Includes families Adams, Baldwin, Coffeen, Dutton, Fletcher, Gilbert, Lowell, Proctor, Russell, Spafford & Wheelock
• Volume II: Includes families Hall, Parker (Abraham, James & Thomas), Pollard, Skinner & Spaulding
• Volume III: Includes families Adams, Blood, Burbank, French, Gammon and Giddings
• Volume IV: Atherton, Bemis, Heald, and Ordway

Margo Caulfield conceived the idea of a children’s biography of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who lived 18 of his 20 years in exile in Cavendish, while teaching a group of home school students about WWII veterans,. A third grader at the time, Isabelle Gross became very upset when she learned of Solzhenitsyn’s treatment during the war. She couldn’t understand how a decorated war hero could be removed from the front lines and imprisoned just because he had made comments about the leader of his country. She had many questions, which the book The Writer Who Changed History: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn answers.

Margo Caulfield also writes the weekly electronic newsletter “Cavendish Update,” which began as the “Quarry Update” in 2002. Today’s news becomes tomorrow’s history and future generations will have these “posts” to help them understand the beginning of the 21^st century in Cavendish.

We are grateful to these women who have made such a significant contribution in the understanding of our history. All of the books listed, with the exception of Volume IV of Linda Welch’s are available from CHS.

Arey, Harriet Ellen (Grannis), author, born in Cavendish, Vermont, 14 April 1819. Her father, John Grannis, was a member of the Canadian parliament at the out break of the 1837 rebellion, and was obliged to flee to the United States. She became a schoolteacher in Cleveland, and a contributor to periodicals. She married Oliver Arey in 1848, and edited the "Youth's Casket" and the "Home Monthly." Her principal work is "Household Songs and other Poems" (New York, 1854).

Bacon, Fanny and Carrie Spafford: Wrote, edited and printed “The Scribbler,” in the early 1900’s where local writers could see their poetry, essays or short stories in print once a month.

Ballantine, Lisa: First female volunteer fire fighter, 1981 Cavendish Volunteer Fire Department

Baxendale, Imogene: The only female whose name appears on the WWII plaque attached to the Civil War memorial in Cavendish, Baxendale was stationed in the Philippines and Japan during and after the war as a nurse. She was the first woman to join the Legion of Guardsmen, a veteran’s organization in Bellows Falls. During WWII the women in Cavendish worked multiple shifts at Gay Brothers Woolen Mills, grew Victory Gardens, took turns manning the three spotter towers in town and “Did their bit and Knit” socks for soldiers.

Blanchard, Donna and Amy: In 1985, Donna Blanchard became the first female fire fighter for the Proctorsville Fire Department. Her sister Amy was the second female. Donna credits her time in the firehouse for teaching her to play competitive poker. Donna served in the Navy during the Gulf War and Grenada. Amy became a crew chief on a Black Hawk Helicopter for the US Army and served in Iraq and Turkey.

Coffeen, Susanna: With her husband and children was the first European settlers in Cavendish. Because she was the only women who stayed in the town during the Revolutionary War, she was granted property in her own right.

Dutton, Emily: Married Redfield Proctor ending a 75 year feud between the villages of Cavendish and Proctorsville. The merger of these families proved to be important to Vermont, since three governors and a United States Senator issued from this Dutton-Proctor line.

Foster, Gertrude: First woman elected to the Cavendish Select board in 1918.

Glidden, Karlene: In 2016 Karlene became the first female to achieve life membership in the Proctorsville Fire Department having served 20 years.

Haven, Florence: Founder of the Cavendish Chapter of the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution)

Johnson, Elizabeth Captive: First European child born in Cavendish in 1754. Just after the outbreak of the French and Indian War, an Abenaki Indian raid on Charlestown, NH, Susannah Willard Johnson was captured with her family and marched to Saint-Francois-du-Lac, Quebec. Being nine months pregnant, she gave birth to Elizabeth Captive Johnson in what is today Cavendish. The marker of this event appears in Reading, VT.

Amy Perry

Perry, Amy: First female fire officer, Lieutenant,  in Proctorsville Volunteer Fire Department January 2018. She is an Ice Water Rescue technician and became a National Credited Instructor for the VT Fire Academy in January 2019. 

Pollard, Ermine: Served in the Vermont Legislature in 1951-1952. She was the first woman on the Banking and Insurance Committee and was the State Regent for the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Pollard, Mary: A dietician in an Army Hospital on Ellis Island during WWI. She is the only female whose name appears on the WWI plaque attached to the Civil War memorial in Cavendish.

Skinner, Cornelia Otis: A great grand daughter of Cavendish native, the Reverend Warren Skinner, and daughter of the famous actor Otis Skinner, she spent summers at the family home in Proctorsville, which is now The Golden Stage Inn. Cornelia wrote numerous short humorous pieces for publications like The New Yorker. These pieces were eventually compiled into a series of books, including Nuts in May, Dithers and Jitters, Excuse It Please!, and The Ape In Me, among others. With Emily Kimbrough, she wrote Our Hearts Were Young and Gay.

Stevens, Nettie: Nettie Stevens was born in Cavendish in 1861. The child of working-class parents, Stevens was raised during a time when women's educational opportunities were limited. In spite of this, Stevens ultimately received a PH.D. from Byrn Mawr and was given an assistantship by the Carnegie Institute. In 1905, her work on sex determination was published. Investigating meal worms, she found female cells contained 20 chromosomes, but male cells contained 19 large chromosomes and one very small one. She showed that the X body paired with a 20th, much smaller chromosome in meiosis. She proposed that these two chromosomes be called X and Y, and explained that females contained two X chromosomes. Some believe her position in the field of genetics has largely been ignored because the credit for the discovery of X and Y chromosomes and their role in determining gender is instead generally given Edmund B. Wilson, who had read Stephens’ manuscript on chromosomal patterns before publishing his own theory, and T. H. Morgan, the biologist with whom Wilson shared the Nobel Prize for the discovery. Stevens died in 1912. Women in Technology News, Fall, 1994, Vol. 11, No. 1

Timko, Robin: With the assistance of April Hensel, Suzanne Meaney and Will Hunter formed Concerned Cavendish Citizens Association (CCCA) in 2002, which successfully defeated the attempt of McLean Quarry to build a quarrying operation that would have extended from the end of Tierney Rd and onto Route 131 between the two villages. CCCA would eventually be renamed Cavendish Community and Conservation Association, which is still under Robin’s leadership and now includes the Cavendish Community Fund. Robin is also an accomplished Irish flute player, artist and is also co owner of Crows Bakery in Proctorsville.