Sunday, May 19, 2019

Spring 2019 Newsletter

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CHS ANNUAL PLANT SALE MAY 25!!!

The Cavendish Historical Society’s (CHS) Annual Plant sale has been moved to Memorial Day weekend, and will take place on May 25 (Saturday). Due to the fire at Town Garage, the Museum lost its water, which was a challenge at last year’s sale in July.  The change in date also takes advantage of the “planting weekend.” The sale will be from 9-2 on the Museum grounds.

Expect to find hosta and many of your favorite perennials along with container gardens for tomato plants, herbs and new this year- “salad in a bucket.” By popular request, we do have mock orange along with a variety of annuals. For more information, go to the CHS Blog 2019 Plant Sale page.

REMEMBERING DR. BONT

It is with incredible sadness we note the passing of Dr. Eugene Merlin Bont, a great friend of the CHS, who died on April 13 at the age of 88.

Born on Mother’s Day in 1930 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Gene was one of four children. He worked from the time he was nine years old – first, delivering flowers- and then, from age 11, for Bont & Sons, his father and grandfather’s roofing company.

Dr. Bont married Phyllis Flint, in 1951, having known her since they were 4. He graduated from Hope College in Holland, Michigan and from Northwestern University School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, in 1956. He completed his residency at Fletcher Allen Medical Center in Burlington.

Gene loved to tell the story of how he came to Cavendish.

 Prior to his arrival, the physician serving the town died. Two fatal car accidents occurred and Cavendish found they could not rely on Ludlow for medical coverage. Community leaders meet with the University of Vermont Medical School and were advised to equip a medical office and then recruit a physician. Kenwood Mills, who purchased Gay Brothers Mills and its holdings in 1951, donated the stone building to help form the new Black River Health Center (BRHC).

On his first visit, they drove him along the Cavendish Reading Road and Dr. Bont was sold. As much as he wanted to live there, he settled on the large white house that overlooked Cavendish Village and was built by Olin Gay. Here, he and Phyllis raised seven children, provided foster care and entertained many of the neighborhood kids.

In 1970, having read about a new Physician Assistant (PA) program at Duke University, Dr. Bont recruited two students from the program.  These were the very first PAs in the nation to work in clinical practice. Dr. Bont, Phyllis Bont, a nurse, along with others, worked with the VT Medical Society, the VT State Legislature and Springfield Hospital to design a program that would allow PAs to work at an unprecedented level of independence in a community setting and to get the Vermont Physician Assistant Practice Act, and a corresponding Act for Nurse Practitioners (NPs), created and passed. Using the second Act, Phyllis. Bont later joined Dr. Bont’s medical practice as one of the first NPs in the state of Vermont.

Dr. Bont became an associate professor at Yale University, which drew medical students into the BRHC on their family practice rotation and allowed Dr. Bont to travel around the U.S. explaining how rural physicians could use these two types of providers in their practices. There are now 115,547 Certified PAs and 270,000 licensed NPs who practice in ways designed under Dr. Bont’s leadership.

As if running the BRHC and providing primary care to Cavendish and the surrounding area wasn’t enough, he also served on the Duttonsville School Board. Through his leadership, in 1967, he helped to craft a union high school district (Green Mountain Union High School) for grades 7-12 that consisted of the towns of Cavendish, Andover, Chester and Duttonsville.  The latter school would be merged in 1972 with the Proctorsville School, creating the Cavendish Town Elementary School (CTES).

In 1988, Dr. Bont not only received the Physician of the Year Award from the Vermont Medical Society but he left Cavendish for Albany Medical Center’s Department of Family Medicine. Here he would not only continue to practice but he became a professor of medicine, training students and residents, as well as helping to chart new directions in Family Medicine.

Upon retiring in 2000, Dr. Bont returned to Cavendish full time. Shortly thereafter, his combined love of children and education, led him to become a member of the CTES board, often serving as chair, until the board was dissolved in June 2018. In recent years, he was also on the GMUHS Board.

Loving the outdoors, it was no surprise that he became a Master Gardener in retirement.

He was a runner and hiker and at 80 years of age, he participated in the CHS’s hike over Hawks Mountain to look for the fabled cannon.  Other passions included singing in the Grace Congregational United Church of Christ in Rutland, fishing, birding, and stamp collector.

In 2015, he received the George F. Leland Award, which recognizes an individual who exemplifies the highest ideals of community health care.

Dr. Bont is survived by his wife Phyllis, six children and numerous grandchildren and great grandchildren.

CAVENDISH’S SCHOOLS: Part I
From 1795 to present day, there have been a total of 13 public schools in Cavendish. Students were assigned to the school closest to where they lived, and in general, their homes were located within a mile of their schoolhouse.

John Snarksi painted a series of Cavendish schools, These pictures have recently been rehung in the hallway of the last remaining school, Cavendish Town Elementary School (CTES).

CHS is running a series on the Cavendish VT Facebook page about the various school’s Snarski has painted. Consequently, we’re able to add various responses as we learn more history with each posting.

Cavendish Academy was organized in 1792 and was one of the first academies in the state. The Academy, on the corner of High St and Main street, was built in 1812 and ceased to function in the late 1850s. It was used as a drill hall during the Civil War, and has served as a store as well for various businesses. 


District 5 Wheeler School Prior to the school being built in 1861 on Twenty Mile School, at the intersection of Chapman Rd, a schoolhouse, called the “Wigwam,” was on the corner. According to Sara Stowell, This school was situated right in the corner of the hay field in front of our house, known as the Riford House, but that wasn’t there until 1912. When the Wheeler School was built, Colonel Wheeler deeded the building and an acre or two to the school district. The building and land were to be returned to the farm if the school ceased operation, which it did, I believe in 1954 or 55. [The school closed in 1955.]  It went back to the Fancy’s who owned the farm at the time. My parents bought the farm in 1964 and around 1973 sold the schoolhouse to the Al Phil Carloni who renovated it. His children still own it. In response to John Snarski’s question about whether the building still looked the same, Sara wrote, the Carloni’s added a door for egress between the Western windows, much to my mother Jennifer’s chagrin lol, since we look it from our front porch, but it is still identical. The outhouses now make up a storage shed and the inside was renovated but kept simple and lovely. They put in a loft for sleeping. It’s gorgeous still.

District 7: Fittonsville School (Spring Mill): This school was built to accommodate the children whose families came to work at the Fitton Mill (Spring Mills). The mill was built in1867 and it burned in 1875. The school, Cavendish Gulf Rd,  is a private residence. John Snarksi writes, “I used to deliver the Grit weekly news paper to Rob Manley, a mill worker who lived in this building, which had been converted to his home. The railroad tracks run right behind this place. That school may have been a busy place during the Fittonsville days, but one time, when I did some research of old town records for a Historical Society presentation after painting these pics, I discovered that there was a big influx of students, many not speaking English. This was in the 1880's, a few years after the Fitton mill had burned. They must have been the children of workers who walked over the bridge to the mill that preceded the Mack Molding plant now. I didn't go digging deeper, and from what I can tell, there are still some real stories to tell about this old-time schools.


District 7 Duttonsville School : Duttonsville School building, was used as a school from 1862 to 1971, and today is the home of Dan Churchill. and his business, Commercial Radio. The current building replaced a stone one-room schoolhouse, which was sold as a family dwelling and remained on the property until the flood of 1927.

In 1880, Benjamin White, born in Cavendish and prospered as an East India merchant in Boston, left a trust of $4,000 to be invested and the income used by Duttonsville School, in whatever way the trustee thought best.

In 1901, the Duttonsville School district was separated from the other town districts by a special act of the Vermont Legislature. Voters in this district were not entitled to vote on items relating to other school districts. In 1922, the two-room schoolhouse became overcrowded and it was expanded to be a three-room schoolhouse.
The flood of 1927 caused heavy damage in the Black River Valley, particularly Cavendish. Redfield Proctor, former Vermont governor, offered $10,000 to restore the schoolhouse. Olin Gay, Chairman of the School Board, proposed using this gift to move the school to a new location. He also proposed that the town raise an additional $5,000 by taxes to put in an auditorium basement, modernize the heating system and install toilets. The school building was moved on big rollers by oxen and horses several hundred feet back to a safer location. It had much better facilities than before the flood.
 A Vermont Standard School until 1928, thanks to the renovations after the flood, Duttonsville was upgraded to a “Superior School,” a status it retained until closing in 1971. This was a unique feature, as few schools in the state met the criteria to be graded as “Superior.”
 Starting in 1953, the Town began the process of voting on consolidation of the schools in Cavendish and Proctorsville, which did not take place until 1972. Dan Churchill estimates that 1,080 students have been educated in the building that he purchased in 1972 and moved into in 1973.
District 12 Rumke School: The Rumke School is located on the Greenbush Rd., off Tarbell Hill. In 1875, the school superintendent noted that this was such a small school that the parents should consider sending their children to another district. The school still stands on what is the Leonards' property. The "chalkboard," made of wood painted with a combination of house paint and unsanded grout, is at the CHS, along with other items from the schoolhouse. The school was closed in 1923.










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    __ Carmine Guica Young Historians

Donations are always welcome and can be designated as follows:
__ For general purposes                        __ Young Historians                  __Publications
__ Archaeological Activities                _ Museum & Archival             __ Special Events
__ Rankin Fund                           __  Williams Fund                  __ Solzhenitsyn Project
__ Other (please specify)                      __ Cemetery Restoration           __ Preservation Projects

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