Election Patterns, Made and Broken

Election Patterns, Made and Broken

October 24, 2012

Part One

William Palmer, Anti-Masonic Governor. In 1831, Palmer was elected governor by the Vermont Legislature to the first of four consecutive terms. The Anti-Masonic movement swept Vermont in the first half of the 1830’s and, just as suddenly, ceased to be a political force.

The Great Orator. In August 1840 Daniel Webster spoke in Orford on behalf of the Whig presidential candidate. “All the north country came to hear the great man.” It was said that, for many years, people dated other occurrences from “the year Daniel Webster spoke in Orford.”

1888 Campaign Banner. Bradford Republicans encouraged support for their presidential and gubernatorial tickets with this large banner stretched across Main Street. In the tradition of Republican majority, these candidates carried both Bradford and Vermont. Apparently they rehung the banner in later times as a reminder of that victory.  Banner is now in Shelburne Museum. f(Bradford Historical Society)



Just in case it slipped your notice, there will be elections on Tuesday, November 6. On Wednesday, November 7, many will, with relief, echo the sentiment submitted by The United Opinion Piermont correspondent following the 1912 elections: “Now that the affairs of the nation are once more decided for the next four years, it is hoped we will all get down to business and stop chewing the political rag for a while.”

This column is the first of two that examines the roles of Vermont and neighboring Grafton county towns in elections of the past, those that were examples of a pattern and those that were not. It draws on local resources, including the voting records of local communities, and excellent histories of Vermont I used during my teaching career. The latter includes Freedom and Unity, A History of Vermont by Michael Sherman, Gene Sessions and P. Jeffrey Potash, a source I highly recommend.

The two-party system was well established by the 1820s. What was changing was the increased number of men allowed to participate in the choices elections offered. Local voters, influenced by community leaders and political newspapers, were often divided between, “Democrats with their populist states’ rights views and Federalists who were considered more elitist and favored power to the national government.”

The election of 1828 is described as both the longest and the dirtiest in American history. Incumbent John Quincy Adams and challenger Democrat Andrew Jackson locked in a four-year contest resulting from the disputed election of 1824. The campaigns battled over both major issues and personal attacks. Jackson won, but Adams carried both Vermont and New Hampshire. Newbury’s results were much closer than the state with 136 Freemen voting for the Adams ticket and 135 for the electors pledged to Jackson.

For the next few years, Vermont politics were dominated by the Anti-Masonic movement, “one of the strangest episodes in the whole history of American politics.” Masonic lodges with their secret fraternal rituals included some of Vermont’s most prominent citizens. The death of William Morgan of New York on the eve of his revelation of Masonic secrets along with a rising distrust of secret organizations led to the creation of the Anti-Masonic party in Vermont. The strong feelings led to split communities and the closure of many lodges.

In 1831 Anti-Masonic candidate William Palmer of Danville was elected as governor by the General Assembly to the first of four consecutive terms. In 1832 Vermont electors voted for the Anti-Masonic candidate for President, the only state to do so, and sent a representative to Congress from that third-party. In Fairlee the largest number of voters supported that party. In the three-way election of 1834, Palmer garnered 79 votes in Newbury, about one-third of the town’s total.

The 1913 history of Ryegate described the Anti-Masonic movement: “In its sudden rise, its violence while it lasted, and its sudden termination, it resembled nothing so much as a tropical tornado.” By 1836, the splinter party was no longer a political force and Vermonters were split between the Whigs and the Democrats, with Whigs more frequently dominating.

From time to time a community would break from that pattern as Fairlee did in 1844 and 1848 when it supported the Democratic candidates.

A significant event in the election of 1840 was the local appearance of Whigs supporter Daniel Webster who spoke on the West Common in support of William Henry Harrison and the Union.

It was said, “All the north country headed to Orford to hear the great man.” Similar large events were held in Burlington and Stratton Mountain. Vermont gave Harrison a highest percentage of its votes than any other state.

In 1854, the Republican Party was established in Vermont with abolition of slavery as a major plank in its platform. That year Republican Stephen Royce was elected governor, the first of a line of Republican governors that continued unbroken until 1962. In 1856 Republican presidential candidate John Fremont received 78% of the popular vote, a pattern that continued until 1964.

Vermont’s support for the Republican Party and the Union was reflected in the 1860 and 1864 elections. In the first, Republican Abraham Lincoln faced three other candidates including Vermont-born Stephen Douglas (D). Lincoln received 76% in both elections. In Fairlee and Newbury, for unknown reasons, Lincoln received less support. Sixty-one percent of votes cast in the two elections in Fairlee were for Lincoln and in Newbury it was 67% and 69%.

Vermont was truly “the star that never sets” in the Republican firmament. No other state was so dominated by a single party for so long a period. That Republican domination, the product of a strong statewide organization, resulted in complete control of all state-wide offices and most seats in the Vermont legislature.

The Democrats, with power often limited to disaffected minorities in the larger communities, offered little opposition. Between 1854 and 1934 no Democratic gubernatorial candidate garnered more than 40% of the votes.

Only once between 1860 and 1962 did Bradford majority vote for a Democratic Presidential candidate, that being for Grover Cleveland in the election of 1884. Only three times in that period did Bradford vote for the Democratic candidate for governor, but not once between 1916 and 1964.

The only way to succeed as an aspiring politician in Vermont in the century after that was to be a Republican. To avoid internal disputes the Republican Party practiced a “mountain rule” that parlayed leadership between the two areas of the state, and single two-year terms for governor. Orange County had it owns mountain rule, with its state senatorial seat shifting between the two sides of the county.

An apprenticeship tradition brought Republicans up through state offices to the governorship and Congressional seats. Businessmen such as the Proctors of the Vermont Marble Company often provided candidates. Governor Roswell Farnham of Bradford (1880-1882), reflected this business influence.

Local partisanship was highlighted by local rallies, parades and banners. In August, 1876 the following West Topsham news item appeared in The United Opinion: “On Thursday morning we were greatly surprised to see a Tilden and Hendricks flag waving in the breeze over our main street…the diminutive size and general appearance was so ridiculous it caused a great deal of sport for the Republicans…The Democrats seemed well pleased with it until we had had our laugh, and then they begun to show displeasure, and some of them even accused us of putting it up…we think it is unkind in them as long as we have been life-long Republicans, to accuse us of being Democrats now.”

In 1884 the two political parties each had a flagpole in Woodsville and North Haverhill with the names of their candidates. That year the election of Grover Cleveland, the Democratic candidate for President, was celebrated by a large banquet at the Haverhill town hall.

In 1888 a large banner for Republican candidates including Republican Presidential candidate Benjamin Harrison stretched from sidewalk to sidewalk across Bradford’s main street. Harrison was elected over Democrat Grover Cleveland and in 1891 visited the area, speaking in both Wells River and Bradford to large crowds.

Harrison’s election resulted in payment of a strange wheelbarrow bet in East Corinth as reported on November 23, 1888, “The bet was this, if Cleveland was elected A.C. Jackman was to wheel Geo. Willey from the Four Corners to the village, W. T. Jackman was to carry a Cleveland and Thurman banner…If Harrison was elected, Geo. Willey was to wheel A.C. Jackman and fifty pounds of meal, S. G. Corliss was to carry a Harrison and Morton banner….About 3 o clock the procession made its appearance led by Sam carrying the banner and his head high, and escorted by the East Topsham drum corps. George Willey furnished the motive power while A. C. Jackman held the reins in great style. The length of the village made in better time than most two hundred pounders could make it, although George did appear fatigued when the two mile heat was ended, he was not sorry when his bet was paid.”

As the 19th century came to a close, the political patterns in Vermont were well established. Vermont was dedicated to the Republican Party. How that dedication continued and then was shaken will be the topic of the second portion of this essay in the October 31st edition.





Election Patterns, Made and Broken
Part Two
October 31, 2012

Candidates in Vermont. Former President Teddy Roosevelt toured Vermont in 1912 in an effort to unseat fellow Republican incumbent William Howard Taft. Both men toured Vermont, including stops by Taft in Wells River, Woodsville and Bradford. Roosevelt is shown speaking in Barre.

Young Aiken. George D. Aiken was a candidate of the Progressive wing of Vermont’s Republican in an era when a politician had to be a Republican in order to be elected to state-wide office. After coming up through the legislative ranks, this moderate Republican was elected governor (1937-1941) and then U.S. Senator (1941-1975).

Hoff, The First Democrat. In 1962 Burlington’s Philip Hoff, one of the “Young Turks,” was elected Governor of Vermont. He was the first Democrat to be elected to that office since John Robinson was elected in 1853.

In 1984, Madeleine M. Kunin (D) was elected as Vermont's first woman govenor and served until 1991. She was the first woman to serve as a govenor without being part of an election campaign involving her husband as a former govenor.   

This column is the second of a two-part essay that examines Vermont’s role in elections of the past, those that were examples of a pattern and those that were not. It draws on local resources, including the voting records of local communities, and excellent histories of Vermont I used during my teaching career. The latter includes Freedom and Unity, A History of Vermont by Michael Sherman, Gene Sessions and P. Jeffrey Potash, a source I highly recommend.

Bradford’s newspaper, The United Opinion, like most of Orange County and much of Vermont in the years after 1853, supported Republican candidates. In the June 19, 1896 edition it announced the Republican nomination of presidential candidate William McKinley at their convention in St. Louis. That announcement was accompanied by a large picture of the candidate under the headline “McKinley & Hobart. The standard bearers of the party of patriotism, protection and prosperity.”

Election reforms were adopted during this period. Prior to 1892, ballots were provided by party supporters. Voters merely had to deposit these pre-printed ballots. Since party ballots were distinctive, there was little secrecy in the voting. The State then adopted the Australian ballot, a system that provided a government-printed ballot with all the choices included. The voter then had to enter a ballot booth and make the selections. Secrecy was enhanced.

The Republican tickets were determined at a caucus convention until 1915 and thereafter by the direct primary, thus increasing the role of the average party member. In 1920 women first exercised the right to vote in all elections.

Changes were also finding their way into the Republican Party. There were candidates within the party who expressed a more progressive agenda, one that had its basis in the reform movements of the 19th century. Its opposition to the conservative old guard was very pronounced in the election of 1912. Republican incumbent William Howard Taft faced opposition from within his own party in the candidacy of former president Theodore Roosevelt as well as Democrat Woodrow Wilson.

Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party found considerable support, especially when he made several appearances in the state. President Taft also visited with local appearances in this area, greeting a large crowd in Woodsville. Although not scheduled to speak in Bradford the President did stop before a large crowd assembled by local leaders in the downtown Square. In October conservationist Gifford Pinchot spoke before a large Progressive rally of 400 in Bradford, calling Roosevelt “the only true pilot.”

In the three-way election, Vermont went to Taft by only 1200 votes, joining only Utah in this support. In Fairlee, Roosevelt won by a large margin whereas in Newbury the vote between Taft and Roosevelt was very close with Wilson a distant third. In the race for governor, a three-way contest threw the election to the General Assembly, where the old guard rallied around its candidate Allen Fletcher. The United Opinion bemoaned Taft’s defeat, “A good man and a good President has gone down to defeat.”

Except for that election, the Republican nominee could expect to garner between 68 and 80% of the popular vote for President in every election from 1860 to 1928. In the election of 1924, when favorite son Calvin Coolidge ran for office he received over 78% of the vote.

The Great Depression changed patterns. State-wide support for the Republican candidate against Franklin Roosevelt dropped to 58% in 1932 and 56% four years later. In the Senatorial election of 1934, Republican Warren Austin was elected with only 51% of the vote over his Democratic challenger. In the election of 1936 only Vermont and Maine gave their electoral votes to FDR’s Republican opponent. Large voter turnout at local polls supported the Republican candidates in both presidential elections.

Over the next few years the progressive wing of the Republican Party began to exercise more influence, especially with the election of candidates such as George Aiken and Ernest Gibson Jr. Their more progressive agenda gave the state government a stronger role in public affairs. After serving as an activist governor, Aiken ran for the U. S. Senate in 1940 and gained the Republican nomination with the wide support of Bradford voters.

While Republicans continued to control the state’s political scene, the margin between their candidates and the Democrats continued to narrow. In 1958, Democrat William Meyer was elected to Congress as Vermont single Representative, the first member of his party to win a statewide election in over a century. However, moderate Republican Robert Stafford was elected governor by a narrow margin and, in 1960, defeated Meyer for his seat in Washington.

In the 1960 election a group of young legislators known as “the Young Turks” joined the Vermont House. The seven Republicans and three Democrats included Republican Richard Mallary of Fairlee and Democrat Phillip Hoff of Burlington. This bipartisan group met to develop new more progressive policies.

In 1962 Hoff was elected governor over conservative Republican F. Ray Keyser Jr. Some progressive Republicans formed the Vermont Independent Party and were able to supported Hoff’s election without having to vote Democrat. Hoff was the first member of his party to be elected governor since 1853. He did not, however, have the support of voters in Orange County.

In 1964, “the star that never set” set. The United Opinion bold headline “Vermont In Somersault” announced the Democrats clean sweep of all state offices. Some candidates rode in on the coattails of the strong national ticket. Only Republicans Congressman Robert Stafford and U.S. Senator Winston Prouty won re-election. Vermont’s electors voted for Lyndon B. Johnson, the first time a Democratic candidate won those votes.

A majority of local voters in Newbury, Bradford and Fairlee supported Johnson as well as Hoff’s re-election. Piermont voters, on the other hand, supported Barry Goldwater 123 to Johnson’s 119. While LBJ won in Haverhill, it was a close 697 to 657.

In 1965, the Vermont House of Representatives responded to a court-ordered reapportionment. It was reduced from 246 members, each representing a town or city, to 150 equal population districts. The number of representative from Democratic leaning communities increased. The influx of residents from other states, the decline of conservative rural population and the influence of national media contributed to significant growth in the number of Vermonters voting for Democratic candidates.

Vermont is no longer a one-party state. No longer does a candidate with progressive ideas have to be a Republican in order to have a career in politics. In the 25 gubernatorial elections between 1962 and 2010, Democrats won 14 and Republicans 11. The majority of the latter were from the moderate wing of the Republican Party. In the 11 Presidential elections between 1968 and 2008, the Republican electors won the first six (Nixon, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Reagan and Bush) and Democratic electors won the past five (Clinton, Clinton, Gore, Kerry and Obama).

An important tradition was broken in November 1984 when Vermont elected Madeleine Kunin (D), its first woman governor. Kunin did not carry most area towns. However, when she was re-elected in 1986 and 1988 she garnered an increase amount of support locally. In the 1988 election, a majority of voters in Bradford, Corinth, Fairlee and Newbury selected Kunin.
In the Congress, Vermont is currently represented by senior Senator Patrick Leahy (D) who has held the office since defeating Republican Congressman Richard Mallary in 1974. In 2007, liberal Congressman Bernie Sanders (I) replaced Senator James Jeffords, Republican turned Independent. Sander’s place in the House of Representatives was taken by Peter Welch (D).

In the Vermont General Assembly, the Democrats hold a commanding lead in the House with 94 members to 48 Republicans and 8 Independents or Progressives. In the Senate there are 20 Democrats and 2 Progressives to 8 Republicans. Party affiliation is not always a true sign of party loyalty on issues, especially among independent thinking legislators dedicated to the welfare of local constituents.

I am often asked what I miss most about teaching. Of all the subjects that I enjoyed the most, elections ranked high. My job was to clarify the complicated procedures that characterize our democratic processes without bias. I took great pleasure in registering young citizens and watching them participate in the voting process. I was especially pleased with my role as teacher if my students were divided on which candidates I personally supported.

One thing they could be sure of, and one that I still espouse, is my belief in the importance of voting. They may also recall my admonition that those who do not exercise the vote have little right to complain about the choices made by those who do. The poster on my classroom wall said it more plainly, “If You Don’t Vote, Don’t Bitch.” Vote next Tuesday.

Antietam: A Most Bloody Day

September 12, 2012




The Union called it Antietam; to the Confederacy  it was the Battle of Sharpsburg. It was fought on September 17, 1862, nearly 150 years ago. With more than 6,300 soldiers killed and 15,000 wounded, it was the single bloodiest day in American history. It was a pivotal event in the course of the Civil War. No other battle of that war had “such momentous multiple consequences.”

This column describes this decisive battle, the role of Vermont and New Hampshire troops in the action and the political and military significance of the battle. It draws information from local histories, internet sources, and the books Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam by James M. McPherson and Full Duty by Howard Coffin.

By the fall of 1862, almost 18 months into the war, any idea that the war would be quick and relatively bloodless was completely demolished. The North, with superior numbers of every military and economic factor, except military leadership, was still unable to bring the Confederacy to its knees.

The Federals were committed to reuniting the Union with abolishing slavery only a secondary purpose. Southerners saw the war as an invasion of their homeland and a threat to their way of life.

Southern military reversals during the early months of 1862, was then followed by a series of victories, causing both sides to react strongly. That summer, according to McPherson, was one of “dark and dismal days in the north.”

In early September 1862, Robert E. Lee decided to take his Army of Northern Virginia into the northern territory of western Maryland. His goals were to relieve pressure on Virginia, especially during the crucial harvest period, to gather fresh recruits from among southern sympathizers in Maryland and to bring the war to the North.

Invading rich unspoiled Maryland would also provide much needed supplies for his ragged and hungry army. A dramatic victory on Northern territory might also result in recognition of the Confederacy by European powers and gains in the Northern elections for Peace Democrats.

The Army of the Potomac under the command of General George McClellan moved out of Washington to block the invasion. Just prior to the rendezvous, one of the most extraordinary events of the war occurred.

Lee made the decision to divide his forces, sending a portion under Stonewall Jackson to take nearby Harpers Ferry. A copy of this secret Special Order 191 was then found by Union troops wrapped around three cigars and left under a tree.

McClellan’s subsequent failure to act on this information and decisively destroy the divided army gave Lee an advantage. He had been informed by a spy in the Union camp of the discovery of the lost order.

Meanwhile, Jackson’s forces surrounded the 12,419 Union soldiers at Harpers Ferry. Those men, mostly of new regiments like the 9th Vermont, were under the command of the inept Col. Dixon S. Miles. Despite recommendations from Col. George Stannard of the Vermont regiment, Miles failed to send troops to the heights that surrounded the town, leaving the advantage to the seasoned Confederates with their artillery.

Miles surrendered the garrison; the largest group of American soldiers to surrender until Corregidor in 1942. The troops, including Col. Dudley Andross and Lts John Stearns of Bradford and George Chamberlain of Newbury and local men under their command, were sent on parole to Chicago until they were exchanged in January 1863. One officer in the 9th Vermont wrote later: “No disaster of the war exceeds Harpers Ferry in the folly and incompetence which caused it.”

It was the Harpers Ferry victory that persuaded Lee to take a stand with 25,000 men of his divided army at Sharpsburg along a three-mile stretch of Antietam Creek. The Union army of 55,000 arrived at Antietam on the afternoon of September 15.

McClellan again hesitated, missing an opportunity to destroy the enemy, failing even to send reconnaissance and as a result he continued to overestimate Lee’s strength.

On the morning of September 17 the two armies engaged. In that day’s savage struggle, locations such as the Cornfield, Bloody Lane and Burnside’s Bridge were forever tragically etched into the history of the war.

In the 30-acre Cornfield on the Confederate left flank, fighting surged back and forth during the early part of the battle. In the “meat grinder” of combat, the 12th Massachusetts lost 224 of its 334 men. Among the fighters of that regiment was Topsham-born William Nutt. His regiment had the highest casualty rate of any Federal unit that day. The 1st Texas “lost 82 percent of its men in forty five minutes of fighting.”

It was estimated there were 12,000 casualties “in four hours of the war’s most intensive combat.” The exaggerated claim that the field was so covered with dead and wounded that one could walk across without stepping on the ground, gives some indication of the carnage.

A second Union charge was against the center of the Rebel position at a sunken road known as the Bloody Lane. Among those who entered the Cornfield were local men from the Second Sharpshooters who “helped to fill the bloody lane.”

The 5th New Hampshire Regiment, wearing the war paint made of cartridge power and yelling an Indian war whoop, joined the charge. One of their numbers later wrote “What a bloody place…the dead and wounded were literally piled in there in heaps.” The Confederate center collapsed, but McClellan’s hesitation in sending reinforcements lost the advantage.

According to Howard Coffin, around noon the Vermont Brigade advanced through the Cornfield and came to rest in front of the Bloody Lane but were told to halt and so laid down in sight of the “battered rebel line.” During the rest of the battle they remained there “amid considerable shot and shell, with a man occasionally getting hit, returning fire when a target presented itself.”

While losses were relatively few, 25 killed and wounded, perhaps these Vermonters might have been used more effectively against the weakened enemy before them.

A stone bridge on the Confederate right flank was central to later action. General Ambrose Burnside directed a series of attacks against it. Men from Haverhill, Lyme and Orford were among those who braved concentrated fire and with fixed bayonets, took the bridge and the area beyond.

Among those were Erwin, Henry and Josiah Archer and Joseph Quint all of Orford. Those last names that are still part of that town’s geography.

That successful foray came at the same time Lee was reinforced by troops from Harpers Ferry. McClellan believed that sending reinforcements to his forward lines was not “prudent” and again the advantage was lost. The Union forces withdrew.

Many local men fought at Antietam in infantry regiments from New Hampshire and Vermont in company with others they knew from home. Company rosters indicate that many born locally were credited to other towns and other states.

Osman Taplin, born in Newbury, was a member of the 2nd Wisconsin and died of his wounds. Lorin Vance was from Groton originally. He was serving in the 2nd Massachusetts and was also wounded at Antietam.

Some served in other roles. Morris Vance of Groton was a wagoner in the 3rd Vermont along with Robert Carruth of Newbury, a musician.

Shepard Whitman of Newbury, George Lamprey of Orford and Daniel and Frank Davis two brothers from Fairlee and Orford, were sharpshooters. Orford-born Frederick Edgell was the commander of the 1st NH Light Artillery.

As night fell, surgeons tended to the wounded. They were everywhere, filling every shelter. Working with them was Clara Barton, “the angel of the battlefield.” Hospital stewards Charles Brooks of West Fairlee and Marshall Felch of Piermont care for members of the 4th Vermont. Dr. William Child of Bath tended the wounded of the 5th New Hampshire. The wounded included West Fairlee born Josiah Scott, a member of the 9th NH. Many would die from their wounds. David Winship, a new recruit in the 9th NH, died of his wounds on November 14. Like many, he is buried far from the local area; his headstone monument in Bradford’s Upper Plain cemetery shelters a cenotaph, an empty grave.

A number of local men were discharged or died soon after the battle. It is difficult to determine whether this was the result of wounds received or from disease, which was the most common cause of death among soldiers during the war.

As night fell, it was assumed by many that McClellan would take up the fight the following day. He actually had more men in reserve than Lee had in total. Many of those however, were new recruits with no experience under fire.

McPearson writes: “McClellan believed he had no certainty of success.” This was his pattern of inaction, “no initiative without absolute assurance of success...which rarely, if ever exists in any human endeavor, much less in war.”

That night Lee’s army retreated across the Potomac. McClellan’s chance to completely destroy the severely weakened army had passed. If he had done so, the war might not have gone on for another two and a half years.

But McClellan assumed their retreat meant that the victory was complete. For the next few weeks McClellan remained inactive while Lee had time to repair some of the damage inflicted at Antietam. President Lincoln had had enough of McClellan hesitancy and within two months relieved him of command.

What of the “momentous multiple consequences?” Northern newspapers declared the battle a victory, and the morale of both soldiers and the general public was lifted significantly. One of the most important consequences was Lincoln’s announcement of a proclamation of emancipation on September 22.

Early in the war Lincoln had announced that restoring the union with or without slavery was his most important goal, one he repeated as late as August 22, 1862. Still, he had planned an emancipation proclamation; but was waiting for a success in battle to make it public.

Five days after Antietam he announced that on January 1, 1863 all slaves held in states in rebellion would be free. That significantly added to the war’s goals. It would begin to deny the South the thousands of slaves whose labor released men to fight and would lead to eventual abolition of slavery throughout the nation.

The proclamation coming so soon after the victory at Antietam also had a significant impact on European nations. While it did not completely silence interventionists there, there was no recognition of the Confederacy nor any intervention.

The victory and proclamation also had an impact on the 1862 elections. Peace Democrats denounced the proclamation and the continuing war but lost the advantage they had prior to September 17. Republicans retained control of the Congress and made gains in a number of state contests.

All of these consequences were bought with the blood of Americans from both sides. Those who survived, even if they fought in other great battles of the war, remembered Antietam for its carnage of death and suffering.

In 1882, Antietam veteran Colonel Francis Winthrop Palfrey of Massachusetts wrote, “As the sun sank to rest on the 17th of September, the last sounds of battle along Antietam Creek died away. The cannon could at last grow cool, and unwounded men and horses could enjoy rest and food, but there were thousands sleeping the sleep that knows no waking, and many times as many thousands were suffering all the agonies that attend on wounds.”

“The corn and trees, so fresh and green in the morning were reddened with blood and torn by bullet and shell; and the very earth was furrowed by the incessant impact of lead and iron. The blessed night came, and brought with it sleep and forgetfulness and refreshment to many, but the murmur of the night wind, breathing over fields of wheat and clover, was mingled with the groans of the countless suffering of both armies. Who can tell, who can imagine, the horrors of such a night, while the unconscious stars shone above and the unconscious river rippled by?”

It was the close of the most bloody day.

 Burnside’s Bridge. In the afternoon of Sept. 17, Union General Ambrose Burnside directed a series of attack against this stone bridge across Antietam Creek. Men from Haverhill, Lyme and Orford were among those who braved concentrated fire and with fixed bayonets took the bridge and the area beyond.

The Sunken Road at Bloody Lane. Confederate casualties line the site of some of the most savage fighting at Antietam. Local men from the Second Sharpshooters and the 5th NH Regiment were part of that struggle.

The Commanders at Antietam: Lee and McClellan. The Confederate forces led by Robert E. Lee were greatly outnumbered by George B. McClellan’s Union troops. McClellan’s hesitancy made his “victory” less than victorious.

Sharpshooter Monument. The 2nd Vermont Sharpshooters are honored by the 1890 monument at the Antietam National Battlefield. Shepard Whitman of Newbury, George Lamprey of Orford and Daniel and Frank Davis, two brothers from Fairlee and Orford, were sharpshooters.

 The gravestone of Frank Davis is located at the Fairlee Village Cemetery.  He and his brother Daniel were both members of the 2nd Vermont Sharpshooters at Antietam.  Daniel Davis was killed at the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864.

The Old Vermont Brigade Monument was dedicated in 1900 and is located near the natorious Bloody Lane at Antietam. September 17, 2012 is the 150th anniversary of that blood battle. 

Take A Walk

Journal Opinion
August 8, 2012

Located on the sidewalk just south of The Local Buzz, this marker indicates ground zero for the property boundaries in this section of Bradford village. It marks the center of the old elm tree that blew down in 1903. (JO Photo by Michelle Sherburne) 



Looks Like Permanent. The Newbury history indicates that the Village of Wells River did not vote for “permanent sidewalks” until the 1920’s. This pre-1892 photograph shows sidewalks along that village’s main thoroughfare. (Horace Symes)

 Orford Grand Mall Walk in 1910. Created in the early 1800s, this mile-long walk along Orford’s Main Street mall has been described as “a living memorial of the public spirit and liberality of those who made it.” In 2006, a grant allowed it to be restored by Orford volunteers. It is probably the earliest village sidewalk in the area and certainly the loveliest.





Bradford Sidewalks in the 1850s. Sidewalks run along side white fences and hitching posts on the main street of Bradford in this early photograph. The second building from the left is the Bottle Shop. (Bradford Historical Society)










“Most of us take sidewalks for granted. Sidewalks seem to be the epitome of mundane. Sure, there are pretty sidewalks, ugly sidewalks, dirt ‘sidewalks’ and places without sidewalks, but for the most part, underfoot means out of mind.”

This is how Brian Michael Lione describes sidewalks in his 1999 article “Sidewalks: Ignored Aspects of Everyday Life.” He goes on to say that sidewalk history is “difficult to pin down.” This column deals with the history of sidewalks in our region. The information comes from local histories and records and old photographs of area villages.

Sidewalks and walkways occur primarily in population centers. There is no need for them on rural dirt roads. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, legal entities, such as the villages of Bradford, Wells River and Newbury and the fire district of Woodsville, were created to provide services, such as sidewalks, needed by those who live in clustered areas.

Sidewalks on village streets with their higher traffic volume provided both safe and cleaner paths for pedestrians. They linked village homes with downtown business streets. A testimony to the degree to which dwellers were willing to walk to services is shown by the lack of parking for carriages or autos in the initial plans for the Bradford Public Library in 1895.

Probably one of the earliest and certainly the most attractive sidewalk is located along the mall in Orford. Located along the eastern side of what is now Route 10, the mall was created in the early 1800s on land owned by John Mann and Samuel Morey and the town common.

In 1865, Joel Mann described it as “one mile long--straight as a house floor-- straight as a line, and skirted with trees on both sides…note-worthy a feature of this village.” Granite posts were set up along the walk to prevent driving along the mall on “muddy days when people might be tempted to avoid the rutted road for a smoother surface. The posts were placed three in a row, one on either side of the walk and one, a veritable barrier, in the center of the walk.”

An early letter in the Boston Evening Traveller described the mall as “the chief ornament of this village, and is a lasting memorial of the public spirit and liberality of those who made it. In that spirit it should be carefully preserved and kept in perfect order.” The mall walk is still on a combination of public and private property and in 2006 a group of volunteers, working with a transportation grant, restored it. It continues to function as the lasting memorial it was meant to be and provides enjoyment to its users.

Some of the earliest sidewalks were planked. Photographs show what appears to be a plank sidewalk up Bradford’s Bank Street and along the road to the Bradford railroad station in the 1890s. In 1892, a plank sidewalk connected the schoolhouse and the church in Haverhill Corner. Groton had some planked sidewalks until 1904. Some sections of the walks in Newbury village were also planked.

In other early villages such as Fairlee, West Fairlee, Post Mills, East Corinth, Warren and Piermont, walkways were packed dirt or crushed stone. Some appear to be well laid out and well kept, whereas others appear to be mere paths of convenience created by walkers seeking safe and convenient routes.

In 1898, Fairlee officials dealt with the increased number of bikers by widening the walks “as it is quite dusty for ladies to ride on the main road.” Photographs show established walks on both sides of Fairlee’s Main Street from Bridge Street south.

Some photographs also show packed crosswalks, stepping stones or planks across main streets and gutters, designed to keep boots and lengthy ladies skirts out of the mud and muck of dirt roads. In the case of several villages, gas lamps and hitching posts were sidewalk amenities.

When there was a period of building and street construction, these earlier sidewalks were often replaced with concrete. Between 1888 and 1896 new sidewalks were built in the village of North Haverhill. The new Woodsville Fire District built concrete sidewalks along Central Street in 1888 and extended them along other village streets over the next four years. Much of this work was accomplished by S. D. Tilton, concrete paver of Woodsville. A 1907 photograph of South Ryegate shows a nice sidewalk along Pleasant Street.

Some villages put off creating more elaborate sidewalks. Although early photographs of Wells River show footpaths and then sidewalks, the Newbury history states that Wells River did not vote to make “permanent sidewalks” until the 1920’s, a project not accomplished until 1934. Between 1926 and 1930, Newbury Village replaced their older sidewalks with concrete, “the cost [of which was] shared by landowners and the village” augmented by private donations.

Some bridges also had walkways. In 1917, the new bridge between Wells River and Woodsville featured a six-foot wide sidewalk. In 1925, a covered walkway was attached to the north side of the 1856 covered bridge between Fairlee and Orford. When that bridge was replaced with the Samuel Morey Memorial Bridge in 1938, a walkway was included. The iron bridge built by the Village of Bradford in 1910 near the grist mill also had a walkway as does the 1938 concrete replacement.

The recurring discussions that often accompanied plans to ask taxpayers to fund sidewalk construction are exemplified by a closer examination of the history of sidewalks in the Village of Bradford. Even before the Village was created in 1890, the Selectmen had authorized new concrete sidewalks to be built in front of the new brick buildings.

The village residents then authorized the building of additional sidewalks on most of the village streets. The United Opinion of July 17, 1896 states that “work on the sidewalk is being pushed. This is a much needed link in the system.”

But by 1927 these sidewalks were in poor shape. A poem entitled “Sidewalks” which appeared on the front page of the November 4, 1927 edition of The United Opinion began with the following: “The sidewalks, oh the sidewalks that they laid in ‘ninety six. Had grown old and rough and narrow and in an awful fix.” It went on to describe the difficulties caused by the trees that had “sent in their roots like drills, and raised the concrete surface up and formed it into hills.”

“Our shoes” it described “were filled with water, our feet were wet and cold, And in language strong and forceful we scored the sidewalks old.”

In January 1927, the Village voters authorized $23,225 for a village sewer system, but a separate article relative to sidewalks was dismissed. As the sewer project proceeded, it was realized that money would be left over. A special village meeting was held to raise an additional $5,000 to hire the same construction company to repair and replace the sidewalks.

The local newspaper gave editorial support, saying that with these repairs “we will have reason to feel proud when referring to our village as ‘Bradford the Beautiful.’ ” The author of the aforementioned poem wrote “To walk is now a pleasure, but though the walking’s great/ We’ll get there if we ‘choose to run’ in nineteen twenty-eight…Of course no one of us expects these walks can always stay, But we can’t either, so enjoy and use them while we may.”

And, of course, they didn’t stay. By 1946 the village sidewalks were again in poor shape. The Village Trustees proposed a bond vote of about $40,000 to repair three and one-half miles of sidewalk. In the discussion, special concerns were raised about the safety of school children walking on unsafe sidewalks. The bond vote passed by a vote of 202 to 15. The United Opinion editorialized “We won’t have to feel ashamed or apologize for our abominable sidewalks much longer.”

The work was finished in the summer of 1947. The construction company offered to do driveway work at the owner’s expense. There were some concerns over the need for “city-like sidewalks” and questions raised about the need for a sidewalk up Peters’ Hill to the new catholic church. Since there were plans to rebuild that portion of Route 5, that sidewalk was delayed.

Wear and weather continued to wreck havoc on these sidewalks and by the early 1990s concerns about unsafe sidewalks were raised again. The voters of the Village created a revolving fund for sidewalk repairs and contributed $50,000 to it annually. Contractor Norman Allen drew up a preliminary repairs and replacement plan at a cost of $194,000.

A seven-part plan for spending $223,389 in sidewalk, street and water repairs was put to a bond vote in February, 1995. The Journal Opinion, which had referred to the “nagging problems of the village sidewalks,” favored of the bond. “The streets and sidewalks in the village area are a continuing sore thumb. Patching them up won’t do it, they need to be rebuilt. And if the work is done piecemeal or held back for a year or two, the cost will be even greater.”

With only 68 votes cast, the portions of the sidewalk repairs on Main, South Main and South Pleasant were defeated whereas the reconstruction of North Pleasant and High streets was accepted. Further, no sidewalk was added to High Street as the residents had lobbied against having something they had not had or needed. Over the next 20 years, federal and state grants were used to complete several of the defeated projects.

Additional grants and local appropriations built new sidewalks on Barton Street, from Barton to the newly refurbished grist mill and up Fairground Road to the Bradford Elementary School. That one was later extended to Elizabeth’s Park. Outside the village Route 5 has been widened walking and biking. In 2004 the merger of the Village and Town of Bradford placed the responsibility for all Bradford sidewalks under the jurisdiction of the Bradford Selectboard.

There are cracks and upheavals on the sidewalks of Bradford again. Some have been deemed compromised by underground delivery vaults to Main Street stores. Some have been completely removed by the current water project. Those will be replaced by the construction company by late fall. Several months ago I observed civil engineer Thomas Bigelow taking measurements of the sidewalks on the east side of the business district near the North of the Falls store in anticipation of additional replacements.

I asked him to notice the special marker that had been placed in the sidewalk in the 1930’s. It is the top of a pipe that marks the location of the historic elm tree that had stood at that location since the early years of the town’s settlement. That tree, which was used as a boundary marker for many of the building lots in the business district, fell down in 1903.

At that time a metal marker was placed at the location of the center of the tree stump. As the president of the Bradford Historical Society I wanted to be assured that a replacement marker would be part of any rebuilt sidewalk.

The sidewalks and pathways of the area seem busy with walkers, in groups, with dogs or alone. Joggers run past those enjoying a more leisurely pace. Sidewalks are also where children enjoy biking, being pushed in strollers, hauled in wagons or playing games outlined with chalk. In some communities, they are being made safer by the Safe Routes to School programs. They are a meeting place for conversations between friends and neighbors. Stores use them to display goods, daily or during special events. It is on the sidewalks of my village that I am amazed at both the number of folks I recognize and the number I don’t.

Yes, it may be true that to some “underfoot means out of mind,” except perhaps when the way is broken and dangerous, icy or messy with the deposits from dogs with irresponsible owners. But for me they are pathways to freedom from the automobile, relaxing walks for our health and that of our dog, routes to new places or favorite sites and especially a town’s history.

(Editor’s note Additional essays by this author can be found in the newly-published In Times Past: Essays From the Upper Valley, Book Two available at local outlet to benefit the Bradford Public Library)

What Ails You?

Journal Opinion
July 18, 2012

The headstone for Dr. Nathan McKinstry is located in the Oxbow Cemetery in Newbury.  One of Newbury's first doctors, he died Feb.6, 1815 at age 41.  The inscription on the headstone, worn by time and acid rain, reads: "In-urned beneath lies no poor worthless quack. But the ashes of good Dr.Mac, Whose talents, honors, virtues, could not save, His generous bosom from an early grave."

Dr. Nathan Smith, pictured in this painting, was the founder of Dartmouth Medical School.  This school was the 4th in the nation and recently changed its name to the Geisel School of Medicine (Courtesy of the Geisel School of Medicine)

This is one of serveral patent medicines developed by Dr. Samuel Hardy of Cornish Flats, NH.  This promotion dates to 1836.  Patent medicines such as this often contained morphine and alcohol.



Green Mountain Balm of Gilead: Developed by M.K. Paine of Windsor, VT, this cedar plaster was guaranteed "unequalied in removing pain, internal inflammations, curing lameness" and a whole list of additional aliments.  



Doctors in Vermont carry on a practice over a radius of twenty miles, frequently being obliged to drive through eight feet of snow in order to reach their patients and find it necessary at times to dig their horses out of drifts, before they could proceed.”

This is Rudyard Kipling’s description of the 19th century conditions facing some of the doctors he observed during his stay in Vermont. This column describes the medical practices in our region from the period of settlement to 1860. It draws on local histories, internet sources and the history of the medical profession found in The Vermont of Today by Arthur Stone.

Early residents of the area lived in constant fear of illness or accident. While not as frequent as in the South or in the nation’s cities, epidemics increased local death rates. Local cemeteries are filled with the victims of both epidemics and endemic diseases. The average life expectancy in 1850 was under 40 years of age, brought low by a high infant mortality rate. Poor sanitation practices spread many diseases. War injuries brought their own special problems, often overwhelming the medical help available.

Many believed that illness was a punishment for sin. Believers relied on prayers for God’s intercession as a cure. This was especially true in the face of epidemics when days of fasting and prayer were observed. Governors proclaimed fast days in New Hampshire as early as 1680 and although it had lost its original purpose, Fast Day remained an April holiday in that state until 1991.

Despite their best practices or because of them, physicians were largely helpless in the face of illness. Orthodox medicine was based on tenets passed down over the previous two thousand years. It was believed that illness was caused by an imbalance of the humors in the body. The doctor’s duty was to restore those humors by bleeding, blistering or purging, techniques that killed as often as cured. The number of medicines was few and the same medications were often used for a variety of afflictions.

Many doctors learned their profession by serving as an apprentice to a practicing physician. A few received their training in Europe or at one of three American colleges that offered medical schools. In 1797, Dr. Nathan Smith petitioned the Trustees of Dartmouth College for the establishment of a medical school.  Nathaniel Niles of West Fairlee was appointed as a committee of one to investigate the proposition and after one day of thought, recommended that the Board adopt the idea.  Smith remained the sole instructor at the school until 1810 and was recognized as being “well ahead of his time in insisting that doctors practice watchful waiting and emphasizing patient-centered care.”

In 1804, Dr. John Pomeroy began teaching medical students in Burlington, an effort that led to the establishment of UVM’s College of Medicine in 1822. Two other colleges offering medical degrees were Castleton Medical College (1818-1862) and Vermont Clinical School of Medicine in Woodstock (1827-1861). In 1887 a short-lived bogus medical school was organized in Newbury, VT, providing licenses that were sold to individuals hoping to practice medicine in the West.

Each town’s history mentions the physicians who served their community during the period following settlement. In some cases a single physician served alone whereas, in other towns there was competition. Some were well trained, competent for the times, highly respected and served their community for decades. Others were short on some or all of these characteristics. Early physicians included Drs. Samuel Putnam of Topsham, Bildad Andross, Frederick Aubry and John Poole of Bradford, Eli Perry of Ryegate, Eliphalet Kimball of Orford and Adoniram Smalley of Lyme.

Several local histories mention Dr. Samuel White of Newbury and Haverhill, who began his local practice in 1773, “and for years was the doctor of the Connecticut Valley, his ride extending from Newbury to the Canadian border.” He was dedicated to his practice. He was quoted as saying “he had poor luck with his patients in their last illness.”

White’s diaries mention his fees as follows: “The least charge for a visit is one shilling and the greatest (to Upper Coos) is sixty shillings…medicine was usually one shilling for each potion, occasionally two shillings; bleeding was always one shilling; tooth pulling, one shilling; dressing a wound, one shilling, lancing a sore, one shilling; setting an arm or a leg, six shillings; attendance on your wife in travel [travail] twelve shillings.” The weather, difficulty of the journey, urgency of the call and the financial condition of the patient played a role in the amount charged.

Actually the birthing process prior to the mid-19th century, was one with only female relatives, neighbors and midwives attending. No females were allowed to practice as a physician. Two midwives, Lydia Peters Baldwin of Orford and Bradford and Bathsheba Wallace of Thetford competently served the area for decades following settlement. Each assisted in the birthing of hundreds of babies, traveling by horseback to neighboring towns regardless of time or weather. They charged a few shillings and were often paid in goods or services rather than hard money. Their record of success was difficult for physicians to replicate when the practice of midwifery was replaced by the male-dominated medical profession’s control of delivery.

Life for doctors on the frontier was “fraught with many hardships, difficulties and even dangers.” It was not unknown for a doctor to become lost or attacked by wolves when traveling to a bedside in winter, often on snowshoes,. Doctors were not immune to the illnesses they treated. Dr. Nathan McKinstry, one of Newbury’s first doctors, died at 41 in 1815. His headstone in the Oxbow Cemetery bears the following epitaph: “In-urned beneath lies no poor worthless quack. But the dear ashes of good Dr. Mc, Whose talents, honors, virtues, could not save His generous bosom from an early grave.” That same year Dr. Lemuel Wellman of Piermont went to Warren to care for spotted fever victims, “took the disease and died in four hours.”

Because contagious diseases spread rapidly in early communities, quarantine was used. In 1792 a smallpox epidemic led Newbury to vote to “see if the town will open a pest house.” In many cases a family would be quarantined in their own home. In 1790, Dr. Isaac Moore of Haverhill attempted to open a house for smallpox inoculation in Bath. This technique used the smallpox virus to try to prevent the disease, but often caused a fatal case instead. At first there was such strong feeling against it that the half-completed building was torn down, but it was subsequently rebuilt.

From contact with Native Americans, both doctors and the general public learned of the medicinal properties of plants not found in Europe. Stone quotes one doctor who supplemented his pharmacology from the fields and woods and said “Indian hemp was good for dropsy, spigot root for internal bruises, the bark of the red willow a sure remedy for fever and ague, burdock root with black cherry and white ash bark steeped in cider the very best remedy for spring jaundice.”

Many residents also relied on home remedies, some of which may have actually had curative properties. Vinegar and honey were recognized as helpful both as a cure and for maintaining good health. Garlic clove for insect bite and spruce gum for a toothache were said to be helpful. Egg white was known for extracting a splinter.

On the other hand, cures for consumption did little good. Some Grafton County residents believed that if the lungs of a consumption victim were burned, the ashes will cure other members of the family with the disease. Carrying a small potato in your pocket or wrapping the affected limb in the skin of an eel to prevent rheumatism was equally unsuccessful. Binding a piece of peppered salt pork or a nutmeg to the throat was suggested to cure a sore throat. Skunk oil was touted as a cure for chest congestion for infants and adults. Asthma could be cured by using the root of skunk cabbage.

In 1805 the Boston Weekly Magazine reported that a Miss Everts in Vermont “was lately poisoned by a villainous quack” and that her death ought to be a warning to all persons who “are disposed to employ the numerous nostrum mongers with which our country is unfortunately swarmed.”

Bradford’s National Opinion in the 1860’s carried ads for locally produced Doty’s Mandrake Bitters. It was “warranted to be the best compound ever offered to the public for the cure of Dyspepsia, Jaundice, Costiveness, Piles, Sick Headaches, Morning Sickness, Humors Morning Sickness, Foul Stomach, Liver Complaints in all its forms; General Disability, Worms, etc. etc.”

Doty’s was one of many patent medicines to which many turned in the face of so many conditions that were not helped by the medicines available. While some may have actually helped, others were either harmful or harmless. Some, such as Doty’s, were produced by local pharmacists, but others were sold by quacks and fast-talking snake oil salesmen.

Medical Societies were formed in Vermont in 1784 and in New Hampshire in 1791. While their efforts encouraged better education and licensing they also supported orthodox medicine to the discouragement of other practices. Licensing became less popular in the 1830’s as many considered it a violation of the new spirit of personal freedom.

From 1838 to 1876 there was no licensing of doctors in Vermont. This reopened the door to a number of competing theories of medicine, some with a basis in the science of the day and others practiced by charlatans. The 1849 Medical and Surgical Reporter described a Vermont medical prophet who healed the disease of patients at a distance, “provided they send him their symptoms and the required fee.”

One alternative that had many followers during the period was Thomsonian medicine. It was developed by New Hampshire herbalist Samuel Thomson. His methods rejected the dangerous and futile methods used by “qualified” physicians in favor of botanical remedies coupled with water treatments. Despite being dubbed as quackery, it was very popular in the 1830’s and Thomsonian societies and periodicals were created.

Another alternative was hydropathy, the drinking or bathing in the waters of mineral springs. It almost seemed the worse the taste and smell, the more beneficial the waters were considered. In 1804 Newbury’s Spring Hotel allowed its patrons to take advantage of the adjacent Montebello sulphur and iron springs for “curative purposes.” Nearby, on Montebello Road, was the Newbury Sulphur Springs and Bathing Establishment.

It was not until the mid-19th century that general anesthesia was being used for surgery and even later before modern antiseptics were standard practice. There were no general hospitals in the area until Mary Hitchcock opened in 1897 and Cottage in 1903. Until the Vermont Asylum for the Insane opened in Brattleboro in 1843 and the New Hampshire Asylum opened in Concord in 1842 there was little help for the mentally ill. Health regulations were in the hands of local authorities until State Boards of Health were established in New Hampshire in 1881 and in Vermont in 1886.

Health issues and medical practices, and their availability, are uppermost in the minds of many in today’s world. Obviously much has improved since the years prior to 1860. We live longer and healthier lives. Modern science creates a vast array of weapons available to the modern physician and hospital. Bleeding of patients or brutal surgery without modern anesthesia or antiseptics are just two of the traditional medical practices we can be grateful that modern medicine no longer uses. Those who yearn for the good old days of times past would do well to recall that, at least in the field of health, they were not all so good.

Bradford's Civil War Cemetery Tour

This month I led three Civil War Cemetery tours at Bradford’s Upper Plain Cemetery in connection with the Bradford Public Library summer reading program. Here are my notes and some of the sites we visited.

Bradford sent 158 men to the Union forces in the Civil War. Vermont sent 34,000 out of a population of 350,000 of which died from 1832 died from wounds and 3662 from diseases and other causes. Some enlisted, others drafted, and others were substitutes for those who didn’t want to go. Bradford’s men were privates and officers, some became prisoners, were killed or wounded and other probably suffered from invisible wounds. Some joined Vermonters and others served in other state regiments. Some saw major battles and or participated in the hundred of smaller ones. Some were soldiers or sailors, others worked in support positions. They were in the infantry, artillery, navy, marines and cavalry. Before going and after returning they were farmers, papermakers, teachers, merchants and businessmen, clerks and loafers. These are some of the headstones found in the Upper Plain Cemetery. Many are cenotaphs, empty graves.

William P. Manson died June 14,1864 at Andersonville Prison (GA) cenotaph. Captured at Strawberry Bank TN Jan 22, 1864 (diarrhea) A-33-52 Also Albert Butler age 18 Early in the war parole was practiced. 1 capt= 60 privates. Then both sides set up a system of prisons. Camp Sumter at Andersonville GA operated for 14 months on 27 acres. The prison population was 32,000 at one time, total 45,000, 13,000 died in absolute hellish conditions.


David H. Winship (large new stone-B52) Co. F 9th NH Vol. Wounded at Antietam (Sharpsburg. Maryland) Lee’s invasion of the north, September 17, 1862 died Nov.14, 1862 Generally bodies were not shipped home until Dr. Thomas Holmes technique of embalming began on the battlefield, zinc lined casket, $50 for officers $25 privates, northern only, cost a hardship for families. Soldiers began to wear privately purchased dog tags or pinning cards on their uniforms before battles to help with identification.

Charles A. Smith (B-18) drafted, 8/4/63 private 4th Vt. Infantry 24 year old single farmer when drafted. KIA 6/21/64 maybe in the western Virginia’s campaign, Epitaph: “God is with the right and sooner or later, the right must prevail. God help me to be ever in the right”

Charles H. Brown.  Stone indicates he was just over 15 at time he was killed on September 26, 1864.  He was a member of Co I, 17th vermont Regiment.  "Thou has taken you away From those that hold thee dear.  May God bind up those broken hearts  And wipe away the tears."
Private Amos B. Chase (new stone B 69 ) Co. H 2nd Reg Berdan’s Sharpshooters, Joined Nov. 30, 1863 Killed June 18, 1864. Seige of Petersburg VA. Bradford’s only sharpshooter. Snipers or sharpshooter (named for the use of Sharp’s rifles) dark green uniforms, Test for inclusion: 10 freestanding 10” circle 100’, lying down 10 at 200’. Their duty very dangerous. Had a demoralizing impact on the enemy.

Benjamin Underwood…age 23 lst Vermont soldier to die…Fortress Monroe, VA, died of measles , age 20. May 20, 1861 (cenotaph) C 14 (back of D. Farr stone) (just 12 days after being mustered in)

Charles C. Woodworth, wounded at Charleston VA, Died of wounds on August 27, 1864 @ 19 years of age. Member of Battery I, Vermont Heavy Artillery C 45



Lt .Col. Dudley Andross (established Bradford family) He had done well in the gold fields of California. Captain of Bradford Guard, 1861 (Participated in the Battle of Big Bethel) & 9th Vermont Volunteers…. Bradford residents sent him a white horse in Brattleboro. C 59

Moody C. Martin, Private Company B, 6th Vermont Regiment reenlisted …along with two brothers (Harrison and Remembrance) Killed at Battle of the Wilderness on May 5, 1864 (deadliest day for Vermonters ever) (cenotaph) D 113 (of 1681 men, 189 killed or wounded, 189 died of disease 22 other from imprisonment etc. (1234 killed or wounded that day) Most costly battle of the war….one Vermont brigade lost 1645 of its 2100 men during the week of fighting

George W. Martin, enlisted Nov. 12, 1862, about 13 years of age, ( misrepresented his age as 18-19) Company G, 10th Vermont Volunteers. Wounded. When he died in the 1930s he was the last member of the Bradford GAR. D 147.May be the youngest Vermonter to serve.

George B. Worthen (B-1) anchor on stone//joined navy in 1856 sailed along the coast of Africa as corporal of marines/ reenlisted wounded at the battle of Roanoke Island, Feb 8, 1862, but later took part in engagement with Merrimack, head wounds, lung and ribs transferred to Naval Hospital, released and returned to Bradford, died Sept. 15, 1863

Cyrus Conant Farnham A-2-14 was member of the Military Telegraphic Dept….That department and the messages they sent importance to commanders, Coded messages often decreased the impact of wiretapping, died on Feb. 25, 2863 of typhoid fever in Tennessee.

Colonel Roswell Farnham, Bradford Guard, May 1861 later 12th Vermont Regiment, Governor of Vermont 1880-82’s. Businessman. F-2-117

Colonel John Chandler Stearns,(1831-1914. During Lee’s first invasion of the north Stonewall Jackson attacked the Union troops at Harper’s Ferry… General Dixon Miles in dereliction of duty allowed troops to surrendered (12, 419 were the largest force of Americans to surrender until WW 2 Dudley Andross also part of that group…exchanged at did guard duty at Chicago, Mustered out in 1863. (Cannon Balls) F-2-166

Oscar Crosby Navy (1847-1917) called a landsman because he had never been on the ocean. He served on several ships,(probably on blockade dury and served as a carpenter’s mate. He was discharged in August 1865…came home and married Addie Rowell in 1868 and farmed in Thetford/West Fairlee and Bradford died here in 1917

Preston S. Chamberlin (cannon balls) part of Bradford Guard, May , 1861, later Lt/ Col. Company H, 12th Vermont K-8-410 Company H did guard duty around Washington, repelled Stuart’s advances to the Capital, also guarded railroads, ammunition wagons and prisoners. no battle deaths, 63 from disease with 4 desertions. Later became very involved in community representing Bradford in the Legislature and serving as trustee of the BA(buried here)



Calista Robinson Jones, National President of the Women’s Relief Corps c. 1901. K-7-409 The organization was the women’s auxiliary of the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic). During her service in the organization the national headquarters was located at her home in Bradford. She worked to have the Andersonville site made a national landmark and have Flag Day made a holiday. The organization worked to help orphans and widows as well as injured veterans.

Portraits, Landscapes and Still Lifes

June 20, 2012

Rufus Porter Mural.  Called the most "note worthy mural painter in the history of American Art," Porter' works are found in a number of area 19th century homes.  This one is found in the 1811 Moses Kent House on the River Road in Lyme, NH,  (Photo by Larry Coffin)

Fall Church.  This 1948 painting of the Orford Congregational Church by local impressionist artist Henry Ryan MacGinnis is just one example of the many pieces this famous artist created of scenes from the local area.  (Courtesy of the Walker Collection)

On October 19, 2021, Bradford's prolific artist Bert Dodson pass away.  Dodson moved to the Upper Valley in 1977 and began decades of drawing, painting and teaching.  His studio was on the third floor of the Bradford Academy Building.

His publications included Keys to Drawing and The Way Life Works.  He mentored many young artists and held a weekly drawing group for locals in his studio.  He was well known for his illustrations in books for young readers including the Famous American Series and the American Adventure Series. He used locals as models for his illustrations. I was a model in his illustration for Favor Johnson, a Christmas book written by Willem Lange.

Dodson provided free cover illustrations for my two "In Times Past" collections. These books were sold to benefit the Bradford Public Library.    

     

Original column:  

One worked here all his life, others were born here and achieved fame elsewhere, just passed through or summered and retired here. They are artists with connections to our locale who achieved prominence between 1825 and 1960. To this day, their works are found in museums, galleries and art auctions.

Beginning in the late 18th century, painting murals on the walls of homes and public buildings became a widespread practice in New England. Rufus K. Porter, born in Boxford, MA in 1792, was, according to biographer Jean Lipman, “the chief wall painter of his day and the most noteworthy mural painter in the history of American art.”

Porter’s primary work as an itinerant muralist was composed between 1825 and1845 and over 100 home decorated by the artist and his followers have been found in New England. Lipman writes, “He decorated walls, rapidly and cheaply, for the simple farmhouse and taverns of everyday folks.”

Local examples attributed to him include the Chase house in East Topsham, the Nutter house in Swiftwater, the Daniel Carr house and two others in North Haverhill, the Wilson-Lavery house in Haverhill Corner, the Hinckley-Beale House in Orford and the Moses Kent house in Lyme. Descriptions and photographs of these murals can be found in Katharine Blaisdell’s Over the River and Through the Years, Book Six. As several of these murals were found covered by wallpaper, Blaisdell speculates that there may be others still hidden in local homes of that period.

The murals in the Daniel Carr house achieved public notice when in 1943, novelist Frances Parkinson Keyes used the house as the setting for Also The Hills. The endleaves of the novel featured a Porter mural.

For subjects of these murals, Porter drew on his own experiences. His life in Portland and service in the Maine state militia are frequently represented by the appearance of soldiers and ships in his works. Scenes from his travels to Hawaii and the homes of famous individuals are found alongside pastoral scenes of grazing cows, rivers, and farmhouses. These subjects were often mixed in murals in the same room or hallway. While his murals added brightness and interest to their locations, the somewhat primitive nature of his work suggests that he did not have formal training.

In addition to his murals, Porter also had an interest in science and technology. Lipman writes that Porter’s inventions include a horse-powered flatboat, a fire alarm and a revolving rifle. He publicized his ideas in scientific journals, several of which he edited. In 1845 he founded the magazine Scientific American, selling it six months later. He was still intellectually and physically active into his 80s. Porter died in Connecticut at age 92. Dartmouth’s Robert L. McGrath wrote that Porter’s interests in art, science and technology made him “a kind of Yankee Leonardo da Vinci.”

The portrait painter who has many works exhibited locally is Alonzo Slafter. He was born in Norwich, VT in 1801. He abandoned the study of law to attend a small art school in Newbury taught by Abigail Henderson. Wells’ History of Newbury mentions that Slafter painted a portrait of Henderson, skillfully capturing the character of his teacher.

Blaisdell’s description of this artist includes the following quote from Linda Monteque. “He devoted many years to art in which he obtained merited distinction. He was however too sensitive and retiring to place himself in a position to be known and appreciated by the public. He wrote many sonnets and other poems in early life of decided merit, a few of which against his wishes got into print.”

Slafter painted portraits of some of the area’s leading citizens. Those include members of the Barron and Strickland families of Bradford. These portraits, along with a self-portrait, are in Bradford Public Library. In 1838, he painted several portraits of the Marcus Wheeler family of Thetford, now in the Wisconsin Historical Museum. One attributed to him is in the National Portrait Gallery. An 1840 receipt for $35 for two portraits is an example of his income.

In later life he lived on a farm outside of Bradford village. Census takers in 1850 and 1860 found him living with numerous other adults at the Merrill and Bliss boarding houses. A still life owned by the Library is said to have been painted as part of his rent. He died in Bradford in 1864.

Henry Cheever Pratt, noted portrait and landscape painter, was born on Orford’s Upper Street in1803. According to Orford historian Alice Hodgson, as a teenager he used the whitewashed walls of his family’s barn as palettes. Samuel F. B. Morse saw talent in the paintings and took him to Boston as student and assistant.

In 1845 Pratt joined painter Thomas Cole on a painting expedition to Maine. His reputation was established, when in 1851, he accompanied John Russell Bartlett on the US Mexican Boundary Survey. The hundreds of sketches he made became the basis of some of his landscape paintings.

Pratt’s local landscapes include “On the Amunoosuc River” and one of 1830s Orford Street as seen from the Fairlee Cliff. His many portraits included Benjamin Pierce and the Marquis de Lafayette. He died in 1880 in Wakefield, MA. His works are exhibited in the Boston Museum of Fine Art, Dartmouth’s Hood Museum and other museums across the nation.

William Baxter Palmer Closson, painter and wood engraver, was born in Thetford in 1848 and attended Thetford Academy. He studied at the Lowell Institute and later provided high quality wood engravings for publications such as Harper’s magazine. When photomechanical processes began to replace wood engraving in the 1890s, he changed his focus to painting. He is known for his portraits, landscapes and coastal scenes. Sixteen of his paintings are in the American Art collection at the Smithsonian Institution. He died in Hartford, CT in 1926.

Artist Frederick Andrew Bosley had a connection with Piermont. He was born in 1881 in Lebanon, NH and entered the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School in 1900. He became very involved in the Boston art world, exhibiting his impressionist works throughout the northeast. He became director of the Museum School. In 1926 he purchased a farm in Piermont where he tried unsuccessfully to start a summer art school. In 1931 he resigned from the Museum School, “in protest over the introduction of modern art into the school program.” He died in 1942 in Concord, MA. His connection with Piermont was strong enough to cause him to be listed in the genealogies section in the 1947 town history.

Joseph Knowles created hundreds of etchings and paintings. He stayed briefly in Bradford around 1912 and became acquainted with the family of Dr. Walter Cole, from whom he rented lodging. He painted a large panorama of Bradford village that hung for a time in the Bradford Hotel. It is now on display at the Bradford Public Library, a gift from the Cole family. He also presented the Coles with a painting of the Bradford falls.

Soon after he left Bradford, Knowles gained national prominence when he spent two months in the Maine woods without the benefit of any clothes or other necessities. It was said to be the result of his concern that people were losing touch with nature. It was also an effort to help the struggling Boston Post, which reprinted his periodic messages written with charcoal on birch bark. When he emerged, clothed in the skin of a bear and in excellent health, he was greeted on his trip to Boston by over 100,000 fans. The rival Hearst newspaper proclaimed the exploits of the “Nature Man” a hoax. To prove himself Knowles offered to followed up with two similar adventures.

Out of his notoriety, Knowles built a career as an author, lecturer and artist, spending his life in Oregon. Upon his death in 1942, the Boston newspapers recalled the 1913 controversy, where as the Sunday Oregonian recounted his contributions as “a sailor, newspaper illustrator, lecturer, author, motion picture producer and actor, showman, nature lover, Boy Scout counselor and creator of fine etchings, water colors and oils.”

Two women are noted for artistic talents during this period. The first is Adelaide Coburne Palmer, born in Orford in 1851. She became an established Boston artist and a member of the Copley Society. She was best known for her landscapes and fruit still lifes, one of which became the basis for the Fruit of the Loom trademark. Around 1900 she moved to Piermont to care for her aging father but still continued to exhibit in Boston and elsewhere. In 1902 she was listed at the Annual Exhibit of Paintings by Prominent Artists in Portland, ME. She died in 1928.

The second woman, about which little is known, is Betsey Richardson Comstock, born in Corinth about 1837. A description of her was included in a 1913 history of Cambridge, MA. “Quite young she developed a talent for painting. After the death of her husband [1883] she pursued her art and obtained a creditable rank among contemporary artists. This gift has been consecrated to charity. The proceeds from the sale of her pictures are devoted to some worthy causes. Mrs. Comstock is a New England woman of the best type…”

I saved for last the one artist in this group with whom I was personally acquainted. I first saw Henry Ryan MacGinnis when, in 1953, he accompanied his wife Jane to my 5th grade class at the Orford Street school. She was our art teacher. For several summers as a teen I did yard work at their Lake Morey home and had a chance to see both finished works and works in progress.

Descriptions of his work by art expert Richard Frey are found in the 2008 catalog of an exhibit of MacGinnis’ work at the Trout Gallery at Pennsylvania’s Dickinson College.

MacGinnis was born in Indiana in 1875. Listed early as “an artist of note,” he was a member of several artists groups including the Hoosier School, Pennsylvania’s New Hope Circle and the art colony at Provincetown, MA. Achieving some important portrait commissions, he began a 40-year teaching career at the School of Industrial Arts in Trenton, NJ.

His local connection began when he summered at Upper Baker Pond in Orford. He later moved to Lake Morey, where he was described as “the resident artist.” He briefly opened a summer school to teach open-air painting. He later retired to his Fairlee home and remained there until his death in 1962.

MacGinnis’ artistic career is described by Frey: “His varied work along the east coast makes it difficult to see him as part of any single place. He never considered himself part of any ‘school. He was an independent artist who only painted the scenes that moved him. [MacGinnis’] greatest love was to paint outdoors.” This artist’s “earlier works were more naturalistic and later works more impressionistic.

He chose to paint many locations close to his New Hampshire summer home. He also painted a number of portraits, including several of his wife Jane. Many of his works are in the hands of private collectors who generously share them with museums and galleries interested in MacGinnis’ career.

When I started to research this column, I had little idea of the extent to which our locale was connected to American art history. I have included in this column several examples of the works of these artists and encourage interested readers to go to Internet sources, galleries and museums to view others. In viewing them, one gets the sense that artists often express their life experiences in their art. They, like the many artists who followed them to and from this area, may have found their muse to varying degrees in the beauty of our region and the interesting people who lived here.

Games of Our Childhood

Journal Opinion, May 16, 2012


“The boys and girls, enjoying themselves, playing goal and tag, and pizen, and hide and seek, and blind man’s bluff, and igh spy, and wolf, and shouting and yelling till the woods rang with echoes.” This is a description of youthful fun at the May, 1780 Training Day in Warren, described in William Little’s 1870 town history. The games those children played were handed down orally from generation to generation and are an integral part of the memories of many area residents. Some are still being played by children today.

On Wednesday, May 23, the Bradford Historical Society invites area residents to join in a time of sharing of those memories. The program will be held at 7 p.m. at the Bradford Academy and will have enough active participation to bring out the child in the willing. The Society’s current museum display of antique toys will be at its display of games and toys at the 2012 Vermont History Expo at the Tunbridge Fairgrounds on June 16-17. When at the Expo, remember to stop by the BHS booth.

The original theme of this column was to include both toys and games, but there was so much information, that the toy, cards and board games portion will have to wait for a future column. This column deals with the games children organized for themselves, without adult supervision, and with a minimum of equipment, in what is now known as “free play.”

The history of games is as rich and varied as the imagination of the children who created and enjoyed them and may not include the favorite pastime of some readers. While varied, the amazing thing is how similar some of these games are from place to place and time to time.

It is thought that children’s games played in earlier societies were a way of preparing youngsters for adult roles through imitation. The rough and boisterous team games prepared boys for their participation as hunters and warriors. Playing house readied girls as homemakers. While few of my youthful companions ever became cps or robbers, it might be supposed that by playing that game we learned skills used later in life. There is no doubt that games contributed to the social, emotional, physical and intellectual growth of the children who played them.

Many of the games passed down through American history have their origins in the European countries from which the immigrants came. The term “game” comes from the Old English word gaman, meaning joy, fun and amusement. Some games, like blind man’s bluff, are thought to have origins as far back as ancient China. Hopscotch and marbles were played in classical Rome and Greece.

“Children’s Games,” a 1560 painting by Flemish artist Pieter Breughel, included over 200 children playing at least 80 games familiar to him. Many of those games, including leap frog, tug of war, crack the whip, follow the leader and marbles are still being played by children 450 years later.

Games were sometimes connected with historic events or individuals. But not always. It was thought for a time that Ring Around the Rosie described the great plagues of the Middle Ages and that London Bridge Is Falling Down referred to a 12th century attack on London, but both explanations has been generally discounted by folklorists.

In the rough life of early New England there was little time or tolerance for children’s games, except on festival days. There were few exclusively children’s games. Early school did not encourage games as a part of study, considering them frivolous. Some games that were played in Colonial times included hopscotch, jacks, cat’s cradle, cup and ball and stoole ball.

Work was made easier by the introduction of games. Husking and paring bees had an element of play involved. Other games, often in dance form, may tell of the way in which work is done. “Oats, Pease, Beans and Barley Grows” and “Threading the Needle” are two possible examples.

An article in 1847 edition of Vermont Agriculturalist entitled “The Mother’s Part,” autioned against too much play. “Children must play, but at the same time, they should be taught that play is not the principal thing. They should have set time for play, as well as other things.” A 1910 article warned against “vagrant street games” as appealing to “the inferior side of a child’s nature.”

Some games originally began with young adults for whom dancing was prohibited. In the 19th century in Haverhill, young people gathered to play Blind-man’s Bluff, turn the plate, chasing the squirrel and simon says, with kisses, “willingly given and quickly taken” well into the evening. These seem to be forerunners of spin the bottle and post office enjoyed by teens in later years.

In an effort to preserve the oral tradition of games, a number of collections were published. In 1869, Laura Valentine authored Games for Family Parties and Children.

In 1883, folklorist William Wells Newell, in fear that children’s traditions could become extinct, published a collection entitled Games and Songs of American Children. They both describe, by category, familiar games as well as others that have disappeared or undergone name changes.


Some of the game categories included blindfold, contest, trade, fortress, memory and chase as well as marriage and love games for those who were older. Specific games played in New England included the familiar and those lost to memory: Go In and Out the Window, Farmer in the Dell, I spy, callie-ball, genteel lady, hawks and hhickens and knights of Spain. Many of these games migrated across the country and variations appeared. Many of these games also appear in other cultures, sometimes with variations.

These collections can be accessed on Google Books, along with descriptions of many of the games mentioned in this column. I also reread two other interesting collections: The Great American Depression Book of Fun by John O’dell and The Foxfire Book of Toys and Games, edited by Linda Garland Page and Hilton Smith. Both books include “reminiscences and instruction” gathered in the early 1980s.

About that same time, my students conducted a series of interviews with elders who were area youngsters between 1890 and 1920. They mentioned a number of the games that had been played in earlier times. Many, who grew up in rural areas, agreed with one man who grew up on a West Corinth farm: “My life was pretty full with working on the farm, but when I did have free time we used to play stickball.” Depending on the season, they went sliding, skating, fishing, swimming and hiking.

As before, some diversions were limited by sex, location or family circumstances. Several women, who talked of playing dolls, said that baseball, bikes and swimming were not “lady-like.” Kids in rural locations with few others around were less likely to play group activities than those who were in town, except on the playground at the district school. Several mentioned that school recess allowed time for hop-scotch, tag and ball games. One elder said: “Our play we made ourselves. We made our own fun, made our own play.”

Bradford historian Harold Haskins who grew up in the early 20th century mentioned the restrictions on play on Sunday: “I can clearly remember when boys and girls quite generally were not expected to engage in games or play on Sunday.” He recalled that on a Sunday afternoon in 1907, “town officials” stopped a gang of boys from playing baseball on a remote field.

As these games passed from rural to urban settings, variations appeared. My friend Robert Robb who grew up in Detroit in the 1930s and 40s, told me of street games regularly played, including kick the can, tippie and tappy on the icebox.

Growing up on Bridge Street in Orford in the 1940s and 50s, play was a regular activity for the neighborhood children. We could be gone from home for hours at a time and play was only interrupted when a mom called one of us home for a meal. Seemingly carefree, and depending on the season, we wrestled, played tag, and hide and seek and pick up ball, went biking, fishing and sliding, had snowball fights and played lawn games such as mother may I and red light, green light. Imagination and innovation were the source of games. We had vines and tires to swing on and brooks and lakes for swimming.

Nothing was more enticing than a good mud puddle or better yet, a small stream of water for building dams or sailing homemade boats. Scrap lumber, a cardboard box, an abandoned car or an improvised clubhouse, sometimes tree high, could be combined with imaginations running wild to fill a summer afternoon. There were, of course, games that our parents knew nothing about.

Games often led to dirty or torn clothes and bruised bodies, a problem when Saturday night was your only bath night and mothers, in addition to being family doctor, had to spend most of a whole day doing the family laundry. It is a wonder most of us grew up with body parts intact.

When I caddied at Lake Morey Golf Course, the benches in the caddy shack were worn through from the jackknife game of mumblety-peg. In the school yard, we played marbles and red rover” and pick up games of baseball and soccer. With age, organized sports, dating and jobs left less time for informal games. But older kids sometimes duped younger ones into nighttime game of snipes, literally leaving youngsters holding the bag.

This is a boy’s perspective on games. While some of these activities included the girls in the neighborhood, girls had their own exclusive pastimes. They were more likely to play dress-up, hopscotch, house and school, paper dolls, jacks or jump rope, with no boys allowed. Of course, they also had games that were a complete mystery to yucky boys, which often included a lot of giggling.

Some games such at tick tack toe are now available as computer games. My 10 year-old grandson, Trever Robbins, tells me that play for boys his age means playing computer games on Nintendo DS, Playstation and Xbox, alone or with friends. In addition to organized sports, he tells me that they still, play army, complete with toy guns and forts, and tag and just plain “racing around.” My granddaughter, Rachel Jacobs, 13, a talented soccer player who also plays video games such as Angry Bird and Draw Something, told me about clapping games, jump rope and hopscotch played with her girlfriends.

“The saddest feature of our modern social condition and overcrowding in towns is that children have forgotten how to play.” No, this is not the editorial comment of a current observer. It is from an 1895 article in The Contemporary Review by Charles Roberts. Elders such as me often fuss over the loss of the games we played as youngsters, especially as a response to a grandchild’s plea, “I’m bored.” It has been said that “A true game is one that frees the spirit.” If you are lucky you might get them to teach you their new games while you teach them your older ones. It will free the spirits of both of you.