Westminster History Project

The 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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