Cavendish Business Directory Nov. 2012

The November 2012 Cavendish Business Directory has been posted to http://cavendishvt.blogspot.com/2012/11/cavendish-business-directory-1112.html 

The businesses listed are located and/or owned by Cavendish/Proctorsville residents. Inclusion in this directory should not be viewed as a recommendation. If you would like your business included in the directory, e-mail margoc@tds.net or call 802-226-7807. Be sure to include the full name of your business and how you can be reached, including e-mail and web address. 

The Directory is a project of the Cavendish Historical Society. 

Linda's Corner: Early Cavendish Families

Sometimes when we are at the historical society we overlook things that are interesting reading. Here is  an article that Merrill Dole Wheeler had published Oct 1947 in the Vermont Quarterly. It is about early Cavendish folks, and very interesting indeed !  Linda Welch.

The Old Morgan Cemetery - - Henry Proctor’s grave - - Wheeler and Densmore Farms – Reverend Joseph Brown  - Cavendish Baptists – Levi Stevens – William Bond and their families

From Merrill Dole Wheeler:  "Near at hand by the eastern wall of this old [Morgan] Revolutionary cemetery in Cavendish, is a grave of much interest, if not of mystery. It stands alone, the only gravestone facing eastward.  The inscription reads. "Henry Procter, died June 19 1778 age 51", thus indicating that it marks the first burial in Cavendish, earlier by eight years than any death of record.  Who was this lone man of mature years, and what brought him into the wilderness when only three families were living in town? A little research has grown some light on this subject, taking us away form the seclusion of the little cemetery, away from Vermont, then back again to the stone of the oldest, best known farms in town.

Henry Proctor was not closely related to others of that name who were to lived in the Proctorsville - Cavendish area. This Henry was the son of Gershom Proctor, who in his day had been a well-to-do citizen of Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Gershom had owned slaves as well as land and other property. He had also been one of the proprietors of a land bank, which issued currency on the basis of land band bonds, until suppressed by an Act of Parliament as unsound in principle and inflationary. While Gershom Proctor was a man of note in his community, it cannot be said that he or his son Henry enjoyed the full approval of the more conservative elements of Chelmsford's First Church Society.

This humbled the men, and thus doing so, the Church then proceeded to call the women to account before a meeting. If the reader things that Colonial women were demure and obedient, he should prepare for a surprise. "Diverse female members," among them Rebecca, the wife of Gershom Procter, acted in a "Very Audacious manner ... [and] Justified their Conduct!" Indeed they behaved so badly that it became necessary to dismiss them from the church "forthwith." So, Gershom Proctor and his wife were dismissed from their own church in Chelmsford. Years later —some 16 years later —in the case of Rebecca Proctor —a number of these errant "Females" acknowledged their fault and were taken back into the church. Unfortunately the Baptist movement came about with renewed vigor and Gershom Proctor was again one of its leaders. In 1773, the Baptist sect bought a church building on the Westford side of the line. When the identity of the purchaser became know, says the History of Chelmsford, the building was robbed of its pews and furnishings. Nothing daunted, the Baptists came in the night with ox sleds and hauled the building on the snow crust directly to its new site in Chelmsford, on or near the farm and home of Gershom Proctor."

Wheeler's article continues: "In January of 1778 after the death of his parents, Henry Proctor sold his home and land in Chelmsford for £2,376. This was a large sum in those days, sufficient to insure a good living in such a well-settled community in which he was raised. But Henry chose to forego the comforts of his home at the age of fifty years and subject himself and family to the hardships of pioneer life in an undeveloped section of Vermont, then known as the New Hampshire Grants Henry bought 1,076 acres of wild land from the original grantee for £600. Well chosen, this tract included within its bounds two of the [later] best farms of Cavendish, long known respectively as the Wheeler and Densmore farms in what is now, the Cavendish Center District. In coming to Vermont, Henry Proctor made a fateful decision and must have been moved by compelling motives, probably a strong desire to get away from a scene of religious strife and perhaps, also, an unwillingness to pay rates to support a church and congregation he did not care to attend or associate with.  It is significant that a number of those like-minded Baptists and neighbors from Westford and Chelmsford later followed him to Cavendish. Among them was Dr. Asaph Fletcher [see Families of Cavendish Volume One, Fletcher]. He became the first physician in Cavendish and a leading citizen in the new state of Vermont.  Dying in June of 1778, Henry Proctor did not live long in Cavendish, but it is supposed that he spent much of the winter there. It is strange that no record can be found of the administration of his rather large estate, either in Massachusetts or Vermont. A deed to his land in Cavendish was signed in Massachusetts a year after his death, evidently in confirmation of an "informal transaction" which had taken place prior to his leaving for his Vermont land. Members of Henry's family lingered in Cavendish for a number of years after his death. It was his widow who undoubtedly married second in 1784, Nahum Powers. [see: Families of Cavendish, Powers]. Nahum and his two sons Henry and Gershom Powers were landowners in Cavendish in the early 1790s.

Henry Proctor's daughter Rebecca, then living in Woburn, Mass, sold in 1788, two thirds of the land in Cavendish, "the property of my father Henry Proctor, deceased" to Levi Stevens, a member of an enterprising family of that named in Townsend, Mass [see Families of Cavendish, Stevens] Levi Stevens made a good start, built his log cabin. The site of this cabin can still be seen in the west pasture of the one-time Daniel Wheeler farm on the Twenty-Mile Stream [the Riford Farm] and a large house with a peaked roof, built in 1797, stood in place of the later farm house, until it was destroyed by fire in 1883. Daniel Wheeler, who finally became owner of the farm, was living with his Uncle Willard Spaulding in Cavendish when Reverend Joseph Brown came to town. Anna, wife of Willard Spaulding, was a sister of Joseph Brown. [see Families of Cavendish, Vol. 2, Spaulding, also families of Brown and Wheeler for later volumes]. Other sisters living in Cavendish were Mary (wife of Colonel Samuel Wyman) [see Families of Cavendish, Wyman] and Rebecca (wife of Josiah French) [see Families of Cavendish, Vol. 3, French].

Levi Stevens had a difficult time in making his ends meet. He had a wife and thirteen children to support. He was obliged to sell off parcels of his land from time to time, until finally, to liquidate a debt, the original farm passed into the hands of four local men, Levi’s creditors, who soon sold it to the Reverend Joseph Brown of Alfred, Maine — little suspecting the comedy that was in the making. Shortly before the day set for making payment and taking over the newly purchased farm, Reverend Brown started out on horseback from his home in Maine. In his saddlebags was the purchased price, so much in bullion, so much in bank notes —$800 in all. We may suppose that the good man began his journey in a hopeful mood. Behind him was a scene of trouble and sorrow. He had been minister in Alfred for four years and had seen fit to give up his church three years previously. Shakers and other radicals of that day had caused great dissension by their proselytizing and offensive agitation. Finally, during the current year, 1811, his wife Rebecca had died. He considered in Vermont, then a new state in its boom period, he could begin again. Rev. Brown had good reason to anticipate a much happier experience. There were no threats of quarrels over religion in the town of Cavendish. Also, he would be welcomed in that town by his three of his sisters, all wives of its leading citizens, and by other Congregationalists whose pastor he was to be for many years. Yes, he was assured of a welcome in Cavendish and of a good home there, but what about a mistress for it, a mother for his town children, an aid to him in his pastoral duties and in many other says? Surely there were attractive girls in that growing town who would consider it an honor to be the wife of a minister of the gospel, a man of some education and of good family. While we cannot be sure that such thoughts were with the traveler on his journey, we do know, as will after appear, that they came to him a little later.

Arriving in Cavendish after several days on the road, the Reverend Joseph Brown reached the farm at the specified time and found the people of the neighborhood on hand to witness the change in ownership by "turf and twig," this being in accord with an ancient custom that prevailed when the written word was not trusted or generally understood. Among them were families of Bates, Bond, Proctor, Smith, Spaulding, and probably young Daniel Wheeler; also the Conant's, French's, Hutchinson's, Page's, Scott's, Stiles' - with men, women and children. [see Families of Cavendish Vol. 3, French and later volumes on Wheeler, Conant, Page, Hutchinson, Scott, Stiles]. After greeting his new neighbors, many of whom were to be members of his church, and partaking of a tasty noon meal, Reverend Brown took the saddlebags from his horse and brought them into the east room of the farmhouse where he began to count the money. He counted and recounted the gold, silver and bank notes, but one note was constantly missing. No end of searching and checking brought the missing note to light. His Reverence was perplexed and greatly upset. He was certain that the full among of money had been placed in the bags and the disappearance of any part of it was a very great mystery indeed. It was also embarrassing for him to be in this position at his first meeting with the people of Cavendish, but nothing could be done. The frustrated man was compelled to return to Maine without paying for the farm in full.

The loss of the money was disturbing to the people of the neighborhood also, because many considered it to be a reflection on their honesty. It became so distressing to one William Bond [see Families of Cavendish, Bond] that he journeyed to Plymouth to consult a "conjurer" of that town. Unable to return with Bond in person, the conjurer was willing to tell him what to do to solve the mystery, namely: cause the people to reassemble and to bring to them the Great Bible and key of the Meeting House." Bond was shown how to suspend the Bible from the key by means of a cord, and was taught a jargon which each man was to repeat while he, in his turn, he held the Bible by means of the cord and key, well up in the air in the sight of everybody. The innocent would have no trouble in holding the Bible in this manner, said the conjurer, but the guilty would let it fall. Certain that he had the means of detecting the guilty party, Bond rushed home and called a meeting of the people of the neighborhood, convincing them that they should submit to this test. The beginning was without event. Several men met the test in triumph but when James Bates, [see Families of Cavendish, Bates] the local Blacksmith seized the key and began to repeat the magical words, the Bible fell violently to the floor to the astonishment of many. Mr. Bates was, by all accounts, a man of good repute among them. He was one of the joint owners of the farm being sold. His wife and daughter wept copiously and he appeared to be greatly disturbed himself at the prospect. After the confusion had subsided somewhat, it was proposed that the test be continued and the Bible was held by others without mishap until Mr. James Smith, [see Families of Cavendish, Smith] an outstanding citizen, dropped the Bible to the amazement of the people; later, Mr. Jabez Proctor, another leading citizen and joint owner of the farm, similarly failed in the test!

At this stage, Bond, a small, nervous man, became greatly excited. He had expected that some lowly fellow would be exposed by the test and frightened into admitting his guilt. The exposure instead of three joint owners of the farm, all men of substance and influence, was more than disconcerting —it was alarming. What would the people think of the test and what would these strong, shrewd men do? While hot and bothered by the course of events, Mr. Bond met with another surprise that was most disturbing. Some inconsiderate person suggested that he, the instigator of the test, should submit to it in his turn. This was not according to plan, considering the trouble he had taken, it seemed ungrateful, but the people insisted, and he could not refuse. Seizing the key, Bond raised the Bibe from its resting place, well in sight of everybody, trembling with excitement the while. He began to mumble the prescribed jargon and then disaster overtook him. The good book broke loose and fell to the floor with a crash, to his intense distress and that of his family. The frantic man proclaimed his innocence to the high heavens but the people were not impressed. They could not believe that the three leading citizens would stoop to petty theft, but it was conceivable that Mr. Bond, who was favored neither with much of this world's goods nor sound judgment, might have yielded to temptation. Why had he taken on himself the task of detecting the thief unless he aimed to hide his own guilt by throwing suspicion on others?  The meeting broke up in confusion and poor Mr. Bond departed for his hillside farm, bewildered, discouraged, shame faced. Conscious of his own innocence and good intentions, he felt that he had been badly used by his neighbors whose good name he had tried so hard to preserve.

Whether his faith in conjure waned at this time, we have to means of learning, but it must have occurred to him that the conjurer who had been "unable" to attend the meeting in person was a man of discretion, much too sagacious to challenge the intelligence of the early settlers of Cavendish. They were by no means an ignorant, superstitious lot, as the future was to demonstrate.  In the little group that stood for the test were several keen, understanding men, whose sons inherited qualities that brought them great wealth, professional reputation, a seat in the Governor's chair, in the U. S. Senate and in the [case of Redfield Proctor] Cabinet of a President. Could the magic of the conjurer have told him as much?

But no man was to suffer loss or incur disgrace because of the missing money. Shortly after the day of the test, a letter came from Maine. It told how the Reverend Joseph Brown had taken another look into his saddlebags after returning to his home and there, to his great astonishment, was the bank note that he had overlooked in Cavendish, to the grief and confusion of many! And then it came out that William Bond had been the victim of a plot. The three men who had dropped the Bible, skeptics one and all, had done so intentionally in order to make a farce of his test, and to have a little fun with him, at the expense of the superstitious among them. Especially Bond, the little busybody, in their midst. The purchase of the farm was duly consummated and "Priest Brown" as he came to be known, made Cavendish his home for sixteen years. He died in 1840 and the Congregational Society of Cavendish also came to an end at about that time. It is not known that he ever threw any light on his strange failure to see the ten pound note, but the mystery was explained by curious people somewhat as follows: As intimated previously, this middle-aged widower had a variety of hopes and interests in Cavendish. When he arrived in town with business in mind and met the good people who had assembled at the farm to welcome him, his quick eye caught the pretty face of Lucy [Proctor], the daughter of Benjamin Proctor. It was a case of love at first sight. Matters of business lost much of their importance at once as did the sorrows of a widower. This was in April of 1811. In November of that year, say the Cavendish records, the Reverend Joseph Brown and Lucy Proctor were joined in matrimony. It is strange that the fast-working pastor was unable to see a mere bank note while his heart was pounding like mad and his eyes were dazzled by the first sight of his future bride?  

Scribber II Fall 2012: CHS Newsletter

Remembering Jim Ballantine

It is with sadness that we report the passing of Jim Ballantine on August 2. A long-standing member of the Cavendish Select board,  the Cavendish Town Elementary School Board and the Cavendish Municipal Water System Board, Jim was the chair of the Select board for the last several years. In prior years, he was very active with the Cavendish Fire Department.

Whether it was looking for a cannon on Hawks Mountain, or some other piece of Cavendish history, one of Jim’s big concerns was that we had Atherton Bemiss’s history of the town, some of which had been written by his ancestors.  When we assured him that we had a copy in the Cavendish Historical Society (CHS) archives, and offered to make copies of some of it, he declined saying “just as long as it’s there.”

He thought it was important to video tape our older residents. “It’s not just their stories,” he’d say, “it was how they sound when they told those stories. You can’t get anyone to sound like Sophie.” Fortunately for generations to come, there is considerable footage of Jim at various town meetings, which have all been taped by LPC TV. 

CHS extends its sympathies to his wife Elsie, his c children and grandchildren.

Annual Meeting

 The CHS Annual Meeting has been scheduled for February 24, 5 pm. More information will be available in the Winter newsletter.

Linda’s Social History Corner

 Linda Welch is the genealogist for the Cavendish Histor ical  Society and the author of the series “Families of Cavendish.” To contact her, please e-mail lindamfw@charter.net

As many of us know, Don Carlos Pollard's store was not just a store. It was an operation. Located right near the railroad tracks and depot, the store was a stockhouse of just about everything families in a Vermont farm community would need to get along. And if Pollard didn't have it, he could get it (he had all kinds of catalogs in the store, and was agent for many companies). This advertisement of 1870 (the earliest one I could find) shows Pollard's was a dry goods, clothing, cloth, hats, caps, and ready made ware for boys, store. It sold boots, shoes, groceries including teas, coffee, etc., hardware, all the tools for the farm. In addition it was a drugstore and pharmacy and carried all kinds of dishes and house wares, glasses and pots and pans. It was an ole' New England style "WALMART" in its time.  This store was in business even after the Second World War. My great grandfather's and great grandmother's shopped there. My grandfather and grandmother shopped there; my father shopped there. He was raised in Proctorsville (born 1909). The people who lived all around this store knew its value and history. Everyone has there own personal memories of that great 'ole place, Pollard's Store. Do not forget, that it was while working in this store as a young lad, that Calvin Coolidge began interested in politics.  Many of you have your own memories of Pollard's. I would love to hear from you. —Linda M. Welch (lindamfw@charter.net)

Cavendish Civil War History: Henry B. Atherton

Attending the Duttonsville School, where he excelled, Henry Bridge Atherton was more interested in poetry than farming. During his time at Dartmouth College, he taught the winter school in Duttonsville twice and one winter in Proctorsville. From there he went to the Albany Law School where her received the degree of L.L.B. in 1860.

With an office in Proctorsville, John Brown, the famous abolitionist, and his son Owen came to visit Atherton in late 1856 or early 1857. The purpose of that visit, Atherton describes in a letter to the biographer of Brown, John Redpath, in 1882, was to seek guns and money to help with his anti slavery cause.

When the Civil War began, Atherton offered his services to Governor Fairbanks, who on August 12, 1861, commissioned him to raise a company of three-year men for the Union. Within two weeks he had secured his hundred men and twenty to spare. It was the color Company of the 4th Vermont known as the “Lion Brigade.” Atherton was chosen captain and was mustered into service at Brattleboro in Company “C.” He wrote a great many letters during the war, some of which are available at the on-line Atherton Collection,  compiled by Linda Welch.

It is interesting that in 1853, at the age of 16, he wrote a poem, “The Widow,” which would take on a very sad and tragic meaning ten years later, when so many Cavendish wives lost their husband in the war.

The Widow

The widow is a dangerous thing.

With soft, black shinning curls,

And looketh more bewitching

Than an host of romping girls;

Her laugh is so delicious-

So, knowing, clear, beside.

You’d never dream she’s thinking

Soon to become a bride.

Her dress, though made of sables,

Gives roundness to her form-

A touch of something thoughtful,

A witching, winning charm.

And when she sits down by you,

With quiet, easy grace-

A tear may fall unbidden,

Or a smile light up her face.

Her voice is soft melodious-

And lute-like in its tone.

She sometimes sighs: “it’s dreadful

To pass through life alone.”

And she’d tell you, you remind her

Of the loved one dead and gone.

Your step, your form, your features;

Thus the widow will run on.

Oh! Listen, yet be careful,

For well she plays her part-

Her lips distill the nectar

That doth enslave the heart.

Be barded or she’ll win you,

With smiles, and sighs, and tears;

I’l saith she’ll wear the breeches, too,

And box your silly ears!

Severely wounded by a bullet in the groin, he resigned his commission, which was taken over by another Cavendish solder, George Blood French. Atheron accepted the editorial management of the New Hampshire Telegraph, in Nashua, NH. Returning to law practice, Atherton served in the legislature and was even offered the governorship of Alaska by President Harrison. He continued to write, including an article “The Old Indian Road,” covering the history of Vermont and the Crown Point Military Road and the captivity of Mrs. Johns, mother of the first white child born in Vermont.

Atherton died of pneumonia at the age of 71. “He was fulfilling a speaking engagement at the Tremont Temple in Boston, and stepped onto an outside balcony for a breath of fresh air. He suffered a chill, and within ten days he was dead.”

Phineas Gage Poster for Sale

 Phineas Gage was the first documented traumatic brain injury case, as the result of a tamping rod passing through his head, while working in Cavendish, blasting rock for the new railroad in 1848.  While Dr. Harlow is credited with saving Gage’s life after the accident, it took another doctor, Gene Bont, who was the area’s family doctor for approximately 30 years, to find documentation that Gage made his living at times by posing as a curiosity. Bont found a poster advertising Gage as “The World’s Wonder.” For 12 1•2 Cents, “to be had at the door,” you could see Phineas Gage at Rumford Hall where he will exhibit to them, in his own person, one of the greatest wonders of the world! Nothing less than a man who has had a huge iron bar, which he will exhibit, forced through his head from chin to crown; has had, in fact his brains blown out!”

Copies of the Gage poster, 81/2 X 11,” are now being sold by CHS for $5 a piece, plus $3 for shipping and handling. Money raised from the sale of the posters will go towards a Phineas Gage website, which will be done by the Cavendish Town Elementary School’s 4th grade class under the direction of their teacher Jenn Harper.

You can purchase a poster by sending a check to the CHS, PO Box 472, Cavendish, VT 05142.

 Photographs Needed for Cavendish Facebook Page

Many people are enjoying the old photographs CHS has been posting to the Cavendish VT Facebook page.  If you have old photographs of Cavendish or Proctorsville that you would like to share, please e-mail them in Jpg format to margoc@tds.net Be sure to include a brief description.

Special Thanks to Volunteers

A very special thank you to Doug Haskell and Stewart Lindberg for keeping the lawns mowed and looking good this summer at the Museum and the Old Stone Church. Our Hands on History Program wouldn’t be possible without our amazing volunteers: Pam Bruno, Gloria Leven, Sandra Stearns, Pang Ting and Gail Woods. Jared Harper has done a wonderful job of reproducing our 1927 flood photograph and enlarging the Phineas Gage poster.

 Hands on History Program

Since people learn best by doing, CHS has come up with a variety of workshops that are available to local schools, community groups and at special CHS events. Thanks to a grant from the Cavendish Community Fund (CCF), a project of the Cavendish Community and Conservation Association (CCCA), CHS has already offered three Hands on History programs.

 Back to School with the Cavendish Historical Society: Make a Chalkboard was offered in August and was then repeated as a special project with the third grade students at the Cavendish Town Elementary School, who were studying what it was like to attend a one-room schoolhouse.

 George Baron, an instructor at West Point Military Academy, is thought to be the first American instructor to use a large black slate chalkboard, when teaching math, in 1801. By the mid-1800s, a blackboard was to be found in almost every school and had become the single most important educational tool.

Chalkboards remained the primary all-around educational fixture in schoolrooms and businesses for almost 200 years.

Many rural schools used the slate material chalkboard, a labor saving device for teachers and allowing them to educate many more children at one time. However, CHS found that not all of Cavendish’s rural schools adopted the slate chalkboard.

The Rumke School (Greenbush Rd in Cavendish) was closed in 1923. Left untouched, the property owners, Al and Diana Leonard, donated the teacher’s blackboard, to the Museum. This one room schoolhouse was still using a blackboard made by  the old method of combining un sanded grout and paint. Given the combination of Yankee thrift and lack of funds, many of the Cavendish rural one-room schoolhouses most likely used similar methods.

In addition to making their own personal chalkboards, which they then used as part of their lessons each day for the next few weeks, the Cavendish third graders had the pleasure of learning about life in a one room school house from Cavendish’s own “Laura Ingalls Wilder,” Sandra Stearns. In her book Cavendish Hillside Farm 1939 to 1957, Stearns recalls what it was like to attend the Center Road School, a one room schoolhouse at the juncture of Town Farm and Center Roads. The students had a chance to play the schoolyard games of sixty years ago.

On October 22, CHS held a town wide Early Settler’s workshop featuring  quilting, candle making with beeswax obtained from local hives, stenciling and cider pressing.

Cavendish Historical Society Board

Dan Churchill

Jen Harper

Gloria Leven

Marc Miele

Bruce McEnaney

Joseph Pasquerello

Mike Pember

Gail Woods

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  __ Hands on History

Donations are always welcome and can be designated as follows:

__ For general purposes                       __ Educational Programs         __Publications

__ Archeological Activities     __ Museum & Archival           __ Special Events

__ Rankin Fund                                    __  Williams Fund                __ Hands on History

__ Other (please specify)       __ Cemetery Restoration        

 

To Make Beeswax Candles You First Need to Clean

On Saturday, Oct. 20, the Cavendish Historical Society’s (CHS) Hands on History Workshop will feature beeswax candle making. As you dip your wick into the golden colored wax, you may want to think about the steps it takes to extract the wax from the honeycomb.

For the last several years, when harvesting honey, Bruce McEnaney set aside the “cappings” from the honeycomb for candle making. This week, volunteers from CHS have been preparing the wax for dipping.

The first step was to put the cappings into a pot of water and heat. After it melts, any remaining honey and dirt (including dead bees) separates from the wax. The wax, while now out of the capping, can still be dirty, so it needs to re melted and then poured through cheese cloth to remove any remaining dirt. 

The free workshop, which also includes stenciling, quilt making and cider pressing, takes place from 9:30-11:30 at the Cavendish Town Elementary School in Proctorsville. The workshop has been made possible in part thanks to a grant from the Cavendish Community Fund, a project of the Cavendish Community and Conservation Association (CCCA).

Learn to Stencil at the Free Hands on History Workshop

The art of stenciling goes back to the cave paintings of Spain and France, where someone placed a hand on the cave wall and blew pulverized pigment around it. The Egyptians adorned tombs using stencils, while Greeks and Romans used them to create mosaics and to create signs. The Chinese developed paper stencils due to the invention of paper around 105 A,D. These were used extensively to mass produce images of the Buddha during the six dynasties of China (221 AD-618 AD).  During this time, intricate and colorful patterns stenciled on the fashionable materials worn by the wealthy became all the rage in the East. It was the Japanese, however, who refined the stencil technique further by perfecting a method for holding the delicate parts of the stencil together by means of a network of human hair, later replaced by threads of silk. As trade routes were established, stenciling made its way to Europe. Consequently, when the first colonists came to America they brought stenciling techniques with them.

Two distinct styles of wall stenciling arose in New England between the Revolutionary War and the turn of the 19th century, the period of time when the Coffeens, Proctors and Duttons settled in Cavendish. In one, stencils cover most of a wall's surface to replace wall paper that few could afford. Examples of this can still be seen in several houses in Cavendish as can be seen in the photograph included in this post.

 The other technique was border stencils. Stenciling was also applied to furniture, textiles, floors, wooden trays, table coverings etc.

On Oct. 20, the Cavendish Historical Society’s (CHS) Hands on History program will be holding a free workshop at the Cavendish Town Elementary School in Proctorsville, from 9:30-11:30, which includes creating your own stencils, along with other early settler crafts of quilting, candle making and cider pressing. This workshop is open to the community thanks to a grant from the Cavendish Community Fund, a project of the Cavendish Community and Conservation Association. FMI: 226-7807 or margoc@tds.net

Cavendish Historical Society: Hands on History-Settlers Workshop

While activities like quilting, candle making and stenciling are thought of today as fun craft projects, they were important to the early settlers of Cavendish. Quilts, often made from old clothing, were important to keep the family warm during Vermont’s long winters. Without candles, the day would be too short to get much done. Stenciling, a bit of a luxury in some ways, was affordable in comparison to the wall paper that was so popular in England.

On Oct. 20, the Cavendish Historical Society (CHS) will be offering a free “Hands on History” workshop, where the community can learn how to make their own stencils, quilt, “dip” a candle using beeswax and press their own cider. The workshop will take place from 9:30 to 11:30 at the Cavendish Elementary School in Proctorsville.

This workshop has been made possible in part from a grant from the Cavendish Community Fund, a project of the Cavendish Community and Conservation Association (CCCA). FMI: margoc@tds.net or 802-226-7807

Please note that Sunday, Oct. 7 is the last day the CHS Museum will be open this season. This is the last day to see the exhibits on Cavendish floods and the 250 Year Cavendish Timeline. The Museum is open from 2-4 pm. 

Cavendish One Room Schoolhouse program

Recently, the Cavendish Historical Society’s (CHS) “Hands on History program visited the third graders at the Cavendish Town Elementary School. They are studying what it was like in a one-room schoolhouse. Lucky for them, Sandra Field Stearns, author of “Cavendish Hillside Farm 1939 to 1957,” –we like to think of her as Cavendish’s Laura Ingalls Wilder (author of the Little House books)-told them what life was like at the Center Road School. The first one room school built in Cavendish, Sandy described how there were no more than 17 kids in the school, from first through 8^th grade. She said she learned so much because as a first of second grader, she’d hear the lessons of the older kids.

Today’s third graders were shocked to hear that even the teacher walked to school and that there were no bathrooms. They thought it was great that parents would take turns bringing milk to the school in the winter so the kids could have hot chocolate on cold days.

The students made chalkboards similar to the ones that were used for many years in Cavendish and Proctorsville-a combination of non-sanded grout and paint on boards. They quickly saw how easy it was to break the chalk if they pressed to hard. Their teacher, Ellen Cameron, is planning on having them use their chalkboards as part of their lessons over the next several weeks.

It wasn’t all work for the students, as just like the kids long ago, they had recess. They learned a number of the games the students would have played in the schoolyards. Below are links to some of those games.

Mother May I 

Red Rover Red Rover 

Red Light Green Light

Hand Clapping Includes Miss Mary Mack and lots of old favorites

Sandy’s book relates many wonderful stories of rural life in Cavendish, as well as what it was like going to a one room schoolhouse. “Cavendish Hillside Farm” is available from the CHS and can be purchased for $15 plus $5 for shipping and handling by sending a check to CHS, PO Box 472, Cavendish, VT 05142.

Workshops for the CHS Hands on History program have been funded in part by a grant from the Cavendish Community Fund, a project of the Cavendish Community and Conservation Association.