CHS Briefs March 1, 2019

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Happy Women’s History Month!

There is never a slow time of the year for CHS, but the snow and ice has keeps us a bit more home bound so it’s a good time to catch up on various research projects and to prepare for the season ahead.

RESEARCHING AND WRITING

• Women’s History Month CHS is continuing their series “Cavendish Women You Should Know.” This year we have gone back to our archives and are updating information to previously collected materials. Part I is by Barbara Kingsbury. She not only provides an overview of what life was like for women who helped to settle Cavendish, but she discusses women who worked in the mills, owned businesses as well as those who worked in health care, including three sisters who became doctors. Throughout March, CHS will be providing another chapter in the women who have helped and continue to shape our town.

• CHS Winter Newsletter: Contains our research on the 106 year old abolitionist and former slave Peter Tumbo who lived in Cavendish for about 40 years. Tumbo was a Revolutionary War veteran and this issue includes various stories about other Cavendish Patriots.

• No Mr. Hickernell is Not Buried in the Basement: The rumor has long persisted that since Mr. Hickernell seemed to have disappeared around the same time his wife had a concrete basement poured, that this was his final resting place. Yes, Mr. Hickernell did die, but in his garage (Dr. Bont was called) and he’s buried in Pennsylvania. However, his wife Theresa Ruth Swetitch Hickernell-Smith is a whole other story. We’ve received lots of comments to the original post, so we’ve added them. They’re almost better than the original post.

WHAT WE’RE DOING

Carmine Guica Young Historians: We were fortunate to have local fiddler Bob Naess to explore with 5^th and 6^th grade music classes the origins of American music as part of Black History Month.  He will be bringing his Irish band to school on March 15 for a concert, which will be part of a St. Patrick’s Day celebration at CTES. We’re working on various trips, workshops and activities for the months ahead. Among these are trips to Shaker Village (3^rd grade); one room school house experience (2^nd grade); trip to Precision Valley Museum (4-6^th grades); and a trip to the archeology dig site, which is part of the Castleton South Champlain Historical Ecology Project in W. Haven, VT. https://www.facebook.com/schep.research/

Solzhenitsyn: We’re working with the state to erect an Historic Road Marker in Cavendish regarding Solzhenitsyn’s time here. Hope to have it up this summer.

SAVE THE DATE

March 31 (Sunday): Annual Meeting will be held on Sunday, March 31 (Sunday), 4 pm at the Cavendish Baptist Church. As part of the Meeting, we will be screening Alone in the Wilderness. The film provides a glimpse into what life might have been like for Cavendish’s pioneering families. We hope to have Proctorsville resident, Tim O’Donoghue on hand that afternoon as he visited Proenneke’s property this past June.

May 25 (Saturday): CHS Annual Plant Sale. NOTE CHANGE OF DATE.

If you have questions or wish to volunteer with CHS, please call 802-226-7807, e-mail margocaulfield@icloud.com