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PO Box 472 Cavendish, VT 05142
802-226-7807 margocaulfield@icloud.com
Summer 2026 Vol. 21, Issue 3
UPCOMING ACTIVITIES
Cavendish Historical Society (CHS) events are free, unless noted otherwise. Donations are always welcome and appreciated. In the event of last minute changes due to weather, or another issue, information will be posted to the Cavendish Facebook page [www.facebook.com/cavendishvt].
September 5 (Saturday): Honey Festival 10:30-4 Proctorsville Green
September 13 (Sunday): Phineas Gage Walk and Talk, meet at the Museum at 2 pm. The walk includes the site of the Gage accident. It’s approximately three quarters of a mile from the Museum.
September 20 (Sunday): Dr. Charis Boke, the herbalist and medical anthropologist from Dartmouth, will lead a medicinal plant walk at Greven Field. Meet at the Museum at 2pm. Wear comfortable shoes and bring bug spray and a water bottle. This is part of Storm Awareness Week.
October-November: Aleksandr Solzhenitysn exhibit at the Cavendish Fletcher Memorial Library, 753 Main St. Proctorsville.
October 11 (Sunday): Last day the Museum is open for the season.
October 31 (Saturday): Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) workshop at the Cavendish Library from 10-noon
November: Date to be announced. Proctorsville Ghost Walk.
December 5 (Saturday): Russian Holiday Ornament Making and Tea, 10-noon at the Cavendish Library,
250 ROCKS-CELEBRATING THE 4TH OF JULY
CHS, in conjunction with SuperRoasted-Cavendish’s local coffee house-hosted a reading of the Declaration of Independence on the 4th of July. Two hundred and fifty years ago, many colonists learned about the Declaration by hearing it read at their local coffee houses, which was the hub of news and business.
The porch was crowded and quiet as CHS board member Bruce McEnaney read the Declaration, pausing at points to clarify the meaning of phrases that would be less clear today than it was back then. Just as it was many years ago, those in attendance discussed aspects of what was read. All in all, a perfect way to start the 4th of July.
Before school closed for the summer, Cavendish Town Elementary School (CTES) 6th graders, along with several community members, painted red, white and blue 250th rocks. Honoring both the flag of the Green Mountain Boys and Vermont’s first flag as an indep
endent republic, three rocks were painted green with a blue rectangular emblem in the upper left corner with white stars.
People are sending pictures of rocks they’ve found and as one person noted, “it’s a great way to make history exciting.” We’ve asked that rocks are left in place until the fall,
Hint: To find these special rocks, they are located in parts of town that pertained to the Green Mountain Boys, the soldiers of the Revolution and an encampment. Good luck. For more information call 802-226-7807 or e-mail margocaulfield@icloud.com
HISTORY OF THE BLACK RIVER
As part of Storm Water Awareness Week, on Sunday Sept. 20 CHS will once again sponsor a talk/walk with Dr. Charis Boke on the medicinal plants growing in Greven Field, which is being turned into a flood plain and a recreation area.
Cavendish grew up around the Black River, as it was an important source to help run the mills and other industry. Below is a historical timeline of the River and its impact on the town.
1st Peoples: There is archeological evidence of human occupation at Jackson Gore in Ludlow that dates back at least 11,000 years (9,000 BC), shortly after the ice age ended. The Black River was a major route as it was a connector to the Connecticut River. During the summer months, the 1st Peoples would have set up fishing and hunting camps along the river, staying for weeks at a time. These would not be permanent settlements. There is evidence of an Archaic Indian settlement (5,000-7,000 years ago) in Cavendish, well away from the Black River, but above Twenty Mile Stream, which feeds into the Black River.
Late 18th Century: The villages of Cavendish (called Duttonsville) and Proctorsville are established along the Black River. In 1784: the first saw and grist mill is established
1824: The town had eight saw-mills, three grist-mills, four fulling-mills, three carding machines, two woolen factories, one nail factory, three tanneries, and two distilleries, all located on the Black River or on Twenty Mile Stream.
1832: Black River Canal and Manufacturing Company built in Cavendish village. By 1842, they employed 175 workers making broadcloth. The building burned in 1873. Gay Brothers Woolen Mills eventually built on this property.
1835: Proctorsville Woolen Manufacturing Company, started by Jabez Proctor, employed 35 workers, making cassimere cloth by 1842.
1849: The Rutland Railroad runs through both villages, connecting Burlington and Boston.
1867: Fitton Mill (Spring Mill) established and soon became the largest mill in the area. The Mill complex was destroyed by arson in 1875. Remains of the Mill can be seen in the area just before the Cavendish Gorge.
1869: The flood of 1869 destroyed New City. This area was located four miles from Cavendish village near Weathersfield. The 1855 Hosea Doton map shows three building, with one marked ‘sawmill.” New City is an example of an area that, according to the usual pattern of New England settlement, would not be inhabited Far from other settlements, deep in a narrow valley, subject to flooding, it does not make sense to live there unless an economic situation provides incentive. The promise of good waterpower during a boom time must have caused the essential optimism to seek a “New City.” This area was an example of 19th cen
tury waterpower manufacturing boom and related domestic sites that are no longer operating or even standing.
1905: The Claremont Power Company began construction of the Cavendish Hydro Station on the Black River. The dam was built in 1907, at the entrance to the gorge, and operation of the hydro station began that same year. Currently the hydro dam is owned by Green Mountain Power.
1927: The largest flood on record in Vermont caused heavy damage in the Black River Valley, particularly Cavendish. A quarter mile long channel avulsion bypassing the Cavendish Gorge eroded approximately 2 million tons of sediment down to bedrock leaving a channel 150 feed deep and 600 feet wide. Seven houses were washed away and the Duttonsville School ended up protruding over the edge of a high sandbank.
1936: March of that year saw a “double flood,” with 7.89 inches of rain combined with snow melt.
1938: On Sept. 21, a hurricane struck the Town. The winds blew down thousands of trees, blocking nearly every road.
1952: June 1 flooding though not as bad as previous ones.
1973: June flood was quite severe and likely the worst in the 73-year period between the Great Flood of 1927 and Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. It washed out many roads and bridges. The flooding was primarily caused by copious moisture streaming northward along a stalled frontal boundary across eastern New York State. Repeated rounds of heavy rainfall caused many streams and rivers to flood. Many of these rivers and streams were already running high from above average monthly rainfall during May and the first half of June.
1977: Cavendish and Weathersfield residents learn that Springfield is planning to build a hydroelectric plant on the Black River from the media. Concerned Citizens of the Black River Valley (CCBRV) is formed to keep Springfield from building the generating project. Six units were proposed, the largest of which was Hawks Mountain Dam located on the Cavendish/Weathersfield town line. This dam would have been of earth fill construction, 165 feet in height and 900 feet in length at the crest and would have flooded five miles in Cavendish. CCBRV included citizens of the Towns of Cavendish, Weathersfield, and Springfield. Their slogan was “Save the Valley.”
2011: Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene was a large West Indian tropical cyclone that moved northward across coastal New Jersey, New York, southwestern New England and eventually into the Connecticut River Valley of Vermont during August 28. While Irene’s winds were only moderately strong in Vermont, the storm produced tremendous amounts of rainfall which led to devastating flooding. Tropical Storm Irene causes considerable damage, including the loss of several homes and millions of dollars worth of damage to the town’s infrastructure (water, sewer, electricity and power) as well as roads. The flooding waters created a “canyon” similar to the one in 1927.
2023: On July 10, the town experiences flooding similar to Irene. The damage to private homes, businesses and roads was more extensive than the 2011 tropical storm., but the town’s infrastructure-water, waste water and power held. On July 12, a second wave of flooding occurred and again on Dec. 18. Smokin’ Bowls, which was heavily damaged, closes. The former Crows Bakery was set to open in two weeks when the floods hit. Greven Field sustains heavy damage in all three floods and has all remaining buildings, bleachers and fencing removed.
2024: Spring rains and melt cause Greven Field to flood two more times, once again damaging the entry way. The town opts not to fix the road and applies for funds to turn it into a floodplain and nature area.
50th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF SOLZHENITSYN’S MOVING TO CAVENDISH
In 2018, CHS worked with the Vermont Historical Society (VHS) on an exhibit at the VHS Museum entitled “Solzhenitsyn in Vermont.” The Solzhenitsyn in Vermont exhibit celebrates the life and work of Russian novelist and historian Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, particularly his time living in Cavendish, Vermont and its influence on his life and work. Telling the story through photographs, quotes, and family memories, the exhibit includes 5 main exhibit panels, along with 4 timeline panels noting important moments from Solzhenitsyn’s life.
Designed as a traveling exhibit, it will be on display at the Cavendish Fletcher Community Library, 753 Main St., Proctorsville for the months of October and November. In addition to the VHS display are the autographed books Solzhenitsyn donated to the town when he returned to Russia.
Accompanying the exhibit will be an opening reception in October, an event in or around November 17, honoring both the 64thanniversary of the publication of “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denosvitch” in Novy Mir along with the new publication of “Love the Revolution” in English (see article below). The first Saturday in December, CHS will offer a workshop on making Russian holiday ornaments and enjoy a Russian Tea.
LOVE THE REVOLUTION
On November 17, for the first time, Solzhenitsyn’s unfinished novel “Love the Revolution” will be published in English by Harper Perennial.
Composed primarily in 1948 while he was imprisoned within the Soviet gulag system's Marfino sharashka, Love the Revolution is an unfinished autobiographical novel that is a snapshot of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's life during World War II.
On a Sunday morning in June 1941, Gleb Nerzhin, a young man with a deep faith in Marxism who is eager to serve the revolution, arrives in Moscow to enroll in a prestigious institute for the study of philosophy, literature, and history. But world events will transform the course of his life, for this is the very day that Hitler launches his attack on the Soviet Union.
Solzhenitsyn originally envisioned Love the Revolution to be an account of his entire military career. Though unfinished, it is an incredible story of conflict, deprivation, and turmoil which illuminates how a true believer's faith in the Soviet system--his love of the revolution--begins to disintegrate in the face of reality. This earliest of the famed dissident's known prose works stands as an impressive literary achievement and as a harrowing reminder of the chaos and precariousness of wartime Russia.
The book can be pre ordered on Amazon and other book sites.
CAVENDISH’S UNKNOWN SOLDIER
Here lies an unknown soldier of the French and Indian War who died in 1760 while building the Crown Point Road Beside which he rests.
According to the Historical Road Markers on the Crown Point Road, Mrs. Charlton’s article in the Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society, December 1931, on the Crown Point Road describes the location as follows: “In Mr. Parker’s Dutton Pasture, about 30 rods from his house, we come upon the grave, one rod north of the stone wall and east of the barway. A rough stone marks the head within 10 feet of the old road.”
The wooden directional marker on Brook Road (located between the South Reading Road and the intersection of Atkinson and Center Road) was placed by the Boy Scouts in 1964.
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
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 __ Carmine Guica Young Historians
Donations are always welcome and can be designated as follows:
__ Archaeological Activities _ Museum & Archival __ Special Events
__ Rankin Fund __ Williams Fund __ Solzhenitsyn Project
__ Other (please specify) __ Cemetery Restoration __ Preservation Projects
