Does anyone know anything about Prohibition in Westminster? I used to hear stories about a little rum-running up on the Kurkul’s hill, and a buried (and lost) jug up there that was concealed while the Revenuers were in hot pursuit. Richard Michelman tells me the house next to him was a “tea house” called The Black Cat, and that it was a speak-easy. But that’s all I know. Anyone remember hearing any stories?
Archive for the ‘Eras’ Category
Prohibition in Westminster
Friday, March 5th, 2010Baxter Canning Factory Fire, Westminster Sta., 1931
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009Bellows Falls Times
Oct. 1, 1931
WESTMINSTER CANNING FACTORY DESTROYED BY FIRE ON MONDAY
Loss Estimated at $140,000 – Baxter Brothers Had Not Shipped Any of the Season’s Canned Corn – Origin of Fire Not Known
Fire of undetermined origin destroyed the Westminster plant of the Baxter Brothers company on Monday morning. The fire was discovered at a little after 8 o’clock in the morning and by 10 o’clock there was little left but smoking ruins.
Working under terrific handicaps, members of the Bellows Falls, Walpole and Westminster fire departments managed to fight back the flames from the storage building at the north end of the plant but little was left but the shell of this part of the building.
The loss was estimated at upwards of $140,000. The company’s property was listed as a value of $160,000 in the town grand list for 1931, the buildings on the property being listed at $5,500. The value of the stock is large, as at no other time during the year would there be stored such an enormous supply of canned corn. No shipments of the season’s goods had been made from the factory.
C. M. Mills, superintendent, was first informed of the fire by a worker while at the seed house, about 100 yards north of the plant. The blaze seemed to center around the office and had progressed so rapidly that Mr. Mills was slightly burned in a futile attempt to save [unreadable line] from the building. He had difficulty in escaping from the burning office.
The bulk of the season’s work, having been completed, only about 15 persons were at work at the factory, labeling and packing the last of the cans of corn and they, with townspeople, fought the blaze until the Walpole fire department arrived. The Bellows Falls department sent a heavy duty pump and laid 1,200 feet of hose from the river.
Save Some Corn
A large number of townspeople formed a line from the interior of the storage building to a field near by and passed cases filled with canned corn to a place of safety. About 6000 cases were removed before the fire became too hot to remain in the building. At the time the fire broke out there were about 35,000 cases of corn ready to be shipped to market in storage. This represents about 850,000 cans.
From the office the fire spread south to the long sheds, which are used for corn husking, and then worked north to the factory proper, which was the center of the plant. At one time the blaze was carried by a stiff wind to within a short distance of the Community Feed Store, Inc., about 200 feet from the plant. The Walpole department laid about 500 feet of small hose in two lines and for a while kept the blaze away from the storehouse.
Holes Chopped in Wall
In an effort to save this part of the building, holes were chopped through the side wall and streams of water played through the hole. With a stream on both sides of the shed, even though the hose was very small, the fire was partially checked and the walls of a part of the shed were left standing.
The building was leveled in a remarkably short time. Flames seemed to literally devour the wooden walls and their contents [unreadable line] in the central part of the structure, the remains of the machinery came into view. Twisted and piled in with other debris, the machinery, said to be new this year presented little resemblance to its former state.
The fire was spectacular and covered a large area. For several hundred feet along the railroad tracks the heat was terrific. A barn directly across from the corn storage building started to smolder and several residents gathered pails of water and extinguishers to be ready in case sparks or the heat started the barn burning. The danger to the building was mostly[?] over, however.
Canned Corn Explodes
The frequent explosions of cans of corn heated to a boiling point was a spectacular aspect of the fire. The removal from the storehouse of drums of gasoline which were rolled down the bank away from the blaze, prevented a possible catastrophe.
After the main building had been reduced to ruins, spectators were given a real thrill when a barrel of roofing paint in the middle of the debris suddenly exploded. Flames rolled several hundred feet into the air and seemed to spread over a wide area. After a few seconds however, only a dense cloud of black smoke remained.
Freight Cars Catch
Several freight cars of the Boston & Maine railroad, on a siding nearby, were badly damaged by the fire, and a northbound freight train with a carload of turpentine and a carload of cattle, was held up several hours.
During the height of the canning season, about 100 workers are employed at the factory, which is owned by the following partners, Hartley C. Baxter and John L. Baxter of Brunswick, Me., John. P. Baxter, jr. of Portland, Me., Bruce H. M. White of Topsham, Me., and F. Webster Brown.
Tuesday, 15 or 20 men were employed to start cleaning up the debris. While no statement has been given out from the Baxter Brothers, general opinion seems to be that the plant will not be rebuilt for some time at least.
Fire Truck Pulled Out
Bellows Falls firemen fought the blaze for over four hours, but put in two more hours of work in getting Combination Truck No. 2 out of the sand. The truck became imbedded in the roadway and remained for some time. [unreadable]‘s wrecker finally succeeded in pulling it to firmer ground.
The call to the fire department came at 8:45 a. m. and they were back at the station at 3:30 p. m. The firemen at work were Chief Joseph Grignon, Ernest C. Blanchard, Francis and John Blake, Charles Eno, W. Davis, John Angell, Ralph Halladay, Peter Mayer, L. W. Raymond, John Patterson, Orrin Mathers. On duty at the stationers were Jim Blake and Al King.
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Also in the Oct. 1, 1931 edition, on page 7:
WESTMINSTER STA.
Will Canning Factory Be Rebuilt?
This community feels that the burning of the H. C. Baxter canning factory is a loss that will be felt throughout the whole community and reach to surrounding towns. The origin of the fire which destroyed the plant Monday morning is still a mystery. The fire was first discovered by Andrew Griffin who at once dispatched a boy to call Mr. Mills, foreman of the plant, who was at the seed house overseeing the hanging of corn there. The story of the fire has been told. The work of caring for what corn was saved went on Tuesday. Four cars were loaded and sent to the factory in Windsor, also several truck loads were taken there. Material for boxes was brought from Essex Junction and the labor of making cases in which to pack the corn has been going on rapidly. A number of women were engaged to dry the cans before packing into the new cases.
A representative of the company was asked if Mr. Baxter was likely to rebuild, and replied that it was not possible to answer that question at once. The location is unquestionably a good one for the business and time may see the plant re-established and doing a good business. Mr. Baxter has endeared himself to the people hereabout. A genial, whole-souled man, the community feels that his loss is their own.
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Vermont Independence Centennial, January 1877
Sunday, November 29th, 2009Vermont declared independence in Westminster. This fact is little noted nowadays. This fact might have been more noted if the delegates had said “Vermont” rather than “New Connecticut,” but the current name was not used until the Windsor convention in July, when the constitution was adopted.
Here are the reports in the [Brattleboro] Vermont Record and Bellows Falls Times. Please leave a comment about what you find interesting.
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Vermont Record, Jan. 19, 1877
Centennial Celebration
A hundred years ago last Tuesday a convention assembled in this town, composed of delegates from some sixteen or eighteen towns of the territory known as the New Hampshire Grants, declared these grants “a new and separate State.” Wishing to commemorate an event of such importance, the people of W. had arranged for a gathering of her citizens and those of neighboring towns on the evening of the 16th of January. The church was appropriately and tastefully decorated for the occasion. In the rear of the pulpit, on the wall of the recess occupied by the singers, was the motto of the State, “Vermont, freedom and unity.” On the walls of the church at the right and left of the pulpit, were the mottoes, “E pluribus unum” and “In God we trust ;” an eagle of evergreens surmounting each of these. In the rear of the audience was the appropriate sentiment, in large letters, “A people capable of greatness will not forget the patriotic deeds of their fathers.” Wreaths of evergreen were hung in each window, and a fancy wreath of great beauty on the pulpit while others adorned various parts of the room. Bouquets and house plants, with these, gave a pleasing appearance to the place of meeting. The exercises of the evening were opened by music of the Westminster Cornet Band ; prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. Stevens of Westminster West. The proceedings of the convention of 1777, with the names of the members and the declaration made by them was read by Mr. John B. Morse of this town, a descendant of Joshua Webb, one of the delegates from W. to that convention. After music by the Band, Hon. Henry Clark of Rutland was introduced, and held the unflagging attention of the audience for an hour and a half. It was an address worthy of the occasion ; such a brief notice as can here be given cannot do justice to the speaker. We were led rapidly over one item after another in our history as a State. The early settlers and the influences and circumstances that made them what they were, their struggles personally and for the sake of the State were brought vividly before us. Westminster and its early settlement ; its position among the towns in the State in the early days ; its inhabitants, &c., were fittingly described. The lecture closed with appropriate reference to the resources of the State, its educational institutions, &c. fitting tribute to the men who have honored Vermont, either at home or abroad, in the various walks of life—as statesmen, jurist, artists, theologians, &c.—the very names being a history in themselves. A very pleasant half hour was spent after the lecture in hearing brief speeches and reminiscences suited to the occasion. Dr. Stevens of the West parish spoke as we should expect one who had breathed Vermont air all his life, and Westminster air all his professional life, would speak. R. S. Safford of Westminster gave interesting sketches of the two delegates from Westminster in the convention whose act we were commemorating—Nathan Robinson, Esq., and John Webb. He also gave some interesting items in the relation to the early inhabitants of W. and the location of the houses, not the least of which was the statement that in the ell of the house now used as parsonage was printed the first newspaper published in Vermont. Mr. Swain of the Bellows Falls Times made appropriate remarks, which were a fitting close of the speaking on the occasion. The Band played America and the audience joined in singing “My Country ’tis of thee,” &c. thus closed the exercises of the evening. The house was well filled, notwithstanding the heavy storm of the night before which greatly impeded travel. Westminster people were out in good numbers, and there was a goodly number from adjoining places. The Band added much to the interest of the occasion by their appropriate and well rendered music.
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Bellows Falls Times
Jan. 19, 1877
Westminster-1776-1876.
In the score of years we have been familiar with the people of Westminster, during which perhaps they have had more public demonstrations than any other town of equal population in the State, their arrangements have always been complete and terminated in success. So in the same manner they marked the Centennial of Vermont Independence Tuesday evening. The church was full and beautifully decorated, including various mottoes, “Vermont 1777-1876 – Freedom and Unity,”—”In God we Trust,” &c., besides the national colors. Some of the mottoes were arranged in semi-circle, and resting upon the zenith was the American eagle, wrought in evergreens, an arrangement we do not remember to have ever seen elsewhere, and shows that the present generation of Westminster are artists as well as patriots.
Rev. P. F. Barnard admirably presided throughout the evening, and was felicitous and spicy, especially in the introduction of the speakers. The exercises were opened by prayer by Rev. Dr. Stevens of the West Parish, and after music by the Westminster Cornet Band, the president introduced J. B. Morse, Esq. as a direct descendant of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who read the Declaration and the proceedings of the convention connected therewith including the names of the members thereof, in an excellent and clear manner, in fact good enough to have been one of the original signers, instead of a descendant. We say this, that those who existed one hundred years ago and those who may exist one hundred years hence, may not think they monopolized all the ability and excellence of two hundred years !
Hon. Henry Clark of Rutland was then introduced and delivered an able and excellent address, mainly historical of Vermont and her progress during the past century, and also of notable men and including prominent events in this section.
Mr. Clark spoke with much patriotic earnestness throughout and when he gave the capture of Ticonderoga and those famous words of demand by Ethan Allen—”In the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress”—there was of course very prompt and hearty applause. After having enumerated many of the prominent and notable men of our state he also humorously mentioned Joe Smith and Brigham Young and the demonstration which follows this mention, those who celebrate the next centennial my understand was not because of any endorsement of their vagaries, but the like of variety !
Letters of regret were read from Gov. Fairbanks and Hon. E. P. Walton, and the president then said there was very early developed in the history of that place a desire to “go west,” to emigrate, the “western fever,” and some of their best citizens had even gone west as far as the west part of that town ! He would therefore call upon a representative of that section on that occasion. Rev. Dr. Stevens responded, at first in humorous vein and concluded with relating events of local interest and especially of that brave and courageous woman who with her son of nine years did the farm work at home while the husband and father served in the army of the Revolution.
R. S. Safford, Esq., was also called for and he gave a very interesting statement of the present localities in Westminster, the notable persons by whom they were occupied and the time of the events one hundred years ago which we were now celebrating, especially of the old court house.
The exercises were concluded by the benediction pronounced by Rev. Dr. Stevens, and by music by the Westminster Cornet Band, who during the evening made the occasion of much additional interest by their patriotic airs, thus happily closing the first centennial of the Independence of Vermont.
Dr. Elisha Harris, born 1824, was a public health pioneer in New York City
Saturday, November 28th, 2009Dr. Elisha Harris was born (March 5, 1824) and educated in Westminster, spending his early life on his father’s farm here. (This information comes from the N.Y. Times obituary below and nothing is known of him locally. The 1941 town history does not mention the family name Harris.) When he died in 1884, he was fondly remembered in the New York Times as a pioneer in public health, sanitation, vaccination, and prison reformation. “He was one of God’s noblemen.” He designed New York’s first floating hospital (used for yellow fever epidemics) and later received a medal for inventing the railway ambulance.
New York Times
Feb. 1, 1884
THE DEATH OF DR. HARRIS
LIFE-WORK OF A PHILANTHROPIC PHYSICIAN.
HIS VALUABLE SERVICES TO THE CAUSE OF SANITARY REFORM—WHAT HE DID DURING THE REBELLION.
Dr. Elisha Harris, Secretary of the State Board of Health, died yesterday morning a the Delavan House in Albany, after an illness of but four days’ duration. The cause of death was an attack of peritonitis. Dr. Harris, who was well known throughout the entire civilized world by reason of his connection with sanitary work and the collation of vital statistics, was born in Westminster, Vt., March 5, 1824. After a common school education in his native town, in 1837 he became an academical student of Dr. S. B. Woolworth, late Secretary of the State Board of Regents of the University of the State of New-York. During 10 years of his life spent as teacher, student, and farm assistant to his father, he pursued his medical studies, and finally was graduated from the college of Physicians and Surgeons in 1849. Lafayette College subsequently conferred upon him the honorary title of Master of Arts. Soon after beginning the practice of medicine, he married, in the Autumn of 1849, the only daughter of the Rev. Dr. Josiah B. Andrews. She died in 1867, leaving no children, and from the date of her death Dr. Harris gave all his time to the public service in various capacities.
Dr. Harris’s first entrance into the public service was in 1855, when he was made Superintendent and Physician-in-Chief of the Quarantine Hospitals at Staten island. To him was intrusted, in 1859, the construction of a floating hospital to be anchored below the narrows facing the open seas. His mastery of the sanitary problems connected with the New-York Quarantine station resulted in the establishment of the present system of quarantine defenses, in all their important details. When the war of the rebellion broke out, Dr. Harris, in connection with the Rev. Dr. Henry C. Bellows and others, became interested in the national Sanitary Commission, and he was for nearly five years a Sanitary Commissioner. The railway ambulance was exclusively his device, and proved of such value that, in 1867, at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, he was awarded a bronze medal. A silver medal was given him for the same ambulance by the Société des Secours aux Blessés. The ambulance was also adopted by the Prussian Army in the Franco-Prussian war. The system of a national record of the deaths and burials of soldiers was also devised by him and adopted by the War Department. At the close of the war he was intrusted with the collection of the sanitary history of the war, which was published in several volumes, entitled “Sanitary Memoirs of the War.”
At the close of the war Dr. Harris again turned his attention to the sanitary conditions and needs of this city. As a voluntary work, he supervised a sanitary survey of the city. The results of this were published by the Appletons, as a report on the sanitary condition and wants of the city. It was a work of great value to sanitary science, as well as to the Metropolis itself. He entered the service of the Metropolitan Board of Health three days after its organization, March 5, 1866, the same day on which the Secretary of the present board, Col. Emmons Clark, received his original appointment. His associates on the board were Drs. James Crane, Willard Parker, John O. Stone, and John Swinburne, and Jackson S. Schultz. The ex officio members were Thomas C. Acton, John G. Bergen, Joseph S. Bosworth, and Benjamin F. Manierre. Dr. Harris then held the position of Registrar of Records. In 1869, when E. B. Dalton, the first Sanitary Superintendent of the city, resigned, Dr. Harris was appointed as his successor, but was legislated out of office in 1870, with the adoption of the new charter. In 1873 he was appointed Registrar of Vital Statistics, and he retained that position until January, 1876, when he was again virtually legislated out of office, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment having consolidated the Bureau of vital Statistics and the Sanitary bureau and extinguished the office of Registrar of Records, whose work is now performed by the Sanitary Superintendent and his assistants. When Dr. Harris was first appointed to the office of Registrar, in 1866, to succeed F. I. A. Boole, the records were in a very bad condition and wholly unreliable. Order was created out of chaos, and the system now in use was devised by him.
One of the greatest works for the benefit of the people of the city in which Dr. Harris was engaged was the first thorough tenement-house survey, known as the Sanitary Survey of 1869. It was so complete that the blanks filled in by the Inspectors were bound, and they are to-day preserved and esteemed as one of the most precious series of records in the possession of the department. The immediate result of this work was to render tenement-house life less hideous, by making ventilation of dark bedrooms compulsory. By Dr. Harris’s suggestion or direction over 50,000 windows for ventilating purposes were put in such rooms. Dr. Harris was also actively engaged in fighting the epidemic relapsing fever in 1870, when, there being no hospitals for contagious diseases, a thorough system of disinfecting and fumigation was made necessary. To him also is due much credit for taking the first step in establishing the system of public vaccination. This was in 1869, and about 50 physicians in that year vaccinated between 50,000 and 60,000 persons. He also did efficient work during the cholera epidemic of 1866-7, though he modestly allowed the executive honors of that fight to rest with Dr. Dalton, whose most efficient aid he as at the time. Dr. Harris’s uniform politeness, courtesy, and urbanity while connected with the Health Department won for him the title of “the Chesterfield of the department.”
When in 1880, the Legislature organized the State Board of Health, Dr. Harris was made one of the three Commissioners, and he was unanimously elected Secretary and State Superintendent of Vital Statistics. These positions he held at the time of his death. The organization of the entire service was due in great part to his ability as an executive officer. He was also instrumental in the organization of the American Public Health Association, of which he was for several years both Secretary and President. Into the work of this association he entered with his whole soul, devoting all the time he could spare to the advancement of its aims and interests.
Dr. Harris was also widely known as a philanthropist. He was for many years indentified with the Prison Association, for the care and reformation of discharged convicts. He was its corresponding Secretary from 1872 to 1880 and a member of the Executive Committee at the time of his death. He was made State Agent for Discharged Convicts when that office was created, in 1880. He served for a year and a half in organizing the system of State philanthropic work done by that officer. The Prison Association was in session at Charlton T. Lewis’s office yesterday afternoon when the news of Dr. Harris’s death was received, and it adopted resolutions recognizing the loss to the organization and paying tribute to his worth and work. Another tribute to Dr. Harris’s wok was yesterday paid by Michael Dunn, Superintendent of the House of Industry at Houston and Mulberry streets, who on hearing of his death said sorrowfully, “I’m sorry he’s gone; he was one of God’s noblemen. It was his words with me that first led me to abandon a criminal life and try to live honestly.”
Dr. Harris was also identified with the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, and a member of the County Medical Society, the New-York Academy of Medicine, the Physicians’ Mutual Aid Association, the Society for the Relief of Orphans and Widows of Medical Men, the Medical Journal Association, and the Public Health Association of New-York. He was also an active of honorary member of various other associations and societies in his country and Europe. He was consulting physician to the country branch of the Nursery and Child’s Hospital. He was a voluminous writer of works on sanitary and philanthropic subjects, and also on questions relating to vital statistics.
1938 Hurricane and Flood
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009The New England Hurricane and Flood of Wednesday, Sept. 21, 1938 had less water damage than the floods of 1927 and 1936, but much wind damage. Sadly, one of the four deaths in Windham County was a summer resident in Westminster West, killed by a falling tree.
It was some good luck for Putney youngsters that all the roads through Westminster were impassable. The Phoenix’s Putney column on Sept. 30 reported, “A truck carrying Fro-joy ice cream stopped here last week and when the driver learned that road conditions would prevent his reaching his destination, he took his load to the school and treated the children.”
From the Vermont Phoenix, Sept. 23, 1938, page 1:
Barns, Silos Down in Westminster
Flood Danger Diminishes; Fenn Brothers Lose Several Pigs
Alarm over flood conditions here that was felt up to the mid-forenoon today diminished with the report that the Connecticut river was slowly subsiding. Farmers who remembered the heavy toll of damage exacted by the ’36 flood found something to be thankful for. Their losses were primarily caused by the furious wind that lashed buildings and trees, destroying barns and silos. At its peak the water went over the road on the upper street from Westminster Station. There was no electric power in town.
W. H. Bent, a heavy loser in the ’36 flood, saved 300 pullets and 200 roosters as flood waters reached his property. Six large brooder houses, unoccupied, were afloat. Mr. Bent moved his cattle at an early hour, as did others, when water reached his stable. Half of the roof on a barn at Selectman W. H. Powers’ place was whisked away in the storm. Lynn Fullam’s tobacco barn was blown down and two large silos were flattened at the Fen Brothers’ farm. The Fenns lost a large number of their pigs.
Buxton’s store at Westminster Station was badly damaged when a large tree uprooted and crashed on the building. The proprietor, pinned in the wreckage at the rear of the store, escaped unaided and unscathed. Skinner’s garage was damaged to a lesser degree by a falling tree.
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Page 8:
BELLOWS FALLS HAS STORM DEATH
Westminster West Summer Resident Killed by Falling [tree]
Village Shambles; Power Lines Down
A casualty in this locality resulting from the storm was learned here this morning with the death in Rockingham hospital of Leonard W. Whitbeck, 53, of 94 Moffat road, Waban, Mass. and Westminster West, who succumbed to injuries suffered yesterday when he was hit by a falling tree. His death resulted from a broken back and fractured skull.
The summer resident of Westminster West suffered his injuries when he was attempting to reach his Westminster West home late yesterday. Leaving his automobile to remove obstructions in the highway, Whitbeck was struck by a falling tree. Found by residents of Westminster West, he was rushed to Rockingham hospital.
Mr. Whitbeck had left his summer home yesterday to drive to Boston. Forced back at Keene by impassable highways, he had nearly reached his home when disaster overtook him.
Mr. Whitbeck leaves a wife and daughter.
…
Road conditions were bad. Travelers attempting to go south found the Westminster road completely flooded. The so-called Swift cabins were completely inundated.
The Connecticut river continued to rise this forenoon, but power officials said at 11:30 a. m. that the peak had been reached. They stated the high water had reached within nine feet of the 1936 mark. ….
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Sept. 30, 1936
Westminster West column
Storm Damage Is Less Here.
The hurricane of Wednesday night, Sept. 21, caused much anxiety for about four hours and this place suffered considerable damage, principally in the loss of wood lots, maple orchards being nearly wiped out for some. Others suffered less serious damage.
W. F. Buxton had the entire roof taken from one side of his barn and several sheds lost their roofing. A number had cornfields flattened.
The village street lost several of its prize shade trees. At A. C. Barnes’ the trees in the yard blew down, one smashing the piazza roof and cutting off the water supply. The houses generally were not seriously damaged although some roofing is minus and also window lights.
In R. H. Ranney’s orchard, apples were nearly all blown off. Still all feel fortunate knowing of the heavier losses elsewhere.
Death of L. W. Whitbeck.
The untimely death of Leonard Whitbeck of Waban, Mass., a summer resident here who lost his life while returning from Westminster when struck by a falling tree during the hurricane, was a shock to all. Much sympathy is expressed to Mrs. Whitbeck and daughter, Susan, who survive. All will miss the neighborly calls and friendly spirit he radiated.
1936 Flood
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009The Flood of Wednesday, March 18, 1936 caused $50,000 damage to roads and bridges in Westminster—the highest damage toll in the county, according to the March 27, 1936 Phoenix. The total estimate for the county was $400,000. The 1927 Flood damage in Westminster was caused mostly by the Connecticut River (which rose even higher in 1936 than in 1927), but this springtime flood damaged the whole town. Even so, there were no deaths in Westminster or elsewhere in the county. Stock loss, however was extensive. Train service was interrupted for a week. On the lighter side, one Westminster boy was able to use the idle track to get to the High School on a handcar furnished by the railroad!
Nine days after the flood, the [Brattleboro] Vermont Phoenix reported Westminster’s story on page 1, “All main highways in this locality were open to traffic yesterday. Near the Riverside cabins on Route 5 this side of Westminster village, heavy trucks are being detoured over the old location for a short distance, pending repairs to the cement at that point.”
“A procession of federal relief officials visited the selectmen’s office Wednesday in connection with general flood rehabilitation plans for this locality.”
“Dr. W. D. Bowen of Bellows Falls, assisted by Mrs. Harold Hatch and Miss Edna Smith, inoculated about 200 Westminster residents against typhoid Wednesday.”
The Westminster column in the issue has some recent details followed by an extensive “Notes on the Flood” section:
…The latest report from the W. S. Fenn Co. as to stock lost during the flood is: Eight cows, five calves and three pigs. …
About 100 feet will have to be filled in at the approach to the Walpole bridge on the Westminster side before the road can be opened. [A brief article elsewhere in the paper reported that it was unknown at first if this new channel of the Connecticut would be filled in or another bridge built.] …
The Connecticut Valley Orchard Co. men, with a pump, came to empty the cellars of the flooded farms early Monday morning and will continue to help in every way possible as long as they are needed. …
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Notes on the Flood.
A. L. Vose lost all his stock when the water closed over them in their stalls and tie-ups.
R. C. Edson shot his horses when they became entangled in a clothes line as he was trying to save them.
W. S. Powers and Carlos Morse moved their families to Bellows Falls. Mr. Powers was able to save a few of his cattle.
W. H. Powers and family were at the home of Rollo Metcalf Wednesday night and then moved to H. E. Partridge’s. Thursday night Mr. and Mrs. Rollo Metcalf had seven with them and they stayed on several days.
Mr. and Mrs. Warren Potter and family, with Mrs. DeRoque, were guests of J. C. Richmond until they could return to their home.
The water here was four feet higher than it was in the flood of 1927.
Alfred Reed and family were with Albert Moore. Mr. Reed’s father died in a Burlington hospital about the time the telephone service failed here. Word was brought Mr. Reed by Herbert Leach on his return from Essex Junction, where he went on business during the flood.
J. Robert Miller lost his entire herd of cattle and just how many Warren Potter lost could not be learned at this writing. There were about 170 on the second floor of the Fenn barn until Tuesday, belonging to Fenn and Potter, and so crowded that a count could not be made until they could be moved.
The people of the lower village (south) heated water to help clean the milk bottles for the Fenn Co., that families in Bellows Falls could have milk. Most homes in this village have electric pumps in their homes and therefore could not use water freely.
W. H. Bent moved everything but the stoves to the second-floor of his home, save the pianlo which was taken to the Institute. Four chicken houses were moved to the village and left on the highway. These were replaced early Tuesday morning. The Bents stayed with Arthur Bemis and family.
W. H. Powers lost 26 cattle and Charles Holton two dogs. The schoolhouse at Sand hill was flooded to the eaves and moved six inches off the foundations. The teacher, Miss Anna Eddy, left for her home in West Brattleboro March 24.
Dick Williams went to Bellows Falls Monday on the handcar furnished by the railroad to attend school.
George Woodburn, who has been in Springfield this winter, had announcement made over WNBX that he had at his farm here five or six tons of hay that could be had by applying to Lynn Fullam.
A. O. Amidon, A. E. Waldron and Postmaster Moore went to Brattleboro Saturday to take mail and get the mail from the south that was held there for Westminster. It had to be brought by boat from Trybulski’s to Bent’s turn.
James Wilcox and family were with the R. R. Barbers for several days during the flood.
The Lowell family that lived at Grout station moved a 2 a. m. last week Thursday to the John Jennison house. The cellar of their house was pumped out Sunday so they could return.
Lawrence Harlow took a boat ride Thursday over the railroad track from his home in Putney to Westminster Station.
The Edwin Fentons had with them for the period of high water Mrs. Carroll and Gordon and the Frank Jones.
As far as is known no one from the upper street went to Bellows Falls because of the high water. They came to the lower or south village.
Mrs. Martha Miller, who was 101 years old last Dec. 1, had to move upstairs in her home.
The storage house of the Woodward Wreath shop, which was well filled, went down the river Thursday.
While the houses and barns in Westminster were not swept away by the river waters, many milk houses, ice houses and garages were moved and broken up.
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Westminster West
Roads Seriously Damaged.
Never has such high water been seen here as last Wednesday. The section from Chapman’s store to Miss Houghton’s house was one body of turbulent water, flowing over the bridge at times about two feet deep. Cellars were flooded and fires extinguished. Electric current was off about 48 hours; telephones working on a 50-50 basis. The star mail route made daily trips at great hazards, the whole contents of one mail were copies of the Bellows Falls Times which were eagerly scanned.
The road damage is serious; several trucks and men are working north of the town repairing damages. The steam shovel was brought into service Sunday. Much sympathy is felt for those in the West Parish who have suffered such losses.
Red Cross workers are active in flood relief work. The request for funds has been met with generous response, two contributions being $100 each. Quilts are being tied for distribution. Red Cross tags will be sold.
Father of Anesthesiology Once Lived in Westminster
Monday, November 9th, 2009Horace Wells, the dentist who pioneered the use of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) for anesthesia in the 1840s, lived in Westminster as a child, and attended the Red School House, which was just south of the road leading to the Walpole bridge.
Wells was born in Hartford, Vt. in 1815. His father (also Horace) bought a farm in Westminster and young Horace attended local schools before studying dentistry in Boston. A deeply compassionate man, he would often suspend his practice for weeks at a time, he was so disturbed at the pain he was forced to cause his patients.
In 1844 he attended a demonstration of laughing gas by a Prof. Colton (also a Vermonter.) Wells noticed that one of Colton’s volunteers fell and bruised himself severely, yet felt no pain. The next day Wells invited Colton to his office to administer laughing gas to him; then Wells’s assistant pulled the anesthetized dentist’s wisdom tooth.
Wells was elated, and went on to specialize in painless extractions. But his attempts to spread the word were marred when he administered too little gas during a demonstration and the patient cried out in pain.
Wells was hissed by the students and declared a humbug. Undaunted, he traveled to Europe, where the new method was well-received.
But in the meantime one of Wells’s assistants was discrediting nitrous oxide and promoting his own ether formula. Wells was discouraged; he opened a practice in New York, where, following a week of self-experimenting with morphine, he ran out onto the street and threw acid on two prostitutes. He was imprisoned, and when he came to himself and realized what he had done, he committed suicide.
Wells is widely recognized as the father of modern anesthesiology, and may be the only Westminster person to have a statue erected in his honor. He has three; one in Hartford, Ct., where he had his dental practice. a bronze bust at the Army Medical Museum in Washington D.C., and one in Paris.
At one time it was apparently proposed to build a memorial park in Wells’ s honor at the site of the Red School House in Westminster. He was a man of compassion and courage; his first experiment was on himself, and his discovery spared countless people pain over the years.
Westminster, it’s fair to say, had completely forgotten him, but it’s not too late to remember.
Horace Wells Statue in Hartford, Connecticut
Tobacco farming in Westminster c.1920-1955
Thursday, October 15th, 2009Westminster had the northernmost tobacco farms in the Connecticut River Valley. The 1941 Town History doesn’t mention tobacco at all. Like the current tobacco farms in the Amherst, Massachusetts area, the leaves were high quality and used only for cigar wrappers and binders.
The 1884 Child’s Windham County Gazetteer lists only 4 tobacco farms in the county, all in Vernon, although tobacco was likely grown as a sideline on other farms. The summer 1955 Vermont Life had an article, “Cigar Valley Outpost,” that described the last tobacco farm in the county, the Charles Holton farm run with sons William and James in the village. They were down to 4-6 acres from a high of 30-40. George Aiken recalled, “Vernon and Putney were the largest producing towns until around 1920 when Westminster came into the picture with larger fields, including shade grown.”
A newspaper article on the 1927 flood noted that the C.J. Decker Co. had about 75 acres in tobacco at that time. Much earlier, the Aug. 16, 1873 Boston Evening Transcript reported 80 acres of tobacco in Westminster.
Highlights of the Vermont Life article:
- Train #54, now the northbound weekend Vermonter, was called the Cigar Valley.
- In the early 1900′s, Vermont ranked #1 among states in tobacco yield per acre.
- At its peak, Vermont had about 500 acres in tobacco, almost all in Windham County.
- With luck, lots of work, and lots of spraying, tobacco could bring in $2000 an acre on a $500 investment.
1927 Flood
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009The Vermont Flood of November 3-5, 1927 was dramatic in Westminster along the Connecticut, although none of the 84 deaths in the state were in town. The village became a peninsula while the Sand Hill Schoolhouse was completely submerged! Below are articles that appeared in the Bellows Falls Times. Please add your Westminster flood memories and family stories at the bottom.
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Story of Flood in Westminster
B.F. Times, Nov. 17, 1927
The following story of what the flood did in and about Westminster, written by the Westminster correspondent, did not reach the office last week until after the Times had been printed. However, it is worth reading even if it is a week old.
At the south end of the village, the farmhouse owned by F. H. Farr and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Bent was surrounded by water, filling the lower part of the house enough to drive the occupants to the upper rooms. The water has been known to come up to and fill the lower spaces of the big barn on this farm in times of high water, and on one occasion filled the cellar of the house making it necessary to keep fires burning in the cellar to dry out the dampness, but water never had, in the remembrance of Mr. Farr, in whose family the farm has been for 60 years, come into the house before. Mrs. Farr was taken [unreadable line] where she stayed until the first of the week when the water had gone down. It will take some time to clean up and make things livable again. Mr. Bent lost no stock as far was the reporter knows.
Below here on the Putney meadows the Loomis brothers lost some 48 sheep in the flood. A large number of cows with the flock of 121 sheep were marooned on the “island” but managed to swim to shore. The water along points hereabouts rose rapidly up to midnight Friday, the highest point being reached at 1 a.m. Saturday morning. Around noon Friday the water rose three feet in an hour and a half.
Upper Street Under Water.
But it was the north end of the “King’s Highway,” known as “Upper Street” and more recently called Westminster Station, that was hardest hit by the flood. As heretofore stated the flooded area reached from the foot of Court House hill on the south to the foot of Depot hill at the north end, while to the left and right the broad meadows of the valley were covered with a wild waste of water, ever and ever creeping higher and higher, to leave on every building a tell-tale mark of the flood’s highest reach. To add to the terror and burden of the situation the electric lights were obliterated and telephone connections severed.
Wayside Stand Submerged.
The Wayside grocery store of A. S. Lewis was completely under water, the entire stock a total loss, the only equipment saved being the cash register, scales and meat cutter. Mr. Lewis carried a stock of about $3,000 of groceries, meats and vegetables. When the little store was built it was planned to put it above beyond any high-water mark known, but it availed nothing in the raging waters that swept this territory last week.
Loose Live Stock.
At the former I. G. Converse place, owned by Warren Potter who came here from Charlestown, N. H. a year ago, the water also made inroads into the house where all furniture that could be moved had been carried to the second flood [sic!] of the building. A large and expensive piano, according to reports received, was ruined by the flood. Mr. Potter lost a few head of young stock.
Mr. Powers, another newcomer, also from Charlestown on the L. A. Miller place, lost five cows, if reports are true. J. R. Miller in the same vicinity lost one or two cows, it is said, while R. D. Nims, just starting a dairy herd, lost two cows out of nine head. Mr. Nims lives on the George Wright place. His stock had been driven to the upper stables and when the flood reached them it was impossible to drive them from the building. Partitions were knocked out, allowing the terrified creatures to get to empty spaces of barn floor where some took refuge on the haymow, some in the silo, or wherever they could find a footing. Eight were alive on Saturday morning but it was necessary to put an end to one of the suffering creatures. Mr. Nims found room for the survivors in J. P. Holmes’ barn which was out of the flood area. Mr. Nims exposed to danger and hardships for two days and nights and nearly exhausted, with his family were taken later to the home of Miss Sarah Davenport on the state road where they were cared for until able to return to their home, which had also been soaked with the rising tide of waters.
Women and Children Taken to Homes in South End.
When it became necessary to move to the second floors of the homes in the flooded section, it became evident that the women and children must be gotten where they could be warmed and fed, and by means of boats they were gathered together and Friday afternoon taken, most of them, to homes in either end of the village where a welcome was extended to all. Some went to friends above the depot. Many returned Saturday only to have to seek shelter again Saturday night, remaining for the most part until Sunday or Monday before returning to their wet domiciles again. At Charles Peck’s no furniture was removed and when the rescuing party called there an entrance was made with a boat through the front door into the hall.
Sand Hill Schoolhouse Unfit For Use.
The schoolhouse where children held a carnival the week before is now desolate and unfit to shelter their bright youth. The schoolhouse on the Sand Hill road, like the Lewis stand, was covered by the waste of waters that rioted here for three days. Not even the roof of the little building could be glimpsed through the raging flood when at its height. The building must be thoroughly cleaned and dried before it can be used for its rightful purpose
The water came up around back of the Jones building and reached its highest point in the dooryard of J. P. Holmes, hungrily lapping at the roots of the beautiful hydrangea bushes that flank the flower bed. [unreadable line] Water seeped through an abandoned well into the cellar of the Holmes place, but not to do great damage.
Water covered the flat between the station and the Walpole bridge and one of the barns at the Abenaque place was turned about. All the small houses back of the corn factory, usually occupied by employes of the factory, were swept away with one exception of a building that stood high up toward the factory.
Taken altogether Westminster is struggling to get to living again. That no lives were lost is a thing to be grateful for.
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Westminster After the Flood
B. F. Times, Nov. 17, 1927
[written a week after the above account, but included in the same issue of the newspaper]
During the days that the flood prevailed, the Times correspondent, from her home in the Pine Banks district, could over-look the flooded fields and highways in both sections of the town. With the aid of a field glass the Bent home was brought close up, the fields, highway and railroad under water that rose higher and higher as the hours passed. One was sure that the water had gained an entrance into the house, but could not know until later to what height it rose. Forty-two inches marked the highest point attained. A deep deposit of mud was left in the cellar and on the floors. The stock was removed from the barn to places in the village. All the fields in this usually lovely glade were under water, presenting a view of a big pond. Land along here is owned by Fenn, brothers, L. W. Fullam and F. H. Farr, the latter rented to W. H. Bent.
With the aid of glasses a good view of Westminster Upper street was also had. “Upper” street may seem a misnomer to one not acquainted with the topography of the town. It is so called from being “up the river,” not from being higher, for in point of fact, this upper street is lower than the south end of the main street familiarly alluded to as the “Lower street.”
The highway from Lewis’s stand to the former C. F. Arnold place was plainly seen to be under water which stretched out on either side, covering the meadows and arable land in this area. And here, too, the water could be seen creeping up around the house occupied by Mr. Decker’s foreman, Edward Murphy. The water flooded the barns and filled the cellar under the dwelling [unreadable line] an inch or two of the floor.Mrs. Murphy escaped by being carried on her husband’s back to the Poneck house next door and then was taken to E. J. Fenton’s above the station.
The former Arnold place is at the present time owned by C. J. Decker Co., and 75 acres, more or less, of the arable land is used for raising tobacco. These great fields were completely covered with water which surrounded the huge “drying sheds.” [unreadable line] during the first rainy days was submerged [unreadable line] total loss. Mr. Decker and a party of friends from Northampton were at the plantation during the flood.
Four feet of water in the Rob Miller home compelled its occupants to seek shelter elsewhere. Mr. Miller lost one cow from his dairy. And so the story might be repeated of [several lines omitted here because they didn’t get on to the transcriber’s microfilm printout] turpid, muddy waters beggar description.
James McDonald, an old and faithful employee of the Baxter factory, known to his friends as “Senator” because of a pronounced likeness to Chauncey Depew, lost all his belongings when the building he called “home” was swept away in the swirling water that came up from the current that surrounded the Abenaque plant where Woodard’s Greenery shop is situated. The Knapps were driven from their home in the Abenaque building, and much of Woodard’s stock ruined. Mr. Woodard is making plucky efforts to re-establish his working forces after a hurried clean-up.
Prof. Warren E. Potter, a teacher in Springfield, Mass., tried to get to his home here Friday Nov. 4. He reached Brattleboro and the Springfield driver refused to come beyond that point, and a driver from Brattleboro brought him to the village here, where Mr. Potter was forced to remain all night, reaching his home on the Upper street Saturday.
Beacon fires were kept burning at Court House hill during Friday and Saturday nights. No boats were available here at first, but one was obtained from Bellows Falls and navigation made possible.
In summing up the situation, words fail to tell of the unspeakable filth deposited everywhere by the flood, especially where it entered dwellings, leaving on floors and walls, furniture and fixings, its slimy trail. It is hard cleaning up outside buildings, about barns, sheds and outhouses, removing from yards and fields dead or dying animals, rubbish, garbage and flood-drift of every description, all of which is done in the open air. But it is the mother of a household who calls forth all the sympathy of which we are capable.
The work of cleaning is interrupted by cooking, caring for children, laundrying and other calls too numerous to be classified, that hinder satisfying progress. She needs help, not only in this locality, but wherever the flood devastated homes. The story is told of a workman, who, once upon a time, failing to find work in his own line too up housecleaning as a business, and made more money than he had ever earned at his profession. If there are any un-employed at this time, they might go and do likewise.
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1929 – Paving of the King’s Highway
Monday, October 12th, 2009There was much excitement in town during the summer and fall of 1929 as Main Street was paved. This was probably the first paved road in town. Does anyone know if any other roads were paved with a hard surface before 1929, maybe in North Westminster?
It was officially “federal route 5″ starting in 1927 which is the reason it was getting paved, but judging by the newspaper accounts, no one used that name at the time.
At the south end of the village, the “hill road” was straightened (leaving behind today’s Greenwood Road). The resulting confusion caused an accident the first day!
Do you have any stories about the paving of the King’s Highway? Or, just comment on the newspaper articles below.
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Cement Highway Contract Let
[Brattleboro Vermont Phoenix, April 19, 1929, p. 5]
Callan Construction Co. to Build Westminster Road
Will Ship Four Shovels at Once—F. R. Atkinson, Representing Contractor, in Brattleboro Saturday.
At a meeting of the state highway board in Montpelier Friday afternoon the contract for building seven and one-half miles of cement road in Westminster, beginning at the northerly end of the Putney cement road built last year and continuing to the Rockingham town line, was awarded to the Callan Construction Co. of Bristol, R. I., which submitted the lowest of 15 bids. The Callan Co.’s bid was $319,523, or $11,683 under the second lowest bidder, B. Perini & Co., of Ashland, N. H., whose figure was $331,206.
F. R. Atkinson of Boston, representing the Callan Construction Co., was in Brattleboro on Saturday, and called on District Highway Supervisor Charles J. Dube. He said the company would make preparations at once for beginning the project, shipping not less than four steam shovels as provided in the contract. The contractor has 165 working days in which to complete the job. So the limit will not expire before the last of October.
The Callan Co. is a large concern and is in a position to do other jobs at the same time; in fact Mr. Atkinson is to figure on the Hinsdale cement road job and other projects that are to be contracted for this year. Its bid on the Westminster road was $27,820 under that of D. W. Overocker of Brattleboro, whose bid of $347,343 was sixth lowest. The Callan Co.’s contract is for an average of $42,600 a mile, which is considerably less than the average cost per mile of the Putney road.
Contrary to a statement published in the northern part of the state, the Westminster job is a federal aid project, numbered 83C, and it is on federal route No. 5. The government will pay $15,000 a mile and half the cost of two small bridges. The expense to the town of Westminster will be about $7,000, including the right of way. Toward this expense the town has a right to put in its state aid and 5 per cent money, totaling about $2,350.
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From the Vermont Phoenix, Aug. 16, 1929, p. 2 (Westminster column):
The cement on the west side of the road is laid as far as the Power farm. On Monday pouring was begun on the east side, by the underpass, and 1605 feet, or 36 blocks were laid. It was said this was the largest day’s work so far.
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From the Vermont Phoenix, Aug. 23, 1929, p. 2 (Westminster column):
Road Progress.
It is reported that cement work will cease at the north end of the project very soon and the gang will re-commence the pouring of cement from Bent’s hill to the south end of the job. It is necessary to do some blasting of rock near the Bellows Falls bridge, which is the cause of stopping the work there. There is also blasting to be done near the Putnam place on the south end but it will not interfere with starting the cement work at the point mentioned. Gravel and filling is being taken from the Fullam lot near the iron bridge in the Pine Banks district. The steam shovel is used and several trucks convey the filling to places where needed.
The old wooden structure that spanned the stream on the cross road to Kurn Hattin has been replaced by an iron bridge taken from a back road when a cement bridge was built over the stream. The frame has been painted to look like new. The road has been widened at the end of the bridge, thus providing room for meeting a car.
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[Vermont Phoenix, October 11, 1929, p. 1]
British Premier Not to Attend
Tells Senator Greene Cannot Visit Westminster
Notable Event Tomorrow—Dedication of the King’s Highway to Attract Big Gathering
Washington, Oct. 9.
Ramsay MacDonald, British premier, will be unable to accept the invitation of Governor Weeks to go to Vermont next Saturday to be present at the dedication of the resurfaced road between Bellows Falls and Putney, first laid out in 1737.
Last week the Vermont governor, through Senator Frank L. Greene, transmitted to Premier MacDonald an invitation to visit Bellows Falls on Oct. 12 to participate in the ceremonies attending the opening of the resurface road. Senator Greene today announce that he has received a letter from the Premier expressing regret and stating that he would be unable to accept governor Week’s invitation, because of other engagements.
An official program for the dedication of The King’s Highway, with events centering at Westminster, which will take place this week Saturday afternoon, has been issued by the general committee. This new cement road extends through Putney and Westminster to the Bellows Falls line, and its dedication is to be an event of note, with prominent speakers.
The program will begin at 1 p.m., and will include a monster parade. In the evening from 7 to 9 there will be a confetti dance on the Square at Bellows Falls, for which several barrels of confetti have been bought. After that there will be a dance in Union hall. [program schedule and Premier’s reply follow.]
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[Vermont Phoenix, October 18, 1929, p. 1]
Royal Road Re-Dedicated
192-Yr.-Old Highway, Relaid—Scene of Great Ceremony
Barrett Brings Message from MacDonald on Latter’s 63d Birthday—Gov. Weeks and Cong. Gibson Speak.
Fourteen miles of new-laid cement, in itself flat and prosaic, between Putney and Bellows Falls, was made the object of a great ceremony and patriotic and peace sentiments at Westminster on Columbus day which outdid anything hitherto recorded in the way of highway celebrations for this section of Vermont.
The road, originally laid out, in part, 192 years ago as the King’s Highway and in early days used as a military training ground for British troops, was rededicated and rechristened with the same royal name as a gesture of friendliness and good-will to Great Britain.
By mere coincidence, the celebration fell upon the 63d birthday of Prime Minister J. Ramsay MacDonald, who is visiting this country on a mission of peace, and although the premier was unable to accept an invitation to be present, he spoke by proxy. Hon. John Barrett of Grafton, who was one of the committee to greet the premier on his arrival in this country, brought to the Westminster gathering a personal message from Premier MacDonald, full of appreciation of the importance of road-building, whether it be a rural road or the road to international peace and world-understanding.
While this message gave the celebration an international aspect, and the reading of it was a climax which provoked much applause, it was only one of many features in connection with the ceremony.
The waving of nearly a thousand handkerchiefs in welcome to Gov. John E. Weeks and to Mrs. Weeks, in recognition of the fact that the executive couple were celebrating their golden wedding anniversary on Monday, was another high-light of the occasion.
In addition to the governor who made a brief dedicatory address and to Mr. Barrett who spoke particularly on international relations, there was also a patriotic address by Congressman E. W. Gibson of Brattleboro. He reviewed the history of Westminster, where the first blood of the Revolution was shed by William French of Brattleboro, and where following this death there immediately was mobilized about a thousand men from all corners of the section offering the first organized resistance to the British authority, arresting and imprisoning the King’s court. Colonel Gibson also spoke inspirationally of the spirit of Vermont as exemplified at this early date; and down through a score of instances up to and including the valor of Vermont at Apremont and the Argonne.
Prior to the speech-making, which was under lowering skies on an open field near the highway at Westminster, there was a parade of several hundred automobiles from Bellows Falls to Putney, in the course of which garlands of laurel were tossed as a dedicatory ceremony at 14 mile posts along the highway.
The cars were labeled with large cards bearing the names of the several towns from which they came and a few were decorated with flags or bunting, as were many of the homes along the route.
Hon. George A. Dascomb was master of ceremonies at the field, and from a platform erected there began the occasion by introducing the governor and referring to his approaching golden wedding anniversary. He called for the “Chautauqua salute” whereupon practically everyone in the crowd of 1,000 to 1,500 people drew a handkerchief and waved it for some minutes in a prolonged ovation to the Governor and Mrs. Weeks, the latter being seated in an automobile near-by.
Mr. Barrett aroused the gathering to another ovation by recalling that the day was the 63d birthday of Premier MacDonald, as it was also the 437th anniversary of the discovery of America. Speaking with his customary enthusiasm and emotion, Mr. Barrett spoke glowingly of the achievements of Premier MacDonald and President Hoover in brightening the prospect of eternal peace. In a moment of digression, in addressing the boys and girls, he brought an outburst of amusement and apparent approval from the crowd when he predicted that America would have a woman as president within the next 25 years.
He said that he had recently been talking with South American engineers and it was their prediction—in connection with the new road-building in Vermont—that within 10 years one might ride on continuous cement highways from Bellows Falls to Buenos Aires in the Argentines or from Seattle to Santiago in Chile—“7,000 miles in comfort and ease in seven weeks’ time.”
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From the Vermont Phoenix, Oct. 18, 1929, p. 2 (Westminster column):
Notes on King’s Highway Parade.
Westminster is very largely indebted to Bellows Falls for the success of the celebration dedicating the opening of the King’s Highway, the 14 miles of new cement road through the east part of the town.
Probably the oldest person in the parade was Mrs. Martha Miller, a life-long resident of the town. Mrs. Miller will be 95 years old Dec. 1. She makes her home with her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Mary Miller, at Westminster Station.
An interested visitor here Oct. 12 was Charles Stoddard of Westmoreland, N. H., the man who sent Calvin Coolidge a bouquet of trailing arbutus every springtime while the latter occupied the White House. Mr. Stoddard’s ancestors lived in Westminster and took a part in the early history of the town. A musket carried by one of them, Alexander Katham (or Catham) is now in the possession of F. M. Dutton of Dummerston, collector of curios.
Where the hill road was cut in two to make the approach to the cement (across the Fenn lot), one car came near going off the bank just as the parade passed the place. The driver was not aware of the cutting off of the road, and had driven up the old road. No barrier had been placed at the turning off place where everybody had been going. Later in the day, a Ford car, carrying the Narkewicz family of Pine Banks, did go over this bank, not having noticed the danger until two wheels of the car were over too far to go back. A general shaking up, and a few bruises resulted. The danger point was called to the attention of the construction company and proper care has now been taken.