Phineas Gage Walking Tour

On Sept ember 13, 1848 Phineas Gage, a foreman, was working with his crew excavating rocks in preparing the bed for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad in Cavendish. An accidental explosion of a charge he had set blew his tamping iron through his head. It entered under the left cheek bone and exited through the top of the head. The rod, covered with brains and blood, was found approximately 30 yards from the site of the accident.

Sitting on the back of an ox cart, Gage was brought to the boarding house where he was staying on Main Street in Cavendish. Dr. John Harlow treated his wounds, along with Dr. Edward H. Williams. The large wound at the top of his head was closed with adhesive straps and a wet compress covered the opening. No surgery was involved.

Within days of the accident, an infection developed and Gage lapsed into a semi comatose state. Fearing that he was about to die, a local carpenter prepared a coffin for him. Two weeks after the accident, Harlow released 8 fluid ounces of pus from an abscess under Gage’s scalp. By January 1, 1849 (approximately 4 months) Gage was functional.

It is remarkable that Gage survived this accident, let alone lived for 11 more years. Fortunately Dr. Harlow and Dr. Henry J. Bigelow, a professor of surgery at Harvard University, tracked Gage as much possible, thereby documenting one of the first cases of traumatic brain injury in medical science. It was also the first understanding that different parts of the brain have different functions. With this knowledge, the first brain tumor removal operation became possible in 1885.

According to Gage’s family and friends, his behavior was significantly altered by the accident. In 1868, Harlow wrote in the “Bulletin of the Massachusetts Medical Society” His contractors, who regarded him as the most efficient and capable foreman in their employ previous to his injury, considered the change in his mind so marked that they could not give him his place again. He is fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity (which was not previously his custom), manifesting but little deference for his fellows, impatient of restraint of advice when it conflicts with his desires, at times pertinaciously obstinent, yet capricious and vacillating, devising many plans of future operation, which are no sooner arranged than they are abandoned in turn for others appearing more feasible. In this regard, his mind was radically changed, so decidedly that his friends and acquaintances said he was “no longer Gage.”

Not able to work as a foreman, Gage held a variety of jobs. He worked in the livery stable at what is now known as the Hanover Inn in New Hampshire. In 1852, he boarded a boat in Boston and sailed to Valparaiso, Chile.  While he was there for approximately seven years, and was thought to have driven coaches and cared for horses, little is know about what he did there. According to his mother, many ill turns while in Valparaiso, especially during the last year, and suffered much from hardship and exposure.”

Around 1859, in failing health he went to San Francisco to live with his family.  He worked on a farm in  Santa Clara County but returned to his family when he started having seizures. He died May 21, 1860 from epilepsy.

Rumors circulated that Gage appeared at Barnum’s American Museum in New York. It would take another Cavendish doctor, Dr. Gene Bont, almost 160 years later to find proof that Gage did in fact promote himself as a curiosity. Bont found a poster advertising Gage’s appearance at Rumford Hall.

Start tour at the Phineas Gage Memorial  on the Cavendish Town Green (High Street & 131)

Location of Accident: While a precise location is not known, the alleged site of the accident took place 0.75 miles south of Cavendish along the track of the Old Rutland and Burlington Rail Road. Take Mill Street, by Mack Molding,  the first left from the Town Green, heading west on Route 131. Go through the underpass and take an immediate left on to the Cavendish Gulf Rd. When you come to the marked railroad track crossing, approximately 200 yards, look to the right along the tracks from the crossing, and you will notice a major cut in the rocks. The approximate site of the accident is somewhere between this cut and the “lime kiln” area. Please stay off the track. This is an active railroad. Continuing on the Cavendish Gulf Road, approximately 300 yards from the white house just past (east) the railroad crossing. On the right hand side, is a small driveway that crosses the tracks. There is a 21.7 marker on tracks, which can be seen from the road. If you look across the tracks, you will see the remains of a limekiln. In 1936, Walton H. Green relayed information given to him 30 years prior by Christopher Goodrich, the ox-cart driver who drove Gage to his boarding house. Goodrich was 82 at the time. Green said, “The accident took place at the second cut south of Cavendish …near where Roswell Downer built his lime kiln later.”  Please stay off the railroad tracks.

Boarding House: From the Town Green, walk west on Main Street. Standing by the War Memorial in front of the CHS Museum, the building was located across the street from the Memorial.

Carpenter’s House: Immediately after the Museum, same side of the street, is the area where the Carpenter’s shop would have been located. It currently is the Town Garage.

Dr. Harlow’s House and Surgery: Dr. Harlow’s house, on Main Street but east of the town green, was located next to the Stone Church. All that remains is the cellar hole.

Dr. William’s House: Dr. William was an engineer, who went to medical school when ill health kept him from working outside. Since he did not have a busy medical practice, Williams spent considerable time in various forms of engineering. In fact, he knew Gage prior to his accident. He was the first doctor on the scene but would have differed to Dr. Harlow as he was a surgeon. Not long after the incident, Williams returned to engineering full time and started the oldest engineering society in the United States, Tau Beta Pi. His home was located on Depot Street in Proctorsville. The house would have been on the right hand side of the road, as you head from Route 131 to Route 103,  just after crossing the railroad tracks. 

Scribbler II: Spring 2013

In keeping with Memorial Day, this is a special issue of “The Scribbler,” as we celebrate our towns’ surviving WWII veterans-Russell Fitzgibbons, Carmine Guica, Jim Hasson, Edward Kolenda, Dr. Seymour Leven and Kenneth Winot, as well as WWII vets from Cavendish who now reside elsewhere: Paul Ahonen, Jr. , Glendon Bemis; Gordon Durand; Vincent Guica; Antoni Janowski; and Wyeth Tiemann. Edwin Farrar lives part of the year in Cavendish and winters in Florida.

The Cavendish Historical Society (CHS) is currently compiling a list of Cavendish WWII veterans, which will include those who enlisted while living in Cavendish and those who relocated here after the war. If you have any information on these veterans, please e-mail to margoc@tds.net, mail to PO Box 472 Cavendish VT 05142 or call 802-226-7807.

During WWII, 168 men from Cavendish went to war, serving in every branch of the armed services and in nearly every area where American soldiers, sailors and flyers were sent. Six men were killed in action and several were wounded.  Imogene Baxendale, the only woman to serve, was an Army nurse.

Over the years, a number of veterans moved to town and helped to shape its future. Among them was Art Briggs who became the fire chief of District #2 (Cavendish). Having extensive experience fighting fires in the Army Air Force, he organized the volunteer fire fighters and help to see that CFD became legally incorporated.

This spring the CHS’s Hands on History program has been working on a WWII unit with children who are being home schooled as well as the 6^th grade at Cavendish Town Elementary School. As part of the 6^th grade program, three of Cavendish’s surviving WWII veterans met with the students telling them of their war experiences and answering their questions. Robin Bebo-Long the sixth grade teacher, video-taped their presentations, which is available on-line. 

Jim Hasson started school at the age of four. When Pearl Harbor occurred in 1941, his high school class quickly emptied, but he was too young to enlist. In 1943, he was leaving the post office and noticed a poster showing a Seabee jumping off a road grader with a Thompson Machine Gun. He said, “that’s the job for me.”

He enlisted as a Seabee at the age of 17 and he remained one until he was 60 years old, when he retired. More than 325,000 men served with the Seabees in WWII fighting and building on six continents and more than 300 islands. In the Pacific, where most of the construction work was needed, the Seabees landed soon after the Marines and built major airstrips, bridges, roads, gasoline storage tanks, and Quonset huts for warehouses, hospitals and housing.

Jim was first assigned to Pearl Harbor, where he built timber rafts for airplanes. He then was sent to Quam. After the war, Jim became a plumber, but continued with the Seabees. He was 41 when he went to Vietnam and also served in Cuba during the Castro years. He particularly liked his stint in Bermuda, since he wasn’t being shot at.

Another Seabee veteran, who is well known to CHS, was Craig Rankin. A landscape architect, his skills were needed both in Europe and the Pacific. He had a number of “war” stories he wrote and talked about. In one, he describes how he was responsible, for escorting the heavy weight champion, Gene Tunney,  around the New London Submarine Base. Tunney’s job was to inspect physical fitness programs of Naval posts and bases. “After lunch, we visited the diving tower in which every submariner is trained in the use of the Momsen Lung, an escape technique. The tower consisted of a huge cylinder of water 100 feet high, with an attached airtight room at its base. Trainees sat on benches in the room while air-pressure would be gradually increased to equal the pressure of water at the bottom of the tank. Putting on the Momsen Lung, you then pass through doors into the bottom of the water tower and climb up hand over hand along a rope in the center of the tank.... Tunney was introduced to the two tank officers...The tank officers asked Tunney if he would to go through this tank. Tunney politely refused, offering some excuse, but the young officers were determined parties. After about ten minutes of this, Tunney turned and walked away. Then he stopped and confided in me, “I just cannot go into that tank. All my life I’ve had a fear of water. I hope some day to overcome this fear.” He spoke so humbly, it sounded like a different person. “

Carmine Guica and his two brothers, Vincent and Frank,  enlisted and were stationed in the Pacific. Carmine was stationed in some of the highest attacked areas-Guam, Philippines, Okinawa and Iwo Jima. He described how they lived two to a Foxhole, taking turns staying up at night. As he wrote in his autobiography, “We were on the beaches where we set up our anti-air craft guns. Most of the fighting was back in the hills. The action we saw most was firing at the Jap planes. They never bombed us too much as their greatest target would be the ships. When we had an alert, all personal were called-cooks, clerks, and KPs. [Carmine was a cook.]. ...We used to go on the hill where the refuges were and talk to them. They spoke English well and they used to tell us how strict they had to live under the Japanese rule. I did get very sick there for a few days. Just about every one was affected. They said it was Dengue Fever or something like that. The Engineers made fresh water for us from the salty ocean water. There sure was a lot of deep mud on Guam. After we got our kitchen set up the engineers also made ice that they delivered to us every day. We did get a lot of Spam. There were so many ways we served it....For fresh meat we had a lot of goat meat from Australia.”

The constant bombing Carmine was exposed to resulted in major hearing loss. He would eventually return to Cavendish, where he worked for GE until his retirement. Like many of the other veterans, he was in the reserves after the war.

Seymour Leven, originally from Grand Rapids, MI, had several reasons for enlisting: to keep up with his older brother; his dislike of school (he had already finished two years of college) and most important, he had family in Lithuania who were forced into the concentration camps. Seymour thought that Hitler was evil and needed to be stopped. Initially in officer’s training school, he was moved into gunnery and bombardier training. Instead of going to Europe, he was sent to the Pacific as a tail gunner on a B-29 bomber. At one point, Seymour’s crew was sent stateside for additional training. While it was top secret at the time, it later became apparent that his flight crew was among those that would be the back up for the Enola Gay, which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Completing 23 aerial combat missions, Seymour’s division, located on Saipan was featured in the War Department’s film The Last Bomb-1945 U.S. Army Air Forces Bombing Japan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-zvatnERuA

After the war, Seymour took advantage of the GI bill to complete college and medical school. He would eventually work with post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) and has worked with combat veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Cavendish is unique in that in also had a Russian WWII veteran. Nobel prize winner and Soviet dissident, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote. In 1941, a few days before the beginning of the war, I graduated from the physics and math program of Rostov University. With the war’s outbreak,  because of restrictions due to health, I became driver of a wagon train and with it spent the winter of 1941-2. Only later-again thanks to mathematics-was I transferred to artillery school, where I completed the accelerated course by November 1942.  At that time I was appointed commander of a reconnaissance artillery battery and uninterruptedly held that position during my military service, never leaving the front, until my arrest in February 1945... I was arrested on the basis of censored extracts from my correspondence with a school friend in 1944-5, basically for disrespectful remarks about Stalin, although we referred to him by a pseudonym. [the mustached one]” Aleksandr was to be in prison for eight years and then was sent into exile for three more years. These experiences were reflected in his books “The First Circle” and “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch.” In 1974, when “The Gulag Archipelago” was published to universal acclaim, Aleksandr was once again exiled from his homeland. The result was that he lived 18 of  his 20 years in exile in Cavendish, VT.

Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices. President Harry S. Truman

To all of our Cavendish veterans, and those who continue to serve, thank you for a job well done.

Upcoming CHS Events

June 2 (Sunday): CHS Museum Opens for the Season 2-4 pm

June: A tour of the Cavendish Power Plant and the site of the Fitton Mill. The tour is being planned with Green Mountain Power. The event is scheduled for June.

July 6 (Saturday): CHS’s Annual Summer Fest and Plant sale, starting at 8:30 at the CHS Museum. The Cavendish Stone Church will be open from 10-2 pm

July 27 (Saturday): Cavendish town wide tag sale. The Cavendish Stone Church will be open from 10-2pm.

Consider a 181^st Poem

The Vermont Humanities Council is launching it’s Vermont Reads 2013-Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, the Cavendish Historical Society is encouraging readers to explore the poetry of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who lived in Cavendish from 1976-1994.

In Twilight

I well remember the very widespread custom, back in the South, of “twilighting.” Carried over from before the Revolution, it might have also been fortified by the meager, perilous years of the Civil War. Yet this practice had come about much earlier. Was it born of the months-long warmness of the Southern dusk? Many became accustomed never to rush lighting their lamps; yet, having completed their chores (or tended to the livestock) before nightfall, they were in no hurry to get to bed. Instead, they emerged outside to sit on dirt ledges, or benches, or just lounged inside with the windows wide open—no light to draw in bugs. One after another they would sit softly down, as if lost in thought. And long remained silent.

If someone did speak, it was quietly, delicately, unobtrusively. Somehow, in those exchanges, no one got fired up to argue, or to reproach spitefully, or to quarrel. Faces could barely be made out, then not at all; and, lo, one began to discern in them, and their voices, something unfamiliar, something one failed to observe through the prior course of years. 

A feeling would take hold of everyone, of something impalpable and unseen that descended gently from the dimming after-sunset sky, dissolved in the air, streamed in through the windows: that profound seriousness of life, its unfragmented meaning, that goes ignored in the bustle of day. Our brush with the enigma that we let flit away.

Cavendish Historical Society Board

Dan Churchill

Jen Harper

Gloria Leven

Bruce McEnaney

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        

Stone Church Transfer:Thank you to Incredible Volunteers

On May 11, the Universalist/Unitarian Convention of Vermont and Canada, met in Cavendish and voted to transfer the deed of the Cavendish Stone Church to the town of Cavendish. A lot work went into making this day possible.  

Special notes of thanks are in order for our volunteers:
• Abe and Amanda Gross and the Cavendish Baptist Church: Abe did double duty as both the pastor of the Baptist Church as well as fire marshall at the Stone church, since we most likely exceeded the fire regulation of 49 people. He also rigged up power-thank you Fitzgibbons family-so we could vacuum the Stone Church. Love it that Abe's ancient Electrolux kept on churning, out doing today's current models. Amanda was so helpful to the kitchen crew, not only in making the most delicious bread, but also being patient with our continual interruptions from how to turn on the stove to "we need more food." Her homemade pesto helped to make sure we had enough. To the Cavendish Baptist Church, thank you for sharing your facilities-from the parking lot to the Church Hall. We hope we left the kitchen in good shape and put everything back where it belonged. 

• Mary Ormrod-Not only cleaned windows  with her mother-in-law Gloria Leven, she also provided flowers from her garden, made a salad for the luncheon,  and donated 30 1 lb Old Cavendish Fruitcakes for all the Convention members. It was a great treat, which they enjoyed. 

• Sandra Russo-Incredible job on cleaning the church (hope your vacuum is okay) and the lovely tortellini salad. Special thanks to Mike Pember who helped with the last minute changes needed in the set up for the luncheon and for continual reminders that "it'll be all right."

• Pang Ting-At the last minute put in a full day on Saturday and created beautiful flower arrangements for the church, helped to prepare and serve the luncheon and didn't leave until the last dish was put away at 3 pm. Couldn't have pulled this off without you. I totally "owe you." 

• Stewart Lindberg-So glad you were able to get the lawn cut. The grounds looked great.

• Dan Churchill-As always, ice cream makes a great dessert. Thank you.

• Rich Svec-Not only for putting in so many hours on the transfer issue, but for giving up your Saturday morning and staying to help. Thank you Peggy for all your help as well. Really appreciated how you and Rich took charge of cleaning the tables and putting the hall back in order

• Solzhenitsyn Family-Everyone enjoyed Ignat's reading two of his father's prose poems over  dessert. After he and the family brought the flowers from the Stone Church to the Baptist Church, those of us who were still cleaning downstairs were treated to some lovely music. 

We couldn't help but marvel that only in Cavendish can you have a nobel prize winner's son read his poetry and then as a world renown pianist, provide the right note to end a very long day that for some of us started at 5 am. 

Cavendish WWII Veterans Speak to 6th Grade

Cavendish has six World War II veterans still residing in town-Russell Fitzgibbons, Carmine Guica, Jim Hasson, Edward Kolenda, Seymour Levin and Kenneth Winot. Edwin Farrar lives part of the year in Cavendish and winters in Florida.

Sandra Stearns has gone through the list of those listed on the town’s WWII memorial to see which veterans are still alive even though they may no longer be residing in Cavendish. The results of her research, and with input from others,  indicates that the following Cavendish veterans are alive just not in town: Paul Ahonen, Jr. , Glendon Bemis; Gordon Durand; Vincent Guica; Antoni Janowski; and Wyeth Tiemann. She is not sure if John Gay is still alive. If you have information on WWII veterans, please let us know by e-mailing margoc@tds.net or calling 802-226-7807. 

On Monday, May 6, three of the veterans came to speak to the sixth grade class at the Cavendish Town Elementary School. Robin Bebo-Long, the sixth grade teacher, made a video of their presentations.
 

Jim Hasson: Started school at the age of four. When Pearl Harbor occurred in 1941, his high school class quickly emptied, but he was too young to enlist. In 1943, he was leaving the post office and noticed a poster showing a Seabee jumping off a road grater with a Thompson Machine Gun. He said, “that’s the job for me.”

He enlisted as a Seabee at the age of 17 and he remained one until he was 60 years old, when he retired. More than 325,000 men served with the Seabees in WWII fighting and building on six continents and more than 300 islands. In the Pacific, where most of the construction work was needed, the Seabees landed soon after the Marines and built major airstrips, bridges, roads, gasoline storage tanks, and Quonset huts for warehouses, hospitals and housing.

Jim was first assigned to Pearl Harbor, where he built timber rafts for airplanes. He then was sent to Quam. After the war, Jim became a plumber, but continued with the Seabees. He was 41 when he went to Vietnam and also served in Cuba during the Castro era. He particularly liked his stint in Bermuda, particularly since he wasn’t being shot at. Watch his presentation on uTube. 

Carmine Guica: He and his two brothers, Vincent and Frank,  enlisted and were stationed in the Pacific. Carmine was stationed in some of the highest attacked areas-Guam, Philippines, Okinawa and Ie Shima. He described how they lived two to a Foxhole, taking turns staying up at night. As he wrote in his autobiography, “We were on the beaches where we set up our anti-air craft guns. Most of the fighting was back in the hills. The action we saw most was firing at the Jap planes. They never bombed us too much as their greatest target would be the ships. When we had an alert, all personal were called-cooks, clerks, and KPs. [Carmine was a cook.]. ...We used to go on the hill where the refuges were and talk to them. They spoke English well and they used to tell us how strict they had to live under the Japanese rule. I did get very sick there for a few days. Just about every one was affected. They said it was Dengue Fever or something like that. The Engineers made fresh water for us from the salty ocean water. There sure was a lot of deep mud on Guam. After we got our kitchen set up the engineers also made ice that they delivered to us every day. We did get a lot of Spam. There were so many ways we served it....For fresh meat we had a lot of goat meat from Australia.”

The constant bombing Carmine was exposed to resulted in major hearing loss. He would eventually return to Cavendish, where he worked for GE until his retirement. Like many of the other veterans, he was in the reserves after the war. Watch his presentation on U Tube.

Seymour Levin, originally from Grand Rapids, MI, had several reasons for enlisting: to keep up with his older brother; his dislike of school (he had already finished two years of college) and most important, he had family in Lithuania who were forced into the concentration camps. Seymour thought that Hitler was evil and needed to be stopped. Initially in officer’s training school, he was moved into gunnery and bombardier training. Instead of going to Europe, he was sent to the Pacific as a tail gunner on a B-29 bomber. At one point, Seymour’s crew was sent stateside for additional training. While it was top secret at the time, it later became apparent that his flight crew were among those that would be the back up for the Enola Gay, which dropped that atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Completing 23 aerial combat missions, Seymour’s division, located on Saipan was featured in the War Department’s film TheLast Bomb-1945 U.S. Army Air Forces Bombing Japan. Portions of the film, available on-line was shown to the sixth graders.

After the war, Seymour took advantage of the GI bill to complete college and medical school. He would eventually work with post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) and has worked with combat veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Watch his presentation on uTube.