March is National Women’s History Month. This year’s theme is “Celebrating Women who Tell Our Stories.” Throughout 2023, the National Women’s History Alliance (NWHA) encourages recognition of women, past and present, who have been active in all forms of media and storytelling including print, radio, TV, stage, screen, blogs, podcasts, and more. The timely theme honors women in every community who have devoted their lives and talents to producing art, pursuing truth, and reflecting the human condition decade after decade.
Cavendish maybe small, but it has and continues to have a diverse group of women “who tell, or help others, to tell their stories,” through a variety of means including books, song, and an array of digital opportunities. While we’ve tried to identify as many women as possible, we’re sure we’ve missed some. If you know of any other women connected to Cavendish past or present, that should be on this list, please e-mail margocaulfield@icloud.com or call 802-226-7807.
For the most part, it’s been women that have written and recorded Cavendish’s history. Below are books/booklets available from the Cavendish Historical Society (CHS) and can be read at the Cavendish library. They are also available for sale at the Town Office:
• “Chubb Hill Farm and Cavendish Vermont: A Family and Town History” by Barbara B. Kingsbury (excellent resource document for Cavendish History
• “Cavendish Hillside Farm 1939 to 1957” by Sandra Stearns (suitable for all ages and enjoyable for younger ages as a read aloud book).
• “Cemeteries of Cavendish Vermont, 1776-1976 by Mary Churchill
• “Heritage & Homes” among the women who contributed to this booklet are Nellie Haven Johnson; Elizabeth Williams; Mrs. Roy Heald; Ethel Roosevelt Derby; E. Izella Williams; Mrs. Harold Howe; Edith Gleason; Vivian Spaulding; Mrs. W.C. Prior; Mrs. Isabelle Briggs; Etta Fitzgibbons; Fanny Fletcher; Mildred Ward; Margaret Gould Owens; and Mrs. Giles Denny.
• “Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: The Writer Who Changed History” by Margo Caulfield with layout and production by Julia Gignoux (suitable for students in grades 4-7)
• “Cavendish Families: Volumes 1-4” by Linda Farr Welch (genealogy-note that volumes 3 and 4 are no longer available for purchase)
Other books/stories pertaining to Cavendish’s history, written by women, which are available for free on-line:
• Janet Mabie Neither Wealth Nor Poverty: The History of the Woolen Mills of Gay Brothers 1869-1944.
• Lorien Strange is the youngest writer on this list. She was about 14 when she created the “Cavendish Escape Room” as a fun way to teach Cavendish history. She’s won the Halloween ghost story contest from Saugus.net at least three times. Currently attending the Expeditionary School at Black River, be sure to check out her Escape Room.
• Lois Wheeler History of Cavendish VT in 1952
Margo Caulfield, writes the weekly Cavendish Update, maintains the Cavendish VT Facebook page and Cavendish Connects Website, keeps the Cavendish Historical Timeline current, maintains the CHS blog, and writes the quarterly CHS newsletter. She also writes the blog Healing Whole. Barbara Phillips has written a number of articles and given talks on various aspects of Cavendish history, including “Cavendish Men in the Civil War.” Pat Rankin, while not a writer, organized a clipping service, whereby members of CHS met at her house and clipped articles from various newspapers and publications that pertained to Cavendish. Thanks to these efforts, CHS has good documentation of how Solzhenitsyn was viewed by the press while he lived in Cavendish.
Cavendish Community Players: In 2006, the Cavendish Community Players (CCP) was formed, under the direction of Bridget Lester to perform “Our Town.” The next year, Lauryn Axelrod of the Weston Playhouse and Village Green Arts created the first of what would be known as the Cavendish Chronicles series. At this point, Sandra Russo, came into her own as producer as well as actor. Axelrod, helped a group of community volunteers to write a play about the town. Assisted by Bridget Lester, funding for the project was made possible by a grant from the Cavendish Community Fund and Gethsemane Church. Performed in the Glimmerstone Barn, Diane McNamara wrote the music for the production. As she noted, she hadn’t realized when she signed on as musical director she would have to write all original music.
While CCP performed other productions, such as “Tourists Accommodated” in 2010 and Stan and Jane Hart’s “Look at it This Way,” in 2012, they would re-examine town history in 2011, by performing the Cavendish Chronicles II. This was in honor of the town’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the town charter. Once again Sandra Russo was producer with Kata Welch directing and writing the play.
Many women were involved in the productions as actors as well as behind the scenes. Becky Plunkard was a genius at figuring out how to use thrift store finds as props, sets and costumes for 18th century Cavendish as well as for other plays.
Cavendish Tapestry: Wendy Regier, a fiber artist, told the town’s history through a tapestry, which she would bring to the Proctorsville concert series and other public events, inviting people to weave a row. The tapestry hangs at the Cavendish Library and is dedicated to former town manager Rich Svec.
Other Cavendish women involved in the story telling arts:
• Harriett Ellen Grannis Arey was a 19th-century American educator, author, editor, and publisher who was born in Cavendish and went on to write for such publications as The Daily Cleveland Herald. Her principal work was "Household Songs and other Poems" (New York, 1854).
• Fanny Bacon 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.
• Sahara Bebo is a technical media producer at Gray Television. She’s a graduate of Cavendish Town Elementary School (CTES) where her mother has been the 6th grade teacher.
• Clare Berkman, new to Cavendish and assistant librarian at the Cavendish Library, Clare has worked in the development and production of Reality TV, independent Films and web based content. She “strives to make new work that brings brilliant collaborators together to share their human experience with a wider community.”
• Shannon Devereux has been working with multi-media for many years and is currently the Instructional Technology Services Manager at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
• Barbara Dickey PHD was with the Dept. of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School publishing 85 research articles
• Jane Hart: A journalist and author, she has written for Glamour, Mademoiselle, Seventeen, Parents, Ladies Home Journal, The New York Times, Town and Country and others. Under the name Jane Marks, she wrote five books, including: The Hidden Children: The Secret Survivors of the Holocaust. Jane is an art therapist and painter of dogs and people. Lots of her portraits can be seen around town and she often donates portraits for fundraisers. A part time resident, she has done the illustrations for several of Linda Thomson’s books COVID- A Hypnopotamus and You and “Harry Goes to Save the Children of Ukraine” During the Covid pandemic, many of Jane’s daily cartoons appeared on the Cavendish VT Facebook page.
• Sharon Huntley, who recently moved to Maine, was a reporter for the Vermont Journal, and prior to that owned the public relations firm, “Digital Flannel.”
Kate Lorenz
• Kate Lorenz grew up in Cavendish and became well known for telling her story through music, including being in the band Rusty Belle and her solo album “Sing When Lonely”. She was a programmer for Valley Free Radio. Sadly, Kate passed suddenly in 2022. Tribute to Kate Lorenz “Sing When Lonely”
• Mary McCallum, recently moved to Saxton’s River, is a freelance writer who was a regular commentator for Vermont Public Radio.
• Svetlana Phillips, while Dr. Linda. Thomson wrote the book “Harry Goes to Save the Children of Ukraine”Svetlana, read the story in Ukrainian. Produced by Okemo Valley TV, the production was shared with humanitarian service agencies overseas, with the intent of supporting children who have been displaced and whose lives have been upset by the ongoing war. The author Linda Thomson, is the wife of the former Cavendish Town Elementary School (CTES) Principal. Svetlana is also a translator/interpreter speaking multiple languages including English, Russian and Ukrainian.
• Cecile, Anna and Deborah Shapiro: Cecile was a part time resident who became a permanent resident. Her daughters Anna and Deborah, spent vacations in Cavendish and Anna divides her time between New York City and here. Anna was a regular book reviewer for The New Yorker, and has written about books for The New York Times, The Guardian (England), The Nation, and many other journals as well as published editorials. Her one volume of nonfiction is a collection of essays about fiction (Proust, Mann, Tolstoy) in which food is pivotal to the plot or as a central metaphor. Her sister Deborah Krasner has written a number of cookbooks. Cecile wrote for various magazines, and even wrote a piece on fellow Cavendish resident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
• Stacia Spaulding PHD is not only a freelance medical/scientific copyeditor she also writes for the Chester Telegraph. In addition, she’s a Nannofossil Biostratigrapher and a jewelry maker-Meadowbrook Designs.
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| Natalia Solzhenitsyn |
• Natalia Solzhenitsyn served as her husband’s editor and continues to deal with publishers, reporters and readers for Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s work. Her mother,Yekaternia Svetlova, an aeronautical engineer in Russia, helped in preparing her son-in-law’s books for print by painstakingly turning English letters into Cyrillic script. Learn more this mother/daughter team at Cavendish Women You Should Know-N.Solzhenitsyn & Svetlova
• Sara Stowell is an English/Spanish translator and interpreter providing services in medical, legal and educational settings.
• Kata Welch, while librarian for the Cavendish Library, Kata won two years in a row, “Youth Programming Producer of the Year” from Okemo Valley TV for “Story Time”, where she reads from a wide selection of children’s books.
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