It Has Been a Good Day

Diary entries of Homer Stanton circa 1900

By Mark R. Moore

Life in rural Danville was very active and exciting for young boys at the turn of the century. Herbert and Homer Stanton were the robust sons of William Henry Stanton who, in turn, was one of the many offshoots of the Stanton family who came to Danville in the early 1800s.

At Historical House, we have received and are cataloging a large collection of artifacts, photos and archival information that William J. Stanton of North Danville saved during his lifetime.  Many of these pieces are unsorted, unlabeled and present both a difficult and interesting puzzle. Sometimes, though, we are blessed with a clear record that reveals the ebb and flow of life in a time gone by. Such is the luck we had with the three journals of Homer Stanton of North Danville, written in 1900, 1903 and 1904.

One of Homer’s entries from the diary of 1904 gives us his age: July 17, 1904. “Uncle Jim and Aunt Eva have been here today. I went out of doors. It is my birthday. I am 18 years old.” So, in the 1900 diary, he is a young man of 14. Young Homer’s diary gives us the texture of daily life through which the history of Danville during the early 1900s can be seen:
“March 7, 1900. Mama, Herbert and I went to singing school. It has snowed and blowed some. Herbert drawed (sic) slabs and phosphate. Read in the Bible.”

There is even some mystery as to road repair:

“March 9, 1900. Read in the Bible. Mama and Herbert and I went to the singing. Papa has been cutting out cradle [?] holes on the St. Johnsbury road. Herbert went with slabs and phosphate.”

But there are also activities that we understand well:

“April 6, 1900. Read in Bible. Papa has been up helping tap trees to Grandpa’s. Herbert has been drawing manure. The singing is finished tonight.”

And we can understand the holiday food traditions:

“December 9, 1900. Herbert and I went to meeting. The wind has blowed  (sic) all day. Grandma and I popped some corn and made some corn balls.”

What is amazing to me, having read the diaries of Homer, is the number of daily activities that revolve around a large network of church, family, friends and community. Card games occupied the family at night:

“May 16, 1903 …Alice, Helen, Chauncey and Bert Massey were here tonight. We played Younker [?]

and whist.  It has been a good day.”

At least that is true until Thomas Edison’s invention makes its appearance:

“June 20, 1903 …Grandma has been down to Uncle George Sanborn’s tonight hearing the phonograph.

“July 29, 1903… We all went down to George Sanborn’s to hear a graphaphone [sic] tonight.”

It’s nice to find out that even audio advancement couldn’t beat old time fun of a good dance.

“August 5, 1903 Herbert went to St. J. this afternoon after meal. Papa and myself chopped. We all went to a promenade and dance at the hall.”

There were times when even the stalwart Stantons needed medical assistance. Medical practitioners were located in Danville, which was identified by Homer as “the Green.”  Dr. Brown had to come to North Danville to see Homer’s father, William, who was in his early fifties at the time.

“March 24, 1904. Papa fell into the silo this morning and stuck a pitchfork into his leg two times, one clear to the bone. The other all most to the bone. We had Dr. Brown from the Green. Herbert, Win and I have been sawing wood with Win horses.”

March 28, March 30 and April 1^st 1904. Homer noted his last visit laconically:

“April 1^st 1904…Dr. Brown was here today and he is finished coming.”

One assumes William was getting better although there is no mention of the charge for a house call or Dr. Brown’s treatment. Less than a month later, William was splitting wood.

“April 14, 1904: Papa and I split some wood today. Herbert has been doing odd jobs. Net Langmaid has been here cleaning house today. It snowed a little today.”

The attitude about oral health was shocking to me.  My research into the diaries began innocently enough, but things rapidly accelerated in the Stanton family, especially for his brother Herbert, who was in his twenties.

“June 11, 1904: Herbert went to the Green and had 21 teeth pulled. Papa and I cultivated corn and potato[s]. Bee [s] swarmed today.”

Then it was 18-year-old Homer’s turn.

“June 18, 1904: I went to the Green and had two teeth filed [does he mean filled] and three pulled. Ira has been hoeing.  Papa and I put some fire out.”

Finally on June 23, 1904:

“June 23, 1904 Herbert went to the Green and had the rest of his teeth pulled. I have been to school.”

There is no given reason in any of the diaries as to why a young man like Herbert should have all of his teeth pulled out. Surprisingly, there is no mention by either Stanton of the existence of false teeth!

The diaries and records of the Stanton family in North Danville,Vermont, are multifaceted beyond these excerpts quoted here. There were several Stantons with many male and female children who, perhaps, had experiences similar to these which the Historical Society is yet to discover. Even more interesting are the known historical figures who appear momentarily in the family and public records i.e. Langmaids, Siases, Sanborns and Beckwiths, whose history waits to be fleshed out.

The habits and customs of the 1900s as revealed in the diaries are, to me, stories of hard, determined work but also of the joy of companionship which give us the tapestry of life.

This article was first published in the January, 2011, issue of the North Star Monthly.
To see the complete photo album associated with this article click here.

Voices of Our Elders

Life in Caledonia County documentary is living, breathing history

By Sharon Lakey

On a rainy night in December a good-sized crowd gathered in a downstairs room at Catamount Arts. The audience had made the somewhat treacherous journey to watch a 43-minute documentary entitled Life in Caledonia County. Some in the audience were interview subjects in the video, but others had braved the elements just to get a glimpse of what life was like in earlier times in our part of the state.

Before the video rolled, Senator Bill Doyle stood before the group and gave a short introduction of the project. “The idea for this came from a documentary I saw at Harwood High School by students who had interviewed elders in their community. I thought, ‘If high school students can do this, my students should be able to as well.’” That was ten years or so ago, and Bill, who teaches history at Johnson State College, and his students in his Vermont History and Government Class have unveiled their ninth in a planned series of 14 videos—one for each of the counties in Vermont.

The process he came up with is not an easy one. Students entering the class have just one semester to complete the project from beginning to end. Luckily for them, Johnson State hires a videographer to put everything together. Vince Franke, of Peregrine Productions, handles the camera and sound work of the interviews and cuts the piece together. After sharing the first draft with the class, seeking input from them and making necessary changes, he travels to area historical societies photographing photos that illustrate the information in the video.  Add music, smooth out all the bumps, produce the physical copies and there—deep breath—it is show time!

That brings us back to the room downstairs at Catamount Arts. The lights are dimmed and we are taken back in time by the sound of a guitar and fiddle and old photos. Our neighbors from around the county, fifteen of them in all, agreed to speak of the time in which they grew up. A narrator’s voice moves the script from one topic to another. It is reminiscent of a Ken Burns documentary, except, as one audience member pointed out afterward, “Thanks for not showing the same photo over and over again.” Nearly 250 photos illustrate the story, not a one of them repeated. This collection of images represents life in our county in the first half of the 20^th century.

In order of appearance, some of which appear more than once, here is a sampling of the voices:

Catherine Beattie, Danville, on the importance of farming:  “I made a list of the farms that were in operation here in the late 40s and there were over a hundred farms.”

Alice Hafner, Danville, on wages earned on the farm: “Well, a lot of the men around here worked for a dollar a day, room and board. Those would be the hired men who worked here on the farm. And they were happy to get that kind of money.”

Leeland Simpson, Lyndon, on changes brought about by machine: “When we first came here in 1920 we milked probably about 15 cows. We got the first milking machine about the second year after I was married. My father was against them to begin with, but, of course, soon's we got ‘em in place and so on, you would have thought it was his idea to begin with.”

Roger LeCours, Hardwick, on farm chores: “Even during the school year, at about quarter to six, my mother would say, ‘Your father’s already been in the barn for an hour. You boys better hurry!’”  

David Mitchell, Lyndon, on chores: “Most of kids had chores to do. You had to get wood in for the fire in the kitchen. Had a barn to clean. Kids had to work back then.”

Lorna Field Quimby, Peacham, on chores:  “You had to cut a lot of wood for the furnace and the cook stove. It always seemed to us little girls who had the wood box to fill that my mother burned an awful lot of wood! Because my father had five girls, I was one of his hired men. I did a man’s work when I was 10, 11 and 12. I didn’t wear jeans then. I wore a dress and I had these bloomers. I was barefoot and probably dirty half-way up to my knees, but I was out helping Dad, and I would pick stone with him all day. I’d get a sunburn but feel very important because I was helping Dad.”

Leigh Larocque, Barnet, on haying: I remember that myself and a couple of my sisters had to shake the hay out by hand. Years later they used tedders, but back then they used hand and fork. Farming grew from, you might call it, horse and buggy days to equipment and tractors.

Albert Taylor, Kirby, on the transition to machinery: “Well, I’ll tell you about the transition that we made from horses to tractors. Dad was a man in his 60s. He probably started work when there was no piece of machinery, and so forth. I knew more about that than he did. I was the one that come up with it, you know. We were the lucky ones to come up with the machinery. They had the labor.”

Dave Warden, Barnet, on tractors: “I can remember when you got the first tractor, which would be around ’46 if I remember right. And even then you couldn’t get a starter on it. They were still a part of the military needs. They weren’t building starters, so you had to have one that cranked.”

Duane Smith, Sheffield, on horse pulling: “At the end of the summer there were the county fairs and they were really looked forward to by everybody. You didn’t have all this television and all this other stuff. The horse pullin’ was a lot different than it is now, because all the farmers were using horses. And so there was some real rivalry between my team and your team and his team down there to see who could out-pull the other team.”

Dwight White, Ryegate, on the telephone: “Most everyone had a telephone. There were maybe a few families that didn’t have them--elderly people, for example. We would think now they were the ones who most needed to have a telephone. These would often be the widows of a farmer who had put away a given amount of money. The widow had a home, but she lived very frugally. A telephone was considered a luxury.”

Francese Cochran, Walden, on the telephone: “This fella, when he was just a young kid, had to man the switchboards so his mother could get some work done. So he had a couple of ladies that would ring in and want a certain number, and he’d say, ‘The line’s busy,’ whether it was or not. You see, he’d rather be out playing ball.”

Elizabeth Hatch, Walden, on schools: “Wherever people gathered, they were concerned about education for their children. They would form their own district school. To begin with, their school would be kept in either a room in their house or a room in the barn or shed until they could get organized and build themselves a schoolhouse.”

Russell Reed, St. Johnsbury, on Fairbanks: “We had one of the original major businesses in Vermont in St. Jay, which was Fairbanks. Fairbanks scale was the heart of St. Johnsbury. It was where the money was made.”

Peggy Pearl, St. Johnsbury, on Fairbanks: “Fairbanks came here to St. Johnsbury about 1819. They established themselves on the Sleepers River and made wagons, stoves and at one point were brokers for hemp, which was grown along the Moose River. The farmers would bring their hemp to the Fairbanks’ who would then sell it for rope making. They would have to unload wagons and weigh it then put it back on wagons. That’s when Thaddeus came up with the idea of having a platform scale that you could roll everything onto and not handle it so many times…They didn’t have a clue how really big this was going to be.”

It was a joy to watch the faces and listen to the storytelling voices of these elders. As one of the Johnson State students said in the video, “It was living, breathing history.” After the showing, there was time allotted for audience reaction, which gave its wholehearted approval. Vince explained that each school, library and historical society in Caledonia County will receive free copies of the video. They are also for sale at Catamount Arts, Natural Provisions, Green Mountain Books in Lyndonville and the Danville Historical Society as well as available online at: www.peregrineproductions.com. The cost is $15 and helps support the continuing project at Johnson State. A portion of the proceeds goes to the local historical society. The next planned project is Life in Windham County.  

This article was first published in the January, 2011, issue of the North Star Monthly.
To see the complete photo album related to this article, click here.        

The Artist as Historian

Robin Rothman Recreates the Old Stone Gaol

The completed drawing of Danville's old stone gaol by Robin Rothman

By Sharon Lakey

Artist Robin Rothman was given a mission; Mary Prior wanted her to recreate, as correctly as possible, two of Danville’s historic public buildings—the Bark Meeting House and the old stone gaol (jail). Neither of these buildings still stands; nor are there sketches or photographs of them. It was a job for historical sleuths. The two worked in tandem, digging up as much written material as possible as well as Robin visiting the sites where the buildings were thought to have stood.  Before she passed, Mary saw Robin’s rendition of the Bark Meeting House, and it brought tears to her eyes.

 

As time progressed, Mary became confined to her house, but Robin continued to pursue the jail. “I hoped to finish it so she could see that one, too,” said Robin. Unfortunately, Mary passed in July; the piece was finished in late September.

Along with the finished drawings, Robin has recorded and submitted her sleuth’s path for the historical record. How did she get to her finished drawings? When asked, she smiles and emphatically says, “It’s a total fabrication!” We will trace her method in arriving at the jail drawing now and let the reader decide how well she has done.

For the jail, her research included site visitations to the Dow-Webster house, later sold to B.F. Haviland, on Brainerd Street. The house is still there, occupied presently by Jamie and Lindsey Beattie. Robin walked and studied the landscape surrounding the house, looking for possible footings of the jail. She found hints of a stone wall and parts of a broken, hewn granite stone. A hump of earth can be seen where possibly the jail stood.

A map drawing was of particular interest to her. The Beers Atlas of 1875 hangs on the wall at Historical House. It shows Jail Street (now Brainerd) with the footprint of the Haviland house and another structure sitting akimbo to it entitled “Old Jail.” Robin was puzzled by its placement in the landscape; the jail does not sit parallel to the street. Instead, it is more in line with the present day Masonic Temple (originally the Baptist church). 

  

To find background on its most likely construction, she pored over microfilm of the old North Star, read and reread accounts relating to the structure in historical gazetteers, the town history and searched the Internet for photos of other historic stone jails.

The original jail in Danville was constructed in 1796 of logs. In 1801, when Danville became the shire town of Caledonia County (the county seat), it was upgraded. According to Child’s Gazetteer, it was constructed with “square logs, notched and pinned together.” That jail also included a pillory and whipping post.

Later, in 1834, Danville was required of to build a more substantial jail. Town records show that the Town Warning of 1834 included an article to see how much money the town would raise to build the new jail. It was decided to raise $1,000; an equal sum would be raised by subscription.  Ira Brainerd was put in charge of the construction. According to Child’s, the structure was made of “immense granite stones, some 20 foot in length, quarried in Danville, hewn and dowelled together.” In 1838, the court ordered a picket fence to be installed around the jail. A 10 to 12 foot high fence made of planks that were sharpened to a point was added.

Two articles from the North Star were used by Robin to help determine the jail design. In her search, she found the escapades of a prisoner, Daniel Floyd, to be most helpful. In the first article, Floyd, “a prisoner confined on a charge of railroad thefts, and awaiting his trial at the next County Court” alerted the jailer to a fire in his cell. The article relates that the jailer ran upstairs to douse the fire, putting Floyd in another cell to do so. From this, Robin surmised the structure was at least a two-floor affair.

In a later issue, Floyd is reported to make his actual escape:

“Last Sunday night or early Monday morning, Daniel Floyd, …awaiting his trial at the next County Court, succeeded in making his escape from the jail in this village. To effect it, he evidently had help from some one outside the prison, who no doubt furnished him tools to work with. With an inch and a half auger he bored out a space large enough to admit his body, from a large heavy beam overhead, and in this way gained the attic. He then removed some stones at one corner at the north gable end of the attic, and having fastened a rope firmly round the chimney, swung himself down by it, outside, into the prison yard. It was then a comparatively easy matter for him to scale the high picket fence, jump over the other side, and “be off.”

“ …Two panes of glass were broken out of his cell window, and though it was protected by heavy iron bars run across, yet from the tracks and other appearances outside, it was evident that some one, probably by the use of a ladder, had handed in to the prisoner, by breaking the window glass, the auger, rope, &c…”

Jackpot! There was an attic from which the prisoner removed stones as well as description of a chimney,  window treatment and gable ends. At this point, Robin had a good idea about how the building looked and functioned. Now she had to set it in its surroundings to create a sense of place.

But before we get to that, it is important to know the fate of the jail. In 1856, Danville’s shire town designation was stripped and given to neighboring St. Johnsbury. The citizens of Danville were angry about what they felt was a theft of power by political intrigue instigated by the Fairbanks family. Much ill will resulted. The North Star reported heavily upon the situation, stating Danville had gone through much expense in building, maintaining and upgrading the County Seat facilities. These included a handsome courtroom and fireproof room for County records. Likewise, the jail was considered to be the best in the state.

The town fought the change, but to no avail. Still, hard feelings prevailed and when the new County seat offered to buy the stones of the jail for $700 and move them to St. Johnsbury to build their own new facility, the Town refused to sell them. The old jail stood empty until 1877 when it was torn down. The stones were purchased for a sum of $100 by the North Congregational Church in St. Johnsbury. They became the foundation stones for the church tower. In the church records, it is reported that the sermon that followed the opening of the church referred to the stones as “removed from Satan’s realm to serve a higher purpose.”

Though the jail was no longer in use, Robin felt setting it according to the Beers map of 1875 would give the best feel as to how the building fit into the town landscape. In the mid-1800’s, B.F. Haviland, who now owned the house where the old jail stood, was a well-known horse breeder of Morgans.  A number of photos exist at Historical House of the Haviland house, barn, family and livestock.  The most famous of his horses can be traced back to the original Justin Morgan. That horse had one white foot, and Robin believed might be in one of the photos. She also had two photos of Haviland himself--one standing, holding the lead of a horse and one of him seated in a hitched Brewster Buggy.

Now, she had all the pieces necessary to do her artist’s magic. She called one day and said, “It’s done. Come get it before I ruin it!”

So, reader, you may now judge. Is this work of art a total fabrication? On this subject , Robin quotes from the Mikado with her flashing smile: “Corroborative detail intended to lend verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.” Mary would be happy, I believe.

Both the Bark Meeting House and the Old Stone Gaol drawings will be on display at Historical House during the month of December.

 

To link to the photo album of Robin’s work on this project,click here. 

This article was first published in the December, 2010, issue of The North Star Monthly.