As part of the Carmine Guica Young Historians (CGYH) program, the Cavendish Historical Society (CHS) provides teachers, students, families and the community with information on town, state and national history for the month ahead. This post is also available at the CHS blog.
GENERAL INFORMATION
• If you have questions, want to arrange for a program or need more information, call 802-226-7807 or e-mail margocaulfield@icloud.com
• To learn more about the various programs that CHS offers for students and community, as well as opportunities close to Cavendish, go to the Resource Page.
• The CHS Cares Closet, located next to the steps of the Museum is free, open 24/7, and offers a wide array of things to do, read etc. for both children and adults.
CHS PLANT SALE
The Annual CHS Plant sale is Friday, May 27, from 5-7 pm and Saturday May 29th from 9-noon. The sale takes place on the Museum grounds. If you are subdividing plants, bought to many (including vegetable/herb plants), or have bulbs you know you aren’t going to get around to planting, please contact us at the numbers above and we’ll take them off your hands. If you need pots and dirt, we can provide those as well.
HISTORY OF
THE ABENAKI: The Great
Falls and an Abenaki Relationship with Place Rich Holschuh recently spoke about
the significance of relationship with Place and it's now available on-line. He focused on an
Abenaki cultural worldview and its lasting implications while referencing a
local site: Kchi Pontekw, the Great Falls in present-day Bellows Falls. Rich
Holschuh is a resident of Wantastegok (Brattleboro, VT) and an independent
historic and cultural researcher. He has served on the Vermont Commission on
Native American Affairs and is a public Liaison and Tribal Historic
Preservation Officer for the Elnu Abenaki, members of the contemporary
Indigenous community. Rich is founder of the Atowi Project. His work draws upon
indigenous history, linguistics, geography, and culture to share beneficial
ways of seeing and being in relationship with place.
If you are interested in the topic of petroglyphs, there
will be a talk at the Rockingham Library on Wed. May 11 at 7 pm with Dr. Michael J. Fuller.
UPCOMING TRIPS/EVENTS: If you would like your home learner to participate in these programs, please contact the respective teachers for their grades.
• May 16 (Monday): Cemetery cleaning and laying flags on Veterans’ graves (6th grade)
• June 2 (Thursday): Shaker Village Enfield, NH (3rd grade)
• June 3 (Friday): Cleaning gravestones (6th grade)
• June 10 (Friday): St. Gaudens’ and Precision Valley Museum (4-6th grades)
• July 30 (Saturday): Annual Town Wide Tag Sale from 9-2. If a class wants to do a fundraiser, this is a good day to do it. Email or call numbers above for more information.
Preserve and Serve: We’ve purchasing new supplies, thanks to a grant from the Cavendish Community Fund. The various spring cleaning projects start on April 29th with the 4th and 5th graders spring cleaning the school park.
Other trips being planned-Site visit to Tings’ farm (Farm to Table) 4th grade and archeological dig in middens (former farm dump site) of Tings’ farm (5th grade)
Arbor Day (April 29th): Vermont celebrates this date the first Friday in May. That will be May 6th this year. Learn more about how VTcelebrates and how you can participate.
Memorial Day: A day to remember those who have died
in service to their country. Called Decoration Day, it was celebrated and
continues to be celebrated on May 31 in Cavendish. However, it was changed to
the last Monday in May, and is often thought of as the first weekend of summer.
Prior to Covid, CTES and the town have held a Memorial Day celebration, with
speeches at the school, followed by a parade ending at Proctorsville or
Cavendish High Street Cemetery. History of Memorial Day.
Make May Day Baskets: May 1 is known as May Day in many parts of the world. An ancient spring festival, in socialists countries it’s also known as a worker’s holiday or Labor Day. For many years in the Okemo Valley, May Day was celebrated by hanging small baskets of flowers on neighbors and friends doors. Print directions for a May Day Baskets and have the students cut out and assemble. Fill with daffodils or candies and leave on the doors of neighbors and friends.
Green Up Day: Celebrated throughout Vermont on May 7 (Saturday), you can pick up bags from the Town Office now and start Greening up. You can deposit trash, recyclables etc. at the Cavendish Transfer Station for free. Together we can keep Cavendish clean!
HISTORICAL DATES FOR MAY
May 5: Cinco de Mayo, which means 5th of May, has now become a time to celebrate Mexican heritage. It is a national holiday in remembrance of the Battle of Puebla in 1862, in which Mexican troops under General Ignacio Zaragoza, outnumbered three to one, defeated the invading French forces of Napoleon III.
May 7 1945: Known as VE Day (Victory in Europe) WWII in Europe ends
May 10: 1869 - The newly constructed tracks of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railways were first linked at Promontory Point, Utah. A golden spike was driven by Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific
May 14 1607 - The first permanent English settlement in America was established at Jamestown, Virginia, by a group of royally chartered Virginia Company settlers from Plymouth, England. Historic Jamestown
• 1804 - Meriwether Lewis and William Clark departed St. Louis on their expedition to explore the Northwest.
• 1796 -
Smallpox vaccine was developed by Dr. Edward Jenner, a physician in rural
England. He coined the term vaccination for the new procedure of injecting a
milder form of the disease into healthy persons resulting in immunity. Within
18 months, 12,000 persons in England had been vaccinated and the number of
smallpox deaths dropped by two-thirds. The origin of Vaccines
May 20 1927 - Charles Lindbergh, a 25-year-old aviator, took off at 7:52 a.m. from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, in the Spirit of St. Louis attempting to win a $25,000 prize for the first solo nonstop flight between New York City and Paris. Thirty-three hours later, after a 3,600 mile journey, he landed at Le Bourget, Paris, earning the nickname "Lucky Lindy" and becoming an instant worldwide hero. From New York to Paris 1927
• 1932 - Amelia
Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. She departed
Newfoundland, Canada, at 7 p.m. and landed near Londonderry, Ireland,
completing a 2,026-mile flight in about 13 hours. Five years later, along with
her navigator Fred Noonan, she disappeared while trying to fly her twin-engine
plane around the equator. National Air and Space Museum website for Earhart.
May 21, 1881 - The American Red Cross was founded by Clara Barton.
May 24, 1844 - Telegraph inventor Samuel Morse sent the first official telegraph message, "What hath God wrought?" from the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., to Baltimore.
May 25, 1787 - The Constitutional Convention began in Philadelphia with delegates from seven states forming a quorum.
May 25, 1994 - After 20 years in exile, Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to his homeland from Cavendish, VT. He had been expelled from Soviet Russia in 1974 after his three-volume work exposing the Soviet prison camp system, The Gulag Archipelago, was published in the West. Solzhenitsyn Bids Farewell to Cavendish.
Solzhenitsyn’s Return to Russia
