Warm Weather Woes Part One

 

Journal Opinion         July 30, 2025

The July 6, edition of The Boston Post declared the 1911 heat wave as "the worse weather disaster in New England." That day's temperatue reached 103 degrees.  Hundreds of New Englanders died from the heat during that July. 

In the 1940s, debris and slash from the 1938 hurricane fueled major forest fires in New Hampshire and Vermont.  Pictured are firefighters believed to be responding to the 1947 fire near Mount Sunapee, which was among the most severe. 

 This summer’s news is filled with climate change-driven stories of heat waves, forest fires, and flooding. My thoughts turned to historic climatic distresses that local residents endured during warmer months in times past. Where particular hardships were frequent, I selected some from before 1970 for reference.  

The hardships of one particular summer were remembered for decades. 1816 has been described as the “year without a summer.” Locally, there was “a chilly spring and a disastrous summer.”  “The corn was entirely destroyed in that year…even the wheat did not fill.”

This weather aberration was the result of the massive eruption of Mt. Tambora in April 1815. The ash and gases from this South Pacific explosion caused abnormal worldwide weather patterns until 1817.

In May 1816, winter-like temperatures with up to 5 inches of snow falling locally on May 15. It got worse. June was severe with some places receiving up to 18 inches of snow on several days in June.

The impact was disastrous as newly shorn sheep froze to death and newly sewn crops destroyed.

Early July experienced frosts, with the summit of Mt.Moosilauke snow covered twice that month. Farmers struggled to secure enough fodder for their livestock. 

Between August 9 and 13, a cold wave hit the region with frost with another snow covering the mountain tops in late August.

September was miserable with additional frosts. Winter arrived in late October with 12 inches of snow in Haverhill.

The impacts of this so-called summer included food shortages, loss of livestock, and a psychological gloom and apprehension. It made the idea of moving to the west all the more appealing.

Years later, many elders recalled the plight of the residents of “1816 and froze to death.” By 1818, things began to return to normal.  

Normal included frequent heat waves that caused significant hardships for Northern New England residents. Before the current century, the heat waves of 1896, 1911 and 1936 stand out as being among the most severe.

Local residents used a variety of strategies to deal with the high temperatures. Houses were built with wide porches and windows that would allow for cross ventilation. There were always the local lakes or mountain-side retreats. Mid-afternoon naps were available for those whose schedules allowed. Many urban dwellers just suffered.

After 1900, electric fans and refrigerators helped to keep things and people cool. In the 1930s commercial air-conditioning began to be installed. In 1938, the new Chimes Restaurant in Bradford advertised that added feature.

There were several periods of scorching heat during the late spring and summer of 1896. Area newspapers carried the news of local and national impacts. It began in May when central Vermont experienced several days with temperatures of 93-degree.

At one point in July and August, there were 10 days of relentless heat in many parts of the nation, with temperatures hovering about 90. The Rutland Daily Herald summarized the “suffering and mortality in many places around the nation” from Philadelphia to Chicago.

On Aug. 14, the Brandon, Vermont newspaper mentioned “nothing like the terrible heat of the past ten days has ever been experienced in Brandon. We have had hotter days before, but not such a long time of continuous, hot weather.”

Vermont newspapers carried advice for dealing with the dangers of the heat, including the purchase of cooling clothing. The traditional outfits of the day for many included layers of heavy clothing year-round.

 The Vermont Watchman warned that the high temperatures could cause spontaneous combustion in sawdust that had accumulated in icehouses.

The press also advised that the high temperatures led to bad tempers and a rise in assaults and murders, although none of the latter were mentioned locally. 

A different heat wave hit the state on July 2, 1911. A thermometer in Bellows Falls register a temperature of 108 on July 3, 1911. Nashua, New Hampshire recorded its highest temperature at 106 degrees on July 4, 1911. Thermometers in Orleans County registered up to 124 degrees in the sun.

There were five days of excessive heat during which stores and factories shut down. In neighboring New York, apples baked on the trees by the intense heat.

Boston and New York residents suffered multiple heat-related deaths and prostrations. Boston had 49 deaths in one day on July 6.  New England suffered 2,000 heat-related fatalities.

The heat wave was temporarily broken on July 6, by “the most severe and widespread electrical storm that ever visited the state.”    

One of the worse nationwide heat waves in U.S. history occurred in the late spring and summer of 1936. In May, the Piermont correspondent reported that individuals were overcome with the heat, and activities were cancelled.

Nationally, there were nearly 5,000 heat-related deaths during this period. Vermont newspapers carried news of the impact, especially in urban areas where many residents were forced to sleep outdoors to get relief.

Day after day, communities in Vermont recorded temperatures in the mid-90s. People and the landscape wilted under the unrelenting heat.

An electrical storm on July 8 brought both relief from the heat and much-needed rain. Bradford’s United Opinion reported, “gardens look fresh and green and the whole countryside has taken on new life.”  

These prolonged periods of high temperature were sometimes accompanied by drought. What follows is a description of several of New England’s most severe.

During the summer of 1816, northern New England experienced a severe drought. In some areas of Vermont, there was no precipitation other than snow for 4 months. Water levels in rivers, lakes, and wells sank. Smoke from forest fires blackened the sky. Rain, sometimes falling as snow, gave some relief in October.

Beginning in April 1859 and continuing until early September, there was little to no rain in Vermont. The Bradford Telegram described the drought as “remarkable, much greater than has been known for years.” Wells and springs were dry, and “mills in the village are compelled to suspend work.” In Danville, “the earth is completely parched…the pastures afford but little feed.”

One of the most severe drought periods was from 1929 to 1934. The conditions, which impacted large areas of the nation, were felt locally as well..    

By the late 1920s, there was a severe drought in southern Vermont. It resulted in reduced mill output and led to considerable crop loss.

By September 1930, Vermont newspapers reported water rationing in the worse drought in 15 years. In October, The Groton Times reported that the governor had closed the state’s woodlands.

The lack of regular rainfall led to a continued period of droughts throughout the state. As late as July 1934, it was reported that the drought had caused considerable damage to Vermont farms. There was a shortage of hay, leading to a reduction of herds.

That same condition marked the droughts in the period from 1962-5. It was described “as the most severe and long-lasting one in the previous fifty years.”

In October 1963, The United Opinion reported, “In this community, as elsewhere, the extreme drought is of a serious nature.” Statewide the impact on crops led to an increase sell-off of dairy herds. Christmas tree farms began to feel the effects of the reduced rainfall.

As late as early 1965, rainfall was still one-third of normal. Tinder-dry conditions led to increased forest fires and periodic closure of the state’s woodlands to hunting.

This was not the first  time forest fires resulted from drought. From colonial times, forest fires resulted from lightning strikes and outdoor burning. In 1816, smoke “blackened the sky, blocking the sun and obscuring the view everywhere.”

One of the most “catastrophic fire seasons” in New Hampshire and Vermont was in 1903. Every section, especially in the White Mountains, experienced fires that year and in the period following. In addition to the numerous forest fires, newspapers reported on smoke from Canadian fires. Sparks from railroad trains were sometimes the cause of fires. 

In the years that followed, town, state, and federal programs were established to deal with forest fires specifically and woodland management in general.  Fire towers were built in both states.

In the early 1940s, there were numerous forest fires fed by the debris left from the 1938 hurricane. The 1941 Marlow-Stoddard fire in southwestern New Hampshire and the 1947 fire near Mt Sunapee were two of the most severe.

In 1944, the U.S. Forest Service introduced Smokey the Bear as part of a public relations effort aimed at preventing these fires. Debris burning, campfires, and carelessly thrown cigarettes were targeted. In 1952, Bradford’s Veneer Mill management organized volunteers to fight forest fires in the local valley.

Droughts and fires were not the only warm-weather woes. Warm weather encourages infestations of pests. More than just the irritation of black and house flies and mosquitoes, these plagues included army worms and grasshoppers in the millions.

In 1770 and 1781, northern army worms descended on the local area in late July and disappeared in early September. One Thetford observer wrote, “Whole pastures we so covered that one could not put down a finger in a single spot, without touching a worm.”

The worms devoured wheat and corn crops, leaving little except bare stocks. Farmers dug ditches to save their field crops.

The destruction caused significant food shortages. The pumpkins that Haverhill and Newbury farmers had were not destroyed and they shared them with the neighboring towns. 

 In 1898, the army worms were described as “one of the most persistent and hard to exterminate pests known”

In July 1938, the worms appeared in Bradford and attacked the fields of oats. Earthen barriers were dug, but were ineffective. My father-in law, Harry Martin told me of their attempt to keep the army from crossing the River Road (Route 5) to reach their fields near the Newbury line. They had limited success. There have been occasional spotty outbreaks since.

Locusts are grasshoppers that swarm. While they often appear in western and plain states, on occasion, they have been a problem in New Hampshire and Vermont. When they do, “they eat everything in sight, but stone walls.”

In 1805, the Peacham newspaper reported, “seldom have these insects been more troublesome…leaving nothing but naked stumps and stems.”

In 1819, an infestation destroyed every green thing in areas between the Merrimack and Connecticut rivers. In 1914 and the late 1930’s these were widespread swarms. In August 1948, grasshoppers swarmed Burlington streets.

The impact of a swarm in 1962 led to a special town meeting in Hinsdale, New Hampshire. Currently, ticks  have replaced army worms and grasshoppers as problem pests.

While these pests were very visible, an invisible one attacked during the summer months from the 1890’s to the 1960’s. It was infantile paralysis, better known as polio. Polio season typically began in early summer and peaked in September.

The first epidemic in the nation was in Rutland, Vermont in August 1894. There were 118 cases and 19 deaths. For those who survived, it meant deformed limbs, braces, crutches, wheelchairs and, after 1938, breathing devices like the iron lung.

Little was known about the causes, with suggestions that it was the common house fly or something contained in dust.  Only later was it determined to be a virus that attacked the nervous system.

Between 1891 and 1925, there were approximate Vermont 800 cases annually. In the years that followed, increases in the number of cases led to the cancellation of schools, motion pictures, and public meetings. 

In 1935-1938, seasonal outbreaks caused theatres to be closed to children under 16, and youth camps also closed. In the years that followed, the number of annual national cases rose from 11,000 to 33,000 cases.

 In 1952, 3,100 victims died nationally from the disease in the worst epidemic In New Hampshire, there were 95 cases and 10 deaths. The polio ward at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital was filled with local patients.

When, at the age of 10 years old that year, I visited my grandmother in Brattleboro, there were no swimming places or movies. I recalled injuring my hand and, for a brief moment, my parents’ fears were real.

After 1954, the widespread Salk vaccine clinics began to reduce the number of cases, and, by 1961, there were only 161 cases in America.  - 

Next month, I will continue this topic and address other warm weather-related topics including flash floods, hail, tornadoes, and hurricanes. In the meantime, we can only hope that warm weather woes will miss us.  Captions:

Boston Post Heat Wave News.  The July 6 edition declared the 1911 heat wave as ‘the worse weather disaster in New England.” That day temperatures reached 103 degrees. Hundreds of New Englanders died from the heat during that July.

NH Firefighters Battle Forest Fires. In the 1940s, debris from the 1938 hurricane fueled major forest fires in New Hampshire and Vermont. The 1947 fire near Mt. Sunapee in New Hampshire was among the most severe.   

Life in the borderland

 

The border station at DerbyLine was just one location where travelers croosed one of the world's longest unarmed borders. 

Journal Opinion June 25, 2025

On an almost daily basis the news is filled with the relationship between the United States, New Hampshire and Vermont, and Canada.

It is only about 80 miles from here to the Canadian border. That means our area is located in what might be referred to as a borderland. Its history has been impacted by that proximity to another nation and somewhat distinct cultures.

This column covers several highlights of that history from colonial times to the 20th century. I have drawn on material from vintage publications, interviews and articles that I have written over the past 18 years.

Before 1763, the French and Indian War made the area unattractive for settlement because of the danger of attacks from the north by the French and their native allies. Those forces passed through the area to attack English settlements such as Fort #4 at Charlestown, New Hampshire. 

Nevertheless, men from southern New England explored the area in the early 18^th century. . Massachusetts’s Capt. Benjamin Wright led expeditions in 1709 and 1725, visiting present-day Haverhill and Ryegate.

In October, 1759, men in Robert Rogers’ Rangers, returning from an attack on Quebec’s St. Francis native village, passed south through the area. Capt. Joseph Waits shot a deer in the meadow near the mouth of the river that now carries his name.

 When the French and Indian War ended in 1763, the French ceded their interests in Canada to the British.

The boundary between Quebec and New York, including what is now Vermont, was established at 45 degrees north latitude. The boundary between New Hampshire and Quebec was not finalized until 1842.

With the immediate threat of attack gone, the royal governor of New Hampshire chartered many local towns, and settlers flooded in from southern New England.

 The outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775 brought a new succession of alarms for the early area residents.

During the earliest years of the Revolution, residents believed they were on the planned British invasion route from Canada to Massachusetts. Haverhill built four stockages to provide a secure place for citizens in case of attack. Loaded weapons were never far from willing hands.  

The British successes at Fort Ticonderoga in 1777 “caused great consternation” in surrounding communities. They felt they were in “a dangerous and critical situation…open to sudden attack.”

Newbury’s Col. Jacob Bayley repeatedly wrote to General Washington promoting the idea of a preventative invasion route from Newbury to St. Johns on the Richelieu River.

When he received approval, Bayley began construction from Wells River following a route laid out by James Whitelaw of Ryegate. Col. Moses Hazen of Haverhill  led the construction of a second portion of the road.

The fear that it would become an invasion route for British forces caused construction to stop 40 miles short of St. Johns. The road became known as the Bayley-Hazen Road.

In October, 1780, a force of 300 natives and Tories headed to attack Newbury, but being warned that they were anticipated, they veered west and attacked Royalton and Tunbridge instead.

In May, 1782, Capt. Robert Rogers came into the Coos with a strong force, and encamped among the hills back of Bradford village, and communicated with other local Tories.   

Rogers was not the only loyalist who had roots in the local area. In 1776, John Peters of Bradford was forced by the “rebels” to escape to Canada. He spent the rest of the war fighting on the British side.

This fear of attack from Canada continued during the last two years of the Revolution and was again raised during the War of 1812. The only other attack from Canada came during the Civil War when a group of Confederates raided St. Albans in 1864.  

A different type of invasion, a peaceful migration of French Canadians, began in the early 1800s. Most Canadians of French descent were subsistence farmers and their number outgrew the available farmland. This shortage made the farmland of northern New England beckon.

Some migrants from Quebec came as seasonal workers with intensions of returning to their families. Others brought their families and settled on farms close to the border.

An additional French migration following the failed Patriote Revellion (1837) against British rule in Quebec.

It was estimated that by 1850, 62% of the 20,000 French Canadian immigrants had settled in Vermont. 

By the late 1800s, New Hampshire and Vermont had established programs to fill their abandoned farms with migrant families. In 1889, a St. Johnsbury newspaper said that French Canadians “own a good share of the farms in the northern tier of counties.”

By 1900, over a half-million French Canadians had migrated to the urban centers of New England. 

As with other immigrant groups, French Canadians were attracted by employment in New Hampshire and Vermont mills, forests, and mines. 

These immigrants were a major source of workers for the Fairbanks Scale Co. of St. Johnsbury, the Estey Organ Co. of Brattleboro, the granite industry of Barre, the paper mill in Berlin and the textile mills of Manchester, Lebanon, and the Burlington-Winooski area.

French-language newspapers, social organizations, credit unions, church parishes, and parochial schools flourished in many “petit Canada” neighborhoods.

From the west side of Manchester to border communities like Newport, VT, French was as common as English. As third and fourth generations became assimilated into the American culture, dedicated French Canadians became Franco-Americans.

The arrival of the French Canadians was not without controversy. The ugly reactions of discrimination and disapproval from the older Yankee stock began early and continued throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.

One local resident who grew up near the border in the 1960s said some residents who spoke French at home were still reluctant to do so in public places.

One must not search far to find current local residents with French-based last names.  They include Coutermarche, Gagnon, Couillard, Lefebvre, and Trombley. Other names were anglicized.  

Immigration was a two-way street. Migrants from New England settled in Canada.  Many British loyalists settled in the Eastern Townships of Quebec during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

These English-speaking Quebec residents kept their ethnic identity in an increasingly French oriented province, but other relocated.

Rufus Pierson was one example of those who left Quebec and returned to the United States. He was born in 1852 in Danville, Quebec and moved to Topsham with his wife Luella. Together, they had 14 children most of whom lived to adulthood and formed the large local Pierson family which remains prevalent to this day.

There were others who settled locally. Over the years, Bradford residents with the last names Hutchinson, Haskins, and Morrill have been mentioned in local news when visiting relatives in Quebec.

Lee Morrill, who grew up in Bradford around 1960, said that, as a youngster, he often made summer visits with both his parents’ extended families who lived in the Eastern Townships.

Aside from familial ties the economic links have bounded both sides of the border.  

 In the late 18th century, overland routes were established from Boston and New York to Montreal and Quebec City. These routes connected with communities in New Hampshire and Vermont for both stage passengers and commercial products.  Steamships also accessed Quebec on Lake Champlain and Lake Memphremagog.

“The state’s economy was heavily reliant on trade with Canada, with Vermont wheat, beef, pork potash, and timber among the major exports.  In return, Vermont imported liquor, manufactured items, foodstuffs and other goods.”

The building of a railroad opened transportation to Quebec and beyond. The Connecticut & Passumpsic Rivers railroad reach Bradford in 1848 and St. Johnsbury in 1852. Newport became a railroad town in 1863 and, in 1870, the railroad was linked to Canada’s Grant Trunk line at Sherbrooke, Quebec.

In 1876, a Bradford passenger could buy a round-trip ticket for a grand tour of Montreal and Quebec on the Passumpsic for $12.50.

In 1888, the Orange County Gazette noted,” The people of Canada and along the line of the Passumpsic united in the enterprise, giving assurance that they would continue the road from Wells River to Montreal.” 

By then there were regular trains for Montreal and Quebec City from both Wells River on the Passumpsic and Haverhill on the Concord and Montreal line.

There were frequent newspaper notices of locals traveling to and from Canada for both personal and business reasons.

 Improved highways added an additional route to the border and beyond.

In 1927, the Connecticut River Highway became Route 5 to Derby Line and Quebec highways beyond Stanstead.  In 1931, Route 5 was improved by being paved. Bus routes connected Vermont and New Hampshire with Quebec.

The completion of I-91 increased the amount of personal and commercial traffic between Quebec and the Upper Valley, with connections to urban areas to the south. 

While legitimate trade passed back and forth across the border, there is also a tradition of smuggling of illegal items dating back to the founding of the two nations. 

Legitimate trade became a serious issue for Vermont’s economy when an embargo was placed on foreign trade in 1807.  President Jefferson took this action in reaction to the impact on America of a war between the British and the French.

The following year, Congress passed the “Land Embargo” which made the import of “any goods, wares or merchandise” illegal.

This prohibition’s impact on farmers, lumbermen and merchants made it both unpopular and ignored as many continued to trade with Canada.

Strategies were devised to prevent Vermonters from being branded and arrested as smugglers. Products were brought to the border and retrieved by those on the other side.

It was said that one farmer took his herd of pigs right up to the border, allowing them to be called across to corn feed bearing buyer on the other side. 

“Smuggler’s Notch lived up to its name.” with exports, now deemed illegal, passing in opposite directions through the mountains. 

There was so much illegal action that customs agents could not stem the flow, especially in the face of determined men on both sides of the border. For many smugglings was “not deemed dishonorable.”

Legal trade between the two nations resumed when the embargo was lifted in 1809.  However, illegal trade continued to evade import tariffs or other restrictions.

Historian Christopher Klein referred to the northern border as “a lawless no-man’s-land frequented by counterfeiters, transnational criminals, and outlaw gangs smuggling alcohol, produce, gypsum, and livestock.”

Lawmen from the two states sometimes had to coordinate with Canadian authorities to apprehend criminals who had fled to Canada.

An early example of this occurred in 1806 when Orange County Sheriff Micah Barron traveled to Lower Canada, and with the consent of Canadian authorities, apprehended the notorious counterfeiter Stephen Burroughs.

Smuggling continued throughout the 19th century. In July 1865, reports in the Newport newspaper mentioned items smuggled from Canada, including silk, nutmeg, and alcohol. Lake Memphremagog n the international border was a well-worn route for smugglers.

In 1893, the newspaper reported that treasury agents had broken up “an underground railroad’ involved in smuggling Chinese over the border in violation of U.S. immigration laws.

Smuggled items also passed into Canada. In 1879, the St. Albans Messenger reported an increased in smuggled goods into Canada of cotton goods, hardware, and “every kind of manufactured goods.” An increase in Canadian tariffs on American goods created “a strong inducement” for smuggling.

Prohibitions against the sale of alcoholic beverages first enacted by New Hampshire and Vermont, and then by the federal government, opened the market to widespread smuggling from Canada. 

 While efforts were made to interrupt smuggling at the border, smugglers made their way along local supply routes to markets south. Heavily loaded vehicles were often noticed speeding along local roads, sometimes followed by pursuing enforcers.

Some smugglers were apprehended. In May 1917, a car with 375 bottles of Canadian ale was captured at Wells River.

Even after Prohibition came to an end, smugglers, to avoid federal taxes, still moved large amounts of Canadian liquor across the border.

Over the years, since smuggling has continued across the border in both directions. Human trafficking, drugs, and goods legal or taxed in one jurisdiction but not the other.     

Vehicles with Canadian license plates are common on area highways often passing American vehicles going north. For those living along the border, reactions to the meeting of two nations range from frequent contacts to discounting the impact of the transnational economies.

Recent events may change the latter as we become very aware of the impact that the transnational economies of the two nations have on the economy of Northern New England.

Beginning with a senior class trip to the 1967 World’s Fair in Montreal, I have taken hundreds of students to Quebec for student exchanges or day trips. My hope was that those visits would create a favorable awareness of that what exists on both sides of this borderland. 

Oils of the North Country

 

Oils of the North  Country

Journal Opinion    May 14, 2025 

In the past 300 years, New Hampshire and Vermont have been oil states, although not quite like Alaska or Texas.  This column looks at the history of oils such as those produced from sperm whales, farm animals, linseed, and coal and those collected from the region’s natural environment. 

It covers the period from 1750 to 1960. The information is taken from vintage newspapers and online sources.

. Some presented themselves as fluids and others as solids. They were used for lighting, medicines, toiletries, greases, and repellants. Several were used by native peoples prior to colonial settlement.

As was true with other agricultural products of New Hampshire and Vermont, oils produced locally were often eclipsed by production elsewhere. Some oils were exported to other states and other oils were imported

Two early widely used imports were whale and sperm oil. The American whaling industry was located in nearby Massachusetts and peaked around 1850. Through the middle of the 19^th century, whale oil was used in candles, soaps, lubricants, and lamps. Sperm oil, harvested from some whales, was of superior quality and used in medicine, perfumes and higher-quality lighting.

Items made from these oils were offered in Vermont stores early in the 19th century. In 1861, Blakes’ store in East Corinth still offered whale and sperm oil products.

The introduction of kerosene for lighting in the 1850s usurped the whale oil market, although the oils were still used in other products. Kerosene was just the beginning of a tsunami of petroleum-based oil products that transformed daily life. At the  same time, coal or coaline oil became available for burning in kerosene lamps and for use as an insecticide.

Two other imported oils found in most local households were cod liver oil and castor oil. Early druggists offered these oils for the treatment of rheumatism and rickets. Many children were given regular doses of one or both of these oils.  

Still, some fish oil was locally produced. In the early 1800s, fish oil was processed in several locations to produce meal and oil.  In New Hampshire, Hampton fishermen made fish oil for lamps and for cod liver oil. This may also have happened in the Champlain Valley in Vermont. 

Another oil offered in Vermont stores in the early 19th century was neetsfoot oil. Made from cattle bones, it was used to condition leather. In the 1890s, one factory in St. Johnsbury manufactured the product.

Raising sheep became a major agricultural pursuit in the two states during the first half of the 19th century. Wool oil, also known as wool wax, wool grease or lanolin oil, was a byproduct.  

It was used as a lubricant and in manufacturing leather and soap.  Vermont newspaper advertised both for sheep pelts and for the sale of the oil. One ad in 1837 offered 300 gallons of wool oil. Wool oil advertisements were still appearing in a Portsmouth newspaper as late as 1871.   

Between the 1830 and the 1860s, lard oil was another  local product. It was made by pressing pure rendered pig fat and extracting the oil. It was used as a lubricant and in the production of soap.

 In 1852, one Vermont newspaper reviewed the used of lard in lard-oil lamps. It “was the best of winter oil…better than sperm oil.”  

Many turned to the natural environment for oils. As early as 1685, residents in southern New England were harvesting the resin or liquid pitch from pine trees to make gum turpentine.

Distilled turpentine was used as a solvent, cleaning fluid, and in folk medicine. The resin was collected from pine trees in a process known as boxing, that scarred bark and deeply damaged trees. By 1715, the process had stripped the landscape of pine in the southern Connecticut River Valley.

The process then moved to southern New Hampshire where activities began as early as 1724.  In 1749, the state’s naval stores used pine oil as “the most and best oil.” By 1880, the supply of pine in the two states had been “tapped out.”

 One of the earliest manufactured products in Vermont was flaxseed or linseed oil. Many farmers raised flax for both the fibers and seeds. The oil was used in the manufacture of paints and varnishes for buildings and furniture.

Beginning in the late 1700s, flaxseed mills were built along waterways in both states. Early mills were located in Post Mills, Bellows Falls, Salisbury, Windsor, and Rutland in Vermont and Weare, New Boston, and New Ipswich in New Hampshire.  

Mills hulled, dried, and crushed locally grown flax seeds, which were then cooked and pressed to extract the oil.

In the early 1800s, paint companies, such as those in Montpelier and Burlington, advertised for hundreds of gallons of linseed oil.

The rise of cotton textiles after 1820 led to a decline in the raising of flax and the closure of linseed mills in the two states. Production elsewhere more easily satisfied the demand for linseed oil. 

And there were oils found in perhaps unusual sources., Skunk oil was made from the rendered fat of skunks and their scent glands. Early settlers may have learned about its use from natives.

In the 1840s, Vermont druggists began offering pure skunks oil as a treatment for croup and sore ligaments. They acquired the product from local trappers and hunters.

In 1850, a tongue-in-cheek suggestion was made that a skunk oil mill should be established in Ripton. Not only was that mill not established, I could find no reference to actual local mills producing the product.

Druggists from Newport to Rutland and Brattleboro advertised frequently, both seeking the oil and offering it for sale.

In 1875, Andrew Bates of Hanover sent “2,000 skins of these pesky animals to the Boston Market. Skunk’s oil is valuable for medicinal purposes and brings a fair price.” A pelt was said to yield about 4  ounces of oil. 

An 1881 Richford newspaper article answered the question “What do people buy skunk oil for?” The reply was that it was good for rheumatism.  

In 1885, a New Hampshire paper mentioned that teenage boys might earn pocket money hunting skunks.

The skunk population was overhunted, and those remaining were in poor condition with “no oil in them.” Maine continued to be a primary source, producing 25,000 gallons as late as 1907. 

After that, advertisements were less frequent. However, there were elders’ recollections of their family’s use of the oil as cures. 

One 1948 advertisement suggested, “the odor was no more than other liniments and much cheaper.”  At the same time, druggists mention that they no longer carry this folk medicine. One of the last ads seeking oil from hunters was in the Valley News in 1960.

On a smaller scale, there was the use of “coon oil” from the carcasses of raccoons. As with skunks, the rendered oil was used as a homemade liniment and a “sovereign remedy for coughs and colds” For a short time in the late 1850s, the “splendid light” of a coon oil lamp was advertised.

Snake oil was also produced on a limited scale in the two states. Rattlesnakes were found in several locations including along the Connecticut River and along the New York boarder. Snake carcasses were boiled, and the resulting oil was refined and offered as a liniment.

One of the first Vermont newspaper advertisements for snake oil appeared in 1827. Before 1848, notices offered snake oil for sale by druggists. Only one ad sought locally caught snake carcasses.

While snake oil continued to be offered until the 1920s, none of it was local oil. Also, the rise of fake oil of the “cure-all variety” peddled by carnival hucksters led to the use of the term “snake oil” to describe a fraudulent products or scheme..  

Wild spearmint and peppermint were found along most New Hampshire and Vermont brooks. As early as 1830, farmers realized they could make money from the wild plants. Newspapers such as Danville’s North Star mentioned “cash will be given” for the herbs.  

The crop was collected in bails and sold to processors. Steam distillation allowed the oil to be collected. It was generally available in bottles and sold for medicinal purposes and as a flavoring for food.  Druggists throughout the region offered it for sale.

While there was a north country market as late as 1880, it was generally overshadowed by commercial crops from large farms in the Midwest.

Wormwood and snakeroot were two other native plants that were sought by druggists and wholesalers for processing into oils.

As early as the late 18th century, locals gathered snakeroot. In Walpole, New Hampshire, “a large portion of pin money was derived from the sale of snakeroot.”

As late as 1830, a Chelsea store offered goods in exchange for snakeroot “well washed and dried.”

Those were not the only oils gathered in the north country.  Beginning in the period after the Civil War, it was not uncommon to see steam rising from scores of stills throughout the northern sections of New Hampshire and Vermont.  Those stills were used in the distillation of cedar and spruce oil.

In the spring and again in the late fall, cedar branches were gathered from relatively young trees. The brush was packed in a silo-like tub. An adjacent fireplace created steam which was diverted into the silo. The resulting vapors were drawn off, and the oil was extracted.

It might take as much as 1,000 pounds of bush to make 10 pounds of oil. This yellow “running off oil” was shipped to Boston or New York where it was used to manufacture furniture polishes, insecticides, perfumes, and drugs. 

Both cigar boxes and keepsake chests were sometimes flavored with the oil to give the impression they were made of cedar wood.

 During the two world wars, cedar oil was used in the maintenance of large guns. One source mentioned that Vermont led the nation in cedar oil production in 1942. 

Unfortunately, in the latter half of the 19th century, there were a number of suicide attempts linked with the drinking of cedar oil. 

In the period after 1840s, there was local cedar oil activities in the area of Vermont known now as the Northeast Kingdom. On a regular basis, town columns carried news of local operations. Towns such as Danville, Sutton, Glover, and Hardwick had regular teams of one to six workers per still.

I only found one reference to any community south of Peacham and Groton. In 1896, the local column mentioned that a man from South Ryegate had set up a still in Topsham. 

Locals used the income to supplement their regular activities. As one Burke resident said, “Although not produced in large quantities in this state, it does help with income…every dollar helps when you’re living on a farm.”

The availability of oil determined prices. That production, as with maple syrup, often depended on the weather.

Spruce oil was also manufactured using the same local distillation process. In the early 1800s, Strafford’s Taylor Factory processed the oil.

The first newspaper advertisement selling spruce oil was in 1829 from a Windsor store. Newspaper column references did not mention small farm stills until after 1878. In 1883, the Shaker community at Enfield Centre, distilled spruce oil.

Spruce oil stills were found in parts of Vermont that had not seen cedar stills. These included Newbury, Groton, Orange, Weston, and West Dover.  Benton, Easton, and Franconia in New Hampshire were also included.

In 1902, the following appeared in The United Opinion, “Earnest Brock is manufacturing spruce oil, instead of sperm oil as last week’s Opinion said.  Whales are not plentiful in West Newbury.” 

This needle oil continued to be distilled into the 20th century. Despite the impact of imported less expensive oil, some stills continued to operate. During World War II, the oil was used in the maintenance of large guns. As late as 1963, one article mentioned that spruce oil production was “still profitable.” 

When the idea for this article first arose, I had no idea of the number of oils produced in the North Country. A search of the Internet can still find some of these products; some  being offered by Vermont or New Hampshire sources.    

 

Caring for Animals Great and Small

Edwin Powers
 

Edwin & Katharine Blaisdell

Walter Cottrell

Journal Opinion  April 2, 2025

I have often been asked how I get my column ideas. This month’s one came to mind as PBS featured the latest chapters in the James Herriot series “All Creatures Great and Small.” We have also been making frequent visits to our local veterinary office as we put down our elderly poodle and acquired a rescue dog from Louisiana.

With those prompts in mind, I fashioned a column on veterinarians using online sources as well as recollections from many local residents.

Before the mid-19th century, the care of animals was left mostly to their owners. By 1851, there was at least one book on animal care for farmers was on sale in Bradford.

In the later 1800s, those who did offered their services for the care of large animals had little, if any formally educated, gaining their knowledge from hands-on experience. Farriers or horse doctors dealt with horses while people known as “cow leeches” dealt with cows and other large farm animals.

While they tended to the needs of large animals, those who referred to themselves as veterinary surgeons also carried on several other businesses at the same time.  

Charles H. C. Williams began his local practice in the period after the Civil War. In 1868, he warned that Morgan horses were being harmed by poor breeding practices. He traveled the state “exhibiting his trained horse and dogs, and selling his patented bit.”

In 1872, Prof. Williams was in Bradford. There he received “colts and horse of vicious habits at his stable for breaking and training.”  He later opened a confectionery store and billiard room and offered a minstrel and burlesque combination at the town hall. He then moved to Franklin NH.  

Notices that surgeon veterinary Dr. Frank Lamb was making farm visits to care for sick animals began to appear in 1876. Lamb was born in Ryegate in 1858. ”His early ambitions were to study medicine, but sickness prevented his completing his studies.”

He practiced in East Orange and Topsham before he relocated to Bradford. During his time in Bradford, he was a constable, village trustee, and legislator. He also advertised as a carpenter and re-tinner of cookware.

When he died in June 1922, his obituary included the following: Lamb “will be greatly missed in the many homes in the surrounding towns where his profession as veterinary has taken him.” 

Formal veterinary schools were first established in the 1850s in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. Their major focus was the care of urban working horses.

These private, proprietary institutions were all closed by 1927. Between 1879 and 1959, 18 new schools were created, and between 1973 and 1998, 10 more veterinary schools opened.

Veterinary historians assert that the original James Herriot books “created such a phenomenal interest in veterinary medicine with his books that state legislatures were forced to build veterinary schools so their constituents could obtain a veterinary education.”

Currently, most accredited veterinary schools are located at public institutions such as Cornell or the University of Pennsylvania. New England’s only accredited school is at Tufts University.    

Universities and community college systems  in New Hampshire and Vermont offer pre-veterinary and veterinary technology programs. 

I talked with Dr. Milton Robison of Swanton, who, at 90, is the oldest registered veterinarian In Vermont. In response to my question about historical changes in his practice since he began in 1965, Dr. Robison lamented the state-wide decline in large animal practitioners due to the loss of the state’s dairy farms.

He understands the advantage that today’s veterinarians have in treating small animals brought to their offices rather than traveling to individual farms for larger patients.   

What follows are the stories of three local veterinarians who practiced for decades. Examining the lives of these individuals is not meant to ignore the contributions of the other local vets. Rather, it is meant to use their examples to focus on the work of all local vets meeting our animals’ needs.

Dr. Edwin Powers was born in Bethlehem, NH in 1913, graduated from Bradford Academy in 1931 and the University of Toronto School of Veterinary Medicine in 1935.

He moved to Fairlee to begin 16 years of practice there. In 1952, Powers moved his family and practice to Bradford, where he remained until 1964. He had an operating room and kennels for patients and boarded animals at both locations. During these years, he mentored a number of young assistants.

His daughter Janice Fournier recalled her father being called out day or night, good weather and bad. Mud season was always a special challenge. He made it part of his duties to keep farmers aware of diseases such as tuberculosis and brucellosis that affected local herds.

In addition to his work with local farmers, Powers was active in local affairs. In 1954, he was a major advocate for expanding vocational agriculture at Bradford Academy by building of a new shop and classroom.

Beginning in 1949, he was the official veterinarian of the Connecticut Valley Exposition, the forerunner of today’s Bradford Fair. In 1963, he   presided over a rabies clinic for 650 dogs at the Bradford Armory.

Powers was a great supporter of the Academy’s alumni association and the school’s athletic teams.  He rarely missed a BA basketball game, where he frequently offered unsolicited advice to officials.  He was often called upon to act as toastmaster for local banquets for both alumni and athletics.  

His influence reached beyond the local level in his work with the Vermont Veterinary Medical Association, where he served as president for two terms.  Dr. Robison commented that Powers was one of the major organizers of that organization. 

In 1964, Powers was appointed by the governor to the Veterinary Examination and Registration Board.

In 1965, when the physical demands of his practice began to affect his health, Powers accepted a federal appointment with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in Montpelier.

He retired in 1979, but continued to maintain an active interest in veterinary affairs.  Fournier told me that a Lake Morey Inn event celebrating his 80th birthday attracted more than 200 celebrants. “Very impressive and touching, was witnessing thanks from folks for veterinary work done decades earlier!” Powers passed away in Montpelier in 1994.

 

Dr. Edwin Blaisdell was born in Laconia in 1927. He graduated from the UNH pre-veterinary course in 1949 and from Cornell in 1952.

 It was at UNH that he met Katherine Frizell and they were married in 1949. She had a PH.D in veterinary parasitology and physiology, and after they settled in North Haverhill, they began a lifetime of working as a team.

Blasdell “brought many innovative vet practices to the area which greatly enhanced the dairy and cattle farm industry.”  He dealt with epidemics, endemic diseases, and injuries and set up local rabies clinics.

He was “not your ordinary veterinarian.” His daughter, Dorothy Custance of Belmont, NH, recalled that their “family suppers rotated around barn calls.” 

She said there were no animal shelters at the time and her father could not stand to put down a healthy animal, so, they sometimes had as many as 20 pets. 

Custance said that her father loved the James Herriot series Identifying with the tales of the rural British veterinarian. The Blaisdells also connected with veterinarians from other countries and sometimes flew to foreign places to work with them.

Others share memories of taking their pets to “Doc” Blaisdell and his willingness to treat them at any hour. Sometimes it was for an injury or illness, and other times, it was for a face filled with quills. 

In addition to household or farm animals, Blaisdell’s practice included caring for the animals at Natureland in North Woodstock and the exotic species at Green’s Rare Bird and Animal Farm in Orford and Fairlee. There he treated emus, elephants, cheetahs, snakes, and more.

In 2007, Blasdell was presented the Andrew Felker Award for service to the promotion of agriculture. He retired from practice in 2008 after 56 years of “compassionate care of all creatures great and small.”

Blasdell’s interest beyond animal care had a significant influence on the community. In 1958, he helped raise funds for the new Cottage Hospital and later worked with the Haverhill Historical Society in the reconstruction of the Bedell Bridge and Ladd Street School.

When Katherine began writing a column on local history for the Journal Opinion she often included stories Ed brought home from his veterinary practice. This column expanded in a series of nine books on local and   regional history.

He was a collector of antiquities and readily shared his collections with schools, local societies, and the North Haverhill Fair.  He was president of the fair when it first began as the Pink Granite Grange Fair. In 2007, the fair dedicated the Ed Blaisdell Maple Museum, to which he donated his maple collection.

He was also on the precinct commission for the North Haverhill Fire Department and active in the local grange. Both Edwin and Katharine passed away in 2015. 

 Dr. Walter Cottrell grew up in Maryland, served in the Marines, and  entered veterinarian medicine later in life than most.  He graduated from Cornell at age 38.

In 1985, he joined Dr. David Webster’s Bradford practice at the Oxbow Veterinary Clinic. In 1993, he opened the River Valley Veterinary Hospital in a remodeled farm house in Newbury. 

In a letter to me, a local resident related an experience when her son’s family dog was brought to Cottrell for a scratched eye. “Dr. Cottrell had a reassuring ‘bedside manner,’ and was truly sensitive to a child’s anxieties about a beloved pet. “

Another story involved an aspiring nursing student with a dog with challenging health issues. “Having virtually no money, Dr. Cottrell took both my dog and myself under his wing and promptly and properly diagnosed by beloved dog Chili.” This care included using his influence to get additional care for the dog at Tufts. “A true gentleman in every sense of the word.”

Still further, Walt is “a first-rate clinician” with a “warm capacious heart.” 

 in 2004, he sold the Newbury practice and relocated to Pennsylvania to be closer to grandchildren. There he became a wildlife vet for the state of Pennsylvania. His practice had grown from a handful of species to one treating over 450.

 Upon retirement in 2013, he returned to Vermont. He expanded his role as a wildlife vet for the Northeast Wildlife Disease Cooperative, serving nine states from Delaware to Maine until 2019.

Today, he describes his practice as sporadic. Other than working with the Kilham Bear Center in Lyme, his attention is often focused on the raising of English setters and heritage apples.   

 In a recent conversation, Cottrell discussed changes in veterinary practices. At the same time that generalists who worked with both large and small animals vanished locally, significant changes occurred in how veterinarians organized their practices.

After 1980, as more women were accepted as veterinarians, there was an increased pressure to balance work with family needs. By 2009, women outnumbered men in the field. Additionally, the expanding research and new developments in animal care led to specialization among practitioners.  

There was a rise in emergency care facilities, replacing vets who were available day and night. At first, emergency coverage was shared by co-operating practices. Then they become stand-alone facilities and had to charge higher rates.

In the mid-1990s, the organized profession began to respond to the discrepancy of income between veterinarians and other medical professionals. Cottrell referred to this response as the adoption of a “white coat syndrome.” Realizing that young vets had higher debts to service and lives to lead, there was an organized effort to increase individual income and time off.

James Harriot wrote, “If you decide to become a veterinary surgeon… you will have a life of endless interest and variety.”  That certainly seems to sum up the careers of Drs Powers, Blaisdell and Cottrell. Over the years that has meant so much to local owners of “creatures great and small.”

 

 

Even More Than Just A Club

 

WHAT A LIFE. The Newbury High class of 1958 presented this 1938 Broadway play by Clifford Goldsmith as its senior play. Senior plays were a traditional class activity in most of the local high schools until 1971. The activity helped to solidify class spirit and enrich its treasury. (Tenney Memorial Library)

FIRE AND ICE. In February, 1970, the students and staff of Bradford Academy continued the winter carnival tradition first established in 1928. Complete with interclass competitions, snow sculptures, and a winter carnival ball highlighting the fire and ice theme, it was held just before winter vacation. (Bradford Historical Society)

This column is the second in a series on non-athletic extracurricular activities in local high schools to about 1971. The first article in Oct 2024 described the history of career groups such as the Future Farmers of America and the Future Homemakers of America.

The material is taken from local newspapers, school yearbooks, and alum memories. I have selected enough examples to create an understanding of the importance of these activities to student life. The 1971 date is chosen because a number of smaller local high schools closed around then.

From the early 1900s, local high school classes elected officers to organize their participation in school activities.

The officers were president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer, although a class student council representative might also be included in the executive committee. Officers were elected annually, with or without campaigns. Popularity played a role in initial elections, but effective leadership often determined re-election.  

The duties of these officers were generally the functions associated with the offices in local groups. Class presidents presided over meetings to plan major events such as class trips, winter carnivals, dances, fund- raising events, Halloween parties, and graduation. They also spoke to the school administration about class concerns.

One local class president recalled standing up for class members who were caught smoking by reminding the principal that the faculty had a smoking room. 

Orford historian Art Pease served as president of Orford High’s class of 1964 for two years and recalls the “challenge of trying to corral some of his buddies when trying to run a class meeting.”

Mike Ackerman of Haverhill, reflecting on his decades as a class advisor at Woodsville High, said that “good class officers kept a class focused and organized, and without them, there would be chaos.”

Class officers were often members of the high school student council government.

Student councils began to appear in Vermont high schools in the early 1920s and locally in the 1930s. The earliest was at Groton High, where a council was organized in 1929. Others included Haverhill Academy (1934), McIndoes Academy (1939), Woodsville High (1940), Wells River High (by 1944), and Orford High (by 1949). 

In Dec 1937, The United Opinion reported: “Bradford Academy took an unprecedented step last week by putting an important school question in the hands of students. This, in some measure, resembles what is known in other schools as ‘student council.’” The questions passed to this group included noon-hour recreation and furniture for the hot lunch room. 

Elections for student council president resembled political campaigns, complete with posters and speeches. One noticeable one was the close contest in 1942 between two Bradford Academy students from Piermont. In the election, Marion Gould beat Freeman Robie.

Student council activities ranged from organizing assemblies and dances to representing student concerns before the administration. Sometimes, they were allowed to actually legislate policies. In 1963, Orford’s council legislated, “no slacks are to be worn after March 1.”  In 1969, the Bradford council organized a student town meeting that debated articles suggested by the student body.

Magazine drives, dances, and other fundraising activities gave the councils funds to purchase needed school equipment, ranging from electronic equipment to a piano or a ski tow rope.  

 The focus of class activities varied from year to year. During the first decade of the 20th century, Vermont high school senior classes began to present class plays. These productions were usually three-act comedies, light mysteries, or operettas that could be practiced and performed in a few weeks.

 Presentations were often scheduled between athletic seasons to allow for the greatest inclusion. At some high schools, they were part of graduation activities.

 Members of the class filled all of the roles, from actors to production crew. These plays were often more inclusive than other dramatic productions, thus opening opportunities for those who had never been on stage.

Kathryn Kidder of Bradford recalled that her BA Class of 1968 class play included “a cross-section of students and a chance to work together beyond normal groups.”

The director was usually a faculty member. The plays were selected either by the director or students’ vote. Performances were in local halls for large and enthusiastic audiences.   

The following are samples of the plays performed by local high school senior classes. It is difficult to determine if plays were held annually as there are often spaces between newspaper coverage. 

Bradford Academy seniors presented plays as early as 1906. Performances were held in the Village Hall until the new auditorium was dedicated in 1936. Reserved seats tickets for performances could be obtained from Gove and Bancroft Pharmacy. 

As a young faculty member, I directed two senior plays. In 1967, it was “The Mouse That Roared” followed by “January Thaw” the next year. That play set a record for attendance at 696. At that time, classes realized about $700 for their treasuries.

The earliest mention of a play at Newbury High School to benefit the graduating class was in 1912. There is then no mention of plays until 1930 and 1931 and then there was a break to 1946. In 1948, the production of “The Adorable Imp” featured Beatrice Putnam in the leading role.

The first newspaper reference to a senior play at Thetford Academy was in 1922 for the production of “The Poor Married Man.” Senior plays continued more or less annually until the late 1960s, with early performances in the Village Hall. 

One way in which these productions differed was being taken on the road to villages from which Thetford Academy students came. Those include Post Mills, South Strafford, and Lyme.

In 1955, the three-act comedy “Beauty and the Beef” was held in the new gym auditorium at the Academy. Later plays ranged from “Our Miss Brooks” in 1964 to George Bernard Shaw’s satire “Arms and the Man” in 1968. This annual tradition lapsed for several years, but was “resurrected” in 1991 in the Grange Hall. That was the last one mentioned.

Some smaller high schools held senior plays, but newspaper coverage may not have been complete. The first mention of a production at Groton High was during graduation week in 1926. Productions continued through the late 1920s and early 1930s with shows at the Groton Opera House and South Ryegate. The play given in 1940 was the last mentioned.

The coverage of performances at Haverhill Academy is very spotty. The first mention is in 1926 and 1928, with not another one mentioned until 1963. Performances of these plays were held in Alumni Hall.

As Wells River High had a small student population, productions included students from other classes. The first mention was in 1925, followed by an operetta in 1926 and a farce in 1927. Other plays that received local newspaper coverage were in 1929, 1944, and 1964 with performances in the Village Hall. The school closed in 1967. 

The annual winter carnival was one of the most important activities for student leaders to organize. In the 1880s, communities and colleges began organizing winter carnivals fashioned after those held in Canada.

Dartmouth and Middlebury colleges were among the first to hold winter carnivals. Early winter festivals also were held in Burlington and Stowe, Vermont and Concord and Newport, New Hampshire.

In 1930, 30 winter carnivals were reported in northern New England. An example was the one organized by the Silver Fox Outing Club of Woodsville/Wells River.

Their first one, which was held in 1927, was expanded over the next several years to include a two-day community-wide festival of skating and skiing competitions. Later, a street parade, hockey competition, street parade, toboggan chute, horse and auto racing were added.  Students from area schools were invited to participate.

Membership fees financed this festival. Businesses in both towns became involved in awarding Queen competition ballots in exchange for cash purchases. The last mention of this carnival was in 1942. 

The American Legion Post hosted a Woodsville carnival in 1948. There was not another mention of a Woodsville High carnival until about 1960 when the tradition was renewed.

Local high school students were drawn to the thrill of winter carnival activities. The first mention of a winter carnival at Bradford Academy was in 1928. It was an invitational event including 70 senior and junior high students from 12 schools. 

Events such as skiing and three-legged races and nail driving contests set the pattern for later carnivals.

In 1930, the students from participating schools competed for the honor of winning the Opinion Cup. In 1931, the carnival broadened to include a parade and other activities around the village, topped off with a carnival ball. Local businesses gave financial support.

Following a break, a carnival was held in 1937, and thereafter, if the weather permitted. Some years, the lack of snow meant that the carnival was largely a basketball game and dance. The practice of inviting other schools to participate gradually evolved into a carnival for Academy students alone.   

Snow sculptures, skating parties, and indoor contests such as volleyball were added to the traditional events.

Except in 1968, when the death of a classmate caused it to be cancelled, a semi-formal carnival ball with royalty and a grand march was a major part of the yearly activities. The last BA carnival was held in 1971.

In addition to the Academy carnival, the regional Future Farmers of America held its own winter competition. From 1950 to 1970, local chapters met to compete in events ranging from winter sports to speaking and cross-cutting competitions. The event was usually held at Bradford Academy.

For decades the Thetford Academy community celebrated Founders Day. It was an opportunity to review the school’s history and anticipate its future. In 1947, a winter carnival, complete with games and ski and sack races, was added to the traditional day.

On the designated day, the morning was spent in sports with the afternoon devoted to class skits, songs, and other competitions as well as an all-school luncheon and speakers.

In the years that followed, the events varied from intermural basketball to class song and table-decorating competitions. A King and Queen were crowned and new facilities were dedicated. A trophy was awarded to the class with the highest points and a dance became part of the celebration.

Bradford’s Randy Odell recalls that Founders Day was one of the Academy’s most significant student events. In 1968, Odell was president of the senior class. His job as president “was to round up as many classmates as I could to complete in the various winter sports events, as well as help design and build our snow sculpture.”

Orford High also had the tradition of a winter carnival. The first one mentioned was held at Lake Morey in 1932. The 1936 carnival included students from other schools topped off by a ball at the Fairlee Town Hall.

Outdoor activities were held on the school lawns and in the field north of the school. There may have been some controversy over the method of selecting the Queen in the early 1950s, but in 1956 she was chosen by an “unadorned student vote.” The annual ball was soon relocated to the newly dedicated Memorial Hall.

 Haverhill Academy came late to holding its own carnival. In 1965, the first in “a good many years” was held. After that, carnivals were held until the school closed in 1969. Small schools such as McIndoes, Wells River, and Groton may have held several carnivals, but often their students accepted participation in area invitationals.  

As with the organizations mentioned in the first column in this series, the activities mentioned above gave students leadership and organizing lessons. A number of the students mentioned in the newspaper coverage of these activities went on to contribute to the area in significant ways.

A future column will continue the theme of student activities prior to 1971.  It will cover topics such as school clubs, publications, fund- raising, freshman initiation, and class trips.  Those with interesting stories may contact me at larrylcoffin@gmail.com.